126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



and always an active and earnest public man, — the history of whose 

 life was involved in the party divisions and contests of a stirring epoch, 

 and led his biographers — first, John, and afterwards, Octavius — into a 

 minute investigation of the characters, acts, and events of the whole 

 period in which he took so decided and distinguished a part. Accord- 

 ingly, the first step for Octavius, after the task of the biography had 

 passed into his hands on the decease of his brother John, was to get 

 together, under his hand, the appalling mass of materials in the form 

 of records, publications, printed documents, and attainable private cor- 

 respondence. This he did with great diligence, and not without con- 

 siderable expense. His copies of letters and documents, so collected, 

 consist of some fifty large volumes, which he carefully read through, at 

 least twice, consecutively, besides comparing the contents, and re- 

 arranging them in a comprehensive index, before he began to deter- 

 mine on the selections to be made for the first volume, and to fill in the 

 intermediate spaces with explanations, and the notice of collateral cir- 

 cumstances, in such a manner as to make a connected chain. The first 

 volume was completed and published in 1867. At his request the 

 continuation of the biography has been put into the hands of Mr. 

 Charles W. Uphani, of Salem. 



As Reporter, Mr. Pickering necessarily kept up his acquaintance 

 with the law, and he never neglected the Greek and Latin classics. 

 During his residence in France, he had, of course, become more famil- 

 iar with the French, which language he read fluently, with a distinct 

 pronunciation. He read widely and diligently in history, was a con- 

 stant attendant at scientific lectures, and always present at the Lowell 

 course. He also took great pleasure in the study of Botany, though 

 he did not make pretensions to a comprehensively scientific knowl- 

 edge of it. If, in walking leisurely with a friend, he noticed on the 

 wayside a flower at all remarkable for beauty, rarity, or otherwise, 

 he was wont to point it out to his companion, and was in the habit of 

 bringing home specimens to be examined under the microscope. He 

 took an active part in founding the Society of Natural History of New 

 England, and regularly attended its meetings. 



Mr. Pickering was social, cheerful, and acceptable in society, and his 

 time never hung heavily with him at home, where a great part of his 

 occupations lay. 



In the course of his life he was a member of different associations of 

 a private rather than a public character, consisting of members of lit- 



