356 HORACE BINNEY. 



his affluent talk, set off and enhanced by the charm of his majestic 

 presence. The society of Mr. Binney had none of the drawbacks, 

 from some of which extreme old age is rarely exempt. Besides 

 having the perfect possession of his memory, and the same command 

 of language as in his prime of life, he was in the full enjoyment of all 

 the special senses. Though the weight of more than ninety years had 

 abated his natural force, yet was his eye not dim, and it was a faithful 

 and untirinaf servant to the end. And what is even more rare in the 

 very old, his hearing was as perfect at ninety as at nineteen. There 

 was, therefore, in his case, none of the painful consciousness of effort 

 on the jiart of speaker an<l of hearer, which generally lessens the 

 pleasure of conversing even with the most interesting and intelligent 

 of old men. Indeed, one forgot, in talking with him, that he was an 

 old man, as there was nothing in the manner or the matter of his 

 conversation to remind one of it. Like most good talkers, he was a 

 delightful letter-writer ; a good letter being, indeed, only good talk 

 flowing from the pen instead of the tongue. His interest in all the 

 events of the day, in literature, and in the law, remained warm to the 

 last. And his love for his Alma Mater, whose eldest son by several 

 years he lived to be, did not wax cold with age. When the great 

 Boston fire had seriously impaired the property of the University, at 

 the first appeal of President Eliot, he instantly sent a thousand dollars 

 for the relief of the nursing mother of his mind. 



The life of Mr. Binney was certainly one of a felicity rarely 

 equalled. Though his many days were not unclouded by great 

 sorrows, his strength was made equal to the darkest of them by 

 occupation, by reason, and by religion. It was a life singularly 

 rounded and complete. Twenty-five years given to preparation for 

 his life's work ; fifty years of active devotion to it ; a crowning quarter 

 of a century of honorable and honored repose, — make up a sum of 

 happiness such as has fallen to the lot of few mortals to enjoy. He 

 passed his active years in doing well what he liked best to do. His 

 declining years had every blessing that filial aflfection, devoted friend- 

 ship, and general reverence could bring to smooth and adorn them. 

 Without having aspired to or won high office, he enjoyed a great 

 reputation coextensive with the country. And he died in the fulness 

 of near a century of years, universally honored and revered as the 

 patriarch of the American bar, and the foremost citizen, not of his 

 kState only, but of the nation. 



