Byron did something to vex me. I threw the book at her head and she
carried it out of the room. Inquire of some of her people and you will get
your book.'"

While abroad, Verplanck fell in with Dr. Mason, who had refused Stephenson
his degree. The two travellers took kindly to each other, and the
unpleasant affair of the college disturbance was forgotten.

In 1818, after his return from Europe, he delivered before this Society
the noble Anniversary Discourse in which he commemorates the virtues and
labors of some of those illustrious men who, to use his words, "have most
largely contributed to raise or support our national institutions, and to
form or elevate our national character." Las Casas, Roger Williams,
William Penn, General Oglethorpe, Professor Luzac, and Berkeley are among
the worthies whom he celebrates. It has always seemed to me that this is
one of the happiest examples in our language of the class of compositions
to which it belongs, both as regards the general scope and the execution,
and it is read with as much interest now as when it was first written.

Mr. Verplanck was elected in 1820 a member of the New York House of
Assembly, but I do not learn that he particularly distinguished himself
while in that body. In the year following he was appointed, in the General
Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, Professor of the Evidences
of Revealed Religion and Moral Science in its relations to Theology. For
four years he performed the duties of this Professorship, with what
ability is shown by his Treatise on the Evidences of Christianity, the
fruit of his studies during this interval. It is principally a clear and
impressive view of that class of proofs of the Christian religion which
have a direct relation to the intellectual and moral wants of mankind. For
he was a devout believer in the Christian gospel, and cherished religious