most important part of his collection of books. In this branch of knowledge, his discussions in the Anthology and General Repository led the way for that careful philological learning which now prevails so generally in our schools of divinity. As a foundation for this, Mr. Wm. Wells, at Mr. Buckminster's urgent desire, and under his superintendence, published in 1809 an edition of Griesbach's Manual Greek Testament;-the first instance of a Greek book printed with becoming care and accuracy in the United States,* and still we suppose the only instance of a Greek book ordered in considerable numbers from this side of the Atlantic, to supply the demand of British scholars, because it had not so early been published in England. It was he too, who, by the consent of all, was appointed as the first lecturer on the foundation laid in Harvard College by the elder Dexter, to promote a more critical knowledge of cred Literature-a duty for which hewas just preparing himself when he was suddenly cut off by death. In short, it was he who first took the study of the New Testament from the old basis on which it had rested during the poor discussions and controversies of the latter half of the eighteenth century, when little more learning was asked for than was to be found in such books as Campbell's Gospels and Macknight's Epistles; and placed it on the solid foundation of the text of the New Testament, as settled by Mill, Wetstein, and Griesbach, and as elucidated by the labors of Michaelis, Marsh, and Rosenmuller, and by the safe and wise learning of Grotius, Leclerc, and Simon. been permitted to few persons to render so considerable a service to the cause of Christianity in our Western World.

It has

But Mr. Buckminster's great popular success was as a public preacher. His personal appearance, and particularly the beauty of his countenance, beaming with intelligence and goodness; his voice remarkable for its sweetness and solemnity;

and his gracious manner, natural almost to carelessness, but marked with great earnestness, especially in his devotional services-all these circumstances favored, no doubt, the effect of his discourses as they were delivered. But we now judge them only as compositions which the press has given to the world to be estimated according to their appropriateness to the purpose for which they were prepared, and according to their intrinsic literary merits. He published only four during his lifetime; a short address at the ordination of his friend the Rev. Charles Lowell, in 1806; a sermon on the death of Gov. Sullivan, who was his parishioner, in 1808; his brilliant Discourse before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, of Cambridge, in 1809; and in 1811, a sermon on the death of the Rev. Win. Emerson, with whose religious society his own was much connected. But after his death twenty-four of his sermons were selected and published, in 1814, with a memoir of his life, by his friend the Rev. S. C. Thatcher, to which, in 1829, another volume was added, containing twentytwo; and in 1839, the whole, with some extracts from his MSS. that had previously appeared in a

The first Greek type used in the United States was used in printing an original Greek ode and an original Greck elegy, both by Stephen Sewall, afterwards Professor of Hebrew in Harvard College. This was in 1761, at Boston.

VOL. II.-5

religious periodical, were published together in two volumes. They are all carefully written, or at least they seem to be so; and yet they were all prepared when he was between twenty and twenty-eight years old, as the hurried demands of duty called for them; and they were all necessarily given to the press without that final revision by their author, which is always so important.

Before his time, the sermons of New England had been chiefly doctrinal, and generally either dull or metaphysical; and, although a different style of preaching, one more practical and more marked with literary grace and religious sensibility, had begun to prevail in Boston and its neighborhood, before Mr. Buckminster appeared, yet only occasional discourses of the sort had been published; and the volume of his sermons printed in 1814 undoubtedly gave the decisive and the guiding impulse to the better manner that has prevailed since.*

DAVID HOFFMAN.

THIS distinguished jurist and scholar was a native of Maryland, born in the city of Baltimore Dec. 25, 1784, of a family eminent for its literary accomplishments. He early devoted himself to the study of the law, and was for a long time one of its leading practitioners in the state. Incited by a love of the profession and an ardent desire for its advancement, he spared neither labor nor means to advance its interests. The position

Hoffman

which he held for nearly twenty years, from 1817 Maryland, enabled him to render his accomplishto 1836, as Professor of Law in the University of ments as a scholar directly available in this direction. He illustrated the study of the law in a series of publications; the first of which, issued in 1817, was his Course of Legal Study, a work which secured the respect of the soundest

legal judgments; Marshall, Kent, Story, and De Witt Clinton, and other eminent authorities at home and abroad, bestowing their commendations on it for the method and acumen of its conception and execution. This work re-appeared in an enlarged and improved form in 1836. His next publi

*Mr. Buckminster's principal publications in the periodicals of his time are:

1805 Review of Miller's Retrospect of the xviii. cent.; in the Cambridge Literary Miscellany-his first appearance as an author.

