LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. reasonable grounds the belief became a part of his lit,' uiul of unavailable truth. In his early manhood he was in advance of the thinkers of the day in his theological views. Later the stream of liberal religious thought, of which his own teach- ings had done not a little to start the current, swept past him, and he was left among the more conservative elements of the Unitarian body. Although one of his ablest works was a refuta- tion of the trinitarian doctrine, he always objected to the name unitarian or to a separate church organization under that designation. He had no sympathy for the transcendental movement, and with one of its leaden, George Ripley, he had a long controversy over what he termed the " latest form of infidelity." namely, the denial of the mira- cles as an essential proof of Christianity. The discussion left no bitterness behind it and it is to his opponent we must go for the most appreciative account of Mr. Norton's personal character and philosophical beliefs. In his chapter on " Philosophical thought in Boston "in the Memorial history of Boston, Mr. Ripley writes thus concerning Andrews Norton : " Every scholar in Cambridge received an inspir- ing impulse from his example. The lucidity of his intellect, the depth of liis erudition, and the choice felicities of his language presented a new standard of excellence, and gave a higher tone to the literary character of Boston. But the personal traits of Mr. Norton exerted a still more powerful influence. His hatred of pretension was equalled only by his devotion to truth. He spurned with a beautiful disdain whatever he deemed to be false, or shallow, or insincere. He demanded the stamp of genuineness, reality, harmony of proportion and perspective on everything which challenged his approval. ... A man of stainless purity of purpose, of high integrity of life, with a profound sense of religion, and severe simplicity of manners, his example was a perpetual rebuke to the con- ceitedness of learning, the vanity of youthful scholarship, and the habit of ' vain and shallow thought.' His influence is deeply stamped on the literature of Harvard ; the intellectual atmosphere has not yet lost the fragrance of his presence ; and if he solved no deep problems of philosophy, if his insight was restricted within a comparatively nar- row compass, and he failed to appreciate justly the philosophic tendencies of the age, yet the course of speculative thought in Boston, it is believed, is largely indebted to the influence of his character and example for whatever tincture of sound learn- ing it may exhibit, for its thoroughness of inquiry, its accuracy of research, and its comparative free- dom from extreme and erratic conclusions." In 1821 Mr. Norton married Catherine Eliot, daughter of Samuel Eliot, a merchant in Boston, and a generous benefactor of the College. The home thus formed was henceforth the centre of Mr. Norton's life ; for he was a recluse, not in the sense that he held aloof from his fellowmen, but that he was profoundly engrossed in his studies and cared little for either general society or public life. His house was, however, ever noted for generous hospitality and he himself was prominent in the literary circle of Cambridge and Boston. His health, never robust, began to fail him in 1849, and he remained an invalid until his death, at Newport, R. I., 18 September, 1853. Hij son, Charles Eliot Norton, has been Professor of the History of the Fine Arts in the College since 1875. AUTHORITIES: Newell, Discourse on the death of An- drews Norton, 1853. pp. 32 ; Notice of the life and charac- ter of Andrews Norton, 1853. pp. 30. Peabody, Harvard reminiscences, 1888, pp. 73-78. Willard, Memories, 1855, ii. 121, 152. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iv. 299-301, 310-311.
1821-1823.
Joseph Green Cogswell, the son of Francis and Anstice (Manning) Cogswell, was born 27 September, 1786, in Ipswich, Mass. After study- ing for two years at Phillips Academy, Exeter, he entered Harvard in 1802, and in 1807 was given his degree as of the class of 1806. After making a voyage as supercargo to India, he began the study of law in Boston. This he continued, with the interruption of a voyage, full of adventures and hair-breadth escapes, which he made in 1809 and 1810 to France and the Mediterranean, until his marriage in 1812 to Mary, daughter of John Taylor Oilman, the governor of New Hampshire. He began to practise law in Belfast, Maine, but after the death of his wife the next year, he returned to Cambridge. In 1814, he received the degree of A.M. and was made tutor in Latin. Re- signing at the end of a year, he went to Europe, where he remained, travelling and studying, most of the time for the next five years. The Univer- sity of Gottingen gave him the degree of Ph.D. in 1817. Soon after his return to America, in 1821, he wrote to a friend : " They offer me at Cambridge a combination of offices and honors, for ex- ample, the charge of the Library at $660, a new professorship of mineralogy, with as much as I can get for my services, $500 secured, and Gor- ham's chemical chair with 0800 or thereabouts. . . . Probably I shall accept these several appoint- ments ; that of Librarian I certainly shall for a time, long enough, I mean, to put the Library into better order than it now is in." Of the appointments thus referred to, he accepted, in 1821, the Librarianship and the Professorship of Mineralogy and Geology, offices which he held for only two years.
