Nor urge its power too little or too much;
Give each strong thought its most attractive view,
In diction clear, and yet severely true;
And as the arguments in splendor grow,
Let each reflect its light on all below.
When to the close arrived, make no delays
By petty flourishes or verbal plays,
But sum the whole in one deep, solemn strain,
Like a strong current hastening to the main."
But the jurist, rich with the spoils of time, the exalted magistrate, the orator, the writer, all vanish when I think of the friend. Much as the world may admire his memory, all who knew him will love it more. Who can forget his bounding step, his contagious laugh, his exhilarating voice, his beaming smile, his countenance that shone like a benediction? What pen can describe these? What canvas or marble can portray them? He was always the friend of the young, who never tired in listening to his mellifluous discourse. Nor did they ever leave his presence without a warmer glow of virtue, a more inspiring love of knowledge, and more generous impulses of action. I remember him in my childhood; but I first knew him after he came to Cambridge as Professor, while I was yet an undergraduate, and now recall freshly, as if the words were of yesterday, the eloquence and animation with which at that time he enforced upon a youthful circle the beautiful truth, that no man stands in the way of another. The world is wide enough for all, he said, and no success which may crown our neighbor can affect our own career. In this spirit he ran his race on earth, without jealousy, without envy,—nay, more, overflowing with appreciation and praise of labors which compared humbly with his own. In conversation he dwelt with fervor upon all the topics which interest man,—not only upon law, but upon literature, history, human character, the affairs of every day,—above all, upon the great duties of life, the relations of men to each other, to country, to God. High in his mind, above all human opinions and practices, were the everlasting rules of Right; nor did he ever rise to truer eloquence than when condemning, as I have more than once heard him recently, that evil sentiment, "Our country, right or wrong" which, in whatsoever form of language it may disguise itself, assails the very foundations of justice and virtue.