“Whatever is eminent in fact or in fiction, in opinion, in character, in institutions, in science—­natural, moral, or metaphysical, or in memorable sayings drew his attention and came to his pen with more or less fulness of record.

    “A poet in verse or prose must have a sensuous eye, but an
    intellectual co-perception.  Plutarch’s memory is full and his
    horizon wide.  Nothing touches man but he feels to be his.

    “Plutarch had a religion which Montaigne wanted, and which defends
    him from wantonness; and though Plutarch is as plain spoken, his
    moral sentiment is always pure.—­

“I do not know where to find a book—­to borrow a phrase of Ben Jonson’s—­’so rammed with life,’ and this in chapters chiefly ethical, which are so prone to be heavy and sentimental.—­His vivacity and abundance never leave him to loiter or pound on an incident.—­

“In his immense quotation and allusion we quickly cease to discriminate between what he quotes and what he invents.—­’Tis all Plutarch, by right of eminent domain, and all property vests in this emperor.

“It is in consequence of this poetic trait in his mind, that I confess that, in reading him, I embrace the particulars, and carry a faint memory of the argument or general design of the chapter; but he is not less welcome, and he leaves the reader with a relish and a necessity for completing his studies.

    “He is a pronounced idealist, who does not hesitate to say, like
    another Berkeley, ’Matter is itself privation.’—­

    “Of philosophy he is more interested in the results than in the
    method.  He has a just instinct of the presence of a master, and
    prefers to sit as a scholar with Plato than as a disputant.

    “His natural history is that of a lover and poet, and not of a
    physicist.

“But though curious in the questions of the schools on the nature and genesis of things, his extreme interest in every trait of character, and his broad humanity, lead him constantly to Morals, to the study of the Beautiful and Good.  Hence his love of heroes, his rule of life, and his clear convictions of the high destiny of the soul.  La Harpe said that ’Plutarch is the genius the most naturally moral that ever existed.’

    “Plutarch thought ’truth to be the greatest good that man can
    receive, and the goodliest blessing that God can give.’

    “All his judgments are noble.  He thought with Epicurus that it is
    more delightful to do than to receive a kindness.

    “Plutarch was well-born, well-conditioned—­eminently social, he was
    a king in his own house, surrounded himself with select friends, and
    knew the high value of good conversation.—­