PROF. JOHN HUBBARD.--PROF. ROSWELL SHURTLEFF.
Prof. John Hubbard succeeded Professor Woodward. We quote from a
published eulogy by Rev. Elijah Parish, D.D., his college classmate.
"The Hon. John Hubbard, the son of John and Hannah (Johnson) Hubbard,
late Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in this
university, was born in Townsend, Mass., August 8, 1759. Dark and
dismal was the dawn of that life, which has been so fair and luminous.
Five months before his birth his father died, and this, in his last
moments, when his children stood weeping round his dying bed, he made
use of as an argument of consolation to them, entreating them not to
weep, for God had taken care of him when a fatherless infant. During
his minority most of his time was employed in the labors of
agriculture. At the age of twenty-one he commenced his studies, and
the next year became a member of this institution. In the second year
of his residence at college, when many were awakened to a religious
sense of divine things, our friend was one of the happy number. His
subsequent life and death have proved that his conversion was not
imaginary. While this increases our loss, it is the best reason for
consolation.
"In his college life Mr. Hubbard was a youthful cedar of Lebanon. He
gave visible tokens of his approaching eminence. So tenacious was his
memory, that his progress in the languages was remarkably rapid. While
he lived, the Greek and Roman writers were his amusement; and with a
taste refined, he was charmed with their classic beauties; his memory
was stored with numerous favorite passages.
"On leaving college, his love of study, his delight in religious
inquiries, his devout regard for the best interests of man, led him to
the study of theology. Becoming a preacher of the gospel, his voice,
naturally small and feeble, was found to be ill adapted to such an
employment. After a fair experiment his good sense forbade him to
persevere. The transition was easy to his 'delightful task to teach
the young idea how to shoot,' and form the minds of youth to science
and virtue. Of the academy in New Ipswich he was elected preceptor.
Under his able instruction that seminary rose to distinction, and
became a favorite of the public. Some who were his pupils are already
eminent in the walks of literature.
"After several years, quitting this situation, he was appointed Judge
of Probate for the County of Cheshire. This office was peculiarly
adapted to that gentle and tender philanthropy for which he was
remarkable. It was luxury to him to comfort the widow and the
fatherless. The blended resolution and exquisite sensibilities of his
heart qualified him, in a singular manner, impartially to weigh the
claims of justice and compassion. But this situation was not congenial
with his love of study, and his delight in the instruction of youth,
which was so pleasant, that he declared he would make it the business
of his life. Accordingly he accepted the invitation of Deerfield
Academy, Massachusetts, where for several years he continued with
great reputation. After the death of Professor Woodward, who had, from
its origin, been an able instructor in this university, he was elected
his successor in the Professorship of Mathematics and Philosophy. So
high was his reputation, that a successor of common attainments could
not have satisfied the raised expectations of the public. To supply
the place of such a man was the arduous task assigned to Mr. Hubbard.
His success equaled the fond hopes of his friends. Here you rejoiced
in his light; here he spent his last and his best days; here he had
full scope for the various, the versatile powers of his vigorous mind.
His amiable virtues, his profound learning, you cheerfully
acknowledged.
"He had a happy facility in illustrating the practical advantages of
every science. He not only explained its principles, but traced its
relation to other branches of knowledge. Not satisfied by merely
ascertaining facts, he explored the cause, the means, the ultimate
design of their existence.
"Though he has been my intimate friend from cheerful youth, yet
neither inspired by his genius, nor enriched with his attainments, it
is not possible I should do justice to his merits. His person,
muscular and vigorous, indicated the energy of his mind. Every feature
of his face expressed the mildness of his spirit; never did I witness
in him the appearance of anger. Without that undescribable
configuration which constitutes beauty, his countenance was pleasing
and commanded respect. Without formality or art, his manners were
refined and delicate; his address was conciliatory and winning. By his
social and compliant temper he was calculated for general society.
