CHAPTER XXI--THE MISANTHROPE



The friend who had conducted him to Moorfields called upon him again
the next evening. After some talk on the adventures of the
preceding day: "I carried you yesterday," said he to Harley, "to
visit the mad; let me introduce you to-night, at supper, to one of
the wise: but you must not look for anything of the Socratic
pleasantry about him; on the contrary, I warn you to expect the
spirit of a Diogenes. That you may be a little prepared for his
extraordinary manner, I will let you into some particulars of his
history.

"He is the elder of the two sons of a gentleman of considerable
estate in the country. Their father died when they were young:
both were remarkable at school for quickness of parts and extent of
genius; this had been bred to no profession, because his father's
fortune, which descended to him, was thought sufficient to set him
above it; the other was put apprentice to an eminent attorney. In
this the expectations of his friends were more consulted than his
own inclination; for both his brother and he had feelings of that
warm kind that could ill brook a study so dry as the law, especially
in that department of it which was allotted to him. But the
difference of their tempers made the characteristical distinction
between them. The younger, from the gentleness of his nature, bore
with patience a situation entirely discordant to his genius and
disposition. At times, indeed, his pride would suggest of how
little importance those talents were which the partiality of his