9 7
THE REAR ADMIRAL
FRANKLIN HANFORD. U. S. N.
COLLECTION IN THE
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
• 1929 •
lOJtcjDt.
^ /3 ^^^k^.l<r'
MEMORIALS
OF
Horatio Balch Hackett.
EDITED BY
GEORGE IL WHITTEMORE.
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ROCHESTER.
1876.
X A.
..*1-
•Y
ASTOi
493»
ns
" I have searched my own heart in vain, if I would knowingly interpose a single
idea of my own, or any shade of an idea, between the mind of the reader of God's
Word and any one of its holy declarations."
ADDRESS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, OCTOBER (i, 185S.
PRESS OF E. R ANDREWS, ROCHESTER.
PREFACE.
The Reverend Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., LL. D.,
died suddenly at his residence in Rochester, New York,
on Tuesday, November 2, 1875. Funeral services took
place at Rochester, on Friday, November fifth, and at
Newton Centre, to which place the remains were con-
veyed, on Saturday, November sixth. In the addresses
on these occasions, and in the notices which the event
elicited from the press, from public bodies, and from
individuals in this country and abroad, the intimacies
and pursuits of Dr. Hackett, and the Institutions of
higher education, to which he gave his services, were
represented.
The sentiment having early declared itself that a
volume like the present should emanate from the Seminary
of sacred learning which he adorned at the time of his
death, it has been a pious office to collect for publi-
cation in the form in which they were paid, some of
these tributes, and to employ others, together with
Dr. Hackett's published works, his journals, and the
personal recollections of others, and of the editor, in
preparing an accompanying memoir of the life and
services of their honored subject. To all whose
contributions thus enter into these pages, and who
have in any way advanced their compilation, sincere
thanks are returned.
IV PREFACE.
The benefactor, whose name is connected with the
halls of Rochester Theological Seminary, and with the
chair which Dr. Hackett there filled, made liberal
provision toward the publication of this volume when he
learned that it was projected. This tribute of John B.
Trevor to the memory of Horatio B. Hackett, con-
tinues an association of names, which, by the blessing
of God, has been fruitful for the interests of Christian
learning.
The Editor.
Rochester Theological Seminary, May i6, 1876.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
■■»> 4 » <»»
PAGE.
I. MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY. 3
II. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES.
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES IN ROCHESTER,
NEW YORK.
Rev. Augustus H. Strong, D. D., President of Rochester
Theological Seminary _ - - - - i8i
Students of Rochester Theological Seminary - - 195
Martin B. Anderson, LL. D., President of the University of
Rochester - - - - - - ^97
AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES IN NEWTON CENTRE,
MASSACHUSETTS.
Rev. George H. Whittemore, Rochester Theological Seminary 205
Rev. Edwards A. Park, D. D., Professor in Andover Theolog-
ical Seminary ______ 207
Rev. W1LLLA.M S. Tyler, D. D., Professor in Amherst College 215
Rev. Alexis Caswell, D. D., LL. D., Ex-President of Brown
University ______ 223
Rev. Alvah Hovey, D. D., President of Newton Theological
Institution _--____ 227
Rev. Ezekiel G. Robinson, D. D., LL. D., President of Brown
University .-____ 239
Rev. Andrew P. Peabody, D. D., LL. D., Professor in Harvard
College, and Preacher to the University - - 243
VI TABLE OP^ CONTENTS.
IJl. MEMORIAL TRIBUTES.
FROM ACADEMICAL AND CLERICAL BODIES.
The Faculty of the Rochester Theological Seminary 249
The Trustees of the Rochester Theological Seminary 250
The Faculty of the Newton Theological Institution 252
The New York Baptist Ministerial Conference - 253
The Boston Baptist Ministerial Conference - 254
The American Bible Revision Committee - - 260
FROM PERSONAL SOURCES.
Rev. Thomas J. Conant, D. D., Brooklyn, New York - 265
Rev. Barnas Sears, D. D., LL. D., Staunton, Virginia - 268
Rev. Samuel F. Smith, D. D., from Brussels, Belgium - 269
Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D. D., Boston, Massachusetts \
Rev. Samuel G. Brown, D.D., LL. D., President of Hamilton )• 271
College _-____;
Rev. William Ha(;ue, D. D., from Germany - - 273
Rev. Augustus Tholuck, D. D., Ph. D., Professor in the Uni-
versity of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany _ _ _ 275
Rev. Brooke Foss Westcott, D. D., Professor in the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, England - - - - 276
Rev. Joseph Angus, D. D., President of Regent's Park College,
London ______ 276
Rev. D. Z. Sakellarios. Athens, Greece _ - - 277
Rev. Ezekiel Russell, D. D., Holbrook, Massachusetts - 278
Rev. Daniel L. Furber, D. D., Newton Centre, Massachusetts 286
APPENDIX.
I. Letter by Professor Hackett, Written in 1835 - 295
II. List of Published Works and Articles by Dr. Hackett 298
III. A Page from Dr. Hackett's Journal, 1845 - - 303
CONTENTS OF BIOGRAPHY.
^> 4 » <»
CHAPTER I.
1808— 1826.
PAGE.
BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL-DAYS. ___--- 3
CHAPTER H.
1826 — 1834.
STUDENT LIFE AT AMHERST AND ANDOVER, EMBRACING COLLEGE
TUTORSHIP. _-_------ 10
CHAPTER in.
1834— 1839.
MARRIAGE. PROFESSORSHIP AT BALTIMORE. CHANGE OF
CHURCH CONNECTIONS. — PROFESSORSHIP AT PROVIDENCE. 23
CHAPTER IV.
1839 — 1842.
BEGINNING OF PROFESSORSHIP AT NEWTON AND ORDINATION.
FIRST FOREIGN TOUR. THEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GERMANY.
SERVICES TO BAPTISTS IN DENMARK. - _ - _ 33
CHAPTER V.
1843— 1851.
LITERARY LABORS : ANNOTATED WORK OF PLUTARCH ; TRANS-
LATION OF Winer's chaldee grammar ; — Hebrew exer-
cises. temporary service in ANDOVER SEMINARY.
liberality OF CHARACTER. — FIRST EDITION OF COMMENTARY
ON ACTS. ___--__ -_ 50
Vlll CONTENTS OT UIOGRAITIY.
CHAPTER VI.
1851— 1852.
SECOND FOREIGN TOUR : IN ENGLAND, FRANCE, ITALY, EGYPT
AND PALESTINE, GREECE, GERMANY, FRANCE, GREAT
BRITAIN. _-_------
60
CHAPTER Vn.
1852— 1858.
EVENTS UPON RETURN. REQUISITES FOR A SACRED INTERPRE-
TER. PUBLICATION OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.
SECOND EDITION OF COMMENTARY ON ACTS. - - - 72
CHAPTER Vni.
1858— 1859.
THIRD FOREIGN TOUR. SWITZERLAND. RESIDENCE, STUDIES,
AND TRAVELS, IN GREECE. RETURN THROUGH AUSTRIA,
GERMANY, BELGIUM, ENGLAND. - - _ - - 80
CHAPTER IX.
1859 — i860.
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. LABORS ON THE EPISTLE TO
PHILEMON. _._------89
CHAPTER X.
1861— 1865.
patriotism: — in academical addresses; — correspondence;
publication of memorial volume; address at dedi-
CATION OF soldiers' MONUMENT IN NEWTON. - - 105
CHAPTER XI.
i860— 1865.
RETROSPECT. HONORS, DEATHS OF FRIENDS. REMARKS AT
NEWTON.— LITERARY LABORS. EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. I 29
CHAPTER XII.
1865— 1868.
LAST YEARS IN NEWTON INSTITUTION. LITERARY LABORS :
DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE; WORK ON LANGE'S COMMEN-
TARY ; PLUTARCH. ACTIVITY IN ACADEMICAL SERVICES.
RETIREMENT FROM PROFESSORSHIP IN NEWTON. - - 137
CONTENTS OF BIOGRAPHY. IX
CHAPTER XIII.
1868— 1870.
TASKS AS A WRITER. CHANGED MODE OF LIFE FOR TWO
YEARS. ACCEPTANCE OF A CHAIR IN ROCHESTER THEOLOGI-
CAL SEMINARY. INTERVAL BEFORE ENTRANCE ON ITS DUTIES.
FOURTH FOREIGN TOUR, IN GREAT BRITAIN AND ON THE
CONTINENT. -_-___._. 148
CHAPTER XIV.
1870— 1875.
PROFESSORSHIP AT ROCHESTER. OLD FRIENDS THERE. VISIT
TO AMHERST IN 1871. TRIBUTE TO DR. E. G. ROBINSON.
DECEASED CONTEMPORARIES. LITERARY LABOR. POSITION
IN THE SEMINARY. REMINISCENCE OF ANDOVER ACADEMY.
FIFTH FOREIGN TOUR IN EUROPE. - - - _ j^^
CHAPTER XV.
1875.
THE LAST OF EARTH. FUNERAL SERVICES AT ROCHESTER.
FINAL OBSEQUIES AT NEWTON. MEMORIALS. CHARACTER-
ISTICS. CONCLUSION. -----__ i(3y
MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY.
MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER I.
1 808-1 826.
BOVIUXH) AXn SCHOOL-DAYS.
HoRATKj Balch Hackett was horn in Salisbury,
Massachusetts, December 27th, 180S. This is the most
ancient of the towns on the north bank of the Merrimac
which belong; to Massachusetts, having been incorporated
in 1640. It is in a reo;ion noted at once for its picturesque
inland scenery, and for a sea-coast of varied attractions,
stretchinor from the bold rocks of Nahant to Salisburv
sands. This is also a storied land, famous in colonial and
national annals, in romance, and in song. With the dis-
trict of the Merrimac are associated many of the most
distinguished names in American history and letters.
The name of the Merrimac, " most industrious and
beautiful of rivers," is prominent also in the records of
manufactures and commerce. Its ship yards have been
long and widely known. At Salisbury the Continental
frigate Alliance was constructed during the Revolution,
under the supervision, as joint-builder, of John Hackett,
grandfather of Horatio. His maternal grandfather. Rev.
Benjamin Balch, was chaplain in the same ship, and had
4 HORATKJ BALCH HACKETT.
two sons on board with him, both of whom were minors,
and counted as one man.
The Hackett family is beheved to be descended from
the Scotch and the Danes. Few representatives of the
name emigrated to this country.
Richard Hackett, the father of Horatio, was also a
ship-builder. He married Martha Balch, the daughter of
the Rev. Benjamin Balch, of Barrington, New Hamp-
shire.
Four children were born of this union: James, who is
now living in New Hampshire; Horatio B.; John (named
after his grandfather), who died August i6th, 1815, at the
age of four years and nine months; and Richard (a family
name, borne by the father of the builder of the Alliance),
who died some years since in Philadelphia. The father
had preceded his infant son to the grave, dying October
2ist, 1 8 14, at the early age of thirty.
Anterior to this heavy loss was an incident upon the
very verge of Dr. Hackett's earliest recollections, which
may be mentioned here as illustrating a by-gone phase of
New England life. It relates to an old negro woman
called Aga, who lived in the family of his grandfather
Balch at Barrington, and had been nurse to his mother
and aunt. She had been a slave in New Hampshire,
before the emancipation there, and was originally stolen
from Africa, of which she had faint recollections. He
had heard her praises sounded, and, with reference to her
fidelity and goodness, she had so often been called in his
hearing a beautiful woman, that, ignorant of her color
and history, he expected to behold an almost angelic
being. When, upon being taken to his grandfather's, he
INCIDENTS OF CHILDHOOD. 5
saw instead an old black woman, such was the revulsion
of disappointment that he ran away, got a stick, and
coming up behind her, struck her violently. She cried
out, and he ran off and hid in the wood-pile. On being
apprehended and led back, his first inquiry was, almost
fearing he had become a murderer, " Does she bleed } "
It is somewhat hard to believe, even upon his own
testimony, that the severe scholar and dignified man was
once a roguish boy, and liked to sit in the gallery of
the church with kindred spirits. One of the Sabbath
diversions of the boys, when they could elude the
Tithing-man, was to fasten two pieces of apple to the
ends of a string, and throwing it to the geese, to see them
pull the pieces from each others' mouths.
More congruous with his after character seems the
interest which made the boy of eight years run from
Salisbury to the Mills, to see President Monroe, on the
occasion of his visit to New England, in the summer of
1 817. He distinctly remembered the Goodridge case in
this same year, celebrated in the criminal annals of Essex
county.
His acquaintance with English literature began at an
early age. Works by Smollett, Fielding, Sterne, and
other writers, he read, when a little boy, visiting his aunt,
on the Merrimac river, the books being borrowed from a
neighboring sea-captain. At night he would ask his aunt
to light up, and she would say, when he could see three
lights on the river she would give him a candle. The
little watchman would take his place, and ejaculate, "Aunt
I see one light ! two ! three ! "
In the autumn of 1820 he went to live, temporarily,
with a relative at Newburyport.
6 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The summer of 1821 was signalized by attending the
Academy at Amesbuiy, under the charge of Master
Walsh. Michael Walsh was a celebrated teacher, and
a graduate of Dublin University, Ireland. He treated
his young pupil with great kindness, affording him sub-
stantial aid in obtaining an education, and was ever
regarded by him with respect and affection.
Two great historical names were connected with the
remembrance of this period of the boy's history. One
evening, returning home, he saw it written in chalk on
the window-shutter of a shop, "Buonaparte is dead." His
first knowledge of Daniel Webster he received from
Master Walsh, probably in the year 1822, when that
distinguished man was a candidate for Congress for the
first time, from his new constituency in Massachusetts.
The master was standing with a group of boys, in front
of the Academy, which was upon an eminence overlook-
ing the valley of the Powow, and the part of Salisbury
in the neighborhood of Rocky Hill. Lifting his hand,
and pointing with an earnest gesture in the direction, he
said, " Now, boys, look there — the smartest man, yes, the
smartest man in all Massachusetts came from out of the
bushes over there ! " The remark made a strong impres-
sion upon at least one of the youthful auditors. It
suggested, and perhaps, as he afterward thought, was
intended to suggest, that the fault is in themselves, and
not in their stars, if persons fail to overcome the obstacles
to success and eminence, which early poverty and obscurity
may place in their path. Mr. W^alsh referred, as he
supposed, to the fact that the mother of Daniel Webster,
who was an Eastman, was a native of Salisbury, Mass.
SCHOOL-DAYS AT ANDOVER. 7
Some of the kindred of the name were hving there in
his childhood, and were well known.
The circumstances of his early bereavement gave the
fatherless boy no exemption from the frequent lot of
genius, the necessity of strenuous exertion, with the
accompaniment of anxious forebodings.
Plaistow, N. H., was the scene of another temporary
residence, for the sake of employment in a store, in the
autumn of 1822.
At the same season of 1823, on the eleventh of Sep-
tember, he became a pupil in Phillips Academy, Andover,
Massachusetts. The^tep was taken by the advice of an
uncle. Rev. William I^alch, who had studied at Harvard
College, and who was acquainted with the teachers at
Andover.
This celebrated school, " the Rugby of America," as it
has been called, was now verging towards the end of its
first half-centur)^ having been founded in 1778, and
incorporated two years later. It was at this time under
the superintendence of John Adams, father of the Rev.
WilHam Adams, D. D., of New York, as Principal.
Liberal aid was rendered to the meritorious, and at the
end of three months, the new scholar was sure of board
and tuition remitted, until fitted for college. The memory
of this time has been embalmed by the literary genius of a
distinguished school-fellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
in a charming paper published almost fifty years after. It
contains a personal description of the young Hackett, as
attractive in verbal portraiture of the reality, as is the
engraver's familiar ideal likeness of the child Milton.
8 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The writer says : —
"Of the boys who were at school with me at Andover,
one has acquired great distinction among the scholars of
the land. One day I observed a new boy in a seat not
very far from my own. He was a little fellow, as I
recollect him, with black hair and very bright black eyes,
when at length I got a chance to look at them. Of all
the new-comers during my whole year, he was the only
one whom the first glance fixed in my memory ; but
there he is now, at this moment, just as he caught my
eye on the morning of his entrance. His head was
between his hands ( I wonder if h(* does not sometimes
study in that same posture nowadays ! ), and his eyes
were fastened to his book as if he had been reading a
will that made him heir to a million. I feel sure that
Professor Horatio Balch Hackett will not find fault with
me for writing his name under this inoffensive portrait."
Dr. Holmes speaks of Dr. Hackett as a new-comer, but
the latter had already been a year in the school when
Dr. Holmes came to spend the year 1824-5 there. It
may have been the first time that the young Hackett
attracted the notice of his popular and versatile school-
fellow, whom every one knew and admired. Dr. Hackett
has been heard to describe him in terms almost identical
with those of a published reminiscence, by their school-
fellow, Rev. Dr. J. F. Stearns, and the picture may be
given here, as a pendant to the one already presented :
"I remember Holmes just as if it was yesterday, and if
I was a painter I could draw his face just at it was at the
time of my connection with the Academy. A beautiful
boy he was; bright, cheerful, and unsophisticated, and
SCHOOL-DAYS AT AXDOVER. 9
brilliant in every department of his study. Well I
remember the day that he passed his last examination,
when he read his performance — I think it was a poetic
translation ; perhaps my memory does not serve me right
in that respect, but I think it was a poetic translation
from one of the Roman poets, — and there stood his good
old father by, and the tears were running down the old
man's cheeks as he listened. He was beloved by every
one who knew him."
Besides the dailv vision of stern-faced John Adams,
with the sul)-master, Jonathan Clement, and the assistants,
George Beck with and Samuel H. Stearns, familiar and
impressive to Hackett and Holmes, in these school-days,
was the sight of the dignitaries of the Seminary: "Moses
Stuart, Roman in face and figure, with his toga o\'er his
arm in all weathers," Drs. Woods, Porter, and Murdock, —
to all of whom the boys Hstened as preachers, — and
Squire Samuel Farrar, for a generation from its foun-
dation Treasurer of the Seminary.
With Dr. Hackett and his friends, — including the Rev.
Ray Palmer, D. D., of New York; Rev. Jonathan F.
Stearns, D. D., of Newark, New Jersey; and Rev. William
W. Newell, D. D., of New York, — originated, it is stated,
the Philomathean Society of the Academy, which cele-
brated its Semi-Centennial, May 26, 1875. I" ^^^ time
he became a member of the Senior Class Societv, the
Social Fraternity, which does not now survive. Among
his papers are several exercises prepared for its meetings.
Three years were spent in this secluded retreat. He
graduated from the Academy in August, 1826, with the
Valedictory Address. The traditions of its youthful
lO HORATIO HALCH lIAClvETT.
eloquence still survive. According to one account, he
drew a moving comparison between the favored lot of
those who were to pursue higher studies, and the destiny
of an enforced return to uncongenial occupations. Grave
men who heard it were touched, and resolved that the
foreboding should not be experienced. So, some idea he
had had of trying his fortune at Brunswick was aban-
doned, and he was sent to Amherst.
CHAPTER II.
1826-1834.
STUDENT LIFE AT AMHERST AND ANDOVER, EMBRACING
COLLEGE TUTORSHIP.
A month after the Exhibition at Andover, in the
latter part of September, 1826, the youthful aspirant
after learning was admitted to the Freshman Class in
Amherst College. The excellent Rev. Heman Hum-
phrey, D. D., the second President of the College, had
then been for three years in that office, which he con-
tinued to hold until 1845. Among the Faculty at that
time, special mention, on account of after intimacy and
friendship, may be made of the Rev. Nathan Welby
Fiske, Professor of the Greek Language and Literature ;
and the Rev. Solomon Peck, D. D., w^ho, for seven years,
from 1825 till 1832, was Professor of the Latin and
Hebrew Languages and Literatures. Dr. Peck died
June 12th, 1874. Among letters which he had written,
the reperusal of which w^as occasioned by his decease,
COLLEGE DAYS AT AMHERST. II
was one, dated Amherst College, September 20th, 1826,
in which, speaking of admissions to the new class, he
says: "Also young Hackett, who passed as splendid
an examination as I have ever heard."
Other professors were the Rev. Edward Hitchcock,
D. D., LL, D. ; the Rev. Samuel L. Worcester, D. D. ;
and the Rev. Jacob Abbott, the well-known writer and
teacher. The closest and tenderest of the associations
with new teachers which the young collegian here formed,
was that with the Rev^ Bela Bates Edwards, D. D., who
became tutor at Amherst in 1826-7. Dr. Hackett wrote,
more than a quarter of a century after, " 1 can now
recollect distinctly from mv college days not a few of
his remarks (jn passages in the classics, not merely the
things said, but the words employed by him, the tone
and look with which he spoke."
At Amherst, he had the use of money from two
gentlemen who had become interested in him, but
lived with great economy, afterwards refunding the aid
received. As many of his fellow -students went away,
at the end of the first term, to teach country schools, he
was led to follow their example. On December nth,
1826, he left Amherst for Belchertown to teach a school
which had been previouslv engaged. He returned to
Amherst, February 3d, having worked nearly two
months for twentv dollars, enouijh to buv a coat.
The year 1827 witnessed a great religious interest in
Amherst Colleore, and the future Christian teacher was
included in its beneficent influences. So engrossed was
he with the subject of his personal relation to Christ,
that, according to his statement before the council at
12 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the time of his ordination to the ministry, he resolved
to lay aside his studies, until the matter was decided,
and did not resume them until he felt that he had made
a complete surrender to Christ. He became a member
of the College Church soon after the opening of his
Sophomore year, on the second day of November, 1828,
forty-seven years before the day of his death.
"It illustrates the value of revivals in college to
observe, that among the large number who united with
the CoUeore Church at the same time with Professor
Hackett, were Dr. Benjamin Schneider, the missionary
to Turkey ; Henry Lyman, the martyr of Sumatra ;
Dr. Edward P. Humphrey, son of President Humphrey;
Dr. A. W. McClure, Secretary of the American and
Foreipfn Christian Union, and others scarcely less
honored and useful."
The author of the above words, the Rev. Professor
William Seymour Tyler, D. D., of Amherst College,
became the life -long and valued friend of Dr. Hackett,
as a classmate at Amherst, which he entered from
another college, in the Junior year. He kindly furnishes
the following incidents in the college life of his friend,
beginning with one previous to their acquaintance.
" Many little circumstances show the estimation in
which he was held by his fellow -students in college.
In 1827, when he was a Freshman, he was chosen one
of the speakers in an exhibition of the Alexandrian
Society, of which he was a member, and the exhibition
came off on the 4th of July, as a part of the cele-
bration of the national anniversary by the College and
the community !
HONORS IN COLLEGE. 1 3
"In the summer term of his Junior year, 1829, he
was elected the first president from his Class, of the
same society, which was the highest honor that the
society could confer upon him. His subject was,
'Ambition — its Influence in a Popular Government'
The same year he received the highest appointment
for the Junior Exhibition (May 13th, 1829), viz., the
Latin oration ; his theme was, ' De Militari Fama
RomanoT'2i7n, p7^i2isquam Iniperatores Rertnn Pothinturl
" In his Senior year he was the chairman of a com-
mittee who were appointed by the students to wait
upon Professor (afterwards President) Hitchcock, and
request him to publish the course of lectures which he
had just given in the college on the subject of
Health, Diet and Regimen. The lectures were pub-
lished in a book, which became quite famous under
the title of ' Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted.' The
other members of the committee (one from each class)
were Porter Parker (afterwards Dr. Parker, of China),
Lyman Gibbons (afterwards Judge Gibbons, of Mobile),
and Hosea D. Humphreys (afterwards Professor Hum-
phreys, of Wabash College).
" The same year he was chairman of a committee
appointed by the students to wait on Daniel Webster,
who was to pass the night in town, and request him
to address the students. Mr. Webster replied, that he
would not address them, but would be most happy to
meet them a few moments at such time and place as
they might appoint. He met them towards evening
in the library. Of course, it became the duty of
President Humphrey to address to him a few words
14 HORATIO BALCH IIACKETT.
of welcome ; and then, of course, it became necessary
for Mr. Webster to make a few remarks in response.
Not a student present on that occasion, probably, but
remembered ever after the Orator's graceful allusions to
the surrounding scenery, with its educational influence,
and illustration of the value of wisdom and culture, by
reference to the far-famed bow which none could draw
but the wise and cultured Ulysses. Professor Hackett
often reverted in after years to that meeting and hear-
ing of Daniel Webster ; and well he might, for does
not Glaucus boast in the Iliad of having once seen
the hero Tydeus in his father's house, and does not
Antenor recount to his aged compeers the eloquent
Ulysses' long -since visit to the Trojan city.
" Our commencement was on the 25th of August,
1830. Hackett pronounced the Valedictory Oration.
His subject was the ' Effects of the Diffusion of
Knowledge on our Literature.' A copy of the oration,
preserved in the archives of the College, lies before me
in his own hand-writing, which, bv the way, w^as then
neat, round, regular and easily legible, yet exhibiting
clearly enough the chirography out of wdiich rapid
writing at length developed the hieroglyphics that his
printers and his friends were sometimes sorely puzzled
to decipher. The main divisions of his oration, which
exhibits much of the logical clearness and rhetorical
beauty of his later style, are as follows : ' A greater
certainty of the development of whatever mental energy
the nation contains may be mentioned as one of the
effects of the diffusion of knowledge.' ' Another conse-
quence of the diffusion of knowledge is the creation of
INCIDENTS IN COLLEGE LIFE. 1 5
new motives to intellectual effort.' ' The independence
of literary men is also an effect important to be
noticed.' ' It may also be remarked that the diffusion
of knowledge tends to raise the public estimation of
literary talents.' With a complimentary allusion to the
intelligent audiences which grace our literary anniver-
saries and the indulgence with which they listen to the
performances, as illustrating the general diffusion of
knowledge, the orator passes naturally and gracefully
to the valedictory addresses."
Since Dr. Hackett's death, a friend relates having
been once told that the first writing of his that
appeared in print was a memorial to Congress against
the removal of the Indians in Georgia. He was then
a Senior in Amherst College, and at a public meeting
a committee was appointed to draft such a memorial.
President Humphrey was chairman of this committee,
and at his request the memorial was prepared by Mr.
Hackett, who represented his Class in the committee.
Dr. Park writes in a letter: "In the year 1829 or
1830, I first became acquainted with Dr. Hackett,
before he came to Andover Seminary, while he was a
member of Amherst College. Visiting the family of
President Humphrey, I heard much said of young
Hackett, and was introduced to him as ' the brightest
scholar in College.' I said to him that I wished him
to take a little care of a young friend of mine in the
College ; a friend three years younger than Mr. Hackett.
He seemed surprised at my request, and at once replied,
'Why, Sir, I need him to take care of me.' He said
nothing more. I was at once called away from him.
1 6 HORATJU 13ALCH HACKETT.
hut his modesty tJicu arrested my attention ; and I
can never forget the humhle cast of countenance with
which he expressed his incompetence to take the care
of ^7//)'body."
It was preeminently the purpose of the founding of
Amherst College, in 1 821, to impart Christian education,
and lay the foundation for an intelligent, devoted. Christian
Ministry. Well-nigh half of its alumni have made this
the business of their lives. It was natural that Mr.
Hackett, from a conjunction of ancestral traditions and
academical influences with the new" motives of his
Christian life, should return to Andover for the special
professional studies of this calling. The Theological
Seminary there was chartered June 19, 1807, and opened
September 28, 1808. Its President, from 1827 to his
death in 1834, was the Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D. D., who
became Professor in 181 2. Moses Stuart had grown
with it from 18 10, and was now at the height of the
fame which his active mind and noble heart, his enthusi-
asm in scientific Biblical study, and his position as its
pioneer in America, conspired to give him. Dr. Hackett
ever spoke of his character with admiration. He re-
garded him as so many-sided that probably different
classes, though all impressed with his power and fulness,
carried away dissimilar ideas of the man. The image
which they had of him was not the same. Idem aliitsgiic
was he, which has been pronounced the appropriate effect
of a orreat man. Dr. Leonard Woods was the Professor
of Christian Theology. Dr. Thomas H. Skinner was
from 1833 to 1835 the Professor of Sacred Rhetoric.
Dr. Ralph Emerson had lately become Professor of
STUDIES AT ANDOVER. 1 7
Ecclesiastical History. That prince among scholars, the
Rev. Edward Robinson, D. D., having been previously
assistant instructor, from 1823 to 1826, had just returned
from four years of study and travel in Europe, and been
appointed Professor Extraordinary of Sacred Literature
at Andover. He soon after commenced the publication
of the Biblical Repository, richly stored with stimulating
contributions to sacred science, by the best native and
foreign scholars. To be guided in the studies of the Old
and the New Testament under the auspices of a Robin-
son and a Stuart, was a boon which a Hackett could
appreciate. Dr. Park has eloquently told how he profited
by it. The later pupils of those eminent men recall the
respect in which they held their fellow-scholar, whom
they had helped to train, and whose ability and promise
they from the first discerned.
" I was with him only one year at Andover," writes
Dr. Park, "he being a Junior while I was a Senior. He
seemed utterly unconscious of his superiority to other
men; and he often embarrassed his companions by his
deference to them, as if they were superior to himself"
At the end of his first year in the Seminary, Mr.
Hackett was honored with appointment to a tutorship in
the college which he had so recently left. Even had his
inclinations been adverse, his circumstances, in view of
which he said in after years that he wondered how he
got through the Theological Seminary, would have
dictated his acceptance. He held this position during
the collegiate year of 183 1-2. The Freshman class of
that year expressed their regard for him by a gift of
books, among which was Shakespeare.
3
1 8 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
He then returned to theological studies at Andover,
which he pursued to the end of the course, engaging in
some occasional literary labor, as an addition to his re-
sources. Looking back to this time in after years. Dr.
Hackett has been heard to remark, that the slamming
of a door was the hinge upon which the occupation of
his life turned. At Andover one day a blast of wind
slammed a door. Going to adjust it, he was met in the
hall by Professor Edward Robinson, with the sheets of
his translation of Buttmann's Greek Grammar. " I have
just been" said he, "to Mr. Crosby's room, but he is out,
to obtain his assistance in the correction of these proofs ;
but you are just from teaching Greek, and can do the
thing as well." Mr. Hackett expressed a willingness to
share the work with Mr. Crosby (aftei"wards Professor
Alpheus Crosby of Dartmouth College). The transla-
tion, from the thirteenth German edition, was published
in 1833. In the preface Dr. Robinson made mention of
the services which had been rendered by several young
gentlemen connected with the Theological Seminary,
"particularly by Mr. H. B. Hackett, late Tutor in Amherst
College, and Mr. A, Crosby, Professor elect of Languages
in Dartmouth College; from both of whom the public
has a right to expect much in future, for the advancement
both of classical and of sacred learning in our country."
This caught the eye of Dr. Wayland, at Providence,
when looking about for a classical professor. Of the
incumbent he also desired some Hebrew instruction.
Thus Professor Hackett was in readiness for translation
to sole employment in Biblical studies at Newton.
INVESTIGATIONS ON BAPTISM. 1 9
The closing period of his residence at Andover wit-
nessed the beginning of those researches as to the proper
subjects, and ancient practice, of baptism, which resulted
in a change of Mr. Hackett's church connections. Their
occasion, it is stated, was his being requested, in the
course of the studies of the Senior year, to prepare an
essay on Infont Baptism. Of interest at this point, not
only for the incidental allusions to himself, but as, from
the nature of the case, a delineation of experience similar
to his own, is a paper by Dr. Hackett, published in June,
1873, entitled, "Reminiscences of Handel G. Nott." The
Rev. Handel Gershom Nott was a graduate of Yale
College in 1823, and died in Rochester, N. Y., May 3d,
1873.
"My acquaintance with Mr. Nott began when he was
settled' as a Congregational minister in Nashua, N. H.,
and I was a student in the Senior class at Andover. His
reputation at that time was very high among the Congre-
gationalists, both as a man of earnest piety and as an
able minister of the Gospel.
"Of the more immediate occasion of his doubts re-
specting infant baptism (the question of the mode seems
not to have interested him much at that time) I have no
knowledge. It so happened that about this time a few
of the students at Andover, myself among them, then
engaged in the study of ecclesiastical history, began to
feel that the evidence for infant baptism, both from that
source and from the New Testament, was not so decisive
as we had been accustomed to believe. Mr. Nott at that
time was exercised with similar doubt, and hearing in
some way of our experience, came to Andover and
20 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
souijht an interview with us. I think that no one of us
had any previous acquaintance with him. At his request
we met together in one of the Seminary rooms, and then
he stated to us his reasons for wishing to see us, and
invited us to join with him in prayer for Divine guidance
and teaching. This prayer, which he offered, so child-hke,
and his whole demeanor so evincive of sincerity and a
desire to know only the truth and follow it, won my heart
almost at sight. I understood fully then his motive for
introducing himself so abruptly to us. He was yearning
for sympathy in his perplexities and hoped we might
help him to see his way to a right decision. He was
ready, I am sure, to accept this or that issue of the
question ; but I think his preference was to be freed from
his doubts rather than confirmed in them.
" Mr. Nott did not break away suddenly from his early
opinions and attachments. No man that I ever knew
was less capable of acting from mere impulse or love of
novelty. The ties of a long line of clerical ancestry, and
his early friendships at the college and the seminary,
made it hard for him to change his relations in these
respects. He took no step in that direction except as
the result of providential dealings, which made his course
perfectly clear and imperative. He stated his perplexity
fully and frankly to his church. It seemed to him un-
necessary, so far as he was concerned, to sunder the tie
between them as pastor and people. He was willing, if
they wished the connection to continue, to administer
baptism by immersion or sprinkling, as they might desire,
and althouo-h he could not for himself administer infant
baptism, he was willing that other ministers who had
GRADUATING ESSAY AT ANDOVER. 2 1
no such scruples should occupy his pulpit and baptize
children when the parents so desired. This proposition
led to the calling of a council for actins;" on this question.
The eminent and excellent Dr. Woods, of Andover, was
invited to act on this council.
"It so happened that just at this time I had occasion to
call one day at the study of Dr. Woods, on some errand,
and knowing, I suppose, something of my own state of
mind, he referred to the case of Mr. Nott. He added,
that being unable to be present at the council, he had
prepared a paper to be sent ; and as it might interest me
he would read his letter to me. It was an able argument,
and foreshadowed clearly the decision of the council. He
bore most hearty testimony to the fidelity and usefulness
of Mr. Nott's ministry, and of his entire conscientious-
ness in his views of the proper subjects of Christian
baptism ; but he urged that the accommodation proposed
would involve manifest practical inconveniences, and the
sanctioning to some extent of the neglect of an ordinance
which he and others regarded as scriptural and obligatory.
"This decision brought to an end Mr. Nott's ministry
of eight years at Nashua. It had been a period of almost
uninterrupted religious interest from its beginning to the
end. It is still remembered there as a remarkable epoch
in the history of that church. The step which he was
obliged then to take involved personal sacrifices to which
it would not subject one at the present day."
Mr. Hackett's Graduating Essay on leaving Andover,
in 1834, discussed the question, "W^hat bearing ought
the Laws of Interpretation to have upon Christian
Theology.^" It maintained, first, that it would be as
22 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
contrary to sound philosophy to adopt any other than
the inductiv^e, or what is the same thing, interpretative,
mode of study in theology, as to depart from this order
in any of the physical sciences ; second, that to proceed
in any other way, is certainly to treat the Scriptures
most unscriptiirally ; to deny their ability to make
the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works ; to set aside their high claim of having
been written by holy men of God, who spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. The essay was
careful not to derogate at all from any just prerogative
of reason. It simply claimed that the principle of
Bacon's philosophy is as applicable to divinity as to
other sciences, and anticipated that so soon as this
principle came to be applied to it, in all its strictness,
as it had been to them, a similar flood of light would
be the result. A chancre due to an advance in the
science of interpretation was noted as in progress,
according to which the dispute which had heretofore
respected the meaning of the Scriptures would for the
future have respect to the authority of the sacred
writers. This was already matter of history in Ger-
many, and according to appearances would soon cease
to be matter of prediction here. It was reason for
rejoicing to have fallen upon times when inspiration
was rejected rather than impute to God such weak-
ness as that of having given a revelation to mankind
which he could not make intelligible.
MARRIAGE. 23
CHAPTERIII.
1834-1839.
MARRIAGE. PROFESSORSHIP AT BALTIMORE. CHANGE OF
CHURCH CONNECTIONS. PROFESSORSHIP AT PROVIDENCE.
On the 2 2d of September, 1834, Mr. Hackett was
married, at Methuen, Mass., to his cousin, Mary Wads-
worth Balch, dauijhter of the Rev. WilHam Balch,
whose principal settlement was at Salisbury, Mass. Her
mother was Mary Wadsworth, daughter of Dr. Benjamin
Wadsworth, who was settled as pastor at Danvers,
Mass., for fifty years, and who was descended from a
collateral branch of the family which gave President
Wadsworth to Harvard College.
Mr. and Mrs. Hackett proceeded to Baltimore, where
the academic year of 1834-5 w^as spent, he having
been appointed to a position in Mount Hope College
He was already famous in collegiate circles, and was
naturally chosen to take charge of the classical depart-
ment. It may have become known, that, from the position
in which he found himself placed, owing to his attitude
on the subject of baptism, he would welcome temporary
occupation in teaching.
They journeyed by stage to W^orcester, thence to
Hartford, and thence by boat to New York. The railroad
between New York and Philadelphia was the first on
which he recollected ever travelling.
24 HORATTO BALCH HACKETT.
The following particulars concerning the Institution
have been mainly furnished by the Rev. Stephen P.
Hill, D. D., of Washington, D. C, and the Rev. Franklin
Wilson, D. D., of Baltimore.
It was founded in 1829, by Frederick Hall, a gentle-
man of erudition and piety, who had been Professor
of Chemistry in Middlebury College, Vermont. It had
no sectarian origin or character, and its great business
was to thoroughly train youth for entrance into the
higher American colleges. Rev. Messrs. N. T. Dutton,
Leverett Griggs, D. D., Professor Lyman H. At water,
D. D., and John O. Colton, were teachers there for
short periods. It was incorporated as a college in 1833,
but had very few students in the collegiate department.
The building, which was a very imposing one, was
situated in a beautiful rural spot, on a hill of com-
manding eminence, about a mile and a half or two
miles from the city of Baltimore, though within its
limits, out to which the city has now nearly if not
quite extended. In the year 1835, Mr. Hall disposed of
his interest in the college. The property finally passed
into the hands of a benevolent society, and has been
for many years devoted to the purposes of an asylum.
Here, as always, Professor Hackett's reputation as a
teacher was of the highest. The Faculty at that time
is described as " a small but able one, of which he was
the principal light and attraction. His connection wnth
Mount Hope was eminently useful, and he not only
impressed his pupils in the most salutary manner, but
left behind him the endearing record of a most
accomplished scholar and eminently good man." Dr.
FURTHER RESEARCHES ON BAPTISM. 25
Wilson writes: "In September, 1836, I left Mount
Hope and entered the Freshman Class at Brown Uni-
versity. I have no doubt that my father was induced
to send me there because Professor Hackett was there."
In this year appeared the first of those contributions
from his pen to periodical literature, which continued
for forty years. The article was published in the
Literary and Theoloo;ical Review, No. I\"., December,
1834, conducted by Leonard Woods, Jr., afterwards
President of Bowdoin College. Its heading was : "The
Intellectual Dependence of Men on God, by H. B.
Hackett, Mt. Hope College, Baltimore, Md."
The investigations on baptism which had been begun
at ' Andover were carried forward during this year.
The Rev. Dr. Hill, who was settled in Baltimore in
1834, has written of this time as follows: —
" My first acquaintance with Dr. Hackett was made
at Baltimore, in the Fall of 1834, while he was
Professor in Mount Hope College.
" I am inclined to think that that period was the
transition period of his life. It certainly was, so far
as his change of views upon the subject of baptism
was concerned. The foremost man in his classical and
theological studies, both at Amherst and Andover, he
was regarded, probably, as the most promising candi-
date for honorable and eminent service in the pulpit
of the Congregational Church at the time. But, from
the first of his training under Professor Stuart (whose
particular favorite he was), his mind was not settled
as to their views and practice of this ordinance ; and,
while in Baltimore, he made it the subject of most
26 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
thorough investigation. I know that he not only read
and searched the Scriptures, but he went through, in
the most patient and thorough manner, all the Fathers,
reading them in their originals. The result to which
he came you know. With the clearest mental vision,
and the now decided conviction of the truth, he did
not hesitate to oflfer himself as a candidate for baptism
to the First Church, of which I was then pastor. I
shall never forget the clear, and, in every respect, the
interesting experience which he gave to the church at
that time. It was such a statement as I never heard
before on such an occasion, of the reason of the hope
that was in him, and of the act which he desired to
perform — so entire, so convincing, so edifying, ' so
conclusive, so exhaustive. I remember particularly this
remark, and I think it will bear the best of examina-
tion, ' that scarcely any two of the advocates of the
other side of the question were known to agree in
their theory for its observance.' "
Dr. Wilson says: "Professor Hackett became a
Baptist in 1835. He related his experience to the
First Baptist Church of Baltimore, July 3d, 1835, and
I have often heard my uncle, Jonas Wilson, Esq., say
that he never heard a more satisfactory and conclusive
argument in favor of Baptist principles than that given
by Professor Hackett at that time."
It is said that Dr. Woods, of the Seminary in
Andover, attended the meeting there at which Mr.
Hackett's application for a letter of dismissal from the
Congregational Church, of which he had been a
member, was presented. He spoke with tenderness of
PROFESSOR IN BROWN UNIVERSITY. 27
his former pupil, and in a letter which accompanied
that granted by the church, expressed satisfaction with
the manner in which the question of duty had been
decided, and said that it was his prayer and belief that
this accession to the Baptist denomination would be a
blessing to the cause of Christ.
He was baptized, as Dr. Hill relates, "on a beautiful
Sabbath morning, in an estuary formed by the Patuxent
River and the Chesapeake Bay, the place being called
the Spring Gardens. After this time he preached for me
occasionally ; his sermons being marked by great power
of thought and spiritual unction. Had he chosen the
pulpit for his field, I think he would have been one of
the most impressive and useful preachers of his day."
In September, 1835, Mr. Hackett became Professor
in Brown University, Providence, R. I., with the title,
at first, of Adjunct Professor of the Latin and Greek
Languages and Literatures; in 1838, of Professor of
Hebrew Literature. Dr. Edward Robinson's published
commendation of Mr. Hackett has been mentioned as
engaging the attention of Dr. Wayland. Professor
Stuart too, being about this time at Providence (as Dr.
Caswell related to a small circle, on the day of Dr. Hack-
ett's funeral, at Newton), had advised Dr. Wayland, if he
wanted to get a man that would be eminent, to get Mr.
Hackett. The circumstances and motives under which
he accepted this position — a step decisive of the course
of his life — receive explanation in the following extract
from a letter written by him to Dr. Hill, dated Provi-
dence, October 17, 1835.
"It may have been with some surprise that you heard
28 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
of the decision which has brought me to this place. It
was as far from my thoughts when I left Baltimore, as it
could have been from yours. It was a trying question to
settle. I resigned, in disposing of it as I did, strong a-nd
long cherished hopes. It was, I confess, a step taken
somewhat in the dark ; yet, so far as I am conscious, I
followed the best light I had. Probability is our guide;
and that intimated to me, as I thought, in no ambiguous
terms, that I could never run a long course in the
ministry. To decide to preach seemed like consenting
to lay myself speedily in the grave. Could I indeed have
heard the voice of duty urging me to this sacrifice, I
hope I should have had grace to obey the dictate. But
this did not appear required. Another door of being
useful was opened to me ; and in entering it, I trust I
have not wandered from the proper course. If so, let it
soon be apparent ; and let me be where God would place
me, although in the cabin of the Indian, or kraal of the
Hottentot.
"It is impossible for me to say much yet of my new
situation. I am but a stranger here. It will be indeed
a wonder, if a single year can produce so strong an
attachment to the place as I conceived in that time for
Baltimore. The latter part of my residence at the South
was agreeable to me in no ordinary degree." The letter
closes with remembrances to friends, inquiries after the
welfare of the church in Baltimore, and expressions of
affection for his friend, its pastor.
Dr. Wayland had been President of Brown University
about eight years, having been inaugurated in 1827. He
was now entering his second year in the professorship of
DR. Samson's reminiscences. 29
Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics. The Rev. Romeo
Elton, D. D., had occupied for ten years the chair of the
Latin and Greek Languages and Literatures. Rev. Dr.
Alexis Caswell had been, since 1828, Professor of Mathe-
matics and Natural Philosophy. Professor George I.
Chace had been two years connected with the College,
and Professor William Gammell entered the Faculty in
the same year with Dr. Hackett. Rev. Arthur S. Train,
D. D., was at this time a tutor. The Rev. G W.
Samson, D. D., late President of Columbian College,
was a student at Brown University at this time. After
Dr. Hackett's death, he was appointed, together with the
Rev. Drs. Thomas Armitage and James B. Simmons, to
prepare for the Ministers' Conference of New York, a
commemorative paper, from which the following is
taken : —
"The personal recollections of the writer commence
with Prof Hackett's entrance on his duties as Assistant
Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages at Brown
University. From his first appearance in the recitation-
room of the Sophomore class, his marked characteristics
as a scholar and teacher were revealed. His small but
wiry frame, his carelessly-parted black hair, his keen eye
sparkling through his glasses, his prompt and thorough
conduct of recitation, and his reserved strength of scholar-
ship, only called out when excited by sharp questioning
or the interest of an examination, subdued every pupil to
respect, and inspired the zeal of true students. The first
morning, a single remark from his lips gave direction to
the entire life of some of his pupils. The text-book was
Horace. The Professor was asked what edition he would
30 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
recommend. His reply was, 'Young gentlemen, I advise
those of you who wish to be scJwlars, to buy the German
editions of all Latin and Greek authors, and get out your
translations without any notes whatever.'
" Several characteristics of the manner, as distinct from
the matter, of Professor Hackett's teaching, are fresh in
the recollection of his pupils. The moment the quiet,
modest little man, passing from the chapel through the
crowd, took his chair, he was a commodore on the
quarter-deck in the heat of an engagement, perfectly
inspired by his enthusiasm. Again, he was there not to
impress his views on pupils, but to draw them out ; and,
like a commander, to be sustained by the men he led.
The object was not so much to teach as to make teachers.
Yet again, the slow mind, past whose snail-pace his quick
thought shot, like a hare past the tortoise, he did not
delight to outstrip, but rather to gently lead in his course.
Hence, when he found that his explanations had implied
too much advancement in his less favored pupils, he
would go back, and with fresh effort seek to simplify, and
thus, sometimes, to exalt the truth before half-expressed.
Still again, to make sure that he had not left his pupils
behind, he would call for questions ; and even when the
majority saw that the pupil, rather than the Professor,
had been at fault in the lack of comprehension, no severe
censure could be drawn from his lips. Still, once more,
he had not read in vain the apostle's exhortation, "be
courteous," for the virtue was doubly implanted in him,
first by nature and second by grace. As a specimen :
one morning, in his half playful, half inspiriting way, he
stopped a pupil who was reciting, and called suddenly
RECOLLECTIONS BY STUDENTS. 3 1
on another whose eye he saw off his book. The true
scholar, as he proved to be, began first two or three words
before and then two or three words after his predecessor,
and then sat down displeased with his Professor. At the
close of the recitation, he called the aggrieved boy to his
side, and with wonderful compliment as well as sympathy,
exclaimed: 'Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus' —
sometimes good Homer nods. When informed that
weakness of eyes was the pupil's excuse, he was won to a
friendship lasting as life."
"The writer will never forget," says Rev. Henry M.
Dexter, D. D., "the kindness received from Dr. Hackett
— then Professor of Latin at Brown University — when in
1836 and 1837, coming a mere boy, just from home,
under his instruction; nor how gently he bore with all
classical crudenesses, and with what a fine and generous
sympathy he loved to lift what was really worthy of a
student in his pupils daily upward toward a higher and
broader life. Nor does the vision of his nervous and
magnetic face — comparatively youthful then — fade out of
the pleasantest vistas of memor}^"
" For the first six months," writes Dr. Wilson, " I was
under his special care and guardianship, boarding with him
at the 'Mansion House.' I formed a very warm attach-
ment to him as a kind and judicious friend, and always
cherished the hisrhest reg-ard for him as a teacher and
scholar."
The American Biblical Repository, for January, 1838,
contained an article: "On the Infrequency of the Al-
lusions to Christianity in Greek and Roman writers.
Translated from the Latin of H. G. Tzschirner, by Pro-
fessor H. B. Hackett."
32 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Professor Hackett remained four years in Brown
University. As connected with the close of his residence
in Providence, and the he_s^inning of that in Newton, the
concluding part of Dr. Hackett's paper on the Rev. Mr.
Nott may be fitly given here: —
"Several years after this we were brought together
again, at Providence, R. I. He was called there to supply
the pulpit of the First Baptist Church during the absence
of the pastor, Dr. Hague. At the close of this period of
service here, which lasted several months, Mr. Nott was
invited to the Federal Street Baptist Church, in Boston.
