for the endowment of a college for women. The building was constructed
from plans approved by him, at a cost of about $200,000. The college was
opened in September, 1865, with eight professors and twenty other
instructors, and 300 students. The first president of the college was
Professor Milo P. Jewett; the second Dr. John H. Raymond; the third the
Rev. Samuel Caldwell. The college has a fine library, with scientific
apparatus and a museum of natural history specimens.


THE ORIGINS OF CHESS.--So ancient is chess, the most purely
intellectual of games, that its origin is wrapped in mystery. The
Hindoos say that it wad the invention of an astronomer, who lived more
than 5,000 years ago, and was possessed of supernatural knowledge
and acuteness. Greek historians assert that the game was invented by
Palamedes to beguile the tedium of the siege of Troy. The Arab legend
is that it was devised for the instruction of a young despot, by his
father, a learned Brahman, to teach the youth that a king, no
matter how powerful, was dependent upon his subjects for safety. The
probability is that the game was the invention of some military genius
for the purpose of illustrating the art of war. There is no doubt,
that it originated in India, for a game called by the Sanskrit name of
Cheturanga--which in most essential points strongly resembles modern
chess, and was unquestionably the parent of the latter game--is
mentioned in Oriental literature as in use fully 2,000 years before
the Christian area. In its gradual diffusion over the world the game
has undergone many modifications and changes, but marked resemblances
to the early Indian game are still to be found in it. From India,
chess spread into Persia, and thence into Arabia, and the Arabs took
it to Spain and the rest of Western Europe.