James, Mr. Davison 1785 Yale John, Mr., at N. J. '69, & at Bro. 1815 Harv. Andrew C., Mr. 1802 Yale John A. [1805 Dawes 1777 Harv. Thomas, Mr. 1785 Harv. 1829 Harv. -Edward J., M. D. Ebenezer, Mr. 1801 Harv. Thomas, Mr. Dawson David 1818 Harv. -George A. F. 1774 Bro. 1783 Dart. 1786 Dart. 1795 Yale 1812 Yale James, Mr. -Israel, Mr. Tut. 1797 Yale 1801 Dart. 1803 Yale Mills, Mr., 1804 Wms. John B. 1806 Harv. 1807 Bro. 1774 Bro. -Benjamin, Mr. 1781 Harv. 1793 Dart. 1796 Yale John, Mr.-LL. D. at Dart. 1802 Jonathan Henry, Mr., & at Wms. '99, Tut., [D. D. 1810, Prof. at Union, and Pres. of Mid. and Ham. Caleb Alva, Mr. -Jonathan, M. D. 1824 Yale Edgar B., Mr. 1825 Ver. Ira 1826 Yale 1827 Yale 1796 Harv. Wendell, Mr. 1796 Harv. Charles, Mr. 1828 Yale 1829 Bow. 1833 Yale 1833 Wms. 1834 Amh. Henry N., Mr., Tut. -Alexander H., M. D. George E. Samuel Plin B. Deacon Dean 1738 Yale 1826 Bro. 1832 Harv. Daniel H. Barzillai, Mr. Seth, Mr. James, Mr. James, Mr., and at Ver. '05, and Joshua --Paul, M. D. Benjamin R., Mr. Francis James B., M. D. Deane 1758 Yale ||Silas, Mr. [Prof. at Ver. 1734 Yale 1725 Harv. Thomas 1832 Yale Charles Diggins 1740 Yale John, Mr. 1825 Harv. Charles K., Mr. 1815 Wms. William H., Mr. Diman 1730 Harv. James, Mr. 1768 Harv. James, Mr. 1823 Yale Timothy, M. D. 1783 Yale Ebenezer Ebenezer, Mr., D. D. at Columb. 1789 Dart. *||Samuel, Mr., Gov. of N. H. 1758 Yale John, Mr. Samuel, Mr. Dimmick 1810 Yale Alpheus Dimock Dimon 1728 Yale Ebenezer, Mr. 1778 Yale John A., Mr. 1814 Dart. Dickerman Dinsmore Dickerson 1826 Mid. Jonathan L., M. D. Ditson Dickey 1818 Dart. David W., Mr. Dickinson Dix 1717 Yale Moses, Mr. 1769 Harv. Jonas, Mr. 1723 Harv. 1792 Harv. Benjamin 1730 Yale Azariah, Mr. 1731 Yale 1749 Yale 1758 Yale 1766 Yale 1771 Harv. 1778 Yale Jonathan, Mr. Samuel, Mr. Israel, Mr., and at N. J. '59 David Nathaniel, Mr. Obadiah, Mr. 1785 Yale ||John D. 1785 Dart. 1795 Dart. 1801 Harv. 1833 Harv. William, Mr., M. B. John, Mr. Henry E. Charles, M. D. John H. Dixon 1799 Bro. 1807 Yale 1808 Yale Timothy, Mr. Samuel F., 1797 Dart. John 1798 Dart. 1800 Wms. 1800 Wms. 1804 Yale 1805 Yale 1805 Dart. Pliny, Mr. Moses John Matthew, Mr. 1822 Yale Nathan F. David R. David, Mr., D. D. '21 Simeon F., Mr. Correction. We inadvertently omitted to insert the following:-Against the name of Pres. Allen, on page 94, of this number, '1820 Bowdoin.' Instead of 'Middlebury,' against Pres. Wheeler, read 'Vermont.' SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT BROWN. [By Rev. Henry Wood, Haverhill, N. H.] REV. FRANCIS BROWN, D. D., President of Dartmouth college, was born at Chester, Rockingham county, in the State of New Hampshire, Jan. 11, 1784. His father, Benjamin Brown, was a respectable merchant, in moderate circumstances, who lived to be gratified in all the hopes he had cherished of the future character and eminence of his son, though he died at an early stage of his presidency, without witnessing, unless from heaven, the triumphant termination of his career. His mother, whose maiden name was Prudence Kelly, lived only to the tenth year of his age, and yet in that short and early period, evidently exerted a strong influence in forming that full and symmetrical character he afterwards developed; imparting those traits for which she and her family were distinguished, particularly that love of order and propriety in every thing however minute and apparently unimportant, and that inflexible adherence to truth and right, for which his own conduct was always so conspicuous. Though he exhibited nothing of the solicitudes, the hopes, and the obedience of religion during the period of childhood, such was the power and ascendency of conscience over his heart and life, that according to a declaration of his father, he was never known, but in one instance, to be guilty of falsehood. His boyhood was marked by uncommon thirst for knowledge, which he sought to gratify by recourse to whatever sources of information lay within his reach, whether they were books, or the conversation of intelligent men, or intercourse with his own better educated associates; whilst the extreme facility with which he made his acquisitions, imparting a pleasure beyond what sports could give, abstracted him in a great measure, from the society of his equals, for undivided attention to the cultivation of his mind. His very amusements, whenever he indulged in them, were in advance of his years, more intellectual, more manly; less violent and unmeaning, less perilous to health and life, less liable to injure the feelings, interrupt the happiness, and excite the jealousy of his associates. At the age of fourteen, he solicited his father, with much importunity, to furnish him with the means for attaining a public education. Amiable as he was in disposition, precocious in the manifestation of original greatness of mind, and beloved as an only son, still his father judged it inexpedient, with his limited