The History of Dartmouth College Part 25

He was also induced, in 1840, after declining professorships both in St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and in Pennsylvania University, to deliver a course of lectures on Materia Medica at the Medical College of Ohio, but he resigned the chair at the close of the session, and returned again to Cambridge, where he resided to the close of his life. Although in declining health at this time, he did not relinquish professional practice until within a few months of his death, which took place on the 1st of June, 1842.

During his comparatively brief career, Dr. Oliver had become widely known as a medical and general scholar. As a teacher in the various departments of medical science with which he was connected he was also eminently successful. His lectures, always prepared with great care, were written with remarkable clearness and elegance, and were often listened to with attention by many outside the ranks of the profession. "His lectures to the under-graduates of the college," says a contemporary,[45] "would be thought, I am persuaded, still more remarkable than those upon Physiology. They were intended to exhibit the present state of mental philosophy. And the singular clearness with which he discriminated the settled points of absolute knowledge in this comprehensive and yet imperfect science, his happy development of intricate and complicated principles, and the beautiful colors which a true poetic spirit enabled him now and then to throw over the bald peaks and angles of this cold region, ent.i.tle him to a rank among metaphysicians as eminent as he maintained in his appropriate profession."

[45] Eulogy on Daniel Oliver, delivered by Rev. C. B. Haddock, professor of Belles Lettres.

"The intellectual character of Dr. Oliver," the same writer afterwards adds, in language admirably chosen, "came nearer than it has been my fortune to observe in almost any other instance to the idea of a perfect scholar. He was at once profound, comprehensive, and elegant.

Upon no subject which he had considered was his knowledge fragmentary or partial. A philosophic, systematic habit of mind led him always to seek for the principles of things, and to be satisfied only with the truth. The compa.s.s of his inquiries was as extraordinary as their depth. He had investigated with care a surprising extent of knowledge.

A master of his own language, and minutely acquainted with all its princ.i.p.al productions, he was also thoroughly versed in the Greek, and familiar with the original works which have given to that tongue the first place among human dialects. The German he read with facility, and had pursued his favorite studies in the masters of its profound learning. Of French and Italian he was not ignorant. Music, both as a science and an art, was his delight and recreation. In the arts of painting and sculpture his information was liberal and his taste said to be excellent. Morals and politics he had studied in their theory, and in the history of the world. His acquaintance with civil history was among the most extraordinary of his attainments. The beautiful in Nature, in life, or in art or literature, few men have so exquisitely enjoyed or so justly appreciated.

"Thus, the princ.i.p.al elements of a perfect mind seem to have been singularly united and harmonized in him,--exactness of knowledge, liberal learning, and true taste."

Bred from infancy in the Church of England, Dr. Oliver continued to the end a faithful member of that communion, and few persons have had a firmer faith in the sublime truths of revealed religion. It was no less to his deeply religious and truthful spirit than to his innate love of right that may be ascribed that regard for things sacred, that singular modesty, that unfailing courtesy, and the high sense of personal honor that distinguished him. It had been his desire, at a late period of his life, to become a candidate for Holy Orders, a step for which his ripe theological scholarship and his critical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew had already prepared him, but his age deterred him.

Dr. Oliver had published little. Besides the treatise on Physiology already mentioned, there are a few pamphlets containing addresses delivered on various occasions, the most important of which are one before the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1836, and that before the college at the time of his induction into the professorship of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy.

Among his medical ma.n.u.scripts may be mentioned an unfinished work on General Pathology, which, had he lived to complete, would have added to his reputation as a medical author. Among his papers were also a few unpublished addresses and a few short and fragmentary poems, the effusions of his earlier years, all characterized by that elegance of style and fine poetic taste and feeling that marked their author.

A member of many learned literary and medical societies at home, Dr.

Oliver was honored in 1835 with a diploma from the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Palermo, and in 1838 received the degree of Doctor of Laws.

The following notice of a gentleman of rare eminence in the scientific world, is from a reliable source:

James Freeman Dana, who was connected as a teacher with both the Academical and Medical departments of Dartmouth College, was born at Amherst, N. H., September 23, 1793. He was the eldest son of Luther and Lucy (Giddings) Dana, and grandson of Rev. and Hon. Samuel Dana.

