1870.] OuD [Goodwin. 



But neither Philadelpliia nor Pennsylvania bounded his sympathy and 

 public spirit, or his ideas of loyalty and patriotism. His heart embraced 

 the whole country. He loved her flag. He was devotedly attached to 

 her Union. When that flag was assailed, and that Union imperilled, his 

 soul was stirred to its lowest depths. All conservative as he was in prin- 

 ciple and feeling, he gave his full support to the Government through all 

 the changing fortunes of the dark struggle, until the rebellion was sup- 

 jjressed. In the work of the Sanitary Commission he took a special in- 

 terest, not only contributing freely to its funds, but rendering his personal 

 services, at the time of the Great Central Fair, until his health was se- 

 riously endangered. 



After the war, his attention was j^articularly drawn to the cause of 

 general education at the South ; and he gave large sums for the support 

 of schools in that part of the country, both for blacks and whites. At 

 the suggestion of a younger sister, lie joined forces with her and his 

 brother, and they, with their own independent funds, have built a com- 

 modious school house of brick, and established a sclipol for the instruc- 

 tion of the negroes, in one of the counties in Virginia. 



In fact, his benefactions have been more and larger than will ever be 

 generally known ; and always bestowed in a spirit of glad liberality, and 

 with a modest unconsciousness of doing anything more than a matter of 

 coarse. In this feeling he resorted to no artificial contrivances to hide 

 his gifts ; still less did he ever seek to have them bruited abroad. Cases 

 have come to light in which an applicant, in behalf of some scheme of be- 

 nevolence, after having explained the object, has hoped for a hundred or two 

 dollars at the most, and been surprised by receiving from him a check for 

 ten times that amount. Other cases of his giving by thousands have been 

 known only in the circle of his own family, and to them only after a time 

 and, as it were, by accident — in such a way, in short, as to indicate that 

 these were but specimens of many similar cases of which his intimate 

 friends knew nothing. It was a saying of Sir Isaac Newton, that "those 

 who give nothing before their death, never in fact give at all." On 

 this principle Mr. Merrick acted. He gave while he lived, and left it to his 

 heirs to follow his example after he was dead. And surely the living 

 spring, with its perennial flow, is better than the sudden inundation from 

 any pent-up resei'voir. 



Mr. Merrick was a consistent Christian. In this relation, also, his 

 aclwe benevolence, so characteristic of him, could not fail to display itself. 

 At the time of his death he was one of the Wardens of Grace Church, 

 of which he had been a member nearly thirty years. In the erection and 

 endowment of the Episcopal Hospital, he ntianifested a lively and prac- 

 tical interest ; and to him, more than to any other man, the Diocese of 

 Pennsylvania is indebted for its Episcopal residence. 



Mr. Merrick's was an eminently successful life. He was always equal 



to what he undertook, to every occasion and to every position in which 



Providence placed him. He sought to raise others with himself. He 



respected labor, and he dignified it. Few men have done more to elevate 



A. p. s. — YOL. XI— 47e 



