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Slnicncan ilcligiou^i^ Scaticr^ 
 
 MARK HOPKINS 
 
 FRANKLIN CARTER 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTOX, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1892 
 
Copyright, 1892, 
 By franklin CARTER. 
 
 AU rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 An estimate of Mark Hopkins cannot be out 
 of place in a series of American Religious Leaders. 
 He belonged among the later religious leaders of 
 New England. His endowments, his attainments, 
 and his long service made him a unique figure 
 among the teachers of this age. But for a com- 
 plete estimate of him as a man, there is a lack of 
 material. His own letters, with the exception of 
 those written to the late Rev. Dr. Ray Palmer and 
 President Garfield, have been generally lost. His 
 life in a country town was devoid of picturesque 
 and varying incident. He lived one side of the ad- 
 vantages of stimulating society and the intellectual 
 discoveries of his time. The great thrills of mod- 
 ern thought reached him chiefly through newspa- 
 pers and books. His profound and far-reaching 
 influence in the country was for that reason all the 
 surer testimony to the wisdom and power of his 
 manhood. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 It was perhaps not without propriety that I was 
 asked to examine into the elements of his charac- 
 ter and teaching, and to compose this book. 
 
 I was his pupil, his colleague when he was pres- 
 ident, and later his colleague in an inverted rela- 
 tion when I became his successor as president of 
 the college, thougli not immediately following him 
 in this office. My acquaintance with him was not 
 as leng-thy as that of some others, but I knew him 
 from widely divergent standpoints, and only by 
 these later years of the anxieties and cares that be- 
 long to the presidency of a New England country 
 colleo^e have I come to the full understandino^ and 
 appreciation of the great qualities which marked his 
 career. The estimate which is here presented is 
 the mature estimate of one who has thus had un- 
 usual opportunities of knowing him, and of enter- 
 ing into sympathy with his activities. But this 
 will not compensate for the loss of those expressions 
 of his earlier and later inner life of growth which 
 all who knew him woidd highly value. Xor will 
 it serve to relieve much the lack of that incident 
 which life in a larger community would j^robably 
 have supplied. This little book, then, whose writ- 
 ing has been a pleasant labor and the grateful 
 recoofnition of a larg-e debt, is sent forth with re- 
 gret that it is not fuller and richer in material, but 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 not without confidence that the judgments ex- 
 pressed in it are accurate, and will be indorsed 
 by those who have penetrated the true secrets of 
 
 this beneficent life. 
 
 Franklin Carter. 
 
 Williams College, October 26, 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Early Years 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Professor , ... 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The College 87 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Administrator 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Rebellion of 1868 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Teacher 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Author 133 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Preacher 181 
 
viii CONTEyTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The President of the American Board of Commis- 
 sioners FOR Foreign Missions 203 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Crisis in the Board of Missions 239 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Friend 277 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The TheolocxIAn 311 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Closing Years 331 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Final Tribute 349 
 
 List of Rev. Dr. Mark Hopkins's Published Writings 367 
 
 Index 371 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 The principal dates in Dr. Hopkins's life are here 
 arranged in chronological order. In certain cases the 
 invitations to positions in other institutions did not be- 
 come formal, but I have judged from the correspondence 
 that in all the instances recorded in this list the invita- 
 tion would have been formally given, if Dr. Hopkins 
 had shown a disposition to encourage the belief that 
 he could be drawn away from Williams College. Doubt- 
 less his regular refusal of such invitations prevented 
 even the informal suggestion of many other such offers. 
 But the list is long and varied enough to show the very 
 high esteem in wdiich he was held as teacher, thinker, 
 and preacher by the best informed in our land ; it 
 shows also his loyal devotion to his own college. 
 
 1802. Born February 2, at Stoekbridge, Mass. 
 
 1821. Entered Williams College as a Sophomore. 
 
 1824. Was graduated as Bachelor of Arts. 
 
 1825. Tutor in Williams College. 
 
 1827. Delivered the Master's oration on " Mystery." 
 
 1829. Graduated in medicine from Berkshire Medical School. 
 
 1830. Appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric 
 
 in Williams College. 
 1833. Licensed to preach by the Berkshire Association. 
 
 1836. Elected President of Williams College. 
 
 1837. Created Doctor of Divinity by Dartmouth College. 
 1841. Received the same degree from Harvard College. 
 
 1843. Elected Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
 
 in New York city. 
 
 1844. Lowell Lectures on '" The Evidences of Christianity.'' 
 
X CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 1844. Invited to become Pastor of the Plymouth Church. Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. 
 
 1847. Elected Bartlett Professor of ISacred Rhetoric in Andover 
 
 Theological Seminary. 
 
 1848. Elected Member of the Board of Visitors in the same 
 
 seminary. 
 1850. Offered the Chancellorship of the University of New York. 
 
 1850. Appointed Professor of Systematic Theology in Union 
 
 Theological Seminary. 
 
 1851. Called to the j^astorate of the Mercer Street Church in 
 
 New York city. 
 
 1852. Urged to accept a nomination to the presidency of the Uni- 
 
 versity of Michigan. 
 
 1853. Invited to become Pastor of a new Presbyterian Church in 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 1857. Received the degree of LL. D. from the Regents of New 
 
 York University. 
 1857. Elected President of the American Board of Commissioners 
 
 for Foreign Missions. 
 
 1857. Elected Vice-President of the National Society for Com- 
 
 pensated Emancipation. 
 
 1858. Offered professorship of Didactic Theology in Chicago 
 
 Theological Seminary. 
 1860-61. (December, 1860, and January, 1861.) Lowell Lectures 
 
 on " Moral Science." 
 1861. Visited Europe. 
 1867-68. (December, 1867, and January, 1868.) LoweU Lectures. 
 
 " The Law of Love and Love as a Law." 
 1868. Elected President of the Academy of Metaphysical and 
 
 Ethical Sciences. 
 1871-72. (December, 1871, and January, 1872.) Lowell Lectures. 
 
 '^ An Outline Study of Man." 
 
 1872. Resigned presidency of Williams College, but retained the 
 
 professorship of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. 
 
 1873. Invited to the Chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy 
 
 in Bowdoin College. 
 
 1875. Course of lectures before the Yale Theological Seminary 
 
 on " The Scriptural Idea of Man." 
 
 1876. Lectures before the students of the same seminary on 
 
 " The Scriptural Idea of God." 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xi 
 
 1870. Invited to the direction of the Post-Graduate Department 
 in Boston University. 
 
 1.^7(i. Lectures on "Scriptural Anthropolog-y " before the Tlieolo- 
 gical ISchool of Boston University. 
 
 1881. A second trip to Europe. 
 
 1883. Lectures on '* The Scriptural Idea of Man " before Princeton 
 Theological Students. These lectures were also delivered 
 in Chicag-o. Illinois, and Oberlin. Ohio. 
 
 1886. Created Doctor of Laws at the 2.">()th anniversary of Har- 
 vard Universitj'. 
 
 1886. Took position at Des Moines, Iowa, at the annual meet- 
 
 ings of the A. B. C. F. M., for the reference to a council 
 of applications for missionary service " in difficult cases 
 turning upon the doctiinal views of candidates.'' 
 
 1887. Died, June 17. 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 
 
" My parents were professors of religion : and I descended from 
 Christian ancestors, both by my father and my mother, as far 
 back as I have been able to trace my descent. I conchide I and 
 my ancestors descended from those called Puritans in the days of 
 Queen Elizabeth, above two hundred years ago, and have con- 
 tinued to bear that denomination since, and were the first settlers 
 of New England. This I have considered to be the most honor- 
 able and happy descent, to spring from ancestors who have been 
 professors of relig'ion without interruption during- the course of 
 two hundred years and more : and many of them, if not all, real 
 Christians." — Samuel Hopkins's Autobiography. 
 
 " The thoug-ht of our past years in me doth breed 
 Perpetual benediction : . . . 
 . . . for those obstinate questioning's 
 Of sense and outward things, 
 
 . . . for those first affections 
 Those shadowy recollections, 
 Which, be they what they may, 
 Are yet the fountain light of all our day, 
 And yet a master light of all our seeing : 
 Uphold us, cherish, and have the power to make 
 Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
 Of the eternal silence : truths that wake 
 To perish never." 
 
 Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EARLY YEARS. 
 
 Among the low hills that form the Naugatuck 
 valley in Connecticut, in the year 1677, the actual 
 settlement at Mattatuck, now Waterbury, began. 
 In 1680, Stephen Hopkins, the son of John who 
 settled in Cambridge in 1634, went to Waterbury 
 from Hartford and received a house-lot. He built 
 a mill on Mill, now Mad River, which he probably 
 erected to provide occupation and a livelihood for 
 his eldest son «Tohn, and possibly the house-lot was 
 originally secured for him. John Hopkins be- 
 came influential in the new settlement, and held 
 nearly all the offices which a respected and enter- 
 prising man in such a community could attain. 
 He was to^vn clerk one year and tavern-keeper (no 
 mean distinction) for several years, and received 
 military honors. John's second son, Stephen, born 
 in 1689, was also a prominent citizen, and main- 
 tained well the dignity of family which his father's 
 services had established. 
 
 His third son, Timothy, born in 1691, was prob- 
 ably the most influential man of his generation 
 in the town. He was often constable, selectman, 
 grand juror, and moderator of the town meeting. 
 
4 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 He was justice of the peace for eight years, and 
 represented the town many times in the General 
 Court. He was also a man of military distinction, 
 being appointed captain in 1732. He was a man 
 of more than ordinary intelligence, a type of that 
 old-fashioned integrity and religion and authority 
 which was not uncommon in the New England vil- 
 lages during the last century. 
 
 One of his sons was Samuel Hopkins, the cel- 
 ebrated divine. The latter alludes in his autobi- 
 ography to the influences of his childhood in the 
 following appreciative words : — 
 
 ''I have considered it a great favor of God that 
 I was born and educated in a religious family, and 
 among a peojile in a country town, where a regard 
 to religion and morality was common and prevalent, 
 and the education of children and youth was gen- 
 erally practiced in such a degree that yoimg people 
 were generally orderly in their behavior, and ab- 
 stained from those open vices which were then too 
 common in seaport and populous j^laces." He con- 
 gratulated himself that his ancestors on both sides 
 "had been professors of religion without interrup- 
 tion during the course of two hundred years or 
 more : and many of them, if not all, real Christians." 
 
 Samuel's father, Timothy, died in 1749, when 
 Samuel was twenty-eight years old. Samuel had 
 been graduated from Yale, and trained in theology 
 by Jonathan Edwards; became in 1743 the settled 
 minister at Great Barrington, then called Housa- 
 tonnuc, a parish of Sheffield, in Berkshire County, 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 5 
 
 Massachusetts. It was while settled over this par- 
 ish that he first published sermons, three in num- 
 ber, the very title of which seems to transport the 
 reader to the last century. The title runs : " Sin 
 through Divine Interposition an advantage to the 
 Universe, and yet this no Excuse for Sin or En- 
 couragement to it: illustrated and proved: and 
 God's Wisdom and Holiness in the Permission of 
 Sin : and that his will herein is the same as his re- 
 vealed will shown and confirmed in three sermons 
 from Eom. iii. 5, 6, 7, 8." These sermons were 
 first published in 1759, though there was at least 
 one subsequent edition. 
 
 The youngest brother of Samuel was Mark, born 
 in 1739, and ten years old when his father died. 
 The care of three younger brothers devolved upon 
 the eldest, Samuel, from that event ; and Mark was 
 taken to his brother's home in Great Barrington 
 and by him fitted for college. He was graduated 
 from Yale in 1758, and was admitted to the bar at 
 the first session of the Berkshire court in Septem- 
 ber, 1761. He was fitted both by his talents and 
 trainins: to maintain the honorable traditions of 
 his family, and was rapidly advanced through the 
 various public positions to which those serious and 
 stormy times called only able men. The first and 
 most distinguished Theodore Sedgwick studied law 
 in his office. He early espoused the cause of the 
 colonies, and was a delegate from Great Barrington 
 to the county convention convened at Stockbridge 
 July 6, 1774, and became one of the committee who 
 
6 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 drafted the resolutions passed by the convention on 
 the relations to the mother country. It is not to 
 be forgotten that this convention was the first of 
 the county conventions that assembled in Massa- 
 chusetts to consider the encroachments of Great 
 Britain, and that the resolutions adopted by the 
 committee of v/hich the first Mark Hopkins was a 
 member struck the keynote of loyalty to the king, 
 but of devotion to the maintenance of the rights of 
 the colonies, which influenced subsequent conven- 
 tions and led to the Revolution. He was, when the 
 Revolution became actual, a member of the Commit- 
 tee of Safety, and his wise energy was felt through- 
 out the county in giving direction and efficiency to 
 the patriotic movement. 
 
 He had, too, like his father and great-grand- 
 father, an adaptation for military command, and 
 was active in organizing and equij^ping the militia, 
 of which he became colonel. In the summer of 
 1776 he commanded a detachment of Berkshire 
 militia which had been summoned into the field by 
 General John Fellows, and was stationed for a 
 while at Peekskill. While engaged in the service 
 he was taken with t>q:)hoid fever at White Plains, 
 and to prevent his falling into the hands of the Brit- 
 ish army, who were marching on the place, he was 
 carried from his sick-bed in the arms of a soldier 
 to a place of safety. The excitement and fatigue 
 gave an unfavorable turn to the disease, and he 
 died two days previous to the fight at White 
 Plains, October 26, 1776. 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 1 
 
 The wife of Colonel Mark Hopkins, the grand- 
 mother of President Hopkins, was Electa Sar- 
 geant, daughter of Rev. John Sargeant, the first 
 teacher of the missionary school among the In- 
 dians at Stockbridge. The conception of this 
 school originated with Rev. Samuel Hopkins, of 
 West Spring-field, a younger brother of Timothy, 
 and thus an uncle of the great Dr. Samuel. Mr. 
 Sarsreant was a man of unusual talents, of sweet 
 temper, of engaging manners, and was a thorough 
 scholar. Among the books owned by the late Dr. 
 Mark Hopkins is a volume of Livy, with the in- 
 scription on the fly-leaf : — 
 
 "lohannis Sargeant, Liber Donum Pupillorum, 
 An. Dom. 1735." 
 
 As the Indian school began in 1734, it has been 
 supposed that this book was a present to Mr. Sar- 
 geant from the grateful Indians gathered into the 
 school, and that the selection of a classical author 
 was made for them by some scholarly friend of their 
 teacher. But as Mr. Sargeant remained only a 
 few weeks in the school in 1734, and, securing a 
 temporary substitute, returned to Yale College to 
 finish his four years' engagement as tutor, which 
 ended the next summer (1735), there can be no doubt 
 that the volume of Li\^ was a present from his pu- 
 pils at Yale. Professor F. B. Dexter, of Yale Col- 
 lege, says of Mr. Sargeant: "As a tutor he was 
 one of the most successful holders of that office in 
 the early history of the college." ^ Mr. Sargeant 
 
 1 Yale Biographies and Annals, p. 395. 
 
8 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 studied the language of the Housatonnuc Indians so 
 diligently that in 1737 he was able to preach with- 
 out an interpreter, and the Indians were afterwards 
 wont to say, "Our minister speaks our language 
 better than we ourselves can do." 
 
 Mr. Sargeant's wife, the mother of Mrs. Colo- 
 nel Mark IIo23kins, was the eldest daughter of 
 Colonel Ephraim Williams. The second Colonel 
 Ephraim Williams, her elder half-brother, was the 
 founder of Williams College. Thus, through his 
 grandmother, Electa Sargeant, Dr. Hopkins had 
 in his veins the blood of the families that founded 
 the missionary school among the Indians at Stock- 
 bridge, and the college at Williamstown of which 
 he afterwards became president. 
 
 Colonel Mark's eldest son, Archibald, a farmer, 
 a man perhaps of less striking gifts than some of 
 the line, but a true Hopkins, lived and died in 
 Stockbridge, where, on February 4, 1802, his eld- 
 est son, Mark, was born. It is his life and thought, 
 which were of great service to the church and to 
 mankind, that an effort is here made to record, not 
 in minute details, for these have been largely lost, 
 but in the strong outlines which his pupils love to 
 honor. 
 
 It is a somewhat singular circumstance that 
 nearly all papers relating to the early life of the 
 subject of this study seem to have disappeared. 
 A long life, whose constant residence was in one 
 county, which had intimate associations with the 
 best people of the county from childhood, and 
 
THE EAELY YEARS. 9 
 
 in its influence affected thousands of educated men 
 throughout the land, seems scarcely to have had 
 a beginning. As his life stretched over eighty- 
 five years, those older persons who knew him as 
 a little boy have long since passed away. To very 
 few now living was he known in the days even of 
 his undergraduate life, and the pupils of his con- 
 nection with the college as professor are no longer 
 numerous. To all these he seemed to have the 
 full maturity of manhood from the first. Now that 
 a complete picture of his career would have great 
 interest for those who were personally acquainted 
 with him and for many others, the inability to pre- 
 sent some satisfactory account of his boyhood and 
 youth is disappointing. Perhaps it is this part 
 of his life which those who knew him in man- 
 hood, when the impression of his personality was 
 so striking and definite, would value most highly. 
 One would be glad to learn Avhether the heaven 
 which "lies about us in our infancy" revealed itself 
 in any peculiar way; whether the "white celestial 
 thoughts " that the poets give to childhood were 
 early soiled, as in most cases they are, by the de- 
 velopment of selfishness and passion. His mother, 
 who was Mary Curtis, of Stockbridge, a genuine 
 descendant of the Puritans, a woman of large in- 
 telligence and force, and a firm believer in the in- 
 spiration of the Bible, although she never made a 
 formal profession of religion, brought up her sons 
 with scnipulous fidelity to the development in them 
 of the purest morality. Doubtless from her lie and 
 
10 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 his brother Albert learned something of that rever- 
 ence for God's word which manifested itself in their 
 later life with perhaps equal distinctness, but in 
 somewhat different ways. The childhood of these 
 gifted boys (there was a third brother who early 
 died, but not until he had shown unusual talents as 
 a civil engineer, and as an artist) must have had 
 in it much that was vigorous and healthful. The 
 final eminence of Mark as a philosopher, of Albert 
 as an astronomer, and the traces of the genius of 
 Henry, who seems to have had an Italian's love of 
 color and a Greek's perception of form, and to whom 
 the creative touch was not wanting, would suggest 
 rare advantages and incentives. But the father 
 was a farmer, and the boys w^orked more or less 
 upon the farm, as the district school hours and the 
 seasons permitted. It is hardly to the environment 
 that we must attribute their large development. 
 The beauty of the Housatonic valley was not lost 
 upon Henry, and the love of nature that Albert 
 showed was quickened by the search for and discov- 
 ery of rare flowers, and by the study of the mani- 
 fold unity of vegetable and animal life. But Mark, 
 who was also very fond of nature, probably had a 
 deeper tendency to reflection; and while for the 
 coming of all the boys the manly, self-respecting 
 training of several generations had been preparing, 
 in Mark peculiarly the influence of the serious New 
 England thinkers was to be reproduced. 
 
 When he first w^ent to the district school, at the 
 age of four, the teacher, taking the reading book in 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 11 
 
 his hand, asked: "And where can you read, my 
 little fellow?" "Just where you please, sir! " was 
 the reply. The teacher found it so. He could read 
 anywhere, and was always at the head of his class. 
 
 This incident is suo^'estive of the care with which 
 his mother had begun his intellectual training. He 
 showed aptitude for learning in all his school years, 
 but was not pretentious, though apparently some- 
 what ambitious. His brother Albert in later years 
 wrote of him to a friend as follows : — 
 
 "Study was more congenial to my brother Mark 
 than to me. He entered upon the pursuit of know- 
 ledge, prompted, 1 think, by a love for it, mixed 
 doubtless with something of a worldly ambition." 
 There was so much genuine humor in the two 
 brothers, who became connected with the college as 
 teachers, that one cannot help thinking that their 
 boyhood must have had in it a deal of robust fun. 
 Mark was fitted for college partly at Clinton, New 
 York, partly by his uncle. Rev. Jared Curtis, who 
 had for a time the control of the Stockbridge Acad- 
 emy, and he was for a little while a member of the 
 Lenox Academy. 
 
 Before entering college he taught school in Rich- 
 mond. A letter from a cousin, the Rev. Moses 
 Ashley Curtis (Williams, 1827), written thirty-five 
 years after, gives some interesting details of the 
 experience. The cousin writes from Hillsborough, 
 Xorth Carolina, and begins his letter with the 
 statement that he, the writer, is officiating as cler- 
 gyman once a month for a small settlement not far 
 
12 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 from where lie is writing. He lias recently stayed 
 with a physician, who asked in the morning as they 
 were waiting for breakfast, '4f I knew a Dr. Hop- 
 kins, President of some College at the North. I 
 need not tell you that he brought his eggs to the 
 right market that time. 'Why,' says he, 'Mark 
 Hopkins was my teacher, when I was a lad in Vir- 
 ginia. ' ^ The Doctor listened with great interest 
 to what I could tell him of you, and had to repeat 
 my information and our relationship to the differ- 
 ent members of the famil}^ as they came in. He 
 seemed to think that he was rather a favorite with 
 you, though he says you were much esteemed by all. 
 He told me of your boxing young Howerton's ears 
 pretty roundly for a bit of impertinence, when you 
 took him to task for picking some young kildees 
 and then setting them to swim in a pond. . 
 
 " On telling him that I sometimes had communi- 
 cation with you, he desired me to say that he still 
 holds you in very affectionate remembrance." 
 
 1 It is believed by Dr. Hopkins's family that Mr. Curtis has 
 here substituted the name of the State, Virginia, for Richmond, 
 and that the Richmond referred to was not in Virginia, but the 
 toAvn in Berkshire County lying- northwest of Stockbridge, Dr. 
 Hopkins's native town, where it is certain Hojikins taught. Tlie 
 name of one pupil. Speed, mentioned in the letter, was known in 
 Richmond, Mass., at the time Hopkins taught there. Howerton 
 may have been a Christian name. Another reason for believing- 
 that Richmond in Massachusetts became in Mr. Curtis's mind 
 Richmond, Virginia, is the statement that Speed made that Hop- 
 kins, when traveling- as ag:ent of the American Tract Society, 
 called upon him in central New York, where he was then living. 
 A migration from Richmond, Virginia, in those days to central 
 New York was not very likely to occur. 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 13 
 
 We see here that the young teacher had the same 
 power of attaching his pupils to himself as was 
 later exhibited by the venerable president, and it 
 is interesting to note that this power rested on the 
 same love of manliness and scorn of meanness. 
 
 A more interesting picture in the same letter is 
 the reference to the return home of the young Mark 
 Hopkins : — 
 
 "I remember your return from that (then) far 
 away country. I was going after the cow at even- 
 ing, and had just entered the willow-flanked lane 
 below Colonel Dwight's, when I saw you approach- 
 ing whistling upon a blade of grass between your 
 thumbs a hi grandpa. I knew you at a distance; 
 but when you saluted me and took me by the hand, 
 in my sheej^ishness I hung my head, and told you 
 'I did not know you.' What fools does bashful- 
 ness make of children ! I did the same thing once 
 by Edwin Dwight. I have not yet got over the 
 shame of such contemptible folly, and I feel mean^ 
 whenever I think of it. You spent part of that 
 evening at our house by the old burying ground. 
 I remember where you sat and how you sat. You 
 can sit so still, sometimes. I know I then thought 
 it a very funny mode. If you have forgotten, I 
 can inform you that you brought from Virginia 
 $540,1 a^g J learned from your own mouth that even- 
 
 1 As Hopkins, when studying- medicine, taught in New York 
 city, this amount, apparently too large to be earned in Richmond, 
 Mass., may have been gained there, and the return Avould be more 
 important, both to the boy Curtis and to the Hopkins family, than 
 that from teaching in Richmond, Mass. It is very probable that 
 
14 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ing, and that you left it, if I am not mistaken (for 
 I am not so certain about this) for some sort of in- 
 vestment in the hands of Harry Sedgwick in New 
 York." 
 
 The picture of the young Berkshire student com- 
 ing home from a few months' work as teacher with 
 an exuberance of spirits that finds expression in 
 whistling on a blade of grass between his thumbs 
 is charming. It is "a la grandpa^'''' and he is 
 stealing home to surprise his mother and give her 
 his renewed homage after a long absence. The 
 other picture of his sitting so as to make a deep 
 impression on the mind of a younger boy suggests 
 that already thoughtful study of the grave problems 
 of life had produced an effect upon his manner; 
 that there was something peculiar and striking even 
 at that early date in his personal presence. He 
 entered Williams College as a Sophomore in 1821, 
 and was graduated valedictorian of his class in 
 1824. A single classmate, the Hon. Harvey Eice,^ 
 of Cleveland, survives, and he has furnished to me 
 so interesting a paper of reminiscences of his 
 friend, that it is here given entire. 
 
 "The late Rev. Dr. Mark Hopkins was one of 
 my classmates in Williams College, and graduated 
 with me in the class of 1824. I think he entered 
 college in advance of the Freshman year. He came 
 
 the boy received a wrong impression in respect to what was said, 
 but not about wliat he saw. 
 
 1 Mr. Rice died November 7, 1891, after this manuscript went 
 to the printer. 
 
THE EABLY YEARS. 15 
 
 into the class with the reputation of being a bright 
 scholar, and continued to maintain that reputation. 
 We soon became, I hardly know why, mutual 
 friends. He seemed as remarkable for his modesty 
 and unassuming manners as for his excellence in 
 scholarship. He enjoyed the respect of his class, 
 and was regarded by all who knew him as an ex- 
 emplary young man. 
 
 "He was studious in his habits and scrupulous 
 in the discharge of his duties, kind and obliging, 
 and always ready to bestow favors. This he 
 often did by way of aiding the inefficient of his class 
 in acquiring their lessons, and in writing the es- 
 says required of them as class exercises. H^ was a 
 deep thinker, and acknowledged to be the best lit- 
 erary writer in his class. He never indulged in 
 sports, or frolics, so common among college stu- 
 dents, but, in whatever he did or said, he always 
 observed the proprieties of life. In matters of 
 serious import he was considerate, and in his re- 
 ligious observances, reverent and sincere. 
 
 "Yet he appreciated humor and witticism, loved 
 to hear and tell anecdotes, and enjoyed a hearty 
 laugh. He was quick in his perceptions, logical 
 in his conclusions, and could make a fine point and 
 see a fine point without spectacles. In the recita- 
 tion-room he often put questions, arising out of 
 our lessons, to the learned professor, which per- 
 plexed him, and then would answer the questions 
 himself with becoming deference. 
 
 "In his course of reading, while in college, he 
 
16 MABK HOPKIXS. 
 
 manifested little or no relish for novels, but seemed 
 to prefer standard authors in literature and science. 
 He soon evinced a decided love for the study of 
 metaphysics, and read all the books on that sub- 
 ject which he could find in the college library, and 
 took great pleasure in discussing the different the- 
 ories advanced by different authors. 
 
 "I well remember that on one occasion, during 
 our Senior year, he read before the class in the 
 presence of the professor an essay on a metaphy- 
 sical subject. About half the essay was original, 
 and the other liaK copied from the distinguished 
 Scotch author. Dr. Reid. Hopkins had placed 
 quotation marks on what was original, but omitted 
 to credit Eeid. The learned professor who had 
 the class in charge, in criticising the essa}", pro- 
 nounced the quotation all right, but cut and scored 
 Dr. Reid unmercifidly. Hopkins said nothing, 
 but doubtless 'laughed in his sleeve.' 
 
 "He soon afterwards confided to me the finesse 
 he had practiced on the professor, with the injunc- 
 tion to keep it a secret, lest it might come to the 
 ears of the professor and wound his feelings. I 
 doubt if he ever spoke of it to any one else. I 
 kept the secret for more than forty years, and then 
 disclosed it, for the first time, in a speech which 
 I made at the Commencement dinner, in 1871, 
 when Hopkins was President of the College and 
 presided at the table. The anecdote was received 
 with prolonged applause. 
 
 "At graduation Hopkins received the appoint- 
 
THE EARLY YEARS. 17 
 
 ment of valedictorian, — an honor justly bestowed 
 and heartily approved by every member of the 
 class. His valedictory was pronounced a literary 
 gem, and was generally admired not only for its 
 beauty of language, but for its elevation of thought. 
 In a conversation with him nearly fifty years after- 
 wards, I happened to remark that I was greatly 
 surprised that the only dullard of our class, in his 
 graduating oration, had manifested a degree of 
 ability and talent which exceeded the expectation 
 of everybody who knew him, and that I was unable 
 to account for it. 'Well,' said Hopkins, 'per- 
 haps I may — now the fellow is dead — explain it. 
 The truth is, I wrote the oration for him. ' 
 
 "The golden threads which were wrought into 
 the texture of Hopkins's college life seem to have 
 grown brighter as he grew into manhood. They 
 were the elements of his character, — a character 
 that is based on the principles of a true Christian 
 philosophy. The college that educated him did 
 itself honor in bestowing upon him its presidency. 
 I regard it as an honor to have been one of his col- 
 lege classmates." 
 
 One gets a hint of how fully he understood him- 
 self in the remark made to a college classmate who 
 complained of the difficulty of the Greek lessons : 
 "They are easy. I do not know enough of Greek 
 to make them hard." 
 
 The health of the undergraduate Hopkins was 
 the source of some solicitude to himself and his 
 friends. He was absent from college for some 
 
18 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 weeks at one point in his course, seeking vigor, 
 and then made so deep a study of the claims of 
 Christianity that the questions of its origin and 
 value were for him answered. He settled these 
 questions not mainly on the grounds of external 
 evidence, certainly not on such external evidence 
 as would be necessary to-day to overcome doubt 
 based on external considerations, but on that in- 
 ternal evidence which in every age is the true sat- 
 isfaction of the sold that hungers and thirsts after 
 righteousness. For him "the life of Christ and 
 his deatli and resurrection, his whole being on 
 earth and in heaven, as revealed to us in the New 
 Testament — this was an all sufficient self -substan- 
 tiating evidence and exposition of Christianity — 
 the source of its vitality and the secret of its 
 power." ^ There were other evidences for his mind, 
 as was proved later, but this was enough. From 
 that time his faith in the supernatural, regenerating 
 power of Christ never wavered. There is some- 
 thing very significant even on the intellectual side 
 in this examination and decision. At the age of 
 twenty his hold on the profound principles that un- 
 derlie Christianity was so firm that the long, deep 
 thought of his later life only strengthened that 
 hold. His views underwent modifications as to 
 certain doctrines and relations, but the grounds on 
 which he first accepted Christ as a Eedeemer were 
 unchanged, and amply sufficient through all his 
 
 1 Catholic Thoughts on The Bible and Theology. Frederick Myers, 
 p. 262. 
 
THE EAliLY YEARS. 19 
 
 thoughtful career. It was the eternal truth he laid 
 hold of, not the temporary props of varying' scholar- 
 ship. And because it was the eternal truth, ever 
 young and ever new, his inspiration as a Christian 
 teacher had in it an uplifting, increasing power 
 "that grew brighter and brighter unto the perfect 
 day." 
 
 After leaving college he entered the Medical 
 School at Pittsfield, but taught a part of the year 
 in Stockbridge. 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 
 
■' What delights can equal those 
 That stir the spirit's inner deeps, 
 When one that loves, but knows not, reaps 
 A truth from one that loves and knows ? " 
 
 Tennyson, In Memoriam. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PROFESSOR. 
 
 The choice of the medical profession may seem 
 strange to those who knew Dr. Hopkins in the full 
 tide of his career as a philosopher and theologian. 
 He was so eminent a master in these fields that a 
 consciousness of fitness for somethino- else seems 
 singular. He was not a mathematician, but for 
 the other subjects of the college course he seemed 
 to have much more than average abilities. He was 
 probably graduated with far better qualifications 
 for any career not involving advanced mathematics 
 than any member of his class. And the lack of 
 mathematical enthusiasm may have been owing to 
 poor instruction before he entered college. Very 
 possibly the flourishing condition of the school at 
 Pittsfield was one influence that led him into med- 
 icine. He must have known a good deal of the 
 school through some of the students, and may have 
 caught the desire for this study from their enthu- 
 siasm. But whatever may have been the motives 
 that led him, it is plain now that the training de- 
 rived from his studies for the profession of a phy- 
 sician became of the greatest use to him in his later 
 life-work. It was the guidance of the higher Hand 
 that was preparing him for a larger career. 
 
24 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 Although, as has been said, he settled for him- 
 self the validity of the claims of Christ to his al- 
 legiance before graduation from college, he did not 
 make a public profession of that allegiance until 
 1826. The question of becoming a minister of 
 the gospel was probably not very seriously consid- 
 ered, when he entered the medical school. The 
 other profession attracted him strongly. In 1825 
 he became a tutor in the college. For two jesirs 
 he filled that position acceptably. It was a very 
 different position from a tutorship to-day. There 
 were besides the president, Dr. Griffin, who taught 
 theology and philosophy and rhetoric, but two pro- 
 fessors in the college. These were Chester Dewey, 
 who taught mathematics and natural philosophy, 
 and Ebenezer Kellogg, who taught Latin and 
 Greek. Whatever subjects laid down in the curri- 
 culum these three men did not teach, or whatever 
 parts of the subjects assigned to the professors they 
 could not cover, fell to the tutors. Mark Hopkins 
 had a classmate, William Hervey, who was ap- 
 pointed tutor the same year. The more advanced 
 subjects were given to Hopkins. 
 
 There is a record still existing which testifies 
 to the high appreciation of his first year's services 
 by the class then finishing the Junior year. This 
 class was graduated in 1 827, and though numbering 
 but thirty, twenty -three of its members entered the 
 Christian ministry. 
 
 The paper is addressed to Mr. Tutor Hopkins, 
 and bears date September 4, 1826. The college 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 25 
 
 year ended at that period early in September. 
 The paper is as follows : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — Tlie Junior class, fully sensible of their 
 obUgations to you for your exertions in their behalf, both 
 as it respects their intellectual and moral improvement, 
 and cordially reciprocating every sentiment of esteem, 
 take this method to exjn-ess to you their gratitude, re- 
 spect, and best wishes. 
 
 The scenes of the year which now closes will ever 
 excite in us a grateful remembrance of your kindness, 
 be a source of pleasure during our collegiate course, and 
 unite our hearts to you, sir, in bonds of affection when 
 we leave these academic walls. 
 
 Signed, A. D. Whep:ler. \ 
 
 Nathan Brown, J Com. 
 B. Phinney, ) 
 
 There can be but one explanation of the "scenes 
 of the year." It was a year of great spiritual re- 
 vival; considering the number wdth which the year 
 opened, eighty-five in all, of whom only forty- 
 three at the beginning of the first term professed 
 faith in Christ as the Redeemer, it mry be doubted 
 whether a more thorough revival ever tcok place in 
 the college. When the term ended, there were but 
 seventy-four students actually in attendimce. Of 
 the thirty-one who had no personal devotion to the 
 Divine Master at the beginning of the term, twenty- 
 seven, or all but four, had put themselves into an 
 attitude of allegiance to Him. The entire year 
 was one of marked religious activity. There is 
 something at once delightful and prophetic in find- 
 
26 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 ing a record that gives to Tutor Hopkins during 
 the first year of his service for the college an hon- 
 orable share in the direction of the thought of the 
 young men toward Him "in whom are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
 
 From 1825 until 1887 the prophecy of the first 
 term of his labor was continually fulfilled. There 
 was never an hour during all these years when the 
 purpose and the expression of his work was not to 
 enthrone Christ in the hearts of the young men 
 committed to his charge. It is easy, however, to 
 believe that the sense of responsibility awakened 
 by his position as a tutor in the college was quick- 
 ening from the first. His large nature responded 
 largely to these new claims, and, under the influ- 
 ence of that first solemn but beautiful year of ser- 
 vice to his Alma Mater, on his return home to 
 Stockbridge in the autumn he took his stand with 
 the people of God, and became a member of the 
 church militant. 
 
 In the autumn of 1826, Tutor Hopkins went as 
 agent of the American Tract Society through cen- 
 tral New York on horseback, partly for his health 
 probably, and did not return to his duties as tutor 
 until after the opening of the next coUege year. A 
 sentence in the letter of a graduate referring to this 
 period, and alluding to Tutor Hopkins as "leaving 
 me to the gentle sway of Tutor Hervey," makes the 
 inference of a delayed return unavoidable. But 
 tutorial duties were resumed, if somewhat late, in the 
 autumn. The delicate health which Hopkins con- 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 27 
 
 tended with as student and also as tutor will per- 
 haps be a surprise to those who knew him in later 
 years. There was something so masculine and ro- 
 bust and even majestic in certain respects in his 
 figure that he was usually regarded as a very vig- 
 orous man. He had great powers of endurance, 
 but his long and singularly useful life was marked 
 by the most careful observance of the laws of health, 
 and a strict attention in all his habits to the one 
 great principle of his philosophy that all lower ac- 
 tivities shovdd be made subservient to the higher. 
 
 The late E. W. B. Canning, of Stockbridge, 
 gives, in a letter received from him a year or two 
 since, a glimpse of the college tutor as the teacher 
 of a Bible-class. He says : — 
 
 "My first recollection of Dr. Hopkins w^as dur- 
 ing the spring and summer of 1827, when he was 
 Sophomore tutor, and I was fitting for college at 
 the AYilliamstown Academy. I was one of ten 
 or a dozen lads who composed his Sabbath-school 
 class. Under his instruction I received my first 
 vivid realization of the paramount truths of the 
 Bible and of my personal responsibility thereabout. 
 He was my ideal of what a Bible-class teacher 
 should be. He left in the autumn of that year, 
 and the final meeting with us was an occasion whose 
 memory of more than sixty years is still tearful." 
 
 The tutorship ended at the close of the college 
 year, 1827. The master's oration was delivered 
 by the retiring tutor. Its subject was "Mystery." 
 It was printed in the " American Journal of Sci- 
 
28 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ence and Arts," in April, 1828, and is the first 
 paper in the vokime of "Essays and Discourses" 
 collected and published in 1847. It is impossible 
 to read it without admiration of the clear, manly 
 march of the thought and the purity of the style, 
 characteristics as definitely exhibited in this oration 
 as in the maturest work of his life. The conclud- 
 ing paragraph shows the reverent but philosophic 
 attitude of the writer : — 
 
 " Of the essence of mind or matter we have not, 
 and perhaps no finite being can have, the power 
 of forming an elementary conception. But aside 
 from this we see from what has been said, that the 
 intelligence and experience which we may hope for 
 hereafter may enable us to solve all those difficul- 
 ties which we now term the mysteries of Provi- 
 dence, to reduce every physical fact to its general 
 law (consequently to behold the universe without 
 one anomaly), and to refer all general laws imme- 
 diately to the volition of the Almight}^ That will 
 indeed be a noble elevation of being to attain unto, 
 when, as clearly and as directly as the rays of 
 light emanate from the sun, every being and event 
 shall seem to flow from the energies of Omnipo- 
 tence and the depths of ineffable love. But though 
 all mystery may thus far be removed, clouds and 
 darkness must still rest upon the existence, creative 
 energ}^, and attributes of the Great Cause un- 
 caused, and the darkness of ' excessive bright ' for- 
 ever encompass his throne." 
 
 In the autumn of 1827 he resumed his medical 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 29 
 
 studies, and the next three years were spent mainly 
 in their pursuit, although he taught a part of the 
 time as a means of paying his expenses. In 1830 
 he had completed his studies and was preparing 
 to settle as a physician in New York city, where 
 he had studied for a time, when the professorship 
 of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric in his Alma 
 Mater, which had become vacant by the death of 
 Professor William A. Porter, was offered to him 
 and accepted. 
 
 The feeling was much more general in that early 
 period of college education than now, that a college 
 professor should be a teacher not wholly in the col- 
 lege, but also in the churches. In accordance Avith 
 this feeling. Professor Hopkins, after three years 
 of study of the subjects belonging to his depart- 
 ment, to which theology was closely related, was 
 licensed to preach in the Congregational churches 
 by the Berkshire association, at a meeting held at 
 Dalton in 1833. 
 
 He was married on Christmas Day, 1832, to 
 Miss Mary Hubbell, of Williamstown. This mar- 
 riage was in every way happy, and the ideal rela- 
 tions of family life may be said to have flowed from 
 it. Through a period of over fifty -four years, cov- 
 ering a career of great usefulness and eminence, 
 but not unmarked by trials both of a domestic and 
 personal character, with all his massive strength he 
 leaned in tenderness and trustfulness uj^on the wife 
 whom he had chosen. He rarely went from home 
 unless accompanied by her, and in all his varied 
 
30 MASK HOPKIXS. 
 
 literary work, her approval and sympathy were to 
 him the seal of success. She was several years 
 younger than he, and especially after his form was 
 bent and his whitened hair had become scanty, she 
 was now and then when away from home with him 
 taken for a daughter. This always afforded him 
 pleasure, and was the occasion of happy repartee. 
 Ten children were born of this marriage, of whom 
 two died in infancy, and one, the eldest, Mary 
 Louisa, in the developed powers of what seemed a 
 perfect womanhood. 
 
 At the age of twenty-eight, then, Mark Hopkins, 
 doctor of medicine, is professor of Moral Philoso- 
 phy and Rhetoric in his Ahna Mater. An election 
 to this professorship nowadays would hardly be 
 given to one whose professional studies had been in 
 another field. It would be thought necessary that 
 the incmnbent of the chair in a good college should 
 have made deep studies in this department both in 
 this country and abroad. But education was less 
 specialized in those days, and the appointee had 
 proved himseK a consummate teacher. Not by the 
 study of any systems of pedagogics, nor by any 
 methods that could be formulated in minute rules, 
 but by sovereign tact, by genial insight, by prac- 
 tical wisdom, by true interest in each individual 
 pupil, and steady movement towards definite ends, 
 his success had already been brilliant. He never 
 was an enthusiast for pedagogical science, though 
 he valued the knowledge of educational movements. 
 He would have said with a recent German that " no 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 31 
 
 concrete educational questions can be solved in 
 terms of an universally valid science." And that 
 the rules of any system could take the place of that 
 fine tact, the want of which often characterizes men 
 of great power, and the absence of which is never 
 known except in the most general way by those 
 not possessing it, would have seemed to him absurd. 
 Without tact, without the coordinating power that 
 discovers and leads and wins and concentrates the 
 energies of the pupil to an end, perfect mastery of 
 subjects and tremendous force are of no avail. In- 
 deed, transcendent abilities without fine discern- 
 ment and tact will often present the mournful fig- 
 ure of a man who pipes at a very high key without 
 eliciting a single graceful responsive step, and 
 whose discourse is practically and permanently the 
 "voice of one crying in a wilderness," because no 
 one will give heed. But Mark Hopkins, when 
 teaching lads in Richmond and in Stockbridge, as 
 tutor and Sunday-school teacher, had awakened 
 interest and kindled intellectual life. No one can 
 call in question the solidity of intellectual powers 
 and equipments where such results are attained. 
 "Nothing succeeds like success," and the appoint- 
 ment of young Hoj^kins as professor was an in- 
 stance of decision where there could have been no 
 misgiving. 
 
 In moral philosophy the text -book used was by 
 Paley. After the lapse of nearly sixty years, one ^ 
 of the class of 1833 recalls distinctly the sharpness 
 
 ^ Hon. Martin I. Townsend, of Troy. 
 
32 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 with which Professor Hopkins criticised the state- 
 ment of one author that conscience is often "iden- 
 tical with a man's habits and prejudices." He 
 said, "If the man's habits and prejudices were in 
 point of fact identical with his conscience, we may 
 apply to the one what is said of the other. Now 
 how would it sound to say that a man's habits and 
 prejudices are 'seared as with a hot iron '? " 
 
 The pupil ^ who gave us a glimpse of Tutor Hop- 
 kins as a Bible teacher presents fuller impressions 
 of him as a professor. He says : — 
 
 "In 1830, I left college for a two years' interval, 
 and on my return found him installed as Professor 
 of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric ; and as the in- 
 creasing imirmities of President Griffin not infre- 
 quently required a substitute instructor, our class, 
 during both Junior and Senior years, had not only 
 the regular but extra services of Dr. Hopkins, 
 which were duly appreciated. His eminent charac- 
 teristics as an educator have been so often and so 
 generally treated, as to render it impertinent in me 
 to attempt more in the same direction than to re- 
 mark that no opinion of his army of pupils, oral or 
 written, however eulogistic, can adequately portray 
 the actual man, the living instructor, in his reci- 
 tation-room. So apt in illustration, so fertile in 
 collateral resource, so ready on occasion with his 
 spice of humor, so tactful in the ada23tation of his 
 questions to the calibre of his respondent, so ori- 
 ginal and independent in his ideas of the topic under 
 
 1 E. W. B. Canning-, of Stockbridge, Williams, 1834. 
 
THE rROFESSOR. 33 
 
 discussion, so skillful in drawing out the thoughts 
 and queries of liis pupils, he woke interest in the 
 sluggish and provoked attention in the thoughtless 
 and indifferent. Perhaps all his rare abilities in 
 this regard may be summed u}) in the expression, 
 — he made men think. 
 
 "Sometimes he good-naturedly crushed a cap- 
 tious, seK-important, or dissentient student by a 
 quick and timely turn of the remarks of the ol)jec- 
 tor. For example, Dr. Hopkins, one Saturday 
 forenoon, took the president's place at the recita- 
 tion in Vincent's Catechism, usually regarded as 
 the dustiest lesson of the curriculum; but whose 
 dry bones Dr. Hopkins clothed with life, warmth, 
 and vigor. He was expounding the 'exceeding 
 l)readth ' of the Fifth Commandment, — its corre- 
 lated grasp of the care and authority over inmates 
 of public institutions and schools. A bright but 
 erratic student, who had a recalcitrant propensity 
 toward the college Faculty, and had made them 
 great trouble, took occasion to sneer at the latitude 
 claimed in the premises, and scouted the idea of 
 such extension of parental authority. The profes- 
 sor sat, a smiling listener, watching a weak spot in 
 the objector's armor for an effective thrust. It 
 came when an expression of the speaker made it per- 
 fectly apt to interrupt him with this inference: 
 'Hence we see that a father who has an unruly son 
 whom he knows not w^hat else to do with is sure 
 to send him to Williams College.' The critic sub- 
 sided amid a roar of laughter from his classmates, 
 
34 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 and his subsequent ventures in the line of criticism 
 were few. 
 
 "As regards Professor Hopkins's influence in 
 the government of college, it seems to me to have 
 been eminently one of affection rather than of au- 
 thority, and that respect for his lovable qualities, 
 coupled with his mental ability, secured ahnost uni- 
 versal obedience. Indeed, perhaps he never ap- 
 peared at less advantage than in the management 
 of a fractious, incorrigible pupil, utterly unap- 
 proachable by moral suasion. Punishment was 
 truly with him 'a strange work,' and seemed to cost 
 the inflictor more than the recipient. But rare was 
 the instance where his quiet influence and paternal 
 counsel proved unavailing." 
 
 Rev. William E. Dixon, writing to President 
 Hopkins from Enfield, Connecticut, in 1868, in 
 acknowledgment of some kincbiess, and referring to 
 his college life, alludes to his dealing with students. 
 Mr. Dixon was graduated in 1833, and was also a 
 pupil of Professor Hopkins. 
 
 "Always when I was in college, I observed the 
 great wisdom and tact with which you got along 
 with the students, not pressing upon them with 
 severity to kindle anger, but inciting and ruling 
 them ... by reason, kindness, and love." 
 
 More than sixty years have elapsed since the 
 election to the chair of Moral Philosophy. Natu- 
 rally little testimony to the character of the teach- 
 ing given during the six years that Dr. Hopkins 
 held the professorship can be received from pupils 
 
THE PROFESSOR. 35 
 
 of that period. All the testimony that can be se- 
 cured confirms the sagacity of the appointment and 
 the wisdom of the acceptance. Whatever great 
 things the life of a physician might have seemed 
 to promise and might have accomplished, a careful 
 examination of the actual career and the results 
 leaves no doubt that when he selected the life of a 
 teacher, he chose that for which he was by nature 
 preeminently fitted, and that to which God surely 
 called him. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 
 
" Nature constitutes throug-hout one intellectual organism : hu- 
 manity one moral organism ; and as God is the informing thought 
 of the one, so is He the spiritual authority of the other. In rec- 
 ognition of the former, we raise the University : as symbol of the 
 other, we dedicate the Church : neither of which fulfills its essen- 
 tial idea, till it places us at an altitude whence the whole domain 
 of knowledge on the one hand, of duty on the other, can be sur- 
 veyed in its relations, and seen suffused with the Divine and 
 blending light." — Jasies Martineau, A Study of Religion. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COLLEGE. 
 
 By the acceptance of the professorship in 1830, 
 Mark Hoj^kins identified himself permanently with 
 Williams College, His connection, begun as a 
 stndent in 1821, continued with two intermissions, 
 one of one year immediately after graduation, and 
 one of three years after the exj)iration of his tutor- 
 ship in 1827, until his death in 1887. Of these 
 sixty-six years, sixty-two were years of closest al- 
 liance with the college, and for thirty-six of the 
 sixty-two he had the chief responsibility before the 
 world for the direction of its affairs. A connection 
 so close, so vital, and so enduring cannot be shown 
 for any other American educator. There is some- 
 thing wonderful in the simple physical endurance 
 it suo'o'ests. When it is remembered that he left 
 college for a while on accoimt of delicate health, 
 and that in spite of his massive frame and majestic 
 figure he was never a robust man, but was always 
 very dependent on sleep, the length of service is 
 still more surprising. 
 
 It w^as the New Eno'land coUeo'e to which this 
 long and enduring life was devoted, and no educa- 
 tor, in this or any of the past generations, can be 
 
40 MABK HOFKIXS. 
 
 said to be more fully identified with this peculiar 
 outgrowth of Puritan ideas than Dr. Hopkins. 
 
 If the original aim of the New England college, 
 as indicated by the motto of Harvard, foimded in 
 1636, Christo et Eccleslce^ and by the character 
 of the instruction given for many decades, was 
 largely to train men for the ministry, that idea was 
 already growing wider, when Yale was chartered 
 in 1701. Yale was to be a "school wherein youth 
 may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who, 
 through the blessing of Almighty God, may be 
 fitted for public employment both in church and 
 civil state." But when Yale was founded, her 
 trustees were all ministers of the gospel, and no 
 layman was admitted to the corporation until 1792, 
 when a grant of money from the State of Connect- 
 icut opened the doors of the corporation to the 
 "Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and six senior 
 assistants in the Council of the State." In 1819 
 the words "six senior assistants in council " w^ere 
 chanoed to "the six senior senators." 
 
 Williams College was chartered in 1793, and the 
 majority of her trustees were Yale graduates. The 
 educated men in New^ England had come to see by 
 the great events of the Revolution, and by the his- 
 tory of the Confederation, and in the conventions 
 and debates that led to the adoption of the present 
 federal constitution, that college-bred men were of 
 immense importance to the state, and that the ser- 
 vices that could be rendered by the college to the 
 other learned professions w^ere not less valuable 
 
THE COLLEGE. 41 
 
 than those given to the ministry. It seemed wise 
 to the first trustees of Williams that this wider con- 
 nection with the state should be fully recognized. 
 Of the thirteen trustees named in the charter, nine 
 were laymen, and when, the next year, in accord- 
 ance with a provision of the charter, three addi»- 
 tional trustees were elected, one of these was a lay- 
 man ; so that when the full number of trustees had 
 been chosen, the clergymen on the board were but 
 six out of sixteen. As the founder, Ephraim Wil- 
 liams, was a soldier, and the money which he left was 
 for the establislunent of a "free school," it may have 
 been thought that to give laymen a preponderance 
 in the corporation would be more in accordance with 
 his purpose. Out of this " free school "of 1790 
 grew the college, and this connection doubtless 
 helped to strengthen the lay element, as the original 
 trustees were continued in office. The New Eng- 
 land colleges at the beginning of this century were 
 far more alike than they are to-day. They were 
 all colleges. Divinity students w^ere trained by 
 settled clergymen. The Andover school was not 
 founded until 1807. Law students were trained 
 in the office of eminent lawyers. The medical 
 were the first professional schools under the shelter 
 of the colleges, the school at Harvard dating from 
 about 1783, and the school at Yale from 1813. It 
 seemed desirable to have this connection both for 
 the college and the professional school, and even 
 Williams College had, for a period, an organic re- 
 lation with the medical school in Pittsfield. The 
 
42 MAPiK HOPKINS. 
 
 growth of professional schools about the college has 
 been mostly, and the development of the college 
 into the university wholly, within this century. 
 Sixty years ago, the number of professors in the 
 largest colleges was small, and instruction was given 
 more largely by tutors than at present. The occa- 
 sion for the establishment of nearly every college 
 founded in New England previous to 1820, except 
 Harvard, was that a large and prosj^erous region 
 was without the privileges of higher education, and 
 the journey to a college a hundred miles away was 
 costly and difficidt. All the New England colleges 
 of the last century except Brown University, 
 founded as Ehode Island College, belonged origi- 
 nally to the Puritans, and conformed to the same 
 general plan, and were regarded with interest and 
 affection by the great body of the New England 
 people. 
 
 That traveling should become so easy and cheap ; 
 that one central college in New England might be 
 reached in less than one day from the extremities 
 even of new Maine, before the century ended, was 
 not even imagined in 1820. The competition of 
 to-day was still farther from the early conception. 
 The first trustees of Yale were Harvard graduates. 
 A majority of the first trustees of Williams, as has 
 been stated, were Yale graduates, and the territory 
 between Williams and Yale, a hundred and twelve 
 miles to the south, seems by the selection of one of 
 the first trustees for Williams from Norfolk, Con- 
 necticut, to have been equally and amicably di\aded. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 43 
 
 The denominational development of colleges was 
 beo-innino' to make itself felt, and besides Rhode 
 Island College, several others, not belonging to the 
 Conoreo-ationalists, had been founded in New Eng- 
 land when Mark Hopkins was elected professor, 
 and one was chartered the following year. The 
 earliest form of competition was denominational 
 rivaby, but these new colleges followed the same 
 general plan as the earlier. A president, two or 
 three professors, and two or three or more tutors 
 constituted the teaching body. The classes were 
 not large, those in Harvard graduating between 
 1830 and 1840 averaging about fifty each, those in 
 Williams and Brown during the same period about 
 twenty-five, and those in Yale probably nearer 
 eighty. The religious traditions of the colleges 
 were still potent, and the required religious services 
 were frequent and not always attractive. Even in 
 those colleges wliere, as in Williams, a large num- 
 ber of trustees were laymen, it was felt, though not 
 always prescribed, that it would be better that the 
 president should be a clergyman. The clerical in- 
 fluence w^as for that reason alone very large in the 
 board of trustees in most of the colleges. More 
 frequently the professors also were clergymen, as 
 the dominion that belonged to that profession, still 
 somewhat marked, seemed to suit well the profes- 
 sor's position. The students themselves were very 
 largely from religious families, and though, at the 
 close of the last century, skepticism was rife in the 
 coUeges, in many of them the tide had turned, and 
 
44 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 long before 1830 came in full and strong with 
 faith. Those colleges that were favorably situated 
 in large cities or wealthy communities have of late 
 years left behind, with their richness of instruction 
 and variety of equipments and splendid profes- 
 sional schools, the old New England college, but 
 that was and still remains the nucleus and foun- 
 dation of all the new growth. Its power was im- 
 mense for good, and for the safe and honorable de- 
 velopment of our country the Puritans opened no 
 richer fountain than the New England college. 
 Such presidents as Woolsey at Yale, Wayland at 
 Brown University, and Hopkins at Williams ; such 
 professors as Hadley at Yale, honored in Europe 
 for his scholarship and yet condescending to teach 
 Freslmien the dialect of Homer with unfailing pa- 
 tience, or Peabody at Harvard, winning the respect 
 and affection of all the young men and inspiring 
 them with a new conception of learning devoted to 
 Christ, or as Diman at Brown, kindling enthusi- 
 asm for academic culture, but making that always 
 tributary to service, — these are types of men not 
 without representatives in nearly every general 
 catalogue, all the products of the old-fashioned col- 
 lege, and handing down unpolluted the precious in- 
 fluences which quickened them. The early college 
 had small equipments, but the narrow and plain 
 rooms in which men were drilled and taught were 
 large enough for great kindlings and for deep and 
 permanent impressions. It is easy for the college 
 graduate of fifty years ago to find in most of the 
 
THE COLLEGE. 45 
 
 colleges an enormous improvement in technical in- 
 struction, but while he is amazed at the fine appli- 
 ances and at the dexterity with which the 3^oung 
 men handle them, he has no accurate instrument to 
 test the breadth and power of personal inspiration 
 which quickened him in his own college years. A 
 few years since, a discussion arose in an assembly 
 of educated men on the decline of the personal 
 influence of the teachers in colleoes. There was 
 not an agreement that this personal influence had 
 declined. One distinguished educator held that 
 "there is no personal influence except that of gen- 
 ius, and that there is more genius than there used 
 to be." Some supposed that there is a personal 
 influence from learning when guided by love ; from 
 sweetness of nature when inspired by faith; from 
 robust manhood when led to condescension ; from 
 a character synnnetrical and true, even if genius 
 have not touched the mind with its brilliant and 
 fascinating insight. All these sources of personal 
 influence may not be in one teacher, but the scorn 
 of meanness, and the love of truth, and delight in 
 the progress of one's pupils, may be felt in varying 
 proportions from different teachers. They will be 
 felt as a quickening and formative power, when- 
 ever the relations between teacher and pupil cease 
 to be formal; and behind the lucid exposition, 
 or the cogent argument, or the purely intellectual 
 attitude, the warm glow of right affections is per- 
 ceived, and the instruction is permeated with the 
 subtle influence of a high ideal in life as well as in 
 thought. 
 
46 MASK HOPKINS. 
 
 Without doubt, wlieu the training is liberal, 
 rather than technical ; when it tends to the enlarge- 
 ment and expansion of the entire man, to the har- 
 monious use of all the powers ; when it is less for 
 definite utilities and more for the enjoyment that 
 will underlie the entire career, the moral and spir- 
 itual resources of the teacher have fuller play. The 
 college has stood for liberal training. That w^as 
 the aim and the result in the days when the col- 
 lege was simply a collection of young men with 
 their teachers, and the range of studies w^as narrow 
 and the requirements not severe. That has been 
 the aim until w ithin the last twenty years. Though 
 a larger infusion of technical and special training 
 has come into the college curriculum than for- 
 merly, it still remains true that concentration, gen- 
 eral power, ability to enjoy society and the thoughts 
 of God, manliness, and gentlemanliness are as- 
 smned to be the ends of the college. 
 
 For these ends Dr. Hopkins loved the college. 
 He believed that they were realized by the New 
 England colleges when he became connected wdth 
 Williams, and to their more perfect realization 
 he gladly devoted his life. He felt deeply the 
 dangers that beset young men in the freedom 
 which the college involves. This was increased 
 much from the changes in social conditions dur- 
 ing his life. But this very freedom has its ad- 
 vantages. The transmission of enthusiasms from 
 one to another ; the self-reliance that is often de- 
 veloped ; the watchfulness exercised by comj^anions 
 
THE COLLEGE. 47 
 
 over one another; the interplay of i^enerous emu- 
 lations, — these results are greatly fostered by the 
 freedom of college life. Larger learning could un- 
 doubtedly have been secured in many cases by the 
 system of private tuition. The very relations of 
 college students have been a preparation for citi- 
 zenship, and the college training has given force 
 and foresio-ht and wisdom to the leaders in the best 
 movements of our modern period. It has given 
 these qualities sometimes where the attainments in 
 knowledge were not great, and has been a perpet- 
 ual reinforcement of all that is good and true in 
 official life. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was not a theorist in education. 
 He worked with the material that was given him, 
 and studied patiently to bring the largest results out 
 of that material. He considered questions of edu- 
 cation with care, and he loved freedom too ardently 
 to believe that all teachers can use the same 
 method. He thought that the good teacher is not 
 exactly "born," but certainly is not "made," unless 
 he is "born" first. His pupils were always per- 
 sons, and not simply a group or a class. While 
 he held firmly to the class system, and to the great 
 advantage for the community of the old-fashioned 
 liberal training, he was never absolutely certain 
 that so much Latin, or so much Greek, or so much 
 mathematics was the best management for all 
 classes. 
 
 But he never adopted the modern notion that 
 the immature student can wisely decide all the 
 
48 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 studies that will be most advantageous for his 
 training. 
 