He was recommended to that church by the special
testimony of Dr. Wayland, who, as one of his hearers at
Providence, had been led to form the highest opinion of
his qualification for that field of service. In the mean-
time I had become a professor in the Newton Theological
Institution, and had thus an opportunity to renew and
extend my intimacy with Mr. Nott. He preached the
sermon at my ordination at Newton on entering on my
professorship there. After his removal to Maine I saw
him less frequently, but always felt his presence, though
separated, almost as much as if we were in the habit of
daily association. That was one of his marked peculiari-
ties, that though out of sight, he left with his friends a
sense of personal presence which made him a helper,
reprover, guide; so that once knowing him, one felt that
he was never separated from him."
ORDINATION AT NEWTON. 33.
CHAPTER IV.
1 839-1 842.
BEGINNING OF PROFESSORSHIP AT NEWTON AND ORDI-
NATION. FIRST FOREIGN TOUR. THEOLOGICAL STUD-
IES IN GERMANY. SERVICES TO BAPTISTS
IN DENMARK.
On the fifth of August, 1839, Mr. Hackett was elected
Professor of Bibhcal Literature and Interpretation in
Newton Theological Institution, and removed to Newton
Centre in September following, w^here he was ordained
to the Christian Ministry, December 8th, 1839.
The subjoined account is from the Christian Watch-
man, for December 13th, 1839: —
"Ordination. — By an Ecclesiastical Council, convened
at the request of the First Baptist Church in Newton,
on the 8th inst, Horatio B. Hackett, Professor of
Biblical Literature and Interpretation, in the Newton
Theological Institution, w^as ordained a minister of the
gospel. The following was the order of the public
exercises on the occasion : Reading of Scriptures, by
Rev. Professor Ripley ; Introductory Prayer, by Rev.
W. H. Shailer, of Brookline ; Sermon, by Rev. H. G.
Nott, of Boston ; Ordaining Prayer, by Rev. N. Med-
bery, of Watertown ; Charge, by Rev. Professor Chase ;
Right Hand of Fellowship, by Rev. Professor Sears ;
Concluding Prayer, by Rev. J. S. Eaton, of Hartford, Ct.
34 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The sermon was founded upon the words of our Lord
to his disciples, Luke xxiv, 49 : ' But tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on
high,' and was an excellent illustration of the sentiment,
' that the minister of the gospel needs an extraordinary
measure of the Spirit of God.' The whole discourse was
practical and spiritual, and we presume every minister
present retired with a heart responding to the truth
uttered by the apostle, ' 1 have planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase.' And we hope that this
truth will never be forgotten by those who labor for the
conversion of sinners, and the spiritual prosperity of the
saints."
Professor Hackett was the fifth on the list of fifteen
professors whom Newton Theological Institution has
had. His predecessors were still connected with the
Institution when he joined it, with the exception of the
lamented Rev. James D. Knowles, who died the year
before. They were : the Rev. Irah Chase, D. D., the
Rev. Henry J. Ripley, D. D., and the Rev. Barnas
Sears, D. D., LL. D.
In 1823, Professor Chase, then of Columbian College,
had been at Halle, Leipzig and Gottingen ; and had
prosecuted in Holland, as well as in Germany, his favorite
researches in church history. At the end of November,
1825, he commenced alone the work of instruction at
Newton, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Baptist'
Education Society. He had intermitted his labors in
1832-3, to cross the ocean a second time, to inaugurate
a Baptist Mission in France. This was not the only
occasion on which he rendered delicate and successful
THE FACULTY AT NEWTON. 35
service to Christian missions. Dr. Hackett said of him,
at the time of his death, in 1864: —
" His agency in founding the Newton Theological
Institution was no doubt the great monumental act of his
life, as it is also the best known ; but he was active and
influential in other ways and in other spheres. I am
confident, that, as the beginnings of this later growth and
activity of our denomination are studied more and more,
the name of I rah Chase will come out to view more and
more distinctly, and will take its place among the names
which future generations will cherish with gratitude and
honor.
" Dr. Chase held with great tenacity the peculiar views
of the denomination to which he belonged. He beheved
them to be not only true, but important to the best wel-
fare of men and the purity of the Christian church. No
one among us has examined these points more thoroughly
or discussed them more frequently or with greater ability.
His contributions to this particular department of study
are, I suppose, not less valuable certainly than those of
any Baptist writer who has appeared in this countr)^"
The Rev. Dr. Ripley entered into his rest about six
months before Dr. Hackett's decease. For the greater
part of nearly fifty years, from 1826 till 1875, his activities,
in different spheres of service, as Professor, and Librarian,
were largely devoted to the Institution at Newton. He
is know^n as an accomplished scholar and writer, and
a devout Christian. He was graduated at Harvard
College, in 1 8 1 6. To those who saw the well-preserved,
small, quietly active, courteous man, in his last days at
Newton, it was startling to think that well-nigh sixty
36 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
years had passed since he was the contemporary at Cam-
bridge, of Prescott, Palfrey, and Sparks, in the classes
just before him, and of Bancroft and Gushing, in the
class that followed his own.
The Rev. Barnas Sears had now been four years con-
nected with the Institution, having been appointed to a
professorship after his return from an extended residence
in Germany for purposes of literary culture. He had
been in the lecture rooms of Hermann and Bockh, an
early figure in that procession of American pilgrims, which
had been headed by Everett and Ticknor. He had also
been the instrument of distinguished service to religion, at
the origination of the Baptist Mission in Germany.
With these scholarly men as associates, — Professor
Chase, in the department of Ecclesiastical History; Pro-
fessor Ripley, in that of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral
Duties; Professor Sears, in that of Christian Theology; —
Professor Hackett was now fairly inducted into the great
occupation of his life, — the advancement of Biblical
scholarship.
"Many of his college pupils," says Dr. Samson, "enjoyed
his instruction in his new field. Here a new and limitless
field of scholarship was developed, for the whole range
of literature, Asiatic and European, was called into requi-
sition in seeking a complete interpretation of the inspired
revelations of the Old and New Testaments. Few
German and still fewer American philologists were the
peers of Professor Hackett in their comprehension of the
varied elements that make a master in the department of
Biblical Exegesis. Professor Hackett was a rare teacher
in his own chair.
DR. SAMSONS REMINISCENCES, 37
" Professor Hackett, moreover, was a practical example
of Coleridg-e's maxim, that to know fully any one thing,
a scholar must have a general knowledge of all things.
He knew that his department bore a close relationship to
the other three embraced in the curriculum of a theologi-
cal seminary ; that of Biblical theology, that of church
history, and that of pulpit rhetoric and pastoral duties.
In each of these his remarks at times showed comprehen-
sive thought. In the Epistle to the Romans, when
students fresh from the discussions of Gospel doctrines
would press Professor Hackett with the question, 'Does
not Paul teach this doctrine.'^' he w^ould always show
himself abreast of the Theological Professor in his analy-
sis. The most masterly of his replies when, one day,
several keen questioners were pressing him, was this:
' Young brethren, I think it quite as important to note
what Paul does not say as what he does say.' In the
history of doctrines and of ecclesiastical practices, the
change of church relations which Dr. Hackett had in
youth been obliged to make, gave him an outline of the
entire ran^e of human thousfht when broug^ht into con-
tact with the sacred Scriptures, which could but add
precision in his work as an interpreter. And yet so nice
was his sense of personal propriety and of social courtesy,
that never in the class-room or the meeting of Christian
ministers did he allude to any distinctions in denomi-
national views; for he seemed never to allow himself
to imagine that Christians could be other than ' of
one mind and of one heart' Yet, again, conscious
how his close study weakened his physical frame, laboring
to repress, yet to give reins to his fervent soul when he
38 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
addressed an audience, some of his pupils will never forget
his heartfelt conc^ratulations when he listened to mere
youth, who could make the learning acquired in his class-
room a power to move men whom his feeble voice could
not reach.
" Those who, both in college and in the theological
seminary, were favored to have Dr. Hackett as an in-
structor, cannot but remember him as Timothy must have
regarded Paul when the great apostle, in his advanced
life, addressed him, thus : ' My own, my dearly beloved
son in the faith.'"
After he had been two years at Newton, Professor
Hackett made the first of his five voyages to the old
world. His purpose was a year's residence in Germany,
to enjoy the opportunities of professional study at the
Universities of Halle and Berlin. He sailed from Boston
Sept. I St, 1 84 1, with Professor John L. Lincoln, LL. D.,
who had lately been tutor at Brown University, as his
companion, and arrived at Liverpool on the evening of
Sept. 14th. Less than a week was spent in London. It
included, besides the sights of the city and of Windsor,
a visit to Parliament, when Sir Robert Peel had just
become premier, with a large and well-organized majority
in both houses; and also an opportunity of hearing the
Honorable and Reverend Baptist W. Noel preach, who
was still, and until 1849, ^^ Episcopalian clergyman. He
sailed for Hamburg the 2 2d of September, arriving on
the twenty-fourth. He stayed here several days, attend-
ing Sabbath service at the Rev. Mr. Oncken's church,
although without meeting him, as he was absent on an
extended missionary tour. He wrote to the Missionary
GESENIUS AND THOLUCK. 39
Board in high terms of the value of Mr. Oncken's labors,
which he took pains to ascertain, and also with respect to
the condition and prospects of the brethren in Denmark.
Thence, by way of Magdeburg, he came to Leipzig, at
the end of the month, remaining there nearly a fortnight,
and receiving many courtesies from that Christian gentle-
man, his friend, Mr. C. C. Tauchnitz, of the great publish-
ing house. Of sixty professors in this University, found-
ed in 1409, the oldest in Germany except that of Prague,
not one could be accounted orthodox. He first saw
Tholuck, at Halle, on Sabbath, October twelfth, going
out from Leipzig, and returning on the same evening.
Two days later, he commenced his residence at Halle,
which lasted six months. During this whole year he was
extending by systematic study his knowledge of the
German language, which he had long read with facility.
When the lectures began, October 25th, he understood
Tholuck pretty well. Three days after, he listened to the
great Gesenius, who, five days before the next 28th of
October came round, had died. It was to the lectures of
these two eminent men that Professor Hackett chiefly
devoted his attention. Gesenius had announced a course
upon the Psalms, but, as is frequently the custom, departed
from the programme, and gave one upon Genesis. Tho-
luck, in like manner, had announced the Passion and
Resurrection, but gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Tholuck impressed his new auditor as displaying astonish-
ing activity of mind. The veteran, who has lived to
mourn his American friend, but whose own frail life had
been almost despaired of twenty years before the time
under review, was at the height of the powers which he
40 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
SO long maintained. He had a prodigious memory. He
devoted in general about three hours to study, from six
to nine, A. M. He would lecture four hours during the
day, and invite students to tea at eight in the evening.
His conversation was very stimulating, and marked by
appreciation of the merits of his contemporaries, even
when, as in the case of Ewald, whose Commentary on
Canticles he praised, there were great differences in their
general views.
While the reaction from rationalism had been con-
siderably marked in fifteen years, its sway was still
powerful. It was in 1825 that Tholuck delivered his
memorable speech against the Rationalists, in London.
At his first lecture in Halle, the room was crowded with
hostile students, and even members of the Faculty were
present with the same spirit. There was great confusion,
and he long endured molestation. Even up to this
period, Hengstenberg, though he now began to be re-
spected, had been ridiculed. Tholuck could but lately
mention the name of Olshausen without eliciting the
same sentiment. About this time Havernick was ap-
pointed Professor at Konigsberg, succeeding a rationalist.
Two hundred students went out as he discoursed, and in
the evening serenaded his rival for the post.
When Tholuck preached, he appeared in his greatest
power, and it seemed to his American auditor, on the first
occasion, that he had never witnessed such profound
attention given to a discourse from beginning to end.
His fortnightly social meetings, of an instructive and
devotional character, were very beneficial to the students.
Gesenius at this time was just bringing out the four-
CELEBRATION AT HALLE. 4I
teenth edition of his smaller Hebrew Grammar. After
hearing him lecture, his new listener says: "His vivacity
is great, and the effect of it shows how important a
quality it is to every teacher." He was given to amusing
his audience, and laughed frequently, sometimes without
any response from his auditors. He often, at this period,
omitted lectures, posting up a notice that he was unwell,
which the students suspected of being a pretext to secure
time for more uninterrupted private study. To the young
American professor of thirty-three years, calling upon
him, the German of fifty-five seemed old, but zealous
and young in studies. On one such occasion, Gesenius
showed him the first Hebrew grammar ever written by a
Christian, that of Reiichlin. On another, he animadverted
on Hegelianism as having no God, no immortality, and
uncertainty about Jesus Christ.
Another lecturer to whom he listened was Professor
Rodiger, reputed the ablest Arabic scholar in Germany.
About a fortnight after his arrival, was celebrated the
third yiLhilceuin of the Reformation in Halle. Appro-
priate services took place in the Aiila of the University,
including an address by Tholuck, mainly historical, review-
ing the theological history of the University. After a
Latin address by Wegscheider, Dean of the Faculty,
various academic degrees were conferred, among them
that of Doctor of Theology upon Professor Robinson,
specially for his services as an explorer, — ''Eduardtim
Robinson, thcologicF apnd Neo-Eboracenses in America
Profcssoj'cm, qni itinei^e miper in Terrani Sanctam
suscepto, geographiam sacram mirijice illustravit!''
Just before the Christmas holidays, the students sere-
42 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
naded the distinguished Liszt, who had been playing- for
several days in the place, his concerts being attended by
several of the professors, including Gesenius and Mliller.
At a celebration, January 26th, 1842, in honor of the
Christening of the Prince of Wales, attended by professors
of the University, citizens, and English residents of Halle,
Professor Hackett made a speech, offering in conclusion,
the sentiment, "The prosperity, now and ever, of the
University of Halle-Wittenberg?" Other toasts on the
occasion were : to the King of Prussia, by Dr. Samuel
Davidson ; the Queen of England, by Gesenius ; the
President of the United States, by Pernice, a Jurist pro-
fessor; and the Prince of Wales, by Leo.
Besides his own more immediate studies, he acquainted
himself with the methods of education in vogue about
him, and heard celebrated lecturers in different depart-
ments at Halle and Leipzig. Among these, in one day
at Leipzig, were Hermann, in Latin, on the Persse of
.^schylus ; Tuch, Westermann, Krehl, and a member of
the Medical Faculty. He had gone thither for relaxation
and to see the spirit of the place. It is affecting to read
the entry in his journal, sad presage, but too true : —
" Was during the whole day almost sick enough to relin-
quish all business. I must learn to combat such feelings,
for I have before me the prospect of having to contend
much of my life against such adverse influences."
Other names on the list are W^achsmuth, Winer, Mliller,
Ulrici, Erdmann, Heinrichs, Pott. W^hile he thus breathed
the atmosphere of the land of scholars, he was not
unduly affected by the volatile elements of ephemeral
criticism floating in it. He preserved his independence
GERMAN METHOD OF INSTRUCTION. 43
and sobriety of judgment, as is attested by the following
words : —
"I must more and more distrust the critical judgments
wdiich so many of the German scholars pronounce so
confidently, respecting the usage of language in the
Bible. I have heard some of them attempt the English;
and if there, where the forms of thought and expression
come so much nearer to those of their own tongue, they
succeed so poorly, how much more danger must there be
of this, in respect to languages which have so long ceased
to be living ones, and where the whole structure is so
foreign to our occidental modes of conception and
speech."
The thorough, rigorous, early drill in the schools,
which, in any land but Germany, might seem likely to
hang clogs upon the spirit of wild speculation, instead of
furnishing it wings to fly away with, interested him. He
thus describes an exercise of a class in Hebrew, at the
Orphan House in Halle : —
"A translation out of Greek into Hebrew, Luke vii,
11-17. First, a student translated the Greek into Ger-
man. Then another took a verse and gave the Hebrew,
word for word, or phrase for phrase, the teacher mean-
while objecting or correcting, with explanations, as the
case might require. Then the teacher called on another
to dictate the whole verse, while he (the teacher) wrote
it on the blackboard, without points. Then another
was required to name the points with which the words
should be written, which the teacher meanwhile, as
they w^ere mentioned, inserted, asking at the same time
why it was so, and not otherwise, and if mistakes were
44 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
made, stating the fact, and requiring the correction. This
verse being disposed of, another was taken up in the
same manner. During the hour they went over verses
II to 15 inclusive."
On one occasion he notes hearing two students exam-
ine each other in the history of Paul, as related in the
New Testament, and out of it, and was astonished at the
accuracy of the knowledge which the examination elic-
ited. On the other hand, he was told that the students,
after coming to the University, particularly those of law
and medicine, but also those of theology, usually go back
in knowledge of languages, specially of Greek.
Near the end of March, he made a short visit to
Dresden, and then returning to Halle, took leave of his
friends there.
Concerning the journey from America to Europe, and
the residence in Halle, which has been sketched. Profes-
sor John L. Lincoln, LL. D., of Brown University, re-
sponds to an inquiry : —
"I sailed from Boston, September, 1841, in company
with the late Dr. Hackett, with the intention on the part
of both of us to spend some time in Germany as stu-
dents. I had known him in college, in my Senior year,
1835-6, though I was not under his instruction. He left
Brown for Newton in 1839, ^^^^ ^^"^ that year I left
Newton, where I had been a student, and came to Brown
as a Tutor. During those two years, 1839-41, I often
had occasion to see him, sometimes at Newton, and
sometimes at Providence, so that we were ready, in the
fall of 1 841, to complete a plan we had been forming to
study in Germany. We went to Liverpool, thence to
PROFESSOR JOHN L. LINCOLN S RECOLLECTIONS. 45
London, where we made a short stay, and then to Ham-
burg, where we had our first experience with the practical
study of German. I shall never forget the three or four
days and nights which w^e there devoted to the task of
studying German, and of using it, so far as we could, in
intercourse with the people. Then we made our way to
Lei'psic by diligence, for there was then no railroad,
except for part of the way.
"In that diligence, on the first night — a cold and
raw one — I remember w^ell Hackett's first encountering
German smokers on their own soil. He could not
endure tobacco in any shape — at least at that time.
The vehicle carried only four, and two German gentle-
men were our conipagnojis de voyage. No sooner were
they comfortably seated than out came their pipes and
tobacco pouches, and they got all ready to smoke
and were just lighting up, when one of them, for
mere fornis sake, turned to us and said, ' Nicht unan-
genehm.f^' Poor Hackett hadn't yet much colloquial
German, but he worried out, 'Ja, niacht krank! You
may imagine the strange look, the look even of disgust,
of our Teutonic friends at this reply — but they were
polite enough to forego their ' occupation,' and so
Hackett escaped his Krankheit.
" We staid several weeks at Leipsic, at a hotel, still
very busy with the German, and as I was the younger
of the two, and as my companion w^as rather reserved,
and didn't like to air his German till he was sure it was
of good quality, I had to make most of the advances
when we went about among the people. Finally when
the time for the opening of the winter sernester came,
46 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
we went to Halle and established ourselves there as stu-
dents of the University. We were constantly together
there in our rooms and at the lectures, and in society,
especially at Professor Tholuck's, during the winter, and
indeed until the end of April, I think, when Dr. Hackett
went to Berlin for the summer, leaving me in Halle, as
I did not mean to go to Berlin till the fall.
" I am inclined to think that Hackett never spent
six months of more intense intellectual activity than
during that fall in Halle. I know that we often said
to each other, at the close of a hard day's work, that
we were never so conscious of daily progress in study,
under the perpetual pressure of the noblest incentives, as
in those first months of study in Germany. It was far
less common then than now for Americans to study in
Germany, and we felt in their full force intellectual influ-
ences which are now more widely diffused."
" Excuse me for this rambling letter. Your question
brought up so freshly that voyage to Liverpool, and the
events of the succeeding weeks and months, that I
couldn't refrain from setting down a few words about our
lamented friend. He was a good man and a true scholar.
His simplicity in those earlier days — simplicity in the
best sense of the word — I shall always remember. He
was as simple as a child in his inquiries for truth, in his
eagerness for knowledge, and in his dutiful devotion to
its acquisition and fullest appropriation."
From Halle Prof Hackett proceeded to Berlin, where
he arrived on April 4th. A few days after, he called on
Dr. Maerke, who was rejoicing with great enthusiasm
over the discovery of a God — who had escaped Creuzer,
FROM BERLIN TO COPENHAGEN. 47
and all the other explorers of ancient mythology. His
residence in Berlin lasted about four months. As the
lectures did not begin until April i8th, he had opportunity
to become acquainted with the vast city. Among its
prominent monuments, that to the great Frederick, in
its principal and celebrated avenue, was now in course
of erection. In his German studies at this time he
read Goethe and Lessing. He resorted particularly
to the classes of Neander and Hengstenberg. He also
took occasion to hear Uhlemann,Twesten, Vatke, Ranke,
and others. He made the acquaintance of the Rev. Mr.
Lehmann, the Baptist pastor in Berlin, worshipping with
his church, which had been recently molested, it having
been the centre, during this year, of great religious interest.
Pei'secution of the Baptists, as has been intimated,
was also active in Denmark, and Professor Hackett, and
Professor Conant, then of the Hamilton Literary and
Theological Institution, residing temporarily in Europe,
proceeded to Copenhagen, in August, 1842, as an Amer-
ican deputation in their behalf (an English delega-
tion having already visited the country for the same
purpose). Professor Hackett was appointed to this
service by the Board of Managers of the Baptist General
Convention for Foreio^n Missions, and Professor Conant
by the American and Foreign Bible Society, in the
United States of America. The Memorial volume of
the Missionary Union records that they met and
consulted with several government officers and persons
of influence, and valuable concessions were obtained.
On returning home. Professor Hackett made an oral
report of his mission, which he was requested to write
48 . HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
out, after having received a vote of thanks for the very
able and satisfactory manner in which he had fulfilled his
appointment. This most interesting paper may be found
in the Baptist Missionary Magazine, of November, 1842.
It relates at length the objects of the mission, the
arrival at Copenhagen, and the events which had
previously occurred there, the situation and number
of the brethren, interviews with them and with
officers of the government, and others, testimony to the
character of the brethren, and other relevant matter.
The following passage is of special personal interest : —
" We were not allowed to prosecute the objects of our
mission wholly without molestation. As illustrating the
laws of Denmark in regard to our denomination, it may
be mentioned, that at the close of our first day's proceed-
ings, we received a summons from the police, saying that
we must present ourselves at the travellers' office the
next day at 1 1 o'clock. We had reason to suppose that
our labors were now at an end ; that we should be taken
possibly for a while into custody, or at all events required
at once to quit the country. Our only hope now was to
postpone this result for one day more, and thus gain
time for a journey to Roeskilde, some fifteen miles
distant from Copenhagen, where the Estates was then
in session. Without this, our main object would have
been lost. On our return from this journey, which we
took on the day following, we found that the summons
in question had been renewed, and the next morning
we presented ourselves accordingly at the bar of the
travellers' office. ' Information has been brought here,'
we were told, ' that you belong to the sect of the Baptists.
MISSION^ OF PROFESSORS HACKETT AND CONANT. 49
Is it true ? ' We, of course, pleaded guilty to the charge.
' You are aware,' continued the officer, ' that in Denmark
this is a prohibited sect.' We answered that we knew it.
'And also,' showing us at the same time the law, ' that no
person is allowed to come here to do anything for its
promotion.' On the latter point we were in some danger
of being a little embarrassed ; but on desiring that the
law might be somewhat more exactly explained, we were
told that it meant, at least in our case, that no one
should come there to preach, and make proselytes or
baptize. Being able to say, that we had not done this,
or come thither with that design, we were acquitted and
permitted to take our leave."
In incidental reminiscences of this episode, which Dr.
Conant published in 1875, he says of the good Bishop
of Zealand, who afforded a marked contrast with his
subordinate, the Dean of Copenhagen : " Though he
claimed that the King must be faithful to the Church,
the Church being the foundation of his Throne, he was
deeply moved by Dr. Hackett's earnest and pathetic
appeal for those sincere believers in God's word, who
asked only liberty to serve Him as they were led by His
word and Spirit. The good old man, at parting, proffered
both his hands, with tears and his blessing."
August 15th they left Copenhagen for Stralsund,
twenty dear friends bringing them on their way. On the
I /th, they reached Berlin. The next day Professor
Hackett took leave of Neander. On the 19th he bade
adieu to the city, and taking Leipzig, Naumburg, and
Frankfort-on-the-Maine in his way, on the 24th went up
the Rhine to Cologne. He took passage from Ostend,
50 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
and proceeding to London and Liverpool, embarked for
home in the Great Western, a year and two days after
leaving Boston, He landed in New York, and reached
Boston and Newton September 20th.
CHAPTER V.
1843-1851.
LITERARY LABORS : ANNOTATED WORK OF PLUTARCH ;
TRANSLATION OF WINEr's CHALDEE GRAMMAR ;
HEBREW EXERCISES. TEMPORARY SERVICE IN
ANDOVER SEMINARY. LIBERALITY OF
CHARACTER. FIRST EDITION OF
COMMENTARY ON ACTS.
With the beginning of the Seminary year in October,
Professor Hackett resumed his duties of instruction. As
auxiliary to their highest usefulness, in order to advance
the study of the classical Greek authors, as a sort of par-
allel course with that of the Greek Testament, he soon
set himself to prepare an annotated edition of Plutarch's
treatise on the Delay of the Deity in the Punishment of
the Wicked. This weighty, acute and elegant tractate
was a life-long favorite with him. Its high tone of philo-
sophic thought was congenial with the dignity of his own
mind, and its argument was especially satisfactory to his
reason, as anticipating the best efforts of Christian writers,
when discussing the same subject within the same limits
of natural religion. On the value of his labor in this
volume, the verdict of a competent judge will be here-
after cited. The preface is dated December 27th, 1843.
PROFESSOR PARK S RECOLLECTIONS. 5 I
This was his thirty-fifth birthday. It may be lawful, for
once, to invade the sanctity of the supplications habitually
recorded on this anniversary, for a period of more than
fifty years, so far as to note this petition : " Especially be
pleased to put thy blessing on labor which has so long
occupied me, and which I have been permitted to bring
so near to a conclusion. May it increase my means of
usefulness and of doing good. Help me ever to conse-
crate to thee the fruit of all my studies."
In a prospective course of private studies, to occupy in
succession a period of several months, he enumerates in
the middle of the year 1844, French, Chaldee and Syriac,
Modern Greek, and Sanscrit. November 3d of this year,
he preached at Old Cambridge, as he records, "with
increasing conviction that I must work out my destina-
tion as a student. I acquiesce."
"After he became a Professor at Newton," writes Dr.
Park, " I read to him, for his criticism, two or three essays
which I was intending to publish. His criticisms were so
respectful, and were expressed with so unfeigned a depre-
ciation of himself, that I never .dared to read any more
essays to him. His proposal of emendations appeared to
give him more pain than his decided censures would have
given mc. I shrank from subjecting him to such pain.
Still, in these very interviews, made so embarrassing by
his diffidence of himself, he would become interested in
the defence of some principle, and would refute the
objections of the most eminent men who had written
against that principle, and would denounce the reasonings
of those men, as if he were inveighing against the
blunders of some careless pupils. I have often been
52 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
amazed at his reverence for personalities, ivhen he zvas
thinking of persons ; and at his utter disregard for per-
sonahties, when he luas thinking of principles.
About a year and a half after his first volume, Professor
Hackett gave to the theological public his translation of
Winer's Grammar of the Chaldee Language, as contained
in the Bible and the Targums. Four appendices, by the
translator, contained appropriate information, explanatory
and bibliographical. This work, too, was connected with
his daily instructions, the more immediate object of its
publication, as the preface, dated June 21st, 1845, says,
being "the accommodation of some of my own pupils,
who had expressed a desire to attend to the study of the
Chaldee," In it he refers gracefully to Professor Stuart,
quoting his remarks as those of " a distinguished biblical
scholar, to whom the writer acknowledges himself
indebted, in common with so many others in our country,
for his first instruction and impulse in sacred studies." In
this year, 1845, Professor Hackett received the degree of
D. D. from the University of Vermont,
The influence of the German sojourn, as well as of his
early inspiring instructors, is seen in his literary perform-
ances and projects at this time. In January, 1845, the
first number of the second volume of the Bibliotheca
Sacra contained his critique on the Life of Jesus by
Strauss. Towards the end of the year, he enumerates as
works he would like to write: " i, Chaldee Reader.
2. Syriac Grammar and Chrestomathy. 3. Introduction
to Old and New Testaments. 4. Theological Dictionary.
5. Critical Studies in the Gospels. 6. Analecta on the
Psalms. 7. Hebrew Guide for writing. 8. Commentary
PUBLICATION OF HEBREW EXERCISES. 53
on New Testament ! ! ! " He was aghast at his owni list,
but follows it with the resolution to exert himself, and
prayer that he may be enabled to bring something to
pass. Though few of the works, as above entitled, ever
appeared from his pen, yet many of his studies in those
directions have found expression in his great work of
editorship, many years after, on Smith's Dictionary of the
Bible, and in periodical literature. Very soon after, in
January, 1846, appeared his able article in the Bibliotheca
Sacra, " Synoptical Study of the Gospels, and recent
Literature pertaining to it." In less than three weeks
from the time of jotting down the above list, he began,
not an easy task, to sketch out a plan for one of the
works it contains, a Hebrew Guide. The preface is dated
some sixteen months after, April 7th, 1847. The full title
is: "Exercises in Hebrew Grammar, and Selections from
the Greek Scriptures to be translated into Hebrew, with
Notes, Hebrew Phrases, and References to approved
works in Greek and Hebrew Philology." As a motto,
are appended the words of Melanchthon, ''Scriptura non
potest intclligi thcologicc, nisi ante intellecta sit gi'ain-
maticel' The author justly says : " The number of pages
which it contains is not large, but it is large enough to
give employment to any amount of linguistic attainment
or critical skill, which the most mature scholar might be
able to bring to such a work." His original intention had
been to translate and adapt some German publication of
the same general character ; but, on examination, he was
unable to find one which possessed all the requisites for
the object in view, and was obliged to assume the harder
task of making essentially a new book. The contents
54 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
were divided into three parts : Exercises in the punctu-
ation of Hebrew words; Exercises in translation from
Greek into Hebrew ; and Exercises in the punctuation of
unpointed Hebrew text. One of the latter was on the
account of the Widow's Son restored to life, Luke vii,
11-17, done into Hebrew. It was the passage which he
had heard translated from the Greek into German, and
then into Hebrew, at the Orphan School in Halle, in
1842, an account of which has already been given, and
which he prefaced in his diary, "The exercise was one
which I ought never to forget." He remembered it to
good purpose, if, as seems not unlikely, it had its agency
in occasioning the work under consideration. The ap-
pendix, of a few pages, gave the views of Gesenius and
Winer on the Method of Hebrew Study. The volume
has now been for many years out of print. For more than
eight years before his death, Dr. Hackett himself had
been without a copy, having lost his last one at Newton.
Traces of his studies while preparing it are accessible in
two articles in the January number of the Bibliotheca
Sacra for 1847, "The Structure of the Hebrew Sentence,"
and " The Greek Version of the Pentateuch, by Thiersch."
A year later, the same periodical contained, from his pen,
an Analysis of the Argument in the Epistle to the Gala-
tians. From the outset of his career as a theological
teacher, he had been studying and teaching this epistle,
and it continued to the end to be one of the great studies
of his life, so central and vital is its membership in the
organism of Scripture, so pregnant is it with historical
and doctrinal statement and implication.
Early in March, 1848, he visited Andover by invitation,
PERSONAL TRAITS. 55
and rather reluctantly decided to render temporary ser-
vice in the Greek studies in the Seminary there. The
engagement was for some five weeks, and embraced
twenty-two exercises. The attendant excitement and the
travel back and forth made the labor, though pleasant,
a somewhat exhaustins; one.
About this time he records feeling the need of enlarged
inquiries on different classes of subjects, to counteract
specialism. The wisdom of such a perception is not to
be questioned. But it may be affirmed that one marked
feature of the impression which he made on all who
came to know him, was, that he had a broad interest in
the great characters and events of history, and of the
time in which he lived. He was never in danger of
losing his human sympathies, or of sinking the man in
the scholar. There was a severity in the lineaments of
his face, that was the appropriate stamp of a fine spirit,
subjected to the processes of disciplined thought and
ennobling emotions, but you could not tell as you gazed
upon the face, or marked the erect figure when he
walked, whether the evident gentleman and scholar were
physician, lawyer, statesman, or divine. In his own loved
employment, his professional interest in the scholastic
spoils of interpretation was subordinate to his interest, as
a man, in the plain meaning of the Scriptures, by which
his race was to be judged, and might be saved.
This view of his character is illustrated by a leaf from
his journal, under date of Sabbath, March 5, 1848, which
begins with recording the texts of the day's discourses. It
should here be said, that his pastor for twelve years, and his
neighbor almost from the first of his residence at Newton,
56 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
as well as his contemporary at Andover Seminary, was
that accomplished scholar, poet, and divine, the Rev. S. F.
Smith, D. D. The journal continues: "At my request
the hymn by J. O. Adams, on the shortness of time,
was read at the opening of the afternoon service. His
death took place February 23d, twenty minutes past
seven, P. M., in the Capitol at Washington, — cet. 81. I
should like to see a discriminating sermon on the differ-
ence between a philosopher, in the world's acceptance of
this term, and a Christian. I must read the writings of
the ancients, as Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and the like,
and endeavor to form for myself a more precise idea of
the character of these men. I have reperused to-day
some of the pages of Hess's Life of Christ, which relate
to the last scenes of his history. L. F. O. Baumgarten-
Crusius has treated this subject in his Commentary with a
fulness which will furnish me great assistance when I have
occasion to enter on the critical study of this part of the
gospels. I think I can say with truth, that the investiga-
tion of the Scriptures appears to me a work of more
importance than any other which can engage the attention
of the human mind, and that on this account, and not
merely on account of the intellectual and literary interest
which I find in such pursuits, it is taking stronger and
stronger hold of my feelings. I do feel that all the certain
light which shines upon that spirit-world which lies
beyond this, comes to us through the medium of the
inspired volume."
Four years and a half elapsed between the publication
of the "Hebrew Exercises" and the appearance of the
first edition of the Commentary on the Original Text of
COMMENTARY ON ACTS. 57
the Acts of the Apostles. Indications of the progress
of the work during this time are to be traced in the
pubhcation of a few select portions in the Bibliotheca
Sacra. It was interrupted by the author's severe illness
in 1849, which commenced on the sixth of April, and
had "well-nigh 'terminated his life," confining him to the
house between three and four months. From this time
he was more and more obliged to consign himself to
seclusion, and avoid cerebral excitement. Thus he came
to give up preaching, which in earlier years he had liked
and practiced. In two months after convalescence, he
suffered a piercing sorrow in the loss of his little son,
William Richard, who died September 19th, 1849, his
third child, and one of remarkable promise.
The Commentary appeared in 1852. The words of
dedication are as follows: —
" The author is permitted to inscribe this volume to
Augustus Tholuck, D. D., whose writings in illustration
of the Sacred Word, and whose personal instructions,
have caused his influence to be felt and his name to be
honored in foreign countries as well as his own."
The work, a second edition of which was issued in
1858, is now out of print, the stereotype plates having
been destroyed in the great Boston fire of 1872. Partly
for this reason, but more because it sets forth Professor
Hackett's views of his w^ork of interpretation, and his
aim and enjoyment as an instructor, the greater part of
the preface to the first edition, dated Newton Theological
Institution, October 31st, 185 1, is here reproduced: —
"Those portions of the Acts, constituting the greater
part of the whole, which relate to the great apostle, must
58 HORATIO BALCH IIACKETT.
be thoroughly mastered before any proper foundation is
laid for the exegetical study of the Epistles. It is the
object of these Notes to assist the reader in the acquisi-
tion of this knowledge and discipline ; to enable him to
form his own independent view of the meaning of the
sacred writer in this particular portion of the New
Testament, and, at the same time, furnish himself to some
extent with those principles and materials of criticism
which are common to all parts of the Bible. If the plan
of the work and the mode in which it is executed are
such as to impart a just idea of the process of Biblical
interpretation, and to promote a habit of careful study
and of self-reliance on the part of those who use the
book, it will be a result much more important than that
all the opinions advanced in it should be approved.
It is a result beyond any other which the writer has been
anxious to accomplish. The grammatical references and
explanations wnll enable the student to judge of the
consistency of the interpretations given with the laws of
the Greek language. The authorities cited will show the
state of critical opinion on all passages that are supposed
to be uncertain or obscure. The geographical, archaeo-
logical, and other information collected from many
different sources, will unfold the relations of the book to
the contemporary history of the age in which it was
written, and serve to present to the mind a more vivid
conception of the reality of the scenes and the events
which the narrative describes.
"No single commentary can be expected to answer all
the purposes for which a commentary is needed. The
writer has aimed at a predominant object ; and that has
PREFACE TO COMMENTARY. 59
been, to determine by the rules of a just philology the
meaning of the sacred writer, and not to develop the
practical applications, or, to any great extent, the doctrinal
implications of this meaning.
" The author can recall no happier hours than those
which he has spent in giving instruction on this book
of the New Testament to successive classes of theological
students. May the fruits of this mutual study be useful
to them in the active labors of the sacred work to which
they are devoted. They are now sent forth into a wider
sphere ; — and, here also, may God be pleased to own them
as a means of contributing to a more diligent study and
a more perfect knowledge of his Holy Word."
The work was well received. The New Englander,
for February, 1852, contained an extended notice, in
which occur the words, " We do not believe that a Com-
mentary in which the rule ne q^iid nimis is more
observed, while nothing important is withheld, has ever
proceeded from the American press."
Other tributes from foreign, as well as native sources,
will be given when the period is reached at which this
standard work received its final form from the author.
In a paragraph of the preface, not given above, the
writer speaks of the state of his health as obliging him to
relinquish for a time the duties of his office. This notice
may introduce the second foreign tour of Professor
Hackett, upon which he set out in a few weeks after his
task was completed, receiving on the eve of his departure
a most respectful and affectionate letter of parting saluta-
tion from the Junior Class of the preceding year.
6o HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
CHAPTER VI.
1851-1852.
SECOND FOREIGN TOUR I IN ENGLAND, FRANCE, ITALY,
EGYPT AND PALESTINE, GREECE, GERMANY,
FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN.
Professor Hackett arrived at Liverpool, December 8th,
185 1. The next day he went to see Mr, Howson,
Principal of the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, the
patient collector and elaborator of the historical material
in the great work on the Life and Epistles of St. Paul,
which appeared between 1850 and 1852, and with which
the names of Conybeare, his predecessor in the office he
then held, and himself are connected. On the following
day he visited Lancashire Independent College, four
miles from the city of Manchester, meeting Dr. Davidson
once more, after ten years since their residence at Halle.
From him, as from Howson, he met with a kind recep-
tion. Dr. Davidson reported the interest in Hebrew
learning at the Universities as low.
After a few days in London, Professor Hackett pro-
ceeded to Paris, by way of Folkestone and Boulogne,
arriving on the i 7th of December. Like so many who
have visited the strange, gay metropolis, he observed the
repaired traces of "the recent outbreak," the latest recur-
rence of that chronic malady having taken place a
FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA. 6 1
fortnight before, on the occasion of Louis Napoleon's
coup d'etat. He remained there nearly a fortnight,
spending an evening at Mr. Goodrich's (Peter Parley),
the United States Consul at Paris, and visiting numerous
places of interest, specially the Museum of the Louvre,
where he was greatly attracted by the Assyrian collection,
and its value for the illustration of the Biblical history of
Nineveh.
Leaving Paris at the end of December, he journeyed
to Lyons, and thence to Marseilles, where, after being
obliged to summon a physician for a day or two, he
embarked for Italy, on a Neapolitan steamer.
He was in Rome on the loth of January, 1852. His
first errand on arriving- was to obtain letters from home ;
then he paid a hurried visit to the Coliseum. The next
day was Sunday, when he attended the American Chapel
twice, and wandered through St. Peter's. He staid until
the 5th of February, exploring the treasures of the city.
At Naples, where his window commanded the Bay and
Vesuvius, he spent two weeks, visiting Pompeii and
ascending the volcano. February 24th he left Naples
for Malta, being at the island on the 26th, and resuming
the voyage the next day, reaching Alexandria March 2d.
On this day he records going on deck at six o'clock, " and
Alexandria and the low coast around it were near at
hand. I was deeply affected at the thought of being so
near to the Oriental world. I could not refrain (I con-
fess it) from clapping my hands with a wild delight."
Soon he was among the novel scenes of Cleopatra's
Needles, Pompey's Pillar, the Pasha's magnificent palace,
and the dreadful slave market. The next day he departed
62 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
for Cairo, where he spent about ten days, making excur-
sions to the pyramids and to Memphis.
" The sun was hanging low as I left Cairo, on the 1 5th
of March, to proceed across the desert to Syria ; and
after a march of two hours and a half we halted near the
obelisk which marks the site of Heliopolis, the On of
Scripture (Genesis 41 : 45). This obelisk at On is all
that remains of that famous seat of the sun worship in
Egypt. It is a granite shaft sixty feet high, inscribed
with hieroglyphics. The eyes of Abraham and Moses
rested upon it. Herodotus, whom we call 'the father of
history,' looked up to it, as the relic of an already for-
gotten age. Plato sat and moralized beneath its shadow.
"Never can I forget my first night in the desert, in
traveling from Egypt to Palestine. The appearance of
an eastern sky at night is quite peculiar, displaying to the
eye a very different aspect from our sky. Not only is the
number of stars visible greater than we are accustomed
to see, but they shine with a brilliancy and purity of lustre
of which our heavens very seldom furnish an example.
Homer's comparison, at the beginning of the Fifth Book
of the Iliad (Cowper's Translation),
-bright and steady as the star
Autumnal, which in ocean newly bathed,
Assumes fresh beauty "
was often brought to mind, as I remarked the fresh,
unsullied splendor, as it were, of the more brilliant con-
stellations.
"An oriental sky has another peculiarity, which adds
very much to its impressive appearance. With us the
AN EASTERN SKY AT NIGHT. 63
Stars seem to adhere to the face of the heavens ; they
form the most distant objects within the range of vision ;
they appear to be set in a groundwork of thick darkness,
beyond which the eye does not penetrate. UnHke this is
the canopy which night spreads over the traveler in East-
ern cHmes. The stars there seem to hang hke burning
lamps, midway between heaven and earth ; the pure
atmosphere enables us to see a deep expanse of blue
ether lying far beyond them. The hemisphere above us
glows and sparkles with innumerable fires that appear as
if kept burning in their position by an immediate act of
the Omnipotent, instead of resting on a framework which
subserves the illusion of seeming to give to them their
support.
" I had entered the tent erected for me, about dark,
and, being occupied there for some time, the shadows of
evening in the meanwhile insensibly gathered around us ;
the stars came forth one after another, and commenced
their nightly watch. On going abroad, at length, a scene
of surpassing beauty and grandeur burst upon me. I was
in the midst of a level tract of sand, where no intervening
object rose up to intercept the view ; the horizon which
swept around me was as expanded as the power of human
vision could make it ; and all this vast circuit, as I
glanced from the right hand to the left, and from the
edge of the sky to the zenith, was glittering with count-
less stars, each of which seemed radiant with a distinct
light of its own ; many of which shone with something
of the splendor of planets of the first magnitude. I
could not resist the impulse of the moment, but taking
64 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
my Hebrew Bible, read, with a new impression of its
meaning, the sublime language of the Psalmist : —
' Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent thy name in all the earth,
Who hast placed thy glory upon the heavens !
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers ;
The moon and stars which thou hast made ;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him,
And the son of man, that thou carest for him ? '
" I remembered, too, that it was probably in some such
situation as this in which I was then placed, and on an
evening like this, that Abraham was directed to go
abroad, and ' look towards heaven, and tell the stars if he
could number them,' and thus form an idea of the multi-
tude of the posterity destined to be called after his name
(Genesis 15:5). I turned to that passage also, and saw a
grandeur in the comparison, of which I had possessed
hitherto but a vague conception."
Such is the record of a day, ascertained by the colloca-
tion of passages from the "Illustrations of Scripture," the
reference of which is fixed by the aid of the Journal.
While at Naples, it may be here remarked, he ex-
pressed the opinion that a New England sky, at night,
presented on the whole as fine a view as the Italian.
On the 27th the caravan reached Gaza, and the travel-
ers were put in quarantine. On the next day, Sunday,
some of them read together parts of the Bible relating to
places they expected to visit. These days may have been
further beguiled by one pilgrim, in making a list of ques-
tions on the archaeology of Ruth, twenty-nine in number,
which are on a loose leaf of his journal. Their answers,
received in the further course of the journey, are embodied
JERUSALEM. 65
in an article on the Book of Ruth, in the Dictionary of
the Bible.
On being- released, he proceeded, by way of Ascalon,
Ashdod, Jaffa, Lydda, Remla, to Jerusalem, of which he
obtained his first sight on April 2d. His first visit was
to Gethsemane, as its locality and appearance were the
last sight he strove to imprint upon his mind when depart-
ing. " It is the spot above every other which the visitor
must be anxious to see. It is the one which I sought
out before any other. We may sit down there and read
the affecting narrative of what the Saviour endured for
our redemption, and feel assured that w^e are near the
place where he prayed, saying, ' Father, not my will, but
thine be done;' and where, 'being in an agony, he sw^eat
as it w^ere great drops of blood, falling down to the
ground.' "
In the course of a month's stay, he made excursions to
Jericho, the Jordan, and Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Hebron,
Tekoa, and Adullam. On Wednesday, the 28th of April,
1852, he left Jerusalem, passing out of the Jaffa gate at
nine A. M. That very morning, as his " Biblical Re-
searches" reveal. Dr. Edward Robinson entered it one
hour earlier, on this his second visit to the Holy Land.
One cannot but regret that the tw^o friends should have
so narrowly missed seeing each other, in the most in-
teresting of earth's scenes. But they have met in
Jerusalem the Golden, to go no more out forever!
A leisurely ride of three days and a half, through the
heart of the ancient land of Israel, allowing an occasional
detour to such places as Gophna, Shiloh, and Samaria,
where he visited the Synagogue ; and affording an oppor-
6
66 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
tunity of reading, on the spot of its utterance, the Saviour's
^ conversation with the woman at Jacob's well, and of
enjoying the charming scenery of the vale of Shechem ; —
brought the traveller, on the afternoon of Saturday, May
first, to Nazareth, where he had desired to spend the
Sabbath. His first sight of the humble village formed,
as he records, one of the great moments of the journey.
Further scenes or stages of his travels, were Mt. Tabor,
the Sea of Tiberias, Safet, Tiberias, Magdala, Mt. Carmel,
with whose beauty he was enraptured, Ptolemais or Akka,
Tyre, upon whose ruins beneath the sea he looked down
through the calm waters, with melancholy interest, in the
long twilight which closed the tenth of May; Sidon,
Beirut, Lebanon, Damascus, Baalbec. Returning to
Beirut, he embarked thence, at half-past six o'clock, P. M.,
on May 25th. As it had given a special interest to the
horseback ride from Carmel to Akka, to know that he
was traversing the ground over which Paul and his friends
passed on his last journey to Jerusalem, so, now, on his
voyage, he was still further returning, very nearly, on the
apostle's track. The next day at ten o'clock, he arrived
off against Larnica, on the Island of Cyprus, and on the
following night at two o'clock, A. M., came to anchor in
the harbor of Rhodes. After eight hours the course was
resumed, and on the 29th Smyrna was reached. Here he
received tidings of the death of his dear friend, the
lamented B. B, Edwards, late Professor in the Theological
Seminary at Andover. A peculiar propriety will be seen
in transcribing from the "Illustrations of Scripture," page
157, the tribute there paid to his memory: —
"I cannot write his name without emotions of sad but
TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 6/
tender interest. The journey to which these pages relate,
w^as one which we had planned to execute together; it
had been the subject of many conversations between us,
and of long cherished desire on both sides. How much
more useful and delightful would it have been in the
society of such a friend! His failing health obliged him
to relinquish the undertaking at the last moment, though
not without a hope that he should live to accomplish it
at a future time. It was otherwise appointed. It was my
privilege to receive a letter from him, just before leaving
the Holy Land, in which, with a touching allusion to his
disappointment, he requested that, "as I plucked a leaf
or gathered a flower here and there, I would lay aside one,
also, for him;" and in a week from that time, on arriving
at Smyrna, I heard that he had been called away to his
rest in Heaven. He died at Athens, in Georgia, on the
20th of April, 1852. The impression of his character, so
unique in its combination of modesty and sterling worth,
and of his various intellectual endowments and attain-
ments, will never be forgotten by those who knew him.
The Memoir of his life and labors, so worthily prepared
by his friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Park, will cause
him to be remembered in future times. He was so longf
associated with all my anticipations of eastern travel, and
was so constantly present with me in thought during the
journey, that I have desired, not for his sake, but mine, to
record his name on the pages of this humble memorial of
our common enterprise."
