Background
Francis Miles Finch was born in Ithaca, New York, of New England stock, the son of Miles Finch, a merchant, and his wife, Tryphena Farling.
(Originally published in 1909. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1909. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
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Francis Miles Finch was born in Ithaca, New York, of New England stock, the son of Miles Finch, a merchant, and his wife, Tryphena Farling.
He was educated at Ithaca Academy and at Yale College (A. B. , 1849), where he clearly showed literary proclivities, as editor of the Yale Literary Magazine, winner of a prize for English composition, and class poet.
Both before and after graduation he wrote many college songs which are still sung.
Returning to Ithaca he read law, was admitted to the bar, and gained repute as a practising lawyer. During Grant’s first administration he served as a district collector of internal revenue. Fie took up the central work of his life in 1880, being twice appointed to fill vacancies and then elected for the full term of fourteen years as associate judge of the New York court of appeals. Sitting regularly until December 31, 1895, he wrote more than 750 opinions, widely known for their knowledge of the law, clear and cogent reasoning, and unusual refinement and grace of style.
Most of his poems were written and printed occasionally; at the end of his life he made a collection, published posthumously as The Blue and the Gray and Othor Verses (1909), containing a preface in which he refers to his verses as “only incidents along the line of a busy and laborious life. ”
He perhaps accounts for both his small output of verse and its sincerity in his reply on being offered at the opening of Cornell University a professorship of rhetoric and literature: “My whole life as a lawyer has been a battle against literary longings. I have kept the most earnest part of my nature in chains. I fear I have done it so long as to make full liberty dangerous to me.
Notable among his addresses are: The Life and Services of Ezra Cornell (1887) and Chief Justice John Marshall, Marshall Day Address (1901).
(Originally published in 1909. This volume from the Cornel...)
He perhaps accounts for both his small output of verse and its sincerity in his reply on being offered at the opening of Cornell University a professorship of rhetoric and literature: “My whole life as a lawyer has been a battle against literary longings.
He was authoritative and entertaining, whether he wrote on humorous, musical, or seriously philosophical topics, and he was an equally interesting lecturer.
In his appearance kindliness shone through a look of judicial austerity, and the many tributes paid him at the celebration of his seventy-fifth biithday emphasized not merely his eminence as a judge but his personal charm and genius for friendship. He was perhaps happiest in his large library and in his garden overlooking Cayuga Lake. “So strong was his love of home life that nothing could induce him to visit other lands, or even to travel far in his own” (A. D. White’ as cited).
His skill on the ’cello furnished opportunity for playing with Paine, also for practising in the secret hours of the night on the piano in the basement of University Hall.
At the close of the festival, he wintered in Munich, hearing much music and eking out an existence by tutoring.
During the last two years of his life he wrote his memoirs under the title of My Adventures in the Golden Age of Music, the final revision of which was completed almost on the eve of his death.
On May 25, 1853, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert May Brooke of Philadelphia.