Though instructed 'in the learning of Egypt,' and the civilized world,
he was too discreet and benevolent to humble others by his superior
lustre. His light was mild and clear, like that of the setting sun. He
had no ambition to shine, or to court applause. More disposed to make
others pleased with themselves than to excite their admiration, it is
not strange that he was universally beloved. His heart was impressed
with an exquisite sense of moral obligations. In every passing event,
in every work of nature, the formation of a lake, a river, a cataract,
a mountain, he saw God. When as a philosopher, surrounded with the
apparatus of science, extending his researches to the phenomena of the
universe, amazed at the minuteness of some objects, astonished at the
magnitude and magnificence of others, his mind was transported; when
he explored the heavens, and saw worlds balancing worlds, and other
suns enlightening other systems, his senses were ravished with the
wisdom, the power, the goodness of the Almighty Architect. On these
subjects he often declaimed, with the learning of an astronomer, the
simplicity of an apostle, the eloquence of a prophet. He illustrated
the moral and religious improvement of the sciences; the views of his
students were enlarged; the sciences became brilliant stars to
irradiate the hemisphere of Christianity. The perfect agreement
between sound learning and true religion was a favorite theme of his
heart. This remark is confirmed by his conversation, his letters, his
lectures.
"In theology his researches were not those of a polemic divine, but of
a Christian, concerned for his own salvation and the salvation of
others."
Professor Hubbard published several works, one of them being entitled
"Rudiments of Geography." He died at Hanover, August 14, 1810.
His wife was Rebecca, daughter of Dr. John Preston, of New Ipswich.
* * * * *
Mr. Roswell Shurtleff was elected the second professor of Divinity in
the college. We give some of the more important points in a published
"Discourse," by Professor Long:
"Roswell Shurtleff, the son of William and Hannah (Cady) Shurtleff,
was born at Ellington, then East Windsor, Ct., August 29, 1773. He was
the youngest of nine children, two of whom died before he was born.
From his earliest years he was fond of reading, and at school he was
called a good scholar. His religious training was carefully attended
to, and to this, and the Christian example which accompanied it, he
ascribed his conversion, and the views he subsequently embraced of the
Christian doctrines.
"When he was seven or eight years old he had many serious thoughts of
God and duty. The requirement that he should give up all for God, as
he understood it, filled him with gloom.
"During several of the subsequent years, the subject of religion dwelt
on his mind, and he was occasionally deeply impressed. One of the
difficult things was to comprehend the notion of faith. The promise
was: 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' He believed,
as he supposed, and he had been baptized, but he could not feel that
he was safe. Must he believe that he, personally, should be saved? But
what if he mistook his own character, and believed what was false;
would his opinion of his safety _make_ him safe. He was ashamed to be
known as a religious inquirer, and, therefore, remained longer in
darkness. Finding that he had been observed by his father to have
become a more diligent student of the Scriptures, he left the practice
of reading them before the family. Sometimes, assuming a false
appearance of indifference, he carried his difficulties to his mother,
who was able to furnish a satisfactory solution. She seems to have
been a person of unusual intelligence as well as goodness. Her memory
was ever cherished by him with the most grateful affection, as it
regarded his own spiritual progress. He believed that he suffered
unspeakable loss from the concealment of his early feelings on the
subject of religion, and did not doubt that many failed of conversion
from this foolish reserve. It was not till a number of years after
this that his religious life commenced.
"The only school which young Shurtleff had the opportunity of
attending, before his eighteenth or nineteenth year, was the common
school of the district. He made good proficiency, but nothing worthy
of note occurred in relation to his studies till he was about fifteen
years of age. He then began to think, as he says. Before that time, he
had repeated by rote whatever he had been taught. The first impulse to
reflection was a new discovery. He had been taught from childhood that
accent is a stress of voice laid on some syllable or letter of a word.