On the father's side he was descended from Richard Dana, who was among the early settlers in Ma.s.sachusetts; on that of his mother he was a descendant in the seventh generation from Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the n.o.ble band of Pilgrims who founded Plymouth, Ma.s.s.

Dana was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., entered Harvard in 1809, and graduated in 1813, his name standing on the catalogue as Jonathan Freeman Dana; the first name, by which, however, he had never been known, was changed to James, by act of legislature.

Immediately after entering Harvard, Dana showed a decided partiality for scientific pursuits. To Natural Philosophy, Natural History, and Chemistry, he mainly devoted his attention, making excursions into the surrounding country for the purpose of examining its geological structure, and collecting mineralogical and other specimens. The result of these rambles was embodied in a small volume, published in conjunction with his brother Dr. S. L. Dana, in 1819, ent.i.tled "Mineralogy and Geology of Boston and its Environs." While in college he formed, together with his brother and several cla.s.smates, a society for the cultivation of Natural Science and Philosophy, named at first for two distinguished French chemists, but afterward known as the Hermetic Society. Towards the close of his collegiate course he was appointed to a.s.sist Dr. Gorham, the professor of Chemistry, in preparing his experiments. That eminent physician and chemist soon became so much interested in the pupil who displayed such a.s.siduity in scientific researches, that finding he intended to pursue the study of medicine, he kindly invited him to do so under his tuition.

In 1813, Mr. Dana commenced his studies with Dr. Gorham, attending lectures at the Medical College, but though he became well acquainted with the principles and practice of the profession, he never relinquished his preference for Chemistry and Mineralogy. He became an active member of the Boston Linnaean Society, and the first paper read before it, ent.i.tled "An a.n.a.lysis of the Incrustation formed upon the Basket of Eggs from Derbyshire, England" (presented by Judge Davis), was read by him. In the spring of 1813, the Corporation of Harvard College employed Mr. Dana to visit England in order to procure suitable apparatus for its chemical department. During his stay abroad he studied, for a time, under the instruction of the somewhat distinguished Frederic Acc.u.m. In consequence of this absence he did not receive his degree of M.D. till 1817, that of A. M. having been previously conferred.

In the autumn of 1817, Dr. Dana was appointed to deliver a course of chemical lectures to the medical students of Dartmouth College. The professors in the Medical School were Dr. R. D. Mussey and Dr. Cyrus Perkins. These lectures were so satisfactory that the appointment was continued, and during the autumns of 1818, 1819, and 1820, he lectured at Dartmouth, residing during the intervals at Cambridge, where, in January, 1818, he was united in marriage with Matilda, third daughter of Samuel Webber, D.D., late president of Harvard College.

In 1821, being appointed professor at Dartmouth, Dr. Dana removed to Hanover, where, relinquishing the practice of medicine, he devoted his whole attention to his favorite studies, to which was now added Botany, upon which he delivered some courses of lectures.

Dr. Perkins, the Professor of Materia Medica, removed to New York after the dissolution of the "University of New Hampshire," and the late admired and lamented Dr. Daniel Oliver, of Salem, was appointed to the professorship. Dr. Mussey, celebrated for his surgical knowledge and skill, remained as the head of the Medical School, and among these gentlemen, differing widely as they did in many characteristics, the warmest friendship subsisted. During the intervals of leisure from strictly professional duties, Dr. Dana occupied himself in continuing to write for "Silliman's Journal," and in frequent excursions to various parts of New Hampshire, for the purpose of a.n.a.lyzing the ores and waters of mines and springs. His published a.n.a.lysis of the waters of a spring in Burton, N. H., was considered so scientific a production, that he was written to as to accepting a professorship in the University of Virginia. Not wishing the appointment, he declined becoming a candidate.

In the latter part of 1825, Professor Dana published "An Epitome of Chemical Philosophy," designed as a text-book for his own cla.s.ses, but which was afterwards adopted as such in two other inst.i.tutions. In 1826, he was appointed one of the visitors of West Point Military Academy, and soon after his return was chosen to the chair of Chemistry, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the University of New York, to which city he then removed. He was elected member of the Linnaean Society of New York, and accepted an invitation to deliver a course of lectures before the Athenaeeum.

