The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1854-05-17
From Putnam, for May.
"reminiscences of Cambridge.

An academic town, in whose atmos-
phere there is always something antisep-
tic, seems naturally to draw to itself
certain varieties and to reserve certain
humors Tin the Beb Jonsonian sense) of
cbaracter,-mcn who come not to study
so much as to be studied At the head
quarters of Washington once, and now
of the MUSES., lived c., but before
the date Of these recollcctions. Here
for seven years las the law was then) he
made his house his castle, summing him.
self in his clbow.chair at the front door,
on that seventh day, secure from every
arrest but that Of Death. Here long
survived him bis turbaned widow, studi.
GUS only of Spinoza and refusing to
molcst the canker-worms that annually
disleaved her elms, because we we're all
vermicular alike. She had been fa-
nous beauty once, but the canker years
had left her leahess too, and ! used to
wonder, as l saw her sitting always alone
at her accustomed window, whether she
were ever visited by the rcproachful
shade of him who (in spite of Rosalind) J
died broken-hcarted for her in her radiant
youth.
| And this reminds me of j. f., who, al
so crossed in love, allowed no mortal eye
to behold his face for many years. The
eremitic instinct is not peculiar to ibe
Thebais, as many New England vii
lage can testify, and it is worthy of con-
sideraton that the Romish Church has
not forgotten this among her other points
of intimate contact with human nature.F
became purely vcspertiDal, never stirring
abroad till after dark He occupied two
rooms, migrating from one to the other as
the necessities Of housewifery demanded,
and when it was requisite that he should
put his signature to any legal instrument
(for he was an anchorite of ample means)
he wrapped himself in blanket, allow
ing nothing to be seen but the hand
which acted as scribe What impressed
us boys more than any thing was the ru.
NOR that he had suffered his beard to
grow, such an anti-Sheilieldism being al.
most unheard of in those days, and the
peculiar ornament of man being associat.
cd in our minds with nothing more re-
cent than the patriarchs and apostles,
whose efligies we were obliged to soace
ourselves with weekly in the Family
Bible. lie came out of his oysierhood
at last, and l knew him well, kind.
hearted man, who gave annual sleigh.
rides to the town paupers, and supplied
the poorer children with books. His fa.
vorite topic of conversation was Eter.
nifty, and like many other worthy per.
sons, he used to fancy that meaning was
an affair of aggregation, and that he
doubled the intensity of what lie said by
the sole aid of the multipiicaton.table
Eternity !" he used to say, lit is not
day; it is not a year it is not hun
dred years it is not thousand years ;
it is rot million years no sir" {the sir
being thrown in to recall wandering at
tention), it is not ten million years !"
and so on, his enthusiasm becoming a
mere frenzy when he got among his SEX
tillious, till sometimes wished he had
continued in retirement He used to sit
at the open window during thunder.
storms, and had a Grecian feeling about
death by lightning. 1p a certain sense
he had bis desire, for he died suddenly.
not by fire from heaven, but by the
red fash of apoplexy, leaving his whole
estate to charitable uses.
If X. we're out Of place as president,
that was not P. as Greek professor
Who that ever saw him can forget him,
in his old age, like lusty winter, frosty
but kindly, with great silver spcctacles
Of tho heroic period, such as scarce
twelve noses of these degenerate days
could bear He was natura cclibate,
not dwelling "like the fly in the heart
of the apple" but like lonely bee,
rather, abscouding himself in Hymettian
flowers, incapable of matrimony as a sol.
itary palm-tree There was not even a
tradition of youthful disappointment 1
fancy him arranging his scrupulous toll.
ct, not for Amaryllis OF Neeru, but, like
Machiavelli, for the society of his be-
loved classics. His cars had needed no
prophylactic wax to pass the Sirens isle,
nay, he would have kept them the wider
openstudious of the dialect in which they
sang, and perhaps triumphantly detect.
ing the Eolc digamma in their lay a
thoroughly single man, singlc-minded.
single hearted ,buttoning over his single
heart single breasted surtout, and wear
ing always hat Of single fashion,
did he in secret regard tho dual number
of his favorte language as a weakness :?
I The son of an officer of distinction in
the Revolutionary War, he mounted the
pulpit with the erect port of soldier,
and carried his cane more in the
fashion of weapon than a staff, but
with the point lowered in token of sur.
render to the peaceful proprieties of his
calling Yet sometimes the martial in
stincts would burst the cerements of
black coat and clerical neckcloth, as
once when the students had got into a
fight upon the training-6eld, aud the IL
centious soldiery, furious with rum, had
driven them at point Of bayonet to the
college gates, and even threatened to lift
their arms against the MUSES. bower
Then, like Major Goife at Decrfcld sud.
denly appeared the grayhaired p, all his
father resurgcnt in him, and shouted,
"Now,my lads, stand your ground, you're
in the right now don't let one OF them
get inside the college grounds !" Thus
he allowed arms to get the better Of the
toga, but raised it, like the Prophets
breecbes, into banner, and carefully
ushered resistane with preamble of in.
fringed right Fidelity was his strong
characteristic, and burned equally in
him through life ofeighty three years
He drilled himself ill infexible habit
stood sentinel before all those postern.
weaknesses which temperament leaves I'm.