tention. But surely under the cover of such a hubbub, there must have been a deal of talk and play among the boys. This was my thought when I heard the story, and it may be yours. But I mistook. So quick was the master's ear, that, no matter how intently occupied himself, he seldom failed to detect the unlawful tone-the surreptitious interlude-while his equally quick eye and hand soon arrested the unlucky offender.

I have no reason to think that his discipline was uniform or always judicious. Wayward and impulsive, he sometimes failed to control himself. But youth can appreciate, and not unwillingly forgives, even the passionate outbreaks of an honest, kindly, wholesouled instructor. For the indolent and vicious he had a large and diversified list of penalties, some of which were amusing to the lookers-on, if not always to the culprits. He would sometimes relax the reins of authority, allowing his scholars to close their books, while he told some diverting story-after which there would be a saturnalian license of the tongue, the master himself, transformed for the moment into a laughing, rollicking boy. And then, a single tap of his finger—a glance from his 'altered eye,' would quell the uproar, and put order, duty, reverence, again upon the throne.

Though he lived long before the days of gymnastic apparatus and instruction, he looked carefully after the amusements, the health, and the safety of his boys. In the matter of bathing, his regulations were strict and peculiar. The time and the place were fixed by him. The state of the tide was carefully observed, and if the favorable moment happened to come in the midst of school hours, he suspended work for awhile, and sent the boys to batheso important in his view was the salubrious immersion. For greater safety he divided the school into two bands. The smaller lads and mere novices in swimming went by themselves to the Little Rivera comparatively shallow stream-while all who could be trusted in deeper water ran off in the opposite direction and plunged into the broader estuary.

We have it on abundant testimony that with the exception of his closing years at Byfield, his entire career as an instructor was preeminently successful. He could not, indeed, transmute lead to gold, nor was he so foolish as to attempt it. But he well knew how to mold and make the most of his intellectual material which came into his hand. The test of the ability is found in the unusually large proportion of his pupils who rose to distinction, and usefulness in all the walks of life. The vivid, the ineffaceable impression which he made on every mind that came under his direc

tion, evinced as it was by lifelong expressions of admiration and gratitude,—is an evidence of worth, that nothing can impeach.

He had certain qualities of intellect, heart, and temperament, which made it comparatively easy for him to curb or to stimulate the youthful mind. His knowledge, if not very extensive, was positive, precise, and at his fingers' ends. During his first twenty years as master of Dummer School, he was master to all intents and purposes. Uncontrolled by outside directors, he devised his own modes of procedure, and carried them into effect without help and without interference. No mistaken notions of parents or of trus tees compelled him to promise-much less to undertake the absurd task of carrying young boys through the whole circle of the sciences. He had the good sense to see that in the earlier stages of education-if not, indeed, in every stage-manner and quality are infinitely more important that variety and quantity. Fortunately he was in a position to give practical efficiency to his theoretie convic tions. At that age when by the happy constitution of our nature, words are most readily caught and most tenaciously retained; when the memory is in advance of the judgment, and when linguistic acquisitions are easier and more agreeable than ever afterward, he set his boys to studying Latin. He knew that the thorough prosecution of one solid study, could not fail to prepare the pupil for successful application in all other departments of learning. It was all-important that he should begin right. I have heard many an ingenious and able argument in favor of classical learning, and have listened to those who, in their advocacy of what they were pleased to call a practical education, denounce as wasted time and worse than useless, all attention to the ancient languages, on the part of boys not destined to some learned profession. But to my mind, one such example and illustration as that we are now considering, goes far towards settling the question. Master Moody's boys came to this school from every class in society, and every condition in life, and with the usual variety of disposition and of talent. After a few years of judicious, careful, thorough training, chiefly in the Latin language, they left for the farm, the sea, the counting room, or the professions, with or without the College course. Of these men, an

unusual proportion were successful in life, and not a few became distinguished. They carried away from this spot, not, indeed, a large stock of acquired knowledge-but what was incomparably more valuable-minds so formed to habits of independent thought and of careful, exact, thorough learning, as made all subsequent acquisition comparatively easy and certain.

During the earlier period of my residence here, I was honored. one day with a call from that truly great man, Jeremiah Mason. The conversation soon turned upon Master Moody, his peculiar methods and wonderful power as an educator of boys. Many questions were put to me-more, I am sure, than I could satisfactorily answer. Mr. Mason told me that he had known several of the able and eminent men, who had been trained here, and that he had often heard them talk in glowing and grateful terms of their eccentric but admirable instructor. He instanced, especially, Mr. Rufus King, with whom he had served as Senator in Washington, as one from whose lips he had repeatedly heard the praises of Master Moody. Whatever were his merits or his peculiarities, added Mr. Mason, the teacher, whom such men as Parsons and King so esteemed and so remembered, must have had abilities and excellence of no ordinary character.

If, wondering at the great and long enduring influence, which he exerted over his pupils, you should ask me in the words of Lovell Edgeworth

'How did he rule them-by what arts ?"

Edgeworth should give the answer:

"He knew the way to touch their hearts."

