The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-21

These books were not wanting in acu
 men and logical strength, but they be
 long among the dry products of the
 waning era of Protestant Scholasticism
 and were long ago consigned to the
 sepulehre of that solid but unpalatable species of literature.
 In the first period after the founda-
 tion of Yale, Hebrew, like Greek anC
 Latin was a required study In the
 College laws printed in 174S, it was or
 dained that systematic divinity should
 be taught to all the classes, and that
 the Westminster Confession should be
 one of the text books that all the
 classes, through the whole time of
 their college life" should recite. At a very early date if not from the begin
 ming, the custom arose for resident graduates to prosecute studies prepara-
 tory for the ministry. From the year
 1755, this class of pupils were able to
 receive theological instruction from the Professor of Divinity. Soon after the accession of Dr. Dwight to the presi-
 dency Gin 1795), the need was felt of a
 broader and more thorough course in
 preparation for the ministry than was
 then customary. It was this convic-
 tion that finally led, in 1929, to the ere
 ation of a distinct department for the
 education of candidates for the pastoral
 office. This was in pursuance of long
 cherished plan of President Dwight.
 This proceeding was considered to be
 necessary and proper means of carry ing out the primitive design of the Col lege To attribute to the founders of
 Harvard and Yale the intention to es-
 tablish theological schools in any ex- elusive sense would be q narrow and mistaken interpretation of their action, and one not consistent with their own declaration of their design. Neverthe-
 less it is true that Harvard and Yale
 are in this country the oldest seats for
 the training of the ministry, and in the
 discharge of this function antedate the seminaries for clerical education which are disconnected from universities.
 When Yale was founded, and down
 to a comparatively recent period, that branch which has been styled Sys- tematic Theologoy, but which is now more properly named Dogmastic The
 ology or Philosophical Theology, had among us a very marked precedence in the circle of studies for the ministry. The natural direction of thought espe- cially in the conflicts of the early days, will account for the pre-eminence ac- corded to this discipline. Under this head, in American Church history, the movement which was styled, from the place of it's origin and principal seat, New England Theology, al the outset often called the New Divinity" is the most original development, and, on the whole, the most influential. With this movement, in it's inception and it's later stages, Yale College is identified. Here at Yale all of it's noted leaders, with one exception, were educated. It is the movement, the rise of which stands in historic connection with j.he so-called Great Revival of TAO, and is linked to the name of the most illus trious of American philosophers and divnes. Tn the Yale Alumni Catalogue, in the list of the ten who compose the i class of 1720, stands the name of Jona- than Edwards. On graduating he was not quite seventeen years of age. The address was assigned to him. He remained here for two years, engaged in studies preparatory for the | Ilt SItdlti Pbl liDll VI llit next two years he spent in preaching to a small Presbyterian Church in New York. In the closing part of this he was again at his studies In College, where he was a Tutor for third period of two years. It was in New Haven that he married the beauti- ful and saintly young person whom, when she was a girl of thirteen, he has depicted in a strain which recalls the
 ines of Milton in Il Penseroso,-
 With even steps and musfng gait
 And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting In thine eyes,
 For three months prior to his death, which occurred in 175S, he held the of ice of President of New Jersey Col ege-now Princeton University. With his exception, New England remained he exclusive theater of his life and york Edwards is one of the most as- onishing examples of precocious men al development of which we have any ecord One parallel instance is fur lished in the early life of Pascal. Be- ore Edwards had reached his twelfth he wrote paper on the Fly ng Spider, which is really a we'll eaSOned SC1etn11c essay on the naDltS f this insect. He ascertained these by is own most accurate observations. Of his paper, competent scientific au- ( hority, pr. Packard of Brown Univer ( ity remarks: The Writer ."has antici- s ated modern observers, who so far as l
 know have not added much to his t tatements." Tn his fifteenth year Ed [ ards read that epoch making book, ' .ocke's Essay "Concerning the Human t He read it, to use his t wn words, with a delight greater Z than the most greedy miser finds when r athering up handfuIs of silver and V old from some newly discovered treas a re- When a Sophomore in college, [ ghteen years old, he wrote down re- 4 ections under the title Being" in Il hich he brings out the idealistic con- option of matter. Not long after, he A produced it in a more full and care G Il form. While in college, he opened V ote Books, one of which was entitled 4 Mind" and another Natural Science NA oth give evidence of extraordinary overs of reasoning and of observa- u on, and this in sections the compost y on of which falls within the limits of q s undergraduate days These early '' contained outlines and II ,ecific heads of projected work on Ii TT,,ir o1 .tn1 |