But this definition had not been illustrated by an example, and the
classification of words by their accent, in the spelling-book, he had
never understood. The definition had been to him an unmeaning
collection of words. He now discovered what it meant. This was in
itself a trifling event, but it led to the further discovery that
other things, which he had been accustomed, parrot-like, to repeat
_memoriter_, had a meaning; that the meaning of things was that which
the student should be set to learn, and that his own education had, in
this view, been greatly neglected. He says that a new world seemed to
be opened to his view; that nothing now appeared so important as an
opportunity to reflect on what he had learned, and that he was greatly
displeased with the instructors by whom he had been so badly cheated.
He resolved that, if ever he should be a teacher, he would propose it
to himself, as his leading object, to make his pupils understand
whatever they should study. This resolution he afterward had the
opportunity of carrying into effect in five or six winter schools; and
his attempt was attended with gratifying success.
"It was the opinion of Dr. Shurtleff, grounded on his own experience
as learner and teacher, that too much importance is attached to the
books used in schools; that the end to be reached is too generally
regarded as the learning of the book rather than the mastery of the
subject, and that books are too often prepared mainly with a view to
abridge the labor of the teacher. He believed that, while the pupil
might, through the text-book, possess himself of the knowledge of
others, he was in danger of acquiring little which could be called his
own.
"In consequence of using his eyes too soon, after his recovery from
the measles, when he was about seventeen years old, Shurtleff was
almost wholly cut off from the reading of books for two years, and he
never afterward perfectly recovered from the injury resulting from
this imprudence. He made some proficiency, however, by listening to
the reading of others. About two years after this affliction he
entered the academy at Chesterfield, N. H., whither his father's
family had removed a few years before. He attended first to English
studies. The weakness of his eyes continued, and he was considerably
embarrassed for a time from the necessity of using the eyes of his
friends. At length he commenced the study of Latin, going through
Ross' Grammar, the only one then in use, in just two weeks, and then
beginning to construe and parse in Corderius.
"He met, at the academy, one who had been his school-fellow and
playmate, and with whom he was intimately associated from that time
till the end of his college course,--the late Hon. Levi Jackson, who
died at Chesterfield in 1821. They got out their lessons together,
taking turns in looking out new words; and afterward, at college,
where they were classmates and room-mates, continued the practice. Dr.
Shurtleff felt under great obligations to this friend and helper, and
said that 'few friendships among men had been more ardent, confiding
and permanent.'
"Shurtleff had supposed, at first, that the Greek language was beyond
his reach, on account of his infirmity of sight. But some improvement
having taken place, he ventured to commence the study. He went through
the Westminster Greek Grammar, the book then in use, in one week, and
began to read the Gospel of John. Having completed the New Testament,
and read several books of Homer's Iliad, he was reputed in the school
as tolerably versed in Greek. He and Jackson studied from the love of
study, and did not think of college till a year before they applied
for admission, at Commencement, in 1797, and entered the Junior class
in this institution.
"The round of college duties presents few marked events. Time has left
no record of most of the occurrences which diversified and enlivened
the period from 1797 to 1799. How the two friends studied, and read,
and discussed, and recreated together, has been lost, just as the
facts of our daily life will be lost sixty years hence. They made
constant and good progress. They were about equally good scholars,
neither of them being a dead weight upon the other. Each was happy in
the other's proficiency. The amount of learning requisite for a degree
was less then than now. Sciences have been introduced into the course
which were then in their infancy. But it may be doubted whether the
students of our day have the advantage over those of an earlier
period, in respect to thoroughness as well as extent of attainment.
They read fewer books, in the first years of the college, but they
thought the more. They were as well disciplined and able, and as
competent to handle a difficult subject, I imagine, as our students,
if they were not as well informed. We know from the esteem in which
Shurtleff was held by the Trustees and Faculty, as it appeared not
long after his graduation, that he was one of the best scholars of his
time.
"Peculiar interest attaches to the religious experience of Shurtleff
during his college course.
