MARTIN BRIMMER. 361 



coveries that a biographer could find the details, if he were disposed 

 to use them. As far as his life had a story, it is shortly told. 



Martin Brimmer was the son of Hon. Martin and Harriet 

 [Wadsworth] Brimmer, and was born in Boston, 9 December, 1829. 

 His father was a well known and most public spirited citizen, twice 

 Mayor of Boston. For him is named the Brimmer School, and on 

 the older maps of Boston T Wharf is described as " Brimmer's T." 

 Our associate entered the Sophomore Class of Harv^ard College at the 

 age of sixteen, and graduated in 1849. Without being distinguished 

 as a scholar, he won the very peculiar regard of all who were 

 associated with him, as instructors or companions, even under circum- 

 stances where many young men would have made a different impression. 

 He travelled in Europe soon after graduation, and soon after his 

 return began a connection with a great number of literary and chari- 

 table societies as trustee, with one or other of which he was constantly 

 engaged to the last. He was chosen a Fellow of Harvard College at 

 an unusually early age, but with universal approval, and, having 

 resigned this post, was again chosen to it and held it till his death, 

 sitting for a part of the interval on the Board of Overseers. He was 

 a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1859, 

 1860, and 1861, and of the State Senate in 1865. He was a Presi- 

 dential Elector in 1876, and a candidate for Congress in 1878. In 

 1869 he was chosen the first president of the Boston Museum of Fine 

 Arts, and held the post till his death. He visited Europe and Egypt 

 more than once after his first journey ; and in the early days of the 

 struggle for the territory of Kansas, had travelled there to find out 

 for himself the truth of a situation so passionately discussed by oppos- 

 ing partisans. A journey in Kansas in 1855 was a more arduous 

 affair than one to Egypt a generation later. Mr. Brimmer died 

 January 14, ]8'.)6. This may be said to be his biography, unless 

 one gave a dptailed list of all the bodies of which he was the devoted, 

 energetic, intelligent servant, — unless, also, one went into the details 

 of private life, where Mr. Brimmer indeed shone with an unequalled 

 light, but one whose lustre was far too tender and sacred for public 

 exposure. 



But if life means not events but character, not what one has 

 done but what one has been, Mr. Brimmer's is a memory which it 

 is peculiarly incumbent on us to record and to cherish. In Virgil's 

 matchless and immortal roll of those who have won eternal happiness, 

 he ranks with the patriot soldier, the inspired bard, the stainless 

 priest, and the keen inventor, " those who have made others remember 



