Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

[41] journeyman at that time; but who, by his beautiful spirit and fine example, had a great influence upon my mind; and I feel grateful to him and shall ever cherish his memory with deep feeling. I allude to the late Rev. Tobias H. Miller, a city missionary in Portsmouth.

My acquaintance with him began when I entered the office¹ of the Newburyport Herald as an apprentice to learn the “art and mystery” of printing; and great was my indebtedness to him in regard to my initiation and on the score of neverfailing kindness. I was drawn to him magnetically from the beginning; and whether working side by side at the case or the press, unbroken friendship subsisted between us to the end. Indeed, so far as he was concerned, it would have been extremely difficult for the most irascible to have picked a quarrel with him. He had wonderful self-command, patience, cheerfulness, urbanity, and philosophic composure, far beyond his years. I never saw him out of temper for a moment under the most trying circumstances, (and a printing-office often presents such,) nor cast down by any disappointment, nor disposed to borrow trouble of the future. He was a very Benjamin Franklin for good sense and axiomatic speech, and in spirit always as fresh and pure as a newly-blown rose. In his daily walk and conversation he was a pattern of uprightness, and from his example I drew moral inspiration, and was signally aided in my endeavors after ideal perfection and practical goodness. His nature was large, generous, sympathetic, self-denying, reverent. He was as true to his highest convictions of duty as the needle to the pole. No one was ever more yielding in the matter of accommodation where no principle was involved; none more inflexible in pursuit of the right. . . .

Among my pleasant recollections of him in the printingoffice, are the following sententious expressions, which frequently came from his lips, as, for example, in case of a shockingly bad proof to be corrected at midnight, or of a pied form, or of any other trying mishap :— “Patience and perseverance!” “'Tisn't as bad as it would be if it were worse!” “Never mind! 'Twill be all the same a thousand years hence!” How literally and admirably did he enter into the spirit of those sayings, though possessing a most sensitive temperament! They made a deep impression upon my memory, and through all the subsequent years of my life, in all cases of trial, have been of invaluable service to me.