So Hazlitt has said of the
portrait of a beautiful female, that it seemed as if an unhandsome
action would be impossible in its presence. "It does one good to
look upon his manly honest face," said a poor German woman,
pointing to a portrait of the great Reformer hung upon the wall of
her humble dwelling.
Even the portrait of a noble or a good man, hung up in a room, is
companionship after a sort. It gives us a closer personal
interest in him. Looking at the features, we feel as if we knew
him better, and were more nearly related to him. It is a link
that connects us with a higher and better nature than our own.
And though we may be far from reaching the standard of our hero,
we are, to a certain extent, sustained and fortified by his
depicted presence constantly before us.
Fox was proud to acknowledge how much he owed to the example and
conversation of Burke. On one occasion he said of him, that "if
he was to put all the political information he had gained from
books, all that he had learned from science, or that the knowledge
of the world and its affairs taught him, into one scale, and the
improvement he had derived from Mr. Burke's conversation and
instruction into the other, the latter would preponderate."
Professor Tyndall speaks of Faraday's friendship as "energy and
inspiration." After spending an evening with him he wrote: "His
work excites admiration, but contact with him warms and elevates
the heart.
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