"_Resolved_, That the members of this bar have heard with profound
emotion of the decease of the Honorable Jeremiah Mason, one of the
most eminent and distinguished of the great men who have ever
adorned this profession; and, as well in discharge of a public
duty, as in obedience to the dictates of our private feelings, we
think it proper to mark this occasion by some attempt to record our
estimate of his pre-eminent abilities and high character.
"_Resolved_, That the public character and services of Mr. Mason
demand prominent commemoration; that, throughout his long life,
whether as a private person or in public place, he maintained a
wide and various intercourse with public men, and cherished a
constant and deep interest in public affairs, and by his vast
practical wisdom and sagacity, the fruit of extraordinary
intellectual endowments, matured thought, and profound observation,
and by the soundness of his opinions and the comprehensiveness and
elevated tone of his politics, he exerted at all times a great and
most salutary influence upon the sentiments and policy of the
community and the country; and that, as a Senator in the Congress
of the United States during a period of many years, and in a crisis
of affairs which demanded the wisdom of the wisest and the civil
virtues of the best, he was distinguished among the most eminent
men of his country for ability in debate, for attention to all the
duties of his great trust, for moderation, for prudence, for
fidelity to the obligations of that party connection to which he
was attached, for fidelity still more conspicuous and still more
admirable to the higher obligations of a thoughtful and enlarged
patriotism.
"_Resolved_, That it was the privilege of Mr. Mason to come to the
bar when the jurisprudence of New England was yet in its infancy;
that he brought to its cultivation great general ability, and a
practical sagacity, logical power, and patient
research,--constituting altogether a legal genius, rarely if ever
surpassed; that it was greatly through his influence that the
growing wants of a prosperous State were met and satisfied by a
system of common law at once flexible and certain, deduced by the
highest human wisdom from the actual wants of the community,
logically correct, and practically useful; that in the fact that
the State of New Hampshire now possesses such a system of law,
whose gladsome light has shone on other States, are seen both the
product and the monument of his labors, less conspicuous, but not
less real, than if embodied in codes and institutes bearing his
name; yet that, bred as he was to the common law, his great powers,
opened and liberalized by its study and practice, enabled him to
grasp readily, and wield with entire ease, those systems of equity,
applicable to the transactions of the land or the sea, which, in
recent times, have so much meliorated and improved the
administration of justice in our country.
"_Resolved_, That as respects his practice as a counsellor and
advocate at this bar, we would record our sense of his integrity,
prudence, fidelity, depth of learning, knowledge of men and
affairs, and great powers of persuading kindred minds; and we know
well, that, when _he_ died, there was extinguished one of the few
great lights of the old common law.
"_Resolved_, That Mr. Webster be requested to present these
resolutions to the Supreme Judicial Court, at its next term, in
Boston; and the District Attorney of the United States be requested
to present them to the Circuit Court of the United States now in
session.
"_Resolved_, That the Secretary communicate to the family of Mr.
Mason a copy of these resolutions, together with the respectful
sympathy of the bar."
The proprieties of this occasion (continued Mr. Webster) compel me, with
whatever reluctance, to refrain from the indulgence of the personal
feelings which arise in my heart, upon the death of one with whom I have
cultivated a sincere, affectionate, and unbroken friendship, from the
day when I commenced my own professional career, to the closing hour of
his life. I will not say, of the advantages which I have derived from
his intercourse and conversation, all that Mr. Fox said of Edmund Burke;
but I am bound to say, that of my own professional discipline and
attainments, whatever they may be, I owe much to that close attention to
the discharge of my duties which I was compelled to pay, for nine
successive years, from day to day, by Mr. Mason's efforts and arguments
at the same bar. _Fas est ab hoste doceri_; and I must have been
unintelligent, indeed, not to have learned something from the constant
displays of that power which I had so much occasion to see and to feel.
It is the more appropriate duty of the present moment to give some short
notice of his life, character, and the qualities of his mind and heart,
so that he may be presented as an example to those who are entering upon
or pursuing the same career. Four or five years ago, Mr. Mason drew up a
biography of himself, from the earliest period of his recollection to
the time of his removal to Portsmouth, in 1797; which is interesting,
not only for the information it gives of the mode in which the habits of
his life were formed, but also for the manner of its composition.
He was born on the 27th day of April, 1768, at Lebanon in Connecticut.
