But before this year terminated, Dr. Burney had yet another, and a very
sensible loss, through the death of Mr. Seward; who was truly a loss,
also, to all by whom he was known. He was a man of sound worthiness of
character, of a disposition the most amiable, and invested with a zeal
to serve his friends, nay, to serve even strangers, that knew no bounds
which his time or his trouble could remove.
He was pleasing and piquant in society; and, though always shewing an
alacrity to sarcasm in discourse, in action he was all benevolence.
Yet he was eccentric, even wilfully; and wilfully, also, inconsistent,
if not capricious; but he was constantly in a state of suffering, from
some internal and unfathomable obstructions, which generally at night
robbed him of rest; and frequently, in the day, divested him of self
command.[52]
He was author of a very agreeable and amusing, though desultory,
collection of anecdotes, entitled Biographiana.[53]