LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
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346 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. public speaker was deficient in those gifts which pro­duce instant impressions. Nor did personal contact with him reveal those masterful qualities to which, as indicative of a profound confidence in self, success is often ascribed. But while he seemed to remember self only to become conscious of his own deficiencies, he had an immovable faith in a Divine Worker, and this faith carried him through discouragements and disappointments which faith in self only cannot sur­vive. With the modest estimate of his own powers which gave his presence so rare a charm, was blended a trust in a higher Power working through him, and this trust was the source of his own courage and of the inspiration he imparted to others. He had a large heart, and in such an enterprise as that in which he was engaged, this quality o£ great-heartedness is more effective than those more negative ones of shrewdness and tact. Some of the attributes which go to make up the brilliancy of leadership, he did not possess, but those which make examples and inspire imitation, sin­gleness of purpose, loyalty to duty, self-abnegation, gentle conduct, and overflowing love, were his to a marked degree. It is difficult to analyze that per­sonality which lies behind a word or an act, insig­nificant in themselves, to li£t them out of the com­monplace. In his quiet personal intercourse with men, Mr. Neesima possessed this power of investing a common thing with an uncommon meaning, and by right of his absolute sincerity could do what a more prudent but less loving heart would shrink from. On one occasion, when a rebellious spirit calling for severe discipline was manifested among the stu­dents, he acquiesced in the infliction of the penalties voted by the Faculty, but, in the presence of the

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