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high moral tone and true dignity, being as free from all scandal as it was above mere frivolity.

But her bright social career was closed by a succession of domestic afflictions which are briefly recorded in the following inscriptions that she prepared for a monument which she contemplated erecting to the memory of her brothers:

THIS MARBLE is placed to the Memory of the Sons of Dr. JOSHUA and Mrs. OLIVE PLUMMER, as a tribute of the strongest and purest affection the human heart is capable of feeling, by a Sister, towards whom the Brothers united the characters of Parents, Children, the tenderest Friends and the sweetest companions.

LYMAN PLUMMER, aged 17; killed, June, 1805, by the Indians of the N. W. coast of America, while defending the property of another.

OCTAVIUS PLUMMER, aged 28; supposed to be shipwrecked on his passage from London to America, December, 1812.

THEODORE PARSONS PLUMMER, aged 27; died at Havana, November 9, 1813. And under its shelter lie the ashes of ERNESTUS AUGUSTUS PLUMMER, aged 42; who died September 28, 1823.

The surviving sister, after years of lingering illness, died on the 15th of May, 1854. For more than thirty years, Miss Plummer lived, the last survivor of her worthy family, to every one of whom she had been bound by the strongest ties of love. Her seclusion from general society could not have been unexpected, though the soothing hand of time softened her grief and enabled her to enjoy the company of her chosen friends and the gratification of her refined tastes. Her favorite books, pictures, and other works of art, with which her rooms were adorned, and the kind friends who visited her in those rooms, afforded all the entertainment which she appeared to desire. Her nerves had been shattered, and her health so impaired, that she was ever after a suffering invalid. Yet she did not lose the vigor or the lofty aspirations of her mind. Among her most admired authors was Dr. Channing, and her intimate friends knew how earnestly she prayed for the strong and elevating faith which he so fully possessed. Her habits of strict economy might have appeared to superficial observers unworthy of her character, while her independent spirit and conscious rectitude made her indifferent to popular prejudice. Having determined to dispose of her large property for beneficent public purposes, she naturally discouraged applications for her contribution to other objects, not merely in accordance with the habits of her life, but because she wished to reserve all the property

MISS PLUMMER'S BEQUESTS.

Plummer Professorship of Christian Morals.

By a codicil in her last Will, dated March 9th, 1845, Miss Plummer made provision for establishing a new Professorship in Harvard College, as follows: "The estate of my late (entirely beloved) brother Ernestus Augustus Plummer, having fallen into my hands for disposal thereof, and I wishing to bequeath it as I think would be most agreeable to his wishes, do now, in fulfillment of what I verily believe would have been his wish, give and bequeath the sum of Twenty-five Thousand Dollars to the President and Fellows of Harvard College, which I direct to be safely invested or put at interest, and the income thereof to be forever appropriated for the support of a Professor of the Philosophy of the Heart and of the Moral, Physical and Christian Life, in Harvard University, whose province it shall be, according to rules and exercises established from time to time by the said President and Fellows, and on the basis of Christian faith and love, to enlighten all who are or may be engaged in the education pursued there, whether governors, instructors or students, in the manner of discharging their respective duties, so as best to promote generous affections, manly virtues and Christian conduct, and more especially, to aid and instruct the students in what most nearly concerns their moral and physical welfare, their health, their good habits, and their Christian character, acting towards them, by personal intercourse and persuasion, the part of a parent, as well as that of a teacher and friend.

The Professor shall be of the Christian religion, and a Master of Arts, and bearing the character of a learned, pious, and honest man. He shall be elected by the President and Fellows, and approved by the Overseers of Harvard College for such a term of years as may by them be ordered."

By a subsequent instrument the amount devoted by Miss Plummer to the purpose thus set forth, was reduced to Fifteen Thousand Dollars.

The Corporation of Harvard assumed the trust, and among the Rules and Statutes governing this trust are the following:

"The Professor shall be styled 'Preacher to the University and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals.' His duties shall be:

1. To conduct the daily devotions in the College Chapel.

2. To be the preacher and pastor of those who worship in the College Chapel on the Lord's Day.

3. To give such moral and religious instruction to the undergraduates, whether by lectures or recitations, as shall be agreed upon in the assignment of studies by the College Faculty.

4. By counsel and sympathy, by personal intercourse, occasional voluntary meetings, and other suitable means, to warn and guard the students against the dangers to which they are exposed; to supply, as far as may be, their need of home influences, and to promote among them an earnest Christian faith and life. It shall be at the option of the Professor, whether to belong to the College Faculty or not."

