tained of his confinement in the cold ground. The first dead man I ever saw was my father. After my father's death my mother continued to reside on the same farm, and support and educate her family of five children, the eldest of whom was ten years old. She was a woman of remarkable energy of character. At this distant day, her many virtues, rendered prominent by her heroic struggles with comparative poverty, stand out before my mind in bold relief. She was a woman of great decision of character, and in great demand as a counselor in the neighborhood. After my father's death (who was a professor of religion and maintained family worship) my mother continued the practice of praying in her family, and maintained it while she lived. She labored faithfully, and often with tears, to impress upon the minds of her children the importance of youthful piety. My earliest and most important religious impressions were produced by her instructions and prayers. She was firm but tender in domestic discipline, often weeping when using the rod, mingling tears with correction. Precious is the memory of my mother. In recalling the scenes and incidents of my childhood, I wish here to record my unbounded admiration of the character of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who were the principal settlers of the middle counties of Pennsylvania, and of many other States of the Union. Much has been said, and with justice, of the noble characte of the Puritans, the Huguenots, and cavaliers. But the influence which has been exerted upon the nation by the Scotch-Irish element, spread out as it now is throughout Pennsylvania, Western Virginia, the Carolinas, New York, Eastern Mississippi, and all the Western States, can never be fully appreciated. I glory in my descent from such a noble stock. My impression also is that much more information was communicated, when I was young, by oral instruction, than at the present time. Old people rehearsed by the fireside the incidents of their early days and what they had heard from their fathers, and the young were eager listeners. Though books and newspapers and traveling afford greater means of imparting knowledge now than then, yet I doubt whether youth are better taught in useful things, or have the more important faculties both of mind and heart better developed at the present day than formerly. My mother died when I was eight years old. 66 My mother, when I learned that thou wast dead, Wretch, even then, life's journey just begun ?" Immediately after the death of my mother, our family (five in number) were scattered among our relatives. I became a member of the family of my uncle, the Rev. John Hutchison, of Mifflintown, Juniata County (Pennsylvania). He was the only full brother of my father, by whom I was adopted and educated. He was a superior man in almost every respect. He graduated at Dickinson College (Pennsylvania), under the presidency of the celebrated Dr. Nesbitt. In 1805 he assumed the pastoral charge of the churches of Mifflintown and Lost Creek, where he continued to labor until his death, which took place on the 11th of November, 1844, having retained the charge of the same churches for thirtynine years. Few ministers of the Gospel in Central Pennsylvania have lived more honored and died more lamented than he. He was a man of great purity and simplicity—an entertaining companion, a firm friend, a wise counselor, a patient endurer of reproach, and a fearless defender of the faith. He seemed to have pos sessed an intuitive knowledge of human nature. The motives of men seemed to reveal themselves at once to his view. He was the last man on whom any one could palm an imposition. He was also famed throughout the country for great neatness and system in all the ordinàry affairs of life. His house, his apparel, his domestic economy, his traveling equipage, were all expressive of the order and native sense of propriety which characterized him. His attainments as a scholar and theologian were of a highly respectable order, and for many years he was a prominent member of Huntington Presbytery. Like many of the Presbyterian clergymen of the Northern States, he devoted much of his time and attention to classical studies. His academy was known for more than thirty years as the best in all Central Pennsylvania, and his Latin and Greek scholars always took a high position upon entering any of the colleges of the State. A large number of the professional men in the middle counties of Pennsylvania were trained under his tuition. At the age of thirteen I commenced the study of the Latin and Greek languages. When I arrived at the age of seventeen I became his assistant, and thus secured the means of finishing my college course. I thus had an opportunity of attaining a degree of accuracy in classical studies which has proved of essential advantage to me in all my subsequent life. I would here remark that, after having been for a long time professor of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, it is my opinion that better classical scholars were made fifty years ago than now. Several causes may be assigned for the present degeneracy: First. In the present day boys are taught too many things in connection with languages. Second. The many new grammars and new editions of the classics, with their various helps, explanations, and English notes, are no real improvement on the old ones. These modern helps to study prevent study. Third. Teachers have degenerated. Now, our teachers are young men, nice young men, possessed of great self-esteem, intending to study law or medicine, and making teaching only a steppingstone to something else. In my early day, teachers were usually Presbyterian ministers, or candidates for the ministry, who loved to teach, who knew how to teach, and who had a reputation to sustain. Fourth. Boys in the present day are more difficult to be taught than formerly. They are not taught as much at home as in former years. Especially, their memories are not drilled, as they once were, by committing to memory the General Assembly's shorter catechism. Consequently, they are not so capable of committing with accuracy the Latin and Greek grammars. I have always noticed that the sons of old-fashioned Presbyterians usually make the best classical scholars. Their superior religious training renders them more susceptible of a thorough classical training. From these and other considerations, I am more and more convinced that if we would have better scholarship in our colleges, we must have our youth prepared, not in preparatory schools, but by the pastors of our churches, or in parochial schools under their care. I resided in Mifflintown from 1815 to 1824. Those years constitute the most important period of my life. I can now trace back almost all my habits and my peculiarities of character to that period. My residence in my uncle's family imposed upon me the duty of work as well as of study. Gardening, the providing of firewood in winter, the care of horses, cows, etc., were, fortunately for me, combined with intellectual culture, thus giving the best means of developing the powers But both of mind and body. Having also access to all kinds of books, I then formed habits of general reading, and by some assistance and close application I qualified myself for entering the Junior Class in Jefferson College. How often do I now revert in thought to those pleasant by-gone days. Within a few months past, I was once more permitted to revisit those scenes of my youth, after an absence of twenty years. alas, how changed! Nature was there. There were the bold Alleghany Mountains, the green hills, the beautiful stream of the Juniata. But almost all the companions of my youth and my kindred were no more. Strange faces looked upon me, and I found myself more at home among the tombs of the dead than in the dwellings of the living. In the Spring of 1825, I left Mifflintown for Jefferson College, Cannonsburg (Pennsylvania). Stopping at Pittsburg for a few days, I had the opportunity of seeing the distinguished General La Fayette, the companion of Washington, the early and devoted friend of the struggling American colonies, who was then revisiting the scenes of his early battles in the cause of liberty, and whose progress through the country resembled a continued Roman triumph. I entered the Junior Class in Jefferson College half advanced. The class consisted of thirty members. Jefferson College, at the time I entered it, was in its zenith. It was the most prominent institution west of the Alleghany Mountains, and under the long presidency of Dr. Matthew Brown, it furnished the ministry which gave character to the Presbyterian Church in all that vast region of country. Rev. Aaron Williams and Rev. Dr. A. T. McGill, now professor at Princeton (New Jersey) were my associates in study. I entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton in the Fall of 1826. |