38 BANQUET TO THE 



characters say, in delineating the events closing a 

 long and tempestuous career, that "Age is un- 

 necessary." In the sense that no person and no life 

 can be indispensable to a full development of the 

 majestic and inscrutable laws of Nature, we may well 

 say that age is not an essential element of the des- 

 tiny of men and events. But such a sheaf of years 

 and honors, the fruits of uninterrupted and long- 

 continued meritorious service as gentlemen have re- 

 vealed to us, must be taken into any account current 

 of civilization, and welcomed as providential occur- 

 rences in the lives of men and nations. They illus- 

 trate the commencement as well as the close of his 

 life. Youth and age are alike distinguished and 

 honored in him. In every direction his path is lu- 

 minous. He has been a tireless student of Nature, 

 a bold investigator, audacious in experiment, fertile 

 in resources, prodigal of labor, unselfish and even 

 lavish in the distribution of the fruits of his study 

 and toil. It was thus at a time when our people 

 were incredulous and hopeless as to improvement 

 in the ordinary methods of industry and labor, and 

 especially in the cultivation of the soil and its in- 

 numerable products, that he opened to us affluent 

 and endless sources of local and national wealth. 



But it interests me less to speculate on what he 

 has done (indeed, nothing is left unsaid in that 

 direction) than to inquire by what occult methods 



