VOL. VII. 1835. No. I

 of

Conducted by

B. B. EDWARDS.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY PERKINS, MARVIN, & CO.

1836.

The text of this and other superb works are available on-line from:

The Willison Politics and Philosophy Resource Center

http://willisoncenter.com/

Reprint and digital file May 20, 2000.

This document was scanned from an original copy of the American Education Society’s Quarterly Register, which served as a digest of the diverse facets in American Education and its outflowing effects worldwide. The society was comprised of leading Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton Alumni, and served to promote the work both in the U.S. and abroad for educating the people in the Reformation’s worldview of the Bible serving as the only infallible rule of life, which, of course, was the purpose for which these schools were founded.

We have included the Title page, which is descriptive of the original source. The heading includes the year in brackets [ex.1832.] and the page of the original selection featured below.

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 133

[ By Rev. Henry Wood, Haverhill, N.H.]

Rev. Francis BROWN, D. D., President of Dartmouth college, was born at Chester, Rockingham county, in the State of New Hampshire, Jan. 11, 1784. His father, Benjamin Brown, was a respectable merchant, in modest circumstances, who lived to be gratified in all the hopes he had cherished of the future character and eminence of his son, though he died at an early stage of his presidency, without witnessing, unless from heaven, the triumphant termination of his career. His mother, whose maiden name was Prudence Kelly, lived only to the tenth year of his age, and yet in that short and early period, evidently exerted a strong influence in forming that full and symmetrical character he afterwards developed; imparting those traits for which she and her family were distinguished, particularly that love of order and propriety in every thing however minute and apparently unimportant, and that inflexible adherence to truth and right, for which his own conduct was always so conspicuous. Though he exhibited nothing of the solicitudes, the hopes, and the obedience of religion during the period of childhood, such was the power and ascendency of conscience over his heart and life, that according to a declaration of his father, he was never known, but in one instance, to be guilty of falsehood. His boyhood was marked by uncommon thirst for knowledge, which he sought to gratify by recourse to whatever sources of information lay within his reach, whether they were books, or the conversation of intelligent men, or intercourse with his own better educated associates; whilst the extreme facility with which he made his acquisitions, imparting a pleasure beyond what sports could give, abstracted him in a great measure, from the society of his equals, for undivided attention to the cultivation of his mind. His very amusements, whenever he indulged in them, were in advance of his years, more intellectual, more manly; less violent and unmeaning, less perilous to health and life, less liable to injure the feelings, interrupt the happiness, and excite the jealousy of his associates. At the age of fourteen, he solicited his father, with much importunity, to furnish him with the means for attaining a public education. Amiable as he was in disposition, precocious in the manifestation of original greatness of mind, and beloved as an only son, still his father judged it inexpedient, with his limited resources, to make the effort. In contradiction of all his cherished views of the future, and with deep anguish of heart, young Brown saw nothing before him but the prospect of his minority spent in the counting-room of his father, with the rest of life devoted to the exclusive acquisition of money, which even then he regarded with an indifference that in subsequent times reached almost to contempt. Not long after this, the second marriage of his father removed what had seemed an insuperable obstacle in the way of his education. The new mother providentially raised up for this exigency, with a sagacity at once discovering his rich promise, and a disinterestedness worthy of lasting record, proposed furnishing the necessary funds from her own private fortune. With a gratitude he felt to the last, and an ingenuousness which loved to confess it, he said to her in his final sickness, and only a few days before his death: "My dear mother, whatever good I have done in the world, and whatever honor I have received, I owe it all to you."

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 134

Unshackled at length from pecuniary embarrassment, he repaired, in his sixteenth year, to Atkinson academy, for the prosecution of his preparatory education—an institution then under the care of the Hon. John Vose, and for a long period among the most respectable and flourishing in New England. In respect to his appearance at that time, his instructor states:

"Though he made no pretensions to piety during his residence at the academy, he was exceedingly amiable in his affections and moral in his deportment. It is very rare we find an individual in whom so many excellences centre. To a sweet disposition was united a strong mind; to an accuracy which examined the minutae of every thing, a depth of investigation which penetrated the most profound. I recollect, that when I wrote recommending him to college, I informed Dr. Wheelock, I had sent him an Addison."

