Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/231

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by moonlight! There was so much to learn; so much good to do ! To him, life was indeed earnest. We are told nothing of his father's influence; his character seems to have been built upon his mother's teachings. Oh, Polly Kelley, why did you not implant in your son a sense of humor, — a sense of relative values? One wonders if he ever laughed, or even smiled. To him the world was a formal place, peopled with good men, with a scattering few "through whom evil must come." The former were either "distinguished," "enterpris- ing," "understanding," or "learned," while the latter were characterized in terms that were of another order. Rarely did he mention a person without employing an adjective, complimentary or otherwise. He was a master in the use of epithets.

It is not surprising that this self-centered and serious- minded man was involved in personal difficulties with his im- mediate associates; for he was as obstinate as George III, as ponderous and immovable as his own New Hampshire hills. In his mind there was no room for doubt as to the side upon which the right lay, or as to his position on that side. But if he was elephantine in his intellectual processes, he was