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6<s:=Q)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1  i



FORTY YEARS'
FAM:ILIAIR LETTERS
OF
JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D.D.
CONSTITUTING, WITH THE NOTES,
A. MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE.
EDITED BY THE SURVIVING CORRESPONDENT,
JOHN HALL, D.D.
IN  TWO VOLUM ES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER, GRAND STREET.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON & COMPANY.
1860.




ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in tho year 1860, by
CHARLES  SCRIBNER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
JOHN F. TROW,
PRINTER, STEREOTYPER, AND ELECTROTYPtEI
50 Greene Street, New York,




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
JUVENILE LETTERS,.                                                 1
1819-1822.
CHAPTER II.
LETTERS FROMI THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,                            13
1822-1824.
CHAPTER III.
LETTERS WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE,..                             42
1824 —1825.
CHAPTER IV.
LETTERS WHILE A LICENTIATE,...                              88
1825-1827.
CHAPTER V.
LETTERS WHILE A PASTOR IN VIRGINIA, AND UNTIL HE LEFT THE STATE,  98
1827- 1828.
CHAPTER VI.
LETTERS WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON,..                        119
1829 —1832.




iv                 CONTENTS OF VOLUME T.
PAGA
CHAPTER VII.
LETTERS WHILE EDITOR OF " THE PRESBYTERIAN,".... 203
1833.
CHAPTER VIII.
LETTERS WHILE PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY,.. 208
1833-1844.
INDEX,.                            405




PR EF ACE.
THE familiar letters of forty consecutive years, out of
a life of fifty-five years, and addressed to one correspondent, furnish in themselves the best memoir of their
writer. Over every thing in the shape of diary or autobiography, such a series has the advantage of presenting
the man in the successive phases of his character and
opinions, as well as in their final mould.
Such a correspondence, in the nature of things, must
be of rare occurrence. Too many elements must concur
to make it otherwise. The incidents of time, friendship,
local separation, and the preservation of the letters, cannot be often combined in the circumstances of two persons. i[orace Walpole and Sir Horace Mann kept up
their intercourse in this way from 1741 to 1786-nearly
forty-five years. Bishop Jebb, of Limerick, and Alexander Knox, maintained a " thirty years' correspondence,"'
from 1799 to 1831. Biut though in both of these cases
the exchange continued until the death of one of the parties, in neither was it begun in boyhood. In the collection now given to the public, the writer passes before us,
in his own undisguised expressions, from the frivolities
and crudities of fifteen, to the maturity of his half century. Those who take an interest in his career, have
special reason to be pleased that the correspondence
took place, and that of all the eight hundred letters which
he wrote to his friend, none have been lost, because his




~Vi                   PREFACE.
own views and wishes on the subject of Memoirs have
been so construed by his family, that they could not have
consented to any other form of biography.
The highest advantages of the method adopted would
have been sacrificed had the editor, for the sake of producing an appearance of uniformity in his firiend's opinions and
positions, suppressed the evidence of such fluctuations as
every independent and investigating mind is open to.
With this view I have suffered to stand some diversities of
his judgment, at different times, or in different lights, on
points of theology, church order, church policy, slavery,
and other topics. His views on some important questions
may have been modified, without any trace of the change
appearing in the letters; and I have been particularly requested to notice, under this headcl, that in the last years
of his life, he saw the importance of a far stricter rule in
observing the Lord's day, and in the allowance of fashionable amusements, than would appear from some occasional statements in these volumes.
And I am sure that I should not have been excused
had I at all subdued the light and playful tone in which
many of the letters are written, or attempted any anmendinent of the abrupt transitions and off-hand phrases so
characteristic of the unstudied, unrevised expression of
the uppermost thoughts at the moment of writing. To
have charged his manner would have been as great unfaithfulness to the full delineation of my correspondent,
as to have concealed his sentiments.
It may reasonably be expected, also, that there will be
accorded to these letters the indulgence almost as claimable
for a correspondence of this kind, as for ordinary conversation, of strong, and even exaggerated, language; when
every thing in the connexion and style shows that these
allowances are due. It would be the highest injustice to
throw the private writings of another before the world, if
such a consideration as this could not be depended on.




PREFACE.                    Vli
Still, I would not have it understood that I have used
no editorial discretion. Scarcely one letter has beenr
given entire; and I trust that I have so far omitted the
personal allusions, which were, of course, frequent in the
intimate interchange of our observations, that no fastidiousness will be offended by those which have been suffered to remain. And here I must state that it is only in
deference to a delicacy which commands the most sacred
respect, that I have excluded many references to the happiness, the comfort, the spiritual benefit, which Dr. Alexander possessed and appreciated as a husband. HIis
whole domestic life, indeed, was a trait in his character
and biography, to which even the most unrestricted publication of the correspondence could not do justice.
When I consented to undertake this work, it was with
much dependence on the promised assistance of Dr. J.
Addison Alexander. But I had scarcely entered upon it,
before the state of his health made it improper to comnmunicate with him on the subject, and in a few weeks he
had followed his brother to the grave.
I have not felt disposed to introduce into this publication demonstrations of my own personal feelings with regard to my friendship with these beloved men, and under
the loss of them both, by almost the same stroke; yet it
affords me a lively satisfaction to believe that the letters,
besides their more important results, will be a memorial
of that long and affectionate attachment.
The aim of the editor has been to insert only so many
notes as were requisite to explain the text, or supply biographical details. The purposes of a memoir are so fully
met in this manner through the early commencement of the
correspondence, that it is only necessary to prefix, in this.place, a sketch of the short period that precedes the first
date.
JAMES W. ALEXANDER, the eldest son of Archibald
and Janetta Alexander, was born MIarch 13, 1804. The




Viii                  PREFACE.
place of his birth was the residence of his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Dr. James Waddel, in Louisa County,
Virginia, on an estate called Hopewell, at the junction of
the three counties of Louisa, Orange, and Albemarle, and
near the present site of Gordonsville. In the month of
December, 1807, his father having resigned the presidency of Hampden Sidney College, and accepted the call
of the third Presbyterian Congregation of Philadelphia
to be their pastor, the family removed to that city, where
their residence continued until July, 1812, when Dr. A.
Alexander entered upon his duties in the Theological
Seminary at Princeton. During the few years of their
home in Philadelphia, James attended two schools-first
(in 1809) that of lMrs. or "M Iadam " Thomson, then that
of M[r. James Ross. His principal preparation for College
was therefore made at Princeton.
The first school he attended there was the Academy,
the principal of which was the Rev. Jared D. Fyler, who
was followed for a few months, in 1813, by Dr. Carnahan,
and then by the Rev. Daniel Comfort. Then he entered
the school of iMr. James IIamilton, afterwards of the lUniversity of Nashville. lie also had the benefit of the instructions of several private tutors; among whom were
the Rev. John Monteith, since of Hamilton College, and
the Rev. Thomas J. Biggs, now of Cincinnati. He entered the Freshman class of the College of New Jersey in
the spring of 1817,. and graduated there in September,
1820.
A portrait is prefixed to each of these volnmes. The
first is from a painting by Mr. Mooney, taken in 1845,
at the age of forty; the second front a daguerreotype by
iMr. Meade, in 1855.
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, May 5, 1860.




CHAPTER I.
JUVENILE LETTERS.
1819-1822.
PRINCETON, NlaY ith, 1819.'
According to your desire, as soon as I was a little recruited
and had got my pen, ink and: paper together,' I set myself down
to scribble -away, a scrawl to let you know I was safely landed
at'" Princetown in'the Jarsys " at, ten minutes after ten o'clock
A. M., without having sustained any material injury,' except a
cut of the. thumb, and a little broken-heartedness at leavingyou know. what-behind me.'. I frightened them  not a little
with my mask,'and diverted them as much with my dandies..  I
have' been diverting myself a little with playing on my flute.  I
must confess I was not fairly out of the city, before I wished to
be back again, and I shall not soon forget the delightful hours I
spent' last week in Philadelphia.  I wish' you could persuade
your mother to let you come up and spend some time here.'As
I have made you my confidant, I will not say I had a bad pen,
&c., but will candidly confess it is the best I can posssibly write,
and I repose on your honour that it will not be shown to anybody.
PRINCETON, June 6th, 1819.
REV. AND DEAR SIR,-For such I expect; will shortly be
your title both from  the long faced and crabbed style in which
you write, and your parson-like division of your sermlon; but
1 This and a few other letters of the same year are inserted because
they are the first in the series of a correspondence which soon took a different complexion., At this date Alexander was a boy of fifteen, and his
friend whom he had just been visiting in Philadelphia, was a few years
younger. The former was in the Junior Class of the College of New Jersey, the latter was at school.
VOL. I.- 1




2                   JUVENILE LETTERS.
waiving this subject I proceed to unfold the dcark mystery of my
not writing to you. Imprimis, you attribute my silence to bashfulness, and you were quite right in your supposition that it was
not on that account I had not written, for since my extremely
pleasant trip to the city, I have but few grains of that commodity (at present) on hand. I say at present, for I know not
in what luckless hour it may return.  2dly. You pretend to
think that I have not esteem enough for you to favour you with
an epistle. My dear fellow, I am tempted to think that you
belied your conscience when you put that sentence down. 3dly.
Your letter was so far from being illegible that I think you must
have meant what you said as a sarcasm  upon; my wretched
scrawl-but the true; only, and unsatisfactory excuse, which I
have to offer, is pure laziness. How far this excuse may go, I
know not, but I hope that this letter itself will supersede the
necessity of any farther apology, and if you prize my poorscraswl, this will be a little more acceptable on account of its
being delayed.
Five of your school-mates have entered College, viz., James
Stuart, and Sharpe, the Sophomore class; J. B. Clemson, J. S.
Miercken, and J. Ai. Savage, the Freshman.l
PRINCETON, June 28th, 1819.
DEAR JOHN, —I was very agreeably surprised this morning
by your letter, which I began to fear was never to arrive, and
which, as you certainly know, afforded me great pleasure, which
I think is sufficiently manifested by my sitting down to answer it
immediately. I shall answer what requires it in your own letter
first, and then proceed to add something of my own. You ask
me to suggest some subjects' of debate for your society. I
know of none at present except two which have lately been discussed in a club at college, viz.: Is a man bound (by the laws
of equity) to fulfil oaths taken to save his life, or when his life
is in jeopardy? and Should any one swerve from the truth to
preserve his life,'or estate?  Both these are moral questions,
and I should have no scruples of conscience, hindering me from
saying No to the former, (and Yes to the latter. I cannot think
of any now, but if I fall across any I shall let you know of them.
The health of my father is much better than it has been for some
time, he is at present at Somerville in this State. I have not
been very well for a week past, occasioned, I am led to suppose,
1 Stuart died a Presbyterian clergyman, in 1829. James T. Sharpe is
a physician in Salem, New Jersey. Clemson is an Episcopal clergyman in
Pennsylvania. 3Miereken died Captain of a Liverpool Packet.




1819-1822.                         3
by going into the water too often. I have been to swim every
day for a fortnight, in fact it is the only time when I feel comfortable. I hope to see you up here before the Dog-days, so that
I may have the pleasure of teaching you how to swim. ~I have
wished very much to see a Velocipede but have not been gratified,
nor do I expect to be, till I visit the city again.
PRINCETON, Sundzay, August 1st, 1819.
MY DEAR FRIEND,-As I begin to feel rather ashamed of my
neglect, I have dared to face your displeasurle with a few lines.
I dare say you will think I a-m out of paper from  this specimen,
which is really the case, as it is Sunday'and there is no other ill
the house.  I expect that by this time you have waxed exceedingly wrothy with your humble servant on account of' his long
silence, of which he has no very plausible excuse to offer, except
a certain-'degree- of-laziness-which'the extreme heat of'the
weather has tended to'increase.
By the by, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer was yesterday at noon, 1as high as 110~ in the shade, and 112~:in the
sun, which, if I'am not very much mistaken, is enough to give
the yellow  fever to  every man, woman, and child  in  the
country.
After all this preamble I will proceed to inform you that we
confidently expect you up-here, as soon.as your holidays begin,
which I suppose are now near at hancd, and: that I shall be extremely -disappointed if you should fail. to fulfil your engagement; I wish you could persuade your mother or some one of
the family to accompany you, as I suppose the weather is very
unpleasant in the'city at this time. I must confess that I am
not able to hold out any great.inducement -to'come into this
dreary, out of the way, dog hole, except perhaps change of situation and pity towards me who have to stay here'five months,
without seeing, hearing, or feeling, any thing worth being seen,
heard or felt.
I cannot forbear mentioning the happy hours I spent in my
short but delightful stay in the city last Spring.' I am certain
that if you promised yourself half the pleasure which I enjoyed
there, you would fly up. here as soon as your vacation commenced. But alas, I have no such enticements here for you, as
Philadelphia has for me.. If your mamilia should fear to trust
you with me and our Princeton boys, be so good as to inform
her: that we have some with faces a'yard long, and moreover
that I will insure your life and morals, for the small sum of
one cent.
It is stated by our Princeton astronomers that two comets




4                       JUVENILE LETTERS.
are visible at once at 2 o'clock A. AM.  If it is a fact, I suppose
you have heard of it before this; for my part, I think five o'clock
is time enough for me to rise without getting up to view the
comets.  Velocipedes are beginning to be introduced here.  I
have not seen one yet.
The bell rings for church, and I am forced to go; remember
me to all, &c.
P. S. —I had three beautiful flying squirrels for the children,
but unluckily the old cat demolished them, and now enjoys a
pleasing " otium curm  dignitate " in the bottom  of the mill pond
with a stone round her neck.
PRINCETON, AugusSt 23, 1822.1
MY DEAR FRIEND,-The agreeable visit of your sisters to
our village has forcibly reminded me of the duty, so long neglected by me, of writing to my old friend and correspondent.
What I shall have to say will appear in the sequel, for as yet I
feel so great a dearth of writing materials in my brain, that I
must needs push forward, and let the thoughts arrange themselves ad libitum. Since I last saw you, many strange and unex-' The only suspension of this correspondence that ever took place, was
from April, 1820, to the date of this letter. It was in this interval that
Alexander's mind became engrossed with the subject of his personal religion.  The first relief he obtained is described by himself in the following
record: " On September 3, 1820, walking across the field, hardly daring to
ask for faith or repentance, these words burst upon my mind-' Wraittinq
for the moving of the eoaters.' I saw myself the impotent man in a moment,
and I thought that Christ had been saying to me,'Wilt thou be made
whole?' hundreds of times in my hearing, but nowv it seemed to be addressed particularly to me. From that moment I felt able to trust my
whole hope and life upon the Lord."
At the end of this September he finished his college course, but delayed
a public profession of faith until the next year; then the return of his birthday, and the death of a young friend, combined to make him feel the risk
of further postponement. Ile was received to full communion by the
session of the Princeton Church, March 30, 1821, and sat at the Lord's
table for the first time on the following Sabbath, April 1st.
Onl the 13th of that month he made a private entry to this effect:
"WVhen I look forward to future life, a dreary darkness presents itself.
What am I qualified for?  I never can, in conscience, embrace any other
profession but the' gospel of Christ;' but alas, where are my qualifications?
I never, never can be a speaker."  In a note written some time afterwards
he says: " I thank God for having shown me that this conviction was in
some measure unfounded and hasty. Though I never can be eloquent, yet
God's spirit may make me a useful preacher."
The three days, Sept. 15th, 1820, March 30th and April 1st, 1821, he
ever afterwards commemorated as times of peculiar humiliation and
prayer.




1819-1822.                       5
pected things have no doubt befallen each of us, and I have had
a goodly share of vicissitudes, painful and pleasant, during the
three years just elapsed, but whether any of them could give
you any pleasure, I caunot say. I presume I need not tell you
that my time spent in college ran sadly to waste; indeed, I cannot look back upon the opportunities of acquiring useful knowledge which I then abused without shame and regret. Like most
brainless and self-conceited boys, I undertook to determine that
such and such studies were of no importance, and made this an
excuse for neglecting them, although the wise of every age have
united in declaring their utility. I was foolish enough to suffer
almost all my previous knowledge of classical literature to leak
out e cerebro, and consequently I found myself a much greater
dolt when I was invested with the title and immunities of an
A. B., than when I entered as an humble Freshman. I had
acquired, not a vast amount of erudition, but an insufferable
budget of silly opinions, self-conceited views of my own abilities,
and innumerable vicious habits, which alone are sufficient to neutralize all the good which a college course can give in the way
of knowledge. The labour of the two last years has but slightly
repaired these injuries, and I have hardly reached the point which.I ought to have attained, at the term of my collegiate race. To
proceed with my egotistical harangue, (for I have nothing better
to give you,) 1 have devoted most of my time since to classical
reading, and my eyes I think are opened in some measure to
those beauties, which, blinded with ignorant self-sufficiency, I was
unable to perceive formerly. It is the fashion of this superficial
age to decry the study of ancients, and more so in America than
in Europe, more among the idle and ignorant coxcombs of this
day, than the men of science and taste. I had caught this song
at college, and like other graducated fools I presumed to laugh at
those authors who have been the models of taste, and fountains
of polite learning, for more ages than we have lived years.
Homer was a favourite butt for my ridicule. I have read the old
fellow's Iliad twice through of late, with new pleasure at every
opening, and it is my intention if my life be spared, to spend one
hour per diern for the rest of my life in reading the classics. No
doubt, this prosing must be offensive to you; my next letter shall
be more taken up about present concerns, as I hope to receive
something from you to serve as a cue for my response. If you
are curious to know what I am now studying-I have been for
some weeks upon metaphysics, another of my old despicables;
I now am much enamoured with it. You know, doubtless, that I
expect to enter the theological seminary this fall. I anticipate
the course of theology with a great deal of pleasure; many of




~6 ~JUVENILE LETTERS.
my best friends expect to enter with me, and the studies are
such as suit my taste. Theology is certainly a noble science,
inasmuch as its subjects are the most exalted in nature, i. e. the
relations subsisting between man and his Maker.  " This is that
science," says Locke, " which would truly enlarge men's minds,
were it studied, or permitted to be studied everywhere, with that
freedom, love of truth and charity which it teaches, and were not
made, contrary to its nature, the occasion of strife, faction, malignity, and narrow impositions.".
I did not expect, when I began to write, that I should take up
two sheets —but I am proverbially garrulous, and as I shall not
put. you to the expense of a double postage, I shall continue to
run on. I remember with many pleasing associations the time
which I spent in your city, about three years ago. The traces
of sundry fair countenances remain indistinctly marked upon my
memory, and sundry boyish freaks I remember sometimes with
pleasure, and sometimes with a little shame.'But why should I
be ashamed?  Dulce est desipere it loco, (and the 1st of May and
thereabouts is assuredly the proper season if there is such a locus
in the whole year,) and it is no less sweet to remember these desipientias.  I might indulge in the usual mawkish reveries usual
upon. such occasions, such as talking about " halcyon days " and
" departed joys never to return; " but I will not falsify,. I hope
to enjoy happier moments than these; I have enjoyed. happier
moments, rendered so by nobler and'purer joys than those.
I think it probable, that I shall take a journey Southward in
the Autumn, to see my relations in Lexington, Staunton, and
other parts of Virginia; my travelling, lately has all been towards the North. My health appears to me to call for a jaunt; I
have not been sick, but, my flesh runs from me by degrees, to
my great sorrow. A year ago I had a very respectable portion
of fat; at present my sharp bones poke out their heads, threatening to pierce the skin. I-lave I not talked long enough, and
incoherently enough,. and tiresomely enough, and nos-met-ipsically enough? Farewell.  Write, I beg of you.  Amicus usque ad aras.
PRINCETON, September 7th, 1822, Saturday.
I received, a few minutes ago, your very welcome letter;
and I begin an answer immediately, because I think it probable
that a private opportunity of transmitting it will occur during
the day.  I feel relieved'from  much embarrassment by the
receipt of your goodly two-sheet epistle. You know that a man
is in a situation rather awkward when he commences writing to
a new friend, or an old one metamorphosed by absence and




1819-1822.
years.. What shall be my topics? where shall I begin? are
the questions which rise in his mind; there is no common
ground upon which he may venture, but the ice once broken, all
to be done is to seize the cue presented, and swim down the current of your thoughts, wherever they lead you.  Now  the
current of my thoughts is very apt to lead me into dry prosing,
or trifling, or some such shoal; still, at all risks, here it goes,
neck or nothing.  I pray you to be content with whatever may
meet your eye, let the partiality of friendship blind you: to all
faults. And, as I was talking of letter-writing, let me say a few
words more upon the same subject.  A letter, as I take it, is
intended to stand in lieu of an absent friend, to be his proxy in
all things, to talk in his stead, and convey his own ideas, in his
own style of conversation.  Now, so far as the letter is a faithful
representative, it is a fair picture of the disposition and sentiments of its author, and its value is to be estimated not so much
by the intrinsic weight of the opinions expressed, or the intrinsic
excellence of the style, (though these things give it new value,)
but by its resemblance to the writer.  If the writer be a festive
mercurial fellow, and the letter be as sage as an epistle of Seneca,
I would not give a groat for it; still I would always have a letter
be a vehicle of instruction, (such I am  afraid this will not be.)
But even this instruction must be given in the same way that its
parent would give it viva voceS. That letter which is so characteristic as to present its writer to nay eyes during the perusal, is
worth its weight in silver.  And to obtain this excellence, the
writer of a letter must be exceedingly passive, and just pen
down whatever comes next. So I intend to do, hoping that it
will be as acceptable, as if I should indite a profound dissertation.
As this is almost my first letter, I hope you will pardon me
for dwelling so long upon epistolary writing. I am not a friend
to quotations in general, but as I intend to spin out a long sheet,
I cannot forbear giving you one from the prince of letter writers,
Cowper. It appears to me to be the verything.  "I am very
apt to forget, when I have any epistolary business on hand, that
a letter may be written upon any thing or nothing, just as that
any thing or nothing happens to occur. A man that has a journey before him 20 miles in length, which he is to perform  on
foot, will not hesitate and doubt whether he shall set out or
not, because he does not readily conceive how he shall ever reach
the end of it, for he knows that by the simple operation of moving one foot forward first, and then the other, he shall be sure to
accomplish it. So it is in the present case, and so it is in every
case similar. A letter is written as a conversation is maintained,
or a journey performed, not by preconcerted or premeditated




S                   JUVENILE LETTERS.
means, a new contrivance, or an invention never heard of before,
but merely by maintaining ca _progress, and resolving as a postilion: does, having once set out, never to stop'till we reach the
appointed end."  By quotation andc otherwise, you perceive I
manage to mnaintain a progress, if nothing more. "An interminable preamble," you may possibly. exclaim, " What grand
display is to be made after all this' pomp -and circumstance?'"
I will tell you: I am endeavouring to explain to you the terms
upon which this correspondence is to be maintained, upon my
part. As my humour is, so will my letter be. If I am grave
and sober you may expect at least a dull letter. If I have been
reading poetry, Cowper, and Thomson, and Shakespeare, and
Ovid, as I have been all the last week, you may look for just
such a foggy, sublimated, ethereal production as the present.
You mention that your character has undergone little change.
No man is the proper judge of his own character. The changes
of our bodily frame, and of our mental part, are so gradual and
imperceptible, that they appear nothing to ourselves.'Law
John! how you have grown!" has doubtless.met your ear ofttimes from the mouth of some good old dame; and the same
exclamation was mentally ejaculated by me, in a higher sense,
while perusing your letter. I must say. something of my own
habits and character. Without being guilty of the enormity of
eaves-dropping, I have by various chances heard the opinions of
divers persons respecting myself, and if I am to judge of myself
by these, I am truly anl odd compound of qualities. " I-e's a tolerably clever fellow," say some; " but very eccentric."  I acknowledge that I am a clever fellow, and also eccentric. As
to the last attribute, I heartily wish I had none of it, and that
my orbit were less elliptical. Like a comet, I am sometimes
heated, and extravagant, indulging in untimely mirth; and soon,
as you might prophesy, chilled with melancholy.: Sometimes I
am accused of unseasonable levity, and oftener of moroseness
and obstinacy; so that, if I take all the advice which my kind
friends so liberally bestow, I shall soon find myself in the predicament of the old man, who with his son  carried the ass to
market; you remember the fable. I have long since determined
to shape my own course, without reference to the opinions of
every counsellor; if I can discover the path of duty, I hope I
shall muster up courage to tread it. The advice of my parents,
and those who have a right to counsel, I shall always deem invaluable. As to my habits; there are some which I cannot but
deplore, but which I fear will cleave to me wsque.  ad canitiemn:
among these I rank first, an unconquerable spirit of trifling, and
levity; my natural temperament makes me ready at all times,




1819 —1822.                       9
upon all occasions, for any silly jest-(verbal jokes, I mean, I
have no taste for' practical jokes.') ~ Habits of idleness appeared
deep-rooted in me when I left college; I have, however, happily
acquired a taste for study; so that, as it is my greatest pleasure,
I wish I could say that my improvement has been'proportional
to my labour; I seem to have been very laboriously doing nothing.
I concur with you in your general remarks upon education;
still I would amend your proposition, by saying that boys are
sent too early to colleges, instead of " schools." - The three or
four years spent in college are usually looked upon by the student, and the world, as the top-stones upon the structure of his
education.. A structure so soon erected, and so slightly, must
needs totter under every hurricane.  As far as I am enabled to
judge from my own experience, I think that boys should leave
school, about the age that they usually leave college, i. e. about
18. This. indeed does not accord with our present collegiate
system, for in that time they would have made a greater progress than boys do in their whole college course. But let the
standard of college attainments be elevated far above its present
degree. Let the servile work of leariling to read Latin and
Greek be kept to the schools, and even there let it be taught
upon some plan which shall not disgust the scholar, and make
him loathe those noble authors, which are prostituted to the base
purpose of teaching boys their accidence. Let boys be thoroughly versed in the learned languages before they enter any
college. This is the plan pursued in most of the European universities. It is absolutely necessary that the student should be
able not merely to read, but to talk Latin, before he can enter
them.: Let the studies of the schools be so diversified, and so
suited to the taste of the learner, that he may take some pleasure
in them. A school thus conducted, would not, I think, cramp
the genius of any boy, but rather add wings to it, and assist its
discursive flight. I think it necessary that boys should be sent
early to school. Habits of idleness soon become inveterate;
still, let the studies be proportionate to the scholar's capacity.
Another reason I have for this is, that boyhood is the timle when
we receive with most pleasure, general knowledge; the lighter
kind of knowledge obtained by indiscriminate reading, and which
then amalgamates itself with the boy's previous knowledge, and
sticks by him through life. Now where is the person who has
much taste for this knowledge, whose education was not commenced early.
To go on with my Utopian scheme. I would have the student learn in college, the higher branches of education-the higher
mathematics, if his taste led him to pursue it, the philosophy of
1*




10                     JUVENILE LETTERS.
the mind, ethics, natural law, political economy, and the classics;
not construing and parsing, (for I would have him familiar with
them,) but investigating their beauties, drawing from them rules
of pure and correct criticism, and thus improving his taste and
judgment. Above all, I would have Shakespeare's rule adopted:
" Talk logic with acquaintance that you have,
And practise Rhetoric in your common talk:
The mathematics and the metaphysics
Fall to them, as your stomach serves?ou.
NTo profit grows there is no pleasure taken.
In brief, sir, study what you most acect."
September 10th, Tuesday.
I was unable to obtain an opportunity of sending what I had
written on Saturday, and therefore I shall continue to scribble
as I have leisure until such an opportunity presents itself.  IMy
father returned yesterday, quite ill, from Newtown, Pa. He
went on Saturday for the purpose of assisting Mr. Boyd in the
administration of the Lord's Supper.  He preached in the morning, and attempted it at night, but fainted away. We were very
much alarmed when he returned. His disorder is the dysentery.
We hope that the disease is subdued by the administration of
very powerful medicines yesterday and to-day. I-le is, however,
still extremely weak, and keeps his bed.
I was going on in answer to your letter on Saturday.  Your
disgust for the ancient classics is by no means wonderful.  The
method of teaching them in our institutions of' learning, is calculated admirably to have that effect.  When I commenced studying themn after I took my degree, it was merely from  a sense of
their importance, and not fi&om any love to them. I detested them
as most nauseous, and felt disposed to esteem all their admirers
arrant pedants, and crack-brained fools.
The words of Byron suited me well,
"May he who will, his recollections rake
And quote in classic raptures, and awake
The hills with Latian echoes; I abhorred
Too much, to conquer for the poet's sake,
The drilled dull lesson, forced down word by word
In my repugnant youth, with pleasure to record
Aught that recalls the daily drug which turn'd
My sick'ning memory; and tho' time has taught
My mind to meditate what then it learned,
Yet such the fixed inveteracy wrought
By the impatience of my early thought,
That with the freshness wearing out, before
My mind could relish what it might have sought,
If free to choose, I cannot now restore
Its health, but what it then detested still abhor."




1819-1822.                      11
But I still persevered. Mr. Hodge and I devoted an hour
each day to the study of the Latin and Greek writers, and continued this practice for eighteen months, during which time we
had read several authors: and the effect has been a thorough
revolution of my taste. I could now obey Horace's exhortation,
and spend my days and nights in perusing these authors, but I
do not think the time would be profitably spent.  Of late, I have
been engaged in reading our English poets, for whom I have a
GREAT esteem. Cowper is my favorite among them all. Ile
resembles very closely my other favorite Horace.. As it regards
pungency of satire, and close and powerful argument, I think
these poets are unequalled by any of their own nations. If I
except the odes of Horace, and a few blots in the satires, I think
they are also parallel as to morals: I mean, of course, to Ineasure each by the standard of the age in which he lived. Their
faults are somewhat alike also; an apparent contempt of harmony of verse, where an idea would lose one morsel of strength
by gaining in elegance. I hope you will determine not to forswear the reading of these authors as I did when I left college.
Thursday, September 12th.
You talk about my crying you mercy on your fourth page:
what shall I say upon my ninth?  May I presume that you
have had patience to read thus far? For want of any thing to
say, I tell you as another item in our domestic annals, that as I
have not been well, 1 have been threshing in our barn for an
hour, and consider it a very excellent kind of exercise, for cold
weather especially.
MAonday, 16th
I see no reason why I should not continue to write, even
though I have nothing to say, until I am able to send this to
you. I have avoided saying any thing of my father's health for
some days, because I wished to inform you that he was recovered.
This I am not yet able to do; he has been becoming weaker and
weaker, and though the disease appears to be checked, yet his
strength is completely prostrated; he has not sat up since his
illness commenced. We believe that he will gradually recover
now; but we have been much alarmed. We have, however,
had the satisfaction of seeing him at ease under all his pain, perfectly willing to live or die, as the will of God might be.
TRENTON, Trovemtber 4th, 1822.
I came down to this place on Friday last, and the solicitations of friends and other attractions, have kept me thus long,
and shall keep me probably some days longer.




12                   JUVENILE LETTERS.
I rode down on Saturday with a friend to Point Breeze, the
seat of his Ex-Majesty Joseph, or to use his proper title Le
(omzpte De Survilliers.  We spent a long time very agreeably,
in strolling about his elegant villa and grounds, gazing upon his
buildings, and lakes, and bridges, and splendid statues.  I felt
transported to some of those European palaces which we poor
Americans are forced to hear of, with itching ears, without the
pleasure of seeing them.
The improvements which are still almost in embryo, display
much taste in the planner, whoever he was, and are in a style
entirely new to me.  He has a daughter lately arrived from
Europe, La Comnptesse, &c.
To go on in the journal style. I heard Mr. Armstrong'
preach a most eloquent sermon yesterday morning; he is one
of my favorites. At night, Mr. Lybrand, the Methodist,-a very
good preacher,-the coolest Methodist I ever heard. The Trentonians say that the Presbyterians have got the Methodist
preacher, and the Methodists the Presbyterian.
My studies' begin on Thursday, then I am  in for a six
months' siege. I am rather afraid that my health will fail. The
college commences at the same time; a great accession is expected.
My father has entirely recovered his health; and iides about
the country.'The Rev. William J. Armstrong, pastor of the Presbyterian church.
2In the Theological Seminary at Princeton, which he entered at the
time specified.




CHAPTERI II.
LETTERS FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
1822  1824.
PRINCETON, Novemnber 22, 1822.
My studies and  interruptions  and engagements are so
numerous as to leave me little time for exercise and i-ecreation,
and still less for the less imperative duties of correspondence,
&c. Besides, our institution has been in a state of painful suspense and anxiety with respect to the case of Krebs for some
days; 1 he is at last taken away, and this left a gloom  upon the
minds of all of us.  On M[onday the 18th instant he was first
confined to his bed; about Thursday he was seized with a delirium, his fever raged from  that time with the utmost violence,
and all hopes of his recovery were relinquished.  On'Friday
night the Debating Society was adjourned, and an hour was
devoted by the students to prayers for his recovery or his
restoration to reason and happy deliverance from this life.
During this hour, strange as it may appear, he enjoyed a lucid
interval, and though unable to speak, yet by looks and signs he
manifested to nay father and all who surrounded him  his entire
resignation to the afflicting hand of God, and his joyful expectation of a happy eternity. Saturday was spent in religious duties
in his behalf; on Saturday night his fever abated and left him
prostrate as to animal and mental strength; his father and
mother arrived on Saturday night, but were not recognized by
him "until the next day.  On Tuesday morning at 1 o'clock
A. M., I was called up to see him die, but I declined going into
his room.  He melted away without a groan or a struggle.
On Tuesday afternoon his corpse was taken in a carriage to'William George Krebs, of Philadelphia, a classmate of Mr. Alexander
in College as well as Seminary. He was a member of the Lutheran Church.
A biographical sketch, written by his fellow student Mr. Joseph S. Christmas, (himself afterwards so celebrated in the ministry,) is in Dr. Green's
Christian Advocate for October, 1823.




14           FrIOM TTHE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
Philadelphia, accompanied by seven or eight of his fellow students.  Perhaps I am wearying you with what dwells so heavily
upon my own mind; it may not interest you.  I feel it to be a
loud call to me to be also ready for this great change.  Within
three weeks, three of my college classmates have left this world;
all of them  far more robust, and having the promise of longer
life than myself.
Ml4y studies are overwhelming,'and as we study subjects
rather than books, they are unlimited.  I feel disposed to read
all that I can on each subject,,and when I have spent all my time
thus, I find that I have only'stepped upon the thresholds' of
these various apartments of science..
I thank you for your' intelligence respecting the literary
improvements in your city..I shall always rejoice to hear good
tidings from  the place where my early scenes of pleasure and
pain were chiefly laid, and where I received the rudiments of my
anomalous education.  I always side myself with Philadelphians
when New York is brought in competition with it, though I
hardly know why.  The associations of infancy ought not to bias
the reason of more mature age.l
PRINCETON, Theol. Sem. -Last day of 1822.
I wish you all the good wishes which are suggested by the
return of this season of festivity, a happy and' profitable New
Year,to'you'and all - your family.  You ask for particulars
respecting the Seminary, our studies, &c.; and there is no request that I would grant with greater pleasure, for these several
reasons: Imprimis, I love our institution so much, and am  so
happily situated in every respect, that I shall not be soon weary
of my subject.  Secondly, it is an inexhaustible subject, and
therefore I shall have no difficulty in filling up this immense
sheet. Thirdly, it is a subject on which I am  at home, and
therefore I shall write with more ease and pleasure.  You shall
be satisfied as to minutiae, and so you have upon the third page
of this epistle a brief but minute register of the members of our
Seminary, in print too.2
I said I was happy,-never more so in my life. I enjoy g6od
health, good spirits, and I have a most comfortable room, and a
most delightful room mate.3  I never had so great a variety of
1 His residence in Philadelphia extended from December, 1807, to July,
1812-from his fourth to his ninth year. - This gave him a short time to
enjoy the exact and thorough initiation into Latin Grammar, for which the
school of JAMES Ross was so deservedly famous.
2 The annual catalogue,' on a folio sheet.
3 Jared B. Waterbury, now D. D.




1822-1824.                       15
excellent company before: 7Metaphysicians, Wits, Theologians,
&c., &c. I have here dearly prized friends, who endear Princetoll to me. Books in the greatest abundance, as I have access to
six public libraries, as well as my father's. Our studies are not
burdensome, and far from being irksome. I saw a letter the
other day from an alumnus of this institution to a member of it,
in which he says: " My dear C, you are now enjoying your
happiest days, and whether you realize it now or not, you will
feel it deeply when you are cast out upon the world."  These
sentiments are not peculiar to this individual, I hear them from
every one who has ever been here. Indeed, the greatest cares I
experience, are such as arise from  an. oration to be spoken, or a,
tedious lecture.   Till you not say with Virgil, 0 fortuonati
niminm, suta si bonat norint. I will now proceed to give you
some account of my course of life.  I rise at half after six.
Public prayers in the Oratory at 7. Breakfast at 8. From 9
to 91-, I devote to bodily exercise. From  9-1 until 12, Study.
12 1, Exercise. Dine at one. 2-3, I usually devote to works
of taste, and to comrposing. 3-4- at Lecture. 4- Prayers.
Until tea, at Exercise. After tea, until 12 (at which time I close
my eyes) Societies, study, &c.
Perhaps you think I exercise my boldy sufficiently.  I find it
absolutely necessary to my well-being, or almost to my being at
all. You may think, too, that I do not study a great deal; trueand moreover that I need not complain of want of time for correspondence; true, at present I need not complaini; I have plenty
of time for writing, and general reading.  At the beginning of
the term, before I had fairly got into the harness, our business
appeared too much to grasp; but it is now methodized, and I
find that I am quite a gentleman of leisure. To proceed: we
recite twice in the week on Hebrew, once on Greek, once on the
Confession of Faith, once on Biblical History.  I-Tear Lectures
once on Theology, (preparatory to the full and regular theological Lectures,) twice on Biblical history, once on the Criticism
of the Original Scriptures, once on Jewish Antiquities.  On
Monday night, I attend a society for improvement in the criticism of the Bible; President, Mr. IHodge.  On Tuesday flight,
the Theological Society, where every student delivers once in
six weeks an, original oration.  On Thursday night, I am  at
liberty to attend an evening lecture at the college.  On Friday
night, Theological Society, where questions in ethics and divinity
are discussed.  On Saturday night, a weekly prayer meeting.
On Sunday we have sermons from  our three professors, and
Prof. Lindsly,' in rotation.
1Philip Lindsly, D. D., the Vice President of the College of New Jersey.




16          FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
The greatest advantage which I experience from being in the
Seminary, and this is increased by my being an inhabitant of the
house, is, that we live in a kind of literary atmosphere; all the
conversation carried on here is of a literary kind; at table, in
our walks, and wherever a cluster of us assembles, some lively
discussion takes place which causes our time to fly very rapidly
and pleasantly away. All our opinions are brought into the
arena of free discussion, and we must defend them or relinquish
them. Opinions founded upon ignorance, or prejudice, habits
and manners which are unpleasant, and almost every eccentricity
which is fostered during the course of a private education, is here
likely to be rubbed off.  So pleasant is my whole course of life
here, that I feel not the least desire to go out into the great
world.
But amid all my comforts, I am miserable unless when I am
enabled to found my satisfaction and contentment upon a broader
basis than any thing temporal. I find no substantial unmingled
pleasure except in a, conscience void of offence; which that I may
always possess. is my earnest and reigning desire. I know very
well how repugnant it is to any one of nice feelings to have
religion drummed into his ears, but I feel assured that a word in
its favour will not offend you. I should be unworthy of the title
of friend, if I did not endeavour in some feeble measure to make
my friends partakers of the greatest happiness I can conceive of.
M-    y habits have changed considerably since I entered the
Seminary.  I have bidden farewell to ennui, spleen, hyp.,
and all that class of.old hangers on: also to the flute, to
romantic air-castles, and walks in groves, to the company of
ladies-item, to poetry, magazines, novels, &c., &c., too tedious
to mention.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, January 30, 1823.
Another month is tapering off to non-entity, and with it
closes the first half of our winter term. On Monday next commences a recess from study of two weeks' duration; and, as you
know that feelings of leisure and disenthralment are: wont to
creep over one before the vacation makes such feelings strictly
allowable, you will not be surprised to hear that I am doing
nothing about this time. Beware of dreaming that I have nothing to do; for since that unwarrantable boast in my last, that
I was almost master of my time, I have been punished for my
temerity by an influx of duties innumerable. The " pressure of
business " upon me has been so mighty for two or three weeks,
that my system has been considerably deranged in its bodily as
well as mental parts. When I speak of business, I do not mean




1822-1824.                       17
to convey to you the impression that my studies, &e., have been
the only absorbents of my time, for the pursuits of the class do
not necessarily consum.e many hours of the day; but my mind
has been harassed by a multitude of questions in daily agitation,
in these metaphysico-theologico-literario walks of science; questions from which I could not in justice to myself turn away my
attention, but which have, at the same time, eaten up my vacant
hours, and caused a host of unanswered letters to lie in my
drawer praying for audience. At the present moment, being 10
o'clock P. MI., (more or less,) I feel fit for no severe exertion;
my animal spirits have been sucked up by a difficult HIebrew
passage, a difficult mathematical query, and a diflicult point in
morals since tea, so that I am in a very proper state to utter
that farrago of floating ideas commonly called when taken in a
body, and put on paper, "A Letter."  These ideas have been
swimming i1n cerebro, I -know not how long, crying for enlargement, and I. am now arraying them before me on this piece of
coarse foolscap, (by the way, the only connecting link between
them, so incoherent are they and unsocial.)
MIy room nmate left me this evening. I am now sole proprietor of this my little chamber.  View me in imagination,
seated in my chum's immense elbow chair, writing by the light
of a shaded lamp, heated by a funereal looking stove just before
me. Beginning at the south corner of my domicile, you observe
first a row of shelves, containing all my little store of books, and
many not my own, modestly covered by a gingham veil. In the
same corner you may discern my spacious literary throne with
all its appendages of drawers, &c. I need not direct your eyes
to my scanty stock of chairs.  A red desk standing in solemni
guise among the sticks of fuel which lie, in a capacious box, ready
to feed the aforesaid stove. A high stool. A table. A mirror
large enough to reflect my haggard features.  An assortment of
trunks, my own and Waterbury's.  Three maps. A wash stand
and appurtenances.  A solitary picture to decorate my naked
walls. A cluster of pantaloons in suspense. An axe and saw
wherewithal our wood is cut. And finally, (though not least
precious,) near to my room  mate's couch is placed my lowly
cot, into which wearied nature bids me presently creep.  Pardon the vagaries of a half-crazed student.  Good-bye, for this
night.
Friday Iorning, - 11 A. M.
I can assure you that I am in no humour for joking this
morning. MIy old complaint the blues has come upon-me like
a strong man armed. 5Misanthropy is a sin which threatens




18          FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
at times to destroy not my own comfort only, but that of my
friends around me. I despise it, and I loathe it, and yet, paradoxical and inconsistent creature, I hug it to my heart. I cannot say in truth that I hate any thing just now; but truly I am
depressed; devoured by spleen, and fostering a crabbed, morose,
churlish, silly, girl-like, sinful despondency.
Excuse my never-ending egotism. It is human nature to
dwell upon our own real or imaginary misfortunes. It is still
unreasonable when so many more luxuriant prospects present
themselves for my contemplation.
I rejoice at the hint that you have given me, that you do not
feel that unmanly and dastardly antipathy to the contemplation
of the noblest of all objects,-the Great First Cause, and of the
relations subsisting between Him and us. Why is it that the
most sublime of all sciences, the science of man considered as an
immortal being, and of God as the author of that immortality,
and the only being powerful enough to make it blissful, should
be shoved aside on all occasions from  the mind's view, and
thrust, whenever practicable, into oblivion?  Is it because our
interest;in this subject is small- our personal interest? because
these truths are merely speculative, and have no bearing upon
our future and present happiness.  because the importance of the
subject is small? because life is so long as to warrant the hope
that a better occasion for considering it will occur? because the
addition of years is likely to take away our reluctance to consider it candidly? because we are not at all criminal in neglecting it? because our criminality is lessened by delay? I think
that none of these are the arguments which keep us from ils
investigation. A  real though hidden hatred of those truths
which condemn us, and curtail our pleasures; a feeling that the
gate to heaven is a strait, a narrow gate, and that few enter it on
account of various encumbrances, these things keep our minds
from viewing the truth aright. Till we are willing to sacrifice
pride, vanity, love of flame and pleasure, and all love of created
things to the pure unalloyed love of God himself, we must
remain without the gate; an agony is requisite to enter it.
This is a hard doctrine; but the kingdom of God suffereth violence, and so we are informed from the source whence all our
knowledge of these things flows. The Scriptures represent man
as a rebel, a lover of himself rather than of God; they command
him instantly to repent, and all means are provided to enable
him to know God's will. But it is useless to speak of means to
attain any end when that end itself is hateful. The man of the
world desires to be happy, but he does not desire to be happy
in th.e Away of God's commandment, in the way of self-denial,




1822-1824.                       19
humility, and godly sorrow and fear. I am not at liberty to
say that it is an easy thing to become a Christian. It may be
easy to a being, if such there be, who has no sins to forsake, no
pride to vanquish; who can, without any reluctance, crucify
every evil:affection and unruly desire, and live agreeably to the
gospel, Some one may say, " Who does this? no man is sinless" "grantedl, but none was ever a Christian who did not desire
to do it.
Many are prejudiced against the Gospel without knowing
what it teaches. No man ever CANDIDLY and PERSEVPErINGLY
studied the system of truths presented in the Old and New Testaments without finding his belief in them follow. Where there
is belief, real, firm belief, that belief will result in corresponding
afections; these affections necessarily lead to a holy life.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1823, 1st of M1arch.
I was about to congratulate you upon the prospect of your
speedy emancipation from college restraints, but when I look
back on my own academical career, I can see no ground for
congratulation upon leaving it. I cannot picture to myself any
situation in which a young man has so much happiness within
his grasp as at college, whether I take into view the season of
life, the nature of his pursuits, the variety and congeniality of his
associates, or the fewness of his cares. You have not, however,
had experience of the peculiar cares and pleasures of a genuine
college life, but you can no doubt conceive it.l I did not myself
enjoy it fully, as I lodged and boarded at home during my three
and a half years; but so much of my time was spent within
those loved old walls, and so delightfully spent that I can never
forget it, or think of it, without a melancholy pleasure. I am
constrained to own that many of my most jovial hours at Nassau
HIall, were spent in a manner not exactly conformable to strict
morals, but nevertheless 1 have there spent what I shall always
consider my happiest hours. I often recall a merry circle of
careless college blades seated about "the witching time of
night" around a Nassau fire, by the way a pre-eminently good
one, enveloped in fragrant clouds, enjoying all that flow of youthful hilarity and good humour, which a release from irksome duty
engenders. Perhaps I feel too much pleasure in contemplating
these old scenes; but in my hours of twilight musing, and castlebuilding, I often read in a bed of glowing coals, the almost faded
story of these old times, and picture to myself the future various
destinies of my old friends and classmates. But these joys' His correspondent was in the University of his own city and home.




20          FRO~M THE THEOLOGICAL SETMINARY'.
though they were sweet when I was in the midst of them, vanish
in comparison with others which I experienced within those same
walls.
It was there that, I humbly trust, my eyes were first opened
to see the true value of eternal things; there I first saw with
clearness, the awful nature of the rebellion which I was waging
against my best friend and sovereign; and I there first determined to give up all hopes of happiness from the world, and to
seek it in religion.  I need not tell you that my determinations
and resolutions have been broken, and unfulfilled, and that I find
every day the truth of that solemn declaration, that the carnal
mind is enmity against God, and is not, nor can it be, subject to
his law. At the time of which I speak, I enjoyed happiness
which I can find no words to express, and which has been lost
only because I have so often returned to seek my consolation
from mere earthly enjoyment. There cannot certainly be on
earth any greater pleasure than to see without doubt, oneself
condemned justly by God's law, and at the same time saved
freely by the sovereign mercy of God in Christ. The satisfaction which I then felt in committing all lly cares and concerns,
my soul and body, into the hands of a Saviour whose infinitely
lovely character I then saw, I never expect to receive from any
other source. I remember that at that time, I looked back with
unspeakable astonishment at the carelessness and indifference
with which I had viewed the realities of another world; with
what calmness I could contemplate all the particulars of my
unfeeling ingratitude to God, and I remember that I then thought,
that if at any time I had seriously and soberly considered these
things for one hour, I could not have viewed them any longer
with apathy. The friendships which I formed under these circumstances, are the closest and most tender I have ever known;
and I feel attached to these friends in a way which I never knew
any thing about before. Perhaps you may ask, "Does religion
make you happy A?" Alas! If I possessed religion in its purity,
unalloyed, I should be perfectly happy; but I do not; my soul
is still attached to the beggarly elements of this world, and I fear
to say that I am a Christian.  But this I can say: When I feel
most deeply the force of divine truth, that is, when I feel myself
most deeply a lost sinner, when I see the hellish blackness of sin,
and the infinite loveliness of the divine character, then I feel most
happy. I have known seasons when I could willingly have given
up my life, and departed to enjoy the most unspeakable raptures
of the heavenly state; when I could so unreservedly devote
myself to God as to be willing to live or die, to go to the ends
of the earth, or dwell in obscurity just as he pleased, to say ex




1822-1824.                       21
animo, Thy will be done, and at such times, I have felt more
unmixed bliss in one half hour than in a month as I commonly
spend it.
No reasonable excuse can be given by any man for not
loving supremely the most adorably perfect being in the universe.  God calls upon all men now to repent, and has sanctioned his command by most terrific threats, and alluring promises.  But I need not tell you these things.  You have doubtless
heard them urged powerfully and repeatedly, and I am but trespassing upon your patience.
THEOLOGICAL SEMIINARY, April 10th, 1823.
I should commence by making an apology for writing on so
ungain a piece of foolscap, if I had not a kind of dim remembrance of having sent you my ideas in the same homely vehicle
once before.  It is large, it suits my unmanageable pen, and
above all it is at hand; so that you may consider it as a predilection of mine, and judge of the letter by the contents.  And
judging of it even in this way, I fear that you willhave to exercise much clemency to suffer it to pass. I can assure you that
after having spent a day in investigating Hebrew roots, one feels
little energy of mind or body; and moreover there is such a
stagnation hereabouts at this time, that I can promise you nothing interesting.  The trustees of the college met yesterday and
on Tuesday, for the purpose of electing a president.l  Professor
Lindsly was chosen President, and the Rev. Jared D.  Fyler, of
Trenton, Vice President in case Mr. Lindsly should accept his
appointment.  Mr. Lindsly requests four weeks for deliberation,
which the Board have granted. They will meet at the commeincement of the ensuing session, to receive Mr/I. L.'s final answer.  It is generally supposed in this place that he will not
accept the office. You probably know that he has lately received all invitation to the college at Nashville, Tennessee: they
have made him very good offers, and many of his friends think
that he will go to that institution.
The college has dragged along rather lamely during the past
winter. It has had no president, no regular professor of Mathematical and Physical science, and the tutors are young and
inexperienced.  Mr. Lindsly's administration has gained universal approbation, as far as I can learn, but what could one
man, even of Mr. Lindsly's talents, do when clogged by so many
Dr. Ashbel Green had resigned the presidency in 1822.
2 Dr. Lindsly having declined the appointment, Dr. Carnahan was elected, and filled the office for thirty years.




22          FROMI THE THEOLOGICAL SEIINARY.
disadvantages. The college has scarcely ever, during the last
fifteen years, ieceived a greater addition to its numbers than at
the beginning of the last session. I scarcely ever visit the college
— indeed there is nothing there to interest me except the Whiig
Society, to which I pay an occasional visit. My time passes so
happily and so busily up here, that I feel not the least disposition to leave my domicile.  When I walk for exercise, I usually
plunge into the thick woods to the east and south-east; I am
fond of such roaming, especially at this season, when nature is
beginning to resume her verdant drapery. I have indeed lost
much of the romance which formerly entered so deeply into my
character; but I still like to indulge sometimes in moonlight
reveries, and rambles through dark and melancholy groves, or
to catch the sweet breath of rising morn upon some gentle hill;
but I am soon ejected from any such elevations of fancy by the
sober realities of life as it is. The great pressure of studies, and
the solemn prospect of the responsible duties which I expect
before long to assume, dispel those airy visions which will sometimes rise before me in the shape of multiform delightful scenes
of" fairy-land."  A dark cloud of melancholy sometimes casts a
shade over my horizon, but it is only for a moment; my greatest struggles are with a childish levity, and love of joke, and'quip, and jollity, which I would gladly leave behind me in the
regions of boyhood. My native loquacity leads me to give you
a long letter, even full of egotism, in preference to sending you
a short abstract of the floating news; all that floats here has
been afloat until it is putrid and unfit for transportation. A few
days since, we had a visit from David Brown, a Cherokee, who
is one of the new converts from Paganism; he has been two
years in the foreign mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut,
and is now taking a course of theological lectures at Andover.
He is genteel in his manners, has an agreeable expression of
countenance, his face about the hue of my own, not quite so
mtnahogany as most of his tribe. His attainments in literature
are truly astonishing, when his opportunities of acquiring knowledge are taken into cQnsideration. I-e expects in about a year
to return to that part of his tribe which lives upon the Arkansas,
where he hopes to preach the gospel. He manifests great zeal
in the cause which he has espoused, and his piety is apparently
such as to put to shame the majority of white professors.
When I look upon such a person, changed so radically in opinions, and temper, and practice, and consider how little could have
been effected in this way by nmere moral suasion founded on
natural principles; I am constrained to say, that the gospel is
the wisdom and the power of God. To civilize these wandering




1822-1824.                       23
tribes in any other way, than by Christianizing them, I am more
and more convinced would be impossible; anid I rejoice in the
hope that every relic of barbarous idolatry and superstition will
soon be extirpated by this holy religion.
Do you read Dr. Green's Advocate?  He has devoted a
large portion of its pages to the productions of our students. In
the last number " the Dissertation on Types," on "the Style of
the New Testament," and the  "Death of Rebecca," are the effusions of some of my acquaintances. As for me, supposing that
I could produce any thing not intolerable, my time is so engrossed by study, that I have no leisure for such attempts. I
have bidden a reluctant farewell to poetry, classical reading, and
indeed every department of general literature.
PRINCETON, 12th July, 1823.
Since the close of the vacation I have been striving hard to
find, a little recess from  stated engagements, in which I might
answer the communications of my friends. But our studies,
now much increased, and the press of business on me as an
individual, and a very variable state of health, have not left me
one hour in which my mind was sufficiently disengaged to sit
down at writing. This letter, if I am not greatly mistaken, will
be eminently dull, and in that respect be a good representative of
its author, who is superlatively so just now, in consequence of
being pent up all last evening in a close, crowded, hot room, in
attendance upon our Friday night debate. The discussion was
peculiarly interesting, and ably conducted, and engaged my close
attention for nearly three hours; which was so much the worse
for me, as the excitement produced by it has been nolwl succeeded
by its usual consequent, a grievous stupidity and head-ache. In
our societies, one of my greatest pleasures is to observe the development of uncommon characters, a satisfaction which our
institution affords in a high degree, as it embraces specimens of
every variety of American temper and manners which is not
inconsistent with religion.  We have the Yankee and the Kentuckian, the clown and the cit, the baccalaureate and the backwoodsman, the fastidious critic just emerged from a long confinement in the schools, and the rough unshapen child of nature fresh from the plough. Few countries whose inhabitants
have branched out so generally from  one stock as ours, have
their different provinces marked as strongly by characteristic
peculiarities as the United States. Politeness is a thing known
only nominally among students-I speak of the formulas of the
bon ton. By mutual consent, we deal plainly with each other,
and waive the observance of fashionable etiquette. This gives us




241         FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMIINARY.
a better opportunity of discovering character.  The garb of
worldly politeness is so uniform  as to hide in great measure
individual peculiarities.  Were I to seek for the soul of true
politeness, I should look towards the South, but it would need
the external polish of our own Middle States to make it perfectly
suitable to fine taste.  Nothing new in this stagnant pool. I am
almost deliquescedl by the oppressive heat; if I am suffering so
much at a window in a current of air, what must the reapers
suffer whom  I see in the harvest fields around, all this day?  I
sometimes wish I had the Schuylkill here for the purposes of
bathing; in lieu of it, I have to walk a great distance to sNwim in
a little turbid stream, or to be content with the shower-bath.  I
am glad to see a new edition of Erskine's evidences; for clear
and irresistible argumaent, and for elegance and originality, commend me to Erskine.
PRINCETON, 29th tAugust, 1823.
You have begun to think, if I augur rightly, that your Princeton correspondent is either strangely indolent, or wilfully neglectful, or perhaps both.  Neither, I can assure you, if he knows
himself.  An imprudent application to study during the first
weeks of this summer, and a neglect of regular exercise, entirely
unnerved me, rendered studying highly perilous, and drove me
from  my boolks to wander hither and thither in quest of health
and spirits.  This has been my business for a month or two
past; and if you know any thing of the feelings of a genuine
hypochondriac either by report or experiment, you need not be
informed that I felt little like handling a quill, and least of all
like writing a tolerable letter.
The amusements of several little excursions have, by the permission of a watchful Providence ever kinder than I deserve,
restored me to my usual health, and I am just beginningl to resume my regular studies.  I was upon the Atlantic, and perhaps
laved by its surges at the same time with yourself, and heartily
concur in all your praises.  I know no recreation comparable to
a sea-bath; the excitement produced by the conflict with the surf,
the stimulating effects of the salt water, and the healthful invigorating, sea-breezes, have a better effect on me than all the nauseous potions of all the quacks in. Christendom.  My visit to
Long Branch was peculiarly agreeable from the concurrence of a
number of circumstances.  We had fine weather, fine company,
good accommodations, a season unusually fresh and verdant, and
a spot of country (about Shrewsbury) which for richness and
fertility is second to none in this state.  I nwas surprised to find
upon the high ridges of the Middletown hills, which are a contin



1822-1824.                       25
uation of the Navesink chain, numerous beds of marl, abounding
with shells and other marine remains which indicate the alluvial
nature of even those lofty eminences. But in connection with this,
I was still more astonished to see the relics of a mammoth, lately
dug out of a low piece of marsh ground in Poplar Swamp, a spot
which must undoubtedly have been redeemed from the ocean.
These bones were discovered within a few feet of the surface, in
good preservation, but are now rapidly mouldering upon exposure
to the atmosphere. One of the teeth weighs three and a quarter
pounds, and the knee-joint according to my hasty measurement
is two feet in circumference. It is probable that I shall pass the
ensuing winter in Virginia. I feel it to be a duty to sacrifice my
plans and inclinations to the acquisition of some hardihood of
constitution. I congratulate you upon your enlargement from
collegiate restraints, although I cannot hope that you have bettered your condition, if your college course has been as devoid
of care and uneasiness as my own. Your feelings upon the occasion are natural, for the day of one's graduation is, so to speak,
the day of initiation into the toils and mysteries of manhood.
You speak as though your future pursuits were entirely undetermined. This is well; the danger in this age is of hurrying
prematurely into the bustle and responsibility of public life.
You appear to think of devoting a year or two to private study.
If this is your plan let me exhort you to procure as many
restraints and stimuli as you can; either by the superintendence
of some literary friend, or by associating some companion in
your studies. This I say upon the supposition that your character and feelings are like mine, and like most young men.  It is
difficult for one who feels himself entirely at leisure to exercise
that decided resolution, and persevering self-denial without which
it is impossible to make literary attainments.  F rom experience
which is now the subject of bitter regret, I know that the temptations to gratify imagination and taste and idle curiosity at the
expense of mental discipline are almost irresistible.
I shall not ask forgiveness for suggesting, what has no doubt
suggested itself to you, the importance of forming moral as well
as intellectual character at this critical point of time.  Religion,
that bug-bear of the thoughtless and the voluptuary, and the
laughing-stock of " the many " who know it only by name, is
after all that can be said, the only safeguard to virtue, and the
only source of real tranquillity of mind. Aside from the peace
occasioned by the quelling of an angry conscience, and the release
from fears of future evil, the positive joys of religion are truly
unspeakable. The lofty and sublime contemplations, the solid
and rational hopes, the intimacy with Him who ruleth over all,
VOL. I.-2




26          FROMI TIIE THEOLOGICAL SEMIINARY.
the remedy for every care which piety professes to afford, and
which its votaries say it does afford, surely are sufficient recommendations to one who looks beyond the outskirts of this limited
world.
PRINCETON, September 22, 1823.
The present week, of all weeks in the year, is a week of commotion and anxiety to me, as it is one of jovialness and satisfaction to thousands of my fellow Jerseymen. The noise, and bustle, and dust, and novelty which strike the senses on our commencernent day, and even for several days before and after it,
give my irritable fibres a most villanous agitation.  You have
witnessed one of our annual literary Saturnalia, if I remember
rightly, and if so need not be told how this town appears more
like the Amphyctionic council of all our American Bedlams, than
of the lovers of science and letters. I am writing this letter, be
it known, with the expectation of tearing it to pieces, as I hope
to see you here at our holiday, and to be delivered from the necessity of addressing you in the imperfect language of ink and
paper.  However, as the second cord to my bow, I am delivering my mind of its present scum, which I have in mind to send in
case we should not have the pleasure of seeing you here.
Tuesday, September 23.
I was prevented from concluding my letter yesterday, and
have discovered from your classmate [T. L.] Janeway, that we
shall not have the pleasure of a visit from you to-morrow. It
was unwelcome intelligence. I was hoping to have had the pleasure of meeting you here at this season which presents more novelty and interesting speculation to a stranger than any other. I
should have been glad of the opportunity of introducing you to
the ancient and honorable fraternity of "American Whigs."
Janeway has received a hereditary predilection for the Clios, and
has (I think very properly) followed its dictates.  My old college friends, and our family acquaintances, are already pouring in
upon me. It is gratifying, as you will find hereafter, to meet
after the lapse of two or three years, even those companions in
study who were never intimates or confidants. Some of my cobachelors have outstripped me in a variety of ways. Some
(proh scelus!) have been guilty of matrimony. Some are on the
verge of the same gulf. Some are licensed man-slayers. One
or two have already begun to fill some space in the public eye
as lawyers, in the south. The pleasure of our meeting has, however, received a damp from the recent intelligence of the death
of Edward Thomas, captain's clerk on board the " John Adams."




1822-1824.                       27
He-T was graduated with mle, and pursued legal studies for about
two years. He was a young man of uncommon acuteness and
vigour of intellect, and of promising abilities as an orator; and
though singular and eccentric in some of his habits, was generally
esteemed by his acquaintances. He is the sixth of the class of
1823 who have departed this life. A call so loud to me to be
ready to depart also, has roused my sluggish mind to look around
me for a moment; but alas the return to slumber is so much
more natural to wicked man, that I am led to think that in most
cases, the repetition of such alarms, unless effectual at first, seems.only. to deaden the feelings to all their influence.  Death is not
dreadful to me now; what new terrors may be disclosed by the
dark and melancholy scenes of a sick chamber, and the more
dark forebodings which are the harbingers of this imperial destroyer, I know not. My life and virtues and merits are so
utterly destitute of having any value, intrinsic, or as purchasers
of immortality, that, were my hopes based on them in any degree, I would be willing to take the shortest road out of this life.
But I do daily see an increasing glory in that Saviour who was
once to me an object, to say the least, of indifference, which declares him to be my ground of confidence, and my only source
of joy. I confess that few, very few of my thoughts are fixed on
him; I say few with reference to the degree in which I ought to
fix my eye upon him, but joy, real and unequivocal joy, I
never have, or expect or desire to have in any other.
Shall I leave this point? Perhaps the only effect on you is
a revulsion of feeling such as I have myself experienced from a
similar cause. I am far from wishing to obtrude my own notiomis oir emotions upon any friend; and I know from experience,
too well the impolicy and absurdity of recommending religion
pugnis et calcibus, to cram my hortations down any man's throat.
But I do wish to let our correspomidence assume something more
than the reserved Antarctic character of two shopkeepers. If
there is any thing in religion which renders it unfit for communication, or repugnant to social confidence, or which like Free
Masonry is not to be hinted at, or spoken about except in consecrated houses, away with it out of the earth! I would be the
first to lift up both hands in execration of so icy and dissociating
a principle.  But I know it to be something far different.  I
know that there is not any exercise of those affections (which are
ever seeking exercise somewhere) so truly social and endearing
as the exercise of them upon the enlivening truths and realities
of:Jesus Christ's gospel. I know that there is an exquisite satisfaction in that kindly feeling which Christianity encourages and
keeps alive. And I' know that had this side of the picture met




28 O          B   TIEROM THE THEOLOGICAL SE3IINAIRY.
my eye some years ago, instead of the harsh lines which are
sometimes foolishly exhibited, that I should not have so long like
a condemned criminal shrunk and retreated with such mental
imbecility from all that bore the stamp of religion.  Godliness
is profitable for all things; having the promise of this as well as
the coming life.
Thursday.
This letter, you must begin to think, is long in finding a
conclusion. I was turned out of my room, on the day before
yesterday, to make space for a stranger; and, as this was done
while I was abroad, this letter was shut up among my other
effects until this afternoon. The dampness and coldness yesterday prevented such a multitude of' persons from assembling as
we are accustomed to see. Our village was consequently comparatively quiet. I have seen however several persons bearing
sad marks of the frolicking last night.  For any particulars
relating to the exercises of the day, I refer you to Janeway, who,
I believe, was a constant and attentive observer.
I am entirely run out of spirits by the continual excitement
of the last two or three days. My Virginia bubble is exploded.
T shall expect to spend the next year, Providence permitting, in
my old course of seclusion.  I am, upon the whole, glad of this
disappointment.  Although no one can be more fond of travelling than I, yet the pleasing retirement and warm attachments
of our seminary have so enchained my affections that it was like
tearing apart my heart's fibres to think of going away.
PRINCETON, October 23, 1823.
The openness and candour with which you have met my proposals of a new set of topics for our correspondence, have gratified me very much. I rejoice to find that the important interests of religion have gained so much of your attention, and would
beg you not to suffer this attention to decrease or to remain without increase. To come more directly to the points of inquiry
suggested by you. I entertain no shadow of a doubt that a
patient and scriptural method of seeking God's favour was never
yet fruitless. Indeed, while I profess to have faith in the word
of God, no truth can be plainer; it rests on the immutable word
of Jehovah.  The pursuit may be a dark and tedious and discouraging one, and yet compared with the glory of that " a/tapavrtLvov'Sg 80o~qs o'r-cavov," which is the prize held forth, how do
all these labours dwindle to nothing. Among a host of Scripture passages, look at these: Ps. lxxxvi. 5. Joel. ii. 32. Rom.
x. 12, 13.  The search must be indeed most sincere.  Compare




1822-1824.                        29
the petitions which you have offered to God for this great faivour
with what you may conceive to be the cries of one pleading for
his life, and then compare the termporal and the eternal life.
Deut. iv. 29.  Jer. xxix. 13. For encouragement, for truths
calculated to awaken as well as to soothe the conscience, for
advice and direction infinitely more infallible than that of a fellow wornm, fly to the precious volume of God's word. There, be
assured, a prayerful, indceftigballe, daily searcel- will open to you
supplies suited to all your necessities.  I would have you
believe not one tittle of what, after diligent examination, you find.
not there. But then that holy book is to be approached without
prejudice or prepossession.  Let mne use the words of Chalmers,
" We must bring a free and unoccupied mind to the exercise.
It must not be the pride or the obstinacy of self-formed opinions,
or the haughty independence of him who thinks he has reached
the manhood of his undlerstanding.  We must bring with us the
docility of' a child if we want to gain the kingdom of heaven.
There must be no garbling of that which is entire, no darkening
of that which is luminous, no softening down of that which is
authoritative or severe. The Bible will allow of no compromise."-" If we could only abandon all our former conceptions,
if we felt that our business was to subumit to the oracles of God,
and that We are not called upon to effect a reconciliation betwixt
a revealed doctrine of the Bible and an. assumed or encogitated
principle of our own, —thet we are satisfied that we should find
the language of the New Testament to have as much clear, and
precise, and didactive simplicity, as the language of any sage or
philosopher which has come down to us."  (Challers' Evidences,
last chapter).  Our reverence for the Bible is truly hypocritical
when we are content to study it with less assiduity than a thousand things which we may know and eternally perish.  I trust
that I shall yet rejoice with you in the words of Is. xxv. 9.
I wish to discourage no one from the acquisition of any language.  iIy remark to Janeway' was meant to have special
reference to the ro 8aLSaKrov of French works.  I cordially concur
with you and with the whole republic of letters, as to the inadequacy of a translation to convey the beauties of literature.  I
must still confess that after dabbling for six years in French literature, I find my ardour quite cooled as to the exquisite richness of that department of letters: and this has been the result
with most of my acquaintances who have studclied the language
However, go on —no langunge is to be despised, especially one
which opens the door to so vast a range of authors as the French.
1 Supposed to be unfavourable to the study of the French language.




30          FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
The exercise of-mind tooj which the study of language affords in.
comparing words and idioms, has a powerful influence in render-.
ing our ideas precise.and definite.
When you next happen to be in a book store please to price
any small editions of Demosthenes and any of Xenophon's or
Plato's works. I prefer German editions; and those which have
the Greek text without notes or version.
PRINCETON, Deceniber 8th, 1823.
Your last letter has been lying unanswered for a month, and
would probably lie a month longer, if I should wait until my
mind is sufficiently free from occupation to leave me in a fit state
to write a. letter. I have indeed hours of release from study, but'
after a day of close confinement to metaphysical or ethical subjects, I confess that I feel less inclined to nothing than handling.
a pen. If you have ever spent three or four weeks in thinking
"Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end in wandering mazes lost,"
you may conceive of the mental exhaustion which I now experience. Clarke and Leibnitz, Hume and Brown, have led me an
enchanting, but dangerous flight through the clouds of speculation by day, and have danced before my brain in the phantasms
of the night. It is my satisfaction to know after all the mortification consequent upon a view of the inscrutable nature of many
questions in morals, that the path to heaven and perfect unalloyed enjoyment of the truth is open to the humblest and simplest child of Adam.  The New Testament, while it inculcates a
system unparalleled for its sublimity and consistency, is obscured
by no sophistical refinements, and defies the attempts of philosophy to complete or systematize it more fully. The general
impression left by an hour's humble reading of God's word is
unlike the effect of any other work. It is a feeling of calm submissive tranquillity.  I am  inclined, therefore, to think that
nothing tends so directly to the formation of a truly Christian
character as the continual, prayerful, unquestioning perusal of
the Scriptures. They do not present naked doctrines; they are
addressed to the natural feelings, and they affect our hearts
imperceptibly but powerfully. Let me pray you to be a diligent student of this holy book. HI-e who takes delight in the
Bible must imbibe its spirit; and its influence, I think, is allpowerful.: After the learned prating of philosophers, the sweet
and modest words of inspiration fall on my ear like melody.




1822-1824.                         31
lVednesday, o10th.
A goodly chasm  in the epistle! and yet, I assure you, left
without any possibility of remedy, by the variety of engagements which pull me hither and thither.  Besides the recitations of this week, which force me to read about 600 octavo
pages, I have to sit four hours inll our Theological Society two
nights in the week; and have now on hand, preparation for debating on next Monday night; item, an oration to be transcribed
and committed for Tuesday, and one to be composedc and committed for Monday.  Except as it interferes with pleasant extra
duties, I do not complain of this; it is infinitely preferable to an
ennnyeuse vacation in which I begin and leave unfinished a thousand different things.  Your situation in the city is truly enviable on one account,-the facilities afforded by it for the reasonable and convenient purchase of books. AMany valuable works
are knocked down at occasional auctions to persons who cannot
at all appreciate them, and who get them  for almost nothing.
Our seminary is very full-our numbers more than 100.  College rather thin. I dropped two sermolis of Dr. Lindsly's into
the office for you.' They would give more pleasure to one who
discerned his characteristic manner, as we do, in every paragraph; 1 think they will please you, however, from the untamed
vigour of the style. Our temporary teacher of Chemistry, Mr.
Halsey, has come to hand, and is commencing operations.2
PRIfNCETON, -Dccember 29, 1823.
Your full letters are always welcome, and with the general
principles of your last I am  inclined to coincide.  The venom
and unhallowed fire which have sometimes characterized the controversies of Christians I can heartily agree with you in deprecating.  The wisdom of the serpent. is more sought after in this
day by many than the mildness of the dove. I can also from the
heart subscribe to the doctrine that "secret things belong to
God," and that those only are to be set up as necessary tenets
which God has revealed to us in his sacred oracles.3 Polemics, I
fear, will not abate in their virulence among  the soi-distant lovers
of truth,
l"Improvement of Time. Two Discourses delivered in the chapel of
the College of New Jersey, December, 1822."
2 Luther Halsey, D. D., Professor from 1824 to 1829.
3 His correspondent had quoted Bishop Watson's sentence —" En codicem sacrum-here is the fountain of truth. Why do you follow the
streams derived from. it by the sophistry, or polluted by the error of
men?  




32           FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
"Till warned, or by experience taught they learn
That not to know at large of things remote,
From use obscure and subtle, but to know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom; what is more, is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence:
And renders us in things that most concern
Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek."
Paradise Lost, B. S.
While I would adhere to these opinions with all the poiwers
of my soul, I would still desire to maintain a firm and unshaken
zeal for the truth of the scriptures. It is not the " contending
for the faith once delivered to the saints," which is reprehensible,
but the manner of contending, so unholy and so repugnant to
the spirit of the gospel. God forbid that I should conceive that
one truth, even the least, of that system which he has revealed is
unimportant, or undeserving of strenuous exertion for its maintenance.  To our limited vision many doctrines may appear
destitute of' any practical bearing, as some parts of the animal
fabric seem  useless; and yet, so impious would it be to charge
God with inculcating doctrines which might or mlight not be believed with equal security, that as to the symmetry of the Divine
plan, I should say" If from the chain a single link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth breaks the chain alike."
The creed of professing Christians was originally brief and simple. All creeds are barriers erected against error, and of course
must grow and change with the phases of heresy. The primitive
confession of faith was one sentence, (Acts viii. 37.)  The symbol called the Apostles' creed grew out of the necessity of the
times, and was reared as a defence against those who denied the
Godhead or the real passion of Christ.  The Athanasian creed
as it stands in the tEnglish Liturgy is still more complex, and
our own formula being directed against a variety of opponents is
quite a volume.  Many of its clauses ought to be expunged, as
referring to Catholic tenets, and peculiar errors, from which we
are now  sufficiently guarded.  "The purest churches under
heaven," says our Confession, " are subject both to mixture and
error," and therefore I should not feel secure in adopting every
sentiment of our church, while I consider the system called Calvinistic, as the only system founded on the obvious meaning of
the Bible, the only system  reconcileable to a sound philosophy,
and the most consoling system to one who feels himself a lost
sinner. I say this after having once risen against the doctrine of
Rom. ix. 15, with all the enmity of a rebellious heart. I trust




1822-1824.                        33
that God has convinced me that no "foreknowleclge of my conduct" was his motive for rescuing me from the slavery of sin;
(alas, had this been the case, my conduct would have secured me
eternal wrath,) and that " not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jessis before the world began."  I wish to impose my private
sentiments on no man; as I have already said, go to the Bible,
and believe not one word which is not there written.  But I
entreat of you, let not metaphysical, speculations, or prepossessions antecedent to inquiry, forestall your judgment.
PRINCETON, 26th Janucary, 1824.
I know how to sympathize with you in your late disappoint-'
ment, [a journey.]  It is the twin to one which occasioned me
some disquietude last autumn, and which 1 have not yet ceased
to regret.  Whether from the early associations produced by an
ancient collection of travels, over which I used to pore in my
first reading days, and which tinges with old remembrances any
air-castles and my dreams to this day, or from  some causes
more latent, I do not profess to know, but there is in my character a restless, burning desire for peregrination, an anxious
expectation of some opportunity to rove beyond seas and mountains.  Such feelings, as wild and romantic, I have endeavourecl
to quell; and yet in all my studies the thought floats up, (and
especially when I read or think of foreign countries,) that I am
preparing to wander, at some day, far from home.  Our wishes
are not always proportioned or accomlmodated to our character
and abilities, and perhaps the sooner this whim is crushed, the
better.  But all transmarine voyages apart, may wish to visit
Virginia, the old dominion, the land of my fathers, my own natal
soil,-to see the ruin (now a barn) in which my grandfather
preached, the valley where I first saw the sun, the mountains
where mny father spent his boyhood, and where the Alexanders
are "rife" even now; this wish I would not, and cannot repress.
As to Greece, your second topic, it has all my heart. I have just
been reading the report of Webster's noble speech, [on the Greek
revolution.]  It is apparent that he has laboured to keep under
all undue enthusiasm, and that his sentiments instead of outrunning the popular feeling, have, as expressed, fallen far short
of it. This man has comminanded my highest admiration by what
he has at times exhibited to the public.
The language of modern Greece, from  what I can learn, has
changecd more as it regards idiom  and construction, than in single words. The  Romaic is modernized by the peculiar use of
VOL. I.-2




34          FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
the auxiliaries and prepositions, and has lost that force which
declension strictly so called, conferred on the old Greek. The
most satisfactory piece I recollect on the subject, is in a No. of
the Quarterly, some years back.  Thbe Pilot they are reading
this moment down stairs. I have been in old times so whirled
and crazed by novels, that I try to keep clear of the vortex,
though I generally skim dhis class of books.
The ~orth Americacn Review is likely to keep up its reputation and merit. Mr. E., it is hinted, finds the sphere of clerical
and even literary influence too small for his ambition.  He is
young, handsome, and fascinating, conscious of mental force, and
well-informed as to his high character, and he intends, as is said,
to make a launch into the political world. His studies for some
years have had a leaning this way, and general policy has engrossed his pen, with a few exceptions.
Boston and Cambridge, which may be considered as, in an
eminent degree, the seats of literature in America, are daily
increasing their claim to this character. The men who enjoy the
rich and sinecure professorships in the university find time and
means abundant to woo the muses. RPational religion, in this
sense of the term, lays too slight a hold upon the heart to excite
great zeal for their tenets, and they appear before the world as
literati, rather than as Christian ministers.
I do desire to see learning prosper, to be learned myself; I
desire to be happy in the good things of this world, so far as
consistent with virtue; I desire to commend Christianity to the
world by all that charm  which courtesy and cheerfulness can
give to as rude a piece as I,-yet I could curse myself, (however
unfaithful I may be now, or alas may be hereafter,) if I thought
that I could ever consent to make merchandise of the cross, by
bartering it for aught of earth.  Mlty wish is, in my humble
measure, to make every effort tend to one point, the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth, and in the hearts of men.
And 0 that future devotedness might take the place of the
worldly spirit that has, and does prey upon my peace. It would
give me unfeigned joy, my dear friend, to see you brought to
this noble stand which I wish we may both reach,-to renounce
the joys, honours, cares of the present life, for the sake of living
for God. Our only excuse, our only inability is our guilty, low,
irrational love of the world and of self. God demands our hearts
this moment. As a sovereign he thunders his requisition, as a
father he whispers pardon, reconciliation, assistance. And what
shall we mention to Him as the object of our preference to his
service? Pleasure? gain? ease? glory? Life is a vapour, and
we know it. Joy is fleeting.  Let us determine, at least, to per



1822 —1824.                      35
ish in seaclh of God. I trust you suspect me of no wish to
lead you to any system. Read God's word, without comment,
without prepossession, without cavil.
PRINCETON, February 24, 1824.
Instead of being in the lecture room, my proper place at this
hour, I am squandering away the time at home, and among other
matters commencing to spin out something which may pass for
a letter. I thank you for your last; for the length of it, and the
information which you were so kind as to communicate.  In
addition to what I have already learnt from you, I should like to
have this problem resolved, viz.: How could the " Allgemeine
Litteratur Zeitung Von Leipzig " be got at,-on what terms,and with what hopes of regular transmission  You speak of
having the small-pox near you, and among you;-we have had
two cases in Princeton but its progress has, I think, been effectually stopped.  One of our students has been very near death
with the bilious colic, but has recovered.  In the near prospect
of death, he manifested great joy in the hope of soon meeting
face to face the Saviour whom he had taken as his portion.
Death, to him, seemed despoiled of all that is terrific. Bucknall,
another of our students, is lying extremely ill with what appears
a rapid consumption.  Little hope is entertained of his recovery.
So many friends, companions, and classmates have sunk around
me, that I seem most loudly called on to be ready also, as being
ignorant of the clay or hour Twhen my soul shall be demanded.
WVould to God. that I might be excited to do what is remaining
to be done with all my might,-to become more holy, and to
strive not to be taken from the earth without having done allny
thing for the benefit of my fellow-men. My qualifications for
the ministry are so slight and defective that I shudder at the
thought of being in eighteen months invested with that sacred
office. So much ignorance, inexperience, and immaturity, seem
ill to befit the character of  a teacher and pastor. The truth is, I
feel too young; and could I dispose of my time profitably, I
should be glad to intermit my regular theological course for a
year or two.  Dr. [J. P.] Wilson I have a great curiosity to
hear, and if I should ever come to Philadelphia shall certainly
make it a principal point in my memoranda to go to his church.
Philadelphia would certainly lose a bright and shining light at
his death. Apropos of preaching,-have you read [Edwarcld]
Irving   Iie has certainly been shamefully misrepresented by
the tribe of angry critics; aInd yet with all his originality, and
all his occasional strength and pathos, he makes me unspeakably
splenetic with his nauseous affectation of obsolete words and man



36          FROMI THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINAlRY.
nor, and his contempt for all logical method. Whoever compares
him with Pobert Hall, (the most eloquent and classical writer of
the age, if my judgment is taken,) will see that mighty power,
and a style rich and elegant, and matter original and weighty,
are not inconsistent with the strictest observance of rhetorical
rules, and the strictest conformity to the polite usage of language.
Mr. -----  has thrown the gauntlet, as you have probably
seen, into the peaceful camp of the Quakers, and challenged
them with something of the old Cameronian spirit.  Although I
think that Quaker error ought to be opposed, and that the Quaker
arguments do receive their answer in one and another part of his
book, yet I see more w1it than argument in his worl, and more levity
than becomes subjects so solemn, and a community so respectable. However, it  -ill uncover the nakedness of Quakerism, I
trust, to some of the rising generation, and make them ashamed
of the mysticism  which they have hitherto swallowed without
knowving why or wherefore.  I hope your progress in French is
satisfactory.  The pittanice of knowledge which I once had is
fast leaking out, as all knowledge that is neglected, must. I need
some stimulus greater than any A-which I now enjoy to make me
read French; I hardly open a F]rench author once a month. To
acquire a good lknowledge of the language would be a strong
inducement for mle to spend some time in your city.  l\y intimate friends in Philadelphia are very few at present.  You are
my only regular correspondent; acnd to knit, in my ow-n name,
all the old family acquaintances, is what I shall never attempt.
Hutton of the Deaf and DI-umb Asylum is a particular and inestimable friend, and with him I believe the list ends.  Any thing
favourable in the literary world?-in your city?  You have
probably read Sprague's ode for the Shakespeare jubilee.  That
production seems to me the best lyric that I have ever seen from
an American pen. It breathes the spirit of Collins and Gray. I
wish to see American literature take a start. I long for the time
when our productions shall be truly Anzericcan, not slavish copies
of Transatlantic works, but impressed with the national character.  Our forests, and mountains, and waters, surely furnish
scenes second to none that European poets and romancers have
hackneyed, and our mighty works of' nature might, I should
suppose, inspire a feeling as ethereal as ever prompted the Theban Pindar.  On this score I can quarrel -with Sprague.
New magazines, they tell me are afloat in both our great
cities.  I hope you will not let the New Yorker outdo you. I
believe that, as far as enterprise is concerned, the New York magazine has its advantage in its proximity to the "': land of notions."




1822-1824.                        37
The Lethean influence of Quakerism  in your town is, I fear,
almost as inimical to the MIuses, as the commercial turmoil of
New York; yet if Philadelphia cannot support a better monthly
publication than either Blackwood's or Campbell's, [London NYewv
Monthly,] which, mne judice, are the merest froth conceivable, then
my notions of Philadelphia talent are amazingly out of the way.
The great difficulty in America appears to be, that literary men
must (from  pecuniary motives) be professional men, and must
needs give all their labour to their professions. In Europe there
are literary men of leisure, by scores, who write for periodical
works.  The compensation made in England for compositions
are sufficient to feed poor authors.
PRINCETON,.Ifarch 17th, 1824.
You have begun the law. Success to you, and all your future
clients.  I am not one of those who suppose the profession of the
law incompatible with the strictest integrity, although I think,
what I believe no one denies, that its dangers and temptations
are considerable.  The general principles of politics and jurisprudence you will no doubt find agreeable; indeed, I should like
very well to glance at the subject myself for a few months.  We
are fond of sketching fancy visions of future life.  Where is it
probable that you will turn your face after being admitted to
practise?  Do you expect to continue a Philadelphian, or do
you banish all such queries? If you retort the question, as it
would be natural to do, I must say, that my mind is in suspense.
My constitution calls for a Northern climate.  Lower Canada
would suit me: my feelings and prepossessions would lead me
southward, but slavery appals me: literary considerations make
the Middle States alluring, though I can't say that this latitude fits
my temperament.  The wants of the church point out a large
expanse of territory to the South and West, and I confess that
(as the Quakers say) I feel a drvawing to those three sister States
north of the Ohio, where slavery has not set her foot.  Is it
probable that we shall ever appropincquate?  Wherever I mlay
go, I trust that duty and a desire of usefulness will sway me.
If my life is spared, it is not improbable that I shall spend two
or three years in itinerating.  I feel daily may need of personal
converse with the world which is to be the theatre and the subject of my future operations.  The clown, the mere student, the
bookworm, though vastly learned, is no more fit to produce a moral
than a political revolution; yet this is what we aim at.  I am
happy to observe by the public prints, as well as by private
information, that extemporary preaching is becoming more andl
more common, even in the frozen East and North, and that the




38          FRIOMl THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
Opposition to the cold, unnatural, modern way of pleading with
dying sinners, is increasing.  Lawyers are not often heard to
complain of an inability to extemporize, nor should a clergymanl; and he who does is unfit for the pulpit. This change is
peculiarly consolatory to me. I never expect to be able to read
a sermon with any life; and as to committing to memory, I
would rather write ten sermons than get one by heart.  Upon
this ground, I reckon our debating societies among the most
interesting and important institutions about our Seminary.
JIonday, 22d.
You may judge how little I am master of my own time by
the abrupt manner in which I left what I had written; I shall
now endeavour to finish. I observe that I spoke of itinzeratiing,
on the other page: my reference was to land-journeying, and I
forgot to make any allusion to my dreams of transmarine peregrination, which event is always to be excepted in my calculations. Four years hence -- and where shall we be? what
manner of persons? how employed? If the impenetrable curtain which screens the future could be drawn asidle, we might see
some astonishing and unexpected change. It may be that the
grave may then contain my mortal part, or the depths of the sea;
or care and affliction may have eaten out all hopes of terrestrial peace, or a thousand other results, now unthought of. All
things here suffer change, all things created are fleeting, God
only remains. My dear friend, shall we not attach ourselves to
this only support which can sustain the final shock? is it not
desirable, is it not wise, to "; lay hold on the strength of GodC?
Small as our experience is, it ought to have informed us that the
joys of this world are sweet are sweet and fascinating only in the pursuit,
and that supposing and granting that they were exquisite in possession, they fade away like the tints of morning clouds. This
you have heard, no doubt, until, perhaps, you are weary of it.
And yet if these things do not affect us now, when the heart is
susceptible, when its fibres are not entwined so closely as they
shall be around the world, when we have not become intoxicated
with pleasure and glory, is it to be hoped that they will affect
us when the storm and hurricane of life is maddening us? Pardon me for saying that I consider the present moment of your
life a most critical moment, pregnant perhaps with eternal consequences. You have made election of a profession, and expect
very soon to enter upon its active duties. Now I do not say
that by becoming a lawyer you put yourself out of the reach of
religious influence, or that the moral influence of your calling
will be directly injurious to virtuous principles; but I say, with




1822 —1824.                      39
confidence, that in all probability, every successive step you now
take will lead you further from a reasonable hope of salvation.
I amn speaking of human probabilities; we are not to take God's
special dealings into our calculations.  Do you find the love of
honour leading you now from the consideration of the self-denying gospel?  I How will it be when ambition: shall have received
ten-fold strength from the continual fuel presented to it? Does
multiplicity of business exclude prayer and devotion zow?
Look at the whirlpool of every lawyer's cases.  Do you find
your heart becoming more insensible to religious motives?
Believe me, it is but the presage of more dreadful indifference.
In this matter there is no stationary point.  Hearts do not
amend by indulgence, sin loses no power by having the reins
given to it, the world becomes no less fascinating, God is not
appeased by continued defiance. Refer to the situation of any
lawyer, one, for instance, whose circumstances you could wish
your own, and say candidly, does that situation afford advantages
for the cultivation of piety, such advantages as you now enjoy.
This very hour is the best possible season which remains for
you. I press this motive because it is one which struck terror
once to my soul, and opened my eyes to the dangers of my situation.
PRINCETON, _April 13th, 1824.
Your long letters are always welcome, and I thank you for
using that goodly sheet of foolscap; we are neither lovers nor
courtiers, and may therefore venture to lay aside the gilt-edge
now and then. The only complaint I intend to make with regard
to your last is, that it is too much in the style of an apology.
Did I say any thing in the way of expostulation or rebuke upon
your comlmencing legal studies? Assuredly, however mly pen
may have slipped awry, nothing was further from may intention.
I do most sincerely approve of your choice, and can say heartily
" Mfacte novac virlute puer, sic itur ad astrac."  Were not my
services most manifestly claimed in another field, I should make
election of the same business. Mly views on the subject I cannot
express more comprehensively than in the words of one of the
first lawyers in New York. " It is hard," he lately said to a
friend of mine when speaking of his son's becoming a lawyer"' It is hard for a lawyer to enter into the kingdom of heaven,
and those who have tried, as I have, the vexation, and overwhelming pressure of an extensive practice, will confess that it
is fraught with temptation and danger."'   But I leave this subject; above all, I shrink fromn disputing about it. You will
pardon me for wishing to keep controversy, at least, out of our




40           FROM  THE THEOLOGICAL SEMIINARY.
letters.  Two years' continual sparring, in clubs, in debates, in
the chamber, in the grove, at every corner, upon every knotty
point in Divinity, have produced in me a satiety of argumentation.  Private controversy has never resulted in my own change
of opinion, and I am  confident that I never convinced another.
Pride is too strong to suffer candour to have its perfect work.
You, no doubt, feel as I do, knowing that disputation must
shoulder out all the other ingredients of our epistles.  Somewhere I have read some saying of somebody's, that lovers are
never tired of each other's conversation, because they are forever
talking of themselves.  I claim  no experience in love matters,
but I believe that the principle is correct. I-ow naturally do we
slide into discourse about ourselves, and our concerns!  Grant
me permission to talk of myself, and I will talk forever.  After
this confession you may understand, even if you cannot pardon
my egregious egotism.  And I ask no privilege which I am  not
willing to grant with interest, thinking with I-Horace, that
" Aequum est
Peccatis veniam poscentem reddere rursus."
You cannot gratify me mnore than by expatiating on your concerns, your habits, character, you may descend to the colour
of your coat, or the tie of your neckeloth.  According to my
principles of letter-writing, a letter ought to be the mirror of
its author; if he is a bad man, why let the epistle be so too;
and let an egotist go on endlessly de carissimzo seipso.  I was
gratified by the communication on Hume's death before I suspected you of being its author.  Go on, I pray you, in this useful and delightful exercise of the pen. The friend who writes the
"Student's notes," must be, truly, a valuable acquaintance.  I
had figured to myself a classical bachelor of some forty years as
the writer of those pieces.  There seemed to be evidences of
maturity and sober judgment which pointed out the experienced
author.  As for me, though I defile many fair sheets, yet my
abortions seldom satisfy me sufficiently to induce me to publish.'
And indeed, to be praised without being known, seems so faint
a stimulus that it would scarcely repay me for the transcription.
When I can profit myself or others, 1 shall not be backward in
plying the quill.
But he, as well as the two other lads, had begun to amuse himself with
writing for newspapers and magazines. I detect his hand in the " Christian Advocate," at least as early as February, 1824, in the article signed
GCyprian, and he had hardly refrained so long from taking advantage of the
literary columns of Mr. Walsh's " National Gazette."  It was to that journal
the series entitled "A Student's Notes" was contributed. They were asscribed to William B. Reed, then an under-graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania.




1822  1824.                      41
This day is a day of penance to me, conling round once
a month, being the day on which I have to commit a speech
to memory; the most odious task in the whole circle of my
duties. I never expect to commit a sermon, but must creep
somewhere into the backwoods where unwritten discourses
will be tolerated.  Do you find me dull this morning?  ]My
sleep was unquiet last night, as it always is after an extraordinary excitement of the nervous system. I am often guilty of
spending too many of my evening hours in " furious gossip,"
which produces a kind of mental inebriation, as delightful p'ro
tenzp12ore, and as shocking in its effects as the hilarity of the winebibber.  My circle of acquaintance in the Seminary is contracted, but I have somehow managed to glide into a cluster of
congenial souls, the like of whom, for geenuine, friendly, social
feeling, and for mental elasticity and vigour, I have never seen
before, and never expect to see. If you wish to see me in some
of my happiest moments, picture me in imagination lolling in a
cushioned elbow chair, surrounded by about six or seven whom
I can name, pouring forth, or drinking in without the slightest
reserve, the fresh and new-born thoughts, that such excitements
may be supposed to generate.  If I ever knew the pleasures of
social life it has been here; if I ever heard eloquence, it has been
here.
It is commonly said in Virginia, that the "' Alexanders are
a tonguey race."  Let me have a long epistle, and let it be any
thing that floats uppermost in the cerebellum. I fear I have
given you the scum to-day. I have been much pleased with
IHod.sot's letters upon America; one candid and Christian traveller at least.




CHIAPTER  III.
LETTERS WHILE  TUTOR IN  COLLEGE.
1824-1825.
PRINCETON,.April 21St, 1824.
It is my expectation to leave Trenton to-morrow at 6 A. M.
in the steamboat, for your city. Without more ado I give you
the state of the case. A week ago nothing was further from my
intentions, but a few days since I was astounded by the information that the trustees of the College had elected me mathematical
tutor. This was the more extraordinary as I have already twice,
in the most peremptory manner, refused the office; and as the
proper complement of officers is now in the faculty, the appointment is extra, and at an unusual time.  When I heard it, last
Wednesday, my feelings instantly revolted, and I said No with
the most perfect determination and confidence. Upon weighing
all circumstances, however, and finding upon consulting with my
friends that they all, without exception, urged my acceptance, I
have determined to enter upon the duties at the commencement
of next session. As I have formerly said to you, my youth will
permit me to spare two or three years from my theological
course, with advantage: I feel, and my friends feel for me, that
my mind needs maturing before taking upon me the character of
a minister. It is, after all, an odious situation, and I expect it to
be, by far, the most trying and mortifying that I have ever been
placed in. Yet trials, and self-denial, and mortifications I must
expect in almost every situation.  I need to be buffeted about a
little to call forth what little energy and firmness I may possess.
As the session commences just as that of the Seminary closes, I
must take my vacation now, or not at all: and my lank and sallow cheeks demand some speedy recreation.  It has been long
since w e saw one another, and each of us has, probably, undergone much change. As for me I fancy that in the prominent
traits both of the outer alndc the inner man, you will find me




1824-1825.                        43
much the same boy as ever.  I am no son of Anak, and have
altered little in dimensions. There was indeed once some glow
and bloom of health upon m1y face, which has departed.  I confess, with the confidence of friendship, knowing that it is not
exposing myself to ill-timed raillery, that melancholy has secretly and deeply preyed upon Ilny spirits, more than my most
intimate friends would judge from my dlemeanour.  Often, the
unnatural and excessive gaiety of my manner has been accompanied by bitter gnawings at the soul. ]From this I suffer less
than formerly; nothing at present.  My temperament is such
that I am  susceptible of the imost deep emotions of pleasure as
well as pain to a great degree, but the pleasure is generally succeeded by a proportionable depression.
PRINCETON, llfay 14, 1824..
Your communication by [James] Weatherby [of the Seminary] which I received this morning, admitted me to something
very like a 1te-d-tete with you. A letter, as the thought just now
strikes me, should be as nearly as possible the tralscript of one's
common-talk; or perhaps a better description of a good, that is
an acceptable letter, would be that it is a soliloquy in blacl and
white, penned with the freedom  of a private mneditation, yet
written for the eye of another, with whom the disclosures it contains, are just as safe as in their native bosom.  It is for answering this description that I like your letters; and, by adhering to
the same rule, I have occasionally disgorged to you some of lmy
splenetic moanings. You must take me just as you find me; I
don't ask you to pardon my failings; criticize them  fithfully;
but, prythee, bear with them.  When I speak of melancholy to
you, I speak of it seriously, and of melancholy in its truest and
most appalling shape; not the puling, pensive, pleasing reveries
of a moon-struck lover, or a young-, novel-reading, boardingschool Miss; but that deep and horrible over-clouding of the
soul, which none can understand but those who suffer it, which
can be described only by faint and insufficient similitudes, which,
until my nervous system received a violent shock, I never knew,
and which I do sincerely wish you may always be able, as I
never shall,-to laugh at.  Nervous irritability (I am  not
corn- but ex-plaining) I have got in a very fair way by rioht of
primogeniture, and have increased by neglect of proper recreation and exercise.
You know how closely body and soul are united, and how
mental and corporeal changes go hand in hand. But perhaps you
do not know-and may you never-what it is to feel the whole
man in a state of distressing disorder, without knowinog whether




44              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
the body has communicated the distemper to the mind, or the
mind to the body; to feel the tremulous agitation of the whole
material fabric of nerves, and the accompanying and more intolerable agitation of spirit, depression, blues, hypochondria,
or what you will. Will you smile when I say that to shake
off this state of soul-I call it so, for the suffering of body is
trifing —is no less impossible than to shake off a fit of the stone?
One is equally with the other a disease. Call it, if you please, a
disorder of the imagination, and say that it is whim and folly.
Granted; and yet it is no less dreadful, far more mortifying,
equally beyond the influence of mere resolution.  When a withered arm can stretch itself out for relief, then may a diseased
mind heal itself. Could I once determine to be placid and cheerful, and so effect a change in the mental state, the cure would be
already complete. Enough as to the physiology of the casenow for its reality in my own person. I am more easily excited
to pleasure or pain than most persons. My joys are excessive;
sometimes a little frantic. The same susceptibility makes me
liable to depression from circumstances which would scarcely for
a moment ruffle the feelings of some; and to depression, sometimes, which has no perceptible cause without. To compare
levity and melancholy in a moral point of view, is comparing
two sins equally repugnant to the mild placidity and cheerful
calm which the truths of the gospel produce on a heart that is
exercised aright. The latter afilicts mny conscience least, because
it is what I loathe, and what I would as joyfully shun as I would
a delirium, and which it is just as much in my power to avoid.
Uzcdue mirth is a fault which brings with it, to me, its punishment, in the shape of the vapours which follow in its footsteps.
Perhaps the words I may have used in a former letter convey to
your mind an impression not exactly correct.  Forebodings of
future pain or misery are not often the subjects of my thoughts,
but there comes over my soul, I can no otherwise describe it,
a cloud, a blackness, a horror, which tinges every object without or within with a certain indefinable, vague, and terrific darkness; which absorbs the powers of the soul, and seems to concentrate all the faculties upon some hideous somethiny, or nothing, and waste the mental energy in empty musing. I am sometimes months without such a visitation, and sometimes weeks
with little else; and my condition has been somewhat this for a
week past.  But peace-let us rise into daylight.
I might write you a great deal of loose gossip, were it not for
my pressing business, and my very, very kind acquaintances.
who are too obliging to wait for any hint to come, and too dull
to take any hint to go, and who never think of such a query as




1S24-1825.                            45
" Is he at leisure?"'  I am  indeed laid under the necessity of
husbanding every hour.  I have scarcely looked at mathematics
for a year, and am  expected to takle the tuition of the Sophomore class, who have been at Algebra all tlhe winter, as well as
to induct them into geometry, and the Freshmen into Algebra.
The preparation requisite is by no means slight. It is something
more than what might enable one to undergo a strict examilnation upon the several subjects.  The instructor must hold himself in continual readiness to detect every error, as soon as made,
and to enter immediately into every variety in the mode of demonstration or solution.  And, by the bye, the intensity of
attention which this will require, in the recitation-room, will
equal hours of study in the closet, as to exhaustion of spirits, as
-well as to improvement of the mind in fixed habits of thought.
The examination of the Theological Seminary is now going on.
From  this, I am  now, as haviing no further connexion with the
Seminary, exempt.  Our printing press, though a little thing, is
yet a mighty wonder here. The children, great and small, are
turning up their eyes, and expanding their palms at the novel
sight of " PRINCCETON " at the foot of the title-page of a'; Report"
just printed.
nMiy real troubles commence, unless Providence interpose in
an unexpected manner, next Thursday.  Then may you expect
to hear of cracker-firing, of scraping (do you understandc) of
funking, of door-bolting, of ducking, of rope-tripping, of wi-.lowbreaking, of all the petty vengeance which unruly striplings
wreak on their hapless instructors.:My colleague in the tutorship, Mr. Samuel K. Talmage,' made a speech at the Bible So1 ow President of Oglethorpe University, Georgia. In a public letter,
written in August, 1859, Dr. Talmage says: "We were placed on terms of
very intimate intercourse and communion as fellow-tutors during the year
1824. HI-e had become pious since we had parted as students, and I now
saw much of his inner life, as he disclosed it but to few. Ite had grown
graver in manner, and somewhat prone to pensiveness of spirit. To the
public eye he seemed retiring and apparently distant. But when with a
friend in a retired walk, or in the abandonz and intimacy of private personal
intercourse, he was the most cheerful of companions, abounding in playful
remark and discriminating observation. I-Ie had a keen relish for the humorous, and a nice appreciation of the virtues and defects of his fellowmen. Ile had a perfect horror of cant, pretension, bigotry, exclusiveness,
and was himself remarkably free from all these failings, thus imparting an
irresistible charm to his intercourse with friends.
"IHis piety was, even at that period, deep toned, and remarkably advanced for one of his age. He was at times overwhelmed with a sense of
sinfulness, and has told me that often he could scarcely refrain from crying
out in the college chapel from an awful sense of guilt before God, under the
pungent appeals of the beloved Professors of the College and Theological
Seminary, althouglh he was sitting on the stage before the assembled students as one of the Faculty."




46              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
ciety anniversary in New York. How long shall it be before
our turn comes?
What think you of the presidential squabble?  Jackson
brightens wonderlfilly.  His recent letters-I mean his recently
published letters, set the man's character in a noble light, and
command my highest respect.
Saturday.
Aly boasting is generally fatal to my hopes, by throwing me
off my guard. That cold, or a lineal descendant from it, has
come upon me like a strong man armed. I have tried the valiant
mode, of defying the cough, and going through thick and thin in
spite of it, and the effect has been to fix it deeply in my lungs.
I am now reduced to terms of submission, and am driven to the
humble mode; i. ce. sitting by the fire, keeping out of the wind,
drinking teas and slops, and eating pectoral medicaments of
various kinds. This regimen, together with an approach to starvation, promises to release me.
The title of an old Scotch song furnishes a key to many
of my actions-" For laclk of gowod." SMy temptation to covet
greater affluence is small, while I am at home; and even in your
city, where baits are hung out everywhere, I presume that habit
would soon make me able to withstand their influence.  When I
look around me at those who have silver and gold always i'n
r2rom2ttu, I cannot perceive that they are one whit happier than
myself. Is —, think you, more comfortable and easy, than
when his only fortune was his tongue, his whiskers, and his
front of brass? These thoughts you will doubtless be wonderfully surprised at, for their originality.
I would not call myself an admirer of the " Lake school of
poetry," but I have seen passages in the works both of Coleridge
and Wordsworth which have breathed the true spirit of poetry,
and gone home —I know not and ask not why-to my inmost
soul. If these lines' are not to be found in the "Sybilline
Leaves," or perhaps in the " lines upon the vale of Chamouny,"
which I have not ad cl ngue2n, you will find there much that is
cast in the same mould. It would be difficult to extract from
the Lake-poets a longer passage than this without involving some
of their " littlenesses," to use one of their own words, yet a
good clelectus might be culled out of them  of such isolated m-orsels. If this little scrap, which, like the mutilated Torso, shows
the hand of a master, is American, so much the better. Tell'Referring to some twenty lines of an anonymous quotation on Niagara.
They proved to be the American Brainerd's.
" The thoughts are strange which crowd into my brain," &c.




1824-1825.                       47
that Mr. [Moses C.] Searle [of the Seminary] is within nine
inclhes of my elbow; has just played and sung the old falvourite
" O0 years are flown," &c., and " Suppliant " this moment.  We
have not heard lis violoncello since Aunt   -  left us, and
George Potts [when in Seminary] used to make one ill all our
little concerts. The absence of the distant friendcs was more
deeply felt than the presence of those at hand, and music has a
power to bring back old recollections with a life peculiar to
itself. The scene was not altogether to my liking. I am not
fond of tears, and to me there is no " bliss " in them; they are
at best a qtgid lpro quo, a less evil for a greater, a price paid for
getting rid of grief, or the swelling outrageousness of grief. Yet
just now with my mother overwhelmed, my falther to a considerable degree melted, Mr. Searle weeping, or something like it,
and Bill looking amazingly comllical betweenl an attempted smile
and an unaccountable quivering about the lower lip, premonitory,in some cases, of a " cry," I felt not a little incommoclded,
and read with might and main in an obsolete newspaper that
happened to be within reach.  "Lcaznce's " dog in the Two
Gentlemen of Verona was not more consummately hard-heartecl.
}eed [" Student's Notes "] certainly is a fine writer.  But
do you not see a very close imitation of the mannerism of his
favourite Gibbon? It is natural that he should glide into the
same style, from continual intimacy, but there seems to me a
studied copying of the gorgeous and protracted simile, the measured and rhythmical structure of sentences, and the elaborate
circumlocutions of the great Heathen. HI-le writes in a manly
and eloquent manner, notwithstancling  imperfections, which
those who cannot eqlual him may discover.
My fears are not slight, that I shall, in these misanthropic
walls, become " the mere student," and forget my duties to those
without, as well as neglect to cultivate the society of the amiable
and the tender. If I live until next Autumn, I shall, probably,
be even more a clown than I now aimi, and need an evolution of
six weeks amonog softening scenes to bend and mollify me..Sunclday, 11 o'clock.
I am left at home while the rest of the family have gone to
church. My hours, in my present condition, are likely to hang
heavily upon my hands, therefore a little serious talk with you
will be both interesting and proper.  Mly melancholy-I commence at the old point, for, you know, it is a physical impossibility to start from any other point than that in which the body
is found at the moment when the motion commnences; —my
melancholy, if I may compare great things with small, and pre



48                WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
tend even to the blemishes of a great man, is described to a tittle
by Cowper, in one of his letters cited in the " May Advocate." 1
Like him, I find my bitterest ruminations so wrought up with
fantastical thoughts and phantasies, that I am forced to laugh at
my own creations, when I feel miserable enough to hang myself.
That tall fellow whom he describes so happily, stands preeminent
in my chamber of thought, and utters his eternal cry like the
most pertinacious shad-woman.' Like him (P. S. you will see by
reading the letter that I am wrong) I can be gloomy, yea wretched, without being sober, and the transition is oftener easier from
hypochondria to levity, than to seriousness.  Like him I find
religion, and religious thoughts, not the causes or the concomitants of melancholy, but its surest remedy. When the promises
of Scripture can be brought to bear, as I thank God they have
sometimes been, upon my troubled mind, they have never, never
failed to diffuse a calm and a sweet content which makes the Gospel more valuable, as to this life, to me, than it would be under
different circumstances.  Yet infatuated creatures that we are!
that which we know, and have tasted to be the chief and only
good, how ready are we to neglect and abandon!  A hymn of
Mnadame Guion, (whom  the world calls fanatic,) translated by
Cowper, impressed me deeply this morning. Among other lines,
these:
"Long plunged in sorrow, I resign
My soul to that dear hand of thine,
Without reserve or fear;
That hand shall wipe my streaming eyes;
Or into smiles of glad surprise,
Transform the falling tear.
My soul's possession is thy love;
In earth beneath, or heaven above,
I have no other store;
And though with fervent suit I pray,
And importune thee night and day,
I ask thee nothing more."
Of sorrow she says:
" It costs me no regret, that she,
Who followed Christ, should follow me;
And though, where'er she goes,
Thorns spring spontaneous at her feet,
I love her-and extract a sweet
From all my bitter woes."
1The extracts in the "Advocate" were from the " Private Correspondence" of Cowper, first published by his kinsman, Dr. John Johnson, in 1824.
2 M ldy thoughts are clad in a sober livery, for the most part as grave as
that of a bishop's servant. They turn, too, upon spiritual subjects; but
the tallest fellow and the loudest amongst them all, is he who is continually
crying out with a loud voice, actznz est cle te; pleiisti."-Letter to Nieoton.




182418S25.                        49
Does it amuse you to hear me talk of sorrouvs?  I confess
that, to complain would be a heinous ingratitude in me.  I have
had perhaps more external faLvours and forbearance at the hand
of Providence than most persons, and I do desire to thank God;
but still, there is a world within, a world that seems as vast and
wonderful, and inexplicable as that without, to one who has the
habit or the disease of poring inward upon it.  And here,
whether from imaginary fears (though these are not my great
tormentors) or conflicts between inclination and duty, between a
restless, ambitious, proud, andl giddy soul, and a principle that
strives to keep down its gigantic writhings, and labours to repress the upheavings and desperate agonies of effort, in the
earthy spirit; which oftentimes gets the upper hand, and crowds
under the poor weak element of piety, and triumphs in a mighty
rage-here in the inner man, when the gale of hilarity, and the
bustle anld hurricane of business is blown over, and when religion, through sinful neglect, is not at work to make this ocean
smooth,-" when," as  Hurleyl says, "I nam brought to face at
night, or in solitude, that phantom self, which all day long I have
laboured to avoid; what can be conceived more horrible!"
Enough, faLr, far too much am I drivelling to you of this.  I grant
you a truce.  I was going to say, just when the unruly quill took
the bit in his mouth and ran away with me, that no thought has
within a. day or two, struck me more forcibly than this-" why
do we not live as we know most assuredly we ought to live'
Why do we not obey the imperative call of duty, of gratitude,
which commands us to love God with all our soul, and reiterates
the extent of this demand, with all our strlength, &c.?  Why despise the call of interest?  Godliness, says Jehovah, who cannot
lie, (and O my slight experience enables me to say Amcn with
exultation,) is profitable for all thizngs, having the promise of thle
life which now is, and thatlwhich is to come.  I knozo that the
love of God in the heart does fill and satisfy it, partly by filling
that void which, I know as surely, ambitious thoughts, or glorious success, or wealth, or pleasure can never fill; and partly by
repressing and quenching a thousand vain desires which give us
incessant and fruitless anxiety.  I have been ambitious —What
do I say?  I am this monment, in spite of God's law, ambitious
to a high degree.  What has been its fruit?  Am  I happier?
Do I not still, and will I not forever be gasping after something
yet to come? something Twhich never can come?  Will fame
gratify me?  Will universal honour give mre peace?  Will a
conquered world make me more content than my insane nameA Roman Catholic preacher wNhom he had heard in Philadelphia.
VOL. I.-3




50              WVHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
sake of Macedon?  No! my experience, and universal testimony, and the word of Jehovah thunder, No!  Did you ever read
the life of Henry IMartyn? If you have not, upon the strength
of our friendship, I charge and entreat you to do so. My present perusal of it is about the sixth, which for me, who seldoml
read any book through, is strong proof of esteem. - If there is on
earth or on record a character which I love more than that of I-H.
Martyn, I know it not. To meet hinm in heaven is a wish that
burns intensely in my heart.
Upon taking the highest honours at Canmbridge, an honour
which ennobles a man in the eyes of the whole British nation, and
gives him a name in the whole world of letters, and for which he
had for four years laboriously toiled-he said: " I have grasped
this bubble honour, and it. vanishes in my hand,"-and.- thenceforward renounced the world and himself, and became a self-denied and honoured servant of God. Could I tread in his steps, I
should feel no envy for the highest potentate, or the'greatest
scholar upon this footstool.' And why cannot you and I, as well
as Martyn, take up our cross and follow Christ? It is not that the
gate is not thrown'wide open. Every page of Scripture gives
the lie to such a thought. It is solely because the way is so
strait, that our worldly pleasures, our gods, our palpable enjoyments, (which lie close to us and are therefore appreciated,)
our joys which are merely terrene cannot accompany us.
I have sometimes been inclined to murmur at the idea that
we must cleny ourselves, that we must give our whole souls to
God, that it is impossible to "love the world" without being
" the enemy of God,"-and to shrink from that yoke which, to
my dim eye, seemed to bring no indemnity for the loss of good
things; but the demands of the Scripture are inexorable, and it
is not until we are willing to receive the whole truth and to obey
it, that we can pretend to be willing to be saved. It is not because the gate of entrance is inaccessible, that I have felt my
stubborn soul unwilling to strive to enter in. It is because it is
too low for my pride, and too arduous for my indolence. " Believe," is a price too small, and' Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling," a labour too great for unsanctified human
nature.  Is it instruction as to what we are to do that we need?
He that has his Bible needs nothing else. Is it assistance in
doing what we know is duty?
"Were half the words thus vainly spent,
To heaven in supplication sent,
Our cheerful song would oftener be,
Hear what the Lord has done for me."
Cowper.




1824-1825.                       51
2londay, May l7t/zh.
Dr.        preached last night; the general impression left
by his performance, was that his manner was by far too light for
the pulpit. I think so too. Ilie prayed that God would destroy
and eradicate " tlact cursed sup2erstition   " (Popery) from South
America. Such language I think not only unchristian, but upon
his own principles, without foundation. The. popish creed does
contain, shrouded in great superstition, I confess-but still it does
contain, the great findamental saving doctrines of the Bible.
Better far would it be to curse those doctrines which many in
our communion hold, to wit, that every thought of man is an immediate effect of God's efficiency; that every blasphemous
thought is, as much as every pious thought, caused by God's immediate agency. From my soul I could curse such blasphemy as this.
NAssAu  HALL, No. 25, Aiay 21, 1824.
This is my first letter since I came into this house. I have
indeed, time for nothing but the incipient duties and preparations
of my newr situation. I can promise you but few such voluminous reports as my last epistle. So fully am I occupied with
little arrangements relative to my own accommodation and the
admission of students, that I have not been at our house since
yesterday morning. It requires all the effrontery which I can
assume to fill my gown' with any kind of effect, to sit in the
focal point of vision before a hundred carping young gentlemen,
on the scaffold yclep'd the stage, to march through the congregation at the foot of the refectory steps with manifold tokens of
respect, and then to march at their head, and sit in state at the
upper end of the long college table, &c., &e. Itoever, in all
such matters, when a thing mnust be done, I am fond of putting
the best face upon it, and —" neck or nothing" going forward.
I have never gained any thing by shrinking, although few have
oftener made experiment of it, and shrink I will not, though
ly head should be the price of daring. If you wish to view an
original character, and gain a study for future sketches, come
hither, and I will show you my valet de place James lMcCarrier,
a true born Emeralder, whose delight is rendering services, and
who knows no greater happiness than to be kept constantly running, and doing. The addition to college is small-6 or 7; it is
seldom that a greater number is added at the commencement of
the summer term. The examination of even this small band
was tedious-an hour being consumed upon each. You will no
doubt be pleased with the specimen of Princeton typography on
the other side.''Proposals by Borrenstein for publishing a weekly paper under the title
of "The Princeton Religious and Literary Gazette."




52               WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
I foresee one thing with pleasure, that occupation is oustingl
melancholy thoughts and musings from  my mind.  I have so
much 1real matter for anxiety, that the creations of fancy findcl lit:
tie room.  Love and regards to those who love and regard me.
NAssAu HALL, May, 1824.'
When I tell you that six hours and a half is the least portion
of every day which I devote to:Mathematics, and I exclude the
time of recitation,-you will be ready to pardon me for writing
no more.  My classes, the Freshman and Sophomore, have
both made considerable progress in algebra, and the problems in
Bonnycastle, especially in the last editions, are truly formidable.
I am visited, too, by my hopeful youth from  time to time, in
order to be consulted respecting difficulties.  These things require labour.  Yet my motto shall ever be, Perseveranclo, or as
my friend and servant Jemmy nMcCarrier would render. it,
"Wid patience and perseverance, a man may open an oyster,
dear, wi' a rollin-pin."  Add to these things such items as these.
With us tutors, is left all the discretionary power for preserving
order.  No one can change his room without our permission, —
or go to the tavern, or leave the bounds in study hours, or leave
the refectory, or have a meal sent out to him, or take his seat
after grace, or get a letter on Sunday, &c., &e., unless we give
him leave.  Besides going through the college thrice a day on a
round of inspection, it is our rule to send for every student who
fails to come voluntarily, and render an account of his absence
from his chamber. This week, it becomes my duty to preside in
the refectory, to conduct morning prayers in the chapel, and two
prayer meetings connected with the college, as well as to have
the more minute supervision of the students, and to take care
that the edifice is never, for any time, left without one officer.
I should like if I had time to enter into a more free discourse
with you upon Calvinism, than we have yet had.  I think the
matter may be talked over more satisfactorily, with less partiality and passion, and more probability of adhering to the subject,
and attaining  a conclusion, on paper, than viva voce; and therefore, I avoided all mention of the matter at our last interview.
I rejoice that you seem little disposed to cavil, and sneer.  Too
many use invective instead of argument, especially against the
doctrines of our church, which, somehow  or other, like their
propagator himself, are " despisel  and rejected of men."  A dis1I insert the simple, incontrovertible statements that follow in this and
other letters, for the benefit of such sciolists, young and old, as the boy to
whom they were originally addressed.




