654 TRUMAN HENRY SAFFORD. 



Important as the qualities he possessed are to the making of a man, 

 they are no less so to the making of a community. And in any consti- 

 tutional country no small part of the value of a man lies in his value 

 as a citizen. Indirect as well as direct his influence may be, and with 

 universal suffrage the former is apt to be the case with the best men. 

 To be determined, discerning, and honest does not, unfortunately, in our 

 system of supposed political equality, lead to purely civic distinction. 

 For the choice of a popular suffrage cannot rise above its source. But 

 if the qualities do not lead to civic distinction for their possessor they do 

 something as enduring, — they tend to raise to his level the community 

 of which he forms a part. For without the first attribute, nothing is 

 possible; without the second, foolishness; without the third, knavery. 

 The apathy of most of us, the crankiness of a few, and the financial 

 trickery of others, are the several results of the absence of these qualities. 



Too strong a personality to be generally popular, recognition of such 

 a character is slow. For we are all prone to praise what we like. Only 

 when distance does away with personal perspective do men, like hills, 

 reveal their height. 



Posterity gives the final judgment. For posterity judges of a man's 

 worth unhaloed by the engaging lack of it, and sets the seal of its appre- 

 ciation upon those who have contributed to the world's advance and 

 incidentally to posterity's own existence. To make for this advance is 

 the best any man can do, and to this end to be determined, discerning, 

 and honest is one of the surest means. If a man possess these attributes 

 he will not have lived in vain. 



Percival Lowell. 



TRUMAN HENRY SAFFORD. 



Truman Henry Safford was born January 6, 1836, at Royalton, 

 Vermont. The course of his life was determined by a phenomenal ca- 

 pacity for the mental solution of arithmetical problems, which began to 

 display itself when he was only six years old. This faculty, which might 

 under easily conceivable circumstances have been wasted in mere display 

 for the amusement of the curious, fortunately attracted the attention of 

 judicious and eminent men, and thus secured for him the advantages of 

 a thorough education. He graduated at Harvard College in the class 

 of 1854, which he joined at the beginning of its Junior year. As a boy 

 he had computed an almanac, and given other evidences of interest in 

 astronomy, and capacity for it ; and immediately after his graduation he 



