Ohio History Journal

PROFESSOR EDWARD ORTON.*

1829-1899.

 

A MEMORIAL ADDRESS.

 

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN.

The genealogical history of "The Orton Family in America,"

a book of which Dr. Edward Orton was the author, begins with

this paragraph:

"The surname ORTON is neither a common nor an unusual

one. It is a name that could be heard without surprise in any

community of English descent. It occurs in the directories of

many cities of the country and can probably be found in many

towns of the United States that have a population of 100,000 or

more; but the list of Ortons is generally confined to a few

individuals, and in many cases there is but a single family."

The name is found in Denmark, and Norway: there is at

least one Norwegian family in Minnesota who brought the name

from the Scandinavian peninsula. But it is more common in

England; several localities in Leicestershire bear the name of the

family; and since the larger number of the earliest settlers

of New England came from the central and eastern portions of

Old England it is fair to assume that Thomas Orton who settled

in Windsor, Conn. between 1636 and 1641, belonged to the

Edward Orton became a life member of the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society soon after its organization. He gave it much of

his valuable time and took a deep and unremitting interest in its work

and progress. He delivered many addresses at its meetings, and added

much to its published literature. The officers and trustees of the Society

freely counseled with him concerning the work entrusted to them. The

secretary was often greatly indebted to Dr. Orton for suggestion and

encouragement. A few weeks previous to his death Dr. Orton was

elected a trustee of the Society, a position which had been many times

offered him before. While characteristically disclaiming great learning

in archaeology, Dr. Orton nevertheless was regarded as a scholar of high

authority in that subject. - E. O. R.

(409)

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Leicestershire Ortons. That old town of Windsor, on the west bank of the Connecticut, a few miles above Hartford was one of the first English settlements in Connecticut; it consisted of a Congregational church which migrated bodily through the wil- derness, from Dorchester in Massachusetts, and it is not improb- able that Thomas Orton came with the first settlers. Here he was married, June 16, 1641, to Margaret Pratt; here he lived fourteen years, removing in 1655 to Farmington, a little further south. He seems to have been one of the most substantial men of that town; he represented it in the Legislature of the Colony in 1684, and held, as the records show, a considerable estate in valuable land. This was the American founder of the family from which Edward Orton sprung, and of which he modestly says: "I do not find any clear proofs of commanding or distinctive qual- ities of any sort in the Orton line; but it seems to have furnished a good basis on which to build a fair average of New England or American character. Occasionally it has been happily blended with the blood of other families, and men of eminence have, as the result, risen above the rank and file of their day, but the great majority of the generations that have passed away have led unambitious lives, in peaceful country homes, 'far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.' Every Orton of to-day, has at least five generations of New England farmers behind him." Of the descendants of Thomas Orton those most widely known in this country may have been Dr. William Orton, Edward Orton's second cousin, long the president of the West- ern Union Telegraph Company, and once United States Com- missioner of Internal Revenue--a man of great executive ability; and Professor James Orton of Vassar College, a third cousin of Edward Orton and a naturalist of eminence, who was buried upon a little island in Lake Titicaca in Peru where he died while engaged in an exploring expedition in the interest of science. But we may safely say that far more luster has been given to the name of Orton by our friend and neighbor than by any one who has borne it on either side of the sea. The author of the Orton genealogy, with characteristic modesty, disposes of himself in a paragraph of a few lines which gives

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Professor Edward Orton.              41

not even a meager outline of his career. That chapter of the

book must be re-written; for no name that it records is so widely

known or so greatly honored as that of Edward Orton.

The grandfather of Edward Orton, Miles Orton, of Litchfield,

Conn., was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died near the close

of the war; his great grandfather, Samuel Orton, was fifty-two

years of age at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, and

was not probably in active service, but the two eldest sons of

Samuel Orton, Gideon and Samuel, great uncles of Edward

Orton, were both revolutionary soldiers, and were both prob-

ably members of the regiment in which my own great grand-

father enlisted in the spring of 1777. These three young men

probably knew each other, and may have fought side by side at

Germantown, and wintered together with Washington at Valley

Forge.

Samuel Orton's father, Samuel, Dr. Orton's great-great

grandfather, who was born in 1694, and who was one of the first

settlers of Litchfield, Conn., was a captain of the militia company

raised in his town for defense against the Indians. The family to

which he belonged is thus proved to have been actively engaged

in the Colonial wars, in the Revolutionary war, and in the war

of 1812.

His father, Samuel Gibbs Orton, was born in Old Litchfield,

in 1797, and there grew to manhood. The soil was sterile and life

was a struggle; the death of Samuel's father when he was but

sixteen left him the oldest of a family of eight, and threw upon

him a heavy burden, but he was one of those whom burdens do

not crush; and his manhood was invigorated under the strain.

that hill country of western Connecticut seems to be adapted to

the raising of men; five years later Samuel Gibbs Orton, and

only three or four miles from his birthplace, Horace Bushnell

was born; and John Brown of Harpers Ferry who was only three

years his junior came from the first town north and was his

fellow pupil in the Academy when he was preparing for College.

When these were lads, Lyman Beecher was the minister of

the Congregational church at Litchfield, and it was under his

pungent and strenuous preaching that Samuel Gibbs Orton was

converted and began to prepare for college. His first year was

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spent at Yale; then hearing of a young college in Oneida County,

New York, where a poor student's chances to pay his way might

be better than at Yale, he walked with all his earthly possessions

on his back, all the way from New Haven to Clinton, near

Utica, and entered Hamilton College, from which he graduated

free from debt in 1822, having paid his college expenses by his

labor.

