His humanity was the more remarkable, because he had received from nature a body such as is generally found united with a peevish and irritable mind.

His life was one long malady; his nerves were weak; his complexion was livid; his face was prematurely wrinkled.

Yet his enemies could not pretend that he had ever once, during a long and troubled public life, been goaded, even by sudden provocation, into vehemence inconsistent with the mild dignity of his character.

All that was left to them was to assert that his disposition was very far from being so gentle as the world believed, that he was really prone to the angry passions, and that sometimes, while his voice was soft, and his words kind and courteous, his delicate frame was almost convulsed by suppressed emotion.

It will perhaps be thought that this reproach is the highest of all eulogies.
The most accomplished men of those times have told us that there was scarcely any subject on which Somers was not competent to instruct and to delight.