xt7n5t3fz85b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7n5t3fz85b/data/mets.xml Caldwell, Charles, 1772-1853. 1828  books b92-53-27062004 English Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, : Boston : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Holley, Horace, 1781-1827. Discourse on the genius and character of the Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D.  : late president of Transylvania University / Charles Caldwell ; with an appendix, containing copious notes biographical and illustrative. text Discourse on the genius and character of the Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D.  : late president of Transylvania University / Charles Caldwell ; with an appendix, containing copious notes biographical and illustrative. 1828 2002 true xt7n5t3fz85b section xt7n5t3fz85b 

























































Engraved by IKc2h-r.fromtiePGr -it bl St-art.



aST  I(w      XttSa     1t;L)

 







A



       DISCOURSE


            ON THE


GENIUS AND CHARACTER

             OF THE



REV. HORACE HOLLEY, LL. D.


       LATE PRESIDENT OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY,

                       BY

         CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.

  PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF MEDICINE AND CLINICAL
            PRACTICE IN SAID UNIVERSITY;

                      wITn

              Ai AP1PEND.lX-,

                   ',COEtA1I'f sf



                3EPIQT1JS GAItS

         BIOGRAPHICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE.








                   BOSTON:

       HILLIARD, GRAY, LITTLE, AND WILKINS.
SOLD BY COTTONS AND BARNARD, AND 0. C. GREENLEAF, BOSTON;
CAREY, LEA, AND CAREY, TOWAR AND HOGAN, AND J. GRIGG,
PHILADELPHIA; E. H. COALE, BALTIMORE, AND 3. B. FLINT, CIN-
CINNATI.



1828.

 







































































        EXAMI NER PRESS.
Hiram Tupper, Printer-Bromfield Lane.


 

















                   ADVERTISEMENT.





  IT is due to the medical pupils of Transylvania University to state,
that, from a knowledge of the splendid powers and manifold and great
excellencies of the late President of that institution, they were deeply
sensible of the loss which literature, science, and society had sustained
in his premature death.
  Unanimously solicitous to make those sentiments publicly and re-
spectfully known, it was at their request that the following Discourse
was prepared and delivered.
  It is further due because it is highly honorable to them, to state,
that, although the Discourse, when delivered, was theirs, and they had
a right to call for the publication of it in pamphlet form, they generously
waived that right, that the work might assume a shape and character
more worthy of the memory of the distinguished subject of it, and be
made, if possible, to yield a profit, for the benefit of his accomplished
widow, and orphan son.
  To the liberal sentiments and manly conduct of the class, on the
occasion, the following correspondence fully testifies.

                          Transylvania University, Sept. 4th, 1827.
SIR,
   The Medical Class, through the undersigned, a committee appoint-
ed for that purpose, beg leave to tender to you their respects, and,
being desirous of paying a suitable tribute to the Rev. Horace Holley,
LL. D., late President of this institution, request the favor of you, to

 






ADVERTISEMENT.



prepare and deliver to them and to the public, in the form of an
introductory lecture, a biographical memoir, or eulogy, as you may
yourself deem most proper, in commemoration of that distinguished
individual.
             Most respectfully,
                    Your obedient servants,
                                             JOHN WARREN,
                                             LEANDER HUGHES,
                                             SYDNEY SMITH,
                                             VIRGIL BOBO.
   PROFESSOR CALDWELL.


                    Transylvania University, Medical Department.
GENTLEMEN,
    With an awakened sensibility corresponding to the occasion, and
those sentiments of respect, which I uniformly cherish towards the
pupils of this department, I have received, through your polite and
obliging note, the request of the Medical Class to prepare and deliver,
in the form of an introductory address, 'a biographical sketch, or
eulogy,' commemorative of Dr Holley, late President of this university.
  Permit me to ask the favor of you to inform the class, that I duly
estimate the compliment implied in the confidence thus reposed in
me; and that, with such materials as I now possess, or may be able
to obtain, and such ability as I can bring to the subject, it will be
peculiarly gratifying to me to comply with their request.
  Accept, gentlemen, I entreat you, for yourselves individually, an
assurance of my sincere and affectionate regard.
                                             CHi. CALDWELL.
  September 4th, 1827.

