492 JAMES -WALKER, 



over with a glorification of our institutions, or of our people, or even 

 with a studied eulogy of the dead ; thus to have offered up their lives 

 is glory enough. Write on it these few simple words : In memory of 

 the sons of Harvard, who died for their country." 



At the recpaest of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Dr. Walker 

 prepared two memoirs : one of Daniel Appleton White, which was 

 printed in 1863; and the other of Josiah Quincy, which was printed 

 in 1867. Dr. Walker was no less fortunate in the subjects of these me- 

 moirs than they were in the just and discriminating treatment which 

 they received at his hands. Born at nearly the same time, and, after 

 living to a very advanced age, dying within a few years of each other, 

 these two distinguished men cover with their lives " the whole of our 

 jaroper unchallenged national existence." Trusting and honoring one 

 another, and trusted and honored by the public, they were conspicuous 

 actors, each in his own way, in the scenes which passed before them ; 

 and many of the great movements in church and state, and many of 

 the great questions relating to government, education, morals, or reli- 

 gion, which agitated their times, received an impression ffom their 

 minds and characters. To write the memoirs of such men, learning, 

 research, wisdom, independence, delicacy, were required ; and all these 

 qualifications Dr. Walker brought to the work in large measure. An 

 intimate friend of Judge White for many years, and closely associated 

 with President Quincy during his administration, he could speak, as 

 one having authority, of their noble characters and their honorable 

 and useful lives. 



In 1840, Dr. Walker was invited to deliver courses of lectures on 

 Natural Religion, before the Lowell Institute in Boston ; which he 

 gave in three successive years. The first course treated of the psycho- 

 logical grounds of Natural Religion. Scientific Theology, or the 

 logical grounds of Natural Religion, was the subject of the second 

 course. In the last the analogy or harmony between Natural and 

 Revealed Religion was discussed. These carefully prepared lectures 

 produced a deep impression on the large and intelligent audiences 

 which heard them. Had they been printed at the time, according to 

 the wishes of the administrator of the Lowell Fund, they would have 

 instructed a still wider public. But their publication was postponed 

 by Dr. Walker, in the hope of gaining leisure for a careful revision of 

 them ; a leisure which, in his crowded life, he never found. After an 

 interval of twenty years, he was asked to repeat them before the 

 Lowell Institute. He excused himself from a literal compliance with 

 this invitation for these reasons : " Several of the topics considered by 



