To a clerical friend, who witnessed one of his paroxysms as he was about to retire, he said:
"Oh, no; don't go away. These pains will soon be over. They are for my good; and, besides, what are the pains of a moment in comparison with the pleasures of eternity?"
He had a picture of Christ on the cross placed so that he could look at it as he lay on his bed. "That is the picture of one who came into the world to teach men to love one another," he remarked. His last look, as he passed away, was cast upon that painting of Christ.
In a codicil to his will was this bequest.
"My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head, curiously wrought in the form of a cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, George Washington. If it were a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it."
Philanthropist, Scholar, Philosopher, Statesman, were the titles won by the Boston Printer Boy!
End of Project Gutenberg's From Boyhood to Manhood, by William M. Thayer