630 JOHN CODMAN BOP] 



tin- deformity was a very Berioua burden and prevented Ropes from 

 engaging in activities which would have been most congenial to him. I 

 nii"!ii add thai to those wlio loved him — and no one knew him who <li<l 

 not — this malformation was simply non-existent In Bitting and talking 

 w itb bim one never thought of him as different from other men. 



After leaving the Chauncy Hall School, Hopes was for a while under 

 the care of Dr. Buckmiuster Brown. IK- then resumed his studies under 

 Professor Goodwin, who acted as bis private tutor and fitted bim for 

 college. He wa-> graduated at Harvard in L857 and soon afterwards 

 entered the Law School, where he received his 1. 1.. I'., in 1861. While 

 he was proficient in the work of the Law School, it is interesting to 

 Observe that in that early time he also took a deep interest in quest 

 of philosophy ami religion. He was always a man of profoundly ivli- 

 is nature, with all the strength and earnestness of Puritanism, hut 



without its ascetic features. In the year of his graduating at the Law 

 School he received the Bowdoin prize for an essay on "The Limits ,,f 

 Religious Thought," — a title which Strongly suL. r, _ r ests that his mind had 

 been exercised by the famous hook of Dean Manse) which we were all 

 then reading. For a short time Lopes studied in the office of 1' 

 W. Chandler and (ieorjje O. Shattuck, He was admitted to the l'ar 

 November 28, 1861, and continued to practise law in Loston until the 

 time of his death. In 1865 he formed a partnership with .John C'hipmaii 

 ( rray of die class of 1859 : and thirteen years later W. V. Loring of the 

 clas8 of 1872 was added to the firm, which has since heeii known as 

 Ropes, Gray and Loring. Ropes' professional work was almost entirely 

 confined to the office. Possibly Ids physical difficulty may have had 

 something to do with this. He had all the qualities which might have 

 placed him in the very highest ranks as an advocate before the court. 

 He had an- almost infallible scent for the essential points in a case, lie 



could disentangle the most complicated details, he could hunt for evidence 



with a kind of cosmic patience that took everything with the utmost 

 deliberation but never let slip the minutest detail, and he could marshal 

 his arguments with a logical power that was equalled only by the artistic 

 beauty ment. To hear him argue any point was a genuine delight 



both to one's reason and to one's aesthetic Bense. With all these rare 

 endowments a- an advocate, Ropes confined himself principally to busi- 

 ould be done in the office, especially to the care and manage- 

 ment of truftl estates. At the time of his death there were more than 

 a hundred trust estates, large and small, in his hands. He had long ago 

 established his reputation as a safe person lor taking care of money. He 



