to his college standing.  Rapid acquisition, quick assimilation of ideas, an iron memory, and a wonderful power of stating and displaying all he knew characterized him then as in later life.  The extent of his knowledge and the range of his mind, not the depth or soundness of his scholarship, were the traits which his companions remembered.  One of them says that they often felt that he had a more extended understanding than the tutors to whom he recited, and this was probably true.  The Faculty of the college recognized in Webster the most remarkable man who had ever come among them, but they could not find good grounds to award him the prizes, which, by his standing among his fellows, ought by every rule to have been at his feet.  He had all the promise of a great man, but he was not a fine scholar.

He was studious, punctual, and regular in all his habits.  He was so dignified that his friends would as soon have thought of seeing President Wheelock indulge in boyish disorders as of seeing him.  But with all his dignity and seriousness of talk and manner, he was a thoroughly genial companion, full of humor and fun and agreeable conversation.  He had few intimates, but many friends.  He was generally liked as well as universally admired, was a leader in the college societies, active and successful in sports, simple, hearty, unaffected, without a touch of priggishness and with a wealth of wholesome animal spirits.

But in these college days, besides the vague feeling of students and professors that they had among them a very remarkable man, there is a clear indication that the qualities which afterwards raised him to fame and power were already apparent, and affected the little world about him.  All his contemporaries of that time speak of his eloquence.  The gift of speech, the unequalled power of statement, which were born in him, just like the musical tones of his voice, could not be repressed.  There was no recurrence of the diffidence of Exeter.  His native genius led him irresistibly along the inevitable path.  He loved to speak, to hold the attention of a listening audience.  He practised off-hand speaking, but he more commonly prepared himself by meditating on his subject and making notes, which, however, he never used.  He would enter the class-room or debating society and begin in a low voice and almost sleepy manner, and would then gradually rouse himself like a lion, and pour forth his words until he had his hearers completely under his control, and glowing with enthusiasm.

We see too, at this time, the first evidence of that other great gift of bountiful nature in his commanding presence.  He was then tall and thin, with high cheek bones and dark skin, but he was still impressive.  The boys about him never forgot the look of his deep-set eyes, or the sound of the solemn tones of his voice, his dignity of mien, and his absorption in his subject.  Above all they were conscious of something indefinable which conveyed a sense of greatness.  It is not usual to dwell so much upon mere physical attributes and appearance, but we must recur to them again and again, for Mr. Webster’s personal presence was one of the great elements of his success; it was the fit companion and even a part of his genius, and was the cause of his influence, and of the wonder and admiration which followed him, as much almost as anything he ever said or did.