This time of neglect gave him the opportunity of
leisurely calling together and examining the ideas which had long had
hold of his mind about the state of human knowledge, about the
possibilities of extending it, about the hopes and powers which that new
knowledge opened, and about the methods of realising this great
prospect. This, the passion of his life, never asleep even in the
hottest days of business or the most hopeless days of defeat, must have
had full play during these days of suspended public employment. He was a
man who was not easily satisfied with his attempts to arrange the order
and proportions of his plans for mastering that new world of unknown
truth, which he held to be within the grasp of man if he would only dare
to seize it; and he was much given to vary the shape of his work, and to
try experiments in composition and even style. He wrote and rewrote.
Besides what was finally published, there remains a larger quantity of
work which never reached the stage of publication. He repeated over and
over again the same thoughts, the same images and characteristic
sayings.
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