"He had performed some of the duties of a Christian before he supposed
himself to possess the Christian character. The first school he taught
he opened daily with prayer, persevering in the practice as a
conscientious duty, in spite of many misgivings and much timidity. And
this he did in every school he afterward taught. He kept up the habit
of secret prayer, at the same time, asking more earnestly than for
anything else, that his weak eyes might be cured, and that he might
have the means of intellectual improvement.
"He seems to have supposed that during his senior winter vacation he
became a true Christian.
"Soon after his return to college, he intimated a desire to a
classmate, who, as he supposed, was the only professor of religion in
the class, to join with others in a private meeting for religious
conference and prayer. He had never attended, or even heard of such a
meeting. After a little delay he was surprised to learn from his
friend that such a meeting as he had proposed had been held for years,
and that he was desired to attend. On the Saturday evening following,
he and five or six other persons assembled, and by the free
interchange of thought and feeling, and the apparently humble prayers
that were offered, he felt himself greatly refreshed and quickened. On
leaving college he regretted the loss of nothing more than of these
Saturday evening conference meetings.
"The time had now come for choosing a profession. His success in
teaching led him to seek for a situation in an academy; but no opening
of this kind presented itself, and he believed himself thus
providentially called to preach the gospel. There were at the time no
theological seminaries; the students of the distinguished clergymen
who gave instruction in theology were supposed to represent the views
of their teacher; and that he might not be thought to go forth as the
advocate of some exceptionable _ism_, Mr. Shurtleff chose to study
theology by himself. Having pursued this course one year, he was
appointed a tutor in the college, and at the same time was licensed to
preach. The pressure of a considerable debt hastened the period of
obtaining license, but we may be certain, from the opportunities
subsequently enjoyed, and from the character of the man, that any
deficiency he may have felt at first, from hasty preparation, was
abundantly supplied.
"Mr. Shurtleff continued in the tutorship from 1800 to 1804, and was
also engaged, for the greater part of the time, in preaching in vacant
parishes.
"After the close of the four years' tutorship, Mr. Shurtleff was
appointed a professor of Divinity in the college. It was a part of his
duty to preach to the students and the people of the village. The
church was at that time Presbyterian. The predecessor of Professor
Shurtleff--Professor Sylvanus Ripley--had been the pastor of this
church. Since his death, in 1787, Dr. John Smith, professor of
Languages, previously associate pastor with Professor Ripley, had been
the sole pastor of the church. Dr. Backus, of Conn., Dr. Worcester, of
Salem, and Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, had been appointed at
different times to the vacant professorship, but all had declined, in
consequence, as it was supposed, of the influence of Dr. John
Wheelock, the second president of the college. Professor Shurtleff
accepted the office, expecting that the same causes which had kept it
so long vacant would render it an uncomfortable post. The difficulties
which he feared, he was called to encounter. The president wished him
to become the colleague of Professor Smith in the pastoral office, but
he refused,--agreeing in his decision with the views of the largest
part of the church and of the village. In consequence of this
disagreement, a controversy ensued which lasted several years, and
ended in the law-suit between the college and the State, in 1816-17.
In July, 1805, twenty-two persons, professors of religion, were
constituted 'The Congregational Church at Dartmouth College.' To this
church, and the religious society of which it was a part, Professor
Shurtleff was invited to preach, performing pastoral labors so far as
his other duties would permit. Professor Smith was, meanwhile, the
pastor of the Presbyterian church till the time of his death, in
April, 1809. Professor Shurtleff was ordained as an evangelist, at
Lyme, N. H., in 1810. He continued in this relation until the year
1827.
