Obituary Notice. - Died, at his residence in Cambridge, on the 20th of February, 1834, STEPHEN HIGGINSON, Esq., aged 63. It would not have been possible, that such a man, so distinguished for those virtues and qualities which we all admit to constitute the highest moral worth, should have been permitted to pass away and slumber in the ground, without due and respectful notice from those who have survived, and who were witnesses of his remarkable energy, and constant and successful exertions in the cause of philanthropy and of Christian principles and feelings. To record those virtues and qualities, so well known to his associates and friends of his own generation, seemed to be a debt which they owed to society. Some of his personal friends have performed that office with fidelity, and, as they believed and as we believe, with entire truth. But still they did not say all, which the life of this excellent and pure man would have justified them in saying. They could do no more, perhaps, than express their own deep affection for his memory, leaving to others to speak more particularly of his religious influence on society. The active, sincere, and devoted exertions of the late Mr. Higginson, in favor of the institutions intended to promote liberal views of Christianity, demand from the conductors of a work established to advance those views, in our opinion so important, a more full notice of his character and conduct on this most interesting subject.

And yet, such was the charm of his character, so unique, so different from the common forms in which men are made and present themselves, it is so difficult to portray an individual human being so devoted to the happiness of others, so thoughtless of his own, and so absorbed in what he believed to be the true interests of religion and philanthropy, that it would require a pen more powerful than ours to describe his character. But still, there he was, in truth, in the midst of life, a benevolent - we had almost said an insulated — being, looking all around him after the welfare of others, and singularly regardless of whatever might conduce to that selfish happiness, which with most men is the prime object of living. If this is in any degree an exaggeration, we can only say, Point out an example of personal and social virtue and of disinterestedness as great as his, and we shall most cheerfully welcome the stranger, pleased to find another and most delightful proof of natural purity of character and the highest moral cultivation in this tempting and deceiving world.

Mr. Higginson was descended in a right line, and in the senior branch of that line, from the Rev. Francis Higginson, the second pastor of the First Church in Salem. That family for forty years presided over that church. Of the eminent

talents of Francis Higginson there are abundant proofs extant in our early history. His descendants always sustained a respectable standing, and Mr. Higginson's father was advanced, by his talents and energy, to high honors in the gift of the people. He was distinguished in the State Legislature in the revolutionary war; was elected by them a member of the National Congress in the most critical period of the war, and there performed an important part in the measures of that honored assembly. His son, the subject of our notice, was educated at the Academy in Andover, then the best classical school in the state. But his father destined him for the mercantile profession, which had been for three generations the occupation of his family. Mr. Stephen Higginson, Junior, was bred to commercial pursuits under the auspices of the late excellent Samuel Salisbury. He won his affection, respect, and full confidence. At the expiration of his apprenticeship, Mr. Salisbury associated Mr. Higginson in copartnership with his oldest son. Never was there in this country a more prosperous man, for a time, than Mr. Higginson became. His indefatigable industry, his pleasing manners, his unquestioned integrity, made his fortune with a rapidity which in the event overcame his prudence and circumspection. But while in affluence, as uprightly acquired as it was unexpectedly obtained, he lost nothing of his simplicity, purity, energy, and philanthropy. He devoted his wealth to the noblest of all purposes. He thought of his country, of its institutions, of the unfortunate who suffered for want of encouragement and sympathy. There exists no one public institution in Massachusetts, which was created during his prosperity, which does not reckon him among its founders. That is no small praise.

It would be unjust to him, the most modest of all men in his good deeds, to tell of what he freely and cheerfully contributed to the relief of distress and the support of rising merit. That part of his character must be left to that immortal record, which will be opened when all the good and evil deeds of this life shall be made known. We have only to speak, as friends of humanity and advocates of Christian truth, of his character under his reverses. He lost his fortune. He fell from the high and slippery eminence to which rapidly acquired wealth had elevated him. But did he sink, as too many do, never to rise again? Did his moral powers and energies abandon him? No. He exhibited the rare example, and it is for this example more than for any other reason that we think he deserves the highest praise, of a patient and almost sublime submission to the will of Providence. He did not despair. He

did not abandon his duty to God and society, because the claims of his family were more imperative. So far from this, it seemed as if he felt the duty of devoting his life to the public good became the more binding in proportion to his inability to promote his own, and that he must endeavour to make up his deficiency of means by the increased strenuousness of his exertions. We can in truth say, that, after his misfortunes, no man within our knowledge labored with greater zeal and more self-devotion to promote what he sincerely believed to be the cause of pure religion, and the happiness of all around him.

