furnished them to elaborate. But it is not so generally understood and acknowledged that the Academies and the whole system of Common Schools have an interest also in the Colleges, have a great stake in the preservation, the character, and the prosperity of these higher institutions. If the higher grades of schools need the preparatory work of the lower, the lower need the stimulus and direction of the higher. The primary school would lose more than half its efficiency, if its pupils were not looking up to the secondary and following grades; and the secondary school, if the Grammar School were not there above it; and the Grammar School, if the High School and Academy did not wait to receive the best and most faithful of its pupils; and the High School and Academy, in their turn, if the College did not stand beckoning on the most generous and studious minds to higher attainments in knowledge and more marked distinction in life. And not only do Colleges thus furnish a necessary and most effective stimulus, operating directly or remotely upon the pupils in all the lower grades of schools; but they produce also a most important and salutary effect in raising the character of the teachers. We need for instructors in all our schools, certainly in our higher schools, not mere schoolmasters, not mere routine teachers, but men, fully developed men, men of large mental grasp, of scientific culture, of refined taste. There is no calculating the indirect effect of such a class of teachers upon the whole mass of the community. Boys trained by such men may learn just the same things that are taught by instructors of another kind, but they will come out from under their hands, a very different sort of boys; they will make a very different sort of men. I stand here, then, to-day, Mr. Chairman, to tell you that not only do Colleges have an interest in you, but you have an interest in Colleges. Take away the Colleges from the Common Schools, and you cut off the head from the body, which is left a lumbering and a lifeless trunk.

Allow me to express, Mr. Chairman, my cordial approval of the course and methods of instruction proposed for this Free Academy, so far as I have comprehended them. And permit me to add that what pleases me particularly, next to your distinct recognition of the Bible, in its fundamental and vital connection with the system of instruction, in a way which secures a christian, without adopting a sectarian influence, is your most emphatic acknowledgement of the importance of Classical Studies. I would not say one word in disparagement of what are called practical studies, a knowledge of the mechanical and useful arts. I would not detract one iota from the weight of what my Reverend and Learned Friend, who has preceded me, has taken occasion to say in enforcement of their positive dignity and value. Each one has his preferences. My Friend has spoken of what, in your plan, strikes him most favorably. I would speak of what strikes me most favorably. It is well that your scheme should suit a diversity of tastes. It shows that you have mounted no hobby. I honor the physical sciences and the industrial arts I recognise their utility and noble character as heartily as any man. I am glad that you have made so generous a provision for their cultivation. But when they are extolled

to the express disparagement of Classical studies and of whatever is included in the domain of the Muses, I demur. It is true the popular tendency is thus to extol them; and, for that very reason, I feel, that, instead of encouraging this tendency already too strong, it is the proper office of educated men, of those who should lead instead of following the popular mind, who should form instead of flattering public opinion, and especially of those who have an immediate agency in controlling and directing our system of education; to defend Classical culture and maintain the claims of Classical Studies.

The simple truth is, Mr. Chairman, our whole civilization, with all its manifold arts and sciences, its large intellectual culture, its social development, its refinement of taste, its clearness of thought, its grasp of comprehension, its practical and plastic spirit,-I say, our whole modern civilization, such as it is, and whatever it is, owes more to the influence of classical learning, classical history, classical models, classical culture, than to any other one thing, christianity alone excepted. It has been the divinely chosen vehicle through which christianity itself has been communicated to us, and it may well be doubted whether our blessed religion could, without such a vehicle, have been communicated to the human mind in so great a degree of integrity and completeness, or could have produced its full and proper effect in the world, at least in its bearings upon the temporal welfare, the intellectual enlightenment and elevation of mankind. We may well recognize the providence, and admire the wisdom of God in preparing the way for the advent of our Saviour, as well in the history of Greece and Rome, as in that of the Jews. God's hand is to be found not only in sacred but in profane history. Christ came in the fullness of time; when the world was ripe for him; when not only was the Jewish state ready for dissolution, but Grecian and Roman culture was ready to receive his religion and propagate it to the ends of the earth and to the consummation of the ages. We scarcely know how our religion would appear if entirely dissevered from classical culture, from the shaping, formulating, adapting influence of Grecian and Roman thought. At all events divine wisdom has seen fit, as a matter of fact, to place the two in historical connection. Certainly we do not know what our civilization would become, if thus dissevered. It would necessarily be somewhat quite different from what it is. It might be some Hindoo, Japanese, or Chinese, it would no longer be European, civilization. It might be some nondescript, yet unheard of sort of thing. It would not be what we now have. Can anybody be sure it would be better than what we now have? Is it wise to try the bold experiment? Steam and machinery may be wonderful in their mighty action and ingenious construction. They may cross oceans, and make cotton cloth-both highly important and valuable achievements; but they can never perform the processes of mental culture; they can never be applied to shorten the road to learning, or to refine the sensibilities and the taste; they can never develop man's proper humanity, his intellectual and mora. powers; they can never be the proper agents and factors of civilization

