MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM STAUGHTON, D. D. EamBrel REV. S. W. LYND, A. M. BOSTON: LINCOLN, EDMANDS, & CO. AND HUBBARD AND EDMANDS, CINCINNATI. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by LINCOLN, EDMANDS & CO. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. Lewis & Penniman, Printers. PREFACE. The usefulness of biography does not remain to be tested. The pleasure afforded by a knowledge of the incidents that have occurred in the life of a distinguished individual, the satisfaction imparted to the circle of friendship while retracing the features of the honored dead, and the influence which is shed over the community by such exhibitions, are advocates whose appeal is irresistible. Biography teaches by example, and example is, in many respects, infinitely superior to precept. It is a pleasant mode of imparting instruction, and rectifying the obliquities of the heart. It may be contemplated as a mirror, in which the beholder has a view of his own defects, and by which he may be assisted to judge of the measure of his improvement. It gives less offence by the secrecy of its corrections than any other method, and may be considered more animating in its influence. That which has been accomplished, may be accomplished. The diligent student of medicine reads the life, marks the toil, gazes upon the eminence attained by former professors of the science, and nobly, enthusiastically determines, under the smiles of a favoring Providence, to reach the elevation of Harvey, and Goode, and Rush, and Wistar, and others, immortalized by fame. The youthful aspirant to military renown, studies the lives of Alexander and Cæsar, among the most celebrated of antiquity-of Buonaparte, whose rapid and successful warfare astonished and paralyzed the energies of continental Europe, and in the fervors of lofty ambition is animated to press on to the same eminence. The minister of God to fallen man, who feels a lively interest in the salvation of the heathen, surveying the labors of those distinguished men, who have sacrificed all for the sake of Christ, is encouraged to follow their footsteps; assured that He who has been the sustainer of Brainerd, and Carey, and Ward, and Judson, and other devoted missionaries, will be his supporter under the most perilous circum stances. When the late Dr. Dwight was a boy, his father's house being the resort of intelligent and educated men, he listened with the deepest interest to their conversation, on the great men of the age, both in this country and in Europe; and it is said by his biographer, that "he then formed a settled resolution, that he would make every effort in his power to equal those whose talents and character he had heard so highly extolled." While the Rev. Mr. Chamberlain, since deceased, was preparing for those missionary labors in India, in which he afterwards abounded, his journal records several instances of the effect of biographical reading. At one time he writes-" I have been struck with wonder in reading the life of the pious Mr. Edwards. |