Memoirs of the Rev. J. Lewis Diman, D.D., late professor of history and political economy in Brown university;

Front matter

Books by Ff. Detvig Diman.

——

THE THEISTIC ARGUMENT AS AFFECTED BY RECENT THE- ORIES. A Course of Lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston. By J. Lewts Diman, D. D., Late Professor of History and Political Economy in Brown University. Edited by Prof. Gzorce P. FIsHER, of Yale College. Crown 8vo, $2.00.

Preface

Iy preparing this volume I have been aided by many of Mr. Diman’s friends, to whom my thanks are due, not only for the letters and recollections they have sent, but for much kindly encouragement and sympathy. Even where all that I received does not appear, it has still been most valuable in enlarging the field of choice, and in creating an atmosphere of loving remembrance to work in. To President Angell I owe especial thanks; and to that genial Critic, from whose suggestions the volume took final shape.

“What any of us has consciously attempted or achieved is but a small part of his actual work,” wrote Mr. Diman. The record of the events of his life can give only a partial and incomplete view of it. The little daily vl PREFACE.

courtesies, the constant overflow of a pure 7 and scholarly spirit, the subtle graces of mind and manner that made the man, these defy analysis, and resent chronicle.

AI 5 F

Oaxkwoops, in PEAcE Datzg, R. I. November 13, 1886.

Contents

a

Chapter I

Bristol. — Ancestry. — Birth, May 1, 1831. — Deacon Jeremiah Diman. — Hannah Luther.— Byron Diman. — Abby Alden Wight. — Birthplace. — The King Philip. — Recollections by Miss Alden. — Childhood. — School. — Play. — Anecdotes. — Recollections by Mrs. De Wolf. — Study. — Rainy Days. — Recollections by a Schoolmate.—The Meeting- House. — His * Call ” : > ‘

Chapter II

School. — Home Influence. — First Commonplace Book. — Enters Brown University, 1847. — College Commonplace Books. — Historical Reading. — Memoirs. — Poetry. — Religious Works. — Influence of Dr. Wayland. — Unites with the First Church of Bristol. — The Year’s Reading. — Careful Habits. — Winter of 1849-50.— Latin and Greek. — English Literature. — French. — Philosophy. — Recollections by Professor George I. Chace.— Recollections by Judge H. B. Staples. — Butler’s Analogy. — Recollections by Professor William Gammell. — Recollections by Professor John L. Lincoln. — Letters. — To Rowland Hazard. —To James O. Murray .

Chapter III

Graduation from Brown University. — Newport. — Letters to James B. Angell. — Study. — Practical vill CONTENTS.

Duties. — Distrust of Seminary Life. — Congregationalism. — Family Prayers. — Bible Class. — Asylum. — A Minister’s Life. — Andover. — Plan of Study Abroad. — Difficulties. — Studies. — Recollections by Dr. James Gardiner Vose and Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon . : ‘ : : Tal, (he

Chapter IV

Sailed for Europe. — Bremen. — Brunswick. — Halle. — Professor Tholuck. — Matriculation. — Erdmann’s Address. — Calls on Professors. — Lectures, Twenty a Week. — Tholuck as a Preacher. — Miller as a Lecturer. — Conversation with Tholuck. — “ Old Year’s Day.” — Letter to his Father.— Mme. Leo. — Farewell to Halle.— Recollections by Rev. C. C. Tiffany . : : ‘ ; > * ° °

Chapter V

Leipsic. — Dresden Gallery. — Nuremberg. — Munich. — Heidelberg. — Matriculation. — Lectures. — German Speculation. — Translation from Paul Gerhardt. — Calls on Bunsen. — Umbreit. — Reminiscences of Bunsen. — Switzerland. — Travel. — Berlin. — Lepsius. — Althaus. — Nitzsch. — Trendelenburg. — First Sermon written. — Prayer-Meeting. — Strauss. — Recollections by Rey. C. C. Tiffany. — Travel. — Paris. — London. — Maurice. — Industrial Sehools. — House of Commons. — Travel in England. — First Sermon preached. — Scotland. — Return Home

Chapter VI

Licensed to preach by the Essex South Association. — Sorrow. — First Congregational Church in Fall River. — Letters to Miss Emily G. Stimson. — To

