thers happy; a politeness that is made
up of a thousand little acts of self-denial for the comfort of others;
that does not obtrude itself upon your notice, but is felt in making
you easy; that flows, not from rules, but from good principles and a
generous nature, in this sense Mr. Charless was eminently a polished
and polite man. I have seen him with persons in humble life, he made
them easy and treated them with kindness. I have seen him with men of
eminent positions and great reputation, he was at perfect ease himself
and commanded their marked respect.

Mr. Charless was not a learned man, and made no pretensions to
learning, yet he was remarkably well informed; kept himself acquainted
with the current literature of the day, and conversed with intelligence
and good sense on all matters that came up in general society. On more
than one occasion he surprised me, by showing an amount and accuracy of
acquaintance with subjects which I had supposed lay out of the range of
his investigation, and of which I should never have known that he had a
knowledge had they not casually come up in conversation. I met him one
day, and after some general conversation he gave me a book, remarking,
"Here is a work to which a friend called my attention. I have read it
with so much pleasure that I sent for a copy for you." When I got home
I was surprised to find it an elaborate and scientific treatise on the
nature of the Church, a work which, I venture the assertion, not one
layman in five hundred would have thought of reading, or would have
finished if he had begun it.

You will never hear any one who knew your grandfather speak of
him without mentioning his great generosity, liberality and kindness to
the poor, but no one will ever be able to tell you how much he did to
alleviate the sorrows of the distressed, or to help the needy, for he
did these things so quietly that none knew it but those received, and
Him who sees our secret things; but in my visits to the poor I have
seen the tears start in the eyes of widows and orphans at the mention
of his name, which told better than words who was their friend and
benefactor. Mr. Charless was one of the few men I have ever known who
seemed to think, as much as they should, that the manner of bestowing a
benefaction, while it adds nothing to the cost of what is given, adds
immensely to the value of the thing given, in the estimation of those
who receive it. A friend of mind, who was so