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Page 26
"Do but name _Cheever_, and the _Echo_ straight
Upon that name. _Good Latin_ will Repeat.
"And in our _School_, a Miracle is wrought:
For the _Dead Languages_ to _Life_ are brought.
"Who serv'd the _School_, the _Church_, did not forget,
But Thought and Prayed & often wept for it.
"How oft we saw him tread the _Milky Way_
Which to the Glorious _Throne of Mercy_ lay!
"Come from the _Mount_ he shone with ancient Grace,
Awful the _Splendor_ of his Aged Face.
"He _Liv'd_ and to vast age no Illness knew,
Till _Times_ Scythe waiting for him Rusty grew.
"He _Liv'd_ and _Wrought_; His Labours were Immense,
But ne'r _Declined_ to _Pr�ter-perfect Tense_."
He closes this eulogy with an epitaph in Latin.
Mr. Cheever's will, found in the Suffolk probate office, was offered by
his son Thomas and his daughter Susanna, August 26, 1708, a few days
after his death. He wrote it two years previous, when he was ninety-one
years old, a short time before his "dear wife," whom he mentions, died.
In it his estate is appraised at �837:19:6. One handles reverently this
old piece of yellow paper, perhaps ten by twelve inches in size, with
red lines, on which is written in a clear handwriting the last will of
this dear old man. He characteristically begins it thus:--
"In nomine Domini Amen, I Ezekiel Cheever of the Towne of Boston in the
County of Suffolk in New England, Schoolmaster, living through great
mercy in good health and understanding wonderfull in my age, do make and
ordain this as my last Will & Testament as Followeth: I give up my soule
to God my Father in Jesus Christ, my body to the earth to be buried in a
decent manner according to my desires in hope of a Blessed part in y'e
first resurrection & glorious kingdom of Christ on earth a thousand
years."
He then gives all his household goods "& of my plate y'e two-ear'd Cup,
my least tankard porringer a spoon," to his wife; "all my books saving
what Ezekiel may need & what godly books my wife may desire," to his son
Thomas; �10 to Mary Phillips; �20 to his grandchild, Ezekiel Russel; and
�5 to the poor. The remainder of the estate he leaves to his wife and
six children, Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Ezekiel, Thomas, and Susanna.
One handles still more reverently a little brown, stiff-covered book,
kept in the safe in the Athen�um, of about one hundred and twenty
pages, yellow with age, on the first of which is the year "1631," and on
the second, "Ezekiel Cheever, his booke," both in his own handwriting.
Then come nearly fifty pages of finely-written Latin poems, composed and
written by himself, probably in London; then, there are scattered over
some of the remaining pages a few short-hand notes which have been
deciphered as texts of Scripture. On the last page of this quaint little
treasure--only three by four inches large--are written in English some
verses, one of which can be clearly read as, "Oh, first seek the kingdom
of God and his Righteousness, and all things else shall be added unto
you."
Another MS. of Mr. Cheever's is in the possession of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. It is a book six by eight inches in size, of about
four hundred pages, all well filled with Latin dissertations, with
occasionally a mathematical figure drawn. One turns over the old leaves
with affectionate interest, even if the matter written upon them is
beyond his comprehension. It certainly is a pleasure to read on one of
them the date May 18, 1664.
Verily, New England should treasure the memory of Ezekiel Cheever, the
man who called himself "Schoolmaster," for she owes much to him.
* * * * *
THE POET OF THE BELLS.
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