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 PEES. HOPKINS'S DISCOURSE 
 
 COMMEMOKATIVE OF 
 
 AMOS LAWRENCE. 
 
 4 .»»— ► 
 
 
Class. 
 Book. 
 
 AA 
 
 SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 
 
7>} 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 COMMEMORATIVK OF j2» ^ V 
 
 AMOS LAWRENCE, 
 
 DELIVERED BY REQUEST OF THE STUDENTS, 
 
 CHAPEL OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE, 
 
 FEBRUARY 21, 1853. 
 
 BT 
 
 MARK HOPKINS, D. D. iS^^^' '< 
 
 PRESIDENT OP THE COLLEGE. iC* 
 
 ' MB j^ y 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN. 
 
 1853. 
 
F^9 
 
 z 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 
 T. R. Marvin, 
 
 In the Clerk's OflSce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
DISCOUESE. 
 
 JOB XXIX. 11-13. 
 
 ■WHEN THE EAR HEARD ME, THEN IT BLESSED ME; AND -VVHEN THE EYE SAW 
 ME, n GAVE WITNESS TO ME ; BECAUSE I DELIVERED THE POOR THAT 
 CRIED, AND THE FATHERLESS, AND HIM THAT HAD NONE TO HELP HIM. 
 THE BLESSING OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH CAME UPON ME, AND 
 I CAUSED THE WIDOW's HEART TO SING FOR JOY. 
 
 The patience of Job, in connection with such 
 signal afflictions, has, in some measure, drawn atten- 
 tion from the general excellence of his character. 
 That patience was no isolated virtue, having its root 
 in some special aptitude for it of the constitution ; 
 but a manifestation, under varied circumstances, of 
 that rational and central excellence that had shone 
 forth under a different form in prosperity. It was 
 but the circling round to us of the completed orb 
 of his character. Not from his conduct in affliction, 
 but in prosperity, it was, that he was called by God 
 ' a perfect and an upright man.' Scarcely, if at all, has 
 the world shown a finer example of all that goes to 
 make up a complete manhood — of vivid and refined 
 feeling, of elevated and tender sentiment, of enlarged 
 benevolence, of parental faithfulness, of intellectual 
 
 (3) 
 
power in the high form of genius, and of an exalted 
 religious character. 
 
 Up to the time mentioned in the history, these 
 excellences had been manifested in connection with 
 high distinction in life, with great wealth, and unin- 
 terrupted prosperity. God had, as it is said, ' made 
 an hedge about him, and about his house, and about 
 all that he had on every side.' He had ' blessed the 
 work of his hands,' and ' his substance was increased 
 in the land ; — so that this man was the greatest 
 of all the men of the east.' 
 
 Thus exalted and prosperous, he was, of course, 
 subject to the usual temptations of pride, and vanity, 
 and voluptuousness, and avarice. But these he re- 
 sisted. He did not for a moment forget his great 
 moral relations to the Creator and to his fellow-crea- 
 tures. He abused no power intrusted to him ; and 
 in the acquisition^ the right estimate^ and the right 
 use of property^ he set an example for the world. 
 
 There is no indication that he was the possessor 
 of hereditary power, or that he had any position or 
 advantage that was not due, under tlie blessing of 
 God, to his own exertions and force of character. 
 But that his wealth was of his own acquisition is 
 clearly indicated by what is said of God's having 
 blessed the work of his hands, and of his substance 
 as increased in the land ; also where he says, " Be- 
 cause mine hand had gotten much," showing that it 
 was his own hand that had gotten it. 
 
5 
 
 And this wealth he acquired honestly. No part 
 of it was gained by any process of which any one 
 could complain. No furrow turned for him could 
 bear witness against him, either that the soil was 
 dishonestly acquired, or that the wages of the laborer 
 were withheld. " If," says he, triumphantly, when 
 the unjust suspicions of his friends wrung from him 
 his vindication, — " if my land cry against me, or that 
 the furrows likewise thereof complain ; if I have eaten 
 the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the 
 owners thereof to lose their life ; let thistles grow in- 
 stead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." Nor 
 did he, as is too often done, either gain or save any 
 thing by any form of hard dealing with his servants 
 or dependants. How noble and solemn is his recog- 
 nition of their claims to equal justice ! •" If," says 
 he, " I did despise the cause of my man servant, or 
 of my maid servant, when they contended with me, 
 what then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when 
 he visiteth, what shall I answer him'? Did not he 
 that made me in the womb make him ? and did not 
 one fashion us in the womb ] " 
 
 Having thus acquired his property rightfully, he 
 saw its true relations to human life, and placed upon 
 it no undue estimate. Between the idolatry of wealth 
 and of the other creatures of God he made no dis- 
 tinction. " If," says he, " I have made gold my hope, 
 or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence ; 
 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and 
 
because mine hand had gotten much ; if I beheld the 
 sun when it shined, or the moon walking in bright- 
 ness ; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my 
 mouth hath kissed my hand, — this also were an 
 iniquity to be punished by the Judge ; for I should 
 have denied the God that is above." 
 
 And the property thus acquired, and thus esti- 
 mated, he knew how to use. He employed it in 
 establishing his children " about him," who seem to 
 have lived in harmony, and to have been to him a 
 source of great comfort. He employed it also in 
 sustaining the bountiful hospitality of the east. 
 " The stranger," says he, " did not lodge in the 
 street, but I opened my doors to the traveller." And 
 especially did he employ his wealth in providing 
 for the wants of the poor. "If," says he, "I have 
 withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused 
 the eyes of the widow to fail ; or have eaten my 
 morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not 
 eaten thereof ; if I have seen any perish for want of 
 clothing, or any poor without covering ; if his loins 
 have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with 
 the fleece of my sheep ; if I have lifted up my hand 
 against the fatherless, wlicn I saw my help in the 
 gate, — then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, 
 and mine arm be broken from the bone." 
 
