young evangelist whose name, shortly afterward, became widely known and honored in connection with similar labors.

The establishment of the Christian Spectator, at New-Haven, in 1819, planned after the Christian Observer, of London, then in the height of its vigor, brought Mr. Humphrey more to the notice of literary men as a pointed and polished writer. Some of the reviews which he wrote for that work were, in that day, quite models in their way-particularly the review of a volume of poems by Percival, and the review of a novel by Miss Sedgwick. His firmness and integrity of character, simple but dignified deportment, and effective energy in everything he undertook, also contributed to make him prominent and honored among his brethren, and soon placed him in the distinguished and responsible post of President of Amherst College. But, to understand the case, we must first glance at the history of the college.

About forty years ago, the people of Amherst, then a small village standing back from the thoroughfare along Connecticut River, established an academy, at a cost of effort and means which was very great for that day. It soon became the chief place of resort for the hill towns on both sides of the valley of the Connecticut. Soon after the close of the war of 1812, there was a general awakening to the importance of more vigorous efforts to bring forward young men for the ministry, and to provide the means for giving them the advantages of a liberal education. The trustees of Amherst Academy projected a plan for educating a number of young men on a reduced scale; meetings were called to consider the matter, which were attended by zealous ministers and others of the surrounding country, some of them from a distance of twenty or thirty miles; and at length, in the month of November, 1817, it was resolved to raise a fund of ten thousand dollars, the income of which should be applied in aid of indigent young men preparing for the ministry, who should pursue a course of classical study in Amherst Academy. A committee was appointed to superintend the matter, and Colonel Graves was constituted the agent to obtain the subscriptions, which were conditioned to be void unless the entire sum should be made up within a year.

At the end of the year, although the agent was indefatigable, it was found that

no part of the fund had been raised. The meeting which had been called to consider the matter, seemed at first prepared to conclude that the whole project had failed and must be given up. A few, however, were not disheartened; they had the sagacity to see, that ten thousand dollars was too small a sum to effect the object in view, and that the very proposition to commence with so small a sum was a confession of incompetency for the attainment of their object, which alone must prevent the people from giving their money. They rightly judged, that for a great object it would be more practicable to raise a large sum than a small one. They therefore resolved to raise fifty thousand in one year, and reappointed their committee and their agent; who now went again over the same ground, chiefly among the farmers of those hills and mountains, and by the end of the year completed the subscription of fifty thousand dollars. It was then resolved to found a college. Negotiations for the removal of Williams College to Amherst occupied some time; but on the 9th of August, 1820, the corner-stone of the first building was laid with religious solemnities-"the residue of the stones for the building being then in the mountains, the clay for the brick and the stone for the lime in the earth, and the timber in the forest." And yet, so great was the zeal and so general the coöperation, that by the 7th of November the building was roofed, and all the expenses provided for by voluntary efforts, except one thousand three hundred dollars. The building itself was completed by the end of September, 1821. On the 18th of that month, Rev. Dr. Moore, who had for several years presided over Williams College, was inaugurated president of the new institution, with several excellent professors; and the next day forty-seven students were admitted, and four collegiate classes regularly organized. Another building was now required and built-a subscription of thirty thousand dollars being raised to cover this and other necessary expenses. The number of students the second year increased to one hundred. A great revival of religion took place also, by which nearly every student who was not already pious was brought to experience the saving power of God. While all was thus bright and prosperous, President Moore was suddenly smitten down

by the hand of death, on the 30th of June, 1823. It was a severe blow; and the trustees, after due deliberation and inquiry, came to the unanimous conclusion that there was no man to whose care the infant college could be so safely intrusted as to the well-trained, practical, energetic, and scholarly pastor of the Church in Pittsfield. Dr. Humphrey was inaugurated on the 15th of October, 1823; and "Governor Treadwell's hired man became president of a college."

The expectations which were formed in regard to the qualifications of the new president, were not disappointed in the result. A difficulty had already occurred, to prevent the institution from obtaining a charter. Through the combined influence of sectarian prejudice, jealousy on the part of the friends of other colleges, and some local ill-will, two successive legislatures refused to grant a charter. The second went so far as to appoint a special commission to visit the college, and scrutinize every transaction and sift every charge connected with its origin and proceedings. The investigation caused the integrity and patriotism of the founders to stand out so transparently that it was impossible again to refuse a charter. The act was passed on the 21st of February, 1825, and the new board of trustees organized as a college April 13th-the number of students having increased to nearly one hundred and twenty. This continued influx of students created a continual demand for increased accommodations. The chapel building, containing also apartments for several other objects, was finished in February, 1827, at which time there were one hundred and seventy students, making the infant college the fourth in point of numbers in the whole country.

