ing embraced every branch of learning, law, history, politics, biography, science and belles-lettres. In The Open Court of Chicago there lately appeared from his pen the most discriminating criticism that the public has seen of the celebrated novel 'Trilby.' He, only a few months ago, gave to the world the very best exposition and explanation of the Monroe doctrine as it was understood by its authors, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, and as the illustrious George Canning, as prime minister of England, suggested and proposed it to our ambassador, Richard Rush.

“As a lawyer, we who practiced with him well knew and appreciated the subtlety and profundity of his intellect, its logical compactness and the learning which illustrated his discourses. As a man, a citizen and a neighbor, in public or private life, we have to admire, and imitate if we can, the unswerving, unwavering steadfastness of his career, 'Like unto a star-without haste, yet without rest.'

"Now, therefore, while we bow in sorrow to the will of an allwise Providence,

“Be it resolved by the members of the St. Clair county bar, That by the death of GUSTAVUS KOERNER this bar has lost one of its ablest members and most conspicuous ornaments; the public has been deprived of a statesman, patriotic and profound; literature of a conscientious critic and a competent contributor; the people of an unselfish and genial friend; society of a member, illustrious and honorable; the family of a parent, kind and indulgent.

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread on the records of the courts of this county, and that, on the order of the approval of these resolutions by the court, the court stand adjourned for this day.”

Mr. DILL, continuing, said:

The committee asks that the memorial and resolutions be accepted by your Honors, and that they be ordered spread upon the records of the court. In this connection the committee desires to say this tribute is the product of the pen of Gen. Nathaniel Niles, who had known the deceased intimately for nearly sixty years.

By the permission and indulgence of the court I desire to offer my humble tribute to the memory of the deceased.

"What constitutes a State?

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, .
Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No:-Men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued

In forest, brake or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain.
These constitute a State."

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. This is the observation of John Stuart Mill. It is also true that the men and the women who are born into the world gifted with the high commission of genius, have the divine right of shaping the destinies of the race.

I agree with the gnarled old Scot, Thomas Carlyle, that men of genius are the special gifts of Providence-given to guide our steps along the dimly-defined and difficult pathway of human progress. These men,-high-minded men,--constitute a State. Yea, more; they make it, they shape it, they control it.

Intuitively we kneel at the shrine of genius, whenever and wherever it is revealed, in any of its varied and manifold forms. Shall we call this hero-worship? Shall we call it man-worship? No. We are simply recognizing a fact-a truth plainly visible in the entire empire of nature. Inequality is the rule,-equality the exception. One mountain is loftier than another; one tree is larger than another; one animal is stronger than another; one river is broader, deeper and more majestic than another; one star different from another in magnitude and in glory. If we survey the whole domain of nature we find inequality existing everywhere. So of the moral, intellectual and physical gifts of men. Some are born wise and some foolish. In energy, in wisdom and understanding we are unequal. The charm of beauty, the monstrosity of ugliness, are both the donation of nature. The philosophers, sages, scholars, orators and poets whose names sparkle in the firmament of wisdom are all the unequal products of nature. The divine gift of genius is the bounty of the favored few. No university of learning, however great, can add anything to the intellectual or brainal force

of its pupils. The lapidary can polish the diamond and bring out its marvelous brilliance and beauty, but the diamond itself must be the product of the laboratory of nature. Base metal may be polished, but it is beyond the skill of the artisan to convert it into pure gold.

We are all creatures of limitation. Each has a horizon beyond which he cannot pass, a boundary which he may not overleap. A measure the capacity of which is one pint will not contain a quart. All a man can hope to accomplish is to fill the measure of his limitation. Shall we murmur and say that this is the hard cast-iron of predestination? No. A thinker is not responsible for the conclusions forced upon him by the unanswerable logic of facts.

We are assembled for the purpose of offering our tributes of respect to the memory of Governor KOERNER,-a man of whom we take pride in saying that he was eminent as a lawyer, statesman, jurist, scholar, linguist and writer. This eminence we gladly accord to him. How can we account for his many gifts and his great superiority? It is true that his scholastic training was thorough and complete. All that the schools could give was given to him. He was graduated with the highest honors of his class from Heidelberg, one of the greatest seats of learning in Europe. But all that can be said of him in this respect can be said of thousands of other young men, many of whom in after life accomplished very little. Can it be accounted for on the score of environment and fortuitous circumstances? Surely not, because this arena was equally open to many others. Great men are not the product of circumstances. The most illustrious men are frequently born in humble station. This observation had passed into a proverb among the Romans more than twenty centuries ago. The anointed leaders of men,the favored, gifted few,- are without ancestors. They are christened and baptised at the fountain of Genius.

