in face, majestic in stature, fearless, gifted with various talents, an
orator, a natural leader of men. With all this, he was destitute of the
personal ambition which lifts the strong man into publicity, and gives
him commonplace success. If he had been only half as good as he was, he
might have been ten times as famous.

He was born at Salisbury, Conn., in 1779, the son of a farmer who had
several sons that became notable men. The father, too, illustrated some
of the best traits of human nature, being one of the men who make the
strength of a country without asking much from the country in return. He
used to say to his sons that the height of human felicity was "to be
able to converse with the wise, to instruct the ignorant, to pity and
despise the intriguing villain, and to assist the unfortunate." His son
Myron enjoyed this felicity all the days of his life.

After graduating at Williams, and studying law at New Haven, he set his
face toward western New York, then more remote from New England than
Oregon now is. He made an exquisite choice of a place of residence, the
village of Canandaigua, then only a hamlet of log huts along the border
of one of the lakes for which that part of the State is famous. The
first step taken by the young lawyer after his arrival fixed his
destiny. He was assigned by the court to defend a man charged with
murder--a capital chance for winning distinction in a frontier town.
Myron Holley, however, instead of confining himself to his brief and his
precedents, began by visiting the jail and interviewing the prisoner. He
became satisfied of his guilt. The next morning he came into court,
resigned the case, and never after made any attempt to practice his
profession.

He was, in fact, constitutionally disqualified for the practice of such
a calling. Having a little property, he bought out a bookseller of the
village, laid out a garden, married, was soon elected county clerk, and
spent the rest of his life in doing the kind of public service which
yields the maximum of good to the country with the minimum of gain to
the individual doing it.

The war of 1812 filled all that region with distress and want. It was he
who took the lead in organizing relief, and appealed to the city of New
York for aid with great success. As soon as the war was over, the old
scheme of connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson by a canal was revived.
It was an immense undertaking for that day, and a great majority of t