He preferred, indeed he almost confined himself to,
history, political economy, voyages and travels, natural history, and
latterly agricultural works; in short, to such books as contain
specific facts or practical principles capable of specific
application. His active life, and the particular objects of
immediate utility, some one of which he had always in his view,
precluded a taste for works of pure speculation and abstract science,
though he highly honoured those who were eminent in these respects,
and considered them as the benefactors of mankind, no less than those
who afterwards discovered the mode of applying their principles, or
who realised them in practice. Works of amusement, as novels, plays,
etc., did not appear even to amuse him; and the only poetical
composition of which I have ever heard him speak, was a manuscript
poem written by one of my friends, which I read to his lady in his
presence. To my surprise he afterwards spoke of this with warm
interest; but it was evident to me that it was not so much the poetic
merit of the composition that had interested him, as the truth and
psychological insight with which it represented the practicability of
reforming the most hardened minds, and the various accidents which
may awaken the most brutalised person to a recognition of his nobler
being.
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