Such a measure of success had no parallel among our literary institutions. But this very prosperity at length caused a great embarrassment, from the necessity which it imposed on the trustees of making expenditures far beyond their means, in order to furnish the requisite accommodations, apparatus, and means of instruction for such a host of students. An alarming and crushing debt at length made it necessary for the president himself to assume the functions of financial agent, and to spend much time in the solicitation of funds, negotiation of loans,

and other labors connected with the pecuniary concerns of the college. These extraordinary efforts were indeed crowned with a good degree of success; but, in the end, it was found here, as it has been found in other cases, that when the president of a college is compelled to spend ten or a dozen of his best years in financiering, he loses the indescribable something which is necessary to his complete success in his proper sphere. In the year 1845, before old age had properly disqualified him for full service in any line of duty, President Humphrey resigned his office, and retired to strictly private life, enjoying the warm affections of a large number of pupils scattered all over the country, and many of them occuping and adorning the highest stations of usefulness and honor. For his twenty years' service in carrying Amherst College through the trials of its infancy and the dangers of its youth to a state of full-grown strength and stability, he deserves, as he receives, the highest respect from the friends of an educated ministry and of liberal science. He has found a delightful home at Pittsfield, in the midst of the people who were formerly his attached parishioners, and there enjoys the dignity and quiet of a serene old age. By preaching, writing for the public press, and an active participation in every measure of public utility or benevolence, he keeps his powers bright and his heart warm, as in middle life.

Dr. Humphrey is happy also and honored in his sons. The eldest, Rev. Edward Porter Humphrey, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Ky., was Moderator of the Old School General Assembly last year, and has since been elected to a professorship in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, as the successor of the venerated Dr. Archibald Alexander, deceased; another of his sons is a highly respectable counselor-at-law in the city of New-York; a third is a useful pastor of a Congregational Church in Illinois; and a fourth is pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Binghamton, N. Y.

A FRENCH WRITER breaks his article up into short sentences, of two or three lines, sometimes containing only two or three words, or even one. An Englishman marches his sentences up almost in solid column. An American's are neither as short as the one nor as long as the other.

ADVENTURES WITH THE SPIRITS IN

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S TIME.

Kelly

the search for the philosopher's stone, which soon began to occupy nearly all his thoughts.

He did not long remain on the Con

history of alchemy, having been so long associated in the same pursuits, and undergone so many strange vicissitudes in each other's society. Dee was altogether a wonderful man, and had he lived in an age when folly and superstition were less rife, he would, with the same powers which he enjoyed, have left behind him a

DR. DEE.

bright and enduring reputation. He was born in London in the year 1527, and very early manifested a love for study. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Cambridge, and delighted so much in his books, that he passed regularly eighteen hours every day among them. Of the other six, he devoted four to sleep, and two for refreshment. Such intense application did not injure his health, and could not fail to make him one of the first scholars of his time. Unfortunately, however, he quitted the mathematics and the pursuits of true philosophy, to indulge in the unprofitable reveries of the occult sciences. He studied alchemy, astrology, and magic, and thereby rendered himself obnoxious to the authorities of Cambridge. To avoid persecution, he was at last obliged to retire to the University of Louvain; the rumors of sorcery that were current respecting him, rendering his longer stay in England not altogether without danger. He found at Louvain many kindred spirits, who had known Cornelius Agrippa while he resided among them, and by whom he was constantly entertained with the wondrous deeds of that great master of the hermetic mysteries. From their conversation he received much encouragement to continue

being at that time in the twenty-fourth year of his age. By the influence of his friend Sir John Cheek, he was kindly received at the court of King Edward VI., and rewarded (it is difficult to say for what) with a pension of one hundred crowns. He continued for several years to practice in London as an astrologer: casting nativities, telling fortunes, and pointing out lucky and unlucky days. During the reign of Queen Mary he got into trouble, being suspected of heresy, and charged with attempting Mary's life by means of enchantments. He was tried for the latter offense, and acquitted; but was retained in prison on the former charge, and left to the tender mercies of Bishop Bonner. He had a very narrow escape from being burned in Smithfield; but he somehow or other contrived to persuade that fierce bigot that his orthodoxy was unimpeachable, and was set at liberty in 1555.

