pacious mind to new discoveries. In the department of mental and moral philosophy, in which Dr. Appleton so much excelled, I have supposed him a Baconian of the genuine stamp ;-cool and thorough in his investigations, averse to bold theories, not inclined to advance to his conclusions per saltum, capable of seeing difficulties, of appreciating objections, as well as arguments, and equally distant from the skeptic and the dogmatist."

It is most commonly the case, that those who are distinguished for the mental traits which have been mentioned, cultivate the intellect at the expense of the imagination and taste. It was not so with Dr. Appleton. He was endued with more than ordinary powers of imagination. He had an uncommonly quick perception of poetical beauties, and a keen relish for the pleasures of taste. Cowper and Thompson were favorite poets. He cherished high admiration for Milton; the strength and high moral and religious tone of Young commended his poetical writings much to his feelings. He was an admirer of the pathos and nature of Burns, whose best pieces he often read aloud in his family, enunciating the Scotch dialect with great facility and effect. The Cotter's Saturday Night never failed to call forth a gush of feeling, which often showed itself in tears. The Soldier's Dream of Campbell always deeply affected him. During his last sickness, he derived great satisfaction from the devotional pieces of Cowper, Doddridge, and Watts. There is reason, indeed, to believe, that which had then been published, as well as to the general merits of their author as a Divine.

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"I can truly say, that I regard Pres. Appleton as one of the most solid, sober, judicious and enlightened theological writers which our country has produced, so far as I can judge from the specimens that have come before me. I am much gratified, that all his important efforts are now to be laid before the public. I cannot doubt the success of the publication, in case what is yet unpublished is like to that which is already published. I wish much success to your undertaking.

"Few men, indeed, discuss with such candor, kindness toward opponents, coolness, acuteness, nice balancing of the weight of arguments, as Pres. Appleton, so far as I am able to judge."

his imagination and fancy were rather inclining to exuberance, and that he restrained their flow. In his earlier days, he manifested some inclination for poetic composition; to what extent he indulged it, is not known. His writings, while they afford abundant evidence of his powers of imagination, exhibit throughout the marks of a severe chastisement. They never weary by dryness and want of vivacity even in the most abstruse discussions; they never startle by any thing extravagant or misplaced. They are enriched, sparingly indeed, yet with the ornaments of an affluent and highly cultivated genius.

Thus was the balance of his intellectual powers admirably preserved. No one faculty was cultivated at the expense of the rest. No one study, however attractive, was suffered to intrench on the ground appointed to another. His views of the true object and the proper method of mental discipline were just and philosophical. They are in part exhibited in his address to the graduating class of 1812, in which he inculcates the importance of efforts directed so as to promote a full developement, a healthful growth of all the powers of mind. What he taught, he faithfully practised, and the result was a discipline which few comparatively have attained. He indulged in himself no mental predilections, merely for the sake of such indulgence: he, least of all, countenanced such a course in those under his influence. What is specially important in him who is at the head of a literary institution, and is, indeed, characteristic of a truly enlightened and liberal mind, he had enlarged views of learning. Philology, metaphysical and moral science, theology, polite literature and natural science, all received from him a due share of attention, and their value and importance were maintained in his public discourses, as well as enforced by personal counsel and efforts.

The moral characteristics of Pres. Appleton were, perhaps, yet more marked than his intellectual traits. They were altogether pre-eminent. What first struck the mind of an observer was his high tone of moral and religious feeling. Partly as

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the result of natural endowments, and partly of cultivation, he had, in common with few men, a perception of moral fitness, at once intense and intuitive. The whole frame work of his inoral character, if the expression may be permitted, was constructed with a nice adaptation of parts, and a peculiar delicacy of workmanship. In him, a virgin purity of moral feeling was always apparent. It informed his whole character. It governed his intercourse with others, and led him to regard scrupulously their rights and feelings. His keen sensibility was peculiarly marked in his sacred regard for truth, and this, too, not merely in the common intercourse of life, but in those respects, which escape the notice of men of ordinary sensibility. He was much moved by a story, contained in a popular tract published some years since, until informed that it was a fiction, when he was manifestly shocked by the statement, and regretted he had ever seen the tract, regarding it as an inexcusable fraud, an outrage on the moral sense of the community. To remark, that he had no sympathy with those, however elevated their standing, who do not hesitate, in order to effect even laudable designs, to practice art and management, were almost an injury to his name. He shrunk intuitively from chicanery and in

trigue.

