OLIN, STErrtmr, D.D., LL.D. ; 1797-1851; b. Vt.; oldest son of Henry, who was judge of the supreme court of Vermont, member of congress, and lieut.-gov. The son graduated at Middlebury college in 1820, with the highest honors of his class. His health being impaired by intense study, he went to South Carolina, and became the principal of Abbeville academy. While there, he abandoned the study of law which he had commenced, aud entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1824 was admitted to the South Carolina conference. He was stationed in Charleston for two years, where, associated with another, be preached to four congregations, in which were 3,000 slaves. Of these he received 200 into the church. In July, 1826, he was elected professor of English literature in the university of Georgia, where he remained seven years. In 1834 he was inaugurated president of Randolph Macon college, Va., which under his administration had great prosperity. In 1837-41 he made an extended tour in Europe and the cast, and in 1843 published in 2 vols. Ta•avels in Egypt, Petra, and the Holy Land. His account of Egypt was pronounced "the best, on the whole, in the language." In his Travels bespoke of "a broken arch supposed to be the remains of an ancient bridge connecting the Temple with Mount Zion, as halving been known to Mr. .Catherwood, and other travelers and residents," for which he Was accused in the .North American Review of plagiarism, Dr. Robinson in his Biblical Researches and in the Bibtio
? theca Sacra, having claimed to be the discoverer of tins monument, and especially to :have been the first to recognize in this fragment of an arch the remnant of the bridge .spoken of by Josephus. A controversy ensued, in which Dr. Olin positively denied the charge of plagiarism, supporting his denial by the testimony of two missionaries, the. rev. br. Hamlin and the rev. Mr. Homes, the latter declaring that he himself informed Dr. Robinson of the existence of the arch as a remnant of the bridge mentioned by Jose pins. In 1842 Dr. Olin was elected president of the Wesleyan university in Middletown, Conn., where he remained till his death. During his administration the college prospered greatly, and attained a high rank. He excelled as an educator. He contributed to the ,Wesleyan Journal, The Christian Advocate and Journal, and the Methodist Quarterly Review; two volumes of Sermons, Lectures, and Addresses, also a work entitled Greece and the Golden Horn appeared after his death. In 1853 were published his Life and Letters, edited by Mrs. Olin, assisted by Dr. McClintock, Dr. Holdich, and other friends. The New Englander says of him: " He had the real celestial lire of sacred oratory. He had great p:mwer of insight and logic; but his chief strength-lay in the enkindling and electric energy of his sympathetic and emotional nature."