F: : DISCOURSE ADDRESSED TO THE ALUMNI OF YALE COLLEGE, JULY 25, 1860. .AS.S7G Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/discourseaddressOOspra (Bwx S^rifuiiial Catalomu DISCOURSE, ADDRESSED TO THE ALUMNI OF YALE COLLEGE, AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING, JULT 2 5, I86 0. BY WILLIAM B. SPIIAGUE, D. D. ALBANY: PRINTED BY C. VAN BENTIIUYSEN. isno. \J One or two paragraphs are printed, which were not included in the discourse at its deUvery. DISCOURSE. It is an evidence of the thoughtful regard of our Alma Mater for her surviving children, as well as for the generations to come, that, once in three years, she sends forth a catalogue, revised and enlarged, of her whole family. That cata- logue comes from most careful and competent hands — while it marks the gradual increase of the number of her sons, and records the fresh honours that, from time to time, are falling upon many of them, it runs anew the line that divides the living from the dead. The stars, prefixed to the multitude of names, are emblematical of graves ; and it would require no great stretch of imagination to suppose that many of them were significant of crowns also ; — crowns of honour in this world, crowns of immortal life in the next. Indeed our Triennial may be considered as a sort of family record, which, like other family records, embodies the names of both the dead and the living, and, in many cases, a portion of their history also. With this record before me, I will endeavour now to call up the images of some of our elder brothers in collegiate fellow- ship ; and if I confine myself chieJfly to the departed, it will not be for want of due respect for the living, but because it seems to me more delicate and fitting, as a general rule, that the living should be allowed to pass the great ordeal, before even justice, much less affection, gives public utterance to all that it has to say of them. You will have anticipated me when I say that my subject is Yale College, as Ri;pRESENTED in HER Triennial Catalogue. I am quite aware that a topic like this places me on ground beset with temptations to utter, if not great swelling words of academic vanity, yet what might naturally enough suggest to those outside of our circle the idea that some small share of self-complacency still lingers among us. But I cannot allow myself to be trammelled by any such considerations. I should offend against my own sense of filial obligation ; I should offend against the genius of the occasion that has con- vened us; I should offend against the claims of truth, and justice, and honour, if, in being over- cautious to avoid extravagance, I should bring to our venerable mother an offering of faint or equi- vocal praise. I am thankful that the occasion is one on which words of even lofty eulogy may still be words of truth and soberness. Assuming then, as graduates of this College, the gratefid and reverent attitude of sons, we may claim, first of all, that we belong to an ancient family. Antiquity is indeed a relative term ; and that which, measured by one standard, falls far back into the distance, when referred to an- other, seems like a thing of yesterday. When, for instance, we compare the age of Yale with that of Oxford, which some suppose to have been founded, others to have been revived, by the great Alfred, we find little on which to build a claim for ourselves to an ancient origin. But when we substitute for the old English University any of the great sisterhood of American Colleges, which the last fifty or sixty years have brought into existence, we begin to have some sense of our own venerableness — we look upon our catalogue with more of reverence, not to say self-gratula- tion, when we find that it takes us back to the very commencement of the eighteenth century. Harvard had indeed a vigorous existence when 6 Yale was founded — she had had breathed into her the spirit of Oxford and Cambridge by some of the most illustrious sons of each ; and, for sixty years, she had been doing a work worthy of her- self and of the cause to which she was consecra- ted. But it came to pass, at length, as the popu- lation increased and extended, that the public convenience demanded another institution of the same kind ; and in this exigency our College had its origin. Such an idea had indeed been con- ceived by the great and good Davenport at a much earlier period ; and he had even gone so far as to make a proposition to the government respecting it; but it was judged premature, and was therefore deferred until the colony should gain more strength. In 1698, the matter began to be seriously agitated, but nothing was done to purpose till the next 3^ear, when, as you know, ten of the principal ministers of the colony were ap- pointed, by general consent of both clergy and laity, to perform the work which resulted in the establishment of this institution ; and thus, though the first commencement was not held till 1702, it is fair to say that the college originated in the seventeenth century. And she has been going on her way rejoicing through the long period of a hundred and sixty years. She has witnessed to the establishment o£ almost all those institutions which now constitute our country's glory. She heard the din of battle in the old French War, and in the War of the Revolution she even took part, in the person of her patriotic President. She has marked a long succession of changes on other continents, which have made the world quite another thing than what it was when she first opened her eyes upon it. Oh if she could take on a personal form, and tell us all that she has wit- nessed, who would not love to sit at her feet, and revel amidst her rich treasures of observation ! Age is not indeed always a synonyme of pros- perity — it often betokens infirmity and decay. Old