 Of such a man it might well be expected that he 
 could say, as he says in the text, " When the ear 
 heard me, then it blessed me ; and when the eye saw 
 
me, it gave witness to me ; because I delivered the 
 poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that 
 had none to help him. The blessing of him that 
 was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused 
 the widow's heart to sing for joy." 
 
 These words, thus spoken by Job, could have been 
 applied to themselves by few men who have since 
 lived, more appropriately than by a distinguished 
 Benefactor of this College, who has recently been 
 taken from the earth. It is known to his friends 
 that Mr. Lawrence stood in the first rank among 
 men in those qualities, both of the head and of the 
 heart, that adorn humanity, and to some of these I 
 may hereafter refer ; but he was known to the public 
 chiefly for his acquisition^ his estimate, and his use of 
 wealth. With an integrity as unsullied as that of 
 Job in the acquisition of property, and with a heart 
 as large and a hand as open in its distribution, if 
 we make allowance for the different length of human 
 life, his charities were probably not less extensive. 
 
 Among the men of great wealth who have died 
 in this country, he stands, so far as I know, in some 
 respects alone ; and rising as he did from moderate 
 circumstances, there cannot but be involved in his 
 course lessons of instruction, great principles demand- 
 ing not only careful, but special attention in this day 
 of the vast increase, the rapid acquisition, and the 
 selfish and reckless expenditure of wealth. Perhaps 
 one purpose for which he was raised up was to call 
 
attention to these lessons and principles. Perhaps 
 the time may be near when higher and more rational 
 views in regard to property and its uses shall prevail ; 
 when numbers shall escape from that weary and 
 monotonous round of mammon — the toilsome and 
 careful accumulation, till death, of sums that gener- 
 ally depress the manhood, and often ruin the charac- 
 ter, of those for whom they are laid up; when it 
 shall be seen that it is not money, but the ' love of 
 money,' that is the ' root of all evil,' and that property 
 is a great trust. Concerning all this, Mr. Law^rence 
 made no new discovery, but he did what is often 
 quite as important. He saw, as by intuition, great 
 practical principles, and by embodying them in ac- 
 tual life, he gave to some that had fallen much into 
 desuetude the freshness and force of anew discovery. 
 He did in his department and sphere what Howard 
 and ]Mills did in theirs. 
 
 Like most men in this country who have jDosscsscd 
 great wealth, Mr. Lawrence was indebted for it to 
 his own exertions. His parents were of the old Pu- 
 ritan stock, and the formative influences of his child- 
 hood were those of a religious New England flimily. 
 His father shared deeply in the spirit and perils of 
 '76. He belonged to a company of ' minute men ; ' and 
 on the very day of his marriage the alarm was given, 
 his company was called for, and he left his bride, and 
 without returning, gave himself for months to the 
 service of his country. He was a farmer, and a man 
 
9 
 
 of standing and influence both in the town and in 
 the church. Above poverty and dependence, he was 
 yet unable to do more for his children than to give 
 them the means of education accessible in their na- 
 tive town, and place them in favorable positions to 
 be the artificers of their own fortune. With the 
 stern manliness that oftenest overlies the deepest and 
 tenderest feelings, he showed them that he was will- 
 ing to make any sacrifice for their good, and they 
 reciprocated the feeling. 
 
 At the usual age, Mr. Lawrence was placed in a 
 store in Groton as a clerk. This clerkship he re- 
 garded as the turning point of his life, and was wont 
 to trace back his success to the course he then took. 
 He was placed with a man past middle age, who had 
 been long in business, and was supposed to be 
 wealthy. This man spent the most of his time in 
 the store, but did very little, employing several clerks. 
 It was the usage in those days to 'treat' customers 
 after they had traded, the clerks preparing the various 
 mixtures, and often drinking with them. To this 
 usage Mr. Lawrence confonned for a short time, but 
 soon observed that the owner of the store generally 
 showed before night that he had gone too far, and 
 that the older clerks were fast following in his foot- 
 steps. His mind was soon made up. Understanding 
 perfectly the ridicule he should meet with, and w^hich 
 for a time he did meet with in its fullest measure, 
 he yet took at once the ground of total abstinence. 
 
10 
 
 Such a stand, taken at such an age, in such circum- 
 stances of temptation, before temperance societies had 
 been heard of, or the investigations had been com- 
 menced on wliich they were based, was a striking in- 
 stance of that practical judgment and decision which 
 characterized liim through life. About the same 
 time, he came to a similar decision in regard to to- 
 bacco, and never used it in any form. In the wisdom 
 of his course on both these points he was confirmed by 
 all his subsequent observation. The man in whose 
 store he was, died a bankrupt and a drunkard ; and 
 every one of those clerks, together with other young 
 men in the village similarly situated, had long since 
 found drunkards' graves. In a letter received from 
 him last summer, which accompanied fifty copies of 
 " Stories on Tobacco, by Uncle Toby," after stating 
 that he had never used it, he says, " To this absti- 
 nence from its use (and from rum) I owe, under 
 God, my present position in society. Further, I have 
 always given the preference, among such persons as I 
 have employed for more than forty years past, to such 
 as avoided rum and tobacco, — and my experience 
 has been to confirm me that it is true wisdom to have 
 done so. The evil is growing in a fearfully rapid ratio 
 among us, and requires the steady course of respected 
 and honored men to prevent its spread, by influen- 
 cing the scliool children of our land against becoming 
 its slaves." Who can tell the bearing upon his busi- 
 ness of thus employing men of unclouded intellect, 
 
li 
 
 and steady nerves, having the power of self-control 1 
 "Who can tell how many young men, without know- 
 ing the reason, failed to obtain a place which would 
 have been to them a fortune 1 
 
 At twenty-one, Mr. Lawrence went to Boston, not 
 with the purpose of remaining, but to learn the fash- 
 ions, and see how business was done there. This 
 was in April, 1807. Instead, however, of returning 
 to Groton, as he had intended, he was induced to ro 
 main in Boston as a clerk. Here he so commended 
 himself to his employers, by his energy and business 
 talent, that they very soon offered him a place in 
 the firm. Much to their surprise, and without any 
 definite knowledge of their affairs, he declined the 
 offer. He did not like their manner of doing busi- 
 ness. Here, again, the result showed his sagacity. 
 In less than six months they failed, and he was 
 appointed by the creditors to take charge of the sale 
 of the goods. This he did ; and in December went 
 into business on his own account. 
 
