The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate. The Senate, preceded by their President and Secretary. The other Officers of the Senate. The President of the United States. The Heads of Departments. The Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and its Officers. The Judges of the Courts of the District of Columbia, and their Officers. The Diplomatic Corps. The Comptrollers, Auditors, and other Heads of Bureaus of the several The Corporation of Washington. Officers and Students of Columbian College. Fire Companies, and other Associations and Societies DISCOURSE IN COMMEMORATION OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE HON. NICHOLAS BROWN, DELIVERED IN THE CHAPEL OF BROWN UNIVERSITY, NOVEMBER 3, 1841. BY FRANCIS WAYLAND, D. D. PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. BOSTON: GOULD, KENDALL, AND LINCOLN, 59 Washington Street. DISCOURSE. AN aged and much honored fellow-citizen has lately ceased from among us. His manly and venerable form will no more meet us at his hospitable fire-side, in the mart of business, or in the house of God. We have followed his remains to the house appointed for all the living, and have seen them, with every token of private affection and public respect, consigned to their last resting-place. The various institutions, with the management of which he had been so long identified, have borne testimony to his worth. The young and the old have delighted to do homage to his virtues. Every one of us feels that this community has sustained an irreparable loss; and that "a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel." It is meet, that at the grave of such a man we should pause, and devote a few moments to earnest meditation. It is appropriate for us to turn from the stirring avocations of business, and the retired pursuits of letters, to contemplate a character which we have so long honored, and to estimate the results of a life, which has, in so many respects, modified the destiny of us and of our children. Here we may learn lessons of wisdom, which no where else can be taught so impressively. Standing on the isthmus which divides the present life from the future, we may thus appreciate with greater accuracy the relations which God has established between these two portions of our existence. The most impressive event, in the life of any human being, occurs at the moment when he is leaving it. The ties which have bound us to every thing below, are at that instant sundered. The rights and the obligations of parent and child, of husband and wife, of citizen and magistrate, of benefactor and recipient, all terminate here. The world hath no farther claims upon the silent sleeper on the bed of death, now that the last sad agony is over, and the soul hath returned to God who gave it. The spirit, in all its deathless energies, has entered another state, and has bidden adieu to all that it hoped or feared, to all that it loved or hated, in this its changeful existence. Henceforward its home is in eternity. But this is not the most impressive of the many thoughts that cluster around the idea of a spirit's departure. At that moment her probation closes. So long as we live, moral change is possible. Every act of our lives is, from the nature of our constitution, confirming us in those moral habits which must be |