PLUMMER FARM SCHOOL.

The Plummer Farm School, intended for the instruction, employment and reformation of juveniles in the City of Salem, is founded on the following provision of Miss Plummer's Will:

"Said sum of ten thousand dollars so withdrawn,* also eight thousand dollars, which, in a former Will, I bequeathed to Oliver Keating, who is now deceased, together with all the residue of my estate that may remain after paying my debts, funeral charges, bequests and legacies hereinafter given, and executing my directions according to private memorandums (said memorandums not to be subject to Probate,) I give and bequeath to William I. Bowditch, in trust, to be appropriated to the founding of a Farm School of Reform for Boys,

* Withdrawn from the sum of $25,000, first designed for the Plummer Professorship.

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for the City of Salem, in the County of Essex, State of Massachusetts, on a plan similar to that of the State Reform School. And I direct my said trustee to pay the same sums and residue, together with any interest that may have accrued thereon, to such trustees or their treasurer, as may be chosen by the Mayor and Aldermen of Salem, and incorporated by an act of the legislature with such powers and provisions as shall be judged best adapted to carry my sid design of a Farm School of Reform into complete effect. And it is my will, that my said trustee, William I. Bowditch, shall not be required to give bonds as such trustee, I having full confidence that he will faithfully execute the same. Should these united sums be inadequate to the object, they shall be safely placed at interest until they amount to the sum deemed sufficient, unless a subscription be raised to supply any deficiency. In such case, my bequest aforesaid shall be used immediately for said Farm School of Reform."

The above bequest was accepted by the City Council, and in accordance with the terms of the Will, ten Trustees were chosen by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Salem, and an Act of Incorporation granted by the Legislature, May 21, 1855. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees was held November 26, 1855, at which time a code of By-laws was adopted and Officers were elected.

The amount of the Fund received from W. I. Bowditch, Esq., Trustee of the Will of Miss Plummer, July 1st, 1856, was $25,462.23.

PLUMMER HALL.

Under the following clause of Miss Plummer's Will, the sum named therein ($30,000) was paid over to the Trustees of the Salem Athenæum:

"I give and bequeath to the Proprietors of the Salem Atheneum the sum of Thirty Thousand Dollars, directing said bequest to be very distinctly recorded as a gift from my beloved brother Ernestus A. Plummer, I making the bequest in conformity to what I think would have been his wish, he having felt a deep interest in the welfare of this literary institution, and the observatory having been furnished with large additional funds. The said sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be appropriated to the purchasing a piece of land in some central and convenient spot in the City of Salem, and for building thereon a safe and elegant building of brick or stone to be employed for the purpose of depositing the books belonging to said Corporation, with liberty also to have the rooms thereof used for meetings of any scientific or literary institutions, or for the deposit of any works of art or natural productions. Should said library ever become a public one, this bequest shall not be forfeited. I expressly prohibit any part of said building or its cellar from being used as a public or private office of business or place for the sale or deposit of merchandise, being unwilling that said building should be used for any purpose which might endanger by fire the valuable library therein contained. The said building to be erected and the books belonging to the said Corporation to be deposited in it within three years from the time of receiving the legacy or of my decease. Said building to be kept constantly insured."

With this sum the Trustees of the Salem Athenæum have purchased a lot ou Essex street, and erected a substantial, convenient, and elegant building for the accommodation of the Athenæum and the Essex Institute, of which the fol lowing is a description:

The building is in the form of a parallelogram, 97 feet 3 inches long by 53 feet wide. The exterior walls are faced with the best quality of pressed bricks and are 45 feet in height above the underpinning, which is 4 feet 6 inches high, and is of brown sandstone. The steps. doorway, window dressings, balcony, belt, etc., are also of the same material. The style of the building is the Romanesque, The principal entrance is from the end or façade on Essex street. The first story is finished 16 feet 6 inches in height, and contains a vestibule 14 feet square with doors on the right and left side leading to rooms each 34 feet in length by nearly 16 feet in width: that on the left is appropriated to the herbarium of the Institute, and that on the right to the historical collection;-in the rear of the vestibule is the great staircase to the principal story, octagonal in

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departments; a light gallery, with a neat iron railing, extends enti the room, being constructed in a serpentine form, receding into eac tween the cases, access to which is by two flights of spiral iron sta feet in diameter.