It is not easy in many cases, to trace back religious history to the first moment of spiritual life; its origin is frequently hidden from observation, like the fountain-stream, concealed by shrubbery and shade, or struggling long under the matted grass, till at last it breaks out in purity and power far from its source. If at one time three thousand are converted to the Saviour by the preaching of Peter in the prescribed ministration of the gospel; at another the falling leaf, or the withering flower, is sufficient to accomplish the same effect upon individual hearts; and the voice of Peter with all its announcements of guilt and danger, on that occasion, was not more terrible to the consciences of his hearers, than the simple, often heard, often neglected clarion of the cock, that fell upon his own ear, when he went out and wept bitterly. Rules and prescriptions are most preposterous in respect to the causes, the methods, and the development of the divine life:

sufficient for us is it to know, that "all these things worketh that one and self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." The most trifling occurrence under the direction of this Spirit, has often excited reflection, awakened conscience, and conducted to the Saviour. At the close of his residence at Atkinson, president Brown was visited by a severe attack of sickness in the form of fever. On his death-bed he remarked to those who stood by his side:—" During my sickness at Atkinson academy, about the time the fever formed a crisis, whilst in a state of partial delirium, I had a view of the happiness of heaven: I was gently led on to the portal, and beheld a glory which I can never describe. I was then conducted to the gate of hell, where I had a view of the pit below. I fell asleep, and upon awaking, thought I could not live. Greatly distressed in my mind, I called for my mother, and asked her what I should do? When she had counselled me, and directed me, as my case required, I changed my position in the bed, and, for the first time in my life, attempted to pray. After this, I had clear and impressive views of the Saviour, succeeded by great enjoyment, such as I had never experienced before. I felt a desire to go to college, and become a minister." We know not, nor is it needful for us to know, what confidence he reposed in these exercises of mind: whether he regarded this as the time of his submission to God, or these exercises as only the first stage of a course, which ultimately led him to the cross. No one could less esteem a religious hope begun and matured in the marvellous and exciting: his views of the gospel forbade any sympathy with experiences and professions, built upon any thing but a knowledge of God, and cordial admission of the grand doctrines of his word. In him reason presided over and kept in subjection all the inferior powers: cool, investigating, cautious, the rigid discipline he maintained over his spirit, allowed little indulgence for excitement of feeling, little play for the fervor

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 135

of imagination. It was the cautiousness of his natural character, the severe jealousy he exercised over the workings of his heart, which probably induced him for so many years, to defer a public acknowledgment of Christ as his Lord, till he united with the church in Chester, in the year he became a tutor in Dartmouth college. However his religious impressions originated, they deepened year by year, till they resulted in the formation of an intelligent, humble, steadfast and, transparently pure Christian character.

In the spring term of 1802, he entered the freshman class of Dartmouth college. For the four subsequent years, he pursued the tenor of his way in a diligent, delightful application to the usual studies, impelled by the consideration of duty, in cultivating to the utmost the powers God had given him, and by interest in the objects held out for attainment, instead of that odious selfishness and dwarfish pride, upon which so much of college ambition is often founded. Determined fully to pursue, and thoroughly to understand, whatever came within the prescribed course, such was the equal cultivation, such the beautiful proportions of his mind, it would be difficult to say in what department he excelled himself, though in all he so much excelled others. Affable and condescending, careful to inflict the slightest wound upon no one when it could be avoided, it was easy for him to secure the respect and affection of his fellow-students, who in the highest honors of the class which he received upon graduating, could use and understand the language of the poet: "Non invideor; rniror magis." Conscientious in observance of the college discipline, judicious and self-possessed in whatever he did, dignified and manly even in youthful buoyancy, beyond what mere age and art, without the inspiring soul, can effect, the officers of the institution, whilst they loved him for the qualities of his heart, discovered in his mind that rare combination of excellences, which even then to their presentiment made him their future associate, their counsellor, their guide.

The year following his graduation, he spent as private tutor, in the family of judge Paine, of Williamstown, Vermont,—a rare specimen in noble independence, vigorous intellect, plain manners, and unsullied honesty, of the "temporis longe acti," where every thing in congeniality with his own soul, incited to those high and disinterested principles of action which he now cherished in their abstractions; afterwards in the toils and sacrifices of a most devoted life. At the close of this period, he repaired to Hanover to discharge the office of tutor, to which he had been called; here he spent the three succeeding years in the able and satisfactory fulfillment of his duties, improving and delighting his classes by his lucid and thorough instructions, at the same time he was furnishing his own mind for future usefulness, by the pursuits of like nature, and the study of theology. Perhaps this ill-reputed, this odious office, was never more effectually protected, than by the urbanity of his manners, the manliness of his intercourse, and the kind yet decided course of his discipline, from the ill-will and disrespect which it is heir to. Among the manuscripts found after his decease, was a paper containing a series of Resolutions which he drew up soon after entering upon the office of tutor, dated Dartmouth college, October 18, 1807. How fully and scrupulously they were observed, no one needs be told, who knew him in the different relations of his subsequent life; they are his own autobiography—his character unwittingly drawn by his own hand,

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 136

"Resolved,—That the glory of God shall be my leading motive in all my actions; and I will look to God by prayer, and consult his holy word, for direction herein.

