USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 1 > Part 33
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The 2d. yeare at the 3d. houre.
The 3d. yeare at the 4th. every one in his Art. [arithmetic, etc. ].
The 4th. day reads Greeke
To the first yeare the Etymologie and Syntax at the eighth houre.
To the 2d. at the 9th. houre, Prosodia and Dialects. Afternoone
The first yeare at 2d. houre practice the precepts of Gram- mar in such Authors as have variety of words.
Alt for making of ao Governours of Hambard things, hist in Se Dolarge-Hall this 27 10th - 16ts.
It is adores that,
The ducomte of Maarbards Gift are to Be finished, & 1. me Isthat m" nowsie, m' Hillens, n' Syms m fillon ano cho To finish it, of an acquittance may be given in Allin. And it's agress ot if you find gings chard in the full fill ge will of bad boy are to Define Ho Gobernar of boalege his hand to il at a free shoomnahor & acquisto
2. MI Isthat is shortly Traquer of you wholeslys by of joy
3 At is oxbowand spal for that be a college foule in formes following
VERD
TAS
A copy of MY Wams & MT Goallons Petter to im Eating m" Latin
+
After of love remembered to you whereas we under flood by your former letter Gal are moving with was amounted porstofors for coneligue ufer was not all mal diprojet of, was perfect for our marle, Dofine cral at is mal homayping, may be appointed wholly about you fucking of go now bolags at Hun Bilge, in M. England, wo w underground it now aveling. So we Reft your liborio
Thomas Dams 26 march 1 640. Ethi Fox for Doalfon This money won't whale put into the hand oh my brother Nath: Car A.g. 9. 1647. 2. Though : Eaton christian an work of the Laden Moultons
From College Book No. 1 in the Harvard University Library
RECORD OF THE CHOOSING OF THE HARVARD SEAL
355
REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREES
The 2d. yeare at 3d. houre practice in Poesy, Nonnus, Du- port, or the like. [Nonnus turned the Psalms into Greek verse; Duport similarly versified the gospel of St. John in Greek. ]
The 3d. yeare perfect their Theory [principles of rhetoric] before noone, and exercise Style, Composition, Imitation, Epitome, both in Prose and Verse, afternoone.
The first day reads Hebrew, and the Easterne Tongues. Grammar to the first yeare houre the 8th.
To the 2d. Chaldee at the 9th. houre.
To the 3d. Syriack at the 10th. houre.
Afternoone
The first yeare practice in the Bible at the 2d. houre.
The 2d. in Ezra and Danel at the 3d. houre.
The 3d. at the 4th. houre in Trestius New Testament. The 6th. day reads Rhetorick to all at the 8th. houre.
Declamations at the 9th. So ordered that every Schollar may declaim once a moneth. The rest of the day vacat Rhe- toricis Studiis.
The 7th. day reads Divinity Catecheticall at the 8th houre, Common places at the 9th. houre.
Afternoone The first houre reads history in the Winter,
The nature of plants in the Summer.
The summe of every Lecture shall be examined before the new Lecture be read.
REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREES
Every Schollar that on proofe is found able to read the Originalls of the Old and New Testament into the Latine tongue, and to resolve them Logically; withall being of godly life and conversation; And at any publick Act hath the Ap- probation of the Overseers and Master of the Colledge, is fit to be dignified with his first Degree [Bachelor of Arts].
Every Schollar that giveth up in writing a System, or Synopsis, or summe of Logick, Naturall and Morall Phylo- sophy, Arithmetick, Geometry and Astronomy: and is ready to defend his Theses or prositions : withall skilled in the Orig- inalls as abovesaid: and of godly life & conversation: and so approved by the Overseers and Master of the Colledge, at
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HARVARD COLLEGE
any publique Act, is fit to be dignified with his 2d. Degree [Master of Arts].
4. The manner of the late Commencement, expressed in a Letter sent over from the Governour, and diverse of the Min- isters, their own words these.
The Students of the first Classis that have beene these foure yeeres trained up in University-Learning (for their ripening in the knowledge of the Tongues and Arts) and are approved for their manners as they have kept their publick Acts [dis- putations and debates] in former yeares, our selves being pre- sent, at them; for have they lately kept two solemne Acts for their Commencement, when the Governour, Magistrates, and the Ministers from all parts, with all sorts of Schollars, and others in great numbers were present, and did heare their Exercises ; which were Latine and Greeke Orations, and De- clamations and Hebrew Analysis Grammaticall, Logicall & Rhetoricall of the Psalms: And their Answers and Disputa- tions in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall and Metaphysicall Ques- tions; and so were found worthy of the first degree, (com- monly called Batchelour) pro more Academiarum in Anglia: Being first presented by the President to the Magistrates and Ministers, and by him, upon their Approbation, solemnly ad- mitted unto the same degree, and a Booke of Arts delivered into each of their hands, and power given them to read Lect- ures in the Hall upon any of the Arts, when they shall be thereunto called, and a liberty of studying in the Library.