1824-1825.                        53
torted view of Calvinisml is often held up as a target, at which
the Arminian discharges his arrows with great pomp and complacency, and marches off with his victorious laurels, won from
those who hold no such doctrines as those which he opposes.
WTith you, I find no such doctrine as that of fate in the New
Testament, nor did any ever pretend to such a discovery, as far
as my information extends.  Yet like some whom you namle,
after reducing matters to certain ultimate principles, I am guilty
of referring much that is inexplicable to the unsearchable ways
of God; and I do it in common with Arminians themselves,
who, unless their knowledge of human power be pitiably meagre,
must yield up many points as beyond their ken; with Socinians themselves, who, professedly rejecting all mystery, are still
saddled with doctrines which they cannot thoroughly explain,
and from which an escape to professed infidelity cannot entirely
save them. I am willing to say, with Cowper,
" Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain."
I know that doctrines in themselves true and important may
be made instrumental in doing great evil; and if there are those
concerning whom  you speak, although I own that I know not
whither-to go in search of them, I doubt not that in their hands
this doctrine must produce an ill effect. But if you mean to ask
whether the belief of sovereign, unconditional election, leads,
from  its nature, to want of fervour in piety and preaching, I
would not hesitate a second to say no, with fuill assurance of
being able to sustain my negative by a host of examples.  I
would not propose this as:a test of the truth of a doctrine,
although if victory over an opponent were my aim, I would ask
no better ground.  Look around you, and answer to your own
self, your own inquiry.  Think you that the Arminian clergy
are the most ardent men, or that they evince more zeal than our
own preachers?  Was Luther indifferent to the soul's interests
of men' when he thundered so nobly for God and truthll? and yet
he states the doctrine with a harshness which I dare not imitate.
Was Martyn, was Newton, were Dr. Scott, Edwards, Davies,
devoid of anxiety for the welfare of men.'? WVas Whitefielcl, who
traversed the earth in seeking the lost sheep; or Brainerd, whose
labours in a solitary wilderness terminated; his ]ife, destitute of




4               T~WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
fervid benevolence?  Yet all these men did assert most stoutly
the hateful doctrine of election, even that "God hath chosen
some, in Christ, unto everlasting life, out of his mere free grace
and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto, and all to the praise of
his glorious grace."  And what shall I say more, for time would
fail me to tell of Eliot, and Buchanan, and Schwartz, and Ward,
and Carey, and Mlarshman, and (as I should say if speaking to
one of my own belief) of the great teacher and defender of the
doctrine, the zealous and indefatigable apostle of the Gentiles.
Indeed, if you inquire who they are that in every place are most
zealous for the Lord of hosts, you will find them  men who delight to dwell upon God's sovereignty, and iman's guilt and impotence. The lMethodists, to be consistent, ought to cleave to
these doctrines, for they do hold, and contend for the sister
truths of abounding grace; and the fervour of their zeal may be
attributed to the influence of these doctrines.  Upon this principle, I proceed in forming my own opinions. The Bible speaks
the truth. The Bible teaches this, or that-ergo, This and that
are true. The syllogism is reversed with many persons. Thus
they argue: The Bible speaks nought but the truth.  This or
that doctrine is not the truth. Therefore, the Bible does not
teach this or that doctrine. I speak logically for conciseness.
The major of the first syllogism I have proved to my own satisfaction. If I had not, I would cease to give myself any trouble
about religion.  The minor is, to me, clear as day; and I have
been forced into it by stress of absolute conviction.  I ask for
no further proof. Explanation I may require, but it would seem
most philosophical, first to discover what the Bible does say, and
then to ask why it does say so. Now all metaphysics apart, —
although all metaphysics, as I have no doubt a brief study of the
controversy would convince you, bears with full power in favour
of Calvinism. Read your Bible. - If you believe it firmly to be
the word of God, you are fully prepared to commence the investigation.  If you do not, without scruple, without the figment
of a doubt, fully rest on it as a rule inflllible, then cease, I
pray you, to query with regard to doctrine. You cannot be satisfied as to the truth of a proposition, until you have a plenary
reliance upon the testimony. Examine your reasons for believing the Bible to be God's word. What are they?  Unless you
can answer this satisfactorily to your own mind, pause, and
investigate this base of all religious argumnentation.:Suppose
that you should meet in the Bible this day, such'a text as this,
" Ie that sinneth once, shall forever be damned, and that with



1824 -1825.                      55
out the possibility of atonement or rescue."  How \would it afliect
you  Would you believe it: If you continued to inspect the
page, and still continued to find these words, and could find 1no
escape or evasion, would you believe them? If not, then your
confidence in. the Bible is yet wavering. I hold myself ready to
believe all and every the contents of the Bible. On reading such
a text as that which I have made, I should,' no doubt, be startled;
I might doubt whether I understood it; I might suspect it to be
an interpolation; but as soon as this doubt should be removed,
so soon should I believe that proposition.  The Unitarian, in
such circumstances, says, —it is false, therefore God has not said
it; therefore, though how it came there, I am unable to explain,
yet believe it I will not. Evidently he is now tearing up the
foundations of all his previous creed.  I-e has proved, or he
ought to have proved to his own mind, that the Scriptures are
the word of God, and that all which they contain is true, or he
ought to have some infallible touchstone by whose aid to discriminate between the true and the false. To make our, own
limited views and knowledge this touchstone, is obviously irrational; for thus the Hindoo who reads the Bible would reject
the unity of the Godhead; the nMussulman would reject the spirituality of the Christian paradise; the lover of sin would denounce the doctrine of eternal punishment; and every carnal
heart would answer against God, and say, "Why hast thou made
me thus? "  Our only firm footing is here.
A book comes to us purporting to be a revelation from God.
Examine the proofs which it brings to substantiate this claim.
If they are incontrovertible, believe the book, and believe every
word in it. If they are insufficient, burn the volume. Now I
think that the Bible tells me that there are three persons in the
Godhead, and I believe it, as I believed my father when he told
me that the earth moved round the sun, although my senses flatly
contradicted it. And I think that God tells me in the Scriptures
that "he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world,"-" that we should be (not because we should be) holy,
and without blame before him in love." I cannot read Rom. viii.
30, and doubt whether sanctification be the cause of our election,
or election of our sanctification.  So 2 Tim. i. 9. We are " created in Christ,"-the expression is a notable one-" unto good
works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them."
Cau those works thus foreordained be the foundation of our election? Say so, land you embrace a difficulty liable to all  the objections which can be urged against our doctrine.  In the third
chapter of the confession of faith you may find my cree2 on this
subject. This is, what our churchi calls it, a high mystery, and




5 6              VIWHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
yet not more so than a thousand other credible truths.  And as
to its repugnance to reason, I see it not.  Does the certainty
that an act will take place destroy the liberty of the agent? Yet
this certainty is what God's decree secures, and it does nc more.
However, as I shall never cease to say-read your Bible;
andl if you read it candidly, I care not what else you read not.
This simple means led Luther, and Calvin, and Melanethon, and
Haimilton to the truth, from the corruptions of popery. This
simple means brought the candid and pious Dr. Scott from Socinianism to Calvinism.  And God's word has never failed to
enlighten those who peruse it with sincerity.
JTune 1st.
The first of Mfay I spent in your company, free from all
cares, and all regular employment; this day finds me as closely
chained to business as was ever a galley slave. Yet business is
my balm, the panacea for all my ailings, and therefore I never
can- complain of the greatest amount of active useful labour;
which it is possible for me to undergo.
I have been reading Irving's orations again; particularly the
latter parts of his Argument, and my admiration for the man
increases with every nearer view. If any living writer may be
said to think for himself, Irving is that manll: and even if he often
draws hasty and incorrect conclusions, who would not pardon
them, when the general character of the work is so manly and
independent?  His affectation ceases, already, to appear so to
n e. I-I ls defence of eternal punishment is one of the most commIandilng arguments I ever read.
None of the casualties which you mention have yet befallen
your tutor.  Indeed, matters have proceeded, as yet, very swimmingly. There has been no act of the faculty this session calculated to excite the indignation of the young gentlemen, and
until that takes place we may expect peace and  safety.  Open
disrespect has never been shown to any of the present tutors
during the eighteen months which they have spent here, and
although, out of doors, and behind their backs, I have heard them
reviled, and calumniated, and ridiculed, yet they tell me that
they have never, even in the times of highest excitement, met with
any thing short of external courtesy. I can -certainly say this
much for the manners of our students, that I never received more
universal and continued deference from  any persons wvhatever.
I know, from nmy own recollections, that even when young men
talk in the most braggadocio style, and vow-eternal vengeance
on their teachers, they are as meek as lambs in their presence.
You would smile at the diffierence in the manner of a young man




1824-1825.                        57
when he struts among his mates in the campus, and when he
comes, with all possible humility, to ask leave to go into the
town, or to be excused fronl recitation.  Our laws are so well
digested, and our discipline so exact, that, except in cases of general rebellion, no student dares to offer indignity to any officer.
The faculty are always united in supporting their own. authority,
and the trustees in backing the faculty; and dismission or expulsion is what no young man, however depraved, will hazard for
nothin?.  Their tricks are tricks of fear. They are done always
under cover of darkness, and are generally such as it would disgrace them among their own comrades to avow. As to personal
danger, I believe that a park of cannon would not keep me from
what I think is my sworn duty. Strength of nerve I have not,
but I am nmistaken greatly if I dare not face any danger which
these walls can ever harbour.  Every student who falls under
discipline, as many must, looks on the person who exercises it
as his personal enemy; and hence, rancour and hatred I do
expect. Every one who is guilty and suffers punishment, makes
up the best story possible, to clear his character; and as the faculty make no official statements, these accounts from the culprits
are those which gain currency.  So that calumny and contermpt
I expect.  Yet I know that the straightforward line of duty
never led man wrong. I may suffer in a thousand ways, but if
I am permitted to act conscientiously, then may I say, Idteyer
vitce, &c. I think-for I use the confidence of fiiendship-that
without vain boasting, I can say, that my determination is to
make the rule of duty my only rule in my new station. College
popularity is a wind that is forever shifting, you know not
why or wherefore, and it seldom long fans the faithful officer.
For so changeable a thing, and a thing so worthless, let me
never go a hair's breadth out of my way.
You speak with justice of the formality of ministers.  It is
a woeful truth, and it is with shuddering that I anticipate adding
myself to the venerable corps which contains already so many
drones.  Yet there are those who, bating the inevitable imperfections of nature, are what their Saviour directed theml to be;
and perhaps the reason why they seem to be so few is, that they
do not seek the glare and bustle of publicity, and pompous anniversaries.  ]My own favourite Moravians do seem to have caught
some of the apostolic spirit.
Your notions respecting the conduct of professors of religion,
as far as you have clearly defined them, seeul to contain a great
deal that is true.  Christians do, too much, connive at the levity
and thoughtlessness of the world, although Ithink. that, cccteris
paribus, whatever is lawful and expedient for a non-professor, is
VOL. I. 38




8                XV-WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
lawful and proper for a professor of religion.  It is every man's
duty to love God, and therefore all, the self-denial and obligations
resulting from  this love are the duty of every man.  A profession of faith, is merely one of these resulting duties.  God forbid
that I should say aught in exculpation of our brotherhoodl; our
guilt is rank; yet I sometimes think that the " world " who keep
not one commandment, take an inconsistent pleasure in criminating the " church," who encleavour to obey in some.  As for mayself, I feel a daily compunction for my failings.  There cannot,
surely, be a human creature less satisfied with himself than I.
In religion, in moral principle, in every branch of attainment and
character, I see myself far, far below what I desire to be, and
often can I enter into the spirit of the Apostle's remarks, Riom.
vii. 14-25.  I confess that I see very little in the selfish, secluded,
torpid devotion of the monk, which savours of the glowing, expansive, ever active piety of the Apostles.  I know  too much of
solitude to have very romantic ideas of the piety which is generated by it.  Spleen and moroseness gain more rapid growth in
the cell, than benevolence and humility.
Cicero comes next upon the docket.  It requires no great independence of soul to think him a master in eloquence.  This I
do, and my conviction of his just claim  to that character, increases with every new approach towards familiarity with his
writings.  I do not, it is true, rise into the raptures which some
affect, and which a few may feel, and for this simple reason, I am
not sufficiently versed in the Latin language.  Every ZFrenchman who has been in America six months, knows more of English than I do of Latin; and yet who would set up such a man
as a judge of the merits of Shakespeare?  And believe me, the
peculiar circumstances which render the latter writer obscure,
exist in a threefold degree, with regard to the orator.  Yet his
invectives against Catiline, and especially the peroration " Pro:Milone," I have felt, and felt in a rmanner that assured me how
powerfully his words must have smitten the souls of those who
listened.1  Demosthenes I have never felt, and yet I dare not suspect a moment, that he was not a noble orator., I do not profess myself able to judge.. I cannot feel the Greek language, and
I can hardly feel the Latin.  But'the claims of these men do
not rest on what may strike us, nor even on the universal suffrage
of scholars, (I say universal, for with the exception of a few
wrongheacls, who would rather broach a new lie, than submit to
In May of this year, he contributed to the National Gazette, ("from
the portfolio of a solitary student,") an article on " Cicero de Amicitia;"
and in July, another on "Middleton's Life, and Melmoth's Epistles of
Cicero."




1824-1825.                            59
believe an old truth, I know none competent to judge who have
dissented,) the effects, the unparalleled effects at the time, declare beyond all contradiction how  eloquent, how  superhuman
were their powers.
Aikin's lines upon 7Melancholy, &c., have much reason in
them.  I know, as to my own case, that placidity of mind is the
sole preventive and remedy.  " Is not this like saying that ease
of body is the best preventive of rheumatism?"  Not exactly.
Quiet of mind, equally removed from  the- intoxication of comipany and the intoxication of study; the medium  between jollity
and spleen, it is in the power of a man to whom belongs " mens
sana in corpore sano " to preserve.  This quiet is to be found, not
in the bustle of life, not in the paloestra of literary ambition, not
in mystic ravings, not in that most variable and tyrannous of all
pursuits, authorship, but in a life of gentle, virtuous, regular
business.
I have been confined to the house almost all this day, by the
rain, so that I get more time than usual for writing.  But when
I do sit down to write, after the fatiguing, but pleasing studies
of the day, my pen and amy thoughts move heavily, and remind
me of men whom I have seen walking home after gorging at a
great dinner, hardly able to draw one foot before the other.  For
want of something better, I send you somle lines which accompanied a bouquet, sent last summer to a little girl:
Perhaps these flowers, so fragrant now, and fair,
Culled from their native stalk with nicest care,
Ere thy young hands have touched them, or thine eye
Has hailed the promised gift, shall fade and die.
Thus, ev'n in tasting, vanish all our joys,
Frail as our clay-built frame, mere transitory toys.
These various petals, bright as clouds of eve,
From God's creative touch their hues receive;
These tints so exquisite, this gorgeous frame
So richly coloured, from his pencil came.
Yet heaven-born as they are, and to the sight
Of wond'ring eyes, too sweet to know a blight;
Still must they fade, their season is a span
Brief, gay, and brilliant, like the life of man,
Seen, like a flash, through midnight clouds to quiverA moment brightly seen-then gone forever.
Use wisely then these flowrets, while they last,
Quaff all their sweetness-or if thou canst cast
Some charm about their evanescent bloom,
That;may prolong their day,-postpone their doomOr perpetuity to odours give,
Formed but a little season fresh to live,This do-and kindly, from the withering breath
Of blasting heat release these heirs of death.
But shall no tender wish my gift attend?




60               VTWHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
Yes, dearest, thy early, unchanged friend,
Prays from his inmost soul, that every grace
These emblem flowers can picture-in thy face,
Thy form, thy manners, and thy opening mind,
In sweetest harmony may be combined;
And by some charm of richest heavenly dew
Guarded from all that withering blasts can do.
And when from Earth transplanted, may'st thou bloom
In a new Paradise beyond the tomb.
Do you ever read Wordsworth?  I should very much like
to get a copy of his Lyrical Ballads.  I wish the men who so
belabour him in their critiques, would borrow from him a little
of that rare originality and poetic fire which sometimes shine
out among his quaint and childish thoughts.  Have you ever
skated?  Then read this:
" So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle: with the din,
IMeanwhile the precipices rang aloud:
The leafless trees and every icy crag
Tinkled like iron: while the distant hills
Into the tumult sent an alien sound
Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars
Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west
The orange sky of evening died away."
O I feel it! I feel it! and it breathes into my soul all the
soft recollections of just such a scene, a long, long time ago, when
I was all sport and frolic.  This accurate description, whether
of objects of perception or consciousness, is, after all, what most
enters into my heart.  Here is a quotation that will bear studying, and I confess it moves me not a little.  [Then followed the
familiar lines, beginning:
" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting."]
June 7th.
>Had a cracker about two o'clock on the night before last; it
was exploded at the prayer-hall door, which it burst open, about
25 yards from my head.  I was not certain what it was that had
awakenedl  me, until my room was filled with powder-smoke,
which came in through the glass ventilator above my door. No
bones broken yet.  Indeed the physical inconveniences of my
station I do not regard one straw.
If you see a mana in Philadelphia dressed in a Tartan plaid
frock coat, with a cape,-note. him.  Hie is a captain in the regular service of the British.  By his costume you may know
him to be eccentric, but you must see him more closely to know
all about him.  He is a man of considerable property, living




1824-1825.                        61
upon full pay, a bachelor, on an indefinite furlough, and yet is as
economical as a miser, and as laborious, in teaching a school, as a
pauper, and all from  a purity and benignity of motive that I
have hardly ever known in ally other man.  I know him to have
given $2,000 in private charity during the last year.  I-Te lived
thirteen years in India, is a thorough master of the Telinga,
1Hindoostanee, and Persian languages, and more than all, shows
in the fervour of his conversation, and the beneficence and kindness of his life, that he is a sincere Christian. If you wish to see
benevolence personified, see Capt.
NAssAu ItALL, June 19, 1824.
I think I shall throw up gazetteerizyg.  It is ly desire; I confess, to leave something behind me that may testify, after my
death, that I have not been altogether a useless stock in this
world; but ten years will not be too much to spend in secret
meditation before thinking of such a thing. If I die withinl that
time, God's will be clone. If I live, I shall be able to have matured my crude and now only germinating notions, and to judge
what mlay, or may not, do good.  HIear a short translation from
Herder, a German philosopher:'" With the greatest possible
solicitude avoid authorship.  Too early, or immoderately elployed, it makes the head waste, and the heart empty, even were
there no worse consequences.  A person who reads only to
print, in all probability reads amliss; and he who sends away
through the penl and the press, every thought, the nmoment it
occurs to him, will, in a short time, Iave sent all away, and will
become a mere journeyman of the printing office, a compnositor,
"ein blosser Dielner der Druckerey, ein  Buchstabensetzer."
This, from a fortunate author, has weight.
NAssAU IIALL, June 21, 1824.
The one simple question with me is, " what says the Scripture? " Unless we become as little children, we cannot enter into
the kingdlom of God, and in no point is the unquestioning humility of a child of God more put to the test, than in receiving doctrines which even in apostolic times, were rejected and opposed.
Very few Pharisees ever came to Christ and those who did,
were not wont to inquire of him  how far his doctrine tallied
with their preconceived opinions, but simply to believe.  I beg
you to remenmber, that I do not stake mllyself to answer for, all,
nor for any of the faults of Calvinists; I am not desirous in the
slightest degree, of vindicating God's character against those who
choose to accuse his doctrines of inconsistence with any doctrine
whatever of free-will, or free-agency.  "If any man will do his




62              WHVIILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God," and I
know not that he has allnywhere promised to make plain, to a
mind that is unwilling to obey his first commandment, those
decrees which he has of his good pleasure chosen to reveal.
" All the disputes between us and the Arminians may be reduced
to these two questions: 1. Is God dependent upon man, or is
man dependent upon God? 2. Is man a debtor to God, or is
God a debtor to man? "  Please to ponder upon them. According to Arminianism, as I have heard, grace has the name, but
free-will has the gamne. But enough: and to use the words of
the same minister whom I last quoted, " One moment's communion with God is worth all the controversial writings in the
world " —and this communion I would fain have you to know.
[After mentioning what he considered his spiritual declension, for the last six months, the letter continues.]  But I thank
his name that he has caused the solitary reading and devotion
of this my privacy to arouse me to some sense of the realities
of religion.  My determination now is this-and may God
prevent my falling again by the hands of my adversary-henceforward to " seek the righteousness of God," " knowing that all
other things shall be added unto me."  "I enceforward let no
man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord
Jesus."  I can enter with a sweetness which I never before experienced, into these words, Gal. iii. 8-19, and address them
fervently to you. And, my dear friend, let me exhort you from
a heart that knows no insincerity upon this subject, to seek, or
rather accept that righteousness of God which he condescends to
offer.  " What am I to do? " say you? This is the work, saith
Jesus, which he requireth of you, to believe on him whom he
hath sent. If you wish to know what belief is, and what conversion is, I could not refer you to a better answer than that of one
of the sailors on board the Thames to [Rev. C. S.] Stewart. See
last Advocate.' Truly the wind bloweth where it listeth, and ye
hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh or
whither it goeth. So is every one who is born of the Spirit.
You have turned over the Bible, and you have, I can say, without oracular insight into your heart, you have tried various ways
of becoming pious; you have done this and that, and are perhaps
wondering where that change so much spoken of is to be found.
You have sought relief to your mind by endeavouring to shrink
from those doctrines of God's sovereignty which you cannot but
"It is not any thing you have done or can do. It is only believing
and trusting to what Christ has done: it is having your sins pardoned
and soul saved, because he died and shed his blood for sin, and it is nothing
else."




1824-1825.                       63
see in the literal text of almost every book in the New Testament. Now answer to your own conscience; I do not assume
the part of a questioner, or ask for an answer-Have you allny
free-will to be a Christian?  If you have, why then, I am ready
to cease inquirino of you; for this unanswerable question stares
you in the face, Why am I not holy? If your heart is like mine,
it is a sink of uncleanness, and so long as you endeavour to conceal this from yourself, you do but err. If you are able, froin
beingt dead in trespasses and sins, to raise yourself to life, (forgive the solecisml; it lies in the absurd doctrine,) then why ask
for assistance any longer? Arise and stand up in the perfection
of Christian character. Look back on your past life, and tell ine
how many free acts you ever did. Did you ever do one thing,
or take one step, which was not the effect of some preceding view
or feeling? If you have, name it, and I will grant you the freedom of your will. Calln you will to be everlastingly miserable?
Sit down and try; and then say whether your will is free: if it
is as much dependent on motives as the wheels of a watch on the
spring, it is about as free. If it is not absolutely and literally
independent, in all possible cases, to call it free is nugatory. The
carnal mind, believe me, is enmity against God, and is not subject to his will, neither indeed can be. You must be born again.
You may marvel, as did Nicodemus; and yet if I have told you
earthly things, and you believe not, if the first doctrine of the
Bible is beyond your comprehension, how shall you believe if I
tell you of heavenly things? how shall the inscrutable and eternal
things of God be clear to you?
Are you desirous of being converted to God, or does your
pride cause you to reject the humbling terms of the Gospel?
The gate of. the kingdom is strait, and pride must crouch low
before that little wicket gate can be entered.  Now, answer conscience, and not me. Suppose God to judge of your desire to be
converted by the means which you use, and the earnestness and
importunity with which you use them,  lhat do you suppose
would be his estimate of the anxiety which you manifest?  Answer to him, how many times you have earnestly sought in his
word for the means of salvation. Ah! have you not oftener
asked of man? or have you asked at all? I feel no hesitation in
saying here as elsewhere, Go straight to the Scriptures. Seetarians may squabble as they please, yet I have no fear in directing any one to go to the fountain head, the Bible. You may say
that you have. How many days did you ever devote to it?
how many anxious nights? If the body, instead of the undying
soul, was in peril, you would scarce think of aught-beside.  Remember the word is strive (aywvtEwrE) to enter, &c. And I pre



64               WHIILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
clict that unless your eyes are opened by his Spirit that you will
find no sweetness there; therefore pray, and that not in halfearnest, for that wisdom  which he has promised to give to all
who ask.
NASSAU IHALL, Jftly 10, 1824.
I begin by informing you that I have finally been humbled
by the pr2os-trctionl of my own will, which has been since birth
free only to evil, to the point of entire submission to God. I
have been a false and hypocritical professor, but God has iln
mercy brought me to a view of my utter impotence, of the jus
tice of the law which would condemn me to eternal wrath, and
of my being helpless in the hands of an Almighty Avenger.
Henceforward, my single aim is, to submit myself to God as an
instrument in his hands to be used for what he chooses.  Death
would be a release, should it come this instant; and except to do
God's work, I desire not to breathe another moment.  You talk
of election, &c.  Depend upon it you will ever sink into an
abyss of perplexity and deeper and still deeper confusion, until
you renounce a dependence upon your own powers of intellect.
Spiritual vision or faith is as different from  intellectual vision
or mere belief (in a human sense) as their objects are diverse.
The one is conversant with naked speculations which might forever play about the head and communicate no spark of heat.
The other is the gift of God. If any man will do the will of God
he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.  Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and a part of this
salvation is a knowledge of the truth.  Christ is " imade unto us
knowledge," when you have received power to be the son of God
throughl him, then shall you see in him all that it is necessary
for you to know.  Read 1 Cor. i. 18-31.  It is the Spirit that
teacheth.  1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, and 10 and 14. If you wish to understand these things let me direct you to the Scriptures.  Quere.
Iow many days did you ever devote exclusively to the prayerful reading of the Bible?  And how great is the probability of
your understanding it until you dig in it as for choice treasure?
And how great is your anxiety on the subject, if you have never
given even a week to the book? Are vou not more fond of reading
human discussions on the subject, than of going to the fountainhead? Do you not often dispute in your own mind certain propositions before you have had them fairly defined  Are you not a
little afraid of finding certain doctrines in the Bible if you should
search it too closely or candidly?  If this doctrine should stand
out prominently as a declaration of the word of God, " God mill
damn all men; " would you believe it?  If God should thunder




1824 —1825.                         65
it in your ear would you believe it?  If you would not, then
you would be making God a liar; the very essence of that unbelief which keeps us from him.  You wish to believe not as the
word of God, but as the word of man; not because God says it,
and you humbly credit whatever he says, but because it is
demonstrated to you.  At this rate you may become, a grand
skeptic, but never a Christian.  If you cdo not come to the Scriptures with a mind equally willing to believe one thing as another,
you come with a bias, you come without believing it to be the
word of God, and you come in vain.  Now observe, I assert
nothing to be believed upon my ipse dixit, or that of any human
creature.  Please to read over in connexion, without stopping
for any difficulties, or quarrelling about any doctrine, the gospel
by John; read it three or four times; and if you do not see that
the Scripture is clear and consistent, and plain, too, if we were
not blinded by the God of this world, then I forfeit my character.
NAssAU HALL, September 20, 1824.
You have here another.prospectus of another Princeton worl
which I trust will prove honourable to us, and useful to the
cause.' The election, of our next Professor of Languages is a
matter of considerable interest to us at this time.  I would hope
that it might be Professor Patton, of Middlebury.  He is a ripe
scholar in modern as well as ancient languages, has mlade his researches upon the European continent, and in his private manners is said to be highly interesting.2
You suggest to lime to write, something on "Irving."  The
fact is just this, I should like to do it very well, but I feel no
motion that way at present.  I have not that enviable self-command which enables some men to decree that they will do this
or that, and then sit down and effect it.  I nmust take myself
when I am in the notion of it.  I must humour myself.  Most
of my scribbling is done at single sittings, and currrente calamo.
When I am full of a particular subject, and find that the ink will
run, I usually drive the quill to its utmost, which is sometimes
only ten lines.  That I ever finished any thing, I dare not aver.
I count those productions happy which have a beginning and an
end, and of course are fit for the press.  I would almost engage'The hope has been abundantly realized, for the work referred to was
the Biblical ~Repertory, the publication of which was begun in 1825, and is
still continued, under the same editor, with the second title of " Princeton
Review." The original proposals are "for the periodical publication of a
collection of dissertations, principally in Biblical Literature. By Charles
Hodge, Professor," &c.
2 tMr. Robert B. Patton was elected.




66               WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
to send you beginnings of essays enough to make your fortune,
if you will' only tack bodies to them.  The enclosed tractate- I
did intend to purge and perfect, and perhaps make the first of a
series, but for reasons like those above, I can't promise.  If
Walsh takes it, very well; if not,' it may sleep among its
brethren.
*  I pray you if you are going to write to me about La Fayette,
that you will find out something new, or something that he is
doing himself.  I hear a great deal, about what they are doing
to him, taking him  here and taking him there; but it; might be
the College shoe-black as for any life or character that there is
in it.  I am heartily sick of it, and make a point'of skipping every
column in the paper which has his name in it.
PRINCETON, October 2, 1824.
From amidst all the delightful confusion of vials, porringers,
spoons, bowls, boxes, and the other paraphernalia of a sick room,
with a head muddled with a week's debauch upon opium, and
my whole person redolent with Castor oil and ipecacuanha, with
griping, with retching, in short among all the little agyremens of a
confinement with the dysentery, I am (by stealth) inditing you
an epistle.  On the day of La Fayette's transit, I was seized,
after'haiving had the honour, if honour it can be called, when conferred' on all, of handling his fist, and gorging myself at what
they were pleased to call a cold collation. I trust that I am
getting well now, although I feel a lamentable feebleness in all
my limbs, and a weakness in body and in brains.  I scarcely
know why it is, but so contrary is my disposition, that the occurrences of life operate upon me in a manner seemingly opposite to their natural tendencies.' I am  never less solemn than
when on a sick bed; perhaps, in this case, because I have been
drunk with opium all the time.  I know that I ought to feel the
solemnity of the occasion, but it is all the reverse.  On the contrary, in the crowd, and in the fete, in the merry circle, I am
most ready to have'a long face, to feel a great vacuity, and to be
deeply impressed with'the emptiness of the world.  Amongst
other memorabilia of this siege, witness the f'ollowing:
AD J. W. A. HEXAMIETR. S.
Crede mihi, juvenis docilis, me maxime taedet
Audire aegrotum esse virum, tam longe celebrem.
Pulveribus (quid tu Anglice vocas?) te cumularint,
Et medicus, veneranda.materque, Aneliza, niger Ned.
Nunc spero finemque, quiem tibi sero dederunt.  J. A. A.




1824 —1825.                      67
PRINCETON, October 27, 1824.
I am safely arrived at home, and find myself surrounded by
all those peaceful enjoyments which one never relishes so much
as after a short absence.  I have little to communicate to you in
the way of news or adventure. lMy passage in the steamboat
was like most other steamboat passages, tedious and- uninteresting; enlivened a little, however, by the company of two or three
Spanish Americans, with one of whom, a young fellow from Cuba,
I contrived to scrape an acquaintance.  He was going to Mr.
Brown's school at Lawrenceville.  I-Te informed me, probably
erroneously, that it was the purpose of the Colombians to blockade
Havana within three weeks.  I have read "Redwood," and
am much pleased with it. I think it may well rank with the
Pilot and Pioneers.  As a novel, it undoubtedly excels either,
the style is chaste and beautiful, and the conversations as natural
as any 1 have seen.  Yet in description of scenery it is much
inferior to Cooper's works. I still think that it scarcely merits
the wonderful encomiums of the British Critics. I can assure
you that Princeton is an exceedingly dull place in vacation, and
I am forced to study with all my might as ca refuge from ennui.
I am looking between the covers of some Italian books, and intend to revise my German. It seems to me that Walsh's
Gazette is very barren of any thing literary. I wish you would
take up your pen. I know you will retort the request and therefore have my answer ready.  I have thought of it repeatedly,
and invoked the Muse, demon or what not, until I am despairing
of ever again being in a writing mood. Surely there is nothing
more thoroughly beyond the reach of a man's volitions (Dr.
Johnson to the contrary notwithstanding) than the ability to
write, not verses merely, but prose. I can think of no subject,
and when I get a subject, I can engender no ideas.
NASSAU HALL, November 17, 1824.
I am now safely lodged in my cell in College, unmolested by
the shrieks of children, or any form of domestic broils. And
never did I feel so unspeakably listless, and insufferably lazy, as
at this present time. Think yourself favoured if you get from
me any thing like an intelligible or coherent letter. There is as
yet no Freshman class, and I have but one class to instruct, and
that upon a subject which I have attended to before, so that my
labours are greatly diminished, and my diligence is inversely
as my leisure. I have as yet done nothing like real and regular
study. I have read Chaucer until I was tired, and-then Jeremy
Taylor, and then Brown's Philosophy, that poem under the guise




6 8              TWHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE
of Mletaphysics, and then taken a inap, or ruminated over the
coals of a hickory fire, or scribbled somewhat of crude nonsense
in my Book of Scraps, and thus pass my days.  1 must try to
give you my notions of these several books.  With Chaucer I
have been highly gratified-excepting of course those grossly
indelicate passages which should never have seen the light.
There is a wonderful degree of natural incident, and simple, accuratedclescription in his poems.  So-ne of his tales are highly
amusing, and some very tender and pathetic.  The KZiightes tale
is an admirable Ronmaunt, full of delightful strokles of native feeling.  The Noznne's Preestes tatle is an admirable piece of humour,
in which a cock and henl moralize in wondrous manner.  The
second NVonne's tale is a highly wrought Catholic legend, yet
sweet and moving.  DTe Prioresse's tale, has some passages of
great beauty.  The little Christian martyr, walking through the
canton of the Jews, sings loudly" As I have said, thurghout the Jewerie
This litel child, as he came to and fio,
Ful merily than wold he sing and crie
O Alma Redemptori.s! ever mo.
The swetenesse hath his herte persed so
Of Cristesmoder, that to her to pray
He cannot stint of singing by the way."
As to the dialect, though perplexing at first, it soon becomes
failiar.  The Sermllons of Bishop r'aylor have been ranked
amoong the finest prosaic specimens of imaginative writing.  I
never read any works which exhibit such an unrippled flow of
easy, luxuriant thoughts, and rich illustration and similitude.
There is nothing in m-odern  writing like him.  Irving reminds
one of him.  And by the way, I have had with me a friend just
from Europe who heard both Challers and Irving.: IIe gives
the former greatly the preference.  Brown's Philosophy you
ouoht ccertainly to read forthwith, if it were only as a specimen
of magnificent -\writing.  I-le unites qualities which rarely meet
in one indiAvidual; clearness of thought, and patience of analytic
investigation, and strong  unbiassed judlgment, with the most
rich imagination and the purest fund of eloquent and appropriate language.  I do not envy the taste of the man who would
lay down his work for any novel that ever was written.  Pent
up as I alm within these walls, and chained still more closely by
ennzuti, I seldom exert myself so much as to visit in the town.
There is a club, consisting of all the literary gentlemen and clergyiimen of the place, w hich I have the privilege of attending, but this
is not just the thing.  The Round Table, too, has its weekly
meetilngs, but the social circle I have not.  There are many




1824:-1825.                     69
things which seem to conspire to make me an eremite.  One of
the principal temptations is the great facilities afforded. to me
for reading, as it regards leisure as well as books.  Our libraries
are abundant and always accessible. HI-ow it is with you I do
not know; but I find it hardl to prevent' the dribbling away of
much of my time upon periodical works and literary journals.
We counted thirty journals the other day, taken by the individuals of the faculty.  Our college library takes the four principal reviews, many scientific journals, &c. &c. I lounged away
an hour this morning over. the prize essays in the. Cambridge
Classical Journal, instead of studying Mathematics.  It is a purpose (half-matured indeed) of mine to write a series of essays
for Walsh, upon modern Latin poetry.  The field is one comparatively novel, giving an opportunity for some research, some
historical, biographical, and critical investigation, and one which
to scholars I should suppose would prove interesting.  What
think you of it? I suppose you have read " Butler's Reminiscences."  The book highly delighted me  a year ago, and I see
that you have had a very new edition of it in your city. The
rules which he mentions as having guided his literary pursuits
are admirable.  I have had some addition made to my labours
this afternoon by the arrival of a Freshman, which with a couple
of private scholars in Mathematics will just about double mly
engagements.
NASSAU HALL, December 6, 1824.
I have not opened Blackstone since I saw you. The necessity
of a unity in my pursuits has determined me to confine myself
to theological reading-at least to the allied subjects.
I am glad that you have taken Brown in hand, the second
volume I admire most, especially his remarks on, and indeed his
whole theory of simple suggestion.  His ideas upon Virtue also
pleased me very much.  The lectures upon the emotions I
thought less satisfactory than the rest of the work.  After all,
my ideas of the practical importance of metaphysics are very
low. The only part of Brown which I should think absolutely
useful, is the latter half of the third volume. I.am, nevertheless,
fond of the science; it is never dull to me. I have read no
works on the subject which please me more than the articles
Logic, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy, in the New Edinburgh Encyclopmdia, written by Gordon of Edinburgh to whom
Irving dedicates, also a review of Stewart's Dissertations several years ago, inll the Quarterly.-It was Brown's Cause and
Effect which Fisher reviewed.' I-He promised a review of the
1 Professor Fisher of Yale College, in the " Christian Spectator " of New
Haven.




70               WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
Lectures, but died before its completion.  Brown's disquisitions
upon touch are by no means satisfactory to me, although in the
particular point of which you speak, I should think him correct.
I have just concluded "l-Ialyburton's rational inquiry into the
principles of the Deists "; a heavy work, but one which displays
in a masterly manner the nakedness of the Deistical creed. I
am about to commence reading Edwards on the WVill, a work of
which some parts formerly had greatly pleased me, and which
Calvinists always refer to as triumphantly decisive on their side.
Chalmers, in one of his late works, mentions Edwards as the
greatest of all metaphysicians; and Dugald Stewart is said to
have declared that he was afraid to finish this work, lest he
should become fatalist.  Have you ever read Berkeley's Minute
Philosopher? I recommend it as one of the most interesting
books I ever read.
By the'modern latin poets, I mean all such moderns as have
written latin poetry, such as Vida, Casimir, Buchananm, I-Heinsius,
MIilton, &c., &c. This project I must of necessity abandon, as I
have not the works of any of these excepting Buchanan.  I aln
now almost ashamed to propose any thing more.  I hope, however, ere long to transmit some sheets toyou.  (IMy present monastic seclusion is truly delightful to me; uninterruptedl leisure,
and every facility. for study, make it in all tlings such a situation
as it would be criminal in me not to be satisfied with. Such, however, is the tendency of man to discontent, that I am continually
looking forward to somnething in prospect; the ministry, settleinent, actual labour, &c., &c., although I am firmly convinced,
when I think seriously on the subject, that I shall never in this
world have better means for happiness.
In French, I have lately read some of Voltaire's silly romances, L'3Ingenu and La Princesse cle Babylon; some of Les
Oraisons finegbres de Bossuet, and Sermons dc Macssillon.  The
last of these are my favourite.  I have read some of Bourdaloue
and La,Flechiere, but they do not please me. I dare not promise
myself the pleasure of a visit to Philadelphia within less time
thani four months. I Handell's Messiah would be no slight inducement.  Spring may have its charms, but winter is the season in
which I delight.  It is not merely because I always enjoy much
bettei health, but because of the numerous domestic and social
enjoymeints of this comfortable season.  And whether sitting
among the lively circle at our fireside at home, or as I now do,
by my own'solitary but cheerful blaze, with my table spread,
my candle lighted, my elbow chair adjusted, I feel nearer to contentment than in any other situation. - When the nights are
clear, I generally take a solitary walk about ten o'clock; this




1824-1825.                         71
stirs up one's romantic feelings, braces the nerves, quickens the
pulse, and prepares for a sweet sleep and pleasant dreams.  As
you may suppose, I am cast entirely upon my own resources for
entertainment; my visits at home are necessarily flying calls,
andcl my books and pen furnish' nost of my amusement. After
hard study, Shakespeare or Horace or the Waverleys while
away an hour.
NTASSAu HALL,.Decenmber 24, 1824.
We have had some serious disturbances in the college, originating in a rupture between the two societies, and which, we
were apprehensive, would end in a battle-royal; we have however seen the conclusion of it, and are in peace.  There is something.wonlderfully. inflammnable in the nature of young men, which
is fostered and promoted by the manner of living together, here
adopted.  A feeling of resentment or. indignation communicates
itself like electricity, and what I most wonder at, is that we have
not more riots.  Mr. Hodge's new work will appear on the first
of next month.  I have been hard at work for some days, translating some German-latin for him.  I am endeavouring as much
as I can to concentrate my efforts towards a direct preparation
for the active services of the pulpit and congregation, reading
theology, and trying to write sermons.  I tried my abilities at
preaching.the other night at the preaching society of the Seminary,' in presence of most of the ladies of Princeton. It was the
first regular sermon I evern wrote.. I received a very sweet affectionate letter, not long ago from  Mr. Summerfield; he is stationed at Baltimore for the winter.  There is a Christian simplicity about all that this man says and does, which greatly
charms me.  Are Indian rubber shoes for ladies to be got in
your city, and at what price?' 1 My present course of reading is
not of such a nature as would be likely to interest you in the
recital.  Edwards on the Will, I have concluded, with great
admiration of the author's profundity and acuteness, and yet with
the opinion that he is unguarded in his use of language, and that
his book is liable to great misrepresentation.
I am  now at the Theses'cle Tlheologia  aTctturali, by Alfonzo
Turretine of Geneva, a successor of Calvin, but an Arminian, an
elegant and learned writer.
NNASSAU HALL, January 11, 1825.
To be busy, is to be happy; thus says my experience; and
yet this forenoon is drawing to a close without my having done
more than to " clear my decks for action," as the sailors say.
1 I let this item stand for the sake of noting the date at which the article inquired for was still a novelty.




72              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
And herein I find the advantage of a strict methodical division
of time, which precludes the tedious discussion of that most momentous of all questions, " What shall I do next? "  Wesley's
rule is a capital one: " Have a time for every thing, and do every
thing at; its time."  Such have been my meditations upon the
loss of this morning. And now, to your letter.  DIugald Stewart's dissertations I have read with much satisfaction. You will
find that the Quarterly abuses his work, as much as the Edinburgh praises it; in this, as in most cases, I think veritasi in meclio
jacet. I have not read Playfair's dissertation, although my
father estimates it much more highly than Stewart's.  I suspect
that the rumnours respecting -. have their origin in his being
what is called a lHopkinsian, i. e. a New Enoland Calvinist.
One of the main disputes among our clergy has reference to the
question, " Whether Christ died for all men, or only for those
who believe," and which in my opinion is a mere logonachy.
Did you read the representation made to Congress by Mr.
Benton, respecting the inland trade with Mexico? It interested
me very much, as all does which relates to our commlunication
with Spanish America.  I should have no objection to take an
exploring tour upon that route. In looking forward upon amy
future course in life, I am often filled with great anxiety. There
is more in our profession to give occasion to this than in others.
Physicians and lawyers can generally make election of a situation
for life; they need wait for no caulcusing of old women, and no
contested calls. They are not liable to be tossed from Dan to
Beersheba without a settlement, or to submit to the indignity of
setting up as candidates, and then being refused. For instance,
I have not the most remote notion of my future. settlement,
whether I shall pitch my tent in a city or a desert, in New York
or Missouri, in France or Paraguay. In truth, all that reliance
upon Providence which we profess is thus brought to the test;
and perhaps viewed in this light it is a useful discipline. You
may think it both affected andc fanatical, but I certainly see very
little in this world worth living for, except to be public benefactors. This is not the result of any peculiar exercises, but
arises from my daily experience of this fact, that earthly enjoyments excite, but cannot gratify; that I am daily pursuing some
expected, good, of which I am daily disappointed.  The labours
of the ministry excite most of my wishes and desires; and I
confess, that to serve God in the Gospel of his Son, is the only
desirable thingr which I have in view. Yet I find myself daily
enteringa with ardour upon the same pursuits which have already
deluded me a thousand times. There is little new among us.
An Atheneum is in projection, and will probably succeed. We




1824-1825.,73
have an anatomical lecture, in addition to our other literary
exercises. The first number of Mr. H-Iodge's new work is issued,
and has a fine appearance.  I am also almost ashamed to tell
you that we are brooding again upon the addled scheme of a
Princeton newspaper; we have some hope that it may yet succeed. As to my reading, I have despatched Butler's Analogy,
an immortal work for its power of argument and depth of original thought; also Dr. Hartley's Evidences of Christianity,
decidedly the best work on the subject which I have seen, and
contained in the 5th volume of Watson's tracts. Either of these
books would make you a good Sunday's entertaimnent. I generally keep a volume of the British poets upon my table, to read
"between meals."  With all my attention, I am unable to see
any thing in Dryden to raise him to the eminence which he has
attained.  His versification is undoubtedly fine, and he occasionally flashes out into exquisite elegance, but in general he is
one of the dullest of poets. His prose, I think, cannot be too
much extolled. He, as well as Milton, Cowper, and Cowley, give
the lie to the saying " that no poet can write prose."  Appearances seem to indicate that all our fears are to be realized with
regard to the election of General Jackson. I suppose, in that case,
we must try how loyally we can support his administration. Be
it known to you that I have not yet relinquished that deplorable
habit of smoking the weed. I have an idea that it suits my constitution very well; and under cover of such a notion as that, a
man may do any thing.'
FROM iv~y CELL, NASSAU HALL, Feb'uaary 26, 1825.
The success of John Q. Adams has pleased me as much as it
can have done you. As to William, when he could no longer
disbelieve the report, he left his beard to grow to a lugubrious
length in token of his chagrin.  My only fear is that the tralnquil and equitable administration of our President will'be somewhat ennuyante.  I am, like other scribblers, well enough
pleased with the reception of my essay.' It is one of those things
which attracts some attention among the good folks of Princeton, and it is amusing to hear their various conjectures as to the
author.-Byroad (to follow the items of your letter) is an author
whose imagination and genius command my respect, and whose
principles call forth my detestation.  With all his powers, however, he is often pitiful and grovelling.  Childe Harold, in my
Notwithlstanding this salvo, the habit proved seriously "deplorable,"
when his health compelled him to relinquish it.
2 n article in the National Gazette.
VOL. I.-4




74              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
view, stands far above the rest of his poems, and is the only one
which will deserve the name of a classic. HIe seems to have
been the victimll of a scepticism which rather gave scope to his
unhappy feelings and his perverted sensibility, than encouraged
him in loose and merry libertinism. I have sometimes flncied
that in his gayest passages I could discern the forced smile of a
man whose sins were a heavy burden. There is no tallc small or
great in this corner of the world. Dr. RPomeyn is dead-very
suddenly. Dr. Milledoller is to succeed Dr. Livingston in the
Theological chair at New Brunswick.  Upon the 22dl I had the
pleasure of being fastened into my room at 2 A. M. and hearing
the bell rung, horns blown,, and the like noises for a season.
I wish I had something interesting to send clown to you, but
there is an entire dearth.  There is a court lately instituted
among the students which affords them a good deal of talk and
amusement.  Addison acts as Clerk.
Ha-ve you ever read Madame de Stael's Germazy?  She has
been well denominated par excellence the genius of her age. It
is a work full of deep thoughts which, wonderful to tell, strike
you as true and yet as new acquaintances. It is a most pleasing
exercise to the mind to be engaged in the perusal of such a book.
She wanders continually from  her subject, but ever with her
reader's full consent. I read her essay on the " influence of literature on society" with less pleasure.  Anatomny-This has
been my amusement for some time; with the assistance of some
dry bones, and some elegant engravings by Lizcars of Edinburgh,
I have obtained a pretty good insight into Osteology. I should
like the opportunity of attending a few clissections.
You talk about a sermon.  What sermon?  Well: let it be
any sermon. Perhaps you mean one of my sermons; permit me
to say that I am afraid it would do you very little good. lMy
thoughts are so inefficient with regard to my own habits and practices, that I have very little hope that they will be more effectual when consigned to paper. Nothing to which I put my hand
ever dissatisfies me so much as sermon writing. I am enough
chagrined after every effort of this kind to throw the thing in the
fire. Whatever complacency I may feel in any thing else, my
sermons are truly mortifying to me. The ideas seem of the
most unspeakably trite and shallow kind. As a sermohi, you
could not be pleased with one of mine. Let me recommend you
to one Chalmers, or to good old Davies: as my conmposition
you cannot need it, after having so full a specimen of all that I
can do in that department. I could fill to work now and finish
the sheet with an exhortation; and if I thought that I could
induce you by it to come to the rational determination of seek



1824-1825.                       75
ing an interest in that salvation which you must know to be paramount in its claims to all other things, I would gladly do so;
but after all the unanswerable arguments of Dr. Wilson, and all
the pungent appeals of Mr. Skinner, what could I say?  Why
has religion crept out of our letters so entirely?. Perhaps it is
imy fault.- I am indeed glad that we have got clear of polemics,
but I am by no means satisfied inl conscience at letting the whole
matter rest. You surely know me well enough to give me
notice when my advances on this subject are unpleasant, and
with this safeguard I wish you would let me know how far your
resolutions have been matured by all the excellent instructions
which you have from the pulpit.  Like the other gifts of God,
religion is put mzediately in our power; and while the established means are neglected, we must stand self-convicted.  Let
me beg your devout attention to these things.
I received a letter the other day from an old friend, who is
very calmly awaiting death with the consumption. In him, as
in many others, I have an instance of the power of religion to
despoil death of his terrors. It is perhaps foolish to express such
unfounded anticipations, but I have long looked forward to an
early death, and inl truth I see no reason to deprecate it, unless
it be, that I might act a more faithful part in future.
NASSAU HALL, Jlarch 22, 1825.
I preached another sermon last night, [a Seminary exercise,]
with as little satisfaction.to myself as ever I experienced. I do
sincerely hope that I shall conjure up a little more life when I
come to the real work. And now to say a little upon the very
interesting topic which has often entered into our correspondence,
I mean the matter of personal piety, permit me to say that
you are mistaken if you suppose that I will under present circumstances exhort you to a mere use of means, however assiduous
and sincere, as the mode of securing salvation. I will not say to
you as a minister of your city once said, " Go on, persevere, be
encouraged, I have known a woman seek Christ. six and thirty
years, and at last find him."  No: this I consider at once unscriptural and cruel. I say, repent and believe.  Do it now:
delay not a moment; and instead of being encour agecl, be
alarmed at the awful truth, that every day you remain impenitent your burden of guilt, and your lot of wrath increases.
Without faith it is inmpossible to please him; and whatever you
do before repentance is odious in his sight. Though you should
weep tears of blood, and macerate your body by prayer and fasting, nothing would rescue you from the curse until you submit
to God. Compare this statement with Scripture, and "judge ye




T6              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
what is right."  Do you say that you calnot pray aright, &c.?
Let me quote from a work of the excellent Andrew Fuller a passage in point: "'What shall we say then   Seeing he cannot
repent, cannot find it in his heart to. encleavo'er to repent, cannot
pray sincerely for a heart to make such an endeavour;-shall
we deny his assertions, (viz. of inability,) and tell him he is not
so wicked as he makes himself?. This might be more than we
should be able to maintain.  Or shall we allow them, and acquit
him of obligation?  Rather, ought we not to return to the place
where we set out, admonishing him as the Scriptures do, to
repgent ancd believe the gospel; declaring to him that what he calls
his inability is his sin and' shame; and warning him against the
idea of its availing him another day."  I can fancy you rising in
revolt against such doctrine: I remember when my heart was
stoutly and bitterly set against it; and yet no sooner had I
gained any knowledge of the truth and of my own heart, than I
was convinced that nothing prevented my submitting to the
righteousness of God, but a wilful, wicked, stubborn aversion to
his most holy law, and to the humbling terms of salvation.  I
know that I can in no way evince the sincerity of my friendship
more, than by dealing thus plainly with you. I do greatly fear
that your present. views will lead you to a kind of hardened
indifference which naturally grows more and more hopeless, and
is but the prelude to eternal death. The repentance I urge
(E-ravota, a change of mind) is a solemn and cordial determination
of soul, to renounce sil as a thing odious, loathsome, and damning, and to embrace the service of God as infinitely excellent and
desirable.  I entreat you to make this most reasonable of all
determinations.  Make it this very day.  What but a wilful
enmity to God's holiness can induce you to delay   I How can
you venture, deliberately, to put off the solemn dedication of your
heart to God even until to-morrow?
NASSAU HALL, April 2, 1825.
You are right in your suppositionl that ministerial functions
will suit me better than the tedious business of teaching. I say
this with great pathos, as our semi-annual examination commences on Tuesday next.' Waiving the considerations of duty
and religion, the active labours of preaching, &ec., will be to me
peculiarly interesting; and I trust that while I live, I shall be
enabled to give myself " wholly to these things," accordin  to
the Apostolic injunction.
Law's " Call " is a book read by vast numbers of people. It
He spent part of the vacation which followed, in a tour to Niagara.




1824 —1825.'7
is a sine qua non among the 1Methodists; and while there is
much in it to which I must except, I consider it a beautiful specinen of moderated asceticism.  Gibbon says of the author,
that he preached not a word more than he practised. Since you
are dipping into practical works, let me recommend the following to be put on your cataloguej all of which are excellent, though
far inferior to Law in style. Baxter's " Call to the Uneconverted; Edwards' " Sermons," (Pres. Jonathan,) such as are addressed
to the unconverted; Davies's ibid.; and " The Life of God in the
Soul of Man," by Scougal, a book which was blessed to the conversion of Whitefield.  Let me suggest, too, the propriety of
allottillg a certain portion of time for such reading, and adhering
rigidly to your plan. We need every constraint to pin our
minds down to a subject naturally unpleasant. Our [Princeton]
paper, or, as it is pompously yclept, the " American J ournal," de
omnzibus rebus, et quibusdcans aliis, has'commenced its course.
To-morrow, if a cold the twin of that incubus I had last spring
will permit me, I hope to sit down at the table of the Lord in
commemoration of his death.  WVe expect an addition of nine
or ten new members.  With proper. sentiments and affections,
such seasons cannot fail to be anzong the happiest and most
sacred of a man's life. Such they have sometimes been to me,
and oh that you would cast in your lot with us, and taste and see
that the Lord is gracious. You are undoubtedly convinced that
your defect is a defect of heart, and not of understanding;  that
you view divine truth in what Bacon calls "a dry light."  Now
to remnedy this let me exhort you to force your mind to the solemn and daily contemplation of those subjects which seem most
calculated to excite tender emotion, viz., your aggravated sins,
the mercy and love of Christ, &c., &c. This contemplation is best
of all attained in prayer, therefore cry mightily unto God for a'Lnew heart" and a "right spirit"; bearing in mind all the
while that your solemni and tremendous obligation to keep the
whole law is no whit diminished, and that you do nothing satisfactory to God until you believe in Him who has kept the whole
law for you.
NASSAU HALL, May 21, 1825.
I have just come from a room full of laughing girls, whlo had
most of the accomplishments which make girls interestinglaughingl, simpering, asselnting, languishing, bricling, blushing,
capering, &c., &c., to the end of the chapter dte laqecis femininis:
yet I return to my room with as deep a shade-not on my brow,
(for there my bitterest thoughts selclom wear any wrinkles,) but
over my mind. But why do I tell you this-except to indulge
that strange egotism which talks of self, and seeks for syim



78              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
pathy where it is least deserved. The bloom  of the opening
summer has less charms than usual for me, and I am denied
even the comfort of a fireside, and a friend, where to unveil my
strange-and  you will say —irrational gloom.  I can easily
imagine to myself the clusters of black coats, who clog your
streets, [the General Assembly,] and the crowds with itching ears
ewho runl after a favourite preacher. To me, Philadelphia would
be doubly dull at this crisis; I should choose to make imyv visits
at a more quiet season; and if matters and things go on.
smoothly, I flatter myself with the expectation of spending some
Sunday with you, during the ensuing summer.
I have exchanged mathematics for the classics, in which it has
now become my duty to instruct. Horace has usurped the place
of Euclid, and I have devolved the xs and ys to llmy friend Aikman.l  As far as mere ease is concerned, it would have been
much more agreeable to have stuck to the old track, which a
year's toil had made familiar.
NAssAU HALL, May 28, 1825.
Niagara marks an epoch in my history. Its thunders will
always rise in my recollection when sublimity is mentioned. I
have said, and like to say little about it, because I find all words
which I can use utterly inadequate to convey my ideas. I have
seen many drawings, and read many descriptions of Niagara, but
nothing produces any thing like the true impression, except a
little mor ceau of poetry [by Brainard] you once sent me, and the
description by Howison in a back volume of Blackwood.
You seem desperately enznuyzy.  Read Gibbon's autobiography again; it rouses me like a bugle: or Boswell's Johnson,
or Butler's Reminiscences: or sit down to hard study. Add a
few grains of mathematics, and a quant. stuf. of Lee's Pills —and
you are a sound man.
I keep myself alive by constant delving: four or five hours a
day at languages; relieved by a little Biography, and a little
Mineralogy, with which last study I have been amusing myself
a little. Any thing which you can communicate upon the subject will be interesting. No scientific book has ever interested
me more than the Geological Essay of Cuvier.
Did I mention to you the pleasing acquisition I have made
of a new acquaintance in Lieut. David Hunter, U. S. A., of Fort
Snelling, near the Falls of St. Anthony? He is the most agreeable soldier I know. We met at Gen. Porter's, Black Rock, and
travelled in company. I-e has resided nearly three years, 700
miles from any permanent white settlement, among the Sioux
The late Rev. Alexander Ailkman.




1824 -1825.                      79
Indians. From him I learnt more of that region than I have
ever got elsewhere.: I have a huge desire to cross the ocean,
" but when, or where? "-" Audax omnia perpeti, Gens humana
ruit per vetitum."
NAssAU HALL, WTednesday, June 8, 1825.
For a month or two my mind has been in a state of painful
vacillation between the wish to leave my present situation in
autumn, and my desire to prolong my course of study, in compliance with the wishes of my father and friends. The peculiar
circumstances of our profession render the future a gloomy void.
In Canada or Missouri, in Maine or Florida, I may be found three
years hence-but in which of these directions I shall go, no
human soul can form any reasonable conjecture..For myselfas to situation, I am perfectly indifferent; always provided that
I escape a large city. I am not averse to commencing with a
Virginia Mission, though I have no idea of ever settling there.
I should greatly prefer a high northern latitude; yet even there
the summer (to me the trying season) might be intensely hot.
I am too lazy ever to be a profound preacher; too desultory in
my studies to secure rigidl mental discipline; too whimsical to
be contented; too cool and sleepy to be popular; too cautious
to be efficient. With these rare qualifications, I can swim down
the stream of life as well in one bark as another. To see me
after dinner, gazing drowsily out of my window, with a book,
mayhap upside down, or lounging among the silent walks of the
vicinity, with my colleagues,-one would scarcely prognosticate
much with regard to my future usefulness. I have so long acted
on that delectable adage of Shakespeare's, —" No profit grows
where is no pleasure taken," —that I suffer my days and nights
to flit away with scarce a memorial left in my memory or understanding. ~ Writing is an unfailing amusement; but as to writing
about Niagara, I should just as soon think of writing upon Milton's Paradise Lost. All my writing, too, goes now into our
own journal. My principal rambles at Niagara were on the
Canada side. Under the sheet of water at Table Rock, I was
silly enough to go some distance with no increase of satisfaction.
The Niagara River was high at the time, though probably not at
its maximum. I have been informed, however, that an increase
of water, by making the inequalities of the rock less, diminishes
the sublimity of the cataract. Brock's Monument I thought a
pitiful thing-by no means equal to your shot tower.
PRINCETON, JTune 21, 1825.
Let me, for want of something better, tell you what I have




80              WHVIILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
been doing this morning. At a quarter before 5 o'clock, skipped
out of bed with uncommon alacrity, and set out upon an exploring expedition in company with my good friend, Prof. Halsey,
and Mlr. Finch, member of the Brummagemia Geological Society,
a HIenglishman, and a natural Istorian. Through lanes, and
woods, and marshes, and meadows we made our way to a stream
called Pretty Brook, alias Petty's Brook, which is the principal
branch of Stony Brook.  We traced this stream a mile or two,
catching mussels, terrapins, bull-frogs, et hoc genus omne, picking weeds and flowers to which I found sesquipedalian names
attached, examining the "red sandstone formation" (observe my
proficiency) upon which Princeton is situated, and wading through
puddles, and rivulets, until my feet were soaking. To variegate
the scene, we0 went in to bathe in a mill-pond,-swarn for about
forty-five minutes, anlld ttaking up our baggage, reached the college at 9 o'clock.  Sipped six cups of tea with the professor,
looked very knowingly over a new invoice of minerals, and
found myself at 10 in No. 25, where I now sit waiting every
moment'the three Freshmen. Having despatched a passage of
the Anabasis, (I use the word in the double sense of finishing and
murdering,) I proceed to apswer your letter. As to inducements
[to remain in Tutorship] they are many. I cannot ask more
retirement, pleasanter conapany, greater literary and religious advantaes, access to books, contiguity to the cities, competent support, good air-in fine, all externals that can make a man contented, than I have now, and have too, in. the very bosom  of
our own fiumily, and anmicd  y most pleasing early recollections.
As it respects the money matters, with my present $400, board,
fuel, servants, library, &c., I am in a better situation than many
ministers who have a wife and family to boot. In truth, nothing
but a deep conviction of duty will take me from Princeton-lmy
second birth-place-the birth-place of all within me that can distinguish me from a mere animal. The year just closed, has been
the happiest, beyond comparison, in my life.
I have been turning my attention towards hMineralogy and
Geology as a matter of amusement. I wish you wouldc do the
same; it would give us something to talk about, render travelling more interesting, and keep us alive in the warm months.
You have great facilities, and the Schuylkill miinerals are noted.
Te might accommodate one another by an exchange of specimens, though, by the by, I have none to barter. Somle pieces of
Tale and Mica from your vicinity would please me. Is there
such a place as the Adelphi Mills-some such name, four miles
from  Philadelphia? I am told that there are fine specimens of
graphic granite there, &c., &c. I have just read in addition to




1824-1825.                       81.
Cuvier, Haydein's Geological Essays, am digging into Cleaveland,
omitting for the present his Crystallography, and comparing the
minerals here with his descriptions. I hate to be alone, and
want your countenance. We have lately received for our Mineralogical cabinet a box of Italian specimens, presented by R.
Lenox, Esq., of N. Y. They contain, besides volcanic productions, many beautiful petrifactions of fish, perfectly preserved,
and of flowers so distinct, that you would think them artificial
castings; also an extensive hortus siccus of Italian flowers. Mr.
Halsey has already added about 250 articles to the cabinet, and
is every day turning in something new. We expect to get Dr.
Hosack's likeness to adorn the room where his donations are
deposited. He is one of the few Alumni who remember Alma
Mater.
Summerfield has indeed gone to his rest; for truly I never
doubted less with regard to any man's salvation. He bore the
insignia of a crucified Saviour too manifestly and constantly, to
leave any doubt as to his union with him. I have two letters
from him which I prize, as you may suppose, with a reverence
and affection most peculiar. In my view of his character, his
public performances, remarkable as they were, form a part far
less prominent than his private manners, virtues, and Christian
amiability. I never expect to see his like.
PRINCETON, July 4, 1825.
On this day of tumult and outrageous mirth, I am glad of an
opportunity to escape, and have a little discourse with you,
even on paper. I confess that I have not patriotism enough to
get drunk on this joyful anniversary, or to take pleasure in seeing others so; or discernment enough to trace the connection
between the exultation of freemen, and the squibs, cannons, and
brutal sports of a mad populace. You have, however, a situation infinitely more favourable for speculations of this nature.
The -   you mention cannot be from Kentucky-we never had
such a man. If it is --   from -, a lank, thin, limber-kneed
man, with a face just like Voltaire, (in Lavater,) and a voice which,
in prayer, preserves an unvaried monotone-I know the man;
staunch in his orthodoxy, a born Polemic, yet, unless changed,
as void of taste as of politeness; yet pious, zealous, harsh, imprudent, studious. I have never been so fully sensible of the
beauty of Sir William Jones's style, as in a late perusal of his
anniversary addresses to the Asiatic Society-a series of learned
and interesting discourses, worthy of the character of that great
man. An old Seminary friend, Theodore D. Woolsey, the profoundest classic I ever knew, is about to sail for Europe: he has
VOL. I.- 4




82              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
been two years tutor in Yale, [afterwards President.] Waterbury is going on a Bible Society agency through New England.
Christmas is married to Miss Jones of New York. Your humble servant is busy in preparing for an ordeal before the presbytery of New Brunswick at their August meeting.  I hope, as I
have already told you, I believe, to pay a visit this autumn to
my native State, to climb the blue mountains upon which my
eyes were turned almost as soon as they were opened upon any
thing,.to see friends at the head of families, who were infants
when I was last among them, and to search for the graves of my
ancestors, and the spots where their youthful days were passed.
My dreams of a transatlantic pilgrimage still float, almost
daily, in my disordered imagination.  My thoughts begin to
rove, and before I know what I am doing, I find myself at London, Oxford, G6ttingen, Florence, Constantinople, Alexandria, or
Jerusalem. What is to be done with such a truant fancy? I
fear that in a paroxysm I shall beg Southard [Secretary of the
Navy] to give me a chaplaincy on some armed vessel-bah!
what am I talking about? I -shall be sufficiently schooled out
of these vagaries by one year's labour in the backwoods.
Pray can you recommend any of the steel pens which are
advertised?  I shall want such a utensil in travelling.  On Friday last 34 carriages (stage coaches and hacks) passed through
Princeton on their way to New York. What mania possesses
your citizens? Hogan, the Ex-Catholic, is building a mansion
(on dit) near Trenton. He came on Sunday, a few weeks ago, to
Chief Justice Ewing, and requested him to sign some instrument
of writing which he brought. Mr. Ewing told him that it was
not his custom to transact secular business on the Lord's day, and
that it would be moreover invalid, and dismissed the pious Greek
priest until a more convenient season.'
PRINCETON, July 16, 1825.
The Guest [Lafayette] spent last night in this place. A
number of ladies were presented to him, and a supper, the best
our village could afford, provided. I-Ie seemed much fatigued,
and retired as soon as possible. This morning early he set out
for Point Breeze to break his fast with M. le Comte de Survilliers. There is very little afloat in the way of literature which
has much interested me. I have been reading " Townley's Illustrations of Biblical; Literature," 3 vols., 8vo; a work which for
solid entertainment I can most heartily recommend. I was led: Hogan was a Roman Catholic priest in Philadelphia, who became notorious by his resistance to the authority of his bishop, which led to a public
and bloody collision between the partisans of each.




1824-1825.                       83
from the title to expect nothing amusing, but have become almost
an antiquary by reading it. Indeed, I have always been conscious of a propensity to look over old books, relics, and monuments.  I was very much gratified in ransacking an obscure corner of our Library, to find two little manuscript common-place
books of Dr. Witherspoon, containing various memoranda in his
own handwriting, skeletons of sermons, &c.
My Grandfather, James Waddel, once preached in a little
brick church in Orange county, Va.; his predecessor was one
Mungo Marshall, whose tombstone was erected near the church.
At this time, there is not one brick of the edifice upon another;
and my mother brought me a fragment of the tomb, which the
villanous wagoners have broken to pieces. This is very near
the spot of my nativity.
PRINCETON, August 6, 1825.
I feel raised from the dead by the favourable change in the
temperature; during the reign of that scorching heat, I could
scarcely be said to live. After all possible stripping, ventilation, and refrigeration, I could only succeed in gasping and blowing over a book. A gentleman of your city who has spent the
last year principally in the tropical parts of South America, told
me this morning, that in lat. 4~ 57' North, he suffered nothing
equal to the last attack of hot weather.
I see many notices of new works, but have seen and read
none of them. Indeed, the nearer I approach the actual labours
of the ministry, the more deeply am I impressed with the importance of giving myself wholly to its great concerns. Life is
so short, my knowledge of subjects strictly belonging to my
calling so slender, the work so great, and opposition so varied
and strenuous, that I can scarcely forgive myself for wandering
among a thousand things interesting, indeed, and instructive,
but then irrelative to the grand scope of my ministrations. Putting pastorum for vatum, I may appropriate the lines of Horace,
Dienique sit quid vis simplex duntaxat et unum.
Maxima pars vatum, (pater et juvenes patri digni,)
Decipimur specie recti.
I am willing deliberately to sacrifice the character of a man
of science, of taste, of varied and elegant accomplishments,
with all its ease, honours, and emoluments, for that of a " man of
God thoroughly furnished unto all good works "-a character
which is to be sought in the study of the sacred volume. In the
recesses of the mountains I shall probably be immured, where
ardent piety and sound theology will be the qualifications most
in request. The old copy-book adage contains volumes of mean



84              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
ing, Time is short, but Art is long: and the one department of
Art, which under God I intend to devote myself to, is the art of
fishing for men.
I was apprehended on Tuesday last by the Reverend Presbytery of New Brunswick, and kept under arrest four hours;
during which time I was put to the question, regarding my
knowledge of Ecclesiastical History, Theology, and Hebrewand made to read two exercises upon passages of Scripture previously appointed.
On Monday, 8th instant, the examination of the Senior class
[college] takes place, which continues a week-more or less.
After that time six weeks of less anxiety ensue before the commencement.
I suppose entering upon the cares of this world, and departing from your relatives and home, is a thing which you put far
away. No man need desire it. It begins to assume a serious
aspect to me. Yet the cause in which I go forth is one which
ensures me every encouragement.  Never for a moment have I
regretted that religion has been my choice, or that the ministry
is to be my profession. My sole regret is that I have manifested
so little devotion in the cause, and spent no more time and
labour in forming a character suitable to the work.  With
regard to the whole matter, I can testify that the greatest happiness I have ever enjoyed has been in the exercise of religious
feelings; and that all other sources of pleasure have in the end
proved worse than nothing. I regret, therefore, that you have
never made the serious and sincere resolution to renounce all
worldly things-as a portion-and to devote yourself to God.
I know, too, that difficulties must increase, and that five years.
hence, unless a callous and confirmed indifference shall preclude
all such considerations, you will confess, if God has not renewed
your heart, that you are tenfold more unable than now to obtain
a proper spirit. I can say nothing new. But let me entreat
you, as one not without some experience in these things, to have
recourse to those means so often urged upon you; and above all,
in view of your confessed alienation from God, to relinquish sin,
and embrace the religion of the cross. You know that I speak
what is reasonable; that your acts may be such, is my earnest
prayer.
PRINCETON, August 21, 1825.
Since my examination I have found time to turn over the
"History of the French Church " by Chas. Butler —a very entertaining collection of biographical and historical notices. For
simple chasteness and perspicuity of st.yle, perfect transparency,




1824-1825.                      85
I do not know his equal; and in sketches of character, I cannot
but consider him a master. Perhaps his subjects prepossess me
in his favour. Biography has always been my favourite reading: in this I include all such developments of manners and mind
as one finds in correspondence, in anecdotes, as well as formed
characters. No kind of study so excites my enthusiasm. One
example is more to me than discourses innumerable. This I find
in the Scriptures forcibly exemplified. The history of wars and
revolutions, and discoveries, are eminently dull to me, except so
far as I find in them individual traits of character portrayed.
The history of opinion, and of mind, is all that takes much hold
of my feelings. For this reason, I never could join in the enthusiastic admiration, common to most learned men, of Gibbon,
and Hume, and Robertson; while the histories of Roscoe, and
Middleton, and even the Biographical dictionary, are delightful.
I am sure that no works have had so much influence upon my
religious feelings, as those which give the lives of pious men.
The memoirs of Martyn and Brainerd are my continual advisers.
I have this month read with high satisfaction the Memoirs of
Andrew Fuller, and Samuel Pearce, of the Baptist church. The
latter of these had a soul of heavenly mould; and the man who
can fail to love, when he reads his lifb, can have little sense of the
beauty of holiness.  Is there any thing in the Philadelphia
library which would be of advantage in studying extensively the
Ecclesiastical History of the Protestant Churches in Europe, during the eighteenth century? I should feel thankful for the names
of a few books. What- is there that will give one a tolerable
idea of South America, —its present state,-geographical divisions,-the revolutions,-their rise, progress, and issue? I am
always alive to this subject.
I should feign if I did not say, that I do earnestly desire to
see you act with decision upon those religious truths which you
profess to believe. Instruction, it would be very silly for me to
attempt. You already anticipate all that I would say. You
know the connexion between means and end. You know the
power of truth. You believe the peculiar power of God's truth
as revealed in the Bible. You know the efficiency of prayer and
reflection. Now one word: If you fail through any defect, however small, in the use of these-all apology is shut out. Let me
recommend the "Force of Truth," by Scott-and the life of
Brainerd.
PRINCETON, September 12, 1825.
Nothing in our correspondence lately has given me more
satisfaction than the resolution you express in your last, with




86              WHILE TUTOR IN COLLEGE.
respect to desultory reading. This bane of real study, (haud
inexpert2us loquor,) is opposed no less to the true enjoyment of
letters, than to deep proficiency. There must be a stretch of
mind to give the highest intellectual pleasure; and continuance
at one department of study is necessary, if we would engender
that happy enthusiasm which ensures success. None of my
studies have afforded me more gratification than those which I
have pursued with a strict method, and with an attention almost
undivided to my peculiar branches. I have merely looked at
Hopkinson's defence.' To confess the truth, I am unable to lash
myself into any warmth of interest in these details: it would be
quite as refreshing to me, to peruse the commodore's log-book.
I rejoice, however, in his acquittal. My reading has of late been
purely theological, if I except a little dipping into some of the
unequalled descriptions of the "]Faery Queene."  "Horsley's
Tracts against Priestly," I thought the most triumphant confutation I had ever read, until I fell upon "Magee on the Atonement," which I may safely declare gave me as much delight as
any book I have ever seen, of a speculative kind. The nakedness of Unitarianism is there exposed with the most invincible
argument, and the keenest satire.  " Outram  on Sacrifices,"
"Sermons de Durand and Bourdaloue," "Claude sur la Composition," &c., have taken up some of my time. I was at a friend's
house the other day, where I heard a young lady from New York
sing in exquisite style, " Like the gloom  of night retiring;"
you may be sure that my mind reverted to the soiree in
Street. I soon go beyond the reach of music, among the mountain tops of Virginia, except such music as the north wind plays
among the recesses of the hills. Look upon the map of Virginia
at the smooth face of the counties Bath, Greenbrier, and Monroe, and you will see how I shall be cradled among the cliffs.
Is there any fast, festival, or high day in any of your Popish
places in the city, shortly? I have as you know a great hankering after such things: and I have been so lamentably disappointed in my various attempts to hear Harold preach, that I
feel willing almost to travel forty miles if I had the certainty of
so doing.2  Apropos of Popery.  My good friend and correspondent, Etienne Frontis, formerly of the Seminary, is now
preaching in Monroe county, Michigan. Ie, gave notice a few
weeks ago that he would preach in French. The priests took
the alarm, and threatened excommunication to any who should
1 Of Commodore Stewart, then before a court-martial.
2 Dr. Harold was for many years the most prominent Roman Catholic
clergyman in Philadelphia; and not only as an orator, but as a polished
gentleman.




1824-1825.                      87
go near the heretic. On Sunday morning the Priest, (Bellami,)
who is just from  France and knows not a word of English,
preached on the subject; said the Protestants were divided into
hundreds of sects, used a corrupt and false Bible, and that no
good Catholic would go. Frontis made his discourse almost
entirely from Scripture quotations, using the Catholic authorized
version of De Sacy. Twenty of the Catholics heard him. The
next Sunday Bellami said it was a pack of lies, that he was un
ministre de d6mon, and the like gentle expressions, and excommunicated five persons. In the evening, at vespers, he looked
round, and saw one of these men in his usual place; he threw
off his vestments, and called on the people to turn out the heretic. "Turn him out yourself," said a loud voice from the
crowd. Two men pulled off their coats to assist the priest, but
the culprit, who had hitherto requested them not to interrupt his
devotions, put himself into an attitude of carnal defence, and
threatened to knock down the first who should touch him. None
ventured on so stubborn a heretic. This excommunication was
done by order of the Bishop Richard, who lives at Detroit, is a
Jesuit, and a member of Congress from that territory.
I find it rather difficult to obey you with regard to disbelieving all reports of the yellow fever. We have some stories quite
plausible of the existence of that malady in your city. However, I trust it will prove false. There have certainly been several cases in New Jersey, and at Bristol. It requires, I believe,
some rare symptoms to indicate yellow fever to your Board of
Health.




CHTAPTER IV.
LETTERS WHILE  A LICENTIATE.
1825 —1827.
NEw BRUNSWICK, October 19, 1825.1
Where should I be but in New Brunswick?  Here therefore
I am, attending the meeting of the Synod of New Jersey, and
enjoying the company of one or two friends.  On returning
home, I spent part of a day, and might spend many, in looking
over the library of Professor Patton, which I had never before
seen. In. his own department, (languages,) his collection is superior to any thing I ever saw. HIe has the best editions, ancient
and modern, of all the classics; and every book which can be named
affording any facility in these studies. I found there also a uniform edition of the whole range of Italian literature; and all the
German writers of eminence.  Among other curiosities which
his residence in Europe enabled him to pick up, he showed me a
Dante of A. D. 1497, and an immense work containing views of
all the ancient ruins of Rome.  His collection of Atlases and
Plates is noble indeed. I went to Freehold on Saturday and
preached twice. The only business of importance which has
presented itself as yet to the Synod, is the case of two complaints; one is from  the congregation of Wall street, N. Y.,
against the Presbytery of Elizabethtown, who have refused to put
their call into the hands of Dr. McDowell: another is the appeal
of -, who has been suspended from the ministry of the Gospel.
20th.-Mr. Hamilton, of Newark, preached a very long sermon last night upon Slavery.
1 Mr. Alexander was licensed as a probationer for the ministry, October
4, 1825, by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in session at the village of
Cranbury. His trial-sermon was on John iii. 8. The first discourse, under
his license, was preached in the lecture-room of the Cedar Street church,
New York, on the 8th October, from Jeremiah ii. 19. On the next day,
which was Sunday, he repeated the sermon in one of the churches of
Brooklyn, and preached in the Cedar Street church from Galatians ii. 16.




1825-1827.                        89
HOME, November 14, 1825.
I am so shortly to bid adieu to Princeton that I am more
sensible than ever of the pleasures it has afforded me as a home.
Since I saw you, I have been called to preach every Lord's day;
and as this has always been out of Princeton, it has laid me
under the necessity of riding up and down continually. Brunswick detained me a willing prisoner during the session of Synod;
thence I went to Freehold-Trenton-Lawrenceville-Cranbury
— and have just arrived here, after riding in the face of a cold
November storm.
From your letter, you seem to be truly alive in Philadelphia.
Surely you have no excuse for not being orators, when so much
eloquence is sounding in your ears. I have been introduced to a
Dr. Barber, an Englishman; but as he is of H. M. navy, it cannot be the lecturer [on elocution] of whom you tell. Griscom,
vou remember, speaks at some length of Thelwall and his system. I have no faith in these systems-being of the creed
" Orator nascitur" &c.  The Seminary has commenced with
more than a hundred students; among the rest a coloured man
from  Schenectady —a very sensible, genteel personage.  Our
Legislature gave me amusement while I was in Trenton. The
motion for an adjourned " Setting " (so the mover proposed it)
was lost. I saw Seixas and his [deaf and dumb] pupils there,
seeking patronage. Some of our Princeton folks have petitioned
for a bank. What next 2 The proposed canal [Delaware and
Raritan] will come, it is thought, within a mile and a half of
Princeton. We are pleased with the thought of being able then
to get Lehigh coal, with less expense of transportation.
My departure towards Virginia is fixed (Deo volente) at the
1st December. I feel not a little anxious with regard to my
future course Yet two things support me: 1st. I have devoted
myself to a good work, and am willing to be spent in it. 2d. I
am under the care of a merciful Providence, by which all things
will be conducted aright. Something of my own insufficiency I
feel-deeply feel-and sometimes am  conscious of an ardent
desire to live only for the work of Christ: but alas! my ordinary tempers and manners savour little of the cross. Yet I
know the excellence of what I try to preach, and am ready at all
hazards to proclaim it, and recommend it to others.
BALTIMORE, )ecember 5, 1825.
The introduction you were so good as to give me to Mr.
Laussat' has proved a source of much satisfaction: his company
Antony Laussat, then a student of law, and afterwards a member of




90               WHILE  A LICENTIATE.
rendered agreeable the passage which would otherwise have been
almost insufferable. To him I refer you for all the curiosities
of our journey, viz., the circus riders, the odd and ludicrous disputes of the stage coach, the enlightened Senators, &c., &c., to the
end of the chapter on steamboat adventures. On arriving here
I went to Barnum's great establishment, which, extensive as it
is, sinks to nothing in comparison with a new hotel which he is
erecting, and which is larger than the New York City Hotel.
After breakfast, I went to the house of the Rev. Mr. Nevins.
He resides in a very large and handsome mansion in Belvidere
street. No one could be more cordial and friendly than he has
proved himself.  On Sunday morning I heard Mr. Nevins
preach, and there is no man living, whom, with my present
knowledge of men, I should prefer to him as a preacher after my
own heart. In the afternoon I filled his pulpit, and at night that
of Dr. Glendy. At the latter place, I was pleased with discovering, after sermon, Mr. Laussat. Had I discovered him before,
I should have felt less at ease. Last night I was inveigled into
an address at the Monthly Concert of prayer.' Baltimore surpasses my highest expectations.  I looked for much splendour in
this great emporium and thoroughfare, but so much elegance, and
neatness, and commercial bustle, and public improvement, I was
not prepared to find. And the people whom I have as yet seen,
are in manners and kind attention, superior to any class of persons I have ever known. There is something in the dialect of
the Marylanders, especially as it flows from female lips, which
is truly enchanting, being a golden mean between the curt and
succinct enunciation (ut ita dicam) of the Yankee, and the fullmouthed rotundity and carelessness of the Virginian.  It is
worth your while to come to Baltimore, were it only to see the
painting by Paulzin Guerin, presented to the Cathedral here by
Louis XVIII.  Nothing in the arts ever so transfixed me. It is
the taking down Jesus from the cross. The Cathedral itself I
take to be the noblest piece of ecclesiastical architecture in the
United States. It has a noble simplicity of design which enables
you at a coup d'oeil to apprehend its vast expression of sublimity.
It is filled with paintings.  The Unitarian synagogue which
stands opposite is elegant. The Exchange contains a large hall
or dome similar in its impression to the interior of your Bank.
The Atheneum, Masonic Hall, Court House, Washington Monthe Philadelphia bar, but removed by death at an early period of what had
already become a distinguished career. He died in 1833.
1 On Wednesday of the same week he preached in the lecture-room of
the First Church, and on the following Lord's day twice in the Second
Church, (Dr. Glendy's,) and once at the Orphan Asylum.




1825-1827.                      91
ument, and Monument in honour of the battle, &c., are all, in
their several details, truly interesting public works. I am in
suspense with respect to my movements; shall probably go to
Washington next Monday, and thence on through ]Fredericksburg to Petersburg. Mr. Laussat kindly called, but I was so
unfortunate as to be absent. If you write within a week, please
to direct here, to the care of the Rev. Mr. Nevins.
PETERSBURG, December 23, 1825.
When I came into Virginia, it was with little notion of the
manner in which my time would be engrossed by necessary business, and constant avocations. Scarcely had I reached this place,
before I found myself under commands to hold forth at the rate
of five or six times in the week; and in addition, there is hardly
a day inll which nine or ten hours are not taken up in giving and
receiving visits; and these not your short, formal city calls;
but bona ide visitations, a houseful at a time, enlivened by the
peculiarly abundant good cheer of this bountiful land, and the
copious flowing of rum toddy, and the like refections. Could
you see me galloping in the neighbourhood upon a high-blooded
horse, in company with fellow equestrians, and a carriage load
of beauty and vivacity, you would declare that all the Virginian
in me had been at once resuscitated and matured. Corn bread
and bacon, oysters and hominy, and toddy, dining out every
day, and tongue wagging every hour, have kept my blood well
in motion. But you wish to hear something of the country.
Petersburg, as you know, is the county seat of Dinwiddie, situated upon the river Appomatox. It is an old settlement encircled by hills on almost every side. Population 8,000, and
thickly built upon very uneven ground. In external appearance
it would strike you, like most Southern towns, as squalid and
slovenly: yet there are not a few very splendid mansions in this
vicinity. The principal trade was once in tobacco; this has
now been transferred to Richmond; and the markets here are
chiefly stocked with cotton, which is becoming the staple article
among planters here. As to society; I am free to declare,
that I have never so enjoyed social and Christian intercourse in
my life, as here. Without trying it, you can have no conception
of what Southern hospitality means. After all my preparations
and previous knowledge, I find myself daily surprised with the
winning cordiality and kindness of the people. And this not
merely in expression and words. Every house seems at once a
home, and every individual devotes himself heartily and with
manifest satisfaction to your service. If you look for splendour,
you would be disappointed, except in the particulars of servants'




92                WHILE A LICENTIATE.
attendance and diet. The tables of the seaboard Virginians are
worthy of their fame. I am sometimes almhnost disconcerted with
the multitude of servants waiting at table. Four of us were
attended the other night by at least six genteel waiters. An old
bachelor of great wealth, who is laid up with the gout, gives me
the freedom of his spacious mansion, where I walk in and out at
my pleasure.- I should feel no hesitation at any time to take a
horse and servant from his premises, and ride out ten miles to
dinner; and such a liberty would evidently gratify him. There
are in my uncle's [Dr. Benjamin I-I. Rice] congregation about
twenty-five young men, who profess religion, and are more active
in the cause than many ministers. From this you may judge
what the people in general are; and you will not judge too
favourably. Among these are rich merchants in the Liverpool
trade, lawyers, and physicians. The number of agreeable and
pious ladies is remarkable; and the easy access to everybody's
[house] and heart, more free than I had ever expected in my
fondest hopes. A man who comes here, must come with some
equestrian skill, or expect to get his neck broken. I have to
ride through narrow passes in the hills, going to make visits in
the country, where you would suppose a horse could scarcely
balance himself, and on steeds which seem to be trained to curvet and run away. Let me assure you that I have been more
than once in " bodily fear." Labour is growing upon me. I am
engaged to assist my uncle for a month, and have as much regular duty as though I were actually settled. This is well: it
fills my thoughts, and directs my attention to the work of my
vocation; and my daily experience is, that the world has fewest
cares, and my heart purest peace, when I can in some measure
live among earthly things without expecting my pleasures from
them. Never shall I regret having made religion my choice,
though it is every day my lamentation, that it has through my
wilful inattention and unfaithfulness so little moderated my
worldly affections, and lifted me above sublunary joys.
PETERSBURG, January 2F7, 1826.
You can have little idea of the manner in which I am pulled
from post to pillar, or you would not wonder at my long silence.
In Virginia, we pay longer visits, and more of them, than I have
ever known anywhere else: and as much of my business consists
of visiting among the people, especially the members of the
church, I find my hours running away from me. Question.
What news in Petersburg. Ans. None of any importance since the
fire, which consumed about 50 houses. A number of attempts
have been made within a few weeks to fire the town; which are




1825-1827.                      93
traced to the negroes. One woman has confessed, and is in gaol.
Item. The noted Wm. B. Giles, after having proposed himself
as a candidate for the Senate and the HIouse of Representatives,
has been foiled in both attempts. Dr. Crump, of Cumberland,
is elected to fill the place of John Randolph.  Quest. 2d. What
strikes you as being new or remarkable? Ans. The whole face
of society exhibits an appearance very different from what one
perceives in the North. Slavery of itself is enough to stamp a
marked character upon the Southern population. The number
of blacks which I met in the streets at first, struck me with surprise, but now every thing has become familiar. When I consider how much of the comfort, luxury, and style of Southern
gentlemen would be retrenched by the removal of the slave population, I can no longer wonder at the tenacity with which they
adhere to their pretended rights. The servants who wait upon
genteel families, in consequence of having been bred among
refined people all their lives, have often as great an air of gentility as their masters. The comfort of slaves in this country is
greater, I am persuaded, than that of the free blacks, as a body,
in any part of the United States. They are no doubt maltreated
in imany instances; so are children: but in general they are well
clad, well fed,- and kindly treated. Ignorance is their greatest
curse, and this must ever follow in the train of slavery. The
bad policy and destructive tendency of the system is increasingly
felt: you hear daily complaints on the subject from those who
have most servants. But what can they do?  Slavery was not
their choice. They cannot and ought not to turn them loose.
They cannot afford to transport them; and generally the negroes
would not consent to it. The probable result of this state of
things is one which philanthropists scarcely dare contemplate.
I cannot (to change the subject) say enough of the freedom and
cordiality with which the social intercourse here is conducted.
You must come and see for yourself. The money which in the
North is spent upon the houses and furniture, is here laid out
upon the table. I presume that no people in the world "live
higher " than the Low Virginians, or Tuckahoes, and by these
terms I mean all who live on this side of the Blue Ridge. There
is a suavity and grace in the manners of gentlemen of the first
rank in this State, and a peculiar fascination in their elocution,
which you will understand better if you have ever seen Tazewell, Clay, or John Randolph.  The ladies have a frankness
which surprises a Northern mall at first, and leads him to think
that he is receiving special condescensions, when nothing more
than common civility is intended.
The trade of Petersburg received a dreadful blow from the fire




94                 WHILE A LICENTIATE.
of 1815, in which five hundred houses were destroyed; and is daily
suffering from the transfer of the tobacco trade to Richmond.
The chief dependence now is upon cotton, the culture of which is
becoming an object of attention here. About 30,000 bales of
the new crop have already come into town. The number of
commission merchants here is very large, in proportion to the
population. I suppose half only of the heads of families here
are Virginians. The trade is maintained by Yankees, Irishmen,
and Scotchmen.  I find my time taken up altogether by my
duties as a preacher. There is no toleration here for reading
sermons; so that my extemporary powers are called constantly
into requisition. My business is one altogether delightful. In
proportion to the zeal with which I devote myself to religion, I
ever find my happiness increase; and I cannot but hope, that
after having so long thought of religion theoretically, you will
at length cast in your lot with us, and taste of the sweetness of
piety, as a matter of experience and practice. I need not pretend to say with how much joy I would hail you as a Christian
brother, if not a brother in the ministry of reconciliation.  Will
you not give [these] solemn claims a new hearing, and will you
not seek [grace to] overcome those bonds which fasten you to
the world. Of the guilt and danger of impenitence, it is needless
for me to warn you; but let me say, Why will you not determine, immediately, and at all hazards, to beseech of God to
grant you the influences of his Spirit. 1
CHARLOTTE COUNTY, VA., May 19, 1826.
If you wish to know where Charlotte Co. lies, let me tell
you that it is to be found in that rich plateau of Southern Virginia which has the fine Roanoke for its boundary on the south,
just where that river is formed of the Staunton and the Dan. It
is, moreover, the county of John Randolph, that greatest of oddities; for while I account him a great genius, an orator absolutely
unrivalled in America, a ripe scholar, aye, and a consistent politician, I cannot help thinking him crazed. He arrived last night
at his residence (Roanoke) in this neighbourhood, having travelled from Washington on horseback in two days, and after looking at his multitude of horses, he set out, about 8 o'clock, on his
return to Washington. He has between three and four hundred
negroes, who are treated with great kindness, and regard him
with a feeling allied to adoration. This is a rich and fertile
1 He remained in Petersburg until the middle of March. From the 19th
of that month until the 9th of April, he was preaching in Richmond; on
the 11th he preached in Petersburg, and on the 16th preached his first sermon in the church at Charlotte Court House, of which he was afterwards
the pastor.




1825-1827.                        95
region, producing great quantities of prime tobacco, and, of
course, growing wealthy.  The manners of the people are plain,
frank, hospitable, and independent; proud of their Virginianism,
and all its peculiarities. I suppose that no set of people in the
world live more at their ease, or indeed more luxuriously, so far
as eating and drinking are concerned. No farmer would think
of sitting down to dinner with less than four dishes of meat, or
to breakfast without several different kinds of warnm bread.  It
is, moreover, (I speak of this county,) a moral country; no
gambling, no dissipation or frolicking. The spring, with all its
freshness, has opened upon us, and the early fruits are pouring
in abundantly. The face of the country exhibits no great variety;
indeed, the forests of pine in many places obstruct the prospect
altogether. All my moving from place to place is on horseback;
and I ride from sixty to seventy miles in mere visits to the people whom I serve.
I wish you would pay a visit to this part of the world. It is
a region through which no great road passes, and of course
hardly any travellers; whoever visits it must come on horseback.
I am about two days' ride from Richmond.  Mr. Randolph is
the Magnus Apollo of this county.  Every one knows and fears
him.  His power of sarcasm and invective is such that no one
pretends to contradict him. He has three several plantations in
this county, all of them extensive. His horses (I mean those
which are never used) are worth, I suppose, about $8,000.  In
conversation he is exactly what he is in the Senate; and from
almost every one you will hear some of his repartees, or sarcasms. I think the Southern people begin to manifest some disposition to uphold Jackson in the next election. I have never
yet met with a friend of Adams in this State.  Nota bene. If
you see my mother in Philadelphia shortly, 1 commission you
to take her to some good miniature painter, and have her likeness. I want it small and portable, so as to be carried about my
person. I leave the style to your taste. Remember, it is not to
be framed for hanging up. Take notice, no " quaint device" of
playthings in the hand; either bird, bible, or book, bodkin or
barnacles, (I have seen them all.)T
RETIREMENT, CHARLOTTE CO., January 26, 1827.
I have been waiting with anxiety to hear from you, and have
In June of this year, Mr. Alexander visited Baltimore and Petersburg,
and returned to Charlotte -before the end of the month.  In July he
preached frequently at Lynchburg, and in August at Lexington and other
places in the county of Rockbridge. After this he was ill with bilious fever.
lie then made a visit to Princeton, and was in the Charlotte pulpit again
November 26.




96                WHILE A LICENTIATE.
at last concluded either that I have made a mistake in our reckoning, or that you have never received my last letter. It is
strongly impressed upon my mind that I wrote to you from
Fredericksburg. I hope that you will bring about the usual
equilibrium by a speedy reply to this letter. Were I to commence with the topic most current here, I should speak of Mir.
Randolph. His recent defeat has filled this county with chagrin,
and he will be returned for the lower House without competition. All the freeholders hereabouts treat the subject as if it
were their own personal cause. How different just at this moment. are our situations! You are enjoying all the recreations
and delights of a great city, with such a multitude of attractions
as to leave no excuse for ennui; I am almost a hermit, with no
near neighbours, with no variety of scene. If I could for a little
while drop into Carey & Lea's, [bookstore, in Philadelphia,] or
even walk down Chestnut street, it would act as an elixir. I am
ashamed that I have nothing to communicate to you; but this is
the lamentable case.  You must answer this letter in mere
charity, and give me something to think about. I wish particularly to hear what Mr. Ridgely [a fellow-student in Seminary]
is doing, where he preaches, &c.; also the state of your congregations, the ministerial squabbles, (horresco referens,) and such
matters as you know I take an interest in. I should be glad to
hear of any new books, or literary intelligence. You can scarcely
imagine what a dearth of reading there is here. I am tempted
to send on for a supply of books, but scarcely know what to
order, and have not yet received any of my salary. I think that
our friend John Q. [Adams] is gaining ground in Virginia,
though not in this quarter.  Everybody in these parts hates
him, hates the Panama measures, hates Clay, hates roads and
canals, hates internal improvement, and abominates the tariff.
General Edward Carrington is the only man who dares to lift
up his voice here in favour of the Administration: he speaks at
almost every assemblage of people, though without support, and
without converts. If you love shooting, come here; and without going off this plantation, you may bag your four dozen
quails a day, with an occasional wild turkey. Pheasants and
rabbits also abound. An acquaintance of mine has caught more
than twenty foxes this winter, and is now following his hounds
with great zeal.  Who are to be the writers for this new
["' American Quarterly"] Review? What European Magazines
are republished in Philadelphia? Any new French books of
interest? Remember me to all inquiring friends, and very affectionately to your own family, and believe me,
With sentiments of very distinguished considering, your
most obedient servant.




1825-1827.                       97
RETIREMENT, CHARLOTTE CO., VA., February 16, 1827.
I have just returned from Halifax, the county which lies between Charlotte and North Carolina, and have little else to tell
you than some of the varieties of the trip. My visit was principally to the family of Mr. Bruce, to which I beg leave to introduce you. His house is noted for its hospitality, and presents
to the bon vivant as great temptations as can well be found in
Virginia.  At Mr. B.'s, we seldom sat down to table, during the
week I spent there, with less than ten strangers. I also visited
Gen. Edward C. Carrington, who has a seat upon Dan River,
(which with the Staunton forms the Roanoke.) Gen. C. lay sick
nine weeks in Princeton during the last war, having received a
ball in his arm at Sackett's Harbour. lie is a scholar and a gentleman, and has large possessions. The information which he
has acquired in his travels in Europe, renders his.conversation
highly interesting. He is bold enough to advocate the cause of
Adams and patriotism in the midst of this perverse and Jacksonian
generation. Let me not forget to mention that Mr. Bruce proposed as a toast, at his table on Thursday last, the health of J. Q.
A., which he, I, and about three more drank with right good will.
You ask me what I am doing. It is a question soon answered:
preaching, riding, visiting my charge, and studying, principally
Hebrew. I have read a good deal of French lately, and also
twelve books of the Iliad in Greek. I would try [to write] for
the Quarterly, but I do not know what to review.  Every thing
becomes stale before it reaches me. The crocus and Persian iris
are in bloom, and the frogs begin to sing, so that you may judge
of the difference of climate. If nothing unforeseen occur to prevent, I shall be ordained on the 2d March. The solemnity of
such an investiture is well calculated to excite some deep solicitude.  Never did I feel more than at present my unfitness for
the office. There is a frivolity and worldliness in my character,
most remote from  the sanctity of the Gospel. In my best
moods, I feel great delight in its duties, and can with all my soul
recommend its doctrines and spirit to all whom I love.
VOL. I.-5




CHAPTER Y.
LETTERS WHILE PASTOR IN  VIRGINIA, AND  UNTIL
HE LEFT THE STATE.
18.29-1829.
RETIREMENT, COARLOTTE CO., VA., Marclh 13, 1827.
We are now enjoying spring in all its sweetness. I am sitting with opened windows, into which the "sweet south" is
breathing.  Our gardens are redolent with vernal fragrance.
The time of the singing of birds has come, and no country can
boast of more charms in this respect than Virginia. The wood
lark, and the mocking-bird are songsters of the first order.
Read a graphic description of the latter in Wilson's Ornithology.
They are sometimes taken to the North in cages, but in that case
you seldom hear the rich gushing of their natural strains, as
when they sit among the hawthorn bushes, and pour out melody
for hours. The ploughs are all now in motion, and with this
there arise many agreeable associations. This day I am twentythree years old; and the recurrence of a birth-day when properly viewed gives occasion for many solemn reflections.  How
much of my life has passed fruitlessly! How little have I done
in forming an elevated character! I-low many have been eminent public benefactors at this age! I feel as if my religious
proficiency had been small indeed, compared with that of many
whom I could name. Let me beg of you also, at this interesting
period of your life, to ask seriously, what stand you intend to
take with regard to the all-important matter of religion. In
church matters I have some encouragements. My congregation,
though small, is increasing, and I have reason to believe that the
attachment which the people manifest is real. Mr. Randolph is
daily expected at Roanoke. The citizens have determined to
send him to Congress. I hope to hear him speak on the first




1827'-1829.                       99
Monday in April.  His silence has been remarkable during the
last session.
I do not think it by any means incumbent upon me as an
Adams man, or consistent as a preacher, to talk much about
politics; but I am  sorely vexed from day to day at the enormities of the opposition.  My ears are forever ringing with the
cant which has becomne so current on this subject. There is
some show of reason, I must confess, in the arguments of the politicians here.  The tariff forces them to pay more for many articles, and repays them with no advantage.
On the 3cld inst. I was ordained to the work of the gospel
ministry by the Hanover presbytery. A number of clergymen
and a vast concourse of the laity were here present.  Afore than
thirty strangers lodged at this house on one night. It was a solemn service, one which I hope long to remember with feelings
of awe as well as gratitude.  Since that time I have been on a
visit to Prince Edward  [County] to assist a neighbouring
preacher.  I there saw such an instance of solitary life as I
never before witnessed.  Mrs. Spencer, a woman of nearly
eighty years of age, has lived the life, of a hermit for about thirty
years. HIer residence is a little log hut, at a distance from any
other habitation, and she suffers no living being to remain with
her during the night, or for any long period during the day.
Her victuals are cooked about half a mile of, and sent to her
once a day. She is crooked and withered; dresses always in
white linen, and in the oldest fashion.  I-Her whole time is spent
in reading the Scriptures, singing, and prayer.  Visitors sometimes have to remain nearly an hour at her door, before she concludes the prayer in which she may be engaged;  She is the
most tunearthly being I ever beheld; her conversation is pleasant
and rational; and her religion seems to be unfeigned and ardent.
You may judge of the dclifference of climate, when I tell you that
our fruit trees were in bloom, and many trees in leaf on the 10th
instant.  For about six weeks we have had weather of very mild
temperature.  Mr. [John C.] Calhoun passed through our county on the 11th inst. on his way home.  On last Monday, when
two or three thousand people were assembled at the court-house,
we had several " stump speeches," as they are called. I think
this mode of addressing the populace well calculated to advance
popular eloquence; while it gives great room  for the influence
of demagogues.  Two of the persons who spoke, were men of
talents, and even eloquence.  It is here that some of Mr. Pandolph's most brilliant essays have been made, and his style of
oratory has given a character to that of the people.




100            WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
CHARLOTTE, April 10, 1827.
I do not remember in any'" letters from the South,"'  a description of a Virginia court day, and as I know of nothing which
exhibits in more lively colours the distinctive traits of the State
character, I will employ a little time in sketching a scene of this
kind, which presented itself on Monday the 2d of April. The
court of Charlotte Co. is regularly held upon the first Monday
of every month, and there is usually a large concourse of people.
This was an occasion of peculiar interest, as the elections for
Congress and the State Legislature were then to take place.
As the day was fine, I preferred walking, to the risk of having
my horse alarmed, and driven away by the hurly-burly of such
an assemblage. In making my way along the great road which
leads from my lodgings to the place of public resort, I found it
all alive with the cavalcades of planters and country-folk going
to the raree show. A stranger would be forcibly struck with
the perfect familiarity with which all ranks were mingling in
conversation, as they moved along upon their fine pacing horses.
Indeed, this sort of equality exists to a greater degree here than
in any country with which I am acquainted. Here were young
men, whose main object seemed to be the exhibition of their spirited horses, of the true race breed, and their equestrian skill.
The great majority of persons were dressed in domestic, undyed
cloth, partly from economy, and partly from a State pride, which
leads many of our most wealthy men, in opposing the tariff, to
reject all manufactures which are protected by the Government.
A man would form a very incorrect estimate of the worldly circumstances of a Virginia planter who should measure his finances
by the fineness of his coat. When I came near to the village, I
observed hundreds of horses tied to the trees of a neighbouring
grove, and further on could descry an immense and noisy multitude covering the space around the court-house. In one quarter,
near to the taverns, were collected the mob, whose chief errand
is to drink and quarrel. In another was exhibited a fair of all
kinds of vendibles, stalls of mechanics and tradesmen, eatables
and drinkables, with a long line of Yankee wagons, which are
never wanting on these occasions. The loud cries of salesmen
vending wares at public auction, were mingled with the vociferation of a stump orator, who in the midst of a countless crowd
was advancing his claims as a candidate for the House of Delegates. I threaded my way into this living mass, for the purpose
of hearing the oration. A grey-headed man was discoursing upon
the necessity of amending the State constitution, and defending
the propriety of calling a convention. His elocution was good,
and his arguments very plausible, especially when he dwelt upon




18297  1829.                    101
the very unequal representation in Virginia. This, however,
happens to be the unpopular side of the question in our region,
and the populace, while they respected the age and talents of the
man, showed but faint signs of acquiescence. The candidate,
upon retiring from the platform on which he had stood, was followed by a rival, who is well known as his standing opponent.
The latter kept the people in a roar of laughter by a kind of dry
humour which is peculiar to himself. Although far inferior to
the other in abilities and learning, he excels him in all those
qualities which go to form the character of a demagogue. He
appealed to the interests of the planters and slave owners, he
turned into ridicule all the arguments of the former speaker, and
seemed to make his way to the hearts of the people. HIe was
succeeded by the candidate for the Senate, Henry E. Watkins,
of Prince Edward, a man of great address and suavity of manner; his speech was short but pungent and efficient, and although
he lost his election, he left a most favourable impression upon
the public mind. We had still another address from one of the
late delegates, who proposed himself again as a candidate.  Before commencing his oration, he announced to the people, that
by a letter from Mr. Randolph, he was informed that we should
not have the pleasure of seeing that gentleman, as he was confined to his bed by severe illness. This was a sore disappointment. It was generally expected that Mr. R. would have been
present, and I had cherished the hope of hearing him once in my
life. It would give you no satisfaction for me to recount to you
the several topics of party politics upon which the several speakers dilated.  We proceeded (or rather as many as could proceeded) to the court-house, where the polls were opened. The
candidates, six in number, were ranged upon the Justices' bench,
the clerks were seated below, and the election began, viva voce.
The throng and confusion were great, and the result was that Mr.
Randolph was unanimously elected for Congress, Col. Wyatt for
the Senate, and the two former members to the Legislature of
the State. After the election sundry petty squabbles took place
among the persons who had been opposing one another in the
contest. Towards night a scene of unspeakable riot took place;
drinking and fighting drove away all thought of politics, and
many a man was put to bed disabled by wounds and drunkenness. This part of Virginia has long been celebrated for its
breed of horses. There is a scrupulous attention paid to the
preservation of the immaculate English blood.  Among the
crowd on this day were snorting and rearing fourteen or fifteen
stallions, some of which were indeed fine specimens of that noble
creature. Among the rest, MIr. Randolph's celebrated English




102              WHIIILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
horse Roanoke, who is nine years old, and has never been
"backed."  That which principally contributes to this great collection of people on our court days, is the fact that all public
business, and all private contracts, are settled at this time.  All
notes are made payable on these days, &c., &c.  But you must
be tired with Charlotte Court; I am sure that I amn.  I have succeeded in getting a reading room established in our little hamlet.
We are just beginning; have subscribed for the American Quarterly, the North American, Edinburgh, Quarterly, Westminster,
B3lackwood's BMagazine, United States Literary Gazette, Christian
Observer, with a number of newspapers.  This will superinduce
the odours of literature upon our desert.  If you will not come,
I must proceed to give you a topographical description of this
estate of Mrs. Le Grand's upon which I live.'  If you will take
the trouble of looking at the map of Virginia, you will see the
village in which our court-house stands marked Marysville, and
a little to the west of it a small river called Little  Roanoke.
Mrs. Le Grand's estate runs from  the court-house southward
about three miles, and in breadth is much less.  On the north it
reaches to the village.  On the south and west it has little Roanoke for its boundary.  On the west it is bounded by an estate
of Mr. Ranudolph's called Bushy Forest.  It is nearly level
throughout, the few elevations being very inconsiderable.  Most
of the land is covered with thick forests, intersected by many
roads.  The most fertile portion is the flat land, through which
the stream  above mentioned runs.  The central part is in the
highest state of cultivation.
I must pause to tell you (what you certainly could never find
out of yourself) that the birds are making melody this day in a
manner more exquisite than usual.  Be it known to you, as a
matter of the utmost importance, that I am a most enthusiastic
admirer of the singing of birds, and that I live in a region where
I enjoy this sort of pleasure in perfection.  I often stop for half
1 In the " Life of Archibald Alexander, D. D.," Dr. J. W. Alexander, relating the first pastoral settlement of his father, says: "' His residence was
in the county of Charlotte, at the house of Major Edmund Read. And by
a remarkable coincidence, one of his sons, the first settled in the ministry,
dwelt in the same house thirty years afterwards, and enjoyed the hospitality
of the same Christian lady, Paulina Le Grand, formerly Mrs. Read. Here,
at the mansion still known as Retirement, about two miles from the Court
House, Mr. [A.] Alexander resided three or four years."  (Chap. viii.) The
letter of April 10 contained a diagram of the dwelling and grounds of
"Retirement."  The coincidence of the father and son having their first
pastorates over the same congregation, has been in a measure extended to
the third generation-the eldest son of Dr. J. W. Alexander having been
called to supply the same pulpit.




1827-1829.                      103
an hour to listen to that most capricious, sweet, jovial, fascinating musician, the ifocking-bird.  Whatever may be the case
with the European mimic, it is by no means true of ours, that
he has no originality. I have never heard the song of any bird
comparable to his, and I watch his habits very closely.  He is
to be found about sunrise upon the topmost twig of the highest
tree, swelling and throbbing with the gush of melody, pouring
out a stream of song, infinitely varied, of clear, liquid notes,
trilled with inimitable rapidity, and wayward changes.  No
other bird ever excites my laughter; but his imitations are so
exact, and so surprise the other birds, that I am often beguiled
into a hearty laugh, in my solitary walks. And I have other
favourites. The beautiful Red-bird I have never seen elsewhere.
It is of a light, taper shape, of the deepest crimson, except a circle of black velvet on each side of the face. The melancholy
Whip-poor-will, which begins its monotonous cry at twilight,
though its note is not pleasing, has the power of making me listen often for a long time. And even the Buzzard, that foulest
of fowls, has such a grace and majesty in his sailing among the
clouds, that I almost forgive him his diet and his stench. If you
were here it propri c personl, you would be ready to ask what I
am doing, and what I am reading, and how I employ myself. I
am sure I speak in moderation when I aver to you, that I have
not enjoyed two days of uninterrupted study for the last two
months. Riding, riding, riding-like a horse in a ferry-boat, an
endless round. I am really losing all habits of study; and you
may expect to see me coming on some of these days to the
Assembly, with my elbows out, feathers in my hair, and the
stupid look of a chimney-sweep.
I have been looking over Burke's works again, and especially
his Reflections on the French Revolution. Surely he is the
prince of English writers. His description of Marie Antoinette
is the most delicious morsel in our language. And then the profundity of his reasoning, the political sagacity of his views, the
rich contexture of his language, all render him the most fascinating and commanding of writers on Government. And now let
me wind up this overgrown affair, by telling you how sincerely
I am thine.
CHARLOTTE, JMay 13, 1827.
The General Assembly I suppose is now in session.  Mr.
Maxwell' is a member of it, he who attracted so much notice
last year by his Bible Society speech. I hope he will make himself heard among you. He is, in my judgment, the very best
1 The late Winm. Maxwell, Esq.




104            WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
orator I know anywhere. I have never heard Tazewell, with
whom he maintains a successful competition at the bar. Mr.
Maxwell is a man of wealth and influence, and he casts both with
great effect into the scale of Christianity. He is, though a native
Virginian, the faithful and fearless champion of the oppressed
Africans.  For a publication of his on this subject, the Norfolk
people menaced him  with an application of tar and feathers.
When he avowed himself the author of the paper, which was
published anonymously, his opposers shrunk away before a character so universally revered. He is a bachelor, lives in good
style, has an elegant library, is a most agreeable companion, and
a finished scholar. I had the pleasure of meeting him recently
at Petersburg, and afterwards of accompanying him to Norfolk,
and there spending a short time at his house. I am sorry that
you did not visit Norfolk. The situation of that town is inferior
to that of none in America, as a seaport. The bay and roads
afford a roadstead of the safest and most beautiful kind. The
town, however, is in a low condition. Richmond has intercepted
the trade in the staple commodity, the yellow fever has depopulated it, a recent fire has left it in a state of dilapidation, and
the loss of the Colonial trade has almost completed its ruin.
They still hope for better times. The Dismal Swamp canal,
which is in progress, will open to it all the rivers which fall into
Albemarle Sound. It must then become the great cotton market of Virginia and North Carolina. Their navy yard, already
extensive, is to be greatly increased. I saw there two seventyfours, a frigate, and a sloop of war. A naval hospital is commenced upon a large scale. It was with feelings of reverence
that I passed the ruins of old Jamestown.  The remnant of the
old church tower is still visible, overgrown with ivy.  Large
trees are growing within the church walls. There is but one
habitable dwelling at the place, and I saw ploughs moving among
the tombs. This is certainly the most venerable spot in our
country. I thought of Raleigh and Smith, and more than all of
the generous Pocahontas.  By the by, I have met with many
persons who trace their origin to this squaw. Much as I admire
my own name, I think that the noble James River should still
be called the Powhatan. I have seen its formation in the mountains, its impetuous torrent among the rocks of the Blue Ridge,
its turbulent passage among the cliffs above Richmoncl, its broad
majestic flow beyond, and its sublime expansion between the
Capes, and at each successive view have felt new admiration at
the mighty flood which welcomed the first adventurers of the
17th century.
I have just received a letter from Mr. [Professor] Hodge, who




182 7-1829.                     105
is at the University of Halle. He spent the winter in Paris, and
gives a most glowing account of the literary advantages of that
city. Sixty or seventy professors lecture gratuitously, and a
library of 700,000 volumes is open to every one. At H1alle
there are professors enough to fill a pamphlet, and about eleven
hundred students.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY, June 2, 1827.
I have looked for no book with more avidity of' expectation
than the life of Napoleon, and I do not join in the lamentation
of those who regret that Sir Walter has given so large a share
of his labour to the incipient measures of the Revolution. Never
has such a spectacle been set before the world, as in the convulsive efforts of the French nation to put an end to tyranny.
Never has there been exhibited such a union of physical andc
intellectual greatness, with the lowest and most debasing passion. The leaders of the Revolution fascinate us into admiration
at their energy and daring, while their atrocity fills us with contempt and abhorrence. Danton, Mirabeau, Marat, Robespierre,
Hebert, Clootz; such were the comets which first astonished,
and then consumed the nation. The Liberty whom they adored,
would have her emblem in a gigantic goddess, whose brow and
glance are fired with the enthusiasm of genius, while the lower
visage is that of the brute, the satyr, the fiend.
STATE OF VIRGINIA, COUNTY OF CHARLOTTE,
PARISH OF CORNWALL, July 3, 1827. }
Alack! when shall my ears cease to be molested with endless harangues upon tobacco? I declare it to be the most fertile
subject known among men. The glossary of the planters would
compose a volume, and their discourse is stark naught without
an interpreter. What would you understand by such slang as
this? " I-ave you primed your crcp, Col. Gouge?"  (Every
man is on the army list.) s" No, sir, I had to clod in 3May, and
my'bacco in the low grounds is fired."  " I sent my last crac2
to Farmville; they made a break, and said it was fiunked, too
lean, and fired too much. It was struck too soon, and was in
nice order."  " Well, I've got through priseincg, the weather was
so givvy, that the tobacco was in high order to come and go," &c.
What have yoit been reading?  A. I have been reading the 2d
No. of the American Quarterly, also MMad. de Stael's French Revolution; a work of great originality and force, yet unjust to
Bonaparte, idolatrous to Necker, ancd full of Anglomanie.  No
American can read without delight her eulogy of the good La
Fayette: also George Buchanan's Latin poems, of which the
VOL. I. 5*




106             WHIILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
great Scaliger said " Buclhanaus unus est in tota Europa, omnes
post se relinquens in Latina poesi."  His version of the Psalms
is probably the most elegant that ever was made in any language.  But in his other poems the real character of his mind
shines forth.  His satire is at once bitter and ludicrous, (and in
his attacks upon the Franciscans, I discern the boldness of his
countryman and acquaintance John Knox, united with Virgilian
elegance, and a power of invective all his own. It has been said
of the three Roman satirists, "Horatius ridet, Juvenalis verberat, Persius jugulat."  Now, Buchanan does all three in regular
succession; he taunts, he scourges, he annihilates. I had no idea
of the enormous and unutterable vices attributed to the monks,
until I read his poems.  As a specimen of the dialect used by
the instructor of James I. take the following sentence.  A. D.
1570: " Thair is a certane kynd of Beist callit Chamcelion, en
genderit in six cowntreis as the Sone hes mair strenth in than in
this Yle of Brettane, the quhilk albeit it be small of corporance,
noghttheless it is of ane strange nature," &c. IHe was the friend
and correspondent of Roger Ascham, Tycho Brahe, Beza, Grotius, &c. I have also read again such of Cicero's works as I
own; greatly longing to possess them  all, and inl good truth
might I tell thee my desire, I would fain have all the Roman
writers, so rich are they in goodly matter, and adorned after so
shining a manner with every device of wit and similitude. What
is called the Reyent's edition would suit me very well. I have.
also read some of the works of Rapin, Pascal, De la I-Ioussaye,
in French; of Owen, Baxter and Boston, Bates and Cecil, in English; Mastricht, Mark, Witsius, in modern Latin, and Calvin,
Dwight, and l-~McDowell, in modern English.  Item, Peter's Letters, [by Lockhart,] and a course of Mathematics.  Ques. 2.
What have you writlen? 1. Letters. 2. A few pieces for Rice's
hMagazine,' signed Atlanticus, Quis, M. R     ln, and one anonymous intituled " The Minister of Christ."  I have qnot written
a single sermon since I have been in Charlotte, though I have
composed more than a hundred.  Ques. 3. _How do you spend
your time? Here is my plain for clays which I spend at home,
not always adhered to. Rise at 4; shower-bath; dress; shave;
a walk or exercise in the garden; family prayers at 6; breakfast ~ before 7; read Scriptures; a lesson in Hebrew; Greek
Testament in course with commentaries; Old Testament with
commentaries; cursory reading of Greek Testament; English
Bible; preparation for sermons; theology; German; I have
luncheon at 11, dinner at 2.-; after dinner I expatiate, read
"The Virginia Literary and Evangelical Magazine," edited by the Rev.
Dr. John H.' Rice, from 1817 to 1829.