His remotest ancestor in this country was Captain John Mason (an officer
who had served with distinction in the Netherlands, under Sir Thomas
Fairfax), who came from England in 1630, and settled at Dorchester in
the Colony of Massachusetts. His great-grandfather lived at Haddam. His
grandfather, born in 1705, lived at Norwich, and died in the year 1779.
Mr. Mason remembered him, and recollected his character, as that of a
respectable and deeply religious man. His ancestor on the maternal side
was James Fitch, a learned divine, who came from England and settled in
Saybrook, but removed to Lebanon, where he died. A Latin epitaph, in the
ancient burying-ground of that town, records his merits. One of his
descendants held a large tract of land in the parish of Goshen, in the
town of Lebanon, by grant from the Indians; one half of which, near a
century afterwards, was bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth Fitch, the
mother of Mr. Mason. To this property Mr. Mason's father removed soon
after his marriage, and there he died, in 1813. The title of this land
was obtained from Uncas, an Indian sachem in that neighborhood, by the
great-grandfather of Mr. Mason's mother, and has never been alienated
from the family. It is now owned by Mr. Mason's nephew, Jeremiah Mason,
the son of his eldest brother James. The family has been distinguished
for longevity; the average ages of Mr. Mason's six immediate ancestors
having exceeded eighty-three years each. Mr. Mason was the sixth of nine
children, all of whom are now dead.
Mr. Mason's father was a man of intelligence and activity, of
considerable opulence, and highly esteemed by the community. At the
commencement of the Revolutionary war, being a zealous Whig, he raised
and commanded a company of minute-men, as they were called, and marched
to the siege of Boston. Here he rendered important service, being
stationed at Dorchester Heights, and engaged in fortifying that
position. In the autumn of that year, he was promoted to a colonelcy,
and joined the army with his regiment, in the neighborhood of New York.
At the end of the campaign, he returned home out of health, but retained
the command of his regiment, which he rallied and brought out with
celerity and spirit when General Arnold assaulted and burned New London.
He became attached to military life, and regretted that he had not at an
early day entered the Continental service. Colonel Mason was a good man,
affectionate to his family, kind and obliging to his neighbors, and
faithful in the observance of all moral and religious duties.
Mr. Mason's mother was distinguished for a good understanding, much
discretion, the purity of her heart and affections, and the exemplary
kindness and benevolence of her life. It was her great anxiety to give
all her children the best education, within the means of the family,
which the state of the country would allow; and she was particularly
desirous that Jeremiah should be sent to college. "In my recollection of
my mother," says Mr. Mason, "she was the personification of love,
kindness, and benevolence."
Destined for an education and for professional life, Mr. Mason was sent
to Yale College, at sixteen years of age; his preparatory studies having
been pursued under "Master Tisdale," who had then been forty years at
the head of a school in Lebanon, which had become distinguished, and
among the scholars of which were the Wheelocks, afterwards Presidents of
Dartmouth College. He was graduated in 1784, and performed a part in the
Commencement exercises, which greatly raised the expectation of his
friends, and gratified and animated his love for distinction. "In the
course of a long and active life," says he, "I recollect no occasion
when I have experienced such elevation of feeling." This was the effect
of that spirit of emulation which incited the whole course of his life
of usefulness. There is now prevalent among us a morbid and sickly
notion, that emulation, even as honorable rivalry, is a debasing
passion, and not to be encouraged. It supposes that the mind should be
left without such excitement, in a dreamy and undisturbed state, flowing
or not flowing, according to its own impulse, without such aids as are
furnished by the rivalry of one with another. For one, I do not believe
in this. I hold to the doctrine of the old school, as to this part of
education. Quinctilian says: "Sunt quidam, nisi institeris, remissi;
quidam imperio indignantur: quosdam continet metus, quosdam debilitat:
alios continuatio extundit, in aliis plus impetus facit. Mihi ille detur
puer, quem laus excitet, quem gloria juvet, qui victus fleat; hic erit
alendus ambitu, hunc mordebit objurgatio, hunc honor excitabit; in hoc
desidiam nunquam verebor." I think this is sound sense and just feeling.
