may perhaps, then, be best described as the period of conversation; although of later years he has often spoken from pulpits and platforms on the same topics with which his conversations have to do. It is to be remembered, also, that Mr. Alcott was the first person in America, at least in modern times, to develop conversation as a means of public instruction, for which it was much employed in the period of Greek philosophy.

His home has been at all times a center of hospitality, and a resort for persons with ideas and aspirations. Not unfrequently his formal conversations have been held there; at other times in the parlors of his friends, at public halls or college rooms, or in the chambers of some club. A list of the towns and cities in which these conversations have taken place, with the names of those who have had part in them, would indicate how wide has been the influence, for thought and culture, exercised by Mr. Alcott, in this peculiar manner. Reports, and other Publications.

The 'Record of a School,' and the 'Conversations on the Gospels,' were compiled by other persons, reporting what was said. During the publication of the Dial, from 1840 to 1844, when it was the organ of the Transcendentalists, Mr. Alcott contributed some pages, among them his 'Orphic Sayings,' which attracted much notice, not always of the most respectful kind. Other writings of that period and earlier, for the most part, remained in manuscript. After a long period, in which he published little or nothing, Mr. Alcott, in 1858, became the Superintendent of Schools in Concord, and in this capacity printed several long reports, which are noticeable publications. He published some essays, poems, and conversations in the Boston Commonwealth and The Radical, between 1863 and 1868, and in the last named year brought out a modest volume of essays, entitled 'Tablets.' This was followed, in 1872, by another volume, styled 'Concord Days,' and still other volumes are said to be in preparation.

Mr. Alcott is in person tall and fair, of kindly and dignified bearing, resembling somewhat the portraits of Wordsworth, but of a more elegant mien and a more polished manner than Wordsworth seems to have possessed. At this period, though touched by time, he is still youthful in spirit and capable of much travel and fatigue and of assiduous mental labor. It is not, however, so much by intellectual efforts that he has distinguished himself, as by a 'wise passivity,' and a natural intuition, or as Mr. Emerson has said of him, in the sketch which the New American Cyclopedia contains, by 'subtle and deep science of that which actually passes in thought.'

JOHN CARTER BROWN.

ASSOCIATED with the memory of the Hon. Nicholas Brown, as a benefactor of learning and philanthropy, is that of his son and successor, the late John Carter Brown. This gentleman was born in Providence, August 27, 1797, and died June 10, 1874. He was educated at Brown University, where he graduated in 1816. After spending some years in Europe, he engaged in business pursuits in Providence, and at length became a partner in the ancestral house of Brown & Ives, of which, at the time of his death, he was the senior partner. Accustomed to the use of wealth, he devoted it to the gratification of elevated tastes. He began early in life to form a collection of rare books; at first in several different departments of literature; at length, however, restricting it to books relating to the continent of America, prior to the beginning of the 19th century. In making this collection, his first aim was to secure, as far as possible, the rarest books relating to this subject, in the original editions, in whatever language they might be printed. Beginning at a period when competitors were comparatively few, and devoting to it a large part of a long life, he was able to obtain nearly all the works of this description which are most highly prized, some of which were possessed by no other person. His collection at the time of his death, in 1874, was thought to be surpassed by no other of similar character extant. He had caused a catalogue to be prepared, which was printed between 1865 and 1871. This catalogue is in four parts, or volumes. The first part, embracing the period from 1487 to 1600, contains 600 titles. The second, for the period between 1601 and 1700, contains 1,152 titles, and the third and fourth, for the period between 1701 and 1800, contain together 4,173 titles. Important additions had also been made of works relating to each of these periods. He was exceedingly liberal in allowing access to his collection, to authors and others, who were engaged in the study of the subjects to which it relates. He also frequently lent his books to be used at a distance; and in at least three instances, he sent across the Atlantic volumes which, if they had been lost, could not have been replaced.

Mr. Brown, at the time of his death, was the largest benefactor of Brown University next to his father. His gifts to this institution were in different forms, and were scattered over a long period of his life. He took a special interest in the University Library, and made important additions to its books; and a few years before his death, he gave a hand

some sum to be used for the erection of a Library building. To his numerous gifts, he added, by his last will and testament, the bequest of a lot of land, as a site for such a building, and $50,000 towards its erection, which, together with the previous sum, will secure that result. The entire amount of his benefactions to the University is not less than $155,000, an amount which, as has been stated, has been exceeded only by that bestowed by his father. He was also a friend of poor students, and was at all times ready to aid them in defraying the expenses of their education, provided they were really earnest in their work. He also not unfrequently extended aid to academies and colleges in distant parts of the country that appealed to his generosity; and of the libraries and institutions of education in his native State, he was a liberal supporter.

Mr. Brown took a lively interest in the educational movement initiated by Hon. Wilkins Updike of South Kingstown, in the Legislature of October, 1843, and conducted successfully to the establishment of an efficient System of Public Schools for the whole State, by Henry Barnard of Connecticut, with the cooperation of prominent teachers and public spirited citizens organized and acting through the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction. To any call for pecuniary contributions from the President of the Institute (John Kingsbury, LL. D.,) Mr. Brown promptly responded.

