428 THOMAS HILL. 



calculation he undoubtedly omitted two thirds of the intermediate steps 

 required by the rules of the arithmetic, and the Tutor condemned his 

 work because he missed in it the processes which a less apt arithmetician 

 would have written out in full. He had become thoroughly grounded 

 in the elements of the Greek and Latin tongues, and was from that 

 time onward an accomplished classical scholar, insomuch that when, 

 during his Presidency at Harvard, he was obliged on one occasion to 

 make a Latin speech of some length, Professor Lane, to whom it was 

 submitted, pronounced it faultless. He held the first place in his class, 

 until during his Junior year he broke down from overwork, and was 

 obliged to leave Cambridge for a while. He always regarded his 

 memory as having been somewhat impaired by that illness ; but if so, 

 it must have previously been preternaturally capacious and retentive ; 

 for in after years he seemed never at a loss in recalling whatever he 

 had read, heard, or known, even in the minutest details. He grad- 

 uated the second in his class. In mathematics he had so far distin- 

 guished himself that Professor Peirce persistently attempted to dis- 

 suade him from the ministry, and to induce him to devote himself 

 entirely to mathematical and physical science. He had also the offer 

 of a high position — the directorship, if I am rightly informed — in 

 the National Observatory at Washington, and he was fully aware 

 of the distinction which he was sure to attain as a man of science ; 

 but the profession that he had chosen held at that early time, and 

 held equally to the day of his death, the supreme place in his re- 

 gard, as a post of duty, of privilege,, and of happiness, — a post 

 which he retained in part after he resigned his first pastorate, and 

 which it was his special joy co resume in full after an interval of 

 thirteen years. 



While he was in college he invented an instrument for calculating 

 eclipses and occultations, for which he received, in 1843, the Scott 

 Medal of the Franklin Institute. His Commencement oration was on 

 " The Mathematics," and was described at the time as " the most pro- 

 found of the exercises of the day," and as " characterized by peculiar 

 soundness of thought and rare powers of reflection." He had preached 

 while in college, and had so far anticipated the studies of the Divinity 

 School that, on graduating, he entered the Middle Class. In the au- 

 tumn of 1845 he was invited to become pastor of the First Church in 

 Waltham, and was ordained for that charge on the 24th of December. 

 Here he passed fourteen years, which he regarded as the happiest of 

 his life. He won not only the confidence and warm affection of those 

 under his immediate charge, but a foremost place in the esteem and 



