xxvii Dr. Kirkland’s Discourse in Commemoration of 
son it will be sufficient to say, that he poured into this channel all 
the energy of his vigorous mind, all the enthusiasm of his ardent 
temper, and all the generous devotion of his noble heart.” 
I have made remarks on the intellectual endowments of Mr. 
Jefferson ; I will present a few traits of his personal, private, and 
social character. He was remarkable for an even and happy 
temperament, for readiness to every expression of kind feeling, 
compassion, generosity, alms-giving, and pecuniary bounty of 
every species ; for good neighbourhood and urbanity, and warmth 
of attachment; for patience under pain; for temperance; for 
thrift of time and order in affairs, through fifty years rising before 
the sun except when ill; for moderation in personal expenses, 
and simple personal habits. He was the kindest of masters, 
and his general confidence in the virtue of his fellow-beings re- 
mained unshaken by particular instances of depravity. He con- 
sidered ignorance, false judgment, and bad reasoning, rather than 
malignity, as affording the solution of their vice ; and the popular 
leaning of his politics, and the hard opinion he entertained of 
those he thought greedy of power for its own sake, are supposed 
by many, who knew him intimately, to have been produced by his 
good opinion of human nature, and his sympathy with the hum- 
bler classes of mankind. 
We look back on the vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity, 
of success and disappointment, of joy and sorrow, which attend- 
ed the long and interesting career of the personages we com- 
memorate, — their domestic blessings and afflictions. We find one 
compelled to resign prematurely the beloved wife of his youth, 
the object of his devoted attachment; the other retaining, till 
within a few years of his own departure, his nearest earthly 
friend, the assistant of his virtues, the partaker of his griefs, who, 
