1870.] ^" ' ' [Patterson. 



was not stinted by increasing years or increasing wealth, but grew rather 

 with his means and his habit of exercising it ; a man of ardent patriot- 

 ism, he identified his own hfe witli that of his country ; of an ever gen- 

 erous and ready public spirit, he was in all relations a good citizen ; reli- 

 gious, not without profession, but without cant, and beneficent without 

 ostentation ; his character, like his person, was of a noblo and massive 

 rather than of a graceful make. He was every inch a man. 



And now, should it be thought that I have but followed the example 

 of all manufacturers of obituaries, dealing only in loose and empty pane- 

 gyric, I do not plead guilty to the charge. What has been said rather falls 

 short of the truth than transgresses it. 



If it be suggested that, after all, this certainly cannot be so very extra- 

 ordinary a case, that Mr. Merrick was not so very great or remarkable a 

 man, for we have among us every day many men qtiite as great, as good, 

 and as useful as he, I cannot by any means concur in the suggestion ; and 

 yet I do believe, and rejoice to believe, that we have more good, earnest, 

 public spirited, sagacious and energetic men, quietly working on among 

 us, than we are sometimes, in our habitual querulousness, disposed to 

 acknowledge. Amidst all our complaints, often unreasoning and inconsid- 

 erate complaints, of the degeneracy and corruption of the times, there is 

 more of real greatness and goodness around us than we are aware of. 

 Great and good men have not all passed away with the former generations. 

 They are with us still. And it is one of the lessons we may learn from a 

 review of such a life as Mr. Merrick's, to see and recognise the treasures 

 we possess. If we have many such men as Mr. Merrick, let us rejoice ; 

 let us so look to them while they live, and so remember them when they 

 are gone, that by all means we may have more. 



An Obituary Notice of Franklin Peale: 



Read before the American Philosophical Society, December 16th, 1870, by 

 Robert Patterson. 



At the meeting of the American Philosophical Society, held February 

 19th, 1796, the proceedings were diversified by a singular incident, which 

 we find thus recorded in the minutes: 



" Mr. Peale presented to the Society a young son of four months and 

 four days old, being the first child born in the Philosophical Hall, and 

 requested that the Society would give him a name. On which, the Soci- 

 ety unanimously agreed that, after the name of the chief founder and 

 late President of the Society he should be named Franklin." Tradi- 

 tion adds, that the infant was thereupon so named in the President's 

 chair, given to the Society by Benjamin Franklin. 



This child, in a peculiar sense the child of the Society, was Franklin 

 Peale, our late associate, to wJiose memory I now, honored by your 

 choice, seek to render a feeble tribute. 



The father of Franklin Peale was Charles Wilson Peale, a man of va- 

 rious gifts, but eminent as a painter, and as the founder of the once 



