The care of his
parents was always a first thought with him, and their
gratification his delight. And the care of his sons, as it was
always a grave subject of study with him, and an affair never
neglected, so it brought him a thousand satisfactions. 'Hard work
they are,' as he once wrote, 'but what fit work!' And again: 'O,
it's a cold house where a dog is the only representative of a
child!' Not that dogs were despised; we shall drop across the name
of Jack, the harum-scarum Irish terrier ere we have done; his own
dog Plato went up with him daily to his lectures, and still (like
other friends) feels the loss and looks visibly for the
reappearance of his master; and Martin, the cat, Fleeming has
himself immortalised, to the delight of Mr. Swinburne, in the
columns of the SPECTATOR. Indeed there was nothing in which men
take interest, in which he took not some; and yet always most in
the strong human bonds, ancient as the race and woven of delights
and duties.
He was even an anxious father; perhaps that is the part where
optimism is hardest tested.
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