The early years of Mr. Orton's ministry were spent in eastern

New York and Delaware County; here he was married, in 1824,

and here in the village of Deposit, March 9, 1829, Edward Orton

was born. Failing health soon drove the young minister from

these mountains, and he set out, on horseback, in search of a

more genial climate in what was then the far west. Across the

state of New York he journeyed, gaining strength as he went,

and when on the heights of Chautauqua he saw the broad expanse

of Lake Erie with its fertile slopes he felt that he had reached

the promised land and dismounting from his horse he lifted

up thanksgivings to the Providence which had brought him in

safety to a country so fair. Hither his little family soon followed

him, when Edward was only four years old; and here to the labors

of an evangelist among the weaker churches of Chautauqua

County, Samuel Gibbs Orton devoted a number of years. From

these labors he was called to the Park Street Presbyterian church

of Buffalo, where he spent a few years, but when Edward was

eight years old he returned to Chautauqua County, the Presby-

terian church of Ripley, the westermost town of New York, on

the lake shore, having offered him its pastorate. "Here," says

his son, "Mr. Orton remained for sixteen years, interested in and

serviceable to every phase of the life of the people, religious, moral,

intellectual and natural. He fitted a number of the young men

of his parish for college. He established and maintained in the

town a private school, which was the equivalent of an academy,

and which exercised a refining and uplifting influence upon the

community to a notable extent."

This, then, was the early home of Edward Orton, and these

were the influences in which his life was nurtured. It was a

country minister's home-a home in which learning and religion

went hand in hand; where, if the theories were severe, the ideals

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Professor Edward Orton.               413

were lofty; where plain living was joined with high thinking.

Edward Orton was constrained, in later years, as we shall see,

to cause his father great sorrow in following his own convictions of

religious truth; but his own words bear testimony to the honor

in which he held his father:

"Mr. Orton," says his son, "was a man of excellent gifts in

many directions. He was not what would be called a great or

profound preacher, but he was an unusually persuasive and suc-

cessful one. He was sincere and earnest. He had a wonderful

knowledge of human nature, by which he always adapted him-

self to the audience which he was addressing. He had the practical

talent of the genuine New Englander; had as much knowledge of

farming as any farmer in his parish, and almost the same could

be said of him in many other lines of business. To the end of

his days he had an eager love of nature and of man; was hospi-

table to all new thought so far as it did not seem to him to

be inconsistent with the theological tenets which were, to him,

the most vital and important facts in the universe. His kind

and sympathetic nature made him universally beloved."

The boyhood of Edward was thus spent in an environment

most friendly to health of body and purity of soul, and manliness

of character. In the rural home, as he testifies, "he acquired

a knowledge of and a life-long interest in country life. He often

worked by the day and sometimes by the month, among the

neighboring farmers," giving his winters mainly to study. Partly

by his father, and partly by the two academies of Westfield and

Fredonia, he was fitted for Hamilton College, which he entered,

as Sophomore, when he was sixteen, graduating, in 1848, at the

age of nineteen. Hamilton College, at that day, as I well remem-

ber, was regarded as one of the best of the higher institutions

of learning; it was only seven years later that my own choice

of a college was made, and Hamilton was the one to which my

thought was first directed. The scientific department was not

strong; in that respect it was like all the rest of the colleges of

that time; but its reputation for some kinds of work was very

high; no better training in language and literature, in writing and

speaking was given anywhere. The curriculum was that of the

old-fashioned college-Greek and Latin and mathematics, rhe-

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414       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

toric and oratory, a little history, some philosophy, and the rudi-

ments of natural science, with considerable astronomy-"the

observatory at Hamilton has been famous"-what was called a

liberal education-an all-round training, which opened quite

a number of windows through which a man might look out on

life, and instead of making him a specialist, sought to lay a foun-

dation of general knowledge on which, if he chose he might

build his specialty in after time. I think that that old-fashioned

training has demonstrated its value in the life of Edward Orton.

It gave him, to begin with, a most admirable instrument for his

work, in a literary style, clear, elegant, forcible, the perfection

of good English,-a style by which he could illuminate any

subject of which he treated; and it gave him also a breadth of

outlook, and a comprehensiveness of judgment which rendered

his scientific work more worthy of acceptation. Edward Orton,

at any rate, never despised the training which he received in

this old-fashioned college; he kept his interest in the subjects

which he studied there and his knowledge of them; since I have

been in Columbus he has taught Latin in the Preparatory Depart-

ment of the University, and some of his pupils have told me that

he was the best Latin teacher they ever had; and he was for

some time the instructor and a most admirable instructor in the

art of public speaking. I am not inclined to believe that he

was any less successful as a specialist in geology because he

was a broadly cultured man. Certainly he was worth to the

world a great deal more than he would have been if he had

known nothing but geology. Those who know testify that his

voice from the beginning has been for breadth of training in our

own university. Dr. Chamberlain, writing in the "Ohio Farmer,"

tells us that when the Grange and other agencies in the earlier

days urged more of practical agriculture in the curriculum, his

courteous answer always was: "I think we should first lay broad

foundations of general culture and science, and specialize later as

funds increase and the demand arises." It was well, I think, that

a man with such a training was at the helm in the first years

of the life of our university.

