WILLIAM TILGHMAN. 23 



tcrity. In this eulogium on Dr. Wistar, Mr. Tilgh- 

 man feelingly described those meetings, and told 

 how they were often prolonged to a late hour in the 

 night, while the members sat heedless of passing 

 time ^' over the embers of a dying fire." But he did 

 not speak of the part he had in creating that interest 

 which riveted us to the spot, while he poured out the 

 rich stores of his classic mind. At those meetings 

 he never failed to attend. Tilghman, Wistar, Correa, 

 occasionally Heckewelder, and others still living, 

 formed the active part of the committee. Tilghman 

 and Wistar were its life and soul, and their labours 

 were not the less unremitted, nor less important, for not 

 being so conspicuous as those of the members whose 

 exertions they stimulated and encouraged. In this 

 manner three short years elapsed, in the coarse of 

 which the Society published a volume of Philosophi- 

 cal and one of Historical Transactions : but those 

 three years were marked by private and public ca- 

 lamity. 



^^On the 17th June, 1817, Mr. Tilghman lost his 

 only daughter, on whom, since the death of his belov- 

 ed wife, he had fixed all his happiness in this life. 

 She died in child-bed at the premature age of 23 

 years. She had not been long before united to the 

 man of her choice, who enjoyed and merited her ten- 

 derest aJGfection. The grief of Tilghman on meeting 

 with this sad stroke, can only be compared to that of 

 the Roman orator, when he lost his adored Tulliola. 

 With what pathetic feeling did it burst from him, 