On the accession of Elizabeth a brighter day dawned upon him. During her retirement at Woodstock, her servants appear to have consulted him as to the time of Mary's death, which circumstance no doubt first gave rise to the serious charge for which he was brought to trial. They now came to consult him more openly as to the fortunes of their mistress; and Robert Dudley, the celebrated Earl of Leicester, was sent by command of the Queen herself, to know the most auspicious day for her coronation. So great was the favor he enjoyed, that, some years afterward, Elizabeth condescended to pay him a visit at his house in Mortlake, to view his museum of curiosities; and when he was ill, sent her own physician to attend upon him.

Astrology was the means whereby he lived, and he continued to practice it with great assiduity; but his heart was in alchemy. The philosopher's stone and the elixir of life haunted his daily thoughts and his nightly dreams. The Talmudic mysteries, which he had also deeply studied, impressed him with the belief, that he might hold converse with spirits and angels, and learn from them all the mysteries of the universe. Holding the

same idea as the then obscure sect of the Rosicrucians, some of whom he had perhaps encountered in his travels in Germany, he imagined that, by means of the philosopher's stone, he could summon these kindly spirits at his will. By dint of continually brooding upon the subject, his imagination became so diseased, that he at last persuaded himself that an angel appeared to him, and promised to be his friend and companion as long as he lived. He relates that, one day in November, 1582, while he was engaged in fervent prayer, the window of his museum looking toward the west suddenly glowed with a dazzling light, in the midst of which, in all his glory, stood the great angel Uriel. Awe and wonder rendered him speechless; but the angel smiling graciously upon him, gave him a crystal of a convex form, and told him that whenever he wished to hold converse with the beings of another sphere, he had only to gaze intently upon it, and they would appear in the crystal, and unvail to him all the secrets of futurity.

DEE'S SHOW-STONE, IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

Thus saying, the angel disappeared. Dee found from experience of the crystal, that it was necessary that all the faculties of the soul should be concentrated upon it, otherwise the spirits did not appear. He also found that he could never recollect the conversations he had with the angels. He therefore determined to communicate the secret to another person, who might converse with the spirits while he (Dee)

The "crystal" alluded to appears to have been a black stone, or piece of polished coal. The following account of it is given in the supplement to Granger's Biographical History: "The black stone into which Dee used to call his spirits was in the collection of the Earls of Peterborough, from whence it came to Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was next the property of the late Duke of Argyle, and is now Mr. Walpole's. It appears upon examination to be nothing more than a polished piece of cannel coal; but this is what Butler means when he says,"Kelly did all his feats upon The devil's looking-glass-a stone.""

sat in another part of the room, and took down in writing the revelations which they made.

He had at this time in his service, as his assistant, one Edward Kelly, who, like himself, was crazy upon the subject of the philosopher's stone. There was this difference, however, between them, that while Dee was more of an enthusiast than an impostor, Kelly was more of an impostor than an enthusiast. In early life he was a notary, and had the misfortune to lose both his ears for forgery. This mutilation, degrading enough in any man, was destructive to a philosopher; Kelly, therefore, lest his wisdom should suffer in the world's opinion, wore a black skullcap, which, fitting close to his head, and descending over both his cheeks, not only concealed his loss, but gave him a very solemn and oracular appearance. So well did he keep his secret, that even Dee, with whom he lived so many years, appears never to have discovered it. Kelly, with this character, was just the

man to carry on any piece of roguery
for his own advantage, or to nurture the
delusions of his master for the same
purpose. No sooner did Dee inform
him of the visit he had received from
the glorious Uriel, than Kelly express-
ed such a fervor of belief, that Dee's
heart glowed with delight.
He set

about consulting his crystal forthwith; and on the 2d of December, 1581, the spirits appeared, and held a very extraordinary discourse with Kelly, which Dee took down in writing. This farrago of nonsense is among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum.* The later consultations were published in a folio volume, in 1659, by Dr. Meric Casaubon, under the title of A true and faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits; tending, had it succeeded,

Lilly the astrologer, in his Life, written by himself, frequently tells of prophecies delivered by the angels in a manner similar to the angels of Dr. Dee. He says, "The prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition the circular way; where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing by forms, shapes, and creatures, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea even in our days," quoth that wiseacre," for any operator or master to hear the angels speak articulately; when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in the throat!"