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Our Colonial Curriculum
1 607- 1 776
BY
COLYER MERIWETHER, Ph. D. (J. H. U.)
Author of History of Higher Education in South Carolina, Date Masamune and his Embass) to
Rome, Etc.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
CAPITAL PUBLISHING CO.
1907
T
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
ELEMENTARY COURSE
Page.
Religion the Keynote in Our Colonial Education, ... 15 >-""
Bible the Real Primer Then, 17 ^
Education of the Indian, 21
Education of Girls, 23 "
General Elementary Course, 25 #■
A — B — C — Darians, 28
Hornbook, 29 -'
New England Primer, 32 "
Reading, 33
Spelling, 34
Writing, 34
Ciphering, 36
"Free Schools," 36 •-
Teachers and Books, , 37 "
What Was Accomplished ? 38 **
Vestibule to College, 39
CHAPTER II.
the; generai, college course.
Page.
Saving of Souls, 41 r
"An Asinine Feast of Sow Thistles," 43
Course at Dublin, 45
At Edinburgh, 45
At Oxford, 46
4 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Page.
At Cambridge, . . . 47
Other Courses, 48
Text Books, 50
Physical Incentives, 51
Course at Harvard, 51
Earliest Harvard Schedule, 52
The "Laws for 1642," 53
Course in 1655, 54
Course in 1690, 55
A Particular Account, 55
Cotton Mather's Account, 56
Course in 1726 and Later, 57
Method, 58
Yale a Duplicate of Harvard, 59
'' William and Mary, 59
Other Institutions, 61
Harvard the Greatest of All, 61
A More Detailed Study, 61
CHAPTER III.
ANCIENT I.ANGUAGES.
Page.
Latin, General View, 63 '^
Latin Conversation, 66 *^
Goal for All, 67 \s
Paths to the Apex, 70 \^
Sturm's Course Before 1600, 70
Roger Ascham's Notions, 72
What Was Done at Westminster, 72
Transit to America, 73
Class Room Scene, 74 v
Material Helps, 75 ^
Contents. 5
Page.
Adopted by Comenius, 76
American Importations of the Idea, jj
Formal Grammar, , 78
William Lilly, 79
Ezekial Cheever's Accidence, 81
Composition Aids, 82
Dictionaries, 83
Texts, 84
Ponies, 84
Did They Get What They Were After? 85
Prig Product •. ., 86
How Was it in America? 86
Demons of Discontent, ,. . . . 87
Locke and Milton, 89 '
Borrowed Plumage 89
America Falls in Line, 90
Only a Smattering, ,. . 91
Did the Boys Talk Latin? 92
Average Acquirement, 93
Failure of the Effort, 97
Greek, 100
Beginning in Italy, 100
German Start, ,. . . 101
Reception in England, 101
Faint Infusion in America, 102
What the Secondary Schools Did, 103
Virginia View, 103
Aids in Studying Greek, 104
Sum Total, 104
Hebrew, , 105
Objection to the Study, ,. 106
Judah Monis, 106
What Was Done at Yale, . . ., 107
Hebrew Grammars, 109
6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
CHAPTER IV.
THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.
Page.
Chaldee and Syriac, no
At Edinburgh One Hundred Years Before, 112
Peter Lombard, 114
Other Authors, 115
Biting Comments, 116
Logic, 118
Aristotle, 120
Breaking the Spell of the Stagyrite, 120
His Logic, 121
An English Edition, 122
Other Authors, 124
American Manuscript Editions, 127
Bellum Intestinum logicum, , 126
Decay of the Subject, 127
Ethics, 127
Other Christian Moralists, 129
More's Manual, 129
Some Harvard Theses, 130
Aristotle the Pedagogical Father of Ethics, 131
Philosophy, 132
Metaphysics, 133
Rise of Science, 134
Shafts of a Critic, 135
Rhetoric, 136
CHAPTER V.
GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND MODERN LANGUAGES.
Page.
Not Much Geography in American Schools, 138
Gordon's Geographical Grammar, 142
History, 145
Contents. 7
Page.
Light From Europe, 146
^/English, 147
(/Grammars, , , 149
Little Attention in America, 151
French, 155
CHAPTER VI.
MATHEMATICS.
Page.
Arithmetic, , 159
Chief Text Books, 161
Most Popular Arithmetic, 165
Some Minor Titles, , 166
Two American Arithmetics, 168
College Course, 169
Early Mathematical Chairs, , 169
At Yale, William and Mary and Pennsylvania, 171
Net Results in College, 172
Some of the Textbooks Used, 173
Algebra, 175
Astronomy, 177
Mather on Comets, 178
Educational Uses, . . . 178
Thoughtful Critic Unnoticed, 180
CHAPTER VII.
SCIENCE.
Page.
Attitude of the Great Thinkers, 184
John Baptist Porta, . „ 184
Scientific Baggage Taken to America, 187
8 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Page.
Charles Morton as a Science Teacher in America, ... 188
Table of Contents of 1687 Manuscript Copy by-
Brattle, I9 1
Abraham Pierson, 19 2
Gravesande and Rohault, 193
Physical Apparatus, 195
Apparatus at Harvard, 195
Inventory Seven Years Later, 199
Attitude of Thomas Hollis, 204
Apparatus in 1764, 205
Apparatus in 1779, 206
Apparatus in 1790, 217
Care of the Apparatus, 221
At Yale and Elsewhere, 223
CHAPTER VIII.
DISPUTATION.
Page.
Disputation a Patriarch, 226
Teachers Argue, . ., 226
Enthusiasm of the Pupils, 227
Scope of Disputation, 229
Questions Debated by Medievalists, 229
Jesuit Emphasis on Disputation, 232
English Insistence, 233
De Disputationibus Sophistarum, 234
De Baccalaureorum Disputationibus, 234
De Declamationibus Baccalaureorum, 234
American Love for Disputation, 235
Keckerman's Rules, 236
American Disputes, 248
Some Examples from Yale, 252
Contents. g
Page.
Some Burlesques, 1 255
Civic Culture, 257
Actual Disputations, 258
Milton, 258
John Cleveland's Arguments, 260
Something from Cheever, 262
Another Harvard Disputation, 265
Master Satirist, 269
Grave Contemporary Opinion, 270
Petrarch's Views, 271
John Webster's Biting Wrath, 271
Ponderous Milton 272
Battering Ram, 273
Some Defenses, 274
George Henry Lewes's Tribute, 274
Quasi-Disputations, 275
Commonplacing, 276
Commonplace Books, z'j'j
Last Traces of Commonplacing, 278
Died With Colonialism, 279
Remnants in England, 279
Religious Disputations, 280
In Georgetown University, 280
Survivals at Present, 282
SUMMARY.
Food That Made the Giants, 283 <
Bibliography, 287
OUR COLONIAL CURRICULUM
On the opposite page appears a table of our collegiate
studies in colonial days. A bare name does not always indi-
cate the idea intended to be conveyed. Especially, easy is it
for a misconception to arise when we follow the history of a
term. It was soon seen that such expressions as Latin,
arithmetic, logic, meant something quite different education-
ally then from what they mean now. So the attempt is made
in the following pages to indicate what the different sub-
jects in education then implied. The enquiry was broad-
ened beyond the limits indicated by the table opposite so as
to attempt to cover the entire course from infancy to gradu-
ation in college.
Coiaegiate Studies in Our Colonial Period.
Greek-
Latin —
Semitic —
Mathematics-
History —
Philosophy —
English —
Political
Science
Physics —
Bible-
Romance
Languages —
Astronomy —
Botany —
17th Century.
Translating; prose com-
position ; grammar ;
Testament.
Used as medium of
communication.
Hebrew — Translating
prose composition,
grammar ; Chaldee,
elementary; Syriac, el-
ementary.
Arithmetic ; geometry.
History.
Logic ; ethics.
Rhetoric ; composition ;
oratory (disputes) ;
grammar.
18th Century.
Translating; prose com-
position ; grammar ;
Testament ; Greek
catechism.
Translating ; composi-
tion and grammar.
Hebrew — Translating,
prose composition,
grammar.
Arithmetic ; geometry.
History.
Logic ; ethics.
Rhetoric ; composition ;
oratory (disputes) ;
grammar.
Politics (with ethics). Politics (with ethics).
Physics (germs of sub-
ject of to-day).
New Testament ; the-
ology ; Old Testa-
ment.
Astronomy.
"Nature of plants."
Elements (as term
"physics" is under-
stood nowadays).
New Testament (in
Greek) ; theology;
Old Testament (ex-
pounded).
French, elementary.
Astronomy.
Elements.
OUR COLONIAL CURRICULUM
CHAPTER I.
Elementary Course.
To-day science dominates our schools. Our colonial an-
cestors studied and taught in an atmosphere of religion
which they had inherited from the middle ages. For cen-
turies the pedagogic aim had been to point the road to
Heaven. All training, even physical, was centered upon
this thought. "Care for your body, for the soul's sake.
Care for the world for the body's sake." Thus solemnly
enjoined a fifteenth century teacher. The king in his court
equally felt the awful responsibility. Charlemagne, who
towers so high in the medieval background, commanded
his subjects "to apply yourselves with perseverance * * *
so that you may be able to penetrate with greater ease and
certainty the mysteries of the Holy Scriptures." The ecclesi-
astical hand was at the helm, and the church formulated the
curriculum and fixed the purpose of the different branches.
The moulding of the growing intellect through all Christen-
dom was in the charge very largely of the priesthood The
Jesuits had schools wherever the Bible held sway, number-
ing the pupils by the hundred thousands, before our fore-
fathers got a firm footing on this side of the Atlantic. Men
were fashioned and inspired for the goWn, the robe and the
cassock. Learning was for the preparation of this special
class, and the student was looked on as one set apart, of the
order of Melchizedek. The great leaders in theory and the
most thorough reformers in practice, still were most anxious
to show the path to the other world. Comenius, one of the
brightest stars in educational history, wanted children to
express devotion with every bodily movement of the eyes,
hands, feet, shadowing forth reverence and adoration for
14 Our Colonial Curriculum.
the invisible Majesty. The Holy Scripture must be the
alpha and omega of all instruction, "the governing subject
in the whole scholastic system."
All life converged to an apex, everything was subordinate
to the word of God. Education became a matter of author-
ity. For ages dead memory was the only faculty much
cultivated. The language of the great source of knowledge
must be graven on the brain. Truth must be accepted as the
deliverance of omniscience. Individuality, originality, must
be discouraged, while the capacity for receiving and believ-
ing at the utterance of his preceptors was strengthened and
deepened day by day, in every hearer at the desk. Almost
from the days of the Greeks, his duty was to accept what
his master told him. In time, it is true, some license of
opinion was allowed, but only within the rigid limits set by
these same authorities. There was in all this labor little
food for the mind, but there was hardy discipline for the
memory and considerable sharpening of the intellect. Thou-
sands of miles eastward, among a people often the opposite
of ourselves in view and action, there was a duplication of
this sprit, though there was no communication of methods
from one to the other. Confucius, the mighty captain of the
orient in ethics and pedagogics, had laid the foundation for
a similar training in China. "He taught letters, ethics, de-
votion of soul, and truthfulness," but all as a sodden lift
of memory, unrelieved by new ideas, with endless reproduc-
tion of notions handed down for generations.
But man's brain like his stomach, revolts at monotony.*
Protests arose against this crushing crust of tradition and
precedent. The rule of faith was disturbed and the sanc-
tity of the custom was assailed. But the firm rein was only
relaxed, a little play allowed but still dominion remained.
At the shock of Arab criticism, questionings arose, and old
statements were keenly scrutinized for their accurate mean-
ings. Especially was the doctrine of the Trinity acutely
Hlementary Course. 15
analyzed and tested, and from that beginning came forth
the thirst for examining the ground work of the principles
so long undoubted, but the fundamental tenets of Christi-
anity were unshaken, the terms of the Bible were weighed
and examined but on the premises that the whole book was
an act of inspiration. Comparison and investigation went
on under that protection, with the object of discovering the
true construction. A harassing, torturing road was it for
the mind, seeking with pain and agony to reconcile contra-
dictions, to make all fit in with the reason. A tangled mass
of doubt and limited freedom of inquiry, a mixture of emo-
tion and logic, energy bound in fetters — that led Ger-
many's poet a century ago to recreate and epitomize the
whole realm in the mouth of one of his characters : "I have
now alas ! thoroughly, with ardent care, studied philosophy,
jurisprudence, medicine, and, the more's the pity, also
theology! And now I stand here, poor fool, and am as
wise as I was before."
Religion the Keynote in Our Colonial Education.
This tiresome tangle of cross purposes and baffled spon-
taneity crossed the Atlantic with the first wanderers, cling-
ing to them like a grim spectre. John Locke, who comes
the nearest to penning an educational classic in the English
tongue, drew up a stilted constitution for one of our south-
ern colonies which was ignored, but he struck the basic
chord for our schools then, when he said that Heaven is
"our great interest and business," and "happiness in the
other world" is the spur for effort here. The Massachu-
setts legislature of course knew nothing of these senti-
ments, but they incorporated the spirit of them in one of
their measures of education, in 1647, when they ordained
that schools should be maintained in order to thwart the
"chief project of the old deluder Satan to keep men from
the knowledge of the Scriptures," otherwise they fear "the
1 6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
true sense and meaning" might be clouded by "false glosses
of saint seeming deceivers." Three years later their breth-
ren in Connecticut repeated this caution against that de\U
that was so personal to believers then. The local body took
up the refrain and were almost nervous to see that the
young were brought up in the nurture and admonition of
the Iyord, because fruitless must man's endeavors be with-
out the blessing of God. When poverty was too great,
they petitioned the home land for aid, lest their offspring
should not imbibe the principles of Christian religion. If
they could get that the rest caused but little useasiness.
"The Bible and figgers is all I want my boy to know," said
a pious Dutch farmer and his voice sounded for many of
his neighbors. It was the same whether they came from
England, from Holland, from Sweden, whether they were
in New England or south of the Potomac.
In ethical importance the teacher stood next to the
preacher. In fact he often discharged the other's functions
His duties were detailed for him and a strict agreement
bound him to certain things. In a general way here is what
he had to do in New England :
1. To act as court messenger.
2. To serve summonses.
3. To conduct certain ceremonial services of the church.
4. To lead the Sunday Choir.
5. To ring the bell for public worship.
6. To dig the graves.
7. To take charge of the school.
8. To perform other occasional duties. 1
Still more minute was the understanding in the locality of
New York among a different people when he was directed
to have four prayers daily from the catechism by his class,
to teach the common prayers and the catechism on Wednes-
days and Saturdays so as to have all well prepared for the
1 Boone, Education in the United States, page 12.
Elementary Course. 17
Sunday lessons. In fine the bulk of his agreements, in
some cases three-fourths of the articles, related to religion,
but scarcely a syllable would be inserted on education
proper. If he could be a sexton and a "Psalm setter,"
could read the sermon in the absence of the pastor, toll the
bell, intone prayers and assist at churchly ceremonials then
he was fitted to be a school teacher.
One of his greatest obligations was to catechise the child-
ren on the sermon of the previous Sunday and require them
to rack their little skulls for the text, for the subject, and for
most of the moving passages. Is it to be wondered at that
the calling was loathed, and that tramps and peddlers, the
very driftwood of society, men of broken fortunes, dis-
charged soldiers, often presided in the school house? But
some rugged souls went through the mills and survived as
men. There is one notable example in the Boston school-
master, Ezekiel Cheever, whose reputation shines down to
the present. Dying just before the eighteenth century,
nearly at the age of one hundred, he had been pioneer and
patriarch, "the typical man, the man of prayer, the man of
faith, the man of duty, the man of God," one of "Cromwell's
men." 2 In him were linked piety and scholarship. His
Latin grammar ran through many editions but paradigms
and syntax were the small things in life to him by the side
of the eternal welfare of those under his charge.
The; Bible the Reai, Primer Then.
Such men were steeped in the Scripture. It was an inher-
itance from the early ages of Christianity. For the cen-
turies past the psalter had been the chief book in the hands
of beginners. One of the most popular editions that crossed
the ocean was by Sternhold and Hopkins, fervent men who
2 Philips Brooks, Oration on Cheever, page 28.
V
1 8 Our Colonial Curriculum.
in the latter part of the sixteenth century were filled with
resentment against the loose amorous songs of the day and
tried to substitute the glowing piety of the psalmist. The
solemnity of their task would hardly prevent levity to-day
if the schools were put to reciting such lines as these:
"Our soul in God hath joy and game"
"Divide them Lord and from them pull
"Their devlish double tongue." 3
But the words of Israel's chief singer were not the only
portions used for education. Church councils had centuries
before decreed that pupils should be taught the true faith
and doctrine as the foundation of all instruction. Luther
though fighting that organization, retained this conception
His primer also had the Credo, paternoster, and other por-
tions of the Bible. Melanchthon added the Sermon on the
Mount and other selections from the New Testament but his
humanistic preferences also incorporated a number of pages
from Greek writers. Locke, though not an official church-
man, followed in the same path and wanted the Lord's
Prayer, the Creed, and the ten commandments to be learned
by heart. His common sense refused large portions es-
pecially of the Old Testament as unsuited for the youthful
capacity, but he asked for a "short and plain epitome * *
* the chief and most material heads." Under the sym-
pathetic gentle hands of the few women who taught in our
early colonial days these rigid truths were softened into
stories and moral precepts were inculcated by personal nar-
ratives. Skillfully were principles graven on the minds of
little girls by having them work religious samplers, often
in verses of "dolorous pitch" as in one quoted by an investi-
gator :
8 Mrs. A. M. Earl has a very humorous description of this book
in chapter 12 of Puritan New Bngland Sabbath.
Elementary Course. 19
"The winter tree resembles me
Whose sap lies in its root
The Spring draws nigh, as it so I
Shall bud, and hope, and shoot." *
The first textbooks could hardly be anything else than in-
fusions of this spirit. In fact the Hornbook and the New
England Primer were scarcely more than adaptations from
the Bible, having the Lord's Prayer, the commandments,
and other more favorite passages. The New England
Primer, practically the only book that younger students
used, was a "Vade Mecum" of religion, "the little Bible of
New England." It has all the atmosphere of Sunday ser-
vices. Its pages are sprinkled with such terms as "abom-
ination," "justification," "pray to God," "hate lies." Texts
and proverbs are found in it about a wise son and "give me
neither poverty nor riches." As an aid to the memory, per-
haps, versification is invoked and such couplets as these
were recited:
"Christ crucified
For sinners died"
"The deluge drowned
The Earth around."
A most touching one that comes down even to the present
begins :
"Now I lay me down to sleep."
The saturation was not exhausted even with the multipli-
cation of textbooks. The first prosaic "spelling books"
were composed of extracts transferred bodily from the
Bible. Out of 168 pages of Benezet's copy 20 pages were
given to spelling proper, the rest being absorbed from the
Bible and moral teachings. He was very franfeiand plainly
said in his preface that his aim was to turn the youthful
mind to "early sentiments of piety and virtue." This em-
4 R. R. Reeder, Historical Development of School Readers, page
26, Vol. 8, of Columbia University contributions to Philosophy,
Psychology, and Education, 1900.
20 Our Colonial Curriculum.
phasis transmitted itself through the classes and through
the years. Near the middle of the eighteenth century rem-
iniscences could be heard of the Bible having been used as
a reading book even for advanced pupils. 5 / A later witness
is the great transcendentalist who quotes the case for us
down almost to the nineteenth century :
"On Saturdays forth came, yellow and dim,
New England's primer; and the scholars all
Lord's Prayer recite, commandments, cradle-hymn,
And fatal consequence of Adam's fall." *
When young pens then as now took to diaries they natur-
ally tended to the sad and doleful, to questions of conscience
and sacred duty. They are very tiresome reading and ag-
gravatingly disappointing to one who searches them for edu-
cational data. They are strewn with reflections, with notes
on sermons, with good resolutions, but almost not a word
about life or work in the school. It is with a joyous burst
of expectancy that one picks up the "Journal of Dr. Sewall
during the last months of his senior year at Cambridge" but
it is with bitterness that he goes through those cramped
pages without finding an item on his college life. There
is plenty about "sins," "horrid remiss in duty," "jealousy,"
"God's mercies," etc. We might excuse those looking for-
ward to divinity as their calling such as Wigglesworth who
recounts in 1654 the agonizings that he endured over the
question whether it was right for him to go out on Sunday
and shut a flapping barn door but we are hardly called on
to forgive Baldwin over one hundred years later at Yale
for pouring out these moralizings when he was not definitely
decided for the ministry but was still looking longingly
towards the law. Still more, down to the era of the Revolu-
tion, we find a little girl, Anna Green Winslow, leaving be-
5 Bouton relates such an incident in Vol. 4, N. H. Historical
Society.
° B. Alcott's New Connecticut, page 24. Also quoted by Sanborn
in Vol. 1, page 16, of his "Memoir of Alcott."
Elementary Course. 21
hind her a manuscript book fairly choked up with the texts,
summaries, and other pious sentiments — and she only ten
years old. After that upheaval in our existence, and with
the volcano of the French revolution smoldering across the
waters, the famous physician, Benjamin Rush, could delib-
erately draw up a scheme of education for young ladies
covering sewing, cooking, music, dancing, history, poetry,
ethics, singing, astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, —
but all to be transfused into one purpose by — "regular in-
struction in Christian religion."
The Education of the Indian.
This same benevolent care was extended to the soul of the
red man, both up among the snows of New England and the
forests of Virginia. The archbishop of Canterbury in his
little geography in 1634 had naively remarked that the In-
dians were "utterly ignorant of Scripture, or Christ, or
Moses, or any God." The pious emigrants sought to con-
vert these simple children by making bachelors of art of
them. In some instances there seems to have been a re-
sponse from these savages. One of them near the middle
of the eighteenth century in Connecticut had asked that his
children be fed and educated as he was not able to make
these provisions for them himself. A few years later some
members of the proud Six Nations had applied for instruc-
tion. It is soothing to say even at this distance that orders
were given in both instances for these requests to be
granted. Harvard College freely admitted applicants from
this race, provided Indian textbooks, erected Indian colleges,
and also sought to train young white ministers specially to
go among them for their elevation. It was required of these
candidates that they should be specially skillful in the In-
dian language. 7 Down on the James River was formulated
'Harvard Archives, manuscript, College Books No. 4 and 5,
April 28, 1712.
22 Our Colonial Curriculum.
a very high standard at the end of the first third of the
eighteenth century when a curriculum for these untutored
natives comprised Latin, Greek, Hebrew, philosophy, math-
ematics, and divinity. 8 We can easily believe that the warm-
est advocates for educating the Indian honestly attempted
to do so but the opposition among their own color and the
age long conservatism among their pupils forbade all suc-
cess. The racial prejudice was too strong and a few out-
croppings of it at the beginning destroyed all hope. The
rash soldier who shortly after landing at Plymouth Rock
shot a fleeing Indian in the woods that refused to halt at
his command must have left an indelible impression hostile
to the newcomers and to everything they represented. Be
the cause what it may the results were very meagre and as
the red tide rolled backward toward the West the chances
for schooling the Indian became less and less and the de-
sire weaker and weaker after every conflict between the two
groups. The whole notion was fanciful and the plans im-
practical. The pace was too swift and the red students
died of the white plague, consumption. Only the official
evidence remains of Harvard's success in her efforts to
help these forest youth — this entry in a long list of gradu-
ates, "Caleb Cheeshahteamuck, Indus."
There was difference of climate and of environment be-
tween Massachusetts and Virginia but there was no differ-
ence of heart between the first settlers. The contrast of
Puritan and Cavalier has made pretty little pieces of an-
tithetical writing about as substantial as the Washington-
hatchet-cherry-tree-figment. Proselytism of the darker
skins burnt in the breasts of both, only the dweller along
the James had two of these races to pray over. The
planter there, William Hunter, who paid "Ann wages for
teaching at Negro Schools" years before the break with
8 William and Mary Catalogue, 1859, page n.
Elementary Course. 23
England, was in the same road with his brethren, except
we can infer, he was a little way ahead of the others.
Education of Giri<s.
Though not considered on the same plane with the sav-
ages, women had not reached equality with men in all rela-
tions outside of the home. It was generally understood
that the boys were to come first even though they may not
be so favored in the wording of the contracts. Naturally
conduct was the chief factor in the girl's curriculum and
special emphasis was laid upon her moral training. Before
1600 an English author had fixed the bounds for female
education. Thomas Becon had declared that young women
should be taught "to be sober-minded, to love their hus-
bands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, house-
wifely, good, obedient to their husbands."
That medieval star, Vives, in the 16th century, restricted
woman's reading to gospels, acts, epistles, Old Testament,
Hieronymus, Cyprian, Augustine, Ambrose, Hilary, Gre-
gory, Plato, Cicero, Seneca — all highly moral, well calcu-
lated to bolster up frail femininity which was "more inclined
by nature to sin than men."
