A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 113 



valued most, his sense of personal worth, the world's 

 opinion could neither help nor hinder. We do not 

 mean that this was conscious in him; if it had been, 

 it would have been a weakness. It was an instinct, and 

 acted with the force and promptitude proper to suqh. 

 Let us hope that the scramble of democracy will give us 

 something as good ; anything of so classic dignity we 

 shall not look to see again. 



Josiah Quincy was no seeker of office ; from first to 

 last he and it were drawn together by the mutual attrac 

 tion of need and fitness, and it clung to him as most 

 men cling to it. The people often make blunders in 

 their choice ; they are apt to mistake presence of speech 

 for presence of mind ; they love so to help a man rise 

 from the ranks, that they Avill spoil a good demagogue to 

 make a bad general ; a great many faults may be laid at 

 their door, but they are not fairly to be charged with 

 fickleness. They are constant to whoever is constant to 

 his real self, to the best manhood that is in him, and 

 not to the mere selfishness, the antica lupa so cunning to 

 hide herself in the sheep's fleece even from ourselves. 

 It is true, the contemporary world is apt to be the gull 

 of brilliant parts, and the maker of a lucky poem or 

 picture or statue, the winner of a lucky battle, gets per 

 haps more than is due to the solid result of his triumph. 

 It is time that fit honor should be paid also to him who 

 shows a genius for public usefulness, for the achieve 

 ment of character, who shapes his life to a certain classic 

 proportion, and comes off conqueror on those inward 

 fields where something more than mere talent is de 

 manded for victory. The memory of such men should 

 be cherished as the most precious inheritance which one 

 generation can bequeath to the next. However it might 

 be with popular favor, public respect followed Mr. 

 Quinoy unwaveringly for .seventy years, and it was 



H 



