"And of this body of men was Ezekiel Webster, the elder brother of Daniel, a man of remarkable intellectual endowments; in sagacity and judgment, in the opinion of those who knew them both, fully equal to his distinguished brother, well read, as all the gentlemen of the old school were, in the old English authors; a profound lawyer, and, at times when he could be prevailed upon to speak, as eloquent as his brother; of commanding personal presence, which in no way can be so well described as by borrowing a Homeric epithet, for he was truly a 'king' among 'men.'
"Such was the body of men whose grave and majestic air used to impress the writer of this sketch, when the Commencements came round, in his college days, with the same feeling of awe and reverence with which the barbarians' were inspired when they first looked in upon the Roman Senate, supposing that they were looking upon an assembly of kings."
If to these we add the names of the eminent men who were the colleagues of the founder, and of Nathaniel Niles, Jonathan Freeman, Thomas W. Thompson, Stephen Jacob, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Bell, Asa McFarland, Seth Payson, Samuel Prentiss, George Sullivan, John Aiken, William Reed, Samuel Delano, Samuel Fletcher, Nathaniel Bouton, Silas Aiken, Joel Parker, Richard Fletcher, and the honored Governors of the State, we are fully impressed with the fact that the interests of the college have been in the keeping of wise and prudent guardians.
CHAPTER XXX.
LABORS OF DARTMOUTH ALUMNI.—CONCLUSION.
As Dartmouth was founded as an evangelizing agency, and every stone was laid in firm reliance upon Him to whom all was consecrated, there was good ground of hope that it would be a strong and durable pillar in the great temple of Christian learning. Its record is a realization of the hopes of its noble and devoted founders.
In his "Narrative" for 1771 (p. 29) Dr. Wheelock, alluding to the period immediately following his removal to Hanover, says: "there were evident impressions upon the minds of a number of my family and school which soon became universal, insomuch that scarcely one remained who did not feel a greater or less degree of it, till the whole lump seemed to be leavened by it, and love, peace, joy; satisfaction and contentment reigned through the whole. The 23d day of January (1771) was kept as a day of solemn fasting and prayer, on which I gathered a church in this college and school, which consisted of twenty-seven members."
His biographer, writing early in the present century, says: "The college has been repeatedly favored with remarkable religious impressions on the minds of the students. These showers of divine grace have produced streams which have refreshed the garden of the Lord, and made glad the city of our God. The young men in this school of the prophets have, at these seasons, been powerfully and lastingly affected; they have gone forth as 'angels of the churches;' the work of God has prospered in their hands; many of their people have been turned to righteousness."