The History of Dartmouth College Part 29

Language was, in his view, no dead product, but the finer breath and effluence of the national life, as subtle, as many sided in its aspects, as the national spirit itself,--into the knowledge of which one must grow by slow degrees, bending his pliant mind till it gradually yields to the new channels of thought and expression.

"An unfaithful scholar," says one of his pupils, "was gently yet unmistakably reminded of his delinquency, perhaps by a.s.sistance being omitted upon a point which he might easily have ascertained for himself. One whom he saw struggling to learn he invariably helped, and this help was given so kindly that many a one would try to make a good recitation if only to gratify one so much beloved. The best scholars were quickened by his most delicately expressed appreciation of their victories, and even sluggish souls felt an unwonted light and warmth stirring in them when they came into his presence. I remember well our last recitation in Greek. It was from Plato. He started with an idea of the n.o.ble philosopher, Christianized it, and gave it to us in a few simple, sublime words, with an att.i.tude and _look_ that melted the hearts of all.

"It has sometimes occurred to me that he could not seem constantly to others as he did to me, like one who had dropped from a higher sphere, to remain a little while in order to draw the hearts that should love him to a purer, higher, and better life. But conversation with others has shown me that it has long been a general impression that he moved in a realm above the common level of even the best men."

There was still another aspect in which Professor Putnam presented himself, which should not be pa.s.sed over without at least an allusion.

Having completed his professional studies, his own tastes and higher aims, no less than the wishes of his friends, induced him occasionally to exercise the functions of the Christian ministry. Hence he sought and received ordination according to the usages of the Congregational churches, and in that relation stood in his lot. With what earnestness and pureness of motive, with what loftiness of purpose and fidelity in his high calling, and acceptance to those who heard him, I need not try to express. But I may say that it was not for want of solicitation that he did not exchange his professorship for places of considerable public importance in the other calling. It was his duty, a belief of his fitness for his post, that kept him from some inviting fields of labor elsewhere.

Having referred in fitting terms to his call to the Andover Theological Seminary, to the closing scenes in his life, and to his death at sea, Professor Brown says in conclusion:

"Few lives were more perfect than his, whose youth gave so fair a promise, whose riper years so fully redeemed the pledge. His presence shall still go with us all, to excite us to new fidelity, to enkindle within us n.o.bler affections, to inspire us with holier purposes."

His cla.s.smate Rev. Dr. Furber says:

"The ripe and rare scholarship of my beloved cla.s.smate and friend, John Newton Putnam, was the fruit of diligence and the love of study in one whose acquisitions were easily and rapidly made. Mr. Putnam never seemed to be a hard worker, but knowledge was continually flowing to him as by a process of absorption from his early childhood until he became the accomplished and brilliant scholar that he was as professor of Greek. His books were his constant companions, their society was his pleasure and pastime, he preferred it, even in his boyhood, to the sports and recreations for which most boys neglect their studies. When in college he sat up at night after other students were in bed to pursue the study of German and other modern languages not then required by the college course. This he did from the pure love of these studies, without the aid of a teacher, and without the social stimulus of any companionship in such pursuits. And he probably for the sake of study neglected needful bodily exercise every year of his life.

"In the study of languages he found a fascination. The marvelous Greek tongue was of course the richest field for him, the language of a people of the finest and subtlest intellect, and of the highest culture in the art of speech. He seemed at home in that wonderful language as much almost as if it had been his mother tongue. The elegance and vivacity, the felicity and energy of his translations from Thucydides or Plato showed that he not only comprehended his author and saw the subject as he saw it, but that he had fairly caught the glow of the author's mind from the page which he had written.

"So accomplished a student of language could not have been ignorant of his rank among his fellow students; but in all my intimacy with him, boarding at the same table, occupying for a few months the same room, and spending with him more or less time every day either in social intercourse or in the enjoyment of vocal or instrumental music, I never knew him to betray, by word or act or look, a consciousness of his superiority to the poorest scholar in the cla.s.s.

"Oblivious as he was, apparently, of the deficiencies of others, he was quick enough to perceive their merits. A fine recitation or an eminently creditable performance of any college exercise, no matter by whom, gave him positive enjoyment, which in his nervous and emphatic way he was very apt to express. It is really not too much to say that he appeared to enjoy the successes of others as much as though they had been his own.

"What a help to any college cla.s.s is the influence of one such man!

His connection with the cla.s.s of 1843, was, no doubt, the presentation to some of its members of an ideal such as they had not formed before; an ideal, not only of enthusiasm for the largest acquisitions and the finest culture, but of that enthusiasm sustained by the love of excellence for its own sake, and not alloyed by any merely selfish ambition to surpa.s.s others.