Mr. Mason was destined for the law, and commenced the study of that
profession with Mr. Baldwin, a gentleman who has lived to perform
important public and private duties, has served his country in Congress,
and on the bench of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and still lives to
hear the account of the peaceful death of his distinguished pupil. After
a year, he went to Vermont, in whose recently established tribunals he
expected to find a new sphere for the gratification of ambition, and the
employment of talents. He studied in the office of Stephen Rowe Bradley,
afterwards a Senator in Congress; and was admitted to the bar, in
Vermont and New Hampshire, in the year 1791.
He began his career in Westmoreland, a few miles below Walpole, at the
age of twenty-three; but in 1794, three years afterwards, removed to
Walpole, as being a larger village, where there was more society and
more business. There was at that time on the Connecticut River a rather
unusual number of gentlemen, distinguished for polite accomplishments
and correct tastes in literature, and among them some well known to the
public as respectable writers and authors. Among these were Mr. Benjamin
West, Mr. Dennie, Mr. Royall Tyler, Mr. Jacobs, Mr. Samuel Hunt, Mr.
J.W. Blake, Mr. Colman (who established, and for a long time edited, the
"New York Evening Post"), and Mr. Olcott. In the association with these
gentlemen, and those like them, Mr. Mason found an agreeable position,
and cultivated tastes and habits of the highest character.
About this period, he made a journey to Virginia, on some business
connected with land titles, where he had much intercourse with
Major-General Henry Lee; and, on his return, he saw President
Washington, at Philadelphia, and was greatly struck by the urbanity and
dignity of his manner. He heard Fisher Ames make his celebrated speech
upon the British treaty. All that the world has said with regard to the
extraordinary effect produced by that speech, and its wonderful
excellence, is fully confirmed by the opinion of Mr. Mason. He speaks of
it as one of the highest exhibitions of popular oratory that he had ever
witnessed; popular, not in any low sense, but popular as being addressed
to a popular body, and high in all the qualities of sound reasoning and
enlightened eloquence.
Mr. Mason was inclined to exercise his abilities in a larger sphere. He
had at this time made the acquaintance of Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton. The former advised Mr. Mason to remove himself to New York.
His own preference was for Boston; but he thought, that, filled as it
then was by distinguished professional ability, it was too crowded to
allow him a place. That was a mistake. On the contrary, the bar of this
city, with the utmost liberality and generosity of feeling and
sentiment, have always been ready to receive, with open arms, every
honorable acquisition to the dignity and usefulness of the profession,
from other States. Mr. Mason, however, removed to Portsmouth in the
autumn of 1797; and, as was to be expected, his practice soon became
extensive. He was appointed Attorney-General in 1802. About that time,
the late learned and lamented Chief Justice Smith retired from his
professional duties, to take his place as a judge; and Mr. Mason became
the acknowledged head of his profession. He resigned the office of
Attorney-General, three or four years afterwards, to the great regret of
the court, the bar, and the country. As a prosecuting officer, he was
courteous, inflexible, and just; careful that the guilty should not
escape, and that the honest should be protected. He was impartial,
almost judicial, in the administration of his great office. He had no
morbid eagerness for conviction; and never permitted, as sometimes
occurs, an unworthy wrangling between the official power prosecuting,
and the zeal of the other party defending. His official course produced
exactly the ends it was designed to do. The honest felt safe; but there
was a trembling and fear in the evil disposed, that the transgressed
law would be vindicated.
Very much confined to his profession, he never sought office or
political elevation. Yet he held decided opinions upon all political
questions, and cultivated acquaintance with all the leading subjects of
the day; and no man was more keenly alive than he to whatever occurred,
at home or abroad, involving the great interests of the civilized world.
His political principles, opinions, judgments, were framed upon those of
the men of the times of Washington. From these, to the last, he never
swerved. The copy was well executed. His conversation on subjects of
state was as instructive and interesting as upon professional topics. He
had the same reach of thought, and exhibited the same comprehensive
mind, and sagacity quick and far seeing, with regard to political things
and men, as he did in professional affairs. His influence was,
therefore, hardly the less from the fact that he was not actively
engaged in political life. There was an additional weight given to his
judgment, arising from his being a disinterested beholder only. The
looker-on can sometimes form a more independent and impartial opinion of
the course and results of the contest, than those who are actually
engaged in it.
