EULOGY ON THE LATE GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 297 



could never have accomplished what he accomplished. Beyond all men I ever 

 knew, he was systematic ; and few indeed are the examples of a life, in all 

 things, so perfectly regulated. The beautiful order which pervaded all that he 

 did is scarcely less worthy of study and admiration than the achievements to 

 which it so materially contributed. 



He was no trifler with the realities of life, who dallied with them for his pleas- 

 ure or who wielded them as instruments of ambition or self-interest. To him, 

 as to all true men, the meaning of life was concentrated in one single word, 

 Duty. This "chief end of man," which is to glorify God by obedience to his 

 laws in the use of the faculties he has bestowed, was his ruling principle — the 

 celestial cynosure to which his eyes were ever directed, and from which no al- 

 lurement of lower motives could divert it. Nor was his sense of duty of that 

 frigid, repulsive nature which reduces the conduct of life to a formula, and, sub- 

 stituting rules for emotions, seems but a refined selfishness. He was warm and 

 sympathetic, finding his chief happiness in the pleasures of domestic and social 

 intercourse, but singularly susceptible to everything that ministers to innocent 

 enjoyment. 



Perhaps no more striking illustration than his history affords could be found 

 of the truth that the path of duty is the path of happiness. His life was em- 

 inently a happy one, and his, indeed, was that " peace of mind which passeth 

 understanding." Though devoted from his youth to the military service of his 

 country, and doomed to the vicissitudes of a soldier's lot, he was permitted, to 

 a greater degree than most men, to enjoy the blessings of the domestic circle. 

 There, indeed, he sat enthroned, the idol of a family of whose supreme affection 

 and immeasurable devotion he was the object. Nor dare we call those blows by 

 which a Heavenly Father reminds us that this world is not our " abiding place," 

 and teaches us to look beyond to " an house not made with hands, eternal in the 

 heavens," sources of unhappiness to him who receives them as from the hand of 

 One " who chasteneth whom he loveth." One by one, he lived to see all his 

 three sons, two of his four daughters, and finally the companion of the joy sand 

 Borrows of so many years, precede him to the grave. • 



Beautiful beyond all else that earth presents is that conjugal companionship, 

 so touchingly depicted by Burns, which, beginning in youth, is permitted to con- 

 tinue unbroken till the Psalmist's period of life is overpassed. During the later 

 years of their lives, Mrs. Totten, no longer bound to the domestic hearth by 

 the cares of a growing famHy, became truly an inseparable companion. Never, 

 when it was at all practicable to have her with him, did he ride or walk, or 

 make a journey, or perform one of his periodical tours of inspection, without 

 her companionship ; nor could one see them together without feeling that they 

 presented a model of whatever is amiable and lovely in the conjugal state. If 

 he was to her the embodiment of all that is most worthy of respect and love in 

 man, not less marked was his deference to her. In her own sphere — as woman, 

 wife, mother — she was supreme, and her judgment his law. When, but two 

 years before his own death, she was somewhat suddenly called away, it seemed 

 as if he regarded it as a message from on high, " set thy house in order, for 

 thou shalt die and not live." No murmur escaped his lips, and no long-contin- 

 ued sadness clouded his brow, but there was an unwonted gentleness and quiet- 

 ude in his demeanor, a softening, as it were, of his nature, which revealed how 

 deeply " the iron had entered his soul." His health and bodily strength seemed 

 to continue little impaired, and his devotion to the duties of his office undiminished. 

 But once, during a life protracted beyond the usual span, had that powerful frame 

 submitted to the sway of sickness, and he seemed to have unusual promise ol 

 a still further protracted life. But such promises proved deceitful. Early in 

 March, 18ii4, he was attacked with pneumonia. His illness was not at first 

 deemed alarming, and, indeed, at one time he was supposed to be convalescent, 

 but a relapse ensued, and on the 22d of April he expired, having borne the suf- 