He was a mere youth when he came out of Hamilton Col-

lege. Not often is the baccalaureate won at the age of nineteen.

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Professor Edward Orton.               415

His purpose in life was clear; he was on his way to the Christian

ministry, and the year after his graduation - (he taught, I think,

part of a year in Cincinnati)-he entered Lane Seminary in that

city, of which Dr. Lyman Beecher, thirty years before his father's

pastor in old Litchfield, was then the presiding genius, and in

which Lyman Beecher's son-in-law, Calvin E. Stowe was one of

the professors. About that time Mrs. Stowe must have been

gathering her material for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It was a time

of intense intellectual activity. The antagonistic forces which

met, only a decade later, in the mighty struggle of the Civil War,

were then angrily confronting each other; Clay's compromise

measures, by which he vainly sought to avert the impending con-

flict, were passing through that great debate in Congress; Seward

and Chase and Hale were standing and voting together in the

Senate for the restriction of slavery, against the combined strength

of both the great political parties. It sounds a little queer, to

one who watched that conflict, as I watched it, to hear the

political descendants of Seward and Chase and Hale sneering at

independency in politics! Men like Theodore Parker and Henry

Ward Beecher and William Lloyd Garrison and John G. Whittier

were challenging the divine right of slavery and disputing the tra-

ditional interpretation of the Bible on which it rested. Some-

thing of the fermentation of the time was in the mind of Edward

Orton; the theological traditionalism of that school of the pro-

phets in which he was studying seems to have laid upon him a

burden heavier than he could bear. He heard a sermon, one

Sunday, on the condition of the heathen world, which consigned

to a hopeless doom all who die without the knowledge of the

historic Christ, and the injustice of the dogma made him angry:

he told the professor with whom he walked home from church

that it was a horrible doctrine-that he could never preach it.

From this time his mind was full of questionings; he did not care

to continue his studies at Lane. Some failure of eyesight also

complicated his problem; he seems to have turned aside to farm-

work for a year or two to recover his health. Meantime he

had heard of a seminary on Andover Hill in Massachusetts in

which, as was reported, a broader theology was taught; indeed

grave suspicions of heresy attached to some of the instructors,-

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but the young theologue was less afraid of heresy than of

heathenism in theology, and he made his way thither, pausing

however by the way, for what reason I know not, to study chem-

istry for six months in Harvard, under Professor Horsford.

At Andover he completed his theological studies. Edward A.

Park and Austin Phelps were the brightest stars in the Andover

constellation at that time; their theological method was some-

what more modern than that of Lane; they sought a rational view

of Christian doctrine, and Edward Orton was able under their

guidance to hold on to his purpose of preaching the gospel.

Soon after leaving Andover he was ordained to the ministry of

the Presbyterian church, and accepted the pastorate of a church

in the secluded village of Downsville, in Delaware County, New

York.   Of this ministry we have but slender records.  Dr.

Orton was reticent about this experience. It would be perfectly

safe to say that he was an earnest preacher and a faithful pastor;

that his deep sincerity and his strong human sympathy must have

given him great power in the work of winning men. Neverthe-

less it was a period of storm and stress; his theological difficulties

deepened; many of the things which he was expected to teach

came to bear for him an air of unreality; at length, after a strug-

gle whose nature we can guess,- and can only guess, because he

has not chosen to share with his friends his mental disquietude -

we find him turning from a task that had become to him impos-

sible, and entering, in 1856, upon his life work as a teacher in

the State Normal School at Albany.

He had given up the ministry, but he had by no means parted

with his religious purpose; he connected himself with the First

Presbyterian church of Albany and taught a large Bible class in

the Normal School. After a while it began to be noised abroad

that the teachings of this Bible class were not following the beaten

track. What was the nature of the divergence charged against

him I do not know; it may, very likely, have been some conflict

between his science and the traditional interpretation of the Book

of Genesis. This was a time when strenuous efforts were made

to reconcile Genesis with geology; such books as Hugh Muller's

"Testimony of the Rocks" and Pye Smith's "Scripture and

Geology" held fast to the historical and scientific accuracy of

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Professor Edward Orton.              417

the early chapters of Genesis and sought to make them agree

with the facts of modern science. Of course it was a hopeless

undertaking; those chapters do not tally with the testimony

of the rocks and it is not improbable that Edward Orton said so.

It would be hard to find a professor in any Congregagtional

Theological Seminary in the world to-day who would not say

the same thing; but in those days such a statement was flat heresy,

and Professor Orton found himself under a cloud. He had

been assisting, with great acceptance to the pupils, in conduct-

ing morning worship in the chapel of the Normal School; he

found that his assistance in this service was no longer requested,

and on inquiring of the authorities the reason of this change,

learned that they did not deem him a fit person to lead the

devotions of the school. At once he resigned his position, and

his resignation was accepted. Some account of this transaction

is found in a correspondence which appeared in the New York

Tribune of June, 1859. A letter signed "Jefferson," was printed

in that paper, June 17, which states that some three or four years

before a young Presbyterian clergyman had been appointed pro-

fessor in the State Normal School at Albany; that he had fine

talents for teaching and because of his religious character had

been appointed to take charge of a Bible class of pupils; that

he had been removed from the charge of this class on account

of his religious opinions, because he no longer believed in all

the doctrines held in the church to which he belonged; that

Presbyterian clergymen in town were aware of his changed views,

and that the principal of the school, probably moved by them,

had, though with much reluctance, made the heresy of the

professor an objection to his continuance in the school. "It

was not alleged," says the writer, "that he obtruded his religious

opinions upon the scholars, or in any way sought to make prose-

lytes; neither was it objected that his character as a truly religious

man and a faithful teacher, was in the least degree impaired. On

the contrary he was, if possible, more than ever beloved and

confided in by his pupils and was acknowledged by all to be the

most popular teacher in the school." But outside influence had

undoubtedly demanded his separation from the institution. The

Vol VIII-27.