 He was now exposed to the temptations of a city. 
 But he stood firm. His days were spent in business, 
 and his evenings in useful reading. He avoided 
 the appearance of evil, treading on no questionable 
 ground ; and no stain or suspicion of vice ever rested 
 upon him. 
 
 Of his business career I know no particulars. I 
 have never understood that he was, in the ordinary 
 sense of that word, a fortunate man. His wealth 
 
12 
 
 came to him by no lucky chances, but by a skill and 
 an energy that commanded uniform and great suc- 
 cess. His judgment was shown, not merely in the 
 purchase of goods, and in the lines of business on 
 which he entered, but also, as has been said, in his 
 selection of agents, clerks, and partners; and in 
 deciding whom he might safely trust. He made no 
 bad debts. It is said there has been no man in Bos- 
 ton who took hold of business Avith the same grasp 
 and energy. Quick in his perceptions, deciding as 
 by intuition, and prompt in action, he is said to have 
 had in those days little patience with the slow, the 
 inefficient, the dainty, or those who felt above their 
 business. So energetic young men, in every depart- 
 ment, are apt to feel. They think these things need 
 not be. And perhaps they need not ; but in time 
 they become more tolerant of them, finding, as the 
 Saviour said of the poor, that we have them always 
 with us. 
 
 The first year his gains were small, but he dealt so 
 promptly and honorably that his customers returned 
 and brought others ; and thus the rills began to come 
 in that formed the river. In a few years he placed 
 himself at the head of a house that, for wealth and 
 mercantile honor, was among the very first in Boston, 
 and which continued so till the firm was dissolved 
 by his death. 
 
 For twenty-five years he continued in active busi- 
 ness. At the end of that time, he was suddenly 
 
13 
 
 prostrated by drinking cold water when heated. 
 There seemed to be a paralysis of the stomach, and 
 for many days he was not expected to recover. After 
 that, he was subject to sudden attacks, which deprived 
 him, sometimes for hours, of all consciousness. From 
 that time, he was obliged to be most careful of his 
 diet. His food was of the simplest kind, was eaten by 
 weight, and for twenty years he sat down at no meal 
 with his family. His attacks often came without 
 warning; he expected to die, as he did, in one of 
 them, and hence expressively called himself, in mili- 
 tary phrase, ' a minute man.' From this time he 
 gave no attention to the details of business, but re- 
 mained the senior partner of the firm, giving counsel 
 and general direction, and being consulted and relied 
 on in all questions of difficulty and importance. 
 
 In speaking of the acquisition of his property, 
 and as indicating his sagacity and enterprise, it may 
 be mentioned that Mr. Lawrence was among the 
 earliest and most successful of those who engaged in 
 manufactures. 
 
 Of his estimate of property, and of the modes in 
 which it can be made to contribute to the enjoyment 
 of its possessor, and to human well being, we can 
 judge only from the use that he made of it. 
 
 It has been supposed by some that his habit of 
 gi\ing largely commenced with his ill health ; but this 
 
14 
 
 was by no means the case. It is known that it 
 extended back to the period of his early prosperity, 
 and kept pace with that. He had a sense of re- 
 ligious obligation, and a benevolent heart ; and then, 
 with the same sagacity that governed his business 
 transactions, he perceived the tendency there is in 
 accumulation to increase the love of money, and 
 guarded against it. In his busiest days, he had 
 pasted, in large letters, in his pocket book, passages 
 of Scripture inculcating liberality, and the obliga- 
 tion of good stewardship. 
 
 But while this was so, we cannot suppose that his 
 views were not modified by the loss of his health. 
 Often struck down in a moment, and awaking to con- 
 sciousness as from the sleep of death, and then re- 
 maining for weeks so feeble that neither he nor his 
 friends expected his recovery, he was led to look 
 fully and calmly at death, and must have gained 
 views of life and its ends which another discipline 
 would not have given him. This was doubtless a 
 part of God's preparation of him for the work he 
 was to do, and he so regarded it. Thenceforth he 
 lived to do good. 
 
 When it was that he came to the determination 
 not to increase his property I do not know. Nor do 
 I know the whole amount of his charities. Probably 
 that will never be known. I am, however, safe in 
 saying, that, since 1840, his benefactions have not 
 been less than five hundred thousand dollars. 
 