 "To decide this point, including the order of the 
 studies as they are related to each other and to the 
 opening powers of the student, requires wide in- 
 formation and sound judgment ; and that the college 
 should decide it seems to me due to itself and to 
 the young men who come to it." 
 
 These words are a part of the final statement 
 which he made of his views on education in the ad- 
 dress commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of 
 his election as president. And it should be kept 
 in mind that he was far more charitable to new 
 ideas in his last than his earliest years. He grew 
 progressive as he grew old, but on this point he 
 did not waver. He would not admit that a wide 
 range of possible studies is essential to a univer- 
 sity. His strong words are : — 
 
 " It is a mistake to suppose that by giving a wide 
 range of option in undergraduate studies a college 
 approximates a university. It rather approximates 
 a high-school, and may virtually become one." 
 
 With him it was a question of degree, for he 
 was thoroughly friendly to the introduction of cer- 
 tain elective branches in "the later part of the 
 course." Not one of the board of trustees, on which 
 he served from his election as president in 183G 
 until his death in 1887, more cordially approved the 
 introduction of certain elective studies into the 
 Junior year, which took place in Williams at the 
 beginning of the academical year in 188G. Elective 
 
THE COLLEGE. 49 
 
 studies had been added to the required work in 1882, 
 but did not reduce the aggregate of such work. 
 The test case was in 1886, when it was proposed to 
 change three eighths of the required work of the 
 Junior year to elective, and that change he wholly 
 approved. That the college authorities should de- 
 cide all the studies and their order, and the amount 
 of time to be given to each subject in at least the 
 first two and to a large degree in the last two 
 years, and should never omit the study of philoso- 
 phy and morals, was a strong conviction with him. 
 His questioning attitude with regard to the pro- 
 portion of time to be given, for instance, to the 
 ancient languages early bore fruit in the introduc- 
 tion of other studies into the Sophomore year. He 
 felt the immense advantao;e of interestino^ students 
 in a country college in nature, and both natural 
 history and natural science have now in Williams 
 College time that in many other institutions, hold- 
 ing to a fixed curriculum, is given to the ancient 
 languages, though for this substitution an offset 
 is found in the electives offered later in the clas- 
 sics. His own enjoyment of the studies of anat- 
 omy and physiology had opened his mind to the 
 value of the sciences. He perceived early the very 
 great advantages that arise from an interest in and 
 a knowledge of the natural world in this scientific 
 and practical age. Without hesitation he woidd 
 say with Herbert Spencer : "To prepare for com- 
 plete living is the function which education has to 
 discharge ; and the only rational mode of judging 
 
60 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 of any educational course is to judge in what degree 
 it discharges such function." 
 
 His chosen arrangement of studies in the Senior 
 year of the course, on which he set high value, was 
 founded on his conception of this function. He 
 taught anatomy and physiolog}^ partly as a foun- 
 dation for psychology, but partly that his pupils 
 might more fully understand the beauty and 
 symmetry of the structure in which the human 
 mind is lodged, and might more wisely care for 
 this structure. 
 
 The study of psychology followed upon this phy- 
 sical study of man in his method, partly as intro- 
 ductory to an examination of the moral nature, but 
 largely that his students might each understand his 
 own mind, and each know how to make the most of 
 his endo^\^nents. Upon psychology he based the 
 study of morals, not merely for theoretical know- 
 ledge, but that a well-regulated body and a well -un- 
 derstood and well-trained mind might cooperate, 
 and their activities issue in a pure and loving life. 
 All these studies in this order, resembling a pyr- 
 amid having its broad foundation in the physi- 
 cal, led up to the recognition and reverence of God. 
 So long as he taught natural theology, it was the 
 last study of the year. These studies were so 
 connected that the dullest student saw the oneness 
 of the system. In an important sense the studies 
 were a system, and many mature young men , who 
 had not had the preliminary training necessary for 
 full membership of a class, resorted to the college 
 
THE COLLEGE. 51 
 
 for the instruction which he gave, were admitted as 
 special students, and received great enhirgenient 
 from his teaching. For those who had had the 
 thorough training of the earlier years, this order of 
 studies was of incalculable profit. 
 
 It would be hard to convince any one who had 
 seen the great expansion and quickening of the in- 
 tellectual and moral powers of students under Dr. 
 Hopkins's training in the Senior year in Williams 
 College that absolutely free choices of studies can 
 so perfectly prepare the average undergraduate for 
 right living. The Senior year under Dr. Hopkins 
 was the old Senior year of the New England college 
 made harmonious and progressive. 
 
 The colleges of New England have been the most 
 potent auxiliaries of the Christian faith. Nothing 
 in these colleges is more surprising to the thought- 
 ful foreigner than the loyal devotion of their re- 
 sources to the honor of the gospel of Christ. For- 
 mal religious services have been less frequent of 
 late years, but there is nothing of which these col- 
 leges are more jealous than their reputation as re- 
 lated to Christ. There is often restlessness under 
 the mention and maintenance of this allegiance 
 among some students; often a tendency to rebel 
 against it appears among the teachers of a great 
 university : but the college representing what Yale, 
 for instance, was fifty years ago, insists that there 
 is no manhood comparable to Christian manhood, 
 and no hope for the redemption of a lost manhood 
 except in the acceptance of the divine Saviour. 
 
52 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 An atmosphere pervaded by these conceptions, 
 where the teachers, eminent for learning and pu- 
 rity of character, do all in their power to enforce 
 these conceptions, embraces the students for four 
 years. The religious influence has not been les- 
 sened by petty restrictions. Discussion has been 
 free, but generally only the presentation of the 
 larofer doctrines has been favored. Students of all 
 denominations are welcomed by each college, and 
 the offensive enforcement of peculiar tenets is 
 avoided. There is not in the world another gift by 
 any church to the cause of Christ equally as great 
 and beneficent as the great gift of Congregation- 
 alism, — the colleges of New England. It may be 
 thought that modern missions are an equally impor- 
 tant contribution, but the missions came through 
 the colleges and are the outgrowth of their thought- 
 ful and Christian spirit. No student, however 
 skeptical, can wholly escape the effect of the living 
 enforcement by pure men of the doctrines of the 
 Gospels. No graduate can wholly throw off the in- 
 fluence of these years. There are students in every 
 college who profess an allegiance to Christ that 
 does not control their lives. There are many young 
 men in the colleges to whom these years are years 
 of small intellectual labor, of easy enjoyment, and 
 some to whom they are years of self-indulgence 
 and degradation. Many of fhem meet obstacles 
 and do not finish their course. Even to the most 
 thoughtless serious lessons are brought home by 
 the influences of the college, and a young man 
 
THE COLLEGE. 53 
 
 must be very insensible wlio is not at some point 
 of his college life deeply impressed with the signifi- 
 cance and scope of Christian character. 
 
 There has probably been a decline in the average 
 ethical standards of the students entering the New 
 England colleges. The attendance of students of 
 foreign birth, the less thorough discipline at home 
 in religious things even among American boys, con- 
 sequent on the hurry and press of modern business, 
 may affect somewhat • the material the college has 
 to deal with. But Christian sentiments and tradi- 
 tions and Christian usages pervade the college life 
 as visibly and really as ever, and the efficiency of 
 the colleges as allies of the Christian faith has not 
 been diminished. It was to this side of the coUeo-e 
 that Dr. Hopkins was peculiarly attracted, and his 
 experience as tutor must have made this side pecu- 
 liarly promising. 
 
 The fact that the quickening of foreign missions 
 in this coimtry dated from a prayer-meeting held 
 by Williams students under the shelter of a hay- 
 stack invested the college with a unique and ro- 
 mantic charm. It is no wonder that large numbers 
 of men from many classes, under the new inspira- 
 tions of the opening century, went into the service 
 of the Christian ministry and Christian missions. 
 These influences touched the large imagination of 
 the young and gifted professor, and his mind was 
 fiUed with the conceptions of the great things that 
 the college could do for Christ. He was greatly 
 blessed in seeing his pupils become on all sides 
 
54 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 friends and champions of the Christian faith. 
 There were days when his hibor seemed fruitless; 
 when the low standards and lower living of Chris- 
 tians in college weighed very heavily on his heart, 
 but he steadied himself with the assurance that a 
 "thousand years are with the Lord as one day," 
 and labored on. 
 
 The unique attractiveness of his brother Albert, 
 who was elected professor in the college before his 
 own appointment, and who was a profoundly reli- 
 gious man, and whose experience seemed to bring 
 back Old Testament traditions and combinations, 
 made the acceptance of the professorship easy for 
 him; and throughout his presidency the presence 
 and companionship of such a brother, perhaps 
 more ardently, certainly more outwardly devoted 
 to the encouragement of Christian living among 
 students than any professor of whom I have had 
 personal knowledge, was an incalculable help and 
 blessing. These two men, the one an Old Testa- 
 ment prophet, and the other an expounder of the 
 relations between the old and the new covenants, 
 a reasoner on the universal presence of God's law, 
 a persuasive advocate of the reasonableness of the 
 gospel, stood together for over forty years, and 
 gave to Williams College a noble individuality as 
 a Christian college. The resignation of the pres- 
 idency by Mark and the death of Albert were al- 
 most synchronous. Those who knew the untiring 
 efforts of Professor Albert for the religious wel- 
 fare of the college, and the immense support that 
 
THE COLLEGE. 55 
 
 these efforts gave to the in-esidency of his brother, 
 will not wonder that, when an alliance so tender 
 and manly, which had endured for more than 
 forty years, was threatened by the failing health of 
 one membsr, the other, who had borne burdens of 
 colossal magnitude for thirty-six years in conditions 
 of great depression, felt that he could no longer 
 carry on the entire work. The influence of these 
 two men on the New England and hence on the 
 American college will not be lost. Their brother- 
 hood helped to maintain the distinctively Christian 
 character of the New England college. It exhib- 
 ited the alliance of large endowments and great 
 acquisitions wholly devoted to the kingdom of God. 
 In the shadow of these lives no student could 
 despise Christianity, and no unbeliever, however 
 aggressive, could scoff at the results in character 
 of faith. 
 
 When Mark Hopkins accepted the professorship, 
 he could not foresee the brilliant results of his ca- 
 reer. But the New England college seemed to him 
 to represent the noblest forces in his country, and 
 having had some experience as a teacher, he knew 
 that success was probable. By accepting the ap- 
 pointment he made a choice worthy of his large 
 endowments and his pure aspirations. The col- 
 lege honored him, but he was destined greatly to 
 honor the college. 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. 
 
" Endurance is the crowning quality, 
 And patience all the passion of great hearts : 
 These are their stay, and when the leaden world 
 Sets its hard face against their fateful thought; 
 And brute strength like a scornful conqueror 
 Clangs his huge mace down in the other scale, 
 The inspired soul but flings his patience in. 
 And slowly that outweighs the ponderous globe, — 
 One faith against a whole world's unbelief, 
 One soul against the flesh of all mankind." 
 
 Lowell, Columbus. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATOR. 
 
 The doctor of medicine had not been suffered to 
 establish himself as physician when he was ap- 
 pointed Professor of Moral Philosophy. The pro- 
 fessor had scarcely lost the sense of surprise that 
 came with his election, or the feeling of novelty 
 that accompanied his new work, when another pro- 
 motion came. The Rev. Dr. Griffin, who had en- 
 tered upon his duties as president at a time when 
 a grave crisis existed, and when the prospects of 
 the college were very dark, and who had put heroic 
 courage and patience and energy into the colossal 
 task of building up the college, began in 1833 to 
 show signs of failing health. Notwithstanding in- 
 creasing weakness, he continued to discharge his 
 duties until 1836, when it became evident that he 
 must resign his office. There were varying opin- 
 ions, as always in such an emergency, as to who 
 was best fitted to succeed him. Among the stu- 
 dents there was but one sentiment. The young- 
 professor, who only six years before had completed 
 plans for the practice of medicine in a great city, 
 but who at the call of his Alma Mater had re- 
 nounced medicine for morals, had made so deep 
 
60 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 an impression on all his pupils that they earnestly 
 hoped that Professor Mark Hojikins might be- 
 come president. He was but thirty-four years 
 old. Dr. Griffin was fifty-one when elected presi- 
 dent, Dr. Moore was forty-five when he entered 
 upon the duties of ^e office, and President Fitch, 
 the first president, was thirty-seven. If Professor 
 Ho23kins was only three years yoimger than Mr. 
 Fitch when the latter was elected, there was a 
 great difference in the dignity of the positions to 
 which the two were called. Mr. Fitch was elected 
 to nurse an academy into a college. But the college 
 had now an honorable history, an excellent stand- 
 ing, and the certainty of a noble future. There has 
 been with regard to many things a sing*idar sagacity 
 in the management of Williams College. The con- 
 stitution of its board of trustees from the begin- 
 ning recognized the equal value of the relations of 
 church and state to its prosperity. It was the pio- 
 neer college to admit alumni representation into 
 this board. It was the pioneer college to organ- 
 ize an alumni association. When, in 1836, the 
 class just graduating, to which Professor Hopkins 
 had given the instruction usually received from the 
 president, sent to the board of trustees sitting to 
 elect a successor to President Griffin a paper ex- 
 pressing gratitude to the trustees for the instruction 
 which they had received from Professor Hopkins, 
 and strongly intimating that they would like to 
 have him elected president, the trustees, under the 
 lead of Vice-President Shepard, unanimously rati- 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. 61 
 
 fied the nomination. No prominent New England 
 college dating from the last eentnry has nntil within 
 ten years elected so yonthful a president, and no 
 president as yet has filled so long a term of presi- 
 dential dnties. The age seemed far yonnger then 
 than it does now. Doubtless the successful exam- 
 ple of this presidency has done something towards 
 changing the popidar conception as to the desira- 
 ble age for entering the office. In Professor Hop- 
 kins's case it may be said that he had the intel- 
 lectual maturity of middle life at the age of thirty, 
 and the intellectual freshness of thirty when he re- 
 signed his position in 1872. He was mature when 
 he was young, and young when he was old. With 
 the ever-increasing complexity of college relations 
 there is a natural tendency to a diminution of the 
 instruction given by the president, and also of 
 the age at which the duties are assumed, but he 
 was the last New England president of the old 
 type, and for thirty-six years gave an amount of 
 instruction probably unequaled by any teacher of 
 his day. If his enjoyment of achninistrative duties 
 was at times small, and his weariness of that com- 
 petition which began in his day and has helped to 
 remove from our colleges academical quiet was at 
 times great, he enjoyed teaching, and the most cap- 
 tious critic was ready to admit his transcendent 
 ability as a teacher. 
 
 In his inaugural address, delivered September 
 15, 1836, he puts into words the conceptions of 
 true teachino- which he so fully realized in his life. 
 
62 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 A sentence or two will give a glimpse into tlie se- 
 cret of his success. 
 
 "It is far easier for a teacher to generalize a 
 class and give it a lesson to get by rote, and hear it 
 said, and let it pass, than it is to ^vatch the prog- 
 ress of individual mind, and awaken interest, and 
 answer objections, and explore tendencies, and, be- 
 ginning with the elements, construct together with 
 his pupils, so that they shall feel that they aid in 
 it, the fair fabric of a science wdth which they shall 
 be familiar from the foundation to the top stone." 
 The laboratory method, so poj)idar now, was his 
 conception from the beginning. 
 
 " He who carries the torch-light into the recesses 
 of science, and shows the gems that are sparkling 
 there, must not be a mere hired conductor, who is 
 to bow in one company and bow out another, and 
 show what is to be seen with a heartless indiif erence ; 
 but must have an ever -living fountain of emotion, 
 that will flow afresh, as he contemplates anew the 
 works of God and the great principles of truth and 
 duty." 
 
 The position of college president when Professor 
 Mark Hopkins w^as elected to the presidency of 
 Williams was quite other than it is to-day. Good 
 teaching seemed then the primary, almost the only 
 element necessary for the success of a college. The 
 sciences were, so to speak, in their infancy, and 
 the appliances necessary for the exposition of the 
 leading principles were not numerous. Undoubt- 
 edly there w as always a tendency in Dr. Hopkins's 
 
rilE ADMINISTRATOR. 63 
 
 mind to set a very high vahie on piineii)les and 
 character, and to disjiarage mere externals hoth in 
 religion and education. Even to the very end of his 
 life, though as to refinements and luxuries there had 
 been a striking change in the habits of our society, 
 elegancies made little difference to him. There 
 was in him something of the simplicity and sever- 
 ity (towards himself especially) of the great Lord 
 Lawrence, of whom it is related that, in the last days 
 of his life, when, tired and thirsty and feverish, he 
 passed a shop-window in which fine strawberries 
 were displayed, and felt a desire to taste them, he 
 entered the shop and asked the price. On learning 
 that each box cost ten shillings, he replied, " Why, 
 I never spent so much on myself in my life," and 
 turned away. This noble simplicity in Dr. Hop- 
 kins was partly the result of Puritan training, and 
 partly the outgrowth of earnest thought. It be- 
 longed also with the period, and enabled him as 
 president to concentrate his energies without any 
 misgiving on the personal training of his pupils. 
 "Plain living and high thinking," in the truest 
 sense of those words, marked his life, and his con- 
 duct of the college led to the same lofty simplicity 
 in others. The situation of the college, its remote- 
 ness from any large city, advantageous in many 
 ways for the ordinary work of the college, made it 
 harder, when an imperative want arose, to find the 
 means to meet the exigency. There were neither 
 the persons near to know of the want, nor those 
 with large means to meet it. In such a condi- 
 
64 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 tion the severe simplicity of liis life often led to 
 the sternest self-denial. When he began his work 
 as president, he had already arrived at the belief 
 that a successful study of the intellectual nature 
 of man could not ignore the physical. He de- 
 cided to beo'in the instruction of the Senior class 
 with lessons in anatomy and physiology, for which 
 his own training had given him pecidiar fitness, 
 and to develop from this knowledge the study of 
 the mental and moral life. For this purpose he 
 early perceived the value of one of the illustrat- 
 ing ujanikins which had come into usefulness and 
 renown in France. In 1841 one had been im- 
 ported into this region, probably by Dr. Arms- 
 by, of the Albany Medical College, but for some 
 reason was offered for sale. Its price w^as several 
 hundred dollars. As the funds of the collesfe did 
 not warrant such an expenditure, and he felt that 
 the manikin was indispensable for his work, assum- 
 ing the responsibility of the purchase, he gave a 
 note for the amount of the price, and determined 
 to pay for it by giving lectures. This was a bold 
 venture, but he had great faith in the attractive- 
 ness of the paper-man as an accompaniment to 
 lectures, and this was to be the drawing-card by 
 which the lectures were to be made profitable. 
 The manikin was to pay for the manikin. 
 
 It was in December when the president started 
 out with his manikin carefidly packed in the box 
 to go to his native town, Stockbridge, and there to 
 lecture to secure money wherewith to pay for his 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. 65 
 
 apparatus. It was good sleighing, but the box so 
 filled up the sleigh that the lecturer had to ride 
 with his feet hanging outside of the vehicle. It 
 was not a dignified or comfortable position for a 
 college president, who was to drive thirty miles on 
 a cold day, but at this distance of time there is 
 something impressive in the picture. That lonely 
 ride, with its stern purpose, is the expression of 
 the solitude and earnestness that marked his career 
 as college president. It is an epitome of many 
 long years of patient self-denying devotion to the 
 institution to which he had given his life, and to 
 depart from which flattering calls to positions of 
 comparative ease did not seem to tempt him. 
 
 The construction of an astronomical observa- 
 tory, the first in the country permanently connected 
 with a college, begun at Williams in 1836 by his 
 brother. Professor Albert Hopkins, and largely 
 paid for from his resources, is another illustration 
 of the self-effacing spirit in which the early pro- 
 fessors in our colleges devoted themselves to the or- 
 ganism. 
 
 It is pleasant to find a record of the success of 
 the lectures in Stockbridge. This success can be 
 regarded as typical. 
 
 A letter from Mrs. John Z. Goodrich, then Mary 
 Hopkins, a cousin of the lecturer, written in Jan- 
 uary, 1842, gives some account of the compliments 
 that were paid to the lecturing president. 
 
 " How you did run away from . us without ever 
 bidding us 'good-by.' We gave you credit for 
 
66 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 the best intentions, however, and concluded that 
 you did not get through packing up that interest- 
 ing figure until you thought it too late to call. I 
 had a dozen things to say to you, to tell you the 
 compliments all the ladies paid to you, to in part 
 recompense you for the labor and fatigue you had 
 undergone for our instruction and entertainment. 
 There never was anything that took so well as your 
 lectures here. 'No man but Mark Hopkins could 
 have effected such a thing. It has advanced us 
 one grand step in intellectual matters, and swept 
 away prejudices that have hedged us about ever- 
 more,' said one. 'In interesting us in his paper- 
 man, Mark Hopkins has attached us to himself. 
 We had no idea he was so charming,' said an- 
 other. Th3 young gentlemen say: 'It is too bad. 
 Here we have been exerting our bones, muscles, 
 and mind to boot for years to excite interest in the 
 minds of the fair maidens of Stockbridge, and after 
 all this paper-man in one week's time has engrossed 
 more thoughts and obtained more attention than we 
 with all our devotion have been able to win. ' A 
 lady says: 'Well, for my part, I think Dr. Hop- 
 kins has given a fine blow to our vanity. When- 
 ever I see a fine countenance and a graceful person, 
 I shall only think that the possessor has a particu- 
 larly well-disposed set of muscles under his com- 
 mand.' The lectures are the topic constantly .dis- 
 cussed and always approvingly. You have done a 
 great deal of good, and given me personally an im- 
 mense deal of pleasure and information. I am 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. 67 
 
 quite willing to dispense with my usual quantum 
 of voice for a few weeks for the gratification I en- 
 joyed and do still enjoy from those lectures." 
 
 Thus it appears that the lectures were successful 
 so far as the satisfaction of the audience was con- 
 cerned, but how much threatened still to come out 
 of the president's salary, at that time about $1,100, 
 to pay for the manikin does not appear. From 
 Stockbridge the medical lecturer went to Boston, 
 but whether to deliver more lectures and thus re- 
 duce farther the deficit remaining on the cost of 
 the precious manikin is uncertain. There is on the 
 records of the trustees of the college a vote passed 
 August 16, 1842: — 
 
 " That the note of President Hopkins for 8600, 
 given for money to purchase the manikin, be can- 
 celled, and the property in the manikin be vested 
 in the trustees." 
 
 From this it appears that even after the college 
 had assumed the note, and the property in the man- 
 ikin had been vested in the college, President Hop- 
 kins felt so keenly the embarrassment to the treas- 
 ury caused by th-e purchase that he endeavored by 
 most self-denying work to diminish the amount 
 taken from the funds of the college. 
 
 It is not an unnatural suggestion that the heroic 
 effort to pay for the manikin is a symbol of Dr. 
 Hopkins's presidential career. With kingly gifts, 
 with an equipoise of imagination and insight, con- 
 sciously capable of large giving and of large doing, 
 it was more natural for him to rely upon his own 
 
68 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 powers than to appeal to others for aid. It seems 
 unreasonable, at this period, that a college with five 
 hundred living graduates, whose president was the 
 peer of any president, should permit its head to re- 
 sort to itinerant lecturing in order to pay for the 
 apparatus needful for his college work. It is prob- 
 able that there were friends ready toi relieve him of 
 such labor by generous help whenever they should 
 know of his embarrassment. He preferred to earn 
 the money for the equipments necessary rather than 
 call upon others to assist him, and he went noise- 
 lessly to the work. There is something magnificent 
 to one reviewing his ihirty-six years of presiden- 
 tial office in the self-reliant, quiet, uncomplaining 
 movement by which he gave and gave, and never 
 asked for help except in the extremest necessity. 
 Nor is it any discredit, but rather the highest praise, 
 that begging was utterly distastefid to him, and 
 that it was definitely understood at his election that 
 he was not to solicit funds for the support of the 
 college. He was willing to undertake the manage- 
 ment, with the very loftiest aims definitely pre- 
 sented before himself and plainly announced to 
 his constituents, but the resources for his great 
 work were in himself, and it must be understood 
 that he could not collect money for the college. 
 The years slipped by, and the seed that he had 
 sown kept bearing fruit. New England families 
 sent to his care boys grounded in sound morality. 
 Boys came from Troy and the central cities of New 
 York, attracted by his reputation. The good name 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. G9 
 
 of the college traveled to the growing West, and the 
 college among the Berkshire hills became, as he 
 hoped it might be when penning his inaugural, 
 "a safe college ; " a place of "health and cheerful 
 study and kind feelings and pure morals." It be- 
 came also a national college, flourishing in num- 
 bers and in reputation, everywhere honored. 
 Probably its situation in the midst of the moun- 
 tains was not an unfavorable element in the growth 
 of that period. Its guardians, influenced partly 
 by the effect on their own mature minds of occa- 
 sional visits to the delightful scenery that environs 
 the college, and in many cases by the affections 
 born in their own college life, have been inclined to 
 emphasize the beauty of its surroundings and the 
 purity of its atmosphere. It has seemed to them in 
 the light of revived sentiment an unusually favor- 
 able place for study, where it would be easy, — • 
 
 ' ' to lure the eye 
 To sound the science of the sky, 
 And carry learning to its height 
 Of untried power and sane delight," 
 
 but it is a wiser view that the growth of any col- 
 lege must depend in the long run on the educational 
 advantages which it offers and the thorouglmess 
 of its work. And honorable as was the self-reli- 
 ance and majesty with which Dr. Hopkins carried 
 on the coUege, and phenomenal as was its success 
 for many years under his guidance, it was not pos- 
 sible for it to maintain its prestige against increas- 
 ing competition, if any great change should occur, 
 
70 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 without a large increase of pecuniary resources. 
 If there was no one to foresee that Dr. Hopkins's 
 massive powers would need reinforcement, and to 
 secure that reinforcement so early and so fully 
 that adverse influences could be overcome, his co- 
 lossal labors might suffer loss. When the Confed- 
 erate insurrection came, and many of his students 
 entered the Union army, the crisis so long pos- 
 sible became actual. The numbers in the classes 
 diminished greatly, and there were no funds to 
 make up for the loss of tuition. At last, in 1868, 
 through the influence of Marshall Wilcox, then of 
 Lee, and Samuel W. Bowerman, of Pittsfield, both 
 graduates of the class of 1844, and at that time 
 both members of the Massachusetts Senate, and 
 through assistance rendered by Joseph White of 
 the class of 1836, at that time Secretary of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Board of Education, and others, and 
 through Dr. Hopkins's personal attention, the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts by its legisla- 
 ture, recognizing the honorable history of the col- 
 lege and its peril, promised to aid the college to 
 the extent of -125,000 a year for three years, pro- 
 vided a like sum was raised each of the three years 
 by the friends of the college. The State of Massa- 
 chusetts had made grants to the college in its ear- 
 lier history, and like assistance had been rendered 
 to other institutions. The invested and productive 
 funds of the college in 1868 were about 1100,000. 
 By that act of the General Court there was a pos- 
 sibility that the resources of the college should be 
 
THE ADMINISTRATOR. 71 
 
 more than doubled within three years. The pas- 
 sage of this act was joyfully hailed by all true 
 friends of the college, but the collection of the con- 
 ditional 175,000 meant no child's play for the pres- 
 ident, whose instruction still extended from Sep- 
 tember until June, and whose labor as pastor of 
 the college church covered every Sunday of the col- 
 lege year. Alexander H. Bullock was Governor of 
 Massachusetts the year of the passage of this act, 
 and the following graceful letter was received from 
 him in response to an invitation from Dr. Hopkins 
 to be present at the Commencement in the summer 
 of the year when the act was passed. 
 
 Watch Hill, R. I., July 26, 1868. 
 
 Your favor of the 21st instant, inviting me to attend 
 the Commencement Exercises of Williams College on 
 the 29th instant, finds me at an out-of-the-way seaside 
 spot to which I have sought a brief resort for relaxa- 
 tion. The necessity of a little respite from labor at 
 this season must be my warrant for asking to be excused 
 from the journey necessary to bring me to your college 
 on Wednesday. 
 
 I should for many reasons like extremely to be with 
 you at your pending anniversary. My visit at Williams- 
 town, two years ago, was enjoyed so greatly that I could 
 wish to repeat it. But more especially would I be 
 pleased to have the opportunity of congratulating the 
 guardians and friends of W^illiams College for her pres- 
 ent advanced stage of prosperity and renown. As the 
 executive representative of the Commonwealth I am 
 happy and proud to have had a hand in this. The bill 
 
72 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 which appropriated seventy-five thousand dollars to the 
 college, passed by the present legislature, was so conso- 
 nant with my judgment and feelings that my ajDproving 
 signature was appended to it within one minute after it 
 had been laid before me. Not only my connections, but 
 all the emotions of which my heart is capable, were con- 
 densed in that signature. To be an instrument in thus 
 promoting the interests of good morals and sound learn- 
 ing is a pleasure that will abide with me through all the 
 pathway of my remaining life. I beseech the public, 
 the lovers of our State, the patrons and the alumni of 
 Williams, to see to it that their part be quickly per- 
 formed to the end, that your honored institution may 
 take a fresh start at once on a new and grand career. 
 
 I desire, also, in behalf of the people of Massachu- 
 setts, to thank you, Mr. President, for the long, patient, 
 and beneficent service you have rendered to the republic 
 of letters. If the time shall come when any of us must 
 believe you to be an old man, — that time is not yet, — 
 it will be to us all a source of pride and solace that we 
 may claim your long life as a glorious part of our moral 
 public riches. 
 
 And now, my dear sir, although this communication 
 contains a passage which my acquaintance with you tells 
 me you would gladly suppress, I must request that you 
 will do me the favor to read it to the alumni at the 
 Commencement dinner. For, believe me, it is not a let- 
 ter designed for personal tribute so much as for justice 
 to Williams College, and to the service rendered by her 
 in the cause of religion, and virtue, and knowledge. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, with fresh and enduring senti- 
 ments of esteem and honor, 
 
 Faithfully yours, Alexander H. Bullock. 
 
THE ADMISISTRATOH. 78 
 
 The complimentary words to Dr. Hopkins were 
 warmly received by the alumni, as such words al- 
 ways were. Professor Lowell, of Cambridge, in 
 1885, in a private note to me expressed the same 
 sentiment that the above letter contains of pride 
 in the life of Dr. Hopkins, "whose personal char- 
 acter is a possession valued by all his countrymen." 
 No words could more fitly describe his career as 
 administrator than the quotation from Lowell at the 
 beginning of this chapter. It was preeminently a 
 career of "endurance," of that "patience" which 
 is "all the passion of great hearts ; " of that "faith " 
 which is the "assurance of things hoped for, the 
 proving of things not seen." 
 
 Additions to the funds of the college had pre- 
 viously come into the treasury slowly as the unsoli- 
 cited result of his long and eminent services. In 
 1867 William E. Dodge, of New York city, who 
 had long been associated with Dr. Hopkins in the 
 missionary work of the American Board of Com- 
 missioners, gave to the college 830,000 in seven 
 per cent, bonds, of which the interest was to go 
 towards Dr. Hopkins's salary as long as he was 
 president or taught in the college. After his re- 
 tirement from all college work the income was to 
 be devoted to his personal support during his life. 
 
 In the autumn of 1868 occurred the most re- 
 markable rebellion in the history of the coUege, of 
 which a complete account must be given in a sepa- 
 rate chapter. It caused Dr. Hopkins much dis- 
 tress of mind, and did not promise to make his 
 
74 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 duty in raising the money necessary to secure the 
 gift of the State any easier. However, the la- 
 bor of the first year was carried through without 
 great depression. For the second and third years a 
 gift of $'10,000 each year towards a professorship, 
 by Orrin Sage, of Ware, was of much assistance, 
 yet the difficulty of securing the remainder was 
 great each year, but was finally surmounted, and 
 ^150,000 added to the resources of the college. 
 Nearly all the large gifts that had previously 
 encouraged Dr. Hopkins came by the simple at- 
 traction of his power. When East College was 
 burned in the autumn of 1841, and it became ne- 
 cessary to erect new dormitories, the present East 
 and South colleges, subscriptions to the amount of 
 over 88,000 were secured, and an unexpected gift 
 of $5,000, in January, 1844, from Amos Lawrence, 
 nearly covered the deficit. Mr. Lawrence contin- 
 ued to show kindness to the college until his con- 
 tributions amounted probably to 835, 000. Another 
 warm friend to the college during Dr. Hopkins's 
 administration was Nathan Jackson, of New York 
 city. Philip Van Ness Morris, of Cambridge, 
 New York, Alfred Smith, of Hartford, Connecti- 
 cut, William J. Walker, of Boston, David Dudley 
 Field, of New York city, John Z. Goodrich, of 
 Stockbridge, were the other gentlemen whose ap- 
 preciation of the value of Dr. Hopkins's influence 
 and whose esteem for the college led them to put 
 large gifts at his disposal for the great work of es- 
 tablishing and strengthening the college. At the 
 
THE ADMINISTBATOE. 75 
 
 date of his resignation in 1872, the invested funds 
 of the college amounted to about §^300,000. The 
 Astronomical Observatory, East and South College, 
 Lawrence Hall, Kellogg Hall, Jackson Hall, the 
 Chapel, Goodrich Hall, and College Hall were 
 erected during his presidency. Indeed, the only 
 halls that remained from previous administrations 
 were old West College and Griffin Hall. But the 
 feeling was universal, when he resigned the presi- 
 dency, that his work had not gone into buildings 
 and land and equipment, or into the acquisition of 
 wealth for the college, but into the minds and 
 hearts of those whom he had taught; that he had 
 moulded invisible forces with great power. 
 
 Speaking of the graduates, his own pupils, he 
 himself said, when his successor was inaugurated: 
 "Not in the increase of buildings, or grounds, or 
 funds, but in these is my pride. In respect to 
 character, position, or influence they have nothing 
 to fear from a comparison with an equal number of 
 graduates from any other institution." 
 
 It required the eye of a large faith to see that 
 the forces he employed for the college could not 
 fail to find expression in abundant material pros- 
 perity, but he lived to see the dawn of brighter 
 days, and to know that his heroic labor had not 
 been in vain. General Garfield, then a member 
 of the national House of Representatives, gave ex- 
 pression to the almost unanimous feeling of the 
 graduates, when at the inauguration of Dr. Hop- 
 kins's successor he spoke these words to the new 
 president : — 
 
76 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 "We recognize the difficulty of the work you 
 undertake as the head of the college — a work al- 
 ways great, always difficult, but now made doubly 
 so by the example of him who has so long and so 
 nobly trodden the path which you now enter. We 
 will not ask you to bend the bow of our Ulysses. 
 Let it here remain unbent forever, as the sacred 
 symbol and trophy of victories achieved." 
 
 Few knew in the face of what pressing offers 
 he had remained faithful to the trust committed 
 to him in 1836, and even after his resignation as 
 president frequent invitations came to him to teach 
 in other institutions. 
 
 A partial record of these invitations will disclose 
 how widely he was known and how universally he 
 was honored. This may be found in the Chrono- 
 logical Table,^ which does not, however, include an 
 account of the large number of invitations to preach 
 on special occasions and before distinguished audi- 
 ences. When we consider the location of the col- 
 lege, the want of any peculiar denominational sup- 
 port, the absence of any state pride in the college, 
 the fact that no fitting-schools were subsidiary to 
 it, and that President Hopkins never knew from 
 where his students were to come, his career as 
 administrator, teacher, author, and example, lead- 
 ing the college to success and honor for thirty-six 
 years, stands mthout a parallel in the history of 
 American colleges. 
 
 ^ See pages ix-xi. 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1868. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REBELLION OF 1868. 
 
 In the autumn of 1868 a rebellion occurred 
 among the students of Williams College which was, 
 without doubt, the most serious affair of the kind 
 in the history of the college. 
 
 There was at the time a very able body of pro- 
 fessors in the conduct of the institution. Such 
 men as John Bascom, at that time Professor of 
 Rhetoric, Arthur L. Perry, Professor of Political 
 Economy, Charles F. Gilson, in the Chair of 
 Modern Languages, Sanborn Tenney, Professor 
 of Natural History, and Ai-thur W. Wright, Pro- 
 fessor of Physics, and later of Yale College, and 
 William R. Dimmock, Professor of Greek, and 
 afterwards Head Master of Adams Academy at 
 Quincy, wer6 among the truest men and the most 
 conscientious teachers to be found in any of our 
 colleges. They were men to whom tlie work of 
 the college' was of the first importance, and who 
 could not be satisfied unless each student was profit- 
 ing by his work and showing daily the increasing 
 knowledge of the subjects taught. There grew up 
 in the minds of these men and others a feeling that 
 their efforts to secure the best results for an entire 
 
80 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 class were in danger of being thwarted by persist- 
 ent and unnecessary absence on the part of a few 
 students. I was a member of the faculty at that 
 time. Having been prepared for college under the 
 stern requirements of Dr. Samuel H. Taylor, of 
 Andover, and having had my first experience of 
 college life at Yale when the numbers were so 
 large as to make the strictest rules necessary, I 
 had both as student and professor at Williams a 
 feeling that there was more absence allowed than 
 was necessary or advisable. Dr. Hopkins was not 
 a believer in rigid rules. I think there never was 
 a time during my acquaintance with him, when 
 such matters were under discussion, that he did not 
 express himself frankly in favor, for a small college, 
 of a more personal and a more flexible system of 
 government than most of us advocated. He dep- 
 recated that antagonism which rigid and minute 
 rules were, he thought, sure to engender. He be- 
 lieved fully in the general influence of a faithful 
 and earnest body of teachers, and thought that 
 young men could be far more effectually guided 
 to true manliness by an example of kindness and 
 patience than by formal restrictions or constant 
 intimations that they were under authority. He 
 was, I think, equally opposed to any vefy definite 
 system of penalties. It was offensive to his ideas 
 of proper training to treat all students in exactly 
 the same way. His conviction was strong that all 
 students are not precisely alike in their training, 
 or tendencies, or abilities. This feeling used to 
 
TUE REBELLIOy OF 18GS. 81 
 
 show itself often and strongly in the discussions 
 that arose in regard to students whose work was 
 deficient. It was a frequent remark of his, that 
 "some one must be at the foot of the class." He 
 did not deny that human government was com- 
 pelled to allow but narrow range in penalties and 
 practically to treat offenders with uniformity. But 
 he had an idea that college government might have 
 something nobler in it than social government could 
 have, that it might have a good deal of the divine 
 element of mercy, or at least of fatherly kindness. 
 The two opposing theories briefly hinted at here 
 have at different times occasioned more or less 
 collision in our colleges. To give students fuller 
 liberty and appeal to their honor, or to put rigor- 
 ous requirements upon them and hold them to 
 definite duties and attainments are the two concep- 
 tions that still differentiate the New England col- 
 leges. There can, of course, be no question which 
 of the two methods is nobler, if students were all 
 actuated by high principle, and were all aiming at 
 a high ideal. There can be, on the other hand, no 
 doubt which method would be necessary, if the ma- 
 jority of the students were inclined to make their 
 life as easy and self-indulgent as possible. Be- 
 cause these two classes of students exist in col- 
 leges in ever-varying proportions, and especially 
 because most students have in them the two oppos- 
 ing tendencies in varying strength, there will al- 
 ways be an opportunity for good arguments in 
 favor of each method of government. The more 
 
82 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 generally popular theory in the New England col- 
 leges during Dr. Hopkins's administration of Wil- 
 liams was probably somewhat opposed to his views, 
 but that there has been a movement if not precisely 
 towards the acceptance of his theories, at least in 
 that general direction in later years, hardly admits 
 of a doubt. 
 
 These two theories are always more or less in 
 conflict in individual minds, and are both pretty 
 sure to find expression in the same college faculty. 
 There had been for a year or two previous to the 
 autumn of 1868 a growing impression among the 
 students of the college that the more liberal view, 
 that which would govern by influence rather than 
 by rules, was giving place to a closer watch and a 
 more stringent requirement. AVhen, accordingly, 
 the question of absences was discussed by the fac- 
 ulty, and a series of rules was promulgated with 
 the definite purpose of restricting the amount of 
 absence, the students felt that here was another 
 movement towards the introduction of what they 
 called "school-boy methods." There were one or 
 two things particularly unfortunate about the 
 change. One was, that although the committee of 
 the faculty was appointed at a meeting at which 
 the president was present, the committee reported 
 and the rules were adopted during Dr. Hopkins's 
 absence. The students learned this, and at once 
 jumped to the inference that the president would 
 not favor these rules, and that they had been 
 adopted in his absence without regard to his wishes. 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1868. 83 
 
 They heard in some way the substance of the 
 rules before they were definitely adopted, and be- 
 lieving them to be capable of unjust application by 
 unfriendly or indifferent instructors, tJiey were ex- 
 tremely restive. After the formal approval of the 
 rules by the faculty they called for an immediate 
 rejieal. 
 
 The rules were as follows: " Each absence from 
 any recitation, whether at the beginning of or dur- 
 ing the term, whether excused or unexcused, will 
 count as zero in the record of standing. In cases, 
 however, in whicli attendance shall be shown by 
 the student to have been impossible, each officer 
 shall have the o])tion of allowing the recitation to 
 be made uj) at such time as he shall apj^oint ; and 
 no mark shall be given to such recitation, unless it 
 shall amount to a substantial performance of the 
 work omitted." 
 
 The ideas in these rules were approved by the 
 faculty at their regular meeting on the evening of 
 November 4, 1868, and some professor stated the 
 substance of their purport to his class the next 
 morning. So far as I can ascertain from the rec- 
 ords, the rules were more definitely presented and 
 fully discussed at a special meeting held on the even- 
 ing of November 5. They were formally commu- 
 nicated to the students the day after their adoption. 
 These rules are substantially the same that had been 
 for many years operative in Yale College, but the 
 insertion of the statement that no mark should be 
 given to the recitation made up, "unless it shall 
 
84 MABE HOPKINS. 
 
 amount to a substantial performance of the work 
 omitted," was quite unnecessary, as each officer 
 without such statement would mark the recitation 
 according to his estimate of it. Furthermore, this 
 definite statement seemed to the students to be an 
 offensive assertion of power to depriv^e a delinquent 
 of the small recognition that might be justly due 
 him. There was also a feeling that not to allow a 
 student to make up an omitted lesson, unless at- 
 tendance was shown to be impossible, would often 
 result in hardship, where a student might be in 
 circumstances such that attendance would be very 
 difficult, or at least require the neglect of some 
 important duty, and yet be possible. 
 
 Against these two points, or rather against the 
 extreme form of power apj^arently given to any 
 professor to reduce the standing of a student, the 
 students revolted almost unanimously. I venture 
 here to record the statement that at the meeting 
 of the faculty on the evening of November 5, at 
 which the rules were presented in their final form, 
 one professor expressed the opinion that the rules 
 could not be executed in the existing state of 
 things. He was answered by one of the professors 
 on the committee that ''the rules would execute 
 themselves." 
 
 On the evening of November 6, the day on which 
 the rules were announced, the entire college assem- 
 bled in Alumni Hall, and unanimously adopted the 
 following preamble and resolution : — 
 
 " Whereas, the faculty of Williams College have 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1868. 85 
 
 imposed upon us, students of said college, a itlIc 
 to the effect that each absence from recitation, ex- 
 cused or unexcused, shiiU receive a zero mark in 
 the record of standing; and it is left with each 
 officer of the college to act his option as to whether 
 he will hear necessary absentees in their lost les- 
 sons ; and said officer shall act his option as to giv- 
 ing any credit for such recitation ; and 
 
 "Whereas we, students of Williams College, 
 regard the imposition of this rule as a blow aimed 
 at our personal honor and manhood, therefore 
 
 " Resolved, That we students of said college pro- 
 test against said rule, and call upon the faculty of 
 AVilliams College to annul it." 
 
 This paper was presented the evening of its 
 adoption to the officer of the Senior class, but was 
 regarded by him and by other members of the fac- 
 ulty as much too imperious in tone to permit any 
 hast}^ reconsiderMion of the rule. 
 
 Probably the wisest course would have been for 
 the faculty to susj^end the enforcement of the rules 
 until the return of Dr. Hopkins and to discuss the 
 matter carefully with him. But there was a belief 
 that the conflict was "irrepressible; " that the ques- 
 tion now w^as whether the faculty or the students 
 should determine the policy of the college"; and 
 that the students' attitude made it impossible for 
 the faculty to do otherwise than stand by the rule. 
 According!}^, although the committee of the stu- 
 dents not merely delivered the resolutions that 
 evening, but the next day visited the Senior class 
 
86 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 officer, who was looked upon as the real head of 
 the faculty in Dr. Hopkins's absence, and urgently 
 pressed him to call a faculty meeting for the con- 
 sideration of the situation, and especially urged 
 that the enforcement of the rule be delayed until 
 the president's return, by general consent of the 
 professors, a policy of inactivity was adopted. 
 
 The students regarded themselves as entirely in 
 the right, and while there was much excitement, no 
 general disturbance of the peace occurred. The 
 student committee sent to each class the follow- 
 ing notice : — 
 
 "The committee w^ill report on Tuesday evening 
 next, before which time they earnestly recommend 
 that there be no individual or concerted action. 
 November 7, 18t38." 
 
 This notice is dated the 7th, which w^as Saturday. 
 The most active Christian men in the college w^ere 
 heartily enlisted on the student side of the matter. 
 Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the students were 
 discussing the question what their next move should 
 be, if the faculty would not at least suspend the 
 rule. On Monday evening the committee came to 
 the decision to recommend to the entire body of 
 students to withdraw from the college, and to re- 
 main aloof from it, until the rule w^as re]3ealed. 
 This decision was made known to the classes on 
 Tuesday morning, that every student might have 
 the day for consideration, and deliberately making 
 up his mind might go into the college meeting ap- 
 pointed for Tuesday evening and act intelligently, 
 
THE REBELLION OF 1868. 87 
 
 and "not feel that he had been dragged along by 
 the spirit of the meeting." 
 
 The meeting was held, and the following pream- 
 bles and resolution were unanimously adopted : — 
 
 " Whereas, The faculty of Williams Collejre have 
 imposed upon us, students of said college, a rule 
 that 'Each absence from any recitation whether at 
 the beginning of or during the term, whether ex- 
 cused or unexeused, will count as zero in the record 
 of standing. In cases, however, in which attend- 
 ance shall be shown to have been impossible, each 
 officer shall have the option of allowing the reci- 
 tation to be made up at such time as he shall 
 appoint, and no mark shall be given to such recita- 
 tion, unless it shall amount to a substantial perfor- 
 mance of the work omitted ; ' and 
 
 "Whereas we, students of said Williams Col- 
 lege, regard the imposition of this rule as a blow 
 aimed at our personal honor and manhood ; and 
 
 " Whereas, our petition presented to the Faculty 
 of said Williams College, November 6, 1868, for 
 the repeal of the above-mentioned rule, has been 
 disregarded, therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That we students of said Williams 
 College declare our connection with said college to 
 cease from this date, until the authorities of said 
 college shall repeal the above-mentioned rule." 
 
 The following resolution was also unanimously 
 adopted : — 
 
 " Resolved, That we, as a body of young men, 
 agree to remain in this neighborhood and abstain 
 
88 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 from all objectionable conduct, until the final set- 
 tlement of our difficulties." 
 
 The paper, ending with the declaration of the 
 students that their connection with the college had 
 ceased, was handed to the Senior class officer that 
 evening, November 10. It was a dark and stormy 
 night, and I remember that, as the committee passed 
 my house carrying the paper down to the acting 
 head of the college, they raised a sort of exultant 
 shout that seemed to intimate that, at last the fac- 
 ulty were defeated and the students had manfully 
 maintained their rights. 
 
 I had not believed in the possibility of success- 
 fully enforcing the rules as worded, and although 
 I did not know certainly, I had reason to suppose 
 that the meaning of the shout was that practically 
 the entire college woidd be absent from exercises 
 the next day. An hour later the majority of the 
 professors had convened, and under the guidance of 
 Professor Bas3om a brief circular was prepared, 
 containing a fair statement of the situation for pub- 
 lication and communication to the parents. The 
 statement contains in addition to the rules and the 
 two sets of resolutions by the students the f ollo\ving 
 paragraphs : — 
 
 "As very unusual action has been taken by the 
 students of the college, we have deemed it desirable 
 that a statement of the occasion of that action be 
 made to the public. 
 
 " We are by no means unqualified in our support 
 of the marking system, but have used it hitherto as 
 
THE REBELLION OF 18G8. 89 
 
 a disciplinary means of reachino- young men, many 
 of whom are not disposed to improve their oppor- 
 tunities. One form of neglect has long embar- 
 rassed us and limited the value of our institution. 
 Many students on slight and insufficient grounds 
 have been repeatedly and protractedly absent from 
 college duties and thus from recitation, much of 
 the value of which depends on consecutive attend- 
 ance." 
 
 The circular then recites the new rule, and is 
 followed by an explanation saying : — 
 
 "It was our intention in all cases, in which the 
 claim was just, to accept cheerfully the labor of 
 extra recitations, and to allow the standing of the 
 students necessarily absent to be regained. We 
 deem it, however, eminently fair that absence in 
 other cases should carry wdth it the ]3resumption of 
 ignorance of the ground passed over, rather than 
 the opposite presumption of knowledge, and that it 
 should therefore affect the standing of the absen- 
 tee." 
 
 The first set of resolutions adopted by the stu- 
 dents in which the faculty are called upon to annul 
 the rule is then given as on page 85, and the fol- 
 lowing comment is added : — 
 
 "Deeming this paper objectionable in form and 
 spirit and also embarrassed in our action by the 
 absence of President Hopkins, who was not pres- 
 ent at the passage and promulgation of the law, we 
 declined to give their request final consideration 
 before his return." Then the additional paper con- 
 
90 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 taining the declaration by the students that their 
 connection with the college had ceased is given, and 
 the circular concludes with the statement that : — 
 
 "The action of the faculty in this matter has 
 been unanimous, and believing that far more im- 
 portant issues in the government of the college arc 
 involved than those relating simply to the mainte- 
 nance and wisdom of a single law, we submit this 
 statement to the public." 
 
 This circular was signed by the secretary of the 
 faculty, and was printed and mailed November 11, 
 the day after the students withdrew, to all the lead- 
 ing newspapers in New York and Boston, and to 
 the father of each student concerned. 
 
 The circular as mailed to a father had the addi- 
 tional statement that his son was concerned in the 
 action, and his immediate attention was invited to 
 the son's position. 
 
 At the first meeting of the students after the new 
 rules were announced, in addition to the resolutions 
 calling for a repeal of the rules a series of resolu- 
 tions was passed denunciatory of the marking sys- 
 tem. There can be no doubt that some of the lead- 
 ers in the movement believed seriously that they 
 were engaged in action of great significance in re- 
 gard to that system. They expected or at least 
 hoped to effect its abolition in the college, and that 
 this issue would result in a new order of things in 
 the colleges generally. They said: "We are con- 
 vinced that the system of marks and prizes defeats 
 the end for which it was established : first, by call- 
 
THE REBELLlOy OF 180S. 91 
 
 ing the mind of the student from the great aim of 
 education to petty and selfish amhition for honor, 
 thus destroying the very germ of nranhood whit-h it 
 is the aim of education to develop ; second, by lead- 
 ing those desirous of maintaining a good stand to 
 indulge in deceitful practices and thus essentially 
 teaching dishonesty, when it should be the aim of 
 education to teach a strict morality." And it was 
 by this moral enthusiasm that was awakened in the 
 minds of these earnest reformers and in the minds 
 of those to whom they unfolded their hopes that 
 so many were led into the rebellion. There were 
 many, doubtless, to whom the whole movement was 
 a great lark ; who believed that where the most em- 
 inent students and Christians of the college were 
 leading, no great disaster would befall those follow- 
 ing, and who joined in the movement with a sort 
 of cheerful faith that some pleasant excitement 
 would result from it. 
 
 The next morning after the passage of the reso- 
 lutions of withdrawal there w^ere three students at 
 prayers, two Freshmen and one Senior. It was my 
 duty to hear the Freshman class recite, and after 
 prayers I repaired to my room with the two Fresh- 
 man pupils, and went through the lesson as usual. 
 I believe the Senior had no instruction that morn- 
 ing, and the recitation with two Freshmen was not 
 repeated. The college came to a perfect standstill. 
 Everything was quiet about the town. The wea- 
 ther was ordinary November weather. Some who 
 could afford it enjoyed driving; many resorted to 
 
92 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 the halls of the two literary societies and spent the 
 time in discussing the situation and playing* cards. 
 Every word from a professor was reported among 
 the students. Every conversation between a stu- 
 dent and a professor (and there were many of them) 
 was repeated in its details among the professors. 
 The professors were the more anxious party, be- 
 cause they understood more fully the significance 
 of such a movement and the far-reaching conse- 
 quences that a direct antagonism and a complete 
 disregard of all obligations to the college might 
 have. 
 
 Both parties awaited President Hopkins's return 
 with interest. The students undoubtedly believed 
 that he would not have consented to such a rule. 
 The professors felt that only he could set the ma- 
 chinery of the college into operation again, but saw 
 no way open for such a result except by an abso- 
 lute submission of the students. 
 
 The absence of Dr. Hopkins was caused by his 
 acceptance of an invitation to preach the sermon 
 on the quarter century anniversary of the Society 
 for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological 
 Education at the West. This sermon was preached 
 at Marietta, Ohio, November 10, the day of the 
 final action of withdrawal by the students. 
 
 Probably the first intelligence that Dr. Hopkins 
 received of the fact that the college to which he 
 had given as president thirty -two years of most la- 
 borious toil had been deserted by the one hundred 
 and sixty students whom he had left satisfactorily 
 
THE REBELLION OF 18G8. 93 
 
 at work a few days before, was the announcement 
 of the circukr published by the faculty. It could 
 not have been a pleasant surpj-ise. He returned to 
 Williamsto^vn on Saturday, November 14, after an 
 absence of nearly two weeks, and preached Sunday 
 morning to such of the students as chose to come to 
 the chapel. That must have been an anxious Sun- 
 day. It is impossible now to recall the circum- 
 stances without admitting that his position was most 
 trying. The friends of some of the students had 
 ap23eared here, and many of the absentees had re- 
 ceived positive orders to return to their duties. 
 The combination was somewhat weakened, but it 
 still presented a perfectly solid front, and no exer- 
 cises could be held until some had come forward to 
 acknowledge that they had taken a wrong position, 
 and were ready to resume their places as loyal stu- 
 dents in the college. Dr. Hopkins, whose return, 
 it was felt by all parties, must in some way contrib- 
 ute to a solution of the grave and difficult problem 
 existing, invited the students to meet him in the 
 chapel on Monday morning, and nearly all the col- 
 lege accepted the invitation. 
 
 It may be questioned whether he ever faced an 
 audience more intent on hearing every word than 
 that which was gathered in the college chapel on 
 Monday morning, November 16, 1868. Nor can 
 it be said now that the presentation which he made 
 of the situation lacked fairness, or candor, or sym- 
 pathy. The college paper, reporting the meeting, 
 said that "he spoke in behalf of the faculty, the 
 
94 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 members of which were present." As I remember 
 the address, it was a plain statement of the situa- 
 tion. It began with the announcement that the 
 position taken by a resohition that declared the 
 "connection of any student with the college at an 
 end, until the new rule was repealed," was not ten- 
 able ; that no student could thus dissolve his con- 
 nection with the college. He then proceeded to 
 show that when a student was dissatisfied with any 
 arrangement made by the authorities of the college 
 or any rule imposed, the only way of withdrawing 
 from the college was by seeking an honorable dis- 
 mission, and that such letters would be given to 
 any one who, after a return to duty, should ask for 
 a letter in a proper way. 
 
 Havins: made it clear that the students who had 
 signed the paper declaring their relations to the 
 college at an end were still in the college and under 
 its government, he said that the faculty ruled the 
 institution, and must rule it, and that any combi- 
 nation against their authority was inconsistent with 
 the signing of the pledge at the time of matricula- 
 tion. He said of the rule that, if it was not the 
 best rule that could be devised for the regulation of 
 the evil arising from too frequent absences, it might 
 be repealed, and that at all events the authorities 
 of the college wished the best rule possible; one 
 that woidd effectually reduce absence and be per- 
 fectly fair in enforcement. The address did not 
 seem to effect much at once, but it may be doubted 
 whether any presentation could have been loyal to 
 
THE REBELLION OF 186S. 95 
 
 the authority of the faculty and have been imme- 
 diately effective. The college paper of the date of 
 Saturday, November 21, says that the address "did 
 not accomplish much except the part which inti- 
 mated that we could secure letters of dismissal upon 
 our return to duty." The address was, however, an 
 im2Dortant element in altering the situation. It was 
 made clear that the president would not favor any 
 concession to the students inconsistent with the 
 maintenance of the authority of the college, and at 
 the same time the statement that the authorities 
 wished the best rule possible gave the students an 
 opportunity to believe that reason and not arbitrary 
 will would finally determine the exact wording of 
 the rule. The address must have been somewhat 
 chilling to the more conscientious students who had 
 been the leaders from the beginning. It doubtless 
 enforced strongly in the minds of many the doubts 
 that had arisen in respect to the wisdom of their 
 action. 
 
 The college paper adds that "In the afternoon 
 matters took a different turn. Dr. Hopkins, who 
 has the affection as well as the respect of every one 
 who knows him, appeared in the street and conversed 
 freely with the students. He said that the law did 
 not have his approval, would be reconsidered, and 
 he promised to use his influence in getting the rule 
 changed or rescinded." 
 
 This statement of the students' paper is not 
 perhaps wholly accurate, but it was perfectly rea- 
 sonable for Dr. Hopkins, who had been absent when 
 
96 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 the law was passed, to state that he did not approve 
 of the wording of the law. This statement had 
 doubtless a great influence on the minds of some. 
 Other influences had been at work, and some af- 
 fected by personal appeals, made by friends who 
 came on, and some stirred by letters from parents, 
 and convinced that they had made a mistake in 
 their action, decided to go back to their college du- 
 ties at the four o'clock recitation. The rest, I 
 think a majority, unwilling to be left in the more 
 marked attitude of insubordination by not attend- 
 ing the exercises, if exercises were to be held and 
 others were to attend, agreed to return to duty 
 "under protest." ' In my recitation that afternoon, 
 which was for the Sophomore class, the largest in 
 the college, many answered when the roll was 
 called, "Here under protest." When this was re- 
 ported to Dr. Hopkins it displeased him exceed- 
 ingly. He said that a student was either in college 
 or out of college, and that no student could be in 
 college "under protest." He went in with me to 
 my class the next afternoon, and made some forci- 
 ble remarks with reference to the matter before 
 the roll was called, giving the students to under- 
 stand in the plainest way that no student could 
 remain in the college and announce "to any profes- 
 sor in the class-room that he was here under pro- 
 test." He then asked me to call the roll, and it 
 appeared that the protestants had all become good 
 catholics. Nothing more was heard in the college 
 exercises about attendance under protest. The rule 
 
THE REBELLION OF U6S. 97 
 
 was afterwards slightly modified, and no student 
 left the college in consequence of disaffection aris- 
 ing from the adoption of the rule. 
 
 It has seemed best to give a somewhat minute 
 account of this rebellioii, as it was called, because 
 it was one of the gravest crises in Dr. Ilo^^kins's 
 administration of the college, and because, looked 
 at dispassionately alter the lapse of many j^ears, 
 it is impossible to deny to him the honor both of 
 great wisdom and of perfect loyalty to his faculty 
 and to the best interests of the institution in the 
 entire management of the affair. So far as I know 
 he never uttered in public one w^ord of condem- 
 nation of the precipitate action of the faculty, or 
 of their misreading of the student mind in the 
 promidgation of this rule during his absence. 
 With heroic patience and consummate skill he 
 faced the difficulties that confronted him. The 
 world about him was ignorant of vrhat a burden 
 of anxiety he carried in those days. A few ex- 
 tended to him sympathy and kindly help, but the 
 loneliness of his responsibility on learning in New 
 York that the college exercises had been suspended 
 for days, and the intenser consciousness on that 
 Sunday when he preached to the few who, having 
 declared their connection with the college at an 
 end, chose to come into the chapel and hear him, 
 that he alone could reknit the broken threads of 
 college life, must have awakened all his energies. 
 For meeting such an emergency his great powers 
 and solid training and the wisdom learned from 
 
98 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 long experience and shrewd tact were all needed. 
 When the sun went down on Monday, and he 
 knew that the college, after five days of interrup- 
 tion, had through his intervening influence once 
 more settled down to work, there was some re- 
 lief of the strain, but there was still the certainty 
 present that weeks and months must elapse before 
 the asperities of such a crisis could be removed, and 
 that it must depend largely on those whom he had 
 selected for helpers, and who had precipitated this 
 crisis, whether similar hostilities might not recur. 
 There is one who did not and could not appreciate 
 then the greatness of his burdens and anxieties, who 
 would pay the tribute of honest admiration and 
 reverence for the qualities displayed in this emer- 
 gency. However different the tendencies which 
 two minds may represent, what candid mind is 
 there that would withhold from Dr. Hopkins un- 
 stinted praise for his conduct in this delicate and 
 dangerous crisis, or deny tlie calmness, patience, 
 tact, wisdom, and manhood that established peace 
 between the widely separated faculty and students ? 
 
