take leave of the meadows, and place himself in school, under a teacher' in Latin. Soon afterward he went to Mr. Wood's, and there pursued the requisite studies, and my father carried him, with me, to college, in March, 1801, when he joined the then Freshman class.

Being graduated in August, 1801, I immediately entered Mr. Thompson's office, in Salisbury, next door to my father's house, to study the law. There I remained till January following, viz.: January, 1802. The necessity of the case required that I should then go some where and gain a little money. I was written to, luckily, to go to Fryeburg, Maine, to keep school. I accepted the offer, traversed the country on horseback, and commenced my labors. I was to be paid at the rate of $350 per annum. This was no small thing, for I compared it not with what might be before me, but what was actually behind me. It was better, certainly, than following the plow. But let me say something in favor of my own industry; not to make a merit of it, for necessity sometimes makes the most idle industrious. It so happened that I boarded at Fryeburg with the gentlemen, James Osgood, Esq., who was Register of Deeds of the then newly created County of Oxford. He was not clerical, in and of himself; and his registration was to be done by deputy. The fee for recording at full length a common deed, in a large fair hand, and with the care requisite to avoid errors, was two shillings and three pence. Mr. Osgood proposed to me that I should do this writing, and that of the two shillings and three pence for each deed, I should have one shilling and six pence, and he should have the remaining nine-pence. I greedily seized on so tempting an offer, and set to work. Of a long winter's evening I could copy two deeds, and that was half a dollar. Four evenings in a week earned two dollars; and two dollars a week paid my board. In May of this year (1802), having a week's vacation, I took my quarter's salary, mounted a horse, went straight over all the hills to Hanover, and had the pleasure of putting these, the first earnings of my life, into my brother's hands, for his college expenses. Having enjoyed this sincere and high pleasure, I hied me back again to my school and my copying of deeds. I staid in Fryeburg only till September. My brother then came to see me; we made a journey together to the lower part of Maine, and returned to Salisbury. I resumed my place in Mr. Thompson's office, and he went back to college.

At Fryeburg, I found another circulating library, and made some use of it. I remember to have read, while at Fryeburg, Adams's Defense of the American Constitutions, Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Goldsmith's History of England, and some other small things. I borrowed Blackstone's Commentaries also, and read, I think, two or three volumes of them. Here, also, I found Mr. Ames's celebrated speech on the British Treaty, and committed it to memory.

From September, 1802, to February or March, 1804, I remained in Mr. Thompson's office, and studied the law. He was an admirable man, and a good lawyer himself; but I was put to study in the old way, that

is, the hardest books first, and lost much time. I read Coke Littleton through, without understanding a quarter part of it. Happening to take up Espinasse's Law of Nisi Prius, I found I could understand it, and, arguing that the object of reading was to understand what was written, I laid down the venerable Coke et alios similes reverendos, and kept company for a time with Mr. Espinasse and others, the most plain, easy, and intelligible writers. A boy of twenty, with no previous knowledge on such subjects, can not understand Coke. It is folly to set him on such an author.

I brought from college a very scanty inheritance of Latin. I now tried to add to it. I made myself familiar with most of Tully's orations, committed to memory large passages of some of them; read Sallust, and Cæsar, and Horace. Some of Horace's odes I translated into poor English rhymes; they were printed; I have never seen them since. My brother was a far better Latin scholar than myself, and in one of his vacations we read Juvenal together. But I never mastered his style, so as to read him with ease and pleasure. At this period of my life I passed a great deal of time alone. My amusements were fishing, and shooting, and riding; and all these were without a companion. I loved this occasional solitude then, and have loved it ever since, and love it still. I like to contemplate nature, and to hold communion, unbroken by the presence of human beings, with this universal frame, thus wondrous fair;' I like solitude, also, as favorable to thoughts less lofty. I like to let the thoughts go free, and indulge in their excursions. And when thinking is to be done, one must of course be alone. No man knows himself who does not thus, sometimes, keep his own company. At a subsequent period of life, I have found that my lonely journeys, when following the court on its circuits, have afforded many an edifying day.*