15 
 
 This he did not dispense at random, nor yet by any 
 rigid and inflexible system that could not be moulded 
 and shaped by the calls and aspects of each new day. 
 He wished to know his duty as a Christian man, and 
 to do it, and to gratify his best affections. He aided 
 family connections near and remote, and old friends 
 and acquaintances. If any of them needed a few 
 hundred dollars to help 'them over a difficult position, 
 it was sure to come. But his sympathy was not lim- 
 ited at all to kindred or acquaintance, or in any way 
 narrowed by sect or party. He was a true man, in 
 sympathy with suffering humanity, and was always 
 glad — it gave him real pleasure — to find a worthy 
 object of his bounty. He sought out such objects. 
 He learned histories of reverses, and of noble struggles 
 with adversity, that were stranger than fiction. Those 
 thus struggling he placed in positions to help them- 
 selves, furnishing them, if necessary, with sums from 
 one hundred to a thousand dollars, or more, as freely 
 as he would have given a cup of cold water. He 
 visited almshouses, and hospitals, and insane asylums, 
 and retreats for the deaf and dumb, and the blind, 
 and became deeply interested in many of their in- 
 mates. He was watchful of every thing needed there 
 for comfort or for instruction, and his presence always 
 carried sunshine with it. He distributed useful 
 books. He aided genius, and encouraged promising 
 talent. A true son of New England, he appreciated 
 education, and gave his money and his influence to 
 
16 
 
 extend it, and to elevate its standard in every grade 
 of our institutions, from the primary school in Bos- 
 ton to the College. Not only the Academy at Groton 
 but several Colleges, and more particularly this Col- 
 lege, were largely aided by him. 
 
 Other persons have aided this College generously, 
 and have our thanks and those of the public ; but 
 he was its chief benefactor. With one exception,* 
 he is the only person who has ever given the Col- 
 lege, at any one time, a larger sum than one thousand 
 dollars, and the only person who has thus given 
 more than that to its unrestricted use. 
 
 As your request that I should address you on this 
 occasion had its origin in his benefactions to the Col- 
 lege, some account of them will be expected. 
 
 In October, 1841, the building known as the East 
 College was burned. Needy as the institution was 
 before, this rendered necessary an application to the 
 legislature for funds, and when this failed, to the 
 public at large. 0\ving to a panic in the money 
 market, this application was but slightly responded 
 to, except in this town. In Boston the amount 
 raised was less than two thousand dollars, and the 
 largest sum given by any indi\ddual was one hundred 
 dollars. This sum was paid by Mr. Lawrence, who 
 was applied to by a friend of the College ; and this, it 
 is believed, was the only application ever made to 
 
 * Woodbridge Little, Esq., who gave $2,500, and bequeathed $3,200, 
 to aid indigent and pious young men. 
 
17 
 
 him on its behalf. This directed his attention to the 
 wants of the College, but nothing more was heard 
 from him till January, 1844. At that time, I was 
 delivering a course of the Lowell Lectures in Boston, 
 when his son, Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, called and 
 informed me that his father had five thousand dollars 
 which he wished to place at the disposal of the Col- 
 lege. As I was previously but slightly acquainted 
 with Mr. Lawrence, and had had no conversation 
 with him on the subject, this was to me an entire 
 surprise ; and embarrassed as the institution then was 
 by its debt for the new buildings, the relief and en- 
 couragement which it brought to my own mind, and 
 to the minds of others, friends of the College, can 
 hardly be expressed. Still, this did not wholly re- 
 move the debt. On hearing this casually mentioned, 
 he said, if he had known how we were situated, he 
 thought he should have given us more ; and the fol- 
 lowing July, without another word on the subject, 
 he sent me a check for five thousand dollars. This 
 put the College out of debt, and added two or three 
 thousand dollars to its available funds. 
 
 In January, 1846, he wrote, saying he wished to 
 see me ; and on meeting him, he said his object was 
 to consult me about the disposition of ten thousand 
 dollars, which he proposed to give the College. He 
 wished to know how I thought it would do the most 
 good. I replied at once, " By being placed at the 
 disposal of the trustees, to be used at their discre- 
 
18 
 
 tion." He said, " Very well ; " and that was all that 
 passed on that pomt. So I thought, and knowing 
 his simplicity of character and singleness of purpose, 
 I felt no embarrassment in making that reply. Here 
 was a beautiful exemplification of the precept of the 
 Apostle, " He that givetli, let him do it with simpli- 
 city." Such a man had a right to have for one of 
 his mottoes, " Deeds, not words." This was just 
 what was needed — not all that was needed, but it 
 gave us some breadth and enlargement, and was a 
 beginning in what it had long been felt must sooner 
 or later be undertaken — the securing of an available 
 fund suitable as a basis for such an institution. 
 
 His next large gift was the library. This came 
 from his asking me, as I was riding with him the 
 following winter, if we wanted any thing. Nothing 
 occurred to me at the time, and I replied in the 
 negative ; but the next day I remembered that the 
 trustees had voted to build a library, provided the 
 treasurer should find it could be done for twenty-five 
 hundred dollars. This I mentioned to him. He 
 inquired what I supposed it would cost. I replied, 
 five thousand dollars. He said at once, " I will give 
 it." With his approbation, the plan of a building 
 was subsequently adopted that would cost seven 
 thousand dollars, and he paid that sum. 
 
 A year or two subsequently, he inquired of me the 
 price of tuition here, saying he should like to connect 
 Groton Academy with Williams College; and he 
 
19 
 
 paid two thousand dollars to establish four scholar- 
 ships for any who might come from that institution. 
 
 His next gift was the telescope, which cost about fif- 
 teen hundred dollars. The history of this would in- 
 volve some details which I have not now time to give. 
 
 In 1851, accompanied by Mrs. Lawrence, he made 
 a visit here. This was the first time either of them 
 had seen the place. In walking over the grounds, 
 he said they had great capabilities, but that we needed 
 more land ; and authorized the purchase of an adja- 
 cent piece, of four acres. This purchase was made 
 for one thousand dollars ; and if the College can 
 have the means of laying it out, and adorning it 
 suitably, it will, besides furnishing scope for exercise, 
 be a fit addition of the charms of culture to great 
 beauty of natural scenery. 
 
 In addition to these gifts, he has, at different times, 
 enriched the library with costly books, of the expense 
 of which I know nothing. Almost every thing we 
 have in the form of art was given by him. 
 
