AUGUSTUS LOWELL. 651 



gate of popularity, but by the portal of inevitableness. He was chosen 

 because he was necessary. And he stayed for the same reason. 



Now will is pure force, uucomplexioned, the mere dynamic outcome of 

 the idea. Its effectiveness to any particular end depends, therefore, upon 

 the character of the idea whose explosive force it is. With Mr. Lowell 

 the idea owed its carrying power to two characteristics : judiciousness in 

 itself and judiciousness in its presentation. In the first place he was apt 

 to be right, that is, to be wise. His judgment of things within his own 

 field was excellent. It was essentially sound. His was that uncommon 

 sense-possession, the possession of common sense. Instinctively his mind 

 worked correctly. It was the exact opposite of the mind of the crank, 

 which may often hit off a brilliant conception, but which is too unsafe to 

 be trusted. With him no one idea ever usurped the right of way to the 

 exclusion of others. Each had its due effect; which fundamental balance 

 makes the only safe foundation for superstructure. 



In the next place he was as shrewd as he was sound. He had a keen- 

 ness for the essential point which almost assured success in advance. In- 

 sisting upon what was vital, he waved less important issues to the other 

 side. In this consists the consummation of the art of commerce with 

 one's kind. An instance of the combined breadth and shrewdness of his 

 business insight occurs to my mind. "When I lease a building," he once 

 said to me, " I ask a good price of the tenant and then do all the little 

 repairs he wants. The price makes its impression but once; the perqui- 

 sites repeatedly, and the latter impressions stand nearer to the falling due 

 of the lease." 



Backing up his judgment was his excellence of exposition. His ideas 

 were the more telling for being well told. His words were few and to 

 the point. In a twinkling he would dissect a situation, and with equal 

 terseness suggest its remedy. With ability for audience this had imme- 

 diate effect; with mediocrity it was rather his tact that told. His logic 

 was too accurate for popular approval, which prefers the coloring of 

 emotion to the lines of thought. For very few men care for truth as 

 they care for their feelings. And Mr. Lowell's forte was not the silver 

 tongue of eloquence, but the more golden gift of statement, lie could 

 put a point so that it pierced perception instantly. 



Lastly, there was about his advocacy of his measures an impersonality 

 as potently as it was subtly persuasive. It was not that the ideas them- 

 selves were what one would call impersonal, but that the idea appeared 

 by itself with so little of that aura of the personal, which in human affairs 

 the man unconsciously throws around it, as to appear to stand alone. For 



