Notice of the late Sheldon Clark, 229 



The object was not accomplished without a long course of stern 

 self-denial — with great industry and severe economy. Mr. Clark 

 expended very little on his own personal accommodation. The 

 plain farmer's house remained as his grandfather left it, without 

 decoration and almost without repair; the furniture was of the 

 humblest kind, but a warm welcome was given to his friends 

 and to strangers, with ample provision not only of the produce of 

 a farmer's cultivation and care, but occasionally, with a free hos- 

 pitality in rarer things. 



His policy was, to augment as far and as fast as possible^ his 

 productive capital ; he attempted no improvements in his agricul- 

 ture ; he hardly preserved fences and buildings in statu quo ; lit- 

 tle return of manure was made to his hard worked soils, and even 

 his wood and timber, were, to a certain extent, sold for money and 

 cleared away for market, by other hands. He kept his money al- 

 ways at work — loaned all the cash he did not need, (and his personal 

 wants were few) —required his interest and payments at the day 

 — but was exactly just in his dealings — prompt to give his advice 

 when desired, and kind in his treatment of all. His hoarding 

 was not for himself; wife and children he had none, and he laid 

 by his thousands — the results not of traffic or speculation, but of 

 laborious thrifty industry — to furnish the means of a superior ed- 

 ucation to the children of others, and to generations yet unborn. 



His mind appears to have been constantly active, and he has 

 left behind him numerous manuscripts — matter sufficient for sev- 

 ral volumes. They are on various subjects : banks, the tariff, 

 the sub-treasury, the currency, political economy, commerce, 

 manufactures and agriculture, but above all, morals and meta- 

 physics ; the nature and immortality of the soul, moral responsi- 

 bility, the agency of God in the affairs of the world, the nature 

 of sin and future rewards and punishments, with numerous ex- 

 tracts from distinguished authors, and occasional poetical effusions : 

 — all these, and many things more, are among his papers. Not a 

 few of them are elaborate productions: — manuscripts, carefully 

 copied, sometimes again and again, from less perfect notes and 

 sketches, — in general, written out in a fair and legible hand, 

 with correct orthography and punctuation, and an appropriate 

 selection of words. The writings of Hume, Reid, Stewart, Ed- 

 wards, Franklin, Jefferson, and other distinguished men, seem to 

 have been familiar to him. The metaphysics of morals appear 



