assed the remainder
of his many years in peace and honor in this country; how beloved and
respected by all his fellow-citizens, how inexpressibly dear to his
family, I need not say. His whole life was a benefit to all who were
connected with him. He gave the best example, the best advice, the
most bounteous hospitality to his friends; the tenderest care to
his dependants; and bestowed on those of his immediate family such a
blessing of fatherly love and protection as can never be thought of,
by us, at least, without veneration and thankfulness; and my sons'
children, whether established here in our Republic, or at home in
the always beloved mother country, from which our late quarrel hath
separated us, may surely be proud to be descended from one who in all
ways was so truly noble.

My dear mother died in 1736, soon after our return from England, whither
my parents took me for my education; and where I made the acquaintance
of Mr. Warrington, whom my children never saw. When it pleased heaven,
in the bloom of his youth, and after but a few months of a most happy
union, to remove him from me, I owed my recovery from the grief which
that calamity caused me, mainly to my dearest father's tenderness, and
then to the blessing vouchsafed to me in the birth of my two beloved
boys. I know the fatal differences which separated them in politics
never disunited their hearts; and as I can love them both, whether
wearing the King's colors or the Republic's, I am sure that they love
me and one another, and him above all, my father and theirs, the dearest
friend of their childhood, the noble gentleman who bred them from their
infancy in the practice and knowledge of Truth, and Love and Honor.

My children will never forget the appearance and figure of their revered
grandfather; and I wish I possessed the art of drawing (which my papa
had in perfection), so that I could leave to our descendants a portrait
of one who was so good and so respected. My father was of a dark
complexion, with a very great forehead and dark hazel eyes, overhung by
eyebrows which remained black long after his hair was white. His nose
was aquiline, his smile extraordinary sweet. How well I remember it, and
how little any description I can write can recall his image! He was of
rather low stature, not being above five feet seven inches in height; he
used to laugh at my sons, whom he called his crutches, and say they
were grown too tall for him to lean upon. But s