Professor Hackett tenderly loved his friends. Already,
on this journey, he had been reminded afresh of the loss
which he, with a wide circle, sustained in the death of the
68 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Rev. Nathan W. Fiske, Professor in Amherst College,
" a man justly esteemed for his eminent talents as well as
his virtues." He died in 1847, while on a journey in
Palestine, and his remains lie buried in a small cemetery
at Jerusalem, not far from David's tomb.
" My visit to his grave called up many affecting recol-
lections of the past. He acquiesced cheerfully in the will
of God ; but it was impossible not to reflect how many
natural feelings it would have gratified could he have
been spared to regain once more his native land, and die
among the kindred and friends whom it is ever a source
of so much consolation to have near us in the last trying
scene ! Paucioribiis lacriniis compositiLS es, et novissima
in hue dcsideravere aliquid oculi tui. A Latin epitaph,
setting forth his character in just terms, has been in-
cribed on his tomb-stone. It afforded me a melancholy
pleasure to adopt means for having two cypresses, partly
grown, transplanted at the proper season, and placed one
at the head and the other at the foot of the grave on
Mount Zion, where his body awaits the resurrection of
the just."
Leaving Smyrna on June fourth, and coasting along
the plains of Troy, on the sixth he arrived at Constanti-
nople, where he remained about a week, and met Dr.
Hamlin, and the Hon. Mr. Marsh. It had been reserved
for him, on returning from the East, to linger for a short
time in the ancient home of Attic arts and learning,
under the auspices of cordial welcome and attentions
from the honored missionaries, Rev. Albert N. Arnold,
then residing at Athens, and Rev. Rufus F. Buel, at
Piraeus. Arriving at Athens June i8th, a stay of ten
GERMAN UNIVERSITY LECTURERS. 69
days included visits, among other places, to Marathon,
Salamis, Nauplia, and Mycenacie. On the 28th he left
Piraeus, and was four hours in running from there to
Calimaki. "Here I took leave of Mr. Arnold, and how
much the dear Athenians had won upon my heart I was
not aware till I parted with this last member of the circle.
I could not suppress the rising tear. The recollection of
my intercourse with these friends is among the most
delightful reminiscences of the whole journey."
July 4th he arrived at Trieste, and by way of Venice,
Verona, Trient, Innsbruck, Munich, and Nuremberg, came,
on the 1 6th, to Erlangen. Here, from ten to eleven o'clock,
he heard Ebrard maintain the Araniciean original of
Matthew, and from eleven to twelve, Hofmann lecture in
Jewish history, on the period of the Judges. He found
the latter affable, and heard him speak of Stuart, as well
known. Leaving on the same afternoon, the next day
saw him once more among the familiar scenes of Leipzig.
In a stay of four or five days, he heard Tuch, Kahnis,
Winer, and others, and visited Winer, who was laboring
on a new edition oi his Grammar. In his parlor hung
the picture of the transfiguration of Christ, by Domeni-
chino. Fiirst was making slow progress on his Hebrew
Lexicon. At Leipzig he learned of the death of Henry
Clay. A week was spent at Halle, renewing the pleasant
associations of the place. Here he met Professor Herzog,
who was at work on the Theological Encyclopccdia. He
made calls upon Hupfeld and Rodiger; heard the former,
who was called from Marburg to the chair of Gesenius,
lecture on Psalm 68th, and the latter, upon Isaiah ; also,
M tiller, on Homiletics. Lie was anxious to know from
JO HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Hupfeld the prospects of the Hebrew Grammar, the
beginning of which had now been some time pubHshed,
but which was never completed. He notes that, on his
second call, Hupfeld hardly alluded to his own studies
during the evening. The great Hebraist was much in-
terested in many subjects, specially church questions. He
was lecturing on the History of the Old Testament, and
intended to publish upon the theme. Rodiger was hoping
to have his part of Gesenius's Thesaurus, left incomplete
by the master's death, printed in the following spring.
He had once more the high privilege of hearing Tholuck
preach, who plainly retained his power and popularity.
At the end of the month, he again saw Hengstenberg,
in Berlin, who was very cordial, and whom he found
lecturing to large classes, though with an unattractive
manner. Hengstenberg thought it improbable that
Neander's exegetical remains would be published, as
the main results of his studies were embodied in the
Life of Christ, and the History of the Apostolic Church.
Nitzsch was the most renowned professor. Vatke, so
popular ten years before, was quite deserted. Taking in
his way the Universities of Marburg, where, among other
professors he called on Ranke, the brother of the his-
torian ; and of Giessen, where were Credner and Knobel,
he arrived, on the third of August, at Heidelberg.
Here he called on Umbreit, who had been thirty years
in this University. He began his career at Gottingen,
and remembered the days when Everett and Bancroft
were there, in the time of Eichhorh. The beautiful
scenery of the place, and the picturesque charms of the
finest ruins in Europe were duly appreciated. Paris
VISITS TO ENGLISH AND SCOTCH LOCALITIES. /I
was reached by way of Strasburg, and after a few days
there, during which he visited Versailles, the traveller
set out on the last stage of his extensive wanderings,
arriving in London, by way of Dover and Calais, on the
13th of August.
Here he again heard Mr. Noel preach, this time, in his
changed ecclesiastical relations. He revisited St. Paul's,
and Westminster Abbey, and went to the new houses of
Parliament, which had been opened since his former
tour. He visited the University of Cambridge, and
satisfied the longings of his heart by a trip to Salis-
bury, without finding there any names very closely
corresponding to those in Salisbury, Massachusetts. He
saw also the mystical relics of Stonehenge. He resorted
to the British Museum, and remarked the superiority of
the Assyrian collection to that in Berlin, or the Louvre-
Other important relics, secured by Mr. Layard, he was
informed, were, at this time, on the way from Nineveh.
On the way to Edinburgh, he visited Oxford. In the
beautiful Scotch city, he heard Dr. Candlish preach.
Among the sights which the city presented, he was much
impressed with the terrible misery of the populace. He
proceeded to the Trosachs, and the day after leaving there,
found out the Tron Church, in Glasgow, and attended
a week-day service in the chapel connected with it.
He embarked at Liverpool, in the Niagara, September
4th, 1852, ten years and a day from the time of his former
return voyage. A part of the ocean passage was beguiled
with "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The steamer landed at Bos-
ton, September i6th, and Professor Hackett was soon
immersed in the avocations of the opening academical
72 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
year. During his absence, his revered friend Professor
Stuart had passed away, on the fourth of January, 1852.
Professor Stuart looked upon his former pupil as one
who would have been his successor, but for his altered
church affiliations.
CHAPTER VII.
1852-1858.
EVENTS UPON RETURN. REQUISITES FOR A SACRED
INTERPRETER. PUBLICATION OF ILLUSTRA-
TIONS OF SCRIPTURE. SECOND EDITION
OF COMMENTARY ON ACTS.
A week after his return to America, an important and
gratifying event took place in the life of one with whom,
as a student in the Seminary, and as an associate in its
Faculty, Dr. Hackett was connected, for twenty-two of the
thirty-one years of his residence in Newton. His journal
records, under date of September 24th, 1852, "Mr. Hovey
was married this evening. May a useful and happy life
be his portion." Few lives, it may be confidently said,
are more useful and happy than his for whom this wish
ascended, the present honored President of Newton
Theological Institution.
Under date of October 15th, the death of Rev. John
S. Maginnis, D. D., Professor in Rochester Theological
Seminary, is entered in his diary, and, at the beginning of
December, the bringing of the body, for interment, to
Boston.
Dr. Hackett had been at home little more than a
CHARACTER OF A BIBLICAL CRITIC. J ^
month, when the whole country was thrown into mourn-
ing by the death of Daniel Webster. It seems to hav^e
been the occasion with him of noting down some remi-
niscences, as to events and dates, which have been
employed in this narrative. In recalling the address of
Webster to the Amherst students, in 1830, which he was
on the committee to solicit, he has been heard to narrate
that the great American was, at first, rather grum at being
waked from an after-dinner nap. He came, however, at
the appointed time, was taciturn on the way (his guide
said), and gave the thrilling address which Professor
Tyler has alluded to in his history of the College, and
described for these pages.
Among- the first duties of his return were visits to his
mother, Mrs. John Davidson by re-marriage, at Methuen,
and to the widow of his friend. Professor Edwards, at
Andover. Almost his first literary labor was the sad yet
congenial task of furnishing an estimate of the departed
Christian scholar, imposed upon him by their common
friend. Professor Park, then engaged in the preparation
of a memoir.
At Dr. Hackett's funeral. Dr. Park spoke of the appli-
cability of the eulogium thus called forth, almost word
for word, to Professor Hackett himself.
It will be proper, then, instead of attempting, at a later
stage, any labored estimate of Professor Hackett as a
Biblical scholar, to give, in this place, at least an abridg-
ment, which is all that the nature and limits of this memo-
rial permit, of that fine conception of the character, which
found such happy double realization, in the two friends.
"An able interpreter of the Scriptures must possess, to
74 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
say nothing of the moral requisites, two distinct classes of
qualifications ; they may be distinguished as the acquired
and the natural. Among the former are to be ranked
the philological attainments which lie at the foundation
of all Biblical scholarship. Mr. Edwards attained here
an unquestionable eminence. His devotion to ancient
learninor did not lead him to neg-lect the modern lang-uas-es
and their literature. He made up his mind, at an early
day, that no one can be a respectable scholar in philology,
unless he has mastered the German ; and with this con-
viction he resolved to study it, until, as he once expressed
himself to me, he could read any ordinary German book
with as much ease as he could read a book in English.
This facility he attained. It appears that our friend was
more or less acquainted (if we include the mother tongue
in which he so much excelled) with some ten or more
different languages. It is not meant that he was expert
in all of them ; for no one who has any just idea of this
sort of scholarship will expect of a man impossibilities.
It is not in general creditable to a person to be known
as having occupied himself with a great variety of lan-
guages ; for in the majority of such cases it may be
inferred with much certainty, that the individual has
dissipated his powers, and learned very little to any good
purpose. What I mean to say is, that Professor Edwards
had drawn the several lano-uao-es referred to within
the circle of his studies, that he possessed superior skill in
some of them, and was sufficiently acquainted with all of
them to make them subservient to his usefulness in his
profession. He would have taken a high rank as a philol-
ogist in any country. How few among us have a better
NATIVE QUALIP^ICATIONS OF A CRITIC. 75
claim to that title ! Whose knowledge has extended
over a wider field, and been at the same time equally
accurate ? Who have treasured up such ample stores of
learning, while they have performed so much other labor,
sufficient of itself to engross the time and strength of
ordinary men ?
" But a Biblical critic needs certain other qualifications,
which no mere skill in philology can bestow ; which
must be born in some sense w^ith the individual, and
inhere in his mental organization, though culture may
modify and improve them. Language, considered simply
as a matter of grammar, presents to the interpreter many
unavoidable ambiguities ; and to solve these, to ascertain
the one definite meaning which the writer intended to
express, the interpreter must l)e able to penetrate through
the language to the mind of the writer, must gain his point
of view, see and feel the subject, as far as this may be
possible, as the waiter himself saw and felt it. It is only
by this faculty of perceiving the congruities of a subject,
of reproducing another's train of thought in his own mind,
that the student of a foreign language can settle many
questions in interpretation, — that he can decide which of
various possible ideas must be the true idea. The cast
of mind necessary for performing this process I should
ascribe to Professor Edwards in a high degree. Fie pos-
sessed a good judgment, comprehensiveness of mind, tact
for seizing upon the main thought, facility in transferring
himself to the position of the writer whose mind he
would interpret. He had imagination and taste, could
sympathize with the sacred writers as religious poets, and
was not the man to confound a figure of speech with a
76 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
dogma or a logical proposition. I venture to affirm,
that, had he lived to write a commentary on the Psalms,
or a treatise on the genius of Hebrew poetry, such as he
was capable of producing, he would have given to the
world a performance of standard value ; he would have
brought to the task as large a share of the qualifications
of a Lowth or a Herder as any man (that I know of)
connected with sacred criticism, who has appeared in our
country. Yet, with all this subjective power, he was free
from extravagance, loved the simple in interpretation,
neglected subtilties and conceits, and insisted that the
word of God should be explained with a proper regard
to the analogy of the Scripture and the dictates of a
sound common sense.
"In speaking of him as a teacher, I ought first of all to
mention his striving to be exact in his knowledge, his
dx()!j3sca, his endeavor to teach what he taught with critical
precision, and to train his pupils to that method of study.
Allied to this quality, or rather an effect and manifesta-
tion of it, was his ingenuousness, his clear perception of
what he knew, or what the nature of the subject allowed
to be known, and his extreme solicitude not to transcend
the limits of his knowledge in the opinions which he ad-
vanced. His crowning excellence as a theological teacher
was, that he entertained so childlike a confidence in the
Scriptures as the word of God, and could unfold their
meaning with the moral power which can spring only
from that conviction. It was this view of the Sacred
Oracles, their character as the only authoritative source of
our knowledge on religious subjects, that rendered him
so anxious to ascertain the exact sense of what the Bible
ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE. ']']
teaches, and so earnest to inspire others with the same
feeling-."
A diploma, dated Halle and Leipzig, January ist, 1853,
certifies the appointment of Herr H. B. Hackett, Pro-
fessor of Theology in Newton Centre (Massachusetts, U.
S. A.), to regular membership in the German Oriental
Association.
Three articles in the Christian Review, as well as several
lectures, delivered to friends and neighbors, in the village
churches at Newton, upon his Eastern travels, were so
well received, that Dr. Hackett was led to embody them
in the volume, already alluded to, entitled: "Illustrations
of Scripture; suggested by a Tour through the Holy
Land." It relates, chiefly, to the time between his
departure from Cairo, March 15th, and his arrival at
Akka, where he spent Sunday, May 9th, 1852, — a little
less than two months. The contents, however, are not
arranged chronologically, but topically, according; to a
design intimated in the title of the work, and disclosed
in the preface, which is dated Newt»n Centre, August
23d, 1855. The book closes with these words: "Out of
the many places that might be spoken of, I have selected
a few which have some special prominence in the Bible,
and deserve, therefore, to be made as familiar as possible
to the mind of every reader. Would that what I have
written might serve, in some measure, to furnish that
knowledge, to render the study of the Scriptures more
interesting and profitable to those who engage in it !
How much would such a result augment the pleasure,
already so great in so many ways, connected with my
recollections of this delightful journey ! "
78 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The volume met with a very favorable reception, and
appeared in a second and enlarged edition. It is stated
that, in a copy of this work, belonging to the library of
Rufus Choate, which was sold after his death, there was
found written on the fly-leaf, by the eminent advocate,
" Worth a hundred of the evidences of Christianity."
Other fruits of this journey were incorporated into the
second edition of the Commentary on Acts, which
appeared in 1858. " It has been of some service to me,"
he says in the preface, dated March ist, 1858, "that since
the publication of the first edition I have been enabled
to visit the countries in which the Saviour and the
apostles lived, and the cross gained its earliest victories.
The journey has made it two-fold more a labor of love
to trace again the footsteps of Paul and his associates,
and should add something to the interpreter's power to
unfold the history of their sufferings and their triumphs."
Parts were rewritten, and the work was enlarged to the
extent of about a hundred pages. The intervening six
years had witnessed the appearance of many valuable
w^orks relating to the Acts, of which the writer had availed
himself, as he continued to devote himself to the subject
in his study, and at times in the instruction of his classes.
A notice, which was a thorough study, and one of love,
appeared in the Christian Review, for October, 1858, from
Rev. G. W. Samson, D. D. In that review, attention is
called to the fact that the Acts of the Apostles is the
central book of the entire Bible ; that it includes every
variety of history, argument, and nice use of the Greek
toneue ; and shows the sferms of all former and subse-
quent Christian history. The qualifications necessary for
VERDICTS OF CRITICS. 79
a master in its interpretation, as a historian, a philologist, a
logician and a theologian, are developed ; after which the
sentence occurs : "If Dr. Hackett's Commentarv were
perfect in each of these respects, it would be more than
a human production. No unbiased judge, however, will
hesitate to place it at the head of all that has yet appeared,
or that may be expected soon to appear, as combining
great excellences in every department of the commen-
tator's work."
The general judgment of competent authorities upon
this work accords with the sentences of such men as Dr.
Peabody, in the North American Review, on two oc-
casions ; as Dr. Paton J. Gloag, of Scotland, who, in his
own Commentary, 1870, terms it "the admirable Com-
mentary of Dr. Hackett, decidedly the best work on
the subject in the English language ; " as Tholuck, w^ho
said, not many years since, that he regarded it as the first
of American Commentaries, an opinion which has also
been ascribed to President Woolsey ; as Meyer, "the prince
of New Testament expositors," who, in his correspond-
ence, has made honorable mention of Dr. Hackett, and
in his own Commentary, has attested familiarity with his
positions upon important questions.
The work was reprinted in England. For many years
before his death. Dr. Hackett had desired to enrich it
with the later results of textual criticism, and sacred
scholarship, but the plates of the work w^ere not in his
possession.
8o HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
CHAPTER VIII.
1858-1859.
THIRD FOREIGN TOUR. SWITZERLAND. RESIDENCE, STUD-
IES, AND TRAVELS, IN GREECE. RETURN THROUGH
AUSTRIA, GERMANY, BELGIUM, ENGLAND.
A few months after completing the second edition of
the Commentary on Acts, Dr. Hackett set out upon his
third foreign tour. July 15th, 1858, he was voted leave
of absence from the Theological Institution for one year,
to perfect himself in the studies of his department, by
residence in Greece. At the same time, he was, by this
course, further qualifying himself for the work of transla-
tion and revision instituted by the American Bible Union,
whose service he entered in April, 1857, and under whose
auspices he went to Greece. The following is from a
paper by the Rev. Dr. Armitage : —
" The letter in which he set forth the advantages of
this important step exhibits the profound care and con-
scientiousness with which he proceeded to his arduous
task, and the high estimate which he placed upon its
needed thoroughness. His thoughts on this point are
well worthy of notice, and their very utterance gives us a
splendid view of his character as a Biblical reviser. He
says : —
'"Of the journey which I am on the eve of making, it
may not be amiss to offer an explanatory remark or two.
Though I have other objects in view^ connected with the
work of translation, the main purpose of the journey is
UTILITY OF MODERN GREEK. 8 1
to give some attention to the Greek language, as spoken
by the Greeks at the present day. It is self-evident that
a knowledge of this language as thus spoken, however
perfect it may be, and whether possessed by a native
Greek or a foreigner, would not, of itself, qualify a person
to translate the New Testament Greek ; but that acquisi-
tion, added to a competent knowledge of the ancient
Greek, and to a proper training in the work of interpre-
tation, and in the auxiliary studies related thereto, cannot
fail to be eminently serviceable to the Biblical scholar.
I have felt, therefore, that, having been, for more than
thirty years, more or less conversant with the language in
its ancient form, I might enter still more deeply into its
spirit, and bring it nearer to me as a living power, if I
could sojourn for a time in the country where the external
objects are still called by their ancient names, and where
the words heard from the mouth of the people, especially
in their application to ecclesiastical and religious subjects,
retain still so much of their original meaning. If I am
to concentrate myself on this work of endeavoring to
understand and unfold the sense of the language of Christ
and the apostles, I feel it to be indispensable to me to
secure, imperfectly as it may be done, the benefit of such
a contact with the still extant form of the dialect through
which the Gospel was first spoken, and still speaks to our
race. With this feeling, it would be more inexcusable
in me to be willing to forego the use of any collateral
aid which it may be in my power to apply to this object.
I am thankful, therefore, for the opportunity to make this
effort to increase my ability for the performance of the
work undertaken, and hope that, with the divine blessing
82 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
on my labors, I may thus be more useful than I otherwise
would be in promoting a knowledge of God's word.'"
He left Boston the second week in August, and arrived
at Liverpool on the 28th, after a voyage of seventeen
days, in the Europa, which suffered a collision with another
steamship, narrowly escaping a great disaster.
He reached Paris at midnight of September first, and
left it early on the morning of the third, for Basel. "Am
mistaken for a Frenchman before I speak]' he notes, and
farther on, "This coming to Basel seems like repairing a
wrong." The reference was, probably, to his feelings at
being about to visit, for the first time, the home and grave
of De Wette, to whom, he has been known to say, he
felt that he was even more indebted than to Meyer. The
striking similarity between De Wette and Hackett, as
commentators, in the power of condensed and clear state-
ment, cannot fail to be remarked.
After calling on Hagenbach and Stahelin, he visited
Professor Beck, the step-son of De Wette, whom he
found indisposed, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Heitz.
Charles Beck, who took the degrees of Ph. D., and of
A. M., at Tubingen, in 1823, was an ardent lover of
liberty, and found the United States an asylum, in early
life. He was Professor of the Latin language, in Har-
vard College, from 1832 till 1850, and was a patriotic
citizen of his adopted country until his death, in 1866.
Professor Beck spoke of De Wette, as having been much
moulded by Herder, whom he knew at Weimar. He
could write successive pages without a word of correc-
tion. He was always in good health ; was thrice married.
The daughter of De Wette accompanied Dr. Hackett
DE WETTE. 83
to the Elizabeth's Kirchhof. On the right from the gate,
up the principal path, is the grave of De Wette, which
was planted with flowers. Against the wall is a tablet,
with a likeness, in marble, of the face ; a side view, —
mouth small and compressed, — the name simply, and
D. D., in a semi -circle around the head. Beneath, the
place and time of birth and death, — no word of epitaph.
The daughter said, that as she saw him standing at the
bed of her brother, she was struck with his resemblance
to her father. They went to the house where he lived
fifteen years, saw his study, where he wrote, and died,
among his books ; the gardens, where he spent much
time among his flowers, for which he had a great pas-
sion. He never labored after one o'clock; slept a little
in the afternoon, and walked or visited. He preached
occasionally. They went to the Minster w^here Erasmus
is buried. The custodian said to the lady, "This gentle-
man is very like your father," and she, turning, asked Dr.
Hackett if he understood what had been said.
The next day, which was the Sabbath, he spent in
Zurich, attending St. Peter's, the church in which Lavater
preached, whose writings he liked to peruse. His route
was by way of Luzern, Bern, Thun, Giessbach, Interlachen,
Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Freiburg, Vevey,
and Lausanne, with their varied attractions and beauties,
to Geneva, where he heard Malan, and had an interview
with him. Thence to Chamonix, and through the Tete
Noire to Martigny, and by the Simplon pass into Italy.
With hurried enjoyment of the Italian lakes, he came to
Milan, and thence to Venice and Trieste. Passing from
Ancona to Brindisi, he embarked for Corfu, and, in four
84 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
days from Corfu, arrived at Athens, on the fifteenth of
October.
This was his place of residence for the next six
months. His note books and his hbrary bear witness
to the zeal with which he gave himself to the aims of his
pilgrimage, as set forth in his letter above. Another
monument of this period was the modern Greek pronun-
ciation, which he brought back with him, and ever after
employed. He agreed, it would seem, with the position
of scholars at Athens on this subject, as Professor Felton
learned it from them in conversations, and has reported
it in his lectures on Ancient and Modern Greece: —
"They all admit that the musical element of quantity
has disappeared from their language, but insist, with a
good show of reason, that those who have inherited the
language from the past, and who have always heard it, by
unbroken tradition from the days of the Apostles, in their
churches, are more likely to have a pronunciation resem-
bling that of their ancestors, than the nations of Europe,
who apply to the Greek the pronunciation of their own
languages, and consequently differ from one another."
He was much in the schools, especially Dr. Hill's, for
so many years the celebrated American missionary teacher.
In the University, he had the opportunity of hearing the
accomplished Biblical scholar. Professor Kontogones, and
his colleaofue, Professor Pharmakides ; also the venerable
Asopios, who, as Professor Felton said, expounded Homer
with the vivacity of a Nestor, and who seems to have
been now lecturing on ^schylus.
He attended upon religious services at the Rev. Dr.
Jonas King's, who was an agent of the Philhellenists in
VISIT TO PHILIPPI. 85
this country, after the battle of Navarino, and became a
life-long and widely-known missionary of the American
Board.
In the month of December, Dr. Hackett visited several
interesting localities. On the second, he left Athens for
Chalcis ; on the fifth he was at Salonica, the ancient Thes-
salonica, earlier Therma. Returning to Volo, in Thessaly,
near the ancient lolchos, he crossed by steamer to Kavalla,
the ancient Neapolis, arriving on the eleventh. On the
thirteenth he started for Philippi, of which excursion
there is an interesting account in the Bibliotheca Sacra,
for October, 1 860, containing the following passage : —
" Before leaving the scene, I sat down upon one of the
prostrate columns, and read the Epistle to the Philippians.
The recollections, the place, the circumstances, brought
home to me the contents with new vividness and power.
I had just traversed the road by which Paul and his
associates approached the city. The gateway where they
entered was within sight. I could hear the rushing of the
stream, upon the bank of which Paul declared the name
of Jesus, and rejoiced over his first converts on a new
continent. On my left passed the Egnatian Way, along
which Epaphroditus, the bearer of the epistle, hurried
with tidings of the apostle from his cell at Rome. The
silent Stadium lay before me on the hill-side, of which
his illustration reminded the Philippians, as he held up to
them his own example for imitation in striving for the
^[)a^eiov^ the imperishable crown, which is to reward the
Christian victor. Within the space under my eye must
have stood the house where the first disciples were gath-
ered for worship, and called on the name of Christ. One
86 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
of the mounds around me may have been the ruins of
the prison, which resounded with the praises of Paul and
Silas, and which the earthquake shook to its foundations.
I thought especially of the moment when the following
great words were read, and heard here for the first time,
and of the myriads since that moment whose souls those
words have stirred to their inmost depths, in all genera-
tions, and in all parts of the earth : — 'Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God : but made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name : that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth ; and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.'
"One could not, under such circumstances, repress a new
and yet more ardent prayer that the day of this universal
recognition may soon come, and in the meanwhile, that
the spirit of the sublime passage may pass more fully into
the lives of those who profess and call themselves Chris-
tians."
He left Kavalla on the twenty-third, arrived at Dar-
danelles on the 24th, and on Christmas-day was under
way, at an early hour, for Smyrna. Here he thought of
the Apostle John, and of Polycarp, and of Ignatius,
VIENNA, LEIPZIG AND HALLE. 87
as he touched here, on his way to meet death at Rome.
On the last day of the month, he was back again at
Athens, by way of Syra, remaining engrossed in his studies,
until the twenty-first of March, 1859, when he made a
three-days' trip to Thebes, Plataea, and Eleusis. On the
24th he records, " Resumed lessons." This is the date
of a letter to New York, in which he says : —
" I have never had a moment's misgiving as to the
utility of this journey. I feel much stronger for the work,
and am sure that I can now perform it with much more
satisfaction to mvself, and that the result will vindicate
fully the wisdom of the course. I shall allow nothing
hereafter to interfere with my devoting my full energies
to the labors before me in connection with the New
Testament."
Three weeks after, on the 13th of April, he terminated
his busy and pleasant residence at Athens. In a week's
time he reached Trieste, from which he proceeded on his
first visit to Vienna, the grand and the gay capital. It is
somewhat amusing to find this grave scholar coinciding
with so many young men and maidens, the world over, in
the enthusiastic declaration that Strauss's music was the
best he ever heard. It may well be believed, however,
that the Imperial Library had more charms for him than
the Volksgarten. From Vienna, he visited Prague, and
came for the third time to Leipzig, at the end of April.
Here, and at Halle, a fortnight was delightfully spent.
He dined at Mr. Tauchnitz's, heard Professor Moll preach,
met Lechler, Tischendorf, and other men of eminence,
and called on Rodiger and Hupfeld, once more ; also on
Professor Ross, who went with Otho to Greece, and was
88 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
professor in the University there, but was obliged to give
way to a disHke of German influence. Chief pleasure, as
ever, was the brief renewal of intimacy with the Tholucks.
He liked Tholuck's religion, — "so much humanity in it, —
some are very pious, but not so on the human side." Mrs.
Tholuck, "a true follower of Christ," spoke of her father
as "gone home," and so of her mother. " Leave some of
your heart here !" she said at parting, on the 12th of May.
The next day he was at Eisenach, and on the Wart-
burg. On the next, he attended an exercise of Ewald's, at
Gottingen. In looks, he was like Theodore Parker, except
as being more refined ; had long, but not gray, hair. He
asked questions of a single student, and designated an-
other for the next exercise. He was on the second
chapter of Joel. He had a pompous manner, was evi-
dently an emotional man, and seemed to have a strong
grasp on the hearers. Revisiting Cassel, Dr. Hackett
came, by Frankfort and Cologne, to Brussels, whence he
made the excursion to Waterloo. He reached London,
through Ghent and Calais, on the 28th of May, and on the
next day attended divine service in Westminster Abbey.
It was, probably, about this time, that he met Trench and
Ellicott, whose courtesy he is remembered to have men-
tioned. He arrived home in time for the Anniversary at
Newton.
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 89
CHAPTER IX.
1 859-1 860.
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. LABORS ON THE EPISTLE
TO PHILEMON.
Soon after the opening of the academieal year, in 1859,
Dr. Hackett so far departed from his ahnost inflexible
refusal to appear in public as a speaker, especially during
terms, as to proceed to New York, and there deliver what
has been termed " his immortal and unanswerable argu-
ment " on revision. The address is so pertinent, not only
as a defence of the pioneer labors of the Society before
whom it was spoken, but also, in relation to the united
movement of the most distinguished Christian scholars of
England and America, in which Dr. Hackett was engaged
at the time of his death, — a movement answering the
mingled tone of prophecy and aspiration in the address, —
that it has been decided to present it here in full. It was
published by the American Bible Union, with the title : —
"Rev. H. B. Hackett, D. D., on Revision. — Remarks
before the American Bible Union, at its tenth anniversary.
New York, October 6th, 1859."
"If I entertained any doubt before, I can doubt no
longer that this cause is commending itself more and
more to the confidence and favor of the Christian public.
The presence to-day of this large assembly, the constant
attendance through all the sessions of this body, the spirit
of earnest purpose as well as intelligence, which has
90 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
characterized the speeches made here, the Reports of the
delegates to which we have hstened, who represent all
parts of the country and different denominations, convince
me, and must convince every one, that the principle
which animates this movement has something vital in it,
and will assert its claim to recognition sooner or later, in
some form or other, whatever opposition and prejudice it
may yet have to overcome.
" It has been said, and said with much truth, that all the
great problems of human speculation come back to men
after certain intervals of time for reexamination ; that it
is necessary for each generation to discuss many of them
anew in accordance with its own mental wants and char-
acteristics. It must be accounted strange indeed, then, if
this question of the agreement of the English Scriptures,
with the Original Scriptures from which they derive all
their authority, is the only question that is to be put for-
ever out of the circle of the appropriate topics for
renewed inquiry and consideration. I should lament as
much as any one the decay of any proper reverence for
the past ; but it is exacting a good deal of us, I think, to
require us to admit with unquestioning apathy that our
forefathers have made up a case for us in regard to this
particular subject, which is past all review, which is to be
received as settled for all time.
" It is an instructive fact that there has sprung up sim-
ultaneously in so many different countries a conviction
that the time has come when the vernacular versions of
the Bible should be made to conform to the present state
of biblical studies. I have passed recently through some
of these foreign lands, and have taken pains to inform
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 9 1
myself on the subject. It might be thought that the
veneration of Protestant Germanv for Luther's name
would have left his translation, so excellent in many
respects, untouched. But so it is not. There, too, the
public mind has taken hold of this matter. It has not
only called forth discussion, but been brought before the
ecclesiastical bodies ; and a committee has been appointed
(some of whom I saw and conversed with) to report the
facts in the case and suggest means for procuring the
necessary corrections. One writer says that at least
twelve hundred and fifty chan2:es should be made. The
excellent Tholuck says, that as all the authorities agree
that various passages are mistranslated, the editions of the
Bible for the use of the people ought not to perpetuate
the errors. I could mention the testimony of many other
eminent men to the same effect. Appeals are constantly
made through the press for some prompt action here.
The appearance of Bunsen's work is a proof of the exis-
tence of this awakened feeling. I am sure that if Luther
himself could speak from his grave, he would be heard
encouraging such efforts, and not protesting against them ;
for when he was living he said : ' Though I have done
the best I could, I am conscious of my imperfections ;
and if any one shall arise after me who has more light,
and can improve my work, let him do it, and let the
people adopt his truth and not cling to my errors.' There
you hear the genuine voice of the old reformer, and it
should awaken its echo in the heart of every true Pro-
testant. A similar movement is taking place in Belgium
and Holland. The Saxon nations of the north of Europe
are stirring in the matter. The government of Norway
92 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
has appointed a commission to revise the common trans-
lation of that country. Among the scholars who compose
this commission is Dr. Caspari, who is not unknown on
this side of the water. The work is begun and parts of
the new version have appeared. In England the subject
engages still the earnest attention of the public. Some
of the best Biblical scholars of that country are avowedly
in favor of emendation. Hardly a commentary of any
repute is published, that has not a revised translation of
the common version attached to it. The Episcopal
Church there, which is not prone to welcome changes,
furnishes a strong array of names on this side of the
question. The tide of feeling has risen too high and
spread too far to pass away without leading to some
important result.
" Of our own country I would say a single word.
Over and above the open support which the cause
receives, there is, I am persuaded, a great amount of
undeclared sentiment in our favor. I mie^ht offer various
proofs of this statement. I will mention one single fact.
It happens to be within my personal knowledge that
several of the Professors who teach the Biblical studies
in the Theological Seminaries of different denominations,
scruple not to say that it is high time to look at this
question ; and they are inquiring anxiously what can be
done and what they should do to meet the exigency.
This is not surprising; for there would be slender reason
for the establishment of the professorships which they
occupy, if they were unable to extend the knowledge of
their pupils beyond what they can obtain for themselves
through the medium of the present English translation.
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 93
Would that these brethren could see their way clear to
unite with us in our labors for this object. Most gladly
would I welcome the accession of such coadjutors, and
I would hope that the time is nigh when we shall have
the benefit of their open advocacy of this cause, and the
benefit of their personal cooperation,
" There are two or three points on which, from my
position as one of the translators, I wish to touch briefly,
and to which the other speakers may not be led so
naturally to advert.
" It is charged against this asssociation that it is sec-
tarian because some of the revisers, whose names have
been made public, belong to a particular religious con-
nection. I will not insist now on the fact that the
constitution of this society invites the cooperation of
Christians of every name, and that the greater part of the
work of revision hitherto performed has been performed,
as I understand, by other persons than Baptist scholars.
I agree (it is no secret I suppose) with the sentiments of
one of the Christian denominations ; and if I have any
sentiments at all, how, I beg to ask, could I entertain the
sentiments of all the different denominations at the same
time.? But am I, therefore, necessarily sectarian, because
I thus differ from others, any more than they are sectarian
because they differ from me 7 Or am I sectarian at all,
in any sense, to disqualify me for the performance of this
work, so far forth merely as my religious views are
concerned } To what, I pray, does this charge of sec-
tarianism reduce itself.? Is not a man who undertakes
this labor to have any religious convictions } Would
you entrust it to those who have no fixed religious
94 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
belief? Is it not evident that nothing can ever be done
here unless it be done by those who have some definite
religious opinions ? If, then, you would not employ men
utterly destitute of religious convictions to perform so
religious and Christian a work, and if believing men
cannot be expected to believe everything where opinions
clash, what remains ? The translator must symbolize
with some one religious body rather than another ; and if
that body is the Episcopalian or Congregationalist or
Methodist, I would not say that a translation from the
hand of a member of those sects was necessarily any more
sectarian, than if it was from the hand of a Baptist ; and,
vice versa, I see not with what propriety some persons
are pleased to stigmatize the publications of this society
as necessarily sectarian, if they come from Baptists, and
not from our Episcopalian or Congregationalist brethren.
Let us learn to be more just to one another.
" There is a wrong idea ( I trust no wrong feeling but
a wrong idea) on the part of many who make so free with
this opprobrious epithet. A given rendering of a passage
which favors one creed more than another, is not on that
account, merely, a sectarian rendering ; it is the adoption
of a rendering against the evidence, or without sufficient
evidence which makes the rendering sectarian. If you
complain of a rendering as sectarian, refute it ; show that
the reasons alleged for it are futile or insufficient, and
that the evidence of philology demands a different one,
and that the man therefore is blinded to the light bv
partiality or prejudice. When a case like that is made
out, you may fix there the brand of sectarianism ; but not
otherwise.
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 95
"What I have just now intimated suggests the remedy
and safeguard against sectarian attempts to overlook or
falsify the truth. The age in which we live is an enlight-
ened age. Scholarship is not confined to any one coun-
try or sect. Every one who writes a book now on a scien-
tific or biblical subject, is amenable not only to his own
conscience and sense of personal honor, but to a high
public tribunal which will pass judgment on his labors.
Be it remembered too, that this matter of the translation
and interpretation of Hebrew and Greek is subject to
fixed laws. The are controlling facts and principles here
which a person can no more change than he can change
the nature of electricity or steam. A manifestly one-
sided work from your translators would be exposed at
once ; it would incur contempt, and would deserve it,
and fall to the ground. No intelligent man in these
times would venture upon such an experiment. There is
very little occasion in truth for this dread of sectarianism.
The evil, if attempted, would avenge itself Nothing can
live here unless it be well supported, fair, catholic.
" I claim no exemption from the common infirmities,
and biases of human nature ; but I have sufficient confi-
dence in myself to say that I am no religious partisan.
I have searched my own heart in vain, if I would know-
ingly interpose a single idea of my own or any shade of
an idea between the mind of the reader of God's Word
and any one of its holy declarations. I should esteem it
as disloyal and reprehensible in myself, as in any other
person, to twist or force in the slightest degree any pas-
sage, or word of a passage, in the Bible, for the purpose
of upholding my own individual sentiments, or those of
96 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
any party. If any critic should deem it worth while to
notice anything that I may write, I ask of him no greater
favor than that he would see to it that he judges of my
work with as little of a sectarian spirit as I am conscious
of having indulged in the performance of that work.
And it is an act of simple justice to say that the man-
agers of this society have left me as free in this respect
as the air we breathe. They have imposed upon me no
condition or restraint whatever. They have merely said
to me : ' Study God's Word with painstaking and prayer ;
endeavor to ascertain as accountable, not unto men, but
to the Supreme Judge of all, ivhat that Word jneans ;
and then what the Bible is found to mean, that let the
Bible say.'
"Another ground of hesitation with some is not
whether the English Scriptures as a translation are per-
fect, or so perfect as they might be and should be, but
whether the time has come to revise them, because so
many questions are still unsettled, which in the rapid
progress of knowledge may yet be cleared up. We
should wait, it is said, till the doubts still existing respect-
ing the sense of various Hebrew and Greek words,
respecting variations of the text still in dispute, respecting
the genuineness of some particular book or parts of a
book, are removed ; and then when the light shines more
perfectly and upon everything, it may be proper to take
advantage of this perfected state of knowledge, and bring
the translation of the Bible into accordance with it."
" I have a short answer to make to this very romantic
view of the subject, as it seems to me. If we are to wait
till everything is known before anything is done, it is
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 97
quite certain that nothing ever will be done. We must
be content forever with an imperfect work, which can
confessedly be improved, because we will accept of noth-
ing short of that absolutely perfect work which is an
impossibility. This argument is merely the old story
over again. You will allow me to use a license of my
office and quote a Latin couplet : —
Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis ; at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis asvum.
That is, to Americanize the sentiment: A timid traveler
sits down upon the banks of the Mississippi, and, afraid
to venture, will take no means to cross the stream until
the waters have all flowed by ; and there he sits waiting,
and waiting, and waiting ; and how long I beg to ask will
he not 'be compelled to wait? There are, I think, better
models than this for us to imitate. Why should we
deprive ourselves and others of the benefit of what is
already known, because more may be known hereafter }
Two centuries and a half have been pouring their light
on these subjects. Why should we not gather up the
scattered rays, and concentrate them on the sacred page,
and let every eye of laity, as well as clergy, be cheered
with the sight of any new truths or new aspects of old
truths, which research, study, piety may have disclosed to
us in the great book of God's revelations } Be it so, that
a great deal may be brought to light hereafter, of which
we are ignorant now. A great deal has been done, as
every one admits, in the long interval since the fathers
fell asleep ; let us secure that, and apply it to its proper
uses. If a golden shower has fallen upon your fields, and
8
98 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the tempting prize lies glittering at your feet, though you
may believe that the clouds contain still other treasures,
and will let them fall in due time upon the earth, will you
refuse to stretch forth your hands and gather into your
coffers what is already within reach, because you cannot
grasp in the present moment all which a bountiful nature
may hereafter supply ? O, no ! The children of this
world are wiser in their generation than that ; let us be
as wise.
But — (for I may not shrink from the topic, delicate as
it is, since it is so often thrust before us) — though the
principle, you may say, is right, and a revision in conform-
ity with it may be desirable ; yet is it attainable ? Is it
not presumptuous for any class of men in this age to sit
in judgment on the labors of the old scholars ? Is the
knowledge of the present race of students equal to the
undertaking ? I yield to no one in my respect for the
scholarship of former times, and I yield to no one in my
sense of the difficulty of performing the proposed task
with due intelligence, fidelity, and skill. But, I must say,
it strikes me as not a little singular, that I hear this
objection urged so pertinaciously against this particular
form of irreverence (if it be such), and not against other
manifestations of the same spirit, which no one thinks of
visiting with any rebuke. The Professors in the Theo-
logical Seminaries are not reproached as presumptuous,
because they teach their pupils that the common version
has missed the sense in some passages, or has presented it
imperfectly. There has not been a time since the age of
King James when preachers have not exercised this right
of critical judgment in the presence of their congre-
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. 99
gations. You are not accustomed to read a Commentary,
in your chambers, or your families, in which the writers
do not dissent often from the traditional interpretation of
the text. I have yet to learn that it is customary to
censure this freedom, as forbidden by any proper respect
for ancient authority.
I admit that the old scholars have reared for us some
noble monuments of learning, which will stand to the
end of time. There is no doubt that those who cultivated
the ancient lano;uao:es, at the time of the revival of letters
so called, and soon after, acquired a facility in the collo-
quial and written use of them, to some extent, and a
facility in reading the ancient authors, which has rarely
been surpassed or equalled. But the distinction of the
later scholarship I take to be this : — It embraces a more
accurate knowledo-e of the structure and idioms of the old
tongues, and of the logical force and signification of the
words. Greek Lexicography (to say nothing of Hebrew),
in its present scientific mode of treatment, Greek Gram-
mar, in its more perfect mastery of the syntax, Greek
Synonymy, which treats of the related meaning of words,
are essentially sciences of the modern philology ; and, be
it noted, it is precisely these branches of learning which
afford to scholars the help which they need for carrying
on the uncompleted labors of the past. It is our felicity
that we live after such men, and thus are enabled to use
the instruments which they have prepared for us, in
addition to the aids peculiar to our own times. Is it
presumptuous to say as much as this } The homely
proverb hath it : — Pigmies, on the shoulders of giants,
may see as far as the giants themselves.
/f HV ..
lOO HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The celebrated Burke has said, that there are some
pursuits in which we are sure of the chase, even if we
miss the game. There are some enterprises which it is
impossible to prosecute w^ithout securing collateral
advantages amply sufficient to compensate for all the toil
which they involve, over and above the ultimate aim of
the endeavor. So it is in this case. I am of the opinion
that nothing is so much needed in the Christian world, at
the present time, as some movement which will show that
those who profess to receive the Bible, not as a store-
house of mottoes, or rhetorical illustrations, or pleasant
phrases, that sound well to the ear whether they convey
a true idea or not, but as the veritable Bible, the Book of
books, the source of living and immortal truth, our only
source of all certain knowledge on religious subjects, the
arbiter of faith and practice — that nothing, I say, just now
would be so useful, and so effectually assert the claims of
the Bible to men's attention, as the spectacle of the great
body of Christians laboring zealously together to remove
every obstruction to the proper influence of this Word ;
testifying their reverence and love for it, and heart-felt
confidence in it, by bestowing upon it all the care, and
study, and expense necessary for bringing out all the
riches of its power for high and low, rich and poor,
learned and unlearned ; thus showing that they hold to it
and deem it worth something ; rebuking thereby the
doubt so often entertained, if not expressed. Where is
your faith in a Book which, if important at all, is all
important, and important in all its parts ? — how useful
and instructive, I say again, in this age when the great
religious question is that concerning the place which the
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. lOI
Bible is to occupy in men's theology and practical regard,
must be any spectacle of earnest and self-sacrificing effort
adapted to point out to men the right position on this
question — the spectacle of all ready to do their part,
scholars with their diligence and learning, the wise-hearted
with their gifts ; — all who profess to receive the Bible
marking their sense of its supreme importance, not merely
by sending it to the heathen, but by bringing it home to
our own doors and bosoms within the limits of Christen-
dom itself, that we may show our estimate of God's
Word by striving to bring our own minds and the minds
of others as near as possible to a full comprehension of
all the truth which God has revealed. Such a testimony
is the existence and attitude of this organization. Let it
be wisely conducted, and vigorously upheld, and it con-
tains in it the germ of a capacity to do as much, both for
the promotion of the higher interests of Biblical learning,
and for the practical assertion of the worth of the Scrip-
tures among the people at large, as any institution of
the age.
A few weeks ago I was at Eisenach, in Germany, under
the shadow of Luther's Wartburg, where, during his im-
prisonment as Junker George, he translated the New
Testament into the mother-tongue of the Teutonic tribes
of Germany. The room there which he occupied remains
to this hour just as he left it ; the armor which he wore,
his bed, his chair, his table at which he studied day and
night, are to be seen still, as if days merely, and not cen-
turies, had passed since he ceased from his labors. It will
be understood that I did not fail to make a pilgrimage to
this memorable spot. As I bent my steps thither from
I02 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the town, I had the castellated mount where the old
prison stands constantly before my eyes ; but intervening
heights and forests in the distance, and, near at hand, the
houses and turrets of the city made my course at times
uncertain, and I was obliged frequently to inquire my way.
The answer which I received was always the same :
''Immer hinaus unci hinmif ; Keep straight on and up :
straight on and (pointing the finger to the lofty height
which hung above us) right up." My mind was full at
the time of thoughts of this great undertaking, and I
accepted this answer from the mouth of the people as the
right sort of motto for us to inscribe on our banner : —
'■'■Iinmer hinaus U7id hinaicf : Sti'aight forward and tip-
ward!' Is it too much to say that a similar voice
addresses itself to the Christians of this generation in
behalf of the work which we have taken up ? Does not
a voice call to them from the living millions who speak
our tongue, and the millions more surpassing computation,
who shall speak it hereafter, saying : — " Go forward, you
are dealing with a necessary want, carry out the labor to
its proper termination." For one, I must say, I hear that
voice. Let us accept the omen and do what we can, each
in his way, to fulfill the augury.
The following note was appended to the address : —
It is because we are Bihlicists, not adherents of this or
that ecclesiastical organization, of this or that school of
theology named after men, but Biblicists, a higher and
more comprehensive term, receivers, as we would be, of
God's revealed truth as the ultimate standard, and as
important in all its teachings and requirements, that we
are so anxious to have the agreement between the original
ADDRESS ON BIBLE REVISION. IO3
revelation and every expression of it as perfect as possible.
The following remarks, in a note to one of the sermons
of the late Archdeacon Hare, will commend themselves
to every thoughtful reader : " The notion that slight
errors and defects and fiiults are immaterial, and that we
need not go to the trouble of correcting them, is one
main cause why there are so many huge errors and defects
and faults in every region of human life, practical and
speculative, moral and political. No error should be
deemed slight, which affects the meaning of a single word
in the Bible ; where so much weight is attached to every
single word; and where so many inferences and conclu-
sions are drawn from the slightest ground, not merely
those which find utterance in books, but a far greater
number springing up in the minds of the millions to
whom our English Bible is the code and canon of all
truth. For this reason, errors, even the least, in a version
of the Bible, are of far greater moment than in any other
book, as well because the contents of the Bible are of far
deeper importance, and have a far wider influence, as also
because the readers of the Bible are not only the educated
and learned, who can exercise some sort of judgment on
what they read, but vast multitudes who understand what-
ever they read according to the letter. Hence it is a
main duty of the Church to take care that the Version
of the Scriptures, which it puts into the hands of its
members, shall be as faultless as possible, and to revise it
with this view from time to time, in order to attain to the
utmost accuracy in every word."
The next year, i860, the Bible Union published Dr-
Hackett's labors on the epistle to Philemon. Their spirit
I04 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
and aim are indicated in the full title of this small volume :
"Notes on the Greek text of the Epistle of Paul to
Philemon, as the basis of a Revision of the Common
English \"ersion ; and a Revised Version, with Notes."
But one paragraph of the preface so fully exhibits Dr.