The same view was held generally through Europe,
through the world. Even one hundred years later Fenelon
thought that closest attention in the training of girls should
be paid to modesty, gentleness, piety, household economy,
and the special duties of their station in life. The colonists
seemed to think that a little "reading and spelling, sewing,
and embroidering," with sampler making7 could not do much
harm but not too much mental food was to be laid before
them. Arithmetic, grammar, and geography, were gener-
ally thought superfluous except mere spoonfuls of dilu-
tion. 9 What need of figuring as all "expected to obtain hus-
' W. D. Orcutt, Good Old Dorchester, page 308.
24 Our Colonial Curriculum.
bands to perform whatever arithmetical operations they
might need beyond the counting of fingers?" Gradually a
little ciphering was added in the general scheme though
there must have been individual instances of the study of
arithmetic throughout the colonies from the beginning on
down. Some would also learn the four basic rules as a mat-
ter of long-sighted precaution for, while they had no "idea
of becoming old maids," they "might be left widows." 10 If
they could sew, that was "the height of their ambition," for
the bulk. 11 They were not fit to go to the same school with
their brothers nor were they worthy of masculine example in
the teacher. They got their smattering either at home or in
"Marm schools," or "Dame schools," under the fostering
hand of "Vestal maidens". The women who taught them
not being educated it was only natural that their pupils got
but little. Some New England antiquary has surmised that
"probably not one woman in a dozen could write." 12 A
schoolmaster who also wrote a textbook placidly drops a
word or two relating to the fair sex — "it is generally re-
marked that they are so unhappy as seldom to be found
•either to write or cipher well" — and this just before i8oo. 13
In many cases neither men nor women signed wills except
by a cross but the proportion is very much larger in the case
■of women than men. 14
Of course among fathers so devoted to learning, there
were individual instances of highly cultivated daughters.
•One of the best known is Cotton Mather's daughter Kath-
erine. After allowing for the natural pride of a parent,
we can still see a solid foundation for the fond utterances of
his funeral sermon at her death in the prime of young wo-
10 Warren Burton, page 132 of his District School.
11 Felt's Ipswich, page 90.
" Eggleston's Transit, page 244.
M Dilworth, Bookkeeper's Assistant, XIII.
14 Pelt's Ipswich, page 90.
Elementary Course. 25
manhood, that she was "mistress of the Hebrew tongue" and
a "good Latin scholar".
Another instance is the classical training of Jonathan
Edward's ten sisters by their stern father, Timothy Edwards,
who, so far as can be learned now, made them all go through
the same course that the young men in his school took for
entrance to Harvard and Yale. Nay, more, so well
grounded were his girls in Latin and Greek that he would
leave them to hear recitations in these ancient tongues dur-
ing his absence on ministerial duties. Neither does this cul-
ture seem to have undermined their health, nor to have mar-
red their feminine graces as they still loved needle work, and
only one became an old maid. 16
General Elementary Course.
The oldest existing English town in the United States is
Hampton, Va., which also has the oldest free school. 16 Some
twenty-five years after, near the middle of the 17th century,
far away to the northward, the same zeal for education ex-
pressed itself, one of the earliest instances being found in
the little place of Roxbury, Mass., when the inhabitants de-
clared for a school "for the instruction of youth in litera-
ture." 17 Two years later came the famous statue of that
colony requiring all towns to establish schools to teach read-
ing and writing. But there was a general blanket of re-
ligion that the youth should be trained "in all scholasticall,
morall^and theologicall discupline." 18 ^I v ater, near the end
of the century, in some places ciphering was added to the
meagre diet. 19 Again, five years beyond the birth of the
M Mrs. H. M. Plunkett, Scribnefs Magazine, January, 1903.
18 L. G. Tyler, page 77 of his William and Mary Quarterly, Oct..
1897.
" Dillaway's Roxbury, page 20.
M Dillaway's Roxbury, page 30.
™ Chase's Haverhill, page 142.
26 Our Colonial Curriculum.
new century, we find Latin added in the town of Ply-
mouth. 20 It was a hard and practical time with these
early settlers and very often only the most necessary rudi-
ments could be imparted. Instead of arithmetic they often
had "casting accounts". As the years counted up more
branches were appended. Only seven or eight years before
the outbreak with England, Providence, in Rhode Island,
listed "reading, accounting, pronouncing, and properly un-
derstanding the English tongue, writing, arithmetic, the var-
ious branches of arithmetic and the learned languages." 21
This menu was perhaps too rich for the stage of develop-
ment then as the report was not adopted but it is of value as
showing the aim of the period.
Sweden was said to have very general education. Her
emigrants were ambitious even though among the wilds of
America, and it was one of their chief concerns to obtain
books and appliances from the motherland- " A metropolitan
center like New York was still more diversified in its hunger
and it has been unearthed from the accumulations of the past
that about 1730 a teacher offered "reading, writing, cipher-
ing, merchants' accounts, Latin, Greek ; also dancing, plain
work, flourishing, embroidering and various sorts of
work." 23 >IChat common sense genius, Franklin, about 1750,
evolved a very comprehensive scheme for elementary educa-
tion, to cover six classes and contain reading, writing, spell-
ing, history, natural science, composition, letter-writing,
ethics, chronology, geography, logic, literature, grammar,
and public speaking, 24 The first head of Pennsylvania Uni-
versity three years after declared that the English language
with some writing and figuring and "a short system of re-
20 Collections Mass. Hist. Soc, 2nd series, volume 4, page 87.
21 Collections of the R. I. Hist. Soc, Vol. 5, page 499.
22 J. P. Wickersham, first chapter of his Hist. Ed. in Pa.
^Dunshee, page 62 of Hist. School Dutch Reformed Church in
New York.
"J. P. Wickersham, page 228 of his Hist. Ed. in Pa.
Elementary Course. 27
ligiorl^and civil truths and duties as the Socratic or cate-
chetic way" was all that was necessary for the ordinary run
of his fellow mortals — an early instance of, aristocratic feel-
ing in education. ^On down in the South, in Virginia, the
same general educational road was followed with some side
excursions such as French and Italian and novels. 26
Attention was paid to behavior or deportment especially
among the girls. It is most likely that Coote's English
School Master was pretty well known to some of the
teachers, with its numerous stanzas forming practically a
school code. Certainly the duty to God and to parents and to
all that were considered superior was properly emphasized.
Not only were the children told to be "mannerly" but the
points of dress were mentioned such as to have their clothes
buttoned, their hose gartered, their handkerchiefs in readi-
ness, to wash their hands and faces, their shoes tied and
their shirt bands pinned, because "slovenly in your array"
"I must have a fray." It was in the same strain that a Ger-
man, Dock, had "one hundred necessary rules of conduct" —
perhaps the first American book of etiquette, as it came out
in 1764. 26
Human progress is painfully slow not so much because
people do not know what they should do but because their
will is too weak. In that primitive period a few keen
sighted men urged manual training, the learning of a "trade,
so that pupils could be fitted to make their way in life, and
yet over two hundred years slipped by before we see any
general application of their views. John Locke had put this
in his curriculum, it had also been called for by that earnest
soul, George Fox, the Quaker, it had been indirectly advo-
cated in Virginia in binding out an orphan to some manual
trade, it had been linked with reading and writing in New
York when a widow got married again and her new husband
25 Tyler's Quarterly, July, 1897.
28 J. P. Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania,
page 225.
28 Our Colonial Curriculum.
contracted to give a certain amount of education to her chil-
dren. The road was pointed out by keen vision but our
forefathers could not be induced to walk in it. That allied
subject, physical culture, had substantially hardly a germ in
those days, in fact there wasn't time for it nor was there
much need. Demands of frontier existence gave as much
muscular exercise as the most were capable of.
But these lists so readily penned by officials and authors
carried an infinity of pain and toil for the childish brain,
which at this interval must be largely imagined, assisted by
the data which can be' gathered.
A — B — C — Darians.
/ Stretching back through epochs the road was smoothed
out by myriads of little feet beginning with the alphabet,
which at the start consisted of a sheet of parchment nailed
on a board. Afterwards followed the Hornbook, the
Primer, then the Metric Psalter. Some tiny ABC books
have been preserved, very interesting miniatures a couple
of inches long, one inch wide, with some eight or ten pages
showing the alphabet and little verses such as
"The owl's delight
Is to hoot at night." "
Many/*2tn now remember what an awful effort it was af-
ter weary days and weeks to impress upon their memory the
names and shapes of these twenty-four characters. Teachers
and philosophers "fek this burden and sought to devise ways
to lighten it. /That educational reformer, Basedow, made
letters of gingerbread and offered them as a reward as soon
as the alphabet was mastered.)(john Locke with his rare
insight devised blocks of 24 and 25 sides with a letter pasted
on each and used *hem as dice in a game so that the infant
"There are about a dozen in the Boston Public Library, with
some of the librarian's correspondence showing his suspicion that
they may have been reprints and not original copies. The paper
seems very modern.
Blementary Course. 29
intellect would grasp the alphabet as a pleasant pastime.
From this he would go on to the combinations into words
and thus tempt the child as a recreation and not as a task.
The Hornbook.
The Assyrian clay tile with letters scratched on it is per-
haps the earliest germ of our school books today, later re-
placed by the wax tablets of the Greeks and Romans, finally
the slip of paper on some solid surface. But from the mid-
dle ages far into the 18th century the equipment for the first
year or so at school was the Hornbook, a sheet of paper
pasted on a flat piece of wood and covered with transparent
horn so as to save the printing underneath. With a handle at
one end it resembled a paddle and from the accounts that
have come down to us was often used for that purpose as a
means of punishing refractory pupils, dividing that duty
with a switch. Fancy and taste soon ran riot with forms
and designs so that there were handsome carved ones, for
the rich and very plain, even uncovered ones, for the poor.
Towards the end of its career it blossomed into the battle-
' dore, stiff cardboard with a flap folded down at each side,
making in fact three leaves, having lost all semblance of
that instrument. -j^The hornbook at its birth was a battle-
dore but philological perversity made the unseemly swap of
cognomens, and gave us this monstrosity of a term not at
all descriptive of the thing it is applied to.N^But all of both
types had substantially the same features, an alphabet, Lord's
Prayer, with verses either moral or scriptural, and mostly
some stanzas of poetry for the memory. At the top on the
first side with some came the biblical emblem of the Cross
which in common language was soon referred to as criss-
cross — Christ's Cross. Others had little pictures around the
four margins to impress the letters on the memory as : B —
Bear: H — Horse: O — Owl: etc. A still further aid was a
row of nonsense jingles thus:
30 Our Colonial Curriculum.
"Art we add
Ben is bad
Cat she can
Dad or dan
Ear and eye
Fat may fly
Go to gad
Him he had
Inn for jay
Ken the key
Let him lop
My old mop
Now we nod
Oar so odd
Pen and pin
Quit or quin
Rue the rat
Sad she sat
Top we turn
Use the urn
Von no van
Who is wan
Xen did vex
Ye may yex
Zeal for zest
and may rest"
A monument of research has been given up to this simple
pedagogical help and two portly volumes show the results. -? s
The subject is worth all of this investigation too. That plain
simple little slip of wood in its original state represented at
that time the long list of books and supplies that are re-
quired in our primary schools at the present day. Here the
contrast stands in parallel columns with the Hornbook pre-
28 A. W. Tuer's History of the Horn-Book, 1896.
Elementary Course.
3i
For Col-
onial Days.
empting all the left: hand and a stout array of items of to-
day filling the right hand one:
Primary Schools Today. (Boston)
C The Finch Primer
Stepping Stones to Literature $1
$2
" " " $3
Cyr's The Children's Primer
The Werner Primer
Progressive Course in Reading, First Book
" " " Second "
" " " Third "
Franklin Primer and First Reader
Second Reader.
Advanced Second Reader.
Third Reader
Primary Arthmetic
American System of Music, Reader $1
McLaughlin & Veazie's Introductory Music
Reader
National Music Course, New First Reader
Normal " First Reader
Natural " Primer
McLaughlin & Veazie's Introductory Music
Reader
Educational Music Reader, $1
First Lessons in Natural History and
Language
Two number work blocks
Drawing Pencils
Common lead pencils
Rubber
Paper
Clay
Hornbook
32 Our Colonial Curriculum.
This little exhibit is an epitome of civilization for these
two or three centuries. But this flowering is all rooted back
to the hornbook. That meagre help had figures, spelling,
reading, and its little verses were likely intoned)(ln fact,
reading in medieval days was only taught as an end to music
in many cases at any rate, — "to teach a child to help a priest
to sing." Such schools had "chanting, reading and writ-
ing." 29 They generally disappeared as their special aim was
enveloped in the religious atmosphere of education.
The New England Primer.
Supplanting the Hornbook which tasted too strongly of a
state church came the New England primer, "the school
book of the dissenters of America," reprinted time after
time for nearly two centuries, reaching an average annual
sale of 20,000 copies, and a total one of over 3,000,000, even
coming down so near to us as an edition in 1886, but one of
the rarest books in existence in spite of this numerous cir-
culation. 80 It is really an enlargement of the Hornbook,
being constructed along these same religious lines. It
reaches back to the very beginning of time as people con-
sidered the matter then. Of course theology had to lay the
foundation, starting with the couplet,
"In Adam's fall
We sinned all"
and bringing in such history touches
Zaccheus he
Did climb a tree
Our Lord to see"
but morality followed hard in such solemn warnings as
"A dog will bite
A thief at night"
28 A. F. Leach, pages 70, 105, of his English Schools at Reforma-
tion.
80 P. L. Ford's edition is a most learned account of this most
remarkable textbook in American history.
Elementary Course. 33
The bulk of it was composed of extracts from the Bible of
hymns and of moral teachings. Even the largest of them
contained only a few pages but it is a strain on the imagina-
tion to realize that this thin little volume did the service of
half a dozen readers at the present day .
Reading.
For many years it is safe to say that the Hornbook and
primer were about as far as the bulk of the children espec-
ially girls, ever went on the road towards easy reading. /But
for those who wished to climb higher there was the infallible
refuge of the Bible, and advanced classes used this as a
regular reading book. 81 As time passed on there were other
aids such as Benezet's primer, constructed of the same
ecclesiastical material and patterned closely after those great
prototypes, followed with pious reflections and endless mor-
alizings about goodness and piety and virtue and kindred
ideas. Some of these also mixed in a little grammar and
arithmetic. But none got very far from the religious at-
mosphere. About the middle of the 18th century Franklin
recommended Croxall's Fables, a tedious book, and Fox's
Primer was used by the Quakers having been published in
Philadelphia fifty years earlier. 32 There is a very interest
ing delightful one in the American Antiquarian Society in-
tended to cover the whole scheme of knowledge from the
alphabet on through the elementary grades, ranging from
words of one syllable on up to those of five and six, with a
mixture of grammar, arithmetic, spelling and reading. The
youthful mind was to be impressed early in life with the
awfulness of existence. One extract from the earlier por-
tions will show the heavy solemnity of the entire product:
"Lord what is man: Originally dust, engendered in sin,
n Bouton, in New Ham. Hist. Soc. Pub., Vol. 4.
82 Wickersham, page 27, Hist. Bd. in Pa.
3
:- \
34 Our Colonial Curriculum.
brought forth with sorrow, helpless in his infancy, extrava-
gantly wild in his youth, mad in his manhood, decrepid in
his age : his first voice moves pity, his last commands
grief." 88
Speujng.
There is evidence that up to perhaps 1700 or even later
there was no regular spelling book, all the training in that
exercise being taken from the reading lessons^" Later came
regular books for that purpose, one of the most widely used
being Dilworth's, about the middle of the 18th century.
They all were a jumble of the Bible, morality, and religion
luxuriously interladed with the alphabet and with words of
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and more syllables. When it came to longer
ones, the pedant and the preacher vied with one another in
such words as "cocolico," "eunetlydgji," and "antitrini-
tarian." It was such hopelessly unfit specimens that youthful
tongues had to stumble over until Noah Webster earned
the gratitude of allwith his blue black spelling book, which
is an opulent enlargement of the New England Primer, but
did not come into use until after the close of the period this
study aims to cover.
Writing.
The passion for beautiful handwriting was inherited from
the painful copyists of the middle ages. It was besides a
necessity to make plain letters because many of the pupils
had only their dictation exercises in some studies as text-
books. An English authority declared "to write is in com-
mon life necessary and to write well commendable." S5 He
took a very serious view of the matter and thought that a
legible hand seems to carry with it some respect to the
ss Youth's Instructor, Boston, 1757, p. 47.
84 Bouton, New Hampshire Historical Society, Vol. 4.
M Christopher Wase, page 107 of his Considerations Concerning
Free Schools, Oxford, England, 1678.
Elementary Course. 35
reader and easy flourishes in their places add grace, distinc-
tion, sometimes dignity. Aside from this hard common
sense he expanded liberally on different styles of hands
such as the "Italian Cursire" and "Court hand" and
"abbridgments." This last was an important concern owing
to the universal methods of note taking in the higher insitu-
tions. The American teachers followed this general road and
rather early in the 18th century began to pay attention to
this branch of study, Thomas Hill getting out "the young
secretary's guide" in Boston in 1730. Later on came the use-
less refinements which have filtered down to the present day.
A certain fellow, John Jenkins, writing master, issued a
most intricate analysis of the lines, hooks, and curves of let-
ters, following this with laborious rules for combining these
elements into symmetrical characters. Perhaps he was in
earnest, perhaps he was shrewdly trying to disguise the pill
when he stated on his title page that it was "a plain easy
and familar introduction to the art." Paper was dear and
birch bark was perhaps as handy as birch switches., In some
of the country schools at least this skin stripped from the
tree took the place of our copy books now. 36 But in spite
of these directions and these make-shifts only a small por-
tion learned to. sign their names The larger number had to
fall back upon the vulgar practice of making a cross. 37 In
other cases the stern insistence of economy in time and ma-
terial worked its way in giving us some of the most vexa-
tious specimens of cramped writing to be found. Some of
the diaries and some of the lectures on the shelves of li-
braries in New England would harass the soul and try the
temper of the most benign among us. When this same care-
lessness is embalmed in Latin words many of which are con-
tracted the student almost wishes that none of them had
ever learned to sign their names.
" Bouton, N. H. Hist. Soc. Pubs., 1833.
"Felt, Ipswich, page 90.
36 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Ciphering.
It is very likely that the forests near by throughout the
most of the colonies furnished the surface for the small
hands "to do sums" upon when they could not get the backs
of old letters and the margins of printed pages. It is safe to
say that there was not much figuring done because it was
the custom then not to tackle the science of numbers until
the child could read. Whatever of arithmetic was attempted
in these lower grades was purely mechanical and utilitarian.
People then had very little time for anything except the hard
problem of making a living. "Casting accounts" was an aid
to that and hence all of the arithmetic was done along that
road largely. No great stress was laid upon it before enter-
ing college. Even there it was largely a matter of manu-
script labor, transcribing from the teacher's directions. Sev-
eral of these helps are preserved and the writing is large,
round and clear, unfaded after these centuries.
"Free Schools."
There were almost as many names for the school as there
were subjects taught.. They were referred to as "Latin
grammar schools," "grammar schools," "Latin schools,"
"free schools," and "public schools," all meaning practically
the same thing. A vast amount of toilsome learning has been
expended over the term "free school." In one sense of the
word they were emphatically not "free" in some instances
because they charged a fee. 88 It might also mean "free tui-
tion." Again, an investigator holds that it indicated "free
from the jurisdiction of a superior corporation." The cor-
responding Latin phrase usd in the titles of English schools,
"libera schola," has been tested with the very acid of scholar-
ship but no satisfactory result has been reached. Again it has
been thought that the phrase threw wide open the doors to
M Barnard, Vol. 27 of American Journal of Education, page 07.
Elementary Course. 37
the accessibility of all pupils. Poor old Berkeley of Virginia
has done more to perpetuate this collocation of words than
all other agencies combined. He has also projected his repu-
tation far into the centuries ahead of him and has innocently
been the pivot of bitter sectional discussion. He it was who
thanked God that Virginia had no free schools. What he
really had in mind nobody knows at the present day. Cer-
tainly he was not a barbarian opposing all knowledge be-
cause he gave his own means to encourage education. Pro-
fessor H. B. Adams seems to soften the case for this
crusty aristocrat by suggesting that he might have been de-
nouncing too much attention to the classics but this seems
rather faint. At any rate no knight of the pen has effect-
ually cleared up Berkeley's memory. Perhaps it is even
well not to do so as Berkeley's reward will be continued life
in history.
Teachers and Books.
The Roman poets spoke disdainfully of teaching as a very
low calling. Christianity has not dissolved this pagan
contempt, and traces still survive in rather strong colors to
the present. Loafers, derelicts in life, floating hulks, the
flotsam and jetsam of society were good enough to pound
learning into unwilling heads. Indentured servants, even
convicts, were seated at the desk with book in one hand and
rod in the other. But conditions were no better in the mother-
land. Peacham had complained of the "general plague and
complaint of the whole land that for one discreet and able
teacher you shall find twenty ignorant and careless." 39 The
whole world knows how the Father of his Country learned
the rudiments from a pedagogue of very inferior rank. He
was not the only Virginian of lordly station in that colony
that was thus treated. McCabe tells of a convict purchased
in Baltimore and carried southward to the sister locality for
88 Eggleston's Transit, page 243, so quotes.
38 Our Colonial Curriculum.
conducting a school. 40 But what awful difficulties con-
fronted even the ablest and most earnest ! A group of chil-
dren, no two in the same class, ranging in curriculum from
the alphabet to the Latin grammar with only unsuitable text-
books shipped across the Atlantic and above all wild, rude
and unruly in manner, ready to try their strength at any
time with the master these were the frightful ob-
stacles that the average teacher had to face and overcome
if possible.
What Was Accomplished?
With such drawbacks critics could easily say that "the
course of instruction was narrow and partial. Each hungry
child got a crust, but no one had a full meal." The whole
outline was "meagre and impoverishing," only the "driest
husks of grammar," no geography, no history, no reading
book, no slates, in fact Noah Webster says almost no books
except those made by the pupils themselves. 41
There were the greatest inequalities of facilities and con-
sequently the greatest difference of opinion. Gov. Dudley,
in 1 701, thought there was no child ten years old that could
not read well and no man of twenty that could not write
well. 42 But the microscopic antiquarians tell a different tale.
Upham, the historian of Salem, who had crawled through
the wilderness of town records, found enough to convince
him that many in that ancient city could not read. It was
perhaps to stay the rising tide of ignorance that Massachu-
setts had passed the law of 1647 calling for the establish-
ment of schools in every town. This benevolent intention
was not carried out, the ideal was too high to be reached
then, but the spirit of equality for all then first took legis-
lative form and has furnished the example for all her sister
"His Virginia Schools, page 26.
"Brooks's Medford, page 280. Also BarnarcTs Amcr. Journal
of Educ, Vol. 26, page 195, and Vol. 16.
" Eggleston's Transit, page 267.
Elementary Course. 39
commonwealths. This simple enactment paved the way for
the toleration for all creeds and fixed the principle of a
central authority for general education, but a pioneer light
had already flickered along this path. John Knox, years
before, had a scheme for the establishing of schools in every
locality. True, he had thought of it only in connection with
his own church. 43
We are accustomed to think of the Latin races at the
present day as being decadent. It may temper our pride a
little to know what one of those nations, Italy, had been do-
ing two centuries before this in the same grade of schools.
The children in that peninsula then had "reading, taught by
movable letters ; arithmetic, taught by games ; writing and
drawing; the psalms, creed, Lord's Prayer, and Hymn to
the Virgin, learned by heart; Latin" in conversation and
history from tales, but just as with us the native tongue was
practically ignored as unworthy of school training.
The Vestibule to CoeeEge.
All the classes, all the studies, the whole elementary ma-
chinery were in bondage to the college, swaddling clothes
that the public schools have not yet entirely cast off. The
ABC books, the Hornbook, the Primer, and all were
traversed with the eye fixed upon the college doors. Latin
was the "be-all and end-all" of the teachers' efforts.* 4 So
soon as the pupils could read they were rushed into
Cheever's Accidence, then Lilly's Grammar, with its twenty-
five classes of nouns, its seven genders, and its thicket of
rules, all to be memorized by the liberal use of the ferule
if necessary. The Government deliberately gave its sanc-
tion to this educational serfdom and imposed upon the locali-
ties the task of training youth "so as to fit them for the
43 Eggleston's Transit, page 232.
44 G. H. Martin's Massachusetts Schools, page 58.
40 Our Colonial Curriculum.
college." " The municipalities followed suit and enjoined
the erection of schools to prepare the youth for college in
Latin and Greek. "The parsons' schools" in Virginia had
the same solicitude for these ancient languages.
