Hopkins

of organic, and the system itself seems mechan-
ical and labored. There can be no doubt, how-
ever, that his method of teaching was singularly
effective. It was Socratic, not only because it
was in dialogue form, but also because it directed
a student's attention to his own mind and helped
him make explicit what was implicit there. If
the Williams men of his time forgot or rejected
his elaborate system, they did not forget the re-
spect due to their own minds and the duty of
using them. Besides the books previously men-
tioned, Hopkins published: Miscellaneous Essays
and Discourses (1847), Strength and Beauty
(1874), Teachings and Counsels (1884).

[Franklin Carter, Mark Hopkins (1892); L. W.
Spring, Mark Hopkins, Teacher (1888) ; M. A. De-
Wolfe Howe, Classic Shades; Five Leaders of Learn-
ing and Their Colleges (1928); A. L. Perry, Williams-
town and Williams College (1899); Ray Palmer, re-
view of Lectures on Moral Science in No. Am. Rev.,
Apr. 1863 ; Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci.f n.s., vol. XV
(1888) ; G. S. Hall, Life and Confessions of a Psychol-
ogist (1923) ; Early Letters of Mark Hopkins (cop.
1029): Springfield Republican, June 18, 1887.]

W.W.F.

HOPKINS, SAMUEL (Sept. 17, ijrai-Dec.
20, 1803), theologian, was born in Waterbury,
Conn., the son of Timothy and Mary (Judd)
Hopkins. He was a descendant of John Hopkins
who emigrated from England and settled at Cam-
bridge, Mass., in 1634, removing to Hartford,
Conn., two years later. Timothy Hopkins was an
influential person in his community and was
many times sent to the General Court. Reared on
a farm, Samuel fitted for college with the Rev.
John Graham of the adjoining town of Wood-
bury, and graduated from Yale in 1741* After
receiving licensure as a Congregational minister
from the Fairfield East Association on Apr. 29,
1742, he returned to the family of Jonathan Ed-
wards at Northampton, Mass., where he had
spent the previous winter, and remained in its
stimulating mental and spiritual atmosphere un-
til December. About a year later, Dec. 28,1743,
he was settled over a church of five members in
a parish of about thirty families, now known as
Great Barrington, Mass. Here on Jan. 13,1748,
he married a member of his parish, Joanna In-
gersol, and here his five sons and three daugh-
ters were born. The severity of the preacher's
logic and his dullness as a sermonizer finally
alienated his people and he was dismissed from
his charge on Jan. 18,1769. The most important
fact of this pastorate from the point of view of
Hopkins' subsequent career was the seven years
of intimate association with Jonathan Edwards,
who in 1751 was appointed over the church in
the adjoining town of Stockbridge. This close
connection between two such strong and kindred
minds greatly influenced the thinking of both.

Hopkins

Obliged to seek a new settlement, Hopkins was
installed as minister of the First Congregational
Church of Newport, R. L, on Apr. n, 1770, in
which office he was continued until his death
thirty-three years later. In 1776 Newport was
occupied by the British who held it for more than
three years, and Hopkins was compelled to
seek refuge in Newburyport, Mass., Canterbury,
Conn., and Stamford, Conn. In 1780 he returned
to find his parsonage burned, the church edifice
nearly ruined, and his people impoverished. Re-
fusing an attractive call to Middleboro, Mass., he
decided to remain in Newport, living on such
weekly contributions as his people chose to give
—a sum which seldom exceeded $200 a year.
His congregations were small, for few had a
"high relish for truth" so profound and subtle,
uttered in a manner without animation and
heavy. In the pews, however, sat a superior
youth, William Ellery Charming, whose spiritual
nature was sensibly moulded by what he heard.
While declaring "he was the very ideal of bad
delivery" and that "such tones never came from
any human voice within my hearing," Channing
adds, "he lived in a world of thought above all
earthly passions ... the sight of such (men)
has done me more good, has spoken more to my
head and heart, than many sermons and vol-
umes" (The Works of W. E. Channing, voL IV,
1841, pp. 348-53). He was an indefatigable stu-
dent, spending some fourteen hours a day in his
study, taking no exercise, living abstemiously;
yet the interests of this recluse were broader than
those of most of his contemporaries. His is the
distinction of being one of the first Congrega-
tional ministers to denounce slavery; an act re-
quiring unusual heroism, for Newport at the
time was one of the centers of the slave-holding
interests, and many of his congregation were
slave-owners and financially identified with the
trade. He also raised money to free a number
of slaves in the neighborhood, and in 1773 joined
with a ministerial friend, Ezra Stiles [#.#.], *n
an appeal for funds to train colored missionaries
for Africa; he even perfected a plan, which he
was prevented from carrying out, of establishing
colonies of negroes in that continent.

Hopkins is chiefly remembered, however, for
his profound influence on New England theol-
ogy. The pupil and intimate friend of Jonathan
Edwards, he carried the principles of the New
Divinity to their logical conclusions. This he
did in a fashion so complete and acceptable to
large numbers of thinking men of his day that his
school of thought was called "Hopkinsianisni,"
and its philosophy, which quickened the spiritual
life of New England, largely prevailed until

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