Ixxi 



In the pursuits of the young student Mr. Pickering always manifested a lively 

 interest, and tlie young were strongly attracted to him. With some of the gifted 

 students of our University he maintained a literary correspondence. Among those 

 of them who have passed away may be named Samuel Harris, with whom, many 

 years ago, he corresponded on the Hebrew and other learned languages, and whose 

 untimely death deprived the country of one who promised to be an accomplished 

 Oriental scholar. 



We must not omit all notice of one of the most laborious of Mr. Pickering's un- 

 dertakings in this class of services. Not long before his removal to Boston, a 

 protracted series of arduous and perplexing duties was imposed upon him as chair- 

 man of a committee " appointed to inquire into the practicability and e.xpediency 

 of establishing manufactures in Salem." His elaborate and able report on the sub- 

 ject was published in 1826, and affords striking evidence of his practical, as well as 

 his intellectual, talents. 



A more characteristic instance of generous service occurs to our recollection, 

 which deserves mention as manifesting his ever vigilant attention to the interests of 

 learning. He promoted and prepared an ably written memorial to Congress, from 

 the principal citizens of Salem, in 1820, for the reduction of duties on the importa- 

 tion of certain foreign books. It was the first presented to the government on that 

 subject, though followed by others from various learned bodies, the object being 

 considered important to the cause of literature and science in the United States. 



Note E. Page xliv. 



Mr. Pickering, in his Address before the American Oriental Society, observes, 

 " that the various new sources of information which modern perseverance and zeal 

 have opened to us have materially extended the boundaries of a liberal education ; 

 and it has become indispensable to unite with our Greek and Roman a portion of 

 Oriental learning. If there were no other motive for the pursuit of this branch of 

 knowledge, there would be a sufficient one in the fact, that the great parent lan- 

 guage of India, the Sanscrit, is now found to be so extensively incorporated into 

 the Greek, Latin, and other languages of Europe, and, above all, in those which 

 we consider as peculiarly belonging to the Teutonic or German family, that no 