resources, to make the effort. In contradiction of all his cherished views of the future, and with deep anguish of heart, young Brown saw nothing before him but the prospect of his minority spent in the counting-room of his father, with the rest of life devoted to the exclusive acquisition of money, which even then he regarded with an indifference that in subsequent times reached almost to contempt. Not long after this, the second marriage of his father removed what had seemed an insuperable obstacle in the way of his education. The new mother providentially raised up for this exigency, with a sagacity at once discovering his rich promise, and a disinterestedness worthy of lasting record, proposed furnishing the necessary funds from her own private fortune. With a gratitude he felt to the last, and an ingenuousness which loved to confess it, he said to her in his final sickness, and only a few days before his death: "My dear mother, whatever good I have done in the world, and whatever honor I have received, I owe it all to you." Unshackled at length from pecuniary embarrassment, he repaired, in his sixteenth year, to Atkinson academy, for the prosecution of his preparatory education-an institution then under the care of the Hon. John Vose, and for a long period among the most respectable and flourishing in New England. In respect to his appearance at that time, his instructor states: "Though he made no pretensions to piety during his residence at the academy, he was exceedingly amiable in his affections and moral in his deportment. It is very rare we find an individual in whom so many excellences centre. To a sweet disposition was united a strong mind; to an accuracy which examined the minutia of every thing, a depth of investigation which penetrated the most profound. I recollect, that when I wrote recommending him to college, I informed Dr. Wheelock, I had sent him an Addison." It is not easy in many cases, to trace back religious history to the first moment of spiritual life; its origin is frequently hidden from observation, like the fountain-stream, concealed by shrubbery and shade, or struggling long under the matted grass, till at last it breaks out in purity and power far from its source. If at one time three thousand are converted to the Saviour by the preaching of Peter in the prescribed ministration of the gospel; at another the falling leaf, or the withering flower, is sufficient to accomplish the same effect upon individual hearts; and the voice of Peter with all its announcements of guilt and danger, on that occasion, was not more terrible to the consciences of his hearers, than the simple, often heard, often neglected clarion of the cock, that fell upon his own ear, when he went out and wept bitterly. Rules and prescriptions are most preposterous in respect to the causes, the methods, and the development of the divine life: sufficient for us is it to know, that "all these things worketh that one and self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." The most trifling occurrence under the direction of this Spirit, has often excited reflection, awakened conscience, and conducted to the Saviour. At the close of his residence at Atkinson, president Brown was visited by a severe attack of sickness in the form of fever. On his death-bed he remarked to those who stood by his side:-" During my sickness at Atkinson academy, about the time the fever formed a crisis, whilst in a state of partial delirium, I had a view of the happiness of heaven: I was gently led on to the portal, and beheld a glory which I can never describe. I was then conducted to the gate of hell, where I had a view of the pit below. I fell asleep, and upon awaking, thought I could not live. Greatly distressed in my mind, I called for my mother, and asked her what I should do? When she had counselled me, and directed me, as my case required, I changed my position in the bed, and, for the first time in my life, attempted to pray. After this, I had clear and impressive views of the Saviour, succeeded by great enjoyment, such as I had never experienced before. I felt a desire to go to college, and become a minister." We know not, nor is it needful for us to know, what confidence he reposed in these exercises of mind: whether he regarded this as the time of his submission to God, or these exercises as only the first stage of a course, which ultimately led him to the No one could less esteem a religious hope begun and matured in the marvellous and exciting: his views of the gospel forbade any sympathy with experiences and professions, built upon any thing but a knowledge of God, and cordial admission of the grand doctrines of his word. In him reason presided over and kept in subjection all the inferior powers: cool, investigating, cautious, the rigid discipline he maintained over his spirit, allowed little indulgence for excitement of feeling, little play for the fervor cross. |