                     Transylvania University, Alovember 7th, 1827.
PROFESSOR CALDWELL-SIR,
      The Medical Class, through their committee, the undersigned,
beg leave to express their high approbation of your very able and elo-



iV

 






                        ADVERTISEMENT.                       v

quent introductory address, commemorative of Dr Holley, and solicit
a copy of it for publication.  Yours respectfully,
            SYDNEY SMITH,                       THos. HARRIS,
            JOHN WARREN,                        LEANDER HUGHES,
            STEPHEN W. BATES,                   VIRGIL BOBo,
                                                      Committee.

                Transylvania University, Medical Department,
 GENTLEMEN,                                  November 7th, 1827.
    In acknowledging the politeness of your note, of this morning, per-
mit me to ask the favor of you to make known to the Medical Class the
lively sensibility with which I have received, through their committee,
the expression of their approbation of my discourse on the genius and
character of the late Dr Holley, and to inform them that a copy of it
is at their disposal.
  Accept, I entreat you, for yourselves, an assurance of my high and
affectionate regard.                            CH. CALDWELL.

                                  Lexington, 14th February, 1828.
PROFESSOR CALDWELL,
    The Medical Class, at a meeting held this morning, have unani-
mously appointed us a committee, to wait upon you, and to assure you
that the contemplated change in the form of publication of your late
highly interesting and able address on the genius and character, of
the lamented Dr Holley, meets with our most full and cordial ap-
probation.
  Although it might have been gratifying to most of us, that it should
have been published at an earlier period, still the difficulties in the
procurement of the requisite materials, together with those far more
elevated and benevolent feelings, by which you have been actuated,
the alleviation in some degree of the situation of the interesting, and
highly gifted object of the affections of him, whose character it is in-
tended to commemorate, constitute a sufficient and satisfactory apo-
logy for the delay on your part, and cannot, we believe, fail to receive
the entire approbation of all who cherish themselves, or venerate in
others, feelings of virtue and benevolence.

 






ADVERTISEMENT.



   Permit us, then, in behalf of the Class by whom we have been ap-
pointed, and of ourselves individually, to express to you the great
satisfaction we have experienced at the change which has been ef-
fected, and to assure you that the feeling which prompted it, will ever
be held by us in sacred remembrance.
  Accept, dear sir, from the Class, and each of us, a sincere expres-
sion of the most profound sentiments of friendship and esteem.
                                               WM. M. GwIN,
                                               D. H. MASON,
  PROFESSOR CALDWELL.                          A. W. SCALES.

                                             February 4th, 1828.
GENTLEME1IN,
    The sentiments of the Medical Class, which you have been deputed
to represent, as communicated to me in your very excellent and ac-
ceptable note of this evening, touching the contemplated mode of
publishing my Discourse on the Genius and Character of the late Dr
Holley, are precisely such as I confidently anticipated from a body of
intelligent, high-minded, and honorable young men. They are such
as are infinitely creditable to them, and, as long as the power of
recollection shall be mine, will not cease to be remembered by me,
with mingled emotions of gratitude and esteem. Nor have they failed
to make an impression, which will be as lasting as it is vivid, on the
mind of the very amiable and distinguished lady, whom they most
immediately concern, in whose destinies we concur in feeling so lively
an interest, and to whom I have had the honor of making them known.
  Let me entreat you to be the organ to communicate to the Class
these sentiments, and to assure them of the sincerity with which I
reciprocate their expressions of friendship.
  Accept, for yourselves individually, my cordial thanks for the very
handsome and complimentary style in which you have been pleased to
address me, with an assurance of the sentiments of high regard, with
which I have the honor to be, gentlemen,
    Your most faithful friend and obedient servant,
                                               CH. CALDWELL.



