41 



We regard the death of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., as a puhlic ca- 

 lamity, which must fill all who knew his eminent worth with the pro- 

 foundest grief. Not only the University, but the State, has suffered an 

 irreparable loss in being thus suddenly deprived of the invaluable servi- 

 ces of one of her most laborious, ardent and successful instructors of 

 youth. And we have abundant reason to know that there are those among 

 the best and ablest in nearly every State of the Union who have carried 

 with them from the University the impression of his high and generous 

 character as a christian gentleman and scholar, who will mourn his death 

 as a personal bereavement. The church also, in this general grief, sor- 

 rows most of all, because she has lost, in this distinguished philosopher an 

 eminent christian minister and a noble exemplar of the high and essential 

 harmony of Science and Religion. Through the whole of a long life he 

 was an assiduous and enthusiastic devotee of Science ; and to us there is 

 something of a melancholy, poetic grandeur and greatness in the place and 

 manner of his death— whereby Science in burying one of her worthiest 

 eons has hallowed a new Pisgah, which future generations shall know and 



mark. 



His career on earth is closed ; and this mournful dispensation of Divine 

 Providence brings forcibly to the mind of us all the solemn admonition of 

 our Lord, " Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son 

 of Man Cometh." 



Resolved, That we deeply sympathies with the Faculty of the University, 

 of which he was the oldest member, and has been so long an ornament and 

 pillar, in the great loss they have sustained in this sudden and mournful 

 visitation. 



Resolved, That a copy of this paper be sent to the family of Dr. Mitch- 

 ell, not only to convey to them the expression of our sincere sympathy and 

 condolence, but to remind them that though he, their stay and guide and 

 light, is taken away from them and us, all is not taken ; that there is still 

 left to them an imperishable heritage in the good fame and the wide and 

 distinguished usefulness of this eminent servant of the Church and of the 

 country. 



By order of the Faculty. C. D. FISHBURN, Clerk. 



MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF CHAPEL HILL. 



Chapel Hill, July L3, 1857. 

 Whereas, It has pleased Our Heavenly Father in whose hands alone 

 are the issues of life and death, to call from "kmong us our venerable and 



