Quiet and unassuming in manner he could be aggressive when he deemed it necessary, as he did in his controversy with Roosevelt when the latter dared to ridicule his ability as a judge. Prompt and unfailing in meeting appointments, unimportant though they might be, he demanded the same consideration from others, even refusing to wait for dinner guests who might be late. Both by nature and training he was conservative, but not reactionary; his mind was open as well as active. If his plea for castration and whipping as generally applicable methods of punishing criminals savors of the archaic ("Yale Law Journal", June 1899), he was capable also of starting nationwide comment, as on the radically new ideas embodied in his ""The Natural Right to a Natural Death"" ("Journal of Social Science", 1889).