But at length, in June, 1813, he was persuaded to accept the post of a
Senator of the United States, and took his seat that month. He was in
Congress during the sessions of 1813 and 1814. Those were very exciting
times; party spirit ran very high, and each party put forward its most
prominent and gifted men. Both houses were filled by the greatest
intellects of the country. Mr. Mason found himself by the side of Rufus
King, Giles, Goldsborough, Gore, Barbour, Daggett, Hunter, and other
distinguished public men. Among men of whatever party, and however much
some of them differed from him in opinion or political principle, there
was not one of them all but felt pleasure if he spoke, and respected his
uncommon ability and probity, and his fair and upright demeanor in his
place and station. He took at once his appropriate position. Of his
associates and admirers in the other house, there are some eminent
persons now living who were occasional listeners to his speeches and
much struck with his ability; together with Pickering, Benson, Pitkin,
Stockton, Lowndes, Gaston, and Hopkinson, now all deceased, who used to
flock to hear him, and always derived deep gratification and instruction
from his talents, character, and power.
He resigned his seat in the Senate in 1817. His published speeches are
not numerous. The reports of that day were far less complete than now,
and comparatively few debates were preserved and revised. It was a
remarkable truth, that he always thought far too lightly of himself and
all his productions. I know that he was with difficulty persuaded to
prepare his speeches in Congress for publication; and in this memorial
of himself which I have before me he says, with every appearance and
feeling of sincerity, that he "has never acted any important part in
life, but has felt a deep interest in the conduct of others."
His two main speeches were, first, one of great vigor, in the Senate, in
February, 1814, on the Embargo, just before that policy was abandoned.
The other was later, in December, 1815, shortly before the peace, on Mr.
Giles's Conscription Bill, in which he discussed the subject of the
enlistment of minors; and the clause authorizing such enlistment was
struck out upon his motion.
He was afterwards for several years a member of the New Hampshire
Legislature, and assisted in revising the code of that State. He paid
much attention to the subject of the judicature, and performed his
services fully to the satisfaction of the State; and the result of his
labors was warmly commended. In 1824 he was again a candidate for the
Senate of the United States. The election was to be made by the
concurrent vote of the two branches of the Legislature. In the popular
branch he was chosen by a strong vote. The Senate, however,
non-concurred; by which means the election was lost,--a loss to the
country, not to him,--by force of circumstances and agencies not now or
ever fit to be recalled or remembered.
He continued to reside for many years in Portsmouth. His residence in
that ancient town was a happy one. He was happy in his family and in the
society of the town, surrounded by agreeable neighbors, respected by the
bar and the court, and standing at the head of his profession. He had a
great love of conversation. He took pleasure in hearing others talk, and
gave an additional charm by the freshness, agreeableness, and
originality of his own observations. His warm hospitality left him never
alone, and his usefulness was felt as much within the walls of the
homes, as of the tribunals, of Portsmouth. There are yet many in that
town who love him and his; many who witnessed, as children, and
recollect, the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by their fathers and
mothers; and all in New Hampshire old enough to remember him will feel
what we feel here on this occasion.
Led at last partly by the desire of exerting his abilities in a larger
sphere of usefulness, and partly by the fact of the residence here of
beloved domestic connections, he came to this city, and entered upon the
performance of his professional duties in 1832. Of the manner in which
he discharged those duties, this court is the most competent judge. You,
Mr. Chief Justice, and the venerable associate who usually occupies a
place at your right,[2] have been witnesses of the whole. You know the
fidelity with which he observed his duty to the court, as well as his
duty to his clients. In learning, assiduity, respect for the bench,
uprightness, and integrity, he stood as an example to the bar. You know
the general probity and talent with which he performed, for so many
years, the duty of a counsellor of this court.
I should hardly trust myself to make any analysis of Mr. Mason's mind. I
may be a partial judge. But I may speak of what I myself admire and
venerate. The characteristics of Mr. Mason's mind, as I think, were real
greatness, strength, and sagacity. He was great through strong sense and
sound judgment, great by comprehensive views of things, great by high
and elevated purposes. Perhaps sometimes he was too cautious and
refined, and his distinctions became too minute; but his discrimination
arose from a force of intellect, and quick-seeing, far-reaching
sagacity, everywhere discerning his object and pursuing it steadily.
Whether it was popular or professional, he grasped a point and held it
with a strong hand. He was sarcastic sometimes, but not frequently; not
frothy or petulant, but cool and vitriolic. Unfortunate for him on whom
his sarcasm fell!