"I will seek the good of mankind in all things, and thus endeavor to conform to the golden rule of the blessed Redeemer.

My conduct shall be marked with meekness and humility, and my conversation shall be principally upon religious subjects.

In all my secular concerns, literary pursuits and instructions, I will have an eye to religion, and to the glory of God.

"I will live as a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, and consume no more of this world’s goods, than are required as the necessaries and conveniences of life. I will seek the approbation of God, rather than the praise of men; I will endeavor, however, to merit the esteem of men, and if I should incur their displeasure, will carefully inquire whether I have not given just occasion of offence.

I will always be willing to acknowledge my errors and sins, and give reasonable satisfaction to any one I may have injured."

"If insulted and injured by others, I will pity them, forgive them, and do them good.

"I will slander no man ; and I will injure no man’s feelings, but when his good or the cause of truth requires it: The truth shall always be strenuously, but prudently maintained."

"Morning and evening I will humbly confess my sins, and seek deliverance from them; thank God for his goodness, and pray for pardon, and a continuance of his blessings."

At the commencement of 1809, relinquishing his office at college, he commenced preaching the gospel, for which he had received, some time before, a licensure from the Grafton association. After rejecting various applications for his services, of a flattering nature, if he had consulted ease or honor in the ministry, he was ordained pastor of the church in North Yarmouth, Maine, on his birthday, January 11, 1810. Venerated for his piety, honored for his talents and learning, confided in for his judgment and prudence, beloved for the gentleness and kindness of his heart, with growing reputation and unwearied labors, his people sat under his shade with unmingled delight; willingly did they resign themselves to the guidance of a leader, whose skill they could not but see, whose safety their own experience taught them to acknowledge. It was however but a few months after his ordination, that the fears of his affectionate parishioners were excited by news of his appointment to the vacant professorship of languages, at Dartmouth college, but which, for reasons deemed satisfactory by himself, he declined. For the five succeeding years, his people were suffered without interruption and without molestation to rejoice in his light and profit by his labors. United, strengthened, edified, they had the pleasure of seeing many from time to time added to the Saviour’ s flock, to whom his ministry had apparently been a savor of life unto life ; besides a general revival of religion in his parish, with which God was pleased for once to crown his labors, he was permitted to see what is still more desirable, a progressive and steady advance of the work of divine grace, securing all the advantages, at the same time it excluded many of the defects, of a period of religious excitement. Nor were his labors and influence restricted to the limits of his own parish. As an overseer and then a trustee of Bowdoin college, he zealously co-operated with the excellent president Appleton, and other friends of learning in the State, in

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 137

advancing the institution towards its present reputable character and growing usefulness. Often did Dr. Appleton, in the perplexed and straightened circumstances in which it was placed, visit North Yarmouth for the purpose of consultation with the young parish minister, or for the same reason send his request that Mr. Brown would visit Brunswick. As a director of the Bible, Education, and Missionary Societies of the State, he manifested his interest and afforded his aid, in what has been so justly denominated the glory of the age. Pursuing the delightful work of the ministry, in his secluded, quiet, confiding parish, beloved as hardly pastor ever was beloved, with an amiable wife, the daughter of his predecessor, the Rev. Mr. Gilman, and a group of children growing up around him in his own image, to share and enhance his happiness; the good work of the Lord prospering in his hand, in the improved morals, the intelligence and scriptural piety of his flock; ambition had not a place in his heart, he asked for no removal to the affluent and refined congregation of the city; he thought not of the offices of colleges, or the honors bestowed upon literary pursuits.

At this very hour, however, the providence of God brought about such a. concurrence of circumstances as to blast the hopes of his parishioners, and in an unasked, undesired station, to exhibit his character in new and striking lights. For some years a collision had existed, and been ripening for a crisis, between the president and trustees of Dartmouth college; originating, according to the averment of the trustees, in the claims preferred by the president to certain rights in regard to the appointment of professors and the government of the institution, which they as strenuously denied and withstood. At the same tempestuous time, the period closing the recent war with Great Britain, the spirit of party rose to the point of the bitterest exacerbation, where the soul of ancient religious hatred seemed to be transfused into bosoms burning with political rancor; and the persecution of sect, to be exchanged for the persecution of party. We speak not as partisans; we would write unqualified condemnation or approval, for neither of the great factions of that day; on both sides lay abundant error in spirit or in action we record these things only as matters of history, and happy for us is it to know and to make known, that many who were precipitated into these scenes by the violence of party spirit, so rife and even vindictive at that day, have seen and acknowledged their error. On both sides, every subject and circumstance, however trivial and foreign, were dragged into controversy, and made subservient to annoying the political foe. No wonder, then, that the college soon became debatable ground; inflammatory appeals were made to the passions and the prejudices of party; the multitude, least of all able to comprehend motives of this sort, with which they are so little conversant, and in which usually they feel so little interest, were taught to regard the president as their partisan, and a martyr, so far as he could be, to the interests of their cause. An excited legislature was appealed to on the part of the president, who appointed a committee to repair to Hanover, during the recess of the general court, and inspect the records of the college, examine witnesses, hear the statements of the parties, investigate the general condition of the institution, and make report of their doings at the next session. The committee, consisting of three highly intelligent, and disinterested individuals, after a protracted Investigation, presented their report, fully vindicating the trustees from the charges brought against them, and asserting that the charter of the college had been preserved hitherto inviolate. This committee was appointed in June, 1815, and reported in November following. In the meanwhile,