"A spirit of scholarship so high, so broad, so generous as this could be no mark for envy. None of us grudged our cla.s.smate his position or his honors. He was the beloved a.s.sociate, and is now the warmly remembered friend of some of us, and no doubt many of us were more indebted to his example than we were aware of at the time for anything that was well and worthily done by us in our college days.

"I ought not to close this notice without speaking of Mr. Putnam's love of music. Music was born in him as much as Greek was, and he learned one as rapidly as he did the other. When in college he was a valuable member of the Handel Society, his influence being always in favor of the introduction for practice of the standard and cla.s.sic authors. Haydn's 'Creation' and other works of that great composer were an unfailing source of delight to him. Their naturalness and spontaneity, their brightness and cheerfulness, their artistic finish and exquisite grace, met precisely the corresponding qualities in his own mind. As we often choose those authors who are most unlike ourselves, so he knew how to enjoy the rugged grandeur of less polished writers. He could listen to a mountain chain of choruses in 'Israel in Egypt,' or to a dark and mazy labyrinth of mingled harmony and discord in Beethoven, and wherever he saw the perfection of art or the power of genius, his soul was like a harp of a thousand strings every one of which was alive with vibration. I well remember with what elevation of feeling and intensity of utterance he used in the Handel Society to sing 'The Hallelujah Chorus,' and the concluding chorus of the Messiah, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.' His deeply religious sympathies were touched by the sentiment of these great choruses, and on this account his enjoyment of them was more profound than his enjoyment even of the finished models of Haydn. He knew and felt that he was on a grander theme, and that Redemption was greater than Creation. And it is pleasant to think of him now as saying with a deeper meaning and a more rapturous devotion than he knew on earth, and may we add, a more thrilling musical delight, 'Worthy is the Lamb.'"

We append some of the closing lines of the venerable Dr. Thayer's most touching and eloquent tribute to the character of his beloved and honored pupil: "He did in quality, more than in quant.i.ty, beyond any I ever had to do with. He was under more stimulus than mere quiet pleasure in study. He had a most delicate sense of beauty to be gratified, a fine power of discrimination which sought objects for its exercise. Then his love for his mother was a very powerful motive; then too I think he thought of gratifying and honoring his teacher, who loved him and tried to make him a scholar. But better, he loved his Saviour and increasingly studied with humble loyalty to him. Still we must not put Putnam in a wrong place. He was preeminently made for a cla.s.sical scholar."

Rev. Dr. Leeds adds:

"I became acquainted with Professor Putnam in the winter of 1860-61, and was on intimate terms with him up to the time of his death, more than two years later....

"Of his scholarship, others can speak more fitly than I. All remarked that he was pervaded by that which is beautiful in the wonderful language and literature he taught, as ever a vase by the perfume of its flowers.

"But it is his character on which I love to dwell. Ever after I had become well acquainted with him, he was a delightful ill.u.s.tration to me of the power of love to foster diverse and even opposite elements of character. He had feminine traits, and yet he was thoroughly manly; the gentleness and tenderness of a true woman were his, and so were the dignity and courage of a true man. He could speak, and was wont to speak, and preferred to speak words of kindness the most winning; but he could administer a rebuke longer to be remembered than most men's; though _more_, perhaps, because it came from him than for any other reason. The union in him of fastidious taste and of uncritical temper was very marked. No man was more sensitive than he to all the proprieties of the occasion; and one might at first fear lest himself should say or do what would jar upon that delicately attuned spirit, for whatever _he_ said or did was perfect in its manner. And yet no one--no one--would listen with more simple enjoyment to the plainest, crudest utterances of others. He had not one word of criticism to offer. He seemed to see--I am confident he did see--only what was good and attractive in them. But one thing could offend him, that which indicated a want of sympathy.

"More than any man I ever knew, he saw the good in every person, and the bright in everything. It was wonderful, it was delightful, it rebuked one, and it quickened one, to note the manifestations of this temper. Nothing, seemingly, could occur that did not present some occasion for grat.i.tude. After the fearful disaster which hurried his life to its close, his message home was--how characteristic of him all who knew him will at once recognize,--'Tell them to thank G.o.d for our deliverance!'

"I must not say much more. His friends need no reminders of his innocent, sunny playfulness, or his abounding, sparkling--but never trenchant--wit. As one of them has said of another, 'What bright, graceful conceits often fell from his lips, his soft, dark eye smiling at his own unexpected thought!' And yet, such was his gracious nature that he was the delight of the house of prayer as much as of the friendly circle, the one who would be chosen alike to share our hours of gayety, and to extend to us the sacramental cup. In fine, his qualities were refined, blended, and crowned by love--love which often suggested to others the name of St. John.