182T7-1829.                     107
every thing, ride, walk, lie on the grass, &c.; tea at 7; family
worship at 8; bed at 9.
On June 16th we had a visit from ~Mr. Tucker, Professor of
Moral Philosophy, &c., in the University of Virginia.  He is a
native of Bermuda, and has been on a visit to a brother who
lives at Charlotte Court House. They have at the university
some 170 students. Blatterman's school is most frequented.
Poor old Williamsburg has about 15 students; Hampden Sydney about 80, and Washington college about 40. I take a lively
interest in the improvements of our country, notwithstanding
my being hemmed in with political heretics.
" Faithful among the faithless only found."
2Milton (aside).
I take no trouble to conceal my sentiments, although I enter
into no disputes. Although I hear incessant eulogies of General
Jackson, yet I am utterly at a loss to discover among the wagonloads of chaff which they pour forth about him, one grain of real
qualification for the Presidency. The temperature is canicular,
tropical. I remember not any suffering from heat so great as I
now experience. The direct rays of the sun are far more oppressive than any thing I have felt in the Middle States, or even on
the other side of the Blue Ridge. Accept my congratulations
upon your entrance into the practical arena of litigation.  May
you prove false the assertion of Burke, who while he acknowledges that legal science strengthens the mind, says, " but it is
not apt, except in persons very happily born, to liberalize the
mind exactly in the same proportion."  Or rather, will I say
may you prove that you are one thus happily born.
CHARLOTTE COURPT HOUSE, August 25, 1827.
I have only strength enough to write a mere note. IMy mind
and body are racked with the lingering distresses of a bilious
fever, shorter (as yet) but more violent in its immediate symptoms, than that of last summer. Through the mercy of God, I
am spared again (I hope) to praise him more sincerely, and
serve him more faithfully.  Death has been viewed by me as a
precious entrance into eternal bliss. MIy clear and early friend,
I have only strength enough to say, devote your heart, your life,
your all to the blessed Jesus.
The physician thinks me altogether free from disease, nothing
now but rseszescitation is needed. I think I am well, unless imprudence bring on a relapse.
29th, Tuesday.
Very much improved. Fever gone, and only weakness and
irritation of bowels remaining. An inundation almost unex



108             WVIHILE PASTOR IN VIPRGINIA.
ampled has just swept away half the river crops of tobacco.
Some $50,000 loss to our planters.
I shall, Deo volente, write soon again. You may say confidently that I am better.'
PRINCETON, MarchL 19, 1828.
The 6th No. of the Philadelphia Monthly [Magazine] reached
us yesterday. It frowned such dullness upon the title-page that
I did not dare to read it. Me judcice, these general discursive
essays about science and literature are insufferable.  Why do
not some of you pounce down upon some of the elegancies of
either department, and afford some leaven to the stupid mass?
But hold, I am incompetent to judge, and far too splenetic to
censure with candour. Pray inform me how you and the practice agree. Does the magnificence and awful grandeur of the
divine science of law, as developed and exhibited within the walls
of your courts, stupefy you with amazement? Or have you
wrought yourself into the belief that a cross-examination is the
purest occasion of attic wit, and a feverish court room the arena
for eloquence? Alack! The world looks barren to me. I amn
unable to face its calculating and censorious actors. I am too
inert to be useful: too greedy of knowledge to digest any for
use. Unworthy of the holy calling which has separated me nominally from the world, I have too much of worldly attachment
to be bold and decided in my Master's cause. I am such a one
as needs a task master through life: left to myself I am a mere
butterfly, sipping at every flower. Divine mercy has again and
again spared me; and I still wonder for what end, so useless do
I appear to myself.
PRINCETON, April 4, 1828.
It is a pleasant thing to me to look back and see how long
and uninterrupted has been the correspondence instituted between us in boyhood; and equally delightful to have a friend
with whom I can make a happy and welcome exchange of many
thoughts which burden the mind when retained, and which cannot be revealed to all the world. I count upon your known forbearance when I undertake another letter in my present exile
from the busy world. These old scenes encourage no inquiry:
they reward it not when made. Were I able to walk through
our dull street, I should see a few well-known faces which prediet a total barrenness of all intelligence, a few college lads,
newly initiated into the mysteries of academic strut and arro1 After this apparent recovery a relapse took place in the latter part of
September; but he was able to reach Princeton on the 9th October, and there
he passed several months under a severe continuance of the same disease.




1827-1829.                      109
gance, and a few dames whose catechetical and commiserating
visages hold out no sign of enjoyment to one, who for six
months has endured the visitation of " IHow do you feel? Pain
in your side?  Pale! Bloated! Put out your tongue.  La!
how moping," &c., &c. Were I to corner myself with some of
the old ladies, I might indeed learn some of the antiquities, as
that Gen. Washington had his hair clubbed at the battle of
Princeton, &c., &c.
The news of Princeton is as follows: A mineral spring has
been discovered; that is, as in similar cases, a hole in the mud
has been discovered which possesses rather more nastiness than
the common water, which tastes like a gunwashing, like a blacksmith's tub, like a what not. I have no fondness for these terrene slops; it will afford many walks, however, for the boys and
girls.
I have read "Sketches of Persia," and have been much
amused, but Morier's several works on that interesting country
are incomparably more entertaining and instructive. I long to
read Bishop HIeber's books.  [Travels in India.]  Of American
literature, I observe nothing which attracts me. We certainly
have no poet, and I tremble for fear that W. Irving has not
made Horace's inquiry as to his Life of Columbus " Quid ferre?ecuselt, quid valeant htumeri."  Dr. Miller is writing a book
upon ruling Elders, in opposition I suppose to Dr. Wilson, who
has been publishing for several years on the same subject in the
Christian Spectator of New Haven.
We hear occasionally from  fMr. Hodge, who is at Berlin.
He talks of the low state of religion, and the aboundcling prevalence of fantastic systems of metaphysics. I long to visit Europe, but have no prospect of ever going thither. It is a boyish
wish, which perhaps will die away if I should ever have a family.
Addison has just completed the Koran in Arabic, [he completed his nineteenth year this month,] a work which few have
attempted in America. I-e has added Spanish and Italian to his
list of languages.
I should relish highly a visit to Philadelphia: but my coat of
rusticity has now as many folds as the shield of Ajax. I am surprised to find upon enumeration how few actual acquaintances I
have in your city. Still there is no place where I would rather
live, while I know my utter incompetency to fulfil the duties of
a city pastor. It is my happiness as a son to see my dear parents, and their family enjoying health and happiness. These are
favours which demand new recognitions of God's holy and beneficent care. May you also long enjoy such blessings, with the
richer satisfaction of pure confidence in our blessed Redeemer.




110             WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
PRINCETON, AMay 6, 1828.
After taking so sudden a departure from the hospitalities of
Philadelphia, it seems right that I should hasten to make reply
to your last letter; and have only to complain that the mail is
about to depart, leaving me but short space to frame an epistle.
To-morrow I expect to go to New York, in company with Mr.
Kirk, and thence probably to New Haven and Boston.1  The
country is as lovely as the sweet and genial breath of spring can
make it. From  the window where I sit, I look upon fields covered with a rich and sudden verdure, and upon orchards in their
fullest bloom. Something, however, has so chilled my nature,
that I have none of those delightful emotions which I used to
experience, when I carried Thomson's Seasons on my long walks,
and found a pastoral scene in every grove.
PRINCETON, July 18, 1828.
in consequence of delay in answering your last letter, I found
myself cut off from the opportunity of doing it at all, as I was
afraid to direct to Petersburg, lest you should have left that
place, and as you did not communicate to me the intended length
of your visit. Like yourself I am about to excurse, but in a
different direction, and set out to-morrow for Long Branch. My
situation is superlatively ennuyante.  Without a charge, without
regular labour, or the stimulus of definite prospects, I suffer
much from the increase of indolent and melancholy musings.
As soon as summer is fairly over, I expect to revisit Virginia,
with the view of winding up my concerns there, and then looking around me for some situation suitable to my talents and
inclinations. It gives me pain to look about me, and see how
little there is which could interest you in the repetition. Princecton knows few changes, except changes of weather and of servants. Mr. Gibson is building a house and a barn; Mr. Voorhees, a store; Mr. Joline's Cato has come back; we have got a
new cow. These are the principal articles of news. In politics
there is a slight change among some of the old Federalists, whose
eyes are opened to see the treachery of John Q. A., and who are
endeavouring to make his preference of the Democrats, and his
old renunciation of Federalism, a ground for their changing sides,
and espousing the cause of Jackson. This attempt to revive
ancient feuds is too late, and the influence of such men as Jos.
Hopkinson, &c., will weigh with the Federalists of New Jersey.
The cause of Mr. Adams is sustained, as I fully believe, by the
great mass of enlightened and sober men. As for myself, I
1 The trip extended to Andover, Albany, and the Catskill Mountains.




1827-1829.                     111
admire the man for that simple dignity which has marked all his
proceedings. How pitiful are the Southern recalcitrations against
the tariff! They remind one of the pet of a child who will not
eat his dinner, because he is forbidden the use of certain articles.
I have only just finished Scott's Life of Napoleon. It is a fine
history, but evidently a most hurried production. I admire the
candour of Sir Walter, who, as an Englishman and a Tory, might
have been expected to have great prejudices against Napoleon.
I have also read the " Fair Maid of Perth."  The court scenes,
and the Highland part of the story, I think very dull, but. Henry
Gow and his neighbours are equal to any thing he has yet written. Especially after those pitiful stories in the first of the Canongates, we have reason to be agreeably disappointed. Have
just finished Pollok's Course of Time. Without making him
equal to Milton, as some of the English reviewers have done, I
admire his work exceedingly. There is much grandeur of
thought, great simplicity of language, and at times the discovery
of a satiric vein, which place the author in a high rank among
contemporary poets.
I have sent a piece to Littell for his projected " Remember
me," [an "Annual ":] it is hard to say whether I should be
most mortified by seeing it in print, or by having it rejected.
It is a sort of Tale: scene, Athens: date about A. D. 100-112.
Addison has finished Ariosto, and is now at Boccacio. Ile has
read about half of Corneille, which I have also read. In Spanish,
Addison began with Don Quixote and has read it over and over.
PRINCETON, August 28, 1828.
The peregrinations in which we have both been engaged,
have made sad infractions upon the ordinary regularity of our
correspondence. This I the rather regret, as you are at present
my only regular correspondent. I am obliged to you for your
letter front Utica, and I should have answered it, had I not supposed that your journey would have been more rapid than it has
proved. You will have heard that I have visited your city since
you last saw me. My pleasure was greatly abridged in consequence of your absence, as I was without a Cicerone, and involved
in a very different sphere from the agreeable little circle of
friends with whom I commonly hold intercourse in Philadelphia.
My time at present hangs rather heavily upon my hands. Being
in that amphibious state between actual labour and total idleness,
without a settlement, and yet subject to the constant demands of
persons who need preaching, I feel myself very much impaired
in mind and spirits. Surely I am losing all that romantic sentimentalism which used to sweeten even my ordinary walks, and




112           WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
create a fairy world in moments of idleness. In the month of
October I expect to revisit Virginia, to close my connexion with
an affectionate and beloved people, and shall, with leave of Providence, return about the first of the year, with the hope of finding
a resting place nearer home. I already feel that it is deeply
injurious to a young man to be so long in forming permanent
connexions. The habits acquired in this changeable sort of life
are peculiarly adverse to mental improvement and maturity of
character. I have read nothing very interesting of late. Vivian
Grey is an amusing, but most incoherent and extravagant book.
If his pictures of Germany are correct, it is certainly the most
crazy country upon the globe. The German language has been
an object of my attention, at intervals, for some time. I am still
very far from being able to read it with any comfort: yet I am
encouraged by the report of its rich literary stores to persevere
in my application to it. As to politics, the Jackson men around
us are nearly frantic. Meeting upon meeting, where the demllagogues disgorge the cramnbe recocta of " Coalition, Tergiversation," &c. The attempt to draw off the Federalists from  the
Allldministration has had some effect: yet my hopes are still
strong that Adams will be re-elected.
A new society connected with the college has been formed,
called the Philological Society, to which Prof. Patton has given
the use of his choice and extensive Library. We heard to-day
from Mr. Hodge-date 28th July, London. He expected to
sail on the first of August, so that we expect him almost daily.
Ite has transmitted a large collection of books for the Seminary,
principally works in German upon Theology and Criticism. The
heat and the drought take away all the vigour of my system,
and have influenced this letter by their torrifying powers. Excuse my dullness, if you cannot sympathize with it, and believe
me, as heretofore-Thine.
PRINCETON, October 4, 1828.
As to my future course in life, I am able to speak only negatively; I shall never seek a settlement south of the Potolllac
unless driven to it by necessity. As to Trenton, the place has
no charms for me; yet in my present circumstances I must do
something, and the unanimity and cordiality of the call to that
place, in the absence of all other " openings," cause me to look
with some favour upon the situation. It would be no small satisfaction to me to be placed within a few hours' sail of Philadelphia, and I might expect to be a more frequent visitor to your
city. I am weary of the sickly sympathy manifested for that
miscreant Shelley. Surely the just indignation of the public
towards a hireling Atheist and seducer, deserves a better name




1827 — 1829.                    113
than persecution. His unintelligible poems can never reoeem a
character such as his. I am glad to see some signs of an interest
in German literature, manifested in the article [in Philadelphia
Magazine] on Schiller; I should be still more pleased to meet
with some of his works. I have recently read some of them
with great satisfaction. The other members of the Weimar
quaternion would be fit subjects for as many articles, viz.:
Goethe, Herder, and Wieland. The articles which appear from
time to time in the American Quarterly upon German literature, certainly manifest a familiarity with the subject; but they
are too vague and superficial. Instead of being reviews of the celebrated works, or sketches of character, they are such loose table
talk upon the subject in general, as might be taken clown in short
hand from the conversation of any German scholar.
I have just read the whole of Moliere's Comedies. Those
which are in prose would all be considered farces among us.
They are certainly as amusing as any thing I have ever read.
My reading at present is principally theological, which, though
interesting to me, does not afford the same subjects for conversation or correspondence as some lighter studies. I have been
toiling through some recent specimens of German Infidelity,
which Mr. Hodge has brought over, and am also reading a more
evangelical work, Neander's Ecclesiastical History.
I suppose Archibald in the plenitude of his Jacksonianism
has informed you that Princeton is ornamented with a Hickory
pole, in the most conspicuous part of the village. It is strange
to see with what phrenetic zeal the Hickories are traversing all
the country. Invasion or civil war could scarcely produce a
greater fermentation among the populace. My fear is that New
Jersey will give her vote for the Chieftain; and indeed, further,
that he will be our President.  Among the novelties of New
Jersey there is an attempt to institute a school, in which some
hours of every day are to be spent in agriculture, or other manual labour. This is somewhat upon the plan of Fellenbergh, and
seems to be well adapted to the wants of our country. The
principal agent in this scheme is Mr. Monteith, late Professor of
Languages in Hamilton College. We have had a rumour here
that a Brazilian squadron had been in Long Island Sound apparently with hostile intent, and that the Hudson and other vessels
were despatched upon this business; but as the papers contain
nothing on the subject, it is probably a false report. I have
tried to respect the South Amlerican Governments, but in vain.
Their bravery is a sort of animal courage, and their independence
mere lawlessness.  Greece seems destined to be divided among
the beasts of prey which have been so long sitting in judgment




114            WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
upon her fate. But you are not likely to feel great interest in
my political speculations. I have been reading Milton's prose
works with great delight, and I specially recommend to you his
speech for unlicensed printing, if you have never read it. My
time passes on in a very dull manner. I have had to preach
every Sunday, without stimulus enough to lead me to the preparation which is my duty. I rise about seven, and spend most
of my time in studying German; walk a little in the woods, and
along the brooks, visit none, and have no company, no correspondent except yourself. My health is generally pretty good,
and I have as yet escaped the bilious attack which I have had
some reason to dread.
RETIREMENT, CHARLOTTE CO., VA., Trovember 16, 1828.
What I shall ever find to fill this portentous sheet, is yet to
be determined, and I hope you will judge of its merits by measurement, and send me an equivalent. On my return to Virginia,
I found the whole population in a ferment upon the subject of the
Presidential election. Jackson is carrying it with a high hand,
and there seems little doubt among the politicians here as to his
election. Mr. Randolph attended the assemblage here, dressed
in a coat of Virginia homespun, and leather breeches, whipped
his servant in the public court-yard, and uttered some oracular
predictions. It was the 5th of November, and he said, " This is
the anniversary of the gunpowder plot, and I hope we are doing
that which will blow the' school-master' sky-high."  The pecuniary embarrassments are very great in this region, —five failures within a few months in this county. A rise in some articles, as wheat and whisky, promises something for the valley
and the mountains. There is no longer any doubt that a convention will be called in Virginia, which will establish universal suffrage, and probably remove the seat of government to Staunton
or Charlottesville. My sentimental journey to Virginia might
interest you, if I had not given you the same details more than
once before. I found some agreeable young ladies on board the
Norfolk boat, who had spent some time in Scotland, and was
introduced to a sensible young Englishman, who gave me much
entertainment and information. The dirty, gloomy, ugly town
of Petersburg presents the same appearance as it did three years
ago, when I entered it for the first time. I now perceived that
I was in Virginia by the gangs of negroes, some with burdens
on their heads, others driving wagons of cotton and tobacco,
women arrayed in men's hats, and children with scarcely any
raiment at all. I preached five times in Petersburg, and came
"up the country," by the mail route, in company with Mrs.




1827 —1829.                     115
Taylor of Petersburg, sister of Judge 2M~arshall, a lady of genius
and information. I expect never to see so many persons so
rejoiced to meet with me, as appeared at the little church last
Sunday. It is painful indeed to leave friends so cordial and sincere, but I believe I am pursuing the path of duty. I enjoy here
a delightful retreat from the world, and suitable opportunities
for study, if I had such books as I desire. For my solitary
walks, I have a boundless range, affording many varieties of
rural prospect, and I indulge myself in many woodland rambles.
In such a retirement, however, I feel the need of some extrinsic
excitement which might urge to continued exertion: the total
absence of this, and the stagnation of mind consequent upon this
want, convince me that I shall not lose by going forward a few
steps nearer to the busy world. I hope to be able to indulge my
writing propensities, as I shall be nearer to the vehicles of thought
and literature, and may perhaps stumble upon some department
of knowledge, in which I may be usefill. If I can sufficiently lash
up my indolent powers, 1 will prepare a review for Walsh, and
if the Monthly still survives, perhaps communicate some morceaux to its columns. If you have any pamphlets or papers of
any sort, pray send them hitherward, where there is a perfect
destitution of such provender.  Saxe Weimar's travels proved
dull enough. It is plain that a man may be a duke and yet have
very little nobility in his thoughts: he is too much like Miss
Wright,-not a spark of genius or life, nor even amusing German mysticism. I am very sure I could make more reputable
travels in Germany, and would actually do it, if his Highness or
anybody else would pay my bills. The " Remember Me " will
have been quite obsolete before I get a glance at my famous production. In case the man gives any quid pro quo, I shall try
my luck for another number. Having been lately engaged in
reading a Life of Erasmus, it has struck me that I might spend
some months profitably upon the biography of some eminent
man, but cannot make any selection from  the rolls of fame.
Melancthon, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Grotius have danced
before my imagination without leading me to any decision. I
have also projected a translation of Milton's Latin Correspondence, which has never yet appeared in an English dress.' I have
in readiness for the Christian Advocate a small essay upon
"Christian Old Age." 2 The noted Mr. Nettleton spent muost of
the last summer in an adjoining county, (Prince Edward,) and
This last project was taken up by his correspondent, and the translation
was published by Mr. Littell, in April, 1829.
2 Printed in the April number of 1829. In the August number he gave
a " Sketch of the Life of Cyprian."




116            WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
was made the instrument of a wonderful reformation. Multitudes
of irreligious persons have been brought into the church, and
among the rest some of the most respectable professional men
in this region of country. In the church next to mine, 118 have
professed religion during the last few months. This revival still
continues, and is extending itself in the counties of Lunenburg,
Cumberland, and Buckingham.  The Theological Seminary at
Hampden Sidney is about to have a new professor [Biblical
Literature] in 1M/r. Goodrich, who was educated at Princeton,
and who has been acting as teacher for a year or two in Prince
Edward. They have about 120 students in the University [of
Virginia.]  Dr. [R. l.] Patterson [of Philadelphia] was received with much cordiality [as Professor.]  I have just heard
of the death of Noel Robertson, a young preacher who was with
me in the Seminary.  lie left North Carolina for the sake of his
health, but has been cut off when he supposed that he had found
a salubrious climate.  How affecting a monition to myself!  I
see clearly that those men are the happiest who are most entirely
devoted to a religious life, and who not only profess religion as
I do, but exemplify it in their daily conduct.
CHARLOTTE, December 9, 1828.
Since I wrote I remember that Butler has published a life of
Grotius, and just now I am so taken up with preaching and visits
T.T.L., that I can scarcely find time to put pen to paper. If
spared to reach Trenton, I may hope to have most of my mornings in  lly study, and this will be to me a sort of Paradise.
When I preach in the week, it steals away a whole day, and a
single visit is sometimes nearly as bad. AMost cheerfully will I
relinquish to you the Latin Letters of Milton; I feel almost certaint that they have never been translated, and you will find it, I
think, a pleasant and a popular enterprise. They are certainly
difficult, and often obscure from the frequency of recondite classical allusions, but it is the same obscurity which pervades all
his compositions. Of the history of his correspondents, I fear
little can be known. From the various biographical dictionaries
within your reach, and from attentive perusals of his mnemoirs
and the history of his times, something may be gleaned. I take
higher ground in favour of translations than you seem willing to
assume. Good translators are among the greatest benefactors
of the age. The great MSosheim gave the impulse to German
literature, by translating the Essayists of England, and the immense work of Cudworth; and if' I live to learn German, I
intend to set about the business in good sober earnest.  We
may translate works truly great, useful, and popular; we can




1827-1829.                      117
write originally little above mediocrity.  Wieland and Schlegel
have both translated Shakspeare; Bishop lMarsh has translated
Michaelis, and a great work of Eichhorn remains unknown to
most of us because no one has been bold enough to turn it into
English. I had just been reading [Rev. John] Newton when
your letter came, and was pleased to find your opinion coincident with my own. The constant correspondent of Cowper could
not be an ordinary man. His letters, though numerous, I think
his best productions.  If you wish to be delighted, get Hayley's
Edition of all Cowper's Letters in five or six 8vo vols.: probably
in your library. I have been reading the original Letters of
Abelard and Heloise, which have set the characters of these
great and unfortunate people in a better light than Pope's amnorous and fiery epistles. I am indeed strongly tempted to think
that the poor -     became a true penitent. If you wish to
read a beautiful, lucid, and unanswerable piece of reasoning, read
Paley's Horn Paulinte. In the October number of the Biblical
Repertory, you may see a translation of mine from  Roselnmiller. Mr. IHodge has applied to me to review the life of Erasmus, which he put into my hands, for his work, [April, 1829.]
This will prevent my undertaking it for the Am. Quarterly.
Yesterday I saw a family of blacks who were suing for their freedom  in the superior court of this county. It was delightful to
see the joy and exultation of the poor creatures when they succeeded. They seemed to think that nothing now remained for
them but to eat, drink, and do nothing for the remnant of their
days. I have been reading Miss I-annah More's works.  There
is an unaccountable prejudice against that good and useful
woman. I esteem her to be the best of female writers, and hacd
she written on a subject more consonant with popular taste, than
those she has chosen, I have no doubt she would have attained as
great celebrity as Madame de Stael. The latter is truly great,
but the evident straining after point so common to French
writers is peculiarly displeasing in her works. IMrs. BMore's best
work in my judgment is her " Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess; " a book which convinces me that she
was well qualified to treat that difficult and interesting science,the philosophy and ethics of history. I must confess that she is
sometimes deficient in vivacity, and always in brilliancy, but her
thoughts are always reasonable and profound, and her aim towards practical good. The question Cui bono? is one appropriate
to all our literary toils. Especially in composition I think it
should be more my endeavour than it has heretofore been, to do
something which may be profitable. The thought of benefiting
our contemporaries is one which ought to excite the most sacred




118            WHILE PASTOR IN VIRGINIA.
amnbition, if such an expression may be tolerated. " For what
am I living? " ought indeed to open our eyes to those practical
duties which arise out of our social relations. This is undoubtedly very new to you, and perfectly original. I venture the
thought because it has recently dwelt much upon my own mind.
The die is indeed cast, and Adams must trudge. I am determined now to suspend my judgment, until I can see what measures the General will introduce. Can you guess who will form
the cabinet? I have thought of Van Buren, Benton, Hayne, and
McLean. I hope to be able to look in for a short time upon the
great people at Washington. Perhaps you may desire a trip
about the same time, and meet me there. I cannot tell you
how much I admire your city life. If, for instance, I had the
command of the " Library " which you have, I should think it
worth $500 a year. No subject and scarcely a book to which you
may not have immediate access. But my duty as well as interest is to learn contentment with the exact situation in which I
am likely to be placed. To be near you, so as to correspond
not by letter merely, but by personal interview, will be a peculiar pleasure. I am young, but the friends of my childhood are
strangely scattered. With the exception of Kirk, you are the
only one that adheres.  Our friendship has been made more
secure in my opinion by its eminent sobriety; it has been free
from romance and sentimentality. I know that you would be
much overpowered if on meeting you I should give you an
embrace, and tell you how greatly I loved you: yet such is the
friendship of many. Some have thus caressed me, who do not
at this moment care one straw for me, or my interests. I rejoice
in any thing which promises your return to your Latin classics:
though you have probably become rusty, yet you may be assured
that six months occasional reading will renew your ability to read
them with pleasure. Try the experiment with Cicero's Offices,
and I ensure you that you will find the task a delightful one.
WVhat I have learned of Latin has been preserved not by classical
reading, but the perusal of Latin works on Theology. The classics are more in your line than mine, and I hope you will pursue
the study. Strange as the idea may at first appear, I believe
that a series of essays upon some of the less familiar classics, as
Seneca, Lucan, Plautus, or Pliny, would be a work quite new
and interesting to the Scavans of our country. Let your ink
take some such channel. I expect to leave Charlotte upon the
17th inst.'
1He preached his farewell sermon at the Charlotte church, December
28, from John xvi. 23.




CHAPTER VI.
LETTERS WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
1829-1832.
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, GREENE STREET, NEAR f
HANOVER STREET, January 16, 1829.'
What chiragra has disabled that faithful hand of yours which
so seldom gives just cause for comlplaint?  Now mark it wellif you should have written to me, before this shall have been
received, you must consider this gratuitous epistle as an answer
to the said writing.  My first business in my new lodgings is to
write this epistle. I am peacably inducted into my very pleasant
little study facing a retired street, within five minutes' walk of
my church, and convenient to the tavern, barber's shop, and
post office. I have no shelves, desks, or any array of literary
appointments as yet; and as to my ill-fated books, where are
they?  The Delaware has broken up to-day with prodigious
violence, and some damage to property.  Our little town is
improving in manufactures.  M. Sartori has brought over fromi
France a complete apparatus for calico printing, together with
experienced artificers.  A dam across the river is talked of, and
the Canal bill is before the Assembly.  Upon next Tuesday an
important suit in chancery is to be called up, brought by the
manufacturing company of Paterson against the Morris Canal
Company; the former charging the latter with withdrawing the
waters of the Rockaway River from their mllanufactories.
In fulfilling my office as pastor, I am  called every day to
visit a young girl of seventeen in the last stage of consumption.
1 Mr. Alexander was elected pastor of the congregation at Trenton in the
autumn of 1828. He accepted the call, and preached his first sermon Saturday, January 10, 1829, preparatory to the Lord's Supper on the following
day. The Presbytery did not meet for his installation until February 11.
On that occasion his father presided, Dr. Miller delivered a discourse, the
Rev. Mr. Cooley gave the charge to the pastor, and the Rev. Mr. Perkins,
of Allentown, the charge to the congregation.




120             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
You know the flush of uncommon beauty, and the brilliancy of
eye which sometimes characterize the countenances of those who
are the victims of this hopeless disorder. These are in an eminent manner exemplified in this interesting creature. She was a
belle, and one of the most thoughtless, and it was her sin and
folly to defer preparation for death until the last hours of her
life. In consequence of this she had suffered unspeakable pangs
of remorse and apprehension, and my sympathies have been
awakened by the appeals of this lovely yet dying penitent to me
a feeble instrument, for some ground of hope. After many
struggles, I cannot but hope that she has found secure rest in an
unconditional surrender of herself to the mercies of God in
Christ.  No less than four young ladies within my limits are
apparently dying with pulmonary complaints.
I have a notion of undertaking a history of New Jersey.
Such a work is in great demand, and I am at the very fountainhead of information on the subject. I can have free access to,all
the old State papers.  l have not got myself at all fixed yet, but
am progressing, (see Webster in loco.) Pray did you know that
bridegroom ought to be spelt bridegoom?  See Webster's Dictionary again. If you ever get sight of a Dutch grammar please
to buy it for me.
TRENTON, January 24, 1829.
It is difficult for me just at this time to enjoy as much leisure
as I wish, as I have many visits to make, and have set out with
the determination of writing at least part of my discourses.  My
father was here upon the 22d, and preached a sermon upon Intemperance. The legislature adjourned to attend, but not more
than a dozen of them were present, much as they needed it. I
mentioned to you in my last, the case of an interesting girl who
seemed to be dying. She has now departed with great increase of
hope in her last hours. I preached a discourse over her remains.
Such scenes as these make me sometimes feel the vanity of all
things below, and the importance of being more wholly devoted
to preparation for eternity; but alas! the impression is too
often momentary. lMy church numbers about two hundred and
fifty communicants, but I think this is rather more than the number really attending with us. The Chief Justice (Ewing) of the
State, is one of my main supporters, and Mr. Southard will soon
be a hearer. Under the new circumstances I feel a greater
stimulus to what may be called the external or literary part of
preparation, than I ever experienced among my simple flock in
Virginia. If you have never read Dunlop's I-istory of RPoman
Literature, make it your business to peruse it immediately. It




1829-1832.                      121
is at once learned and entertaining, enthusiastic and profound.
At this time a company of Indians are the lions of Trenton, on
their way to your city. As you have probably ventured very
little into the palpable obscure of the German metaphysics, let
me give you a single paragraph from a work which I have been
reading; it refers to Fichte, one of the most popular of the followers of Kant. "The philosophy of Fichte speaks thus: I do
not assume as a postulate that I am immortal, but I know it
immediately, or intuitively, and I act as an immortal being, as
an absolute and practical _Ich (I), I am myself immortal; I have
eternal life in myself, and God is in me, and united to me, while
the absolute I amn myself and God as an absolute self, can be
nothing else than the absolute practical Ich, which is the object
of thought. According to Fichte I am at every moment of my
practical existence God within; for God is nothing else but what
I am. Kant believes that there is a God: Fichte is intuitively
certain of it, because his God is nothing else than the idea of his
Ich."  What think you of this? Surely the hospital would be
the proper place for such philosophers, and yet all Germany is
enamoured of such notions. Since I commenced this farraginous
letter, my books have arrived, to my inexpressible joy. No husband ever greeted his wife more gladly after a six months' absence. Mly b6oks are indeed my treasure, and limited as their
number is, they are dear to me, as being the source of my greatest
enjoyment. /My study is my Paradise; and when evening has
closed in upon me, and I find myself seated by a sparkling fire,
with no threatening of interruption, and with a mind at ease, I
envy not the autocrat of all the Russias.
TRENTON, February 17, 1829
I have been reading German until my head tingles with the
echoes of harsh and sesquipedalian words, yet I leave the study
with regret, because I find it more and more an interesting language, opening to me immense stores in every department of
literature. The history of human opinion is one of the most
agreeable of all subjects, and I have been reading an excellent
history of Theological Science, by Professor St:cudlin of Gottingen. I have often given you a schedule of my daily employments; take the following for the present: it is my plan, but I
need not say that I vary more or less every day, in practice.
Rise at 7; breakfast at 8; study Original Scriptures, Theology,
and Sermons until dinner at 1; afternoon spent in visiting; tea
at 6; and then meetings, visits, reading, writing, &c., &c., until
11 or 12, when I creep into my cold bed. So far as I can learn
any thing of my people, they seem disposed to treat me well, and
VOL. I.-6




122            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
are very much such a flock as I like to serve. There is intelligence enough to afford me some stimulus, and as I generally observe a regular theological method in the succession of my
morning discourses, I am enabled to make my reading in divinity a preparation for the pulpit.
I am desirous of investigating what is commonly called the
"Revival of Letters," especially in its relations to the Reformation. You may render me great assistance by referring me to
books, and answering occasional queries on the subject.  Be so
good as to keep a quire of paper for such notes. For instance,
What book is written expressly upon this subject?  When did
the revival of literature begin to take place? by whose means?
What names are most distinguished in this great revolution?
What books refer to it? Are any of the Latin works of Petrarca
in your (Philadelphia) library? any ancient life of Petrarca?
What can you find about Peter D'Ailly, (1425,) his works and
influence, (in Latin Petrus de Alliacus?) John Gerson, Nic. v.
Clemange.  Laurentius Valla. Marsilius Ficinus.  Ludovicus
Vives. Any facts, or references, or books, will be gratefully
received. I am in no great hurry, and as you read you may find
some important items. In Noah's " Enquirer " of the 18th inst., I
see a notice of the Anniversary of Tom Paine's birth-day, on the
29th nult., by the Society of Free Inquirers. It -is a horrible
outrage upon the moral and religious public. It would seem,
however, to be punishment enough to be pilloried as they are by
name, in their own account of their orgies. The Canal bill in
this State, I apprehend, will either fail, or be encumbered with
conditions never to be fulfilled. Our lower House of Legislature
have just adopted a new school-system, similar in its leading features to that of New York. So far as attendance upon public
worship, &c., is concerned, I am encouraged more and more every
week; and am peculiarly comfortable and happy in my private
circumstances.
If there is such an old-fashioned thing in any of your stores
as an hour-glass, or a half-hour glass, (I prefer the latter,) oblige
me by buying it for me, as I have a penchant for such a piece of
furniture. I am just reading Irving's Columbus for the first
time, with much pleasure. I esteem it the first of American
classics, and can never be affected enough to join in the clamour
against his crystal flow of purest English. The moral solemnity
of Columbus's character, never before struck me; his perseverance, his noble confidence in truth, his stubborn resistance of
every opposition. Our unfortunate Bombastes, Joel Barlow,
showed some judgment in the choice of a subject, but he puffed
it up like a bladder, and painted it like a butterfly, and even




1829-1832.                       123
American vanity could not keep up the bubble.  I cannot express to you how much I loathe French poetry. Amazing! that
a nation of taste should persevere in writing epics to the tune of"'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I heard him complain
You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again."
E. g. " Quel besoin si pressant avez-vous de rimer?
Et qui diantre vous pousse a vous faire imprimer? "
John Wesley says, in one of his journals, that you might as
well undertake to play an oration upon the jews-harp, as to write
a heroic poem in French. Have you access to the following
works? viz.: "Joh. Hen. }Mfaii Vita Reuchlini."  Humphry
Hody's " De Grmcis illustribus literarum Grtecarum in Italia instauratoribus." " Museum Helveticum," (vol. iv., p. 163;) also
any good history of the invention of printing, and its effects?
You see my eye is fixed upon my great work, [see p. 122.]  It
shall not exceed three 4tos, wire-wove, hot-pressed paper, russia
gilt. J. Murray, Albemarle st., price six guineas to subscribers,
dedicated to the hon. John Hall, sen., Chief Justice of the United
States.
TRENTON,.Iacsch 2, 1829.
Mr. Walsh' seems much delighted to find a divine so truly
wedded to his own system of Christian benevolence as Dr. Onderdonk shows himself to be.  I cannot but consider the address
of the Rt. Rev. gentleman one of the weakest defences even of
that groundless scheme. Will he pretend to say that our country is not as well supplied with the means of grace as Palestine
was when Paul went to the Gentiles?  We have begun at Jerusalem, we still maintain our great force at home. The missionaries to the heathen are not one in a thousand of the teachers of
religion. At what point shall we begin to send the truth abroad?
when all at home are truly converted? Upon this principle the
heathen will never be brought to God without a miracle. It is
not true that we rob the cause of home missions by maintaining
foreign missions; nor are the supporters of the latter indifferent
to the former, for generally speaking, the money for sustaining
both comes out of the same pockets.  As to that truly Walshian
sentence about " the proclivity of our country to the centrifugal
and romantic," it is a proclivity which finds its precedent in the
Christianity of the apostles. The school system lately adopted
by our legislature, promises more for the good of New Jersey
than any thing which has been known for a long time in our
State. It owes its passage to the zeal and labour of a single man,
1In his opposition to foreign missionaries, on the ground that home
duties were neglected.




124             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
Rev. Robert Baird, who has been keeping the subject before the
minds of the people, in newspaper essays, for some months. If
we aspire to zusefulness, I know no way in which we can promise
ourselves so much real success, though without noise or eclat.
I have been advised to write a Commentary for the use of Sabbath school teachers, and I have the subject under consideration.
It must soon be decided, or I shall be anticipated by some more
rapid genius. I lecture to the teachers every Thursday evening,
and bestow more preparatory labour upon this, than upon any
of my services; it is by far the most delightful of my employments.
The Delaware is closed with ice, and the weather still savours
more of winter than of spring. The suffering poor among us
have excited some commiseration, and subscriptions are now in
circulation for their relief. I have been reading H-are's Chemistry, and am greatly attracted by his wonderful mechanical ingenuity. Since leaving college, this is the only book which I
have read upon the subject. Surely it would be profitable for us
to review those studies, which we profess to think so important
in the education of others.
TRENTON, iaC?'rchI 26, 1829.
I have abandoned my literary projects, and have determined
to set about a brief commentary upon the historical parts of the
New Testament for the use of Sunday school teachers.  The importance of such a work must be at once obvious. It need not
be mentioned. If no one anticipates me I hope to be thus in
some degree useful. I write in a straggling and tremulous manner, for I had a chill last night, and after sitting up until one, at
your review,' and eating no breakfast, I am totally unfit to put
pen to paper. I have read the documents upon the Panamla mission so far as they have been published, and cannot perceive that
they add much to fMr. Adams's reputation for wisdom. They
set that scheme more in the light of a chimera than any thing
I have before seen.  From  the review of Irving's new work,
[" Conquest of Granada,"] I ami- not disposed to expect much
fromn it. Mere battles are interesting to me only in real history,
and not often there. I have no doubt that the reading which has
been rendered necessary by your late undertaking, has impressed
upon your mind the truth that biography is one of the most
fascinating studies, and that the lives of the most eminent men
have generally been written in a very slovenly manner. Let me
recommend to you to set about the life of some eminent literary
Of the translation of Milton's letters for the American Quarterly Review, June, 1829.




1829-1832.                      125
character. You may be sure of readers, if you make a proper
selection.  Amidst all the changes of public taste, biographies
have been popular in every age. The life of Sir Walter Raleigh
is so nearly connected with our own country's history, that it
might be made a very attractive work. Gibbon once undertook
the job, if I remember right.
TRENTON, April 4, 1829.
Those same letters of Milton are, in my opinion, as frothy a
set of articles as I ever read. Suppose we publish our familiar
letters; I am sure that the correspondence will be much more entertaining. I am truly ashamed of the stuff I have written as a
Review, but do not see how I can amend it; it is quite short,
anfd has little reference to the work, which indeed scarcely admits
of extracts. I spent last evening at the house of Dr. Belleville,
a French physician, who has been fifty years in this country.
He is a devoted follower of Voltaire, but otherwise a venerable
and estimable man. I-Ie is intimate with Survilliers, and supposes that he will publish an extended narrative of the events of
the revolution and empire, in which he took any part. Hie represents the ex-lking as a truly amiable man, of a literary turn,
spending much of his time in his splendid library of French and
Italian works. The Doctor showed me two very exquisite French
prints of Joseph's daughters, presented by themselves. I have
just been to a meeting held by Mr. Case, a Methodist missionary
from  Upper Canada, with some Indian converts. Mr. C. is a
man without pretension, but is an honest-hearted and pious missionary, and I was sincerely gratified.  Judge [Bushrod] Washington and his lady are here. There has been nothing very interesting in the Circuit Court.
TRENTON, April 8, 1829.
I have been reading John Adams's Defence of the American
Constitution, and have found it a very interesting work. I am
especially pleased with his abstract of the history of the Italian
republic, which I have never found so clearly given in any other
book. It has almost set me upon studying Italian, and reading
Machiavel, Guicciardini, Malavolti, &c., in the original. A general survey of all history, with reference to the principles of our
constitution, would be a great and useful work. It seems to me
that our Colleges ought to have lectures upon that very subject.
The simple principles assumed as fundamental by Adams, have
really cast a new light upon all the history I have read. The
annals of all nations seem to be a commentary upon the doctrine
that the three primary forms of government must be so tempered




126            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
and balanced in every government, as to check the extravagance
of each. My translation from Rosenr-iiller, and Review of
Scholz, have appeared in the Biblical Repertory.
TRENTON, May 4, 1829.
I entertain lively anticipations with regard to the results of
your introduction to the modern Johnson, [Mr. Walsh.] There
are few men in our country whose acquaintance would be a
greater prize. May you have many profitable and pleasant hours
in his conversazioni. I hope that you will come forth from the
den of lions, unscathed as Daniel. I have some curiosity to
know how many letters I have written to you.l I have the most
of yours, but among my various peregrinations some of them
have been lost. I am unable to accept your invitation to dinner
on the 5th, yet I will drink to the continuance of our correspondence in vwater, the only beverage to which I have access. Judge
Gould's letter is in my view one of the most just and most severe
castigations that Mr. Adams has received. Not that I love J.
Q. A. less, but that I love Federalism more. I have been reading Terence lately with much pleasure. He is the only Latin
poet in whose writings I have ever found simple pathos. I might
except some of Virgil's sad descriptions, but in the case of Virgil,
the pomp of the verse, and the artificial epithets, detract from
the effect. In the Andria and Hecyra of Terence, there are some
of the most charming touches of deep feeling. Erasmus knew
Terence and Horace by heart. Who ever could say as much for
Milton or Pope? I have seen a man who could repeat four
books of Paradise Lost.
I am fully persuaded that there is no department in which a
man may be so sure of arriving at eminence as in the modern
languages. All my study of this kind has been for amusement,
and yet I am surprised at my own progress, and convinced that
one who would devote himself to the subject, might in five years
have the choice of authors in German, French, Spanish, Italian,
Dutch, and Portuguese. A scholar in modern languages may
take what department he chooses, read always what is entertaining, and yet have the reputation of a great linguist or critic.
If I had the access which you have to libraries of French and
Italian works, I should make these languages a main object; but
where one must buy every book, at an exorbitant price, the
private student labours under great disadvantages. Will you
oblige me by purchasing " A selection from Italian prose-writers,
with translations according to the Hamiltonian system"? My
1 This was the ninety-ninth.




1829-1832.                      127
reasons for wishing this is, that my greatest difficulty in languages arises from the particles, and little words, especially auxiliary verbs, and oblique cases of pronouns, as well as adverbs
and  conjunctions  which  have various  meanings.   These
may all be learned in a week's time from a living teacher,
or a, very literal translation. I find no books so well adapted
to take away the darkness of a new language as travels and
biography.  I wish to get Goldoni's life by himself, if it can be
procured separately. Is the life of Boccacio at a moderate
price. Quere. How should we exist if so separated as to have
our correspondence by letter broken up? After ten years' use
it has become with me almost a necessary of life. I have just
read Carter's travels, [in Europe,] and like it well, with two exceptions.  1. He is forever foisting in the classics, reading Catullus on the grass; -Horace in the diligence; Virgil passim: while
he betrays wonderful ignorance in some simple points of antiquity, does not know what a Hermes is, which Kennet might have
taught him, and denies the well-known tradition of Luke's having
been a painter.  2. He compares every thing with New York,
and makes out the latter to be the greatest city in the world.
TRENTON, May 11, 1829.
With this, my hundredth letter, accept my warmest congratulations and wishes for the continuance of our correspondence.
A catalogue of our many topics would be quite extensive. I am
often amused when I call to mind the freaks of fancy which
used to enliven our early letters. By the bye, did I ever tell you
that I remember having seen your first attempt at epistolary
writing?  It was a letter to your aunt, now deceased, who received it while she was on a visit to my mother.
When I have another inspiration I will patch up something
for the [National] Gazette. I will translate some classical excerpts, to be incorporated among his own, if he will accept them;
likewise a brief memoir of the celebrated Buchanan. In your
library hours, look me out a few hints, particularly opinions of
scholars as to his latinity and poetry. I have Johnson's works,
but cannot turn to the compliment which I remember he pays to
Buchanan. Mayhap it is in Bozzy.  Have you seen any book
upon Italian literature, which takes the same view of it which
Dunlop does of Roman?  Prof. Ticknor, of Harvard, has furnished the Spanish student with a useful manual of this kind. I
have been reading over the last twelve books of the Iliad, Terence's Eunuchus, and have got half through Plautus. Spring has
some hard struggles with the winter, which seems disposed to
adhere to the throne, being made arrogant, I suppose, by so long




128             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
a reign.  There is a good deal of verdure about Trenton; yet I
sigh for the open country, anlld remember with regret the tracts
over which I could expatiate in Virginia, the forests, the streams,
"The mossed oaks
Which have outlived the eagle."
Yet I should be loth to have you suppose that I am discontented.  In no place I think, except Princeton, could I be more
at ease.  There is no sort of liberty more precious in my eyes
than the liberty of visiting only when and where you please.
Now this is what a Pastor cannot enjoy.  I-e must visit all his
people; and if he does this faithfully, he is cut off from  almost
every other out of door's work. In Princeton I scarcely ever went
anywhere oftener than necessity drove me. You may conceive
how little qualified I am for indiscriminate visits.  I am  averse
to making new acquaintances, and fond of sitting at home, while
I have an exquisite relish for the society of one or two whose
pursuits are congenial, and with whom  I can live without any
mask of ceremony or dignity.
Mr. Southard is very much broken; stoops like a man of
seventy, and seems melancholy.  If he recovers, he will probably be our next Governor.  My old room-mate Waterbury has
removed to Portsmouth, N. H.  Kirk has abundant encouragement at Albany; great increase of numbers in his church.
TRENTON, May 15, 1829.
Dull-headache last-night-exceedingly M;ondayish.  Read
Schiller's Don Carlos on Saturday, and do not hesitate to pronounce it the finest tragedy I ever perused.  Am  reading Wallenstein, which is considered his chef-d'ceuvre.  Also the Decamerone of Boccacio. The Biblical Repertory is likely to become a more important work; a number of clergymen have
determined to establish it as a theological review.
Lafayette's hogshead of dirt1 is, I think, unworthy of the
good sense he has always manifested; it is in genuine French
taste, however. As a testimony of his affection for America, we
cannot but receive it respectfully.  He might have requested to
be interred at Mount Vernon, which would have been more truly
honourable.
MJay 26.
Rain, rain, rain.  I had intended to rise very early and take
a walk upon the banks of our delightful river, but am weather
I-e sent for a quantity of the soil of the United States for his private
cemetery.




1829-1832.                      129
bound. Leigh Hunt's book is exceedingly amusing. I have half
a notion to write my own life. Coleridge's Biographia Literaria
is a book that will amply remunerate you for any hours you may
spend over it. I do not know whether I mentioned to you that
Attorney-General Berrien will deliver the annual oration before
the Societies at Princeton. You will inform me of what is to be
seen in the Academy of Arts, and as soon as possible any very interesting business before the [General] Assembly. I have finished
"Wallenstein,' which is in three parts; it is a drama of intense
interest. Schiller approaches in style to the highest flights of Shakspeare, and produces much of the same deep and personal interest
in the fortunes of his heroes, that is experienced in reading Scott's
most commanding works. I have tried to admire Corneille, but
I need no force to fill me with wonder at the powers of the great
German poet. Mr. [Rev. I. V.] Brown's High School [at Lawrenceville] has opened with thirty-six scholars, his buildings are
in rapid progress.  Iis " French gentleman " is Mr. Louis
HIargous, the best Frenchman I have ever seen, and one who is a
most accurate and well-read English scholar; his "Native of
Germany," is C. J. Haldemann, a lawyer and P. D. of Heidelberg, a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Paulus. tHis principal teachers are Rev. L. Leake, of N. J., and his son George Brown. It
will be a good school.
TRENTON, June 27, 1829.
Presuming that you will be able to redeem time enough fi'om
your review of the " Egarements " and your musical refections
to perstringe a sheet of foolscap, I take my pen to inform you
that I am not in good health, and hoping that these lines will find
you not in the same. Bile, bile, bile! thou chief of mysteries!
The old women tell of the stomach's being full of bile, and how it
gets into the blood and eyes, and makes the face yellow. The
doctors talk of secretions and excretions, of structural and functional derangement of the liver. I shall probably be forced to
go to the springs before long. If you are disposed to go in company, it would add much to my satisfaction; yet my jaunt
would probably be simply to Saratoga and Ballston, without
many divergent steps. I have really no time nor spirit at present for writing for Walsh. This laborious commentary takes up
as much time as an extensive and critical work would do; for
while the results are very simple and concise, I am under the
necessity of collating a number of works, and am forced " depromere magno acervo."  Have you read Cadwallader Colden's letter on Masonry? It is the most conclusive argument which I
have seen on the subject, and the more weighty as coming from
a mason of high standing.
vOL I.-6'




130             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
I visited Mr. Brown's school, and am much pleased with his
arrangements, while I cannot but think there is something vTisionarty in the new-fangled gymnastics. Boys, if kept at it as a part
of their work, will soon be glad to exchange climbing a mast,
and vaulting over a wooden horse, for climbing cherry-trees and
playing at ball. The suffrage of all ages is in favour of some of
our traditionary games, and if I mistake not, even in Greece and
Rome, to the example of which we constantly defer, children
were left to the freedom of their own will, with regard to their
sports. Military exercises, if they could be introduced without
the military spirit, would be a happy improvement in physical
education, and riding, fencing, (to which you will add dancing,)
and the ordinary athletics, have stood the test of centuries. The
most important change in the new German system is the increase
of teachers, as connected with separate rooms for the various
classes. This ought to ensure competent instruction in every
branch, and give a variety to the daily course which is highly
desirable. The modern languages I hope to see taught in every
respectable academy, to which I would certainly add facilities
for music and drawing. This discourse is doubtless edifying,
and is occasioned partly by my desire to fill the sheet, and partly
by the interest which I happen to be taking at this time in the
subject.  [Pause-during which I have lectured upon John v.
17-30.]  There is in Schiller a memoir of the Marechal de Vielleville, who made a great figure in France during the reigns of
Francis I. and Henry II. It is one of the most stirring pieces
of old chivalric history which I have ever read. In a different
line it excites the same sort of interest with the life of Cellini,
and is quite a romance in itself. If there were any way of publishing it, I would translate it; but it is too long for a magazine,
and too short to be put by itself. It is 147 pp. very small
duodecimo.
TRENTON, July 6, 1829.
I preached a 4th of July sermon yesterday from Deut. viii.
10-20; read the passage. The 2d company of State Fencibles
[of Philadelphia] was present; they came up to celebrate the
4th, which they did by trudging about in the mire, and ducking
themselves thoroughly. I went directly on to Princeton on Tuesday, and there remained until Friday. My health is quite comfortable, and I still hope to get through the summer without any
serious attack of my annual complaint. Cold work at Saratoga,
I guess. It would be delightful now to make an excursion to
Quebec. I am half resolved to undertake it. Our friends have
a charming week before them, without fear of being roasted or




1829-1832.                      131
suffocated. Wordsworth, among many silly affectations, has a
number of splendid passages. He makes one love nature, and
directs the attention to a thousand neglected objects of every
day's occurrence; while there is a purity and a benevolence in
all his thoughts which are rare and charming.
My feeling of good-for-nothing-ness is such that I would gladly
spend my whole time for some weeks in riding about the country.
It is an excuse for doing nothing, while it occupies the mind, and
dissipates ennui. William delivered, or was to deliver, an oration at Harlingen (a Dutch village in the hills north of Princetonl) on Saturday last. There was no celebration in this place;
indeed, this town is evidently in its dotage. The houses totter,
and even our church-steeple has a paralytic tremour, whenever
the bell is rung. The very river loses its animation as soon as
it reaches Trenton, and in some lanes the grass contends with
the pavement. Heigh-ho! I sigh for the greenness and variety
of Princeton. Perhaps the change is solely in myself, age creeping on, animal vigour decaying. Some gray hairs variegate my
head, and I have a monitory decay of the teeth, and trembling of
the hand. I beg leave to say that you have no business to be
remaining in Philadelphia during the summer. You ought to
strike out some untrodden path, where no tourists have ever
roamed. Make a classical tour through Maryland.  Go to the
west end of Lake Erie. Spend a week at Cape HIenlopen. Take
ship with me for Newfoundland.  Niagara is as common as a
Navarino hat, and Saratoga is no better than a beer-stall. I have
a great desire to go to Cuba, not just at this season however.
Have you obtained for me the chaplaincy at the Navy Yard l
Mr. Randolph reminds Mr. Walsh (29th ult.) of " the beautiful birds of the Spice Islands, they must fly against the wind."
How aptly might Mr. R. retort that there are certain birds that
always fly with the windc, "from what quarter soever it may
blow."  In Mlr. WT.'s tirades against the enlarged charities of
the day, and his exclusive plea for our own poor, he reminds me
of an occurrence recorded in John xii. 4, 5, not that I would insinuate that the cases are parallel. It is the glory of Christian benevolence that it is discursive, and makes itself felt beyond the
little circle of home. After all I acknowledge that there may
be, and perhaps are, too many divergent channels of charity.
A clear day —how nature seems to rejoice! The humming
birds are already at the creeper which runs over my window,
and I hear songs on every side; quaker women walk about 1" in
glory and in joy; " horses are taken to bathe in the river; carts
of hay crowd into the streets; babies paddle about in the mudpuddles; these are the rural sights and sounds which I now per



132            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
ceive. 0 for a breeze from the kennels of Water street, [Philadelphia,] or a glimpse of lowly Willing's alley, or the proclamation of raspberries; or any thing to make me think I was in the
midst of a bustling city. Among the attendant benefits of war,
it ought to be mentioned that it burns up dismal old towns, and
makes room for new ones.
You will consider this as an answer to the letter which you
have written to-day. It and its precursor are so long, that you
must confess yourself in debt, though they contain nothing.
TRENTON, July 15, 1829.
You might keep up an interesting series of translations of the
notices of American literature in the " iRvue Encyclopedique."
Mr. Walsh would furnish you the Revue, and, I suppose, be glad
of the articles. If I were a cit I should do it myself. In the [German] Conversations-lexicon, I am informed that Joseph Bonaparte
occupies the late seat of Gen. Moreau in Pennsylvania, that the
two great national works of the U. S. are Marshall's Washington, and Wirt's P. Henry. I have just read Goethe's Goetz von
Berlichingen, with vast delight. It has all the excellences of
Ivanhoe, in dramatic form. You can get an idea of the subject
from Scott's synonymous abortion.  Goethe was an idolater of
Byron, though he justly charged the latter with stealing largely
from him. Among Americanisms insert the following: " Slatted
over."  Illustration: At last Middlesex court, a woman giving
evidence against her husband, testified that he " slatted her over; "
this she repeated many times. The daughter also testified that
he had several times when angry " slatted her over;" and all
the witnesses concurred in declaring that he frequently " slatted
her over." Bench and bar were non-plussed. No light could be
thrown on the mystery. At last W. C. A. asked one of the
grand jury whether this was a provincialism of South Amboy.
l-Ie said it was partially so, being confined in its use to the
"Devil's half-acre," where it meant " push her."  I imagine that
Webster's dictionary will never be current. The plan of citing
namnes, instead of passaces, is unsatisfactory and unfair.
CAPE ISLANnD, [CAPE MAY,] Alugust 4, 1829.
After a beautiful sunrise, we have now a heavy storm of
rain, brought up with a S. b. W. wind. This gives me an hour
of leisure for writing, whereas I should otherwise have been at
sea about this time. A party of us had made arrangements to
take a pilot-boat for Cape Henlopen, but were afraid of a storm.
We had between forty and fifty passengers on our way down,
and although we encountered a squall, all things went off pleas



1829-1832.                     133
antly enough. On landing I found that we were to be under
conduct of the renowned Aaron Skellinger, who figures in the
various characters of wagon-driver, boat-builder, superintendent
of sunday school, precentor and leader of fishing parties. We
took lodging at the smallest and least fashionable house, and I
have had no reason to repent my choice. The company is quiet,
the attendance good, and the fare even sumptuous. Mirs. Bennett, our hostess, is the mother of Hughes who keeps the " Big
House."  We have here Judge Hallowell of your city. I have
never spent so many pleasant hours at any place of summer resort. The beach is delightful, and the company very agreeable.
Mr. Duncan of Baltimore, Dr. Collins of Washington, MIr.
Latimer of Philadelphia, and several Baltimore ladies, are those
with whom I chiefly consort. The usual walks and rides are
taken, the ordinary quantity of fish, oysters, crabs, terrapins,
lobsters, and game is consumed, and I take the surf twice every
day, viz.: at 41 A. M., and 6 P. M. Occasionally I have tried
it at noon. Preached last Sunday at the Cold Spring Church,
where a good portion of the strangers attended.
A great majority of the men about here are pilots. Upon
the two capes they reckon eighty. It interests me very much
to talk with them  about their adventures. It was but a few
minutes ago that I saw two of them pass through a raging surf
to reach a boat which lay beyond the breakers. The face of the
country gives me an agreeable surprise, as well as the people,
who have that happy mediocrity and thrift which are so conspicuous in New England, whence the settlers of Cape May migrated.
A number of very remarkable cures have been wrought by the
salt water this season, especially in cases of rheumatism. A gentleman from Kentucky who came here upon crutches, gave them
to his landlord at his departure. This place is in my estimation
incomparably above Long Branch, and I have scarcely experienced a single moment of ennui or disappointment since my
arrival. I have, however, regretted every day that you did not
accompany us. To-morrow, if the day is fair, we propose going
over to Cape Henlopen and Lewistown, and on Saturday, with
leave of Providence, I shall meet you in the " gude town."
From  the freshness of the air, and the frequency of sea
breezes, I have been exempt from all suffering from heat; during
the noon-tide, however, I read; have made out to finish Goethe's
Wilhelm Meister, an untranslatable and fascinating romance. It
reminds me of the characteristic excellences of Tristram Shandy
and Gil Blas, and abounds in a delicate naivet6 and in luscious
descriptions. I am now groaning over the Sorrows of Werter,
an unprincipled book, but one which has been barbarously cari



134            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
catured in the English version. I have also read a number of
Luther's Letters, some of which are gross to a degree.
TRENTON, August 24, 1829.
Quid rei  that is to say, What is the matter? Are you
absent, or sick, or has some calamity really befallen you? N.
B. I have just read Capt. [Basil] Hall's Travels, and have had
many hearty laughs over it. I am not disposed altogether to
condemn the work, as lMr. Walsh and Stone [Commercial Advertiser] do. IHe gives us rough handling, it is true, but then it
seems to be the expression of honest John Bullism. If our eyes
were but open, we might learn some important lessons from his
strictures. Inter nos, I accede to many of his political doctrines,
and join in his abomination of absolute democracy. I-e certainly
deserves our praise for his suppression of all names, except when
he speaks in commendation. My Commentary is done up, that
is, supplanted by a work nearly complete, of the same kind, by
Rev. Albert Barnes, of Morristown.
TRENTON, September 14, 1829.
I have been rather dilatory in consequence of a press of business which has entirely prevented that quiet state of mind in
which one desires to write a letter. Our opinions of Capt. Hall
just crossed one another, and I am pleased to find that we do not
altogether differ about his merits. If you abstract all that he has
said concerning our government, what remains will be rather
commendatory.  Addison has consigned to me his papers and
notes upon Sacred Geography, and I have been engaged in finishing the book, [for Am. Sunday School Union,] so that we shall
have it between us. The labour has been very irksome. I spent
twelve hours last week verifying the texts of Scripture referred
to, by looking for all of them. The mere geographical part is
interesting, although it is discouraging to find how little is really
known of the site of many ancient places. I was invited to preach
at the Tenth Church [Philadelphia, then without a'pastor] on the
12th. "' Qui bene latuit bele vixit." HIad a very pleasant interviewof three or four hours with Skinner and Christmas. The
death of Mr. [Rev. lMatthias] Bruen, is a severe stroke to the
church and to his aged father. He was eminently useful as a member of the public religious associations of New York. I am toldl
that his library is one of the most splendid in America. There is
a Miss       from n       here, who is one of the most intelligent young ladies I know. Approaching a little to the bas-blezu,
she has gayety and wit enough to throw a little charm around the
formidableness of her learning.  It is really a treat to be with her.




1829-1832.                      135
o si sic omnia! (viz. feminez.) There is a peculiar force in what
Dr. Johnson said of MArs. Thrale, if I remember aright: "Thrale
is a good creature to sit by; she understands what you say."  I
have been trying for some time to pay a visit to your city, but
have been sometimes unwell, sometimes day and night at Geography, sometimes necessarily at Princeton, and at present without
a decent pair of pantaloons. I will send you a couple of pieces by
Addison and myself for Walsh. [Gazette.]  We propose to continue writing in Co. [under signature of Dcidymnus.] Addison pretends that he is completing his review.  [J. A. A. reviewed Mo.
hammedan History in the American Quarterly Review, March,
1830, and the Gulistan of Sadi, and Anthon's Horace, in Sep.
tember, 1830.]
Pray do you know any thing of Vertot's History of the
Knights of Malta?  I have lately seen it very highly extolled,
especially in a piece of Schiller's. Item. Does your library contain " The Travels of Theodore Ducas, by Mills "  Again, for
what price can Mitford's History of Greece be obtained? N. B.
Gibbon's Rome may be imported from Germany in 12mo, 12
vols., good paper and print, for.6 Rix dollars, ($4.20.) I have
seen a specimen. Dr. Livingston's Life was taken by A. Gun,l,
(as appears from the advertisement.)  I want the book, having
a great veneration for the character of the good old Dr.  He
was to the Ref. Dutch church what Bishop White is to the
Episcopal, except that he had incomparably more learning and
eloquence. I shall ever remember him as the best specimen of
the ancient school of clerical manners.
TRENTON, September 23, 1829.
Mr. Walsh has got an honourable advantage of the scurrilous
writer in the National Journal. That paper is taking too much
the ground which the Telegraph occupied while it was in the
opposition.  niMr W. certainly deserves the credit of being dignified and courteous, whether right or wrong. I am in no respect, however, more pleased with the present powers. Read
the new Post-Office decrees, as an illustration of the grammatical
rule touching the use of " shall " and " will."  Mr. -  has
been some days in Trenton.  I-e spent several hours with me
last evening. I should imagine from his language that the New
Haven school approximates more towards German liberality, or
rather indifference to doctrine, than any community of Theologians out of Massachusetts. He said, for instance, that he viewed
the verbal coincidences of the first three gospels, as arising from
the copying an original oral gospel, which long passed from person to person; that we must adclit that the Bible contains a
Mythology, as well as a Theology. You are aware that the lat



136            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
ter hypothesis is that by means of which the German Neologists
explain away all the miracles. I beg that you will come on to
commencement, at least to hear Berrien's speech. Our trustees
seem to have no power to supply the two vacancies in the
faculty of the college. I propose that we apply for the appointments: I will teach language, and you chemistry. I have always
thought-to speak seriously-that a situation as Editor would
suit your tastes and talents remarkably well.  But how or
where?  If Mr. Walsh wanted a partner, and you could turn
your coat, that would undoubtedly be the place, but of either of
these contingencies I have no expectation. A weekly journal,
purely literary and scientific, ought to find patronage in your
city; something which should have the excellences of Museum,
the weekly Reviews of Enlgland, and the literary part of Walsh.
Is there no publisher who would enterprise such a thing, and
assume the pecuniary responsibility? This might perhaps be
out of the line in which you wish to move; if so, you must
either become author, or Jackson man. By opening your mouth
foully for the Administration, you may be made consul at Martinique, by the time that    - has been done over by the
climate.
This is one of those gloomy days which makes a man willing
to keep close within doors. At such times, I find myself less
disposed either to converse or make any special exertion, than
when the sun enlivens all nature. I have no reason to complain
of low spirits, a malady of which I scarcely know any thing at
present; but there is often a sort of pettishness and ill-humour,
which is produced in equal degrees by a long beard, a dirty shirt,
or nasty weather. I have been reading Schiller's History of the
Thirty Years' War in Germany, in which Gustavus Adolphus,
Oxenstielrn, and Wallenstein were so much celebrated. It is a
masterpiece of history, and abounds especially in distinct and
striking portraits of great characters. His Lectures on Universal History are also very fine; though they abound in infidel
sentiments. When I can get a copy to suit me I intend to read
the Odyssey; and am about going over Terence, which I have
already studied at long intervals.  If I had access to a complete
library, I should attempt the ancient historians, in translations.
To toil through the original would be to me a mere waste of
time. The article on Cromwell [Christian Spectator] by [W.
T.] Dwight is very boldly and ably written, but perhaps goes
too far, as it is intended to show that he was a genuine patriot,
and a sincerely pious Christian.  Still I believe that the general
opinions of Cromwell are far too dark, being drawn from the
suspicious representations of royalists. As if unwilling to judge




1829 —1832.                    137
him by his deeds, some of which are bad enough, they attribute
even his good actions to hypocrisy.
TRENTON, October 14, 1829.
You have seen the appointments made by the trustees for
Princeton college. In Mr. Vethake [Natural Philosophy] they
have a great acquisition. Every day or two I have been hoping
to visit Philadelphia, but obstacles have continually risen up. Just
now, the sudden death of one of my people, and the apparently
mortal disease of another, must detain me. Mr. Berrien's discourse exceeded all expectations. It was not profound, and contained few indications of comprehensive grasp of mind, or creative genius, yet from its exquisite polish it will appear well in
print. Mr. B.'s manner is the most perfect specimen of artificial
oratory I have ever witnessed.
How is it that Texas has just been discovered to be so
remarkably fertile and valuable? In Darby's Gazetteer I find it
represented as a barren waste, almost entirely destitute of spring
water, and destined forever to be a wilderness. This, I suppose,
is to be the Panama question of the Jackson cabinet. I understand that Gov. Giles is publishing an opinion that a separation
of the Northern from the Southern States would be highly
advantageous to the latter. In such an event, which is no longer
improbable, it is to be wished that you and I may not have
migrated south of the Potomac; Faxit Deus! By way of a
Hindoo idol, in the last Philadelphian, we had an exact copy of
the Ephesian Diana; see Calmet's Dictionary.
You ask me my opinion about preachers. I think that of the
17th century, John Howe and Barrow are the first; and of the
19th Robert Hall, whom I prefer to any sermonizer I have ever
read. His sermon entitled " Modern Infidelity Considered," is
unequalled. For deep pathos, Samuel Davies is surpassed by
none, but he often sins against good taste. I am reading Gough's
History of the Quakers, and am more and more convinced that
George Fox was the true progenitor of the Hicksites.
PRINCETON, October 24, 1829.
It is probable that a letter from you lies unopened in the
post-office at Trenton, as I have been absent a week at Synod,
which met at the delightful town of Newark, and from which I
returned last night, much exhausted with late and early sessions.
On Monday's afternoon boat I expect to take passage for Philadelphia expecting to leave it upon the succeeding day for Richmond. I may spend a few hours with you. A partial engagement has been entered into by the directing committee of the




138            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
Biblical Repertory and Theological -Review [its additional title]
to make me editor, (I still residing in Trenton.)
TRENTONX, December 4, 1829.
Yea: it is not to be dissembled that I feel a very lively satisfaction in finding myself in my own den, by my own fire, dipping into the accustomed inkstand, and listening (as I do this
moment) to the clock of my own church. This pleasure is
enhanced by finding a welcome, where I expected a scolding,'
and by renewed assurances of regard from my people; a regard
which I reciprocate more cordially every day. In hours of discontent, I sometimes wish myself a thousand leagues away, and
fancy that no one has so many perplexities; but the difficulties
which afflict me arise, I am sure, from my own culpable indisposition to be faithful, and whither could I fly, where a slothful and
evil heart would not make me unhappy? Once I have had experience of the wretchedness of leaving an affectionate people,
and the experiment is one of which I crave no repetition.  Unless, like, I could depart, without notice to quit, or any
premonitory grumblings, I should scarcely sustain the mortification of declaring such an intention. At the house of Chief Justice
Ewing, I saw to-day, in a frame, the original letter of acknowledgment sent by Gen. Washington to the ladies of Trenton, after
his triumphal entry. It hangs very appropriately under a print
from Sully's " Passage of the Delaware."  The worshipful Legislature of our State have adjourned until January 1st. A bare
probability that the Canal Bill will pass. About half of this
town has just changed hands, by the recent sale of the real estate
of the late Abraham Hunt. The manufactures of the place are
in the "sear and yellow leaf."  Sartori's calico factory has expired. Page's cotton factory has finally stopped. The Wells's,
proprietors of the only remaining and principal manufacturing
establishment, have gone to Pottsville. The prospect is lamentable. Unless the canal should be made, and should be profitable, the place is gone at once, and the final blow will be struck
by the removal of State business.
I have turned over in my mind many times, since I saw you,
the case of Doddridge, as exhibited in his Correspondence,2 and
have been much puzzled to come to any conclusion as to the
bearing which these new revelations have upon his religious character. Perhaps he was not a pious man at all, when he wrote
that letter, and flamed out in such exorbitant affection. Perhaps
1He had spent the month of November in a visit to Charlotte Court
House, Virginia.
2 Diary and Correspondence, then lately published by his great-grandson.




1829-1832.                      139
a grain of wheat might have existed amidst the bushel of worldly
chaff, and these may be the worst specimens of his whole life.
Perhaps he was just such a frivolous, inconsistent, volatile clergyman, as one you wot of, who sometimes fears that his religion
is a mere name, and whose conversation and life are a daily
source of mortification and compunction. It gives me pain to be
forced to look at the nakedness of a Father in Israel, as it does
to read that vile calumny of the infidel - -, upon the Father
of his Country. Mlay we not gather from these and other such
testimonials the truth, that we over-rate the greatness of our predecessors, and that the sages and' Christians of former days were
fallible and human, like ourselves?  (See Ecclesiastes vii., 10.)
Suffer me to give you a French pun which I had from 7Mr.
HIargous. A celebrated caf6 of Paris, much frequented by the
provincials during the revolution, had the sign of John the Baptist, under which was "Au grand Saint Jeanc Ba2tiste."  The
authorities informed the publican that saints were now abolished,
and that the sign must come down. He replied that it would
ruin him, as everybody knew it by that name; but after some
study changed the face into that of a monkey, and the inscription
so as to have the same sound, " At grand Singe, en Baptiste."
I observe that Martin, whose illustrations of Milton have
attracted our attention, is mentioned as the greatest master of
design in England: he was brought into notice by West. If
you should see offered in the shops any single engraving from
his paintings, I should like to hear of it. Delightful wintry
weather, and proposals for a snow.  If the sleighing should be
good, you will do well to come up before Christmas. Next
Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, by order of the Governor, a sort
of movable feast which comes in place of saints' days. I recommend the foregoing epistle as a specimen of connected and systematic thought, natural arrangement, and artful transition.
TRENTON, December 25, 1829.
You have expressed my sentiments precisely with regard
to Summerfield's Life [by Holland.]  Not one description of his
manner of preaching! not a word which conveys the slightest
idea of that which we all remember as the most striking thing
about him; if we except a few newspaper squibs. If it were not
for what the book contains of his own, I would not harbour it.
The two letters which I have, are after all as good as any there.
There is a young man by the name of Winchester, from Baltimore, in the Princeton Seminary, who is one of the best speakers I have heard there.  In case of a want in your city, it
might be advisable to give him a trial. The Spruce streeters




140             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
will show much ignorance of such matters if they continue to
search after old men, or antiquated young ones.' Addison is
much pleased with his new employments, [with Prof. Patton in
his lately established school.] The school promises to succeed
beyond expectation.
Whatever the advantages of early rising may be, there is one
gratification which it affords, viz., the delight of sitting in your
chair, with fixed and staring eyes, perfectly content to indulge in
meditation, as comatose as a cat, and even at times purring for
very pleasure; in a word, asleep with your eyes open.
TRENTON, D)ecember 26, 1829.
In your newspaper scheme, as in all that concerns your welfare, I feel sincerely and deeply interested; and let me say in
the gross, all that you have asked, I will do-so far as my ability
reaches.  But do not expect too much: remember that I am
pulled hither and thither, that I now have much anxiety about
the Repertory, and make allowances for the moments of lassitude, ennui, and good-for-nothing-ness which are occurring from
time to time.  As to the name I concur, [" Morning Journal."]
It is simple and significant.  A hyper-critic might perhaps see
some tautology in it, but it is good. As to literature, you are
certainly right in not making it prominent at the first.  I shall
keep a sheet always ready for scraps, and contributions to your
Balaam-box. I have recently heard a gentleman of intelligence
say that during the wars of Napoleon, Duane [of the " Aurora "]
was distinguished above all his contemporary editors for the
extent and accuracy of his geographical information, and so arranged his foreign extracts, and his comments,.as to give his readers a clear view of every great movement of the campaigns.
Generally speaking, the foreign news is so huddled together, that it
is almost impossible to arrange it into a whole, even with much
study. This evil is much diminished where an editor will take
the pains to give, in a sentence or two, by way of coup d'ceil,
the result of his readings.  Nothing from  abroad is more interesting than views taken by foreigners of American manners, men,
and measures. I am always pleased, also, to have in addition to
the mere facts, extracts from the Editorial treatises which so
much abound in London papers.  Bow-street trials are not to be
despised, and indeed I suppose you are already convinced that
you must be very unfastidious, so as to please " the many-headed
monster."  There are even artifices which an editor may and
must use, however undignified he might consider them  under
1 The Rev. Samuel G. Winchester was called to the Spruce Street congregation shortly after the date of this letter, and was installed May 4, 1830.




1829-1832.                      141
other circumstances. He may frame a paragraph so as to introduce a quotation, and he may find Ayscough's Index no despicable auxiliary.
There is no literary labour which brings a man so much before the heterogeneous mass of human society as the editing a
newspaper.  Other writings may be said to pertain to one class
of judges, but you write for the democracy at large. In this
your views must be somewhat like those of ancient Greeks, who
read their productions to the populace. I am far from thinking,
however, that there needs to be any sacrifice of independence or
integrity in an editor. A sop may here and there be thrown to
the barking Cerberus, but even this monster may be appeased
by the " golden branch" which Eneas carried.
If you are short of " horrid murders " and " shocking accidents " and " awful dispensations!!! " I can furnish them by
the gross, as I have been reading Schiller lately, and have my
imagination sufficiently wrought up.
I suppose you begin with the new year; and I wish you a
happy year of it. You may, if you are going to take party
ground, make a very good article upon Branch's message, [Secretary of Navy,] showing that all his recommendations which are
of any value were made before by his predecessor. The New
York Commercial is in my view a very good model. Mr. Walsh
is always dignified and able, but always in buckram.l
TRENTON, February 17, 1830.
A bill legalizing horse-racing has gone through second reading in the House.  Lobby members very brisk, some for railroads, some for canal, some for oysters, some for race course, or
as one of our members endorsed it on his bill rase corss. Apropos of spelling, I saw an endorsement on a file of bills: " An act
to abbollish prisoners for debt, in certin cases. Posponded."  I
certainly approve of the wisdom of the house in posponding any
bill so cruel in its purposes.  If you alight in any way upon any
papers relating to Institutions for the Blind or the Deaf and
Dumb, let me have sight of them, as I am engaged in collecting
upon these subjects. I have been applied to, to write an article
upon "Prison  Discipline" for Dr. Lieber's Encyclopgedia
[Americana.] An odd subject surely for me.
I am in some difficulty about the Hebrew accents, those I
nmean which are used as musical notes. Stuart refers to the following books. Will you inform me whether they are in any of
1 During the six months that the daily newspaper referred to in this
letter was under the editorial direction of his friend, Mr. Alexander was a
frequent contributor to its columns.




142             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
your libraries, and whether any musical notes are given? Jablonskii Prcef. ad Bib. Heb. ~ 24, and Bartoloccii Bibliotheca Babbinica, Tom. iv., p. 431.
I am very much discouraged as to my ever being of much
use in the world, from a mortifying conviction of my very great
fickleness of purpose, or rather perhaps I ought in justice to myself to say, variableness of feeling. A subject or an enterprise
deeply interests and engages me for a month, and then before I
am able to do any thing practically, I have come under the influence of a new passion which urges me in another direction.  It
is humbling to say so, but I really believe myself to be a visionary. Just at this moment, I am  very much impressed with
a sentiment which I cannot express otherwise than thus: " It is
the duty of some men to devote their attention to the relief of
the temporal miseries of mankind."  Let me explain. I do not
exclude spiritual beneficence; I do not mean that a man should
become a knight errant; but I verily think that Christians are
not touched as they should be with human suffering, bodily suffering, privation, &c., &c. Now, if a few men would concentrate
their thoughts upon this, write upon it, paragraph upon it, influence the press, talk upon it, in a word Clarksonize, I believe
great things must be done. In reading the N. T. I have recently
been much struck with the fact that all the miracles of our Saviour were acts of benevolence, and usually in relief of zhuman,
bodily distresses. Now, the thought has powerfully come over
me, Am I, and are Christians, acting in any degree like their
master? I have recently preached upon the subject from Heb.
xiii., 3. I have an idea that the amount of effort now put forth in
Christendom would produce a hundred times as much real good,
if it were systematized and properly directed. Perhaps this
crude thought will not be lost upon you. It may serve to gender cogitations of your own and to direct your scissors.
TRENTON, JUne 7, 1830.
I feel, I am sure, more tenderly than ever, the obligations of
that friendship which has so long and so happily subsisted between us. My regret is, that your loss is such, that condolence
and counsel are the most that the kindest friend can offer. Believing, as we both do, that all human affairs are under a most
wise and holy ordering, our judgment may rest in firm assurance
that all is right; we may be convinced that it ought not to be
otherwise. To school the heart is more difficult, but I believe it
to be possible through the application of the same truths. Let
me earnestly beg of you, then, to seek by prayer and the reading of the Scriptures, that acquiescence in the will of God, which




1829-1832.                      143
you will find nowhere else. And let me suggest that you strive
to obtain, not merely the mitigation of natural sorrow, but that
instruction which God so plainly means to convey by this dispensation. After all, "the heart knoweth its own bitterness,"
and to every adviser, you may perhaps be forced to say with
Job, "miserable comforters are ye all."  For this reason, then,
it is the dictate of wisdom to cease from man, and go directly to
the fountain of all grace and consolation. There are many topics
of worldly condolence which will occur to you-as the contrast
with the heavier woes of others, the deliverance of your beloved
partner from all sorrow and languishment-but the aching void
will still remain, until you apply to the great origin of all good,
and have the love of God shed abroad in your heart. 0 let
your strongest efforts be put forth, at this seasonable time, to
obtain the gift of God, and eternal life. Your mind labours
under conviction of human inability, without a due apprehension
of the correlative truth, that the grace of God is ready to supply
your defect of power. In the January number of the Biblical
Repertory, p. 113, you will find an article on the means of repentance, which I think would tend to remove some of your difficulties. When your mind will bear such exertion, give it a perusal.
It is, I believe, usually found that when any person sets about
this work, with a real desire to be reconciled to God, he does
attain the object of his endeavours.  This is what you need to
make you happy under the adversities which you have so early
begun to suffer. Now it is with you (strange as the expression
may seem) a favoured time, and I do think that the door stands
open through which you may enter to eternal joy., My dear
friend, give yourself to these thoughts, bring your mind to dwell
upon the presence of Jehovah, the selfishness and evils of your
heart, the necessity of regeneration, and the mercy of God in
Jesus Christ. Only seek this as earnestly as we seek worldly
satisfaction, and you shall assuredly find.
By a coincidence surely unsought by me, I am just preparing
to go on to Virginia to be married.'
TRENTON, July 13, 1830.
You will be disposed to excuse my delay in answering your
last, if you will consider the great burden of calls and ceremonies which lies on me at this time. My mind often reverts
to you and your bereavement. While I do not pretend to understand the bitterness of the cup which you are called to drink, I
1 Mr. Alexander was married at the residence of Mrs. Le Grand, near
Charlotte Court House, on the 18th June, to Miss Elizabeth C. Cabell,
daughter of George Cabell, M. D.




144             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
believe I can much more understandingly than before, speak of
the endearments of the marriage state. With a dear friend by
my side who can sympathize with me in all the varied feelings
which I experience, I can form a better conception than formerly
of what your loss is. Yet again I say, " the heart knoweth its
own bitterness."  It is not to renew your grief that I touch on
this topic, for I would gladly, if I could, divert your mind from
the remembrance of those painful scenes, but there is a profit
in affliction, which is to be obtained only by consideration of the
cause of sorrow. My hope is that in this valley of humiliation,
you will be instructed and led to surrender yourself to God. It
7would give my wife and me very great pleasure to see you in
Trenton. We are living in the very humblest manner; some
of my friends think too much so for my station, but it is absolutely necessary.
Mr. Southard has been making a speech at Newark, which
was attended by a vast audience, is greatly admired, and will be
printed. I should like to introduce you to him. I-e is one of
the most agreeable companions I have ever found, and pays us
far more attention than we could ever demand of him. tHis popularity in this State is rapidly rising to its former acme.
The cause of Temperance has received a great impulse in our
town: our Governor, Chief-Justice, Attorney-General, Senator,
and many leading members of the bar, are decided advocates of
the new measures. Addison is about to buy the whole 1001
Nights, in the original Arabic. He has completed for Patton
a revision of Donegan's Greek Lexicon, comparing every word
with Schneider's ditto.
Under my present circumstances, it would be strange if I
were unhappy; it will still be gratifying to you to know that I
enjoy a degree of satisfaction far above my fondest expectations.
Let me not forget, however, that all human joys are fleeting, and
that before another year I may mourn under a sad reverse, by
loss of health, or a thousand possible occurrences. This is a
truth which I am sure is deeply impressed upon your mind.
May you not only find out the inadequacy of the " broken cisterns," but come to " the fountain of living water."
TRENTON, July 27, 1830, 2, P. M., 1
97~ FAHRENHEIT IN SHADE.
I went on Tuesday to New Brunswick to hear Mr. Wirt's
oration.' The air was ovenish, the assembly large and highly
respectable, the speech two hours long, apparently extemporary,'At the commencement of Rutgers College.




1829-1832.                      145
and a noble specimen of polished, patriotic, eloquent speaking.'The subject might be thus stated: " The mental and moral discipline demanded of American youth by the peculiar character
of the age and country, with principal reference to patrotic manliness, integrity, and decision of character." There was a strong
touch at the times. I came back quite sick, and spent one or
two days in bed. Such a continuance of torrid weather I have
never felt. Let me beg of you, if you have not already done so,
to fly from the city for a few weeks. I have never felt so entirely good for nothing as I do at this time; I am desiccated and
toasted to that degree that I feel like a dried animal, and almost
look for my skin to crack.
I am projecting, under my father's guidance, a large work,
say two vols. thick Svo, title undetermined, but something like
this, a "Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of Theology," or "Theological Biography and Bibliography," intended
to furnish, in alphabetical order, a sketch (brief) of the life, and
a list of the books, (with some estimate of their value,) of all
writers on Theology. The thing is new, plainly a desideratum.
What say you to a partnership? You may, by aid of Library,
&c., assist thus: Look through all the Biographical Dictionaries
within reach, note names of authors, book where their history
may be found, and digest the same into an index. Also furnish
the short articles, without reference to order in the first draught.
It may be expected to occupy several years of smart labour.'
Trenton is remarkably healthy thus far. Should our hopes
in this respect be realized, this may be recommended as the
pleasantest summer retreat upon the Delaware. Bristol and
Burlington are pretty pictures from the water, but the dullest
and most intolerable places on earth. Trenton is homely, but
well situated, and affords a greater variety of pleasant drives in
its vicinity than any place I know. House rent is just nothing
here, and it is almost as near (by steamboat) to the city, as Bristol or Burlington.  The movements of the Jacobin party calling
themselves (often lucus a non &c.) the "Working Men," give
me unfeigned alarm, more than any threats of disunion, or violence of mere party rage. If we love our country, something
must be done. It will not do to despise so formidable an array.
They are indeed, with us, not the dregs, but in the exercise of
their elective franchise, the primnumn rmobile of this nation. The
Godwinism, Owenism, sans culottisn, (aut quocunque gaudent
nomine,) which possesses them, may ruin us. Could not a series
1This project was not executed. I do not know what progress was
made in it.
VOL. i.-7




146             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
of " Letters to Working Men" be put in some popular Journal,
commending honest labour, asserting the rights of mechanics,
&c., but unveiling the naked deformity of this levelling system?
Could not you serve your country, by doing something of the
sort?  It would be arduous, but by so doing, y ou would deserve
well of posterity. No better work, I truly think, could just now
engage any honest patriot. If I could, I would try, but I cannot.'
I am well and happy, and I desire to be thankful; the only
source of disquietude at present is lmy apparent want of usefulness among my people.  Nemo ab omni parte beatus; and
when I compare my lot with that of many others, I am ashamed
of my ingratitude.  May we learn, my dear friend, to look for
peace andl comfort in something higher than even the innocent
joys of life.  This is the lesson which it is so easy to inculcate,
but so impossible, I had almost said, to practise.  In suffering
my affections to cling to earthly objects, as I lament that they
do, I feel that I am laying up for myself future miseries.  God
alone can reveal himself, so as. to " call us away from earth and
sense."'
TRENTON, AugqUSt 23, 1830.
I consider the manifesto of the Cherokees as a very moving
paper.  After all, iniquitous as the proceedings have been with
regard to this injured people, yet considering the manner in which
their tribes always pine away from  contiguity to the whites, I
am strongly inclined to think that their separate existence will
be prolonged by their translation beyond the Mississippi.  I
have been reading Voltaire's correspondence with the King of
Prussia, but I shall read no more.  Never have I seen such
horrid blasphemies in print; chiefly, however, in the letters of
Frederick.  Voltaire is more cunning and reserved, and says
just enough to draw out the sentiments of that incarnate fiend,
who glories in Atheisml, and justifies -- ex professo. Three
young Spaniards called on me to-day, asking for alms; they had
a statement drawn up in very good Latin, which I found was written by one of them, who passed for a doctor of medicine.  They
were modest, well-looking fellows.  The generous Joseph Bonaparte lately had a poor fellow apprehended, tried, convicted, and
cast into prison, for having stolen from  him  six silver sj2oons!
This plan was at length executed by himself in a series of articles furnished to the Newark Daily Aclvertiser, under the signature of Charles Quill.
The first series, of forty-six papers, was collected in a volume entitled
"The American Mechanic," and published by Perkins, of Philadelphia, in
1838: the second, of forty-five papers, was issued by the same publisher in
1839, under the title of " The Working Man."




1829 —1832.                     147
he who gained his wealth by abstracting the treasures of Spain,
and rifling the churches which fell in his way.  HIe proposes to
remove, as the railroad will pass directly through his estate.
TRENTON, September 7, 1830.
The Scotch mist which prevails is highly promotive of cerebral development, as I judge by the effusion at the nostrils this
morning. Which end of the newspapers must a man begin at to
get:the order of events in the new revolution. I have read so
many accounts, in such varied arrangement, that the jumble is
inextricable.  Is such a thing as a map of Paris attainable? It is
like to be interesting at this time. Is there not a striking coincidence between the history of French and English liberty? thus:
Charles I.           Louis XVI.
Civil war.           Revolution.
Cromwell.            Napoleon.
Charles II.          Louis XVIII.
James II.            Charles X.
Constitution.        -? -
My sanguine ho6pe is  using these lights of history, and the
parallel strikes me even in its details-that the French will settle
down upon a limited monarchy, with a liberal charter, annual
parliaments, just representation,  and universal liberty of conscience. France would then be a glorious land. So mote it be!
I have just been inditing a pompous piece of fustian upon the
new French Revolution, to be spoken by a lad on the night before commencement, bearing in mind the direction once given to
my brother, by a similar applicant, on a like occasion. "What
sort of a speech shall I write you?"  " Oh'! a real bomncidstic one,
just like your own."' Mr. Frelinghuysen is here at this time,
full of the subject of Temperance.  He is a singular instance of
a man zealously devoted to every good enterprise, without the
slightest eccentricity. I am told that the state of frenzy at
Charleston between the nullifiers and their opponents is truly
alarming; so much so, that Judge Grimke has resigned his seat
on the bench, that he may go to the State Legislature. I hope
Mr. Walsh's word of exhortation appended to his remarks on
the Revolution in France may not be lost upon them. I wish
you could give us another call, during the pleasant season of
autumn.  I cannot (as we read in story books) ask you to come
into the country for fruits of the earth, for you have the richest
supply in your city. Give me leave to say, nevertheless, that
there is some enjoyment: in partaking of them nearer to the
place of their production.  I am  reading Broussais' Physiology
at this time. The medical men make such a noise about his




148             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.'revelations," that I wish to find out what he has revealed, and
whether any light is thrown upon the " glorious uncertainty'" of
medicine. I came up in the boat with Vethake, who is just fromn
France. Hle says that in all the shops and cafes where only one
paper was taken, it was anti-ministerial; hopes much from the
improved notions of the French respecting liberty; thinks the
present movement got up neither by Jacobins nor Bonapartists;
that the latter are very few; the Due d'Orleans a universal
favourite (of V.'s, perhaps because he was professor of mathematics
in Switzerland.)
TRENTON, October 1, 1830.
Notwithstanding the criminal apathy of my heart in the concerns of immortal souls, I experience a lively pleasure in the
comfortable assurance afforded by your last letter, that you have
joined yourself to the Lord in an everlasting -covenant.  It is not
enough, according to the Scriptures, " to believe with the heart,"
unless also we " confess with the mouth the:Lord Jesus." May
the Lord ever be with you, enriching your soul with the graces
and consolations of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that many
of us suffer exceedingly from having very low views of the heights
of religious joy which are attainable in this life. I have been
this morning to see my neighbour       -,,who has just been
raised up from the jaws of death. I had scarcely supposed it
possible for one so uniformly pious and exemplary to receive so
great an accession of spiritual life and peace. His views of the
Saviour's glory, the excellence of divine truth, ministerial responsibility and his personal vileness, seemed to be really unutterable. As a contrast to this, I called to. see a man who cannot
live, as we think, more than a day or two, who is almost in despair, on account of his long-neglect of religion. The changes in
elhe faculty [of College] are important, viz.: Dr. Torrey, of New
York, Professor of Chemistry; Dr. Samuel B. Howell, of Anatomy and Physiology; Vethake, of Natural Philosophy; lHargous,- of MIodern Languages; and Addison [Alexander]; Adjunct
Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature, with the duties
of tutor. My father sets out this week for Boston, where he has
not been since 1799. Addison goes the same way next week.
The commencement went off with the usual hubbub, the
valedictory was truly excellent and eloquent; a "defence of
pulpit eloquence," spoken by a young man of. your State, named
Hart.' I have never seen so many tears shed in that house.
I spent four days of last week in New York.. The signs of
John S Hart; afterwards adjunct Professor of Languages.




1829-1832.                      149
increasing infidelity and atheism greatly alarmed me. Just opposite the Bible House, is a " liberal book-store," the most daring and demoniacal opposer of every thing good. At the door I
saw, among many other MS. "Bulletins," as they are called, a
ribald and blasphemous travestie of the Litany, around which
was gathered a group of men and boys.
TRENTON, October 15, 1830.
I scarcely know what to say to you about the extent of the
Atonement, so much has my mind been tossed and perplexed on
the subject. The point, however, to which I have to cling as the
very foundation of all m y dearest personal hopes is, that the
death of Christ was a proper sacrifice, vicarious, implying substitution and the enduring a penalty.  Let me beg of you to read
Mlagie lon the'Atonement. The key to the nature of the Atonement is to be sought, I think, in the ancient sacrifices. Now the
difficulty is here, in my mind: If I admit that the Atonement is
general, I can no longer hold that Christ atoned for persons, but
for sin in general. It becomes a mere indication of his displeasure at sin considered abstractly, and I become lost in the vagueness of such a scheme.  The limitation of the Atonement, arises
in my view, simply from the purpose of Jehovah in it. Now, it
does appear to me that every argunment against this, lies against
the decree of election itself, and is, therefore, inconsistent in
any Calvinist. Suppose I say that the Atonement is general,
still the great objection lies: "' How can God sincerely offer this
Atonement to those whom He has decreed not to furnish with
the will to accept of it 3 "  When I view the Atonement as sufficient for all, I do so only because from the very nature of it, as
rendered by a Divine Saviour, it has infinite merit. As to its
intention, even Hopkinsians hold a virtual limitation. I do not
profess to have the clear view which some have on this point.
I offer Christ to all, because this is plainly and undeniably in the
ministerial commission. I maintain substitution and imputation,
because I think without them there is no sacrifice, no meaning in
ancient types. In the October No. of the " Methodist Magazine
and Quarterly Review of N. Y.," there is a very able defence of
Arminianism against the Pelagianism of New Haven, with which
last Mr. Barnes's opponents suppose him to coincide. If there is
any thing in ecclesiastical authority, I think: it might be amply
proved that the ancient fathers, the Church of Rome, the Church
of England, the Remonstrants or Arminians, the Lutherans, and
the Methodists held the substitution of Christ in the Atonement,
tand that it was left for Socinians and the divines of New England to deny it. At the same time the churches of Rome, Eng




150             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
land, and the Methodists, and Lutherans, do all maintain a universal Atonement. NMay the Lord direct us into his truth!
My father is, or has been, in Boston, attending the meeting
of the A. Board of C. for For. Miss. The Christian Spectator is
exceedingly bitter against Dr. Woods, and all New England is
likely to be in a ferment. When such disputes get among the
laity, especially women, they become dreadful. I have heard horrid extremes of fatalism, under the notion of Calvinistic doctrine.
If you should meet with Mr. Rezeau Brown, late tutor in
Nassau Hall, in your city, you will, I think, be pleased with him.
He is a gentlemanly, somewhat accomplished, and exemplary
young man; and has long been my particular friend.'
TRENTON, November 8, 1830.
I returned this morning from Allentown, where I preached
yesterday, Mr. Hodge supplying my pulpit in the mean time.
It is an uninteresting inland town, out of the way both of commerce and information.  Yet I found some worthy Christian
people there, and enjoyed much satisfaction in discoursing to, and
with them. I am charmed with Leighton, and recommend to
you immediately to read his Commentary on 1st Peter. All
his writings are practical, and abound in the most lively and
beautiful imagery.  Doddridge appears, from  his editorial preface, to rank him higher than any of his contemporaries.  Owen
on the Spirit, I have read with much pleasure, and I hope profit.
The fourth book " on the necessity of holiness,", seems to me
eminently calculated to quicken the diligence of Christians; the
third chapter is golden. No works have ever given me happier
impulses in my religious course than those of the English non-conformlists of the 17th century.  On the next Lord's day, I have to
preach a sermon at the request of the Temperance Society. I shall
confine myself, not to the cause, symptoms, and remedy, but to
the defence of total abstinence and of the association for promoting it. Joseph Bonaparte sent up, last Saturday, an invitation to both Houses of Legislature, to go and dine with him, (or
at least visit his place.)  Most of them went. IHe is said to be
much exasperated at the railroad-men for taking their route directly through his park, and it is supposed that this " gineral invite," as the messenger called it, is a sort of genteel
I-le says that his improvements are this moment equal to any
which Europe affords, and that he has expended $300,000 on
This mnost estimable man died in 1833, at the age of 25. He was son
of the Rev. Dr. I. V. Brown, and was licensed as a probationer for the
ministry in 1831. A memoir of him was written by Mr. Alexander,; and
published in the Biblical Repertory, October, 1834.




1829-1832.                          151
them. Please drop into the letter-box of the Philadelphian, the
following note: "A few weeks since you honoured with an insertion, my humble attempt at a metrical version of Gerhard's
hymn:' 0 Hacupt voll Blzut und IWTunden.''  Two entire lines of
the second stanza are omitted, and the sense thereby destroyed'.
It should read thus, (as well as I can remember-)'How art thou pale with anguish,
With bitter grief and scorn;
How doth the visage languish
That once was bright as morn.'
" Respectfully,       DIDYMUS."
Addison is just entering upon a course of life which will be
very trying, but I hope useful. [Patton's school.]  He will study
theology with my father.
In the last sermon of, the National Preacher, the following
text is quoted as Scripture: "He rolleth sin like a sweet morsel
under the tongue."  This is the third time I have heard this
same false citation.2
TRENTON, November 2F7, 1830.
The passage in Matt. i., from Isaiah vii., is very difficult, but
I tremble at the thought of giving up the prophecy, not so much
on account of this particular text, as because Socinians and Neologists have made this very principle of " accommodation," the
great engine against all our arguments from  the quotations in
the New Testament.  I believe most fully that it is a strict prediction of Jesus, in one of the most remarkable designations of
his peculiar character.  For 1. It cannot refer to either of the
sons of Isaiah, (vii. 3, and viii. 3), for one was already of some
age, the other neither named Immanuel, nor born of a virgin.
2. Nor to any other common child, for the emphasis of the verse
points to  something  extraordinary —" a sign."   3. Nor to
Hezekiah, for, by computation, he was now  a youth, and was
nine years old when his father was made king. In the 17th verse,
there is an evident transition to the child of Isaiah, comp. viii. 4.
4. We read of no child called Immanuel.  5. This is a part of
that connected prophecy which ends c. x. 4, and includes the
1This was one of his earliest exercises in his favourite employment on
German hymnology. His first translation of Gerhard's Passion hymn was
incomplete; he rewrote it, besides making versions of several other hymns,
for Dr. Schaff's monthly Kircheezffreund. A collection of those translations,
together with two of Latin hymns, was published in the f2erce)rsbur c Review
for 1859. Mr. Alexander contributed an article on the general subject of
German hymns to the Biblical Repertory in 1850. His version of Gerhard
has been greatly mutilated by copyists. Professor Park's " Sabbath Hymn
Book" gives but four of the ten stanzas, (hymn 293,) "0 sacred head, now
wounded!"
2 The true text is: "Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though
he hide it under his tongue." —Job xx. 12.




1t52           WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
prediction, "Unto us a child is born," &c., which I suppose no
Christian would desire to set aside. Kennicott says: " The text
contains two distinct prophecies; each literal, and each to be understood in one sense only, the first relating to Christ, the second
to Isaiah's son, the first in verses 13-15, the second in verse 16."
He also thus reads v. 16, " But before this child (pointing to his
own son) shall know to refuse the evil," &c. See Lowth's
Isaiah, inll loco. 6. The ancient Jews applied this passage to the
Messiah. 7. It may be made to have a probable connexion with
the context. The promise to Ahaz is for encouragement: how?
In no way that I canll see if a "young woman" (as some say)
should bear, &c. This is no sign; but thus-the perpetuity of
David's kingdom is thus promised anew, "God remembers his
promise to David, and most miraculously shall it be accomplished, a virgin," &c. 8. Because if it is not to be taken as
prophetical, the Hebrew word is not to be rendered virgin, which
meaning even the Jewish LXX. give, and which is the common
meaning. 9. But I take my stand upon the formula i va,rXrlpox
&c. If this does not express that a prediction was fulfilled, how
could it have been expressed?  The " accommodation" system
is that which leaves our minds in most painful vacillation, upon
every occurrence of a citation. The Bible is written for plain
men, and the whole Christian church has rejoiced in this passage
as a prediction and a promise, until within a few years. Many
other acknowledged predictions are just as much perplexed in
the original context, and my mind finds no rest, if I am left to
find out for myself, when the formula " it is fulfilled" means fulfilment, and when it means something else.  Why may not that
God, who through all ages was looking forward to the Advent,
interpose among irrelative matters a prediction, which besides
its proximate application, referred forward to Christ? especially
when men were to be inspired to expound and apply the prediction. I fear that in the end, all the types in which the church
has hitherto found so much of the Saviour, and most of the
prophecies concerning him shall be discarded. The Jews apply
Isa. ix. 6, to Hezekiah; and why not? if the context is to decide.
So far my comments upon this locus vexatissimus.  It is very
lately that I learned that any Christian writer doubted about this
verse, though I know how the principle, upon which this evidence
is set aside, has been used by all the German neologists.
The other subject is, to my mind, far more difficult, and a
complete reconciliation of the genealogies in the Old Testament,
in Matthew and in Luke, is scarcely to be expected at the preselt day. The great object was to satisfy the minds of Jews at
that day; and this, we know, was accomplished. The tables of




1829-1832.                      153
pedigree were probably copied from public documents existing
at the time, and acknowledged to be the best. We are very
much in the dark with regard to the laws (often arbitrary) by
which genealogical tables were constructed. We know, however,
of some anomalies; as for instance, that, among the Hebrews, a
man was often said to be the son of his grandfather, or even of a
more remote progenitor; and again, that in defect of male issue,
when the list ended in a woman, her husband was named as the
son0 of her father. The omission of several names in the line of
succession cannot now be fully accounted for. It is evident,
however, that it did not vitiate the pedigree, for Matthew surely
knew as well as we can, the exact line of kings, &c., and the
great object was to have a list brought down from some ancient
progenitor. It is doubtful why the generations are divided into
three periods of fourteen each. It could not be with a view of
fixing the exact number of the whole line, for then none would
have been omitted; besides, to make out the number fourteen in
each of these periods, the person who ends the first must begin
the next, and the person who closes the second, must stand at
the head of the last, and Jesus must not be included in the last.
Thus: 1. Abraham —David; 2. David-Josias; 3. JosiasJoseph, each fourteen.
This division into fourteens, I take to have been a mnemonical contrivance, which may explain some of the omissions. Each
period commences with some important epoch, and as they were
nearly equal, the names were so arranged as to make them  perfectly so. From Abraham to David, you will observe that all
three lists coincide. It is plain also that Matthew does not confine himself to the natural descent, but gives the legal, as where
he calls Salathiel the son of Jechonias; while Luke, from Eli
upwards, gives the natural line. Strange to say, I have found
most satisfaction on this difficult subject in Dr. Adam Clarke's
Commentary, which I beg you will look at. He gives a full
analysis of the learned Dr. Barret's investigations of the whole
matter. As an instance of five or six generations omitted in a
genealogical table, see Ezra vii. his ownl pedigree-[then follows
a citation from Lightfoot on v. 16.]
As you are upon the subject of Natural History, let me say,
that by far the best account which I have seen of the Camel and
the Lion, is contained in the first vol. of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge. The authorities there cited, are recent and
highly respectable.-I congratulate you upon the reappearance of
the sun, after so long a succession of clouds and rains. I take it
for granted that this English weather has contributed greatly to
the emolument of Dr. II., the antidyspeptic bookseller. —In
VOL. I.,- 7




154             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
looking over the late numbers of the Library of Useful Knoiwledge, I am surprised to find a History of the American Revolution, and still more to discover, upon perusal, that it is thoroughly American in its tone.  Even in the matter of M'lajor Andre,
there is not a word of reproach.  This sufficiently indicates the
WVhiggism  of the Society.-My enthusiasm  about the French
Revolution has come down to zero.  We may well fear a repetition of former enormities in Paris.-There is to be, on the second
Tuesday of next month, in lMIilford, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, a public disputation between one Lane, a member and teacher of the Christ-ianl sect, and the Rev. William  L. McCalla, upon
the divinity of Christ and kindred subjects.  There has been great
excitement in these parts, produced by the irruption of these
heretics.  I should very much like to be present at the conflict,
but the weather is so precarious at this season, that I must pro.
bably content myself with a distant rumour.  If UW. L. [Me. C
must fight, I wish it might always be with those who are without
I saw an Album the other day, in which the great Mr. Web
ster had inserted the following gem; I give it verbatim:
" Some to this Album may give fame,
And some may get fame from it;
Among the last my place I claim,
And write my name upon it.
D.'WEBSTERn.
TRENTON, Decemeber 20, 1830.
I can with great sincerity plead the abundance of my indispensable labours in excuse of my delay in answering your long
and acceptable letter.  Sickness among my people, absence from
home, and a number of supernumerary engagements have filled
up every available niche of time. I regret that in the Barnes controversy so much acrimony and personal rancour have prevailed.
AMy mind has been much harassed by the invitation of the A. S. S.
Union.1  I gave their first offer a refusal, but received soon after
a pressing letter from Mr. A. Henry, and an " ambassage " consisting of Messrs. Porter and Vinton, who held a colloquy with
me of some hours.  After all my meditations, I have pretty
much determined to stay where I am.  Upon making the trial,
my feelings will not suffer me at present to give up the proper
work of the ministry.  This, however, should not be rumoured,
until I have formally notified the gentlemen of the Board. You
know that I would rather live in Philadelphia than anywhere
else, and that I have peculiar difficulties in parochial duties, yet
after seeeking divine direction, and communing with my conscience,
1 To enter its service as a secretary.




1829-1832.                      155
I cannot see my path clearly marked out in that direction, and T
dlare not follow an impulse of mere inclination.  A year hence,
circumstances might so change in my congregation as to alter
my views, but at present I feel justified in declining; especially
as I am conscious of no peculiar fitness for this special office.
Dr. Thomas Y. How, once so famous for his pulpit eloquence,
and his controversy with Dr. SMiller, is here delivering lectures or
Political and Moral subjects, with a voluntary collection at the
close. I have not heard him, as his first lecture only has been
cdelivered, and that on Sunclay evening. I have at last fallen in
with Howve's works, and find myself possessed of a rich mine of
truth and piety. IIe is profound, and (for the age) elegant, and
his spiritual flights are the most sublime and:sustained I have
ever read. The latter part of his " Living Temple,' is among the
most original, striking, and impulsive works I have ever seen.
Above all, I wonder at his singularly Catholic spirit, in an age
when the " mint, anise, and cummin " were deemed so weighty.
We have had at horrid case of death from iMcnia a?9otul; the
victim was one of the most violent opponents of our Temperance
Society, a few weeks ago. Another drunkard is now vomiting
blood, and like to die. Yet I suppose not one drunkard will take
warning. The man who told me these circumstances, I saw in
liquor half an hour afterwards.  Every day I am more impressed
with the importance of being zealous in the Temperance Reformation. I am reading Robert Hall's works with much gout;
but am astonished at his political venom. Yet I own some of
the acts of our administration go far to make me likeminded.  I
have got no credit from having taken part with the miserable
Indians in a sermon on Thanksgiving day.
You must pardon my unusual brevity; I am absolutely worn
out with writing all day. You cannot write too soon, or too
long. " Ros cceli sit super habitaculum. tuum!"
TRENTON, Jcalluzay 8, 1831.
As to the Barnes controversy I may say that I should feel
very badly if it should ever become necessary for me to give a
vote upon it. Viewing it in gross, I am clear that the measures
of the Orthodox party were uncalled for, and inconsistent with
their toleration of such men as e  * "  *  e  *. Their spirit
has been bitter and unfraternal, yet that of the  Moderate men
has not been altogether dove-like.  With respect to what I consider the fundamental principle of Mr. B.'s friends, viz.: that it
is unconstitutional to condemn a book, without arraigning its
author, and that Presbytery is incompetent to examine into the
orthodoxy or heterodoxy of a member, without a regular accusa.




156            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
tion, I am fully with the present majority. The cases of Davis,
Craighead, &c., are precedents which establish the principle;
and I should feel free at any time, as a member of any judicature, to call up and censure any book, of any sect, by which the
purity of the church might be endangered. As to the probable
result in the General Assembly, I do not see how any thing can
come up before that body, except the mere question of order, as
to the right of examining the book. At the time when the complainants appealed to the higher court, there had been no definitive
sentence passed upon Mlr. Barnes or his sermon. I see no way,
therefore, in which their final decision can be adduced in the
General Assembly, in any orderly manner. That body will,
therefore, I hope, throw the matter out of doors, after deciding
the point of order; as to which, we may presume, there cannot
be much debate, unless it is taken up as a mere party question.
My impressions upon reading Mr. Barnes' defence are twofold.
I am gratified to perceive that he is so much nearer the truth than
I had supposed. I am pained at the want of candour in many
parts of that production. In illustration let me refer you to the
paragraph in which he justifies his assertion, that it is easier for
an unregenerate man to love God, than to hate him. His reply
does not touch the objection, andl involves a violent perversion
of common language. Not one reader in ten thousand would
have alighted upon the construction which he gives the phrases.
In common candour, he ought to have taken back, or qualified
those unhappy expressions. The defence of his statements on
Imputation, is plainly an after thought, and the ground taken
very diverse from that of the sermon. His allegations concerning the old Calvinists, are, I think, triumphantly answered in the
article on Imputation in the Repertory.
Can you tell me under whose auspices my father's Evidences
have been published in England, or any thing about the edition?
We shall have a terrible attack upon Hopkinson's Sunday ifMail
Review, in the forthcoming Repertory. I suppose that Walsh
will be full of ire or contempt. You have, no doubt, read some
of the speeches of Sir Henry Parnell, who seemed to have a
principal hand in oversetting the Wellington administration.
Mr. I-lodge gave me some anecdotes concerning his eldest son and
heir, which I think will interest you. When Hodge was in
Paris, he lodged at the house of Oberlin, (nephew of the celebrated,) and had for a chamber-fellow this John Parnell, whom he
describes as the most eminently devoted and pious young man
he ever knew. His father offered him preferment, with the certainty of a Bishopric in the established church, which he declined.
He then procured him a commission in the Duke of Gloucester's




1829-1832.                    157
Cold-stream regiment, which he resigned while at Paris. He
lived in the plainest style, and gave away every little saving in
charity. He used to rise at three every morning for devotion, and
was at heart a Dissenter and a Calvinist. Mr. Hodge read me
this week, a letter which he had just got from him at Marseilles.
He was on his way to Persia as a missionary at Bagdad, and was
supporting (as H. supposes) the large company with whom he
goes. The worst is that none of them are ordained. They go
as missionaries of Irving's  true Apostolical School."  I am
alarmed at the progress of the ultra-temperance doctrine; I mean
that of Stuart's tract, that total abstinence ought to be made a
term of church communion. It will undoubtedly produce great
divisions in our church, if it receive any countenance. Think
of it, and put something in the Advocate, if you agree with me.
I have just been forestalled in a little work for which I have
been preparing a Bible Gazetteer. The A. S. S. U. have applied
to Rezeau Brown, the author of Franke's life, to do it. The average majority of the Clay Congressional ticket in New Jersey, is
1094. The whole ticket has gone in. It turned principally on
the Indian question.  Pollok's Course of Time is even more
popular in Germany than in England and America. It is translated by one of the most popular preachers, William Hey, Ilofprediger (court preacher) at Gotha.  Find out for me some
Catholic work, which may do for a Review in the Repertory, and
lead me to study that controversy carefully.
TRENTON, February 8, 1831.
Do you see the magnificent relinquishment of 8300,000 by
John Watts, of New York, in f-vour of an Orphan House? May
the blessings of heaven rest on him and his seed! I think I see
every day new signs of increasing beneficence in the Christian
work. The late " M/issionary Reporter" contains several cheering notices. I preached last Lord's day evening from Psalm
lxxii.; a precious passage. Read it once more. Our Presbytery
will probably determine to support one missionary in the foreign
field, under the A. B. C. F.. H-ow pleasant it would be if
every Presbytery would begin to do its duty by adopting this
measure. Edward Kirk's church, in Albany, which is composed
chiefly of poor persons, sends regularly, once a month, $50 to
the Board at Boston. If our Presbyteries would take this in
hand, several objects would be attained: 1. The churches would
feel more interest; 2. The money would be more easily collected; 3. The fears of the orthodox lest unsound men should be
sent, might be precluded; 4. And piety at home would undoubtedly revive. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will




158               WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
come, and we are bound not only to pray, but to expect its arrival. iMy thoughts have been led into this channel, with much delight, by reading " Hengstenberg's Christologie," a German work,
in which:the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah are taken up in order, criticised, defended against rationalists,
and expounded.  Having thus been led to examine them in connexion, I am smitten with their glory.l  I wish you would read
his remarks on Isaiah vii. 14.  I-Iengstenberg is Professor of
Theology in the University of Berlin, and one of the first Arabic
and Hebrew scholars in Germany. He is about twenty-eight years
old, and exemplarily pious.  Religion is not advancing among
us, and I have never seen less hope concerning my people than
just now.  Yet taking our Presbytery at large, there are pleasing
indications.  Since I have known New Brunswick Presbytery, we
have never had any bickering or strife, any hard speeches or
alienations; and our last meeting was one of melting affection and
humiliation.
TRENTON, Feb. 24, 1831.
Some there may be, who grieve to see so soon
The feud commenc'd twixt Jackson and Calhoun:
Still one poor satirist may join the while,
And twist his muscles to sardonic smile.
Folly and vice conjoined and set on high,
Tempt e'en the sage to sneer, where he might sigh.
For who but feels the quick, indignant thrill
Of kindling rage, when arbitrary will
Drives from its last retreat the wasted tribe,
And Justice winks upon the golden bribe?
But why should reason, justice, pity, aim
To cope with fury in its boist'rous claim?
Breathe but a wish, the sleek and well-fed pack,
Bred to such clamours, open at your back.
Fly from the field, and Billingsgate let loose
Shall drench your head with slander and abuse.'Twas once the rule-those better days are fledFor those who lived upon the people's bread
To task their strength by every sage device,
To prop the state, and frown on reigning vice:
And he who held the purse-strings of the state
Scorned to descend to wars of party hate:
Spent not his nights, nor wore away his eyes
In darkly forging periodic lies.
O'er sheets of grave finance he felt too pure
To frame Black Lists, a purpose to secure.
Alas! how changed, the verse need scarcely tell,
The Press (our glory) spreads the truth too well.
In the April (1831) Repertory, Mr. Alexander published a translation,
by himself, of Hengstenberg's interpretation of the first promise of the
Messiah. To the same number he contributed a paper on the works of
John Howe.




1829 -1832.                           159
From distant fields the " heaven-born man" returns,
To whom the incense of the million burns:
See from th' Augean toils of stern reform
The classic    - rise to guide the storm;
Rake from the muck-heap of confuted lies
Each putrid forgery, a golden prize.
With quill in hand, he sallies to the press
And telegraphs the mingled bitterness.
What though in days when inexpert and raw,
He praised the patriot who gave him lawRaised from the Clay he leaned on through the storm,
Ile soars in loftier tracts of new reform;
Smiles at the simple innocence of youth,
And takes a last embrace of awkward truth.
Now, master of all work, he kieeps accounts,
And proves by "rule of faults" the vast amounts
Of past default, embezzlement. and bribe:
Then lo! from cypherer, he rises scribe,
Displays the treasures of tra-montane wit,
And prompts the Chieftain in his drowsy fit.
For'tis not always that the best of men
Can wield with equal sklill the sword and pen,
Hand new commissions fiom the privy drawer,
And pen a messare at his escritoir.
And should not spelling always be so pat,
Noster H-noaerus sormetimes c1dorm itat.
Three pairs of spectacles cannot suffice
To make a head, too long neglectcd, wise;
And barbecues around a forest pole
Promote the "flow" of every thing but "soul."
Ho-low useful then, in framing exposds
To number such among his choice relays;
And should the piebald message sometimes soar
And sometimes plunge in dleep and heavy lore,
3Muse not to find it bathic and yet stilted,
By many hands the article was quilted' -'' -
Hiatus vallc deflends s
I have received a second intimation from  Lexington, Ky., that
I was to be called to succeed John C. Young, who is now President of Danville College.  I have sent them  word that I cannot
entertain their overtures.  Dr. McLcod, the veteran seceder of
New York, and a man of undoubted talents and extensive learning,, is about to edit a magazine to be "intitulecl" The Christian
Expositor; to be the vehicle for publishing his own works.  He
is a native of the Isle of Skye, and has a brother in the Royal
army in India.  Dr. iRowan of New  York, who has hitherto
looked with much distrust upon the special measures for promoting revivals, expressed to me on Tuesday evening, his strong
conviction that the meetings in New  York had been -greatly
blessed, and that the work was manifestly of God.  Some of the




160             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
most sturdy, old-fashioned Dutch and Scotch Presbyterians have
been conciliated and gained over.  I know how to understand
the suspicious feelings of many of your old people. It is the
reigning sentiment among the more influential persons of my
church.  The foreign news by the Sully up to the 19th ult.,
looks more and more like war. I cannot help feeling a deep interest in the efforts of the Poles; but how is it possible for them
to avoid the impending tempest?  IIow unfortunate it is that
they have not revolutionized  their language!  Czartoryski,
Czarnocki, Astrawsky, Wladislas-Ostrowsky, Barzykowsky: "a
book was writ of late called Tetrachordon "-see lMilton's sonnet. The first article in the next Repertory [April, 1831] is
from my father, containing the substance of his lecture on predestination, which some of his students esteem  one of his best
attempts at Theologizing.
TRENTON, Jiarech 10, 1831.
I am  not able to take "the Presbyterian," though I am
pleased with the numbers which they sent me. It is devoutly
to be wished, that in " contending for the faith" which is enjoined, they may not " strive," which is forbidden.  A large number
of persons will be suspicious of the paper from their dread of
contention. The Misadelphia' Presbytery has not gained much
credit in the view of those who hear the bruit, without undclerstanding the matter in debate.  I fear that the Sunday School
Journal will become flat from the introduction of so many journals, which will Qive it the intolerable sameness of the [Missionary] Reporter. This I should greatly regret, for I know of no
religious paper more likely to be extensively useful. The accounts from New York are truly cheering. In some of the little
neighbourhoods near Princeton, in which the Seminary students
labour, there are pleasing signs of religious awakening; as also
in Queeenston, or Jugtowvn, the N. E. extremity of the village,
several conversions.  I have spent some truly delightful hours
with Mr. Nasmith,' the City Mission man.  Both my people and
myself have, I trust, been refreshed and awakened by meeting
with him.  Seldom have I met with so much zeal with so little
roughness. It is true my opportunities of judging were slender,
yet I cannot but rank him among the best men of the age.  Ile
was the intimate friend of John Urquhart, of whose writing he
Altering the prefix of the city's Greek name, to denote the prevailing
polemics.
2 David Nasmith, from Scotland, was instrumental in promoting various
organizations for the temporal and spiritual benefit of the poor in the
United States, as well as in Great Britain. He died in 1839.