But no matter what the purpose, no matter what the result,
there was the same atmosphere over it all. The aroma of
ecclesiasticism was pungent and penetrating, the catechism
had to be graven on the memory, the preacher had to be
heard and repeated, "because all man's endeavors without
the blessing of God must needs be fruitless and unsuccess-
ful," and hence the instructor's chief duty was to "commend
his scholars and his labors among them unto God."
It is with the doxology and an amen we close the ele-
mentary school and open the scriptures for a text on the
all-absorbing object of the whole system, the college.
"Mass. Records, May 31, 1671.
CHAPTER II.
The GenErai, Coujjge Course
saving oe souls.
"To further the college in piety, morality and learning"
was the spirit of the act of the general court of Massachu-
setts in 1642, with regard to the newly established Harvard
college. This was not a piece of formality either, because
the institution was designed to train men for service in
church and state, but it was the former that gave the tone
to the entire place. The authorities impressed it upon the
students that they were to be the religious guides in this
wilderness. "When you are yourselves interested in the
Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness, you will be fit to
be teachers of others," were the solemn words of one of the
early heads of Harvard. 46 The teaching staff for these pious
students had to be sound in the doctrine, none to be tolerated
who were "unsound in the faith or scandalous in their lives,
and not giving due satisfaction according to the rules of
Christ." " It lay heavy on the minds of these saintly souls
that a weighty matter they had not only for themselves, but
for posterity, in order that there might be "a prolonging of
God's special favor." It was to be a school of the prophets,
no one was to be president except one fitted to serve his
classes with divinity expositions, who could be "a faithful
instrument to promote the holy religion here practiced and
established, by instructing and fitting for our pulpits and
churches and public and useful services such as shall be"
brought there for study.* 8 Of the total graduates for nearly
"Peirce, History of Harvard, page 24, referring to President
Chauncey.
"Mass Records, May 3, 1654.
"Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., second series, Vol. 4, page 64.
4 2 Our Colonial Curriculum.
two centuries after the foundation nearly one-half were
clergymen. Boys were publicly whipt to the accompani-
ment of two prayers for using "blasphemous words," and the
privilege of "boxing" them was not formally repealed
till 1755-
A few miles away at Yale was another ecclesiastical cen-
ter. That sylvan sister, far southward on the banks of the
James, also suffered the same quickening pains and darts of
conscience for the spiritual welfare of the youth. Amid
■ the trees of the sandy flats, William and Mary College
yearned and tossed over the mighty question of pointing
the little colony the road to Heaven. Their zeal burned
within them to send forth a corps of ministers so that the
Christian faith might be propagated even amongst "the
western Indians to the glory of God." They established a
college of divinity along with the other branches of
knowledge.
In both quarters these harassed souls could congratulate
themselves on having accomplished their purpose, so beatific
and pure was the atmosphere of Cambridge that young men
came from England to enjoy this flavor of "morals and re-
ligion." 49 Both Mather and Meade, the one in Boston and
the other in Williamsburg, could record with a glow of
fervor that persons had been properly trained for the pulpit.
But what was still more important for the general interests
then, though these two enthusiastic annalists did not at all
realize it, these institutions also molded men capable of lead-
ing in affairs of state and politics. In both places graduates
went forth to mount the platform, to argue in mass meet-
ings and to debate in the legislature.
But for laying the foundations, these planters in the new
world had to bring their notions across the Atlantic, to im-
port their principles from the old home. Numbers who first
came over that watery path had received their diplomas
" Peirce, Hist, of Harvard, pages 8 and 21.
The General College Course. 43
before starting. It is to Oxford, to Cambridge, to Dublin,
to Edinburgh, to the European centers that we must go if we
pierce to the very bottom of these virgin universities.
"An Asinine Feast of Sow Thistles."
This is the Homeric splash given to the university train-
ing of his day by the ponderous Milton, who perhaps above
all other English authors had absorbed the spirit of classical
culture. He knew what he was talking about as he had been
honored by his alma mater and also beaten by his instruc-
tors with rods.
The bill of fare had been evolved for 1400 years and was
the result of finally blending two conceptions. Greece stood
for the human side of education, Christianity devoted its
strength to the salvation of the soul, to be obtained by abne-
gation and asceticism. The happy process had not been
completed in Milton's time. Through these long ages pain-
fully had the road been gradually advanced from the rudest
element through cloistral, cathedral, parish, and monastery,
school eventually to the university, which was the apex of
the whole. But this last did not push up into view until the
millennial year had slipped back into the past by more than
a century. For two or three more such limits of time they
were scarcely more than respectable grammar schools. They
had their divisions and their departments, but there is many
a pedagogue at the present day scattered through this land
in little country huts hearing classes from the highest to the
lowest that is doing the same kind of work that his fore-
runners did more than 500 years ago in high-sounding uni-
versities. Each professor was expected to take a ba<tch of
boys through the entire course from the bottom to the top
and then go to the bottom again and start over. 50
They differed in scope, they varied in their terms, they
changed their curriculum, but after all they were torches
00 Grant, Edinburgh University, Vol. I, page 148.
44 Our Colonial Curriculum.
feebly illuminating the darkness around. They stood for at
least two things, they glorified study and they taught with
the living voice, face to face with the class. There was prac-
tically no science, no history, no literature, a meagre vest-
ment for us in the light of to-day, but the rudiments were
there and out of them have gradually sprung our luxuriance.
To the most of them all knowledge sprouted from what they
called philosophy in three branches, physics, ethics, and logic.
Each one of these three had prongs. Physics divided into
arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Ethics broke
into prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance — all quali-
ties of character rather than subjects of knowledge. Logic
became dual under dialectics and rhetoric, which really were
nearly the same thing. In time all these branches were
melted down into the trivium and quadrivium, that sound
very large and learned, but were really not equal to a high
school in any of our cities. When a boy had gone through
these three, grammar, rhetoric, and dialects; then these
four, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, he could
proudly go back to his home as having eaten of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge, having swallowed the two halves
which have been characterized by an American educational
writer as "the foundation of intellectual education" and as
"relating mostly to nature." 51
At about 15 years of age he began his university career,
it goes almost without saying, nibbling on the Latin roots
and the bulk of his energy while there was devoted to the
same tiresome thing. Of Greek he got a glimpse and that
not until late in medieval days. Of the natural sciences he
attempted little and it would have been far better for him if
he had not done that much, as he got only a mixture of
ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. His Latin enabled
him to put on theological airs, and weary his brain and other
people's ears with problems of logic and ethics. Thus ran
51 W. T. Harris, in introduction to Laurie's Univs., page VII.
The General College Course. 45
the general medieval stream, but more pertinent to us are
the rivulets in the little islands to the west of Europe.
The Course at Dublin.
In this Irish institution in the seventeenth century there
were four classes, or one for each year, studying Latin,
Greek, and the sciences. The first year had logic and the
Isagoge of Porphyry ; the second had Aristotle's Organon ;
the third browsed in Aristotle's physics, and the fourth in
the same writer's metaphysics and ethics. They thus spent
their strength on the work of this great Grecian. In addition
to the central core they had lectures in science, but of what
nature can only be surmised here. Very likely it was only a
rehash of some of the crumbs of Aristotle. There were also
regular exercises in the translation of Latin into English
and lectures on Greek three times weekly. But the cream
of the whole curriculum was disputation first on logical
themes and second on philosophical and metaphysical. It
was expected that all should talk Latin and at intervals each
student was required to give declamations in the two clas-
sical tongue. 52
At Edinburgh.
We have available more definite information about this
Scottish school than about Dublin at the same time, but
there is an exact correspondence in the number of years and
in the emphasis laid upon Aristotle and the attention paid to
the ancient languages.
In the first year they read Isocrates, Homer, Hesiod,
Cicero, and Phocyllides, besides there was Ramus in dia-
lects.
In the second year came a review of the first with the ad-
dition of rhetoric from such authors as Talaeus, Cassander,
" Stubbs's Dublin University, page 139.
46 Our Colonial Curriculum.
and Aphthonius. The Organon of Aristotle appears as one
of .the formal branches. Arithmetic is also mentioned.
In the third year came the Hebrew grammar, with more
advanced dialects and rhetoric, and some human anatomy.
In the fourth year a cursory view was taken of the three
preceding ones, with astronomy, chiefly from Aristotle either
directly or secondarily.
That quibbling machine, disputation, was of course in
constant use all the time to sharpen the verbal wits of the
students. Superiority was claimed in having Aristotle in the
original and not in Latin translation and also in paying more
attention to style in the use of these two mediums and in the
use of a modernized logic. But the important examination
tests were based almost entirely upon Aristotle, with
Ramus's dialectics, and some astronomy. It will be readily
noted that a thin gruel was provided as practically there was
no mathematics except the most elementary sort, and no
history, and no science properly called. 52
At Oxford.
At Oxford the same threads run. There were Porphyry
and Aristotle, rhetoric, dialectics, physics, morals, and the
same endless disputations and formal declamations. As the
main object of the college was to fit for the ministry —
"ad finalem sacrse theologiae professionem" — it goes almost
without saying that there were courses in the Greek Testa-
ment, that there were daily prayers early and late, very
numerous on Sundays and festivals, with catechisms on the
creed, Lord's Prayer, Thirty-nine Articles, etc., and an in-
junction, which we may well believe was well carried out,
to listen to all the university sermons.
To become a bachelor of arts required four years in dia-
lects, rhetoric, Greek, Latin, one gospel, with summaries of
Aristotle's Topics and Posterior Analytics or Elenchi. To
18 Grant's Edinburgh University, Vol. I, page 153.
The General College Course. 47
become a master of arts the student had to spend three
years more floundering in natural and moral philosophy,
rhetoric, in the meantime bandying speech with his fellows
in disputations, winding up all with a Latin summary of
some dull treatise with his preface in Greek. Throughout
he was to talk Latin, Greek or Hebrew — the very thing we
are pretty sure he did not do except on parade occasions.
At Cambridge.
The statutes of Queen Elizabeth provided very broadly
for a four years' course, covering rhetoric in the first year,
dialectics in the second and third years, with philosophy in
the fourth, and with public disputations twice in the last
year. It may be safely assumed that private exercises in
this last went on with unabated frequency and vigor during
the other three years. 54
A most indefatigable historian of Cambridge says that
Latin was almost the only branch here, certainly in the
grammar course, in the century preceding the decree of
Elizabeth. The authors followed were mainly Terence,
Boethius, Orosius, with the grammarians Priscian and
Donatus. 55 But we can hardly trust that matters were any
better even up to 1600. A little before that time, Caius col-
lege insisted that Latin be a test for admission to its walls,
as there was a kind of nervous dread lest "the university
should become a grammar school, a name by which it is
already designated to the detriment of its fame. 66
There were observers and there were critics trying to im-
prove the educational environment. The great Lord Bacon
turned his eye upon the training there and penned his stric-
tures. He thought that the staff had too small compensa-
H Documents of Cambridge, 3 volumes, 1852, Vol. 1, page 459,
in Latin.
05 J. B. Mullinger's University of Cambridge, page 341.
M J. B. Mullinger's Cambridge, Vol. 2, page 163.
48 Our Colonial Curriculum.
tion ; that the professions were unduly emphasized ; that the
standard was so low as to allow unripe students to enter;
that the discipline was one-sided, building too much on the
memory, and that above all the faults was the stimulus
given to theological strife, encouraging "private emulations
and discontentments." " More detailed was John Webster
in 1654, when he delivered censures along the entire line, all
thoughtful and most endorsed by posterity.
Other Courses.
Although we have steam and the electric current to-day,
it may be doubted whether the curriculum is near so uniform
in the different countries now as it was in those days. The
mighty university of Paris had dialectics, rhetoric, and sub-
stantially the same portions of Aristotle as we find in her
sisters, with the same Latin grammarians.
It will help to throw light upon the university studies, to
glance at courses of different grades and different purposes.
The oldest, the most widely extended of these other educa-
tional influences were the Christian schools that kept the
flame of literature feebly burning throughout the darkest of
all the ages. Originally and largely throughout their career,
their motive was to prepare for the ministry. Beginning
with memorizing the Latin psalter they had writing, sing-
ing, arithmetic, Greek, canon law, and logic, astronomy, and
music and other quadrivial subjects. The mathematics were
chiefly for assistance in calculating the church festivals.
Latin was the main dish though usually the Roman writers
were not much used, strength being placed upon the early
Christian authors. It was the vehicle for the ideas of all
the other subjects and was required in daily conversation.
A very curious development in some instances was letter
writing based upon the epistles of Cicero. It is perhaps
M J. B. Mullinger's Cambridge, page 437.
The General College Course. 49
to that root may be traced the six formal heads of our letters
to-day, as those early instructors had six divisions: saluta-
tio, captatio, benevolentia, narratio, petitio and conclusio
But the heart to which all the blood streams flowed was
religion — "all these studies had in view one object, the
proper understanding of holy scripture in the study of the
scriptures themselves and of such of the Fathers as could be
got (or extracts from them), was the governing subject in
the whole scholastic system. Every subject was estimated
by. its bearing on the Bible and limited by the needs of the
theologian." 58
Even such an avowedly theological course as that pro-
vided by the greatest of all religious organizers, Loyola, fol-
lowed nearly in the same grooves. These earnest dog-
matizers had grammar, some Greek, rhetoric, philosophy,
with mathematics and the merest tags of science and history
brought in incidentally. They played on two cords only,
Latin and Jesuit theology, and were highly successful in
both.
It mattered little which side educational reformers were
on of that great upheaval injected into European life by
Luther, the school subjects were cast almost in the same
mold. Melanchthon devised a very full and successful one
for his period and yet it was memorizing Latin, talking
Latin, reading Latin, versifying Latin, reciting from the
Bible, singing hymns, with rhetoric which was really Latin,
without mathematics, without natural philosophy.
It is a tedious iteration but a very significant one to show
what was the conception in a secondary school in England
founded by the government. The Ipswich school, provided
for by Wolsey's statutes, about 1550, had eight classes.
After the two preliminary ones the others went as follows :
The third studied iEsop, Terence, the fourth had Virgil, the
58 S. S. Laurie, page 63 of his Rise of Universities.
4
50 Our Colonial Curriculum.
fifth had Cicero's letters, the sixth had Caesar's Commen-
taries, the seventh had Horace's Epistles and Ovid's Meta-
morphoses with Latin versification, the eighth finished Lilly's
grammar and began Donatus, reading Valla, Terence, and
other ancient authors. As a very remarkable glance for
centuries ahead, we find English composition in the shape
of essays and precis writing. 69
The Text Books.
Throughout the long stretch in which Christianity had
been gradually developing its educational system, besides
Latin and the Bible, "the great repertories of higher instruc-
tion in the middle ages" were Cassiodorus, Isidorus, Mar-
tianus Capella, Boethius, the Latin Categories, Porphyry,
and Alcuin's compendium of logic. 60 Under the rise of
humanism Aristotle became the center of the intellectual
sphere and upon him were based a number of secondary
authorities. Very slowly were the investigations and con-
clusions of such men of science as Copernicus and Galileo
made available for pedagogical use. In theology a tower of
strength was Peter Lombard with his "sentences." To
Isidorus perhaps belongs the credit of originating encyclo-
pedias, as he really summed up virtually all knowledge in
his day. 61
It is a weary survey for centuries as there was no prog-
ress, only a distressing tread-mill tramp. Decade after de-
cade, century after century was practically the same repeti-
tion even to the extent of every phrase and word. An
attempt was made to impart life to the stagnation by dis-
putation, but as the contestants were rigidly held within
premises of pure presumption that none dare question, but
little life was afforded.
™ A. F. Leach, English Schools at Reformation, Part i, page 107.
"° S. S. Laurie, Rise of Universities, page 61.
el Isidorus died 636.
The General College Course. 51
Physical Incentives.
The most enthusiastic instructor must have felt utter
despondency of soul, and it may have been due as much to
the deadening dullness as to the roughness of the pupils that
even university students had to be whipped to their tasks.
The colossal Milton was treated to this baculine stimulant.
Even Fellows at Oxford were rapped on their fingers and
it was not infrequent for the teachers to beat their pupils
and even authors sometimes had fisticuffs with each other.
A great head master was accustomed to bring out the great
talents in sulky boys by profuse switching. It is only natural
that such customs should produce a wild noisy crowd
"Bubbeing" beer in "a dingy, horrid, scandalous ale house"
and that there should arise discussions as to whether it was
good style to indulge in such drinks, with a final decision by
the head at an Oxford college that the boys may guzzle ale
and "be sots by authority." 62
The Course at Harvard.
Out of this medieval soil, compounded of religion, classical
fetichism and the scrapings of science, came the curriculum
at Harvard University, the first in America, taking its start
in 1638. It may help to give a rough schedule made up
from the earliest regulations that can be found, indicating
at a glance the different subjects and the order in which they
came weekly and anuually as follows :
ez Prideauxs's Letters, Vol. 15, Camden Society Publications.
"Swigging beer'' still survives in these old English Universities if
we may trust a letter on the Rhodes Scholarship in the Independent
during April, 1906.
52
Our Colonial Curriculum.
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dialects, Poesy; Nor
nus, Duport "or the
like."
"perfect their theory
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The General College Course. 53
The "Laws" for 1642.
It will help to an understanding of the above to take a
short survey of the rules of 1642. There were nineteen of
them, every one bearing upon religion and conduct except
five, impressing it upon the young student that it is "the
main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus
Christ," that he shall pray in secret for guidance and shall
read the scriptures twice daily, keep away from men of
"ungirt and dissolute life" and repeat sermons whenever
called upon to do so in the Hall. As for the literary side of
his career, he is to be admitted to college when "able to read
Tully, or such like classical authors extempore and make
and speak through Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt)
marte and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and
verbs in the Greek tongue." During his subsequent stay
at the university he and his fellows shall "never use their
mother tongue" except when specially allowed on some pub-
lic occasion. Finally, he shall receive his first degree when
"able to read the original of the Old and New Testaments
into the Latin tongue and to resolve them originally" if his
conduct has been satisfactory. He will get his second de-
gree, the master of arts, when he can make a "summary of
logic, natural and moral philosophy, arithmetic, geometry
and astronomy, and is ready to define his theses or positions
withal skillful in the originals as aforesaid," if again he has
behaved himself properly. 65
Many of the early emigrants to New England had un-
doubtedly studied at some of the English universities and it
was unavoidable that the new course should be largely a
copy of the old ones, that they themselves had gone through.
Of the first comers to Massachusetts one in thirty, it is said,
85 J. Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 1, page 515. Quincy has
these rules also in Latin, pages 577-79, both the English and Latin
being official he says on page IQ3. The same are contained in the
First Fruits of N. E., Vol. 1, Colls, of the Mass. Hist. Soc.
54 Our Colonial Curriculum.
was a graduate of the English Cambridge. 68 As pioneers
facing the severity and roughness of life in a new land,
transferring civilization across the Atlantic to a home amid
wild forests, harassed by barbarous natives, they of necessity
would develop an independence of judgment and a readiness
of adaptation that would show themselves in education and
in all walks of life. But a comparison of the plan with what
we can learn of the parent institutions in Europe will dis-
close a variation of appearances but very likely no substan-
tial difference in principles. While at Dublin, at Edinburgh,
at Oxford we come across the name Aristotle, this great
Stagirite must unquestionably be retained either directly or
indirectly through some of his commentaries in the terms
logic, ethics, politics, and physics. Similarly Porphyry, a
brother Grecian, was extracted under some of the general
titles. Not as many Greek authors are named as at Dublin
and Edinburgh, but it is possible the same were studied. As
with them little is said about Latin as that tongue was to
be as familiar as the vernacular in both cases. In all there
were Hebrew and other Semitic languages, rhetoric, dia-
lectics, and the perpetual disputations. In all there was lit-
tle mathematics and still less of real science. In all, on both
sides of the Atlantic, the star of purpose was religion.
The Course in 1655.
It was not at all likely that there could be much develop-
ment in two decades in a subject that had shown almost no
change for centuries, but it is of some signficance to note
that there were some modifications in the way of greater
definiteness. For admission, we learn from the fuller body
of laws in 1665, that Virgil or other "such ordinary classical
authors'' was added to the list in Latin, and the New Testa-
ment, Isocrates, and "the minor poets or such like" in Greek.
" M. L. Lough, page 17, Vol. 1, Transalleghany Hist. Mag.,
Oct., 1901.
The General College Course. 55
There were other similar points mentioned, but nothing of
important modification from the earlier forms. 67 The Gre-
cian Isocrates, here first met with, is another link in the
Atlantic chain as he appears in the course at Westminster
Academy, England, in 1625. 68
The Course in 1690.
More than a half a century later we see the same original
body, only its anatomy is a little more accurately described
under the official title of
"A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT STATED EXERCISES
ENJOYNED THE STUDENTS.
"The first year the Freshmen recite the classick authors
learn't at school viz., Tully, Vergil, Isocrates, Homer, with
the Greek testament and Greek catechism, Dugard's or
Farnaby's rhetoric and the latter part of the year the Hebrew
grammar and Psalter, Ramus's and Burgersdicius's Logick.
"The second year the sophomores recite Burgersdicius's
logick and a manuscript called the New Logick extracted
from Legrand and Mr. (?) Copland (?). Wollebius on
Saturday, and in the latter part of the year Herebord's
Meletemata continuing still most part of the year recitations
in the forementioned Greek and Hebrew books and dispute
on logical questions twice a week.
"The third year the Junior Sophisters recite Herebord's
Meletemata, Mr. Morton's Physicks, Dr. More's ethick, a
sistem of geography, and a sistem of metaphysicks, Wolle-
bius divinity on Saturday and dispute twice a week on
physical and metaphysical and ethical questions.
"The fourth year the senior sophisters recite - Alsted's
geometry, Gassendus's astronomy, goe over the arts, viz.,
"Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc, Vol. 14, pages 207-215.
M Public Schools, page 92, published, Edinburgh and London, 1867
(pages VIII, 414), by the author of "Etoniana."
56 Our Colonial Curriculum.
grammar, logic and natural philosophy, Ames Medulla, and
dispute once a week on philsophical and astronomical
questions." " 9
But this is official and consequently dry. A gossipy, news-
paper account of the present day, we can never have but we
come the nearest towards it, so far as can be learned from
the data now available, in the account of Cotton Mather, an
ecclesiastical pedant and hence doubly tiresome, but it is
the best we have of anything like a living picture of the
school room in Harvard at the time, about 1700, in his
Magnalia.
Cotton Mather's Account.
When a pupil had learned at the grammar school so as
to be able to "read any classical author into English, and
readily make and speak true Latin, and write it in verse as
well as prose; and perfectly decline the paradigms of
nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, they were judged
capable of admission in Harvard Collidge; and upon the
examination were acordingly admitted.''
After admission they "read out of Hebrew into Greek
from the Old Testament in the morning, and out of English
into Greek from the New Testament in the evening," then
they were instructed in the Hebrew language and tutors led
them through all the liberal arts, e're their first four years
expired;" "And in this time they had their weekly decla-
mations on Fridays in the Collidge Hall, besides public dis-
putations." Then in June for three weeks, as candidates for
degrees, they stood on Mondays and Tuesdays in the Hall
for anyone to examine their skill in the languages and sci-
ences which they now pretended unto:" this was called
"sitting of solstices."
But at commencement, "formerly the second Tuesday in
ro Page 31, "Harvard College Papers, Vol. 1, 1650-1763," Mss. In
Harvard Archives.
The General College Course. 57
August, but since, the first Wednesday in July," they "held
their act publicly in Cambridge" for getting the degree of
"bachelor." Their "orations" addressed to "all persons and
orders of any fashion then present" "with proper compli-
ments, and reflections were made on the most remarkible
occurrentes of the preceding year : and these orations were
made not only in Latin but sometimes in Greek and in
Hebrew also; and some of them were in verse, and even in
Greek verse, as well as others in prose. But the main
exercises were disputations upon questions wherein the re-
spondents first made their theses."
Those who had studied three years after their first degree
got the master's degree upon "exhibiting synopses of the
liberal arts, by themselves composed, now again publicly
disputed on some questions of perhaps a little higher
elevation." 70
The Course in 1726 and Later.
During this little more than a quarter of a century, making
allowance for a difference of phraseology, it can be said
there was absolutely no change in the course. Even the
same text-book authors are mentioned and the same descrip-
tive terms for the various subjects. 71
But by 1740 either new authors had been chosen or the
names of the regular ones were printed, as we find Ward's
mathematics, Gordon's geographical grammar, Gravesande's
philosophy, Euclid's geometry, Brattle's logic, Watt's logic,
and Locke's human understanding. 72
We also learn about this time something of the studies for
entrance. Some candidate who afterwards developed into
a preacher, Holyoke, has left the scope of what was required
™ Cotton Mather, Magnalia Chris ti Americana, 1702, Volume 2,
page 10 of the 1820 reprint.