men are sometimes evidently shy of facing their own wrinkles; not so much because they regard wrinkles a deformity, as because they seem to shadow forth the possibility that the full strength of life's best days is no longer theirs. Old dwellings, from the long continued action of the elements, frequently become untenantable, and they are visited only as curious relics, — pos- sibly as representing the taste of another century. Old institutions, in many instances, wax heavy and monotonous in their movements, until the 8 principle of vitality gets so low that they seem at best to be dragging out «a useless existence. Not so the 2;rancl old institution in which our intellects have been nursed and developed — she started modestly indeed, but gloriously ; and her course has ever been onward ; and to-day wit- nesses to her greatest vigour and power. Indeed, though, when we look back to her beginning, she may seem well stricken in years, yet when we consider her in the light of the ages to come, we recognize in her present state the freshness of youth, looking towards progressive, indefinite, almost boundless, development. Let me say, in the next place, that our con- nection is with a numerous, growing, and widely extended, family. The whole number of gradu- ates enrolled on our last Triennial is six thou- sand eight hundred and ten ; averaging a little more than forty-three to each year. This is a large number in comparison with that of any other American College save Harvard, which is our senior by sixty years. It is large in conside- ration of the fact that other similar institutions have been multiplying in all parts of the land, many of which have enjoyed a wide and liberal patronage. It seems large also when we bear in mind that much the greater portion of our gradu- ates have come out of the ranks of the yeomanry, among whom the pecuniary means of educating their sons are not usually abundant. And I can- not forbear to add that it is large when viewed in the light of that now proverbial but rather humi- liating concession, that we are the most money- loving people on earth. If I were called upon to meet the allegations which the envy or stupi- dity of some foreigners has made against the in- tellectual character of our country, I should think it enough — and more than they were enti- tled to — to open this venerable document on which I am commenting, and ask whether it were probable that such an army of scholars could have gone forth, each as a central point of illumina- tion, without j)roducing a result that must give the lie to these unworthy representations. When I say that we are a growing family, I intend much more than merely the fact that each successive year, as a matter of course, adds a new class to our catalogue — I mean that we have had a sufficiently rapid, but at the same time steady and healthful, increase. The aggregate number of graduates, during the first fifty years, was six 2 10 hundred and forty-eight ; and the average for each year was nearly thirteen : and when it is borne in mind how unpropitious to the cause of liberal education were the circumstances of the country ; how difficult it must have been for fathers to dispense with the labour of their sons in felling the forests and cultivating the fields, as well as to furnish the requisite means of their support at college ; and when, moreover, it is re- membered that there was an older and better en- dowed institution of the same kind in the heart of New England, which had become identified with the interests especially of the Massachusetts Colony, — what seems to us now a small number, was really a large number, to be assembled, first at Killingworth, then at Saj^brook, and after- wards on this ground, in the pursuit of learning. During the second half-century, — that is from 1752 to 1802, — there were sixteen hundred and eighty-six names added to the catalogue ; and the average annual number was thirty-three and three-fourths. This, under all the circumstances, was a marvellous increase ; for though, during this period, the population had a rapid growth, yet the first thirty years of it particularly were signalized by the most absorbing and agitating 11 scenes of our history — I mean the French War, and the War of the Revokition. It is certainly worthy of enduring record that from 1775 to 1783, when the great question whether we were to be a nation of slaves or of freemen was in the process of being settled at the point of the bayo- net, the average number of graduates each year was nearly nine more than it had been during the same period immediately preceding — an evidence that our flxthers felt that their blood was to be the price of institutions, which it would require men of liberal culture to sustain and carry for- ward to their legitimate results. The remaining part of the period of our collegiate existence, as presented by the last Triennial, ranging from 1802 to 1850, and including fifty-eight years, casts into the shade the most favoured of the pre- ceding portions of our history. In this interval, not only has the population of our country been increasing beyond a parallel, but the spirit of general enterprise has been thoroughly aroused, and the mind of the nation has been intensely engaged in working out problems bearing upon our national elevation and perpetuity. With the quickened pulsations of the body politic, with the more earnest tone of thought and feeling and ac- 12 tion that has pervaded all classes of society, Yale College has been in hearty sympathy ; and one evidence of this is that within this period she has nearly tripled her numbers. Whereas, in 1801, the number of her graduates amounted to only two thousand three hundred and thirty-four, in 1859, it had reached six thousand eight hundred and ten ; and whereas the average of