Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/111

 DAVID CR0S15Y.

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��of all human attainments, is a char- acter controlled by motives and prin- ciples in harmony with the law and will of God. He taught, as he most heartily believed, that he alone is safe, strong, invincible, and ultimately suc- cessful, who is right in the sight of God.

Fifth. In the most important part of education — that of the character — he taught effectively by the reflex in- fluences of his own character and habits. He was guileless, frank, system- atic, self-reliant, prompt, resolute and a model of industry. His official su- periority was limited to school-hours. Outside of those he was the familiar friend and companion of his pupils. Though one of the most decided and conscientious Christians, he was en- tirelv free from religious affectation and sanctimonious parade. His relig- ion was truth in the inward parts spon- taneously regulating the outward life — the quality in the good tree which makes the yielding of good fruit nat- ural, and bad fruit impossible. These characteristics were magnetic, and all his pupils who had any genuine steel in their composition, were, in some de- gree at least, permanently magnetized by them.

A I'ew of his distinguished pupils may be named. He was represented in the Union army by Maj.-Gen. John G. Foster, Brig. -Gens. Stevens and Estey, Chaplain S. J. Spalding, d. d., of Massachusetts, and Surgeon Henry L. Butterfield, of Wisconsin; in congress by the late Clark B.Cochran, of Albany, a most eloquent advocate of the Union cause during the war, both in congress and on the stump, and the acknowl- edged leader of the New York legisla- ture at the time of his death ; by Gen. A. F. Stevens, of New Hampshire and by George C. Hazelton, of Wisconsin ; in the chair of state by Gov. Natt Head ; on the bench by ex-Judge A. W. Sawyer ; in national agriculture by J. R. Dodge, the eminent statistician and editor of reports in the depart- ment of agriculture ; and in the do- main of art by H. \V. Herrick. All 1

��have named are natives of New Hamp- shire. A host uf others, male and female, might Ire named, who, largely owing to his sound, systematical cul- ture, have worked their way up to leadership, on the right side, in what- ever calling, position, and community their lot has been cast.

Mr. Crosby's claims to high appre- ciation were not limited to his pro- fession. In his family and among his kindred and relatives, he made his kind, beneficent spirit a source of help and happiness in many ways. As a friend, he was sincere, faithful, and te- nacious. As a citizen, he was a posi- tive, fearless advocate, and a consistent exemplifier of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. As a professor of relig- ion, he was not a I harisee, going through religious ceremonies to be seen of men, and not a Diotrephes, loving to have the preeminence, but a Demetrius, having good report of all men, and of the truth itself. The meaning is not, that he was a man to escape opposition and criticism. The great Teacher, whose apt disciple he was, said to the most effective bene- factors the world has ever known, ''woe unto you when all men speak well of you !"

Mr. Crosby was too independent of current fashion, custom, practice, or public sentiment, in forming his con- victions of right, and too positive and outspoken in advocating them, to in- cur that love. But the meaning is, that he was so apt to be right, and so conscientious and open in opposing what he believed to be wrong, that, as Paul, alike through good report and through evil report, by manifestation of the truth, he commended himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Among natives of New Hampshire, of his own generation, some have won more of the glitter of a transient renown than he. Some, perhaps, at the start, had more talents entrusted to them, but whether five, three, or one, none have occupied them with greater indus-

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