of neglecting a thousand important differences. The materials used have been drawn from many sources, but chiefly from a large number of histories of individual schools. The titles of these histories, so far as they have come under my personal examination, are given in the general bibliography. I should be glad to be told of other publications of this sort. There are doubtless many which have not yet come to my notice. 17 CHAPTER XII TEACHERS AND TEACHING THESE old academies have been held in loving remembrance by those who enjoyed their privileges. It is pleasant to read such words of reminiscence as their old-time students have put on record, and not surprising that they sometimes lament the glory departed, when they turn their attention to the high school of these later days. Some of this feeling is doubtless due to the fact so often noted that scenes grow fairer as they pass from present experience to become only things remembered. But that is not all. Individual enterprise and the endeavors of small groups of friends and neighbors, overcoming difficulties together, played a large part in the making of those academies. A personal and romantic interest attaches to such undertakings, which is often missed in great public systems like our state systems of schools. An institution that was picturesque and interesting enough when standing alone may be thought commonplace when it appears as one among many of the same sort, all organized under uniform statutory provisions. There were other reasons for the strong hold those academies gained upon the affection of their students. And among these must be mentioned the fact that, through some fortunate combination of circumstances, a goodly number of very able teachers were at one time and another employed in them. Some of these fine old masters should be mentioned by name in such a sketch as this. The second principal at Phillips Exeter, Benjamin Abbot, LL.D., is perhaps the most famous of those early teachers career. whose reputation rests altogether upon their academy He was an Andover man, and came of a long line of ancestors who had all lived upon the same Andover farm. Benjamin was nineteen years of age when he entered the newly opened Phillips Andover Academy and began the study of Latin. He was one of Principal Pearson's boys. In 1788 he was graduated from Harvard College, and was immediately called to teach at Phillips Exeter. He was virtually the head of the institution from that time on, and in 1790 was regularly elected to the principalship. His salary at the first was "one hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight-pence, lawful money," per year. It was soon increased to one hundred and fifty pounds. In 1799 it was made seven hundred dollars. He had also the free use of a dwelling house. He was a tall man, finely proportioned, graceful in every movement, and his pupils long remembered the sweet and gentle dignity of his expression. It has been said that he knew the "science of boys." He had a long forefinger, and boys of every sort trembled when he shook it ominously before them. He punished with notable thoroughness, but the culprit was restored to respect and favor as soon as the punishment was over. Judge H. C. Whitman, of Cincinnati, recalled in after years one occasion on which he was directed to come to the library at eight o'clock in the morning, to meet Dr. Abbot on serious business. He was met at the front door with the command, "Go round to the back door, sir." Having reached the library from the rear of the house, he had an interview with the Doctor which he does not describe in detail. But at the close he was taken to the front door and bowed politely out! The father of Lewis Cass hesitated to send his son to the academy because the boy was so wild and hard to manage. But the preceptor said, "Send him to me, and I'll see what I can do with him." The experiment was altogether successful. After it had gone on for several months, the elder Cass declared to Dr. Abbot that "if Lewis was half as afraid of the Almighty as he is of you, I should never have any more trouble with him." Of his scholarship a very favorable account is given. Cicero and Horace were his favorite authors. His reading of the Latin text of the orations against Catiline and the Carmen Sæculare was highly expressive, and produced a great impression upon his pupils. He was a student, and kept up a living acquaintance not only with new works relating to the classic literatures and languages, but with current publications in the fields of politics, theology, general literature, and education. His own contribution to the literature of classical study was not unimportant. At his request, a friend who visited Europe in 1802 looked into the methods of instruction at Eton and other prominent schools, and made him acquainted with the results of the investigation. In 1838, Dr. Abbot withdrew from the principalship of the academy, in which he had labored with great success for the period of fifty years. A jubilee festival was held on this occasion, and many men, former pupils of the school who had become eminent in various walks in life, came together at Exeter to do honor to the great teacher. Daniel Webster presided at the celebration. Letters were read from Lewis Cass, Josiah Quincy, and Dr. Dana. Speeches were made by Edward Everett, John P. Hale, Caleb Cushing, and others whose reputation was national. Dr. Abbot was presented with a massive silver vase, Mr. Webster making the presentation address. His portrait was presented to the academy. Funds were subscribed to found an Abbot scholarship at Cambridge. It must, from all accounts have been a time when good feeling overflowed and school reminiscence was at its best. We may well doubt whether many occasions worthy to be compared with this have been known in the history of our secondary schools. Dr. Abbot was succeeded in the principalship of the academy by the hardly less venerated Gideon Lane Soule, who had been a teacher in the institution since 1822. Dr. Soule's jubilee was celebrated with warmth and enthusiasm in 1872.1 The constitutions of both of the Phillips academies charged the trustees to exercise great care in the selection of suitable men for the principalship. This injunction was heeded at Andover as well as at Exeter. Here the first principal, Eliphalet Pearson, afterwards professor of Hebrew at Harvard, and still later back at Andover, in the theological seminary, was a man of great force and versatility and of commanding presence.2 To the boys he was "Elephant Pearson." A pupil who had been reprimanded by him was asked how he came through the ordeal. The youngster replied, "I pinched myself to see whether I was alive." Washington is reported to have said of this master, "His eye shows him worthy not only to lead boys, but to command men." He rendered the Commander no unimportant service; for when Judge Phillips erected his powder mill, he depended on his friend, the schoolmaster, to help him over the difficulty of a lack of saltpetre. Pearson improvised a laboratory, and by dint of hard labor, study, and experiment, found a way to supply the missing ingredient. At another time he showed skill of a different sort by constructing a bass viol, which stood for a long time in the Old South church at Andover. Our earliest account of the routine life of Phillips Andover is contained in a letter addressed by Principal Pearson to his trustees, in 1780: "School begins at eight o'clock with devotional exercises; a psalm is read and sung. Then a class consisting of four scholars repeats memoriter two pages in Greek Grammar, after which a class 1 BELL, Phillips Exeter Academy. CUNNINGHAM, Familiar sketches. Article in N. A. Rev. for July, 1858. Great Eliphalet (I can see him now, HOLMES, The School-boy. |