and probably other projects of his ever active mind. Captain Smith wrote with a view to furnish information rather than to gain the reputation of an author or scholar. He confines himself to the subject matter in hand, seldom digressing into comment or reflection. His descriptions are animated, and his style clear and simple. The following verses, the only ones, with the exception of a few scattered lines in his History of Virginia, which can be attributed to his pen, show that he has some claim to the title of a poet. They possess a rude, simple melody, not inharmonious with their subject. THE SEA MARK. Aloof, aloof. and come no near, Which, if my ruin had not been, I only lie upon this shelf Which on the same may fall, Neglect of that was caused of this The seas were calm, the wind was fair, All weathers, be they foul or fair. The winter's cold, the summer's heat Upon my bruised sides, that rue, Because too true, That no relief can ever come: But why should I despair Being promised so fair, That there shall be a day of Doom. The commendatory verses which, following the publishing fashion of the day, accompany several of Smith's productions, show that he was held in high favor by some of the leading literary men of his day, the names of Wither and Brathwayte, two poets whose productions are still read with pleasure, being found among those of the contributors. The same feelings of respect excited some of Smith's followers to sing the praises of their great leader. His "true friend and soldier, Ed. Robinson" thus addresses "his worthy Captaine, the author "— Thou that to passe the world's foure parts dost deeme No more, than t'were to goe to bed, or drinke; and Thos. Carlton, who signs himself "your true friend, sometimes your soldier," gives this honorable testimony: I never knew a Warryer yet, but thee A FEW Virginia historical publications contemporary with Smith, written by scholars resident in or identified with the country, may be here mentioned: THOMAS HARRIOT, the author of "A Brief and true Report of the new found land of Virginia ;" *The Life of Captain John Smith has been written by Mr. Simms, with a genial appreciation of his hero. and better known as an algebraist, was born at Oxford in 1560, where he was educated, being graduated in 1579. He was recommended in consequence of his mathematical acquirements to Sir Walter Raleigh as a teacher in that science. He received him into his family and in 1585 sent him with the company under Sir Richard Granville to Virginia, where he remained a twelvemonth. In 1588 he obtained through the introduction of Raleigh a pension from Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, of £120 per annum. He passed many years in Sion College, where he died in 1621. He was the inventor of the improved method of algebraic calculation adopted by Descartes six years after, who passed off the discovery as his own. Harriot's claim was established by Dr. Wallis in his History of Algebra. His tract, A brief and true account of the new found land of Virginia, &c., was published in 1590. A Latin edition appeared in the collection of De Bry in the same year, and afterwards in English in Hakluyt. ALEXANDER WHITAKER, a son of the Rev. Dr. William Whitaker, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, came to Virginia while a young man, and was one of the settlers of the town of Henrico on James river, in 1611. During the same year a church was built and the foundations of another of brick laid, while the minister "impaled a fine parsonage, with a hundred acres of land, calling it Rock Hall." His letters, in which he expresses his surprise that more of the English clergy do not engage in missionary labors similar to his own, testify to his earnestness in the cause.* He baptized Pocahontas, and also married her to Mr. Rolfe. In 1613 he published a work entitled Good Newes from Virginia, Sent to the council and company of Virginia resident in England. The "Epistle Dedicatorie" by W. Crashawe, contains this well merited eulogium of the author. I hereby let all men know that a scholar, a graduate, a preacher, well born and friended in England; not in debt nor disgrace, but competently provided for, and liked and beloved where he lived; not in want, but (for a scholar, and as these days be) rich in possession, and more in possibility; of himself, without any persuasion (but God's and his own heart) did voluntarily leave his warm nest; and to the wonder of his kindred and amazement of those who knew him, undertook this hard, but, in my judgment, heroical resolution to go to Virginia, and help to bear the name of God unto the gentiles. A picturesque account of the country was written by WILLIAM STRACHEY, the first Secretary of the Colony, in his two books of Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. It is dedicated to Lord Bacon, and bears date at least as early as 1618. Strachey was three years in the Colony, 1610-12. The motto from the Psalms shows his religious disposition and prescience, "This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord," as the narrative itself does his careful * History of the P. E. Church in Virginia, by the Rev. F. L. Hawks. It has been recently edited from the original MS. in the British Museum, by R. II. Major, and published among the works of the Hakluyt Society. observation of "the cosmographie and commodities of the country, together with the manners and customes of the people." Strachey was one of the party of officers shipwrecked on the Bermudas in 1609. His description of the storm published in Purchas, was maintained by Malone to be the foundation of Shakespeare's Tempest.