John Lothrop Motley. a memoir — Volume 1Holmes, Oliver Wendell
General
John Lothrop Motley. a memoir — Volume 1
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877
Such then was the boy who at the immature, we might almost say the
tender, age of thirteen entered Harvard College. Though two years after
me in college standing, I remember the boyish reputation which he brought
with him, especially that of a wonderful linguist, and the impression
which his striking personal beauty produced upon us as he took his seat
in the college chapel. But it was not until long after this period that
I became intimately acquainted with him, and I must again have recourse
to the classmates and friends who have favored me with their
reminiscences of this period of his life. Mr. Phillips says:
"During our first year in college, though the youngest in the class,
he stood third, I think, or second in college rank, and ours was an
especially able class. Yet to maintain this rank he neither cared
nor needed to make any effort. Too young to feel any
responsibilities, and not yet awake to any ambition, he became so
negligent that he was 'rusticated' [that is, sent away from college
for a time]. He came back sobered, and worked rather more, but with
no effort for college rank thenceforward."
I must finish the portrait of the collegian with all its lights and
shadows by the help of the same friends from whom I have borrowed the
preceding outlines.
He did not care to make acquaintances, was haughty in manner and cynical
in mood, at least as he appeared to those in whom he felt no special
interest. It is no wonder, therefore, that he was not a popular
favorite, although recognized as having very brilliant qualities. During
all this period his mind was doubtless fermenting with projects which
kept him in a fevered and irritable condition. "He had a small writing-
table," Mr. Phillips says, "with a shallow drawer; I have often seen it
half full of sketches, unfinished poems, soliloquies, a scene or two of a
play, prose portraits of some pet character, etc. These he would read to
me, though he never volunteered to do so, and every now and then he burnt
the whole and began to fill the drawer again."
My friend, Mr. John Osborne Sargent, who was a year before him in
college, says, in a very interesting letter with which he has favored me:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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