course, were written when he was fifteen years of age. His attachment to music, particularly sacred music, was ardent. His voice was at once melodious and powerful; and his ear exquisitely discriminating. He began a collection of church music in the course of the year, but left it unfinished, probably because it interfered with his more severe and important pursuits.

This may with propriety be considered as the era of his excessive devotion to study, and the acquisition of knowledge. At the commencement of the year he formed a resolution, to which he faithfully adhered during the remainder of his collegiate life, to employ fourteen hours each day in close application to his studies. Such intense and unwearied diligence, with the aid of his natural genius, soon established his reputation as a scholar, and placed him among the first of his class. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the year 1769, when he was a little past seventeen years of age. At the Commencement, but a single appointment was made from the class, which received the degree of Bachelors. Before giving it out, the President sent for Dwight and Strong*, and informed them, that in the view of the officers of College they were at the head of the class, and equally deserving of the appointment; but as Strong was the elder of the two, it would be given to him at that time, and to Dwight when the class entered on the degree of Masters.

A short time after leaving College, he was employed to take charge of a grammar school at New Haven. In this situation he continued two years, highly esteemed as an instructor both by his pupils and their parents. This was the commencement

The late Dr. Strong of Hartford.

of that course of life, which, with very little interruption, he pursued for nearly fifty years: a course of life in which Providence had peculiarly qualified him to excel. Probably few men have lived, who, in the same mode, have rendered more eminent services to mankind.

During these two years, he made great advancement in literature and science. His time was regularly divided, and occupied :-six hours in each day in school; eight hours in close and severe study; and the remaining ten hours in exercise and sleep.

In September, 1771, when he was past nineteen, he was chosen a tutor in Yale College. In this situation he remained for six succeeding years, performing its duties with distinguished success and reputation.

When he entered upon the office, more than half the members of his class were older than himself; and the freshman, who waited upon him, was thirtytwo years of age*. Notwithstanding a circumstance generally so disadvantageous, he proceeded in the discharge of his official duties with firmness and assiduity; and in a short time gained a reputation for skill in the government and instruction of his class rarely known in the former experience of the College. It ought here to be observed, that the study of the classics and of the mathematics had been for a number of years vigorously pursued, owing to the exertions of several superior men; and the discipline of the Seminary raised to a higher standard. His associates were men of distinguished talents; and by their united efforts the institution soon acquired a new and most important character. The study of Rhetoric had been, till then, in a great measure neg

• David Bushnell, a man of strong mechanical genius, and the inventor of the Submarine Boat."

lected. The period, from 1771 to 1777, will ever be considered as forming an era in the history of the College. Through the exertions and influence of Howe, Trumbull, and Dwight, a taste for those pursuits was excited; the effects of which have been experienced to the present time. The "art of speaking" had previously been thought scarcely worthy of attention. Of so much importance, however, was it considered by these gentlemen, that they not only taught it to their respective classes, but, from time to time, went upon the College stage to enforce their precepts by their example. Poetry was cultivated by them, especially by Trumbull and Dwight, with all the enthusiasm of genius. It was in the first year of his tutorship, at the age of nineteen, that the subject of this Memoir commenced writing the CONQUEST OF CANAAN, a regular epic poem, founded upon the portion of sacred history to which its title refers, and which was finished in the year 1774, when he was twenty-two years of age.

No tutor was ever more faithful in the instruction of his class. His attention to their oratory has been mentioned. In addition to the customary mathematical studies, he carried them through Spherics and Fluxions, and went as far as any of them would accompany him into the Principia of Newton. He also delivered to them a series of lectures on style and composition, on a plan very similar to that contained in the Lectures of Blair, which were not published until a considerable time afterwards. His application to study during the time he remained in office was intense. He began to study so early in the morning as to require candle-light, and continued the employment until late at night.

While a tutor, he was inoculated for the smallpox. The disease affected him mildly; but upon his

recovery, he too soon resumed his former habit of severe application to study. Long before this, his eyes had been greatly weakened, and probably for that reason were more sensibly affected by the small-pox. On being subjected to such rigorous exercise, before they had recovered their natural energy, they were so far injured as to cause him, through life, a great degree of pain and embarrassment.

In the year 1772, he received the degree of Master of Arts. On that occasion he delivered, as an exercise at the public Commencement, "A Dissertation on the History, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible." This production, composed and delivered by a youth of twenty, on a subject then so new and of such high interest, was received by the audience with the strongest marks of approbation. A copy was immediately requested for the Press; and it was afterwards re-published, both in this country and in Europe. We have seen it mentioned, in several instances, with very high respect on the other side of the Atlantic. It is now rarely to be met with. Those, who have read it, need not be informed, that it was an effort of no common character. It unfolded, at that early age, the bolder features of the Author's mind; and evinced uncommon maturity of judgment and taste. The style is dignified and manly, and formed by a standard truly classical. The field of thought was new in this country. The Lectures of Lowth, if then published, were not known on this side of the Atlantic; nor do we know of any work, except the Bible itself, to which the Author appears to have been indebted for his plan or his illustrations. The knowledge of criticism displayed in it is profound; the conceptions are bold and original; the images are beautiful and distinct; and the very spirit, which breathes in the Sacred Writers, appears to animate

his own mind. This was his only effort in public, which his father ever witnessed.

At a subsequent period, during his residence in College as a tutor, he engaged deeply in the study of the higher branches of the Mathematics. Among the treatises on this science, to which his attention was directed, was Newton's Principia, which he studied with the utmost care and attention, and demonstrated, in course, all but two of the propositions, in that profound and elaborate work. This difficult but delightful science, in which the mind is always guided by certainty in its discovery of truth, so fully engrossed his attention, and his thoughts, that, for a time, he lost even his relish for poetry; and it was not without difficulty that his fondness for it was recovered.

During the second year of his tutorship, he attempted, by restricting his diet, to remove the necessity for bodily exercise, and yet to secure himself from the dulness incident to a full habit and inactive life. He began by lessening the quantity of his food at dinner; and gradually reduced it, until he confined himself to twelve mouthfuls. After a six months' experiment of this regimen, being still somewhat dissatisfied with its effects, and feeling less clearness of apprehension than was desirable, he confined himself for a considerable period to a vegetable diet, without, however, increasing the quantity. His other meals were proportionally light and abstemious.

After this system of study and diet had been pursued about a twelvemonth, his health began insensibly to decline, and his constitution, naturally vigorous, to give way. During the summer of 1774, he first perceived the reality of this change; but had no suspicion of the cause. Though he had suffered several distressing attacks of the bilious cholic before the