freebooters. I rejoice that no one is shut out from this building; that it is open to all from the lower schools, who have deserved to enter it through their proficiency, that none need be or will be excluded from it.

But, Mr. Chairman, I can see another reason why I am here. I can now go home, and tell my towns-people what Norwich has done for the advancement of education within its borders. I live in a city considerably larger than this, containing over 30,000 inhabitants. But you on the east side of the river are ahead of us; you have set an example of generosity and self-sacrifice, which will serve as a model for the towns of Connecticut. And I have been struck, as I learned that private munificence has reared this school and endowed it so handsomely, with the value of the act as a moral training for the community of Norwich itself. Mr. Chairman, when a deed of shame is committed by an individual or a party, and that deed is justified or even perhaps applauded, thenceforth the community become its partizans; their sense of right and of honor sinks; they are demoralized, it may be for generations. So, too, when deeds of self sacrifice and of public spirit are done, they educate the community, they make every one who approves of them more noble, and more likely to do good in the same way; they not only feed town pride but town virtue. If this building were to sink into the ground and disappear, sad as the disappointment of hopes, great as the loss would be, all would not be mere loss; the noble example remains to vivify the community, to inspire it and make it capable to do likewise through future ages.

PRESIDENT GOODWIN, of Trinity College, Hartford.

Mr. Chairman:- We are here assembled on a most happy and interesting occasion, with fitting observance to inaugurate a noble institution, which has taken its rise from a yet nobler origin. It is rare in the course of our lives that an event occurs on which our minds can rest with such unalloyed satisfaction; when we can so rejoice with the full consent of our whole heart and soul, when our best feelings are the most joyous and jubilant. For, as has been well said, this enterprise "makes us think better of humanity." Mr. Chairman, it makes us feel happier to be men.

To inaugurate this Free Academy, placed in the midst of grounds so ample and beautiful, with an edifice so commodious and even inagnificent, itself so liberally endowed and furnished and organized, so admirably adapted in all respects to be a permanent blessing to this community; to inaugurate such an Institution, by whatever means it might have been established, were indeed a joyful occasion. But it is not so much the fact as its cause, not so much the intrinsic value of the thing, as the noble character of the motives and self-sacrificing efforts in which it originated, that give to the present occasion its peculiar interest and importance.

In the admirable address to which we have listened, setting forth the origin, objects, and plan of this School, we were told that you did not come here to day, Mr. Chairman, nor invite your friends here, formutual congratulations on the great work you have achieved, but rather, with a thankful recognition of God's good Providence in what

has been done, humbly to give him the glory; and, with a deep sense of responsibility, to consider how much more remains yet to be accomplished. For those, Sir, who have been personally engaged in the undertaking, such a spirit, such a tone of feeling, is right, proper and fitting. It is the best augury of ultimate success. But for those of us who have come up here to enjoy with you the festivities of this occasion, it is equally right, proper and fitting, that we should give expression to our congratulations. Our hearts are swelling with them. It is natural, it is necessary that we should utter them.

Mr. Chairman, I congratulate you on the dedication of this Free Academy. I congratulate all those whose hearts have been stirred up to contribute, according to their ability, to its endowment. I congratulate the citizens of Norwich, who are to have this Free Academy as one of the chief ornaments and proudest monuments of a town already so surpassingly beautiful and attractive. I congratulate the children, male and female, rich and poor, who are so freely and alike to enjoy its privileges, and its advantages so large and liberal. I congratulate the parents, who can now hope for their children, what they have never had for themselves. I congratulate the State which sees this institution thus nobly rising in its bosom. I congratulate our common country,whose free institutions depend upon free schools, free thought, and free men; upon the universal dissemination of knowledge and truth, of virtue and religion. I congratulate the friends of education every-where. I congratulate the whole world. I congratulate all future ages.

Let it not be thought, Mr. Chairman, that I am unduly excited in feeling or extravagant in expression. I do not overestimate the importance of this educational monument. The "Norwich Free Academy may be in itself an humble, unpretending Institution. It may produce no general sensation in the great world. But how often the grandest movements and revolutions in history have proceeded from slight and unobserved causes, or from an origin afterwards shrouded in obscurity. How often the germs of the greatest events have been unheeded at first, the more likely, perhaps, to grow and strike deep root, from being themselves buried under the surface. This movement contains, I believe, the prolific seeds of great and far-reaching consequences. It needs no vision of prophecy to foresee its great results. It is an example which must provoke to emulation many other cities and towns, in this state and in other states; and thus it will give both a new impulse and a higher character to the cause of popular education, here and elsewhere, now and henceforth. But its influence in this direction, an influence to which allusion has been already so happily made, is not all. It has an application, and will produce effects, wider, deeper and vastly more important. It will promote not only the cause of education, but the cause of humanity. Here is not only the founding of a Free School, but the performance of a generous deed. Such deeds can not die, they bear fruit forever. No good act, no benevolent effort, is ever lost, or will ever lose its reward.

Mr. Chairman, as I have sat here in the midst of this scene, I have been tempted to envy those men who have so generously contributed

to the endowment of this institution, which to-day they see thus launched forth on its mission of blessing to their neighbors and to the world, to the children of the present and of all future generations. As I think of their mingled emotions of satisfaction and hope, of devout thankfulness and humble self-approbation, I feel that they are sharing in the purest happiness that belongs to our earthly experience. When the rich man provides by his will that a portion of his wealth, after he has done with it all, shall be appropriated to some benevolent institution, or to some work of public utility; it is a good act, to be accepted with all thankfulness. But surely it is a better deed when a man denies himself instead of his heirs, when he gives from what is still his own to use and enjoy; aye, and a happier deed it is too, for he can see with his own eyes the blessed fruits of his liberality. There is indeed a luxury in thus doing good.

And are there not here present, at this moment, young persons, boys and girls, whose youthful bosoms are swelling with admiration and sympathy as they think of their kind benefactors? Boys who will look forward to the opportunity of imitating them, as one of the highest blessings, and most cherished objects of their lives; girls, who, when they come to be mothers, will hold up this example before their children, and impress upon their infant hearts both the duty and the happiness of doing good. Thus the lesson which this enterprise teaches has already been learned by one class of pupils. Its effect has already been felt. This present scene may fade from the memory, but that impression will never be erased from the character. That lesson will be handed down. That effect will be propagated. That impression will be transferred. The circle will grow wider and wider; and who shall say when and where it shall cease to expand, and spread its beneficent influence?

It may therefore be said, in the most general and catholic sense, Mr. Chairman, that we all have a common interest with you on the present occasion.

But especially may it be said that those of us who are connected with Colleges and with the Public Schools have such an interest. This Free Academy will furnish a new link of connection between the Common School and the College. It will furnish an incentive and a norma for the lower grades of schools, especially for the next lower grade, stimulating and guiding both teachers and pupils to higher attainments. It will secure a thorough preparation for those who are to enter the College, and thus will open the way, in a manner which is very much needed, for a better type of scholarship in our highest institutions. Its invigorating and elevating influence will be felt throughout the whole series of schools. It will act as a heart, a sort of central organ, to the whole educational system.

That colleges have an interest in the Academies and preparatory Classical Schools, and, through them and with them, in all the lower grades of schools down to the very first, is not difficult to understand, and indeed is patent to all; for the Colleges depend upon these schools both for the quantity and quality of the materials which are to be

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