Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Statesmen -- Great Britain -- Biography
was growing late, I asked him to stay and dine with me, not remembering
at the time that the eye of the public was supposed to be on our
movements. One of Morley's happiest gifts is a delightful sense of
humor. He rose to the situation at once. Addressing me in solemn tones,
but with a gleam of the comic in his eyes, he informed me that if my
principles did not allow me to dine with the Chief Secretary in Dublin,
so neither did the Chief Secretary's principles allow him to dine there
with me. Thus, as some newspaper writers would say, the incident
terminated, and we made no further effort at convivial meetings in
Dublin.
John Morley's quick sense of humor is not one of the qualities which a
stranger would naturally look for in him. Those who have not met him and
have known him only through his writings are apt to think of him as a
grave and even an austere man, a man wholly immersed in the serious
contemplation of life and history, and, if endowed with any sense of
humor, only with a sense of its more grim and saturnine aspects. The man
himself is altogether and curiously unlike the impression thus formed of
him very commonly by those to whom he is not personally known. John
Morley has a quick, keen, and delightful sense of humor. He can talk on
any subject from grave to gay, from lively to severe. He is one of the
most charming of companions, and he is a great favorite among women,
even among those who do not greatly concern themselves with the question
of woman's political emancipation. There is nothing of the stern
philosopher about his manner of comporting himself in social life.
Indeed, for all the clear composure of his philosophic contemplations,
he has a temperament far too quick and sensitive to allow of his meeting
all life's vexatious questions in the mood of stoical endurance. He is
by nature somewhat nervous, is decidedly quick in temper, frankly
acknowledges that he is rather impatient of contradiction, and is likely
to become overheated in the course of an eager argument. I feel the less
hesitation in noticing these little peculiarities on the part of my
friend because I have heard Morley himself speak of them with perfect
frankness as some of his troubles in political controversy. I must say
that, so far as I know, these unphilosophical qualities of Morley's
temperament only tend to make him all the more a charming friend to his
friends. We may admire the marble-like composure of the stern
philosopher who yields to no passing human weaknesses of temper, but it
must be very hard to keep always on friendly terms with so superhuman a
personage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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