Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/28

22 personality, genial soul, and mental alertness won for him hosts of friends in all ranks of society. He was an original thinker, and a deep student of everything that had a bearing on human life and happiness. To converse with him was not merely an intellectual treat, it was an invigorating mental tonic. It stimulated thought and suggested new ideas; it put one on his mettle to follow where he led, and to keep pace with the rapid movement of his mind.

He was at home with all sorts of men, and had bright ideas on diverse subjects. He discussed metaphysics with Harvard professors, art and literature with a Holmes, a Hosmer, or a Higginson, social problems with Wendell Phillips, ecclesiastical polity with priests and bishops, and the value of hereditary traits and aptitudes with the Adamses, Winthrops, Saltonstalls, Shattucks, and Woodburys.

He was something of a philosophic statesman, but very little of a politician.

And yet his popularity was so great, that had he chosen to accept public office, he could have aimed high with success, without the aid of the arts of practical politics. He would no more deign to flatter the populace than to cringe to power, or fawn upon tyrants. It was a privilege to know John Boyle O'Reilly, and an honor to be counted among his friends.

Without any credentials save his own genius and sterling character, he rapidly won his way to universal