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 138

August 26, the president, by vote of the trustees, was removed from office. In these stormy times, it was no enviable lot to be called to the vacant chair; to be placed at the helm of the foundering vessel, with the charge of steering her through the waves the best established character, the most extended influence, were hardly adequate to the crisis. With what surprise then, on the part of the public, was the announcement heard that FRANCIS Brown was designated president! Who is Francis Brown? was the hurried inquiry: the minister of North Yarmouth, without notoriety, a without friends, living remote in another State and in a retired parish; a young man of only thirty years, an age when no one has been elected to, this responsible office in a New England college, and when his own election is environed by difficulties, at which the boldest heart might tremble, and the most tried wisdom despond. The enemies of the college, hoping the measure would accelerate the accomplishment of their own purposes, exulted over an act they deemed of the most palpable folly; whilst its firmest friends were not a little disheartened for what might be found upon the result, to be at least an injudicious choice. It was characteristic of president Brown, that he was always equal to any emergency; no call could be made upon his resources unhonored; at a word, all the sleeping energies of his mind came up in their glowing beauty and just proportions, awakening the admiration and securing the confidence of timid friends, and overawing the presumption that already exulted in the over-throw of the college. Reluctantly given up by his people, he had only to touch again the soil of his native State, and move amid the eyes and ears of its citizens, to be admitted as that superior mind which Providence had raised up, and kept like Moses in the desert, for this very crisis. A certain dignity of person, altogether native and inimitable, made every one feel himself in the presence of original greatness, in honoring which, he also a honored himself: such were the conciliation and command belonging to

his character, that from the first moment of his re-appearance in his own State, the voice of detraction was silent; whoever else was rebuked, he escaped, whom all conspired to honor.

In the meantime, political exasperation, unappeased by the lapse of time for reflection, marched onward to its object. Notwithstanding the investigation of their committee, the legislature utterly refused to accept their report as the basis of their proceedings. An act was passed, annulling the original charter, giving a new name to the college, increasing the number of the trustees, creating a board of overseers, and placing the institution in all its departments and interests in abject dependence upon any party legislature. The students, almost without exception, still attended the instruction of professors in the old college even when they were expelled from the college buildings, deprived of libraries, apparatus, and recitation-rooms. A penal enactment was judged expedient by this enlightened legislature, imposing a fine of $500 upon any one who should presume to act as trustee, president, professor, tutor, or any other officer in Dartmouth college; for every instance of offence, one half of the penalty to be appropriated for the benefit of the prosecutor, and the other for the encouragement of learning! Such was the hold of a superior mind upon the attachment and confidence of the students, that still they followed their proscribed, exiled president, with the affection of children, and the heroism of martyrs. He opened a new chapel, procured other recitation-rooms, morning and evening gathered his pupils around him, in the devotions of a pure and confiding heart commended them and himself to God. Through this scene of strife and peril of more than five years’ continuance; when the chances against the -

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 139

college were in preponderance; when disgrace in the public estimation, together with a forfeiture of academical honors, was what the students expected as the result of their adherence to the old faculty; so absolute was the power of a great mind and a noble heart over them, so effectual was moral influence in the government of more than one hundred young men, when college laws were stript of authority, that never was discipline more thorough, study more ardent, or proficiency more respectable; three of the presidents and nine of the professors in our colleges, besides a large number of the most resolute, aspiring, useful members of the different professions, are the children nursed and cradled in the storms of that time The college moved onward; commencements were held ; degrees were conferred; new students crowded around the president to take the place of the graduated—when edicts were fulminated, and penalties imposed for every prayer that was offered in the chapel, and every act of instruction in the recitation-room.

