MiiyC, 1870.] " • •- fPtille. 



OBITUARY KOTICE OF HORACE BIXNEY, Jr., 



Bead before the American Philosoijhical Srjc.iety, 

 By Chaeles J. Stille. 



It is not often that the judgment of a man's life and cliaracter by 

 the world agrees with that of his intimate friends. By the world, 

 success in life is too often measured by results which strike most for- 

 cibly the popular imagination ; — it means a large fortune, a brilliant 

 professional reputation, opportunities eagerly sought and adroitly 

 taken advantage of, for gaining pi-ominent public positions. To his 

 friends on the other hand, a man may be most endeared and best re- 

 membered by qualities of which the world knows nothing, or at best 

 knows them only as they are seen in the perfect symmetry of his life. 

 Happy is the memory of him who, dying, forces the world to forsake 

 for once the false standards by which it commonly judges character, 

 and extorts from it an involuntary homage to what is real and true 

 in human life. I think that the career of our late friend and col- 

 league, Mr. Binney, is au illustration of this rare coincidence between 

 the opinion of the world, and that of a man's inner circle of friends. 

 Here was a man who won none of the great prizes of life as the 

 world counts them, who was not a siiccessful politicicUi, who never 

 aspired to high official position, or gained great professional reputa- 

 tion, Avho had none of the arts which please the multitude, who was 

 simply a man of warm sympathies, and generous culture, striving to 

 do his duty in the fear of God in that station of life in which his lot 

 had been cast, a simple-hearted, modest Christian gentleman, — and 

 yet when he dies, a voice comes to us made up of many voices, pro- 

 claiming that his conception of life was a just one, and that such a 

 life is worthy of our affectionate commemoration. 



Horace Binxey, Junior, was born in Philadelphia, on the 21st of 

 January, 1809. He was the eldest son of the Honoral)le Horace Bin- 

 ney, and one of the many blessings of his life was, that during the 

 whole of it he felt himself supported by the wise counsel, the sure 

 guidance, and the lofty example of such a Father. Tiie influence of 

 Fijthers upon their children is, I fear, declining in this age and coun- 

 try, but in this case the deep yet discriminating affection of the 

 Father for the son, and the profound filial reverence of that son to- 

 wards the Father, forms a picture as attractive and suggestive, as 

 unhappily in our experience it is rare. Such a relationship between 

 two such men continued for tlireescore years, could not be without 

 an important influence on both. By the younger, at least, it was felt 

 as a power Avhich he never referred to, except to speak of it with grati- 

 tude, as having happily controlled the whole course of his life. 