THE TEACHER. 
 
*' Love is his bond, he knows no other fetter, 
 Asks not our all, but takes whate'er we spare him, 
 Willing to draw us on from good to better. 
 
 As we can bear him. 
 
 " When he comes near to touch us and to bless us, 
 Prayer is so sweet that hours are but a minute ; 
 Mirth is so pure, though freely it possess us. 
 Sin is not in it. 
 
 * * Thus he conducts by holy paths and pleasant 
 Innocent sovis, and sinful souls forgiven, 
 Towards the bright palace where our God is present 
 
 Throned in high heaven." 
 CARDiNAii Newman, St. Philip in his School. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE TEACHER. 
 
 After Dr. Hopkins became president the in- 
 struction in Intellectual Philosophy was a part, 
 and a large part, of his duty. He used as a text- 
 book Stewart's "Elements of Intellectual Philos- 
 ophy" for twenty -five years, as appears from the 
 record of the catalogues. 
 
 With the class of 1862 he substituted for Stewart 
 the abridgment of Sir William Hamilton's lec- 
 tures on Metapliysics. He was not wholly satisfied 
 with this book, and made trial of various other 
 books until he published his own, "An Outline 
 Study of Man," in 1873. 
 
 His sympathies were with the Scottish philoso- 
 phy from the first. He was trained in that school, 
 and it is probable that he made a greater imjDres- 
 sion in favor of the ideas rej^resented by this phi- 
 losophy than any other thinker America has pro- 
 duced. Other eminent thinkers have had larger 
 classes and have published fuller treatises built 
 upon the Scottish ideas, but Dr. Hopkins had the 
 rare faculty of interesting the dullest mind in the 
 laws of its own being and in the deep questions 
 which the study of philosophy ojDens. The charac- 
 
102 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 teristics of the Scottish school were in accord with 
 his own habits of thought. A philosophy based 
 upon careful observation was the only philosophy 
 that could appeal to him. The farthest remove 
 from his thought was the speculative or dogmatic 
 method. Nothing was more deeply impressed upon 
 his students than the truth that facts arrived at by 
 careful observation are and must be the beginning, 
 and must guide to the end in all psychological study. 
 Self-consciousness was to be interrogated on every 
 definite question, and when its answer was clear 
 and distinct, that became a starting-point. For 
 every individual his own self -consciousness should 
 be the constant "instrument of observation; " and 
 what self -consciousness yielded was not to be set 
 aside. He believed fully in the universality of 
 mental laws, but admitted freely that on certain 
 points the more cultivated intelligence would give 
 the more trustworthy answer. He held indeed 
 that it was possible for the investigator to be de- 
 ceived in regard to the content of his own con- 
 sciousness; to mistake an inference for an intui- 
 tion, or a generalization for a self-evident regula- 
 tive principle. He taught too that much might 
 be learned from the habits of men, and from lan- 
 guage, but the first and final instrument in the 
 hands of a clear thinker was self -consciousness. 
 So he says in the introductory lecture on Moral 
 Science : ^ — 
 
 "If a man cannot know what he is conscious of, 
 
 ^ Lectures o?j Moral Science, p. 27. 
 
THE TEACHER. 103 
 
 it would seem that he cannot know anything. And 
 yet the whole question between Reid and Hamilton 
 on the one side, and the gi-eat mass of i^hilosojihers 
 on the other resiDects simjjly the fact whether there 
 is or is not given in an act of consciousness both 
 a subject and an object that are not in the last 
 analysis identical. What consciousness testifies 
 to must be accepted. This all allow. Not to 
 do it woidd be suicidal even to the skeptic; for 
 he would bave no ground for affirming that he 
 doubted. The only question is what it is that 
 consciousness gives. If we say that it does give 
 both the subject and the object, that simj^le affir- 
 mation sweeps away in a moment the whole basis 
 of the ideal and skeptical philosophy. It be- 
 comes as the spear of Ithuriel, and its simple 
 touch will change what seemed whole continents 
 of solid speculation into mere banks of German 
 fog." 
 
 If Dr. Hopkins affirmed that "all allow that 
 what consciousness testifies to must be accepted," 
 he was not less certain that the actual testimony of 
 consciousness is to the existence of certain prin- 
 ciples in the mind prior to and independent of 
 experience, though developed in experience. His 
 philosojDhy rested on these intuitional principles, 
 and by the presence and power of these principles 
 he taught that all rational thought is guided, and 
 that by their help all rational progress is made. 
 Holding to an immediate knowledge ^ of the external 
 
 1 An Outline Study of Man, p. 99. 
 
104 MARK HOP KIXS, 
 
 world as given in the act of perception under the 
 clear light of these principles 
 
 " that shine aloft like stars," 
 
 his philosophy led directly to the fundamental truth 
 of religion, the existence of a supreme personal 
 reason whose thoughts are expressed in man, na- 
 ture, and history. The pillars on which his faith 
 rested were solid because pillars of reason. 
 
 Hamilton's doctrine of the contradictory alter- 
 natives had not the least fascination for him. He 
 discerned at once the fallacy underlying the two 
 uses of the term "inconceivable," and did not for 
 an instant regard the delivery of consciousness as 
 inconsistent. Kant's antinomies from which this 
 doctrine took its origin were antinomies only be- 
 cause thesis and antithesis were applied to different 
 objects of thought. I am sure none of the more 
 thouo^htful members of the class with which he first 
 used Hamilton as a text-book can ever forget the 
 calm but earnest words in which he repudiated 
 Hamilton's statement that "faith is the organ by 
 which we apprehend what is beyond our know- 
 ledge." Faith to him was the trust of the whole 
 soul reposed in a person. To claim that faith is 
 an "organ " or a "faculty " seemed to him to intro- 
 duce utter confusion into the study of mind and 
 moral relations. Nothing was more averse to his 
 method, and as he felt to the method of the Scottish 
 philosophy, than to adopt the principle that the 
 study of consciousness leads into contradiction or 
 confusion, which faith as a sort of deus ex macMna 
 
THE TEACHER. 105 
 
 should disentangle. This would be like discerning 
 a rainbow on a sky so dense with clouds that no 
 ray of sunlight could possibly penetrate them. It 
 was not often that he interrupted the Socratic 
 method of teaching with a long discourse. But on 
 meeting in the class-room this statement by Hamil- 
 ton in regard to faith, he spoke in refutation of it 
 for nearly half an hour in his own masterly way. 
 It was perhaps the most impressive incident of my 
 college life.^ 
 
 Undoubtedly to some the publication of "The 
 Law of Love " seemed to mark a departure from 
 the old Scottish philosophy. But it was a depar- 
 ture only from the later Scottish writers on the 
 nature of the idea of right. The Scottish philoso- 
 phers generally believed in right as an intuitive 
 idea. Dr. Hopkins believed in rights and obliga- 
 tions as primitive ideas, not in right. He held 
 that " We are never under obligation to do an act 
 as morally right for which there is not a reason in 
 some good besides its being right and on account 
 of which it is right." This doctrine, so closely con- 
 nected with the philosophy of ends, was the result 
 of long and patient study. He was indeed a " self- 
 contained" thinker, and his promulgation of this 
 doctrine, which he did not derive from any wide 
 reading, but from the faithful use of self -conscious- 
 
 1 The discussion of this point, which was given to tlie class of 
 1862 in an informal way, is presented with great clearness and 
 fullness in the second lecture on the Scriptural Idea of Man, with 
 special criticism of certain expressions made by Professor Calder- 
 wood in his Philosophy of the Infinite. 
 
106 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ness, from profound examination of the moral con- 
 stitution of man, showed his perfect independence. 
 But the philosophy remained essentially Scottish, 
 and probably this departure from the views of 
 Stewart did not lessen, but rather promoted the 
 influence of these ideas in this country. 
 
 The Scottish philosophy has been called the 
 philosophy of " common sense." This phrase, 
 which had been employed before Reid, caused a 
 good deal of discussion relating to Eeid's usage of 
 it. Dr. McCosh has pointed out the ambiguity 
 of the phrase. If used with the meaning of good, 
 practical sense, it cannot have high authority in 
 philosophy. It has always been in the name of 
 common sense that new discoveries and theories 
 arising from them have been resisted, and w^hatever 
 worth we assign it in practical affairs, it must not 
 be exalted to the disparagement of mathematical 
 demonstrations or the inductive proof that certain 
 long-established opinions are incorrect. In the 
 other sense of original principles in the mind it 
 comes very close to the chosen instrument of the 
 Scottish philosophy. The difference between what 
 consciousness delivers to the closest, most care- 
 ful observer and thinker and what the ordinary 
 man accepts as the dictates of common sense will be 
 found to be very great. There may be, therefore, 
 little attractiveness in such a term as "common- 
 sense philosophy " for the philosopher who knows 
 how far removed uneducated judgments are from 
 necessary, and how deep and embracing the mys- 
 
THE TEACHER. 107 
 
 tery is that envelops the simplest mental opera- 
 tions. But it cannot be denied that Dr. Hopkins, 
 who expressed his philosophical thoughts in simple 
 language, and had small patience with pretentious 
 terms, and turned away with positive aversion^ 
 from those definitions and phrases which have been 
 invented with elaborate abstractions in order to 
 eliminate all trace of personal intelligence behind 
 nature, seemed in his teaching to present his phi- 
 losophy as a sovereign common sense. Difficult 
 problems were not avoided, but were made simple, 
 and however the student ambitious of wide learn- 
 ing in philosophy may be inclined to look upon his 
 text-book as a mere primer, it may be safely as- 
 serted that for the general purposes of a liberal 
 education, for the opening of the average mind 
 into the secrets of its own being, no better hand- 
 book has been written than ''An Outline Study of 
 Man," published in 1873. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible for the reader of the 
 book to get any idea of the power of the teaching 
 that accompanied its use; of the cautious, sugges- 
 tive way in which each topic was opened; of the 
 subtle and yet genial path by which the unwary 
 student who had made some rash statement was led 
 to retract it; of the broad light which long experi- 
 ence with young men and long study o£ their differ- 
 ences made it possible for the teacher to throw over 
 a difficult question so that the student seemed to 
 himself to master the difficulty. An acute thinker, 
 
 ^ Scriptural Idea of Man, p. 53. 
 
108 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 a graduate of one of our best universities, who had 
 followed the required course in philosophy under 
 a distinouished scholar in his own student life with 
 interest, after attending one of Dr. Hopkins's ex- 
 aminations remarked, as he came out : " There was 
 more teaching in that single exercise than in all the 
 exercises in philosophy that I attended when in 
 college." 
 
 The atmosphere of a class-room is a subtle, 
 hardly describable thing. It is determined by the 
 wisdom and the power of the teacher and the dili- 
 gence and receptivity of the pupils. The elements 
 contributed by the teacher gain in richness with 
 each receding year up to a certain point in the 
 life. The materials in the pupils vary from year 
 to year, according to previous training and native 
 endowments. Very bright students may have had 
 little severe training, may have grown up in ener- 
 vating surroundings, and yet have slipped through 
 the examinations of the earlier years. These will 
 be likely to contribute pride and indocility, restless- 
 ness and reluctance, to the influences affecting those 
 whom the teacher of a Senior class has to lead into 
 the study of the profound questions of philosophy. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was accustomed to give early in 
 the first term of the year an hour each day for a 
 week or more to the instruction of the Freshman 
 class in the laws of health. He used as a text-book 
 Combe's "Health and Mental Education," but en- 
 riched the instruction with the stores of knowledge 
 accumulated by his own studies. By giving this in- 
 
THE TEACHER. 109 
 
 striiction he gained a closer knowledge of each stu- 
 dent from the beginning of his course, and an im- 
 pression was thus made in the minds of some that 
 prepared the way for a strong personal influence. 
 
 There has been an opinion that the students 
 of Williams College were, during Dr. Hopkins's 
 administration, largely of the maturer, seK-support- 
 ing, earnest tyjies. There were many such, and 
 he fidly understood that they were likely to reflect 
 great honor upon the college. He answered their 
 letters when writing in advance to state their needs 
 with patient minuteness and kindest promises. 
 For while he walked with stately steps along the 
 flaming bulwarks of the universe, he bent kindly 
 down to recognize the upward movement of the 
 humblest being those bulwarks were erected to de- 
 fend. 
 
 But there were many young men under his guid- 
 ance in the years when I knew the college who be- 
 longed to families where abundance, not to say lux- 
 ury existed. Many such were sent to the college 
 in the belief that its remoteness from city life 
 would guarantee freedom from certain temptations. 
 Some of these came to the college against their will. 
 A few were never reconciled to the quiet "monas- 
 tic " life, as they termed it, and in every class ele- 
 ments of the most diverse character were found. 
 Generally these elements were fused into more or 
 less unity by Dr. Hopkins's instruction, but each 
 succeeding class presented new and difficult varie- 
 ties of the genus student. 
 
110 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 It was in no small degree dealing with these dif- 
 ficult cases and teaching them to think that added 
 each year increase to his power. His form so 
 large and massive, his keen, kind eye, his persua- 
 sive voice, however littla appreciated in their dis- 
 tinctiveness, were, when taken together, of great 
 advantage in his first relations with pupils. The 
 increasing calmness and benignity of advancing 
 years added also with each new year impressiveness 
 to his presence and words. 
 
 " We see thee standing- there, 
 The tall form gravely bent : 
 The thin and silvery hair 
 O'er the lordly dome besprent ; 
 The keen uplifted g-lance : 
 The long arm's curving- sweep : 
 The serious countenance 
 Where the merry twinkles sleep : 
 
 " We hear thee speaking now, 
 Each weighty word well weighed — 
 Simple and clear and slow — 
 No rattling fanfaronade 
 Of words, but a master's thought, 
 Untainted by sneers or gibes, 
 Like His who the people taught 
 With authority, not as the scribes." ^ 
 
 A faitliful record of the brighter sayings of the 
 teacher and pupils in Dr. Hopkins's room for a 
 single year would be an instructive revelation of 
 his power. No such record exists, and the un- 
 derstanding of his eminence as a teacher must be 
 
 1 Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden's poem at the Williams alumni 
 dinner, June 20, 1887. 
 
THE TEACHER. Ill 
 
 far inferior to what such a record for the fifty-six 
 years of his instruction would give. 
 
 His skill in answering questions was not inferior 
 to his skill in asking them. His own enjoyment 
 of his sallies and of the effect which they produced 
 on the class was perfectly unrestrained and natural, 
 and seemed to bring him into closer sympathy with 
 his students. But there was never the slightest 
 sacrifice of dignity, or loss of control. He would 
 sometimes tell an old story, but however old it 
 was, it always had a sharp application. Very few 
 reminiscences of his quick perception or ready wit 
 have been preserved. 
 
 It was his custom, as has been already said, to 
 begin the instruction of the Senior year wdth Anat- 
 omy and Physiology, to form the base of the pyra- 
 mid to which he likened the studies which he taught. 
 Upon that base of man in his physical nature was 
 raised the structure of the intellectual and moral 
 and religious studies. It was man as a whole that 
 occupied his time for nine hours each week during 
 most of the Senior year when I was a student. 
 
 I remember that one of our brightest men was 
 once questioned in regard to the sensitiveness of the 
 patient during the amputation of a leg. He was 
 asked if he supposed that any pain was felt from 
 the cutting of the bone. He replied that he had 
 always supposed that there was. "And the most 
 acute pain when the knife goes through the mar- 
 row?" interrogated the president. "Yes, sir," 
 was the reply. "Well, there is no sensitiveness 
 
112 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 whatever in either of these two formations," an- 
 swered the president. I remember thinking at the 
 time that perhaps the leading question was mis- 
 leading, but the lesson was taught that we were not 
 to have an opinion on a question of fact unless we 
 had data for the opinion. 
 
 One of the keenest of Dr. Hopkins's retorts was 
 made when he was nearly seventy years of age. 
 The distinction between man and the lower animals 
 was a favorite subject of discussion with him, as it 
 was of the earlier Scottish philosophers. The point 
 had been made that man is the only animal that 
 laughs. "As he alone laughs, so I think he alone 
 has the perception and feeling involved in that."^ 
 A student who had j^erhaps more personal acquaint- 
 ance with dogs than the president raised his hand 
 on hearing this statement and said: "Dr. Hop- 
 kins, I have a little dog at home. When I am 
 there, he sometimes runs up to me and puts his 
 forepaws on my knees, and looks up into my face, 
 and I really think he laughs." Dr. Hopkins 
 turned and looked at his pupil and replied: "When 
 a man laughs, he generally laughs at something. 
 What do you suppose your dog was laughing at? " 
 
 When I entered the Junior class in Williams 
 College in the autumn of 1860, Dr. Hopkins was 
 fifty-eight years old. He was then in the zenith 
 of his powers. His hair was already somewhat 
 whitened, and was mostly gone from the high crown 
 of his head. The occasions when I used to see 
 
 ^ An Outline Study of Man, p. 11. 
 
THE TEACHER. 113 
 
 him were the Sunday morning preaching service in 
 the chapel, which he conducted, and the daily even- 
 ing prayer. It is of the latter service that my rec- 
 ollections are most distinct. There was a rever- 
 ence and a dignity in his conduct of the service 
 that greatly impressed me. The Scriptures seemed 
 to him to be such a reality ; to open such direct 
 communication between him and the Supreme Be- 
 ing, and there was such an uplifting power in his 
 prayers that admiration was from the first kindled 
 within me for his lofty personality. The silvery 
 touch of age had not diminished the strength of 
 manhood, but had added a soft beauty to the lines 
 of power. The form was bent a little, but the 
 strong definite features indicated a marked individ- 
 uality. Up to that time no teacher, although I 
 had been fortunate enough in different institutions 
 to attend prayers conducted by eminent men, had 
 ever impressed me in the same way. Several mem- 
 bers of my class, which had a large number of 
 well-trained and refined minds, used to speak to- 
 gether of these exercises. Evening prayers were 
 not irksome to some of us, and are remembered still 
 with affectionate gratitude. In any reasonable 
 estimate of Dr. Hopkins's influence on college 
 students, I think the evening prayers must have a 
 place. 
 
 One of his most distinguished pupils writes : — 
 " His conduct of evening prayers was very nearly 
 his greatest service to the students, if I may juc^ge 
 others bv myself. I shall never forget his reading 
 
114 MARK HOPKINS. . 
 
 of the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians one hot summer afternoon, just after 
 we had been discussing in his recitation-room But- 
 ler's chapter in which he touches upon immortality. 
 As he read the words : ' When this corruptible shall 
 have put on incorruption and this mort?J shall have 
 put on immortality,' his utterance of the word im- 
 mortality was absolutely sublime." 
 
 He was particularly fond of those lofty passages 
 in Isaiah which treat of God's majesty, and some 
 of those noblest verses always carry me back to 
 my seat in the chapel that first year in Williams 
 College. 
 
 His sermons Sunday mornings were for the most 
 part on doctrinal theology, and were the outline of 
 a system. These were always clear and cogent, and 
 sometimes eloquent. It is probable that the occa- 
 sional repetition of a noble strain of prophecy in 
 the sermons had something to do with the perma- 
 nent association in my mind of the sublime lan- 
 guage of Isaiah with his ministrations in the col- 
 lege pulpit. In the lectures by Dr. Hopkins on 
 the ''Evidences of Christianity," which was one of 
 my text-books the first term of my student life at 
 Williams, reverential words from Isaiah are also 
 now and then quoted, and I cannot but feel surprise 
 now, as I look back and note how largely my first 
 term of study in the college was stamped by the 
 influence of his mind, and how very largely not 
 merely religious, but also Scriptural that influence 
 was. Certainly I did not then realize how perva- 
 
THE TEACHER. 115 
 
 sive in the atmosphere his thought was, but I see 
 now that the permanent impression of that first 
 term, the opening of my mind to the sublimity of 
 God's government as seen both in nature and the 
 Scriptures, was the work of this one man. Many 
 men, as boys more thoughtless than J was, must 
 have since been awakened to the fact that Dr. 
 Hopkins's influence was the constant environment. 
 I am sure that, whether they confess it or not, his 
 noble reverence for God and his Holy Word has 
 been an effective power in keeping the look of the 
 graduates of this college directed to the higher and 
 better things that concern us, or, if I may use lan- 
 guage of which he was so fond, "to the everlasting 
 hills from whence cometh our help." 
 
 It seems altogether fitting that this chapter 
 should contain extracts from various letters written 
 by Dr. Hopkins's pupils, conveying their testimony 
 to the influence exerted upon their lives by his 
 teaching. From the great number of such letters 
 which Vv^ere found among his papers only a few 
 extracts can be given. 
 
 Israel W. Andrews, a member of the first Sen- 
 ior class, that of 1837, which came under Dr. 
 Hopkins's tuition as president, writes from Lee, 
 where he was teaching, October 9, 1838 : — 
 
 "It is my intention to devote the little leisure 
 time I have to theological studies, and I should be 
 much gratified if you would advise me respecting 
 the course. Conscious that I have received more 
 instruction (in Whately's sense) from yourself than 
 
116 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 from any other one, I know of no one to whom I 
 could better apply for instruction." 
 
 Mr. Andrews, who had a distinguished career as 
 a teacher, chiefly in Marietta College, where, after 
 having been tutor and professor of various subjects, 
 he became finally a succesful president, was deputed 
 by the Williams men in attendance at the National 
 Educational Association in Topeka, Kansas, in 
 1886, to convey congratidations and kind remem- 
 brances to Dr. Hopkins. He writes : — 
 
 "I am sure no one of those present at Topeka, 
 and I may say no one of all the alumni of Wil- 
 liams, can cherish a profounder respect or warmer 
 love for yourself than do I. As General Garfield 
 said at the inauguration of President Chadbourne, 
 'Dr. Hopkins will always be our president.' No 
 one has greater cause of gratitude to you than my- 
 self, and if I have been of service in any degree as 
 an educator, it is because of your instructions and 
 of your recommendation of me to my field of labor." 
 
 Two letters written on the same day, June 6, 
 1859, one from the Andover Theological Seminary 
 by a graduate preparing for missionary work in 
 India, and the other by the Rev. Dr. Corwin, then 
 pastor of a church in Honolulu, are a striking evi- 
 dence of grateful appreciation of his inspiration to 
 the noblest life. 
 
 The letter from Rev. Dr. Corwin begins with 
 these words : — 
 
 "Your kind note with many others reached me 
 as a most acceptable New Year's present on the 
 
THE TEACHER. 117 
 
 morning of the 1st, and nothing coukl have been 
 more acceptable than its familiar, cordial tone, 
 which left me no room to doubt that I was very 
 kindly remembered by one who has done more to 
 shape my destiny than any other man. 
 
 " Senior year was to me the butt end of the col- 
 lege course. It was a time when I could feel my- 
 seK grow. The studies of the first three years were 
 for the most part pursued from a sense of duty. 
 Senior studies were a pursuit of pleasure." 
 
 The other letter was written by David C. Scud- 
 der, of the class of 1855, whose brief life as a 
 missionary has been told by his brother Horace : 
 "I write to request you to forward to the Mission 
 House at Boston a testimonial respecting my fitness 
 to become a missionary. I cannot let tliis occa- 
 sion pass without expressing my thankfulness to 
 God that he sent me to Williams. I knew nothing 
 of the college when I entered, except that a friend 
 of mine had been converted there a year before, 
 and I wished to be converted also, and therefore 
 went. During my second term, through the kind 
 attention of Professor H., I was induced to con- 
 sider the subject of religion. I did so, and as 
 with me becoming a Christian and becoming a for- 
 eign missionary were one and the same thing, com- 
 mitting myseK to Christ, I also committed myseK 
 to his service abroad. I shall ever look back to 
 my college life with pleasure and yet with regret. 
 . . . But I feel peculiar regret, when I think how 
 poorly I appreciated the studies of Senior year. 
 
118 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 "Still, though I accomplished so little, I shall 
 always be thankful, as every other pupil is, that 
 I was brought under your tuition. If I learned 
 nothing from your words, I did much from your 
 example; and although I never was reprimanded 
 that I remember, a look which I thought was in- 
 tended for me has often recurred to me when 
 tempted to live at ease. 
 
 "I hope, sir, that you will excuse these perhaps 
 to you foolish words, for I felt that I could not 
 refrain from expressing though in crude language 
 my esteem for your instructions, my admiration 
 of your example, and my affection for yourself." 
 
 A distinguished clergyman, whose name would 
 at once suggest very great services to the church, 
 wrote to Dr. Hopkins from Bennington in 1851 as 
 follows : — 
 
 "And let me speak of one more instance of 
 kindness on your part, my dear sir, among the 
 many, as one for which I am deeply grateful, and 
 one that has, I hope, had its influence for good for- 
 ever upon me. You once addressed words on the 
 subject of religion, to me, when I called on an- 
 other errand at your study. You were not dis- 
 pleased or wearied when I told you of my doubts 
 and troubles, but conversed wdth me till half my 
 load was gone. And as we went together to your 
 evening meeting, by some strange coincidence, or 
 in kindness, you took up the course of our con- 
 versation in your lecture just where we left it. 
 Never did all seem so clear to me as you made it 
 
THE TEACHER. 119 
 
 that night. I found those same thoughts always 
 in my mind, whenever I recurred to the subject. 
 And a few months afterward, when I hoped I had 
 found peace in believing, and a change in intention, 
 in hoi^e, and in feeling had come over my life, I 
 traced many of the influences that pressed most 
 earnestly upon me to the words you gave me that 
 night. I have often wanted to tell you of this, 
 sir, but I never have had the opportunity till now. 
 You have probably forgotten it all long since, but 
 it is among my most cherished and most holy re- 
 membrances. Why I never became a Christian 
 in the midst of all the religious association that 
 gathered around me in Williams College I cannot 
 now understand. But to yourself and your sin- 
 cerely respected brother, Professor Hoj^kins, who 
 one time also almost kindled me to life, do I trace 
 influences which under the power of God, as I 
 hope, afterwards, brought me out into the light of 
 his truth, and which now give me life and hope 
 and joy in believing." 
 
 Titus Munson Coan, the well-known writer of 
 the class of 1859, sent in 1881 a warmly appreci- 
 ative letter, of which these words are most interest- 
 ing:— 
 
 " I have long meant to tell you with what plea- 
 sure I remember my Senior year, 1859. It gave 
 me the impulse to the life of study which I have 
 lived for the most part since then; and I look 
 back to the little country town and to your class- 
 room in the old chapel as to a spring of intellec- 
 
120 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 tual and moral energy. Those were formative days, 
 and second only in importance to those of the ear- 
 lier life at home, and I hoped to thank you for 
 them this simnner by word of mouth." 
 
 In the later years of his life few class meetings 
 occurred at which his service not merely to the 
 world at large, but in the training of individual 
 lives, was not discussed, and often the pleasantest 
 words of grateful recognition were conveyed from 
 such meetings to "him. In 1883 the class of 1863, 
 of which twenty-two members were present, adopted 
 these resolutions:^ — 
 
 "On this the twentieth anniversary of our grad- 
 uation the undersigned, members of the class of 
 1863, extend to the venerable and beloved Presi- 
 dent Hopkins our warmest greetings ! 
 
 " Having tested the value of his instructions dur- 
 ing a score of years in various spheres of thought 
 and of action, and havijig found them, under all 
 circumstances, helpful for guidance and for inspi- 
 ration, of immense worth in the working out of our 
 career and the moulding of character and life, we 
 come back and lay at his feet the tribute of our 
 gratitude and affection. 
 
 "We rejoice in his convalescence, and cherish 
 the hope that his precious life may long be spared 
 to the college which his name has made illustri- 
 ous." 
 
 The following letter from Rev. Dr. Gladden, 
 of Columbus, Ohio, is another testimony to the 
 value of his teaching : — 
 
THE TEACHER. 121 
 
 Columbus, Ftbruary 5, 1884. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have asked my publisher to send 
 you a volume of sermons, which I beg you to accept with 
 my grateful remembrance. 
 
 It would be quite unfair to hold you responsible for 
 the doctrines taught — (though I strongly hope that you 
 will find in these far more to approve than to condemn) 
 — but if there is anything of skill or success in the 
 methods of presenting truth, or anything of philosoph- 
 ical breadth and candor in the manner of dealing with 
 it — these qualities are largely due, I am sure, to im- 
 pressions made on my mind when in your classes, twenty- 
 five years ago. 
 
 General S. C. Armstrong, whose work for the 
 negroes and Indians at Hampton, Virginia, has 
 been so eminently conducive to the welfare both of 
 his pupils and through these of our country, gives 
 this testimony not in a letter, but in his "Twenty- 
 two Years' Work of Hampton Normal and Agri- 
 cultural Institute:" "Let me say here that what- 
 ever good teaching I may have done has been Mark 
 Hopkins teaching through me." 
 
 Professor William D. Whitney, of Yale Univer- 
 sity, writes in the preface to the "Forty Years' 
 Eecord of the Class of 1845 : " — 
 
 "It remains only to speak of our venerable and 
 venerated president, Mark Hopkins. We had 
 from him, even during our Freshman year, a few 
 lectures on anatomy illustrated by the manikin; 
 then during Senior year he was almost the only one 
 with whom we had to do. Senior year was the time 
 
122 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 looked forward to with eager anticipation all the 
 way through college, as giving us the privilege of 
 his instruction, and on that account ' ooino- to be 
 worth all the rest of the course, ' as it used to be 
 said ; and like other classes before and after us we 
 were not disappointed. Eeferences here and there 
 in the biographies will show how strongly he im- 
 pressed us." 
 
 In the autumn of 1883 an effort was made to 
 raise 825,000 toward the endowment of the college 
 pastorate, to which the Eev. John H. Denison of 
 the class of 1882, a son-in-law of Dr. Hopkins, had 
 been appointed. The professor was to be called 
 the "Mark Hopkins Professor of Divinity." On 
 the occurrence of Dr. Hopkins's birthday, Feb- 
 ruary 4, 1884, the money had been raised. I 
 was not able to attend the campany given at Dr. 
 Hopkins's house, but sent a letter containing the 
 announcement that the professorship was secured. 
 The letter was read aloud to the company by the 
 Eev. Edward H. Griffin, D. D., then Professor 
 of Ehetoric in Williams College, now Professor of 
 the History of Philosophy in the Johns Hopkins 
 University. From this letter a few sentences are 
 given : — 
 
 "More fortunate than Woolsey in still imparting 
 order and life to expanding minds ; more fortunate 
 than McCosh in being relieved from the pressing 
 responsibility of executive details, long may you 
 live to continue to open to us all the deep lessons 
 of patience, benignity, and serene faith ! 
 
THE TEACHER. 123 
 
 " It is now over fifty years since you became pro- 
 fessor in this college. Griffin, Denison and I, 
 members of the class of 18G2, were not born when 
 you became president in 1836. Through all these 
 years you have watched and nourished and loved 
 this college. 
 
 " You cherish, I am sure, no desire that it should 
 become a university or even a great college, but I 
 believe that you cordially sympathize with its pres- 
 ent self-denying, harmonious officers (not less self- 
 denying, nor less harmonious, nor less able than any 
 body that has preceded them here) in their efforts 
 to make this the best college of its size in New Eng- 
 land ; to render, while holding character of sui^reme 
 importance, the instruction and equij^ments so ex- 
 cellent and the scholarship so thorough that there 
 shall be no question as to the value of our degree, 
 nor any as to the meaning of membership in our 
 classes." 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was agreeably surprised by the 
 main fact communicated by the letter, and made 
 one of his happy extemporaneous speeches to the 
 delight of all present. 
 
 Eesolutions adopted by the Senior class, the class 
 of 1884, presented the same evening, are an illus- 
 tration of the feeling that each succeeding class 
 cherished and w^as pretty sure to express on the 
 birthday of the eminent teacher. 
 
 "To our beloved and honored Dr. Hopkins. 
 
 "We take great pleasure on this the eighty-sec- 
 ond anniversary of your birthday in offering you 
 
124 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 our congratulations. \\e rejoice greatly that God 
 in his goodness has allowed us to sit under the in- 
 structions of one whose teaching for more than half 
 a century has prepared so many young men to take 
 a useful and honorable place in the work of the 
 world. We appreciate better than we can express 
 the inestimable privilege which we enjoy, and heart- 
 ily hope that you may be sj)ared to see many more 
 of these anniversary days, and be permitted to 
 guide many classes of young men Iby your experi- 
 ence and counsel. 
 
 "As you said to us in our late affliction, ^ so now 
 we say to you, 'May God bless you! ' " 
 
 Horace E. Scudder, of the class of 1858, sent in 
 1881 a copy of the school-book "A History of the 
 United States," which he had just published. In 
 the letter accompanying the book these sentences 
 occur : — 
 
 "I am afraid that none of us say enough of our 
 obligation to you. There is a shamefacedness 
 which belono^s in the New Eno-land character, I 
 think, and I am one of those who feel very deeply 
 their indebtedness to you for the early formation of 
 habits of thought. I was immature enough in my 
 Senior year at college and unable to make the best 
 use of it, but I am confident that but for the kind 
 of training which I there received this book would 
 scarcely have been written. So you see you are 
 receiving your own again." 
 
 ^ The sudden death by an accident when coasting of Nathan 
 Gest, of Illinois, a member of the class. 
 
THE TEACHER. 125 
 
 In the same year Lavalette Wilson, of the class 
 of 1856, sent an appreciative letter, from which a 
 few words are taken : — 
 
 "It is true that your pupils collectively have 
 often expressed their indebtedness to you, but I 
 know from my own experience as a teacher how 
 pleasant it is when old pupils come individually 
 in after years and show their appreciation of past 
 labors. 
 
 "At this late day, then, my dear and much loved 
 Dr. Hopkins, let me express to you my thanks for 
 your valuable instruction and uniform kindness 
 during my college course, and at the same time 
 tender to you all the good wishes which are apjDro- 
 priate to this season of the year." 
 
 These testimonies might be indefinitely extended. 
 Dr. Hopkins kept all the letters which were ad- 
 dressed to him that were not mere business forms, 
 and the number of kindly greetings and grateful 
 acknowledgments that flowed in upon him during 
 the last years of his life was astonishing. Clergy- 
 men, teachers, jurists, authors, among his pupils, 
 and eminent men not his pupils, were constantly 
 sending messages of respect and love. Classes, 
 alumni associations, bodies not connected in any 
 organic way with the college, sent telegrams and 
 congratulations with each returning birthday. 
 
 The delivery and publication of the address in 
 1886 on the fiftieth anniversary of his election to 
 the presidency of the college was the occasion of 
 the reception of many letters, expressive of indebt- 
 
126 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 eclness for moral and intellectual inspiration. 
 Each of these letters has its individual character, 
 and though all of them are in general similar to 
 those from which quotations have been given, the 
 record would be incomplete without adding two or 
 three illustrations from this fresh harvest. 
 
 The following letter from an eminent profes- 
 sor in a theological seminary, Rev. Dr. George 
 Mooar, of Oakland, California, was called out by 
 the announcement that the commemorative address 
 would be delivered at Commencement. 
 
 "I note that at the approaching Commencement 
 the chief matter of general interest to the Alumni 
 will be the completion of your fifty years of service 
 in connection with the college. I feel impelled to 
 offer you my congratulations in your having been 
 allowed of Providence to continue so eminent a ser- 
 vice for the half century. I desire also to express 
 to you my personal gratitude in memory of what 
 you did for me in the four years which closed thirty- 
 five years ago. It was much to me to have your 
 wisdom in the class-room and your kindness and 
 patience in private counsel. May I refer to one 
 occasion which was to you but an ordinary incident, 
 probably, but became to me no doubt of very great 
 importance. Our class had been dowai the street 
 on some joviality, and returning we were supposed 
 all of us to smoke on our way back to the college. 
 I had not formed the habit prevalent in the class, 
 but had occasionally tried my capabilities and 
 joined the rest. , Soon after, being in your library, 
 
THE TEACHER. 127 
 
 you gently referred to the fact, and advised me not 
 to form the hahit, which you said would, to one 
 of my sedentary tendencies, prove very injurious. 
 That advice touched me deeply and reinforced my 
 conscience and will. Now, after thirty-five years, I 
 find myself dwelling on this friendly service. You 
 will receive loftier tributes, and I, if I were to say 
 anything in public, should have as much occasion as 
 any one to speak of my indebtedness as to clear- 
 ness of thought, insight of principles, and ideals of 
 life. But just now in this informal way I am 
 moved to speak of this incident in your personal 
 helpfulness to my own conduct." 
 
 Another letter well worth preservation in .this 
 record is from a professor in a theological semi- 
 nary, who was not a graduate of Williams ; — 
 
 " I have read with great pleasure your address at 
 Williams College during Commencement week. A 
 graduate of Williams who had been taught in your 
 own class-room could scarcely have had greater 
 pleasure in reading it than myself. The truth is 
 that your students are not limited to the Williams 
 Alumni. These are scarcely a tithe of the entire 
 number of minds that you have quickened and 
 directed. As one of these, I beg not only to offer 
 you my congratulations on your possession of the 
 physical vigor required for the delivery of such an 
 address, but also to thank 3^ou for your defense of 
 a liberal course of education, and for your conten- 
 tion that its scope and main elements should be 
 determined by the educating body rather than by 
 
128 MARK HOPKINS, 
 
 the unformed pupil. Your strong- and timely words 
 will, of course, be eagerly and widely read, and 
 cannot fail to do great good." 
 
 The following letter is from a pupil in the min- 
 istry, Rev. Dr. Addison P. Foster, of Roxbury : — 
 
 "I shall never cease to be thankfid that God in 
 his goodness permitted me to receive training at 
 your hand. Next to my sainted father, whose in- 
 fluence on me to the day of his death was constant 
 and most helpfid, I owe more to you than to any 
 other man. 
 
 "Not long since a gentleman remarked to me, 
 'All Williams men have a family resemblance. 
 They all bear the mark of the same master mind. ' 
 I have heard this remark more than once. I am 
 thankful that I can call you my mental father. 
 
 "Years since, when I entered Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary and attended Dr. Charles Hodge's 
 lectures in theology, I found to my surprise that 
 my theological system was already outlined, and 
 that it did not at all agree with his; and when I 
 came to reflect upon it, I saw that your Saturday 
 morning lectures on Vincent"' s Catechism had de- 
 termined the matter. The working theology of 
 my ministry was given me by you." 
 
 One more letter, addressed to the writer of this 
 study, may be added to these. It is from the 
 Rev. Dr. John Tatlock, of Hoosick FaUs, N. Y. 
 Two or three admirable letters written by him to 
 Dr. Hopkins are preserved, but this letter is emi- 
 nently fit for publication, as it contains the matured 
 
THE TEACHER. 129 
 
 judgments of an earnest and acute mind that liaw 
 been for thirty years successfully devoted to the 
 work of the ministry : — 
 
 "Referring to your favor of the 30th ult. I re- 
 member one or two letters to Dr. Hopkins, written 
 under the impressions made upon me by his later 
 works, but of course cannot recall, at this dis- 
 tance in time, the sentiments they expressed. As, 
 however, my judgment of him, as a thinker and 
 teacher, has not changed, except as experience 
 and reflection have made it stronger and more dis- 
 criminating, I shall find little difficulty in con- 
 veying it. 
 
 "I understand that what you desire is not so 
 much a critical estimate of Dr. Hopkins and of 
 his philosophy as a statement of my indebtedness 
 to him in my own intellectual life, and to this 
 therefore I shall confine myself. 
 
 "In the first place I owe very largely to Dr. 
 Hopkins whatever power of clear and discriminat- 
 ing thought I may possess. He incited his pupils 
 to think, and taught them how to think. He in- 
 structed them in the nature of the mind and in the 
 proper mode of using it. He made the impression 
 that the thinker is more than tlie thought, and truth 
 less valuable than the ability to discover it. I re- 
 call distinctly my intellectual awakening in his class- 
 room, and the peculiar feeling of delight I experi- 
 enced on finding that I had a mind of my own. 
 
 "I have never foro^otten some of his definitions 
 and distinctions; and these have served me, not 
 
130 MARK HOPKINS, 
 
 more by their intrinsic importance, than by their 
 confirmation of the habit of distinsruishino' between 
 things that differ. 
 
 " By his admirable method of educing the powers 
 of his students, by treating them, in a sense, as his 
 equals in the field of discussion, he evoked the con- 
 sciousness of an independent and vigorous intel- 
 lectual life, of more worth than the most perfect 
 system of philosophy. 
 
 "But while I place this consideration first, I 
 must also confess my indebtedness to him for a 
 scheme of thought, deep, and wide, and fruitfid, 
 satisfying at once, in its main features, the de- 
 mands of the reason and those of the moral nature. 
 From him I first learned the meaning of the word 
 * universe, ' and under his guidance began the life- 
 long work of bringing its three great di^dsions, 
 nature, man, and God, into intelligible and har- 
 monious relations. 
 
 "More particularly I desire to bear testimon}^ 
 to the immeasurable advantages I have derived 
 from his 'doctrine of ends.' I do not suppose 
 that Dr. Hopkins is to be credited with the discov- 
 ery of this form of philosophy, for, on the supposi- 
 tion of its correctness, it must have been practically 
 assumed in all ages, and have been at least impli- 
 citly recognized and admitted by many writers. 
 But to him belongs the high honor of having 
 clearly formulated the doctrine, elaborated a system 
 upon it, and defended it from the gross imputations 
 of utilitarianism. At any rate, Dr. Hopkins was 
 
THE TEACHER. 131 
 
 the first to open up this doctrine to me, and to se- 
 cure my profound and unwavering acceptance of 
 it, and I can truthfully say that no philosophical 
 principle with which I am acquainted has been of 
 gi-eater service to me in the field of theology, both 
 speculative and practical ; casting light upon dark 
 places, and cutting paths through the thickets. 
 
 " I could write much more upon this fruitful and 
 pleasing theme, but as a personal testimony from 
 one of Dr. Hopkins's most grateful pupils what I 
 have ^^Titten will be, I presume, sufficient." 
 
 Perhaps the most striking testimonial to his 
 power as a teacher is the hall dedicated at Williams 
 College to the honor of his memory three years 
 after his death. This fine building, almost wholly 
 devoted to purposes of instruction, representing a 
 cost of nearly 890,000, permanently identifies his 
 name with the teaching of the college. It is not 
 the idea that its massive walls typify the solidity 
 of his character, or that its abundant windows sug- 
 gest the openness of his mind to light and the clear- 
 ness with which he saw and enforced the truth, that 
 is most affecting to one who knows the history of 
 the building. It is the thought rather that there 
 went into its construction a multitude of small sums 
 from teachers, ministers, and men in humble rela- 
 tions, most of them his pupils, whose lives had been 
 made brighter by his words, and into whose hearts 
 had passed the inspiration won by his own endur- 
 ance and self-denial. The small subscriptions rep- 
 resent equally with the largest the consciousness of 
 
132 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 a debt which cannot be paid. The building is the 
 chorus of many voices saying in harmony : — 
 
 " To thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself : 
 And at the end of thy day, 
 O faithful shepherd ! to come, 
 Bringing thy sheep in thy hand." 
 
THE AUTHOE. 
 
No wild enthusiast of the right, 
 Self -poised and clear, he showed alway 
 The coolness of his northern night, 
 The ripe repose of autumn's day.'* 
 
 Whittieb, Bantoul. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 The important books of Dr. Hopkins are not 
 numerous. They were^ singularly enough, all of 
 them called out by invitations to deliver a course 
 of lectures. Four of the five were given as courses 
 before the Lowell Institute, and the substance of 
 the fifth was delivered before the students of sev- 
 eral theological seminaries. But these books con- 
 tain matured thinking, and are the outcome of the 
 long and careful study required for his constant 
 teaching of the subjects discussed. He had taught 
 morals more than thirty years before either of the 
 books on morals was written, and intellectual phi- 
 losophy thirty-six years before he published "An 
 Outline Study of Man." A volume of "Miscel- 
 lanies " made u]) of various addresses was published 
 in 1847, and a collection of the baccalaureate ser- 
 mons was made in 1863. Another collection of 
 these sermons appeared with the title "Strength 
 and Beauty " in 1874, and an enlarged edition of 
 this was issued in 1884, but the title was changed 
 to "Teachings and Counsels." A large number of 
 addresses and sermons and review articles were 
 printed in his long life, some of which are of great 
 
136 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 value but are not contained in either of the collected 
 volumes. As perfect a list of these as can now be 
 made will be found at the end of this book. 
 
 The lectures on the "Evidences of Christianity" 
 delivered in January, 1844, the first important book 
 of Dr. Hopkins, bear clear marks of the great in- 
 fluence that Bishop Butler had exercised upon his 
 mind. It seems at first thought singular that the 
 "Analogy," which was written with special refer- 
 ence to the unbelief of the last century, and had 
 been published over a hundred years when Dr. 
 Hopkins delivered these lectures, should have kept 
 so firm a grasp on religious thought, and should 
 leave its indelible marks on minds so different as, 
 for instance, that of Cardinal Newman and that of 
 Dr. Hopkins. There was indeed a certain affinity 
 between these thinkers. Both were born almost 
 at the beginning of the century, Newman in 1801 
 and Dr. Hopkins in 1802, and the lives of both 
 stretched on through the most varying changes in 
 the intellectual world. They certainly lived to wit- 
 ness the effect of discoveries and conceptions that 
 do to a large degree lessen the cogency of Bishop 
 Butler's argument, but apparently neither of these 
 would ever let go of two immensely significant 
 principles which the "Analogy" teaches: namely, 
 first, that the things that are seen have counter- 
 parts in things unseen; and secondly, the com- 
 mon-sense and wholesome belief that probability is 
 and must be the guide of life. The one was indeed 
 a Puritan, the other a Komanist. The one believed 
 
THE AUTHOR. 137 
 
 in the smallest amount of machinery in religious 
 things and in the fullest liberty for a local church. 
 The other was carried by his processes of thought 
 to the acceptance of authority, to a profound hatred 
 of schism, and to a fervent attachment to what he 
 held as the one original Christian church. AYhen 
 Dr. Hopkins in conversation with one of the college 
 professors regarding Robert Browning said, " I too 
 am a mystic," he expressed the affinity that he had 
 with all the great spiritual teachers of the age ; and 
 though he would have rejected with disdain much 
 of Newman's sacramentalism, he accepted him as 
 a brother in the higher region of spiritual thought, 
 and with him emphasized always the immediate re- 
 lation of the soul to the things unseen. No work 
 of Newman's shows more plainly or more beauti- 
 fully the far-reacliing effect of the great " Analogy " 
 than these lectures by Dr. Hopkins on the '' Evi- 
 dences of Christianity." 
 
 The lectures from the third to the eighth inclu- 
 sive are simply the carrying out with fine and yet 
 powerful strokes suggestions -that might well arise 
 from the study of the "Analogy." Of this there 
 is an abundance of evidence. The following state- 
 ment from the "Analogy" finds reproduction in 
 the third lecture : — 
 
 "The natural world, then, and natural govern- 
 ment of it being such an incomprehensible scheme, 
 so incomprehensible that a man must, really in the 
 literal sense know nothing at all, who is not sensi- 
 ble of his ioTiorance in it ; this immediately sug- 
 
138 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 gests, and strongly shows the credibility, that the 
 moral world and government of it may be so too." ^ 
 
 The third point in the third lecture on the "Evi- 
 dences " opens as follows: "I observe that there is 
 an analogy, both in their kind and in their limit, 
 between the knowledge communicated by nature 
 and that by Christianity." 
 
 Under the fifth head in the same lecture refer- 
 ence is made directly to the fourth chapter of the 
 second part of the "Analogy." 
 
 The seventh point in the same lecture is intro- 
 duced by quotations from the chapter in the second 
 part of the "Analogy," on "the appointment of a 
 Mediator and Redeemer," and is quite covered by 
 the quotation. 2 
 
 The following extract shows plainly the potency 
 of the analogical argument for Dr. Hopkins's 
 mind : — 
 
 "I observe that there is an analogy between the 
 laws of nature, as discovered by induction, and 
 the moral laws contained in the New Testament, 
 not only as implying the same natural attributes 
 in God, but as they are carried out to the same 
 perfection. It is the great and sublime character- 
 istic of natural law, especially of the law of gravi- 
 tation, that, while it controls equally the minutest 
 
 1 Butler's Analogy, part i. chap. vii. 
 
 ^ It is farther proof of Butler's hold on Dr. Hopkins that he 
 quotes from the Sermons, in the controversy with Dr. McCosh, to 
 the efPeet that there need not he inconsistence between holiness 
 and happiness, and calls Butler "the highest English authority 
 in morals." 
 
THE AUTHOR. 139 
 
 particle that floats in the sunbeam ; and that, how- 
 ever wiklly that particle may be driven, — wher- 
 ever it may float in the infinity of space, — it 
 never, for one moment, escapes the cognizance and 
 supervision of this law. It never can. This im- 
 plies a minuteness and perfection of natural gov- 
 ernment, of which science, as known in the time 
 of Christ, could have given no intimation. But 
 now, how natural does it seem that the same God, 
 who, in the universal control of his natural law, no 
 more neglects the minutest particle than the lar- 
 gest planet, should also, in his moral law, take cog- 
 nizance of every idle word, and of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart ! Yes ; I find, in the particle of 
 dust, shown by the greatest expounder of God's nat- 
 ural law to be constantly regarded by him, and in 
 the idle word declared by Christ to come under the 
 notice and condemnation of his moral law, — I find, 
 in the minuteness and completeness of the govern- 
 ment of matter, as revealed by modern science, and 
 even shown to the eye by the microscope, and in 
 that interpretation of the moral law which makes 
 it spiritual, causing it to reach every thought and 
 intent of the heart, — a conception of the same 
 absolute perfection of government, both in the nat- 
 ural and moral world; and I find the same infinite 
 natural attributes implied as the sole conditions on 
 which such a government in either of these dej)art- 
 ments can be carried on. 
 
 "This idea of the absolute universality and per- 
 fection of government in any department — the 
 
140 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 only one, however, worthy of a perfect God — is 
 not an idea, especially in its moral applications, 
 which I should think likely to have originated with 
 man. In the department of nature we know that 
 he did not originate or suspect it till it was forced 
 on his observation. And how comes it to pass 
 that this absolute perfection of moral government, 
 this notice of the particle of dust there, this judg- 
 ment of every idle word, of every secret thing, of 
 the minutest moral act of the most inconsiderable 
 moral being that ever lived, should have been dis- 
 covered and announced thousands of years before 
 its more obvious counterpart in the natural world 
 was even suspected? " ^ 
 
 The third lecture from which this passage is 
 taken, and which presents many suggestions of 
 Butler's influence, is more distinctly an argument 
 from analogy than most of the lectures, but not 
 more really so than some of the others. For in- 
 stance, in the fifth lecture on Christianity and its 
 adaptation to the intellect and the affections, the 
 argument from analogy is constantly appearing. 
 
 Probably no lectures that Dr. Hopkins ever 
 wrote had a greater effect on the audience or ap- 
 pealed more strongly to the general reader. The 
 subject is not treated from a theologian's stand- 
 point, but from that of an ordinary intelligent 
 thinker, and the treatment is at times plain, but 
 always dignified ; at times admirably eloquent, but 
 never extravagant. I remember distinctly the im- 
 
 1 Lecture III. p. 83. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 141 
 
 pression produced on my mind by some of these 
 passages, when as a student I read this book. It 
 was like being led up to a lofty standpoint, where 
 one could take a wide view and note how solid and 
 grand the buttresses on the great mountains are, to 
 have the righteousness and love and reason of the 
 revealed God distinctly exliibited as sustaining his 
 throne. It was impossible for a thoughtful student 
 not to feel that his previous conception of the sys- 
 tem of nature as related to the system of Christian- 
 ity had been very imperfect, and that his ideas of 
 the unity in God's kingdoms were very rudimen- 
 tary. The strange sensation of enlarging views 
 that may come with the first mastery of a principle 
 in arithmetic or algebra or lang-uage, but whenever 
 it comes in any department of knowledge suggests 
 a prophecy of endless attainment, came to me at 
 times over this book. 
 
 There is perhaps more of a glow of eloquence in 
 these lectures than in any other of his writings. 
 They were,- in the first place (and this often seems 
 to imply freshness and vigor), the first important 
 production of the author. There is often much in 
 a first book that is germinal, thr.t finds ample ful- 
 fillment and development later ; but when for the 
 first time a thoughtful mind that has had long train- 
 ing, and has pondered life or moral truth, or has 
 made a solution for itself of some deep question, 
 seeks utterance, there may be a warmth and power 
 that find quick entrance to the popular heart. It 
 would be easy enough to name j^oets, novelists, and 
 
142 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 moralists whose first publications have at once ob- 
 tained and never lost popularity, a popularity often 
 greater than that vouchsafed to their subsequent 
 writing. It has already been stated that at a cer- 
 tain point in his college course young Hopkins, com- 
 pelled by j^hysical weakness, went home to Stock- 
 bridge for rest, and while at home applied his mind 
 to the study of the Christian evidences. He came 
 to the perfectly definite conclusion that Christianity 
 is a supernatural revelation from God, and from 
 that position, as, at the age of eighty-three, he 
 stated to the students in the college chapel on the 
 day of prayer for colleges in 1885, he never in the 
 least wavered. That was probably the first great 
 subject with which he grappled. There can be 
 none more momentous, and in that deep pondering 
 doubtless some of the admirably clear and convin- 
 cing thoughts of these lectures first crystallized. 
 They were ripened and developed by subsequent 
 thought, but the lectures exhibit the strength of the 
 young man, the glad movement, the exuberance 
 and vigor of illustration that belong with the first 
 utterance of symmetrically developed power. 
 
 In the second place the lectures were written in 
 a brief period of time. It does not seem that Dr. 
 Hopkins ever had the love of authorshij^ for au- 
 thorship^ s sake. He had accepted the vocation of 
 teaching. The allotment of regular tasks often 
 induces the disposition to regard these of supreme 
 importance. In his case these were numerous 
 enough and various enough to absorb his entire 
 
THE AUTHOR. 143 
 
 time for many years after he became president. 
 He could not work upon these lectures which he 
 had been invited to deliver before the Lowell Insti- 
 tute during the college session. When in the au- 
 tumn of 1843 the college year ended, he found it 
 impossible to force his mind to undertake the labor 
 of writing. He dropped everything and went into 
 the woods for three weeks, and on his return took 
 up the work with ardor, and wrote the twelve lec- 
 tures in a few weeks. They have the dash and 
 glow that belongs with rapid composition. They 
 are less elaborate, but more spontaneous than much 
 of his published writing. A notable but friendly 
 critic ^ took exception to two or three inconsistencies 
 of thought and to a haziness in certain passages. 
 So far as there was any justice in the criticisms, 
 the inconsistencies and lack of clearness so rarely 
 found in his writings had their origin in the rapid 
 composition. For the general reader we may, how- 
 ever, well question whether the rapidity of compo- 
 sition did not secure a freedom of movement and a 
 persuasiveness in presentation that more than com- 
 pensates for the presence of here and there an idea 
 not perfectly thought out, or the introduction of an 
 occasional question not definitely settled. 
 
 Lectures on moral science were originally written 
 soon after Dr. Hopkins's election in 1830 to the 
 chair of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. After 
 his election as president in 1836, the duties which 
 
 ^ Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, afterwards President of Yale College; 
 see vol. iv, of The New Englander. 
 
144 MAMK iionaxs, 
 
 he had to discliarge were so onerous as to leave lit- 
 tle room for the writing of lectures. He taught 
 Anatomy, Intellectual Philosophy, Moral Philoso- 
 phy, Natural Theology, Butler's Analogy, and such 
 Doctrinal Theology as was involved in Vincent's 
 Questions on the Catechism. Up to the year 
 1855 he taught also Rhetoric. The correction of 
 compositions and the criticism of declamations 
 were a part of his duties. If we add to this long 
 catalogue the preaching at least once every Sab- 
 bath, there can be little doubt that no New Eng- 
 land college president was doing the same variety 
 and breadth of work. For distinction and emi- 
 nence among his contemporaries, for a visible^ per- 
 manent record of his great intellectual and liter- 
 ary power, one may be tempted to regret this. 
 "When one recalls the clear flowing words of the 
 lectures on the "Evidences," and is uplifted by the 
 sweep of the thought, or perceives the admirable 
 and subtle analysis of the lectures on "Moral 
 Science," one cannot repress a feeling of disap- 
 pointment that so potent a master of English, and 
 so exact and penetrating a thinker, should not have 
 left more abundant records of his unique powers 
 as a writer on the lofty subjects with which his 
 thought was always conversant. This feeling is 
 deepened somewhat by the remembrance that his 
 article on "Mystery," which was published in the 
 "Journal of Science " in 1827, was marked by the 
 same high qualities that characterized his last 
 course of lectures on " The Scriptural Idea of Man," 
 
THE AUTHOR. 145 
 
 published iu 1883. He continued to teach until 
 1887, the year of his death. 
 