Hackett in his views as a Bible reviser, from first to last,
that it cannot be withheld : —
"There is much misapprehension still, I imagine, re-
specting the precise nature of the enterprise, in the
interest of which this volume has been prepared. The
object is not to supersede, but revise the current Version
of the English Scriptures. A new translation of the
original text, and a revision of the translation of that text,
are very different things; and yet, different as they are,
are confounded by many persons who would not be un-
friendly to what is attempted, if they would keep in mind
this important distinction. It is not proposed to discard
the present Version ; to cast away its manifold advantages;
to introduce rash and doubtful innovations; to substitute
a cumbrous Latinized style for the simple, nervous, idio-
matic English, which brings the familiar Version so home
to the hearts of the people ; but simply to do upon the
work of our translators what they did upon that of their
predecessors ; to survey it afresh in the light of the know-
ledge which has been gained during the more than two
centuries since they passed away ; to make such changes,
and such only, as the general verdict of the best scholar-
ship of the age has pronounced to be due to truth and
fidelity; to make these changes in a style of delicate
harmony with the present language of the English Bible ;
to confirm its accuracy, where it is correct, against false
PATRIOTISM. 105
or unsupported interpretations, as well as to amend it
where it is confessedly incorrect ; and thus, in a word,
cany forward from our position, if we might, the labors
of the revisers (for such they were) of James's age, as they
carried forward the labors of the generations before them."
An appendix contains the celebrated letter of the
younger Pliny to his friend, Sabinianus, interceding for a
fugitive servant belonging to the latter, which it is inter-
esting to compare with Paul's letter in behalf of Onesimus.
CHAPTER X.
1861-1865.
patriotism: — in academical addresses; — correspond-
ence;— publication of memorial volume; —
address at dedication of soldiers'
monument in NEWTON.
The preface to the revision of Philemon was dated April
13th, i860, A year later (the interval having embraced
similar labors on the Epistle to the Galatians), the coun-
try was resounding with the tidings of the first overt
act of armed rebellion against the national government.
For four years Dr. Hackett watched with the intens-
est solicitude every step of the contest that followed.
Amoiig attestations of his interest were the farewell
addresses, to graduating classes, which it fell to him to
deliver at Newton during this period, in the years 1861
and 1865. Some sentences and paragraphs of the first
of these addresses are here given : —
"Your highest incentives to fidelity you will derive.
I06 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
of course, from the relations of your office to men as
immortal who have souls to be saved or lost, some of
whom may be the crown of your rejoicing in the day
of final account.
"At the same time, there are other and necessarily as-
sociated results of the minister's work, which are not to
be overlooked. To one of these I would turn your atten-
tion now. For myself, I am unable even on this occa-
sion to withdraw my mind from the presence of the
great calamity which has befallen us in this hour of the
nation's gloom and peril. The dependence of all that
we hold dear and valuable in our civil relations on the
ascendency of Christian influence and Christian principle
among the people was never more manifest than it is at
the present moment. The sacred order to which you
belong exists as really for the inculcation of the social
and moral principles which are vital to the prosperity
of the commonwealth, as if it existed solely for that
end. There are no more effective builders of the state
than those who faithfully preach Christ and him cruci-
fied, and exhort men to repent and believe on Him,
and lead quiet lives in all godliness and honesty. Their
proper rank, whether the world acknowledges or disowns
the claim (which is of very little consequence in itself),
their proper rank is among councillors and statesmen,
and patriots and heroes. It may seem at times almost
hard for you to be kept back from the strife which is
summonino: our brothers and our sons to the battle field ;
but it may be the part of a higher patriotism to with-
stand the impulse, and to apply yourselves the more
earnestly to the spiritual labors to which you feel that
ADDRESS TO NEWTON GRADUATES OF 1861. \OJ
God's grace and providence have called you. Lay your-
selves anew to-day on that altar without reserve and
without condition, and you may render a better service
to your country, than you could ever perform in any
other way. Those who remained nearer to heaven on
the mount and there staid up the hands of the leader
of the people, did as much to win the battle as those
who fought on the plain below.
" Oh, the debt of gratitude that we owe to the noble
men, who driven from their country and homes for con-
science' sake, sought a refuge in the wilderness beyond
the sea ! Thanks to God, that ship with the Pilgrim
Fathers, which the imprecations of recreant men that
our ears have heard, would have sunk on her wav, sur-
vived the perils of the voyage ; — and their principles
have survived and bear fruit still. I am persuaded that
if their spirit had not been infused from the beginning
in a large measure into the hearts of the people — their
love of liberty and the right, their faith in God, their
readiness to sacrifice life and everything for duty and
principle ; — if, I say, the truths which gave to them cour-
age and endurance, had not been taught from generation
to generation in the sanctuaries which they reared, and
had not passed thence more or less fully into the national
heart and character ; — without this, I am persuaded, there
w^ould have been no race of men among us to-day, like
those who at the call of their country rushed forth at
midnight to the rescue ; and the savage eye of the slave
power would have been glaring down upon us at this
moment from the turrets of the Capital of the nation.
" Do not suppose that the conflict w^hich has rent the
I08 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
tribes asunder shows that the teachings of the fathers in
the church and state have been in vain ; that the ancient
vigor and heroism and fear of God and nothing else
beside have died out among the children. Oh, no, —
there would be no conflict if such were the case ; the
struggle itself, because it is severe, is the proof of a still
existing life in the nation, and is, I firmly believe through
God, the pledge of certain victory in due time on the
side of the right."
Says one who was present : "With that peculiar gather-
ing up of his form to its full height and compactness,
with outstretched arm and pointing finger, still as w^e
write, we can see the face, almost statuesque in its white-
ness and contour, as the inspiration swept over his own,
to thrill all other hearts. The crowded audience listened
almost breathless."
July 23d, 1862, Dr. Hackett made a speech at a war-
meeting, in Newton. On the last day of the same month
he wrote the following letter, which, after his death, was
published, without indication of its personal destination,
in the New York Examiner and Chronicle. It is under-
stood to have been addressed to the Rev. Henry S.
Burrage, now of Portland, Maine, who, as a private soldier,
then an officer (36th Mass. Vols.), afterwards Acting
Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of Gen. Curtin,
served until the close of the war, and then returned to
Newton and completed his studies.
NewTON Centre, July 31, 1862.
My Dear Friend and Pupil : — I was absent when your
letter arrived, or I should have replied sooner. I judge
from the posture of your mind that you are anxious to
LETTER TO THE REV. HENRY S. BURRAGE. IO9
know whether, if, in this hour of the nation's peril, you
should regard it as your duty to offer yourself for the
war, the step would be approved by those of your friends
whose opinions you value. I am pleased that you reckon
me among those whom you esteem worthy of consulting
on such a question. Your letter has affected me deeply.
I hope you do not need to be assured of the personal
interest that I feel in you, of my sincere regard for you,
and of the hopes which I have been led to form of your
future success and usefulness. I am incapable of utter-
ing lightly any word that may have any influence in
deciding your mind, in a case where so many interests
relating to yourself and others are to be affected. I feel
that the subject is one, that, after all, must be left chiefly
with your own feelings and sense of duty. I agree per-
fectly with you that the hour is full of peril to the
existence of the government, and that the future des-
tiny of this continent, and of millions upon millions of
human beings, depends upon what the people of these
free States do, or neglect to do, within a very few days.
I have lately, again and again, brought this very ques-
tion which you propose to me home to myself; and I
have said, after rigid self-scrutiny, that if I had a son
whom the military requisitions would accept, and he
felt that it was his duty to lay himself now upon the
altar of his country's service, I should not dare to lay
any obstacle in his way. I could not reconcile it with
any just spirit of patriotism or disinterestedness to hold
him back from a cause which unites in its support every
plea that can address itself to the patriot, the philan-
thropist and the Christian. If your inclinations and
IIO HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
your views of duty dispose you to devote yourself to
this exalted work — if you cannot otherwise satisfy your
conscience, much as I love you, and anxious as I must
be for your welfare, I answer Go, and may the blessing
of God attend you and preserve you, and his Spirit
breathe into your heart courage, and fill you at all times
with the consciousness of seeking his glory in endeavor-
ing to put down this wicked conspiracy against the rights
of self-government and human liberty, and the progress
of Christ's kingdom as one of religious freedom and
impartial justice to all mankind.
Whatever may be your decision, I shall preserve your
letter as a delightful memento of the true spirit of a
Christian soldier and patriot. I will hope and pray
you may be guided right, and that you may be preserved
to enter the ministry of the gospel, and in its more
peaceful labors fulfill the hopes which you have so long
entertained.
Yours, with much affection,
H. B. Hackett.
On the evening of October 15th, 1862, Dr. Hackett
addressed the students of the Institution, premising that
for twenty years he had not spoken to the students
upon a purely political subject, and that yet, though in
the pursuits of a scholar, he was mindful of the motto,
" Homo siLin ; Jminani nihil a nie aliemmi pittol'
Referring to the formation of the Constitution, as bad
in a single unfortunate concession, he said, " Under the
operation of God's laws, our national sins have become
our inhuman oppressors." Lincoln's Declaration of pro-
CHRISTIAN MEMORIALS OF THE WAR. I I I
spective Emancipation had been before the country three
weeks, and the question was whether the people would
stand by the President. " We can almost see God stand-
ing before the nation saying : ' Do what is right — accom-
plish your destiny, or be deaf to this voice, follow the
suggestions of a timid policy, and be dashed to pieces
as a potter's vessel unfit for use.' "
After eloquent utterances, some of which will be found
in the tribute of the Rev. Granville S. Abbott, who pub-
lished an account of them at the time. Dr. Hackett closed
with the words : "May the blessings of the ages to come
fall on us, and not the maledictions due to those who
discern not the signs of these times ! "
Another significant witness of his sympathies is the
only volume which Dr. Hackett gave to the public
during these eventful years. It is entitled: "Christian
Memorials of the War: or Scenes and Incidents illus-
trative of Religious Faith and Principle, Patriotism and
Bravery, in our Army. With Historical Notes." In
the preface, dated March i8th, 1864, he says: "I have
put these materials together in this manner because I
thought it might be a grateful service to the friends of
our brave soldiers, as well as an act of justice to the
soldiers themselves, and because I felt a hearty interest
in the work."
"We reacli," says a notice, "the high level of our
Christian patriotism in this volume. The editor has
culled these choice fragments from a vast amount of
similar material. He has done his task with a faultless
judgment, and a warm sympathy with the records which
it perpetuates."
112 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The publishers of the book subsequently recovered
damages for a piratical infringement upon its contents,
in a volume called " The Nurse and Spy."
The most elaborate literary memorial of Dr. Hackett's
patriotism at this epoch is an oratorical effort at the
dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in Newton, July
23d, 1864, on which occasion he was invited to deliver
the address which the ceremonies included. It is re-
printed here from the now rare pamphlet which details
them.
ADDRESS.
I have supposed that I should be acting most in har-
mony with the spirit of this service, if I connect the
remarks which I offer more especially with the memory
of those whom we are met here to commemorate, and
the reasons that we have for regarding the sacrifice of
their lives, costly as it is, as incurred for objects which
justify and ennoble the sacrifice. We have come here for
an earnest purpose. We desire, by an impressive act, to
declare our sense of the services and claims of the men
who have represented us in the camp and on the battle-
field, as defenders of our rights, as champions of the
nation's honor and safety, and who have sealed their
fidelity to this high trust, by giving up their lives for us
and our common country. Let it be remembered, too,
that there are mourners among us here to-day — fathers
and mothers, brothers and sisters, widows and orphans, —
whose hearts bleed afresh at the sight of the mournful
emblems around us. If words may be spoken that can
alleviate their sorrow, and lead the^ii to reflect anew on
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERs' MONUMENT. II 3
the manner in which the sacrifices they have been called
to make are helping to accomplish the great ends of the
national struggle, it becomes us to utter such words, to
suggest such thoughts.
As to my own part in these proceedings, I need not, I
hope, be anxious. You require nothing of me, on this
occasion, I am sure, beyond the performance of an act
of good will, — the offering with you and for you, of a
sincere, heartfelt tribute — that I can bring — to the dear
memory of the patriots, in honor of whom the citizens of
the town have set apart this sacred enclosure and erected
this monument, in this sleeping-place of the dead.
The chairman has recounted to us the names of those
who have entered into the military service of the country
from Newton, since the beginning of the war, and have
died in this service. They are more than forty in number,
and constitute our martyr-roll, as made up to the present
hour. Among these names you recognize some which
are among the names best known and honored in the
records of this ancient town. It may confidently be
said — the remark applies to our soldiers living as well as
dead — that, as a class, they represent the public spirit, the
enterprise, the intelligence, the personal worth and social
standing of our people, as honorably to us as any equal
number of men to whom that office could have fallen.
Among them are the names of some, who, though not
born among us, had adopted our country as their country,
and were willing to perform the duties as well as enjoy
the privileges of American citizenship.
It will occur, also, to those of you who remember the
circumstances under which our soldiers have died, that
9
114 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the manner of their death illustrates all the common
hazards and vicissitudes of war. Some perished by
casualty, in an unexpected way. Some contracted disease,
and after suffering for weeks or months, laid down life's
weary burden in tents and hospitals. Some fell in the
shock of battle itself, with victory almost in their grasp ;
and others were brought back from the field, death-
stricken, to languish a while under the pain of torturing
wounds, and then pass away. It was the privilege of
some to have with them the presence of friends to cheer
their last hours, and to receive from their lips messages of
remembrance and love to those in their New Eng-land
homes whom they should see no more ; and others must
die where they could receive only a stranger's sympathy
and be laid in graves far away from the homesteads in
which life's young morning opened on them.
But much as our departed friends may have differed
in such incidental ways, they were alike in this : — they
were all animated by the same generous, patriotic spirit ;
they all sprung forth at the call of their country, in the
hour of her distress ; they all earned that epitaph which
you read on yonder tablet — "■Pro patria niortiii sunt ;'"
they all gave, each one, all that men can give — life itself
— for their country ; and they all equally deserve, and
shall equally receive, the gratitude of every American
heart, and the wreath of immortal fame.
The monument which records their names, is to be the
chief object of interest in this cemetery, in all future
time. It shall not only, by its position, engage the first
attention of those who enter here, but be remembered by
them as they go hence, last and longest. No tombs will
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. II 5
ever be built here, on which wealth or art can lavish such
attractions as to draw aside the feet of men, to the neglect
of this unadorned structure. Fathers will pause at the
base of this column, and relate its history to their chil-
dren. It will be told here, who these patriots were ; what
sufferings they underwent in their day and generation, to
make this land an abode of peace, happiness, and liberty,
to those who should live after them ; what principles they
upheld in life and in death ; and what lessons should be
drawn from their example by those who enjoy the fruits
of their patriotism and self-denial. The mute instructor,
which stands here before us, will pour such teachings on
the ear of generations yet unborn. The benedictions of
a grateful posterity will rest on the memory of our heroes,
and keep it fresh forever.
" How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest !
When Spring with dewy fingers cold
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray.
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there."
Then farewell to them, henceforth, as to their living
presence among us ; but hail to them as they ascend to
take their places among the unseen influences which are
Il6 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
to pervade our history, and mould the national s{)irit in
all time to come.
From these more strictly commemorative remarks, I
proceed to glance, in a hurried manner it must be, at two
or three considerations of a g^eneral character.
Here we are, on this mid-summer day, almost in the
middle of the fourth vear of this terrible civil war, which
has delu":ed the land with blood, has brou2:ht bereave-
ment and sorrow into thousands and thousands of happy
homes, has thrown into disorder the nation's finances,
and hangs over us still as a cloud which has not yet dis-
charged upon us all its violence and fury. Our flag may
have risen high enough, it has risen high enough to show
which way its folds point ; but we are not at the end yet.
Battles are still to be fought. Hopes and fears are to
agitate the public mind. Other victims must be laid on
the altar. The voice of sorrow must be heard in dwell-
ings which the destroyer has passed by hitherto. Our
burdens of taxation may be increased an hundred fold.
We would hope for things less grievous ; but perhaps
before we reestablish our government throughout the
entire land, it may be found that we have as yet dipped
our feet only into the l)nnk of the waters, which are to
surge and dash around us, till we see their lowest depths.
Contemplating such a possible future, and in view of
such a past as we have had already, the question is forced
upon us, to which I adverted at the beginning: I)o the
objects at stake in this war require and justify all this
cost? In giving a brief answer to this question, I
prefer to mention moral reasons rather than political,
though I confess the line which separates them is a nar-
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OE SOLDIllKS MONUMENT. I I7
row one, and thou<j:;h T may lose the advantage of jrjvino
the answer to the (question whieh many might consider
tlie iiKjst decisive.
I believe fully, earnestly believe, in the accoimtnhilil v
of one age to another, of (jne generation of incii lo
(jther and subsequent generations. Oiil of lliis |)iiiui|)l('
sj)rings an obligation resting on us, to pursue this war
to its |)n)|)er end, as strong as ever rested on aii\' p'^oplc,
summoned to a great crisis in their affairs. It is a social
law of the utmost significance, and one thai has (he
highest of all sanctions, that men li\'(' not, men die not,
unto themselves ; their actions in one period stretch
onward, and affect the condition of others, for good or
evil, through all time. (Jur lathers, in the conllict of the
I'^evolution, met that res|)onsil)ilitv in their day; and, as
a consequence, established for us this government, under
which, until the hand of j)arricides was lifted up against
it, we enjoyed a prosperity which had no |)arall('l in the
vvorld, and was actually the worlds envy ; and yet the
reasons for the war of the Re\'olution, in which they
persevered twice as long as we have been struggling
now, were utterly trilling compared with those which
demand of us energy and self-denial to maintain this
fabric of <i:(-)vernment and hand it down to those ;dter
us. Observe the nature of the trust committed by them
to us. They put this government int(j our custody, to
keep, not f(jr one part of the country, but for every
part ; not for New England alone, but the West also ;
and not for the East and West alone, but for the South
as well as the North, and f(jr the South just as much and
as distinctly as for the North. As parties, therefore, to
Il8 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
this compact, we who are Hviiig now have no more right
to consent to the destruction of the ijovernment at the
South than at the North ; and the man, in this point of
view, who is wilhng to see the flag of his country trodden
in the dust on the soil of South CaroHna, is just as false
to his obligations as the man who would stand by and
see it dishonored on the soil of Massachusetts.
Nor is this all. This compact, in its moral implications
as well as political, meant, that the government should be
permanent as well as universal. It was won at such
cost and put in operation, not for the inhabitants of this
land merely who should live between 1776 and 1861, but
for all throughout this vast domain, who should ever
come forward here to breathe the breath of life and be
capable of enjoying the blessings of self-government and
national security. Mark, then, the solemnity of our
position. These blessings, in order to reach their desti-
nation, must flow through our hands. We stand in the
exact and only line of transmission through which they
can be carried along the track of time to the millions
unborn, whose condition is to depend on what we do or
fail to do. If, then, these blessings are stayed in their
course, at the precise moment when the responsibility for
their preservation is laid on our shoulders, do we not
incur the reproaches of those who shall follow us as well
as of those who were before us } We do, undeniably ;
for, by the same unfaithful act, we frustrate the \xork of
our fathers, and we rob their descendants of the heritage
which was theirs.
Nor are we at liberty to forget the relations which we
sustain to other peoples. Providence has put it into our
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. II9
power, if we are true to His orderings, to become the
benefactors of mankind on a scale of grandeur unex-
ampled heretofore ; not by any open crusade for the rights
of man, but by the silent operation of our example, and
the opening of a refuge here for the oppressed, of every
clime and color, who would secure a better condition for
themselves and their children. Oh, how often in the
fairest portions of Europe, as I have seen the poverty and
misery, the ignorance and degradation of the masses of
my fellow-men, rendered not less but more painful by
contrast with the brilliant civilization, wealth, and luxury,
of the favored few — as I have turned my eye from these
sights to the happy spectacle here at home — how often
and earnestly have I thanked God that he put it into the
hearts of our ancestors to come here and inaugurate a
new type of civil pohty on these shores !
Recollect that the governments of the earth, be it as it
may with the people, the governments which exist so
extensively for the benefit of those who administer them,
are not with us, but against us. This is a trite theme, I
know ; but do not the revelations of every hour bring it
before us with new and startling vividness } Whence is
it that the organs of public intelligence which speak for
the monarchists of the old world, hold up to admiration
the murders and piracies of a buccaneer, who burns and
sinks peaceful ships of commerce, but skulks from sea to
sea or ;-uns into neutral ports to escape an armed foe ;
and, when at length the waters close over the guilty
career of the pirate, lament it as an event which excites
regret throughout kingdoms and empires, and treat it
almost as an affront to be avenged } Ah, I see in that
I20 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
spirit evidence which no fact could express with greater
energy, that my country's government is the people's
government as distinguished from that of the rulers ; and,
while it would degrade none, would place all on a juster
level in their political rights and means of personal hap-
piness. It is no exaggeration to say, as is so often said,
that the triumph of despotism would be complete
throughout the earth, that the cause of republican liberty
would be lost for all men, and every where, if it be lost
here and by us.
On the issue of this war, too, hangs suspended the
destiny of three or four millions of human beings among
ourselves, and of the long line of their descendants,
through an indefinite future. A wonder-working Provi-
dence, as we may well call it, has made it dependent on
the success of our arms, whether they shall be free or left
in hopeless bondage ; whether the promised boon in their
behalf shall prove a reality, or a delusion and mockery of
their hopes.
If, then, being men, we are not ashamed to own that
nothinaf human is or should be alien to us, that we are
bound to our race by ties which we cannot and would
not sever, do not such relations make it incumbent on us
to defend a government which has such bearings on
human welfare, at all hazards, against all assailants at
home and abroad 1 And, if it be true, that
" The fittest place for man to die
Is where he dies for man,"
then do not our sons and brothers, who fall in behalf of
such a cause, add to their title as patriots, that, also, of
friends of their race 1
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 121
If you would find reasons why this rebelhon should
array against itself all the moral instincts of the human
soul, think, I pray you, — of a thousand things, I had
almost said, which, for brevity's sake, I can only indi-
cate. Think, for example, of the pitiful pretense that the
government was oppressive, though administered in fact
during almost the entire period of its existence by the
very class of men who are now in arms against it ; think
of the perjury of such leaders among them as Davis and
Breckenridge, who as senators could stand up before the
nation, and with an appeal to the heart-searching God,
swear that they would maintain the union of these States
inviolate, though in secret they had already pledged those
same perjured right hands to each other for the over-
throw of the Union ; and, of that conduct, not unlike
this, of the commander of their armies who betrayed no
consciousness of self-degradation in being willing to loiter
at Washington, week after week, and month after month,
in order, before his own open defection, to find out the
military secrets of the government, for the benefit of his
accomplices, though as much a traitor then as we know
him to be now, when we see his blood-stained sword
flashing before our eyes ; think of the clandestine transfer
to their territory, of guns and munitions of war from our
forts and arsenals, to w^hich their agents, put into office by
our votes, had the key ; think of the attempt to slay the
President elect, on his way to the capital, by a band of
hired assassins ; think of the massacre of men and women
on the mountains of East Tennessee, because they wished
to live and die under the flag of their country ; think of
the butchery of disarmed, helpless prisoners, for no other
122 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
crime than that of preferring to be free rather than
slaves ; and, above all, think of the object of all this
aggravated treason, avowed and boasted of by its abet-
tors— the establishing of a great slave empire, which,
being established, must inevitably give law to the Amer-
ican continent Do not such men deserve the terrible
name, which it makes the soul shudder to think of —
enemies of mankind ! Was there ever a great national
movement, having for its object a purpose so wicked,
which subsidized so many subordinate villanies for its
accomplishment ? And was there ever any emergency
in any people's history which called like our own, upon
all that is manly and noble in human nature, to stand up
and declare, with vehement protest before the universe,
the scheme shall not be consummated ?
If any would judge whether we have a cause that is
worth suffering for and dying for, let them think of the
condition in which we should be if we fail to crush this
rebellion and save the republic. There can be no com-
promise ; it has been tried again and again, and to no
purpose. How can this word of delusion be any longer
on any man's lips ? Does any one really think that the
rebels are fighting for a compromise.? If any person
supposes that, he must have extraordinary ideas of the
nature of a compromise. Compromise ! of what ? They
had the same privileges under the common government
that we had, and by their own confession more than we
had ; and they were assured after they began their work
of anarchy that they should have them still, if they would
lay down their arms and spare the government. They
spurned the offer, because they were aiming, it is evident.
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS MONUMENT. I 23
at something beyond compromise, — at something which
nothing but the destruction of the government could
give them. The insurgents deserve, at least, the credit of
this sincerity: — they have put their intentions before
us, without equivocation or ambiguity; and if any one
among us is deceived, it cannot be because any artifice on
their part has deceived him.
Every day, by words and by deeds, they thrust back
upon us this idea of compromise, with scornful defiance.
"No," they say, "we mean to bring you, by force of arms,
to our terms — surrender of your capital, destruction of
your nationality, boundaries that will give to us all the
slave-states, the conqueror's share of the common territory
and navy, indemnification for losses and expenses, the
comity of crossing your borders for slave-hunting, and
the right to adjust, at the point of the bayonet, all ques-
tions that may grow out of that delicate diplomacy ; — we
mean to fight till we bring you to these terms, or till you,
by force of arms, take from us the power to enforce such
terms." This is explicit, and ought to be understood. Is
it compromise } Or the subversion of the national sov-
ereignty and independence } The alternative plainly is
that we must conquer or be enslaved. Give to them,
after being separated from us, if that were possible, a
respite of twenty years or less, for recuperation and prep-
aration, and the apathy on our part which would enable
them to gain that respite, would enable them, if not by
renewed and successful war, yet by means of their political
ascendency and the influence of southernizing commercial
treaties which we should be led to form with them, to put
the heel of their power on our necks as their vassals in
124 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
effect, if not in name. I repeat it — we must conquer or
be enslaved. This war is a war for the freedom of the
white race as well as of the blacks.
Shall we complain of the taxes ? It cannot be said
that they are severe as yet, compared with those to which
nations are accustomed to submit in time of war. But
look at the other side. Suppose two nations, such as the
people of the North and South would form, were existing
here, side by side. Who is to pay for the immense stand-
ing army, on which you would rely, though with vain
reliance, for the maintenance of peace between two such
nations 7 Who is to pay for the fortifications, which
would bristle in every port and on every headland, and
stretch across the continent from the Pacific to the
Atlantic } At whose expense are those interminable
border wars to be waged, which would be inevitable
between powers separated by so many clashing interests,
and embittered toward each other by the memory of the
hostility of these days ? If a single Alabama can make
such havoc of our commerce, what must be the fate of
that commerce if exposed to the depredations of a whole
fleet of such scourges of the ocean 7 Is a civil war, which
has continued only three or four years, so oppressive }
And what then must be a perpetual civil war } Nay, if
it be written in the book of fate, I should say rather, in
that of our own degeneracy, that we must succumb, then
it is already true as a virtually existing fact, that heavier
mortgages to the Southern Confederacy lie at this moment
on the ships which sail out of Boston harbor and on these
broad acres around us which men cultivate who call
themselves free, than would be required during centuries
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS MONUMENT. I 25
for the liquidation of the present war debt, though that
were increased ten thousand times.
Our soldiers fight and fall, bleed and die, to save us
and our posterity from this state of things. It is a costly
sacrifice ; but is it not for worthy ends ? No human eye,
it is true, can penetrate all the future. But of this we
may be certain, that nothing half so fearful can lie before
us if we go forward in the path of duty and patriotism,
as awaits us inevitably if we go back or stop here ; and
nothing remains for us, therefore, if we have any man-
hood in us, but, with God's blessing, to " fight it out on
this line " of duty and patriotism, as long as there is a shot
left in the locker.
There was a legend in the old Greek history, connected
with the l)attle of Marathon, which arose, perhaps, from
a popular superstition, but which, like so many of the
imaginations of that ingenious people, was fraught with
truth, and might have been invented by the wisest sages,
with credit to their sagacity. It is full of meaning and
instructive for us. An amphitheatre of hills looks down
on the plain where the Persian horde was trampled in the
dust by Grecian valor, and the tide of Asiatic despotism
and barbarism was rolled back from the shores of Europe.
The surges of the sea on which the ships of the invaders
rode so proudly, may be heard, breaking at the foot of
these hills, and at a little distance from the shore, may be
seen still the hillock beneath which the bones of the
Athenian conquerors were buried. The Greeks, now,
believed that this great battle was continually reenacted
on this memorable spot. They believed that as they
stood at night on these hills, they could see through the
126 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
mists the forms of warriors moving across the plain, and
could hear the clash of armor, poeans of victory from their
countrymen, and cries of despair from the vanquished.
Of the value of this susceptibility of the Greek mind,
who can doubt ? It was worth more, infinitely, to that
world-conquering race, than city walls, than bulwarks,
than navies. It was a power in their history ever present,
which kept alive the spirit of heroism, and nerved them
for other conflicts and victories.
Not unlike this, except more beneficent, more efficient,
shall be the remembrance of these days to our children
and children's children. Our battles, too, shall be re-
fought ; the voices heard in them shall never cease to
speak to us. Mysterious as it may seem to our finite
comprehension, yet how often has it been shown to be
sublimely true —
"God's most dreaded instrument
In working out a pure intent
Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter."
No nation can be truly great or exist long, without a
history which has in it soul and inspiration. Account for
it as you may, there can be no doubt that we had nearly
outlived our history. The old examples, perhaps because
we had drifted away so insensibly from the principles
which they sanctioned, were losing their influence over us
more and more. The time had come when some new
shock, a fiercer discipline, was needed, to bring out and
stren2;then the nation's character. It is true of national
blessings as of individual, that we must learn to value
them by knowing what it is to labor for them and make
ADDRESS AT DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS MONUMENT. 12/
sacrifices for them. A people whom the great Ruler of
nations would have live and not perish, must be brought
back to this experience as often as they are in danger of
forgetting the steps by which they became great and
prosperous. We are passing through the trials which
shall perform for us that salutary work.
Out of this war shall arise a juster estimate of the tran-
scendent privileges of our American form of government.
We are indebted to it already for illustrations of a true
public spirit as noble, as elevating as the world ever saw.
We are gathering up from it every day the materials of
the richest heritage that one age can transmit to another.
Our lost history shall be restored to us. Examples of
genuine Christian patriotism and heroism have appeared
during this struggle, worthy of perpetual record, —
examples of fealty to principle which holds everything —
life itself — subordinate to that supremacy, — deeds of
suffering and valor never surpassed, performed by men in
the ranks, who may be counted by thousands and tens of
thousands, and performed by them intelligently, con-
sciously in behalf of what is right, against the violation of
sacred compacts, against injustice and oppression, against
treachery to future generations, whose interests we are
appointed to guard. I cannot doubt, as I have confidence
in the wisdom of the Supreme one, that He means by
these fiery trials that we should be made a better, a
stronger, a happier people, and be fitted to act more
worthily the part as dispensers of blessings to the world,
which His Providence had seemed to mark out for us.
I have but one other brief thought to suggest, and that
may not improperly lead us to retrace our steps, and
128 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
come back once more to the tomb from which we took
our departure. The example of the dead should instruct
the living. The manner of the service which we owe to
our country may be different, but the measure of it is the
same to all ; and that has been illustrated in the self-
devotion of those whose memory we honor here to-day.
It is well for us to build their monuments ; but we bestow
* the truest honor upon them, when we take up the work
which by reason of death has fallen from their hands, and
carry it forward, in their spirit, to its consummation.
Happy, oh, thrice happy they, who having fallen for their
country, rest now in their graves, compared with those
who survive a country lost through their neglect and
cowardice !
I am reminded of a sentiment of the true-hearted
patriot, on whom Providence has devolved the task of
guiding our ship of State through this night of tempest
and gloom, which should be engraven on all our hearts.
It was well said by him, at Gettysburg, that the proper
use of an occasion like this, as we bend over the graves
of our martyr-soldiers, " is to dedicate ourselves anew to
the living work of saving the country for which they
died." We learn our duties most safely by inferring them
from the providential circumstances under which life has
been allotted to us. Let it then be brought home to the
heart of every true man and woman in this land, that
our appropriate work in this our day and generation is,
by every patriotic duty performed, by self-denial practised,
by life itself surrendered if need be, to thwart this rebel-
lion, and save our imperilled country and its liberties, to
the glory of God and the good of mankind.
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT FELTON. 1 29
CHAPTER XI.
1860-1865.
RETROSPECT. HONORS. DEATHS OF FRIENDS. REMARKS
AT NEWTON. LITERARY LABORS.
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL.
The course of events may here be retraced to notice
some occurrences in the sphere of Dr. Hackett's pro-
fessional and personal relations.
November 14th, i860, he was elected a member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded
in 1780. In 1 86 1, he received the degree of D. D. from
Harvard University, where for many years he was an
examiner, and where he had a valued circle of friends,
including, in the Greek department. Professor Felton, and
Professor Sophocles, whose learning Dr. Hackett con-
sidered as unsurpassed by that of any man with whom
he ever conversed.
Preliminary, as it would appear, to the proper engross-
ment of the honorary degree, he received the following
sportive note from President Felton : —
Cambridge, June 24th, 1861.
My dear Professor : — I have lately been engaged in a
profound and laborious investigation to settle a point of
philology. None of the authorities I have consulted —
and some of them are very high — throws the smallest
glimmer of light upon the question. I know of but one
source to which I can resort with a probability of being
10
130 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
able to solve the mystery. It is not an ancient, mutilated
inscription — though it bears some analogy to that; — it is
not a choral metre, or Aristophanic Parabasis ; it is not a
question of apostolic topography ; — it has something to
do with the Bema, and something with the Cadmean
letters ; — it is connected with the acrophonetic system of
Egyptian hieroglyphics ; — in short, it has utterly puzzled
my faculty of conjectural criticism, and passed the know-
ledge of the most learned men I have called in council.
If you can't answer, nobody can, and I shall give up the
search, with "Who wrote Junius?" and "Who was the
Man in the Iron Mask ?"
What does B. stand for, — the initial of your middle
name .f* That's the question I have to put, with Shak-
spere.
To B. or not to B., that's the question.
Yours ever,
C. C. Felton.
Prof Horatio B? Hackett, D. D.
March 4th, 1862, he attended the funeral, at Cambridge,
of this lamented friend, Cornelius Conway Felton, so
short time the President of the University, so long its
ornament as a scholar, who died at Chester, Pa., a week
previously. The name of the genial man and ardent
Grecian is associated with those of Dr. Hackett's other
friends, Edwards and Sears, in the promotion of Classical
studies in America.
At the Commencement season of 1862, he received
the degree of LL. D. from Amherst College, concern-
ing which he writes to Professor Tyler in these
terms : — " The degree which the College has confer-
TRIBUTE TO DR. CHASE. I3I
red on me is one that never entered my thoughts, and
is altogether beyond my deserts. Its value is enhanced
by the honorable rank which the College has now gained
through its able Faculty, and its numerous graduates, wdio
have made themselves so favorably known in every de-
partment of literary and civil service. None but a very
distinguished man could well decline such an honor, if he
were so disposed, without seeming to court the publicity
which he affects to shun."
On the 1 8th of May, 1863, Dr. Hackett took posses-
sion of the pleasant estate at Newton Centre, which
continued to be the home of his family for the remaining
seven years of residence in that place. In the church
not far removed, on the fourth of November, 1864, he
made one of the addresses at the funeral of his tenderly
esteemed friend. Dr. I rah Chase. The tribute of one
passage which it contains must find place here : —
" I ought not to prolong these remarks. Yet indulge
me in one w^ord of private sorrow, as I look for the last
time on these remains of one whom I have known and
loved so long. It is to me an affecting moment to stand
here and say farewell forever to all that is earthly of a
friendship which has bound together the choicest years of
my life ; a friendship to which, under circumstances of
perplexity and trial, I could always come with the cer-
tainty of obtaining wise and — oh, privilege rarer still ! —
honest advice ; a friendship which, in scenes of bereave-
ment and sorrow like this, has, by its tender sympathy,
soothed my heart like the voice of an angel ; a friendship
to w^hich I can look back through all these many years,
and aver, with the strictest truth, that from the hour when
132 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
I first felt the grasp of his warm hand, when introduced
to him almost as a stranger, to that other hour, when,
within these few days, he stretched out to me that same
hand for the last time, already chilled by death, it has
never undergone change or abatement, has never been
obscured by so much as the passing of the shadow of a
single fleeting cloud."
A few months earlier, June 29th, 1864, Dr. Hackett
had been associated with Dr. Chase, and with Drs. Ripley,
Sears, Pattison and Arnold, in the exercises connected
with laying the corner stone of a new building at Newton,
for library, chapel and lecture-room requirements. The
Watchman and Reflector, July 7th, 1864, thus reports
his remarks on the occasion : —
" Prof Hackett was the next speaker, and alluded
impressively to his association with the seminary, of just
a quarter of a century. He had connected himself with
it under the full persuasion that the Baptist ministry
were pledged to support it, and that the Baptist denomi-
nation would be satisfied with any graduate who should
be deemed worthy of the privileges of the Institution,
and do as well as he could in it. Durino- his life here
he had endeavored to consecrate himself to the work
assigned him. He then mentioned his fears in the past,
and the discouragements which had often weighed upon
his own mind as he looked to the future of the seminary.
It had appeared to him sometimes as if even he might
live to survive the Newton Theological Institution. The
air had been so full of sounds that he had almost feared
to wake some fine morning and find that it had taken
wings and alighted upon one of the hills of New Hamp-
REPORT OF REMARKS. I 33
shire. Once it had seemed that the Institution must
remove and settle on the banks of the Connecticut ;
and once again, on the shores of the Hudson ; and once
again, in some more distant habitable part of the State
of New York — but now those fears were all gone. The
work done here to-day settled forever the question of
the fixity of the Newton Theological Institution. In
putting down this stone we anchor our good ship in firm
holding ground, and never, through all the storms of
succeeding centuries, shall it be shaken from its moor-
ings. There is now no more room for apprehension ;
our tabernacle has entered into its rest. So long as
under the spires of yonder city, and within the bosom
of the peaceful villages that lie in the sweet valleys
seen from this hill, a Christian ministry shall live to build
upon the corner stone, Jesus Christ, so long shall this
Institution which we are to-day doing so much to es-
tablish, abide upon this spot, and maintain the honor
of the Christian faith. Dr. Hackett closed with a forci-
ble allusion to the training of the first twelve theological
students, with their three vears' term under the incom-
parable Teacher, and applied the example to answer the
objections urged against a learned preparation for the
ministry."
Just six months before Dr. Chase's funeral. Dr. Hack-
ett's name w^as at the head of a committee which prepared
a tribute of respect, adopted May 4th, 1864, by the
Amherst Alumni of Boston and vicinity, to the memory
of the Rev. Edward Hitchcock, D. D., LL, D., who
was connected with the College, as President and Pro-
fessor, during a period of nearly forty years.
134 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Of literary work from the pen of Dr. Hackett, belong-
ing to this period and not yet noticed, there may be
mentioned, first, the thirty articles which he contributed
to the original edition of Dr. William Smith's Dictionary
of the Bible, published in England, between i860 and
1863. In April, 1861, he wrote an introduction to the
American edition of Westcott's Introduction to the
Study of the Gospels, which he welcomed as an impor-
tant aid to be placed in the hands of students as an accom-
paniment of the ordinary lectures and oral teaching. It
was now some twenty years that he had been teaching this
study critically, and for some fifteen more he was to be
engaged upon it with ever fresh love and zeal. Those who
know what he helped students to achieve in this direc-
tion, will feel that one great secret of his success lay
in his clear appreciation of the conditions of the case,
of the difficulty to be overcome, and the danger to be
avoided, as revealed in the following words : — " The
writer's experience as a teacher of biblical exegesis has
led him to think, that there is no portion of the New
Testament on which it is so difficult to give to the
instruction imparted a character of unity and complete-
ness, as the Gospels. The subject has, no doubt, its
intrinsic difficulties, which no labor can wholly over-
come. The time usually devoted to this part of the
course of study is and must be disproportionate to the
amount of work to be performed. It is possible to read
and compare the diffi^rent narratives only in some of the
more important sections. Very few are able, in such a
rapid survey of the ground, to lay up in their minds a
connected view of the Saviour's life. The impression of
WRITINGS. 135
his character as unfolded in his works is Hable to be
indistinct and confused. Numberless questions respect-
ing the plan of the Evangelists and the mode of recon-
ciling them with each other, have been thrust on the
student."
It is proper, in this connection, to remark the great
usefulness of Dr. Hackett's " Life of Christ," which he
was accustomed to dictate to his classes. It was trans-
lated for the Karens, by the Rev. Alonzo Bunker, of the
class of 1865, in grateful remembrance of the advantage
he had himself derived from it. A copy of the Transla-
tion was sent by him to Dr. Hackett, in 1871, with a
most appreciative and gratifying letter.
In 1862, Dr. Hackett published an article in the
Bibliotheca Sacra, entitled: " Remarks on Renderings of
the Common Version (in the Epistle to the Galatians),"
which was followed by another on the same subject, three
years later. His labors upon this Epistle, of the same
nature as those upon that to Philemon, though made
ready for the press, in 1861, and possessed in printed
form by himself, were never given to the public. His
analysis of the contents of the Epistle, revised at this
time, was published in the Christian Review, for October,
1 86 1. To this periodical, from about 1838 onward, he
contributed many valuable articles. Among these, in his
earlier years at Newton, were translations, with notes,
from such standard authors as Hemsen, Neander, Nie-
buhr.
Soon after the beginning of 1865, Dr. Hackett records
that he hopes to keep the resolution to study only after, or
besides, four hours' daily exercise. He now peculiarly felt
136 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the necessity of extra labors to supplement a salary inade-
quate to the support of his family. He was no stranger
to the fact that the walls of many institutions of learning
have been cemented with the life-blood of those instru-
mental in their origination and firm establishment. He
observes at this time, " In looking at the bust of dear
Dr. Chase, one can hardly help saying, ' He asked for
bread, and they gave him a stone.' " The tasks, however,
in which he was soon to be engaged, were all directly
connected with his duties as a professor, and subservient
to their most efficient discharge.
In the general rejoicing of April 3d, 1865, his lecture
at the Institution was given up, and in the evening he
received a serenade from the students. A week later, he
addressed a meeting of his townsmen on the occasion of
Lee's surrender. In less than another week came the
terrible shock of the President's assassination. "Sad, sad,
sad," writes the patriotic pen in his journal.
Parental affection is revealed in the aspiration recorded
after having witnessed a baptism, "Oh, that my dear chil-
dren were true followers of Christ ! " Filial regard is
shown in the mention of " the sad pleasure of seeing my
aged, infirm mother once more," on a visit for the pur-
pose to Methuen, in May. She died, February 19th,
1866.
On the first of June, he heard Mr. Sumner deliver his
eulogy on Lincoln, and a few days later, met him at the
home of their common friend, the Hon. Richard Fletcher.
On being thanked, soon after this time, by the Rev. Mr.
Ripley, of Portland, for being willing to preach so often
for him, when he lived in Providence, he muses, "How
NEWTON INSTITUTION IN 1 865. 1 37
strange that I preached then so readily, and now so
shrink from it."
In the summer of this year, 1865, he presided at the
Newton Anniversary, June 28th, and attended Com-
mencement at Amherst, as well as at Cambridge. He
also visited Saratoga, which was a somewhat favorite
resort with him.
CHAPTER XII.
1865-1868.
LAST YEARS IN NEWTON INSTITUTION. LITERARY LABORS :
DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE ; WORK ON LANGE's COM-
MENTARY) PLUTARCH. ACTIVITY IN ACADEMICAL
SERVICES. RETIREMENT FROM PROFESSORSHIP
IN NEWTON.
In the autumn of 1865 began what provecf to be the
last ti^icnniiun of Dr. Hackett's connection with the
Institution at Newton.
A large and appreciative class, of more than twenty
members, was admitted at this time, nearly half of whom
had been graduated from college for from two to seven
years. A number had been in the military service of the
country, including officers who had commanded regi-
ments and led them home at the close of the war. The
titles and phrases of the camp, and vestiges of its attire,
were for a while familiar in the cloister, and weapons
which were the instruments or trophies of the nation's
defence, garnished its walls.
138 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The transition had begun to that new order of things
which has produced a correspondence between the ap-
pointments of the Seminary, and its unrivalled beauty
for situation. During this year, however. Dr. Hackett
still gave his instructions in a ruinous apartment of the
old " Mansion House," which continued to serve for
chapel, class-rooms, and refectory, besides harboring
many of the brotherhood in its devious retreats. Who
that enjoyed it, will ever forget the eloquence that
irradiated that old dilapidated room in the once lordly
abode of fifty years before! Colby Hall was not com-
pleted and dedicated until September, 1866.
Before winter he had accepted the proposals of Messrs.
Hurd and Houghton, that he should edit an American
Edition of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. In this he
had the cooperation of that scholar, of unsurpassed quali-
fications for the task, Ezra Abbot, D. D., LL. D., then
Assistant Librarian of Harvard College, now Professor
in its Divinity School. Dr. Hackett revised his own
former contributions, added very largely to their number,
and enlisted the service of the most able scholars of
America. These labors were at once commenced, though
the publication of their results did not take place until
1867 to 1870.
At the same time, he had in hand the translation of
Van Oosterzee's Commentary on Philemon, with addi-
tions, for Dr. Schaff's edition of Lange's Commentaries.
After this was finished, the same service was undertaken
for Braune's Commentary on Philippians, in that series.
It seems proper to mention here, as Dr. Hackett in-
tended and directed to have done in that work, and has
JOINT EDITION OF PLUTARCH. 1 39
himself done in the Dictionary, the service rendered, in
translating the latter Commentary, by the Rev. J. B. G.
Pidc^c, a student at Newton from 1866 to 1869.
In 1867, a long cherished idea of twenty years on the
part of Dr. Hackett, was fulfilled by the ])ublication of
PhitarcJms De Sera Nwninis Vindicta in a revised edition,
with Notes, by himself and Professor W. S. Tyler. The
latter gentleman had secured the introduction of the
work into the curriculum of Amherst College, in 1847,
and had afterwards published very valuable articles upon
Plutarch and his Moralia. So early as 1850, in a letter
to his friend. Dr. Hackett proposed the project of joint
editorship, as one that he had long meditated. " The
severe critical taste and high standard of the Professor,"
writes Dr. Tyler, "are seen in the depreciatory terms in
which he speaks of his own edition, and which, though
sincere and characteristic, were not deserved. 1 have
myself always looked only with wonder and admiration
upon the edition, especially when I saw the paucity of
helps of which he could avail himself, and of the materials
which he found ready to his hands. The body of the
Notes remains substantially the same in the joint edition,
as in the first. Professor Hackett revised the old notes,
and contributed new ones. My part of the book was
chiefly the better adaptation of it to the use of college
students."
In a letter of the same year, Dr. Hackett mentions
having just received a note from Tholuck in acknowledg-
ment of a copy of the original edition. It states the
interesting fact, that that treatise, when he was in a state
of infidelity, had a preparatory influence upon his mind,
140 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
in disposing him to attend to the claims of the Gospel.
This must have confirmed the opinion Dr. Hackett had
two years before expressed to Dr. Tyler, that pagan
antiquity has nothing to show which will bear the least
comparison with it, considered not so much as a philoso-
phical, as a moral disquisition on the most important
topics which can engage the human mind. This testi-
mony may also have helped to inspire the sentence in the
preface to the joint edition : " Time and experience have
confirmed the conviction which we have always enter-
tained of the surpassing value of the writings of Plutarch,
as emphatically the historian of divine Providence, among
the writers of heathen antiquity, and of this treatise in
particular, as a means of strengthening men's faith in the
certainty of moral retributions, and of arousing them to
a juster sensibility to the deserts of crime committed
against law, divine or human." This preface, dated Novem-
ber 20th, 1866, concludes: "It may be excused if we
take the liberty, as classmates in College and friends
whose intimacy the lapse now of almost two-score years
has only made still closer, to express the gratification
which we feel in the association of our labors and our
names in this slight contribution to classical and sacred
literature."
But with all the literary activity of this time (during
which he was also an associate editor of the Theological
Eclectic, conducted by Professor George E. Day, of Yale
Theological Seminary), what an amount and variety of
historical and exegetical instruction was communicated
from the Professor's chair ! A deep interest prevailed in
the Biblical studies. Though provision at that time
INSTRUCTIONS AT NEWTON. I4I
existed for their pursuit only in the Junior year, yet, by
attending the exercises of the succeeding classes, during
parts of the two following years, a student during that
last triennunn could, if he chose, present an ample page
of learning, rich with the spoils of notes on the Life of
Christ ; the first half of the Gospel of Mark ; the harmonic
study of the Last Days of Christ ; the Epistles to the
Galatians, to Titus, to the Philippians ; and the First of
John : and in Hebrew, on Selections from the Psalms, and
the prophecy of Joel ; not to speak of readings from
Genesis, and in Ruth, more particularly for grammatical
purposes, and of lectures and dictations on the lower
Biblical Criticism, and on the Geography of the Bible,
with directions for Essays.
" In his later years," says Rev. Henry S. Burrage, in his
full and interesting tribute, at the time of Dr. Hackett's
decease, " he took especial delight in reviewing the last
days of Christ, using the text of Robinson's Harmony.
