[10] See account of Jubilee of Lawrence Academy.
At the same celebration, the Hon. John P. Bigelow, president of the day, in his opening address, said:
"Charles Sprague, so loved and so honored as a man and a poet, was an intimate friend of the lamented William and Amos Lawrence. I invited him hither to-day. He cannot come, but sends a minstrel's tribute to their memory, from a harp, which, till now, has been silent for many years.
'These, these no marble columns need: Their monument is in the deed; A moral pyramid, to stand As long as wisdom lights the land. The granite pillar shall decay, The chisel's beauty pass away; But this shall last, in strength sublime, Unshaken through the storms of time.'"
On July 15, Mr. Lawrence made a considerable donation of books to the Johnson School for girls, accompanied by a note to R. G. Parker, Esq., the Principal, from which the following extract is taken:
"The sleigh-ride comes to me as though daguerreotyped, and I can hardly realize that I am here to enjoy still further the comfort that I then enjoyed. If the pupils of your school at that time were gratified, I was more than satisfied, and feel myself a debtor to your school of this day; and, in asking you to accept, for the use of the five hundred dear girls who attend upon your instruction, such of the books accompanying as you think proper for them, I only pay a debt which I feel to be justly due. The Johnson School is in my own district; and many a time, as I have passed it in my rides, have I enjoyed the appropriate animation and glee they have manifested in their gambols and sports during their intermission, and have felt as though I would gladly be among them to encourage them. Say to them, although personally unknown, I have looked on, and felt as though I wanted to put my hand upon their heads, and give them a word of counsel, encouragement, and my blessing. This is what I am left here for; and, when the Master calls, if I am only well enough prepared to pass examination, and receive the 'Well done' promised to such as are faithful, then I may feel that all things here are less than nothing in comparison to the riches of the future."
The allusion to the sleigh-ride was called forth by a note received from Mr. Parker a day or two before, in which that gentleman writes: