r of men.

"On the whole, it has been my fortune to know no man whose entire
character has appeared to me so near perfection, none, whom it would
so satisfy me in all things to resemble.

"How much we lost in him it is now impossible to estimate, and it
would, perhaps, be useless to know. His early death extinguished great
hopes. But his memory is a treasure, which even death cannot take from
us."

Hon. Rufus Choate writes thus: "It happened that my whole time at
college coincided with the period of President Brown's administration.
He was inducted into office in the autumn of 1815, my Freshman year,
and he died in the summer of 1820. It is not the want, therefore, but
the throng, of recollections of him that creates any difficulty in
complying with your request. He was still young at the time of his
inauguration--not more than thirty-one--and he had passed those few
years, after having been for three of them a tutor in Dartmouth
College, in the care of a parish in North Yarmouth, in Maine; but he
had already, in an extraordinary degree, dignity of person and
sentiment; rare beauty,--almost youthful beauty, of countenance; a
sweet, deep, commanding tone of voice; a grave but graceful and
attractive demeanor--all the traits and all the qualities, completely
ripe, which make up and express weight of character; and all the
address and firmness and knowledge of youth, men, and affairs which
constitute what we call administrative talent. For that form of
talent, and for the greatness which belongs to character, he was
doubtless remarkable. He must have been distinguished for this among
the eminent. From his first appearance before the students on the day
of his inauguration, when he delivered a brief and grave address in
Latin, prepared we were told, the evening before, until they followed
the bier, mourning, to his untimely grave, he governed them perfectly
and always, through their love and veneration; the love and veneration
of the 'willing soul.' Other arts of government were, indeed, just
then, scarcely practicable. The college was in a crisis which relaxed
discipline, and would have placed a weak instructor, or an instructor
unbeloved, or loved with no more than ordinary regard, in the power of
classes which would have abused it. It was a crisis which demanded a
great man for President, and it found such an one in him. In 1816, the
Legislature of New Hampshire passed the acts which changed the Charter
of the instit