the second general period, amounting to fifty years, had been but thirty-three and three-fourths annually, the average of the third, amounting to fifty eight years, has been a fraction over seventy-seven. To what extent a farther advance in numbers is likely to contribute to the substantial prosperity of the institution, I will not take it upon myself to determine. And we have been spreading as fast as we have been growing. The earliest classes indeed be- trayed the Connecticut origin of the institution from their scarcely drawing at all from beyond the limits of the colony. But, after a while, the neighbouring colonies, particularly New York, began to be represented here ; and then the dif- ferent New England colonies, not excepting Massachusetts which had her own Harvard ; and here and there one came from New Jersey or 13 Pennsylvania ; though it was not till the institu- tion had numbered upwards of an hundred years that it began to attract extensively both the at- tention and the patronage of the South. From a little after the commencement of the present century, the sons of Maryland, Virginia, the Caro- linas, and Georgia, began to be found here in large numbers ; and I know not whether there be a State in the South or the West, which has not some name or names on the list of our Alumni, And, in all ordinary cases, tlie}^ who come hither for an education, return to their own native region for a settlement — they come as the sons of Caro- lina or Kentucky, — they return as the sons of Yale ; and they will no sooner disown the latter relationship than the former. Hence it comes to pass that, as the College draws her students from all parts of the land, so she has her representatives in all parts of the land — she possesses a sort of national ubiquity ; and no matter Avhere there may be occasion to expound her claims, or vindi- cate her honour, or sound forth her praise, it is almost certain that some one of her own honoured sons will be there to do the filial duty. And now and then one strays across the ocean, at least as a sojourner, if not to find a permanent home ; so 14 that it is fair to say that there is scarcely any jDart of the globe which has not received the foot- prints of some one or more on whom has fallen the parental benediction of Yale. It is scarcely more than the carrying out of thoughts already suggested, to say that our rela- tionship is with an honourable family. I would not attach any undue importance to a name — for every one knows that names are often very equivocal indices of things ; and a splendid name, applied to an object of moderate or doubt- ful claims, only gives greater intensity to its in- significance. But, after all, where an honourable name crowns an honourable family, or an hon- ourable institution, it is impossible that we should resrard it with indifference — we instinc- lively cherish it as if it were a part of the family or the institution which it designates. Of the individual whose name this College bears, I doubt not that some of you know much more than I do; for the substance of all that I have been able to gather concerning him, would scarcely occupy more than a single page ; but even in that little I find enough to inspire me with profound rever- ence for the name of Yale. For do we not hon- our a spirit of energetic and persevering enter- 16 prise ? And is not that betokened even in the most general outline of his history, — especially in the fact of his having emigrated from England to India, and accumulated there an immense for- tune before he came back to England to pass the evening of his days? Do we not involuntarily render a sort of homage to the dignity of office or the splendour of rank? But this man occupied a high post of honour while he was yet in India, and a much higher one after his return to Lon- don ; for he was chosen Governor of the East India company ; — a place second to no other in point of commercial influence and respectability. Are we not always attracted by the workings of a generous and philanthropic spirit, especially by liberal offerings to the cause of learning and reli- gion ? But we are walking to-day in the light of Governor Yale's benefactions — this great tree of knowledge that overshadows us, if not actually planted by his hand, was watered and nourished by his bounty. Is it not delightful to see evi- dences of one's grateful and enduring remem- brance of the land, or the state, or the city, in which he drew his first breath, though Providence may have directed that nearly his whole life should be passed in other and far distant climes ? 16 Elihu Yale's birth, and bajDtism, and earliest training, were here ; and this delightful spot kept its place in his memory and his heart, as he travelled over the world ; and when the fitting time for demonstration came, the New Haven boy, now a prince in the domain of British com- merce, sends back to the scene of his childhood an offering to the noblest of causes, — thus build- in"; for himself a monument that shall remain in increasing glory, long after the marble that marks his grave at Wrexham shall have ceased to be distinguished. I find another element of our respectability in the auspicious circumstances that marked our origin. Yale College was begotten by the spirit of lofty intelligence and heroic virtue, combined Avith a thoughtful and liberal regard for the in- tellectual and moral interests of the future ; and the same spirit watched over her in her cradle, and led her on, as by an angel's hand, towards her maturity. It was not a hasty but a well con- sidered design that was entrusted to those ten vete- ran ministers to carry out — a design, which, though it seems to have been originally conceived by John DavenjDort, was, in its more mature state, to be credited, not so much to any single mind 17 as to the harmonious action of many minds, form- ing the intellectual and moral atmosphere of the colony. But that noble ten, who had the enter- prise in hand when it existed only in iiiint and shadowy outline, who not only saw the first stone of the venerable fabric laid, but laid it them- selves, — they were men fully competent to the work assigned them ; — men of forecast and energy, — as was manifest from their discreet and yet de- cided movements ; — men of large benevolence and public spirit, — as was evinced by their bringing from their own libraries, which no doubt were small enough, a liberal contribution of valuable books, which became the nucleus, as they are now the glory, of our College library. I should not discharge the debt of reverence that I owe them, if I were not, in this connection, to pronounce their honoured names — JamesNoyes, Israel Chaun- CY, Thomas Buckingham, Abraham Pierson, Samuel Mather, Samuel Andrew, Timothy Woodbridge, James Pierpont, Noadiah Russell, and Joseph Webb — these were the men whose minds brooded over the College, when it was a mere conception ; whose hands, nerved with faith, and love, and mighty power, began to work vigorously here when every thing was yet to be done. They 3 18 were all, with a single exception, graduates of Harvard — and their interest in her welfare never waned — but the training which they had had there qualified them at once to appreciate the imj)ortance of this enterprise, and to become the successful conductors of it. The whole agency, connected with the establishment of this College, was a wise, efficient, and every way honourable, agency — we may well afford to read the first chapter of our history, and thank God that we have such a chapter to read. But these wise and excellent men to whom the interests of the College were entrusted in its very inception, have had a long line of worthy suc- cessors. On the list of its guardians through suc- cessive generations are found a hundred and two Congregational ministers, many of whom have attained to great eminence ; and since the year 1792, there has been a liberal infusion into the body, of the civil element, consisting of the two highest officers of the State, and six members of the Senate ; — an admirable jDrovision at once for silencing complaints of an exclusively clerical in- fluence, and for securing the benefit of the sound- est secular wisdom. Of this long list of venera- ble ministers thirteen only remain ; the eldest 19 survivor, Rev. Dr. David Smith, after having seen more than ninety summers, being still here, with a heart as strong, and a hand as ready, to do good service for his Alma Mater as ever. No one could contemplate the present flourishing condi- tion of the College, without feeling assured that she must have had an eminently wise and efficient guardianship — such a result was not to be reach- ed under the auspices of simple mediocrity — and, on the other hand, no one, I am sure, could pass his eye over the honoured list of her Corporation, without arriving at the secret of no small degree of her actual prosperity. But the College has been favoured, not more in respect to skilful oversight and direction without, than a wise and liberal system of instruction and management within. And here let me ask you to pause for a moment beside the graves of the great men who have successively occupied the Presidential chair ; — not so much for the sake of finding out any thing new concerning them, as to refresh our minds and our hearts with our own grateful remembrances. And first comes Abra- ham PiERSON, — a man around whose character and history the shadows of a century and a half have gathered, but who has still left memorials enough 20 of his honourable and useful career to ensure im- mortality to his name. He was honoured in his parentage ; for his father, after having graduated at the University of Cambridge, and been episco- pally ordained, and exercised his ministry for some time in England, migrated to this land as a helper in the great cause of religious liberty ; and here his influence was widely felt in matters both civil and ecclesiastical ; and to no object were his efforts more earnestly directed than the evan- gelization of the Indians. Governor Winthrop pronounces him " a godly, learned man ;" and Cotton Mather, with characteristic quaintness, says of him, — "Wherever he came, he shone." The son was worthy of the father. His settle- ment at Killingworth brought peace where before there had been bitter dissension; and he soon became the idol of his flock. The cause of edu- cation he looked upon as twin sister to the cause of religion; and hence he was identified with the project for establishing the College ; and not only his high appreciation of learning, but his own very liberal attainments, designated him as the proper man to be placed at its head. He accept- ed the place without resigning his pastoral charge ; but, when the question of his removal with the 21 College to Saybrook came up, the parish earnest- ly protested against what they considered an in- vasion of their rights, while the Trustees as earn- estly insisted that the interests of the College were paramount to those of the parish, and there- fore he ought to remove. While this important question was yet undecided, he was struck down with a violent illness, that very soon took on a form so alarming as to preclude all doubt that the j)eople would have to look for another pastor, and the College for another Rector. His cons-rcfra- tion abounded in offices of kindness and tender- ness towards him during his illness, while he, in turn, expressed the deepest concern for their wel- fare, and counselled them most wisely in respect to the choice of his successor. His death produ- ced a double chasm, and both learning and reli- gion wept