 This period of sixty years was filled with pure 
 and ennobling thoughts on the highest subjects, 
 and many of these thoughts are written only in 
 the minds and memories of his pupils. Reflection 
 leads to the conclusion that, by making his para- 
 mount duties those of the class-room, he contrib- 
 uted more effectually to cleanse and ennoble the 
 thought of his generation than if he had sought for 
 influence chiefly or largely as a writer. It was 
 nit an auspicious fate that put the teaching of so 
 many subjects and the upbuilding of the college 
 all on one man. What a college owes first and 
 always to its pupils is the inspiration of good 
 teaching, the example of manly, courteous, broad 
 intellectual activity in the class-room. This Dr. 
 Hopkins always gave. In the days of his darkest 
 fears for the college (and there were many dark 
 days) the steady patience and kindliness and inci- 
 siveness of his teaching never revealed in the least 
 the anxieties that beset him. It would have been 
 easy enough for some men to say, '* I cannot carry 
 this heavy burden of teaching ; I must have time 
 for reading and writing," and there would have 
 been reason in the appeal. But regarding his life 
 as consecrated to the college, and conscious that 
 nothing could ever stimulate and mould the young 
 men gathered in the college like the personal in- 
 fluence of conscientious teachers, he gave to the 
 Senior class his efficient guidance from the begin- 
 
146 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ning of the year to the end. It was in one sense 
 the Christian, self-denying course, but it was also 
 the wisest course. He might have been recognized 
 in England and Germany and France as a discov- 
 erer of truth and an illustrious writer. He chose 
 to be remembered by his pupils as the humble 
 teacher who held their hand in their early halt- 
 ing and uncertain steps. The seed that he sowed 
 was germinating through all the lives, especially in 
 those who became teachers and preachers of right- 
 eousness. The loyalty of the many alumni to the 
 college became something both higher and deeper 
 than it could have been had it rested simply on 
 pride in distinguished achievements. It was en- 
 kindled by a personal relation ; its foundation was 
 gratitude for intellectual and moral awakening; 
 for an opening of the mind to the universal in the 
 individual, and to the beautiful harmonies of the 
 universe. Wherever the graduates of the college 
 went, they carried something of his breadth with 
 them. When one considers the location of the col- 
 lege, its great remoteness during most of his pres- 
 idency from the world's activities, the centralizing 
 tendency that swept the best prepared young men 
 into the larger colleges from the centres of culture, 
 one must admit something unique in the results of 
 his training. The college might be called provin- 
 cial. Its equipments were meagre. For a consid- 
 erable period of his hardest labors notes of provin- 
 cialism were perceptible among the diverse college 
 utterances. Some of the students from the cities 
 
THE AUTHOR. 147 
 
 remarked these notes. For all that, when the Wil- 
 liams graduate went out into the world, whether 
 he came originally from a retired farm or from a 
 city home, he went with a good understanding of 
 himself, wdth a clear idea of his relations to the 
 world, and with a much broader conception of the 
 universe and its harmonious adjustments than 
 characterized the graduates of some larger colleges. 
 He may have known less Latin, less Greek, less 
 history, and less literature, hut he knew quite as 
 much about man in his essential, fallen, but di- 
 vine manhood; about the laws of his being and 
 their relations to one another; about the universal 
 principles of God's natural and moral government. 
 It w^as the peculiarity of this teacher that he gave 
 this stamp of universal relations in conditions 
 largely provincial, and thus struck the keynote for 
 many noble careers. For, whatever was provin- 
 cial in any feature of our college life when I was a 
 student at Williams, there was nothing provincial 
 about Dr. Hopkins. Wherever he went, he was and 
 he looked a citizen of the world, one might rather 
 say a king of men, and this was preeminently true 
 in the class-room. Whether he spoke, or prayed, 
 or was silent, the observer knew that that massive 
 head carried wisdom; that those eyes had looked 
 into secrets of the widest range and application. 
 This universal element in his teaching and his char- 
 acter is nowhere more evident than in the lectures 
 on "Moral Science," which were revised between 
 1858 and 1861. A good illustration of this ele- 
 
148 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ment is found in tlie discussion of glory at the 
 close of tlie fifth lecture : — 
 
 "Our constitution does not deceive us. Its ten- 
 dencies need guidance, not eradication. This part 
 of it is a striking indication of the greatness of our 
 nature and of its capacity of being put into rela- 
 tion with vast numbers and great interests." "Re- 
 garding ourselves not merely as citizens of this 
 world, but of the universe, and knowing that God 
 is over all, and that there is somewhere a vast 
 assembly of the good to whom our conduct either 
 now is or shall be known, we may give to this prin- 
 ciple of action free scope ! " ^ 
 
 So in discussing the law of limitation which has 
 so much and such apt efficiency in his system, he 
 strikes again and again the broad universal note, 
 if I may say so. "The law applies universally so 
 long as there is a good, that is, conditional for one 
 above it, — so long as there is an end, there is also 
 a means. But when we reach the highest and su- 
 preme good, as that is conditional for nothing be- 
 yond itself, there can then be no excess. That is 
 infinite ! it is the ocean without a bottom or a 
 shore." Aristotle makes virtue and good consist in 
 proportion, in the golden mean of activity for our 
 appetites and desires. Dr. Hopkins says directly 
 after the above passage, " We may now see how far 
 Aristotle was right. His system had a basis, and 
 not a narrow one. Much of our good is the result 
 of proportion and limitation, and of finding the 
 ^ Moral Science, Lecture V. p. 128. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 149 
 
 golden mean. He was right as far as he went, but 
 he needed the law of limitation, and he did not see 
 the ocean." ^ 
 
 The value of a system of intellectual philosophy 
 may be said to be tested by the clearness and force 
 with which the contents of consciousness are re- 
 vealed and discussed. Moral systems are differ- 
 entiated by the treatment of conscience and the 
 foundation of obligation. In these lectures as re- 
 vised and published in 1863, having been delivered 
 before the Lowell Institute the previous season, 
 there is clearly presented the doctrine that "obli- 
 gation" to choose the higher good is intuitive and 
 ultimate, and that the "right " itself is not an intui- 
 tive idea, which found its fuller treatment later in 
 "The Law of Love." This doctrine, which, if not 
 original with Dr. Hopkins, was at least discovered 
 by him, and which for him set the moral into new 
 and more perfect harmony with the other depart- 
 ments of man's nature, was really the outgrowth of 
 that quality in his mind which sought unity in di- 
 versity, and was never content until it apprehended 
 the universal. This quality gives a large part of 
 the charm to his writing, and it is evident enough 
 that the claims of Christianity to our acceptance 
 rested for him in part on the harmony between na- 
 ture and revelation (considering man here as a part 
 of nature), and found here a basis which seemed in- 
 creasingly solid. It will be better to discuss later 
 the peculiar doctrines in morals which gave such 
 
 1 Moral Science, Lecture III. p. 73. 
 
150 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 comfort to his own mind, and have found increasing 
 favor with earnest thinkers of our country of late 
 years. There are certain passages in the lecture 
 relating to "Personality and Conscience" that il- 
 lustrate both the beauty and the scope of his 
 thought and the exactness with which he pursued 
 every thought and analogy to its innermost secret. 
 The poetic power of the following words serves to 
 introduce in a general way the importance of the 
 analysis of conscience: "There is no beauty of a 
 ship with every sail set, speeding its way over the 
 subject element to its haven, that can be compared 
 with that of the organized power of man acting in 
 harmony, — those ruling that ought to rule, and 
 those serving that ought to serve, and all conspir- 
 ing to their destined end ! nor is any storm in nature 
 so sublime as the conflicts that may arise, when 
 temptation and opposition come between a true- 
 hearted man and the attainment of his end." Dr. 
 Hopkins does not here identify conscience with the 
 entire moral nature, but makes its action a function 
 of the moral reason. The whole moral nature con- 
 sists " of those powers whose activity gives the moral 
 quality, and also of those which judge of the moral 
 quality, and are affected by it, and it would con- 
 duce to perspicuity if the term conscience could be 
 confined to the latter."^ The relation of the will 
 to conscience makes the advantage of this distinc- 
 tion clear at once. The will is certainly essential 
 to a moral act. There can be no moral act with- 
 
 1 Moral Science. Lecture YII. p. 172. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 151 
 
 out an exercise of choice and of free choice. The 
 will is then a very essential part of the moral na- 
 ture, but the conscience affirms obligation to choose, 
 anil issues an order to the will to choose and to act 
 under that choice. The will does not always obey. 
 If the conscience was coincident with the entire 
 moral nature, how could the will disobey? 
 
 It is in this lecture that Dr. Hopkins reaches 
 what is highest in man and finds his true good. 
 " We now reach a form of activity that is a con- 
 dition for nothing within the system above itself, 
 which has in itself and in its results not only a 
 good, but the good and the supreme good for man, 
 and which can therefore be subject to no law of 
 limitation." "What, then, is the highest form of 
 activity of which we are capable ? By a fair anal- 
 ysis this has been shown to be love. What are 
 the ajDpropriate objects of love? They are God 
 and our neighbors. What is the highest possible 
 degree of this love ? It is the love of God with all 
 the heart and of our neighbor as ourselves. 
 
 "Here then do we have, after as full and fair an 
 examination as I could give it, the human constitu- 
 tion itself uttering the substance of that law which 
 was spoken in thunder four thousand years ago, 
 and uttering, because it is impossible to find those 
 more appropriate, the very words of Him who spoke 
 as never man spoke, when He gave a summary of 
 that law. Wonderful is it that his words should 
 be the exact formula for the expression of the high- 
 est possible activity of the highest powers. 
 
152 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 ''Thus as in a former lecture we found that the 
 teachings inwrought into the whole framework of 
 nature were in perfect harmony with the constitu- 
 tion of man, so do we now find that the teachings 
 of that constitution are themselves in perfect har- 
 mony with those of the revealed word of God. So 
 it is that 'deep calleth unto deep.' So is man 
 the connecting link between that which is lowest 
 and that which is highest."^ 
 
 It is, of course, open to some to say that the feel- 
 ing for universal relations which exists in every 
 mind had been developed by this great teacher 
 into a passion, and that such a passage as the above 
 only shows how self -deluded an intellect once calm 
 and cool may become. There will be no danger 
 that any student who came under the influence 
 of Mark Hopkins as a teacher will ever believe 
 that the cautious, steady, penetrative, luminous in- 
 telligence with which he examined every subject 
 ever became tainted with delusion, or charged with 
 bias. The accusation would come with strange im- 
 propriety from those for whom the materialistic 
 doctrine of evolution derives its main support from 
 universal relations. As a matter of fact, one of 
 the most eminent advocates of evolution (but not 
 of materialistic evolution) in this covmtry, and one 
 of Dr. Hopkins's pupils, has admitted that Dr. 
 Hopkins's method of looking at nature and man 
 had been of immense service to him in coming to 
 his conclusions as a man of science. 
 
 1 Moral Science, Lecture VII. pp. 179, 180. 
 
TUE AUTHOR. 153 
 
 But with all Dr. Hopkins's love for universal 
 relations, with that master pov/er which he evinced 
 in treating every subject of reaching out into vast 
 spaces and exhibiting the grand affinities of the 
 humblest thing, he drew back from evolution. 
 His philosophy was full of gradations. It w^as a 
 philosophy of gradations. It connected the lowest 
 atom with divine intelligence. Bird and beast, 
 star and sun, flower and angel, were parts, orderly 
 parts, and graduated parts for him as for Plato of 
 that system wdiich included man and began and 
 ended in God. But differentiations no less, per- 
 haps even more, than affinities were valid for his 
 mind. It was as true for him that moral nature 
 is the his^hest thino^ in the univ^erse as that man is 
 subject to gravitation. "The beauty of the ship 
 with every sail set" speeding to its goal across 
 tempestuous seas was incomparably inferior to the 
 march of the martyr to the stake. 
 
 In the first of the lectures of "The Scriptural 
 Idea of Man," published in 1883, which had been 
 delivered before theological students at New Haven, 
 Boston University, Chicago, Oberlin, and Prince- 
 ton, the statement that "God created" brings up 
 this question of evolution. Dr. Hopkins does not 
 regard the term "evolution " as applicable simply to 
 a process, but would make it cover causation, the 
 cause of the evolutionist being an unconscious im- 
 personal force. It is thus set directly against the 
 Scriptural account of the origin of man. His rea- 
 soning is cogent and conclusive against that atheis- 
 
154 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 tic conception, but the possible truth in evolution 
 as the mode of God's creation and as thus pre- 
 sented, certainly involving nothing more atheistic 
 than the law of gravitation, is not considered. 
 This many Christian theologians accept, recogniz- 
 ing points of transition, large additions to matter 
 and organized life in its different states by a per- 
 sonal God. 
 
 It seemed to Dr. Hopkins as to Agassiz that 
 there was an inevitable tendency in Darwin's doc- 
 trine, w^hen it was first put forward, to reduce mind 
 to matter, will to a blind nisiis, freedom to neces- 
 sity, and to obliterate the pervasive and sublime 
 manifestations of intelligence in nature. The 
 writer well remembers how one of Darwin's illus- 
 trations of the possible transformations of animal 
 forms w^as read from the desk in the chapel one 
 Sunday morning by the president, then in the 
 manliest majesty of age, soon after the book on 
 the "Origin of Species" was published, and what 
 impatience and scorn w^ere expressed for the illus- 
 tration. The statement w^as made that it was too 
 early to pronounce positively on a theory appar- 
 ently supported by a vast bod}^ of facts. But it 
 was plain enough that the far-reaching mind of the 
 preacher discovered at once the immense impetus 
 that would be given to materialism and atheism by 
 the adoption of Darwin's views. They would tend 
 to the elimination of the evidences of design from 
 the universe, which w^as afterward the effect on 
 Darwin himself, and which has been a marked re- 
 sult of the wide acceptance of the theory. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 155 
 
 " The field which we took to be thickly sown with 
 design seems under the light o£ Darwinism to yield 
 only a crop of accidents." ^ Because, in part, of his 
 keen foresight of the natural results of Darwin's 
 teachings, he continued to emphasize differences to 
 the end of his life. I once remarked to him that 
 Professor Gray had asserted that it was impossible 
 to make a clear line of demarcation between the 
 animal and the vegetable kingdoms. His reply 
 revealed the absolutely essential importance for 
 his mind of maintaining fundamental differences. 
 "I do not doubt there is a distinction, though it 
 may not be discovered." The distinction is at 
 least practical, if not scientific, and will probably 
 never be lost from common language. For his 
 mind this difference was the result of additions 
 from a power above, and to reduce all these addi- 
 tions to imperceptible growth from within seemed 
 to deny that there was any uplifting from without. 
 
 Evolution meant at first and equally for him at 
 last the obliteration of design, the elimination of 
 a personal God. He did not call a believer in de- 
 velopment as to the method of God's creation an 
 evolutionist. To evolution as he defined it he was 
 inflexibly hostile. The gradations of his philoso- 
 phy had causes and ends. Because they were 
 gradations, because they denoted differences, be- 
 cause they marked additions for ends and expressed 
 the intentions of a superintending mind, he would 
 not abide their reduction to nothingness, or the 
 
 1 Professor Asa Gray, Natural Science and Religion, p. 85. 
 
156 MABK HOPKIXS. 
 
 reduction of tlieir causes to a blind nisus or an 
 unknowable force. 
 
 He did not, as lias been seen, object to tbe ree- 
 osfnition of affinities between man and the lower 
 animals, or indeed to affinities between man and 
 tlie clod on wliicb lie walks. Indeed, he always 
 empbasized those affinities. He would have been 
 perfectly willing to adopt the words of Faust in 
 regard to nature, — 
 
 " Before me thou dost lead her living tribes, 
 And dost in silent grove in air and stream ^ 
 
 Teach me to know my kindred." 
 
 "Let the naturalist," he says, in "The Scriptural 
 Idea of Man," "bring man into as close affinity 
 with nature and with animals as he pleases ! the 
 closer the better, if it be but distinctly seen that 
 he is capable of dominion and priesthood. Give 
 us these, or the possibility of these, in man, and 
 we ask for no wider ground of separation between 
 man and the brutes I for of dominion, in the proper 
 sense of that word, dominion over itself, over na- 
 ture, or over its fellows, no brute can know any- 
 thing, nor can it laiow anything of an intelligent 
 mediation between nature and God."^ 
 
 Because of the immense sweep of this difference, 
 Dr. Hopkins did not wholly approve the emphasis 
 with which the Duke of Argyle in the series of pa- 
 pers on the "Unity of Nature " insisted on classify- 
 ing man with nature. For him the freedom of 
 choice of his own end lifted man into the realm of 
 
 ^ Scriptural Idea of Man, p. 103. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 157 
 
 the supernatuial, and he preferred to chissify him 
 by his highest affinities rather than by his lowest. 
 
 It may be said that Dr. Hopkins was not quite 
 patient enough with the newer theory of man's 
 origin, and it is true that, in "The Scriptural Idea 
 of Man," more than, once he speaks of the view of 
 Darwin as representing man as having ascended 
 from the ape. 
 
 On page 8 he says, "They who hold that man 
 did thus come up, also hold that the first man was 
 but slightly above the ape." Again, "That a 
 being creeping up by insensible degrees from ape- 
 hood should ever have reached, and esjiecially at 
 that early period, the conception of himself as in 
 the image of such a God, and as rightfully endow^ed 
 with such a dominion, is impossible." ^ 
 
 The Darw^inists have objected to that form of 
 stating their theory. For instance, Professor Gray, 
 of Cambridge, who was a devout theist, but a 
 strong believer in the-law^s of Darwin, says in the 
 lectures on "Natural Science and Keligion," pub- 
 lished in 1880, "Sober evolutionists do not sup- 
 pose that man has descended from monkeys. The 
 stream must have branched too early for that." 
 
 But it may be said that if the stream did branch 
 behind or below the apes, no great exception can 
 be taken if the opponent to evolution speaks of a 
 connection for man with an animal higher than the 
 one from which the bifurcation begnin. Darwin- 
 ism would seem to claim at least that the ape is 
 
 1 Scriptural Idea of Man, Lecture I. p. 8. 
 
158 MA BE HOPKINS. 
 
 higher. It does not seem that this reference is 
 unfair. 
 
 Again, it may be said that Dr. Hopkins does net 
 fairly admit the teachings of observed facts with 
 respect to variation. He says: "It is generally 
 supposed that the doctrine of Parwin on the origin 
 of species gives support to the theory of evolution 
 — it tends in that direction, and may do it on two 
 conditions. The first is, that there be produced at 
 least one well-established instance of the origin of 
 one species from another. That has not been done. 
 Varieties within a species, as of pigeons, there are 
 without limit; but there is no instance of the 
 change of a pigeon into an eagle, or of any tendency 
 in that direction." ^ Probably all Darwinists, even 
 those who insist on the reality of spiritual forces 
 and deny that the methods which they bring for- 
 ward to account for biological changes are ade- 
 quate to produce the higher faculties of man, would 
 object to Dr. Hopkins's way of stating the signifi- 
 cance of the facts of variation. They would not 
 admit that the fact (if it be a fact) that the pigeon 
 has not varied towards an eagle goes far towards 
 settling the question. They have perhaps not 
 claimed that special variation. But such writers 
 as Wallace, to whose acute mind the variations in 
 nature had suggested the main features of Dar- 
 win's laws before they were published by Darwin, 
 would and do claim that "the greyhound and the 
 spaniel were variations from the same animal pro- 
 
 1 Scriptural Idea of Man, Lecture I. p. 15. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 159 
 
 duced by man's selection." They do claim wide 
 and abundant variations as still manifest in nature, 
 and that the evidence for man's descent from some 
 ancestral form common to him and the anthropoid 
 apes is overwhelming and conclusive. It did not 
 appear so to Dr. Hopkins, and he had given the 
 matter careful consideration. Whatever may be 
 the final and decisive verdict, we can have no doubt 
 that those distinctions which he insisted upon as 
 dividing man from all beneath him are shown to 
 be genuine distinctions; features which have no- 
 thing answering to them in the lower animals, that 
 self -consciousness, the power to form abstract ideas, 
 the deliberate choice of an end, and tha moral na- 
 ture in man are not the outgrowth of any rudi- 
 ments found in the animals. That a pure scientist, 
 uninfluenced by theological bias, may come to the 
 fullest acceptance of the theory of natural selection 
 and still maintain that the origin of the noblest 
 features of man's nature is spiritual and not mate- 
 rial is proven by the positions taken by Dr. Wal- 
 lace. His last utterance assures us that in his 
 deliberate judgment, "the Darwinian theory, even 
 where carried out to its extreme logical conclusion, 
 not only does not oppose, but lends a decided sup- 
 port to the spiritual nature of man."^ 
 
 It is important to note, in concluding the discus- 
 sion on Dr. Hopkins's attitude in respect to this 
 subject, that his method was wholly in sympathy 
 with that of the evolutionist. He looked for uni- 
 
 1 Darwinism^ p. 479. 
 
160 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 versal relations, and also for differentiations, and 
 all his teaching was an exposition of progressive 
 order in nature and in man. Uniformities of pro- 
 cess and of law pervade the universe because it is a 
 universe, the work of one author. While drawing 
 back with earnestness from atheistic tendencies, 
 and possibly treating the argimients of some writ- 
 ers with small consideration because of these ten- 
 dencies, his teachings as a whole contributed to the 
 acceptance by Christian thinkers of the conceptions 
 upon which evolution is based, and which it con- 
 firms. His disagreement with the theistic evolu- 
 tionist w^as mostly a disagreement in definitions. 
 It is perhaps just to say that the positions taken on 
 this subject in "The Scriptural Idea of Man" do 
 not seem, to correspond fully to the general method 
 and scope of his philosophy. 
 
 "The Law of Love and Love as a Law" was 
 published in 1869. In it is found the clearest and 
 best statement of the views in morals to which Dr. 
 Hopkins came after years of study. These views, 
 it is worth while to note again, were not derived 
 from any previous philosopher, but were his own 
 solution of the deepest problems in moral phi- 
 losophy. Similar views had been held by other 
 thinkers. Amons: the earlier writers who had in a 
 measure anticipated the system of Dr. Hopkins 
 were Shaftesbury and Hutcheson. Hutcheson's 
 views in morals, which Dr. McCosh regards as 
 largely derived from Shaftesbury, have striking re- 
 semblances to those of Dr. Hoj)kins. He does not 
 
THE AUTHOR. 161 
 
 formally work out the doctrine of ends, but moral 
 excellence consists in "benevolence," and the love 
 " of moral excellence and love to the mind where it 
 resides with the consequent acts of esteem, venera- 
 tion, trust, and resignation, are the essence of true 
 piety toward God. We never speak of benevo- 
 lence toward God, as that word carries with it 
 some supposal of indigence or want of some good 
 in the object. And yet as we have benevolence 
 toward a friend when he may need our assistance, 
 so the same emotion of soul or the same disposi- 
 tion toward him shall remain when he is raised to 
 the best state we can wish : and it then exerts itself 
 in congratulation, or rejoicing in his happiness. In 
 this manner may our souls be aifected toward the 
 Deity without any supposition of his indigence by 
 the highest joy and complacence in his absolute 
 happiness."^ From all this it is very plain that 
 Hutch eson would wholly agree with Dr. Hopkins 
 that we should love God, not "because it is right," 
 but "because He is wholly worthy of love." 
 
 A passage like the following contains implicitly 
 Dr. Hopkins's doctrine of "the conditioning and 
 the conditioned," and can be almost literally paral- 
 leled by sentences from "The Law of Love" and 
 " The Scriptural Idea of Man : " " The selfish affec- 
 tions are then only disapproved when we imagine 
 them beyond that innocent proportion, so as to 
 exclude or overpower the amiable affections, and 
 engross the mind whoUy to the purposes of selfish- 
 
 1 Hutcheson's System of Moral Philosophy, vol. i. p. 70. 
 
162 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ness, or even to obstruct the proper degree of the 
 generous affections in the station and circiunstances 
 of the agent." ^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the close resemblances in these 
 systems, it does not appear that Dr. Hopkins had 
 made a study of Hutcheson. The fact that he does 
 not mention him among the authors whose theories 
 on the foundation of "obligation" he discusses in 
 the introduction to "The Law of Love" plainly 
 precludes his acquaintance with him. His fuller 
 analysis and development of views presented by 
 one who has been called "the founder of the Scot- 
 tish philosophy" is extremely interesting; it is all 
 the more so, because it is wholly independent of 
 the earlier author. Several distingTiished writers 
 contemporary with Dr. Hopkins published trea- 
 tises that present fundamental conceptions quite 
 the same, as, for instance, Janet in France, and 
 Martineau in England. The doctrine of ends is 
 as old as Aristotle. Dr. Hopkins was primarily 
 a thinker and not a reader, and the value of his 
 solution is greatly enhanced by the fact that the 
 steps which led to it were, so far as he was con- 
 cerned, along a path absolutely new. That to reach 
 his final conclusions he gave up the doctrine of 
 right as ultimate, which he had long held, attests 
 the candor and earnestness of his thinking. 
 
 Soon after the publication of the book, a review 
 of it appeared in the "New York Observer" from 
 the pen of the Rev. Dr. McCosh. of Princeton, 
 
 1 Hritcheson's System of Moral Philosojjhy, vol. i. p. 65. 
 
THE AUTHOR. 163 
 
 New Jersey. It was courteous, but plainly charged 
 the doctrine of the author with utilitarianism or at 
 least with eudaemonism.^ The article was courte- 
 ous, but probably all of Dr. Hopkins's pupils felt 
 that the introductory remark that the "reading of 
 Dr. Hopkins like that of Edwards seems confined, 
 and confined to rather commonplace works," was 
 somewhat one side of the points at issue. There 
 was a feeling, too, that Dr. McCosh could not well 
 appreciate the burdens which Dr. Hopkins had had 
 to carry in the management of the isolated college, 
 burdens that were pressing upon him at that time 
 with peculiar weight, and that there was a note of 
 insular pride in the remark quoted above not quite 
 worthy of the high discussion. However that may 
 be. Dr. Hoj^kins's reply to this remark was in the 
 best of taste, and was at the same time quite pun- 
 gent. He says: "While I acknowledge fully the 
 want of reading referred to by Dr. McCosh and 
 regret it, I may be permitted to say that on this 
 subject he has presented no point that I had not 
 seen, and has raised no objection that I had not 
 considered." 
 
 The main point at issue between these two emi- 
 nent thinkers was the foundation of the obligation 
 
 1 A criticism by Dr. McCosh on Huteheson's system may be 
 ■well quoted here as showing the same tendency in his thought 
 as in that of Dr. Hopkins. Dr. McCosh says : " Huteheson's 
 theory of virtue thus comes to be an exalted kind of eudajmon- 
 ism, with God giving us a moral sense to approve of the promo- 
 tion of happiness without our discovering the consequences of 
 actions." The Scottish Fhilosophy, p. 80. 
 
164 MAEE HOPKINS. 
 
 to do right felt by every thoughtful mind. With 
 Dr. McCosh, in the search for a foundation there 
 could really be no answer to the question, "Why 
 ought I to love my fellow-men ? Why ought I to 
 love God and to love Him more than I love even 
 my fellow-men? To ?/s, whatever there may be to 
 higher intelligence, there can be no answer but one, 
 and that is, that I ought to do so. And if any one 
 puts the other question, 'How do I come to know 
 this ? ' there is but one answer, and this is that 
 it is self evident." In other words, "an action is 
 right because it is right, and that is the end of 
 it." 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was not contented with that view. 
 He had long held it, and pleasantly says to his for- 
 mer j)upils in his introduction to the "Lectures on 
 Moral Science:" "When the lectures were first 
 written, the text-book here and generally in our 
 colleges was Paley; not agreeing with him, and 
 failing to carry out fully the doctrine of ends, I 
 adopted that of an ultimate right as taught by 
 Kant and Coleridge, making that the end. If, 
 therefore, any of you still hold that view, as doubt- 
 less many do, it is not for me to say that you 
 have not good authority for it, or to complain if 
 you object to that now taken." 
 
 Working out his doctrine of the "conditioning 
 and conditioned" under the principle that all ra- 
 tional action is for an end, he came to the position 
 that "a reason can always be given why an action 
 is right, and that vrithout a sensibility the quality 
 
THE AUTHOR. 165 
 
 of right in an action regarded as moral could not 
 exist." "In seeking the foundation of obligation, 
 I suppose moral beings to exist. As having intelli- 
 gence and sensibility, I suppose them capable of 
 apprehending ends good in themselves, and an end 
 thus good that is ultimate and supreme. In the 
 apprehension of such an end, I suppose the moral 
 reason must affirm obligation to choose it, and that 
 all acts that will, of their own nature, lead to the 
 attainment of that end are right." ^ 
 
 Dr. McCosh took exception to Dr. Hopkins's 
 position that because "a good" or "the good" re- 
 sults from right action, or, in other words, because 
 all action arising under the choice of an ultimate 
 and supreme end would issue in the highest good 
 to the individual choosing and to all others, that 
 therefore the good is the highest ultimate end. 
 There was to him a savor of low origin to a good 
 that would in our language express both enjoy- 
 ment and blessedness. Nor will he judge Dr. Hop- 
 kins free from a taint of "utilitarianism," though 
 Dr. Hopkins affirms that he does not mean our own 
 good exclusively, but "that of all conscious be- 
 ings." Dr. Hopkins repels the significance of that 
 charge adroitly. For him there is nothing objec- 
 tionable in the thing utilitarianism, "unless it op- 
 poses self to love and happiness to duty." He 
 does not mind being called a utilitarian, if only he 
 is clearly understood to require disinterested love, 
 supremely that of God and the love of the neigh- 
 
 ^ Law of Love and Love as a Law, first edition, p. 26. 
 
166 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 bor as ourselves ; provided also it is seen that he 
 holds it "absurd to suppose that anything could 
 excuse a man from doing what he ought to do." 
 Having, then, shown that in his view of love and 
 also of duty there is no "objectionable" utilita- 
 rianism, he proceeds to show that his system in 
 which these two, love and duty, are married, is 
 also free from the taint. He insists, however, on 
 returning to the main question, which is not about 
 the categorical imperative: "Not at all about un- 
 compromising obedience or duty, when that is made 
 known, but whether the very idea of duty is pos- 
 sible except through that of a good from the sensi- 
 bility and so of a possible love." He laments the 
 lack in our language of a word that shall compass 
 the whole range of feeling, but will not budge one 
 iota from his position that "sensibility is the con- 
 dition precedent of all moral ideas." He seizes 
 Dr. McCosh's illustration that seems intended to 
 prove that there may be virtue without sensibility, 
 and finds it a rediictio ad absurdiim. Nor can 
 any one deny that his treatment of the illustration 
 is perfectly fair and just. Dr. Hopkins says, re- 
 ferring to Dr. McCosh and quoting his very words, 
 "He puts the case that God creates an angelic 
 being with high intellectual endowments, but with- 
 out sensibility, and then affirms and founds a prin- 
 ciple on it, that such a being would be under obli- 
 gation to be grateful to God, while yet gratitude 
 is a form of the sensibility, and obligation itself 
 cannot be conceived of without it." 
 
THE AUTHOR. 167 
 
 Dr. McCosli seems to see the point on " sensibil- 
 ity " and "gratitude," for in his next paper his 
 "intelligent being "is endowed at the outset by 
 God with "lofty reason, pure fancy, and rich emo- 
 tions." This intelligent moral being should cherish 
 "gratitude and love towards his benefactor." 
 
 After Dr. Hopkins has thus defended his own 
 theory, he proceeds to attack that of Dr. McCosh, 
 and to assert that the system based on an ultimate 
 right is not consistent with the Scriptures. Taking 
 the law of love, he affirms that "the love is to be a 
 simple primitive act in view of the object as worthy 
 of love." Dr. McCosh denies this, and asserts: 
 " We regard God as having a claim upon our love, 
 because it is right and men see it to be so at once." 
 "No," says Dr. Hopkins, "we do not love Him be- 
 cause it is right, but because He is worthy of our 
 love." "If w^e love God not for his own sake 
 but for the sake of the right, we put right above 
 God." Then growing warm in his attack he adds: 
 "I have seen quite enough of this abstract, hard, 
 godless, loveless love of right and virtue, instead 
 of the love of God and of men." "Wherever this 
 system has been fully received, it has tended to 
 fanaticism." 
 
 Hereupon he makes an assertion that Dr. Mc- 
 Cosh seems in his reply to disprove. In his abso- 
 lute faith in the reasonableness of his doctrine and 
 its harmon}^ with the Scriptures he says: "The 
 Scriptures nowhere command me to do right because 
 it is right." "Do they not ?" says Dr. McCosh. 
 
168 MARK HOFKIXS. 
 
 *'Does not Paul say, 'Children, obey your parents 
 in the Lord, for this is right,' just, due?" But 
 perhaps the appearance here is only an appear- 
 ance. Dr. Hopkins replies : "The passage quoted 
 by Dr. McCosh is the only one in the Bible that 
 seems to say we are 'to do right because it is 
 right, ' but that does not say it, and scarcely seems 
 to. If it said that, no further question could be 
 asked. The theory of morals would be settled. 
 What it does say is, that children should obey 
 their parents because it is right, and that leaves 
 the question, why is it right to obey parents? where 
 it was before." Dr. McCosh had made the words 
 "just," "due " the equivalent of "right " in the text 
 quoted. Was it quite fair to intimate that "just " 
 and "due" had the same meaning as "right" in 
 the discussion? If so, it would seem that every 
 other apostolic adjective expressing what is praise- 
 worthy is equally tantamount to "right." "Hon- 
 est," "lovely," "pure," of " good report, " are these 
 too "right"? If so, on Dr. McCosh's principles 
 we can give no analysis of these virtues, what is 
 right is right, what is honest is honest, and "that 
 is the end of it." 
 
 Dr. Hopkins appeals to the whole tenor of the 
 Scriptures. "Our Saviour opened the Sermon on 
 the Mount and every beatitude by speaking of 
 blessedness." On the whole, the appeal to the 
 Scripture seems to support Dr. Hopkins, but Dr. 
 McCosh, in his final allusion to this point, insists 
 that "the word of God in its spirit and letter op- 
 
THE AUTHOR. 169 
 
 poses that theory which makes iiiairs highest end 
 to be enjoyment." Did Dr. Hopkins ever say that 
 man's highest end is enjoyment? Is it a fair in- 
 ference from any of his statements, even in the 
 first edition of the book (in the revised edition such 
 an inference is most carefully warded off), that the 
 end, the highest end, of man is sensitive enjoyment? 
 Does not the following passage, candidly consid- 
 ered, render such an inference impossible? "I will 
 only add that where moral order reigns, good from 
 all forms of sensibility is distributed according to 
 character; that though a man may be called to 
 oppose for a time his moral convictions to all that 
 he can suffer through natural sensibility, yet that 
 this cannot be permanent under a righteous moral 
 government ; and that the good of each is so a part 
 of the whole that obligation on the part of any in- 
 dividual to sacrifice his own highest good for the 
 sake of the whole is not only impossible, but, as 
 impairing the very ground on which obligation is 
 affirmed, is absurd."^ 
 
 How can a man "oppose for a time his moral 
 convictions to all that he can suffer through natural 
 sensibility," if his highest end is sensitive enjoy- 
 ment? 
 
 At the close of Dr. McCosh's second paper there 
 are very grave intimations of heterodoxy in regard 
 to the doctrines of eschatology as flowing from the 
 theory which he is combating. They are intima- 
 tions only, as " it would weary the readers of a pop- 
 
 ^ La>v of Love and Love as a Laiv, first edition, p. 121. 
 
170 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 ular newspaper" to have these consequences fully 
 unfolded. But inasmuch as the requirement of un- 
 hesitating obedience, tha moment obligation is af- 
 firmed, is insisted upon by Dr. Hopkins, and as 
 "justice that has its basis in love justifies itself to 
 itself even in becoming indignation and wrath," 
 it is somewhat difficult to see how these departures 
 from orthodoxy are a necessary outgrowth of the 
 theory. While Dr. Hopkins would not shrink from 
 discussing consequences, if anything were to be 
 gained by such discussion, he prefers once more to 
 call his opponent back to the real point. "Let the 
 question be decided on its merits, that is the only 
 fair way ; and to aid our readers in doing that has 
 been my endeavor in the preceding discussion." 
 
 In Dr. McCosh's final summing up he makes six 
 points of difference between himself and Dr. Hop- 
 kins. The first refers to the relation of an end to 
 the sensibility. Dr. Hopkins had said that "if 
 we suppose the sensibility excluded, the conception 
 of an end is impossible." This Dr. McCosh de- 
 nies, but admits that "holy enjoyment" may be a 
 supreme end. As Dr. Hopkins notes, there can be 
 but one supreme end, and if Dr. McCosh allows 
 that "holy enjoyment" may be a supreme end, his 
 antagonism to Dr. Hopkins on the first point is 
 essentially modified. 
 
 The second divergence relates to the mode of set- 
 tling the question. Dr. McCosh says that it must 
 be settled "by an inquiry into the mental and 
 moral nature," and thinks Dr. Hopkins does not 
 
THE AUTHOR. Ill 
 
 admit this, and leaves out the higher nature, the 
 moral reason, in attempting to solve the problem of 
 ethics. But he returns to the first point, and ex- 
 presses new amazement at Dr. Hopkins's statement 
 that "apart from sensibility the conception of an 
 end is impossible." 
 
 The second point is not essentially different from 
 the first. 
 
 The third point of disagreement is that Dr. Hop- 
 kins gives a "confused place " to the moral reason. 
 Dr. McCosh's position "makes the sense of duty 
 to enter into the virtuous act and become part of 
 the end." Dr. Hopkins makes the sense of duty 
 " enter into the act to give it quality, but not as a 
 part of the end." Dr. Hopkins's claim that "the 
 end must be known before the sense of duty can 
 be originated" may give the moral reason a "eon- 
 fused place" for one who believes in "ultimate 
 right," but the making of right a part of the end 
 as "the supreme end" will not seem less "con- 
 fused " to one who has really grasped the complete 
 harmony which follows the acceptance of "the su- 
 preme good of all" as the end of virtuous action. 
 It may turn out that the benevolence of God can 
 only be maintained under this theory. 
 
 The fourth difference relates to the quality of an 
 action as a ground of obligation to perform the ac- 
 tion. Do we perform a just action simply because 
 it is just, or is there underneath the obligation a 
 perception that the doing of justice will promote 
 always and everywhere the best good of all? It 
 
172 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 is the application to practical action of the main 
 point at issue. 
 
 Under the fifth point Dr. McCosh admits that 
 "we are bound as much as within us lies to pro- 
 mote the happiness of all beings capable of joy or 
 sorrow." But he says there is a moral element in 
 this "we are bound, ''^ and revolts at the idea of lov- 
 ing God "in the view of the capacity of God and 
 other beings for enjoyment." Dr. Hopkins replies 
 with great energy to this that "if God were as in- 
 capable of sensibility as a rock and so incapable of 
 enjoyment, it would be impossible for us to love 
 Him with the love of benevolence, the only love 
 commanded." 
 
 To the final point made by Dr. McCosh, which is 
 that the Scriptures are on his side. Dr. Hopkins 
 replies with great earnestness, as it is his final 
 word. Several of the sentences are worth quot- 
 ing: "In immediate connection, Dr. McCosh 
 speaks of sensitive pain and sensitive enjoyment, 
 as if they were the basis of my system. I trust I 
 have said nothing to justify this. I am no sensa- 
 tionalist, but a believer in the highest form of in- 
 tuitional and spiritual philosophy. I am no util- 
 itarian. I believe in a good that is good in itself 
 and to be sought for its own sake ! and in disinter- 
 ested love of beings who are capable of happiness, 
 quite as much, too, as if they were not. In my 
 two books I have examined the constitution of man 
 in its relation both to nature and the Bible. I 
 have found from that, that the law of the constitu- 
 
THE AUTHOR. 173 
 
 tion is the law of the Bible. That law — tJie law 
 of love — I accept and endeavor to enforce, simply 
 that. I build no half-way house. I bring in no- 
 thing 'surreptitiously.' I steal no element. I do 
 not subordinate virtue to happiness, but find a har- 
 mony between them. ... I simply find the moral 
 law, the one law for myself and for all others, im- 
 personal and impartial, and have as little to do with 
 this terrible enjoyment as is possible under a law 
 that requires me to promote it in its purest form 
 and in the highest degree." ^ 
 
 The debate excited great interest, and was in 
 every way worthy of its subject and of the dispu- 
 tants. It was upon the theory of virtue, between 
 two thinkers who had spent a great part of their 
 lives in the noblest efforts to train young men to 
 the acceptance of Christianity and to the exhibition 
 of Christian character. It was perhaps regarded 
 by the pupils of each as ended to the advantage of 
 their own teacher. The progress of truth is always 
 attended by controversies, and it is fortunate indeed 
 when, as in this case, each of the disputants can 
 recognize from the beginning to the end of the con- 
 flict the honorable motives and lofty purposes of 
 the other. The acceptance of the doctrine of ends 
 as here applied is probably becoming more general, 
 and the wonder may yet be that a doctrine so sim- 
 ple and so harmonious with the other facts of 
 man's nature should ever have been difficult of 
 
 ^ This discussion is published as an appendix to Dr Hopkins's 
 The Law of Love and Love as a Law, revised edition. 
 
174 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 acceptance for minds of philosophic power. The 
 tenacity with which the ablest minds cling to a po- 
 sition once assumed illustrates at once the strength 
 and the weakness of human nature. A funda- 
 mental opinion enters into all other opinions, and 
 gives color and coherence to the general think- 
 ing, and this coherence reinforces the fundamental 
 belief. 
 
 In the preface to the revised edition of " The Law 
 of Love and Love as a Law," published in 1881, 
 Dr. Hopkins speaks of the changes introduced 
 into the book, and assigns reasons for them. One 
 of these reasons rested upon a desire to bring the 
 book into greater harmony with "An Outline 
 Study of Man," which had been published since 
 the first edition was issued. Another reason for 
 some chans^es arose from the conviction that the 
 method of teaching by diagrams which had been 
 adopted in later years in the psychological work 
 might profitably be carried over into moral science. 
 He adds a third reason, a wish "by giving the sys- 
 tem more unity to state it, so that it might be more 
 readily apprehended." 
 
 In spite of this definitely formed purpose some 
 will be inclined to doubt whether the foundation of 
 the system is made clearer in the re\dsed than in 
 the first edition. To the chapters on "obligation " 
 in the first edition, any one who wishes an under- 
 standing of the initial principles may well be re- 
 ferred. The cogency with which the sensibility is 
 presented as underlying all moral ideas, and with 
 
THE AUTHOR. 175 
 
 which a good, as an end, is shown to be a condition 
 for obligation, is not surpassed, if equaled, in any 
 of the subsequent discussion of the questions in- 
 volved. 
 
 The criticisms of Dr. McCosh did not in the 
 least affect his confidence in the truth of the sys- 
 tem, and probably did not affect his presentation 
 of it. But the fine passage on the m'arrying of 
 "Love and Law," quoted by Dr. McCosh from 
 page 108 of the first edition, loses something of its 
 freshness in the revised edition. The revision 
 made the system more systematic, a completer, 
 rounder whole, but scarcely more winning or more 
 convincing to the beginner. For the readers who 
 gained by long acquaintance with Dr. Hopkins 
 insiofht into the movement of his mind and in- 
 creasing achniration and affection for the solidity 
 of his character, there is scarcely any book of his 
 making so interesting, and scarcely any that ex- 
 hibits so distinctly, that combination of intellectual 
 sharpness and conciseness and enthusiasm which 
 marks his best writing as the first edition of this 
 treatise. 
 
 "An Outline Study of Man," published in 1873, 
 like Dr. Hopkins's other books, grew directly out 
 of his teaching. The substance of it had been de- 
 livered as lectures before the Lowell Institute the 
 previous year. These lectures were given in an in- 
 formal way, and a phonographic report formed the 
 basis of the book. It illustrates more perfectly, 
 perhaps, than any other book the method of his 
 
176 MABK HO r KINS. 
 
 teaching. By short, concise definitions and differ- 
 entiations perfectly simple and clear, he made the 
 progress of the pupil easy and sure. This book 
 more than any other exhibits a resemblance in 
 mind and character that has seemed to me to exist 
 in him to the German Lessing. Lessing was a 
 great teacher. The debt of the Germans to him 
 for services in giving correct canons for language 
 and literature is immense. Dr. Hopkins cannot 
 be regarded as a pioneer of influence anything like 
 so- vast, and was greatly inferior in learning. But 
 he went on his own feet in a straight path, as did 
 Lessing, and accepted the tenets of no master. He 
 had the luminous intelligence that comes from the 
 pure reason, and it w^as the play of this that made 
 his discourse so convincing and satisfying. Some- 
 thing of what Lowell says of Johnson and Lessing 
 was also undoubtedly true of Dr. Hopkins. '' Both 
 had something of the intellectual sluggishness that 
 is apt to go with great strength ; and both had to 
 be baited by the antagonism of circumstances or 
 opinions, not only into the exhibition, but into the 
 possession of their entire force. Both may be more 
 properly called original men than in the highest 
 sense original writers." 
 
 Dr. Hopkins had a spiritual insight that lifted 
 him into a region whose air Lessing did not 
 breathe. Lessing did not concern himself with 
 man as a fallen being, but chiefly with literature 
 and art. For all that his thought was so largely 
 of the beautiful and the true, the general impres- 
 
THE AUTHOR. 177 
 
 sion of his character, while thoroughly manly, was 
 not so beneficent as that of the simple college presi- 
 dent. 
 
 In the ''Outline," the discussion of Perception 
 and Consciousness, the distinction made between 
 the natural and the supernatural, that between the 
 supernatural and the miraculous, and the division 
 of the necessary products into three classes, those 
 arising in the intellect alone, those resulting from 
 the combined operation of intellect and feeling, and 
 those from intellect, sensibility, and will, are among 
 the newer points of the book, and show well the au- 
 thor's power of illumination. The diagrams in the 
 book, and particularly that at the end, were of great 
 value in his judgment, and are extremely interest- 
 ino- as presenting the absolute definiteness w^ith 
 which man's nature and powers were gTaduated in 
 his mind. The wide use of the book in schools and 
 colleges, especially in those institutions where stu- 
 dents not highly trained by severe discipline under- 
 take the examination of the mental constitution, at- 
 tests the great clearness of the presentation. Its 
 brief examination of the body as the dwelling-place 
 of mind is the author's anticipation of the modern 
 "Physiological Psychology." The book does not 
 leave the student in the fog that accompanies so 
 much of the learned teaching of intellectual philos- 
 ophy. A thorough mastery of this treatise has 
 been of immense service to many college graduates, 
 and though it may be said that Dr. Hopkins's stu- 
 dents did not many of them become specialists in 
 
178 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 philosophy, it has not been said th^t they did not 
 become men. 
 
 From ''The Scriptural Idea of Man," the last 
 important work published by Dr. Hopkins, quota- 
 tions have already been given. This book is his 
 final contribution to the exhibition of the harmony 
 of Scripture with reason, and is the rij^est fruit of 
 his thinking. It has a unique value, and to it the 
 student of his thought may be referred for proof 
 that he, like Lessing, was ever advancing and gain- 
 ing new apprehension of many-sided truth, but 
 that, unlike any mere metaphysician or scholar, he 
 had early found in the revelation culminating in 
 "the man, Christ Jesus," such perfection of wis- 
 dom and reason that all growth meant simply a 
 fuller apprehension of the divine Master. To this 
 book further references will be made in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 Before Dr. Hopkins left New Haven after the 
 delivery of the lectures on ''The Scriptural Idea 
 of Man," the faculty of the Theological Seminary 
 invited him to give another course of lectures the 
 following year. After some hesitation he accepted 
 the invitation, and prepared and delivered six lec- 
 tures on "The Scriptural Idea of God." These 
 lectures, dealing with the most profound questions, 
 are equal in scope and power to any of his earlier 
 work. They were, however, never published, as 
 there were certain points which he planned to de- 
 velop more perfectly, and thus to give the series 
 a more symmetrical unity. Perhaps the fact that 
 
THE AUTHOR. 179 
 
 certain points of the discussions appear in some 
 of his other works tended to delay the revision. 
 It will be naturally a source of regret to all Dr. 
 Hopkins's pupils that the lectures are not accessi- 
 ble as a companion volume to " The Scriptural Idea 
 of Man," and a final expression of his views on the 
 nature and attributes of God. 
 
As snow those inward pleadings fall, 
 As soft, as bright, as pure, as cool, 
 With gentle weight and gradual 
 And sink into the feverish soul." 
 
 Cakdinal Newman, St. Philip in his God. 
 
THE PREACHER. 
 
The riddle of the world is understood 
 
 Only by him who feels that God is good, 
 
 As only he can feel who makes his love 
 
 The ladder of faith, and climbs above 
 
 On th' rounds of his best instincts ; draws no line 
 
 Between mere human goodness and divine, 
 
 But, judging God by what in him is best, 
 
 With a child's trust leans on a Father's breast, 
 
 And hears unmoved the old creeds babble still 
 
 Of kingly power and dread caprice of will, 
 
 Chary of blessing, prodigal of curse, 
 
 The pitiless doomsman of the universe. 
 
 Can Hatred ask for love ? Can Selfishness 
 
 Invite to self-denial ? Is He less 
 
 Than man in kindly dealing ? Can He break 
 
 His own great law of fatherhood, forsake 
 
 And curse His children ? Not for earth and heaven 
 
 Can separate tables of the law be given. 
 
 No rule can bind which He himself denies ; 
 
 The truths of time are not eternal lies." 
 
 Whittier, In Quest. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PREACHER. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins early learned to think in the pres- 
 ence of an audience. His preaching in the college 
 chapel was uniformly extemporaneous, and was 
 often strikingly effective from the combination of 
 close logical thought and apt illustration. Some of 
 the students, when I was in college, took notes of 
 his sermons, which were then quite unifoi'mly doc- 
 trinal, and wrote them out fully. Doctrinal preach- 
 ing for undergraduates seems now less suitable than 
 formerly, and it was certainly an evidence of great 
 power that Sunday after Sunday Dr. Hopkins , when 
 president, preached a solid, logical sermon, and kept 
 the attention of the students. Those sermons were 
 an education to some of the maturer boys, and now 
 and then an impression was made that was never 
 forgotten. The critical and skeptical books of the 
 time were often touched upon, not always by name, 
 but always with a keenness that excited discussion 
 among those who understood the allusions. His 
 written sermons, of which the best examples are 
 those preached before the graduating classes, are 
 amons: the finest illustrations of his skill as a writer 
 and his power as a thinker. 
 
 The baccalaureate sermon has been a distinctive 
 
184 IMAJRK HOPKINS. 
 
 feature of the New England college, and of the col- 
 leges modeled after it. As it has commonly been 
 preached by the highest officer of the college, and 
 is the last formal act of instruction given to a body 
 of young men who have spent together four form- 
 ative years in liberal study, it has served to mark 
 the high estimate put upon religious instruction by 
 our fathers, and to exhibit in a concrete way their 
 purpose to subordinate all training to Christian 
 doctrine and life. Few scenes are more impressive 
 than when, even though a graduating class is not 
 very large, a president, eminent for learning and 
 glowing with love for the divine Master, whose 
 daily life has been among and in his pupils, having 
 put into one compact utterance some deep lesson 
 suggssted by the studies of the year, delivers this 
 lesson on the last Sunday of the academical year to 
 his retiring pupils, and enforces it by a personal 
 and practical charge to conform the life to its 
 meaning. Such a sermon is almost certain to issue 
 in an exaltation of the divine Christ as the true 
 friend, example, and Redeemer. The momentous 
 possibilities lying before the young men, the throng 
 of memories for them from the past, the near dis- 
 solution of precious companionships, the pathetic 
 significance of what might hfrve been, touch the 
 imagination of the observer, and give for all to the 
 last lesson great dignity and tenderness. 
 
 The delivery of one of these sermons by Dr. 
 Hopkins was always an event of great interest to 
 those who had once heard him in this relation. In 
 
THE PREACHER. 185 
 
 this act he seemed to gather up and concentrate 
 his greatness, and to become an incarnation of the 
 highest ideal of the wise teacher. 
 
 The gradual transformation of the presidential 
 office into a career of simple administration may 
 sweep away much of the Christian influence of the 
 old New England president. In no feature is the 
 loss to be more marked than in the substitution 
 of some distinguished pastor for the counselor and 
 guide of the Senior year, in this last solemn act of 
 instruct ion. 
 
 There was a calmness and dignity, an equipoise 
 of intellect and emotion, in the baccalaureate dis- 
 courses delivered by Dr. Hopkins that made them 
 strikingly effective. The perfect taste and keen 
 perception of beauty that tempered the sterner lo- 
 gical processes of his mind never shone out more 
 clearly than wdien he was delivering these last 
 words to a company of his pupils. The symme- 
 try of his nature found perhaps its freest expression 
 in these sermons, and they will give to one who 
 carefully studies them a good idea of his intellec- 
 tual and moral insight. They were highly intellec- 
 tual : but they exhibit intellectual elements of the 
 highest order, gaining effectiveness for the reason 
 that these elements were charged with love. 
 
 In the sermon delivered to the class of 1855 on 
 "Perfect Love " are the following words, that give 
 in no uncertain tone the secret of his own power 
 as an investigator and teacher : — 
 
 "It is a prejudice, as disastrous as it is un- 
 
186 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 founded, that there can be a schism between the 
 heart and the intellect to the advantage of either. 
 The world is not ready to receive it, but it lies in 
 our structure, and must ultimately appear that the 
 love of God is the highest ground of enthusiasm, 
 not only in the study of his w^ord, but of his works. 
 They may indeed be studied from curiosity, from 
 ambition, from a desire even to disprove the being 
 or the moral government of God ; and thus we may 
 have sharp disputations, dogmatical partisans of 
 theories; but the genial, patient, comprehensive, 
 all-reconciling thinker w^iU be most often found 
 where the pale and dry light of intellect is tem- 
 pered by the warm glow of love. How can he who 
 has no love interpret a universe that originated in 
 love ? The works of God are all expressions of his 
 attributes, and thoughts, and feelings. Through 
 them we may commune with him. So far as there 
 is thought in the works of God, it is his thought. 
 He it is that through uniformities and resem- 
 blances and tendencies whispers into the ear of a 
 philosophy, not falsely so called, its sublime truths : 
 and as we begin to feel and trace more and more 
 those lines of relation that bind all things into one 
 system, the touch of any one of which may vibrate 
 to the fixed stars, this communion becomes high 
 and thrilling. Science is no longer cold. It lives 
 and breathes and glows, and in the ear of love its 
 voice is always a hymn to the Creator." 
 
 It has been a tenet of scientific thinkers, en- 
 forced especially in the last decade or two, that the 
 
THE PREACHER. 187 
 
 clear light of intellect is to be brought to bear upon 
 the problems of life and mind and society without 
 any intermixture of feeling. It has been claimed 
 that all judgments, to the formation of which feel- 
 ing has contributed, are of doubtful value, not to 
 say valueless, and that the dry, cool intelligence, 
 utterly dissociated from preferences and satisfac- 
 tions, is the only fit guide in the labyrinth of 
 modern investigation. The breathing of this rare- 
 fied ether is possible indeed for few, but those few, 
 unaffected by the w^eaknesses of common men, 
 unmoved by sympathies that are incipient preju- 
 dices, are the only true leaders for the race. The 
 passage above quoted illustrates how far removed 
 from such thought, how anticipative of its influ- 
 ence, and how distrustful of its hardness was the 
 mind of Dr. Hopkins. To the question, "How 
 can he, who has no love, interpret a universe that 
 originated in love?" he knew that the agnostic 
 would answ^er, " How do you know that it originated 
 in love? This is the point at issue." To him 
 Dr. Hopkins w^ould have replied : " Your difficulty 
 is in your philosophy. The dry light of intellect 
 cannot be employed, purified of all feeling ; it can- 
 not be employed successfully, defecated of all ad- 
 miration of beauty, or reverence for goodness. If 
 you make your search through nature and human 
 society and history, inspired by those feelings, you 
 wiU reach results, and know realities." "He that 
 loveth not, know^eth not God, for God is love." 
 The sermon on " Spirit, Soul, and Body " was not 
 
188 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 written until 1869, but it is a more perfect devel- 
 opment of the ideas that underlie the discourse from 
 which the quotation just given was taken. In this 
 sermon he lays down with great clearness the doc- 
 trine which he believed that he found in the Paul- 
 ine epistles, that the immediate knowledge of moral 
 law and a personal God is gained by distinctly 
 spiritual apprehension. He held that the soul with 
 its recognition of the truths of reason, with rea- 
 soning power, with the wonderful advantages given 
 by language, is that part of man's nature by 
 which progress in arts, in sciences, in literature, 
 in civilization, can be, under favorable conditions, 
 rapidly made. Under the guidance of the soul 
 science may be both empirical and rational, but 
 cannot be theological or, more exactly, spiritual. 
 Art and literature may reach an almost or quite 
 perfect condition, as seen in Greek sculpture and 
 poetry, but it may be questioned whether even into 
 the best examples of their perfection something of 
 a religious nature from the spiritual realm is not 
 introduced. 
 
 Certainly, religion as such, having in it such de- 
 pendence on higher being as shall involve faith, 
 worship, and the regulation of conduct, requires 
 a personal relation to a person. What takes the 
 place of religion in those nations and individuals 
 who do not develop the spiritual apprehension, but 
 direct their energies to the tracing simply of the 
 natural man, the soul, is finely exhibited in the 
 following passage. ''Religion: what need have 
 
THE PREACHER. 189 
 
 we of that? God: what need of Him? Have we 
 not force, uniform force, and do not all things con- 
 tinue as they were from the beginning of the crea- 
 tion, if it ever had a beginning? Have we not the 
 TO 7r5.', the universal all, the soul of the universe 
 working itself up from unconsciousness through 
 molecules, and maggots, and mice, and marmots, 
 and monkej^s to its highest culmination in man? 
 Certainly, no God is needed; a miracle is impossi- 
 ble; or if possible, it cannot be proved even by the 
 senses, and the idea of a revelation is absurd. If 
 the religious nature must find some resting-place, 
 let it make the unconscious universe with its sleep- 
 ing capabilities its god: or let it frame to itself 
 the conception of a god whose work is finished, and 
 who is enjoying himself in everlasting repose. 
 This is indeed just what those who practically ig- 
 nore the spirit have always done and are doing now. 
 Yearning and groping after something higher, yet 
 recooiiizing only necessary relations as in mathe- 
 matics and the uniform and unconscious forces of 
 nature, they transfer what they thus find, and only 
 that, over to the infinite. Of this the result may 
 reveal itself in different forms and under different 
 names. In India it may be Brahminism or Bud- 
 dhism. In Germany it may be transcendentalism, 
 or positivism, or pantheism. In this country it 
 may be a humble imitation and jumble of them all : 
 but the thing itself and its paralyzing effect on the 
 religious character will be essentially the same, 
 whether at Benares, at Berlin, or at Boston." 
 
190 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 The themes of these discourses were always lofty, 
 and the hearer was never allowed to lose sight of 
 the loftiness of the theme. Nor did he ever feel 
 that the treatment was not wholly worthy of the 
 theme. In the passage first quoted the glory of 
 nature is asserted to reveal itself to the loving 
 intellect. In the following passage from the dis- 
 course on "Strength and Beauty" the transcend- 
 ing charm of the affections is emphasized. The 
 elements of beauty in character have been given 
 as "spontaneity," "moral rectitude," and "sym- 
 metry." "With these elements individual mind 
 possesses a beauty far transcending that of nature, 
 and if this be so in a single individual, how much 
 more in a spiritual system, where every relation is 
 responded to and every duty met ! What is the 
 harmony of music to the concord of souls in true 
 affection? What is the breaking up of light into 
 its seven colors, as it meets with the surfaces of 
 matter, compared with the modifications of benev- 
 olence, as it meets with the varying forms of sen- 
 sitive and intelligent life? What is the beauty of 
 natural scenery, with its clustering objects, and 
 contrasted flowers and trees, comj)ared with the 
 meeting of a family, upon no member of which a 
 stain rests, and where you see the gray hairs of the 
 patriarch, and the infant of the third generation? 
 AYhat is the beauty of satellites circling around 
 primaries, and primaries around the sun, compared 
 with the order of families and the state — compared 
 with the order of that moral government, of which 
 
THE PREACHER. 191 
 
 God is the centre and sun, and of which a holy love 
 is at once the uniting force and the glory and 
 beauty?" 
 
 The following passage from the sermon to the 
 class of 1862 is closely related to the passages al- 
 ready quoted. It presents the true object of God's 
 creation both of matter and of mind, that He might 
 have conscious subjects in loving obedience to him- 
 self and in active cooperation wdth Him in promot- 
 ing righteousness. ''This life is in Christ. He 
 is 'the life.' This bond is from Him. In Him are 
 condensed all human relationships as of 'brother 
 and sister and mother: ' and to these, higher and 
 holier, that of Saviour is added. In Him, as the 
 second Adam; in his matchless character, human, 
 yet divine ; in his all-embracing and seK-sacrificing 
 love; in Him as the champion of humanity in its 
 weakness and guilt, able and willing to bring suc- 
 cor in the hour of its direst need and to raise it up 
 from the darkness and the dust of death, there is 
 every requisite for a centre of unity for the race so 
 that 'all things which are on earth ' as well as 'those 
 which are in heaven' may be gathered together in 
 one, even in Him." In this, in this only, is there 
 an object worthy of God. He has created worlds, 
 and families of worlds of mere matter, and given 
 them a unity of unspeakable grandeur; but with- 
 out Sensation or recognition, without enjoyment or 
 praise, what would they be worth ? Nothing. No, 
 the only work worthy of God is one crowned by 
 creatures made in his image, with their vitality 
 
192 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 from Him, and himself the centre of their unity — 
 unity in love, fitly represented by the marriage 
 union. This work, we believe, will correspond in 
 its vastness to that of the stellar hosts, and as far 
 transcend them in glory as mind transcends the 
 inanimate clod. It will embrace all orders of 
 rational intelligences, in all worlds; sin and its 
 consequences will be eliminated, and it shall stand 
 in its glorious order forever. The promised new 
 heavens and new earth do not so much respect any 
 new combinations and miity of matter as of con- 
 scious agents; and they will be such that all that 
 has gone before in the works of God will be as 
 nothing. 'For behold,' says God, 'I create new 
 heavens and new earth; and the former shall not 
 be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye 
 glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for 
 behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her peo- 
 ple a joy.'" 
 
