LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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COLLEGE A SSOCI.41'IONS. 73 'residual discharge.' The 4th of July, 1869, had been characterized by an unu~ual degree of patriotic hilarity in our quiet college town. On the morning of the 5th, as Neesima and I were repairing to break­fast, we encountered a small boy who rushed out and exploded a fire-cracker. Turning to me with a smile, Neesima said: 'I suppose, Holland, that is the resid­ual discharge.' As long as I shall live I shall deem it one of the great privileges of the last year I spent in college that I was permitted to be associated with thi-s man, and one of the greatest honors of my life that I was enabled in some degree to help him for­ward in his education and partially fit him for the great work which he accomplished." Another class­mate writes : "He was always at the class prayer­meetings and frequently took part. His English was broken then and his vocabulary small, but his heart was big and full of love. Through every word and act transparent shone the mm, winning the respect of all. It ia this characteristic which has fitted him to 'stand before kings. ' He was not one of those good Sunday-school book boys, but bright, keen, and full of fun; and it was always the great amusement of the class to listen to his shrewd answers to the pro­fessors when we knew that these answers came from his 'inner consciousness' rather than from the book. No one ever saw anything mean in him: there was nothing dishonorable in his make-up. He was mod­est, patient, brave, and the highest reach of his am­bition was to lose himself in the consecration of his life and thought to his Master." I quote from one more witness to his college life: "N eesima possessed that element of true worth which meets 'vith recog­nition, not because it is consciously revealed, but

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