To so penetrating a genius there was no need of long experience and patient observation to discover the merits and defects of any character that presented itself.

The materials of his judgment had long since been accumulated; and, at the close of so illustrious a life, he might almost be said to see through nature at a glance.

What wonder that he took some interest in a mind in a certain degree congenial with his own?
But to Mr.Tyrrel's diseased imagination, every distinction bestowed on his neighbour seemed to be expressly intended as an insult to him.

On the other hand, Mr.Clare, though gentle and benevolent in his remonstrances to a degree that made the taking offence impossible, was by no means parsimonious of praise, or slow to make use of the deference that was paid him, for the purpose of procuring justice to merit.
It happened at one of those public meetings at which Mr.Falkland and Mr.Tyrrel were present, that the conversation, in one of the most numerous sets into which the company was broken, turned upon the poetical talents of the former.

A lady, who was present, and was distinguished for the acuteness of her understanding, said, she had been favoured with a sight of a poem he had just written, entitled _An Ode to the Genius of Chivalry_, which appeared to her of exquisite merit.