American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
What must have been the professor's private speculations on those
Tuesday evenings? I had a certain sense of their probable nature, even
then; and glanced furtively into the dark corner for glimpses of the
distant, sarcastic smile which I felt must be carving itself upon the
lines of his strong face. But I never caught him at it; not once. With
the gravity befitting his awful topics, and with the dignity belonging
to his Chair and to his fame, the professor taught the butterflies,
to the best of my knowledge and belief, as conscientiously as he did
those black-coated beetles yonder, the theologues on the Seminary
benches.
[Illustration: "THE OLD BRICK ACADEMY," PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER,
MASSACHUSETTS, WITH THE CLASS OF 1861 IN FRONT.
Of the class of 1861 over twenty went into the war, and several died
in battle or in war prisons. Lieutenant S.H. Thompson, son of the late
Professor William Thompson of East Windsor Seminary, was among this
number. Also, Sergeant J.H. Thompson, son of the late Dr. Joseph P.
Thompson of New York City. President Ward of Franklin College, the
Rev. Dr. Dougherty of Kansas City, and the Rev. Dr. Brand of Oberlin
College, were members of the class, and their portraits appear in the
picture. The valedictorian was Carlos F. Carter, brother of President
Carter of Williams College. He was drowned in the Jordan a few months
after graduation.]
I ought to say, just here, that, in a recent correspondence with
Professor Park upon this matter, I found him more or less unconscious
of having been so generous with his theology to the girls. I am giving
the pupil's impressions, not the teacher's recollections, of that
Bible-class; and I can give no other. Of course, I may be mistaken,
and am liable to correction; but my impressions are, that he gave us
his system of theology pretty straight and very faithfully.
I cannot deny that I enjoyed those stern lessons. Not that I had any
marked predilections towards theology, but I liked the psychology of
it. I experienced my first appreciation of the nature and value of
logic in that class-room, and it did me good, and not evil altogether.
There I learned to reason with more patience than a school-girl may
always care to suffer; and there I observed that the mysteries of time
and eternity, whatever one might personally conclude about them, were
material of reason.
In many a mental upheaval of later life, the basis of that theological
training has made itself felt to me, as one feels rocks or stumps or
solid things underfoot in the sickly swaying of wet sands. I may not
always believe all I was taught, but what I was taught has helped me
to what I believe. I certainly think of those theological lectures
with unqualified gratitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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