community like ours must find it a difficult task to rid itself of the
official leeches that seek to fatten on its blood.

In looking back upon the public services of our friend it occurs to me
that his life is the more to be held up as an example, inasmuch as, though
possessed of an ample fortune, he occupied himself as diligently in
gratuitous labors for the general good as other men do in the labors of
their profession. In the dispensation of his income he leaned, perhaps, to
the side of frugality, but his daily thought and employment were to make
his fellow men happier and better; yet I never knew a man who made less
parade of his philanthropy. He rarely, and never, save when the occasion
required it, spoke of what he had done for others. I never heard, I think
no man ever heard, anything like a boast proceed from his lips, nor did he
practice any, even the most innocent expedients, to attract attention to
his public services. Not that I suppose him insensible to the good will
and good word of his fellow men. He valued them, doubtless, as every wise
man must, but sought them not, except as they might be earned by the
unostentatious performance of his duty. If they came they were welcome, if
not, he was content with the testimony of his own conscience and the
approval of Him who seeth in secret.

It may be said that in almost every instance the place of those who pass
from the stage of life is readily supplied from among the multitude of
those who are entering upon it; the well-graced actor who makes his exit
is succeeded by another, who soon shows that he is as fully competent to
perform the part as his predecessor. But when I look for one to supply the
place of our friend who has departed, I confess I look in vain. I ask, but
vainly, where we shall find one with such capacities for earning a great
name, such large endowments of mind and acquisitions of study united with
such modesty, disinterestedness and sincerity, and such steady and various