1805 Review of the Salem Sallust; the first ancient classic printed in the United States, with original Latin preface and notes. Boston Anthology, vol. ii.

1808 Review of Logan's Translation of Cicero's Cato Major, published by Dr. Franklin, Philadelphia, 1744-the first translation of an ancient classic made and printed in the United States. Three articles in the Boston Anthology, vol. v. 1808, 1809, 1811. Articles on Griesbach's New Testament in the Boston Anthology, vols. v. vi. and x., and in the General Repository and Review, Cambridge, vol. i. 1812 Translation from Schleusner's Lexicon, with notes. His last publication.

We are indebted for this notice of Buckminster to the pen of Mr. George Ticknor, of Boston. It has been reduced from a biographical review which he published in the Christian Exami. ner for September, 1849.

cation was the Legal Outlines in 1836, a succinct and elaborate exposition of the practice and study of the law. The next year Mr. Hoffman admitted the public to a participation of some of his individual moods and humors, the result of his study of books and the world, in his volume of Essays, entitled Miscellaneous Thoughts on Men, Manners, and Things, by Anthony Grumbler, of Grumbleton Hall, Esq. A second volume, which may be regarded as a sequel to this, followed in 1841, Viator; or a Peep into my Note Book. A passage from the dedication of the latter to Thomas D'Oyly, Esq., serjeant at law, London, will exhibit the author's motive and the general complexion of his thoughts. "It is one of a series on a great variety of topics; the whole being designed to be illustrative and somewhat corrective of what is called the new school, and to portray the unhappy influences of the present mania in literature over men, manners, and things, as they appear, chiefly on this side of the broad Atlanticand also to recall readers to some retrospect of by-gone days; and finally, to contrast them with that fashionable ultraism so prevalent here, and which is no less obvious in our law, government, morals, and religion, than it manifestly is in our popular literature." Though in the form of light literature these books, in a pleasant way, contain various important discussions of law, art, religion, literature, in a style of popular philosophy. They are the productions of a lover of books and of men. The brief aphoristic essay was an especial favorite of the author. In the words of the motto of his Note Book, from Butler

"Tis in books the chief

Of all perfections to be plain and brief. In the preface of his "Introductory Letters" (1837) he mentions that "This volume, together with the two editions of the author's Course of Legal Study, and his Legal Outlines, as also his Moot Court Decisions, and Abridgment of Lord Coke's Reports, with Notes, will afford, as he hopes, sufficient evidence, were any needed, that in breaking up the law professorship, the trustees have done the author no little injustice, and themselves no great credit." The two lastnamed, "Moot Court Decisions" and "Coke's Reports," were prepared for the press, but never published. The manuscripts are now in possession of his family, by whom they may at some future time be given to the world.

In 1846 he published, in Philadelphia, Legal Hints, being a condensation of the leading ideas as relating to Professional Deportment, contained in "A Course of Legal Study," with the addition of "Some Counsel to Law Students." In the preface to this book, Mr. Hoffman says:— "It has been suggested to the author to publish separately, in a small manual, the following observations on Professional Deportment, which forms a division in the second volume of the work (Legal Study). This suggestion is acquiesced in from a deep conviction that the high tone of the bar has suffered some impairment, consequent upon its immense increase in this country within the last ten years-a cause, as well as effect, of the lamentable fact alluded to. Such a little Vade Mecum,' it is thought, might often prove useful, where the larger work might |

not be found; and with a sincere desire to do all the good to so noble a profession that may be in the author's humble competency, he now submits this little volume."

In this short space may be found a fair exposition of the ruling motives of the life of this amiable and accomplished gentleman. In all the excitements of professional contests, or in the privacy of social life, the same sentiments seem to have been breathed. To elevate, to refine, to bring into closer connexion those with whom he had business or social relation, was with him a great source of pleasure; and there is apparent, everywhere in his writings known to the public, and in his private correspondence, a sincere and earnest desire to soften and ameliorate in every possible way, the hard and forbidding aspect presented to the beginner in his struggle with the world.

