142 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



he wrote to one of them, "That you are both poor is no 

 ground of soHcitude; happiness is above riches, and if 

 you are not happy, being poor, wealth would not, I 

 apprehend, make you happy. Poverty has its virtues, 

 and my struggles with it are full of pleasant remem- 

 brances. I hope your experience will tally with mine. 

 I do not say, strive to be content, for in that there is 

 no progression; but be content to strive". At another 

 time he wrote, "I am writing you a very disjointed letter, 

 my love, but I have been thinking so much of you, 

 and missing you so sorely, and loving you so tenderly, 

 since you went away, and my heart was so full, and my 

 head so empty, that I hardly know what I have said. 

 Did you plant the yellow jasmine at Farley vale? 'Tis 

 the grand scion of the one I courted your Mother under, 

 and I wish it, or a slip from it, to be planted over my 

 grave". This request was carried out, and the flower 

 grew over his grave for six or seven years until it was 

 killed during an extremely cold winter. The entire 

 story of Maury's home life seems almost too nearly 

 perfect to be true, but diligent search of all available 

 records has failed to disclose anything which would de- 

 tract from the portrayal of him as always the true, 

 considerate, loving husband and father. 



