[309] of the House, he was placed among the most efficient and accomplished. For many years he represented Medford in the General Court; and during the whole time he filled the speaker's chair with signal success. He was a member of the American Academy. He was a professor of Christianity, and a constant attendant on public worship. He died May, 1821, aged fifty-four. Abner Bartlett, Esq., whose name first appears on the town records in 1808, was born in Plymouth, and graduated at Harvard College 1799. He preferred not to appear as an advocate before a jury. His taste led him to the unostentatious duties of a legal life; and for forty years he attended acceptably to all that Medford needed. As a representative, legal adviser, town officer, and justice of the peace, he was as faithful to duty as is the needle to the pole. He belonged to the working-men, but was one of the “festina lente” school. He loved human law much; but he loved the divine law more. No one distinguished more clearly between things that differ, and no one more heartily approved those that were excellent. Truthfulness was interwoven with every fibre of his soul; and he was for reform in its best sense. He did not
Crook the pregnant hinges of his knee,Among the inhabitants of Medford, there has not probably been a man who has served the town in so many and responsible offices as this gentleman. He was not made for a leader; he had not that kind of force, but left the race to those who coveted the laurels. He was a faithful member of the church, and all but revelled in spiritual disquisitions. As a neighbor he was most friendly, as a critic most caustic, and as a wit most ready. He died Sept. 3, 1850, aged seventy-four. Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. Jonathan Porter, Esq., born in Medford, devoted the energies of a strong mind and a ripe scholarship to the science of law; and, while his health allowed, he practised his profession in Boston. For many years past he has been an invalid, confined to his house; but he has been, nevertheless, a diligent student in literature and the classics. He has entertained sickness as he would entertain an angel, and has hallowed all his sufferings by a meek submission. Sanford B. Perry, Esq., has taken the place of Mr. Bartlett,
That thrift might follow fawning.
