[416] prestige among his fellow-students and professors as a brilliant and thorough scholar. His character was, in college, a singular mixture of boyishness and maturity. He was fond of athletic and out-door sports, and passed nearly as much of his college career on the Delta as in the recitation-room. He was a quick and daring football player, and one of the best cricketers in the Class. A friend writes of him, that ‘his only fault as a cricket-player was that he was too rash, and was frequently put out in attempting to make runs when the ball was almost in the hand of the bowler of the opposite side.’ He very often neglected the Class tasks to play out a match-game, or for a walk, or for skating,—or sometimes, it must be owned, for a favorite book, or agreeable company, or a friendly idle chat. Among his comrades he won a reputation for frankness, generosity, courage, quickness, intelligence, and an overflow of good-humor and animal spirits. In conversation, his address was pleasing, his words select and forcible, his utterances direct and frank. He had no reservations. There was no worse thing left in his mind to be said after the hearer's back was turned. Sometimes his emphatic style of assent or dissent was unpleasantly brusque: but his vivacity and vigor, and the general bonhomie of his bearing, made him an excellent conversationalist and an agreeable companion. He was an active member, in successive years, of the Anonyma, Institute of 1770, Psi Upsilon, and Hasty Pudding Club, and of a much-prized private club. As he possessed a fine oratorical delivery, and a ringing and melodious voice, he became an effective as well as fluent debater. He was, too, an unusually good writer, as his college dissertations, exhibition parts, and his exceedingly entertaining letters attest. If among his many noble traits frankness be pronounced the most striking, his generosity held at least the second place. He was generous to a fault, spending his money instantly on getting it, and never on himself alone. He was charitable in his judgment of others. One of the most judicious of his comrades said:—
I do not remember ever to have heard him speak ill of any
