University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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Living at one of the choicest sites in Burlington, amid scenes of in- comparable natural beauty , absorbed in the books of his mother tongue which he fervently believed to contain the most vigorous and healthful literature in the modern languages, contemplating at the same time the writings and examples of the classical ages, Prof. Shedd was also in a keen atmosphere of philosophy. The spirit of Pres. Nlarsh Cfwhose premature deceasej' says he, is the greatest loss American philosophy has yet been called to meet, D still prevailed in the University and was honored widely in the country. Coleridge was the vogue, and Kant was a name with which to divine. The professor of English Literature revelled in this field of high thinking. He surely was no slavish follower of Coleridge, for he saw clearly that the aphoristic style was fatal to the construction of a system, albeit wondrously stimulating. He regarded Coleridge as useful rather for suggestion and enterprise in speculation. 'f No one,'t says he, who has once mastered this author can possibly stop with him, but is urged on to the study of the greatest and choicest philosophical systems themselves. The occupations of Prof. Shedd's mind, when at the age of thirty-two he was required to leave Burlington for a career in theology, may be inferred from the productions of his pen about 1851-52. There is the Amherst address on the True Nature of the Beautiful and its Relation to Culture 3 the introduction on Coleridge as a Philosopher and Theologian 5 an essay on Original Sin in the Christian Review, and the inaugural at Auburn on the Characteristics and importance of a Natural Rhetoric. The professorship at Auburn Seminary lasted scarcely two years. The lectures prepared for his department of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology were thrown aside, he says, when he went to Andover in another capacity, yet when he was persuaded to gather them up for a book ten years later, they constituted the most popular of his many volumes. Prof. Shedd took the chair of Ecclesiastical History in Andover Sem- inary in 1854. It cannot be claimed that he was a specialist. He was rather a theologian traversingthe domain of history. He was effective, however, and fruitful. He sent to the press Guericke's Church History, translated or rather transfused into English, as Dr. Schaff said. He brought before the public Augustine's Confessions in new dress 5 and he wound up his ten years in the department with the History of Christian i 7

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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

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Doctrine in two volumes. He was too sagacious not to foresee and forestall the criticism which his work would encounter in that it be- tokens subjective qualities unduly for a historical production. Under the same impression, the reviewer, with caustic twang, says the work is not so exactly Dr. Shedd's History of Doctrine as the History of Dr. Shedd's Doctrine. The remark may be meant for stigma, it may be taken as compliment, for, if a sincere man set out to compose an ac- count of the Christian Doctrine, excluding in his preface the latitudi- narian drift of thoughtf' what could he exhibit but that which he believed to be true ? Great was the surprise when the successful Andover professor accepted a call to the pulpit of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York city in the throes of the Civil War, the year 1862. The pastorate was as brief as that earlier service in the quiet Vermont village, yet it was help- ful to his advancement. With the opening of the academic year, 1863, Dr. Shedd took the chair of New Testament Greek in Union Theological Seminary. Still was he often in the pulpits of New York, and whenever he was announced, a bevy of eager students and other thoughtful folk might be found in attendance. And after sermon we would stroll in the parks or up and down the avenues,-talking about Dr. Sheddl Nor was our great scholar even yet in his place, we felt and said. But eleven years of Biblical Exegesis would enhance his already various qualifications. To edit the volume on the Gospel of Mark for Lange's Commentary was an incident of the period: his own Commentary on Romans is a better exponent. Then the volume of Sermons to the Natural Man, 1871, greeted those who had hung so fondly on the grave but stirring and kindling preaching of their revered teacher. Dr. Shedcl assumed the chair of Systematic Theology in Union Sem- inary in 1874. At last he was in his appropriate sphere. All his fore- going studies, from the day when he sat down to read and teach English Literature in Burlington in 1845, through nearly thirty years, had been contributing to his Htness for the position of commanding influence. The materials of his subject were already tto use one of his expressionsj fused in his own mind. He appears to have written his course of lectures currently and orderly as a regulated stream out of a copious fountain. One will notice upon comparison, the correspondence be- tween the plan of his Systematic Theology and the arrangement of the n 8