The stairs leading to the principal story commence at the bott flights, each of which are 4 feet 6 inches wide, one on each side o room-they are continued in this manner to a height of ten feet, v terminate at a landing, and are continued thence in a single flight to the floor above; a fine dome is finished over the stair room wit glass centre at the apex; at the landing of the stairs on the principa vestibule corresponding to the one below, from which is a long wind to the stone balcony over the principal entrance, also doors from the to rooms of the same dimensions and form as those of the entrance s on the right is appropriated to the use of the Librarian, and for the some of the books of reference and the new books belonging to the --that on the left to the bound volumes of newspapers of the Institu Library of the Essex South District Medical Society, which contains volumes;-both of these rooms may be used as reading rooms.

The large Library room is in the rear, and is of the same dimensi principal room of the first story, viz., 58 by 48. It is entered by door two rooms above named, and is finished in an elegant manner, havi of Corinthian columns on either side, about 21 feet high, with an e above them, each range being 12 feet from the side walls, leaving 24 feet between the ranges in the center of the room The ceiling aisles or spaces, between the columns and walls, is horizontal, 24 feet the floor, and is neatly paneled. That over the nave or center comp arched its entire length, finishing 31 feet high from the floor, and paneled in stucco. The cases on the sides of the alcoves are of a p rangement, commencing narrow at the back of the columns, and w they extend toward the sides of the rooms. The shelving being on and on the rear of the cases, also in the spaces between the windo nave is used for tables. A light balcony or gallery, similar to that in below, is constructed at the height of eight feet from the floor and between the columns in a serpentine form, with a neat cast-iron railin is located at the rear end of the room a neat flight of spiral iron stair to the above-named balcony. The alcoves on the western side of contain the library of the Athenæum, those on the eastern that of the

NOTE.

The SALEM ATHENEUM was instituted and incorporated in 1810. In year the books belonging to the SOCIAL LIBRARY, which was establishe and the books of the PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY, which was established were purchased by the Athenæum. The present number of volum Library is about 12,000.

The ESSEX INSTITUTE was formed in 1848, by the union of the Essex Society, which was organized in 1821, and the Essex County Natura Society, which was established in 1833. It has an extensive and well cabinet of collections in history and natural science, and about 18,000 of which more than one-half were donated by Hon. D. A. White. In rooms occupied by the Institute, is the Library of the Essex Sout! Medical Society.

The institutions accommodated by PLUMMER HALL embrace the gre of Literary, Historical, and Scientific inquiry.

APHORISMS AND SUGGESTIONS-ANCIENT AND MODERN.

We are physiologically connected and set forth in our beginnings, and it is a matter of immense consequence to our character, what the connection is. In our birth we not only begin to breathe and circulate blood, but it is a question hugely significant whose the blood may be. For in this we have whole rivers of predispositions, good or bad, set running in us—as much more powerful to shape our future than all tuitional and regulative influences that come after, as they are earlier in their beginning, deeper in their insertion, and more constant in their operation.

Here, then, is the real and true beginning of a godly nurture. The child is not to have the sad entail of any sensuality, or excess, or distempered passion upon him. The heritage of love, peace, order, continence and holy courage is to be his. He is not to be morally weakened beforehand, in the womb of folly, by the frivolous, worldly, ambitious, expectations of parents-to-be, concentrating all their nonsense in him. His affinities are to be raised by the godly expectations, rather, and prayers that go before; by the steady and good aims of their industry, by the great impulse of their faith, by the brightness of their hope, by the sweet continence of their religiously pure love in Christ. Born, thus, of a parentage that is ordered in all righteousness, and maintains the right use of every thing, especially the right use of nature and marriage, the child will have just so much of heaven's life and order in him beforehand, as have become fixed properties in the type of his parentage.

Observe how very quick the child's eye is, in the passive age of infancy, to catch impressions, and receive the meaning of looks, voices, and motions. It peruses all faces, and colors, and sounds. Every sentiment that looks into its eyes, looks back out of its eyes, and plays in miniature on its countenance. The tear that steals down the cheek of a mother's suppressed grief, gathers the little infantile face into a responsive sob. With a kind of wondering silence, which is next thing to adoration, it studies the mother in her prayer, and looks up piously with her, in that exploring watch, that signifies unspoken prayer. If the child is handled fretfully, scolded, jerked, or simply laid aside unaffectionately,

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