It was since the change in his worldly condition, that he exerted himself with so much earnestness and perseverance, and with such good success, in behalf of the Divinity School in Harvard University. No man so well deserves to be called the father of that institution in its improved state, and the founder of Divinity Hall, as Mr. Higginson. Both of the editors of this journal were connected with him in the direction of the Society for Promoting Theological Education in Harvard University, and they can bear full and cordial testimony to the importance and energy of his efforts to recommend and carry forward its purposes. Well do they remember, and they can never forget, the friendly heartiness of his intercourse with them; the readiness with which he undertook any service for the Society, and volunteered his aid in any difficulty; the eloquent frankness with which he expressed his own opinions; the generous candor with which he heard, considered, and frequently adopted the opinions of others; the respect which he manifested for learning and piety; the paternal regard which he evinced towards all the students of the School; the interest which he took in their improvement, and the solicitude with which he sought to obtain assistance for those who were indigent and worthy. These things, and his transparent honesty, his fearlessness of aught but evil, his love of his friends, his love of his enemies, the sweetness of his smile, the lighting up of his intelligent eye, forget. They were among our best refreshments in the wilderness, they gave us assurance of a man."

we can never

to

There is one, and only one Almighty Judge of the motives of human conduct. To his unfailing and unerring tribunal, we humbly consign the character and destiny of this, our feeble vision, pure and pious human being; and from our hearts we say, that we shall be contented to hope that our latter end, and final acceptance, may be like his.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

No. LXIII.

NEW SERIES-No. XXXIII.

JULY, 1834,

ART. I.—1. The Life of William Roscoe, by his Son HENRY ROSCOE. In Two Volumes. London. T. Cadell. 1833. 8vo. pp. 501 and 491.

2. American Edition of the same Work. Boston. Russell, Odiorne, & Metcalf. and 374.

12mo. 2 vols. 1833. pp. 370

EVELYN, Beattie, and others, have been called to the mournful office of raising memorials to the virtues and talents of their children; and we have sorrowed with them. over the tombs of piety and genius which have "faded timelessly." Our sympathies are as strongly, though not so sadly excited in behalf of those children, who, as in the instance before us, perform the filial duty of building monuments to the blessed memory of their fathers. This seems to be more according to the course of nature. no early blights and disappointments to deplore. has been gathered "in full season.'

There are
The grain

It is not always that an eminent man leaves behind him a child, or near relative, who is capable of doing justice to his memory. This happiness has fallen to the lot of two friends who in their lifetime were united by similar tastes and opinions, literary, political, and religious, and who died within a few years of each other. Among the biographies which have been lately given to the public, few are so interesting as that of Sir James Edward Smith by his wife, and that of William Roscoe by his son.

On several accounts Mr. Roscoe seemed to be nearer to us than any of those distinguished persons whose deaths

VOL. XVI.-N. S. VOL. XI. NO. III.

35

have been announced to us from abroad in such rapid succession. The place of his abode was Liverpool, the great port of our English commerce, and the spot where those who leave us for health and the various other purposes of foreign travel, first greet the English soil. Here he was the life and soul of all that was literary, scientific, benevolent, and refined, the only name which the world knew, and, at least for a time, the only individual who redeemed the city from the charge of absolute dullness and darkness in every respect but that of trade. To him, therefore, our travellers sought to be introduced, and his reception of them was always such as increased the respect which they had before entertained for him. We all remember the enthusiastic description given of him by Washington Irving, in the beginning of his "Sketch Book." What he has expressed, every American of taste was wont to feel on being made acquainted with the historian of Lorenzo de' Medici and Leo X.

But this was not all. The liberality of Mr. Roscoe's mind and sentiments was such as to attract our peculiar regards. He was not only distinguished as an author and a literary man, but as a true, zealous, indefatigable philanthropist. He loved his fellow creatures; and no prejudices, no feudal notions, no aristocratic predilections, stood between him and his love. He was the staunch friend of free institutions. Oppression ever found in him an enemy, and human rights an advocate. To the great subjects of slavery, war, and prison discipline he devoted the healthy energies of his mind; his opinions in relation to them were those of the enlightened Christian; and his correspondence on the last topic especially, with gentlemen of this country, had doubtless no small share in perfecting that system in which we are allowed to excel other nations, and to which other nations are beginning to turn their attention as to a model.

And further, Mr. Roscoe was the friend of Americans and of their country. With a proper understanding of our deficiencies, he was a warm admirer of our merits and improvements. He easily pardoned us for not being so far advanced in literature, science, and luxurious refinements as some older countries. He bore with us in our habit of boasting, and acknowledged that it was rightfully ours by natural descent. He was not surprised to hear us talk tolerably good English, and did not expect to see our country