CONTENTS. 1x

Rey. J. O. Murray. —To Dr. Shepard. — Calls to other Churches. — Correspondence with Dr. Horace Bushnell. —Call to Hartford declined. —To Rev. J. O. Murray. — Manner in the Pulpit. — Letters to Miss Emily G. Stimson. — State of Mind. — Human Destiny. — Dr. Bellows’s Sermons. — Jacqueline Pascal. — Robertson. — Clarendon. — Theodore Parker. — Pascal. — Resignation of the Pastorate. — Death of Mr. Stimson . : : : : : ‘ - 108 wAarriage. — Harvard Congregational Church, Brookline. — Examination. — View of the Atonement. — The Humanity of Christ.— The Incarnation. — Divine Life in Human Nature. — Statements of Truth. — The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. — The Council. — Letters to Dr. Rufus Ellis. — Dissension in the Church. — Letter to Henry W. Diman. — Comments of Professor George P. Fisher . er oly Ae ee, ot Lok

Chapter VIII

Providence Home. — College Work. — Public Lectures on Political Economy. — Letter to Rey. J. O. Murray. — Preaching. — Fourth-of-July Oration. — Letters to President Angell. — Vacation Trip to Chicago. — John Cotton’s Reply to Roger Williams. — Letters to President Angell. — Discourse in Commemoration of Professor Dunn. — Sunday Cars. — Sermons in Storms. — The Close of the Year . . 153

Chapter IX

1868. AET. 37.

Connection with the Providence Daily Journal. — Editorials. — English Politics. — German Politics. — Franco-Prussian War. — Reviews. — Religious and x CONTENTS.

Educational Topics. — Fourth-of-July, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Articles. — Christmas . . 171

Chapter X

Letters to President Angell. — Academic Duties. — Reading. — College Lecture. — Dictation. — Outline of Course of Study. — Saturday Questions. — Renaissance. — Examination. — Modern History. — Constitution of the United States. — Recollections of the Class-Room . : : ; / : - 198

Chapter XI

Letter to President Angell.— Amherst Oration. — Preaching. — Letter to Miss Emerson. — Home Life. — Thanksgiving. — Letters to President Angell. — Offers of a Professorship in Harvard University. — Letters to President Eliot. — Offer declined. — Lecture. — Harvard again. — Degree of Doctor of Divinity. — Offer from Wisconsin of the Presidency of the State University.— School Board. —A Deer Hunt on the Raquette . : ; - ; . 228

Chapter XII

Letters to President Angell. — New Lectures. — Articles. — Offer from Princeton.— College Work. — Arlington Street Church, Boston. — Normal School. — Private Classes. — Plan defined. — Renaissance. — Lectures. — Manner of Lecturing. — Analysis of Lecture. — Outline of Succeeding Courses of Lectures. — Letters to President Angell.—The Thirty Years’ War.— Gustavus Adolphus. — Simultaneous Courses. — Evening Classes. — The Friends’ School . 254

CONTENTS. ~ xi

Chapter XIII

Letters to President Angell. — Preaching in Hartford. — “George Fox Digg’d out of his Burrowes.” — Election to Massachusetts Historical Society. — Europe. — Letters to his Wife. — Letters to President Angell. — Offer of a Parish in Boston. — Letter to Dr. Rufus Ellis. — Friday Evening Club. — Recollections by Dr. 8. L. Caldwell : : : ey

Chapter XIV

Oration at Cambridge. — Letter to President Angell. — Offer of a Professorship in the Johns Hopkins University. — North American Review.— Reform School. — Rhode Island Hospital. —The Capture of Prescott. — The Roger Williams Address. — Letters. — Address at the Opening of the Rogers Free Library in Bristol. — Bristol. — Commencement. — Letter to Mr. Augustus Lowell. — Letter to President Gilman. — Accepts Invitation to deliver a Course of Lectures before the Lowell Institute. — Baltimore Lectures. — Preparation of Briefs. — President Gilman on the Lectures. — Letters to Mrs. Diman . : : ; : : : : : . 3803

CHAPTER XV. 1879-Feb. 3, 1881. ArT. 48-49 AND 9 MONTHS

Normal School Lectures. — Lowell Institute Lectures. — Preparation for them. — Pressure of Work.— Professor Fisher’s Opinion of the Lectures. — Professor Chace’s Opinion. — Mr. R. Hazard on the

X1i CONTENTS.

Book. — Letter to President Angell. — Letter to President Gilman. — Lectures on Constitutional History. — Trip to the Maine Woods. — Bi-Centennial Address at Bristol. — Political Speech.— Lectures on the Nineteenth Century. — Letters to President Gilman. — Last Letter to President Angell. — Lecture on Canning. — Illness. — Death : : . 823

List OF PUBLICATIONS . * : : é : 349 INDEX . : : : yeas : ; , ; Sha

TO THE MEMBERS OF MR. DIMAN’S HISTORY CLASSES.

