Oregon, who elected him Senator of the United States. His friendly face is still green in our recollections. We have frequently shaken hands with him on our streets, and felt a pride as he sat by our side as a welcome guest. We have listened to him in our courts as a lawyer, and we have heard him as a lecturer in our public halls. His remarkable head was a vast treasury of general knowledge. He had read extensively, and studied deeply. He was familiar with history, ancient and modern, and culled the sweetest flowets of pocsy from the writings of poets, with which he tastefully adorned his grand orations. We attended his lectures on the Science of Astronomy, and he seemed perfectly at home with the grandeur and magnitude of his subject. He was perhaps the most wonderful man in America. There is no royal road to knowledge. It is a thing that we cannot inherit. A long life of mental drudgery will only conduct us to the threshold of Science.

"For sluggard's brows the laurel never grows;
Renown is not the child of indolent repose."

Let us not meanly seek to discover little flaws in the character of great men. We may as vainly endeavor to find out the Philosopher's Stone, as to expect to find the perfection of Divinity in human nature. We may as well try to remove the spots from the sun, which are unseen by the naked eye, as to find a man entirely free from some of the common failings of humanity. Senator Baker had his faults, but what did they amount to when weighed in the balance with his transcendent virtues? Like the blots on that great luminary that imparts light and life to our planet, they are lost in the dazzling brilliancy of his character.

He was a kind husband and a good father. He was a faithful friend and public benefactor. He was distinguished in a variety of ways, and never faltered in his duty. He buckled on the sword in defence of his beloved land, and fell a willing sacrifice in the hallowed cause of constitutional freedom. A man possessing so many rare good qualities, and so many excellent virtues, is a perfect model of true greatness. He occupies too lofty a niche in the temple of fame for the harmless shafts of his petty calumniators to reach. Let rebels glory in his death, and his insignificant detractors sneer at his magnanimity. His distinguished name will adorn the pages of history, and be enshrined in the affections of millions, while the worthless names of his defamers shall sink in the abyss of contempt and oblivion.

"The man who dares traduce, because he can

With safety to himself, is not a man."

Gather, ye sons of freedom, in due solemnity around his bier. Approach the dead body of the patriotic Senator with feelings of reverential awe. Move silently in "the dark valley of the shadow of death," and behold, for the last time, the wasted features of the great man who died that you and your children might continue to enjoy the inestimable blessings of free institutions. Let the anvil cease ringing, and the busy hum of labor be unheard for a time. Let statesmen and judges and magistrates and the learned professions, join the people in paying the last tribute of respect to departed greatness. Let the military swell the solemn and imposing procession, and the bells of the city be tolled, while the remains of the illustrious Baker are slowly moving away to their last resting-place in Lone Mountain Cemetery.

Bev. Thomas
Thomas Starr
Starr King.

"Sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

N

EVER were the words of the poet so beautifully exemplified

as in the death of the late Thomas Starr King.

There was

a moral and impressive grandeur about his manner of leaving the world, such as to command uncommon admiration. His burden of cares was too weighty for the weakness of his physical system to sustain. He had been chiefly instrumental in building a magnificent temple of worship, which will stand as an enduring monument to his illustrious memory. As he had faithfully performed his duty to his God and to his country, he had no peculiar regrets to express. When assured by his attendant physician that the angel of death was approaching, he manifested no alarming anxiety at the solemn announcement, but speedily prepared himself to give the grim messenger a smiling welcome. Composedly he gave directions relative to the disposition of his worldly affairs. He dictated his own will, and with an unfaltering hand subscribed his name to the document. After repeating the touching language of the Psalmist, expressive of his confidence in God while walking "through the valley of the shadow

of death," the dying hero shook hands with his weeping family and friends, and bade them an affectionate farewell. His infant boy, whom he embraced and blessed, was the last object on which he gazed, while the world, with all its associations, was receding forever from his view. He gently fell asleep. So passed away from our midst a man of remarkable ability, with an untarnished reputation. No hero ever died more bravely; no Christian ever left the world more serenely; no martyr ever toiled more earnestly for a crown of glory. Death had no sting for the dying patriot. When the purple fountain had ceased to play, and his spirit had left cold and lifeless its perishable tenement, a smile of triumph still lingered around his lips.

The hopes of a nation are extinguished; sorrow is depicted in every countenance; the common pursuits of business have been suspended; the halls of legislation and the courts of justice have been closed for a time, and his death has become the theme of every tongue. Society is deprived, by the sad visitation, of one of its brightest ornaments. In the prime of life and in the broad field of his usefulness, the mysterious agent met him on his way, and, as if to make a grand demonstration of his power, levelled his unerring shaft at the good man, and held him forth as one of the proudest of his appalling triumphs. The sad tidings flew from household to household and from city to city, and the lightning messenger bore them across the continent to the place of his birth and the scenes of his early toils.

Thomas Starr King has exemplified by his labors and experience how poverty, by untiring assiduity, may surmount all obstacles, and reach the summit of distinction. It was not necessary for such a man to spend whole years of his life within the

walls of a college. With a quick perception and a remarkable aptitude to learn, while his youthful compeers were asleep he was found sitting by his midnight lamp, familiarizing himself with the great classical authors of antiquity and storing his mind with useful knowledge, and preparing himself for the high and glorious destiny which was awaiting him in the future. Since the time that he walked forth from the obscurity of a schoolhouse to mount a pulpit, he has been a prominent minister of religion and a favorite of the people, imparting an impulse to society and giving a lofty tone to public sentiment. Although physically weak, he was mentally strong, and the deep-toned thunders of his voice made the formidable fabric of political corruption tremble to its base. No man could wield intellectual weapons more vigorously, or like him carry by storm the convictions of an audience. By his warm and powerful appeals, stubborn prejudice melted away. His was never a puerile conflict, but a battle of moral strength. It was the warfare of a Goliah of Gath, enlisted on the side of grand patriotic principles, which he proudly refused to compromise. His glowing eloquence threw a charm and splendor over all his controversies. His mind was liberal and comprehensive. Free from arrogance and pride, he was affable and courteous in his manner. plain in appearance and, gentle as a lamb amongst his friends. He was terrible, however, in his grand philippics against rebels and the abettors of treason. Viewing slavery as a moral, withering evil, an enemy of free institutions, and the cause of all his country's troubles, he sought its overthrow as a national curse, and consequently directed all the energies of his mental power against the demoralizing system. He loved his country, and

He was