Institute he roomed with his teacher in
mathematics, a young man named Fitzgerald, and a warm friendship sprung
up between them. Fitzgerald saw that his pupil had no natural talent or
taste for mathematics; but instead of despairing in consequence of this
discovery, he redoubled his efforts. Appealing to his pupil's pride and
ambition, he kept him well to his task, and succeeded in implanting in
him a fair knowledge of the science. Young Beecher also took lessons in
elocution from Professor John E. Lovell. Under the instructions of this
able teacher, he learned to manage his voice, and to overcome the
thickness and indistinctness of utterance which previous to this had
troubled him so much. He continued at this school for three years,
devoting himself to study with determination and success, and taking
rank as one of the most promising pupils of the school.

During his first year at Mount Pleasant, he became deeply impressed with
a sense of his religious responsibility at a famous revival which was
held in the place, and from that time resolved to devote himself
entirely to preparing for his entrance into the ministry when he should
attain the proper age. Henceforth he applied himself with characteristic
energy to his studies and to his religious duties, and rose steadily in
the esteem of his teachers and friends. He entered Amherst College upon
the completion of his preparatory course, and graduated from that
institution in 1834.

In 1832, Dr. Beecher removed from Boston to Cincinnati, to enter upon
the Presidency of Lane Seminary, to which he had been elected. Henry
followed him to the West after his graduation at Amherst, and completed
his theological studies at the seminary, under the tuition of his father
and Professor Stowe, the latter of whom married Henry's sister Harriet,
in 1836. Having finished his course, he was ordained.

"As the time drew near in which Mr. Beecher was to assume the work of
the ministry," says Mrs. Stowe, "he was oppressed by a deep melancholy.
He had the most exalted ideas of what ought to be done by a Christian
minister. He had transferred to that profession all those ideals of
courage, enterprise, zeal, and knightly daring which were the dreams of
his boyhood, and which he first hoped to realize in the naval
profession. He felt that the holy calling stood high above all others;
that to enter it from any unholy motive, or to enter and not do a worthy
work in it, was a treason to all ho