November 1, 1901.] 



SCIENCE, 



671 



and added several original hymns ; David 

 Humphreys, who translated a French 

 tragedy, entitled the ' Widow of Malabar,' 

 and composed several ambitious poems ; 

 and jfinally, Lemuel Hopkins, an honorary 

 graduate. The Harvard historian whom 

 I have already quoted has said that at the 

 time the Hartford wit wrote, no Harvard 

 man had produced literature half as good 

 as theirs. 



Perhaps one may, without offence, at 

 this late day, refer to the ponderosity of 

 this early poetry. ' McFingal ' and ' Hasty 

 Pudding ' and the ' Progress of Dulness ' 

 would hardly be found amusing in these 

 days, although they were mirthful. ' Green- 

 field Hill ' is hard reading. The serious- 

 ness of such subjects as the * Conquest of 

 Canaan,' the ' Vision of Columbus,' the 

 'Anarchiad,' and 'The Last Judgment, a 

 Vision,' was characteristic of the times and 

 was adequately sustained by the serious 

 treatment to which these themes were sub- 

 jected. Indeed, in this period, lofty ideals 

 were entertained, and long and elaborate 

 poems were so naturally attempted that a 

 commencement orator (as late as 1826) de- 

 livered a discourse on ' some of the con- 

 siderations which should influence an epic 

 or a tragic writer in the choice of an era.' 

 The spirit of Hebrew poetry hovered over 

 our elms, more constant than Calliope or 

 Euterpe. It suggested dramas, which have 

 died, it found expression in hymns, which 

 have lived. I could name five of these. 

 Brethren, answer the question of Emer- 

 son — 



Have you eyes to find the five 

 Which five hundred did survive ? 



At the beginning of our second century 

 we come upon the name of John Pierpont, 

 preacher, patriot, advocate of every cause 

 which would improve his fellow men, whose 

 verses are at the front of two recent anthol- 

 ogies. Bryant just missed enrolment among 

 us. He took a dismissal from Williams in 



order to enter Yale, but he did not fulfil 

 his purpose. Fitzgreen Halleck, a native 

 of this county, did not go to any college. 

 Not long after Pierpont, the two Hillhouses 

 were graduated. The elder, James, was 

 author of ' Percy's Masque ' and three other 

 dramas, the last of .which, entitled 'The 

 Judgment, a Vision,' was intended (says 

 the author) to present ' such a view of the 

 last grand spectacle as seemed most sus- 

 ceptible of poetical embellishment.' He was 

 a gifted writer of fine taste and lofty ideals ; 

 and his writings were most highly esteemed 

 by the generation to which he belonged. 

 His name is dear to us as the poet of 

 Sachem's wood, the beautiful park at the 

 head of Hillhouse Avenue — the park and 

 the avenue alike commemorating his dis- 

 tinguished father, to whom the city of Elms 

 is beyond estimate indebted. For East 

 Rock and West Rock he suggested the 

 names of ' Sassacus ' and ' Regicide.' 



Later came Brainard, cut down in his 

 youth, and brought to life at the call of 

 Whittier ; and William Croswell, son of the 

 rector of Trinity Church, one of the most 

 cultivated of churchmen, whose poems, 

 ten years after he died, were edited by 

 Bishop Coxe. In the class of 1820 were 

 two men whom we honor for so many other 

 reasons that we forget their poetry — Wool- 

 sey and Bacon. As the first quarter of the 

 century closed, the college diploma was 

 given to James G. Percival, that unique, 

 eccentric, impracticable combination of 

 science and literature, learned to super- 

 fluity, versatile to inconstancy, loving na- 

 ture, books, words, yet disliking men as he 

 met them ; geographer, geologist, linguist, 

 lexicographer, poet, with much of the dis- 

 tinction and a fair amount of the infelicity 

 which characterizes genius. His metrical 

 studies are remarkable illustrations of the 

 Laws of Verse. Next came N. P. Willis, 

 graceful in prose and verse, remembered by 

 some for his Biblical lyrics, and bj' others 