 In December, 1845, I received a letter from him, 
 dated the 22d, or ' forefathers' day,' which enclosed 
 one hundred dollars, to be used for the aid of 
 needy students, in those emergencies which often 
 arise. This was entirely at his own suggestion, and 
 nothing could have been more timely or appropriate 
 in an institution like this, where so many young men 
 are struggling to make their own way. Since that 
 time, he has furnished me with, at least, one hundred 
 
20 
 
 dollars annually for that purpose, and he regarded 
 this expenditure with much interest. 
 
 Thus, in different ways, Mr. LaAvrence had given 
 to the College between thirty and forty thousand dol- 
 lars, and he had expressed the purpose, if he should 
 live, of aiding it still further. 
 
 Understanding, as he did, the position and wants 
 of this College, he sympathized fully with the trustees 
 in their purpose to raise the sum of fifty thousand 
 dollars, and at the time of his death was exerting a 
 most warm-hearted and powerful influence for its ac- 
 complishment. In reference to this great effort, we 
 feel that a strong helper is taken away. 
 
 The aid which Mr. Lawrence thus gave to the 
 College was great and indispensable, and probably no 
 memorial of him will be more enduring than what he 
 has done here. By this, being dead, he yet speaks, 
 and will continue to speak in all coming time. From 
 him will flow down enjoyment and instruction to 
 those who shall walk these grounds, and look at the 
 heavens through this telescope, and read the books 
 gathered in this library, and hear instruction from 
 teachers sustained wholly or in part by his bounty. 
 Probably he could not have spent this money more 
 usefully, and there is reason to believe that he could 
 have spent it in no way to bring to himself more en- 
 joyment. The prosperity of the College was a source 
 of great gratification to him, and he said, more than 
 once, that he had been many times repaid for what 
 
21 
 
 he had done here. That he should have thus done 
 what he did unsolicited, and that he, and, I may add, 
 his family, should have continued to find in it so 
 much of satisfaction, is most grateful to my own 
 feelings, and must be so to those of every friend of 
 the College. In doing it, he seemed to place himself 
 in the relation, not so much of a patron of the Col- 
 lege, as of a sympathizer and helper in a great and 
 good work. 
 
 Having thus spoken of the use of his property by 
 Mr. Lawrence, I observe that it was distinguished by 
 the three characteristics, which seem to me essential 
 to the most perfect accomplishment of the ends of 
 benevolence ; and that in two of these he was pre- 
 eminent. 
 
 The first of these is, that he gave the money in his 
 lifetime. No man, I presume, has lived on this con- 
 tinent, who has approximated him in the amount 
 thus given ; and in this course there are principles 
 involved which deserve the careful attention of those 
 who would act conscientiously, and with the highest 
 wisdom. There may, doubtless, be good reasons why 
 property destined for benevolent uses should be re- 
 tained till death, and he is justly honored who then 
 gives it a wise direction ; but giving thus cannot fur- 
 nish either the same test, or discipline of character, 
 or the same enjoyment; nor can it always accom- 
 plish the same ends. By his course, Mr. Lawrence 
 
22 
 
 put his money to its true work long before it would 
 have done any thing on the principle of accumula- 
 tion, and to a work, too, to which it never could have 
 been put in any other way. He made it sure also 
 that that work should be done, and had the pleasure 
 of seeing its results, and of knowing that, through 
 it, he became the object of gratitude and affection. 
 So doing, he showed that he stood completely above 
 that tendency to accumulate which seems to form 
 the chief end of most successful business men, and 
 which, unless stronsrlv counteracted, narrows itself 
 into avarice as old age comes on, almost with the cer- 
 tainty of a natural law. He did stand completely 
 above this. No one could know him without per- 
 ceiving that in his giving there was no remnant of 
 grudging or of reluctance; that he gave not only 
 freely, but with gladness, as if it were the appropri- 
 ate action of a vital energy. And in so doing, and 
 in witnessing the results, and in the atmosphere of 
 sympathy and love thus created, there was a test, and 
 a discipline, and an enjoyment, as well as a benefit 
 to others, that could have been reached in no other 
 way. 
 
 The second peculiarity in the bounty of Mr. Law- 
 rence, and in which he was preeminent, was the 
 personal attention and sympathy which he bestowed 
 with it. He had in his house a room where he kept 
 stores of useful articles for distribution. He made 
 up the bundle, he directed the package. No detail 
 
23 
 
 was overlooked. He remembered the children, and 
 designated for each the toy, the book, the elegant gift. 
 He thought of every want, and was ingenious and 
 happy in devising appropriate gifts. In this attention 
 to the minutest token of regard, while, at the same 
 time, he could give away thousands like a prince, I 
 have known no one like him. And if the gift was 
 appropriate, the manner of giving was not less so. 
 There was in this the nicest appreciation of the feel- 
 ings of others, and an intuitive perception of delicacy 
 and propriety. These were the characteristics that 
 gave him a hold upon the hearts of many, and made 
 his death really felt as that of few other men in 
 Boston could have been. In these we find not a little 
 of the utility, and much of the beauty, of charity. 
 Even in his human life, man does not live by bread 
 alone, but by sympathy, and the play of reciprocal 
 affection ; and is often more touched by the kindness 
 than by the relief Only this sympathy it is that can 
 establish the right relation between the rich and the 
 poor, and the necessity for this can be superseded by 
 no legal provision. This only can neutralize the 
 repellent and aggressive tendencies of individuals 
 and of classes, and make society a brotherhood, 
 where the various inequalities shall work out moral 
 good, and where acts of mutual kindness and help- 
 fulness may pass and repass as upon a golden chain, 
 during a brief pilgrimage and scene of probation. 
 It is a great and a good thing for a rich man to set 
 
24 
 
 the stream of charity in motion, to employ an agent, 
 to send a check, to found an asylum, to endow a 
 professorship, to open a fountain that shall flow for 
 ages ; but it is as diflerent from sympathy with present 
 suffering, and the relief of immediate want, as the 
 building of a dam to turn a factory by one great 
 sluiceway, is from the irrigation of the fields. Both 
 ought to be done. By Mr. Lawrence both were 
 done. 
 