Always in his work there was minute, accurate scholar-
ship, but here especially there was more — deep spiritual
insight ; and as he unfolded the meaning of the several
evangelists in words that touched, yes, melted the heart,
how often at the close of the hour — hour closing all too
soon — was the exclamation of the disciples, as recorded
by Luke, recalled by his students, ' Did not our heart
burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and
while he opened to us the Scriptures ? ' When we saw
him last, in the summer of 1872, we were carried back to
those happy days. He had just been reading Long-
fellow's Divine Tragedy, and said he had often wished,
while studying the account of the healing of the Syro-
142 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
phenician woman's daughter, that the evangehst had told
us more. Did the daughter ever look upon the Christ
who had healed her ? It certainly must have been the
desire of her heart, — O, for even one glimpse of the Lord !
Well, he said, he had been filled with delight to find that
the poet, in his Christus, had filled out this picture that is
given us in the Gospels. The Saviour is making his
triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the Syrophenician
woman and her daughter are on one of the house-tops in
the city. The daughter says :—
' I wonder
That one who was so far away from me,
And could not see me, by His thought alone
Had power to heal me. O, that I could see Him I '
And now her prayer is answered. Voices cry, 'Hosanna
to the Son of David ! ' and as the train moves along the
street, as in a dream, she who was healed beholds her
Saviour, and is satisfied. The lighting up of the face, the
flashing eyes, the occasional drawing in of the breath,
the burning words, as the Doctor spoke, all carried us
back to our student days at Newton."
Somewhat early in the academical year of 1867-8, it
was known that Dr. Hackett would, at its close, terminate
his long connection with the Theological Institution, pur-
posing to devote himself, in the retirement of his study,
to his favorite pursuits, and to form, by invitation, a more
exclusive connection with the Bible Union.
As the months wore away, and the time drew near
for the severance of their relations to an illustrious and
beloved teacher, the students marked their sense of the
FAREWELL TO NEWTON INSTITUTION. 1 43
impending event by an offering of books, a sumptuous
edition of Shakspere, and the works of Lord Bacon.
Two or three days after, they were acknow^ledged in brief
and beautiful remarks, in the Chapel, complimenting the
generosity and the choice of the gift, and alluding to the
value of Bacon's principles in every realm of investiga-
tion. While conducting the chapel service on the last
evening of the last week of regular study, in attempting
to read the hvmn, Dr. Hackett broke down under his
emotions. A few evenings after, he held a farewell re-
ception at his home.
He presided at the anniversary which occurred Wed-
nesday, June 24, 1868. The Exercises of the occasion
were celebrated, by the efforts of the Graduating Class,
wnth rather unusual pomp, the procession to the Church
being headed by the Germania Band, of Boston, which,
resolved into an orchestra, varied the four hours' session
within with fine music. The Rev. Dr. Baron Stow offered
the opening prayer. In his Farewell Address, Dr. Hackett
congratulated the Class, as w^ell as the Faculty and the
Trustees, that a long and arduous course of study had
been so successfully terminated. He fitly referred to the
removal, by death, of one of their number, and com-
memorated his virtues. Those w^hom he addressed had
exceeded what was required of them, and had devoted
more than the allotted or expected time to Biblical
studies. They had acted upon the idea that a preacher,
in order to be successful, must thoroughly study and
understand the Bible. A fervid aspiration was expressed
for the rehabilitation, upon this basis, of the American
pulpit in its former grandeur and glory. He alluded with
144 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
feeling to his departure from the Institution, and particu-
larly to his separation from the class before him, the last
of a long series. He had been connected with the
Institution for almost a generation, and should ever hold
its graduates in the fondest remembrance. He closed by
invoking the blessing of Heaven upon their work of faith
and labor of love, and with the prayer that each one
might finally receive the welcome, Well done.
The Rev. Dr. Stow, their President, read a letter from
the Board of Trustees, gratefully acknowledging their
obligations to Dr. Hackett, and with regret accepting
his resignation. At their meeting on the previous day,
a paper, prepared by a committee consisting of the
President, and the Rev, Drs. Caldwell and Lamson,
w^as unanimously adopted and ordered to be made
public, as follows : —
"The Rev. Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., L L. D., was
unanimously elected, August 5th, 1839, Professor of
Biblical Literature and Interpretation in the Newton
Theological Institution.
" His previous reputation as a scholar and an educator,
inspired high hopes of his success in the particular de-
partment to which he was invited ; and the Board of
Trustees are happy in testifying that all those hopes have
been fully realized. He applied himself at once and
earnestly to such studies, over a broad range, as would
best qualify him for effective service as a teacher of the
languages in which the Old and New Testaments were
written, and as a reliable interpreter of the inspired
writings. His prosecution of those studies, both at
home and in foreign lands, was enthusiastic, and his
TRIBUTE OF THE TRUSTEES AT NEWTON. I45
proficiency, eminently apparent, soon made him known
and respected far beyond the hmited circle within which
his official duties were performed."
"In the class-room he has manifested a special facility,
not only in the communication of what he knew, but
also in the awakening of an enthusiasm like his own
in the minds of his pupils, and thus stimulating all who
were susceptible of such influences to aim at large attain-
ments in that department of sacred learning.
" His published works, containing matured results of
his investigations, are all creditable to himself, honorable
to the Institution, and serviceable to the students of the
Word of God.
"In the twenty-nine years of faithful service. Dr. Hack-
ett has attained an elevated position among Biblical
scholars, and is fortunate in having his excellence justly
appreciated and cordially acknowledged.
"As he has signified his purpose to enter another field,
in which he hopes to make his acquisitions more com-
prehensively available for useful ends, the Board of
Trustees, while accepting his proflfered resignation, cannot
allow the occasion to pass without a grateful recognition
of those services here rendered, which have largely con-
tributed to the high culture and increased efficiency of
our denominational ministr}^ or without a strong expres-
sion of regret that future classes in the Institution may
not have the benefit of his personal instructions."
The following was an utterance of the Boston press,
on the event of Dr. Hackett's resignation : —
"The retirement of this distinguished scholar from the
chair of Biblical Interpretation in the Newton Theo-
11
146 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
logical Seminary, which was announced at the Anni-
versary, will be deeply regretted by all the friends of that
Institution. Having served for nearly thirty years most
assiduously and devotedly in that position, he has during
that time not only put the impress of his scholarly mind
and rare genius upon a whole generation of ministers of
the Baptist denomination, but won for himself an almost
world-wide reputation as a Biblical scholar.
"Considering the superior accomplishments of Euro-
pean critics in Biblical studies, especially the Germans, it
is an occasion of honest pride to an American to find
one of his own countrymen constantly quoted by the
great English and Continental scholars as the highest
authority on points of Scripture interpretation. This has
been true of Dr. Hackett, almost alone in this depart-
ment. A pupil of Neander and Tholuck — the life-long
friend of the latter — he has become the peer of both of
them in the realm of Biblical science. His Commentary
on the Acts has confessedly no equal, and as Dr. Peabody
in the 'North American Review' very justly says, is 'one
of the very few works of the kind in the English lan-
guage which approaches in point of massive erudition the
master-works of the great German critics, differing from
them only in possessing a soundness and accuracy which
they sometimes lack.' Devoting himself with an intense
concentration to his special work, he has dwelt almost
exclusively for many years in the 'still air of delightful
studies.'
"Here he has been little known, socially, even by his
nearest neighbors, but all lovers of Scripture study owe
him a debt, and if his life is spared many years, we predict
ASSOCIATES AND SUCCESSORS. 1 47
a yet greater one. He goes from his honored place with
the benediction of hundreds of former pupils resting upon
him, and with a well-earned name among the scholars of
the world."
During his twenty-nine years in the Institution, Dr.
Hackett had been connected with nine Professors, in-
cluding, besides his colleagues upon joining the Seminary,
the Rev^ Drs. Chase, Ripley and Sears, whose connection
with the work of instruction terminated respectively in
the years 1845, i860, and 1848, — Rev. Drs. Robert E.
Pattison, 1848-1854 (died 1874); Alvah Hovey, 1853- ;
Albert N. Arnold, 1855-1857; Arthur S. Train, 1859-
1866 (died 1872); George D. B. Pepper, 1865-1867;
Galusha Anderson, 1866- 18 73.
The duties which Dr. Hackett had performed were
divided, upon his retirement, and the Rev. Oakman S.
Stearns, D. D., was appointed to the functions of Biblical
Interpretation, in the Old Testament, and the Rev. Ezra P.
Gould to the same in the New Testament. Both these
gentlemen had studied under Dr. Hackett ; Dr. Stearns, in
the Class of 1846, after which he had been assistant instruc-
tor in Hebrew, during the year 1846-47, and Mr. Gould
(Harvard College, 1861), in that of 1868, in which rela-
tion, just terminated, he had secured Dr. Hackett's
approval of his capacities for this new career.
148 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
CHAPTER XIII.
1868-1870.
TASKS AS A WRITER. CHANGED MODE OF LIFE FOR TWO
YEARS. ACCEPTANCE OF A CHAIR IN ROCHESTER
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. INTERVAL BEFORE
ENTRANCE ON ITS DUTIES. FOURTH
FOREIGN TOUR, IN GREAT BRIT-
AIN AND ON THE CON-
TINENT.
Dr. Hackett was now engrossed at the same time with
various labors : upon the translation and revision of the
Books of Ruth, and of Judges, for the Bible Union;
upon the Dictionary of the Bible ; and upon the con-
tributions which he had engaged to make to Dr. Schaff 's
edition of Lange's Bibelwerk.
The change from his former mode of life was a
great one. Hours upon hours of continuous applica-
tion were not unfamiliar to him, but heretofore they
had been varied with the exhilarating, even if exhausting
excitement of looking into attentive faces, and communi-
catinof with the living- voice the results of his thouo;ht and
research. All this was now gone, and he had been too
long, and for too compulsive reasons, withdrawn from the
pulpit to seek its wider and different auditory. The
experience of a year was sufficient to dispose him to
listen to the proposal, made to him through his friend and
early pupil at Providence and Newton, the Rev. Dr. E. G.
Robinson, President of Rochester Theological Seminary,
to become connected with that Institution. At first the
ACCEPTANCE OF INVITATION TO ROCHESTER. 1 49
idea of a non-resident lectureship was entertained, but it
was soon abandoned in favor of a regular professorship.
Dr. Hackett visited Rochester, September 23d, 1869,
saw the new home which had just been provided for the
Seminary, and met old and new friends. A few weeks
later, at the daily Chapel exercises in Trevor Hall, the
President announced to the students, that Dr. Hackett
had accepted the professorship of Biblical Literature and
New Testament Exegesis, the duties of which, however,
he would not enter upon until the opening of the next
academical year. This interval was spent by Dr. Hackett in
completing the various tasks upon which he was engaged.
After the lapse of more than a quarter of a century,
it may be allowed, once more, to glance at a petition
recorded on his sixty-first birthday, December 27th, 1869:
" Be pleased to smile upon my future contemplated labor
in the new sphere which Thy Providence has opened to
me. May I have health and vigor of mind to make me
still useful as a teacher of those whom Thou dost call to
serve Thee in the ministry, who may look to me for
instruction and guidance. May then my last years be my
best years in usefulness, and in preparation for that end of
life to which these hastening days bear me forward."
Many will long bless Heaven for the answer to that
prayer, which enables them to say : " I was a student
under Doctor Hackett, in Rochester Theological Semi-
nary."
In April, 1870, he set out, in company with his only
daughter. Miss Mary W. Hackett, upon his fourth Euro-
pean trip. The always delicate health of Mrs. Hackett
precluded her accompanying him on any of these tours.
150 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The summer was delightfully spent, and embraced the at-
tractive scenes thus indicated by Miss Hackett, in a letter
not written with the expectation of its publication : —
"I can give an itinerary of the journey in 1870, so as
to define the trip without entering into detail.
"Leaving New York, April 20th, we landed at Queens-
town, the 29th, and proceeded at once to Cork, remain-
ing there over the Sabbath. Then to Dublin, to Bangor,
in Wales, to Shrewsbury, and to London, where we
remained for two weeks or more.
"Father wrote two or three articles for the Dictionary
after reaching London, and it is recorded in my journal
that he wrote one the 23d of May, which must have
been the last, as I am quite sure that he wrote none after
leaving that city. We met Dr. Park in London, at the
beginning of our tour, and also Dr. Furber. Father
called upon his friend Dr. Davies while we were here.
We visited the principal places of interest in the city and
vicinity — such as, Cambridge, Windsor, Sydenham, and
Kensington, — then Salisbury, Amesbury, and Sarum,
riding through the New Forest to Lymington, where we
took a boat to cross the Solent, landing at Yarmouth,
Isle of Wight. Then we took a carriage again, and
made almost the entire circuit of the island, staying one
night at Ventnor, and stopping on our way to see the
church where Legh Richmond preached at Brading, and
where Hes buried 'Little Jane,' the subject, as is known,
of a tract by him, and also at Arreton, where lies the
'Dairyman's Daughter,' another of his parishioners. At
East Cowes, we took a steamer for Southampton, and
visited Winchester.
EUROPEAN TOUR. I5I
" Returning to Southampton, we went from there
to Havre and Paris, where we busied ourselves in
sight -seeing for two weeks, and made an excursion to
Versailles. From Paris to Geneva, to Chamonix, then,
after crossing the Mer de glace, back to Geneva ; to Vevey,
crossing the Lake of Geneva, on to Bern, staying two or
three hours at Freiburg on the way ; across Lake Thun
to Interlachen, going while here to the Staubbach
water-fall, and to see the glacier at Grindelwald. We
drove over the Briinig Pass to Luzern, ascended Mount
Rigi from there, and of course sailed down the Lake ;
then went on to Zurich, and Schaffhausen to see the
Rhine Falls. At Romanshof we took steamer and
crossed Lake Constance to Lindau, and thence came
by rail to Munich and to Leipzig.
"A party to celebrate Dr. Bauer's accession to the
Faculty of the University of Leipzig, occurred on the
iith of Jul)', 1870, at the residence of Dr. Gotthard V.
Lechler. There were present, Drs. Kahnis, Luthardt,
Bauer, Tischendorf, Lechler, all of whom made speeches,
and there were toasts for the United States of America,
and, I am quite sure, for the Seminary of Rochester, as
well as for father and mvself I find these names men-
tioned in father's journal, but other celebrities were
present, whose names are lost. Father makes no special
mention of his enjoyment of this dinner party, but he has
often in conversation referred to it, as one of the most
delightful of social evenings which he ever passed.
" The next day we went to call upon Dr. Tholuck,
at Halle. Speaking of his visit, he says : ' Soon
Dr. Tholuck came in, — seemed glad to see me; felt in
152 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
my interviews with him that he was consciously stand-
ing near his end ; without any pretence or cant, there
was an air of seriousness and silent thought which
impressed me, and made me feel actually solemn ; he
seemed to breathe the air of the coming world. Awe-
struck I may say I was.'
"From Halle to Dresden, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels,
Ghent, Ostend, Dover, Canterbury, London, remaining
two weeks; from London to Oxford, Edinburgh, Eng-
lish lakes, Liverpool, reaching New York, August 31st.
"We went out in the Cunard steamer Cuba, and came
home in the Java, of the same line. Father discovered,
on our voyage out, that the same engineer was in charge
who was on the Europa, in 1858, at the time of the
accident by collision, and from him learned, that a
timber which had been put on to strengthen a weak spot
at the time of building the steamer, was all that saved it
from going to the bottom of the sea.
" I have omitted to mention some small places, and
indeed have given a very poor account of the way in
which four of the happiest months of my life were spent ;
but so many recollections of that summer come throng-
ing into my mind, that not without being too diffuse for
your purpose, can I give even a satisfactory I'esume of
our travels."
FACULTY OF ROCHESTER SEMINARY. 1 53
CHAPTER XIV.
187(^1875.
PROFESSORSHIP AT ROCHESTER. OLD FRIENDS THERE.
VISIT TO AMHERST IN 1 87 1. TRIBUTE TO DR. E. G.
ROBINSON. DECEASED CONTEMPORA RIES. LIT-
ERARY LABOR. POSITION IN THE SEMI-
NARY. REMINISCENCE OF ANDOVER
ACADEMY. FIFTH FOREIGN TOUR
IN EUROPE,
Upon reaching America, Dr. Hackett soon repaired to
Rochester, being followed by his wife and daughter a few
weeks later. The removal involved the separation of his
family, the two sons, Messrs. H. B. Hackett, Jr., and
Benjamin W. Hackett, the oldest and youngest of his
children, being occupied in mercantile employments in
Boston.
Dr. Hackett entered upon his new residence and en-
gagements in 1870, under pleasant auspices. He had
lately completed tasks that were honorable monuments
of American sacred scholarship, and was returning with
new ardor to the vocation of his life as a teacher, at liberty
to devote his entire attention to the ample sphere of New
Testament instruction. His associates in the Faculty of
the Seminary, were Dr. Robinson, President, and Davies
Professor of Biblical and Pastoral Theology, who had
been connected with the Seminary since 1853 ; Dr. R. J.
W. Buckland, a graduate of Union College in 1850, and
five years later, of Union Theological Seminary, New
York, and for several years a pastor in that city, — who had
154 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
become Professor of Church History at the beginning of
the Seminary year in 1869; and Mr. G. H. Whittemore
(Harvard College, i860), a student under Dr. Hackett at
Newton, who, since September, 1868, had been teacher of
studies in the Gospels, as well as in the Hebrew, which
now became his single department. Dr. Rauschenbusch,
at the head of the German department, a pupil of
Neander, had been among his acquaintance.
In the University, the President, Dr. Anderson, had
attended Dr. Hackett's instructions thirty years before,
during a year's residence at Newton ; Dr. Kendrick was
his friend and fellow-scholar ; Professor Gilmore, just from
the pulpit of the Second Baptist Church, had, twelve
years earlier, become his pupil at Newton. Another
graduate of Newton, in the same class (1861), was the
Rev. Henry E. Robins, D. D., now President of Colby
University ; from 1867 to 1873 he was pastor of the First
Baptist Church, where Dr. Hackett habitually worshipped
while in Rochester.
Still another and an old friend was the Rev. Mr. Nott,
who had come to Rochester, with his family, a few years
before. About two years after Dr. Hackett came, the
venerable and urbane Dr. Peck began to make Rochester
his residence, during a part at least of the year. There
was scope for the imagination in vivifying the past, when,
of a Sunday, in the old building of the First Church, now
a thing of the past, the sight of the three good men, so
remarkably brought together in their last days, made one
muse upon the state of the country, and of the churches,
and of learning, when these men first knew each other,
between forty and fifty years before. It was a good and
AMHERST SEMI-CENTENNIAL. I 55
pleasant sight. Mr. Nott, a pure Nathaniel-soul, as
Neander said of De Wette, was the first to go, in the
early days of May, 1873. Dr. Peck was taken in the
summer days of 1874.
Towards the end of 1870, Dr. Hackett addressed a
note of congratulation to Dr. Tholuck, on occasion of
the fiftieth anniversary of his assuming the duties of a
Professorship, December 2d, 1820 (at Berlin). In it he
expressed his obligations to Tholuck, above all others, for
any service he had been able to render to theological
learning.
At the close of Dr. Hackett's first year in the Seminary,
he made some remarks, at the Alumni dinner, expressive
of his satisfaction and interest in the Institution, and
of his hopes for its future. In the summer of this year,
which, like all the long vacations, he spent at the East, he
attended the Semi-Centennial of Amherst College (1871).
His sentiments at this celebration are thus recorded in
the published proceedings, though it will be seen from
Professor Tyler's remarks at his funeral, that the "Address "
failed to be spoken, through the author's habitual shrink-
ing modesty : —
" I feel, Mr. President, that I might justly ask to be
excused from attempting to say anything on this occa-
sion, certainly as a representative of the class of 1830;
for this class has been amply and admirably represented
by the orator and historian, to whom we listened in the
forenoon. For myself, I am proud as a member of the
class of 1830, to claim him as one of our number. It is
not every Professor who understands Greek, that under-
stands English, as well. We, who knew Professor Tyler
156 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
at the beginning, are not surprised at such versatihty in
him. The discourse which we heard from him, so elabo-
rate, instructive, and eloquent, simply shows that as he
began, so he has gone on, nobly fulfilling the bright
promise of his college days.
" Goldsmith used to say, that, when at the university,
he made but a poor figure in the mathematics, but could
turn an ode of Horace into English, equal to the best of
them. Our Tyler was good in everything ; he could
produce a sensation in conic sections, or the calculus, as
well as in Horace or Homer. He learned to good pur-
pose in those days, the old poet's dictum, as good for
actual life as for the mimic staee, —
'Ad imum
Qualis ab incepto processerit et sibi constet.'
" The learned orator, therefore, stands before us to-day
justly crowned with the laurels which he wears. I hope
the heresy, that dull and idle boys make the smartest
men, rebuked by such an example, will never find its
way into Amherst College.
" The older brothers of the College rejoice most heartily
with their younger brothers in the manifold prosperity of
the College as we see it to-day, at the end of these first
fifty years. But as I listened to the orator's account of
the difficulties and trials which the friends and first
teachers of the College had to encounter forty years ago, —
the period of my connection with it, — I felt that I might
justly characterize that period, at least, as the heroic age
in the history of the College. The age is heroic that
produces heroic men ; and it was these early trials of
AMHERST SEMI-CENTENNIAL. I 57
courage, faith, disinterestedness, which gave us such
characters as those of Hem an Humphrey, Edward
Hitchcock, Nathan W. Fiske, and others. I account
it one of my greatest obligations to the College, that
it gave me the benefit of the example and the teachings
of such men. I can truthfully sa\' that my remembrance
of their disinterestedness, fidelity and self-denial, has
ever been among the best inspirations of my life.
" I have followed the history of my class-mates — about
forty of us — with some care. Several of them, of whose
usefulness and success we had reason to entertain the
best hopes, died early. The one of these first taken, was
the youngest of our number. We, who knew them, have
not forgotten them. We linger longest at the graves,
in which have been buried " the hopes of unaccomplished
years." Of the rest, I know enough to say that they
have all been in their various spheres, upright, earnest,
useful men. No one of them has yet dishonored the
College, or brought a stain upon his own personal repu-
tation. Four of them have been missionaries of the
Cross in forei(j;n lands. Schneider discoursed to us at
our commencement (possibly the Junior exhibition), on
the felicity of benevolence, and • having now tried his
theory for nearly forty years, still lives to testify by word
and deed that the way to be happy is to be unselfish.
The record of his labors and successes in Asia Minor,
reads like a page from the Acts of the Apostles.
" It is a cause of regret to me — I feel it keenly to-day —
that I have been since my graduation so seldom present
at the commencements of the College. I have been
leading all this time since I left here, a somewhat vagrant
158 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
academic life. During all these years, I have been, with
hardly a single year's exception, cooped up within college
walls, either as a pupil in professional schools, or as a
teacher in colleges and seminaries. I have thus formed,
of course, new literary attachments and responsibilities,
more or less engrossing ; but I can truly say, as I come
back again to-day from these wanderings to the old
Alma Mater — for old assuredly she must be, when so
many sons rise up with hoary heads to do her homage —
I can truly say to-day to this dear mother of us all :
' My heart untraveled fondly turns to thee.'
"Of this I am confident. No one can rejoice more
heartily than I do, in the bright auguries which introduce
this second Semi-centennial of Amherst College."
The case was similar the next year at Rochester, in
1872, when Dr. Robinson, having accepted the Presi-
dency of Brown University, terminated his connection
of nearly twenty years with the Seminary. One of the
city papers of the next day, in alluding to the Alumni
dinner, said : —
"Among the things that were omitted were some words
of tribute that were meant to be spoken by Professor
Hackett, the colleague and life-long friend of Dr. Robin-
son, the retiring president. Through the kindness of the
Professor, we are permitted to lay before our readers the
substance of what was proposed to be said : —
" The statutes of my scholastic professorship, if they do
not make it incumbent on me to abstain from all public
labors outside of the lecture room, yet give me, at least
by an explicit understanding, the liberty to decline such
TRIBUTE TO DR. E. G. ROBINSON. I 59
labors without offence or cause of complaint from any
one. Though regretting that I must to such an extent
avail myself of that liberty, yet I can say from the heart
that I recognize the highest value of my quiet, unobtrusive
work, as found in its connections with the practical and
spiritual interests of my fellow-men. It is this possible
relation of my student-life to the preaching of the Gospel
from the pulpit through others, that gives to my labors
all their value in my own view, and all the importance
that I can claim for them from others. Under this aspect
of my office, I hope I may say at least, as a good sexton
(of whom I have heard) is reported to have said : 'Though
it is not my ])rivilege to go into the pulpit, yet I hope it
is not presuming for me to say, that I have rung the bell
for many a good sermon.'
" But I know that other thoughts chiefly occupy your
minds at this hour ; and they are uppermost also in my
own heart. Most deeply do I sympathize with the friends
of the Seminary, that we see our President here to-day
for the last time in his official capacity. I will not dis-
guise it, I feel to-day a pride in recalling the fact that Dr.
Robinson was one of my own early pupils — first at
Brown University, when I, too, was almost a boy (and
that no doubt brought us so much the nearer to each
other), and afterward at the Theological Seminary at
Newton. To be able at this moment to look up and
trace in our sky, from that early beginning, only an un-
broken pathway of light, friendship and kindly offices, is
to me a delightful spectacle. I hope it is also a grati-
fication to him."
"It has been my lot (for I have led a somewhat
l6o HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
vagrant academic life) to have been connected with the
Faculties of two or three different colleges and theo-
logical seminaries, and in at least two or three different
Christian denominations. In these Faculties have been
some of the best scholars in the country ; some of the
most devoted, self-denying, earnest, as well as able edu-
cators in the land. I have known, therefore, something
of the zeal, self-devotement, enthusiasm of our best men
in this department of intellectual and Christian labor.
But I will allow myself to say, it is but truthful testi-
mony to say : I have known no one, on the whole, that,
in his devotion to his work, his spirit of labor, his enthu-
siasm, and power to awaken enthusiasm in his pupils,
has surpassed Dr. Robinson. I do not feel it to be an
extravagance to apply to him the words which John
Foster applied to a well known historic personage. Dr.
Robinson has seemed to me to exemplify in the ways
that I have indicated an intensity of soul in his work,
' kept uniform by the nature of the human mind, for-
bidding it to be more, and, by the character of the
individual, forbidding it to be less.' We are sorry to
have him leave us. We have done all we could to retain
him. He acts, I am sure, under a rigid sense of duty in
going from us ; and we, his colleagues, wish for him from
the bottom of our hearts God's benediction and every
blessing in his new sphere of care and responsibility.
He will dwell there amid great memories, and feel the
inspiration of great examples to incite him to a noble
emulation. But I am sure of this, there is only one rival
of whom he need have any fear, and that is — himself."
During the last ten years of his life, Dr. Hackett
THE EMINENT DEAD. l6l
was frequently reminded of the notable era of Biblical
scholarship in which his own times and labors had been
cast, by the passing away of some of its most eminent
characters. Hupeld died in 1866; Hengstenberg, in
1869; Meyer, in 1873; Rodiger and Tischendorf, in
1874; Ewald, in 1875. Alford died in 1871, and a few
years later, Dr. Pusey's death long seemed imminent.
Benjamin Davies, Ph. D., LL. D., died in 1875.
And at home, good and wise men whom he long
knew, had fallen, some of whom have been already men-
tioned. October 4th, 1865, he went to Dr. Wayland's
funeral, at Providence. April 8th, 1868, he writes: " Dr.
Cushman has gone to his rest, (^et. 68;" and on the loth
he attended the funeral. Many will never forjjet the
tributes on that occasion of the life-long friends of the
deceased. Stow, Ncale, and Hague, who, in the same place,
had welcomed the refined, dignified and able Mr. Cush-
man, at his installation in Boston, July 8th, 1841. Particu-
larly it will be remembered how Baron Stow looked down
from the pulpit of Bowdoin Square Church upon the face
of Robert W. Cushman, dear to him since Columbian
College days, and said, "Farewell, — a short farewell!" —
a prophecy which the closing days of 1869 fulfilled, in
the early morning of December 27th. March 27th,
1874, passed away an associate of all these men, during
a memorable period of the Boston pulpit, the Rev.
Edward N. Kirk, D. D., of the Congregational body,
eminent for his elegant accomplishments, impressive
oratory, and consecrated career.
After coming to Rochester, Dr. Hackett wrote an
introduction to an American edition of Dean Howson's
12
1 62 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
•' Metaphors of St. Paul," and " Sketches of the Com-
panions of St. Paul," combined in one volume, and
published in 1872. In 1873, he published an American
edition of Rawlinson's " Historical Illustrations of the
Old Testament," with additions, notes, and appendices.
He also contributed literary and critical notices during
this time to the Bibliotheca Sacra, and published in
the Baptist Quarterly, in 1873, notes on his favorite
study of the Transfiguration. An engraving of Raphael's
great picture hung on the wall of his chamber, opposite
the foot of his bed.
He was a member of the Palestine Exploration So-
ciety, which was organized in this country, to cooperate,
in generous rivalry, with the British " Palestine Explora-
tion Fund."
In 1873, Dr. Hackett had the pleasure of greeting Pro-
fessors Dorner and Christlieb in Rochester. They were,
it will be remembered, delegates to the meeting of the
Evangelical Alliance, in New York. On a trip to Niag-
ara, they stopped in Rochester, visited the Seminary, and
were appropriately received in Trevor Hall.
In the Seminary, Dr. Hackett had the respect
and attachment of his colleagues, to some of whom,
as has been seen, he was dear by earlier ties. Dr.
Robinson was succeeded in the Presidency by the Rev.
Dr. Augustus H. Strong (Yale College, Class of
1857), whom Dr. Hackett was prepared to welcome,
through an acquaintance begun during Dr. Strong's
pastorate in Haverhill, Mass. At the same time, the Rev.
William C. Wilkinson, D. D. (University of Rochester,
1857, and a classmate of Dr. Strong in the Seminary,
IN ROCHESTER SEMINARY. 1 63
1859), joined the Faculty as Professor of Homiletics
and Pastoral Theology. The Rev. Dr. Howard Osgood
(Harvard College, 1850), late Professor in Crozer Theo-
logical Seminary, and a member of the Old Testament
Company of the American Revision Committee, became
a member of the Faculty, in September, 1875, as Acting
Professor of Church History, Dr. Buckland being com-
pelled by illness to relinquish for a time his duties.
On the part of the successive classes of students
who were profited and delighted by his teachings. Dr.
Hackett was the object of an affecting and ennobling
devotion.
It may be of interest here to give the list of New
Testament studies, as revised by him, for publication in
the annual Catalogues : —
" The Greek Lanf{uao-e as used in the New Testament ;
Greek gospels in harmony, on the basis of Mark ; their
origin, similarity, and destination. Lectures on the life
of Christ, in chronological order, as drawn from the gos-
pels. Epistles of the New Testament (varied from year
to year). Luke's life of Paul as contained in the Acts.
Principles of interpretation and the bibliographical
helps. Textual criticism, especially the later results,
and the laws applicable to the various readings.
History and characteristics of the English version.
Topography of Jerusalem, and geography of the first
Christian age. Essays, paraphrases and discussions by
the students."
April 2d, 1875, Dr. Hackett addressed these lines to
Mr. W. H. Parmenter, a student in Andover Academy: —
" I am startled and amazed, to be reminded by your
164 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
note of being one of the founders of a literary society
which is about to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary.
I retain a more distinct recollection of my membership
in the Social Fraternity, into which the boys used to be
admitted on becoming Seniors. Dr. Stearns and Dr.
Palmer were my school-mates, but as I have never seen
any general catalogue of the Academy, I do not remem-
ber all who may have been founders or first members
of the Philomathean. Rev. Wm. Newell, D. D., now
of the City of New York, and H. A. Thomas, LL. D.,
State Librarian at Albany, were my classmates. Dr.
Leonard Woods, of Brunswick, must have left the
Academy at an earlier period.
" I love most sincerely Phillips Andover Academy ;
I revere the memory of its noble founders ; I cherish a
sincere regard for the character and services of all its
teachers whom I have known there, and think often and
tenderly of the dear boys who were my classmates
and playmates in that bright morning of our days."
Soon after the Seminary Commencement of 1875,
Dr. Hackett left America, to cross the Atlantic, for
the fifth time, together with his friend, the Rev. Dr.
Daniel L. Furber, pastor of the Congregational Church
in Newton Centre, Mass. They sailed from Boston,
on Saturday, the 29th of May, in the Cunard Steamer,
Parthia, and landed at the same wharf, and from the
same steamer, on Saturday, the 4th of September,
fourteen weeks after. The course of their travels is
indicated by giving the names of the places visited, in
their order, as recorded in a published discourse of the
Rev. Dr. Furber : Liverpool, Chester, Litchfield, Rugby,
FIFTH EUROPEAN TOUR. 165
Bedford, Cambridge, London, Rotterdam, The Hague,
Leyden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Hanover, BerHn, Witten-
berg, Halle, Leipzig, Eisenach, Dresden, Munich, Lu-
cerne, Basle, Paris, London, Dublin, Cork, Oueenstown.
They heard Canon Liddon, in St. Paul's Cathedral.
From the Prebendal House, Peterborough, August
loth, the Dean, Dr. Westcott, wrote to Dr. Hackett,
regretting that by his absence from Cambridge he had
missed the pleasure of making a personal acquaintance,
and wishing there were attractions enough at Peter-
borough to bring him to spend a Sunday in the quiet
of a Cathedral Close.
Of the preaching in the German Protestant pulpits,
Dr. Hackett said, that the sermons which he heard
were good ; some of them excellent ; the great truths
of the Gospel were fully and faithfully presented in
them, and sometimes very ably and eloquently defended
against the assaults of modern German Rationalism.
As, on a former tour. Dr. Hackett had made a pious
pilgrimage to the scene of De Wette's last years
so he now repaired to the home of Meyer, in Hanover,
and brought from it memorials of the scholar, bestowed
by a member of his family, consisting of articles from
his writing table, and his own copy of his Commentary
on Philippians.
The Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., writes from
Berlin, of a visit from Dr. Hackett when there, which he
cherishes as one of the most pleasant memories of life.
Again, and for the last time, he saw, at Halle, his warm
friends, the Tholucks. News from their household, it
may be observed, sometimes came to Dr. Hackett
1 66 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
through American students abroad. Tholuck, himself,
wrote to Dr. Hackett, in 1869 : " I view it as a token of
your loyal remembrance of Halle, that you have sent us
two so excellent pupils of yours, and I express to you my
satisfaction in the connection with them." The gentle-
men referred to were the Rev. Henry S. Burrage (Brown
University, 1861), and the Rev. Stephen H. Stackpole
(Harvard University, 1866), who had gone from Newton
to Germany, for purposes of study and travel. After Dr.
Hackett's death, Mrs. Tholuck wrote to the former :
"The sad intelligence has reached us, and how has it
grieved us ! Can it be that the dear man was here only
this summer, and even now among the dead ! "
From Leipzig, where was residing, as a student, one
of his Rochester pupils, Mr. S. E. Brown, Dr. Hackett
brought back the Addresses at the Coffin and Grave
of Tischendorf, who had passed from earth in the
preceding September. Among other books purchased
in Germany and England, were three copies of Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, printed and illustrated in the antique
style of the times when the first editions appeared. One
of these, in accordance with a purpose he had expressed,
was sent, after his death, to Mr. John B. Trevor. Perhaps
the last article he ever meditated was one on Bunyan, of
which he had written some paragraphs in pencil. From
London, he brought an album, containing the photographs
of English Bible Revisers.
On returning to Rochester, he found official notice, that
on the 6th of July, by a special vote of council, he had
been invited to become an honorary member of the
Society of Bibhcal Archaeology, London.
LAST DAYS. 1 67
CHAPTER XV.
1875.
THE LAST OF EARTH. FUNERAL SERVICES AT ROCHESTER.
FINAL OBSEQUIES AT NEWTON. MEMORIALS.
CHARACTERISTICS. CONCLUSION.
The end of the Hfe that has been sketched draws near,
but amid its familiar, appointed course of occupations.
Four days before, on Friday, October 29th, Dr. Hackett
was in New York, at the meeting of the American
Committee of Revisers, in his place as a member of the
New Testament Company.
Rev. Professor George E. Day, in transmitting to Dr.
Hackett's family the Revision Committee's tribute to his
memory, wrote : —
" My own personal relations with Dr. Hackett were
always exceedingly pleasant. I always liked to meet
him and talk with him. The Thursday evening before
his death I spent nearly two hours with him, at the
Everett House, and listened with the greatest pleasure to
. the account which he gave of his recent tour in Europe.
How little did either of us think, as we bade each other
good night, that this was our final parting on earth."
He reached Rochester late in the evening of Saturday
the 30th. On Sunday morning he attended public wor-
ship, for the last time, at Plymouth Church, where the
Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., of New Haven, preached.
An interview followed after the sermon, which is thus
alluded to, in the last entry in Dr. Hackett's journal : —
1 68 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
" Sabbath, October 31st.
" Heard Dr. Bacon at Plymouth Church. Expressed
the hope his hearers would remember his sermon as well
as I did the one I heard from him fifty years ago."
In the evening he remained at home, on account of the
fatigue caused by the journey from which he had returned
the night before. On Monday afternoon he held his
usual exercise with the Junior Class, and was seen in his
study, for the last time in life, by his colleague in the
Biblical studies, who had so much cause to love him, and
whom he now thanked for calling, during his absence,
upon those w^ho were dear to him.
He died at his residence, the next day, Tuesday,
November 2d, 1875, between the hours of twelve and one
o'clock. He had just returned from the exercise of the
morning with the Middle Class, in the study of the Epistle
to the Galatians. His notes on verses 19th and 20th
of the first chapter had been mislaid, and he asked that a
blank space should be left for them in the note-books ;
his last dictation was on verse 21st. The exercise closed
before the usual time, with the statement that he
felt somewhat unwell. In the interval before the meeting
of the afternoon, with the Junior Class, he was to have
given his vote at the annual State election. He entered
his home, to go no more out upon earth's errands.
Henceforth his citizenship was in Heaven alone.
Passing rapidly up to his apartments, he complained of
a severe pain in his side. He was at once laid upon a
bed, and the best remedies were applied by members of
his family and friends present. Their efforts seemed to
be somewhat effective, and he signified his grateful appre-
FUNERAL SERVICES AT ROCHESTER. 1 69
ciation of them ; but, in a moment, after a spasm, he
ceased to breathe. All was over before the arrival of the
physicians summoned, but they concurred in stating that
nothing could have been done to avert the result, which
was due, probably, to the formation of a clot, impeding
the circulation of the blood. The sad news quickly
spread in the city, and telegrams were dispatched to the
East, to Dr. Hackett's two sons, citizens of Boston. Mr.
B. W. Hackett immediately left that city for Rochester.
His brother remained to make the necessary arrange-
ments for the last services at Newton.
A meeting of the Executive Board of the Seminary
occurred by regular appointment in the evening, and was
an occasion for the expression of the deepest sorrow at
the loss which the cause of sacred letters, and the Sem-
inary in particular, had sustained.
A largely-attended meeting of the students of the
Seminary was held in Trevor Hall in the evening. Tt was
difficult to bring it to a close, so many were desirous of
testifying their veneration and love for the departed.
They spoke of his child-like humility, his earnest enthusi-
asm, his impartial pursuit of truth, his manner of con-
ducting the devotional exercises in the chapel, especially
his reading of the Scriptures, which showed his loving
appreciation of every word of the sacred writings, and
finally, of the whole blessed influence of his devoted life.
The funeral services of Dr. Hackett, at Rochester,
were held on Friday, November 5th. Prayers were
offered at his late residence on Clinton Street, by Rev.
Dr. Kendrick, of Rochester University, his highly esteemed
friend. From the house, members of the family, and
170 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
some intimate friends were escorted to the Second Baptist
Church, by a long procession, headed by the Presidents
of the Seminary and University, followed by the officia-
ting clergymen, Rev. T. Edwin Brown, D. D., and Rev.
Charles J. Baldwin, The pall-bearers were the President
of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary, Hon. J. O.
Pettengill, and Deacon Alvah Strong ; Professors Wil-
liam C. Wilkinson and Howard Osgood, of the Seminary,
and Professor Augustus Rauschenbusch, of its German
department ; Professors Asahel C. Kendrick and Albert
H. Mixer, of Rochester University ; and the Rev. Henry
L. Morehouse, of Rochester.
The exercises opened with the invocation, by the
Rev. Dr. Brown, and an anthem, "Sleep thy last sleep."
Dr. Brown read the Scriptures, Elijah's translation, the
twenty-third Psalm, and Paul's exultation in the pros-
pect of immortality. The Rev. A. H. Strong, D. D.,
President of the Rochester Theological Seminary, then
delivered a just and beautiful eulogy of the departed.
A tender tribute to their late teacher, and a delicate ex-
pression of sympathy with his bereaved family, was read
in behalf of the students of the Seminary, by one of their
number, Mr. A. J. Barrett. Beautiful floral oflferings came
from the same source to the house and the church.
Martin B. Anderson, LL. D., characterizing the preceding
discourse as exhaustive and elaborate, followed with
weighty and appreciative words which he so well knows
how to speak. Prayer was offered by the Rev. C. J. Bald-
win, of the First Church, where Dr. Hackett worshipped
usually. The exercises embraced Lyte's beautiful hymn,
"Abide with me," a favorite of Dr. Hackett's, and con-
LAST RITES AT NEWTON. I7I
eluded with "Asleep in Jesus." Opportunity was then
given to look upon the face, which expressed a heavenly
peace.
At the conclusion of the services, the procession re-
formed and escorted the family and the remains to the
railroad station, where the cars were taken for Boston.
By arrangement of the Trustees and the Faculty, Pro-
fessor George H. Whittemore accompanied them.
The express train containing the family and the body,
was stopped at Newtonville, Massachusetts, the next
morning, where carriages and a hearse were in waiting.
These were at once driven to the beautiful home of the
Rev. Dr. Furber, Newton Centre.
The final obsequies at the First Baptist Church w^ere
appointed at half past one o'clock, on Saturday, Novem-
ber 6th, soon after which the body was borne into the
Church. The list of pall-bearers embraced the Hon.
William Claflin, Ex-Governor of Massachusetts; Rev.
John Whitney, of Newton ; Rev. Dr. Alexis Caswell, of
Providence ; Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody and Professor
Ezra Abbot, of Cambridge ; Professor Samuel L. Cald-
well, of Newton ; Rev. Henr)^ M. King, of Boston
Highlands, and Professor Whittemore, of Rochester.
After a funeral chant, "Thy will be done," the invoca-
tion was offered by Dr. Furber, and the Scriptures read
by the Rev. W. N. Clarke, Pastor of the Church, who
together had the supervision of the service. The first
called upon by Dr. Furber, was Professor Whittemore,
who spoke briefly as the representative of Rochester
Theological Seminary.
Extended tributes were then paid by Rev. Professor
I 72 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Park,of Andover; Rev. Professor Tyler, of Amherst; Presi-
dent Hovey, of Newton ; Rev. Dr. Caswell, of Providence ;
and Rev. Professor Peabody, of Cambridge. Dr. Robin-
son, the President of Brown University, was prevented
by sickness from complying, as he had promptly engaged
to do, with the request to be present and participate.
The friendships and occupations of Dr. Hackett, and the
Institutions to which he devoted his life, were thus repre-
sented.
The Rev. Dr. Rollin H. Neale, whose letter of condo-
lence was among the first to reach Rochester, offered a
tender and reverent prayer, and the hymn, "Abide with
me," was sung. The placid and life-like face was then
looked upon for the last time by many friends, and the
funeral train proceeded to the peaceful and attractive
Newton Cemetery. Here Dr. Furber conducted the
final service. There were buried on the casket, the passion
flower and the palms, the appropriate and united offering
of Professors Osgood and Wilkinson, of Rochester, and the
exquisite wreath, the last offering of the sons. On the
grave was deposited the wealth of floral tributes from
the students and friends at Rochester, and from friends
at Newton. And so, at the end of the beautiful Novem-
ber day, was left, "Asleep in Jesus," the great Bible
scholar.
Rochester Theological Seminary received the munifi-
cent gift in trust, of the chief part of Dr. Hackett's
library, in the accumulation of which many years and
thousands of dollars were spent. This bestowal was
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. I "] 2)
made by his family, in token of the pleasant relations
of their honored head to the Institution where the
last years of his life were spent. Its authorities have
honored his memory by word and by deed.
Measures were at once taken in the Seminary, and
among the Alumni of the preceding five years, to secure,
with the aid of photographs and descriptions of Dr.
Hackett, a portrait by Mr. Page, of New York, whose
fine painting of Dr. Robinson hangs in the chapel of
Trevor Hall. A few years after Dr. Hackett's resigna-
tion at Newton, the Alumni of that Institution placed
his portrait, by Mr. J. Harvey Young, of Boston, among
those of the patrons and professors in the Library there.
The members of his family, reunited at Newtonville,
which adjoins Newton Centre, their former home, have
caused a design to be made for a monument, to be
erected in the cemetery where he rests.
Chaste as itself was the nature of the man whom the
marble will commemorate. Delicacy pervaded his being.
He was dignified in demeanor, and in his familiar con-
versation ; the more choice was with him the instinctive
phrase, upon the commonest topics, as well as with
the pen, and in public address. He was refined in all
his physical tastes ; his only marked predilection at the
table was for fruit.
His personal appearance indicated his fine organiza-
tion. In 1858, as has been seen, he was taken in France
for a native of the country. In reminiscences by the
Rev. J. P. Bates, who studied at Rochester, in Dr.
Hackett's first year there, occurs the following descrip-
tion : "His head was not large, but ver)" round and
I 74 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
plump, resembling somewhat in this respect the head
of Ex-President Thiers, of the French Republic, and
was covered all over with a fine growth of short, iron-
gray hair. His face was always kept smooth, like that
of Thiers ; his eye was small and twinkling, like that
of the French historian and statesman, and both alike
wore glasses."
As a man, the modesty of Dr. Hackett was equalled
only by his worth, and the esteem in which he was held
by others. To one, in very intimate, daily intercourse
with him for years before he died, the companion of
his walks and of his talks, ranging familiarly over his
whole life and times, — who heard, for the first time,
at his funeral in Newton, from Dr. Park, of eulogiums
by some eminent men upon Dr. Hackett, and who
wrote, inquiring if these sentiments of regard were
matters of special record, — Dr. Park replied : " President
Felton and President Everett, used to speak very highly
of Professor Hackett to Pr^ofcssor Edwards. I think
that Mr. Choate spoke to me very highly of Professor
Hackett; if not to me, then to Professor Edwards; at
any rate, I told Professor Hackett of Mr. Choate's
encomiums, but he did not seem to believe me. Dr.
Wayland spoke to me very eulogistically of Professor
Hackett. I do not know that any of these gentlemen
mentioned him in their writings ; but I know that he
knew their opinion of himr
This memoir has testified to its subject's own affec-
tion for his friends. It would be pleasant to enumerate
the recognitions of excellence and ability in others,
found in his published and unpublished writings. These
THE SCHOLAR AND CHRISTIAN. I 75
sensibilities of his nature, it may not be out of place to
say, were strongly appealed to, in reading Newman's
letter to the biographer of Keble, describing the last
interview of Keble, Pusey and Newman, after a separa-
tion of twenty years. He considered it one of the finest
pieces in the language, and remarked on the degree
of culture required to write such a letter.
As a scholar. Dr. Hackett did his part towards gain-
ing for his country this generous recognition by The
Athenceuni : "The good work done in America is far too
little known among us ; the best American scholars show
a truly German industry and width both of reading and
speculation, while their practical sense keeps their writings
within a reasonable compass. In receptivity and enthu-
siasm for a wider learning, American scholars stand before
English." That might be said of his writings which was
said of the Essays of his friend and associate-laborer,
Professor Hadley, in a continuation of the above tribute :
" They are marked by a genuine erudition, and a thorough
knowledge of all that has been written on their several
subjects ; but still more striking is the good judgment
which they show, and their conspicuous fairness. Rarely
have we read books which gave us so high a conception
of the writer's whole nature." Like some noted men of
letters, Dr. Hackett wrote much of what made up his
life into his books and articles, but how healthily
was his life drawn out by his studies and his travels,
towards highest realities, of universal and lasting impor-
tance ! Their record is ever marked by high thought
and worthy emotion, as well as by sound knowl-
edge, and trustworthy statement. What a contrast
176 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
between his cautious presentation of facts, and the bril-
liant, dogmatic Ewald's " jumping at fancied perfect
theory," which vitiates so much of the work of his life !
As a Christian, it has been well said of Dr. Hackett,
in an account of the peace which came through his
ministrations, to a troubled believer, his friend, Judge
Fletcher, " This clear apprehension of salvation by a
suffering Saviour, marked Dr. Hackett's entire Christian
life."
