XIV MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



was a crying need. In return for his public spirit, 

 the town gave him denial and detraction. He bore 

 it in silence and without complaint, but it worked 

 deeply upon his feelings and I do not think he ever 

 recovered from it. Thus did his neighbors and 

 townspeople deal with a man who would have 

 adorned a chair in any college or brought distinction 

 to any community that knew how to utilize him. It 

 is not agreeable to recall these things, but we speak 

 of the dead only for the benefit of the living. Neglect 

 and injustice can hurt him no more. The measure 

 of the public loss will never be taken, but the example 

 stands, for instruction if not for reproof. 



Of Mr. Whittemore's religious views I speak with 

 diffidence, but it is customary, and he would have 

 nothing kept back. I suppose that we have all 

 observed a tendency in the clergy, if my friend 

 beside me here will pardon the remark, to 

 make the departed a devout Christian who perhaps 

 was never under suspicion of piety by his nearest 

 friends. It may be a harmless hypocrisy, but stand- 

 ing by the body of our old friend I would make no 

 professions for him dead that he did not make for 

 himself living. He was not what would commonly 

 be accounted a religious man. If he ever was con- 

 nected with any church, he had no active or visible 

 connection with any in his later years. I think that 



