"I am, reverend sir, with much esteem,
"Your most humble servant,
"Nathan Tisdale.
"P.S. I have another pupil whom I shall offer for admission into your college at the end of the vacancy [vacation], if I can fit him by that time."
A portion of a letter from a somewhat distinguished clergyman and teacher, Rev. Simeon Williams, of Windham, N. H., introducing several prominent members of the class of 1774, is worthy of notice here, although written in 1772. In connection with the reply, it throws additional light upon the first prescribed course of study at Dartmouth. After expressions indicating confidence that President Wheelock will attend, faithfully, to the welfare of the young men, the language is as follows:
"When they first came to my school they had read enough of Virgil and the lower Latin classics, together with a sufficient knowledge of the Greek Testament, to enable them to pass into any of the colleges as Freshmen. But when their fathers informed me that they intended their residence only for two years, and that they expected, if they were under my care, I would qualify them in all the parts of the Freshman and Sophomore years, so as they might with honor and ability enter the Junior class, with mature deliberation, I undertook the arduous task. The first year I confined their studies to Virgil, Cicero's 'Orations,' together with their improvement in Geography, Rhetoric, and occasional declamations, etc. This second year they have been reading Homer and Horace, Cicero de Oratore, and a part of Xenophon. I have also carefully instructed them in all the four parts of Logic from Doctor Finlay's 'Latin Compend,' expounding the same by familiar lectures, for the most part extracted from Mr. Locke and Doctor Watts. There is one kind of study which this last year they have been much employed in—I mean double translation—their improvement therein will appear to you by casting your eye on their various manuscripts. I would observe to you that I have not introduced them to the knowledge of mathematical learning, knowing it is most usual in colleges to put them to those studies in the Junior year."
In reply President Wheelock says: "We have examined the youth you sent, and find them deficient in several parts of learning which the [Junior] class have made some proficiency in, viz., Mathematics, Geography, and parsing Greek. They have studied Tullie de Oratore, and Xenophon, and some in Homer, more than that class have done. On the whole I have concluded to take them into that class, only with this condition, that they recite those things in which they are deficient with the Sophomore class while their own class recite other parts in which they exceed them." The studies of the Senior year do not appear to have differed materially from those of other colleges, of that period. Jonathan Edwards was a favorite author in metaphysics and theology.
President Wheelock in his "Narrative," for 1771, gives the following lucid statement of the policy and aims of the school and college: "It is earnestly recommended to the students both in college and school,
"1. That all the English students in the college and school treat the Indian children with care, tenderness and kindness, as younger brethren, and as may be most conducive to the great ends proposed.
"2. That they turn the course of their diversions and exercises for their health to the practice of some manual arts, or cultivation of gardens, and other lands, at the proper hours of leisure and intermission from study and vacancies in the college and school.
"3. That no English scholar, whether supported by charity or otherwise, shall, at any time, speak diminutively of the practice of labor, or by any means cast contempt upon it, or by word or action endeavor to discredit or discourage the same, on penalty of his being obliged, at the discretion of the president or tutor, to perform the same or the equivalent to that which he attempted to discredit; or else (if he be not a charity scholar) to hire the same done by others, or, in case of refusal and obstinacy in this offense, that he be dismissed from college, and denied all the privileges and honors of it.
"4. That no scholar shall be employed in labor in the hours of study, or so as to interrupt him in his studies, unless upon special emergencies, and with liberty from the president or a tutor.
"5. That accounts be faithfully kept of all the labor so done by them, either for the procuring provisions for the support of the college and school, or that which shall be for real and lasting advantage to this institution; and such accounts shall be properly audited, and a record kept of the same for the benefit of such scholars, if they should be called by the providence of God to withdraw from their purpose of serving as missionaries in the wilderness, or to leave the service before they have reasonably compensated the expense of their education.
"6. That such as are not charity scholars, but pay for their education, may have liberty to labor for the benefit of the institution at such times as are assigned to charity scholars, and the just value of their labor be accounted towards the expense of their support.
"7. That no Freshman shall be taken off, or prevented labor, by any errand for an under-graduate, without liberty obtained from the president or a tutor.
"N. B. Occasional errands and services for the college and school are not designed to be accounted, nor their procuring fuel for their fires, and things equivalent for their own and their chamber's use in particular, nor anything which shall not be of real or lasting benefit for the whole, unless in cases where they are incapacitated for labor, and yet are able to perform such errands for or in the room of those who can and do labor in their stead.
"Lastly. That this Indian Charity School, connected with Dartmouth College, be constantly hereafter and forever called and known by the name of 'Moor's School.'
"Moreover poor youth, who shall seek an education here, at their own expense, may not only have the advantage of paying any part of that by turning their necessary diversions to manual labor, but also, as all that will be paid by such as support themselves will be disposed of for the support of the Indian, or other charity scholars, therefore, whatever clothing or provisions shall be necessary for the school will be good pay at a reasonable price.
"His Excellency Governor Wentworth, among many other expressions of his care and zeal to preserve the purity and secure the well-being of this seminary against such evils as have been the ruin of, or at least have a very threatening aspect upon others which have come within his knowledge, has insisted upon it as a condition of location, to which all the trustees have cheerfully subscribed, that wherever it should be fixed, there should be a society of at least three miles square, which should be under the jurisdiction of the college, that thereby unwholesome inhabitants may be prevented settling, and all hurtful or dangerous connections with them, or practices among them may be seasonably discovered and prevented in a legal way.