* HARVARD COLLEGE. On the twenty-eighth day of October, 1636, eight years after the first landing of the Massachusetts Bay colonists, under John Endicot, the General Court at Boston voted four hundred pounds towards a school or college, and the following year appointed its location at Newtown, soon changed to Cambridge (in gratitude to the University of England), under the direction of the leading men of the colony. In 1638, the project was determined by the bequest of John Harvard, an English clergyman of education, who had arrived in the country but the year before, who left to the institution a sum of money, at least equal to and probably two-fold the amount of the original appropriation, and a valuable library of three hundred and twenty volumes, including not only the heavy tomes of theology in vogue in that age, but important works of classical and the then recent English literature, among which Bacon's clear-toned style and the amenities of Horace tempered the rigors of Scotus and Aquinas. Contributions flowed in. The magistrates subscribed liberally; and a noble proof of the temper of the times is witnessed in the number of small gifts and legacies, of pieces of family plate, and in one instance of the bequest of a number of sheep. With such precious stones were the foundations of Harvard laid. The time, place, and manner need no eulogy. They speak for themselves. During its first two years it existed in a kind of embryo as the school of Nathaniel Eaton, who bears an ill character in history for his bad temper and short commons. In 1640 the Rev. Henry Dunster, on his arrival from England, was constituted the first President. He served the college till 1654, when, having acquired and preached doctrines in opposition to infant baptism, he was compelled to resign his office. He had borne manfully with the early difficulties of the position, and received little in the way of gratitude. Through his exThrough his excellent oriental scholarship, he had been intrusted with the improvement of the literal version of the Psalms, known as the Bay Psalm Book. The first printing-press in the colony was set up at Harvard, in the President's house, in 1639. The first publication was the Freeman's Oath, then an almanack, followed by the Bay Psalm Book. Dunster was succeeded by Charles Chauncy, who held the office till his death, which was in 1672. He was a man of learning, having been Professor of Hebrew and Greek in Trinity College, Cambridge, and of general worth, though of wavering doctrinal consistency. He had his share in England of Laud's ecclesiastical interferences, and had recanted his views in opposition to kneeling at the communion-an act of subinission *Major's Introduction to Virginia Britannia, xi. which he always regretted. He was driven to New England, whence he was about returning home to his Puritan friends, who had come into power, when he was arrested by the college appointment. He devoted himself to the affairs of the college, and as he suffered the penury of the position, cast his eye to the "allowed diet" and settled stipend of similar situations in England. His petitions to the "honored governor" show that, notwithstanding the early gifts, the institution was ill provided for. Chauncy was threescore when he was made President; and several interesting anecdotes are preserved of his scholar's old age. He was an early riser-up at four o'clock in winter and summer, preached plain sermons to the students and townspeople, was laborious in duty, manfully holding that the student, like the commander, should fall at his post. He has reputation as a divine and scholar. He published a sermon on the Advantages of Schools, and a Faithful Ministry, in which he inveighed against the practice of wearing long hair-the Election Sermon of 1656, a volume of twenty-six sermons, on Justification, and the "Antisynodalia," written against the proceedings of the Synod held in Boston in 1662. His manuscripts passed into the hands of his step-daughter, a widow, who, marrying a Northampton deacon-a pie-man-these devout writings were taken to line his pastry-a fate which the poet Herrick not long before had deprecated in hurrying effusions of a very different character into print, in his "Lines to his Book:" Lest rapt from hence, I see thee lie The fate of Warburton's collection of old plays, by which English literature has lost so much, it will be recollected, was similar. Dryden, in his MacFlecknoe, celebrates the "martyrs of pies." Chauncy left six sons, who all graduated at Harvard, and became preachers. Dr. Chauncy of Boston, in the days of the Revolution, was one of his descendants.* The next President was himself a graduate of Harvard, of the class of 1650-Leonard Hoar. He had reversed the usual process of the clergy of the country-having gone to England and been settled as a preacher in Sussex. The college was thinly attended, and badly supported at the time of his inauguration. He had fallen upon evil days. With little profit and much anxiety, discipline was badly supported, and he retired from the management in less than three years, in 1675. The first collection of books was greatly enlarged by the bequest of the library of Theophilus Gale, who died in 1677, "a philologist, a philosopher, and a theologian."