Such was president Brown’s influence in college: as much must we admire his activity and direction of affairs out of it. Whilst every thing demanded his presence at home, the condition of the college none the less urgently required his intercourse and agency abroad. Funds were needed to compensate for the abstraction of college property in the hands of the treasurer; his vacations, therefore, instead of affording repose from laborious service, were only seasons for services still more arduous, and in addition to the labor, offensive to a delicate and sensitive mind. The claims of the college were also submitted to the decision of the laws of the State, the importance of the cause in its intrinsic nature, and the additional interest created by its association with the politics of the day, contributed to awaken the most intense solicitude, the most anxious expectation President Brown had informed himself upon almost every subject, especially upon whatever might be of practical concern; judgment founded upon a clear and ready perception of things, was a leading characteristic of his mind; it is not known that he ever applied himself to the systematic study of the law, yet he had become so intimately acquainted with the great principles of that science, he so well understood the structure of our institutions, the power of legislatures and the rights of corporate bodies secured by contract, he was so confident of success in the ultimate decision of the highest tribunal of the nation, that when others were disheartened, and urged an abandonment of the cause, a good one, as they believed, but fated like many other good causes, to be unsuccessful, he stood erect; if not so confident of success, yet as much as ever fixed in his purpose. Never has a cause been litigated in our country more important from the principle to be established, and the interests remotely involved: the existence not only of this, but of all seminaries for education, and of all corporate bodies whatever, was suspended upon the present decision. The permanence of all the institutions of our country, whether charitable, literary, or religious, and indeed the very character of the nation in its future stages, were connected with this adjudication upon a point of constitutional law. Such was the confidence reposed in the president’s judgment, and in his knowledge of the case, that the eminent professional men engaged for the college did not hesitate to receive his advice, and urge his attendance at the courts, the case would seem almost to have been prepared in his study, and drawn out by his own hand. Honorable testimonials have they left of the opinion they entertained of his capacity, by their frequent consultations: honorable also to themselves, in the evidence that they were not ashamed to acknowledge merit, when found in a young man, guiding and protecting an

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 140

unpopular and unpromising cause. Never have higher legal attainments been brought into powerful and splendid exhibition at the bar of our country. On the one side, in behalf of the college, were Jeremiah Smith and Jeremiah Mason, those " men of renown" in the civil jurisprudence of the State; and Daniel Webster, a son of the college, just entering upon his luminous career of eloquence in the senate and the forum; and Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia, who when he had exerted all that admirable talent for which he is so distinguished in the final trial at Washington, did I not refuse this homage to brilliant genius and vigorous intellect, when he said in a letter written to president Brown announcing the happy and final decision "I would advise you to inscribe over the door of your institution, " Founded by Eleazor Wheelock; Refounded by Daniel Webster." On the other side were employed John Holmes of Maine, William Pinckney of Baltimore, and that most accomplished scholar, that ornament of our country, that humble disciple at last of the Saviour, of whose talents and honorable conduct in this case, even his professional opponents make the most respectable mention, William Wirt, attorney general of the United States. Whatever research, argument, eloquence, could do for a cause, or against it, was done in the process of this trial. In the superior court of New Hampshire, November, 1817, a decision was given against the pretensions of the trustees. Without delay, and apparently without dejection, on the part of president Brown, the cause was carried up to the supreme court of the United States, at Washington, where it was argued in the March following, with the utmost legal learning, and the most fervid eloquence these distinguished advocates could command, and as it would seem, on the part of some, with the serious, religious conviction of duty. The case was deferred by the court for advisement, till the February term of 1819, when, to the entir~satisfaction of the patrons of the college, and with the devout thanksgiving of the friends of learning arid religion throughout the laud, the claims of the trustees were sustained against the fear of all future legislative despotism and party intermeddling. Others would have exulted ; president Brown was humble; they would have triumphed over a fallen foe; he, on the contrary, was more courteous and conciliating: they would have taken the praise to their able counsel and perseverance; he ascribed the whole to heaven. There was the same composure of countenance, the same earnest and direct address to duty too much occupied by God’s goodness, to be any thing but abased and devout.

At the time when all was darkness and confusion in relation to the college, when every thing invited retreat, president Brown was elected to the same office in Hamilton college, a peaceful, well endowed, and flourishing institution in New York. So many reasons solicited his acceptance—adherence to the destinies of Dartmouth seemed so much more the act of a desperate than a sound mind—that the patrons of the college could hardly ask him to make additional sacrifices, and they who best knew him, scarcely thought him capable of so inflexible a purpose, so dauntless a courage, so entire a self-devotion. Every emergency, however, serving to bring out new qualities, or enhance those already exhibited, he was found again equal to the crisis.

