PREFACE. I COMPLY with the wish of an old and valued friend, Mr. J. E. Gordon, and offer a few remarks by way of Preface to the following Memoir. Its readers, indeed, will feel that a Preface is superfluous, and they will be apt to question why any words are introduced to detain them from a narrative which tells its own tale by the story of a life, which, if short in incident, is full of instruction. I confess that, had I consulted my own feelings, I should not have interposed a single remark; but the wish of the bereaved parents is sacred, and the desire of a friend is a command. Happy only if I am permitted to drop a word which may fall in with their feelings, or encourage any one to open a narrative which he will close with thankfulness. There are indeed, among biographies, distinct classes and separate kinds of interest. There are the records of the lives of men who have lived long, and |