1829-1832.                     161
showed me a specimen; also a letter of Legh Richmond to himself, just after the death of his son Wilberforce; autograph letters and documents of Joseph Wolff, Mr. Judson, Earl Rawdon,
Dr. Greville Ewing, Dr. Patterson of Russia, Wardlaw, and
the author of the (Glasgow) Protestant, David Brown, and Dr.
Morrison of China, and Marshman of Serampore, &c., &c. He
is a remarkable young man for energy, and I may add talents,
and I hope you will find him an agreeable and profitable friend.
If he has not letters to Mr. Barnes, I wish you would use means
to have them brought into contact. Some good will come of it.
I am not sure that Mr. Nasmith's plan of City Missions may not
require important modifications to adapt it to America, but it is
a noble enterprise. If carried out, it is a powerful organization
of our churches as missionary bodies. New York has deter
mined to have forty of these agents or missionaries in that city,
Charleston eight. We are resolved to make a trial here. In the
Seminary at Princeton, the number of young men who have
devoted themselves to foreign missions, is greater than the whole
number of those who have actually gone into the field in time
past. This is a good indication; but are there not wonderful
signs of the times, in every direction to which we can turn our
eyes? May the Lord enable us, my dear friend, to live in the
enjoyment of a spirit consonant with these things! I have
been sadly thinking this morning of my own stupidity and insufficiency. I am a barren tree, long spared, in infinite mercy;
but when will it be otherwise? If I could live one year as I
ought to live, even as some do live, how gladly would I give up
all that there is in life. I speak my genuine sentiments when I say
I know not what to do; I feel that I am a babe. On one hand is
dependence on myself; it has cast me down a thousand times, so
that I fear to make a resolution; on the other hand is listlessness
and inaction; through the influence of which I wait, and wait, and
wait-and do nothing. Let us pray for one another, as I still
have a hope that we know how to pray. I have some comfort in
that precious word, 1 John ii. 1-3.
TRENTON, March 29, 1831.
The Presbyterian pleases me very much, and is thus far a
very instructive paper. Pray who is the author of the " Experiences "? They go to my very heart, and seem to me to give the
hint for the right kind of religious diary. I requested the printer to hand you such proofs of this No. [of Repertory] as contain
Greek and Hebrew. Remember that my omission of the accents is intentional, and a measure to which I am driven by desperation of their ever putting them right. I insert only the




162            WHILE PASTOR IN, TRENTON.
spiritus asper. I cannot read a number of the names in your
list, and many words in your letters I discover only by circumstantial evidence. Still you are better than Mr.. An
article of his was sent to the Committee, and after being attempted by three, was thrown aside in despair; it was absolutely illegible. His other piece was well copied, and is much approved.
You have perhaps heard of the awakening around Princeton. It
ought not to have been mentioned in the papers. In Princeton
proper, there is little or no revival, except in college. They
have had a four-days' meeting there; with what results I know
not. I should have attended, had I not been kept here by a concurrence of duties. - My own people are in a lamentable condition, yet I have in my own feelings more encouragement than
ever since I have been here, and have been enabled for some
time past, to give myself almost wholly to pastoral labours; so
that my breast is quite sore with the unintermitted exertion of
lungs in singing, and prayer, and talking. The members of the
church are evidently more awake, giving more attention to the
signs of the times, and joining cordially in little family circles
for conference, religious intelligence, and prayer; but the body
of the people and many in the church are dead. For the last six
evenings I have attended meetings in different precincts, each of
which was more encouraging than the preceding. Last Sunday
afternoon I preached to the convicts in the State's prison. A
more attentive audience I never had. Every eye was fixed; no
averted look, no smiles, no shuffling, and at least a dozen were
in tears. I spoke from  the parable of the prodigal, and they
seemed to sing with peculiar life"Take off his clothes of sin and shame,
The father gives command," &c.
I think 1 never felt more the unspeakable privilege of preaching the " unsearchable riches of Christ."  Last week I conversed
with those who are in the cells; one of whom was once an attendant (four times only) on our Sunday School; and another
(24 years old) a convicted robber. The latter is as mild and
comely a youth as you could well select; yet he has twice
knocked down his keepers, and nearly killed a turnkey. Both of
these men heard me with attention and tenderness. Let me
recommend to you, if you have not attempted it, to try the delightful experiment of taking the gospel into the cells of your
prisons, and to keep notes of cases and conversations. I have
made some fruitless attempts to have a Bible class among the
blacks; they are strangely averse to white interference. Since
I lived in Virginia, I feel a peculiar yearning over these poor




1829 —1832.                    163
creatures, and sometimes feel as if I could joyfully devote myself
to labouring among them. The heavy rain keeps me from a row
of visits which I had intended to make at this hour, and such is
my guilty disinclination to this duty, that I am almost glad of
the excuse. This and other kindred feelings convince me that I
lack that love of souls which is the only permanent spur to ministerial faithfulness. Yet I sometimes feel a persuasion that the
Lord will accept, for Christ's sake, a duty performed against the
current of' natural feelings, faithfully and tremblingly, even if it
is not so much a free-will offering as a self-denial. Though I
have not the experience I desire, yet I think I long for it more
than for any earthly happiness. Were it not for the Repertory,
I should try to spend a week in New York.
By-lall means put in practice your project of turning to
Greek and Hebrew. Let me, however, forewarn you, that if you
use Stuart's Hebrew Grammar, you will become a I-ebraist, not
by it, but in spite of it.
TRENTON, April 14, 1831.
Since I last wrote, it has pleased God to make me the father
of a boy; for which, and the comfortable state in which my wife
is, I desire to be deeply thankful. This event, which is an epoch
in our poor little lives, took place on the morning of the 8th inst.
The child is called " Archibald George," as simple Archibald is no
designation in our family. When I consider how great the sufferings of the female sex are, I scarcely know how to explain the
matter, or assign the final cause, unless it be that God in great
mercy chooses to apply suffering, as a means of grace, to those
who are intended to be useful in forming the infant mind and
giving early impressions. Since last Sabbath (our communion
then occurred) we perceive something like a more awakened state
of feeling amongst us. Several, I believe, to be deeply anxious,
and several converted, and a number more in that peculiar state
of susceptibility and attention, which is neither conviction, nor
yet indifference, but a mean betwixt the two. Could I divide
myself into a dozen, I might find ample employment. Some
men perform this operation by means of their zealous members;
but we are not sufficiently awake for mny congregation to aid
much. Still it is my hope that the spirit of grace and supplications which seems to be poured out, is but the beginning of a
more extensive and gracious effusion. Fifteen were admitted to
our communion on last Lord's day, ten of whom were from the
Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. I am solicitous to know
what are the safest and best methods of instituting and conducting inquiry meetings. Let me know even to particulars what




164            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
are the results of your observation during the increased attention
to religion in Philadelphia.
There are dangers attendant upon revivals of religion, which
escape the notice of those who are most active in promoting
them, while they are obvious to sharp-sighted men, who suspect
the whole affair of revivals. "Fas est a hoste doceri."  It is
unwise for some of our brethren to repel, as they do, all inquiry
as to the prudence of their measures. A great and lamentable
evil, into which weak but sometimes pious men fall, is the indiscriminate application of special mineans to all circumstances and
cases, without regarding the principle upon which such and such
measures have been instituted with success. Thus the imitators
of Mr. Nettleton make sad work by doing what they have seen
him do, without possessing that almost superhuman sagacity
which enables him to avoid failure, by addressing his efforts to
certain principles of human nature. This is, no doubt, religious
empiricism; and I constantly feel myself hampered by its existence among the more zealous part of my flock. It is like a good
quack-ess of my neighbourhood, who is always saying: " take
this," and "take that."  It is the same error under a different
form with that of the old formal, respectable, anti-revival Presbyterians. These say: " Our fathers did so and so, and we will
do so too." The others say: " Mr. Finney does so and so, and
you must do so." I freely confess that I have had much doubt
respecting "anxious meetings," as they are commonly called,
especially as I have sometimes seen them conducted. There is a,certain stage of an awakening when they are indispensable; i. e.
where the number of seeking souls is great; but many of my
brethren use them as a means of avwakening. How far is this
correct. An individual is tender and somewhat alarmed; comes
with a vague impression to the inquiry-meeting; is conversed
with; is visibly set apart as an inquirer; is thus self-committed;
must do something, or seem to do something; is there not room
for fear of evil. of hypocrisy. And from the perfunctory manner in which discourse is conducted, is there not sometimes much
daubing with untempered mortar l I want the aid of your eyes
and judgment in this matter, and I believe I propose my doubts in
the spirit of candour. I may have a meeting of the kind before
a week is over my head. If you will accept of a translation I
made a year ago of Gesenius' Elementarbuch, extending as far.as through the vowel system, you shall have it.
Tell Packard without delay to print a set of texts on the verse
system, for at least two months. Thousands would adopt it at
once. We can do nothing till we have this indispensable basis
of union.




1829-1832.                     165
My dear friend, is your heart attaining more and more to a
felt communion with the Lord Jesus Christ as your head, and
source of all vital influence  IIHere, alas! I err most. "Looking
unto Jesus," is a motto suited to every hour. Duties performed, as I perform so many, with a legal spirit, are heavy to the
soul and scarcely acceptable to God. In word or in deed to do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks, rejoicing,
relying on Him; this I find in the New Testament, in Whitefield,
in the Tennents, in Newton, in some living men; but not in all
who are zealous and bustling around me. "To know Hi-m, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of ITis sufferings," &c., Paul, the active Paul, seemed to think the great
mark at which he might ever aim. Here I am conscious of a
daily and habitual short-coming.  The Christian paradox is,
When most active, most dependent. The two ideas are beautifully comprised in the words: "I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me."  When we are most abundant
in labours, we feel most our dependence on God; and if we
would stimulate ourselves to Christian activity, we can take no
better way than to dwell in meditation and prayer on the truth
that it is " God who worketh in us,' &c., and that " He giveth
more grace."  By the bye, Mr.-     preached us last evening
a plain, pungent, sound, effective discourse. If Cecil is right,
that "eloquence is vehement simplicity," then is      eloquent, with all his hemming and grossieret6. I hope I have
learned something from his earnest, humble, and solemn manner
in private. I am ashamed of being so timorous in a cause which
might make a coward bold, and have never appreciated the full
weight of the command, " preach to every creature," as some
appear to do. -, I should think, (having only your fragmentary extract to judge from,) is endeavouring to persuade
himself that he is converted, upon insufficient grounds. " Edwards
on the Affections," abridged by Ellerby, would admirably apply
to his case. Ah! perhaps, I sometimes have thought, this same
error is my own. Natural conscience and intellectual light may
go very far; but to be born, again, to have " all things become
new," to have "crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts,"
to have the leading of the Spirit, the mind of the Spirit, the walk
of the Spirit, the seal of the Spirit, the inhabitation of the Spirit;
this is that which I long after, but do not often ascertain to my
satisfaction.
TRENTON, April 23, 1831.
Our letters appear to me to assume a more useful character
since we have entered more into sober discourse upon the




166            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
realities of religion; and.they may become means of mutual
instruction and correction, if we should do no more than occasionally start a question for future elimination.. What you say
of me and mine, gives me that peculiar satisfaction which the
sincere expression of amicable feelings always does; " he that is a
fiendcl, must skhew himself friendly."  And now let me say in
reply: " The Lord hear thee," &c., Ps. xx. 1-4.
Payson deeply affects me, but not as Brainerd does; in one
case you have the mano always before your mind in alto-relievo;
in the other, you are directed away from him to the work of the
Spirit in him. Edwards' concluding remarks- to the Life of
Brainerd, are wonderfully searching and appropriate at the present religious crisis. There seems more reason than ever to hope
that the Barnes' question in the General Assembly, will be discussed and issued in a holy manner; and may set at rest a great
class of questions. What you say of extraordinary and doubtful measures for exciting religious feeling, tallies exactly with
what I hear from's anxious-meetings, and from  other
quarters. I dare not attempt such things, though if I should, I
am persuaded I could next week say in the Evangelist that we
have forty inquirers. I feel that this is a question of awful responsibility; and oh how strongly do I wish to be led aright,
and to avoid cowardice and formality; but then, human souls
anld the cause of Christ are not surely fit subjects fbr these perilous psychological experiments.
Have you ever read " Francke's Guide to the Study of the
Holy Scriptures, Philad., D. Hogan, 1823"? If not, read it. The
translation is horrid, and'obscure beyond any thing of the kind,
but the book is truly golden. You will profit by his advice as
to Hebrew. You know he was an eminent HIebraist.  The
Princeton scholars, after Stuart, pronounce the Kametz like aw
in awl, or a in tall, fall. This the Jews do not, nor does Lee,
nor Gesenius, nor Frey, nor any cognate dialect except Persian,
as Addison has clearly shown me. The true sound is the German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Syriac A, as a in father.
Gesenius and Lee say it is a great abuse to pronounce'T like Ah,
(that is th in that,) as some do. Beware of Portuguese Jews.
I have heard several of them read n like s in sing, this; and
Kametz like o in pole.  Read frolm  the very start with the tone
or accent on the proper syllable; this the former Princeton
students all neglected; e. g. they said katdltem for katalt6m.
When two ways are equally easy, the right is best and shortest.
You may in a half hour, learn this without knowing any thing of
the accentual system; which is a fanfaronade. Read Lee's Grammar, that is, dip into it for your amusement. I have found, after




1829- 1832.                    167
toiling through many grammars, no rules so practical and useful
as those at the end of Bythner's " Lyra Prophetica."  Following
a: hint of Henry 3Martyn, (v. Life,) I have arranged all the Hebrew
verbs according to the last radical, the last bu2t onze, &c. A moment's thought will show you the use of this; as so many words
differ only ill the last radical, and as irregular inflections affect
chiefly the ultimate and penultimate. Addison's plan is to go
doggedly to work and commit roots. This is the universal
method of the Pundits in teaching Sanscrit.  I fear I shall have
to take a jaunt soon. I am very lean and nervous, and worn
down by constant pacing-pacing —pacing.  Yesterday without
seeking it, I discovered three cases of hopeful conversion; all
isolated; all young; all in silence; one of them very striking and
remarkable. They attribute nothing to human means, yet I have
a satisfaction in knowing that I have recently spoken pointedly
to two of them more than once. I have just returned from the
funeral of Ebenezer Rose, late an elder in the Trenton First
Church, [now Ewing township,] he would have been eighty-seven
years old this day; his disease, cancer of the mouth. He was a
saint indeed, and to his dying day enjoyed those rapturous exercises which we are too much accustomed to think belong to
young converts only. A church-full of people were present, and
much tenderness of feeling prevailed.
I find the little "H Ielp to the Gospels " [a Sunday School
book] very useful in my private reading and meditations. It
seems to me better suited for adult Christians in solitude, than
for schools. Even the tautological questions serve to fix the
minutise of the passage in my mind. As far as I am able to
learn, Mr. Nettleton does none of those objectionable things
which many less experienced labourers inll revivals lay so much
stress on. In Virginia I had a good opportunity of learning his
methods, and so far as I am informed, every thing was conducted
with remarkable decorum and solemnity. We need something
like'; Class-meetings " to prevent the frequent collapses after revivals. True they are susceptible of abuse, but not more than
anxious-meetings; I think far less. The plan is, at any rate, a
masterpiece of religious policy. 1 have read eight out of the
tell volumes of Wesley's works, and esteem him one of the
greatest and best men that ever lived. BMy father has just arrived, to preach for me to-morrow.
TRENTON, IMay 30, 1831.
If you have any intention of meeting me at Burlington, I do
you to wit that by a change of the measures I am to minister there
on FPriday, not Thursday evening. Should you get there before




168            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
me, leave a card or note in Bessonett's tap-room. I left my wife
on Friday, and have heard nothing since from her; you will be
pleased to learn that she was then convalescent, though still
very, very weak, and much emaciated.  You know, my dear
friend, far better than I, how severe are those pangs which reach
us through a beloved one: pardon this seeming tearing open of a
wound. htow hard to the flesh is the lesson 1 Cor. vii. 29-31.
I lately preached on it; but only the Spirit can write it on our
hearts. Have you read Matthew Henry's life? (by Williams,
Bost. 1830.) I have never read a more truly instructive, or
cheering biography.. ead it, for the sake of bleeding orthodoxy.
Apropos let me give you some facts. My authority is unexceptionable; but you may rebate for hyperboles in the transmission. P-, the Cambridge Unitarian professor, was at the
examination in Princeton. He told a judicious and veracious
man, and the latter told me, that he considered    and his
school as approximating very nearly to their (the Unitarian)
views, in all that is essentially distinctive, and as travelling the
road which the Boston liberals had pursued; and added: " they
will soon stand on our ground."  He said also, that
(late Editor Unitarian Miscellany, and a low humanitarian and
Priestleyite) brought him the Review of, with great glee,
as indicating a going over to their sentiments in the main questions.  On dit, likewise, that  -   has advised the Boston Orthodox ministers to revert to the old plan of exchanging with
the Unitarians in preaching, as the best method of bringing them
round. Do not charge me with slandering; if these are true
statements, they ought to be pondered; and they, at least, excuse
the apparent illiberality of some ancient and tried friends of our
church, who tremble at the introduction of a liberality so wide
as to take in latitudinarians. lMy own conviction is this: that
the Newhavenites, while they confess the divinity of Christ, and
the agency of the Holy Spirit, do (in their system) deny all that
makes these doctrines indispensable. Prof., who has
talked much with ~, says that the latter avows his belief
that the only reason why he adds the agency of the Spirit to his
system is that he finds it in the Scriptures, not that there is any
place in his scheme, which can be filled by this doctrine only.
PRINCETON, June 14, 1831.
For some eight or nine days I have been here in dry dock,
enjoying the otium without the dignitate, and the several refraichissemens of milk diet, blue pill, and cathartic extract. If
I had known exactly where to find you, I should probably before
this have fallen upon your neck in quocunque loco, for I have




1829 —1832.                    169
greatly desiderated a compagnon de voyage, and am now seriously meditating a jaunt to Saratoga. Professor Vethake may do
me the kindness of sharing my ennui, but of this I dubitate. The
atrabilious temperament is favourable to polemics, and I have
accordingly made a tilt against the wine-sacks of Pelagius Taylor
et id genus omne, having been delving very doggedly at the controversial divinity of the 17th century. Truly I am astounded
at the acumen and learning of the Reformed theologians; I mean
those of whom a specimen appears at the Synod of Dort, A. D.
1618-'19. The scholastic studies of the age, while they perhaps
confined the mind to a narrow channel, increased the vigorous impetuosity of the torrent. I perceive no important point in the
controversy actuellement agitated in America, which was not apprehended and brought out in full proportion and relief by these
ancients. You will observe that at this famous Synod, all the
articles of high-Calvinism were signed by Carleton, Bp. of Llandaff, by Bp. Hall, by Davenant, and Ward, master of Sydney
College, Cambridge. I descend now to the earth, to say that it
is moistened with a precious shower, and that the country is
better than the town; and this I say, after having received
another importunate though informal solicitation to the American
Sunday School Union. I am holding myself in suspense: of this,
not a whisper. Princeton is certainly the pleasantest summer
retreat in the world. So judgeth a semi-native. I have been
reading the second book of Cicero de Oratore, with very much
delight. I then tried the Orations, but ennuyated so furiously
that I surrendered. Also a file of " Archives du Christianisme,"
1831, in which are noticeable the following: The persecution of
"dclissidentes" in Neufehatel continues. Sunday School spirit
rising in France, in connexion with the noted "' Methode Jacotot."
Adolphe Monod, a young evangelical, is the greatest pulpit orator
in France. The Protestants have great hopes of the revival of
piety. N. B. The orthodoxy of the reviving Church of France, is
that of the Reformers. Pray take a voyage, and write me letters
from the other side. Seriously I recommend it to you, and I
believe that you might thereby fit yourself for new usefulness in
this country. Great Britain at least would fill up a pleasant and
profitable year. However, the great query with all of us should
be, where and how can we fit ourselves best for the Lord's work.
The mere romance, even of religious effort, which tinges our
views, is doubtless to be rejected. When I left you in Philadelphia, I intended to return before the mob [General Assembly]
dispersed, but being indisposed and nervous, I took better counsel
and remained procul a negotiis. And furthermore, lest I should
be like the Irishman in " modern Chivalry," who cast himself
VOL. I.-8




170             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
from his coach into a row, crying s" heaven direct me to the right
side,'" I determined to study the matters in debate a little more
impartially and deliberately.  Perhaps I could point to clergymen who have committed themselves as partisans, much in advance of their own convictions. Such things may do in paltry
politics where the dispute is " de lana caprina," but in matters
affecting the plan of salvation, they are perilous. I am hourly
admonished of my danger of judging before having evidence.
The great danger as to the upshot of the Barnes' controversy,
seems to be this: The case which is held up to public view, and
which excites to a kind of phrenzy men and even babes and
women is: M_8st J&~r. B. be sustained?  Now, though this involves the doctrinal question, yet independently of the latter, it
is decided, pro or con., upon general and worldly principles, often
those of mere feeling; and this decision once made in either
direction, there is a prepossession formed which militates for a
lifetime with candid search after the truth. I suspect that scores
of spinsters in your city have become far more " liberal " theologians than ever Mr. B. will be. Our Princeton men are considered by certain soi-disanllt standards as " sneaking," " on the fence,"
&c. There certainly is such a thing as righteous moderation,
and those who have practised it have, as far as I know, in every
age stood between two  fires, incurring the wrath of both sides.
It requires perhaps more solidity than some of these juvenile
seignors have imagined, to keep this position where two seas
meet. A crowd is a very convenient support to men of weak
spines. But lest I degenerate into personalities and nosmetipsisms,-you will remember that I desire, your company upon a
jaunt. I don't pledge myself to go, but write instanter.
PRINCETON, June 17, 1831.
I write somewhat hastily to advise you that I expect, with
Divine permission, to go to-morrow to New York, on my way
to Saratoga. So much are our ailments antipodal to one another, that from your letter I perceive that we cannot at present
pursue health in partnership. Mine is the yellow, bilious, liverish, dyspeptical, summer complaint-the beginning of those
diseases which have already so often brought me down. And if
you have (as I hope you will find not to be the case) any pulmonary lesion, or tendency to phthisic, I suppose you are right
in avoiding both Saratoga and the seashore. There are some of
the Virginia springs which I have more confidence in than any
thing I know of on earth, (I speak of the disorder you fear,) except a prompt exile to low southern latitudes.  I have in recollection, several cases of entire cure from the latter. Most, how



1829-1832.                      i71
ever, wait until the lungs have become actually affected with tubercles, which come to abscesses when it is too late to travel;
and many content themselves with a resting-place too far north.
St. Augustine is the spot I should aim at in such a case. I think
you will have the offer of the Sunday School Union secretaryship,
which I have just told Mr. Baird I could not accept. I have no belief that my health could endure the labour which, to an indefinite
extent, would be heaped upon a secretary whose work is so little
circumscribed by determinate limits. I propose to remain a few
days at Saratoga, or Ballston; perhaps as long as the waters
may suit me. I go purely for health, and expect to suffer a good
deal from intercourse with frivolous and uncongenial people. I
shall be pleased to fall in with some who may instruct me in
methods of usefulness, or in any truth of which I am ignorant,
and shall aim at interviews with ministers and pious laymen.
My child has never been well, having had strong symptoms of
hydrocephalus since his birth. He is small and always sick, and
cannot use milk in any form or measure. The Lord do with him
what shall be for His glory! thus we try to feel, yet my heart
cries aloud: "0 that Ishmael might live before thee."  Never
have I much cheerful hope except when I study to resign myself
and mine, totally and unreservedly, to a merciful Saviour and King.
I am myself a bruised reed, always crushed when set to sustain
the right kind of work, yet through infinite grace not yet broken.
TRENTON, July 16, 1831.
I am pleased to hear that you are so agreeably situated at
Germantown, [near Philadelphia,] and have no doubt that if you
can avoid ennui, your health will be speedily re-established. The
scenes you daily survey are faintly present to my recollections, from having been visited by our family for several successive summers. As it regards air and rural peculiarities, I consider Trenton as altogether a country-place. In three minutes I
can, from  our door, bury myself in thick forests, or " babble
of green fields " in as pleasant meadows as I know, or hearken
to the murmur of the Delaware rapids; and since I have lived
here, we have had no epidemic. I was absent six weeks, and
during that period my services were needed at only one funeral.
I visited New York, Albany, (where I endured the 4th,) Troy,
Lansingburgh, Waterford, Ballston, Saratoga, and Hudson. The
rains rendered my sojourn at the springs uncomfortable, but at
the same time refreshed nature so as to make the North River
scenery indescribably charming.  I found great benefit from the
C9ngress water; the other springs were, to me, mere poison.
In hepatic affections of every kind, I look upon the Congress




172            WHiILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
spring as approaching the nature of a specific. I was driven
away too soon, by the insufferable plague of listlessness, attached
to all watering-places, and by a raging tooth-ache. " Causa sublata, tollitur effectus."  I have the stubborn root in my pocket.
I have just negatived an invitation to preach Sunday after next
at Baltimore, second church, with a view to my being called to
supply Mr. Breckinridge's place. Andcl, in truth, having in my jaunt
seen a number of congregations, and many ministers, (all lamenting
hinderances and grievances,) I should be unwilling to exchange Trenton for any pastoral charge which I have ever seen, excepting only
Charlotte C. H. Va., which it would be sheer madness for me to
undertake with my atrabilious temperament. Last Lord's day we
were favoured with the addition of eleven persons to our church,
four of whom are active men. This is a good addition in a place
where we have to draw upon the same congregation at all times,
for we have no floating population or rival churches to select
from. There are, I suppose, fifteen or twenty inquiring souls
among us, and for four months the standard of piety has been
quietly and steadily rising. Could this continue, it is just what
I desire. I say so after having been in the furnace of new measures in the Troy Presbytery. I hope, however, that I am learning to be forbearing. I am perhaps as thin and feeble as you
ever saw me, though relieved within a few weeks from my violent head-aches and bilious symptoms. Every hour I am made
to think of death, and feel how slight is my tenure upon all that
unduly engages my attention. May we so enter into the great
realities of another world, as to be prepared to depart joyfully
whenever the summons may come.
PRINCETON, August 6, 1831.
It was but a few minutes ago that I had the first hint of your
having been seriously indisposedl, and I cannot forbear writing
without delay. Your silence was indeed long, but as your letters
for some time past have made no mention of any thing further
than the debility of the summer, I had no suspicion that your
health was impaired. And even now, I hear only vaguely that
your constitution seems to be threatened. While I endeavour
to cherish every hope, I am very anxious to know how you are,
and wherein I can contribute to your comfort. I should not thus
coldly maintain a distant conversation, if it were practicable for
me to pay you a visit; but this is providentially precluded by
a lameness from a sprain, which, with my other ailments has
kept me to my chamber for nearly three weeks. I have been
very weak and thin for months past; and though the symptoms
of disease have nearly vanished, I am so much unnerved as to be




1829-1832.                      173
next to useless. I know of nothing so well adapted to satisfy
the mind under trials of this kincl, as the simple truth, that we
and all our concerns are ruled and disposed of by a Sovereign
Mediator, whose, I humbly trust, we are, and whom we serve,
for " they also serve who only stand and wait," as Milton beautifully and consolingly expresses it. 1 wish I were able to speak
of deeper and richer experience of the truth that it is good to be
afflicted. So often have I been chastised with personal suffering,
that I am at times alarmed to think that this trying visitation
has so little purified and elevated my soul. Yet there have been
seasons of affliction, especially of sickness, in which I have known
more of the power and of the joy of religion, than ever in my
life, and in which I have understood how glorious is that grace
of the gospel which can " give songs in the night " of pain and
weariness. An ordinary concomitant of bodily weakness is depression of spirits, and morbid susceptibility of impressions which
alarm or grieve the mind.  Under these, the most resolute and
the best men have sometimes bowed, and it becomes important
to learn how we may be relieved from an influence so deleterious
to the spiritual exercises of the heart. And here, I really believe, we too often undervalue the treasures of the Word of God,
and especially the unspeakable gift-the crowning mercy-our
Lord Jesus Christ. In times of peril and sickness, I have remarkably felt that I had made too little of access to the Saviour
himself. - Joy is more certainly diffused through our souls, by a
simple, filial approach to the cross, than by any means which I
have any idea of. This is remarkably characteristic of the apostolic and primitive experience. The triumphant hope and glorying of the apostle Paul, exhibited in the first part of the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians, seems to have flowed from  such childlike faith: " We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
who delivered us from  so great a death, and doth deliver: in
whom we trust that he will yet deliver us: ye also helping together by prayer," &c.; " As the sufferings of Christ abound in
us, so our consolation aboundeth by Christ."  The 4th and 5th
chapters have revived my soul in some degree, within a few
weeks past, when I have had very melancholy prospects as to
my future health and usefulness.
Do we not restrict our faith in prayer too much to spiritual
blessings?  I know these are infinitely the more important, and
that our petitions for earthly good are to be under submission to
the Divine will; but then how plain it is, that when Christ was
on earth, he listened to the requests of the sick and mourning,
that he never chided any one who asked healing and deliverance,




r174            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
as asking amiss, and that he invariably heard the prayer of all
such.  How plain, but how much forgotten, that he is the same
Saviour now, with just the same views of poor, suffering, and
sinning men. How  explicit the promise, James v. 14. But
however tried, it is still undeniable, that if we believe, all things
shall work together for our good, and with this assurance we may
pray with absolute certainty that our prayers shall be answered
in kind, or in a higher and nobler measure and way than we intend.
Let me assure you that I shall endeavour to offer my feeble
petitions for your temporal and spiritual welfare. My belief of
the prevalence of the prayers which we make in behalf of individuals is strong.  Dr. Rice remarked, in a letter of his which I
lately read, that he had often, he thought, been prayed back to
life from the jaws of death. He is now slowly rising from a long
illness, which baffled all the means used, and all the hopes of his
friends. After all, however, our prospect would be dark indeed,
if we had only this worlcl to which we might cling. Blessed be
God, our anchor is within the vail, and our hope is of an inheritance incorruptible.  To see Jesus, and with him to see all saints
who have gone before, is a glory which we may expect  and the
belief of this, independent of all other things, is support under
the greatest trials. All these things occur to you daily; yet
they may not be without some force when coming from the pen
of a sincere friend.
PRINCETON, AZugust 17, 1831.
In strictness of epistolary exchange, I ought to wait for a
letter from you, but as I suppose you are more of an invalid just
now than myself, I shall wave the rule and give you such things as
I have. Since I have been unwell, I have read a book by J. G.
Pike, containing some eighty or a hundred death-bed accounts of
pious men. Although clumsily compiled, it is rich in refreshing matter.  Apropos of Martyn's life; the London Christian
Observer (somewhere about 1814-17) has many private letters
of his, which are better than any thing in his published " Life."
I was struck with the remarks on the truth " that we must die
alone," especially as so singularly and beyond his meaning verified in the circumstances of his own decease. Middleton's Evangelical Biography, 4 vols., Loend., is a fine work. I am particularly pleased with the dying triumphs, under poignant sufferings,
of the celebrated Andrewt1 Rivet. Very deeply do I sympathize
with some of your feelings, respecting the lowness of piety in
many professors-above all in myself-the want of. rXqpooopta,
and the idolatry of this world. Still I find it more to my comfort,
certainly more to my profit, to acknowledge the grace of God in
those manifestations of piety which do exist —manifestations




1829-1832.                      175
which none but God can produce, and which are intended to show
forth his glory, and therefore to be recognised by us. All the
religion of Bible examples, so far as they are given in detail, is
mixed and alloyed, saving only that of our blessed Saviour;
and " weak faith " is a necessary term of relation and comparison,
unless all faith is the same in degree, which would preclude the
growth of our graces, and render the comparison of the " grain
of mustardl " nugatory. No doubt hypocrites will pervert this
to their own destruction, and our reason might tempt us to
elevate a standard which should make no allowance for defect,
but such is not the scriptural account. The fear of death is a
natural sentiment, which often exists by association in hearts
which have more unquestionable marks of piety than the most
ardent desire of death could be. Whatever explanation we may
give of it, it cannot be denied that mnen, of whose piety we are
assured by inspiration, have prayed to be delivered from deathPsalm vi.; especially Hezekiah —Isaiah chap. xxxvii. —and God
was pleased to grant this as a blessing, and holy men have rendered thanksgiving for the deliverance as a imercy —Psalm cxvi.
Epaphroditus " was sick, nigh unto death, but God had nzercy onz
him."  The soul ought unconditionally to submit to God, willing to live or die; but I am ready to think that more has been
made of willingness to die, as an evidence of piety, than the
Scriptures make of it. Long life is even promised as a blessing;
I suppose for two principal reasons- st, that we may do more
for saving souls, (a work confined, for all that we know, to this
life;) and 2dly, that we may attain greater piety, and thus have
a greater capacity for heaven, and greater reward there. This is
perfectly consistent with Paul's estimate of heaven as " far better," for the rest is at any moment better than the labour; still,
the latter may be lawfully desired, in order to an increased enjoyment of the former. It is right to wish to see in all the faith
of Abraham; but we see only one Abrabham  in the Bible, and
many imperfect Davids, Jobs, and Peters. Moreover, I doubt
not the same kind of faith is in exercise as often now. Understand me now, not as suggesting that we should be contenzt with
lower measures; by no means; but as dissenting from the doubt
which you say you have of the reality of your own faith and
that of the Christian community generally. This doubt is not, I
think, encouraged by the tenor of Scripture, and tends, not to
piety, but to the rejection of it. For surely the heart-rending
conclusion that all are wrong, saps the foundation of Christianity
itself. So, also, there is a sinful complaint under affliction, so
sinful as to vitiate all a man's title; and a complaint (such as
the hundreds of David) which is compatible with the actual




176             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
vigour of entire submission. "If it be possible let this cup
pass."  We may say this in faith, and to say this is not to rebel.
Chastisement would be nothing, were it not felt to be afflictive;
and no affliction is joyous; afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruits of righteousness. The feelings you express have given me
pain, for I have had them all, and I would pray all who value
the sweetness, and serenity, and joy of piety, to war against
them as morbid.  On this subject I have recently read some of
Newton's letters with profit.  This is a day of solemnity in the
Seminary. Six young men are just about to depart on foreign
missions, and the professors and students are observing a day of
fasting and prayer with them. They are beloved youth-all of
them manifesting a primitive zeal and love.  The Lord go with
them and bless them. We have great, glorious tidings of wonderful awakenings in Virginia —in my old region, and also at
Lexington, where many of my relations are hopefully converted.
My heart sinks at the thought that now, when I am laid aside, I
can look back on so little good done. I hope the Lord has service for you in his church, and will speedily restore you. My
friends Christmas, Aikman, and Wilson are gone! May God
have mercy not on you only but on me also, lest I should have
sorrow upon sorrow; yet let us, as frail and dying creatures, live
in view of death.
" 0 for an overcoming faith
To cheer my dying hours."
My health is in statu quo; my lameness better, my child
convalescent, and my wife well.  The Lord be praised for his
mercies. My mind reposes with rather more than usual peace
on the divine promise o v La    re avc7, o v 3' o v    0rre EyKaTaXt7rr-.
TRENTON, October 11, 1831.
Without descending to the use of superlatives, I am pleased
to know that you have returned so much better, and that our
correspondence has recommenced. For your two letters I am
thankful, though at this time I have not wherewithal to pay you
in kind. At this moment I am jaded by writing almost all day
for the Repertory, for which I generally have to provide thirty or
forty pages of balaam. I am pretty much determined to dissolve
my connexion with it [as editor] after this number. To come at
once to the most important matter now pending between us, viz.,
your intentions with regard to the ministry; you know already
that I rejoice at your views, and desire that your wishes may be
1The five negatives of this text (Heb. xiii. 5) are thus rendered in
Doddridge's Expositor: " I will not, I will not leave thee, I will never,
never, never forsake thee."




1829-1832.                     177
realized. The commonplaces (however momentous) on the responsibility, &c., I shall omit, as being as open to your view as
to mine. I seriously wish you could come to Princeton; and
this, I think, apart from any personal predilections. Every day
I regret that I did not take the full course there, (having been
tutor, as you remember.) Now, as a private student, you would
have about the same advantages that I have now, and I assure
you that they can in no degree supply the want of the facilities
of the Seminary. I am far from considering the mere lectures
of the Professors as the most important part. I hold the benefits, arising from the relation which the students have to one
another, as incalculably great, and that particular kind of life as
affording an admirable discipline.
I wrote thus far on the 11th, and now, after having been absent at Synod, and some other things, proceed upon the 23d
October. The meeting of our Synod was interesting; no judicial or party business, no heat-not enough even to warm the
debate. Revivals have visited about half our churches, and what
is strange, principally those of the ultra [old school] of Newton
Presbytery. In one church (Mansfield) a great revival is in
progress without any new measures, not even an inquiry meeting.
I lay no stress upon this, but mention it as repelling the invidious charge of our opposing brethren that revivals are the seals
of new doctrine and new measures only. For my own part, I
believe that revivals depend not so much, as is thought, upon
phases of doctrine, or petty arrangements, as upon the ardent
piety and zealous labours of humble Christianity, apart from all
these things. You are aware that the Princeton men are in very
ill odour with the extreme droite of the Philadelphia Presbytery.
The Repertory is considered as a craven publication, because it
did not take sides at once on the Barnes controversy. Now all
this is exceedingly impolitic in the Philadelphia gentlemen. By
excluding as " fence-men " all who have not fully participated in
their panic, they run the risk of reducing their party to a mere
handful. The truth is, the Princetonians are as thoroughly oldschool in their theology as Dr. Green himself, but they are unable to see that it is the path of duty to denounce every dissentient individual, more particularly as it requires no sagacity to
observe that the policy of Wm. L. McCalla, &c., can never result
in the adoption of their measures by the church at large.
Among my people there is nothing very encouraging. The
absence of a pastor has always a disorganizing effect upon a congregation. Some among us profess to desire a revival, but I
plainly discern the prevalence of a common error among our
professors; they wish to shift from themselves the responsibility
voL. I.-r8




178             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
of a great and united effort towards a revival, and to put all their
hopes in a four days' meeting. I preached last Sunday in defence of revivals and against this error.
TRENTON, Novemnber 21, 1831.
I thought, andl still think, that my last contained every thing
with reference to your proposed course of study which I am able
to communicate, except in the matter of books, which I now take
up as being the most important item of your inquiries. And
first, I must altogether decline attempting a precise, exact enumeration of the works which must be read. Nemo dat quod
non habet. If I had such a list, three-fourths of my daily readilng might be spared. Such a list must vary with the peculiar
character of every individual's studies, and the rather in your
case, as you propose a course not altogether regular. I could
not venture to name such books on my own responsibility.
TWhen at Princeton, the Professors used to name, at the end of
each lecture, the best authors for consultation on those topics;
and a list digested in this manner, might be made without difliculty, though it would fill a quire of paper. To do as well as I
can, however, as you have laid out of the inquiry works on the
"Evidences," and as I suppose you to know as well as myself
what books are standard in Ecclesiastical History and Hermneneutics, I shall confine myself to Theology.
I. Woriks Introductory, or showing how to study. Taylor's
Scheme of SS. Div., (in Watson's Tracts, vol. 1;) Leighton's
Lectures;:Franke's Guide.
2. Systems. Turretine or Pictet, (French,) for the Reformed; Stackhouse for the Arminiians of England; Richard Watson
for the Wesleyans; Ridgely; Dwight.
3. Character of God.  Clarke's Sermons; Witherspoon,
rol. 4; Saurin, vol. 1; Paley; Charnock on Div. Att.; Tillotson,
vol. 1; Hopkins, vol. 1; Edwards on God's Last End; Emmonse
4. Trinzity. Iorsley; J. Pye Smith; Woods; Stuart;
Ware; Norton; Channing; MIorus Epit. Theol. Christ.; Sherlock's Vind. of Trin.; Priestley; Belsham's Essays; Jamieson's
Vindication; Bates' Works; Abaddie on Div. of Christ; Nares'
Remarks on the Improved Version; Bulli Defens. Fid. Nicen;
Pearson on the Creed; a chapter of Hooker's Ecc. Polity; Owen
on the Person of Christ; Wardlaw; Wynpersee; Clarke on the
Trinity; Allix's Judgment of Ancient Jewish Church; Morde.
cai's Analogy; Socinus; Select parts of Barrow; Calvin; Diderlein and Flatt.
5. Decrees, &c. Calvin; 5 Edwards, 351-500; 1 Turretine;
1 Hopkins, c. 4; Arminii Op. pp. 98, 458, 634; Twisse (supra.




1829-1832.                      1'79
lapsarian) de Scientia Med.; Zanchii de Predest.; 4 Witherspoon, 75; Fuller's Gos. Worthy, &c.; Baxter's. Cath. Theol.,
part 1; Witsii Econ. Fcod. B. iij. c. 4; Dickinson on the 5
points; Whitby on the same; Cole on Sovereignty of God;
Scott and Tomline; Oeuvres de Claude, vol. 4; Edwards on
Will; West's Moral Agency; Priestley, Lib. and Necessity;
Leibnitz cont. with Clarke, (usually bound together, in Lat. and
French;) Collins on Necessity; W arburton's Div. Leg., p. 1,
p. 46; 1 Hopkins; King's Origin Evil; Williams' Vindication.
6. Original Sin and lDelravity.  Taylor on Or. Sil; Edwards do.; I Smalley's Sermons; 1 Turretine; Whitby on O.
S.; I Emmons; Stapfer, (who treats the whole range of polemics;) Witsii Ec. Feed., vol. 1; Boston's Fourfold State; 4
Witherspoon; Scott and Tomline; Wesley's Sermons; Strong's
Sermons; 1 Bellamy; Burgess on O. S.; Spring's Disquisition;
Fletcher's Appeal.
7. Atonement.  Daubeny on Atone.; Magie; Griffin; Beman; Owen's Vind. Evang.; Outram de Sacrificiis; Calvin,
Turretine, &c; Selections on the At.; West on At.; Taylor
and Hampton; Wardlaw on Extended At.; Bates; Murdock's,
Stuart's, and Dana's Sermons; Fuller's and Scott's Essays; Edwards, (select;) 1 Bellamy, 390; Burge on At.; Barrow's Sermons on Univ. Redemp.; Grotii de Satisfac., (a noble work on
the " forensic " question;) Owen's Salus Electorum; Van MIaestricht, De Moor, and 3Marckius on all Calvinistic points; Veysie's
Bamnpton Lectures.
S. Reegeneration.  Besides above: Owen on Spirit, (large;)
Bellamy, Scott, Witherspoon, Doddridge; Witsius; 2 Charnock; Noesselti de interno test. Spir. Sanct.; Backus on Reg.;
Edwards; Park St. Lectures; Dwight; Hopkins on Holiness;
Fiddes' Treat. on Morals; Edwards' Affections.
9. Jzustifcation.  Oeuvres de Claude; Owen on Just.; Witherspoon; Taylor's Key to Romans; Edwards on Just.; 2 Barrow, 41; 2 Tillotson, 346; Bulli Opera, IIarmon. Apost.; Tuckney's Prelect. I. p. 26.
10. Perseverance. Dickinson; Whitby; 1 Wesley's Serm.;
Zanchii Miscell. de Persev. Sanct.; De Moor; 5 Toplady; 2
Gill, 313; 1 Newton, 162; 2 HIornbeck's Compend. B. 1, c. 4.
11. Future State-Heaven, and Hell- Unziversalism, c.  I
Belsham's Essays; 1 Priestley on Matthew and Sp.; 2 Hopkins, 213; Warburton; Tillotson, Ser. X.; 2 Barrow, 343;
Bates and Howe in, loco. Edwards agt. Chauncey; Ballon;
Huntington's  Calv. Improved;  Strong's  Benevolence  and
Mlisery; Purves' Humble Attempt; 2 Dclerlein, 173; Burge
on Atone. Appx.; Spaulding's Univ. destroys itself; I Ham



180             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
mond's W. 709; Foster's Nat. Religion, c. 9; Simpson's Essays,
p. 1; Godwin on Punishment of Sin.
12. Sacraments.  Clinton on Bap.; Worcester, do.; P. Edwards; Baldwin, do.; Wall on do.; Waterland; Gale agt.
Wall; Addington's Reasons; Judson and Pond; Gill; Tenney's
Summ. View; 2 Tillotson, Serm. 25; Grove on L. Supp.;
Doolittle, do.; Hall and Mason on Corn.
I  lmust here pause; I have drawn the above from lists which
I have, and from general recollection, and am after all persuaded
that it will be of no manner of use to you; yet your request laid
me under an obligation to try, and I have really clone what I
could. Your wants, as they rise, will direct to inquiries which
can be better answered in detail. Your course of study cannot
but be profitable. I suggest one objection to your " paraphrase "perhaps it has no weight; will not the method of paraphrasing
every passage tempt you to run ahead of your light, to define
what is undefined, and supply what is unsupplied in your own
mind, and thus to commit yourself prematurely?  Many a
hiatus will occur; for some passages can only be understood
after a survey of the whole ground.  However, judge of this
yourself. I wish I could tell you of any thing specially encouraging in my congregation; there is nothing, and as usual I can
trace the great fault and deficiency to my own door. Nothing
of moment in church or state has reached my ears. I am sick
of imbecile revolutions in Europe, and unchristian squabbles at
home.  O for a corner where Theological warfare is unknown!
TRENTON, December 26, 1831.
Have you ever read any of Abp. Leighton? If not, I conjure you to take the book up in some calm moment, and read
some ten pages by way of specimen. It is nearest to the beloved disciple John of any thing human I have ever read. I
recommend this author, from sweet experience of his preciousness; particularly his commentary on 1 Peter, which I am now
concluding for the second time. He was a hater of polemics,
and shared the usual fate of all moderate men. I have filial weakness enough to think my father has some traits in common with
him. I think you are pursuing the best possible method in
learning Hebrew. It would give me unspeakable satisfaction to
have Mr. Leeser's' instructions.  Make the most of them. If I
1 Thd learned Isaac Leeser, now minister of the Franklin Street Synagogue in Philadelphia. I cannot forbear quoting the following sentence of
a note received from Mr. Leeser when this page was in the printer's hands.
"If I had known that the funeral would have taken place on the day it did,
I should have made it my duty to be at the grave which now encloses him;




1829-1832.                      181
had him here, I would give a large piece of my salary to spend
an hour with him every day. I read Hebrew several hours per
diem, going though the Psalms once a month, and reading from
four to ten chapters besides, in regular course, analysing a certain number of verses. The most I can say is, that my eyes are
opened to the exuberant treasures of a boundless mine, while my
instruments are still too awkwardly handled to make much of them
my own.  Let me recommend to you to spend as much time as
you can conscientiously upon this study, as you know that in
language, more than in any thing else, long intervals occasion
the loss of much that is learned. The exegetical method of studying theology is certainly the right one. The simple view in
which systems seem to me valuable, are as indexes to the subjects of Scripture.  Turretine is in theology instalr ozniunz;
that is, so far forth as Blackstone is in law. I would not have
you concur in all his scholastic distinctions; but the whole ground
is traversed, every question mooted, and even where hairs are
split, the mental energy and logical adroitness with which the
feat is achieved present one with an exercise of reasoning equal
to any thing in Chillingworth.  I conscientiously believe I should
say all this of him, if he were a Socinian.  That he is not, but
rather an ultra-Calvinist, I am pleased, for I find in him, among
many that are untenable, triumphant arguments for all our doctrines.  Mlaking due allowance for the difference of age, Watson
the Methodist is the only systematizer within my knowledge, who
approaches the same eminence; of whom I may use Addison's
words: " I-Ie reasons like Paley, and descants like Hall." How
painful to think of Edward Irving's hallucinations! [the gift of
tongues, &c.] Devoutly would I say: "' Lord, what is man! "
These are among Satan's most cunning devices  and oh, how
deep-rooted is that structure of truth, which has lived through
a thousand such concussions, from without and from within! I
have been reading the huge folio Journal of George Fox, the
proto-quaker.  I find in him more of unadulterated enthusiasm
than I remember to have ever found exemplified; intolerable
vanity, and spiritual pride; no acknowledgment of sin all his life
long; no trace of penitence; great bitterness of spirit, exceedingly little talent, ludicrous ignorance of the doctrines he opposes,
perhaps evidence of piety.  A vast difference between him and
and if it had not appeared strange, I would have spoken parting words after
the beloved. In Germany and France, at the interment of a man like
Alexander, Jews and Christians mingle their regret by free speech and
loud sympathy." Mr. Alexander's high personal respect for his Jewish
friend and correspondent, did not prevent him from expressing his opinion
of "Modern Judaism " in his review of Lceser's translation of Johlson;
Repertory, January, 1831.




182             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
the editor of the book, William  Penn. How I should like to
join you in Hebrew with Mr. Leeser! We have not a Jew in
Trenton, nor any HIebrew scholar, and it is hard to pursue a
study altogether uncountenancedl and alone. 3My health, though
improved, is far from good, and I suffer considerably from bilious
or dyspeptic symptoms. I am truly sorry to hear of Mr. Wirt's
illness; even though he should never be high in office, he may
exert a happy influence on many who are. Do you not think in
looking around the country, that, within a few years, many more
of our " great men " have pledged themselves in favour of true
Christianity, than at any former periodcl? This is encouraging.
TRENTON, January 17, 1832.
I have been a good deal interested in the great Quaker trial,
which has been before our Chancery Court. As you are not likely to have any published report of the argument, I shall give you
some of the positions taken. Wood and Williamson (our late
Governor) for the Orthodox; Wall and Southard for the Hicksites. The decision is likely to affect all the property in New Jersey. The evidence is printed, and fills two large volumes. The
Orthodox take this ground: the property belongs to the Society
of Friends. There are two ways of determining who are the
real Simon Pures: 1. By their adhesion to the genuine Yearly
Meeting of Philadelphia; 2. By their adherence to the true
Quaker faith. The I-Iicksites are separatists-voluntary seceders
from the Yearly Meeting, for in 1827 they formed another, not a
reorganization of the old, but a new one, on new principles, of
their own party. The true Yearly Meeting still remains, has
done nothing to destroy itself, and is the lineal descendant of all
precedent Yearly SMeetings. 3. The Hicksites are seceders front
the Quaker faith; their Yearly Meetings recognised E. Hlicks as
a preacher of the truth; and their leading preachers and writers
are Unitarian. The society, though it has no creeds, qua tales,
has received, established, characteristic principles, easily learned
from the current of their writings. Friends have often " dealt
with" ministers for preaching unsound doctrine, thus establishing that there is some doctrinal test. They are, as a body, Trinitarian, and they have s" disowned " the Hicksites, who are thereby, as by their voluntary secession, ipso facto disinherited as
Quakers. The Hicksites rejoin': 1. Friends are not called by men's
names; they are not Hicksites; the Yearly Meeting of 1827
ceased to be the Yearly Meeting when, in opposition to a vast
majority, they elected Samuel Bettle their clerk, and did other
things which they were not competent to do. The majority then
reorganized the true Yearly Meeting, which they have continued.




1829-1832.                     183
They have never separated from the Society of Friends; they
are the majority, and the society is a pure democracy, in which
majorities govern. The division is not on doctrinal, but on disciplinary grounds. Their Yearly Meeting is independent of all
others, though not recognised by those of England, New England, and the Southern States.
2. Quakers have no creeds; this is characteristic of them.
The Spirit is their bond; they have always repudiated doctrinal
tests. The Scriptures are their creed. They may believe what
they choose, and they, as a republican majority, are at liberty to
say what is sound Quakerism. They believe the doctrines of
ancient Friends; further than this no court has a right to exact
a profession: they stand upon their rights of conscience, and will
assert or deny no doctrines. This is no question of doctrine.
Elias Hicks was a good, great, and holy man; slandered and
persecuted. He did not deny Christ's divinity, atonement, inspiration, a future state. He believed with ancient Friends.
But, granting that he was in error, they are not affected by it.
They refuse the name of Hicksites, are not identified with him,
have not taken his writings as their creed, will not stand or fall
with him, will not say what they believe, except that they believe
the Scriptures, and are in unity with ancient Friends. The argument began on the 3d inst., and lasted more than a week. Wood
and Williamson are equal to any men, in argument, I have ever
heard, and they have displayed a wonderful research. Southard
is the main dependence of the other party, andc he dealt too much
in declamation. It is hard to say how it will go.l  We have
had a number of Philadelphia Orthodox Quakers here, the most
distinguished of whom is Thomas Evans, whom the Orthodox
hold up as their great Theologian and champion.  His pamphlets, testimony, and conversation, evince him to be an extraordinary-I think, a pious man.
- Many look for a general split of the two sides [Presbyterian
church] next spring. Let us pray for something better. I
mean, that the pious, humble, moderate, and (moderately) orthodox should come out from the ultras of both sides, and cohere
as the Presbyterian church. Dr. Dickey's paper is good, and
many men, I think, are beginning to feel that we are tempting the
Spirit of God to leave us by our biting and devouring one another. O how could we breathe out our souls in death, after the
rancour exhibited in several of last week's publications! The
greatest heresy is want of love. Dr. Rice used to urge on his
students the motto Love is power.  On this text I think I could
preach a good sermon; I would that I better knew how to act
1 The judgment was for the Orthodox side.




184            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
upon it. A few days more, and we shall see these things in a
different light. Some truths I hold to be fundamental. These I
would enforce, on our own, by discipline; in others, let us be
forbearing. As to the devotional aid for your friend, I can think
of no book exactly the thing. If she is a young Christian, Doddridge's Rise and Progress is the best I know of, especially on
the subject of daily self-examination. Yet I have derived more
benefit from Bickersteth on Prayer, than from any similar work.
Sacra Privata, by Wilson, Bp. of " Sodor and Man," is a book
of heavenly devotion, arranged according to the days of the
week; but it savours a little of Arminianism, on the subject of
human  merit. Jay's Exercises for the Closet is a capital book;
on the whole, however, I should be inclined to recommend Bickersteth. Among your plans for doing good, invent some one by
which pastors may gain pastoral access to servants, apprentices,
&c. These one cannot see in pastoral visitation, and they shun
the respectable bible classes; yet they often are the most hopeful members of a congregation.
TRENTON, fMarch 5, 1832.
I have kept yours, of the 9th ult., two days longer than you
kept my last, but not fiom any exactitude in calculation; the
press of Repertory and other writing kept me busy last week;
and I have, besides, been a good deal indisposed. Little trials
sometimes come upon me, which, though not important enough
to call for human condolence, drive me to the throne of grace,
with an earnestness which I do not experience in times of sunshine. How it is with others, I cannot tell; but it seems to me,
that I need a constant series of inward or outward conflicts, to
make me value divine comforts. Never can I so truly appropriate the divine promises, as when dark clouds overhang my
worldly prospects. The benefit of afflictions is one of those
things, concerning which I cannot entertain a momentary doubt.
i We have here two aged Indians, one 61, the other 71 years
of age, Delawares from  Green Bay, both pious. The elder,
Bartholomew Calvin, was born in this vicinity, at Crossweeksung, and was sent to Princeton College while a boy, by John
Brainerd. The outbreaking of the revolution arrested his studies.
I have had some pleasant hours with them. They have claims on
government for their old lands. Do not suffer yourself to fall into
extremes as to ardour in pulpit delivery. Dr. Wilson is the
single instance among ten thousand failures in the a-pathetic
school; a noble instance, I grant, but rather an exception than a
precedent. Perhaps the best rule is to abominate the expression
of a feeling which one does not experience, but not to repress
feeling where the subject is adapted to excite it. I do not call




1829-1832.                     185
to mind any English sentence, in which the phrase " protracted "
is used in a good sense; yet we say " protracted meeting " —why
not " continued meeting " 2
Among my pastoral trials, is the conviction (as a thief of the
worst and most inveterate stamp) of a man, who has been 20
years an apparently devout member of my church. I never
missed him from his pew, nor ever observed him inattentive.
It gave occasion to one or two sermons on " offences," "hypocrisy," and " self-deception," which I trust may be useful; but
it affords great glorying to the aliens. I took occasion to press
this idea, which I think valuable, that, granting that there is such
a thing in the world as a hypocrite, the very place where we
must reasonably expect to find him, is in the Church of Christ:
hence no reproach ought to be cast on the latter. You may have
been told that I was invited (with the prospect of a call) to
preach in Baltimore; I have declined it. If I am to be a pastor,
and nothing but necessity could make me willing to be any thing
else, I believe I have more openings to serve Christ here, than in
any more laborious charge. I have counted up about fifty
persons, with whom I have had religious conversation, and who
are more or less tender. A great excitement would bring these
to the anxious seat, and probably into the church; but without
this, I have an access to them which no other person could have,
for a long time; and which I should not have to the same number
elsewhere, The same kind of argument applies to a number of
other topics. Still, I feel my constitution to be inadequate to
the labours. I usually carry an aching head to a pillow of restlessness every Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday night; and
am truly incompetent for pastoral visitation. Yet, the life of a
minister has great satisfactions and rewards, which I trust you
may experience in a far higher degree than your unfaithful friend.
Some of my most delightful hours have been spent in sick-rooms,
by dying-beds, or among poor, unlettered believers, or especially
in rejoicing with them that do rejoice for the first time in Christ.
A singular case of hallucination has just come to my knowledge;
a sweet, pious, and otherwise intelligent young girl, of my flock,
thinks she has had a supernatural monition from a dying friend
that she is soon to die also. I shall not be surprised if the impression on her mind should verify the prediction. We are in a
fair way to have Trenton made an island, by the canal, feeder,
water-power-race, (now "being " digged,) creek, and river, which
surround us on every hand. Thousands of Irish Catholics are here.
Bishop Kenrick preached, confirmed, anointed, spat, curtseyed,
besprinkled, and mumbled, in our chapel yesterday.  Read
Cramp's Text-book of Popery; it is highly instructive, and gives
good authority.




186            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
TRENTON, MAarch 27, 1832.
The family [Mrs. Rice] which has entertained me for more
than three years has just moved, and me with them, so that I am
in a great bustle, and scarcely self-possessed enough to write a
letter: you must be content with something brief. The past
winter has been one of more ailments to me than common, and I
am coming out of it almost as much debilitated as after a summer's sweat. Yet I have to be thankful that since October I
have not lost a Sabbath by indisposition. Perhaps you knew
Rev. Robert Roy, who has recently died in Monmouth county,
New Jersey.  He was a man of as much Christian faith, and
uninterrupted joy, as I have ever known. He preached until his
voice was absolutely inaudible, from pulmonary decay. Some
acquaintances of mine use a curious argument in favour of Mr.
Finney, namely, that as soon as Mr. Nettleton opposed him, the
latter ceased to have revivals. The argument goes upon a false
fact, to my knowledge. We have an eccentric Methodist in
Trenton, who declares that certain of their ministers have committed the unpardonable sin, by refusing to countenance all his
measures. This is quite an improvement upon some of our
denunciatory proceedings. I wish all parties would read what
Edwards says hereupon, in his work on Revivals. I dare not
condemn a multitude of things, which I would as little dare to
do. There is, it seems to me, an inordinate stress laid by both
parties upon mere measures, as unreasonable as argument about
mere ceremonies. On one hand a truly superstitious reliance is
placed on certain methods of conducting meetings, &c.; on the
other, certain measures are denounced as if they were absolutely
anti-christian. One man has anxious meetings, another anxious
seats, a third calls them out in the aisle, a fourth invites them to
his study, a fifth visits them at home. there are diversities of
methods, but no ground, I think, for violent controversy. Various methods have been blessed, to my knowledge, in various
revivals, and new ones are yet to be invented. On this subject,
I think our old men are too tenacious. Nothing is worse in my
estimation, because it is new, unless indeed it be doctrine. It is
hard to determine in all cases what measures are the best, but
almost any are better than total listlessness.
TRENTON, May 23, 1832.
Your sentiments about "systems" are, as far as I can see,
just my own, although you seem to think otherwise.' Please
1 The allusions here are to an article by Alexander in the Repertory for
April, "On the use and abuse of Systematic Theology."




1829-1832.                     185
observe I compared, not the system, but exegesis to the telescope;
also that I have reiterated your sentiment three or four times
about "not asking a man to believe, &c., on the authority of
Copernicus;" also that I have not insinuated that there was any
bona fide opposition to systems in new-school men, inasmuch as
they are systematizing as fast as they can; e. g. Duffield on Regeneration; also that I have denounced the setting systems on a
parity with the Bible. What then, you will say, is left? Only
the practical question, "Is this system, as such, so un-useful or
injurious, as to deserve utter banishment." It is difficult to
speak of one's own practice without egotism, but I find it the
shortest way here of expressing my sincere convictions, and you
must bear with the fault. I have never read through any system
of theology; * I read as much in Wesley and Watson as in Turretine. My days are almost entirely spent in studies purely
exegetical, in which it has been my principle for a long time, not
to approach a commentary until, if possible, I had arrived at
some rational exposition of the passage. Yet I wrote the article
in question sincerely, and in opposition to the cant of multitudes,
especially in our seminaries, who are far from going to hermeneutics in their flight from dogmatics, but pick up their objections,
and their doctrines too, from the last influential patron with
whom they have studied. And I have not fabricated one objection, but have had them all urged upon me in repeated conversations; some of them having been noted down in Princeton,
long ago. I shall not say another word, however, upon this
question, for I hate even the appearance of controversy, in letters
as in conversation, and rejoice that, with many more real differences of opinion, we have scarcely ever had one wordy war in
the course of some dozen years. What a noble book " Saturday
Evening " [by Isaac Taylor] is. I have to lay it down, at every
few pages, and muse. It has made me hope more for the church,
and desire more to be in heaven. Before such a genius-let
critics say what they will —I stand in awe; and whether he is a
New-Schoolite, a Methodist, or (as I conclude) a Churchman, I
give him the homage due from a little and cold to a great and
flaming spirit.
Just at this time I am floundering in that perilous channel,
the vii. c. Romans. I am at the Greek and the versions, without
commentaries, and am hoping to steer clear of radical error.
The noblest help in New Testament study is the Greek Concordance, which is better than any dictionary. Some of our lexicons are nothing short of Commentaries; though you have no
*I since remember Calvin's Institutes.




188             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
doubt observed this, just read Schleusner or Wahl upon such a
word as EVEVaTtLKOS. The concordance, on the contrary, makes
the Spirit of God the commentator. A          has just committed to memory the Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek and English, and about twenty of the Psalms in Hebrew. At his instance
I have attempted a little in this way, and find it a great advantage;
for I can speculate upon the meaning of a passage while I lie awake
in bed, as I very often do of late.
As to the Assembly, I really know not what to think or to
say, or even to wish. What would I have? Certainly peace;
if possible unity of doctrine; then unity of organization; if we
cannot be ro avTro OcpovoVVTCe, we may at least be Trv avrrTv dya7rqv
exovrE,, (Philip. ii.;) and the way to attain this seems to be
abXXrXovS pYov/JEvoL vrrEpExovTas Eacviwv. Alas! who does this?
certainly not I; for which I desire to humble myself, and to
seek greater measures of self-renunciation and self-neglect. My
sentiments are changed since last Assembly; not so much as to
men or measures, as spirit. I do not recognize in Mr.-'s
denunciations the spirit of Jesus; nay, nor even of the ardent
Paul. Mr.         and Mr., I try to bless God for it,
do not preach "another gospel," and I hope to meet them in
heaven, where we shall wonder and smile (with new light) when
we look back to see the time we have lost from a glorious work
in comparing the trowels, and quarrelling over the hods and
mortar of the spiritual temple.  "Christ is preached, and I
therein rejoice, yea and will rejoice," even though, as to the
manner, some may preach him  of "envy," "strife," or "illwill."
By adopting the practice of going out very early in the
morning, often before sunrise, I think I have become a little
more vigorous. External nature, especially at this season, produces a remarkable and happy modification of my religious
feelings; and after a glorious sunrise, I feel better all day.
David no doubt felt the force of such influences: witness in particular the 104th Psalm, which I have often read while looking
upon the very pictures delineated in the latter part of it.
From  my little study  window, I catch a glimpse of green
fields (about three panes full) and eastern clouds, and this helps
me in the morning. I always esteemed it a great blessing, at
my father's house, to be able to look out eastward upon a
thousand acres of meadow land, and a hundred and sixty degrees
of hill and mountain on the horizon. I hold this to be not romance but reason. My health is very poor; far more so than
I usually express; my breast has been in a peculiarly weak
condition for some weeks.




1829-1832.                      189
TRENTON, June 6, 1832.
I cannot undertake Newton's Life, [for Sunday School Union;]
my hands are more than full of writing. I am " gleaning " in
Biblical Antiquities for the Sunday School Journal, which fills
up my "' horse subcesive; " have from a third to a half of every
Repertory to write; am in the trying season of the year, and also
(I think) a little alive to the importance of renewed exertion for
the revival of religion among my people.
I am apprehensive that most readers pass over my Gleanings
as a mere compilation from the little abridged Jahn, which issued from the Andover press. On the contrary, they are carefully compiled from his Biblische Archtiologie in 5 vols. 8vo,
which has never been translated. Most of them were delivered
as Lectures to my S. S. Teachers, which accounts for the style.
When I get through the "'old store" I shall be able to simplify
more.  The "Drunkard's Progress" is admirable: pray, improve on that hint-for the cuts may be cut out and pasted in
cottages, to great benefit of many. Let us have the "Bad boy's
progress," &c.
I rejoice in the comparative harmony of our Assembly, as reported by my father. Surely we have enemies enough without.
You and I cannot expect to live long here; let us stir one
another up to new and redoubled efforts.
Excuse haste, for I have now to write a Sunday School Sermon, to revive, if I can, our drooping schools.'
TRENTON, June 19, 1832.
In self-vindication, I deny your caluranious charge about my
writing so many sermons. No sir, I do not write three sermons
in five months. What if I write Life of Elijah?  Am I forestalled?. Give me a list of eminent men whose lives you have
not.  Gardiner? Spencer? Urquhart? Bunyan? You may count
on me for any thing small. In plain sincerity I should be sorry
to see my hitherto published " Gleanings " [in the Sunday School
Journal] collected into a stack. The sheaves are bound up too
loosely. If my life is spared, and our heavenly Father smile on
the enterprise, I will some day produce a Gazetteer for the Bible
which shall deserve in some degree the character of completeness. Scripture Geography is (among English scholars) "the
earth without form, and void, and darkness upon the face of the
deep." I have many plates in Jahn which might be copied. Help
me to find cuts for my Gleanings.  }hereafter I shall treat the
subject so as by no possibility to tread on Nevin's toes, [" Bib1 This sermon was printed in four numbers of the Sunday School Journal,
(July and August, 1832,) under the head of " Plain Suggestions."




190            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
lical Antiquities," published by S. S. Union,] unless where he is
wrong. In spiritual tendency his is the best extant.
The embarrassments which make me cry "no time," you appear not yet to understand. This instant I am called down by
a man, who probably will sit an hour and leave me to guess
why he called.-Better than I thought, for he gave me five dollars, missionary money, but kept me an hour, which I could not
refuse, for I believe he received benefit, and was quickened by
my suggestions. Yet I scarcely have two hours solid, except
before breakfast, for spiritual nourishment. In a sickly season,
I have not two waking hours in which I can sit down to read,
much less to write.  Once a fortnight I am knocked up by headache. Yet I love my work.  O that I were more faithful!
TRENTON, June 20, 1832.
I am unable to speak from knowledge of Townsend's
arrangement of the Old Testament; the New Testament
I have pretty carefully examined, and am  disposed to recommend it; though the merit of such a work is suspended almost wholly on the accuracy of the chronological theory adopted
by its author; and this, you know, is a knotty, and, perhaps, inexplicable subject.  You have read "Bickersteth's Scripture
Help "?  also his own abridgment of it? Both these works, if
they have not been, should without delay be published by the
Union. For my own use, I know no better work so far forth as
the writer means it to extend. Introductions to the Scripture
of a plain kind are very needful, and one to the New Testament,
I think, I will endeavour to provide.' I have a work by Rosenmiiller, called "Views in Palestine," containing 25 views of landscapes, localities, cities, ruins,'paysages,' &c., in Palestine, with
letterpress descriptive. They are well done; size somewhere
about 12 X 18 inches.  Could not a miniature of this, with more
letterpress (original) be made a very fine book for the Union?'
I perceive plainly that the report of Cholera from Quebec,
Montreal, and White Hall, has alarmed our population.  God
grant that I may be enabled to use the opportunity for inculcating truth. Surely we are all called upon to do something extraordinary, earnest, and without the delay of a moment. On consultation with my session, I have determined to have a day of
special fasting, without waiting for proclamation. Gen. Jackson,
perhaps you are aware, has refused to accede to the proposal of
1 This he accomplished for both Testaments in " The Scripture Guide;
a familiar introduction to the Study of the Bible," published by the Union
in 1838. Pp. 263.
2 He assisted in realizing this.




1829-1832.                      191
the New York Clergy, to have a national fast, though Madison
proclaimed one about the time of the War.  C. MlcIlvaine [now
Bishop] said, that he and his Church would prostrate themselves
before God, if no other one in America did so. You will of
course, by this time, be up and doing in Philadelphia. Pray put
this thought into shape, and publish it in daily papers, viz.: " the
affectation of courage or indifference, or fool-hardiness, on the
approach of such a pestilence, is a contempt of God; a Pharaohlike hardening of the heart: like Nineveh, we should all be in
sackcloth. The question is not between evangelical and rational
Christians, nor even between Christians and infidels, but between
Theists and Atheists; for if there is a God and a controlling
power, then it is wise to humble ourselves before him." The
alarming probability is, that Rev. xvi. 9 will be in many fulfilled: on the outpouring of the vial, "men were scorched with
great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power
over these playues: and they repented not to give him glory:"
and again, under the 5th vial, " they gnawed their tongues for
pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven."  I confess that I am
very deeply impressed with the conviction that we ought to be
awake as we have never been before, in calling aloud upon sinners to save themselves from this untoward generation of practical atheism. To neglect the call is emphatically to harden the
heart.  "To-day (let us say) if ye will hear his voice, harden not
your heart." Such are our sinners, and such the exigency of the
time, that we should " save them with fear, pulling them out of
the fire."  Whether we have Cholera or not, we have no time
to lose: should the panic produce only a conviction of this in
ministers and believers, it will be a messenger of judgment and
also of mercy. The public press may take happy advantage of
the fears of men, to lead them to conviction: though I am persuaded that the natural tendency of the bruit made about the
subject, and the incessant conversations on it in familiar style,
is baneful to the soul. When the Lord's judgments are abroad,
O that the inhabitants might learn righteousness. Now is the
time, I think, for a tract to be written called Blood on the Door
Post, (with reference to the sprinkled paschal blood in Egypt,)
and left at every door.l Now is the time fobr us to forget our
petty squabbles about which leg we shall put foremost in our
measures to convert men to God, and for earnest effort in the
cause of the Redeemer. Just look at New York, how the city
authorities and people are on the alert in endeavouring to bar
1 In a few weeks after this he prepared a tract under this title, which
was published by the Sunday School Union. It was also inserted in the
Sunday School Journal, August 29, 1832.




192             WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
out the plague.  And what are Christians doing, in any kind of
proportion to the emergency? It does seem to me to be a pitiful and vile desertion of the cause of human souls, for us to be
engaged deeply in any thing else, especially just now, than efforts
to save them-to save them  from  spiritual plagues-to save
them now! Suggest to me, if you can, any and every hint which
may be useful in availing myself of the general'sensation' for the
advantage of souls: any methods happily struck out among
your clergymen and active Christians. I find my own soul
somewhat sweetened by the precious, precious thought of a presiding, guiding, governing, almighty Saviour, Lord, and elder
brother.  I am  sorry (Dr. or) Mr. Cox brings undue zeal to
bear upon the Papists; I would not have " railing accusation "
brought against them  any more than against " the devil; " yet
I am not disposed to make concessions to a church, of which the
very assumption of infallibility precludes any apology for ancient tenets. These tenets I will take from their Councils (especially Trent) and nowhere else. I have one-, a Romish priest
near me, running about to every corner of my church, and taking no repulse even from people that have no toleration for his
presence. Such a specimen of vexatious and pragmatical zeal
I never saw. Until I see in him or some other papist of the
thousand whom we have here, some stray symptom of grace, I
shall not be disposed to come down to any more liberal or charitable ground than that of the universal Protestant Church; viz.,
that Popery is a delusion greatly destructive to souls. The
evidence of this I see almost every hour passing my window.
If these thousand Papists were to die next week with Cholera, I
have every reason to think that not one of them would have a conception of any preparation beyond the opus operatum of ceremonies. This is my conclusion from  personal conversation, and
various reports of credible members of my church. 0 that the
Bible and the accompanying Spirit of God might rid the world
of blindness and impenitence!
PRINCETON,1 Jul7 18, 1832.
The Jacotot method of instruction has made, and is making
great noise in France and Belgium.  It is not a theory, but a
practice; admits of a singular adaptation to ouer system. ~ I will
(D. V.) give you a little series on it for the S. S. Journal.' The
1 Mr. Alexander was for some weeks with his family at Princeton, on account of the illness of his eldest child, but continued to perform his pastoral
duties in Trenton.
2 His correspondent had lately become the editor of the large weekly
"Journal" published by the Sunday School Union.  To this paper Mr.




1829-1832.                      193
"Library of Useful Knowledge" is too abstruse [for use of
Journal]. "The Library of Entertaining Knowledge" is just the
thing for your purpose. The "Plain why and because" is a
mere salmagundi; an aggregation, not a selection, still less
a digest, and therefore a catch-penny. "Wonders of Nature
and Art," by J. Taylor, London, 12Rmo, many plates; very
good.
My notion is that the whole field of Juvenile Education comes
within your scope. You may make the S. S. Journal easily
the best journal of Education extant. For this purpose —, you
ought to have correspondents in Europe, and the Missions, such
as Ceylon and Hawaii, &c.; 2, you ought to take a ZFrench and
a German Journal on Education, and have a man to read and
extract from each. You ought, 3, to have always before you
this great idea, that the Bible is the central instrument in universal Education; that beginning with this, the whole Encyclopedia may be traversed; that to this hive every thing should be
carried. You ought, (need I say it?) 4, to endeavour to make
every number save souls. May God help you in this respolnsible undertaking!
PRINCETON, Auy. 4, 1832.
By this time perhaps you have seen in the New York papers,
that Cholera rages in Princeton. Through Divine Mercy this
is not true. There have indeed been three deaths of Irishmen
in the town, and nearly twenty on the neighbouring canal.
Great uproar has been occasioned by some cits who are rusticated here, and who condemned the little Health-Board for having
a hospital within the borough. William has been with a large
proportion of those who have died; some he has watched and
rubbed all night; some he has picked up and carried in his arms
to their dying beds.  He almost got out of bed himself to do
this, and has turned night into day. Some of the theological
students have deserved nobly of our neighbourhood, by their
devotion in nursing, &c. This morning, I learn that a highly
respectable contractor on the canal-7 miles hence-Mr. Spencer,
died last night. The disease is at Scudder's mills, 3 miles; and
Kingston, 3 miles; all cases Irish Catholics.  Princeton is
nevertheless uncommonly healthy. The Institutions have not
been formally dismissed, but whoever will, goes. I am much
Alexander had already been a large contributor; but from June, 1832, to
June, 1841, there are few numbers that did not contain something from his
pen. His articles were not confined to the subject of education, but embraced a large miscellany, in verse as well as prose, translations, compilations,
extracts, as well as original.
VOL. I. —9




194            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
flattered by your consideration of my garden dialogue, and
pleased, of course, with your arrangements. [One of his works
for children —" the Flower Book."]
In estimating this letter, please remember that I write within
full hearing of my little boy's cries. Oh! I have new understanding, since I became a father, of that expression " As a father
pitieth his children," &c.  I will send you a number of the
Princeton " Courier; " the article " to the Fearful," was written
for you, but the state of things here made me print it without
delay.
N. B. I am filling a small 4to blank book with scraps for
you. Among others one book called the Monkey, which perhaps
you may think too quizzical; n'importe, do as you please with
all I send.  It contains also some Luther-ana, written long
ago without reference to Sunday Schools, but a few of them
may suit you: also a translation  of Jacotol's method of
teaching.
Take a copy book, lay it by you, and write down in it, at
the time the idea sprouts, what you have to say to me; send
this, when full, with dates noted, by a private hand: I will attempt the same. I propose to write a " book of the Stars; 
will Jacob Green account it piracy for me to borrow from his
Astronomical Recreations l  Prayer is not made often enough,
explicitly enough, or fervently enough for physicians, nurses, and
persons exposed to the plague; nor for the souls of those who
are just dying.
PRINCETON, hAug. 6, 1832.
I returned to Princeton last night from the funeral of my
principal supporter and friend in Trenton, Chief Justice Ewing.
He gave a decided testimony to the power of faith. He died
at 31 A. M. on Sunday morning, after an illness of 23 hours;
decidedly Cholera. He was not only one of the most temperate,
and equable, and regular, but one of the halest men in America.
You may imagine the consternation. May our covenant God
protect us and all we love. 0 for grace to use up all our talent!
PRINCETON, Aug. 28, 1832.
Family trials and personal indisposition have prevented my
remittances to the Journal, as regularly as could be desired.
You must not rely on me in any such way, for any thing, as to
make a disappointment injurious. My little boy still lives, but
in great weakness and great suffering. I shall not undertake to
describe our anxieties. It is better for me to say-what I be



1829-1832.                     195
lieve we can both say truly-we do in a sense " take pleasure
in infirmities, in distresses,' &c.
As I'have a very strong desire that you should be useful in
your present sphere, and that you should continue in it, I will be
frank enough to say a few words upon the subject. I perceive
a change within no long period, from comparative transparency
of style, to what may be called constrained, stilted, and, in some
cases, even affected. Whether this arises from the influence of
any author you have lately read, or a diffidence as to the value
of your thoughts when simply expressed, or (as I have detected
this in my own case) from mere haste-I pray you have an eye
to it. Above every thing else let us be plain and clear. I have
very seldom exercised the censorial function-you will bear me
witness-but I am sincerely of opinion that you are on a track
which may lead you out of the simple path of greatest usefulness.
And I am daily trying to contend against a temptation of the
same kind, to write in German text (so to speak) what is better
written in plain Script. I would not for a thousand guineas write
in the style of " Saturday Evening," though I admire it above
most people. I make no doubt that you will understand my
object, without my throwing in any apologies. Be assured you
are in no danger, if you can only resist the alluring spoil of a
classic word, a Latin termination, or a recondite turn, and
then pursue the rule, "think with the wise and speak with the
vulgar."
I have a little book ready for you, which will make from 50
-75 pp. of a child's book. Has any one written Spencer's life?
If my life is spared, and my pieces succeed, I will (D. V.) devote much of my time to babes' books. My health scarcely admits more. No Cholera here, blessed be God: none in Trenton.
PRINCETON, September 6, 1832.
If I can, I will herewith send a piece called Harvest. Do
what you choose with it. Give it, and any thing else from me,
what title you please. Tell me what you think of the plan of
the said Harvest, and criticize my child's books unmercifully, for
I have a great desire to do my best in that line. The Cholera
Hospital of the Canal is in the lot behind our garden here. Two
persons have just been "carried to it; one hopeless. We had
thought the disease gone.
I am unable to say much about my little boy. We feel it
to be a great trial: yet sometimes I taste some sweetness in the
cup. O there is nothing but Christianity that enables one to
face an affliction.




196            WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
PRINCETON, Sept. 14, 1832.
The circulation of the S. S. Journal is less than I thought.
This seems to be an evil incident to all papers which profess to
advocate a single cause. As a general religious newspaper, it is
the best I know. The       becomes more secular every week.
His English correspondent should be made usher in some of
your girls' boarding-schools. He gets into raptures at all the
dear, sweet, pretty, charming things he sees. Faugh! These
sentimental literary     make one retch. I do not feel any
particular competency to write brief tracts of the kind you mention: it is a gift by itself. Put a few evangelical hymns on
some of your supernumerary fragments. Or, say a moral ballad
out of the cheap repository.  Coming to Philadelphia often
crosses my mind: and I am in a very desponding condition as
to this affair. If I could leave my people in any good hands I
might do so, for I am afraid I do little good among them. The
mere correspondence of any society, however, would not satisfy
my conscience. I must preach, or lecture, or teach. If I had 300
or 400 persons whom I might instruct, in a colloquial popular way
in the Bible, its Geography, Antiquities, &c., &c., it would
seem to suit my poor wandering mind. My aim is to do something before I die to reach the millions of youth in our land. I
have made up my mind to go for the nursery practice. Let
others take the fathers and grandfathers, if I can only make an
impression on the children. This I wish to do by writing; and
I am not sure (though you may think it paradoxical) that I will
not do more in this way, as a pastor, than if I were to set about
it ex professo.
As to the "chapters and verses; " all I meant to correct was
the statement that the Bible was not divided into verses until
Stephens' time. This is true only of the New Testament. The
nzumbering of the verses was introduced by Athias, (see 2
Horne 155;) but the division itself, the Sop/h-Passuk (:), was coeval with the accentuation, which indeed is governed by it, e. g.
Sillul.
Our little boy varies so little, except from one painful symptom to another, that I do not say much of him.'We find the
trial severe; more so by far than the ordinary death of a child.
But we are wonderfully helped. Even now we find that " He
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," makes our way
smoother than one could suppose. We need the prayers of our
friends.
Need I warn you not to think of the Ministry as free from
temptations? The very habit of constantly dealing with Divine
truth for the use of others is a great cause of dreadful formality;




1829-1832.                          197
it obtunds the moral sensibility, impairs the tenderness of conscience, and dissociates the actions of the head and heart, to an
alarming degree.  In preparation and preaching I have often
found that subjects which warmed and melted me in the closet,
have flowed from my lips in the desk with some animation of
manner, but with almost no emotion.  Then the trials of the
ministry to a man who has a conscience, are unspeakable.  Who
can ever say " I have done all I ought for these souls?" 1
1 Soon after the date of this letter Mr. Alexander received two invitations to engage in other employments-one from the American Sunday
School Union, the other from the proprietors of " The Presbyterian "-both
in Philadelphia. The state of his health made him willing to entertain a
proposal to intermit his labours as a pastor, but he was greatly perplexed
by the choice presented to him. In a letter of October 1 he wrote: "I
have made up my mind (Deo volente) to leave Trenton. I am no longer
able to impose myself on a kind people as their pastor. I believe, under
God, I might do something for truth, order, and moderation, by editing the
Presbyterian." On the 15th he inquires for details of the services expected
by the Union. "Should the labour require any thing like the assiduous
sitting of an ordinary club, I could not endure it. If matters are to depend
very much upon my head, as to planning, ordering, allotting, &c., you know
as well as I can tell you, that I have no ability that way. I have always
said and felt that I can make a good second or associate, but a most
wretched principal. The main objections urged against my accepting your
offer, among my acquaintances, are such as these: that all the employments
which I should have, as your Secretary, would not be of a kind to improve
my mind, or carry forward those pursuits in which I have hitherto been
employed; whereas the editorial duties would be the reverse. That all the
influence which I might exert specially in harmonizing our distracted church,
would be thrown into a different channel. That however high the objects
of the Sunday School, the details of the proposed office would be essentially
secular. That I am, more than most persons, ill adapted for a station requiring scheming, management, practical judgment, knowledge of men,
enlarged views, &c. This is especially urged by   ~, and I am the less
able to resolve this scruple, inasmuch as no man can safely judge of his own
character and talents."
Again, on the first of November (from Trenton): " I cannot describe
to you the painful uncertainty in which my mind is placed respecting the
two situations offered to me. This uncertainty is by no means relieved by
the visit I made to the city; for while I feel more deeply the claims of both,
the labours of both are more fully before my eyes. Such is my state of
doubt, that were I instanter to decide for either, I believe no subsequent
light or disappointment could make me feel as if I had done morally wrong.
I feel a total want of that sort of business tact which this great enterprise
demands. I am indebted to the Board for being willing to make so hazardous an experiment; but I am not the less fearful lest it should result in an
entire failure. I never could do any thing in the way of begging money;
and the kind of service which Mr. Baird has rendered, is as foreign to my
whole taste, education, talents, and habits, as banking would be. On the
other hand, feeling all the unpleasantnesses of the editorial office, there is
certainly a definiteness about the service to be rendered which permits me
at least to say, this is a thing which I could do."




198               WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
He finally chose the editorial position, and entered upon its duties in
January, 1833. His connection with the Trenton congregation terminated
formally on the last day of October, 1832;. but his family still continuing
there, he supplied the pulpit many of the Sabbaths of that winter. In the
year 1859 the editor of these letters published a "History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton," and at my request, my friend and predecessor
had given me some recollections of his pastorate, in the form of a letter,
which appears in that volume. It is so characteristic, and makes such a
suitable close to this chapter of the correspondence, that I do not hesitate
to reproduce it here:
"NEw Yonx, February 10, 1859.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:-The retrospect of my ministerial life brings to
view so many defects, and such unfruitfulness, that I have never been able
to take pleasure in numbering up sermons preached, visits made, and members added; nor have I any anniversary or autobiographical discourses to
which I could refer. At your request, however, I cannot refuse to give you
a few reminiscences of my connexion with the church of which you are
the pastor.
" A great intimacy subsisted between my father and our predecessor, the
Rev. JAMES F. ARMSTRONG, and the friendship between their respective descendants continues to this day. Mr. Armstrong had been the friend of
Witherspoon, Smith, and Kollock. He was laid aside from preaching, by a
disabling and distressing rheumatism, before I ever entered his delightful
and hospitable house-rich in good books, good talk, and good cheerwhere old and young were alike made welcome and happy. But this
brought me acquainted with Trenton, with that family, and especially with
Chief Justice EWING, by whose means and influence, more than any other,
I was afterwards led to settlement among them. The family of Mr., afterwards Judge, Ewing, was the home of my childhood and youth; which led
that distinguished and excellent man to look upon my early performances
in the pulpit with undue partiality. By him, and by the late' General SAMUEL R. HAMILTON, who was a Princeton man, my name was brought before
the congregation, and I was installed as their pastor, by a committee of
Presbytery, on the eleventh day of February, 1829. I had, however, begun
my labours with them on the tenth of January, when I preached from 1
Cor. xi. 28. My strictly pastoral labours ended on the last day of October,
1832, when I preached from Ezekiel xvi. 61, 62; though I continued to
supply the pulpit until the end of the year. My term of settlement may
therefore be called four years. The records of the Church-session will show
the number of accessions to the communion of the church; these were few.
There was nothing like a revival of religion during my continuance with
them, and it was cause of painful thought to me that my labours were so
little owned to the awakening of sinners. Neither am I aware that there
was any remarkable addition to the number of hearers. But the people
were forbearing and affectionate towards their young and inexperienced
minister, who for most of the time was feeble in health, and was subjected,
as you know, to some unusual afflictions in regard to his early children.
In those days we worshipped in the old church, which was sufficiently
capacious, with one of the old-time high pulpits. The congregation had been
trained to habits of remarkable punctuality and attention. Notwithstanding
some inroads of new measures during the previous period, under the labours
of a so-called Evangelist, the church was as sound and staid a Presbyterian body as I have ever seen. It comprised some excellent and experienced Christians, and among these the valued elders whose names you have




1829-1832.                           199
recorded. Good Mr. McNeely was slow but sure; an upright man, of more
kindness than appeared at first; of little vivacity, and no leaning towards
risks or innovation. Mr. Voorhees and Mr. Samuel Brearley came later into
the session; both, in my judgment, judicious and godly men. Mrs. ARMSTRONG,
the venerable relict of the pastor first named, does not belong particularly to
my part o: the narrative, except that she chose to treat me with the regard
of a mother for a son. She was then in health and strength, and lived to exhibit a dignified, serene, and beautiful old age. Having come of a distinguished family, the Livingstons of New York, she never ceased to gather
around her fireside some of the most elegant and cultivated society. Her conversation, though quiet, was instructive, turning often upon the heroes of the
Revolution. She was, I think, at Princeton during the battle; indeed, she
was a native of that town. From that excellent family I received support
and encouragement of the most useful and delicate kind, during a time of
manifold trials. My term of service was marked by no striking external
events, no great enlargement, excitement, or disaster. The long-suffering of God
was great towards a timid and often disheartened servant, who remembers the
period with mingled thankfulness and humiliation.
" At this time the Trenton church contained some excellent specimens of
solid, instructed, old school Presbyterianism. I shall never forget the lessons
which it was my privilege to receive from aged and experienced Christians,
who must often have looked with wonder and pity on the young minister who
undertook the responsible task of guiding them. The dying scenes which a
pastor beholds in his early years make a deep impression; and I recall some
which were very edifying, and which attested the power of the doctrines which
had been inculcated. Among my most valued parishioners was a man in humble life, who has lately gone to his rest, I mean JABIES POLLOCk. At a later
day he was most wisely made an elder. At that time he lived in a small house
on Mill Hill, and worked as a dyer in one of the woollen factories on the
Assanpink. His figure was somewhat bent, and his hands were always blue,
from the colours used in his trade. But his eye was piercing and eloquent;
his countenance would shine like a lantern from the light within; and the
flame of his strong and impassioned thought made his discourse as interesting as I ever heard from any man. He had the texts of Scripture, as many
Scotchmen have, at his finger-ends, and could adduce and apply passages in a
most unexpected manner. The great Scottish writers were familiar to him. I
think his favorite uninspired volume was Rutherford's "Christ's Dying and
Drawing Sinners to Himself." I lent him Calvin's Institutes, which he returned with expressions of high admiration for iAr. Caulvin. His acquaintance with the reformation history of his native land, in both its great periods,
was remarkable, being such as would have done credit to any learned clergyman. Unlike many who resemble him in attainment, Mr. Pollock was inwardly and deeply affected by the truths which he knew. His speech was
always seasoned with salt, and I deemed it a means to grace to listen to his
ardent and continuous discourse. He was certainly a great talker, but without
assumption or any wearying of competent hearers. His dialect was broad,
west-country Scotch, for he was from Beith, in Ayrshire; and while I was resident his sense of the peculiarity kept him from praying in the meetings,
though none could otherwise have been more acceptable. Having from
my childhood been used to Scotch Presbyterians, and knowing how some of the
narrower among them will stickle for every pin of the covenanted tabernacle,
and every shred and token, as if ordained in the decalogue, I was both sur'
prised and delighted to observe how large-minded Mr. Pollock was, in respect
to every improvement, however different from the ways of his youth. I have
witnessed his faith during grievous- illnesses, and I rejoice to know that he was




200                WHILE PASTOR IN  TRENTON.
enabled to give a clear dying testimony for the Redeemer whom he loved.
Such are the men who are the glory of our Presbyterian churches.
" During the term of my incumbency it is remarkable that the two persons
who had most influence in congregational affairs were not communicants,
though they were closely connected with all that occurred in the church;
these were Chief Justice EWING and Mr. SOUTHARD, afterwards Secretary of
the Navy. It deserves to be noted, among the traits of a Presbyterianism
which is passing away, that Judge Ewing, as a baptized member of the church,
always pleaded his rights, and once in a public meeting declared himself
amenable to the discipline of church courts. (Discipline, chap. i. ~ 6, page
456.) There is good reason to believe that he was a subject of renewing
grace long before his last illness in 1832. During this brief period of suffering he made a distinct and touching avowal of his faith in Christ.
"Judge Ewing is justly reckoned among the greatest ornaments of the
New Jersey bar.  His acquaintance with his own department of knowledge
was both extensive and profound, closely resembling that of the English blackletter lawyers, who at this moment have as many imitators at the New Jersey
bar as anywhere in America. He was eminently conservative in Church and
State; punctual in adherence to rule and precedent, incapable of being led
into any vagaries, sound in judgment, tenacious of opinion, indefatigable in
labour, and incorruptibly honest and honourable, so as to be proverbially cited
all over the State. In a very remarkable degree he kept himself abreast of
the general literature of the day, and was even lavish in regard to the purchase
of books. He was a truly elegant gentleman, of the old school; an instructive and agreeable companion, and a hospitable entertainer. He deserves to
be named in any record of the church, for I am persuaded that there was no
human being to whom its interests were more dear. As the warm and condescending friend of my boyhood in youth, he has a grateful tribute from my
revering affection.
"In one particular the people of Trenton were more observant of our
Form  of Government (see chap. xxi.) than is common. When from any
cause there was no one to preach, the service was nevertheless carried on by
the elders, according to the book, and a sermon was read. The reader on
these occasions was always Mr. Ewing, and the discourse which he selected
was always one of Witherspoon's; the choice in both cases being significant.
I have often been led to consider how much better this is, for instance in
country congregations, than the rambling away to hear some ignorant haranguer, perhaps of an erroneous sect, or the listening to a frothy exhortation from  some zealous and forward brother, without gifts and without
authority.
" The name of Dr. FRANcIS A. EWING, son of the Chief Justice, naturally
occurs to our thoughts here. Space is not allowed for that extended notice
which might elsewhere be proper, for the Doctor's was a character well deserving close study. Though a professional man by title, he was in fact and of
choice much more a man of letters and a recluse student of science. His
attainments were large and accurate, though made in an irregular way, and
though he never seemed to others to be studying at all. In the classical languages, in French, in the natural sciences, and in all that concerns elegant
literature and the fine arts, he was singularly full and accurate. In matters
of taste he was cultivated, correct, and almost fastidious. Music was his delight, and he was equally versed in the science and the art. It was after the
term of my pastorship that he developed his skill as an organist, but at a much
earlier day he devoted himself for years to the gratuitous instruction of the
choir; and though I have heard many noted precentors, I can remember none
who had greater power of adaptation and expression.  Though his own voice




1829-1832.                           201
was slender and uninviting, he long made his influence felt in rendering all
that was musical subservient to the spirit of worship.
"Dr. Ewing professed his faith in Christ during my years of ministry.
His early religious exercises were very deep and searching, and the change
of his affections and purposes was marked. He had peculiarities of temper
and habit which kept him much aloof from general society, and thus
abridged his influence. His likes and dislikes were strong, and if he had
more readily believed the good will of others towards himself, he would
have been more useful and more happy. I should sill against truth if I did
not say that towards me he was for forty years a warm, forbearing, tender,
and at times most efficient friend. I have been with him at junctures when
it was impossible not to detect, through all his extraordinary reserve, the
workings of a heart agitated and swayed by gracious principle.
"SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD was also a member of the congregation, and a
friend of all that promised its good.  More sprightly and versatile than
Mr. Ewing, he resembled a tropical tree of rapid growth.  Few men ever
attained earlier celebrity in New Jersey. This perhaps tended to produce a
certain character which showed itself in good-natured egotism. Mr. Southard was a man of genius and eloquence, who made great impressions on a
first interview, or by a single argument. He loved society, and shone in
company. His entertainments will be long remembered by the associates
of his youth. It is not my province to speak of his great efforts at the bar;
he was always named after Stockton, Johnson, and Ewing, and with Frelinghuysen, Williamson, Wood, and their coevals. Having been bred under
the discipline of Dr. Finley, at Baskingridge, he was thoroughly versed in
Presbyterian doctrine and ways; loving and preferring this branch of the
Church to the day of his death. Defection from its ranks gave him sincere
grief, as I am ready more largely to attest, if need be. In those days of
his prime, Mr. Southard was greatly under the salutary influence of the
Chief Justice, who was his Mentor; I think he felt the loss of this great
man in some important points. So earnestly and even tenderly did he yield
himself to divine impressions, that his friends confidently expected that he
would become a communicant. During this period he was an ardent advocate of the Temperance Society, then in its early stage. I remember attending a meeting at Lawrenceville, in company with my learned friend,
the present Chief Justice, where Mr. Southard, following Mr. Frelinghuysen,
made an impassioned address in favor of abstinence and the pledge. In regard to religious things, the change to Washington did not tend to increase
solemnity or zeal.  I have been informed that Mr. Southard felt the deep
impression of divine truth at the close of his days. As a young minister, I
received from him the affectionate forbearance of an elder brother, and I
shall always cherish his memory with love.
"Before closing this hurried letter of reminiscences, let me note that the
ruling elders during my day were Robert McNeely, Nathaniel Burrowes,
John Voorhees, and Samuel Brearley, all good and believing men, and all
gone to the other world.  The trustees were Messrs. Rose, Chambers,
Ewing, Burroughs, and Fish; of whom  likewise all are gone, except my
esteemed friends, Messrs. Burroughs and Fish.
"Before taking my pen from the paper, let it be permitted to me to give
expression to a feeling of personal regard to the late Mrs. Rice and her
family, under whose roof my years of early ministry in Trenton were
passed. She was a woman of a meek and quiet spirit, and was honoured
and beloved, during a long life, for the benignity of her temper, and the
kindliness of her words. Juliette Rice, her daughter, was a person who in
some circumstances would have become distinguished. To sincere piety,
VOL. I.-9*




202              WHILE PASTOR IN TRENTON.
she added more than usual cultivation, delicacy of taste, refinement of manners, and a balance of good qualities which elevated her to a place among
the most accomplished and even the exclusive. Under the disadvantage of
a deafness almost total, and a pulmonary disease which slowly wasted her
away, she manifested a sweet, uncomplaining disposition, and a steady, faith
in Christ.; Amidst the kindness of these good people I spent the first months
of my married life, and welcomed the tender mercies of God in our firstborn son, long since taken to be with the Lord.
"Thus I end my rambling letter, (which, by-the-by, is only the last
article of an epistolary series extending through forty years,) and am, as
always,
"' Your faithful friend,      JAMES W. ALEXANDER.
"The Rev. Dr. HALL. "




CHIAPTEIR TII.
LETTERS WHILE EDITOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN.]
1833.
TRENTON,'JCnUtary 8, 1833.
AFTER weather of May, one is hardly prepared for the rigours
of such a day as this. I am myself fond of cold weather, but-:
have been more indisposed this winter than usual., This has
been the sole cause of my avoiding the city for a time. You
intimate that you are going to draw in from the Journal, and give
yourself more to book-making.. I a little regret this; though,
by experiment, I know that you will write books better and more
of them, in consequence of having the paper as a stated employment, than if you totally gave yourself up to authorship. Next
to preaching, there is no employment I should relish more, than
writing books for the Union. I think you have peculiar tact as
an editor, of which I feel myself more devoid than I had thought.
To you, I'need not say any thing of the unspeakable and
increasing joys of Christian wedlock; joys which become purer
and more exquisite as they lose the adventitious glare of early
romance; joys which are increased by affliction, and raised by
religion to the very summit of terrestrial blessings. You will
not refuse the counsel, though it may be very familiar, when I
urge on you to begin, as soon as possible, with the freest, confidential, mutual, unbosoming on the subject of personal experience. I hear many husbands and wives complaining of a
shyness here.
For the last three or four months, there has been a wonder1 During the year of his employment as editor, he spent so much time
in Philadelphia, that our frequent personal intercourse precluded the usual
frequency of correspondence.' In the course of this year he preached
thirteen times in Trenton, sixteen times in Philadelphia, and fifteen times
in Princeton and its neighbourhood.




204        WHILE EDITOR OF TIHE PRESBYTERIAN.
ful work of grace (so I must call it, notwithstanding blemishes)
in the Methodist Church here.  I think 150 have been supposedly
converted.  It goes on uniformly, and some of the changes are
surprising. While our other churches suffer, I am persuaded the
cause of Christ gains.  Such zeal I never saw. They seem disposed to attempt the conversion of every soul in Trenton.  God
grant them success.  I cannot but say that God is with them of
a truth, though we have lost a number of hearers. It is not the
minister, but the private members who have been instrumental
in this.
TRENTON, January 17, 1833.
You will have seen in the Presbyterian, No. 1 of Dr. Miller's
letters; and, I doubt not, you approve its spirit.  It is a sincere
attempt at pacification; and, like all such attempts, will displease
the extremes.  I have nearly finished the Life of Nicholas Ferrar,
a wonderful man of the reigns of James and Charles 1.1  There
is one scruple which your committee may have about it: his
piety, which was eminent, exhibits itself very much in attachment.to his king, his church, fasts, feasts, liturgies, &c. I
preached last night, with much comfort, from  Psalm  lxxvii. 7,
"Will the Lord cast off forever? "-Answer 1. No.  His
attributes forbid the thought.  2.. No. His gift of Christ forbids:" He that spared not his own Son," &c.  3. No.  I-is
dealings towards the church forbid.  4. No.  His dealings in
time past to us forbid. 5. No. His special promises forbid.
Application: 1. To have this safety we must have interest in
Christ. 2. To enjoy the comfort of this, we must have a good
persuasion of our interest. 3. To be raised in triumph above
all despondency, we must have the full assurance of hope. Mlay
such biessings be ours!  I am  reading a file of the London
Gazette, 1682-7.
TRENTON, Fe)bruary 1, 1833.
I had commencedl-the Life of Elijah, and made some considerable mental preparation, and written some twenty pages;
but I hereby decline it, as the author in whose hands it is, is
immeasurably above me in this style.  I say this ex animo.
I will, Deo volente, go to work upon Bunyan.  I have Southey's
life of him, but want some other.  Ferrar is done, and awaits an
opportunity.  I am not sanguine about it, and shall be neither
surprised nor mortified if it is rejected. It has these grand
faults: It is meager in dates and consecutiveness; it is too
much padded out with remark, and it is too ascetic for the age.
1 This work was published by a bookseller of Philadelphia.




1833.                        205
Yet it is a little morsel of history, entirely unique; and would
be read with much interest. A French gentleman lately told
me it was considered a vulgarism to write as capitals the L and
D, in such names as l'Enf ant, d'Arvieutx, &c.; unless at the beginning of a sentence. Perhaps I shall begin my " Mother's Book,"
before Bunyan. Scripture biography I am conscious of no
talent for; my life of Elijah would have been an experiment. I
am  at a Jane-Scott-" ische" 1 book about the Bible. I do not
at all satisfy myself in it.  I have a favourite plan which I wish to
execute, whether the Union should patronize it or not —Conversations on the Life of Christ.  This I shall begin without delay.2
I shall be glad to publish your remarks on catechisms, reserving to myself the usual right of stricture. Your argument
goes to prove that catechising is not conducted in the right
manner.  The piece in the Repertory does not give due credit
to the Union questions, and appears to assume that " the present
system " is identical with the old parrot-system. You ought to
correct this impression. Yet I think, Gall's plan is the right
one. I even find great benefit to myself from reading the New
Testament with his dissecting Helps.  I wish I had access to his
publications; I have seen only those republished here. I think
I could concoct out of them something useful.
I find no employment so delightful to me, as writing little
books.  I am  determined not to put my name on them, and I
even doubt whether I shall ever agree to say "by the author
of so and so."  You will perceive that Mr. Ferrar established a
bona fide Sunday School in 1626.  I have no doubt that Paul
had one at Corinth and Ephesus.
PRINCETON, August 7, 1833.
Princeton has never been fleer from  disease than for two
months.  I found the air restorative on the first draught of
it, and the society still more so. I have recently seen some
astonishing experiments, original with Prof. Henry, in further
proof of the identity of magnetism  and galvanism.  He has
made the strongest magnet ever seen, and has one nearly
complete which will sustain 5,000 lbs. when charged from  a
voltaic battery.
I have tried to glean [" Biblical antiquities"] but cannot
promise you any thing regular, as I dare not apply myself, and
yet have a mass of matter constantly demanded by the two daughters of the horse-leech, the Presbyterian and Repertory.  You
must let me off with occasional contributions in no regular series.
" Jane Scott," on prayer, was one of his own Sunday School books.'The Only Son" was another of his writings about this time, (224 pages.)
His series under this head appeared in the Journal.




206       VWHILE EDITOR OF THE PREESBYTERIAN.
I am endeavouring to find out the precise and complete history
of the Missionary Concert, [Monthly Prayer;] have you any references on that subject, which can be useful to me? This village
still increases; some half-dozen handsome houses are building, besides the new College, the Seminary Chapel, and the Episcopal
Church. Bishop -    is, in my poor judgment, a puerile and
namby-pamby writer.  See his published discourse over' the
corner-stone of the Church here.
I am really pained at heart about my late poor charge. They
are dividing, dwindling, and scattering; cannot agree in any
one; and though the place is rapidly growing, and soon to grow
yet more, the congregation decays. Their appeals to cme produce
an effect which you can never know, until you have have broken
the peculiarcords which unite a pastor and flock.' There was
one case of undeniable Cholera Maligna here, but it was like a
bolt of lightning, without precursor or consequent.
Aug. 14.-As I have at this present 20 grains of calomel in
my carcase, you will not expect me to be very hilarious. I had
been much better, but am suffering almost all the time with a
severe rheumatism in my game leg. Dr. Miller's son [Samuel]
took part of the first honour yesterday. I forgot to say that --
called on Lee at Cambridge, and was taken by him to the library,
and saw the celebrated Beza MS., and Beza's autograph letter;
also  Burckhardt's  Arabic  MSS. at Edinburgh, (which he
glorifies amazingly.)  He bought a book at Blackwuood's, and
took his last cup of coffee at Ambrose's.
I am, in extreme haste, your nauseous friend.
PRINCETON, X1Tovemzber 4, 1833.
You perhaps know that I am not in fiavour of a separate
Sunday School Society. But I am not sure but that to prevent
such an organization, it will be needful to concede a separate
Society, for printing our sectarian characteristics.  Further than
this, I am not willing to advocate any thing. I do not understand
you as complaining of my inserting " Consistency "; but if any
one should complain, I can only say, that the question is becoming common, is discussed in our judicatories, and that we
ought to have a fair understanding about it. Moreover, I sincerely wish some Presbyterian friend of the A. S. U. would
come out in the Presbyterian. I assure you of a fair hearing,
for any reasonable time and space.
You, no doubt, have heard more than I, of the synodical pro1His successor, the Rev. John W. Yeomans, was installed October 7,
1834, on which occasion 31r. Alexander preached.




1833.                         207
ceeding touching your Presbytery.  Non nostri tantas componere lites! Of the technical and ecclesiastical correctness of
what the synod has done, I entertain no doubt, and of the antipresbyterial tendency of the affinity system, I have as little;
but I greatly question the wisdom  of this new measure.  One
thing is plain enough.  Two who are so little  agreed  as
the& old and new side, cannot long walk together.  I look for a
rupture with much certainty, and rebus sic stantibus, could not
mourn over it, if it were possible to divide upon the principles
of our book.  New students are coming into the Seminary and
College; two young men have walked from Tennessee, carrying
all their clothes in their packs.  Such men are worth helping;
such men do the work of the Church.  I mean to help you about
the Journal, but must wait till I get a stove in my study; for,
be it known to you, that I write these presents in a room,
where my wife, two children, and a nurse, are all discoursing.'' Mr. Alexander's connexion with " The Presbyterian" continued from
November, 1832, until the close of the volume for 1833. Before the end
of the year, however, he accepted the appointment of Professor of Rhetoric
and Belles-Lettres in the College of New Jersey, and entered upon its duties.




CHAPTER VIII.
LETTERS WHILE PROFESSOR  IN  THE COLLEGE
OF NEW JERSEY.
1833-1844.
PRINCETON, December 12, 1833.
In answer to yours of the 29th ult., I have very little to
say in the way of news; it is you who are now in the centre,
while I am far off from the " stir and smoke of this dim spot,
which men call earth;" not, however, in my affections and
habits, as I should desire to be. What you say, and what I
have elsewhere heard, concerning the Catholic disputation, is
mortifying and humiliating. There was a time, befbre the rise
of periodical literature, when oral disputes were necessary and
useful; but I am inclined to think that, in the present state of
society, the press is the proper engine, the most favourable to
dispassionate investigation and fair conclusion. Dr. Ewing's 1
Natural History will be a work of much labour, concisely and
judiciously prepared. If I ever can run a little ahead of my
proximate employments, I do really mean to journalize some
more for you. What think you of my giving you, what I had
projected for my own paper, a series of Letters to a Younzger
Brother? One appeared in the Presbyterian. It might be made
into a book. But then I should insist on not confining myself
to religious topics.  The heads which I had drafted were:
1. Religion, under which, The Great Concern, Bible Reading,
Prayer, Divine Worship, Benevolence is Piety, Filial Duty,
Regard for Teachers, &c. 2. Studies; Memory, Languages,
Books Recommended, Study for God. 3. Manners and Habits;
Habits in General, Good Manners, Early Rising, Temperance,
Recreations, Company, &c. 4. General Instruction.  5. ilis1 Dr. Francis A. Ewing, commemorated in the letter on page 201. The
Natural History was published in 1835, and reviewed by Mr. Alexander in
the Repertory of October of that year.




1833  1:844.                    209
cellalleous.' I am getting into my routine. Though my engagements are by no means numerous, yet having to deal with a
number of acute fellows, I cannot avoid a considerable tension
of mind. I attend the Seniors four times a week, on one of
which occasions I spend about an hour in lecturing; the subject
is Rhetoric and Composition. The Latin of the two higher
classes is also consigned to me. At present, I have the Juniors
five times a week oni Tully's Orator. I occasionally lecture to
them. Attend prayers every evening, preach in my turn in
the chapel, and every Lord's day afternoon at Queenston.
Every fortnight a literary club meets, viz.: Drs. Alexander,
Miller, Carnahan, Howell, Maclean, and [B. H.] Rice; Professors Dod, Maclean, Henry, Jaeger, Alexander; Tutors
S. Alexander, HIart, and Wilson. It is truly a delightful soiree.
On alternate weeks a strictly Clerical association meets. On
Monday, we have a stated faculty meeting, and in the evening a
faculty prayer-meeting.  On Tuesday evening a College prayermeeting.  On Thursday evening Dr. Rice preaches. M/y College
employments, with the Repertory and Presbyterian, make me a
busy man, and I am far from being the less happy on this
account.  While I used to have your Cut-Booke to give me
texts, I used to be much more fertile in Sunday School scraps.
Now it has occurred to lme, that if I were to buy up several
hundreds of the little French cuts, which they have for scraptables, and for transferring, and which they call Croquis, &c., I
should have abundance of hints. I might paste these little
pictures into my MSS., and your wood-engraver could copy
them. This may strike you. as whimsical; but, seriously, I can
do little or nothing without suggestions of this kind.
December 16. —My letter still unfinished. But I do not
know that a letter derives its chief value from being done at one
lick. Do you know that John Proudfit is appointed Professor
of Greek in the New York University? I have just been reading a narrative by Robert Baxter, who was Irving's chief prophet,
and who has recanted of the horrible delusions of the " Tongues,"
&c. I formerly thought there was more fraud than fanaticism,
but this has convinced me that they are nearly crazy. Notwithstanding his recantation, Baxter is still regarded by Irving as
having been truly inspired, but as having grieved the Spirit.
PRINCETON, January 23, 1834.
I have been making a little book out of the remnant of cuts
1 He began his series of letters in the Sunday School Journal, January,
1834, and continued them to twenty numbers, when they were collected in
a volume.




210    VWHILE PROFEISSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
for the Gleanings. It will be dclone in a day or two. I have a
leetle book also, in the style of' Amelia Finley," an attempt
at the Socratic method. But the new labours of my station,
especially writing lectures, must, for a time, stay my hand very
much. Some of my chief pleasures are in writing for and talking with children.
PRINCETON, March 6, 1834.
We are all going on here much as usual. Indeed, there is a
happy dearth of all news, except the sickening, dull, stale, and
unprofitable reverberation of the monetary question. The burning of -the Penn is awful indeed.' Mitchelmore I knew well;
he was a plain, honest Israelite, without guile, without pride,
without one fiery or one bitter ingredient.  He was an Englishman, and had been in Britain a Methodist exhorter. I doubt
not he has been caught up to the Lord God of Elijah.  Of the
following particulars you may make such use as you choose:
Mr. Wirt' was long incog. as the author of the " British Spy; "
and I do not know that the secret would have transpired, except
from this circumstance: Wirt had caught from Dr. Waddel an
enthusiastic admiration of Robert Boyle, as one of the first who
had practically carried out the inductive principles of Bacon,
and as eminently a Christian philosopher. In the "Spy" he
made allusions to Boyle, whose works were then little read, and
it was found that these works were- scarcely ever taken out of
the public library at Richmond except -by Mr. Wirt.  Nothing
in the " Spy" attracted more attention than the account of Dr.
Waddel. In June, 1830, I took advantage of a private interview, to ask Mr. Wirt how far the account might be taken as
authentic history. He replied that there was no fiction, except
in the grouping. He had thrown into one scene circumstances
and discourses, which had in point of fact been scattered through
various interviews. Yet he had heard all the sentiments from
his lips; and on the retrospect he still considered Dr. W. as
inferior to no man he had ever heard, in eloquence. [For his
day, Dr. W. was an eminently learned man. The contents of
his library evince an acquaintance with all the learned languages,
and the best works in science and literature which were then
and there accessible. A few years ago I fell upon a IS. copy
of the Minutes of the Old Hanover Presbytery, from which I
made the following gleanings: Dr. Waddel was licensed to
1The steamboat William Penn was burnt on the Delaware March 4. The
Rev. John Mitchelmore threw himself from the flames into the river, and
was drowned.
2 The death of Mr. Wirt had lately taken place.




