HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 65 



cessors two hundred years ago : men famed in 

 Church and State, who feared God and kept their 

 powder dry. 



The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 

 with its two hundred and forty-five years of service, 

 greets its oldest Past Commander with love to-night, 

 and presents arms ! Its members present, with pleas- 

 ing emotions knocking hard at the doors of their 

 hearts, wish many more years of happiness to Colonel 

 Wilder. Appreciating his honesty, his truth, his 

 temperance, his courage, his patience, his forbear- 

 ance, and the other bright virtues which shine in his 

 character, our hopes are ever clustered around him, 

 and our good wishes will ever attend him. Indeed, we 

 are tempted to say to him to-night, in the language of 

 the old Latins, Esto perpetua : " Be thou eternal ! " 



Mr. President, I am confident that the distinguished 

 gentlemen around these tables will long remember 

 to-night, and recall with pleasure its varied homages 

 to Colonel Wilder, thankful that we have so pure a 

 shrine, so bright an oracle, as the common property 

 of all who reverence virtue, admire manhood, or aspire 

 to noble deeds. Succeeding years will not dim the 

 freshness of Colonel Wilder's fame ; and the more fre- 

 quently we drink at this fountain, the sweeter we shall 

 find its waters. 



" You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, 

 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 



5 



