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' His constitution -was extremely delicate. He was nervously afraid of bodily pain; he would sob and roar under it. Eminently unpractical in all common things of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling. " He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain," it was said of him. He was most indulgent to his inferiors, and would never allow his awkward little page to be scolded, whatever he did. " Ten years," said Anas, his servant, " was I about the Prophet, and he never said as much as ' uff' to me." He was very affectionate towards his family. One of his boys died on his breast in the smoky house of the nurse, a blacksmith's wife. He was very fond of children. He would stop them in the streets and pat their little cheeks. He never struck any one in his life. The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was, " What has come to him ? may his forehead be darkened with mud!" When asked to curse some one he replied, " I have not been sent to curse, but to be a mercy to mankind." " He visited the sick, followed any bier he met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes, milked his goats, and waited upon himself," relates summarily another tradition. He never first withdrew his hand out of another man's palm, and turned not before the other had turned. . . . He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and most agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with reverence; those who came near him loved him; they who described him would say, " I have never seen his like either before or after." He was of great taciturnity; but when hespoke it was with emphasis and deliberation, and no one could ever forget what he said. He was, however, ...
