110 A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 



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 popu- 

 larity with the students was his esjjrit de corps. How- 

 ever strict in discipline, he was alwaj^s on ow/- side as re- 

 spected the outside world. Of his efficiency, no higher 

 testimony could be asked than that of his successor, Dr. 

 Walker. Here also many reforms date fi'om his time. 

 He had that happiest combination for a wise vigor in 

 the conduct of afiairs, — 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 over- 

 flowed. Even as a man of letters, he occupies no incon- 

 siderable place. His " History of Harvard College " is 

 a valuable and entertaining treatment of a subject not 

 wanting in natural dryness. His " Municipal History 

 of Boston," his *' History of the Boston Athenaeum," 

 and his " Life of Colonel Shaw " have permanent interest 

 and value. All these w^ere works demanding no little 

 labor and research, and the thoroughness of their work- 

 manship 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 " Proceedings " of the Massachusetts 

 Historical Society, he was obliged to excuse himself. 

 On account of his age 1 Not at all, but because the 

 work had grow^n to be a volume under his weariless 

 hand. Okne Hast ohne East, was as true of him as of 

 Goethe. We find the explanation of his accomplishing 

 so much in a rule of life which he gave, wdien President, 

 to a young man emplo3'ed as his secretary, and w^ho was 

 a little behindhand wdth his work : " When you have a 