But his benefactions were by no means limited to institutions of education. Of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, which owes its origin to a bequest in his father's will, he was one of the original corporators and a trustee till 1867, when he was made President of the Corporation, a position which he continued to hold to the end of his life. He frequently united with its other friends in liberal contributions for its benefit. When the Rhode Island Hospital was projected, in 1863, he was one of the earliest and largest contributors for its foundation, and subsequently increased his gifts, and bequeathed to it, in his will, the sum of $25,000, raising the entire amount of his benefactions within about ten years to at least $65,000.

Mr. Brown never took any prominent part in public affairs, whether State or National, save in the movement against slavery. With this he was more or less connected from the beginning. He was a member of the 'New England Emigrant Aid Society,' the object of which was to people Kansas with settlers who would make it a free State. Of this Society he acted for a time as President, and made liberal contributions to its funds; but in none of the institutions with which he was connected was he fond of prominent positions, nor did he ever seek to exercise any controlling influence over their affairs. He was distinguished for the honesty and simplicity as well as the sterling integrity of his life and character. He deserves to be ranked among the foremost benefactors of learning, and the most liberal promoters of philanthropic institutions in the State where he was born and where he spent his life.

THOMAS BRAY, D.D.

THOMAS BRAY, D.D., founder of the earliest Parochial Libraries in America, was born in the year 1656, at Marton, Shropshire, England, and educated at the Grammar school at Oswestry, and at Hart Hall, Oxford, where he took his master's degree in 1693. Immediately after he commenced bachelor, he entered into holy orders, eciated as chaplain in the family of Sir Thomas Price, and became vicar of Over-Whitacre in Warwickshire.

A publication of his, in 1693, entitled 'Catechetical Lectures,' attracted the attention of Dr. Compton, then Bishop of London, who at once solicited the author to undertake an important mission to Maryland. Before entering on his work, for which he was clothed with the judicial functions of Commissary for Maryland, he projected a system of Parochial Libraries, to be established in each parish, as a means of further culture for those who should go out as missionaries to the intellectually destitute portions of his field.

The Annapolitan Library.

Before leaving for Maryland, Mr. Bray, in company with the Secretary of the Colony, waited on the then Princess Anne, with the dutiful respects of the Governor and people, who had recently Lamed the capital of the Province after her, Annapolis. She testifed her grateful sense of this compliment by presenting Mr. Bray with a liberal contribution in aid of his library project. This timely help was memorialized by him by establishing his first library in Annapolis, with a choice collection of books which bore the name of the Annapolitan Library.'

Lending Libraries.

Meeting with repulses, in his application for aid for the poor parishes in Maryland, on the ground that similar help was needed by the poor rural clergy of England, Mr. Bray at once solicited and received subscriptions from those who declined the first, to estabFish Lending Libraries in every deanery in the kingdom. In this connection he published, in 1696, Bibliotheca Parochialis, a scheme of theological reading, with a list of books, which might be profitably read by the reverend clergy, on the most important points of Christian doctrine and duty.

Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.

In 1697, he proffered to the House of Commons a petition which he had secured to be numerously signed, to appropriate a portion of the lands alienated on account of alledged superstitious uses, for the propagation of religion in the plantations. Failing in this, he

went over to Holland to solicit from King William his consent to a grant of some arrears of taxes due to the crown, for the same purpose. Not successful in this scheme, he drew up a plan of a voluntary Society for the Propagation of Religious Knowledge, as well at home as in the plantations, and securing the coöperation of the Bishop of London, this Society was actually formed in 1697.

These labors, so widely beneficent, had been performed by Dr. Bray, while his salary as Commissary was in abeyance, and could not be enjoyed until he was actually on duty in Maryland; and when he was offered preferment at home, he still labored on to procure libraries and missionaries for his province. He sailed for America in 1699, but returned, in 1701, to England to secure the Royal sanction to a measure, passed by the Assembly, for establishing the Church of England and securing the legal maintenance in the province.

Dr. Bray did not return to America, but continued to labor in behalf of the missionary operations of his church. He published, in 1701, a Memorial representing the state of Religion and Learning in the Foreign Plantations, and advocated the selection, preparation, and employment of suitable persons to be missionaries in the colonies-young men, of a true missionary spirit, with strength and will to endure labor and fatigue, of exemplary lives and conversation, and well-read in theological learning, to meet at once the endless variety of objections and fancies to which ignorance and isolation had given birth in the colonies. His plans for meeting these wants, although not specifically carried out, resulted in the organizing of a society for the same general purpose on his return from America.

Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

In May, 1701, on the petition of Dr. Bray, letters patent, under the great seal, were issued for creating another corporation by the name of 'The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts-an institution to which the Episcopal church, all over the world, owes a debt of grateful affection.

In 1706, he accepted the donative of of St. Botolph without Aldgate, worth £150 per annum, having been for some time enabled to continue in his benevolent work only by a gift of Lord Weymouth. In 1727, he made a casual visit to White Chapel prison, and was so much affected by the miserable condition of the prisoners, that he at once solicited benefactions for their relief, which led to a more extended effort for the improvement of British prisons generally. Dr. Bray died on the 15th of January, 1730.