JOSEPH LOVERING. 373 



his class were entitled to receive the Master's degree, he delivered 

 the Valedictory Oration, according to the custom of that day. 



Duriug the first year after his graduation, Mr. Lovering taught 

 a small private school in Charlestown. In the autumn of 1834 he 

 entered the Divinity School in Cambridge, and remained there two 

 years. During a part of the academical year 1834-35 he assisted 

 Professor Peirce in the instruction of the College classes in mathe- 

 matics. In 1835-36 he was Proctor aud Instructor in mathemat- 

 ics, and during a part of the year he conducted the morning and 

 evening services in the College Chapel in place of the regularly 

 officiating clergyman. In 1836-37 he was Tutor in Mathematics 

 aud Lecturer in Natural Philosophy, taking the work of Profes- 

 sor Farrar, whose failing health had led him to resign, and in 1838 

 he definitely succeeded Professor Farrar as Hollis Professor of 

 Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. The active duties of this 

 office Professor Lovering discharged without assistance for the un- 

 precedented term of fifty years and on resigning in 1888 he was 

 appointed by the Corporation of the University Hollis Professor 

 Emeritus, and thus continued his connection with the institution 

 until his death, — in all, from 1834 to 1892, a period of fifty-eight 

 years, thus exceeding by three years the term of Tutor Flynt (1699- 

 1754), hitherto regarded as the College Nestor. 



It must have been a severe ordeal to a young man to succeed 

 such a brilliant lecturer as Professor Farrar ; but the event showed 

 that, although a lecturer of a very different type, Professor Lover- 

 insfs instruction was no less effective than that of his celebrated 

 and popular predecessor. Professor Lovering delivered nine courses 

 of twelve lectures each before the Lowell Institute, and the first 

 four of these, given at the Odeon on Federal Street between 

 1840 and 1844, the writer attended, and remembers distinctly how 

 instructive and popular they were. Professor Lovering had great 

 clearness of thought and singular definiteness and felicity of ex- 

 pression. He was apt in illustration, and a quiet humor often en- 

 livened what would have been otherwise a dry demonstration. He 

 gave most careful attention to the mechanical preparation of his 

 lectures, and his experiments rarely failed of success. Besides his 

 regular college lectures, during term time always one and usu- 

 ally two a week for a long period of years, and the lectures at 

 the Lowell Institute above referred to, Professor Lovering gave 

 shorter courses at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the 

 Peabodv Institute of Baltimore, and the Charitable Mechanics' 



