Dr. Hale instructed easily in every department of learning. He was most fond of ethical and metaphysical studies. His class room will never be forgotten by those who delighted to go to it, and regretted to leave it. His courses of lectures for many years included Civil and Ecclesiastical Architecture. He loved music, and read it as easily as the words. His diction was always remarkable for the best English, expressed in the happiest style. His memory and power of association were almost unerring. His temper was held in the nicest balance. In preaching he was a Chrysostom in wisdom, truth, and sweetness.
We have not space to dwell upon this theme, nor upon the wholesome influence which Dr. Hale exerted in the diocese in which he was placed, both towards preparing the way for a second diocese in the State of New York, and in ministering in his place to its unity and order, when under the Episcopal charge of the noble De Lancey. In 1858, he left Hobart (once Geneva) College, and in 1859 he left Geneva, with this distinguished record: "The thorough and skillful teacher, the laborious and self-sacrificing president, the sympathizing friend, the genial companion, the judicious adviser, the courteous Christian gentleman; in all these relations so bearing himself as to gain the profound respect and tender affection of all who knew him."
Dr. Hale retired to live in Newburyport, near his birth-place and by the graves of his forefathers, with his children around him. Even then "his influence upon the community distilled like the dews of heaven to gladden the earth." He departed to his rest in Paradise on the 15th of July, 1863. Dr. Hale had four sons and three daughters, of whom the sons (one has since departed) and one daughter survived him.
His published works, beside communications to newspapers on current topics, are: "An Address to the Public from the Trustees of Gardiner Lyceum," 1822. "An Inaugural Address at Gardiner," 1823. "Address to the Public in regard to the Lyceum," 1824. "Introduction to the Mechanical Principles of Carpentry," 1827. "Sermon before the Convention of New Hampshire," 1830. "Lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, On the Best Method of Teaching Natural Philosophy," 1830. "Sermon, On the Unity of God, preached before the Convention of the Eastern Diocese," 1832. "Scriptural Illustrations of the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church," 1835. "Valedictory Letter to the Trustees of Dartmouth College," 1835. "Inaugural Address, Geneva College, On the Equalizing and Practical Tendency of Colleges," 1836. "A Lecture before the Young Men's Association of Geneva, On Liberty and Law," 1838. "Baccalaureate: Education in its Relations to a Free Government," 1838. "The Present State of the Question," a pamphlet, in relation to the division of the Diocese of New York, 1838. "Baccalaureate: The Languages," 1839. "Baccalaureate: Mathematics," 1841. "Lecture on the Sources and Means of Education," 1846. "Baccalaureate: The Position of the College, the State, and the Church," 1847. "Historical Notices of Geneva College," 1849. "Sermon on the Death of Major Douglass," 1849.
Professor Alpheus Crosby, who was elected to the Chair of Greek and Latin in the College, in 1833, Professor Calvin E. Stowe having filled the position in the interval after the death of Professor Chamberlain, was the son of Dr. Asa and Abigail (Russell) Crosby, and was born at Sandwich, N. H., October 13, 1810. Although less than twenty-three years of age, his superior scholarship fully warranted the appointment. After ably filling this chair several years, by a division of labor he was permitted to confine himself exclusively to the Greek language and literature. To his refined and sensitive nature the stern old Roman was less attractive than the more polished Greek. It is quite probable that Professor Crosby was more largely indebted than he himself was aware to the moulding influence of his amiable and excellent mother, for that particular type of mind and heart which placed him among the foremost Grecian scholars of his time. Professor Crosby's career as a linguist illustrated two distinct forms of success. He excelled both as a teacher and as an author. His success as a teacher no one will question who had the privilege of listening to his instructions, if only for a single hour. He questioned the student with a critical eye and ear, but a womanly gentleness. His translations might well be likened to celestial music, long pent-up in foreign caves, but now finding rich and varied and sweet expression, in the mother tongue. His success as an author is sufficiently indicated by the extensive use of his text-books, especially the "Greek Grammar."
His classmate, Rev. Dr. Tenney, says:
"It is very pleasant for me to bring back before me your brother as I remember him at the commencement of our college life. He was, as you know, a boy of twelve years, dressed in a boy's jacket with a ruffled shirt, collar coming down over his shoulders, such as boys wore in those days—playful as a kitten, and as innocent as the purest-minded girl. He was probably the best fitted (as the phrase is) for college, of any member of the class. He had, I believe, gone over all the studies of the Sophomore year. Without any apparent effort he maintained his preëminence through his entire college course, not only in the Languages, but also in Mathematics and Mental Philosophy. My recollection is that he had committed to memory all the Greek primitives before he left college, yet with all his preëminence as a scholar he never seemed to have the remotest consciousness that there was anything remarkable about himself. We had ambitious men in the class and some bitter rivalries, but no one ever thought of questioning his position. In short he was both the pet and pride of the class; his conscientiousness as a boy was that which characterized him as a man. I do not think he would have done a consciously wrong thing for his right hand. I remember being with him one Sabbath, when a letter was handed him from home, and his views of the sacredness of the Sabbath were such that he would not open it until the Sabbath was passed. I mention this, not to illustrate the earnestness of his conscience, but simply to show its authority over him.
"As your brother was the youngest of the class, I was one of the oldest, but from the commencement of our class life our intimacy was constant. I could very readily tell why I was attracted to him, but his friendship for me I could never understand; sure I was that I never loved any other man as I did him; he visited me a number of times; as I was at his home in Salem not long before his lamented death, he seemed to me the same at the end as he was at the beginning, one of the most lovable and remarkable men I ever knew, and the world has seemed to be poorer ever since he left it."
Mr. C. C. Chase, Principal of the High School in Lowell, of the class of 1839, says: