Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/166

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JOHN DAVIS LONG

ence, often seriously hinders a young man's progress in life. Still more important requisites to honorable advancement, in his view, are clean hands, a pure heart, industry, courtesy, courage, self-respect, elevated ideals and good associations with men and books.

Since his retirement from the cabinet, Mr. Long has been engaged in the practice of the law, and in the enjoyment of a leisure of which he has long been deprived. He loves to return to his boyhood home at Buckfield and there renew his old associations and indulge in healthful wanderings in the Maine woods. He has sought to benefit this place and honor his father's love of books, by founding there the "Zadoc Long Free Library." Mr. Long has been to some extent a maker of books himself. In his earlier years he translated the "Æneid" of Virgil, publishing his version in 1879. His second book is "After Dinner Came Other Speeches," issued in 1895, and since his withdrawal from the cabinet he has published a valuable work entitled "The American Navy" (The Outlook Company, 1903.) Since his return to the law he has been made president of the Overseers of Harvard university, and in 1902-03 presided over the Harvard Alumni. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Unitarian Association, the Mayflower Society, and a number of clubs; and he is president of the Massachusetts club.