him give many instances of this. But, these weaknesses notwithstanding, he deserves to be remembered with honour." 1 What a lesson on the use and abuse of the gifts of nature is taught by the different fortunes of these two brothers, and the different place in the records of fame which posterity has assigned them! According to Dr. Eliot, Mr. Nathan Prince was "a candidate for the professor's chair"; but his juniors, Mr. Greenwood and Mr. Winthrop, were successively preferred to him, and this, notwithstanding his eminence in learning, and the claims which his relation to the College gave him at the time when each of them was appointed. His character, indeed, presented great obstacles to his advancement. Among its most prominent traits were imprudence, eccentricity, violence of temper, and infirmity of moral purpose. There are occasional indications of some of these qualities in his pamphlet, which, however, though far from being always convincing, is a very ingenious and able performance. I Chauncy's Sketch of Eminent Men in New England, p. 164. CHAPTER XXI. Or the prosperous state of the College during President Holyoke's administration there is abundant testimony. In the year 1738, Mr. James Townsend bequeathed to the College £500 O. T. [old tenor], the income to be paid to the Hollis Professor of Divinity. The Honorable Thomas Hutchinson, an eminent merchant of Boston, left it, in the year following, a legacy of £300, of which the same Professor was to have the benefit for fifteen years; and then it was "to be disposed of by the Corporation, with the consent of the Overseers." Mr. Hutchinson was a member of his Majesty's Council from 1714 to 1739, the year of his death. He was not a graduate of the College. He is "allowed to merit the pious testimony of his son," Governor Hutchinson, who thus spoke of him: "I wish that many of his posterity may so justly deserve the character of true friends to their country. Regardless of the frowns of a governour, or the threats of the people, he spoke and voted according to his judgment, attaching himself to no party any further than he found their measures tend to the publick interest." 1 1 Hutchinson's Hist. of Mass., Vol. II. p. 391, note. Eliot's Biogr. Dict., Art. Hutchinson, p. 271. For the benefit of the Professor of Divinity, also, Daniel Henchman, Esq. presented, in 1742, one hundred ounces of silver, and again in 1747, £250, O. T., the income of both which sums were to be paid to that officer. This same gentleman, in 1758, made a further donation of £66. 13s. 4d., lawful money, the income to be given to the Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. To both the Professors just mentioned, Lieutenant Governor Dummer "bequeathed the income of £100 sterling, in equal proportions." He also left £50 sterling to be laid out in books for the Library. Governor Dummer was not a graduate of the College. His public life must be familiar to all who are acquainted with the history of Massachusetts. Dummer Academy at Newbury was founded by him. He died at Boston October 10th, 1761, at the age of eighty-two years, having sustained the uniform character of a wise, upright, pious, and benevolent man. In the year 1740, Col. Goffe manifested his good will to the College by bequeathing to it the sum of £200; but his estate proving insolvent, this legacy was not paid. For more than a century from its foundation the College was without a Chapel. Religious services, inaugurations, and other public exercises (with the exception of those on Commencement day, when, as now, the Meeting-house was used,) were generally, perhaps always, performed either in the Commons Hall, or in the Library. In the year 1744 this deficiency was supplied by the munificence of Madam Holden and her daughters, of London. They remitted £400 sterling for this purpose, and a small but hand some brick building was erected, which is now standing; and which, though as a chapel it has long since been superseded by rooms in other buildings, is still advantageously used for other purposes, being appropriated to the medical and chemical departments. This benefaction is said, and no doubt truly, to have been obtained "through the influence of Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., afterwards governor; but it may be considered as one of the fruits of Dr. Colman's visit to England, nearly half a century before. The vessel he sailed in was taken by a French privateer after a smart engagement, during the whole of which he was on the quarter-deck and assisting at the guns. He was treated roughly by the captors, stripped of all his clothes, and carried prisoner to France. At length after a variety of adventures he arrived at London, in a very destitute condition; and was hospitably entertained by Madam Parkhurst, whom "God made a kind and loving mother to him, and a generous friend afterwards to some of his friends from New-England, in their straits." 1 This led to "a most happy correspondence" with her excellent son, the Honorable Samuel Holden, a gentleman who, possessing great wealth, and being distinguished also for his abilities, integrity, diligence, and prudence, was placed at the head of the Bank of England, became a member of Parliament, and was also at the head of the Dissenters in that country. He was not, however, dazzled by the splendors of worldly glory nor absorbed by worldly cares; but, in the midst of prosperity and business, his thoughts were habitually recurring to something higher and better. In one of his letters to 1 Turell's Life of Colman, p. 18. 1 Dr. Colman he expressed himself in the following terms: "Shall animal nature thirst after suitable refreshments, and shall not rational nature pant after its spiritual perfection? All I have to desire in life, unworthy of any thing at all, is to fill up the remainder in thankfulness to GOD, usefulness to man, and a growing meetness for the Heavenly world." Such was the uniform tenor of his letters; nor was it empty profession; for he had "a heart to use both his estate and his great interest at Court for the doing good in his generation." The multiplicity of his affairs prevented him from accepting the office of agent for Massachusetts, which was offered him by the General Court; but, at the instance of Dr. Colman, he rendered eminent services to the Province, and at different times forwarded to that gentleman, books and bills of exchange, amounting to no less than £4847 New-. England currency, "to be distributed by him in works of piety and charity." 2 After his death his excellent widow and daughters honored his memory by following his example. Their remittances for the same benevolent purposes amounted to no less than £5585 New-England currency; so that Massachusetts received from that family benefactions to the amount of £10,432. Of this sum a small part, indeed, came to Harvard College; enough, however, to render the name of Holden dear to its friends; and it should not be forgotten that the whole of it is to be referred, directly or indirectly, to the good offices of a man, whom the College has uncommon reason to hold in grateful remembrance. 1 Colman's Sermon on the Death of S. Holden, Esq. |