Restricting himself to the discharge of the higher duties of benevolence, in the conferring of important favours, Niccolo unfortunately neglected those lesser offices of good will, which, though apparently trifling when considered individually, have in the aggregate a considerable influence upon the comfort and happiness of human life. He was prone to anger, quick in finding fault, and prompt in giving utterance to his resentful feelings.[288] United with such a disposition, the possession of the dangerous faculty of sarcastic wit was to Niccolo a most serious misfortune;[289] as it too frequently betrayed him into that provoking intemperance of speech which called into exercise the forbearance of his friends, and excited the bitter enmity of those whose pride or passion would not permit them occasionally to give way to his sallies of peevishness. In consequence of the indulgence of his ill humour, the honour which accrued to him from his exertions to induce Manuel Crysoloras and Guarino Veronese to instruct the ingenuous youth of Florence in the Greek language, is tarnished by his quarrels with those eminent scholars, which, it is alleged, caused them to quit the Tuscan capital in disgust. But if he was impetuous in his passion, he was open to a conviction of his error, and listened with patience to the admonitions of friendship. Those who were intimately acquainted with his character pardoned his occasional fits of moroseness, in consideration of the intrinsic generosity of his heart. Niccolo was of a middling stature, inclined to corpulency, and in his countenance there appeared a happy mixture of cheerfulness and gravity. His bodily senses were remarkably acute, and he had cultivated them to a degree of fastidiousness.[290] He was splendid in his dress; but this was the extent of his luxury. His hall was not crowded by a numerous retinue of servants. Contented with the ministration of Benvenuta alone, he did not profess to astonish and gratify his visitors by the magnificence of sumptuous banquets; but in his instructive conversation, and in the perusal of the classic volumes which adorned his library, his literary friends enjoyed that feast of reason which they could not meet with in more superb abodes. CHAP. VIII.