"Indeed, I never knew his kindly regards mastered but once, and that was after the endurance of many gross and most cruel provocations. But on one occasion his philosophy and his religion failed him, and then his brow was mantled with the very majesty of wrath, the frowning aspect of a deep and withering indignation. The roll of a moment or two, however, and it was all over. The old saint was himself again, and never, from that time to the day of his death, did I ever hear him utter an unfriendly word in relation to the individual by whom he had been so grossly and wickedly abused. But I must not enlarge. I have no wish to deal in flattery; but, injustice to my own feelings, and to the memory of our departed father, I must say that he was one of the very best men with whom it has been my happiness to associate. Indeed, I doubt whether he had a solitary failing,--so far, I mean, as the convictions and purposes of his own mind were concerned. "S. S." CHAPTER XIV. SENTIMENTS RELATIVE TO DEATH. Mr. Ballou was ever governed by a calm resignation to the decrees of Providence, and as it regarded the subject of his own death,--that thought which is said to make cowards of us all, that theme upon which we are too much inclined to dwell with feelings of dread and fear. Notwithstanding we are taught by Christian philosophers that life should be a preparation for death, there are very few of us who regard this inevitable event in its proper light. Dr. Young uttered a most profound truth when he said:-- "Each man thinks all men mortal but himself."