"Victriz causa diis placuit sed i,i eta CatonL"

The question at issue he deemed too important not only to the interests of this college, but of all the literary, charitable, and religious institutions

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 141

of our country, to be abandoned for considerations of personal advantage. The flattering offer, though earnestly pressed, was instantly rejected; Providence called for him, as a sacrifice upon the altar of learning and religion: he could not refuse the martyrdom. In the year 1819, the honor of doctor in divinity was conferred upon him by Hamilton and Williams colleges, as an expression of the regard in which his character and labors were held; but it was an honor destined to flourish in his grave, rather than adorn his living brow. Incessant labors, the most painful solicitudes, together with frequent exposure to the cold and the storm, were too much at last for his delicate frame. Occupied in the chapel morning and evening in the exercises of devotion; through the day in hearing recitations, sometimes in metaphysics, sometimes in the languages; and sometimes in miscellaneous studies, besides the general supervision of the college: on the Sabbath preaching in the destitute congregations in the vicinity, to eke out the means of a scanty support; during the vacations travelling extensively to collect funds and sustain the interests of the college; corresponding with the bar, and hurrying from home to attend the courts; —all business, all activity, all solicitude, and suspense; how could he but become the victim of his own generous devotion ? Soon after the commencement of 1818, he was troubled with a slight hoarseness; in spite of medicine and precaution, this affection continued, aggravated occasionally by hemorrhage at the lungs. The last time he preached was at Thetford, Vermont, October 6, 1818. With the hope of improving his health, he journeyed to the western part of New York; still unable to stay the encroachment of the disease, he prosecuted travelling in the fall of 1819, as far as Georgia, where, and in South Carolina, he spent the following winter and spring.

Unimproved in health by climate, by travelling, and the prescriptions of the most eminent physicians, he slowly pursued his way homeward, that having once more seen, and blessed the college he had saved and honored,. with nothing more he could do, he might lie down and die. He arrived at Hanover in the month of June; the students, in the ardor of their affection, would have formed a procession, as they heard of his approach, to receive him, though his pale countenance and emaciated form told them too truly his sojourn was to be transient—that he was soon to depart forever. The tear stole down his face as the college spire once more broke out upon his view, with the young men sent to meet him hanging in his train: but he could not permit what his native modesty and the seriousness of the hour forbade; he needed pall-hearers, not a triumphal procession. In the full exercise of his understanding, or rather his understanding invigorated and perfected by the celestial visions beginning to break upon him, as like Brainerd, he "stood upon the sides of eternity," like him too he wished to be useful to the last. The senior class was about leaving upon their last vacation; he invited them to his sick room; they stood around him; as a father, as a dying Christian, he gave them ‘his farewell advice, his latest counsels and blessing, with a seriousness of air befitting the grave; with a serenity and joy most like heaven. They listened; they wept; they retired; they parted on earth forever, but not till they had sent back an address filled with prayers, for his recovery, and promises that they would remember and follow his counsels. Few of the remarks he made in his last sickness can now be recalled, so as to be recorded; the following are of those remembered. " At the commencement of my sickness, I felt very unwilling to die; I seemed to have just begun to live; I wished to do something to make it more evident on whose side I was. I thought I

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 142

should be ashamed to appear among those who had been actively engaged in the service of God and their generation. But now I have passed this trial; if I do not mistake my feelings, I have been brought to be willing to be saved by grace, without doing any thing." To a minister he said, "The last winter (when he was travelling at the south) I read the Scriptures a good deal in Greek: I was surprised at the new views I obtained from passages the most familiar." At another time; "I am often reminded of the plain, blunt manner in which I was addressed by ‘Mr. W. in New York. He had not been in my presence perhaps a minute, when he said ‘You are promoted to honor; you hold an elevated place; but to be saved you must come down as low as the poorest and meanest sinner that lives’ I think I fully assented to it: I do not exactly recollect his words at this time, but it was said in so sincere and affectionate a manner, as rendered it altogether acceptable." To one of the professors : "I am far gone; "I am now expecting every day to be my last." Have you much choice ? it was inquired. "No; if I can be of any use, I suppose I ought to be willing to live: I can yet speak to those who come in to see me." After a short pause, he asked: "Is there any thing in the Bible respecting the ministration of the saints?" To one of the tutors, who inquired if he found his mind much composed, "1 am not discomposed; if it should please God to give me stronger affections, I trust I shall be thankful. You are just entering upon the world; be decided and active for Christ: keep self down." After a season of great distress, he repeated these lines:

Well, if ye must be sad and few,

Roll on, my days, in haste:

Moments of sin and months of wo,

Ye cannot fly too fast.

