XXXIV 



his arguments or consider his subject too deliberately. " Suaviter in 

 modo, fortiter in re," was applicable to both ; but the one could put 

 aside his gentleness of manner when he felt it to be his duty ; the 

 other could hardly be brought to feel it a duty. Both were as ex- 

 emplary in Christian virtue, in the exercise of social benevolence 

 and the domestic affections, and in purity of habits, as they were 

 distinguished in literature and science ; and both would have dis- 

 countenanced by their powerful example those indulgences and 

 practices which often lead the young student into habits more in- 

 jurious to him than any amount of learning can be beneficial. But 

 both, to the deep regret of the University, declined their appoint- 

 ments. 



Seven or eight years later, on the establishment of the Eliot 

 Professorship of Greek Literature, Mr. Pickering was still more 

 urgently pressed to be a candidate for the new professor's chair. 

 A friend to him and to the University was authorized, by the Presi- 

 dent of Harvard College, to ascertain " whether any and what 

 definite amount of compensation would induce him to accede to 

 the proposition." But Mr. Pickering gave no encouragement for 

 proceeding to his election. The literary duties, no doubt, were at- 

 tractive, but the disciplinary cares connected with them had a for- 

 bidding aspect. Some of his friends, moreover, very naturally de- 

 sired for him a sphere of usefulness which appeared to them more 

 eminent and extensive. Nor were they too sanguine in their views 

 of his future eminence. Yet who could now say that he might 

 not have been still more extensively useful, had the direct in- 

 fluence of his superior powers and virtues, his teachings and his 

 example, been exerted upon the numerous young men since edu- 

 cated at the University, and been diffused through them over our 

 whole country ? 



