The History of Dartmouth CollegeSmith, Baxter Perry
History
The History of Dartmouth College
Smith, Baxter Perry
Dartmouth College -- History
"Mr. Peabody's published works are a brief 'Memoir of Horace Bassett
Morse,' 1830; a Discourse on 'The Conduct of Men Considered in
Contrast with the Law of God,' 1836; a 'Sermon on the Sin of
Covetousness, Considered in Respect to Intemperance, Indian
Oppression, Slavery,' etc., 1838; the 'Patriarch of Hebron, or the
History of Abraham' (posthumous), 1841."
FROM THE REV. SAMUEL G. BROWN, D.D.
"Dartmouth College, July 25, 1856.
"My Dear Sir: It gives me great pleasure to send you my impressions of
Professor Peabody, though others could write with more authority. I
knew him in college, where he was my senior. He belonged to a class of
great excellence, and was honorably distinguished throughout his
college course for general scholarship, diligence, fidelity, and great
weight of personal influence, in favor of all things 'excellent and of
good report.' His character was mature and his mind already well
disciplined when he entered the class, and education had perhaps less
to accomplish for him in the matter of elegant culture than for almost
any one of his associates. Hence there was not the same conspicuous
progress in him as in some others. Yet at the time of graduation he
stood among the first, as is indicated by the fact that he was the
orator of one of the literary societies, and was selected by the
Faculty to deliver the valedictory oration at Commencement. In every
department of study he was a good scholar,--in the classical, moral,
and rhetorical departments, preëminent. As a preacher, he was
distinguished for a certain fullness and harmony of style, justness in
the exposition of doctrine, and weight of exhortation. He was prudent
without being timid, and zealous without being rash; eminently
practical, though possessing a love of ideal beauty, and a cultivated
and sensitive taste, and as far removed from formalism on the one side
as from fanaticism on the other. Dignified and courteous in manner, he
was highly respected by all his acquaintances, and while a pastor,
greatly esteemed and beloved by his people. His fine natural qualities
were marred by few blemishes, and his religious character was steadily
and constantly developed year by year. Grave, sincere, earnest, he
went about his labors as one mindful of his responsibility, and as
seen under his 'great Task-master's eye.' Indeed his anxieties outran
his strength, and he was obliged to leave undone much that was dearest
to his hopes. The disease to which he finally yielded had more than
once 'weakened his strength in the way,' before he was finally
prostrated by it. The consequent uncertainty of life had perhaps
imparted to him more than usual seriousness, and a deep solicitude to
work while the day lasted. He performed the duties of a professor in
college but a single year, and that with some interruptions. No better
account of the general impression of his life on those who knew him
best can be given than in the language of a sermon preached at his
funeral by the Rev. Dr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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