tract of his own, or of some reprint of a rare old book or pamphlet, in a style which will always render it a gem in the collections of the many friends whom he delighted to gratify with a presentation copy.

I will attempt no analysis of Mr. Livermore's personal character and qualities, in the presence of so many who have known him longer and better than myself. Admirable tributes have already been paid him, and others are ready to be paid here and elsewhere. We had all hoped that many more years of usefulness were still in store for him; but we may apply to him the exquisite words of Jeremy Taylor: "It must needs be, that such a man must die when he ought to die; and be like ripe and pleasant fruit falling from a fair tree, and gathered into baskets for the planter's use." I may be permitted to express my regret, that unavoidable absence from the State prevented me from uniting in the last honors to his remains. But not a few of our officers and members were present on the occasion; and you will all concur, I am sure, in the adoption of the resolutions which the Standing Committee have instructed me to submit, before proceeding to other business this morning:

Resolved, That it is with deep sorrow we make record of the death of our esteemed associate, George Livermore, Esq., whose services to our Society in many ways, and more especially in connection with our possession and enjoyment of the Dowse Library, have entitled him to our most respectful and grateful remembrance.

Resolved, That the President be requested to appoint one of our number to prepare a memoir of Mr. Livermore, for the next, or an early, volume of our Proceedings.

TRIBUTE TO JARED SPARKS.

REMARKS MADE AT A MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, APRIL 3, 1866.

I CANNOT but remember to-night, gentlemen, that as I was leaving this room a few moments before the adjournment of our last monthly meeting, on the 8th of March, in order to accompany a part of my family on a journey from which I came home but a day or two since, I turned back to the accustomed seat of our eminent and excellent first Vice-President to ask him once more to take the chair which he had so often and so worthily occupied before. He had always been so punctual in his attendance here, that I took it for granted, without inquiry, that he would be forthcoming at my call. It proved that he was not present on that occasion. But little did any of us dream then, that the place which had known him so long was to know him no more for ever, and that we were so soon to lose from our cherished companionship, here and elsewhere, one to whose life and labors we were so deeply indebted, and in whose well-earned renown we all felt so much interest and so much pride. Hardly a week, however, had elapsed from that day, before a telegraphic announcement reached me in a distant part of the country, that our accomplished and distinguished friend had passed away, and that before I could be here to unite with you in paying the last tribute to his remains, they would have been consigned to the grave. I need not assure you how proudly I should have availed myself of the privilege of bearing a portion of his pall, as the representative of this Society, had that honorable assignment found me at home, or how glad I am now to have returned in season to take part with you in these ceremonies of commemoration.

Let me not call them ceremonies, for there will be nothing ceremonious, nothing merely formal, I am sure, in what may be said or done here this evening in memory of our lamented associate. He was the last man to desire ceremonies in his own honor, or to inspire others with a disposition to deal coldly and formally with his name and fame. Indeed, there were few things, as you all know, more characteristic of JARED SPARKS than the manner in which he uniformly shrunk from any assertion or any recognition of his own unquestioned title to celebrity. He was never tired of recognizing the claims of others to distinction, or of paying tribute to whomsoever tribute was due, whether among the dead or among the living. His whole life-I had almost said was spent in doing honor to others. But for himself he seemed content with the quiet consciousness of having labored diligently, faithfully, devotedly, successfully, through a career of varied fortunes and many early discouragements, in the cause of education and letters, and of having contributed what he could to the illustration of the great names and great deeds of his country's history.

