Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2Hoar, George Frisbie
History
Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2
Hoar, George Frisbie
United States -- History -- 1865-1921; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1900
Another instructor in modern languages was Dr. Bachi. He
was a very accomplished gentleman. His translations of Italian
poetry, especially of Dante and Tasso, were exquisite. It
was like hearing a sweet and soft music to hear him read his
beloved poets, and he had a singular gift of getting hold
of the most sweet and mellifluous English words for his rendering.
"And he did open his mouth, and from it there did come out
words sweeter than honey." He once translated to us a passage
in the Inferno where the damned are suspended, head downwards,
with the burning flames resting upon the soles of their feet.
"Ah," exclaimed Bachi, "they do curl up their toes."
My class is not one of the very famous classes of the College.
Certainly it does not equal the class of 1802 or the class
of 1829. But I think it was, on the whole, very considerably
above the average. In it were several persons who became
eminent scholars and teachers, and some who have been eminent
in other walks of life. I think, on the whole, its two most
distinguished members, entitled to hold a greater place than
any others in the memory of future generations, were Dr. Calvin
Ellis, Dean of the Medical Faculty of Harvard, who died in
1883, and Judge Nathan Webb, of the United States District
Court of Maine, who died in 1902. Neither of these had very
high rank in the class. The first half of the class used
to have parts assigned at Commencement in those days. Ellis's
part was very nearly the lowest of the first half. Webb's
was higher. Webb entered college very young. He was quite
small in his stature and was known all though college as "little
Webb." He grew to a stature of about six feet after he left
college. He did, I believe, some very hard work indeed in
his senior year. Although universally liked and respected
by his classmates, he was not regarded as among the eminent
scholars. Ellis performed all his duties in College very fairly
but did not seem to care much for rank or for scholarship
until, in the senior year, some lectures on anatomy were delivered
by old Dr. John C. Warren. Ellis was filled with enthusiasm,
as were some of the other members of the class. He and I
got a skull somewhere and studied bones, processes, and sutures,
both meaning to be physicians. My zeal lasted but a few weeks.
Ellis's never abated until his death. He was at the head
of his profession in the country in his own department, became
Dean of the Harvard Medical School, and was loved and revered
by his numerous pupils as by the members of his profession.
He was one of the most simple-hearted, affectionate, spotless
and lovable of men. He died of a lingering and painful disease,
never losing his courage and patience, or his devoted interest
in science. Webb was exceedingly fond of his home, not being
very ambitious of higher office, but content to discharge
ably and faithfully and to the universal satisfaction of the
profession and the public, the duty of the important place
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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