immense congregation,--so great at that time was the dislike to a
fervid evangelical ministry. But more than a century has rolled away;
and how changed is the scene!
But, observe you that feeble, tottering old gentleman coming along the
avenue? It is the Hon. David Daggett, LL.D., late Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Connecticut. He is a member, and, I believe, a deacon
of one of the Congregational churches in this city. Twelve or thirteen
years ago that very man, sitting on the judicial bench, condemned Miss
Randall to be punished for--teaching a coloured child to read!
Now for Yale. The Rev. Samuel W. S. Dutton, the minister of the North
Church, will accompany us. This institution was founded in the year
1700. It derived its name from the Hon. Elihu Yale, a gentleman, I am
proud to say, descended from an ancient and respectable family in
Wales. His father, Thomas Yale, Esq., came over with the first settlers
of New Haven. His son Elihu went to England at ten years of age, and to
the East Indies at thirty. In the latter country he resided about
twenty years, was made Governor of Madras, acquired a large fortune,
returned to England, was chosen Governor of the East India Company, and
died at Wrexham in Denbighshire in 1721. On several occasions he made
munificent donations to the new institution during the years of its
infancy and weakness, on account of which the trustees by a solemn act
named it "Yale College."
The college buildings--which, like Rome, were not all erected in a
day--consist of four plain spacious edifices, built of brick, each four
stories high, and presenting a front, including passage-ways, of about
600 feet. That neat white house on your right, as you stand before
these buildings, is the President's dwelling--the very house in which
resided Dr. Timothy Dwight. But you are not looking at it. Ah! I see
your attention is attracted by that student sitting on the sill of the
open window of his study, having in his hand a book, and in his mouth a
pipe of clay; by which, with the aid of fire, he is reducing a certain
tropical weed into its original chemical elements. Perhaps you think
that rather undignified; and so it is. I wish you had not seen it; but
worse is done at Oxford and Cambridge.
Behind this range of buildings is another, a more modern and more
imposing pile. This extends in front 151 feet, is built of red
sandstone, is in the Gothic style, and contains the libraries of the
insti
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