All things in the Colledge are at present, like to proceed even as wee can wish, may it but please the Lord to goe on with his blessing in Christ, and stir up the hearts of his faith- full, and able Servants in our own Native Country, and here, (as he hath graciously begun) to advance this Honourable and most hopefull worke. The beginnings whereof and progresse hitherto (generally) fill our hearts with comfort, and raise them up to much more expectation, of the Lords goodnesse for hereafter, for the good of posterity, and the Churches of Christ Iesus.
Boston in New-England,
September the 26.
1642.
Your very loving friends, &c.
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SUMMARY OF EARLY HISTORY
SUMMARY OF EARLY HISTORY
The summary of the early history of Harvard may be read in the Latin inscription over the stage of Sanders Theatre, in the Memorial Hall erected in commemoration of Harvard men who more than two centuries later laid down their lives in the American Civil War :
Here in the woods and wilds Englishmen, fugitives from home, in the year of our Lord 1636, the sixth after the settlement of the Colony, holding that the first thing to cultivate was wisdom, founded a College by public enactment and dedicated it to Christ and his Church.
Upraised by the generosity of John Harvard, aided again and again by patrons of learning both here and abroad, entrusted finally to the charge of its alumni, from small beginnings guided to a growth of greater powers by the judgment, foresight, and care of its Presidents, Fellows, Overseers, and Faculties, it has ever cultivated the liberal arts and public and private virtues, and cultivates them still.
"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
[See also the bibliography following chapter xiii (Literature), and the General Bibliography at the end of Volume V.]
CARLISLE, Nicholas .- The Endowed School of Great Britain (2 vols., London, 1818) .- Brief histories, with charters and statutes, of the chief endowed schools. Vol. I pp. 583-587 contains the statutes of St. Saviour's School, Southwark; in force during John Harvard's time.
CHAPLIN, Jeremiah .- Life of Henry Dunster (Boston, 1872) .- The best single account of Dunster's life, with important documents.
DAVIS, Andrew McFarland .- "The Early College Buildings at Cam- bridge" (Worcester, American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, April, 1890) .- An exceedingly careful study from the records. Sup- plemented by Littlefield, George, q.v.
DUNSTER, Henry .- Letter, with Notes and Remarks by H. H. Edes (Cambridge, 1897) .- Publications of the Colonial Society of Massa- chusetts, Vol. 3. Dunster's account of his services as President. A document of the first importance.
LANE, William C .- "Early Harvard Broadsides" (Worcester, American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, Oct. 1914) .- Complete list of Har- vard Commencement programs 1642-1810, with many facsimile re- productions and valuable notes.
LITTLEFIELD, George E .- The Early Massachusetts Press (2 vols., Boston, 1907) .- Contains the best account of Rev. Josse Glover and the first printing press. Also the early history of the college. Sup- plements the account of first college buildings by Davis, A. McF., q.v. MSS., Harvard Archives, Widener Library .- Harvard College Records Book I, 1643-1687 ; Book III, 1636-1686 .- The best collection of orig- inal documents relating to the early history of the college. Now being published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Records of Overseers and President and Fellows; rules and regulations, list of gifts, catalogues of books, etc. etc.
MSS., Harvard Archives, Widener Library .- Steward's Account Books .- Vol. I; 1650-1659; Vol. II, 1687-1720. Charges and credits to in- dividual students for rooms, board, tuition and other expenses. Pay- ments made in bacon, beef, butter, apples, wheat, malt, shoes, etc. MASSON, David .- Life of Milton (5 vols., London, 1873) .- Vol. II con- tains a full account of Milton's studies at the University of Cam- bridge. Milton was a contemporary of John Harvard.
MATHER, Cotton .- Magnalia (2 vols., London, 1702; Hartford, 1853) .- Contains the most complete early account of the founding and early history of Harvard College: also lives of Dunster, Chauncy, and ten early graduates. To be read with reserve as to the accuracy of de- tails.
MATTHEWS, Albert .- Comenius and Harvard College (Cambridge, 1919., Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications, Vol. XXI) .-- "Was Comenius invited to be the president of Harvard? It is pos- sible; but there is no proof." Detailed, scholarly discussion.
