His features were, in
themselves, perfect; it was only his cloudy, uncouth, and coarse
expression that disfigured them. So much strength residing in so
spare a frame was proof sufficient of the accuracy of his shape.
He must have been built somewhat after the pattern of Jack
Sheppard; but the famous housebreaker, we may be certain, was no
lout. It was by the extraordinary powers of his mind no less than
by the vigour of his body, that he broke his strong prison with
such imperfect implements, turning the very obstacles to service.
Irvine, in the same case, would have sat down and spat, and
grumbled curses. He had the soul of a fat sheep, but, regarded as
an artist's model, the exterior of a Greek God. It was a cruel
thought to persons less favoured in their birth, that this
creature, endowed--to use the language of theatres--with
extraordinary "means," should so manage to misemploy them that he
looked ugly and almost deformed. It was only by an effort of
abstraction, and after many days, that you discovered what he was.
By playing on the oaf's conceit, and standing closely over him, we
got a path made round the corner of the dump to our door, so that
we could come and go with decent ease; and he even enjoyed the
work, for in that there were boulders to be plucked up bodily,
bushes to be uprooted, and other occasions for athletic display:
but cutting wood was a different matter.
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