Wi

 






                        ADVERTISEMENT.                          Vii

                                    Lerington, February 18, 1828.
DEAR SIR,
    I have read with lively interest the communication of the Medical
Class which you were so kind as to send me. Such an expression of
respect, so spontaneously rendered, to one whom they had so little
opportunity to know, and founded on a claim so sacred and delicate, is
alike honorable to them and flattering to me. It is not only a chival-
rous manifestation of the elevation of feeling which belongs to gentle-
men, but it carries to my heart a new conviction of the benevolence of
the human character. The misfortunes, which pressed so heavily upon
me during the past year, have furnished ample evidence of that
benevolence. Thrown upon the wide ocean, helpless, unprotected,
sinking under complicated calamities, with nothing of life left but a
sensibility to suffering, had it not been for the manifold displays of
that disinterestedness, I, too, had found a grave. To your sex, under
Heaven, the praise is due; and it is grateful to the pride of my nature,
as it is soothing to my self-love, to add another proof to my fruitful
experience.
  I will thank you, Sir, to comumnicate to the Class the grateful sense
I entertain of their magnanimous conduct. Perhaps, too, I owe them
an apology for interfering with their rights-they having a prior claim
to your Discourse, which they have so generously waived on my
account. They must find an excuse in the hurry and warmth of my
feelings, as remoter interests usually give way to those which are
nearer and more exclusive. I relied on a principle in our nature, in
which the ingenuousness of their conduct proves I was not mistaken.
They will readily pardon a solicitude, which I, in common with the
family of my late husband, could not but feel, to preserve some memo-
rial of the genius and character of him whom we have lost; some
testimony of his talents and virtues, and of the full, honest, unwearied,
almost heroic exertion of them.  We wished it to be a compre-
hensive, permanent, not a cheap, ephemeral, work-to be in an elegant
form, and, in all respects, worthy of the subject, of the friends, and
of the liberal individuals to whose generous, but voluntary, contribu-
tions, we would wish to owe it. They cannot fail to see, also, in the

 






ADVERTISEMENT.



claims of my son, the son of him who was devoted to the interests of
education, to whom this school owns its obligation, and who was at
last sacrificed to those interests, motives to exertion equally sacred
and imperative.
  As you have generously consented to aid me in presenting to the
world the predominant features of the great light which has gone
out, you will have a corresponding sympathy, equally divested of any
selfish impulse, in expressing to the little world to which your labors
are now directed, the grateful sentiments of her who is left in darkness.
             Yours very sincerely,
                                                   M. A. HOLLEY.
  PROFESSOR CALDWELL.

  The change in the original design of this work, has necessarily led
to the form in which it now appears. Eulogy and biography dif-
fering widely from each other, it was found that the Discourse could
not, by any practicable modification, be made to assume a biographical
character. It was, therefore, deemed expedient to retain it in its
primitive form, and supply its deficiencies by a copious appendix.
  That the appendix is the production not of one, but of several pens,
is owing to the diversities, in pursuit and residence, of him who is the
subject of it. No individual had a sufficient personal knowledge of
those diversities to be qualified to do full justice to them in the recital.
The task was, therefore, divided among several.
  Nor is there reason to apprehend that this division will detract, in
any measure, from the merit of the work. On the contrary, it is hoped
that by further enriching it in matter, and bestowing on it a greater
variety in style, manner, and thought, than it could have otherwise
possessed, it will add to its interest, and render it more acceptable to
an enlightened public.



viii


 









DISCOURSE.



