\V,fli,iui /V.v/.m Jo/iitston. 297
fidelity to tin- fortunes of Mr. Davis, and was raptured with him in rgia after the surrender of < iriu-ral Joseph E. Johnston. After . ral months < .1 >olitary confinement in Fort Delaware, he was re- leased; and alter nearly a year's residence in exile in Canada, return- ing to Louisville, he resumed the practice of law.
In 1X67, while thus engaged, he was invited by General R. E. Lee to the chair of history and English literature in Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., and removed to that place. This was a position for which he was peculiarly well fitted by the trend of his mind, as well as his scholarly acquirements; and his success in draw- ing to the institution a class of superior youth from the West and South, and inspiring them with his own high standard of morality, learning and ambition, has been best evidenced in the honorable positions in life attained by those who came under his personal and professional influence. Colonel Johnston remained at Washington and Lee University until 1877, and while there wrote the " Life ol Albert Sidney Johnston," published by the Appletons in 1878. This work is an admirably written biography of the great Confederate chieftain who lost his life on the memorable battlefield of Shiloh, and whose character is one of the grandest and noblest in American annals. Colonel Johnston's life of his father ranked him as one ol the best writers in the country, and his style is noted for its vigor and elegance. The judicial character of his work has been attested by many of the most distinguished generals and fairest critics on both sides, North and South.
A high degree of literary excellence is found in his other works, which consist of a number of poems, essays on literary, historical and pedagogical subjects, and addresses. In 1890 he printed "The Prototype of Hamlet," a series of lectures delivered at the Tulane University, which have been very favorably received by Shakes- pearian scholars. Owing to the bankruptcy of the publisher at the moment of its issue, this volume was never offered for sale, and only .1 small number of copies were printed. Its thesis is a paradox which has found favor with many lawyers, but it is not cheerfully ac- cepted by the worshipers of the great bard. Colonel Johnston, how- ever, ranks Shakespeare as the greatest of all writers, and regards the Baconian theory as absurd.
Colonel Johnston has delivered a large number of addresses before various universities and other educational assemblies. These ad- dresses have been widely noticed as giving a correct and vivid pic- ture of what is called the Old South, and also of the conditions in