beside his grave. Next to Pierson came Cutler, — a man of eleva- ted and strongly marked character, though his history, in one respect, forms an episode in the history of the College. He was born of Puritan blood ; was an honourable son of Harvard ; set- tled in the ministry at Stratford as an honest Con- gregationalist ; and, when called to the Rector- ship here, was as true to his early religious creed 22 as ever. But, after two or three years, he began to doubt the validity of his own ordination ; and his doubts gradually gave place to new convic- tions ; and he frankly avowed that reading and reflection had made him an Episcopalian. The Trustees, much as they respected and honoured him, felt obliged to dispense with his services as Rector ; and, immediately after, he crossed the ocean, and came back a Priest of the Church of England, to become another sort of Reetor in Boston. There he exercised his ministry with great ability and acceptance for nearly forty years. He was a man of vigorous and compre- hensive intellect, of immense learning, and at- tractive eloquence. No minister of the Gospel ever makes any great change in his denomina- tional relations without incurring more or less of censure ; but I find nothing in the history of Dr. Cutler, either at Stratford, New Haven, or Bos- ton, to cast the least shade upon his candour or integrity. The third in the series is Elisha Williams, — concerning whom the first thing that strikes us is, that he belonged to a family, which was an- other tribe of Levi ; which seemed a standing pledge, through successive generations, that the 23 Congregational ministry would never die out. After his graduation at Harvard, he first studied Divinity, and went and preached awhile to the fishermen of Nova Scotia; then studied Law, and was, for a few years, engaged in civil life ; then sustained a sort of equivocal relation of Tutor in the College ; then, as the effect of a severe illness, rose to a higher tone of spi- rituality, and gave himself in good earnest to the work of the ministry, 'and was for five years pastor of the Church in Newington. Thence he was called to the Rectorship of the College, — an office rendered at that time doubly difficult by the agitation consequent upon the re- moval of his predecessor. For thirteen years he discharged his duties with alacrity and success, and then retired, on account of the ffiilure of his health. We find him afterwards occupying one or two important civil stations ; serving as Chap- lain of the Connecticut regiment against Cape Breton ; adventuring the next year in military life so far as to receive a Colonel's commission ; crossing the ocean to adjust a difficulty that had arisen in respect to the payment of his regiment, who had served their country two years in the somewhat extraordinary way of only waiting for 24 orders to serve it ; passing a much longer time than he had intended in England, but passing it delightfully, and much of it in the circle of which Doddridge was the center ; and accomplishing at least one important thing, which could not have been set down in his programme ; — for he brought back with him a wife, — if not of noble blood, yet of noble qualities and bearing, — to take the place of one who had died during his absence. But his mission to England nearly filled up his mission upon earth ; and much of what remained was ac- complished by patient suffering. Perhaps his use- fulness might have been greater, if his pursuits had been less diversified; bat surely he must have served his generation well, or the great and good Doddridge never could have said of him, — "I look upon him to be one of the most valuable men upon earth." The fourth name upon our list is Thomas Clap, in whom the title of Rector was changed to that of President. He had distinguished himself as a vigorous and successful student at Harvard. He had been, for several years, the greatly beloved and honoured pastor of a church in Windham, and they felt his removal from them to be a heavy loss ; though the Legislature had tlie grace to do 25 something, in the way of pounds, shillings, and pence, to compensate it. He brought with him hither a high reputation, not only for science and general scholarship, but for energy and skill in the transaction of business ; and the event prov- ed that, in none of these respects, had he been over-rated. He compiled a new and greatly im- proved code of Laws for the College, and drafted a more liberal Charter, which was granted by the Legislature, He was instrumental in the erection of a new college edifice for academic purposes, and afterwards of a new chapel, both of which still stand as monuments of his enterprise ; though modern improvement has diverted the latter from its orisiinal desi(i;n. He wrote the Annals of the College, — a work, which, if less minute in its de- tails than we could desire, has, nevertheless, been, to a great extent, the basis of all that has since been written on the same subject. In short, there is no doubt that he tasked his great mind to the utmost in his endeavours to promote the prosperity of the institution. His orthodoxy was of the thorough Puritan stamp — even the innovations which Edwards made upon it, he looked upon as 26 a blow aimed at the old foundations.