gentleman once called on him to say, that he wished to join his church and receive the sacrament, for," said he, with an oath, "you are the most eloquent man I have ever heard." Mr. Larned spent an hour in explaining what was required in order to his becoming a member of his church; in other words, what it is to be a true Christian, and the Spaniard went away with a heavy heart to reflect on the subject, which had never been presented to his mind in the same light before."

No man of his age had studied more the genius of Christianity, in its adaptation to the variety of human character, and none more readily entered, sympathetically, into the various habits and peculiarities of different individuals. In connexion with this ready power of ideal communion with the thoughts and feelings of others, his finished character as a gentleman rendered him attractive even to men of the world, and brought him much into general society. But he never forgot his Christian obligations, or to advance, as he might, the cause more dear to him than life.

Ten days before his death, he received a letter from an eminent military officer, whose mind, at past sixty, appeared interested in religious truth, and who had referred with sensibility, but submission, to the decease of a pious brother. In his reply, Mr. Larned says, "Entirely do I appreciate the sentiments you express in relation to this bereavement; they belong, I trust, to a class of feelings suggested by the poet, when he tells us that some feelings are to mortals given, with less of earth and more of heaven; and I devoutly pray that consolation derived from such a source, you may always enjoy. Indeed, if you will pardon the frankness of the

remark, I look upon the views and exercises which Christianity has inspired in you at so late a period of life, as the mellow and tranquillizing rays of a spring morning just breaking through a bosom over which has hitherto presided the dreary winter of a sixty years' familiarity with the useless applauses and the base persecutions of the world."

Such were the moral endowments constituting an element of his GENIUS; which comprehended also, as we have seen, powers of intellect seldom surpassed, keen and rapid perceptions, a memory retentive and ready, an imagination vivid, lofty and vast, and as the result of all, a judgment quick to discriminate, bold to decide, and seldom either erroneous or obscure. Much that others gained by study, he seemed to know by intuition, and often performed tasks in a few hours, which many might be unable, in days, to accomplish. In college, his lesson was seldom examined until near the hour for recitation, yet he uniformly mastered its difficulties, and acquitted himself well. His skill in the classical languages was evident, and his knowledge of them acquired with rare facility. Somewhat impatient, as is stated, during his education, of severe and protracted investigations, he could, when necessary, concentrate his intellectual forces on any subject with prodigious effect. The evening before the senior vacation at Middlebury, he requested of the President leave of absence, observing that his oration for commencement should be submitted on his return. He was told it must be handed in for examination before his departure. At daylight the next morning it was completed, and in a few hours Larned proceeded with

a friend to his native town. On one occasion, at Princeton, the professor of theology desired each member of the class to present a written argument on an abstruse metaphysical subject. That of Mr. Larned, produced in a very short time, was deemed without flaw, and pronounced, of all, the best.

In 1821, a venerable professor at Princeton transmitted the following sketch of Mr. Larned to Dr. Cornelius:

"During the former part of his course in this seminary, he was not peculiarly distinguished, except for his eloquence, which was always remarkable; but during the latter part, his mind evidently received a new impulse. His pious feelings became much more predominant, and his progress in theological knowledge much more manifest. His mind did not appear formed for minute and nice disquisitions. I never observed in him any predilection for metaphysical speculations. By strong conceptions to seize the outlines and prominent points of a subject, was his talent. But perhaps he excelled others in nothing more than by the rapidity of his thoughts. He acquired nothing by slow, patient research, but by rapid glances he run over every subject; and when occasion required a sudden exertion, he astonished every one with the extraordinary expansion of his mind.

"His memory was uncommonly quick, and I never knew it fail him in repeating what he had committed to it. His imagination was vivid in a high degree, but more remarkable for strength than delicacy. I mean that he excelled more in the strong coloring of his descriptions, than in those nice touches and almost imperceptible shadings in which the refinement of taste very much consists. But certainly one of the noblest faculties of his mind was that of complete self-command and self-possession. All his resources were at his command. Whatever he knew, he could express

promptly, and in the best manner. He never hesitated; the march of his mind, when roused, was in a straight-forward course, without halting or deviation.

"Another trait in the character of his mind, which had no small influence in making him an orator of the first order, was a set of feelings at once quick and strong, and yet so much under government, that they never seemed to disturb the clear exercise of his intellect, to degenerate into extravagance, or to affect his countenance and voice in an unpleasant manner. As you have heard him in the pulpit, I need not inform you what power he had of engaging and rivetting the attention of his hearers, and of communicating to them some portion of his own ardor.

"His powers of conversation were, perhaps, equal to his eloquence in the pulpit. His fluency and ease could not be surpassed.

"His soul was formed in every respect for great and difficult enterprises; and when the magnitude of an object filled his mind, he disregarded the difficulties which stood in the way of its accomplishment. I have never seen what is called address more remarkable in any person. The ease with which he overcame the difficulties of erecting a church in New-Orleans, was truly surprising; and that this required unusual address, you know much better than I do.

"I need not inform you, that Mr. Larned possessed a heart distinguished for noble and generous feelings, and susceptible in a high degree of the tender emotions of sincere friendship."

To the charm and power of his eloquence, many who heard him are still living to testify. Of these the discourses in this volume may afford some explanation. But, as is suggested by one of his early and judicious friends, they give but an inadequate idea of their energy

as they fell from his lips. Wanting is his manly form, his benignant, yet kindling eye, the rich, clear tones of his voice, varying with his sentiments, now stirring, and then, like plaintive music, subduing the spirit, his natural and easy gesture, and more than all, his noble soul poured out in all the treasures of his sympathy and convictions in every word, and look, and action.* When he first appeared as a preacher, he wrote his sermons, but delivered them without reading, and with all the freedom of unwritten discourse. His greatest difficulty, as he remarked, in speaking extemporaneously, was to restrain the emotions and operations of his mind, since the ardor and excitability of his feelings sometimes overcame his physical strength. It is stated, that his habit at New-Orleans was to write one sermon on Saturday, for the Sabbath, and for his second sermon on that day, to rely upon thoughts which might suggest themselves during the hours of worship. It is to be presumed, however, that many subjects upon which he wrote, had shared largely in his previous

* The celebrated John Foster speaks in the following passage of Whitfield; and the same may be applied, we think, with a good degree of truth, to Larned:

"According to the testimony of all his hearers, that have left memorials of him, or that still survive to describe him, he had an energy and happy combination of the passions, so very extraordinary, as to constitute a commanding species of sublimity of character. In their swell, their fluctuations, their very turbulence, these passions so faithfully followed the nature of the subject, and with such irresistible evidence of being utterly clear of all design of oratorical management, that they bore all the dignity of the subject along with them, and never appeared, in their most ungovernable emotions, either extravagant or ludicrous, to any but minds of the coldest or profanest order." Again, Mr. Foster remarks, that, "To ignorant and semi-barbarous men, common truths in Whitfield's preaching, seemed to strike on them in fire and light."