He must have known, in a formal way,
more officers in our service than any man living knows. He told me
once, with a grave smile, that no man in the world lived so methodical a
life as he. "You know the boys say I am the Iron Mask, and you know how
busy he was." He said it did not do for any one to try to read all the
time, more than to do any thing else all the time; but that he read just
five hours a day. "Then," he said, "I keep up my note-books, writing in
them at such and such hours from what I have been reading; and I include
in these my scrap-books." These were very curious indeed. He had six or
eight, of different subjects. There was one of History, one of Natural
Science, one which he, called "Odds and Ends." But they were not merely
books of extract from newspapers. They had bits of plants and ribbons,
shells tied on, and carved scraps of bone and wood, which he had taught
the men to cut for him, and they were beautifully illustrated. He drew
admirably. He had some of the funniest drawings there, and some of the
most pathetic, that I have ever seen in my life. I wonder who will have
Nolan's scrap-books.
Well, he said his reading and his notes were his profession, and that
they took five hours and two hours respectively of each day.
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