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Greene County NCGenWeb
Carolina Centenial; 10-19-1822
DIED
In this town, on Monday evening last, in the 27th year of his age,
Mr. JOHN SPENCE WEST, of the house of JARVIS WEST, & Co.
Obituary notices have so frequently been used to gratify the
partialities of friends, or mitigate the agonies of grief, that they
are generally viewed as mere panegyric.
From this imputation, the present essay briefly to sketch the
character of the deceased, may justly claim an exemption.--
The truth simply told, will prove his noblest eulogy.
Though cut off, before Providence had granted him the power of
gratifying extensively the generous impulses of his heart, yet all
within his sphere felt the genial effects of his benevolence. As a
merchant, all who dealt with him admired his attention to business, and
were pleased with his courtesy and disposition to accommodate. As a
man; the _ermine purity of his integrity was never polluted even by
suspicion's touch. The flame of purest gratitude, which will ever be
fostered by his surviving relatives, emblazons his worth as a kinsman.
Oh! ask not his merits as a son, lest the agonized bosom of a
bereaved mother burst with their utterance. Who did not delight to hail
him as a friend? What heart could close its avenues to his bland and
cheerful smile? Though pent up in his dark and narrow house, hid from
our view by the cold clod of the volley; yet long, very long, will he
live in pleasing but mournful remembrance.
To his family, the savour of his good name will be a soothing balm;
let them reflect, that it is far more important to live well, than to
live long, and however prone human nature may be to arraign this
mysterious dispensation, yet the Lord hath only taken what he gave, and
who shall say that his mercy hath not snatched him from evil to come.--
--------Communicated.
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