† Urian Oakes, of English birth, though a graduate of the college, was then President pro tempore for several years, accepting the full appointment in 1680, which he held till 1681. He died suddenly in office, leaving as memorials of his literature several sermons, including an Election *Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., First Series, x. 179. Allen's Liographical Dictionary. Peirce's History of Harvard, 32. + Quincy's Harvard, i. 185. and an Artillery sermon, "The Unconquerable, Allconquering, and more than Conquering Christian Soldier;" an Eulogy in Latin, and an Elegy in English verse on the Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Charlestown. This was printed in 1677. The verse somewhat halts: The muses and the graces too conspired He breathed love and pursued peace in his day, * * * * * My dearest, inmost, bosom friend is gone! In his youth Oakes published at Cambridge a set of astronomical calculations, with the motto, in allusion to his size Parvum parva decent, sed inest sua gratia parvis. Cotton Mather puns incorrigibly upon his name, and pronounces the students "a rendezvous of happy Druids" under his administration. Mr. Oakes being now, in the quaint language of the same ingenious gentleman, transplanted into the better world, he was succeeded by John Rogers, a graduate of the College of 1649. He was but a short time President-hardly a year, when he was cut off suddenly, the day after commencement, July 2, 1684. Mather celebrates the sweetness of his temper, and "his real piety set off with the accomplishments of a gentleman, as a gem set in gold." He was one of the writers of complimentary verses on the poems of Anne Bradstreet, in recording the emotions inspired by which, he proves his character for courtesy and refinement. To Venus' shrine no altars raised are, Or stately Jove himself is wont to haunt the stews. Nor barking Satyrs breathe, nor dreary clouds Chanting as every humour, age and season fits. * John Wilson was the first pastor of the Church in Boston, whose virtues and talents are recorded by Mather in the third book of the Magnalia. His cleverness at anagrammatizing is there noted by the pen of an admirer. Mather mentions the witty compliment of Nathaniel Ward "that the anagram of JOHN WILSON was, I PRAY COME IN: YOU ARE HEARTILY WELCOME." And fury fell of elements allayes, A mighty name of the old New England dispensation follows in the college annals, Increase Mather, who held the presidency from 1685 to 1701. He had previously supplied the vacancy for a short time on the death of Oakes. He attended to his college duties without vacating his parish or his residence at Boston. The charter troubles intervened, and Mather was sent to England to maintain the rights of the colonists with James II. and William and Mary. While there, he made the acquaintance of Thomas Hollis, who subsequently became the distinguished benefactor of Harvard. He secured from the crown, under the new charter, the possession, to the college, of the grants which it had received. The institution, on his return, flourished under his rule, and received some handsome endowments. In 1699, Lieutenant-Governor William Stoughton erected the hall bearing his name, which lasted till 1780, and was succeeded by a new building, with the same designation, in 1805. Mather retired in 1701, with the broad hint of an order from the General Court, that the presidents of the college should reside at Cambridge. It is considered by President Quincy, in his History of the University, that the influence of the Mathers-Cotton was connected with the college during the absence of his father, though he never became its head-was unfriendly to its prosperity, in seeking to establish a sectarian character. At the outset it was, in a measure, independent. The charters of the college are silent on points of religious faith. Its seal bore simply the motto "Veritas," written in three divisions on as many open books on the shield. This inscription was soon changed to "In Christi Gloriam," and, probably in the time of Mather, to "Christo et Ecclesiæ."* It was a VE BO HAS Original Draft for a College Seal. 1643. *Quincy's History, i. 49. In reference to the disposition of the motto, "Veritas," partly inscribed on the inside and partly on the outside of two open volumes, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop gave this pleasant explanation, in a toast at the celebration in 1836: "The Founders of our University-They have taught us that no one human book contains the whole truth of any subject; and that, in order to get at the real end of any matter, we must be careful to look at both sides." Mather act to inveigle the whole board of the college into a quasi sanction of the witchcraft delusion, in the circular inviting information touching "the existence and agency of the invisible world."