Although they may greatly facilitate and expedite the operation and influence of those agents, they can not serve as their substitutes.

Classical culture has spread a subtle, but mighty influence throughout the entire mass of modern European and American society; an influence which may not be everywhere visibly seen or consciously felt, but which, nevertheless, is there, giving a peculiar tone and character to the whole mental condition, to all the habits of thought and feeling. It is not necessary that all should be classical scholars, but it is extremly important that some should be. There must be some to keep the original fountains constantly pure and open. The influence of a learned class in the community is most happy and desirable. It is their mission, and their effect, to raise the tone of thought, to exert a refining and humanizing influence, to cherish the spirit of civilization, and to preserve society from the threatening absorption of a materialistic barbarism. Far distant be the day when our American society shall lose such a safeguard and such a leaven. Far distant be the day when classical studies shall be proscribed in our colleges, or academies, or free schools. Far distant be the day when classical learning shall be put up at auction with steam-engines, threshing machines and magnetic telegraphs. We do not inquire what is its market value. We do not ask what the world will pay for, but what it needs.

But I am detaining you too long. I must advert again, however, before sitting down, to the great interest of this occasion, and to the immense importance, in itself and especially in relation to this community, of the Institution here and now inaugurated. We are at this moment in the midst of intense political excitement. The great issues supposed to be staked upon the election of this or that candidate for the Presidency, make almost every heart to throb with anxiety. The banner-cries of "Buchanan and Breckinridge," or "Fremont and Freedom," are seen inscribed upon hundreds of flags streaming in every breeze, and over every great thoroughfare. They are reiterated, in broad capitals, at the head of thousands and thousands of newspapers. They are shouted with huzzas from tens of thousands of earnest and almost frantic voices. But, Mr Chairman, when the banner-cries of "Buchanan and Breckinridge," of "Fremont and Dayton," shall together have been buried in that oblivion to which their predecessors have already been consigned, or are rapidly hastening, this Free Academy will still remain, the pride, the glory, and the blessing of Norwich; silently yet steadily dispensing its benign influences, and causing the hearts of many parents and children to rise up and call its founders blessed. And though this beautiful edifice, constructed as it is of perishable materials may crumble in decay, it will be only to be replaced by another still more commodious, still more beautiful. Such institutions as this will not perish until our freedom of thought and speech is abolished, and our christian civilization shrouded in the night of returning barbarism. PROFESSOR NOAH PORTER, of Yale College.

One fact the orator of the day has omitted to mention from a commendable modesty. Though it was noticed by the speaker who preceded me, I will venture to refer to it, and if possible, to give it the

prominence which it merits. It is that the endowment of the Norwich Free Academy is unique and singular and unlike any other. I believe that when all its pecularities are taken into view, it will be proud to stand by itself in the history of endowments for education. If the amount contributed, the number of persons who have been concerned in the enterprise, and the object to which it is devoted are all taken into consideration, it will be found to be unmatched by any similar enterprise. Were I called on to defend my country abroad, I should refer to an act like this, as a noble product of American Institutions. Were I desirous to explain to a circle of intelligent ladies and gentlemen on the continent of Europe what are some of the beneficent results of institutions as free as ours, I should refer to an example like this and say of it, it is one of the things of which our country has no need to be ashamed. It is true many schools of a higher order have been munificently furnished in this country. Wealthy merchants and bankers have given large sums to found public schools in their native towns, and have in this displayed a wise liberality. But here we have a large endowment, furnished in large sums, by a large number of intelligent citizens for the good of the entire community in which they live. They have made the gift free to all, and yet have guarded against its being so common as to seem to be the property of all, and so be neglected or lightly esteemed. The wisdom and the enlarged and elevated views of education with which they have conveyed this trust to the community and to other generations, as well as the beneficent tendency of the gift so wisely guarded while it is freely bestowed, have excited my admiration.

