May, 1860, Mr. Joshua Kendall, of Meadville, Pa., was elected by the Board to the office of Principal. The Report for January, 1862, shows a registered attendance, during the past year, of 62 pupils, and an aggregate attendance, since the establishment of the institution, of 500, or nearly 63 a year. The school possesses a well-selected library of 2,000 volumes, and a valuable chemical and philosophical apparatus. The appropriation of the State is mainly applied to the pay of the salaries of the teachers, all the other expenses of the school being defrayed by the town of Bristol, which also provides the building for its accommodation. The following Circular sets forth the details of the institution in 1861:

CIRCULAR-1861.

TERMS.-The Terms of this Institution consist of ten weeks each, and will commence as follows:

First Term, on the first Tuesday of May.

Second Term, on Tuesday after the first Wednesday of September.

Third Term, on the fourth Tuesday of November.

Fourth Term, on the second Tuesday of February.

Pupils are received at the commencement of each Term.

CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.-All applicants must declare, in writing, their intention to qualify themselves for teachers in the State; they must present to the Principal a certificate of good moral character, and of such other personal, qualifications as ought to be found in every instructor of the young. They must be, if males, at least sixteen, and if females, at least fifteen years of age. They must pass a satisfactory written and oral examination, by the Principal, in Reading, Writing, Spelling, Arithmetic, Geography, and English Grammar; and must remain in the School, at least, one full term. All candidates for admission must be at the school-room on the morning of the day preceding that on which the term commences, at 10 o'clock.

COURSE OF STUDY.-The following is the course of study, without regard to the order in which the branches will be pursued, or the length of time devoted to them:

Geography, Physical and Political, with the use of globes and outline maps and map-drawing; Orthography, Phonetic and Etymological Analysis: English Grammar, with Analysis of Sentences; Rhetorical Reading, including Analysis of Language, History of the English Language and Literature, and the critical study of select works; Original Composition and other Rhetorical exercises; Logic; Writing, including Spelling, Paragraphing, Capitalizing, and Punctuation; History of United States, Constitution of United States, Constitution of Rhode Island and School Laws of Rhode Island, General History and Chronology, Natural History, Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Anatomy; Natural, Mental and Moral Philosophy; Arithmetic; Algebra; Geometry; Trigonometry; Vocal Music; The Art of Teaching, including the history and progress of education, the philosophy of teaching and discipline, as drawn from the nature of the juvenile mind and the application of those principles under the ordinary conditions of our common schools.

The studies of the School will be arranged, as far as possible, to meet the wants of teachers and of those intending to become such, including

1st. A thorough review of elementary studies.

2d. Those branches of knowledge which may be considered as an expansion of the elementary studies, or collateral to them.

3d. The art of teaching and its modes. Every subject of study and of lecture will be considered with reference to the best methods of teaching it.

Members of the advanced class will give teaching exercises before the whole school, each week, subject to the public criticism of both teachers and pupils; and a series of familiar conversational lectures will be given, each term, on topics connected with the Teacher's Life and Duties.

CLASSES. The pupils will be arranged according to their attainments, into three classes, designated as Junior, Middle, and Senior.

EXAMINATIONS, ETC.-The School will be visited, each term, by a Visiting Committee of the Board of Trustees, when such examinations will be held as may seem desirable.

If at any time, pupils are in attendance, who, in the judgment of the Trustees, do not promise to be useful as teachers, they shall be deemed subject to dismission.

The School is at all times open to inspection, and school visitors, teachers, and the friends of education generally, in this State, are cordially invited to visit it at their convenience.

LIBRARY.-The Library of the School consists of nineteen hundred volumes of text-books and books of general reference, with maps, charts, and globes.

TUITION.-Tuition is free to all those who intend to teach in the Public Schools of Rhode Island; but those intending to teach in other States, or in private schools, are required to pay $5 a term for tuition.

At the beginning of every term, each pupil pays $1, to meet incidental expenses, and for the use of the library.

DISCIPLINE.-The discipline of the Institution is committed to the Principal; but the age of the pupils, the objects which bring them to a Normal School, and the spirit of the Institution itself, will, it is believed, dispense with the necessity of a code of rules. The members are expected to exemplify in their own conduct, the order, punctuality and neatness of good scholars, and exhibit in all their relations, Christian courtesy, kindness and fidelity.

DIPLOMAS.-Diplomas will be awarded, at the discretion of the Trustees, to such pupils as shall have satisfactorily sustained themselves at the Institution, for at least three full terms, two of which shall be consecutive.

BOARD.-Board, in private families, can be obtained at $3 per week, for gentlemen, and $2.50 for ladies. Boarding places will be secured in advance for those who apply to the Principal, by letter or otherwise. Students desiring to board themselves, can usually secure suitable rooms for the purpose.

MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.-Bristol, R. I., the present location of the School, is easy of access, both by railroad and steamboat; and for beauty and healthfulness is not surpassed by any town in New England.

Students who desire to pass regularly, every week or every day, over the Providence and Bristol Railroad, for the purpose of attending the Normal School, can obtain, through the Principal, season or package tickets at very low rates.

Pupils who desire to leave town for home, or for other places, are expected to confer with the Principal.

