344 MARK HOPKINS. 



time was chosen Vice-President of that institution, Dr. Nott, the Pres- 

 ident, needing not infrequent aid in a charge which he had borne for 

 nearly half a century. 



In 1861, Dr. Hickock, as Acting President, assumed in full the 

 duties of the office, and in 1867 was chosen as Dr. Nott's successor. 

 In the following year he resigned the Presidency, and has since lived 

 in retirement, wellnigh surviving the eminent reputation which he long 

 bore as a teacher and an author. Thirty years ago his was probably 

 the foremost name among the metaphysical writers in America. His 

 several treatises on Psychology and Ethics manifest equally the most 

 intimate conversance with the history of philosophy, and a rare capacity 

 of original speculation and profound reasoning. Had his command 

 of English style been commensurate with his learning and ability, his 

 books would have won an enduring place among the master-works of 

 his time. No man ever toiled through one of them without beiug 

 doubly rewarded in the mental athleticism demanded for its perusal 

 and in the wealth of thought to which he has found access ; and men 

 by far his inferiors have drawn from him much which, digested and 

 assimilated, they have given to the world as their own. But deficiency 

 in the arts of sentence-building and book-making has so limited the 

 circulation of his works, that of the younger men of culture and science 

 who have seen the notice of his death few know that in his special 

 department he has left, if equals, no superior. 



MARK HOPKINS. 



Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., was born at Stockbridge, February 

 4, 1802, and died at Williamstown, June 17, 1887. He graduated at 

 Williams College in 1824, remained at the College as Tutor for two 

 years, then studied medicine, and commenced the practice of his profes- 

 sion in New York in 1829. The following year he was recalled to 

 Williams College as Professor of Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, and 

 became President in 1836, retaining during his presidency a large por- 

 tion of his work as a teacher, and subsequently filling, in addition to 

 his duty as President, the office of Professor of Christian Theology. 

 Several years before his death he resigned the presidency, but retained 

 the professorship, and until the close of his life in the quality of his 

 work as an instructor he was unsurpassed, if not unequalled. Among 

 our many distinguished teachers the foremost reputation, as we think, 

 has by general consent been conceded to him. He had the great ad- 

 vantage of small classes, so that he could enter into familiar relations 



