Page:The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877.djvu/37

 LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. of mathematical papers to the memoirs of the American Academy, and after his father's death was a candidate for the Hollis professorship of mathematics. He later became interested in theol- ogy especially in prophecies and chronology, and on these topics he published a number of pamph- lets. He was one of the original members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but, although he took great interest in the society and was seldom absent from the meetings, does not appear to have contributed much to their publications. A con- temporary sums up his character thus : " He was a pleasant, and generally an instructive companion. His conversation was most frequently on useful and literary topicks ; and yet there was, sometimes an appearance of trifling and levity in familiar discourse, which induced a stranger to form an opinion not sufficiently favourable to his learning and his worth. We have no hesitation, however, in ranking him among the most learned, useful and patriotick citizens of Massachusetts." AUTHORITIES : Allen, Amer. biog. and hist, dictionary, 1832, p. 786. Bailey, Hist, sketches ofAndover, 1880, p. 334. Mass. hist. soc. Collections,^ series, x. 77-80; Proceedings, 1st series, i. 338 (portrait), xii. 69, xiii. 229. Paige, History of Cambridge, 1877, p. 700. Willard, Memories, 1855, i. 90, 129. Winsor, Memorial hist, of Boston, 1881, iv. 500.

I787-I79I.

Isaac Smith, the son of a prosperous Boston merchant of the same name, was born 18 May, 1749. At the age of fourteen he entered Harvard with the class of 1767. After taking his second degree, and preparing for the ministry, he travelled in Europe for some years. Returning to this coun- try, he was appointed, in 1774, a tutor in the Col- lege, but the position he was not destined to hold long. Smith was a firm loyalist, and when on the 19th of April, 1775, Lord Percy marched through Cambridge to reinforce the British troops at Lex- ington and Concord, the young tutor was the only person in Cambridge willing to show the puzzled leader, confused by the number of roads branching off from the Common, which one to take for Lex- ington. Being for this service to the enemy al- most ostracized by the good people of Cambridge , he was glad to sail a month later for England with many other exiled loyalists. After living a few years in London, he was ordained (24 June, 1778) pastor over a dissenting church in the little town of Sidmouth in Devonshire. Of his pleasant life there, in a comfortable home, with congenial so- ciety and light parish duties, we get glimpses in the published Journal and letters of his fellow exile, Samuel Curwen. In the spring of 1784, re- signing his pastorate, he returned to America. In August, 1787, Smith was appointed Librarian although he did not sign the formal engagement until the next March. In May, 1789, the Corpora- tion allowed him 13. 13s. "for instructing the classes in Latin for six weeks and an half in the third term, three times a day, being seven dollars per week." The third printed catalogue of the Library ap- peared the next year : " Catalogus Bibliothecae Har- vardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum. Bostoniae : Typis Thomae et Johannis Fleet. MDCCXC." 8. pp. [4], iv, 358. The Latin preface says : " Ut ista omnibus, qui ei consulere velint, utilior fieret, libri alphabetice sub diversis capitibus, secundum propria eorum genera, in hoc catalogo disponuntur." The first, or general, part of the catalogue is divided into fifty-four classes in alphabetical order, and the books under each are also alphabetically arranged. About one fourth of the titles are under " Theo- logia"; yet the names of Shakespeare, Milton, Ben. Johnson [sic], Pope, the Tatler, the Specta- tor, Racine, Rabelais, and Cervantes show that polite literature was not wholly neglected. In the second part of the catalogue, which is devoted to " Tracts," out of 150 pages, theology occupies over 100. In the preparation of this catalogue Smith had the aid of Prof. Stephen Sewall, (Librarian 1762-63) and Hezekiah Packard, (H. U. 1787). The latter was an assistant in the Library ; in his memoirs he says: "The next year [1789] I took charge of the Library as an assistant." For his services in preparing this catalogue Smith was allowed by the Corporation in April, 1791, the sum of 37. 10s. in addition to his regular salary. In April, 1790, the trustees of Dummer Academy, at Byfield, Mass., elected Isaac Smith preceptor of that institution, but it was nearly a year before he entered on his duties there, 25 March, 1791. The Academy was not successful under his manage- ment; his good nature and easy-going ways were not those of a good teacher or a strict disciplina- rian ; the school fell off greatly in numbers, and it was not strange that, in April, 1809, the trustees accepted his resignation. He removed to Boston where he was appointed chaplain of the Alms- house, a position which he held for many years. He was never married, and died in Boston, 29 Sep- tember, 1829, at the age of 80. One of his scholars, writing years afterward, recalls him as "a short, nice, rubicund, but kindly and scholarly-looking old gentleman." " In spirit " says another writer, "he was mild and tolerant; in creed, broad and liberal." He was " a man of singular purity, gentleness, and piety." Besides the Catalogue mentioned above, his only publication seems to be "A sermon preached at Cambridge, May 5th, 1788 on occasion of the death