902 FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL. 



two partners wrote a book on " The Transfer of Stock in Corporations," 

 but thereafter his spare time was turned into other channels, three 

 leading interests, outside of office work, commanding his attention, 

 History, Harvard University, and Politics. History he had always 

 cared for, and the quality of his mind, his powerful memory, and his 

 judicial temper fitted him peculiarly to pursue it. He had studied it 

 much in College, and became fascinated by the life of the Maid of 

 Orleans. To gathering everything published about her life and times 

 he devoted much labor for several years, and then wrote his " Joan of 

 Arc." Towards the end of his life he was again at work on history, 

 but did not live to write what he had planned. 



Harvard had always been very dear to him. He felt for the Uni- 

 versity the affection that comes from an inheritance of generations, 

 and from associations beginning in childhood, as well as from spending 

 five years within its walls. In 1886 he was elected an Overseer and, 

 except for one year, he sat on the Board until he was chosen in 1895 a 

 member of the Corporation, an office he retained until his death in 

 1911. The University has had few members of its Governing Boards 

 who worked harder, none more constant in interest than he. 



The third avocation, if one may call it so, was politics — a revival, 

 or since it was never lost, a fruition of the interest of boyhood. His 

 attitude toward public life was exactly what one would like to see. 

 His leading motive was neither personal ambition, nor a stern desire 

 to fulfill a disagreeable duty. He enjoyed each position he filled, 

 and looked forward to a more important one without grave disap- 

 pointment when he failed to get it. He did his duty diligently, 

 faithfully, and with pleasure, a stranger alike to the passionate eager- 

 ness of the reformer and the self-seeking of a more common type. He 

 began modestly and dutifully in the Common Council of the City of 

 Boston, did what he could for honest administration there from 1889 

 to 1891, and later went into the legislature. Here was a field better 

 suited to his talents. His character commanded respect, his ability 

 won confidence, and he became Chairman of the Committee on the 

 Judiciary and the leading figure in the House. Some results of his 

 observation of men and methods at the State House he embodied in an 

 article on "Legislative Shortcomings" ^ full of a clear perception of 

 actual facts unfortunately too rare in our political writings; a quality 

 which appears also in another study on " The American Boss." * 

 Published as these were only in the ephemeral pages of a periodical 



3 The Atlantic Monthly, March, 1897. 



4 Ibid. Sept. 1900. 



