Page:Letters of Life.djvu/77

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MY TEACHERS.
65

consistent, pious example. The deep feeling of the morning prayer often moistened the eyes of the most unthinking; and the same spirit, caught from the closing orison, followed them home. It might be difficult to believe, by those who had never witnessed it, that a teacher so very young could do so much in aid of the ministers of religion—I had almost said, so much more than they, with the hearts of his disciples.

The future course of Mr. Pelatiah Perit fully verified its opening promise. He maintained a high position among the active operations and benevolent institutions of the country, and was for many years President of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Seamen's Saving Bank, in New York. Wherever he was, and in whatever he engaged, his influence was for God and goodness.

At his beautiful residence in New Haven, whither, in later years, he had retired from the excitements of business, he devoted himself more exclusively to works of charity and piety, and has but recently passed away, respected and lamented by all, having reached the confines of fourscore wholly unimpaired, except for some slight inroads on physical vigor.

The school which I was endeavoring to describe to you, my loved friend, and which he superintended but a single year, was taken in charge by the Rev. Daniel Haskell, a gentleman of somewhat more mature years, and also a graduate of Yale College. He was