71 J. Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 1, page 441.
72 Peirce, History of Harvard, page 237.
58 Our Colonial Curriculum.
of him as follows : Twenty-four lines of the second JEntid
of Virgil, fifteen lines of the third, Cicero's second and third
Catiline orations, twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew in the
Greek testament and the twelfth chapter of Luke in the
Greek testament. Besides a theme was given to each one
to develop, perhaps outside, to be handed in after several
days. He records three at this particular instance:
Labor improbus omnia vincit.
Sapientia praestat viribus.
Semper avarus eget.
Ths Method.
Like her European prototype, Harvard had the tutorial
system by which each instructor generally led his classes in
all the subjects. It was only after very patient reasoning
with the innate conservatism of the human nature in the gov-
erning body that in 1767 the teachers were assigned to
subjects so that one had Latin, another Greek, another logic,
metaphysics, and ethics, and another mathematics and the
sciences. Perhaps the means did not allow of this division
sooner, it is still more doubtful whether the students were
ripe enough for this step in the earlier stages. Nearly one-
half a century after the opening of her doors, the man with
the best means of observing could say that the college was in
"a low sinking state." 73 Something over two decades fol-
lowing he could refer to the pupils as "forty or fifty chil-
dren," hardly mature enough to appreciate his learned ex-
positions of the scriptures, or at least less worthy of his
efforts than his church of some 1,500 attendants. 74 But the
passion for progress, for learning, for culture, was un-
quenchable. No matter what the obstacle, no matter how
meagre the appliances, the institution climbed upward and
78 Increase Mather's Diary, page 317, Vol. 3, Mass. Hist. Soc.
Proceedings.
"J. Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 1, page 96.
The General College Course. 59
steadily carried onward the torch, flickering at times, that
still lighted the path for her neighbors.
Yaix a Dupucate of Harvard.
The founders of Yale had thus alongside of them a pat-
tern, and when they opened their doors just at the beginning
of the eighteenth century it was the most natural and the
most sensible thing for them to model their course as nearly
like that of Harvard as possible and to keep it so through-
out the colonial times. 75 Even at the end of our struggle
with England the youth at Yale were still having their for-
mal disputations, their forensics, and the same subjects as
their brethren in Cambridge and almost the same textbooks,
going through the same mill for admission. To make the
parallel still more striking there were the same kind of
criticisms of the standard being low. There were also stric-
tures on the curriculum showing a very keen insight into
the future. Just before the outbreak of our hostilities with
the motherland one of the tutors sarcastically referred to
the whole scheme as the "progress of dullness," denounced
the emphasis laid upon ancient languages and declared the
metaphysical hair splitting of little advantage in any busi-
ness or profession in life" and called for the teaching of
English. 76 What an eye he had for piercing the veil ahead
as it was at least one hundred years before his demands
for practical discipline in English talking and writing were
heard by the educational authorities.
Wiiajam and Mary.
Although amid a slightly different geographical and so-
cial environment, William and Mary college is cast in the
same educational mold as her sister in New England. Per-
75 W. L. Kingsley, Hist. Yale, Vol. 1, page 25, also Vol. 2, page 496.
™ W. L. Kingsley, Hist. Yale, Vol. 1, page 98.
6o Our Colonial Curriculum.
haps she represents a return to the original source for both
more than the influence of Harvard. The ruling class here
still looked across the Atlantic for its customs and for its
models. England was still "home" to them just as it is
to-day to the colonists in Australia though separated from
their parent land by more than twice the distance the Vir-
ginian was. Those who could afford it sent their sons for
schooling across the waves. School masters in England
looked for patronage in the colonies and some kept their
advertisements in the Virginia papers. In the grammar
school for the institution it was the announced purpose that
the boys should follow in the steps of their brother pupils
in the corresponding training centers of England.
- But coming from the same fountain head the stream was
practically the same as that in New England. There was
the same aim of breeding ministers, of inculcating religious
truths, of studying philosophy, the ancient languages, and
sciences, of disputations and declamations and, still more
analogous, of christianizing the Indian. 77 As foreshadow-
ing Virginian supremacy in the public affairs of the coun-
try, greater emphasis was laid upon law and politics at an
earlier date than elsewhere in this country.
In some respects this southern effort approached its
medieval model closer than any other in America. The
management attempted to ingraft upon this material ener-
getic democracy one of the most distinctive marks of an
ecclesiastical hierarchy. Just seven years before the first
shock of arms the board of visitors resolved that when one
of the instructors got married his place should be consid-
ered vacant because "engaging in marriage and tjie con-
cerns of a private family" was "contrary to the principles
on which the college was founded and their duties as pro-
fessors." 78
" Beverly, History of Virginia, page 88.
78 History of William and Mary, page 45, Murphy edition, 1870.
The General College Course. 61
But in spite of their adherence to the old world, in spite
of their desire to tread the same paths, time and place were
against them. One of the professors had to admit, in 1724,
that "the nature of the country scarce yet admits of a pos-
sibility of reducing the collegians to the nice method of
living and studying observed in Oxford and Cambridge." 79
Other Institutions.
Besides these three there were seven more born in our
colonial period but as they were young and as their courses
were as far as they could make them only modifications of
those offered by the three elder sisters, it is unnecessary
to go into the details of what they presented. Besides the
data is not so full and not so minute. In those respects the
pioneer of them all is at the front.
Harvard the Greatest of Aee.
Not only does Harvard furnish the fullest account of her
life but she had the fullest life to describe. She started
first and she long held undisputed primacy in achievements
and influence. The most varied activity, the fullest intel-
lectual feast, the most capable adaptation, the readiest recep-
tiveness and at the same time the safest judgment are to be
found here, at this, the oldest, the largest, and the greatest
of all the institutions of learning in the new world and
among the greatest in the whole world.
A More Detailed Study.
But even with Harvard in colonial days, as compared with
the present the course was not only meagre in range but
also meagre in description, and it is necessary to go much
wider and deeper than the formal terms to see what was
really taught, to learn what interpretation was put upon
™ Hugh Jones, State of Virginia, page 27.
62 Our Colonial Curriculum.
the different subjects offered. With us college cata-
logues and study schemes do not always accurately por-
tray what is done in the class rooms. Difficult as it is now
to acquire this knowledge except by actual experience, it
can be easily imagined how enormously greater is the task
for a period two hundred years ago in a new land with all
of the human energies devoted to the question of reducing
the obstacles of nature rather than of training the human
mind.
CHAPTER III.
Ancient Languages.
i.attn, general view.
Through the centuries the mighty tread of the Roman
legion has echoed in the sonorous phrases of the Latin
tongue. Massive in its structure, merciless in its gram-
matical rigidity, it embodies the very spirit of Rome which
first taught the world how to be ruled by formal law. Just
as there had been a preliminary struggle of Greek and
Roman for mastery, so there had been a conflict between
the two languages as to which one should be the transmuter
to the succeeding generations of the life and thought of the
classic days. In both cases the city on the banks of the
Tiber won. Other rivals had bowed at the touch of Latin
imperiousness, just as other peoples had yielded to the
Roman standard. 80
Rome was the mistress of the material world, Latin be-
came the mistress of the intellectual world. The very force
of inheritance made her sway supreme. She had gathered
up the entire knowledge of the preceding ages. Through
traveller, through historian, through dramatist, Greece had
garnered the best gems of the eastern nations, these in turn
she had passed on to her neighbor beyond the Adriatic.
The experience that Rome had added was already now
locked up in her speech. The rise of the Christian church,
the centralizing of all power in this seven hilled town placed
in her hands what has been through all ages .the most
potent factor in marshalling the emotions and shaping the
sentiments of humanity. Latin became the handmaid of
religion. The church though not the exclusive agency in
establishing schools was active in education, carrying down
"Gibbon, Vol. i, page 44, Milraan edition, 1838.
64 Our Colonial Curriculum.
deep the foundations of her control. 81 The decrees were
issued in Latin, the priest delivered his message through
it, it was the voice of the soul in its yearnings for higher
life. It breathed the grace and pity of the Redeemer and
spoke the terrors of revelation. It was the key to the prob-
lem of existence. It explained the past, it soothed the pres-
ent, it revealed the future. It pointed the way for the be-
liever, it barred the road for the heretic. It was the princess
of the trio of divine dialects. 82 Its noble duty was to pre-
pare the sacred men of the church who were to look after
the eternal welfare of mankind. 83
It not only vanquished Greek but for a long period it
stifled all the vernacular of Europe. Through all these cen-
turies it was the only sphere for the mind, all European
achievements and learning were in this dress. It was the
medium for scholars, it was the instrument for officials.
Whatever germs of international law and diplomacy can be
discovered were budded upon this philological tree. The
lawyer used it in his documents, it was indispensible to the
physician. It was not only handy to the more elevated call-
ings but the daily operations of life were carried on in this
atmosphere. The messenger of the courts performed his
tasks in it, it furnished the merchant with the names of his
wares, the musician trusted it in his mastery of sound, it
appeared on the ledger of the bookkeeper, the architect re-
lied on it in his plans. It was the universal medium for
letter writing, bearing the tender messages of the lover, the
familiar items of relatives and friends, the weighty utter-
ances of governments and the solemn deliverances of the
clergyman. The querulous complaints and the insistent
pleadings for more money of the son in a far off university
81 Laurie, Rise of Universities, page 108, claims that the church did
not found universities any more than it founded chivalry.
** Eggleston, Transit, page 129, quotes Laing.
M C. Wase, page 45, Consid. Free Schools, calculates there were
some 15,000 of these "ecclesiastics."
Ancient Languages. 65
were also buried in the masses of Latin missives. In fact
everyone who wanted to be in touch with his fellows through
the aid of words, either written or spoken, had to have a
certain facility and command of Latin.
The artist and the philosopher were impressed with its
vastness and its mightiness. In the court of Charlemagne
was a famous picture representing the seven liberal arts
with grammar as queen, knife in right hand for erasing
errors and thong in left to show supremacy. John Locke,
seer as he was, fell under her spell. Profound in his grasp
he could point out the weaknesses of education in his day
but he seemed afraid to lay a profane hand upon Latin
which he says "I look upon as absolutely necessary for a
gentleman." Perhaps at heart he felt the hollowness of
this view but even he did not feel strong enough to set
himself up against the prevailing custom. He goes on to
say "Latin and French, as the world now goes, are by
everyone acknowledged to be necessary." 84 The good Mo-
ravian bishop Comenius had a noble conception of making
Latin "the means of inter-communication for the instructed
of every nationality," a dream of a world language that even
to the present we see still unfruited. A touch of the humor-
ous is added to this ponderous subject when a schoolmaster
in Virginia chided his student to grapple with the intricacies
of this discipline by telling him that "he will never be able
to win a young lady of family and fashion for his wife"
unless he can trip easily and skillfully through the moods
and tenses of Latin. 85 Down to the immediate present we
find the testimonials of profound thinkers to the value of
this study. Latin and Greek are considered the embryology
of our civilization, "the humanities," because they are the
fountain head of all art, science, and jurisprudence. 86 To
M R. H. Quick's Locke, pages 138, 171.
H Fithian, Journal, page 125.
"J. K. F. Rosenkranz, page 278 of his Philosophy of Education.
5
66 Our Colonial Curriculum.
one of the most prolific American educational writers,
Latin reproduces "the political atmosphere of Rome" with
her conception of law, and social organizations, revealing
"this Roman spirit in its intimate and characteristic form." 87
To the Italian humanist it was " the portal of all knowledge
whatsoever," the guide for right living. 88 The whole case
was condensed into a nugget by Quintilian hundreds of
years before. To him grammar was literature.
Latin Conversation.
As the gateway of all knowledge men had to turn to
Latin. Tradition suggested this step, practice needed it,
culture called for it, authority ordered it. It was far easier to
use this tool ready to hand than to fashion one from their
own native speech, and even after the edge of the latter had
been sharpened, from mere force of habit, they still clung to
this classic language. It must be got in its three-fold en-
tirety, reading, writing and talking. There was a passion for
oral skill in it and before the eleventh century Latin conver-
sation books for the ordinary events of the day had to be
memorized by the pupils. All of education was directed to
this end. In the sixteenth century the Strasburg gymnasium
had ten classes, all in Latin. 89 The most famous school-
master of that time "wanted to restore the language of
Cicero, and Ovid and to give his pupils great power of ele-
gant expression in that language." He was downcast and
wailed because a German of eighty couldn't talk Latin as
well as Cicero did at twenty. 00
In England the same ambition reigned in the academies.
At Harrow, and at Westminster even to 1800, far more
" Universities and Their Sons, page 17.
88 Vittorino, page 144, by W. H. Woodward, Cambridge, Eng., 1897.
■* F. V. N. Painter, History o' Education, page 160.
" R. H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers, page 27. Sturm
is meant.
Ancient Languages. by
stress was laid upon the colloquial command of Latin than
upon rules of conduct. A false pronunciation brought
down a lively flogging but a liar escaped. 91 At the universi-
ties on both sides of the ocean nothing was to be heard in
the class room or out of it except these sounds generated
on the Mediterranean. In Paris it was imperative that the
applicants state their cause in Latin without a French
word. 92 In Edinburgh the regulations sought to cover the
entire existence of students as it was enjoined upon them to
speak Latin both in the schools, in the close, in the fields,
and in all other places where they were together and "none
is to be found speaking Scotch." 93 Their formal exercises,
even those for recreation, had to be performed in the same
medium. In many institutions Latin plays were given, both
the ancient ones and original ones composed at the time.
^.11 this fiery zeal for grasping another tonguef leaped to
America. English was felt to be a kind of poor relation that
no one wanted to associate with an intruder in high com-
pany. Children at one time in New Haven who bothered
the master by spelling in English were sent home. It mat-
tered not what the nationality was, there was the same
fanaticism for Latin. A Dutch burgomaster in New York
desired instruction for the youth in that most useful lan-
guage, Latin. 94 The stinging epithet of "asinus" was ap-
plied to the dull boy who had to use English in order to be
understood. 95
The Goal for Aul.
The securing of this linguistic vehicle was the object of
all, both in the college and in the lower schools. Following
" Public Schools, page 319.
92 H. Rashdall, Univs. Mid. Ages, Vol. 2, page 595.
** Grant, Bdinburgh, page 140.
M C. L. Brodhead, History of New York, page 640.
" Eggleston, Transit, page 215.
68 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Harvard, Yale even as late as 1720 required "scholars in
their chambers and when they are together shall talk
Latin," no English to be allowed except as a special privi-
lege. 98 Half a century after this, at William and Mary, the
faculty had voted that "the students in the philosophy
schools shall speak Latin declamations of their composi-
tions, and that by two of them in rotation this exercise shall
be performed in the chapels immediately after evening
service every second Thursday during term time." 97 This
action was most likely very agreeable to many of the gentry
there. A hundred years earlier one of them had provided
by will that a person be "bought" to teach his son English
or Latin but the parent expressed his preference for the
latter. 98 About the time that this Virginia planter was so
much concerned over Latin for his offspring, the salutatory
at Harvard consisted of more than 2,000 Latin words. 99
Here within a decade of the sundering of our ties with
England a fund had been subscribed to provide prizes for
those who "excelled in the knowledge of Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages, and in elocution or just pronunciation
or action. 100
It is well known that the elementary schools, provided
for generally by law in New England were mainly to teach
Latin. As far back as 1677 Connecticut decreed that every
"county town" should keep such a school. Just seven years
later the trustees of the New Haven grammar school re-
ported on the facilities for instructing "hopeful youth in the
Latin tongue and other learned languages so far as to pre-
pare such youth for the college." 101 This fondness sur-
" W. L. Kingsley, History of Yale, Vol. 2, page 496.
"History of the College, page 43.
™ Virginia Magazine of History, Vol. 2, page 236.
'"Harvard College Papers, Vol. 1, page 45, Mss. Of course all
on religion and morality.
100 Harvard College Papers, Vol. 2, page 7, Mss.
101 Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. 4, page 71a
Ancient Languages. 69
vived even the stress and agony of separation from the
motherland. Just five years before the close of the century
Leicester Institute wanted the exhibition to consist of Greek,
Latin and English orations. 102 It was not until thirty years
later that Massachusetts repealed that old statute enforcing
the establishment of schools for teaching Latin, but even
with the light of recent progress in their eyes the lawmakers
still bound seven towns to these Roman bonds. It was not
until this date that they began to use the term "high school"
instead of Latin school. 103
This fever has burnt in European veins 2,000 years and
all the cooling effects of modern languages and modern
sciences have not entirely reduced it. The Jesuits still talk
it and the brethren of every nationality communicate with
each other by means of it. To-day they have fat little con-
versation volumes up to date in Latin terms for all new
ideas introduced into English by the enormous develop-
ments in science and numerous inventions. One of the later
ones appears under the authorishp of S. W. Wiley, though
it is really a conversation book of the whole order. 104 So
thoroughly are they drilled in Latin that it becomes a second
speech for them, conversing in it with the greatest ease.
But they give up eight entire years, with the exception of
one hour daily, to this language, and then keep up their
practice in it for the balance of their days. One of the
latest and most interesting survivals of it is to be observed
in one of the most remarkable American educational institu-
tions, the Catholic University of America founded within
the last quarter of a century at Washington, D. C. Here it
is expected to be used in the Latin Seminar. 106
102 Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. 28, page 799.
10s f rj av i ( j son , s History of Education, page 245.
IM S. W. Wiley, Guide to Latin Conversation, 1892, i8mo, over 500
pages. He got out another edition, smaller, "How to Speak Latin."
105 Year Book, for 1903-1904, page 70.
jo Our Colonial Curriculum.
The Paths to the Apex.
"Grammar was studied for years in order to learn to
speak and write Latin correctly; dialectic in order to use
it logically; and rhetoric in order to handle it oratori-
cally." 106 As far back as we can trace the teacher started
with lecture and dictation so as to give the pupil the mor-
phology of Latin. The grammar proper was studied in
the dialectical method, by a round of arguments pro and con
on questions picked out for this trial of verbal strength.
Under these four formal methods was the problem tackled ;
by dictation of words and inflections, by comment upon pas-
sages, by disputations upon extracts, and by exercises on
accent and pronunciation. Then came the reading, along
with both these went talking and writing. In the early cen-
turies, simple narratives, such as Phaedrus or Valerius
Maximus were chosen, mainly from post-classical writers
rather than those of classic days but these, especially Cicero
and Sallust, were eventually included. The process was al-
most microscopic. The particular passage was treated
word by word as to meaning, connection, style, arrange-
ment, allusions, and comparisons with other writers. The
students took notes and gradually evolved a grammar and
a vocabulary each for himself. The method goes back to
the days of Plutarch who has samples of this same kind
of work. 107
Sturm's Course Before 1600.
This great architect of education had an elaborate scheme
in his ten year gymnasium at Strasburg. Though prolix
it is worth space as illustrating one of the best ideals in
continental Europe about the beginning of the modern era.
"" F. V. N. Painter, Hist. Bduc, page 165, quoting from Rauraer, a
noted German investigator.
107 W. H. Woodward's Vittorino, page 210. Also Erasmus, Vol. 1
of Works, page 527.
Ancient Languages. 71
In his lowest class, that for beginners, he had the Latin
declensions and conjugations with some reading and writ-
ing-
in the second year this routine was followed with the
memorizing of Latin words and the irregular grammatical
forms.
In the third the same core is found with composition, ex-
ercising on Latin verses, following Cicero's letters of style.
In the fourth came syntax and the application of the
grammatical rules from Cicero's letters with writing and
translations into German.
In the fifth Cicero was translated and a start was made in
Latin poetry and in Jerome's letters.
In the sixth a number of new words were added, versifi-
cation and mythology were taken up and Virgil was yoked
with Cicero as material to be translated into German and
to serve as the basis for composition and declamations.
In the seventh came Horace besides the other authors in
the previous years, with numerous exercises in composition
and a minute study of style.
In the eighth composition, translation and conversation
were continued using such authors as Plautus and Terence.
In the ninth the same painful attention to composition,
translation, conversation, and style, with much memorizing
;ind reciting of these ancient authorities. Formal rhetoric
and dialectics were included.
In the tenth the same general outline was followed with
the addition of weekly dramatical entertainments in Latin.
The only language at all in the school besides Latin was
Greek, with a mere modicum of German, but neither one
of these received more than a fraction of the attention given
to Latin. Of course voluminous notebooks were required
to be made by the pupils.
72 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Roger Ascham's Notions.
At about the corresponding period there was in England
a very quaint and pregnant writer on education. It is well
worth while to glance at his ideas which though not differ-
ing very materially from the practice on the mainland gives
us another side to this question and enables us more safely
to comprehend its limits. He directed that the teacher
should explain very carefully the portion selected and parse
it entirely. After an interval the pupil is to be examined upon
this lesson, also making a translation of his own book into
Latin. This the master is to go over with him, criticising,
correcting, and pointing out in what respects it differs from
the great model left by Cicero. He insists that notes shall be
made under such formal heads as propriety in the choice of
words, metaphors, synonyms, variations in meaning, an-
tonyms and phrases. He epitomized the whole progress of
learning a language under the six heads; translatio, para-
phrasis, metaphrasis, epitome, imitatio, and declamatio. 108
What Was Done at Westminster.
It has not been possible to find for any American institu-
tion such a full account as we have of Westminster at about
the time that the Mayflower cast anchor at Plymouth. It is
very likely that some of the early settlers went through the
routine at this institution. It is the safest kind of a deduc-
tion that what was done here was followed as closely in the
new colonies as the difference of condition would permit.
The following may be considered in fact a picture of the
Latin course in the new world with some inevitable varia-
tions. Hence this deserves proper setting for our purpose.
There are only two years covered but they are sufficiently
typical.
108 Ascham, The School Master. Metaphrasis, changing verse to
prose.
Ancient Languages. 73
In grammar the boys regularly recited pages from Lilly,
being called out from a circle of 14 or 15 standing in front
of the teacher and one taking up where the other had left
off. Again others would be called forth to make extempore
verses or to expound some given passage, but all had to be
ready to recite from memory. They were liable at any time
for extempore translations into Latin to give an account
in this tongue of any exercise previously studied. At some
time in the morning session the teacher would faithfully ex-
pound some selections in the method indicated above and in
the afternoon his work had to be returned to him by the
students with the most exact construction and application of
grammatical rules and full explanation of rhetorical figures.
And later in the day they had to recite literally a section of
definition or of proverbs and sentences specially arranged
for this purpose by the teacher. Constantly they were to be
prepared to transfer from any one of these three languages
into any other; Latin, Greek or French, in prose or in
poetry. And a still more difficult thing was to make prose
or verse upon some theme given them the day before. All
were under the eyes of monitors who kept them strictly to
the speaking of Latin. A form of punishment that has
come down to the present day was to repeat long portions
from the classical authors. On Saturdays they wound up
the week's toil with declamations in one of these ancient
languages. The requirement of talking Latin in the class
room was retained to 1800. 109
Thb Transit To America.
To these virgin shores, to these forest wilds, were im-
ported the same riot of the intellect for Latin speech and the
same monumental effort to acquire this medium and the
same machinery for advancing towards this aim. All wanted
to talk it and consequently all were to read it, to write it,
""Public Schools, page 171.
74 Our Colonial Curriculum.
to pore over every line and word and letter of the Roman
writers. There were to be in regular succession accidence,
syntax, construing, parsing, composition, versification, con-
versation, declamations and the same frightful burden of
memorizing pages upon pages of both grammar and text.
William and Mary was frank in avowing her imitation of
the English school for she exacted the same authors adopted
in the schools of England. Buried in the charter and stat-
utes of the colleges and schools, in the outlines of study, and
in the other historical data, we come across the same proper
names on both sides of the Atlantic. We find iEsop, Cor-
derius, Caesar, Tully (Cicero), Ovid, Virgil, Horace, Eras-
mus, Eutropius, Juvenal, Persius, Terence, Sallust, Nepos,
and other Latin writers besides the established grammars of
Priscian and Donatus which had stood the wear of ages,
finally Lilly, the most widely used one for several centuries.
But American progressiveness while appropriating also
made additions. There is a most notable one, the leader in
its influence among our Latin helps issued in America. This
was the "accidence" of Ezekiel Cheever, a little i8mo of
something over a hundred pages, showing the steady growth
in the importance of the English tongue as it is in that
language. It is a very happy condensation of the elements
of Latin grammar. But these books are anatomy only that
needs the flesh of actual teaching if we are to see what was
really done. Eortunately we have a
Class Room Scene.
"Circumspicite," called out the teacher, and immediately
the little heads in front of him would be turned from side to
side of the room.
"Imitamini sutorem" and instantly those who understood
would begin to draw threads as the cobbler does in sewing
shoes.
Again he would begin to draw the picture of a lion, but
Ancient Languages. 75
placing a beak on it instead of a head. At once some voice
would be heard, "non est leo, leones non habent rostrum."
