CHAPTER XXI.

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 pr