518  Memoir  of  Prof .  Wm.  Procter,  Jr.    {^vT/mf M' 
be  visible  in  all  thy  actions,  and  thus,  my  son,  I  think,  thou  wilt 
never  want  a  friend  in  man,  and  thou  wilt  have  a  friend  in  thy 
Heavenly  Father,  who  can,  and  will,  if  thou  love  Him  as  thou  ought, 
do  more  for  thee  than  all  the  world  beside.  Therefore,  my  dear  boy, 
4  seek  him  now  in  the  days  of  thy  youth  ;'  it  is  never  too  early  to  begin. 
There  is  another  point  on  which  I  wish  to  remark — that  of  keeping, 
everything  thee  may  ever  know  relative  to  thy  master's  business 
entirely  within  thy  own  breast,  sometimes  by  tattling  or  telling  little 
matters  to  others  it  has  often  been  a  cause  of  a  great  deal  of  mis- 
chief and  uneasiness,  if  not  unhappiness;  therefore  thou  wilt  be 
guarded  on  this  subject,  never  trust  even  thy  own  dear  friends  with 
anything  relative  to  thy  employer's  business  which  thou  might  suppose 
he  would  not  be  willing  for  everybody  to  know ;  and  always  stand 
open  to  reproof,  I  have  no  doubt,  if  necessary,  it  will  be  administered 
in  meekness  and  in  love." 
The  letter  from  which  we  have  made  this  abstract,  so  replete  with 
wisdom,  is  found  among  the  letters  which  he  preserved  of  that  period. 
Those  who  have  been  favored  with  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
William  Procter,  Jr.,  can  testify  that  the  goodly  counsels  of  a  Chris- 
tian mother  were  received  into  good  ground,  and  brought  forth  goodly 
fruit. 
From  1831  to  1836,  he  was  quietly  pursuing  his  duties  as  an  ap- 
prentice, residing  in  the  family  of  Henry  M.  ZollickofFer,  his  em- 
ployer, endearing  himself  to  all  by  his  cheerfulness,  brightness  and 
alacrity  in  all  his  duties.  In  1836,  he  commenced  a  diary.  In  one 
of  the  early  entries  of  this  year,  we  find  he  records  the  death  of  his 
mother,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three  years.  He  says,  "  I  have  indeed 
lost  another  and  only  parent,  who  has  watched  over  me  with  truly 
parental  care  and  tenderness.  All  my  hopes  of  repaying  her  unceas- 
ing kindness  are  now  at  an  end,  and  all  my  dreams  of  pleasure  about 
the  days  when  I  should  become  a  corner-stone  to  her,  have  vanished 
forever." 
In  March,  1837,  he  passed  a  successful  examination  as  a  candidate 
for  the  diploma  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  The  sub- 
ject of  his  thesis  was  "Lobelia  Inflata,"  a  paper  of  great  merit,  in 
which  he  demonstrates  the  presence  of  an  alkaloid,  lobelina,  on  which 
the  medical  activity  of  the  plant  depends. 
In  May,  1840,  he  was  elected  a  resident  member  of  the  College, 
and  from  that  period  we  find  the  volumes  of  the  American  Journal 