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418       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Albany Presbytery had arraigned him on a charge of heresy. The

principal of the school continued his importunities upon the pro-

fessor to resign his place, admitting that public opinion could

never sanction his removal from office on account of his religious

opinions. "The result is," said the writer, "that the professor

has been compelled by persistent annoyance and persecution to

resign and will leave the school at the end of the year. Here is

religious liberty violated in a state institution, against the con-

stitution of the state, which declares that no discrimination or

preference shall be allowed in the matter of religious opinions."

The state superintendent of public instruction had, the writer

testifies, freely denounced the performance,as wholly unsanctioned

by him.

To this statement the following reply by Dr. Orton appeared

in the Tribune of June 24, 1859:

"A letter bearing the date of June 13, 1859, over the signa-

ture of 'Jefferson,' appeared in the Tribune of Friday, June 17,

relating to the resignation of one of the professors in the State

Normal School. The reference to me as the teacher alluded to

was unmistakable, and I therefore take the liberty over my own

signature to call attention to some statements which may do injus-

tice to the principal of the school. Exception can be taken to that

section in the letter which asserted that I was 'removed' from

the charge of the Bible Class which I had for several terms con-

ducted. The facts which led to the cessation of my connection

with it can be briefly told. In the summer vacation of 1858 I

wrote to the principal stating in substance that my religious views

had changed in some respects since I undertook the conduct of

the class, and that while I should be glad to go on with it I did

not feel at liberty to do so without mentioning the matter in this

way to him. I further stated that I should not resume the class

without an intimation from him to the effect that he wished me

to do so at the beginning of the term. I was not invited to re-

sume the charge.

"The second of these strictures is this: 'The principal of the

school (apparently with much unwillingness) began to make the

heresy of the professor an objection to his continuance.' In the

course of conversations which I myself commenced with the

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Professor Edward Orton.              419

 

Principal, entirely similar in character to conversations which I

had been accustomed from time to time to hold with him during

all of my connection with the school, I was led to infer that the

change in my religious views was likely to affect the tenure of

my office. I received my appointment to the professorship

which I have held through the influence of the Principal, and I

have considered myself bound in honor to resign my situation

at any time he should desire it. When, therefore, I was obliged

to conclude that my continuance in the school was no longer

desired, I deemed it necessary for me to offer my resignation.

In regard, then, to this paragraph, and to others which I shall

immediately quote, I have to say that at no time have I been

importuned or even requested to leave the school. The lan-

guage employ ed in the conversations which I sought, and to

which I have already referred, was carefully guarded, while, at

the time, I must add that no requests, persuasions or importuni-

ties could strengthen the impression made upon my mind that it

was desired that my connection with the school should be

brought to an end.

"The remaining sentences of the letter to which I wish to

refer, are these: 'The Principal of the school continued and in-

creased his importunities upon the professor to resign his place,

admitting all the while that public opinion would never sanction

his forcible removal from the office on account of his religious

opinions. The result is that the professor has been compelled by

persistent annoyances and persecutions to resign, and will leave

the school at the end of the present term.' The statements which

I have made in the preceding paragraph apply especially to the

first of these sentences and to the word 'persecutions' in the last.

There remains a single phrase which is, perhaps, most liable of

all to misconstruction.  It is this: 'Persistent annoyances.'

Annoyances were, of necessity, attached to my position, but

that they were of such a nature as an ungenerous man could in-

flict upon a subordinate in position. I gladly take this opportunity

to deny. The personal treatment which I have received during

all the time in which my retirement from the school has been

contemplated has been in the highest degree considerate and

kind.

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"I have only to add that were it left for me alone to choose,

even the interest which I cherish in the principles involved in this

matter would be hardly sufficient to overcome the reluctance

which I feel to achieving such kind of notoriety."

It seems, at this day, almost incredible that such a man

should have been compelled for such a reason to give up a good

work in a state institution which he was undoubtedly performing

with the greatest skill and success, but that was a day when the

heresy accuser was abroad in the land and he was a mighty

man of war, armed with bows and arrows and slings and sharp

spears. There was little mercy for those who aroused his sus-

picion.