1833-1844.                      211
preach, April 2, 1761, at Tinkling Spring, Virginia.  His sermons were from Philip. ii. 9, 10, and John v. 40, and his probationary lecture from Isa. lxi. 1-3. At the meeting of Presbytery, at the same place, October 7, 1761, there is the following
minute, which needs no comment: " The following calls were put
in to Presbytery for Mr.. Waddel, viz., one from Upper Falling
and the Peaks of Otter; one from Nutbush and Grapy Creek;
one from Brown's Mleeting House and Jennings' Gap; one from
the Fork of James River in Augusta; and one from Halifax: none
of which he thought fit to take under consideration."  Also a
further minute, October 7, 1762: " Mr. Waddel accepts a call
from  Lancaster and Northumberland."  He was ordained at
Prince Edward, June 16, 1762. On April 3d, 1774, he was
called to Opaken and Cedar Creek. May 1st, 1776, he was
called to Tinkling Spring. His decease was reported to Presbytery October 4, 1805. IHe departed this life September 17,
1805.
Much love to all yours, from n-me and mine. Excuse my
brevity, as I am not at ease.
PRINCETON, April 10, 1834.
I owe you an apology for disappointing you twice, in the
communications to the paper.  The truth is, I have been pressed
above measure. First, I have a very oppressive catarrh; then
our semi-annual examination lasted 8 days, 7 hours a day,
accompanied with other winding-up business; then I am labouring spasmodically. to get something instanter for the Repertory;
besides an engagement under which I lie to furnish something
at once for Rev. John Breckinridge's [Education] annual; and,
finally, the New  Jersey Lyceum  has been meeting here and
devolved a good deal of extra work on me.
Mr. and Mrs. Graves (of and for Bombay) have been spending a day with us.  Mr. G. is a specimen of meek and affectionate Christianity, such as it does one good to see.' The flame of
missionary zeal rises considerably in the Seminary after every
interview with such a man. The report here is, that the elections in New York have been accompanied with outrages; but
we have no particulars.  Let me know when any of my S. S.
books are accepted. - I have several small affairs on the anvil.
After one session's trial, I find my present situation more agreeable to the flesh, and, as yet, less incident to trials, than ally in
which I have previously been. My indisposition this week prevents my fulfilling a purpose of attending a protracted meeting
in Queenston, where I preach every Lord's day. The Seminary has just received a set of good old Mr. Simeon's works (21




212     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
vols.) from the author; altogether the most splendid London
books, paper, binding, &c., I ever saw. You will do me a
favour by mentioning to me, from time to time, such Hebrew
books as you may see offered for sale; as I am particularly
desirous to furnish myself with the best editions of Bibles and
Lexicons. I am obliged to you for an occasional English paper;
a repetition of the favour will renew my obligation; and so of
any other papers, as I no longer pasture upon that sort of
clover. Some of these days I mean to have a paper here; but
nothing can be done till the Assembly has decided a question or
two.
PRINCETON, June 3, 1834.
You must excuse me about the motto; like lapidary inscriptions, it requires a Parr to adjust it; and the delicate " nuances " of
sententious, elliptical latinity are beyond my reach. In a delicate
matter of the kind, I would apply to such a man as Schipper,
but to no American. A new memoir of Calvin is published in
Berlin, by Henry, Pastor of the French Church there. Calvin
on the New Testament has gone through an immense 2d edition,
under Tholuck's auspices.      was told by Prof. Rheinwald
of Bonn, that while almost every system of opinion had been
deduced from the Bible by the speculations of modern Germans,
no one had been wild enough to dream of diocesan episcopacy,
which (he said) had not one adherent in Protestant Germany, as
being destitute of a vestige of authority. Our College is growing; we have now 185 students, and still some are coming.
Of these about 60 are religious professors. On looking into
Guericke, I am unable to find any thing but the following note,
Guericke Kirchengeschicte, p. 1013: "Indeed, somewhat earlier
than this, (that is than Gustavus Vasa's mission to the Laplanders,
in 1559, which he notes in the text as the first Protestant mission,)
Calvin and the Church of Geneva had sent missionaries for
Christians and heathen to Brasil; which undertaking, however,
was soon relinquished."  It is a serious fact, that the Hegel-ians
(the reigning philosophical sect in Germany) hold as their two
fundamental axioms, that, (1) Esse et non-esse idem sunt; (2)
Omniis veritas sui contradictionem continet!!! Fichte's leading
truth was "Ic]h bin Ich "!!! There is no writer more execrated
among the pious Germans than John Locke.
Dr. -    was much laughed at in London, for pronouncing
Quay as it is written: all the 6lite pronounce route as French,
see Walker. A " fine man" is unintelligible in England; a fine
wonacen is a handsome one. Every one says fortntte, see Walker.
Clhateaubriand is the Parisian style. Of course you will thank




1833 -144.                       213
me for these dicta. I find progress [the verb] in Shakspeare,
B. Jonson, and Quarles, but accented on penultimate.
In correcting sheets, be sure to resolve all the diphthongs in
Latin: the old way se and ce is going out of use in Europe.  You
use realize in an unauthorized sense, though I own the word is
absolutely needed.
PRINCETON, June 23, 1834.
Amice amicissime,
I am pleased to see you quoting from the " Penny Magazine,"
which happens to be my great hobby at this time. It is certainly
the cheapest book in the world, and is full of entertainment
without a line of trash. My father is quite enthusiastic about;
it. Nevertheless, it is lamentable that (negatively) it is so irreligious. You might, extract something from  every number.
You will have Dr. Rauch and all the Germans on the back of
you, for that irreverent article about Fichte and 1Hegel; "experto
crede Jacobo."  The review of --   is very paltry; with such
a subject, a dunce might have been severe. And what asinine
abortion of a critic (see the "Decline of Poetry" in      )
has discovered that Wordsworth is dull and unpoetical, and
Darwin, (oh! oh! oh!) a model!!! If's review is dead,
Walsh's is mortified in some of its members.
PRINCETON, July 14, 1834.
I have passed the happiest summer thus far that I have
known for years; let me record it as the gift of Providence.
The greenness, the airiness, the fragrance, the healthfulness, the
over-over-overflowing of fruits, and the otherwise varied
delightfulness of Princeton, have made up for the loss or want
of many urbane luxuries. I am looking towards Long Branch
for next week. I am  endeavouring to get all the books I
can, relating to the English Language and Literature —AngloSaxon, History of our Tongue, History of Literature in England, History of Poetry, including specimens of old English
books. Now, do, I beg you, bear this in mind; memorandum
such as you see or hear of; even buy, at my risk, when you see
a rare bargain. My boys are in statu quo, save that the
younger has acquired the English language, and amuses us by
his sage discourse.:
It is common in our papers to talk of Neander as a minister;
he is a layman.  I am reading old Fuller's Church History
of Britain with great delight; though the more prelatical he
grows, the more do I grow puritanical. I regret that the British
Church Establishment is going to fall down. The consequence,
I fear, will be not increased piety, but the rampancy of fanat




214     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
icism, latitudinarianism, and popery. Though I hold in derision
the barefaced logical impositions of the prelatical argument, and
hate the tyranny of the English Church, I reverence the antique
sublimity of the structure. I feel [the awkwardness] of being
a dissenter in England, but more the ridiculosity of wearing the
cast-off clothes of British Churchism in America. I admire the
past history of the Anglican Church, but in England as well as
here, quantum mutatus ab ill6! In theology and all clerical
science and literature how shallow, how superficial!
Mr.        and Mr.        told me that the only organ of
their sort of Dissenters was the "Congregational Magazine;"
that the -" Evangelical " was a granny; that the "' Eclectic" has
played false to their cause; that the " Christian Advocate " was
discountenanced by all sober disssenters as wickedly and roughly
radical and jacobinical; and that- they encouraged a weekly
paper, called " The Patriot," of London, which they believed to
be able, and sound to their cause.
Lately I have made friends with Coleridge, at least for a
time, and am reading his "Aids" again with a peculiar sort of
mystical pleasure.
has just left Princeton, having spent here some
twenty hours. I-Ie scrupled to eat with us, but gave us much
of his company, which was very agreeable. I was deeply affected
at the naivet8 with which this poor, childlike, Christless Jew,
described the state of mind in which he is, and must needs be
so long as he denies the Messiah; on the threshold, but with a
vail over his heart which hides the way, the truth, and the life.
Let us pray for his illumination; and I entreat you, without an
approach to controversy, to encourage in him the development
of those feelings of want, which may lead him to see Christianity
to be the necessary complement of Judaism.
Price for me an instruction-book for the violoncello. Music
is my main medicament just now.
PRINCETON, September 12, 1834.
You must not ask me who is the best sermon writer. If
suddenly cornered, I should say Baxter. On second thought,
Robert Hall. Then a mixture of Baxter, Barrow, and Taylor.
I have Sherlock, but never become interested. Indeed, I scarcely
read sermons.
I will go so far, as with more than ordinary earnestness, to
recommend to you to get, own, put on your table, and study, a
book with this title, " Letters Practical and Consolatory, designed to illustrate the nature and tendency of the Gospel, by
David Russell, Minister of the Gospel, Dundee, 4th Ed., Edin



1833-1844.                     215
burgh, 1830, 2 vols., 12mo."  Who this Russell is I know not,
probably a Scotch Dissenter; but I have read no human production which comes nearer my views of Calvinism: it is theology without one shred of scholasticism; orthodoxy without one
film of mystification; purity without one note of ecclesiastical
harshness. I have so far reconsidered my former resolution, as to
determine (as you have already let the cat out of the bag) to put
on my Sunday School volumes hereafter, (by leave of Providence
sparing and enabling me to write any more,) ".'By the author
of Jane Scott, Hebrew Customs, Harvest, &c."  The Father's
Magazine has some good things in it; but why have a department and a pigeon-hole, and a magazine for every thing 2  Next
we may look for anlOld Maid's Magazine-Barbers' Department
-Society for the illumination of back-cellars, with a travelling
agent. Soberly, do not the Scriptures indicate a less cumbrous,
more simple, mode of propagating Christianity? Perhaps I
judge ill because I am not in active life.
In immense haste (before breakfast!) thine.
PRINCETON, Sept. 17, 1834.
A very interesting letter has been received from Mrs. Missionary Thornson, formerly schoolmistress I-Ianna of this place.
Suppose the American S. S. Union should send her, and the other
missionaries in' Palestine, each a copy of your chart of Jerusalem, and Geography maps, furnished with blank leaves, that
from year to year they may correct the topography on the spot.
After you andi are dead, the good work might still be going on.
On looking over my little works, I am brought back to my
original judgment, that the best way is to write for the cuts, and
not cut for the' writing. Therefore let me have proofs of such
cuts as you are willing to repeat in this way. I am afraid the
Greek and English New Testament [in parallel columns] will
be misunderstood, and so scouted by Dr., if there is no
further explanation.  I-e may take it into his noddle that some
dunce has wished to help lazy or ignorant ministers; whereas it
is meant for the most learned-a mechanical help, one page instead of two distinct books. Say a word in the right ear, to this
point.
With reference to English preachers, the best article I ever
saw is in the first volume of the Edinburgh Presbyterian Review.
The great defect in the Churchmen, even of their golden era, the
17th century, is Energy, including in that term both pungency
and pathos. I can just now think of none but Barrow, who is
powerful. Taylor is rich, and often pathetic, always brilliant
and poetical, -but never commanding. Those whom we (upon




Cd [i    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
English tradition) celebrate, while they are argumentative, instructive, sensible, and terse, are, to my feelings, tame. A mixture-of Edwards and Davies, who are all our own, would be a
phcenix.  Strang-e as it would seem to one who had not made
the comparison, the [French preachers have mIore addresses to the
conscience, heart, and will, than any I ever saw in print. Bourdaloue is fall of holy unction, B3ossuet is Demosthenes in canonicals, and Massillon is the fusion of all great qualities into so
perfect a mass that his powers are scarcely appreciated.  The
same thing leads, I think, to the undervaluing of R. HIall.  This
extreme elegance makes one suspect there is no strength, because there is no ruggedness.  I have Sherlock, and know some'fine places in him, but as a,whole he does not take possession of
me. Paley's plain seTmons are strikingT for their "good roundabout sense; "' look at them for half an hour.  Some of the late
C. Wolfe's sermons (" Not a Drum was heard, nor a Funeral
Note ") surpass atiny modern English preachments for heartrending appeals-even of terror.  Our American Episcopalians
seem  to me mere milk and water, even compared with the
Christian Observer-school; which latter class, I verily believe,
contains the very best men in England. Except on church-order,
you never hear from  our churchmen a sermon of square-lewn
thought. Their best evangolical discourses which I have heard,
arise no higher than John Newton's or MNr. Jay's. I ought to
have named Cecil, who, if he had wvritteq sermons, would have
been (what my father considers him) the most commanding sermonizer of his connexion, at that dclay.  Of all styles of sermonizing, however, the most sneakingly mean, in my humble judgment, is that of which the -- [a periodical imade up of sermons] is the representative: I speak of course of the majority
of specimens.  No exposition of Scripture in its scope and con-,nexion, apart ftom which insulated verses may mean any thing,
and are at best single rays of the spectrum, and not light: few
even of these insulated texts; in default of the latter, not even
any profound series of doctrinal statements; but mere paragraphs, about equal to the " Improvement" of an old sermon;
false sententiousness; shallow illustration of what was before
plain as day; every thing saclificed to supposed pungency, and
baseless notation.  VWho, frouml all the volumes of the —-----
would get a solid structule of Scripture truth?  And is not this
what preaching should convey.  And after all, this modern
New  Englandcl  preaching is less moving, less reaching, less
awakening, than that of the preceding age.  Ca-ira! So much
for your asking any thing exz cathedra.




1833-1844.                       217
PRINCETON, September 30, 1834.
I heartily regret that you have had [in Philadelphia] 25
deaths by cholera-morbus and cholera; Avertat Deus! The consecration of Trinity Church here was an uncommon effort; it
lasted some four hours. Bishops White, Ives, and Doane present,
and altogether twenty clergymen.  Bishop W. preached an hour.
The good old patriarch remained to commencement.  On commencement evening, I drank tea with the three Bishops, at [Professor A. B.] Dod's, and have seldom had a pleasanter soiree. It was
like being transported to a purer age, to talk with the primate,
and I value the interview as unique; he was inimitably paternal
and really instructive.  As to-, he is an insufferable mix
of upstart Yankeeism, froth, affectation, and ludicrous vanity.
Bishop McIlvaine's charge is a lovely paper.  O si sic omnia!
Read it for your own heart's good.  [J. S.] Hart and [Stephen] Alexander are made adjunct professors in our college.
You can now come hither in the canal from  Bordentown.  Did
I tell you that Dr. Hodge was writing a' popular commentary
on the Romans?
PRINCETON, October 31, 1834.
So Coleridge is gone!-the last of the Platonists.  I both
dislike and love his beautiful, dreamy philosophizings; and cannot hear him either blamed or lauded.  His poetry I never read,
(i. e. Byronlice redde.)
Tell Mr. Packard I can only promise to think about the Life
of Jacob.1  Also say, that the prints, though exceedingly beautiful, are so much of a marine character, that I fear I shall have to
return them to him, with my sincere thanks.
Let me beg you to take it as a prominent, perpetual object
of selections, &c., for your Journal, to hold up the great truth,
that the Bible is the book to educate the age.  Why not have it
the chief thing in the family, ~i the school, in the academy, in
the university? The day is coming; and if you and I can introduce the minutest corner of this wedge, we shall be benefactors of the race. I can amuse a child about the Bible; I can
teach logic, rhetoric, ethics, and salvation from the Bible. May
we not have a Bible School?  Sow the seed, my dear friend,
meekly, prayerfully; it must grow! A series of Lectures on
Archaeology, including Geography, with a full apparatus of
transparent maps, figures, landscapes, specimens of trees, fruits,
stones, dresses, &c., &c., &c., might help on the great wheel several revolutions in our cities.  Hlold a protracted meeting' of a
1 His "Life of Jacob and his son Joseph" was published by the Union
in 1836, pp. 191.
VOL. I.-10




218     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
week, and have two or three sermons or lectures a day, (prepared
long before,) on different points of Education, Bible exposition,
Illustration, Juvenile training, Sunday Schools, &c., then print it.
I want to write a volume, somewhat secular, after the fashion
of " Uncle Philip," [by Rev. Dr. Hawks,] teaching some physical
principles, but interweaving religion. In a word, the book is to
be one of excitement rather than instruction; intended to awaken
a thirst for knowledge of all kinds.
PRINCETON, Nov 19, 1834.
What you say about       is distressing to me, though not
wholly unexpected. I trust you are by this time relieved; if
not, you know to whom we have given our dear. children. It is
a sweet Christian exercise for parents to give away their offspring
daily, and daily to receive them as a fresh gift. Of a truth, I
know something of like affliction; a daily burden, but tempered
with hourly-dropping balm. I do not wish a hair's weight of the
past to have been taken off. Mr.     I have not seen, for he
does not come till next month. I am prepared to love him,
always provided that he does not obtrude dispute about the
apostolical succession.  If he does, I am off. My life is too
short to be spent on these " endless genealogies."  Politics have
left me in the rear: where ignorance is bliss,'tis folly to be
wise. I believe we are tolerably -well governed. By all means
write "The Beloved Disciple."  Lardner will give you all you
want, and reference to everybody else: you ought also to read
St. John's life in Butler's " Lives of the Saints," not the copy in 3
vols., but in 12 vols., 8vo. I concealed my name to my lullabies,
for the. very reason which leads the Moravian to exclude all
adults, when he preaches to children.  Mrs. Sigourney's are
poetic, but not baby-like, mine are baby-like, but not poetical.
They are " Cherries are ripe," also the tune; "Father and Mother'tis time to arise;" " The A B C;" " Up in the Morning." The
A B C tune I adapted from  a Ranz-des-Vaches. We have admitted fifty less or more to college, and an uncommonly large accession to the seminary. Professor Stephen Alexander has gone to
Ebenezer, Ga., with a splendid telescope (made by Ultzschneider
and Fraunhofer at Munich) to observe the central solar eclipse
on the 30th inst. This eclipse is quite an American affair, and
the European savans will look to us for the elements of astronomical correction, &c. Alexander is equal to Payne himself
as an observer. The results will be given to your Philosophical
Society. There will not be such another eclipse till 1869.
Qu. Does this justify a Sabbath observation?
With much whimsy, there are some eximious thingsin Simp



1833-1844.                       219
son on Popular Education. I was already a full convert to the
doctrine that babes ought to be taught, not books but things.
Precocity is plainly a brain-disease. I am filled with enthusiasm
about having the Bible more taught. Instead of a mere readingb6oo  in schools, it must be taught, after the Sunday School
fashion; geography, archaeology and all.  All our girls must
read the Greek Testament.  I mean to teach a few on the plan
of Locke.  By an interlinear version any merchant's clerk may
learn Hebrew.  Don't tell this to the old-school grammarians.
The Biblethe Bible —it is this which must save America. It
is this which must save the church; not by spasmodic transitory attempts, on emergencies, but by being a perennial wellhead of divine truth. I talk of writing an introduction to the
New Testament for you. I have finished about a dozen of the
penny books ordered by Mr. Packard; having no suitable cuts,
I have to describe what the cut should be. If I had a hundred
little cuts, I could write two dozen in a twinkling.  As it is; I
fear some difliculty, and the works themselves will probably not
suit Mr. P.'s icleal.'
PRINCETON, November 23, 1834.
I have finished the baby-books; they wait for a bearer.
Henry Clay left us to-day, but I could not intrust him with so
great a charge. I saw him for some hour or so. I hope you
will:have a good touch of the rheumatism, so that you may
never laugh at me again.  Apropos, this strange influenza comes
on with singular pains, and even temporary paralysis.
I am-printing in the Trenton Emporium some letters to Gov.
Vroom, on Education. I read a letter of [Rev. Mr. Nevins on the
death of his wife] which for pathos, naivete, and unaffectedlness,
supasses any thing of the sort I ever saw. In one quality Nevins
exceeds all men -I know; he is frank and childlike without an
eflbrt, and without knowing it.
PRINCETON, December 9, 1834.
I am, late at night, and in the sick room of my George, who
has been dangerously ill, writing you a scrawl, as I have an opportunity to-morrow.  Let me say a word now about some notions of       about scriptural books, which impress me as
true and good, and are a little exemplified in his book. He talks
thus to me: Don't try to vary the Bible language too much; say
what you will, it is most intelligible to children. Don't try too' The result was "The Infant's Library," consisting of twenty-four of
the smallest size in which any thing in the shape of a book can be printed,
and in the smallest language. It may be amusing to know that in " The
Sabbath Breaker," "James" and "Edward" represent himself and Mr.
Kirk, in an incident of their boyhood.




220     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
much to improve upon the Bible; let what you add be exegetical and brief. He says moreover, (and I own I never thought
of it before, though it is specious,) that a thousand books may
yet be woven out of the raw Bible material, with very little alteration of the text. Thus one may take all that relates to the
archmeology of HeI-Ibrew houses, and make a book of it; and that,
mark me, not by casting the Scripture parts into the pigeonholes'of formal artificial arrangement, but following the exact
order of the Scripture story. Take one subject, and chase it
through the whole canon. Doesn't this merit a thought? I
am engaged (meaning to work slowly, and scrap-wise) at a life
of Christ —blessed theme! O that we may daily ponder on it!
You will readily see how my thoughts course one another in the
channel, which,. but for Sunday Schools, would never have existedl for me. I am a little wild on the subject of making the
Bible the grand organ of mental and spiritual development.
Suppose one knows the Bible, and from it as a centre radiates
into the thousand subsidiary knowledges, will he not know all he
needs?  Will not you and I make this the rule for bringing up
our children? Why may not our female friends be made to
read the Greek Testament  - I will engage to teach any of the
poor things that lose their time on French, to read the New
Testament in less time.' Why does not Dr. Ely take the beautiful scriptural motto for his Philadelphian-i  kAaSEXOa fLEerO! 1
I am deep in Mrs. [Hannah] More's life; a lovely book, from
which I augur great things for evaugelical religion. I preach
every Sunday to a dear little flock of poor people, in Queenston,
where I think the Spirit of the Lord is not altogether absent.
Yesterday, alas! I witnessed, in a Magdalen, (if the name is not
a libel on Christ's friend,) something very like death-bed dcspiilr.
I ought to be a very thankful man, for, with " manifold
temptations," I am as happy in my present site, as a miserable
sinner ought to expect. I am very sure that some of us do not
discipline. the flesh enough in our prosperity, by voluntary abstinence from many things which are lawful but inexpedient.
Paul talks (in Greek terms of force) of bringing under and subjecting the body. Might we not sometimes fast?  Might we
not curtail expenses and retrench style?  Mlight we not risk a
little worldly sneer for being nearer the primitive model? M[ay
we not hope for more uncommon manifestations, when we make
more uncommon sacrifices to walk in Christ's steps   Austin
says sweetly, Nudus nudugm sequor Christum. I more and more
sicken at human dilutions of the Word, and love the taste of the
fresh fountain. Good night.
1 "Let brotherly love (Philadelphia) continue."




1833-1844.                       221
PRINCETON, December 10, 1834.
I hope your map and manual will mark all epoch-you know
every thing nowadays marks an epoch-and will open many
eyes to the wants of the world.' I own, though I have often
studied the map gospel-wise, I never had so impressive a view.
Every one who sees it is so struck.  Apropos, I find it good to
use a small atlas as a prayer-book; it defines, systematizes, and
condenses one's desires. I have read large portions of
with great care. I am surprised that he should stereotype such
a work; it seems to shut the door against all future retractation,
which, if I understand him, is inconsistent with his views of theological perfectibility.  I am horrified with meeting in his remarks the self-same rationalistic canon of iiterpretation which
has dethroned Christ in German divinity; I mean what is involved in the concession that David's imprecations may be
wicked imprecations. Then, ex ceqcali, as the Germans argue,
Paul's deductions may be foolish deductions. This I regard as
far worse than specific aberrations even into heretical doctrines;
for it unsettles the base of all doctrines. I doubt not this evil
seed will soon germinate.  The caricature of imputation is disingenuous.  Pray by whom has the old doctrine, as he states it,
been held? The reader will understand him, " by old Calvinists."  It has been in terms disavowed by every successive theologian of eminence. Edwards has never been regarded as an interpreter of our doctrines. The view given in the Repertory for
1830, p. 425, I pledge myself to substantiate, if it were proper,
from Turretin, Witsius, Owen, Dr. Mason, and our Princeton
lectures; and these may be assumed as saying what Calvinism
is, whether it be in itself right or wrong. The nonsense which
-  pretends to refute, is not imputation, but its exact reverse. -After many years suffering torments of doubt. about
Romans 5th, I left all commentaries and confined myself to the
Greek text, with a lexicon, (I do not mean a New Testament
lexicon, which is merely a comment arranged alphabetically,)
and my opinion of that glorious passage I regard as a key to the
whole Pauline system.
Your " Harvev Boys " I think excellent for the end in view.
The plural of wharf, however. in spite of Philadelphians, is
wharfs not wharves.  I hereby give notice to your committee,
that I have in good progress a book of dialogues, intended, 1,
to make the Bible an object of interest; 2, to explain its form,
divisions, books, chapters, verses, &c.; 3, to show how to study
1 A map, designating by colours and marks the state of the world as to
the progress of Christianity, with a manual of missionary doctrine and
statistics.




222      WHILE PROFESSOR  IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
it;-in a word, an Introduction  to the Bible.  The continued
affliction of your little girl excites our sympathy.  When God
sees that the trial has done its work, he will remove it; until
then let patience have its perfect work.  I think  I rejoice
that the Lord reigneth, and that the angels of these little ones
do behold the face of our Father who is in heaven.  I hope no
changes in your employments will take you away from  the service-of these little ones.- Many who are in it are incompetent
or unfaithful.  Let us seek to be made wise and directed.
Monday, iDec. 12.-The lowest degree of cold here, by Professor Hlenry's! standard thermometer, was —11~.  Inl Albany,
you see it was 32~! Surely one had better go to Pekin than
to New Orleans. I should regard [Rev. Joel] Parker as more
of a martyr than any of our missionaries.' Your [Missionary]
chart hangs in full view of my bed, and I hope many of my
nightly and morning thoughts will take their direction from it.
No publication of the year so permanently affects me.  "Thy
kingdom  come!"  Brewer of Smyrna is a noble fellow; he
seems to me to lead the van in the Levant.
Read the 56th Psalm, with reference to Parker and the
Orleans folk. The people of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and condemn it, for they repented at
the preaching of Jonas. I have a fearful belief, that the open
rejection of God in his ministers, will call down temporal and
marked judgments. Greatly as I differ from Joel Parker, I feel
called upon to pray for him  with affection.  The Christians
of Germany, i. e. the real Christians, are all (except Neander and
his school) legitimatists, who regard the king as God's earthly
image, and hold the twofold command, Fear God and honor
the king, as indivisible.  They cannot abstract democracy from
infidelity.  This loyalty, in some of them, is very lovely.  There
is a family of Gerlachs, one high in office (Louis) at Halle, a
privy-counsellor; one a professor and pastor (Otto) at Berlin;
one a Major, and aid of the king.  The first two are geniuses,
men of profound learning, and --- regards Louis as the greatest
man he met in Germany.  I read much of their writing in
1Mr. (now Dr.) Parker, in soliciting aid at the North for the erection of
the church in New Orleans of which he was pastor, was reported to have
spoken disparagingly of that city, and was threatened with violence if he
should return to it. After sending proofs of the falseness of the allegation,
Mr. Parker sailed for New Orleans; but such were the apprehensions of
the captain and passengers, that he and his family were put on shore before
reaching the city. A public meeting was assembled for the purpose of
expelling the minister: Mr. Parker addressed the multitude in person;
his friends rallied; the church on Lafayette Square was erected, and he retained his position with new efficiency.




1833-1844.                      223
Hengstenberg's paper; and Dr. H. had lately a charming letter
from Otto, who is at a commentary for the plebs. I laid down
the "Zeitung " of April 23, to pen this, in which Louis v. Gerlach undertakes the maintenance of this thesis: " That Liberalism
and Absolutism, though seeming opposites, may be traced to a
common trunlk, viz., the severance of the State from God." Not
so bad.  " God (says he) is the sole source of all liberty. He
is the sole, legitimate, supreme Sovereign. Therefore a prince
who does not consider his lordship as God's loan, who does
not limit it by God's law, and who places the highest source and
principle of his rights, not in the divine will, but in some
earthly end of state,(Staatszweck,) or who does not accord to
his subjects the sacred rights given them of God, is a true
Revolutionist.  And a popular association, however democratically constituted, which makes their own will, or the will of the
sovereign  multitude, the highest state-law, is truly despotic."
Now for a truly German sentence, from Ringseis, a Catholic,
General-medical-Counsellor of the king of Bavaria; the allusion
is to the reigning philosophy of Hegel, who denies any personal
God: " As in Philosophy and Theology, there has been substi
tuted for one God in three persons, an impersonal Supreme
Being, a moral world-governmlent, or world-order; so in politics,
there has been substituted for a personal lord of the country,
uniting in himself all powers-the ghost of an abstract, hateless,
loveless STATE!!"
I feel indignant at the piece by N. N. in the Boston Recorder,
on Presbyterianism.  If our church were to fall to pieces,
Presbytery would not be touched; nay, nor if we were resolved into our separate presbyteries: even in this last case, we
should be infinitely above the no-organization of Congregationalism. How indelicate such Yankee meddling! If we chose to
turn the tables, how easy to twit them with the Unitarian defection; yet the latter are all Congregationalists.  "Presbyterianism  a failure!"  Marry come up! We have existed a century under our present organization; and' then look at the
masses of Dutch and Scotch -Presbyterians.  It is as if the Hottentots who' live in isolated sheds should sneer at the Tremont
I-louse, because mayhap its united chambers occasion some dirt
or some inconvenience.  What we have suffered, has been by the
Congregationalism  with which we are inoculated. Either system may stand by itself, but a mixture is pork and molasses, or
cider and coffee.
PRINCETON,.Decenmber 15, 1834.
More to disburden a throbbing and full heart, than to communicate much good, I write to you. I know you will feel a pang,




224     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
when I tell you that this afternoon, at 3 o'clock, God was pleased
to take away my little Archibald-our Benjamin, the son of our
hopes. Blessed be God for all his mercies! Last evening he
was as well as a child could be, to appearance. About 7 he
began to show symptoms of croup, which gradually advanced,
in spite of the most vigorous practice of our physician, who was
with us almost from first to last, until he died in our arms. His
last moments were sweet; he simply fell asleep, no pang, no
distortion; he lies like a lovely smiling marble. He was two
years four months old. Twenty hours' illness!  A little before
his death he clasped his hands and said, "I want to say my
prayers."  Judge what we feel. My dear friend, the tears I
poured in torrents over his dying form were tears ofjoy-blessecl
be God for it! Never had I such faith of immortality. My
wife and I yield with a composure, for which we can never be thankful enough, to the resumption of the precious gift.: We have
been in the practice of deliberately giving up our children to
God, every day. O how I rejoiced in this, as I felt his last
pulses, and found his precious hand turning to clay in mine.
We have too much caressed and prized this dear boy. Disappointed in our first, whom we held by a spider's thread, we
counted much upon Archibald.  He was lovely, and precocious.
In a moment we are blasted! But why do I repeat these things.
Join us in giving thanks to God for the wonderful (I will not say
resignation, but) comfort we have. Join us in praising Him
who can make us glory in tribulations also. Join us in prayer
that we may be kept in faith. " Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe."
I wish to learn the lesson of this dispensation. I wish to be
more entirely consecrated to the work of God. If God write us
childless (an awful word'now-once it seemed a trifle) I will
try to find children in the Sunday School.  0 mY friend! I
have a dear child in heaven! Only a few hours in heaven! Is
not this an honour-a joy-a triumph? let me then determine to
lead a heavenly life here. When shall we 6" use this world as
not abusing it". When shall we who have wives, live as
though we had none 2  A little while and all these shadows will
fly away, and we shall find ourselves amidst the realities of
eternity. For some time previous to this dispensation, 1 have
found myself under a leading to thoughts more serious than
common; greater desires to cut off superfluous pursuits, to take
up unaccustomed crosses, and to cultivate humble love. Alas!
how little have I succeeded in doing so.
I cannot well say much on other topics. Remember me
and mine at the throne of grace.




1833-1844.                     225
PRINCETON, February 17, 1835.
Tell Mr. Packard I and the rest of us think very highly of
" Ann Conover' [a book for female domestics]: one great excellence it hath, the talk is " real talk" without provincialism.
Among the thousand and one things I have in my plans,
is the Apprentice, a book for ditto.  I endeavour to have
as many plans as I can: thereby I find work for all moods of
mind. Mr. P. sent me a book which Dr. Julius left with him.
It is a sensible and pious book, but purely German, and not
suited to our meridian. There are gross passages about the
vices of boys, and that which relates to intellectual and moral
culture is only a moiety. The spirit of the work is good, and
there are beautiful passages; it might be very useful among the
German population; but I do not find a single chapter which
would merit translation as it is. I have selected 20 texts for
baby sermons, to publish with my name. I wish my first'onymous work to be one which shall have nought to do with literary
ambition. O how much better I love my nursery-work, than
my rhetoric!  I feel pleased to think that the truth we are
throwing so widely among the nation of children, cannot all
die. While many things are against us, God's truth will not
perish.
Feb. 19.-I am still in the house with my throat and palate;
which I turn to some little account in the way of Sunday School
writing. The absorbing power of composition makes it a great
solace when one isrunwell. I doubt whether Baxter or Hannah
More would have scribbled so much if they had not been valetudinarians. a     Put a paragraph into your paper, recommending to some writer a book expressly intended for Factory Children. There are many thousands of these in the United States,
and they are cut off from instruction and home influence, and exposed to numberless corruptions. - I witnessed this in Trenton, but
it must be immensely worse in Lowell, Paterson, &c., &c.  The
person who does this should be intimately acquainted with the
factory system. But for want of this knowledge, I would set
about it myself. I agree with you fully about. At
times I am almost converted to the extreme doctrine of." no controversy."  We are too anxious lest God should not maintain
his own truth. I know no cause why we may not devote ourselves to other work. In my sorrows I think I could make a
useful little pocket volume for bereaved parents, but I am held
back by the belief that nobody will publish for me but the S.
S. Union, and your committee would not adopt a book so exclusively for adults.
VOL. I.-10*




226     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, Mlarch 21, 1835.
I saw in one of the Catholic Journals that the highest honours
of the De Propganda Fide were awarded to a young Kentuckian
named Martin J. Spalding; 1 and shortly after, that he had come
home as a priest.  He is at Bardstown, and I lately saw a letter
from him to an old schoolmate in this place, which is one of the
finest, adroitest, and most learned defences of popery I ever read.
If, instead of reviling the Catholics, we would surpass them in
schools, in personal charities, in persevering missions, and in the
preparation of our ministers, I believe we should make more head
against them. Every day I live I become more sick of controversy;
I cannot persuade myself that the Church was meant to be kept
always in hot water. As to our own church a split seems to be
inevitable. I honour the men who seem to be labouring directly
for the conversion of souls. In closing our long session at College, it is matter of gratitude that with nearly two hundred students, we have had no occasion for rigorous discipline, no suspensions, and no disorders beyond the merest boyish pranks.
I sigh, however, when I think how far we are from the state of
revival which is said to exist in Jefferson and Dartmouth.
Nothing short of this can effect what I should desire.
PRINCETON, April 17, 1835.
A hurt finger makes me write with some deliberation, so
you must not mistake imy calligraphy for that of another. This
letter begins without object, but perhaps may amuse you as well
as if it were divided into heads. To-morrow, Deo volenite, I go
with my little family to Trenton. I appreciate the kindness of
your invitation, but our journeying is attended necessarily with
so many arrangements, and so much sickroom apparatus, that
Trenton is our ultima Thule. I may run down and see you.
Among many reasons for gratitude, one is the service of a good
servant. We have a young girl for child's-nurse, who for more
than a year has been with us constantly, and in whom we have
never discovered any faults at all. She is a plant of the Sunday
School, and is in my opinion quite a prodigy, for parts and acquisitions. Our boys have become wonderful zoologists.  We
had two raccoons domesticated during the winter. One eloped
after a few days, the second stayed six months, and then fled
also. A hare lived in the cellar a week or two, and then forsook
civilization in disgust. An opossum  died under our hands;
and, last of all, a most dignified owl broke gaol and escaped
within a week past. I shall miss Walsh very much if he goes
abroad, for his pithy paragraphs have become a necessary condiment. * * * But what mercy is there in the [Fanaticism of the'Bishop of the diocese of Louisville since September, 1848.




1833 —1844.                    227
Symbol? O for a cycle of peace! O for a breathing spell from
these unnatural contentions! I feel as if I could join with any
who would humbly unite in direct and kind efforts to save sinners and relieve human misery. Cannot a poor believer go
along in his pilgrimage heavenward, without being always on
military duty?   At judgment I heartily believe that some heresies of heart and temper will be charged as worse than heavy
doctrinal errors. To you I may say this, because you understand me as holding, not merely that the tenets of our church
are true, but that they are very important. But I see how easy
it is to " hold the truth " in rancour, and hate, which is the grand
error of depraved human nature; yea, and of diabolism itself.
I regret to see that Mr., in his Lectures, betrays throughout a polemical attitude, and evidently is fuller of animosity
against the foes of revival-measures, than of direct zeal for the
saving of souls. Is this not a common error?    -'s day is
probably over, as Nettleton's was, and for the same cause; thus
Moses could not enter the land; but where are our Joshuas?
Sometimes there seems to me to be an opening just now for a
united attempt to awaken religious feeling in the churches, without the shibboleths of measures. Surely too much has been
made of these measures, both pro and contra. But my preachment is already too long, as my practice is so defective. Nevertheless, I believe my happiest hours are spent on Sunday afternoons in labouring among my little charge [the congregation
of colored persons]. I am. humbled when I think how little
effect results from my discourses. I write at a table with three
chattering girls, and my thoughts ramble.
PRINCETON, June 3, 1835.
I should have concluded that you were still at the Pittsburg
furnace, had not    - incidentally mentioned your return.
The vacation slipped away strangely without my seeing you,
andc when I heard you were gone westward, I thought it not
worth while to make my visit to the city. For some weeks I
have two recitations a day, and the only absence I can expect is
a trip to New York, which I make to-morrow, to preach for Dr.
Spring's people. We have 215 in college, and consequently have
divided several of the classes, thus exactly doubling our labours.
Look at two articles of Professor Henry's, in the late number
of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. He
and Faraday of London seem to have hit on the same discovery
simultaneously.
My little boy is better than we have seen him for a year or two.
Though he is on his back all the time, he is, through Divine mercy,




228     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
exquisitely happy. I was not pleased with the spirit of the Colonization meetings in New York.  I am tending towards a
middle ground which neither party will allow: i. e. I abhor
slavery, and think the public mind should be enlightened, and
every lawful means immediately taken for an eventual and speedy
abolition; but I also approve of the plan of Colonization, on
grounds altogether distinct from the question of slavery. Thus
I open my mind to the full, legitimate impressions of all the
anti-slavery arguments. I have seldom heard a man so powerfully eloquent as G. Thompson, though he is hot-headed, arrogant,
and imprudent in excess.
PRINCETON, JIdy 2, 1835.
I am in my room, and have been in my bed, with a quite severe attack of fever. After being blooded profusely, both in arm
and jugular, physicked and dieted; and after having a hammering in my head as if the Cyclops had transferred their anvil to
my brain-pan, I am now free from symptoms of disease, though
haggard, weak, and thin. Perhaps I may exhibit my anatomy
at No. 119 South 8th street before many days. I scarcely know
why I am spared, unless in infinite mercy, that I may make my
calling and election sure. What you say of    - scarcely surprises me; I had somehow got the notion that he was (to use a
word of my quondam  sexton) "a notionable man."
made great misstatements in his speech about the duties of the
professors here. They have no day without a lecture, and they
are employed almost every evening; besides, they do not constantly repeat the old lectures. I know not a busier man in the
world than my old father. And half of every day is spent in
talking with students privately. True, he does not chase them from
room to room, or run through the roll, but he never chains up
his gate, or pleads any business to exclude any one, at any hour.
Much that you say of ministers and their ways is, no doubt,
true. I dissent, however, from one of your statements of fact.
I do not believe that ministers herd too much together; if they
were more together, it would be better. In such a place as
Princeton, where we are aggregated in a literary capacity, it
may be the case, yet how is the fact even here? Dr. Rice
probably talks ten times with lay-people for once that he talks
with a preacher. In Trenton I consorted five hundred times
with laics, for every once with a clerk. And in Charlotte, the
ratio was, I doubt not, 1000 to 1.
PRINCETON, August 11, 1835.
Not only do busiest men do the most, but our busiest times
are those in which we work most extra. So it has been. At




1833-1844.                      229
Saratoga, of all places in the world, I could not find time to
write to you; and to-day, in the busiest week of the year, viz.,
that of our final examination, lo! I am inditing a missive. I was
nineteen days at the Springs. All the time comfortable; health
bettered, spirits prime, flesh not increased, beauty ditto,, face
nigrified three shades, nose germinal, ruddy, &c., &c. N. B.
1 plucked up courage to take a shower-bath, and with more decided good than I ever had from any remedial process. I saw
" all the world and his mother " at the Springs. Inter alios et
alias; Rev. Dr. Lyell, Rev. HIugh Smith, Van Buren, Cambreleng, Gov. Wolf, Gov. Marcy, Dr. Proudfit, Prof. Alonzo
Potter, Sir Win. Barnaby, Governor of Bermuda, General
Nelson of Trinidad, Roberts Vaux, Perdicaris, Miomotsky,
Pres. Wayland, Mr. Pierpoint, Major Jack Downing of New
York, Mrs. Bradstreet, (the female lawyer,) Dr. Cox of England, T. P. I -, (Temperance agent, foU on the wine question:
N. B. Temperance Ship spoken at Albany, high and dry on the
Wine-bank; crew drunk or crazy; mutiny below hatches,
headed by one Delavan; pilots afraid to venture out, as the
vessel has careened and threatens to go down under a heavy sea
from Stuart's cove,) S. V. S. Wilder, Lane, (one of the founders
of the Seminary of that ilk,) Signore Fabi and Garenghi of the
Opera, pictures of Adam and Eve, which    -, in my hearing,
solemnly recommended in a sermon.
Here are a few        ana.  I-e is vehemently against the
present Temperance-society freaks: "When men grow wiser than
the Bible, I am off. I go the whole figure: if Christ did not so
foresee the present as to make a sufficient rule for our times, I
shut the lids of my Bible; it is henceforth n.o Bible for me."
Of Coleridge: "I do not understand him; bright fogs; some
few rays of truth beyond the vulgar seem to have impinged on his
mind, but after several reflections, so as to be seen in a wrong
place. We want a metaphysic which shall settle things. Among
us all opinion is in flux; nothing arrived at; settled truth is our
object. What I long to see accomplished is, that we should
come to conclusions about something, and hold them fast; to
leave out of view what Germans or what Britons think of this
or that, and march up in manly sort to some points of truth.
That is the intellect for me which settles things; makes dark
things clear, and undefined things definite: so does not Coleridge. I judge of teaching by fruits. The fruits of Coleridgeism, where I have seen it, are extravagancies. If there is a
Metaphysic, it must be very clear: the true system must of necessity be a plain one. What point has Coleridge cleared? "  I
hope you are not suffering with the heat. Come up, come up,




230     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
and breathe a little vapor from good mother earth, whom you
have interred under a world of flaming bricks in your great
Babel. Love to Mrs., misses, and master.
COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, tAugust 28, 1835.
The "Life of Kilpin," by the American Tract Society, is one
of the loveliest Sunday School books I have ever read. It will
furnish you some grand excerpts for the Journal; especially are
his sermons to children grand, according to my notion. And
the appended memoir, of his son, is one of the most wonderful
juvenile biographies. Read it incontinently.
When you next propose an excursion anywhither, do me the
honour to ask.me to go along. I can never do such things of my
own motion, greatly as I need travelling, and I am so liable to
sudden attacks of severe disorder, that I am scarcely fit to travel
alone. Todd's "Student's Manual" is a good book; I wish
every College student had one.
I have myself, in reading Owen, marked some sixty passages,
repudiating the objectionable imputation [as charged against
strict Calvinists] in every form of diction which he could use.
This is only important to defend us from the charge of not
agreeing with our standards, i. e. simply a point of doctrinehistory, (Dogmengeschichte.)  It strikes me as remarkable that
neither W.-  nor B., has the slightest metaphysical
acumen'; F     has'less, if there can be a negative quantity;
and B  - less still!! I thinknone the less of them, except
that they do not stick to their last. M, E —, and
L-, are the true hair-splitting metaphysicians; and all
three do more harm than good. Jenkyn (on atonement) seems
to make conscience of forming his system without any reference
to exegesis; the only basis of a true theology. I cannot but
view his. atonement as none at all. He says the " Eden experiment has failed, the Sinai experiment has failed "-quere: what
becomes of you and me, if the Calvary experiment fail 2
Aucgust 25.-A  box from  Germany; beautiful editions of
Calvin on New Testament; Vulgate, by Van Ess; Neanclder's
history, as far as Charlemagne; another massive volume of the
arch-geographer Ritter; I have Tholuck's University sermons, etc.
Apropos of geography, Neander has supervised and had engraved
a capital map of all places mentioned in the New Testament
and the early fathers. You will see it at the end of his history
of the "Planting of Christianity."  On Sunday night, died, at
Englishtown, in the sweet peace of the gospel, Ira Conldict Gulick,
a promising, gifted, and exemplary member of the Sophomore
class. It was his dying request that a discourse should be




1833-1844.                      231
delivered by President Carnahan, from Ecc. xii. 1: " Remember now thy Creator," &c. His funeral was attended by the
members of the Sophomore class, in number sixty-five. Mr.
G. was a younger brother of the Rev. Peter J. Gulick of the
Sandwich mission.  Onderdonk's theory, i. e. -that the New
Testament contains plain notices of a regular, successive, threefold ordination of the apostles, outrages my common sense more
than Stuart's wine theory. In each case a desperate preconception is taken to the Bible to find support there, per fas et nefas.
The spread of my little books is pleasing to my mind, as it
flatters my hope of not dying without leaving some few souls the
better for my having been born. Rejoice, my friend, in the
station, you hold; never let the truth grow stale in your estimation, that what we do for infants, we do for the best interests
of lman, in the most hopeful way. I go, God willing, to New
York, on the 29th to preach at the Brick Church. I have been
reading Tholuck's Sermons; they have some passages equal in
eloquence, unction, and pungency, to any thing I know.
PRINCETON, September 4, 1835.
I was in New York about the bursting of the Lunar bubble.'
Thlousands were taken in, even savans; notwithstanding the
internal evidence against it. For it seems very plain that no
light, however intense, cast upon the spectrum  or image of the
telescope, can add any clearness to this image; inasmuch as such
light, however intense, comes not firom the moon, (therefore can
tell us nothing new about her,) but from the hydro-oxygen flame,
and the canvas. It is like throwing a flood of light on a shadow,
in order to see the substance.  Night before last, I looked at the
moon through our Fraunhofer, and I saw the annular mountains
as clearly as you see these marks            but no griffins,
gorgons, or chimaeras. I dined at an eating house, on the next
chair to —; he looks wan and eye-sunken.  Not for an
instant do I doubt either his piety or his ignorance. The new
regions of New York city are lordly, and I have seen nothing
approaching them. I spent a grand evening with [Chancellor]
KIent. Ask me about it, when we meet.   On Sunday, I hope
to preach to the children of a rural district, and to parents;
also catechize.  I chatted a little with Joshua Leavitt; he
groweth fat. The late fire burnt round the three Dutch parsonages, and almost took the Bible House, which was on fire
several times.'Fanlshaw, next day, gave $500 to Mlariners'
A long and grave report in one of the newspapers of pretended telescopic discoveries.




232     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Church, which he had offered as premium of insurance, just
before wind changed, and saved his furniture. Same day,
Phelps, Starr, (Bible-binder,) and A. Tappan, gave each a thousand to same object. Fanatic or not, New York religion is the goahead system. O for a good 8vo on Money, the God of Americans; its use, its abuse, how far right to make haste to be rich,
whether we can get too 9much honestly, about giving, about luxury,
surplusage, legacies, &c., —a noble theme, and a layman must
do it.
PRINCETON, September 23, 1835.
My present belief is, that it will be my duty not to go to
Virginia, as I had intended. The case is thus: my good father
and mother, after so long a time, and doubtless for the last time
together, are going to see the land of their nativity, their youth,
their marriage. They will take, and so my wife will
become prima donna here. My father is quite full of a plan
for hawking your books about the country; he even talks of
buying a complete set for himself. I wish you would be liberal
enough to give me a fine selection of your [S. S. Union] works
to send to RIev. Prof., Otto von Gerlach of Berlin; it would
insert the wedge in Prussia. Do you know that my grand
difficulty in making baby books has been that of getting few
enough words in a page? Well, -   - has invented the
method of ruling his page like a multiplication-table, with just
squares enough for the complement. This is measured prose
with a witness! I have been wearing myself down with the
examination this afternoon, and am  almost broken-winded.
-tappily it is my last duty of the pedagogical sort for the
academical year. We have a student in the Seminary, who is
the son of Lord Brougham's half sister, and the grandson of
Lord Rothsay. How'pleasing it would be, if we could be all
the time engaged in labours for the conversion of souls, and the
exaltation of the Bible! When we talk of the scriptural plan
of missions to the heathen, ought we not to look especially at
the plan of Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles? You will discern
my hand in the New York Observer; pray, do not be jealous,
as I do not mean to forsake you. I am almost a convert to the
German notion of a Spirit of the Age, independent of communication, breaking forth in simultaneous manifestation. Look
at the reigning mnobs; convent burnings in Spain, and commotions even in quiet Berlin.' I am taking hold again of my book
of introduction to the Scripture, which has lain by several
months; I hope to do something at my 10th chapter this week.
The researches are laborious and long, though the results will




1833-1844.                     233
seem very small and simple. Quere: may we not receive a
hallowing impression, though vague and unrepresentable in
words, from portions of Scripture which we do not understand,
such as Ezekiel, Canticles, or Revelation? and may not this be a
part of their intention? This struck me mightily last night,
while reading some picturesque passages in the original Apocalypse. Here is a sentence from a sermon of Tholuck: "Not
only to us is that unseen One nigh, who rules these lips while I
speak to you, but over all existences doth he reign and influence;
as well the comet in its orbit, as the small worm that crawls in
dust, hath he f'olded in the broad shadow of his mantle.' Do I
not fill heaven and earth?' saith the Lord in our text.'If I
ascend into heaven thou art there, if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there."'   Again: " A voice rings in thine ears,
My child, why hast thou not sought me? Yea, from infancy
up, first when thou wast sitting in thy mother's embrace, while
she told thee the story of the dear Redeemer, and then in thy
boyhood, when in starry nights thou gazedst on the grandeur of
thy heavenly Father's mansions, and thine eyes shed drops of
thankfulness, that among all his million worlds he forgot not
thee, poor child; and then in thy youth, when sin conflicted
sorely with thee, and thou learnedst the truth,'he that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool;' everywhere and all the way, has thy
Father's voice cried to thee:' Wherefore seekest thou me not,
for I am still thy Father. "'-How  Madame de Stael depicts
Lucian in one word, "il est le Volltaire de l'antiquit6."  We are
making ready for our feast of tabernacles [commencement]. A
German rationalist, resident formerly, perhaps now, in Illinois,
has vilified your Union books, in a book of travels, at IIamburg.
The worst he can say is that they are too evangelical.
As you have a little touch of Anglomania, let me recommend
to you to buy Tanner's second map of England separately, and
have a linen back pasted on it. It is a delightful companion to
one's English reading. I have seen nothing like it.
PRINCETON, November 3, 1835.
I have just come from the funeral of Dr. Howell, the best
physician and one of the best friends I ever knew; and never
has there been so sincere a mourning general in our village. The
Church was verily a Bochim. The Dr. was signally a gentleman
and a man of science. His integrity, his generosity, his public
spirit, his delicacy, and his sensibility, were uncommon. He
was a. model of uncalculating liberality and chivalrous honour;
and all his failings were the running over at the brim of these




234     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
virtues. Though bred a hickory quaker, he was growing in
religious knowledge, and has given, to my mlind, unequivocal
evidence of faith in Christ during his late trials. His son William
preceded him a few weeks; his eldest daughter lies ill now;
his second daughter is slowly recovering; his wife has had the
early symptoms [typhus fever], as has his eldest son. Such a
house of grief I never saw, and it has fallen chiefly on me to
minister to these minds diseased. Out of this one house I know
of no cases of the complaint in the place. We hear from my
parents that they are well and prosperous in their way through
Virginia. You have seen the Life of Dr. Rice? It interests
me, of course, but I lament the publicity given to many foibles
of men still alive. I rejoice that Wordsworth is publishing in
Philadelphia; heartily and religiously do I believe that our
money-loving and gain-reckoning generation would be profited
by the leaven of the Coleridge and Wordsworth philosophical
poesy, even though this has its whimsies. Newark is a wonderful
place now; pop. 20,000, exported manufactures this year
$8,000,000. Of young men between 15 and 25, four to five
thousand. I never had such an audience as there, on the 25th;
I preached at the invitation of the Young Ilen's Society. The
Churches there are all alive, and the place is a little, sublimated
New York. I called on Col. Stone [editor of " Commercial
Advertiser"] in New York, in his den, and found hiin courtly
and facete. In the progress of mobs, I see every thing portentouis; worse this, by far, than abolition. And though I conceive
the anti-slavers to be rash and pragmatical, yet I think the arrogance of the South is palpably their worst policy. This wedge
is in, and drives deeper year by year. And I rejoice that you
and I are not laden with negro souls and bodies. Amazingly
orthodox as I am, I own I should relish a little breathing spell;
at least a trial, whether some of the sheep could not be fed to a
certain degree, even though the shepherds did not play at
quarterstaff over their heads. However, my head is not wise
on these great points. Let me hear about any apostolic blows
and knocks that you wot of. Bush is making a lexicon. Who
is Nehemiah -? I suppose he comes of the family of the
Peleg Pecks, and- Chelaniah Coffins, and Remembrance Reids,
whose names, in the --  Review, show f6rth the glory of the
anti-anonymous system. Adieu. Thine particularly.
PRINCETON, November 27, 1835.
Horace Binney's eulogy [on Chief Justice Tilghman] is Attic.
The introduction and a few  sentences here and there are too
antithetical, so as to be both stiff and obscure; otherwise it looks




1833  1844.                      235
to me like a piece of severe rhetoric worthy of Athens. I have
wanted to ask you, for some time, this question: Though you
publish many Scripture biographies, and though they are taken
out of the libraries, as is every thing else, yet are they really
perused, sought after, delighted in l  In this I feel interested.  As
an antiquary (N. B. Johnson uses the noun " antiquarian" in
Pref. to Diet.) I have a grand treat just now.  - brought me
firom Virginia a load of MSS., letters of old Dr. Waddel, pieces
of sermons, numerous skeletons, and letters to him.  IHe ordered
all his papers to be burned before his death; these escaped
casually.  Also a MS. Diary of Col. James  Gordon, nmy
mother's maternal grandfather, the first of the line in Virginia.
The fiamily was Scotch, but he came from Ireland to Lancaster
Co., Virginia.  Look at the singularly fine commercial site of
that county.  He was a merchant in direct trade with England,
and I read of ships arriving every day.  He was a Presbyterian
among hundreds of Episcopalians, and in constant feuds with
the fox-hunting parsons.  Every few pages, I read of Whitefield,
Davies, Todd, and Waddel.  Date 1759-'65.  Some historical
dates may be fixed by this.
I breed so many plans which cannot be accomplished in one
brief lifetime, especially of books, that I have sometimes half
a mind to send you a half dozen or so of skeletons, that you
may get them fitted up with flesh andclskin.  One of the best classical scholars I know was never at school till he entered College,
but was taught wholly by his grandmother!
PRINCETON,.December 17, 1835.
I think it my duty to decline the invitation so kindly given
me by (you say not whom else) you, to preach to the teachers,
&c.; on the sole ground, that I cannot take the time or strength
to make a discourse.1  I am particularly full of writing; I have
been a full month kept from  any other writing by preparing
for the Repertory.  I have lectures to write, and preach at.least
every Sunday, besides preparing four chapters for- Bible classes
each week, and conducting two private classes in belles-lettres in
addition to my official task, and my constant private instruction
of two boys in my study.  I have just done a most lengthy
investigation of the Servetus affair, in which I have wearied
through some thousand of pages.2  The collateral information I
have thus got of Calvin's character, is very delightful.  You
1 He afterwards consented to perform the service, but was stopped by a
snow-storm on the journey to Philadelphia.
2 He gave an article on the life of Servetus in the Repertory for January, 1836.




236     WHFILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
would be greatly pleased with the 3d vol. of Scott's Continuation
of Milner; read an English copy by all manner of means.
PRINCETON, February 2, 1836.
I bless God for that part of my imperfect education which
resides in good systems, and wish every student could read ten
where our young men now read one. I should somewhat doubt the
expediency of a Sunday School Memoir of Zinzendorf.  On the
whole, I think he was a good man, but his character is very ticklish. I-Ie passed through very evil report, and probably, from
his being so often and so unfavourably mentioned in Wesley's
Journals, lies under a traditionary prejudice among Methodists.
He came near the brink of very gross Arminianism, and his
early hymns were so carnal in their expression, that they have
been left out. Aaron Burr has been dying some months, and
his grave bespoken here, but he hangs on. I-e has given our
College a portrait of his father, the President, by J. S. Copley,
the father of Lord Lyndhurst.  The latter part of the last
Report of the A. B. C. F. Missions is capitally written.  Don't
take these for words of course, but read the few last pages. I
have never been so filled with the reality of increase in missionary zeal, as in comparing several successive reports. Try this
experiment. Take the reports of the Board, and compare the
C "reading part," the plans, the appeals to the church, fi'om the
first to the last. What an amazing difference! What an increase of light, of courage, of large plan, of hope!  How much
higher the standard of duty, as it regards the Church and individuals! I have never been able to rid my mind of an impression, that matters will not come right, in the work of evangelism,
till we see men setting out " on their own hook " (as to destination and support) in the missionary enterprise; staking all, relying on God, and penetrating deserts or hostile kingdoms, after the
apostolical manner. Perhaps this is fanatical. If we are as
much on the alert in a French war, as we seem to have been
with regard to the Seminoles, shall we not be in a fine posture
of defence? Suppose, as has been said, the fleet of King Philippe
should pounce on Pensacola, how much of the South might be
ravaged by him, and the savages, before our redoubtable army
could be created! I am against war, in any and every one of
the contingencies mentioned. "'Will honour set a leg?  "  Yet
I am far from being a Quaker on the general question; for I
would fight the Seminoles, tooth and nail. My palate has, for a
year or two, been growing so (perhaps under some mistaken
idea of increasing my taste) that I begin to think of having it
docked.




1833-1844.                      237
PRINCETON, March 10, 1836.
We learn by tradition, that the crust of our earth was once
of the nature of soil, but from all appearances snow is the real
substance at present. Since ray futile attempt to get to you, I
have taken one or two: voluntary sleigh-rides, with which I am
abundantly satisfied for the winter. Through great favour of
Providence, our large family, including myself, have enjoyed a
remarkable exemption: from disease during the rigours of the
season. My wife and children in particular have been very well,
and we are the more able to value the blessing, from having
had so much experience the other way. I learn there is a great
revival in Yale College, which began on the day of prayer, as
several revivals there have done. There are very pleasing
indications in my late charge in Trenton.  Do you observe that
the new Master of the Rolls is brother of good Edward Bickersteth, and the new Lord Chancellor son of It. More's witty old
correspondent, Sir W. W. Pepys? This looks well. It looks
as if Providence was not forsaking a country, when the seed of
the righteous are exalted. The legal decision of Chief Justice
Savage about the Trades Unions, strikes me as important.
Every thing nowadays seems to betoken the triumph, at least for
a season, of ignorance, violence, agrarianism, and the canaille;
and the worst is, that when a country comes out of this fit,
it usually falls into that of despotism. The excesses of the Temperance advocates have brought me to a serious question, whether
the whole pledge system is not wrong.
PRINCETON, April 14, 1836.
I have read the address of Mr. Barnes's congregation. The
only important item is the statement of doctrinal questions. If
this has any meaning, it plainly is, that the doctrines which Mr.
Barnes is required to hold, which Synod holds, and for not holding which Mr. B. is suspended, are, inter alia: 1. That God made
a formal and express covenant, &c. 2. That Adam's sin is my
personal sin. 3. That Christ's sufferings are the precise sufferings.
4. That Christ's righteousness becomes my personal righteousness. 5.. That mani is involuntary in (actual) sin. You know I
dissent from the decision of the Synod, but the above representation shocks me.'For, 1. Mr. Barnes was never required to
maintain any such doctrine.  2. These are not the points alleged.
3. I never heard of a member of Synod who held any one of
them. 4. I pledge my character, that no man in America can be
found who pretends to hold any two of them. We have a lovely
day after yesterday's storm. Our session is now closed, and I
am only waiting for a little fixment in order to set out on my




238     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Virginia trip, which I expect to do on Tuesday next. Our trus.
tees have made Jaeger professor of French, in place of Hargous,
resigned. I have read " Good's Better Covenant," published by
I-ooker, with high interest, and I hope profit. The book justifies all [Bishop] McIlvaine's laudation; a lovely work. Hug's
Introduction to the New Testament is translated at Andover; if
well done, it will be worth possessing, being the best book on
the subject, by a very learned Roman Catholic. Our little bookseller here will send a few copies of my " Gift" [to the Afflicted].
I have been writing a series of six articles on "Civic and Rural
Decoration," in a Newark paper, of which I send you the only
number I have. By the Christian Observer I perceive that the
Churchmen of England are again agitating the question about an
emendation of the Liturgy, much as in the reign of William III.
To this they seem to be driven by fear of the radicals. Among
a new importation from  London, I see a new life of Watts, by
one Milner. The first volume of the Church of Scotland Magazine is mainly occupied in defending establishments, and abusing
Colton and America. Maria Monk [a professed convert from
Popery] is again dragged out in all her feculence and purulence
in the newly risen " Protestant Vindicator," which I hoped had
gone to its own place. You probably see by the papers what a
hoax there has been about Miss Frederica Mlisca, who turns out,
instead of a German baroness, to be a Pennsylvania huckster.
PRINCETON, May 30, 1836.
For six weeks, nearly, I have laboured under a terrible
cough, giving me sore trouble at night, and from its continuance
quite threatening. The doctors have repeatedly told me that I
must expect to suffer in this way, as long as my uvula or pendulous palate dragged on my tongue, as it has done for eighteen
months past. Yesterday I had the tip end nipped off; but this
seeming insufficient, I have to-day submitted to the excision of
an additional lump of some size. After having thus lost my
palate, I am, as you may readily suppose, disqualified for lecturing on Taste, and am snugly confined to my room, until such
time as I may be relieved. My father is in Baltimore, and has
been in Washington, where he saw Jackson and Van Buren.
He speaks of the disorder in the House of Representatives as
exceeding any thing he ever witnessed. I saw something of the
same, and could not but call to mind the charges made against
our General Assembly, by ignorant or peevish persons, as being
more unruly than secular bodies of equal size. I always considered it as false in fact, and it is to be also considered that the
Assembly has but a fortnight in which to bring into order men of




1833-1844.                      239
every section, some of whom have never before been in, any deliberative body. So, ---  has covered his retreat by a book,
in which, I dare say, deserter-like, he - abuses those he has left.
This has become the mode; indeed, is it: not in human nature?
I am reminded of a sentence of Parr's i  Proselytes, after a few
misgivings, soon glow with the real or pretended fervor of
zealots. In order to obtain protection against the indignation
of the persons whom they have deserted, they adopt every prejudice, inflamee every passion, and minister indiscriminately to
every good and every bad purpose of the party to whom  they
have delivered over their interests and their honour."
Our college has opened with a larger accession than is common at the season. The eastern storm has been so long and
close since my return, that I can hardly tell how our northern
country looks. It seems to me, in looking over the history of
the church, that the real progress of religion has been in a very
small degree dependent on the spread or permanency of any external form of polity.  The external form has shot out great
branches, and taken root, while at the same time the spirit of
religion has become almost extinct; witness the Romish church,
the Anglican church under Queen Anne, and in Virginia. The
external form has, on the other hand, been violated and trampled
on, while the spirit of religion, taking a large view, has made immense progress; witness the early Reformation; the NMoravian
offset from Lutheranism, and the Wesleyan Reformation in England. This thought runs beautifully through the whole of Neander's Church History.  He looks for the unity of the church in
something internal. Hurlbut of your city has furnished an admirable selection of Cicero's letters, with notes. In all classical
antiquity, so far as I have any glimpses, there is no better reading for youth, as I am sure in all pagan history there is no better
character. This I say the more readily after a careful perusal of
his familiar epistles. Democracy and I are less and less friends
every day I live. Yet nothing else would do for a country like
ours. It must be several ages yet before we have a noblesse, or
a literary caste; and until we have, nominal aristocracy would
be as ridiculous as the " Due de Limonade," &c., of St. Domingo.
PRINCETON, JTne 13, 1836.
Having been doctored for a time under misprision of whooping or chin-cough, I am at length duly convicted, having caught it
of Mr. Carrington's children, and conveyed it to my own.  During the intervals I feel quite well, but at the paroxysms I have
the feeling of being choked to death, and that sometimes for a
minute. I shall always have a sincere pity for children under




240     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
this visitation. As to the operation on my palate, it is so plain
a one that if I could have seen and reached. the spot, I should not
have scrupled to do it for myself. It is now well. Reperusing
the life of Hannah More; with more admiration and instruction
than before. Truly the circle in which she moved was brilliant
and great, beyond compare; but look ye, when you or I talk of
emigrating to England, let us never forget that we could never
gain access to that aristocratic class. The caste would forever
exclude us, and our Americanism  would be serni-barbarism.
And therefore I should prefer the upper circle here, to the English middlings, who cringe canid truckle with a servility which no
American could endure. I have looked over's sermon on
sects, which seems to me to contain an infinite deal of nothing.
I' have in vain tried to deduce from it any one practical canon,
which is not already acted on. The best reply to it would be an
article I once read in the Vermont " Chronicle," entitled " Hypostasization," or some such hard word, showing that when we broke
all the sectarian vessels, we spilled all the Christian liquor at the
same time. Romish unity 1 can understand, but the unity which
is to arise from the compromise and suppression of every thing
peculiar, I cannot understand; and if there were a society on
the principle that no sectarian proclivities of doctrine should be
preached, which - -  suggests to be a good principle for
preaching, I should abhor it little less than I do the Pope's
church. Indeed, it is only the liberty of declaring within each
separate pale the supposed truths of the gospel, in their length
and breadth, which for a moment reconciles me to the compromise of the Sunday School Union, or the Tract Society. The stars
in their courses seem to fight against the Marion [college, &c., in
Missouri] humbug; indictment, inundation, murder, flogging,
lynching. I ween some of the stockholders begin to be reminded of the South Sea bubble.
It occurs to me that a tract might be written in the dialogue
form, after the model of T-. More's Village Politics, against the
Trades Unions; but how could it be circulated?  Females and
ladies have ousted the noble old word woman. FYanny Kemble
laughs at old Riker for having called her a female.  N. B. All
negro wenches are ladies. " I met two males with white hats;"
how does that sound   I wish this new dictionary of Richardson's could be held up as a shield against the barbarous missiles
of Noah Webster. -  -   writes from  London that his health
is greatly amended, and that for a guinea a day he has worse
fare than his mother's upper servants. In one respect I am glad
he has gone; he is an American who will not sink or mask any
one peculiarity out of fear of John Bull, and who will beard our




1833-1844.                      241
impertinent English critics even in Exeter Hall. IHIe has moreover strength of mind and vigorous eloquence. WYhen I was inll
Washington I saw some moulds for statues by a pupil of Thorwaldsen, from Rome, and also busts by him of Clay, Jackson,
Southard, &c. They were very striking. East wind and raw
weather again. Farmers say we shall have no small grain.
Happy land is ours where famine has never come!
PRINCETON, July 10, 1836.
Princeton is now inll a state of Anglican viridity, enough to
cure half the people " in populous city pent."  I have a shuddering, 1 hope not superstitious, about Girard College. Its cornerstone lies on the credit of Christ's ministers, and thus (Luke x.
16) on the honour of Christ.' Institutions, having no immortal
souls, arepunished in this life, and therefore I do confidently
forebode some signal frown of Providence on that institution.
Yet I speak hesitatingly, for e contra-shall we leave it to be the
prey and organ of the. devil and his angels? We are all too apt,
however, to give an undue weight to selfish considerations in
making our election of our lot, and our satisfaction of mind is
therefore all the greater when we can feel that we choose the
humbler and thornier path for Christ's sake. Having been repeatedly called to this anxious sort of inquiry, I have come to
this result: that when we pray for guidance, we receive it, but
do not always know, even when we take the decisive step, that it
is just the right thing; we leap, so to speak, in the dark, or in
the best light we have, and then find ourselves on solid ground,
and are ultimately convinced that what we did was " of the
Lord."
PRINCETON, Aug. 23, 1836.
Your absence from the city detracted somewhat from my
usual satisfactions, and during the only secular hour which I
had to bestow on the Union, both the worshipful secretaries
were absent. I saw Mr. Packard in perspective at the 10th
church [from the pulpit] but had no " speech of him."
I had never heard, until your last, of any opposition to your
Union from the Boston Recorder. It may be observed, however,
that the eastern folk are great friends of all national societies
which centre at Boston. Some years ago -- and  ~  had a
controversy, as to whether the Massachusetts Missionary Society
should be swallowed up by the American Home Missionary
Society. It cannot be long before the Episcopalians will have'The will of Girard excluded clergymen from the College, even as transient visiters.
VOL I.-11




242     WIHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
to desist from their taunts at non-prelatical sects for their discord. In Bishop White they have lost a great balance-wheel.
They may look for troubles at home. Witness the lamentable
feud between their Goliath, Dr. C-,   and Bp. S, the quarrel between McC    and his late vestry, the erratic proceedings
of C -, and the despotism of D —
You will perhaps smile when I tell you that I have been
taking some lessons in drawing. This I have done with special
reference to making pictures for some of my projected books.
Having had to supply Prof. Maclean's place in part, during his
absence, I do scarcely any thing else in my study but pore over
Greek tragedy; an employment which I find irksome, except
that I am enlivened by the hope of gaining a more accurate
knowledge of New Testament grammar.
If you will look into Walker, you will discover that half our
good speakers mispronounce the following words: " access, recess, exhaust, transient, transition, relaxation, exhortation, isolate,
enthusiasm, ecclesiastical."  I have read no traveller's account
more graphic or satisfactory than R. J. Breckinridge's letters
from England in his Baltimore magazine.  On the 20th inst. a
young Irish maid, being phrenetic, precipitated herself from the
garret window to the ground, and was not seriously injured,
though she continues crazy. I have seen a recent letter from
Tholuck, in which that good man writes despondingly about
the state of evangelical religion in Germany. We are expecting
every day a large importation of new German books. The old
king of Prussia is crazy. The heir apparent is a pious man, and
vehemently opposed to the Neologists. I hope we shall have no
more stupid Hobys from England to act as spies on their return.
Suppose we should pursue a similar course with regard to their
treatment of the wild Irish; or that B  should wage a crusade
against their marine-impressment, or their tithe-laws.
I believe you are an honorary member of the Am. Whig
Society of our college. Among our improvements here, we propose to erect two separate edifices for the accommodation of the
two literary societies. A subscription to this end is going about
among our graduates. You may mention it publicly or privately upon any suitable occasion.- It is a fine idea of Vitringa's
that Isaiah, in the passage, " cldoves to their windows," alludes to
merchant vessels returning with outspread sails to their ports.
I have this day finished the critical study of the Phoenissae of
Euripides, and am disposed to accord to that great poet the praise
which is commonly given for his ingenuity, correctness, and
tragic pathos. Take some occasion to brush up your French
by reading the letters of Archbishop Fenelon. Surely there have




1833-1844.                      243
lived few more holy men upon our globe. It is pleasing under
the worst forms of church opinion to discover the undeniable
operations of the Holy Spirit.
PRINCETON, Aug. 26, 1836.
I agree to every word you say about memoirs.'  In the case
of   —, for instance, a dear and honored friend of mine, I call
see no demand for a biography.  Diaries are often mere diarrhceas or defecations of a man's most troubled  and worst
thoughts.  1 have been so fully employed as to be unable to lay
a finger to any Sunday School job for several months. There
are some archaeological pictures which I will endeavour to copy
for you as soon as may be. It is also in my earnest intention
to give you somewhat for the "Youth's Friend," [a monthly
magazine.] My present attitude about Temperance is this: I
regard the teetotalers as the only consistent society, but have
some'slight scruples about the whole principle, when I look at
its abuses and corollaries.  Do you ever see a foot-stove in a
church nowadays? I remember when they were almost as indispensable in winter, as fans are in summer.
If the principle of infinite series can be exemplified in practice,
it will be in the case of the   —'s French correspondent.
Arminius's motto was Bona conscientia paradisus; Calvin's,
Pronzpt et sincere; Erasmus's, Cedo nulli.  I expect to preach
to the children at Kingston, at their Sunday School Anniversary
next Sunday.
PRINCETON, Sept. 24, 1836.
I am sorry that you are so confirmed a cockney as to be unfit for travel. My case differs from yours; for a week before I
set out anywhither, I am in a perfect tremor and feeze, but after
about forty miles I become entirely nonchalant, and feel as if I
could journey a year. You alarm me about your water-drinking
propensity.  Blessed sir! have you not read Dr.  —'s hydrophobic stricture, thereanent?. See " Permanent Documents,"
appendix, p. 25. Are you ignorant that " water dilutes the gastric juice," and is a species of intemperance?  Little as I meddle
in politics, or believe in panics, I am alarmed at the unexampled
audacity of the 19 Van Buren electors of Maryland. It seems
to have come to this, that when the wagon of state goes in a road
unpleasant to a minority of passengers, they may be allowed to
His correspondent had remarked, that it seemed to be understood in
the religious world, that every one who had kept a diary or written letters,
must have his biography written.




244     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
remove all the linch-pins and cut the traces. Take this in connexion with Dallas's doctrine that conventions may annul compacts, and we have the spectre of anarchy and civil war before
us. I fear things must be worse before they are better. Yet
how natural is Hezekiah's selfishness, " There shall be peace and
truth in my days."  I join you in lamentation on the desert
state of our religious field. Perhaps the remedy is to be sought
in striving to build up individual piety, with less confidence in
the omnipotence of associations, unions, and polity. The more
we talk and plan, the more we seem to differ. Fenelon has
some truth in his advice: " Parlez a Dieu pour la paix de l'eglise,
et ne parlez point aux hommes."  At [Aaron] Burr's burial,
we had as pall-bearers, Judge Edwards, General Swartwout, sen.,
who was Burr's second in the duel, and - -, who has also
killed his man. Dr. -, in rallying Dr. Rice about assisting
at the rites, said a good text would have been " By this time he
stinketh."  I have been this morning to see the eldest son of our
late physician [Dr. Howell] dying, as I believe. I trust he is
departing in faith. His little sister lies only not as ill as he. SMy
little private scholar   is also very sick; all in the same house.
Offer one hearty prayer for these afflicted people. I never knew
such a case. All the cases I know of are in this one house, yet it
is new, high, ventilated, sweet and clean. Entre nous —I have
been sounded to discover whether I would be president of South
Hanover College; now if you will be a good boy, and sign the
Act and Testimony, and return to the ways of your father's
father, I will make you vice-president.  You will not need
webbed-feet, like the Marionites. I certify that the college is
above high-water mark. I attended a pleasing Sunday School
Anniversary last Sunday at Cranbury; a church full of children.
Henry is a true man to the cause.
PRINCETON, October, 1836.
Your favour of last week I found on my return from Newark,
where I had been spending a week very delightfully.  While
there I fell into conversation with one of the leading politicians
of New Jersey, a professor of religion, who took the following
ground against Sunday Schools, a ground quite new to me: -lHe
holds that it is the duty of the Christian public to institute as
fast as possible a system of schools all over the land, which shall
teach religion as well as learning. Every thing which delays
this, or which is short of this, he deprecates. He therefore regards the energies of the church as wasted upon the endeavour to
teach a portion of the children a mere thirtieth of their time.
The effort which carries forward the Sunday School enterprise




1833-1844.                     245
would almost accomplish the other. The man is sincere and
enthusiastic> and I give you his views in all their strength.
We are to have two of Dr. King's Greeks in college. They
are intelligent fellows; one of them a noble specimen. They
read the Attic Greek works with scarcely any difficulty. I wish
you would visit Newark on your Sunday School business. I
know no such place out of New England. Within the last
month they have raised in the Presbyterian churches there a
little less than $12,000, for public objects. Among the rest
$3,500 for a new African church, of which not a cent was given
by Abolitionists.
PRINCETON, Nov. 13, 1836.
I am sensibly affected by the peril and the escape of - -,
and unite with you in giving thanks. No doubt, you already
feel the lesson to be better than many volumes, and many sermons. You will probably never lose the benefit of these softening and humanizing scenes. "By these things men live, and in
all these things is the life of the spirit."  And do not charge
me with meaning to take an ungenerous advantage of you in
an argument, when I say with earnest conviction, that such experiences better fit a man for feeding Christ's sheep, than even
the ascetic devotions of a bachelor. If I have ever made any
" proof" of my " ministry," it has been in the house of mourning,
and by means of knowledge learned in the same. The thought
has occurred to me, that the angels, although perfect in holiness,
cannot have that perfection of holiness which saints have, inasmuch as they have never known the discipline of tears. They
cannot know what it is to bleed with a wife or a child. And
analogously, how much is contained in that character of our highpriest, that he was " tempted in all points like as we are.",My
thoughts run more naturally in this strain, because we have two
sick children.
PRINCETON, No1V. 29, 1836.
I will try to write the questions on Hebrews; but have you
considered how large a book it will make? Among perverted
texts, none suffer more than 2 Cor. v. 11. " Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men."  Very pretty
theories are spun out of it. But look at the Greek, -0v c00ov
TO9 KVpLv —it is the unvarying expression for the fear of the
Lord, or true religion, everywhere else so translated; and why
not here. also, as well as in Acts ix. 31? Outof many instances
in the LXX., take these at random: Job xxviii. 28. Psalm xxxiv.
11. Isa. xi. 3. Proverbs xxiii. 17; i. 7; ii. 5; viii. 13. Our




246     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
college is full; we have admitted 62.  The junior class has
86. If you ever see a paper called the Newark Daily Advertiser, you will recognize two old friends- C. S. A. every day;
and your humble servant every two or three days, under the
title Literary Trifles. -Mr. Walsh had one gross error in his
English, which I am sorry to see his successor imitates. It is
saying' I doubt that " for "I doubt whether."  Not only is the
latter, the authorized phrase, but it has a different meaning. In
old English, I doubt that he uill fail means, I fear, or suspect
that he will fail.: The adverb c" whether " is exactly suited to express the libration of the mind between alternatives which doubt
imports.
PRINCETON, 1Dec. 27, 1836.
Last night, after returning from  Brunswick, where I had
been for three days, I received the paper you sent me, containing the news of your bereavement.  May the Lord make it
an abundantly useful dispensation! I might dwell on the fact
that the increasing afflictions of your child made it desirable
that she might be transplanted to a more genial climate, if I did
not know how little this consideration has to do with our affections, or if I had not learned by experience that the feeblest is
always the darling of the parent's heart. A better rest for your
mind will be found in considerations purely evangelical, and
connected with the covenant of grace. This stroke is a part of
the gospel compact. It has been, I doubt not, sent, and sent at
this time, with a specialty of purpose, as to your sanctification
and salvation. In the belief of this, I am less disposed to suggest
topics for your consideration, than to direct you to listen to that
voice of the Spirit which accompanies the stroke. If you carefully observe what great truths of Christianity are at this time
most weighty on your soul, or most precious, you will find it
good to note these, and treasure them up for future contemplation and practice. In these seasons of night we are permitted
to discern those stars which are hidden by the glare of day.
Such sins also as now weigh upon your conscience may be those
which the dispensation is intended to cut away. After all, it is
safest to put the word of God into your hands, and to leave you
to imbibe those truths for which your heart shall manifest the
greatest affinity. "I will hear what God the Lord will speak."
Such are my pressing engagements, viz.: 14 hours of lecture
and recitation a week, besides Bible-class, preaching, and Repertory, that I scarcely foresee a time when I can really fall to work
upon the Questions.
Did I say to you that we have here a very interesting Italian




gentleman named Borsieri? He was 15 years imprisoned in
the fortress of Spielberg, in Moravia, for conspiracy against the
Austrian domination over Lombardy. He is several times mentioned in the celebrated Memoirs of Silvio Pellico, as an intimate
friend of the latter.  He is a man of great accomplishment,
speaking Latin, [French, and German, but he has very little
English.
TRENTON, January 7, 1837.
My father is strongly inclined to the opinion, that your Union
should have an agent at Calcutta, for the purpose of circulating
your books and plans throughout British India.'
[After speaking of the perils of ministers under the temptations of money.]  Truly and unaffectedly I am alarmed at these
things, and most of all alarmed at what I discern in myself, of
desires for more ease, style, and luxury than is compatible with
the sincere preaching of self-denial. It is in vain for us to cry
out against the luxury of Popish priests, in the face of such
things.. I believe, that the majority of Popish priests are poor
and live low. It is also vain for us to prate about the selfdenials of the ministry.
I am more and more pleased with Mr. [John W.] Williams's
redaction of the [Philadelphia] National Gazette.  Sometimes he
is prolix and not enough degag#e, but always sober and generally
elegant.  As a litterateur he must certainly take the highest
rank.2 I purpose to send a piece from the Italian to his paper, if
I can get a breathing-spell.  Since I wrote my [" Jacob and "]
"'Joseph," I have met with a good suggestion in Josephus.
Why did Joseph demand Benjamin to be brought down to
Egypt?  It is a question not easily answered.  Josephus supposes it was because from his own experience of their cruelty,
Joseph feared they had made way with Benjamin, as they had
wished to do with himself.  And also that he put the cup into
Benjamin's sack in order to make trial of his brethren, whether
they would stand by Benjamin, when he should be accused of
stealing the cup, or whether they would abandon him to his fate.
1Large supplies of the publications of the Society had already been
sent to India upon the orders of British and American missionaries.,Mr. C.
E. Trevelyan, in the civil service of the Government at Calcutta, was specially zealous in this work, and several of the original books of the Union
were translated into Hindoostanee.
2 Mr. Williams also succeeded Mr. Walsh in sharing the editorial charge
of the American Quarterly Reviewv; but his promising career was cut off by
his death at an early age, in August, 1837.
vOL. I.-11l




248      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, March 10, 183%r.
From the inconvenience of having two habitats, [College and
dwelling,] your last favour is not within my reach, and I must
rather ask than answer. Serious and numerous engagements have
so fractured my days that I could not feel free to bestow any
of my horme subcesive on the luxury of letter-writing.  I have
been at Trenton assisting at the sessions of our law-mllakers, and
witnessing their squabbles on the surplus revenue [of the United
States] which is producing the same sort of scramble and fight
that ensues upon a largess of coppers among a group of sweeps.
The worser side has the best of the battle, and the principal, not
the mere interest, is to be distributed, like the body of a
you wot of, [Juclges xix. 29,] and with about as much chance of
being ever reintegrated.  Trenton will probably double its
trade and population next year.            is the most elegant
builder of a sermon, qua talis, within my knowledge.  I found
great satisfhction in going to see some of my old parishioners in
their affliction.  One of these is James Pollock,1 a Scotchman
firom Ayrshire, a poor dyer, and a broken-down invalid, but rich in
faith and intellectual resources.  For nine weeks he had suffered
anguish from  calculi, having spasms which, as he said, would
certainly have killed him if they had followed one another on
successive days; he was under salivation when I saw him, though
he was dressed and sitting in his chair.  I wish I could give you
some idea of this man's manner and discourse.  His face was
illuminated by a fire of Christian animation beyond any thing I
ever saw, and he poured forth, in the very broadest Scotch dialect, the strongest Calvinism  of Paul, every point of which
seemed in his soul to be turned into riclh experience.  Pollock is
the best theologian, and the best master of church history, I
know, out of the clerical profession; nor in i t do I know five
whom I consider his superiors.  He declared to me that under
agonies of bodily pain his views of Christ and of the sovereign,
distinguishing grace of the plan of salvation, had wholly neutralized his sense of suffering.  This man's stern and holy enthusiasm is felt with amazing influence in the factory to which he is
attached.  Though very poor, he overawes and prevents the
profaneness, drinking, and scoffing, which are always ready to
break out in such places.  My tears are not easily come at, but
I was childishly overcome in listening to his Chalmerian discourse.
If I ever saw a native genius, or a glorius Covenanter, it is in
the person of James Pollock.  A second visit I paid to a widow'Mr. Pollock is mentioned before on page 199. I-He died December,
1856, at the age of 73.




1883-1844.                      249
in her 81st year, who declared to me that she had seen no,
moment since I last met with her, in which she did not joyfully
await the summons of Christ. And when I asked her how she
viewed her own doings, she absolutely burst into tears, as she
disclaimed all righteousness of her own. I declare to you my
satisfaction and strengthening of faith from  these two cases.
Let the infidel solve the problem  How, at an age, and amidst
pains and sicknesses, which naturally cause despondency, and subdue hope, the fear of the direst of human ills is swallowed up in
Christian expectation?
I have not for weeks done any thing at the questions on
Hebrews, and see no chance of resuming them for a month or
two. It is, for years, my canon, to do no writing or serious
study by night; and you may imagine my days from the following schedule: 9. A.M., at my study, with two boys, Livy and
Mair, correct exercises, and overlook their Algebra; meantime
preparing for class, and writing for Repertory.  11. A.M. Lecture or Recitation.  12 -1S exercise and college business; 2,
at study as above. Hear Xenophon.  Class at 3~. Prayers
a,t 5. All days alike. I have not, yet told you that the Assembly's Board of Education and Missions, have, nominated me their
speaker at certain palavers to be holden in May, at Natchez, Louisville, Pittsburg, &c. If the Lord will, I shall set out soon after
April 10th. The Natchez meeting, which comes first, falls in the
first week in May. Rev. W. Chester gqes along. Hie intimated
that your Board wished a representative, but however much I
should love to serve you, I think it would hurt all three to have an
individual acting for the Co. Charles Matthews, I believe, used
to enact some fourteen characters in one night, but poor I shall
scarcely have vim enough for one. Now, if you will but accompany, we may hope for a happy, useful journey; and perhaps
we may never again have the chance of seeing the mighty lap
of this Occidental virgin world.
No conviction of my soul gains more strength than that our
great study should be The Bible.  I reproach my butterfly mind
every night, for her idle excursions. Yet one consolation I certainly find: though I am much away from my Bible, as I am
much away from my wife and boys, yet when I do get back, I
feel that I love them mightily.  0 how! how! how shall we
check the waste of mind upon the ever-increasing frivolities of
literature! Literature needs a Deluge. We are antediluvians
in this regard. Is God about to banish our impertinent rivalry
of his book, by sweeping our books away? by war, discord, or
other calamity?  I hope not. Let me begin reform at home.
I am ashamed of piddling all my days among periodical scraps,




25 9    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
and short-lived nothings, while whole tracts of Scripture remain
unexplored.  Query. What would John, Paul, or Peter, if
arisen in our day, do in the premises  I am sick at heart of a
book-and-paper surfeit. I wish I could get some remedy.
PRINCETON, April 3, 1837.
On Saturday, 25th ult., I went to New York to preach for
[Rev. George] Potts. It was my intention to stay some days,
in order to purchase a little furniture for housekeeping, which
we are about to attempt: (Apropos of which we cordially join
in tendering to you and yours such things as we have, now,
henceforth, and forever. Make my best speech in the premises
to,    -;) but a grievous assault of [pain] disconcerted me, and
I was fain to come home. My employers have so fixed the
anniversaries at the West (at Louisville on the 24th and Pittsburg a week later) that the trip seems hardly worth making;
and if I do not get better, I shall not dare to go at all. In
that event, I shall hope to spend a little time in my old Philadelphian haunts. I heard       and         [two celebrated
"revivalists "] in New York.  The former has taken all the
wind out of the latter's sails, as to revivals.  The Broadway
Tabernacle is the noblest house for a great auditory that ever I
saw. Perhaps 2,500 filled the seats on Sunday week at night.
is on the cool, metaphysical tack; but the mad bull will
butt and bellow sometimes. The sermon was an odious caricature of old Hopkinsian divinity, such as ferments in the head of
an ill-trained but vigorous mind, and throws up a scum of crudities. "Government," "Government," "Government," nothing
but government —till I began to feel as if the Creator was but a
secondary administrator, put to hard shifts to save appearances.
It was a sermon well adapted to make -, e. g. " I suppose
all the united malice of all the devils in hell would not keep a
poor sinner in hell to all eternity.  O no. None but God can
have firmness enough to do that, &c."  These were his words so
fr as I remember.
As to, the account of him in the -—, is far below
the reality. His manner is drunken, he adores his person, and
perpetually protrudes " Mr.," as he suburbanically calls
himself. His ordinary compellation of the hearer is "Mister!"
He is profane. to an extreme in foisting in the divine names
merely to point a phrase, as "the vilest infidel under God's
heaven; " the " greatest mind God Almighty ever made; " and
all this in -the tone of a Yankee bar-keeper. I heard no false
doctrine from him. You see the Literary and Theological Review:goes beyond us [Repertory] on Voluntary Associations.




1833-1844.                     251
M        is in a feud with his S. S. Superintendent, an abolitionist, who refuses to be amenable to M. and turns the S. S. into
an anti-slavery association. All the pastors complain of a tendency to such jarring. If such should really be the tendency of
the present arrangements, the sooner we alter them the better;
for I am high-church enough to abandon any thing which disturbs
our divinely constituted relations of ruler and ruled. I wish
you could see your way clear to have some of your [Union]
books translated into Italian, for the Levant, where the language
is- extensively used. If you could, we have here a highly accomplished Italian, for many years fellow-prisoner of Silvio Pellico,
and of Comte Confalonieri, who could do such work under my
inspection. He is a BMilanese, named Pietro Borsieri.
PRINCETON, April 29, 1837.
During my vacation, I have been absent, first for a week at
Newark; for a day or two, then, at Trenton; and lastly for
a day or two at Bound Brook, Somerset, where our Presbytery
met. This, with the accumulated cares of raking together a
little furniture, has kept me from much study-work or correspondence. - We have not yet got into our house, partly from
want of things,- but chiefly from the delay of a servante whom
we have engaged. I am living in the back-parlor, however,
which I have to take as a study, or else have no room for my
friends, which is after all the great charm of one's own house.
Mrs. Samuel Bayard died last week in Westmoreland, Va., at
the late residence of Mrs. Washington; who, by-the-bye, died a
year or two ago, here, at the residence of Mr. Bayard.
stopped for a few days. I was here only part of the time. He
gave many interesting accounts. Thinks it likely that the High
Church tories of the Church and the Kirk, finding that the
Catholic adhesion to the liberal side must ruin the conservative
interest, will consent to give Ireland a Catholic establishment,;
in consequence of which, the three established churches can
trample down the Whigs, &c. He says there is more piety in
proportion to the population in the Canton de Vaud, than in
any part of the world. There is English preaching at seven
places in Paris. At our Presbytery we appointed Dr. Alexander
and Mr. Yeomans as commissioners, [to General Assembly;] and
Messrs. [I.:V.] Brown and Shafer with two elders as delegates
to the Convention, [preliminary to Assembly.] I see but one
plan, and that I have often stated to you: Reduce the Church to
its constituent Presbyteries. These are all that are essential to the
notion of a Presbyterian Church. These may coalesce as they
see fit.




252     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, AJay 23, 1837.
You are enough acquainted with my penchant for " laid" or
other non-porous writing paper to be able to buy me a parcel.
I prefer the old-fashioned and old drab, or white, to the blue, and
abominate the machine paper, which looks mottled when held up
to the light.
But I write expressly to demand of you the reason why you
have not sent me, as in duty bound, a.Daily Bulletin of the
Sanhedrin: yea a daily letter, full of facts, number of votes, and
pungencies, &c. Prithee begin, and honour at sight this bill for
one epistle per diem while the General Assembly is sitting. I
suppose you have divided the Church, and excommunicated New
England, while I have been sowing my beet seed, and blistering,
my puny fingers with spade and hoe. Know ye, however, that
we gardeners of Jersey contemn all the prettinesses of your civic
parterres and flower beds, and go for massy hills of corn, unsightly ridges of potatoes,- and stupendous poles of:nodding
hop-vines. Come up and behold a second Cato the Censor, another Cincinnatus, a great experimenter in the union of leeks and
letters; come and taste of my rhubarb pies, (the only esculent
I yet boast,) my embryo radishes, my beans just up, my parsley
and sage not up at all, and my nasturtions not pickled nor
planted.
College has opened. Prospects better than we feared.  iy
daily duties forbid my going to the Assembly.
I passed some days at New Brunswick, where there is a
great revival in three several places, viz., the Baptist Church, the
Presbyterian Church, and the Free Church.
PRINCETON, Jutne 14, 1837.
I could not get down to the city, because when I was not
teaching, I felt constrained to be in New Brunswick, to aid Bro.
[Jos. H.] Jones, one of my most intimate brethren, for whom I
have within ten days preached six sermons, and attended as many
meetings more. That ultra old school town is shaken by a greatawakening, still in blessed progress. In the Baptist Church 109
have been baptized; others inquiring. In the Dutch Church
(Dr. S. B. How's) 35 have been admitted; perhaps as many
more awakened. in Jones's Church, some 70 entertain the
Christian hope, and. about 30 are awakened.' In Rutgers College, out of 80 youths, 68 are thought to have believed in Christ.'According to the "Outline of a Work of Grace," published by Dr.
Jones in 1839, the whole number received into the communion of the
Presbyterian Church was 149; the.aggregate of admission into all tile
churches about 600.




1833 1844.                      253
David Abeel, the missionary, lives there; labouring beyond his
strength, for he has come back from St. Croix, I fear, to die with
his caged parents.' After so many years of preaching with comparatively little visible effect, it was a gratifying and unspeakably gracious favour conferred on me, to allow me to witness
some remarkable instances of apparent fruits. And still more,
the whole tenour of this revival has been very pleasing to me,
as confirming that high Calvinistic view of the gratuity of salvation, and the efficacy of the "gospel," as contradistinguished
from (' obligation," in which I grow day by day more exclusively
rooted. I dare say my creed, if written out in full, would be
condemned by many an Arminian, and many a New England
Calvinist, or Antinomian, but it meets me unavoidably in every
page of Paul. David Abeel is, I suppose, quite as good a man
as Henry Martyn; indeed, so heavenly is his temper, that I feel
a presentiment while in his company, that he is " ready to be
offered."  I could wish and pray otherwise. The effect his
labours have had on the Dutch Church, are such (in missionary
matters) as I have never seen from the labours of one individual.
Twice he has been ready to re-embark for China, and both times
brought to death's door. If he have a reprieve, he will make
another attempt before long.
We have about 220 on our College roll. Dr. Nesbit's
library is secured for the Seminary, so long as they teach orthodoxy.
NEW BRUNSWICK, Jutly 13, 1837.
Last week I was at Bound Brook, on the Raritan, at a special
meeting. The revival of religion has extended thither, to the
flock of the Rev. Mr. Rodgers.  About a hundred are inquiring.
On Monday I took a drive of 46 miles, from Princeton to Somerville; thence clown the Raritan to this city, and so home. The
county of Somerset, in the parts through which I passed, is
wholly settled by the Dutch; you know their neatness, thrift,
and morality are proverbial. I never saw the country look so
enchanting.  The dense masses of herbage and forest are luxuriant in consequence of the rains, and every sort of crop promising beyond all previous supposition. The grass, oats,. rye, flax,
and wheat are excellent, and the corn better thereabouts than in
any other region within my knowledge. Those who are accustomed to pass through the sands of lower Jersey have no conception of the beauty, fertility, and picturesqueness of the middle
and upper counties. The Dutch farms realize the ideal of rural
1Dr. Abeel returned to China in October, 1838, but was driven home by
his declining health in January 1845, and died at Albany, September 4, 1846.




-254    VWHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
comfort. It is " a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water
of the rain of heaven."
Yesterday I came hither; my third visit to this revived
church. The work of the Lord is still advancing here, though
the phase of divine influence is somewhat varied. As might be
expected, the number of awakenings is smaller; but some of the
most remarkable conversions have occurred within a day or
two; including several professional men, and other persons of
great influence. The Baptists have immersed a hundred and
fifty. The Dutch number some 50-70 converts; the Presbyterians 130-150.  The Methodists have a great excitement.
All the students of Rutgers College but five or six are now hopefully pious. I perceive no one thing in the Presbyterian church
which is undesirable, nior any flagging in the prayers or efforts
of pastor or people. In the Sunday School the state of feeling
is more full of promise than it has been at any time. All day,
and much of the night, Mr. Jones is engaged with inquirers.
Over the river, in Piscataway, and Metutchen, also in Plainfield,
and (somewhat) in Rahway, there is revival. These influences,
except in the case of Bound Brook, have been most extensive
among the Baptists. There has been here no veiling or modifying of high Calvinistic tenets, in order to keep the sinner under
the yoke of obligation, or to precipitate the resolved efforts of his
own soul, as abstracted from Divine power. The doctrines
which have been blessed are the " primer doctrines," taught in
the old way, and in old phraseology. Indeed I may say of the
preaching, what Brainerd says of that which was used to awaken
his Indians: "It has been from first to last a strain of gospel invitation."
COLLEGE, August 10, 1837.
What you say about a good penny paper, is most true, and
has often occurred to me; only for woeekly, I should certainly
read daily. Some capital is needed to set such a thing on foot,
but I am sure no book or magazine which could be issued from
the press would have so wide an influence. The pious laymen of
Philadelphia ought not to rest until the thing is done. So William IV. is dead, and a virgin once more on the chief throne of
the world. If poets were not extinct, here would be a tempting
subject. I hope I shall never so far undervalue charity as not to
lament the false fire kindled in church controversies; but I comfort
myself with the thoughts, that what we love we always contend
for; that the most flourishing seasons for piety have been those
of the most active debates: witness the days of Augustin, of
Luther, of the English Nonconformists; that the conservative




1833-1844.                      255
principle of Protestantism is discussion of all points; and that
the friction of debate is temporary, while the gain on the side of
truth is permanent.   I am sure there has been no age in which
controvertists have been more polite towards one another than
the'present. My --  is so little of a Philadelphia lady, that I
believe in my heart she has as few thoughts about old and new
school, as about the Sunnites and Shiites of the Mohammedan
"persuasion."  Abeel is coming to spend some days with me;
his health is slowly failing.
The life of Scott [Lockhart's life of Sir Walter] is a capital
book indeed. One sees how much may be accomplished by assiduity. Another good lesson is the danger of involving one's
self in pecuniary connexions with " the trade."  The last days
of July I passed in Trenton with my little family. I must say
that all my recollections of that hdmely town are soft and
pleasant; and when we go there, we are made welcome by a
circle of hearty friends. A book ought to be written with this
title: "The Aged Christian's Book: printed in large type for the
convenience of old persons." It should be in the largest character attainable.  Such topics as these: The Trials of Old Age;
The Temptations of Old Age; The Duties of Old Age; The
Consolations of Old Age, &c., &c. It should be a large book,
with little matter in it. Why has no Tract Society thought of
such a thing? My little introduction to the Bible can soon be
finished, as I find I shall have to exclude a large amount of matter, hinting in the preface that the same may be wrought into a
second volume, or work. It will not greatly exceed in matter,
if at all, one volume of Nevin's Antiquities.  Hereafter I must
confine myself to my former description of books-I mean those
which can be written currente calamo, requiring no consultation
and research; for unless I can make my Sunday School labours
a sort of recreation, it is impossible for me to persevere in them.
By this time you will have seen what we have been doing in the
Repertory.  Some of our theologians consider the metaphysical
argument of the paper on Beecher [Dr. Lyman Beecher's " Views
in Theology"] as unsurpassed for acumen, philosophical lore, and
rigid ratiocination, by any thing which has appeared in our cycle.
The writer is certainly a man of extraordinary versatility; as
much at home among the poets and the schoolmen as the math.
emnaticians.. There are occasions on which I feel a distrust for
all books but the Bible, as feeling that the best communications
of men come to me modified by the discipline of a sect or the
idiosyncrasy of an individual. The liquor has the tang of the
c-ask. This I feel most as it regards books of experimental religion; sometimes turning over successively the stirring or ten



256     HVIIILE PROFESSOR, IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
der productions of Catholics, Methodists, Moravians, and Presbyterians, cand then resorting at last to the infallible source of
all. I am more and more persuaded that the practice of preaching
on a single text has greatly impaired the' influence of the pulpit.
The diabolical Voltaire spoke truth for once when he said: " En
effet, parler long-temps sur une citation d'une ligne ou deux, se
fiatiguer k compasser tout son discours sur cette ligne, un tel
travail parait un jeu peu digne de la gravit6 de cc ministere. Le
texte devient une espece de devise, ou plut6t d'6nigme, que le
discours d6veloppe...'.  C'est dans la decadence des lettres
qu'il commenda, et le temps l'a consacre."  (Louis XIV.,
t. iii., c. 32.)
The one great rule for Bible-study appears to me to be this:
Read the text-the text-the text.  Read it over and over, over
and over.  Read continually and largely. Thus while particulars become impressed by repetition, we do not lose the general
connexion.  No men ever lived, me judice, who knew the tenth
part as much of the contents of the Bible as the Puritans, and
thus it was they read it. They were never without their little
Bibles. Among them I regard Charnock as far the most wonderful in this regard, and Flavel next. To my taste Flavel is
the most uniformly interesting, engaging, and refreshing writer
on religion, ancient or modern.  I always feel that 1 am talking
with a Christian, fresh and ruddy, in perfect health and spirits,
with no cloud or megrim, and with every power available at the
moment.
Mr. Poinsett has offered Prof. Dod the West Point professorship of Ethics, with the Chaplaincy.  I do not suppose he
will very seriously entertain the proposition.  Our final Examination is drawing towards a close; it is a work plenuzn sdcloris
in this weather.  The library of old Dr. Nesbit has come to the
Seminary.  It is chiefly of books in the modern languages.
PRINCETON, Sept. 21, 1837.
Since I last corresponded with you, I have had a return of
illness, something between cholera morbus and dysentery, which
confined me to my bed. I arm convalescent, though still in my
room.  I have just made up into a parcel my hMS. of the Juvenile Introduction to the Bible, which I have had on hand for the
last three years. It contains about 59,000 words; from which
a calculation may be made. Look over the table of contents,
and read a chapter, so as to get some idea of the plan. There
is nothing in it to offend any sect of Protestant Christians. except
that the Quakers may take exception to my calling the Scriptures (as they do themselves) the Word of God. I flatter my



1833 —1844.                     257
self: that it contains much information, which will be new to
many who are neither children nor youth; and I pray that it may
recommend the most delightful and blessed of all books to many
a new reader. We had six lectures from Mir. Wolff, [Rev.
Joseph Wolff, a Christian Jew,] of which I heard three. He was
very interesting in private. What amazes me is, how a man,
purblind and simple as a babe, who can scarcely take care of
himself for two squares, should have traversed so much of the
earth.
I have been considering the smallness of the benefit which we
are content to derive from  our ordinary afflictions. For instance: you and I have been sick lately; what good has it done
our souls? Are we more heavenly-minded, and better fitted for
communion with God?  "Yes, yes," we are ready to reply,
" but these are small afflictions, to which I scarcely look for any
advantage." Thus we seem to render great trials necessary;
whereas, I suppose, every disquietude we meet ought to be received as a message from God.
Our commencement is in danger of being frustrated, in some
measure. The Whig members of the graduating class have all
refused to speak, in consequence of a supposition that the faculty
had slighted their Society in the award of honours; especially the
Valedictory. There is a mighty storm in our teapot.
What do you think of a Sunday School Book called the
Farmer's Boy, or: some such title, of some length, intended to
be a manual for young fellows in the country, connecting all agricultural operations with the corresponding Biblical facts, and
giving a spiritual, but natural turn, to the works and changes of
the husbandman?  I meditate something of this sort.  The
church in this village is at length sufficiently finished to admit
of worship in it. The Tract Society have issued a tract, called
"The Child a Hundred Years old! " Some of the old commentators did indeed give this ultra-spiritual and ultra-natural turn to
Isaiah lxv. 20; but the passage, as half a glance reveals, is a
promise of longevity in the New Jerusalem; the " new heavens
and new earth."  Our version does not keep up the parallelism
of the original, which is thus: " The child, a hundred years old,
shall die; the sinner, a hundred years old, shall be accursed,"
i. e. as I take it, " Such shall be the longevity, that he who dies
at 100, shall be regarded as a mere child, nay, as being cut off
prematurely for his sins, accursed."  Read the context. N. B.
I am pretty much convinced by Dr. Burnet's work, that the final
conflagration will destroy our world, only as the deluge did.
Peter intimates that the present earth is a " new earth," in relation to what he calls the "world that then was."  If he says of




258      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
the present world that it shall be " burnt up," he also says of
the antediluvian world, that it "perished."  And he adds "Nevertheless we look for new heavens and a new earth." (2 Peter iii. 13.)
Readc Chalmers's Sermon on the New Heavens and New Earth.
I am also inclined to think the common notions of the Millennium
as inconsistent with the Scriptures, which always represent the
Judgment as bursting suddenly on the world; pressing this with
a moral bearing, to alarm  our fears; which can have no effect,
when we believe in an interval before the Judgment, of full a
thousand years.  Do not regard me as demented, but look at
these two subjects in the light of mere Scripture, and candidly
sit down without book, and write down your answer to the
following question: 0On what clear scriptural grounds do I entertain the common notion, that things will ripen into a glorious
period of just a thousand years.
COLLEGE N. J., November 17, 183 7.
Vide several of my rhyming  experiments in the Newark
Daily, under the signature of Cleon.'  I am afraid you could not
get the stereotype classics [197 volumes, Leipsic] at the low
-I insert one specimen.
THE ARM-CIIAIR.
Now let the curtain drop; the day
With mixing cares has passed away:
The grate is brilliant, and the light
From shaded lamps shows softly bright.
Wheel round the table, and prepare
The spacious, slumber-tempting chair.
But yield not yet to slumber's power;
Sacred to wisdom be the hour.
Here, in the genial warmth reclining,
Rest and activity combining,
The wearied frame may seek repose
While the rapt soul with pleasure glows.
Spread forth the books, a well-kept store,
Select, though few; I ask no more
Than these, to guide my flight sublime,
The master-pieces of all time.
Through these while musing I descry
The forms of sage philosophy;
Great ancients come in shadowy mien
To people the ideal scene.
I soar with Plato; or I fight
The battles of the Stagirite.
With Xenophon serene I flow,
Or cull from each, with Cicero.
Or if blest Poesy invite
To mingle in her mystic rite,




1833-1844.                          259
terms at which they are furnished to us. Neither would I recommend to you to get the whole set; there are many of them
which you would never want.. The course which I have pursued
has been to buy about seventy volumes, including the chief
books in Greek, and in Latin prose, and then I have the whole
of the Latin poets in one volume, which cost me five dollars.
Old Tauchnitz, the great Leipsic publisher, was an enemy of
evangelical religion, and disinherited his son Karl, for being a
pietist.  The latter became a. Baptist preacher and missionary;
but within a very short time the old man died intestate, and the
whole of his vast resources and establishment has fallen to his
son, who is sincerely bent upon the promotion of true piety.
I hear the hoary blind man sing
Till Troy-plains with the war-clang ring;
Or quaff the chaste exuberance
Of tragic Greeks in choral dance.
Then Maro, silver bard, beguiles,
Or love-sick Ovid spreads his wiles,
Or Flaccus through the thyrsus smiles.
Nor, pedant, would I all despise
What moderns have of great or wise;
Dante, tremendous in his dreams;
Or Ariosto's wayward streams;
Or Tasso's tale of knightly fire,
Or Petrarch weeping o'er the lyre.
Thy page, Cervantes, shall dispel
The vapours from their haunted cell;
And keen Le Sage and gay Moliere
The mask from every passion tear.
But who shall venture to rehearse
The mighty band, in prose or verse,
Of mother Britain, and fair France,
Whose genius might the soul entrance?
A taste of these might well beguile
The speeding hours, till daylight smile.
But limbs grow dull, and eyes grow dim,
A respite now for eye and limb:
Stir up the fire, the volume close,
A moment this for choice repose.
Safe from the blast of rough November,
Silent I many a friend remember,
Whose presence might the midnight brighten,
When, hark!-the moment's load to lighten,
A well-known knock-wide flies the doorOf musing and of books no more;
The friend of many a year drops in,
And converse grave, or jocund din
Completes the joy, and quells the care,
Till, satiate e'en with richest fare,
I nod upon the elbow chair.




260     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Hengstenberg, in reviewing --, ridicules his determining
the acceptation of a word in a certain place, by counting up the
passages where it occurs in that sense; but says, this may answer very well in a country where they can enumerate to a fraction the converted and the half converted. In the Christian
Observer for Feb. 1830, p. 97, is a piece of 3Mr. Wolff's, wherein
he saith, "the Son of Man will come again in the clouds of
heaven, in the year 1847, and govern in person as man and God
in the literal city of Jerusalem....  I, Joseph Wolff, shall see
with my own eyes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in their glorified
bodies," &c. I think it a happy interpretation of Wolff's, where
he makes the word yEvEa, "' generation," mean the Jewish race:
"this race shall not pass away " (i. e. be merged in other nations)
until all these things be accomplished. Matt. xxiv. 34. lie
wishes to be captured by the Indians. Professor Henry has returned. In England he was caressed like a brother, everywhere,
and by all the savans. The British Association passed a special
vote of thanks to him, and three other foreigners. Our college
was never so full. We have already admitted about 70.
Among these are two room-mates named " Cake" and " Pitcher."  Your mention of Neshamony reminds me of the tasteful
change of that euphonious Indian name to "lHartsville Crossroads."  So, in our own presbytery, what was whilom Assampink is now " Dutch Neck."  We have a new and handsome
church edifice. While it was building the negroes worshipped
apart, in a little place of their own. The majority of the pewholders wish them to remain as a separate congregation. By-thebye, we are said to have a larger proportion of blacks in our
population, than any town in the free States. If they come back,
they will take up about half the gallery. There are about S0
black communicants. I am clear that in a church of Jesus
Christ, there is neither black nor white; and that we have no
right to consider the accident of colour in any degree. Yet I
think the blacks very unwise in insisting on such a privilege
now. Some years ago there would not have been the slightest
difficulty in admitting them, but in consequence of the abolition
movements the prejudice of the lower classes of whites against
the blacks has become exorbitant and inhuman. We have a
copy of the celebrated " Oxford (semi-papal) Tracts."  One of
them is on the excellencies of the Romish Breviary; which, by
the way, i. e. the Breviary, I am now, for the first time, reading.
It contains some delightful prayers and hymns, in a mass of
putrid martyrology and idolatry. There is something graceful
and melodious in the following collect, in the Christmas service:'Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut nos Unigeniti tui




1833-1844.                         261
nova per carnemn nativitas liberet, quos sub peccati jugo vetusta
servitus tenet.  Per eundem  Dominum.  Amen."  There is
scarcely an Orthodox Quaker in our region who has not joined
either our church or the Episcopalian; mostly the latter.  I
heard Daniel Webster make a great speech, sutb dio, in Newark.
The gaoler of our State's Prison is a pious Methodist, and every
Sabbath enters every cell and talks on religion with each prisoner.  Cottle says that for a very long time Coleridge used a
pint of laudanum a day, and sometimes even a quart.
PRINCETON, January 9, 1838.
I wish you and yours a most happy new year, in the enjoyment of every blessing of Providence and grace.  The weather
is such as might tempt one to suspect that we need another rectification of' our calendar, like the Julian and Gregorian.  The
trial of      -    is an ecclesiastico-juridical curiosity.  Never
before were the shades of guilt, criminality, and guilt " without
criminality " so nicely appreciated.  I would suggest the use of
decimal fractions, in the next award of the kind. Or rather some
negative algebraical quantities must have been employed to render the amount of such verdicts =  an entire acquittal.
No one groans more than I under the abuses of extempore
prayer.  How much time is lost, how much weariness produced,
by periphrastic introductions, diffuse dilutions, and vain repetitionsl.  Many pulpit prayers are largely made up of, passages
evidently meant to impress truth on the auditor. Whole strains
of this sort: " 0 Lord, may sinlers feel that time is short; that
this is the only season for repentance; and that unless they believe, &c., &c."  A man might thus tell his Maker what to make
sinners feel through the whole extent of the catechism: "May
we feel that our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."1  I nauseate all such perversions.  Still I never could
submit to one stereotype form  for every day of my life.  I
should be pleased to have a few  forms, varying, we may say
through a month, expressing those things which we are to pray
for always, with license to use a short extemporaneous prayer
1 In another letter he had made the following criticism on a prayer in a
Sunday-school book: "The prayer at the end labours under a fault very
common-the abuse of the auxiliary' may.' Compare this form with similar
petitions in the Psalms. In some public prayers I hear the petition turned
into a veritable interrogation by the awkward use of'may' with a negative;
thus' May we not find this an unprofitable meeting! (?)' Direct petition,
in the supplicatory imperative is best: thus'create within me a clean heart.'
It has sometimes occurred to me that the length of prayers is greatly increased by the pleonasms of mere form, as' Do thouz grant,' LDo tho2u bless,''We beseech,' (fifty times.)"




262       WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
besides: this is exactly the Lutheran method.l   I fear we shall
get into  trouble with John  Bull about this rascally Canada
affair; especially since the steamboat business, [burning of the
Caroline.] We have for years been too self-satisfied with our
peaceful security.  --        has been here; he is very full of information about the adyta of the English Universities.  He says
their professors, as a general rule, do nothing at all, unless they
have churches; nor are they expected to do any thing, except in
the way of book-making and general influence; nor do they receive any salaries, except a mere pittance. He visited most of
the great chartered schools.  By-the-bye, he is the most erudite
classical scholar within my acquaintance, though not possessing
an ingeniunm vegetumn, or very great energy.  If you see, some
time hence in the Newark paper, a rhyming squib, intituled
" American Titles of Ihonour," and signed with my finals, you
may know where it comes from.2 1 find much comfort thus far
1 Every one who has heard the prayers of the letter-writer will be thankful that he did not avail himself of a privilege which is not denied to the
conductors of the public worship of our Church.
2 [For the Newark Daily Advertiser.]
AMERICAN TITLES OF HONOUR.
The lust of greatness is a sturdy stock,
Which springs indigenous in every soil;
Though every twig and spreading branch you dock,
The trunk puts forth new shoots to mock your toil:
So when our sires, with democratic zeal,
Plucked off each garter, and put out each star,
And, mad to equalize the common weal,
On quartered shields and coronets made war,'Twas but the lopping of the hydra's head,
And rage for honours was asleep, not dead.
Roam where you please our plain republic o'er,
A host of titled worthies you shall meet:
Judges and Presidents beset your door,
And Squires and Governors walk every street.
The mode spreads bravely: we may hope, ere long,
To leave rude "Mister" to raw lads at school,
Till every yeoman of the civic throng
Shall have his trade for title by fair rule:
Then Stage-man Stokes shall call on Lawyer Lee,
And Barber Boggs ask Butcher Brown to tea.
Captains, once known in harness on the field,
Now swarm in steamboats, oyster-craft, and inns,
WVhile city troops their bloodless laurels yield
To scores of Generals, all plumes and grins.
The civic crown, too, hath its grave possessors,
Doctors in Physick, Law, Divinity;




1833-1844.                        263
in preaching to my Africans.  The house is crowded by decorous
and attentive people, and it seems a little like being a missionary.  Then one canll enjoy a total "abandon," and use every
mode of address or illustration, without the dread of blundering.
Strange as it may seem, I have already met with some insult, as
the preacher to the blacks, in returning from their place of worship: it was from some of the lowest of the white canaille. One
case of very powerful awakening has occurred under my unworthy labours.  Every new perusal of the prophecies brings
me more and more to the conclusion, that commentators have
undertaken to explain too much as already past.  Thus the 39th
and 40th of Ezekiel, about Gog and Magog, seem to me to contain expressions far too sublime to have their accomplishment
in the invasions of Antiochus, &c. I look somewhat confidently
for a real restoration of Israel to their own land. Considering
the part that our Continent occupies in the unfolding history of
the church and the world, might not one judge a priori that it
would have some place in the book of prophecy? Yet I do not
know that any discovery of this kind has been made. The grand
fault of   —'s style I cannot otherwise express than by saying
it is the exact antipodes of qataintness.  It is in its ultimatum in
Dr. J. P. Wilson and Bishop White.  It arises, I suppose, from
a dread of antithesis and conceited balance in period, and the
result is a certain approach to lameness in the gait, and listlessness in the air, of his periods.
The little Swedish translation of my whisky book gives me
great joy and encouragement.'
PRINCETON, March ult. 1838.
We have had spring and winter since I saw you.  The last
spell of cold has been especially biting.  The 6th No. of [Sir
Bishops and Deacons, Provosts and Professors,
No more forego their title than their fee.
A powdered Count is teaching us to dance,
While Marquises are plain " Monsieurs," in France.
Peace reigns on every hand, yet warlike signs
Hang out in half the names of half the nation;
For scarce a loafer on his bulk reclines
Who bbasts not of some martial appellation.
Militia Ensigns keep your Cash and Journal,
And gay lieutenants kindly cart your coal;
Your next-door tailor is a whiskered Colonel,
And Majors count your ballots at the poll.
Till oft perplexed by doubting claims you stare,
Nor well can choose'twixt Adjutant and Mayor.
S. T. R.
" The Glass of Whisky," one of the series of " The Infant's Library."




264      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Walter] Scott's Life surpasses all in interest-to my feelingschiefly because it has so much of his diary, and relates so much
about his afflictions.  I lament that drinking and cursing are
henceforward to be associated, in the minds of the young, with
such a genius and such a gentleman; and that amid all his sorrows he seems to have received not one ray of divine light. His
diary contains some grand hints about modes of composition.
We have a most promising young man now a tutor here, for
whom I wish I could find a good place.  His name is Moffat;
once a shepherd's boy in Glencree, [Scotland.]  His linguistical
attainments are extraordinary, in languages both ancient and
modern.  Hle is B. A. of our college.' Good Joseph We    f,
it appears, has got back to England.  The wonder is how a man
so little endowed with worldly wisdom can make his way at all.
When he came here, he went first to -'s, where he lodged.
That evening he was to preach.  IHe had on a shirt which was
absolutely japanned with dirt.        said to him, " Mr. W.,
as you expect to appear in public to-night, perhaps you would
like to make some change in your dress?'"" MIr. W. looked
down, surveying his filthy raiment, and answered, " O no, I believe I shall need nothing of that kind."  After a suitable delay,
- said again, " Mr. W., it will put us to no trouble; your
room  is ready, your valise there; you will find water, &c."
Wo     looked hastily in the glass, and said, "I thank you, I
think I shall do as I am."    -became alarmed at his unseemliness, and at length said, " Mr. W., your mind is so occupied
with greater things, that you are naturally indifferent about, &c.,
&c.; let me suggest the propriety of your changing, &c., &c."
3Mr. W. went up stairs, stayed some time, and came down precisely in statu quo!  -, almost baffled, said " It seems to
me, Mir. XV., that you have not succeeded in changing your apparel."  " O yes, yes," said W., "have I not? let me see; perhaps I forgot to do it. Yes, sirre enough, I was thinking of something else."  Up he goes again, and finally endues a white
coloured shirt. On coming down he said to Mrs., " ladam,
will you have the goodness to go up, and pack up my portmanteau?2 it is a thing I never could do in my life."  He next borrowed a white handkerchief, of --, with which shortly after
he dried the ink of a very blotted sheet which he had written,
saying, " This I learned in India- this I learned in. India! "  If
you think this a very foolish story, remember that you read it
1 The catalogue of " our College " shows that places have been found for
the accomplished tutor. After filling classical professorships in Lafayette
College and Miami University, the Rev. Dr. Moffat has had in the College
of New Jersey, since 1852, the chair of Greek, or Latin, with History.




