Writing home to his mother, and describing the little court by
which Moore was surrounded, he wrote, "Where shall we find such a
king?" It was to his personal affection for his chief that the
world is mainly indebted to Sir William Napier for his great book,
'The History of the Peninsular War.' But he was stimulated to
write the book by the advice of another friend, the late Lord
Langdale, while one day walking with him across the fields on
which Belgravia is now built. "It was Lord Langdale," he says,
"who first kindled the fire within me." And of Sir William Napier
himself, his biographer truly says, that "no thinking person could
ever come in contact with him without being strongly impressed
with the genius of the man.
The career of the late Dr. Marshall Hall was a lifelong
illustration of the influence of character in forming character.
Many eminent men still living trace their success in life to his
suggestions and assistance, without which several valuable lines
of study and investigation might not have been entered on, at
least at so early a period. He would say to young men about him,
"Take up a subject and pursue it well, and you cannot fail to
succeed." And often he would throw out a new idea to a young
friend, saying, "I make you a present of it; there is fortune in
it, if you pursue it with energy."
Energy of character has always a power to evoke energy in others.
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