From Albany he was called to the principalship of Chester

Academy, in Orange county, New York, where he wrought for

six years, with all good fidelity and to such purpose that his

name became widely known, so that in 1865 he was called to a

professorship in the college which Horace Mann had made

famous by his consecrated labors, and from whose presidency

Thomas Hill had recently retired. Antioch College was in those

days one of the most promising of the western institutions, and

the call was a distinct promotion for Mr. Orton. But it was, at

this time, under Unitarian control, and the acceptance of a pro-

fessorship in it signified the identification of the professor with

that denomination. To his good Presbyterian father, who had

then retired from the ministry and was dwelling in retirement in

northern Pennsylvania, this was a terrible calamity-almost a

tragedy. He could not regard his son's action in any other light

than that of apostasy; for a long time he could neither be recon-

ciled nor comforted. At length, however, he was persuaded to

visit Yellow Springs, and after a few weeks spent in the home of

his son, the father returned to his own house greatly reassured

and quieted. One cannot help pitying the good man in his

agony of soul over the departure of his son from the orthodox

fold, yet one must wonder at the blinding power of a theological

prejudice, which could fill the heart of a father with mortal fear

for the fate of a son with a faith as firm and a character as

Christlike as that of Edward Orton.

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Professor Edward Orton.              421

Of the work of Dr. Orton at Antioch I can give no adequate

report. I meet men and women, now and then, who were his

pupils there, and I have never met one who did not speak of him

with filial affection. Doubtless it was a good service that he ren-

dered there, as everywhere. On the resignation of Dr. Hosmer

in 1872 he was made president of Antioch; a year later he was

called to the presidency of the new "Ohio Agricultural and Me-

chanical College," now the Ohio State University.

The remainder of his life-more than a quarter of a century

-has been spent among us; it has been an open book, known

and read of all men. For eight years he held the presidency of

the College, which in 1878, became the University; since 1881

he has been professor of Geology. In 1869 he was made one of

the assistants of Professor Newbery, the state geologist; since

1882 he has held the honorable position vacated by the latter,

and seven thick volumes of geological reports will forever con-

nect his name with the physical history of the State of Ohio.

The statistical, geographical and scientific portions of the article

"Ohio" in the Encyclopedia Britannica are also from his pen.

Such is an imperfect outline of this busy life. The difficult

and delicate task remains to me of offering some estimate and

appreciation of the significance and value of this life.

1. Of the scientific work of Dr. Orton I am not, of course,

qualified to speak. I only know that he was held in high esteem

by his contemporaries and associates in scientific study; his selec-

tion last year to the presidency of the American Association for

the Advancement of Science is evidence enough of that fact. It

was to him a most gratifying recognition of his honorable

career, and I am sure that there was not one of his neighbors in

Columbus whose heart was not warm with thankfulness and

pride when this honor was bestowed on him. It was a fitting

and beautiful thing that his life should be crowned, at the end of

his days, and in the presence of those who loved him best, with

this high distinction.

All I can say about his scientific attainments is that he knew

how to make the subjects of which he treated profoundly inter-

esting. The lucidity of his exposition, the quiet eloquence of his

presentation clothed all these themes with light. And his words,

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422       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

whether written or spoken, always made the impression that the

matter had been well weighed; that the evidence had been thor-

oughly sifted; that the induction was as broad as he could make

it; that it was safe to trust his judgment. Some of his addresses--

that upon "The Stored Power of the World"; his Alumni address

at Hamilton College, in June, 1888, on "The Method of Science

and Its Influence Upon the Branches of Knowledge Pertaining

to Man," and notably that great oration, not yet printed, which

was heard once from this pulpit, on "Man's Place In Nature," are

examples of the luminous presentation of the great facts of

science which will take rank with the best that has been done

along this line in this generation.

2. Of his work as a teacher the testimony is full enough so

that one may speak with no reserve. Unquestionably he was a

great teacher, full of his subject, full of the passion for truth,

full of the intellectual sympathy which enabled him to put him-

self en rapport with his pupils, to know how they needed to be

helped, and by what methods of approach to come into close

contact with them. I have never heard any pupil of his speak

in any other than the most enthusiastic terms of his ability as a

teacher.

His conception of education was large and high. He was a

scientific man, and he had the strongest faith in scientific methods

of study, but he was far from believing that nothing is worth

knowing except the physical sciences. His plea for the broader

culture in his inaugural address as President of the Ohio Agricul-

tural and Mechanical College is one of the best things he ever

said. He is urging that education must be practical:

"What shall be said," he demands, "of the study of lan-

guage, especially of our own? Is not the power to make clear,

accurate intelligible statements of what we know or what we

think a practical power? Does not our education show it-

self glaringly defective when it leaves us without this

ability? Men with knowledge and ideas, but without the

power of adequate expression,-like lumber wagons loaded with

gold-never pass for what they are worth in this world. But

this power to use language with precision and efficiency, and

still more the ability to endow it with persuasive force, does not

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Professor Edward Orton.              423

 

come to us in dreams. There is no royal road, no short cut to

good English. It is one of the choice fruits of education. If

obtained at all it must be bought with a price, the same price

that is paid for solid attainments in any other department of

knowledge, patient and extended study. Can such study be left

out of a practical curriculum ?"

