|Uncle Timothy was an excursive talker and walker. He had no set phrases; nothing ready-cut and dried (which is often _very dry_) for formal intellectual displays. When he rose in the morning, unless bound by some engagement, he hardly knew whither his footsteps would tend. He was to be seen looking into curiosity shops; rummaging old book-stalls; turning over portfolios of curious prints; stepping into an auction, a panorama, an exhibition of ancient pictures; sometimes rambling in the green fields, and not unfrequently making one of Punch's laughing audiences. It is the opinion of some would-be philosophers that their dignity is best upheld by an unbending austerity, and a supercilious contempt for whatever engaged the attention of their youth. But we tell such pretenders, that they are alike ignorant of nature and philosophy. Men of the most exalted genius have been _remarkable_ for their urbanity, and even child-like simplicity of manners: and it was one of the many interesting traits in the author of _Waverley_, that, in the “sear and yellow leaf,” he had nothing of age but the name; but retained all the spirit, the romance, the gaiety of his youthful days. The world would have called Uncle Timothy idle--but “How various his employments, whom the world Calls idle, and who justly in return Esteems the busy world an idler too!” Though the world's pursuits brought more care to the heart and profit to the purse than his own, he wished they might only prove as innocent and as honest.