And more of like sort he
said. He was, indeed, as rude as a fabled satyr. But I suffered
him to pass for what he was,--for why should I quarrel with
nature?--and was even pleased at the discovery of such a singular
natural phenomenon. I dealt with him as if to me all manners
were indifferent, and he had a sweet, wild way with him. I would
not question nature, and I would rather have him as he was than
as I would have him. For I had come up here not for sympathy, or
kindness, or society, but for novelty and adventure, and to see
what nature had produced here. I therefore did not repel his
rudeness, but quite innocently welcomed it all, and knew how to
appreciate it, as if I were reading in an old drama a part well
sustained. He was indeed a coarse and sensual man, and, as I
have said, uncivil, but he had his just quarrel with nature and
mankind, I have no doubt, only he had no artificial covering to
his ill-humors. He was earthy enough, but yet there was good
soil in him, and even a long-suffering Saxon probity at bottom.
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