Allow me to enlarge upon one or two of these features. The Institution is to stand midway between the college and the public schools of the town. It will act upon both, as it were upward and downward, and with advantage to each. We who are connected with colleges feel most satisfied and appreciate most earnestly the importance of the best kind of preparatory schools. There is probably no point at which the educational systems of this country labor more and are lamentably weak, than in what may be called the secondary schools; the schools of preparation for the college. We who remain at home know whence our best scholars come. We know indeed and cheerfully testify that there are a few preparatory schools of the highest order, and we know also that the majority of our students are not fitted as they ought to be to pursue our system of study to the best advantage. This deficiency we are forced to supply. This is not our appropiate work. It is not the object for which the colleges were designed. Let this deficiency be supplied, as it may be, and the complaint would be less frequently made than it is that the colleges do not accomplish more. The deficiency, the fault is not with them so often as is said and thought.

The influence of this Free Academy on the public schools of the town can not but be most efficient and happy. It is pledged to give a higher and better education, to require a higher course of study than the highest public school; in other words to take the best pupil of the first class in the high school and carry him still farther onward. Every

child who at this moment stands at the threshold of the primary schools of Norwich, has the Free Academy before him, to inspire him to effort to excite his emulation that he may be allowed to enter it, and be fitted to pursue its course with advantage and success. Its influences will be like that of free or endowed scholarship in the English or Scotch universities. Many a poor boy has been aroused and stimulated to extraordinary zeal and labor by the hope of earning free tuition for a course of years in these universities. Such a stimulus lies before every pupil in the public schools of this town. Every such pupil can hope to earn, by his diligence, free tuition of a high order in various studies, for three continuous years, at the most important period of his youth, nay of his life.

I rejoice that in the course of study prescribed by the founders of this academy, so great prominence is given to the classics. Of the importance of classical study, the views of many persons are vague and unsettled. Most men are taught to esteem them valuable though they can not see how. They submit themselves passively to the necessity which forces them or others to go through the study of Greek or Latin, because these are made a part of a liberal education, but farther than this, they neither judge nor are they convinced. To such it may be suggested that the study of a language must be a study of thought, inasmuch as every language is a product of thought, and in it are recorded the processes and operations of human thinking, even the most subtle and refined. To follow and trace these by the study of any language is an invaluable discipline. To do it in such languages as the Greek and Latin, which are so peculiarly and especially adapted to call out and enforce this discriminating and close analysis, is a discipline which can not be too highly esteemed. Indeed I would boldly advance the position while I stand ready to defend it, anywhere and under any circumstances, that one great secret of the English common sense-of the preeminent wisdom and directness of the English mind, is to be found in the circumstances that so many of their leading men are trained as they are in the great schools and universities. The simplicity, the distinctness, the disposition to come to the heart of a subject, and to make short speeches, for which the English statesmen and public men are distinguished, are acquired, in no small degree, by the long and exclusive familiarity with the classics, through their school and university life. So important and obvious is the fact, that Dr. Arnold, with his well known zeal for practical uses and results-who declared he would not teach the classics except as he made them to illustrate the history and thinking of modern times, also affirmed that he would scarcely send his son to Oxford, if he could not there study Aristotle, that from Aristotle he might learn practical wisdom and common

sense.

I as truly rejoice that provision is to be made for various and liberal courses of study in special departments, which have a direct relation to the practical business and employments of life. Too much must not be expected from such courses of study. It ought not to be thought, that a person can acquire by any special apprenticeship at school, that facility