This memorial cannot better close than with the words
of one very dear to its subject, — words apposite to the
removal of such men as their author and his friend,
Edwards and Hackett :
" When the wise and good are taken from the earth,
their surviving fellow-disciples may well obtain a more
impressive idea of the reality of Christian communion, of
the living links which still bind them to all who have
won the prize, or who are yet on the field of conflict. If
the grave is becoming populous, so is the region of life
and light beyond its confines. Ten thousand chords of
sympathy, invisible except to the eye of faith, connect
our world with that better land. In one sense, it is be-
coming less and less unknown. The distance diminishes
as the avenues are multiplying, along which throng holy
desires, earnest sympathies, longing aspirations. The
illumined eye can, occasionally, gain glimpses of its cloud-
less horizon ; the quick ear catch a few notes of its
invitations of welcome. That is not the world of doubts
and phantoms. It is, by eminence, the land of life, and
of conscious existence. Its happy shores are even now
thronged by earthly natures, perfected in love, happy in
WORDS OF PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 177
final exemption from sin ; who still, from the very neces-
sity of the sympathizing remembrances with which their
bosoms overflow, cast down looks of loving solicitude to
their old friends and companions, and would, if it were
possible, break the mysterious silence, and utter audible
voices of encouragement, and reach forth signals of
welcome. These, in the view of faith, are undoubted
realities, facts which have a stable foundation, truths most
comprehensive and fruitful, the distant contemplation of
w^hich ennobles the soul, and fits it for its long-desired
and blessed society. This, therefore, is one of the uses of
these dispensations, — to give new vigor to faith, a fresh
reality to that communion of which Christ is the source
and the centre ; to enable one to feel that, however weak
and unworthy he may be, he is still a citizen of a mighty
commonwealth, an inmate of an imperial household, con-
nected by bonds, over which chance and time and death
have no power, with those who are now pillars in the
temple of God."
Heaven has an added attraction in thy presence, dear
Friend and Teacher, joined to the new Communion of
Saints.
13
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES.
AT ROCHESTER, NOVEMBER 5, 1875.
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. l8l
ADDRESS OF REV. A. H. STRONG, D. D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, IN THE
ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
The hushed and intense silence of this funeral-scene is
not without a meaning. We recognize by instinct the
limits of the earthly, and standing upon its verge, we wait
for some voice from beyond the darkness and the shadow.
Human words are well, but now we listen for some word
of God from the solemn quietudes and the eternal spaces
into which our teacher and friend has vanished — some
word that may tell us where and how the spirit fares that
a few days since was with us, but now is not.
How fully this great need is met by Scripture ! As we
wait and listen, we too " hear a voice from heaven, saying
unto us, 'Write, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord, from henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow
them.'" No interval of blank unconsciousness — no
doubt as to their felicity — no interruption of their work
for Christ. Activity, service, these have not ceased. But
labor, with its painfulness and sighing, its weakness and
fear, this has ceased, because in the perfect union of the
soul with its glorified Lord, all the imperfection and sin
from which it springs have been done away forever. Into
that rest of pure, rapturous and enlarged activity, the freed
soul has entered.
And shall the long toil of the earthly life go for noth-
ing, now that the soul is sundered from the body ? Ah,
1 82 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
no ! The good men do is not " interred with their bones."
It rises clear-voiced before God's throne. It witnesses to
the reality and power of Christ's life in those who wrought
it. " By their deeds they shall be justified," not because
these furnish the ground of their acceptance and reward,
but because these deeds make manifest to the universe
the fact that " God was in them of a truth."
Nor shall these good deeds be lost on earth. "Their
works shall follow them," even here. Embalmed in the
memory of their children and of the church, they shall
continue their influence of blessing, all the more precious
and powerful for good now that the heart that prompted
them is still and pulseless in the dust. And when the
memory of their work shall fade on earth, and the last
survivors of those who knew them shall be gathered to
their fathers, God will not permit its fruits to die. No !
no ! There is a memory that never lets go that which is
committed to it ; there is a hand that never ceases to tend
and water the seeds of its own planting ; there is a divine
pride and justice that never suffers the earthly work of
His departed servants to go unfruitful or unrewarded.
God takes up that work after the workers are dead, and
carries it on. Through a thousand means of spoken word
or living example, the influence they have exerted multi-
plies as it goes down through the ages. The works of
the righteous follow them, ever increasing in weight and
power as they go onward, like the balls of moist snow
which school-boys roll upon the ground in early winter,
until, in the great day of account, those who did them are
amazed at the surpassing grandeur of the result, and
gazing at the vastness of the harvest which has sprung
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. 1 83
from the small seeds they sowed, they call to the Judge :
" Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or did
anything worthy of such abundant fruit ! "
It is only doing our part in fulfilling the declaration of
Scripture, it is only performing a sacred duty to those
who are left behind, when we speak to-day of the work
and the character of a departed father and teacher in
Israel. Far be it from us to glorify the name of man.
The funeral-day is the day on which to recognize chiefly
the sovereignty and grace of God. And he whose mortal
remains lie before us, would have been the last to desire
any other use of this occasion. We will not deal in
eulogy. We give only a brief and simple memorial of
one whose life and labors have become an inseparable
part of the history of Biblical learning in America and
in the world, and we do this not for the praise of man,
but for the glory of God's grace and for a testimony to
those who come after.
With the second quarter of the present century, there
commenced, both upon the continent and in English-
speaking lands, a reaction against the rationalism that had
for so long a time poisoned and enfeebled the science of
Scripture interpretation. Neander, Tholuck and Winer,
in the several departments of history, exegesis and gram-
mar, were showing the possibility of combining a
scientific accuracy with a more evangelical faith — nay, of
delivering these several provinces of knowledge from the
despoiling hands of a sceptical philosophy, by the very
means of that believing spirit which the so-called philos-
ophy despised. A new vitality and power was felt to
pervade the Scriptures. New confidence was put in their
184 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
accuracy of detail. The old apologies for Paul's slipshod
use of one Greek adjective or preposition, when he meant
another, were shown to be wholly gratuitous. And upon
the basis of a rigid and exhaustive grammatical and
lexical analysis, the fair edifice of the nineteenth century
exegesis and theology was built.
The new faith in Scripture and devotion to its study
crossed the Atlantic, and found an impersonation in
Moses Stuart of Andover. His incredible industry and
contagious enthusiasm roused in this country a new love
for Biblical studies. One of his pupils, however, who
drank in, like a kindred spirit, his impassioned zeal for
research and for teaching, went further than his master.
Horatio B. Hackett betook himself to the German
sources of knowledge, and above all to the New Testa-
ment original, felt himself compelled to adopt the Baptist
faith as the result, and with an exacter scholarship than
that of Stuart, made himself for a whole half century,
the Nestor and leader of Greek exegesis in a denomina-
tion, which, during that same period, grew from half the
number, till it counted a million and three-quarters of
souls. This, as it seems to us, was the significance of
Dr. Hackett's position and work. Chase, and Conant,
and Kendrick, were laboring with a like aim in related
departments, but it was Dr. Hackett, who, more than
any other man, formed the spirit and led the distinctive
work of exact and believing study of New Testament
Greek in a great body of Christians, which, partly by
reason of this same progress in knowledge and love
of the word of God, raised themselves during his life-
time from numerical weakness to numerical power.
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. 1 85
He taught the teachers of hundreds of thousands of
Christians throughout the land. And though many
threads of human influence are woven together in the
fabric of our denominational progress, we are safe in
saying that our position in intelligence and influence
to-day, is in large part the result of the life and w^ork
of Horatio B. Hackett.
But the influence of his work extended beyond the
bounds of our denomination, even as his sympathies
and aims were broadly Christian, rather than sectarian.
One of the most thorough scholars and one of the
ablest men of the Congregational body said to me some
years ago, that he regarded Dr. Hackett as the best
Biblical scholar that wrote in the English language.
A recent English work upon the Acts of the Apostles,
mentions Dr. Hackett's Commentary as the best work
accessible to the English student. Dr. Westcott, the
noted English writer upon the canon of the New Tes-
tament, said recently in a private letter, that he had
discarded the English edition of the Bible Dictionary
in order to replace it by Dr. Hackett's. In Germany,
also, his works have been quoted and commended by
scholars of the highest rank, and by many of these
scholars Dr. Hackett was reckoned as a correspondent
and friend. No man can hold a place like this, without
influencing the Christian thought of the age, and by
just so much as the progress of the church is dependent
upon correct understanding of the Scriptures, by just
so much must the work of our departed friend be re-
garded as having intimate connections with the general
power of the universal church of Christ in this last
generation of the history of the world.
1 86 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
This is much to say of the Hfe and work of a scholar
whom the outside world knows almost nothing of. But it
is the Christian estimate. It takes account of God's ordi-
nation of conspiring influences, and his weaving the
thread of his servant's life into the life of the church
and of the time. Providentially and by his own de-
liberate purpose he was fitted for his work. What were
the characteristics of the teacher and the man, that gave
him his place and his influence ? I say the teacher and
the man — but the two were one and inseparable. Of
few men can it be said, with equal truth, that all there
was of faculty and energy, even to the uttermost fancy
and feeling, was thrown into the work appointed him.
With him there was no side-life, no dallying with minor
interests. That face so grave, benignant, just — that
form so proportioned, compact, true — showed, even in
the most casual conversation, no signs of trifling. " One
thing I do," seemed written out in the very intent com-
posure of the man. He was buried in his work of study-
ing and interpreting the word of God. And to many
and many a student, that example of a high intellect
that bent itself with ever new avidity and delight to
exploration of the treasures of the Bible, has given a
new and inextinguishable sense of the infinite reaches
and the priceless value of God's revelation.
He might have had this singleness of aim without
being the teacher that he was. But he added to this,
certain teacherly qualifications which must not be un-
spoken to-day ; and, first of all, the discipline and the
habit of exhaustive investisration. Sometime a man
must gain this, or he never makes a scholar. And one
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. 1 87
of the great blessings of God to a student, is the sight
and contact of a teacher who presents in himself a model
of absolute thoroughness ; who anatomises his subject —
brain, skeleton, viscera and heart ; who, like Sir William
Hamilton, aims before writing, to master every valuable
word that has been written upon his theme since the
world began ; who candidly recognizes every difficulty
and weighs every objection ; who leaves no stone un-
turned, if he may find, perchance, some new illustration
that will help to clear or impress what he conceives
after long toil and inquiry to be the truth. Such a man
was the instructor whom we knew. He had drunk in
Greek in his very early boyhood ; he had made it a
living tongue to him by teaching its classics at Amherst
and Providence, and by talking it with the boatmen
of the Piraeus and the shop-keepers of Athens ; the
rhythm and grace of it had entered into his brain and
blood. Travel had made the scenes of Scripture vivid
realities to him ; he could interpret the ninetieth Psalm
from his own experience in the solitudes of the desert,
and the triumphal entry of Jesus, in Matthew, from his
own surprise and exultation as he rounded the edge of
Olivet, and caught the glorious view of Jerusalem, once
the holy, now the profaned and desolate city. German, he
learned in Germany itself, and the great works of the
German critical scholarship, he daily used more con-
stantly and naturally than English. But these were only
the preparations for his work. Elaborate and compre-
hensive review of all the important literature bearing
upon the subject under investigation, was followed by
cautious, prolonged and original thought, and in this,
1 88 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the penetrating mind, the suspended judgment, the final,
clear decision, showed him the master.
This was the spirit which he strove to arouse within
his pupils — the spirit of minute, critical, exhaustive Scrip-
ture study. Non miilta, sed midtum. Not to go over all
Scripture in a year, but to teach men what it was to study
a few passages well ; to convince them that every phrase
had a meaning, definite and single — a meaning that could
be accurately ascertained and clearly expressed according
to fixed and settled laws of human speech ; above all, that
every word of God had a meaning which was worth all
the study that the best-trained mind could put upon it,
this was his one great lesson to successive companies of
students for forty years. If this had been the bookworm-
ish and exaggerated devotion of a life-time to trifles like
the markings of diatoms, it would have merited little
praise. But it had its foundation and explanation in a
reverent regard for divine revelation, that on the one
hand would not brook a mystical importation of human
fancies into the sacred text, and on the other hand would
not permit the smallest Greek article or conjunction to
be treated as an idle or ambig'uous thing: in that word
which " holy men of old wrote as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost."
Exegetical science has made steady progress since Dr.
Hackett began to teach. The old mystical and homileti-
cal method that prevailed in England fifty years ago,
contemporaneously with the rationalistic methods of Ger-
many, has given place to a more thoughtful and just
inquiry into the actual meaning of Scripture. The gram-
matical and lexical method which succeeded, and the
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. 1 89
possibilities of wliich our departed friend so nobly
illustrated, has itself been modified and broadened by
Godet and Philippi, by Lightfoot and Perowne. We
seem just about to enter upon a new era of Scripture
comment, in which the word of God is to be interpreted
not as a congeries of parts, but as an organic whole with
a living unity. But historical and doctrinal interpretation,
which Dr. Hackett conceived to belong not so much to
his department as to that of theology, presupposes the
grammatical and lexical, and would be impossible but for
just such work as Dr. Hackett did. How faithful to that
work he was, may be inferred from the fact that after forty
years of teaching, he never went to his class without a
new investigation and revision of the lesson for the hour.
One other most distinguishing characteristic of his, was
his faculty of terse, vivid and eloquent exposition. He
knew something of the heights and depths of the English
language, and he never failed to use it, even in his un-
premeditated talk, with a curious accuracy and a delicate
sense of light and shade, that invested even the com-
monest subjects with a charm, and left in many hearers'
minds the feeling of an untraversable chasm between his
culture and their own, while it stimulated the discerning
to new care of their common speech. Yet this was at a
world-wide remove from all pedantry or affectation. It
was the limpid bubbling of a fountain of sweet waters,
that all unconscious of itself must flow, and purely flow,
if it flow at all. In his early days, he had drunk deep at
those old "wells of English undefiled," that are so nearly
deserted now. His keen critical mind detected and
rejected, with almost chemical alertness, both the vague
190 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
and the rude in expression. He knew the value of time,
and had learned the secret of style. He cultivated brevity
and vigor of statement, in order to economise attention,
and get the most that was possible into the written para-
graph or into the passing hour. His questioning in the
class-room, was sharp and rapid, and perfectly unambiguous.
And when he soared, as he often did, it was as if the
prophetic fire of the sacred writer he expounded had
flashed into his own breast and he himself were caught
up in spirit. It was no rhapsody or long drawn digression
that he indulged in, but a powerful picturing of the scene
or the circumstances or the thought or the emotion, of
evangelist or apostle, in the composition of the very
words under consideration. No man has lived, in America
at least, who has been able so vividly to impress the most
minute and recondite indications of the Greek original
upon the minds of New Testament students. Again and
again have his classes found themselves gazing at him
with open mouths — lost themselves and he lost also — in
intense contemplation of the truth wrapped up in some
Greek particle and now for the first time unfolded before
them. The piece of fire-works unlighted, and the piece
of fire-works burning, are no more different, than Dr.
Hackett in his quiet moods, and Dr. Hackett kindled
and glowing in his exposition of the Scripture.
During the war, it became his duty to give the parting-
address to the graduating class at Newton. They were
going forth in a time of great needs and of great ex-
amples. In the silence of his study Dr. Hackett had
followed our armies, and his whole soul was with the
brave men struggling, wounded, dying, in the field. He
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. I9I
urged the graduates to be men of like devotion to the
cause of God. And as he spoke, one of his raptures of
eloquence came upon him, and the whole assembly were
swept and bowed by his intense and flaming appeals. A
man possessed of such godlike faculty of speech, and
using it every day for two scores of years to aw^aken
enthusiasm in the study of the original Scriptures, is a very
gift of God to those who hear him. He has stimulated
many an apathetic soul into thought, and though he
would have called himself no orator, many and many
a man has caught the spirit of true pulpit oratory from
him.
When I add to these two a last characteristic, I feel
that it is the crown of all — I mean his " modest stillness
and humility." A natural shrinking from publicity, a
constant consciousness of his imperfections, a child like
casting of himself at the feet of Christ, his Saviour — these
were so marked that they prevented most people from
knowing him at all, while those who did know him, knew
him in these aspects best. His own low appreciation of
his work, led him to regard almost as pleasantry the praise
that sometimes was lavished on him. At other times, his
friends feared to intrude even their gratitude upon a mind
that seemed so far from the thought of self He was
always ready to confess ignorance. Sometimes he timidly
confessed it, when he knew far more upon the subject in
question, than the person who offered to inform him.
With a peculiarly nervous temperament, that made him
exceedingly sensitive to interruption, and an absorption
of mind in his proper work, that left but little time to
think of matters of common life, he was sometimes per-
192 .HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
plexed and ruffled, but he was just as sensitive to kindness,
and there were times when he showed the very tenderness
of a woman. How utterly devoid of ostentation or forth-
putting or self-seeking he was ! With gifts that made
him at times a very prince of talkers, it was only at inter-
vals of years that he could be induced to speak in public.
He prayed at our chapel service, and his pupils gained
new views of sin, when they heard Dr. Hackett humbling
himself and taking upon his Hps the words of the publi-
can : "God be merciful to me, the sinner." They gained
new views of Christian service, when they heard him
laying all his work as an unworthy offering at the feet of
Him who died for us. Dear whitened head ! how many
lessons it has taught us of unselfishness and humility.
Thank God, he knows now, that his labor and his life
were " not in vain in the Lord."
Only this last summer he visited his old haunts in Ger-
many, and revived some of his cherished acquaintances of
former days. He talked with M tiller and Tholuck. He
brought back the scissors and the paper-weight last used
by Meyer, and presented to him by his daughter-in-law.
The companionship of an old friend made the journey
delightful. He returned to his work possessed apparently
of a new vitality and spirit. On the very morning that
he died, he prayed in his family, that, if it were God's will,
the members of it might be long spared to each other.
But God's ways are not as our ways. Three days ago he
met his class in the lecture-room, but a sudden pain seized
him, and he suspended the exercise. He walked to his
home, and there in his own bed, in a short half-hour, he
breathed his life away, so softly, that those who stood by
ADDRESS OF DR. STRONG. 1 93
hardly knew when he was gone. It was dying without
the long agony of sickness. Unconscious as he was, it
was virtually an instant transportation from the world of
anxious desire, and, at the best, of unsatisfied hopes, to the
joy of his Lord, and the untroubled rest and inconceivable
reward of the faithful. It was sudden death, but it was
sudden glory.
With the family toward whom he cherished so tender
an affection, with the members of this institution who so
loved him, with the great company of ministers and
scholars throughout the land who revered him as a teacher
and a father, there is mourning to-day. From the east
many friends of olden time have sent their letters of
condolence, and from the distant state of Indiana, the
Convention of Baptists there assembled unite in a tele-
graphic expression of sympathy. We have few such men
to lose. But let us not murmur, nor mourn as those who
are without hope. God's purpose and wisdom are in this
affliction — his will be done ! God has blessed the earth
with his life — let us be thankful ! God will care for his
family and for the Institution to which he gave his last
labors — let us trust those infinite resources of power and
grace that for a little time gave him to us ! Nothing in
this world is too good to die ; earthly friends and teachers
and leaders fall ; but the glorious Gospel lives, and Christ
lives, to put all things, even death itself, under his feet.
Ah ! the revelation is better still, for Christ himself has
said to us, " I am the resurrection and the life ; he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ;
and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
Let us not then talk of death — it is life into which our
14
194 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
beloved friend has entered. And since life to him meant
work, I cannot think of him as enjoying or as praising
only. That intent and studious mind is surely busy some-
where. He did good work for God here — but he will do
better work for God there, as he uses his now ransomed
powers perfectly and only for the glory of his Redeemer.
And so we lay these palm-branches upon his coffin, with
the floral cross and crown. They are poor and mute, yet
true testimonies, of our unending affection and remem-
brance. But they are more. They are symbols of the
cross in which he trusted and of the joy to which the
cross has led him — the kingly diadem and the victor's
palm !
ADDRESS OF STUDENTS. 1 95
ADDRESS ADOPTED BY THE STUDENTS
OF THE ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AND READ
BY MR. A. JUDSON BARRETT, AT THE FUNERAL
OF THE REV. dr. HACKETT, ROCHES-
TER, NOVEMBER 5, 1875.
We sit in the shadow of a great sorrow. Our teacher,
our friend, our father is dead. Dr. Hackett's voice is
hushed forever. And, though there remains to us the
sweet recollection of his noble life, ever present with
us as a moulding influence, yet it is not in the power
of words to express the sense of loss we feel. The
bereavement is personal to us all.
He needs no eulogy at our hands, for his name is
a household word wherever learning and religion have their
seat the wide world over. But not all the world have
felt the throbbing of his great heart, nor experienced
the quickening power of his saintly life, as have we,
who have so often met him as our teacher, counselor
and friend. He has been to us an inspiration, his every-
day life a prophecy of heaven, his simple, child-like
trust, the surest sign and noblest crown of disciple-
ship. And so before the Providence that has taken
him from us we stand dumb, and in mute grief pour
out our souls in prayer for light, and strength, and trust.
We reverently approach his bier, and while we place
thereon fresh flowers, emblems at once of the purity
of his life, and of the fadeless chaplet that now decks
196 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
his brow, how tumultuous the tide of affection that
swells in all our hearts, and how resistless the waves
of sorrow that surge back upon us when we remember
that never again shall we see his face, or hear his voice,
or feel the magic power of his revered presence.
But if to us, who have met him as students only, the
loss appears so great, how severe must be the stroke
to that household in which he was not only the genial
light, but the great pillar of strength, and the refuge
amid the tempests of life.
To the family he so dearly loved we tender our un-
affected sympathy, not obtrusively, not with cold for-
mality, but with a sensitive regard for the sacredness
of the grief, and the hallowed memories that start at
the mention of his name. We beg, dear friends, the
sacred privilege of sitting with you as sincere mourners
in a common bereavement. May the kind Heavenly
Father, who does not willingly afflict, abide with you
and with us, shedding light where now is darkness, joy
where now is sorrow.
A. J. Barrett.
H. L. House.
P. S. MOXOM.
G. N. Thomssen.
Coin77i7ttee.
REMARKS BY DR. ANDERSON, 1 97
REMARKS BY MARTIN B. ANDERSON, LL. D.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER.
PREFATORY NOTE.
Dear Sir : —
At the funeral of Dr. Hackett I had time to utter but a few
words, and these I cannot now recall. In compliance with your
request I send you a few memoranda of the impression which he
has left on my mind, as a teacher and a friend.
Yours truly,
M. B. ANDERSON.
Prof. Whittemore.
DR. HACKETT AS A TEACHER.
Dr. Hackett was favored in being called home to
his reward, in the full vigor of his mind. When
he passed away his great attainments were under his
full control. His eye had not lost its fire. His voice
had not lost its power to arouse and compel attention.
His lofty enthusiasm for truth had not suffered the
least abatement. No sad interval of physical decay in-
tervened between life and death. We recall him in the
full activity of his brilliant mind and associate him with
the wealth of his ripest scholarship. We are as yet too
near him whom we knew, and loved, to make an ade-
quate analysis of the elements which entered into the
198 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
formation of his mind and specially marked the type
of his scholarship. Very little need be said by me, how-
ever, after the elaborate and appreciative review of his
life, prepared by Dr. Strong.
We may best understand the man from the work
which he did. Few men have been so, identified in
heart and mind with their work in life, as was our
departed friend. All his impulses, tastes and capacities,
found their natural career and fullest play in the duties
to which he was called. His intellectual life is a marked
illustration also, of the advantage of concentration of
purpose. Most American teachers are compelled to
work in a greater or less degree, outside of the range
of their tastes and special capacities. They are often
compelled to divide their energies between several de-
partments of inquiry, or to dissipate them in the ex-
hausting practical duties incident to the function of
pioneers in education. Dr. Hackett early recognized
his special work, as indicated by his tastes and powers,
and was able to devote to it the time and force of his
entire life. He recognized, as few scholars have, the
application to literary work, of the economical principle
of division of labor. Though an able Hebrew scholar,
and in his early years a teacher of that language, of
unrivalled efficiency, he sought the earliest opportunity
to withdraw from the study of the Old Testament, and de-
vote his entire energies to New Testament interpretation.
An American, laboring afar from authoritative Manu-
scripts, he did not attempt to become an expert in
textual criticism. He assumed with intelligent and
cautious judgment, the recensions of the great masters
REMARKS BY DR. ANDERSON. 1 99
in this department, and gave his undivided attention
to the grammar and lexicography of the New Testa-
ment Greek. For this end, he studied all the forms
of Greek literature, ancient and modern, with reference
to the light they might throw upon the construction
of the New Testament idiom, and the shades of meaning
which its vocabulary had taken on by the lapse of time and
the changes wrought in the people, by new moral, religious
and political conditions. He diligently compared words
and constructions, to ascertain how they were affected
by the idiosyncrasies of mind and character of the dif-
ferent writers of the sacred text, and of the same writers,
under different circumstances, that he might master
in the fullest sense, the special forms, syntax and lexi-
cography of the New Testament Greek. He studied
with singular fidelity the Physical Geography, the Moral
and Political History and Archaeology of the lands in
which Biblical events occurred, and in which the sacred
documents were written. Those who regarded him as
a grammarian and lexicographer alone, had a very im-
perfect idea of his attainments. Few scholars have so
successfully and conscientiously as he, brought the results
of Physical and Historical Science to bear upon the
interpretation of the Scriptures. Though he laid all
branches of inquiry under contribution for his purposes,
he was always an interpreter, and to this function he
strictly confined himself He saw that exact and scientific
training in Exegesis, was the great need of American
theological students, and he sought to serve his generation
in this department alone. He did not aim to coordinate
the statements of revelation into a reasoned and scientific
200 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
system in what may be called Biblical Theology. He
did not attempt to compare these written manifestations
of the Divine will with the laws of the human mind, or
the constitution and course of nature, for the purposes
of Systematic Theology or Apologetics. Like the scien-
tific explorer, he discovered, examined and described,
with painstaking accuracy, the facts and phenomena
which it was the function of the scientific Theologian
to generalize into classes and fix in their logical relations.
He never suffered the doctrinal bearing of a passage,
actual or possible, to sway his judgment when settling
its meaning. He was even averse to the discussion of
doctrinal questions in his lecture room, lest his pupils
might form the habit of being affected in their exegeti-
cal conclusions by a previously formed theological bias.
This arose not from any want of sympathy with the
accepted results of evangelical orthodoxy, but from the
earnestness of his belief in the Supreme authority of
the written word. He was sternly intolerant of the
introduction into exegetical inquiries of any considera-
tions not justified by the strict laws of interpretation.
His reverence for God's word was too sincere for him
to permit a meaning to be imposed upon it from without.
From his strict adherence to scientific method in the
study of interpretation, his results were marked by rever-
ence, caution, exhaustive investigation, accuracy and good
sense, such as are seldom found among exegetical scholars.
He inculcated these methods upon his pupils with a
clearness and vigor which reached the dullest mind, and
with a contagious enthusiasm which no indifference could
withstand. As a teacher of the elements of lan":uap:e, I
REMARKS BY DR. ANDERSON. 20I
have never known his superior, and the impression he
made in that capacity, though different, was as distinct
and powerful as in the higher range of exegesis.
Thoroughness and accuracy were with him a passion, and
no clear headed man could pass under the control of his
mind without receiving its impress and being affected by
it for his entire life. The very memory of the tones in
which he exposed and denounced the indolence, presump-
tion, inaccuracy and looseness by which the laws of
language are misapplied, and the authority of Scripture
set at nought, became a perpetual impulse and warning
to his pupils. His methods were characterized by all the
strictness and accuracy of the processes of Physical
science. Had he passed from the interpretation of the
Bible to the interpretation of nature, he would hardly
have been conscious of a change in his fundamental prin-
ciples of investigation. I believe that no American
scholar has done more than Dr. Hackett, to introduce a
sound scientific method into Exegetical study.
Though the characteristics of his method are illustrated
in his books, they were more clearly set forth in the
lecture-room. He was emphatically a great teacher. The
rigid conciseness of his written style was laid aside in
speaking, and when excited in oral discussion, the imagin-
ation, force and passion of the orator came to the aid of
the teacher, and his sharply defined, many-sided and preg-
nant thoughts were carried home by a real eloquence
which would have insured the highest success had he
chosen to assume the functions of the preacher. I delight
to think of him as a typical representative of the Teach-
er's Profession. Great teachers seem to me as rare as
202 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
srreat scholars, orators or artists. I have never known a
man who more completely than he, incarnated the idea of
a great teacher. His living words were vastly more
powerful than any of the books which he has written.
Wide as was the influence which they have shed, his oral
instructions will be more widely felt. They have aroused
thought and communicated impulse which will propa-
gate themselves from mind to mind through all time.
All who have been his pupils wnll unite in cherishing the
profoundest respect and love for his memory, as a man
aad a teacher. Biblical scholars, throughout Christendom,
will accord him a distinguished place among those who
have labored with success to give breadth, accuracy and
clearness to exegetical science. It is fortunate for the
ministry of the Baptist denomination that he lived long
enough to leave the impress of his scholarship and methods
of instruction upon two of its Theological Seminaries.
AT NEWTON, NOVEMBER 6, 1875.
ADDRESS BY MR. WHITTEMORE. 205
ADDRESS BY GEORGE H. WHITTEMORE.
I come, with this mourning family, bringing back from
Rochester Theological Seminary the still form of one
honored and loved, there and here. These dear relics are
returned for their last rest to the precincts that were
familiar to him for a generation. Many of us recall the
day, seven years ago, when he laid down the office of
teacher here. It was his purpose still to dwell amid these
scenes, and still to devote himself to sacred letters, in a
different yet kindred path. But the habits of near forty
years, from the time he was tutor at Amherst, in 1831,
were not easily changed. He came, after a time, seriously
to miss the accustomed contact with eager disciples.
Meanwhile, his former duties here had been committed to
the approved hands in which they now are. This was
Rochester's opportunity, under Providence. She saw it
and was glad. He came to us in the fulness of his fame.
I remember hearing Dr. Robinson publicly say, in the
days when Dr. Hackett's advent was expected among us,
"He is not an old man, though he was my teacher."
Rochester Seminary, — her trustees, her faculty, her stu-
dents,— in the midst of her grief, yet gratefully rejoices,
and ever will rejoice, in the memory of Horatio Balch
Hackett's five years of service, and in the traditions of
his spirit and labors. Were this the time and place, I
could tell how, since the loss, five years ago, of a loved
206 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
and loving father, God has brought me into almost filial
relations with this great man. But now, I speak for
Rochester. She greets you with sympathy, in the per-
sonal bereavement, and in the general loss of the Christian
and learned world.
ADDRESS BY DR. PARK. 20/
PROFESSOR HACKETT AT ANDOVER.
REMARKS BY PROFESSOR EDWARDS A. PARK,
AT THE FUNERAL OF PROFESSOR HACKETT, AT NEWTON,
NOVEMBER 6, 1875.
For more than a year I have dechned every call to
address a popular assembly ; but I could not decline the
call to address this assembly, and pay my last tribute to a
man whose friendship I have enjoyed for well nigh fifty
years.
I am not delegated to speak, yet I cannot forbear to
speak in behalf of two literary institutions in Andover.
Our departed friend was a favorite son of both of those
institutions ; and it is the duty of both to let their leaves
of laurel fall on his grave. The Andover Theological
Seminary has helped to train a Chase, a Ripley, and, in
some degree, a Sears, for the Seminary at Newton ; and
also a Hackett for the Seminaries at Newton and Roch-
ester. He has been a golden link binding these three
Institutions together. May they never forget the man
who loved them all, and was the object of their common
love and reverence !
It was in the year 1823, more than fifty-two years ago,
that our friend became a member of Phillips Academy.
In that early day, as throughout his entire life, there was
something impressive in his personal appearance. The
aspect of the boy at school is vividly remembered yet by
208 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
several of his fellow pupils. One of the most eminent of
them described him in the Atlantic Monthly, for 1869, as
a boy of small stature, black hair, black and bright eyes.
While bending over his study-desk, " his head was be-
tween his hands, and his eyes were fastened to his book,
as if he had been reading a will that made him heir to a
million." " Thousands of faces and forms," adds Dr.
Holmes, "that I have known more or less familiarly, have
faded from my remembrance ; but this presentment of
the youthful student, sitting there entranced over the
page of his text book, is not a picture framed and hung
up in my mind's gallery, but a fresco on its walls, there to
remain so long as they hold together." His habit of iron
diligence, his inflexible perseverance, his rapid progress,
won for him the esteem, not only of his teachers, but
also of the Corporation of the Academy. Hon. Samuel
Hubbard, one of the Trustees, aftenvards a Judge of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, was so deeply impressed
by young Hackett's valedictory oration, that he offered
to the young orator all the pecuniary aid which he might
need during his collegiate course.
The diminutive stature of a boy, as of a man, will
sometimes hide his worth from superficial observers.
While our friend was a member of Phillips Academy, he
became interested in forming an association of the stu-
dents for their mental improvement. One of the students
looked down upon the small boy, and objected to his
being a member of the association. "We shall not allow
any such young creatures as that in our Society," was the
criticism of the stalwart objector. There were other
members of the school, however, who knew the small
ADDRESS BY DR. PARK. 209
boy, and knew also that " mind is the measure of the
man." They ralHed around him, and triumphantly united
with him in forming a new Society, which they named
the Philomathean. It is said that he gave this name to
the association. It is certain that he gave it a character
which it has not lost for fifty years. On the twenty-sixth
of May last (1875), the Philomathean Society held its
Semi-Centennial anniversary at Andover. Five hundred
of its past and present members were assembled at the
Jubilee. Both in private and in public, they indulged in
many a grateful reminiscence of Professor Hackett. One
and another, as they moved over the classic grounds,
talked of the man who was present at the beginning of
the Society, and who gave his strength and skill to the
shaping of its platform. They told of their love for the
scholar whose influence had already flowed through a
half century of that ancient school, and whose influence
is yet to flow on like a refreshing stream. Little did his
encomiasts dream that he was to leave them so soon.
They paid him high honor ; little did they think that
they "did it for his burial."
In [830 he entered the Andover Theological Seminary.
The fame of his career in the Academy still lingered in
its halls. He came laden also with collegiate honors.
His energetic work in the studies of his junior year made
it evident that his honors were well earned. He " dug
deep, that he might pile high." He delighted in books of
solid worth, and gave but little heed to ephemeral litera-
ture. He studied for the present and a future age. His
fellow students predicted that so long as Providence re-
tained him in health, his course would be onward and
15
2IO HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
upward ; and we all believed that after his earthly life had
ceased, his course would continue to be onward and
upward forever and ever.
While a theological student at Andover, he exhibited,
as ever afterwards, various excellencies which appear
sometimes to be incompatible with each other. One
of these excellencies was his exactness of scholarship.
His thoughts were definite, his language precise, his
vocalization distinct. Listening to his clear-cut syllables,
even in his familiar talk, one could not fail to detect
the clearness of his ideas. He would hunt through
lexicons in order to rectify a syllable. At that early age,
his nice critical taste and his acumen in distinguishing
things that differ were obviously preparing him to
write his compact and accurate commentaries. It was
his habit of exact thinking and exact speaking which
first attracted the attention of his teacher, Edward
Robinson. Both in public and in private, in conver-
sation, in epistolary correspondence, and on the printed
page. Professor Robinson foretold the marked emi-
nence of his young pupil as an interpreter of the Scrip-
tures.
His careful scholarship might be supposed to have
been united with a cold and calculating spirit. Just the
reverse. As Dr. Robinson was interested in his accu-
racy, so Professor Stuart was interested in his enthusiasm.
The former extolled him ; the latter exulted in him.
The young pupil combined the carefulness of Robinson
with the fervidness of Stuart. He was a fiery scholar;
every inch a scholar. He studied with all his heart, and
with all his soul, and with all his understanding, and
ADDRESS BY DR. PARK. 211
with all his strength. Emphatically, he was " not slothful
in business," but " fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."
He turned his passions into the channel of his learning.
He often uttered with great energy what he had thought
out with great precision. In the social circle he was
gentle ; but in the literary discussion he was often vehe-
ment. In his ordinary conversation he was like a lamb ;
but in an important debate, like a lion. He was not
only enthusiastic luith his accuracy, but enthusiastic in
it. He was so eager to put himself into the exact
position of the author whom he studied, to enter into
the author's distinctive method of thinking and feeling ;
he was so annoyed when he failed to stand at the precise
angle of vision which the author stood at, and to catch
the particular shade in which the author was looking
at his subject, that he would sometimes leave his study-
chair, rush from one side of his room to the other side,
throw himself on the floor, and there toss himself to
and fro, laboring and struggling for just the right thought
and just the right word. His spirit was like a storm all
the day ; and when the day was gone his body was like
the sea after it had been agitated by the wind. It would
not rest. The darkness of the night brought him no
repose. So much did the careful scholar pay for his
tact and skill in criticism ! So early did he begin his
expensive mode of life ! So large is the outlay for
power to write a book which is really a book ! A genuine
enthusiast in study must work out his success with fear
and trembling. The Apollo Belvidere is not fashioned
except by hard blows of the hammer and sharp incisions
of the chisel.
2 12 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
As it was Professor Hackett's accuracy which attracted
the attention of Edward Robinson, his enthusiasm which
excited the interest of Moses Stuart, so it was his mod-
esty and simple-heartedness, which, in a special manner,
gained the admiration of Bela B. Edwards. Professor
Edwards was not Dr. Hackett's teacher at Andover,
but he was his tutor at Amherst ; and their love for
each other, both at Amherst and Andover, from 1826
to 1852, was like the love of David and Jonathan. There
was a deep and beautiful poetry in it. Professor Hackett
has written a eulogium on Professor Edwards, and if
Professor Edwards were living to-day, and standing
where I now stand, he might repeat that same eulogium,
and apply it almost word for word, to Professor Hackett.
Each esteemed the other for his union of excellencies
which seldom come together in one man. Each esteemed
the other for his meek and lowly spirit, and for the single-
ness and simplicity of his love for the truth. It is re-
markable that Professor Hackett remained so modest
during his entire life. Throughout his boyhood he had
received the highest encomiums from his preceptors and
fellow pupils. In manhood he has been extolled by
men of various classes ; by Rufus Choate and Edward
Everett ; by President Felton and President Wayland ;
by Dean Howson and Dean Alford ; by Tholuck, Nean-
der, and many German scholars, among the rationalists,
and among the supernaturalists. Yet all these things
did not move him. He still remained deferential to his
companions. He treated his inferiors as if they were
above him in worth. Young men often felt abashed
by the humility of his demeanor toward them. Some-
ADDRESS BY DR. PARK. 213
times they could not understand it. Yet, with all his
deference to his teachers, he was too honest to coincide
with them when he did not regard them as coinciding
wnth the truth. Much as he loved his friends, he loved
the truth still more. He had a peculiar fondness for
walking in the same path, and arm in arm with his old
companions in study ; but he chose to walk alone, and in
a different path, if he thought them to be in the wrong
way. His friends loved him when he agreed with them,
and they continued to love him when he differed from
them. They believed him to have one single aim, and
that was to learn and to do the right. They would have
stood in fear of his zealous and enterprising scholarship,
if it had not been combined with his honest, single-
hearted love for truth.
His habits of minute and rigid accuracy might be
supposed to have made him unsocial, but he was a mag-
netic companion. His enthusiasm was no more obvious
in his studies than in his attachments. It made him
capable of deep indignation toward the false and the
wrong; but it made him one of the most affectionate of
friends. Having once loved Andover as the place of his
intellectual nativity, he loved it unto the end. It was a
beautiful filial piety which he manifested toward both the
Academy and the Seminary at which he prepared himself
for the college and the pulpit. Whenever he revisited
those ancient schools, he brought with him an inspiration
like that of a prophet. We entertained him, not unawares,
as if he had been an angel. It was good to hear him
utter his fresh thoughts. Whenever he came to us, he
seemed to be young again. He came absorbed with some
worthy idea. In the streets of the village, in the fields
2 14 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
around it, in the study, and in the parlor, he was eager to
converse on some great article of his faith. His very
questions were instructive ; his answers to questions are
never to be forgotten. He was always ready to learn
something from those whom he could teach ; and he was
an inspiring instructor even in his process of learning.
When I heard by telegraph, that our beloved friend
had been suddenly translated to the other world, my first
thought was : Now he has rejoined his former compan-
ions, who went before him to the great school in the
heavens ; now he will see again the teachers at whose feet
he loved to sit in the schools of earth. Now, too, he will
meet the Fathers of the church whom he revered so
highly ; Augustine, the man of the heart on fire ; Chrys-
ostom, the man of golden speech. Now he will hold
converse with the Apostles ; with Paul, over whose
journeyings and writings our friend had spent days and
nights of study; with John, whom he so much resembled,
at one time like the sparrow, dwelling in the house of the
Lord, at another time like the eagle, soaring toward the
sun. Now will our brother stand before the throne and
say : " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor,
and glory, and blessing." The hard work of life is over.
The pains of his frail body are ended. He looks forward
to no more wearisome days followed by sleepless nights-
He has fought the good fight; he has finished his course;
he has kept the faith. He has become what he seemed
so well fitted to be, a pure spirit ; and we may almost
hear him exclaim : "Now unto the King eternal, immor-
tal, and invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forcv^er and ever. Amen."
ADDRESS BY DR. TYLER. 215
PROFESSOR HACKETT AT AMHERST.
ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM S. TYLER, D. D.,
AT NEWTON, NOVEMBER 6, 1 8/ 5.
When I first received the news of Dr. Hackett's death
and was requested to take part in the funeral exercises, I
felt that I could not do it — any more than I could offici-
ate at the funeral of a brother. But my second thought
was : Is there anything that I would not try to do for
the widow and children of so dear a friend } Yet I can-
not trust myself, especially as I am little accustomed to
speak on such occasions. I fear I could not command
my thoughts and feelings, still less words to express
them. So I beg of you to excuse me for having written
w^hat I wish to say. Thus, I trust, I shall be able to say
it in less time, and to speak less unadvisedly. What I
shall say has respect almost exclusively to his college
relations.
Dr. Hackett w^as my class mate. It has always been
my pleasure and my pride to speak of him as such. The
same is true of every member of our class. He entered
Amherst College in the fall of 1826, at the age of seven-
teen (nearly eighteen), went through the entire course,
and graduated in 1830 with the highest honors. I en-
tered from another college in the second term of the
Junior year, and found him already the acknowledged
leader of the class, not only in scholarship, but in every-
thing of a literary kind, and looked up to by all
College as the best scholar, not only of his class, but
2l6 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
ill the Institution. This peerless standing he held not
because he particularly coveted it, still less because he
sought it by any unworthy means, but simply because
he earned and deserved it. As a student he was already
what I well remember President Sears once reported
him to be as a Professor, " a ferocious worker." I always
think of him in study hours, as I saw him more than
once, in a partially darkened bed-room, with his coat laid
aside, in his shirt sleeves, standing beside his high desk,
with every thought and every power manifestly concen-
trated on his books. Yet no one ever spoke of him as
a ''digl' as such students are sometimes scornfully desig-
nated. He was too manifestly an honest, honorable and
earnest lover of learning for its own sake — he was too
universally honored and beloved for that. His popular-
ity was as remarkable as his scholarship. Hence, w^hen,
in the middle of the last term of our Junior year, we
came to the first election of officers of the literary socie-
ties from our class, he was chosen the first president of
his society, which was then coveted as the highest honor
a student could receive at the hands of his fellow stu-
dents. Yet no one envied him, no one grudged him the
honor. Every one felt that he deserved it for his ability
and fidelity as a member of the society. He was above
envy, above enmity, at once too great and too good for
any one to have the feeling towards him ; much less
express it.
His preference in college was just what it always has
been since — for language and literature. He had com-
paratively little taste for the physical sciences ; he had
no remarkable talent for mathematics, and he was not
ADDRESS BY DR. TYLER. 21 7
preeminent in philosophy. But in classics and belles-
lettres, he was facile pi^inceps, not only without a peer
but without a rival. And if it had been possible for us to
envy him, it would have been when we heard him trans-
late his lessons in the Latin and Greek classics with such
unerring accuracy, and, at the same time, such matchless
elegance. In short, in almost every particular, the boy
in college was father to the man in the author's study
and the professor's chair. Or rather, he was already, as
compared with most college students, the mature man,
the rare scholar, the nice critic, the affluent and graceful
writer,
I must not fail to add, that he had already become a
Christian, having been converted in the great revival of
1827, wiien he w^as a Freshman, and joined the College
Church November 2, 1828, in the beginning of his Soph-
omore year. His piety also was in college, just what it
always continued to be, not emotional, not particularly
active and forward, but consistent, exemplary — not a
spasm, not a profession, but a life and a power in the
community.
After an absence of one year — contrary to the usual
practice of the College, which ordinarily gave such
appointments only to graduates of two years' standing —
he was invited to return as a tutor. His tutorship
began in the autumn of 1831, and closed at Commence-
ment, 1832. He discharged the duties of the office with
such ability, fidelity and success, that the only complaint
I ever heard from officers or students was, that he resisted
all their importunities to stay another year. It was my
lot to succeed him in the tutorial office, and in the room
2l8 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
which he occupied in the old South College. And I have
never forgotten the answer he returned, when I wrote
him from Andover, asking him to sell me his furniture,
which in those days tutors, as well as students, were
obliged to provide for themselves. He said he was just
putting his furniture up to sale at auction, when my letter
came ; but he had at once arrested the hammer of the
auctioneer, and I should have the benefit of all that
remained, adding, in a vein of humor and naivetd which
I often admired in his letters, that that was emphatically
true of tutorial life which the poet said of life in general :
"We want but little here below,
Nor want that little long."
In the winter following, he was appointed by the
Alumni of Amherst at Andover Theological Seminary,
to write the usual letter of Christian salutation and ex-
hortation to their under-graduate brethren in College, just
before the annual fast for Colleges. I have the letter yet ;
and I cannot conceive of anything better fitted to instruct
and impress upon them the duty and privilege of an
exemplary Christian life in College, and the power of
such a life over their unconverted classmates and fellow-
students.
Next to our truly fraternal fellowship and communion
with each other at our respective homes, of which I
cherish many sacred recollections, my most delightful
associations with Dr. Hackett have been in the reunions
of our class from time to time at Commencement. At
such meetings, by a spontaneous impulse, we always
placed him in the chair, and while we gathered around
him as a brother, we also looked up to him as something
ADDRESS BY DR. TYLER. 2I9
more, — as a teacher, a model and a guide ; he always
talked with us with the wisdom of a scholar, it is true,
but also with the humility, modesty and simplicity of a
little child.
The last time he met us was at the Semi-centennial of
the College, in 187 1. By the joint action of a Committee
of the Alumni, the Trustees and the Faculty, he was
appointed one of the speakers on that occasion. For his
College was proud of him, and delighted to honor him ;
and having been anticipated by the University of Ver-
mont in giving him the D. D., his Alma Mater in 1862
had already conferred on him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws.
In compliance with the invitation he was present at
the Semi-centennial, and was prepared to speak; but when
he saw the big tent, and the vast congregation by which
it was filled, his heart seems to have failed him, — at
any rate when he was called, he was not there — he was
nowhere to be found. Always and everywhere modest,
he was especially shy, shrinking, diffident of appearing
before a great congregation. He was born and trained,
not for the platform, but for the study and the class-room.
The address which he so shrunk from delivering, was
printed in the Semi-centennial pamphlet. It was full, as
he always was, of loyalty to his College, love to his Alma
Mater, fraternal affection to his brother Alumni, and
especial complacency towards his class, in whose behalf
and for whose sake it was that he particularly wished to
speak. Though shrinking from the public speech, he
enjoyed everything else, — the class-meeting, the renewal
of old acquaintance, the converse with personal friends.
2 20 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
the respectful and almost worshipful regard of his hosts —
all these he enjoyed like a child revisiting the homestead
and the place of his birth.
A few weeks after, he wrote me a letter, which so
reveals the warmth of his noble and generous heart, that
I cannot refrain from giving an extract: "How delight-
ful my visit to dear old Amherst was, and how grateful
will ever be my remembrance of old friendships revived,
and personal intercourse with classmates renewed, alas !
too briefly, I cannot easily describe. Such a mingling of
sadness and yet calm happiness — of happiness from the
manifestation of kindness and affection on the part of all
the old friends whom I met after so many years of separa-
tion— it really has left on my heart an impression, joyous,
serious, solemn, such as I have never experienced in all
my life. There was nothing to mar the deep satisfaction
with which my heart was filled ; and I came away feeling
that my happiness had been just about as complete as
the conditions of our present imperfect human state
would allow. I love the entire human brotherhood the
better for such an experience, and feel that the ties of
humanity knit me more closely than ever before with all
my race. I am not expressing my thoughts and feelings
very clearly, but let these broken words help you to some
conception of what I mean."
Perhaps I do wrong to draw the veil from such thoughts
and feelings expressed only in the privacy of a friendly
letter; but do they not reveal a heart such as scholars
and recluses are generally believed not to possess, and
which was known only to his most intimate friends }
Perhaps I owe an apology for all these personal details.
