When Dorcas died, the good people of Joppa began to display her handiwork. I am surprised, though much of it was known to me before, at the amount of evidence, which is now produced, from various quarters, to prove, that this unfortunate gentleman was a man of the most kind affections, and of extensive, practical benevolence.
Let me close these remarks, with one brief anecdote; which, though once already related of Dr. Parkman, by the editor of the Transcript, is worthy of many republications, and is not at all like news, on the stock exchange, good only while it is new.
“A politician stopped the Doctor in the street and asked him to subscribe for the expense of a salute, in honor of some political victory. The Doctor put his arm in his, and invited him to take a little walk. He led him round the corner into a dismal alley, and then up three flights of rickety stairs into a room where a poor woman was sitting, propped by pillows, feebly attempting to sew. Some pale, hungry-looking children were near. The Doctor took six dollars out of his pocket-book, and handed it to the politician, and, simply remarking, “do with it as you please,” he darted out of the room in his usually impulsive way.”
I must close this feeble tribute of respect to the memory of one, who truly deserved a milder fate and an abler pen. Had we the power of recall—how well and wisely might we pay his ransom, with scores of men, quite as eccentric in their way, but whose eccentricity has very rarely assumed the charitable type!
No. LXXIII.
When I was a very young man, I had the honor of a slight acquaintance with a most worthy gentleman, my senior by many years, who represented the town of Hull, in the Legislature of our Commonwealth. As I marked the solemn step, with which he moved along the public way, towards the House of Representatives, and the weight of responsibility, which hung upon his anxious brow—if such, thought I, is the effect, produced upon the representative of Hull—what an awful thing it must be, to represent the whole United States of North America, at the court of the greatest nation in the world!
In harmony with this opinion, every nation of the earth has selected, from the élite of the whole country, for the high and responsible employment of standing before the world, as the legitimate representative of itself, a man of affairs—I do not mean the affairs of trade, and discounts, and invoices, and profits—I use the word, in its most ample diplomatic sense—a man of great wisdom, and knowledge, and experience—a man familiar with the laws of nations—a man of dignity—not that arrogated dignity, which looks supremely wise, while it feels supremely foolish—but that conscious dignity, which is innate, and sits upon the wearer, like an easy garment—a man of liberal education, and great familiarity, not with the whole circle of sciences, but with the whole circle of historical and correlative knowledge—a man of classical erudition, and a scholar, competent to bear a becoming part, in that elevated intercourse of mind, which forms the dignified and delightful recreation of the diplomatist, in the first society of Europe.
Men, who have been bred up, amid the pursuits of trade, have been, with great propriety, selected, to fill the offices of consuls, in foreign lands; agreeably to the long established distinction, that consuls represent the commercial affairs—ambassadors the state and dignity of the country, from whence they come.
Oh! for the wand of that enchantress, the glorious witch of Endor! to turn up the sod of memory, and conjure, from their honorable graves, the train of illustrious, and highly gifted men, who, from time to time, have been sent forth, to represent this great Republic, before the throne of England!