574 CHARLES FRANKLIN DUNBAR. 



fidelity and sliill.- From the first a high standard was set. The Journal 

 was to be a medium of communication for investigators, and took rank 

 at once as one of the leading scholarly repertories on its subject. Space 

 in it was sought by eminent writers the vvorkl over, and publication in 

 its pages served as guarantee of a claim to the attention of the learned 

 world. Professor Dunbar always looked back with just satisfaction on 

 what he had here achieved, and found in it some solace for his inability 

 to carry out his plans for independent publication. 



Professor Dunbar was by nature reserved ; always dignified ; in con- 

 versation, happy in the intuitive selection of the right word ; guarded 

 in expressing an opinion, but sure to express a just one when his 

 conclusions had been reached. His writings, reflected these qualities. 

 They are distinguished by a rounded stateliuess of diction more sought 

 for a generation ago than in our own day ; dignified, yet never stilted, 

 flowing, yet never affected. No more just and delightful tribute has 

 been paid to a man in his own lifetime than is contained in Professor 

 Dunbar's paper on President Eliot's Administration of Harvard Univer- 

 sit}', published in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine (for June, 1894) 

 at the close of the twenty-fifth year of President Eliot's administration. 

 Equally sympathetic, and at the same time judicial and discriminating, 

 are his memoirs, in the Proceedings of this Academy, of three men of 

 very diflferent types, — Henry C. Carey, Francis A. Walker, and E. W. 

 Gurney. 



It is a singular fact that Professor Dunbar wrote with hesitation, and 

 often had to nerve himself anew to the task of literary composition. 

 Notwithstanding many years of experience in rapid writing, he shrank 

 from taking pen in hand ; yet, when the first sentence was written, the 

 others followed apparently with ease, and certainly in logical sequence 

 and with an immediate happy choice of phrase. The present writer has 

 been so fortunate as to examine some of the notes, memoranda, and 

 unfinished manuscript left by his lamented colleague ; and in the briefest 

 and most fragmentary of these papers he has been repeatedly struck by 

 the appositeness of the language, the instinctively systematic arrange- 

 ment, the constant proof of clear and well ordered thought. 



In personal intercourse with those who enjoyed his more intimate 

 acquaintance, Professor Dunbar's habitual dignity and reserve were often 

 broken by flashes of humor. He enjoyed keenly a good story, and 

 saw the mirthful side of every subject. Often in solemn meetings the 

 twinkle of his eye, perceptible only to those who knew him well, showed 

 his appreciation of the oddities and idiosyncrasies of his contemporaries. 