His conversation was as remarkable as his efforts at the bar. It was
original, fresh, and suggestive; never dull or indifferent. He never
talked when he had nothing to say. He was particularly agreeable,
edifying, and instructive to all about him; and this was the charm of
the social intercourse in which he was connected.
As a professional man, Mr. Mason's great ability lay in the department
of the common law. In this part of jurisprudence he was profoundly
learned. He had drunk copiously from its deepest springs; and he had
studied with diligence and success the departures from the English
common law which had taken place in this country, either necessarily,
from difference of condition, or positively, by force of our own
statutes. In his addresses, both to courts and juries, he affected to
despise all eloquence, and certainly disdained all ornament; but his
efforts, whether addressed to one tribunal or the other, were marked by
a degree of clearness, directness, and force not easy to be equalled.
There were no courts of equity, as a separate and distinct jurisdiction,
in New Hampshire, during his residence in that State. Yet the equity
treatises and equity reports were all in his library, not "wisely ranged
for show," but for constant and daily consultation; because he saw that
the common law itself was growing every day more and more liberal, that
equity principles were constantly forcing themselves into its
administration and within its rules; that the subjects of litigation in
the courts were constantly becoming, more and more, such as escaped from
the technicalities and the trammels of the common law, and offered
themselves for discussion and decision on the broader principles of
general jurisprudence. Mr. Mason, like other accomplished lawyers, and
more than most, admired the searching scrutiny and the high morality of
a court of equity; and felt the instruction and edification resulting
from the perusal of the judgments of Lord Hardwicke, Lord Eldon, and Sir
William Grant, as well as of those of great names in our own country,
not now among the living.
Among his early associates in New Hampshire, there were many
distinguished men. Of those now dead were Mr. West, Mr. Gordon, Edward
St. Loe Livermore, Peleg Sprague, William K. Atkinson, George Sullivan,
Thomas W. Thompson, and Amos Kent; the last of these having been always
a particular personal friend. All of these gentlemen in their day held
high and respectable stations, and were eminent as lawyers of probity
and character.
Another contemporary and friend of Mr. Mason was Mr. Timothy Bigelow, a
lawyer of reputation, a man of probity and honor, attractive by his
conversation, and highly agreeable in his social intercourse. Mr.
Bigelow, we all know, was of this State, in which he filled high offices
with great credit; but, as a counsellor and advocate, he was constant in
his attendance on the New Hampshire courts. Having known Mr. Bigelow
from my early youth, I have pleasure in recalling the mutual regard and
friendship which I know to have subsisted between him and the subject of
these remarks. I ought not to omit Mr. Wilson and Mr. Betton, in
mentioning Mr. Mason's contemporaries at the bar. They were near his own
age, and both well known as lawyers and public men.
Mr. Mason, while yet in New Hampshire, found himself engaged in causes
in which that illustrious man, Samuel Dexter, also appeared. The late
Mr. Justice Story was still more frequently at the bar of that State;
and, at a period somewhat earlier, your great and distinguished
predecessor, Chief Justice Parsons, occasionally presented himself
before the courts at Portsmouth or Exeter, and he is known to have
entertained a very high regard, personal and professional, as well for
Mr. Mason as for the late Chief Justice Smith.
Among those still living, with whom Mr. Mason was on terms of intimacy,
and with whom he associated at the bar, were Messrs. Plumer, Arthur
Livermore, Samuel Bell, and Charles H. Atherton. If these respected men
could be here to-day, every one of them would unite with us in our
tribute of love and veneration to his memory.
But, Sir, political eminence and professional fame fade away and die
with all things earthly. Nothing of character is really permanent but
virtue and personal worth. These remain. Whatever of excellence is
wrought into the soul itself belongs to both worlds. Real goodness does
not attach itself merely to this life; it points to another world.
Political or professional reputation cannot last for ever; but a
conscience void of offence before God and man is an inheritance for
eternity. _Religion_, therefore, is a necessary and indispensable
element in any great human character. There is no living without it.
Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to
his throne. If that tie be all sundered, all broken, he floats away, a
worthless atom in the universe; its proper attractions all gone, its
destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation,
and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the
Scriptures describe, in such terse but terrific language, as living
"without God in the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, out
of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness,
and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.