ADDRESS BY DR. TYLER. 22 1
But it has been my privilege to see this prince of Ameri-
can Biblical scholars, this model commentator on the
Acts of the Apostles, this full and exact annotator of
classical authors, this patient and indefatigable corrector
of errors and collector of facts, this leading member of
the National Committee for Bible Revision, this critical
editor and reviser of the best Bible Dictionary of the
age, this really many-sided man, whom the world knows
only as a critic and scholar — ^I say, it has been my happi-
ness to see him chiefly on his genial and sunny side, and
I would fain give some glimpses of it to others. Truth,
accuracy, sincerity, all who knew anything of him, knew
that he possessed, as well as they knew that he possessed
vast stores of knowledge and rare critical acumen. But
that he was as loving and lovely as he was truthful and
correct ; that he was overflowing with tenderness, gentle-
ness, generosity, magnanimity, philanthropy, gratitude
for kindness, complacency towards goodness, and love
to every human being, was known only to his friends.
Those who entertained him felt that they had enter-
tained an angel unawares.
The last letter I received from this dear friend and
brother, was in answer to an invitation, which, as class-
secretary, I sent him to a reunion of the class, on the
forty-fifth anniversary of our graduation — the Commence-
ment of 1875. In response to this invitation, he wrote
that he was just on the eve of embarkation for Europe ;
expressed his sorrow and regret that he could not be
present, and his best wishes for the meeting, and sent the
most afTectionate greetings to all his surviving classmates.
But, do you believe it, with one accord we agreed to
222 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
have no meeting, feeling that we could not meet without
Hackett — that without him the class would hardly retain
its identity. So we put off the meeting till our fiftieth
anniversary, hoping that he would be present. And
now, alas ! he will never meet with us again in this world.
But he has gone over to the other side, where the majority
of us are already gathered. There, I trust, we shall all
soon meet. There, if there is any truth in that almost
intuitive belief, even of the best pagans, that the departed
retain, not only the character but more or less of the
circumstances and relations of the present life, we will
gather around him again, and again sit at his feet. There
will he lead classmates and pupils without number to
the living, eter^ial Word, and there he will be our
guide through the trtic land of the Bible, — the heavenly
Canaan. Beloved brother ! thou hast been very dear
unto us. We would fain have had one more meeting
as a class. Fain would we, as individuals, at least, have
seen thee in thy last hours, taken thee once more by the
hand, heard thy last words, and received a parting bless-
ing. But, nay, let us rather give him joy, not only in
his departure, but in the time and manner of it, in the
fulness of health and strength, in the freshness and clear-
ness of mental vigor, in the midst of his chosen and
appointed work, from the very presence of his beloved
pupils, without disease or decay, from the battle of life
right to the trophy, from the class-room straight to the
crown. From such a " sudden death " shall I pray, Good
Lord, deliver us ! Rather would I say : " Let me thus
die the death of the righteous, and, if the Lord will, let my
last end be like his ! "
ADDRESS BY DR. CASWELL. 223
PROFESSOR HACKETT IN PROVIDENCE.
REMARKS BY REV. ALEXIS CASWELL, D. D., LL. D.,
AT THE FUNERAL OF REV. DR. HACKETT, AT NEWTON,
NOVEMBER 6, 1 875.
My Dear Professor Whittemore:
You have kindly requested me to furnish you with a copy of my
remarks at the funeral of Dr. Hackett, touching his residence and
labors as a Professor in Brown University. This it will be impos-
sible for me to do with any considerable accuracy, inasmuch as I
spoke without any written memoranda. I can only give, in a general
way, the substance of my remarks. Yours truly,
ALEXIS CASWELL.
Dr. Hackett commenced his duties as Adjunct Professor
of Latin and Greek, in Brown University, in September,
1835, and continued in service till September, 1839.
His study in University Hall was just across the passage-
way from my own. During those five years I saw him
almost daily, and knew him intimately. The intimacy
then formed was never impaired in after life, or in any
manner interrupted, except by distance of residence.
I can well recall the impressions of my first interviews
wnth him. He w^as then young, of medium height and
stature, with piercing, small black eyes, regular features,
and compressed, unyielding lips. His health, even at
that period of his life, was far from being robust. It w^as
seldom, however, that any physical infirmity prevented
the most unremitting labor.
The first impression of his mental habits and character,
derived even from a casual conversation, was that of
2 24 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
a man of clear, well-formed ideas, tersely expressed ; of
a man of lofty ideals, who was leaving what was behind,
and reaching forth to seize the grand moral and intellect-
ual prizes before him. Firmness of purpose and decision
of character, stood out conspicuously from whatever
stand-point you viewed him.
His labors as an instructor in Latin and Greek, were
eminently successful. His own habits of classical study
were critical and exact to the last degree. No pains
was spared to furnish himself with the latest and best
results of scholarship in relation to the classical author
before him, and no pains was spared to impress upon his
pupils the necessity of aiming at critical accuracy in the
lesson of every day. And he was fortunately happy in
imparting his own enthusiasm to many of his pupils.
If there was a heedless sluggard among them, he never
failed to have a feeling sense of his deficiencies at the
close of every recitation. There was no escape from the
searching examination of the Professor.
I think it is not too much to say that his classical
instructions formed an era in the history of the College.
They left an enduring impression, and have ever since
been regarded as the proper type of classical training.
One of the two eminent Professors of the Latin and
Greek languages and literatures, now in the University,
was a pupil of his, and the other, though not a pupil,
was an intimate friend. They both cherish a very high
appreciation of his singular ability and faithfulness as a
teacher. Indeed, the best colleo-e 2;raduates of his time
have often been heard to speak with pride of having
been under his instructions.
ADDRESS BY DR. CASWELL. 225.
In his habits of intercourse, Professor Hackett was
modest and retiring. Boasting, and show, and laboring
for effect, were utterly repulsive to his nature. He looked
upon them as the unmistakable marks of an empty,
shallow mind, the cheap and flimsy substitutes for real
worth. In social intercourse, he w^as always a welcome
guest, and an instructive companion. But such were his
habits of labor, so severe his devotion to his studies, that
he scarcely allowed himself the recreation necessary, in
most cases, to the normal, healthy condition of the mind.
Morning and evening, day and night, it was pressing on
with unremitting efforts for the accomplishment of the
task before him. His mind and heart and all his instincts,
were enlisted in the work, and it would be imposing upon
him an irksome restraint to tear him away from it. I
often regretted that he did not give himself a larger
measure of recreation and freedom from the exhaustinof
labors of his profession. But it was not in him to do so.
And it might possibly have interfered with those splendid
achievements, which crowned his subsequent career.
I cannot close these remarks without alluding to the
religious character of Dr. Hackett at that period of his
life. Religion with him was a thing of daily, practical
duty. It was deep and well grounded, though silent and
unobtrusive. His opinions were gravely considered, with
a manifest desire of reaching the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth ; and when that point was reached, he rested
securely, and no common wind of doctrine would disturb
him. He indulged in no dogmatic assurances rushing
onward with bold assumptions "where angels fear to
tread." On controverted subjects, which have divided the
16
226 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
opinions of able and honest inquirers, he exercised that
large and generous charity which becomes a large and
cultivated mind, and which in the long run and blending
of human affairs, and which in relation to the progress of
true religion in the world, is of more value than any
achievements, however splendid, in mere literature, or
philology or science. The habit of considering and
weighing the grounds of an opinion, of estimating the
real weight of arguments for and against it ; and of clear-
ing away the rubbish which obstructs the mental view, is
indispensable to the character of a good interpreter. No
man can ever be a great teacher, or win the confidence of
an intelligent public, who does not fairly look at the
evidence of a question in all its bearings ; and no man
who does that can ever be a dogmatist or a bigot. It
was one of the admirable traits of Dr. Hackett, which I
think I may claim without fear of contradiction, that he
carried to every question he discussed a fairness and
candor worthy of all commendation.
ADDRESS BY DR. HOVEY. 22/
DR. HACKETT AT NEWTON.
REMARKS AT THE FUNERAL OF PROF. H. B. HACKETT, D. D.,
LL. D., AT NEWTON, NOVEMBER 6, 1 875.
BY ALVAH HOVEY.
It is not in my power to stand before you on this
occasion without recalhng a service of the same kind in
which I was called to participate less than five months
ago. For, on the twenty-fourth of May, we came into
this house to testify our respect for the character and
services of Dr. Ripley, and now, on the sixth of Novem-
ber, we meet in the same place to testify our respect for
the character and services of Dr. Hackett. Under the
shadow of the Institution which they so ably served, and
in the house of prayer which they so often visited, we
cannot forget their joint labors and blended influence in
behalf of sacred learning, nor can we doubt that the year
which is drawing to a close will be remembered by the
older graduates of Newton as a year of bereavement
rather than as a year of jubilee. With this brief allusion
to our double loss, I turn my remarks to the life of him
whose form is with us to-day, but whose spirit has re-
turned to God who gave it.
Horatio Balch Hackett, D. D., LL. D., was born in
Salisbury, Mass., on the 27th of December, 1808. In his
childhood he became a lover of books. He was fitted
for college in Phillips Academy, Andover, and was grad-
228 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
uated at Amherst in 1830, with the highest honors of his
class. After one year in Andover Theological Seminary,
he returned to Amherst as tutor, for the year 183 1-2.
Resuming his theological studies he finished them in
1834, and then engaged in teaching for a year near Balti-
more, Md. In 1835, he was made Adjunct Professor of
the Greek and Latin languages in Brown University, and
three years later, Professor of Hebrew literature and the
classics. In 1839, he took the chair of Biblical Literature
and Interpretation in Newton Theological Institution,
and filled it with distinguished ability twenty-nine years.
In the Autumn of 1868, he entered the service of the
American Bible Union, and two years after became Pro-
fessor of Biblical Literature and New Testament Exegesis
in Rochester Theological Seminary — an ofhce which he
filled till the day of his death.
Dr. Hackett spent the greater part of 1842 in Halle
and Berlin. In 185 1-2, he crossed the Atlantic again,
and traveled in Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and other coun-
tries. In 1858-9, he resided for several months in Athens,
for the purpose of studying the modern Greek, and also
visited many places in or near Greece that were specially
interesting to a Biblical expositor ; among these were
Corinth, Neapolis, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Smyrna.
He revisited Europe in 1870, and again, for the last time,
during the Summer of this year.
It will be observed that by far the largest part of his
public life was given to the Seminary in this place, and
during twenty-two of the twenty-nine years of his con-
nection with it I was either a pupil or a teacher in the
school. Permit me, then, to state with the utmost sim-
ADDRESS BY DR. HOVEY. 229
plicity, a few impressions which his hfe here made upon
my mind.
Dr. Hackett was a close and a wise student. To know
him well w^as to know that study was his business and
delight. When he came to Newton, his reputation as a
linguist was already high with those who had come under
his instruction or formed his acquaintance, but every
year of his life in this place added to that reputation.
For he gave himself up to his work with an almost con-
suming energy ; and the larger part of that work was
study. His thirst for knowledge, clear and full, within
the limits which he had marked out for himself, was
ardent and irrepressible. It led him to neglect for many
years the bodily exercise and recreation which are con-
ditions of permanent health, and when, after a warning
that no man who wished to live could neglect, he con-
sented to spend a part of every day in the open air, and
thus diminish his hours of study, he seemed to leave his
books with peculiar reluctance and to return to them
with inexpressible fondness. Yet he did not treat them
as toys with which to amuse his fancy, but as sources
of knowledge, to be sharply questioned and fully mas-
tered, or as portions of the vast domain of human and
divine thought, to be explored with the keenest eye, and
the truest heart. His study was, therefore, 'a place of
intense mental and moral activity, and his progress in
knowledge often rapid, and rarely interrupted. Month
by month, and year by year, he added to the stores of
learning which enriched his mind and qualified him for
the his^h service to which he was called. Moreover, he
recognized in his work the great fact that no man can
230 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
learn everything in this hfe, and that to become master
of any single branch of knowledge we must practice a
certain degree of self-denial in respect to other branches.
He did not, therefore, suffer his attention to be diverted,
for any length of time, from the studies which belonged
to his own department. His excursions into any other
domain were so brief as never to distract his mind or
divide his interest. To the interpretation of Scripture
he consecrated his life, and only those branches of
knowledge which promised him the most help in that
work, had any permanent and controlling influence on
his course of study. The languages in which our sacred
books were first written, the events and truths recorded
in these books, the lands in which the events took place,
and the books were penned, with the peculiarities and
customs of the nations referred to, were the nucleus of
his system of investigation. But in prosecuting his in-
quiries, the literature of Germany on Biblical subjects
was indispensable, and that of France useful, a personal
inspection of places in the Holy Land was important,
and familiarity with modern Greek desirable. All these,
in addition to an ever-growing acquaintance with the
literary and religious treasures of our noble English
tongue, were secured, so that few men have ever been
so fully in possession of the knowledge which is requisite
in order to the best interpretation of the Bible.
Dr. Hackett was also a most instructive and stimu-
lating teacher. The exactness of his knowledge, the
beauty of his diction, and the enthusiasm of his spirit,
always excited the admiration of his pupils, and rarely
failed to enkindle in their hearts a love of biblical study.
ADDRESS BY DR. HOVEY. 23 1
He came to the class-room full of his lesson, from the
very heat of investigation at his own desk, and often,
when I was a pupil, at the last moment. But he never
came with a confused medley of opinions in his mind.
His thoughts were well-arranged and pertinent, and his
words fell from his lips with the propriety and elegance
of written speech. Not only was he prepared to instruct
his pupils, he was also ready to test their knowledge of
what he had given them before, and to exact from them
a careful study of the lesson. If, misled by his own quick
apprehension and powerful memory, he sometimes
expected more from a dull mind than it was able to
accomplish, he certainly did much to accelerate the
progress of many a good intellect which had never been
roused to the highest exertion. But he was intolerant of
stupidity. Moreover, like every other good teacher, he
excelled in certain directions ; and, if I may judge by my
recollection of his work, he exhibited uncommon skill in
detecting and bringing to view the finer shadings of
thought in both words and sentences, and also in gather-
ing up and presenting all the personal, local, and historical
circumstances which affect in any way the significance of
language. Well do I recollect the admiration which he
expressed for the great work of Conybeare and Howson
on " The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," at its first
appearance, and the lively interest which he manifested in
ascertaining all the surroundings of the apostle as he
preached in different cities of the Roman Empire. It is
not, therefore, surprising that his visit to Egypt and
Palestine was of signal advantage to him as a teacher of
the Holy Scriptures. His previous studies qualified him
232 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
to see the sacred places with profit, and his fine descrip-
tive powers enabled him to portray distinctly what he
had seen. It should also be remarked, that his peculiarly
sensitive nature responded quickly to all the changes of
feeling that find expression in lyric poetry, and that it was
a rare privilege to sit at his feet as he interpreted the
psalms of David. And, therefore, with reference to the
seminary which he served in this place, I may repeat
what I said at our last anniversary, " that, for a consider-
able period, at least, his was the name that attracted
young men to this school, and his the ability which
retained them here. Not only by the accuracy of his
knowledge, but also by the singular beauty of his
language, did he charm and inspire the classes under his
charge, and wield a potent influence in favor of Christian
culture."
At the close of his services in this Institution, the
trustees expressed their appreciation of his character and
work in a just and appropriate tribute. [The speaker here
recited the words of this tribute, which will be found on
pages 144-5-]
Dr. Hackett was a distinguished author. His literary
activity began soon after he came to this Institution, and
closed with his life. He studied with pen in hand, and
reduced the fruits of his investigation to form and sym-
metry. Not to mention numerous articles from his pen
in the BibliotJicca Sacra, and Christian Reviezv, he gave
several volumes of permanent value to the public. His
edition of Plutarch's treatise on " The Delay of the Deity
in the Punishment of the Wicked," was published early
in 1844, was enriched with critical and historical notes,
ADDRESS BY DR. HOVEY. 233
and was used for some years by his classes in the Semi-
nary. His translation of Winer's " Grammar of the
Chaldee Language " appeared the following year, and his
"Hebrew Exercises," a small volume costing a great
amount of labor, in 1847, two years later. From that
time onward, till 1851, he applied himself to the prepara-
tion of "A Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts
of the Apostles," a work which has been recognized on
both sides of the Atlantic as an honor to the biblical
scholarship of America. A new edition of this commen-
tary, revised and greatly enlarged, was issued in 1858.
Meanwhile he gave to the world a volume entitled,
"Illustrations of Scripture, suggested by a tour through
the Holy Land," and I cannot forbear making a single
extract from this volume, to show the exquisite beauty of
his style in description.
After expressing his disappointment at not finding for
a while any specimens of the mustard-plant large enough
to satisfy the requirements of our Lord's parable of the
mustard-seed, he proceeds thus : " Some days after this,
as I was riding across the plain of Akka, on the way to
Carmel, I perceived at some distance from the path what
seemed to be a little forest or nursery of trees. I turned
aside to examine them. On coming nearer, they proved
to be an extensive field of the plant which I was so
anxious to see. It was then in blossom, full grown, in
some cases six, seven, and nine feet high, with a stem or
trunk an inch or more in thickness, throwing out branches
on every side. I was satisfied in part. I felt that such a
plant might well be called a tree, and, in comparison with
the seed producing it, a great tree. But still the branches,
234 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
or Stems of the branches, were not very large, or, appar-
ently, very strong. Can the birds, I said to myself, rest
upon them ? Are they not too slight and flexible ? Will
they not bend or break beneath the superadded weight?
At that very instant, as I stood and revolved the thought,
lo! one of the fowls of heaven stopped in its flight
through the air, alighted down on one of the branches,
which hardly moved beneath the shock, and then began,
perched there before my eyes, to warble forth a strain of
the richest music. All my doubts were now charmed
away. I was delighted at the incident. It seemed to me
at the moment as if I enjoyed enough to repay me for all
the trouble of the whole journey." This description is
perfect, so perfect, indeed, that no man who has read it
would gain anything by seeing with his own eyes what
the writer saw.
His next volume was " Notes on the Greek Text of
the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, and a Revised Version "
of that text, prepared for the American Bible Union, and
published in i860. This was followed, in 1863, by a trans-
lation of Van Oosterzee's Commentary on the same
epistle, in the series edited by Dr. Schafif; in 1864, by
" Memorials of Christian Men in the War;" and, in 1870,
by a translation of Braune's Commentary on the Epistle
to the Philippians, which belongs to the series just
named, and to which he made important additions. If
we add to these works the articles which he furnished
for the first edition of " Smith's Dictionary of the Bible,"
and the large contributions which he made to the Amer-
ican edition of that work, together with his notes to a
recent American edition of Rawlinson's " Historical Illus-
ADDRESS BY DR HOVEY. 235
trations of the Old Testament," it might almost appear
as if his life had been given to authorship. For whatever
he did, he did well ; " whatever he touched, he adorned."
My sole regret, as I review this part of his career, is that
he did not give to the people more commentaries of his
own, instead of translating the works of others.
Dr. Hackett was also a genuine philanthropist. He
had a keen appreciation of evil, and saw the dark side of
human life quite as distinctly as the bright. Oppression
of any kind excited his indignation, and suffering of any
kind, whether bodily or mental, his sympathy. Never
shall I forget his intense displeasure at the surrender of
the fugitive Burns, under the operation of a law which
he condemned as unchristian and unholy. Slavery he
abhorred ; and when the war began he lifted up his voice
against those who had brought it on the nation. Indeed,
so eloquently did he speak, and so warmly did he testify
his admiration for the young men who left their pleasant
homes among us to offer their lives for the sacred cause,
that when the noise of war was hushed, and the citizens
of Newton would dedicate a monument to their fallen
sons. Dr. Hackett was selected to pronounce an oration
in honor of the dead ; and near the granite shaft in our
beautiful cemetery, in sight almost of the grave where his
body is soon to be laid, he addressed his fellow-townsmen
with a beauty of language, a tenderness of sentiment, and
a depth of wisdom w^hich could not well be surpassed or
forgotten. Nor will I hesitate to recall the fact that
when, during the progress and darkness of that awful
conflict, it w^as thought prudent to form a home guard
and accustom some of the older citizens to military terms
236 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
and movements, he took his place in the ranks and
endeavored to prepare himself for possible service. But,
if I mistake not, the deepest source of his sympathy with
the North in that strife, was not his love of country, but
his love of man ; was not his desire that the Union might
be preserved unbroken, but that right might prevail and
oppression cease. Doubtless both desires were in his
heart, but, so far as I can recall his words, the latter was
stronger than the former. At all events, I am certain of
his profound interest in the welfare of those classes of
men who seem less highly favored by the gifts of Provi-
dence in their earthly lot than some of their brothers.
Dr. Hackett was likewise a sincere and humble Chris-
tian. As he was a man, he had faults to lament, and sins
to confess; but he knew the only sufficient Helper, and
to him he resorted for grace in time of need. En-
dowed with rare powers, which were cultivated with
unremitting diligence, and used for noble ends, he was
not unconscious at times of his claim upon the respect
and even gratitude of his fellow men ; but before his
Maker and Redeemer, he ever put oif the shoes from his
feet, and bowed down in spirit as a little child. No one
could listen to his voice in prayer without feeling that he
drew near to the mercy seat, without recognizing in
every word and tone the very spirit of penitence and
faith and gracious apprehension of the loving kindness
of God, which is the surest evidence of divine life in the
soul. And, though he was rarely present at the social
meetings of the church, yet when he did appear and
take part in the service, it was always in such a manner
as to awaken sincere regret in the hearts of all that he
ADDRESS BY DR. HOVEY. 237
should ever be absent. The depth of his Christian Hfe
was also revealed by his treatment of the Holy Scrip-
tures. For it is not too much for me to say, that he
manifested an absolute and unwavering confidence in
their divine character and authority. The word of a
sacred writer was to him the word of the living God,
and he paid to it the homage of unqualified faith. What
a lesson to the young men under his instruction ! And
what an example to those who have not bestowed on
that Word a thousandth part of the study which he gave
to it ! This study was to him a pleasure as well as a
duty ; for he found springs of holy thought and comfort
in the inspired Word, and these became, as it were, wells
of water in his own soul springing up into everlasting life.
Indeed, the assurance with which he rested on the testi-
mony of Scripture, was a joy to us all. And as he
advanced in years and in knowledge, I have reason to
believe that the breadth and richness and mellowness
of his experience, kept pace with his mental growth,
so that those who have been intimate with him of late
have seen the richest fruits of grace in his life. Famil-
iarity with sacred things did not diminish, but it rather
augmented and purified his reverence for them.
Such was Dr. ^Hackett, as known to his pupils and
associates in labor. To his own family I am certain that
he was far more than this. A faithful husband, an indul-
gent father, a kind protector, a wise counsellor, he was
their honor and their stay ; and now they must feel, more
deeply than words can express, that the light of their
household has gone out. To the sacredness of their
sorrow I venture not to approach with any thought
238 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
of my own, but will only ask them to appropriate, as
far as present grief will allow, the sentiment of one who
knew the bitterness of affliction : " The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away ; and blessed be the name
of the Lord." Their loss is great, the loss of the Semi-
nary in Rochester is great, the loss of the denomination
is great, and the loss of the Christian world is great ; but
He that is wiser than the wisest has done it, and his
language to us now, is : " Be still, and know that I am
God. "
REMARKS BY DR. ROBINSON. 239
REMINISCENCES OF DR. HACKETT,
AT PROVIDENCE, NEWTON, AND ROCHESTER, BY REV.
E. G. ROBINSON, D. D., LL. D.
Dr. Robinson was prevented from being at the funeral of Dr.
Hackett by sudden and severe illness, and has desired it to be men-
tioned, that what follows is furnished as a brief and meagre outline
of what would have been said at Newton, on that occasion.
It was forty years ago this Autumn that I first saw our
departed friend. He had then but just entered on his
duties as Adjunct Professor of the Latin and Greek Lan-
guages, in Brown University, at which I was a student in
the Sophomore class. Though at that time but twenty-
seven years of age, and with but two years of experience
as a teacher, he entered as quietly upon the duties of his
chair, and assumed as firm a hold on his classes as if he
had been a veteran instructor. As I now remember him,
there was the same placid countenance, the same silent
but contagious earnestness of purpose, the same quick,
critical eye and ear, which have been so manifest to all
the successive classes, that through the forty years since
have come under his instruction.
His coming to Brown University brought with it a
new life to the classical studies of that Institution. None
came under his tuition without feeling at once the quick-
ening influence of his method and spirit. Many a man
is remembering to-day, with renewed and deepened sense
of gratitude, his indebtedness for those long past days of
instruction.
240 HORATIO BALCII IIACKKTT.
But it soon became evident that the youthful Professor
at Brown had tastes and rare qualification for something
higher and more useful than the work of an adjunct pro-
fessorship in Latin and Greek. A new professorship was
accordingly created for him, with the title of "Hebrew
and Classical Literature." That professorship he occupied
two years, when the wider and more attractive field was
opened to him in the chair of "Biblical Literature," in the
Newton Theological Institution.
Perhaps it is not improper to say, that it was the coming
of our friend to Newton, which finally turned hither my
own uncertain steps ; and I shall never cease to be grate-
ful for that divine providence which made me a member
of his first class of Theological students. In after years
his views were certainly more mature, his criticisms
possibly more exact and assured, and his general range
of knowledge greatly widened, but it is doubtful if all
this were not more than compensated for, by the first
freshness of feeling with which he was then entering
on the work of his life. The dew of his youth was still
on him. The hopes of early manhood, devout, but ear-
nest and aspiring, expressed themselves in every feature
of his face, and gave vigor and animation to every tone of
his voice. Himself working each day with all the energy
of which he was capable, he came to his duties with the
glad feeling of one who was daily making new discoveries.
His studies were a continual delight to him ; he could
not understand how they could be otherwise to any one
else. Well do I remember, how, more than once, aroused
by the neglect or apparent indifference of some one in
the work of the class, he dropped his text-book and
REMARKS BY DR. ROBINSON. 24I
poured forth words and sentiments that thrilled all our
hearts, and quickened our intellects. Seeming to catch
the spirit of his author, perhaps a prophet, or the Apostle
Paul, he solemnly adjured us to be diligent and faithful
in our work. And in the memories of some who then
heard him, his words have remained as those of an ever-
present monitor.
Between the close of my studies as a Theological stu-
dent, and the removal of Dr. Ilackett to Rochester, I
had met him hut occasionally. When, as colleagues, our
relations brought us into daily intercourse, I found the
ardor of the youthful Professor, chastened, it is true, by
age, but elevated into a uniform and sustained enthusiasm.
Instead of wearying of his work as an instructor, he
seemed to come to each day's tasks with new zeal. As
he had once looked forward with ardor to the long future,
so now he seemed to be stimulated by a sense of the
shortness of the time remaining. He saw, with increasing
clearness, the relation of his work as an exegete to the
latest of the conflicts of Christianity with error. I re-
member how, in the later years, an allusion to the con-
nexion of a minute study of the Gospels with the needed
apologetics of our time, called forth a succession of
profound and inspiring thoughts which could have come
only from the accumulated reflections of years; and they
came so freighted with emotion, and so conveyed by
look and language and gesture, as to leave an impression,
which I am sure I never shall lose.
And what he was as a companion in the interchange
of thought, he also was as a teacher in the lecture-room.
The most insensible could not escape the contagion of
17
242 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
his noiseless but felt enthusiasm. The attention of the
most indifferent was aroused and fastened on him. He
saw in the text which he expounded what the common
eye overlooked. Men went from his lecture-room with
the feeling that the Bible was a book which they had
not known before how to study.
The last years of our friend's life, it is gratifying to
know, were among his happiest. He seems never to
have enjoyed the work of a teacher more. Possibly the
veil that hides the invisible world grew thinner to his
gaze, and unseen things became increasingly real to him ;
but certain it is that the events in the life of our Lord
and his words were never dwelt on with more satisfac-
tion to himself, or with better results in his pupils.
And surely, his was a fit ending to such a life. From
expounding the words of the Divine Master, and his
Apostles, he was translated, almost at once, to speak face
to face with the Apostles, and with the Master Himself.
The faithful servant, his work well done, has entered into
the joy of his Lord.
ADDRESS BY DR. PEABODY. 243
THE CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF REV. HORATIO
B. HACKETT, D. D., LL. D., BY REV. ANDREW P.
PEABODY, D. D., LL. D., NOV. 6, 1 8 75.
Paul could say with literal truth: "I know nothing but
Jesus Christ and him crucified;" for his ever-active and
assimilating faith in his Divine Lord had absorbed into
its ow^n substance all that he had acquired from his liberal
culture at Tarsus and Jerusalem, from his travels in many
lands, and his unprecedentedly rich and varied experience.
No motto, methinks, could be more appropriate than
this to our friend, to whom we are now paying our tribute
of honor, reverence and love. He was preeminently
learned, and his scholarship had the widest range, embrac-
ing things ancient and modern, sacred and classical, the
works of God and the ways of men ; but his learning
was all sanctified, transmuted into the knowledge of God
and his Word, made availing for the interpretation of the
sacred volume, with its central figure of the Redeemer,
and its culminating power and glory in his cross.
As a critical scholar of the New Testament, he has
left few equals, no superior. I first became acquainted
with him through his Commentaiy on the Acts of the
Apostles, which seems to me second to no work of its
kind in any language. In this, as in all his similar writ-
ings that have come under my eye, he unites two qualities,
the absence of either of which destroys the worth of a
scriptural commentary, — the intrepidity of the scholar
244 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
who thoroughly knows his ground, and the piety of him
who never forgets that it is holy ground. In all questions
of philology and interpretation, he treats the sacred record
with the same searching scrutiny and judicial impartiality
with which he would handle any literary monuments of
antiquity ; but, its sense once ascertained, it is no longer
the word of man, but the testimony of those who wrote
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
For the last twenty years or more, it has been my
privilege to know him personally, never with any close-
ness of intimacy, but with a constantly growing admiration
and affection. While there were not wantina: occasions
on which he showed an impregnable strength of character
and the capacity of vigorous aggression on wrong and
evil, he most impressed me by his meekness, gentleness
and modesty. No man could have been less capable of
self-assertion. Honors came to him, not because he
sought, or expected, or even desired them, but because he
could not evade them. He seemed in solitary ignorance
of his own scholarly merits and well-earned fame. The
last that I saw of him was characteristic of his whole life
and spirit. It was in the class-room at Rochester, at a
qtiasi public examination, in the presence of a consider-
able number of clergymen and men of classical culture,
before whom he might easily have made, and was
probably by some expected to make, a brilliant and
attractive display of his own critical acumen, ability and
learning. But I soon found that his sole and absorbing
aim was to bring out all that was in his pupils, to put
them at their ease in the presence of strangers, and to
ensure for them the opportunity of doing themselves
ADDRESS BY DR. PEABODY. 245
justice. I went into the class-room for an exhibition of
scholarship ; I came away with a lesson of self-forgetting
kindness and humility.
While we are thankful for the memorials of our friend's
genius and industry, which have ensured for him an
enduring place among the foremost names in sacred
literature, we most of all love, at this moment, to recog-
nize in his sweet simplicity, in his fervent piety, in his
single-hearted devotion to the cause of Christ, the tokens
of his nearness to the heart of his Saviour, of his close
walk with God, of a pilgrimage all whose steps were
heavenward. The close of such a life is but translation,
ascension. Let us not forget that the appalling suddenness
of his removal— so full of dread to those who hung upon
his lips, and from whom more than half of life seemed to
go when he went from them — was to him a boon from
heaven. It was his blessed privilege to prolong his life-
work to the last moment on earth, and with no weary
waiting, no slow decline and decay, but in full activity of
mind and with undimmed fervor of spirit, to pass from
the altar-service below to that above, — from the minis-
tration of the written word to the open vision of those
nearest the throne, where the glory of God and the Lamb
is their everlasting light and joy.
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES.
FROM ACADEMICAL AND CLERICAL BODIES.
FACULTY OF ROCHESTER SEMINARY. 249
THE FACULTY
OF THE
ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
Professor William C. Wilkinson, by desire of his asso-
ciates, presented the following as an expression of their
sentiments : —
The Faculty of the Seminary desire to put on record
some suitable expression of their sense of loss as a body,
in the death of their venerated and beloved associate,
Dr. H. B. Hackett. They adopt accordingly the follow-
ing minute : —
It was the fortune of most of them to know Dr.
Hackett only in the mellow ripeness of the beautiful
latter years of his life. The purity and gentleness of
that period with him, were enhanced to their appre-
ciation by the tradition that accompanied him to the
last, of the native strength and strenuousness of his
character.
The clearness of his mind, the candor of his judgment,
the chastened sweetness of his spirit, his conscientious
scholarship, the true and incisive phrase in which he
spoke, his singular unworldliness, the childlikeness with
which he was willing to learn, the paternal kindliness
with which he was patient to teach, the singleness and
intentness of his devction to his one work in life — -these
recollections of their departed brother and father, will
always remain with them an inspiration to whatever is
clear and high in aim, and to whatever is pure and lovely
in character.
Records of the Faculty.
250 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
THE TRUSTEES
OF THE
ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
The Executive Board of the New York Baptist Union
for Ministerial Education, desire to put upon record an
expression of the profound sorrow with which they have
received the intelligence of the death of the Reverend
Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., LL. D., so lately Professor
of Biblical Literature and New Testament Exegesis,
in the Rochester Theological Seminary, under their
care.
With gratitude, and with the highest hopes, we wel-
comed him five years ago, to his new place of work
as teacher in the Original Scriptures. With equal
gratitude we recognize at this time, the great service
he has rendered to the Institution with which these
last years of his life were identified, and the well-nigh
irreparable loss which, not only our Seminary, but the
cause of sacred learning in America, has sustained in
his death.
We cherish with peculiar interest and pleasure, the
memory of his single-hearted devotion to his work ; of
his inspiring influence upon successive companies of
students who sat under his instruction ; of his unaffected
and retiring manners, evincing the true humility of a
Christian scholar ; and, above all, of his unwavering
confidence in that Word of God, upon which he based
all his hopes, both for himself and for the world.
TRUSTEES OF ROCHESTER SEMINARY. 25 1
In communicating this minute to the family of our
departed associate and friend, we desire to add to our
expression of heartfelt regret and sympathy, a recognition
of special obligation for their generous gift to the Roches-
ter Theological Seminary of so large a portion of Dr.
Hackett's library. We gratefully accept the gift with
the conditions annexed, and invoke upon the givers
Heaven's richest blessings of guidance and comfort for-
ever.
Austin H. Cole,
Recording Secretary.
252 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
THE FACULTY
OF THE
NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.
At a meeting of the Faculty held November 4th, 1875,
the following memorial presented by Professor Caldwell
was unanimously adopted :
The Faculty of the Newton Theological Institution
have heard of the decease of Professor Horatio B. Hack-
ett, D. D., LL. D., with sincere sorrow, and desire to place
on record, and to convey to his family, their profound
sense of the loss sustained by his friends, and by the cause
of sacred learning, to which his life has been devoted.
We have all been his pupils, and have felt for him the
love and reverence which belong to a teacher so enthusi-
astic, so stimulating, so thorough in his methods, and so
affluent in his resources. His services to this Institution,
prolonged through twenty-nine years, were such as will
command the grateful remembrance of all its sons. His
acquisitions and his contributions as a crititical student
of the Scriptures have been already recognized by con-
temporary scholars, and give him an eminent and almost
surpassing place among men. His spirit and his life have
been worthy of his gifts and attainments, and they all
are a precious recollection to his associates, his pupils, and
his friends, for which they may well cherish gratitude to
the gracious Giver of all good and excellent gifts.
A true copy. O. S. Stearns,
Secretary of the Faculty.
NEW YORK MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. 253
RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH
OF
REV. HORATIO BALCH HACKETT, D. D.
Presented at the Conference of Baptist Ministers of
New York and vicinity, by Rev. Dr. G. W. Samson, and
unanimously adopted, Nov. 8th, 1875.
Resolved, That this Conference recognizes the marked
providence of God, in calling from his finished work the
Rev. H. B. Hackett, D. D., whose life was spent in suc-
cessive Professorships at Brown University, and at the
Theological Institutions of Newton and Rochester,
Resolved, That our gratitude is due to the Divine
Head of the Church, in giving to the Christian world,
during an active life of forty years, one whose personal
example so honored "The truth as it is in Jesus;" whose
devoted labors as an instructor have formed the character
of some of the ripest scholars of our age ; and whose
published writings are such models of complete scholar-
ship, and of ardent love to Christ and his cause, that his
followers in future ages will be aided by their instruction.
Resolved, That while bowing to the w^ill of that Divine
Spirit, who formed him for a higher world, and took him
when ripe, to its enjoyment, we deeply sympathize w^ith
his bereaved family ; many of ourselves having lost in
him a spiritual father.
Daniel C. Potter,
Secretary.
2 54 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
The following tribute to the memory of the late
Horatio B. Hackett, prepared by Rev. Granville S.
Abbott, was adopted at a session of the Boston Minis-
terial Conference, November 15, 1875 •~~
The committee ordered by your Conference, at your
last meeting, to prepare some resolutions upon the char-
acter and labors of Rev. Horatio Balch Hackett, D. D.,
LL. D., whose sudden death occurred at Rochester, N. Y.,
November 2, 1875, have attended to their tender and
delicate duty, and beg leave to present their report.
If ever there is a time to weep, it is at the time of the
taking away from earth of the truly great and good.
There are more good than great among men. There are
more great than great and good. But of the few of the
earth who have been both great and good. Dr. Hackett
must be one to receive the memento of our reverent
regard and love. To echo the appreciative words of
those who have already contributed their encomiums
of no faint praise over the remains of this great man is
not our design. Little indeed is left to be said after the
just and beautiful tributes that have been paid to this
distinguished Christian scholar by Rochester, Andover,
Amherst, Harvard, Brown and Newton presidents and
professors. Of his early academic, collegiate and theologi-
cal studies ; of the spheres of his activity as an instructor
at Amherst, at Baltimore, at Brown, at Newton, at
BOSTON MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. 255
Rochester; of the character and extent of his authorship;
of the time and place and manner of his sudden departure
from us, it is but repetition to speak.
All that we are constrained to do is to add our little
wreath of laurel to the rich and abounding flowers of
gratitude and affection that already crown the place of
his rest.
The first acquaintance formed by many of us with
Dr. Hackett, was with him, as a teacher, in the class-room.
It was there he was most mighty. Even as the celebrated
jurist, Rufus Choate, is said to have been in his grandest
moods when pleading comparatively alone, in the pres-
ence of a few, so we recall our teacher's potent and
inspiring eloquence in the sparsely filled class-rooms of
past years. - It was there we saw his genius flash ; there
that his magnetic enthusiasm thrilled our souls ; there
that the qualities of his exact exegetical scholarship, and
of his sharp, incisive, yet graceful English diction, had
daily illustration ; there that every promise of youth
had quick and continuous recognition. What a teacher
was Arnold ! What a teacher was Wayland ! What a
teacher was Hackett! How his pupils will miss him!
But he has gone from the class-room. He will speak no
more in that forum. He has passed from the glow of
his Messianic interpretations into the presence of the
Messiah returned from His incarnation to the realm of
His exaltation and glory. He will never take up the
mislaid page of expositions upon the Epistle to the
Galatians, but evermore as a devoted pupil will dwell
with Paul, the master he loved so well.
We knew him as a Christian. His scholarly habits
256 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
did not make him the less dev^out. He did not drink from
the shallows of learning, a draught, as Bacon intimates,
that often leads to atheism ; he drank deeply at the foun-
tains of learning, a draught that the same philosopher
affirms will bring a man's mind about to religion. He
prayed in the simplicity of a child, as a loving and trust-
ful son, confident of adoption by his Heavenly Father.
His readings of the Bible were attended with a fulness
and sweetness of faith, with a heartiness of acceptance
of the entire volume of inspiration, and with a certain
delicacy of utterance, that brought to the listener a
delight and a charm. He held the Bible with a tender-
ness that bespoke an abiding affection for its holy and
blessed truth. He loved and esteemed the ministers of
the Gospel, and often spoke kind words of the sermons
they preached. In an exposition of the words, "■For me
to live is Christ," he said to us: "Dr. Lamson, last
Sunday, analyzed Paul's thought well. 'Paul lived' he
said, ' to know Christ, to enjoy Christ, to make Him
known! "
We knew our teacher as a patriot. Patriotism in his
breast was not held to be a low and unworthy sentiment,
but as a becoming fire in every man's bones. Hence,
in the trying days of the war, there were few civilians
more zealous for our country's defeat of rebellion, than
he. That act of his, as Dr. Hovey records, in joining
the company that was thought to be prudent for a home
guard, that accustoming of himself to military terms and
movements for possible service, has the ring in it of
patriotic metal, w^orthy of the days of Hancock and
Adams.
BOSTON MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. 257
Our teacher addressed us as a class in the month suc-
ceeding President Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves
of rebels. Speaking of the emancipation, he said, " It
was a tremendous responsibility for the President to
assume. Yet how we longed for the word ! How we
agonized ! How we rejoiced when the word came ! In my
travels I have been at Marathon, at Leipsic, at Waterloo,
have thought of the importance of these battles, but in
my opinion no generation ever crossed the stage of
human action entrusted with such interests and hopes as
the present. What war was ever fought for the liberation
of four millions of slaves } The importance of this epoch
to every true patriot, to every lover of universal liberty,
cannot be over-estimated."
It was in this speech, moreover, that we heard our
teacher speak not simply as a patriot, but as a man.
"Moses," said he, "was the father of history, and not
Herodotus. Moses put the Ark on Ararat, not on Leba-
non. He recognized not an Abraham only for the Jew,
but a Noah and an Adam for the race. This is the great
fact that is carried from the Old Testament to the New.
The common parentage of the whole family of man is a
principle of Christianity. Will the American people
accept this truth } "
But we knew Dr. Hackett not only in the class-room,
as a Christian, as a patriot, and as a man, but we all have
known him in denominational convictions that have
brought to us as a distinct religious people distinguished
honor. He was a man of conscientious scholarship, the
result of which appeared in his becoming a Baptist, with
all the honors of Amherst and Andover upon him.
18
258 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
In the eulogiums of the funeral hour, where Christians
of denominational relations other than his have been
invited to contribute their offerings of respect to one
whose preeminent Christian scholarship is the common
heritage of the world, it is hardly to be expected that
special mention should be made of that loyalty to con-
science that cost the Pedobaptist sentiment of America
one of the finest of its scholars, and that gave to the
Baptist sentiment a believer and an advocate, on the
grounds of an honest examination of Scripture, the value
of whose fidelity to a true and exact interpretation of the
New Testament, the Baptist denomination of America,
we could well add of the world, is yet to recognize. The
wealth of regard that was ever paid to Dr. Hackett by
institutions like Andover and Amherst, the sympathy
which he ever cherished for the schools of his early days,
the associations of scholarly culture which were ever dear
to him outside of his own denomination, only give greater
lustre to that conscience that made him a true and loyal
Baptist to the end of his days.
We believe it to be due to him and to ourselves to
make mention of this in these last mementos we offer
in his praise. And now that we have left unsaid much
that is in our hearts to say, since words, like nature, half
reveal and half conceal the soul within, we offer, wnth
these words of introduction, the following resolutions : —
Resolved, That while the unlooked for death of Rev.
Horatio Balch Hackett, D. D., LL. D., gives ground for
universal sadness, there is also great occasion for gratitude
to Almighty God for the gift of such an eminent Biblical
interpreter, preacher, and author, to the Christian learning
of the world.
BOSTON MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. 259
Resolved, That we record, as far as possible, our appre-
ciation of his distinguished services to exact and thorough
Christian scholarship, the pursuit of which, to the neglect
even of many of the pleasures of social life, engaged his
time with consuming zeal.
Resolved, That as ministers of the Baptist denomina-
tion we owe to the memory of Dr. Hackett a steadfast
fidelity to those principles of Biblical interpretation and
practice that have ever characterized us, and that have
found their firm and unwavering advocacy in the con-
scientious scholarship of the great man whose removal
from among us gives us a burden of sorrow we are not
often called to bear.
Resolved, That we tender our deepest sympathies to
the family that is afflicted most deeply by the death of
this husband and father, and that a copy of these resolu-
tions be sent to them.
Resolved, That copies also be given to such papers,
secular and religious, as may favor us with their publica-
tion. In behalf of Committee,
Alvah Hovey.
G. S. Abbott.
Wm. Howe.
A. J. Gordon.
Henry M. King.
26o HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE
REV. DR. HACKETT.
At the Monthly Meeting of the American Bible
Revision Committee, held at No. 42 Bible House, New
York, November 27, 1875, the following minute in
reference to the death of the Rev. Dr. Hackett, prepared
by a committee consisting of Professor A. C. Kendrick,
Ex-President Theodore D. Woolsey, and Professor Ezra
Abbot, was ordered to be placed on their records, and
a copy to be given to the press for publication :
With profound regret this committee have to record
the death, since their last session, of the Rev. Dr. Horatio
Balch Hackett, one of our country's most eminent
Biblical scholars, and a loved and honored member
of this Board of Revision. Dr. Hackett was born in
Salisbury, Mass., December 27, 1808. Having been
graduated with high honor from Amherst College, and
Andover Theological Seminary, he served for four years,
first as Adjunct Professor of the Latin and Greek Lan-
guages and Literature, and afterwards as Professor of
Hebrew Literature and Classical Languages, in Brown
University ; he filled for nearly thirty years the chair
of Hebrew and New Testament Literature in Newton
Theological Institution, and during the last six years
that of New Testament Exegesis, in the Rochester
Theological Seminary. In all these positions, his varied
AMERICAN BIBLE REVISION COMMITTEE. 26 1
duties were discharged vvitli eminent ability. As a Bib-
lical scholar, he rose rapidly to take rank with the ablest
scholars in our own and other lands. As a teacher, he
was no less distinguished. Uniting exact learning and
rigorous method with a devout reverence for the Sacred
Word, and an intense enthusiasm that kindled into life
even the driest grammatical details, he made his lecture-
room, to all who frequented it, a place of unwonted
quickening and inspiration. As an author, his various
contributions to Sacred Literature have been exceed-
ingly valuable. His Commentary on the Acts is regarded
abroad, as well as at home, as of standard excellence ;
and his enlarged edition (undertaken in conjunction
with Dr. Ezra Abbot) of Smith's Dictionary of the
Bible, to the English edition of which he was also a
contributor, has greatly enhanced the value of that
excellent work, and won for him the lasting gratitude
of students of the Scriptures.
Dr. Hackett came to feel deeply the need of improv-
ing our excellent standard version of the Bible. For
several years he lent his valuable services to the American
Bible Union, and when the American Board of Revisers
was organized, to co-operate with the English Revision
Committee, he entered heartily into the work as a mem-
ber of the New Testament section of our body. Though
his increasingly delicate health forbade his uniform atten-
dance at the meetings, yet his presence was always
warmly greeted by his colleagues in revision, and to
his opinions, expressed with invariable modesty, was
accorded the weight due to ripe learning and an ad-
mirably balanced judgment.
262 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
In his personal character he was no less estimable.
Retiring as he was in disposition, and living in scholarly
seclusion, few knew how deep and warm were his
affections, and how tender his sympathies ; how re-
fined were his tastes, and how varied his culture ; how
wide was his outlook, and how just were his judgments
of public affairs ; how fervid was his patriotism, and how
humble and unaffected was his piety ; in short, what
a wealth of noble and Christian qualities lay hidden
beneath that quiet exterior. In all his relations — as a
man, a teacher, a scholar, and a Christian, — he com-
manded at once love and veneration, and his later pupils
were wont to trace in his gentle and chastened enthusiasm
a resemblance to the "Beloved Disciple," whose writ-
ings he so genially expounded. Nobly has he accom-
plished his earthly work, and in the higher sphere to
which death has translated him, he is enjoying, we doubt
not, the fruits of a life of faithful consecration to the
service of the Church, and the Church's Lord. With
heartfelt gratitude to Him who has given to the Church
the blessing of such a life, we place on record this imper-
fect tribute to his high scholarly and personal excellence.
Resolved, — That the Secretary of this Committee be
requested to transmit to the family of Dr. Hackett a
copy of the above Minute, with the assurance of our
tender sympathy with them in their sore bereavement,
and our prayer that the Heavenly Comforter may impart
to them his abundant consolations.
GEORGE E. DAY, Secretary.
FROM PERSONAL SOURCES.
DR. THOMAS J. CONANT. 265
COMMEMORATIVE SKETCH
BY REV. THOMAS J. CONANT, D. D.
(published NOVEMBER II, 1 875.)
The announcement of the untimely decease of Professor
Horatio B. Hackett will be received with profound regret
throughout Christendom ; for no more honored name is
known to the scholarship of the age.
Professor Hackett was fitted, by an unusual combina-
tion of original endowments, for his chosen field of labor.
To a natural gift for the acquisition of language, and rare
powers of discrimination in its use, was added the still
rarer union of a wide and comprehensive grasp of a
whole subject with a minutely accurate mastery of its
details. He was not merely a philologist, though eminent
as such, but was equally at home in the subsidiary depart-
ments of learning. His perfect command of all these
gave him rank with the foremost scholars of our time.
Professor Hackett was eminently an honest scholar.
