The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 | Page 4

but two must suffice. Some years ago, when he was County Attorney, a man who had been indicted in Kennebec County for arson, was tried, and acquitted by the jury on the ground that he was an idiot. After the trial, the Judge before whom the case had been tried, sought to reconcile Mr. Paine to the verdict by some explanatory remarks. "Oh, I'm quite satisfied, your Honor," said Mr. Paine, "with the defendant's acquittal. He has been tried by a jury of his peers"--On another occasion, Mr. Paine was making a legal argument before an eminent judge, when he was interrupted by the latter, who said: "Mr. Paine, you know that that is not law." "I know it, your Honor," replied the advocate, with a deferential bow; "but it was law till your Honor just spoke."
From 1849 to 1862, Mr. Paine was a member of the Board of Trustees of Waterville College. In 1851, he was elected member of the Maine Historical Society, and also of the American Academy. In 1854, his Alma Mater conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
In the relation of marriage, Mr. Paine has been very happy. In May. 1837, he was united to Miss Lucy E. Coffin, of Newburyport, a lady of rare endowments, both of head and heart.
Few men have started in a professional career with a more vigorous and elastic constitution than Mr. Paine's. Endowed with an iron frame and nerves of lignum vitae, he very naturally felt in youth that his fund of physical energy was inexhaustible; but, like thousands of other professional men in this fiery and impatient age, he finds himself in the autumn of his life afflicted with bodily ills, which he feels that with reasonable care he might have escaped. Toiling in his profession year after year from January to December, with no recreation, no summer vacation, no disposition to follow the wise advice of Horace to Torquatus,--
rebus omissis Atria servantem postico falle clientem,
--working double tides, and crowding the work of eighty years into forty, Mr. Paine finds that, large as was his bank account with Nature, he has been overdrawing it for years, and that he has now to repay these drafts with compound interest. The lesson he would have young professional men learn from his experience, is, that they should account no time or money wasted, that contributes in any way to their physical health,--that gives tone to the stomach, or development to the muscles. Let them understand that, though suffering does not follow instantly upon the heels of transgression, yet Nature cannot be outraged with impunity. Though a generous giver she is a hard bargainer, and a most accurate bookkeeper, whose notice not the eighth part of a cent escapes; and though the items with which she debits one, taken singly are seemingly insignificant, and she seldom brings in "that little bill" till a late day, yet, added up at the end of three score years and ten, they may show a frightful balance against him, which can have no result but physical bankruptcy.
In Mr. Paine's physiognomy the most noticeable features are the broad, massive, Websterian forehead, and the sparkling eyes.
In summing up the characteristics of Mr. Paine as a lawyer and as a man, the writer, who was his pupil at Waterville Academy, and has enjoyed his friendship to this day, cannot do better than to cite the words of an acute observer who has known him intimately for many years. Chief Justice Appleton, of Maine, did not exaggerate, when he said: "He is a gentleman of a high order of intellect; of superior culture; in private life, one of the most genial of companions; in his profession, a profound and learned lawyer, as well as an accomplished advocate."
To conclude,--if the subject of this imperfect sketch has occasion to regret his excessive devotion to his calling, he can have no other regrets. At the close of a long, most useful, and most honorable career, which has been marked throughout by the severest conscientiousness and the most scrupulous discharge of every professional duty, he is happily realizing that blessedness which Sir William Blackstone, when exchanging the worship of the Muses for that of Themis, prayed might crown the evening of his days:--
"Thus though my noon of life be past, Yet let my setting sun at last Find out the still, the rural cell, Where sage Retirement loves to dwell! There let me taste the homefelt bliss Of innocence and inward peace; Untainted by the guilty bribe, Uncursed amid the harpy tribe; No orphan cry to wound my ear, My honor and my conscience clear; Thus may I calmly meet my end, Thus to the grave in peace descend."
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PICKETT'S CHARGE.
BY CHARLES A. PATCH, MASS., VOLS.
In all great wars