| "Like most men of true imagination, Mr. Locke is a seemingly paradoxical combination of coolness and excitability. He is about five feet seven inches in height, symmetrically formed; there is an air of distinction about his whole person, the air noble of genius. His face is strongly pitted by the smallpox and perhaps, from the same cause there is a marked obliquity in the eyes; a certain, calm, clear luminousness, however, about these latter, amply compensates for the defect, and the forehead is truly beautiful in its intellectuality. I am acquainted with no person possessing so fine a forehead as Mr. Locke. He is married and about forty-five years of age, although no one would suppose him to be more than thirty-eight. He is a lineal descendant of the immortal author of the 'Essay on the Human Understanding.'" |
| from "Richard Adams Locke," a biographical essay by Edgar Allan Poe in "The Literati of New York City, No. VI," Godey's Lady's Book, October 1846, p.162. |