Again he is pleading that education must be liberal:

"What is a liberal education? Aristotle first used the term

which we thus translate, and by it he attempted to designate an

education fit for a freeman. He might justly have included an

education that should give freedom to its possessor, that should

liberate him from the narrowness, and prejudice, and isolation,

the slavery of an uneducated mind. Something at least of this

meaning has always been retained, and to-day the conception

of a liberal education that would be accepted by the largest

number would be found to include the education of man as man

rather than that which equips him for a particular post of duty;

the education that concerns itself with the broad substratum of

general knowledge rather than the special applications of knowl-

edge to some isolated field; the education that aspires to a sym-

metrical and balanced culture of all human faculties rather than

that which selects one set of faculties for training and leaves the

rest to accident or atrophy; the education that imbues the mind

with a generous sympathy for every department of knowledge

and that recognizes the contributions of each department as

necessary to the perfect whole, rather than that which trans-

forms its possessors into narrow and conceited specialists, mu-

tually intolerant of each other's and of all others' work and

claims. Can we, indeed, improve upon Milton's ideal of a lib-

eral education? 'I call, therefore, a complete and generous

education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and

magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of peace

and war.'"

No better statement of what education means is likely to

be made than this. It ought to be printed in large type and

framed, and hung in the halls of the University and of every

high school and academy in the State of Ohio.

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424       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

3. I have already alluded to his admirable English style and

the quotations that I have given and shall give, will render super-

fluous any extended comment on his merits as a writer. There

is never any straining after effect; he is no mere phrase maker;

he has something to say, and he says it in perspicuous, balanced,

musical English. His learning is never obtruded but it often

illuminates his sentences; out of the abundance of his knowledge

of the best that has been said in books he brings forth treasures

new and old; and a subtle and benignant humor often plays like

a lambent light over his dignified pages.

His speaking, too, was excellent. He did not like to speak

without notes; he was freest and most effective with his address

before him, but he gave it with such naturalness and ease, such

fine modulations of a sympathetic and persuasive voice, that no

muscular effort and no spectacular demonstrations were necessary

to seize and hold the undivided attention of the auditors.

4. Of his relations, as a citizen, to the city, the state and

the nation, there is much to say, but that topic will be treated

adequately by another; I can only touch it. If Dr. Orton could

not be described as the scholar in politics, he was surely a scholar

to whom the public welfare was a matter of the deepest concern.

He was counted, I suppose, as a member of one of the political

parties; when there were not sufficient reasons to the contrary he

voted for the candidates of that party; but there were often

sufficient reasons to the contrary. He was no blind partizan;

the misdoings of his own party hurt him quite as much as those

of the other, and he saw them just as distinctly and punished them

at the polls. No man kept closer watch of the great movements

in the political world; no man loved his country with a more pas-

sionate love, or sought more diligently, in unobtrusive ways, to

form that sound and sane public opinion by which the questions

of state shall be wisely settled. In city affairs he was always

interested, and the deplorable and shameful failure to find the

best men and put the control of affairs into their hands caused

him the keenest mortification. It would be well if the people who

assume the care of our municipal interests, and who, in many

cases, make it only too evident that they have none but selfish

ends in view, could see themselves as Edward Orton always saw

• 16
 

Professor Edward Orton.              425

them. Yet he was not despondent; he looked, even in the dark-

ness of this decade, for a New Columbus to descend out of hea-

ven from God. In that benignant message which he uttered at the

banquet given to him on his seventieth birthday he put together

these questions and answers:

"What is the outlook, do you ask, at the end of threescore

years and ten, as to the conditions of society? How do the pros-

pects of humanity appear? I am glad to testify that the out-

look with me is on the whole hopeful and inspiring. I feel sure

that the pathway of man is still ascending. He is certainly coming

to wider vision and wider control of nature. Here, in our time

and place, it would be ostrich-like stupidity, it would be worse

than Christian Science, to deny the existence of evils that assail

and threaten the social state. But I feel confident that the

coming generation will grapple with all these dangers and diffi-

culties with manly courage, and that every one of them will

yield at last to a fair, just and considerate treatment."

How much sounder, how much truer is this clear-eyed con-

fidence than that half-despairing note with which Ruskin's mes-

sage closed or the rueful pessimism of Tennyson's second Locksley

Hall!

And now, as I draw still closer to my theme, and seek to

unveil the hidden sources of this personality, a sense of its sacred-

ness makes me loth to speak lest something extravagant or un-

worthy should be said.

Let me give you first a few words of testimony from those

who knew him long ago. Dr. Thomas S. Hastings of New

York City, an honored and well-beloved Presbyterian pastor, for

a long time the President of Union Theological Seminary, writes

me thus:

'You ask me to write you concerning the college life of my

classmate the late Professor Edward Orton, LL. D.

"He entered the class of 1848 at the beginning of our

Sophomore year. He was singularly modest, retiring and re-

served, but we soon discovered his marked ability. As a scholar

he went at once to the front and maintained his position to the

end of the course as the finest scholar in the class. He seemed

to me a serious, deeply earnest and sincere man. He did not min-

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426       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

gle in college sports or college politics, and yet he commanded the

respect and confidence of all. Two years ago, at the fiftieth anni-

versary of our graduation, Dr. Orton was the 'class annalist,'

and his kindly and discriminating review of the characters and

careers of our classmates, showed the keenness of his percep-

tions and the charming sweetness of his nature. I have followed

his public career with affectionate interest, and though I could

not always agree with his published opinions I have always

believed in him and loved him as a profoundly good man."

Dr. John Bascom, who knew him a little later, sends me this

testimony:

"I met Professor Orton first in Andover Theological Sem-

inary. We spent one year, - 1845 -together there, though not

in the same class. We were drawn to each other by an incipient

freedom of religious belief, and by the pleasure we took in out-

door excursions. For fifteen or twenty years after we left the

Seminary I saw nothing of him and hardly heard from him.

