vantage of travelling in England and France.[1] She used familiarly to style him her "philosophical nephew." I thought he was a second Seneca, and always was mute in his presence.
He was fond of the science of Natural History, and of exploring those labyrinths where nature loves to hide, having made man himself a link in her chain of mystery. By casual observers he was deemed reserved or haughty; but those who were able to comprehend him discovered a heart true to the impulses of friendship and affection, and a mind capable of balancing the most delicate points of patriotic and moral principle. He was the father of an interesting family, and opposite their pleasant residence was a pair of those lofty, wide-spreading elms, which are the peculiar glory of New England. Those were the trees that prompted the simple effusion beginning
I do remember me
Of two old elm trees' shade,
With mosses sprinkled at their feet,
Where my young childhood play'd.[2]
The consort of Dr. Joshua Lathrop was a lady of fine personal appearance and great energy. In an age when domestic science was in universal practice and respect, she maintained the first rank as a pattern house-
- ↑ "Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since," p. 18.
- ↑ "Pocahontas and other Poems," p. 161.