1833-1844.                      265
on All-Fools' Day. There is a Dutch adage which likeneth
March to a lion, and says, " he shaketh his tail;" from atmospheric appearances he is minded to give us a few wags
more before he goes out. Eleven days more will complete our
long term: I can't say that I am very fond of vacations; I have
not money to travel, and I love home perhaps too much. I am
afraid Dr. Ewing's tune will not enrich him; yet it is very good,
and we ought to encourage every issue of religious music, especially from the music stores. In -point of harmony it is exact
and technically classical.  The melody is scarcely popular
enough.
TRENTON, May 11, 1838.
I came hither with hen and chicks, on Tuesday; but getting
wet and cold on the way, I have been in a quasi colic for some
days.  Unless I run down to see you on Monday, I shall expect
to be here until the 17th.
With regard to's dubitations about the Girard College, I am not as clear as 1 could desire. The two grand points
strike me as being these: 1. Is connexion with such an establishment right?  2. Is it likely to be permanent?  Formerly I was
inclined to say No, to the first; at present, I am undecided.
There is very great force in the suggestion that we ought not to
leave this engine in the devil's hands, no not for an hour; and
that       may retire, if disappointed. I incline to say to him,
Accept the offer.  It is a wonderful providence that a machine
contrived against religion should thus be put within the direction
of Christian men: the counsel of Ahithophel is seemingly turned
into foolishness.- You can tell, better than I, whether the
power is like to abide in the same hands, and whether there is a
probability of's holding the place for a number of years.
Our Jersey folks have a custom of uniting in clubs for the
purchase of clams, a load at a time, thus getting them at wholesale prices: these are called clam-classes. The time appears to
have come, when the spirit of the age demands a special effort,
for the formation of a great national universal clam-class; and
a convention for that purpose will be holden on the 31st of
June, at Little Egg Harbor. The Hion. Mr. Buckingham (M. P.)
has kindly consented to appear on that occasion, when odes will
be sung composed for the occasion by Mirs. -   and —.  It
is proposed to issue a paper called the American Clam Reporter.
PRINCETON, July 5, 1838.
Just look what a blot that is! But this is nothing " inter
amicos," and as Corporal Nym saith, " things must be as they
VOL. I.-12




266     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
may."  So two New Yorkers (both whilom  Philadelphians)
have gone over sea: S    and P-.  The latter promised me
not to chew tobacco in" the presence."  Are there ten men in
Philadelphia, barring schoolmasters, who know that the penult
[of the name of the city] is long? A friend in the Sandwich
Islands writes, that forty feet square will support a native all
the year round. I gained some clearer conceptions from his saying, " Each of the islands is the top of a submarine mountain."
The same writer (a man of sense and veracity) adds, " there is
probably no country, small or great, in which there is less visible
immorality, in proportion to the population."
I am reading Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella. There is
no American work of which, as it regards fame of letters, I
would rather be the author. So far as I have gone, he gives the
Papishes their own. See, in the May Blackwood, a most funny
thing, " Father Tom and the Pope."  Dr. [John] Breckinridge
has determined to accept his appointment as general agent of the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. I think I have never
suffered so little from heat as this summer; yet I feel that the last
two days have been particularly hot. It is now 9 A.M. and in my
study the mercury stands at 81~; yesterday, in a hotter place,
but shady, it was at noon 96~. The country has, however, been in
beautiful foliage and refreshed with many little rains. "The 9th
Bridgewater Treatise" by C. Babbage, is a fragment of wonderful genius. By recourse to the "Newark Daily" you will see some
able papers, by a great political economist, on Trades Unions,
[Charles Quill.] I am persuaded that it is our duty as Christian
patriots, to encourage husbandry, and discourage overgrown manufactures. God has spread a wide country before us, yet thousands
are herding in our factory towns, under influences ruinous to body:and soul. These bloated establishments invite and receive some
of the grandest villains of the old country. All our manufacturing towns are in an abnormal state. The policy engendered
in these communities is necessarily agrarian; and the human
race deteriorates; physically. I feel it to be incumbent on myself to say all I can for emigration to the West; and for the
same reason I have come to look on a high protective Tariff as
a great sin.
PRINCETON, Jully 30, 1838.
There is some difference between being moved, and being
fixed, or I should say we were established in our new place.'
I believe you know its whereabout. Every object is painfully
commemorative of its late beautiful owner: we even have her
1 The house which had been occupied by the Rev. Dr. John Breckinridge.




1833-1844.                     267
flowers; and the magnolia which stands near our back-door, it
was almost the last of her worldly deeds to have planted.  The
house is far too large for my family or furniture; but the terms
were such as I felt no right to decline, especially as by acceding
to them, I should be doing all I could for -----   and at the
same time introduce my own children to better air, ampler
space, and goodlier prospects. The walk to College, in the hot
season, is dreadful even to my imagination; how I shall endure
it, I know not: but I am somewhat satisfied that I have come
hither without self-seeking —and the Lord will provide.
And now let me proceed to say, my dear friend, how much
happiness you will give us, if you will come and rusticate with
us. if you will become uncivic for a while, so far as to forego
Schuylkill water, butter, baths, trottoir, and omnibi, and commute the same for sunrises, sunsets, dirt, dust, chickens, corn,
tomatoes, prospects, breezes, sweat and disorder-you may find
yourself all the better. I give you my first invitation, as you
are mly earliest friend, (how good a one, let our biographers
determine:) and         entertains towards you precisely analogous tempers.
Our final examination begins August 6th, during which
I shall be much occupied, for about ten days.  We have
been two days in our present residence, and are thus far wellpleased, except with the amazing increase of housewifeship. It
is something of a job to keep out of mischief three cats, one
dog, forty fowls, and mice ad libitum; the latter having declared
independence during the late troubles and vacancy. My books
I have not yet moved; but I have Wilberforce's Life, (5 vols.,)
" John Murray, Albemarle Street," to read on the back-piazza,
which looks to the sunsetting.' The drought is such just here,
(for around our village showers have been frequent,) that the
pastures are like a sheaf of dry straw; hence, milk, in which I
expected much delectation, is scanty. My corn is tall, but
likely to bear little; potatoes will fail utterly, unless it rain;
tomato-vines crisp as macaroons; yet, blessed be God, we have
plenty of water as yet. Some recent mortification and trials
-of pride have, I think, done me good, and led me to meditate on
my undue care about the opinion of fellow-worms. O if we
could more crucify that old man, and vivify that new!
A call from yourself and boy, would be apropos at any
moment; when you bring the rest, you had better come after
our examination, which (to all intents) ends August 15th. In
both these statements I use absolute frankness, meaning you
and yours to take my invitation in the rustic and old-time sense,
He reviewed this work in the Repertory, October, 1838.




268      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
without discount.  Many thanks for English papers.  They are
always treats. I suffer from Anglomanie.
PRINCETON, July 30, 1838.
Hortation seems to me to be the pulpit-error of the age,
which has emasculated the church.'
Of Charles Quill as followeth: I never arranged the topics
for publication, and so far as I remember, never dreamed of
such a thing until it was suggested by some one.  I am indifferent
about it now. I will give anybody the right of a first edition
for fifty copies, provided that it be printed under typographical
inspection of yourself, J. A. A., or myself.  No book of mine,
with my consent, shall be clad in the dirty shirt of [Noah]
Websterism.  Wilberforce's Diary, from  the extracts given,
must have been honest indeed. It is new to have the private
exercises of a great statesman, (bosom friend of the greatest
minister England ever had,) while in the very heat of parliamentary debate.  I think him  from  this reading (of two volumes) a greater and a better man than I supposed, but how
narrow a churchman, how ignorant an anti-Calvinist! Perhaps
he gets better.  I regard the last volume of the            as a
religious imposture: --      has crammed the garbage of craniology
down our throats under cover of Paul and Peter's milk and
meat.  We are disgraced by the special pleading of [the Presbyterian Church case in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.]
I am sure we are right, but I am afraid God means to strip us
of our worldly goods.
In this matter of preaching, with which I began, I feel quite
earnest, as believing that most of my earlier sermons were constructed on a wrong principle. I would be plain, but 0, I wish
I had fed my hearers with more truth, and given them  less
harangue.
Addison and I are taking lessons in barking, howling, and
ventriloquism  from  an elocutionist named Bronson, and who
with much stuff has also certain discoveries on which I thought I
myself had hit-see last Repertory'2-but which he carries out so
1 In a postscript to this sentence, dated August 4, he adds:'" Yesterday
I heard my father preach to our students on Eccl. xii. 1, a text which I had
handled a few weeks previous before the same hearers. I was never more
humbled, nor more struck with my own past fault in this line. Hly discourse
was all appeal; his was all argument, even bare and quite dialectic in places.
My sermon was like a flash in the pan, and his like a ball lodged, lodged
where to work afterwards."
2 He refers to his own review of Gardiner's " Music of Nature," in the
July Repertory.




1833-1844.                      269
as to convince me that the Laryngitis (erroneously called Bronchitis) is preventable.
CHARLOTTE CO., VA., October 13, 1838.
By the blessing of God we had a very prosperous journey
hither, escaping all bad weather and mishaps. Unless a letter
miscarry, you will read something from me in Kinney's paper.'
The associations of this region make me full ten years
younger, especially as I have to be several hours of every day
on horseback, which has always had a very exhilarating effect on
me. The two contiguous plantations of Carrington and Mrs.
Legrand contain about 6,000 acres, and afford abundant rides
and walks without entering a public road. The little village
has greatly improved, having new Baptist and Presbyterian
churches, since my day; also a large girls' school and a
respectable boys' ditto. The drought in this country almost
destroyed many of the crops, especially the most indispensable,
viz., corn. Late profuse rains have made the country very
green, but are too late. The tobacco crop, though short, will be
answerably high priced.        will make 200 dollars' worth
of that article on one little island of less than two acres. I
write this before breakfast, having had a happy stroll, this lovely
frosty morning, over a most picturesque portion of the estate.
Flocks of sheep on an almost boundless green, unenclosed, have
a patriarchal look; and at this hour I can scarcely go abroad
without hearing the mocking-bird.  I do not remember, in my
former residences here to have observed that this fowl sang in
the autumn. Such, however, is the undeniable fact. I think I
find the intelligence and refinement of this land altogether against
Van Buren; and even on the Abolition Question, there prevails
a moderation much in advance of the temper I witnessed less
than three years ago. In the Holy War, there is active skirmishing hereabout. Those party lines which, with us, have been
drawn for years, are now only in the process of demarcation
here. The consequence is feud on feud, "bellum plusquam civile;" house against house, mother against daughter, &c., &c.
The Old School are about four to one. But vide Papers.
CHARLOTTE COURT HOUSE, VIRGINIA, October 19, 1838.
This is a mighty rainy day. More rain here in two weeks
of October, than during all the summer. The promising prices
of wheat set our planters at sowing. Mr. Carrington is just
1 e sent several travelling letters to the " Newark Advertiser" during
his absence.




270     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
putting 100 acres in wheat.  The mulberry mania is rife.
Serious talk of exchanging tobacco for silk cultivation. The
lithograph of Childs, from a painting by Harding, is said to give
the best idea of Randolph. R. affected to be a Cato in his
frugality. Though he laid out thousands on his sixty horses,
his stud being often worth perhaps $30,000, and had all his personal apparel from London, he lived in a mean house and never
would allow a carpet to be on his floors. The will last estab
lished by the Court of Appeals emancipates the negroes, but by
a law of Virginia, repealed however last year, any one, not privy
to the proceedings in the court of probate, may, within ten years,
bring a suit in Chancery, to try the issue " devisavit vel non
devisavit."       has availed himself of this, and hung up
more than 300 negroes in a distant Chancery.  Yesterday, a lawyer of great eminence, and, next to Judge Lee,
Randolph's most confidential actuary, told me, that in every will
and every important codicil, Randolph evinced the great concern
he had for his servants. They adored him as almost above the
human standard, and preferred being his slaves to being free.
It is perhaps (after all our abstractions) better for these negroes,
as a set, that they are not freed. I say this seriously, founding
my judgment on the following striking fact: Richard and John
Randolph were brothers, and divided between them the estate of
their father. Each took a moiety of the slaves. Richard set his
free: John retained his on the estates. Col. Madison published
the history of the former moiety and their offspring.  They
have almost become extinct; those who remain are wandering
and drunken thieves, degraded below the level of humanity, and
beyond the reach of Gospel means. The slaves of Roanoke are
the descendants of the other moiety. They are nearly four hundred, and though not free, are sleek, fat, healthy, happy, and
many of them to all appearance ripe for heaven. These I know
to be facts, and they are worth more to me than a volume of
dissertations on the Tight to freedom. At the same time, everybody here considers it highly inequitable that these people are
kept from the benefits intended by their master.
You know [the late William] Maxwell, and that he is made
President of Hampden Sidney College.  Father Comfort [of
Kingston] is here at present with his son David.
I am somewhat disposed to reconsider the expressions of my
last letter touching the temper of the Church controversy here.
Since I have seen ministers, and heard from Synod, I thfinl there
is prospect of pacification. The new school are about I to 5, or
at most 1 to 4. They are scattered, divided, in some cases differing from us by the merest shade, and disheartened. They are




1833-1844.                     2
moreover, generally, mistaken good men. On the other hand,
the Old Schoolmen are more and more for moderation, the
oscillatory pendulum  is making shorter and shorter arcs. I
augur good for Virginia. There is really no ground for dissension apart from the quarrel of churches afar off.
Yours of Oct. 11 (postmark 12) got here on the 16th. I am
obliged to you for your concern for the goosequills; but I am
not sure that I know what you mean. I have said, in one place
and another, something fitted to direct the mechanic in his reading, and I have purposely avoided being more explicit, lest I
should do more harm than good, by discouraging beginners, &c.
Away from  home, I cannot enterprise the thing now; but if
there be time when I get to Philadelphia I will consult about it.
There has been no publication of the evidence in Randolph's
case. Every thing came out on the trials; a necessary consequence of the intricate suits, in which each expectant was by
turn induced to prove J. R. insane.
The manners and customs here are not the best for an
invalid.  A  visit of relations, some 20 in number, horses,
coaches, retinue, &c., lasts, at least, one day, sometimes a week.
Where one comes 17 miles, as       did, to see us, it is out of
the question to make a morning call. And when, in turn, we
go to see some of our kin, the solemnities of an old-time ceremonious dinner are any thing but reviving to a queasy stomach.
It is more of a paradise to Henry, [his son.] He has the run of
miles, if he so pleases, with ample attendance. Every half hour
"Henry and his Bearer " appear with peaches, or figs, or chinquepins, or'simmons, or sweet potatoes " roast with fire; " or
he is in chase of a peacock, or picking cotton out of the pod, or
learning to talk "nigger."  One of lMrs. Le Grand's black girls,
ret. 14, said more than once to my wife, with a face of great im
portunity-" Miss Betsy, do pray ax missus to gi' me to ye."
There seems to be a vague impression (grossly incorrect by-thebye) on the minds of these creatures, that they shall be happier
and have less care by removal northward.
I have, as a general plan, conversed particularly and pointedly about religion, with every negro whom I could get alone,
in walks, rides, &c. I have been tenderly affected in so doing.
Mlany seem to me to be genuine saints. Many show that they
have been seekers for years on years, but have never been directed, privately, by any competent person. In every case they
are as perfectly accessible as my Henry. Even where they are
wicked, they listen, and their conscience is prompt. The
Antinomianism  is the rock on which thousands are wrecked.
The scene we saw in Locust street [a religious excitement] is




272'WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
acted at every meeting. Yet even among these, I am sure,
Christ hath his sheep. A hundred lay missionaries might now
go into this field and convert thousands. They ought to be
Southern men, and the South ought to furnish them forthwith.
I am so filled with this, that I try to introduce the theme. in
every circle. Mrs. Le Grand lodges and boards a good Episcopalian (a Connecticut man, but twenty years in Va.) awaiting orders, for this business among her slaves. IlIe has this moment returned, on foot and through a smart rain, from the overseer's house
two miles off, where he instructed a group of fifteen last night.
Now it is my deliberate belief, that more of these slaves are likely
to go to heaven, than of an equal number of servants of pious people in our Middle States; and such being the hopefulness of the
work, how earnestly ought Christians to engage in it! Thousands might be got to attend public preaching, as hundreds now
do. The law (thanks to the meddling of anti-slavery societies)
forbids schools, and public teaching to read; it was not so when
1 lived here: but I hold it to be our business to save their souls;
and however criminal slavery may be, I see with my eyes that
God has so overruled it, as that the slaves are more open to
Gospel truth than any human beings on the globe. They are, I
know, under temptations to hypocrisy: but grant they are pretending more than they feel, one has nevertheless the chance to
lodge truth in their minds. The instances of this are affecting.
In one short walk yesterday, I had talks with two men. One
was loading his wagon with billets of wood, in a clearing of the
forest. As he hung over the side of the wagon, his face beamed
with the expression of sincere and intense emotion. He declared
he had "long, long, yes for many years, desired to have true
religion. Yes," said he, "master, true religion —that sort of
religion which will do when I lie on my death-bed."  I read
over and over to him Matt. v. 6, commenting, &c. This occurs
daily, and this is easy work, and work which anybody may perform. This is, moreover, the best preparative for freedom. I
find your journal highly prized here; occasionally have something
which may do to read aloud to slaves. The Episcopalians (who
have never caught the itch of abolition) are doing something in
this line. I preached twice last Sunday, and twice the Sunday
before, and have attended two prayer meetings. There is an
extraordinary supineness here as to the doing of good. The
most that I see going on is in the Sunday School. The Episcopal clergy hereabouts are all evangelical and hard-working
men. John Clark, who preaches nearest here, cannot, I suppose,
make the circuit of his preaching-places without riding sixty
miles.




1833-1844.                     273
PRINCETON, November 26, 1838.
Well-here we are, but in a mighty cold house. We have
not yet broken in our stoves, &c., to any sort of availableness.
My little affairs went on well during my absence, and my little
garden crops exceeded expectation. College is very full, and
becoming fuller. Look about you, and tell me whether you see
a good English edition of all Cowper's works: also has Sparks
issued Franklin's. Since you spoke to me about Wilberforce,
I have been told that      has talked about doing an abridgment. This will prevent my moving in it.'
I wait to see the fate of my Quills, before I attempt a similar
series for City Clerks, &c. Any and every hint you can memorandum about this topic, will be of great value to me. You are
in the midst of such youth-know their haunts, tastes, temptations, &c. I have a book opened for materials, and will enter
every thing as it comes to hand. Any scraps from your scissors
will be in place. Henry James has re-gone to England. He
and H. Walsh, and Platt, all once together in the Seminary,
have become Sandemanians, and joined the Scotch Baptists, in
New York, a little sect, headed by Buchanan, H. B. M. Consul.
They have no preaching, but assemble on Sundays, when the
"elders" and others expound and pray. James has issued a
tract which I will try to keep for you, intituled " The Gospel
Good News to Sinners," and Walsh another, "The True Grace
of God."  These are in many points quite good, and their chief
mistake is that they have found out something.  All they say
about the object of faith is just what Russell says, and just what
I say myself.' But they add other things.
I spent an hour this morning with good old Mr. [Samuel]
Bayard. He showed me letters from W. Pitt, Lord Erskine,
Lord Lansdowne, and Sir John Sinclair: the latter being a
stringent request for the recipe for cornbread and buckwheat
cakes. Also several letters from Wilberforce. From  one of
these, lying before me, (Beckenham Kent, 11 Jan. 1826,) I copy
what follows: keep the extract for use some day: "I wish you
had added some particulars both of your own personal and family
circumstances,- and of any of the religious and benevolent institutions, or any other particulars in your Country, in the concerns of which I take a warm interest. The growing connexion
between our two Countries that is formed by your common pro1An abridgment of Wilberforce's biography was made by Caspar Morris,
M. D., of Philadelphia, and published in 1839.
2 Russell's "Letters," see a previous page. In a subsequent letter he
writes: " What Russell says on faith is just what my labouring soul long
ago rested on as the ark on Ararat."
VOL. I. 12*




2:74     WHILE PROFESSORI IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
secution of beneficent undertakings, is a subject of solid enjoy
ment to my mind; and I cannot but persuade myself that the
mutual Esteem and Regard which will arise out of this connexion,
will tend to destroy the effect of those malignant endeavours,
which in both Countries, I fear, are still made, to alienate from
each other the affections of their respective members.  Surely it
would be littleness of mind as well as a want of true principle
that could render the inhabitants of Great Britain and the United
States disposed to feel otherwise towards each other, than as
brethren, descended from one common stock, bound together by
a common language, and by Institutions of at least a congenial
spirit. I will even indulge the hope, that in this instance, the
hostilities that have been carried on, by confirming in each a
respect for the other, may produce the effect which is sometimes
seen to result from temporary differences in private life, of providing for the solid maintenance of future friendship.  Let it be
the endeavour of all good men to confirm  and augment these
kind dispositions. Such, I am sure, is the spirit with which I am
actuated, and I doubt not it is felt by the correspondent whom I
am now addressing."
PRINCETON, Novenmber 30, 1838.
An old Baptist preacher used to visit Mrs., during  her last husband's life, and  pray for "the  head  and
headess " of the family. The preface to Bush's Genesis, which
I have read in proof, contains some very remarkable facts concerning the text of the English Version. Altogether, it is a comprehensive and valuable performance. I have before me a beautiful English MS. on vellum: a religious treatise, chiefly on
the Creed.  I have not read it fully, so as to make up my mind,
but it cannot be later than A.D. 1400.  It has sodeyn-clepicdgoostli (spiritual)-be-  (are)-clerkis -honde-scullen (should)thilke (those)-p2epil-covetise, &c.  I am  deep in grubbing
among German metaphysics, to write an article for the Repertory, against the attempts to introduce their poison among us.l
-     is doing his little all to bring in Cousin, which will
bring in Schelling, which will bring in Atheism, which will bring
in the devil.  It is affecting to see that 10-20 Turks have,
without a preacher, been awakened by Goodell's version of the
1 This became the paper (65 pages) on T2qanscendentalism in the number
for January, 1839. One part of the argument (reviewing Cousin) was prepared by the late Professor A. B. Dod. The entire paper, with parts of the
article on "The Latest form of Infidelity," by another hand, in the Repertory of 1840, was, upon request, permitted to be reprinted in a pamphlet
at Boston.




1833-1844.                            2'75
" Dairyman's Daughter."  The more I read of human philosophy, the more I prize the childlike spirit; the more I love the
book of books.  Like Goliath's sword, " there is none like it."
Why are we not more devoted to the study of it?  Can we do a
better work than to get people to read it?
PRINCETON, December 25, 1838.
I wish you a merry Christmas, though merry or unmerry it
is now nearly over.  Melvill's Sermons have been a great treat
to me; read some of them by all means.  [Dr.] Skinner's book'
is very fine. I am astonished at the crystalline purity of his diction; he lacks nothing but tenderness. Another volume of [Paul]
Henry's Life of Calvin [in German]: he has raked together
1,200 autograph letters of Calvin.2
[After some comments on the sin of what he calls the " Demas-ism" of ministers.]  This matter in a kind and affectionate
way ought to be agitated among all who think aright upon it
until some nucleus of amended opinion be formed.  Get Dr.
[David] AMagie's late tract on Support of Ministry.'  How
honourable to his Presbytery that not one of their twenty-two
ministers does any thing but preach; no schools; no farms. 0
si sic omnes! Really, I know no topic more momentous.  Just
imagine our thousand preachers all devoted, all labouring, even
as some of then  do!  Mv conscience is much exercised about
this matter, as a personal case. [-  an ex-missionary] has been
1The " Religion of the Bible," and " Aids to Preaching and Hlearing,"
by Dr. Skinner, both appeared in 1839, and were reviewed in the Repertory,
January, 1841.
2 r. Alexander wrote the full abstract of the successive volumes, which
appeared in the Repertory for January, 1837, and July, 1839. Another
writer furnished the conclusion in April, 1848.
"3 AAn Address of the Presbytery of Elizabethtown to the Churches
under its care," on the " claims of the Gospel Ministry to an adequate sup.
port."  This tract was the text of a standard treatise on the whole subject
in the Repertory of April, 1839, which bears the marks of Mr. Alexander's
style of opinions, although, as in numerous other instances, I cannot positively identify it. In that article the sentiments of the letter as to the
secular employments of some ministers are duly qualified: ex. gr.  "It
cannot be denied that throughout our land an alarming portion of the clergy
are withdrawn from their appropriate duties by the necessity of providing
for their own support. Who are to blame for this? Those who create this
necessity, or those who submit to it? The remedy of this evil, perhaps the
greatest which now afflicts our Church, can only be provided by the people.
If they force their pastors to choose between working or starving, they
must expect them to work, to engage in the business of the world, and
more or less, alas! to imbibe its spirit; for the ministers, at-least,
"The world's infectious; few bring back at eve,
Immaculate, the manners of the morn."




276     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
vilely used by, who took a spite at the missionaries, as
most visitors do, who consort with Sanballat, Tobiah, and the
other foreign residents. Quere. If the late change of opinion
among 7,000 savages, in those isles, [Sandwich,] were any but
a religious change, would not the world ring with it?
Among many commentators whom I have to consult, I find
none like Calvin-he oftenest beards the real difficulty, and
oftenest knocks it down, and drags it out. Look at Nordheimer's
Grammatical Analysis, for a specimen of unmatchable American
printing. Respects and affections.
PRINCETON, January 23, 1839.
If you have not read " Lane's Modern Egypt," in the series
of " Entertaining Knowledge," you have a great treat before you.
No book, not even Burckhardt's, has given me so minute an acquaintance with Islam, &c. I mean to concoct some of the biblical memoranda for your S. S. Journal.l  When you seem to
attribute some of the evil reports concerning ministers to their
worldliness, or rather hint that by living holier lives they will
have more chance of escape, I must dissent; however pure men
may be, Satan will cause his children to " say all manner of evil
against " them.
I am unfeignedly friendly to the American Board, [Foreign
Missions,] but I never felt that in giving one mite, I bound myself to give a second; and now that we have a board of our own,
I do not expect to give another penny to the former while I live.
I have no feeling of duty towards this excellent body; while to
our own church-boards I feel bound, as likely to draw out the
contributions of thousands who would not otherwise contribute.
The new measures you propose, for filling the     - Church,
are certainly innocent and I believe politic. Why might not the
elders of a church sign a card of invitation to the canaille, to
come in? Methinks no work of the age is more important than
the getting the mob of our cities in contact with Gospel-truth.
I write at a hand-gallop. I have preached five times in eight
days, lectured four times, examined a class, made a Tract speech,
and heard seven recitations. I am therefore pushed hard.2
PRINCETON, lflarch 21, 1839.
I have felt anxious for a week or more about your family,
and not the less so, since your note by my father. I sincerely
This was done in a series of articles entitled " The Bible Illustrated
from Egypt."
2 It may be mentioned here that during the term of his Professorship,
Mr. Alexander preached, on an average, sixty times each year.




1833-1844.                      277
hope you may be carried through this trial without a bereavement; but if not-I have nothing I can say but to recommend to you absolute and filial submission: I hope you know
its necessity and its virtue; and I doubt not a moment the trial
is meant to go a certain length towards slaying the body of sin
in you and -. In the ordinary course of gracious discipline nothing seems to kill sin in us so surely as these stripes.
May they be few and light!
PRINCETON, April 9, 1839.
I have not for some days written to you, being doubtful in
what strain I should address you, as I could hear nothing about
your child, and it is only this hour that I have learned that it has
pleased God to take her away from you. Let me assure you,
that my wife and I sorrow with you, as knowing in some measure the heart of bereaved parents. In such times one can only
say "It is the Lord."  Here is our stay in every affliction.
"' The Lord reigneth."  " It is well."  It has fallen to your lot to
have a number of family afflictions, and no doubt they have been,
whether you know it or not, among your greatest blessings.
No one can rejoice in such strokes, in themselves considered;
but when viewing them in connexion with great grace vouchsafed along with them, we may " glory in tribulation also." The
stroke must be heaviest, as it is most unwonted, to the afflicted
mother.  I-Iere, if anywhere, "the heart knoweth its own bitterness;" and I would not intermeddle; but even here grace
does often so soothe the agonized heart, as to bring joy out of the
midst of grief. Our dear children are not lost, but sent before.
They await our coming, and perhaps rejoice, not merely as
redeemed creatures, but as ours; as bone of' our bone, and flesh
of our flesh.  Probably they know more of us, than we of them.
Certainly they know more of Christ. You are familiar with the
expressions of Jeremy Taylor and Leighton, concerning the loss
of children: they are both touching, but Taylor's the most so;
for he had many children, and all his sons died before him, while
Leighton was a bachelor. " No man can tell" (says Taylor) " but
he that loves his children, how many delicious accents make a
man's heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear
pledges-their childishness, their stammering, their little angers,
their innocence, their imperfections, their necessities, are so many
little emanations of joy and comfort, to him that delights in their
person and society."  I trust that Mrs. Hall and yourself will
be enabled to receive just that measure and kind of benefit which
it seems to be the Master's will to communicate.




278     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, April 25, 1839.
Of course there has been very great concern about the church
case.l In a spiritual point of view I cannot see that the Old
School have lost much. At the same time it is undcleniably a
grievous chastisement; and the difficulty of knowing what to do
is extreme. Some, I hear, are strongly in favour of going back,
rescinding the exscinding acts, &c., and taking the chance of ruling
in the joint body. I cannot see this to be proper, as it would
establish a portentous precedent touching religious liberty and
ecclesiastical independence. It would concede to the civil power
the authority to determine, not only what relates to our corporate privileges, in which I grant them absolute sway, but what
is purely ecclesiastical; viz., to say that A B and C (whom we,
by regular church acts, have put out of the church) are a part
of the church. This point I cannot yield. We do not seriously
believe that the New School men have been anxious to get the
property; especially we believe they would, if they could, leave
Princeton property, &c., in its former hands. There would be
an odium attached to any sudden change. Princeton funds cannot be employed anywhere but here-and here the New School
do not want a Seminary. It can cost them little therefore to be
generous; but how to effect this is the question. They cannot
make us a title; nor can we comfortably sit down in their possessions, as incumbents by mere sufferance. Some have supposed that the New School might consent to an amicable separation, even now, and unite with us in applying to the Legislature
to have the succession continued in two branches.
PRINCETON, May 1, 1839.
I went to our Presbytery last week at Lambertville.  J. A.
A. was ordained. I came home via Trenton. There I attended
for several days the Methodist Annual Conference for this State:
about 120 ministers. A highly respectable body. Bishops
Waugh and Hedding presided by turns. I was much pleased
with almost every thing they did, and with their business ways;
great promptness and affection; nothing carping or disputatious.
Nothing surprised or amused me more than the rigid scrutiny
to which each minister's character is subjected annually. The
whole list is gone through regularly, each name called, and testimony taken as to the faithfulness, competency, and even health
of every man. They had a great gun from Illinois, called Cav1 The verdict of the jury in Pennsylvania, in favour of the New School
section of the Church, afterwards reversed, on the points of law, by the
Supreme Court.




1833-1844.                     279
anagh.  [Rev. J. P.] Durbin and [N.] Bangs are there. They
sit more than a week. Mr. Yeomans lays the corner stone of
his new church to-morrow; 100 feet by 62. I was introduced to
[J. J.] Gurney the other day, and was charmed with his personel. Dr. [John] Breckinridge arrived here yesterday, being,
to a day, the time fixed months ago. He says he has never
failed to meet.his most distant appointments, except when he has
been thrown out by the rest of the Sabbath.  He averaged 50
miles a day for nine months. My father is writing a history of
African Colonization. I never saw the country look more beautiful than it does after the late showers. By reference to my
book I find the season two weeks, at least, earlier than the last.
The Clericuts multicaulis 1 increases in this State. H. P. Goodrich is to be President of Marion College, vice W. S. Potts, restored to St. Louis.
Mffay 14.-A chasm of nearly two weeks.  I have in the
meanwhile been overrun with our spring visiters, examinations,
gardening operations, and incommoded by a very painful affection of the throat, which still continues: it is a muscular or
spasmodic something about the door of the stomach, very choking and uncomfortable.  College opens on the 16th. I think we
shall number 250. - An old Church of England missionary from
Ceylon is here.
Mr. Perkins says nothing to me about a 3d ed. of Quill. I
have feared that his expectations were disappointed about the 2d.
If so, he may be somewhat brightened by the following extract
of a letter to me from Prof. Bush of New York: " I met to-day
one of our most intelligent, most wealthy, and most useful citizens (a mechanic) with a bundle of'books under his arm, (here I
omit sundry bits of blarney,) and which were a part of near a
hundred copies that he had purchased for gratuitous distribution
among the different classes of operatives in the city"-" had no
doubt that thousands of them might be sold every year in this
city among the class for whom they are designed." Pye Smith
seems to outstrip even his great co-eval     in the race towards neology. They say [Rev. E. N.] Kirk has quite repristilated the. old Spa Fields (Lady Huntingdon's) Chapel in
London; I see one of his sermons in the " Pulpit."  The people
from America who go over to help the French Protestants are
guilty of one unpardonable error, in my judgment. Instead of
aiming to quicken and raise the old Protestant Church, which
still exists, and has government patronage, they attempt little
independent, or secession bodies, which not unnaturally excite
Speculations in the mulberry-tree for raising silkworms.




280      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
the suspicion as well of the government as of the other Protestants.  The creed of the Reformed Church of France is as sound
as ever, and as a proof of what we might hope, by going to work
patiently and judiciously, the government have placed at Montauban Seminary two orthodox professors, viz., de Felice and
Adolphe Monod.  Several thousand U. S. troops are to be in
camp at Trenton, during the summer.l
PRTNCETON, June 10, 1839.
A more lovely season I have not known. Our fields, groves,
and gardens are one tissue of green; and for a day or two past
the air has been fraught with the richest odours.  Some of our
little copses near the brook are paradisiacal in their look, smell,
and coolness. In my garden I have found great benefit to my
health, and many fascinations.  With the little interval for
prayers and breakfast I usually work in it from 51 to 82 o'clock.
From a space as big as your front parlour, we have picked 42
quarts of strawberries, chiefly hautboys, and the season is not
half done.  Of these 15 quarts in one day.  For some reason
they are exceeding sour.  I wish you were here to partake of
them, for we have to disperse the greater part among our neighbours.  Other garden truck, with me, is rather backward.  I
little expected that you would ever have occasion to conflict with.He is so rabid a man, that, except where one's conscience should make pertinacity a duty, I should use all lawful
means to avoid encountering him.  His strategy is that of Indian warfare.  I have looked over   —'s book; prettily got
up, and neat in style, but very much what a "smart young
lady" would have produced on the same topic. It has some
places absolutely puling.  There are three things totally wanting: 1st. Exposition of Scripture.  2d. Theological discussion of
any thing about his subject which lies under the mere surface.
3d. Evangelical unction or spirituality.  And I fear some parts
are (what Gilbert Stuart said of Sir J. Reynolds's Lectures on
Painting) "a beautiful apology for bad practice." Gurney has
been here. I heard him twice, and twice companied with him.
I think him a good and even a great man. Very affable, instructive, and orthodox.  One of his sermons was a poetico-mystical
Soon after the date of this letter, its writer's first-born child died, after
years of suffering with congenital hydrocephalus. "To yoz " (wrote his
father) "I may say, with hope of being credited, it is a loss to part with
even so distressed a child. His little bird-like voice was the first morning
sound we used to hear. The Lord has done well and mercifully to us, and
especially to him." To the Sunday School Journal of this year he gave two
numbers on " Scriptural Account of Suffering Parents."




1833-1844.                     281
rhapsody of the most exquisite kind; it was really quite Platonic.
I sigh to be a pastor, instead of a professor: Qui fit Mcecenas, etc.
PRINCETON, June 28, 1839.
I do not think a more favourable opening for Christian' effort,
is anywhere offered at this time than at the encampment near
Trenton: and my sole object is to get you to exert yourself a
little in Philadelphia on.this behalf. I am told there are some
pious men among the officers, but who they are I know not.
There are about a thousand souls there perpetually in camp;
the number will be doubled in a few days. Many of these, I
suppose, have not had the gospel for years; and, after the dissolution of the Camp of Instruction, many of them will go away
to die in the remotest parts of our frontier. In walking through
the camp on Tuesday, I was shocked with the unaccountable
prevalence of cursing and swearing. If the Swearer's Prayer,
and similar papers, could be distributed among them, the happiest effects might ensue. There is a good deal of time for reading; and some plan for a weekly distribution of Tracts would
be truly promising. A large portion of these ought to be in
German, as there are several Germans in every company. In
this, and every other method, the approach ought to be made
very carefully through the officers, who seem to be gentlemen
of the highest breeding. No man can fail to be struck with the
bearing of such officers as General Eustis, Col. Fanning, (who
lost an arm at Chippewa,) Major Ringgold, &c., &c.
The Quartermaster General has erected a pulpit, and the
way is open for public services on Sunday; but as there is no
regular official provision for this, there is danger that persons
will occupy it who are not the most likely to do good: I do not
here refer to sect, or theological opinion, but to pulpit talent.
I do not think an impressive extempore speaker could find a
better audience.
To prevent sectarian alarm, I wish you could enlist in this
one or two evangelical Episcopalians; and get a few dollars'
worth of German tracts put into the hands of some person who
would see that they are distributed. Especially, if you could in
any way gain access to some of the officers, much might with
the blessing of God be accomplished. We fear to be too prominent in this matter in Princeton, but various means have been
taken to let the officers know that we would furnish any amount
of preaching. MIr. Starr, the Episcopal minister of Trenton,
would be an excellent point d'appui for any endeavours. Cannot
you find some layman of zeal and address and knowledge of
men, who could spend a day a week in Trenton for such a cause?




282:   WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
I attended the funeral of a dragoon in the camp. Music, procession, flags, horse led as mourner, but not one word of service,
nor any intimation that the thing they were burying had a soul;
all the nonchalance of a drill. Such a book as "Narrative of a
Soldier," edited by Dr. Wardlaw, and once reprinted in this
country, would be likely to make impression. I have seldom
felt more moved in behalf of any set of men; and as I cannot do
much, if any thing, in proper person, I trust I shall not fail to get
your strenuous aid. Take a friend and run up for a few hours
to the camp. The selection is admirable; the beau-ideal of a'summer encampment: a most extensive plain, skirted by a
young forest, in which the tents are arranged with much taste.
The cleanliness, regularity, and silence are exemplary. It is
favourable for religious effort, that intemperance is rigidly excluded. I believe there is not a drop of intoxicating liquor.  It
occurs'to me that a serious Methodist might accomplish great
things there. When I look at these men, and remember how
much was clone among soldiers by Wesley, Whitefield, and
others, I am convinced that he-who should be blessed so far as
to institute successful measures for labouring among them, would
save souls; hide multitudes of sins, and furnish delightful recollections for life.
PRINCETON, July 3, 1839.
It is impossible for either --  or myself to undertake
what you propose, in the present state of our engagements. Indeed, I consider the week-day work in camp almost as important
as the preaching. I regret that we have no one to nominate.
The person ought to be one of the " workers," who could go in
and out of tent or hospital as --  would do; not however
that I recommend him. This facility of talk with rank and file,
I shouild reckon a main matter. Some active, zealous, affectionate
Episcopalian, of whatever kind otherwise, would encounter least
prejudice, yet great talent or eloquence would not be thrown
away. The work is so important that even a settled clergyman
might lay his account with taking this for a summer retreat; and
a lovelier one it would be hard to find. I should feel an emotion
of more than common joy, if I could hear that Dr. Tyng, Mr.
Suddards, and a few such men, had made an arrangement to give
sermons.
Just look at it: for the first time in our day-perhaps for
the last-the United States Army is present (at least'representatively) at one place, quite accessible, in a favourable season,
hard by hundreds' of ministers, and thousands of Christians.
The conversion of two or three officers might give a direction to




1833- 1844.                     283
the future history of our military men.  I was pleased to see a
Bible openly laid out in the tent of a captain.
It is a question with me whether the safest way is to move
the Secretary at War to make a regular appointment.  Such a
motion might frustrate our plan. We know not what influences
may be working in high places. The incumbent might be a
Pharisee, a Catholic, a Socinian, or a petlit-maitre in black, like
-—, who lately sent us a dancing-mlaster with a letter of introduction.  Besides, there might be some show of resistance
from the staff. But if the officers could once hear such a man
as Dr. Tyng, Mr. Boardman, Mr. Suddards, or Dr. Breckinridge, they would be anxious for more. But in whatever way
the thing is accomplished, it ought to be done speedily. I am
told there are more than fifty on the sick list, and there will be
both sickness and death before the end of August.  Even while
the other matter is in suspense, there should be a real working,
stirring layman sent up with Bibles and Tracts, both German
and English.  A few German hymn books might be well. If I
seem to press unduly in this matter, let me plead that the king's
business requireth haste; and my conviction that if you or I
could get this ball fairly rolling, it would be worth more than
any six months' preaching we are likely to do. M[ay the weak
effort have Divine guidance and success!
PRINCETON, August 15, 1839.
I should like to advise with you a little about the sequel to
the American Mechanic, which I have been preparing, ["the
Working Man."]  The plan is just the same, but I have pitched
the tone of it two or three degrees higher, as to style, allusion,
&c. Still I wish it to be a book for the working classes.' 1
feel encouragedclto bestow such little labours as I may be able to
put forth, more and more on the working classes, the rather be
cause they are the great object of the infidels, socialists, agrarians.
Owenites, Wrightites, and diabolians generally.
If you want to read a splendid piece of dialectical wit, take
hold of the review of Gladstone in the last Edinburgh Review;
it cuts up apostolical succession irretrievably.  Wonderful news
from Bengal. I can't find the places on my maps. It is worth
notice, that the only very great success of the word, just now, is
in that very field which sundry decry; viz., Foreign Missions.
Grant that seven-tenths of the baptized, there and in the Sandwich isles, are deceivers or deceived, the case is still as good as
1Three editions of the American Mechanic, in book-form, had appeared.
"The Working Man" was not, like its predecessor, first published in anewspaper.




284:    WHILE PROFESSORI IN PRiINCETON COLLEGE.
that of most of the nations which were converted to Christianity
under the later empire: yet these nations are now nominally
Christian. It is an infinite blessing to abolish idolatry. I still
have it in purpose to write "The Apprentice" for the Union,
and have the plan already laid out.
PRINCETON, October 3, 1839.
Our meeting of Presbytery at Cranbury was the fullest one
in 17 years —27 bishops and 17 elders; a truly pleasant and
edifying meeting.  I hope we all received benefit.  All our
churches, except six, have either built fine new edifices, or wholly
re-modelled the old ones; and one of the six is about to do the
same. In some of our congregations the use of intoxicating
drink is almost at an end. One pastor said that almost all his
youth had committed the Gospel of John. I found at Presbytery that among our pastors the current is setting very strong
against the use of Question Books. Nicholas Biddle was at our
Commencement, and showed much interest. Our Museum room
with post-chambers, &c., is one of the handsomest college rooms
I have ever seen. The alligator, now in it, has not eaten any
thing for six months, and is nevertheless quite lively, though by
no means amiable.  I have been "sounded" about the presidentship of the Newark (Del.) College. "Ancient Aanuscript,"
signed A. in New York Observer is from your humble servant.
Dr. Green said in his address to the Seminary Students, " As to
mustaches and all whiskers, let us leave them to the goats and
the dandies;" and then he called on  -, who was " bearded
like a pard," to make the concluding prayer.  On Saturday, I
saw the closing service of the U. S. troops at Camp Washington,
[Trenton,] by Gens. Scott and Poinsett. As a " sight" it surpassed any thing I have seen. The evolutions and firing of
the light artillery were wonderful; cannons flying about at a
gallop. The large body of dragoons were so black and stalwart,
with their long-bayoneted carbines, that when in solid column
they might be taken for knights of the middle ages. I have
come to the conclusion that Baxter's style, which is not at all
obsolete now, is the best extant, in respect to clearness, Saxon
purity, vivacity, directness, strength, and pungency; it is not
always elegant, or concise, or tender, or melodious. His " Dying Thoughts" is a great book: I mean, as he wrote it, vide vol.
18 of his works. Dr. John Breckinridge is in Kentucky. It occurs to me to say of him, that I never saw him idle or lounging
a moment, nor ever diverted to minor matters or levity; I never
saw in him the slightest tendency to. worldliness; I never saw
him in any company, even of the most fashionable political




1833 —1844.                     285
grandee, where he did not take a high religious stand, and avow
high Christian opinions, with an air of conscious superiority;
and I never detected him in any sort of self-pleasing or shrinking
from sacrifices or hard duty.  I know no minister whose private
intercourse is so purely and zealously religious. I think this way
of reading verse about at [family] prayers is a shocking abuse.
To my ear also it destroys the sense. I have no notion of turning family worship into a Madam's school.
November 27, 1839.
You see a man may come to the degradation of writing on
ruled paper, for lack of better. I have such a dislike to doing
things "'on compulsion," that I have half a mind to write betwixt
the lines; but I content myself with merely entering my protest, and reserving all the rights of irregularity. A  dozen at
least of our small mechanics have burnt their fingers with the
mulberry-speculation; some to the tune of thousands: another
proof of the folly of making haste to be rich out of one's proper
calling. Trees bought at 20 to 30 cents are selling (if sold at
all) at 2 mills apiece. This day I have seen a handbill advertisement of a great vendue of stock, &c., on the farm of a licentiate of our Presbytery; a thousand-dollar bull, Sctnbo, pedigree
vaunted, references to the "H Ierd Book," &c., also 60 odd calves.
A few weeks ago I saw in the common papers attestations to the
worth of an English bull, by an eminent bishop of ----— Presbytery.  Perpend the following remarkable passage of the
Apocrypha, viz., Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 25: " How can he get
wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad,
that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labours, and whose
talk is of bullocks?"  Read the whole. ~ By-the-bye, the said
Ecclesiasticus might be often quoted, as we quote other uninspired productions. Read some sublime passages in chapter 50.
Qu. Might not you surprise some readers of the Journal by
quotations from this book, as from an old Jewish work? The
accession to the Seminary (near 50) is greater than on any occasion, but two, since its foundation. This is very cheering,
considering the division of church, and the nearness of the New
York Seminary. You will see I am aboard of the Apprentices
again in the Newark Daily. Some of the views expressed are
favorite ones with me, and have been produced in some measure
by a number of facts of a nature which I cannot make public.
O how I should rejoice to see a paper set up in Philadelphia,
on the following principles: [1.] Size: A little bigger than the
Sunday School Journal.  [2.] Time: Weekly.  [3.]  Looks:
Beautiful type, with as little variety as to type or leads as pos



286     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
sible.  [4.] Church CConnexion: none. [5.] Doctrine: Evangelical, but not committed to anything; yet admitting all we
believe.  [6.] Disptes:    O0. [7.] Worldly News:    0, O but
not bound to exclude items.  [8.]; Contents: 1. News of Christ's
kingdom; a resume and coup d'ceil of the field of missions; seldom giving long journals, but sketches of the real good done by
all sects; revivals. 2. Experimental and Practical Religion,
not excluding Biblical Interpretation and Saving ]Doctrine;
chiefly, however, the former.
Is not this a good notion?  Or perhaps you would rather
say 16 pp. 8vo, so as to bind. I solemnly believe such a paper
would honour Christ more than any publication known to me in
the world.
I was called the other day to see a dying man several miles
out in the country. It was a wretched hovel of a place, reminding me of some of Crabbe's inimitable descriptions.  Neither the
sick man nor any of his household could read, and they were as
ignorant as heathen. The front door of the house was unhinged,
and merely lying up against the posts. We need such a districting of all our neighbourhoods as should infallibly bring every
such place under inspection. This work has been tolerably well
done around here, but this man has been almost always drunk
until he was seized with consumption. I wish in my soul that
all the alcohol could be annihilated. Every day exposes to
view more and more its horrific, soul-destroying power. I am
ready to go "full-chisel'" for the 15-gallon law. These coalstoves will let out the gas (or gaz, as you elegantly call it in the
city, and: nowhere else, I suppose, on earth) in certain states of
weather, so that I-am almost inclined to revert to wood fires. I
had a piece of genuine Irish peat lately presented to me.
PRINCETON, December 9, 1839.
We have a Sciot (or Chian) here a-lecturing. lie wears
a red cap and a capote, and is a smart fellow: name, Castanis.
Apropos de Journaux, the worst thing your Board ever did for
S. S. J., was to destroy its weekly character, [making it semimonthly.]  The interval at which it now appears is next to the
cycle of the moon, and is representable only by the equation
T —=T+.-/ 7r+B (/-4)A A    Its arrival is always unexpected,
a mere windfall. A sheet, by a given mail, however small it
be, is looked for.. Again-say what we will, the title hurts it,
except with Sunday School folk. I never read a number of it,
without perceiving its value, yet I don't find myself looking out
for it. I therefore believe that just such a sheet, weekly, with



1833-1844.                      287
out reference to any association or enterprise, would go down
nicely.  Only the leading character should be NEws; but news
of the Kingdom. The Seminary has 112, and additions every
week; among these additions only one is from a New England
College. By a prolepsis of a week, I preached the semi-centurial
sermon at Freehold.' What anugly thing State policy is, when
it leads such a power as England to prop such a power as
Turkey.  I believe it to be all in vain, and that the book of
Prophecy has doomed that empire to a curse. Eli Smith gave
me new views of the exhaustion of the empire, and Lamartine
lately said Turkey was perishing for want of Turks. Think of
a million Russians going- over to the Greek Church from the
Romish, and Nicholas backing his father-in-law of Prussia about
the mixed marriages.  In lately reading the epistles to the
Thessalonians, without note or comment, I have been driven
almost irresistibly into the opinion, which I long rejected, that
the Papal Power in some way is the Man of Sin; I say " in
some way" because I know not yet whether it is the Pope as an
individual, or the abstract Pope, or the collective Church. The
Jewish letters of those Scotchmen [in the London " Record "]
ate very interesting; they quote Scripture after a different
fashion from our Yankees-always excepting Goodell.  Our old
friend Mr. [Samuel] Bayard, now in his 73d year, is one of the
most pleasing specimens of religious serenity and hope that I
have seen.  He is tottering over the grave, but his inward man
is renewed day by day.'
I have heard, and have observed, that almost all the New
England ministers have a trick of often sinking, or bending the
knees, while preaching, the body being erect. This "squat,"
whether taught in the course of Sacred Rhetoric or not, arises, I
think, from  the necessity of bringing the eye near to the MS.,
at times, and the desire to do this without leaning over; make
the experiment yourself, and observe it strikingly set forth in
- and. It is plain from  I Cor. xiv. 35, that any
man might ask questions in the church; indeed, that chapter
shows their assemblies to have been much less starched than
ours.  Do you know what Usher is derived from? From fluissier French, and that from Ostiarilus.  Take a leisurely course
1The General Assembly appointed December 8, 1839, for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of that body: Mr.
Alexander's text was Ezekiel xxxvi. 37, 38.
2 Mr.: Bayard was an elder in the Princeton church, and the author of
"Letters on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper," a new edition of which was
made the text of an article on the subject, by Mr. Alexander, in the Repertory of January, 1840.




288     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
through Plutarch, and you will find some unmatchable picking
for the Journal. I find this odious verse-about way of reading
at prayers growing into use among our ministers. At -: I
was between a booby with a cold in his head, who shouted like
a clam-man, and snuffled like a distempered horse, and a Miss,
whose words were scarce audible. I hold it to be essential to
the due performance of that duty that the Scriptures should be
oell read, as well as possible, and therefore by one person. In
the other case, the brats are all the while counting on ahead to
see what verse will come to them, or losing the place and reading the wrong one, while mamma is finding the place for Tom,
and Sally and Joe are fighting for the bigger share of the book
they are daubing and dog-earing between them. I set a higher
value every day on this ordinance, and in a plain familiar way
have expounded the New  Testament regularly (only in the
mornings) as far as 2 Cor. v., always studying the passage as
laboriously as I can, and sometimes some hours. And I believe
there is no portion of the Scriptures with which I am so well
acquainted, and no preparation for preaching that is so useful to
me. I have a notion to re-read my five volumes of Luther's
Letters, and to translate such short letters and extracts, chronologice, as would suit the Journal.'
PRINCETON, Decemnber 21, 1839.
What tragedies we have in our banks-failures, peculation,
robbery, suicide! [For some years I have had the fact forced on
my observation, that a large proportion of felones-de-se are made
desperate by pecuniary embarrassment. It is horrible to contemplate the temptations to fraud, held out by banks to those
without and within them. Borrowing, which should be, and in
a healthful state is a dernier resort, is now a substantive part of
worldly business. Endorsing, in nine cases out of ten, is a deliberate promise to pay that which one knows he cannot pay:
the contingency, in my view, does not alter the morality of the
transaction.  When we say of our extensive Credit System, that
it is necessary to our great operations, we should first show that
our operations are not too great. A ruinous amount of steam
is necessary to speed of 100 miles an hour; but this speed is
too great. I do not see that the overtrading of the mass is less
culpable than the overtrading of an individual. Is it not plain,
that the aggregate of liabilities (that is, of obligation to pay) in
our country, nay in the commercial world, is greater than the
aggregate ability of the promisors? The moral influence of the
1This was done for several successive months in 1839-'40.




1833-1844.                     289
Credit System strikes me as one of the most malign influences
to which our country is subjected. I have near me a (black)
parishioner, not'long for this world, a young woman, whose
case will, I think, some day, make an interesting article for
the S. S. Journal, or for a book, as showing the value of Sunday
School texts and especially hymns, on a dying bed.' We, who
pretend to be refined folks, greatly undervalue hymns and psalms.
Now I have often observed, that, from the natural fondness of
the common mind, and the infant mind, for metre and rhyme,
the great body of theology and experience in the lower classes is
preserved in the shape of hymns. They read the psalm-book, they
repeat and sing the verses, &c. IHence we should not neglect
sacred song, I mean the plain sort, with our children and
scholars.
My present feeling is that I will write no more irreligious
books. Life is short. The great work is to save souls. All
our economical, political, and literary reformations are mere
adjusting of the outer twig; religion changes the sap of root
and trunk. This I never felt more than now. I see that when
a people become godly, all the rest follows. In the same connexion I see the value of preaching. - Let me earnestly exhort
you, on the strength of my own sad experience, not to allow
yourself to trust to a flow of extempore thought and expression
in the pulpit, but to labour every sermon, however obscure or
ignorant the auditory may be. Drs. Skinner and Spring have
proved what can be done by devoting all one's soul to the simple
work of sermon making. I wish I had done something of the
kind.         has made a few days' visit here. HIe says the
Taylorites have had a number of successive meetings of Associations to censure the East Windsor and Pastoral Union folks,
but they "blessed them  altogether."  Num. xxiii. 2. I am
reading the Oxford Tracts, and am struck —l, with the exquisite
simplicity of the English style; 2, the strange absence of logical
power; 3, the dangerous fascination of the monkish piety.
The two most fashionable American tailors in Paris, partners,
are named Cutter & Tr'yon. We have in College Caltell & Colt,
(contiguous on the roll,) Burnet T&  Cook-uts, (ditto,) Ccake &
Pitcher, (room-mates,) Nabb & Tabb, (room-mates,) Nixon &.Dixon, Stzurgeon and three Wthaleys. Could not your Pennsylvania Secretary Mr. Skunk send us a son?  For the pronuncia
tion of my name, take the following couplets from Crabbe, a
sound authority in my view:
1 His " Notices of a Coloured Sunday Scholar lately deceased," appeared
in the Journal July 1, 1840.
VOL. I.-13




290      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
" The plan was specious, for the mind of Jamnes
Accorded duly with his uncle's schemes."
" For now no crazed fanatic's frantic d}reams,
Seemed vile as James's conduct, or as Jamnes."
PRINCETON, January 18, 1840.
If you want an exquisite morsel for a column of the Journal,
see a piece of Jean Paul (Richter)'s, admirably translated in
"Christian  Observer" for 1835, April.  It is a gem.  And
while you have the volume in hand, cull a child's hymn from
p. 502.  I do not know a book from which there is more to be
sifted for a periodical than the back volumes of the "Christian
Observer."  I think Dr. Bache's Report on Education in Europe,
a noble work.  Spend an hour in digesting some of his statements about religion, viz.: In what countries does it form a part
of education? is it regarded as a substantive, integral part of
the course? how taught? how much time? with what relation to
the Bible? &c. Being a teacher, and a dilletante-one, I was
really kept awake by the book one night.  It will do immense
good, I believe, collaterally.  I am hard at work upon another
story-book for the Union, if it do not grow too big. It is not
about children, or in the Childese language, for I am. getting
skeptical about that. I find my babes more interested about
GOLIATH, than about the tiniest infant in monosyllables.
I'll not tell you the title, for fear you steal it, as some
swindler has done Mr. P's. Tell the said P. that I'm not
the first man who hung back from the penitentiary; and that I
agree that he's twice as much at home there as I could be. So
I must wait a while to qualify myself [to discuss the solitary
system.] - On the 17th, at 7 P. M., the mercury here was -8~.
Dr. Demm6 [of the German Lutheran Church, Philadelphia]
has kindly sent me a copy of his Sermon before the Synod.
It is really an excellent and even eloquent production, so as to
surprise me very much.  We have really few men among us who
can preach as effective a discourse in English.  It is faithful and
warm, and has some original turns of Scripture quotation.  I
can't say how well the production may look in a version, especially by the author himself, as his German style is very racy
and idiomatic. The following statement came to me, as from
-   -:'. The German atheism  (pantheism  or Emersonism or
Carlyle-ism) makes fearful progress in Boston, so that there are
not a few who are willing to say (I pray that I may not sin in
writing it) that Deus est " a great  --'   This is a deceiver
and anti-Christ. Such is the careerand tendency of Unitarianism. Read 1 John ii. 23. Query: why may not Job be one
of the books which Noah had in his little library in the ark?




1833-1844.                     291
There is no notice of any thing postdiluvian? The expressions
in i. 6 sound ante-diluvian. Behemoth and Leviathan are with
difficulty brought under any of the Linnean mammalia. The
length of the speeches, of the mourning, of the feasts, and the
increase of Job's. family at the close, are very much like the
incidents of a sexcentenarian life. ~ Faber or Bush would give
$50 for the patent right to so beautiful a:hypothesis.. The poor
man (in the house where none could read) is no more; I hope
well for him. --      (on dit) is a great admirer of Carlyle!
I confess I like not these changes from what - - and Mines,
&C., once were, (i. e.) revival-men, however rash, to the decorous, lady-like, semi-high-churchism and semi-Oxonianism which
converts souls in silk gloves. The fancy-lecturers I don't like
at all; this saves no souls. Time is short. I don't, moreover,
like this perpetual reproduction of the old controversy. I don't
like --'s doctrine (v. N. Y. Evang.) that enemies are never
to be forgiven (till they repent, i. e.) while they are such. I
don't like " fine" preaching, or preachers; and (lest you should
think I like any thing) let me add, I don't like myself, or my past
or present ways, especially my having made so much of preparing
as scarcely to have begun to work; my having laboured so much
indirectly when I might have done the same directly; my having
set the soul's salvation too far off.  0 if we could live one real
year of effective gospel service, we might be willing to depart.
Preaching Christ is the best, hardest, sweetest work, on this
side of beholding. him.  I trust we shall do both. Blessings on
your family, and may they see the " salvation of Israel." Comp.
Ps. lix. 35, 36, and liii. 6.
AEOLIC CASTLE, PRINCETON, Feb. 11, 1840.
As. to   -, (the man hanged at St. Louis,) I remember
him well; but how little can we rely on even dying confessions!
how hard to get the truth of a Popish martyrdom in China,
when a murderer's execution in Missouri cannot be given correctly.        was indeed a Sunday School scholar; but —1,
his father was one of the vilest drunkards in our place, and died
such; 2, his younger brother (said to be crazed of grief) is crazy
a potu'; 3, his uncle has been, to my knowledge, a wretched sot
for twenty years; and 4, his "godly mother" has, I am told,
been tipsy (as often before) since her son was hanged. The
paper does not state that his repentings were all poured into the
auricle of a Romish priest.
Mr.'s complaints are sickly. I should be glad to see
him very often, but he must come to me, as life is too short for
us busy folks to make calls. Out of at least twenty similarly




292     WHILE PROFESSOR IAN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
situated men here, I never visit one without business. And he
who will count up the sheets I write in a week, not to mention
College and even pastoral cares, will not wonder. I shall nevertheless take means to show him that he will be welcome at all
times. I rejoice to meet Christian friends and never grudge the
time, but the man who wants to see me must take the trouble
to come in. I see there is a bill before the -    legislature to discharter    [a Seminary where young men and women were received as scholars.] I wonder the grand inquest has let them
alone. Such mingling of boys and girls is giving a bribe to Belial.
I could state cases enough of the evil of such propinquity.
FRIDAY, Feb. 14, 1840.
In regard to what I proposed respecting pieces on " Committing Verses to Memory," (pray why don't some of the wordmongers make a simple verb to express this daily-used idea?
memorize is awful, yet almost necessary,) I am not so fit as you
think; because, to say truth, I am not so whole-hearted in my
attachment to the present mode of question-teaching, as I might
be; and he who takes up the cudgel for you ought to be so. I
am ready enough to write something on the getting-by-heart
portion of the subject. After next Monday, however, I have a
new class, on a new and difficult book, (Juvenal,) and shall have
no time except "nights,"-therefore don't look for much from
me, I have an interesting book about Iceland, from which I
nmay perhaps get you something for Journal. Bush concluded
his lectures here last evening; they have not been as full of matter as they ought to have been. His phraseology comes next to
-'s.  He prayed about the " unconsuming naphtha which
lighted tlie war-fires on a thousand mountains;" and said on one
occasion, "we are now ready to make our inquisitorial entrde
into the chambers of the Apocalypse." In all this, however, he
displays a power of diction and harmony of phrase which is total
ly absent in -.  I wish I was a Quaker! I mean I wish I
could carry off things with the equanimity which they seem
to enjoy. Tell Mr. P — that he certainly errs in thinking I
have any special hints touching the objects of his embassy,
[a visit to Great Britain.] Every thing which I could say has
doubtless occurred to him a hundred times. Of proper Sunday
school teaching, I have a notion that they have very little to
teach us in Britain. But much may be picked up, especially in
the " Guid Town," as to the operation of Gall's and of Wood's
plans, and the methods of scriptural instruction adopted in the
common schools. If the Am. S. S. Union had the means, and
saw the thing in its true light, they would lose no time in having




1833-1844.                     293
an agent to do what Dr. Bache has done; I mean in reference to
religious instruction.  Bache's book has suggested many inquiries to me, especially about the " simultaneous" system. Bythe-bye, no book which I have read for ten years has given me:
so much food for thought, or suggested so many plans, as that
same report to the Girard College: it is to Victor Cousin's, what
the elevation of an edifice is to the plan, or what the bill of fare is
to the dinner. Tell Mr. P, that by topographical cuts I mean
views of places, scenery, plans, maps, &c.; by archceological, every
depiction of biblical or Oriental houses, men, animals, modes
of life, every thing, in short, which could interest a reader, of a
book of Antiquities; cuts, in short, generically like those in the
Bible Dictionlary. I won't tell you what I mean by the emblemnatical. Antiquities can be taught only by pictures. With a
good supply of such we might go' on with small numbers, which
at length would grow into quite a volume. I feel a strong leaning towards a work of the kind myself. Wouldn't it be good for
us if we had a fair and full answer to the following queries, from
every country in Europe? "What class of books is at this
moment most decidedly popular and effective with the common
mind-fiction, prose, or poetry? in what form-style? with what
embellishment? how brought within their reach?"  Of course
we ought to feel the world's pulse with all the fingers we can lay
on its wrist. (!) There's a figure for ye!
We are all of us in danger of undervaluing the importance
of our posts, and our means of usefulness.  I make this remark in order to introduce another, viz., that I should "deeply"
regret any change of an ordinary kind, which should remove you from  the S. S.~ U.  You know  very well that
the publishing crank is turned by yourself and P-; in
a- sort, therefore, you have control of the juvenile literature
of increasing thousands. You know the delicacy of the post,
you know how slight a straw laid over your rails would (hear!
hear!) turn the locomotive off the track. (Cheers.)  Again,
I can conceive of no situation in which you could possibly set so
much truth a-running over our wicked nation as this. Lastly, I
don't know what I should do with my superabundant material,
and superfluity of wisdom, if I did not shower it over the infalnt
mind through the watering-pot of your publications. Next to
lastly; I sincerely hope that by conciliating measures on the
part of the Union, it may act a mediatory part between, several
conflicting parties, and connect together the peaceable men of all.
Did you ever get fully possessed with the notion that it was
Saturday on a Friday? such is my condition now, and it is like
nothing so much as getting one's head turned on board a vessel.




294:    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Yesterday I examined Betsey Stockton's' school; I wish I
knew of a white school where religion was so faithfully inculcated. Perhaps the great revivals in the Sandwich Isles are
meant to prepare the way for persecutions: if so, we may expect
to see a new stature of Christians. I wish you would in some
shape or other call the attention of some Low Churchman to
Daille's celebrated work de Usu Patrum.  Look at Bayle, art..Daille. I never read such a piece of annihilating argument. I
can't imagine an impartial mind to feel the Oxford Tracts as
weighing a grain after such a book. The author's original was
in French, entitled du Vrai usage des Peres. It exists in Latin
also.; The English version, though excellent, is rather antiquated,
having appeared in 1675. As nobody, nowadays, could write
the book, so nobody can answer it. I am  amazed that it has
not been mentioned on the Low Church side: but indeed, from
the nature of the issue, the patristical erudition (how I hate the
Latin part of our language, but what can a man do?) is chiefly on
the Oxford side. - That is a noble letter of blessed old Bp. White,
in the Episcopal Recorder, a man worthier of saintship than half
the saints, even of the "first four Councils:" a few like that
would drive the nail. As it is, I confidently expect the Oxford
Tracts to split the Church, and that by a vast majority on the
wrong side. N. B. To preserve the point of a metallic pen
(which I can't use to any advantage) a good way is to have a little vessel of very fine shot by your inkstand into which to stick
the pen' after wiping; it prevents both rust and warping. I
lately mentioned to you the case of a black girl who seemed to
be dying. She is convalescent, but is in a very strange condition,
for she won't get well; that is literally the state of the case. She
insists upon dying-wants to go to heaven-yet is free from
disease, eats mince-pie, gains some flesh, &c. She will lie all
day in one posture, and will not sit up. She evidently thinks
the desire of death good per se. My visits to her are now offensive I think. IDod is ill in bed with a fever; he has carried your
plan of going without an overcoat to the extreme; he always
looked as if he was trying not to shiver. The hot room he has,
to be sure, been guilty of: so have not I. Lest you should mistake my meaning. about the book I have on the anvil for you,
observe what follows. The subject is, TAhe Best Way of Doing'
Good.  The form, a grave story; just enough' to support the
dialogue. There is a young Christian of wealth and education
introduced, as trying to do good in a certain neighbourhood, and
his experience is divided into three stages, in which he attempts'A coloured woman, who had accompanied the Rev. C. S. Stewart's family
to the Sandwich Islands mission.




1833- 1844.                     295
I. Doing good to men's bodies, —by giving money, helping poor,
feeding beggars, &c., &c. II. Doing good to men's minds,which he undertakes from  a belief, derived from the foregoing
experiment, that popular ignorance is the grand source of evil.
III. Doing good to men's souls,-the best way of accomplishing
the other two, illustrated by the effects of true piety in a bad
neighbourhood.'
PRINCETON, Feb. 26, 1840.
The following is verbatim from a letter of Oct. 26, from
Peter Harris, the African Prince, who is now at Monrovia, to a
negro here. It describes a native dinner. You will admit that
the "sir "ring is ultra-American: "They had great dinner that
day, sir.  Well, sir, they had two washbowl full of rice, and
the other bowl full of chicken soup, head and all in the bowl, sir.
The way them Missionaries eat that rice and the soup-it was the
sin! They set on the ground, sir, with country-mat spread on
the ground: they did not set on the chair, sir; they set on the
ground.  They did not have any knifes or forks when they was
eating that rice, sir, and'they only had three spoon. The way
them five men eat that rice with three spoon, I tell you, the first
man take his spoonfull of rice in his mouth, then he hand the
spoon to next man; so on till it get round."
I send herewith, if possible, -'s penultimate publication.
I hope you will carefully read it. He has been here, and is as
strongly fixed in his opinions as if he were inspired. Sandeman
is not now his leader, but the late John Walker of Ireland, formerly a churchl clergyman and fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. I have been reading this Walker, who is a reasoner of singular power. The sect in Ireland is called "Separatists."  They
hold that Faith is Belief'; that the corrupt nature is never less
corrupt in this world;  that baptism is to be administered only
to proselytes; that Christians are to hold no fellowship in any
religious exercise with any but themselves; and that they are
the only, true believers.  [After mentioning some instances of
false preaching of which he had heard, the letter proceeds.]
Such a gospel as this is very unlike the New Testament. Indeed, I am  getting to " test" systems a good deal by the way I
feel in going right from them to the pure word of God. More
and more am I afraid of the best human compositions on religion:
some are nearer, and some further; but all the streams have an
This work appeared in 1844, under the title of "Good, Better, Best;
or, The Three Ways of making a Happy World." Pp. 321. It was republished in London, in 1856, with an Introduction by the Rev. Dr. Candlish, of Edinburgh.




296     WVHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
earthly taste from the soil they run through. In connexion with
what you say about the Eucharist, I have some notions about the
other sacraments, (as we call them.) Do we not, in our squabbles
about the amount of water, &c., lose sight of one great intent of
the ordinance? viz., the public avowal of any person as a leader,
or as worthy of being accredited. In this sense proselytes were
baptized long before Christ. And I believe the word is often
used chiefly in this sense, just as we use subscription. Thus
Christ was himself baptized: i. e. he acknowledged John's mission. So Mark xvi. 16, He that believeth, and is baptized, &c.
Compare Rom. vi. 3, "baptized," ELs Xpto-Lov Iqoovv; 1 Cor. i. 13,
"were ye baptized,",E1& r o'voma HIavXoiv; 1 Cor. i. 15,.1 Cor. x. 2,
"baptized," Ets -ov Mcovo-qv. Not that I doubt the symbolical
meaning, but I see great force in such passages when viewed in
immediate connexionl with the idea of " yielding oneself a disciple." The Oxfordl notions on these subjects have never made one
sore place in my whole surface: most errors do, until I am
armed afiesh by the study of the questions. The attempt of the
Tracts to throw a venerable mystic halo about the pedigree of
their Nag's hIead Succession is really farcical.
PRINCETON, AJarch 21, 1840.
[After declining an appointment to preach the annual sermon
for the American Sunday School Union, in 1May.]  It is- with
much pain that I bring myself to say the aforesaid. But I am
sincere in it. I am conscious of no special ability on set occasions; I suffer distresses, which to many would be inconceivable,
while such an engagement is pending. The season also is one
when I wish not to lade myself with labour. Next week I have
to preach the ordination sermon of a foreign missionary ['Wm.
H. McAuley, at Kingston, March 25.]  The week after is our
examination. Then the vacation, in which I ought to go to Virginia. I see by the New Orleans papers that [Rev. John] Breckinridge is abused as making many converts, producing excitement, thinning theatres, &c.  Good sign.  Rose (the black
girl) died last night in great peace and holy joy. Though there
is not much to quote, I never attended a more satisfactory deathbed, (I take in two or three months.)  There are here two young
men, not long in their majority, the sole relics of a respectable
Quaker family. They are farmers, and educatec, and both tottering over the grave with consumption.  The best is, they are
lovely Christians, full of heavenly hope; now members of Mr.
Hare's church, but bred Quakers. A grand book might be
made (for the English market) out of a full and fair account of
the New Harmony (Owenite) Institute in the West. Say and




1833-1844..297
McCulloch, and some other men, could tell some good stories of
Socialism. It would sell in England and do much to cripple
Owen. I am and we are thine and yourn, J. W. A. & Co.
PRINCETON, Mcarch 31, 1840.
Have you arrived at that stage of ministerial experience at
which one receives anonymous letters, telling him to preach this,
or preach that? I got one to-day; I suppose from a woman, as
every other word was underscored. After the acquittal of
Wood, [for murder of daughter on plea of insanity,] I suppose
insane murderers will increase in Pennsylvania. Such things,
no doubt, go into the account of national sins.: I hope there is a
change working among the Africans of this vicinity, and they
are very numerous, in regard to the Colonization Society. Their
prejudices have been mighty, but since Peter Harris writes to
them about Africa,:they have to admit some things which they
once denied. Two of the best educated among them are going
to take the African Repository, and one of these is willing to go
out and see for himself. My father, who has this more at heart
than any thing in the world, is writing a series in the Newark
paper. He has had a large history of Colonization ready for the
press more than a year. IHe regards the experiment as tried,
and the foundation as firmly laid, and thinks repression (as to
emigration) is more necessary than stimulation. I perceive
Buxton founds his last hope on the colonizing plan, and you may
see by the' "Record " that a new paper is set up in London,
called " The African Colonizer."  Do you know that we have a
whole family of pure Malays living here? They were brought
here by Van Polanen, a Dutch gentleman, who was governor of
Batavia. The children are all grown. Let me say something
to you about Facts.  One authentic fact is a great thing. There
is a life and power in fact, which is not in fiction. They are
more striking than fiction. In reading a book, you find yourself suddenly arrested by certain statements, just as in hearing
the noises. of children you are perhaps little moved till the
sounds form themselves into a tune. These passages we often
find to be facts. The best characters in Scott's Novels and
Crabbe's Poems, are from  real life. In religious things, no
genuine record of a soul's history, or of any segment of it, is unimportant. God's way of working is always marked and selfconsistent. In a real history, I care not of what, the parts hang
together in a definite relation like the limbs in a human body, or
the features in a face; the connexion in a fiction is often forced
and sometimes impossible. Corollary. 1. We ought to keep
an eye open perpetually for religious facts. 2. We ought to
VOL. I. — 3*




298     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
record them. 3. ~We ought to record them with great care, in
cases where the enormity of the transaction, or some delicacy
of circumnstance, absolutely forbids their publication at present.
These are the very facts which are often most striking and valuable. Lay them  by, and a year or two hence, they may be
brought out with much force. 4. Ministers ought to keep a
record of " cases " in their pastoral practice. That they do not,
either mentally or verbally, argues a certain skepticism as to the
reality or moment of the exercises. These thoughts have come
on me with increased impression within a short time; and as I
have -lost some fifteen years' use of them; I give them over to
you. I think more of [Dr. E. D.] Griffin's sermons than I expected. They have that sort of power which arises from the
extirpation of superfluous words, in a very. remarkable degree.
In most cases I like the-doctrine; always bearing in mindthat
they are avowedly awakening sermons.  We have two Cherokees in College.  One of them I taught eight weeks, without
knowing that he had any thing of the red-man about him. As
you are not near enough to me to give me your old coats, you
may give me old notions instead; as an encouragement, here are
some of mine: Thie Power of Christian Love is a great subject.
"Love is Power," was Dr. J. H. Rice's motto.  "Light and
Love " is Justin Edwards's. In managing my children, in rebuking my servants, in quelling refractory boys, in every thing great
and small, I find that want of love causes failure.' Often, for the
moment, every thing seems against this; but events always
bring me back to it. I hope I have more disposition to yield
and give up even rights, for love's sake; but we are dreadfully
infested in the church with a sort of feudal honour, which raises
itself by the side of Christian principle. For example: I am
insulted. Christianity says Sqffer it; Chivalry says Resent it;
at least slhew tOhat you feel it. How common in fashionable (??!)
Christian intercourse, and among  ministers in  ecclesiastical
bodies. After' an' hour or two in such scenes, how like springs
in the Zahara is it to read a chapter or two of the Life of Christ!
As I grow older as a parent, my views are changing fast as to
the degree of conformity to the world which we should allow in
our children. I am  horror-struck to count up the profligate
children of pious persons and even ministers. The door at
which those influences enter, which countervail parental instruction and example, I am persuaded, is yielding to the ways of good
society. By dress, books, and amusements, an atmosphere is
formed which is not, that of Christianity.  More than ever do I
feel that our families must stand in a kind but determined opposition to the fashions of the world, breasting the waves, like the




1833-1844.                      299
Eddystone Light House. And I have found nothing yet which
requires more courage and independence than to rise even a tittle,
but decidedly, above the par of the religious world around us.
Surely the way in which we commonly go on is not that way of
self-denial and sacrifice and cross-bearing which the New Testament talks of: " then is the offence of the Cross ceased."  Our
slender influence on the circle of our friends is often to be traced
to our leaving so little difference between us. I plead guilty to
every count. I am at a great loss what to do about the Temperance Question.  My sole difficulty is Pledge or no Pledge.
As to the Wrine Question, it has long seemed to me frivolous to
stand over the corpses of a thousand drunkards asking whether
their -brandy had water or wine in it. I am made up in mind
and conscience to. avoid the means of drunkenness in my family.
On this I have acted some months. We have dozens of young
men in and about Princeton who are drunk every little while,
and always on wine. Our students commonly begin on maltliquors. But I am not so clear as t.o the Pledge. I do not see
my way plain as to taking the high ground respecting morals,
which some do. And I abhor as hell the doctrine that our
blessed and omniscient Saviour can be conceived to have made
wine itgnorantly.  That the wine he made was intoxicating, I
believe as fully as I do that he miade it. Our students need an
example. I am really at a loss.  We need divine direction at
every step,and for want of seeking it, and waiting for His counsel,
(Ps. cvi. 13,) we so often'rush into errors.
PRINCETON, MONDAY AFTER PALM SUNDAY, AND FEAST OF }
ST. HERMENGILD ]MARTYR, 10th OF NISAN, 5600.
hMy edition of Luther's Letters contains 2324, and has no
Index of names; I may therefore err in some slight degree. I
find 14 letters to Jerome Weller, and have looked through them.
In no one do I find any thing resembling the advice about concubinage. The other matters are, no doubt, those which occur in
the letter of Nov. 6, 1530, in number 1322. Luther is advising
Weller about a dreadful hypochondria and despair, which is the
subject of several letters.  HIis words are as follows: "Et
quoties istis cogitationibus te vexaverit Diabolus, illice qusere
confabulationem hominum, aut largius bibe, aut jocare, nugare
ant aliquid hilarius facito. Est nonnunquam largius bibendum,
atque adeo peccatum aliquod faciendum in odium et contemtum,
diaboli, ne quid loci relinquamus illi, ut conscientiam  nobis
faciat de rebus levissimis, alioqul vincimur, si- nimis anxie
curaverimus ne quid peccemus.  Proinde, si quando dicet
Diiabolus, noli bibere, tu sic fac illi respondeas: atqui ab eam




300     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
causam maxime bibam, quod tu prohibes, atque adeo largius in
nomine Jesu Christi bibam. Sic semper contraria facienda sunt
eorum, que Satan vetat. Quid causae aliud esse censes, quod
ego sic meracius bibam, liberius confabuler, commesser saepius,
quam. ut ludam Diabolum ac vexem, qui me vexare et ludere
paraverat.  Utinama possem aliquid insigne peccati designare
modo ad eludendum Diabolum, ut intelligeret, me nullumn peccatum agnoscere ac me nullius peccati mihi esse conscium.  Omnino totus decalogus amovendus est nobis ex oculis et animo,
nobis, inqualn quos sic petit ae vescat Diabolus."  [Dr. Martin
Luther's Briefe, u. s. w., ed. De Wette, Berlin, 1827, vol. iv., p.
188.]  I ought to say that I have found nothing-approaching to the
ignorant rashness of this in any other part of his correspondence.
While we are upon casuistry, I wish to make a stricture on
your canon, that "a man ought not to write cand publish aught
which he would -not say ore tenzus."  I think I once before said,
and I still think, that the rule is unsound. It should read thus:
"which he might not lawfully say ore tenus."  Our duty, it
strikes me, is in no degree dependent on our willingness to do
this or that. One man may be uncharitable in boldly saying one
thing, and another man may be uncharitable in timidly withholding another thing. --  would say many a thing which
neither you nor I would utter. - Many a man would say to another's face, what he would not print. I have known the grossest
calumnies justified by people's adding, " I say nothing behind his
back which I would not say before his face; " it was so, but it
only proved that effrontery was added to injustice. The true
question should be, I think, "Is it a duty to the public to say so
and so? is it true? can it be said charitably?"  In point of fact,
no doubt most of -the hard things said are uncharitable.
I think exactly as you do about [Rev. John] Newton's Letters
and Conversation; his other works seem to me of little value in
comparison. We have had a very interesting visit from  the
Rev. Dr. Lang of the "Kirk,". from Sydney, New South Wales.
Very:heavy in the pulpit, but amazingly interesting in private.
He has had an Odyssey of voyages for that colony, and its
religious interests. I am struck and fired with the greatness of
the field. I wish you may talk with him. What an opening
for Sunday School Books! Free colonists are pouring in, firom
the better class of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians. Last year
15,000 went out. Sydney has 30,000 inhabitants, and is a very
beautiful city. He thinks New Zealand will certainly be colonized by England, and be a great Austral Britain. See how
analogous to Great Britain it is on the globe, antipodal, insu



1833-1844.                     301
lar, &c. My mind expands when I look at the mighty conquests
of our language. If we could only pour in the gospel with this
tide of conquest and colonization! Since, in our day, God so
signally blesses colonies for the spread of civilization, ought we
not to follow the lead of Providence, and strike in as much as
possible with the divine plan? The hope of great effects is
more reasonable from such efforts than from insulated assaults on
the mass of heathenism. It is the difference between firing a
ball against a walled town, and entering a great breach with a
victorous army. Fact 34. An alligator lived more than six
months in our Museum with nothing but cold water; mention to
the Temp. Society, before Lent is out. Fact 35. We have had
several sorts of common snakes, domiciliated for days together,
in our yard, and I and my child have handled them freely without being hurt. We dedicated our [Presbyterian] new African
meeting-house yesterday. A pleasant "season," and really delightful singing. Eli Smith is here; he strikes me, as on former
occasions, as a man of the first class of minds, always direct,
clear, and decided in what he utters.
PRINCETON, M-ay 4, 1840.
I have been endeavouring to attend to a little direct ministerial duty this vacation, at Cranbury, Freehold, and Trenton,
whence I am this day returned.:At Cranibury they now have
two new church buildings.  At Freeholdl I found a very pleasant
state of things.      declares to me that he does not know
of a man, or woman, or child, (of suitable age,) whom he has not
recently talked to in the most direct manner on the state of his
or her, soul; generally with prayer, and, in some instances,
repeatedly.. About 40 are hopeful converts, and the place is
small. — There. is also a revival in Mr. Webster's' church, Middletown Point, another feeble church, but greatly strengthened by
the awakening of the leading men in the town. Also a struggling.little. congregation at Upper Freehold [Betts's] has had a
similar ingathering.  And the old [Tennent] Church of Freehold, has added perhaps 40-50. In all these places the work
is going on in as healthful a way as I have ever yet seen, though
not without some things which make me indulge painful serup]es
as to the plan;of perpetual meetings. Mr. Yeomans has done
wonders in Trenton, as to temporalities. I do not suppose $20,000 were ever laid out more for the adorning of a city, than in
the New. Presbyterian church there. Internally it is certainly
the pleasantest place of worship I ever was in. A new organ
has just been installed, and Dr. Ewing is the organist. It is




302     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
worthy of note that within two years the following churches in
our Presbytery have erected new and convenient churches, viz.,
Trenton, New Brunswick, Cranbury (2), Freehold, Princeton,
Dutch Neck, Nottingham; Bound Brook a little before this
period built anew, and Ewing, Pennington, and Allentown, have
turned their old edifices inside out. Our meeting of Presbytery
was a very pleasing one, and excited good hopes. The Mormons, however, are making serious progress within our bounds.
At Thom's River they have about 40 converts, quite substantial
people. They profess to speak with tongues, and to work
miracles, believe in baptismal regeneration and immersion-are
high-church, as thinking none salvable but themselves-hold to
the divine legation of Joe Smith, who has been in Monmouth.
They make mnuch use of singing. It is a dangerous feature of
their system, that they talk almost always in secret with one
another, about their peculiarities, and not to the uninitiated.
Their chief man at present is named Rigdon. Their chief book
is the " Book of: Mormon," which I have seen. They also have
"The Warning Voice," by one Winchester; who has been in
Philadelphia. Some of their books they are said to conceal very
carefully. They always dip at night. I dined at a house where
I met an old lady named Cubberly, who had been with me to a
long service, in a heavy rain, at the age of 91. I-Ier descendants,
she said, are 170. The Seminary examination begins to-day.
I am (on dit) unanimously called to the pastoral care of the
Hanover [or College Church] Prince Edward County, Virginia.
I think as you do of Davies. The completest life I know of, is in
Dr. J. I-I. Rice's Lit. and Evang. Magazine. With a little pruning, I think his sermons are perhaps the best extant; and even
the exuberance would scarcely be felt in an impassioned speaker
such as he was. Everywhere in Virginia he has left his track
in the conversion of leading men and women, whose children
and grandchildren remain. Read the Life of Rev. Devereux
-Jarratt, an Episcopal minister; it contains much interesting
about Davies. See also Gillie.s's Collections, a book which,
somewhat abridged, the Board [of Publcation] ought to publish.
has no family-talent, [as a pastor,] which, after all, I
am repentant enough to think at least half the matter. What
he attempts he carries through, but he attempts nothing warm.
I think a large portion of our churches are in a good state of
preparation for awakening measures, especially in the county of
Monmouth; which, by marl, is becoming the richest, after having
been the poorest county in New Jersey. Our county of Mercer
has just erected a court-house in South-Trenton; which, I suppose, is equalled by no similar county building (out of great




1833 —1844.                     303
cities) in America. It is -a beautiful Ionic building, and costs
$50,000.
PRINCETON, May 5, 1840.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary for me to say that I have, as yet,
no official and incontestable evidence of the call I mentioned, to
Prince Edward. It is a good living, and in the choice part of Virginia. The College and Seminary always form part of the congregation. I am  in pain to know what is my duty. I have
always sat in my present chair with a feeling that it was right
only as a refuge during ill-health. At present, through great
mercy, I am perhaps only for a short interval, in the enjoyment
of the best health I have had since I left College. I think I can
say, ex aninzo, I wish to go where I may most fully exhaust my
talents, quantulacunque sint, in the service of Christ. It may
seem strange to you, that no invitation has shaken me more.'
Meekness seems in many minds to be confounded with
imbecility, indecision, or fear; and I own that, in point of fact,
it too seldom escapes some measure of pusillanimity; but if
we could have:the magnanimous love of Christ, or of Paul,
or of John —how it would attract, and govern!
I am inclined to hope that the Assembly will be conservative.
Such seems to me the natural tendency of things. As no great
church-crisis exists, many Presbyteries will feel free to send
moderate men, whom they have respected all along, but whom
they durst not send during the conflict.
The cold of this day threatens to bring on a frost, which will
perhaps destroy our fruit, and nip my bunch-beans. I have
begun to take my usual pleasures in the garden, an enjoyment
discovered by me too late, but one which grows in my esteem.'s daughter, aged 5 years, reads every book which a girl
of 16 would do, tales and novels included. She is quite forward
in French. I am drivelling this stuff out after 10 at night: 1
had better prepare my head and heart for the pillow, so " manumu
de tabula."  Good night.
PRINCETON, JUe26 4, 1840.
I think I would rather write Baxter's English, than any I
know, though I would not wish to write always what he has
done. I-Ie well describes his own style: "M May I speak pertinently, plainly, piercingly, and somewhat properly, I have
enough."  (Premonition to Saints' Rest.)  -Ie was not afraid
of idioms, the real strength and glory of a language, and espeThe call was declined.




304     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
cially of ours. The quality of plain, straightforward, marketEnglish is rare in books. It is somewhat dangerous for us cisatlantics to attempt, for in becoming idiomatic we become
provincial, witness Finney. But read Bunyan, Fuller, Swift,
Cobbet, Hare, [" Sermons to a Country Congregation," 1838,]
and you will see what I mean. This was, after all, what was
meant by Attic Greek as distinguished from the KOLV7 8LaXEKToS:
and Attic salt was the very sort of wit which circulated among
Athenian hucksters, and which we find in Fuller and Charles
Lamb. There was great wisdom in making the speech of the
people the standard of good Greek, and great advantage in
being so small a State. If you have never done it, don't fail to
read the " Rest," the " Call," and the "' Gildas Salvianus," as he
wrote them, and free from  the emasculations of Miethodist
abridgers,- and do it in Duncan's impression, London, 23 vols.,
1830. It would be a good notion to excerpt and reprint some
of the noble passages of the " Saints' Rest " which have been
omitted in the abridgment. With all my admiration of Baxter's
parenetic writings, I must say that he: seems to me never to
get upon a doctrinal point without doing mischief. Except in the
schoolmen, (whom he greatly studied,) I have never seen such
subtilty of distinctions. For a good specimen (as I suppose)
of his pulpit prayers, see his " Dying Thoughts," vol. 1S, p. 413
and seq. As you seem  to have acquired. a little interest in
Samuel Davies, (whose name was always pronounced Davis,) I
will add these items: I was told by Mrs. Dr. J. Woodhull,
daughter of Gilbert Tennent, that he was very attentive to his
dress, so as to excite much observation, and always had a ring
on his finger, and a gold-headed cane. I was told the same thing
by an aunt of my fatther's. My mother has heard it said in her
father's house, that IMr. Davies used to say that he wore this
ring to remind him of eternity-without beginning and without
end. I have a M:S. journal of Col. James Gordon, of Lancaster
co., Va., who married Gen. [and President] Harrison's aunt, and
whose daughter Dr. Waddel married. The nanmes of Davies,
Whitefield, and Waddel, often occur on the same page, and the
places, and times, and texts of all their preachings are given.
The amount of labours performed by Va. ministers in that day
was amazing. You remenmber the affecting remarks of Davies
about his little ones; several of them lived ungodly. In his
manuscript journal he complains of great harshness and jealousy
on the part of Gilbert Tennent, while they were in England.
Do not fail to get hold of the life of Devereux Jarratt. It will
give you a lively idea of those times. I know very well a
daughter of Mr. Jarratt's, and my father knew the man him



1833-1844.                       305
self. He was "a speckled bird" among the Churchmen of
that day.
PRINCETON, June 10, 1840.
The religious prospects of the University of Virginia are
really encouraging. It seems as if Providence was throwing
contempt on old Jefferson's ashes. I have lately visited Mrs., who is on her death-bed with consumption; I could
scarcely keep from  envying her.  When I see a Christian die I
lose my fears.  It is grand impolicy in -     to print any of
his sermons. - " It is as easy to paint fire (says old Gurnall) with
the heat, as with pen and ink to commit that to paper which
occurs in preaching. There is as much difference between a
sermon in the pulpit, and printed in a book, as between milk in
the warm  breast, and in a sucking-bottle."  It may not be so
with such preachers as    - or -, whose discourses have
sometimes been preached in the pulpit, then delivered at a coinmencement, then published in the   —, and then issued as the
Preface to a work. In my notion a sermon is a sermon, and
nothing else; if you make it with any thing ulterior in view,
you destroy it as a sermon.  It is death to a good sermon, as to
a good love-letter, to publish it. It is dead beer, sour chanmpagne, cold coffee, an effete cigar, a daguerrotype portrait.
I have lately re-read Southey's Thalaba; it is certainly a
wonderful poem, though the freshness and simplicity of the first
two cantos are not sustained.
I beg to be presented to   -    and your alnliable babes,
and am, with all the et ceteras,
Yours and theirs.
PRINCETON, Jugne 22, 1840.
I have many independent sources of evidence showing that
evangelical religion is greatly advancing in Virginia under the
labours of Episcopalians.  Most of their clergy are good and
hard-working'-nen. The Alexandria Seminary has' been a great
blessing to them.  As to God forbid' I know of no case such as
you ask about; it is, however, hazardous to assert a negative.  I
have looked at the Hebrew  of. all the places mentioned by
Cruden, and the word is uniformly %nh,,m literally ad profanmc,
"i. e. (says Gesenius) absit, vox detestantis."  Respecting  the
New Testament phrase by all means read what Dr. Hodlge
says on'}omans iii. 4. " The Scriptures," says he, " do not
authorize such a use of the name of God," &c. An expurgated
I The translation of j -/EVYOLTO in our version.




3006    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PPiINCETON COLLEGE.
edition of Jeremny Taylor's TIoly Living and Dying would be
one of the loveliest books in the language. I mean such expurgation as Howard Malcom has effected in Law's Serious Call.
Wie cann[ot set too many such books afloat. Some of the Psalms
of David might be rendered into blank verse, with better effect
than in rhyme. Such a one is the 18th.  De Wette's German
translation of them makes many passages more clear by exchanging future tenses for present or past. Anagram by  -;
Old Tij2ipecaMzoe=Peopfle can doloit. Every year I am more and
more surprised, in tracing the course of our College Alumni, to
see how maany thoughtless, wild, and even wicked young men,
(especially of the South,) who have left us without any sign
of good, become true Christians in the course -of a few years at
home. Even of cases which I know, I think I could enumerate
thirty or forty. This is really encouraging, and ought to be
mentioned as an offset to the real and imaginary dangers and
evils of a public education. I seriously think, after solme inquiry,
that where one piously-bred boy is corrupted, five neglected
receive the seeds of divine truth.  If we were faithful, how
many such instances would there be!  What an amount of
rhetorical passion    -  infuses into his speeches: I don't
know any of our orators who ventures upon so much, nor any
of our agents who has kept alive his enthusiasm so long for one
cause. It is pleasing to observe how hired agents become devoted
to a single charity heart and soul, and then equally devoted to
another. I am not at all pleased with -'s Critique. It is
full of the slang of the pseudo-German school, even to such
words as Stland-poizt, (Standpunkt:) why not call a glove a
cHand-shoe, (Hand-schuh,) as the Germans do?  I am more and
more convinced that no man need regret the extremest ignorance
of every German metaphysician that has written.
I have just opened the Record of May 13, which contains
Packard's speech. HeI seems to have been well received, with
the exception of the usual blackguardism  of the next speaker
about slavery. If I should ever speak on British Boards, I think
that I would forestall that by blazing away beforehand against
the British for having introduced slavery among us, and kept up
the slave-trade so many years. It is plain that the report of the
"worthy gentleman's " speech is defective in the extreme. The
bones of old Boney [in Paris] will be as really adclored as ever any
relies were. The simziotigre, as Alfieri called the French, will
make a wonderful work over them. I doubt whether France contains in it as honest a man as Wellington; but I confess to a
violent antipathy to the great nation.  Except from necessity,
they seem to me to be the same people they were during the




1833 —1844.                     307
Revolution.  What a blessing it is to belong to the Teutonic
race! The more I see of the black-eyed races of the South of
Europe, the less I respect them. Next to Britain I would live
in Prussia.  Last year we had 90 quarts of strawberries; this
year not nine, the season being just done. The last article of
the Edinburgh Review for April on the " State of Parties " is
fine reading —no doubt by "Tom " Macaulay. It is very unjust,
however, in many particulars.  I see the General Assembly of
Scotland have gone very strongly against Lord Aberdeen's Bill;
no doubt rightly, but, I apprehend, to the ruin of their establishment.  I am  much struck with the tone of piety which
pervades Dr. Chalmers's writings on the subject. I am  not
without reasons for thinking that the last sermon I preached to
the blacks was the means of awakening the only white person
present. Strange are the ways of Providence!  I think it is.too much our way to rank modern philosophers who reject the
Gospel, with ancient sages who did not know it. But if Plato
is in hell —how far nearer absence of pain must he be than
Gibbon! the former having almost guessed at truth without
revelation, the latter, after a perfect education in it, having rejected it! The grand error of free-thinkers, and that which, I
think, should be pressed home upon them, is their obstinate persistency in going blindfold when a light from heaven is offered
to them. Suppose a man should profess to doubt all the acknowledged principles of chemistry and blow himself up, by going into
a foul mine, when a thousand safety-lamps had been offered to
him. Our minds are too often disposed to regard that as venial,
which God regards as heinous.  Perhaps the very rejection of
such a book as the Bible, even without a word of external evidence, is proof positive of enmity to God. Pride of understanding ruins learned men by hundreds and thousands; it is
destroying, I fear, all the philosophers of Germany. To become
as little children is a great attainment.  May it be ours! It
evidently means a great deal. Especially it means faiths: what
is credulity in our babe, towards us, is fcith in us, towards
God. After this page of homily, I allow you to have a recess
for a few minutes.  Look at that hard place, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
De WVette translates, and as I think in exact accordance with the
Hebrew:' Yea, and is not my house so, before God?  " &c.,
&c., &c. "Yea, all my salvation and all my desire, will he not
make it grow? "  In verse 17 of the same chap., and in 1 Chr.
xi. 19, the phrase is not equivalent to our "God-forbid,' but
rather (1) " Be it far from me, Jehovah! " (2) "Be it far from
me, from God."  Some little chronological tables might with




308     WITILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
advantage be dispersed over a Bible; some light from the
following neglected relationships: viz.:
Jesse
Abigail             DAVID               Zeruiah
Amasa        Joab          Asahel          Abishai
A few self-made charts of this kind tracing out the relations
mentioned in Scripture, would, by degrees, enlarge and distinct-ify
(we need a word) a man's historical knowledge of Scripture.
IETalf the readers do not know whether Zeruiah was male or
fellmale.
PRINCETON, July 1, 1840.
Bishop Chase (in the "Record") talks of moneys " rising of"
so many dollars! Show me an English authority for " over ten
thousand dollars!"  Yet Walter Scott says, "I have done a
snonstrous sight of work," (Diary, July 13, 1826;) this I thought
a Philadelphianism.  "Leave me alone," I never heard but in
your town; it is a German idiom exact; " Lassen mich allein."
We have had a visit from -—, who is zealous about a prize
tract just from England, which demonstrates that the Scripture
wine was not intoxicating. He says Louis Philippe told him
he would gladly sign the teetotal pledge, but that he feared his
subjects would say he was a fool.  Tliat is the thing they will
never say of him, even if they shed his blood on Napoleon's
ashes. - I do not much expect to be at Trenton; we expect to
have a Colonization effort here on that day. The iron is now
hot, and the Buxton influence should be driven forwards with all
power while it lasts. My mind has run very much lately on
Colonization  (in general) as God's means of civilizing and
Christianizing the world, and on the part which the Anglo-Saxon
race is taking. From — -'s letters, as from the British papers, I see how far worse, after all, the spirit of party is in England than here. HIow it is embittered by politics, by the Establishment, by the feeling of rank, and by the admitted heats and
outbreaks of the platform! Would it be possible for any
American Committee or Board to treat any accredited British
agent as every American ditto is treated there, by some or
other of them? I trow not.




1833-1844.                      309
Give my kindest regards to  -- and the rest of your
white family, as they say inl Virginia, to distinguish from a
man's black ditto, which is sometimes quite patriarchal.
I am, was, have been, had been, shall be, &c., through all the
tenses,                        Yours.
PRINCETON, July 22, 1840.
I enclose with this the MS. of Lame John.l It was begun
under the title of Lame Jack, which I greatly prefer, but the re
semblance to Miss Edgeworth's Lamne Jervas, and Capt. Mar
ryat's Poor Jack, made me fear to add a third great work of
the sort.
No book of mine has less plot or less fiction. Almost every
page is a copy of scenes and incidents under my eye at the time
of writing, or remembered by me. If I do not err, this copying
of real life will interest young readers.
Believe me very respectfully, Yours and Theirs, (sc. the unknown Committee, which is not unlike the Chkambre -iztrouvable
of the French Revolution,) and am, et cetera,
JAMES ALAXANDREW,
as my carpenter spells the name.
PRINCETON, JTly, 1840.
Bishops abound.  Last Sundclay we had Samuel Michigan,
yestreen Levi North Carolina, next week we are to have Charles
Ohio. The fourth passed without any thing very remarkable,
except a Colonization meeting at which Capt. Stockton spoke and
Langdon Cheves attended. The Captain is admirable in elocution and gesture.  A knifegrinder from Worcestershire, speaking
to me yesterday of the sects in this country, said literatimz: " you
seem to have a great many of the Prispeterians, and also of the
Priscotarians."  Our blackberry woman has come to an estate
in France; name Ancillon: we have eaten her dewberries within
the week. A girl applied to us as child's nurse a week or two
ago; last week she fell out of a tree and was killed. Tell me,
if you know, who the Mr. Peter is, who: translated Schiller's
William Tell, lately published by Perkins.2
So far as I know there is no book in defence of Christianity
extant in French, of a kind to meet French infidels, and be circulated in France where the need is greatest. -My father has
had an urgent demand this week for any thing of the sort in
French or Spanish, in a letter from a native Spaniard, nephew
"Lame John; or, the Charitable Poor Man." Published 1840. Pp. 137.
2 He was the British Consul in Philadelphia.




310     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
of a Romish priest.  Can we neglect this without sin? My
father has received innumerable letters from persons converted
as well as convinced by his " Evidences; " one last week from
an Episcopal clergyman.
PRINCETON, August, 1840.
Read a grand article on Style in the July Blackwood. Do your
children get a chance to fly kites? it is a very graceful and interesting pastime. Among the Tract Society's volumes is the
Life of. I must in candour say it is a worthless book.
It is such prima facie, but doubly so to us who intimately knew
the subject of the memoir for years.  He was a very warmhearted Christian, but as great a mixture of weakness, imprudence, and pomposity as I ever saw in my life. Some of those
who loved him  most were most surprised and ashamed when
they saw` him made a lion of. Harris's Mammon and Abbott's
Youngo Christian seem to me very objectionable.  Most of their
[Tract Society's] other permanent volumes I think good. I
stand astonished at the extent of their circulation.  What an engine! IWe are (our house) about equidistant fromli three most
sage musicians-an owl which perches and screeches every evening in Dr. IHodge's trees, and two of Elliot's " animals" [asses]
at Capt. Stockton's.  I never knew fully before what braying
meant.  Come out before the season is over. Signora Upupa is
engaged for a few nights only, and one of the As.nelle is lately
confined.  How is a man ever to be sure how another man's
name is spelt? Shakspeare's is three different ways in his autograph will. In preparing an article, I had scruples about " Sld-:
ney Smith; " found it with y in the Record, i in Lockhart's
Scott, and both i and y in John Murray's Byron, and got it
wrong at last. I have heard, and, I think,,  sayByron': the noble Lord himself rhymes it with iron and sirens.
Do you ever'read the Spectator?  Read it, by extracts,
with or to your daughter. It is crystal water after gutter ditto.
Some of Steele's are more racy English than Addison's.  What
pomp of American verbosity could express what follows, about
Westminster Abbey: "W hen I look upon the tombs of the
great every emotion of envy dies in me."
" The better vulgar "-a fine phrase of Warburton's.
I would subscribe two prices for a bona fide old-time Walshian gazette. I owe something to that man:
"But why then publish? Granville the polite
And Knowing Walsh would tell me I could write."
Pope.
It is some weeks since I was enabled to close the canon of




1833 —1844.                    311
the New Testamlent, having, in my small way, expounded the
whole ill course, at morning prayers. And I am sure I love the
book more for having so done. I have begun again.
Some of our wretched wags in College had a strolling painter
in the gallery, last Sunday, busy taking's likeness, while
he preached!
This evening is very cool; enough so, I guess, for a blanket.
A neighbour's child, 18 months old, has swallowed 15 percussion
caps, (invented, you know, by Forsyth, a Scotch clergyman.)
In private I have found forms of prayer very valuable. They
suggest wohat to pray for, which we may forget. I have thought
it would be good to make for one's self a liturcgy of stubjects; we
are so apt to forget. I-Have a book; put a general topic at top
of page; leave space to add particulars. Romaine, used to have
a list of friends, and prayed it over every Friday afternoon.
Sam [now Rev. S. D. Alexander] is going on Tuesday to
Sullivan co., N. Y., on the Erie railroad, as a Surveyor. lie is
a moral boy, but very careless. God grant him a new heart!
Some papistical books on Christian morals are, exceptis excipiendis, among the best I ever read. To-day I have been reading the "Spiritual Combat," a famous book among them, from
which I think I have derived real benefit. It is one of the most
original productions I ever perused.  Read any chapter of it,
and you will see what I mean. It is anonymous.
We have a very wide horizon where we now live, and surely
nothing of pyrotechny can equal the lightnings of this  evening.
Last night-moon shining —I stood by a fence, coming from
Dod's, and speculated a colt, as I thought it, grazing in a pasture: it came right up to me, and lo it was an ass! Really
now, it was quite a noble creature of the kind.
I sometinmes find my evenings quite light and hilarious after
a very tort day.  This morning I attended a funeral, sat at
Dod's examen, heard a long recitation, and, after a bite, examined 76 fellows in Latin, came home exanimatus, drank three
cups of strong tea, played half an hour on a flute, and feel better
this moment than I did when I got up. What wonderful machines these are! Sometimes the grasshopper is a burden to me.
1 have been reading 0. A. Brownson's Olcarles ElU2zoodl, which
purports to be his own experience. No American book is better
written-the style, in places, is exquisite; but it is the deadliest
assault on religion; and though he does not quote a German
word, it is Kant-ism applied to American infidel politics. The
system is the more dangerous because it is alive; in this having
an unspeakable advantage over, the Unitarianism of ---- and
Co., which is corpse-like, and has never moved among the people.




312      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Tell       that I beseech him  to write an off-hand article
for the Repertory, on the subject he once touched in some letters; viz., the danger and folly of an un-religious Education for the
country. Let him fill it with his British recollections, &e. I-e
is precisely the man to do it.  The call is imperative, and this
is the nick of time. I wish I could make him know how earnestly
I desire this.' Both your Union and the Tract Society would
profit by it; and if he does it as he can, it may do more good
than a thousand sermons. Don't wait for method or references;
let him strike it off hot, and it will burn in the deeper. If this
is not our vocation just now, I know not what is.  I am afraid
the devil is getting hold of the common-school crank.
It is plain that the [London] Record has several writers of
its editorials. The man who writes on the Scotch church is truly
a powerful fellow. - When I read what he says (and he has confuted my foregoing conclusions on sundry points) I feel as if I
was in the gripe of a Cornish wrestler.
Lord Byron, in a paper of Strictures, written at Pavenna, in
1821, takes Campbell to task for misquoting Shakspeare, and
says   "_A tgeat poet quoti?ng anzother should be correct."  In the
very same article he designates Bacon as the "greatest-wisestmeanest of mankind."  The allusion is obvious, but the distich
of Pope runs thus:
" If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."
I wish you would attend one of our Final Examinations; indeed, I wish they were public.  Nothing could do so much justice to our methods: of teaching.  It lasts from  8 to 10 days;
hours 8 —12, and 2 —5.  Most of the subjects (about 16) are,
on the English-University plan, from  papers, embodying the
chief points of the whole subject; the same paper to each; not
seen before the moment; no book, reference, or communication
allowed.  Some of the best scholars answer every question in
full, writing 3 or 3-  hours at a stretch, and filling several sheets.
There is perfect silence, and it is a fine moral spectacle to see
70 odd young men so intensely employed.  Of course there are
many who do little or nothing; but the examination is absolutely fair, and the comparison between man and man exact. I
doubt not that our whole course of study will be more ftithful,
under the urgency of this motive. I will try to enclose such of
our papers as are printed, for a few are exhibited on a blackboard.  The paper is always a fresh one, and such as no chance
1 It was done in. an article of fifty-three pages in the Repertory of
July, 1841.




1833-1844.                      313
can enable any one to answer who has not some knowledge of
every portion, and exact knowledge of certain parts proposed.
I have received 78 answers to my examination-paper.  I will
send you a copy of the paper, and perhaps one of the answers.
The following question from Dod's examination paper of Juniors
is sent for Tom's use:
" Find the length of an are of the Tractory, its differential
equation being d -        y      Correct the integral on the
supposition that the are commences at the origin, where y = a."
A Simeon (Charles) here might be a great blessing: he
ought, however, to be disconnected with the college police.  Our
advices are like those of the Newgate ordinary..       Talk
filly with P,    about the religious-educationl-literature, (as
above,) for I think it the question of our age and land. If we
could leave that matter on its right foot, we might die. If I
were a raging, athletic, outdoor man, I would stake every thing
upon it. New England will do her own work, well or ill; but
who will do it for the non-New-England States?
I think you:are too severe upon the absconding clergy. The
thing is no doubt an abuse, as it now exists, but there is after all,
at the bottom, a real necessity for some recreation and change of
scene. Only it ought to be under some well-understood arrangement, so as to prevent this summer complaint of the people.
Why must all clergymen need winding lip at the same month?
Why need there be so much stiffless about not preaching in
another's pulpit?   VWhy not agree together and have a rotation
of Hejiras? This I don't understand. The source of the evil
in some of the best pastors, I suppose, is undue night-work during
the working season.
John F. Caruthers of Lexington is dead. Our large connexion in Rockbridge could not have met with a single loss so
serious. Ile was a man of extraordinary talent for business, and
of prudence unsurpassed, an elder, and a conscientious Christian.
I believe, long a Sunday School Superintendent.  Old Dr. Hillyer is dead also, a truly good old mlan. HI-ow beautiful is goodness! Fierce orthodoxy burns as well as warms, but Christlike
gentleness sheds life all around it.
CHARLOTTE COURnT HOUSE, VA., Oct. 27, 1840.
It is with great difficulty that I snatch an interval from excessive company to write you a letter, and I shall probably be
stopped before I get done. My wife, two boys, and nurse stopped at the University, [Charlottesville.]  Though they all were
somewhat better, they were not in a state to brave a land-journey
VOL I.-14




314     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
over mountains. Mr.   -'s carriage had been sent for us;
leaving, therefore, my family with Dr. [Prof. J. L.] Cabell, I
reached this place in four days. We had to lie by for heavy
storms. We got here last Thursday. We shall, if the Lord will,
meet at Judge Cabell's about the 6th prox. There has been a
great religous excitement here; about 105 converts of different
sects. Twenty of these have joined the Presbyterians. The
feeling extends on every side to neighbouring congregations.
The new measures are rife, but connected with old doctrine, except in the case of the Methodists.
I have met with B. W. Leigh, W. C. Rives, Alexander Rives,
Governor Barbour, and a few more of that class. I heard Rives
in Albemarle. He spoke three hours, and was very eloquent.
The Harrison cause is triumphant here. It is supported with a
high and dignified zeal, which I like better than the Tippecanoe
fury of our canaille in the cities. B. W. Leigh is an honest
statesman. I heard him  pronounce a most cordial, discriminating, and copious eulogy on the people of' Massachusetts.  The
most painful thing, in visiting this old slave-holding country, is
to see, after fifteen years' acquaintance, none of those nunicipal
and domestic improvements which strike one in the north. The
University is more of a place than I thought. Their professors
do more, especially in the way of lecture, than any I know.
Bonnycastle is a wonderful man for genius and learning. Tucker
is a man of elegant Engflish gentlenmanhood; just like Walsh
in the cast of his mind, and his talk. Each professor is bound,
under penalty, to deliver 132 lectures in the year. Library,
17,000 volumes. Annual appropriation from State $15,000.
After as good counsel as I can get, I am under the necessity of
declining the invitation of the Sunday School Union.
PRINCETON, November 18, 1840.
We all got home well, and found our house swept and garnished, and fires made, but no servants.  We are little better off
now, in the last particular. Mr. Crane went to drive a cow out
of his yard, and fell down dead. I am  anxious to make out a
statement, with reference to all our public charities, boards, &c., in
answer to these questions: 1. What is the amount of receipts,
yearly? 2. What part of this goes for expenses? i. e. is not laid
out'on the direct object.  3. What part of this sum  goes to
Agents, as salary or compensation? You have access to more
reports than I, and if you could amuse yourself on a rainy day,
by a few figures, you would please me. We have matriculated
63 new students, being more than we have ever received, so far
as I know, at so early a day. The Seminary has admitted 34,




1833-1844.                       315
also a large nuimber. Addison is this year lecturing on the whole
of the passages quoted from the Old Testamiient in the New.  I
learn that -.- and others came forth strongly against the A. S.
S. Union, and some of them  even against the Bible Society, at
the Synodical meeting at Wilkesbarre.  I learn also that very
large minorities in the two westernmost synods of New York refilse to join the New  School Assembly.  Perfectionism  and
Oberlinism are making stealthy but wide advances in that great
country.  I find all my binding 0. K. This symbol may be
variously rendered, viz., " O qu'est!" or, "Au quai."  Prof.
says the English laugh very much at the American and
Walkerian pronunciation of buoy; and that no Englishman ever
gives it any sound but that of boy, as the sailors do. I hear a
sleigh-bell, while I write, after dark; the mercury has been below
32~ all day.  One of our students, Frederick William  Mark,
died during the vacation at New York.  I-le was a Bavarian Jew.
PRINCETON, NovemZber 24, 1840.
The death of ]Mr. Davis at the Virginia University is a hor.
rible comment on the Southern, I may almost say American,
practice of using deadly weapons.' I parted with Davis at the
junction of the two railways, (he accompanied us from  Richmond,) on the Wednesday before the Friday on which he was
shot.  I-e was, I have every reason to think, a truly pious man,
of the Episcopal church.  As a professor he was one of their
best-a black-letter lawyer of great reading, and a good lecturer.
I think he married a grand-niece of Jefferson's.
PRINCETON, December 1, 1840.
I guess that will be versification enough for one sheet.2  Mr.
John Wray of the Seminary is to call some day this week for a
coat for me. Any message, cartel, paper, or what not, might by
said Wray be privily inserted into pocket of said coat, and then
will be conveyed to me, even though Mr. Wray meant only to
take raiment.  Tell Tom that Henry had a dead owl yesterday,
and started a live hare (rabbit) in the garden to-day.  The
severe cold drives animals near to their natural enemies.  My
brother Sam is hard at work in Orange co. Prof. Henry gets all
his winter butter at 16 cts. the pound, which is a clever thing in
him.  Numbers of the " air-tight stoves" coming into use here,
John A. G. Davis, Professor of Law, was shot by a student, as the
Professor was approaching him for the purpose of detecting him in disorderly conduct.
2 " A Christian Lyric," and " Lord, hear the Seaman's Cry," for the Sunday School Journal.




,316    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
(not I,) Dr. R., Dr. HT., Prof. -I., Prof. D., Dr. L.: wood
needn't be touched for half a day together-three-fourths of a
cord of wood take you through winter. Introductor of the same,
Dr.- John N. Campbell, of Albany. I consider Longfellow's
"Village' Blacksmith" the best American fugitive poelm I ever
read; and if I had a daughter of competency to get any thing by
heart, I would make her rehearse it to me while shaving,. (i. e.
while I was shaving.)  I - have a Scotch boy named Kenneth
MacKenzie, which means Kenneth the son of Kenzie; but he is
the son of Allan McKenzie, who gardens for me. -When I was
in Buckingliam, Va., I saw a stuffed pine snake, more than seven
feet long, and as thick at the thickest as my leg. It had been
killed on. the estate where I saw it: on the-same place I saw a
rattlesnake, which was showed to me by the lady who had killed
it.  I saw a goodlmany gold mines, but most of them are
" being" given up. The gold occurs in hard quartz, and the
thing is to get it out. The grinding is a terrible process, and no
flux has been'found yet. A poor Jew named Levon lectured (!)
here Sunday evening [oh! oh!1 a layman-highly recommended
by A- &c., &c. Pray, if Leeser is in town, decoy him off till
said Levon has exhibited. I gave him a coin, which twenty
Christians within half a mile deserve as much, and need more.
Hurrah for beggars! Vive la begatelle!
Dec. 2, 1840.- I left off at the bottom of-page 6, late last
night, for I can't do night-work; notwithstanding the excellent
rule of l/fiss Taylor, "Let each day's work be done by nfight."'
Vr Original Hymns for Sunday Schools. I have never seen any
decent hymns for children, but Watts's. I have heard say that
-    was desirous to enter on regular pastoral duty, and that
he would entertain kindly any vocation from.. Philadelphia;
whether in the place of such clergy as are pumped dry, or to
found a -new church by abstracting the best elders and Diveses
from two or three churches. Part of this, it now occurs to me,
I did not hear, but I as good as heard it-in a Masonic sense I
might swear I heard it.' As there is the greatest anxiety everywhere to know who nominated Harrison first, &c., &c., I beg you
to bear in mind, that I claim the honour of naming Chang and Eng,
Esqs., of Siam, the one for  President, the other for Vice President. Their claims arie manifest,'&c., &c. When next you pass
Frederick Brown's clruggery, please ask how they sell pyroligneous acid, such as is used for meat.  I'meanl to prepare my winter's bacon with it, at the suggestion of the Professors at the Va.
University, who have the best bacon I ever ate, without the ordinary plague and delay of smoking. As to " boughten" hams, to
use a Jersey phrase, I would not put a morsel in my head, save
from necessity.