 The third characteristic referred to, of the bounty 
 of Mr. Lawrence, was, that he gave as a Christian 
 man, — from a sense of religious obligation. Not 
 that all his gifts had a religious aspect. He gave 
 gifts of friendship and of affection. There was a 
 large enclosure where the affections walked foremost, 
 and where, though they asked leave of Duty, they 
 yet received no prompting from her. Whether he 
 always drew this line rightly, whether in the measure 
 and direction of his charities he was always right, 
 whether so much of diff"usion and individuality was 
 wise, it is not for me to say. Certain it is, that this 
 form of charity holds a place in the church, now, less 
 prominent relatively than it did in the early ages ; 
 and it may be that the proportions of Christian char- 
 acter, in portions of the church, need to be remod- 
 elled and recast in this respect. These are ques- 
 tions for each individual. It is sufficient to know 
 that ]\Ir. Lawrence looked the great doctrine of 
 stewardship full in the face, and prayed earnestly 
 
25 
 
 over it, and responded to it practically as few have 
 done. 
 
 This is what is chiefly needed by us all, as intrusted 
 by God with our various gifts and means of influence. 
 This it is that is needed by men of wealth. The 
 feeling of the absolute ownership of property, and 
 of the full right of its disposal within the range of 
 human law, is entirely different from that of steward- 
 ship — of a trust held under another, and to be admin- 
 istered with reference to his will. This position is 
 one which the man of wealth is most slow to take. 
 Every natural feeling resists it. But not till this 
 position is taken will the man himself find his true 
 place, or wealth its true uses, or the wealthy them- 
 selves the highest and the appropriate blessedness 
 which it can confer. 
 
 That Mr. Lawrence took this position, will ap- 
 pear by an extract from one of his letters, " If," 
 he writes, " by the consecration of my earthly pos- 
 sessions to some extent, I can make the Christian 
 character practically more lovely, and illustrate, in 
 my own case, that the highest enjoyments here are 
 promoted by the free use of the good things intrusted 
 to us, what so good use can I make of them ? I feel 
 that my stewardship is a very imperfect one, and that 
 my use of these good things might be extended prof- 
 itably to myself" 
 
 Hitherto wealth has been a great corrupter. It 
 has inflamed the passions, and narrowed the heart, 
 
26 
 
 and made it sordid. It has been harder for a rich 
 man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than for a 
 camel to go through the eye of a needle. The pro- 
 bation of wealth has been more perilous than that 
 of poverty. But let this broad position of steward- 
 ship be taken, and under it let the characteristics 
 before mentioned come in ; let the rich man no 
 longer reverse in its spirit the precept to do with his 
 might what his hand findeth to do because there is 
 no work in the grave, and refuse to do any thing till 
 he goes there, and because he is going there ; let 
 him hold always his own heart close to the beating 
 heart of humanity, so that they shall throb with a 
 common pulsation, — and these evils will vanish, and 
 will bear away with them many of the chief evils of 
 society. The man rich in this world will be " rich in 
 good works, ready to distribute, willing to communi- 
 cate." He will not do a vain work, that shall have 
 no relation to the great plans of God ; and " at his 
 end be a fool." He will lift up his eyes upon a 
 world lying in wickedness, and in consequent suffer- 
 ing, and will seek to remove the wickedness, and 
 to relie"S'e the suffering. The accumulated and con- 
 centrated water that had before carried desolation in 
 its course, and left its channel dry and dusty, will 
 now show a long track of verdure where it flows ; it 
 will find its way to the roots of a thousand flowers, 
 that shall cover the earth with their beauty, and fill 
 the air with their perfume. 
 
27 
 
 In what has now been said, some traits of the 
 character of Mr. Lawrence have been indicated. 
 Something more of him you may wish to know, and 
 it may be proper for me to state ; but it must be 
 with a painful sense of its inadequacy. Words and 
 descriptions must fail to convey to others an impres- 
 sion of what he was to his friends. This must 
 always be so where the strength of a character lies 
 so much as did his in the affections. You may 
 give to the perished flower its botanical name and 
 scientific description, but this is not to see it in 
 its living beauty, and to enter the sphere of its fra- 
 grance. 
 
 Undoubtedly he was a man of great original pow- 
 ers. On this point I have had but one opinion since 
 knowing him. His mind was not speculative, dis- 
 cursive, metaphysical ; but in the high moral quali- 
 ties, in decision and energy, in intuitive perception 
 and sound practical judgment, in the sensibilities 
 and affections, and in the imagination, he was great. 
 Like all remarkable men who are not one-sided, he 
 had large faculties, which found their harmony in 
 their conflict, or rather in their balance. He was 
 quick and tender in his feelings, yet firm ; ardent in 
 his affections, yet judicious ; large in his gifts, yet 
 discriminating ; he was a keen observer, yet kind in 
 his feelings ; he had a fertile and shaping imagination 
 — he built air castles, and they vanished, and then he 
 built others ; but when he decided to build any thing 
 
28 
 
 on the ground, it was well planned and promptly 
 finished. 
 
 His tastes were natural and simple, his habits 
 plain, and his fccliugs always fresh, genuine, and 
 youthful. Not even the smell of the fire of pros- 
 perity had passed on him. He shunned notoriety. 
 He had a strong repugnance to all affectation, and 
 pretence, and misplaced finery. A young man with 
 rings on his fingers had small chance of employment 
 or favor from him. He was impatient of talk when 
 action was called for, and of all attempts to substi- 
 tute talk for action. 
 
