The leading thesis of the Wesleyan College oration--that the scholar is not the recluse, the pale valetudinarian, a woman without woman’s charm, but a man--may not have been new; but the putting was fresh, vivid, inspiring, eloquent. The oration may be compared with Emerson’s utterances on the same theme. Emerson’s treatment is the more philosophical; that of Curtis is the better adapted to public speech. Along with this oration should be read the address on ‘Patriotism,’ in which Curtis defends the doctrine that where law violates the primary conception of human rights it is our duty to disobey the law, and the address entitled ‘The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question,’ in which Curtis said, ‘Government is, unquestionably, a science of compromises, but only of policies and interests, not of essential rights; and if of them, then the sacrifice must fall on all.’ These three are but the beginning of a series of orations from among which the great eulogies of Sumner and of Wendell Phillips, of Bryant and of Lowell, may be chosen as the very crown of his work. * * * * * The critic (and there are such critics) who values almost lightly the sentimental and poetic literary work of Curtis’s young manhood is perhaps not entirely unjust; Curtis would have agreed with him. But the critic would be unjust if he overlooked the value of this literary training in giving an enormous increase of power. We shall never know how much the editorial writer and political orator gained in clarity, precision, beauty of style, effectiveness, by the penning of a series of books in which for pages together he revels in the mere music of words. The author of the address on Sumner was largely indebted to the author of the _Nile Notes of a Howadji_ and _Prue and I_. FOOTNOTES: [58] When Curtis gave this address in Philadelphia (Dec. 15, 1859) a mob armed with stones and bottles of vitriol attempted to break up the meeting. Cary’s _Curtis_, pp. 126–129. [59] Cary. [60] Cary’s _Curtis_, p. 296. XVII _Donald Grant Mitchell_ REFERENCES: [=H. A. Beers=]: ‘Donald G. Mitchell’ in the _Cyclopædia of American Biography_. I HIS LIFE Donald Grant Mitchell, who won literary reputation under the name of ‘Ik Marvel,’ was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on April 12, 1822. He is a son of the Reverend Alfred Mitchell, formerly pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Norwich, and a grandson of Stephen Mix Mitchell, an eminent jurist and member of the Continental Congress. He prepared for college at John Hall’s school at Ellington, and was graduated at Yale in 1841. Three years of life on a farm for his health gave him a bent towards rural pleasures and occupations. In 1844, still in pursuit of health, he visited England, the Isle of Jersey, France, and Holland. His first book, _Fresh Gleanings, or a New Sheaf from the Old Fields of Continental Europe_ (1847), was the literary fruit of this journey.