a family of twelve children by farming, teaching and preaching.  From 1783 to 1795 he was pastor at Greenfield, Connecticut.  He was then chosen President of Yale College, and remained in office till he died.  Dr. Dwight was a man of fine bodily presence, of extended learning, and untiring industry.  His presidency of the college was highly successful.  His patriotism was no less ardent and true than his piety.  In his younger days he wrote considerably in verse.  His poetry is not all of a very high order, but some pieces possess merit. ###

The place, with east and western sides,
A wide and verdant street divides: 
And here the houses faced the day,
And there the lawns in beauty lay. 
There, turret-crowned, and central, stood
A neat and solemn house of God. 
Across the way, beneath the shade
Two elms with sober silence spread,
The preacher lived.  O’er all the place
His mansion cast a Sunday grace;
Dumb stillness sate the fields around;
His garden seemed a hallowed ground;
Swains ceased to laugh aloud, when near,
And schoolboys never sported there.

In the same mild and temperate zone,
Twice twenty years, his course had run,
His locks of flowing silver spread
A crown of glory o’er his head;
His face, the image of his mind,
With grave and furrowed wisdom shined;
Not cold; but glowing still, and bright;
Yet glowing with October light: 
As evening blends, with beauteous ray,
Approaching night with shining day.

His Cure his thoughts engrossed alone: 
For them his painful course was run: 
To bless, to save, his only care;
To chill the guilty soul with fear;
To point the pathway to the skies,
And teach, and urge, and aid, to rise;
Where strait, and difficult to keep,
It climbs, and climbs, o’er Virtue’s steep.

CXXII.  DEATH OF ABSALOM. (420)

David numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.  And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai, the Gittite.

And the king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.  But the people answered, thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that thou succor us out of the city.  And the king said unto them, What seemeth you best, I will do.

And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.  And the king commanded Joab, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.  And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.