114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 



to administrative functions, not without deep regrets, we are sure, 

 at leaving those pleasant toils which had filled thirty years of his 

 life. But Divine Providence had scarcely invested him with his new 

 authority when he w^as summoned away from these earthly responsi- 

 bilities and labors. A little less than two years of his official life 

 had elapsed when the complaint of which he died — hypertrophy of 

 the heart — showed itself in an aggravated form, after having mani- 

 fested its presence in his system for some twenty years. He was not, 

 however, so ill at first but that he could undertake a journey, and it 

 was hoped that a change of climate might do him good. Setting out 

 for Washington — where he intended to be present at a meeting of 

 the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution — he had reached the 

 house of his brother in Chester, Pennsylvania, and was seized with 

 an attack of disease during the ensuing night. Here he breathed 

 his last, Wednesday, the 26th of February, 1862. His remains were 

 removed to Cambridge, where a sermon on his death was preached, 

 March the 9th, by Dr. Peabody, Preacher to the University, and ap- 

 propriate resolutions, in honor of his memory, were passed by the 

 Governing Boards, the Faculties, and others. 



We have spoken of President Felton as a scholar and a worker, 

 earnest and successful, in the field where Providence placed him. 

 But the man is far more in the scale than the scholar. Let us then 

 look for a few moments at the man in his traits of mind and character, 

 and in the conduct of life. 



His mind, as may have already appeared from what we have said 

 of his scholarship, was a rounded, well-balanced, many-sided one, 

 where no trait was deficient. Yet the predominance of the Eesthetic 

 faculty, with the attendant pleasure derived from art and the works 

 of creative intellect, may have given that direction towards scholar- 

 ship and belles lettres, towards the concrete form rather than the 

 abstract metaphysical principle, which somewhat characterized him. 

 His simple, correct taste, and his judgment, which estimated prob- 

 abilities aright, and looked below the show and the surface, although, 

 no doubt, cultivated by the study of language, and especially of Greek 

 literature, must have had, beyond question, an independent natural 

 foundation. He had a native curiosity and thirst for knowledge, which 

 felt and grasped on every side; if you wanted to know about Jasmin, 

 the Provenpal Burns, he had read his poems, he could speak of the 

 Finnish mythology, and in his later years especially he entered with 

 zeal into the progress of natural science. Nor ought his keen sense 

 of the ludicrous and his humor to be forgotten here, which made him 

 the most entertaining of companions without undermining the manli- 

 ness of his character. And the easy play of his faculties, working 

 rapidly and smoothly, without jar or much effort, deserves especial 

 notice. 



Among the traits of President Felton' s character may be mentioned 

 kindness and sympathy, united with moral energy, courage and firm- 

 ness in acting up to his convictions. His kindly nature showed itself 

 in the forms of sociality, friendliness, and generosity reaching to 

 self-sacrifice. His friendship extended widely beyond the borders 