"The literary labors of his office would have been quite sufficient to
occupy all his time. In addition to these, an amount of work nearly
equal to that of any pastor of a church was imposed on him--fully
equal, perhaps, we shall say, if we consider the character of the
congregation to whom he ministered. He was faithful and assiduous,
both as a preacher and a pastor. But he performed the many duties of
his station with acceptance and success. And he had the satisfaction
of seeing that his efforts were crowned with the special blessing of
God. In 1805 God displayed his saving power among the students and
people of the village. As many as forty persons became Christians
during the revival. But the most extensive and powerful work of grace,
probably, which the church ever enjoyed was that of 1815. The revival
began in the hearts of God's people. Some of the pious students
resolved that they would every day talk with some unconverted person
respecting the interests of his soul. The effect of this soon appeared
in a general religious awakening. In one week forty persons expressed
hope in Christ, and in four weeks as many as one hundred and twenty
persons were supposed to be converted. There were also revivals in
1819, 1821, and 1826,--that of 1821 being the most extensive, and
embracing among the converts a greater number of citizens than of
students. Public religious meetings were less numerous during the
revivals than in most of those of a later period. It was before the
day of protracted meetings. Perhaps there was less reliance then on
means, and more on the Spirit of God. It was not thought necessary
that business should be suspended, and every day converted into a
Sabbath. But such means as the state of feeling seemed to require were
faithfully used. Professor Shurtleff was never happier than when
engaged in conversation with inquirers, or in conducting meetings for
conference and prayer. The informality and freedom of these meetings
made them attractive. They were probably quite as useful as the more
regular ministrations of the pulpit. The speaker can say that he never
visited a more solemn place than the old district school-house--which
stood where the brick school-house now stands--often was, on a Sunday
evening during the progress of a conference meeting. A distinguished
professor of a neighboring college, who was here in 1815, says that
'The evidence of an increasing seriousness among the students at
large, in that revival, was first shown, so far as I can recollect, by
the more crowded attendance at these meetings.' Not that the more
formal services of the Sabbath were not also impressive and
profitable. The same gentleman says of the preaching of Professor
Shurtleff at this time: 'The general impression made on me by several
of his sermons I remember to the present day. I liked to hear him
preach, even before I took any especial interest in religion as a
personal concern. His sermon on the text, "The harvest is past, the
summer is ended," etc., produced a deep effect at the time of its
delivery which was not soon forgotten. I remember the stillness and
solemnity of the audience. This sermon must have been delivered some
little time before the revival.' The same gentleman further states,
that 'During the whole of this revival, and the gathering in of the
fruits of it into the church, Professor Shurtleff was the leading
instrument of the work, so far as human agency was concerned. He went
into it with his whole heart. I have seen him and his excellent wife
almost overpowered with joy when told of a new case of conversion
among the students. He did a great deal--all that one man could do, as
it seemed to me--to promote the good work by his own personal
efforts.' It is in the power of the speaker to give similar testimony
respecting the revival of 1821.
"When Professor Shurtleff entered upon the duties of his
professorship, and for many years afterward, he met with much
opposition. But his position was constantly growing stronger, both as
it respects the sympathy of his Christian brethren and the clergy, and
his popularity as an instructor. I have not been able to learn that
there was a whisper of discontent with his instructions during the
whole of the period from 1804 to 1827. The testimony of one of the
best students of the Class of 1816 is, that 'As an instructor,
particularly in Moral Philosophy, he was much thought of; and we were
careful never to miss one of his recitations on this subject. His way
of putting questions, and answering such as were proposed to himself,
showed great judgment and shrewdness.' Quite a number of persons in
the classes for seven or eight years following the time here referred
to, were pre-eminent as scholars and as men. May not the fact be partly
accounted for by the impulse and guidance of the mind of this
instructor? He constituted a large portion of the faculty from 1815 to
1819, there being at that time only two professors,--Professor Adams
and Professor Shurtleff. The graduates of the college who had been his
pupils were never backward in acknowledging their obligations to him.
"In 1810, Professor Shurtleff was united in marriage with Miss Anna
Pope, only daughter of Rev. Joseph Pope of Spencer, Mass. Of her he
said, 'She was truly an helpmeet--one who did me good and not evil all
the days of her life.' By her vivacity and cheerfulness she was
eminently fitted to comfort him in his hours of suffering and
depression. But it pleased God to take her from him in March, 1826,
after having enjoyed with her, during sixteen years, a degree of
domestic happiness which rarely falls to the lot of man. He also lost
two children, sons, in 1820, after a brief illness. Respecting the
oldest, he had already begun to indulge very pleasing anticipations,
although he was less than five years old at the time of his decease.
