THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ. 75 



one of the first that fails, remained almost unimpaired. All that 

 he read or heard his mind retained with the same distinctness 

 that it would have done in former days ; and when he was in 

 his seventy-seventh year, he acquired by heart nearly the whole 

 of Campbell's poem of " The Last Man," which he then for the 

 first time met with, with nearly the same ease that he had done 

 the epitaph more than thirty years before. 



Mr. Knight's form was muscular and powerful, and till his 

 last illness, and notwithstanding his advanced age, his step was 

 as firm, and his figure as erect, as it had ever been, though his 

 height was nearly six feet : his complexion was fair, and his 

 eyes blue ; his hair was light brown, but at an early age he 

 became bald, and the fine intellectual form of his head was very 

 striking. His countenance, though not handsome, beamed with 

 intelligence and benevolence, and was a type of the qualities of 

 his mind and heart. 



The limits of this work will not allow that a more detailed view 

 of Mr. Knight's character should be given ; but if, among those 

 who knew him, a good-natured smile may sometimes have been 

 called forth by any little peculiarities, arising from the origi- 

 nality of his mind, his friends will agree that few lives ever 

 abounded more in works of kindness and charity than his, and 

 that the object foremost in his thoughts was that of making his 

 investigations into the more abstruse branches of natural history, 

 the basis of designs for the improvement and benefit of his 

 fellow-creatures. 



Had the task of delineating his character fallen into other 

 hands, his family would have rejoiced ; and it will be a source 

 of deep and lasting regret, if the inability they strongly feel to 

 do justice to his noble nature, should have caused him to appear 

 to those who had not the happiness of knowing him less wise 

 and good than he was. 