 His command over the English language, especially 
 in writing, indicated his power. Style is no mechan- 
 ical product, that can be formed by rules, but is 
 the outgrowth and image of the mind ; and his had 
 often great felicity and strength. When he wrote 
 under the impulse of his feelings, he seemed to 
 impregnate the very paper, and make it redolent of 
 them. 
 
 He loved nature, and instead of becoming insensi- 
 ble to it as years came on, it seemed rather to open 
 upon him like a new revelation. It was full of life 
 and of teaching, and the charms of natural beauty 
 were heightened by those associations which his quick 
 imagination connected with its objects and scenes. 
 After the death of two of his children, he says, 
 
 " Dear S , and E , speak in words without 
 
 sound through every breeze, and in every flower, and 
 
29 
 
 in the fragrance of every perfume from the fields or 
 the trees." Years ago, after a long confinement, 
 with little hope of recovery, he visited, when first 
 able to get out, the Panorama of Jerusalem, then 
 on exhibition in Boston, and remained there till 
 the scene took full possession of his mind. Shortly 
 after, on a fine day, he rode out to Brookline ; 
 and as returning health threw over those hills a 
 mantle of beauty that he had never seen before, they 
 were -immediately associated in his mind with the 
 Panorama of Jerusalem, and then with the glories of 
 the Jerusalem above. This association was indisso- 
 luble, and he would take his friends out to see his 
 ' Mount Zion.' In 1850, he says, " It really seems to 
 me like the sides of Mount Zion, and that I can cling 
 to them as I view them." 
 
 Soon after the death of his youngest son, a storm 
 rent a large bough from one of the oaks that shel- 
 tered his grave. The oak bled, and when he saw it, 
 he applied it to himself The next time he visited 
 Mount Auburn, the gardener had removed all appear- 
 ance of injury, and covered the wound with what 
 seemed to be bark ; and he fancied that the remaining 
 portions of the tree had now a more vigorous growth. 
 This thrilled him — it was a sermon, and his appli- 
 cation of it will be seen in the following extract : 
 " And then again the calls, as I visit Mount Auburn, 
 speak to me with an eloquence that no tongue can 
 equal, when I see the old oak holding its head erect, 
 
30 
 
 its opposite branches more extended ; its leaves have 
 been greener, larger, and more numerous, as its whole 
 nourishment has gone into one side of the tree the 
 past year, and thus have taught me that my precious 
 ones secured, would encourage me to cheer on such 
 as need the shade and encouragement this old oak 
 can supply." 
 
 Hear him again, at the close of 1851, associating 
 natural beauty with social blessings.. " The closing 
 of the old year," says he, " was like our western ho- 
 rizon after sunset, bright and beautiful ; the opening 
 of the new, radiant with life, light, and hope, and 
 crowned with such a costume of love as few old 
 fathers, grandfathers, and uncles can muster." 
 
 Thus sensitive to the pulsations and suggestions 
 of nature, it might be expected that he would be 
 still more so within the sphere of the domestic affec- 
 tions. He was ; and in these, few men have been as 
 happy. His home was all that a home could be ; and 
 then, like Job, he had his children about him, and 
 his children's children. Bereaved of two of his 
 children, he could still say, " And with all these pre- 
 cious ones left, it seems as though I had sources of 
 enjoyment that any man might be justified in craving. 
 If I starve my body, I feed my spirit, and thus 
 receive my full share of the good things of life. My 
 greatest trouble is, not rendering due returns for 
 these." This is a charmed circle with which the 
 stranger may not intermeddle ; but perhaps a single 
 
31 
 
 extract, showing his feelings on the return of his son 
 from abroad, may be allowed. " The intelligence of 
 
 son W 's arrival in New York preceded his arrival 
 
 in Boston only one hour ; and the effect of the intel- 
 ligence was like the gas which is called laughing gas, 
 only with me it was crying. In truth, it was more 
 than I could stand ; and I allowed nature fair play, 
 and cried, and gave utterance to my feelings aloud 
 and alone, as I did not wish my wife to know how it 
 was with me. By the time W came, I was self- 
 possessed in a good degree, and for three days I have 
 lived, in the matter of enjoyment, full three months." 
 With such avenues of enjoyment open, though 
 sometimes pitied as an invalid, he might well be, as 
 he was, a most cheerful and happy man. As inti- 
 mated in an extract above, his abstemiousness may 
 have made him more keenly alive to the higher 
 sources of enjoyment, and even in sensitive good he 
 did not regard himself as a loser. " If," says he, 
 " your young folks want to know the true meaning 
 of epicureanism, tell them to take some bits of coarse 
 bread, (one ounce and a little more,) soak them in 
 three gills of coarse meal gruel, and make their din- 
 ner of them and nothing else, beginning very hungry 
 and leaving off more hungry. The food is delicious, 
 and such as no modern epicureanism can equal." 
 
