Page:Letters of Life.djvu/24

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
12
LETTERS OF LIFE.

Ever industrious, peaceful, and an example of all saintly virtues was she. At the age of seventy, not a thread of silver had woven itself with her lustrous black hair. Then a mild chill of paralysis checked the vital current, and gave me the first picture of serene death.

My father resembled her in his calm spirit and habitual diligence, as he did also in a cloudless longevity. The blessing of the fifth commandment came upon him who had honored the lone parent, resting on him for protection. He became a member, in his boyhood, of the family of Dr. Daniel Lathrop, a man of distinguished talents and collegiate education, matured by foreign travel. Destined for the medical profession, but possessing acute sensibilities, he was rendered so unhappy by the sufferings of others, especially by the necessity of performing any surgical operation, that he commuted active practice for the business of an apothecary. This allowed him frequent opportunities of giving salutary advice, especially to the poor, which gratified his benevolence, and kept his scientific knowledge from oblivion. To a competent patrimony he added a very large fortune gathered in his mercantile department, which he expended with great liberality. He was held in high honor, and numbered among the benefactors of his native city, being the first to found a school where the common people might be instructed