AUGUSTUS LOWELL. 653 



Mr. Lowell possessed to the utmost — the quality of honesty. In these 

 days, when successful financial operations so often depend upon will and 

 misrepresentation, it is no small thing to say of a successful man of affairs 

 that lie was conspicuously honest. When to steal enough is to steal with 

 credit, it is cheering to see business triumph attendant on unimpeachable 

 integrity. And this was typically true of him. Honest he was by 

 essence. Verity was of the very fibre of his being. 



Nor is it only of the grosser form of that attribute which has usurped 

 the generic name of honesty of which I would speak, but of that finer 

 sense of fair dealing which we include under the appellation of a just 

 man. His uprightness was perfectly well known. No adversary ever 

 questioned that. A tribute to the fact once came in an amusing manner 

 to Mr. Lowell's ears in one of the latter years of his life. He was pass- 

 ing through a railway station in Boston one afternoon when he chanced 

 to overhear two men unknown to him discussing his character. It was 

 his own name that caught his attention. " Augustus Lowell," said one, 

 " is a hard man, but he is absolutely honest." " Yes," said the other, 

 "he is emphatically that." It is not often that one overhears a bit of 

 one's own obituary during one's life, nor is made privy to concurrent 

 testimony on the subject from both sides of a discussion. As to the 

 hardness imputed to him, it had no foundation in fact, though it was often 

 attributed to him by people who knew him only from the outside. A 

 cast of countenance which looked stern when in repose, and which was 

 purely a matter of feature, was chiefly responsible for the reputation. 

 He was quite aware of the look himself, as well as of that to which it 

 was due. As a matter of fact he was very tender-hearted, singularly so 

 for a man of his determination. Few suspected him of the kindnesses he 

 was constantly doing, so unostentatiously were they performed, and 

 almost no one credited him with the affection he felt. 



The complexion of his character — for will is an uncomplexioned 

 force — may be described in one word: exactness. Accuracy of state- 

 ment and honesty of purpose are both but facets of a crystallization of 

 thought. A man who sees clearly must be honest by instinct if he be 

 not dishonest by intent. There is with him no limbo of self-deception. 

 Much of the untruth current in the world is due to an initial haziness 

 of conception subsequently seized upon and distorted to its own ends by 

 passion, without disquiet to the perpetrator, because unrecognized as 

 distortion by him. Mr. Lowell was essentially exact. His nature 

 therefore imposed honesty. He saw much too correctly either to jumble 

 or to juggle with his thoughts. 