 As the final words to his classes, whose charac- 
 teristics from year to year were somewhat similar, 
 and yet always more or less different, but whose 
 moral character was always the matter of the deep- 
 est solicitude to him, he never failed to make these 
 discourses vigorously ethical. Eloquent passages 
 of ethical import are found in them, which cannot 
 fail to have remained in the memory when much 
 of the discourse was forgotten. In the sermon on 
 " Strength and Beauty," from which a quotation has 
 already been given, there is a striking passage on 
 the impotence of high gifts to dignify or palliate 
 badness of character : — 
 
THE PREACHER. 193 
 
 "The distinction is that between the a<^ent and 
 the instninient, between a person giving direction 
 and that which is directed. The relative place of 
 these is to be carefully noted, because of the pecu- 
 liar difficulty there is in the present moral state of 
 the world in combining talent and genius with a 
 high and reverent regard for duty. This is not 
 that there is any natural opposition between them, 
 but because the administration and influence which 
 are so dear to men possessing talent and genius are 
 expected to follow them without much reference 
 to moral integrity. Now w^hat we say is that we 
 are not to overestimate the mere instrument, how- 
 ever brilliant. We say that our chief regard is 
 due to that sacred personality, that moral pres- 
 ence, which has both the power and the right to di- 
 rect talent and genius, and before which it is their 
 place to wait and to bow. We say that in any 
 other relation talent is a curse, and that the light 
 of genius can only 'lead to bewilder, and dazzle to 
 blind.' We would honor genius and talent as 
 gifts of God; w^e would make large allowance, if 
 they must have them, or think they must, for their 
 peculiarities, their idiosyncrasies, their weaknesses 
 even ; but when those w ho possess them would re- 
 gard themselves, and be regarded by others, as 
 privileged persons, whose moral delinquencies are 
 to be allowed or winked at, and that, too, on the 
 very ground that should be their highest condem- 
 nation, we would utter our solemn protest. We 
 say that the influence of no other men can be so 
 
194 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 hostile to the best interests of the community, if 
 they be public men, to the liberties of a free peo- 
 ple. We say that no rebuke can be too prompt or 
 severe, when any man would practically dignify or 
 even palliate meanness, or trickery, or falsehood, 
 or profaneness, or licentiousness, or corruption, by 
 associating them with high intellectual gifts." 
 
 In the sermon to the class of 1864 occur the fol- 
 lowing solemn, noble words on the intimate rela- 
 tion between character and destiny. "Settle it 
 therefore, I pray you, my hearers, once and forever, 
 that as your character is, so will your destiny be. 
 Whatever capacities there may be for enjoyment 
 or for suffering in this strange being of ours, and 
 God only knows what they are, they will be drawn 
 out wholly in accordance with character. There 
 shall be no inheritance of possessions, or felicity 
 of outward condition, no river of life, or gate of 
 pearl, or street of gold; there shall be no serenity 
 of peace, or fullness of joy, or height of rapture, or 
 ecstasy of love ; there shall be no hostile and venge- 
 ful element, no lake of fire, no gnawing worm, no 
 remorse or despair, that will not depend upon 
 character." 
 
 In the last baccalaureate that he preached, in 
 June, 1872, the year when he laid down his presi- 
 dency, there was a peculiarly touching appeal for 
 fidelity in the discharge of humble duties. This 
 passes over into an affectionate entreaty to foUow 
 Christ, and is enforced by a tender reference to the 
 death of his brother Albert, which had occurred 
 
THE PREACHER. 195 
 
 the previous month. The subject is "The Circular 
 and the Onward Movement." 
 
 ''What man is this who is so earnestly at work 
 in the very humble employment of making a fine 
 powder still more fine by constant attrition? It 
 is Michael Angelo, grinding the paints with which 
 he is to paint for eternity. * The humble duties 
 must be done ; the paints must be ground ; but they 
 will be ground all the better, if we feel that we are 
 to paint for eternit}' with them. There are duties 
 towards God, indispensable, the highest of all, but 
 they can never be performed in the willful disre- 
 gard or neglect of any duty toward man. You are 
 never to forget that the best preparation for heaven 
 is in that character which will fit you for the great- 
 est usefulness on earth. 
 
 "Since, then, the problems — the great prob- 
 lems in life — that come from the intersection and 
 blending of the circular and onward movements are 
 solved theoretically by Christianity; and since, 
 through that, you can make the most practically of 
 the interests involved in each movement, the one 
 thing needful for you is to be Christians. At this 
 hour, when you are about to step into active life, 
 and when so many voices are calling you, the one 
 voice which you are to hear is that of Him who 
 says, '' Foil 010 J/e.' Hear that voice, and then 
 you will take your places under his banner by the 
 side of those who are waging with Him the great 
 battle of aU time. It is around Him that the thick 
 of this battle has always been. Around Him it al- 
 
196 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ways will be. Take, then, your places. You are 
 needed. The veterans are falling. Who shall take 
 their place? The strong men are fainting. "Who 
 shall succor them? Go ye, and the earth shall be 
 the better and the happier for your having lived in 
 it. Go; and when the time of your departure 
 shall come, you will be able to say what he said, 
 who has been a standard-bearer in this college for 
 more than forty years, and for whom both its chapel 
 and this desk are now draped in mourning. AVhen 
 consciously dying, and but just able to speak, he 
 said, 'If we view it Scripturally, death is but step- 
 ping out of one room in our Father's house into 
 another; and, in this instance, without doubt, into 
 a larger and pleasanter room.' " 
 
 Dr. Hopkins's greatest theme was always the 
 universal relations of Christianity. This was the 
 deepest motive of all his eloquence, if I might say 
 so, the pre-moving inspiration of all his public ut- 
 terances. This gave the peculiar scope and effec- 
 tiveness to those extemporaneous addresses before 
 the meetings of the American Board which never 
 failed to impress deeply the audiences who heard 
 them. The universality of Christ's love, the all- 
 embracing sweep of his death, found expression in 
 connection with nearly every topic. His preach- 
 ing was Christian preaching in the broadest and 
 truest sense. In the sermon to the class of 1852, 
 on "Receiving and Giving," he speaks of Christ 
 and his giving in language that rises to a strain of 
 lofty eloquence. "He gave, not as he gives whom 
 
THE PREACHER. 197 
 
 giving does not impoverish, but He gave of his 
 heart's blood, till that heart ceased to beat. He 
 planted his cross in the midst of the mad and roar- 
 ing current of selfishness aggravated to malignity, 
 and uttered from it the mighty cry of expiring love. 
 All the waters heard Him, and from that moment 
 they began to be refluent about his cross. From 
 that moment a current deeper and broader and 
 mightier began to set heavenward, and it will con- 
 tinue to be deeper and broader and mightier, till 
 its glad waters shall encompass the earth and toss 
 themselves as the ocean. And not alone did earth 
 hear that cry. It pierced the regions of immensity. 
 Heaven heard it, and hell heard it, and the remot- 
 est star shall hear it, testifying to the love of God 
 in his unspeakable gift, and to the supremacy of 
 that blessedness of giving which could be reached 
 only through death, — the death of the cross. This 
 joy of giving it was that was set before Him, for 
 which He endured the cross, despising the shame." 
 The sermon to the class of 1856 on "SeK-denial " 
 was naturally an exposition of the Christian life. 
 At the very outset of the discourse there is a break- 
 ing forth of this thought of wide relations in a com- 
 parison of Christianity to the atmosphere. "The 
 atmosphere evaporates water, distributes it, re- 
 flects light, bears up birds, wafts ships, supports 
 combustion, conveys sound, is the breath of our 
 life, and the azure of our heavens. So Christian- 
 ity, while it magnifies the law, and enthrones mercy, 
 and reconciles us to God, and makes known to 
 
198 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 principalities and powers in the heavenly places 
 his manifold wisdom, is also the regulating and 
 renovating spirit in the relations of time. It alone 
 inspires and guides progress; for the progress of 
 man is movement towards God, and movement to- 
 wards God will insure a gradual unfolding of all 
 that exalts and adorns man. It excludes malig- 
 nity, subdues selfishness, regulates the passions, 
 subordinates the appetites, quickens the intellect, 
 exalts the affections. It promotes industry, hon- 
 esty, truth, purity, kindness. It humbles the 
 proud, exalts the lowly, upholds law, favors liberty, 
 is essential to it, and would imite men in one great 
 brotherhood. It is the breath of life to our social 
 and civil well-being here, and spreads the azure of 
 the heaven into whose unfathomable depths the eye 
 of faith loves to look. All this it does, while yet 
 its great object is in the future. The river passes 
 on, but the trees upon its banks are green and 
 bear fruit." 
 
 It was in the addresses to the classes, conclud- 
 ing these sermons, that Dr. Hopkins often ex- 
 pressed plainly the deeper feelings of his nafure. 
 There was something in his mind that always 
 recognized and emphasized the dramatic signifi- 
 cance of events and crises. The sending forth of 
 a body of young men whose maturer thought he 
 had for a year so closely watched and guided was 
 always to him something more than the simple ter- 
 mination of a college course. It connected itself 
 in his mind, for each graduating student, with all 
 
THE FREACHEB. 199 
 
 the future, and the final words were always fitly- 
 chosen. Sometimes a peculiar relation of the year 
 gave an added interest and depth to his expres- 
 sion, as, for instance, in 1862, when his second son 
 was graduated, who looked forward with some 
 others to immediate service in the war for the 
 Union. 
 
 "Are any of you, as some are, in seeking to sus- 
 tain those 'powers that be,' and that 'are ordained 
 of God,' to encounter the temptations of a camp, 
 the exposure of a southern climate, the hazards of 
 the battlefield ? How precious will be the presence 
 and succor of One that sticketh closer than a 
 brother! Are you to bear the responsibilities of 
 life and wage its battles till old age? Little do you 
 know of your weakness and of the besetments and 
 fierce struggles of the long way, if a divine Helper 
 would not be precious to you. He will be precious 
 to 3^ou in the final hour. When you shall walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, bis rod 
 and his staff, they shall comfort you. And when 
 the present order shall come to an end, and that 
 building of God whose stones are now preparing 
 shall go up without the sound of the axe or the 
 hammer, till 'the headstone thereof shall be 
 brought forth with shoutings, ' you shall be there, 
 and cry, 'Grace, grace unto it.' " 
 
 So there is a touching allusion to the death of a 
 nephew, the son of his brother, who had been for 
 three years a member of the class of 1864, and had 
 fallen a victim to the rebellion at Ashland only 
 
200 MAIiK HOPKINS. 
 
 a few months previously, in the address to this 
 class. 
 
 A peculiar beauty and sweetness is in the fare- 
 well words to the class of 1872, the last of thirty- 
 six classes graduated under Dr. Hopkins's presi- 
 dency. A quotation has already been given from 
 that impressive sermon, and the farewell address 
 follows immediately after the words of that quota- 
 tion : — 
 
 "And now, my beloved friends, the time has 
 come when, in some respects, that which has been 
 is to be no longer. Not only is the peculiar and 
 most pleasant relation which has existed between 
 us the past year to cease, but also the relation 
 which I have so long held to this college. During 
 the thirty-six years of that relation I have failed 
 but twice, once from sickness and once from ab- 
 sence, to address each successive class as I now 
 address you. Hereafter other classes will come, 
 another voice will address them, the circular move- 
 ment will go on, but you and I pass into the on- 
 ward movement, you to your work, and I to what 
 remains to me of mine. Behind us is that past, 
 fixed forever, which God will require. Before 
 us — what? Definitely I know not ; but I do 
 know that there is One above us whom we may 
 safely trust. I do know that 'God is love.' 
 Whatever else I hold on to, or give up, I will hold 
 on to that. That I will not give up. To the God 
 of love, therefore, who has hitherto been so much 
 better to me than mv fears, do I commit mvself : 
 
THE PREACHER. 201 
 
 to the God of love do I commend you, every one 
 of you, praying that in all your pilgrimage He 
 will bless you and keep you ; that ' He will make 
 his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto 
 you; that He will lift up his countenance upon 
 you, and give you peace.' " 
 
THE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
Yet there is one I more affect 
 Than Jesuit, Hermit, Monk, or Friar ; 
 'T is an old man of sweet aspect, 
 I love him more, I more desire. 
 
 I know him hy his head of snow, 
 His ready smile, his keen full eye, 
 His words which kindle as they flow, 
 Save he he rapt in ecstasy." 
 
 CARDiNAii Newman, St. Philip in Himself. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF 
 COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins became president of the "Amer- 
 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions " in 1857, at the meeting in Providence. 
 There was an exceeding fitness in his election to 
 this position. With great dignity of person he 
 combined an effective readiness in extemporaneous 
 speaking and a quickness in discerning the latent 
 tendencies of any movement. His long experience 
 as a teacher qualified him to control discussion to 
 its proper limits, and his sovereign common sense 
 enabled him so to guide the long and often excit- 
 ing, but often wearisome sessions as to reach the 
 proper result. Had the meetings been purely busi- 
 ness meetings, his success might have been less 
 uniform and brilliant. No better presiding offi- 
 cer could have been found for that annual series of 
 meetings, in which instruction, devotion, and busi- 
 ness are blended. As has already been stated, 
 the universal relations of Christianity were the in- 
 spiring and directing thought of his mind. In the 
 missionary movement, in the contemplation and ful- 
 fillment of that last command to " go into all the 
 
206 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 world and preach the gospel to every creature," the 
 forces of his large nature found a congenial field 
 for activity and expression. He might not have 
 made a successful missionary in the narrow and 
 limited sense in which men commonly use that 
 word. But had he himself gone in the service of his 
 Master to a foreign land, the direction of educa- 
 tional forces, the management of far-reaching and 
 complicated agencies, would surely have come into 
 his hands, and he would have been widely known as 
 the leader and director of movements that might 
 have captured the intellectual men of a refined civ- 
 ilization. For small details of business he was too 
 great, but the wider and far rarer statesmanship 
 which lays down the lines along which the men 
 who attend to details must work was his in abun- 
 dance. The service which he rendered to the cause 
 of missions in his capacity of presiding officer was 
 great, and for that service the cause of missions 
 and the Congregational churches of our country 
 have abundant reason for thankfulness. 
 
 Much of the time at these meetings is given to 
 reports which do not directly arouse enthusiasm. 
 The meetings generally cover a period of three 
 days, and are attended by large throngs of people. 
 Many of these come from points quite distant from 
 the city where the meeting is held, and as the meet- 
 ings draw to a close, fatigue resulting from the long 
 journey and the constant attention is strongly felt. 
 From the day of his election as president in 1857 
 until his death in 1887 Dr. Hopkins missed but three 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 207 
 
 of these meetings. On two occasions he was in 
 Europe, in 1861 and 1881, and he was detained at 
 home by ilhiess in 1859. As year by year his locks 
 thinned and whitened, he went on his pilgrimage, 
 often several hundred miles, from his mountain 
 home, and endured not simply the ordinary fatigue 
 of the visitor, but, in addition, the fatigue coming 
 from the responsibility for the guidance of the pub- 
 lic assemblies. The meetings begin on Tuesday 
 and close Friday noon. On Thursday evening, at 
 least during the later years of his presidency, an 
 address was expected from him. There was some- 
 thing surprising, as the years slipped away, in the 
 ease and strength with which he met this duty. 
 The great audience, which had been wearied by the 
 days of report and discussion, was reanimated and 
 inspired by his words. It was on these occasions 
 that his clear views of the universal relations of 
 Christ and his salvation, of the duties that this 
 salvation imposed on every man who had accepted 
 it, of the claims that all the world had on the fol- 
 lower of Christ, and of the grandeur of following 
 such a Master into .missionary work for the most 
 degraded, found their noblest utterance. It seemed 
 that with each succeeding year the power of impart- 
 ing to others his wide vision and of quickening 
 missionary enthusiasm was increased. 
 
 Often he was expected on Friday morning also 
 to extend the thanks of the board for the friendly 
 hospitalities of the city. His addresses were uni- 
 formly fitting, and often peculiarly happy. 
 
208 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 It would be impossible for any report to do these 
 discourses full justice. As they were generally ex- 
 temporaneous, they gained much of their effective- 
 ness from the atmosphere of the occasion and the 
 color of the surroundings, which Dr. Hopkins 
 never failed to comprehend fully and to embody 
 adequately in his words. 
 
 Although these fugitive elements do not appeal 
 to the reader as to the hearer, there is enough that 
 is characteristic of the speaker in the reports of 
 these addresses which have been preserved to in- 
 terest the reader. This is true even for those who 
 did not know Dr. Hopkins. For those who did 
 know him, and had heard him speak extemporane- 
 ously, which was his usual habit of discourse except 
 on "the rarest occasions, these reports will have a 
 peculiar power in bringing up a distinct remem- 
 brance of his persuasive and inspiring speech. 
 One might almost say that he never was himself 
 except when making an extemporaneous address 
 before an intelligent audience. 
 
 A few extracts may exhibit in a clear way his 
 deep interest in missions, and his admirable ser- 
 vice as presiding officer at the meetings in gath- 
 ering up into one utterance the various lines of 
 thought and emotion that had been developed, and 
 giving to the intellectual men and women who had 
 attended the meeting a final and abiding impression 
 of the nobility of missionary service, and of their 
 direct responsibilities for the work. 
 
 At the meeting in Pittsfield in 1866, the follow- 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 209 
 
 ing words were used with respect to the desired 
 unity of Christians : — 
 
 "Let the whole race fix their eyes upon the 
 North Star and march onwards with steady gaze 
 upon tliat himinary, and this march will bring 
 them together in one vast multitude, over the cen- 
 tre of which the object of their common regard 
 burns in the firmament. They are brought together 
 not because they planned to meet, but because they 
 had a common object in view, and let the Christians 
 of every name keep their eyes fixed upon Jesus 
 Christ, and the divisions of Christendom will be 
 known no more." 
 
 The board met in Pittsburgh in 1869, and from 
 Dr. Hopkins's address at that m3etiQg the follow- 
 ing extract is taken. It presents tha contrast be- 
 tween the work of God and that of man in his own 
 striking manner, and with simple loyalty to the 
 Master presses home the duty of individual Chris- 
 tians : — 
 
 "There is a general pervading persistency in- 
 creasing the cry of progress, which would ahnost 
 lead one to believe that the old relations between 
 Christianity and the world were changed. Prog- 
 ress ! Yes, there has been progress, and great 
 progress; but progress in what? In Christianity? 
 No ; the foundation of Christianity is the same that 
 it was before that last supper which we have cele- 
 brated here this afternoon. Another foundation 
 can no man lay. In the requirements of Chris- 
 tianity? No; the strait gate is just as strait, and 
 
210 MARE HOPKINS, 
 
 the narrow way is just as narrow, as it was of old. 
 No cry of God's Church can v/iden the entrance or 
 the way one hair's breadth. Christianity vindicates 
 itself as from God by placing itself alongside of its 
 works. There is no progress in the works of God. 
 The sun shines no more brightly to-day than it did 
 six thousand years ago; the seasons come and go 
 no more perfectly and exactly; the body of man 
 is nourished and strengthened in no other way than 
 of old ; his heart beats and his blood circulates and 
 his food digests as it did when Adam was in Eden ; 
 there has been no progress. No; in the structure 
 of God's works, in their mighty area, in their cease- 
 less uniformity, there has been no improvement. 
 When the work of the Lord ceased on the sixth 
 day it was said, 'Thus the heavens and the earth 
 were finished, and all the hosts of them,' and there 
 has been no improvement in anything that God 
 has made from that time to this. 'What He doeth 
 is forever,' and so, by a sublime parallelism, I have 
 no doubt, intended, in that hour of darkness and 
 of agony, when our Saviour was about to expire 
 on the cross. He said, 'It is finished.' Yes, 'It is 
 finished. ' All that was necessary for human sal- 
 vation was completed, and that great work of God 
 has stood, and stands, and will stand, like the sun 
 in the heavens, and Christ lifted up on the cross 
 shall draw all humanity unto Him, and there is 
 no progress in that because nothing can transcend 
 it. The relations of Christianity to the civil law 
 are changed, and everywhere now in the world 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 211 
 
 evangelical religion turns the world upside down 
 and is everywhere spoken against. Thus it is ob- 
 serv^ed everywhere ; thus it is that evangelical reli- 
 gion is persecuted by superstition and paganism in 
 heathen lands. Thus it is that Popery everywhere 
 follows and strikes it; thus it is that ritualism 
 and invention would undermine it; thus it is that 
 in opposing this now as of old Herod and Pilate 
 became friends, and this opposition and just this 
 element our Saviour and his Apostles in their day 
 overcame; this opposition we have to meet. The 
 earth is not yet subdued to God, and the forces 
 are arrayed against the church, and we have pre- 
 cisely the work to do which they laid down their 
 lives for. Did they do it? They did it by love, 
 which was so great that it enjoined them to lay 
 down their lives if it became necessary. And un- 
 less we have in us a spirit of love for Christ and 
 love for our fellow-men that shall induce us so 
 far as is necessary to do this same thing, we shall 
 accomplish nothing. Here is our deficiency, here 
 i.^ the thing we need. We need to labor for the 
 single end to make men like Christ. If we labor 
 for that, it is impossible we should have any wrong 
 motive ; if we labor for that, we shall be like Christ. 
 It is the greatest blessing we can give to any man 
 to make him like Jesus Christ, and if this pui*pose 
 and spirit can possess the churches, the missionary 
 boards of the land will need no more money ; if it 
 can possess the young men, they will need no more 
 missionaries. I do feel this is a very simple point. 
 
212 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 1 do feel, fathers and friends, it is of the great- 
 est moment we should labor for Jesus in just this 
 spirit — labor in the spirit of love to make, man 
 like Jesus Christ. Thus laboring, if we could but 
 do it, and if others would but work with us, this 
 blessed unity would come of course ; our mission- 
 ary stations, working out from their centres, would 
 blend together as the light of the stars blend to- 
 gether, working for the common object, and in a 
 common spirit all Christians would see eye to eye. 
 The watchmen would see eye to eye, and the Lord 
 would bring again Zion." 
 
 The following is an outline of the address deliv- 
 ered at Hartford in 1876: — 
 
 ''In passing out of the Opera House the other 
 night, I met a graduate of Williams College who 
 has been greatly successful in winning souls to 
 Christ. The friend asked me if I remembered say- 
 ing that if they wished success, they must remem- 
 ber how God worked, and then work with Him. I 
 did not remember the allusion, but it occurred to 
 me that it would be true in regard to anything, and 
 that it must especially be true in regard to the great 
 work in which this board is engaged. We are 
 then simply to ask how it is that God works in con- 
 nection with this work. And it seems to me the 
 essential forces of Christianity through which He 
 works are (l)'his righteousness, (2) self-sacrific- 
 ing love. The righteousness of God is the justice 
 that lies back of all moral government. It lies 
 back of the gospel itself. The gospel is the ex- 
 
TEE AMERICAN BOAIiD. 213 
 
 pressioii of the law. It makes it honorable. These 
 two, righteousness and love, must work together. 
 Righteousness quickens the moral nature, without 
 which no religion avails. Love touches the heart 
 and brings men to God. These two meeting in the 
 cross, perfect righteousness and perfect love, are 
 as great as they possibly can be. These two unit- 
 ing like rays of light are the one force by which 
 God draws men to Him. Man's deepest need is 
 the need of reconciliation and pardon from God. 
 Without this need satisfied, man has no peace. 
 These two give reconciliation. The religion of 
 Christ works in man righteousness and self-sac- 
 rificing love. Unless these be produced in man, 
 the religion of Christ is a failure. So much right- 
 eousness and self-sacrificing love as there is in 
 this house, so much is there of Christianity, and 
 no more. These are the sources of Christianity. 
 When a man has these, he is prepared to work 
 with God in this labor." 
 
 The following address is one of the best reported 
 among the papers at the Missionary Eooms. It is 
 given here in full, as it is a good specimen of his 
 peculiarly argumentative and convincing style. It 
 was delivered at Milwaukee in 1878 : — 
 
 "We are here, fathers and brethren, in the 
 faith that the stone that was cut out of the moun- 
 tain without hands will become a great mountain 
 and fill the whole earth. This we believe, first, on 
 the ground of supernatural intervention; and sec- 
 ond, on that of natural tendency. Of supernatural 
 
214 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 intervention we can know nothing except by reve- 
 lation. 'The times and the seasons the Father hath 
 put in his own power. ' But of natural tendency 
 we can judge. Looking at this we can see no 
 reason why the law of the ' survival of the fittest ' 
 should not apply to Christianity as compared with 
 other religions in the same way as to anything else. 
 How then does it apply to anything else? It is 
 supposed by modern science to be a law that regu- 
 lates, without supernatviral intervention, the preva- 
 lence and even the existence of the different species 
 of plants and animals on the earth. But how? 
 The survival of the fittest ! Fittest for what ? 
 Fittest to survive? Does it simply mean that 
 those will survive that are fittest to survive? Or 
 does it mean that those will survive that are fittest 
 for the ends of sensitive life, and especially of man ? 
 If it mean the first, it maybe a law, but it amounts 
 to nothing. Of course those will survive that are, 
 all things considered, fittest to survive. But if it 
 mean that without the intervention of intelligent 
 will, those will survive that are fittest to meet the 
 wants of man, then it is not a law. The reverse is 
 often true. Left to itself, it is not generally true 
 that that which is fittest to meet the wants of man 
 is fittest to survive. 
 
 "When Solomon 'went by the field of the sloth- 
 ful, and by the vineyard of the man void of un- 
 derstanding, and lo ! it was all grown over with 
 thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, ' 
 that was according to the law of the survival of the 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 215 
 
 fittest. The thorns were fittest to survive as com- 
 paretl with the vine, and the strongest nettles as 
 compared with other nettles. As compared with 
 wheat, thistles — Canada thistles — are fittest to 
 survive, and cockle as compared with barley. It 
 may indeed be plausibly said that the things best 
 fitted for the use of man are least fitted to survive. 
 Th3 finest fruits need the most care. Of all grains 
 wheat "is best fitted for food, and probably least 
 fitted to surviv^e. No one knows where it is indi- 
 genous, and, left to itself, it would soon perish 
 from the earth. It has a natural tendency to sur- 
 vive owing to its environments, but that needs to 
 be supplemsnted by the intelligence and the toil of 
 man. To us it would seem that that which is fit- 
 test for the use of man should be fittest to survive. 
 But in this, Nature seems to be at cross-purposes 
 with herself ; and thus do we find, wrought into her 
 very constitution, and proclaimed by science, the 
 elements of that primeval curse: 'In the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread. ' It is thus that the 
 law applies in nature. And precisely thus does it 
 apply to the different religions of the world. And 
 applying it thus we may affirm of Christianity two 
 propositions : — 
 
 "First, that, aside from supernatural interven- 
 tion, it was, of all known or conceivable religions, 
 the least fitted to survive. 
 
 " Second, that, of all known or conceivable re- 
 ligions, it is fittest to meet the wants of men. 
 
 "First, then, aside from supernatural interven- 
 
216 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 tion, Christianity was, of all known or conceivable 
 religions, least fitted to survive. It had not a single 
 element that the world reckons on for influence. 
 It began in a stable. It was laid in a manger. 
 Place yourselves by the side of that. Follow the 
 infant in his flight into Egypt ; in his return to a 
 remote part of a conquered province, and to a dis- 
 reputable town. See him, without letters, at work 
 as a carpenter. At the age of thirty see him trav- 
 eling about the country on foot as a teacher, with a 
 few peasant followers. After only three years see 
 him apprehended, tried, condemned, as a malefac- 
 tor by both Jews and Romans. See him hanging 
 on the cross betw^een two thieves. See him laid in 
 the tomb with a great stone over its mouth, sealed 
 with the seal of authority, and a watch set. 
 Christianity was there. It was in that tomb. Not 
 a person living fully understood it. The words 
 spoken had been dispersed in the air, and no record 
 of them had been left. I ask you if imagination 
 can add a single circumstance to heighten the im- 
 probability that a world-wide religion would spring 
 from such a source? But looking at Christianity 
 thus we see but half the improbability of its sur- 
 vival. We need to look also at its nature as a 
 spiritual and holy religion, and at the strength 
 of that which it had to overcome. As spiritual 
 and holy it was aggressive. Its antagonism to all 
 forms of iniquity was uncompromising. It had 
 therefore to overcome not only the aversion of the 
 individual to sjiirituality and holiness, but also 
 
THE AMEIilCAN BO iUD. 217 
 
 to overcome and displace those organized and 
 deeply imbedded systems of religion and civil 
 government which gave sanction and scope to that 
 aversion. 
 
 "If then we mean by the survival of the fittest, 
 that which is fittest to survive, it must be conceded 
 that of all possible religions Christianity was, and 
 I may say even now is, the least fitted to survive. 
 But while we say this, we say again, that of all re- 
 ligions known or conceivable, Christianity is best 
 fitted to meet the wants of man, and so, in the 
 highest sense, best fitted to survive. 
 
 "Between Christianity and the wants of man as 
 a sinner, we say that the correspondence is perfect. 
 We say that it is light to the eye, bread to the hun- 
 gry, cold water to the thirsty soul. We say that 
 it is redemption, deliverance, pardon, peace, eter- 
 nal life. Coming as tidings — 'good tidings of 
 great joy ' — it can be received by all. It implies 
 doctrine, but it is an offer of help; and he who 
 finds himself struggling in the horrible pit and the 
 miry clay has but to reach forth the hand of faith, 
 and he shall be lifted out of it, and he shall find 
 his feet set upon a rock. 
 
 "Nor is it merely as a sinner that Christianity 
 • corresponds with man. Assuming natural religion, 
 and the revelation of the Old Testament, it meets 
 perfectly every religious want. Is man a creature? 
 It reveals co him an intelligent Creator. ' He that 
 built all things is God. ' No atheism, no panthe- 
 ism, no blind force. As a creature does he need 
 
218 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 care, sympathy, love? It reveals to him a Father, 
 and says to him that the hairs of his head are all 
 numbered. Does he lind himself, through inter- 
 nal struggles and the stepmotherhood of nature, 
 weary and heavy laden? It says, 'Come unto me, 
 and I will give you rest. ' Is he called to lay loved 
 ones in the grave? It says to him, 'Thy brother 
 shall rise again. ' 
 
 "It embosoms within itself the foundation and 
 means of all reforms, individual and social. Be- 
 ginning with the individual, not with organizations, 
 it j^laces him, whether old or young, rich or poor, 
 educated or uneducated, on the footing of his own 
 moral responsibility and spiritual independence, 
 and then offers him, not only forgiveness, but the 
 aid of the Holy Spirit that he may become 'a per- 
 fect man in Christ Jesus. ' 
 
 "Passing to society, it lays the foundation of 
 purity in the Christian family. The foundation of 
 peace it lays in the fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man. If peace is ever to be univer- 
 sal, it will not be from interest or fear, but from a 
 recosrnition of these. The foundation of civil order 
 it lays in its requirement of subjection to lawful 
 authority. Its guard against tyranny it places in 
 its command to obey God rather than man. Its 
 provision for general enlightenment, at once for 
 conservatism and progress, for reform without rev- 
 olution, is found in its command to 'prove all 
 things, and hold fast that which is good. ' Chris- 
 tianity fittest? Nothing else is fit. It is so fit 
 
THE AMERICAN BOAliD. 219 
 
 that, if it were universally and perfectly received, 
 the millennium would have come. 
 
 "As the world now is, and left to itself, the 
 thorns, the thistles, the cockle of idolatry, and su- 
 perstition, and fanaticism, and formalism, and the 
 deadly nightshade of infidelity are fitted to survive. 
 But if the grand ideas of purity and peace and 
 blessedness of which man is capable are to be real- 
 ized, if the capabilities that are in him as made in 
 the image of God are to be brought out, Christian- 
 ity alone is fit. It is fittest to live by ; it is fittest 
 to die by. Fully received, it can sustain man in 
 death as nothing else can. It can pluck from death 
 its sting, and from the grave its victory. It can 
 take a man once a heathen, cast out by his kin- 
 dred, and dying in a hut, and enable him to say, 
 when asked how it was with him, 'He has taken 
 all mine and given me all his.' And when asked 
 to explain, to say again, 'He has taken my sin and 
 my death, that is all that was mine, and given me 
 holiness and heaven.' Like wheat, it has a nat- 
 ural tendency to survive ; but owing to its environ- 
 ment it needs the constant care of the Great Hus- 
 bandman, and the prayers and labor of those who 
 work together with Him. 
 
 "Prayer and labor, these are the two instrumen- 
 talities for us to use. By looking at the first prop- 
 osition we have considered, we shall see our help- 
 lessness and be led to prayer. By looking at the 
 second, we shall see the infinite value of the religion 
 and be led to effort. Such, fathers and brethren, 
 
220 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 is the religion we seek to send to those who are des- 
 titute of it. Do you think it much that we are 
 doing to this end? Do others think of us as fanat- 
 ical or unwise? Two considerations set my mind 
 wholly at rest at this point. One is that we are 
 acting under an explicit order, with an explicit 
 promise of aid. 'Go ye.' And, 'Lo I am with 
 you. ' The other is, that that order was given by 
 One who knew the value of the religion better than 
 we do ; who so knew it that He was willing to die 
 that we might receive it. 'Thanks be to God for 
 his unspeakable gift. ' ' Freely ye have received, 
 freely give.' " 
 
 This address must have been very effective with 
 intellectual men. It was almost as if he were 
 standing before one of his own classes and consid- 
 ering the claims of Christianity to our consent and 
 to universal acceptance. The relation of the whole 
 discussion to the missionary movement is, however, 
 most effectively brought out in the concluding sen- 
 tences. 
 
 The address at Lowell in 1880 is less aro^umen- 
 tative, but produced a deep impression, and has 
 touches of that playfulness which often added 
 beauty to the strength of his discourse. 
 
 "Recently, in this country and elsewhere, there 
 has come up a set of people who call themselves ag- 
 nostics, by which they woidd indicate that they are 
 religious 'know-nothings.' I agree with those peo- 
 ple up to a certain point. There are many things 
 connected with religious questions, and connected 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 221 
 
 with this question of missions, which I do not 
 know. I don't know why we should be placed 
 under a general system under which it conies to 
 pass that so large a portion of the inhabitants of 
 this globe should be for nearly two thousand years 
 ignorant of the coming of the Son of God. I do 
 not know why we are under a general dispensation 
 in which it comes to pass that so large a portion of 
 those who know of his coming should reject Him. 
 This could not have been anticipated ; but Chris- 
 tendom is not Christian. I do not know why it 
 should be that those who are Christians should be 
 such poor Christians. How can they be? I do 
 not know; I do not expect to know in this world. 
 I doubt if I shall ever know wh}^, in a universe 
 created and governed by a Being of perfect wisdom 
 and goodness and power, there should be evil at 
 all. 
 
 "But there are some things which I do know. I 
 am certain of them. I know, however it may have 
 come, that there is evil both moral and natural ; 
 and I do not believe that there is any agnostic that 
 does not know this. I know I stand appalled be- 
 fore the varied forms and the vast extent of this 
 evil. I know that there is a difference between 
 evil and good, and that good is better than evil. I 
 know that knowledge is better than ignorance, and 
 truth than falsehood, and honesty than dishonesty, 
 and temperance than intemperance, and purity 
 than impurity, and kindness than cruelty, and love 
 than hatred. I know that kindness would have 
 
222 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 been a more suitable return for what our beloved 
 Brother Parsons did in Turke}- than murder. I 
 know that the sacrifices of a broken heart are bet- 
 ter than human sacrifices. I know that the wor- 
 ship of God, who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth 
 is better than the worship of idols; and knowing 
 this, I know — and that is our point here — that 
 wherever Christianity comes — real Christianity, 
 not nominal — that which is evil will be displaced 
 by that which is better ; knowledge will take the 
 place of ignorance, and truth of falsehood, and 
 temperance of intemperance, and purity of impu- 
 rity, and kindness of cruelty, and love of hatred, 
 and peace of war. The savage and the cannibal 
 will take his place at the feet of Him who was meek 
 and lowly in heart. Charms, superstitions, the 
 various forms of witchcraft and idolatry — all that 
 brood of superstitions which rests with such an in- 
 cubus, and has for ages rested with such an incu- 
 bus, upon the race — would flee away as the mists 
 of the morning. And not only will Christianity 
 displace that which is evil, but it will displace it by 
 that which is the very best. I know that it will 
 displace it by that which is the best possible. I 
 know this because Christ had a perfect humanity ; 
 and therefore whoever would reach all the possibili- 
 ties of the nature that is given, be it man or wo- 
 man, must do it through Christ's likeness. 
 
 " I hold that Christ was the second Adam, and rep- 
 resented a perfect, a holy humanity. It is written 
 in the Scriptures, 'Male and female created He them ; 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 223 
 
 and blessed them, and called their name Adam.' 
 This would indicate that humanity is complete only 
 as it includes both man and woman. It may be well 
 to speak of the manhood of Christ, and perhaps to 
 write a book about it ; but the distinctive qualities 
 of manhood were no more conspicuous in Him than 
 those supplementary qualities of womanhood which, 
 together with those of manhood, go to make up a 
 perfect humanity. Christ therefore having a per- 
 fect humanity, whoever will reach all the possibil- 
 ities that belong to the nature given to th?vt person 
 must do it through Christlikeness ; and Christianity 
 can never be satisfied till each individual follower 
 of Christ comes to be like Him. 
 
 "In providing thus for the completeness, the 
 perfection of the individual, Christianity provides 
 for the perfection of society, because the problem 
 of society is the problem of the individual. Chris- 
 tianity knows that, and therefore begins with the 
 individual. Let each individual be perfect, and 
 society, the organization of society, will take on 
 just those forms by themselves spontaneously which 
 are requisite for the perfection of the whole. If, 
 therefore, the possibilities of this race, individual 
 and social, are ever to be reached, I know that the 
 second Adam, the man Christ, must be the model 
 and leader of the race, and that just in proportion 
 as He is thus the model and leader of the race, men 
 will reach their highest possibilities. 
 
 "And one point farther. Not only does Chris- 
 tianity thus enable individuals and society to reach 
 
224 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 their highest possibilities, but it gives the highest 
 conception possible of what those possibilities are. 
 It gives a grandeur to the destiny of man both in- 
 dividual and social which the imagination had never 
 conceived and never could have conceived. In 
 this respect it is analogous to nature, and stands 
 over against nature precisely as nature does over 
 against the unaided thought of man. Not farther 
 does the universe, as revealed by the telescope in 
 its grandeur, and by the microscope in its minute- 
 ness and finish, transcend whatever has been con- 
 ceived by the unaided imagination, than does the 
 Christian heaven transcend in knowledge and pu- 
 rity and glory anything of which the unaided im- 
 agination had conceived. It gives us, therefore, 
 the highest conception possible of the grandeur and 
 progress of our nature, the very best. 
 
 "Now the difficulty of receiving this lies in its 
 very greatness. What I You take a savage, a can- 
 nibal, a drunkard from our streets ? Yes, take one 
 of us. What I take such creatures as we are, that 
 are going down into the dust of death, and deliver 
 them from sin and from evil, and raise them up to 
 a dignity and purity and glory like this? Yes, just 
 that. No matter what the incrustations may be 
 upon the diamond ; there is power in the glorious 
 gospel of the blessed God to fashion and to polish 
 it, and to set it as a gem in the diadem of the 
 Redeemer. That is what Christianity does. If 
 we look at man, it would seem to be impossible. 
 It is too great to be believed. But if we look at 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 225 
 
 the lave of God in Jesus Christ, it could not be 
 believed if it were not so great. It is required by 
 that love and by the grandeur of the system to be 
 so great. 'He that delivered up for us his only be- 
 gotten Son, how shall He not with Him freely give 
 us all things? ' 
 
 "We see, then, beloved Christian friends, what 
 that result is towards which God is working, and for 
 which He permits us to work together with Him. 
 We are capable of producing changes. We can 
 cause that to be which but for us would not have 
 been. The changes which the children of this 
 world seek to produce may perhaps all be included 
 in the transfer of matter from one place to another, 
 the transfer of property from man to man. That 
 is all. That is the business of this world. It is 
 a restless sea, always in motion, always the same. 
 But we seek to produce moral and spiritual changes, 
 and we seek to do three things. 
 
 "We seek, in the first place, to do for each in- 
 dividual for whom we labor the best thing. We 
 seek to do for him the greatest favor which- it is 
 possible for one human being to do for another, — 
 that is to say, to lead him to know and foUow 
 Jesus Christ, to lead him to be able to say, as I 
 would humbly say, 'I know' — no agnosticism — 
 'I know whom I have believed, and that He is able 
 to keep that which I have committed unto Him 
 asrainst that dav' 
 
 "We wish, in the second place, to found civili- 
 zations which shall have so much of intelligence 
 
226 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 and of principle that they will not collapse by their 
 own want of inherent energy; that there shall be 
 no alternation of civilization as there always has 
 been with barbarism ; no alternation of opj)ression 
 with anarchy. And we wish further to provide 
 material for that higher social state in which there 
 shall be love and purity and joy and peace before 
 the throne of God forever more. This being the 
 work which we have before us, involving the high- 
 est social problems, and the highest problems un- 
 der the government of God, we come to the ques- 
 tion which has been so much discussed before this 
 board, What sort of men do we need? And here 
 I must say that I was greatly gratified and in a 
 measure relieved by the remarks which were made 
 by the representative of the Prudential Commit- 
 tee, Mr. Eopes, in regard to that subject. I did 
 feel that we were coming to be one-sided about it. 
 The call was for talent, for the first order of tal- 
 ent, and I would not object to that, perhaps, in a 
 certain sense ; but when Christ prayed for his king- 
 dom and for work in it. He prayed for laborers. 
 He did not pray simply for reapers, but He prayed 
 for laborers, for all the kind of labor that is 
 needed ; and the kind of labor that is needed in the 
 harvest field is of great variety. I remember the 
 account of a harvest field in old time, and there were 
 reapers there, and then, following them, there 
 were the gleaners; and there was one gleaner 
 named Ruth, who followed the men, and they were 
 directed to let some handfuls fall on purpose, so 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 227 
 
 tnat she might gather them, and not to reproach her. 
 And now Kiith has been reproduced in these days 
 in the Woman's Board. The Ruths follow the men, 
 and they glean the field ; and I suj^jpose, from the 
 amount they gather — there was great surprise ex- 
 pressed at the amount Ruth gathered — that the 
 men sometimes let handfuls drop with purpose, 
 that they may pick them up. 
 
 "Now this is a kind of labor that we need, and 
 we are feeling the need of it more and more. And 
 then we need other kinds of labor. I remember 
 having heard (for it was not in my day) that Sam- 
 uel J. Mills, whom we recognize as having been 
 more efficient in connection with the origination of 
 this missionary enterprise than any other person, 
 was not a distinguished scholar, but rather the re- 
 verse. Yet he had his own talent ; he had the tal- 
 ent which was needed for stimulation and organiza- 
 tion ; he had consecration. He could not speak in 
 public, as I understand it, but he went to these 
 distinguished people, these men who need sometimes 
 somebody to direct them, to tell them how to shoot. 
 He went to Dr. Griffin, and I know that Dr. 
 Griffin said (and he was one of the great leading 
 agents in that matter) that whatever he had done 
 he had done at the suggestion of Samuel J. Mills. 
 And a great many cases of this sort occurred. 
 There is talent of all sorts needed ; and I agree that 
 there are certain kinds of work (and the highest 
 kinds) for which we do need weak men. But then 
 they are such kind of weak men as the Apostle 
 
228 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 Paul was, who said, 'Who is weak and I am not 
 weak? ' We need men who feel their own weak- 
 ness in the face of difficulties which stand in the 
 way of success in this great work, men who feel 
 their absolute nothingness. But then we need men 
 who can also be so much in sympathy with God as 
 to say, 'When I am weak, then am I strong,' — 
 men who are weak in themselves, but strong to take 
 hold of the strength of God; and such men we 
 need because the work which our missionaries do 
 is an apostolic work. That is to say, the first part 
 is precisely what the apostles did. 
 
 "That is the theory of our missions. It is to go 
 and plant churches, and to give them that organ- 
 ization which under the circumstances is best for 
 them, and then pass on. Now that is apostolic 
 work, and for it we need the aggressive power of 
 Paul and the firmness of Peter and the love of 
 John. We do need the first talent of our colleges 
 and of our theological seminaries, and I call for it 
 here to-night — the first talent to stand in the front 
 and to org-anize. Who is there that will hear this 
 call? Who is there that will now in this formative 
 time identify himself with this grandest work of 
 the ages? " 
 
 At Portland, in 1882, the distinction between 
 love and duty was admirably made as follows : — 
 
 "From the commencement of this meeting there 
 has been evidently a drift in one direction, — an 
 unmistakable drift. It appeared in the reports 
 read by the secretaries Tuesday afternoon; it 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 229 
 
 flamed forth in the sermon; it constituted the 
 substance of the special papers read by the secre- 
 taries ; it entered into the discussions that followed ; 
 it went forth to its culmination in the devotional 
 exercises this morning, when by that inspired and 
 inspiring movement Mr. Dodge offered to double 
 his already large subscription, and that offer was 
 followed by so many who rose successively, and by 
 so many who rose simultaneously to offer the same 
 thing. That drift evidently is toward a decided 
 enlargement of our efforts in all directions. This 
 has been the tendency of the movement of the 
 meeting up to this point, clearly, unmistakably. 
 
 "But I have not seemed to see so distinctly ex- 
 pressed, in the speeches which have been made, the 
 motive which is to sustain us in going: forward in 
 this movement. In the sermon it seemed to be the 
 presence and power of the Holy Spirit ; but then 
 that was for a special purpose with reference to 
 individuals: 'Separate me Saul and Barnabas.' 
 What was to be the motive which was to sustain 
 them during the long years of their labor, and 
 persecutions, and when the hour should come, as 
 come they knew it must, — when they, too, should 
 follow the Master to crucifixion? I have heard 
 three words : one was duty, that is a good word ; 
 another was enthusiasm, — missionary enthusiasm, 
 and that is a good word; another was love, — love 
 of the Saviour, and I like that better. 
 
 "Some years since there was a woman who had 
 gone out as a missionary to India in connection with 
 
230 i¥.17?ir HOPKINS. 
 
 the American Board, who brought her chiklren to 
 •the coast that she might send them to this countr}^ 
 She put them into the boat that was to carry them 
 out to the steamer that lay in the offing, and 
 watched them until they embarked; then she 
 turned her face away, and with tears streaming 
 down her cheeks she said, 'I do this for thee, 
 Jesus. ' Here was a love by this woman of a Being 
 whom she had never seen that was paramount to 
 her natural affection for her children, that was the 
 principle and the spring of her missionary labor. 
 This personal love of the Saviour was long since 
 sanctioned by Him as the motive, not only for 
 missionary, but also for apostolic labor. In the 
 threefold inquiry which our Saviour made of the 
 Apostle Peter after his resurrection, the one thing 
 sought for as a motive for the apostolic labors, 
 labors that were to end in crucifixion, was the ^er- 
 sonal love of himself. 'Simon, son of Jonas, lov- 
 est thou me? ' And the one object proposed in the 
 threefold injunction that followed that inquiry was 
 the upbuilding of Christian character: 'Feed my 
 sheep,' Teed my lambs.' From this motive and 
 for this object the apostle labored during his whole 
 life. This we know because we hear him saying 
 in his old age, 'The elders which are among you I 
 exhort, ' — evidently having reference to this conver- 
 sation, — ' which am also an elder : feed the flock 
 of God which is among you, taking the oversight 
 thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for 
 filthy lucre, but of a ready mind,' — that is from 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 231 
 
 love. As seen in the woman to whom I have re- 
 ferred, this love had in it no touch of earthly pas- 
 sion, it was wholly moral and spiritual; it was 
 the love of One whom she had never seen; it 
 was the love of One whose character was perfect; 
 it was the love of One who had loved her and 
 given himself for her; it was the love of a divine 
 Saviour. Here, then, was the highest ix)ssible prin- 
 ciple of action ; love purged of all selfishness and 
 mingled with complacency and gratitude. 
 
 "But then, when you come to this point, what 
 of duty? I said that this love was the highest pos- 
 sible principle of action —what of duty? There 
 are those who say that duty is higher. Now let us 
 look for a moment at the relations of these two to 
 each other. In order to do that I will take as an 
 illustration the man spoken of by Dr. Goodwin in 
 his sermon who, he said, had invested $125,000 in 
 pine lands. If he had asked him for a contribu- 
 tion to the American Board, the man would not 
 have felt pleasantly about it; he would have been 
 reluctant to give it. I did not understand that Dr. 
 Goodwin applied to the man, but suppose now he 
 had applied, and had told this man that it was his 
 duty to give something for the conversion of the 
 heathen, and the man had said that he could not 
 deny the request, and had given him one hundred 
 dollars, glad to get rid of him so. Would it have 
 been the duty of that man to give that one hun- 
 dred dollars? I shall not discuss that question. 
 Now if the man had gone on making money, and 
 
232 MAIiK HOPKINS. 
 
 the year had come around, and Dr. Goodwin or 
 some other person had gone to him again, and he 
 had seen him coming, knowing what he wanted, 
 he would have said, ' There comes that duty again ; 
 I don't like the looks of it; sorry for it, but I 
 suppose I must do something,' and he gives per- 
 haps two hundred dollars. Now was it the duty 
 of this man to ask him in that way? I shall not 
 discuss that question. But suppose he had gone to 
 this man and told him that it was his duty, not to 
 give something to the heathen, but to give himself 
 to Christ ; that it was his duty to love God w ith 
 all his heart and his neighbor as himself ; and sup- 
 pose the man had asked why he should do this, and 
 he had been pointed to the cross of Christ, and had 
 seen 'One hanging on the tree,' and had realized 
 that He died for him, and had given himself fully 
 and heartily to Him as the Saviour of sinners, — all 
 that he was and all that he had, — then, if Dr. 
 Goodwin had gone to him and asked him for a con- 
 tribution to the American Board, what would he 
 have said? Why, perhaps he would have said, 'I 
 will do as the sainted champion did in the earlier 
 history of this board, who gave not only his for- 
 tune but himself, and who said, "Tell me where 
 the darkest place in this world is, and send me 
 there," and he went and laid his bones do^vn on 
 the western coast of Africa.' Perhaps he would 
 have said that; but he might have said, 'No, I 
 tAW give you 81,000, or 85,000, or 810,000; ' and 
 now there would come a voice to him, 'Take care, 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 233 
 
 what are you doing? Haven't you a family? 
 Don't you know that if a man does n't provide for 
 his own, he is worse than an infidel? ' 'Yes,' the 
 man says, 'I have a family, but then I think I 
 have enough for them.' 'Yes,' but this voice says, 
 'don't you know that presently Brother Clark is 
 coming along, and the home missions will want 
 something? ' And he says, 'Let him come, I shall 
 be glad to see him.' And so the repetition comes 
 of the different claims that will be made to him, 
 and now the man looks up and says, 'Who are you 
 that are saying this ? ' And the voice comes and 
 says, 'I am duty, duty restraining you now. Per- 
 haps you have been hasty, perhaps you have heard 
 Dr. Goodwin's sermon, and are a little over-ex- 
 cited, and it may not be exactly prudent for you to 
 give so much.' And the man says, 'Are you duty? 
 I did not know you, you look so much better than 
 you did.' And now duty comes to regulate the 
 love of the man, and to become the law of his love ; 
 and if I understand it, that love is the principle of 
 his action, and the duty is the regulating law of his 
 action. The question is not, how little he shall 
 give, but how much duty will permit him to give. 
 And so, looking over the whole ground under the 
 control and direction of duty, love and duty look 
 into each other's eyes, and they lock arms and 
 move on together. Now when this man was ad- 
 dressed in the first place, when you went to him in 
 the first place, and he gave you one hundred dol- 
 lars, what did you do? You just took a piece of 
 
234 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 steel, and you struck a flint rock, and you brought 
 out one bright spark, and then the rock was just as 
 hard and cold as it was before. Now what have 
 you done? You have touched the rock with the 
 rod of God, and there flows out from it constantly 
 a stream of living water that follows the peoj^le of 
 God through the desert. And that, as I under- 
 stand it, is the relation of these two words." 
 
 At the age of eighty-three, at the seventy -fifth 
 anniversary of the founding of the board in Bos- 
 ton, in 1885, Dr. Hopkins made the address from 
 which also an extract is given : — 
 
 "In addressing you, fathers and brethren, on 
 this seventy - fifth anniversary of the American 
 Board, I desire, first of all, to give thanks to God 
 that I am permitted to be with you. I am older 
 than the American Board, older by eight years. 
 In office I am the oldest corporate member of the 
 board. The board abides in strength, but of those 
 who constituted it when I was elected, in 1838, 
 officers and members, not one remains. Well, 
 then, may I give humble and adoring thanks that 
 I am permitted to be with you. I wish, also, to 
 thank the board for the great honor they have 
 done me in electing me to my present office for 
 these eight and twenty successive years, and for 
 their kindness and forbearance in accepting the 
 imperfect and inadequate service that I have been 
 able to render. Being thus old, having entered 
 upon life at the beginning of the second year of 
 this marvelous century, I have seen all its wonders 
 
THE AMERICAN HOARD. 235 
 
 pass before me. I remember when my lesson in 
 geography in the common school told me there were 
 less than six million inhabitants in these United 
 States. I remember the wars of the first Napo- 
 leon, and can feel yet the throb of excitement 
 caused by the tardy news of his great battles. I 
 remember the war of 1812, and the embargo, and 
 the victory of New Orleans. I remember the first 
 steamboat and railroad and power-press, the first 
 photograph and spectroscope, the first telegraph 
 and telephone, and heard the first whisper, and it 
 was but a whisper, of the first Atlantic cable. I 
 remember the first spinning jenny, the first mow- 
 ing machine and sewing machine and reaper. All 
 these I have seen so extended and applied as to 
 increase the capabilities of the race many fold, and 
 to make of the world that then was quite another 
 world. In common with most of you, I have wit- 
 nessed the greatest civil war ever known, have seen 
 the dark cloud of slavery pass off and a bow of 
 hope brighter than before span our political hea- 
 vens. All this I have seen, and, to crown it all, I 
 have seen the missionary spirit coming as the breath 
 of God upon his people, and Christians girding 
 themselves as never before for the conquest of the 
 whole world to Christ. 
 
 "The formation of the American Board in 1810 
 I do not remember, but I do remember the dif- 
 ficulty there was in finding a place for its first mis- 
 sionaries. I remember well the sailing of the first 
 missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and the ex- 
 
236 MAKE HOPKINS. 
 
 ultation there was, when the news came that the 
 natives had ah-eacly cast their idols to the moles 
 and to the bats. From that time I have been in 
 sjonpathy with the movements of the board, have 
 known something of its explorations and methods, 
 and have seen the whole heathen world, originally 
 closed, opened to the entrance of the gospel. 
 During this period I have known of the debts 
 of the board, its discouragements, its crises, its 
 deliverances, its triumphs. I have seen the old 
 school Presbyterian brethren part from it; then 
 our Dutch brethren; then our new school Pres- 
 byterian brethren, taking with them altogether 
 churches much more numerous and wealthy than 
 our own, and yet I have seen the old board hold 
 on its way with no essential diminution of contri- 
 butions or of efficiency till now, in its seventy -fifth 
 year, and out of debt, it has expended more than 
 twenty millions of dollars in seeking to spread the 
 gospel, and its missions belt the globe. 
 
 "It is nothing to boast of that this vast sum has 
 been expended without loss, and up to the pres- 
 ent time with no suspicion of dishonesty. But in 
 times like these it may be well to emphasize the 
 fact, and to ask infidelity, and agnosticism, and all 
 kindred isms, when they propose to show an equal 
 sum, freely given, and intrusted to infidels without 
 security, to be spent for benevolent, or, if they pre- 
 fer the term, for altruistic purposes." 
 
 This was the last meeting but one of the Amer- 
 ican Board that Dr. Hopkins was permitted to at- 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD. 237 
 
 tend. He appeared still vigorous both in mind and 
 in body, and the inspiring retrospect given in the 
 Boston address and the fervid glow of his eloquent 
 faith in the future progress of Christ's kingdom 
 gave hope of years of useful service to the cause of 
 missions. The following year, 1886, at the age of 
 eighty-four, he traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, for 
 the discharge of his duties as presiding officer. 
 He probably went with less joyous energy, with 
 graver resolution, with more solemn thought, than 
 ever before. It was not so much because he dis- 
 cerned that his long period of service was drawing 
 to a close, as it was the knowledge that troublous 
 times had come that sobered the joy of his annual 
 pilgrimage. He had a perfect understanding of 
 the conditions. He knew that the agitation which 
 had arisen in regard to the acceptance or rejection 
 of candidates for missionary labor, though tem- 
 porary in its peculiar occasion, might arise again 
 and again under other circumstances. He wished 
 a policy to be adopted that would be no temporary 
 expedient, but one that should rest on some prin- 
 ciple permanently applicable. With the states- 
 manlike vision that never failed him in a crisis, 
 and with a bold and heroic fidelity to his convic- 
 tions, he stood and pleaded at Des Moines for the 
 constitutional in the Congregational polity and the 
 catholic sympathies of an apostolic age. If we con- 
 sider how busy his life had been and how full of 
 anxieties and problems, how constant had been his 
 training under the hand of the divine Master, it 
 
238 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 requires no stretch of imagination to conceive that 
 this long training had been largely for this last 
 dramatic appearance of his ever ripening character 
 and powers, for this and what lies beyond. Cer- 
 tainly his best friends, those who knew him best, 
 can only give thanks for the simplicity and firm- 
 ness, the courtesy and candor, of his words and 
 decisions in that stormy debate. They would not 
 wish one word altered, one expression changed. 
 The significance of his attitude can be explained 
 only by giving an outline of the movements which 
 led to that debate. 
 
THE CEISIS IN THE BOARD OF 
 MISSIONS. 
 
" And last the master-bowman, he 
 
 Would cleave the mark, A willing' ear 
 We lent him. Who, but hung- to hear 
 
 The rapt oration flowing free 
 
 From point to point, with power and grace 
 And music in the bounds of law 
 To those conclusions when we saw 
 
 The God within him light his face, 
 
 And seem to lift the form and glow 
 In azure orbits heavenly- wise." 
 
 Tennyson, In Memoriam. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The thirty years of Dr. Hopkins's presidency 
 of the American Board were for the most part 
 years of peaceful and harmonious development of 
 missionary operations. That his influence was not 
 paramount, that he was not able at last to avert 
 dissension and prevent the exhibition to a hostile 
 world of a noble missionary society excluding from 
 its fields young men and women burning with love 
 for the Master, because of their hope in the large- 
 ness of God's mercy or their uncertainty as to his 
 final dealing with the heathen, was owing in part 
 to the constitution of the society. He foresaw the 
 perils. Had he been a member of the committee 
 deciding on the applications of candidates for mis- 
 sionary service under the society, as the president 
 has since most reasonably been made, he might 
 have controlled the divisive tendencies, or at least 
 modified certain influences, and perhaps have de- 
 vised a method of retaining the ardent loyalty of 
 all shades of opinion within the society. 
 
 What he could do vmder the conditions he did, 
 and none of his friends can regret that the closing 
 efforts of his heroic life were made in favor of 
 
242 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 treating applications for the home and foreign work 
 in 2:>reeisely the same way. His attitude and ac- 
 tion in this crisis in the history of the Congrega- 
 tional missionary board were a fitting termination 
 to his career. 
 
 The Andover Theological Seminary, founded by 
 a coalition of moderate Calvinists and Hopkinsians, 
 has been for several years the centre of extraordi- 
 nary agitations. In the judgment of certain friends 
 of the seminary, some of the professors have not 
 taught a theology consistent with the creed which 
 each appointee must sign in order to occupy his 
 professorship. A number of new 23rofessors were 
 appointed in 1882. The appointment of one of 
 them, the Rev. Newman Smyth, who had been se- 
 lected by the trustees for the chair of "Christian 
 Theology," was not confirmed bj^ the visitors. Un- 
 der the statutes of the seminary the visitors ^ must 
 confirm or reject any nomination to a professor- 
 ship made by the trustees. The reason given for 
 the rejection is contained in these words from the 
 record of the visitors' action: "He seems to us a 
 brilliant and eloquent writer rather than a profes- 
 sional theologian: " "of all men a teacher of Sj'S- 
 
 1 The power of the visitors, and indeed the constitutionality of 
 their original appointment, as limiting the rights of the trustees 
 of Phillips Academy, has been a matter of doubt in the minds of 
 some eminent lawyers. In the litigation consequent on the exer- 
 cise of the power of removal in the case of Professor Egbert C. 
 Smyth, the question was debated before the Supreme Court, of 
 Massachusetts. The decision rendered affirmed the constitution- 
 ality of their relations. 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 243 
 
 tematic Theology needs to have profoundness of 
 thought and precision, and these are the very qual- 
 ities which after all our study we fail to find in Dr. 
 Newman Smyth." Although the visitors distinctly 
 say in their record that his real views upon the 
 themes, "sin, the atonement, and the future state " 
 "are in substantial agreement with the character- 
 istic doctrinal position of the seminary," and reiter- 
 ate the same assertion in a subsequent minute, it 
 was believed by many that the hostility to his ap- 
 pointment exhibited by conservatives on account of 
 his doctrinal views had great weight with the visit- 
 ors in leading them to negative his election. 
 
