PART II.

A LIST, WITH BRIEF NOTICES, OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY WHO HAVE BECOME FOREIGN MIS

SIONARIES.

The following list is designed to include the names of all members of the Society of Inquiry, who have ever gone on Foreign Missions. The column next to the names, shews the college at which the individuals graduated, and the year of their graduation. The other column of figures, shews the year of their leaving the Seminary. The remaining column, indicates the mission to which they respectively belonged. An asterisk (*) prefixed to a name, shows that the individual died in the field of his missionary labors.

*Samuel John Mills, W. C. 1809. 1812. Agent to Africa,

H. Gray Otis Dwight, H. C. 1825. 1828. Constantinople.

Judah Isaac Abraham,

Of the preceding 60 individuals, 13 are graduates of Dartmouth College; 10 of Middlebury; 9 of Williams; 7 of Amherst; 6 of Yale; 2 of Brown University; 2 of Bowdoin College; 2 of Hamilton; 1 of Harvard Uni versity; 1 of Vermont University; 1 of Union College; and 6 are not graduates of any college.

There are some other individuals whose names might perhaps with propriety have been added to the preceding list. Their names may be found upon the catalogue of the Society, which is contained in the Appendix. In addition to this, it may be proper to state, that five individuals of the Senior class in the Seminary, have already offered their services to the American Board, as Missionaries, and have been accepted.

GORDON HALL.

GORDON HALL was born in Granville, (now Tolland) Hampden County, Mass., April 8th, 1781. His parents, Nathan and Elizabeth Hall, were natives of Ellington, Conn. They were among the early settlers of Granville, and were highly respected in society, for their economy, industry, and moral habits. The father, Nathan Hall, died in Tolland a few years living in that place.

since; the mother is still

In his days of childhood, Gordon Hall was remarkable for his activity, industry, and enterprise. Among those of his own age and neighborhood, he was the leader in their various sports. His love of amusement, his wit, and vivacity gave life and animation to the company in which he mingled. In early youth, he manifested an uncommon versatility of genius. He was generally employed, in his seasons of relaxation from the labors of the farm, in some mechanical operation, such as the construction of houses, mills, water-wheels, &c. As an instance of his early aspirations after something above mediocrity,

at the age of fourteen, he undertook to construct an air balloon, a description of which he had somewhere found in reading.

He early discovered a taste for books, and particularly for writing. His first efforts at composition were descrip tions of persons, and often caricatures, taking for his subjects, individuals in his native town. In these efforts, le was remarkably discriminating, and not unfrequently, severely sarcastic. In this last quality of mind, he had uncommon power, as his acquaintances in college and after-life can testify. After he became pious, he rarely, if ever, indulged in this propensity beyond the limits of Christian propriety.

He continued to labor on his father's farm, improving much of his leisure time in reading and writing, till the 19th year of his age; when at the suggestion of Rev. Mr. Harrison, the minister of the town, he fixed his heart on a college education. His father, though at first unwilling to part with him, at length gave his consent. Having prosecuted his studies preparatory to college, under the tuition of his minister, Mr. Harrison, he presented himself to the faculty of Williams College for admission in Feb., 1805, at the commencement of the second term. When his examination was through, and he had retired, the President asked the tutor of the class which Hall proposed to join, whether the class had proceeded farther than he had. The tutor answered in the affirmative. I care not for that, said the President, you have not a botter scholar in the class-this young man has not the languages like a parrot, but he has got hold of their very radix. This character as a thorough scholar, he sustained through college, and was honored with the valedictory, when he graduated in September, 1808.

It was not till about the commencement of his third year in college, that Hall became pious. From that time,