to its trust remaining.
Still prompt and resolute to save
From scourge and chain the hunted slave!
Unwavering in the truth's defence
E'en where the fires of hate are burning,
The unquailing eye of innocence
Alone upon the oppressor turning!

Oh, loved of thousands! to thy grave,
Sorrowing of heart, thy brethren bore thee!
The poor man and the rescued slave
Wept as the broken earth closed o'er thee--
And grateful tears, like summer rain,
Quickened its dying grass again!--
And there, as to some pilgrim shrine,
Shall come the outcast and the lowly,
Of gentle deeds and words of thine
Recalling memories sweet and holy!

Oh, for the death the righteous die!
An end, like Autumn's day declining,
On human hearts, as on the sky,
With holier, tenderer beauty shining!
As to the parting soul were given
The radiance of an opening heaven!
As if that pure and blessed light
From off the eternal altar flowing,
Were bathing in its upward flight
The spirit to its worship going!

ROBERT PURVIS

Was born in Charleston, S.C. on the 4th day of August, 1810. His father,
William Purvis, was a native of Ross county, in Northumberland, England.
His mother was a free-born woman, of Charleston. His maternal
grandmother was a Moor; and her father was an Israelite, named Baron
Judah. Robert Purvis and his two brothers were brought to the North by
their parents in 1819. In Pennsylvania and New England he received his
scholastic education, finishing it at Amherst College. Since that time
his home has been in Philadelphia, or in the vicinity of that city.

His interest in the Anti-slavery cause began in his childhood, inspired
by such books as "Sandford and Merton," and Dr. Toney's "Portraiture of
Slavery," which his father put into his hands. His father, though
resident in a slave state, was never a slaveholder; but was heartily an
Abolitionist in principle. It was Robert Purvis' good fortune, before he
attained his majority, to make the acquaintance of that earnest and
self-sacrificing pioneer of freedom, Benjamin Lundy; and in conjunction
with him, was an early laborer in the anti-slavery field. He was a
member of the Convention held in Philadelphia in 1833, which formed the
American Anti-slavery Society; and among the signatures to its
Declaration of Sentiments, the name of Robert Purvis is to be seen; a
record of which his posterity to the latest gen