"I have not as yet heard of the examination of yesterday at the Lawrence Academy, which son. A. A. attended, but hope for a good report. In truth, I feel as if that school and your college are to go hand in hand in making whole men for generations to come. There is a pleasant vision which opens to me when I look forward to the characters that the academy and the college are to send forth for the next hundred years. I bless God for my old home, and the great elm in front, which has a teaching and a significance that I shall endeavor to make use of in training my grandchildren and dear ones of my family connection. How important, then, that our places of education be sustained, as supplying the pure and living streams that shall irrigate every hill and valley of this vast empire, and train men to know and do their duty! I will not quarrel with a man's Presbyterian, Episcopal, or Baptist creed, so be he will act the part of a good soldier of Christ; for I verily believe great multitudes, of all creeds, desire to serve him faithfully."
"Aug. 23.—T. G. sent me a paper this morning, having many names on it, with a polite note. The paper I returned without reading; telling him I did not read such, or hear stories, and must be excused. He took the answer in high dudgeon, and sent another note, saying he had mistaken me, and desired that his first note should be returned. I wrote upon it that I lived by the day and hour, an invalid, and, for two years, had adopted this course, and had treated bishops, clergymen, and laymen, with the fewest words; that I intended no disrespect, and begged his pardon if I had done anything wrong. I also told him this course was urged upon me by my medical adviser; but, with all my care, there is now an average of six applications a day through the year."
Mr. Lawrence had, many years previous to this date, formed an acquaintance with Captain Slidell McKenzie, of the United States Navy, which had been continued, and was a source of mutual pleasure. Among other relics in the possession of the writer, is a cane of palm-wood, presented by Capt. McKenzie, on his return from Mexico as commander of the United States Steamship "Mississippi," to Mr. Lawrence, who had caused to be engraven upon it, on a silver plate, the following inscription:
ALEXANDER SLIDELL McKENZIE TO AMOS LAWRENCE.
1845.
PALM-WOOD FROM THE BANKS OF THE TOBASCO RIVER.
FROM THE UNITED STATES NAVAL COMMANDER WHO WAS NOT AFRAID TO DO HIS DUTY WHEN
LIFE WAS REQUIRED AT THE YARD-ARM.
The latter part of the inscription is in allusion to the course which Capt. McKenzie felt obliged to adopt in the mutiny on board the United States Brig "Somers," in 184—.
On Sept. 15, he thus notices the death of that officer in his diary:
"This, morning's newspapers give the intelligence that the excellent and accomplished Capt. McKenzie died at Sing Sing, N. Y., two days ago. He fell from his horse by an affection of the heart; and died almost instantly. Thus has departed a man whom I esteemed as among the best and purest I am acquainted with, and whose character should be a treasure for his family and the nation. I think him a model officer and a good Christian."
"Oct. 11.—
CANADIAN BOAT-SONG.
'Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune, and our oars keep time;
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn.
Row, brothers, row: the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near, and daylight's past.'
I first heard this song sung and played on the piano by ——, afterwards Mrs. ——, at her house in —— street, in 1809. The song rang in my ears sweetly for weeks, as I was taken down with fever the next morning. I never think of it but with delight."
"Oct. 15.—My brother William died on Saturday, Oct. 14, at three, P. M., in the sixty-sixth year of his age; and my brother Mason died only five hours afterwards, in his eighty-first year,—within three doors of each other. Both were very dear to me in life, and both are very dear to me in death; and, in God's good time, I trust that I shall meet them again, not subject to the ills and changes of my present abode."
In a letter of the same date to a friend, he says:
"My letter of last Tuesday will have prepared you for the sad intelligence in this. Brother William continued without much suffering or consciousness till two o'clock yesterday, and then ceased breathing, without a groan. Yesterday morning, the hand of death was manifestly upon Brother Mason, who was conscious to objects around, and requested C. to pray with him; and, when asked if he understood what was said, answered, 'Yes,' and expressed by words and signs his wants and feelings. He continued in a quiet, humble, and hopeful frame, we judge, until just eight o'clock, when, with a single gasp and a slight noise, his mighty spirit passed out of its immense citadel of clay, to join the throng of the loved ones gone before. Brother W. was in his sixty-sixth year, Brother M. in his eighty-first; and both were such men as we need, true as steel in all good works and words. Mr. M. was never sick a day to disable him from attending to his professional and public duties in fifty years, and, until within a short time, never confined a day to his house by illness. On the last Sunday evening, I passed a most refreshing half-hour with him. He appeared as well as he had done for a year; inquired very particularly into Brother W.'s state; expressed the opinion that his own time was near at hand, and a hope that he might be taken without losing his mental and bodily powers. He remarked that protracted old age, after the loss of power to give and receive comfort, was not to be desired. He has often expressed to me the hope that he should be taken just as he has been. Have we not reason to praise and bless God in taking, no less than in sparing, these honored and loved ones?"