Little did the speaker then know, when helping to carry to the grave
the remains of these children, who, if they had survived, would now
have been men of mature age, what hopes he was assisting to bury! But
who knows the future? It was better they should die, than that they
should live to dishonor him and themselves. The husband and father
mourned incessantly, though not without resignation, for these
bereavements, till the time of his own death.
"In 1825, Professor Shurtleff was in very feeble health, from the
spring till Commencement. The Trustees adjourned at that time to
reassemble in November, supposing it might be necessary then to
appoint another professor of Divinity. But by the blessing of God on
medical advice and careful nursing, he was able to resume instruction
before the meeting of the Trustees.
"In January, 1827, Professor Shurtleff was transferred from the
professorship of Divinity to one newly established, of Moral
Philosophy and Political Economy, which he filled till the year 1838,
when, by his own resignation, his active labors in the college ceased.
It was understood, when this appointment was made, that Professor
Shurtleff should instruct in all the Senior classes, and should also
hear the recitations of other classes in particular branches. During
the last half of this period, he preached in vacant neighboring
parishes. No particular account of the literary labors of these years
can be required. Any one of them may be regarded as a fair sample of
the rest. A member of the class of 1828 can testify that that class
greatly enjoyed his instructions. We never heard the summons to the
recitation-room without pleasure. We were always interested and
excited, always profited. The questions were put by the professor in
the plainest Saxon. They were well adapted to develop the knowledge or
the ignorance of the student, as the case might be, but not to give
him undue assistance. If there was anything in the text-book which was
obscure, the questions made it plain. A clearly wrong opinion advanced
by an author was briefly, yet thoroughly, exposed. His own opinions
were lucidly stated and sustained, and for the time being, at least,
we seldom saw reason to differ from him. The recitation was enlivened
with anecdote, illustration, and wit, and never dragged heavily. If
our objections were sometimes curtly silenced, it was so effectually
and handsomely done that we bore it with perfect good-nature. He ever
lent a willing ear to our real difficulties, and assisted in their
removal. Together with unusual freedom in the mode of conducting the
recitations, there was good order and earnest attention to the subject
in hand. He knew how to control us, while he had with us all the
sympathy of a young man and an equal. I think it was the opinion of
the class that Professor Shurtleff, in his ripe manhood, had few
equals as an instructor.
"At the time of his retirement, in 1838, Dr. Shurtleff had been in the
service of the college thirty-eight years. After what manner he has
lived among us since that time, most of this audience know. He has not
been noticeably active in the affairs of the village, but when you
have met him in private intercourse, you have known that he retained
the fine social qualities--the love of story-telling, and the keen,
yet harmless wit--for which he was always remarkable. Those whose
memory goes back thirty years, must have noticed, I think, that he
became more uniformly serene and cheerful in the latter part of his
life. The old graduates of the college who revisited the place know
how cordially he received them, and with what hearty zest he recalled
with them the scenes of their college days. He continued to be deeply
interested in the prosperity of the college, and he was the means of
eliciting in its behalf the interest and the benevolence of his
friends. He continued the habit, commenced at an early period, of
assisting students who were in needy circumstances. These were
objects of benevolence toward which he was naturally drawn. In his
feelings he never grew old, but carried forward the vivacity of youth
into old age; and always enjoyed the society of the young. He loved to
have young men about him; and he has thus, by his unobtrusive
charities and counsels, and his interesting and instructive
conversation, been a benefactor to a large number of students. The
spiritual welfare of the college was near his heart. He had passed
through many revivals of religion, and he longed for the return of
such seasons. He devoutly observed the days set apart for prayer for
colleges, and, as you remember, often urged the students, assembled on
those occasions, to give their hearts to God.
"When he left his post as an instructor he was sixty-five years old.
