atlxan gjerliiws ^eijmour

glatlxatx gjerMws ^z^monx

1813-1891

" Gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.

NatJian ^tvUinn Sesmoutr.

Nathan Peekins Seymour was born in Hartford,
Connecticut, Dec. 24, 1813, — being the sixth of eleven
children of Charles Seymour and Catharine Perkins
his wife. He was the sixth in descent from Richard
Seymour who came from Berry Pomeroy, in the
county of Devon, England, and made his home in
Hartford in 1639, the ancestor of the Hon. Origen
Storrs Seymour, General Truman Seymour, Gover
nor Horatio Seymour of New York, and Governor
Thomas H. Seymour of Connecticut. His grand
father, Charles Seymour, was an officer in the Conti
nental Army during the revolutionary war. His
other grandfather, the Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D.,
for whom he was named, was for sixty-six years
the pastor of the church of Christ in West Hartford,
and guided the theological studies of more than
thirty candidates for the Christian ministry, besides
aiding more than a hundred young men (among
them, Noah Webster) in their preparation for college.

His grandmother on the Perkins side was a daughter
of Gov. William Pitkin and granddaughter of Presi
dent Thomas Clap of Yale College. He was of Pur
itan ancestry on every side, — a lineal descendant of
Gov. William Bradford, Gov. John Haynes and Mabel
Harlakenden his wife, Gov. Thomas Dudley, Hon.
Samuel Wyllys, the Rev. John Woodbridge, Emman
uel Downing, Solomon Stoddard, Adam Winthrop,
and other honored men of the early years of New
England's history. Not one of his ancestors came to
this country after 1700, while the founders of most
lines are known to have been here before 1650. He
enjoyed the thought of his worthy ancestry and as a
young man laid the foundation for the genealogical
record of the Seymour family in this country, by
patient enquiry from old people as well as by copy
ing records and inscriptions.
His early home was in Dorr street, but while he
was a mere child the family moved to the large house
on Pratt street which was the family home for a third
of a century. His early schooling was in the " Old
Stone Jug," a low one-story building where little was
to be learned. But he was soon promoted to the
Hopkins Grammar School, where he enjoyed the care
and instruction of a remarkable series of distinguished

men, — Edward Beecher, afterward President of Illi
nois College ; William Mosely Holland, afterward
Professor of languages in Trinity College ; Elijah P.
Barrows, afterward his colleague in Ohio, and still
later Professor of Hebrew in Andover Theological
Seminary ; and F. A. P. Barnard, the late President
of Columbia College. What other school in the
country can boast of having had such teachers within
the space of eight years ! He felt under special ob
ligations to Mr. Barrows, who read the classics with
him far beyond the limits of the ordinary school
course ; for example, they read together all the New
Testament in Greek, except St. Paul's Epistle to the
Romans. This was the beginning of a warm friend
ship which lasted through life. Mr. Barnard took so
much kindly interest in this scholar that he invited
him to share his college room when the two came to
New Haven, the one as tutor and the other as fresh
man. This friendly offer was not accepted but the
relations between the two were always pleasant.
President Barnard in some reminiscences of the Gram
mar School wrote half a century later, in 1878 :
" Near to the seat of Thomas Thacher sat Nathan
P. Seymour. He was another of the older boys who
possessed the power of ruling his spirit. Like

Thacher he was demure and diligent. In class he
was always to be relied on. His intellect was clear,
his perseverance untiring. No difficulty ever baffled
him ; his energies rose to the occasion, and he never
ceased effort till he felt himself the master. To the
teacher, Seymour was a most delightful pupil. He
always came up with a pleasant smile, he gave his
answers in a gentle, half subdued, but perfectly
assured voice, he never hesitated, stammered, or be
came confused, and he never pleaded want of time
for preparation, or complained that the lesson was too
long. It was easy to predict for Seymour an honor
able future."
He went to Yale College in the autumn of 1830,
with a preparation better in important respects than
most young men of the present generation receive.
For two years he had been a "pupil teacher," and
had taught boys older than himself He always
cherished the memory of the years he spent in the
Hartford Grammar School, and believed fu'mly that
no modern school was ever its equal for real inspir
ation and helpfulness to its students. In the school,
he was distinguished not merely for scholarship, but
as a leader in athletics, especially the game of football.
His use of mind in guiding his forces to victory was

noted particularly by a contemporary, in a sketch of
the school which was published a few years ago.
At New Haven, his mother's cousin, Mrs. Governor
Baldwin, was kindly hospitable to young Seymour,
and received him often at her house. He was often
also at the house of another cousin of his mother, Mrs.
Sherman. Professor Kingsley recognized cordially a
more remote cousinship, and was particularly kind
and thoughtful during all of his residence in New
Haven. The instruction of Professor Kingsley in Latin was
specially stimulating and helpful to him, although he
had it only for a single term. He never forgot some
of Mr. Kingsley's happy translations of Tacitus. He
enjoyed the privilege of Professor Gibbs' instruction
for at least a year, and always was grateful for it.
Professor (President) Woolsey read a Greek tragedy
or two with his class in 1831-32, the first year of his
professorship. One of his tutors was Elias Loomis,
afterward his colleague in Ohio, and still later the
distinguished meteorologist and astronomer of Yale,
who made the characteristic laconic note with regard
to this pupil, " first-rate."
Most of the teaching of that time was by tutors.
He never complained of his fate under the system, but

has said that he never received a new mathematical
idea in the recitation-room, and that he never heard a
question asked about the subjunctive mode in Latin,
during his college course.
His tastes from the first were literary, but not ex
clusively so. He did good work in every department,
and always held that a really excellent classical scholar
would be also a good mathematician. He delighted
in at least two colleagues of high distinction in science,
Professor Loomis and Professor Young of Princeton,
who were also fine classical scholars, and enjoyed
their literary studies.
He had comparatively few intimate college friends,
and most of these were older than himself. He was
most closely bound to John R. Keep, for long years
engaged in the work for deaf-mutes ; Alfred Emerson,
who was to be for a time his colleague in Ohio ;
Daniel Butler, known to all New England as " Bible
Butler"; Samuel St. John, also his colleague in Ohio;
and Wm. N. H. Smith, the late honored Chief Justice
of North Carolina. Of these six, two survive him.
Much of the recreation of his college life was gained
from music. His voice (inherited from his mother)
was rich, deep, and smooth, as well as powerful, and
he enjoyed good music to the full. From the first he

was a member of the college choir, and prominent in
the Beethoven Society. His delight in music never
waned. In his new home in Ohio, he was elected
president of the Handel and Haydn Society, immedi
ately on his arrival. His ear was accurate and his
taste severe. False intonations were a distress to him,
and mediocre music distasteful. He cared only for
the best. He was not satisfied with the enjoyment of
sweet sounds, with harmony and melody. He studied
themes, phrasing, and connexions, so that (without the
technical skill to play on any instrument) he often
was able to point out to a musician the way in which
a composition should be played. He was annoyed by
the playing of ordinary orchestras, in which though
every note is struck correctly the composer's meaning
is left obscure, and compared this with the reading of
a play of Shakespeare by one who had a pleasant voice
and could pronounce each word correctly, and yet
was without the power to grasp and express the mean
ing of an entire passage. He liked to study a compo
sition with the piano, hearing it played again and
again until he could understand the work as a whole,
and note the true place and relation of every part.
He delighted particularly in the symphonies and
sonatas of Beethoven, and in the old masses of the

Catholic church. He often attended the vesper ser
vices in large Catholic churches, for the sake of the
music. His keen sense of time and rhythm was of the
highest value to him in his study of the poetry of
Greece and Rome, and gave him a full appreciation of
the metres of the modern masters. He enjoyed noting
the peculiar effect of each metre and tracing its use
from one poet to another, with the various changes
and the reasons for them. His accurate musical ear,
quick to note variations of tone and quality of sound,
with carefully trained organs of speech, not only
enabled him to acquire easily the exact pronunciation
of foreign languages, but also aided him in the discus
sion and settlement of questions in the department of
phonetics. The young Seymour graduated in 1834 with the
appointment of Salutatory Oration. This at that time
was not held to indicate inferior scholarship to the
Valedictory Oration, which was assigned to his friend
St. John.
Immediately on his graduation from college he was
asked to take charge of the Hopkins Grammar School of
Hartford, in which he had been prepared for college,
and he served as Rector of that school for two years.

Here he was brought into intimate relations with
a brilliant young Greek, several years older than
himself, Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles, then a
teacher in the school, who largely by his influence
was invited to New Haven two or three years later,
and who afterwards was the distinguished scholar of
Harvard. From Mr. Sophocles he derived a certain
stimulus and inspiration, and to him he ascribed his
first literary appreciation of the Psalms of the Bible,
while with him he saw new beauties in Shakespeare.
The friendship between the two scholars became still
closer during the years of common life in New Haven,
and never weakened, although in the later years of
life they saw each other but seldom.
The work of teaching at Hartford was thoroughly
enjoyed and proved Mr. Seymour's fitness for the
life of a scholar and teacher. He had abundance of
patience with the slow-minded, and was willing to
take unbounded pains to make a problem clear to
those who desired to learn. Of no one was Chaucer's
word ever more true, — " And gladly wolde he lerne
and gladly teche."
In 1836 he returned to New Haven and served as
tutor for four years. For three of these years he was
tutor of the "North Division" of the Class of 1840.