On being asked, if the doctrines of grace appeared as precious as ever, and particularly the divinity of Christ, he replied : "They appear the same ; but I am not sure we duly appreciate the Holy Ghost." To an inquiry, how he did, "I am getting along very fast; nor have I any desire to go slow." On Thursday, July 27, his attendants observed in the morning a marked alteration in his appearance and symptoms. His wife leaning over his bedside in much agitation : " Be still," said he, "this is my last day." When after a season of speechlessness, she asked him, if he could not say to her one word more : he raised his eyes to heaven, and said: "the Lord be your God, my dear, and the God of our children." Closing his eyes, he then lay for some time in a state of quiet: as he opened his eyes again, and saw his wife standing over him, he added "Well, my love, you seem very quiet ; be quiet, all is well, I believe." After a short struggle, when all thought him dying, he revived and said: "Had it pleased my Lord to have released me, I should have rejoiced; let him not withdraw his Holy Spirit from me. May the Holy Ghost be with me : glorious Redeemer, take my spirit." He lay a short time, and then all was motionless; his spirit ascended, it cannot be doubted, to the arms of his Saviour—the bosom of his God. It was one o’clock, July 27, 1820. The recollection of that sad day is yet vivid ; the heavens were serene; the winds nearly suspended in their gentleness; the sun shone out in unusual brightness; the students, held in painful expectation from hour to hour, were seen walking solitary under the trees and in the sequestered paths they frequented ; or else seated in their chambers, they opened a book, only to close it again: at length the dreaded note came in solemn

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 143

cadence from the college bell: upon every heart it struck as a sound from eternity, as all stood still, looked upward, and said: My father my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!

The published writings of president Brown are the following

An Address on Music, delivered before the Handel Society of Dartmouth college. 1809.

The Faithful Steward; a sermon delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Allen Greely. 1810.

A Sermon delivered before the Maine Missionary Society. 1814.

Calvin and Calvinism; defended against certain injurious representations contained in a pamphlet entitled: "A sketch of the Life and Doctrine of the celebrated John Calvin :" of which Rev. Martin Ruter claims to be the author. 1815.

A Reply to the Rev. Martin Ruter’s Letter, relating to Calvin and Calvinism. 1815.

A Sermon delivered at Concord, before the Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire. 1818.

In person, president Brown was of a middle stature, a little inclining in his posture, with an open, serene, penetrating eye of hazel, surmounted by a bold forehead, upon which a rich auburn hair fell gracefully ; a light, delicate complexion, which on his cheeks was mantled with the flush of health and youth: slow and contemplative in his gait though alive to all around him: remarkable for his neatness of dress, whilst it never approached to fastidiousness and display. A serious, thoughtful air, with the marks of a sleepless attention, sat upon his countenance, at the same time so remote from moroseness and coldness, as to invite rather than repel approach. A certain native dignity, having as little relation to art, as self conceit to true greatness, diffused almost an air of sacredness around his person, forcing upon all the consciousness of being in the presence of a superior mind, whom it was impossible at the same moment not to love and reverence; fear, and yet be attracted to nearer intimacy. A sort of enchantment held firmly, yet pleasingly, all who drew near him; not the effect of a first impression, but strengthened more and more by protracted acquaintance.

As a scholar, his acquirements were extensive, if not the most profound thoroughly digested, so far as he went, and so much at the command of a welll disciplined mind, as to be ready to appear, at a moment’s bidding, to execute whatever he ordered. With no department of science and literature was he a stranger: to no one did he manifest an exclusive preference He could delight in all, pursue all ; or in obedience to duty, abandon all. Such was the command he maintained over his acquisitions, that in the time of his presidency, as occasion called, he could with equal facility hear the recitations of the junior classes in Tacitus, algebra, and geometry, and the seniors in the elegant speculations of Butler and Stewart, and the deep abstractions of that prince of divines, as Robert Halll has denominated him, president Edwards. What he could not learn from application to books, on account of his importunate engagements, he extracted from others, with a tact which, whilst it gratified them, concealed the defect of’ his own knowledge. Ever laborious and inventing methods for doing good as a preacher ; ever, oppressed and distracted by conflicting duties, president; a young man just fairly entered upon life when he died ; were

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 144

it not for the order of his mind, it could hardly be told, how and where he obtained so varied and substantial learning. Had he lived and died the minister of North Yarmouth, or of any other, even the most obscure parish, so sacred to God did he consider his time and intellect, so religiously did he regard the highest cultivation of his understanding as well as his heart, that he would have been the same man, the same mind, the same scholar still.