GENTLEMEN OF THE MEDICAL CLASS-
       Afflicting in its nature, melancholy in its
circumstances, and calamitous in its issue, in no
ordinary degree, is the theme on which the
occasion invites me; t.cpdreKse pou._
  Pursuant to a req1est with -which you have
honored me, it ia'hbecptne my duty;Wt sdeak of
what must shortly silepce ,ine, and yours to hear
of that, which, youthfil asJ y'd ate, .ricl in health
and present enjoyment, and gladdened by the
prospect of all that can reward and brighten the
future, is destined, at no distant period, to take
from you the power to listen.
  Is any one prompted to inquire, what is this
fearful silencer of the tongue and deafener of the
ear-this foe to happiness, that wrests from us
our possessions and frustrates our hopes, to which
I have alluded in language so portentous 
  It is Death, the mighty and inexorable sovereign,
to whose sceptre all must submit; who makes
but little distinction between youth and age, and
demands his tribute with equal authority, at the
             1

 




DISCOURSE.



monarch's palace, the chieftain's castle, and the
peasant's cot. Death, who, by a recent visita-
tion, has signally verified the words of the poet,
               ' Death loves a shining mark,'

has thus, by an act fraught with an inordinate
measure of calamity, furnished the theme, of
which I am    :) speak, and you to hear.      And,
although it invites us to a retrospect where pain
and sadness incalculably predominate, it is not
wanting in matter of valuable instruction, nor in
ground of admiration, comfort, and gratitude.
   TV. Yhc'iof :yE-    Ybo.oiQ,;can Occasions similar to
the present, Tha-v ibrftierly attended within these
walls; eoh6,riattd 'o.'e'lers' .nd the purposes of
educafiont it were, superfluous in me to desig-
nate, in paitcAiar;i i818 Mournful occurrence to
which I have reference.   The void which presents
itself, with an aspect so disheartening, in this
circle of worthies and patrons of science, must
announce to you the dispensation, with a force of
expression, and a depth of pathos, which it were
vain to attempt, in words, to rival.
   In  a voice that is signally admonitory and
appalling, and solemnized by the weightiest con-

       Pallida mors equo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas
        Regumque turres.
 f The Chapel of Transylvania University, where introductory lec-
 tures, and other academical addresses are delivered.
 t The Trustees of the University, in the midst of whom Dr Holley
sat and presided, on public occasions.



2

 




I)ISCOURSE.



siderations that pertain to mortality, it proclaims
to you an event, which, from Maine to Louisiana,
and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, has
visited, with no common measure of sorrow, all
who do homage to exalted genius, who are friendly
to the cultivation of science and letters, who
honor magnanimity, active philanthropy, general
benevolence, and manly frankness, and who set
a righteous estimate on such other rare and in-
valuable qualities and accomplishments, as elevate
our nature, and secure to their possessor the high
consideration of the gifted and the cultivated, the
friendship of his associates, the esteem of the
virtuous, and the admiration of all. It announces
to you that Holley,-who lately presided in this
institution with unrivalled lustre, to whose peer-
less eloquence this temple of the Muses has so
often resounded, whose judgment and taste were
standards by which to decide on excellency both
in literature and the arts; whose soul, as if obedient
to an impulse of prophecy, often sprang forward
into future times, and bodied forth the thick
coming glories of his country, with a potency
of reason, and a richness of color, that gave to
them the charm of existing realities; whose hand
of charity was ever open, whose hospitality knew
no limit but that of his means and opportunities
to extend it, who was a finished model of elegance
in manners and refinement in breeding, and whose
manly beauty and graceful deportment were as



g

 




DISCOURSE.



attractive to the eye, as the mellifluent tones of
his voice in conversation were delightful to the
ear-it proclaims to you that a being thus favored
by nature, and accomplished in all that education
can bestow, has descended to the tomb, in the
meridian of manhood, the fruitful prime of literary
life, and the full enjoyment of ripened fame-
torn, at once, from love and friendship and social
felicities, the luxuries of admiration, and the
fascinations of hope.
  True to life as remembrance assures me this
brief outline is, 1 well know that, on an occasion
like the present, your rightful expectations will
not be fulfilled, nor the end at which I aim legiti-
mately attained, by my employing exclusively, as
the means of accomplishing them, abstract decla-
rations and gratuitous assertions. In justifica-
tion, therefore, of the general sentiments already
expressed, and to show, in particular, that no
unmerited praise has been awarded, it is requisite
now that I treat analytically of the genius and
character of the illustrious deceased.
  In attempting this, it would be superfluous,
if not inadmissible, to dwell on his birthplace,
parentage, or early education. These are cir-
cumstances entirely accidental, and belong to the
biographer rather than the eulogist.
  The individual, whose character and genius 1
am considering, was one of those rare personages,
                See Appendix, note A.



