LAURENS PERSEUS HICKOCK. 343 



sorrow and almost free from personal enmities, was inspired throughout 

 by a faith which never faltered. Retaining to the last the energy and 

 vivacity of youth, his intellect broadening and ripening, his character 

 growing more and more sweet and serene, he reminds us of one of those 

 trees which bear flowers and fruit at the same time. Industrious to an 

 extent that few could equal, his work done, he enjoyed society with a 

 relish, and his ready wit, his inexhaustible stock of anecdotes, and his 

 quick and keen appreciation of the best in literature and art, made him 

 everywhere welcome. His own house was open to all, and even those 

 who came to pay the simple tribute of staring were not often turned 

 away. With a graceful hospitality to which wealth could have lent no 

 greater charm, he entertained the learned of many nations, and welcomed 

 with special cordiality his brother botanists, a long array, including 

 not only the experts in the science, but the poor and struggling student 

 as well. He shared with all the treasures of his knowledge, and, not 

 infrequently, he added something from the modest competence which 

 his industry had amassed. The words of good cheer from his lips were 

 re-echoed in after years, and the life so honorable was not unhonored. 

 If the numerous honorary degrees from learned societies at home and 

 abroad testify to the esteem in which he was held as a scientific bot- 

 anist, the warm congratulations of friends from all parts of the country 

 when the memorial vase was presented on his seventy-fifth birthday 

 show no less clearly how much he was beloved as a man. And when, 

 during dreary weeks, his anxious friends hoped against hope, watching 

 to catch the sound of the loved voice which would speak but could not, 

 all felt that the message which he sought to utter must have been a 

 benediction. But it was not needed. His life was a benediction, and, 

 as his body was borne to its last resting place, the freshly fallen snow 

 was not more pure than his character, nor the sparkling winter air more 

 bright and clear than his intellect. 



b 



LAURENS PERSEUS HICKOCK. 



Laurens Perseus Hickock, D.D., LL.D., was born at Danbury, 

 Connecticut, December 22, 1798, and died at Amherst, May 7, 1888. 

 He graduated at Union College in 1820, then studied divinity, and 

 served two short pastorates in his native State. In 1836 he became 

 Professor of Theology in the Western Reserve College, Ohio. In 

 1844 he removed to Auburn, New York, to take a professorship in 

 the Theological School. In 1852 he was elected to the Professorship 

 of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Union College, and at the same 



