of nature, for he wrote with the greatest care, with all the dictionaries at his hand, and he selected words with the greatest pre cision. If ever betrayed from the purely judicial style, it was to enrich the thought with some gem of beauty, or some illustra tion which his fertile imagination thrust in. He reveled in all that is rich in literature, and could hardly suppress, in his opinions, the evidence of the fine play of his powers when attempting to simply state, reason and decide. His opinions have been chosen, it is said, by one of our great universities as models, to be commended to students, of the beauty, purity and strength of the English tongue. The Chief Justice was in belief profoundly a religious man — in faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church — faithful and trusting. "As for myself," he said, " I know I possess a soul — an intellectual and moral part which is immortal. I believe that I shall have a conscious personal existence after death; that I shall meet beyond the grave friends and those loved here; that I shall know them and they will know me. All this I as firmly believe as I believe that I shall see the sunlight to-morrow if I live." His faith in the Christian religion was strong; and he believed it the " true ambition of the lawyer to obey God in the service of society; to fulfill His law in the order of society; to minister to God's justice by the nearest ap proach to it, under the municipal law, which human intelligence and conscience can ac complish." He loved to talk with friends on sacred themes, and then his words, clothed in the grand and sombre imagery of the Bible, with which he was profoundly familiar, seemed like those of the prophets of old. His faith knew no doubts. His keen intel lect indulged in no speculation as to things beyond the veil. That within the ken of his strong intelligence he saw clearly. Faith to him was "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
He died suddenly. On the ißth of Octo ber, 1880, a case was called in which he had been of counsel for one of the parties, and he withdrew from the bench, expecting soon to return to it. The next day he sent word that he did not feel quite well. On the iQth he died, having hardly reached his three score and ten years. JOHN B. CASSODAY, the present chief jus tice, was born in Herkimer County, New York, July 7, 1830. His father, Dennis Cassoday, died when he was about three years of age. Soon after, he removed with his mother and her parents to Tioga County, Pennsylvania, living first in the town of Charlston, and afterwards in the town of Middlcbury. He attended common schools from time to time, and at different places, generally working for his board, until six teen years of age, when he attended for one term a select school in the village of Tioga, and one term at Wellsboro Academy, at the county seat. When twenty-two years of age, being in impaired health and having acquired a little means, he resolved upon obtaining an education. He attended school one year at Knoxville Academy, in Penn sylvania, two years at Alfred Academy, in Allegheny County, New York, from which he graduated in 1855, and then spent one year in a special course at the University of Michigan. In the fall of 1856 he entered the law school at Albany, New York, then a very popular school, much sought by stu dents from the West, or intending to prac tice in the West. He then returned to Wells boro, Pennsylvania, and continued his studies in the office of A. P. Cone, a local celebrity, until July, 1857. He then removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, and continued his studies with Hon. Harmon S. Conger, who had been a member of Congress from New York, and was afterwards judge of the twelfth judicial circuit in Wisconsin. On his ad mission to the bar, in November, 1857, Mr. Cassoday entered upon practice, and a year
