Poignant grief for the loss of a relative I
think he never knew, and yet he did not neglect his duty to those in
affliction, little as such duty might be expected of him. He was not a
humorist or wit, and his conversation was only saved from dryness by its
elevated tone; but he had a quick appreciation of the wit of others, and
would sometimes laugh as heartily as Carlyle's professor in "Sartor
Resartus." Ridicule and those books which are written to make people
laugh were intolerable to him. He had a large stock of anecdotes at
command, but he used them wisely and sparingly. He was refined as only a
poet can be.
The general public, as Balzac says, judges only by results; and those
who were themselves only practical in some specialty, or had made
fortunes for themselves out of the gratuity of nature, were wont to look
upon Wasson as a visionary and unpractical person. To those who acted
only from motives of self-interest he was a perpetual puzzle. Neither
was he ignorant of this unfavorable opinion, for he could see through
people almost as if they were glass, and he endured it with true
Emersonian serenity. If they had known what he thought of them they
would not have felt so very comfortable. He was sufficiently practical
for the profession to which he belonged, though not so diplomatic as
some of them are. He could be diplomatic enough on occasion, and knew
how to preserve an impenetrable secrecy when necessity required.
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