The radiant soul, whose life is here revealed,

Stands not, reserves cast off, as to confess,

But clothed in robes of thought, the seemly dress Of gracious speech ; a radiance half concealed. The best and highest unto him appealed ;

The inmost springs of life, the blessedness

Were hid with God ; nor can the tongue express The secret power such souls as his can wield.

Ye who that power have felt, vouchsafe to take

This record of his earthly life now passed ; Once more we hear his voice from silence break; From out the hush of years again it rings,

And comfort, hope, endurance, courage brings,

Aids to true life, which knows nor first nor last.

oy Roe hay

MEMOIRS.

Chapter I

Bristol. — Ancestry. — Birth, May 1, 1831.— Deacon Jeremiah Diman.— Hannah Luther. — Byron Diman. — Abby Alden Wight. — Birthplace. —The King Philip. — Recollections by Miss Alden. — Childhood. — School. — Play. — Anecdotes. — Recollections by Mrs. De Wolf. — Study. — Rainy Days. — Recollections by a Schoolmate. — The Meeting-House. — His “ Call.”

On the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay, commanding an inner harbor, looking over the placid waters to Mount Hope, stands the old town of Bristol. Its wide streets, arched with stately trees, its spacious common, set apart at its foundation for public use, its fine public buildings, attest the liberality and love of its inhabitants.

“Here we were born,” says Mr. Diman, in his bi-centennial address ; “here by the fireside we first heard the accents of affection ; here in the school-room we learned our earliest lessons; here in the house of God we were taught the consoling truths that alone compensate for the losses which a day like this brings so vividly to mind. A cloud of witnesses, invisible to mortal eye, look down upon us. There are no ties more sacred than those of which we are now reminded. We have come to the home of our childhood, to the graves of our fathers.” Most binding were such ties upon such a man as Mr. Diman, whose life began in this ancient town. His great-great-grandfather, “ Jeremiah Diman came to Bristol from Hasthampton, Long Island, about the year 1730. The family was of French extraction, and up to the middle of the last century the name was usually spelled Dimont, or Diment. Dimon and Dr mond are more modern forms. It would seem that the name was originally Dumont, if it be true, as stated in the ‘ Patronymica Britannica,’ that in the parish register of Brenchley, Kent, it is recorded ‘that John Diamond, son of John du Mont, the Frenchman, was baptized in 1612.’ The first of the name in this country was Thomas Dimont, who settled in Easthampton about 1656.” ? His grandson Thomas was the father of the first Jeremiah, who came to Bristol in 1730. Deacon Jeremiah Diman was grandson to this

1 Transactions of the Rhode Island Society for Encouragement of Domestic Industry, 1865.

ANCESTRY. 3 first comer and grandfather to Jeremiah Lewis Diman, who was born May 1, 1831, in the town where for four generations his family had lived. This Deacon Jeremiah Diman seems to have been a man of remarkable purity and sweetness of character. He was said to be “ peculiarly mild in disposition, gentle in manners, and domestic in his habits. In his religious feelings he was uniformly meditative, peaceful, and abiding’; never excited, never depressed.” He was born in 1767, and “ carried a vivid recollection to his grave” of the struggle for independence. The burning of the Gaspee and the “ wanton attack upon this quiet village, whereby many of its habitations were laid in ashes, and the families driven into the country for protection,” made peculiar impression upon him, and we can fancy the tales his grandson must have heard from his lips. He was a great reader, with a good memory, fond of investigation and argument, and was deacon of the Catholic Congregational Church for over twenty years. Hannah Luther, the wife of this worthy man, has also “ left a most enviable record in her neighborhood.” She was a grand-niece of Benjamin Franklin, as Frances Franklin, her grandmother, was sister of the philosopher.

