13 



they do now: the words of Hail Columbia are from him. A poor 

 player had announced for his benefit night that the President would 

 be welcomed at the theatre with a patriotic ode; and his poet disap- 

 pointed him at the last moment. Hopkinson found a Hessian march 

 in h'\s flute-hook, and made the verses to suit it before going to bed. 



His style of writing was pure manly English, admitting very little 

 ornament for ornament's sake, but graceful and flowing. As a 

 speaker, he was terse and studiously simple, but rich with illustration 

 when the occasion called for it, and racy with wit. He was seldom 

 elaborate in preparing an argument; or if he was, he took pains to 

 rub out the traces of elaboration, as an Indian covers his track among 

 the leaves. His mind was acute, suggestive, intense sometimes, 

 prompt in its conclusions, and little anxious to review them. Yet he 

 . was patient on the bench, and could hear or seem to hear all sorts and 

 qualities of forensic contestation as meekly as eloquence or logic: — 

 sometimes indeed, when the sophism was quite too audacious, I have 

 known him to kill it oflJ'with a spark of wit; but he generally bore it 

 like a philosopher. He had wonderful yjowers of conversation, was 

 playful, full of anecdote, happy in repartee, — a good listener withal, 

 not only witty himself, but the cause wherefore wit was in other men. 

 He became a member of the American Philosophical Society, in 

 1815, and was chosen to be a Vice-president in 1831. He died on 

 the 15th of January, 1842, at the age of 71. 



I should be glad to spread out some of my reminiscences of Judge 

 Hopkinson. for I knew him well; he was my professional instructor 

 almost forty years ago, and we were friends as long as he lived. 

 But the brevity, which the spirit of our rules enjoins, allows me only 

 to trace this hasty sketch of his character upon our records. 



Thomas Gilpin. I hoped, v/hen the Society did me the honour of 

 requesting me to notice Mr. Gilpin's death upon our records, that I 

 should have the aid of my friend, his nephew, in collecting the ma- 

 terial for my work. The continued absence of Mr. H. D. Gilpin in 

 Europe has prevented this, and I must be excused therefore for 

 making a more brief memorial than the services and personal worth 

 of our late lellow member might rightfully claim. 



Mr. Gilpin was of ancient family among the old Quakers of Penn- 

 sylvania, and connected by descent with still older and equally hon- 

 ourea families in England. When I first knew him, a great many 

 years ago, he was residing on the Brandvwine, an extensive manu- 

 facturer of paper, busily engaged in devising improvements in his art. 

 The machine paper made on a wire wove cylinder, though not I be- 



