friends of Hertford to give up the College to Newhaven. This was accordingly done in 1717, to the great joy of the crafty Massachusets, who always greedily seek their own prosperity, though it ruin their best neighbours.
The College being thus fixed forty miles further west from Boston than it was before, tended greatly to the interest of Harvard College; for Saybrook and Hertford, out of pure grief, sent their sons to Harvard, instead of the College at Newhaven. This quarrel continued until 1764, when it subsided into a grand continental consociation of ministers, which met at Newhaven to consult the spiritual good of the Mohawks and other Indian tribes, the best method of preserving the American Vine, and the protestant, independent liberty of America: a good preparatory to the rebellion against Great Britain.
The Rev. Mr. Naphtali Dagget is the fourth president of Yale College since its removal to Newhaven. He is an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, and reckoned a good Calvinistic divine. Though a stranger to European politeness, yet possessing a mild temper and affable disposition, the exercise of his authority is untinctured with haughtiness. Indeed, he seems to have too much candour and too little bigotry to please the corporation and retain his post many years. The Rev. Mr. Nehemiah Strong, the College professor, is also of an amiable temper, and merits the appointment.
Were the corporation less rigid, and more inclined to tolerate some reasonable amusements and polite accomplishments among the youth, they would greatly add to the fame and increase of the College, and the
students would not be known by every stranger to have been educated in Connecticut. The disadvantage under which they at present appear, from the want of address, is much to be regretted.
Beauford, Guilford, and Milford, are much alike.
Guilford is laid out in squares, after the manner of Newhaven, twenty of which are built upon. The church and two meetings stand in the centre square. One of the meetings is very grand, with a steeple, bell, and clock. The parishes in it are eight, three of them episcopal.
This town gave birth to the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D. D., who was the first episcopal minister in Connecticut, and the first president of King’s College in New-York. He was educated and became a tutor in the College at Saybrook, was an ornament to his native country, and much esteemed for his humanity and learning.
The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, in a sermon he preached in the great meeting, gave the character of the people of Guilford in 1740. His text was, “Anoint mine eyes with eye-salve.” After pointing out what was not the true eye-salve, he said: “I will tell you what is the true eye-salve: it is faith, it is grace, it is simplicity, it is virtue. Ah, Lord! where can they be found! Perhaps not in this grand assembly.”
I have frequently quoted the Rev. George Whitefield, without that ludicrous intention which, possibly, the reader may suspect me of. I admire his general character, his good discernment, his knowledge of mankind, his piety, his goodness of heart, his generosity, and hatred of persecution, though I think his zeal was sometimes too fervent. I ever viewed him as an instrument