_." He passed away so quietly that no one
knew the moment of his departure. His was--

"A death, life sleep;
A gentle wafting to immortal life."

Mr. DAVIS left a widow, Mrs. Nancy Davis, a daughter of John B. Morris,
Esq., of Baltimore, and two little girls, who were the idols of his
heart. He was married a second time on the 26th of January, 1857. His
nearest surviving collateral relation is the Hon. David Davis, associate
justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who is his only
cousin-german. To all these afflicted hearts may God be most gracious.

Thus has the country lost one of the most able, eloquent, and fearless
of its defenders. Called from this life at an age when most men are just
beginning to command the respect and confidence of their fellows, he has
left, nevertheless, a fame as wide as our vast country. He died nineteen
years younger than Washington and eight years younger than Lincoln. At
forty-eight years of age Washington had not seen the glories of Yorktown
even in a vision, nor had Lincoln dreamed of the presidential chair; and
if they had died at that age they would have been comparatively unknown
in history. Doubtless God would have raised up other leaders, if they
had been wanting, to conduct the great American column, which He has
chosen to be the bodyguard of human rights and hopes, onward among the
nations and the centuries; but in that event the 12th and 22d days of
February would not be, as they now are, held sacred in our calendar.

Mr. DAVIS had gathered into his house the literary treasures of four
languages, and had reveled in spirit with the wise men of the ages. He
had conned his books as jealously as a miner peering for gold, and had
not left a panful of earth unwashed. He had collected the purest ore of
truth and the richest gems of thought, until he was able to crown
himself with knowledge. Blessed with a felicitous power of analysis and
a prodigious memory, he ransacked history, ancient and modern, sacred
and profane; science, pure, empirical, and metaphysical; the arts,
mechanical and liberal; the professions, law, divinity, and medicine;
poetry and the miscellanies of literature; and in all these great
departments of human lore he moved as easily as most men do in their
particular province. His habit was not only to read but to reread the
best of his books frequently, and he was continually supplying himself
with better editions of his favorites.