Thus he would hold the attention of his class by either
making figures on the board or by describing some object
and having them to draw their conclusions in Latin. As
for instance, pointing to the eyes or the fingers or giving
them commands so that they would bark like a dog or roar
as a wild beast. Thus has good luck preserved for us and
investigation presented us this realistic scene of a German
school towards the latter part of our colonial period, reviv-
ing conditions for us almost as realistically as the vitagraph
and phonograph could. 110 This was not a detached example
but was the growth of a long series of experiments and was,
of course, wafted to America, there to be reproduced.
Material Helps.
These results were possible because there had been a chain
of text-books linking back through time. Early in the
middle ages were Latin conversation books, at first in manu-
script only. Some of the most important series were evolved
by the Jesuits. One of this brotherhood had a very pro-
found plan. He wanted to get a short cut so he prepared
a series of brief sentences, some 1,200 in all, composed of all
the root words in the language so arranged that no word
would be used a second time aside from the simple connec-
tives. He very thoughtfully appended an index so that any
word could be readily found. The following specimen will
be a fair sample of the whole : Dum malum comedis juxta
malum navis, "de malo commisso submalo vetita meditare,"
or "while thou eatest an apple near the mast of a ship th'ink
of the evil committed under the forbidden apple tree." 111
110 E. L., Kemp, page 266, describing the school founded by Base-
dow, in his History of Education, 1902.
m R. H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers, page 161.
y6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
This quotation typifies both the Latin and the religion of
the volume.
Adopted by Comenius.
This innovation was seized upon by that comprehensive
reformer in educational methods. He improved on the no-
tion, and got out his "Obis pictus," probably the first illus-
trated school book among European peoples. He himself
had wandered through the mazes of the formal Latin
grammar, and felt hot indignation against all teachers as
tyrants, and torturers, with the grammar as their chief agent
of cruelty. He wanted to save others from what he had
suffered, by smoothing the steep ascent, making it so gentle
that the top could be reached almost without conscious
effort. He designed a little book of several hundred com-
mon Latin words with enough of the paradigms to allow of
the making of very simple sentences. A second volume was
to meet the needs of youths, containing 8,000 words, with
some rules of grammar at the end. The third was fitted for
the next age above, consisting of treatises and more diffi-
cult phrases, to teach elegance of diction. The fourth was
to be a thesaurus made up of extracts from the classical
authors themselves, showing great variety of expression and
of idoms. By ringing the changes on the 800 vocables in
1,000 sentences classified under 100 heads, he believed that
the original idea of the Latin root words would easily and
permanently find lodgment in the brain of his pupils, and
that they in turn by innumerable combinations would be
provided with an instrument of speech that would super-
sede their mother tongue and would make into one family all
the educated persons of the western world. Each would be
"obambulans bibliotheca," "a walking library." Paradise
would thus be regained, he thought.
Ancient Languages. 77
American Importations of the Idea.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century there
appeared at Boston, in a book of some seventy pages, "sen-
tences for children," which had been originally gathered out
of sundry authors by Colman and put into English by
Charles Hoole so as to soften the entrance into this Roman
atmosphere. It is made up of simple sentences, none over a
line in length, in parallel columns, with religion as the chief
color through the whole. In one page of thirty-five lines the
word God appears twenty-eight times, not counting pro-
nouns.
Corderius had been the popular stuff for cutting such pat-
terns from in the seventeenth century. There is one speci-
men of this sort running up to some 400 pages, with the two
languages in parallel columns.
Just at the opening of the nineteenth century so insistent
is the strain after L,atin that a new edition of Corderius
appears in New Hampshire, a very forunate circumstance
for us as it carries us back to the very beginnings of our
colonial education. It is a series of 100 conversational les-
sons on simple everyday matters, and the following will put
before us about as thoroughly as can be done what was
actually attempted in Latin lessons during our early years
on this continent.
13th Chapter.
A. Abiit tuus Pater ?
B. Abiit.
A. Quota Hora ?
B. Prima pomeridiana.
A. Quid dixit tibi ?
B. Monuit me multis verbis ut turerem diligenter.
A. Utinam facias sic?
B. Faciam, deo juvante.
A. Deditne tibi pecuniam ?
78 Our Colonial Curriculum.
B. Ut solet fere.
A. Quantum?
B. Nihil ad te, etc.
35th Chapter.
A. Quot ahnos natus es ?
B. Tredecim, ut accipi a matre. Quot annos natus es tu ?
A. Non tot.
B. Quot igitur?
A. Duodecim.
B. Sed quotum annum agit frater?
A. Octavum.
B. Quid ais ? liquitur Latine ? etc. 112
This early love still lingers with us. Some of the terms
are changed, our mistress has modified the trimmings a little,
there may be a different shade of color for the ribbon, but
she is the same fascinator to a dwindling group of educators
that she was practically to the whole number of admirers
centuries ago. One of the latest and most popular of these
conversational incentives to the study of Latin is Sauver's
"Talks with Caesar," 1878, constructed along practically the
same lines as Comenius trod, but the 200 years had drilled at
last some wisdom into the heads of educators. Sauver has
not the slightest intention of dealing with daily concerns, he
modestly connes himself to repetitions of Caesar's vocabu-
lary so as to hasten acquaintance with that author.
Formai, Grammar.
As a means to an end and as an instrument of distinct
mental discipline in its days Latin grammar, with its numer-
ous cases and verbal endings, can be traced back to the
sunny days of the mistress of the ancient world. There were
ponderous helps of this sort and even Julius Caesar found
112 Colloquies of Corderius, Portsmouth, N. H., 1810.
Ancient Languages. 79
time amid the demands of his epoch-making life to pen a
treatise upon nouns and verbs. But this study, as we con-
ceive it now, really reaches to about the fourth century, to
Donatus, who continued to be the main authority in this
field until he was later in the middle ages superseded in part
by Priscian. Both of these were replaced by the verses of
Alexander de Villa Dei in his Doctrinale. Grammar was
largely in the inducive stage as there were no formal rules
usually such as were made later.
All three differ as much from their modern successors as
a tree trunk does from the cabinet into which it is finally
fashioned. Of course all were entirely in Latin. There was
no arrangement of paradigms as we now see them, but
instead there were directions as to the endings in declina-
tions and conjugations. The rules of syntax were largely
the addition of Priscian and he and his followers seemed to
be ambitious to multiply the rules as fully as possible, one
of them rising to the height of 500 rules, with numerous
exceptions. On the other hand, religious devotees, like
Gregory the Great, were opposed to all rules as shameful
restraints on the Holy language. 113 Ordinarily these books
were dictated by the master to the pupils to be learned by
heart.
Even the stagnation of the middle ages could not prevent
efforts at improvement. One of the most notable of these
was a series of text-books devised by the reformer, Philip
Melanchthon, whose Latin Grammar passed through over
fifty editions and whose other works were largely used
for nearly two centuries. An influence was, perhaps,
wafted over to him from England from
William Lilly,
who had made the pilgrimages fashionable at that time, had
studied in Italy and had wandered to Jerusalem and was con-
*" S. G. Williams, Medieval Education, page 59.
80 Our Colonial Curriculum.
sidered well accomplished in all the arts and sciences of his
day. "He set forth a grammar which is universally taught
all over England," said the old English author Fuller. So
acceptable was it to the pedagogues that its fame reached
the ears of King Henry, and with the very humane desire
to smooth the road of learning as much as possible for the
maturing minds of youth, a royal decree commanded that
Lilly alone should be studied within the realms of Eng-
land. 114 It was the foundation for lesser men to build upon
and for a century or so afterwards nearly all of the gram-
mars show traces of William Lilly. Locke seemed rather
inclined to sneer at such dominion and declared that people
"stick to it as if their children had scarce an orthodox
education unless they learned Lilly's grammar." 115 It may
be that Lilly was wise far beyond his generation and long
since saw the value of cooperation, as some editions of his
books at least had the assistance of Colet and Erasmus.
He may be said to mark the end of the old era and to
usher in the new one of to-day. One of his editions, bearing
date about a decade before the Pilgrim Fathers landed in
Massachusetts, does not vary to any great extent from the
newest ones now. He has the eight parts of speech, ety-
mology, classes of nouns, paradigms, etc. He has syntax
and he winds up with a third division, very common at one
time, of prosody. Of course it is all in Latin. It may be
because of this ancient dress that a Virginia youth sarcas-
tically referred to it as "insipid and unintelligible book,"
but in later years, with more maturity of judgment, re-
verses his view and thought it "a complete grammar and an
excellent key to the Latin language." 116
114 Fuller's Church History of Britain, Book s» Section i, page 13.
118 R. H. Quick's Locke, page 139.
"' Va. Hist. Register, Vol. 3, page 145.
Ancient Languages. 81
EzekiEi, Cheever's Accidence.
"He taught us Lilly and he gospel taught" is the double
cord that sounded through the ninety odd years of Boston's
most famous school master. For a while he literally used
Lilly and then he wrote his simple little treatise, which al-
though having 125 rules was a very primer of clearness and
brevity by the side of its predecessors. Part of the task of
transferring Lilly had already been done by John Brinsley,
the greatest school master of King James's reign, who had
himself transfused Lilly into a textbook of his own, but
Cheever's adaptation was a still further improvement. It is
most probable that he also got inspiration from Roger
Ascham, whose Scholemaster mounts to the level of pure
literature.
This little volume passed through some eighteen editions
before the Revolutionary War and was popular with teachers
even for some time after that. It is, of course, in English,
and the most important difference between it and any gram-
mar of the present day is its lack of illustrations of the rules
of syntax. It is hardly creditable that so well-balanced a
man was carried away by the fad of conversation, at least
there are not much signs in his pages of yielding to this
weakness as he hammers the skeleton of the language into
his pupils. He did it successfully too, as there is testimony
that the youth he sent up to Harvard were exceptional in
their fitness for the Latin requirements. 117
He makes no boastful announcement of what he can ac-
complish, although there were examples before him almost
equal to what we can now read in the circulars of cor-
respondence schools or even in patent medicine advertise-
ments of the results to follow from the use of certain aids.
A few years before Cheever was born a Londoner had got
m Cotton Mather's Funeral Sermon on Cheever.
6
82 Our Colonial Curriculum.
out "a practical grammar or the easiest and shortest way to
initiate young children in the Latin tongue," promising that
a child of seven years old may learn more in three months
than his elder brothers could learn in twelve by the ordinary
method. But none of these short cuts to knowledge for
Cheever, only steady tramping along the well-beaten path
for this experienced leader.
But he was hardly learned enough for the colleges and
the youth at these centers still mouthed over Priscian and
Donatus, which were thought more profund. But through
the centuries, after packing away the rules of grammar in
the memory, there came the question of applying them so. as
to train in the power of creation.
Composition Aids.
After Gutenberg opened the eyes of the world to the
possibilities of movable type, numbers of Latin helps came
upon the market. Their compilers were in dead earnest in
trying to substitute Latin for their daily tongue. They
fashioned equivalents for all of the ordinary terms of the
time, endearing epithets, vulgar words, as well as more
dignified phrases. Not even the wildest Latin maniac of the
present would venture upon the flights of those early days.
J. Garretson, "school master," gravely set the boys such
tempting morsels as these to be turned into Latin :
"My dear cousin offered me a kiss."
"The pretty boy sits between the pretty girls." 118
There were other implements for this "wooden handi-
craft," such as Bucklerina's "Thesaurus of Poetical Phrases."
sylva synonimorum (forest of synonyms), and descriptions
by periphrases.
"* Pages 12, 16 of his English Exercises.
Ancient Languages. 83
Dictionaries.
Monumental toil was expended in trying to get the Latin
complement for every English color. Naturally Cicero's
writings were the favorite hunting ground for such prizes.
Thomas Drax turned to that everlasting "mouther" of an-
cient days for "a rich store-house of proper, choice and ele-
gant Latin words," running up to 519 pages. He found
thirteen Latin phrases for "to frame or make a speech,"
but for the idea of uttering words in general he inserts
thirty Latin expressions.
The very top-notch of all, a regular drag net for the whole
scheme, was Holyoke's Dictionary, in three parts. Hardly
any one will dispute that these "phraseological explications"
are the "most complete and useful of any that was ever yet
extant in this kind." It is a wilderness almost as thick as
that of a French idiomatic dictionary at the present. He
has 150 pages, four columns each, 50 English items to the
column, or a total of 30,000 English terms run into Roman
molds. He is recklessly prodigal in the riches he presents.
He has 26 illustrations of "cut off," and 23 for "dead"
though "dead easy" is not in the list, perhaps not in existence
at the time. There are 27 for "shoot," and we are disap-
pointed, although hardly justified, in expecting him to repeat
how some Roman sneered at Cicero's readiness to "shoot off
his mouth." For "shirt" there are four, and here again we
fail to find some of our vigorous talk, such as we can easily
imagine Brutus used in the famous quarrel scene with Cas-
sius when he begged him not to "tear his shirt." He doesn't
give us the Roman for "a gay old bird," but he comes next
to it when he translates "an old lubber playing the boy."
Here are 40 expressions typifying "old," but "old maid" is
not there, perhaps because she did not exist in Roman days.
He does have "charta virgo," and almost gives us the newest
manifestation in this direction when he puts "a manly
84 Our Colonial Curriculum.
woman" into Virago, nearly equal to our "bachelor girl."
Thus he goes on ranging over the gay, the solemn, the
humorous, the slangy, and the obscene. There are plenty of
the last that these pages would not possibly bear, but exactly
the kind of talk that boys use among themselves to-day when
they think no older person is by to hear their vulgarity. This
is one of the most significant things in the entire volume and
throws a flood of light upon the awful strain that men made
in those days to adopt Latin as the living speech.
TexTS.
The roots of all these plants went down into the soil of
the Latin authors, Cicero, Virgil, Seneca and other succes-
sors under the Christian skies. The originals were used
really and literally, but as men fell back from the inaccessible
heights of universal Latin speech these pills were sugar-
coated with notes. No great advantage to the learner at
the start as they were in the Latin of the editor himself, but
even this was a concession to the rising tide of common
sense in education. Hardly anything better could be
achieved so long as these volumes were studied not for lit-
erature or for the thought in them, but simply as material for
grammar and conversational exericses.
Ponies.
These nimble capering animals have rather a long pedi-
gree and very early there were famous men not ashamed to
back them. Even that sedate bachelor, John Locke, openly
advocated an amble upon these four-footed beasts. He went
further and got out an interlineary of ^Esop's Fables. 110 He
had successors too for Corderius, and Cicero, the latter by
that universal genius whom Carlyle has dubbed the "father
of all the Yankees," Benjamin Franklin.
"* R. H. Quick, Educational Reformers, page 238.
Ancient Languages. 85
Some of the editions differ very little from to-day, being as
full and as thin, and as aggravatingly useless on the difficult
places, but profuse on the easy passages, as in those we
find now. There were some also with special vocabularies
and indexes. But the bulk were hard, dull, and, with notes
in Latin, as unattainable and vexatious as a feast visible
but not tangible. All methods for typographical disposition
of notes were in use, both at the sides of the page, at the
bottom, and at the end of the volume. There was also that
modern trick of parallel columns for the translations and
literalness to the extent of being almost word for word.
Did They Get What They Were Aiter?
Yes, at least some of them did in a measure, especially the
professional educators such as those hairsplitting school
men. It is largely the fashion to laugh at the barbarisms of
those authors but it is very often a reflection upon the critic
himself as he does not understand their habitual abbrevia-
tions and very often he has trouble to decipher their cramped
characters. "The medieval schoolmen sinned no more
against pure Latinity than the modern scientific writer sins
against English undefiled." 120 Thus the testimony of a
competent investigator runs in favor of these much abused
people. He goes further and declares "so far as grammati-
cal errors are concerned there are few or none." The speci-
mens of poor work that are often given, Leach thinks, are
"the sad hash made by ignorant modern transcribers."
Some of the devotees of the time almost attained the acme
of their effort, they almost knew more Latin than they did of
their native speech. In the time of Henry VIII Palsgrave
reports to his Majesty that there were some at the universi-
ties who had profited in the Latin tongue and could write
"an epistle latin like and thereto speak Latin" and had at-
tained to a "comely vein in making verses." In fact he goes
120 A. F. Leach, English Schools, page 106.
86 Our Colonial Curriculum.
on they had become so apt in Latin that they were not able
to express themselves easily and naturally "in their vulgar
tongue," but he thought this very favorable as he consid-
ered Latin "the very chief thing that the schoolmaster
should travail in." 121
A Prig Product.
Such loftiness above the common herd was pretty sure to
swell some heads outrageously. D'Ewes is a sample as we
are told that at 15 he made themes, "large and solid" and
verses lofty and of several kinds all of which he carefully
embalmed in exercise books, not counting nearly 300 Latin
and Greek verses that he also ground out. He could com-
placently record "scarce met with any Latin author, prose or
verse, which I could not interpret at first sight" and he also
modestly says that he was "able to discourse somewhat
readily in the Latin tongue" and trip up his university in-
structor who was spouting Latin to the class. In some
three weeks he made "divers lyric odes" with "anagrams
and epigrams," all in an off-hand sort of way as a mere play
for him without omitting any of his regular tasks. As if all
this was not enough to disgust any reader he piles on it
that none of this work was "very troublesome" except "the
Greek sapphics." There is one saving point in this auto-
biography, he says he did not print all of his effusions for
which we should be properly thankful. 122
How was it in America?
Considering the differences in conditions and allowing for
the keener material demands of a frontier home the English
colonies were reduced photographs of the old world. There
121 Palsgrave, in report of Bureau of Education for 1902.
m D'Ewes (1602-1650), "beau-ideal of an antiquary; with no mas-
culine tastes or interests :" narrow minded, without common sense,
Diet. Nat. Biog., Vol. 14, page 450.
Ancient Languages. 87
was the same violent prolonged yearning for Latin and
practically the same measure of victory. Cotton Mather
could record very early "the public declamations in Latin
and Greek" which the Harvard youth were accustomed to
make, as it seemed to him with considerable credit to them-
selves and to the institution. 123 He himself, naively, seems
to have written Latin with a more flowing pen than he did
English. He narrates how he found out that those devils
who were responsible for the witchery which eventuated in
such a horrible manner understood not only Latin but also
Greek and Hebrew. He set a trap for the demons by talk-
ing in first one then the other of these languages to some
afflicted case, thus proving that the poor wretch understood
him in each instance while under the spell of the evil
spirits. 124
President Stiles, of Yale, was very ready to give certifi-
cates of proficiency in Latin to graduates of Harvard. Of
Rector Elisha Williams, class of 171 1, Stiles says, "he spoke
Latin freely and delivered orations gracefully and with ani-
mated dignity." 125 Timothy Cutler, Harvard 1701, "was
a noble Latin orator" and "spoke Latin with fluency and
dignity and with great propriety of pronunciation." 126
Stiles himself handled Latin "with great ease" though a sav-
ing clause follows to the effect that he made minor mis-
takes. 127
Demons of Discontent.
With practically all the schools babbling at it, with the
clergy preaching in it, with the great Lord Bacon disdaining
to use any other vehicle for his philosophical ideas, with
books being constantly written in it, with virtually all litera-
128 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., Vol. 1, page 243.
m ffis Magnolia, Vol. 2, page 464, Drake edition of 1853.
125 W. L. Kingsley's History of Yale, Vol. 1, page 57,
""F. B. Dexter, Sketches, page 272.
12f W. L. Kingsley, History of Yale, Vol. i, page in.
88 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ture in this garment, there should have been the calm of the
morning in the intellectual world, but there was not. In-
stead of such peace,the shafts of censoriousness were flying
keen and thick. There were doubts, questionings, grumb-
lings, criticisms, sneers, and all manner of ugly fault-find-
ings not only with the subject, itself but with the method of
learning it and with the shrivelled fruits of failure that came
from it.
There were especially heavy growls of dissatisfaction with
the hard, dry, tedious grammar method of approaching the
task. A few observers saw the torture of packing away
endless rules and countless exceptions in the cells of the
brain. Lubinus, theologian though he was, thought that
the ingenuity of the devil had been used to find the best way
not to learn Latin, that some ill-omened monks had first de-
vised it so that nothing could come of it except "Ger-
manisms, barbarisms, solecisms, mere abortions of Latin,
dishonorings and defilements of the tongue." 128 The oral
method, he declared was the key to the situation, as cooks
and scullions got more knowledge of modern tongues by
mixing with the natives than students got of Latin by years
of grinding. Martin Luther had a rough tongue and he
could take a swipe with it at the ecclesiastical armor of
protection. "Is it not pitiable," he raspingly asked, "that
a boy has been obliged to study twenty years or longer to
learn enough bad Latin to become a priest and read
mass ?" 129 He struck a basal cord there which sounded far
away in time and space. A German innovator, Ratich, took
a noble stand when he openly advocated attention to the
mother tongue, rather than such overwhelming stress upon
Latin and Greek. In the same country a prince protested
against the bondage of Latin and urged German and the
sciences instead. Comenius looked in the same direction.
lss S. S. Laurie, Educational Reformers, page 155.
12 "L. Seeley, page 166 of his History of Education.
Ancient Languages. 89
Locke and Milton.
But he and many others including Locke all had serious
misgivings about this new departure, they all thought that it
would be best to keep this dead speech for the use of the
cultivated class. Milton also had his doubts about the
matter.
But he and Locke agreed in this that if it was to be
acquired the general method was frightfully wasteful in time
and energy. Milton sneered at the modicum of tiresome
scrapings, the few tags, that the pupils got in one year.
Both of them denounced the making of themes, verses, and
orations. Locke saw through the whole thing and he felt
the emptiness of the entire performance. He said it was all
nothing but learning words, "a very unpleasant business
both to young and old." 130 He also praised the talking
method as the readiest road to the disagreeable goal. With
all his acumen and philosophical depth he blundered just like
his contemporaries in looking on Latin as a living thing
instead of a painted mechanism. The glamour of tradi-
tion and the sanctity of sacerdotalism clogged and blunted
the sharpest wits of the time.
Borrowed Plumage.
But not all were deceived. There were a few glittering
rapiers thrust through this gaudy mask finding only hollow-
ness within. Montaigne said that the boys of the day were
only asses loaded with other people's learning, and forced
to keep the path by dint of blows. 131 That profound seer,
Comenius, could see pretty straight and he glanced along the
same line when he rapped the schools that they did not
"train minds as saplings which grow from their own roots,
but, on the contrary, have taught their scholars to attach to
themselves branches plucked down elsewhere," and like
™ F. V. N. Painter, History of Education, page 220.
151 J. W. A&amsonJ'ioneers of Modern Education, page 72.
90 Our Colonial Curriculum.
^sop's crow, "to dress up in borrowed plumage," 132
When John Webster, made his onslaught upon education in
general, in England, certainly he did not spare Latin as, to
him, it was a brake upon the attaining of true knowledge.
All these blows and clash of strife, these skirmishes and
onsets, in time made an impression, very slowly at the hoary
centers of conservatism, but more swiftly towards the cir-
cumference. There was a kind of university extension in
London about 1600, lecture courses in divinity, law, sciences
as then understood. There was a concession to this swell
of opposition as these lectures were delivered in Latin in the
morning but in English in the afternoon. 133 In the 18th
century the leaven had worked a little more, and professors
in the universities began gradually to use their mother
tongue in their classes.
America Fau+s in Line.
The very air of our forests must have carried a kind of
freedom into the lungs. We were three thousand miles
from the old world and the chain of conservatism neces-
sarily got a little weak. Franklin, Rush, Sower, were
among the bravest of us to raise their voices against this
devotion to Latin. The same spirit went into the university
In 1763, an instructor at Harvard offered a plea, not to give
up the classics, but to improve the method of learning them.
He urged the use of English in some of the exercises, and
he fought the compulsory making of verses unless the pupil
showed some pastoral ability in that direction. 13 * A few years
later a student wanted to drop both his Greek and Latin
authors so that he could put more of his strength upon
divinity branches. 185 Still deeper had the light pierced,
M2 J. W. Adamson, Pioneers, page 166, quoting from Comenius's
Didacta.
108 Jno. Stow, Survey, page 65.
"* Quincy, History of Harvard, page 496, Vol. 2.
J " Harvard College Papers, Vol. 2, page 65, manuscript.
Ancient Languages. 91
even many years before this. A little after 1700 a memorial
had come to the authorities of the Boston Latin School pray-
ing for less Latin or quicker means of obtaining it. Poor
blundering fellows doubtless, not of the elect class of cul-
ture and learning, but nevertheless in an awkward sort of
fashion, almost like an ignorant man trying to describe a
deep-seated pain, they uttered their grievance. "Accord-
ing to the methods used here there are many hundreds of
boys in this town * * * never designed for a more
liberal education, have spent two, three and four years or
more of their early days at the Latin school which hath
proved of little or no benefit to their after accomplish-
ment." 136
Oni,y a Smattering.
