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COLLECTION Identifier: HUM 79

Papers of Eliphalet Pearson

Greek Testament, 1768 Digital

Scope and Contents

Leather-hardcover volume containing an interleaved and annotated copy of a Greek Testament. The printed text is in Greek, but most of Pearson's notes are in English and discuss or translate the text. The inside front cover is inscribed "E. Pearson 1768." There is no title page or imprint information.

"Galli transgressi Alpes", 1768 Digital

Scope and Contents

Small paper notebook with a handwritten Latin essay beginning, "Galli transgressi Alpes..." "Anno Domini 1768" is written within the text on the third page.

[Latin theses], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Nineteen small slips of paper containing handwritten Latin theses.

[Latin theses], undated Digital

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Folio-sized leaf with a handwritten set of twenty-three Latin theses beginning with the first, "Physica est Scientia quae de variis Natura..."

"Fas est ab Hoste doceri," undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten Latin exercise titled "Fas est ab Hoste doceri" and signed "Pearson." The page is torn.

"Deus in omnibus apparet," undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten Latin exercise titled "Deus in omnibus apparet."

"Idea Substantia incorporea est aeque clara ac corporea," undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf with a handwritten Latin exercise titled, "Idea Substantia incorporea est aeque clara ac corporea."

[Latin exercise], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Small piece of paper containing a handwritten Latin text beginning, "Ego, en omni erga ure affectione..." The verso has the note: "Pro Don. Pup."

[Latin exercise], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten Latin text beginning, "Omnis homines, P.C. qui de rebus dubiis consultant..." The verso is marked "No. 2."

[Latin exercise], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten Latin text beginning, "Parvum ego te, Jugurtha..." The verso is marked "No. 4."

[Student essay on vice], 1770 September 1 Digital

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One leaf containing a handwritten essay on the proposition that "all Sinners, whatever Hopes they may have of Happiness, will hereafter be unhappy & miserable." The essay begins with an epitaph from Agamemnon: A Tragedy by Scottish poet James Thomson: "Vice always leads, however fair at first, to Wilds of Woe." The verso is dated September 1st 1770.

[Student essay on happiness], 1772 June 1 Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten essay on happiness that begins, "Happiness is what all Mankind profess they are seeking..." The essay is signed "Pearson" and the verso is inscribed: "Of Men the happiest he, who far from Public Rage, / Deep in the Vale with a choice few retired. June 1 1772."

[Lines from The Adulateur], [ca. 1772] Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten set of lines for Cassius from The Adulateur: A Tragedy, as it is now acted in Upper Servia written by Mercy Otis Warren in 1772.

[Forensic dispute on thinking and the soul], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten essay responding to an unidentified opponent's claims that "thinking is essential to the soul." The response begins with the introduction, "In the consideration of this question, I shall only examine one or two of the most material objects of our antagonist." The verso is inscribed: "2d Forensic. not read."

[Forensic dispute on the nature of virtue], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Two drafts of a handwritten essay on the nature of virtue, beginning with the prompt, "Whether there be any Virtue in doing good to another merely for the sake of benefiting [sic] ourselves." The last verso is inscribed: "4 Forensic. read."

[Student essay on life's uncertainty] (fragment), undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten essay on life's uncertainty with an epitaph from English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon (1561-1626): "He that to vain mortality does trust, / But limns the water, or but writes in dust." The remaining pages of the essay are missing.

[Forensic dispute on gaming], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten essay on gambling beginning with the prompt: "Gaming is an immorality, a sordid vice, the child of avarice, & a direct breach of that commandment, which forbids us to covet what is our neighbours."

[Forensic disputation on divine rewards and punishments], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten essay on the distribution of rewards and punishments by God, beginning with the prompt: "Whether the future good (Happiness) of the whole be only Foundation of Merit & Demerit."

[Forensic disputation on thinking], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten disputation arguing that "the mind is active in thinking." The essay begins, "Since I am obliged by academical institution to engage in a dispute..."

[Forensic disputation on reasoning], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten disputation on reasoning. The disputation begins with the question: "Whether the Faculty of reasoning is improved by a Knowledge of Syllogym?"

[Excerpt from the poem "Winter"], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

One leaf containing a handwritten copy of a section of the poem "Winter" by Scottish poet James Thomson (1700-1748). The excerpt begins "'Tis done! dread Winter spreads his latest Glooms," and ends, "And one unbounded Spring encircle all."

[Excerpt from the poem "An Elegy"], undated Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten copy of stanzas 13-24 of "An elegy on the late Rt. Hon. W------ P---, Esq," a satirical poem about William Pitt first published in London in 1766. The excerpt begins "Where the dull slave, or Scycophant confess'd," and ends, "And swells quite crimson'd with Britania's Blood." The copy is marked with scribbles.

No. 1 Eliphalet Pearson a/c Book relating to the Estate of Mary H. Pearson, 1780-1813 Digital

Scope and Contents

Folio-sized account book in brown paper cover containing accounting records kept by Pearson related to the estate of his daughter Mary Pearson.

The volume is fragile and many pages have torn on fold lines.

Receipts, 1813-1814 Digital

Scope and Contents

Three receipts, dated November 6, 1813, November 30, 1813, and February 15, 1814, for purchases made by Pearson of silver items crafted by Ebenezer Moulton. The receipts were laid into the back of the account book. A photograph of a ladle made by Ebenezer Moulton and listed in one of the receipts is available in the control file for this collection.

Themes and reviews, 1788-1805 Digital

Scope and Contents

Small notebook with brown paper covers containing handwritten entries noting the essay topics given to students between 1788 and 1805 according to class. The prompts are in both English and Latin and are generally philosophical quotations or verse from poetry that students responded to in short essays. There is a small handwritten chart for "A Scheme for a Lottery for a New College" laid into the back of the volume.