Notice of the late Sheldon Clark. 219 



of what he heard, read and saw ; the questions agitated in the 

 discussions of the senior class, with the decisions of the president 

 upon them, are recorded in his note-book, as are the texts and 

 doctrines of the sermons in the college chapel ; and there are 

 memoranda, but less extensive, of the topics canvassed in the 

 lectures on science. 



Among his numerous manuscripts, recording the lucubrations 

 of his own mind, there is a remarkable tract, dated at New Ha- 

 ven, January, 1812, during this winter's residence here, giving 

 an account of a dream or vision of the general judgment. It is 

 not impossible that it may have been suggested by Bunyan's 

 Pilgrim's Progress. Without its quaintness, it is written in the 

 same style of sustained allegory, and it is carried on with remark- 

 able unity of design. The language is elevated and beautiful, 

 the imagery splendid and sublime, and with slight corrections, it 

 would form an interesting literary fragment. It is remarkable 

 also for deep seriousness, — the most reverential exhibition of 

 the heavenly world, and of the antecedents, concomitants, and 

 results of the judgment of the great day. 



Ten years rolled on their course, and I knew nothing more of 

 Mr. Clark than that he was occupied with his rural labors in the 

 summer, and with teaching the district school in the winter. He 

 was occasionally seen in town, and sometimes brought me min- 

 erals for inspection ; but no hint escaped him of what, as after- 

 wards appeared, was passing in his mind, and which he brought 

 forth in an intelligible form towards the close of 1822, when he 

 called on me, and solicited a private interview. 



In this interview, which took place in the office of the labor- 

 atory of Yale College, no one being present but Mr. Clark and 

 myself, he stated, that the death of his grandfather had put him 

 into possession of about twenty thousand dollars, which, by his 

 industry and economy, he had increased to twenty-five thousand 

 — that he had no family, and might never have one — that his re- 

 lations were numerous, that were his property divided among 

 them, the dividend of each would be small, and that he was 

 therefore disposed to appropriate, at least a part of his estate, to the 

 encouragement of learning. In further explanation of his views, 

 he expressed himself in terms similar to those which he used, ten 

 years afterwards, in reply to the senior class of 1833, on the 

 occasion of their presenting him a letter of thanks for his tele- 



