As long as such a course was necessary, Mr. Lawrence devoted himself
entirely to his business, but after he had placed it on a safe footing,
he was careful to reserve to himself time for other duties and for
relaxation. No man, he said, had the right to allow his business to
engross his entire life. "Property acquired at such sacrifices as I have
been obliged to make the past year," he wrote at the commencement of
1826, "costs more than it is worth; and the anxiety in protecting it is
the extreme of folly." He never lost sight of the fact that man is a
responsible, intelligent being, placed in the world for other purposes
than the mere acquisition of wealth.
In October, 1808, his brother, Abbott Lawrence, afterward famous as a
merchant and statesman, came to him as an apprentice, and on the 1st of
January, 1814, he was admitted to partnership, the style of the firm
being A. & A. Lawrence. This partnership was terminated only by the
death of the elder brother in 1852. Their business was the importation
and sale of foreign manufactures, and the firm soon took its place at
the head of the Boston merchants engaged in this trade.
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