“She was a woman of strong character. Though ambitious and of a high spirit, she was contented in a retired life. Tall, with fair complexion, blue eyes, and auburn hair, she was said~to look at seventy years more like a woman of thirty. She carried through life a great sorrow, the sudden death of a lovely son, — never mentioning his name to the end of her life. She was a careful reader of good books, and was noted as an excellent housekeeper and for her hospitality to all, particularly to ministers and their families, and for her kindness to the poor and suffering.” Their son Byron Diman, the father of J. Lewis Diman, inherited the strong character of his mother, and the vigorous mental traits of his father. “The most marked feature of his intellectual character,” says the writer of his obituary, ‘ was his fondness for antiquarian lore. Possessing a wonderfully retentive memory for dates and persons, he delighted to discuss the days gone by and call back the men of a former generation. With him, it may be safely affirmed, perished one of the largest funds of local history possessed by any man of his time. Nor was his knowledge limited to local traditions. He was well versed in

New England history and in the history of

BYRON DIMAN. 5 the Mother country, especially during the Commonwealth. He was scarcely ever at fault in any statement of fact. A lighter side of his character was shown in his fondness for dramatic literature and the English poets of the last century. In his younger days he had cultivated a talent for amateur acting, and his recitations were uncommonly effective. . . . Of other more purely personal traits we may not here so freely speak, — of the unvarying sweetness of temper, the open hospitality, the benevolence that never turned away from the claims of the destitute, the unwearied good offices that so much endeared him as neighbor and friend. He leaves not an enemy behind, and, to quote the words of one who has often opposed him in the stormy field of politics, ‘ He leaves behind him not one who in his lifetime has done so many kindly acts.’ ”

He was for three years leutenant-governor, and in 1846 was elected governor of Rhode Island. He married Abby Alden Wight, daughter of the minister of the Congregational Church, who “ served as surgeon in the Revolutionary war, and practiced both professions in Bristol, trying to save the bodies as well as the souls of his people.” The best blood in New England ran in this family.

Mrs. Diman was seventh in descent from John Alden, of Mayflower fame, and also related to the Leonards. Her father’s family came originally from the Isle of Wight, where, m Carisbrook, Cowes, and Rye, memorials of them may be found. Mrs. Diman was the beauty of the family, a woman of exquisite taste, and was called one of the handsomest women in Rhode Island. “ She was a thoroughly truthful person, — I mean in the sense of never appearing to be what she was not,” writes her daughter. “ Exceedingly modest and retiring, it was her only ambition to be good and to do good. While looking well to the ways of her own household, she was also most active in relieving personally the wants of the poor and suffering. Her presence seemed to carry a benediction with it. Though extremely delicate in health, with a buoyancy of spirit and cheerfulness of disposition she accomplished a great deal.”

Of such parents, with such an ancestry of pure, pious people, was Jeremiah Lewis Diman born. In him all the virtues of the various lines seemed to unite. His noble bearing spoke of the sturdy Puritan; his grace of manner, of his livelier French blood; his phil-

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. fe osophic mind was the true descendant of the first American philosopher ; his tenderness, of his saintly mother. He was born in the house standing on Hope Street, — a pleasant, square house, with wide hall running through it, from whose western windows the waters of the bay can be seen. ‘“ As soon as the little fellow could walk alone,” writes his cousin, Miss A. F. Alden, “he climbed the garret stairs each morning to watch the King Philip enter the harbor, — the first steamboat that plied between Providence and Bristol. He never talked much about his pleasures, and his mother did not discover this daily pilgrimage for some time.” With what playful and tender feeling did Mr. Diman write of this steamer many years after ! —

“The King Philip — shall we scruple to avow it ? — is linked with the earliest recollections of our childhood. Well do we remember how, at a time when we were still in frocks, — for infancy and childhood, gentle reader, lasted longer in those days than now, — we used to wait each morning to catch the first ringing of her silvery bell (the odious steam whistle had then no existence), and, climbing to an upper window, used to watch her bowl along, rolling huge breakers against the shore.

Ruskin tells us that in all the visible creation there is no one object that yields such perpetual and ever fresh delight as the prow of a boat cleaving the glassy flood. Ah, with what raptures would the author of ‘ Modern Painters’ have gazed at the matchless stem of the King Philip as she used to glide of a calm summer morning into Bristol harbor! Has life, think you, offered the lip any draught more pure and satisfying than that we so innocently tasted ? Let thy memory, then, ever be kept green, friend of our childhood, never again, alas, to delight our yearning sight ! “Last summer, by kind invitation of the owners, we were of the large excursion party in one of the new boats that ply between Bristol and New York. Great ado has been made about them, and we do not deny that they are neat affairs, but what are they when compared with the paragon of naval architecture that used to delight our childish gaze? With what awe, on rare occasions, we trod the narrow plank that afforded access to her deck ; with what terror we surveyed the lower depths, where unclean spirits fed the roaring furnace with logs of pine; with what wonder we inspected the machinery ; with what reverence we contemplated that model of fidelity and

CHILDHOOD. g promptness, the rough but kind-hearted Captain Thomas Borden, as he stood beside the wheel and guided, with unerring skill, the obedient monster! Somewhat Dutch she was in build, with her broad stern and swelling bow, but a right staunch craft, that did her duty well for many years. But our blessings are on her memory, not for her long and useful career, but for the unforgotten joy that she used to bring us each morning so many years ago.”

