644 FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 



Where in this gallery the works of our friend will be hung, on what 

 shelf his books will be found, we will not to-night undertake to prophesy. 

 But he will be among the masters. He will have a chapter or a page 

 in the most compact history of science. His pithy sentences will be 

 quoted. Better than that; his example of human interest in the wel- 

 fare of man, and of a deferential regard for his opponents, will be fol- 

 lowed. He will be remembered as having helped to teach the haughty, 

 arrogant j)hilosopher, the presumptuous and self-confident debater, a 

 more excellent way. * * * , 



Lord Erskine says that though the word "gentleman" can not be 

 defined, it is the quality to which England owes everything that she is. 

 Perhaps our conception of it and that of the Englishman may not be 

 in all respects the same. But certainly Frank Walker possessed that 

 attractive something, consisting partly of grace of behavior, and chiefly 

 of quality of heart, which makes the character of the gentleman. In 

 those countries where rank and birth count for much, rank and birth 

 are essential to the gentleman. We count them for nothing. But I do 

 not know that the republican gentleman can better be defined than by 

 taking the description which, when the age of chivalry was not yet 

 gone, Chaucer gave of his young knight, the flower of English chivalry : 



"Curteis be was, lowly and servisable." 



Courtesy, modesty, and service! We can find its examples in New 

 England farmhouses as well as in baronial halls. 



Our English brethren, when they speak of a great-hearted, honest, 

 and brave man, who does nothing mean, and will not give in, like to 

 say he is thoroughly English. With all the faults of the English 

 character, they have an honest right to say it. But we have a right 

 to say of this man that there was not a trait in his intellectual or moral 

 character, there was not an action of his life, there was not an emotion 

 of his soul, that was not intensely American. He loved his country. 

 Under great and varied responsibilities he did what an American citi- 

 zen ought to do, and was what an American citizen ought to be. You 

 can hardly think of a place in the Eepublic where there was a man's 

 work to do in which, if you had put Frank Walker, he would not have 

 done it well. 



He edited a paper in his youth, and he thought at one time of making 

 that his profession. As I have said, he was all his life a constant 

 spectator and critic. But as I said just now, he never lost his temper 

 of a brave hopefulness. He never lost his love of country. While he 

 had many friendships abroad, and had a reputation there which he 

 highly valued, he was an American from the crown of his head to the 

 sole of his feet. To him the word "countryman" was a title of endear- 

 ment. He would accept no honor or respect for himself which implied 

 any dishonor or want of respect for his country. Perhaps the crowning 

 literary distinction of his life was the degree conferred on him at Dublin 

 at the tercentenary celebration of that famous university. He devoted 



