John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[501] translate and the master would correct and expound as circumstance required. In this way they read the “Divine Comedy” several times, and followed it with the “Nibelungenlied,” the “Sagas,” and many minor poems, to the great instruction and happiness of those who were fortunate enough to be included within his charmed and delighted circle. Elihu Root, Willard Bartlett, John Nicholson, and occasionally others, now counted among the distinguished men of the country, were admitted to his companionship and his instruction. While those happy nights may have left but few memories laden with specific facts and details, they did much to develop the taste, broaden the sympathies, elevate the ideals, stimulate the affections and the friendship, and expand the understanding of those who took part in them.

Dana's own preparation for the readings was always made in the morning before going to his office, with such scrupulous fidelity as to compel every word to give up its exact and perfect meaning. In fact, all his work on the Sun, in addition to his great and varied reading for by far the greater period of his life, was done solely by daylight. From the time of his studentship, throughout his connection with the Tribune, the Cyclopaedia, the Household Book of Poetry, and the War Department, he rarely if at all taxed them at night, unless absolutely necessary, and then for the shortest possible period. Those who were closest to him believe that in later life he hardly ever opened any book, except a dictionary or a book of reference, for the direct purpose of accumulating knowledge, but always for the interest he found in the idea or the art which it contained. With his extraordinary powers of concentration, aided by his capacity to take in a column or a page almost at a glance, he could absorb from what he read all that it contained of value in an incredibly short time.