444 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters . 
cerned, debate is for those directly engaged in it worse than profitless, 
and it was repugnant to his temper. He was naturally restrained from 
taking the attitude of the advocate both by the judicialness of his mind 
and the candor of his character; and this disposition was powerfully re¬ 
enforced by a discriminating intellect which refused to ignore identities 
or confuse distinctions. Add the command of a copious and precise 
vocabulary, and his equipment for enjoyable and instructive conversation 
was complete. It was almost a luxury to have him occasionally hesitate 
for a word. It gave one a moment to enjoy in anticipation the right 
word which was sure to come, 
While by nature a man of the study, he by no means lacked interest 
in matters of public concern, and the interest was of a decidedly practi¬ 
cal rather than of a merely academic character. Politics he greatly en¬ 
joyed, not at all as a trade, nor yet merely as a science, but more still as 
a field for effort in the line of promoting, or trying to promote, the com¬ 
mon good. While he could never become a partisan, he was always 
anxious to actively identify himself with any organized effort to reform 
or purify our public life. The temperance problem and other social 
questions of importance in our day provoked earnest study, and when 
the line of action seemed clear, enthusiastic devotion. If he ever seemed 
to any one lacking in public participation in reformatory work, that fact 
must be set down to the impartiality of his mind, which insisted on 
seeing both sides of the shield; and that impartiality was greatly 
strengthened by an alert and delicate sense of humor—a quality of great 
service, not only in giving sparkle to speech, but also in restraining 
from absurdity. In medio tutissimius ibis was not with him the maxim 
of a calculating prudence. It rather represented the native temper of 
the man. 
Of those deeper and more difficult themes which we call religious, we 
spoke frequently and freely. Mr. Heritage shrank from no light which 
the most thorough-going rationalism could shed on the problems of life. 
But through all this unrestrained communion of thought and in¬ 
quiry, I never found his faith to falter in the underlying sanity of things, 
the eternal purpose which runs through all, and gives to human effort 
and character an immortal meaning. That purpose was most beauti¬ 
fully displayed in his life. We may well believe that, though not fully 
revealed to our eyes, that purpose has with no less beauty, been working 
itself out in his death. 
