18 MASSACHUSETTS IIOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



you have so loiip; hoi.orcd me, unless ere that time I sliall have 

 been clothed with the robes of immortality, and gone up to gather 

 celestial fruits, which ripen not in earthly climes." 



One of ]\Ir, Wilder's most prominent characteristics was the per- 

 petual youth which, in spite of the infirmities of age, he carried 

 with him, and which led Governor Long, in his speech at the meet- 

 ing of the American Pomological Society in this city in 1881, to 

 speak of him as at once the oldest and the youngest man in the 

 State. This had been attributed to his love for rural pursuits ; 

 but the speaker thought it due rather to his kind and loving heart, 

 continually overflowing with regard to everyone, so that they who 

 had known him but a short time felt thai in his death they had lost 

 a dear friend. This thought, the speaker said, had been better 

 expressed in Whittier's lines, with which he closed : 



" To homely joys and loves and friendships 



Thy genial nature fondlj' clung ; 

 And so the shadow on the dial 



Ran back and left thee always young. 



****** 



Thy greeting smile was pledge and prelude 



Of generous deeds and kindly words; 

 In thy large heart were fair guest-chambers 



Open to sunrise and the birds. 

 ****** 



O friend ! if thought and sense avail not 

 To know thee henceforth as thou art, 

 . That all is well with thee forever 

 I trust the instincts of my heart. 



Thine be the quiet habitations, 



Thine the green pastures, blossom-sown. 



And smiles of saintly recognition 

 As sweet and tender as thy own. 



Thou com'st not from the hush and shadow 



To meet us ; but to thee we come. 

 With thee we never can be strangers, 



And where thou art must still be home ! " 



The President, in putting the question on the adoption of the 

 memorial, requested that it be done by a rising vote, in loving and 

 respectful assent, which was unanimously complied with. 



