e, to his country. In the hour of need, the
representative of what was best and most fortunate in England was put to
the touch, and proved to be current gold. All men knew what that meant,
and Hampden's memory is one of the glories of the English-speaking
people.

Charles Lowell has the same meaning for us when rightly understood. He
had all that birth, breeding, education, and tradition could give. The
resources of our American life and civilization could produce nothing
better. How would he and such men as he stand the great ordeal when it
came? If wealth, education, and breeding were to result in a class
who could only carp and criticize, accumulate money, give way to
self-indulgence, and cherish low foreign ideals, then would it have
appeared that there was a radical unsoundness in our society, refinement
would have been proved to be weakness, and the highest education would
have been shown to be a curse, rather than a blessing. But Charles
Lowell, and hundreds of others like him, in greater or less degree, all
over the land, met the great test and emerged triumphant. The Harvard
men may be taken as fairly representing the colleges and universities of
America. Harvard had, in 1860, 4157 living graduates, and 823 students,
presumably over eighteen years old. Probably 3000 of her students and
graduates were of military age, and not physically disqualified for
military service. Of this number, 1230 entered the Union army or navy.
One hundred and fifty-six died in service, and 67 were killed in action.
Many did not go who might have gone, unquestionably, but the record is a
noble one. Nearly one man of every two Harvard men came forward to serve
his country when war was at our gates, and this proportion holds true,
no doubt, of the other universities of the North. It is well for the
country, well for learning, well for our civilization, that such a
record was made at such a time. Charles Lowell, and those like him,
showed, once for all, that the men to whom fortune had been kindest were
capable of the noblest patriotism, and shrank from no sacrifices. They
taught the lesson which can never be heard too often--that the man to
whom the accidents of birth and fortune have given most is the man who
owes most to his country. If patriotism should exist anywhere, it should
be strongest with such men as these, and their service should be ever
ready. How nobly Charles Lowell in this spirit answered the great
question, his life a