1833-1844.                          317
PRINCETON, D)ecember 8, 1840.
Just thus far had I got in writing, when Dick brought your
letter of the 6th. Allow me to open it.... I thank you for
your care about the Kisterbock [stove]: the word has now become a noun-commonll. Our country is covered with- snow,
which will keep me for some time from the basin.  A sleigh just
called for me to call on Mrs. -.   There is something in bridal-dress which always reminds me of a corpse: white silk is a
very  ghastly thing.  The December No. of the Missionary
Herald is very interesting, especially in that part which concerns
the Nestorian mission.  But why should these Yankees be so
rank to introduce extempore prayer among the poor Nestorians, when they acknowledge that their liturgy is sound enough?
I have been reading some more of Luther's, and the Elector of
Saxony's letters, &c., about the time of the Diet: at Ratisbon,
1540, and the more I read, the more am I filled with unfeigned
acdmiration and love for those two heroic men.  They are like
the strong characters of the Bible-great lights-great shadesbut gigantic mind and heart-accomplishing a thousandfold more
for Christ in one lifetime than hundreds of us correct, cautious,
temperate  creatures.'   There is something  very  chaste and
It may not be an inappropriate note upon this sentiment to insert the
following lines written by Mr. Alexander near this time:
The power of grace has tempered into one
The strongest contraries beneath the sun;
Nor is there aught of work divine more great
Than the new creature in its altered state;
When by heaven's pencil on the soul are traced
The self-same lines by which the Lord is graced.
If all were softness, where were Christian might?
If all affection, where the reason's light?
If bold contention for the truth were all,
How could the spirit into meekness fall?
While trust and penitence together move,
Zeal dwells with quiet; action blends with love;
Nor contemplation though foretasting bliss,
In viewing that world fails to work in this.
The-mingling opposites, like rainbow hues,
Blend in one beam, and all discordance lose.'Tis God's own work, and every several grace,
Like gems in Aaron's breastplate, hath its place;
Each unto each reflects a lustrous hue,
Unlike yet joined, well-known yet ever new.
Each priceless when alone, but when thus set,
With mutual radiance fairer, costlier yet;
And all combining in a concord just,
To show divinity set forth in dust;
A thousand charms in one redeemed face,
All to the praise of glory and of grace.
Lord spread such harmony within this breast.
And draw thy lines till all be there exprest.




318'WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
charming in the cold brilliancy of these snowy moonlight nights.
Venus had a brilliancy greater than I remember. This morning
Itobserved a hawk of the largest kind making circles over our
lot, as if stress of weather had tamed him.
If " Lame John" be well received by the gracious Public, I will
probably follow it up with a story of which the hero will be the
lad Mark Lee [a character in "Lame John"] elevated to a
youthful country school-master. It will give occasion to show
ways of usefulness in that capacity, and especially to convey
many scriptural and other proper lessons to school-boys. The
thought occurred to me while writing the chapter about the
school. I have several bits of rhyme for your paper, but I refiain from troubling you with a commodity of which there is a
glut in the market.
The last chapter of " Ten-Thousand-a-Year," about the Rev.
Morphine Velvet, is capital. I wish it might be marked, and inwardly digested by all the clergy who are gaped after by the
self-supposed aristocracy.  Warren, if it is he, is certainly a
very powerful writer. Dr. Nettleton took tea with us, and talked inl his usual strong but somewhat tedious manner. Mr. Suydam, of New Brunswick, has been missing for some days. [He
had been murdered.]  I learn he was President of the Bank, and
a member of the Dutch church, and of unblemished reputation.
IHe disappeared on Thanksgiving Day, Dec. 3, left his house saying he was going to the bank, and would be back to accompany
his wife to church-did not even take his overcoat. The canal
has been dragged without success; and his family have not the
slightest clew. I doubt not the "root of all evil" is somehow or
other the root of this. You are Dutch enough, I suppose, to know
the pronunciation of this common name-Sid-dam.  The true
Dutch pronunciation is Soi-dam.  Prof. HI. says the statistics of health show that the use of coal, or heated air from furnaces, is very deleterious; that the gases which sometimes escape are noxious, especially some which come off last, and without smell.  I can't but think of poor "6 Accum," who found
every table strewed with " culinary poisons."  We cannot make
ourselves immortal; and it would be well if we could look more
at what is beyond. Capt. David Hunter and wife are here —he
is a Princetonian —mentioned in Murray's (the Englishman's)
travels. His wife-a fine woman-is noted for having, in the
Far West, accompanied her husband 700 miles on horseback.
They now live at Chicago.  Present me truly to your wife
and young ones, and to your mother and family, and am,
yours, &c.,                                   J. W. A.




1833-1844.                      319
PRINCETON,.December 16, 1840.
I don't think I can do any longer without a scrap-book: so
many things do I lose which I have cut fromur the papers; valuable authorities, &e. Will you look me out one? I hope there
is nothing poisonous about the proofs you sent me of     -,
they have a scent that is pharmaceutical in a high degree.
Please send me "The Practical Spelling Book, with Reading
Lessons," by Gallaudet and Hooker, published at Hartford.
No news yet of the Kisterbock, at the basin; but they are horribly neglectful there, as all country officials are about every
thing. Comfort yourself, among some crosses, that when you
want any thing got, or any thing done, you canll have it in less than
three weeks. A joiner has been a month making me a small
box, and a shoemaker two weeks making a pair of shoes. I regard myself as well used [as to his publications] from beginning
to end, except by the engraver.  Qu. Did he ever see a real
tree? do walk him out of that attic some Saturday afternoon as
far as the State I-ouse vard: show him the trunk of a tree, and
give him a lesson. Mo'e and more do I trace disease, especially
of the young, headaches, &c., to bad venlilation.  Air may be
very bad even if it don't stink. Mr. HV-    has had the most
astonishing relief from nausea, vertigo, &co, since he opened all
the sashes of his lecture room at hours when the class is out.
Inquire about this at schools.  We take great care about a little
wet feet, yet we drink air that is the excrement of hundreds of
foul lungs. I don't file      [a periodical] though I should
like to rasp him. I'll send one or two.  I know of five or six
men who are silently wearing out life in most devoted labour
among the slaves. Slavery must and will end; I hope peaceably; but, anyhow, we ought to save the souls of this generation. There are 1,700 black Baptist communicants in Richmond.
Of these as many are elect souls, I believe, as of any 1,700 of
white Baptists, taken at random.  Two infants (one a brother of
a boy that lives with us) have been badly scalded by pulling,
the one a tea-pot, the other a coffee-pot, over them. The former
one has entirely lost its eyes: a singular coincidence in the same
place and week. Nothing but a special Divine guardianship
keeps our little ones from daily dangers.
PRINCETON, -December 22, 1840.
Have you seen " Christian Ballads?" (!) Such is the produce of a ritual religion. There is indeed (though mlluch poetry)
no trace of religion, except the religion of a babe or a bell-ringer,
a sceneshifter or a verger. I counted more than fifty several
places about " bells," " chimes," and the like: e. y.:




32~0     WVHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
" The sun is up betimes,
And the dappled East is blushing,
And the bonny matin chimes,
They are gushing-Christians-gushing."
P. 66.
HIe is surplice-smitten.  It is on every few pages.  Though
he affects old English, he is ignorant that enow  is the old
plural of enou'gh.  In all mny reading I never met with so
sickening a comment on a system.  Give me the roughest old
Scotch Irish seceder that ever croaked Rouse's psalms, rather
than such foppish, puling, mawkish, water-gruel, ascetic churchdandies.
These reverses of the British in Scinde and-Beloochistan were
very distinctly predicted in the last Blackwood before the news
Canme.
"Fencing the tables " is carried, in my opinion, to an Unscriptural height.  I am also persuaded that our church is running into a great error, in disallowing the membership of baptized persons who are not communicants.  Our book, and the
practice of all the Reformed Churches, (New England excepted,)
is plain enough.
O how much more is the presumption in favour of Catholic
Christianity than of those who cry with every breath " the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," whether Papists,
Oxonians, Baptists, or Separatists! IHow much more exercise of
Christian tempers with the former than the latter! I can get
along with a Quaker, but not with a bigot.
PRINCETON, JZanuary 1, 1841.
A Methodist preacher called on my father oil Christmas, and
informed  him  that he was unconverted, exhorted him, &c.  If
you had been much among the Baptist Antinomians of Virginia,
you would have been less amazed at the case of the woman and
son.' I used to ride, every week, by the house of a desperate
drunkard, often in almost death-throes from this, yet always in
a state of assurance.  Such men have come down among us by
thousands from the Antinomians of the commnonwealth: hear Baxter, Works, v. 23, p. 39:
"I labour with my utmost skill, to convince common drunk1 His correspondent had been greatly moved at the anxiety evinced by
a mother for her dying son, whom she was exhorting and entreating in the
most pathetic manner to give her some hope of his being in peace, reminding him that she had faithfully instructed him in the Scriptures all his life.
The next day he found the son in his dying agonies, and the mother intoxicated, and discovered that it was the habitual vice of both.




1833 —144.                         321
ards, swearers, worldlings, &c., of thleir misery, and I cannot do
it for my life; and this false faith is the main reason.  They tell
me, I know I am a sinner, and so are you, and all, as well as I.
But if any man sin'we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous;' I put nay whole trust in him, and
cast my salvation on him; for' He that believeth on him, shall
not perish, but have everlasting life.'  If I tell them of the nature
of true faith, and the necessity of obedience, they answer me
that they know their own hearts better than I, and are sure they
do really rest on Christ, and trust him with their souls.  And
for obedience, they will m-end as well as they can, and as
God will give them  grace; and, in the mean time, they will
not boast as the Pharisee, but cry'Lord be merciful to me a
sinner.' "
It appears from  "'Ten-Thousand-a-Year," (perhaps as good
authority touching neckeloths (hemp apart) as Lang,) that " haberdashers' shopboys"   at Tagrag's wore vAhile necccloths.  Lang
is logical in stickling for all three —gown, hat, and white cravat;
no doubt, in his heart, he missed that " holy tone" of which he
is such a master, and which he will propagate among his "transported" hearers in scieula.  I have been filing my letters for
1.840, and find at least half a dozen of yours without date; just
think what confusion this will produce when your " Remains "
are published.  The earliest letter of yours which I have in relentis is Sept. 25, 1822.  3/Ir. Conmell of the Semuinary is spending New Yea.r's Day in town, and may be used as a courier.l  I
mourn that ---   should have spoken so unadvisedly with his
lips; sorry should I be to utter such a dictum.  It would have
co-me well from  a raving Jacobin in Robespierrian days.  Is
1rance better for the going up of atheism, and the going down
of papism?  Calvin says (bene) on Coloss. i. that the way to
make all other things vanish, is to keep Christ in full view;
and that the way to drive out error, is to proclaim Christ.
January 19, 1841.
I have long been of the opinion that our ideas about geography are often twisted for life, in consequence of our learning
from  maps, in the first instance, instead of globes.  Be kind
enough, in your walks, to cheapen a pair of globes for me.
Read Nichols' Architecture of the heavens, by all means.  It has
been mangled by Dick, in his " Celestial Scenery;"  who is a
The Rev. J. Martin Connell. This estimable man, whom the editor
remembers as a Sunday-school pupil of his in Philadelphia, died from  the
effects of injuries received in the dreadful collision of railway cars near
Burlington, N. J., in August, 1855.
VoL. I.-14'




322     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
mere bookmaker; and the New York editor and publisher
has disgraced himself and the country by his notes and
glossary. He talks about the "elder Sir John Herschell,"
meaning Sir William; and says of Tycho Brahe, "HIe first asserted the principle that the earth remains fixed, and that the
sun moves around it, which was disproved by Coopernicus," (p. 145.)
N. B. Copernicus died 1543, and Brahe was born 1546. This is
a more sample. I have a religious attachment to the books I
read when a child. You once got me (at Judge Peters's sale) the
Christian Magazine; can you do the like for me in regard to
the " World Displayed," S vols. 8vo; it is a book of travels
and voyages. The 3d will be remembered as the " cold Sunday."  I had a fair trial of it, as I went in an- open sleigh, facing
the wind, to attend the funeral of an insane girl, three miles off,
on' the top of Rocky Hill. I have seldom known such a change
of temperature.  On Monday, 4th, my thermometer was at — 1;
on the 7th at +54~.  Bethune is very severe on our country
colleges in his Philomathean address. The evils he speaks of
(though exaggerated by him) are real; so would be the evils of
sending country youth to town; the effects of which are beautifully set forth in the case of the medical students.  What will
the French do, now that they have interred old Bonaparte's bony
parts?  I am making some little researches, from year to year,
in the Anglo-Saxon: name any books you see in that line. The
National Intelligencer is now one of our best papers.  Walsh
has a piece in almost every number, and I like him as much as
ever. I never see any thing rancorous or unfair in the Intelligencer. Is it not probable that Great Britain will get possession
of all the West Africean coast? they seem  to be looking that
way; and it would no doubt hasten the civilization of the world.
--  -, who has been seven times to Canton, and stayed eight
years the last visit, said to me on Saturday, that he had no
doubt the British would meet exactly the same reception at
every place all the way to Pekin, as at Chu-san.  He tells me
Gutzlaff has been in mlere secular employments for some time
past. I am really afraid the Amistad blackies will be sent to
Cuba: if so, I don't believe the British will let them be hanged;
and the Spanish are pretty much under Palmerston's pall just
now. I see ----— re-iterates —'s speech about the Catholics, [that the case of an infidel is better than that of a Papist.]
Put the case thus:  I am to choose between
1              &              2
A man who worships Christ,    A  man  who  blasphemes
(whatever else he may do, or  Christ, (whatever else he may
not do.)                      do, or not do.)




1833-1844.                       323
For observe, both say a "Deist of the school of Voltaire,"
Mhose watchword was "Ecrasez l'Infame!"  Rotteck's Universal
History ought to be marked as an infidel book.
PRINCETON, Februcary 12, 1841.
What bitter weather! you would say so if, like me, you had
come from Cranbury this morning, in the teeth of a northwester.
The mercury was at 30 this morning.  I went, by appointment,
to preach a Temperance sermon.  In the sufferings of my children I experience a feminine distress, which makes me enter tenderly into that passage: "as a father pitieth his children," &c.
The cold is such that I have not been drawn out this evening,
even to hear Dr. Parker, and see his Chinaman.  I hope his
Mandarin-ship will take no offence thereanent.  A copy of Mrs.
Hooker's works has been sent to the " Editor " of the Princeton
Review, which, though not the editor, I have appropriated, with
the intention of writing something about it.l  Mrs. Hooker was
a writer after my heart, and her prose is immeasurably above
that of Mrs.  --, who travels on very high stilts.  The following remark of Dr. Johnson is so good that you ought to put
it into your Journal.  It respects the question what children
should be taught first: " Sir, it is no matter what you teach them
first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches
first.  Sir, you may stand disputing which is best to put in first,
but in the mean time your breech is bare.  Sir, while you are
considering which of two things you should teach your child first,
another boy has learnt theml  both."  I have in a manner read
01on. Its facts are strong; but don't you always
feel a sinking of respect, when you find a treatise made up of
scissors-scraps. I grow in my conviction, that in our day, when
men have a thousand things to read, and won't read long at any
thing, the books which reach the mass and colour its opinions,
are not books of research, but books of feeling, of point, even of
eccentricity; books written with a gush, currente calamo.  I
have a treat before me, in the Correspondence of Zuingle, which
has just come over from Germany; he is one of the prime
saints and martyrs in nmy calendar."' Major Downing's " there's
nothin' cuts like the plaguy truth," is a good version of the
French proverb: "il n'y-a que la verite qui blesse."  There are
no hymns, for unction, like the German.  I read them  liturgiccally. They are pure outgoings of gospel feeling. The best I
This he did in the short notices in the April Repertory. Mrs. Hooker
was the writer of the Lives of David, Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel, for the
Sunday School Union.
2 He reviewed the works in the April Repertory.




324      WHIILE PIOFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
know are old Paul Gerhardt's.  I never saw the works of John
Huss till this week.  They fill a very large folio volume.  Does
a mechanic who becomes literary become thereby a happier man?
query, how happy might           now be as a farrier. Juvenal
discusses the question, and says of Demosthenes:
Dis ille adversis genitus, fatoque sinistro,
Quem pater ardentis massa fuligine lippus
A carbone, et forci2pibus, gladiosquc parante
Incude, et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit.
Sat. x.
If you should ever want to quote the vulgar proverb, " It
takes all kinds of people to make a world," you may give it in
the termls of John Locke: "The world has people of all sorts."
I love to hunt out a proverb; which Lord John Russell well describes as " One man's wit, all men's wisdom."  I count it a
sighal exemption, for which to be thankful, that, after years of
throat-affection, I have not had any symptom  this, winter, even
for a moment.  I know not whether there is any connexion, but
I have, in washing, used a sponge, and made a more thorough
application of the cold water to my neck and throat.  WVe have
now had [Feb. 15] five days of very severe weather, and from our
bleak and exposed situation here, we suffer far mnore than any difference of the thermometer would indicate.  I saw a traveller very
snugly seated in a wagon like a house, drawn by one horse, and a
smoking stove-pipe sticking out above.  I find by reading Zuingle's letters, that lie was a polished scholar, as much so as ]Erasmus or Melancthon, intimately acquainted with all the ancient
classics, holding correspondence in Greek, and employing a
latinity which is as nervous and elegant as that of Calvin.  He
had a heroic courage, and remarkable prudence.  The edition I
an reading gives the letters to as well as from him, so that I am
quite transported to Reformation times.' This is what I like.
No novel can awaken an interest like these realities.  We now
have the correspondence of Melancthon, (to and from,) Luther,
Calvin, Erasmus, and Zuingle, whose name is spelt a dozen
ways.
PRINCETON, IfCIrCh~ 5, 1841.2
I see by the Presbyterian, that Dr. Dolne has made an assault on Bishop Boardman.  Methinks the Doctor's blank verse
Mr. Alexander reviewed D'Aubigne's Reformation in the Repertory,
January, 1842; and McCrie's Reformation in Spain, July, 1850.'2 About this time Mr. Alexander received a unanimous election to the
Presidency of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. which he declined.




1833-1844.                        325
will not run well in controversy.  The article in the London
Quarterly on American orators is worth reading. What he says
about convicts is more true than some folks wouldcl. like to be
remembered.  I happen to know three or four high families who
are so descended, and a number more who sprang from " redemptioners."  It was customary in Virginia for white men to
indenture themselves to the captain, for four years.:My grandfather used to go to Baltimore and buy such.  Two of my father's early schoolmasters were well educated Englishmen of this
class.  The Hebrew of Exodus ii. 6, is more expressive than the
English:  "behold a weeping child."  Nordheimer's 2d, volume
[HIebrew Grammar] is beautiful, especially the Hebrew, which
is exquisite.  I-He has been here; told me every page of copy
was written four times, and every signature read ten times, the
first proof occupying him  twelve hours, as lie collated every
reference in the proof.  Gesenius has spoken well of it. I have
seen the beautiful species of currency which your banks are
emitting.  I am  not versed in bankology, but am  inclined to
think the whole system akin to (ovv3Xtvy.l   We know as little
how the matters are conducted, as in the old lottery systems.
I wish they would make  Walsh minister to France, Clay to
England, and --     to Guinea. I find the following good verses
in an old play of 1610:
" Our life is but a sailing to our death
Through the world's ocean; it makes no matter then,
Whether we put into the world's vast sea
Shipped in a pinnace, or an argosy."
Frost fish or smelts are now in season.  They are a great
delicacy, and last only a few days.  They are taken, so far as I
know, nowhere in these parts but on the Raritan. Being always
caught as they ascend the river, on its opening, they are full of
roe. We buy them at 18 cents the quart. I feel less respect for
Milner [Church History] than I did, since I have examined the
truth of what he says about Zuingle, whom  he disparages very
unjustly in comparing him  with Luther.  Hlow much we lose
in reading the Bible, by not having that fresh feeling of novelty
and interest which they had in the apostolic age, and even at the
reformation; we come to the book already acquainted with its
contents, in its most important parts.'  Perhaps the best way
1 The allusion is probably to a device resorted to by some banks to evade
the penalty of not redeeming their notes with coin, by issuing their currency in the form of checkls.
2 In one of his posthumous " Sacramental Discourses " he says: " Sornetines we are ready to wish it were possible to travel backward on our line




326     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
to gain something of this vividness is to read large portions
without any human comment, and in as complete forgetfulness
as we can attain of our own age. Latterly I have more frequently thought than I used to do, that we make too little of the
Holy Spirit's agency with the Scriptures as indispensable, perpetual, immediate.  Do we not in fact read the Bible as if our
unaided powers would secure us from error? Few texts have
been oftener in my mind than 1 John ii. 26, 27; especially in
reference to the diversity of opinions which men profess to derive from the Bible. The " Word and the Spirit " conveys the
true doctrine.
Harrison is now President, so I suppose the hens will lay
ready-roasted eggs, and money drop out of the clouds. The
speeches in parliament, 1641, which I have been reading, are
nmuch more pious than any I have ever heard in General Assembly. Our legislature can't get a suitable man to be judge, vice
Dayton resigned. If they had the magnanimity of a hen-partridge, they would at once give it to  -; but Whigs are as
party-bound as other folks. I fear pretension, is getting to be
our national character.  We get the Paris " Semeur," of which
the principle seems to be to exclude news; the very opposite of
what I think the ideal of a religious journal.  Dry reviews, continued from week to week.  As room is allowed me, I hope you
will permit me to take this method, however unusual, of defining
my position with regard to you, by declaring, in terms of the
utmost frankness, how truly I am, dear Sir, Your most obedient
servant.
PRINCETON, MaCrch 12, 1841.
Vide " Gift for the Holidays," pp. 125, 126, " neither he nor
Charles twere considerate." Is it possible that I wrote this? if
so, it ought to have been made grammar.  I have frequently
had a misgiving as if the worshipful committee altered my English; but as I write in haste, I bring no impeachments.  So
again, p. 70, " the girl who spoke friendly to him," is a form
which I never use in my waking hours.  At the same time, I
think it quite as likely that the blunders are mine, as not.  The
Newark Daily advertises a series of " protracted sermons; " not
such a rarity.  Walsh's admissions about the Sabbath (in the
former of his two communications this week, in National Intelliof experience, to that point in childhood when gospel grace first came to
our cognizance; or else to stand in the position of some serious inquiring
heathen who opens his ear and heart to the news of a redeeming God; that
by either of these ways we might get rid of the dulness and indifference
which our worn and jaded souls derive firom long hardening of custom "




1833-1844.                      327
gencer) are invaluable, and ought to be made prominent in
every religious paper in the country; but alas! our religious
editors copy only from  one another. I received your paper
with obituary of Dr. Rauch since I began this. The Dtaub who
was his " spiritual father," was, I thinlk, one of the worst of the
modern pantheists. The main proposition of all semi-Germans,
is that no matter how gross or atheistical any philoso2phy may
be, it may still be held in connexion with Christianity. Let me
give you a few items from Sandwich Islands, which you will not
see in the [Missionary] Herald. The king is very immoral,
and is a mere tool. The islands will pass before long into the
hands of some foreign power. The missionaries went out Congregationalists. - It is a sufficient confutation of that theory, that
it cannot be set up among the heathen. They had, by resolution, in 1830, to deny the right of " government" to their new
converts.  In 1831, they were forced to appoint.Elders.  In
1835, they adopted our rules of discipline. In 1839, they found
themselves necessitated to unite as a presbytery, having acted
as one before. They are now regularly organized in four presbyteries,; (not a word of this in the Herald,) none voting against,
but four or five non-liquets.  Exactly thus, I doubt not, Presbytery grew out of the mother-church at Jerusalem.  "It is no
small matter," says one, "that the missionary of the A. B.
C. must surrender his right to personal liberty, his right to
acquire property, and the liberty of the press." One of the
leading missionaries thinks that the present method of doing the
missionary work by one method, and through boards and conmnittees, checks the fruitfulness of the church in methods of converting the world.
PRINCETON, M7ffarch 24, 1841.
Robinson's trial [for murder of Suyclamn] is going on in
Brunswick. Graham, of New York, is his principal counsel;
and he is every thing that such a case could demand. Though
one might expect the jury to agree in a verdict of Guilty without
leaving the box, some suppose he may yet be cleared. And,
further, if this should be the case, I have heard fears expressed
of a Porteus mob, and summary execution. The rainbow and
sunset yesterday were surpassing. The new series of the Penny
Mlagazine is a beautiful book. I am pleased to observe in it a
little spice of religion now and then, not very decided, it is true,
but enough to show that they feel the necessity of deferring to
the Christian opinion of the age. -     is a better preacher
than nine-tenths of those I hear. IHe has that "holy-tone,"
which, after all, carries great weight with the multitude.




32 8    WHILE PRIOFESSOR  IN PiINCETON COLLEGE.
You will not forget that to-morrow  (25) is LADY DAY. f j t
The adjustment of the difference [in the Senate] between King
[of Alabama] and Clay [of Kentucky] is certainly a matter for
national thanksgiving. Perhaps I mentioned to you that Stacy
G. Potts, Esq., of Trenton, (an elder of the church,) and his
brother, the Rev. Win. S. Potts, of St. Louis, are going abroad,
shortly. Their first visit is, I believe, to the Continent,-and they
will be gone about eight months.  Dr. Carnahan says Henry
Kollock [of Savannah] was the most eloquent and impassioned
preacher he ever heard.' The congregation at Norfolk, Va., is
vacant, and will be a delightfiul place for some one. They have
a new church, and will probably give 1,300 to 1,500 dollars.
Right on the sea, incomparable " water privileges," easy run to
Richmond and Baltimore, healthy place, good society: fish,
oysters, soft-crabs, &c., on the direct railway line to the South,
a climate resembling the remote South in winter, andl much tempered by the breezes in summer.  I have passed some delightful
days there.  Peter Harris (African Prince) writes to my father,
ending thus,
"Your remaining friend      Peter Harris."
PRINCETON, -/Ap-il 9, 1841.
A longer period than common has passed since I wrote to
you. I have been in a state of bodily and mental uneasiness,
with the details of which I do not mean to plague you, but which
has made me somewhat unfit for letter-writing, in which I never
can engage but with an easy mind. To record troublesome
thoughts always seemed to me to increase them. Apropos of
which, Cicero seems to have had different notions of the matter,
if one may judge from his 4th book of ep. ad Atticunz; by all
odds, the fullest revelation of humiliating, unmanly sorrow I
ever read; but exceedingly interesting and instructive.  The
Tristia of Ovid come next, but that is poetry.  I confess I like
Ovid far better than it is fashionable among critics to do: his
flow of versification is so easy and unrippled.  Seneca is another
contraband author whom I love to read. (N. B. Here I change
one bad pen for another.)  I finished my part of the semi-annual examination this morning.  Our session ends next Thurssay. This day week Peter Robinson is to be hanged, nominally
in private, really in public. They might as well not hang a
man at all as hang him in secret. I have to-night been reading
a book I never saw or heard of before; the younzger Lord LytDr. Carnahan's opinion is given at length in the memoir of Dr. Kollock in vol. iv. of Dr. Sprague's "Annals of the Pulpit."




1833 -1844.                    329
telton's letters.' He was a great genius and profligate, a Byron
of his day, an elegant epistolist; they are well worth an hour's
attention, and contain first rate anecdotes about Chatham, Burke,
MIansfield, Fox, &c. The death of our President [Harrison]
ought to be loked upon by every one of us as a visitation of
God, a great national rebuke, a lesson to ambition. How easily,
by a single death, God can discomfit all the plans of a party!
I anm not without fears of a war with England; and, if it come,
it will, as Wellington has said several times, not be a small war.
I have been reading Bickersteth on the prophecies. Independently of his hypothesis, the spirit of the book is delightfully devout, humble, and tender. The question of the Millennium has
occupied my attention a good deal for a year or two.. I have
abandoned my old traditionary views, without having settled on
new ones. From the Scriptures alone I have been led to some
nzegative results with a good degree of firmness.  For example,
I cannot dare apply the warnings about Christ's coming, to the
hour of death; nor can I say one word about a millennium before Christ's coming. It is now more than a year since I wrote
down a number of' conclusions on this point, derived chiefly
from. Rev. xx. studied without note or comment. I conjecture
that some of my old friends in Trenton may be unwise enough
to vex me with solicitations to return to them; this I shall discourage in every way, if it should happen. Nothing would bring
me to such a course, but a conviction, such as I have not, that I
am doing wrong in keeping my present post. The natural and
proper way [for a congregation in view of a new pastor] is to
invite him to supply them a few Sabbaths. From this nothing
should make him shrink. I am convinced, that in the sight of
God, nay declining to preach as a candidate has often been a sinful tribute to nmy own pride. We ought to be as willing to seek
a place of labour for Christ, as the people to seek our services.
This is my serious opinion, after having long acted on the other
and the worldly plan. True, a man's reputation is a talent, and
should not be jeoparded. by his making himself cheap.
Our trials vary, but we all have thenl, and we all (Christians)
profit by them. The Lord provides and will provide. Our
path is wonderful, but he describes the whole line.
TRENTON, April 27, 1841.
We came here on Saturday, and I suppose met you in the
carriage from the depot. I am sorry I could not see you, and
1 They proved to be not genuine, but were fabricated by Alexander
Combo.




330     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
am more disquieted than comforted by being here. Indeed I slept
very little last night; for, altogether against my expectation or
desire, certain of the people have been at me about a return to
them.1 No one (but some of the most trifling street prattlers)
had breathed a word to me about their looking to me-ward; and
I confess your letter made little impression on my belief, at the
time I received it. I have stayed within (regretting that I happened to choose this time for my visit) and have heard nothing
from any leading member of the congregation; but from what
transpires from some of the lighter sort I am led to think that a
considerable portion of the people are bent upon subjecting me
once more to the painful decision of a question of conscience. I
have great difficulty in expressing to you the exact state of my
mind, because I scarcely know what it is myself. I would gladly
do so if I durst. I could not come here without a great pecuniary loss, and the resumption of burdens from which my spirit
is yet sore. Nevertheless, as I have never dreamed that I
should ever be settled here again, and as, notwithstanding, some
of the people mean to force me into a determination, I must lie
still for a week or two, and "hear what God the Lord will
speak."  I feel in regard to it exactly as I would in regard to a
call to go to China. I hope I shall be directed; nay, I believe I
shall be.
TRENTON,.May 3, 1841.
I remain here to-day, to further the plan I have, in regard to
this business, which becomes more and more painful to me every
moment. I have sent the following to Dr. Ewing.
"This communication respects a matter which I have not
mentioned to you, but one in which I have a very painful interest. It is, I am told, intended to make out a call for me this
afternoon. It is my earnest wish that this should not be done.
The only reason why I do not arrest the matter by a positive
refusal beforehand, is a scruple of conscience lest I should be
running in the face of Providence. But the most delightful
news I could have, would be that you had called. The
longer I meditate on it, the greater seems to me the probability
that I shall not feel myself competent to a pastoral charge. My
presence here (altogether unconcerted) has awakened some expectation. I now wish to say with earnestness that I should be
inexpressibly relieved, if the Congregation would drop all further
consideration of me. I am, &c., &c."
I do not here say to Ewing all that this means. To you I
i The pastor, Dr. Yeomans, having accepted the Presidency of Lafayette
College, Penns;lvania.




1833-1844.                      331
explain thus:-if they should fail to call -, divide, or otherwise seem likely to go to ruin, I might after all be driven to
accept a future call.'
My prevalent feeling is that even if they should be so rash
as to call me, I shall not come. The conflict of my feelings is
great, and I never was more sensible of my weakness. I came
home from you in a wet, cold, and somewhat open car, and took
a bad cold, with rheumatism.
I do not regard this as a confidential letter. I have said the
same thing to everybody here.
TRENTON, 2lfay 7, 1841.
I have been detained from Philadelphia by sickness, having
had another wetting since I was there, and a severe catarrh with
sore throat. The first official notice I had of the congregational
doings was last night, though I was sufficiently acquainted with
what occurred at the meeting; what that was, as to manner and
feeling, I had rather leave you to learn from others.
I felt it to be my duty to go to Princeton, for consultation.
I did not talk with my colleagues. Results of advisement thus
far, thus: Dr. Hodge is vehemently against my leaving Princeton.- Reasons, these:  1. "You are as useful in Princeton as
you would be in Trenton."  2. "I grant you ought to be a
pastor, but not in Trenton,7" innuendo that I might be settled in
Philadelphia or New York. 3. "The Trenton people cannot
support you."  4. "-    -- would make them as good a pastor,
and in some respects a better one."  This is the only argument
of his which weighs with me, and I assent to it, without affectation.- Mly father says," The pulpit is your proper place. You
have health enough at present, and have no right to count on
future contingencies; but the people cannot support you, and
you ought not to stir a step, without explicit arrangements on
this head."  The feelings of my relations are in favour of my
being in Trenton. My Princeton friends have not made a point
of my health, as I expected, and this, more than any thing else,
disturbs all my provisional calculations.
I wish I could tell you what I am likely to do. I shall prob
ably decide late in next week. Alas! I am all out at sea. 1
try to place myself in thought before the judgment-seat, and to
ask " From which of the two places would you choose to be
summoned?"  If I leave Princeton, I leave a great array of
worldly comforts, air, verdure, house, ice-house, garden, literary
circles, libraries, periodicals, leisure, and ease pecuniary; and
He was unanimously re-elected pastor May 3, 1841.




332     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
assume responsibilities, care, labour, vexations, and  straits.
What to do I know not. If the finger of God should distinctly
point either way, I should not have a moment of disappoint.
ment.  If they do not give me more salary, the thing is at an
end; it is an obstacle in lirine, and precludes the necessity of
vexing myself about the other considerations.
If I were put on my oath, and asked which way the balance
of probability now librates, I could not answer.
Write to me freely, and (I hope the phrase is not outworn
by hypocritical abuse) give me your prayers. Pray leave nothing unsaid which may do me good. I am  harassed beyond
expression.'
PRINCETON, May 25, 1841.
I know not that I ever enjoyed mere weather so much as the
last three days. There is such a burst of vegetation, such a concurrence of plants and birds which are usually separate, that the
green and fragrant earth seems almost paradisiacal.  A sparrow
has " laid her young" at our very door, and I suppose we have
twenty nests on our premises. A bob-o'-lincoln sings his bravuras
back of our garden from morn till night; I know no note so
rich as some of his; indeed his strain, taken singly, is incomparable; but the mocking-bird has a thousand, and even the
robin a good many. I am full of College-work thus far, mingled
with a pleasing interspersion of proves as the 8taoXoL always
call them. I have engaged to supply Father Comfort's pulpit
[the Kingston Church] for three months, not however necessarily
in person. IIe goes to Illinois —pretty well for threescore and
fifteen. I have read, since I came home, a stout slice of Chillingworth, some of Mrs. Hawkes, (excellent,) two plays of Plautus,
two satires of Juvenal, one book of Wordsworth's Excursion, one
book of Cicero's Letters, one book of Ovid's Tristia, a few
pages of Lucretius, and about a third of Herbert's Poems;
there's a task for you. I have, of course, doffed my leathern
jerkin, and have begun my summer washings in the mornings,
my lettuce-eatings at noon,,and my star-gazing at night. I have
preached once, had two head-aches, and palpitation of the heart
to a remarkable degree. There is something wrong, I am sure,
about my arterial system.  What think you of Nagle's pictures?
I am told they are exhibited. We have a full College, more
admitted than last year, about 100 new ones since last commencement, in all 200+.  What a series of designs Retzch might make
out of the history of Joseph! It is an incomparable story.
1Soon after this, the offer of the call was positively declined.




1833  1844.                     333
PRINCETON, Jzune 3, 1841.
I write with a very sore eye, therefore stenographically.
You know, no doubt, that you were called unanimously, on
Monday. You will, of course, go.:Four or five persons were
for hearing others, but they came in very heartily. I see no
way for you to refuse such a call as that to Trenton; I trust it
is from above.
PRINCETON, June 6, 1843.
I gather from your letters, that your mind is pretty much
Tmade up to - accept the Trenton call, and the belief of this gives
me unfeigned satisfaction. In your success there, I feel a more'than ordinary interest, and I have a confidence that these hopes
will not be disappointed. The call is, I am sure, a cordial one,
and I think the sooner you pitch your tent among the people, the'better. In a letter of -, there is a suggestion which I can*not convey to you better than in his own words: "Pray tell
Mr. Hall, if you can, to let on steam in his preaching. He
certainly can do it, to such extent at least as to remove all
appearance of deficiency."- I accord in this, and it is the only
point' respecting which I have heard any misgiving expressed;
and I would not mention it if I were not assured that it is perfectly within your power to remove the difficulty at once. You
utter voice enough, I am persuaded, but there is a want of sharpness and percussion in your utterance, which causes the stream
of words to flow indolently and somewhat indistinctly, and this
is seriously the case in the cadence of every period. Perhaps
every thing will be accomplished, if you give yourself up with
a greater abandon in delivery; as there is no possibility of
your laying yourself open to the charge of being theatrical,
affected, or extravagant. The only other point is one in which
you cannot be too much interested. The Trenton people lack
frequent pastoral visits. They need this, and they look for it. I
have told them that in my opinion you would not be backward
in this class of duties; and my private judgment is, that you
have advantages in this particular.  Such is the character of the
people, that they would be satisfied with inferior pulpit performances, if these were accompanied with a free and easy social
intercourse.
I think our Presbytery meets in August at MiddletownPoint; but if you are ready, I should advise you to cause the
elders to have a meeting called pro re ctca. The sooner the
thing is over, the easier you will feel.
I told Mr. Stryker that I would see them supplied till you
began to preach. You may relieve me very much therefore, by




3314    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
assuming this office as speedy as possible; and I hope, in your
next, you will say something on this point, as I am engaged to
supply Mr. Comfort's church for three months, besides a sermon
every Lord's-day to my blacks.
PRINCETON, Jiune 14, 1841.
Addison told me you meant to be in Trenton yesterday, and
as I had made no engagement to supply except till you should
come, and none whatever for yesterday in particular, I felt myself at ease; till* Dr. Miller called on me and told me lMr.
Stryker wished me to know that they relied on me. I therefore
sent down Mr. Dixon. I consider all the care of supply, henceforward, as devolved off me and on you. I am glad you are
coming, and coming at once. It is right, seemly, and promising
good. As to your elocution, Question 1. " Is it to throw my
arms about more? "  Answer. No.  Question 2. " To vary my
tones?"  Answer. No. Your arms and tones are well enough.
It is to make yourself fully heard, without an effort on the part
of the hearer.  Though familiar with your voice, it was
with the greatest difficulty that your last words of sentences
were heard by me. The " indolence " I mean is consistent with
too great rapidity, being a want of distinctness in the syllabication, rather than a too small volume of voice. After all, the
only thing which you ought to carry on your mind when you go
to the pulpit is to speak as loudly and distinctly as you possibly
can.
The last accounts from Dr. [John] Breckinridge were rather
unfavourable again.l I saw sitting together, at College-prayers,
the sons of three men very generally known in America, Eli
Whitney, Francis Blair, and N. Biddle. I shall have less of
Philadelphia news, now that you are about to be a Trentonian,
unless you get a free-ticket on the railroad, and go to the city
every week. My hopes about strawberries are very much disappointed; we have had but two messes.
With best regards for        and the youth, I am, was,
have been, shall be, may or can be, might, could, would, or
should be, shall or will have been, &c.
PRINCETON, July 6, 1841.
Your note-ling of yesterday informed me of your settlement
in your new habitation. I hope you will find it, and all your
being and doing in it, useful and happy. A son of Bishop
Hobart and three classmates (of the New York Seminary) are
1Dr. Breclkinridge died August 4, 1841.




1833-1844.                     335
going to Wisconsin to found a mission on the primitive plantake a central point, live as caenobites, radiate a hundred miles
each way, found a school, which is to be a College, which is to
be a Theological Seminary.
We had a quiet Independence-day. The storm at night both
shamed and extinguished the students' fireworks. My series of
domiciliary pupils has been —1, W. C. Carrington; 2, Samuel D.
Alexander; 3, Henry M. Alexander; 4, S. I-Iarrison Howell; 5,
Samuel - M. Breckinridge; 6, R. F. Stockton. More persons in
this neighbourhood seem to be seriously inquiring than usual;
I mean within a few miles. A son of the Rev. HToward Malcom, in the Seminary, has been very active. N. B. The hack or
stage-coach which comes from Trenton hither every evening is a
delightful conveyance at this season. The sunset, the verdure,
the tout-ensemble, are charming. Pusey comes out, in defence
of Newman's No. 90, in a vol. of pp. 217.
PRINCETON, July 10, 1841.
I have Stephens [Central America] in hand. My interest
in the musty ruins is nothing to what I feel in the country and
people. The book is as interesting as a tragedy or an epic.
But for simplicity and graphic-ness of description, I have had
nothing since Crusoe, equal to Dana's " Two Years before the
Mlast."' I wish our people would read such books in place of
novels. Many females whom I know, almost confine their reading to the latter, taking whatever comes. Give them a sideblow at this in Trenton. I have No. 90; quibble on quibble.
Give our love to, and tell her we assuredly expect
her to come up and pay a farthing in the pound of the visits I
have been malking her for something less than 40 years.
PRINCETON, August 19, 1841.
We had a great deal of wine-bibbing and some brawling
among our students on the day of the Seniors' dismissal. I am
now rapidly verging towards T-totality.
Dr.         professes himself hugely delighted with the
review. of. For myself, while I regard it as a true and
just unmasking of a charlatan, I do not think the public well
enough acquainted. with the facts respecting that bad man to
make them appreciate the critique. I shall not go to Grande
Ligne with Kirk, being detained by various things. Father Comfort has returned. There are 40-60 persons awakened in his
church. Dr.: Rice is holding a four-nights-meeting in Queenston. We have got a cook! [put the foregoing in small caps.]
How do you feel without the editorial kettle tied to your tail i




336     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
As you sometimes go to the city, and I never, volens,-I want
you to get me a pen (I mean a dozen of pens) of a kind which
I once got at your instance. They were very large in the barrel,
indeed much the largest metal-pens I have seen, and the tube of
the quill was complete. I think they were Gillott's; though he
makes a smaller sort.  Alward, our Seminary and College
alumnus, is dead of the African fever-a dreadful blow after the
loss of David White.  Chaplain Grier has brought from Attica
a pot of honey of Hymettus, as a present to my mother. It is
thought to taste of roses. Bennett [N. Y. Herald] has done us
a service, by making fun of a late. ball here, so that at a later
one the females were all afraid to go. Old Mr. —'s description of life at a watering-place is: " to eat in a crowd, and sleep
in a closet."        thinks of preaching altogether expoundingly; he has-long done so, all but the morning-sermon. Tholuck is married again, after long viduity. Baird passed through
yesterday from Washington. He says the Cabinet will abide,
and that a Bank of Exchanges will pass. I should like that. I
am no Bank-man.
Unless you could see the 1Pev. Mr. -, the following anecdote will be lost on you. I-Ie is 6+ feet high, red hair and every
thing, and bows to the earth; in other things a Dominie Samson. Mr. S., an eminent lawyer of Baltimore, told me to-day
that he once fell in with -, whom he had known in Princeton; S. invited him to dinner, and set before him some. of the
choicest wine the country could furnish.     drank a glass,
and then asked with indescribable naivet6: "Is it domzestic, sir?"
A  decided Calvinistic woman in this town lives in the house
of a Methodist. She lately said of him, " He is as kind to me
as a son, but I hate him, he is such an Arminian."  My father
preached five times last week, and already four times this week.
PRINCETON, AUC. 30, 1841.
I have had a good deal of preaching labour lately, as all
around us, in the country, there is a state of great awakening.
In Mr. Comfort's congregation, I dare say, there are seventy or
eighty inquirers, and perhaps thirty who have believed. It is
thus far remarkably free from any the least new doctrine, new
measures, noise, enthusiasm, and opposition.  In iMapleton, a
neighbourhood between us and Kingston, on the Canal, it is
believed that every person above ten years of age, is seriously
concerned. Here the awakening commenced; and in some
degree through the labours of a half-witted bound boy, who
would not rest till he got meetings established in a certain schoolhouse. In the Rocky Hill district north of this, and at Centre



1833-1844.                      337
ville north-west of us, each about four miles off there is a like
appearance of good. In the former place, I knew of four blind
persons in one house converted. The seriousness is extending
itself into the Blawenburg Dutch Church, (Mr. Talmage's.)
Some of the very worst and most hopeless men in our countryside have been brought to Christ. I spent Thursday night at, where five children (all he has) are seemingly renewed.
In Princeton-proper, I know of but three or four persons inquiring; but I think more of the communicants are stirred up,
than I have observed for ten years. Dr. Rice has been much
aided by the Rev. Samuel J. Cassels, of Georgia, some years
pastor at Macon, who has come to the North to make up some
deficiencies in his theological education.l  Though an ugly, little,
swarthy man, he is one of the very best preachers I ever heard,
both for instruction and pathos. I wish you may find him out.
The addition to the Seminary is not as great as last year, perhaps
in consequence of the change of time in opening the year; this,
it is hoped, will be temporary. It was a happy providence, that
Dr. Robinson's book [on Palestine] should embody the labours
of four such men as Eli Smith, Robinson,: Ritter, and Catherwood. Dr. Green is still here.  You may still look out for a
Presidentship, as the Marshall throne is not filled. This is
said by the " oldest inhabitant " to have been the rainiest August
that ever was.
PRINCETON, Septembei- 10, 1841.
You have, no doubt, heard of the awakening in Bucks Co.,
near you. There are some new cases of awakening, occurring
slowly, in our congregation. hMr. Cassels, a truly Christian
man, leaves us on Mlionday for Norfolk.
Poor [Rev. Samuel G.] Winchester's death is a sad blow,
and great warning. He was found stiff and cold in bed, though
he had been sick some time before. Young Sawyer left us
yesterday, to take Alward's place in Africa. C. C. Jones, of
S. C., preaches to the slaves three times on Sunday, and every
evening in the week. Yet this is the man whom the young
Andoverians would not let preach in their chapel. Sit anima
mea cum Jonesio!
PRINCETON, September 18, 1841.
Why do ministers regard it as necessary to sit in the pulpit,
when no service falls to them? It is a poor seat; the superero
gatory head distracts the audience; and the presence of a man
1 Mr. Cassels died 1853-'4.
VOL. I. —15




338     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
behind is no help to him that preaches. Mr. Cassels has left us
for Norfolk, carrying with him great respect and affection. I
discern in him no newschoolism, no new ways of doing things to
make people stare and ask why, no harshness or consciousness,
and no vanity.  He preached at the rate of seven sermons a
week all the time he was here. About twenty persons here, or
more, profess to be inquirers.  Two or three cases of awakening in College. Scott, of Stockholm, has been here; a pleasant,
unaffected, good, sensible man, and as mellifluous a Wesleyan as
ever I listened to. His statements about the Swedish Churches
were very startling, and I would record some of them, but that
I have a notion that you have met with him. There is some
encouragement among my blacks. I am very dubious about
inquiry-meetings, and my doubts are always greatest while they
are going on. If admitted, I am clear that no one but the pastor
should ever talkl with the inquirer; especially, that ignorant or
foolish helpers should not bring their trowels and daub. The
natural, the scriptural, and the safe way, is for the pastor to see
them at his house or theirs. But then this great means of excitement must be foregone, and this is really the reason why
ministers cling to it. As it regards instruction, the worst place
in the world for it, is a crowded room, where there is buz-buzbuz. I am (perhaps culpably) lukewarm about Tyler, Ewing
& Co. I did not vote for Tip or Ty. I thought and think Clay
our greatest statesman. Yet I have no zeal for the all-absorbing
monetary question.  With us Money is Politics. The fear of
War with England much more occupies me, as a man and as a
Christian. A man may dispute whether he will carry his money
in a purse or a pocket-book, while an enemy is levelling a
musket at his heart; and if he cocks his hat and brags, more
Kentuclico, the case is not bettered.  *What think you of a
weekly lecture on the Life of Christ, without texts, but taking
up the history, harmonizing it, and applying?  The weekly
converse of the preacher's own soul with such an object would
be worth something. Sixteen Southern Presbyterian ministers
have died in thirteen months. Some of these are very important, Baxter, Breckinridge, Winchester, Phelps, Cunningham, and
Sloss. I am seriously convinced that more harm is done by
newspaper-reading, than by novel-reading. I know men who
spend 2-6 hours daily over newspapers.  There is no other
production so heterogeneous and incoherent; there is none in
1 He had begun such a course. and given sixteen lectures, at the close
of his ministry in Duane street, (October 31, 1848, to MaIy 29, 1849.) He
began it anew with the Fifth Avenue congregation January 27, 1852, and
continued it at the Tuesday meetings until February 27, 1855.




1833 —1844.                       339
which we read so much that is not even interesting. Probably
each of us spends a hundred hours of morning-time per annum,
on 1, Repeated matter; 2, Accidents; 3, Crimes; 4, Idle narrative; 5, Unintelligible or useless statements; 6, Error and Falsehood; 7, Advertisements and proper names. What better recipe
for making a weak mind addle?  We take the tone of our company.  Suppose a man's bosom-friend to talk an hour a day,
exactly like his newspaper.  I am told Dr. Wilson used to read
only a small weekly sheet; and I have heard that Mr. Wirt, during
his most active forensic labours, spent three years without reading
a newspaper.  But this is fine talk from one Ex-editor to another.
PRINCETON, September 29, 1841.
I the rather missed you [at Commencement] because of the
visit of "General J. [Josiah] Harlan, Aide-de-Camp of Dost
Mahomed, Ameer of Cabool; " certes the most distingue of our
numerous visiters.  IHe spoke kindly of you, and expected to
meet you.  He is a noble, gentlemanly, and soldierly man in his
port, and endlessly rich in sorts of knowledge which are perfectly
new to us.  -- has a high opinion of him, and says the
Russian government would do any thing to get him on their side
against the Anglo-Indian operations. His moustache, gold-spurs,
and signet-ring 2,000 years old, are great distinctions.  I should
very much prize further communication with him.  You doubtless remember Joseph Wolff's account of him in his " Researches," p. 180, Phil. 1837.' Peter McCall [of Philadelphia] delivered
a polished oration yesterday.  Our services to-day were as long
and exhausting as usual. I lament their probable influence on
the minds of our young men, among whom there has been a
spirit of religious inquiry.  Fifteen or more have been recently
awakened, almost all of whom are among our best scholars; I
trust several of these are converted.  But they all go to their
homes at this time.  Three Scotch clergymen, Johnston, Ferriar,
and Allison, have arrived in New York, men of polish, and good
preachers, intending to settle among us.  The cause of their
emigration is painful, viz., the ruin of their congregations by the
1 From Mr. Wolff's book I collect the following sketch of my old fiiend,
now living on his farm in Pennsylvania. - Mr. Wolff met Harlan at Goozerat
in June, 1832, and describes him as then "the Governor of the place and
province." He was born of a Quaker family in Philadelphia, 1799: engaged
at first in Commercial business; then became surgeon in the Government
hospital in Calcutta; resigned the British. service and entered that of the
native prince of Cabool. He had returned to the United States not long
before the Commencement above referred to, after an absence of nearly
twenty years. In 1842 Mr. Harlan published "A Memoir of India and
Avghanistaun."




340     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
inroads of Chartism.  They are all, however, of the secession.
Adams, whom Colt murdered, [in New York,] was the printer
of our Missionary Chronicle, and a pious man. If you are fond
of sweet-potatoes in winter, let me recommend to you to put up
a few bushels in sand. The sand should be perfectly dried in an
oven, after the bread has been removed. This is the proper
time to do it. As many as eleven of my Africans are under
serious impressions.  In College we have had no excitement,
and not even an inquiry-meeting, but a wide-spread seriousness,
daily short prayer-meetings, and much private conversation.
*Mr. Cassels will probably be settled at Norfolk. The air-tight
stove is adopted by Prof. Henry, Dod, Ilodge, Mtiller, and Dr.
Rice. Its two great advantages are (1) absolute cleanliness, and
(2) perfect manageability, so that a fire may be kept 24 hours
so low that you can scarcely feel it, and yet may be raised high
in three minutes.  It mnay be abused so as to be a mere common
sheet iron stove, but this is not the intention. The great art is
repressing the fury of the little creature.   Mine kept about
flesh-warm all last night, and on sliding up the door this morning, I had it roaring in two minutes. Then I shut all up except
a minute crevice, and so it has been some hours. It is meant
for a room  of which the door is kept shut. You will learn the
whole trick in two days. Wood dry as possible, charge say
4-6 billets. - I would begin with hickory, but sound maple is as
good, when you know the article. Blood has gone to Ireland;
it was time that he should be extravasated.
PRINCETON, Nov. 13 and 14, 1841.
Our journey to Virginia, and my return, were accomplished
with much less trouble, danger, and fatigue, than I had feared.
The kindness of Providence was signal towards us, in regard to
weather, conveyances, and the like. I trust my little flock is
safely folded in Charlotte. I do not desire soon to have a trip
of the same solicitude; yet I feel it to be a sacred duty to record
the loving-kindness of the Lord in every part of it. lMy situation here is lonely enough, and I feel it more than if I were
alone in another house. I am, moreover, somewhat confined by
a cold and rheumatism in all one side.
I was greatly encouraged by the sight of the Virginia Synod,
[at Richmond.]  The number of highly respectable and faithful
ministers in the prime of life, is very large. Making allowances
for the idiosyncrasies of some, the following list is remarkable:
McFarland, the Browns (5 brothers, sons of a minister, not all
in Va.,) Leyburn, Stevenson, Skinner, Love, Stewart, White,
Cassels, Graham, Armistead, Alkinson, Peyton, Harrison, Benj.




1833-1844.                     341
Smith, Foote, Stanton, Whary, McPhail, Dutton, Sparrow,
Plumer. Every one of these is a man of pulpit talents and
influence. They think the interest of Presbyterianism advancing. The Synod proper had adjourned, but they all remained
over Sunday and communed together-a delightful solemnity.
Plumer's large church was crowded with communicants, many
of whom had come several days' journey. I am sure I spoke
with a hundred acquaintances not residing in Richmond. I
preached on Monday to a most awakened audience.
I wished to see Greenough's statue of Washington; but,
though erected, it was not uncovered. The patent-office at
Washington is a great show; the largest room, it is said, in
America. If you ever go to Washington, do not go to Brown's
hotel. The Exchange House in Richmond is beyond comparison
the finest hotel I ever saw, not excepting the Tremont at Boston,
by the late landlord of which it is kept. It lacks nothing but
gas. For attendance of servants it is ten times better than the
Tremont. This is a great change, in the view of one who remembers the former dens of' Richmond.
The addition to College cannot be fully stated yet. We
have matriculated about fifty, thus far. It looks as if Van Buren
would be next President; and I see much less to choose, than I
once did, between the parties. That we are victims of Banking,
I see too plainly. McLean, of Monmouth, expects to have his
organ up next week.
I take breakfast and tea entirely alone. You can't tell how
I miss the children. What a doleful place is a childless house.
Let me assure you that to have a sick wife 400 miles off is no
small trial; I hope it may do me good.
PRINCETON, December 8, 1841.
I have not for a long time seen a book, so well adapted to
awaken the heart and conscience of a minister, or so well deserving to lie on his table, as the Life and Death of Joseph Alleine,
written by Baxter and others, and lately printed by Carter.
Your Pole [a beggar] came here, and in excellent Latin swindled
us all out of sundry " vetera vestimenta," and money likewise.
I love Banks less and less. They tempt men to borrow —make
money nominally plenty-and then, when trouble comes, are the
first creditors to exact, and the last to have mercy. All -?'s
other creditors here would have waited-yet the Bank, after
having handled $60,000 of his money, beat up his quarters near
midnight for $2,100. I know they have the right-to the pound
of flesh. Ask your Catharina if she is familiar with the following
passage, in the " Taming of the Shrew:"




342:    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
"You lie in faith; for you are called plain Kate,
And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the cross;
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
Kate of _Kate-Hall, my superdainty Kate,
For dainties are all cates."
What follows is an exact copy of an epitaph in Cranbury
Church Yard, on a stone set up within the year:
"Her blooming cheeks was no defence
Against the scarlet fever,
In five days' time she was cut down
To be with Christ forever." 
A very pungent little book by one Ford, of England, is issued
by Carter, intituled Decapolis; proper to circulate among believing Christians, to make them seek the conversion of the ungodly. I am using my copy in college, or I would send it to
you.  I think its circulation worth several sermons.  -     has a
letter from Geneva, saying that a friar of a Dominican convent,
in Italy, has lately renounced popery, in consequence of his reading Calvin's Institutes, to which he was directed by the Index
Expurgatorius.  I rejoice that the Board are about to publish
Daille on the Use of the Fathers; I do not know any thing to
pat against Oxfordism. Don't fail to get the Board's little Life
of Philip Henry; librum vere aureum.  My father abridged it.
Love to Madame, Mesdemoiselles, et les petits bons hommes.
I am deeply yours.
PRINCETON, ult., 1841.
A happy New Year, in all the senses, especially the best, to
you and you-ess and the youths! Your letter of the 25th was of
a more Christian length than your late foregoing ones.  Pray,
don't let press of business tend to curtail a correspondence which
has lasted some half a century, or less.  If I send you's
sermon, it is not as a sample of rhetoric purity; the metaphors
are mixed as much as communion-wines.  Dr. Torrey has hired
the Bayard House: he deposits in our library his herbarium,
equal in bulk to 500 folio volumes, and containing, as I remember, 50,000 species; the number of existing species, by estimate,
is 100,000.
More than once I remember to have expressed to you my
sense of the importance of writing down things on the spot-con1 His correspondent was able to return an inscription copied from a stone
in a Trenton marble (not church) yard.
"The boiling coffee did on me fall,
And by it I was slain;
But Christ has bought my liberty,
And in him I'll rise again."




1833-1844.                     343
versations of an interesting kind-death-bed facts-striking retributions-successful cures of soul-sickness-results of experience
as to matters of duty, or policy-cases in one's own family,
children, &c. Such records are valuable when one is gone. " I
agree," says H. Walpole, " with Mr. Gray,' that any man living
may make a book worth reading, if he will but set down with
truth what he has seen or heard, no matter whether the book is
well written or not.'"  I wish the practice were commoner of
introducing the text by the introduction, and not the introduction
by the text.
I-low nicely one might see the river from your window, if it
were not for hM~r. Potts's house. In 1780 a IMr. Shirley built a
house on the Thames, on purpose to intercept a view of the river
from his opposite neighbour; the people gave it the name of
Spite-hall. My good old father, after spying out for threescore
years, strongly maintains, that there is less and less appearance
of amalgamation among Protestant sects; that is, so far as their
admitting one another's ordinances goes; e. g. the Episcopals
and the Baptists are more exclusive than formerly. The newspapers are intolerably dull; what more unprofitable and really
nauseous than legislative debates, murders, bankruptcies, &c.?
There ought to be an epitome for scholars and busy men. One
of the few things I can read is Walsh's Letters [from Paris] to the
National Intelligencer. Will it be worth your reception for me to
mail one to you now and then?  We have a tutor descended
from Jonathan Edwards, and two students, grandsons of Drs.
MceWhorter and Richards. We have a half-hour prayer meeting every evening. This term, already,: we have heard of the
conversion of five of our late " students," some of whom were
great rowdies. In 1 Cor. ix. ult., I don't believe that aJ8o0t'/os
means " castaway," in the usual acceptation. It is a word of the
palvestra; the apostle says, " I keep under my body, lest I become Unfit for service-for contention."  I know of an excellent
place for a young lady, as governess, in Goochland co., Va.
$300 a-year and found-pious old-school family: piano-teaching
required. Dod has the advowson of the benefice.
The Costa Rica earthquake is awful indeed; read about it in
your newspaper: if it had extended a few minutes northwarder,
would no doubt have a sermon on it.
-  is a truly good man, and a man of strong mind and
strong delivery, but he has made the grand mistake of spending
his strength chiefly in rebuke. I do not mean that he is too
minatory; this I should not easily think one, if this were all,
but he aims at showing faults, and constantly "plies the conscience," as he would call it. I do not think such preaching,




344     WVHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
alone, ever fails to be deadening. It does little good to awaken
mere conscience, without reaching the heart. We know better
what we ought to do, than we feel motives to do otherwise. I
think this the great difference between New England, and the
best Old England preachers of the best time. It is wonderful
how different is the strain of address to Christians ill the New
Testament epistles.
I see Kirk is like to be settled in Boston, over a new church.
I-Iis manner of preaching has attracted many stragglers from the
Unitarian ranks. I hope he will be useful there.
The notice of Yeomans' inaugural in the Repertory is by Dr.
Miller, as are sundry of the short notices. The Doctor is in another dispute with some layman in the Episcopal Recorder, who
has really treated the old gentleman most dishonestly, attributing an odious phrase to him, which he protests he never used.
If [Dr. E.] Robinson's maps can be got apart from the book, one
ought to have them. O, it is grand to have such a feeling of
reality in reading about the "holy places;" Ramah, Shiloh,
Nob, Mizpeh, &c. They are engraved at Berlin, and printed at
London.
PRINCETON, January 15, 1842.
Don't you think, on the whole, we have had quite a mild
winter? The roads have been very dreadful. I learn with pain,
that poor: has probably lost another child with scarlet fever.
iMy father had a letter from him on Friday, and he was despairing of it then. O how deep such rebukes pierce! [For a season
life is a cup which has lost its zest. What is there but God and
Heaven that can do any thing for a man in such a case?  Our
Congress is really blackguard, and more so every year. Just
listen to the fish-market talk of -     &c. Don't think I read'em; enough runs over from -, who, I suppose, has not failed
to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, every speech, bill, report, nay word, of every session of Congress, as reported by hisown-side papers, for fifteen years. His memory of every thing,
but especially of what he has witnessed, is unparalleled by any
thing I ever met with. There appears to be no distance in his
retrospects, no dimness.  Every day he brings things to my
recollection, which I, as older, ought to remember better than
he, and that with such a particularity as few men could show in
regard to the last week. Dr. Phillips's people wish to move up
town. Yet it seems to me, even if the congregation go up, the
edifice ought to be left. There are many churches in the very
bowels of London. There must be every Sunday thousands of
strangers in New York, and in that part of it, not to speak of




1833-1844.                        345
clerks, &c., who lodge in the upper stories of places of business.
Why would not it be a good plan for some to keep the house,
pay a minister, reserve pews for themselves and numerous retainers, but throw open the body of the pews to the poor and
strangers?  To the poor the gospel is not preached in our crack
Presbyterian churches.  Mr. Olmstedl of Flemington admitted
nineteen on the 9th.  Dr. Rice preached six times for him. [Professor] Dod has given your steeple a reprieve until Lecture 2d.
Our steeple here (viz., of the Seminary) is said to be of the
BREWER order.  As for expositions of the text Gen. iii. 15, you
need not look far.  I believe the common, and, as I think, (to
one who has an inkling of a Messiah,) the obvious meaning has
been defended by all interpreters from the Christian era. There
is, perhaps, no interpretation more catholic; whence this prediction alone has received a specific technical designation, vrp(rTevayyEXLov.  Even Adam. Clarke, and Turner of New York, who
generally give the lowest sense, plead for its Messianic application.  No other fulfilment seems to me at all satisfactory, or
even true. But if you wish a full examination of the question,
read I-engstenberg's Christology, vol. 1, on the Protevangelium;
or, see Melvill's sermon on the text; it seems an argumentative
discourse.  The original Hebrew, compared with Gal. iii. 16,
weighs very much with me; though I confess I never could make
it a doubtful matter.  I have written a sermon to-day on " Our
polity is in heaven." Observe how much more point the Greek
has in Col. iii. 1 and 2.  P I         The English is feeble in
C    bpov-rE.
comparison, and the antithesis is entirely lost.  I have been
studying the Colossians lately with a good deal of attention.
There is a fund of motives to holiness in chap. iii. Mlede thinks
the Jews will all be converted simultaneously, and that Paul's
conversion was a type of it.
PRINCETON, January 18, 1842.
"I Hic taurus asneus esto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.
Roscia, die sodes, melior lex, an puerorum est
Naenia, quce regnum recte facientibus offert,
Et maribus Curiis et decantata Camillis?
Isne tibi meliiis suadet, qui renmfaciacs; reem,
Si possis, recte'; si non, quocunque modo remn."
Horat. Ep. 1, lib. 1.
There are some quotable verses in the same epistle, on avarice,
and it is really wonderful how often Horace lashes this particular
vice:
VOL. I.-15*




346      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Vilius argentuin est auro, virtutibu's aurum.
-0 elves, cives, qumrenda pecunia primum est,
Virtus post nummos.
Perhaps you will remember that Pope has an imitation of
the Epistle above cited, and he gives the critical lines thus,
which I write as prose: ".Who counsels best? who whispers,' Be but great, With praise or infamy, leave that to fate; Get
place and wealth, if possible with grace; If not, by any means
get wealth and place."' I was much struck with a saying of
Addison, that we make too great a gap between some books of
Scripture, and that Joshua evidently just kept up the journal
after Moses' death. This Would explain several difficulties. The
beans you pretended you were going to give me have not arrived; having been left at Snowden's inn, and no doubt devoured
by the legislature. If! this letter, which goes by the same hand,
should fail to reach you, please let me know in your answer.
Mr. Cassels reports a revival at Norfolk. I expect, with leave
of Providence, to go to Virgini, about the middle of February.
I found the following passage td-night in a letter of Bussy-Rabutin, (1675,) " Si vous n'en- pouvez trouver d'autre [enere] que
celle dont vous Vous servites l'ann6ee passee, souvenez-vous de
in6ecrire sur papier noir, car enfin, je veux lire ce que vous
m'ecrivez."  Not so bad. We have four of the Scriptural unclean beasts now in Princeton, "the camel, the cony, the hare,
and. the hog.'?-' Hogg and Colt stall together in college. The
distinction of meats has now given place to the distinction of
drinks. If you have not a Greek Lexicon of the critical kind, I
would nominate Rose's Parkhurst, which I have used a number
of years.      has obtained two bottles of the unfermented
wine. It is merely a light syrup, like poor molasses, with no
vinous taste to my palate, and when diluted, as ordered, not unlike vapid raspberry-vinegar.  Nothing but an insane love of a
hypothesis could bring one to believe, that such was the "fruit
of the vine," used at the Passover. They are agitating this question among our old-school churches in Kentucky; Grundy leading the treacle-ites, and W. L. Breckinridge the wine-ites.
PRINCETON, JC'nzuary 25-6, 1842.
Walter Lowrie, who has waited three months for a vessel to
go for Canton, has got off at last. He made all his Seminary
preparations with a view to Africa, and very reluctantly gave up
the latter destination.  A couple of young Germans, one of them
Israelitish, have been canvassing our town as spectacle-mongers.
I am told they- have- had a shop in Trenton.  The Jew read
Hebrew for me very well; he is, moreover, a musician. I got a




1833-1844.                     347
penknife from him  cheaper than they are found in the shops., alack! is coming here to brawl against Pop-pery.
Have you ever read Wiseman's Lectures on the Connexion of
Science and Religion?  It is worth reading; and the earlier lectures, tracing the pedigree of languages, give what the great
Germans have discovered in this field, which is, so far as I know,
the only English account of the same. It is an economy of time
to read such books. I have seen nothing in your Trenton papers in laudation of Dod's lecture; doubtless. in consequence of
your practices with the editors, on behalf of your steeplehouse.
Resuming the subject of Wiseman, as above, I add, that if Stephens had read this book, he would not have evinced himself to
be so "hideously ulnprovidedd" of antiquarian preparation for his
Southern Researches.. It throws great light on the history of
our Indians.: Of the beans I have as yet seen nothing, and "de"
not " apparentibus," and not " existentibus "-I hope you have a
recollection of your law-maxims. According to the proverb,
"h bis dat qui cito dat," you have given me only half the amount,
and I am told the parcel has been broken, and some bestowed
on Dr. Miller!  The confusion of the dramatis personae in Canticles does not exist in I-Iebrew,.where. the verbs have gender,
and you know at each moment whether it is the sponsus or the
sponsor who is addressed. Our lack of gender is felt also in
Eco. xii. 3, " the grinders cease because they are few, and those
that look out of the windows be darkened:" the original gives,
"the female-grinders' keep holiday, &c., and the female-lookersout-of-windows, &c." I dare say many hearers think the grinders
are the "dentes molares."  The tee-totallers are making great
conquests in Kentucky, under the command of two distinguished
Ebriates, as reformed inebriates may be called. Why so tender
about naming them drunkards?
I have just been reading over, at one sitting, the epistle to the
Colossians. I have done so ma ny times within a month, both in
Greek and in all the translations I have, which are more than
ten. This way of frequent reperusal, continuously, I learned of
my father, many years ago. It is well to intermix it with critical
study of the same portion. I like to confine myself to one book
for a time, and as it were, live in it, till I feel very familiar. I
usually find great satisfaction during such a period, in preaching
from such a book, thus studied. We greatly need a book of
"Introduction to the New Testament."  Horne is useful, but has
no mark of unity produced by an original conception; it is a
scissors-book. Ioug is all the reverse; you are sensible of the
charm of a genius on every page: by all means, mean to get it,'when: you have the means; but the pun is too mean. A book




348     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
might be made containing only such matters as are in Horne's
2d and 4th volumes; leaving out of view a great deal about Interpretation, which, after all, must be left to common sense.
Notwithstanding what I have said of Horne, I would, seriously,
rather be the -author of it than of any book in our language.
Strange, that living, as he does, in one of the greatest libraries
of the world, he should have written nothing else. I find laymen of intelligence greatly awakened and benefited by the book.
It was so with Mr. Wirt; and [Rev. Mr.] Hare lately made the
same remark to me. To return to Hug, I have found his. Life
of Paul, and account of his character and writings, more instructive than any thing 1 have ever read on. the subject. Before you
publish that you are going to lecture on " Phee-Phaw-Phum,"
you ought to remember. that many read an advertisement who
do not go to hear a lecture,:and that with such, your taste, dignity, and judgment will suffer; as they will not hear the really
wise remarks you utter. I fear our friend, the Shah-Bulkh-Bidden —B'hoo -    will be in "K inig Cambyses' vein."  A temperance society was formed last night here; on the " Washingtonian" plan, I guess. I expect, to-morrow, to go to the Birchine
visitation at Brunswick.  MIr. Hare is to lecture at our Mechanics' Institute on Edom.
CHARLOTTE COURT HOUSE, VA., Feb6ruary 23,1842.
From the appearance of this ink, 1 am seriously afraid the
paper will be blank when it reaches you. I arrived here on the
18th.  My journey was more exposed than common. I had to
travel all one cold night, in a stage, alone, over such roads as I
never saw, and then all the next day. The James River at Carterville could not be crossed, by reason of the tempestuous current, thermometer at 19.~  I slept on the Goochland side, in the
lock-keeper's house," three in a bed," in an unfinished house. I
find my wife better than when I heard from her. As to personal
comfort, I can conceive of nothing, as to external circumstances,
family, servants,- and the like, more favourable than what she enjoys at Ingleside, [five miles from  Charlotte Court House.]
My children have undergone the most extraordinary transformation as to health. Henry has, through mercy, escaped every
ailment this winter. M1Iy friends think he bears every exposure
quite as well as country children; he is out all day, and has his
ftet wet for hours. But then he is excited by his traps, birds,
squirrel, and horses. Jerimly is almost as sturdy as your Caldwell. Since I saw him he has learnt to converse, and some of his
remarks are odd enough. — He informed me, as a fact in zoology,
that "the. little lambs suck the big lambs." Quite enough this,




1833 —1844.                     349
however, of a subject which seldom fails to disgust any but the
speaker. I try to be' thankful for this alleviation of my trials.
I have preached seven times since I reached Virginia; sometimes
with more enlargement than is my wont.. Mrs. Le Grand's
house is still full,' from day to day. There is not a small mechanic or labouring family in all the village or vicinage who does
not freely come to her for'aid, or' as freely. enter, her doors. I
sincerely: think I have never seen the human being who lives so
much for others. VMiere sacrifice of money is little: in her case,
it is sacrifice of health, time, privacy, convenience, ease, and
(virtually) of life. ~ She is about 78, and is ill enough any day
to keep' her bed, which she never kept except when in severe
pain or extreme languor. IHer cough is deadly and her attenuation extreme. You must write frequently, and remember I
hear little of what the world is doing. The remoteness and
qiietude of the situation strikes me exceedingly. I roam  over
the plantations, as little obnoxious to observation or criticism as
if I were in the Pacific regions.  Our weather is wintry.  Crocuses were blown in' Richmond, but we have since had it very
cold. I calculated that a fire such as is kept in my wife's room,
of hickory, would cost me about $200 a year in Princeton. I
lknow no luxury greater than a constantly glowing fire of wood,
replenished ad libitugm.  Mr. C — averages three cords of wood
a day on his estate.' The slaves use it without measurement, all
going to a common pile. I havez not yet heard from the North.
I saw Lord Morpeth in Richmond. Judge Cabell'dinedwith
hiln at the lieutenant-governor's, Rutherford's, and was much
pleased with his mild and unpretending manners. Bishop Meade
seems to be doing much for Evangelical piety in this State.
There has been a great stir in Petersburg, involving the Episcopal
church; ninety-tlhree were confirmed in Mr. Cobbs's church. It is
not known whether a coadjutor will be appointed to Meade. Johns
has'been spoken of. The:Methodists have made great inroads
here. There were formerly none; they are now building a respectable house. Their gain has been greater, by reason of the
yielding'of Presbyterians  to their Thomsonian practice.  In
Hampden Sydney College there are about thirty students, and
about as many in the Seminary.  There are five schools in this
village. Among these is 1MVichael Osborne's lately erected girls'
school, which has twenty-six already. I find much entertainment
from the company of Dr. Brown, nephew of the Edinburgh metaphysician. I-He is a brother-in-law of Hart, the pastor. He was
educated at Edinburgh and Paris, and is a bachelor and a genius.
He' is a great opposer of total abstinence, though, I believe, a
temperate man, and declares that the cases of bronchitis which




350     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
he has known amoing sedentary people all arise from that state
of body which would be prevented by a moderate stimulus,
such as the clergy used to admit of. I have battled with himat great disadvantage, as his stores of medical authority over
whelm me, and he denies point-blank the testimonies of the phy
sicians who are relied on by Tee-totalers.  Being out as much
by night as day, and frequently riding on horseback thirty miles
a night, and even swimming rivers, he says that nothing disarms
these exposures, but fire or diffusive stimulus of some sort; of
which alcohol is the only one which can be given often safely.
He denies that it is ineffectual to keep off cold. He was a Temperance-man five years ago. The abstinence folk are making great
advances in this State. At Lynchburg they have more than a
thousand- signatures. They have adopted the phrases, "revival,"
"awakening," "conviction," and "conversion."        says he
thinks these excitements highly deleterious to the cause of religion. Public opinion is made to bear upon those who dissent,
and abstinence is like to be made a term  of communion by
many. In the country hereabouts, the body of the people have
always been temperate, and Total Abstinence has few adherents.
INGLESIDE, CHARLOTTE Co., VA., Martc7i 10, 1842.
I have one of yours. The date I do not record, as I am away
from my file. If you should have written in answer to my last,
before this reaches you, please to write again: I shall await your
reply to this. The weather is mild but pluvious.- There have
been great freshes here, perhaps thirty clduring the season. Peas
are quite high; peach and plum trees in blossom some days.
Birds are pairing, and their number, on this estate, is remarkable.  Mr. Carrington saw four wild turkey-cocks on his grounds
a day or two ago. You will have seen, by the papers, that J.
R. of Roanoke's will freeing the slaves has been established.  I
happen to know that this is false. The clerks here are busy
copying the voluminous testimony. There is no decision of the
last suit. Meanwhile, the proceeds of the' immense estate go to
the Tuckers and Coalters and Bryan. The evidence in the case
is very extraordinary.  The following is a true copy, literatim
et punctatim, of a letter, most reluctantly produced by my
quondam elder —, as a part of his testimony. --— is above
70.  "To Henry A. Watkins, Come and  see me if you
can —I mean if you are able I beseech you-If you cannot come
pray for me-for the effectual fervent po2rayer of a righteous manz
AVAILETH MUCH. T Friday 10-but in fact 11 of April, un* While I close this, a mocking-bird is malting matchless music near me.




1833-1844.                       351.
blotted —I am in extremnis on the word of a Christian.  I write
with a blotting pen upon greasy paper, unclean all offensive in
the eye of God-because I am under the powerful influence of
the Prince of Darkness who tempts me with a-    and champagne."
I have been preaching. a good deal to the negroes, a delightful work, promising, I think, as much good as any labour a man
can engage in.  Within a year or two much more attention is
paid to this, especially by some of the Methodists. A preacher,
named Skidlmore, himself a slaveholder, has some thirty plantations under his charge, at one of which he preaches every evening.
He enrolls the names, and conducts every meeting of the slaves
on the plan of a Class-meeting. I am much affected by the negro
singing. There is a softness in their voices, which penetrates
me, and in these meetings they all sing, down to the infants.
Mrs.'s cook (emerita) Patty, she says, is "as pious a
woman, and a lady of as delicate sensibilities as I ever saw; she
is one of the very best friends I have in the world."  And Mrs.
is second to no woman I ever saw in judgmlent, taste,
and education.  The negro dialects of English are a curious
study.  E. g. The slaves on this plantation are part from Mr.
C.'s, part from Mrs. C.'s estate.  There are some pronunciations
and phrases which never pass from one set to the other.  Thus
the Carrington negroes all say "Gi we sfin-hin-nfirra foh we
blekfuss," i. e. " Give us something or other for our breakfast."
But the Monte-Video negroes (whom Judge Cabell once owned,
on James River) and none ot;ler, so far as Mrs. C. knows, pronounce e long where it ought to be short, thus: bcide for bed;
Hrdleq, for tHelen; also Constintia for Constantia.  My children,
having nurses of the latter, have adopted this elegancy.  There
is no way of accounting for this phenomenon, but by supposing
that the progenitors of these respective sets came from  different
African tribes.  For several days we have had as visiters Mr.
John Henry, son of Patrick, his wife, my wife's cousin, and two
little daughters. Mr. T. cut a walking-stick, cherry, from the
head of his father's grave, as a present for Gen. Harrison, who
received it a few days before his last illness.  He tells me that
his mother was told by the mother of Patrick, that the latter always used to drive her in a gig to hear lMr. Davies preach; set.
about 14: place Hanover Co. Patrick Henry was a great violinist for that day; so is his son. I have always considered this
region of Virginia more favourable to the highest popular elo.
quence than any other.  There are twenty men in this county,
whose elocution is enviable. The "cleverest " man since Randolph is Wood Bouldin, son of T. T. Bouldin, who succeeded J,




3552    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
R. in the I-House of Representatives, and who died there of a fit.
The Venables are an extraordinary family. I have often heard
my father say that Col. Sam. Venable was the wisest man he
ever saw. -Ile married a Carrington, half-sister of my good host.
lIe had twelve children. His wife lived to see them all married,
and all converted.: Dr. Paul Venable counted up to me 142
descendants of these his parents, all now living.  Each of these
families is rich, and they are all democrats, and all Old School
Presbyterians.. Of the father of H. C. (old Judge Carrington) the
descendants are about 400. Such things are important elements
of the state of society. I am more and more convinced of the
injustice we do the slaveholders. Of their feelings towards their
negroes I can form a better notion than formerly, by examining
my own towards the slaves who wait on my wife and mind my
children. It is a feeling most like that we have to near relations.
Nanette is a mild but active brown woman, with whom I would
trust any interest we have. She is an invalid, however, and in
the North would long since have died in an alms-house.  As it
is, she will be well housed, well fed, protected, and happy, if she
lives to be 100. There are two blind women (80-90) on this
estate, who have done nothing for years. It is touching to see
them walking out, arm in arm, to bask in the sun.
INGLESIDE, C. CY., VA., M3carch 21, 1842.
Your letter, though not quite as full as usual, was very acceptable in these ends of the earth. You can have no idea how
far one feels here from  all the foci of news. Yesterday was
July. I attended two full services, right on the back of one
another: the last one was a funeral sermon of a black. I had a
large collection, and preached from ".Thou fool, this night, &c."
Great attention, and hysterics in at least seven. The singing was
trlansporting; positively I never enjoyed any thing more at the
Musical Fund. I have preached eighteen times in Virginia.  I
have met here an original. -    is a Yale man, about as deaf as
Has an office built in the yard, lined with glazed cases,
wherein 2,000 volumes.  As much of a littera, eur as I ever saw.
Was a member of the Virginia Convention in 1830. Thorough
scholar in Greek, Latin, and French. Perfect health and athletic
vigour.  A boxer, in all the forms. As to diet and bathing,
almost a Cornaro.  Has not eaten warm bread for ten years.
Shaves in his shirt in a cold room in winter.- A pedestrian: has
walked all over Canada, and several times over New England.
The last day of his return from Canada to Norfolk, he walked fifty.
five miles, and then was at office business, on his feet, till ten at
night.  For this journey he tr2ained, on Capt. Barclay's scheme;




1833-1844.                      353
two meals a day, of rare beef and Madeira, and stale bread; this
for three weeks. I-Ie has every sort of gymnastical contrivance.
Always stands at study, with legs wide apart, and no support.
His chest is like the keel of a boat. I-Ie is an intimate friend of
Upshur, Judge B. Tucker, and other ultra States-Right men, to
which party he belongs. I have met with nothing like him for
knowledge of history, biography, heraldry, and the like.  H-le is
an eloquent talker.  His father-in-law-, entered the army
at 19,,and was desperately wounded at the, battle of Eutaw, in
1781, being shot through the thigh and bayoneted in the breast.
Though he was years getting well, he is now, at 80, ruddy, erect
on his horse, in good flesh, and has lost only one tooth! There
are many such men here. This is owing to exercise, and simple
habits. Patrick Henry was a fiddle player, and, that by note,
and scientific too, for that day. My grandfather Waddel also
played fiddle, as MIrs. I-Ioge told me, who has heard him. So
do John and Winston Henry, sons of Patrick.  Patrick, late in
life, turned in to enriching himself, and died immensely wealthy.
His power over men was his great implement. I expect to visit
his grave at Mr. J. Henry's, Red Hill.  All fruit trees are going
out of blossom here. Peas are a foot high. This part of Virginia produced capital light-horse-men in the old war, and will
do so again. The boys are Centaurs, and I wonder daily at the
coolness with which Mrs. C., a very cautious mother, sees her
son, 9 years old, galloping like the wind, through woods and over
fences and ditches, on a colt or a mule or any thing that has legs.
Pray at what epoch did you begin to aspirate the h in hzumble,
and to write a huzmble? and when will you begin to say ca honest
man, or as -   l does, ca herb? I have heard cockneys say a houzr.
Nothing so much engages my thoughts as the spiritual case of
the negroes. I seize every chance to preach to them.  Of no
people, I think, is a larger portion regenerate.- They are unspeakably superior to our Northern free blacks, retaining a thousand African traits of kindliness and hilarity, from being together in masses.  I may say with Abram —, "I love a
nigger, they are better than we."  So they are: grateful, devoted, self-sacrificing for their masters.  I do believe that there
are a dozen on this estate who would risk their lives in an instant for my wife. They are, under ordinary masters, a happy
people. Their chief suffering is from cold weather. In summer
they are always well, plump, and joyous. The only thing I am anLxious about for them, is their illumination.: Several Wait on my
wife, who are as well-bred and (in heart) refined as ladies.
When you or I depart this life, the letters of the survivor,
(free as they have been about persons who may then be alive)




354      WTHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE,
might prove very mischievous to the surviving party.  I think,
therefore, we both ought to provide for the return of the letters to
the writers or the family of the writers: I beg you will not fail
to append a conspicuous advertisement in respect to this, to any
parcels retained by you; I will do the like. I was 38 on the
13th.  The thought overwhelmed me. It was communion day.
In reg(ard to new vneasures, I wish I had always observed this
rule, viz.: " Never vent any general principle about them; speak
to the individual case; nor then but when forced."
MRS. LE GRAND'S, CIIARLOTTE C. It., IMar'ch 25, 1842.
Your news of the progress of religion is good.  In Virginia
there are a few revivals. To-morrow Plumer [Richmond] will
receive TF fifty.  Iy mind has been, and is, filled with the negroes.
What I say on this point I say with, I do believe, as much love
for the race as any man feels; and with an extent of observation
perhaps as large as I Can pretend to on ally subject, having seen
the worst as well as the best of their condition.  And the result
of all, increasingly, is, what you I am sure would agree to if you
were on the spot, that the average physical evils of their case are
not greater than of sailors, soldiers, shoeblacks, or low operatives; while their moral evils are unspeakably great.  My point
is this, then: The soul of the negro is precious and must be
saved.  Aim  at this, at this first, at this directly, at this independently of their bondage, and the other desirable ends will be
promoted even more surely than if the latter were made the
great object. A gradual emancipation is that to which the interior economy of the North-Southern States was tending, is
tending, and. will reach; it is desirable; in my view it is inevitable; it is craved by thousands here; but an emancipation
even gradual may arrive in such sort as to leave a host of blacks
to be damned, who, by the other means, may be Christianized,
while their eventual fieedom is not less certain.  It is the salvation of the slave, which is infinitely the most important, which
moreover Southern Christians can be led to seek, and of which
the very seeking directly tends to emancipation. I say this, on
the obvious principle, that when the owner by seeking the salvation of his slave, gets (as he must) to love him, he will not
rest (I speak of the mass) without trying to make him  a freeman. I cannot describe the pleasure I have had in preaching
and talking to the slaves: if I have ever done any good, this is
the way.  I have just been in Mrs. Le Grand's garden, which is
a faery-land. There are blooming and perfuming at this moment,
and by wholesale, yellow-jasmines, double-peach, hyacinths, Siberian-crab, tulip, violets, pansies, jonquils, &c.  The forests




1833-1844.                       355
are very imperfectly leafing.  After several freshes, the plows
are going for corn, oats having been sown. N. B. As to the
anomaly of the plural nominative with singular verb, in our version, it is as certain a usage in old English, as in Greek, though
I confess not so common. I have had my attention drawn to it,
some years ago, and in other English books.  Pres. lMIaxwell
[of Hampden Sidney] and Mr. [Rev. Patrick J.] Sparrow were
here yesterday, on the way to Presbytery, in Halifax Co. They
are expected to stop as they return.  MlIaxwell has good spirits,
on such small provocation.  Lexington has become a flourishing
literary place for Virginia. The military school has rather helped
the college; for, as Gen. Carrington said to me, "Among soldiers
the point d'lon01neur is obedience."  They are meaning to have a
mnonthly magazine at Union Seminary, which is as flourishing as it
has ever been. - Since I came to Virginia I have preached nineteen
sermons.  Since I came to Ingleside, there has been one houseburning and one death.  A little [negro] girl set. 12, daughter
of Mr. C.'s miller " Henry; " peripneumony; just before dying
said, "I see a beautiful dress."  Bystanders said, " She is out
of her head."  Child answered, " No I a'nt out o' my head, I am
dyin' "-and caused "Christian Moses " (Mr. C.'s head-man, so
called to distinguish him from " Long [Moses ") to be sent for,
to sing for her a certain hymn.  Poor souls, their hearts go
forth almost always in hymns.  The other night, after preaching
to an unmixed negro flock, we sang " When I can read my title
clear," &e., and the feeling I caught was almost that of enthusiasm.  Every voice joining, all loud, and all true enough in tone
to have satisfied Haydn.  Abram Venable is licensed by Presbytery to preach to them.  I lately counted up the living descendants of Col. Sam. Venable (my father's Mentor) and his
wife (half-sister of I-Ienry Carrington) -  140 odd.  Of the
original Wooclsons, (i. e. the first English emigrants,) the descendants, by a rough calculation, are 20,000. The contiguous
settlement of many among these, and their unmixed Englishhood conditions very much the state of old-Virginia society.
CHARLOTTE C. H., April 26, 1842.
Your acceptable favour, 18th ilst. is accepted.  We have
resolved on realizing what has all along been our plan, viz., to
seize the first possibility of setting off. This we propose to attempt on the 2d of May; meaning to go vii P. Edward, Cartersville, Canal, Richmond, Norfolk, &c.; in every step consulting ease of motion.  Our good friends here have prevented
us in one important item-the getting to the canal, 60 or 70




356.    WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
miles from here. I was in expectation of hackney-travel from
Prince Edward, and had written to engage the same, as IMr. C.'s
carriage-pair have become disabled; and though he has about a
dozen horses, none of them would be both safe and able. But
Mrs.; Le Grand has come in to relieve us in this strait. The
plan is this: to, take her carriage and horses and coachman
Billy, (who was at my grandfather's as a lad when my father
was a boy;) to have a light wagon with a horse of ~Mr. Carrington's, and his man Fontaine, for change, and for the trunks; with
our affectionate nurse Nanette in the carriage, and a saddlehorse, (Margery Daw, so called from her easy alnble; the nag I
have uniformly bestridden in my last two visits.)  When I remonstrated against so overwhelming a favour, Mr. C. (whom
may God ever bless!) said: "Say no more, sir, it costs me
nothing. I have no money to give you, but I can give you service: and remember what Jack IRandolph used to say was a Virginian estate,'plenty of serfs, plenty of horses, but not a shilling.'"  We may be a fortnight and more in getting to Philadelphia, where I hope to stay a day or two. If there is any
thing which could make it, in the least, burdensome to your
mother, for us to pass these days under her long-tried roof, do
be frank enough to say so in a line to Richmond. She gave me
the kindest invitation, but I am ignorant of their family-movements just now. It is summer here; 830 at 5 p. m. yesterday
in shade. Henry picked ripe strawberries in the field.  Your
Trenton and church news is just the thing; I prize your particularity;: and joy in your success, almost with a personal gratification. You have bragged twice in a heathenish or lenten manner
of your shad; know ye, that the Roanoke shad has been in season for weeks past, and was on the table the clday your letter
came; though I seldom eat the animal.  Cherries are red. In
Mecklenburg I picked ripe strawberries nearly two weeks ago.
I there, saw  eglantine and  coral-honeysuckles, wild, and as
" plenty as blackberries."  The calyeanthus scents whole swamps
oppressively. In Abram  Venable's garden of three acres, I
counted 66 beds of tulips in bloom, and in an average bed
I counted 144 tulips; = 9,504 actually blooming; every shade
and contour. He is equally curious in roses. His house is in
full view of Prestnwould, seat of the late Sir Peyton Skipwith,
now occupied by IHumberstone Skipwith, the 2d son. Sir Grey
lives abroad. There is nothing on Virginia tables which I should
care to transport, but cornbread (plain) and bacon; and I have
no hope of ever seeing either elsewhere. Peas are ripe. My
Henry, in chasing a hare with a dog, came across a venomous
moccasin-snake; the dog killed both hare and snake.  Two




1833-1844.                      357
other children were in company, not a hundred yards from the
house.
PRINCETON, June 3, 1842.
I expected to find you in the city, when I heard that you had
gone thither; but you passed us on -the river, and not being civil
enough to salute us, left me under the impression that you were
not in the Flamingo, or whatsoever name you may have given
your craft. My children, though perfect rustics, are well; an
unspeakable blessing just now, [their mother an invalid in Philadelphia.]  Say what is necessary to the Rices and other Tridentine friends.  Give my love to them, and to- Mrs. -,
and all and sundry misses and masters. I heard Krebs [in
General Assembly] open the defence of the [wife's sister marriage.] I-le spoke all Wednesday afternoon, and much of yesterday morning. Then arose Colin ]Melvor and declared that he
could say his say in four hours. I fled. It is now several years
since I was, even as a hearer, in the Assembly: I have no lust
for going again.
PRINCETON, June 30, 1842.
Yesterday was exactly eight months since I took my wife
away. That she should, at last, have got home, even as well as
she is, should mark the day albo lapillo of thankfulness. The
events and anixieties of the last twelvemonth have given me deep
thoughts about myself, and about life. I rejoice that as I grow
grayer, I do not feel, as -  lately told me he felt, a growinog
distrust in my kind.  On the contrary, I have so lived upon
kindnesses, in time of need, and often from strangers, that I can
only attribute the whole to that system of inexplicable divine
fakvour, which follows and overwhelms us, despite our manifold
sins and provocations.  And feeling, I do think, a firmer purpose
to spend my remnant of life in service, and a stronger hatred
to the unslain body of death within me, I cling more to the freest
views of the Divine salvation; and more and more seek to behold the gift of Christ as the gift of every thing: 1 Cor iii. 22,
23. Surely there must have been somewhere, in the teaching
of the Reformers, a wonderful spring, to act so powerfully and
rapidly and widely. I think I find this, when I read in their
works, especially those of Luther, certain declarations which
are less frequent,' earnest, and prominent, in later reformed
writers, even those who adhered to the same confession; especially free justification; change of state, as distinct from change
of moral character; which latter was as much insisted on:by
good Romanists. It was the same thing'when Whitefield and
Wesley preached; and in this they agreed; and there was the




358     WHIILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
same  effect. And I am convinced, that just so far as we seek to
save God's free grace in justifying from  abuse, bIy any condition
in the sinner, except simple reception of Christ, which is only a
condition-sine-qua-non, the more we produce practical Antinomianism.  No communities have ever been so thoroughly
moral as those who were most evangelical - -I mean the least
legal: e. g. the Scotch, in their best days; when everybody was
externally Christian. The universal offer of a present, free salvation, to every son and daughter of Adam, for Christ's sake, is
what.I hold for Gospel; it is the good news which made the
Reformation, which makes every true revival, and which makes
us work, if we ever work what is right. It is the favourite topic
of the old Calvinistic preachers of the 17th century; and of Boston, &c. Some of these thoughts have been suggested to me,
by reading McCrie's life by his son.
PRINCETON, JuZly 13, 1842.
I exclaimed at the improvement of your hand, before I perceived that it was all along of the ruled paper. Dr. A. goes toward Niagara, on Friday, to be away for two Sundays at least.
J. W. A. cannot leave home by reason of college engagements,
especially one on Monday morning. J. A. A. has a very severe
and disabling catarrh, and an engagement elsewhere, to boot.
Dr. IR. consents to be with you —I taking his two services.
Lord Congleton, who slew himself last month, is succeeded by
his son John Parnell, an intimate friend, abroad, of Dr. Heodge,
[see page 156;] he went out, as missionary, on his own hook, with
IMr. Groves, to Bagdad, India, &c. In three years, the number
of camels destroyed in the Affghanistaun war - 50,000. I believe the domestic use of mercury worse than ditto of alcohol.
I am no longer a member of any Temperance Society of any
sort, except that which is 1,800 years old. I look on the present
seat of war in the Affghaun region as one of the most interesting
spots on earth, physically, historically, prospectively, Christianly.
Think of Cabul being 6,000 feet above the sea. Think of the
Indus, no river such a barrier; of the Khyber-pass, impassable
in general, but just passed by Pollock; it is the gut of the river
which runs by Cabul to the Indus.  Think of the edging of
English toward Russian power. I hope we shall live to see a
Presbyterian mission on that sublime plateau. All I hear of the
Congregational missions makes me more in favour of our own.
You see they had to make two presbyteries, even in Sandwichaii. Independency can't begin, of itself, as somebody said somewhere. Try to imagine it beginning among heathen. A parochial episcopacy and then a bench of presbyters is the only thing




conceivable; and this is presbytery. The Churchman may well
sneer at Goode's book, [" Divine Rule of Faith and Practice:"] it
is a demolishing book to them. hMy garden is in a poor state,
in consequence of my absence at seed-time. I have neither peas
nor early beans, but abundance of the " wind-compelling"  roots,
called radishes.  Girls' schools are humbugs; i. e. in the long
run. Yet Prof.      has just got back from an examination
of Rutgers Institute, New York city: 400 pupils. lie says the
attainments in mathematics surpass any thing he has ever seen
among lads; and I know no better judge.   And therefore, I
am, with every complimental respect and regard, &c.
PRINCETON, September 2, 1842.
Yours of yesterday informed me, to my sincere satisfaction,
that you were home and well again. I hope you may always
get along with the same punctuality of pastoral presence: but
do not fail, while strong, to bear the infirmities of the weak. I
am delivered from my cough, but much feebler than while I had
it; having been so tied at home as to be unable to fly even for a
week from my sources of care. Do you see that, at the Dartmouth Commencement, Dr.          has been disparaging the
refbormation, and glorifying the Dark Ages? At the same place,
President Lord preached a most eloquent sermon against all the
boastful Philosophies; maintaining Scripture to be the only safe,
and the sufficient guide, and snubbing the metaphysicians in the
very style of superiority which they assume. The whole argument that there is more nearness of kin between a woman and
her husband's brother, than between a woman and her sister's
husband, may be thus conveniently expressed in symbols: "A
- a, but a is not equal to A."  Capt. Stockton has been trying
his big gun; it tears every thing to flinders.  Dallas Bache was
here last week. He is elected vice Emmett, of the University
of Virginia.
PHILADELPHIA, October 12, 1842.
It is reversing matters, with a witness, for me to write from
Philadelphia to you in Trenton.  We came here on the 1st, by
the Doctor's prescription, and my-wife has amended very much,
so that she walked a mile with me this morning. We have a
room at No. 163 South 9th, Mrs. Bowers's. We see some of
your mother's family every day. Harlan is lionizing in New
York. Humphrey of London, James's quondam fellow-prentice,
is here; they say he is one of the first artists in his line, [engraving.]    Mir. J. L. Wilson is here; arrived from Guinea on
the 9th. Surely you ought to be here. I miss you very much,




360     WHIIILE -PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
especially as --- has been manceuvring in Massachusetts ever
since I came, and —, who is rather an unexhilarating companion, at best, foams awayi most of every day in the Burlington
steamboat.  The Board of Publication bestowed on me an eleemosynary ten dollars' worth of books this morning.  Very
smiling likeness of Dr. Parker in the shops. I have to preach
for [J. I-I.] Jones, on "Sabbath first."  The Presbytery is now
largely British-Irish, e. g. Tudehope, Macklin, Hloge, Loughridge,
and Stuart.  I heard MAeCalla make a speech, of which part follows: "I beg leave to state, that my connexion with this body
is precisely that which the apostle Paul had with the soldier to
whom he was attached in prison; namely a chainz." —" I have
been for twenty years a sufferer for conscience' sake; the hostility
between me and you, has been altogether towards myself.":His speech, though, was first-rate, for diction and delivery. I have preached as often as I was able; perhaps more.
Anna and I went on Sunday evening to the " Mariners' Church,"
where was an immense throng. The mariners discoursed; each
had his psalm, his doctrine, his tongue, (for one was a Seminole,
whose conversion was miraculous,) his revelation. The singing
was grandly methodistic. -The handsome Indian boy I mentioned, has really a powerful natural eloquence, notwithstanding
a stutter and broken English. I was convinced that good is doing at that church, though by means as Finneyitish as could well
be. A semi-genteel seaman, with forehead as per margin, [there
was a profile here,] acted as a sort of Valentine to the " Orson,"
[the Mariners' Chaplain was the late Rev. Orson Douglas,] and
descanted on the following text, which he stated to be in the
Bible, " There is no repentance in the grave, whither thou goest."
Election is over: you know the result. I saw a furniture cart,
full of placards and a band of music, on which the painted letters
made with a placard the following cross-reading "To hireWhigs of Middle Ward;" solemn fact. Mention it over the
way. There was no fighting and less drunkenness than common.
-     sits next to me at table, and is an ultra Philadelphia punster already. He is as mercurial and jovial as   -  is saturnine, or his father martial or  -    (at present furloughed) terrestrial; I don't like the other adjective, or I should get all the
old planets into my period.
I hope to spend part of Monday and Tuesday in Trenton.
Till then account of me as truly yours.
PRINCETON, Deceember 19, 1842.
Do not omit to read the ancient Call, in last Presbyterian.
Half the names to it are my kindred. The pastor, Brown, was




1833  1844.                    361
father of [James] Brown, formerly Americanl Minister to, France.
The Archibald Alexander in the list, is my great-grandfather,
an eminent saint. I trust the prayers of that day are now in
remembrance. A great awakening is now in progress in Mr.
Skinner's church in Lexington; 105 have been admitted. The
McDowell on the same list is forefather of James McDowell, at
present Governor of Virginia.  Our college meetings are well
attended; two on Sunday, and one of half an hour every evening
at 6.-. I never knew a more assiduous pastor than Professor
Maclean: he daily talks with some of the youth; and is doing
more good than any of us.
My old cook, Judy, came in just now to tell me of some inquirers in my black church; and, speaking of plain preaching,
said, "There was Jeem9ny:Ar mstrong that used to preach at Larrence, he didn't preach in the fear of man." She meant your and
my predecessor, the Rev. J. F. A. The black Methodists here
practise orgies. The other day or night a wench was brought
into their church, on a bier, laid out, and inl a trance. During
the exorcism she sat up and spake. My mother's black maid
speaks of it exactly as if it were a miracle. They have carried
off a large portion of my congregation. I have, God willing, to
preach on New Year's day P. M. in Lord's new church, [Seventh
Church, Philadelphia,] then to be opened. The deficit of the A.
B. C. F. M. since their extra effort is amazing: viz., $1S,000
less for this, than for same quarter 1841! $5,000 less than average for five years! And this, when the complaint has just been
that the American Board swallowed up all fiom  the other societies.. I am for using our existing machinery, while approved,
to its utmost, for evangelical ends: yet Quere l. Whether we
do not sometimes account of the engine, (board or scheme,) as
almost apostolic, and essential to church-progress?  2. Whether
it is not probable that God will allow all our present enginery
to decay, with the circumstances which reared it?: 3. Whether
the conversion of the world will not result, under God,. from an
action more individual, more cheap, and more flowing from great
affections in every church and every member of it? 4. Whether
such is: not the New Testament missionary work, as we read it
in Scripture?  These views have always struck me; even while
I abhor the malignant opposition to our Boards, which seem to
me innocent, indispensable, and infinitely the best existing mode
of doing the work thus collectively. But will the church keep
up its zeal in the present mode? I own I never thought Irving's
book on " Apostolical Missions " so foolish as it seemed to everybody. As I always welcome any hints about preaching, let me
give you one. A  good plan is invaluable, and may be turned
VOL. I.-  6




362     WHILE PROlFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
to better account ten years after date, than when first used. I
learned of Summerfield to preach extempore, and then to write
out the skeleton, after trial.  Now this is to introduce my hint,
which is, that a good plan for a ten-minutes'-session-room-harangue, is an equally good plan for a sermon. Therefore, whenever a text or passage has opened well before the* mind, in an
exhortation, write down the skeleton on going home: it will
some day hatch a discourse.
PRINCETON, January 6, 1843.
Dr. Baird is at this moment, I guess, discoursing to the
seminarists on the things of Europe. Last evening I heard him
form about an hour and a half. - Dod, at this same hour, is holding
forth, for a second time, at the Musical Fund, [Philadelphia.]  I
have read a letter from Paris, by the Rev. Otto von Gerlach,
of Berlin, on his way home from England, whither he went in the
cortege of the king of Prussia, and where he staid five months.
I mention it because of the interest felt about the proposed reorganization of the " Evangelical Church," and because, since the
consecration of my namesake Alexander to the see of Jerusalem,
the Oxonians have alleged that their system was to be set agoing
in Prussia. Von Gerlach is an intimate of the king, and brother
of one of his first privy-councillors. He says there is no truth
in the report; that Frederick William admires the regularity
of the Anglicans, but is not for their hierarchy; that he is for a
more synodal polity.  He spent five days with Pusey at Oxford,
and talks of him exactly as we do. The Sunday School Journal
is quite an anti-popery paper. There are four Romish priests in
the Theological Seminary at Geneva. Burtt and [E. S.] Ely
have both come back from the West. Ely's whiskers are as
white as his shirt. Walsh writes with as much vigour and pith
as ever for the National Intelligencer.  He gave Baird a grand
feu-de-joie in his last. His health is quite good. While there
is not a grain of snow in Philadelphia or at Cranbury, it is a
foot deep north of us, and in some parts of Orange Co., where
Sam is, three feet deep. Delavan's " colossal stomachs" [illustrating effects of alcohol] are displayed in the Seminary. Quere:
whether a good Madonna is not as fine an altar-piece as any
entrails whatsoever?  Maclean's house providentially saved
from fire, on the 4th; attic caught from an ill-jointed stove-pipe
of coal-stove below. Baird thinks that Providence has given
to French Protestants the ablest defender of their liberties that
they have had for a century, in young Count Gasparin, master
of requests to the king, and member of the chamber of Deputies.
There are about sixteen of my little African flock who seem to




1833-1844.                     363
be seeking conversion. I perceive an increasing number in our
ambitious students every year who babble the nonsensical dialect
of transcendentalism.. The chief lecturers on the Newark programme this winter are Bancroft, Brownson, Emerson, John
Neale, Burritt, Bellows, Furness, and Emerson: I name the
majority.  Yankee Hlill had the Dutch church- (on dit) at
Newark. You perceive a strong tendency towards catholic
union, on1 the part of the suffering Scotch Presbyterians.  God
grant that we may see the same at home, to counteract the
divisive fanaticism of the ultras! The strength of Presbyterianism; its tendency to increase, has; I think, always been in proportion
to its keeping clear of polemic' preaching, sectarian propagandism,
and supplanting and proselyting ways; and in times'when its
direct aim was at converting souls. After'oscillations to one
side and the other,'this is the resting-point of my opinion. If I
have not wished you a happy-new-year, I do so now; and if I
have, I doubly wish it, for you and yours. May' our houses be
Christian houses, and their inmates objects of special grace and
mercy. If you have any coughing propensities, pray do as
you would advise another, and  subtract from your'meetings;
for you know well enough that the real good done is not always
in the. ratio'of the number of preachings. I am in sorry condition as to strength.
PRINCETON, January 23, 1843.
Your Indians are here. If you have not Merle's History of
the Reformation, mention to me your deficit. By all means circulate it, and by all means Carter's edition. I heard my good
old father say yesterday that no book in our day he thought
was doing more good. He puts the Reformation on its true
ground, i. e. Luther made his great business the declaring of
saving doctrines, (we lack a phrase here; I mean the truths
which the soul converses with in the article of conversion,) and
these went on triumphant, destroying popery, till (-when? for
this is the great point) in every country the Reformers took another way, either controversy about minors, or political agitation. Thef difficulty you mention, of reaching certain people
out of our congregations, soZ0s kow, often occurs to me. It is the
greatest argument I know of for new measures: an excitement
brings them within the orbit of attraction. Hence I have known
revivals in which Papists, Quakers, and infidels, who had not
heard the gospel for years, have been awakened. Qu. Could
not lay-people be the means of saving multitudes, if each would
fix on an individual who never goes to church, and never cease
till he brought him? if only once? Preach on John i. 46, and




364:    WHILE PROFESSOR IN. PRINCETON COLLEGE.
context.  I would put such a book as the "S' aints' Rest" into
the hands of a Quaker; the affections must be gained over.,
Somebody, the other day, in - s study, saw a MS. sermon
on his table, marked "No. 2500."  There is some excellent
writing in the close of the Annual Report of the American
Board of Foreign Missions., in a letter to me, some time ago, says, that the only
preaching which will meet the demalnds of the awakened public
mind, is the mnetaphysical.  You and I may as well shut up
shop. lie argues the: point, but I am less than ever convinced.
I did not consider his preaching metaphysical, but I deny his
proposition. In every age, the interest has attached to just that
preaching which most directly reached the affections and passions
of souls inquiring what must we do to'be saved. This I think
historically incontestable. A mix of Baxter and Flavel would
be my highest wish as a preacher. I took my children to
a private audience with the Indians; they were bivouacking and
in dishabille. Secretary Ross did the honours. I am to lose
the Hares from next door, but to be indemnified by the Crabbes,
on t'other: Capt. Crabbe, U. S. N. What a beautiful euphemism is the following, in Rep. A. B. C. F. M., page 44, (speaking
of 80 returned missionaries:)  " Fifty were males, and thirty of
these came home bereaved, or else in consequence of the sickness
of their wives. About one-half of the bereaved missionaries
have returned to their work with new partners."  The Psalmodists, whom  the Assembly "set over the service of song,"
[a committee for new hymn-book,] have resolved to go on and
print. Some fine stanzas of Watts will soon be obsolete, e. g.:
" Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find," etc.
I do not know a book of Scripture so consolatory as 2 Cor.
Lately I culled the passages in it describing the writer's troubles,
and was amazed; but the consolation is like sunshine over all,
and everywhere the same-Christ. Cheerful religion is most
like Scripture, and, as Dr. Hodge says, joy is an oil to every
wheel of the machine. Hence I look with all but envy on such
writers as Flavel, Bates, Philip and Matthew Henry, Romaine,
and John Newton; they put me into working gear sooner than
Brainerd, Payson, and the American school.  The enclosed
hymns by a valued friend of mine are better than sundry by
Mrs. A., and Mrs. B., and [Mrs. G., and Professor II., &c. Keep
them for me. The author was a recluse "stickit minister," but
a true scholar. He wrote a 12mo history of Virginia, which is
the best I know, and of which Bancroft speaks highly; and a




1833 -1844.                      365
school reader the " Columbian Reader," better than any I know,
except Pierpoint's.
When are you going to set up the'" New Jersey lagazine,"
with Dr. Ewing for Editor?  If you do not hurry, you will be
anticipated, and surely the capital is the place.  You  might
make it a religious and moral as well as a literary organ.  I will
contribute my quota'; so will you. Dr. Beasley would- send'pieces abundantly;  Trenton gentry would be glad of such an
organ.  I know your editorial fingers itch to paragraph a little.
The records'will furnish'material for history.' Music will find
its place.  Dr.  -     will embellish your pages.  Poetesses
will spring up, bland and numerous as poppies. The "children's
department" will be attended to. The temperance-reform will
have due notice.
The last Biblical Repository has an article on the Wife's
Sister.  He is driven to take the ground, that no church-court
can declare evil that which the law of the land approves.  "It
is not decent," says he, "to suppose the law of the land against
the law of God."  Under Tiberius and Nero, Christ made no
such supposition.  Forsooth, the poor martyrs under Nero, -who
disobeyed his laws against Christianity, might have escaped martyrdom, if this second Daniel had come to judgment a few centuries earlier.  Such' is innovation in morals.  What a pity
2 Cor. vii. 1 is torn away from the foregoing context! There
is wonderful force lost in our version of 2-Cor. ix. 8; and observe
it is about giviing: AvvaTo 8e   O eos rr a- o a v XapLv 7r e p L (r C- e v O a L
EL3 v.a3% tva Ev 7rarVTL   av'TOTE'    rarav avrTapIC cLav, &c.
Symmes Henry told a good thing about his ways of managing
the Methodists when they made inroads.  There were two or
three Methodist families, in whose houses the preachers held
meetings.  " This will never do," said Henry, "you shall have
my session-house," so the bell was rung, and he sat in the pulpit.
Of course, the " rider " could not say any thing uncivil. After
a few trials they dropped it.
PRINCETON, February 7, 1843.
[Rev. C. F.] Worrell was received [by Presbytery] and
called to 2d Upper Freehold, (what confusion worse confounded
among the Freeholds! we' have a 2d Upper Freehold and no
lst do.-" Freehold,' and ":Freehold village.")1  So the "first
church Trenton "' is in Ewing, [since called Ewing.]  There is a
revival at Nottingham Square, Lnow Hamilton Square.]  I came
Mr. Worrell's is now called "Millstone;" and "Freehold" is called
"the Tennent Church;" leaving the village church the only "Freehold."




