Any account of the personal characteristics of Colonel Higginson would be imperfect which omitted to mention his success as a public speaker and as an after-dinner orator. He was trained for public speaking on the anti-slavery platform, a better school than any now provided for the development of youthful talent. When preaching in Worcester he began to deliver literary lectures before the flourishing lyceums of that day. As a lecturer he was successful; and he continued for many years to be a favorite of the lyceum-goers, until the degeneracy of the popular lecture caused him to withdraw from that field of literary effort. The lecture on “The Aristocracy of the Dollar,” which he now occasionally gives to special audiences, has been in use for more than twenty years, and it has been transformed many times. Another well-worn lecture is that on “Literature in a Republic,” which he repeats less often. Among his other subjects have been “Thinking Animals” (instinct and reason), and “How to Study History.” The paper in the “_Atlantic_ Essays” on “The Puritan Minister” long did duty as a lyceum lecture; and those who have read it can but think it well fitted to the purpose. On the platform Colonel Higginson is self-controlled in manner, and strong in his reserved power. He does not captivate his hearer by the rush and swing and over-mastering weight of his oratory, but by the freshness, grace and finish of his thought. He often appears on the platform in Cambridge and Boston in behalf of the causes for which those cities are noted, and no one is more popular or listened to with greater satisfaction. Perhaps he only needs the passion and the stormy vigor of a cause which completely commands and carries captive his nature to make one of the most successful of popular orators. During the political campaign of 1884 his addresses were marked by their force and fire; and he was called for wherever there was a demand for an enthusiastic and vigorous presentation of the Independent position. As an after-dinner speaker, however, Colonel Higginson’s gifts shine out most clearly and reveal the charm of his style to the best advantage. It is the public rather than the private side of Colonel Higginson’s character which has been thus revealed; but it is the side which is most important to the understanding and appreciation of his books. It is the quiet and busy life of the scholar and man-of-letters he leads in Cambridge, but of a man-of-letters who is intensely interested in all that pertains to his country’s welfare and all that makes for the elevation of humanity. He is ready at any moment to leave his books and his pen to engage in affairs, and in settling questions of public importance, when the cause of right and truth demands. Quickly and keenly sympathetic with the life of his time, he will never permit the writing of books to absorb his heart to the exclusion of whatever human interests his country calls him to consider.