After the termination of his law professorship, Mr. Hoffman, with a view to relaxation, visited England and the Continent, where he remained for about two years. Upon his return he entered into the political campaign then pending, favoring with great earnestness the election of General Harrison to the presidency, and was chosen one of the senatorial electors from the State of Maryland. Upon the conclusion of the contest he settled in Philadelphia, resuming the practice of the law, remaining in that city until 1847, in the fall of which year he again visited Europe, with a view to the completion of the great work of his life, entitled Chronicles selected from the Originals of Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew. During his residence in London he wrote a number of able articles, explaining the political and social economy of the U. S. government and people, which were published in the London Times, and were highly esteemed as truthful and reliable expositions of the subjects which they treated. The first volumes of the Cartaphilus were published in London, in 1853, by Bosworth, in an original style. The design and object of the work was to represent, in as compact and interesting view as possible, the History of the World, from the time of our Lord to the present; at the same time leading the mind of the reader into a more full understanding and consideration of the position of the different nations, their modes of government, and many other interesting subjects, but more particularly showing the condition of the different religious sects-their rise, causes, success, and the events which followed-altogether forming a view of the most important changes in the positions of the nations since the commencement of the Christian era. This end is supposed to have been attained through the agency of Cartaphilus (the Wandering Jew). The tradition is taken up by the author, and carried successfully through the whole work. The book was originally intended to occupy six quarto volumes, two of which, as before mentioned, had been published, and the third printed in proof save about one hundred and twenty pages, of which the manuscript was prepared and ready for the press at the time of the death of Mr. H. These three volumes include the first series, the second volume bringing the "chronicles" down to the year of grace 573.

Of the second series (of three volumes, making the six) a great portion of the manuscript had been prepared, but not corrected.

This work, which in extent of reading is worthy to rank with the folios of an earlier day, shows the curious tastes and literary diligence of the author. He was always a careful conservator of antiquity; nor did he neglect the present, as the valuable collections of his library, which at several instalments have been disposed of to the public, and are now gathered in various public and private libraries, have fully witnessed.

He returned to this country from England in December, 1853, and became engaged in the arrangement of his private affairs, which long absence from the country had made a source of some solicitude. In the proper forwarding of this purpose he was much occupied in travelling. While on a visit to New York, in 1854, he died suddenly of apoplexy, November 11th of that year. His remains were taken to Baltimore for interment.

Mr. Hoffinan had received, during his life, a number of honorary degrees from different institutions of learning in this country and Europe, the principal of which were that of LL.D., from the University of Maryland; also a like degree from the University of Oxford, England; and that of Juris Utri. Doct. Gottingen, besides other honorary degrees from several societies of "Savants."

FAME AND AUTHORSHIP FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO
"VIATOR."

In the following pages my readers will find I have, in some degree, consulted the prevalent taste, by endeavouring, occasionally, to convey my moral, or instruction, as the case may be, in something after the fashion of a tale! and, when this is not the case, by imparting to each theme as much of life and ease as may consist with the nature of my topics-and of my own nature. And yet truly, I have never seen any reason why the gravest, nay, even the most recondite subjects, may not be popularly, and sometimes even sportively handled; and I believe that the writings of the philosophers, of the school-men, and even of the early fathers of the "mother church," might be thus dealt with, and profitably withal, yet without the least disparagement of their dignityand that when so taken up, our surface readers may thus gain some knowledge of facts and opinions in forgotten literature and science, that otherwise might never have reached them! Be this as it may, I shall complete my series, in my own way, both as to matter and manner, justly hoping, but not ardently craving, that if in the present day and generation, very many should be disposed humourously to say of me

Our author thus with stuff'd sufficiency,

Of all omnigenous omnisciency,

Began (as who would not begin,
That had, like him, so much within?)
To let it out in books of all sorts,
In duodecimos, large and small sorts!-

Oh

the generation after it may possibly exclaim, Vandal age, now gone by! it was not given to thee, whilst in the cartilage, to be nourished on the pith and marrow of that author; but we, who are now in the muscle and bone of maturity, profit by his counsels, and take just pride in his old-fashioned wisdom." And thus is it that authors do sometimes take comfort unto themselves, even at the moment that some Zoilus would deprive them of this most benign self-complacency.