 But man has wants deeper than can be supplied 
 by wealth, or nature, or domestic affections. His 
 
32 
 
 great relations are to his God and to eternity. This 
 Mr. Lawrence felt, and he was a deeply religious 
 man. His trust in God, and his hope of salvation 
 through Christ, were the basis of his character. He- 
 believed in the providence of God as concerned in 
 all events, and as discriminating and retributive in 
 this world. He felt that he could trust God in his 
 providence where he could not see. " The events of 
 my life," he writes, " have so far been ordered in a 
 way to make me feel that I know nothing at the 
 time except that a Father rules ; and his discipline, 
 however severe, is never more so than is required." He 
 believed in the Bible, and saw rightly its relation to 
 all our blessings. " What," he writes again, " should 
 we do if the Bible were not the foundation of our 
 system of self-government 1 and what will become of 
 us when we wilfully and wickedly cast it behind 
 us '? " He read the Bible morning and evening in 
 his family, and prayed with them ; and it may aid 
 those who are acquainted with the prayers of Thorn- 
 ton, in forming a conception of his religious charac- 
 ter, to know that he used them. Family religion lie 
 esteemed as above all price ; and when he first learned 
 that a beloved relative had established family wor- 
 ship, he wept for joy. He distributed religious books 
 very extensively, chiefly those of the American Tract 
 Society and of the Sunday School Union. He be- 
 lieved in revivals of religion, and prayed for them. 
 In 1848, he wrote, " This religious awakening among 
 
33 
 
 your college students is among the blessings that our 
 Father vouchsafes to his servants who labor faith- 
 fully in their work, and I can see his hand as plainly 
 in it as though it was thrust before my face as I write 
 this sentence. Let us, then, bless his holy name, and 
 thank him as disciples and followers of Christ the 
 beloved, and urge upon these young men to come 
 forward as ' doves to their windows.' If my work 
 and my trusteeship have in any manner been instru- 
 mental in this good work in your College, it will be 
 matter of grateful thanksgiving while I live." Of 
 the religious movement in Boston, in 1849, he says, 
 " Our dead Unitarianism of ten or fifteen years ago 
 is stirred up, and the deep feelings of sin, and salva- 
 tion through the Beloved, are awakened where there 
 seemed to be nothing but indifference and coldness, 
 and my hope and belief is, that great good will fol- 
 low." Still later he says, " And now let us turn to 
 matters of more importance — the awakening of the 
 young men of your College to their highest interest, 
 the salvation of their souls. I have been moved to 
 tears in reading the simple statement of the case, and 
 I pray God to perfect the good work thus begun." 
 Of creeds held in the understanding, but not influen- 
 cing the life, he thought little ; and the tendency of 
 his mind was to practical rather than doctiinal views. 
 He believed in our Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour, 
 and trusted in him for salvation. He was a man of 
 habitual prayer. The last time I visited him, he said to 
 
34 
 
 me that he had been restless during the night, and that 
 the only way in which he could " get quieted was by 
 getting near to God ; " and that he went to sleep 
 repeating a prayer. During the same visit, he spoke 
 strongly of his readiness, and even of his desire, to 
 depart. He viewed death with tranquillity, and hope, 
 and preparation, for it was habitual with him. 
 
 What need I say more'? At midnight the sum- 
 mons came, — and his work was done. 
 
 The vacancy caused by such a death is wide, and 
 cannot be filled. It cannot be filled to afiection, to 
 friendship, to those who were cheered and strength- 
 ened by his sympathy and aid. If it can possibly be 
 filled to this College, it cannot be to some of us. It is 
 not now a branch from the old oak that is rent away ; 
 itself is laid low, and those upon whose heads the 
 sun of trouble " beats heavy," can no more find shel- 
 ter under its broad branches. The vacancy cannot 
 be filled ; but his name will stand high among the 
 benefactors of the race, and his example and influ- 
 ence will live through all time. 
 
 The sphere of Mr. Lawrence and his line of life 
 were different from those contemplated by the most 
 of us. But success in life, in all departments, de- 
 pends on the same general qualities ; and in these, as 
 I have now spoken of them, he may well be an ex- 
 ample to us. Especially would I ask you to go back 
 
35 
 
 to that period when he was of the age of many of 
 you, and when, as he uniformly said, the foundation 
 of his prosperity was laid. Of this he had then no 
 distinct foresight ; but when the lines of life that 
 seemed almost parallel had diverged widely, he could 
 see it, and could say, as he did, " The difference 
 hetween doing exactly right and a little ivrong, 
 makes all the difference between success and failure 
 in lifer Oftener than young men suppose, when 
 they know it not, their destiny is sealed by the pro- 
 cesses and decisions of their own minds before they 
 are twenty. How great and precious the results of 
 such a life ! How different from those of a different 
 course ! How striking that such consequences should 
 depend on what was passing in the mind of a lad in 
 a country store ! Who can estimate the capabilities 
 wrapped up in any such lad \ Who, especially, can say 
 of any one of you, what may be depending upon the 
 course that he shall take from this time onward \ I 
 feel, my friends, that this will take hold, not on 
 time only, but on eternity ; and I entreat you to be 
 wise. 
 
 Let me add a single word on the position of young 
 men in our Colleges whose facilities of education 
 are thus furnished by a spirit of self-sacrifice, and 
 enlightened patriotism, and Christian benevolence. 
 It cannot be, my friends, that you are under no obli- 
 gation to regard the spirit in which these are given, 
 and to do your part in securing the results contem- 
 
36 
 
 plated. Of this young men are too often reckless. 
 They sometimes think that they pay for their educa- 
 tion. No one pays for it. If paid for in money, few 
 could afford it ; but for the sacrifices that have been 
 made, and are making, in this cause, money cannot 
 pay. There is in them a spirit of love that contem- 
 plates high results, intellectual, moral, spiritual ; 
 that yearns for these, and can be satisfied with noth- 
 ing less. Such results must be realized in our insti- 
 tutions, or they are a failure. Who, and what, then, 
 is the young man, indolent, self-indulgent, profane, 
 vicious, who can enter such an enclosure, and exhale 
 an influence of disaster and of moral death 1 Only 
 in and through you, my friends, with your intelli- 
 gent and voluntary cooperation, can the results thus 
 sought be secured. Who, then, will not Avork to- 
 gether with these noble benefactors 1 Who will not 
 be a co-worker with God \ 
 
 ^\^,\^J6] 
 
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