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iu Milton all that is lofty and sublime in that English poetry which 

 gi-ew out of an endeavor for popular freedom in an early day ; you find 

 in Washington all the high qualities of patience, courage, wisdom, and 

 sagacity, which gave the American people the civil and military power 

 to found a free republic. And so the man who establishes a govern- 

 ment, or develops a philosophy, or builds up and uses his fortune, in 

 violation of the spirit of the age in which he liv^es, serves only as a 

 warning to his fellow men, and fails in his mission here on earth. 



Now, sir, when I contemplate the character of that distinguished 

 man, whose greatness consists in the judgment and wisdom with 

 which he bestows his bountiful benefactions, I am always struck with 

 the fact that in him are combined all those qualities of prudence, hon- 

 esty, industry, and thi'ift, which so truly belong to the town in which 

 he was born, and also that devotion to all those institutions of learn- 

 ing, religion, and charity, which lie close to the hearts of our people. 

 George Peabody is the embodiment of the best industry, and the 

 soundest practical philanthropy of New England Society. What the 

 associated men of his native town of Danvers have labored for, for 

 years, he has accomplished better than they all. And what a remark- 

 able picture he presents ! He commenced life here as a poor boy. He 

 had no superior advantages. He could call upon no poAverful family 

 for aid. He was born into no great mercantile line, in whose well- 

 beaten path he could travel on to fortune. He inherited from his father 

 and mother only the faculties which he himself was to use in carving 

 out his own career. And it is astonishing how, as he went forth into 

 the world, he preserved, even in the height of all his successes, these 

 native faculties unharmed. He has been debauched by none of the 

 temptations which great wealth and unbounded prosperity carry in 

 their train. 



Passing from his own country into the great commercial centre of 

 the world, he has preserved all his habits of industry, all the method 

 of his early life, and all the simplicity and frugality into which he was 

 born. He has boasted of no establishment ; he has taken no pride in 

 his equipage ; has not made himself conspicuous with his horses in the 

 parks and on Regent street ; has courted no titles; has asked for no 

 distinction. But exercising always a generous hospitality toward his 

 countrj'men, he has been content to bestow his fortune and his powers 

 upon the wisest charities. In his simple counting-room, from which 

 his sagacious eye has surveyed the business of the world, on the Lon- 

 don Exchange, and in all private and public duties, he has always kept 

 that identity with which he started in life. His large brain, broad 

 enough for the best human service, ample enough for a statesman, has 

 never yet been turned from that course which he laid out for himself 

 in the beginning ; and George Peabodj^ of London is simply George 

 Peabody of Danvers, developed by time and experience into all his 

 ample proportions. 



I think, sir, to have received the attentions of a man like this is an 

 honor as well as a benefit to our institution. You must have observed 

 that Mr. Peabody bestows his benefactions on worthy objects, with 

 judgment entirely equal to his generosity. He puts the bounties of 

 princes and nobles to shame, by his great appropriation for the poor 

 of London. He builds up institutions of learning and religion in his 

 own land, extending his charity, with a full hand, to the dark spots 

 desolated by rebellion and war. Libraries and schools spring up un- 



