comfortable maintenance for that school of the prophets that now is established.... If, therefore, it were recommended by you to the freedom of every family that is able and willing to give, throughout the plantations, to give but the fourth part of a bushel of corn, or something equivalent thereto," &c.

This memorial was received, and its policy cordially carried out by the commissioners, who recommended to the deputies of the several General Courts, and to the elders within the four colonies, to call for a voluntary contribution of one peck of corn, or twelve pence in money, or its equivalent in other commodities, from every family,-a recommendation which was adopted and very generally responded to.

The constitution of Massachusetts, of 1780, thus refers to Harvard College:-"Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year 1636, laid the foundation of Harvard College, in which university many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of God, been initiated into those arts and sciences which qualified them for public employment, both in Church and State; and whereas the encouragement of arts and sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the Christian religion, and the great benefit of this and the other United States of America, it is declared, that the President and Fellows of Harvard College," &c.

At New Haven, Connecticut, the second successful effort was made to found a permanent college of learning. Common schools, where the elements of education were widely diffused among the rising population, did not satisfy the enlarged views of literary men, and the plan of an institution of higher pretensions and more extended scope occupied the thoughts of the first settlers of Connecticut.

After various consultations, chiefly in reference to the interests of the Church, and confined in a great measure to the liberal and enlightened clergy of the times, a definite proposition was at length submitted with regard to the establishment of a college in New Haven. The following resolution is the earliest record on the subject:

"At a General Court, held at Guilford, June 28th, A.D. 1652, Voted, the matter about a college at New Haven was thought to be too great a charge for us of this jurisdiction to undergo alone, especially considering the unsettled state of New Haven town, being publicly declared, from the deliberate judgement of the

most understanding men, to be a place of no comfortable subsistence for the present inhabitants there. But, if Connecticut do join, the planters are generally willing to bear their just proportion for erecting and maintaining of a college there." In 1700, ten of the principal ministers in the colony were nominated and agreed upon, by a general consent, both of the ministers and people, to stand as trustees or undertakers to found, erect, and govern a college. They soon met at Branford, and laid the foundation of Yale College. Each member brought a number of books and presented them to the body, and, laying them on the table, said:-"I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." The object of a college at New Haven was stated by a large number of ministers and laymen, who petitioned the Colonial Assembly for a charter. They said that, "from a sincere regard to, and zeal for upholding the Protestant religion by a succession of learned and orthodox men, they had proposed that a collegiate school should be erected in this colony, wherein youth should be instructed in all parts of learning, to qualify them for public employment in Church and civil State."

The legislature of the colony promptly responded to the application, and a charter was granted, in which it was said,— "Whereas, several well-disposed and public-spirited persons, out of their sincere regard to, and zeal for upholding and propagating the Christian Protestant religion by a succession of learned and orthodox men, have expressed by petition their earnest desire that full liberty and privilege be granted unto certain undertakers for the founding, suitably endowing and ordering a Collegiate School within his Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who, through the blessing of Almighty God, . may be fitted for public employment both in Church and State. To the intent, therefore, that all due encouragement be given to such pious resolutions, and that so necessary and religious an undertaking may be set forward and well managed, be it enacted," &c.

The charter being granted, at a meeting of the collegiate undertakers, held at Saybrook, November 11, A.D. 1701, they sent out the following circular:

"Whereas, it was the glorious public design of our now blessed fathers in their removal from Europe into these parts of Ame

rica, both to plant, and (under the Divine blessing) to propagate in this wilderness, the blessed Reformed Protestant religion, in the purity of its order and worship, not only to their posterity, but also to the barbarous natives; in which great enterprise they wanted not the royal commands and favor of his Majesty King Charles, the Second to authorize and invigorate them.

"We, their unworthy posterity, lamenting our past neglect of this grand errand, and sensible of the equal obligations better to prosecute the same end, are desirous in our generation to be serviceable thereunto. Whereunto the religious and liberal education of suitable youth is, under the blessing of God, a chief and most probable expedient:

"Therefore, that we might not be wanting in cherishing the present observable and pious disposition of many well-minded people to dedicate their children and substance unto God in such a good service, and being ourselves with sundry other reverend elders, not only desired by our godly people to undertake, as Trustees, for erecting, forming, ordering, and regulating a Collegiate School, for the advancement of such an education; but having also obtained of our present religious government both full liberty and assistance by their donation to such use; tokens, likewise, that particular persons will not be wanting in their beneficence; do, in duty to God and the weal of our country, undertake in the aforesaid design.

