them one of those of whom the poor shall say, "He relieved our necessities ;" and the naked, "He clothed us;" and the sick and in prison, "He visited us;" and the orphan, the friendless, and the forsaken, "When we thought ourselves forgotten by man, by him we were remembered." JOSEPH MAY. "LIVES of good men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, Seeing, shall take heart again."-LONGFELLOW. MR. MAY belonged to a generation which has now almost wholly passed away. A few yet linger, but they will soon be all gone. He may be regarded as a type and specimen, not indeed of what was most brilliant and distinguished, but of what was most solid and worthy, stanch, honest, upright, and true in that generation. He was a native of Boston; his life was passed in the open sight of his fellow-citizens, and the testimony which we render is only the repetition of the common voice. His integrity has never been questioned. It passed safely through the trial of adversity and failure in business-a trial which has proved too severe for the strength of many-and was as confidently relied upon after that change as before it. Perfect proof of this is given by the fact that he was called on to fill several offices, which, though not conspicuous, involved important trusts, and supposed implicit confidence, and which were held till repeated intimations of increasing age warned him to resign them. His ideas and feelings respecting riches, though not perhaps peculiar, were certainly not common. He regarded the gift of property to one's children a questionable good. He has often said, that he knew many promising youth who were stinted in their intellectual and moral growth by the expectation of an inheritance that would relieve them from the necessity of labor. Every man, he would add, should stand upon his own feet, rely upon his own resources, know how to take care of himself, supply his own wants; and that parent does his child no good who takes from him the inducement, nay, the necessity to do so.* He thought it well and proper to engage in the pursuit of property in some honest and honorable occupation, as one of the means of unfolding the faculties, and forming and establishing the character. But he considered it most unworthy of a rational and moral being, to seek after riches as the chief good. He utterly despised avarice. When about thirty-eight years of age, he was stopped in the midst of a very profitable business, in which he had already acquired a considerable fortune, by the result of an ill-advised speculation. He foresaw that he must fail, and at once gave up all his property, "even to the ring on his finger, for the benefit of his creditors." The sufferings which this disaster caused, revealed to him that he had become more eager for property, and had allowed himself to regard its possession more highly than was creditable to his understanding, or good for his heart. After some days of deep depression, he formed the resolution never to be a rich man, but to withstand all temptations to engage again in the pursuit of wealth. He adhered to this determination. * In a communication received from the Rev. S. J. May, is an anecdote which deserves preservation, as illustrative of the sentiments of his father: "When I brought to him my last college-bill, receipted, he folded it with an emphatic pressure of his hand, saying, as he did it: 'My son, I am rejoiced that you have gotten through, and that I have been able to afford you the advantages you have enjoyed. If you have been faithful, you must now be possessed of an education that will enable you to go anywhere, stand up among your fellow-men, and by serving them in one department of usefulness or another, make yourself worthy of a comfortable livelihood, if no more. If you have not improved your advantages, or should be hereafter slothful, I thank God that I have not property to leave you, that will hold you up in a place among men where you will not deserve to stand."" He resolutely refused several very advantageous offers of partnership in lucrative concerns, and sought rather the situation he held, for more than forty years, in an insurance office, where he would receive a competence only for his family. When in the midst of his family, he seemed to have no anxieties about business, and was able to give his whole mind to the study of his favorite authors, the old English classics, the best historians, and Paley and Priestley, of whom he was a great admirer. He almost always read one or two hours in the morning, and as much in the evening. By the devotion of only this time to books, he was able in the course of his life to peruse many volumes of substantial value, of the contents of which his sound understanding and retentive memory enabled him to make readily a pertinent use. In active benevolence and works of charity, he seems to have been indefatigable and unsurpassed. He was not able to bestow large donations on public institutions, but he was a valuable friend, promoter, and director of some of the most important of them.* His private charities are not to be numbered. Without much trouble, he might be traced through every quarter of the city by the footprints of his benefactions. Pensioners came to the door of his house, as they do in some countries to the gate of a convent. The worthy poor found in him a friend, and the unworthy he endeavored to reform. His aid to those in distress and need was in many cases not merely temporary, and limited to single applications, but as extensive and permanent as the life and future course of its object. A family of fatherless and motherless and destitute children, bound to him by *He was particularly interested in the establishment of the Asylum for the Insane, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He felt sure that these were charities worthy of all he could do to promote them, and he labored for them heartily and effectually. no tie but that of human brotherhood, found a father in him, and owe to him, under heaven, the respectability and comfort of their earthly condition. It would appear as if he had expressly listened to the exhortation of the son of Sirach, and had received the fulfillment of his promise: "Be as a father unto the fatherless, and as a husband unto their mother; so shalt thou be as the son of the Most High, and he shall love thee more than thy mother doth.”* As a friend and neighbor, his kind attentions and services were unremitting; and how much of the happiness of our daily being is dependent on such attentions and services! He knew many persons, and suffered himself to forget none. If he had kept a list of them he could not have been more punctual in his remembrances; and he did keep a list of them in his friendly heart. But though he comprehended many in his generous regards, his strongest affections were still at home, reserved for the few who were nearest, and not dissipated or rendered shallow by the dif fusion of his general charity. The stream of his benevolence was wide, but its central channel was deep. He His love of nature was ever fresh and warm. watched the seasons as they rolled, and found in each "He never," observes his son, "seemed to feel displeased when asked to relieve the necessities of his fellow-beings, and therefore never hastily dismissed their claims, but carefully considered them, that he might give substantial and permanent aid. "I cannot remember the time when he was not planning for the benefit of several poor or afflicted persons. The last few years of his life were peculiarly blessed by visits from numerous persons, or the children of persons whom he had befriended. "There was a time when, as he afterward thought, he was not discriminating enough in his charities. The reading of Malthus on Population, and the discussions which arose upon the publication of that work, modified considerably his views of true benevolence. Prevention of poverty seemed to him both more merciful and practicable than the relief of it; and he was therefore continually suggesting to those who were on the verge of poverty, principles of economy and kinds of labor by which they were enabled to put themselves into a comfortable estate." |