These blunt fellows in Boston about summed up the matter
correctly, showing decidedly more judgment than the gener-
ality of their educated superiors. More than a century
before they voiced their indefinite ache, a shrewd English-
men had declared "there is no one thing, that hath more,
either dulled the wits, or taken away the will of children
from learning" than their efforts to make Latin. 137 Even
if we, jump much farther ahead from this point we find the
same views. Far down in the 18th century a school teacher,
the author of a Latin prose composition in very wide use,
bemoaned the little ground covered after all the labor spent
upon the effort to learn Latin. "Liberal translations" was
the medicine that he prescribed for the slow progress. It
seems a mere travesty upon sense that this author felt it
necessary to cast a dart of sarcasm at that requirement that
boys should talk Latin among themselves before they have
attained any tolerable skill in the language. "Absurd" he
denominated this practice. He would not say that the
"ready and proper use of the Latin tongue" was not attain-
186 Philips Brooks, Oration, page 43.
"'Roger Ascham, page 185 of his works, edited by Wright, 1905.
92 Our Colonial Curriculum.
able at school but he does come out flat-footedly thus "I
never yet knew so much as one instance of its being attained
there * * * or indeed anything like it." 188 Early in
the 1 8th century it must have rapidly declined in use. One
little evidence is sufficient for us here. Hollis, who en-
dowed a professorship of divinity at Harvard, begged in
1722 that the letters sent from America to him should be put
into English as "it is now by disuse too troublesome to me
to understand the beauty of Latin." 139
Did the Boys Talk Latin?
Many of their fathers wrote it at one time, in fact all edu-
cated ones who wished to keep company with their class did
so, but it is rather safe to say that the boys at school did not
use this tongue in their everyday intercourse with each
other any more than the average boy at school today talks
French or German away from the conversation class in these
subjects. The universities, the statutes, the faculties, the
regulations, all pompously demanded this exercise and then
the authorities had the awful problem before them of en-
forcing the rule. Some of the most dignified of the institu-
tions had to appoint spies, "lupi" or wolves, to report any
infractions of the discipline, to haul up the "vulgarisantes"
for dropping into their vernacular when away from the
hearing of the teachers. The English universities were just
as unsuccessful. The great biographer of Milton, Masson,
had no doubt that before many years had elapsed after the
promulgaton of the statutes for the University, great relaxa-
tion of strictness had taken place so that there was very
little security that the boys would talk Latin away from the
classroom. Wigglesworth who got his diploma from Har-
vard in 1661 regretfully jotted down in his diary about the
"boldness to transgress the college law in speaking Eng-
188 Page 289 of the 20th edition of his Latin Prose Composition.
"* Harvard Archives, Hollis Letters and Papers, page 29.
Ancient Languages. 93
lish." 140 There is still stronger proof about the failure to
have this Italian dialect imported into America. In 1680 a
couple of New Yorkers, Dutchmen, visited Harvard as one
of the sights of the locality and they came across a number
of boys smoking and yelling in a room. These two
strangers were anxious to learn something of this American
school and not being able to use English they tried Latin
but they took pains to note down in their journal the boys
"could hardly speak a word of Latin," so the poor inquirers
could learn almost nothing of the surroundings. 141 As we
come farther and farther from the early mist of colonial days
we find more and more slackness in these Latin require-
ments. Less than two decades before the battle of Bunker
Hill there is a report of a committee that the students at
Harvard did very little in the way of publicly using Latin,
either in prose or verse or in translation. 142
Average Acquirement.
It is hazardous to generalize on any matter of human en-
deavor continued for more than a century and a half but the
main results of this intense devotion to Latin can be substan-
tially indicated. As for Latin conversation among the
youth in colleges that can be dismissed summarily as an al-
luring myth of no more solid foundation than the wild
claims that we can hear nowadays of fond admirers who
proudly boast that their Latin professor can make extem-
pore Latin speeches as eloquent and as ornate as ever Cicero
did, if he should try, but of course he never does. There is
no evidence that the average boy during the morning time
of our existence in the new world could any more use Latin
colloquially than his brother today can converse in French
or German after having finished the usual grammar course
140 Sibley, Harvard Graduates, Vol. 1, page 267.
141 Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, Vol. 2, page 383.
142 Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 2, page 128.
94 Our Colonial Curriculum.
in these subjects at a college of medium grade to-day. If
he could construct a few simple sentences of more than half
a dozen words in length with any facility at all, it is very
likely he was considered a prodigy among his companions.
For the general run of pupils it was not much better in
writing this language. There were prose compositions,
there were also translations from English into Latin as regu-
lar exercises, there were Latin declamations and salutatories
on formal occasions, but that the ordinary youth could ex-
press themselves with the pen with any degree of ease and
correctness is a proposition not to be maintained for an in-
stant. There were Latin books composed, just as now
there are Americans who occasionally write a German or
French paper but they are usually very careful to get a na-
tive from those countries to revise their communications.
They in turn do the same for their classes. Even then when
these instructors have had in many cases the benefit of resi-
dence in Europe for several years, how many of their stu-
dents can make a decent dress for their thoughts in ink
without the most laborious use of grammar and dictionary?
Two centuries and more ago the advantages of getting Latin
were far less than these modern tongues and the quotum of
attainment was still more unsatisfactory. They did then as
they do now, they ground out the stiff formal exercises, with
a rare instance of connected discourse in Latin. A few
even made Latin verses but practically all went no farther
than the disconnected sentences illustrating some grammati-
cal principle.
As for reading Latin authors, not much more is to be said.
How many could appreciate the eloquence of Cicero, the
sublimity of Virgil, the wit of Horace, or the condensed ex-
pression of Tacitus? We can only judge from the course
they took among the Latin writers. We have already noted
the names of the chief authors in use but it may not be a
useless duplication to repeat some of these. The Boston
Ancient Languages. 95
Latin school, and a private academy of probably the same
grade had the following in their list : Cheever's Accidence,
The Colloquies of Corderius, Aesop's Fables, Caesar, Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Virgil's Aeneid, Cicero's Orations, some-
thing of Horace, Eutropius, Castalio's Dialogues, Lilly's
Grammar, and some prose composition.
The curriculum was the same practically in these two
institutions and so was the refreshing frankness with which
announcement is made of the benefits from translations of
several of. these authors. Some of them were even in paral-
lel columns and very likely there were interlinearies. These
helps are not to be condemned, in fact they are to be. com-
mended, but their presence in the course does not indicate
a very intimate acquaintance with the language that started
from the banks of the Tiber. This is to be said however,
that the number of names speaks for a comprehensive feast
for secondary schools but then just as now there was an
overlapping of college and the training school below. In
fact we have testimony from a pupil passing through this
private academy about the time of the revolutionary war
before he was fifteen and being admitted to Harvard im-
mediately with so much credit to himself that he was confi-
dent he knew as much Latin as the boys in the senior
class. 143 There is no ground for suspecting that he was
puffed up with his own achievement as it was not at all a
difficult bar to be leaped for getting into college at that time
For a number of years a boy could walk into Yale with Vir-
gil, Cicero's Orations, and some skill in writing Latin. In
1742 Harvard exacted in an examination for association in
her work thirty-nine lines in the Aeneid and some extracts
from two of Cicero's Catiline Orations. 144
Even for grasping the mere thought of these ancient vol-
umes the bulk must have been painfully incompetent. For
™ Common School Journal, Vol. 12, pages 311-315, Oct. 15, 1850,
Boston, Mass.
144 Peirce, Hist. Harvard, page 238.
96 Our Colonial Curriculum.
imbibing the spirit, for breathing the flavor of these master-
pieces they must have been hopelessly in the dark. To-day
we are embarrassed with grammars, lexicons, dictionaries
of reference and allusions, histories, philological investiga-
tions of all kinds, and still the keenest and strongest among
us will not trust his own powers in a quotation but will hunt
up the passage in a translation. With the meagerest appli-
ances, without libraries, without any of that mass of knowl-
edge that the most indefatigable research has given us for a
century or so, how could the student of those early years get
anything but the barest, dryest husks of life and knowledge ?
With only a modicum of conversation, a smattering of
prose composition, a residuum of interpretation, inferior per-
haps in all three respects, but certainly in the last to what
is accomplished at the present day, a very interesting prob-
lem comes up as to how the student of today with a multi-
plicity of subjects gets as much in Latin as his forefathers
did who gave almost their whole time to that branch. In
our colleges to-day Latin will absorb only one-fourth or one-
fifth of the pupil's energy and yet he will go as far in it as
his forerunners did who gave all of their power to that
task. It is not possible that the natural ability today is three
or four times as great as it was two centuries ago. Is the
teaching that much better or are the books and libraries that
much improved? It is a very interesting line of thought
and a partial solution is to be found in the extra emphasis
laid upon matters then that are now no longer regarded.
Theology was a great absorbent then of mental effort and
her handmaid, disputation, helped vigorously to dissipate the
brains and time of students. But these two do not cover the
entire puzzle. Combined with the enhanced effectiveness of
the teacher and the more liberal supply in the laboratory and
the libraries they may uncover the most of the causes for
this enormous difference but there still remains a vague bal-
ance. The finer educational environments from infancy
Ancient Languages. 97
onward may partly remove that or wholly so but there still
is a fascination of speculating whether heredity gives us
more brain power than it did the infant far back in the past.
The Failure of the Effort.
The most monumental endeavor in all history to establish
a universal speech came to naught. Scholars supported and
urged the plan, the schools adopted it, the writers and think-
ers were enthusiastic for it, the powerful influence of gov-
ernment was invoked in its behalf, it had the sanction of the
church, the weight of authority favored it the whole realm
of the intellect was given over to it, and yet only broken
fragments of it survive the defeat.
Nor was there any better success in substituting Latin for
any of the native languages. It could not even hold what
was left of form to it as an inheritance. The people in its
very home, in Italy, and its neighbors, France and Spain,
refused to lay aside the verbal shapes they had gathered
from infancy and exchange them for the terms that had been
their ancestors'. With the German, and Dutch, and Eng-
lish, this literary alien was received still more coldly. Nor
is it to be marvelled that this imperial mistress was baffled.
The task was one of infinite and incredible difficulty. The
impressions of infancy, the associations of childhood, twine
and grow into the very innermost fibres during our plastic
stage and give us the rootlets from which our instincts
spring. The trainings of after life may smother these for a
time but they last till the end. The will is powerful and
may twist and distort but it can never eradicate these deepest
bonds of our nature. Aside from mere unreasoning con-
servatism, both calm judgment and good policy were with
the unthinking masses. Their own speech was not as de-
veloped as Latin, it did not have the grammatical forms, it
was not reduced to a system, but it had what Latin did not
7
98 Our Colonial Curriculum.
have, it had the breath of life, it was an organism shooting
up its tendrils and sending down its roots, growing, expand-
ing into the luxury of twigs and leaves and flowers. The
scheme was a failure, and in spite of the noble names con-
nected with it, in spite of the beautiful sentiment running
through it, it deserved to fail.
Perhaps there is not in all the weary landscape of the past
a single instance of one language supplanting another on a
large scale except by the spontaneous action of the great
body of the people affected themselves. Such a transforma-
tion comes, if it comes at all, insensibly, by gradual swap-
ping of terms, but above all by the scattering of the popula-
tion throughout a wide extent so that each individual is sur-
rounded and washed by the ebb and flow of the other lan-
guage. This kind of modification is going on under our
eyes in this country everyday and has gone on for a century
past. A few enthusiasts in Japan were once intoxicated
with the idea of getting English as the medium for the Japa-
nese. The minister of education, Vicount Mori, deliberately
argued for this substitution. He was justified to some ex-
tent in his fancy. Japanese compares with English about
as early German or English compares with Latin. So far
as accurate fitting of forms goes English is superior to Japa-
nese just as Latin was to English. But Vicount Mori over-
looked the frightful agony of learning another speech even
though it might be better than the original. No serious
trial was made to carry his speculation into effect but even
the mention of it most likely had some part in offending the
conservative element to such an extent that his assassination
soon came.
We are thus left after twenty centuries of experiment just
as we were when the great intellectual leaders set out for an
organ of communication for the learned. With the advance
of the nations we are in one sense worse off than they were,
there are now many more respositories of knowledge, mak-
Ancient Languages. 99
ing the task of keeping up with the progress of the world
far more troublesome than then. But there seems one ray
of consolation, that one of all these stubborn opponents of
Latin may finally so spread as to be a virtual speech for the
educated. This happy result if it comes at all will come
through the play of natural forces and not through any
deliberate effort. Conquest, colonization, travel, and
beyond all, trade, will accomplish a million times more than
argument and reason. The competition for material gain
may do what the greatest beneficence of religion and au-
thority were helpless to bring about.
But if this linguistic millennium ever dawns, its coming
will not be assisted very much by the body of teachers.
From the very nature of their labor teachers are conserva-
tive. They have to deal with the past, sorting over and re-
arranging the mountains of accumulated knowledge so as to
simplify the process of assimilation by young minds as much
as possible. Their thoughts are with the past, they love the
road that has been traveled. It is a wrench to their notions
to take up something new. The oldest of all the gilds of the
brotherhood, the Latin teachers, are the hardest to move.
Latin has been fighting a losing battle for two hundred
years but that narrowing band of devoted souls follow their
banner with fanatic faith. They still mumble and mouth
about the spirit of old Rome, the culture, the fountain head
of so much of our knowledge. Their logic is poor, their
observation faulty, their common sense shrivelled. This
inner ethereal sanctum of the ancients is to be entered by
painful pounding along the hard desolate path of declension
and conjugation and dull syntax, and all to be accomplished
within a few years by dictionary and grammar translation
of selections from two or three authors. The mists of an-
tiquity are still in their keeping, they are still powerful to
affect the conduct and decision of college authorities. Latin
is yet an entrance requirement in practically all of our
ioo Our Colonial Curriculum.
higher institutions. Humor and ponderous solemnity do
not go together. If they did this little tag end of the Roman
speech would have been dropped at the college gate years
ago, and neither would the windy battle of empty words and
terms ever have raged over the proper pronunciation of
Latin. The schoolman could never tell how many angels
could stand on the point of a needle, can the advocates of
Roman pronunciation know anything more about how the
Latin words sounded to "Roman ears ?
Greek.
Greek was an elder peeress sister to Latin, one of the three
"linguae elegantes et ingenuae," the fountain head of "art,
literature, and science," forming with her companion the
double thread from which our civilization today has been
spun. It was the source of "literary and philosophical views
of the world." 145 Notwithstanding these noble associations,
this classical scion fell into disfavor because of the taint of
heresy, and the Greek language for ecclesiastical purposes
was abandoned by Latin Christendom in the 8th century
when the great schism arose between the eastern and west-
ern churches. Only the most elementary acquaintance is to
be found with this tongue except on the part of some indus-
trious monks. There is record of an occasional professor-
ship in this branch during the middle ages. 146 But it was
not until the first faint streaks of humanist revival that any
serious attempt was made at the scholastic study ot this
early speech.
The Beginning in Italy.
To italy belongs the credit of leading in this culture, and
in her schools were to be found Homer, Herodotus, Xeno-
phon, Isocrates, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plutarch and
lw Universities and Their Sons, Introduction by W. T. Harris.
'" H. Rashdall, Universities in Middle Ages, Vol. 2, page 459.
Ancient Languages. 101
some of the Greek church fathers. A schoolmaster of the
period promised to turn out pupils proficient at understand-
ing these writers after twelve months' instruction but we are
at liberty very seriously to doubt his word. 147
The German Start.
Father northward, in Germany, after the chains of bond-
age were stricken from the intellect under the lead of Martin
Luther, there are also evidences of leaning towards Greek in
the educational work. Melanchthon provided for it in his
far reaching scheme, even to the extent of having Greek
plays to be acted by the pupils. He himself was here as in
other fields very proficient and prepared a Greek grammar
when only sixteen of which there were very many editions.
Reception in England.
The infection fled to England but it met with almost the
fierce opposition that an insidious disease, such as smallpox,
arouses. It is true John Locke very placidly thought that
it was necessary for a scholar as being the foundation for
all our learning but of no advantage to a gentleman, and
even the learned kept it for only a short time. There was
room provided for it in the school statutes of Henry VIII
but no stress laid upon it. When it asked introduction at
Oxford in the early part of the 16th century there was a bit-
ter fight against this new comer by the students who jibed,
sneered, ridiculed, abused and even fought with stave and
fist against the applicant. Sir Thomas Moore, who died
such a pathetic martyr's death, protested against this bar-
baric treatment and finally the king came to his aid and the
royal influence was cast in favor of the fugitive to the ex-
tent of allowing those who desired to take up this study. 148
But for nearly a century it was scarcely recognized at Cam-
" T Vittorino, by W. H. Woodward, page 225.
148 J. B. Mullinger, Vol. 1, page 525 of his University of Cambridge.
102 Our Colonial Curriculum.
bridge. There is a faint record of two people about 1600 in
one of the colleges being able to understand it. 148 It was
indeed difficult to get instructors as there were so few who
were at all proficient in this language, but by the time of
Milton the Greek authors were read in fragments. 160 Along
with Latin and Hebrew, it was one of the three languages to
be spoken — so the statutes ran.
The Faint Infusion in America.
Even before 1700 we can find such an unusual author as
Isocrates in the list for Harvard along with the others such
as to be found scattered in Italy, Germany, and England,
with Yale a close second in this respect, but they meant very
little if we are to trust some individual testimony. Far
down to the Revolution, Josiah Quincy could note that the
requirement for Greek entrance was "slight and superficial"
covering Gloucester's Greek grammar, with ability to con-
strue the four gospels. 151 And that too, even when Harvard
possessed a font of Greek type which was lost by fire in
1764. At Yale Baldwin discloses the "pony" rides in Homer
at a little earlier time than this. 152 The freshman was ex-
pected to have read the new testament, and perhaps in the
subsequent four years he did very little more in Gfreek. 153
An imposing appearance is before us of classes skipping
nimbly from Greek to Latin, to English, to Hebrew, and
then back again, but a very level-headed Yale president has
most likely marred this lovely illusion when he suggests that
about all the high-sounding phrase means is the parrot-like
recitation of corresponding passages that had been picked
out beforehand by the tutor and required to be memorized
"" Thomas Baker, St. John's, page 191 ; Cambridge, England, 1869,
2 vols. . »
150 Masson's Milton, Vol. 1, page 66.
151 American Journal of Education, Vol. 32, page 873.
™* W. L. Kingsley, History of Yale, Vol. 1, page 444.
"' W. L. Kingsley, History of Yale, Vol. 2, page 500.
Ancient Languages. 103
for exhibition purposes perhaps. 154 Most likely this is what
President Dunster, of Harvard, meant, in 1649, when he
wrote to London about the remarkable proficiency of his
students in translating from Hebrew and Chaldee into
Greek. 165
What the Secondary Schools Did.
If it was only a snack in the higher ranges what more
than a bite was to be expected in the lower? There were
certain authors mentioned in the curriculum of the Boston
Latin School and its partner, Lovell's Private Academy. In
the eight years of the former the students "dipped into
Xenophon and Homer." 156
In its yoke-fellow there are listed Ward's Grammar,
Greek Testament, and two books of the Illiad, with the
pleasant confession of a translation, Latin or English. Fur-
ther, as a postscript, we are informed by a sincere student,
"this was all my Greek education at school." 157
Virginia View.
It was the ambition of the educators in this southern
colony to reproduce the schools across the water, but Greek
must have been the fag end for these efforts. There is not
much data to go upon, but one or two witnesses do let in
some light upon the estimate of Greek. Two years before.
Thomas Jefferson penned his immortal paper, a private tu-
tor amuses us by his account of how some of his boy pupils
swore at Homer and wished that he had him there in Vir-
ginia so that he could kick him as he had been told that
Homer invented Greek. 158 Possibly this is a blunt out-crop-
1M T. D. Woolsey, in Kingsley's Yale, Vol. 2, page 496.
155 Publications of American Jewish Hist. Soc, No. 2, page 75.
156 Otis, a student, gives this evidence.
157 Common School Journal, Vol. 12, page 311, Oct. 15, 1850, Bos-
ton, Mass.
158 Fithian's Journal, page 91.
104 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ping of that tough fibrous boy nature that luckily survives
all of the fads of parents and pedagogues and school boards,
but it may also be an index to the little time given up to
Greek. Six years later a youth wandering from Williams-
burg to Harvard was graciously permitted to enter without
the Greek requirement on the ground that Greek was not
taught at Williamsburg. 159
It is not to be inferred that the Virginia men and women
were behind their relatives in the colder climes northward,
as we are aware that not only Jefferson, but many of his
compeers knew this language in the conventional way of the
times, but there is a foretaste of the higher education of
woman today in the knowledge that Margaret Wythe had of
Greek which she put to good use in leading her son George
through the mazes of this old-world tongue. 160
Aids In Studying Greek.
The Greek grammars of the period were fully up to the
standard of Latin, and in fact some of them would almost
serve at the present day. In dictionaries there was much
greater deficiency than in Latin. In fact nearly all of the
Greek was learned through the medium of Latin. The notes
on the authors if there were any were usually in this Roman
garb. To some extent the study of Greek was really another
method of approaching the Latin problem.
The Sum Totai,.
A mere taste of three or four Greek authors at most, with
a tolerable facility in the four evangelists of the new testa-
ment is about as much as the average student got of that
royal feast prepared in that little peninsular in southern Eur-
ope centuries ago. All the prodigal wealth of literature, of
philosophy, of art that are now at the command of college
"* Calendar, Vol. 2, page 140, Mss., Harvard Archives.
100 William and Mary Quarterly, Oct., 1897, page 77.
Ancient Languages. 105
students were unknown by him. Theology insisted on a mo-
dicum and scholarship asked for a tag end. When these two
were satisfied the matter was ended.
Hebrew.
Hebrew was ranked as the third of the "elegantes et in-
genuae linguae," but from sanctity of religion considered
the highest of the trio, and also was the least studied. All
European languages looked up to it as the mother of ton-
gues and each was ambitious to trace its lineage even to the
speech in the Garden of Eden. Proselytism was the purpose
of the first efforts towards teaching it. It was urged in the
middle ages that this language should be taught at the uni-
versities in order that the Jews might be converted. The
modern study of it may be said to date from about the 17th
century, the stimulus being contributed by Reuchlin who
published a Hebrew grammar. There are some traces of in-
struction in it, but the rudiments only in Oxford and Cam-
bridge, although the statutes required it as one of the three
languages to be used colloquially by students.
It was only in keeping with the religious atmosphere at
the daybreak of our existence that attention should be drawn
by the watchman on the higher points towards this sacred
dialect. "How" asked one of these higher souls, "can the
redeemed enjoy the thrilling music of Heaven unless they
can understand the words that the angels use?" — a horrible
deprivation of spiritual delight. As usual, enthusiasm lacked
common sense. The unregenerate did not care to come to
the banquet even when the road was made plain. A teacher
was employed in the Hopkins Grammar School by the mid-
dle of the seventeenth century for the triune care of Latin,
Greek and Hebrew so that the youth could be prepared to
enter college. But the hard practical sense of the early
pioneers, full of energy and animal spirits, did not appre-
io6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
date the glories of Hebrew. The poor tutors at Harvard
had a stony path to tread.
Objection To The Study.
Wigglesworth records in his diary on August 29, 1653:
"My pupils all came to me this day to desire they might
cease learning Hebrew ; I withstood it with all the reason I
could, yet all will not satisfy them." All teachers will appre-
ciate his unhappy predicament in trying to thrust down the
throat of his pupils food that they rebelled against. From
sorrow he rapidly dropped into anger and abuse. I^ess than
six months later he begins to refer to "the obstinate unto-
wardness of some of my pupils in refusing to read Hebrew,"
and "spirit of unbridled licentiousness," that "will be the
ruin of the whole country ;" here again another instance
added to the million of the absurd lengths to which the en-
thusiast in any department in life can go, all the more ridic-
ulous when his zeal is linked with religious fervor. But he
does not effect anything in the way of improvement as he
goes on to jot down "pupils forward negligence in the
Hebrew still much exercises me." 161
Judah Monis.
Here in many other cases Harvard was the scout for edu-
cational advance. After teaching Hebrew almost since her
foundation, she first established a professorship of the orien-
tal languages and Hebrew in 1764. Judah Monis, a con-
verted Jew rabbi, born in southern Europe, an emigrant to
America in 1720, had been in charge of these branches for
many years. The course was not compulsory and only a few
took up the class. It was perhaps for this that he resigned
in 1 76 1. Three years later the full chair was put into effect
and Professor S. Sewall was placed in charge. 162 Monis
M1 Sibley, Vol. 1, page 265, of Harvard Graduates.
1M Peirce, Hist. Harvard, page 231.