"For the orderly and effectual management of this affair, we agree to, and hereby appoint and confirm, the following rules:

"1st. That the Rector take special care, as of the moral behaviour of the students, at all times, so with industry to instruct and ground them well in theoretical divinity; and to that end shall take effectual measures that the said students be weekly caused memoriter to recite the Assembly's Catechism in Latin; and he shall make, or cause to be made, from time to time, such explanations as may (through the blessing of God) be most conducive to their establishment in the principles of the Christian Protestant religion.

"2d. The Rector shall also cause the Scriptures daily (except on the Sabbath), morning and evening, to be read by the students, at the times of prayer in the school, according to the laudable order and usage of Harvard College, making expositions upon the same; and upon the Sabbath shall either expound practical theology, or cause the non-graduating students to repeat

sermons; and in all other ways, according to his best discretion, shall at all times studiously endeavor, in the education of the students, to promote the power and purity of religion and the best edification of these New England churches."

Rev. Henry B. Smith, of the Union Theological Seminary at New York, in behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, presents the following view of the history and fruits of the colleges at Cambridge and New Haven :

"For our encouragement it may be said that no people ever began its institutions under better auspices or with ampler promise. This we owe, under God, to the pious zeal of our Pilgrim Fathers, many of them eminent in learning as well as faith. John Cotton, of Boston, had been the head-lecturer and dean of Immanuel College in Cambridge, England. John Newton, of Ipswich, afterwards of Boston, was offered a fellowship in the same college. John Davenport, of New Haven, was termed a 'universal scholar.' Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, was a fellow of Cambridge, and was here called the 'light of the Western churches.' Thomas Thatcher, of Weymouth, composed a Hebrew lexicon. Charles Chauncey, president of Harvard, had been Professor of Greek in Cambridge, England. Cotton Mather was the author of three hundred and eighty-two publications, including the 'Magnalia.'

"Established under such auspices, it is no wonder that all our earlier colleges, and, following in their train, most of the later, have been animated by the conviction that institutions of learning are needed by Christianity, and should have this faith as the basis of all their instructions. The earliest were not so much colleges as schools for the training of the ministry. The Pilgrims, when they numbered only five thousand families, founded the University of Cambridge, in 1636, with its perennial motto, 'Christo et Ecclesiæ;' and Cotton Mather says that this university was 'the best thing they ever thought of.' In 1696, there were one hundred and sixteen pastors in the one hundred and twentynine churches, and one hundred and nine of these were from Harvard. Harvard has educated one thousand six hundred and seventy-three ministers: three hundred and fifty-one are still living. Yale College dates from 1700, and in its earlier years the Assembly's Catechism in Greek was read by the freshmen; the sophomores studied Hebrew; the juniors, sophomores, and

the seniors, both at Harvard and Yale, were thoroughly instructed in divinity in the admirable compend of Wollebius.

"Yale has given to our churches one thousand six hundred and sixty-one ministers, of whom seven hundred and forty-one are still living. In the State of Connecticut, down to 1842, out of nine hundred and forty-seven ministers, only thirty-three were not graduates. Princeton was started in 1741, one of the fruits of the great revival, and by the New Side of that day. Dartmouth was a missionary school from its inception in 1769; and its catalogue gives the names of more than seven hundred ministers, a quarter-part of all its graduates. And almost all of our later colleges are the fruit of Christian beneficence, and their foundations have been laid with the prayers of our churches; and He who heareth prayer has breathed upon them his divine blessing, and through their influence sanctified our youth for the service of Christ and his Church. They have aspired to realize that ideal of education which Milton had in vision when he said, 'The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection.'

"Yale College," says Lossing, "aside from its intrinsic worth as a seminary of learning, is remarkable for the great number of the leading men of the Revolution who were educated within its walls. That warm and consistent patriot, President Daggett, gave a political tone to the establishment favorable to the republican cause, and it was regarded as the nursery of Whig principles during the Revolution. When New Haven was invaded by Tryon, Yale College was marked for special vengeance; but the invaders retreated hastily, without burning the town. There were very few among the students, during our war for independence, who were imbued with tory principles, and they were generally, if known, rather harshly dealt with."

"Among the most striking acts of the legislation of the Puritans," says Judge Story, "are those which respect the cause of learning and education. Within ten short years after their first settlement, they founded the University of Cambridge, and endowed it with the sum of four hundred pounds,-a sum which, considering their means and their wants, was a most generous