MATTHEWS, Albert .- Harvard Commencement Days 1642-1916 (Col- onial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, Vol. 28) .- Authorita- tive, interesting account, from the sources.
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
MULLINGER, J. Bass .- History of the University of Cambridge (3 vols., Cambridge University Press, 1873, 1884, 1911) .- Vol. II, Chap. v. College Life at the Commencement of the 17th Century; Vol. III, Chap. ii. The Exiles to America. Authoritative work.
PAIGE, Lucuis R .- History of Cambridge (Mass.) 1630-1877 (Boston, 1877) .- The early chapters deal with the beginnings of Cambridge. An authoritative account.
QUINCY, Josiah .- The History of Harvard University (2 vols., Cam- bridge, 1840) .- Vol. I, Chaps. 1 and 2 contain a good account of Dunster and Chauncy. Should be supplemented by later information. Long the standard work on the subject.
SHELLEY, Henry C .- John Harvard and His Times (Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1907) .- From a full knowledge of the times Mr. Shel- ley weaves in interesting style a web of inference and conjecture around the known facts of John Harvard's life.
SHUCKBURGH, E. S .- Emmanuel College (London, 1904) .- Chaps. 1-5. Interesting account of the personalities connected with the early history of the college. Pp. 44-48 deal with early New England colonists.
SIBLEY, John Langdon .- Biographical Sketches of Harvard Graduates (3 vols., Cambridge, 1873, 1881, 1885) .- Accurate, detailed accounts of the lives of Harvard men by classes, beginning with 1642. Indispen- sable.
WATERS, Henry F .- John Harvard and his Ancestry (Boston, 1885) .- For 250 years little was known of John Harvard. Mr. Waters dis- covered his ancestry, including the Rogers family at Stratford-on- Avon.
WATSON, Foster .- English Grammar Schools to 1660 (Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 1908) .- The best existing survey of the studies, text books and exercises of grammar schools in the 1600's and earlier.
WRIGHT, Thomas Goddard .- Literary Culture in Early New England 1620-1730 (Yale University Press, 1920) .- The chapters on education, books, libraries, literary intercourse with England, and catalogues of colonial libraries are especially valuable.
CHAPTER XIII
MASSACHUSETTS IN LITERATURE THE 17TH CENTURY
BY F. J. STIMSON Ex-Ambassador to Argentina
LITERATURE OF SOUL-SAVING
The Puritans were primarily concerned with the state of their own souls. You have but to read the diary of the typi- cal Puritan, Cotton Mather, to realize that; and it was mainly their own souls, not the souls of the other people. You must turn over many pages of such a literary man as Cotton Mather before you find any entry concerning anything else than his own soul; and then it is to note that he had bought a Spanish Indian slave to give to his father. Five years later, he records his courtship,-to which he gives five lines, and (on the following page) allots four lines to his marriage.
It may be said that Cotton Mather is not a writer of pure literature; nor are diaries literature; but he covered more paper than any man of his time, having something like a hundred publications to his name, not counting the last enor- mous six folio volumes of manuscript for a work called "Bib- lia Americana", which was designed to illustrate every text in the Bible with an apposite story. For this, he never found a publisher.
Clearly earthly things did not arouse the interest of the early Puritans; nor even the souls of men other than them- selves. At the beginning, they had no design of christianizing New England; their religion was not Catholic; it was Spain that bore the Cross to the new world, however cruel the appli- cation. A few early liberal minded persons proved an excep-
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TRAVEL
tion, as was shown in Eliot's labors, and by Harvard's Indian College and its one Indian graduate; and by a definite Indian mission or two like that of Mayhew to Martha's Vineyard. Otherwise Massachusetts Calvinism remained self-centered; Roger Williams went outside the Commonwealth. For nigh two centuries, until after Jonathan Edwards' time, the writ- ings of God-fearing men of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth and Hartford and New Haven, were mainly pre-occupied in determining each one for himself, whether he was of the Elect; that if Elect, Communion with God was the sole busi- ness important in this world. If not of the Elect, all worldly things, including art and literature, were of little interest to one about to be damned forever. To this introspective spirit- ual condition must be added the effect of the century of dis- repute that our English forbears attached to all things aesthetic, though Barrett Wendell may be extreme in asserting that the first one hundred years here had bred almost no literature.
