His stay at Middletown was brief, on account of the failure of his health; but long enough to endear him to his people, and secure for him a kind remembrance of him in their hearts. But another sphere was now opened to him. Dr. Dwight having died at the beginning of the year 1817, it was wisely determined, on the accession of President Day in the same year, to constitute two new chairs in the College-a measure which the prudent management of the funds through a number of years rendered. possible. The chairs were those of Divinity and of Rhetorie; and two young men, classmates as it happened and both natives of New Haven, were chosen to fill themEleazar T. Fitch and Chauncey Allen Goodrich. The chair of Rhetoric was filled by the latter-not without solicitations to go elsewhere-for twenty-two years. During the first year of his professorship-I may be permitted to mentionthe Class to which Rev. Dr. Bacon and I belonged, being the Sophomore, fell under his instructions.

The infirm health of Professor Goodrich, for a number of years after he entered on his office, was a serious obstacle to the pleasant and steady discharge of its duties, yet he entered on them with that unshaken zeal and energy which marked his whole character. His routine of duties was something like the following. The Sophomores were instructed by him, through the summer term, in Jameson's Rhetoric. The Senior Classes were taught out of a text-book in higher Rhetoric and Criticism, and read compositions before him which were afterwards criticised in private. The two middle Classes, with the Freshmen, were exercised in declamation, with unwearied pains; and with equal labor to himself he introduced that careful preparation for the exhibitions of the Juniors and for the public Commencements, which has made the exercises of those public days so much more of a benefit than they were formerly, and so much more creditable to the Institution. After a time, with the growth of the number of students the business of his department became too great for any one man, and he was allowed to employ an assistant in

declamation. The importance of his instructions to the Seniors meanwhile was increased by the study of Demosthenes on the Crown, as the chef d'œuvre of ancient eloquence, and by a very interesting course of lectures on English Oratory. In the preface to his Select British Eloquence, published in 1852, he speaks of his method and object in his instructions, as follows: "The Author of this volume, in entering on the office of Professor of Rhetoric, in Yale College, more than thirty years ago, took Demosthenes's Oration for the Crown as a text-book in the Senior Class, making it the basis of a course of informal lectures on the principles of oratory. Modern eloquence came next, and he endeavored in a distinct course to show the leading characteristics of the great orators of our own language, and the best mode of studying them to advantage. His object in both courses was, not only to awaken in the minds of the Class that love of genuine eloquence which is the surest pledge of success, but to aid them in catching the spirit of the authors read, and by analyzing passages selected for the purpose, to initiate the student in those higher principles, which (whether they were conscious of it or not) have always guided the great masters of the art, till he should learn the unwritten rules of oratory, which operate by a kind of instinct on the mind, and are far more important than any which are found in the books."

The tone and tendency of the teaching of Dr. Goodrich was not so much aesthetical as rhetorical, and this harmonized with the practical end which he had in view. His aim was to form vigorous, effective writers, men who by their eloquence should be able to move and lead their fellow-men. Eloquence, therefore, the forcible statement of arguments, the strong appeal to the conscience and to the feelings, occupied the front place. It will not be doubted that he did a good work for the College, and that he laid those foundations in his department on which the system pursued by his successor has been reared.

It is characteristic of Prof. Goodrich that he was not the man of a department or profession, but that his excursions

out of his especial province were more useful to his country, and carried with them more power, than his ordinary labors. I proceed to speak of one or two of the enterprises in which he was concerned while he held his professorship of Rhetoric in Yale College.

