The Press., 1893-10-26
From the Boston Herald.) PRESIDENT JARED SPARKS.

ially if he be pioneer in the department which he cultivates, is always full of ab- sorbing interest. It introduces us to the life of an unworldly man, ore who lives in ideas, in efforts to present subjects in a new light, and who is constantly render ing service to the world for which he re- ceives no adequate compensation. This is the keynote to the career of Dr. Jared Spar ks, who was born in 1789 and died in 1866. His career was not so distinguished as to make the writing of his life an im- mediate necessity, and yet Dr. Ellis said rightly some years ago, that it ought to be written. Before the death of Mrs. Sparks, in 1887, her husbands manu- scripts were placed in the hands of Prof. Herbert D. Adams in order to make se- lections from his writings in the form of a continuous account of his career. Ii has been a slow and deliberate undertak- ing to prepare this work for publication. Dr. Sparks was not 8 man of sentiment or emotions. He was person of great good sense, remarkable industry, and one who had the historical instinct, if not the in- sight, to a remarkable dagree. He could originate great undertakings, and he had the patience to carry them through with success, but he had no inspiration, and was not an attractive writer. He was a person without imagination, and with no large sympatnies or universal human en- dowments. Still, with all these limita- tions, he was gifted and remarkable man, and as pioneer in the gathering of ma- -terials for the writing of American his tory he held an unrivalled position.
 Nothing could have been more unprom- ising for his subsequent career than his birth and early circumstances. He was born in 1789 in the little town of Willing ton, on the Willimantic river, in Holland county, Conn. It was a lowly rural home in northern Connecticut where he first saw the light, but a favoring combination of heredity and environment and disci- pline gave wonderful strength of char acter to the boys life. He had good Anglo Saxon blood in his veins, and the very grit of New England soil became part of the substance of the man. In his six teenth year he used to meet
 YOUNG FRIEND IN BUSH PASTURE
 north of the schoolhouse in Holland and take turns with him in reading aloud from such books as he could borrow, and when he had advanced so as to know more than his teachers, he formed a private class among the boys for the study of practical problems in mathematics. He early de- veloped a remarkable fondness for math- ematics and astronomy, and in 1907 dis covered a comet. It was not possible for such youth to be kept long in New England country village. He turned schoolmaster, and this not paying we'll, he learned the. trade of carpenter and planed boards for $13 month. There was something better in store for him, and he was soon studying Virgil with the par ish minister in Willington, who was the father of the late Prof. Loomis of Yale University. Young Sparks agreed to pay the minister dollar a week for tuition, and the parson allowed the young man to shingle the barn of the parsonage in pay ment for his tuition. The young carpen- ter and the parson worked on the roof of the barn in the morning and then dined together in their shirt sleeves. One day the brother of the famous Dr. Benjamin Abbott of Phillips Exeter Academy hap pened to be at Willington, and MT. Loomis called attention to the remarkable youth whom he was instructing. MT. Abbott persuaded his brother, who was then pay ing him visit, to take young Sparks in hand and give him free education on a charity foundation at Exeter. He con- sented, and took the young mans trunk under the chaise to Exeter, young Sparks meanwhile trudging on behind afoot. This was the spirit in which he began to prepare for college, task which he ac- complished in the short space of two years. MT. Loomis said in 1863, then in his 88th year, to :'son Jared," as he al- ways called him: "If for 20 years after you left me a young man of equal promise had annually presented himself to me for instruction and counsel, should have felt under unspeakable obligations to God for giving me such an opportunity for efficient labor in aiding young men aspiring to distinction and usefulness"
 WHEN HE WENT TO HARVARD COLLEGE
 he was B years old, but he had displayed great natural ability and genius for hard work, and beside pursuing faithfully his classical studies, he had read goodly number of the books to be found in the academy library. His industry was won- derful, and at Exeter he made certain life long friendships which were of great value to him. Two of them were Dr. William B. Sprague of Albany and MT. Charles Folsom.
 He was admitted to Harvard College on the 26th of August, 1911, and excelled all his classmates in mathematics. The average Harvard man in those days was ready to be graduated at the age of 23, and young Sparks was able to do more in college than almost any man of his time. President Kirkland used to say that Sparks is not only man, but man and a half" In college he read widely, help- ed out his income by teaching school, had a gift of $1O0 year from the resources of the college, and made his way through without debt for which he always had an adherence. While trying to work his way along he went into a private family at Havre de Grace in Maryland to give in- struction. While there he discovered that Pope's translation of the "Iliad" bore lit tie resemblance to the original, and he made this comment, that it is 'the duty of the translator to give Homer in every instance as he was, and not as he would have him to be-" He then and there in- dicated the duty of modern editor, as well as the ideal of the duty of trans lator. It was here that he began to read history and to develop original and inde- pendent views upon matters of literary taste or historical judgment. He was in this place when the war was going on be- tween England and the United States, and