As members of the legal profession it is proper that we should speak of Governor KOERNER as a lawyer and a judge. He came to the bar of Illinois sixty years ago. He won distinction at the bar among men who achieved imperishable fame in the service of the State and the Nation. Lincoln, Douglas, Trumbull, Shields, Breese, Palmer, Adam W. Snyder, and many others, were his associates. For several years he was one of the justices of this court, and with a master's hand he helped to build the magnificent structure of our jurisprudence.

In 1885, in the Illinois House of Representatives, on the occasion of the death of the Honorable Pinckney H. Walker, one of the judges of this court, I said:

"Few persons outside of the legal profession have any adequate conception of the labors imposed upon a minister of justice. So vast, so varied, so complex are the affairs of a civilized community, that he who sits as a final arbiter of the law must necessarily assume responsibilities of the gravest character. Uprightness of character, purity of motive, breadth and depth of culture, a complete comprehension of underlying principles, and, with all, a patient, painstaking industry and a thorough mastery of details, are essential requisites and qualities which must be possessed by the judge of a court of last resort. The sources of the law are numerous,— civil, common, ecclesiastical and statutory,-forming, when properly understood, a harmonious whole. Legislators, composed mainly of raw recruits from the people, who have devoted comparatively little time to the study of State-craft, find it an easy matter to make and unmake the law. Abstract theories and propositions are easily stated. It is much easier to prescribe than to take; easier to cut out than to fit; easier to hew the timber than to frame it together. The temple of justice is a structure of manifold proportions and apartments, but of exquisite beauty and symmetry,the growth and production of ages,-built upon the solid masonry of wisdom and experience. New material cannot be put as mere patch-work into this edifice It must be labored into proper shape, so as not to mar the beauty of the structure. This labor must be performed by courts of last resort. It is, indeed, a herculean task. He who devotes his life to this great labor, and does his work with the skill and ability of a master, has won his claim to the gratitude of men. Other callings may present greater attractions and open broader avenues to fame. The leaders of armies, the possessors of the divine gift of eloquence, politicians and men of genius in literature may attract a larger share of popular applause; but certainly none do more for the real cause of humanity than the hard-working, pure-minded judge.”

These remarks apply as well to Judge KOERNER as to Judge Walker.

But it was in his capacity as lawyer that we knew Governor KOERNER best. As a member of this great and learned profession

he stood deservedly at its head. His knowledge compassed the science of the law in its uttermost heights and depths. He knew all that was knowable. In his intercourse with his associates his manner, bearing and discourse always bespoke the true and perfect gentleman. He was, indeed, justly styled the Chesterfield of the Belleville bar. In this regard he has bequeathed to us a priceless example. We can only hope to imitate, not to excel, it.

But his real greatness lies above and beyond the domain of the law, considered as a technical science. He was a lawyer and much more. He ascended to and made his habitation in the higher regions of thought and of action. During the four-score and six years of his life he was a student always, even unto the very day of his death. Labor omnia vincit. He accepted this hoary maxim as the rule of his life. He knew that labor could conquer all things within the range of possibility. In this sign the mental hero must conquer. Faith without works is vain. Genius without labor is a mockery. The unwrought diamond is a dull, gray, lustreless stone.

He was familiar with the literature of Europe and America. He was a master of at least four great languages,-the Latin, the German, the French and the English,-and, like Gladstone, one of his favorite pastimes was the reading of the Iliad in the language of Homer. He could repeat from memory, in the Greek language, perhaps more than half of this great poem, and while at Madrid held consultations with the Spanish minister of justice in the Latin language, for the reason that the Spanish minister could speak neither French, German nor English, and our minister could not speak Spanish or Italian. He was more than a student of languages. On the contrary, he used them as a skilled mechanic uses his implements. They were to him a means, not an end. He was not only familiar with the thoughts and inspirations of Europe and America, but he was, to a perceptible extent, an inspirer, a creator and a framer of them. The productions of his laborious pen were read and studied both in Europe and America.

It is true he achieved distinction as a place holder, as a legislator, a judge, a Lieutenant-Governor of his State, and as a minister and representative of his nation at the Spanish court he won a deserved distinction; but his true fame and the real castle of his distinction are built upon higher grounds. He was a soldier,—yea, more; a commander,-in the great army of thought. He was a torch-bearer and a leader in the pathway of knowledge. In hon