MEMOIR OF JOHN GALLISON, ESQ.

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OUR last number contained a brief notice of Mr. Gallison but his rare excellence, and the singular affection, esteem and confidence which he enjoyed, have been thought to demand a more particular delineation of his character. And the office is too grateful to be declined. In the present imperfect condition of human nature, when strange and mournful inconsistences so often mix with and shade the virtues of good men; when truth, that stern monitor, almost continually forbids us to give free scope to admiration, and compels us to dispense our praise with a measured and timid liberality; it is delightful to meet an example of high endowments, undebased by the mixture of unworthy habits and feelings; to meet a character whose blamelessness spares us the pain of making deductions from its virtues. And our satisfaction is greatly increased, when Providence has seen fit to unfold this character in the open light of a conspicuous station, so that many around us have had opportunity to observe it as well as ourselves, and that we can give utterance to our af fection and respect, with the confidence of finding sympathy and a full response in the hearts of our readers.

But we have a higher motive, than the relief and gratification of personal feelings, for paying this tribute to Mr. Gallison. We consider his character as singularly instructive, particularly to that important class of the community, young men. His life, whilst it bore strong testimony to those great principles of morality and religion, in which all ranks and ages have an interest, and on which society rests, seems to us peculiarly valuable, as a commentary on the capacities and right application of youth, as demonstrating what a young man may become, what honour, love, and influence he may gather round him; and how attractive are the christian virtues at that age which is generally considered as least amenable to the laws of religion. For young men we chiefly make this record; and we do it with a deep conviction, that society cannot be served more effectually than by spreading through this class a purer morality, and a deeper sense of responsibility than are now enforced by public opinion; for our young men are soon to be the fathers, guides and defenders of the community; and however examples may now and then occur of early profligacy changed by time into purity and virtue, yet too often the harvest answers to the seed, the building to the foundation; and perhaps it will appear on that great day which is to unfold the consequences of actions, that even forsaken vice leaves wounds in the mind, which are slowly healed, and which

injure the moral powers and predispose to moral disease through the whole life.

In this connection it may be proper to observe, that there is no country, in which society has such an interest in bringing strong moral and religious influences to bear on young men, as in this; for our country has been distinguished by the premature growth of those to whom it gives birth. Various circumstances here develop the mind and active powers earlier than in Europe. Our young men come forward sooner into life; mix sooner in the stir and conflicts of business and politics; and form sooner the most important domestic relations. It has often been suggested, that the mind suffers under this forcing system, that it is exhausted by excess of action, that a slower growth would give it greater strength and expansion. But be this true or not, (and we trust that the suggestion is founded on remote analogies rather than on observation,) one thing is plain, that in proportion as the young advance rapidly in intellect and activity, there should be a powerful application of moral and religious truths and sanctions to their consciences and hearts. Their whole nature should grow at once. The moral sense, the sense of God, should not slumber, whilst the intellect and the passions are awake, and enlarging themselves with a fearful energy. A conviction of their responsibility to God and society should be deeply wrought into the opening reason, so as to recur through life with the force of instinct. Mr. Gallison was a striking example of the early and harmonious unfolding of the moral and intellectual nature, and in this view his character is particularly fitted to the wants and dangers of our state of society.

When we know or hear of uncommon excellence, it is natural to enquire, by what propitious circumstances it was formed; and hence the curiosity which has sifted so diligently the early history of eminent men. But such investigations we believe, generally teach us, that character is more independent on outward circumstances than is usually thought, that the chief causes which form a superior mind are within itself. Whilst the Supreme Being encourages liberally the labours of education by connecting with them many good and almost sure results, still, as if to magnify her own power and to teach men humility and dependence, he often produces, with few or no means, a strength of intellect and principle, a grace and dignity of character, which the most anxious human culture cannot confer. In the early years of Mr. Gallison, we find no striking circumstances or incidents which determined the peculiarities of his future character. The processes, by which he became what he was, were inward; and the only voice, which could disclose them, is now silent in death.

He was born in Marblehead, October, 1788. His mother, a sister of the late Chief Justice Sewall, survived his birth but a few hours; and his life began with one of the heaviest of life's afflictions, the loss of a mother's love. He was so happy however as to be the object of singular and never failing kindness in his surviving parent, whom he requited with no common filial attachment; and he may be cited as a proof of the good effects of that more unrestrained and tender intercourse between parents and children, which distinguishes the present from the past age. He was early placed under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Harris, now President of Columbia College, New York, then preceptor of an academy, and rector of an episcopal church, in Marblehead. He is said to have endeared himself to his revered instructor by his docility, industry, modesty, love of truth, and steady improvement. He held a high but unenvied rank at school; and it may be mentioned as an evidence of early judgment and a constant mind, that some of the friendships of that early period went with him to the grave, and were among the best enjoyments of his life.

