He kept himself always very warm, and thought it most
safe so to do. The horizon of his understanding was much larger than the
hemisphere of the world: all that was visible in the heavens he
comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew so much. And of
the earth he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge as if he
had been by divine providence ordained surveyor-general of the whole
terrestrial orb and its products, minerals, plants, and animals. His
memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or Scaliger, was
capacious and tenacious, insomuch that he remembered all that was
remarkable in any book he ever read. He had no despotical power over his
affections and passions, that was a privilege of original perfection, but
as large a political power over them as any stoic or man of his time,
whereof he gave so great experiment that he hath very rarely been known
to have been overpowered with any of them. His aspect and conversation
were grave and sober; there was never to be seen in him anything trite or
vulgar. Parsimonious in nothing but his time, whereof he made as much
improvement, with as little loss as any man in it, when he had any to
spare from his drudging practice, he was scarce patient of any diversion
from his study: so impatient of sloth and idleness, that he would say, he
could not do nothing.
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