During his residence at Hanover, Professor Dana had been much interested in Electro-magnetism, then a new science, and in preparing apparatus for exhibiting its wonders, freely stating his conviction that it would produce more astonishing results than any power previously known. When surprise was expressed at his selecting for his Athenaeeum lectures this subject, so little known even in Europe, and in which so few in this country would feel any interest, Dr. Dana replied that he had chosen it for those reasons; that he thought it time for public attention to be directed to it, as he was certain it would lead to most valuable results, and that he should endeavor to render it popular. How far he succeeded, the delighted audiences that crowded to hear him bore evidence. Of the truth of his prediction as to the results to be wrought out by the science, the marvels of the electro-magnetic telegraph bear witness to the world.

Samuel F. B. Morse was then following his profession as a painter in New York, and lectured upon art before the Athenaeeum. An intimacy sprang up between him and Dr. Dana, whose lectures he attended, and whom he used to visit in his laboratory, thus becoming familiar with his views on scientific subjects. Morse's published statements as to the origin of his knowledge of electro-magnetism are as follows:

"I learned from Professor Dana, in 1827, the rationale of the electro-magnet, which' latter was exhibited in action. I witnessed the effects of the conjunctive wires in the different forms described in his lectures, and exhibited to his audience. The electro-magnet was put in action by an intensity battery; it was made to sustain the weight of its armature, when the conjunctive wire was connected with the poles of the battery or the circuit was closed; and it was made to 'drop its load' upon opening the circuit. These, with many other principles of electro-magnetism were all ill.u.s.trated experimentally to his audience. These being the facts, to whom do I owe the first knowledge which I obtained of the science of electro-magnetism bearing upon the practical development of the telegraph? Professor Dana had publicly demonstrated in my hearing and to my sight all the facts necessary to be known respecting the electro-magnet.... The volute modification of the helix to show the concentration of magnetism at its centre, adapted to the electric magnet, the modification since universally adopted in the construction of the electro-magnet, is justly due, I think, to the inventive mind of Prof. James Freeman Dana. Death, in striking him down at the threshold of his fame, not only extinguished a brilliant light in science--one which gave the highest promise of future distinction--but the suddenness of the stroke put to peril the just credit due him for discoveries he had already made. Dana had not only mastered all of the science of electro-magnetism then given to the world, a science in which he was an enthusiast, but, standing on the confines that separate the known from the unknown, was at the time of his decease preparing for new explorations and new discoveries. I could not mention his name in this connection without at least rendering this slight but inadequate homage to one of the most liberal of men and amiable of friends, as well as promising philosophers of his age."

The delivery of these lectures was amongst Dr. Dana's last public efforts. A severe cold, resulting in an attack of erysipelas affecting the brain, terminated his brief life of thirty-three years, on the 15th of April, 1827.

In the various relations of private life he had won the warm attachment of all who knew him. To the charm of a buoyant and affectionate disposition he added Christian principle and character.

During his student life at Harvard, he had become a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and continued a devout worshipper according to her liturgy. Her Burial Service was read over his remains, by his friend Dr. Wainwright, the funeral rites being performed at Grace Church, on the 17th of April.

When it was proposed, in 1871, by the National Telegraph Monument a.s.sociation to erect a monument to Professor Morse, at Washington, the family of Dr. Dana furnished, at its request, a portrait of him from which a likeness was to be cast for one of the faces at the base of the monument. Since the death of Professor Morse, no progress seems to have been made in the effort to erect this memorial of scientific progress.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PROF. BENJAMIN HALE.--PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY.--PROF. IRA YOUNG.

From reliable sources we have the following account of another gentleman of distinguished worth, who was an instructor also both in the Academical and Medical departments of the college.

Benjamin Hale was born on the 23d of November, 1797, in Newbury, Ma.s.s., now a part of the city of Newburyport. He was the eldest son of Thomas Hale, who was the grandson of the fifth Thomas, in that series of Hales, whose first representative came to Newbury in about 1637.

His mother was Alice Little, a daughter of the Hon. Josiah Little of Newbury, and grand-daughter of Col. Moses Little, an officer in the Continental Army. On both sides of the house Benjamin Hale came of a race of vigorous, industrious, and useful men, held in honor by their fellow citizens, and invariably distinguished for their exemplary habits, their domestic virtues, their sterling goodness, and their faithfulness in the discharge of trusts and duties. In childhood he was studious, quiet, kind, and genial; fond of books, the favorite of his youthful companions, and the cheerful companion of the aged.