By "literature", we mean writing which is not primarily religious, or philosophical, or scientific, or historical, or even an autobiography, or a book of travel: all these may indeed have a literary quality-even sermons, though rarely so with the Calvinists. Few would say that Thomas A. Kempis' Imi- tation is not literature,-or Lucretius, or Pepys, or Boswell; but while there are some diaries, histories and perhaps books of travel in the seventeenth century, written or published in Massachusetts, yet of "literature" for the sake of literature, there is none, with the regrettable exception of Anne Brad- street, one or two Latin translations, and the turning of the splendid prose of the Psalms of King James's version into the metre of a rhymed doggerel. Out of over three hundred publications in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century all but a scant dozen were sermons or religious controversies.
TRAVEL
It is as well to expect from the Puritans no "Belles-lettres" for when even Shepard and Anne Bradstreet drop into poetry, the results are terrible, but we have a right to expect from the Pilgrims, books of travel. They had the wonder- fully interesting experience of encountering a new world, new
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MASSACHUSETTS IN LITERATURE
races, new life-in all of which they showed no more interest than a British subaltern in India. Hooker, or Cotton Mather, -though late in life he became a Fellow of the Royal So- ciety-would ride into a new country, almost the first man between the Charles and the Connecticut or the Merrimac, and find nothing to tell you about, except his soul's prepara- tion for eternal life; and this with a serene unconsciousness that it is of moment to no one but himself. He has no eyes for other people, or the face of nature.
This apathy lasted well on into the second American cen- tury. The present writer possesses the diary of his own greatgrandfather who was a surgeon in Washington's army, for two months after the Battle of Long Island; he fills two- thirds of the space given to that famous retreat from New York with the synopses of sermons preached on Sundays.
Hence, from now on we shall leave out theological writings and will start our group of Massachusetts writers with John Smith, who visited New England, named New England and loved New England, though he neither lived nor died there; and New England literary beginnings with writings political, historical and travel. John Smith, it will be said, was not a Massachusetts man. Wasn't he? He first discovered it, first wrote about it, first noticed the tang in the quality of the air that invigorated Hawthorne, Harriet Stowe, Melville, Mary Wilkins; and quoted Higginson's phrase that "it was better than a stoup of old England's ale." If it comes to that, neither were Endecott, Bradford, Shepard or the first Mather or Johnson, or Nathaniel Ward, Massachusetts men. True they lived some time and died here, while Smith and Josselyn only voyaged here; but they all fairly belong to New England, which inspired them to make their books; and Massachusetts was then New England.
JOHN SMITH
We will begin then with Capt. John Smith, who in 1616 published his description of New England. He had previ- ously written about Virginia and other voyages, but he made this New England voyage in 1614. He describes himself as Admiral of that country, and dedicates the book to "Charles,
THE
PORTRAICTUER OF CAPTAYN I/ ADMIRALL OF NEW ENGLA
HITWS NHOI I
There are the Lines that few thy Face; but those That Shew thy Grace and Glory, brighter bee : "Thy Faire-Difcoueries and Fowle-Overthrowes Of Salvages, much Civiliz'd by thees Beft fhew thy Spirit;and to it Glory WWyn So,thou art Braße without, but Golde within .
From the map in his Generall Historie in the American Antiquarian Society CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
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JOHN SMITH
Prince of Great Britain". Other dedications were "to the Right Worshipful Adventurers" and his "Majesty's Councell for all Plantations". Agreeable literary versions of English institutions and much admiring poetry follow of which the most noteworthy lines are by George Wither :
"In that rude Garden, you New England Stile
The Proud Ibernians shall not rule those seas,
To checke our ships from sayling
Where they please.
Nor future times make any forreign power
Become so great to force a bound to Our."
Because Prince Charles "had altered the names", Smith finds it necessary to prefix a schedule of the old names, Massa- chusetts names, and Prince Charles' names. Some of these are interesting : Cape Cod becomes Cape James ; Massachusetts Mt., Cheviot Hill; Massachusetts River, Charles River ; Cape Trabigzanda becomes Cape Anne ; and Aggawam, Sagadahock, Pemaquid, Monahigan, Matinnicus and Penobscot all lose their Indian names; of Prince Charles' names have survived only two. It is a shame to have lost "Trabigzanda"; for she was a Turkish Princess, who saved Smith's life much as, later, Pocahontas did.
