Harvard's Founding.

This quaint account of the way in which Harvard was founded is taken from an old pamphlet entitled "An Account of the Foundation of the Colleges at Cambridge in New England," which was printed in London in 1642, the very year in which the first class graduated from College.

"After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the city government; one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of Mr. John Harvard (minister of Charlestown), a godly gentleman, and a lover of learning, living among us, to give the he one-half of his estate, it being in all about 1700 pounds, towards the erecting of a college, and all his library. After him another gave 300, others after them cast in more, and the public hand of the State added the rest, 400. The college was by common consent appointed to be at Cambridge, a place very pleasant and accommodate, and is called according to the name of the first founder, Harvard College."