Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 6.

He entered Tufts College in the summer of 1856, after a brilliant record as a student in the high school, and continued to add to his laurels during his course. President Capen, a classmate in college, says:—

As a scholar he was remarkable, one of the most remarkable whom I have ever known. He was not one of those brilliant sons of genius who go by intuition, almost with the swiftness of light, and by a process which they themselves cannot explain, right to the heart of great matters. He was a persistent, patient, plodding, faithful and conscientious student. He never wasted his time in idleness, and never took his powers for granted. But when it came to the test of the classroom, he was absolutely accurate and absolutely clear. He was equally good in all subjects. I never knew him to fail in anything. Indeed, in all my experience, whether as student or teacher, I have never known more than three or four men who could be put in the same class with him.

Throughout his college course the choice of a profession came frequently to mind for serious reflection, and his journals show that much thought was given to this point. Several different lines of usefulness were presented to him for consideration. One request came to enter the office of a physician as assistant and student, another to pursue his avocation of entomology as a serious business by turning his attention to musuem work as an entomologist. But none of these seemed to appeal to him. His mother's earnest desire was that her only son should fit himself for the Christian ministry, and he gave much careful consideration to this wish of hers, although he had grave doubts of his fitness for this profession. To satisfy both his own mind and his mother on this point, he resolved to preach as opportunity offered, and toward the end of his junior year his first sermon was preached in the village of East Lexington, and thereafter he continued to do supply work, preaching in his home church in Lowell, in Weston, Shirley and Essex.

In order to provide the means for his college expenses,