Ancient Languages. 107
prepared a grammar of the Hebrew language which was
ordered to be obtained by all of the sophomores and fresh-
men at a cost of 14 shillings a copy. In this same enactment
on September 30, 1735, freshmen were required to attend
Hebrew instruction at the beginning of the last quarter and
all other students to attend this work "at such times and so
often as the corporation shall determine. 163 President Lev-
erett has preserved this description of the work: "one ex-
ercise in a week shall be the writing the Hebrew and Rab-
binical, the rest shall be in this gradual method. 1. Copying
the grammar and reading. 2. Reciting it and reading it. 3.
Construing. 4. Parsing. 5. Translating. 6. Composing. 7.
Reading without points." 164 It was perhaps in part due to
the influence of Monis that Greenwood, in the first Ameri-
can arithmetic in existence has tables of scripture measure
of length and capacity such as :
4 fingers' breadth make 1 hand's breadth.
2 hands' breadth make 1 span.
2 spans make 1 cubit, etc.
also on capacity he has
4 logs make 1 cab.
3 cabs make 1 hin, etc.
What Was Done; At Yale.
On the early periods we have scanty information but
thanks to that cheerful and voluminous diarist Stiles, we
can make up a pretty fair picture of Hebrew study about
the middle of the 18th century and onward. Stiles overflows
with abounding earnestness in the Hebrew cause. He tells
of "writing a sermon in Hebrew on Ezra." 165 He formed a
voluntary class in Hebrew but with what success we do not
"* Harvard Archives, Mss. College Book, No. 1, page 206.
1M J. Quincy, History Harvard, II, 442.
160 Ezra Stiles's Diary, Vol. 3, page 243.
io8 Our Colonial Curriculum.
know. Without being ungratful to his memory, there may
be a dim suspicion that the boys cared no more for it at Yale
than they did at Harvard. He had made it an obligation on
the freshmen when he became president in 1777, and at the
end of the scholastic term two years later he confided thus
in his diary : "this month the freshmen have recited Hebrew
to me. I began with the alphabet and carried the whole class
through more or less according to their arrivals. I divided
them into two parts — one have receited the first part of the
second Psalm; the other and principal part have finished
translating the seven first Psalms and parsed the first and
part of the second Psalms. I do not find that any class has
been carried through one-half so much these many
years." 166
Freedom of choice was about this time allowed as Hebrew
was "disagreeable to a number" as Stiles himself admits.
But although the influence of the man and the office was
great to induce twenty-two out of thirty-nine to ask for
Hebrew even the little that was accomplished was a rem-
nant. By 1775 the subject was almost extinct at Yale as
the seniors only worried through two or three of the Psalms
in Hebrew after a fashion." 187 But even the honor of being
instructed by the president of the institution was not enough
to sustain the interest although he insisted that all classes
should study this divine speech. Towards the end of the cen-
tury we have it from an old student as follows : "we learned
the alphabet and worried through two or three Psalms after
a fashion ; with most of us it was mere pretense," and this
too even with all the students gazing upon the president
as a very monument of proficiency "in Hebrew as well as
several other Eastern dialects." 168
1M Stiles's Diary, Vol. 3, page 350.
167 W. L. Kingsley, History of Yale, Vol. 2, page 500.
"" Mason, page 11.
Ancient Languages. 109
Hebrew Grammars.
Just as with Greek Hebrew was really subservient to
Latin originally as the grammars were cast in that form.
In that repository of old textbooks which is a mecca to all
students of pedagogical history in this country and also in-
despensable for the investigator of nearly every branch of
American history, the American Antiquarian Society in
Worcester, Mass., are several of these Hebrew grammars
which it is hardly worth our while to do more than refer to
here. One of the oldest goes back three years before 1600,
London, being yoked with Chaldee, and garbed in Latin.
There we also find one by Bennet, perhaps the first in Amer-
ica, being dated 173 1 in the third edition, also couched in
Latin. We come across one in manuscript, very clear hand,
in English, but without date, comprising 100 pages, being
an evidence very likely of strict attention to the subject in
part and a rather slender pocketbook in another part. The
most widely used of all, it is rather safe to say, is the one
by the Harvard man, Monis, a copy to be seen in the Bos-
ton Public Library. This appeared in 1735, ninety-four pages
square octavo, "for use of the students of Harvard," "being
an essay to bring the Hebrew language into English."
Another Harvard teacher, Israel Lyons, some third of a
century later, puts his imprint upon a volume of 83 pages,
octavo, with a sketch of Hebrew poetry. Like Monis he has
"praxis" or. exercises of translation in both ways.
There are other examples of these grammars but they are
practically all the same, being only tedious duplications of
each other pretty much as Latin grammars are at the pre-
sent day. The substantials are the same and in these cases
they hardly go beyond the rudiments. The whole subject of
Hebrew was a harmless hobby of religionists so far as af-
fecting the current of the student body or life. It was a waste
of time but hardly more so than many branches at college
today, and, then as now, it came at a period when leisure
no Our Colonial Curriculum.
had just as well be put upon an intellectual puzzle as drawn
away in idle chatter and destructive games and pranks.
Chaudee And Syriac.
These two other Semitic dialects are mentioned in the
course of study of Harvard university shortly after the
foundation of the institution was made, the former appear-
ing in the list of second year studies and the latter in the
third year. They are not noted in any subsequent announce-
ments, nor has any light been thrown upon their pedagogical
use aside from filling space, looking large and sounding
learned, soothing the pardonable pride of some scholarly in-
structor and pleasing the vanity of some one or two students
that may have studied them very briefly. The same kind of
scholarly display can be observed in the catalogues of insti-
tutions a few years ago that put down Sanskrit as one of
the studies offered.
CHAPTER IV.
Theology And Philosophy.
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other ancient languages were
to the medieval educator only keys for unlocking the inner
court of humanity. As other subjects were added to the slow
path of development they also were merely supplementary
aids for penetrating to the very core of life, for understand-
ing our existence and for leading us to the other world.
Grammar, or Latin, though dealing with pagan poets and
church fathers in the effort to write and speak as they did,
was for the early teacher only a process of sharpening the
mind so that it could "grasp the right sense of the divine
words." 169 Prosody was necessary for appreciating the
Psalms, rhetoric for admiring the beauty of the Holy
Fathers, dialectics to enable the minister to meet and van-
quish heretics, arithmetic for unfolding the mystery of the
"numbers and measures" mentioned in the Scriptures, ge-
ometry for the circles told of in the description of the ark
and the temples, music and astronomy for use in the divine
service. Theology indeed comprehended philosophy and em-
braced within its horizontal sweep the whole stretch of
knowledge. It of course was based originally on the Bible
and then secondarily on the early writers. The method of
teaching it was very routine, chiefly to copy, compile, and
abridge, to compare passages with one another so as to
distill the very essence of their meaning. Dialectical skill was
whetted to a keen edge because the basic authority was not
allowed to be doubted. Later under the pioneering advances
of Aquinas and Scotus theology passed into the Metaphys-
ical stage, an attempt to reconcile the deductions of the
sources with the dictates of reason.
"* F. V. N. Painter, History of Education, page 101.
112 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Where everything converges to one center it perhaps
seemed unnecessary to make a special head of that point,
or perhaps there were not means for paying special atten-
tion to this subject, but at any rate it was nearly a century
after the founding of Harvard University before there was
established a regular chair of theology. It was in T720 that
Thomas Hollis, the generous English friend of the needy
institution, provided by donation for "a professor of divin-
ity to read lectures in the halls of the college unto the stu-
dents." 170 There were to be two lectures weekly on "posi-
tive and controversial divinity," on "church history, on Jew-
ish antiquity," also to cover "cases of conscience" and "crit-
ical exposition of Scripture." Hollis himself was very lib-
eral in his views and only stipulated that the Bible was the
perfect rule of faith and manners, but when the authorities
sought to carry out the terms of his gift discussion broke
forth as to the requirements of faith, and the upshot of it
all was the absurd test of a belief in the divine right of in-
fant baptism before one could hold position. The lecture
was to be preceded by a short prayer and the general
scheme was based upon the similar work at the University
of Edinburgh.
Of course this subject had been in the Harvard curricu-
lum from the start. In the earliest published scheme, in
1643, we nn d "divinity catechetical," but thus far it has not
been discovered what was actually done. It is a safe pre-
sumption that nothing more was attempted than a very sys-
tematic drill upon the main doctrines of formal theology,
with the chief events of Biblical history.
At Edinburgh One Hundred Years Before.
The rise of protestantism invigorated education in Scot-
land, above all religious education, because if a man was to
save himself by his own interpretation of the Bible it was
170 Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 1, page 239.
Theology and Philosophy. 113
the most solemn duty of life to know what was in the Bible.
Even as far back as the middle of the 16th century stress
was laid upon theology as one of the important branches of
study. With Greek and Hebrew as the base, five years were
given to divinity, both testaments being carefully gone
over. 171 Less than two decades later divinity students had
first to complete four years in the university proper and then
take two years additional in their own subject. Soon the en-
thusiasm of the authorities mounted up so high that a
beautiful scheme was unfolded of four years covering He-
brew, Chaldee, Syriac and Greek so as to wring the last
atom of thought from the Holy word by a comparison of
these different versions. The crown of the plan was a
series of lectures on systematic divinity. 172
On this foundation, by 1600, Robert Rollock developed a
famous school of theology, one of the earliest of the times.
He included the germs of all divisions of the subject. He
dictated analyses of certain portions of the Bible, he dis-
cussed general religious topics, he dipped into the contro-
versies with the established church, and he pointed out the
application of principles to practice. A score of years later,
in 1620, the first chair of theology was established at Edin-
burgh by the separation of the duties of the holder from
those of principal, the two having been combined up to this
time. The burden was not a heavy one as the incumbent had
to give two public lectures weeklv hold "disputes" of his
classes once weekly, public "disputes" one a month, have
private exercises in Latin, and instruct in Hebrew regularly.
Private beneficience was aroused so that donations to the
extent of some 1500 pounds came for the endowment of
the chair. 173 There was no substantial change for nearly
m Grant, University of Edinburgh; Vol. 1, page 63.
"'Grant's Edinburgh, Vol. 1, page 93.
""Grant's Edinburgh, Vol. 1, page 334; also Vol. 1, page 210;
Vol. 2, page 280.
8
1 14 Our Colonial Curriculum.
another century, until 1702 when a chair of ecclesiastical
history was added. •
Fervent zeal had thus experimented with this course of
study. Its energy however either relaxed or was turned into
other channels, as the learned historian of the institution
remarks that for the next 150 years practically no modifica-
tion or improvement is to be noted. It was still in its vigor
when Hollis turned to it largely as his model for the design
he had to found such a chair in the new world. So far as
we can judge from the meagre data to be had now there
was but slight difference between the essentials of the two
on both sides of the Atlantic. Both had the Semitic lan-
guages as preparatory, both exacted the reading of the
Bible in these original tongues, both called for critical and
textual study, and both had history.
Peter Lombard.
But the theology at both, as well as at all other medieval
institutions rested upon that wheel horse, Peter Lombard,
who died about the middle of the 12th century. His book
of "sentences" is the bed rock lying far beneath the mass
of commentators that reared themselves upon him. The
aim of this giant was to systematize all of the Christian
teachings. A job of infinite difficulty he set himself to har-
monize the Bible with all of the deliverances of the church
fathers, so as to extract the very marrow of knowledge in
every department. 174 He has a couple of hundred proposi-
tions, each one of which he puts through his logical ma-
chine in the way of expounding, amplifying and proving.
He shied at nothing, not hesitating to plunge into those
snares of trinity, and of predestination. He is really in-
genious on the latter, drawing a distinction as fine as a fila-
174 H. Rashdall, Vol. 1, Universities in the Middle Ages, page 57.
Also Mullinger, Cambridge, page 59. "Sentences" does not mean a
grammatical term but the "opinions or tenets" or "truths" or "deliv-
erances" of the authorities. See Mullinger, pages 7, 59-
Theology and Philosophy. 115
ment between predestination and fore-knowledge. What
the deity himself is going to do is, to Lombard, predestina-
tion ; what the deity knows is going to happen is fore-know-
ledge, — a very soothing pacification of omniscience and free-
dom of the will.
Other Authors.
Of the men indebted to Lombard for their method and
of commentators on the scriptures, there are myriads, but it
is necessary for us to take only a few of the more leading
ones in use in America. Nonnus and Duport whose names
we see in the courses of study in American institution, had
Latin paraphrase and metrical versions of certain parts of
the scripture, the former of some of the new testament, and
the latter of the Psalms.
But it is of those who attempted to apply logic and scien-
tific precision to theology that we find the greatest literary
monuments. Heereboord's Meletemata is an ambitious
sweep over the whole realm of the known, seeking to con-
nect everything with the theological center. A fat quarto
does Richard Blome produce about 1700 by the translation
of Anthony LeGrand's Body of Philosophy according to
DesCartes.
It is two others though that give us the fullest foliage,
William Ames and John Wollebius. Ames was some 100
years earlier than Wollebius, and it is to him that Hollis
perhaps owes his expression "cases of conscience." Ames's
volume devotes its first part to this particular topic. It is
really a reproduction of Lombard as. the title to one of the
parts reads : "the marrow of sacred divinity drawn out of
the Holy Scriptures and the interpreters thereof and brought
into method." He has a most elaborate outline of some fif-
teen pages containing such topics as these : "that which may
be known of God or his back parts," "God and His essence,"
"efficiency of God," "creation," special gubernation of an-
n6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
gels and men," "man's flesh," "end of world," "virtue,"
"time of divine worship." Very likely with the first virus
of science working in the veins of education came a yearn-
ing for something more systematized and condensed hence
Wollebius, translated by Ross. 175 A cast-iron logical tree
in his treatise, springing from the great tap root that "God
is a spirit existent eternally in himself * * * an entity * *
* incomprehensible * * * without beginning, without end,
without change." With this pregnant premise he goes on
with all the placidity of a machine man to crawl over every
branch, twig and leaf that can possibly evolve from such
a profound depth. He even laboriously settles to his own
satisfaction that "marriage is honorable." Natural prompt-
ings are at conflict with his basic notions. He wishes to
defend war, and yet there are certain passages very trouble-
some to get over still he settles the matter that it was
"pleasing to God, and profitable to the state," and is lawful,
because a captain and centurion are mentioned in the new
testament as among the faithful.
Biting Comments.
In his slashing attack upon the education of his day in
general John Webster gave a few sounding whacks at the-
ology. To him it was "but a confused chaos of needless
frivolous, fruitless, trivial, vain, curious, impert-nent,
knotty, ungodly, irreligious, thorny and hel-hatc'ht disputes,
altercations, doubts, questions and endless j anglings, multi-
plied and spawned forth even to monstrosity and nauseous-
ness." 176 He is no mere railer snapping and snarling at
something he dislikes, but a man of sense and rapier-like in-
sight, although it is not very discernible that he exercised
any immediate influence upon the pedagogics of his day.
There are some things that cannot be taught no matter how
OT W. L. Kingsley's Hist. Yale, Vol. 2, page 499.
""John Webster, Bxamen Academiarum, page 15.
Theology and Philosophy. 117
sympathetic and skillful the master, and all those things
of the spirit are in the realm of the unteachable. Growth
in grace, the purification of the inner life, the elevation of
the soul, the gazing upward with the eye of faith, these are
matters for each individual to struggle for himself, too ten-
der, too holy, for the rude hand of any outsider to seek to
direct and to mold. Webster very quaintly but very cor-
rectly puts it when he says : "men and academies have un-
dertaken to teach that which none but the spirit of Christ
is the true doctor of."
He almost shrieks out with pain against what he feels
was a travesty upon the best part of life, upon the religious
nature of man due to this senseless dip into metaphysics.
He shouts that "from this putrid and muddy fountain doth
arise all those hellish and dark fogs and vapours that like
locusts crawling from this bottomless pit have over-spread
the face of the whole earth, filling men with pride, inso-
lency and self-confidence, to aver and maintain that none are
fit to speak, and preach the spiritual, and deep things of
God, but such as are indeed with Scholastick and man's idol-
made learning, and so become fighters against God and his
truth and prosecutors of all those that speak from the prin-
ciple of that wisdom, that is from above, and is pure and
peaceful." 17 ''
John Webster is a melancholy example of a man crying
in the wilderness and not being heard by his fellows. But
little heed was paid to his warnings, and the schools con-
tinued to struggle after the impossible. What a mountain
of vain effort, what a weary desert of sad toil might the
schools have been saved from if they had listened, but men's
eyes were turned in this direction and nothing could stay
their feet except the hard impassable wall standing across
their path. There is one comforting thought however that
though slower and more stupid than dumb cattle humanity
m John Webster, Bxamen Academiarum, page 12.
n8 Our Colonial Curriculum.
does in the end learn its lesson. Slowly the tired gaze was
turned in another direction and less and less attention paid
to theology until it dropped from the regular college course
entirely. No longer is it compulsory in any of the 700 in-
stitutions of higher learning in this country, although a few
do provide Biblical study as an elective. This does not mean
to say though that the subject has lost its interest and its
power. On the other hand it has gained. No longer forced
down unwilling throats it has now been raised to the dignity
of a profession, and has its special school just as law and
medicine in which those who are going to devote their life
to it may receive the discipline that it requires in addition to
the regular college course.
In common with education in general there has been a
great enrichment of the subjects in theological schools. All
of the essentials of two centuries ago have been retained, to
them have been attached developments that most likely not
even the prejudiced minds at that time dreamed of. Notably
among such new branches are the courses on philosophy of
religions and comparative religions. The historical branches
also have been very much increased and enlarged. In phil-
lology and exegesis there has been a most marked advance.
Logic.
"The use of this iron key is to open the rich treasury of
the Holy Scriptures," thus imprinted John Eliot, the apostle
to the Indians, on the title pages of his Logic Primer in
1672, one of the earliest of all the efforts in print for the
salavation of the red men. He was simply in line with the
entire trend of the schools for the centuries past. To all
educators logic was the handmaid of religion, and guide
post along the path to Paradise. Instead of putting his
strength upon induction and deduction and upon termin-
ology, he very soon began to discuss such matters as "Gen-
tiles," "elect," "saving," and other phases of theology. With
Theology and Philosophy. 119
her elder sister, logic and theology were almost the only
subjects in the medieval universities. Every student had to
be "aut logicus aut nullus" — either logician or nothing. 178
To the teacher of those days, in the sphere of the intellect
it was the center from which everything radiated. One of
the authors at a later date summed up his entire volume in
the title "Logic or the right use of reason in the inquiry af-
ter truth." 179 To the Italian humanist it was the "guide and
aid to the study of other sciences," it assisted to "exposi-
tion, precision, connection, and clearness." 180 Such sway
spread far and long survived, even the master pens of liter-
ature yielding allegiance. Far down into the 19th century
that queer child of genius and opium, DeQuincy, could see
but three methods of training a young man. Logic he ranks
first, with languages and the arts of memory following but
not the dimmest gleam of any science.
But these earnest educators ought not to be judged too
harshly in their emphasis upon this branch of study. Their
premise once accepted they were well fortified in their posi-
tion. The whole of pedagogics at the time and for hundreds
of years before was based upon implicit trust in authority.
That source as has been said was the Bible. The problem
then was very simple. Here in these pages is the totality of
intellectual achievement both past and future, it is only nec-
essary to get the correct meaning by analyzing and combin-
ing the notions which common language brings. 181 These
extravagant estimates upon the importance of logic were
perfectly legitimate deductions and her omnipotence re-
mained and had to remain until the foundation stones were
disturbed and men accepted additional fountains for the in-
tellectual sources. Throughout these years a synonym was
"" J. B. Mullinger, Cambridge, page 355.
178 Isaac Watts, Fourth English Edition, 1731.
180 W. H. Woodward's Vittorino, page 60.
181 Whewell, History of Inductive Science, Vol. I, page 230.
120 Uui colonial Curriculum.
in frequent use, dialectics, as though one word was not suf-
ficient for the majesty of this monarch.
Aristotle.
The giant of the European intellect reached his long
strong arm of mental monopoly into every indentation of
thought. Either directly or through dilutions and distilla-
tions he ruled in every school and class room.
He had epitomized all the world of knowledge in his day
and after the revival of classical study his sway was pro-
found and overwhelming. The pious, plodding monk who
denied sun spots because he could not find any reference to
them in Aristotle is a ridiculous but true instance of the do-
minion exercised by this great Grecian. It was the same
homage in all other branches. In the physical sciences in-
stead of observing under their eyes the scholars and investi-
gators pored over the pages of Aristotle. John Baptist
Porta has recorded some of the most monstrous and absurd
deductions and directions for scientific experiments to be
found in all dignified literature, and yet to him nothing was
to be rejected or even questioned if he could find it in Aris-
totle.
Breaking the SpELi, of the Stagyrite.
Like the sudden bursting of a bomb-shell on a quiet day
must have been the defiance of Peter Ramus as he stood be-
fore his faculty of the university of Paris in 1563 declaring
as his thesis for the master's degree "Quaecumquae ab Ar-
istotle dicta essent commenticia esse" — whatever was said by
Aristotle is false. 182 All day this youthful David battled
with the classical Goliath, finally winning his honor with
applause. A rude shock it was to the smock conservatism
of the pedagogues when this immature champion shattered
"'J. B. Mullinger, Cambridge, Vol. 2, page 404. Also Wadding-
ton's Ramus, page 29.
Theology and Philosophy. 121
the infallibility of one of the monarchs of the mind. The
onset was too sudden, too radical, too destructive. The
crust was broken into fragrants, but the adherents of the
Grecian got even with this upstart for disturbing their ser-
ene security. They did not attempt to match intellectual
weapons with him, but they hushed his voice by physical vio-
lence. He fell victim to their brutish rage in the massacre
of St. Bartholemew less than a decade afterwards.
But he had pierced a way for the prisoners of authority
to escape. He was a John the Baptist for DesCartes and
Bacon. Without his epochal assault they could hardly have
moved forward.
There is one large volume including virtually all of what
he accomplished in pushing forward the march of knowl-
edge. Humanity did not know much then, it was no great
task to restate all that was to be found in books. He es-
sayed this and gathered data under such heads as gram-
maticae, rhetoricae, dialeticae, physicae and meta-physicae
and mathematicae. The first ranges over into what we now
know as phonetics, and is a rather thorough discussion of
the deep principles of speech. There is considerable philo-
sophical speculation of no great value scattered through it.
The name of his antagonist appears on nearly every page. 183
His Logic.
His logic only is of interest for our purpose. A small
book it was, duo decimo, really might be called "logic made
easy," an eminently popular compendium. 18 * This modest
little essay was a kind of Martin Luther reformer for the
province of scholarship in those times. But it is a curious
instance of the flightiness of even grave ponderous school
teachers that such frightful hubbub should be aroused over a
"* The title of this work runs, "Scholae in liberales artes : quarum
elenchus est proxima pagina. MDLXXVIII (1578)."
u * J. B. Mullinger, Cambridge, Vol. 2, page 406.
122 Our Colonial Curriculum.
slight thing. Men in the heat of conflict seem incapable ex-
cept in very rare instances, of judging an event or circum-
stance in its true relations. It is only after the fires have
smoldered into cold ashes when the historian far removed
from the purposes of the hour comes forward with his
scales and his microscope and carefully weighs the residuum.
When the event has lost all of its interest for the great mass
of us then the student of the past went over it and compared
the two, finding that there was no great difference between
them, that Ramus was really only a popularizer of Aristotle.
He had simplfied the original and had done a good work to
that extent. He himself thought he was warring upon Ar-
istotle instead of being simply a convenient edition for him.
But no matter what modifications he made, what wrath
he called forth, what blood was shed in the strife, his logic
and his fame soon went to the limits of the western hemis-
phere. Melanchthon transported his teachings to Germany,
Milton got out his version of the book, with a sketch of
Ramus and with prolix notes, within a century a Harvard
graduate blessed "the incomparable P. Ramus, "the grand
Mr. Ramus in grammar, rhetoric, logic. " 1S5
An English Edition.
About a half century after his death, 1626, Antony Wot-
ton put Ramus into English dress as "the art of logick gath-
ered out of Aristotle, and set in due form, according to his
instructions, by Peter Ramus, Professor of Philosophy and
Rhetorick in Paris and there martyred for the Gospell of
the Lord Jesus, with a short exposition of the Praecepts by
which any one of indifferent capacity may with a little pains
attaine to some competent knowledge and use of that noble
and necessary science."
The whole is a very faithful parallel of the Latin, which
""Thus wrote Leonard Hoar to his nephew Josiah Flint, then a
freshman at Harvard, on March 27, 1661.
Theology and Philosophy. 123
begins with "Quid fit logica? Logica est ars bene ratiocin-
andi. Eodemque sensu dialectica saepe dicta est." — "What
is logic? Logic is the art of reasoning well. In the same
sense dialectics is frequently used."
