Class of 1852
CALVIN SEARS HARRINGTON

He was a particularly graceful writer, and his occasional contributions to higher periodical literature were always marked not only by accurate scholarship, but by a peculiar felicity of style. He had also a gift of verse, which he would never own and too seldom used; his occasional hymns breathe a rare and tender grace of devotion and of poetry. Indeed his whole nature seemed to find its most fit expression in song; and there are hundred’s—perhaps one could say thousands—who can never forget his voice, singularly sweet and sympathetic, as they heard it in song or ballad, in the devout hymn of the prayer room, or in the tender strains that broke the silence beside the dead.

His taste in matters of poetical criticism and his musical attainments made him a most valuable member of the committee who prepared the present Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This excellent collection of hymns probably owes more to the cultured judgment, literary and musical, of Professor Harrington than, to the work of any other man.

Professor Harrington was always deeply interested in all philanthropic and humanitarian movements. During the whole anti-slavery struggle he was an earnest, but judicious, abolitionist; and in late years was much interested in the prohibition movement.  Though never regularly engaged in the work of the ministry, he joined the New Hampshire Conference as early as 1854, and preached occasionally throughout his life. In the pulpit he was always a calm, thoughtful speaker, and there was frequently a quiet tenderness in his manner that was very moving.  He was a delegate to the General Conference in 1872.  In 1877 the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by the Ohio Wesleyan University.

But no statement of the work and the honors of Professor Harrington can convey any idea of the rare charm of his character.  It was as the friend and brother that he will always be thought of first and remembered longest.  To a degree very unusual, he united positiveness of conviction with gentleness of manner; austerity of principle, with sweetness of temper.  It used to be remarked that in the deliberations of the faculty, no one set up so high and strict a standard for the conduct of the student, but that no one was so kindly and hopeful for the individual trespasser.  Of the two thousand or more students that have sat under his instruction, it is doubtful whether he ever gave offense to a single one; and he was so kindly and unselfish that he won the hearts of all.  He was, we used to say, our Professor of Religion; and his saintly influence was a perpetual benediction.  Hundreds of his old pupils must have read the news of his death with a gathering moisture in the eye, and a feeling that a personal friend had gone.  To those who knew him intimately the loss is quite irreparable. His unaffected kindness of heart, his wide information, and genial converse, his unfailing courtesy and grace of bearing, his musical gift, his peculiar humor, made all the more irresistible by a certain demureness of manner—all these combined to make him the best of companions as well as the truest of friends.

The last days of Professor Harrington were days of great weakness and weariness; but the gentleness and the strength of his character were never shown so impressively as then. ‘ The man grew more nobler the Christian ‘more hopeful, the brother more winning, as the end drew near. In the ‘very last hours of his life he showed the same old unselfish regard for others, even the same demure humor, and the same Christian trust.
  

Source:  Obituary Record of Alumni of Wesleyan University for the Academic Year Ending June 24, 1886, Middletown, Conn. 1886