104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



he entered Harvard College in 1811. Though his straitened circum- 

 stances made long absences for school-keeping necessary, and his health 

 at one time was greatly impaired, he yet maintained a high college 

 rank, and, in mathematics especially, was regarded as at the head of 

 his class. After graduating in 1815, by invitation of the late Stephen 

 Higginson, Esq., he taught a private school at Lancaster, Massachu- 

 setts, in the parish of Rev. Dr. Thayer, with whom he commenced the 

 study of theology while engaged in the instruction of his sons. About 

 this time he thought seriously of devoting himself to the scientific ex- 

 ploration of unknown regions. Mungo Park's Travels had interested 

 him peculiarly in Africa, and arrangements were nearly completed for 

 his entering the service of an English society for African research. 

 The negotiation failed through no backwardness on his part, and from 

 causes which he never fully understood. 



In 1817 he was recalled to Cambridge, as Tutor in Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy, and during the two years for which he held this 

 appointment he completed his preparation for the ministry. In 1819 

 he was ordained pastor of a new Unitarian Church in Baltimore. 

 Here he found himself unwillingly drawn into two separate controver- 

 sies, — one with Rev. Mr. Wyatt, of Baltimore, on " The Ministry, 

 Ritual, and Doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal Church " ; the other 

 with Rev. Dr. Miller, of Princeton, on the " Comparative Moral Ten- 

 dency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines." The letters written in 

 these controversies respectively were published in separate volumes, 

 which, while they are monuments of their author's extensive learning 

 and marked polemic ability, are admirable for their genial temper, their 

 uniform courtesy, and their entire freedom from bitterness and invec- 

 tive. It is worthy of emphatic notice, that both of the divines who 

 were then his earnest antagonists became his warm personal friends. 

 He at the same time edited a monthly theological magazine, for which 

 he furnished the greater part of the materials. He also commenced 

 the editorship of a Collection of Theological Essays and Tracts by va- 

 rious authors, with biographical and critical notices by his own hand, — 

 a work undoubtedly suggested by that well-known series of tracts 

 bearing the name of Bishop Watson. This work was continued 

 through six volumes. During a portion of his residence in Baltimore 

 he served as Chaplain to the House of Representatives in Congress, at 

 a period when that office was not, as now, scrambled for by greedy 

 seekers, but conferred unsought on the best man. 