XX. DANA POND COLBURN.

DANA POND COLBURN, the first Principal of the State Normal School of Rhode Island, was born in West Dedham, Massachusetts, September 29, 1823. He was the youngest of a family of fifteen children, all reared after the stern New England type, to subsist by honest toil. His early life was passed on the farm and in the farmhouse of his father, and presents but few incidents to enliven the page of a biography. During this period, however, he laid the foundation of a good English education in the common schools of the town, and began to acquire that reputation for readiness in mathematics for which he afterwards became so eminent. One of his teachers, Rev. Mr. Talbot of South Dedham, whose school he attended at the age of ten and eleven, speaks of his proficiency in arithmetic so early as this, and of the remarkable quickness with which he acquired the first principles of English Grammar. He bears pleasing testimony to the orderly deportment of his promising young pupil, as a boy upon whom he could always depend. Even at that age, when boyish spirits, in which he was by no means deficient, are prone to gain the upper hand, an unusual conscientiousness restrained him from abusing the confidence of his instructors. One of the peculiar advantages of his early life was the enjoyment of the almost constant companionship of his father, the late Isaacus Colburn. The youngest of so large a family, nearly all of whose members were already arrived at maturity and established in life, he was his father's little Benjamin, ever at his side, whether in the week-day employments of the farm, or on the quiet walks and drives on Sunday afternoons. To the insight, into a long life's experience, obtained on these occasions in many an earnest conversation and from many a passing word of counsel, must be traced a great part of the sterling practical wisdom which characterized all Mr. Colburn's dealings with men. But not wholly by external influences were his youthful character and aims moulded. He was a thoughtful boy, and often rose above the common occupations and the common objects around him, and strove to grasp the terms of those problems of infinite purport, which

in a reflecting mind are ever solving and yet never solved. As he stretched himself on a favorite grassy bank in the long summer days, and gazed away into the fathomnless heavens, he wonderingly pondered on the mysteries of existence. Why am I fixed here in this one spot of earth, rather than afar in boundless space? Why am I living now rather than with those countless generations that passed away ages ago? What am I to do here and now, to prove myself worthy of this grand boon of life? To one whose ruling passion might be said to be conscientiousness, such musings as these could not be barren day-dreams. Ever on the alert to ascertain duty, he was thus stirred to stretch every nerve towards fitting himself to do good in the world in his day and generation. How well he succeeded in this resolve, almost every line of the present sketch will tell, and yet will no doubt leave the best and the noblest untold.

Thus in alternate labor with his father and attendance at school, in boyish sports and manly aspirations, his childhood passed swiftly and pleasantly away, till in his seventeenth year he experienced a severe illness. His constitution, naturally weak, had probably been overtasked by labor, and finally yielded to the pressure. No doubt his ambition to do as much as was expected of lads of his age, led him to exert himself beyond his strength. This disease brought him apparently to the brink of the grave, and in its debilitating effect. lingered by him to the day of his death. Who shall say, however, that this visitation was not a blessing in disguise, since to it must be traced that change in his aims which caused him to turn from a life of physical labor, and to aspire to the higher avocations of science and literature?

For a short period his desire for a more liberal education was gratified, and during his eighteenth year he continued his studies in the school of Mr. Adams, a well-known instructor. About this period there occurred a little incident, which he used to relate with pleasure as involving his first attempt at public speaking. In illustration of his impetuousness and his readiness, it may, not inaptly perhaps, be introduced here. A debating-club or Lyceum had been formed in the district, and young Colburn had become a member. It was his turn to speak, and he arose with becoming modesty to make his first speech. But before entering upon the theme for discussion, he prefaced his remarks with the usual stereotyped excuses for utter want of preparation, such as, from their constant recurrence among the experts, without any regard whatever to the real facts of the case, he judged to form the only approved opening. Then drawing forth an

elaborate manuscript from his pocket, he was proceeding, unconscious of any incongruity, to read his carefully digested arguments, when the hardly suppressed tittering of his audience burst into uncontrollable laughter. Instantly apprehending the cause of their merriment, he threw the paper on the floor, and untrammeled by memoranda, proceeded to take up one point after another, with increased vivacity, and, we may well believe, with at least equal force. In later years he always spoke with great freedom and fluency.

In the autumn of 1841, Mr. Colburn very ardently desired to go away to school, but was obliged to yield for a time to what may be styled a traditional conviction of the indispensableness of labor. Sacrificing his own fair dreams of intellectual toil and intellectual greatness, he submitted to the urgent desire of his father, with a cheerfulness which can be estimated only by those who have experienced a similar trial. As it was conceded that his strength was not sufficient to warrant his engaging again in the heavy labors of the farm and the forest, he was sent to Lynn to learn boot and shoe making. After remaining there about six months, his occupation failed on account of the dullness of the trade, and he returned home. Dissimilar as was this episode in his life to all his succeeding pursuits, he still often recurred to it without any of that foolish sensitiveness which would have arisen in a weaker mind. Nor was it probably without its use. No doubt the very delay in the attainment of his hopes intensified and directed his aspirations and confirmed his resolves. How hardly is the bow-string held home while the eye sights

the arrow,

and yet

how much surer the aim.

During the last winter of his residence at home, Mr. Colburn attended the school of Joseph Underwood, Jr., and was encouraged by him to fit himself for a teacher and to attend the Normal School at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, whither he went in the early part of the spring of 1843. His previous advantages had been entirely confined to the common district schools of his native town, so that his leaving home at this time may justly be regarded as a turning point in his life. His characteristics at this period are thus summed up by Rev. Mr. Parkhurst of Newton, Mass., then his pastor: "Great mental activity, thirst for useful knowledge, indomitable perseverance, with the high resolve to make the most of himself possible, were marked features of his character. Associated with these, were a kind, cheerful, and hopeful disposition, great urbanity of manners, and an unimpeachable life." Going forth into the world with such noble qualifi

cations,

we can not wonder to see him proceeding from success to suc

cess, and realizing in many respects the highest objects of his ambition.