Miss Alden writes of his childhood, saying he always spoke of it asa singularly happy one. ‘“ Yet the young people of to-day, looking for a more vivid life and varied amusements, would eall it dull. When trusted to go abroad alone, a frequent pleasure was to visit his Diman grandparents. He would wander about the quiet house, where they were passing a lonely old age, and amuse himself with looking at the miscellaneous contents of an old-fashioned attic, especially a fine model of a sailing vessel. Yet he was not unsocial ; he played with other boys, and was always leader in every sport. Not that he claimed preéminence, or that they consciously yielded, but both parties accepted the position as inevitable ; it was a matter of course, — ‘the natural way of living.’

‘“¢ Lewis’s mother, a woman of rare beauty of person and of character, died when he was twelve years old. Her sister, Mrs. Alden, was with her during the lingering illness, and often spoke of Lewis’s tender thoughtfulness ; ‘it would have been remarkable,’ she said, ‘in a girl, much more so in a boy. He would sit by her bedside hour after hour, quietly fanning her, or talking with a gentle cheerfulness that never wearied the invalid.

“ Lewis always studied faithfully, was punctual, knew his lessons perfectly, yet he was not what is called a precocious boy. His growth was that of a young oak-tree, vigorous and symmetrical, and ‘ without observation. From his mother, Lewis inherited a certain delicacy of organization, a love of purity, of order, of exactness. His aunt feared he had inherited a physical delicacy as well. He was not a robust lad; yet he enjoyed out-door sports, skated well, was a good swimmer, took long walks, —in short, was no bookworm. Yet his happiest hours were spent in his father’s library, a well-chosen but somewhat miscellaneous collection. As he came in from school at noon, he always rushed down cellar to get an apple, then to the library, where the pet cat was awaiting him; with her on his

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. jgal knee, he ate the apple and read the morning paper with equal zest. This beloved cat must have a passing mention. Her name was Minna; her sister Brenda died young, and Lewis and little Henry took great pains with the funeral. He always kept a pet cat; the friends of his manhood remember the quaint names he found for them. This enjoyment of feline companionship is often noted in scholarly men.

“When Lewis was yet a boy, he was walking along a wharf one day, when he saw a little fellow fishing, who lost his balance and fell into the water. Lewis threw off shoes and jacket, and sprang in after him. With much difficulty he managed to swim to shallow water and drag the child up on shore; then he went home, changed his clothes and said nothing. A few days afterwards, a woman rushed out of a house he was passing and overwhelmed him with angry reproaches for having nearly killed her boy. The little rascal had told her that Lewis Diman had pushed him off the wharf, and that he had scrambled out himself! Lewis soon guessed that the boy had been forbidden to fish there, and had told this le to escape punishment. So he made no explanation, and stood silent until the woman exhausted her wrath. In after years he told the story as an amusing’ instance of ingratitude.

“‘ One noteworthy work of Lewis’s boyhood was writing ‘The History of Bristol,’ and publishing it in the weekly paper. The undertaking was, in itself, remarkable in a mere boy, still more so the careful exactness with which it was carried out. The town records were studied, nothing was set down on hearsay, so that this history may be relied upon as authentic. The style was quiet and simple, — no attempt at fine writing, such as young authors often indulge in. Those were happy years of quiet and yet enthusiastic study. Never was there a more manly, healthy nature, free from all morbid feeling. When he, a mere youth, made a public profession of religion in the Congregational church at Bristol, R. I., the old pastor, who had known him from childhood, asked this strange question before the congregation: ‘Do you trust for acceptance to your amiability and your remarkable natural qualities?’ Lewis raised his head in surprise, and simply replied, ‘I did not know, sir, that I had any such qualities.” Lewis’s aunt, Mrs. Alden, who was at the head of Governor Diman’s household for several years, often said that

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. es he was the best boy in the world, so nice in the care of his person and clothes, punctual at school, prompt to fulfill every duty, but she did not realize his remarkable intelligence, so gradually had it developed, so modest was his bearing. However, when Mr. Alden returned to Bristol in 1844, he recognized at once the lad’s unusual ability. Lewis keenly enjoyed hearing from him of the wonders of Florence and Rome; he eagerly availed himself of his uncle’s excellent library, and felt the stimulus of contact with a lover of learning, and an earnest disciple of Christ. In after years he spoke of this as an epoch in his life, a quickening to new intellectual and spiritual growth. Unhappily, this friendship was of short duration; Mr. Alden went to Pensacola, Fla., where he fell a victim to the yellow-fever epidemic of 1846. Lewis said nothing of his sorrow for the dead, or his affection for the living, but he was more tenderly thoughtful than ever of his aunt and cousins.

