JOSEPH HENRY LUMPKIN consistent outcome of his mental and moral characteristics. By nature he was a re former, and he had all the zeal and daring of his convictions. He saw evil and abuses with the clear eye of inspiration, and was for sweeping them away with the besom of destruction. No man had more veneration, but he would not squander it on antiquated trifles. He could not venerate the trivial merely because it was hoary with age; on the contrary, his contempt for it was the greater because it had presumed to exist so long. He was indignant that anything which was unworthy to be law should hesi tate to give up the ghost. From Judge Lumpkin we have, I should say in a rough estimate, about two thousand published opinions. Many of them are worthy of his fame; they are clear, strong, forcible and full of legal meat. But quite a
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large proportion were hastily and carelessly written, and afford no just ideal of his wonderful gifts. Even the best are inferior to the oral opinions which he delivered from the bench, in everything but the citation and discussion of authorities. His literary power was in vocal utterance. In the spoken word he was a literary genius far surpassing any other Georgian, living or dead, I have ever known. Indeed, from no other mortal lips have I heard such harmonious and sweet sounding sentences as came from his. Those who never saw and heard him cannot be made to realize what a great master he was. He so blended gentleness with justice, that since he has joined the immortals, he may be idealized as our Judicial Bishop enthroned in Georgia skies. Atlanta, Ga., February, 1892.
