CONCLUDING YEARS-1881-1885 437 



Dr. Russel. He was among those chosen for the instruct- 

 ing body at the very beginning. Into all of his work he 

 brought a perfect loyalty to truth, with the trained facul- 

 ties of a lawyer in seeking it and the fearlessness of an 

 apostle in announcing it. As to his success in this latter 

 field, there may be given, among other testimonies, that of 

 an unwilling witness a young scholar of great strength 

 of mind, who, though he had taken deep offense at sundry 

 acts of the professor and never forgiven them, yet, after a 

 year in the historical lecture-rooms of the University of 

 Berlin, said to me : ' ' I have attended here the lectures of 

 all the famous professors of history, and have heard few 

 who equal Professor Russel and none who surpass him in 

 ascertaining the really significant facts and in clearly pre- 

 senting them." 



In the vice-presidency of the faculty he also rendered 

 services of the greatest value. No one was more devoted 

 than he to the university or more loyal to his associates. 

 There was, indeed, some friction. His cousin, James Rus- 

 sell Lowell, once asked me regarding this, and my reply 

 was that it reminded me of a character in the "Biglow 

 Papers" who "had a dre'dful winnin' way to make folks 

 hate him." This was doubtless an overstatement, but it 

 contained truth ; for at times there was perhaps lacking in 

 his handling of delicate questions something of the suavi- 

 ter in modo. His honest frankness was worthy of all 

 praise ; but I once found it necessary to write him : ' i I am 

 sorry that you have thought it best to send me so unspar- 

 ing a letter, but no matter ; write me as many as you like ; 

 they will never break our friendship; only do not write 

 others in the same strain. ' ' This brought back from him 

 one of the kindest epistles imaginable. Uncompromising 

 as his manner was, his services vastly outweighed all the 

 defects of his qualities; and among these services were 

 some of which the general public never dreamed. I could 

 tell of pathetic devotion and self-sacrifice on his part, not 

 only to the university, but to individual students. No pro- 

 fessor ever had a kindlier feeling toward any scholar in 



