Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/26

 John Henry Wigmore tured German of the university type without the usual ponderosity of the German, but rather with the charm of manner of the French. His mind, however, is that of the classic Greek. His physical presence gives the im pression of a frail body and a spiritual mind, but yet he is a reservoir of ner vous energy. If he is an intellectual idealist, he is also an intense realist in action. It would naturally be thought that one who lives on Parnassus could never breathe the air of the valley, but Mr. Wigmore can and does descend. He would instantly attract attention even if it could be forgotten that he is one of our greatest legal scholars. He has the simplicity of a child and a manner wholly unassuming. A stranger would be quickly struck by his gracious bear ing and his magnetic personality but would never suspect anything beyond an elegant and perhaps well-informed gentleman. Mr. Wigmore does not talk of what he has done. If his natural modesty did not prevent, he is too busy doing other things. He would be the first to proclaim that he is a mere dilettante. When he has anything to say to a mixed audience he speaks not in the language of Greece or Rome, but in a strong, hammering English which leaves no doubt either as to what he said or meant to say. His style is somewhat different and more difficult when he enters the juridical arena. It has here the champagne quality, an un translatable flavor, brilliance, charm, potency. His legal and his juristic writing remind one very strongly of that great scholar on the bench, Mr. Justice Holmes. (And, by the way, these two men have many things in common aside from literary style.) Mr. Wigmore carries into the classroom that same simplicity, directness, pre cision, and mental form which are dis

tinctive of him. He is not, of course, nor can he be intimately understood by the undergraduate, but he is idolized. His classes carry out with them into the world the impression of having realized a great privilege of association with a profound thinker and a distinguished man. They are of the army of Wigmore enthusiasts. To say of Mr. Wigmore that he is unaffected, generous, noble, an untiring worker, a stanch friend, a valuable citizen, a great lawyer, an accomplished jurist, a cultured gentleman, is to em ploy the stock nouns and adjectives of obituary literature. Such language has the singular quality of missing the point of characterization. Indeed, any lawyer whose name is known beyond his state lines must be most of these things. It should also be remarked that a gracious manner, a sympathetic heart, and a noble mind, do not in Mr. Wigmore tend to destroy his efficiency as the chief executive of a law school, as the directing spirit of the learned enter prises in which he is engaged, or in the production of results in his numerous other legal, juristic, public, charitable and social activities. He can act as well as think. His sympathies for man kind do not have the amorphous structure of gelatine nor are they bottled in water. The softer side of his nature is governed by an ideal motive. He acts on a consistent and organic principle and is not swayed by adventitious sentiment. He insists on progress, and progress means for him understanding and power. Anything which opposes this progress is cast aside. Individuals here mean nothing, and the idea is everything. It is easy to be virtuous. All that one has to do is to do nothing, but nobility and great activity are very rarely found together. The humanitarian element in Wigmore