A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 97 



students. In taking leave of the graduating class, he was 

 in the habit of paying them whatever honest compliment he 

 could. Who, of a certain year which shall be nameless, will 

 ever forget the gravity with which he assured them that 

 they were &quot; the best-dressed class that had passed through 

 college during his administration ? &quot; How sincerely kind 

 he was, how considerate of youthful levity, will always be 

 gratefully remembered by whoever had occasion to experi 

 ence it. A visitor not long before his death found him 

 burning some memoranda of college peccadilloes, lest they 

 should ever rise up in judgment against the men eminent 

 in Church and State who had been guilty of them. One 

 great element of his popularity with the students was his 

 esprit de corps. However strict in discipline, he was always 

 on our side as respected the outside world. Of his efficiency, 

 no higher testimony could be asked than that of his successor, 

 Dr. Walker. Here also many reforms date from his 

 time. He had that happiest combination for a wise vigour 

 in the conduct of affairs, he was a conservative with an 

 open mind. 



One would be apt to think that, in the various offices 

 which Mr. Quincy successively filled, he would have found 

 enough to do. But his indefatigable activity overflowed. 

 Even as a man of letters, he occupies no inconsiderable 

 place. His &quot; History of Harvard College &quot; is a valuable 

 and entertaining treatment of a subject not wanting in 

 natural dryness. His &quot; Municipal History of Boston,&quot; his 

 &quot; History of the Boston Athenseum,&quot; and his &quot; Life of 

 Colonel Shaw &quot; have permanent interest and value. All 

 these were works demanding no little labour and research, 

 and the thoroughness of their workmanship makes them 

 remarkable as the by-productions of a busy man. Having 

 consented, when more than eighty, to write a memoir of 

 John Quincy Adams, to be published in the &quot; Proceedings&quot; 

 of the Massachusetts Historical Society, he was obliged to 

 excuse himself. On account of his age ? Not at all, but 

 because the work had grown to be a volume under his 

 weariless hand. Ohne Hast okne Rast, was as true of him 



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