I can very positively, however, affirm my
complete confidence in Mr. Dodd's honesty. I knew both his father and
himself very well, and through a long intimacy found them both
consistently conforming to a very high type of character, courage, and
intellectual integrity.
The MS. of Mr. Dodd was handed to me by himself, and I recall with a
pathetic interest his smile of appreciative gratitude as I received it,
and gave him my earnest assurance that it should be printed, and that
the world would be made acquainted with his experiments and their
results.
Mr. Dodd was the residuary legatee of his father, and his own will made
during his last sickness, appointed me as his executor. My daughter was
made his sole heir, with two exceptions; small amounts in favor of his
assistants--Jeb Jobson and Andrew Clarke were mentioned in his will--and
these sums have been paid by myself to each.
A series of extraordinary misfortunes, for which I am myself measurably
to blame, resulted in the complete disappearance of the fortune
inherited by my daughter. Her own death and that of my wife, following
upon this disaster, though in no way connected with it, obliterated--and
here again I admit a very grievous culpability--the remembrance of the
MS. of Mr. Dodd and my own promises as to its publication.
I found the MS. of Mr. Dodd carefully wrapped up at the bottom of a
trunk of papers, and confess that I opened the package it formed with a
bitter sense of self-reproach.
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