4

 




D)ISCOURSE .



who are called into existence at propitious and
distant periods-rari nantes in gurgite vasto-at
once to direct as master spirits, and act the part
of mighty engines, in influencing the destinies of
their cotemporaries and posterity, on an extended,
if not on a catholic scale. To encumber, there-
fore, with the details and particularities of time
and place, a tribute to his memory, which is to
consist in a recital of his own attributes, thoughts,
and benefactions to his race, would be irrelevant
and unsuitable. Nor would the expedient bestow
on me the shadow of facility in the accomplish-
ment of my purpose.
  In descanting on the strength and majesty of
the full-grown oak, it is needless to descend to
the acorn or the scion from which it sprang, or to
analyze the soil or describe the climate that bore
and cherished it. In emblazoning the resplen-
dence of the mid-day sun, no aid can be derived
from a reference to the early gray, and subse-
quent opening, of the morning twilight.
  Nor can a representation of the deep and si-
lent grandeur of the Mississippi be rendered more
graphical, forcible, or sublime, by interweaving in
it an account of the many thousand bubbling foun-
tains and noisy rills that constitute its sources.
  No more, from the sprightliness, sports, and
pastimes of the boy, the fair intellectual promise
of the stripling, nor even from his empassioned
pursuit and instinctive attainment of science and



5o

 




DISCOURSE.



letters, must we expect to glean much materially
to illustrate the full-blown character of the culti-
vated, ripened, and powerful adult. In the pro-
gress of the human intellect from infancy to age,
few events are more common, than for an abun-
dant manifestation of vernal flowers, to be suc-
ceeded by a deficiency of summer and autumnal
fruit, and the mellowed harvest greatly to surpass
the promise of the blossom.
  Of Dr Holley's descent and early education,
then, I shall only observe, that he was a native of
Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College, in
which, as a pupil, he was highly distinguished. In
confirmation of this, he received, on his gradua-
tion, one of its highest academical honors.
  He was a favorite of Dr Dwight, the most able,
accomplished, and celebrated officer that ever pre-
sided in that institution; and, whether from nature
alone, or in part from the influence of example,
deepened in its effects by familiar intercourse, and
friendly association, resembled him not a little in
the style of his manners, and the character of his
intellect.  But it is due alike to truth and to
himself to observe, that, in the graceful ease and
elegant polish of the former, and the vigor, com-
pass, and splendor of the latter, he surpassed, in

 It will be understood that the allusion here is to native endow-
ment, not to acquired knowledge. In the latter, from greater age
and experience, and more laborious and uninterrupted application to
study, Dr Dwight was, perhaps, the superior.



6

 



DISCOURSE.



no ordinary degree, his highly distinguished pre-
ceptor and friend.
  Having brought to a close his collegial pursuits,
he commenced, in New York, the study of the
law, but exchanged it, in a short time, for that of
divinity, and entered on his career as a minister
of the gospel.
  And here it may be sufficiently pertinent to re-
mark, that, probably thus, by the influence of ac-
cident, was withheld from the American bar an
advocate as powerful, and an ornament as bril-
liant, as ever did honor to it since our existence
as a nation.
  On his first appearance in the capacity of a
preacher, the welcome he received, and the enco-
miums bestowed on him were enthusiastic and
lofty. Youthful as he was, he was hailed as a
model of pulpit eloquence. Nor, by those who
knew him, and listened to him, in his riper years,
can a doubt be entertained, that the decision was
righteous and the applauses just. His unrivalled
promise, at so early a period, was correctly regarded,
by the judicious and discerning, as an indubitable
antepast of the opulence and splendor of his sub-
sequent achievements, as a public speaker.
  But it is not my intention to trace, with minute-
ness, the progress of the deceased, in his profes-
sional career. Nor, brilliant and distinguished as
he was, as a preacher, in the midst of clerical dis-
tinction and brilliancy, in the most lettered por-