* As for the Whitefieldian revival, it is scarcely too much to say that he saw in it unmixed evil ; and when the illustrious itinerant himself came along, the President had no warm side for him — he looked upon him as litfle better than an apostle of fana- ticism, going forth to scourge the churches ; and, in carrying out his convictions, he came directly in conflict with the high religious feeling of the day. This circumstance contributed, in a great measure, to give complexion to his administra- tion — it brought him into several earnest contro- versies both with prominent individuals and with the Legislature ; and no doubt it had much to do in bringing him, in the year 17G6, to resign his office. He had longed for repose ; but he had scarcely begun to enjoy it on earth, when he found it in the grave. He was a man of might and of courage, — an heroic defender of what he regarded as truth and right ; and even those who believe that his mental or spiritual vision was in * It was stated, in the delivery of tliis discourse, that President Clap's orthodoxy was probably never fully up to the accredited stand- ard of the day. That impression I received fiom a venerable clerg}'- man who knew him well, and was one of his pupils. I am satisfied, however, from further information on the sulyect, that the impression was an erroneotis one, and have accordingly modified the statement to conform to my present convictions. some degree disordered, must still admire the grandeur of his intellect, and the honesty and intrepidit}' of what may seem to them his most doubtful movements. When the venerable Clap retired, the College saw, for the first time, one of her own graduates advanced to the Presidency — the man was Naph- TALi Daggett, who, for five years, had been an acceptable pastor of a Presbyterian church on Long Island; and, for the ten following years, had filled the chair of Professor of Divinity in this institution. He was chosen President pro tempore ; and he continued to discharge the duties of this office, in connection with those of the Professor- ship which he had previously held, for eleven years ; when — for some cause of which I am not definitely informed — he resigned the Presiden- cy, — still, however, retaining the Professorship. I have already alluded to his having shared in the perils of the Revolutionary War — the story has been so admirably told by one of his own pupils, — - an eminent and lamented citizen of this place, who testified what he had seen, that I will only say that the whole history of that memorable period scarcely furnishes a more marked — cer- tainly not a more amusing — example of honest 28 patriotism than he exhibited. With a more quiet and conciliatory spirit than his predecessor pos- sessed, and with much deeper sympathy with the more earnest and orthodox portion of the Church, he contrived to hold the good- will of parties who had no excess of good-will to each other ; and his connection with the College seems to have been, generally, peaceful and happy. It should not be forgotten that, while he occupied the Presidential chair, the Tutorships were filled by some of the most gifted and cultivated minds of which the country can boast; and this, of itself, went far to constitute that period of our history a brilliant epoch. President Daggett's two immediate suc- cessors, who knew him well, have each left an honourable testimony to his intelligence and worth ; and it would be in vain to look for higher authority. The resignation of the Presidency by Dr. Dag- gett, in 1777, made way for the introduction of Ezra Stiles, — a name of scarcely less than world- wide celebrity. The spot on which he first saw the light was distant only a few miles from this, — the theatre of his greatest fame. His father, the Rev. Isaac Stiles, — himself a fine classical scholar, gave the earliest direction to his stu- 29 dies ; and the fact that at twelve years of age he was fitted for college, witnessed at once to the competency of the teacher and the extraordinary promise of the pupil. While he was an under- graduate, he was a shining light among his fel- lows ; and he bore away from college its highest honours. He studied Theology with a view to the ministry, and actually began to preach, and was invited to several fields of ministerial labour ; but his health failed, and a morbid state of mind ensued, in which were generated the most pain- ful doubts in regard to the- Divinity of the Gos- pel ; and, while thus in conflict with the skepti- cal spirit, he chaftged his purpose and studied Law, After a while, however, he recovered his health, and with that his faith, and with that his love for the profession from which he had a little while before drawn back; and the next we hear of him is that he has accepted a unanimous call from the Second Congregational Church in New- port to become their pastor. And now we find him, for a series of years, not only diligently en- gaged in the duties of his high calling, but mas- tering one Oriental language after another as if by intuition ; putting in requisition Jews as well as Gentiles in aid of his improvement; in short, 30 leaving no field of knowledge unexplored that was within his reach. The breaking out of the War did not at once drive him from the scene of his labours — for so long as any portion of his flock remained, he would not withdraw from them a shepherd's care — but when Newport came to be occupied by the British troops, and his congregation was entirely dispersed, he had no motive, even if it had been possible, to re- main ; and he accordingly fled with the rest, and took charge of a church in Portsmouth, — the same of which Joseph Buckminster, one of the most distinguished of our alumni, after- wards became pastor. But scarcely had he be- gun his labours there, when a voice from his Alma Mater reached him, summoning him back to take the most honourable and most responsi- ble place she had to ofter. And, after due* re- flection, he came and entered upon his oflice ; and faithfully, and nobly, and most acceptably, did he discharge its duties, until another sum- mons reached him, requiring his presence where the inhabitants never die. President Stiles may be regarded as having been, in many respects, the man of his time. A ruling passion was his love of knowledge ; and his attainments were 31 worthy to have been the