366     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
from Cranbury yesterday in a sleigh, in the teeth of the worst
N.W. drift I ever faced. Symmes Henry has a delightful manse,
the best I know. He is a truly hospitable, friendly man in his
house. There are great revivals reported in Middle Pennsylvania: -Carlisle, Chambersburg, Lewisburg, &c. You see Krummacher, of Elberfeld, is elected to succeed Rauch at. Mercersburg.  A man  may write very popular books and yet not be
a good president. Some say the Duane St. church will be a
collegiate church, [in connexion with a proposed new organization.] I suppose we shall never see another General Assembly,
without proposals to alter our book. I am disposed to praise
the bridge that has brought us safe over.
Though I should not have vetoed -'s admission, I think
every Presbytery has a right to refuse entrance, without reasons
stated; a man might be litigious, abusive, erratic, &c. - The day
may come when this Presbyterial right shall be very dear to us.
Don't you think our cities are rather feebly manned?  O
that our country-ministers would only aim  at more learning and piety! -Most of the great Puritans were in the
provinces. So it was in old New England. But our countrypastors think themselves exempt from all scriptural research.
I have turned schoolmaster, and teach Henry at home: I wish
at least that he may know the Bible. I have been studying
2 Corinthians for a week or two, and have come at some little
discoveries which please me a good deal. The heart of Paul
breaks forth wonderfully in that epistle. Does not the spirit of
the scriptural teaching go against female-prayer-meetings? As
to Maternal Associations-why not Parental Associations, where
men might lead in prayer?  Look carefully at the Greek of
1 Tim. ii. 8, ros i v p a s not av3porrov —and mark the antithesis, afterwards, wav-ro:s KaiL -ts y va   K as, etc.. Read over
the whole passage in connexion, and see how, immediately after
enjoining on the men to pray, he subjoins "let the woman learn
in silence," &c.
PRINCETON, February 14, 1843.
Henry goes to-morrow to Trenton on some business, by
whom I hope to send this valuable missive.  My old and poor
black kitchen-woman gives 12~  cents a month to Foreign
Missions. This is nearly twice as much as the pro rata of our
Presbyterial-demand.
Come up and see the mortified, schirrous, and cancerous stomachs in the oratory [p. 362;] they are magnified, so as to tally with
the statistics. An article on our national debt to two races, the
black and the red, would do good. I wish I had some paper or




1833-1844.                    367
magazine in which to insert literary scraps, which turn up in
my. reading, with an interspersion of religious remark.  In
regard to the Newark Daily, as I am the only one who writes
in this line fbr it, I am found out and accosted about every thing
I pen.
I think it likely my notes on 2 Corinthians will grow into
something like an informal commentary. Much as we laugh at
Rous's version, some of the psalms are wonderfully fine; and if
we would only make the allowance which we do in regard to
the old English ballads, we should find them noble, e. g. Ps. xxiii.
Then they stick so close to the original. I do not wonder that
those who have been brought up on them should be loth to give
them up.: A young Quaker from Bucks, graduated last year,
who seemed only moral, writes that his being at College was
blessed, he thinks, to his becoming acquainted with the grace of
the gospel. Two youths, room-mates, eminent scholars, have
been hopefully converted this winter. I don't see why everybody should not learn Greek enough to read the New Testament.
It would. be worth tell times as much as the nonsensical boarding school French, which never does any good to anybody.
PRINCETON, February 20, 1843.
I am reading very steadily on 2 Corinthians, and could easily
make a book, if I could only satisfy myself as to what sort of a
one. Three plans occur to me: 1. A critical exposition, analyzing the Greek text, and discussing the various opinions. If
our clergy would read such a book, I believe it would be far the
best. 2. A current, running comment, by way of text, with
abundant notes of critical and contested points, by way of
marginal notes. 3. A  commentary, all text, without critical
notices or authors cited, so written as to be readable straight
ahead, for common readers, giving simply but fully my view of
the sense. The more I meditate the more difficult does it seem;
I mean to choose a plan. IHodge's method [Romans] chops up
the matter too much into bits and compartments. Is it not
better to put in the text after the Henry, than after the Scott
method? Of all the commentaries I have examined, there is the
most constant glow of piety-in Calvin, and this without setting
his pious remarks by themselves. I mean to send you a specimen chapter, for I:wish sharp criticism, and the aid of other
eyes. ---- is the most laborious Bible student I know. I
never saw a man who comes so near reading nothing but the
Bible. He has whole paragraphs of the Hebrew in his head.
His method is to hang over a single portion for days and weeks.
He never reads cursorily. Yet he does not produce any thing




368     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRI!_NCETON COLLEGE.
interesting in the pulpit. I-Ie has no history, no science, no
literature, no news. I think he is singularly devoid of constructive power; like one who quarries tons of stone, but builds
nothing. I think him one of -the most devout, serious, reverent
men, but strangely blind to every thing like evangelical privilege.
Our trials and apprehensiols, personal and domestic, ought
to drive or draw us to greater spirituality, and more devotion to
the best things. Let us pray for one another. Here is a paragraph of' beautiful latinity,: from  Calvin, ad 2 Cor. i. 10, "Tametsi autem:'    [&c.]
PRINCETON, ~af crli 3, 1843.
I mean to send you Borrow's two books, [" Bible in Spain"
and " The Zincali."]  You will find them after-dinner reading of
the best. You will devour them, always having your granum
salis on the edge of your plate. His religion is of a peculiar
kind, but his genius, chivalry, and good-nature will delight you;
and whatever good he may have done in Spain, his adventures
will suggest to you a hundred thoughts about the value of
individual daring and apostolic missions among the Popish
peasantry.
IIn a wood near this place are four old chestnut trees, the
only ones of that species; so planted as to form a square.  A
few weeks ago, a deep hole was discovered between them, newly
opened, with marks and remnants of two boxes, which have
been taken out.  Nobody can explain it.  I hear a good
deal about AMillerism among the lowest sort of people; who,
unfortunately, are those who become the prey, in such cases.
has bought, for the aisle of the Library, a Cashmere
carpet, which Runjeet Singh gave to John C. Lowrie.
PRINCETON,.March 27, 1843.
It is snowing again; what a March! [For the improvident
poor, it is really a serious matter.  The comet seems to grow
dim, but my namesake Stephen has had observations enough to
derive elements for a very satisfactory calculation.  From these
he constructs an ephemeris, and if the thing's place every night
answers to the ephemeris, the calculation is conceived to be
verified. IHe will publish it. I attended a soiree of select
observers in a case of Mesmerism, the other night.  Further
than the apparent sleep of the patient, I saw nothing wonderful.
Matt. xii.'30 is often quoted, with a very edifying sense, but
how can it be made, in such sense, to cohere at all with what
goes before and after l The ancients thought it referred to the




1833-1844.                       369
devil. The connexion is certainly difficult.  Our session is running down rapidly to a close; it ends April 13.  /)Davidson has
arrived at New Brunswick.  If, as ---— emands, we must
have Scripture injunction for every thing in our polity, I think
we must go vastly further than his present move. I see no
title of Scripture for the life-long:contintuance of ministerial
character, or against electing elders every other year, as the
Dutch do, or for the power of a majority to govern, or for
synods and general-assembly, or for the principle of representation.  Where does the Bible say that ruling-elders are representatives of the people, or that they may not be chosen by the
pastor? The whole of his arguments are from the jure-divino
mint. I have no doubt that the majority of American Presbyterians stand on lower ground than this. Archbishop Whately's
book [" Kingdom of Christ Delineated"]. is of great value in this
respect. It settles some principles about the freedom of the
church, within certain limits, to organize itself, which are very
comfortable to my mind. But for these, I should have to unchurch the Baptists, as mluch as they unchurch us, as they are
ordained in many cases by laymen.  It strikes me with great
foice, that when the apostle Paul is defending his apostolical
claims in his epistles to the Corinthians, he never founds any of
them  on:his external connexion, or succession, or any rites,
(which might easily have been verified,) but in every instance, on
his doctrine, spirit, and life; I Cor. iv. 1, and 9-15; ix. 1, 2,
" tie -seal of mine apostleship are ye."  2 Cor. vi. 4, "approving ourselves as the ministers of God "-how?-" in much
patience," &c.; xi. 23, "Are they ministers of Christ? I am
more; " then he gives his proofs, xii. 12. He gives " the signs of
an anostle," with no breath of rituality.  And so much does he
make of doctrine as a criterion, that though an angel preach
othervise, he is to be accursed, Gal. i. 8.
PRINCETON, March 30, 1843.
I snd herewith a couple of catalogues, which you will please
give tc Capt. Ewing, (I suppose you know your elder is a miles
emeritus, once a captain of horse.)  In reperusing Foster's inimitabb essays, I am much struck with the fitness of the last, to
be put nto the hands of a thoughtful, literary man, who feels a
sort of contempt for the vulgar manifestations of religion, with
which nany are offended.  Yesterday to my extreme surprise
I receivel a call from  Natchez. I am truly and only grieved,
for, as I manot live in that climate, that suffering people have
again conpassed a denial. The least hint of it beforehand would
have led o my preventing such a step. I congratulate you on
VOL 1.-1 6*




370T     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
some symptoms of spring.  We have had to boat it, from and
to the dep6t.. Stephen Alexander has been delivering a public
lecture on the conlet, which gave much satisfaction. Gen. Jackson gives a recommendation (very religious too) of Pease's
candy. A very decent Irishman told me yesterday he had been
five months out of work. Great revivals and protracted meetings among the Seceders, at Newburgh.  I see the Edinburgh
Review bepraises Borrow as much as the Quarterly. Lowrie's
Travels is a very good book, and worth reading.  Dr. somebody
in Albany has, come out, giving the lie to Sewell's stomachpictures, which, he says, are caricatures. Moffatt speaks' of
whole tribes as living for weeks on locusts in Africa. My regards to your " familiares," and am yours.
PRINCETON, April 8, 1843.
The languors of spring have come upon me with a witness.
I know not many feelings worse than that of feeling no just
cause for activity, and yet being unable to do any thing. If
Providence permit, we shall be in Philadelphia next Thursday;
probably at our former lodgings, Ninth and Spruce. I congratulate you on the accession of shad, a favourite Trenton dish.
College duties are substantially over. There are to be 150 trees
set out next week in the Library lot. You will find in the Repertory some things which I said in a late letter, [March 27,] but
which,' nevertheless, I did not get from the author of the article
on "Ruling Elders."  I am pleased to see a Layman in Virginia
giving $525 as a " thank-offering."  I should like to know f~om, what master of literature or art can produce a york,
like his who made the lizard or the crow. Will any man 3ompare the Venus de 3Medici with a living organization, having
reproductive powers?  I have no doubt that there was high
civilization immediately before the deluge. Allison, the S&otchman, has resigned his charge at Paterson. The new school
Psalm  and IHymn book is out; compiled by Benman. The
Methodists are going to have a meeting-house about hlulfway
between us. You know, perhaps, that a second Dutch clmrch is
hatching in New Brunswick.  There is a man in the Seninary,
who is said to have been- an actor in Philadelphia.  One of
Shakspeare's daughters married a John Hall, MI. D, whose
arms were, " Or on a bend sable," &c. IIer epitaph rat thus:
" Witty above her sex; but that's not all:
Wise to salvation was good Mistress Hall.
Something of Shakspeare was in that: but this
Wholly of him, with whom she's now in bliss,"
Your next son should be called William S. T1h death of




1833-1844.                      371
poor --— [an idiot] must be a relief to his afflicted mother;
though in such cases the very wen seems to involve some of the
vital circulation. This year the months of April and Nisan
begin together, which makes the passover fall on Good-Friday;
this is worth putting into the: papers. I must try to get to the
synagogue. I do not expect to be among you until the Council
of Trent, [meeting of Presbytery at Trenton.] I have a resolution~ to propound, recommending sturdy folks not to sit during
prayer. I wish in my heart our church had adopted kneeling in
prayer, and standing in song. The comet has entirely absented
itself.  Only two lecturers-errant this week. -, so I hear
since I began, has taken advisement with -           about the
Hebrew letters going to make up 666. If you wish to know, I
will find out. Vinegar is now said to be a fine thing for the
teeth.
PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 1843.
Your friends here are well.  We are 163 South 9th.  Quaker
Yearly Meeting, which accounts for the rain.' I attended a
grand Concert of the Blind, yesterday, in full force; it was
passing fine. I saw six elephants walling two and two, up
Spruce Street.  In a proof of...-'s, instead of "'and when
Abraham drew near the camp, he heard a shout," it had "/he
tore his shirt." I did not think the church very well filled on
Sunday, considering the eminence of the divine [himself] who
preached. Next Sunday I am caught for St. Louis le Grand's,
Penn Square, [an elegant new church.]  Dr. Tyng's lectures
are very largely attended. The rain has kept me from  going
about much. The Episcopal churches are much thronged; there
is good policy in. laying so much stress on the " service," which
is, like potatoes, always present, whatsoever the other dishes
may be. The cheapness of goods is wonderful. I bought very
good white pocket handkerchiefs for 25 cents.
PHILADELPHIA, A.'ril 24, 1843.
My visit to Philadelphia, from which I anticipated much
pleasure, has proved somewhat Tantalic, as I have had to be
supine most of the time, with a complaint which has rendered
locomotion excruciating. Otherwise I am well. Confined to
the house, I have little news. I saw McCalla going by, looking
like a general officer; hair as before. Leeser has started a
magazine, "The Occident."  The spring display of city-flowers
is very charming. I bought a razor-strop from the celebrated
"Strop-man," who harangues in front of the State House; I
I This is a common saying in Philadelphia.




372     WHILE PR)OFES SOIR I:N PR- INCETOlN COLLEGE.
got it for 25 cents, more for fun than any thing else, and I find
it excellent.  The " converted thief," Munday, goes about, rain
or shine, bare-headed, but chin covered with an  abundant
shag.: Odenheimer is out with a new book, "The True Churchman no Romalnist."  Bp. Kenrick lectures statedly, on the controverted points. There is a schism among the Jews in this
country about: instrumental music in the synagogue; Leeser
thinks it " labour," and: so forbidden; I think their yelling and
eructation much more laborious.
PRINCETON, M'ay 11, 1843.
The green fields, trees, birds, &c., are beyond all praise. I
am  glad to get back to my cabbage-garden.  The Seminary
examination is "being " made. I have been very busy, since
my return, on a piece of writing, which has to be ready by
Assembly-times.1  On dit, that they will certainly have a tramontane Assembly next year.2  Allan Mackenzie, who digs my
garden, is afraid the troubles in the Kirk will lead to the "bringing in of episcopacy and prelacy.?'  A crazy man lives next
door; perhaps we shall have "vegetable marrows " throwne
over the fence; vide Nicholas Nickleby "by Mr. Dickens of
South Britain," as -         calls him  in his newest series of
letters.  -       has left young —, a half-converted Jew-lad,
here, to study.3  If you want some okra-seed, I raised a
bushel last year. The giant, the dwarf, and the harpers have
been here, but the " razor-strop " man has not yet got on so far.
I hear of direful mercantile failures among some of the wealthiest of my acquaintances in Virginia. Our students begin to
return; I see: a few new faces.` Aly old uncle Maj. John Alexander is to be in the Assembly; and D. v., my father will return with him to Virginia.4  I hope he may be prospered in
this, probably his last, visit to his native county. Never can
I be sufficiently grateful for the preservation of my honoured
parents to an old age of cheerfulness, health, and activity.
The last British Critic is out in favour of auricular confession.
Dr.; McElroy is still at Santa Cruz.  Dr. Chalmers says, in a
speech, which I know not whether our papers have extracted, that
the Scotch clergy are preparing for their change of circumstances,
by going- into smaller houses.  Dr. Gordon, leaving one ofthe
I cannot discover from the Minutes, or otherwise, what this paper was.
2 The Assembly of 1844 met at Louisville, Kentucky.
3 The conversion proved to be even less than half.
4 For an account of this visit see " The Life of Archibald Alexander,
D. D.," Chap. xviii.




1833 —1844.                       373
finest mansions in Edinburgh, goes into a house of ~35 rent.
The new body will be called " the Free Presbyterian Church."
PRINCETON, 1fcay 24, 1843.
The Occidentals will, I have no doubt, have the next Assenmbly at Louisville.  The New-School folks are in the expected
trouble about abolition; and it will not be strange if their
Southern members fall off. In this case, I confidently expect
that the most of the latter will join us. Before this reaches
you, I suppose the ruling-elder question will have been decided;
perhaps to be reversed at Louisville.l  Dr. McElroy has returned from  St. Croix, in good health. During  Maclean's
absence [at General Assembly] I conduct a daily prayer-meeting at half-past five.. I was at the communion at Dutch Neck
last Sunday; 12 accession.  I am suffering a most painful languor and debility; the cause must be latent disease, yet my
ordinary functions are as usual. It is itself a disease, and one
for which one can ask no sympathy, and which is not sufficiently
prononc6e to absolve the conscience from the obligation to work.
I often feel that the effort of rising from my chair is a labour.
Too soon has the grasshopper become a burden.  CEconomos,
one of our late Greeks, [in College,] died of consumption, in
Fairfax co., Va., on the 9th inst.  There is a young Jew here,
[mentioned:in last letter,] injudiciously sent by  —, one, of Posen, Germany, mt. 20, who  has excited  my
strong commiseration.  He is speculatively a Christian, and convinced of his sinfulness, but as blind as Pharisaism itself as to
the plan of grace, and so distressed at being rejected by his
parents, that he told me the other evening he had not been in
bed for four' nights.  He'speaks German, Polish, and English,
and is a thorough'Hebrew and Chaldee scholar, has read all the
Talmud, and understands French. He is a " puer ingenui vultfis,"
and certainly of fine capacity;'but unless he obtains some relief
he will go mad.  He showed me his phylacteries.  His change
of views was:occasioned by the simple perusal of a New Testament, seen first: by him  since he grew up, and given him by a
clergyman in Germany.  John Miller is going to Richmond to
assist Plumer in the redaction of the Watchman, and in preaching. A late drunkard of: our town once said that the soil about
Dutch Neck was like self-righteousness; the more a mran had of
it, the worse he was off. Young Wadsworth, late of the Seminary, now of Troy, is said to be a phcenix of eloquence; he is in
Philadelphia.'
1 The decision, by a vote of 83 to 35, was that three ministers (though
without a ruling elder) constitute a quorum of Presbytery.
2 Now pastor of the Fifth church there.




374     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, lay 30, 1843.
My father and uncle set out this week for "the old Colony
and Dominion of Virginia." I am not well, but potter about in
my garden on the few clear days; my truck looks promising,
and it is a great amusement to me.  [Jos. B.] Stratton is gone
to supply Natchez, [now. the Pastor.]  Dr. Lindsly and Dr. Edgar both have sons, physicians, coming to the Seminary.: I have
had two visits from an old man who was in the battle of Princeton. My weight is just 132 lbs.
TYLERTON,' June 12, 1843.
You will judge from the papers that we have all been Tylermad; sundry of us have been so. I feel anxious that it should
be generally known, that the programme of the part to be
enacted by the Faculty of the College, was printed and posted,
and the appointment made on our grounds, without consultation
with us. As a faculty we did nothing.  Several of us were present in the throng. - The President and suite, viz., Wickliffe, wife
and two daughters, Spencer, &c., went to the Episcopal church in
the morning, and to the Presbyterian at night. Between services
a grand dinner. They left us, with music and a great cortege,
about 8 this morning.  A large number of naval and some army
officers were at Com. Stockton's in uniform. As the cavalcade
passed [Mr. J. S.] Green's, departing, [Rev.] Dr. [Ashbel] Green
came out; on which Tyler rapidly dismounted from his chariot
and four and uncovered himself to the old man: the only impressive scene in the melodrama.
PRINCETON, June 15, 1843.
All your malignant evil speaking concerning —, may be
accounted for from the chagrin you experience at not being invited to orate. Notwithstanding what you say, I must honour
the King: not that I did much for King John III.: but I am opposed to all ultra-democracy, of which the very extreme, I take
it, is to make our tribute of respect dependent on mere popular
like or dislike.. [After.' referring to a medical friend, for whom
he wished to find some public employment.]  His mildness,
reading, &c., would make him'. a good principal of an Insane
Asylum.  Could he not be..spirited up to an agitation of the
public in behalf of such an institution in Trenton?  He might
write a lecture and deliver it in our chief towns.2  My father is
heard. from as far on as Waynesborough. He preached four or five
1The President of the United States had just been visiting at Princeton.
2 This suggestion was made two years before the Legislature of New
Jersey established the Insane Asylum near Trenton.




1833 —1844.                    375
times at Charlottesville, and, from Dr. Cabell's letter, must have
been in his very best mood. The college tee-total society, of
which Maclean is the soul, has more than a hundred pledges:
exclusive of an eminent professor, [himself,] who is suspected of
daily potations of Oporto. I preached last evening from Prov. i.
32. Dr. -- [in New York] is down again, and uttering the
Macedonian cry. I can certify, of personal observation this
morning, that some toads are still found in Princeton:  Personally appeared before me," &c., &c. Give our kind regards to
--      and circumjacent friends. A new pamphlet on the sisterquestion sent to me from Natchez. It has some hard arguments
in it, some quite puzzling ones.
PRINCETON, June 24, 1843.
A little tropical weather after all. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, of
Calcutta, (Prof. Phys.,) has been here. Brisbane, the Fourierist,
and some aids, are looking out for a farm of a thousand acres in
this neighbourhood, whereon to exemplify their socialism. The
following is from the Leipsic Acta Eruditorum: " Jacobi Alexandri paradoxam  opinionem  de motu terrea circa lunam, ceu
planetee secundarii circa primarium, recensuimus in Actis, A.
1728, p. 127."  I write a fresh lecture every week on Latin
literature, which I read to the Sophomores, over and above their
regular recitations. M. usgrave has published an 8vo volume
against the Methodists.  Henry Van Dyck picked 50 quarts of
strawberries yesterday morning: I have none worth naming.
-   has become a regular hack, and writes on every topic which
promises to catch the million: this may do for a laureat, but it
is not the plan of a poet. There are some things often mentioned but seldom seen: yesterday, for the first time, I saw the
death of a cow. At the present rate every family ought to take
the Sunday School Journal.  I propose, next Friday, to publish,
with my name, a card in the Princeton Whig, calling attention to
it. Suppose you do the same, simultaneously.  I acknowledge
the seven [Acts vi.] are not called deacons, but I suppose no one
ever doubted that these are they; the duties being so much the
same. It is a case where universal, uncontradicted tradition goes
far with me, as in the case of the change of the Sabbath.
PRINCETON, July 19, 1843.
I am sorry that I cannot render you the assistance you ask
on the next Lord's day. Not only have I to preach for Dr. Rice,
but early next morning I have to examine a class, at our Quarterly Examination, to which I could not be back in time. I have




376     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
been very much debilitated this summer, and lately, for the first
time in my life, had to sit down in the midst of a sermon, from
a sudden affection of the head.
There is more of the influenza within a few days, than we
have had. Of ecclesiastical news there seems to be none. Last
Sunday afternoon Dr. Green preached to my Africans. Though
his voice laboured, the sermon was excellent, and, towards the
close very ilmpressive.  STy father, when last heard from, was in
Bath co., Va. Sam has gone on to acconlpany him home. Mr.
Rogers, of Northern India, has been here. Mr. Walsh, late of
the Seminary, is about to go to that mission. Smyth's new work
on Presbyterianism is out. Joseph Tracy is making an abridgment of his former one. If  -  should follow the example
of some of the Oxonians, and turn Romanist, it would lower his
dignity very much to be ordained sub-deacon, deacon, &c. A
short-hand teacher is enlightening us at this time. I begin to
need spectacles to read long hand. It is not one of the agreeables
of our college arrangements, that' our hardest work and heaviest
examinations come in the heat of summer: our terrible " Final"
begins on the 7th of August. Do you hear of any colleges about
to doctor us this fall.  What a grand method it would be to sell
D.D.s as they do commissions in the British army! They
would then be sure to fall on such of us as long for them, while
others who care not for them might be spared all trouble. Some
painters have been pottering about the outside of our house for
more than a month; what with ladders, daubing, and smell, it is
decidedly worse than house-cleaning.  I never, in my craziest
moments, feel the slightest desire to share the greatness or fame
of kings, grandees, poets, grand authors; orators, or the like; but
I often feel a sort of envy for quiet folks, whom I see, far from
all publicity, carrying on some humble household labour. These
Fourier-systems: would make every one live in public, and obliterate little family-circles, and all that we call Home. One of
my neighbours lately caught a bull-frog, which had a whole.
cat-bird in his insides; he also caught a pike, with a sucker six
inches long in its stomach. These marvels you will report to
your Lyceum. Judge.Tucker, of the University of Va., had for
many years a periodical rheumatism in one knee, recurring with
perfect accuracy every 13th day: it has for a year past been exchanged for a syncope, returning for some months at the same
interval, but now oftener. The legislature of Virginia gave the
widow of.Prof. Davis $12,000 for the copyright of a work of his
on Criminal Law.'
1 The death of:Professor Davis is mentioned on page 315.




1833 —1844.                     377
PRINCETON, August, 1843.
Myv father has returned. HIe was gone sixty-four days, and in
that time delivered thirty-two public discourses. So Pusey was
really suspended: Vide his letter of the 2d inst. A man came last
week into the office of the Board of Foreign Missions [New
York] with a bag of money, laid it on the table, and said it was
for the China Mission, on condition no questions should be asked: the contents were $10,000. Such an event ought to be laid
before our people, to show them, by a scale they all too well understand, how some Christians rate the Mission work.
PRINCETON, Sept. 5, 1843.
I am truly glad to hear that your resort to the hill-country has
done you good. My. stay at the Cape [May] was very delightful,
but very short; I arrived there on Monday evening, and came
away on Saturday morning of the same week. Yet my spirits were
much refreshed, and I think, if I could have stayed three weeks,
I should have been made quite well. The Seminary has opened
with a larger accession than is usual at this point of time. More
are expected, as several commencements are yet to come off.
The " Princeton" [a Navy Steam-ship] is to be launched- this
week.. We had Dr. May of Alexandria [Episcopal Theological
Seminary] at Cape ditto; a very agreeable manl; as near being
a low churchman as any I have seen. When called on by me,
he made an extempore prayer at a meeting. I also made myself
acquainted with Judge Stroud [of Philadelphia] formerly of our
college. I see all connexion between Bokum and the Jews' Society
is dissolved by proclamation.  Did I ever tell you of a little
quarrel I had' this summer with Bokumn  It arose from my
" accusing him of injudiciousness."  Thereupon ensued a corre.
spondence, &c. - I have been honoured with a picture of Husteecoluck-chee, alias John Douglass Bemo. He is on his way back
to the Seminoles. - Eleven of the last class, Andover, have agreed
to go together to Iowa.  Quere: whether all missionary enterprises among us ought not to yield precedence to the work of
evangelizing the Southern slaves? Ministers ought to be among
them, in sufficient numbers, even if they were to be emancipated
to-morrow; so that the question has no limitation from  that of
Abolition.  Next in order, I think, come the Indians, whose condition is now more favourable than that of any heathen tribes on
earth, for receiving the gospel.  The prestige, however, of this
mission =  O -Will       go to? —     No, I guess. If he
does, he will go away from home. There is nothing in a professoral place at all resembling the worship which a popular
city-pastor receives.




378      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
PRINCETON, Sept. 15, 1843.
I have read Young's sermon, [afterwards a " Campbellite Baptist: "] he must be an Arian.  I-Iis fundamental articles make
no mention of Trinity, Atonement, or even Incarnation.  He objects to such terms as Trinity, Triune, three in one, coessential
and coeternal.  When a man objects to creeds, he always has a
reason for it.  I perceive he is out upon the Corn-laws.  I hope
to re-open my house on the 1st prox.  Beds, stabling, the
choicest wines, (in part of the stock of the late.-  Esq.,) omnibuses passing twice a day, &c. Dr. Rice thinks he has a disease
of the heart.  He is like to go to Augusta, Ga., for the winter.
I have, for a rarity, to marry a couple on Saturday night.  Our
venerable friend Mr. John McMullin has been released at last:
all my thoughts of him are pleasant.' MIrs. Smith, relict of Dr.
John B. Smith, is dead in Indiana, et.. 82.  Capt. Stockton is ordered out for a four-months' cruise in the " Princeton."  What
a difference between us and the English, in regard to schoolbooks! They still use, in all their great schools, the grammar
of Edward VI.  I have a copy of it.  It is full of forms, and
primary rules, but few  observations.  Our American Bibles
vary exceedingly from the standard British ones, in small points,
especially of orthography.  Dr. Hodge's organ has come.
PRINCETON, Sept. 20, 1843.
I am conscious of no indebtedness in regard of letters, but
being more good for nothing than common, I shall vent the contents of noddle on you.  On Monday, a very ingenuous-looking
young man, calling himself McMana, applied with much humility
for aid to get to Albany.  He offered to leave books in pawn,
&c., and showed a certificate of church-membership from Mr. W.
S. Potts of St. Louis.  In the evening, Prof. IIenry, going to the
depot, happened to get into the same hack with this man, and
(it being dark) shortly heard the fellow take great liberties with
his name, asserting that he had dined with Prof. HI., and moreover declaring that he was on his way to Philadellphia.  At the
depot he saw Prof. H., and tried to hide behind a platform.
My brother Sam pulled him  out, and H. extracted from  him
the money he had begged, and the certificate of church-menmbership. The lion. Mr.,in the Quarterly Register, in a
piece lamenting the decay of classic learning, recommends the
Bible as "corpus juris divince."  This is the eventful day at
Mr. McMullin was an elder of the Third Church of Philadelphia, when
Dr. A. Alexander was pastor, and afterwards, and until liis death, of the
Sixth Church.




1833-1844.                        379
Easton: visions of gigantic Ds float before my mind.  "Between the acting of a cdreadful thillng, &c." v. Shakspeare.  Our
annual Examination is now being holden.  I wish I had a number of the Christian lMirror to show you. There is a piece in it
about Princeton, lauding everything to the skies.  Inter alia,
inuch as follows; (I don't pretend to give exact words:) speaking
of Dod:-" whose colloquial powers are no less extraordinary than
those reported of Johnson, Sir James McIntosh, and Coleridge.. The profouind metaphysician, mathem atician, divine  pupil
of Sir Christopher Wren and Palladio." "This, as Sam Slick says,
is cutting it very fat.
PRINCETON, September 25, 1843.
I neglected to say to you that we will give you a bed during
Commencement times, and a napkin at my father's.  Do not
imagine, my dear sir, that any elevation of rank' on my part will
prevent ime from exercising all the condescension which is seemly
towards my humbler friends.  Come; freely, and lay aside all
the'dread which the circumstances are fitted to inspire.1
TRENTON, October 2, 1843.'I am  disposed to make a stand on this position, viz., that
wherever our church has made great advances, it has been by
the pressing of converting triuth.' The following words are uniformly spelled thus, in standard English Bibles; I mean certain
places in all editions:'Ax, horseleach, morter, brasen, throughly,
whiles,'Rahel, Judcla, houshold, enquire, sope, jubile, intreat,
asswage, pluckt, caterpiller, lothe."   Dr. Brownlee has had
a paralytic stroke, from which he is not expected to recover.2
We are hereafter to have Commencement in June, and a suminer vacation.  The faculty, who are most interested in not going wrong in such'a matter, are unanimously for it. It was opposed by only four Trustees.  In order to bring it about, we
have to'make the next nine months equal to twelve, by working
double tides, and having only a fortnight of vacation, from opening of next term  till the close of the succeeding one.  Your
friend, Dr. Kidd,3 was a crony of old Mr. Potts's, and dedicated
one of his works to him, in connexion, I think, with Dr. Green.
He published, about 1815, a large octavo, on the Trinity; a
1 The sportive allusion is to his having received the degree of Doctor of
Divinity from Lafayette College. This honour was doubled upon him, in
1854, by Harvard University.
2 Dr. Brownlee survived until February, 1860.
3 I had inquired of him concerning a Professor Kidd, of Aberdeen, who
had received the degree of D. D. from Princeton in 1818.




380     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
very heavy and abstruse work, in which he endeavoured to derive a metaphysical argument from mere reason.
PRINCETON, October 24, 1843.
When I parted with you on the 16th, I did not expect to go
to Synod; but that night I repented and went. I got to Newark
about 10 P. M. Next morning I awoke early, and finding it
clear and frosty, I traversed the streets and surveyed the markets. I breakfasted at the Park House with Kinney and McDonald, and their wives. At 9 I ascended the cars for Morristown, and found myself in company with Mr. Helm of Salem.
I have seen no cars more agreeable. We arrived at Morristown
about half-past 10, having gone through a rolling country; fertile looking; snug houses, clean hamlets, signs of comfort; in a
word, a little New England.  Morristown is a pleasant but irregular village,' on high ground, in sight of hills. Mr. Johnson,
elder of Mr.' Kirtland, here joined us; and we three went together to Newton. Dr. Rice, Maclean, and Talmage had lodged
in Morristown, and taken an extra. Mr. Kirtland was detained
by a funeral, and Mr. Dumont by the illness of his wife.  We
took a four-horse stage-coach, and began to climb the hills; and
from this to Newton we had a perpetual succession of ups and
downs. Yet even among the mountains the roads are smooth;
often however mere galleries, cut around precipitous ledges.
The inequalities, and the zig-zag of the trail, made it eight hours
before we got to Newton at 7.'. It was' 35 miles.  We had
passed through places called Denville' Dover, Rockaway, Sparta,
(a pleasant village, where Torrey, formerly of Rio, is New-School
minister.)  I was enchanted all the way with the mountain and
valley prospects. Like the Virginia valley, but not so much
distant mountain range, and of course less bold than the Alleghany. Many iron-works; and much limestone. - Millions of loose
rocks in the fields; yet settlements close together,' and many
fine houses.,The Synod had been four hours in session.  Gray
had preached, and McLean was in the chair: Rodgers and I1nbrie clerks. We went in, and found a missionary meeting in
progress. Morrison from India had spoken; Lowrie was speaking; then followed Dr. Janeway. Davidson prayed, and the
choir (though a good one) balked in a tune. Perhaps you would
like the names of the bishops: From  the North-west, Foster,
Hand, and Colton; from Elizabethtown, Pby., Williamson, Hunt,
Ogden, Murray, (Kirtland, 2d day,) Cochrane, J. Cory, B. Cory,
Street, and Imbrie; fromn New Brunswick, Comfort, Janeway,
Rice, Rodgers, Deruelle, Maaclean, Davidson,'McLean, Vandoren, Mahon, Hale, Worrell, and Schencek  from  Raritan,




1833- 1844.                    381
Kirkpatrick, Studcldiford, Hunt, Olmstead, Iull, Williams, and
Sherwood; from  Newton; Shafer, Castner, Longmore, Gray,
Yeomans, Nassau, Johnston,'Webster, Junkin, Lewers, Irwin,
Worrell, Tully,'McGee, MeWilliamn; Mack, and Lowrie; from
TWest Jersey,:Beach Jones, Helm, and, Lawrence.  I lodged at
Dr. Shafer's. We were treated with great kindness. They live
well in Sussex; it is a land of milk and honey,- and their buckwheat cakes are unrivalled. Their butter equals Goshen, and is
their chief export.'  Every thing went on pleasantly at Synod.
There was no judicial business; there were no angry words.
There was much conversation on the progress of religion and of
our- benevolent'church-schemes.  A uniform. plan of raising
money was reported, adopted, and recommended. The Synod
yielded assent to the proposal for a new synod in Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday Morrison spoke an hour on Foreign Missions.
Though a very Moses in elocution, he deeply affected every one
with his'statements. I never before had such a notion of the
missionary's contact with thousands of the heathen. Murray followed with a very spirited and effective speech. In the evening
there was a meeting for domestic missions; full house and pulpit.  Deruelle prayed, and -     and -    orated: the one
as fine as silk, the other as coarse as cordage:;'  is a splendid declaimer; his organ is incomparable.  -    abused the
Episcopalians beyond aught I ever heard in public: many of
them were: there. Inter alia, he called (horresco referens) the
sign of the cross; " the sign of the beast."' On Thursday 19th,
some resolutions for the Free Church passed, nem. contradicente.
Our presbytery-minutes occasioned much mirth, by the Latin of
the recorded exegeses: it was horrible indeed; and was pounced
upon by some of the Newtonian Latinists. They  must have
been penned by some Bunyan among us: "the Latin I borrow."
e. g. "An opera bona necessaria sit?" T- he' next meeting to
be at New Brunswick; where Dr. D. is effecting a painting in
distemper back of the pulpit.' He introduced a resolution assertory of what is falsely called the strict mode-'of baptism. He
withdrew it, after'satisfying himself that his view was the popular one. The business was all done at 1' P.'M. on Thursday.
We spent the afternoon, however, in devotion; addresses by Dr.
Rice, Maclean,' Vandoren,'and McLean: and there was preaching
at night by' P.: P. clerk of this parish ". [himself].
I found a number of former pupils in Synod, and there were
residing in Newton, Martin Ryerson,' Geo.'Ryerson, Thomas
Ryerson, Shafer, Thomson, (the surrogate,) and McCarter; all
students of ours; from  whom  I received much attention.
Friday, the 20th, was a fine day, but I saw quite thick ice, under




382    IWHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
the shade of a -mountain, as late as half-past  nine. Father Cornfort offered me a seat in his vehicle, and the journey homeward
was truly delightful. The old man fought all his battles o'er
again, and was fine company.  lie knew every cross-road, and
almost every house. We passed several little crystal lakes, and
abundance of hills and valleys. We had in company, in other
carriages, ]McLean, Vandoren, and Schenek.  Our way was
through Hackettstown, Schooley's Mountain, where we drank of
the waters; German valley, where we dined; Germanstown, in
Hunterdon; Lamington, Pluckamin, Somerville, Harlingen, and
Kingston. We passed the natal spots of the McDonnells, I. V.
Brown, and S. C.:Henry. We lodged at Mlfajor Talmage's near
Somerville, where we had profuse hospitality. I saw Dominie
Messler, and called on Dominie Chambers and Dominie Labagh
of Harlingen. I was, by a kind Providence, returned home in
safety by 4 P. M. on Saturday, after a very delightful week. I
passed through nine counties, viz,, Mercer, Middlesex, Essex,
Morris, Sussex, Warren, H-lunterdon, Passaic, and Somerset.
Not a word was said about Elders' impositions, [of hands in ordaining Ruling Elders,] Wife's sister, or the Psalm Book. I believe every member of the Synod went away with a pleasant
feeling.. Oldl Dr. Shafer is a most affectionate and pious man.
I have volunteered to preach for Helm on the 5th of November,
or Gunpowder-day. I learn from Mr. Lowrie, who got here on
Saturday, that the Philadelphia Synod were in the trenches, and
like to be some days, on the elder and quorum question.
PRINCETON, November 2, 1843.
I shall not be able to stop on my return from Salem, as the
opening of our term will be so near. The awakening among the
Jews, at Pesth, see last: Mltissionary Herald, is a striking event.
There have been two more deaths by small-pox, but it has not
extended beyond the family, nor to any vaccinated subject. Gov.
I-aiines [of New Jersey] was my classmate. Dr. Miller speaks
of his mother as an eminent Christian. Rich. Johnson is expected here, to be fdted. John Owen, in his famous work on
Congregationalism, after declaring that there is no such thing as
a minister, who has no congregation, asserts expressly, that the
church has no power to send men to preach to the heathen, or
to any people not gathered into a church. This is a corollary,
to be sure. He, as were all the New England pilgrim fathers,
was stiff for ruling elders. All the early New England churches
had them. He (O.) argues plausibly, that the Bible knows no
visible organized church, except a particular congregation. This
was also- the New England tenet. I trust those members of




1833  1844.                     383
legislature who profess godliness, will do something to bring
their nnconverted colleagues to church, &c. Morrison preached
and spoke' here on Sunday. Four young men of the Seminary
are assigned to China. One of these and another during the long
vacation, paid two thousand family-visits in the pines;- everywhere giving advice, books, &c. One of the four, Culbertson.
[Rev. M. S. C., now at Shanghai,] was an army-officer, and
highly honoured at West Point; chosen to go on some military
mission to France. I have a black synonyms or homonyme
in Africa, [in one of the:Mission Schools.]  Nevins has published a pamphlet intituled " The Anxious Seat."  The Western
[Theological] Seminary [Alleghany city] has forty students.
Cloew, our college steward, is lord-mayor, and I am yours, with
much sleepiness.
PRINCETON, November 21, 1843.
I preached on Sunday for. IIe is the best specimen I
know of a country pastor, for demeanour, piety, and sound learning; a good theologian, and a ripe Hebraist and classical scholar.
None but a Hercules should attempt three services. At his house
I -met Dr.   ~, a surgeon in the army.  He has been several
years in the south and wNest; his last post being Fort Gibson.
Last summer. he went fiLr into the Indian prairies, with a command of mounted dragoons,.under Capt. Boon, a son of the famous hunter of Kentucky.  Their business was the protection
of the Santa Fe traders. He showed me specimens of the saltrock, with which extensive tracts of that country are covered.
He has been constantly among the Indians. He ridicules the notion of savage life: being' favourable to health, and says he never
saw more disease among any people. Thousands die in infancy.
They have perpetual coughs and pleurisies. Their doctors have
scarcely any remedies, no knowledge of herbs, and little credit
among the people, except as conjurers. They had a sorry fellow
for chaplain, at Fort Gibson. Ie found a soldier with a bottle
of rum; ordeed him to deliver it, and on refusal drew a pistol
on him. On one occasion, preaching, he chose to expound the
phrase "'fear and trembling."  "Fear, my brethren," said he,
"is-is-is-the emotion which fills your breast upon the approach of an enemy."  This is like the New England parson,
who, in preaching before a court, prayed "that all their decisions might be overruled."  You will seldom find a more enchanting drive than the upper end of the river-road to Lambertville;
I mean in summer. Studdiford has an English MS. of a tract
of Wieklif's in good preservation, on vellum, which is at least
four hundred years old. You should see it. A work of thrilling




384      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
interest has appeared, intituled " Letters to a very young Lady:"
it is not certain whether by Chalmers or Macaulay.l  It is likely
to move both hemispheres.: I fear a church can never be supported at Titusville; the district is too small, and nobody is
likely to attend from  Pennsylvania.2   Dr. Phillips's people
[Wall Street Church, New York] have bought ground up town,
[Fifth Avenue.] I am told that Merle d'Aubign6 makes nothing
beyond expenses by his original work, few copies of the French
being sold. Suppose you and I get him to send us a copy in
advance, and give him part proceeds of the translation, which
would have a great sale.  We have admitted more than seventy
students, of whom more than twenty are communicants.  From
a concurrence of causes, my teaching labours are trebled this
year. In Charlotte Elizabeth's Magazine, this dashing woman
declares Cowper's melancholy to have been a judgment on him
for translating Homer: an odd prolepsis, surely, inasmuch as
he tried to hang himself shortly after he was of age, and never
thought of his translation until he was more than fifty.  All she
ever will write will do less for the gospel than Cowper's Task,
Truth, Charity, Expostulation, and Hymns.  His translation,
like his other works, was the refuge from  a madness, which but
for this would have driven him to suicide, or at least to the cells.
Though he is not our only Christian poet, he is certainly (of. the
great ones) our only evangelical one. The cruelty of the aspersion is affecting.  The woman is deaf herself. Whenl Charles
the Second taunted Milton with losing his sight, as a judgment,
Milton reminded him that his majesty's father had lost his head.
And when Warburton, in a like vein, told old Quin, that all the
regicide judges came to a bloody end, the actor replied, "The
same, your lordship may observe, is true of the twelve apostles."
Missionary Morrison preached on Sunday at Pennington. - Dr.
Hare departs tomorrow, [for Philadelphia;] he does not abandon
his school scheme.
PRINCETON, December 11, 1843.
I send you a catalogue of the Seminary. The commercial
turn of the Seminary is evident from the accession of " Byers"
and " Sellers."  Mr. Webber has been a Texan major. Thomas
Thomas is a W1lshman. -Mr. Byers is a Nova-Scotian licentiate.  W. Scudder is a Ceylonese.   I do not know  any
thing which I ever read so much from a sense of duty, as the
A work of his own, published by the Sunday School Union, pp. 251.
2 This proved a groundless fear. The, enterprise has flourished so well
that a handsome church edifice has already succeeded the one first
occupied.




1833-1844.                       385
"Message: " it teaches one nothing, and gives no amusement.
On Thanksgiving Day, I preached on the blessing of Peace.
We were providentially prevented by the storm. from  having
our parents to dine with us, as projected, but thirough divine ftvour we had the whole remainder of our large family.  It was
an event to be recorded with thanksgiving, as it has not occurred
for many years, nor is likely ever to occur again; at least at
such a season.  We endeavoured to rejoice and be merry, and
ate and drank: 2 Sam. vi. 19.  We cannot in English compress
like the Latins: this morning I read with my class Juvenal's
nemzo mcaius felix. My father has a severe catarrh; so has Dodcl;
so' has Dr. Miller; so has Dr. Hodge.' The latest Oxford
Bibles contain the following orthographic anomalies: "subtil,
sycomore, agone, goodman, intreat, injoin, subtilly, sneesed,
fetcht, ringstraked, scrowl, Nicolaitanes, vallies."  I have a
serious request to make of' you, in which my feelings are very
much interested.  There ought to appear an article in our
Princeton paper on Drinking and drinking-houses; and I wish
not to be the writer.  Do me the favour to send me such a
piece on the following, brief, sharp, and short: " Beer-houses;
danger even of fermented liquors; groups of young men at
doors of such places; effect on good name; the kind of men who
frequent; the sudden fall of many not reputed drunkards; delirium tremens, &c."  The whole intended to warn young men,
anil to show that such pe2rsons attract public attention. Chalmers,
in a written report, has a sentence much like this: "there are
other channels, the foundations of which are connectable with our
object.."  Prof. Dod begins this evening a course of lectures on
Architecture in the Seminary, ladies to be admitted; Mfonday
and Wednesday evenings.  So [Daniel] O'Connell, lawyer like,
is going to slip through the meshes of the law. There are said
to be 30,000 witnesses on his side.'. Dr. Chalmers has sent for
the Repertory, and requests a review, of his Romans.l  [Professor] Stuart ought to understand the Revelation; he has been
lecturing on it 25 years.  In Den's Theology, the. Roman Catholic text-book, high Predestinarianism is taught, exactly as:Turretine teaches it.  I see Sydney Smith writes common-shore
[sewer] exactly as it is pronounced.: The probable withdrawing
of Calhoun from; the presidential race, will greatly brighten up
Van Buren's prospect.  I pray against the annexIation of Texas;
it would spread slavery over Mexico, and I fear add a century
1 The theological works of Dr. Chalmers were reviewed by Mr. Alexander,
in the Repertory of January, 1841, and those on education and ecclesiastical economy in the number for October, 1842. Part of the first article
was by his father.
VOL. I.-17




386     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
to its existence in the United States.  Nothing bout the opening
of new cotton and sugar lands within twenty years has prevented
the abolition of slavery (at least in regard to post-nati) in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  If a wall were built
around these States, the slaves would eat their own heads off in
a twelvemonth.
PRINCETON,.December 30, 1843.
Dr. Cunningham has been here for several days; but this is
not his main visit. He is altogether the most satisfactory foreigner I have seen. By the Scotch papers I perceive he ranks
among the first four or five in the Free Church. Height about
6 ft., and large in proportion; a stout but finely formed man;
very handsomely dressed, and in all eminent degree the gentleman, ill every thing - but excess of snuff. Age, I reckon, about
41; spectacles.  A shock of thick curly hair. He has no airs
of patronage. Powerful reasoning and sound judgment seem to
be his characteristics; and he is a walking treasury of facts,
dates, and ecclesiastical law. I heard him  for an hour, on
Friday, in a speech to the students. Indescribable Scotch intonation, (but little idiom,) and convulsion of body, but flowing,
elegant language, and amazing power in presenting argument.
Though his manner is rugged and uncouth, and he has no sign ot
imagination, yet when he gets on tender topics of religion, he is
so scriptural, and so sound, that one is affected by what he says.
I have seldom listened.to a man with more instruction.  New
and Old School in New York have joined in regard to him, and
he has preached for both sides.  On Sunday he is to preach for
Drs. Phillips and Potts.. On the 26th and 27th I was in Brunswick-visitation, [of committee of Presbytery.]  Rodgers and I
were the only foreign bishops.  Good assemblies. Three weeks
ago McClelland preached in the Second Dutch church, on profane: swearing. He said, that on a recent occasion he had gone
to Rahway in the cars, and had counted seventy oaths. Also
"It was once customary to rend the garments on hearing a false
oath: if this were customary here, we should all go naked."
"The sin prevails from:the President in his bed, to the beggar
on his dunghill."  My father's address at Lexington [College]
is printed; but the fashion of sending a copy to the author has
not been introduced there. On Christmas day we were favoured
of Providence to meet, all of us, at my father's, with three distant relations. My father preached an Advent sermon. New
Year's day is the New York saints' day. I am concerned at
having to say that good old Dr. Miller is quite ill, with pleurisy.
The loss of him would be a sad blow to us. I think him one of




the most conscientious and pious men I ever knew. IHis behaviour in a parlour-controversy is an example to every one, and
has often put me to shame.  According to the New England decision about incest, a man may now marry his step-mother;
thus it is likely to be no longer so odd a thing " that one should
have his father's wife." Cunningham says the prejudice against
reading sermons is still very general in Scotland, and that committing to memory is the prevalent method; the  Moderates
have always read.  Cunningham  is to be professor of Churchpolity, &c., with Chalmers, Welsh, and Duncan, inll their new
college, which is already in operation.  I have had a file of" the
Witness," which gives all the speeches in October. The men I
should like to hear are five, three ministers and two elders: 1.
Chalmers; 2. Guthrie; 3. Crichton; 4. Gordon; 5. Dunlop. My
wife and I desire to wish you and yours every blessing in the
new-year.  For a motto, I will give you " Is any thing too hard
for the Lord?"
PRINCETON, January 25, 1844.
Did you observe bow distinctly Dr. Cunningham  said jultty
for ducty?  He says, Lighton, (Leighton,) and so I find it written in old Scotch books.  Wete have about $500 subscribed in
Princeton, [for Free Church.]  Potts; I think, is gaining on
Wainwright, [in newspaper controversy on Episcopacy.]  The
latter has no more logic than a pudding.  Our present plan of
Presbyterial visitation is a great waste of labour. If the committee were all together, they might confer, and stir one another
up.  As it is, the visit becomes a simple protracted meeting,
and that of the least profitable sort.  Poor Dr. Rice, who is a
most affectionate father, has heard of the death of his second daughter, wife of the Rev. Ezekiel Forman, of Versailles, Ky. The Dr.
has some good signs in his congregation.  ]From eight to twelve
seeming conversions within a week or two. I have taken some
pains to examine the series of texts preached on by Whitefield and
Wesley: few of them are odd, or even uncommon; they are the
familiar, evangelical, everlasting verses, which God has owned in
all ages. I have been reading, with great delight, the Life of Dr.
Waugh, a Scotcl minister who died about fifteen years ago in London. He was a man of great eloquence, and a leader in the London Missionary Society.  The average of his sermons for fortysix years was three a sabbath, and about 400 over. I have
consulted several Scotch and one English copy of the catechism,'Dr, Alexander for a long time followed the Moraviami custom of adopting a "' year-word," or text for the year; and while a pastor in;New York,
gave a sermon upon it to his congregation on the first Lord's-day of every
year.




388    VWHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
and find in all, scriptures in. the plural. Wines is coming back
here. A student in the Seminary lives on bread and water. I
have heard that [Lyman] Coleman, (brother of the cross-banneret) [Editor of" The Banner of the Cross," an Episcopal periodical in Philadelphia,] is about to issue an anti-prelatic book,
composed by him  at Berlin, under the guidance of Neander.
[" The Apostolic and Primitive Church," with Introduction by
Neander.]  Mrs. —, an excellent old lady, but not a respecter
of Priscian's head, being once at my father's, when two of our
Greeks were there, turned round and said, " Am  they Scotch?"
I have heard an affecting story of poor Nordheimer.  Ile foresaw his death, and, calculating pretty well when it would come,
gave dou6le recitations as long as he could sit up, so that his class
might lose nothing. His Grammar is. lauded in Gesenius's last
edition of Lexicon. There is a great stir among the Baptists at
Penn's Neck, on the straight turnpike from  Trenton to Brunswick. Dr. Scudder is to be here this week.  Dod is lecturing
twice a week to crowds of Seminarists and ladies, onl Architecture. Hle has reached his tenth lecture.. I wonder if Cunningham
will wake up the Philadelphians much. lie is a powerful fellow; and a noble instance of what may be done without any
pathos or any decoration.  How I rejoice that [Father Pollock
[page 200] has had the hearing of him!  -     has one good
quality-he is afraid of nobody. I believe him also to be abso.
lutely ignorant of personal rancour in controversy: he would be
the first man in town to ask his enemy to dinner, after oceans of
abuse; and that not of policy, but out of real good will.  Dr.
Miller, after a sore attack, begins to walk about' the house.
Grace seems to work in him, under this trial.  I have a book
(some 150 pp.) nearly ready for Sunday School Union, [" GoodBetter-Best."]. It is a narrative, but not aimed at children. Subject: the three methods of relieving human misery; to show
that doing good to men's souls brings other relief in its train.
PRINCETON, February 20, 1844.
The Scotch delegates thicken upon us: we have had [Rev.
Dr.] Burns and [Ellder] Fergusson, and are daily expecting
Lewis, who has arrived at New York. Burns, you know, is in
Witherspoon's pulpit, at Paisley: he has been settled there thirtythree years. - He is one of the most learned men in Scotland —has
edited IIalyburton's works, Wodrow's history, and is author of
Memoirs of Prof. McGill. Burns's manner in the pulpit (gesture
excepted) is more outr6 than Cunningham's.  But his sermon
was noble, rich, original, scriptural, and evangelical, and in diction elegant: and his closing prayer was seraphic. Fergusson is




1833-1844.                     389
a smallish man, about 37: about the dress and ways of a corn
mon weaver; no apparent shirt. I was thunderstruck-especially when I found that Chalmers had picked him out. But my
wonder ceased when I heard him, on the evening of the 18th.
He spoke an hour and three-quarters by the watch-I wish it
had been twice as long. In the first half of his speech he erred,
by causing too much laughter. His vis comnica is amazing. In
the latter part he arose to a height of passion such as I have seldom witnessed. A critic would have condemned every thing in
the elocution and gesture-but the eloquence was penetrating
and transporting.: I found Addison affected precisely as I was.
In a word, it is utterly vain for me to communicate to you any
idea of the degree of his power., As he rose, his diction became
elegant and sublime. And yet he is only a merchant of Dundee.
A bad sore-throat prevails here. M Sly father has been seriously, perhaps dangerously, ill with it. There is certainly a more
general attention to religion here than I have ever known, but
nothing like excitement. Scores of persons, who have neglected
ordinances for years, come to every thing. - Some of our most substantial men and women are affected. I suppose a hundred copies
of the " Way of Life," [by Dr. HIodge,] and the'! Great Change,"
[by Dr. Redford,] have been sold here within a few weeks. The
latter has been blessed to the awakening of a number. A most
visible effect has taken place on our tavern-haunters.  In college
we have little appearance of revival. Deruelle preached a very
good sermon here last week. Burns thinks Chammners (so they all
call him) will be out in the summer. Dr. Miller has recovered.
I went to the African church on Sunday to hear [Elymas P.]
Rogers, and heard a' black named -. He preached on Saving
Faith, from the text, "In your faith possess ye your souls."
Happily, he did not name chapter and verse.: With a lecture
of an hour every morning, a recitation every afternoon, and once
or twice a week a sermon at night, I am kept in pretty good tension. Burns says he preaches four times on Sunday, a good part of
his time. I am told Fergusson failed in speaking in Philadelphia.
PRINCETON, March 7, 1844.
TMr. Lewis of Dundee spoke twice here this week. lie is a
gentlemanly man, and gave us a delightful gospel-sermon. On
leap-day [Feb. 29] I married. a black couple: the bridegroom
and bridemaid were both one-eyed.
Since I began this letter, a mournful event has occurred-the
death of Mrs. LB. H.] Rice. She was ill about seventeen cldays. Her
fever was violent and unyielding from the beginning. It left her,
for several days before her death, in a state of extreme prostration.




390     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Her-c  mind was all peace, without a single cloud or anxiety, and
she declared her triumph in Christ.' Her friends, though deeply
grieved, are filled with a sense of divine grace as displayed in her
remarkable faith and hope. Poor Dr. Rice will feel his loss
mlore hereafter. I know no man who leaned more upon a wife,
nor any woman more remarkably fitted to cheer a desponding
husband. She was as pious, openmhearted, benevolent, and selfsacrificing a person as I ever saw; and it is a general expression
in town, that every one has lost a personal friend. Thus my
good old father has, within a month, lost the oldest and the
youngest of his brothers and sisters. He has one brother and
two sisters surviving. I was at. Worrell's [Monmouth co.] visitation on Saturday and Sunday, and had some hard work.  Next
Sunday is our Communion. About thirty will make profession
of faith.:The seriousness is. not abated. It is a remarkable
fact, that no one means of awakening has been so much blessed
here, as the putting of books into people's hands; especially,
" The Great Change," and "The Way of. Life.". We have had
no inquiry-meetings, and latterly no increase of preaching.
Domestic prayer-meetings have been a good deal multiplied.
Mly father has not regained his strength, though he passes for
well.
PRINCETON, MIarch 16, 1844.
Dr. Cunningham is here. again; chiefly to gather some hints
about theological instruction. Hle has.been laid up with lumbago.
Hie grows in my esteem as a man of knowledge, piety, and consummate prudence.-(Swunda?/.) I heard Cunningham this morning, in the Seminary chapel. Text, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. He explained
the text, as I have for twenty years found myself constrained
to undlerstand it: " if one died (&rOeavEv) for all- then all died,"
(-r7Oavov.) The sermon was a most able one, uniting the highest degrees of plainness, argument, and unction.  HIe read it, but
exactly as he made his address. There was no ornament or illustration. Inl the evening Dr. C. preached;. Heb. vii. 26, "Seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us." Fifty minutes. I. The
nature of the intercession.: II. Practical application; in regard
(1,) to the sins of believers; (2,) to the circumstances of believers; (3,) to their prayers; (4,) to their prospects and ultimate
happiness. It was a noble sermon, as plain and unillustrated as
before, but mighty in argument, and robustly eloquent. A very
touching passage, seemingly for poor Dr. Rice. In his prayer
he used that phrase of our excellent (Presbyterian) liturgy,
" bless this corner of thy vineyard."   Quiere de hoc: how
many. corners has this polygon? are all the churches at the cort




1833-1844.                      391
ners? I-e nevertheless prayed with great solemnity and devotion. In private, I am full of admiration for his considerate and discreet and gentlemanlike demeanour and words.-(Afonday.) Sennakerim' called here just now p. p. c., with a, younger brother.
He has been in America seven years, and goes back to Stamboul, as
a naturalized citizen, and M].D. He has always behaved himself
very well. None of our outlandishmen have been less offensive.
Dr. Rice admitted 36 on profession of their faith. For the sake
of a testimony for truth and godliness, I wish Frelinghuysen
could be elected Vice President.  I do not think I shall vote for
Clay. I think Potts and Wainwright have been at it long
enough, and should be choked off. A new periodical, (probably)
to be called the Scottish Review, [" North British Review,"] will
begin next month. The first number will have articles by Chalmers, Candlish, Sir David Brewster, Welsh, &c.: It will not be
merely religious. They want American articles, and will pay
~15 a sheet. Reviews of American books of travel are specially
mentioned.  Dr. Chalmers says (in a note I heard read just
now) that his class numbers 209: Dr. Lee's, (University of
Edinburgh,) 30. A tract of my father's has been published in
Armenian.  The papers have given our- late LL.D. to John, instead of Alexander.Dunlop.  They are very different men. The
latter is the chief legal defender of the Free Church. His answer to the Dean of Faculty (Hope) is both a cogent and an
elegant thing., Dunlop is lineally descended from two of the
greatest leaders of the Scotch Kirk, (Dr. Carstairs, the friend of
William III., and Dr. Robertson; the historian.)
PRINCETON, March 22, 1844.
Dr. Burns has been here; and, spite of my prejudices, I must
say he preached, on Wednesday evening, one of the very noblest
discourses I ever heard. The text was, Zec. xiii. 7, " Awake, O
sword," etc. It was teeming with Scripture, but even the most
familiar texts were made brilliant by their setting and connexion.
I did not see him in private. You must read Webster's speech
in the Girard College case: it is a noble defence of the Bible,
the ministry, and religious training. I am to have a recitation
four days in the week, at six o'clock in the morning, all summer.
You see Dr. Potts -has gone up town, [University Place Church.]
Smyth's [of Charleston] sermon: on the Free Church -is out in
Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Witness (of which I have had the
reading lately) is conducted with great power. Plan of the
Record; but the editor, Hugh Miller, is a genius, and a writer
of extraordinary force and originality. - He was a common mason
at Cromarty, is now a leading geologist, and author. His severi.




392     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
ties are like those of Brougham; who, by-the-bye, is coming out
in a book against us.
PRINCETON, lApril 9, 1844.
If it had been in my power I should have hastened to Trenton
upon receiving your note.  But I was suffering from  an attack
of sore-throat and influenza. I am particularly glad to hear that
your brother George is better; though from what you have said
from time to time I gather that his case is serious. What you
say of — is really melancholy, if not alarming. His giving
up music is like King Saul's flinging the javelin at David. The
Rev. Tract -Agent --  is here. He is a pleasant, scholarly,
gentlemanly man, and made a fine impression, even on some
among us who like few things from  the pulpit.  Coal-porter
[Colporteur] is like to be a famous word in Anglo-American.
You. must be sure to attend the Methodist Conference in your
city. When I was at the last one in Trenton, I thought it the
most decorous ecclesiastical body I ever saw.  So old Mr.
Duponceau [of Philadelphia] is lead. Soon there will be none
left of the magnates we used to look up to, and the great men
will be our own coevals. Soon you will be startled with the
compellation of " Father THall," —" the venerable father, who last
addressed you,"-" the dear old man! I call him  my spiritual
father' -  years should speak," &c.  You ought to follow up
your piece in the Presbyterian, on Church-schools. It is a good
string, and this is a good time. Only this morning I had a letter fiom  Richmond, entreating for a man to set up a Female
Seminary there; " what we want," he says, " is to get a first-rate
Presbyterian school, andcl thus be relieved of the necessity of
having our daughters eduzcated Episcopalians."'
iYou see the Abolitionists are out upon the Scotchmen, for
fingering the wages of iniquity, [receiving donations for the Free
Church from slaveholders.]  They will learn a lesson as to the
animus of American anti-slavery men. Having to go to College
at 6- A. -M., I find my " matinal labours," as Walsh calls them,
somewhat onerous. Dr. Yeomans wrote to me that they had
115 students in Lafayette College. Parke Godwin, the leading
F'ourierite, is an alumnus of the College and Seminary.  Cooke
represents the scheme as becoming formidable, from the numbers
taken in. What a delightful book might be made about Philadelphia, if somebody would do what Watson [" Annals of Philadelphia"] tried to do: -antiquities, growth of city, views of
all the old buildings, abundance of pictures, Penn, Benezet,
Franklin, norris, fRush, Wistar, White, Collin, Eastburn,
Girard, Duponceau, Peale, &c.  Could not you recall some




1833-1844.                      393
of the incidents of your youth? Capt. Cox? David Allen? old
Carswell? Mr. McElwaine? [all of his father's church in Pine
street.]  I am more and more convinced, that the greatest preparation for preaching extempore, is to know the English Bible
by heart. An old black man, 78 years old, has learned to read,
within six months, in this place. This being election-day, there
has been not a little cursing of the " parsons," who all vote the
Clay ticket, if any. You see that Pettit has made another speech
in Congress, [against chaplains,] and again has had no echo. I
wish old Adams would take him in hand. Hammit, of Congress,
was a Methodist preacher in Virginia when I lived there. The
Irish Catholics have been in treaty for an old stone house just
back of my garden, for a mass-house. If they succeed, you are
invited to the consecration.
PRINCETON, April 14, 1844.1
Though I thought a great deal about you, I did not dare to
write until I received John's letter, which contained such comfortable statements, that I feel as if the opening were plain. I
need scarcely say I sympathize with you and your mother, most
deeply, under this affliction.  It is true of your family, as of
ours, that death has spared you long, only to make the blow of
bereavement more severe. My recollection of George goes
back to a very early period, and my renewed acquaintance with
him, not many months ago, biought me into still nearer acquaintance with his kind and affectionate qualities.  But I will not
enlarge upobn those considerations, which only serve to aggravate
your loss. I know you feel it in your inmost soul. I know in
some degree, what an interest you took in your brother's prosperity, and that his death must inflict a corresponding wound.
And I think it very likely, that under the first impulse of the
trial, you find yourself the subject of entirely new experience,
and in danger of being " swallowed up of overmuch sorrow."
And a certain time must elapse, before you can respond altogether to those statements of divine truth, which are applicable
to your present condition, and which you will afterwards feel in
all their force. It is my wish and prayer, that you, and your
bereaved mother, and all the family, may be-not simply comforted-but what is infinitely better, sancltfied by means of this
affliction. For surely, if George is in heaven, as we are permitted to think he is, what have we more to wish for him?
what have we more to wish for ourselves?  Don't think of him
1 I insert this letter of condolence on the death of a brother, notwithstanding it was first addressed to my sister.
VOL. I.-17';




394     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
as suffering, ancl dying —all that is past-it is no more to him
than the suffering of your infancy is to you-think of him as
"with Christ,' "present with the Lord," —adoring the infinite
grace which saves sinners. The moment he departed, all the
anxious prayers you ever put up for him were in an instant
answered.  Now let me very earnestly recommend to you, as
a duty you owe to Christ, not to brood over the dark part of a
dispensation which has so very bright a side. O that we may
all be led to look more at the slightness of the hold we have on
friends, and be prepared to go with them!
I have said these few words, not as believing there was any
information to be given you, but as a testimony that you are not
forgotten in your afflictions. And I beg that you will assure
your mother and sister of my tender condolence. But how shall
i speak of his widow l The Lord must comfort her; I trust I-He
does; I am sure Ite will. I felt disposed to write to her, but did
not feel that I had any call to intrude in this way, so soon after
an unspeakable trial.
Every member of my father's family feels the blow which
has fallen on yours. We have ourselves had a great loss, in the
death of Aunt Rice. God grant that each of us may be prepared in the clay of His coming!
I do not look for a reply until such time as you shall feel
able to say something more calmly than you now can.
PRINCETON, 2May 6, 1844.
- -  has written an article [for a religious paper] on the
Elder Question, [the right of Ruling Elders to participate in the
act of ordination.]  The chief points are these:  1. The Scriptures ascribe to the people an important part in the government
of the church. 2. Ruling Elders are the reepresentatives of the
people, in the exercise of this power, and are so called in our
Standards. 3. The office is therefore of divine authority. 4.
The power of elders is only that of the people whom they represent. 5. Ruling Elders are never said in our Standards to be
the Presbyters of Scriptures; who (as we always contend against
the prelatists) are bishops. (Turn to our Form of Government
on this point.)  6. Ruling Elders, being representatives of the
people, are not invested with the authority to ordain. This controversy is working great evil in the Southern churches. I would
willingly give them the quorum-principle, if they would give up
agitation on the other. David H. Bogart, a young lawyer of
this place, was buried to-day. Dr. Rice preached, and Chaplain Starr read the Episcopal service, as part of the Odd Fellows' ceremony. What a poverty of invention among these




1833-1844.                    395
O. F., that they must needs borrow slavishly the cast-off sprigthrowing into the grave, from  the  Free-masons. Addison is
about completing a bargain with Wiley & Putnam for the publication of his Commentary on Isaiah. Ile will print it in a very
leisurely manner, as it is not fully written out. It will be
chiefly for clerical readers, &c., and will make a large 8vo
volume. He has laboured very much at it, and has gone over
almost every part, repeatedly with pupils. I hear no word of
my communication to the Christian Advocate and Journal
[Methodist] about Summerfield. I can think of no reason why
they should reject it. [It was published.] Oblige me by looking into two or three of the last numbers, as I do not see the
paper.
PRINCETON, M~ay 8, 1844.
I send you a catalogue of our college. You will find only
five errors in Cortlandt Van Rensselaer's name.
Very much against my wish, I have to preach in New York
[Duane Street Church] next Sunday.  Some time ago they
wrote to my father, to know whether I would entertain a call
fromin them. I answered, through my father, very decidedly, in
the negative. On the strength of this, I accepted, with others
here, an invitation to preach for them. Now I learn, with regret,
that they still mean to press the matter. I earnestly begged off,
but they would not allow it.
I am  now authorized to write a tract on Early Rising. I
attend college prayers every morning, and spend an hour with
a class before breakfast.
Shocking work in Philadelphia! [Destruction of a Roman
Catholic Church by a mob.] I am afraid of the consequences
of this Native American organization. Bishop Kenrick murders
Scripture in a manner worth of the Anti-Bible party, in the end
of his pacific proclamation.
One of our hens has eight ducklings. Three other hens are
mothers, and two more will soon be. I never alighted on any
home-attraction, which is so fertile in amusement for the children.
Feeding, eggs, chicks, and ducklings, give them  never-ending
variety; especially as we have a regular Chicken College, rollcall, lectures on Clucking, Swimming, &c. Let me recommend
a coop in your back-court. Capt. Crabb, U. S. N., my nextdoor neighbour, sometimes gets twenty-eight eggs per diem.
The new Pilgrim's Progress is elegant, but $4 will make it a
book for the rich. The sumptuousness does not befit John
Bunyan. Retzsch ought to illustrate it, in his outline waybroad and antique. The only picture in the book which pleases




396     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
me, is Cruikshank's Vanity Fair.  Charles Lamb has a capital
letter to Bernard Barton, against the misplaced elegance of
Southey's English edition. I see they have not followed
Southey in retaining Bunyan's genuine street-English, such as
"I thought you would a come in with violence."
A sloop, built on the canal, at Rocky Hill, passes by us, on
regular trips, to and from Texas, (Galveston.)
There will be fine churches up town in New York, which
will hear one allother's organs. Duane Street will be left alone
below.
PRINCETON, TJune 29, 1844.
I have had a disorder which has relaxed me a good deal. I
have also had a call from  Duane St. which has a similar
effect.'  I have to speak at New York the day after to-morrow,
and Commencement is just over. These are reasons enough for
not writing before, and for not writing eloquently now. The
New York business I should settle very speedily, if it were left
to my feelings; my friends, especially my father, warn me
against a hasty determination.  On the first vote (by ballot)
when every one, without nomination, expressed his individual
preference, I had 30; [scattering 21, blank 3.] On the fifth
ballot, I had 47; [scattering 6, blank 3.]  On the last (viva
voce) I had 55 and there was 1 against. I have been reperusing
Campbell's Gospels, with much pleasure.  I-Ie directs one's
attention to little variations of the common version from the
Greek, which escape one even in reading the latter alone.  Charlotte Elizabeth, who is one of the most influential writers of the
age, has published a letter to Bishop Alexander [of Jerusalem]
in which she remonstrates with him for not having his children
circumcised. Charlotte should take the name of Zipporah.
Quite a sect is rising in England, who think the Jews, when converted, should retain their ceremonies.
PRINCETON, July 4, 1844.
You  perhaps have heard of certain matters, concerning
which the true version may be welcome. The Duane people
have agreed to call me. The vote was not unanimous. I
spoke with none of them, in New York.'While there, I was
visited by Mr. Greeley, a son-in-law of Dr. Tyler, and Mr.
Dana, nephew of Dr. D. of Newburyport; both Bostonians, and
introduced by John C. Green, with whom Mr. D. had been intimate in China. They are a deputation from the Committee of the
I'He had preached in the Duane Street church as yet only on May 12th.




1833-1844.                      39T
Bowdoin St. Church, formerly Dr. Beecher's, and more lately Mr.
Winslow's. Their mission, to get me to candidate. On learning about the Duane business, they professed to be concerned, and
returned, I believe, to Boston, requesting me not to decide the
matter. We had a large assembly at the University chapel, but
the heat and dyspncea were terrible.' Burleigh pronounced a fine
Christian poem, and was received with plaudits.  Dr. Potts is to
have a noble Gothic church; the walls are up. I heard Dr. Taylor
in Grace church. IIis manner is very uncommon, sui generis,
but, to me, exceedingly striking. I heard Andrews at the Tabernacle, and am not surprised at his great popularity.  About
2,500 were out; I observed I was the only person who stood
during prayer. I visited the Princeton and the North Carolina;
and on the latter attended a party, at which I saw the officers of
the two Mexican steamers in full dress; they danced; some of
them are mulattoes. Bache says the prejudice of colour is absolutely gone, in Spanish America. I saw a party of Iowa Indians
at the mission-rooms, in full dress; they were just about to embark fbr England. They are the party of "White Cloud.". I
became acquainted in New York with Sir Win. Burnaby, an
English proprietor in Bermuda; a pleasant, Roger de Coverley
sort of man. We are all packed up for the Cape. This business of the call has given me unspeakable anxiety. The twofold
solicitation, if I may so call it, makes me pause and ask, whether
Providence does not mean to unsettle me from my semi-secular
post. On examination, I do not find that I am drawn New Yorkward, so far as I know, by any attraction of a worldly nature.
Ease, quiet, friends, retirement &c., are all here. I do feel a
strong desire to preach. I am in a strait.
CAPE MAY, N. J., July 10, 1844.
Your acceptable letter came to hand last evening. By the
same mail, two of same date, from Boston, about the church of
St. Bowdoin. This island is the same which Thomson describes
in his Castle of Indolence: "a dreamie land of drowsihede it
was." The "' salt-air " vindicates every thing; canine appetite,
nakedness, sloth, and double naps. Mr. [now Bishop] Odenheimer is here; he and I at present represent the two parts of
the church militant. Musicians abound. A troupe of Italians
are very delightful.  Dr. May of the Alexandria Seminary, who
was my pleasant companion last summer, is not to be here till
the 16th. My wife and children go ill, of course, with me,
and give me occupation enough in the surf. It has been uncomOn the 31st June he delivered the annual oration before the literary
societies of the University of New York.




398     WHILE PROFESSOR IN P:RINCETON COLLEGE.
monly fine to-day. The:number of visiters at present is about
1,000. There are a number of new houses, especially private
cottages. One Capt. hIart and one Fotterall, have Chinese houses,
very grand. We were on the steamboat Rob. Morris, when an
accident befell the engine. The boat was detained at Newcastle
from 11 on Saturday to 5 A. M., on Sunday. Five or six of us,
out of 300, remained over the Sabbath. I was most hospitably
entertained by Chancellor Johns, who is one of the principal
persons there, and a very instructive host.  Ihis father, ret. 86,
old Judge Johns, is as erect and merry as a bird, and has chewed
tobacco enormously for seventeen years. He was chief justice for
fifteen years, in which [Rev.] James P. Wilson was lawyer. I noted a number of anecdotes about him. I preached twice there, and
have preached once here. Newcastle is like an old-world village
-a sleepy hollow; but they have a regular sea-breeze, and good
bathing. The air here is restorative in a high degree to me.. wish you were here, if only for a week.
I have had great anxieties about my duty in regard to
Duane St. I have very earnestly wished to be fully employed
in the work of the ministry; but I never thought of so responsible a charge. My visit to New York greatly impressed me with
the mighty field on which even a moderate man might operate
from that centre. I have no notion of abandoning the downtown, which, to me, is the city proper, in both New York and
Philadelphia.
(Tlzursday.)-I failed to get this off yesterday. Politics here
dull. The chief question is between Poverty Beach and the
Light-House.  Trade flourishes.  The apple business rising.
Ginger-bread dull. A handsome operation in straw hats has
attracted attention.  Oysters as per last quotation.  Crabs
rising.
My kind regards, and those of the " Capers " (sic in lingua
insulari, verbo nempe pro hujus insulle incolis usurpato) wait
on you all. Yours very much.
CAPE MAY, N. J., July 15, 1844, 6 A. M.
Yesterday I preached twice, once at Cold Spring, once at the
Mansion House, (Ludlamn's.)  There are many more opportunities of doing good than I could have imagined. I humbly trust
that I have been enabled to gain the ear of a number of Quakers.
What delightful inmates of a public house educated Friends
are!  You feel sure they will never swear, drink, or fight.
They are too clannish; but to this they owe the maintenance of
their peculiarities.  Young Dr. Parrish, Dillwyn Parrish, their
sister, and their wives, are here. They are highly educated and




1833-1844.                      399
refined.        is here. It is a lesson to one, to observe how
this good and really sensible man has coddled himself, and sacrificed to Fear, until the grass-hopper-burden is always on his
back. I retract some of my opinions of; notwithstanding his intolerable manner and undeniable lack of /nous, he is, I
really think, one of the most God-fearing young men I ever saw.
The care of a family makes me somlewhat less free than on my
foriner visits, but I have seldorm passed a week of less trouble of
mind than the last; and this notwithstanding the pendency of
two serious questions. The Bowdloin St. Chzurch have made me
out a call; but the consent of the Pew-lproprietors is awaited,
and certain days' notice is required for this. The call from
New York weighs more heavily on me. To go thither, I plainly
see, will cut up by the roots my goodly tree of literary shade
and family quiet, and deprive me of a support from parents,
brothers, and elder ministers, on which I have leaned most pleasantly, but too long.  I shall, if I go, seem to many to go for the
gaud of a large stipend; this is of no weight, however, in the
great account. If I go, it will be under this feeling, which I own
grows upon me, I dare not stay.
CAPE ISLAXD, July 17, 6 A. Ml., 1844.
Your very acceptable letter came to me by yesterday's mail
in company with 269 new bathers. Three hundred are expected
this evening. Three hundred sat down to tea at the Atlantic
last evening. There cannot be less than 1,500 in all. Rooms
are not to be had for love or money; people are sent several
miles into the country, or laid out on dining-room floors.  We
have more than 100 here, chiefly Quakers.  Our table is reputed
the best. Three bands of music give us harmony to satiety.
I preached twice on Sunday, once at Ludlam's to a very large
audience. The Now-School Elders and people seem as cordial
with me as the others. I do hope that ugly wound is to be
healed. It is a little Philadelphia down here, riots excepted. I
wish you were here.  A week would give you strength for all
summer.  Every evening I have to change my coat, and sleep
under a blanket; nor have I had the feeling of unpleasant heat
since I came, except when at some distance from  the beach.
Our head-waiter Brookes speaks French and Spanish fluently;
and keeps all the accounts. Old Alexander Wilson (Quaker
preacher) is here, and had an opportunity in our parlout.  Mlr.
Eckel, of Barnes's church, is here, and, I fear, approaches his
end. Though it is before breakfast, I hear a band of music playing on the strand. Chaplain Grier and son have arrived, also
John K. Kane, Lapsley, Atwood, Dunton, Cleaveland.  MIore




400     WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
letters from Boston. I am to be a Congregationalist; but
New York claims rather preponderate.
PRINCETON, August 9, 1844.
The college opened yesterday. Thus far, about fifty matriculates.  It is a sign of getting old, that I find numbers of my old
college friends bringing sons on. All the letters I get from Boston indicate unanimous welcome. I do not think of turning
Congregationzalist, and they say nothing of turning Presbyterian;
that settles the point, so far as I can see it with my present facts.
Dr. Hodlge, Prof. Henry, Mr. Packard, and Dr. Maclean, are the
only persons who strenuously oppose my leaving Princeton.
But, in my heart of hearts, I think they all, in their calculations,
discount too liberally from  the value of the preached word.
Several of them are men whom I scarcely dare oppose, in a prudential question; yet, in my most solemn hours, I declare to
you, their arguments have little weight with me, because I so
profoundly believe preaching (including parochial teaching) to
be God's great ordinance.  O how much I need prayer and
counsel! I am, after all, undecided. Give my love to   -.
We shall welcome her at No. 499 Bowdoin St., or No. 1 Duane
St., or No. 3 Steadman St., [Princeton,] as the case may be.
Stilling's life, which everybody reads, was published at an obscure town in Pennsylvania, a number of years ago, and I then
read it: it fell dead from the matrix. So much for having the
entree of the book-market.  I think the book will do good among
people who will not read an evangelical book.
PRINCETON, August 21, 1844.
I have asked myself repeatedly itbi gentiulm you are, that you
do not reply to my last esteemed favour. Not to keep you in
darkness, I now break through my silence, to say that I have
accepted the call to New York. I feel, as you may imagine, almost terrified at what I have done. Yet I have no doubt as to
the moral rightness of what I have done: success is a different'thing. "Events are God's." The last two or three months
have been a season of mental struggle.  I have had to breast a
current of advice and powerful reasoning, from some friends of
ours, who are no mean argumentators, against my intimate convictions; and I have felt with them, that leaving Princeton is
leaving home. At the same time, even in view of possible failure,
I have quite a comfortable hope that God will not forsake me,
and this sustains me more than usual.       - says that the
opinion is openly expressed, every day more and more, in his
part of Virginia, that slavery is a curse, economically, and that




1833-1844.                      401
the annexation of Texas is defended at the hustings, on the
ground that it will tend to drain off the black race into that
tropical region, in which the races are already mixed, and the
prejudice of colour unknown. My father has been ill, but now
goes about: so does Dr. Miller, though still feeble. We have
matriculated about sixty-four new students, two from Massachusetts. I am very hard at work, giving my course to the Seniors
before October 1st.
PRINCETON, September 3, 1844.
Several things have put me in the vocative, or case of 0!
1. A catarrh, now in its 13th day; 2. Another disorder, in its
2d do.; and 3. A sermon, which has just been finished, after
several days hammering at it. Mity good old father is unwell
again. The difference between temperature of day and night, at
this season, is a cause of many disorders; much more, I think,
than even the abundance of fruit. The agitation of the public
mind at our election-crises is a very injurious paroxysm. Democracy must be a cornucopia, to balance such evils; processions, rallies, torch-bearings, "yaller-kiver" minstrelsy, poles,
coons, banners, lies, idle days and weeks, gaping for office by
ten for one who gets it, rotation, absorption of mind in matters
too high for such minds, endless restlessness, sacrifice of regular
trades, &c., for temporary office, loquacity and debate, ending in
alienation, disappointment, chagrin, and disaffection to lawful
authorities.  Such are the heads of my next political brochure.
When you have opportunity, do not fail to talk with  -, on
his own subject, on the general or findamental principles. Half
an hour with him is quite equal to any Svo volume I ever read.
IHe loves to be questioned, and never talks for display or argument. I rejoice that Walsh has the Consulship, [Paris;] his
Americanism deserves it. I never tire of his ancz, [in his letters
to the Intelligencer,] which are copious during the vacation of
Congress. By-the-bye, I think the National Intelligencer the
very best of our papers, for dignity and honesty. It is wonderful
how deep a Papist poor B. has become: I can liken it to nothing
but a man's filling his eyes up with ounces of wax: it is parU
of his religion to see nothing and hear nothing; so I am told by
those who know. The Seminary has more students than for
ten years before. Watson's Annals [of Philadelphia] is fine, as
to facts, but what a style! it is that of the youngest milliner's'prentice.  Dr. Green goes on with his autobiography. I prize
his company: he is living on the verge of heaven. I always
envied his most comfortable fixedness of opinion on all subjects.
Several Princetonians enter the Seminary; my brother Samuel,




402      WHILE PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON COLLEGE.
Archd. Rice, William  A. Dod, and Frederick Kington.  All
have been law students, and the third a lawyer.  [J. S] Green
[Esq.] has sent at least seven pupils to the ministry.  [George]
Bush sends specimen-proofs of two works of his in tihe press.
The one entitled Anatstasis will, I fear, go against the catholic
doctrine of resurrection.  IDid I speak to you about an article
on the " New Jerusalem Church," in Rupp's new volume, on all
the religions? It is by a Virginia planter, and is the best article
in the book, in point of style and scholarship.  WThile I write,
some one of the numerous bawling processions, with cheers and
hip-hip-hurrahs, music, &c., is passing: cause unknown.  I bid
you good-night.
PRINCETON, Septemnber 11, 1844.
I am not shaken in any degree by what A.' says of the
Free Church.  I am aware that many seceders retain this old
grudge, after all the causes are removed.  The worst that can
be said of the Free Church is that their retractation (it is such
in effect) has been tardy, and that a false consistency makes them
loth to eat up their old sayings.  True it is, that they were
truculent and absurd against Voluntaryism.  I have a painful
and threatening cough, now in its twenty-first day. I resisted all
housing, &c., went to New York, Staten Island, &c; but it is
obstinate. I must stand ready to see the predictions of some
verified, as to my capacity for pastoral labour. Staten Island
is another Isle of Wight. I was altogether surprised and enchanted.  A very gem: sea, bay, rivers, vales, mountains, incomlllparable verdure, villas, absence of all high-roads and noise.
From  one point, you see the Atlantic, New Yorlk, Brooklyn,
Newark, Elizabethtown, RIahway, and immeasurable tracts of
sea and land.  Sunday morning I drove six miles to Richmond,
the county-town, to hear Dr. Moore, eldest son of the old Bishop.
Fancy the very ideal of an English country church; on a green
hill top, with a stretch of prospect over a narrow, sinuous valley,
through which a pretty river flows towards the " Kills." It was
well filled, and Mr. Peet of Rahway preached.  In the P. M. I
went to Fort Richmond, to worship with Brownlee's church,
(Dutch:) here I heard James Romeyn; and a more extraordinary man I never heard.  Fulness of matter, every step sudden and unexpected, genius, strength, fire, terror, amazing and
preposterous rapidity, contempt of rule and taste.  It was an
awful discourse; 1 Thess. v. 3. It is one which I shall not
1A clergyman of the Scottish Relief Synod, who had spoken to his correspondent, in derogatory terms, of the newly professed liberality of the
Free Church.




1833-1844.                     403
soon forget. In New York I overworked myself, looking for
lodgings, and found none answering all conditions. Therefore,
by urgent advice of my elders, I took a house, 83 White Street,
east of Broadway, between Broadway and Elm Street, south
side of White; two stories: look at a map of New York; you
will see the yards are larger than usual there. But how unlike
a Philadelphia house! $600 rent. After I had taken it, I
learned that its first occupant had been the first pastor of our
church, Dr. Romeyn. Installation probably Oct. 3. But not
unless we hear from Moderator Webster pretty shortly.
END OF VOL. I.








INDEX TO VOL. I.
Abbott's Young Christian, 310.              Baxter, Richard, 77, 214, 284, 303, 320.
Abeel, 253, 255.                                "   Robert, 209.
Abelard, 117.                               Bayard, 251, 273, 287.
Adams, J., 125.                             Beecher, 255.
J. Q., 73, 95, 96, 97, 99, 110, 112,  Bellami, 87.
118, 124, 126.                            Belleville, 125.
Adams, N., 234.                             Benton, 72.
Affliction, 142, 173, 184, 195, 218, 223, 245,  Berkeley, 70.
246, 257. (And see Condolence.)           Berrien, 129, 137.
Aiken, 59.                                  Bethune, 322.
Aikman, 78, 176.                            Beza, 206.
Alexander, A., 2, 10, 11, 12, 47, 148, 150, Bible, 30, 54, 62, 64, 220, 233, 249, 255, 256,
156, 160, 167, 189, 228, 232, 238, 247, 251,   325, 378.
268, 279, 309, 310, 342, 343, 363, 372, 374,  Bible in education, 217, 219, (and above.)
376, 377, 386, 389, 390, 391.               "  at family worship, 285, 288.
Alexander, J. A., 66, 109, 111, 134, 135,144,    "  Natural History, 153, 208.
148, 151, 167, 181, 188, 206, 219, 232, 268,    "  Charts, 308.
315, 346, 389, 395.                       Bickersteth, 184, 190, 237.
Alexander, Stephen, 217, 218, 368.          Bile, 129.
"      WV. C., 47, 73, 131, 132.       Binney, 234.
Alexanders, 41.                             Biography, 85.
Alleine, 341.                               Blacks, 162, 227, 260, 263, 289, 294, 295, 296,
Avlward, 336.                                 297, 301, 307, 334, 340, 355. (See Slavery
America, Spanish, 72.                         and Colonization.)
"     South, 85, 113.                   Blackwood's Mlagazine, 266, 310, 320.
American Literature, 36.                    " Blood on Door Post," 191.
Anagram, 306.                               Boccacio, 128.
Anatomy, 74.                                Bonaparte, Napoleon, 105, 306, 322.
Anglomania, 233, 268.                             "     Joseph, 12, 82, 125, 132, 1,46,
" Ann Conover," 225.                          150.
Apostolic Succession, 283, 296, 369.        Borrow, 368, 370.
Apprentices, 225, 285.                      Borsieri, 247, 251.
Antinomians, 320.                           Bossuet, 70, 216.
Archives du Christianisme, 169.             Boston. (See Bowdoin Street.)
Arm-chair, 258.                             Boston Recorder, 241.
Arminians, 53, 54, 62.                      Boswell, 78.
Arminius, 243.                              Bourdaloue, 70, 216.
Armstrong, J. F., 199, 361.                 Bound Brook, 253.
c      WV. J., 12.                     Bouquet, Lines with, 59.
Assembly, General, 78, 103, 156, 166, 169, Bowdoin St. Church, 396, 400.
1885 189, 238, 251, 252, 303, 357, 373.   Boyle, 210.
Atonement, 149.                             Brainerd, David, 53, 85, 166, 254.
"    J. G. C., 46, 78.
Babbage, 266.                               Branch, Secretary, 140.
Bache, 290, 293, 359.                       Brearley, 199.
Bacon, Lord, 77, 210.                       Breckinridge, John, 211, 266, 279, 284, 296
Baird, 124, 362.                              334.
Ballads, Christian, 319.                    Breckinridge, R. J., 240, 242.
Baltimore, 89, 172, 185.                    Breviary, 260.
Baptism, 296.                               British Officer, 60.
Barber, 89.                                 Broussais, 147.
Barlow, 122.                                Brown's Philosophy, 67, 70.
Barnes, 134, 149, 154, 155, 161, 166, 170,177,  "  David, 22.
237.                                          "  I. V;, 129, 130.
Barrow, 137, 214, 215.                          "  Rezeau, 150, 157.




406                            INDEX TO VOL. I.
Brownlee, 379.                              Clubs, 2, 209.
Brownson, 311.                              Colden on Masonry, 129.
Bruce, 97.                                  Coleman, 388.
3ruen, 134.                                 Coleridge, 46, 129, 214, 217, 229, 234, 261.
Buchanan, Missionary, 54.                   College, 19, 42, 87, 207, 212, 239, 260, 300,
4    Poet, 105, 127.                    332, 341, 343, 400.
Bncknell, 35.                               College, Girard, 241, 265, 293.
Burckhardt, 206.                            Colleges, 107, 262, 359.
Burke, 108, 107.                            Colonization, 279, 297, 301, 305.
Burnett, 257.                               Colossians, 345, 347.
Burns, 388, 391.                            Columbus, 122.
Burr, 236, 244.                             Comet, 3.
Bush, 234, 274, 292, 402.                   Comfort, Rev., 270, 382.
Butler's Reminiscences, 69, 78.             Commencements, 26, 144.
4    French Church, 84.                 Commentary, 124, 134, 153.'    Lives of Saints, 218.              Communion 163, 172.
Analogy, 73.                      Concordance, 187.
Buzzard, 103.                               Condolence, 142, 246, 277, 393.
Byron, 10, 73, 312.                         Confession of Faith, 32.
Bythner, 167.                               Congregationalism, 382.
Congress,. 238.
Calhoun, J. C., 99, 158.                    Cornell, 321.
Calvin, 187, 212, 235, 243, 276, 342, 367, 368.  Controversy, 225, 226, 227, 234, 254.
an Indian, 184.                     Conversations-Lexicon, 132.
Calvinism, 32, 52, 61, 70, 169, 215, 224, 239,  Conversion, 4, 20, 45.
253, 358.                                 Cooper's Novels, 34, 67
Cambridge Journal, 69.                      Corinthians, 367.
Camp at Trenton, 281, 282, 284.             Corneille, 129.
Campbell's Gospels, 396.                    Court-day, 100.
Canal, Delaware and Raritan, 89, 119, 122,  Cowley, 73.
138.                                      Cowper, 7, 8, 11, 48, 50, 53, 73, 117, 384.
Candidates for pulpit, 329.                 Cox, 192.
Carey, WV., 54.                             Crabbe, 290, 297.
Carnahan, 328.                              Cramp's Popery, 185.
Caroline, boat, 262.                        Credit System, 288.
Carrington, 96, 97, 352.                    Creeds, 32.
Carter's Travels, 127.                      Cromwell, 136.
Caruthers, 313.                             Cuban, 67.
Case, 125.                                  Cunningham, 386, 387, 388, 590.
Cassels, 337, 338, 346.                     Cuvier, 78
Castanis, 286.                              Cyprian, 115.
Castaway, 343.
Catechisms, 205.                            Daille, 294.
Cecil, 165, 216.                            Dana, 335.
Chalmers, 29, 68, 70, 74, 258, 385          Danville College, 159.
Charlotte County, 94.                       Darwin, 213.
Court-house, 94, 115, 269, 313.    David's Psalms, 221.
"     Elizabeth, 384, 396.             Davidson, 381.
Charnock, 256.                              Davies, 53, 74, 77, 137, 235, 302, 304, 351.
Chaucer, 67, 68.                            Davis, 315, 376.
Chemistry, 124.                             D. D., 376, 379.
Cherolcees, 146.                            Deaf and Dumb, 36, 89, 141.
Child L100 years old," 257.                 Death, 27, 35, 64, 75, 107, 172, 175, 176, 22i.
Children, writing for, 225, 231.            Decapolis, 342.
Children, factory, 225.                     Decoration, Civic, 238.
Cholera, 190, 193, 195, 206, 217.           Demasism, 275, 285.
Christ, Life of, 205, 298, 338.             Demmm, 290.
Christ, Genealogy, 151.                     Democracy, 239.
Christian Advocate, 23, 40, 48, 62, 115.    Demosthenes, 58.
Observer, 174, 216, 238, 290.     Deruelle, 381, 389.
"     Spectator, 150.                   Despondency, 17, 43, 47, 59.
Christmas, Rev., 82, 134, 176.              Dick, 321.
Churchman, 359.                             Dickens, 372.
Cicero, 58, 106, 118, 169, 239, 328.        Dickey, 183.
Clam-classes, 265.                          Doane, 217, 324.
Clark, John, 272.                           Dod, 217, 256, 274, 362, 379, 385, 388.
Classical Studies, 5,10, 78.                Doddridge, 138, 150, 176, 184.
Class Meetings, 167.                        Dort Synod, 169.
(laude, 86.                                 Drawing, 242.
Clay, 157, 219, 326.                        Dryden, 73
Cleaveland, 81.                             Duane, Wm., 140.
"Cleon," 258.                               Duane Street Church, 365, 395, 396, 399,
Cliosophic Society, 26, 71, 242.              400.




INDEX TO VOL. I.                                    407
Duffield, 187.                                  ogy, 112, 113, 114, 115, 121, 136, 212, 221,
Dunlop, 391.                                    222, 223, 225, 242, 274, 290, 306.
Roman Literature, 120, 127.          Germantown, 171.
Duponceau, 392.                               Gesenius, 164, 325, 388.
Durand, 86.                                   Gibbon, 47, 77, 78, 85, 125, 135.
Dwight, 136.                                  " Gift to Afflicted," 238.
Giles, 93, 137.:Earthquake, 343.                             Girard College, 241, 265, 293.
Ecclesiasticus, 285.                          Gladstone, 283.
Editing, 140.                                 Gleanings, Bib. Antiq., 189, 205.
Education, 9, 21, 219.                        Glendy, 90.
"' "Annual," 211.                        " God Forbid," 305, 307.
Edwards, 53, 70, 71, 77, 165, 186, 221.       Goethe, 132, 133.
Elder Question, 394.                          " Good, Better, Best," 294, 388.
Eliot, 54.                                    Goode, 238, 359.
Elijah, Life of, 204.                         Goodrich, 116.
Elocution, 268.                               Gordon, 69, 235, 304.
Ely, 51, 220.                                 Gough's "-listory," 137.
Encycloptedia, Edinburgh, 69.                 Government, formns of, 126.
44      Americana, 141.                Grammar, 127, 242, 326.
English, Old, 106, 213, 300.                  Graves, Rev., 211.
Episcopacy, 212, 213, 231, 294.               " Great Change," 389, 390.
Eipitaphs, 342.                               Greece, 33, 113, 245.
Erasmlus, 115, 117, 126, 243.                 Greek, 304.
Erskine's Evidences, 24.                      Green, Dr., 21, 23, 284, 337, 374, 376, 401.
Euripides, 242.                               Grimke, 147.
Ewing, Chief Justice, 82, 120, 194,198,200.  Griscom, 89.
"    Dr. F. A., 200, 208, 265, 301, 320,  Grotius, 115, 116.
369.                                        Guericke, 212.
Examination, College, 312.                    Gulick, 230.
Extempore Preaching, 37.                      Gurney, J. J., 280.
Guyon, 48.
Facts, 297, 301.                              Gymnastics, 130.
Fenelon, 242, 244.
Fergusson, 388.                               Haines, 382.
Ferrar, 204.                                 IHaldeman, 129.
Fichte, 121, 212.                             ]tHalifax, Va., 97
Finch, 80.                                    Hall, Basil. 134.
Finney, 164, 186.                               "   Robert, 36, 137, 165, 216.
Fire, 231.                                    Halle, 105.
Fisher, 69.                                  Hialsey, 31, 80, 81.
Flavel, 256.                                  HIalyburton, 70.
Flechiere, 70.                                Hampden Sydney, 107, 116, 302, 303.
"' Flower Book," 194.                        HIarilton, 198.
Foster, 369.                                  Handel, 70.
Fourierists, 375, 376.                        Hanover Church, 302. 303.
Fox, 137, 181.                                    "    College, (South) 244.
Francke, 157, 166.                            Hare, 348, 384.
Frederick of Prussia, 146.                    Hargous, 129, 139, 238.
Free Church, 373, 381, 386, 387, 402.         Harlan, 339.
Freeholds, 365.                               Harold, 86.
Frelinghuysen, 147.                           Harris, Peter, 295, 297, 328.
French, 29, 36, 70, 113, 205, 242.                "   Mhammon, 310.
Church, 169, 279.                    Harrison, 326, 329.
Croquis, 209.                        Hart, 148, 217.
"   Infidelity, 309.                      Hartley's Evidences, 73.
"   Poetry, 123.                          "Harvest," 195.
Pun, 139.                             Hayden's Geology, 81.
"   Revolution, 105, 147, 154.            Hayley, 117.
Frontis, 86.                                  Health, 6, 43, 46, 107, 108, 114, 168, 172. 182,
Fuller, 76, 85, 213.                            188, 228, 236, 238, 239, 256, 373, 375.
Fyler, 21.                                    Heat, 83.
Heber, 109.
Gall, 205.                                    Hebrew, 141, 163, 166, 180, 182, 212, 347.
Gazette, London, 204.                             "    Questions, 245, 246, 249.
C    National, 40, 58, 61, 67, 69, 73,  Hegel, 212, 223.
127, 129, 131, 134, 135, 136, 141, 147, 247.    "tHelp to Gospels," 167.
Geography of Bible, 134, 189, 344.            Hengestenberg, 138, 223, 260.
Geology, 80, 81.                              Heenry, Miatthew, 168.
Gerhardt, 151.                                   "   Patrick, 351, 353.
Gerlack, 222, 232, 262.                          "   Philip, 342.
German Hymns, 151, 306, 323.                     "   Professor, 205, 222, 227, 318, 319,
"    Language, Literature,and Theol-    378.




408                            INDEX TO VOL. I.
Henry, S. C., 244, 365, 366.                Julius, 225.
Herder, 61.                                 July 4th, 81, 130.
Hexameter, 66.                              Justification, 387.
Hicksites, 137, 182.                        Juvenal, 324, 385.
Hillyer, 313.                               Juvenile Letters, 1-12.
History, Ecclesiastical, 85.
Hoby, 242.                                  Kant, 121.
Hodge, 11, 15, 65, 71, 104, 109, 112, 113, 150,  Kate Hall, 342.
156, 217, 223.                            Kemble, 240.
H odgson, 41.                               Kenrick, 185.
Hogan, 82.                                  Kent, 231.
HIolland's Summerfield, 139.                Kidd, 379.
Homer, 5, 97, 127.                          Kilpin, 230.
Hooker, Mrs., 323.                          Kinney. (See Newark Advertiser.)
I-Iopkinsians, 72, 149, 250.                Kirchenfreund, 151.
Hopkinson, 86, 110, 156.                    Kirk, Rev., 110, 118, 128, 157, 219, 279, 344,
Horace, 10, 40, 71, 78, 83, 345.            Kollock, 328.
Horne, 347, 348.                            Krebs, 13.
Horsley, 86.
Hosack, 81.                                 Lafayette, 66, 82, 105, 128.
Honw, 155.                                       "    College, 324.
Howe, 137, 155, 158.                        Lake Poets, 46.
Howell, 233, 244.                           Lambertville, 383.
Hug, 238, 347, 348.                         " Lame John," 309, 318.
Hunme, 85.                                  Lane's Egypt, 276.
Hundredth Letter, 127.                      Lang, 300, 321.
Hurlbut, 239.                               Languages, 126. (See Hebrew, Latin, etc.)
Hturley, 49.                                Laryngitis, 269.
Hunt, 129.                                  Latin, 69, 70, 105, 118, 120, 381, 385.
Hunter, 78.                                 Laussat, 89.
Huss, 324.                                  Law, The, 37, 38, 39, 108.
Hutton, 36.                                 Law's " Call," 76.
Hypocrite, 185.                             Lawrenceville, 129.
Leavitt, 231.
Imputation, 221.                            Lee's Grammar, 166, 206.
Inconsistency, 174.                         Leeser, 180, 182, 371.
India, 247, 358.                            Le Grand, 102, 349.
India RIubber Shoes, 71.                    Legislature of New Jersey, 141, 248.
Indians, 184, 377, 383, 397.                Leighton, 150, 180, 277.
" Infant's Library," 219, 263.              Lenox, 81.
Infidelity, 149, 323.                       Letter-Writing, 7, 40, 43.
Ingleside, 348, 350, 352.                   " Letters to Young Lady," 384.
Intemperance, 120, 144, 150, 155, 229, 237,     "     "Younger Brother," 208.
243, 286, 299, 308, 323, 335, 346, 347, 350,  "   Russell's, 214, 273.
385.                                      Lewis, 389.
Installations, 99, 119.                     Lexicon, 221, 346.
Introductions to Bible, 190, 222, 233, 255,  Library of Knowledge, 193.
256, 347.                                 Licensure, 84, 88.
Irving, Edward, 35, 56, 65, 68, 181, 209.   Lightfoot, 153.
C  Washington, 109, 122, 124.           Limonade, 239.
Italian, 125, 247, 251.                     Lindsly, 15, 24, 31.
Liturgy, 238.
Jackson, 46, 73, 95, 107, 112, 113, 114, 158,  Livingston, 74, 135.
190.                                      Lizars, 74.
" Jacob and Joseph," 217, 247.              Locke, 6, 212, 219, 324.
Jacotot, 192, 194.                          Lockhart, 255
Jahn, 189.                                  Long Branch, 24.
James, H., 273.                             Longfellow, 316.
James River, 104.                           Lowrie, 346, 370.
Jamestown, 104.                             Lucian, 233.
Janeway, 26, 28.                            Lunatic Asylum, 374.
Jarratt, 302, 304.                          Luther, 53, 56, 134,194, 288, 299, 317.
Jay, 184.                                   Lybrand, 12.
Jenkyn, 230.                                Lyttelton, 329.
Jews, 214, 263, 287, 316, 346, 372, 373.
Job, 290.                                   Macaulay, 309.
Johlson, 181.                              ]Magazines, 36, 37,, 10  108, 115, 149, 214,
Johns, 398.                                   215, 238, 242, 327.
Johnson, 67,127, 235, 323.                  Magee on Atonement, 86, 149.
Jones, C. C., 337.                          Magie, David, 275.
J. H., 252.                          " Mall of Sin," 287.
c  Fir W., 81.                           M Iania a potu, 155.
Josephis, 247.                            IManual Labor School, 113.




INDEX TO VOL. I.                                 409
March, 265.                                Nature, 188.
Marion College, 240, 244, 270.             Neander, 113, 213, 222, 230, 239.
Marriage, 143.                             Nesbit, 253, 256.
Marshall, Mungo, 83.                       Nestorians, 317.
Marshman, 54.                              Nettleton, 115, 164, 167, 186, 227, 318.
Martin, artist, 139.                       Nevin, 189, 255.
Martyn, Henry, 50, 53, 85, 167, 174.       Nevins, 90, 219, 383.
Mason, J. Mi., 221.                        Newark, 234, 244.
Massillon, 70, 216.                        Newark Advertiser, 146, 238, 246, 258, 262,
Mastodon, 25.                                266, 269, 285, 367.
Mathematics, 52.                           Newark College, 284.
Maxwell, 103, 355.                         New Brunswick, 88, 253.
May, Cape, 132, 377, 397.                  Newcastle, 398.
Hc Rev., 39, 51, 377, 397.               New Haven Theology, 135, 168.
McCalla, 154, 177, 360, 371, 377.          New Jersey, 120.
McCarrier, 51, 52.                         Newspaper, 140, 285, 338.
McClelland, 386.                           Newton, J., 48, 53, 117, 165, 176,189, 300.
McIlvaine, 191, 217, 238.                  Niagara, 46, 76, 78, 79.
McLeod, 159.                               Nichol, 321.
McMullen, 378.                             Nordheimer, 276, 325, 388.
McNeely, 198.                              Norfolk, 104, 328.
Meade, 349.
"Measures," 186, 227.                      Observer, N. Y., 232, 284.
Mechanic, American, 146,283. (See Quill.)  Odenheimer, 372, 397.
Melancthon, 56, 115.                       Odd Fellows, 394.
Memoirs, 243.                              "O. K.," 315.
Merle D'Aubigne, 363.                      Old Age, 255.
Mesmerism, 368.                            Onderdonk, 123, 231.
Metaphysics, 54, 121, 359, 364.            " Only Son," 205.
Methodists, 149, 150, 186, 204, 236, 278, 320,  Ordination, 99.
336, 349, 375.                           Orthography, 274, 379, 385, 396.
Middleton, 85, 174.                        Outram, 86.
Milledoller, 74.                           Ovid, 8, 328.
Millennium, 258.                           Owen, 150, 221, 230, 382.
Miller, Dr., 109,155, 204, 206, 344, 386.  Oxford Tracts, 260, 289, 294, 296, 335.
"   Hugh, 391.
Milner, 236, 325.                          Packard, 164, 217, 219, 225, 241, 290, 292,
Milton, 32, 73, 107, 114, 115, 116, 124, 125,   306.
126, 173.                                Paine, 122.
Mineralogy, 80.                            Paley, 117, 216.
Miniature, 95.                             Panama Mission, 124.
Ministry, 72, 79, 83,196, 228, 247.        Paris, 105.
" Misadelphia," 160.                       Parker, 222.
Misca, 238.                                Parnell, 156, 358.
Missions, 157, 161, 206-211, 212, 215, 232,  Parr, 239.
236, 283, 361.                           Pastor at Charlotte, 94, 98, 118.
Missions, A. B. C. F., 150, 157, 236, 276.     "    Trenton, 119, 202.
Map and Manual, 221, 222.        Paterson, 116.
"    Home, 241.                        Patton, 65, 88, 112.
Mitchelmore, 210.                          Payson, 166.
Mocking-bird, 98, 103, 269, 332.           Pearce, 85.
Moffat, 264.                               Penn, 210.
Moliere, 113.                              Penn-square Church, 371.
Monley, 232.                               Penny Magazine, 213, 327.
Monk, Maria, 238.                             "  Paper, 254.
"; Monkey," 194.                           Persia, 109.
Monteith, 113.                             Petersburg, 91, 114.
Moon Hoax, 231.                            Philadelphia, 3, 4, 14, 96, 109, 132, 370.
Moravians, 57.                             Philadelphian, 320.
More, Hannah, 117, 220, 240.               Philological Society, 112.
Mormons, 320.                              Phrases, Incorrect, 306.
"Morning Journal," 140.                    Piety, 73.'Morristown, 380.                          Pike, 174.
Mottoes, 243, 298.                         " Pilot," 34.
Mulberries, 279, 285.                      Planters, 127.
M-urray, 381:                              Playfair, 73.
Music, 214, 218.                           Plumer, 354, 373.
Pocahontas, 104.
Names, 260.                                Poetry, by J. W. A., 59, 158, 258, 262, 315,
Nasmith, 160.                                317.
Natchez, 369.                              Polemics, 40.
National Intelligencer, 322.               Poles, 160.
Gazette. (See Gazette.)           Politics, 358, 401.
VOL. I.-18




410                             INDEX TO VOL. I.
Pollock, James, 199, 248, 388.                R6vue Encyclop6dique, 132.
Pollok, 111, 157.                             Rheinwald, 212.
Pope, 32, 117, 126, 310, 312, 346.            Rice, B. H., 92, 174, 228, 244, 387, 389.
Popery, 185, 192, 208; 226, 239, 247, 287, 322.    "  J. HI., 183, 234, 293.
Potts, George, 47, 250.'  Mrs., 186, 201.
"   Wmin., S., 328, 378.               Richardson's Dictionary, 240.
Po'whatan, 104.                               Richter, 290.
Prayer, 173, 174, 184, 261, 311.              Ridgely, 96.
M ]Keetings, 366.                         Ringseis, 223.
Preaching, 71, 74, 86, 94, 215, 268, 333, 334,  Rives, 314.
362, 364, 387. (See Sermnes.)               Rivet, 174.
Presbytery, 278, 284, 302.                   Robertson, Dr., 85.'Presbyterian," The, 160, 161, 197, 203-           "      Noah, 116.
207, 209, 278.                             Robinson, 337, 344.
Presbyterian Church, 183, 206, 223, 226,  Romeyn, 74, 403.
251, 268, 327, 359, 363, 369. (See Barnes,  Roscoe, 85.
General Assembly, etc.)                    Rose, 167.
Prescott, 266.                                Rosenmuller, 117, 126, 190.
Priestley, 86.                                Ross, 14.
Princeton, passim.                            Rotteck, 323.
"     Press, 45, 51, 65, 73, 77, 194.    Round-Table, 68.
Prison. 162.                                  Rowan, 159.
Professor in College, 207, 208, 403.          Roy, 186.
Professors of Religion, 57.                   Russell's Letters, 214, 273.
"c Progress," 213.
Pronunciation, 212, 242, 266, 286, 353, 385.  " Sacramental Discourses," 325.
Proselytes, 239.                              Sandemnanians, 273.
Protestants, 255.                             Sandwich Islands, 266, 277, 327.
Protevangelium, 345.                          Saratoga, 170, 171, 229.
Proudfit, 209.                                Sartori, 119, 138.
Pupils, Private, 335.                         Savage, 2, 237.
Saxe Weimar, 115.
Quakers, 36, 37, 137, 181, 182, 292, 296, 320,  Scaliger, 106.
371.                                        Schatl, 151.
Quakers' Trial, 182.                        Schiller, 113, 128, 129, 130, 136, 141, 309.
Queenston, 220.                               Scholz, 126.
Question Books, 284, 292.                     Schools, Public, 122, 123.
Quill, Charles, 146, 266, 268, 271, 279.      Schwartz, 54.
Sciot, 286.
Rtaleigh, 115, 125.                          Scott, Dr., 56, 85.
Randolph, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101, 114,    "   Sir W., 105, 111, 255, 264.
131, 270, 350, 356.                           "   " Jane," 205.
" Rase-corss," 141.                          Scougal, 77.
Rauch, 327.                                  " Scripture Guide," 190.
" Record," 312.                              Searle, 47.
Redemptioners,: 325.                         Sectarism, 240.
Redwood, 67.                                 Seixas, 89.
Red-bird, 103.                               Self-denial, 50.
Reed, 40, 47.                                " Senceur," 326.
Reformation, 363.                            Sem.-cenfenary, 287.
Religious Counsels, 14, 18, 25, 27, 29, 34,  Seneca, 328.
38, 62, 64, 74, 75, 77, 84, 85, 94, 165.   Sennakerim, 391.
Repertory, Biblical, 65, 71, 73, 117, 126,  Separatists, 295.
128, 138, 140,143, 150, 151, 156, 157, 158,  Sermons (and see Preaching), 189, 203.
160, 161, 176, 177, 181, 184, 186, 205, 208,   "    Barrow, 137, 214, 215.
209, 221, 235, 246, 250, 255, 268, 275, 287,   "    Baxter, 214, 364.
312, 323, 370, 385.                             "    Bossuet, 70, 216.
"Remember me," 111, 115.                        c"    Bourdaloue, 70, 86, 216
" Retirement;" 95.                              c"    Cecil, 216.
Review, American Quarterly, 96, 102, 105,        "    Chalmers, 68, 74.
113, 115,135, 213, 247.                         "    Charnock, 256.
Review, Edinburgh, 72, 283, 370.                 D" Davies, 53, 74, 77, 137, 216.
(Presbyterian), 215.              Edwards, 77, 216.
Literary and Theological, 250.          "    English, 215.
North American, 34, 102.                "    Episcopal, 216.
North British, 391.                     "    Flavel, 256, 364.
"    Quarterly, (London) 69, 72, 102,   "       lechiere, 70.
325, 370.                                       "    Griffin, 293.
IRevival of Letters, 122.                       H" all, 36, 137, 214, 216.
Revivals, 116, 160, 162, 163, 172, 176, 177,     "    Hare, 304.
185, 204, 226, 237, 252, 253, 301, 336, 346,         I owe, 137.
361, 370.                                      "    Irving, 35, 56, 68.
Revolution, 154.                                  "    Jay, 216.




INDEX TO VOL. I.                                  411
Sermons, Massillon, 70, 216.                Temperance. (See Intemperance.)
c    Nevins, 90.                   Temporal Charity, 142.
M M~elville, 275.                       Tennents, 165, 304.
Newvton, 216.                      "Ten Thousand a Year," 318, 321.
c Paley, 216.                        Terence, 126, 127, 136.
Sherlock, 214, 216.                 Terror of Lord," 245.
Taylor, 68, 214, 215.              Texas, 137.
Tholuck, 231, 233.                 Texts, 387.
Wolfe, 216.                                illustratedServetus, 235.                                        Gen. 3: 15, 345.
Shakespeare, 8, 10, 47, 71, 79, 213.                  Exod. 2: 6, 325.
Sharpe, 2.                                            2 Sam. 23: 5-17, 307.
Shelley, 112.                                         Ezra 7: 1-5, 153.
Sherlock, 214, 216.                                   Job, 290.
Sigourney, 218.                                       Psalms 6, 175.
Simeon, 211.                                                  77: 7, 204.
Simpson, 218.                                            "   104, 188.
Sioux, 79.                                                   116, 175.
Skinner, 75, 124, 275, 289.                           Isaiah 7: 14, 158.
Skipwith, 356.                                           "   7: 3, 151.
" Slatted over," 132.                                    "   8: 3,151.
Slavery, 88, 93, 117, 272, 306, 351, 352, 353,           "   8: 4, 151.
354, 377, 385, 400.                                    "   9: 6, 152.
Socinians, 53, 86, 149, 168, 290, 311.                   "   37, 175.
Southard, 120, 128, 144, 201.                            "   65: 20, 257.
Southey, 305.                                         Ezekiel 39-40, 263.
South Hanover College, 244.                           Matthew 1, 151.
Spaulding, 226.                                                1: 23, 151.
Spanish beggars, 146.'    12: 30, 368.
Spectator, 310.                                       Luke 3: 23-38, 153.
Spencer, 99.                                          Luke 13: 24, 63.
Spenser, 86.                                          John, (Gospel,) 65.
Spite-hall, 343.                                      Acts 6: 1-6, 375.
Sprague's Ode, 36.                                      "  8: 37, 32.
Spring, 289.                                          Romans 3: 4, 305.
" Spy," Wirt's, 210.                                    "    5, 221.
Stael, De, 74, 105, 117, 233.                            ": 15, 32.
Staten Island, 402.                                   1 Cor. 1: 13-15, 296.
Staudlin, 121.                                                3: 22-23, 357.
Steel-pens, 82.                                          "   41-9, 15, 369.
Stephens, 335.                                                7: 29-31, 168.
Stewart C. S., 62.                                       "   9: 27, 343.,D ugald, 69, 70, 72.                                 10: 2, 296.
Stilling, 400.                                           "  14: 35, 287.
Stockton, Betsey, 294.                                2 Cor., 364.
Commodore, 309, 359, 37, 378.                  "1  9, 173.
Stone, 134, 234.                                         " 4-5,173.
Stoves, 243, 315, 317, 340.                                 4: 7, 28.
Stuart, J., 2.                                           ": 11, 245.
Prof., 385.                                       "  5:,14-15, 390.
"Student's Notes," 43, 47.                               "  6: 4, 369.
Study, course of, 15, 106, 121, 249.                     ":1, 365.
Stump Speeches, 99.                                      "  9: 1-2, 369.
Stud iford, 385.                                         "  9: 8, 365.
Style, 195.                                              " 11: 23, 369.
Summerfield, 71, 81,139, 362, 395.                    Gal. 3: 18-19, 62.
Sunday-Schools, 189, 205, 206, 235, 243, 244,         Eph. 1: 4, 55.
251, 257, 291. (See S. i'. Union.)                  Phil. 2: 2-3, 158.
Sunday-School Journal, 160, 189, 191, 192,                  3:10,165.
193, 196, 209, 217, 276, 280, 286, 375.                   4:13, 16.
Survilliers. (See Bonaparte.)                         Col. 3: 1-2, 345.
Suydam, 318, 327.                                       " 3:17, 165.
Swedish Churches, 338.                                1 and 2 Thess., 287.
Translation, 263.                             1 Tim., 2: 8, 366.
Synod, 177, 270, 340, 380.                            2 Tim., 1: 9, 55.
Systems of Theology, 186, 236.                        Hebrews 13: 5, 176.
James 5:14,174.
Tabernacle, Broadway, 250.                            2 Peter 3: 13, 257.
Talmage, 45.                                          1 John 2 26-27, 326.
Tariff, 266.                                         i1ev. 16, 191.
Tauchnitz, 259.                             Thanksgiving, 139, 385.
Taylor, Isaac, 187, 195.                    Thelwall, 89.
Jeremy. 67, 68, 214, 215, 277: 306.   Theological Course, 178.




412                           INDEX TO VOL. I.
Theological Dictionary, 145.                Wales, New South, 300.
Seminary, (Princeton,) 12, 13,  Walker's Dictionary, 242.
41, 45, 177, 228, 368, 384.   yValpole, 343.
Seminary, (Western,) 353.       Walsh, 123, 126, 156, 226, 246, 247, 310, 314,
~:    Study, 5.                         322, 325, 326, 343, 362, 401. (See Gazett,
Tholuck, 231, 233, 242.                       and Amner. Quarterly Rev;dew.)
Thomas, 26.                                 War, 236.
Thomson, 215.                               Ward, 54.
Thomson's Seasons, 8, 110.                  Washington, 138, 139.
Thorwaldsen, 241.                                 "      Judge, 125.
Ticknor, 127.                               Waterbury, 14, 82, 128.
Tilghman, 234.                              Wratkins, 101.
Titles, 262.                                Watson, Annals, 392, 401.
Tobacco, 73,105.:"   Bishop, 31, 73.
Todd's  73anual, 230.                           "    Divinity, 181, 187.
Torrey, 342.                                WValts, 238, 316.
Townley, 82.                                    cc  John, 157.
Townsend's Bible, 190.                      WVaugh, 387.
Tract Society, 310.                         Waverley Novels, 71, 111.
Trades' Unions, 237, 240.                   "Way of Life," 389, 396.
Transcendentalism, 274, 363.                Wayland, 229.
Translations, 116.                          Weatherby, 43.
Travels, 33, 82, 110, 131.                  Webster, Daniel, 33, 154, 261.
Trenton, 11, 112, 119, 202, 206, 255, 329, 331,  "    Noah, 120, 132, 240.
333, 356.                                 Werter, Sorrows of, 133.
Trevelyan, 247.                             Wesley, 72, 123, 167, 187, 387.
Tucker, 107, 376.                           WVharfs, 221.
Turretine, 71, 181, 187, 221.               Whately, 369.
Tutor, 42, 87.                              WVhig Society, 22, 26, 71, 242, 257.
Tyler, 374.                                 Whip-poor-will, 103.
White, Bishop, 135, 217, 242, 263, 294.
Union, Am. Sunday-School, 154, 157, 169,  Whiteield, 56, 165, 235, 387.
171, 190, 196, 197, 203, 232, 233, 2O 40,   With1er, 2, 26 7.
243, 247, 251, 292, 296, 314.             Williams, J.., 247.
Ufnitarians.  (Se S' an)Wilson, Bishop, 184.
Unitarianss  (See Socinians.)                        J. P., 35, 75, 109, 1S4, 263, 339.
University of New York, 397.
Winchester, 139, 337.
e Virginia, 107, 116, 305, 314.  irt, 144, 182, 210, 339, 348.
IUrquhart, 160.                            NWitherspoon, 82.
Usher, 287.                                TWiseman, 347.
"' Witness," Edinburgh, 391.
Van Buren, 243, 341.                        Writsius, 221.
Velocipede, 3.                              Wolfe, 216.
Venable, 352.                               MWolff, 257, 260, 264, 839.
Ventilation, 319.                           Women, Sufferings, 163.
Vermont Chronicle, 240.                         "    Namle, 240.
Vertot. 135.                                Woodsons, 355.
Vethake, 137, 148, 169.                     Woolsey, 81.
Vielleville, 130.                           Wordsworth, 46, 60, 131, 213, 234
"' Views in Palestine," 190.                Working Mlan, 146, 283.
Vineyard, Corner of, 390.                   Wyatt, 101.
Virgil, 126.
VirAinia, 33, 79, 86, 89, 91, 269.          Yale College, 237.
Visiting, Pastor's, 128.                    Year —word, 387.
Vitringa, 242.                              Yeomans, 206, 248,. 251, 279. 301.
"- Vivian Grey," 112.                       Young, 378.
Voltaire, 70, 146, 233, 256.                " Youth's Friend," 243
Voorhees, 199.
Vrooml, 219.                                Zealand, New, 300.
Zinzendorff, 236.
XWaddel, 83, 210, 235, 353.                 Zoology, 226.
Wadsworth, 373.                             Zuingle, 323, 324, 325.
END OF VOL. I.