7

 



DISCOURSE.



tion of the United States, is it on his strength and
lustre, in that capacity, that I purpose to draw,
for evidence of the lofty and merited renown,
which it was his destiny to attain.
  The elements of that intellectual greatness, high
cultivation, and moral excellency, which rendered
him an object so imposing and attractive, are to
be found in his character as a scholar, a philoso-
pher, an orator, a teacher, and a man.
  To a hasty portraiture of him, in these several
capacities, permit me respectfully to solicit your
attention. As a further preliminary, justice and
truth admonish me to observe, that in each of those
components of his general character, Dr Holley
was not alike accomplished and preeminent.
  As a general scholar, according to the techni-
cal interpretation of the expression, although his
attainments were sufficiently ripe and varied, for
all the purposes to which he was summoned by
his duty to apply them, yet truth does not war-
rant me in denominating them either extensive
or profound.
  In the literature of the Greeks and Romans,
which, in a spirit of servile homage to antiquity,
and in palpable violation of sound judgment and
correct taste, has too long been recommended by
the schools as the purest, if not the only pure ex-
emplar of classical composition, his knowledge
was respectable; but it was not, perhaps, entitled
to a stronger epithet.

 



DISCOURSE.



  Although he read with facility the Greek and
Latin authors, included in the catalogue of
academical classics, in the highest seats of learn-
ing in the United States, he never studied them
with critical accuracy. It follows, therefore, that
he was neither perfectly awakened to all their
beauties, sensitively alive to their native spirit,
susceptible of the enthusiasm which some scholars
experience in reading them, an able and severe
judge of their excellences and defects, nor com-
pletely master of their peculiar philosophy, as
idioms of speech.
  Conscious, perhaps, in youth, of the vigorous
workings of genius within him, and misled by an
excess of that sentiment of self-dependence, which,
in early years, is apt to have too much influence
in the direction of powerful and original intellects,
he probably sacrificed to these feelings some of
the advantages he might otherwise have derived
from a more intimate acquaintance with the litera-
ture of the ancients.
  To scholarship in the ancient Oriental tongues
he made no pretension, being simply able to read
and translate the language of Moses, and nothing
more.
  His knowledge of the French language was
sufficient for all the purposes of science, although
he could not, with either the pen or the tongue,
express himself in it with facility or grace. To
             2



9

 



DISCOURSE.



all other modern languages, he was an entire
stranger.
  But, by his profound and critical knowledge of
his native tongue, he made amends, as ample as
such knowledge can make, for all his deficiencies
in relation to others. As relates to that, he was
one of the most able and accomplished philolo-
gists of the age.
  The true spirit and philosophy of the English
language, one of the richest and noblest that has
ever been spoken by man, whose literature leaves
that of Greece and Rome immeasurably behind it,
and is destined to constitute the classical fountain
of coming centuries, he had studied with an inten-
sity and a degree of success, that have rarely been
equalled by the most distinguished scholars that
Europe has produced. So completely had he
mastered them, and so familiar was his knowledge
of them, that he handled them, even as topics of
conversation, with the most entire perspicuity,
facility, and grace.
  So perfectly simple and intelligible did they
appear, as, under the magic of his powerful analy-
sis, they escaped from his lips, in the choicest
expressions, that listeners seemed to forget that
they constituted an intricate science, and received
them as ordinary subjects, and suitable themes
for ordinary minds-themes to the elucidation of
which they were themselves abundantly competent.
But, no sooner had they made the abortive effort,

 



DISCOURSE.