 In 1886 "a committee of certain of the alumni " 
 of the seminary preferred charges against five of 
 the professors on distinct gTounds, wdiich involv^e 
 and specify infidelity to some article or articles of 
 the seminary creed. The point of divergence from 
 the belief of the founders which has received great- 
 est attention is what is often erroneously called 
 "future probation," or more exactly the belief that 
 "those who have had no opportunity to learn of a 
 Saviour in this life may be granted such an oppor- 
 tunity in the other life." That several of the pro- 
 fessors at Andover held this doctrine is certain, and 
 was wtII understood for two or three years before 
 the charges were preferred in July, 1886. The 
 visitors took up the charges, and the professors were 
 summoned to answer. 
 
 The graduates of the seminary abound in eastern 
 Massachusetts, but are pastors of churches all over 
 
244 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 the country. All these graduates and the Congre- 
 gational churches generally were deeply interested 
 in the prosecution. Many eminent men were cer- 
 tain that the professors were not merely heretical, 
 but dishonest. Others held that the duty to the 
 light coming from the Scriptures specifically re- 
 quired in connection with subscription to the creed 
 was paramount. Others believed that articles in 
 the creed were so inconsistent with each other, and 
 that the whole document was so plainly a reconcil- 
 iation of opposing schools, that the original founders 
 must have put very different constructions upon dif- 
 erent parts of it. Others affirmed that there could 
 be nothing dishonorable in the acceptance of an 
 opinion not expressly ruled out, and indeed not 
 even considered, by the "founders" and "associate 
 founders " of the seminary. Many others waited for 
 the issue of the trial. The excitement was prob- 
 ably greater in the Congregational circles in and 
 about Boston than elsewhere. Boston is but twenty- 
 three miles from Andover, and has been the head- 
 quarters of the " American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions " since its formation. Nat- 
 urally the managers of this great society were pro- 
 foundly affected by the movement. The Congrega- 
 tional House at Boston, in which the rooms of the 
 American Board and those of other Congregational 
 benevolent societies as well as the rooms of that 
 newspaper ^ which had been zealous for the prose- 
 cution were located, the head-centre of Congrega- 
 
 ^ The Congregationalist. 
 
CRISIS IX THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 245 
 
 tionalism, was doubtless a place of constant dis- 
 cussion both before and after tlie charges were 
 preferred. The belief in a future opportunity for 
 repentance for those who have had no knowledge 
 of Christ in this life, which belief has seemed gener- 
 ally the most objectionable of the Andover views, 
 had adherents outside of the seminary and its grad- 
 uates among clergymen and distinguished laymen. 
 Many who would not accept this belief cherished 
 a hope, without laying down any definite mode of 
 divine action, that the issues of the life to come may 
 not in every case have been determined in the pres- 
 ent life. Probably views and hopes like these were 
 more generally held by influential Congregational- 
 ists in and about Boston in 1886 than elsewhere in 
 our country. 
 
 It was perfectly natural that those gentlemen 
 who in important positions looked upon such views 
 as most harmful should do all in their power to 
 discredit them. The cry was early raised that 
 the "Andover hypothesis," as it has been called, 
 which strictly means the belief that an opportu- 
 nity after death to know Christ and repent may 
 be granted to those who have never heard of Him 
 in this life, and has been held by some of the 
 ablest theologians of this century in England and 
 Germany, and which is certainly as old as the 
 third century of the Christian dispensation, "cuts 
 the nerve of missions." However plausible such a 
 statement may at first seem, there was a revival of 
 missionary zeal in the Andover seminary the year 
 
246 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 immediately preceding the prosecution. In that 
 same year, 1886, candidates for missionary ser- 
 vice presented themselves to the Prudential Com- 
 mittee of the American Board from the Andover 
 seminary. In one or two cases the candidates ac- 
 cepted this hypothesis, or rather refused to deny 
 the possibility of its truth. Other applicants since 
 have looked upon the ultimate destiny of the 
 heathen who have not heard of Christ as involved 
 in mystery, and have had some sympathy with the 
 "Andover" view. The question as to whether 
 those who accepted the belief that for such as had 
 not heard the gospel in this life a knowledge of 
 Christ after death would be given might be sent as 
 missionaries by the American Board arose then of 
 necessity in the committee who decide upon appli- 
 cations. In that committee some went so far in 
 opposition to sending such as to avow that uncer- 
 tainty in the mind of any candidate as to whether 
 the destiny of every man is irrevocably fixed in 
 this life disqualified the candidate for missionary 
 service. 
 
 Perhaps the gravest case of hardship was that 
 of the Rev. Robert A. Hume, a man of singular 
 devotion to his Master and of peculiar efficiency 
 in the Marathi Mission, who, after ten years of 
 service, was enjoying his rest in this country. He 
 expressed himself at the alumni dinner of the 
 Andover seminary as finding some comfort in being 
 able to say to thoughtful heathen that he was not 
 positive that all their ancestors were hopelessly 
 
CBISIS IX THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 247 
 
 lost, and distinctly intimated that the explanation 
 adopted by some of the Andover professors would 
 make it easier for him to carry on his missionary 
 work. "I can say," are his words, "not only for 
 m3'self but for a considerable number of workers 
 in the field, that we believe there is light in this 
 matter. It is a practical question, which we be- 
 lieve is going to receive from this source a more 
 Christian and helpful solution." He was the son 
 of missionary parents ; he was passionately devoted 
 to his work ; his return was longed for by his col- 
 leagues; the nerve of his love for the poor Hin- 
 doos and for their conversion had not been "cut," 
 but rather stimulated by every step of mental and 
 spiritual growth. A purpose was at ouce mani- 
 fested after his frank but tender words at the An- 
 dover dinner to resist his return. His request for 
 the privilege of resuming his work, now that his 
 vacation had expired, was answered with evasive 
 postponement. 
 
 The applications of the new candidates were 
 practically rejected with the adoption of a resolu- 
 tion that "it is inexpedient to appoint at present.^'' 
 Here was certainly a new condition, a crisis in the 
 missionary society of the Congregational churches. 
 Many large contributors regarded this refusal to 
 accept young men who longed to carry "the good 
 news " of God to a dying world, and especially the 
 cruel treatment of Mr. Hume, as certain to do the 
 greatest injury to the kingdom of Christ. On the 
 other hand, many said that these young men, who 
 
248 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 were ready to leave tlie brightest prospects in this 
 country to fulfill the Saviour's mission and to par- 
 take of his sufferings in benighted foreign lands, 
 did not believe that this is "a dying world." To 
 cherish a hope that God in his mercy might make 
 Christ known to those who had not heard of Him 
 in this life seemed to them to disqualify for mis- 
 sionary service a man who was so deeply in earnest 
 to make Christ known to the heathen in this life 
 that he was ready to make the supreme sacrifice in 
 order to go and preach to them the gospel. 
 
 In 1871, at Salem, Massachusetts, the follow- 
 ing declaration was adopted by the board : — 
 
 "Neither this board, nor the Prudential Com- 
 mittee, are in any wise a theological court to settle 
 doctrinal points of belief, but a body instituted by 
 the churches to make known the gospel of Christ 
 among the heathen nations and those who sit in 
 darkness, though nominally Christian, and estab- 
 lish churches among them, maintaining that faith, 
 and that only, which is universally received by those 
 Christian bodies whose agents they are, and who 
 furnish the funds which they administer." 
 
 In opposition to this declaration the Prudential 
 Committee of the board had now begun to reject 
 applicants on doctrinal grounds. A disposition 
 was manifest to use this great missionary society 
 for suppressing false doctrine. How much per- 
 sonal antagonism and institutional rivalry mingled 
 with the motives arising from a desire for a pure 
 gospel no one should attempt to say. But it was 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 249 
 
 believed by men of judicial temper that a disposi- 
 tion was shown as early as the meeting in Portland, 
 Maine, in 1884, to marshal the forces of the board 
 against the friends of what has been called ''the 
 new departure " in theology. 
 
 This was the condition of things in the autumn 
 of 188G, when the board was to convene in Des 
 Moines, Iowa. The venerable chairman ^ of the 
 Prudential Committee, who had been a member of 
 that body for twenty-nine years, was so disheart- 
 ened by the resolute determination of the commit- 
 tee to exclude from missionary service those whose 
 views were not definitely fixed as to the impossibil- 
 ity for any heathen of rejDcntance after death, that 
 he prepared to resign his position. With him Dr. 
 Hopkins had a warm sympathy. Without any par- 
 ticidar interest in the "theory," he felt that the 
 discouragement of these young men was sure to 
 have widespread and disastrous consequences. 
 
 The action of the Prudential Committee in re- 
 jecting young men, and the whole tendency of the 
 board to constitute itself a theological court to test 
 the soundness of candidates on the most obscure 
 questions of doctrine. Dr. Hojikins fully disap- 
 proved. His whole soul condemned the introduc- 
 tion of partisanship into the activities of the board, 
 and his mind eagerly sought for a solution of the 
 difficulties that should enable all shades of belief 
 to work together in harmony for the conversion of 
 the world. 
 
 1 Hon. Alpheus Hardy, of Boston. 
 
250 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 The debate that was sure to come at Des Moines 
 opened on the report of the committee to which the 
 Annual Report of the Prudential Committee upon 
 the Home Department had been referred. It was 
 a debate of great interest, in which some of the 
 ablest men of the denomination took part. In the 
 course of the debate an extract from a letter from 
 the newly appointed president of Yale University 
 was read, suggesting the ordinary Congregational 
 council as the proper tribunal for the decision of 
 such questions as the Prudential Committee were 
 considering. It was after that suggestion, which 
 had occurred to many, and seemed to Dr. Hopkins 
 as probably the wisest way out of the difficulties 
 besetting the board, that he made the following 
 address : — 
 
 " It will be observed that President Dwight indi- 
 cates a feeling of fear that there may be certain 
 evils resulting from a reference of this theological 
 question to any other authority than that which is 
 recognized by the Congregational polity. I think 
 that there are such evils, not only to be feared, but 
 are now present in connection with the fact that 
 this board, through its committee, does exercise 
 ecclesiastical functions, or at least that the decision 
 of theological questions is left with the board as it 
 is represented by this committee. That fact does 
 make the board theological in a certain sense, and 
 in a sense in which it seems to me to have already 
 brought with it serious evils, aside from those which 
 have been connected with the discussions in the 
 
CRISIS IX THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 251 
 
 Prudential Committee. One of these evils is these 
 theological discussions which we are having to-day. 
 It is a false position of the board in the view of the 
 public. The public do regard the board as a the- 
 ological body; and in coming here it was in all the 
 papers that the great business of this board was to 
 have a theological discussion. Now, while I agree 
 that the method which has been adopted by this 
 Board in determining the theological fitness of its 
 candidates has worked well, — and I honor the sec- 
 retaries in having guarded as they have our mis- 
 sions from the entrance of incapable men, and that 
 guardianship is to be maintained, — yet the method 
 by which this Prudential Committee is made also a 
 theological committee, while it did work well for 
 a time while the conditions were favorable, has not 
 worked so well since the conditions were changed. 
 It seems to me that those conditions are changed, 
 and that the method has fallen into a place some- 
 what like that in which the ship fell that carried 
 the Apostle Paul. That ship got into a place 
 where two seas met, and the only thing to be done 
 with it was to run it aground. Now it seems to 
 me that the method — not the committee, but the 
 method — has come into a place where two seas 
 meet, and it comes to be a serious question whether 
 it can be continued wisely by the board. The 
 board has been placed in that position in the view 
 of the public. Now if the board had originally 
 adopted this policy, or one that is in accord with 
 the resolution that has been read, not referring at 
 
252 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 all a theological question to the committee, leav- 
 ing them simply a prudential committee, there 
 would have been no lisp of any difficulty what- 
 ever, and all this trouble would have been saA^ed. 
 That is one evil that has arisen ; all this difficulty 
 has come simply from the fact that the Pruden- 
 tial Committee have been a theological committee 
 
 — the whole of it. 
 
 "Another difficulty has arisen. Because the 
 board has been considered as a theological body, 
 and a theatre for debating theological questions, 
 and as having the oversight of theological questions, 
 it has been understood, since the time of the meet- 
 ing of the board in Portland, that the two wings 
 
 — if I may so express it — of the theological world 
 there at the East have been manoeuvring on the 
 one side and on the other — I don't say it is so, but 
 it has been said to be so, and there have been whis- 
 perings in the air, and a great evil has arisen in 
 consequence — to make the American Board a 
 makeweight in theological discussions. The Amer- 
 ican Board ought never to know anything of them. 
 It ought not to be in a position in which that could 
 be possible. But it is done, and in connection 
 with the action of the Prudential Committee there 
 has been a great alienation of feeling in the 
 churches of Boston towards the action of the com- 
 mittee. An officer of one of those churches re- 
 cently said to me that the churches of Boston would 
 not stand it. Now all this comes from the fact 
 that the decision of theological questions is in the 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 253 
 
 hands of the Prudential Committee, and I agree 
 perfectly with Secretary Clark that, if it were pos- 
 sible, the decision of such points should be removed 
 from that committee. I rather inferred, from 
 what Dr. Alden ^ said as to the entire unity be- 
 tween himself and Dr. Clark, ^ knowing that Dr. 
 Clark believed that that was the wisest way, that 
 Dr. Alden also knew it and believed it. I was 
 delighted to hear Dr. Alden say that he regarded 
 the Congregational body as thoroughly orthodox, 
 as orthodox as the Presbyterian body; and I could 
 not help feeling, when he said that, that he ought 
 to be entirely content, and rejoice to refer all theo- 
 logical questions to such an orthodox body! I 
 know that there were many things said in Dr. 
 Alden 's address that were very encouraging, but 
 there were other things which were not said, — he 
 was not called upon to say them, — namely, that 
 there was any division in the committee. Now, 
 in connection with this theological question, there 
 was a division in the committee, and the chairman 
 of the committee, Mr. Hardy, I know was decidedly 
 and strongly on the other side. There were two 
 members of the committee decidedly and strongly 
 on the other side. Now we do not want divisions 
 in the committee. We know how excited men be- 
 come in theological discussions, and w^e do not 
 want anything of this kind in the committee. 
 
 "Now I should like to know if it is not in the 
 
 '' Secretaries, or managing- officers of the work of the Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 
 
254 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 scope and power of the Congregational body, of 
 tliis board, with the Prudential Committee and all 
 its wisdom, to devise some method by which those 
 questions can be taken out of the discussion and 
 leave the Prudential Committee wholly a prudential 
 committee, and not a theological committee. I am 
 inclined to think that if the Congregational polity 
 which has been referred to in the letter of Presi- 
 dent Dwight is not adequate to the provisions of a 
 fit ministry for the missions, if it is not adequate 
 to secure such orthodoxy as is sufficient and proper 
 in connection with missionaries, I am inclined to 
 think that that polity ought not to be. I believe 
 it is wholly able to' secure all that is necessary. 
 There may be modifications desirable, but I know 
 that they can be made, and I trust that this ques- 
 tion will not be settled until the question of some 
 method of removing this theological question from 
 the committee and from the board shall be thor- 
 oughly debated and thorough^ understood, and 
 if possible settled. Possibly not in this meeting; 
 I do not see that it can be ; but I wish to have it 
 come thoroughly before the board and before all 
 these people, so that the condition of the board 
 as a non -theological body shall stand before the 
 country, and that it shall not be considered as a 
 theatre for theological discussion." 
 
 This address of Dr. Hopkins was not without 
 great influence upon the members of the board. 
 Conservative men expressed themselves as willing 
 that the exj)eriment should be tried of settling the 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 255 
 
 threatening difficulties by means of councils. The 
 outcome of the entire debate was the passage of the 
 following resolutions, and the fourth resolution may- 
 be regarded as largely carried through Dr. Hop- 
 kins's influence. 
 
 ''''Resolved^ That we recognize with profound 
 gratitude the continued marks of favor with which 
 our Lord and Master regards this great work of 
 preaching the gospel to all nations. 
 
 ^'' Resolved^ That the board recognizes and ap- 
 proves the principle upon which the Prudential 
 Committee has continued to act in regard to ap- 
 pointments for missionary service, in strictly con- 
 forming to the well understood and permanent 
 basis of doctrinal faith upon which the missions 
 of the board have been steadily conducted, and to 
 which, in the exercise of its sacred trust, the com- 
 mittee had no option but to conform. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, The board is constrained to look 
 with grave apprehension upon certain tendencies of 
 the doctrine of probation after death which has 
 been recently broached and diligently propagated, 
 that seem divisive and perversive and dangerous to 
 the churches at home and abroad. In view of 
 those tendencies, they do heartily approve of the 
 action of the Prudential Committee in carefully 
 giiarding the board from any committal to the 
 approval of that doctrine, and advise a continu- 
 ance of the caution in time to come. 
 
 " Resolved, The board recommends to the Pru- 
 dential Committee to consider in difficult cases, 
 
256 MAMK HOPKINS. 
 
 turning upon doctrinal views of candidates for mis- 
 sionary service, the expediency of calling a council 
 of the churches, to be constituted in some manner 
 which may be determined by the good judgment of 
 the committee, to pass upon the theological sound- 
 ness of the candidate, and the committee is in- 
 structed to report on this matter to the board at 
 the next annual meeting." 
 
 There was a hoj)efid feeling in the minds of 
 many members of this great society, when its ses- 
 sions closed, that the judgment of the president 
 would have weight with the Prudential Committee, 
 but the capital defect of the last resolution was the 
 reference to this committee of the consideration 
 of a method by which the perils into which they 
 had led the society could be averted. They were 
 strongly committed .to the policy of excluding from 
 the missionary field of this society all applicants 
 whose views on eschatological questions did not 
 harmonize with those of the majority, and it was 
 a foregone conclusion that they woidd report ad- 
 versely to the proposal. The third resolution above 
 quoted commended their zeal in thus guarding the 
 field from these unworthy api^licants, and the pos- 
 sibility that by any method any such applicant 
 might enter into this labor was enough to condemn 
 that method. 
 
 The resolutions seem to mean that no one having 
 any sympathy with the doctrine of " probation after 
 death " could be appointed, and that, if that result 
 could be secured by councils, the committee might 
 resort to councils. 
 
CBISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 257 
 
 The council, the highest authority in the Con- 
 gregational polity, composed generally of two 
 delegates, the pastor and one layman, from each 
 of the churches of a neighborhood invited by the 
 church calling the council, and often also of dis- 
 tinguished ministers and laymen from a distance in 
 addition to those of the vicinity, determines the 
 questions preliminary to the settling and remov- 
 ing of a minister. The questions also on which 
 a church is divided are often solved by a council 
 agreed to by each party. But a council always 
 determines the doctrinal and personal fitness of a 
 minister for his work. Very rarely, when a min- 
 ister has been invited by a church and parish (two 
 distinct bodies in the Congregational polity, both 
 of which must unite in order that a minister be 
 properly called), does the council invited to examine 
 the candidate declare him doctrinally unfit. Great 
 reluctance is naturally felt to pronouncing a min- 
 ister unsound in the faith. The Conoreo^ational 
 Church in New England has, since the days of Hor- 
 ace Bushnell, been increasingly disposed to grant 
 wide liberty in doctrinal opinions. While her 
 ministry embraces less divergent views than the 
 Church of England, it is probable that individual 
 shades of belief are not less numerous. Of late 
 years there have been many conservative Congre- 
 gationalists who were inclined to the opinion that 
 a council whose members were judiciously selected, 
 or were taken without selection from the more 
 scholarly communities, would confirm any minister 
 
258 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 who did not reject the deity of Christ. After the 
 debate at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1887, on 
 the report made by the Prudential Committee with 
 reference to the final resolution given above, a 
 resolution to the effect that "this board does not 
 discredit the results of councils as representing the 
 doctrinal judgments and fellowship "of the Congi-e- 
 gational churches " was rejected. This shows how 
 general the feeling had become among Congrega- 
 tionalists that, as Dr. Hopkins put it in his speech, 
 "the Congregational polity is not adequate to se- 
 cure such orthodoxy as is sufficient and proper." 
 If Dr. Hopkins had been then a member of the 
 Prudential Committee, his influence would have 
 secured at least a minority report in favor of coun- 
 cils which, whatever may be their weakness, are 
 the constitutional court for deciding doctrinal ques- 
 tions in the Congregational Church. The last time 
 his voice was heard in the great meetings of the 
 American Board on any matter of business, it was 
 for the peace and prosperity that can come only by 
 the removal of theological discussions from all the 
 meetings of the board; for the concentration of 
 all the forces of the Congregational Church in the 
 prosecution and extension of its great missionary 
 work. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins returned from Des Moines to AYil- 
 liamstown somewhat wearied by the long journey 
 and the continuous strain of responsibility for the 
 conduct of the meetings, and by the anxiety for a 
 peaceful issue to the difficult and exciting ques- 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 259 
 
 tions under debate. He was always hopeful that 
 the good sense and reason of men would prevail 
 over prejudice and passion. In his long relations 
 with students he had uniformly relied upon the 
 better elements in their nature. He had always 
 shown a calm and benignant patience, and often 
 that patience had been rewarded by the reestablish- 
 ment in a pupil of the earnest purpose to do well 
 that had for a little wavered. He befjan ag^ain 
 after a few days of rest, the work with the Senior 
 class, which he had for so many years conscien- 
 tiously performed. The period of instruction dur- 
 ing the last six years of his life covered something 
 less than four months, generally from the week fol- 
 lowing the meeting of the American Board in Oc- 
 tober to a point beyond the middle of February. 
 During this time he taught the Seniors in one di- 
 vision (the classes varied in the Senior year from 
 forty to sixty) first "An Outline Study of Man," 
 and after that "The Law of Love and Love as a 
 Law." He commonly met the class every morning 
 and two afternoons each week, but Saturday morn- 
 ing was given to that study of Vincent on the 
 "Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism," 
 which most of his pupils enjoyed supremely. In 
 October, 1886, he began to teach for the fifty -first 
 time the elements of intellectual philosophy to the 
 Senior class of the college. It will be remembered 
 that he became professor of moral philosophy in 
 1830, so that this was the fifty-seventh year of his 
 instruction in morals. The principles underlying 
 
260 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 these departments were as familiar and clear to him 
 as ever, and there was no diminution of the vigor 
 with which he announced and enforced his conclu- 
 sions. The chief change noticeable in his conduct 
 of a class was that occasioned by the gradual fail- 
 ure of his hearing. He was perfectly aware of this 
 loss, and more than once suggested that he was 
 ready to lay down the burden of his teaching if the 
 college could be better served by his doing so. But 
 each entering class looked forward to his instruc- 
 tion. Each graduating class counted it still as the 
 chief advantage of the college course to have sat 
 at his feet. The words from Rev. Dr. Spring's 
 monograph in which he speaks of a visit in this 
 winter to one of his recitations may well be quoted 
 here : — 
 
 "If the enthusiasm which burned in Dr. Hop- 
 kins's soul was different, it was not less real. It 
 continued for threescore years with no abatement, 
 — at least I could discover none during the last 
 weeks of his work, when after an absence of a quar- 
 ter of a century I visited his class-room. It was 
 the same gracious and magnificent personality that 
 I had known and revered as a student. When I 
 looked at him, I could see in the deeper furrows 
 that crossed his brow, in the greater deliberation 
 of his movements, in the slight deafness that at 
 times made it difficult for him to catch the answers 
 of the class, that time had touched him, though 
 but tenderly. Yet if I closed my eyes, the old 
 days seemed to have returned. The ear reported 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 261 
 
 that things were as they used to be. He was then 
 eighty-five years old, but his intellectual powers 
 appeared to be as brilliant as ever, and his inter- 
 est as keen in questions which he had discussed 
 with sixty generations of students." 
 
 The months slipped away. His benignant pres- 
 ence moved deliberately about the streets of Wil- 
 liamstown, and while every one saw that his step was 
 less elastic than once, there was no perceptible fail- 
 ure either in mind or body. His interest in the 
 college that he had so long loved and in the Mis- 
 sionary Society of which he was still the head was 
 as keen as ever. He had much comfort in the 
 slow but certain growth of the college in all direc- 
 tions, but the missionary work, or rather the obsta- 
 cles to expansion of the missionary work, were still 
 a cause of unrest and fear in his mind. An ap- 
 plication was made in January, 1887, by another 
 Andover student, the son of a missionary, to the 
 Prudential Committee for permission to go to 
 Japan in the service of the board. The candidate 
 had sympathy with the new views. He was in- 
 formed that the committee had no option under the 
 Des Moines resolutions, but must decline to appoint 
 any candidate so long as he holds these views. In 
 February, 1887, the pressure for Mr. Hume's re- 
 appointment from all sides led the committee to 
 consent to his return to India. Mr. Hume, it 
 should be said, had not committed himseK fully 
 to the acceptance of the hypothesis of a probation 
 after death for those who have no knowledge of 
 
262 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 Christ in this life. He had, however, in his speech 
 at the Andover dinner, shown a friendly interest 
 and tolerance for that speculation. But the Pru- 
 dential Committee made a fine distinction between 
 one who had been successful as a missionary and 
 a new applicant for appointment. A renewed ap- 
 plication from two candidates, one of whom had 
 been refused and the other discouraged, was made 
 to the committee in April, 1887. The position 
 of one of these was identical with that of Mr. 
 Hume. Both applications were rejected. 
 
 Meanwhile the agitation for and against councils 
 as the proper tribunal to settle theological ques- 
 tions was continued. Dr. Hopkins had taken his 
 stand at Des Moines in favor of the reference of 
 difficult cases to councils. Some associations in 
 the Congregational body had discussed the ques- 
 tion, and had arrived at decisions for or against 
 that reference. On June 2, 1887, fifteen days be- 
 fore Dr. Hopkins's death, an article appeared in 
 the editorial columns of the "Independent " headed 
 "Councils for Foreign Missionary Candidates." 
 Free quotations are given from that article, as 
 the last public utterance that Dr. Hopkins made 
 was in reply to its positions, and appeared in the 
 "Independent" June 16, the day before his death. 
 That utterance of Dr. Hopkins must be given en- 
 tire, and it will be much more intelligible after the 
 quotations from the paper to which it is an answer. 
 
 The editorial in the "Independent" begins as 
 follows: — 
 
CRISIS IX THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 263 
 
 " It is of course natural that those who favor the 
 new and as it seems to us the very dangerous doc- 
 trine of a probation after death should be zealous 
 in the effort to substitute scattered occasional coun- 
 cils in place of the Prudential Committee, as pri- 
 mary judges of the theological fitness of candidates 
 for missionary service under the care of the Ameri- 
 can Board. This gives the only available chance 
 of getting their objectionable hypothesis into mis- 
 sionary fields, and of having it, in an indirect fash- 
 ion, practically authorized and indorsed by the 
 board. Their eagerness for it is no more difficult 
 of explanation than the eagerness of a man who 
 has written a book not generally acceptable to get 
 it recommended by those who can secure for it a 
 generous circulation. 
 
 "It is almost equally a matter of course that any 
 who, without committing themselves to this partic- 
 ular speculation, are chronically if not constitu- 
 tionally favorable to whatever is indefinite in the- 
 ological statement, should be on the same side, 
 ready and eager for any contrivance which they 
 think may open gates and lower bars in the fences 
 which define the orthodox field, and may leave 
 missionaries and ministers freer for self -approved 
 departures from the faith of the Fathers." 
 
 Other quotations necessary to the understand- 
 ing of Dr. Hopkins's reply are as follows: — 
 
 " The man is sent, not to a service likely to be 
 brief, like that of an imperfect pastorate at home, 
 but to one naturally expected and intended to con- 
 
264 MABK HOPKIXS. 
 
 tinue for life : only to be terminated, before death, 
 after long inquiry, a long correspondence, a final 
 reluctant action of the committee. Indeed, it does 
 not appear how the committee can properly recall 
 its appointee at all unless another council, sitting 
 somewhere or other, shall have judged him un- 
 sound. Even then some are dissatisfied, naturally 
 enough, because he was sent, and so much conse- 
 crated money has been wasted. Others are dissat- 
 isfied because he has been recalled. The result 
 is inevitable, in diminished contributions, divided 
 churches, hostile parties. The discreet and saga- 
 cious system of the board, so carefully framed, so 
 wisely and so safely administered through a long 
 course of years, so successful in its results, is 
 rudely broken up to meet the demand of the rash 
 innovation, — an innovation called for by nothing 
 whatever except the desire to force new theories 
 into the board, and distinctly to remove it from 
 its old and firm basis of doctrine. The effort to 
 make seminaries teach speculative theories contrary 
 to their creeds, which has been partly successful, 
 has its counterpart and its complement in this effort 
 to make the American Board circulate doctrines 
 which most of its members do not believe, and at 
 which its founders would, literally, have stood 
 aghast ! 
 
 "We quite expect that not only those who favor 
 this latest mischievous theory will be united in ef- 
 fort to displace the established method of the board, 
 but that others will agree with them, as we have 
 
CBISIS IX THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 265 
 
 suggested, who have themselves some pet specula- 
 tion not accepted by the churches ; who are per- 
 haps Universal ists in petto, or who deem the Bible 
 a natural product of the religious life of its writers, 
 with no divine gaiidance and aid to make it the 
 Book of God for the world; those who find the 
 only contents of the Atonement in the coming of 
 Christ and his gracious example, its only virtue in 
 the effect of his mission on human hearts. All 
 such will combine, as a matter of course, to make 
 occasional temporary councils the only judges of 
 theological soundness in missionary candidates, and 
 will regard others as violently 'obstructive' be- 
 cause they oppose it. With them may be united 
 those who hold the old faith, l)ut to whom animated 
 discussion seems a breach of charity, who would like 
 to make all things pleasant to everybody, who par- 
 ticularly desire to exclude debate from the meet- 
 ings of the board, and to have the entire utterance 
 of those meetings one of profuse and amiable gush." 
 From this long and able article other quotations 
 would be interesting, but these are the points to 
 which Dr. Hopkins replied. The views expressed 
 are not merely stoutly opposed to councils for the 
 decision of the theological fitness of applicants for 
 missionary work, but present the utility of the 
 council to the Congregational Church generally, as 
 of doubtful value especially in the difficult cases 
 which arise among applicants for pulpits in this 
 country not less frequently, perhaps more fre- 
 quently, than among applicants for service in the 
 
266 MA BE HOPKINS. 
 
 foreign field. Doubtless a macliine might be de- 
 vised that would secure greater uniformity of belief 
 among the ministers of the Congregational body, 
 but Dr. Hopkins did not believe that this is the 
 time for the introduction of such a machine. Nor 
 did he ever assent to the opinion that mathemat- 
 ical orthodoxy is more essential in a young man 
 who invites the ignorant and degraded heathen to 
 "behold the Lamb of God" as the Saviour of his 
 soul than in the American preacher. With a vigor 
 and a jDositiveness born of a noble liberality and a 
 nobler love of men and Christ as the Redeemer of 
 men he sent the following letter to the "Independ- 
 ent " in reply to its editorial article of June 2. The 
 letter appeared June 16. He died the next morn- 
 ing. It is then at once his valedictory address as 
 the president of the great society for saving the 
 world and his final appeal to the churches. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Ixdepexdext : — 
 
 In your paper of this week is an editorial on " Coun- 
 cils in Connection with the American Board " which I 
 have just read with surprise and sorrow. So far as it is 
 an argument, and it is an able one, saying, perhaps, all 
 that can be said against councils, I welcome it ; but so far 
 as it insinuates looseness of doctrine and heresy on the 
 part of those who favor councils, and imputes to them 
 unworthy motives, both of which it does largely, I de- 
 plore it. No man is omniscient, and I had hoped that 
 that mode even of theological controversy had passed 
 away. 
 
 I have favored councils, and shall continue to do so if 
 
cms IS IN THE BOAUl) OF MISSIONS. 2G7 
 
 no better way can be foiiml of obviating- the present 
 difficulties of the board. But in doing this 1 deny tliat 
 I belong to any one of the classes into which your arti- 
 cle divides those who favor them. I deny that I belong 
 to the class " who favor the new, and as it seems to us, 
 very dangerous doctrine of probation after death." I 
 deny that I belong to the class " who, without connnit- 
 ting themselves to this particular speculation, are chron- 
 ically, if not constitutionally favorable to whatever is 
 indefinite in theological statement," and are " ready and 
 eager for any contrivance which they think may open 
 gates and lower bars in the fences which define the or- 
 thodox field." I refuse to suffer to pass without chal- 
 lenge the astounding assertion, applicable to all who 
 favor councils, that their introduction would be " an 
 innovation called for by nothing whatever except the 
 desire to force new theories into the board, and dis- 
 tinctly to remove it from its old and firm basis of doc- 
 trine." I deny that " the effort to make seminaries 
 teach speculative theories contrary to their creeds, which 
 has been partly successful, has its counterpart and its 
 complement in this effort to make the American Board 
 circulate doctrines which most of its members do not 
 believe, and at which its founders literally would have 
 stood aghast." On the contrary, it has been asserted, 
 and I suppose truly, that the first attempt to use the 
 board as a theological makeweight, or, as I have heard 
 it expressed, to make it a pawn on the chess-board of 
 theological controversy in this country, was made years 
 ago, and has been persistently continued by those who 
 favor the present policy. At this point it seems to me 
 that judicious friends of the board can have but one 
 wish, and that is that it should decline to be used by 
 
268 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 anybody, should have no partisanship, as far as possible 
 should keep aloof from seminaries and theological con- 
 troversies, and should steadily pursue its aj^propriate 
 work of sending out suitable missionaries, dealing di- 
 rectly and fairly with each individual candidate. 
 
 I deny again that I can be classed with those " who 
 hold the old faith, but to whom animated discussion 
 seems a breach of charity, who would like to make all 
 things pleasant to everybody, who particularly desire to 
 exclude debate from the meetings of the board, and to 
 have the entire utterance of those meetings one of pro- 
 fuse and amiable gush." It is true that I did object at 
 Des Moines, and should again, to the discussion of the 
 abstract question of the truth of the doctrine of a future 
 probation. This I did because it was not in the line of 
 the proper work of the board ; because the decision of 
 such a body on such a question could be of no author- 
 ity and of no use, and especially because that was not 
 the real question before the board. The real question 
 was either not perceived, or was evaded. It was not, 
 whether the doctrine is true or false, but whether the 
 board would send out men who had doubts respecting 
 it. That question I should like to have discussed. I 
 should be pleased if some one would move at the next 
 meeting of the board that the Prudential Committee be 
 instructed not to send out any one who has any doubt 
 on the subject of a future probation — who is not as 
 certain that there will be no such probation as he is of 
 the being of God. In the discussion of such a motion 
 I should expect to hear something besides '" gush." If 
 it should pass, as I do not think it should, I should 
 acquiesce cheerfully and wait. I might, perhaps, think 
 the board was composed of old men, but should im- 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 269 
 
 pute to them no bad motive. If that should not pass, 
 I should be glad if some one would move that the com- 
 mittee be instructed to send out no one who should so 
 hold the doctrine that he would feel obliged to preach 
 it ; thus leaving each one free to have doubts and form 
 his opinions, and deal with the subject as best he may. 
 For such a motion I would vote. I think it should 
 satisfy the conservatives, and would not be objected to 
 by the progressives. The board should represent its 
 constituency, and I do not believe that any considerable 
 number of them wish to send out men who will preach 
 that doctrine. Perhaps this would be the best way out 
 of the present difficulty. If the board itself would give 
 such instruction, I should be willing to let the matter of 
 councils rest where it is for the present. We should 
 then have a definite policy. Every candidate would 
 know precisely what to expect, and there would be no 
 need to write letters to ascertain what the direction of 
 the board really was. It will be seen, then, that I am in 
 favor of a full discussion of all questions relating to the 
 qualifications of candidates. I am also in favor of such 
 discussion in relation to the constitution and all methods 
 of procedure of the board. 
 
 The above denials I make, not solely on my own be- 
 half, but on behalf of the great body of those whose 
 minds have been turned toward councils as a source of 
 relief from the difficulties into which the board has been 
 brought through the policy pursued at the Mission 
 Rooms. These difficulties cannot be denied, though 
 they are wholly ignored in your article. It cannot be 
 denied that the feelings of large numbers of the constit- 
 uents of the board have been severely tried, if not 
 ahenated, by that policy, that their contributions have 
 
270 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 been given under protest, and that the students of sev- 
 ei'al seminaries have, as a body, felt themselves rebuffed 
 and repelled. It has been solely in view of these, and 
 of other evils that have been mentioned, but of which I 
 need not speak, that my own mind has been led, and as 
 I believe, the minds of ninety-nine hundredths of those 
 who are dissatisfied with the present policy have been 
 led to look to councils for relief. Those who thus look 
 are, in my belief, as earnestly attached to the board, as 
 ready to make sacrifices for missions, and as desirous 
 that the glorious gospel of the blessed God, in all its 
 fullness and power, should be carried to mission fields, 
 as are those who, with whatever good intentions, are 
 constantly making insinuations against them, and substi- 
 tuting these in the place of argument. 
 
 You say well in your article that " there is no profit 
 in idealizing councils." I agree with you. There are 
 objections to councils. I have no zeal for them, or for 
 anything else that is simply instrumental. My object in 
 this paper has not been to answer objections to them. 
 If the present policy can be so modified as to produce 
 harmony, I would not disturb it. If not, I believe that 
 we should have, on the whole, as sound, as faithful, and 
 as successful a body of missionaries through the proposed 
 agency of councils as we have now. 
 
 But while you say what you do of idealizing councils, 
 I would it had occurred to you to say the same of com- 
 mittees. This might have been hoped for, especially 
 since the following words concerning it of one long 
 chairman of the committee have been so recently and 
 emphatically given to the public. " I believe," he says, 
 "there has been, during the past few years, a divergence 
 in the practical management of one part of the board's 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 271 
 
 work, which has, to some extent, brought the board 
 from its broad, catholic, ' undenominational ' position to 
 be a partisan in questions that are not within its prov- 
 ince, are local, in a measure personal, and divisive." 
 The committee have done noble work, and are to be 
 honored, but they are liable to mistakes, and the results 
 even of their examinations have not always been perfect. 
 I happen to know that a faithful and successful mission- 
 ary now in the field held firmly to this doctrine of a 
 future probation when he passed his examination some 
 few years since, and yet the subject was either wholly 
 ignored, or passed by as unessential. If the present 
 policy were consistently carried out, I suppose this man 
 and several others would be recalled. 
 
 What may be done in the meeting at Springfield I do 
 not know, but look forward to it with hope. In the 
 mean time, I heartily join with you, as also, I am sure, 
 do the great body of those who look toward councils, in 
 the desire " to save from all complicity with unbelief a 
 great institution in which, to an important degree, the 
 life of the Church is involved and revealed, which has 
 the world for the sphere of its work, and which will 
 have its grand offices to accomplish for the Lord when 
 we are gone. 
 
 Williams College, June 3, 1887- 
 
 In answer to tbis letter in the same number of 
 the newspaper in which it appeared was another 
 editorial article. It is not worth while to give its 
 positions in full, as they did not come under the 
 eye of Dr. Hopkins, and we are concerned only 
 with his relations to the crisis. The positions rest 
 on the assertion that the doctrine of probation after 
 
272 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 death for any is a very dangerous heres}', so dan- 
 gerous, at least, that he who holds it ought not to 
 become a missionary of the cross even from a so- 
 ciety in which many large contributors are inclined 
 to look with favor on the doctrine. The positions 
 taken regard the Prudential Committee as espe- 
 cially well adapted to prevent the sending of heret- 
 ical missionaries, and reiterate the objections to 
 councils previously given, and insist that the change 
 from the old method and reference to a council 
 would be an "innovation called for by nothing 
 whatever but a desire to force new theories into the 
 board." 
 
 The last paragraph or two of the article may well 
 be quoted, as illustrating the kind of appeal that 
 was made to Dr. Ho^jkins during the last months 
 of his life. 
 
 "Dr. Hopkins could add no more distinguished 
 and honorable service, crowning the noble work of 
 his life, and making his name illustrious and emi- 
 nent for all time to come in the history of the 
 American church, than by saying at Sj)ringfield : 
 'This has gone far enough I We are not a theo- 
 logical court, and it is not our function to search out 
 heresies, or to condemn them. But this board was 
 established, and it exists, to proclaim to the world 
 the gospel of salvation by immediate repentance 
 and faith in the Kedeemer. Any theory which 
 gives encouragement to delay is outside of our lim- 
 its, and adverse to our work. It cannot have 
 admission among us. We send the gospel to men 
 
CRISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 273 
 
 in this world, because we do not expect them to 
 receive it after earth shall have closed probation. 
 That is the faith in which our work had its origin. 
 That is the faith now held by our churches ; and 
 with that our messengers must be in accord. If 
 others think that they have another scheme of 
 truth, better and larger, to proclaim to mankind, 
 we cannot change, but for them the world is open.' 
 
 " Such a word from him would be like Welling- 
 ton's final command to the unshaken squares on the 
 ridge of Waterloo. Better than that ; it would be 
 like Paid's address to the elders, when men were 
 to arise among them speaking perverse things. It 
 would bring such a power from on high upon the 
 assembly as could the word of no other man. We 
 reverently believe that the spirits of those who have 
 given long labor, and life itself, to the service 
 of the Master, in the name of the cooperating 
 churches, and by the proclamation of the one divine 
 message, would hail it with a triumph of gladder 
 praise from thrones amid the heavenly light I We 
 have lived too long to overrate the imj)ortance of 
 particidar occasions. But it seems to us that no 
 opportunity nobler than this has been offered to 
 man since Mills was touched, almost eighty years 
 since, with the divine fire." 
 
 Though Dr. Hopkins did not read this appeal, 
 he had many private letters to the same purport. 
 They struck various notes of admiration, praise, 
 or warning, according to the disposition of the 
 writer. One letter from a well-known clergyman 
 
274 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 suggested that the close of his administration of 
 the American Board might become like that of 
 James Buchanan's administration of the federal 
 government. The parallel was sufficiently strik- 
 ing, but not very apt. 
 
 There is no reason to believe that Dr. Hopkins 
 would have changed his position. When he had 
 once taken a position he was tenax pi'opositi. He 
 had a firm faith in the ultimate ascendency of 
 truth and wisdom, and he died in that faith. The 
 exclusion of young men from missionary work be- 
 cause of an unwillingness to assert that the destiny 
 of every one is irrevocably fixed at death he regarded 
 as in direct disobedience to the Master's command, 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature," but independently of that feeling 
 he thought that great harm Avould come to the mis- 
 sionary cause from the exclusion by one permanent 
 body, even if any candidates ought to be excluded. 
 Less than four months after his death the corpo- 
 rate members of the board at Springfield rejected 
 by an overwhelming majority his parting advice. 
 That was partly because the issue had been rather 
 adroitly shifted, and partly because the liberals, 
 knowing that they were in the minority, preferred 
 to confine their efforts to polling as large a vote as 
 possible in favor of officers who would sympathize 
 with a gentler policy towards the young applicants. 
 The fifty -five votes that were cast for President 
 Angell of Michigan University as the successor to 
 Dr. Hopkins were votes representing largely the 
 
CBISIS IN THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 275 
 
 educated brain and the tender heart of New Ens^- 
 land. Many of them were cast with a thought of 
 affectionate honor for Dr. Hopkins's far-sighted 
 and heroic defense of the Congregational polity. 
 His vision was accurate. The troubles are not yet 
 wholly composed. The belief still exists in the 
 minds of able men that to follow his advice would 
 be the safe and happy issue. 
 
THE FRIEND. 
 
" O friend, my bosom said, 
 Through thee alone the sky is arched, 
 Through thee the rose is red : 
 All things through thee take nohler form, 
 And look beyond the earth, 
 The mill-round of our fate appears 
 A sun-path in thy worth. 
 Me too thy nobleness has taught • 
 To master my despair. 
 The fountains of my hidden life 
 Are through thy friendship fair." 
 
 Emerson, Friendship. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE FRIEND. 
 
 In 1837 Dr. Hopkins was the orator before the 
 "Porter Rhetorical Society "of the Anclover Theo- 
 logical Seminary. That was the summer at the 
 close of his first year's service as president of the 
 collesre. On this occasion he met for the first time 
 Rev. Ray Palmer, then settled over the Central 
 Church in Bath, Maine, with whom he later formed 
 an intimate friendship, wdiich continued to the end 
 of his life. The attachment was based on strong 
 affinities in taste and work, and was all the more 
 enjoyable that the gifts of the two men were very 
 different. 
 
 While Dr. Palmer was for a good deal of his 
 life absorbed in the work of a city pastorate and 
 came more closely into relation with the feelings 
 and wants of ordinary people, he was a scholar in 
 philosophy and ethics, and was wholly able to appre- 
 ciate Dr. Hopkins's investigations and discussions. 
 When Dr. Palmer reviewed the "Lectures on 
 Moral Science" in the "North American Review," 
 Dr. Hopkins's comment was: "My reviewer under- 
 stands my system better than I do myself." This 
 
280 MARK HOPKIXS. 
 
 bit of pleasantry was more than an expression of 
 affectionate regard. It was a mark of high es- 
 teem. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins's instrument of expression was 
 prose. His most eloquent passages, full of emo- 
 tion and beauty as they were, he could not have 
 put into perfect rhythmical form. He had a great 
 admiration of good poetry, and his excellent native 
 judgment was developed by the studies that he 
 made when professor of "Moral Philosophy and 
 Rhetoric." He became familiar with the leading 
 English poets during those six years, and the quota- 
 tions that he made in his lectures were always ap- 
 propriate and effective. Mrs. Lesley, in the charm- 
 inof volume containino^ recollections of her mother 
 Mrs. Judge Lyman, of Northampton, gives a let- 
 ter from Mrs. Lyman, who heard Dr. Hopkins 
 lecture in Northampton in 1845, and makes this 
 reference to the lecture : "He exemplified his 
 subject by a great many appropriate figures and the 
 introduction of a great deal of fine poetry." He 
 was fond of beautiful hymns, and the contributions 
 that Dr. Palmer made to the hymnology of the 
 churches were undoubtedly an element that pro- 
 moted the friendship. 
 
 The letters that Dr. Hopkins wrote to Dr. Pal- 
 mer, most frequent between 1860 and 1875, were 
 carefully preserved by Dr. Palmer, and through the 
 kindness of his son. Rev. Dr. Charles Ray Palmer, 
 of Bridgeport, Connecticut, extracts are given from 
 these letters. They illustrate more perfectly what 
 
THE FRIEND. 281 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was in tlie free familiar movement of 
 social intimacy than any other accessible record. 
 
 WiLLLA-Ms College, August 28, 1874. 
 
 Among the first things I do, my dear Doctor, 
 on getdng home is to remember my indebtedness 
 to you, and to give some account of myself. 
 
 I am just back from your native State, and from 
 within sight of Little Compton.^ While there 
 I had a call from Mr. Rowland G. Hazard, who 
 wrote a treatise on the Will and some letters to 
 Mill on Cause and Effect. On the WiU I think 
 him right as to the fact of liberty, but wrong as ti) 
 the point where he places it. He says it is at the 
 point of effort, and that choice is wholly an intel- 
 lectual operation, at which I am surprised. But 
 on Cause and Effect he is able and right and, I 
 think, disposes effectually of both Mill and Ham- 
 ilton. He spent some days with Mill, and had a 
 long discussion with him. He invited the party 
 — four of us — to dine and to tea, and gave us a 
 ride. He is a business man, a fine mathematician, 
 and I had much pleasure in making his acquaint- 
 ance, and I dare say you know all about him. He 
 lives at Peacedale, and he and his son have put up 
 a most beautiful Congregational church, they say, 
 the most beautiful in the country. 
 
 Charles wrote me that you spoke to him of the 
 English issue of my book, and he offered to pro- 
 cure me a copy. It has just come, and is a decided 
 
 ^ Dr. Palmer's birthplace. 
 
282 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 improvement on the native copy. They are better 
 book-makers over there. The dress of a book does 
 make a difference, and I think it was a mistake not 
 to put it in better shape here. 
 
 Williams College, October £0, 1874. 
 
 On parting from you at Rutland we came di- 
 rectly home. Since that I have been hearing the 
 class, and we have had company most of the 
 time; so that I have done very little. I am just 
 beginning to j)^t something together for my lec- 
 tures, or rather for my first lecture, at New Haven, 
 but find it slow business. I work alone, and need 
 the stimulus of the interchange of thought. 
 
 The meeting at Rutland I enjoyed greatly. The 
 debt was less than I expected, the papers were ex- 
 cellent, and then there was a spirit of quietness 
 and devotedness that seemed deep and earnest, and 
 I cannot but hope great good will follow. The 
 statements were encouraging, but my whole reliance 
 is on the promises. What God has promised He is 
 able to perform, and so I hold myself steady, thank- 
 ing Him that 1 may be permitted to do anything. 
 
 I supped or rather dined last night with Pro- 
 fessor Price, a regular Englishman, and a great 
 talker. He used the expression "A gone coon," and 
 I asked him how he came by it. He said he had 
 known it for thirty years, and then I asked, "What 
 is a coon? Is it a rabbit? " "No, no," said he, "it 
 is an opossum." So I found I knew more than he 
 did on one point, and say again, "Non omnes omnia 
 
THE FRIEND. 283 
 
 opossum — us !" This morning he spoke an hour 
 to the Junior class, and pleased them. 
 
 New Britain, March 27, 1875. 
 
 My lectures at New Haven are over. Tuesday- 
 evening next I am to lecture in Hartford, if I can 
 get ready, which I am far from being yet. After 
 that, perhaps next week, perhaps the week after, 
 we propose to go to Washington for a visit. 
 
 Of course I went to New Haven with no little 
 diffidence, following such great men, and going 
 among such great men. I endeavored to conduct 
 myself properly, and to say nothing heretical. 
 Judge of my surprise, then, when the lectures were 
 over, at being informed that the theological faculty 
 wanted to see me. I mustered up courage and 
 went. They were all assembled, Dr. Bacon presid- 
 ing. It was like going before the Sanhedrim. 
 However, they asked me to be seated, and you can 
 imagine my relief when I was informed that their 
 object in wishing to see me was to know whether I 
 would give another course next year. I am to de- 
 cide within a week. My feeling is against it, but 
 perhaps I ought. I have no idea who it is that 
 makes the provision for the lectures. 
 
 Williams College, July 3, 1875. 
 
 I have been thinking some about my lectures on 
 
 "The Scriptural Idea of God," and have fallen into 
 
 inquiries in regard to the Absolute and Infinite and 
 
 Unconditioned, and find great disagreement and 
 
284 MARK HOP Ely s. 
 
 confusion among writers about them. I am sure 
 nothing can be clone for a long time that will bring 
 any uniformity of judgment on those subjects, and 
 it is discouraging to read and think. One trouble 
 is that when men get into the intuitional region 
 they differ about what is known by intuition as 
 much as they do about anything else. I am just 
 looking into Calderwood's "Philosophy of the In- 
 finite," and see that he holds to an immediate and 
 intuitive knowledge of God as a holy God, and 
 thinks that, if we do not accept that, the being of 
 God cannot be proved. 
 
 Wlluaivis College, August 13, 1875. 
 
 It is a fortnight to-day since I left home to go 
 to Nahant to preach. I was the guest of my friend 
 Amos A. Lawrence, and had a pleasant time. The 
 congregation is not a promising one to preach to, 
 but I have had evidence in time past that my labor 
 there has not been in vain. The day before I was 
 there, two of the nephews of Mr. Lawi'ence, one of 
 them the Episcopal minister of Stockbridge, started 
 in their yacht to visit him, and on their way saw 
 the sea-serpent, or sea-monster, whatever it may 
 be, and shot at it with a rifle some twenty times. 
 It has been seen by others, and in such a way that 
 I think we shall have to accept the fact of the ex- 
 istence of some kind of animal hitherto unknown, 
 perhaps the last of a species now nearly extinct. 
 He may be to the ocean what the last mammoth was 
 to the land. Monday I spent at Nahant, except 
 
THE FRIEND. 286 
 
 that I went into Boston to look up my overcoat, 
 which I left in the hack in which I crossed the 
 city. I wish all hackmen were as honest as that 
 one, for he called out to me as soon as he saw 
 me and restored the coat. 
 
 Williams College, September 2, 1875. 
 
 I hasten to assure you that I shall esteem it one 
 of the great honors of my life to have my name as- 
 sociated with yours in such a work as your forth- 
 cominsr one is to be. It cannot fail to live, and to 
 be an honor to the country and to all connected 
 with it. 
 
 What you say of the connection between poetry 
 and philosophy is true. It is true of the lighter 
 kinds of poetry, but especially of all that is of a 
 high and serious character. In fact, much of such 
 poetry is just the flower of which philosophy is the 
 root. The flower has the beauty and the fragrance 
 and is most sought, and sometimes I think we might 
 as well leave the roots of our emotions and actions 
 to take care of themselves, but I remember that 
 roots are more medicinal, and so continue to dig on. 
 
 Williams College, November 9, 1875. 
 Who shall say after this that Friday is an un- 
 lucky day ? Yesterday afternoon the expressman 
 came with two boxes, both paid in full. One was 
 a small paper box, the other a large one nailed up, 
 and what might be in either I could not conjecture. 
 Opening the smaller one first, there was an ap- 
 
286 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 pearance of solid gold in the perfectly gilded leaves, 
 and within something more precious than gold. 
 If, as Solomon says, "a word fitly spoken is like 
 apples of gold in pictures of silver," what shall we 
 say of so many words so spoken that not one of 
 them could be changed for another, or changed in 
 place with advantage? The other box was from 
 my friend and classmate Rice, of Cleveland, and 
 contained a dozen bottles of Catawba wine, the pure 
 juice of the grape, old, and with a bouquet like 
 that of the grapes themselves. It was sent, to be 
 sure, more especially for Mrs. Hopkins's health, 
 but as she has hitherto been averse to taking any- 
 thing of the kind, I hold myself ready, if need be, 
 to encourage her by taking a little myself. If I 
 remember rightly, I encouraged a certain poet once 
 in the same way. Just think of it now — poetry 
 and wine in the same day ! was it because poetry 
 is the wine of literature, and that they had an affin- 
 ity for each other? 
 
 Having thus spoken of the boxes together, I 
 turn to the one most precious. And here I may 
 as well say that the first thing I looked at was the 
 inscription. I wanted to see how my name would 
 look embarked on its voyage to posterity between 
 such covers and in such company. Was it vanity ? 
 If it was, my vanity was gratified. I could not 
 have wished anything different. I am particularly 
 pleased with the likeness in front. You have rea- 
 son to congratulate yourseK on that because a good 
 likeness is so seldom seen. Of course Mrs. Palmer 
 
THE FRIEND. 287 
 
 is not satisfied with it, as what woman ever was 
 in such a case, but I hope she will be resigned 
 when she thinks how much better off she is than 
 some others. 
 
 The poems I have not had time to look much 
 at yet, but have read the preface and the notes. 
 There are some things in those that needed to be 
 touched with a delicate hand, and I think you have 
 succeeded perfectly. Everything is in perfect 
 taste. 
 
 How you get time for all you do, I do not see, 
 and for work so diversified. I have been reading 
 your article on Longfellow, and do not see what 
 more could be asked. I appreciate him more 
 through you than I have done before, but must 
 confess to a higher estimate of Lowell. 
 
 Williams College, February 4, 1876. 
 
 Yesterday was my birthday. I was seventy -four 
 years old, almost three quarters of a century. In 
 some respects of my days I can say of them, as Ja- 
 cob did of his, "few and evil," but in others, and 
 more generally, as David did, " Surely goodness and 
 mercy have followed me all the days of my life," 
 and oh, that I could add with the assurance that 
 he did, " and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord 
 forever " ! It seems too much for such a creature as 
 I am, and yet it is not too much for God to give. 
 My health continues good, and I have not as yet 
 missed a recitation since we began last term. We 
 have gone through with the "Outline Studv," and 
 
288 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 "The Law of Love," and I have now taken up a 
 book on Logic new to me, Jevons. When I get 
 through that with the reviews and examinations, 
 my recitations for the year will be over. Of course 
 we keep up the Catechism, and then I preach. 
 There is more religious interest in the college than 
 for a lono" time. The meetino^s are full and ear- 
 nest, and there are, as we hope, some conversions. 
 I expect to preach to-morrow. It would be a great 
 mercy if we coidd see a revival such as we have 
 seen here. 
 
 Of course in connection with all this my lec- 
 tures get on slowly ; but I think I may be able to 
 prepare them, if not as I wish, yet so that I can 
 give them. I am just now thinking about moral 
 attributes, and whether what are called so are 
 properly attributes at all. Can anything that goes 
 to make up, not characteristics, but character, be 
 properly called an attribute? Whatever belongs 
 to the nature of God may be an attribute, but I 
 suppose the character of God does not belong to 
 his nature. If it grew out of it necessarily, it 
 would not be character. It seems to me distinction 
 enough has not been made between the natural and 
 the moral attributes. Dr. Hodge says the nature 
 of God is the foundation of obligation, and so I 
 suppose he thinks the nature of God is moral. 
 
 I hope your poems are continuing their sale 
 and migrations, taking my name over the land in 
 connection with yours. It is after all the poets of 
 a country that are the best known, that is, in a 
 desirable way. 
 
THE FRIEND. 289 
 
 Williams College, March 1, 1870. 
 
 You are ri"lit about the nature. I do not think 
 I ever meant to deny a nature in such a sense that 
 God would have no natural attributes. I remem- 
 ber when that whole thing came to me as in a mo- 
 ment. It was when I was giving the lectures in 
 Boston. I was at the United States, and was in 
 a puzzle about what is ultimate in obligation and 
 the reference of it to the nature of God, when it 
 came to me that in relation to the point that then 
 troubled me God could have no nature, and that is 
 what I hold now. My expressions, I can see, were 
 not g-uarded as they should have been. It is diffi- 
 cult to know how far we are at liberty to argue 
 from ourselves to God. To some extent we must. 
 It appears to me now that God must not only so 
 have a nature as to have natural attributes, but 
 also that He must have a moral nature as we have 
 -'—that is, a nature affirming obligation. That 
 would be a necessity to Him, as to us, but He 
 would not be under the necessity of acting, as we 
 are not, according to the affirmation. If any one 
 should say this is making the nature of God the 
 foundation of obligation, I reply it is only making 
 a moral action of any kind possible, and that I 
 mean by the foundation of obligation that in view 
 of which a moral nature is called into action. The 
 moral nature, I suppose, acts by necessity,* or it 
 would not be a nature ; but that so far as a being 
 is a person and free, and so virtuous or vicious, 
 he has no nature. 
 
290 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 There ! I have written right along, and cannot go 
 back to read it. I hope it is right. The lectures 
 are getting on so that I think I shall give them, 
 but they will not be as I could wish. The class I 
 have still, and shall have till the middle of the 
 month or after, and then I shall be ready to go to 
 New Haven. 
 
 There is a good deal of religious interest here, 
 both in the college and in the town — meetings full 
 and solemn. 
 
 Boston, April 10, 1876. 
 
 I received your note at New Haven last week, 
 just as I was closing up my lectures, which I did 
 Friday, and went the same evening to New Britain. 
 There I spent the night, and the next day came 
 here, as 1 had engaged to preach for Dr. Webb 
 in the morning, and in the Central Church in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 So far as I could judge, the lectures were well 
 received by both the Faculty and students. The 
 students sent me a letter, by vote of the several 
 classes, expressing their interest in them and their 
 desire that they, with those of last year, should be 
 published. Is it possible I am to write another 
 book? I should not wonder, but not yet. 
 
 I have had a call, this morning, from Dr. War- 
 ren, president of the Boston University, to consult 
 me about coming to Boston and being at the head 
 of the post-graduate department. It seems some 
 gentleman has agreed to give $1,000 a year for five 
 vears if I will do it, and President Warren thinks 
 
THE FRIEND. 291 
 
 he could get the rest readily. I have declined. 
 Some time since they wrote me, desiring me to give 
 five lectures before their theological students next 
 winter, saying President Woolsey had lectured for 
 them, and also Dr. McCosh. I consented, and gave 
 as my subject, 'The Scriptural Idea of Man,' which 
 was the title of my lectures last year at Yale. It 
 did not occur to me that I should be down in their 
 year book, but I am, and I see am to lecture on 
 Scriptural Anthropology. 
 
 Probably I shall be here during the week, as 
 my youngest son is to be married here next week 
 Tuesday. I am appointed to write a centennial dis- 
 course for Commencement; it is time I was think- 
 ing about it. I wish I could get down and see you. 
 
 Williams College, January 30, 1877. 
 