To the members of this division he was almost more
attached than to his classmates, and they manifested
in many ways their appreciation of his instruction and
interest in them. One of them has written since his
death : " I hardly know how it was, but there always
seemed a somewhat unusual tie of sympathetic cor
diality between himself and the class. How well I
recall at this moment the appreciative half smile with
which he greeted a good recitation ; and the relish he
taught us to have for the classics, by having it with
such enthusiasm, himself. We always thought he
liked us, and we knew we liked him rarely well.
Personally, I owe him much. The accurate picture
of his form and of his animated, refined, benignant
features, — I carry easily in my eye, my mind, my
heart, for these fifty years."
During his term of service as tutor, he was in most
intimate relations with Mr. (Professor) Thomas A.
Thacher and Mr. Sophocles. Among his associates
were also Professor James D. Dana, Judge Alphonso
Taffc, his classmates Professor Samuel St. John and
Professor Alfred Emerson, Professor John L. Taylor
of Andover, and William D. Ely, Esq., of Providence.
For nearly three of the four years of his tutorship he
held the then responsible position of Senior Tutor.

While tutor, he attended courses of lectures in the
schools of law, theology, and medicine ; he studied
Hebrew and read Blackstone. His plans for his
future career were not matured, but he inclined to
enter the profession of the law. In 1840, however,
he was called to the chair of Latin and Greek in the
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. This
college, with little money, but with devoted friends
and brilliant prospects, was struggling to be the
"Yale of the West," — and no institution ever better
deserved the name. Few colleges of the country
have had a more distinguished faculty than this
between 1840 and 1850. There were Laurens P.
Hickok, the metaphysician, afterwards for many years
the acting President of Union College; Clement Long,
afterwards professor in Dartmouth College ; Elias
Loomis, who later returned to Yale ; E. P. Barrows,
of whom mention has been made in connexion with
the Hartford Grammar School; Henry N. Day, an
original thinker whose writings on metaphysics, and
on English literature and rhetoric, have been widely
read and studied ; Samuel St. John, afterwards profes
sor in the New York College of Physicians and Sur
geons ; and, a little later, Samuel C. Bartlett, Presi
dent of Dartmouth College, the only one of the old

faculty who still survives. The president of the col
lege and a majority of the faculty were Yale graduates.
At least half had been tutors at Yale. The Yale
curriculum, catalogue, and laws, were followed even
in most details. These laws and customs were cher
ished with even greater conservatism than at the
mother college. The faculty was small according to
modern notions, but it was larger than that of most
eastern colleges of the time, and all its members
worked with unselfish enthusiasm.
In those days, to build up and maintain in Ohio an
institution of learning with a high standard of instruc
tion and attainment, was no easy task. This was true
missionary work and was so accepted by the founders
of the college and by the devoted members of the
faculty. Very few of the present day know how
much the Western Reserve College did for higher
education in Ohio, — what an influence it exerted in
setting a standard of scholarly work. It might have
had far more students, and doubtless also more money,
if it had been less exacting in its demands. It fulfilled
a higher and more important mission, however, by
pursuing its even, modest course, without bidding for
popularity. Without its standard, the other colleges
of Ohio would have remained on a much lower plane.

President Bartlett writes as follows to a member of
the faculty in Cleveland : " Did my other engagements
permit I could write with great pleasure to myself and
perhaps with some interest to others, a chapter of the
history of Western Reserve College and its professors
and its fortunes from 1846 to 1852, from personal
knowledge and experience. It was a time of pecu
niary hardship and trial — ^though somewhat past the
sorest pinch — but a time of cheerfulness, brightness,
social enjoyment and literary activity ; a time when
the institution under the personal influence of such
men as Barrows, Long, Day, St. John, and Seymour,
was giving a scholarly training hardly surpassed by
the same number of men in any institution within the
circle of my knowledge. Among these men Professor
Seymour was conspicuous for his zeal, his general
literary turn, and his special enthusiasm and success
in his particular department of instruction. I saw him
constantly and knew him well, as a man of genial and
sympathetic spirit, ardent and unselfish in his attach
ments, and frank in the expression of his views. It
was my good fortune to enjoy a friendship with him
that was never dimmed by a passing shadow ; and
though since then our lives have been spent far apart,
and with no opportunity for social intercourse, I have

never ceased to remember him with warm respect and
affection." The following words of the Rev. Dr. Munger with
regard to Professor Henry N. Day, who went to the
Western Reserve College in the same year as Profes
sor Seymour, are true of all the college faculty of
that time :
" Few of you can realize what it was for such a
man as Dr. Day, with the highest New England
culture, to put himself into a community like that of
Ohio a half-century ago. He was leaven indeed, and
the West was ready for the working force. I know,
because I had special means of knowing, with what
energy, what fidelity, what high-minded and uncom
promising ways he gave himself to education in that
young State. He carried Yale College to Ohio, and
helped to establish there the New England standard
of education and refinement. These influences, ex
erted in conjunction with those of men like-minded,
entered deeply and vitally into the life of the State,
and helped to make it what it is, — a State marked by
the highest civilization west of the Alleghanies."
Life was a serious matter on the Western Reserve
in the first half of this century. Of luxuries, there
were none. Dr. George E. Pierce, coming as presi-

