The Republic

A handsome Compliment.

Professor John K. Mitchell, of the Jefferson Medical College, in the course of an admirable introductory lecture to his class, thus handsomely alluded to a distinguished physician of Germantown, Pennsylvania:

"Within a few weeks I visited a country practitioner, whose beautiful residence lies not many miles from the place in which I now address you. I found him in an octagonal library, surrounded not only by almost every accredited medical treatise, but encompassed by works of general science, and elegant literature. His garden contained the rarest flowers, and his grounds the most beautiful shrubs. The tall trees, most of which he had himself planted, were stately and rare.

"A botanist, an arborist, a geologist, and a farmer, he was the centre of the scientific interest of his locality, and the stimulant of the agriculture of his neighborhood. Through him passed into useful currency much of the valuable knowledge of progressive truth, and to his munificent hand might be traced many a rare flower, many a valuable shrub or tree, and many a profitable cereal novelty. In manner he was dignified, in conduct polite and humane; in example faultlessly moral. A most finished gentleman, the companion of the most exalted and refined, he was yet of easy access to the poor and the humble, who ever found in him a ready listener and a kind and skilful adviser; nay, more, a generous assister.

medical attendant, for many years, of a very large population in his neighborhood; and he passed from the stately edifice of the wealthy and educated, whom he delighted and improved, to the abode of the poor and the ignorant, whom he healed, and fed, and instructed." He is now, through the disability of age and health, unable to continue his one ceaseless round of liberal study and generous action; but the old trunk yet shows what the tree has been. Its branches are dead, its leaves have fallen, and its scathed stem shows the marks of time and the wear of the elements; but, like the trysting tree of a Scottish village, it is yet a sacred resort. "The birds no longer swing, carolling, upon its lithe tracery; the herds rejoice no more in the cool depth of its refreshing shadows, and youth and manhood no longer repair to it in the season of festivity; but who forgets it in passing, what winter evening brings not back its name and its memory to the hearts and the hearths of the people of Germantown, who may differ about almost every thing else, but who have but one concurrent suffrage for their noble and dignified Benton."—Phila. paper.