Later we became regular correspondents and interchanged visits.

"Dr. Orton had a diligent, penetrative and comprehensive

mind. He did what his hand found to do, and the world lay

open to his hand on many sides. He took as constant and warm

an interest in all the questions pertaining to our spiritual life as

any man I have ever known. The consequence was that few

religious beliefs satisfied him, and he was ever anxious to

lay better foundations of faith.  'The Natural History of the

Christian Religion' by William Mackintosh was a book to which

he attached the highest value. It is remarkable for the tenacity

of its faith, and at the same time for the breadth and thoroughness

of its criticism. I have felt that the reason of Dr. Orton's

attachment to me lay chiefly in the fact that having given myself

less to physical inquiries, and never having been victimized

by empirical philosophy, I was able to bring more confidence

to spiritual truths and increase his courage in this direction.

No change of belief with Dr. Orton was the result of indolence

or indifference. He first brought to my attention 'The Religion

of Israel' by Kuenen, a book fitted to greatly modify one's inter-

pretation of Scripture.

• 18
 

Professor Edward Orton.              427

 

"As a friend Dr. Orton was very considerate and self-

sacrificing.  His inimitable courtesy and sweetness of voice

opened a path before him like sunshine. Few men are found so

uniformly fitted to do good and to avoid the evils of belligerency

as was he. His usefulness and his success lay almost exclu-

sively in his own personal endowments."

The perfect courtesy to which Dr. Bascom has referred was

something mere than manners, it was character. We beheld in

it the natural expression of a just, benignant, gracious person-

ality. It was never effusive; it was dignified, it was a little stately,

but the stateliness was not to display himself but to honor you.

And how much there was of considerate and helpful kindness in

his life; how many things that he thought of saying and doing

which brought strength and courage and consolation in the

hours when he needed them most. All who wrought to relieve

suffering and minister to human need found in him a helper; to

the end of his life he was actively interested in all kinds of phi-

lanthropic work.

I have spoken of the change in his religious opinions. It

must not be supposed that this change involved any loosening

of his hold on the fundamental verities of religion. I have been

reading in manuscript a few of Dr. Orton's sermons, written

and preached after he went to Yellow Springs, and I am sure that

there is nothing in any of them that would not be welcomed as

good gospel in any church in Columbus today. There is a ser-

mon from the text, "Be not weary in well doing, for in due sea-

son ye shall reap if ye faint not," which lays down in the clearest

manner the great laws of the spiritual life, insisting that the true

well-doing involves obedience to both the great command-

ments. "Men frequently argue," he says, "that the sustaining of

right relations to each other is all that is required, that no

charge can stand against that life which fulfills the demands of

what is commonly called morality. In opposition to all such

half-truths the commandment comes, 'Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy heart.' We cannot love our fellow-men as

ourselves aright without loving God first and supremely. We

can never set a right estimate upon human nature in ourselves

or others, only as we have had a vision of its divine original.

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428       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

There is no well-doing possible that leaves God out of the

account."

There is a noble sermon on the text "Blessed are they which

do hunger and thirst after righteousness." Very impressive is

his enforcement of the truth that the deepest craving in man is

this hunger for soundness and perfection of character, and that

the way to find it is the way of Jesus. "With the spirit of the

great Master in our hearts," he closes, "we cannot miss the real

object of our lives. That such a spirit has entered into this

world is the best pledge that we have of another.

"Here is righteousness-to live in the spirit and temper of

Jesus of Nazareth:

"'And Him evermore I behold

Walking in Galilee,

Through the cornfield's waving gold,

In hamlet, in wood and in wold

By the shores of the beautiful sea.

He toucheth the sightless eyes,

The demons before Him flee;

To the dead he sayeth, 'Arise!'

To the living, 'Follow me!'"

Still another sermon from these last words, "Follow me and

I will make you fishers of men," which was first preached as the

baccalaureate sermon to the graduating class in this church in

1880, and which was repeated in the college chapel in March,

1888, is broadly and deeply and grandly Christian from begin-

ning to end.

In his ways of stating some of the Christian truths Dr.

Orton would have differed from many who call themselves Chris-

tians. The miraculous elements in Christianity were not so sig-

nificant to him as they are to some of us. Yet even concerning

these he said in his last great address on "Man's Place in Na-

ture": "For myself I have no objection to miracles, in themelves

considered, so that they are properly supported. As far as our

present knowledge goes the entrance of life into the world was

a miraculous event."

His faith in a personal God was clear and unwavering.

"If," he says, "life, personality, reason, conscience, imagination

• 20
 

Professor Edward Orton.              429

 

come from nature, then nature has in it a supreme, personal,

rational, moral element. In other words, God is in nature.

Personality cannot spring from anything less than, lower than

itself-the stream cannot rise higher than the fountain from

which it flows."

His belief in Jesus Christ he might not have chosen to put

into your words or mine. Let us not ask him to do any such

thing. Let us permit him to express it in his own way. In his

address at Hamilton College eleven years ago he said: "Beyond

the final and all comprehending law of reason and righteousness

which was laid down by Jesus of Nazareth it is impossible to go.

The whole was uttered then, and any other statement is but a

repetition."

