"At the time of his retirement, in 1838, Dr. Shurtleff had been in the service of the college thirty-eight years. After what manner he has lived among us since that time, most of this audience know. He has not been noticeably active in the affairs of the village, but when you have met him in private intercourse, you have known that he retained the fine social qualities--the love of story-telling, and the keen, yet harmless wit--for which he was always remarkable. Those whose memory goes back thirty years, must have noticed, I think, that he became more uniformly serene and cheerful in the latter part of his life. The old graduates of the college who revisited the place know how cordially he received them, and with what hearty zest he recalled with them the scenes of their college days. He continued to be deeply interested in the prosperity of the college, and he was the means of eliciting in its behalf the interest and the benevolence of his friends. He continued the habit, commenced at an early period, of assisting students who were in needy circumstances. These were objects of benevolence toward which he was naturally drawn. In his feelings he never grew old, but carried forward the vivacity of youth into old age; and always enjoyed the society of the young. He loved to have young men about him; and he has thus, by his unobtrusive charities and counsels, and his interesting and instructive conversation, been a benefactor to a large number of students. The spiritual welfare of the college was near his heart. He had passed through many revivals of religion, and he longed for the return of such seasons. He devoutly observed the days set apart for prayer for colleges, and, as you remember, often urged the students, assembled on those occasions, to give their hearts to God. "When he left his post as an instructor he was sixty-five years old. After this he had more than twenty-two years of leisure, during which he retained, in a remarkable degree, the vigor of his intellectual powers. But he had good and sufficient reasons, as he judged, for his resignation; and no new and suitable field of labor presenting itself to a man who wanted but a few years of threescore and ten, he could enjoy the offered leisure with a good conscience, occupying it with such pursuits as his taste suggested. Even at the time when his labors were the most multiplied, and the church and the college were successively engaged in bitter controversy, he had but little to do with administrative and practical matters. Even then a life of reflection appeared to be more attractive than a life of action. And when his public duties were ended, he naturally chose such a life. He was still intellectually active. He could not let his faculties sink into sluggish repose if he would. His temperament would not suffer it. If he was not a hard student, he was, what he had always been, a thinking man to the last."