EDWARD JAMES YOUNG. 615 



its founder, Gideon F. Thayer, and passed in 1839 to the Boston 

 Latin School of which Epes Sargent Dixwell was then Head Master. 

 He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1848. For the 

 next two years he was a teacher in the Brimmer School and the Boston 

 Latin School! In 1850 he entered the Harvard Divinity School which 

 was then at a low ebb academically, having but two resident professors. 

 Young seems to have exhausted the resources of the School in two years, 

 for in 1852 he went to Germany where he spent four years in theolog- 

 ical study, principally at Gottingen and Halle. At that time in 

 Germany theology was passing through a period of reaction from the 

 powerful influence of Schleiermacher, coinciding with the political reac- 

 tion after the troubles of 1848. Neo-Lutherans were sharply attacking 

 both the Reformed Church and the Party of Union inspired not more 

 by zeal for orthodoxy than by ecclesiastical and political chauvinism. 

 Of this conflict, Young gave an excellent account in three articles 

 published in the Christian Examiner of May and November, 1855 

 and January 1856, in one of which he made a vigorous plea for the 

 enlargement of theological education at Harvard. These articles had 

 been preceded by an elaborate survey of recent theological publica- 

 tions in Germany (Christian Examiner, May 1854) and a translation 

 of the introductory article of the new "Protestant Church Gazette" 

 by H. Krause (Monthly Religious Magazine, March 1854). He also 

 translated into English the first volume of Erdmann's History of 

 Philosophy which, however, failed to find a publisher. Returning to 

 this country, he was ordained pastor of the Channing Religious 

 Society in Newton, (June 18, 1857), where he remained until 1869 

 when he was appointed Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other 

 Oriental Languages and Dexter Lecturer on Biblical Literature in 

 Harvard University. For this position he had served an apprentice- 

 ship for one year as teacher of the Bible in the Boston School for the 

 Ministry. But he came to Harvard at a peculiarly unpropitious time 

 for a teacher of Hebrew. The language was still required but students 

 had lost interest in it on account of changing opinions as to the inspira- 

 tion and authority of the Bible coincident with broadening theories 

 concerning the function of a minister in the life of the community. 

 It was often argued that if the teacher were more interesting, the 

 students would be more interested whereas the real reason lay deeper 

 than the merits or demerits of any particular instructor. In addition, 