 I believe I have not written to you since you 
 sent me your letter of advice. That advice was 
 good, and I have followed it, and always mean to. 
 It was that I should do just as I had a mind to. I 
 have always had great respect for your abilities, 
 Init must confess it was increased by that letter. I 
 do consider that for a man to say so much and 
 yet say nothing is what very few could do. Prob- 
 ably I ought not to have asked the advice. How- 
 ever, as I said, I took it, and told Mr. Treat I 
 wished he would communicate to the committee 
 my" wish to withdraw. He did so, and they desired 
 him to write me a letter, which I have recently 
 received, expressing their unanimous desire that I 
 
292 MABE HOPKINS. 
 
 would let things go on as tliey are. That letter I 
 have not answered, but in doing so I propose to 
 follow your advice. 
 
 We had a pleasant tune of it in Boston, wife 
 and I. The Methodists received my orthodox lec- 
 tures without any wry faces. On returning I took 
 up the studies of the class where we left off, and 
 am now going on with them. The class are doing 
 well, and there is a good deal of religious interest 
 in the college. I preached last Sabbath on the 
 evidence for the Messiahship of Jesus, his own 
 explicit testimony under oath to that point. I do 
 not remember to have seen the subject presented 
 as it struck me, and am inclined to take it up again 
 next Sabbath. 
 
 And, by the way, next Sabbath will be my sev- 
 enty-fifth birthday. Think of that I Yes, and in 
 thinking of it, I find I am in a mistake ; I shall be 
 seventy-five years old, and it will be my seventy- 
 sixth birthday. Certainly I have great reason to 
 bless God that I am still able to keep on with my 
 work here in the college, and to preach abroad as 
 usual. I preached twice in the Central Church 
 when in Boston. 
 
 Williams College, December 18, 1877. 
 
 You inquire in your letter, received this morn- 
 ing, whether I find the same interest as formerly 
 in teaching. I think so, and account for it partly 
 from the fact that I teach this system, which ex- 
 pands upon me, as I study it more, and evidently 
 
THE FRIEND. 293 
 
 becomes a power in luoukling" the whole mental life 
 of the class, and often giving bent to their moral 
 and religious life. It commends itself most to the 
 best minds, and they often express their satisfac- 
 tion in the clearness of insight they gain. I ac- 
 count for it also partly from the manner of my 
 teaching. Nothing pleases me more than to have 
 the class ask questions, and so it sometimes hap- 
 pens that we spend the hour in what is really con- 
 versation, making no progress in the book, and 
 the result of that is often most satisfactory. I do 
 not find that impertinent or captious questions are 
 asked. This, of course, causes the recitations to 
 be different every year, according to the minds to 
 be dealt with, and gives nearly as much variety as 
 there would be if it were a new thing. It is really 
 wonderful how new the study is to most young men 
 when they begin it. The first term closes to-day. 
 We have been through the "Outline " and through 
 the first part of "The Law of Love." That is cor- 
 rect, but it seems as if it might be more simply 
 put, and I have hoped to write an article about it 
 for the "International," and still hope to. Some 
 things long in dispute have been settled, and it 
 seems as if that, about the proper adjustment of 
 man's active powers and his moral nature might 
 be. 
 
 Williams College, March 6, 1878. 
 
 At the same time with this I send the manu- 
 script. If you do not find it convenient to look it 
 over, I will not ask it ; but as you have in a sense 
 
294 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 indorsed what I have said heretofore, I should be 
 glad of your judgment; and as to what you shall 
 do in case of disagreement, I will give you carte 
 blanche to make alterations. When I wrote I sup- 
 posed there would be plenty of time to communicate 
 with you. I have made some references to places 
 in my books where the same subjects are treated 
 of, for I think there are few points, if any, in the 
 article that I have not decided the same way in my 
 books, but for the reasons mentioned in my former 
 letter they have not been so brought together as to 
 be seen in their connection and fully understood. I 
 hope the essential points are clearly as well as con- 
 tinuously presented in the article. I was tempted 
 to some digressions and hits, but concluded to do 
 as I have done. ' If you approve, I shall be sure 
 what the judgment of the public wdll be. 
 
 Williams College, March 14, 1878. 
 
 I am greatly obliged to you for reading over 
 my article, and of course am gratified by your 
 approval. If the article had been on an ordinary 
 topic of literature, I should not have asked it, but 
 being on a question that has been discussed for 
 ages, and with the points of which you are proba- 
 bly as familiar as any man in the country, I could 
 not but desire your judgment. Besides, you had 
 expressed approval of my views when they were 
 less distinctly and consecutively put, and I wished 
 to know how this presentation w^ould commend it- 
 self to you. 
 
THE FRIEND. 295 
 
 As I said in a former letter, I have been un- 
 fortunate in my books from not carrying out in the 
 Lectures on moral science my original plan ; which 
 v/as to connect with an exposition of the constitu- 
 tion, that would show the agreement of its law with 
 the revealed law, a practical part. Then when I 
 came to give a practical part in "The Law of Love," 
 I coidd not use my former work, and so confined 
 myself mainly to the consideration of obligation, in 
 the theoretical part. What I should like to do now 
 is to substitute the substance of the article you have 
 just read for the theoretical part of ''The Law of 
 Love." That is right, but it is not a sufficient ex- 
 position of the constitution, and besides is too diffi- 
 cult for any but the more advanced classes. When 
 the article comes out, I may want your opinion on 
 this. If that could be done, it seems to me it would 
 give us a real philosoph}^ of conduct and an unan- 
 swerable argument for the Scriptures. When the 
 article is published I shall w.int, and suppose there 
 will be no difficulty in my having, a dozen or so of 
 the separate sheets sent to me. May I ask your 
 kind offices in this? 
 
 Williams College, April 29, 1878. 
 
 Last week I was surprised at receiving some 
 dozen pages of my article in the "International," 
 with a request that I shoidd send them to editors 
 and others. I replied inquiring if there had not 
 been a mistake in sending only a part of the arti- 
 cle. This morning I received a card saying they 
 
296 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 have divided the article for want of space, and 
 adding it will get the advantage of two notices. I 
 have just written them a note complaining of 
 this, but of course it will do no good. It is a kind 
 of thing that would have vexed me a good deal when 
 I was younger. So you see that my article, which 
 you were so kind, I fear in your partiality, as to 
 say would be the article of the number, will be no 
 article at all. The article was not over-long, and 
 going off at once might have made a respectable 
 explosion, but divided I fear it will be nothing but 
 two squibs. I think they should have consulted 
 me before taking such a course. They might at 
 least have deferred the whole till the next number, 
 to which I should not have objected. 
 
 In all that I see written in opposition to Mill and 
 Harrison, who say that an appeal to our own hap- 
 piness is an appeal to selfishness, and that action 
 for that is selfishness, it is taken for granted that 
 they are right. That part of my article not to be 
 published as yet takes another view and would prob- 
 ably be attacked, so the evil day is put off. But 
 the idea that men who suppose that death is the end 
 for them can be brought up to an altruism that will 
 lead them to work for a humanity of which they are 
 to form no part is ridiculous. 
 
 Have you seen a notice of the death of Mark 
 Hopkins the millionaire, of California? One paper 
 sent me said he was my son. He was a distant 
 relative, though I never saw him. Another paper 
 said he was sixty years old and my granchon. 
 
THE FRIEND. • 297 
 
 Williams College, August 2, 1878. 
 
 ''What is the use of being a lazy man, if one has 
 to have coals of fire poured on his head? There is 
 no standing that. When I look at your efficiency 
 not only in letter writing, hut in writing in all di- 
 rections, I am ashamed of myself. However, you 
 are a young man yet, and the vis vivida is still in 
 full play. Your article on Froude I read, and it is 
 none too severe. My only question is whether it 
 was worth the notice. There is a large amount of 
 that kind of writing now, and will continue to be 
 for some time. There is a piece in the last "Popu- 
 lar Science Monthly," by Lewes, of the same gen- 
 eral tenor, but abler and yet showing great want of 
 discrimination. He undertakes to show the differ- 
 ence between the faith of science and of theology, 
 and he knows nothing about it. It is pitiable to 
 find men of rejiutation blundering along m such a 
 way. 
 
 Williams College, December 30, 1878. 
 In losing the old year now about to depart, I 
 feel as if I were losing a friend. The year has 
 been a pleasant one, nor do I find that as the years 
 go on they seem shorter. That you know is often 
 said. One item of 2:)leasantness has been that my 
 work, so far as I can see, continues to be accepta- 
 ble. I was gratified by your commendation some 
 time ago of my article on "Faith." How singular 
 it is that on a point so central there should still be 
 so much of indefiniteness, and among our foremost 
 thinkers. It seemed to me that I made the subject 
 
298 . MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 plain. However, the world has got along toler- 
 ably well without clear ideas on that and a good 
 many other points, and I suppose will continue 
 to do so. And, by the way, there is a point of less 
 importance that I should like to consult you about 
 some time when 3^ou are dismounted from your Peg- 
 asus, and have on your philosopher's cap. It 
 respects the priority, in the natural history of the 
 mind, of the ideas of right, and of rights. It is 
 generally supposed that the idea of right must, as 
 an original and primitive idea, be first, but right 
 relates to action, whereas rights belong to us, and 
 enter into our conception of ourselves. I have long 
 been inclined to think that the idea of rights is 
 first. Clearly a being possessed of no rights could 
 have no idea of anything as right. 
 
 Washington, April 9, 1879. 
 
 Perhaps, my dear Dr. Palmer, you would like 
 to know our whereabout and what-about. It is 
 now two weeks since wife and I came to this capital 
 of our great country, where we are staying with our 
 married daughter, Mrs. Nott. I have also a son 
 married here, which adds to the attraction. The 
 city is the centre of political movement, but to me 
 is like the centre of a whirlwind, where they say 
 there is no movement. I hear less of politics than 
 at home, and get almost all political news from 
 New York. 
 
 As to my what-about there is little to be said. 
 I am reading up on the evidences of Christianity, 
 
THE FRIEND. 299 
 
 or rather on the changes in them since my book 
 was published, for I have not kept up with the 
 times in that, and woukl now like to add a few 
 pages, if I can in that way bring the work down 
 to the present time. The literature on that subject 
 is extensive. The difficulty is to condense and give 
 it point in a form that will be read. There are 
 many pleasant people here to be seen, and numbers 
 of them call upon us. Last evening four members 
 of the class of 1856 came in together, and for one 
 class it was not a bad representation. There was 
 Garfield, the leader of the House on the Republican 
 side; GilfiUan, the treasurer of the United States; 
 Colonel Rockwell, of the regular army, who is sta- 
 tioned here, and has charge of all the government 
 cemeteries; and Newcomb, who has been a number 
 of years at New Haven, but has just been elected 
 to the professorship of intellectual and moral phi- 
 losophy in the Free College in New York. Two of 
 these brought their wives. Besides these Mr. Ban- 
 croft, now in his eightieth year, came in, and also 
 Dr. Peter Parker with his wife. Mr. Bancroft re- 
 tains his vivacity, rides on horseback a good deal, 
 and works every day so long as to tire out his 
 amanuensis. I had previously dined with him at 
 my son's, where I met also Senator Edmunds and 
 General Sherman. I have just been reading Sher- 
 man's ''Memoirs," written by himself, written as 
 he talks, and giving a graphic and most interesting 
 account of the scenes he passed through in Califor- 
 nia and durinij: the war, of which last he has s'ood 
 reason to say quorum magna parsfui. 
 
300 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 Williams College, January 1, 1880. 
 
 Here it is — a new year, a new decade, — 1880. 
 That looks like a great deal more than 1879, but I 
 do not know that I feel much older than I did yes- 
 terday. Nor does nature seem to be any older. 
 How wonderful that the earth should have gone on 
 for so long with such perfect exactness, and no sign 
 of weariness. How natural it was for Esdras in 
 the Apocrypha to say so long ago that "the world 
 hath lost its youth and the times begin to wax old," 
 and then, " For look how much the world shall be 
 weaker through age, so much the more shall evils 
 increase upon them that dwell therein." How 
 differently we look at it who see the powers of na- 
 ture just beginning to be found out and subjected 
 to man. I have just seen that conversation has 
 been carried on at the distance of tw^o thousand 
 miles by means of the telegraph wires and the tel- 
 ephone. I wonder what Esdras would have said to 
 that. However, say what we may about this 
 world, it is plain that the kingdom of Christ must 
 consist mainly of those in a condition wholly differ- 
 ent from anything we now know with our present 
 liabilities and limitations. And so we look forward 
 to a new heaven and a new earth, and so to the 
 "everlasting: kins^dom of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ." Taking this life by itself, I think 
 it is "worth living" to some, but not to all. To 
 you and me it has been by the mercy of God, and 
 much more. 
 
THE FRIEND. 301 
 
 New York, April 20, 1882. 
 
 So Emerson is gone. I met him several times, 
 but never had much conversation with him. I was 
 interested in his writings years ago — bought one 
 volume of his "Essays," and then another, but 
 opened to a place in which he spoke of Christ in 
 a manner so distasteful, not to say shocking to me, 
 that I put up the book and have not read him since 
 till just now. He has insight and a charming 
 style. You are enticed along, because you do not 
 know what he will say next. There is no doubt 
 about the wide influence he has exerted and will 
 exert. Probably he may be placed at the head of 
 the modern school of Christianized pagans, who 
 are what Socrates might have been, if he had had 
 the light of Christ's teaching without accepting 
 Him as a Saviour, or acknowledging any personal 
 relation to Him. 
 
 Williams College, July 17, 1882. 
 Since dropping you a line from New York on 
 our way home from Washington we have passed 
 through scenes new to us. Soon after reaching 
 home our little granddaughter whom we had with 
 us, a beautiful child, was taken sick, and after be- 
 tween three and four weeks of fever, with constant 
 watching- and visits of the doctor once and twice a 
 day, she died. Almost immediately after, Louisa, 
 for whom the child was named, and who was much 
 exhausted by constant care, was taken in much the 
 same way, and with her the fever ran a similar 
 
302 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 course, medicine seeming to have no control over 
 it, till, on the 4th instant, about five P. M., she 
 left us. She was to us all that a daughter could 
 be, and it had not occurred to me that she could go 
 first. She was perfectly fitted to care for us, if we 
 should fall into that decrepitude of years which, 
 if we live, cannot be far off. But we have great 
 comfort in thinking of what she was, and in the 
 assurance of her acceptance by Him whom she fol- 
 lowed. I have known no one who seemed to me to 
 come nearer my conception of a saint. Coming as 
 her extreme sickness and death did, I was unable 
 to take any part in the Commencement, or to be 
 present at the exercises. As you may have seen, 
 Dr. Prime read my discourse on President Gar- 
 field. That has been published in full in some 
 papers, but is now being printed as a pamphlet, 
 and I will send you a copy. 
 
 I thank you for your letter. Since Louisa's 
 death I have reflected more on the certainty of a 
 future state of blessedness, and the infinite value 
 of the revelations of Christianity respecting it. 
 Without that revelation I must confess I should be 
 greatly in doubt. 
 
 Williams College, January 20, 1883. 
 How deeply I am engaged in metaphysics you 
 may jndge, when I tell you that I am not only pre- 
 paring some lectures for metaphysical Princeton, 
 but that I have this morning been hearing a reci- 
 tation in the Catechism on the decrees of God. 
 
THE FRIEND. 303 
 
 My solution of it was that God decrees to do what- 
 ever He does, and to permit whatever He permits, 
 and that the objection is not so much to the de- 
 crees, as to what is decreed, and so if any one 
 objects, it becomes a direct quarrel with God him- 
 self. I suppose every generation will find the same 
 difficulties, and come up to the same point on this 
 subject. 
 
 Williams College, May 16, 1883. 
 
 As time goes on I think more of the Bible as 
 compared with other books, and am satisfied that if 
 it were read for the purpose of spiritual upbuild- 
 ing, it would be its own witness. Is not such 
 reading and study of the Bible the great thing 
 the church needs? 
 
 Williams College, October 24, 1883. 
 
 Once more I am tied to the college bell-rope, 
 and fairly started in the routine of recitations, hav- 
 ing one every day and part of the time two. I find 
 myself interested, and the class seem to be. They 
 are over fifty. 
 
 I sent you a copy of the proceedings of the 
 American Board. I had not seen any one, and 
 supposed there was an understanding among the 
 members of the board as to my successor, as I had 
 given the Prudential Committee notice some months 
 before, and as my purpose to withdraw was gener- 
 ally known. Any such turn as the matter took was 
 wholly unthought of by me, till the chairman of 
 the nominating committee. Dr. Withrow, came to 
 
304 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 me Wednesday noon, sent as lie said by the com- 
 mittee. He said there had been no prearrange- 
 ment, and that the members of the committee were 
 not at all agreed, and the committee were unani- 
 mous in the opinion that the best interests of the 
 board would be subserved if I would permit my 
 name to be used. I put the matter over till the 
 next morning, and then gave in, having in the 
 mean time seen the secretaries. Colonel Hammond, 
 and some others. Of course I had to explain and 
 defend myself. I have now reason to think that 
 my course is generally approved. 
 
 I did not think the meeting as stimulating and 
 spiritually uplifting as some others, but there was 
 clear thinking, principles were established, and 
 the Armenian difficulty harmoniously and, I hope, 
 permanently settled. You were there in your 
 hymns, as you always are in all such meetings, 
 and after all, though business is the object, yet the 
 worship and praise are the best part of it. 
 
 So far as I see, my book is well spoken of. 
 One or two of those who have written notices of it 
 I judge have read it, but no one has noticed those 
 distinctions and differences from others in which 
 I think its main value lies. However, those things 
 gradually work their way into the public mind. I 
 have just received an original and valuable little 
 book by Mr. Rowland G. Hazard, whom I suppose 
 you must have known whgn living in Rhode Island, 
 as the State is so small. It treats of similar topics, 
 and is especially strong on freedom and causation. 
 
THE FRIEND. '305 
 
 My health seems now as good as before I was 
 sick, though with some tendency to cough, and I 
 intend to keep at work while I am able, but hap- 
 pily I have nothing on hand that has to l>e fin- 
 ished by a specified time. What I shall do just 
 next I do not know. I ought to do some reading. 
 We are rejoicing in the return of Judge Nott and 
 his family, now with us. His health is better. 
 Mr. Denison also, whom CaiTie married, is with us, 
 as he preaches for the college, so we have great rea- 
 son to be thankfid and wonder at the forbearance 
 and goodness of God. 
 
 May God be with you and yours. My love to 
 them all. 
 
 Williams College, November 24, 1883. 
 
 Preserved in amber — that is what I said to my- 
 self as I found your book, the illustrated copy of 
 *'My Faith looks up to Thee," on my return from 
 my recitation this morning. However, that is not 
 the kind of amber in which that hymn will be pre- 
 served. It will be in the hearts and voices of 
 Christians till the end of time, and I congratulate 
 you on having done such a work that will thus " fol- 
 low you." 
 
 I am much pleased that you are again elected 
 associate pastor, and that you are to continue in a 
 work so congenial to yourself and so profitable to 
 the church. I wish all our churches could have 
 something of the kind. 
 
 I see in the " Congregationalist " of this week an 
 
306 MABE HOPKINS. 
 
 article of yours on companionship with Christ, 
 with which I am much pleased. It is the same 
 idea essentially as that I endeavored to present in 
 my sermon at Great Barrington, a copy of which 
 I sent you. It seems to me that what our Saviour 
 said on that subject has been suffered to lie in a 
 great measure unrecognized, and that it must come 
 up into gTeater prominence, as you know one doc- 
 trine and aspect of the Scriptures does after an- 
 other, if the Christian life is either to be, or to 
 enjoy what it should. If those passages do not in- 
 volve mysticism, as we know they do not, they must 
 involve what is most quickening and precious in 
 the Christian life. I agree with you entirely about 
 it, and hope you may follow up the theme. 
 
 My health is improved, and I keep at work, but 
 have to be careful. 
 
 May the communion of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 be with you more and more. 
 
 Williams College, May 15, 1584. 
 
 Here we are once more, having come home yes- 
 terday after an absence of about six weeks, most 
 of the time in Washington. Your good letter 
 reached me there, and should have been answered, 
 but for the most of the time while there I was not 
 good for much. For some years I have had in the 
 spring a cough. It took me this year just before I 
 left home. I had been so well during the winter 
 as to attend all my recitations, not missing one, and, 
 so far as I could judge, witli as good acceptance as 
 
THE FRIEND. 307 
 
 heretofore. At any rate, when I understood that 
 the class proposed to make me some kind of a pres- 
 ent, and I had put a stop to that, they wrote me a 
 letter expressing their thankfulness for what I had 
 done. But to return : just before I left, the cough 
 took me and held on and was wearing me down, but 
 within a week or two I got some essence of pine 
 that came from Switzerland, and by taking it, as 
 put into hot water and through an inhaler, have 
 so broken the cough up that it is almost gone, and 
 now, old as I am, I am permitted to look on this 
 beautiful world in its springtime with a feeling that I 
 am not wholly out of correspondence with it. How 
 wonderful is its beauty I The more I see of it, and 
 the more I reflect uj^on it, the more I appreciate the 
 marvels of its structure. 
 
 I was quiet in Washington, did not go once 
 either to the House or to the Senate ; preached once, 
 made one talk before a club, and dined with some 
 of the Judges and great men; though I don't know 
 that I am either wiser or better for that. It was 
 pleasant, however, and Washington is now and is 
 to be not only a beautiful city, but one where the 
 amplest means of social enjoyment may be found. 
 
 Williams College, September 8, 1884. 
 
 You may have seen that I have got into poli- 
 tics, having been nominated as an elector at large 
 on the Blaine ticket. It was known that I was in 
 favor of Blaine, but that was all. As between 
 Blaine and Cleveland, and that is the wav it stands, 
 
308 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 I say Blaine ; and as between tlie Republican party 
 and the Democratic party, backed uj) by a solid 
 South, I say the Republican party. I should have 
 preferred not to be put in nomination, but do not 
 think it wise to decline. 
 
 The number of letters from which quotations are 
 given is small in comparison with the whole num- 
 ber written. Dr. Palmer died March 29, 1887. 
 There is a letter written by him to Dr. Hopkins 
 dated February 16 of that year, from which a few 
 sentences may well be added : — 
 
 ''This friendly correspondence has been to me of 
 great interest and profit. It somehow came about 
 as natural growth. It has extended over more 
 than a quarter of a century. I cannot of course 
 hope that it has added much to you except the labor 
 of writing. But to me it has been a material bless- 
 ing intellectually, socially, spiritually, and in many 
 other ways. We have had many thoughts and 
 sympathies and general lines of life in common, and 
 have never lacked material for letters. 
 
 "I think you are right in relation to the A. B. 
 C. F. M. matter. I should hope most for peace, 
 if the method of reference by councils shall be 
 adopted, and think it must come to that. I feel 
 too near the world of love and peace to go into 
 any eartlily controversy now, and have carefully 
 avoided this. 
 
 "I rejoice that your books have gone into other 
 languages and lands. They v/ill be doing good 
 
THE FRIEND. 309 
 
 when you will be with the glorified. 1 hope iny 
 hymns will also/' 
 
 In a few weeks the writer entered into the land 
 of peace, and in June, less than four months later, 
 was followed by his friend. The friendship had 
 something beautiful in its length and in the natural- 
 ness of its close. These aged saints who had grown 
 old together were in their deaths hardly divided, 
 and perhaps soon met again in the Father's house. 
 The last verse of Dr. Palmer's imperishable hymn 
 that they had sung together in public worship, the 
 fervent prayer that in solitude they had often 
 offered, was graciously and abundantly answered. 
 
 " Wlaen ends life's transient dream, 
 When death's cold sullen stream 
 
 Shall o'er me roll ; 
 
 Blest Saviour ! then in love 
 
 Fear and distrust remove ! 
 Oh, bear me safe above, 
 
 A ransomed soul ! " 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 
 
God's Saints are (hining lights : who ftays 
 
 Here long must passe 
 O're dark hills, iwnh ftreames, and fteep ways 
 
 As fmooth as glasse ; 
 
 But these all night 
 
 Like Candles ihed 
 
 Their beams, and light 
 
 Us into Bed. 
 
 They are (indeed) our Pillar-fires 
 
 Seen as we go. 
 They are that Cities fliining fpires 
 
 We travell too ; 
 
 A fwordlike gleame * 
 
 Kept man for fln 
 
 First Om^ ; This beame 
 
 Will guide him /;/." 
 
 Henry Vaughan, yoj of my Life. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE THEOLOGIAN. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was primarily a leader in educa- 
 tion. Yet he was in the best sense a religious 
 leader, and few men in his generation in America 
 did more effective service for the Church of Christ. 
 By this it is not meant simply that he trained men 
 for service in the ministry at home and abroad ; that 
 he gave inspiration to vast religious assemblies; or 
 that, his unique powers remaining undiminished 
 until all of his contemporaries had fallen, he be- 
 came by experience and wisdom as well as by gifts 
 a teacher of great influence ; but that he left in the 
 conceptions of the Christian Church the definite im- 
 press of his own thinking. These conceptions were 
 wider and better, when his work was done, than 
 they would have been, had he not lived. They 
 were better, because they were wider, and as the 
 greatest service of his life was the broadening of 
 men's minds to patient and candid thinking, that 
 greatest service was not confined to the class-room, 
 but was extended to the religious teachers of the 
 age. He was invited to become a professor in dif- 
 ferent theological seminaries, and pastor of leading 
 churches, but declined with a wise perception of his 
 
314 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 freedom and of his larger influence. His position ' 
 as college president was partly what he made it, 
 but the office in those days was one of intellec- 
 tual leadership, not of administrative sagacity. 
 From that position he could select his themes, and 
 maintain a proportion exactly expressive of his own 
 conceptions. Had he become a theological profes- 
 sor, he would within limits have done the same, but 
 he had the insight to know that he could influence 
 religious thought more efficiently, if not identified 
 with any special or professional school. He was a 
 Puritan. He was a Congregationalist. He was 
 brought up under the Congregational system, and 
 preferred it both for its methods and its princij^les. 
 Its methods put small value on forms or machiner}^ 
 and seemed to him to conduce directly to the vital 
 and essential thing, namely, spiritual growth. He 
 inherited the Puritan's dislike of forms of worship, 
 and more particularly in his earlier life he showed 
 that aversion in his sermons, and dwelt upon the 
 danger of appeals to the senses and of superstitious 
 reliance on external rites. He believed that sin- 
 cerity and purity were of far greater importance in 
 religious worship than anything else could be, and 
 the emphasis laid on minor matters by certain de- 
 nominations was not in his judgment reasonable. 
 It cannot be denied that tliis large way of looking 
 at things which found expression in all his teaching 
 and life is in part the explanation of the lofty 
 attitude which he took in later times in reference 
 to the discussions and agitations that invaded the 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 315 
 
 Congregational body. Singularly enough this 
 largeness of mind and constant attention to the 
 great central ideas broadened at last both into 
 friendliness toward liberal thought, and into cour- 
 teous recognition of the helpfulness to many of li- 
 turgical forms. 
 
 The ideas in Congregationalism that appealed 
 most fully to his sympathies were the personal re- 
 lation to God which it emphasized; the supreme 
 value which it set upon man, made in the image of 
 God, and upon that self -directive power that even 
 the strono'est Calvinists claimed to lodo^e in the hu- 
 man will. 
 
 A permanent and uninterrupted movement up- 
 ward or downward under a primary choice, but a 
 power of choice absolutely free ; man a true cause ; 
 God a father, as well as a lawgiver; Christ a 
 divine Redeemer; assimilation to Christ by the 
 action of the will under the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit; the Bible, the infallible rule of faith and 
 practice, — these were the doctrines that were of 
 prime importance in his thought. The great enforce- 
 ment which he gave them was from analogy. The 
 harmony between nature and revelation ; the uni- 
 versal reach of God's laws; the universal character 
 of Christianity, — these were the themes the con- 
 stant study of which gave to all his thinking a large- 
 ness that told strongly on the thought of his time. 
 By as much as he exalted the human will, by so 
 much he exalted the love of God revealed in Christ. 
 For him there was no limitation in the offer of sal- 
 
316 .¥.li?/i HOPKINS. 
 
 vation. His whole conception and presentation of 
 God was away from the earlier New England con- 
 ception of arbitrariness and pure sovereignty. He 
 loved science, and was never afraid of true science. 
 
 This is well shown in the following utterance : — 
 
 "It is the dignity of science that in it we reach 
 and share the thoughts of God. We may receive 
 them as from a letter unauthenticated, and so have 
 no conscious communion with Him; but we can- 
 not understand them and have a science, a know- 
 ing, unless they are thoughts, and so proofs of an 
 intelligent being who thus expresses them."^ 
 
 He was not afraid of philosophy, but gave his 
 whole life to the teaching of philosophy, and his 
 conception of God as energizing reason in nature 
 was based on these two pillars. The idea of God 
 as redeeming love he found in revelation, and the 
 energizing reason of nature and the love of revela- 
 tion were brought into harmony in his thought 
 and could not be separated. 
 
 Perha]3s at times he rested too confidently on a 
 particular analogy. But the habit of looking for 
 analogies based on his faith that God is the author 
 both of nature and of the supernatural gave a re- 
 markable impressiveness to his conceptions. In 
 one of the last magazine articles that he published, 
 that on "Optimism " in the "Andover Review" 
 for March, 1885, he goes back to an analogy laid 
 hold of as early as 1844, and already referred to 
 
 ^ Sermon before the American Association for the Advancement 
 of Science, delivered at xVlbany, August 24, 1856. 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 317 
 
 in the account of the lectures on ''The Evidences 
 of Christianity." "Nothing so magnifies the law 
 of gravitation as its grasp on the mote, no less per- 
 fect than that on tlie planet ; and nothing so mag- 
 nifies the law of God as the fact that no least sin 
 of the most insignificant moral agent can escape 
 detection, or be pardoned without an atonement." 
 
 The idea that there may be redemption through 
 atonement in other worlds by an . incarnate Christ 
 has been a fancy of some. When his mind rose, as 
 it did on one occasion, in the meeting of the Amer- 
 ican Board at Columbus in 1884, to the thought of 
 moral life in other worlds, the analogy was from 
 the perfection of different forms of vegetable and 
 animal life here to the perfection of different forms 
 of moral life. 
 
 "It might seem as if this perfection which can 
 be wrought out in our humanity by Christianity 
 was but one form of that perfection which is to be 
 revealed in the works of God throughout the vast 
 dominion of which I have spoken ; throughout that 
 vast system, that moral and social system, which 
 corresponds in extent with that physical system 
 which is revealed ; and so I think that while there 
 shall be gathered at last and preserved, as Paul 
 says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect 
 and the church shall be spotless, without spot or 
 blemish or any such thing, there will be other 
 forms of perfection in other departments of God's 
 universe. And when the great day of restitution 
 of all thino's shall come and God shall vindicate his 
 
318 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 government, there may be seen to be coming in 
 from otlier departments of the universe a long pro- 
 cession of angelic forms, great white legions from 
 Sirius, from Arcturus, and the chambers of the 
 South, gathering around the throne of God and 
 that centre around which the universe revolves." 
 
 Here is analogy pushed by imagination to ex- 
 treme limits, but with a beauty and reasonableness 
 that carry conviction. 
 
 That the universe was grounded in reason and 
 governed by reason ; that it was equally governed 
 by love and regulated by love ; that love and reason 
 must be the same everywhere, — these are the 
 thoughts which his analogies enforce, and these are 
 among the thoughts which he helped to develop in 
 his generation. 
 
 In the conversation which he had with the Rev. 
 Robert A. Hume, the missionary to India, on the 
 Sunday previous to his death, this same great illu- 
 mination by analogy appears. 
 
 " Suppose you tried to show that man is a part of 
 a universal and perfect moral sj^stem, while himself 
 out of harmony with it. The Hindus can be made 
 to see that the entire universe is controlled by a 
 perfect system, — gravitation and other great laws 
 extending to every atom. Similarly there is doubt- 
 less a perfect moral government reaching every part 
 of the system." For the Hindus the great neces- 
 sity is to show the sinfulness of man and his need 
 of redemption. It was to be done by arguments 
 from the perfect harmony of the work of ojie au- 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN". 319 
 
 thoi", and the contrast between fallen man and the 
 perfection of nature. Such a use of analogy pass- 
 mg over into arguments for the universal presence 
 of God had an immense efficiency in expelling the 
 old deistic conceptions, and presenting God as 
 everywhere immanent. But there is not the 
 slightest loss of transcendence, and indeed tran- 
 scendence was one thing ardently contended for in 
 the hostility which he evinced to evolution. God 
 as working for ends ; God revealed as working for 
 beneficent ends; God as uplifting life by conde- 
 scension in nature and through grace, — these 
 ideas are as renunciatory of pantheism as of deism. 
 So his "faith is confidence in a personal being." 
 That was his definition of faith in 1850, and prob- 
 ably much earlier, but it is formally enunciated 
 and discussed in the baccalaureate sermon that 
 year. Faith was at once the source and the end of 
 his religious teaching. That men should trust in 
 Christ ; that the personal relation to Him should be 
 paramount in every system; that the exaltation of 
 that personal relation would bring the right pro- 
 portions into a doctrinal system, — these were with 
 him controlling principles. For the true use of 
 creeds and confessions he had great respect. But 
 the law of the conditioning and the conditioned had 
 force in all departments of thought. In his view 
 everything in practical theology was conditioned 
 on the right idea of faith in Christ ; on the trust re- 
 posed by the individual soul in the divine Saviour, 
 and no creed that did not explicitly exhibit that 
 
320 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 relation seemed to liim rational or clear. Faith in 
 his system did not precede salvation ; it is indeed 
 the means of securing salvation, but by the act of 
 faith the believer is saved ; by that act he comes 
 into harmony and union with God, becomes the 
 son and heir of God. There was much that was 
 mysterious in God's plan of salvation, but nothing 
 magical about the way of conforming to it. The 
 processes on the pai-t of God were plainly processes 
 of eternal reason and eternal love, and man's re- 
 sponse to these processes was wholly rational. 
 The doctrine of ends was equally potent with him 
 in theology and in philosophy. In the chart which 
 accompanied "An Outline Study of Man" wor- 
 ship is presented as the highest outcome of man's 
 complete nature. In any chart that would have 
 expressed his theology, likeness and union with 
 Christ would have been the end of all the powers 
 and activities of man and the key to the whole 
 system. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was not accustomed to dwell much, 
 as do some of the early theologians, notably Ed- 
 wards, on the awfid depravity of man. Least of 
 all did he resort to those descriptions which picture 
 man by the basest of terms and the lowest of fig- 
 ures. These were averse to his mode of presenta- 
 tion. His preaching was encouraging, and hope- 
 ful, and inspiring. His students were known in 
 the theological seminaries as "cheerful " Christians, 
 never as pessimists, or gloomy thinkers. 
 
 By this it is not meant that there was ever any 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 321 
 
 palliation of sin in his utterances. Sin was always 
 in his system the abnormal; the discordant; the 
 failure in the noblest being to meet his end ; the 
 deliberate and awful choice of evil ; " the abomi- 
 nable thing " which God hates. But man was so 
 loved by God in this fallen state that any guilty 
 creature, "however debased and wretched, yea, 
 though he were dyed and steeped in sin," coming 
 with confidence authorized by the death of Christ, 
 would be received as the prodigal son. 
 
 The incarnation expressed God's thought of the 
 value of man, and the atonement was the wonder- 
 ful divine way of purifying those whom God could 
 not let go, and winning back the wanderers to the 
 Father's house. That sons of God, those brought 
 by eternal love once more into sonship, should have 
 a view of sin that increasingly emphasized its sinful- 
 ness was reasonable, but that they, the sons of God, 
 should speak of themselves, or be described, as once 
 "worms," or "swine," or "vipers," was not in his 
 style. Perhaps, however, aversion to these epi- 
 thets common in certain older writers was founded 
 quite as much on their inadequacy to express man's 
 degradation as on the loftiness of his origin. But 
 the degradation implied the loftiness. In a re- 
 markable passage in "The Scriptural Idea of Man," 
 he says: "In that prerogative of man by which he 
 can either accept or reject ths law of his being, 
 he differs wholly from any mere animal. No ani- 
 mal can approximate anything of the kind . It lies 
 in a region and sphere of which it knows nothing. 
 
822 MAtiK HOPKINS. 
 
 We have here indeed a fundamental, perhaps the 
 most fundamental, difference between man and the 
 brute. By accepting the law of his being, man is 
 capable of rising to a height of knowledge, of good- 
 ness, of dominion, which shows that in him which 
 must be wholly different in its origin from any- 
 thing in the brute. Also, by rebelling against God 
 and rejecting the law of his being, he is capable of 
 sinking to a degradation so far below the brute as 
 to show equally that they could not have had a 
 common origin. No brute is any more capable of 
 rebelling against God than of serving Him; is 
 any more capable of sinking below the level of 
 its own nature than of rising to the level of the 
 nature of man. No brute can be either a fool or 
 a fiend. ^ 
 
 Election did not mean for him the arbitrary 
 choosing of "worms to be sons;" it meant the 
 acceptance by God of a being made in his image 
 on the ground of trust in. the divine Son, and the 
 foreknowledge that certain persons would exercise 
 that trust. 
 
 It was a result of Dr. Hopkins's constant study 
 of man's physical, intellectual, and moral nature 
 and of his strong dependence on analogy that spirit- 
 ual activities and processes were not for him so 
 greatly differentiated in method from other pro- 
 cesses as many theologians had made them. This 
 is plainly seen in the following paragraph from 
 ''The Scriptural Idea of Man : " — 
 
 ^ The Scriptural Idea of Man, Lecture YI. p. 124. 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 323 
 
 "And here in the way that sin and corruption 
 come into the spiritual reahn we find one of those 
 analogies to what takes place in the lower foiTns of 
 being that show the unity of the system through- 
 out. All disintegration and corruption of matter is 
 from the domination of a lower over a higher law. 
 Tlie body begins to return to its original elements 
 as the lower chemical and physical forces begin to 
 gain ascendency over the higher force of life. In 
 the same way all sin and corruption in man is from 
 his yielding to a lower law or principle of action in 
 opposition to the demands of one that is higher." ^ 
 
 The profound elations and depressions of a spir- 
 itual experience, the agonies of conviction, the 
 transports of conversion, that marked the early 
 biographies of New England saints were far more 
 consonant with his brother's ideas than with his. 
 He admitted fully the reality of these extremes, 
 and the diversities of operation by the same Spirit, 
 but the whole influence of his teaching and preach- 
 ing was to a calmer, more equable, less emotional 
 acceptance and following of Christ. Rarely had 
 any college the two types of religious experience, 
 the fervent emotional and the calm philosophical, 
 at the same time more happily illustrated in its 
 teachers than in these two brothers. The influence 
 of Dr. Hopkins's simple conception and presenta- 
 tion of faith helped largely to a removal of the feel- 
 ing in the churches that these violent experiences 
 were essential or even desirable in religious life. 
 
 1 The Scriptural Idea of Man. Lecture VI. p. 123. 
 
324 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 His preaching was always so reasonable ; every step 
 urged was so clearly sliown to be fit for a reason- 
 able being to take ; his pleadings were so cool and 
 calm, and his exposition of God's relations to men 
 were so dispassionate and lucid, that the whole 
 ejffect was to give tone to the reason and will, and 
 lead to a manly consecration, rather than to a deep 
 prostration. 
 
 An impression prevailed in certain quarters, 
 where the doctrine of right advocated by him was 
 not fully grasped, that this theory was the source 
 of the doctrine that before a human being could be 
 finally condemned of God, Christ must have been 
 preached to him. That the doctrine that right is 
 right, not simply because it is right, but because 
 doing right will promote the happiness of all beings, 
 the doer included, should be used as a standard to 
 determine what the infinite God will do with cer- 
 tain classes of men does not seem reasonable. Dr. 
 Hopkins believed that God would do and does all 
 that infinite reason and infinite love can do to win 
 men back to liimseK. But because he believed 
 this, and further that God has made it plain in the 
 constitution of things that he who chooses as a 
 supreme end the blessedness, the well-being of all 
 beings will do right, and that right action is right 
 because it conduces to that end, it is certainly a 
 strange inference that his teaching was preparatory 
 for the introduction into the thought of this age of 
 that peculiar, but old doctrine that the heathen will 
 not be condemned until they have heard the gospel 
 
THE TIIEOLOUIAN. 325 
 
 of Christ ; and that if they have not heard it in 
 this woild, they must in the next. 
 
 The oahn, restrained reply to the illogical at- 
 tack made in the ])ages of a review was presented 
 in a later number of the same periodical in an ar- 
 ticle on "The Place of the Sensibility in Morals." ^ 
 This may well be noted as a masterpiece of dispas- 
 sionate, temperate statement, and it must not be 
 forgotten that he had attained his eighty-fifth year 
 when it was written. 
 
 Dr. Plopkins's mind was an open one. The 
 movement in the direction of breadth and charity 
 was very plain the latter part of his life, and made 
 his old age beautiful ; and during his entire life he 
 held himself ready to change any view, if new light 
 seemed to make a change reasonable. That was 
 seen in other matters besides his abandonment of 
 the doctrine that right is ultimate. 
 
 The statement of Leibnitz that this is "the best 
 possible system," once held by him, was at last 
 wholly abandoned, as is plain from the article on 
 "Optimism " already mentioned. A colloquy once 
 took place in his class-room which brought out 
 objections to that statement by Leibnitz in a strik- 
 ing way. Dr. Hopkins asked a bright student ^ 
 if he did not believe that "this is the best possible 
 system." The student replied that he did not. 
 Thereupon the president said: "Will you please 
 
 ^ Homiletical lieview, February, 1887. 
 
 - James H. Canfield, of the class of 1868, now Chancellor of the 
 University of Nebraska. 
 
326 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 tell us in what resiDects you could improve upon 
 this system ? " " Certainly," was the prompt reply ; 
 " I would kill off all the bedbugs, mosquitoes, and 
 fleas, and make oranges and bananas grow farther 
 north." If the answer seems a little pungent, we 
 have this assurance, that only a student who had 
 been thinking earnestly on the subjects under dis- 
 cussion would have made such a repl3^ It was a 
 far more honorable answer to the teacher than a 
 blind affirmation woukl have been, and was doubt- 
 less regarded by Dr. Hopkins himself as an indi- 
 cation that his teaching was not in vain. I remem- 
 ber distinctly that at the alumni dinner the next 
 summer he spoke most complimentarily of the ora- 
 tion just delivered on the Commencement stage by 
 the keen pupil who made this retort. 
 
 He made a good deal of tlie argument from mir- 
 acles in the lectures on "The Evidences of Chris- 
 tianity," and never ceased to regard the miracles 
 as a substantial and authoritative support to the 
 claims of Christ. In the article on "Optimism," 
 one of the ripest and maturest of his discussions, 
 he indicates a change in the proportionate weight 
 which he gave them. 
 
 "As compared with the conception of a sinless 
 man as essential to a religious system, and with the 
 presentation of it in real life in its vicissitudes and 
 vmder its extremest forms of trial, the wonder of 
 miracles is as nothing. Miracles were needed in 
 the beginning as evidences. They are needed still, 
 but they will be less needed as the world moves 
 
THE THEOLOGIAN. 327 
 
 on, and the sinless charaeter of Christ shall take its 
 place and shine with proper effulgence in the 
 Christian system." 
 
 At the same time it must not be overlooked that 
 there was a foresightedness and an almost prophetic 
 element in his mind that early seized the points 
 likeliest to be of weight in progress. For this 
 reason the changes in his position were few. For 
 this reason we find in his last and matured utter- 
 ances points of living contact with the earliest. 
 For this reason, also, in some things he was in ad- 
 vance of liis age. He was, I believe, the first in 
 this country to make the study of anatomy and 
 physiology the foundation for the study of mind 
 and morals, and was thus the pioneer in the direc- 
 tion of "Physiological Psychology," which has of 
 late years taken on such large expansion. Indeed 
 the ablest exponent ^ of the new psychology in this 
 country does not exclude, but rather pi'esents Dr. 
 Hopkins's conceptions as expressive of the aims of 
 the new method when he writes : — 
 
 '* The new psychology which brings simply a new 
 method and a new standpoint to philosophy is, I 
 believe, Christian to its root and centre; and its 
 final mission in the world is not merely to trace 
 petty harmonies and small adjustments between 
 science aiid religion, but to flood and transfuse the 
 new and vaster conceptions of the universe and of 
 man's place in it — now slowdy taking form and giv- 
 
 ^ President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University- Worcester, 
 Majss. 
 
328 MARK HOFEIXS. 
 
 ing to reason a new cosmos and involving momen- 
 tous and far-reaching practical and social conse- 
 quences — with the old Scriptural sense of unity, 
 rationality, and love beneath and above all with all 
 its wide consequences." ^ While the pupil would 
 not here claim for his master that he was conver- 
 sant with the methods or results of the latest physi- 
 ological investigations, he certainly includes him 
 among the "new" philosophers. He could not 
 more accurately describe Dr. Hopkins's thought of 
 the mission of psychology than in these words. He 
 could not more perfectly picture the scope and in- 
 fluence of his teaching. 
 
 He stood always for unity, for reason, for love 
 in his philosophy and his theology. The laws of 
 the conditioning and the conditioned meant unity 
 and reason, aiid as there was no high end without 
 sensibility, love pervaded the entire system. The 
 end in morals was the love of man and the love of 
 God. The end in theology was the same made 
 attainable by faith in Christ. 
 
 It is noteworthy that, while his first book was on 
 "The Evidences of Christianity," the last lecture in 
 the last book, "The Scriptural Idea of Man," treats 
 almost wholly of "The Man, Christ Jesus." The 
 Christocentric trend of modern theology in New 
 England and America was promoted by his utter- 
 ances. It would be hard to find a more marked in- 
 stance of uniformity of exaltation of Christ in all 
 the thought of a thinker. From the beginning to 
 ^ Andover Eeview, March, 1885. 
 
THE THEOLOaiAX. 329 
 
 the end of his career Christ was the '^Suii of 
 Righteousness." He regarded Him as the source 
 of all redemption and inspiring power from the first. 
 His conceptions of Him were enlarged, as were his 
 conceptions of creation, but the authority of his 
 person and the grandeur of his claims and mission 
 always had the relative importance which the last 
 developments in all theology assign them. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Hopkins, his great-uncle, defined 
 faith as "an understanding cordial receiving the 
 divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ and the 
 way of salvation by Him in which the heart accords 
 and conforms to the gospel." 
 
 The great nephew defined it as "confidence in a 
 personal being." This simplicity and directness of 
 the relation to Christ, the introduction of this con- 
 ception as the mainspring of all doctrinal state- 
 ments and movements, was the great contribution 
 of his life to the thought of the churches. It was 
 a contribution that involved many lesser gifts, as, 
 for instance, more rational views of inspiration, 
 and a clearer understanding of the Bible. The 
 whole thought and activity of the churches is now 
 quickened and harmonized by this central and 
 guiding conception, which others indeed before him 
 had dimly perceived, but which he helped to make 
 the luminous centre of modern theology. 
 
THE CLOSING YEAES, 
 
■ What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain ? 
 Wealth, title, dignity, a golden chain, 
 Or heap of corses which his sword hath slain ? 
 Goodness and greatness are not means, but ends. 
 Hath he not always treasures, always friends. 
 The good great man ? Three treasures — love, and light, 
 And calm thoughts, equable as infant's breath ; 
 And three fast friends, more sure than day or night — 
 Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death." 
 
 Coleridge, The Good Great Man. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CLOSING YEARS. 
 
 In 1880 Dr. Hopkins was much delighted with 
 the nomination of General Garfield, who had been 
 one of his pupils, for the office of President of the 
 United States. Garfield's entrance of Williams 
 College had been determined by a kindly letter 
 and promise of help received from Dr. Hojikins in 
 reply to an appeal made when he was considering 
 the means of securing a college education. From 
 the first the relation was one of cordial and recip- 
 rocal esteem, which deepened in later years into rev- 
 erence on Garfield's part for his great teacher, and 
 admiration on the teacher's part for the brilliant 
 development of power in the pupil and the steady 
 promotion which accompanied the development. 
 
 In Garfield's volumes of correspondence are 
 carefully preserved letters from Dr. Hopkins which 
 were written at various points of advancement in 
 Garfield's career. The letter of congratulation on 
 the nomination to the presidency is worthy of the 
 relation between these distinguished men, and ex- 
 presses in the frankest and yet most tender way 
 the joy that a true teacher will feel in the success 
 of a beloved pupil, — a success won, in this case, 
 against immense odds. 
 
334 MABK HOPKINS. 
 
 Williams College, June 10, 1880. 
 
 My deak General, — Has the time of telegrams so 
 passed that you can read a letter ? 
 
 The hour has struck sooner than I thought. You 
 know I thought it would come, and now that it has 
 come I rejoice with you. I congratulate you, not only 
 on your nomination, but on the manner of it, and the 
 enthusiasm with which it is received. The students 
 here are wild over it, and I care not how wild, if they 
 will but learn the lesson there is in it. 
 
 It is one reason of my joy that there is a lesson in 
 it. How well I remember those early struggles and 
 your manly bearing under them, the confidence you at 
 once gave your instructors and received from them, and 
 the combination, so apparently easy, and yet so rare 
 among students, of a genial spirit with pure habits and 
 high aims uniformly pursued. That was the beginning 
 of a course in which you have not faltered, and the 
 lesson therefore is, that this honor is the result of no 
 accident, but of achievement by steady work in scholar- 
 ship and statesmanship, so that when the occasion called, 
 the man was there. In this view of it I regard the 
 nomination as an honor to the country and its institu- 
 tions, no less than to yourself, and if the American 
 people shall ratify it, as I believe they will, I am confi- 
 dent we shall have an administration that will not suffer 
 in comparison with any that has gone before it. 
 
 My dear General, I shake hands with you, and beg 
 you to convey my congratulations to Mrs. Garfield and 
 to your honored mother. 
 
 When the campaign ended, and the jnipil was 
 elected to the highest office in the gift of the peo- 
 
THE CLOSING YEARS. 335 
 
 pie, the teacher, recalling anew all the struggles of 
 the life that had been thus crowned, had great 
 cause for thankfulness that he had been permitted 
 to help make those struggles easier, and to add 
 something by his instruction to the intellectual and 
 moral power of the man. No one could have 
 greater joy in the honor that had come to the once 
 poor and anxious student, now the President-elect 
 of the gi-eat republic, than Dr. Hopkins. His 
 brief letter of congratulation expresses this joy. 
 
 Williams College, November 3, 1880. 
 
 My dear General, — The news of the morning 
 brings us joy. Yoit are elected President of these 
 United States by a majority that cannot he questioned. 
 Thanks be to God for the security and prosperity which 
 this promises to the whole country. 
 
 You knov7, that outside of your own family no one 
 rejoices more in this, your success, than I do. May God 
 be with you. 
 
 Please present my best congratulations to Mrs. Gar- 
 field and your honored mother. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was in Washington at the time of 
 the inauguration, a guest of his son-in-law, Judge 
 Nott, of the Court of Claims. A meeting of the 
 graduates of the college with their brother alum- 
 nus, the newly inaugurated President, and with Dr. 
 Hopkins, was arranged by Colonel A. F. Eoek- 
 well, a classmate and intimate friend of Garfield. 
 The following account of that meeting had its ori- 
 gin in the thoughtful kindness, and is given in the 
 words, of Colonel Rockwell. The meeting took 
 
336 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 place on the afternoon of tlie inauguration day, 
 March 4, 1881. 
 
 "About four o'clock, the alumni with Dr. Hop- 
 kins were present in the Executive Mansion, 
 awaiting the President. As soon as he was noti- 
 fied, leaving behind the crowds who were pressing 
 for his attention, attended by Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. 
 Rockwell, and myself, the President proceeded at 
 once to the East Room. On entering, he found 
 the company of a hundred or more arranged in a 
 semicircle. Approaching, he arrested his steps, 
 and, crossing his hands before him, stopped about 
 ten feet away, facing the Doctor. After a moment 
 of silence. Dr. Hopkins began the remarkable ad- 
 dress, a faithful copy of which I have the pleasure 
 of inclosing. The emotion of the company was 
 apparent, and, at the moment when 'that venerable 
 and venerated man,' with outstretched hands, 'in- 
 voked the blessing of Him who has led you hith- 
 erto,' the scene was impressive beyond description. 
 
 "The President then began his reply, which, as 
 nearly as I remember, occupied about the same 
 time as the Doctor's address. It is always to be 
 regretted that, in the hurry and confusion of those 
 times, the services of a stenographer were over- 
 looked. To make amends I spared no entreaties 
 to elicit from the eminent men, whose relations on 
 this day were so unique and beautiful, the repro- 
 duction by themselves of their words. 
 
 " I was more successful in the one case, but (mly 
 partly so in the other; for the two precious half 
 
THE CLOSING YEARS.- 337 
 
 sheets in 1113^ possession, containing the beautiful 
 and touching exordium only of President Garfield's 
 address, were all that my most strenuous efforts 
 could obtain. 
 
 "How far, at this late da}^ the recollections of 
 those present might avail in reproducing the re- 
 mainder of the President's address is a matter for 
 conjecture." 
 
 The following are Dr. Hopkins's words: — 
 
 "President Garfield, — The alumni of Wil- 
 liams College here gathered, esteem it an honor that 
 they are permitted to be the first to congratulate 
 you in this house, now to be your home, on your 
 accession this day to your great office as President 
 of the United States ; and they have deputed me 
 to say a few words in their behalf. 
 
 "But, before doing this, I must be permitted 
 to greet and congratulate you personally and on my 
 own behalf. This I venture to do, if for no other 
 reason, because I have been told, and I suppose 
 truly, that I am the only president of a college who 
 has lived to see one, who graduated during his ad- 
 ministration, attain to this high honor. This I am 
 now permitted to see, and for it I give thanks to 
 God. In this, with the exception of your honored 
 mother and immediate family, there is no one who 
 rejoices more than I do, and from the bottom of my 
 heart I congratulate you. 
 
 " Having thus ventured to say a word for myself, 
 I now speak for the alumni. 
 
 "Since your graduation, sir, twenty-four years 
 
338 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ago, your course has been conspicuous, and we have 
 watched it with deep interest. We have seen you 
 passing on and up without defeat, until, by no po- 
 litical manoeuvring, but by high statesmanship and 
 continuous public service in the face of the Ameri- 
 can people, you have attained one of the highest 
 positions this world has to give, — the presidency 
 of the grandest republic hitherto known. 
 
 "Well then, sir, may we congratulate you, and 
 I do it in the name of those who hold or have held 
 high positions under the government, in the name 
 of those prominent in the several States from which 
 they come, in the name of your classmates of whom 
 so many are present, in the name of all present, I 
 congratulate you, and assure you that we feel hon- 
 ored in your honor. 
 
 "And not in the name of these alone do I con- 
 gratulate you, but in the name of the college, its 
 trustees, and its alumni, wherever they may be. 
 Standing as I do among the oldest of these 
 alumni, and having taught so many of them, I feel 
 authorized to speak for them. I know that they 
 also feel honored in your honor, and that, as a 
 body, they will be strongly in sympathy with you 
 in your administration. 
 
 "To that administration we look forward with 
 confidence. In view of its vast responsibilities and 
 grand opportunities, we invoke upon you the bless- 
 ing of Him who has led you hitherto ; and we trust 
 that in connection with it there will come to your- 
 self still higher honor, and to the whole of this 
 
THE CLOSING YEARS. 339 
 
 vast country, East, West, North, and South, alike, 
 gTeater prosperity than it has hitherto known." 
 
 In the reply which President Garfield made, it 
 has been related by those who were present, was 
 the distinct assertion that Dr. Hopkins was more 
 truly President than he. Colonel Rockwell's mem- 
 orandum gives the few words which he secured from 
 the distinguished statesman, and these breathe the 
 spirit of this statement. 
 
 "I am deeply grateful to you, and to the 
 alumni of Williams College here assembled, for 
 this cordial greeting. 
 
 "It will give me new strength for the duties of 
 this i^lace to know that I am welcomed and sup- 
 ported by this great company of educated men, 
 whose lives illustrate and honor so many profes- 
 sions, and such wide fields of useful activity. 
 
 ''It is especially gratifying to me that your 
 greetings have been delivered by that venerable and 
 venerated man, who was in our college days and 
 will always be okv President. 
 
 "I hope he will pardon me for a more personal 
 reference. For a quarter of a century Dr. Hop- 
 kins has seemed to me a man a23art from other men, 
 — standing on a mountain peak, — embodying in 
 himself much of the majesty of earth, and reflect- 
 ing in his life something of the sunlight and glory 
 of Heaven. His presence here is a benediction " — 
 
 It was arranged that at the inauguration of 
 Franklin Carter on July 6, 1881, as the sixth pres- 
 
340 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 ident of Williams College, General Garfield, who 
 had represented the alumni at the inauguration of 
 President Chadbourne, Dr. Hopkins's immediate 
 successor, should again speak for the alumni. He 
 was to be the guest of Dr. Hopkins during the 
 Commencement week. He had just started on 
 his journey to Williamstown to fulfill this engage- 
 ment, when the bullet of the assassin struck him. 
 When the swift telegram on the 2d of July car- 
 ried the bitter intelligence of his assassination over 
 the land, to no one outside of his own family was 
 the event more distressing than to Dr. Hopkins. 
 The telegrams received by him during the public 
 exercises of the Commencement week and read to 
 the various assemblies always excited deep emotion. 
 There was something strikingly pathetic and rep- 
 resentative of the whole people in the eagerness 
 with which the venerable man received these dis- 
 patches, in the encouragement which he drew from 
 each favorable sign, and in the anxiety that seemed 
 to underlie all his actions. 
 
 Ahnost immediately after this gloomy Com- 
 mencement, which was nevertheless brightened by 
 rays of hope, Dr. Hopkins went abroad with his 
 wife and two daughters. Before sailing, he sent a 
 letter to President Garfield, which is here printed. 
 
 Williams College, July 13, 1881. 
 My dear President Garfield, — We, Mrs. Hop- 
 kins, Louisa, Susie, and I, leave to-day for Europe, with 
 hearts lightened and thankful from the hope, now al- 
 most i-eaching assurance, of your recovery. The shock 
 
THE CLOSING YEARS. 341 
 
 here during Commencement week, the grief, disappoint- 
 ment, and suspense were fearful. 
 
 Here the feeling Avas intensified, but over the whole 
 country it was a wonderful testimony of affectionate re- 
 gard. 
 
 We hope to return in about three months, and God 
 grant that we may find you fully restored. 
 
 "With affectionate regards from us all to Mrs. Garfield 
 and yourself, I am, with the highest consideration, 
 
 Yours, Mark Hopkixs. 
 
 By leaving the country then, Dr. Hopkins escaped 
 in a measure the stress of daily perturbations to 
 which all were subject who honored Garfield and 
 were near enough to read the frequent reports from 
 the room of the sufferer. Still the long, painful 
 illness touched him constantly, and sometimes 
 closely, even in Europe, and the death enveloped 
 foreign lands in shadows hardly less dense than 
 those falling upon our States. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins returned from Europe and resumed 
 his work in the college towards the end of Novem- 
 ber. His health was benefited by the voyage, and 
 seemed very vigorous, when one recalled that he 
 was more than half way through his eighty-first 
 year. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1882 he received an invi- 
 tation from the trustees of the college to deliver 
 a memorial address ^ on President Garfield at 
 
 ^ This address is published in the book Teachings and Coun- 
 sels, issued in 1884 by Charles Scribner's Sons. It follows the 
 twentv baccalaureate sermons. 
 
342 MABE HOPKINS. 
 
 Commencement in July of that year. He accepted 
 the invitation, and in the address referred most 
 impressively to the suffering and death of the la- 
 mented President. 
 
 "I make no attemj^t to interpret the providence 
 which permitted the death of President Garfield at 
 such a time and in such a manner. To me clouds 
 and darkness are round about it. But that he was 
 eminently fitted in himself and in the circumstances 
 of his death to be the object of a gaze which should 
 illustrate the power of sympathy in the new condi- 
 tions under which the race is placed will not be 
 denied." 
 