In the noble speech on "Man's Place In Nature," he

speaks of the great forces of good will and kindness which are

changing the character of our modern civilization, saying, "This

view of life and man has, I need not say, a historic source. There

was a date when it was first announced, a point on the face of

the earth from which as a center the message worked its way

outward. We follow it back with absolute certainty to Jesus of

Nazareth. He taught the new doctrine in words, he taught it

still more impressively by his life and by his death. The Chris-

tian ideal of character can be traced as definitely to this source

as the Declaration of Independence to Jefferson or Magna

Charta to the barons. The ideal is bound to inherit the earth.

It is the noblest conception of man and the universe that the

mind has ever reached."

And again in the baccalaureate sermon, quoting the bold

words of the Fisherman of Galilee who calls to us: "Follow

me!" he asks whether, after all the lapse of years and the

growth of art, and the spread of science and the triumphs of

civilization, there may not now be some one who could more

worthily utter these words, and his answer is: "No, no. This

art the Nazarene has inspired. Science has grown only along the

pathways he has trod, and all that is most characteristic and

permanent in modern civilization has its origin in him. He

stands to-day further in advance of our highest thought and

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430      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

attainment than he seemed to stand in advance of the fishermen

of Galilee."

Of the great hereafter he thought much, and in years past

somewhat dubiously. There was no dogmatic disbelief; there

was a yearning hope that almost reached conviction, but a

shadow lay upon the future, and he would not confess a belief

for which there was not adequate ground. But in later years

this hope has steadily grown to assurance. With him, I sup-

pose, as with Fiske and Romanes, the larger implications of the

doctrine of evolution brought a kind of certitude he had never

found before. In that swan song of his, at the birthday banquet,

are these questions and answers, which give us his latest and

ripest thought.

"What is the outlook," he imagines his friends asking him,

"at your time of life, as to the individual future? Does the old

man get any nearer than the younger ones to an answer to the

great question, 'If a man die shall he live again ?' Here, too, I am

glad to say that the hope grows stronger as the years go by, that

a being of such unmistakable alliance with divinity as man, with

the godlike endowments of reason and conscience, may hope

to emerge even from the shock of death unharmed. I have a

growing respect and reverence for man as man. The spiritual

difference between him and the rest of the creation seems infinite.

He belongs to the higher side of the universe and will share its

great destiny. I am sure that we often think too meanly of

ourselves. Tennyson expresses my faith in the well known lines:

 

'"Thou wilt not leave us in the dust,

Thou madest man, he knows not why;

He thinks he was not made to die,

And thou hast made him, Thou art just.'

"Or, as expressed by Mackintosh: 'If through the cos-

mical and evolutionary process the Great Unseen has been able

out of the primordial elements to bring beings into existence

akin to himself, may it not be hoped that these same beings

may be fitted for a life beyond the limits of a finite duration ?'"

On that quiet Sabbath, which was his last full day upon

earth, he seemed to be aware that "the shadow, feared of man,

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Professor Edward Orton.                  431

 

who keeps the keys of all the creeds," was lurking near, and he

met the challenge without a tremor.

"Do you know," he said to one member of his family some

time during the afternoon, "do you know that poem of Brown-

ing's about death-'The fog in the throat, the mist in the face?' "

It was looked for, but was not found then, and the matter was

dropped. As the evening drew on, another member of the family

was sitting with him, and he mentioned it again. This time it

was found and read to him, and he listened with keen interest.

A little later this daughter went out and the other came in.

"There is that poem of, Browning's-"Prospice," he said.

"Won't you read it to me?" She read it, and after a little his

wife took her place by his side. "Do you remember," he said to

her, "that poem of Browning's about death?      It is there. I

should like to hear you read it." The third time it was read to

him. None of them knew that the others had been asked to

read the poem. Was it not the word that uttered his own deep-

est feeling about death:

"Fear death? To feel the fog in my throat,

The mist in my face,

When the snows begin and the blasts denote

I am nearing the place,

The power of the night, the press of the storm,

The post of the foe;

Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,

Yet the strong man must go;

For the journey is done and the summit attained,

And the barriers fall,

Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,

The reward of it all.

I was even a fighter, so -one fight more,

The best and the last!

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore,

And bade me creep past.

No! let me taste of the whole of it, fare like my peers,

The heroes of old,

Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears,

Of pain, darkness and cold.

For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,

The black minute's at end,

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432        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

And the element's rage, the fiend voices that rave

Shall dwindle, shall blend,

Shall change, shall become first a peace, then a joy,

Then a light, then thy breast,

O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,

And with God be the rest!"

Thus it was that he welcomed death, and passed to where,

beyond these voices, there is peace. The thoughts of these last

hours were not unfamiliar thoughts; the one who knew him bet-

ter than any other could have known him testifies that he was the

most devout soul she has ever known; that while he never wore

his faith upon his sleeve, his deepest and most constant interest

has always been in the things unseen and eternal. He has gone,

as we believe, to stand among those who no longer see as in the

blurred mirror, dimly, but are face to face with the eternal

realities, in the light of God-in that fuller revelation for which

his soul was always athirst. The world in which he lived is a

better world for us, and for many others, because he has lived in

it, and the world to which he has gone is dearer and nearer and

surer since he has passed within its portals.

"Unnoted as the setting of a star

He passed; and sect and party scarcely knew

When from their midst a sage and seer withdrew

To fitter audience, where the great dead are

In God's republic of the heart and mind,

Leaving no purer, nobler soul behind."

• 24