PORTER, JOSIAS LESLIE: English Presbyterian; b. at Burt, County Donegal, Ireland, Oct. 4, 1823; d. at Belfast Mar. 16, 1889. He graduated at Glasgow (B.A., 1841; M.A., 1842); was ordained, 1846; studied theology at the Free Church College and University, both Edinburgh, 1842-44; pastor at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1846-49; missionary of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland in Damascus, 1849-59; professor of Biblical criticism in the Presbyterian College, Belfast, Ireland, 1860-77. He was especially prominent by reason of his connection with Irish educational institutions and interests. He was the author of Five Years in Damascus (2 vols., London, 1855; 2d ed., 1870); Hand-book for Syria and Palestine (2 vols., 1858; 3d ed., 1875); The Pentateuch and the Gospels (1864); The Giant Cities of Bashan, and Holy Places of Syria (1865); The Life and Times of Henry Cooke, D.D., LL.D. (London, 1871); The Pew and Study Bible (1876); Jerusalem, Bethany and Bethlehem (1887); and Through Samaria to Galilee and the Jordan (1888). He edited J. Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations (Edinburgh, 1867) and J. Brown's Self-Interpreting Bible (1871).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: DNB, xlvi. 187-188.

PORTER, NOAH: Congregationalist; b. at Farmington, Conn., Dec. 14, 1811; d. at New Haven, Conn., Mar. 4, 1892. He graduated at Yale College (1831), was master of Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven (1831-33); tutor at Yale (1833-1835); pastor at New Milford, Conn. (1836-43); at Springfield, Mass. (1843-46); Clark professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Yale College (1846-71); and president of Yale College (18711886). His presidency was a period of great expansion and progress, and his wide fame as a scholar was equalled by his popularity and influence at home. He was the author of Historical Discourse at Farmington, Nov-.4, 1840, commemorating the two-hundredth anniversary of its settlement (Hartford, 1841); The Educational Systems of the Puritans and Jesuits compared (New York, 1851); The Human Intellect (1868, and many others); Books and Reading (1870; 6th ed., 1881); American Colleges and the American Public (1870); Elements of Intellectual Science (1871); Sciences of Nature versus the Science of Man (1871) ; Evangeline: the Place, the Story, and the Poem (1882); The Elements of Moral Science, Theoretical and Practical (1885); Bishop Berkeley (1885); Kant's Ethics, a Critical Exposition (Chicago, 1886); and Fifteen Years in the Chapel of Yale College (Sermons, 1871-86; New York, 1887). He was the principal editor of the revised editions of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (Springfield, 1864, 1880).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. S. Merriam, Noah Porter: a Memorial by Friends, New York, 1893 (contains bibliography); W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, pp. 559-581,ib. 1893.