He entered the University at Cambridge, A. D. 1803, in the 15th year of his age; and whilst his unremitting application gave him the full benefit of its various provisions for literary improvement, his consistent character and social virtues won for him universal confidence and esteem. On leaving the University he commenced the study of the law under the Hon. John Quincy Adams, and having completed his preparation under the Hon. Joseph Story, began the practice of his profession at Marblehead A. D. 1810. By the advice of his friends he soon removed to this metropolis, a more proper, because wider sphere of action. Here he experienced, for a time, those anxieties and depressions, which form the common trial of young men, who enter a crowded profession. But his prospects were brightened by a connection in business, which he formed with the Hon. William Prescott, and which, as it was unsolicited and attended by other flattering circumstances, gave him a gratifying assurance of the confidence which he had inspired. The progress of his reputation as a lawyer was soon a matter of common remark; and those, who were most capable of understanding the depth and extent of his legal attainments, were confident, that should his life be spared, he would attain the highest honours of his profession.

He died December, 1820, at the age of 32. The shock given to the community by this event was unusual and the calamity was heightened by its unexpectedness. His general health, cheerfulness, and activity had given the promise of a long life, and his friends were not alarmed for him until a week before his New Series-vol. III.

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death. His disease was an inflammation of the brain, which first discovered itself in slight aberrations of mind, and terminated in delirium. This awful eclipse of reason continued to the last, so that his friends were denied the satisfaction of receiving from his dying lips assurances of his Christian hope. Some of them however recollect with pleasure, that at the beginning of his disease, when his intellect was rather exalted than deranged, his expressions of religious feeling and joy were unusually strong; and he has left them higher consolation than a dying testimony, even the memory of a blameless and well-spent life. Having given this brief record of a life too peaceful and prosperous to furnish matter for biography, we proceed to give our views of the character of Mr. Gallison.-His chief distinction was not talent, although he had fine powers of intellect, and a capacity of attention, which, in usefulness if not in splendour, generally surpasses genius. His primary characteris tic, and that which gave him his peculiar weight in the community, was the force of moral and religious principle; a force, which operated with the steadiness of a law of nature, a paramount energy which suffered no portion of life or intellect to be wasted, which concentrated all his faculties and feelings on worthy objects. His powers did not astonish, but none of them were lost to himself or society. His great distinction was the singleness of his mind, the sway which duty had gained over him, his habit of submitting to this as to an inviolable ordinance of the universe. Conscience was consulted reverently as an oracle of God. The moral power seemed always at work in his breast, and its control reached to his whole life.

We sometimes witness a strong regard to duty, which confers little grace or interest on the character, because partial and exclusive views are taken of duty, and God is thought to require a narrow service, which chains and contracts instead of unfolding the mind. In Mr. Gallison the sense of duty was as enlightened and enlarged, at it was strong. To live religiously, he did not think himself called to give up the proper pursuits and gratifications of human nature. He believed, that religion was in harmony with intellectual improvement, with the pleasures of imagination and society, and especially with the kind affections. His views of the true excellence of a human being were large and generous; and hence instead of that contracted and repulsive character, which has often been identified with piety, his virtue, though of adamantine firmness, was attractive, cheerful, lovely. This union of strength and light in his sense of duty, gave a singular harmony to his character. All his faculties and sensibilities seemed to unfold together, just as the whole body grows

at once; and all were preserved by a wise presiding moral sentiment in their just proportions. He was remarkably free from excess, even in the virtues and pursuits to which he was most prone. His well balanced mind was the admiration of his friends. He had strong feeling, yet a calm judgment; and unwearied activity without restlessness or precipitancy. He had vigour and freedom of thought, but not the slightest propensity to rash and wild speculation. He had professional ardour, but did not sacrifice to his profession the general improvement of his intellect and heart. He loved study, and equally loved society. He had religious sensibility, but a sensibility which never rested, until it had found its true perfection and manifestation in practice. His mind was singularly harmonious, a well adjusted whole; and this was the secret of the signal confidence which he inspired; for confidence, or the repose of our minds on another, depends on nothing so much as on the proportion which we observe in his character. Even a good feeling, when carried to excess, though viewed with indulgence and affection, always shakes in a measure our trust.

From this general survey, we pass to some particulars of the character of Mr. Gallison. His religion was a trait which claims our first consideration. He believed in God, and in the revelation of his will by Jesus Christ; and he was not a man in whom such a belief could lie dead. That great and almost overwhelming doctrine of a GOD, the Maker of all things, in Whom he lived, and from Whom all his blessings came, wrought in him powerfully. He was not satisfied with a superficial religion, but was particularly interested in those instructions from the pulpit which enjoined a deep, living, all-pervading sense of God's presence and authority, and an intimate union of the mind with its Cre

A friend, who knew him intimately, observes: "In our frequent walks, his conversation so naturally and cheerfully turned on the attributes and dispensations of God, as convinced me that his religion was no less the delight of his heart, than the guide of his life. Though habitually temperate in his feelings, I have sometimes known him kindle into rapture while conversing on these holy themes."

But his religion, though strong and earnest, was in unison with his whole character, calm, inquisitive, rational. Uninfected by bigotry or fanaticism, unseduced by the fair promises of the spirit of innovation, he formed his views of the Christian system with caution, and held them without asperity. In regard to that important doctrine which has lately agitated the community, he was a Unitarian, believing in the pre-existence of the Saviour, and as firmly believing that he was a distinct being from the Supreme God, derived from and dependent on him; and he considered the