160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



my assertion, that it was out of the abundance of his full and overflow- 

 in'' heart that his mouth spake his many words of kindness. And 

 they who were certain of this, — who saw him day after day, entering 

 with as ready gladness into all social pleasures as if he were the merest 

 idler, and giving himself up to the enjoyment of the hour as if lie had 

 no other use for his time but to give it wings, — they found it difficult 

 to believe that there was not something of unreality in his world-wide 

 fame ; or that something of accident had not helped him in his extraor- 

 dinary career ; or that his unconquerable will had fairly paid for his 

 great success the full price of severe labor, of effort, and of sacrifice. 

 As difficult as it might be for one who looks on a mountain clothed 

 with beauty and fruitfulness from its foot to its summit, — whose flowers 

 breathe fragrance and whose foliage bends to the summer wind, — to 

 remember while he looks, that its framework and substance are of the 

 everlasting granite thlit bids defiance to accident and to the assault of 

 the tempest. 



" Prescott will ever give a valuable lesson to all who knew him, and 

 to all who, without knowing him, form a just idea of him, — and they 

 must be many, for surely History will long love to speak of him, — 

 and this lesson will be, that all of a man's nature may be cultivated 

 and exercised and indulged and enjoyed, if only all its qualities are 

 duly arranged and subordinated. These two elements of character of 

 which I have spoken did not merely co-exist in him, but co-operated. 

 If either had been absent, or either had been less, he never would have 

 done all that he has done. Every one admits, that, without his un- 

 yielding energy and his invincible endurance, he could not have ac- 

 complished his great works, in defiance of the great obstacles which 

 cumbered his path. I am quite as sure, that even this energy and this 

 endurance would have failed and fainted, if they had not been con- 

 stantly invigorated, and refreshed, and filled with new life, by his ex- 

 quisite sensibility to all innocent enjoyment. 



" Let no one who would pluck a leaf of laurel from the topmost 

 bough, imagine that he must nurse his strength for this achievement 

 by the sacrifice and suppression of whatever in him is sympathetic and 

 sensitive and responsive to others. Let Prescott tell him how aN the 

 gifts of a rich nature may be kept in full life, and may invigorate each 

 other. Let Prescott remind him that there was a laborious student, 

 whose hours of toil nothing was prmitted to interrupt, and whose de- 