As a writer and preacher, it may be said of the dress of his thoughts as well as of his person, it was the "simplex munditiis ;" a style not elaborate, yet cautious; never overwrought, always chaste; not ornate but beautiful; if not eloquent yet elegant, pure, noiseless as the deep stream, bearing along noble thoughts, clear conceptions, and convincing arguments, instead of that artificial rivulet, which is made to rush over rocks, and dash among precipices, and, concealed among thickets, to hide its native feebleness and poverty. Whatever he did, was done earnestly; a negligent style, crude thoughts, superficial investigation, the repetition of stale facts, commonplace illustrations and forceless truisms, transmitted from author to author and preacher to preacher, he could not away with; under the transforming operation of his original and philosophical mind, every subject lie touched put on freshness and beauty ; with a new direction of thought, new lights and illustrations, and a resolute vigor in approaching it, he gave interest and attraction to what had seemed most jejune and soporific. In illustration of this is his address upon music, of which he was an accurate judge and a skilful performer, delivered when he was a tutor in college his views upon this subject, thrown out when he was a youth merely, and more than twenty-five years ago, are in striking accordance with the taste and execution of that distinguished master of the art, who within a few years has so much reformed the psalmody of our country by his own beautiful airs, and the introduction of the chaste productions of Germany. The missionary theme has become attenuated by the various lights in which it has been exhibited; and yet if we were to select one out of the innumerable productions the press has sent forth upon this subject, we know of none possessing more interest, and carrying a deeper conviction than the one preached before the Maine Missionary Society twenty years ago, when the receipts of that society were only $650. If president Brown had not the scrupulousness of Oberlin, whose conscience disturbed him for the wrong configuration of a letter in writing, he was never satisfied, if every thing of the smallest moment was not done just as it should be. For awhile in the course of his ministry, he attempted preaching extemporaneously for half of the Sabbath; others were satisfied, edified, and even applauded; he only was disgusted, and nearly indignant with his preaching; it did not reach the order, the select language, the compass of thought, the beauty of illustration, the strength and conclusiveness of argument, the apposite introduction of Scripture quotations, in a word, that perfect finish which he sought to give to every production. After a short experiment, he abandoned the effort, thinking, with president Davies, "that it was a terrible thing to talk nonsense in the name of the Lord." In preaching, his delivery was serious, self-possessed, impressive: his eloquence was in an eye beaming purity, majesty, heaven; in a countenance lit up with intelligence, conveying, like the telegraph, in its delicate and changing hues, a knowledge to his audience of what was working within, as he poured out successive truths and persuasions from his overflowing heart; and in a deep, clear, sweet voice, under perfect subjection, almost like melody itself, bearing in its rich lines to other minds, the convictions and emotions of

[1834] LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. 145

his own breast. Had he stood silent in the pulpit, his very looks would have spoken, his eyes been eloquence, and his face have inspired purity and devotion; every one, as he looked, would have felt himself constrained to become a better and holier man.

In his views of religion, president Brown was decidedly orthodox. At the greatest remove from blindness and bigotry, admitting only what he had examined with an independent judgment, following Christ as the only Lord of the conscience, he did not hesitate, after long and prayerful investigation, to receive into his head, more to receive into his inmost heart, those great truths of Christian doctrine, which were professed at the period of the Lutheran reformation, and by those heroic, those eminently Christian men, who felled the forests, planted the institutions, and with life and blood bought the liberties of New England. These truths he preached plainly and often to his own people, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;" he preached them fearlessly and frequently in his subsequent elevation, when weaker minds would have pleaded indulgence for popularity and expedience: on them he reposed his salvation, as in the triumph of faith, he breathed out his soul into the hands of his Redeemer. When these truths, preserving their fortune still from age to age, were exhibited in distortion and caricature, as worthy only of unmingled execration, and the receivers of them as actuated by a spirit hardly less than diabolical, he did not refuse, however reluctant from native feeling, to engage in controversial strife, to stand forth in defence of the faith once delivered to the saints. He did stand forth, and made it evident that the controversy was not between the orthodox and their accusers, but between these accusers and the plainest, most reiterated declarations of the word of God. A more able, dignified, and convincing argument for primitive Christianity, is seldom exhibited; to overthrow the foundations of orthodoxy, and uproot these great and purifying truths of Christianity, which in every age and every place where they have been proclaimed, have been "mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God," was found a very different thing from echoing the old calumny of centuries: "Calvin burnt Servetus! Calvin burnt Servetus!"

But it is upon, his courage and self-devotion in preserving a venerable and useful institution of learning from the destruction of political phrenzy, and his unrivalled skill in governing the young men connected with it, that his permanent fame will rest. Here was his greatest, noblest, latest, most triumphant effort: he carried to successful issue, young and single handed, in opposition to party excitement, and in defiance of penal enactments the most important question ever submitted to the decision of the American tribunal of law; he gave rest to our literary institutions from political agitations; he gave security and permanence to those endowments of learning, and enterprises of Christian benevolence, which are the glory and the protection of the land. For this he counted nothing dear unto him; for this he spent his energies, wasted his property, impoverished his family, lavished his life. If over the door of every college should be inscribed the name of its founder, in characters equally bright should it be written: Preserved By Francis Brown. Honored be the name which men like Hopkinson, and Wirt, and Webster, did not refuse to honor; sleep on in peace, that form so finished in dignity and manly beauty, as almost to give some shadowing of what the body may be after the resurrection; loved forever be the mind which inhabited it, hardly receiving new flies and new purity as it ascended to the society of the just.