GREAT MEN'S BODIES
more lively confidence"; and who, oarsman, cricketer, horseman, had just the body for great work; "a tall and commanding figure, and a frame so strong as to endure the labors of a Prime Minister at the rate of sixteen hours a day."
At Lord Palmerston, for sixty years a statesman of mighty power in England, and in all Europe; bright, sunny, buoyant, self-reliant, athletic, always owning many good horses; riding to hounds with the neighboring packs; and in his later years sure of his daily ride on his old gray, whose personality was almost as familiar to Londoners as his own; whose pet saying was, "Every other abstinence will not make up for abstinence from exercise."
Ask Agassiz, naturalist, zoologist, geologist, explorer of the natural wealth of the Amazon, "not merely a scientific thinker, but a scientific force; and no small portion of the immense influence he exerts is due to the energy, intensity, and geniality which distinguish his nature"; a broad-chested, deep-chested, stalwart, sunny-natured, wonderfully magnetic man, and a dangerous fencer and swordsman.
Ask Charles Sumner,[1] jurist, senator, statesman, an organizer of the Free-soil party; orator; leader of the Abolitionists in the councils of the nation—and such a leader! "There is no other side!" he said to a friend, with fervor; "and Cromwell's Ironsides did not ride into the fight more absolutely persuaded that they were doing the will of God than did Charles Sumner." Of
- ↑ "So when a great man dies,For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men."
—Longfellow, on Sumner.
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