“ His friendship with the late Robert Rogers, of Papoosesquaw, was a part of Lewis’s boyhood which must not be omitted. Mr. Rogers lent him books, and many a winter — evening was pleasantly spent in discussing their contents. Lewis counted it as one of the felicities of his life, that in after years he could pay a heartfelt tribute of respect to the memory of his friend, at the dedication of the Rogers Free Library, in Bristol.

“‘ This is the simple account of an uneventful and happy boyhood. Of Lewis, as of the Master whom he loved to follow, it may be said, ‘he increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.’”

To these recollections of his childhood must be added a few details from his sister. ‘I remember well the first time he was taken to school,” she says, “how lustily he cried to be taken home and would not go willingly for some time. A short time after that, I can recall him sitting at a desk in his father’s library, most cordially given up to him, poring over his lessons, — a straight, sight boy, of pale complexion, soft dark eyes, and wearmg a riband around his head to keep his long light hair out of his eyes while studying. He was a great favorite and of much influence with his playmates ; at one time running a little post-office, editing a newspaper, then a debating club, literary societies of different kinds, ete. The scene of these important transactions was a little bit of a room near his father’s back steps.

HOME AMUSEMENTS. 15

“Many a homely present did he receive from persons employed about the house, to whom he was always thoughtful and polite. He was very fond of pets, and would incommode himself to any degree to make them comfortable. Very ingenious with tools, he made many a toy for the other children. The rainy days were red-letter days in the old house. Our mother would devote herself to us, and enter into whatever interested us; hemming sails for the boys’ boats, dressing dolls, making one of the little audience squeezed into a closet to see a magic lantern, and giving us a better lunch than usual. I know that it was an attractive place, from the number of neighbors’ children that came tramping in, much to Polly’s disgust, who wished, if folks had homes, that they knew enough to stay in them rainy days.”

“He was a bright, healthy, happy boy,” writes an old schoolmate, who has now joined him, “ better prepared with his lessons than most of us, but always ready for a game of ball, a swim, or a frolic. In all those years I cannot remember seeing him angry. In fact, his good temper was sometimes exasperating to some of us, of more explosive temperaments; and so he was the peacemaker among

Us.

Some of the letters delivered through the post-office mentioned still remain. The following notice to “ W. De Wolf, Esq.,” the school friend whose words were last quoted, is reproduced verbatim — the date is early in

1842 : —

Derr Str —I take this opportunity to inform you and Earl P. Bowin, that L. A. Bishop, and myself have been recently appointed to the office of Post Masters in this town, and shall open the office on the 26 of this month. You may be assured that the office will be punctually attended to by my debuty. Yours J. Lewis Diman Esq.

Mr. Diman used laughingly to recall the beginning of this friendship, which dated from a round fisticuffs and bloody noses on both sides.

Of his recollections of the old meeting-house, since changed to the Normal school, Mr. Diman said in his address on that occasion : —

Many a time, before ever opening the pages of Euclid, had he solved the problem, on that centre-piece, that every point in the circumference was equi-distant from the centre. And often, too often, he had endeavored in vain to determine, by counting the number of

Tipsy se CALE 17 panes of glass in one window, and multiplying by the number of windows, how many panes there were in the house. But other, and more sacred and thrilling, associations made this place ever dear and ever venerated.

One story remains to be told, which gives the key to his whole life — his obedience and fearlessness in the performance of any duty. One summer Sunday afternoon, before he was four years old, he was taken to church, and seated near the door. He soon espied the family pew, where the other children were, and tripped quietly up the aisle, the little light head invisible above the tall pews. Just then the minister announced his text in a loud voice: “Jeremiah vii. chapter, Ist and 2d verses: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord.” Thinking he was the Jeremiah addressed, the fearless boy walked on, and mounted the pulpit stairs. There he paused, and turned and faced the congregation, his golden hair making a halo about his head. The older brother, who came to bring him down, whispered, “Where were you going?” “He called me,’ answered the child. And the people smiled, and remembered it long afterward.