Word: trait
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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THIS peculiar trait of human nature, which leads some to withdraw themselves from a friendly association with the rest of mankind, is rare, and we are thankful for it. It is so seldom seen, that to a majority it is a thing of the past, and supposed by them to have perished with the writers who so fully described some remarkable examples of it long years ago. But in a mild form it exists at the present time, and has found its way into the sanctum of the student. We have in our little world well-marked examples of this...
This man is held up to us as one influenced to a remarkable extent by the famoe sacra fames. Notoriety he thirsted for, and notoriety he certainly gained. Without doubt, he is the shining example of that trait so graphically expressed in the vulgate by the term "cutting a dash." But was he alone in this? Is it not possible that there is something of the same tendency in ourselves? Of course I do not claim that it is developed in any of us to the same degree it was in that representative man, for the very good reason that...
...described it. In almost every chapter he has written there are sentiments as far removed from cynicism as is the most earnest and modest charity. Whatever a man's faults may be, or however contemptible, in the common sense, he may appear, if he has a kindly or unselfish trait in his character, it is that which Thackeray dwells upon, which excites his enthusiasm. Perhaps there is no quality which we should less expect to find in a cynic than that of pathos, certainly there is none in which Thackeray more excels. And, moreover, his pathos is extremely simple...