Chapter 1 - Page 2

the soil will long avert the evils of a too dense
population. The character of the inhabitants does not seem--as there was,
perhaps, room to anticipate--to be in any degree influenced by the
atmosphere of Harley College. They are a set of rough and hardy yeomen,
much inferior, as respects refinement, to the corresponding classes in
most other parts of our country. This is the more remarkable, as there is
scarcely a family in the vicinity that has not provided, for at least one
of its sons, the advantages of a "liberal education."

Having thus described the present state of Harley College, we must proceed
to speak of it as it existed about eighty years since, when its foundation
was recent, and its prospects flattering. At the head of the institution,
at this period, was a learned and Orthodox divine, whose fame was in all
the churches. He was the author of several works which evinced much
erudition and depth of research; and the public, perhaps, thought the more
highly of his abilities from a singularity in the purposes to which he
applied them, that added much to the curiosity of his labors, though
little to their usefulness. But, however fanciful might be his private
pursuits, Dr. Melmoth, it was universally allowed, was diligent and
successful in the arts of instruction. The young men of his charge
prospered beneath his eye, and regarded him with an affection that was
strengthened by the little foibles which occasionally excited their
ridicule. The president was assisted in the discharge of his duties by two
inferior officers, chosen from the alumni of the college, who, while they
imparted to others the knowledge they had already imbibed, pursued the
study of divinity under the direction of their principal. Under such
auspices the institution grew and flourished. Having at that time but two
rivals in the country (neither of them within a considerable distance), it
became the general resort of the youth of the Province in which it was
situated. For several years in succession, its students amounted to nearly
fifty,--a number which, relatively to the circumstances of the country,
was very considerable.

From the exterior of the collegians, an accurate observer might pretty
safely judge how long they had been inmates of those classic walls. The
brown cheeks and the rustic dress of some would inform him that they had
but recently left the plough to labor in a not less toilsome field; the
grave look, and the intermingling of garments of a more classic cut, would
distinguish those who had begun to acquire the polish of their new
residence; and the air of superiority, the paler cheek, the less robust
form, the spectacles of green, and the dress, in general of threadbare
black, would designate the