(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
(Excerpt from Education
But while this characteristic of ...)
Excerpt from Education
But while this characteristic of humanity is gener ally acknowledged, it is not always appreciated or understood. There are those who look upon their moral status and the difficulties which it involves as a gratuitous and arbitrary exertion of divine power, instituted wholly in the interest of the divine honor, and in furtherance of the divine aggrandizement. This is simply the application of our human experience to superhuman conditions of existence; it is a trans ference of finite necessities to infinite being; it is un dertaking to speak of the absolute from assumed analogies in the relative; it is all pure assumption, and contrary to the real probabilities of the case.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Nathaniel Russell Middleton was an American educator.
Background
Nathaniel Russell Middleton was born on April 1, 1810, in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the eldest son of Arthur and Alicia Hopton (Russell) Middleton. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Middleton, was the son of Henry Middleton, 1717-1784, and the brother of Arthur Middleton, 1742-1787. His maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Russell, a wealthy Charleston merchant, was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, the son of Joseph Russell, for a time chief justice of Rhode Island. He thus united two representative but very diverse strains in early American life, that of the Southern planter and the New England man of business.
Education
In 1824, Middleton entered the College of Charleston and graduated in 1828.
Career
For many years Middleton managed "Bolton-on-the-Stono, " a plantation of about 3, 000 acres near Charleston, which he had inherited from his father. The property, however, had financial encumbrances, a result probably of his father's generous and lavish way of life, and in 1852, he found it advantageous to sell the plantation with its slaves. He was then appointed a treasurer of the Northeastern Railroad Company and later served for several years as treasurer of Charleston. Middleton's interests had always been literary and artistic, and he found very tempting the prospect that was offered in 1857 by the call to the presidency of the College of Charleston. His extreme conscientiousness made him hesitate since he thought that his experience as a planter had not prepared him for such a position. In reality, he was admirably fitted for the post. The College of Charleston, founded in the eighteenth century and later transferred to the control of the city council, was largely patronized by the planters' families. Its calendar was made to accommodate the schedule of the planters; Commencement always took place the last week of March; there followed a spring vacation, after which work was resumed and continued till August 1; and the holidays and session days for the rest of the year fitted into the planter's life. Its ante-bellum prosperity was the result of the interest and patronage of this influential section of the community represented by such men as Elias Horry, Langdon Cheves, James L. Petigru, William Aiken, and many others. The historical and social prominence of his name and family and his sympathetic understanding of plantation life were recognized in ante-bellum Charleston as important considerations in the choice of Middleton as president of the college, but the records of the institution give evidence that his qualifications as an executive went far beyond this.
As president of the latter, he was instrumental during the Civil War in importing Bibles from England for distribution among the men in the service of the Confederate armies. The College remained open throughout the Civil War, except for a few months following the evacuation of Charleston by the Confederate forces in 1865. This is an unusual record among the Southern colleges of the period and attests the ability, tact, and resourcefulness of the president. As early as 1862 he so arranged the college curriculum that many of the students were able to enter the military service and to perform their duties in the hours free from college work. Throughout the stormy days of Reconstruction, the work of the institution proceeded uninterruptedly and he remained in active service until 1880, when he retired at the age of seventy. He continued to divide his time between his winter home in Charleston and his summer residence in Bristol, Rhode Island and died ten years later at Charleston in the eighty-first year of his age.
Achievements
Middleton is known as president of the College of Charleston and treasurer of Charleston.
(Excerpt from Education
But while this characteristic of ...)
Personality
Middleton's reports to the trustees are characterized by sound good sense and by a grasp of the true essentials of collegiate training. His sincere love of learning, his appreciation of art, and his firm religious convictions are reflected in the addresses, essays, and fugitive poems that were collected and published after his death by his son. It was these characteristics and interests that caused him to be put at the head of the Carolina art association and the Charleston Bible society.
Connections
Middleton was married, on January 18, 1832, to Margaret Emma Izard by whom he had three sons. After her death in 1836, he was married, on September 20, 1842, to Anna Elizabeth de Wolf, of Bristol, Rhode Island, by whom he had four daughters and one son.