In the autumn of 1813, he went to Atkinson Academy; and in September, 1814, entered Dartmouth College; but his health becoming impaired, he went to Dummer Academy, Byfield, in the autumn of 1815, to pursue his studies under the direction of its princ.i.p.al, the Rev. Mr. Abbott. In February, 1816, he entered the Soph.o.m.ore cla.s.s at Bowdoin College, then under the presidency of the venerable Dr. Appleton, whose grave kindness soon won his reverent love. He at once secured an honorable position in his cla.s.s, which was the largest that had then been in that college. In September, 1818, he received the degree of B. A.; his part at Commencement being the salutatory oration. Having been previously offered the academy at Saco, and recollecting a remark of his old pastor, Dr. Spring, that "one who meant to be a minister would do well to try his hand at being a schoolmaster," he took charge of the academy for one year.

In the autumn of 1819, he became a member of the Theological Seminary at Andover, Ma.s.s. Here his college cla.s.smate, Rufus Anderson, afterwards the distinguished Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, was his cla.s.s-mate and room-mate.

Dr. Anderson thus writes of him: "Our friendship was founded in mutual knowledge and esteem, and continued during his life. The operations of his mind were effective, equally so in nearly every branch of learning. He was quick and accurate in the Mathematics, in the Languages, and in Music. I know not in what one branch he was best fitted to excel. While perfect in all his recitations, he was social, always ready for conversation when I desired it. He had, and through his whole life retained, my entire confidence as a man of G.o.d, nor was I surprised at the eminent position he afterwards attained in the church of Christ. Pleasant is his memory, and pleasant is the thought of meeting him in a better world." While at Andover he had leisure for reading, and that part of it which he devoted to Ecclesiastical History had an important influence as it turned out, in deciding his future ecclesiastical connection.

At the Commencement of Bowdoin College, in 1820, he was appointed tutor. He taught the Junior cla.s.s in Natural Philosophy, and Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, and the Soph.o.m.ore cla.s.s in Geometry and some other parts of Mathematics, and in Logic. At the same time he continued to pursue his theological studies, and in January, 1822, was licensed to preach by the York a.s.sociation. In September, 1821, he delivered a Latin valedictory oration, and took his degree of A. M.

With regard to this period of his life, his fellow tutor, now the venerable Prof. Packard, thus writes: "Mr. Hale gave at once the impression of a kind, generous, faithful heart, a clear, acute, and rapid intellect, and a vigorous grasp of any subject to which he gave his thought. He was a diligent student. He loved books. Without conceit he had sufficient self-reliance, which was always of service to him as a teacher and governor. He always had the good-will of his pupils, and whether with them or with his colleagues he exerted an influence above rather than below his age and standing. He was a true man, unselfish, of a decidedly social turn, of warm affections, of a genial humor."

In the summer of 1822, he received proposals from R. H. Gardiner, Esq., of Gardiner, Me., to take charge of a new inst.i.tution which he had determined to establish for the education of farmers and mechanics in the principles of science. Mr. Hale accepted, and closed his connection with Bowdoin College in 1822, and entering upon his duties January 1, 1823, opened the Lyceum, was inaugurated as its princ.i.p.al, and delivered an address on the occasion. He soon after returned his license, finding it inconvenient to meet the many calls for preaching extended to him, and having become also so settled in his preference for the Protestant Episcopal Church that he determined to take Orders therein, should he ever be so situated as to think it his duty to preach again. On the 9th day of April, 1823, he was married to Mary Caroline King, the eldest daughter of the Hon. Cyrus King, M. C.

The Lyceum soon attracted students and became a flourishing inst.i.tution. Its princ.i.p.al gave lectures in Chemistry and taught Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and in winter had cla.s.ses in Architecture and in Agricultural Chemistry. For the former of these cla.s.ses he prepared, in 1827, a work on the "Elementary Principles of Carpentry."

In July, 1827, having received an invitation to succeed Professor Dana in the chair of Chemistry at Dartmouth College, Mr. Hale accepted, and delivered his inaugural address on the day after Commencement. His esteemed and able colleagues in the Medical College were Reuben D.

