He temporized with no errors, and was intimidated by no obstacles. Through his efforts a theological seminary was established in New York in 1804, of which he was appointed professor. He projected the Christian's Magazine, in which he carried on a controversy with Bishop Hobart. Rev. Dr. William Linn, one of the eleven who held the first meeting, was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, and distinguished alike for pulpit eloquence and varied scholarship. He was fifty-two, a divine who very greatly interested Washington, and was often invited with his wife familiarly to the dinner table of the first President of the Republic, while the seat of government was in New York city. Rev. Dr. John N. Abeel, another of the eleven, was thirty-five, a polished speaker, magnetic, full of life and vivacity, and the possessor of a voice of great sweetness and melody. He was one who rarely failed to capture the attention of an audience, and his literary attainments were of the highest order.

The first vice-president of the society was Right Reverend Bishop Benjamin Moore, and the second vice-president, Judge Brochholst Livingston. Bishop Moore was then fifty-six. Aside from his clerical duties, he was from 1801 to 1811 the accomplished president of Columbia College. It is said that his style of conferring degrees was most charming. His manners were the perfection of dignity and grace. He was slender in figure and of medium height, with an animated, attractive countenance, a man of great learning and remarkable loveliness of character. Judge Livingston was the son of William Livingston, the famous war governor of New Jersey during the Revolution. He was forty-seven, in the prime of his brilliant judicial career, and a man of broad culture and critical literary ability.

The first standing committee of the institution was Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, Dr. David Hosack, Daniel D. Tompkins, William Johnson, John McKesson, Anthony Bleecker, and Rev. Dr. Mason. Dr. Mitchill was one of the most versatile and remarkable of men. Duyckinck enumerates one hundred and eighty-nine distinct achievements or important acts of his busy life. He was just forty at this eventful period. His public life embraced six or more years as a member of Congress, and he was in the United States Senate from 1804 to 1809; but he found opportunity meanwhile to be of essential service in innumerable ways to New York. His medical career and scientific labors, as well as his political services and contributions to literature, gave him wide fame; he became in course of years an active member of nearly all the learned societies of the world. a sort of human dictionary whose opinion was sought by all originators and inventors of every grade throughout his entire generation. His

analysis of the Saratoga waters greatly enhanced the value and importance of those mineral springs. His ingenious theory of the doctrines of septon and septic acid gave impulse to Sir Humphry Davy's vast discoveries; and his essays on pestilence awakened inquiry all over the world. He was

a polished orator, a versifier and a poet, a man of infinite humor and excellent fancy. His eccentricities furnished material for the wits of the day to fashion many a joke at his expense, over which no one laughed more heartily than himself. He was equally at home in studying the geology of Niagara or the anatomy of an egg, in offering suggestions as to the angle of a windmill or the shape of a gridiron, in deciphering a Babylonian brick

or investigating bivalves and discoursing on conchology, and in advising how to apply steam to navigation or in disputing about the Bible with his neighbor the Jewish Rabbi. He possessed a charm of manner and a magnetism of mind that was unusual; and he did much to advance the public and private interests of America, and elevate our scholastic reputation in foreign countries.

Dr. David Hosack was five years younger than Dr. Mitchill, and none the less far-famed as a physician and author. Quite recently a New York gentleman of hitherto undoubted intelligence, inquired "Who was Dr. Hosack? Did he practice medicine in this city?" There are possibly others among us equally benighted, hence the following brief explanation: Dr. Hosack was born and educated in New York, but had the advantage of medical training in Edinburgh and London under the most celebrated professors of the age. He returned to New York in 1794, bringing the first collection of minerals introduced into America: also duplicate specimens of plants from the herbarium of Linnæus. He founded the Elgin Botanical Garden in 1801, a work of princely munificence, where, amid twenty cultivated acres, he illustrated to his classes in Columbia College the mysteries of the vegetable kingdom-the loves and habits of plants. and trees. This garden was located on Murray Hill, covering the ground between Fifth and Sixth avenues, and Forty-seventh and Fifty-first streets. It soon became the resort of the curious, and of many eminent men. Torrey, the great naturalist and public benefactor, was a pupil of Dr. Hosack, as was also Professor Gray. For thirty or more years Dr. Hosack was the leading practitioner in the city, and distinguished above all rivals in the art of healing. It is universally conceded that he was the most eloquent and impressive teacher of scientific medicine and clinical prac

tice this country had as yet produced. In all prominent movements connected with the arts, the drama, literature, medicine, city improvements, or State affairs, he bore a conspicuous part. It was frequently remarked at one period in his life-time that "Clinton, Hosack, and Hobart were the tripod upon which the city stood." He was fond of society and exercised a strong personal influence. He gave Saturday evening parties, and, sur

rounded by his large and costly library and his works of art, there was rarely a more genial and captivating host. Great divines, jurists, statesmen, philosophers, philanthropists, physicians, merchants, scholars, authors, artists, editors, educated men in any specialty, and distinguished foreigners were invited to his entertainments, and went away charmed with his generous hospitality. His house was the resort of the learned and enlightened from every part of the globe. No European traveler of any note was satisfied to visit New York without a personal interview with Dr. Hosack. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar mentions in his diary the social prominence of the Hosack Saturday evenings. When Thomas Sully painted Dr. Hosack's portrait he deftly introduced the celebrated botanical garden into the background, with some of the volumes Dr. Hosack had himself written resting carelessly on the table by his side. The handsome, finely moulded features of Dr. Hosack, as represented by Sully, express singular sweetness of character, and his graceful costume and air of high breeding are most effectively presented. He was one of the original projectors of the Literary and Philosophical Society, besides giving much of his time and talent to historical pursuits. He was the fourth president of the New York Historical Society, from 1820 to 1828.

Anthony Bleecker excelled all others in devotion to the interests of the new institution, and his taste was indispensable in any and every arrangement. He possessed the literary instinct, and was a general favorite with all the men of genius. Daniel D. Tompkins, subsequently for ten years governor of the State, and for eight years Vice-President of the United States, was then a young and very popular man of thirty, of pleasing manners, fine manly presence, and much influence; he had just been appointed associate-justice of the Supreme Court of New York, and his future was full of promise. He was one of Jefferson's most enthusiastic admirers. Among those present at the second meeting of the society, when the constitution was adopted, were Rufus King, the orator, statesman, and diplomatist, who had recently returned from his mission to England, and Rev. John Henry Hobart, subsequently Episcopal bishop of New York, the successor of Bishop Moore. King was in his fiftieth year; Hobart was thirty. King had been one of the framers of the Constitution, and one of the first national senators chosen by New York under the Constitution. Bishop Hobart was, perhaps, the greatest thinker of his generation, and a ready writer and speaker, natural, earnest, bold, effective, the movements of his mind being as rapid as those of his limbs. He was small of stature, dignified and courtly; but he walked in the street as swiftly as if for a wager. He was a handsome man, with a bright, clear,