An early examination of Brisbane's life and work reveals that, even as a young man of thirty-two, he was "a well and highly educated man, of active and vigorous mind, with a keen analytical vision, and a large power of generalization. With a great deal of candor, good temper, and kindliness, he exhibits a certain innocent simplicity of character and a fervor of faith in abstract convictions, which can rarely fail to awaken in a high degree the confidence, interest, and esteem of those who are brought into any intimacy of intercourse with him" (302).
