MARSHALL PLNCKNEY WILDER. 5T1 



Mother Earth. From my earliest acquaintance with Mr. Wilder, more than 

 thirty years since, I recall a reverent appreciation of the wisdom and good- 

 ness of the Creator in all his material works. And I think as the years went 

 by a steady and marked increase of this feeling was to be noticed, a leading 

 from nature up to nature's God, so that he gave frequent expression of his 

 gratitude to the Infinite Ruler of the Universe. 



After his severe prostration, more than a score of years ago, which com- 

 pelled his retirement from active commercial enterprise, it is remarkable 

 with what new zest he entered upon horticultural pursuits. He did not con- 

 sider himself too old to sow seeds of trees, to cross-fertilize flowers that he 

 might obtain seeds for new varieties, to form and lead off new societies 

 which might exert a perpetual influence. His interest in this society was 

 never more active than in the last days of his life. And while often alluding 

 to the vast changes which had been accomplished in the modes of culture 

 and the improvement in varieties, how hopefully did he look forward to the 

 progress yet to be made !' With youthful vigor did he anticipate the results 

 to be obtained by hybridization ! 



We shall love to recall the picture of this patriarch as he walked among 

 his plants, watching to obtain some new results and improvements by cross- 

 ing and varied culture. It seemed as though his occupation was to him the 

 very elixir of life, imparting to him a perennial youth. How different in 

 its result from a life spent in the absorbing and selfish pursuit of gain or 

 worldly ambition! And yet in other respects Mr. Wilder was an old man — 

 his life was completed ; his was a sublime old age, full of good works. The 

 world is better, how much better, for his living in it! Long shall we cherish 

 his memory ; long may we be stimulated by his example. 



Mr. Robert Manning, secretary of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 in the course of his remarks at the same meeting, said that one of Mr. Wil- 

 der's most prominent characteristics was the perpetual youth which, in spite 

 of the infirmities of age, he carried with him, and which led Governor Long, 

 in his speech at the meeting of the American Pomological Society in this 

 city in 1881, to speak of him as at once the oldest and the youngest man in 

 the State. This had been attributed to his love for rural pursuits, but the 

 speaker thought it due rather to his kind and loving heart, continually over- 

 flowing with regard to everyone, so that they who had known him but a 

 short time felt that in his death they had lost a dear friend. This thought, 

 the speaker said, had been better expressed in Whittier's lines, with which 

 he closed : 



" To homely joys and loves and friendships 

 Thy genial nature fondly clung ; 

 And so the shadow on the dial 

 Ran hack and left thee always young. 



Thy greeting smile was pledge and prelude 

 Of generous deeds and kindly wojds ; 



In thy large heart were fair guest-chambera 

 Open to sunrise and the birds. 



