General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
The Rev. Mr. Naphtali Dagget is the fourth president of Yale College
since its removal to Newhaven. He is an excellent Greek and Latin
scholar, and reckoned a good Calvinistic divine. Though a stranger to
European politeness, yet possessing a mild temper and affable
disposition, the exercise of his authority is untinctured with
haughtiness. Indeed, he seems to have too much candour and too little
bigotry to please the corporation and retain his post many years. The
Rev. Mr. Nehemiah Strong, the College professor, is also of an amiable
temper, and merits the appointment.
Were the corporation less rigid, and more inclined to tolerate some
reasonable amusements and polite accomplishments among the youth, they
would greatly add to the fame and increase of the College, and the
students would not be known by every stranger to have been educated in
Connecticut. The disadvantage under which they at present appear, from
the want of address, is much to be regretted.
_Beauford_, _Guilford_, and _Milford_, are much alike.
_Guilford_ is laid out in squares, after the manner of Newhaven,
twenty of which are built upon. The church and two meetings stand in
the centre square. One of the meetings is very grand, with a steeple,
bell, and clock. The parishes in it are eight, three of them
episcopal.
This town gave birth to the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D. D., who was the
first episcopal minister in Connecticut, and the first president of
King’s College in New-York. He was educated and became a tutor in the
College at Saybrook, was an ornament to his native country, and much
esteemed for his humanity and learning.
The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, in a sermon he preached in the great
meeting, gave the character of the people of Guilford in 1740. His
text was, “Anoint mine eyes with eye-salve.” After pointing out what
was not the true eye-salve, he said: “I will tell you what is the true
eye-salve: it is faith, it is grace, it is simplicity, it is virtue.
Ah, Lord! where can they be found! Perhaps not in this grand
assembly.”
I have frequently quoted the Rev. George Whitefield, without that
ludicrous intention which, possibly, the reader may suspect me of. I
admire his general character, his good discernment, his knowledge of
mankind, his piety, his goodness of heart, his generosity, and hatred
of persecution, though I think his zeal was sometimes too fervent. I
ever viewed him as an instrument of Heaven, as the greatest Boanerges
and blessing America ever knew. He turned the profligate to God; he
roused the lukewarm christian; he tamed the wild fanatic, and made
Felix tremble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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