A History of Harvard University

the mere duty of keeping an account of the delivery and return of books, but is reserved for men of talents and learning, who are capable of using a library for the benefit of the community, while they personally give distinction and character to the establishment with which they are connected,- for such men as Porson in London, Hase in Paris, and Heyne in Göttingen.

"With how much ability and fidelity he discharged the duties of that station, has long been well known to the governors of the University; and the public, generally, have now also the means of forming some judgment, in his ample and invaluable Catalogue of the University Library, lately published in four octavo volumes, the last of which was just completed and was in a course of distribution, while he was confined to his house by that malady which so unexpectedly proved fatal to him. The value of this laborious and accurate work can be estimated by those only, who know how to appreciate the Herculean labor of executing it. Various efforts had been made, by the government of the College, to obtain a good catalogue before the Library had attained to its present increased size; and materials had been in part collected for that purpose by different persons. But those materials, valuable as they would have been in the hands of the individuals, who had made the collections each with a view to his own plan and conception of such a work, were but partially used by Mr. Peirce, as we have understood, in the construction of his Catalogue.

"In addition to this important publication, Mr. Peirce had begun, and brought to a considerable degree of forwardness, another work, in which every son of Harvard in particular, will take a most lively interest, a History of the University, from its foundation; with notices of its distinguished sons, who have been ornaments to our country as well as to the place of their education. A great body of new and highly interesting matter will be found in the collections made by Mr. Peirce with a view to this History; and it is to be hoped, that measures will be taken, as early as circumstances permit, for the completion and publication of this work, in itself, the most appropriate monument to the memory of a devoted son of our Alma Mater, and one whose deep interest in her welfare, and intense application to the duties of his office, have contributed to hasten the catastrophe we now lament.

"But we are admonished to refrain from indulging ourselves in the feelings, which this event naturally calls forth. His associates in office at the University, and all others who knew the real worth of this valuable public officer and excellent man, feel and lament the loss sustained in his death. But by no one can this be more deeply felt than by him, who, in justice to departed worth and as a solace to his own feelings, has attempted this faint memorial of the character of a highly valued and cherished friend. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit:

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