

ADDEESS OF HON. R. E. WITHERS. 51 



and intimately, I forbear to do more than briefly glance at some of 

 the salient points of Professor HENRY'S character and services. 



To speak of him as he was is to praise him ; to describe his daily 

 walk and conversation as he lived, moved, and had his being is his 

 highest eulogy. He was not a genius. The characteristics of his 

 mind are typified rather by the steady illumination of the well- 

 trimmed lamp, than by the scintillations of those brilliant pyro- 

 technics which for a while dazzle, startle, and amaze, but suddenly 

 expire in the blackness of darkness forever. Simplicity, purity, 

 and earnestness were his chief attributes; guileless and unaffected 

 as a child he was wise with more than worldly wisdom. Genius 

 may be admired as the mountain torrent or the lightning's flash for 

 its force and brilliancy, but a higher homage is due to morality and 

 virtue, which should guide the strength of the one and the splendor 

 of the other to beneficent results. 



That "knowledge is power" has been accepted as an axiom, 

 but it is a power for good or for evil ; it becomes a blessing or a 

 curse as it is well or illy used. It is a treasure above all price when 

 consecrated to the cause of morality and virtue, but an inexhausti- 

 ble fountain of woe when wedded to immorality and vice. 



If these things be true, then may we confidently point to him as 

 an example calculated to inspire a deeper reverence for the majesty 

 of virtue in public and in private life, and as furnishing a higher 

 incentive to virtuous deeds of emulation in his countrymen. 



He acted on the principle that no success in life, whether meas- 

 ured by wealth or fame, could compensate for the loss of that calm 

 sunshine of conscious integrity, and that deserved praise so surely 

 awarded a life of usefulness and beneficence. 



Viewing the mere acquisition of wealth with philosophic indif- 

 ference, he was, nevertheless, as a financier a model of sagacity. 

 The full and satisfactory detail to which you have just listened of 

 the principles which guided, and the success which attended his 



