PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 113 



"Life of General Eaton," in the ninth volume of the first series of 

 Sparks's "American Biographies;" his biographical notices accom- 

 panying Longfello^v'^s "Poets and Poetry of Europe ;" his articles in 

 the North American^ upwards of fifty, and in the Christian Examiner, 

 upwards of twenty-five in number ; his contributions to the Neio 

 American Encyclopcedia,* and others less elaborate in the daily journals. 

 If with these we take into vieAv the help which he lent in various 

 ways to education and science, as one of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Education, as one of the school committee for the town of Cambridge, 

 and as Regent of the Smithsonian — to which trust he was elected on 

 the resignation of Mr. Choate, in 1856, and re-elected for the full 

 term of six years in February, 1861 — and if we bring into account, 

 also, his labors for a number of years in the office of Regent in Har- 

 vard University, and that at the same time he gave instructions in a 

 school under the charge of Professor Agassi z, we shall wonder that 

 one man, besides the duties of a very laborious professorship, was 

 able to do so much, and perhaps wonder still more that he did it all 

 so easily to himself and so well. It is rare, we imagine, to find a life 

 of so much faithful, patient industry united to a temper so genial and 

 social as his, so capable of finding entertainment and recreation on 

 every side. 



The services of such an academical officer could not fail to be prized 

 and honored. Years before his election to the presidency of Har- 

 vard, his name was prominent among those who were thought of for 

 that post ; and when President Walker felt compelled by ill-health 

 to retire from the station which he had filled so wisely and satis- 

 factorily, the voice of the public anticipated the votes of the boards 

 which constituted Prof. Felton his successor. He was inaugurated 

 into his new office July the 19th, 1860, and those who heard his ad- 

 dress pronounced upon that occasion, if they had not known the man 

 before, must have felt assured'that his administration would be firm 

 and vigorous. The distinct opinion which he there avows, that no 

 offences against civil order can be tolerated in a college which would 

 not be borne in the wider circles of citizens — that academical walls 

 can furnish no refuge for crimes, nor academical relations justify out- 

 rages on gentlemanly propriety, or on the feelings of fellow-students, 

 was one which commends itself to all who are acquainted with our 

 higher institutions of learning, and which, if united in the carrying 

 of it out with such kindliness as was manifest in the character of 

 President Felton, would strengthen and secure everything that is 

 good in a college life. Whatever temporary obstacle or local custom, 

 "more honored in the breach than in the observance," might oppose 

 for -a time, it is certain that the claims of law and order would at 

 length prevail, and the state of things afterwards become so much 

 the better. 



President Felton entered thus into his new duties, with the con- 

 fidence of the wisest and best on his side, and gave himself up chiefly 



* Some of these were on Agassiz, Athens, Attica, Demosthenes, Euripides, and Homer. 



8 



