Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/447

 should be paid to the memory of the venerable and excellent parent. Mr. Thackeray was in extensive practice, pursued nearly to the time of his death, which took place at the advanced age of 72. He had a large family, on whom the opulence derived from his profession, with the advantage of locality, enabled him to bestow the inestimable benefit of liberal education. With a clear perception of the sources of moral worth and human happiness, he deemed mental cultivation better than riches, and secured for his children that good which was independent of casualty, and sure to cling by them under all the reverses of fortune. The wisdom of this preference was amply attested by the prosperous and most respectable career of all his sons, of whom, seven, together with three daughters, survived him. Thomas Thackeray was a medical practitioner in the service of the India Company, from which he long since retired with an ample fortune; Dr. Wm. Thackeray practises as a physician at Chester; the Rev. Elias Thackeray is rector of Dundalk, in the county of Louth; the Rev. John Richard Thackeray holds the livings of Downham, in Norfolk, and of Hadley, in Middlesex; Dr. Frederick Thackeray practises at Cambridge, where he is physician to Addenbrook's Hospital; and Martin Thackeray is fellow and vice-provost of King's College, Cambridge. How different would the fate of this family have been, if contracted views and narrow policy had, in order to enhance their pecuniary patrimony, withheld those advantages, which, by calling forth their own powers, enabled them to pass usefully and happily through life, and to attain each an honourable independence.