record in living up to these lofty ideals was mixed. Out of Jacob’s graduating class of thirty-three, eleven did go on to become ministers. One noteworthy example was Jonathan Mayhew, the famed Boston minister. Yet Jacob described religion at Harvard as being “at a very low ebb” during his years there, and his comment hints at just how complex the college’s intellectual atmosphere was in 1740.26
“Liberalism” was steadily gaining a foothold on campus. A milestone of sorts had occurred in 1708, when John Leverett assumed the presidency at Harvard. Leverett was the first person to lead the college who was not a minister. Although he made few changes in the curriculum, Leverett did much to establish the college’s liberal tradition, strengthening Harvard’s finances and overseeing an ambitious expansion in course offerings and enrollment during his seventeen years in office: establishing the first endowed chair, the first student club, and the first student publication (The Telltale, which was largely secular in tone).27
Yet when Jacob Green took his place at Harvard, the traditional educational system remained largely intact and would have been familiar to a student of 1640. A single tutor, who served three-year terms, taught all subjects to the entire class of 1744. (It was not until January 1767, during the presidency of Edward Holyoke, that Harvard tutors specialized in a particular subject.) Jacob’s first tutor was Daniel Rogers, himself a Harvard graduate, who began teaching at the college in 1732. Rogers was not particularly popular on campus or respected. His very presence at Harvard, in fact, was a symbol of his failure—after graduating, he was unable to land a job as a minister despite numerous tryouts and New England’s perennial need for men of the cloth. In the 1730s, mischievous students stole his wine, beer, and silver tobacco box. A fellow tutor, meanwhile, derided Rogers as an “Ignoramus [and] Blockhead.”28
Harvard, like Yale, based its curriculum on European models, and both colleges used virtually the same texts. Harvard’s laws explained that “the Undergraduates shall be brought forward by their respective Tutors, in the knowledge of three learned Languages [Latin, Greek, and Hebrew] . . . and also in the knowledge of Rhetorick, Logick, natural Philosophy, Geography, Ethicks, Divinity, Metaphysicks, and . . . Mathematicks.”29
To aid them in the study of the Old Testament, freshmen studied the grammar of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. By the end of the year, their tutor expected them to be able to translate biblical passages from the original. Sophomores studied logic; juniors “natural philosophy” (basic sciences, such as physics, astronomy, and biology) and math; seniors “metaphysics” (the study of the “existence of things, their natures and causes”). Several subjects were constants for all four years: theology, ethics, oratory.30
The curriculum was designed to produce ministers who fully understood the Bible and possessed the ability to think and speak on their feet. To hone their skills as preachers and debaters, students delivered recitations and public disputations, culminating in the commencement exercises when the graduates delivered theses summarizing what they had learned during their time at Harvard. Yet the study of natural philosophy, math, and metaphysics also took the class of 1744 deep into the Enlightenment.
Jacob found life at Harvard demanding, even health-threatening. Part of the fault was Jacob’s. “I studied too hard while I was at college—early and late, and sometimes all night, without a wink of sleep,” he conceded. “I was very imprudent, and hurt myself. . . . I did not allow myself proper exercise of body, nor was I then sensible of the need of it.”31
A typical day, according to a diary he kept during his third year, began a little after 6 a.m., when he studied the Bible for an hour. He then attended prayers in the college hall and “read part of a chapter in Hebrew, till 8 o’clock.” After breakfasting, Jacob spent the rest of his day reading and studying until 7:00 p.m. He attended a religious society meeting for two hours, when, at 9:00 p.m., he supped and allowed himself the indulgence of a pipe. Jacob then prayed until bedtime, “a little before 11” (but on other nights, he stayed up as late as 1:00 a.m.).32
His school assignments involved examining the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, but reading also “Mr. Ray’s Consequences of the Deluge”; papers in the Spectator; “Mr. Allen’s Alarm”; and John Locke and Euclid. Jacob worked hard at arithmetic. It was a thoroughly conventional schedule, typical for students of Harvard and Yale in the mid-eighteenth century.33
Logic was an important part of Harvard’s curriculum, and the assignment of John Locke was a sign of the Enlightenment’s arrival in this Puritan bastion, which revered not only Jesus Christ but Aristotle, Cicero, and other giants of the ancient world. In February 1728, Isaac Greenwood became Harvard’s first Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, and he did much to introduce the college to the Enlightenment and its liberal values. Greenwood was a scientist who observed the sea and the winds, and he published papers at the Royal Society. Edward Wigglesworth, son of Michael, was the Hollis professor of divinity, and he also did a great deal to modernize the Harvard curriculum by encouraging his students to broaden their knowledge of the leading issues of the day. As one historian noted, “America’s ‘enlightenment’ was . . . a ‘moderate’ and conciliatory cosmology that stressed balance, order, and religious compromise,” and Harvard’s students soon learned the importance of each.34
However, the real “liberal” advances in the curriculum came after Jacob graduated. As his diary shows, theology remained the most important and time-consuming subject. Jacob did not yet know whether he would become a minister after graduation, but his indecision did not really matter. At Harvard in 1740, all students were to master this most important subject. Even a “science” course had a theological twist to it: metaphysics explored nature, and its point was to glean the wisdom of God in the workings of the material world. Indeed, the Puritan philosopher William Ames stressed that metaphysics was a branch of theology.35 Traditional texts from the seventeenth century and earlier remained popular, especially Ames’s Medulla Theologiae (“The Marrow of Sacred Divinity”). Along with Johann Wollebius, Ames emphasized traditional Calvinist themes and attacked Arminianism. In doing so, both authors reinforced the covenantal teachings of Puritanism.
Students took all this religion with varying degrees of seriousness. A 1731 report on the state of Harvard lamented that “religion . . . [was] much in decay” and that “the worship of God in the Hall is scandalously neglected.” Students’ riotous behavior drew the condemnations of the report’s authors, who complained about the students’ “gross immoralities.”36
The class of 1744 did little to improve the atmosphere. A number of them spent their four years at Harvard in nearly constant trouble. Their favorite pastime was drinking rum. Nathaniel Bourne of Marshfield, who was a year younger than Jacob, was fined for drinking it and for tempting “Several Delinquents . . . to the Breach of the Law against prohibited Liquors.” Anthony Lechmere got drunk and made “indecent Noises, in the College Yard and in Town.” Isaac Bowles was a bit more creative. Besides being punished for drinking rum, he was severely admonished for lying, for gambling, and for “associating Himself with Company of a loose and ill Character.” Even Jonathan Mayhew, who went on to great fame as a minister and patriot, found himself in trouble for “drinking prohibited Liquors.” Mayhew reacted haughtily to his being caught and, “in a very impudent manner, made an impertinent Recrimination upon some of the immediate Government of the House.” In 1743, the faculty condemned the entire class for gathering to drink “prohibited Liquors” after 10:00 p.m. and for being slow to disperse after being ordered to return to their rooms.37
Jacob, though, avoided trouble. Even at this young age he was studious and serious. His best subjects, according to his son Ashbel, were math and languages, especially Hebrew—a notoriously difficult subject that had given generations of students fits. But not Jacob. His idea of a relaxing time was to talk Latin with his chum and to “look on the Moon through a telescope.” He clearly did not approve of his classmates’ antics;
