His Habits Of Study--his Influence


In the midst of the cares and distractions, says his biographer, to

which the active duties of the ministry subjected O'Leary, he still

indulged his usual habits of study. No unexpected visitor ever found him

unoccupied: his reading was extensive, profound, and incessant; and his

hours of silence and retreat as many as he could abstract from the

necessary and inevitable claim of his flock, or could deny to the kind

imp
rtunity of his numerous and respectable acquaintance. Few men ever

possessed the power of enjoying an extensive influence over public

opinion more than O'Leary. Every thing he said or wrote was by every one

admired. The wise and learned were delighted with the original and

correct views which he took of every subject that employed his mind;

whilst the amiable simplicity of his manners, the endearing kindness of

his disposition, and the worth, purity, and uprightness of his life and

conduct, were claims to regard that could neither be denied nor

unattended to. It is, therefore, to be lamented that such transcendent

faculties should have remained suspended or inactive, or been, for a

moment, diverted in their application from their appropriate object or

natural sphere--the moral correction of the age.



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