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the offices of love and friendship. But when those are 

 taken away who have made faithful preparation for the re- 

 sponsibilities of manhood, and have jnst commenced the 

 serious business of life, with the fairest prospects of suc- 

 cess, we mourn besides for plans broken off, labors un- 

 finished, hopes disappointed, affections crushed in the 

 bloom, and, in this reversal of the ordinary course of na- 

 ture, we can only bow with reverence before the mystery 

 of Divine Providence. 



We attempt a memorial of our friend, not alone from 

 personal considerations, but on account of his pure moral 

 and Christian character, and also of the service, which, 

 in his short course, he rendered to his country, in the 

 earliest establishment, in our land, of a Collegiate School 

 of Agricultural Chemistry. 



John Pitkin Norton was born at Albany, N. Y., July 19, 

 1822. In 1835, the family returned to its ancient seat in 

 Farmington, Conn., and he there received his early 

 education in the well-known school of Simeon Hart. 

 From an early period, young Norton was a student of na- 

 ture. For his was one of those minds, which have in 

 their original structure, a decisive impulse towards a de- 

 finite course of action — an inclination towards a parti- 

 cular form of development. This aptitude, however, 

 was not for the mere enjoyment of nature, a poetic im- 

 pulse simply ; it was rather a philosophical turn of mind, 



