The University of Vermont fifty years ago

Front matter

riaUCllli

VERMONT

RS AGO

Preface

The chapter composing this little volume was originally introduced as an episode into the personal reminiscences of the author to be accompanied by a larger selection of sermons on miscellaneous subjects. A class of readers to whom the subject matter of this chapter, by reason of its reference to the university, may he of interest, would be less likely to read the autobiography of one of her humblest graduates. I have„adopted the plan, therefore^ of publishing by itself this tribute to the Faculty and Philosophy of the school in the time of my college life, together with a few discourses suggestive of the influence of the Burlington Philosophy upon my own modes of thought in particular, and upon the settlement of theological questions in general. The appended discourses are written, confessedly not in a key note in harmony with the current theology fifty years ago.

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The distrust, however, to which ' the spiritual philosophy gave rise then, in the churches and among the clergy, lias gradually abated, until doctrines which were then fifty years in advance of the age, are now accredited by thoughtful Christians, as the natural outcome of the word of God as it is revealed in Scripture and in the souls of men, both of which are believed to be media of Divine communication.

To give emphasis to this leading thought of harmony between the written and subjective . spiritual revelation was the motive that prompted the writing of this humble tribute and the accompanying sermons.