* Driven from the old political assumptions by the new charter, the priestly party sought the control of the college, and a struggle ensued between rival theological interests. Increase Mather bound the government of the institution in a close corporation of his own selection, under a charter from the General Court, which was, however, negatived in England. Before this veto arrived, it had conferred the first degree in the college, of Doctor in Divinity, upon President Mather in 1692. The Rev. Samuel Willard was for more than six years, from 1701 to 1707, vice-president of the college, an apparent compromise in the difficulties of the times. He was a graduate of Harvard, had been settled as a minister at Groton, and driven to seek refuge in Boston from the devastations of.King Philip's war. He was a good divine of his day, and a useful head of the college. A story is told of his tact, not without humor. His sonin-law, the Rev. Samuel Neal, preached a sermon for him at his church which was much cavilled at as a wretched affair; when he was requested by the congregation not to admit any more from the same source. He borrowed the sermon, preached it himself, with the advantages of his capital delivery, and the same persons were so delighted with-it that they requested a copy for publication. He was the author of a number of publications, chiefly sermons, and a posthumous work, in 1726, entitled a "Body of Divinity," which is spoken of as the first folio of the kind published in the country. He wrote on Witchcraft, and has the credit of having resisted the popular delusion on that subject. He was twice married, and had twenty children. He died in office, and was succeeded by John Leverett, who held the post till 1724. The latter has the reputation of a practical man, faithful to his office, and a liberalminded Christian. He was a grandson of Governor John Leverett, of Massachusetts. The long array of acts of liberality to the college by the Hollis family dates from this time. The great benefactor of the name was Thomas Hollis, a London merchant, born in 1659, who died in 1731. His attention was early attracted to Harvard, by being appointed trustee to his uncle's will, charged with a bequest to the college. In 1719 he made a first shipment of goods to Boston, the proceeds of which were paid over, and the first interest appropriated to the support of a son of Cotton Mather, then a student. A second considerable donation followed. His directions for the employment of the fund in 1721, constituted the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, to which, in 1727, he added a Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. At this time his pecuniary donations had brought to the college four thousand nine hundred pounds Massachusetts currency. He gave and collected books for the library with valuable counsel, and for *Quincy's History of Harvard University, i. 62. + Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., First Series, viii. 182, quoted by Peirce. Peirce's Hist. of Harvard, p. 74; Eliot's Biog. Dict; Allen's Biog. Dict. warded, from a friend, a set of Hebrew and Greek types for printing. This liberality was the more praiseworthy since Hollis was a Baptist, a sect in no great favor in New England; but he was a man of liberal mind, and selected Harvard for the object of his munificent gifts, as the most independent college of the times. In founding his Divinity Professorship he imposed no test, but required only that Baptists should not be excluded from its privileges. His brothers, John and Nathaniel, were also donors to the college. Thomas Hollis, a son of the last mentioned, became the heir of his uncle, the first benefactor, and liberally continued his bounty. He conferred money, books, and philosophical apparatus. He survived his uncle but a few years, and left a son, the third Thomas Hollis. This was the famous antiquary and virtuoso, with a collector's zeal for the memory of Milton and Algernon Sidney. A rare memorial of his tastes is left in the two illustrated quartos of Memoirs, by Thomas Brand Hollis (who also gave books and a bequest), published in 1780, six years after his death. He sent some of its most valuable literary treasures to the Harvard library, bocks on religious and political liberty, all of solid worth, and sometimes bound in a costly manner, as became his tastes. It was his humor to employ various gilt emblems or devices to indicate the nature of the contents. Thus he put an owl on the back of one volume, to indicate that it was replete with wisdom, while he indicated the folly of another by the owl reversed. by the owl reversed. The goddess of liberty figured frequently. Many of the books contained citations from Milton, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer, and occasional memoranda exhibiting the zeal of a bibliographer.† He collected complete series of pamphlets on controversies, and presented them bound. He also gave money freely in addition. His donations in his lifetime * Quincy's Hist. of Harvard, i. 233. + Several notices of Hollis's books, with copies of his annotations, may be seen in the Monthly Anthology for 1808. In one of his learned volumes he notes, on a loose slip of paper, which has retained its place for nearly ninety years, "T. H. has been particularly industrious in collecting Grammars and Lexicons of the Oriental RooT Languages, to send to Harvard College, in hopes of forming by that means, assisted by the energy of the leaders, always beneficent, a few PRIME Scholars, honors to their country, and lights to mankind." pounds sterling. At this day, eighty years after his bequest of five hundred pounds to the library, half of the permanent income for the purchase of books is derived from that source. A full-length portrait of him, richly painted by Copley, at the instance of the corporation, hangs in the Gallery. When it was requested of him, he replied, in allusion to the works of his favorite