Grave, chaste, contented though retired,applied to Doctor Howe more completely than to the person for whom they were originally intended; for Thoreau's bachelor habits and isolated mode of life prevented him from being an attractive person to the generality of mankind.
And of all other men desired,
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George Sumner also came; like his brother, a man much above the average in general ability, and considered quite equal to the delivery of a Fourth of July oration.
He was the more entertaining talker of the two, and in other respects very much like Tom Appleton,--better known on the Paris boulevards than in his native country.
Instead of being witty like Appleton he was brilliantly encyclopedic; and they both carried their statements to the verge of credibility.
Doctor Howe organized the blind asylum so that it almost ran itself without his oversight, and as always happens in such cases he was idolized by those who were under his direction.
There was something exceedingly kind in his tone of voice,--a voice accustomed to command and yet much subdued.
His manner towards children was particularly charming and attractive.
He exemplified the lines in Emerson's “Wood-notes” :
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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