Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/166

144 his books he devoted large part of his daily life. His reading was constant and unflagging to his last days. Never for long did he engage in conversation, except during after-dinner periods, when surrounded by friends or members of his family. That was his social intercourse. These intellectual after-feasts covered widest range of religion, history and literature, nature and spirit, matter and mind. The great storehouse of his memory yielded allusions and quotations which charmed his auditors with their versatility. At such times, the Editor truly unfolded the greatness of his mind, the universality of his talents, the accuracy of his memory, the maturity of his scholarship. Many were his philosophical and theological disquisitions; his narratives of great men and great events; his discourses on Shakespeare and Milton and Homer and Goethe and Dante and others too numerous for mention here. His touches on the moral and the spiritual delighted his hearers. He could talk on most intricate doctrinal subjects; none could speak more precisely on Fall of Man or Resurrection or Atonement. But he preferred reflections on daily good conduct and non-dogmatized deity. In these conversations his sincerity, humility and docility of spirit would have surprised the orthodox who, perhaps, that very day had stirred his resistance by their dogmatic efforts to repress him. Along with his fine literary, historical and religious perceptions, he possessed much practical sense for every-day affairs in these discourses. Never did he soar away with dreams or ideals that he forgot life's earthly matters.

These periods of his relaxation lasted an hour or two hours; then back he went to his desk or his books. The chief lesson of his daily life was his economy of time and effort. He entertained rarely and joined social gatherings seldom. Many persons thought him unsociable, reticent, taciturn, severe; whereas his were the direct opposite of all those traits. Without such habits he could not have covered the vast areas where his studies took him. His singleness of aim and unity of pursuit were to equip his mind with copious supply for his daily writings. These matters are mentioned here to show that Mr. Scott's