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SIBE STATE LIBRA

SPECTATOR

CONDUCTED BY

AN ASSOCIATION OF GENTLEMEN.

FOR THE YEAR

1828.

NEW SERIES.----VOL. II.

New-Haven,

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY DURRIE, PECK, & CO.

PUBLISHED ALSO BY JOHN P. HAVEN, NEW-YORK.

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N.S.V. 2 1828

CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR.

New Series.

VOL. II.]

JANUARY, 1828.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

[No. J.

MEMOIR OF SAMUEL HOOKER He used to say he never knew a

COWLES.

SAMUEL H COWLES was a native of Farmington, Connecticut, and was the youngest son of Isaac and Lucina Cowles. He was born March 5th, 1798, and died Feb. 1st, 1827, being in his twenty-ninth year.

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His early life is not reproached by any gross vice on the contrary he maintained uniformly a character which the world calls fair. Nature having given him one of the best constitutions, a large and muscular frame, he felt the consciousness of superior energy, and was early and always distinguished for excellence in every athletic exercise. We might relate feats of strength and agility in gymnastic exercises, that usually placed him at the head of all competitors. But we are checked by the fear that this very pre-eminence often led him to indiscreet exertion, to the injury of his constitution. At the same time we cannot but remark the delight he took in strong and active exercise. Paley has said that to him, one of the strongest arguments for the goodness of the Deity drawn from the works of nature, is the pleasure young children and young animals feel, in a gratuitous exercise of their limbs. Cowles seemed full of this sort of happiness. And though conscious of strength, he had always too much generosity and principle to lend it as an instrument to his passions. VOL. II.-No. I.

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very strong man prone to take advantage of his strength in the way of resenting injuries-a sentiment he derived from his own feelings perhaps, more than from observation.

He early discovered a taste for reading. The books that pleased him most were those that narrated deeds of heroism, and exigences of danger overcome by fortitude and uncommon effort of body or mind. His youthful ardour kindled at such exploits, and we have been amused to hear him tell how, after reading the story of Valentine and Orson, he would lay aside the book and act with no small vehemence the part of the fabled wildman.

His early taste for reading first inspired within him the desire of a public education, but he did not look very seriously at the object, until, becoming vexed with the frequent occurrence of Latin and Greek quotations, he determined to learn those languages, and go to College. It was late when he began to prepare, probably because neither he nor his friends had any very definite designs about his future course. It was in the autumn of 1817 that he entered Yale College, where he immediately took a high standing in his class, and maintained it with little variation throughout. Unhappily he discovered more genius than application, and we must attribute to the native strength and quickness of his mind more than to his industry, the stand

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