After this he had more than twenty-two years of leisure, during which
he retained, in a remarkable degree, the vigor of his intellectual
powers. But he had good and sufficient reasons, as he judged, for his
resignation; and no new and suitable field of labor presenting itself
to a man who wanted but a few years of threescore and ten, he could
enjoy the offered leisure with a good conscience, occupying it with
such pursuits as his taste suggested. Even at the time when his labors
were the most multiplied, and the church and the college were
successively engaged in bitter controversy, he had but little to do
with administrative and practical matters. Even then a life of
reflection appeared to be more attractive than a life of action. And
when his public duties were ended, he naturally chose such a life. He
was still intellectually active. He could not let his faculties sink
into sluggish repose if he would. His temperament would not suffer it.
If he was not a hard student, he was, what he had always been, a
thinking man to the last."
In a published notice of Professor Shurtleff, by Professor (now
President) Brown, we find the following language:
"The life of Dr. Shurtleff extended over the largest and most
important part of that of the institution itself. For nearly twenty
years he was college preacher, and at the same time pastor of the
church on Hanover Plain,--during which period more than two hundred
persons connected themselves with the church, a large proportion of
them by original profession. In the contest of the college with the
State, he and the late venerable Professor Adams, with the president,
constituted the permanent Faculty for instruction and government. Upon
the issues then presented he exerted a full measure of influence,
though it was comparatively quiet and private.
"As a professor, Dr. Shurtleff had some remarkable qualities. He
possessed a mind of extraordinary subtleness and acuteness, ever
alert, active and ingenious. Whatever he saw, he saw distinctly, and
was able, with equal clearness, to express to another. If a student
were really perplexed, he knew how to relieve him by a pertinent
example or illustration, but it was generally done by a question or a
suggestion which demanded the activity of the student's own mind, and
disciplined while it, helped him. If a pupil, on the other hand, were
captious, or conceited, he was apt to find himself, before he
suspected it, inextricably entangled in a web of contradictions, where
he was sometimes left till he came to a sense of his weakness, or till
he was dismissed with the benign declaration that 'he might sit.'
"Dr. Shurtleff's wit was sharp and pungent, and on any occasion which
involved the exercise of it he was quite equal to his part. He
sometimes engaged in controversy, and versed as he was in all logical
art, those who encountered him once were seldom anxious to provoke a
second contest. His opinions, both religious and philosophical, were
early settled and firmly held. He was in nothing given to change; his
friends were generally the friends of his life, and those who were
familiar with his habits of thought could easily tell where, upon any
given question, he would probably be found.
"His interest in young men was a noticeable trait in Dr. Shurtleff's
character, while preacher to the college; the effect of his private
conversations and friendly advice was almost equal to that of his
public ministrations. His quiet study was often the scene of meetings
for prayer or religious conversation from which were carried away
influences for good, never to be forgotten, and for which many were
grateful to their dying day.
"The efforts of deserving young men to obtain a liberal education
always excited his sympathy, and there has seldom been a time for many
years when some such one has not been a member of his own family,
aided and encouraged by his kindness. The number thus assisted no one
can now tell, nor probably could he himself. It was greater than most
persons would think possible.
"The last twenty years of his life Dr. Shurtleff spent in dignified
retirement, in the enjoyment of a competency, and in full exercise of
his faculties. He especially enjoyed the visits of former pupils, no
one of whom seemed to be lost from his retentive memory, and the
annual commencements were always exhilarating reunions to him. His
conversation, at such times especially, abounded in anecdote and
reminiscences of earlier days, and his cheerfulness survived to the
end. He has seldom, of late years, taken part in any public service,
the last time he did so being at the meeting of the alumni of
Dartmouth in 1859, to initiate measures for properly noticing the
death of Mr. Choate."
A volume would be required to set forth adequately the value of the
public services of this distinguished educator, who acted a most
important part in strengthening the foundations and adorning the
superstructure of a leading literary institution. Professor Shurtleff
died at Hanover, February 4, 1861.