JAMES WxVLKER. 



495 



and, as he hoped, his usefuhiess. "With great delicacy of feeling he 

 preferred to interpret the gift as not wholly personal to himself, but as 

 a recognition of the claims of the highest education upon the wealth 

 which it helps to create ; and, accordingly, by his own bequest to the 

 library of Harvard College, he has given permanent significance to the 

 generosity of his friends, and secured for them, as well as for himself, 

 the gralJtude of future generations of scholars. 



It is a beautiful spectacle to contemplate a man, at the age of sixty- 

 six, looking forward to freedom from anxiety it is true, but not to his 

 ease and comfort; I'ather to continued study and usefulness. No official 

 station could have added to the influence which he continued to exert 

 over others, younger and more active than himself, and through them 

 upon the community. Time added but slowly to his bodily infirmities, 

 while it mellowed the fruits of his rich character, and left untouched 

 his noble intellect. Though he had made few journeys, he knew what 

 was in man, from history and his own reflection, better than others 

 who had traversed continents ; and, therefore, he was the most saga- 

 cious of counsellors. Surrounded by friends and neighbors who loved 

 him, trusted by the wise, and in full sympathy with the young, his old 

 age was as happy as it was serene and beneficent. No other words 

 can more fitly express the beauty and the completeness of such a life 

 than those inscribed upon the cup and salver which were presented to 

 him on his eightieth birthday. " Thine age shall be clearer than the 

 noonday. Thou shalt be as the morning." Not many weeks had 

 passed after this commemoration when organic complaints, which had 

 long threatened", assumed an alarming magnitude. His frequent visits 

 to the college library were discontinued. He felt from the first that he 

 should never recover the ground which he had suddenly lost. Possibly 

 he might linger into the spring, and be able to walk or sit in his garden. 

 For many years it had been a great pleasure for him to watch the 

 never-failing miracle of the opening flowers. He made especial provi- 

 sion for the coming season, thinking that, if he lived, this recreation 

 at least might remain to him. But the bulbs which he caused to be 

 planted will blossom over his grave. His disease rapidly reduced his 

 strength ; but he continued, with great courage, to dress himself and 

 pass the day in his study, until within a week of his death. When he 

 was assured that the final summons had come he met it, as he had 

 helped so many others to meet it, with the peace and hope of a Chris- 

 tian. He died on the 2od of December, 1874. 



