This text is part of:
[44] the school by his oratory, and on one occasion, at least, electrified his auditors by a burst of genuine eloquence. Not only was his command of language large, his perception of the ludicrous keen, and his powers of sarcasm and ridicule strong, —but he had a fire and passion in his speaking that came from natural intensity of feeling. Well prepared, and with this school reputation, he entered Harvard College in July, 1855. While at Harvard, his estimate of college rank was not sufficiently high to secure very patient and constant application to the studies of his Class; he was a quick and bright scholar, with a thorough foundation well laid, but he trusted much to his ability to use his powers on the spur of the call to recite. With a mind more than usually logical and analytic, with a strong love for argument, he yet was less apt at mathematics, and, perhaps, as suggested by a classmate, his characteristic temperament ‘could not take interest in anything so wanting in novelty, and the result of which was so predetermined.’ He was very fond of the debates in the ‘Anonyma’ and the ‘Institute,’ and noted as a keen and telling speaker. He was also eminent among his classmates, and upon the scale of marks, for ability as a writer. His reputation in college was a marked one, but for some causes to be presently mentioned, not so distinguished as his friends had anticipated. He was very influential during the early part of the course; his fluency of speech and ardor and mobility of nature rendering him a very attractive companion. But later in his college life he became more and more absorbed in anxieties, pursuits, labors, and pleasures other than those of college. His inclinations and his sense of duty led him more and more away from college scenes and associates, and his purely scholastic acquisitions and distinction were in consequence not what they otherwise would have been, and were expected to be, by those who best knew his abilities. In the winter of 1854, while a boy yet under sixteen years of age, his attention was drawn by apparently slight causes to an investigation of the Roman Catholic belief. He attended
Sever and Francis, 1866.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.