Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
Was absent from meeting all day. Read a Sermon, from Blair, in the forenoon, upon the duties of the young.1 Dined with White, Foster and Lovell, at my chamber. Weather cleared up in the afternoon.
Josiah Burge,2 of Hollis, in New Hampshire, County of Hills-169borough, was 20 the 19th. of last April; he is possessed of one of those calm, easy minds, which enjoy happiness, under almost all circumstances. His serenity is seldom ruffled by passion, or oppressed by melancholy. His circumstances are not fortunate, and he is obliged to be absent frequently from college. Careless of futurity, he views all objects in a fair light, and always hopes for the best. It were natural to suppose, a character of this cast, would be indolent in study; yet he is acknowledged to be a very good scholar, and his mental capacity, is far from deficient. With such a disposition, he cannot be disliked, and accordingly he is much esteemed. He intends to preach, and should he be settled among men, of liberal sentiments, I have no doubt, but he will be successful. Died. 1790.3
Hugh Blair, Sermons, 2 vols. [1:13th edn., 10th edn.], London, 1785, 1:306–340 (Harvard, Catalogus Bibliothecae, 1790, p. 156).
Burge had been prepared for Harvard at Philips Academy by Eliphalet Pearson, who was preceptor there until 1786. Burge was one of a handful of students unable to pay his bills and thus ineligible to graduate in July. When Pearson found out about it only days before graduation, he offered to advance the money and sought out a group of seniors, including JQA, to help locate their classmate and bring him back for commencement. During the remainder of his short life, Burge taught school and studied for the ministry. He preached at Rindge, N.H., for about nine months before he died of consumption following an attack of measles (MH-Ar: Quinquennial File; Samuel T. Worcester, History of the Town of Hollis, New Hampshire, From Its First Settlement to the Year 1879..., Boston, 1879, p. 290–291; entry for 16 July, below).
An interlineation written at a later date.