The History of Dartmouth College

by Baxter Perry Smith

"Prof. Roswell Shurtleff, D.D., says of him: 'Dr. Smith was rather above the middling stature, straight, and well proportioned. His head was well formed, though blanched and bald somewhat in advance of his years. His face, too, as to its lineaments, was very regular and comely. His eyes were of a light-blue color, and tolerably clear.

"'As a linguist, he was minutely accurate, and faithful to his pupils, although I used to doubt whether he was familiar with the classic writers much beyond the field of his daily instructions. But in his day, philology, like many other sciences, was comparatively in its cradle, especially in this country. His reputation in his profession depended chiefly on the recitations; and there he was perfect to a proverb. The student never thought of appealing from his decision.

"'In his disposition he was very kind and obliging, and remarkably tender of the feelings of his pupils—a civility which was always duly returned.

"'In religious sentiment, he was unexceptionably orthodox, though fearful of Hopkinsianism, which made some noise in the country at that period. His voice was full and clear, and his articulation very distinct. His sermons were written out with great accuracy, but were perhaps deficient in pungency of application. On the whole, he could hardly be considered a popular preacher.

"'Professor Smith was a man of uncommon industry. This must be apparent from what he accomplished. Besides his two recitations daily, he supplied the college and village with preaching for about twenty years, and exchanged pulpits but very seldom; and, in the mean time, was almost constantly engaged in some literary enterprise. I well remember a conversation with the late President Brown, then a tutor in college, soon after the professor died,—in which we agreed in the opinion, that we had known no man of the same natural endowments, who had been more useful, or who had occupied his talent to better advantage.'"

We give the substance of some leading points of a notice of Professor Smith, in the "Memoirs of Wheelock."

"In 1809 the college experienced an immense loss, in the death of Dr. Smith. He had devoted his life chiefly to the study of languages. No other professor in any college of the continent, had so long sustained the office of instructor; none had been more happy, useful, or diligent. Though indefatigable in his studies, he was always social and pleasant with his friends, entirely free from that reserve and melancholy, not infrequent with men of letters. At an early age he obtained the honors of this seminary, and even while a young man was appointed professor of the Oriental Languages. These were the smallest moiety of his merit and his fame. Without that intuitive genius, which catches the relation of things at a glance, by diligence, by laborious study, by invincible perseverance, which set all difficulties at defiance, he rose in his professorship with unrivaled lustre. He, like a marble pillar, supported this seminary of learning. This fact is worth a thousand volumes of speculation, to prove the happy and noble fruits of well-directed diligence in study. But the best portrait of Dr. Smith is drawn by President Wheelock, in his eulogium on his friend, from which we make the following extract.

"'Early in life, so soon as his mind was susceptible of rational improvement, his father entered him at Dummer school, under the instruction of Mr. Samuel Moody. It is unnecessary to take notice of the development of his juvenile mind, his attention to literature, and especially his delight in the study of the ancient, Oriental Languages. That distinguished master contemplated the height, to which he would rise in this department; and his remark on him, when leaving the school to enter this institution, was equal to a volume of eulogy.

"'His mind was not wholly isolated in one particular branch. Philosophy, geography, criticism, and other parts of philology, held respectable rank in his acquirements; but these yielded to a prevailing bias: the investigations of language unceasingly continued his favorite object. The knowledge of the Hebrew with his propensity led him to the study of Theology. He filled the office of tutor in the college, when an invitation was made to him from Connecticut to settle in the ministry.

"'At this period, in the year 1778, the way was open to a professorship in the learned languages. On him the public eye was fixed. He undertook the duties, and entered the career of more splendid services in the republic of letters. His solicitude and labors were devoted to the institution, during its infantile state embarrassed by the Revolutionary war. He alleviated the burdens of the reverend founder of this establishment; and administered comfort and solace to him in his declining days.