Page:Letters of Life.djvu/301

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DOMESTIC LIFE.
289

and healthful complexion, intent on errands of goodness, at past the age of threescore years and ten.

The Right Rev. Thomas Church Brownell, senior bishop of the United States, has presided over the Episcopal Church in Connecticut between forty and fifty years, and for almost the whole of that period been a resident of Hartford. Possessed of a clear intellect, and of the advantages of high education and foreign travel, his discourses and published writings ever maintained a distinguished character. He was the first president of Trinity College, and filled that post of honor with success, and a delightful blending of dignity with affability. This position he resigned, that he might more exclusively devote himself to the duties of his diocese. There, his success in increasing its numbers, and preserving that spirit of peace which has ever marked his own life and spirit, has been eminent. He has repressed the disposition to controversy, and studiously enforced that unity and love which the Gospel of Christ requires.

Now,[1] in his eighty-fifth year, the saintly beauty of his countenance, seated happily with the loved companion of his youth, and usually attended by some one of their affectionate children, is what no artist's pencil may hope to equal. Compelled by advancing infirmi-

  1. The honored prelate entered into the blessed rest of the saints on the 13th of January, a. d. 1865.