 The entire oration was marked by a calm dignity 
 and sagacious insight, but it was not delivered by 
 Dr. Hoj)kins himself, and for that reason as spoken 
 lost the effectiveness that his venerable presence 
 and his deep, personal feeling would have added. 
 The serious illness of his eldest daughter, Mary 
 Louisa, so saddened and alarmed him that he put 
 the manuscript into the hand of Rev. Dr. S. I. 
 Prime, of New York city, at that time the oldest 
 clerical member of the board of trustees, and it 
 was read by him on July 4, 1882, to a large audi- 
 ence. The circumstances deepened the feeling of 
 solemnity, and the gloom of the previous Com- 
 mencement occasioned by the startling bullet of 
 Guiteau seemed to return and envelop the commu- 
 nity, as the universally beloved daughter slipped 
 away to the unseen world from the home of her 
 father. Her death was a grievous affliction to him 
 
THE CLOSISG YEARS. 343 
 
 and to all the family. '*I have known no one," 
 are Dr. Hopkins's touching words in the lettci' to 
 Dr. Palmer, "'who seemed to me to come nearer 
 my conception of a saint." With that pathetic 
 sentence, all who knew her will agree. She was a 
 symmetrical, lovely character, at once practical and 
 intellectual, broad-minded and tender, and having 
 great powers of expression. Somewhat reserved to 
 strangers, she yet always conveyed a sense of her 
 goodness, and no one who was privileged to catch 
 a w^ord from the depths of her life could fail to be 
 ennobled by it or to remember the moment with 
 grateful joy. She was like her father in intellec- 
 tual qualities, and the sympathy between them was 
 deep. 
 
 The next year, 1883, Dr. Hopkins's health was 
 for a time quite infirm. This was the year in 
 which the lectures on "The Scriptural Idea of 
 Man "were delivered at Princeton in the early 
 spring. It was with considerable heroism that 
 this honorable duty was discharged. One of the 
 lectures was read to the audience by Dr. Green, as 
 Dr. Hopkins was too ill that day to attempt the 
 labor. One of them he delivered, rising from his 
 bed for the purpose, and retiring almost immedi- 
 ately after the hour was ended. He returned to 
 his home in Williamstown late in the spring, but 
 did not entirely recover from his weakness. 
 
 He was annoyed with a cough and with inability 
 to digest food. He went from his home to the 
 seaside before Commencement to secure rest and 
 
344 mauk hopkixs. 
 
 avoid excitement. His old pupils, to whom the 
 return to AVilliamstown for the college festivities 
 meant little unless they saw and greeted him and 
 received his greeting, were disappointed to miss his 
 venerable and still stately figure about the college. 
 He returned home late in the summer, greatly re- 
 freshed and improved by the change. He looked 
 forward to the meeting of the American Board at 
 Detroit with the determination of there resigning 
 his presidency. He had, however, in October, re- 
 gained his strength so fully that he endured the 
 fatigue of the meeting with his usual ability, and 
 presided with admirable efficiency. He was finally 
 persuaded to accept the office for another year, to 
 the great satisfaction of the corporate members, 
 and continued president until his death. 
 
 He resumed his teaching after the meeting, and 
 did not miss a recitation during the cold weather. 
 Before the S23ring came the cough returned, and 
 he felt that the visit to his children at Washington 
 might be a help to breaking it up. He left home 
 in the latter part of March and returned about the 
 middle of May, very much improved. At Com- 
 mencement that year, 1884, he happened to enter 
 the chapel during the alumni meeting at the time 
 when Dr. Stanley Hall, then of the Johns Hop- 
 kins University, was reading the report of the com- 
 mittee of the alumni on the state of the college. 
 He had been speaking of the great services of Dr. 
 Hopkins as a teacher of philosophy, just before 
 his old preceptor entered the room. When his 
 
THE CLOSING VEAE.S. 345 
 
 familiar and venerable form moved up the aisle, 
 as the thoughts of all were just then fixed upon 
 him, with one accord the whole body of alumni rose 
 to their feet to do him honor. 
 
 The gift of <3^30,000 in seven per cent, bonds made 
 by the Hon. William E. Dodge, in 1867, to the 
 college, inasmuch as the interest was for Dr. Hop- 
 kins's use, if he chose to give up his teaching, made 
 it possible for him to withdraw comfortabty at any 
 time from his work in the colleoe. At the ae:e of 
 eighty -two, with the consciousness that the passing 
 years gave of declining vigor, there was no dispo- 
 sition on his part to shrink from the- resumption of 
 his teaching. The desire to be under his instruc- 
 tion was strong in every class, and in the later years 
 of his life an apprehension was often expressed by 
 members of the lower classes lest when their class 
 reached the Senior year he should have given up 
 his teaching. 
 
 In the i^residential election of 1884 he was an 
 elector-at-large on the Eepublican ticket for Mas- 
 sachusetts, and earnestly hoped for the success of 
 Mr. Blaine. When he began teaching that au- 
 tumn, the class had in it the two elder sons of the 
 lamented President Garfield and sons of other grad- 
 uates, so that it was with peculiar pleasure that he 
 undertook the instruction of this class. 
 
 His speech at the alumni dinner in 1885 was 
 one of his happiest. The American Board met 
 this year at Boston, and the conditions made the 
 labor of attendance and presiding easier than on 
 
346 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 some previous years, but the anxiety and excitement 
 were wearing. He returned again to his college 
 teaching with joy. It was a calm and beautiful 
 age, honored by his pupils and reverently regarded 
 by all who knew him. Everywhere his name was 
 spoken with affection. The debate at Des Moines 
 in 1886 and the agitations of the American Board 
 have already been discussed. There can be no 
 doubt that these matters occupied his thought and 
 wore upon his strength. But when at the two hun- 
 dred and fiftieth amiiversary of Harvard, in 1886, 
 the degree of Doctor of Laws (Harvard gave him 
 the doctorate of Divinity in 1841) was conferred 
 upon him, and the great audience joined in vigorous 
 applause as he rose before them, he seemed the per- 
 sonification of serene and beautiful old age. 
 
 Indeed, when in the spring of 1887, after another 
 winter's teaching, he took his departure for Wash- 
 ington, there seemed no reason to fear that he 
 would not go on with his instruction for a few years 
 lono^er. He had confidence in his own streno^th. 
 He had spoken within a year of having delivered 
 an oration at the semi-centennial of the college in 
 1843, and of his hope to live to hear, or possibly to 
 give, the oration at the centennial in 1893. But 
 on his return in May he was not quite up to his 
 averaoje streno^th. There seemed to be a little less 
 exuberance of spirit and a little more conscious- 
 ness of age. It was not until June that he really 
 seemed ill. He took cold, and his strength began 
 to fail. Th3 family physician. Dr. Hubbell, the 
 
THE CLOSING YEABS. 347 
 
 brother of Mrs. Hopkins, was called in, but there 
 seemed at first to be no cause for alarm. lie kept 
 about, went out to ride, and climbed a fence and 
 went up a few rods from the road to the spring 
 which supplies the village only two or three days 
 before his death. This was on Tuesday, June 14. 
 It was the perfect season of the year. I remember 
 his once saying to me at this very season, as we sat 
 in the twilight, and the perfect beauty of June was 
 about us, ''This is the most beautiful season of the 
 year. But it passes very quickly." It was in 
 this perfect season that he too was at last swiftly 
 passing. He spoke of death too on that June 
 evening in 1868 (there had recently been a sudden 
 death in the college), and then quoted Professor 
 Kellogg, as having once said to him : '' Because I 
 have been so often near death, people think I must 
 know something of it, and what is beyond. But 
 to me, as to all, it is a blank wall." On AVednes- 
 day he was no better, but arose and dressed, and on 
 Thursday made himself ready with difficulty for a 
 festival of his grandchildren, whom he tenderly 
 loved. He did not have the strength after dress- 
 ing to attend the little party. That night he was 
 restless, could not breathe easily, and sat up much 
 of the time. At the coming of dawn he seemed 
 to be aware that his sensations meant something 
 grave. As the birds were singing their morn- 
 ing song, and he was breathing with difficulty, he 
 said to his beloved wife: "Mary, this must be 
 death." As he sat there on the side of the bed, 
 
348 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 erect, majestic, enduring, his head dropped a lit- 
 tle, and his spirit had flown. 
 
 With the same courage and faith with which he 
 had met many a crisis, he met death. There is 
 something striking in the fact that he met this last 
 enemy sitting and looking for the dawn. One is 
 tempted to recall Browning's words in "Prospice," 
 
 " I would hate that death handaged my eyes and forbore, 
 
 And bade me creep past. 
 No ! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, 
 
 The heroes of old ; 
 Bear the brunt, in a minute pay life's glad arrears 
 
 Of pain, darkness, and cold." 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 
 
"There is a stream whose waves divide 
 Life from the shady shores beyond ; 
 
 And we on this sad side are found, 
 Toiling on sandy flats, I ween, 
 
 Sighs our one moisture, tears our sheen, 
 While the still river flows between. 
 
 " And yet, when our beloved rise 
 
 To gird them for the ford, and pass 
 
 From wilderness to springing grass, 
 From barren waste to living green, 
 
 We weep that they no more are seen, 
 And that the river flows between. 
 
 " Ah, could we follow where they go 
 
 And pierce the holy shade they find, 
 One grief were ours — to stay behind I 
 
 One hope — to join the Blest Unseen — 
 To plant our steps where theirs have been, 
 And find no river flows between." 
 
 C. C. Fraser Tytler, Crossing the River. 
 
 \ 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 
 
 It was on the morning of June 17 that Dr. 
 Hopkins died. On the following Tuesday, June 
 21, he was buried. The services were conducted 
 by the Rev. A. C. Sewall, of Schenectady, who 
 had been until quite recently for many years pas- 
 tor of the Congregational church in Williamstown, 
 Professor Edward H. Griffin, then connected with 
 the college as associate professor of philosophy, 
 and later Dr. Hopkins's successor in the profes- 
 sorship of "Intellectual and Moral Philosophy," 
 and the president of the college. Alumni living 
 in remote cities and towns, the officers of various 
 religious and educational institutions, came to pay 
 their last respects to the gi^eat teacher. The Sen- 
 ior class, the class of 1887, formed a body-guard 
 accompanying the remains from the church to the 
 peaceful and beautiful cemetery of the college. It 
 was a dark and gloomy day, but at one point dur- 
 ing the service gleams of sunlight came through 
 the clouds and, shooting through a window, rested 
 directly upon the coffin. The life had been great 
 and beautiful, and this sunlight seemed like a rev- 
 elation of the new strength and joy that had come 
 
352 MARE HOPKINS. 
 
 to his departed spirit. There was a feeling of com- 
 fort in all hearts in the remembrance of his long 
 and successful labors, and of the deep peace that 
 had marked his later years. As voicing the feel- 
 ings of those who had known him best, and giving 
 a general statement of the grateful love and honor 
 in which his pupils held him, the discourse which 
 I delivered on that occasion may close this record. 
 
 As I passed out of the president's house early 
 last Friday morning in response to the startling 
 message sent by my beloved classmate, the pastor 
 of the college church, I carried in my heart the 
 certainty that the brightest star in the firmament 
 covering these hills had set to rise in the pure ether 
 of heaven. I wondered that nature was still busy 
 with her weaving, her humming, her whispering, 
 her sparrows, and her blades of grass, and did not 
 know and could not know enough to weep for, or 
 even pause to think of, that 
 
 *' blossom of the earth 
 Which all her harvests were not worth." 
 
 But there came another thought : the remembrance 
 that the Prince of Life had assured his disciples 
 that the hairs of their heads were all numbered, 
 that He had told them that not even a sparrow 
 falls to the ground without the Heavenly Father's 
 notice, and had asked the comforting question, 
 "Are not ye of more value than many sparrows? " 
 And I am sure, as we all have reflected in these 
 intervening days on the life that ended so fittingly. 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 353 
 
 its long and beneficent record, its great powers so 
 wisely used, the benignant and serene atmosphere 
 of these riper years, we must have been deeply 
 impressed with the grandeur and the normal perfec- 
 tion of many of its features, and humbly grateful 
 that God has granted to us to know these features 
 and this life. 
 
 This is not the time for the analysis and eulogy 
 of a great intellectual career, but rather to comfort 
 one another with words of gratitude and joyful 
 recognition of what God has given us through this 
 life and in the very taking of it away. And if I 
 call 3^our attention to a few points in it, partly the 
 gift of God and partly the conquest of faith and 
 patience, and our hearts are thus warmed by this 
 contemplation into new love for the Redeemer and 
 new trust in his watcliful care of all his saints, it 
 cannot be one side of the true lessons of the hour. 
 
 Is it not well to think for a moment of the length 
 and strength of the life of this hero-saint ? — of 
 the eighty -five years that he lived, of the sixty 
 years at least of majestic powers fully trained and 
 devoted in calm but ceaseless activity to Christ's 
 service? We recall the declaration of Moses, that 
 man of God, that "if by reason of strength the 
 days of our years be fourscore years, yet is their 
 strength labor and sorrow," and we feel that these 
 words have no application to this life ; and that, as 
 it was recorded of Moses himself, so, too, of our 
 teacher it may be said, that when he departed, "his 
 eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. " He 
 
354 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 was nearly two years old when his great-uncle, 
 Samuel Hopkins, the eminent theologian, died in 
 Newport in December, 1803. Suppose, now, that 
 he had been five years old, and had seen and re- 
 membered that illustrious uncle ; and then imagine 
 that one of these little grandsons who saw and 
 loved and will remember him should live to the age 
 of eighty, then this life would be the middle link 
 of a chain of three links, covering nearly two hun- 
 dred and forty years. We see thus how many 
 generations may be linked together, and what a 
 grasp before and behind this life had. He might 
 have been spared a few years more, perhaps, but 
 how much sweeter to remember him as going be- 
 fore "the keepers of the house began to tremble, 
 and the strong men bowed themselves, and those 
 that look out of the windows were darkened." 
 
 Is it not comforting, too, to remember, con- 
 sidering simply the relationships of human life, 
 what the prophetic dying Jacob called in the He- 
 brew idiom "the blessing of the breasts and of 
 the womb," in what tender and gracious ways God 
 blessed our teacher and father and friend ? From 
 the earlier years of my knowledge of life in this 
 village nothing is more beautiful to recall than 
 the brotherhood of him who has now gone with that 
 gifted and revered saint, Albert, who died in 1872. 
 The hands that clasped each other affectionately as 
 co-workers and co-educators in this college played 
 with the same playthings and picked the same 
 flowers in childhood. As little boys they were 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 355 
 
 taught and kissed by the same loving mother's lips. 
 As families reproduce in successive or remoter gen- 
 erations their features, I think that the brotherhood 
 of Mark and Albert Hopkins in some measure 
 reproduced that of their great uncle Samuel, the 
 profound leader of New England theologians, with 
 his younger brother, their grandfather. Colonel 
 Mark. The subtle acumen of the great-uncle reap- 
 peared in the president, Mark. The soldierly fer- 
 vor of the grandfather Mark reappeared in Albert. 
 These two men, dealing with the two subjects that 
 filled Kant with wonder, one with the laws and 
 movements of the stars, the other with the laws and 
 movements of the human mind, honored through- 
 out the land, had forty years of brotherhood in the 
 kingdoms of scholarship and of Christ. And if I 
 could speak of that more delicate and tender rela- 
 tion, involving that profounder mystery by which 
 the solitary are set in families, every heart that 
 knows that home w^ould throb with joyful memo- 
 ries of the perfect, the ideal type of union, which, 
 so early formed and continued so long beyond the 
 ''golden " day, has been the admiration of all and 
 the inspiration of many. And well might I allude 
 to the chivalrous reverence with which the family 
 relation was always treated; the consummate tact 
 and grace with which every family duty was per- 
 formed and every family ordinance solemnized ; to 
 the numbers of little children (many of them not 
 of his kin) whom he lovingly baptized ''into the 
 name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Gliost." 
 
856 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 And then the sons and daughters and grandchil- 
 dren (almost the last act was to prepare himself for 
 a festival of the little ones), — who can help looking 
 upon all these family conditions as beautiful, and 
 who that knew him can fail to remember him as 
 the beloved head of them all? 
 
 Some sorrows came through this organic relation 
 (the thought of the bitter loss of five years ago still 
 causes pangs in many hearts), but how many joys, 
 how many pure and noble lives, how many sweet 
 and winning childhoods, were blest in their claims 
 upon his headship of an ideal family and are to-day 
 blended in the loving union of his memory. 
 
 And passing over to what he loved with an al- 
 most equally intense affection, the college for which 
 he lived, and which he carried by the sheer weight 
 of his powers for so many years, how inspiring to 
 remember that of the seventeen hundred and fifty 
 living alumni he had taught all but a score or so 
 the principles of mental life and growth, the truths 
 of ethics, and the deeper truths of Christian faith. 
 
 His teaching was not perfunctory or mechanical, 
 but was adapted in every case to the conditions. 
 His keen intelligence, his genuine sympathy, his 
 ready wit, his faith in the possibilities of the dull- 
 est, made his lecture-room a pleasant place, — the 
 desire of the earlier years, the delight of his class, 
 and the memory of the graduates. Is it not good 
 to remember that for fifty- seven years he moved on 
 as teacher, holding perfectly all the principles and 
 getting constantly a grasp of new ideas, loving each 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 867 
 
 one that showed any love for truth, and leading 
 here and elsewhere by his words and books men 
 and women into purer knowledge and a true faith; 
 and seemed as bright, as clear, as sagacious, as 
 far-sighted the last week that he taught, as wlien 
 he became president? 
 
 He knew the dangers that beset us, his pui)ils ; 
 perils from doubts, and passions, and apj^etites, 
 aesthetics, and knowledge. He knew how easy it is 
 for the feet of young men to slip downward, and 
 with what clearness, and love, and patience he held 
 up to us "the power of the endless life." 
 
 Let me quote here a passage from a poem which 
 has as much fitness for him as for the great teacher 
 to whom his son addressed it: — 
 
 *' But thou wouldst not alone 
 Be saved, niy father ! Alone 
 Conquer and come to thy |2:oal, 
 Leaving- the rest in the wihL 
 We were weary, and we 
 Fearful, and we in our njarch 
 Fain to drop down and to die. 
 Still thou turnedst, and still 
 Gavest the weary thy hand. 
 If in the paths of the world, 
 Stones might have wounded thy feet, 
 Toil or dejection have tried 
 Thy spirit, of that we saw 
 Nothing — to us thou wast still 
 Cheerful, and helpful, and fiiTU 1 
 Therefore to thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself ; 
 And at the end of thy day, 
 O faithful shepherd I to come, 
 Bringing- thy sheep in thy liand." 
 
368 MAEK HOPKINS. 
 
 And so we the alumni of the college come as one 
 great family, looking up to him as our father and 
 head, and praising God for the equable calmness 
 and abundant teaching of his life, for the wide- 
 ness of his thoughts and charity, for the stamp of 
 manly power that he set on every receptive mind. 
 
 This is the last of the examples in New England 
 of the college president as the father, teacher, 
 counselor, and guide. Very different conditions 
 now exist to determine the character of the office; 
 and as it was the last of these presidencies, I think 
 it has also been the most perfect of them all. In 
 him the early system produced a perfect type. In 
 a large college the relation is not so intimate, and 
 as no president ever taught so long, so wisely, with 
 such massive simplicity and condescending aptness, 
 none ever had behind him so large and so loyal a 
 body of grateful and enthusiastic pupils. But the 
 tears that hundreds of educated men shed to-day 
 are tears of gratitude and joy. It is a reverent, 
 believing body who have been taught by him to 
 look up to a personal God, and have seen in him the 
 influence of God's personal abiding presence, and 
 have learned to have faith in immortality for the 
 good, even for him. 
 
 What the ongoing of the college will be without 
 bis consummate tact, his serene wisdom, the balance 
 and play of his perfect judgment, the colossal solid- 
 ity of his character, I cannot tell. But let me 
 break the silence of official reserve and say that he 
 has spoken to me only loving words. Never in 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTK. 359 
 
 these six years has he dune aught but put the mas- 
 sive force of his reputation and powers most lov- 
 ingly at the disposition of those intrusted with 
 the dear old college. How desolate the landscape 
 will be without any reappearance of his majestic 
 figure ! 
 
 A thing most gratefully to be remembered is the 
 childlike responsiveness of his mind that was never 
 more noticeable than in these last years. Every 
 gain for the college in material prosperity moved 
 him deeply. My last talk w^ith him was about a 
 much-needed improvement, and it was with an in- 
 tense earnestness that he expressed his hope for its 
 accomplishment. It seems strange now that since 
 my last talk with him I should have had a conver- 
 sation about the deep things of Christ's kingdom 
 only the day b.fare his death with the great son 
 whom Amherst buries to-day, and whose loss seems 
 more inscrutable than that of our master. Am- 
 herst and Williams mingle tears to-day over illus- 
 trious dead. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins had known the struggle of long 
 poverty for the college ; of bitter inability to se- 
 cure for his students the advantages that greater 
 resources would have given, and I am bold enough 
 to say that the full distress of some of those trials 
 no man, not even his brother, fully knew. It was 
 whispered, I doubt not, into the ear of God, and 
 when at last there came in these last years, not opu- 
 lence, but some additions to our scanty resources, 
 his feeling was purely one of grateful delight. But 
 
360 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 his responsiveness was not in the least childish, 
 only eliildlike, for his sagacity, his penetration, his 
 insight, were vigorous to the end, and no member 
 of the board of trustees had a more perfect appre- 
 ciation of the changes in the conditions of modern 
 education, or opened his mind more readily to a 
 perception of the fact that the college of to-day 
 could not be the college of fifty years ago. So his 
 mind was open to every new and true idea, and ap- 
 preciated with ever-increasing fairness the broad- 
 ening influence of art, of culture, of literature and 
 science, as well as of religion. I never expect to 
 see an instance in which equally to the very end of 
 a lonof life the mind turned to the lioht, and the 
 man, "like a tree planted by the rivers of water," 
 opened sweet flowers of wisdom, justice, and char- 
 ity in larger and larger proportions and greater and 
 greater beauty, until the frost came. Beautiful 
 beyond expression are the declining years of such 
 a life. Friends, comrades, undergraduates, weep 
 not, but lift up your hearts to God for the long 
 expansiveness and the rare fertility of this gifted 
 and divinely guided mind. What he was to the 
 family, to the college, that he was to the mission- 
 ary movement, — always at the head, king of men 
 by the grace of God, and leader of saints by "the 
 faith that overcometh." 
 
 What he desired was that the church should see 
 the face and know the mind of the divine Christ. 
 That Christ's teachers should be more and more 
 Christlike, that they should not contend about 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 361 
 
 "titLesof mint, anise, and cummin," or even about 
 the human formulas which can express in but a 
 limited way Christ's divine glory. With what mas- 
 terly words he would sweep away irrelevant issues, 
 and hold up the true, the vital point in a discus- 
 sion. With something of the prophetic, states- 
 manlike power of his brother Albert, refined by 
 his responsibilities and long dealing with minds, 
 he could foresee results; but a joyful optimism, 
 founded on faith in Christ as the head of the uni- 
 verse and on the coming of his kingdom, may 
 sometimes have led him to underrate the power of 
 passion and prejudice in the hearts of even the best 
 men. What schisms of the church he loved, what 
 rupture of institutions dear to him as his life, death 
 may have sealed his eyes from beholding, we know 
 not. But this we do know, that the last year and 
 the last hours of his life his great mind sought with 
 unceasing attention to find and establish an honor- 
 able way by which, with unabated zeal, with un- 
 diminished resources, with undivided powers, men 
 of varying shades of opinion in all our land might 
 work together as heretofore in the upbuilding of 
 the Redeemer's kingdom, in proclaiming to the out- 
 cast and the heathen the gospel of Christ. 
 
 What he longed for was the conversion of the 
 world to the divine Christ. If I may read an 
 extract from a letter forwarded to Dr. Denison by 
 Rev. Mr. Hume, who spent Sunday, the 12th of 
 June, with him, it will have intense interest for us 
 all, and especially for the students : — 
 
362 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 New Haven, June 19. 
 
 My dear Dr. Dexisox, — A week ago this Sunday, 
 in conversation with Dr. Hopkins, I asked him as to his 
 conception of the best plan for a text-book on theology 
 for the use of ^jreachers in India. On Monday morn- 
 ing he said to me : " I have been thinking over our con- 
 versation about a book on theology, and suggest that you 
 begin with the subject of man instead of God. But the 
 crucial point in the system will be how to show man his 
 sinfulness and need of a Saviour. Suppose you tried to 
 show that man is part of a universal and perfect moral 
 system, while himself out of harmony with it. The 
 Hindus can be made to see that the entire universe is 
 controlled by a perfect system — gravitation and other 
 great laws extending to every atom. Similarly there is 
 doubtless a perfect moral government reaching every 
 part of the system. I expect to preach in the college 
 chapel next Sunday from the text ' There is joy in the 
 presence of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
 penteth.' I shall say : If there is joy in heaven over 
 one sinner that repenteth, then in heaven they know 
 what is taking place here. Also, they know not only 
 the external but the internal life of the world, because 
 repentance is an inward thing. So I could go on to 
 show that one system pervades heaven and earth. You 
 can see how this can be followed out." 
 
 Very likely no one else knew what plans he had made 
 for the subject of his preaching to-day. This conversa- 
 tion occurred only a week ago. And to-day, instead of 
 preaching in Williamstown, he has gone to serve where 
 he doubtless knows more of that universal and perfect 
 system than even he knew a week ago, and there must 
 be joy in heaven over a ripe saint called to enter into 
 the joy of his Lord, 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 363 
 
 Thus to the very end the oneness of God's khig- 
 dom filled his mind, and he marched from pre- 
 mise to conclusion with clear logic and sublime 
 faith. 
 
 The death of a good great man is always impres- 
 sive, but in this case it cannot be sad. In a per- 
 fect poem which our revered teacher loved and once 
 at least repeated, "the good great man " is said to 
 have 
 
 " Three fast friends, more sure than day or nig-ht — 
 Himself, his Maker, and the ang-el. Death." 
 
 The man fixes from day to day his character. As 
 life goes on, to the stature of his being something is 
 added; from it something is taken, but the scaf- 
 folding of daily relations is there, and hides the 
 figure. Death removes the scaffolding; makes it 
 plain what the man really was ; moves out into the 
 bright sunlight and the gaze of all the statue in 
 its calm completeness. Beneath the cross even 
 the centurion said: "Truly this was the son of 
 God." To-day we see clearly what our master was, 
 and we need not wage any "feud with Death " that 
 he has thus made certain the symmetry in which 
 we believed before ; that he makes it sure to us that 
 this personality was so rounded in life's struggles 
 as to "become a pillar in the temple of our God 
 and go no more out forever." 
 
 What then has Death done to us in this event 
 that we should grieve ? Do you say : " He has re- 
 moved this great teacher so far that we cannot hear 
 him speak?" Is even that true? No. "He being 
 
364 MARK HOPKINS. 
 
 dead yet speaketli," will always speak in the live;? 
 of his children and his children's children, in the 
 words of his pupils and of his pupils' pupils; for 
 "God has mercy unto thousands of generations 
 upon them that love Him and keep his command- 
 ments." 
 
 As we look back then at this life, and see how 
 unique it was in many features, — unique in its 
 lengthened continuanc^e of unabated powers, won- 
 derfid in the normal beauty of the family relations, 
 unique in the grandeur of its endowments, unique 
 in the extent and intensity of its personal influence, 
 — so that he, like Abraham, by heroic sainthood 
 became, as it were, the intellectual and spiritual 
 leader of a great race ; — unique in the oj)enness 
 and receptivity of his mind, unique in the cordial 
 love that came to him from every side, — could we 
 ask that one feature should be changfed? Can we 
 do otherwise than thank God for such an inherit- 
 ance of faith and love and wisdom which the con- 
 secration of his great powers to the Redeemer has 
 secured us? And have not those whose loss is 
 deepest, deepest cause for gratitude? Have we 
 not all profound reason to praise God that his death 
 has been "but a step out of a tent already luminous 
 with light which shone through its transparent 
 walls?". Surely upon him has been fulfilled the 
 prophecy of Jacob : — 
 
 " The blessings of thy father have prevailed above 
 the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost 
 bound of the everlasting hills ; they shall be on the 
 
THE FINAL TRIBUTE. 365 
 
 head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him 
 that was separate from his brethren." 
 
 None of us will see his like again. God be 
 praised that we have seen Aim, and known Mm^ 
 and loved him. Amen. 
 
LIST OF REV. DR. MARK HOPKINS'S PUB- 
 LISHED WRITINGS. 
 
 Including, so far as ascertained, Addresses, Sermons, and Magazine 
 Articles. 
 
 1. Agricultural Address at Stockbridge. 1826. 
 
 2. On Mystery. American Joximal of Science and Arts, vol. 
 
 xiii. No. 2, April, 1828. 
 
 3. Argument from Nature for the Divine Existence. The Ameri- 
 
 can Quarterly Observer, vol. i. No. 2, October, 1833. 
 
 4. On Human Happiness. Ibid., vol. iii. No. 2, October, 1834. 
 
 5. On the Adaptation of Christianity to the Moral Nature of 
 
 Man. The Biblical Repository and Quarterly Observer, 
 vol. v. No. 2, April, 1835. 
 
 6. On Originality. Ibid., vol. vi. No. 2, October, 1835. 
 
 7. Inaugural Discourse. 1836. 
 
 8. Taste and Morals. Two Lectures. 1836. 
 
 9. Influence of the Gospel in Liberalizing the Mind. Delivered as 
 
 an address before the Porter Rhetorical Society of the 
 Andover Theological Seminary, September .5, 1837. The 
 Biblical Repository and Quarterly Observer, vol. x. No. 2, 
 October, 1837. 
 
 10. Sermon commemorative of Dr. Griffin. 1837. 
 
 11. Election Sermon. 18-39. 
 
 12. Address before the American Bible Society. 1840. 
 
 13. Address at Mount Holyoke Seminary. 1840. 
 
 14. Address to the Medical Class at Pittsfield. 1840. 
 
 1.5. Address at the Dedication of Williston Seminary, Easthamp- 
 ton. 1841. 
 
 16. Semi-Centennial Address at Williams College. 1843. 
 
 17. Sermon before the Pastoral Association of Massachusetts. 
 
 184.3. 
 
 18. Berkshire Jubilee Sermon. 1844. 
 
368 PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 
 
 19. Sermon before the Convention of Congregational Ministers. 
 
 1845. 
 
 20. Sermon before the American Board of Commissioners for 
 
 Foreign Missions at Brooklyn. 1845. 
 
 21. Sermon commemorative of Professor Ebenezer Kellogg. 1846. 
 
 22. Sermon at Plymouth on Forefathers' Day. 1846. 
 
 23. Temperance Address to the People of Massachusetts. 1846. 
 
 24. Evidences of Christianity. Lowell Lectures. 1846. 
 
 25. Sermon before the American and Foreign Sabbath Union. 
 
 1847. 
 
 26. Miscellaneous Essays and Discourses. Comprising a selection 
 
 from the above enumerated pamphlets. 1847. 
 
 27. Baccalaureate Sermon. Faith, Philosophy, and Reason. 1850. 
 
 28. Sermon at Dedication of Congregational Church in Pittsfield. 
 
 1850. 
 
 29. Sketch of Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde in Sprague's Annals of the 
 
 American Pulpit. 1851. 
 
 30. Baccalaureate Sermon. Strength and Beauty. 1851. 
 
 31. Baccalaureate Sermon. Receiving and Giving. 1852. 
 
 32. Address before Society for promoting Collegiate and Theolo- 
 
 gical Education at the West. 1852. 
 
 33. Sermon commemorative of Amos Lawrence. 1853. 
 
 34. The Central Principle. An oration before the New England 
 
 Society of New York. 1854. 
 
 35. Baccalaureate Sermon. Perfect Love. 1855. 
 
 36. Discourse before Congregational Library Association. 1855. 
 
 37. Baccalaureate Sermon. Self-Denial. 1856. 
 
 38. Science and Religion. Sermon before American Association 
 
 for the Advancement of Science. 1856. 
 
 39. Baccalaureate Sermon. Higher and Lower Good. 1857. 
 
 40. Baccalaureate Sermon. Eagles' Wings. Title changed later 
 
 to " The One Exception." 1858. 
 
 41. A Missionary Sermon delivered at Bangor, Me. 1858. 
 
 42. Address at the Laying of the Corner Stone at the People'c 
 
 College, Havana, N. Y. 1858. 
 4>. Baccalaureate Sermon. Manifoldness of Man. 1859. 
 
 44. Sermon Dedicatory of Williams College Chapel. 1859. 
 
 45. Baccalaureate Sermon. Nothing to be Lost. 1860. 
 
 46. Sermon at Ordination of Rev. C. M. Hyde at Brimfield. 
 
 1862. 
 
PUBLISHED WlUTlSas. 3G9 
 
 47. Baccalaureate ISerniou. The Living- House, or (iod's Method 
 
 of Social Unity. 1S02. 
 
 48. Lectures on Moral Science. Lowell Lectures. 1802. 
 
 49. Baccalaureate Sermon. Enlargement. 18()o. 
 
 5 ). Discourse commemorative of Nathan Jackson. 18153. 
 
 51. The Sabbath and Free Institutions. A paper read before the 
 
 National Sabbath Convention at Saratoga. 1803. 
 
 52. Baccalaureate Sermons, as a volume. 1808. 
 
 5.J. Baccalaureate Sermon. Choice and Service. 1804. 
 
 54. Baccalaureate Sermon. Providence and Revelation. 1805. 
 
 55. Sermon at Funeral of Rev. Emerson Davis, D. D., Westfield, 
 
 Massachusetts, 1800. 
 
 50. Baccalaureate Sermon. The Bible and Pantheism. 1800. 
 
 57. Baccalaureate Sermon. Liberality — its Limits. 1807. 
 
 58. Baccalaureate Sermon. Zeal. 1808. 
 
 59. Colleges and Stability. A discourse delivered at Marietta 
 
 College, Marietta, Ohio. 1808. 
 
 00. The Law of Love and Love as a Law. Lowell Lectures. 1809. 
 
 01. Baccalaureate Sermon. Spirit, Soul, and Body. 1809. 
 
 02. What must I do to be saved ? A Tract. 1870. 
 08. Baccalaureate Sermon. Life. 1870. 
 
 04. Memorial Address at Providence : commemorating the 25Cth 
 
 anniversary of Congregationalism in this country. 1870. 
 
 05. Baccalaureate Sermon. The Body, the Temple of God. 1871. 
 00. Address at the Edwards Memorial in Stockbridge. 1871. 
 
 07. Baccalaureate Sermon. The Circular and the Onward Move- 
 
 ment. 1872. 
 
 08. Modern Skepticism in relation to Young Men. An address 
 
 before Young Men's Christian Associations. 1872. 
 
 09. Letter on Education to the Japanese Minister in a volume 
 
 entitled " Education in Japan." 1873. 
 
 70. Prayer and the Prayer Gauge. A Discourse. 1878. 
 
 71. Sermon at the Funeral of Rev. John Todd, D. D. 1873. 
 
 72. Sunday Legislation. An address before the Evangelical 
 
 Alliance. 1873. 
 78. An Outline Study of ]Man. Lowell Lectures. 1873. 
 
 74. Strength and Beauty : Discussions for Young Men. The 
 
 Baccalaureate Sermons somewhat modified. 
 
 75. Temperance and Education. A Tract. 1875. 
 
 70. Colportage by Theological Stxxdents. Tract Society Address. 
 No date. 
 
 J 
 
370 PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 
 
 77. The Law of Px-ogress. Centennial Discom-se before the 
 
 Alumni of Williams College. 1876. 
 
 78. Faith. Princeton Review, 54th year, September, 1878. 
 
 79. The Moral Problem. Two articles. International Review, 
 
 vol. V. Nos. o and 4, May and July, 1878. 
 
 80. Professor Tyndall upon the Origin of the Cosmos. Prince- 
 
 ton Review, 55th year, November, 1879. 
 
 81. Grounds of Knowledg-e and Rules for Belief. Ibid., 57th year, 
 
 January, 1881. 
 
 82. Memorial Discourse on President Garfield. 1882. 
 
 8t3. Personality and Law. The Duke of Arg'yll. Princeton Re- 
 view, 5Sth year, September, 1882. 
 
 84. Sermon at the Dedication of the Congregational Church in 
 
 Great Barrington. 1883. 
 
 85. The Scriptural Idea of Man. Lectures before Yale Theolo- 
 
 gical Seminary. 1883. 
 
 86. Sermon at the Dedication of the Memorial Church at Hamp- 
 
 ton Institute, Virginia. 1884. 
 
 87. Teachings and Counsels. The Baccalaureates in their original 
 
 form, except that the addresses to tho classes are abridged 
 or omitted. To these is added the Discourse on President 
 Garfield. 1884. 
 
 88. Optimism. Andover RevieAv. vol. iii. No. 15, March, 1885. 
 
 89. Discourse commemorative of the Fiftieth Anniversary of his 
 
 election as President of Williams CoUege. 1886. 
 
 90. The Place of the Sensibility in Morals. Homiletic Review, 
 
 vol. xiii. No. 2, February,. 1887. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adams Academy, 79. 
 Africa, 232. 
 Agvssiz, 154. 
 
 Alden, Rev. Dr. E. K., 253. 
 Alumni Hall, S4. 
 Alumni meetintr, 314. 
 Alumni, Williams. 126, 338, 340, 351. 
 America, moflern theology of, 328. 
 American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions, 73, 303, 308 ; 
 anniversary of foundation of, 234; 
 formation of, 235; meeting at Provi- 
 dence, 205 ; Pittsfield, 208 ; Pitts- | 
 burgh, 209; Hxrtford, 212; Mil- I 
 waulsee, 213; Lowell, 220; Dis 
 Moines, 237, 250, 2G2 ; Salem, 248; 
 Portland. 249 ; Springfield, 258, 274 ; I 
 Columbus, 317 ; Detroit, 344 ; Bos- ; 
 ton, 345. I 
 
 American boys, 53. 
 " American Journal of Science and j 
 
 Art=!," 27. 
 American Tract Society, 26. 
 Amherst, 359. 
 Anatomy, study of, 327. 
 Andover, 80. 
 " Andover Review," 316. 
 Andover Theological Seminary, 41, 
 
 116, 242-247, 279. 
 Andrew*, Israel W., 115. 
 Angell, President, 274. 
 Apocrypha, 300. 
 Arcturus, 318. 
 Argyle, Dake of, 156. 
 Aristotle, 148, 162. 
 Armsby, Dr., of the Albany Medical 
 
 College, 64. 
 Armstrong, General S. C, 121. 
 Arnold, Matthew, quotation from, 
 
 357. 
 Astronomical observatory, 05, 75 
 
 Bacon, Rev. Dr. Leonard, 283. 
 Bincroft, George, 299. 
 Biscom, John, 79, 88. 
 Bath, Me., 279. 
 Benares, 189. 
 Bennington, 118. 
 
 Berlin, 189. 
 
 Blaine, James G., 307, 308, 345. 
 
 Boston, 67, 90, 117, 189, 244, 289; ad- 
 dress at, by Dr. Hopkins, 234. 
 
 Boston, American Board meetmg at, 
 345; lectures by Dr. Hopkins at, 
 292. 
 
 Boston University, 153, 290. 
 
 Bowerman, Samuel W., 70. 
 
 Brahminism, 189. 
 
 Bridgeport, Conn., 280. 
 
 Brown University, 42-44. 
 
 Browning, Robert, 137 ; quotation 
 from, 34S. 
 
 Buchanan, James, 274. 
 
 Buddhism, 189. 
 
 Bullock, Alexander H., letter from, 
 71. 
 
 Bushnell. Horace, 257. 
 
 Butler, Bishop, 136. 
 
 Butler's Analogy, 136, 138. 
 
 Canfield, James H., 325. 
 
 Canning, E. W.B., 27, 32. 
 
 Calderwood's " Philosophy of the In- 
 finite," 284. 
 
 California, 290, 299. 
 
 Cambridge, 3, 157. 
 
 Carter, Franklin, 340. 
 
 Chadbourne, President, 116, 339. 
 
 Chicago, 153. 
 
 "Christian Theology," chair of, at 
 Andover, 242. 
 
 " Circular and the Onward Move- 
 ment, the," sermon by Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 195. 
 
 Clark, Rev. Dr. N. G., 253. 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, 307. 
 
 Clinton, New York, Dr. Hopkins fitted 
 I for college at, 11. 
 
 Co\n, Titus Manson, 119. 
 
 Coleridge, 1(54 ; quotation from, 332. 
 
 College Hall, 75. 
 
 Colleges of New England, 43-45, 51- 
 53. 
 
 Columbus, Ohio, 120, 317. 
 
 Combe's " Health and Mental Educa- 
 tion," 108. 
 
372 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Commencement 1871, 16; 1884, 344. 
 
 Confederate insurrection, 70. 
 
 Congregationalism, 52. 
 
 " Congregationalist," 244, 305. 
 
 CoDgregationalists, 43. 
 
 Corwiu, Rev. Dr. Eli, 116. 
 
 Court of Claims, 335. 
 
 Curtis, Rev. Jared, uncle of Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 11. 
 
 Curtis, Mary, mother of Dr. Hopkins, 
 9. 
 
 Curtis, Rev. Moses Ashley, 11. 
 
 D ALTON, Mass., 29. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 154, 155, 157-159. 
 
 Democratic party, 308. 
 
 Deuison, Rev. Dr. John H., 122, 305, 
 352. 361, 362. 
 
 Des Moines, 237, 249 ; address at, by 
 Dr. Hopkins, 250. 
 
 Dewey, Cliester, 24. 
 
 Dexter, Professor F. B., 7. 
 
 Diman, Professor, of Brown Univer- 
 sity, 44. 
 
 Dimmock, Professor William R., 79. 
 
 Dixon, Rev. William E., 34. 
 
 Dodge, William E., 73, 345. 
 
 Dwight, Colonel, 13. 
 
 Dwiglit, Edwin, 13. 
 
 Dwight, President, 250, 254. 
 
 East College, 74, 75. 
 
 Edmunds, Senator, 299. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 4, 163, 320. 
 
 Emerson, 301. 
 
 Enfield, Conn., 34. 
 
 England, 146, 162. 
 
 England, Church of, 257. 
 
 Esdras, 300. 
 
 " Essays and Discourses " by Dr. 
 
 Hopkins, 28. 
 *' Evidences of Christianity," 114, 136- 
 
 144, 326, 328. 
 
 "Faith,"' article on, by Dr. Hopkins, 
 
 297 ; definition, 329. 
 Faust, 156. 
 
 Fellows, General John, 6. 
 Field, David Dudley. 74. 
 Fitch, Rev. Dr., hrst president of 
 
 Williams College, CO. 
 Forty Years' Record of the Class of 
 
 1845, 121. 
 Foster, Rev. Dr. Addison P., 128. 
 France, 146, 162. 
 Free College (in New York city), 
 
 299. 
 Froude, 297. 
 
 Garfield, James A., 75, 116, 299, 302, 
 333-342, 345 ; assassination of, 340 ; 
 reply to Dr. Hopkins's address, 
 339. 
 
 Garfield, Mrs. James A., 334, 336. 
 
 General Court of Connecticut, 4. 
 
 Germany, 146, 189. 
 
 Gilfillan, James, 299. 
 
 Gilson, Professor Charles F., 79. 
 
 Gladden, Rev, Dr. Washington, 120 ; 
 
 poem by, 110. 
 Goodrich, John Z., 74 ; wife of, 65. 
 Goodrich Hall, 75. 
 Goodwin, Rev. Dr. E. P., 231-233. 
 Gray, Professor Asa, 155, 157. 
 Great Barriugton, Mass., 4, 306. 
 Greek, 17. 
 
 Green, Rev. Dr. William H., 343. 
 Griffin Hall, 75. 
 
 Griffin, Rev. Dr., 24, 32, 59, 60. 
 Griffin, Professor Edward H., 122, 
 
 351. 
 Guiteau, 342. 
 
 Hadlet, Professor, of Yale, 44. 
 
 Hall, President G. Stanley, 327, 344. 
 
 Hall, Alumni, 84 ; College, 75 ; Griffin, 
 75 ; Goodrich, 75 ; Jackson, 75 ; 
 Kellogg, 75 ; Lawrence, 75. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir William, 102-105, 281. 
 
 Hammond, Colonel C. G., 304. 
 
 Hampton, Virginia, 121. 
 
 Hampton Normal and Agricultural 
 Institute, 121. 
 
 Hardy, Alpheus, 249, 253. 
 
 Harrison, Frederic, 296. 
 
 Hartford, 3, 283 ; address at, by Dr. 
 Hopkins, 212. 
 
 Harvard, 42^4 ; medical school, 41 ; 
 motto of, 40 ; 250th anniversary of, 
 346. 
 
 Haystack prayer-meeting, 53. 
 
 Hazard, Rowland G., 281, 304. 
 
 Hervey, William, 24. 
 
 Hillsborough, N. C, 11. 
 
 Hindus, 318, 362. 
 
 History of the United States, 124. 
 
 Hodge, Rev. Dr. Charles, 128, 288. 
 
 Honolulu, 116. 
 
 Hoosick Fills, N. Y., 128. 
 
 Hopkins, Professor Albert, brother of 
 Dr. Mirk Hopkins, 10, 11, 54, 55, 
 354, 355, 361 ; construction by him 
 of first college observatory, 65, 119 ; 
 death of his .son. 199. 
 
 Hopkins, Archibald, 8. 
 
 Hopkins, Caroline, 305. 
 
 Hopkins, Henry, brother of Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 10. 
 
 Hopkins, John, 3. 
 
 Hopkins, Colonel Mark, 5-7, 355 ; wife 
 of, 8. 
 
 Hopkins, Dr. Mark, 7 ; birth of, 8 ; 
 teaching of his mother, 9 ; fondness 
 for nature, 10 ; first school, 10 ; ap- 
 titude for learning, 11 ; fitted for 
 college, 11 ; taught in Richmond, 
 12; return home, 13, 14: college 
 course, 14-17 ; delicate health, 17, 26 ; 
 
IXDEX. 
 
 373 
 
 hold on Christianity, 18 ; entrance at I 
 medical school, 19 ; taught in Stock- 1 
 bridge, 19 ; profession of faith, 24 ; 
 tutorsliip at Williams, 24; testimo- } 
 nial from Junior class, 25 ; agent of 
 American Tract Society, 2G ; M is- i 
 ter's oration, 27 ; resumes medical | 
 studies, 29; appointed to Professor- 
 ship of "Moral Philosophy and 
 Rhetoric "at Williams Cjllege, 29; 
 licensed to preach, 29 ; married, 20 ; I 
 appointment to presidency of Wil- 
 liams, 48, GO ; resignation from pre.si- I 
 dency, 51, Gl ; inaugural address, 
 Gl ; teaching anatomy and pliysiol- ; 
 ogy, 04 ; purchase of manikin, G4 ; 
 grant from the State to relieve the 
 college, 70 ; college rebellion, 73 ; 
 address on retiring, 75 ; publication 
 of "Oitline Stu<ly of Man," 101 ; 
 his philosophy, 101-104; religion in I 
 his philosophy, 103, 104 ; in the j 
 class-room, 110-112; conduct of [ 
 prayers, 113; sermons in college 
 chapel, 114 ; influence on the lives ' 
 of his pupils, 115-130 ; Mirk Hop- 
 kins professorship, 122 ; birthday 
 anniversaries. 125 ; address on 50th 
 anniversary of election to the presi- I 
 dency of tlie college, 125; subjects 
 of teaching, 144 ; controversy with 
 Dr. MjCosIi, 1G3-175 ; last bacca- 
 laureate, 194, 200 ; sermon. Com- 
 mencement 18G2, 199 ; president of 
 A. B. C. F. M. , 205, 20G ; address at 
 Pittsfield, 208; address at Pittsburgh, 
 209 ; address at Hirtford, 212 ; ad- 
 dress at Milwaukee, 213 ; address 
 at Portland, 228 ; address at Boston, 
 234; last attendance at A. B. C, F. 
 M., 237; address at Des Moines, 
 250-254; letter to "Independent," 
 26G-271 ; address at Columbus, 317 ; 
 address to President GarfielJ, 337 ; 
 memorial address on President 
 Garfield, 341 ; lectures at Princeton,- 
 343 ; Republican elector-at-large, 
 345; degrees conferred by Harvard, 
 34G ; death of, 48, 348; funeral ser- 
 vice, 351. 
 
 Hopkins, Mirk, of California, 296. 
 
 Hopkins, Mark, Memorial Building, 
 131. 
 
 Hopkins, Mnry Louisa, 30, 301, 302 ; 
 deat'i of, Z^2. 
 
 Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, uncle of the 
 distinguished Samuel Hopkins, 7. 
 
 Hopkins, Rev. Dr. Samuel, of New- 
 port, 4, 5, 7, 329, 354, 355. 
 
 H >pkins, Stephen, 3. 
 
 Hopkins, Timothy, 3, 4, 7. 
 
 Housatonnuc, early name for Great 
 Harrington, 4. 
 
 Hubbell, Dr. Charles, 346. 
 
 Hubbell, Miss Mary, married to Dr. 
 
 Hopkins, 29. 
 Hume, Rev. Robert A., 24G, 247, 201, 
 
 318, 3G1. 
 Hutcheson, Dr. Francis, lCO-162. 
 
 " Independent," the, 2G2, 206. 
 India, 189, 318, 3G2. 
 " International," the, 293. 
 " Intellectual Piiilosopliy," 101, 
 Intellectual Pliilosophy, Stewart's Ele- 
 ments of, 101. 
 
 Jackson Hall, 75. 
 
 Jackson, Nathan, 74. 
 
 J. met, 1G2. 
 
 Jevons's Logic, 288. 
 
 Johns Hopkins University, 122, 344. 
 
 Johnson, 17G. 
 
 "Journal of Science," 144. 
 
 Kant, 1G4, 355. 
 
 Kellogg Hall, 75. 
 
 Kellogg, Professor Ebenezer, 24, 347. 
 
 Latin, 147. 
 
 "Law of Love," 105. 149, 160-162, 
 
 174, 175, 259, 288, 293, 295. 
 Lawrence, Amos, 74. 
 Lawrence, Amos A., 284. 
 Lawrence Hill, 75. 
 Lawrence, Lord, G3. 
 " Lcictures on Moral Science," 144, 
 
 147-152, 1G4, 279. 
 Lee, Mass., 70, 115. 
 Leibnitz, 325. 
 Lenox Academy, 11. 
 Lesley, Mrs., 280. 
 Lessing, 17G. 
 Lewes, George H., 297. 
 Little Compton, R. I., 281. 
 Longfellow, 287. 
 
 Lowell Institute, 135, 143, 149, 175. 
 Lowell, James RusseU, 73, 176, 287 ; 
 
 quotation from, 58. 
 Lyman, Mrs. Judge, 280. 
 
 " Man, Christ Jesus," the, 328. 
 
 Manikin, obtained by Dr. Hopkins 
 for use in the college, 64. 
 
 Marathi Mission, 24G. 
 
 Marietta, Ohio, 92, 116. 
 
 Martineau, James, 1G2 ; quotation from, 
 38. 
 
 Massachusetts, Board of Education of, 
 70 ; commonwe.nlth of, 70 ; General 
 Court of, 70 ; Senate of, 70 ; State 
 of, 70. 
 
 McCosh, Dr., lOG, 122, IGO, 291 ; con- 
 troversy with Dr. Hopkins, 1G3-175. 
 
 Medical School at Pittsfield. 19, 23. 
 
 Metaphysics, Sir William Hamilton's 
 lectures on, 101. 
 
 Michael Angelo, 195. 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Michigan University, 274. 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, 281, 296. 
 
 Mills, Samuel J., 227, 273. 
 
 Milwaukee, address at, by Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 213. 
 
 •'Miscellanies," by Dr. Hopkins, 135. 
 
 Mission House, 117. 
 
 Missions, 52, 53. 
 
 Monastic college life, 109. 
 
 Mooar, Rev. Dr. George, 126. 
 
 Moore, Rev. Dr., CO. 
 
 Moral Philosophy, 59, 160. 
 
 "Moral Science," lectures on, 144, 
 147, 164; quotations from, 102-103, 
 148-152. 
 
 Morris, Philip Van Ness, 74. 
 
 '' Mystery," Master's oration by Dr. 
 Hopkins, 27, 28, 144. 
 
 Nahant, 284. 
 
 Napoleon First, 235. 
 
 National Educational Association, 116. 
 
 "Natural Science and Religion," 157. 
 
 Naugatuck Valley, 3. 
 
 New Britain, Conn., 290. 
 
 Newcomb, Professor George B., 299. 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, 136, 137 ; quota- 
 tions from, 78, VM, 204. 
 
 New England colleges, 41, 44, 46, 51- 
 53, 55, 81, 82. 
 
 New England, modern theology of, 
 328. 
 
 New Haven, Conn., 153, 178, 282, 2S3, 
 290, 299. 
 
 New Orleans, La., 235. 
 
 Newport, R. I., 354. 
 
 New York city, 14, 29, 90, 97, 299. 
 
 New York State, 26. 
 
 "New York Observer," 162. 
 
 Norfolk, Conn. , 42. 
 
 "North American Review," 279. 
 
 Nott, Judge C. C, 305, 335; wife 
 of, 298. 
 
 Oakland, Cal., 126. 
 Oberlin, Ohio, 153. 
 Observatory, astronomical, 65, 75. 
 " Optimism," 316, 325, 326. 
 "Origin of Species," 154. 
 "Outline Study of Man." 101, 107, 
 135, 174, 175, 177, 259, 287, 293, 320. 
 
 Paley, 31, 164. 
 
 Palmer, Rev. Dr. Charles Ray, 280. 
 
 Palmer, Rev. Dr. Ray, 279, 280, 308, 
 309. 
 
 Parker, Dr. Peter, 299. 
 
 Parsons, Rev. Justin Wright, 222. 
 
 Peabody, Professor A. P., of Harvard, 
 44. 
 
 Peacedale, R. I., 281 
 
 Pepkskill, N. Y., 6. 
 
 "Perfect Love," sermon by Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 185. 
 
 Perry, Arthur L., 79. 
 
 "Personality and Conscience," 150. 
 
 " Pliilosophy, Intellectual," 101. 
 
 Philosophy, Stewart's Elements of In- 
 tellectual, 101. 
 
 " Physiological Psychology," 177, 327. 
 
 Physiology, study of, 327. 
 
 Pittsburg] 1, address at, by Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 209. 
 
 Pittsfield, Mass., 70; medical school 
 at, 19, 23 ; relation of medical 
 school to Williams College, 41 ; ad- 
 dress by Dr. Hopkins at, 208. 
 j "Place of Sensibility in Morals," 
 325. 
 
 " Popular Science Monthly," 297. 
 
 Porter Rhetorical Society of Andover 
 Theological Seminary, 279. 
 
 Portland, Maine, 249 ; address by Dr. 
 Hopkins at, 228. 
 
 Price, Professor Bonamy, 282. 
 
 Prime, Rev. Dr. S. Irenaeus, 302, 342. 
 
 Princeton, N. J., 162, 302, 343. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, 128. 
 
 Prudential Committee of the A. B. 
 C. F. M., 226, 248-256, 258, 261-2b3, 
 2C8, 272, 303, 304. 
 
 Puritans, 44. 
 
 QuiNCY, Mass., 79. 
 
 " Receiving and Giving," sermon by 
 
 Dr. Hopkins, 196. 
 Reid, Dr. Tliomas, 16, 103, 106. 
 Representatives, House of, 75. 
 Republican party, 308. 
 Republican ticket, 345. 
 Revolution, 6, 40. 
 Rhode Island College, 42, 43. 
 Rockwell, Colonel A. F., 299, 335, 339. 
 Rockwell, Mrs., 336. 
 Ropes, Joseph S., 226. 
 Roxbury, Mass., 128. 
 Rice, Hon. Harvey, 14. 
 Rutland, Vt., 282. 
 
 Sage, Orrin, 74. 
 
 Salem, Mass., 248. 
 
 Sandwich Islands, 235. 
 
 Sargeant, Electa, wife of Colonel 
 
 Mark Hopkins, 7 ; ancestry of, 8. 
 Sargeant, Rev. John, father of Mrs. 
 
 Colonel Mark Hopkins, 7 ; wile of, 
 
 8. 
 Schenectady, N. Y., 351. 
 Scottish ideas, 101. 
 Scottish Philosophy, 104-106. 1C2. 
 " Scriptural Idea of God," 178. 
 " Scriptural Idea of Man," 144, 153, 
 
 156, 1.57, 160, 161, 178, 179, 291, 321, 
 
 328, 343 ; extract from, 323. 
 Scudder, David C, 117. 
 Scudder, Horace E., 117, 124. 
 Sedgwick, Harry, 14. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 375 
 
 Sedgwick, Theodore, 5. 
 
 " Self-Deiiial," sermon by Dr. Hop- 
 kins, 197. 
 
 Sermons by Dr. Hopkins, "Receiving 
 and Giving," 19'j ; " Perfect Love," 
 183 ; " Self-Deni il," l'J7 ; " Spirit, 
 Soul and B.)dy," 187; "Strength 
 and B:^anty," 192; "The Circular 
 and the Onward Movement," 195. 
 
 Sewall, Rev. A. C, 351. 
 
 Sliaftesbury, th'rd E irl of, IGO. 
 
 Shepard, Rev. Dr. Svmuel, GO. 
 
 Sherman, General W. T., 299. 
 
 Sirius, 318. 
 
 Smith, Alfred, 74. 
 
 Smyth, R3V. Newman, 242, 243. 
 
 Society lor Promotion of Collegiate 
 and Theological Education in the 
 West, 92. 
 
 South College, 75. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 49. 
 
 "Spirit, Soul and Body," sermon by 
 Dr. Hopkins, 187. 
 
 Spring, Rev. Dr. Leverett, 260. 
 
 Springfield, Mass., 258, 272, 274. 
 
 Stockbridge, 5, 8, 9, 19, 26, 27, 64-66, 
 284; academy, 11. 
 
 " Strength and B2anty," sermon by 
 Dr. Hopkins, 135, 190, 192. 
 
 Switzerland, 307. 
 
 Tatlock, Rev. Dr. John, 128. 
 
 Taylor, Dr. Samuel H., 80. 
 
 " Teaciiings and Counsels," 135. 
 
 Tenney, Sanborn, 79. 
 
 Tennyson, quotations from, 22, 240. 
 
 Topeka, Kans., 116. 
 
 Treat, Rsv. Selah B., 291. 
 
 Troy, N. Y., 68. 
 
 Trustees of Williams College, 40, 41, 
 
 338, 341. 
 Turkey, 222. 
 Tytler, C. C. Fraser, quotation from, 
 
 350. 
 
 Ulysses, 76. 
 
 " Unity of Nature," the, 156. 
 
 Vaughan, Heury, quotation from, 312. 
 Vincent on the " Westminster Assem- 
 
 bly's Shorter Catecliism," 33, 128, 
 144, 259. 
 Virginia, 12, 13. 
 
 Walker, William J., 74. 
 
 Wallace, Alfred R., 158, 159. 
 
 Ware, Mass., 74. 
 
 Warren, Rev. Dr. William F., 290. 
 
 Washington, D. C, 298, 301, 3UG, 307, 
 335, 344, 346. 
 
 Waterbury, Conn., 3. 
 
 Wayland, President, of Brown Uni- 
 versity, 44. 
 
 Webb, Rev. Dr. E. B., 290. 
 
 West College, 75. 
 
 Westminster Catechism, 259. 
 
 Whately, Archbishop, 115. 
 
 White, Joseph, .secretary of Mass. 
 State Board of Education, 70. 
 
 White Plains, fight at, 6. 
 
 Whitney, Professor William D., of 
 Yale, 121. 
 
 Whittier, quotations from, 134, 182. 
 
 Wilcox, Mirshall, 70. 
 
 William.s, Colonel Ephraim, father of 
 the founder of Williams College, 8. 
 
 Williams, Colonel Ephraim, founder 
 of Williams College, 8. 41. 
 
 Williams College, founder of, 8; Dr. 
 Hopkins entered, graduated, 14 ; 
 Dr. Hopkins became a tutor in, 24 ; 
 became a professor, 29 ; Dr. Hop- 
 kins's permanent identification with, 
 39 ; chartered, 40 ; relation to Pitti- 
 field Medical School, 41 ; first trus- 
 tees of, 41, 42 ; religious tone of, 
 43-45, 46 ; introduction of certain 
 elective studies, 48, 49 ; Dr. Hop- 
 kins elected president, GO, 62 ; grant 
 to college from the State, 70 ; rebel- 
 lion, 79-98 ; character of students 
 during Dr. Hopkins's administra- 
 tion, 109 ; inauguration of Franklin 
 Carter, 340. 
 
 Williamstown Academy, 27. 
 
 Wilson, Lavalette, 125. 
 
 Withrow, Rev. Dr. J. L., 303. 
 
 Woman's Board, 227. 
 
 WooLsey, President, 44, 122, 291. 
 
 Wordsworth, quotation from, 2. 
 
 Wright, Arthur W., 79. 
 
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