DEATH OF HON. AMOS LAWRENCE. 125 



was, by religious conviction, a Unitarian, but his temper 

 and his action were those of a man of heavenly mind. I 

 always visited him when I was in Boston ; and when * I 

 informed him that I had been invited to open the Lowell 

 Institute, and to give the first course of lectures in it, he 

 raised both his hands and exclaimed : " God be praised ! " 

 Such was his real liberality, for he knew that I was not a 

 Unitarian. Of the five noble brothers, with whom I be- 

 came acquainted on going to Lowell to give a public course 

 of lectures in 1834, three are now dead. 



Soon after the annual Commencement of 1852, he 

 had given notice, in the following letter, of his inten- 

 tion to lay down his College office at the end of the 

 academical year. 



TO REV. THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, D. D., PRESIDENT OF 

 YALE COLLEGE. 



September 21, 1852. 



REV. AND DEAR SIR, The reasons which, three years 

 ago, induced me to tender the resignation of my office in 

 Yale College, having gained strength by the progress of time, 

 I have come to the conclusion that the interests of the Insti- 

 tution and my own, unite to indicate the termination of the 

 current academical year, as the period when my resigna- 

 tion shall be again offered to the Corporation. I am, I 

 trust, duly sensible of the favorable regard which led both 

 that body and my colleagues to desire my continuance in 

 office, and I cannot contemplate, with indifference, the dis- 

 solution of those ties which, for more than half a century, 

 have bound me, in both duty and affection, to our vener- 

 able Alma Mater. Upon mature reflection I am, however, 

 led to believe that a notice thus seasonable will afford time, 

 before the next Commencement, to make such an appoint- 



* In a call at his house in, I believe, 1839. 



