520 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 



if he felt suitable inspiration, his pen. It was the sort of study that 

 he had learned from his father, and that his father had learned from 

 the great lights of his boyhood, of whom Edmund Burke might be 

 taken as the prince and model. In their steps Mr. Adams was con- 

 tent to tread. 



The more modern lines of thought ; experimental science, whether 

 applied to matter or to mankind ; the kind of speculation which aims at 

 discovery rather than development, at criticising rather than confirming ; 

 the subjective poetry and the skeptical theology of the day, — found little 

 sympathy from him. There were principles in literature, in philoso- 

 phy, in politics, and in religion which were as assured to him as the 

 rules of grammar or the period of the earth's revolution. He was a 

 conservative in the true, not the false, use of the word ; not because 

 he was the least of a coward, or the least averse to reform, but be- 

 cause for him the old had not been exhausted, and he could not see 

 that the mere fact of novelty was any proof of truth. He was at 

 once, like his ancestors, deliberate and careful in his thoughts, ar- 

 dent and intrepid in his feelings. His opinions were slowly formed, 

 and, when formed, energetically, if need be passionately maintained. 

 His articles in the North American Review and his various pub- 

 lished addresses will give a good idea of his line of thought and style 

 of expression — simple, clear, firm, dignified. He was drawn away to 

 politics too early to develop his literary studies to the full, but he 

 never lost them. 



It would not be doing justice to Mr. Adams to omit mention of 

 two especial tastes which he early formed and always retained. He 

 was a devoted lover of music, — never tired of listening to good per- 

 formers, with a mingling of enjoyment and criticism rarely found. 

 He was also an eager student of numismatics, and had formed a choice 

 and interesting collection of coins, both ancient and modern. He was 

 never tired of studying this, and found time to perfect his knowledge 

 and improve his cabinet in the busiest hours of his English mission, 

 attending coin sales to the no slight chagrin of the professional 



dealers. 



At the same period he feasted on the great galleries of art, both 

 public and private ; and on Sundays he employed his never-failing at- 

 tendance on public worship as a means of cultivating his knowledge of 

 sacred architecture, by visiting in succession numbers of the singularly 

 interesting churches that lie hid in the labyrinth of the city of London. 

 It is needless to say that the Palladian style of these edifices appealed 

 to his Congregational instincts far more than the richer Gothic. What- 