than they discovered how vain and presumptuous
it was, to attempt to emulate the vigor of his
intellect, and the acuteness of his dialectics.
  Thus the youthful shepherd, fired with ambition,
and confident in his strength, on seeing Hercules
hurling his club to an immense distance, after
having playfully flourished it in air, attempted to
repeat with it the same vibrations, and the same
projection, but found it immovable.
  It will not, I flatter myself, be deemed unworthy
of remark, that, as a means of imparting to our
youth a more thorough acquaintance with their
native tongue, the deceased was anxious for the
introduction of the Saxon language, as an academi-
cal study, into our seats of instruction. Nor can
this improvement in education be too earnestly
recommended. If, as the roots of but a denizen
and limited portion of our language, the Latin and
Greek are made subjects of study, surely, as its
genuine origin and ancestry, the Saxon ought not
to be entirely neglected.
  It may not be unimportant or without interest,
to observe, that, on this topic, the sentiments of
the 'Father of the University of Virginia' were
the same. Hence the resolution of that illustrious
sage, who had been accumulating wisdom for four
fifths of a century, and whose equal Greece, in
the days of her glory, never produced, to incor-
porate in the discipline of that institution the study
of our ancestral tongue.



11

 




DISCOURSE.



  Constitutionally enamoured of high intellectual
excitement, our departed President never declined,
in his career of inquiry, to combat with obstacles;
but, in the true spirit of chivalry, rather sought
them for their own sake, and selected them
according to the difficulties they presented, and
the resistance they were consequently calculated
to offer. Thus, in the aspiring intrepidity of his
efforts, did he verify, to the letter, the declaration
of the knight,

           'Or if a path be dangerous known,
           That danger's self is lure alone.'

  But, although hie felt no pride in a victory that
was easily achieved, he always prepared himself
thoroughly for the conflict.
  Influenced by these sentiments, in his capacity as
a scholar, his chosen delight was in philosophical
grammar.
  Of this selection the reason is obvious, and
testifies to the resolute and elevated character of
the deceased. The subject is, in itself, so subtle
and refined, and presents to the student such a
variety of pure abstractions, delightful analogies,
and curious relations, recognised alone by the
profound philosopher, that, for an intellect like
his, it had a charm which none but such an intel-
lect could feel, and no language less graphical and
expressive than his own, could adequately describe.
Correctly may it be added, that to none but such



12

 



DISCOURSE.



an intellect has the subject an affinity sufficiently
powerful to bestow on it a charm so attractive
and absorbing.
  In that branch of scholarship he had perhaps
no rival in his native country, and no superior, as
is confidently believed, in any country on earth.
If he did not stand alone in it, he certainly occu-
pied, in the foremost rank, a station equal to the
most conspicuous.
  In mere technical grammar, embracing the
spelling and etymology of words, their collocation
in sentences, their accent and quantity, and their
general relations to each other, he had no marked
superiority over many other scholars.  These
were matters too limited, light, and mechanical,
to awaken his ambition and engross his attention.
He was content, therefore. with that competency
of knowledge in them, which prepared him suffi-
ciently for the usual purposes of literature and
instruction. In the undeviating correctness, how-
ever, of his pronunciation of his native tongue,
which was so essential to the chastity and grace
of his elocution, he was above competition. In
this he was aided no less by his exquisite powers
of enunciation, and his acute and delicate per-
cipiency of sound, than by his perfect knowledge
of the principles of the subject.
  But much more enthusiastic and engrossing
were his feelings, in reference to language in
                See Appendix, note B.



13

 




DISCOURSE.



its highest capacity-its various relations to the
human intellect, as a mighty instrument of human
power, and its affinity to the entire range of
creation cognizable to man, as at once a source,
a subject, and a medium of knowledge.
   In the science of language thus considered, he
recognised an object worthy, in all respects, of
the aspirations of his ambition, and the grasp of
his faculties; because it presented itself on a scale
of grandeur commensurate with his own expanded
intellect, and was accompanied by difficulties, and
entangled by intricacies, with which he delighted
to grapple, and which none but masterly and dis-
ciplined powers like his could resolve and subdue.
  For his profound and extensive attainments in
this branch of science, as well- as for t