Whatever he professed to know, he knew of his own
independent research ; and he never expressed, as his
own, views of others which he did not test for himself,
and credit to their proper sources. In an acquaintance
of many years, and of the closest intimacy, the writer has
observed in him no trait of character more distinctly
marked than his hatred, amounting almost to detestation,
of groundless pretension and assumption.
266 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Whatever he had set down as the result of a full and
exhaustive investigation he regarded as final. He was
not one of those who are always ready to revise their
opinions. But while a subject was under investigation,
no man more patiently examined every element on
which the result depended, or more candidly weighed
any possible objection to the tendency of his own
inquiries. The love of truth was the predominating ele-
ment of his character, and its influence is seen on every
page of his writings.
Professor Hackett was formed for active life. No one
came within the sphere of his personal influence without
being deeply impressed with his magnetic power. He
had not the natural advantages of elocution that specially
fit one for public speaking. But his wealth of thought,
with his earnest and impressive manner, would have
made him an effective preacher, had he devoted himself
to the services of the pulpit. He was led to choose the
seclusion of the study, and the unexciting duties of the
lecture-room. But no one had a keener relish for the
pleasures of social intercourse. His genial temperament,
his delicate wit, his perception of the humorous, and never-
failing good nature, made him the charm of the social
circle ; while his ready command of all the resources of
his learning made his conversation rich and instructive,
when the occasion called them forth.
He was a devout and earnest Christian. His early
conviction of the divine inspiration and supreme author-
ity of the Holy Scriptures was never shaken, and through
life his reliance for acceptance with God was based solely
on the evangelical faith therein revealed. His Christian
DR. THOMAS J. CONANT. 267
character shone brightest in its mild and pure radiance at
the family fireside and in the family devotions. • His
conversation, cheerful in tone and free from conventional
cant, his devout and humble prayers, simple as the utter-
ances of childhood, will ever be remembered in those
favored homes which his occasional presence brightened
and blessed. Learning and piety w^ere never more
beautifully blended in a human character.
He is called away in the maturity and fullness of his
powers, and in the midst of active and manifold labors.
For many years the narratives of the four Evangelists
have been his special and favorite study; and he has
often remarked in conversation, that eveiy fresh review
has disclosed new internal evidence of their historical
truth, which he regarded as established beyond contro-
versy. Whether the results of his studies in this field
are left in an available form is not known.
This hasty sketch is due to his memory, from one who
had long held with him the most intimate and endearing
relations of friendship.
268 DR. BARNAS SEARS.
FROM A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE
BY
REV. BARNAS SEARS, D. D., LL. D.
— Is it so? Is that dear good man gone from us for-
ever ? I knew him. He was pecuHarly constituted, and
not every man saw the inside of his generous heart as I
did. His ambition and standard of excellence were too
high to be appreciated by everybody. But the great and
the good, both in this country and in Europe, knew how
to prize him : and his name has a place in history, which
it will never lose, while biblical learning is honored.
But T write not to eulogize him, which is wholly un-
necessary, nor to lament on his accottnt the change
through which he has passed, for heaven is better to all
than earth, but to offer my sincere condolence
B. Sears.
Nov. 7, 1875.
DR. S. F. SMITH. 269
FROM A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE
BY
REV. S. F. SMITH, D. D.,
DATED BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, DECEMBER 5, 1 8/ 5.
We grieve that he was taken from us in the full glow
of his powers, — when by his accumulated treasures of
learning, his wisdom, his experience, his enthusiasm, his
ability to fashion and mould the intellects of the young
men committed to him, he seemed better fitted than ever
to do great things for God and the human race, for the
church and the world, for heathen and Christian lands, for
the Bible, and the Sabbath school, and the ministry, alike
of the present and the future. While I dwell upon his
excellences I grow unreconciled to the thought of their
removal.
But how cheering is the thought that nothing has
become extinguished. The lamp still burns before the
throne. And He whom he so much reverenced and
admired now has that great light of our age with Him-
self in heaven. And even the suddenness of his departure
we may endure with resignation : For he went from us,
like the prophet, in the full glow and glory of his powers,
borne, as in an instant, by chariots of fire and horses of
fire into heaven, and leaving the young men of his charge
looking up with admiring eyes into the heaven to which
he ascended, exclaiming, " My father, my father, the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!"
270 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
He was very dear to me, while he was with us. He is
still as dear. I felt that I enjoyed his confidence and love,
and I felt that I was honored by them. His voice was
music. His look, in my presence, was affection. His
low soft tones of voice were like the breathings of love.
When he left my house, in May last, with cheerful words
of parting, as I watched his departing steps, how little I
suspected that I should see him on earth no more ! I
shall miss him, oh, so much, on earth ! But we shall meet
him again in the mansions where he is gone, — we shall
find him engaged in the service he so deeply loved, in the
presence of Him whom he adored. Thousands weep
with you in the great loss in which the whole Christian
church is also a mourner. Ours is the loss, his the ever-
lasting and unspeakable gain ; ours, the tears ; his, the
immortal joy. To us, a fruitful branch is withered ; to
him, a palm branch waves, and a crown of perennial life
blooms in the Paradise of God.
DRS. H. M. DEXTER AND S. G. BROWN. 271
FROM THE CONGREGATIONALIST, NOV. 11, 1875.
REV. HENRY M. DEXTER, D. D.,
AND
REV. SAMUEL G. BROWN, D. D., LL. D.
It was fitting that a man so learned, so catholic, so
pure, should be honored by the Institutions with w^hich
he was at various times connected, and by the churches,
and by the ^reat circle of Christian scholarship for which
Professor Peabody might appropriately speak.
It may safely be said that no Biblical scholar, of any
Christian denomination, ever applied to all subjects
coming under review a nobler or sweeter charity, or laid
the trophies of his long research with a more tender
consecration at the feet of his Redeemer.
By consequence. Dr. Hackett was equally well loved
and trusted in other denominations as in his own. To
illustrate this, and to show also something of the character
of the man, we venture, upon their author's permission,
to append a few lines received from a common friend, the
President of Hamilton College, who had an interview
with Dr. Hackett only two weeks before his death. Dr.
Brown says : —
" I found him the same noble-minded scholar that I had
long known him to be ; pure in heart, charitable in judg-
ment, recognizing and loving the true, the beautiful and
the good w^herever found ; watchful, independent, candid
and sincere. Though not strong, he seemed to be in
272 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
quite his usual health, and equal, in all respects, to the
work which he was doing, of which he spoke with quiet
satisfaction, as well as of the generous way in which he was
permitted to do his work in the Theological Seminary.
"After the evening service, we spent an hour or two
together, among other things, in reviving the memories
of our Andover life. In reference to this, he says, in a
letter dated October 26th, exactly a week before his
sudden departure : ' As we grow older, how much more
strongly do our thoughts and sympathies turn backward
instead of running forward, especially with regard to our
early associates and friendships. To see you, and talk
together of our old fellow-students and teachers, and of
Andover and Dartmouth and Amherst, unsealed the old
fountains of by-gone days, and made me almost wish to
be young again, and to feel that time, in this respect,
takes more from us than it brings to us.'
"The beautiful example of such a Christian scholar
severe with himself and generous to all others, aiming
always at the highest and best things, and accomplishing
so much, should not be lost to any of us, and certainly
not to the younger students of our day."
DR. WILLIAM HAGUE. 273
MEMORIES OF DR. RACKET T,
IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THOLUCK.
BY REV. WILLIAM HAGUE, D. D.
{From a European Letter, published March 9, 1876.)
There is no living man in Germany, the mention of
whose name awakens sentiments of profound respect
and affection over a broader area, to-day, than that of
Tholuck.
While hearing accounts of his recent illness, it seemed
doubtful, at the time of our leaving Leipzig, December
13th, whether it would be practicable for him to receive
visitors at his usual hour, although Mr. Curtiss, Minister
of the American Chapel in Leipzig, said, in reply to that
suggestion, " I have had fresh intelligence of his con-
dition, and I am quite sure you will find him ready to
welcome you." Even so ; at the set time, in company
with Mr. Poland, of Brown University, and Mr. S.
Emmons Brown, an American student of theology in
Halle, I received a cordial greeting from Mrs. Tholuck,
who said that her husband w^ould meet us after a few
minutes, and that meanwhile she was glad to have the
opportunity of making inquiries respecting friends in
America. A quarter of an hour thus passed away, when
Professor Tholuck entered, accompanied by a servant,
walking slowly, his sight rather dim, his step faltering,
his manner courteous, his conversational tones winning,
19
2 74 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
his words indicating at once a memory unimpaired. He
spoke affectionately of several of his student-friends from
America, but the fresh intelligence of the death of Pro-
fessor Hackett, gave chief direction to his thought and
manner of expression just then. That event was unan-
ticipated ; the more saddening on account of the recent
summer-visit of Professor Hackett, and his departure
from Halle, "in good spirits," awakening the hope of
some years of good work yet before him. The childlike,
wonderfully great old man ! How lovingly he spoke !
The remembrance will be long cherished ; for he seemed
to mourn the death of Dr. Hackett as a personal be-
reavement, regarding him, evidently, as one of an order
of scholars who had taken rank in the line of a recognized
successorship, carrying forward into effective achievement
the aims of his own life-work in the spirit of persistent
progress, and whose departure, therefore, leaves a vacancy
that deepens one's feeling of the mystery of life.
DR. AUGUSTUS THOLUCK. 275
GERMANY.
FROM A LETTER ADDRESSED TO MR. S. E. BROWN, BY DR.
A. THOLUCK.
Mr. S. E. Brown, after graduating with highest honors from
Harvard College, in 1870, and from Rochester Theological Seminary,
in 1873, proceeded to Germany, to remain there three years, having
been nominated to John B. Trevor, Esq., by Dr. Hackett, and Dr.
Robinson, late President of the Seminary, as a suitable person to
improve the advantages of an extended residence abroad in the
interest of sacred letters. The Rev. Dr. Peabody, of Cambridge,
most heartily approved this selection. Mr. Trevor's beneficence is
thus connected, not only with the chair of the great scholar departed,
but with the unsurpassed opportunities enjoyed by this worthy and
modest gentleman.
Dr. Hackett has resided here as a student, and visited
here, and we were associated in intimate friendly relations.
He was preeminently a whole-souled man, of sincere
attachments. Not only did he distinguish himself by his
theological writings, but notably by his academical
instructions. Here also, among our German theologians,
by his fervor of spirit, he won to himself dear friends.
May God keep his memory alive in many hearts in
America, and among the young raise up many who shall
follow him !
A. Tholuck.
Halle, March, 1876.
276 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
ENGLAND.
It was never my privilege to meet Dr. Hackett. I can
however offer my tribute of respectful regard to one with
whom I was allowed to work on the Dictionary of the
Bible; and to whose labours I feel almost daily obligations.
For the edition of the Dictionary of the Bible which was
prepared in America by Dr. Hackett and Professor E.
Abbot, stands always by the side of my desk, and gives
constant and emphatic witness to the thoroughness of
American scholarship. -r, t- txt
^ B. r. Westcott.
Cambridge, Feb. i, 1876.
My knowledge of Dr. Hackett extends now over many
years, though it is but seldom we met. In his occasional
visits to Europe, I generally had the pleasure of a brief
interview ; and this last summer he was to have spent a
few days with me on his way home. His gentleness and
ardour, his scholarship and devoutness struck all who met
him, and showed themselves in all his conversation. His
books are well known on our side ; especially his Expo-
sition of the Acts, and his articles in the Dictionary of
the Bible. The additions and corrections which he has
inserted in the American reprint, make that edition of
much greater value than ours. Years ago, I had an
opportunity of knowing the accuracy of his knowledge,
and the purity of his taste in all that concerns our New
Testament Scriptures. I deem his removal at this time
to be a o-reat loss to the cause of Biblical Revision. His
name secured the confidence of scholars alike in America
and in Europe. j^^^^^ ^^^^^^
London, February, 1876.
REV. D. Z. SAKELLARIOS. 277
GREECE.
PUBLISHED MARCH 2, 1 8 76.
A word of respect is due to the memory of that
eminently good and great man, Rev. Horatio B. Hackett,
D. D., from this classic land, which he twice visited with
so much pleasure in his researches. I cannot but remem-
ber him with deep affection. When he visited Greece,
in 1858, it was my privilege to accompany him upon his
travels to some of the spots mentioned in sacred history,
as Thessalonica, Neapolis and Philippi, where he made a
diligent study of those memorable places. At every
illustration of Scripture unfolded to his mental vision, he
always had some significant suggestion of spiritual force
and profit. Prayer and praise fell from his lips as the
natural outflowings of his heart, which in truth seemed a
temple in which the Holy Spirit dwelt. Subsequently,
when I visited the United States, it was my great privilege
to become his pupil in the Interpretation of the New
Testament, the events of which, in its original tongue, we
had together compared at the places before mentioned.
May his bereaved family be comforted by the holy
remembrances of his life, and sustained in their deep
affliction by God's grace and spirit.
D. Z. Sakellarios.
Athens, Jan. 29, 1876.
278 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
RECOLLECTIONS OF H. B. HACKETT.
BY
REV. EZEKIEL RUSSELL, D. D.
The six years we were in contact with each other in
our College and Seminary life — we were never classmates,
though Tutors together — furnish little for the details of a
narrative, important as the period may be to those who
are passing through such a course.
In character, H. B. Hackett was the beauty of our
College Israel ; modest, sincere, truthful, just, conceding
to all their dues ; claiming little for himself, and from his
soul loathing everything in the form of affectation, in-
trigue, and selfish management in the companions of his
College or Seminary life. To say of him, therefore,
that I admired, esteemed and loved him, is to me lan-
guage ineffably feeble and inadequate.
Of the manner in which he acquitted himself in the
recitation-room, and of his public performances in College,
I have no occasion to speak to his classmates, who
heard, and with others felt and appreciated the matchless
charm of those performances. I need not speak of his
oration at the Junior Exhibition of his class, or of his
neat, elegant and touching farewell address to his class-
mates and the College, at Commencement. They stand
before me to-day as fresh as yesterday — as things of
beauty, taste and charm. And there has never been a day
of my life when I have not felt in some degree the
DR. EZEKIEL RUSSELL. 279
attractions of that high Hterary culture, of those mental
and moral qualities so symmetrically and beautifully de-
veloped in the person of our friend.
As a Tutor in College, he was patient, laborious,
thorough. His time was devoted to the work of perfect-
ing himself in the Latin and Greek read by his class, and
to the drill to which they were subjected during the
allotted hours of recitation. When in contact with his
class, and testing the student's knowledge of the subject
before him, he was always easy, searching, graceful.
He was kind also, and knew just where and when to
ply his hand to relieve difficulties, to shed light, and
encourage effort. He did not do as does the eagle on the
summit of the Alps, when she knocks her unfledged ones
over the sides of the nest and pitches them headlong
from the crags and down the rocks, and then leaves them,
with their undeveloped strength, to cut their way to the
sun. He was kind, tender, to a charm. No student,
therefore, ever left his recitation-room without feeling that
the sympathy of the instructor was with him. Every-
thing in laws, manners, customs, geography, history,
mythology, and the fine arts of the Grecian and Roman
worlds, adapted to illustrate and make significant the
classic read, was made to contribute to the instruction
and entertainment of the hour. In it all he was at home,
and he pursued it all with a zest and an enthusiasm
peculiarly his own. In the class-room, his classic magnet-
ism was felt, and as between the mountain and the
cloud charged with the electric fire, there was a mutual
attracting and commingling between him and his pupils.
As a Tutor in College, there seemed to be in him no devi-
28o HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
ation from the law of fitness or the standard of taste. He
seemed to have adopted and acted on the maxim of the
keen and cultured Greek, "In whatever you do, sacrifice
to the Graces^ One part of his exercises was, to select
a passage of Latin or Greek, and express the thought or
sentiment of it in the most condensed and appropriate
English possible. It is doubtful, whether, at that period,
he allowed two days in succession to pass without sub-
jecting himself to this discipline. It was in this way that
he acquired that easy, fluent, often elegant, and always
faultless diction with which he expressed himself in con-
versation, in extemporaneous addresses and in his writings.
Cicero, who had read the letters of Cornelia, and was
something of a judge in such matters, affirms that the
two Gracchi, her sons, whose eloquence stirred all the
orders of the Roman Commonwealth, were educated not
in the bosom of the mother, but by the pure and faultless
language that ever fell from her lips, and the elegant style
of her epistolary compositions.
Mr. Hackett understood perfectly the value of mental
application to such learning, and knew well the streams
that flowed from the Pierian Spring, and only from that
source. This same course of discipline, he also assured
me, was pursued by him when a student in College.
At the Faculty meetings, while a Tutor, he was ever
present, listened to discussions, answered questions,
and when requested, submitted opinions and gave his
reasons. The progress of every student, with whom he
came in contact in the recitation-room, he knew, whether
satisfactory and commendable, or defective and censurable;
and of course, when called upon to do so, or he deemed
DR. EZEKIEL RUSSELL. 28 1
it his duty, he reported the same to what, in College in
those days, were designated the TA TnAPXONTA, or the
powers that be.
During the next two years at Andover, being myself
in the class that immediately followed his, I was a witness
of all his public performances in the Seminary at that
period, both the required and the voluntary. In the dis-
cussions of the Society of Inquiry, in the debates of the
Porter Rhetorical, which were exciting and earnest in
those days, and in the weekly exhibitions before the
Seminary, there were the same classic elegance and taste
that fixed attention and gave the charm to his College
exercises, but with additional power and resources. There
was also that sweet and lovely vein of Christian feeling,
mingled with his simplicity, sincerity and earnestness of
character, that touched the hearts, and won the regards of
all who listened to him. He was never ambitious, vain,
fond of preeminence, and of the honor that comes from
men.
He loved learning for its own sake. He loved to
bathe in the streams that flowed still and deep, or war-
bling, from Greek and Latin fountains. He loved the
language and drapery of the word of God, the very
costume in which the Holy Spirit arrayed eternal truth
for its part on the theatre of tlie world.
Not unrecognized were these fine qualities of manly
and Christian character, these high attainments of cul-
ture and learning, as was shown when, in the Summer
of 1833, he was chosen by a majority of the one hundred
and fifty students then resident at the Seminary, Presi-
dent of the Porter Rhetorical Society, which office, as
282 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
successor of E. P. Humphrey, he held till his graduation.
As to the transition of Professor Hackett to the de-
nomination with which he became connected for life,
the mode of baptism, he often assured me at Andover
and elsewhere, was never with him an important question.
The point with him, in reference to which a question
did arise at Andover, when the subject was before his
class for examination, was, who are the proper subjects of
the rite of Baptism, and he felt the inconclusiveness of
the Professor's argument in support of his own position.
The Professor affirmed that the practice of the Church
during the second and third centuries, settled the question
of Infant Baptism in the affirmative. Mr. Hackett felt
that almost any absurdity might be proved as morally
obligatory in that way, and that the Christian Fathers,
in the language of Milton, were a kind of " drag net," in
which everything foul, hateful, and unclean has been drawn
to the shores of the church of God. Bingham's Eccle-
siastical Antiquities were read. He read the Fathers,
and read particularly the treatise of Tertullian, De Corond
Militis. It is said, some suggestion was made to the then
Andover Association of Ministers, as a result of which,
when Mr. Hackett came before them for examination,
and for a licensure to preach, he was licensed, though
conditionally, on the ground of his being unsettled
or in doubt, in reference to the argument alluded to.
He was disappointed. It made him sad. It shocked
those keen sensibilities with which he was so liberally
endowed.
After his graduation, therefore, he engaged in teaching
at Baltimore, Md,, for a year. At the end of it, he went
DR. EZEKIEL RUSSELL. 283
to Brown University as Professor of the Latin and Greek
languages, for whicli service he was preeminently quali-
fied, and from there to the Newton Theological Seminary,
where the sphere for exertion was wide, and the field of
labor itself, congenial.
But he felt his separation from his College and Semi-
nary friends, and for them his esteem and affection never
did and could never abate. With his views and feelings,
he said, he could never become a partisan. On the want,
in certain quarters, of what he deemed a true Christian
refinement and liberality of feeling, he often animad-
verted.
We have visited each other at our respective residences
since those days of College and Seminary life, met one
another often, at Boston, Saratoga, and elsewhere, and
interchanged views as in former years.
He often referred to what he deemed a partial and
defective exhibition of the vital and fundamental truths
of the word of God in the pulpits of the country, and a
growing disposition to substitute rhetorical or some per-
sonal display for the pure word of life itself This ten-
dency to " heal the hurt of the sons and daughters of the
people slightly, " he deplored, and thought that there was
nothing adapted to arrest the tendency and remedy the
evil, but a profounder study of the living oracles with
all their claims and startling disclosures, on the part of
those who enter upon the work of the Christian ministry.
He thought the time would soon come when a change
in this regard would be demanded, and the faithful in
the work would be appreciated and sustained, and not
resisted and discarded.
284 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Some have supposed that he was so completely ab-
sorbed in the pursuits of the student's life, that he had
little or no interest in the wide world about him. This
was never so. He was especially interested in his coun-
try's history, and traced, step by step with care, her progress
and rejoiced in every token of her welfare. Her commerce,
her trade, her manufactures, and her financial system, he
carefully studied, and when a relentless rebellion lifted
its arm and threatened the extinction of the Union, and
covered all our borders with disaster and sorrow, we
know that he was restless, and that he spared neither his
solicitude nor his pen in her behalf.
Few, who have been from our shores and explored the
lands of the Bible, and of classic Greece and Rome,
have had their eyes more open to all the scenes of un-
dying interest, felt more deeply their stirring power, or
used them more habitually for strengthening the founda-
tions of a Christian faith, both in himself and the pupils
that have been trained by his hand.
The Nile, the Red Sea, Sinai, sweet Hebron, Galilee,
the Jordan, Bethlehem, and Olivet, from which he looked
down on the Garden at its foot, and upon the City of the
Great King, made real to him the recorded life of the
Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief
He remarked, that as he approached Jerusalem, on
going from Bethlehem, he was informed that the whole
city and its surroundings could be viewed from a certain
point, as in a kind of panorama ; he hesitated for some
time to look upon the scene, lest the poetic and pleasing
idea of it, that he had long held in his mind, should
forever vanish, and the reality itself be to him ever after
DR. EZEKIEL RUSSELL. 285
repulsive. But he suffered no such revulsion. All his
visions of it, though in some respects modified, were still
essentially the same. It was still the city of David and
Solomon, and of Him who there taught, wrought miracles,
suffered, died and redeemed the world.
The Mediterranean, Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, the beau-
tiful ^gean and its islands, Troas, Ephesus, Philippi,
Athens and Corinth, were viewed with an eye that marked
their impressions, and left them ail-along that scholarly
and elegant Commentary on the Acts.
But, there are ways that are not ours — paths of footsteps
that to us are unknown. In the sudden decease of our
friend, the Christian scholarship of our country has
suffered an irreparable loss. Our youth are bereft, in their
pursuit of learning, of one of the noblest examples of an
unselfish love for it, of untiring industry, perseverance
and success in its attainment. From Amherst College
has been plucked its most brilliant classic flower, and from
Andover Seminary has been taken an ornament, that she
could ill afford to lose. Hackett and Edwards were
beloved in those seats of learning. Their presence was
an inspiration to many a dweller there, by whom, to-day
and evermore, they will be viewed as among the Christian
Agricolas of our land.
286 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
RECOLLECTIONS OF FRIENDSHIP AND TRAVEL.
BY
REV. DANIEL L. FURBER, D. D.
Having had the privilege of accompanying the subject
of this memorial on his fifth and last foreign tour, a
journey which was completed only two months before his
death, and having enjoyed his acquaintance as a neighbor
and friend for many years, the opportunity has been
granted me of saying a few words about one whose friend-
ship I have very greatly valued, and of indulging in some
recollections of the three and a half months which I so
recently spent with him in travel.
It would not be easy to find a more delightful travelling
companion than Dr. Hackett was. His conversation was
instructive on a greater variety of subjects than one would
expect from his habitual absorption in the studies which
he made the business of his life. Beside those rich and
rare attainments in his own department, which made his
name respected by scholars in Great Britain and Germany,
he was quite at home in English history, and had made
himself familiar with a very wide range of standard Eng-
lish literature. As to his general scholarship, that was
only a part of his professional equipment. Choice armor
it was, and he kept it brightly burnished to the last.
When he was Professor in Brown University, he used to
teach Horace to his classes without a book in the recita-
DR. D. L. FURBER. 287
tion room. That author was one of his favorites, and he
could, to the last year of his life, quote from memory
passages from the Odes which he had learned nearly forty
years before. That which he found so captivating in the
Odes of Horace was partly the power of poetry, to which
he had always a quick sensibility. This is indicated by
the frequent poetical quotations which we find in his
writinors.
The studies of the scholar and the man of letters,
engrossing as they were to him, did not make him in-
different to passing events. He was an attentive reader
of the news of the day. He watched very closely the
political movements of the times, and felt a deep and
intelligent interest in them, whether they related to his
own country or to the countries which he had often
visited in his travels.
No one who knew Dr. Hackett needs to be told that
he was an enthusiastic man. The studies to which he
applied himself took possession of him. His mind
kindled upon them to a glowing ardor, both by day and
in the dreams of night. Awaking one morning on an
Ocean Steamer, he said : " I have just been going through
the forms of a Hebrew verb in my sleep, and I believe I
made all the parts correctly." He was so familiar with
the Greek Testament that he could quote from it more
readily than from the vernacular ; and whenever he
listened to the reading of a chapter from the common
version, in public worship or elsewhere, his thoughts were
busy turning the English into Greek.
This. enthusiasm was accompanied by a modesty which
imparted a perpetual charm to his conversation, and
288 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
allowed those with whom he conversed to imamne that
he regarded them his equals in knowledge, and their
judgment entitled to as much consideration as his own.
It is impossible that he should not have known what
his powers and attainments were, as compared with those
of the men with whom he came in contact, but he never
assumed upon them, he never put them forward. His
manner toward young men was as wide as the poles
of everything magisterial, dogmatical, or arrogant. No
matter in whose company he might be, the attitude of
his mind was always that of a humble, earnest enquirer
after truth ; and quite as much so in the presence of
those below him, as of those who were more nearly his
equals. He appeared to think far less of his relation
to other men than of the relation of all alike to the truth
which we all need to know.
Unassuming as he was, he was not destitute of a be-
coming self-respect. Entering a bookstore at Leyden,
last summer, we enquired the way to Professor Kuenen's.
The bookseller looked up with surprise, and said, " Why
he is a Professor in the University ! " The air and tone
with which this was spoken, carried with it the suggestion
that it was very presumptuous in us to think of calling
upon so eminent a man. Dr. Hackett took the hint in
a moment, and straightening himself and raising his
voice, he said, " Very w^ell, I am not afraid of a Professor,
I am a Professor myself." It was very amusing to see
so instantaneous a change in the whole aspect of a
modest man, and to see the dignity of self-assertion, in
contrast, for a moment, with the habitual lowliness of
his demeanor. Sycophancy was as offensive to him as
DR. D. L. FURBER. 289
arrogance ; and the sharpness of his reply in this instance,
was intended not more for the protection of his own
dignity than it was to rebuke the servile deference with
which the Leyden bookseller regarded the great men
of the University.
Few men could have been less influenced than Dr.
Hackett was by motives of ambition. He neither coveted
wordly honor and distinction, nor was he emulous of the
glory of surpassing others. It gave him no pleasure
to be called of men Rabbi. To all such considerations
he was singularly indifferent. To imagine him stimulated
by them, or by any worldly or selfish motives, to the
intense and prolonged strain of application w^hich his
whole life exhibited, would be doing violence to all just
ideas of the man. He loved knowledge for its own sake.
His mind had a native affinity for truth, a propensity
toward investigation. Mental activity and eagerness for
acquisition were bred in the bone, and were traits of his
earliest days. He used to say, that he read in his child-
hood all the books he could get. He would read until
dark, and then ask for a light, that he might go on with
his occupation.
Another remark which he recently made was, that
study was "a necessity'''' to him. His faculties tended
not only naturally but imperatively to action. They were
a clock always wound up and having the strong tension
of the weights upon them so that move they must.
Most minds, however generously endowed, need the
help of certain stimulating influences from without, and
they fail to do their task if these are wanting. The
indolence which is common in human nature, needs a
20
290 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
spur. Dr. Johnson, being asked how he had obtained
so accurate a knowledge of Latin, replied, " My master
whipt me very well. Without that, sir, I should have
done nothing. " Often
" Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights and live laborious days."
But it would not be easy to think of Dr. Hackett as
actuated by the love of fame or of human applause in
any form He once remarked that he never felt the need
of any external incitements to study, nor could he look
back upon any period of life and say, I could have ac-
complished more if I had been placed under a greater
pressure of motive. The ardor of his nature gave him
a sufficient impulse, and his inborn craving and passion
for knowledge was a sufficient inducement to obtain it.
With such a mental constitution as this, it is easy to see
how he accomplished what he did.
As a man, Dr. Hackett had a heart full of kindness.
He had a truly and deeply affectionate nature. His love
to his friends was like that of David and Jonathan. He
loved little children and always took notice of them. He
had a fountain of ready sympathy for the poor, the weak,
the wronged, and those that have no helper. If he could
speak a kind word to them, or do for them a kind act, it
gave him greater satisfaction than to enjoy an interview
with the titled and honored. The story of George Her-
bert and the poor countryman with his cart upset, would
fit him very well.
While in England last summer, he called upon Dean
DR. D. L. FURBER.
291
Howson, who spoke of the Commentary on Acts as a
standard, and of the American Edition of the Dictionary
of the Bible as the only one he had. He had given his
English edition away. It is well known that the Dean
was much interested in Dr. Hackett's account of his
•journey to Philippi in the Bibliotheca Sacra for i860.
He wrote to Dr. Hackett on the subject at the time the
article appeared, as did also some other English scholars.
Another place visited was Litchfield, on account of the
connection of its Cathedral with the name of John
Hacket, who was Bishop of Litchfield a little more than
two hundred years ago. It is quite easy to believe that
there was a lineal connection between Dr. Hackett and
the Bishop, of whom it is said that, when he was a boy in
Westminster school, "The incomparable Bishop Andrews
took notice of this young scholar for his great diligence,
modesty, and strong inclinations to learning and virtue,
which he afterwards constantly cherished at school and
university, to his death." Litchfield was also the birth-
place of Samuel Johnson. In a letter written by Dr.
Hackett after his return to Rochester last September, he
said: "You may recollect how interested I was to notice
that the last book ever taken out by Dr. Johnson from
the library of the Litchfield Cathedral was Ftillers Wor-
thies, as recorded in the borrowing book, under October
5th, 1 784. That is not a book to interest a man very
deeply unless he has a true-hearted sympathy with the
conflicts and triumphs of Christian truth, in the hearts
and lives of its confessors."
In the same letter he says: "Having lost the opportunity
to visit Olney, I have been taking my revenge by reading
292 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
anew Cowper's Table Talk, which the poet wrote at
Olney, and also his Truth. Had we gone there we should
have seen the same sight still perpetuated, of: —
— 'Yon Cottager, who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins, all her little store ;
Content though mean, and cheerful if not gay.
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance,
Receives no praise ;
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true —
And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes
Her title to a treasure in the skies.' "
These lines are upon the nth page of Cowper's Truth.
The pains which Dr. Hackett took to copy them illus-
trates his sympathy with people of the humbler class, his
poetical tastes, and his simple Christian faith.
He so much enjoyed a visit to Bradford, that he ex-
pressed a desire to write an article, after reaching home,
about John Bunyan. He went to the Chapel in which
" Bunyan Meeting" is now held, called on the minister,
sat in the chair in which Bunyan sat in writing his
Pilgrim's Progress, walked over to Elstow, called at
"Bunyan Cottage," visited the Parish Church and Tower
where is the chime of bells which Bunyan used to ring,
and saw with great pleasure a small door within the door
of the Church, called "The Wicket." This he had no doubt
was what suggested the " Wicket Gate " in the Allegory.
There were some things in the character of Bunyan to
which Dr. Hackett could most heartily respond, and
particularly his strong domestic affections, and his sturdy
loyalty to conscience. Bunyan loved his family. He had
DR. D. L. FURBER. 293
a special tenderness for the little blind daughter. The
officer of the jail said to him : "If you will desist from
preaching, you can be released." "No," said he, "if you
let me out to-day, I will preach again to-morrow." Then
speaking of his dependent family, he said : " They must
suffer cold and hunger, and beg from door to door, and I
can do nothing for them. And yet / must, I vuisty
Such decision as this, for conscience' sake. Dr. Hackett
knew how to admire. He had practised the like himself
And if he had written such an article as he had in mind,
he would have given us a glowing appreciation of a noble
character.
Of Bishop Hacket it is said, that "in confession of his
sins he was ever most humble, in godly sorrow most
contrite, in prayer most assiduous, in faith most steadfast."
All this might, with truth, be said of the Bishop's name-
sake. He was a humble, prayerful, penitent believer. His
faith was cordial and unquestioning. Trustfully he com-
mitted his whole way unto the Lord. That impediment
to faith which our Saviour specifies when he says, " How
can ye believe, which receive honor one of another T was
no impediment to his faith. No ambition for a name
among men ever stood in the way of the exercise of a
child-like confidence in God, or repressed the devout
aspirations of his soul in prayer. In our journeyings
abroad, it was his desire that we might have prayer
together as often as we conveniently could. And when-
ever a convenient time occurred, whether morning or
evening, he was usually the first to take up his Testament
and signify his readiness for a season of devotion. And
repeatedly, on entering a room which we used in common,
294 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
did I find him in a kneeling attitude, engaged in secret
prayer. Sometimes he was careful to close the door.
He seemed to think that prayer was so indispensable a
part, and so large a part of the life of a believer, that,
among friends, one need not always insist upon absolute
secrecy.
He is now, we believe, in the presence of the Saviour,
with whom he so constantly held communion on earth ;
in the presence of Paul, of whom he once said that he
should be afraid ; in the presence of Christian scholars of
all ages, in whose blessed and congenial society he will
now forget the things which are behind — the poor and
scanty attainments of this world — and reach forth with
an insatiable desire to explore the vast fields of knowledge
which open around him. As, in heaven, he worships the
Being before wiiom he bowed so low on earth, will not
his Lord see in him a disciple, who, when he was con-
verted, became as a little child } And will not the promise
now and forever be made good to him : "He that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.?"
APPENDIX. 295
APPENDIX.
I.— LETTER BY PROF. HACKETT, WRITTEN IN 1835.
The following letter, it will be seen, substantiates, on the direct
authority of its writer, statements that have been made respecting
an interesting juncture in his history. It is contributed to this
volume by Mrs. E. R. H. Peck, from the correspondence of her
husband, the late Rev. Solomon Peck, D. D., as a delightful me-
morial of Christian relations and sentiments, and one for which
a wide publicity might be desired.
Baltimore, June 25th, 1835.
My dear Friend and Brother: —
Your very unexpected and cordial letter has been
received, and read with great satisfaction. It affords
me much pleasure to find, that having been dismissed
with assurances of unabated regard by my former friends,
I am to be received with confidence and afifection by
those, with whom I am hereafter to act. It may gratify
you to know, that Dr. Woods, in communicating the
vote of my recommendation to the Baptist Church here,
accompanied it with expressions of the most kind regard
for me personally, as well as of good will towards the
Baptists in general, and also with a declaration of his
entire approval of the course which I have taken. He
went so far as to say, that " somehow he had a feeling
of gratification, that I was to belong to the Baptist
denomination." No one, who has not been situated as
296 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
I have been, can tell how affecting it was to my heart
to receive a communication so full of Christian kindness
and love. And your communication has affected me
in a similar manner. It found me, as it were, in the
condition of a stranger, who has left his acquaintance
and come suddenly among people of a new speech and
aspect. I rejoice in the providence, which made you so
early acquainted with my decision, and which has resulted
in my receiving from you so cordial a welcome to your
communion.
In regard to my future labors, it is impossible for
me to say anything definitely. The terms of your letter
were so general as to preclude this. So far as I could
form an opinion of your meaning (which you no doubt
disclosed as far as was proper), you wish to know whether
it would be agreeable to my feelings to be directly con-
cerned in the work of Foreign Missions, if not by going
abroad, by promoting it at home in the capacity perhaps
of a permanent agent, or assistant in some way to the
Baptist Board. The cause of missions I feel to be the
cause of Christ ; and its advancement the work, which
his followers have to do as their great business. Although
I have not considered myself as called to the service
of a foreign missionary, yet I feel, and have long felt,
that in whatever situation I might be placed, all my
efforts should be directed to the conversion of the whole
world to Christ. The idea, therefore, of being brought
into some more immediate connexion with the missionary
work than the ministry would bring me, cannot of course,
in itself considered, be otherwise than highly pleasing.
At the same time, it is but truth to say, that preaching
APPENDIX. 297
the Gospel as a settled pastor has long seemed to me
the sphere, which above all others I should choose.
Nothino; but an apprehension of wanting the requisite
physical resources could make me think for a moment
of any other department. And that I have not those
resources, I am not sure that I ought to be persuaded
by anything short of an actual trial. Such is the present
posture of my mind. It would be fulfilling my strongest
desires to have charge of a parish somewhere in New
England, preaching in simplicity and with zeal, the blessed
gospel of our Lord.
In the course of next month (July), I shall, if my life
be spared, be in Boston, and may then expect the pleasure
of seeing you.
I am greatly obliged to Dr. Bolles for his interest in
me, and beg his acceptance of my high consideration
and esteem.
With much affection.
Your friend and brother,
H. B. Hackett.
Rev. S. Peck.
298 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
II.— LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS AND ARTICLES.
Plutarch on the Delay of the Deity in the Punishment of
THE Wicked. With Notes, by H. B. Hackett, Professor of Biblical
Literature in Newton Theological Institution. Andover. 1844.
Grammar of the Chaldee Language, as contained in the
Bible and the Targums. By Dr. George B. Winer, Professor of
Theology, etc., in the University of Leipsic. Translated from the
German by H. B. Hackett, Professor of Biblical Literature in Newton
Theological Institution. Andover. New York. 1845.
Exercises in Hebrew Grammar, and Selections from the Greek
Scriptures to be Translated into Hebrew, with Notes, Hebrew
Phrases, and References to Approved Works in Greek and Hebrew
Philology. By H. B. Hackett, Professor of Biblical Literature in
Newton Theological Institution. Andover. New York. Boston.
1847.
Recollections and Estimate of Professor B. B. Edwards : in the
Writings of Professor Edwards, with a Memoir by Professor Edwards
A. Park, D. D. 1853. Vol. I. pp. 51-2, 175-6, and 300-305.
A Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts of the
Apostles. By Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., Professor of Biblical
Literature in Newton Theological Institution. Boston. 1852.
A New Edition, Revised and greatly Enlarged. 1058.
Illustrations of Scripture; Suggested by a Tour through the
Holy Land. By Horatio B. Hackett, Professor in Newton Theo-
logical Institution. Boston. 1855.
New and Revised Edition, i860.
Address on Bible Revision. New York. 1859.
Notes on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to Phile-
mon, as the Basis of a Revision of the Common English Version ;
and a Revised Version, with Notes. New York. Louisville. London.
i860.
Thirty Articles in Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
Published in England, 1860-63.
An Introduction to the Introduction to the Study of the Gospels,
By B. F. Westcott. 1861.
PUBLISHED WORKS AND ARTICLES. 299
Christian Memorials of the War; or Scenes and Incidents
Illustrative of Religious Faith and Principle, Patriotism and Bravery
in our Army. By Horatio B. Hackett, Professor of Biblical Litera-
ture and Interpretation in Newton Theological Institution. Boston.
1864.
Address at Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in Newton.
1864.
Plutarch's Delay, &c. Revised Edition, with Notes by Pro-
fessors H. B. Hackett and W. S. Tyler. New York. D. Appleton
& Co. 1867.
Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; comprising its
Antiquities, Biography, Geography, and Natural History. Revised
and Edited by Professor H. B. Hackett, D. D., with the cooperation
of Ezra Abbot, LL. D., Assistant Librarian of Harvard College.
Four Volumes. New York: Published by Hurd & Houghton.
Cambridge: Riverside Press. 1868-1870. (Dr. Hackett's Contri-
butions to the English Edition are distinguished by the initials H.
B. H. ; his editorial additions in the American Edition, by a star (*)
and the initial H.)
The Epistle of Paul to Philemon. A Commentary, by Dr. J.
J. Van Oosterzee. Translated from the German, with Additions, by
Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary,
Newton Centre, Mass. 1868.
The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians. A Commentary, by
Karl Braune, D. D. Translated by Horatio B. Hackett, D. D., Pro-
fessor in the Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y. 1870.
The Metaphors of St. Paul and Companions of St. "Paul.
By John S. Howson, D. D., Dean of Chester. With an Introduction
by Prof. H. B. Hackett, D. D., Editor of Smith's Bible Dictionary.
Boston. New York. 1872.
The papers on the Metaphors of Paul, which first appeared in the
"Sunday Magazine," in England (1866-67), were reproduced at the
instance of Dr. Hackett, in the American "Theological Eclectic"
(1867-68).
Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament. By the
Rev. G. Rawlinson, M. A., Camden Professor of Ancient History,
Oxford. With Additions by Prof. H. B. Hackett. Boston. 1873.
The Book of Ruth. The Common Version Revised. By Horatio
B. Hackett. New York. 1876.
300 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE.
LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL REVIEW.
No. IV. 1834. The Intellectual Dependence of Men on God.
THE AMERICAN BIBLICAL REPOSITORY.
Vol. XL 1838. p. 203. On the Infrequency of the Allusions to
Christianity in Greek and Roman Writers. Translated from the
Latin of H. G. Tzschirner.
ARTICLES IN THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW.
Vol. III. 1838. p. 20. Influence of Christian Mothers.
Vol. IV. 1839. p. I. Religion of the Bible. A Review of Reli-
gion of the Bible, in Select Discourses, By Thomas H. Skinner.
New York. 1839.
Vol. V. 1840. p. 182. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans.
Origin of the Church of Rome — its condition — occasion and object
of the Epistle. Translated from Hemsen's "Der Apostel Paulus,
Sain Leben, Wirken und seine Schriften."
Vol. VI. 1841. p. 66. Biblical Criticism. The Journey of Paul
to Jerusalem, — Galatians 2: i, seq., and Acts 15. Translated with
Remarks, from Hemsen's "Der Apostel Paulus."
Vol. VII. 1842. p. 563. Letter to a young Philologian. By
Barthold G. Niebuhr. Translated from the German.
Page 620. Notices of Krabbe's Lectures on the Life of Jesus ;
Klausen's Hermeneutics of the New Testament; and Lachmann's
New Testament, in Greek and Latin. Vol. I. Berlin. 1842.
Vol, VIII. 1843. p. 199. Neander on the Parables of Christ.
Translated from his "Das Leben Jesu Christi," in seinem geschicht-
lichen Zusammenhange und seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung.
Page 467. Notices of Tholuck's Commentary on the Epistle of
Paul to the Romans; Crusius's Iliad of Homer; and Guerike's
Historico-critical Introduction to the New Testament.
Page 588. Neander on the Parables of Christ. (Translation
concluded.)
Vol. X. 1845. p. 113. Symbology of the Old Testament, and
Rules for its Interpretation.
Page 151. Literary Intelligence from Germany.
Page 313. Notices of Petermann's and Winer's Chaldee Gram-
mars.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 3OI
Page 468. Notice of de Maistre's and Amyot's Translations of
Plutarch's Delay of the Deity.
Pages 476 and 637. Notices of German Publications in Sacred
Literature.
Vol. XI. 1846. p. 136. Recent Foreign Publications, chiefly in
Biblical and Classical Literature.
Page 472. Notice of Greenleaf 's Testimony of the Evangelists,
and Literary Intelligence.
Vol. XII. 1847. p. 456. Gleanings from Recent German Period-
icals.
Vol. XIII. 1848. p. 470. Bibliographical Notices.
Vol. XIV. 1849. p. 420. German Notices and Intelligence.
Page 526. German Intelligence.
Vol. XVIII. 1853. p. 405. Scripture Facts and Illustrations
Collected during a Journey in Palestine.
Page 515. Same subject continued.
Vol. XIX. 1854. p. 343. Notes of A Week in Palestine.
Page 614. Notice of Coleman's Historical Text-Book and Atlas
of Biblical Geography.
Vol. XX. 1S55. p. 451. Geographical Accuracy of the Bible.
Vol. XXII. 1857. p. 321. Literary and Theological Intelli-
gence.
Vol. XXVI. 1861. p. 577. Contents of the Epistle to the
Galatians.
ARTICLES IN THE BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.
Vol. II. 1845. p. 48. — Critique on Strauss's Life of Jesus.
Vol. III. 1846. p. I. — Synoptical Study of the Gospels, and recent
Literature pertaining to it.
Vol. IV. 1847. p. 171. — The Structure of the Hebrew Sentence.
Page 188. The Greek Version of the Pentateuch, by Thiersch.
Vol. V. 1848. p. 97. — Analysis of the Argument in the Epistle to
the Galatians.
Vol. V. 1848. p. 409. — Alleged Anachronism in Acts v. 36, in Re-
lation to the Sedition of Theudas. From the German.
Vol. VI. 1849. p. 338. — The Discourse of Paul at Athens. A
Commentary on Acts xvii. 16-34.
302 HORATIO BALCH HACKETT.
Vol. VII. 1850. p. 743. — The Voyage and Shipwreck of Paul,
as related by Luke: a Commentary on Acts xxvii. 1-44; xxviii. 16.
Vol. XIII. 1856. p. 609. — Plutarch on the Delay of Providence
in Punishing the Wicked.
Vol. XVII. i860, p. 866. — A Journey to Neapolis and Philippi.
Vol. XIX. 1862. p. 211. — Remarks on Renderings of the Common
Version (in the Epistle to the Galatians).
Page 469. — Church Book of the Puritans at Geneva, from 1555 to
1560.
Vol. XXII. 1865. p. 138. — Remarks on Renderings of the Com-
mon Version (in the Epistle to the Galatians).
Page 395. The First Eleven Chapters of Genesis Attested by their
Contents.
Vol. XXIII. 1866. p. 515. — Biblical Notes, (i) Where was
Candace queen .? (2) Situation of Emmaus; (3) Dispute respecting
Capernaum; (4) Place of Bethabara in the Harmony; (5) The
Quarries near Gilgal.
Vol. XXIV. 1867. p. 176. — Biblical Notes, (i) Situation of
Haran ; (2) View from Nebo.
Vol. XXV. 1868. p. 779.— Biblical Notes, (i) Meaning of John
20: 17; (2) Self-commendatory allusions in John's Gospel.
Vol. XXVI. 1869. p. 203. — Biblical Notes, Renderings of the
authorized version in Judges, xxvi.
Vol. XXVII. 1870. p. 570. — Explorations in Palestine.
Book Notices :
Tholuck on the Psalms. Vol. I. pp. 417-420.
Rodiger's Hebrew Grammar. Vol. III. p. 214.
Seffer's Hebrew Chrestomathy, and Lobeck's Prolegomena. Vol.
III. p. 215.
Stuart's Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar. Vol. III. p. 789.
Overbeck on Acts. Vol. XXVIII. p. 413.
Speaker's Commentary (prospectus). Vol. XXVIII. pp. 402-4.
THE BAPTIST QUARTERLY. 1 8 73. p. 449.
Transfiguration of Christ, on the Basis of Mark iv. 2-8, and its
Teachings.
Among many valuable Newspaper Articles, may be mentioned
Accounts of the Rev. H. G. Nott, and of the Last Days of the
Hon. Richard Fletcher; and Addresses, and Reports of Addresses,
delivered at Newton.
NOTHING LITTLE IN LANGUAGE. 303
A PAGE FROM DR. HACKETT'S JOURNAL,
1845.
Dr. Hackett translated many years ago (as may be seen in the
above list of his writings) the famous Letter of Niebuhr to a young
Philologian. It has seemed not inappropriate to give here, at the
close of this volume, a leaf from Dr. Hackett's Journal, of August
3d, 1845, which reveals the secret, or, at least, an important con-
dition, of his own eminence in the classical and sacred languages.
It may well be commended, as containing so concisely the maxims
of his practice, and the legacy of his experience, to any Christian
students in America aspiring to be among his followers, of whom
the venerable Tholuck prays that a multitude may be raised up.
In language, nothing is more false than that apology
for dulness or indolence, that there is a distinction
between words and things. The distinction between
words here is the distinction between things ; and no
one will ever become an exact philologian — indeed no
one will ever be able to understand a foreign author,
who despises or neglects what are called niceties of
language. The late Dr. Arnold fell for a time into
this error, while at the University ; but his strong, good
sense led him ere long to perceive his mistake, and he
set himself then resolutely at work to repair the con-
sequences of it ; and spared no occasion for warning
his pupils against so false and mischievous a notion.
Nothing is little in language ; the little is great, and
nothing should escape attention which relates to the
illustration of words, throus^h which alone we can ascend
to the comprehension of our author's mind and spirit.