they retained little of the profound biblical and classic lore of their fathers, were encumbered with all that was useless and pedantic in their course of study.

"Just as Mr. Johnson had received the usual academic honors, chance threw in his way Lord Bacon's Essay on the Advancement of Learning, (perhaps the only copy at that time on this side the Atlantic,) the study of which operated in his mind the same change which had already taken place for more than forty years among the learned of Europe, but of which no rumor had yet reached the literati of New-England.

"His mind, naturally patient of investigation, and eager for truth, received with avidity the flood of new ideas thus poured in upon it, and he seemed to himself, to use his own expression, 'like a person suddenly emerging out of the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day.'

"Shortly after this memorable epoch in his life, a considerable addition was made to the college library, among which were the writings of the greatest philosophers, divines, and polite scholars of the age: and the then modern works of Newton, Halley, and Woodward; Barrow, South, Tillotson and Sherlock; Bentley, Addison and Steele, were seen and read for the first time in the Colony of Connecticut. The regularly bred scholar of the present day, surrounded and sated with literary luxury till he turn cloyed with excellence to stimulate his jaded appetite with novelty,

mala copia quando

Egrum solicitat stomachum,

can have but a faint idea of the avidity and intense application with which the works of these great masters of reason and just expression were perused, and (to use the happy phrase of Gibbon) meditated, again and again, by Mr. Johnson and a few of the associates of his studies.

"The discoveries of Newton particularly excited his attention, and, not content with a general and superficial notion of his doctrines, he determined to acquire such a knowledge of mathematics as would enable him thoroughly to comprehend their grounds and reasons, and enter into the very penetralia of that high-priest of nature. In this design, his usual resolute application made him completely successful. During all this time, he never intermitted his classical studies, or that of the Hebrew, of which he had early acquired the rudiments, and which in after life became the employment of his leisure, and the solace of his age. Thus richly stored with general science, he was admirably calculated for the station to which he was appointed in 1716, of tutor in the college, then removed to New-Haven, and placed under the direction of the learned Dr. Cutler, as rector or president. Here, for four years, in conjunction with the learned rector, he was actively employed in dissipating the intellectual darkness which had overspread the land. Mr. Johnson had always intended the Christian ministry as his ultimate profession, and had kept this in view in all his studies. To this he was set apart, according to the forms of the Congregational Church, in 1720, and settled at West-Haven, where he applied himself to the duties and studies of his profession with

exemplary diligence and zeal. He had been educated according to the strictest forms and most rigid orthodoxy of the independent Calvinistic Church, at that time the only sect known or tolerated in the colony. But in the course of a long and laborious investigation of most of the points in controversy between his own Church and that of England, in which he was accompanied by President Cutler and a few other studious friends, he and his friends found reasons to change many of their opinions on those points, and finally to profess themselves members of the Church of England.

"Dr. Cutler resigned his presidency, Mr. Johnson his church, and both embarked for England to receive Episcopal ordination, where Mr. Johnson's natural curiosity and love of knowledge was gratified by the attention, conversation, and friendship of many of the most learned divines of the Church of England, with most of whom he maintained a regular correspondence during the rest of his life. After being admitted to Priest's orders in the Church of England, Mr. Johnson returned to America, as a missionary, under the patronage of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and settled at Stratford, a pleasant village of Connecticut, of the Episcopal congregation of which place he was the regular minister; although, as he was for some time the only clergyman of that denomination in the colony, his labours were necessarily extended over a large tract of adjoining country. Here he married, and gradually overcoming, by the uniform mildness of his manners, the sectarian preju

dices which had been excited against him, continued for many years engaged in the active duties of his calling, and in the pursuit of his favorite studies of divinity and the Hebrew language.

"In 1729, a circumstance occurred, which forms a remarkable epoch, not only in the life of Mr. Johnson, but in the literary history of this country; the arrival of the famous Dean (afterwards Bishop) Berkeley, in America. A similarity of studies and principles, soon produced an intimate acquaintance between them, and during the two years and a half which that great and amiable* man resided in this country, a constant literary and social intercourse was kept up between them ; and an uninterrupted correspondence was afterwards maintained, in a series of the most affectionate and confidential letters, until the death of the bishop, in the year 1752. As the Episcopal Church increased in Connecticut, the labours of Mr. Johnson, who was regarded as its head and champion, were still augmented; and in a theological controversy which soon followed, he defended her, in several tracts, published at intervals, with ability, candour, and good temper.

"In 1743, he received, through the recommendation of his friend Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Secker, the degree of Doctor in Divinity † from the Univer

* "To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."-POPE. †This diploma was conferred in a manner the most flattering to Dr. Johnson. Dr. Hodges, the Vice-Chancellor, in an oration before the University, spoke of his character in the highest terms, and the diploma itself is thus specially worded, " eumque Rev. vir S. Johnson

sity of Oxford, a literary honour which, in that ancient university, has seldom been by any means lavishly bestowed, and cheap as academic honours have become elsewhere, is still regarded with high respect.

“In 1752, a number of gentlemen of New-York, feeling the importance of establishing some system of academic instruction in that rapidly increasing colony; and perhaps stimulated by the recent success of the Philadelphians, undertook the foundation of a college in that city. In the next year an act of incorporation was obtained, and some provision for a fund for its support was made by a succession of lotteries; and soon after the trustees unanimously chose Dr. Johnson president of their college. The funds of this institution were increased by the donations of individuals in the colony, and by a liberal grant of land from Trinity Church, including the lot upon which the college edifice now stands, as well as some adjoining ground, from which it still derives the most considerable part of its revenue. Besides this, the college received a benefaction of five hundred pounds sterling from the Society in England for the Propagation of the Gospel; a bequest from a Dr. Bristowe of London, a very active member of the same society, of his library, amounting to about fifteen hundred volumes; and

fidissimus ad N. Angliam missionarius in oppido Stratford, de Provincia Connecticutensi, enthusiasticis dogmatibus strenue et feliciter conflictatus, Regiminis Episcopalis vindex acerrimus, demandatam curam prudenter adeo et benevole, indefesse ita et potenter administravit, ut incredibili ecclesiæ incremento summe sui expectationem sustinuerit plane et superaverit. SCIATIS, &c.