The first of these in the order of time, and not the smallest in importance, was the formation of the Theological Department, in which he, together with Professor Fitch, had, as I suppose, the principal share. The Seminary arose in no spirit of theological antagonism or dread of heresies emanating from the earlier Institution at Andover, nor yet in the desire to form a center for the propagation of new doctrines; for its founders, at the beginning, to say the least, were not aware that they differed from the theology long taught in New England. But it was no new thought that instruction in theology ought to be furnished at this seat of learning, and indeed this was one motive for founding the Institution: Dr. Dwight, and Professor Fitch after him, had under their instruction Divinity Classes, consisting chiefly of graduates of Yale College; and Dr. Dwight is understood to have desired to extend the opportunities afforded for sacred study, and to have suggested to his son the making of an endowment for that purpose. To this, perhaps we ought to add that the great awakening in the College and town, in 1820 and 1821, created a demand for a new theological center-an Institution where earnest, practical preachers might be educated. The Theological Institution came into being in 1822, by a subscription of fifteen thousand dollars, in which Professor Goodrich took part, who also pledged himself, in connection with Professor Fitch, for the interest on an additional sum of five thousand dollars, in case it could not be raised in any other way. Dr. Taylor, then pastor of this Church,* towards whom all these movements looked, received the appointment of Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology, (so named from the principal subscriber to the fund,) at the time of Commencement in 1822, and soon after entered on his new duties.

*The Center Church.

In the inception of this Seminary, and in soliciting subscriptions, Mr. Goodrich was prominent, I may say foremost. He had been on friendly terms with Dr. Taylor before, but was now drawn much closer to him, and embraced his peculiar modifications of the prevalent theology of New England. And here, perhaps, as well as in any other place, I may refer to the devoted and disinterested friendship towards Dr. Taylor, of which, Mr. Goodrich gave most substantial proofs through the course of thirty-five years afterwards. Nothing in his life, full as it was of kind deeds, did more credit to his Christian heart, and, if particulars could be told, they would show him, were there no other proof, to be a man who had spared no time, no pains, no expense, in doing good.

Another department in which, during a part of these years, he showed his efficiency and practical power, was the editing of the Christian Spectator. This magazine, established in 1819 as a monthly, was purchased by him in 1828 and put on a quarterly basis. He was its sole editor until about 1836, when it passed out of his hands. As long as he continued to edit it, it flourished every way, but its chief peculiarity was, that it became the decided organ of what a short time before had begun to be called Taylorism. Here the ques tions, Whether there is any sinful disposition before the first sinful act, What is the power of the will to choose, when motives in favor of a good are set before it, What is the nature of virtue, and its relation to the desire of happiness, What is the true conception of Divine moral government,these and connected questions, were discussed with all the ability which the three men-the two already named, and Dr. Fitch, who took the lead in New Haven theology-could command. The discussions may be said to have begun to wane when Dr. Goodrich left the Spectator: men had made up their minds, and the field had been thoroughly explored. Party lines had become drawn. By some, New Haven theology, in spite of its faith in the Holy Spirit and zeal for revivals, and adherence to the doctrine of election, and reverence for Calvin and Edwards, had come to be viewed as

bald Pelagianism; to others it was the only scheme on which preachers could fairly offer salvation to men perishing in their sins.

Of the theological opinions of Dr. Goodrich let me say a word in this place. He had been brought up under Dr. Dwight, and in the main received the views of Christian truth taught by him, which were indeed at that time substantially the views of all New England theologians. To the peculiar opinions of Dr. Taylor he gave his adhesion, as being important for the earnest preaching of the Gospel; and he felt towards that eminent theologian the warmth of deep personal friendship. But at no time of his life could he be called a narrow theological partisan, and during the last twenty years he has been in his theological views one of the most tolerant and truly liberal of men. I have rarely seen a person who had less of what was sectarian, less theological narrowness, or bitterness in judging of religious character, or more willingness to allow and to do justice to diversities of opinion which related to the non-essentials of faith. The importance of practical religion in his mind so far outweighed that of scientific as to exclude all theological biases, and as for sectarian biases, he never had them.

Passing over for the present Dr. Goodrich's efforts in behalf of the religious interests of Yale College, which were continued through his lifetime and will be spoken of in the sequel, we pass to his transition from the academical to the theological department, which occurred in 1839. He had long felt the necessity of another professor, besides the two already existing, whose office it should be to prepare the students of theology for the pulpit and for parochial duties. With this in view, and for the purpose of founding such a professorship, he offered to the President and Fellows of Yale College, convened specially to consider this subject, January 10th, 1839, the sum of five thousand dollars of his own property, and was seconded by two liberal gentlemen, Aristarchus Champion, Esq., then of Hartford, and Rev. Walter H. Bidwell, then of Philadelphia, now a well known editor of