To find some situation for one or the other of us, I set off in February, 1804, and found my way to Boston. My journey was fortunate. Dr. Perkins had been in the instruction of a school, in Short street, (now Kingston street); he was about leaving it, and proposed that my brother should take it. I hastened home, and he had just then finished a short engagement in school keeping, at Sanbornton, or was about finishing it, it being near the end of the winter vacation; and he readily seized the opportunity of employment in Boston. This broke in upon his college life, but he thought he could keep up with his class. A letter, stating the necessity of the case, was sent to the authorities of the college, and he went immediately to Boston. His success was good-nay, great; so great, that he thought he could earn enough to defray, in addition to debts and other charges, the expense of my living in Boston, for what remained of my term of study. Accordingly, I went to Boston in July, to pass a few months in some office.

* The argument in the Dartmouth College case was mainly arranged, during a journey on professional business from Boston to Barnstable and back. John Adams's speech was composed, not in Philadelphia, in 1776, but in Massachusetts, in 1826, in a New England chaise. The address for Bunker Hill was, in great part, composed in Marshpee Brook; Testibus, Johanne de Trutta et F. W. puero.

[Mr. Webster retained through life a grateful remembrance of his teachers, as will be seen by the following letters to Master James Tappan-accompanied by a handsome gratuity.]

WASHINGTON, February 26th, 1851. MASTER TAPPAN,-I thank you for your letter, and am rejoiced to know that you are among the living. I remember you perfectly well as a teacher of my infant years. I suppose my mother must have taught me to read very early, as

I have never been able to recollect the time when I could not read the Bible. I think Master Chase was my earliest schoolmaster, probably when I was three or four years old. Then came Master Tappan. You boarded at our house, and sometimes, I think, in the family of Mr. Benjamin Sanborn, our neighbor, the lame man. Most of those whom you knew in 'New Salisbury,' have gone to their graves. Mr. John Sanborn, the son of Benjamin, is yet living, and is about your age. Mr. John Colby, who married my oldest sister, Susannah, is also living. On the North Road' is Mr. Benjamin Hunton, and on the 'South Road' is Mr. Benjamin Pettengil. I think of none else among the living whom you would probably remember.

You have indeed lived a checkered life. I hope you have been able to bear prosperity with meekness, and adversity with patience. These things are all ordered for us far better than we could order them for ourselves. We may pray

for our daily bread; we may pray for the forgiveness of our sins; we may pray to be kept from temptation, and that the kingdom of God may come, in us, and in all men, and his will every where be done. Beyond this, we hardly know for what good to supplicate the Divine Mercy. Our Heavenly Father knoweth what we have need of better than we know ourselves, and we are sure that his eye and his loving kindness are upon us and around us every moment.

I thank you again, my good schoolmaster, for your kind letter, which has awakened many sleeping recollections; and, with all good wishes, I remain your friend and pupil, DANIEL WEBSTER. BOSTON, July 20, 1852.

MASTER TAPPAN,-I hear, with much pleasure, through the public press, that you continue to enjoy life, with mental faculties bright and vivid, although you have arrived at a very advanced age, and are somewhat infirm. I came to-day from the very spot in which you taught me; and to me, a most delightful spot it is. The river and the hills are beautiful as ever. But the graves of my father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and early friends, give it to me something of the appearance of a city of the dead. But let us not repine. You have lived long, and my life is already not short; and we have both much to be thankful for. Two or three persons are still living who, like myself, were brought up sub tua ferula. They remember 'Master Tappan.' And now, my good old master, receive a renewed tribute of affectionate regard from your grateful pupil: with his wishes and prayers for your happiness in all that remains to you of this life, and more especially for your rich participation hereafter in the more durable riches of righteousness. DANIEL WEBSTER.