dent of the college in 1834, was accused of unchris
tian effeminacy because of his spring "buggy," the
first which had ever been owned in the town of
Hudson. About the same time the first factory-
woven carpets were introduced to the village. The
professors' salaries were nominally six hundred dol
lars, but they were not paid wdth regularity. Often
they were not paid at all ; still more often they were
paid not in money but in goods. One of the profes
sors, with a large foreign correspondence, in some
years did not receive from the college enough cash to
pay his postage. The friends of the college had no
money to contribute. One subscription is said to
have been paid in tombstones. Another was paid in
clocks. The treasurer's books show that the profes
sors were glad to receive much of their salary in the
form of meat. The bare necessities of existence —
flour, beef, eggs, milk — were cheap and plenty, but
money was very scarce. "The college did not lack
friends, but its friends lacked money." Life under
such conditions would have been almost unendurable
for cultivated men, but for the interest of the work,
the hopeful enthusiasm of the members of the faculty,
and the close bond of union between these. All
shared alike in the discomforts and privations, and in

the hopes for the future. They made the best of
what they had, and often laughed where others would
have complained.
The little village of Hudson became, too, a distinct
centre of intellectual and religious life. Thither came
the retired ministers from all over northern Ohio, to
pass their last days. There were Father Pitkin, one
of the early representatives in Ohio of the Connecticut
Home Missionary Society ; Father Coe, agent of the
A. B. C. F. M. ; the Rev. Myron Tracy, agent of the
American Home Missionary Society ; and several
others. In Hudson was published, for a long series of
years, the Ohio Observer, the chief religious newspaper
of Ohio and the region to the West. Crowds came
each year to attend the college commencement, which
(like the old May Anniversaries in Boston) was the
chief event of the year to the best people of the
Connecticut Western Reserve. They came on the
Saturday before the Baccalaureate Sunday and re
mained until after the close of the exercises on the
following Thursday. The present generation could
hardly understand such a gathering.
Hudson, at an early time for the Reserve, even
drew to itself railroads (about 1850) as well as a
plank-road and the telegraph, but life there was ex-

ceedingly primitive in 1840. The roads and streets
were impassable for ordinary vehicles through several
weeks (if not months) of spring and autumn, and the
sidewalks at best were composed of single slabs from
the saw-mill, laid loosely along the side of the road.
Great herds of cattle occasionally were driven through
the town, doing much damage to fences and small
trees on their way. Still more inconvenient was the
custom of allowing cattle to roam at large, seeking
pasture wherever it could be found.
The very situation of the village of Hudson reminds
of New England. It lies on what is almost the highest
land of the State, about six hundred feet above the level
of Lake Erie. The '' brick row " of colleges, patterned
after those of Yale, stands on a ridge from which one
looks off a dozen miles to the west upon a blue hori
zon which might well be the Bolton Hills or some
other such Connecticut range. The college grounds
and the streets about them were early planted with
elms, in emulation of the trees of New Haven. Hud
son was intensely New England in its life, — probably
more strict and puritanical than any Connecticut
village of the same period. The early settlers pre
served the traditions which they brought with them
from Goshen, clinging to these more tenaciously than

their cousins who remained in their old homes. The
words of Milton Badger, David Bacon, and Father
Hanford were fresh in their memories.
Western Reserve College in its earliest days had
been under the control of enthusiastic men who had
seemingly given more time and thought to the preach
ing of isms, particularly anti-slavery doctrines, than
to the instruction of students. Arrangements were
made for the assistance of students by labor in work
shops and on ground under the control and direction
of the college. The food of the college "Commons"
was regulated according to the latest notions of Gra
ham and his successors. The work of the college
seems to have been almost suspended at times in favor
of "abolition" meetings. The first president of the
college was the eloquent and enthusiastic Charles B.
Storrs, — father of the Rev. Dr. Henry M. Storrs, and
uncle of the Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, — whose early
death is lamented by Whittier in one of his poems.
Among his associates were Beriah Green and Elizur
Wright, the distinguished actuary. The men of that
time certainly had marked characteristics, and left
their stamp on all with whom they came in contact,
a,nd necessarily on the college and the community
round about. But the second generation of professors.