The book is written in a lively style with embellishments and observations that fairly entitle it to be called literature. He found at least forty "Indian" villages between Penobscot and Cape Cod, compares the sea coast to that of Devonshire, predicts a great future for shipbuilding and the iron industry, and writes a panegyric upon fishing as an industry, which cer- tainly justifies the retaining of the cod in the Boston State House. Geographically he sketches somewhat of the country, all the way from what is now Maine to the River Plate; and says that the isle west of it in the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) is Nova Albion, "discovered as is said by Sir Francis Drake". He records an event in allied geography and gastronomy: "I made a garden upon the top of a rocky ile in 4312.4 leagues from the main, in May, that grew so well that it served us in salads in June and July." This was doubtless on the Isles of Shoals, which are called Smith's Isles, in the book-one of the few names retained by Prince Charles.
There is something of the Theodore Roosevelt about Smith ;
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MASSACHUSETTS IN LITERATURE
he was a man of action; a leader of men and in government; and an explorer and a writer. The famous story of his cutting off three Turks' heads when in the service of the Prince of Transilvania may be entirely authentic; does he not print in Latin the Grant of Arms conferred upon him by Sigismund Bathori December 9, 1603, relating that exploit? And was not the same confirmed by Garter, King of Arms, in 1625? Who shall deny the constructive pen of Garter, King of Arms, in 1625? His biography ends with his experience in Barbary and the strange discoveries and observations of the "Portu- galls" in Africa. Altogether, we may claim him as the earli- est of New England writers with more justice than we can claim Poe as a Massachusetts poet, because he was born in Boston; though Smith went back to England for his declin- ing years. True, most of it; imagined, perhaps some of it,- anyhow a record of what a real man thought in and about Massachusetts. Likewise he is particularly proud that it was he who persuaded King Charles I to give the name of New England to the country.
Smith's most interesting work, however, is on Virginia and his travels elsewhere in the world. This was published in London in 1629, and a reprint in two volumes in Richmond in 1819 contains also many dedications and poems addressed to him. His biography reads like Defoe; and despite his amaz- ing adventures, sounds veracious, and most of it has not been seriously impugned. Certainly no traveller, not even Marco Polo, nor Sir Walter Raleigh, had adventures in so many countries.
Next we find the Generall Historie of Virginia, Nere Eng- land and the Summer Isles by Captain John Smith, "some- time Governour in those countryes and Admirall of New Eng- land," inscribed to the Duchesse of Richmond and Lenox. He describes Gosnold's discovery of the Elizabeth Islands in Buzzards Bay, Pring's voyage to Virginia in 1603, and Way- mouth's in 1605. Finally in the second book, he gets down to his own business.
Smith was an excellent observer and possessed a distinct literary style. Certainly early Massachusetts produced no writer of such varied interest.
Smith passed most of the last years of his life about New
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WILLIAM BRADFORD
England, and even offered to lead the Pilgrims thither in 1619; "but they would not have him, he being Protestant and they Puritans." It is interesting to reflect the consequences, had they had him as guide, instead of one Jones, who was said by some writers to have been bribed to land them, not in New York bay, but on the shores of Cape Cod.
WILLIAM BRADFORD
Plymouth was part of the early wave of emigration and has long since been a part of Massachusetts. Bradford's famous Journal, a manuscript bound in leather, often called the Log of the Mayflower, was given back to Massachusetts by the Bishop of London, through the efforts of Ambassador Bayard in 1896. It has a printed bookmark, stating that it "Belongs to the New England Library, begun to be collected by Thomas Prince, upon his entering Harvard College, July 6, 1703." How this Puritan chronicle got back into the hands of an Anglican bishop does not appear. It gives a full and vivid account of the vicissitudes of the Pilgrims from their departure to Holland in 1608, their life there, and the reason for their removal to "Virginia"; principally that their life in Holland was "hard" and not puritanical, so that their youth was "falling away"; but also the desire for free ownership of land, and their zeal for propagating the gospel in these remote parts are given as the final reason. He describes the history of the Covenant, which sets up a communal society for seven years only; and even during that time allows a man two days work a week for "his private advantage." Then follows a full acount of the voyage and landing, and the whole history of the Plymouth colony in the form of annals, at first full, but later more summary, ending in 1644 with a pa- thetic relation of the dwindling away of the Pilgrim settle- ment. In that year the apportionment of soldiers in the New England Confederation to the Boston colony was 190 against Plymouth's 40; even Hartford had 40, and New Haven 30. The cause of this slow advance was largely geographical; Plymouth had neither a convenient harbor, nor a fertile hin- terland. Even in that year, 1645, it was proposed to move the capital to Nauset on the Cape, which would have been
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MASSACHUSETTS IN LITERATURE
from the barrens to the sands. Bradford makes no mention of the foundations of Harvard College; he concludes with the Treaty with the Indians after the Pequod War-"Benedicte Arnold, Interpreter".
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