University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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Przoeesson W. G. T. SHEDD, DD., LL.D. 'Qmiltiam CBFCCNOIIQD GDHQGI' Bbebb was born in Acton, Nlass., in the year 1820. When he was still a child his father removed to Willsboro in Essex County, New York, where he was pastor of a Congregational Church. l-le was a graduate of Dartmouth College, of the class of 1817. Willsboro lies a few miles from the western shore of Lake Champlain in the direction of the Adirondacks, and was a place of primitive simplicity. The son made his preparatory studies at West- port and came across the lake to the college at the' age of fifteent years. The father accompanied and maintained a home for him during his course. The University was then under the presidency of Dr. John Wheeler, and the faculty included ex-President Marsh in the chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and the future President Torrey in the chair of Latin and Greek. Nlr. Shedd received his degree with the class of 11839. Dr. Francis B. Wheeler of the class of 1842, who continued for a life time an intimate friend, describes the young student as of grave face and manners yet mirthtul in spirit and of quick wit, a leader in scholarship, evincing from the start that power of clear thinking and lucid expression which characterized him ever afterward. Upon grad- uation he went to New York city in the capacity of private tutor, because he was not ready to choose a profession. There he came under the ministry of Dr. Asa D. Smith, afterward President of Dartmouth, settled the question of personal religion, and decided to study for the ministry. Nlr. Shedd took the course at Andover Seminary, receivinghis diploma with the class of 1845. In the meanwhile he had mastered the German language to read though not to speak it. French became at his command likewise. The youthful theologian was ordained to the ministry and in- stalled pastor of the Congregational Church in Brandon, Vermont, in 1844. The next year he was summoned by the University to the pro- fessorship of English Literature. Seven years were passed in this service, and they were to him years of marvellous acquisition. He seems to have traversed the entire range of literature in the English language, threading his way back into the Anglo-Saxon and embracing as with boundless capacity the wealth of the successive periods, especially of the opulent 5

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Elizabethan age. Does he not describe his own grasp and estimate in the fine resume:- the wisdom of Bacon, and Hooker, and Burke, the satire of Hall, of Butler, of Dryden, of Swiftg the humor of Chaucer, of Goldsmith, of Sterne, of Lamb 5 the brilliancy and art of Pope, the mag- nificence and architecture of Nliltong the sweetness, and fluency, and flushed beauty of Spenser, the meditativeness of Wordsworth, and the intensity of Byron, st tt if lastly of that wonderful being in whom all these qualities existed in their prime and purity, and found their full expression in the immense range and expanse of the Shake- sperean drama, in the portraiture of the whole human being in its myriad minds and moods ? Prof. Shedd taught rhetoric, and he taught in no perfunctory fashion. The theory of Theremin, whose work he translated and published, satis- tied him and thrilled him. Eloquence, including all utterance for the purpose of moving men, is a Virtue. That is to say, it proceeds from an ethical rather than from either an aesthetic or scientific motive. Under Prof. Shedd's handling, this germinant principle works vitally in the purpose, in the selection of material, and in the style of the orator. He is placed under bonds to think honestly, to speak truthfully and to express himself clearly. Some may assume that the professor's own luminous style was a nat- ural gift, but one who considers his course of study and training will be sure that his gifts were perfected by his rhetorical theory coupled with his appreciation of the intense power of the English language, and the vast wealth of English literature. At this early day and in this connection, Prof. Shedd embraced that preference for the ancients over the moderns which was characteristic of him through life and in allldepartments of scholarship. lt was not a capricious choice, or a mere partiality. He perceived that they who are taken captive by the dazzling and brilliant but superficial and transitory products i' of the day become t' mannerists and copyists 3 therefore for the sake of strength, reserve and originality, he strenuously commended a pure taste, and a genuine relish for the excellencies of those great masters and models which, like the sun, are alwaysthe same in all time. We should point to the Essays on the ln- fluence and Method of English Studies l' and the Ethical Theory of Rhetoric and Eloquence, which reproduce the period now under review, as the most admirable disclosure of the formation of the mind of Dr. Shedd. 6