who came to make the college a Western Yale, with
true devotion to culture and scholarship, were partly
amused, partly perplexed, partly distressed, by many
of the customs and traditions of the place. Their
energy and extraordinary ability overcame all obsta
cles, and they inspired the students with the same
enthusiasm for their studies which had been felt for
political and philanthropic schemes.
Professor Seymour was married September 7, 1841,
to Elizabeth Day, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Day
of Hartford (for twenty-six years Secretary of State
for Connecticut) and Sarah Coit his wife, and niece of
President Jeremiah Day of Yale College. Four chil
dren (of whom one died in infancy) were born to
them. Their home in Hudson for half a century was
a large square brick house on high ground near the
colleges, fronting on a great field of ten acres which
was intended to be a college park. Plans were made
for a "Faculty Row" on Prospect street. President
Pierce was to build his house on the corner next the
college buildings ; the next acre was for Professor
Hickok ; the next for Professor Day ; the next for
Professor Seymour; the next for Professor St. John.
But Professor Seymour was the only one of these who
ever built and the three lots of his professorial asso-

ciates finally came into his possession. The rear of
the land was occupied by apple trees, of which the
pips had been planted by the founder of the township,
old Squire Hudson, on his first visit to his land, in
1799, but which did not come up until 1801. In later
years the grounds were carefully underdrained with
tile and planted with trees, the care for which was a
great recreation to the owner.
The poverty of the college was long borne with
patience, but one and another of the faculty were
drawn off, regretfully and regretted — hardly one go
ing except from the dire necessity of lack of means to
remain — to more lucrative positions elsewhere, and at
last a conflict arose with regard to the administration
of the college. The whole truth about this matter has
never been, and now never can be published. Prob
ably it is better thus. The strife was exceedingly
bitter, — so bitter that the Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, who
was one of a committee sent by the Education Society
to investigate the trouble, has called it the hardest
fought fight he ever knew. At last, in 1855, the
president resigned, but the faculty was then broken
up, and most of the students had gone to Yale and
Harvard. The work of reestablishing the college,
now submerged in debt, seemed almost hopeless, but

Professor Seymour (who had taken no active part in
the conflict, — his soul loving peace) remained faithful
at his post — his means having allowed him to remain,
though at great personal sacrifice, — and after years
of uncertainty his heart was gladdened by the renewed
prosperity of the college to which his life had been
devoted, when the Rev. Dr. Henry L. Hitchcock
undertook the administration of the college and estab
lished it upon a secure foundation of endowment, and
regained for it the highest confidence of the commu
nity ; when Professor Charles A. Young, the astron
omer. Professor Carroll Cutler, and others, were called
to be his associates. During the dark years of the
history of the college, he applied himself with in
creased vigor to his studies for comfort.
An honored pupil of forty years ago writes as follows
of his enjoyment of Professor Seymour's work during
the gloomy days of the college : " The news of his de
cease precipitated a shadow of grief not only over my
own heart but over that of my family, with whom the
name of Professor Seymour had long been a synonym
for excellence of scholarship, unflinching loyalty to the
dear old Western Reserve College, and nobility and
purity of character. For the two years prior to the
" break up " under the Pierce administration at Hudson,

I was a member of the Freshman and Sophomore
classes, and for those two years was under his instruc
tion in the Latin and Greek classics, and to the day of
my death shall never forget the peculiar and fascina
ting power of his teaching, nor the reverent homage
of my heart and mind, kindled by his masterful
genius. At the close of my Sophomore year, when I
left Hudson for New Haven, the leaving of Professor
Seymour was my one, and only one, poignant regret.
He had realized to me a very ideal teacher, gentleman,
and friend. Although I was only one of his many
pupils, his bearing towards me was characterized by
patient forbearance, tender consideration and respect.
His sympathetic and genial manner awakened in me a
genuine filial affection, which blending with my rev
erence for his superb scholarship has made me his
enthusiastic admirer ever since. The mention of his
name never fails to awaken in my heart a renewed
sentiment of esteem and love, — a true veneration."
He approached the classics from the literary side
and had almost contempt for the simply grammatical,
linguistic, and archaeological study of the Greek and
Latin languages, as compared with the study of the
literatures of these tongues. He believed strongly
that the life-giving elements of the classics were to be

found in the literature, and he was impatient with
those who would take the great works of the Greeks
and Romans as mere texts for scientific discussion.
Although far from being without interest in language
and its study, indeed often himself fascinated by ety
mological researches, and laying stress on the proper
use of etymology as an aid in the acquisition of a
langua.ge, he still studied Homer and Virgil just as he
did Dante and Milton, — as literature. He early ac
quired a familiarity which was unusual for those days
with the German, French, and Italian languages, and
worked somewhat in Spanish. He read much with a
talented German, Karl Riiger, who had been driven
from home by political troubles and found refuge in
Hudson. He imported the best philological works
from England and Germany, and kept abreast of the
advance of modern research in his department. His
library of two or three thousand volumes, was care
fully selected and contained the best editions for
scholarly investigation. At one time it was distinctly
the best philological library west of the Alleghanies.
These books were well used and brought him some
pleasant acquaintances. When Garfield was a young
teacher he came to Hudson to visit him and his books,
and was charmed with his introduction to old English

