John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[508] as much pleasure in showing his trees and flowers to his friends and neighbors as he did in looking at them himself. As can well be understood, the place was a joy and a delight to those who visited it, and this was due quite as much to the geniality and intelligence of the owner, as to the beauties of nature and art which it gave him so much pleasure to exhibit and to describe.

It follows almost, of course, that a man of such diversified tastes and accomplishments, of such sane and enlightened occupations, must have been a man of rare personality, and such was the case. His love of finding interest for the mind in everything he did made the world a joy and a delight to him in all its parts. His body was as vigorous and healthy as his mind. It was in harmony with all its surroundings. He was a strong and sturdy walker, an excellent swimmer, a fair boatman, and an admirable horseman, skilled in all the arts of the “high school.” He doubtless rode in boyhood, but he first began to ride for exercise when his intimate friend Frederick Law Olmsted was making Central Park. In this art as in the others the ordinary and commonplace did not satisfy him. He wanted to be a master of it, and was fortunate in finding an old Spanish gentleman who was an accomplished horseman, and under whose instruction he worked as hard at both riding and training horses as he did at his other occupations. With the close and intelligent application he gave to his daily lessons, he not only learned how to sit and handle a horse in motion with ease and satisfaction, but how to give him all the accomplishments necessary to fit him for the saddle. With the skill he acquired in breaking and training, he soon became an excellent judge of saddle-horses, and so long as he used them, generally had an exceedingly good one in his own stable.

From what has been said, it should be inferred that Dana had practically perfect health throughout life. Even