XVI OBITUARY NOTICES. 



was one of the most delightful of companions. His reading had been wide 

 and varied, and he had thought much as to that which he had read. His 

 talk was 



" ' Rich with all treasure updrawn from the crypt 

 Where lies the learning of the ancient world.' " 



Former Chief Justice Mitchell said : 



" Mr. Dickson was naturally a scholar, a student. In his younger years 

 he might even have been called a bookish man. In that way he laid a founda- 

 tion of theoretical knowledge, which fortunately for him and for us, quite 

 early in life was supplanted by an equipment which is derived nowadays from 

 what might be called business colleges. He developed a practical quality that 

 never was surpassed by any of his contemporaries. Yet, with all the years 

 devoted to the most important litigation, he never quite forgot his natural 

 bent of scholarship. . . . Naturally a student, he became as active and as 

 accomplished a man of affairs as the Philadelphia Bar possessed." 



Chief Justice Brown said: 



" A prince in our Israel has fallen. Full of years and full of honors he 

 has gone to his fathers in peace His hoary head was a crown of glory, for 

 his ways were ways of righteousness. . . . Samuel Dickson was a good man, 

 whose memory is precious to all who knew him. He was singularly faithful 

 to every duty that came to him ; he was cultured and refined ; he was an 

 upright citizen, a very learned lawyer and a Christian gentleman." 



I have culled these tributes and these discriminating and pene- 

 trating analyses of his character from the Proceedings of the fleet- 

 ing of The Philadelphia Bar, held June 7, 191 5, and placed them 

 side by side because they give you a complete picture of the man. 

 It only remains for me to give you a sketch of his active life. 



He was born at Newburgh, New York, February 2, 1837, ^"d 

 came when a lad to the city of Philadelphia, comparatively unknown, 

 and with no advantage of local relationships. His school days 

 were spent in the Classical Institute of the Rev. John W. Faires, 

 the best teacher of his time in preparing boys for college. He en- 

 tered the Arts Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 

 1 85 1, and graduated in 1855 with the degree of B.A. Registering 

 as a student of law in the office of Constant Guillou, Esq., he was 

 admitted to the bar in October, 1858, supporting himself during this 

 term of three years by acting as first assistant in the school of Dr. 

 Faires, instructing the highest classes in Greek and Latin, and to the 

 end of his days his Homer and his Horace were as familiar to his 