A mind like Mr. Mason's, active, thoughtful, penetrating, sedate, could
not but meditate deeply on the condition of man below, and feel its
responsibilities. He could not look on this mighty system,
"This universal frame, thus wondrous fair,"
without feeling that it was created and upheld by an Intelligence, to
which all other intelligences must be responsible. I am bound to say,
that in the course of my life I never met with an individual, in any
profession or condition of life, who always spoke, and always thought,
with such awful reverence of the power and presence of God. No
irreverence, no lightness, even no too familiar allusion to God and his
attributes, ever escaped his lips. The very notion of a Supreme Being
was, with him, made up of awe and solemnity. It filled the whole of his
great mind with the strongest emotions. A man like him, with all his
proper sentiments and sensibilities alive in him, must, in this state of
existence, have something to believe and something to hope for; or else,
as life is advancing to its close and parting, all is heart-sinking and
oppression. Depend upon it, whatever may be the mind of an old man, old
age is only really happy, when, on feeling the enjoyments of this world
pass away, it begins to lay a stronger hold on those of another.
Mr. Mason's religious sentiments and feelings were the crowning glories
of his character. One, with the strongest motives to love and venerate
him, and the best means of knowledge, says:--
"So far as my memory extends, he always showed a deep conviction of
the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, of the institutions of
Christianity, and of the importance of personal religion. Soon
after his residence in Boston, he entered the communion of the
Church, and has continued since regularly to receive the Lord's
Supper. From that time, he also habitually maintained domestic
worship, morning and evening. The death of two of his sons produced
a deep impression upon his mind, and directed it in an increased
degree to religious subjects.
"Though he was always reserved in the expression of religious
feeling, still it has been very apparent, for several years, that
his thoughts dwelt much upon his practical religious duties, and
especially upon preparation for another world. Within three or four
years, he frequently led the conversation to such subjects; and
during the year past, immediate preparation for his departure has
been obviously the constant subject of his attention. His
expressions in regard to it were deeply humble; and, indeed, the
very humble manner in which he always spoke of himself was most
marked.
"I have observed, of late years, an increasing tenderness in his
feelings and manner, and a desire to impress his family with the
conviction that he would not remain long with them. His allusions
of this kind have been repeated, even when apparently in his usual
health; and they indicated the current of his thoughts.
"He retained his consciousness till within a few hours of his
death, and made distinct replies to every question put to him. He
was fully aware that his end was near; and in answer to the
question, 'Can you now rest with firm faith upon the merits of your
Divine Redeemer?' he said, 'I trust I do, upon what else can I
rest?'
"At another time, in reply to a similar question, he said, '_Of
course_, I have no other ground of hope.' We did not often speak to
him during those last three days, but had no doubt that he was
entirely conscious of his state, knew that his family were all
near, and that his mind was free from anxiety. He could not speak
with ease, and we were unwilling to cause him the pain of exertion.
His whole life, marked by uniform greatness, wisdom, and integrity,
his deep humility, his profound reverence for the Divine Majesty,
his habitual preparation for death, his humble trust in his
Saviour, left nothing to be desired for the consolation of his
family under this great loss. He was gradually prepared for his
departure. His last years were passed in calm retirement; and he
died as he wished to die, with his faculties unimpaired, without
great pain, with his family around his bed, the precious promises
of the Gospel before his mind, without lingering disease, and yet
not suddenly called away."
Such, Mr. Chief Justice, was the life, and such the death, of JEREMIAH
MASON. For one, I could pour out my heart like water, at the
recollection of his virtues and his friendship, and in the feeling of
his loss. I would embalm his memory in my best affections. His personal
regard, so long continued to me, I esteem one of the greatest blessings
of my life; and I hope that it may be known hereafter, that, without
intermission or coolness through many years, and until he descended to
his grave, Mr. Mason and myself were friends.
Mr. Mason died in old age; not by a violent stroke from the hand of
death, not by a sudden rupture of the ties of nature, but by a gradual
wearing out of his constitution. He enjoyed through life, indeed,
remarkable health. He took competent exercise, loved the open air, and,
avoiding all extreme theories or practice, controlled his conduct and
habits of life by the rules of prudence and moderation. His death was
therefore not unlike that described by the angel, admonishing Adam:--
"I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?
"There is, said Michael, if thou well observe
The rule of 'Not too much,' by temperance taught,
In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight;
Till many years over thy head return,
So mayst thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly plucked; for death mature.
This is old age."
[Footnote 1: Mr. Justice Richard Fletcher.]
[Footnote 2: Mr. Justice Wilde.]