"No notice of him would be adequate that did not at least refer to his wife,--fitting companion to such a man. A daughter of Prof.

William and Mrs. Sarah Chamberlain, she inherited both the attractive and the sterling traits of her parents. 'Lovely and pleasant in their lives, in their death they were not divided.'"

Esthetic and solid culture have very rarely had a more nearly perfect union in any American scholar than in Professor Putnam. Whether in the privacy of his home, in the recitation room, or before a large audience, his words were always chosen with a marked regard for fitness and beauty. His knowledge of the minutest points of every theme which he discussed was so exhaustive and complete that any attempt to improve would have been almost like carrying light to the sun.

The graces of his heart corresponded with those of his person and mind. His earnest piety was marked and felt by all who came within the sphere of his influence. Few Christian teachers have pa.s.sed away, at the age of forty, more highly esteemed than Professor Putnam. He died on the return voyage from Europe, near Halifax, October 22, 1863.

In 1851, the chair of Mathematics was rendered vacant by the death of Professor Chase, and he was succeeded by John Smith Woodman, a member of the Rockingham County Bar. He was the son of Nathan and Abigail H.

(Chesley) Woodman, and was born at Durham, N. H., September 6, 1819.

Extended experience as a teacher in the South, and foreign travel, had given valuable expansion to Professor Woodman's naturally capacious mind. He was a careful, patient, laborious teacher of the Mathematics.

He did not exact excellence from every student, for he fully realized that a lack of native fondness for the studies of this department rendered it impossible for some to appear in the recitation-room, with as full preparation as others. But he strove to have each do the best in his power, and his kindness induced many to put forth earnest effort, who would have been less inclined to do so under a different teacher.

One well qualified to appreciate him says:

"As an instructor in Mathematics, a field proverbially difficult, Professor Woodman had but few equals. Such was his superiority when a student in this department, that there was little difficulty in choosing a successor to the post made vacant by the sudden and untimely death of Professor Chase. The action of the Trustees was most completely justified by the ease and thoroughness with which Professor Woodman took up and carried forward the work of his honored and lamented predecessor.

"In the cla.s.s-room, however subtle or complicated the subject, or however dull the student lucklessly 'called up,' his demeanor was always evenly calm, without a shade of impatience; he carried a firm, steady hand, master alike of himself and the subject in hand.

"Under his direction the field of Mathematics was not left to mere theoretical cultivation. At an early date, the first cla.s.s under his care was marshaled in squads under self-chosen captains who were first trained by the professor in practical handling of compa.s.s, theodolite, and s.e.xtant; and then each led his division to out-door work, taking the various instruments in turn. He was also able to invest even a.n.a.lytical Geometry and Integral Calculus with charms for some of the cla.s.s. One student came from a private interview in a high state of enthusiasm over the eloquent suggestiveness of formulae in the vocabulary of Calculus.

"Written examinations, now so common, were among the methods introduced into his department by Professor Woodman, and that cla.s.s still remembers the spectacles quietly adjusted, that his near-sightedness might not encourage an illicit use of + and -, and the rigid silence which shut them up to the simple problems written upon the blackboard, notwithstanding adroit questions, ostensibly innocent and necessary.

"In the Chandler Scientific School, to which Professor Woodman was afterwards a.s.signed, he was specially qualified to do good work, because of his thorough mastery of Mathematics by perceptions almost intuitive. Thoroughly at home in its principles, loving them, and honestly loving his pupils, he could luminously and patiently teach the application of those principles in practice, however minute and detailed.

"Mention of Professor Woodman as an instructor would be incomplete, were there no allusion to the force and influence of his character as a man, transparently honest, and grandly true. He taught well from text-books, but his life, so unaffectedly simple and just, gave better, deeper, and more lasting instruction."

An a.s.sociate in the Faculty says:

"Professor Woodman becoming somewhat weary of the continuous and laborious drill of young men in a department not generally appreciated, and feeling a renewed desire to return to the practice of law, resigned his professorship, and removed to Boston for that purpose. After a year's experience of the practice, or desire of practice, of law, the professor was ready to return to his field of labor in the college. His former department was no longer open, the place having been filled, on his resignation, by the appointment of Professor Patterson. He was, therefore, appointed Professor of Civil Engineering in the Chandler Scientific School. On entering upon his duties, he was made the chief executive officer, under the president, of the department, and continued to hold that relation to the school till his death. Professor Woodman proved himself a thorough, able, and zealous teacher in his new chair, and by degrees became deeply interested in the Scientific Department, and devoted his time and energies to building it up and making it a success. He early became sensible of the importance of the free-hand drawing, and gave it a prominent place in the curriculum of the School, which it has continued to hold. The depth of Professor Woodman's love for the School, and the strength of his desire for its continued prosperity, were made manifest in his will by a generous donation to its funds.

