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EULOGY ON DR. SHIPPEN.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

EXTRACTS FROM A EULOGY ON WILLIAM SHIPPEN, M. D. LATE PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, DELIVERED, BY REQUEST, AS AN

INTRODUCTORY

LECTURE, TO A MEDICAL CLASS, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1808.

GENTLEMEN,

To commemorate the virtues, to celebrate the achievements, and thus perpetuate the fame of the illustrious dead, has been the business of the poet, the painter, the sculptor, and the orator, in every country and in every age. Neither the rigours of a polar, nor the fervours of a tropical sky; neither the rude insensibility of barbarism, nor the busy dissipation of polished life, can deter the mind from this pious employment. The motives by which mankind are induced to engage in it are confessedly liberal and elevated in their nature-in their result they are eminently pleasing and important. In point of universality and force, they are, perhaps, next to those which lead the mind to the worship of a god. In either case, an intermingled sentiment of gratitude and piety constitutes a leading principle of actionin either case, there is manifested a grateful and praiseworthy recollection of benefits received.

VOL. I.

With sentiments and recollections not dissimilar to these, are we now assembled to mingle our sorrows over the ashes of a mortal-with praises such as may become the occasion, and such as truth may not disavow, are we called on to honour the memory of a benefactor.

Previously to my attempting to portray the character, and to unfold to you a view of the labours and achievements of our distinguished countryman, suffer me to premise a single reflection. If many youths have been fired with enthusiasm, and urged to deeds of greatness and glory, by a recital of the lives of the destroyers of nations, how much more does it become you to catch the spark of a generous emulation from the story of him who was one of the benefactors of the human race!

Dr. Shippen was descended, on his mother's side, from a family of wealth and distinction, which had been attached to the person, and had followed the fortunes of the illustrious founder of the state of Pennsylvania. By his father he was connected with those pious and intrepid pilgrims, who, flying from fanaticism and persecution in their native country, had sought an asylum for liberty of conscience and the rights of devotion, in the wilds of Newengland. He was born in October 1733, in the city of Philadelphia, of which, his grandfather, having emigrated from Massachusetts on a special invitation from William Penn, had been the first mayor.

Of the first years of the life of young Shippen, nothing particular is, at present, recollected. Nor is this circumstance to

The history of childhood is

be regarded as a subject of regret. but rarely instructive. It is seldom that the infant gives any well founded presage of the future character of the individual. As the acorn holds buried in its bosom the embryo-oak, destined to be the future pride of the forest, and a still smaller seed encloses the more gigantic adansonia, so, in the early morning of life, the rudiments of human greatness are generally concealed beneath the sportive habits of the child.

Our first acquaintance with our young philosopher commences at the Westnotingham grammar school, then under the direction of the reverend Dr. Findley. That eminent and pious divine, no less distinguished for his talents and learning, than

for his facility and excellence in the instruction of youth, and in rendering them enamoured of academic studies, was afterwards president of Princeton college. Under a teacher so able and enlightened, genius could neither lie dormant nor pass unnoticed. Accordingly the talents of young Shippen, which, if not of the first, were unquestionably of an order bordering on the first, rapidly unfolding themselves under such auspicious circumstances, soon raised their possessor to honourable distinction among the most favoured pupils of the institution. Nor did his conspicuous standing with his preceptor excite the jealousy or deprive him of the affections of his fellow students. So open was his heart, so frank his disposition, so mild his temper, and so fascinating his manners, that, whatever sentiments of emulation he might awaken in the bosoms of his companions, he could never become the object of their envy or dislike.

Having passed, with unusual rapidity and the most flattering marks of applause, through his preparatory studies, our pupil was removed from the Nottingham grammar school to the college of Newjersey, which was, at that time, established in the village of Newark. Here he was again fortunate in being placed under the tuition of a very able and accomplished teacher-an enthusiast in learning, whose example was no less adapted to fire the youthful mind with the love of letters, than his instructions were calculated to enrich it with knowledge. This teacher was the reverend Aaron Burr, father to him of the same name, who has lately made so distinguished a figure in the annals of our country. On the emulous disposition and aspiring genius of young Shippen, opportunities so congenial and excellent, could not fail in producing the most happy and brilliant effects. It was, accordingly, while pursuing his studies in this institution, that the rapid development of his talents, marked with unusual lustre for his years, began to attract the notice of the public, and pointed him out to the discerning eye, as a youth born to no common destinies. Though distinguished in every branch of academical attainment to which he turned his attention, it was not his lot to acquire in each of them the same degree of eminence. His taste, and the native bent of his genius, led him

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