Mussey, M.D., Prof. of Anatomy and Surgery; and Daniel Oliver, M.D., Prof. of Theory and Practice of Medicine. It should be noted that at that period the importance of physical studies was not fully appreciated at Dartmouth. The college had not taken a scientific periodical in half a century. There was no cabinet of minerals.

"There was not," writes Dr. Oliver, "a single modern volume in the college library upon either Mineralogy or Geology; and scarcely one, if one, upon Chemistry, later than the days of Fourcroy or Vauquelin.

The prevailing taste was decidedly anti-physical. It was directed another way, and not only so, but there was among the college Faculty a disposition to undervalue the physical sciences." Dr. James F. Dana, the predecessor of Professor Hale, writing of the college in reference to physical science, used the following remarkable expression: "It was anch.o.r.ed in the stream, and served only to show its velocity." When Professor Hale was engaged, his duties comprised a course of daily lectures to the medical cla.s.s through the lecture term, to which lectures the members of the Senior and Junior cla.s.ses were to be admitted; and instruction to the Junior cla.s.s in some chemical text-book by daily recitations for five or six weeks. This was all.

Professor Hale, however, addressed himself to his work with characteristic activity and zeal. He proceeded to give each year to the college cla.s.ses a separate course of over thirty lectures, and discharged the expenses of them himself. He subst.i.tuted a larger and more scientific text-book for that in use, and obtained an allowance of forty or more recitations instead of thirty. He laid the foundation of the cabinet of minerals by giving five hundred specimens, cla.s.sifying and labeling all additions, leaving the collection in respectable condition with 2,300 specimens. He gave annually about twenty lectures in Geology and Mineralogy; and for some years was the regular instructor of the Senior cla.s.s in the Philosophy of Natural History. For two years, also, he took charge of the recitations in Hebrew, and occasionally took part in other recitations; and, with another, served as building committee during the whole process of repairing and erecting the college edifices.

December 11, 1827, Professor Hale wrote, in a family letter, "I have made out a plan, for the repair of the College building, and the addition of a building for libraries, etc., for the use of Trustees at their next session. It takes with the president mightily, and I think they will make it go."

And in another family letter, the first after returning from a journey, under date of March 20, 1828, he wrote:

"My arrival at Hanover was very opportune. I was looked for for sometime, and letters were about being despatched for me.... I have the honor of being one-half of the building committee, Professor Chamberlain being the other moiety, and we are commencing operations.

The prospects of the College are now so bright, _that the plan I at first proposed, and which was adopted by the Trustees_, is abandoned, and we are preparing to erect two brick buildings, three stories in height, and fifty feet by seventy. One for students' rooms, and the other for public rooms.... And what is more comforting, our funds are improving so much that the building will not distress us very much if the $30,000 should not be realized. A good many old debts have been collected, and are coming in, by which one building could be erected.

About $13,000 have already been subscribed, and subscriptions are daily arriving."

All this was voluntary and gratuitous work. It is no wonder that students thus cared for should respond, as they did, with enthusiasm and regard. Happily, in this department as well as in all others, Dartmouth College is now in motion, and fully up with the foremost in the current of physical study.

During his last three years, Professor Hale was President of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. His portrait, presented, it is believed, by the members of that society, now hangs in the college library.

While at Hanover, Professor Hale thought it his duty to resume his purpose of preaching, and was accordingly ordained Deacon by the Rt.

Rev. Dr. Griswold, Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, September 28, 1828, at Woodstock, Vt.; and Priest by the same bishop, in St. Paul's, Newburyport, January 6, 1831. In taking this step he violated in no respect the charter of the college, he undertook nothing which conflicted with the duties of his professorship, he acted neither obtrusively nor illiberally; but while he occasionally preached in neighboring churches, he always, in Hanover, scrupulously observed the appointment at the village meeting-house. On Sunday nights, however, he held a service in his own house, for his own family, and the family of Dr. Oliver, and such other communicants of the Episcopal Church, and friends, as might desire to attend. Difference in sentiment on religious subjects, between Professor Hale and the Trustees of the college, and action on their part which can hardly be regarded as justifiable, led to the termination of Professor Hale's connection with the college, in 1835.