Indeed the writer does not fear the charge of exaggeration, when he asserts, that for a delicate regard for the rights, feelings and opinions of others, he was never surpassed. He never exhibited an arrogant or overbearing temper. He lived at a time, when a spirit of religious controversy had arisen in NewEngland. One, who, like him, had sounded the depths of theological science, who cherished an ardent love of truth, and a profound reverence for revelation, could not but have been deeply interested in the religious aspect of the times. He had written enough on disputed points to show what his temper would have been, had he embarked on the troubled waters of controversy. A most able logician, and keen-sighted, skilful disputant, he yet exhibited the utmost fairness and candor. He would never take undue advantage of an opponent. It seemed

as if no provocation could disarm him of his Christian meekness. He contended not for victory, but for truth. But he was independent of party, and shrunk from the strife and turmoil which agitate the breast, and harass the life of a polemic. In a letter to a friend, he remarks: "I hope it will please God to give me the unspeakable privilege of passing this life, without being implicated in political or theological controversy." He then adds the following caution: "A person who is right, is, by controversy, in danger of having his temper embittered; a person who is wrong, is in danger of being confirmed in error. It is extremely difficult for us to be impartial in controversy, especially if ill used." He never could sympathize with the denunciatory spirit, which is too common even among the professed followers of the Saviour. No one felt, indeed, a deeper abhorrence of that disrespect for the inspired word, and that spirit of free and arrogant speculation, which had, in some degree, manifested itself, but he was the last person to resort to any other means of resisting its progress than argument and persuasion; much less could he tolerate measures, the tendency of which was to restrict freedom of inquiry. When there were indications, in any quarter, of a design to extend the power of ecclesiastic control to matters of opinion, no one regarded the movement with more jealousy or distrust.

His moral sense was as enlightened and comprehensive, as it was susceptible. Its decisions were based on those immutable principles of rectitude, which, independent of law, regulate the conduct of holy beings throughout the universe, and are recognized by Deity himself. There was also in him, at all times, in lively exercise, a profound reverence for the authority and will of Jehovah. Beyond most public teachers, he had a faculty of impressing on the minds of those, who were under his influence, their obligations to obey the divine law. How important this power was to him, as the head of a literary institution, need only be stated. The grateful recollections of numbers, as well as his works, bear witness, how much his efforts were directed to this point, to give his pupils a deep sense of the infinitely holy God, VOL. I.

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of his rightful authority, and of our obligations to him; and how he sought to implant in their minds a standard of moral action, elevated and immovable. It has been extremely well said in regard to him, that "in him the moral sense seemed to possess the property of genius; such a force was it able to throw into his expression of moral sentiment. It was a force, he had the secret of applying with a pressure so steady, and an intensity so powerful, that none, whose sensibility was accessible, could be unmoved by it." It may well be doubted, whether any individual was ever permitted to listen to his instructions and hear his earnest appeals on the great topics of moral and religious duty, who does not yet retain, in some degree at least, the impressions which were then made. Let it be added, also, that, more than most men, his personal influence in all situations,—in the pulpit, in the public exercises of the college, in the society of his friends, and at his fireside, embodied the spirit of his public teaching. All regarded him as eminently a holy man.

Although the character of his piety may be inferred from the statements which have been already made, yet it may be well to attempt to convey a distinct view of its more prominent features. Those who were best acquainted with him would probably unite in the sentiment, that his religious character was most strongly marked by habitual reverence for God and sacred things. With great emphasis may it be said of him, that he lived as seeing him who is invisible. "To what subject soever his conversation was directed, or with whatever pleasantness relieved, it seldom approached a sacred topic, however incidentally, without discovering signs of his interior respect for every thing of a serious nature." His confidence in the perfect character and righteous government of Jehovah was also very apparent.

His piety, moreover, was characterized by the spiritof elevated devotion with which it was animated. He was eminently a man of prayer. His devotions in the family, in the college chapel, and in the sanctuary, were those of one, who lived near Sketch, &c.