There was no lesson which he urged more frequently or more successfully on his boys, than that of resolute confidence in their own abilities. Crede quod possis et potes, was the cheery, soulstrengthening maxim which he had constantly on his lips, and which no pupil of his ever forgot.* Imbued himself with the noblest views of life and duty, punctual, upright, conscientious and benevolent-and, more than all, a christian, humble and sincere;-his best endeavors, aims, and influence were of the moral kind. Without this, those pupils would never have turned out the men they were. I can allude-and only allude to a few of the most prominent names in the roll of Master Moody's pupils. I have already mentioned Theophilus Parsons and Rufus King. They stand indeed at the head of the list-the men of whom Moody was with reason most proud. Yet how unlike:-the latter, able, showy, ambitious -powerful in the Senate-skillful in diplomacy-and as much at his ease in the drawing-rooms of Princes, as when he was playing with his comrades on this school-green-plunging foremost of the divers from Thurlow's Bridge-or sitting and chatting at old Deacon

Judge Parsons often quoted this maxim of Master Moody, and impressed it on his young friends with the assurance that its observance had much to do with his own success in life. Judge Parsons taught the Town Grammar School at Falmouth (now city of Portland), for three ye rs, from June 1770 to Sept. 8, 1773, receiving from the town £5. 68. 8d. ($17.97) per month, and from 2 to 6s. of each pupil per term.

Hale's long table. Parsons, with a power of intellect and stores of knowledge which made him appear like a colossus among pigmies, yet seemingly unconscious of it all-looking with contempt on popular favor, and indifferent even to fame-sternly just—implicitly obedient to the voice of duty-and wholly unconcerned as to the color, quality, and condition of his wardrobe.

Mr. King left Byfield for college in 1774, and removed from Newburyport to New York in 1788. Some twenty years after this, a handsome coach drawn by four fine horses was seen to stop in the 'road opposite Deacon Hale's,-a portly gentleman followed by two or three young ladies sprang from the vehicle, came quickly to the house, the door of which stood open-went directly up stairs, and somewhere on the wood, or on the lead, pointed to the name 'Rufus King,' cut there by his own hand nearly forty years before.

The pronunciation of Latin words according to the rules of quantity was one of the points which Moody enforced with great strictness. Sometimes, in later years, when Parsons was on the Bench, and some lawyer misplaced the accent in his Latin quotation, the Judge would lean forward and whisper to the Reporter This brother of ours did not learn his Latin under Master Moody.' Professor Pearson, Webber, and Smith, were all of them natives of Byfield. In their efforts for an education, the advent and presence of Dummer School was undoubtedly the moving cause. For what those eminent men achieved in behalf of good learning, at Andover, in Cambridge, and at Hanover, how much was due to their incomparable instructor here!

The distinguished lawyer William Prescott and Chief Justice Samuel Sewell were fitted for College here; so also were Judge Samuel Tenney of Exeter, and Nathaniel Gorham.

From a host of other men who rose to distinction in civil and political life, I take only the name of Samuel Phillips of Andover:-not for the positions of trust and honor which he held with so much credit to himself and advantage to the community,-but for his agency in establishing those two noble institutions, Phillips (Exeter) and Phillips (Andover) Academies. The funds came, indeed, from his father and his uncle-but it was wealth which would have descended to himself. He not only consented to the investment, but advised and urged it-an example of disinterestedness which has seldom been equaled in our selfish world. We rejoice in the prosperity of these great schools. But, is it certain that they owe nothing:-is it certain that they do not owe every thing to Gov. Dummer and Master Moody?

MASTER TISDALE AND THE LEBANON SCHOOL.

THE SCHOOL.

THE LEBANON SCHOOL, which was the schola illustris of eastern Connecticut under Master Tisdale, from 1749 to 1787, was a private enterprise of twelve citizens of Lebanon, of whom Jonathan Trumbull, the Revolutionary Governor, the Brother Jonathan' of Washington's heart, was one, who in 1743, combined to secure better advantages for their children than the common school or transient teachers could give. By the articles of agreement, it was started for the education of our own children and such others as we shall agree with. A Latin scholar is to be computed at 358. old tenor, for each quarter, and a reading scholar at 30s. for each quarter-each one to pay according to the number of children that he sends, and the learning they are improved upon-whether the learned tongues, reading and history, or reading and English only.' In this school were educated the four sons and the two daughters of Jonathan Trumbull,-the former, with Elisha Ticknor, Zebulon Ely, Joseph Lyman, Jeremiah Mason, and many others, who became eminent in professional and public life, were here fitted for Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale College.

THE MASTER.

NATHAN TISDALE for thirty years, from 1749 to 1787, the great classical teacher of Lebanon, was born in the town where he achieved his reputation, in 1731, and received his first degree in arts from Harvard College, in July, 1749, and in the same year began his career as a teacher. Of his methods of instruction and discipline we have no information beyond local traditions, and reminiscences of his pupils, examples of which we give below. The inscription on his tomb, as given by Stuart in his life of Jonathan Trumbull, reads as follows:

"READER, as thou passest, drop a tear to the memory of the once eminent instructor, Nathan Tisdale, a lover of science. He marked the road to useful knowledge. A friend to his country, he inspired the flame of patriotism. Having devoted his whole life, from the 18th year of his age, to the duties of his profession, which he followed with distinguished usefulness in society, he died, Jan. 5, 1787, in the 56th year of his age."