to the older LINONIAN SOCIETY, which dated from 1753; these two Societies exercised a large influence in the development of student character, down to the time of their gradual decadence, from about 1850, owing to the growth of smaller, class societies.

As early as 1771 the students began to manifest a restless spirit under the unpopular control of Dr. Daggett; this spirit continued, and his refusal in March, 1777, to discharge any longer the office of President was probably a wise solution of existing difficulties. The chief duty for which he had been called to the College was that of a preacher, and in this by general consent he was satisfactory; but neither his natural gifts nor his acquisitions fitted him for the different task of directing the policy of the institution and of controlling and instructing the students, in a time of special difficulty.

President Stiles's Administration, 1777-95

T Commencement in 1777 the Fellows with

AT

the general approval of the public elected to the vacant office of President the Rev. Dr. EZRA STILES, a graduate of 1746, who had long and successfully served as Tutor, being greatly trusted by President Clap, whose devotion to the College he seemed to have inherited. For over twenty years he had been pastor of a church in Newport, Rhode Island, and in that most cosmopolitan of American towns had found unequaled opportunities for slaking his thirst for universal knowledge. Driven from Newport by the war, he was now ministering to a congregation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which would gladly have retained him as their pastor; but a sense of duty led him to accept the offer of the Corporation, although not removing to the College until June, 1778.

He found the students much demoralized by irregular residence during the past two yearsthe early period of the REVOLUTION-in which the College had been practically broken up and the several classes scattered in different localities, owing to the derangement of finances and the want of provisions, which had made it almost impossible to keep up College commons. Dr. Stiles was himself an ardent patriot, and had been among the first to welcome the prospect of independence. He accepted the Presidency with the understand

ing that efforts should be made to bring about a closer union of the College and the State government, and in this hope he persevered through the trying days of the Revolution and the Confederation. He was early deprived of the aid of the two Professors whom he found in office, in each case in a measure by the intervention of public events. Dr. Daggett, when the British in September, 1779, invaded the town, shouldered a musket for its defense, and his death fourteen months later was in part a result of ill-treatment experienced on being taken prisoner at this time. Professor Strong, on the other hand, was too much of a loyalist to be thoroughly at ease in the patriotic atmosphere of the College, and after long-continued complaints of inadequate support (a necessary result of the disasters of the times) he resigned his place in December, 1781.

The instruction of the Senior class in Mental and Moral Philosophy was a part of the President's duties, and Dr. Stiles, in accepting the office, had expressed a desire for special recognition of additional instruction which he proposed to give, and accordingly had been constituted Professor of Ecclesiastical History, as well as President, both which offices he retained until his death. He by no means, however, confined himself to these duties; and during the long intervals (the most of his administration) in which the other Professorships were actually or practically vacant, the President was competent to fill those also. To the Professorship vacated by Mr. Strong no

appointment was made for thirteen years; and during all this time the President usually gave lectures once or twice a week on the more important topics in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy. The Professorship of Divinity, having some endowment, was more easy to supply, and in June, 1782, the Rev. SAMUEL WALES, a graduate of 1767, for a short time a tutor, and since 1770 the eloquent pastor of a church in the adjoining town of Milford, was inducted as Dr. Daggett's successor; but in 1783, on the threshold of a promising career, a nervous disorder attacked him, from which he was never again entirely free, and which after ten years of partial disability caused his retirement. Thus the duties of this Professorship also-including a regular course in theology for graduates and undergraduates, and the supply of the Chapel pulpit-devolved on President Stiles during much of his term of office.

This multiplicity of labors was further increased by the considerable increase in the number of students, the places of those who were diverted into the ranks of the army being more than filled by those who wished to profit by the exemption from military service secured by law to members of the College community. Thus, at the close of the war, in 1783, there were 270 undergraduates on the rolls, as against 132 in 1777, and 139 in 1787. A few contributions to the permanent resources of the College cheered these dismal years. In May, 1781, the Rev. Dr. RICHARD SALTER, of Mansfield, Connecticut, a former Fellow of the Corpo

ration, conveyed to the College a tract of land, the avails of which (now amounting to $3,700) were to endow a Professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental languages,—another department of learning in which the versatile President was notably proficient. In January, 1782, by the death of Dr. DANIEL LATHROP (Yale, 1733), of Norwich, Connecticut, the College received a bequest of £500 sterling, to be kept as a permanent fund; and in 1791 a bequest amounting to $1,122, for the benefit of the Library, was made by the Rev. Dr. SAMUEL LOCKWOOD (Yale, 1745), of Andover, Connecticut, who had also given £100 in 1787 to a fund (which reached £300) for the purchase of new philosophical apparatus.

It should be noted that the Library had suffered serious losses in the Revolutionary period under the alarms of invasion and during the dispersion of the students to inland towns.

In the fall of 1782 a new brick building was erected, at an expense of nearly £600 saved from the interest of College funds, in the rear of the other buildings, for use as a common DINING HALL and kitchen, but later known as the Chemical Laboratory. The original College, erected in 1717-18 in front of the present South College, having fallen into decay, through delay of suitable repairs, had been in part pulled down in the winter of 1775-76; but the hall and kitchen at the south end were retained, until superseded by the new hall just mentioned.

It was not till near the close of Dr. Stiles's ad