OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: MAY 24, 1870. 227 



without reference to its availableness for immediate service ; and he 

 thus became possessed of much of that rare and recondite erudition 

 which enriches and fertilizes the mind, though it may contribute but 

 little to one's professional ability or fame. 



As a preacher, Dr. Frothingham held a high and somewhat unique 

 position. His sermons were most appreciated by minds of the largest 

 culture, and yet in thought and in diction they were not above the 

 comprehension of any person of moderate intelligence. Here his ex- 

 quisite taste gave at once law, scope, and limit. Quaint, but never 

 irreverent; elegant in style, yet without lapsing into euphuism ; never 

 forgetting the solemnity of time, place, and purpose, yet instinctively 

 shunning the mere commonplaces of devout thought; solicitous always 

 to instruct and impress his hearers, and ready to avail himself, for this 

 end, of as wide a diversity of topics, illustrations, and allusions, as was 

 consistent with the sacredness of the occasion, — he wrote few sermons 

 that were not listened to with vivid interest, and held in enduring re- 

 membrance. Yet his sermons by no means indicated his full capacity 

 of grappling with the highest and the greatest subjects. He seemed 

 unwilling to write anything that was not whole and complete in itself; 

 and there are many topics on which it is impossible to write a perfectly 

 rounded and finished treatise that can be read in half an hour. He 

 essayed no subject which could not be thus compressed naturally and 

 gracefully. His range therefore, as a preacher, was broad, rather than 

 high or deep ; but within that range few ministers have been so uni- 

 formly apt, rich, and edifying. He was peculiarly felicitous, not only 

 in his treatment of special occasions for pulpit utterance, but in creating 

 such occasions ; so that whatever had worthily claimed the attention or 

 interest of his hearers during the week was not unlikely on Sunday to 

 be presented in its religious aspects and lessons. 



As a poet, Dr. Frothingham won indeed a high reputation, but a 

 fame far below his merit. As he wrote no long poem, and published 

 no collection of his poetry till very late in life, the public, and even his 

 friends, awoke but slowly and tardily to the recognition of his genius 

 in this department. But as from time to time a hymn or a metrical 

 composition, in conception a gem of pure radiance in a setting of 

 wonderful beauty, appeared under his signature, in the programme of 

 a religious or civic festival, or in the pages of a monthly or quarterly, 

 it was felt more and more that he was indeed a poet by divine ri^ht 

 and gift ; and there are some of his lyrics that can hardly fail to per- 



