110 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

not instinct with spirit and life and genius. If youopen by chance any volume of his works, you will bestruck at once by the strength and felicity of his ex-pressions — the vivacity of the sentiment — the pene-tration with which he detects the false — the wit whichgives sparkle and point to all he says. He was, it istrue, of the second order of minds, but first among thesecond; and such was his perfection in his art, as faras it went, that he contrived, while living, to fill a firstplace, and will always receive a larger share of attentionand praise than his intrinsic merits deserve.