"May I presume," said his questioner, "to ask what sort you would put
next to such?"

"Him who is spoken of by his kinsmen as a dutiful son, and whom the
folks of his neighborhood call' good brother.'"

"May I still venture to ask whom you would place next in order?"

"Such as are sure to be true to their word, and effective in their
work--who are given to hammering, as it were, upon one note--of inferior
calibre indeed, but fit enough, I think, to be ranked next."

"How would you describe those who are at present in the government
service?"

"Ugh! mere peck and panier men!--not worth taking into the reckoning."

Once he remarked, "If I cannot get _via media_ men to impart instruction
to, then I must of course take the impetuous and undisciplined! The
impetuous ones will at least go forward and lay hold on things; and the
undisciplined have at least something in them which needs to be brought
out."

"The Southerners," said he, "have the proverb, 'The man who sticks not
to rule will never make a charm-worker or a medical man,'
Good!--'Whoever is intermittent in his practise of virtue will live to
be ashamed of it.' Without prognostication," he added, "that will indeed
be so."