Merrick.] 228 [Nov. 7, 



seventeen years old, he entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Me., and 

 notwithstanding his limited preparation, he speedily took and maintained 

 throughout his college course, the first place for scholarship, as well as for 

 natural powers. It is stated by Rev. Dr. John Lord, one of his schoolmates 

 at Berwick Academy, that his class were all older than himself, yet that 

 he at once took the lead, and being ahead of his teacher in classics, really 

 taught himself Greek and Latin. He adds that he (Mr. G.) had great pre- 

 cocity of talent in every study to which his attention was turned, and was 

 regarded as a sort of intellectual prodigy by teachers and scholars alike. 

 He graduated at the head of his class at Bowdoin, in 1832, and was ap- 

 pointed master of the Academy at Hallowell, Me. ; soon after which, in 



1834, he became a member of the Theological Seminary at Andover. In 



1835, he was called from Andover to Bowdoin, his Alma Mater, as tutor 

 under the late Henry- W. Longfellow, professor of modern languages. 

 Soon after assuming the duties of this position he was elected to succeed 

 that eminent man, who had resigned the chair. Some faint conception of 

 his abilities and attainments can be drawn from the fact, that such a choice 

 should have fallen upon a man of only twenty-four years of age. Diffident of 

 his own powers, however, and resolved to fit himself more thoroughly for 

 his post, he at once proceeded to Europe and spent nearly two years, study- 

 ing the structure of the language and the literature of Spain, France, Italy 

 and Germany, and maturing his knowledge of philology, which then 

 and always was with him a favorite study, and one in which his intel- 

 lectual powers were strengthened and polished. In 1837, he returned and 

 became an active member of the Faculty of Bowdoin. It is the testimony 

 of Mr. Nehemiah Cleaveland, in his history of that institution, that "Asa 

 teacher and governor, he was assiduous, fearless and most efficient, incul- 

 cating by example as well as precept a liberal culture. Possessing a mind 

 singularly active, clear and comprehensive, with great acumen and power 

 of analysis, it is not strange that metaphysical and moral science largely 

 attracted his regard." Nor were his sympathies and abilities confined in 

 their exercise to his merely professional afiairs. It is the remark of Prof. 

 Egbert C. Smyth, the son of a brother professor, who lived near and was 

 a boyish admirer of Prof. Goodwin, that the two colleagues were asso- 

 ciated in many objects of public concern outside of college duties ; and 

 the same authority mentions his admirable conversational powers, the 

 memory so unfailing and inexhaustible in its resources, the crystal clear- 

 ness of his thought, the aptness of his words, his cheerful and spirited 

 manner. He speaks also of the engaging gifts of his wife (Mary Ran- 

 dall, daughter of Samuel and Hannah Merrick) to whom he had been mar- 

 ried in January, 1838. With her, his delightful home had been established ; 

 and from it the two professors would "habitually walk together to their 

 eleven o'clock recitations ; or from time to time plant together elms and 

 maples which with their own hands had been dug up in the forests." In 

 this charming home, a perpetual fountain of knowledge and life, Prof, and 

 Mrs. Goodwin lived for many years, subsequently transferring it to 



