XII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



post of duty and honor, from the humblest to the highest, rising by 

 easy gradations, because by a natural ascent, from the chair of Tutor 

 to that of Professor, from the chair of Professor to that of Vice-Presi- 

 dent, and from the chair of Vice-President to the honors of the Presi- 

 dency ill a critical period, when he was able to lay broad and deep the 

 solid foundatious on which others iiave builded. It is written in the 

 annals of the Church to which he gave his sincere adhesion, whose pul- 

 pit he adorned no less by the sanctity of his life than by the steadftist- 

 ness of his faith, and for the defense of whose doctrine and order he was 

 called again and again to stand in its courts of highest judicature. It 

 is written in the annals of the Smithsonian Institution, for whose pros- 

 perity he was willing to spend and be- spent till the last day of his 

 mortal career. And above all it is written in the pious recollections of 

 a countless host of scholarly men, scattered in all parts of the land, who 

 from year to year went forth from Nassau Hall carrying with them the 

 name and memory of John Maclean embalmed in tlieir hearts by a 

 thousand acts of kindness and of love which transmuted the temporary 

 ties of academic relation into " hooks of steel," binding to him a suc- 

 cessive swarm of youth during two generations of men. 



Of the ripeness and range of Dr. Maclean's scholarship there is no 

 room to speak within the limits of this brief chronicle. He preferred 

 to read the Bible of the old dispensation in the original Hebrew, not 

 only that he might get as near as possible to " the lively oracles of 

 God," but because Hebrew was to him a familiar tongue. In the Greek 

 language and literature he was a master and for long years an expert 

 professor. The Latin tongue he wrote with a facility and grace which 

 caused his pen to be put in frequent requisition whenever, for the pur- 

 poses of academic disquisition, a draught was to be made on the stately 

 speech of ancient Rome. As a preacher, he was sound and logical. 

 As a teacher, he was solid and thorough, looking rather to the substance 

 than the form of his instruction. As an executive officer, he had that 

 "wisdom of business" which Lord Bacon praises, because he never 

 sought an end which he did not believe to be right, and therefore he 

 was able to pursue all the ends he aimed at with the directness in- 

 spired by a clear intelligence and a pure heart. In all things he was 

 the very soul of Christian honor. 



Great and good as teacher, preacher, and ruler, the man in Dr. Mac- 

 lean was something greater, better, and broader than any of the forms 

 or manifestations under which he was officially called to reveal himself 

 in the performance of his public functions. The man should always be 

 greater than the functionary. As the altar which sanctifies the gift is 

 greater than any gift that can be laid upon it, so Dr. Maclean was 

 greater in the sweetness and light of his gentle and candid nature than 

 was apparent to those who never knew the " hidden man of the heart;" 

 for high and holy as were his gifts in the sigdt of men, those gifts re- 

 ceived their best consecration from the altar of the sanctified manhood 

 on which he reverently laid them. 



