His

social and domestic connexions, how he felt and lived, and what spirit he breathed, we learn from the countenances and tones of his friends, when they speak of his loss. The kind of praise which a man receives after death corresponds generally with precision to his character. We can often see on the decease of a distinguished individual, that whilst all praise, few feel; that the heart has no burden, no oppression. In the case of Mr. Gallison, there was a general, spontaneous conviction that society had been bereaved; and at the same time, a feeling of personal bereavement, as if a void which no other could fill, were made in every circle in which he familiarly moved; and this can only be explained by the genuine benevolence, the sympathy with every human interest, which formed his character. benevolence indeed was singularly unalloyed. Those feelings of unkindness which sometimes obscure, for a moment, the goodness of excellent men, seldom or never passed over him. Those who best knew him, cannot, by an effort of imagination, put an acrimonious speech into his lips, any more than they can think of him under an entirely different countenance. The voice ceases to be his, its tones do not belong to him, when they would make it the vehicle of unkindness. We have understood, what we should not doubt, that in his profession, amidst the collision of rivals, his ambition, which undoubtedly degenerated sometimes into excess, was still so controlled by his generosity and uprightness, that he was never known to sully with an envious breath, the honest fame of another, or to withhold a ready testimony to another's worth. So great was the kindliness of his heart, that his many pressing employments did not exclude those little attentions to his kindred, for which multiplied cares are generally admitted as an excuse.

He made leisure for minute as well as important services, and thus it is that a feeling of tenderness as well as of respect, is spread through the whole circle of his relatives.

In regard to his intellectual powers, they derived their superiority not only from the liberality of nature, but from the conscientiousness with which they were improved. He early felt the importance of a generous and extensive culture of the mind, and systematically connected with professional studies the pursuit of general literature. He was a striking example of the influence of an operative and enlightened moral sense over the intellect. His views were distinguished not so much by boldness and excursiveness as by clearness, steadiness, judiciousness, and truth; and these characteristic properties of his understanding derived their strength, if not existence, from that fairness, rectitude, simplicity, and that love of the true and useful, which entered so largely into his moral constitution. The objects on which he thought and wrote did not offer themselves to him in the bright hues of inspired imagination, but in the forms, dimensions, and colors of reality; and yet there was no tameness in his conception, for the moral relations of things, the most sublime of all relations, he traced with eagerness and delighted to unfold. Accordingly in all his writings we perceive the marks of an understanding surrounded by a clear and warm moral atmosphere. His intellect, we repeat it, was excited and developed very much by moral and religious principle. It was not naturally creative, restless, stirred by a bright and burning imagination. The strong power within was conscience, enlightened and exalted by religion; and this sent life through the intellect, and

conferred or heightened the qualities by which it was distinguished.

Of his professional character we know nothing by personal observation; but we do know, that in a metropolis where the standard of professional talent and purity is high, he was eminent. We have understood, that he was at once a scientific and practical lawyer, uniting comprehensive views of jurisprudence, and laborious research into general principles, with a singular accuracy, and most conscientious fidelity, in investigating the details of the causes in which he was engaged. The spontaneous tribute of the members of the Suffolk Bar to so young a brother, is perhaps without precedent. It deserves to be mentioned among his claims to esteem, that he was not usurped by a profession to which he was so devoted; that his thirst for legal knowledge and distinction, though so ardent, left him free for such a variety of exertions and acquisitions.

Of his industry, we have had occasion frequently to speak, and it was not the least striking trait in his character. We need no other proof of this, than his early eminence in a profession, which offers no prizes to genius unaccompanied by application, and whose treasures are locked up in books, which hold out no lures to imagination or taste, and which can only interest a mind disposed to patient and intense exertion. We recur, however, to his industry, not so much because it distinguished him, as from the desire of removing what seems to us a false impression, that he fell a victim to excessive application. That he was occasionally guilty of intemperate study (a crime in the eye of a refined morality, because it sacrifices future and extensive usefulness to immediate acquisition), is probably true; but less

guilty, we apprehend, than many who are not charged with excess. His social nature, his love of general literature, and his regular use of exercise, gave as great and frequent relaxation to his mind, as studious men generally think necessary; nor ought his example to lose its power, by the apprehension, that to follow his steps will be to descend with him to an early grave.

This excellent man it has pleased God to take from us; and to take without warning, when our hope was firmest, and his prospects of usefulness and prosperity were to human eyes, unclouded. That such a course should be so short, is the general sorrow. But ought we to think it short? In the best sense his life was long. To be the centre of so many influences; to awaken through so large a circle sentiments of affection and esteem; to bear effectual testimony to the reality of religion; to exalt the standard of youthful character to adorn a profession, to which the administration of public justice, and the care of our civil institutions are peculiarly confided; to uphold and strengthen useful associations; to be the friend of the poor and ignorant, and a model for the rich and improved; to live in the hearts of friends, and to die amidst general, deep, unaffected lamentation; these surely are not evidences of a brief existence. Honorable age is not that, which standeth in length of time, nor which is measured by number of years; but wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.'

Still the question may be asked, 'Why was he taken from so much usefulness?' Were that state laid open to us, into which he is removed, we should have an answer. We should see, that this world is not the only one where intellect is unfolded, and the heart and active powers find objects. We might see, that such a

spirit as his, was needed now in another and nobler province of the creation; and that all God's providence towards him had been training and fitting him to be born, if we may so speak, at this very time, into the future world, there to perform offices and receive blessings which only a mind so framed and gifted could sustain and enjoy. He is not lost. Jesus, whom he followed, hath abolished death.' Thought, affection, piety, usefulness, do not die. If they did, we should do well to hang his tomb with sackcloth, or rather to obliterate every trace and recollection of his tomb and his name, for then a light, more precious than the sun's, is quenched forever. But he is not lost, nor is he exiled from his true happiness. An enlightened, just and good mind, is a citizen of the universe, and has faculties and affections which correspond to all God's works. Why would we limit it to earth, perhaps the lowest world in this immense creation? Why shall not the spirit, which has given proof of its divine origin and heavenly tendency, be suffered to rise to its proper abode, to a holier community, to a vision of God, under which earthly and mortal natures would sink and be dissolved?

One benefit of the early removal of such a man as Mr. Gallison, is obvious. We learn from it, how early in life the great work of life may begin, and how successfully be prosecuted. Had he lived to advanced years, the acquisitions of his youth would have been forgotten and lost in those of riper years. His character would have been an invaluable legacy, but chiefly to the mature and aged. And surely if his early death shall exalt the aims and purposes of the young; if piety, now postponed to later years, to a winter which bears no such fruit, shall be esteemed the ornament and de