result of the diligent labour of two or three long lives. He could scarcely have been set down in any country, un- less the most barbarous, where he could not have readily commanded a medium of intercourse with the people ; and even if Isaiah or David could have come back, he would have found a veteran scholar and saint here, who could converse with him in his own noble language. Not only had he studied the geography and the history of every portion of the earth, but he was familiar with the heavens also — if he made no new astro- nomical discoveries, he watched the explora- tions of others, and carefully treasured their re- sults. His preaching always evinced thought and culture. In the earlier part of his ministry, it is said to have been lacking in evangelical tone ; but, in his later years, it became more re- dolent of the Cross, and increased proportionally in fervour and power. His most celebrated effort in the pulpit, I suppose, was that which taxed the patience of the Legislature two hours and a half, and which remains to this day, not more a witness to the author's keen republicanism, than a terror to those who cry out against long ser- mons. He knew every body as well as every 32 thing. Washington was his acquaintance — Franklin was his intimate friend — there was scarcely a philosopher, or a theologian, or a man of letters, of any note, in the land, with whom he was not familiar; and among his correspon- dents abroad were such men as Lardner and Price ; and he sought and obtained information even from eminent Romish priests. His manu- scripts, a large portion of which have fortunately become the property of the College, show that, for minute and successful research in every de- partment of knowledge, we may never expect to find his superior. His manners, — as those who knew him have told us, — were characterized by a dignity worthy of his vast acquirements, and yet by a simplicity and generous frankness, fitted at once to disarm envy and inspire confidence. The history of his life is the history of one of the noblest minds, unfolding under the most aus- picious circumstances, and consecrating its ener- gies to all the best interests of humanity. If there is only here and there one present whose memory reaches back far enough to take in the image of the illustrious man of whom I have last spoken, I am sure I have reached a name now, the mention of which will strike the 33 chord of personal recollection in many who hear me. I am standing beside the grave of Dwight ; and though the great events of his life, and the varied lineaments of his character, come thronging upon me, with the freshness of a thing of yester- day, yet I find little freedom in speaking of him here, where I know that every thing pertaining to him is intelligently and gratefully embalmed. I will 'only ask you to call wp to remembrance what you know as well as I do, — that in descent he stood but a single step from the immortal Edwards; that the foreshadowings of greatness were recognized almost while he lay in his mo- ther's arms; that he advanced into life under circumstances singularly auspicious; that, Avhile he was a mere stripling, he was filling a Tutor- ship here with marked ability, and was attract- ing the attention of some of the most gifted and erudite minds by the productions of his pen; that, after he became a minister of the Gospel, and even had a family of his own to provide for, his filial devotion still kept him by the side of his widowed mother; that he adventured as a Chaplain in the army of the P^evolution, and enjoyed the confidence of the master-spirit of 5 that mighty enterprise ; that, for a while, he consented to take civil office, and showed him- self wise and faithful in the management of the things that are Ca3sar's; that he went to Green- field in the double capacity of preacher of the Gospel and teacher of youth, and was abundantly honoured there both of God and of man ; and that he found his nltimate earthly destination amidst the responsibilities and honours of the Presidency of this College. We remember his finely formed and majestic person; his face in- tensely intellectual ; his brilliant eye sometimes darting fire ; his whole air and bearing betoken- ing superiority. We remember how grandeur combined with grace in his movements up through the aisle of the chapel; how magnifi- cently, as he sat in the pulpit, he would some- times wield that great old fan; how evident it was, from his tone and manner, that his prayers came up from the very depths of his soul ; and how, in his sermons, he would at some times en- chain us by his clear and forcible logic, and at others would seem to borrow a seraph's wing, and bear us away beautifully into the skies. We remember the triumphs of his great intellect, as they were exhibited in the recitation room; — 35 how his well matured thoughts on every subject were always ready for use; how his most elabo- rate pulpit efforts were often completely distan- ced by the extemporaneous remarks that follow- ed our recitations; how, when he had talked his full hour, with the rapidity of a cataract, we felt sure that he could have talked another, with- out repeating himself, and without wearying us, and still have kept back enough to say another time. He has been forty-three years in his grave; but surely the grave has dealt kindly with him, — for it has only extended both his usefulness and his fame. I am well aware that I am not yet at the end of the list of our Presidents ; and, if I were to obey the impulses of feeling rather than what seem to me the dictates of propriety, I certainh^ should not stop till I had j)aid a tribute to the last. But I will only ask you to join me in thanking Heaven that two of the number yet survive, — the one, in the serene twilight of life, to receive the grateful