works like the Vision of Piers Plowman, to which the
older teacher had given loving study. Old French
and Middle High German were not neglected. The
Greek and Latin authors were illustrated from other lit
eratures. To the classes at Hudson it was made clear
that the difficulties they experienced in the apprecia
tion of a Greek tragedy would meet them almost as
distinctly in the study of a play of Shakespeare. A
member of one of those classes, who is now himself
distinguished for his literary work and is a college pro
fessor in an important position, writes : " There can be
no doubt that he exercised a great influence upon my
taste for literary things. The first hour that I was
under his instruction was like the revelation of a new
and more splendid horizon, embracing fields of thought
of whose existence I had never so much as dreamed.
Art, the classics, love for poetry and letters in general,
opened their doors to me at his touch. His refinement
of taste and his enthusiasm for literature were not pos
sessed by many men, and a life spent in companion
ship with the best authors of many languages rendered
his tastes both accurate and catholic." President Bart
lett wrote to a member of the faculty at Cleveland as
follows : " Few teachers of the classics have ever so
impressed me by their appreciative literary sympathy

with the great masters whom they interpreted to their
pupils, and I have never known a teacher who inspired
his students with such an intelligent admiration for
Homer as did Professor Seymour. He has always
been my ideal of a Homeric instructor, and it is to his
special credit that he maintained this position at a time
when the more mechanical method of teaching the
classics was attaining its height and bringing the study
itself into discredit."
In 1867, Professor Seymour received the honorary
degree of Doctor of Laws from Kenyon College, — on
the nomination of Bishop Mcllvaine, which made the
honor doubly dear to him.
In 1870, he resigned his chair of Greek and Latin.
He had then taught without interruption for thirty-six
years, and had earned a rest. He was made Professor
Emeritus, and soon was appointed lecturer on English
literature. So he was wont to say that he had met in
some capacity every class but one, in Western Reserve
College, since 1840.
He did not take his relief from class-room toil as an
occasion for idleness. Never did he work with more
vigor and assiduity than during the following years.
He begrudged the time for anything which took him
from his studies, and in his quiet home at Hudson he

had few interruptions. One evening a week was
generally given to the enjoyment of music, but the
rest of his time to literary work.
His devotion for a third of a century to the great
literatures of Greece and Rome, was the best possible
preparation for his studies in modern literatures. He
applied to the latter the methods of research and inter
pretation which he had proved on the former. He
compared the one with the other and gained new light
for both. He appreciated immediately and fully every
classical allusion in Milton or Tennyson or Browning.
He compared Shakespeare's art with that of the Greek
dramatists, observing carefully in what they agreed,
and in what and why they differed. Only one thus
trained could feel as he did the beauties and character
istics of the modern masters. He delighted in tracing
a thought, an expression, or a construction from one to
another, — from Milton to Shakespeare, Chaucer, or
Dante, — if not back to Virgil, and thence to Homer.
Professor Seymour delivered courses of lectures
not only in the college with which he had been so
long connected, but also before the students of the
Lake Erie Seminary at Painesville, and before com
panies of cultivated and intellectual people in Cleve
land and other cities. In January and February 1885

he delivered a course of lectures, as lecturer on Eng
lish literature, to the students of Yale College. He
read and explained plays of Shakespeare, the poems
of Milton, and others, — bringing to light many hidden
beauties and making plain many obscure passages.
His well-trained memory, which held fast all that was
good, supplied the aptest illustrations. His rich, flexi
ble, and sympathetic voice, without an unmusical or
ignoble tone, aided him well in his efforts to interpret
the author's meaning. He had studied each work until
he was sure of the exact emphasis and inflexion
needed in order to show the connexion and proportion
of thought. His own enthusiasm for his work kindled
a corresponding spirit in his hearers. No one doubted
his full acquaintance with his subject nor his sincerity
of utterance. He spoke with authority. His own
literary style was finished and forcible. He set a
high standard for himself and was not easily satisfied
with his own productions. He studied each sentence
and paragraph carefully, and rewrote his lectures
several times.
In the spring of 1879 he lectured and taught for
several weeks at Miss Porter's school, in Farmington,
and continued this work each succeeding spring. He
deeply enjoyed his life at Farmington, the home of

his ancestors, the Rev. Samuel Whitman, for forty-five
years pastor of the church there, and the Rev. Timothy
Pitkin, who was Mr. Whitman's successor and served
the same church for thirty -three years. The beautiful
village charmed him, he formed pleasant relations with
the teachers and young ladies of the school and with
several of the dwellers in the place, and the delightful
home in which he felt it a privilege to sojourn was a
place of true rest and cheer.
In 1881 the Western Reserve College was removed
to Cleveland, and left Hudson rather desolate. Not
only all the old associates of forty years before, but
also the colleagues of later life had now departed.
Unexpected business failures aided to make the at
mosphere of the village distinctly depressing. But
although Professor Seymour suffered more than any
one else from the removal of the college, in the loss
of literary companionship and in the decline of the
value of his property, he never opposed in any way
this removal, nor sympathized with those who did.
Still less did he sympathize with those who declared
that the old college was dead and that the new college
in Cleveland was a stranger. He held firmly to the
close and living bond of union between the past, the
present, and the future of the institution. He con-