But, you all remember how, some thirty centuries ago, a powerful monarch, and the wisest of men, thus chronicles a lesson of humility for all authors-one that is, and will be, equally true in all past, present, and future ages—“ my son be admonished—OF MAKING BOOKS there is no end-much study is a weariness of the flesh." And yet it would seem strange that in his day, when printing, stereotypes, and steam-presses were wholly unknown, Solomon should have had reason to feel so strongly the vanity, and absolute nothingness of authorship! Where are now the works, nay even the names of the myriads who then toiled for fame, if, for a bubble so perishable, they did toil, which hath ever seemed to me a most unphilosophical libel against the whole fraternity of authors, from Solomon's to the present day? I cannot harbour the thought that the love of fame ever guided the pen of any author, be he a maker of primers or of folios, and whether he were a Parley or a Shakespeare, a Pinnock or a Milton, a Boz or a Bacon, a Jack Downing or a Newton!-but contrariwise, I do verily opine, that nearly every other conceivable motive, rather than the love of praise, either present or posthumous, has attended them throughout their labours of the pen! To recount the incitements that may prompt and nourish authorship, would itself require a volume, in which fame, however, would occupy but an insignificant section. Even in Lord Byron, it was the dread of ennui, an indomitable imagination, a partial misanthropy, or rather a disgust towards some men and things, a strong love of satire, an arrogant contempt of ignorance and of folly-and, in fine, a thousand other motives which stimulated his pen more constantly and fervently, than any regard for " golden opinions." And though the noble author has said,

"Tis pleasant sure to see one's name in print; A book's a book, although there's nothing in't; yet all know the spirit with which this couplet was written, and that no one was less inclined than his lordship, to practise what he so much condemned in others. The truth is, fame is the last and least of all the motives that lead to authorship of any kindand if the lives of Voltaire-of Lope de Vega-of Bacon-of Sir Walter Scott, nay of all other voluminous writers, be closely examined, I cannot but think it would be found that much stronger, and more numerous incitements, than the praises of men, led them on from small beginnings to great results, in authorship. Young, in his epistle to Pope, has easily filled his poetical letter with them. recorded some of the motives; and he might have

Some write confin'd by physic; some by debt;
Some, for 'tis Sunday; some because 'tis wet;
Another writes because his father writ,
And proves himself a bastard by his wit.

And I may add, some write because they are the merriest crickets that chirp; others, lest they should be drowned in their own gall, did they not periodically vent their spleen; some write from mere repletion of learning; others from doubts whether they possess any! With some, composition is scarce an intellectual toil, but affords them the highest mental gratification; with others, it is a labour essential to the fixation of their thoughts, and to the ascertainment of their own resources; some, without the least alloy of selfishness, are actuated solely by the hope of benefiting their readers; others are prompted by every other selfish consideration, save that of fame. Be the motive, however, what it may, no author, in our day, judging from the past, can repose with much confidence, on securing the grateful remembrance of future ages. Dr. Johnson was the idol of his day, and for half a generation after! but his Dic

author's object in this treatise is to settle, so far as may be," the nature and degree of equality required in contracts of mutual interest, as well in reference to inadequacy of price, as to the more perplexing difficulty of inequality of knowledge." The usually received maxim of caveat emptor he conceives to be unsound, and urges that the laws regulating insurance, by which the owner of the property is bound to furnish the underwriter with the fullest information touching its character and hazards, should be extended to cases of bargain and sale, in which the avowed interest of both parties is to furnish an equivalent in value. In the sale of articles whose value is not determinable, or where the buyer receives no guarantee and purchases on that condition, such information is not obligatory on the seller, nor is he bound to refund in case of a sudden rise or fall in the article after the sale, which neither anticipated with certainty at the time. The essay was occasioned by a desire to check the spirit of speculation which has so often run riot over the American community, and the author, at its outset, makes special reference to a purchase of tobacco in New Orleans, by a party who had possession of the fact of a treaty of peace having been signed between the United States and Great Britain, at the depressed market price of the commodity. As soon as the news on which the purchaser traded was known to the seller, he brought suit to recover the property. The sale was finally pronounced valid by Chief-justice Marshall.

