THE 



AMERICAN 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 



Art. I. — Memoir of Rev. John Prince, LL. D., late Senior Pas- 

 tor of the First Church in Salem, Mass. ; by Rev. Charles W. 

 Upham. 



Dr. Prince was born in Boston, on the 22d of July, 1751. His 

 parents resided in the north part of the city, and were worthy and 

 excellent members of the religious society distinguished as the ^ew 

 North Church. They were of Puritan descent, and, as was the case 

 with all who worthily claimed that name, were careful to give their 

 son a good education, and to impress upon his mind a reverent sense 

 of religious truth and duty. His father being a mechanic, a hatter 

 by trade, the son was directed to a similar pursuit. He was early 

 bound out as an apprentice to a pewterer and tinman, and continued 

 industriously and faithfully to labor in his calling until his indentures 

 had expired. 



But his genius, from the beginning, had indicated a propensity to 

 a different mode of life. From a child his chief enjoyments were 

 found in books. He was wont to retire fi'om the sports of boyhood. 

 There was no play for him to be compared with the delight of read- 

 ing. During the hours of leisure, in the period of his apprentice- 

 ship, he sought no other recreation than in the acquisition of know- 

 ledge. 



It followed of course, that, upon becoming free, he abandoned his 

 trade and devoted himself to study. In a very short time he was 

 prepared to enter college, and received his bachelor's degree at 

 Cambridge, in 1776, at the age of twenty-five. After leaving col- 

 lege, he was engaged for some time in the instruction of a school. 

 He pursued the study of divinity under the direction of the Rev. 

 Samuel Williams, of Bradford, Mass., a clergyman highly distin- 



Vol. XXXI.— No. 2. 26 



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