tinned his connexion with the college, going to Cleve
land once or twice a week to deliver his lectures, and
occasionally establishing his headquarters for a time in
the Forest City.
He had always been interested in the study of the
Bible, ever since his reading of the Greek Testament
with Dr. Barrows in 1827 and 1828. Probably no
other man in Ohio was so familiar with the Bible, and
could repeat from it so freely as he. He had a deeply
religious nature, and refused to have in his library
some books of which he admired the literary quality,
because of their offensive infidel spirit. His broad
and scholarly mind was so deeply shocked and
ofi'ended, however, by views of the divinity and of
the sacred scriptures which he regarded as narrow,
contrary to sound principles of interpretation, and
unworthy of the Almighty, that he sometimes used
expressions which were not understood, and some
thought him less orthodox than he really was. In the
later years of his life he studied with intense interest
the works of Wellhausen, Kuenen, Robertson Smith,
Heilprin, Driver, and others on the history of the
Jews and the development of the Old Testament
literature. He had long studied the works of De-
litzsch, and was charmed by the great " Kurzgefasstes "

commentary of Dillmann and others, which he kept
close at hand. But a large part of his work on the
Old Testament was not by the aid of commentaries
but rested on the text.
He was baptized in the Center Church of Hartford
by the grandfather for whom he was named, who was
called from the pulpit for the purpose by the pastor,
the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong. He was admitted to the
Yale College Church on profession of faith, in com
pany with a large number of his friends and class
mates, at the close of his Freshman year, August 7,
1831. He transferred his church connexion for a time
to the Center Church of Hartford, but renewed it with
the Yale College Church during his life in New
Haven as tutor. In 1840 he joined the church in
Western Reserve College and maintained this relation
until that church was disbanded, some years after the
removal of the college to Cleveland. He had a strong
affection for the liturgy of the Episcopal Church and
for many years was a valued supporter of Christ
Church in Hudson, attending its services regularly
during college vacations and Sunday evenings.
The even tenor of his life continued with little
change, after the removal of the college to Cleveland.
Some years he devoted himself more exclusively to

English literature; other years he gave to Dante,
every line of whose Divina Commedia was famihar
to him, and others to the Old Testament prophets.
He never worked more steadily, nor with greater
interest, nor for more hours in the day, than dmlng
the last ten years of his life. His health was still, as
it had always been, remarkably uniform. He had
never been ill since he was a child. He felt few of
the infirmities of advancing years. He still decHned
to ask himself whether he were weary, if he wanted
to take a letter to the post office half a mile distant.
He maintained his strength and his elasticity of body
by walking and by chopping wood, a form of exercise
which he had always taken freely and enjoyed. He
seemed to his friends and old pupils to have changed
very little. But life in Hudson was already rather
lonesome for him, and though the weekly or semi-
weekly visits to Cleveland for the delivery of his
lectures were a source of variety to his life, yet in
winter these were a serious exposure for a man of his
years. He was obliged, therefore, to look forward to
the time as near at hand when he must resign his
active duties in connexion with the college. His books
had long been his chief companions, but human fel
lowship was also needed. Mrs. Seymour's health also,

which confined her to the house much of the time,
made a change of residence desirable, and in the
winter of 1890-91 they decided to make their home
with their younger son and his family in New Haven,
on the beautiful Hillhouse avenue, where they should
be near old friends. No other spot on earth offered
so many attractions, — near to the heart of the city, and
yet almost as quiet as the country home in Ohio ; in
the home of children and grandchildren, yet with
opportunity for rest and seclusion ; with easy access
to the Library and the other privileges of the Univer
sity where he had spent his early manhood.
Professor Seymour and his wife came to New Haven
in April 1891, but not for several weeks or months
could he make up his mind to have the old home in
Ohio broken up, and only within the final week of his
life did the last boxes of books reach New Haven from
the library in Hudson. He cherished a strong attach
ment to that village and an almost personal love for
his home of half a century, especially for his study,
with its west window looking out upon the Richfield
hills, a dozen miles away.
Early in September, 1891, he went to Ohio to fulfill
his duties as lectm-er in the college at Cleveland. For
his convenience, arrangements were made for the