benedictions of the multitude whom he has led on to honourable usefulness; the other, in the noonday of his strength, to imj^ress him- self upon successive generations of minds, and thus to achieve continually new triumphs in aid 36 of the great cause of human imj)rovement. May there be years of tranquil enjoyment and useful- ness m store for the one, and manj^ years of earnest and successful devotion to the intellec- tual and moral interests of the world in store for the other, before it shall be allowed to justice, or reverence, or gratitude, to construct the wreath which it is fitting should be laid only on the grave. I have spoken of the high honour that has ac- crued to this College from the exalted character of her Presidents — but I must not omit to say that she has been equally favoured in respect to her entire Faculty, especially her Professors. I may allude to two or three in the academic de- partment, who have passed away, of whom I can speak from vivid and affectionate remembrance. The one who is thrown farthest back into the distance is Fishee,^ — that bright star that went down so suddenly and prematurely into the ocean. His mind was formed to rejoice amidst lines, and angles, and quantities, so that it had only to touch the darkest mathematical pro- blem to throw it into a flood of light. There was DuTTON, — in respect to whom it was dif- ficult to say which was the more admirable, 37 the clearness and fertilitj^ of his intellect, the genial tone of his spirit, or the winning simpli- city of his manners. There was Kingsley, — a man of keen perception, and enlarged views, and most liberal culture — there was no limit to his good nature, and yet his quiver was always full of arrows — he seemed shy and diffident, and . would pass his own pupils as if he were afraid of them ; but wo to him who had the temerity to try the force and point of his missiles. There was Olmsted, — with a mind so j)erfectly balan- ced that you could detect no disproportion; with attainments that gave him an honourable rank among the philosophers of the age ; and with an untiring industry and graceful facility at author ship, that have enabled him to enrich our libra- ries with many volumes of enduring interest. And last of all, there was Goodrich, — whose grave is so fresh, and whose memory so dear, that I can speak of him only as a mourner. He was a fine specimen of both intellectual and moral no- bility; — of a Christian gentleman, and a Chris- tian teacher, and a Christian minister. His mind was at once comprehensive and energetic — it was a capacious storehouse of well selected, well assorted treasure — his thoughts were quick, 38 and clear, and earnest, and always expressed with such luminous precision as to leave their exact impress upon other minds. His strength of purpose was an overmatch for protracted bodily infirmity, and enabled him to battle suc- cessfully with every invader of his professional industry, save the last enemy. He did not sur- render his office as a minister of the Gospel, in taking the chair of Professor of Rhetoric, but exercised as close and constant a vigilance over the spiritual interests of the College, during the whole period that he held that Professorship, as if he had been specially designated to the pas- toral care. I doubt not that his record is in many a heart, both on earth and in Heaven, which, through his instrumentality, was first attuned to the objects and joys of a higher life. The works which he has left behind, j)raise him; — works creditable alike to his intellect and his heart ; works which posterity cannot, without ignoring both the dictates of Avisdom and the claims of justice, suffer to die. With this lament- ed and honoured friend I so naturally associate another Professor that I cannot forbear an allu- sion to him, — though (thanks to a gracious Pro- vidence) he is yet among the living; — one whose 39 active connection with the College has indeed ceased, but whose susceptibility of social enjoy- ment and |)Owers of general usefulness remain in- tact ; — a man (he must forgive me for saying it in his presence) whose long life has been one un- broken splendid offering to the cause of science, and whose monument is in both hemispheres. May the crown of venerable age, studded with gems of youthful buoyancy, and heroic devotion to all that is good, cuntinue to sit gracefully upon him, until it shall be exchanged for the crown of life ! And finally, our College has been honoured in her benefactors. Of her first great benefactor I have already had occasion to speak in referring to her name — and I Avill mention only two be- sides — the one of an earlier, the other of a later, period ; the one creating a perpetual endowment for the promotion of classical learning, the other establishing a gallery of art, that forms a most graceful ornament of the institution. The in- genious and accomplished Berkeley, a Dean of the Church of England, combining at once the ideal philosopher and- the practical philanthro- pist, crossed the ocean on the benevolent errand of evangelizing the North American Indians ; 40 and though, for want of the co-operation of the government at home, which he had been encou- raged to expect, his enterprise signally failed, yet it was impossible that a mind so rich, and a spirit so pure and elevated, should be in exer- cise here for two years and a half, without leav- ing an enduring impression on the character of some of those infant institutions with which he came in contact. Having fixed his residence in a beautiful valley on Rhode Island, that he might the better enjo}^ his occasional visits to the neighbouring hills, he used to spend his Sundays in Newport, preaching to the good people of that town and its vicinity, and his. week-days in a natural alcove which he found among the hang- m