Page:Memoir of George McClellan MD.djvu/11

 or unperverted, continues to show itself the same, generation after generation. That of McClellan was Gaelic mixed with the Anglo-Saxon stock. From his paternal Gaelic stock, he inherited his restless, generous, intrepid spirit; and from his maternal Anglo-Saxon stock, he obtained his strong, sagacious mind. Hence it is that McClellan, like the elm tree, possessed those two opposite and rarely combined golden qualities of firmness and flexibility, so essential to greatness of character.

A large, symmetrical head, thick black hair, strong brow, stout and projecting chin, and high cheek bone, were blended with a deeply set, quickly glancing, mild blue eye; with an impulsive motion of his muscles, induced by a mind enthusiastically occupied with bold, humane acts; and with a compressed yet smiling mouth —a manly smile at purpose formed or accomplished, which did not relax even in death. We beheld it in the corpse, on the funeral day, as strongly as any of us ever witnessed it in his living face. When we looked on then, and whilst many had cut off portions of his dark locks, slightly grey, we experienced, beside the sadness of the occasion, a feeling of,—shall I call it,—surprise! that that rapid mind, rapid tongue, and rapid hand and foot, were now at last for once still, and that warm and generous heart cold.

McClellan, thus gifted with sterling qualities of body, mind and heart, was educated by a succession of master spirits;—his father, the distinguished Principal of the Woodstock Academy, and subsequently Dwight, Silliman, Hubbard, Dorsey, Physick, Wistar and Chapman!

His primary studies were pursued at the academy of his native township, under the patronage of his father, a principal stockholder, and who fully appreciated the