[At the interesting festival on the occasion of Dr. Abbott's retirement from the principalship of Phillips Exeter Academy, which he had filled for fifty years, Mr. Webster was one of his numerous pupils who came together from every part of the country, representing every department of professional and public life, with offerings of gratitude to their faithful instructor. Mr. Webster's speech was one of his happiest efforts, of which no printed memorial remains.]

[At numerous gatherings of the Sons of Dartmouth, Mr. Webster expressed his gratitude for the service rendered him in the preparatory stage of his life work.]

EDUCATION AND LITERARY INSTITUTIONS-1832.

BY B. B. EDWARDS."

INTRODUCTION.

THERE is much in the state of education in this country, which is encouraging to the philanthropist and scholar. Its great object seems to be more and more distinctly apprehended. The harmonious cultivation of all the powers which belong to man, is regarded as of paramount importance. Hence the means which are devised to purify and interest the affections, to discipline and mature the understanding, and to render the body in the highest degree the coadjutor of the mind. The Bible is beginning to take that place in plans of study, which its great value as a storehouse of principles in morals, and literature, and religion, demand. Its merits as a text-book, are undergoing a thorough discussion. The results of inquiry and of experience on this subject, can not be doubtful. From present appearances, we are inclined to think that it will soon be a part of the course of study at all our higher seminaries.

We have reason to believe that greater attention is paid to individual minds at our public institutions. The indiscriminate instruction of a class, has long been a fatal error. The instructors have not studied the peculiar conformation-the excellencies and defects of particular minds. The sound advice of Mr. Jardine, the excellent Glasgow professor, has produced, we think, considerable effect. in this country.

The study of classical literature is now placed on its right basis. It is regarded as an indispensable part of a truly liberal education. It would be much more difficult to assail it successfully, at the present time, than it would have been five years since. The defense of the study of the ancient languages has been conducted in various parts of the country with great ability. We have observed a

Abridged from Quarterly Register for May, 1833. We have personal knowledge of the extensive correspondence used by Dr. Edwards to gather the material for this article. It was the most comprehensive and accurate exposition of the condition of education and various literary institutions of the several States, which had, up to that time been presented to the public. For Memoir of Mr. Edwards, see American Journal of Education, Vol. xv. p. 675.

protracted and unanswerable vindication of its utility, in a newspaper published beyond the Alleghany mountains. At the same time, other departments of study are not excluded from a due share of attention. The apparatus and other means of instruction in all the branches of physics, are becoming more and more ample and effective. The objection to the study of the classics, from the little time which could be devoted to it, and from the superficial knowledge which has been consequently gained, has been in some measure removed, by the practice of studying an entire author, rather than detached portions of a great number. The feeling averse to the study, arising from its alledged immoral tendency, has been in some degree, and may be, doubtless, entirely removed, by the substitution of select authors.

Manual labor schools, and other means for the physical education of scholars, continue to attract a considerable share of the public favor. It is unquestionably true, that some of their friends have been too sanguine in their expectations of benefits from them. The difficulties attending their organization, and perfect and continued operation, have been much greater than were anticipated. It has been found somewhat embarrassing to maintain, at the same time, and in the same institution, a strong interest in intellectual and physical education. Still, there is a much greater degree of attention paid to this subject by private individuals, and in a disconnected manner, than there was ten years since; and all this is a consequence of the efforts of the friends of manual labor schools.

On the whole, we derive great encouragement from what has been accomplished within the last few years in this country. At the same time, a great work remains to be done. The proper degree and the right manner of employing legislative patronage, is a subject of importance. The adequate preparation of a great number of school teachers, is a branch of the subject requiring most anxious and elaborate discussion. The whole subject of the internal economy of education, or the proper motives for study and effort, are but just beginning to excite attention. A thorough perception of the wants of the community in reference to school-books, does not yet exist. New books are multiplied almost without number, but many of them differing little from each other and constructed hastily, without any fixed principles and intention. Lyceums, or popular education, in its widest sense, needs a careful examination. In short, there are many things in respect both to the principles and details of instruction and education, in this country, which have yet been hardly at all considered.