English reformers, which he had sent, "the effigies which you desire may be seen at this time in your library, feature by feature." We have taken our engraving from a medallion head in the Hollis Memoirs. He was the friend not only of English but of American liberty, being instrumental in republishing the early political essays of Mayhew, Otis, and John Adams. Leverett was followed in the college presidency by Benjamin Wadsworth, from 1725 to 1737, a moderate, useful man. He published a number of sermons and religious essays. Edward Holyoke succeeded, and was president for nearly thirtytwo years, till 1769. Harvard prospered during his time, though the destruction of the old Harvard Hall by fire, in 1764, was a serious disaster, especially as it involved the loss of the library; but the sympathy excited new acts of friendship. On a winter's night in January some six thousand volumes were burnt in this edifice, including the Oriental library bequeathed by Dr. Lightfoot, and the Greek and Roman classics presented by Berkeley. Among other additions to the college usefulness, the first endowment of special annual lectures was made at this period by the Hon. Paul Dudley, of great reputation on the Bench, who, in 1751, founded, by bequest, the course bearing his name. Four are delivered in succession, one each year, on Natural and Revealed Religion, the Church of Rome, and the Validity of Presbyterian Ordination. The first of these was delivered by President Holyoke, who had a rare disinclination among the New England clergy to appear in print, and his discourse was not published. He lived in the discharge of his office to the age of eighty, in a vigorous old age. IIe was amiable, generous, and unostentatious.* PIETAS ET GRATULATIO. During the Presidency of Holyoke the College gained distinguished honor by the publication, in 1761, of the Pietas et Gratulatio. This was an elegiac and complimentary volume, printed with much elegance in quarto, celebrating the death of George II. in the previous year, and the glorious accession of George III., not forgetting Epithalamia on the nuptials with the Princess Charlotte. A proposal was set up in the college chapel inviting competition on these themes from undergraduates, or those who had taken a degree within seven years, for six guinea prizes to be given for the best Latin oration, Latin poem in hexameters, Latin elegy in hexameters and pentameters, Latin ode, English poem in long verse, and English ode. These conditions were not all preserved in the preparation of the volume. Master Lovell, in its second ode, ascribes the first idea to Governor Bernard, who had then just entered on his office, which is confirmed by a resolution of the college corporation at the beginning of the next year, providing for a presentation copy to his new Majesty, who does not appear to have made any special acknowledgment of it. President Holyoke sent a copy to Thomas Hollis the antiquarian. "An attempt," he says, in his letter, "of several young gentlemen here with us, and educated in this college, to show their pious sorrow on account of the death of our late glorious king, their attachment to his royal house, the joy they have in the accession of his present majesty to the British throne, and in the prospect they have of the happiness of Britain from the Royal Progeny which they hope for from his alliance with the illustrious house of Mechlenburg." The volume thus originated may compare, both in taste and scholarship, with similar effusions of the old world. Though rather a trial of skill than an appeal of sober truthfulness, the necessary panegyric is tempered by the good advice to the new King in the prefatory prose address, ascribed to Hutchinson or Bernard, which, if his Majesty had followed in its spirit, separation from the colonies might have been longer delayed. The inevitable condition of such a work as the Pietas is eulogy; *Edward Augustus Holyoke, the centenarian and celebrated physician, of Salem, Mass., was the son of President Holyoke, by his second marriage. He was born August 13, 1728, and became a graduate of Harvard of 1746. For nearly eighty years he was a practitioner at Salem, dying there in 1829. He was a man of character and probity in his profession, and a remarkable example of the retention of the powers of life. At the age of eighty his desire for knowledge was active as ever. He kept up his familiarity with the classics, and the prestige of his parentage and college life, in liberal studies and acquaintance with curious things, in and out of his profession. He was well versed in scientific studies, and his case may be added to the long list of natural philosophers who have reached extreme age. He retained his faculties to the last. It had always been his habit to record his observations, and various voluminous diaries from his pen are in existence. After he completed his hundredth year, it is stated that "he commenced a manuscript in which he proposed to minute down some of the changes in the manners, dress, dwellings, and employments of the inhabitants of Salem."-Williams's Am. Med. Biog; Knapp's Am. Biog. Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis apud Novanglos. Bostoni-Massachusettensium. Typis J. Green & J. Russell. 1761. 4to. pp. 106. From a manuscript copy of the "Proposal," in the copy of the Pietas et Gratulatio in the library of Harvard College. § September 25, 1762, Hollis's Memoirs, 4 to 101. |