In 1825 Mr. Verplanck was elected Member of Congress from the city of New York. He remained in the House of Representatives for eight years, and, though seldom appearing as a speaker, was prominent in many measures of importance, and especially in the advocacy of the bill extending the term of copyright from twenty-eight to forty-two years. At the close of the session (that of 1830-1) in which this measure was passed, Mr. Verplanck received the well merited compliment of a public dinner from "a number of citizens distinguished for the successful cultivation of letters and the arts."* The theme of his speech on the occasion was The Law of Literary Property. It is included in his collected discourses. In this he maintains that the right in the product of intellectual is the same as in that of manual labor.

In 1827 Verplanck, Sands, and Bryant united in the production of an Annual, called The Talisman. It was illustrated with engravings from pictures by American artists, and continued for three successive years. In 1833 the volumes were republished with the title of Miscellanies first published under the name of The Talisman, by G. C. Verplanck, W. C. Bryant, and Robert C. Sands.t These volumes contain some of the choicest productions of their distinguished authors. Many have since appeared in the collected writings of Bryant and Sands. One of the pleasant papers which may be readily from subject and style traced to Verplanck's pen, is devoted to Reminiscences of New York, always

* Note in Discourses and Addresses, by G. C. Verplanck, P. 216. + 8 vols. 18mo. Elam Bliss: New York, 1888.

an inviting theme in his hands. In 1833 a volume of Discourses and Addresses on Subjects of American History, Arts, and Literature, by Gulian C. Verplanck, appeared from the press of the Harpers.* It contains, in addition to the Addresses already spoken of, an eulogy of Lord Baltimore; an address on the Fine Arts; a Tribute to the Memory of Daniel H. Barnes a well known schoolmaster of New York, in which he does justice to the calling as well as the individual; an address at Columbia College on the distinguished graduates of that institution, among whom he particularizes Hamilton, Jay, Robert R. Livingston, De Witt Clinton, Gouverneur Morris, and Dr. Mason. The volume closes with an address before the Mercantile Library Association, somewhat similar in purpose to a lecture delivered near the close of the same year before the Mechanics' Institute, which contains an admirable enforcement of the mutual dependence of art and science, the toil of the brain and the toil of the muscle, on one another, and the importance to the business and working man of literature as a rational recreation as well as practical instructor in his career.

In 1833, Mr. Verplanck also delivered a discourse, The Right Moral Influence and Use of Liberal Studies, at the commencement of Geneva College, Aug. 7, 1833; and in 1834, on a similar occasion at Union College, spoke on the Influence of Moral Causes upon Opinion, Science, and Literature. In 1836, he delivered one of the most celebrated of his discourses, The American Scholar, at Union College. The object of this production is to show that the mental activity of America, the general dissemination of intelligence, the open path to every species of intellectual distinction, more than counterbalance the opportunities for scholastic retirement, in which the new is as yet inferior to the old world. The student is warned to build his career in reference to the sphere of its employment, and not risk his happiness and usefulness by an inordinate longing for, or imitation of, models formed under different circumstances of age, society, and soil.

In 1844, the first number of an edition of Shakespeare's Plays, edited by Mr. Verplanck,

* 12mo. pp. 257.

In his remarks on Clinton he has a handsome allusion to forgetfulness of old difficulties:

The memory of De Witt Clinton, the first graduate of our Alma Mater after the peace of 1788, is another brilliant and treasured possession of this college. After the numerous tributes which have so recently been paid to his memory, and especially that luminous view of his character as a scholar and a statesman, as the promoter of good education and useful improvement, contained in the discourse lately delivered from this place by Professor Renwick, anything I could now say on the same subject would be but useless repetition. Else would I gladly pay the homage due to his eminent and lasting services, and honour that lofty ambition which taught him to look to designs of grand utility, and to their successful execution, as his arts of gaining or redeeming the confidence of a generous and public-spirited people. For whatever of party animosity might have ever blinded me to his merits, had died away long before his death; and I could now utter his honest praises without the imputation of hollow pretence from others, or the mortifying consciousness in my own breast, of rendering unwilling and tardy justice to noble designs and great public service."

Lecture Introductory to the Course of Scientific Lectures before the Mechanics' Institute of the City of New York, Nov. 27, 1883. By Gulian C. Verplanck. New York: 1883.

The Advantages and the Dangers of the American Scholar. A Discourse delivered on the day preceding the Annual Commencement of Union College, July 26, 1836. By Gulian C. Verplanck. New York: Wiley and Long, 1836.