And who, we may well ask to-night,-who has contributed more than he - who has contributed so much as he to that illustration? Not a few of his contemporaries in the field of American authorship have prosecuted their historical researches, and found the heroes of their story, in distant realms and in a remote past. But it has been one of the peculiarities of his career, that it has been occupied exclusively with topics connected with his native land. In the crowded gallery of portraits which have owed their execution, directly or indirectly, to the untiring industry of Dr. Sparks, and which include so great a variety of character and so wide a range of service, there is not one, I believe, which is not associated, prominently if not exclusively, with the colonial or the national history of our own country. Nor can any one write that history, now or hereafter, without acknowledging a deep indebtedness at every step to his unwearied researches. Abandoning, as he did, only within a few years past, as the infirmities of age began to steal upon him, his long cherished purpose of preparing a formal narrative of our great Revolutionary period, he might yet well have congratulated himself,

if his modesty had suffered him to do so, that he had quarried the materials with which others are building, and with which others must always continue to build. Certainly, no more thorough or more valuable investigation of all that pertains to that transcendent period of American history has ever been made, or is likely to be made, than that of which the abounding fruits were given to the world in his Life and Writings of Washington, in his Life and Writings of Franklin, and in the numerous lesser biographies with which he has enriched our historic literature. Bringing to whatever he undertook a sturdy strength of mind. and body, a full measure of practical common sense, faculties of perception and comprehension which more than made up in precision and grasp for any thing which may have been wanting in quickness or keenness, a marvellous love of work, a patience and perseverance of research which nothing could fatigue or elude, he pursued his inquiries with all the zeal of an advocate, but weighed the results and pronounced the decision with the calm discrimination of a judge. The simplicity of his style was a faithful index of the simplicity of his whole character. There was nothing in his nature which tempted him to seek brillianey at the expense of truth. He had as little capacity as taste for indulging in rhetorical exaggerations or embellishments. Νο man was ever freer from unjust prejudices or unjust partialities. No man ever sought more earnestly to do justice to his subject without displaying himself or espousing a side. And thus his historical writings will be respected and consulted in all time to come as the highest and best authority in regard to the men, the facts, and the events to which they relate.

Let me recall, in this connection, the language of Washington Irving in a letter to myself, written while he was still engaged in composing that brilliant biography of the Father of his Country, which was the crowning glory of his own literary life: "I doubt," said he, "whether the world will ever get a more full and correct idea of Washington than is furnished by Sparks's collection of his letters, with the accompanying notes and illustrations, and the preliminary biography." "From the examination I have given to the correspondence of Washington," he continued, "in the archives of the State Department, it appears to me that Sparks

has executed his task of selection, arrangement, and copious illustration, with great judgment and discrimination, and with consummate fidelity to the essential purposes of history. His intelligent and indefatigable labors in this and other fields of American history are of national and incalculable importance. Posterity will do justice to them and him."

But Mr. Irving did not confine his testimony in regard to the labors and achievements of our lamented associate to private correspondence. He concludes the preface to his own admirable work with the following noble acknowledgment: "I have also made frequent use of Washington's Writings,' as published by Mr. Sparks; a careful collation of many of them, with the originals, having convinced me of the general correctness of the collection and of the safety with which it may be relied upon for historical purposes; and I am happy to bear this testimony to the essential accuracy of one whom I consider among the greatest benefactors to our national literature; and to whose writings and researches I acknowledge myself largely indebted throughout my work."

Nor can I forget how emphatically this testimony was echoed by our illustrious associate, Edward Everett, whose eloquent voice we have not yet learned to do without on such an occasion as this. In acknowledging an especial obligation to Mr. Sparks, in the introduction of the Memoir of Washington which, at the request of Lord Macaulay, he contributed to the "Encyclopædia Britannica," he says as follows: "No one can have occasion to write or speak on the life of Washington, however compendiously, without finding constant occasion to repeat the acknowledgment of Mr. IRVING, who justly places him among the greatest benefactors of our national literature.""

But I need not have appealed to the testimony of the dead. There are those among the living whom I see around me at this moment who can do ample justice to our departed friend in all the various stages of his long and valuable life, who can bear witness to the courage and constancy with which he encountered and overcame the disadvantages of his early years; to his diligence and fidelity as a student, to his ability and devotion as a Professor, and as President, of the University which he loved so