delivery of these lectures within the space of about six
weeks, that he might return to Connecticut before the
approach of cold weather. His Cleveland friends
welcomed him cordially, and never did he enjoy his
work in the college more heartily. Never had he felt
a more confident hope of the high success of that in
stitution. In a private letter he paid its faculty the
highest of compliments by saying that in spirit and
ability they reminded him of the professors of half a
century before.
In November he spent three weeks in Painesville
and lectured at least once daily to the classes of the
Seminary. This work, too, was unprecedentedly de
lightful to him. He enjoyed to the full addressing
such appreciative and responsive listeners as he had
there. Professor Seymour returned to New Haven just
before Thanksgiving, 1891, full of plans for future
work. He had been urged to prepare for publication
his reminiscences of the early days of the Western
Reserve College. He was intent on certain investiga
tions in Shakespeare, — especially on the collection of
hidden allusions to Holy Writ, a work which had
never been done to his satisfaction : while the obvious
quotations had been industriously gathered, many

more interesting allusions, like trumpet-tongued, had
escaped observation. He was also bent on continuing
his studies in Dante, especially on the metre, — com
paring Dante's verse with that of Shakespeare and
others, with regard to metrical freedom and the in
fluence of the caesura.
On Monday, December 21, he had a slight cold and
a headache, but did not allow a physician to be called
until the following day, when he was found to have a
slight attack of the prevailing influenza. The unfa
vorable symptoms were few, and he refused to keep
his bed, but he was very weak. On the morning of
Thursday, December 24, his seventy-eighth birthday,
he had a fall, the shock of which seems to have
hastened his death, although the end doubtless would
have been only a little deferred even if he had not
fallen. The disease seemed to take away all his
strength. He lay in a half unconscious state most of
the time from that Thursday until the following Mon
day morning, Dec. 28, when he passed very quietly
away from the scenes of earth. It was a " death like
sleep, a gentle wafting to immortal life."
During the last days of his life, as he lay ill, his
thoughts were constantly with his studies and his
classes. He was continually quoting passages from

the authors he knew and loved so well. Once, mourning
the death of some one, he broke out with, " She should
have died hereafter," — adopting a phrase of Shake
speare's which he had often admired. Almost his last
clearly articulated words were, " Jahveh * * * Jehoi-
achim * * Northern Kingdom." Once when his atten
dant in giving him his dose of champagne remarked
that it was very sec {sack), he quoted a dozen lines
from Falstaff on the virtues of sack, — finding more
refreshment in the quotation than in the draught. At
another time, when his eyes seemed beyond his power
to open, in view of the physician's request to open
them widely, he desired to have them bathed freely
that the physician might see the " speculation in those
eyes," quoting from Macbeth.
The funeral services, on Wednesday, December 30,
were conducted by Professor George T. Ladd, his
former pupil and constant friend. The remains were
laid in the old Grove street cemetery where rests all
that is mortal of many of his old friends.
Nathan Perkins Seymour's life, from beginning to
end, was that of a born scholar, loving knowledge,
shunning excitement, shrinking from notoriety. His
mind was clear, stroig, and accurate. His literary
tastes and powers were conspicuous from his very

childhood. In all things and above all things he
loved truth. In all things he was straightforward
and sincere. He was incapable of pursuing his ends
by indirection. He loathed that which was selfish
and mean. His colleague and friend. Professor
Young, wrote of him as follows to one of the faculty
of the Western Reserve University : "I never knew a
man more finely honorable and above all meanness
of any kind : nor one of a kinder heart and more
ready to give needed help, — unostentatiously always.
. . . There was almost nothing he would not do for a
friend. . . . He was not in any way a commonplace
sort of man ; sensitive and refined in the extreme ;
somewhat intolerant of whatever was in itself dis
agreeable or that failed to conform to his aesthetic
canons ; witty rather than humorous ; sensible and
shrewd enough in business matters, but still not so
much a man of affairs as a typical scholar, having a
large part of his life in the world of books ; a sincere
christian, though not always willing to accept denomi
national formulae of belief I admired and loved
him sincerely, as an elder brother."
To discover and point out to others truth and new
beauties in literature was his highest pleasure. He
delighted in talking with children, and quickening

their minds by giving them new ideas. He often
presented to them truths and principles which are
generally regarded as too abstruse for young minds,
making the matter so plain by his clear language and
illustrations that all seemed simple. No scholar ever
took greater delight in learning. No teacher ever
more thoroughly enjoyed imparting knowledge.
His physical strength and vitality were such that
his friends had anticipated a longer life for him. But
an old age of forced inactivity would have been pecu
liarly distressing to him, and in his last illness he said
that he had sometimes felt that it was time for him
to be gone. Most apt with regard to him are Bryant's
words, quoted in a sympathetic note from the Rev.
Dr. Munger, his pupil of many years ago :
" Why weep ye thus for him who having won
The bounds of man's appointed years, at last —
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, —
Serenely to his final rest has passed;
While the soft memory of his virtues lingers yet,
Like twilight hues when the bright sun is set."

PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR.