Nor did his comrades fail to remember that when he was unjustly
blamed he chose to bear the imputation silently rather than expose
those who were really at fault. And so, even in that lighthearted
battalion, his sterling worth compelled respect. All honoured his
efforts and wished him God-speed. "While there were many," says
Colonel Turnley, "who seemed to surpass him in intellect, in
geniality, and in good-fellowship, there was no one of our class who
more absolutely possessed the respect and confidence of all; and in
the end Old Jack, as he was always called, with his desperate
earnestness, his unflinching straightforwardness, and his high sense
of honour, came to be regarded by his comrades with something very
like affection."

One peculiarity cannot be passed by.

When at study he always sat bolt upright at his table with his book
open before him, and when he was not using pencil and paper to solve
a problem, he would often keep his eyes fixed on the wall or ceiling
in the most profound abstraction. "No one I have ever known," says a
cadet who shared his barrack-room, "could so perfectly withdraw his
mind from surrounding objects or influences, and so thoroughly
involve his whole being in the subject under consideration. His
lessons were uppermost in his mind, and to thoroughly understand them
was always his determined effort. To make the author's knowledge his
own was ever the point at which he aimed. This intense application of
mind was naturally strengthened by constant exercise, and month by
month, and year by year, his faculties of perception developed
rapidly, until he grasped with unerring quickness the inceptive
points of all ethical and mathematical problems."