562 MEMOIR OF 



and conduct can supply. Upon his literary character, it will 

 be the province of posterity to pronounce ; and to it I willing- 

 ly leave to determine the rank he is to hold among the writers 

 of his country. To us in these moments, when we are again, 

 as it were, leaving his grave, there are other reflections that 

 belong ; and there are recollections of no vulgar kind that 

 arise, when we review the life of which we have seen the 

 close. 



It was a life, in its first view, of usefulness and of honour. 

 He was called to fill some of the most important offices which 

 the constitution of human society affords, — as a father of a fa- 

 mily, — a possessor of property, — a man of letters, — and a 

 Judge in the Supreme Courts of his country ; and he filled 

 them all, not only with the dignity of a man of virtue, but with 

 the grace of a man whose taste was founded upon high prin- 

 ciples, and fashioned upon exalted models. It was a life, in 

 its second view, of happiness as well as of honour : happy in 

 all the social relations which time afforded him, — in the esteem 

 of his country, — the affection of his friends, — the love and the 

 promises of his children : happy in a temper of mind which 

 knew no ambition but that of duty, and aspired to no distinc- 

 tion but that of doing good : happier than all in those early 

 and elevated views of Religion, which threw their own radiance 

 over all the scenes of man or of Nature through which he pas- 

 sed, and which enabled him to enjoy every present hour with 

 thankfulness, and to look forward to every future one with 

 hope. 



The records of this Society contain the histories of greater 

 men, — of none, I believe, more virtuous, more amiable, or 

 more happy : And while the lives of these illustrious men, 



(written 



