He possessed in a remarkable degree the inestimable habit of industry. He constantly rose at 4 o'clock, winter and summer; and employed all his time in studying, in teaching, in performing acts of devotion, and in discharging the various duties of his office. In the morning he expounded to the students, assembled in the College Hall, a chapter of the Old Testament, which one of them read from the Hebrew, and in the evening, a chapter of the New Testament, from the Greek. On Sunday morning, instead of the exposition, he delivered a sermon to the students about three quarters of an hour long; and once a fortnight preached publicly in the forenoon. His preaching was plain, though learned and animated. The practice, common at that time, of sprinkling sermons with Latin phrases, met his disapprobation; and he cautioned ministers against "shooting over the heads and hearts of their hearers, by handling deep points, or using dark and obscure expressions." It is a remarkable fact that the church in Cambridge, with which he connected himself, considered his residence at that place so great a blessing, that in a year or two after he came there, they kept a whole day of thanksgiving to God for the privilege by which they were thus distinguished.1

His application continued unabated after he had reached the age of fourscore years; he seems to have thought with the learned Bishop Cumberland, himself an octogenarian, that "it was better to wear out than rust out"; and, when his friends advised him to remit his labors, his reply was, "Oportet imperatorem stantem mori," A commander should die at his post. He was,

1 Mather's Magnalia, B. III, p. 136.

indeed, animated with a zeal, like that of the soldier, who pants to die on the field of glory, and while in the very act of fighting for his master. It is related, that "the fellows of the College once leading this venerable old man, to preach a sermon in a winter day, they, out of affection unto him, to discourage him from so difficult an undertaking, told him, Sir, you'll certainly die in the pulpit; but he laying hold on what they said, as if they had offered him the greatest encouragement in the world, pressed the more vigorously through the snow-drift, and said, How glad should I be, if what you say might prove true!”1

At length he took a solemn farewell of his friends in an Oration on Commencement day, 1671; and, full of hope and joy, died on the 17th of February following, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the seventeenth of his Presidentship over Harvard College.

With all the elements, intellectual and moral, which enter into the composition of a great character, he was not exempt from the frailties of human nature, nor from the prejudices of the age in which he lived.

2

His temper was hasty and passionate; but the good man deeply lamented this infirmity, and took great pains to correct it. To the warmth and quickness of his passions may probably be attributed, in no small degree, those unfortunate occurrences of his earlier years, which were the cause of so much sorrow to him during his subsequent life. Like the Apostle Peter, he seems to have been hurried by the excitement of the moment into rash and intemperate declarations, the consequences of which he either had not deliberately weighed, or had not, by the necessary discipline, prepared his mind resolutely to endure; but let it be re

1 Mather's Magnalia, B. III. p. 137. 2 Ibid. pp. 136, 137.

membered, that, like the same great Apostle, he afterwards truly repented of his fault, and, not only bore with patience and fortitude all the evils which befell him, but exhibited that spirit and energy of character, which would have sustained him under the severest trials of martyrdom.

Belonging to the sect denominated Puritans, he was Calvinistic in his views; and, though he does not appear to have been deficient in charity, yet, with respect to manners and customs, he held those rigid opinions which, in giving no quarter to the vanities and frivolities of the world, sometimes run into ludicrous extravagancies. We are not told how far he exacted simplicity in apparel; nor do we find it recorded, that, like his renowned contemporary, the Apostle Eliot, he preached and prayed against the abomination of wigs; but he inveighed from the pulpit with great vehemence against the kindred enormity of long hair. strange," says his great grandson, the famous Dr. Chauncy, "tis strange, men of learning, real good sense, and solid judgement, should be able to expend so much zeal against a trifle, not to say a thing absolutely indifferent in its own nature. But the greatest as well as best men in this country, in that day, magistrates as well as ministers, esteemed the wearing of long hair an enormous vice, and most solemnly testified against it as such."1

"'T is

But after making all the deductions that can be reasonably demanded, enough will still be left to establish his claim to a high rank in the learned and religious world. He was a star of the first magnitude in a brilliant constellation of New-England worthies. With such lustre have their names been transmitted to pos

1 Mass. Hist. Coll. X. pp. 178, 179, First Series.

terity, that the late President Stiles, himself a scholar and divine of no ordinary reputation, ventured to say "I consider him [Mr. Bulkeley] and President Chauncy, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Norton, and Mr. Davenport, as the greatest divines among the first ministers of New England, and equal to the first characters in theology in all Christendom, and in all ages." 1

President Chauncy's publications were,-A Sermon from Amos ii. 11, on the advantages of schools, &c.; the Election Sermon in 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 papers were left to the oldest of his sons then in this country, who preserved them as a valuable treasure; but when the late Dr. Chauncy endeavoured to obtain them, he found that a Northampton deacon, who married the widow of that son, and who supported himself principally by making pastry, had consumed the learned writings of our great scholar in the oven at the bottom of his pies! A fate, from which no inference can be drawn unfavorable to their merit; for even the manuscripts, from which the Complutensian Polyglot was composed, were used in the manufacture of rockets!

The College was enriched during President Chauncy's administration by many acts of munificence. A contribution was made through the colony for the erection of a new building, "the old wooden one being small and decayed." The sum of £2282 5s.1 was obtained,

1 Mass. Hist. Coll. II. p. 260, Second Series.

2 lb. X. p. 179, First Series.

3 Belknap's New Hampshire, I. p. 98, 2d edit. Also Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. III. p. 501.

4 College Records. By mistake the amount has been stated at only £1895 2s. 9d.

"and this contribution, with some other assistance, quickly produced a new College, wearing still the name of the old one, which old one is now so mouldered away, that,

'Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.'”

In consequence of the Indian War then carrying on the new "Harvard Hall was not finished till the year 1677. It was a fair and stately edifice of brick";1 stood not far from the old one, and remained till the year 1764, when it was destroyed by a fire, of which an account will be given in the proper place.

The nature or magnitude of several of the donations render it proper that a particular account should be given of them.

In the years 1654 and 1655 there was a contribution from a number of generous individuals in the Colony, to the amount of £250 for the repair of the College. Of this sum Richard Bellingham, Esq., gave £40, and Mr. John Wilson, sen., forty shillings per annum for ten years, making in all £20; but the largest amount was from Richard Saltonstall, Esq., who gave £104. The same gentleman also, in 1659, being then in England sent over for the use of the College, in money and goods, the sum of £320. This was, probably, the legacy mentioned by Hutchinson as having been given to the College in 1658 by his father Sir Richard Saltonstall. It is not clear that this £320 was not Sir Richard's legacy. It probably was, and might

1 Hubbard's New England, in Mass. Hist. Coll. VI. p. 610, Second Series.