interested in philosophy and metaphysics, he was surpassed by few as a
master of the humanities, general literature, and the story of the rise
and progress of democracy and free institutions. Not a man of genius,
Charles Sumner was gifted with talent of a very high order. He had, what
is perhaps better than genius, a capacity for sustained labour and
prodigious industry. He did nothing by halves. In his chosen realm he
became a master of the details of every movement related to free
institutions, since the days of the republics of Greece and Switzerland,
Holland and England. Long after other students had blown out their
lights, Charles Sumner's window was still flaming. At a very early epoch
he exhibited his tenacity of will and his constitutional inability to
change his mind. Once he planned with a companion to walk to Boston on
Saturday morning, starting at half-past seven. When the hour struck, a
snow-storm was raging. But having decided to go to Boston, to Boston the
student went alone, floundering through the blizzard. Snow-drifts were
little things, but changing his plan was an impossible thing. The
centre of his character, about which all else revolved, was a certain
axis of pride and self-esteem, which may be pardoned, perhaps, in view
of the fact that the world takes a man largely upon his own estimate of
personal worth.

In those days the atmosphere of Boston was charged with enthusiasm for
education and the humanities. Among young Sumner's friends were
Prescott, who was writing the history of Spain and Mexico; Bancroft, who
was outlining his history of the United States; Story, the jurist;
Horace Mann, the educator; Dr. Howe, the father of the movement for the
education of the deaf and dumb; Emerson, Longfellow, Channing and
Whittier--all were not simply friends but correspondents of Charles
Sumner.