BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY SMITH, GRAND CROSS OF THE ROYAL MILITARY SWEDISH ORDER OF THE SWORD, AND COMMANDER

Summary

He, high in soul, was mated with the best:

First in the lists, where'er those lists were found,

He claim'd the prize, nor ever yielded ground;

Nor, for the biting sword, nor thrilling spear,

With helm on head, was ever known to fear.

Way's Fabliaux.

By Heav'n, to me it were an easy leap

To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;

Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,

And pluck up drowned honour by the locks!

Shakspeare.

The Author of the State Worthies of England, David Lloyd, a biographer not less remarkable for acuteness of observation than for a forcible singularity of expression, nearly drew the portrait of this gallant officer by anticipation, a century and a half since. It is no disparagement that Sir Walter Raleigh sat for the picture.

“As for his native parts,” says Lloyd, “and those of his own acquiring, he had in the outward man a good presence, in a handsome and well compacted person; a strong natural wit, and a better judgment; with a bold plausible tongue, whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage; and to these he had the adjuncts of some general learning, which by diligence he enforced to a great augmentation and perfection, for he was an indefatigable reader, whether by sea or land, and none of the least observers both of men and the times.