Early in the summer of this year, the Hon. Abbott Lawrence made his munificent donation of fifty thousand dollars to Harvard College, for the purpose of founding what was afterwards called, in honor of the donor, the Lawrence Scientific School. After reading the letter accompanying this donation, Mr. Lawrence addressed to his brother the following:
"Wednesday morning, June 9, 1847.
"Dear Brother Abbott: I hardly dare trust myself to speak what I feel, and therefore write a word to say that I thank God I am spared to this day to see accomplished by one so near and dear to me this last best work ever done by one of our name, which will prove a better title to true nobility than any from the potentates of the world. It is more honorable, and more to be coveted, than the highest political station in our country, purchased as these stations often are by time-serving. It is to impress on unborn millions the great truth that our talents are trusts committed to us for use, and to be accounted for when the Master calls. This magnificent plan is the great thing that you will see carried out, if your life is spared; and you may well cherish it as the thing nearest your heart. It enriches your descendants in a way that mere money never can do, and is a better investment than any one you have ever made.
"Your affectionate brother,
Amos.
"To Abbott Lawrence."
To a friend he writes, soon after:
"This noble plan is worthy of him; and I can say truly to you, that I feel enlarged by his doing it. Instead of our sons going to France and other foreign lands for instruction, here will be a place, second to no other on earth, for such teaching as our country stands now in absolute need of. Here, at this moment, it is not in the power of the great railroad companies to secure a competent engineer to carry forward their work, so much are the services of such men in demand."
"Boston, June 18, 1847.
"Dear Partners: Please pass to the credit of my friend, the Rev. Mark Hopkins, two thousand dollars, to pay for four scholarships at Williams College, to be used through all time by the Trustees of Lawrence Academy, in Groton. The said trustees, or their representatives, may send and keep in college four pupils from the academy, without any charge for tuition; and, whenever they omit or decline keeping up their full number, the government or the proper authorities of the college are authorized to fill the vacancy or vacancies from their own college pupils. Charge the same to my account.
A. L."
"To A. & A. L. & Co."
During the last twenty years of his life, Mr. Lawrence was unable to attend more than the morning services of the church on Sunday, on account of the state of his health.
He was a most devout and constant worshipper, and many of those who have conducted the religious services of the church which he attended will well remember the upturned countenance, the earnest attention, and the significant motions of his head, as he listened with an expression of approval to the faithful declarations of the speaker. He loved to listen to those who "did not shun to declare all the counsel of God," and would sometimes express disappointment when the preacher failed to declare what he considered the important truths of the Gospel.
In writing to a friend, after listening to a discourse of the latter description from a stranger, he compares it, in its adaptation to the spiritual wants of the hearers, to the nourishment which a wood-chopper would receive by placing him in the top of a flowering tree, and allowing him to feed only on the odor of its blossoms. His feelings on this subject are expressed in a letter to an esteemed clergyman, who had solicited his aid in behalf of a church in a distant city.