George William Curtis

It is a beneiieeh'cè oí death to dispel the mfets of prejudice and let charactcr hiñe iorth in the luster oí all Hts virtucs. A long liïe of vaíiiant usefulness has ended, and Gèorge Wüliani Curüs has been borne away froiu mortal care in the close embrace of the sweetest peace the fcroubled heart of man'may know. The envíes -and the sishs, the hatreds and the scorn, the censures and ments that, rlsing like a cloud from the pitiless conflict of partisans, obscured him toa the fair judgments of inany iiihuls, are (lisper.scd as night vap'Ors toy the golden fire oí the morning, and we ee, calm, .serene, unsulliied, the riston oï a noble eharacter and pure manhood. Ia the ardor of lires devoted to great party interest oomvietion i.s aften fused wfüh consience, and poLhkal principie beconws religious oblfeatio'ii. He wlio argües himself into the abandonment of tho faith early etapoused aaid long tóherièhed must bare lwis soul to the stripee of the world's contu.mely as of old the aopstate his body to the lash. In hte last years Jlr. Curtís Biifíerédf jest and Jibe and opprobrium for whfit lii. party friends regarded as desertiifo'ii of principie, buit whlch was to nim.self the asserrion of citizen soverei'gnty. The ranoor of those days passed away- tlie ill coiisequences of the defectfflcwi still apprèciable, liowcver - 'one can feel the candor to declare, ttoat, whiie tlio course of 1884 proved Mr. Curtfe to be not entirely reat üt lea-res iw doubt in tbc mind that he was entirely pure. Ihte eircum.stiince of an sspecilally exciting peritoti wonld not be reverted to but lor the fact that Mr. Curtlis, whose viRoröiUB, persuasiVe powers as a. writer, and Avliose commandfng eloquence as an orator made ham one of the great educa bron influeiiees of hls time, in a measuire stultiïied his past; and 'ït ík one of the emprente laws of ethics that a man shall be equal at all times tío his te-aehing. The ho-nesty of Ma motives never eaime intO' question. A kniglit oí pen ho was withouffear and without repi-oaoh before m-en's eyes. He did not coiirt nower for favois. n.ni deeUned those proffered lionors that, tli Bfoiining rewards of politieal service, impoe eonditions upon independenee the wrlifcer coukl not Kuffer- and to George William Cui-tis the hftghieet prizes of his ambition were the moble thouglits hüs pen inscribed in the literature oí'hl country. Too nioble-mihded to be a self-seeker, too proud-souled to be a eervitor, he was yet one of tlie most pöthtial forces of the tiime sliaping the al destinies of the nation; and if his political Kenms 3id not enlarge to the randeur oí tatesmanship it rose Bpl-önd'ldly above the level of timeservers and the crowd that conceives politics to be the conquest of office. In the public arena he was a man, as in tlie seclusion of privacy he was a gentleman; and the elementa of his character were mich that men's esteern folio wed liim tbrough all hia vays oí liíe. If it was not his luck to be au alumnus of ono of the Rrand uni'versit es of our land, Mr. Ourtiss had tho graater fortune to secure higheet lionors in that best of universities, the world rí arta and letters and thought so ï-uli in piiortuniti&s to the resolved anind. Tour years in the treasure cities of Europe, with oxt-ursions into the land of Sj'ria, and cxplorations among the age-wonderful ruins of myetery-whteperlng Egypt compensatOa liim an hundred fold ior the I four years Harvard or Yale denied kim, and on the basis of his liuinble si-liool train he reared an cdifice of knowledge a.s beautlful as it "was sound, as elegant as it was varied. Thi' editor of Harper'e Wrrkiy was a gchiolar, catioHc of miad; dcep knowins', -lcar diseerntng, with the mental vlrility oí a pSblosopher and me sensilulity of a poet. As a wrltvi- he w.-is gfracéfnl, elegant, Lriípresslve, lila though.1 clear and precise, iiis art full of cliariii and didicacy, íiis Btyle foreible and chaste.ii Fancy amd seutimient lent a {ascination to 1l:s sci-ious work, ;:id tllEre Avero moods lm wliich a bright, airy but never triling humor tompted lila pon fi-oun its a ■customed course. Had it been bde pleasurè feo tnake fietion his pursuit ilu' would have aehieved, onc ma y believe, an enduring ín mr as a noveltet; bat tho country woüld linve lost, ;i.s indeed it lias, onc of the atolest advocates and (onviiK-in.ur deïendare of tliose ])rincipls of 1 i fe the observancë of whicl ocmtem upom man and nations alike the oh 00 est gifta and noblest evidenc is of moral development and ii.nl oivilizatiun. rivilization. TMs country has liad rcason to admire (íeorRC Will;im Curtis, to lion w luim, and to holil his memory in esteem. r.ut thiere are thousands who Inrd li.tin as a man rot lesa tlian trhey pespected him as a character, iiid thiese will moiurn u-itli jiroiouud Morrow for the loas thai il] country muist regret. For more tlian a qu-artrr of a cemtury Mr. ('ni-iis was a conspicuous iigure in the eye, and noit 111 uneharitable thought can flO'llow him to his Srav,., imt only Oowers of grackms remembrance.-