Those who graduated from the Chandler Department while it was under the administration of Professor Woodman, will never cease to love and revere his memory."

A cla.s.smate, distinguished for his interest in general education, says:

"Professor Woodman was county commissioner of schools, and secretary of the New Hampshire Board of Education, during the year 1850. He was again county commissioner during the years 1852 and 1853. In 1854 he was commissioner and chairman of the board which was composed of the commissioners of the several counties. In the opinion of the most competent judges, Professor Woodman was one of the wisest and most efficient state school officers New Hampshire has ever had. He was admirably qualified for the work of an educator, not only by the cast of his methodical, organizing mind, but by his varied experience and scholastic attainments. He was eminently practical in all his plans for the improvement of the schools, and he knew well how to adapt means to ends. His reports, both as commissioner and secretary, were of a high order of excellence, and they were highly beneficial in promoting the cause of education in the State."

Professor Woodman married Mary Ann, daughter of Stephen Perkins Chesley, of Durham, and adopted daughter of Edward Pendexter. He died at Durham, N. H., May 9, 1871.

In 1853, Professor Clement Long, who was the son of Samuel and Mary (Clement) Long, and was born at Hopkinton, N. H., December, 31, 1806, was called to the chair of Intellectual Philosophy which had been vacated by the resignation of Professor Haddock. He was a thorough teacher. Being himself a most profound thinker, he deemed it his duty to exact a thorough knowledge of every day's lesson by the student. If he had not made himself master of the subject, by learning all that was to be learned from the text-book, any attempt to supply the deficiency, by drawing upon his own resources, would be sure to be followed by the plainest marks of dissatisfaction or merited rebuke on the part of Professor Long. Never indulging in the diffuse or the discursive himself, he never tolerated such a course on the part of the student. A mere glance at the man was sufficient to indicate the richest and most solid type of mind. Those who sat under his instruction, and were capable of appreciating it, will ever remember his efforts in their behalf with the liveliest grat.i.tude.

In a commemorative "Discourse," President Lord says: "He was graduated at this college in 1828, a cla.s.smate and intimate friend of the late and lamented Professor Young, and a worthy a.s.sociate of the many honorable men by whom the cla.s.s of that year has been distinguished.

"It was here, in a time of unusual religious awakening among the students, that he became a Christian, and, with several of his cla.s.smates, made profession of his faith,--a profession ever afterwards honored by a singular devotedness to his Saviour. That he was a regenerate man, and true to his Christian calling, no one who knew him ever doubted. It was manifested by the perhaps best of all evidences, as construed by experienced observers,--the uniform prevalence of an unworldly and super-worldly spirit. He affected nothing, he pretended nothing; but whatever he said or did significant of religious character was traceable, and traceable only, to a believing and loving mind. If any thought him severely religious, that may have been the fault of his critics rather than his own.

"After leaving college, he was for three years a preceptor, princ.i.p.ally at Randolph, Vt.; then, for two years, a theological student at Andover. Before completing his term at that inst.i.tution, he was called, in 1833, to the professorship of Intellectual Philosophy in Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. After a short term of service he was elected to the professorship of Theology, in the same inst.i.tution, and received ordination as a minister of the gospel.

These changes are all significant of early and distinguished worth.

"In 1851 he received and accepted the appointment of professor of Theology in the Seminary at Auburn, N. Y."

His cla.s.smate Professor Folsom says:

"Professor Long was like a precious stone kept long in the lapidary's hands before its brilliancy met the public gaze. I had my home under his father's roof, and sat daily at table with him, during my Junior year. We were colleagues afterwards, together with our cla.s.smate Jarvis Gregg, in the Western Reserve College; and they both were members of my family there. We had been Handelians at Dartmouth (as also Peabody), and almost every evening we sang together, at our fireside, from Zeuner's "Harp." How precious the memory of those hours! How often has the uplifting power of all our intercourse been felt! Professor Long, like Professor Young, joined the love of Mathematics with that of Metaphysics, but the bent of his genius was strongly in the direction of the latter, and not least in theological and moral science. He had the enthusiastic regard both of the Faculty and students of the Western Reserve College. He was also a very suggestive and quickening preacher, often at my request taking my place in the pulpit of the chapel. His great modesty, and not easily satisfied ideal, kept him from publishing much in his lifetime; but I have wondered that some of his writings did not find their way into print after his death. He once told me, when urging him to this step, that he hoped, in the course of ten years or so, to be able to prepare something which the ear of the public might not be careless to hear.