The entire volume is as formal and methodical as a Puri-
tan sermon and no doubt it was as interesting to many of
his hearers. To him the entire subject breaks into two great
heads, invention and judgment. The following taken from
his book without the awkwardness of so many quotation
marks will serve as a fair sample of the spirit of his book.
Invention deals with the finding out of arguments, show-
ing us the places where we are to fetch the proofs, while
judgment is a part of logic touching the disposing of argu-
ments that we may judge well. An argument is that which
hath a fitness to argue something. One of the important
principles in logic is the distinction between cause and ef-
fect. Cause is that by force whereof the thing is, as Mars
and Illia, the father and mother of Romulus, were efficient
causes of him. Effect is that which cometh of the cause as
eloquent orations were the effect of Demosthenes and Tully.
The subject is that to which something is adjoined, the
adjunct is that to which something is subjected. Now having
these matters settled all means of agreement are cause or ef-
fect or subject or adjunct.
He then goes into quite a treatment of the different kinds
of arguments as opposites, contraries, adversatives, contra-
dictories, equals, the greater, the less, the unlike, etc.
In the second book, devoted to judgment he discusses
axioms, or sentences, defining different sorts as simple,
compound, general, special, then he gives considerable space
to the syllogism which he says is a discourse wherein the
question is so disposed with the argument that if the antece-
dent be granted it must necessarily be concluded. The ele-
ments of this instrument of logic he grasps very firmly and
explains very simply, treating of the major and minor prem-
ises and the conclusion.
124 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Other Authors.
It is a long line of ancestry that logic can claim. The great
schoolmaster of Charlemagne, Alcuin, got out a book made
up of questions and answers, largely abstracted from Isi-
dore, who in turn had borrowed from Boethius and Augus-
tine. Lombard's ice-like sentences were also material for
the chopping machine of logic. Melanchthon really dipped
into the subject in his works on rhetoric and ethics besides
his larger works on logic proper.
There were also Keckerman who was both awfully pro-
lific and dull, Enfield, who really wrote very sensibly on the
history of philosophy ; Heereboord, Gassendi, Wallis, Brere-
wood, Ames and Watt. There are two others of more spec-
ial mention, Brattle and Burgersdicius, both of them in
rather wide use among our colonial ancestors. They are a
triplet with Ramus, only they are much more similar than
triplets ordinarily are. Burgersdicius was honored with an
editor, Heereboord who smothered his subject under his own
verbiage in a way common with the average editor. All
three have substantially the same arrangement, following
the same general scheme, treating syllogisms practically
alike, giving examples from the Latin versification of "Bar-
bara celarent," etc. All discuss the different phases of the
syllogism and all wind up with reflections upon method.
Some use question and answer, all are in Latin but there is
an English translation of Ramus and perhaps of Brattle.
American Manuscript Editions.
Old customs like old people usually die slowly. For ages,
before the invention of printing, textbooks were passed
down by dictation. Even after Gutenberg had placed man-
kind under his obligation paper was still dear. Under these
two influences American students often made their own
books as the words fell from the lips of the teacher. The
Theology and Philosophy. 125
zeal of antiquarians has unearthed a fair number of these
almost entirely in New England. There is one of Brattle's
Logic by Joseph McKean in Harvard, with the date of 1765
on it although Brattle had come from the printer's hand
seven years earlier.
Still earlier, from the hands of a graduate of 165 1, there
is a manuscript in the keeping of the New England Historic
and Genealogical Society in Boston, by Michael Wiggles-
worth, based on Ramus. In fact he copies Ramus almost
literally but adds comments of his own. He must have been
a very industrious and ambitious pupil, perhaps not more so
than his fellows, but at any rate there has come down to us
in his Latin a resume of nearly everything given at college
such as dialectics, physics, metaphysics, with a specimen of
oratory of his own.
A close second to him was Abraham Pierson who after-
wards became President of Yale, and, to the torture of inves-
tigators, has left a small manuscript volume in the most
cramped hand and contracted Latin that has unfortunately
survived the ravages of time. He and Wigglesworth evi-
dently followed practically the same authorities as in many
places they do not differ so widely. He also ranges over
the entire curriculum including logic.
Education for ages past was tested at the conclusion of
the course by a thesis to be maintained by the candidate.
The same idea continues today in the essays for the bach-
elors, while the same word and the same principle are act-
ually to be seen in conferring the degree of doctor of phil-
osophy. These short supreme tests then are an index to
the whole course of study. One or two illustrations of the
earliest at Harvard will indicate some of the conceptions of
logic. For instance:
Universalia non sunt extra intellectum.
Universals are not above the intellect.
126 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Dialectica est ominum artium generalissima.
Logic is the most comprehensive of all the arts.
Methodus procedit ab universalibus ad singularia.
Method proceeds from generals to particulars.
Beuajm Intestinum Logicum.
This is the sarcastic summary of the whole study of logic
in the schools in medieval days, by that frank critic John
Webster, the Englishman, "A civil war of words, a verbal
contest, a combat of cunning craftiness, violence and alterca-
tion * * * trifling, jeering humming, hissing, brawling and
the like * * * no regard had to the truth," this is the in-
dictment that he brings against logic. Even more satiric is
he on Aristotle whom he contemptuously dubbs "the secre-
tary of the universe," and "heathen" who "makes God an
animal in his metaphysics and chained him to the exterior
superficies of the highest Heaven." Rather narrow pre-
judice on the part of Webster to attack Aristotle on the in-
tellectual side by wielding the weapon of theological passion
but very likely due to the influence of Peter Ramus. There
is no good in it to him, only "a vaporous and airy sound of
words," even the best original systems leaving the intellect
"nude and unsatisfied."
Of the hundreds that acknowledged Locke as a master
perhaps not one would recognize Webster. But this tower-
ing philosopher, and this harsh judge swallowed up in the
fogs of the past, have the same estimate of the value of the
school logic. Locke seemed to think it was hardly worth
his deliverances as he gave but little attention to it seeing
but little advantage in it as the skill of reasoning well was
not to be acquired by the study of rules, and reasoning
was founded on something else than the predicaments and
predicables, and men do not learn how to think by memor-
izing a system of figures of speech.
Theology and Philosophy. 127
The Decay op the Subject.
These two men, the prominent and the insignificant, were
seers of the future. The schools did not regard them as such,
there has been no conscious acknowledgement of their pro-
phetic insight, but logic has dwindled almost to a point in
the required curriculum of the best institutions of today. A
short course of half a year or in some instances even less,
a little handbook of a couple of hundred pages and the stu-
dent can get that condition checked off from his list. So
far are we from the stern demands of the medieval days
that everyone must be a logician or nothing, that many now
graduate without more than a smattering of a few logical
terms.
Ethics.
With an enviroment of piety for the schools, an atmos-
phere of theology for the teachers, with a saturation of every
subject by religion, it was not necessary for much strength
to be devoted to formal courses in moral philosophy. Its
principles were inculcated in every recitation practically, its
very soul was in the air of the lecture and the recitation
room. From the first day in school it was filtered into the
minds and hearts of the pupils. The Bible was to be read
daily, prayers were to be put up, the catechism was rigor-
ously taught and searching interrogations were made of all
on the preceding Sunday's sermon. This was the regular
procedure on up to the college and in some instances even
in the walls of this higher institution.
But in the higher levels of the educational path ethics was
dignified as a regular branch of instruction. There were
textbooks for it and a prescribed stretch was to be covered.
Though coming rather late in our period, in 1765, still Pres-
ident Thomas Clap's little volume is fairly typical of the
spirit of this pedagogical division. "Moral virtue in a con-
formity to the moral perfections of God * * * * God is a
128 Our Colonial Curriculum.
being infinite and absolutely perfect." So there in a seed is
a whole plant of moral philosophy. The problem was sim-
ple — just analyze perfection, learn its attributes and culti-
vate them in your own person. The whole question then be-
comes one of simple deduction and division, merely an ex-
position of what qualities are wrapped up in our conception
of perfection.
Of course different men would follow a different road
and reach a different goal, all starting out with this as-
sumption. In the main President Clap confines himself to
very safe generalizations, all impressive and almost colorless,
accepted by almost anyone, but we get some insight into his
personality by his discussion of lying. He tried to crack
that everlasting nut as to whether it is ever right to tell a
lie. He uses a very pointed illustration of a man fleeing
from a madman and rushing into a house and immediately
afterwards coming out by another exit. I tell the madman
that I saw his victim go into the house but I don't tell him
that the poor hunted wretch came out again. The madman
rushes in and while searching through the building his prey
has ample time to escape. Have I told a lie? I stuck to
the facts though I did not give him all of them. The mad-
man made a mistake in his inference.
The casuist and hair-splitter might be inclined to raise
some doubts about the quality of this morality by taking
the argument back to my intent when I spoke to the lunatic,
but nothing of these fine distractions does President Clap
waste his time upon. He cannot for one instant accept any
other basis than the one he lays down for morality. He
rides over those who attempt to set up any other sanction for
conduct as happiness, or benevolence or reason, or moral
fitness for things. His treatise was in use for nearly a
third of a century at Yale although for a time, during the
Revolutionary War, work was largely suspended en this
subject.
Theology and Philosophy. 129
Other Christian Moralists.
It is only a thin volume of some 66 pages that he uses
for the development of his ethical views. Not much college
time was given to it and that usually in the latter two years
of the course. There were others of similar character that
were also studied. Wollebius who had written so fully on
theology also provided something for ethics. Ames, one
of the theological authors,, had a magazine of material for
ethics in his "cases of conscience" in which he made a wide
circuit over zeal, faith, sanctification, fortitude, temperance,
marriage, conscience, death, etc., each one being ticketed
with a text from the Bible. He evidently was not with St.
Paul on the question of marriage The advanced female
thinkers of today would hardly read him with much enjoy-
ment as he unfalteringly inculcated the subjection of wives
to their husbands. In the first third of the 17th century
it was hardly to be expected that the scientific dawn had
reached him. At any rate he seriously doubted some of the
tendencies of science holding that some things we ought not
to try to know since God in his wisdom has not revealed
them to us, and there is nothing left us to do but acquiesce
in his will. All of them are formal little essays not made up
of argument but of rigid statements with scripture refer-
ences.
More's Manual.
There were other authors of a different shade who, with-
out openly admitting it, seemed desirous of uniting pagan
principles with the Biblical teachings. Aside from Locke in
use at Yale for a short time, the best example of this class
was Henry More who put forth his enchiridion ethicum in
London in 1679. A rather stiff, ponderous edifice of Latin
did he erect, frequently reaching back to Aristotle for a
stick of timber, a handful of mortar, or a brick or two.
9
130 Our Colonial Curriculum.
The general outlines of his structure and the framework of
it are very like that old Grecian's product but the Rev. Mr.
More in no sense intends for you to believe that he has sub-
stituted this "Heathen" for the Bible. He lets it be seen
that he looks upon the Hebrew volume as the essence of his
book, but the classical reasoning might be a very helpful
supplementary wing to the divine revelation.
His architectural lines mount from this base that "ethica
est ars bene beateque vivendi," or ethics is the art of living
well and happily. This consummation depends first upon
knowing what happiness is and second knowing how to ac-
quire it. Happiness is pleasure, but perfect happiness de-
mands some external goods. Happiness depends on virtue
which is a quality of the soul enabling it to dominate brute
instincts and bodily desires to such an extent as to attain the
best. Of these passions some are good and some are bad,
but a long list of them does he glance over, such as hope
fear, love, hatred, anger, cupidity, audacity, emulation,
cowardice, pusillanimity. On the opposite side are the vir-
tues which he also ranges over such as prudence, sincerity,
patience, affability, hospitality, gratitude, candor, etc. About
one-third of his effort was devoted to the means of acquiring
happiness after knowing what it was. This brings him to
the question of freedom of the will and here he stands very
firmly for individual right of choice.
Some Harvard Theses.
Though we jump from 1776 to 1700 and then to 1642, to
the first year of the oldest college in America, we find even
at this educational daybreak in our land that the ideas of
these authors were all being laid before the students. In
these subjects that the graduates were to develop in public
we come across the same general notion.
Voluntas est formaliter libera.
The will is properly free.
Theology and Philosophy. 131
Justitia mater omnium virtutum.
Justice is the mother of all the virtues.
Juveni modestia summum ornamentum.
The highest ornament for a young man is modesty.
Honor sequentem fugit, fugientem sequitur.
Honor flees from the pursuer, it follows the fleeing.
Nulla est vera amicitia inter improbos.
There is no true friendship between the wicked. 186
Aristotle the Pedagogical Father oe Ethics.
As material for mental growth among the young, Aris-
totle was a great storehouse for the medieval miners to work
in. He was taken up and outlined, divided, sub-divided
down to a sentence or even a phrase, or word so that the
very last dripping of meaning could be extracted from a
particular point and then the same process could be ap-
plied to the others. For some of the humanists Cicero was
preferred to the Greeks as having absorbed their results and
restated them in a clearer manner. 187 Like a vast deal of
the teaching then it was very wooden-headed, being mostly
memorizing of the stoic tenets. It was largely literary and
not practical but that was a defect common with substan-
tially all education. There was in this subject the same
jangling and snarling of ideas that was to be found in nearly
everything taught in the schools then. There were censors
also, pretty fairly represented by Locke and Webster here
as in logic. Locke considered the Bible sufficient without
any of this repetitious reproduction. This with the practice
of virtue and reflection upon Cicero he felt to be sufficient.
Webster was hand in hand with f his condemnation. He saw
186 Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc, Vol. 4, page 442, 1858.
"W. H. Woodward's Vittorino, page 59.
132 Our Colonial Curriculum.
nothing "practicable" in the teaching, it accomplished
nothing except to make the subject "facilely disputable, but
difficulty practicable." 188
Here also as in logic there has been a wearing away of
the course until in some of our colleges a youth may win
his degree without having opened the pages of a textbook in
ethics. Even those which require it practically have only a
modicum. Does this mean less faith in it or less need for
it ? Is it no longer of value as an educational performance or
has the standard of conduct become so high that it is super-
fluous to teach ethics ? Have we imbibed these principles so
that they are a part of our everyday living and consequently
feel it a waste of time to philosophize upon something that
is with us in every action.
Philosophy.
If possible this term was even more indefinite in medieval
days than it is at present. To some it meant logic, to some
it meant theology, to others it was the "mater omnium
artium," the mother of all the arts, or the "knowledge of all
things whether divine or human, their laws and their
causes." 189 Again it was sometimes narrowed to the history
of philosophy or to metaphysical speculations. For several
centuries the whole world of the intellect was divided into
three portions as natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and
metaphysical philosophy. In the University of Edinburgh
logic and metaphysics were yoked as "rational and instru-
mental philosophy,'' the first furnishing the basis of investi-
gation and the second furnishing the appartus for carrying
on the search. 190 Eogic thus became "the art of arts, the
science of sciences," 191 really the basis of all intellectual de-
188 John Webster, Examen Academiarum, page 87.
"* W. H. Woodward's Vittorino, page 223.
m Grant, University of Edinburgh, Vol. 1, page 273.
™* Compayre's Abelard, page 180.
Theology and Philosophy. 133
velopment and the circumference of all intellectual achieve-
ments. Occasionally other conceptions were added and we
find such combinations as moral and political philosophy,
the latter subject covering in a general way the whole notion
of government, especially as represented in the Roman
writers. 192
Metaphysics.
With a constant effort to unify all thought it was inevita-
ble that the thinkers should get down to metaphysics, or the
sub-stratum on which all of the world might be considered
as resting. The constant dialectical disputations assisted
this tendency, especially when the contestants began to apply
this method to theology. From this the same spirit spread
to the other branches until the most material subjects of
thought interested men's minds as manifestation of an under-
lying substance. One of the best illustrations of this general
drift is the handbook of meaphysics by Henry More, 193
which he calls a dissertation on incorporeal things. His
pages are sprinkled with figures and diagrams just as we see
in a modern book of physics to-day dealing with such mat-
ters as the pressure of the atmosphere, gravity, magnetism,
the planets, their size, their distance, the nature of light and
colors, plant and animal life and similar topics. Still the
atmosphere of metaphysics is through it all as he is con-
stantly trying to trace these down to their origin in spirit.
The influence of Aristotle is clearly apparent as More lays
the foundation for Aristotle's tea categories in substance or
being, seeking to go down to the very root of all matter. A
similar author to More also used in American colleges is
Heereboord who seeks out the very boundaries of all knowl-
edge. 194
"' Grant, University of Edinburgh, Vol. 1, 274. This was the
case in this institution in 1741.
193 Enchiridion Metaphysicum, London, 1671.
194 Meletemata Philosophica, 1665, quarto.
134 Our Colonial Curriculum.
The Rise of Science.
In these metaphysical conceptions of the observational and
experimental sciences we have a rather solid beginning for
the later work in these fields. But this general theological
robe for a long time was wrapped around the apparatus and
laboratory of the scientific investigator. Emancipation came
slowly. While still fired with this ambition to unify all
knowledge many attempts are to be found at combining all
thought in one book. Anthony LeGrand is a fair example
of these philosophizers. His "Entire Body of Philoso-
phy" 185 contains logic, theology, demonology, physics, spec-
ulative and natural philosophy of the world and heavens,
the four great bodies of the earth, water, air, fire, living
things in general, man physically and spirtually, esthetics,
natural history including both plants and animals, and a dis-
cussion as to whether animals have souls.
William James Gravesande, coming afterwards, repre-
sents a slight advance as he entitles one of his works
"Mathematical elements of natural philosophy." 196 He ac-
knowledges his debt to Sir Isaac Newton and along the
same grooves are the teachings of Martin, who was used
as a textbook at Yale for twenty-eight years. 197 His phi-
losophy springs from medieval pietism as he announces it
is "greatly subservient to revelation especially that of the
Christian religion and easily accounts for or removes most
of the difficulties and disputations about it." Saturated with
this religious cordial he drifts to what we understand as
physics to-day, covering such matters as electricity, the
working of a pump, the use of a microscope and other
topics in that field.
He was succeeded at Yale by Enfield who also included in
186 In Latin, 1680; English, 1694.
™ Latin originally, translated into English and published 1738,
London.
107 Stiles, Diary, Vol. 3, page 312.
Theology and Philosophy. 135
his wide grasp the history of philosophy. This is really a
pretty full detailed history of the subject by a man of some
power of individual thought as he shows rather scant respect
for some of the vague speculations of philosophers. But
when he comes to science proper in his "Institutions of
Natural Philosophy" 198 he becomes an unfortunate rever-
sal to the age-long credulity of his predecessors. He sneers
at the experimentalists because so few of them ever become
philosophers and it is these gentlemen alone that arrive at
general truths. Chemistry for him has no attractions as not
sufficient data had been gathered for him to digest into his
system. Naturally he is deductive almost entirely in his dis-
cussions and has propositions almost as formal and as exact
as the steps of a proposition in geometry. Starting with
the nature of matter he ranges over all of the present
branches of physics such as mechanics, pneumatics, optics,
then going as far as astronomy. In the last we begin to
see a faint ray of the modern scientific spirit on the subject
of comets. Here he advances no theory and is not over-
whelmed with amazement at the appearance of these mys-
terious bodies in the heavens. He is a type of the univer-
sal genius as he dipped into biography, history, elocution,
hermeneutics, and also preached funeral sermons.
The Shafts Of A Critic.
Though he had so far as can be judged now but little
more influence upon the prevailing conceptions than a gentle
whisper has against an enwrapping fog bank, John Webster
let fly his darts at these formless metaphysical notions. To
him they were "so many monstrous, fruitless and vain chim-
eras * * * fit for nothing but to ensnare and entangle * *
* * vain dreams filling and feeding the fancy * * * * the
assistance of its twin logic (both sisters of the same mother
NOX) * * * * poisonous cockatrice eggs that it hath
M8 An edition came out in London in 1785, large square octavo.
136 Our Colonial Curriculum.
hatched, * * * * as little purpose as the disputes DE
LUNA CAPRIMA, or moonshine in the water." 199
RHETORIC.
With all of the intellectual energies devoted to so formal a
study as Latin for centuries, with minute attention paid to
every turn of a phrase and every form of a word, with the
keenest analysis of all of the machinery of speech, rhetoric
was a necessary development and the great Roman orator
and stylist was the original exemplar. It was to Cicero
then to Livy and to other Latin authors, then past these to
Aristotle, that the school masters pointed their students for
the best specimens of prose writings. It was, instead of
being merely academic as with us at present, a very practical
matter to the medieval student. He had to know the proper
forms for drawing up legal documents, state papers, busi-
ness communications, items of affairs, social letters, and all
•other means of expressing ideas upon paper in an authori-
tative way. To be a secretary + o some learned man, or to
carry on the correspondence of some baronial lord, or to
transmit the measures of the church, required a certain
knowledge of the proper routine channels for the matters to
go forward in. It was one of the most direct and useful re-
sults of medieval training to be able to conduct such trans-
actions in the usual style.
It is to this early period that we can now trace all of the
elements of the ordinary missives that pass through our
mails. Those laborious toilers centuries ago had hammered
out the divisions that we now unconsciously cast our
thoughts into whenever we wish to fold our ideas into a neat
package enclosed in an envelope to-day, such as salutatio,
captatio, benevolentia, narratio, petitio, and conclusio. 200 It
will be noted that this roughly corresponds to the parts that
1M John Webster's Examcn Academiarum, page 84.
200 S. S. Laurie, Rise of Universities, page 60.
Theology and Philosophy. 137
textbooks of rhetoric at the present day break up a letter
into, namely, heading, salutation, address, body, conclusion
and signature.
Finally all of these different items as they had been pain-
fully raked together through the preceding ages were re-
arranged and beaten down into simple manuals of rhetoric
containing the elements very largely in the form of defini-
tions. It is such textbooks as these that we find in the
colonial institutions. Two of the best illustrations are Wil-
liam Dugard and Thomas Farnaby. Both of these were
very popular, and one of them went up as high as the four-
teenth edition at least. Dugard's was only a primer of some
thirty or forty pages duodecimo, but in these limits he
covered elocutio and pronunciatio so as to give some direc-
tions about the management of the voice and of the limbs in
the way of gestures, all in the approved method of that day
by question and answer. He had all of the figures of speech
such as synecdoche, metonymy, simile, metaphor and the
other less common ones. Famaby covers the same ground
but has more in the way of illustrations and examples, ap-
proaching more nearly to the rhetorics that were in such
wide use half a century ago. In fact if such a book as
Quackenbos should be sweated down from its ordinary
swollen stage until only the thinly clothed skeleton remains
we should then have a very fair picture of the colonial
rhetoric.
CHAPTER V.
Geography, History and Modern Languages.
Columbus was the greatest inspirer for the study of
geography that the western world has ever known. Until he
made his momentous voyage across the Atlantic men's minds
were circumscribed to the little European area and its
shadowy limits. That brief outline of pedagogues, the
seven arts of the trivium and quadrivium, hardly provided
for geography at all but it was really wrapped up in mathe-
matics. Capella covered the field in the sixth book of his
encyclopedia which was almost the same as geometry, deal-
ing with the mathematical features of the earth. Later on
there were compends of ancient and modern geography in
use at some of the universities, notably, Edinburgh. 201
The impetus from the nautical pioneering of Columbus
and his successors echoes in Sebastian Munster's Cosmo-
graphic, a type of simplicity, childishness and pedanticism
almost universal in all books of the time touching upon
nature. 202 Besides his account of the sailing trips of Colum-
bus and Vespucius, he branches out rather luxuriantly on
East India and the nearby islands, all under a number of
small heads such as
Of the adamant stone otherwise called the diamant.
Of the cannabals which eat men's flesh.
Of the Islands of Bornei.
A few expressions culled from his description of the
Island of Sumatra will give far better than any other way
a miniature of his general style. Thus he goes: "four
kings crowned with diamonds ; * * * exceed all other
201 Grant, University of Edinburgh, Vol. i, page 266.
202 Originally in Latin, but in English in 1553 in London, reprinted
in part at least by E. Arber in 1895.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 139
men in bigness of body ;* * * one hundred years of age ;
* * * inhabitants are great fishers on the sea ; * * *
whales seem like unto hills; * * * sometimes swallow
whole ships with the men." Of the products he dilates
widely on the pepper tree. The alligator to him is a snake
with four legs.
But it is when he goes into a logical explanation of some
matter that he exhibits his scholarship and his weakness.
He wanted to settle whether people lived in the torrid zone
or not. He falls back upon the ancients first raking through
the list of them including Silvius, Eratosthenes, Polybius,
Posidomius, Homer, Macrobius, Albertus, Ptolomeus, Pliny,
all in less than two dozen lines. As for his own views he is
as illusive as a doubtful diplomatist, admitting and qualify-
ing and bolstering up on the other side with wonderful
nimbleness — yes, it is hot there, but then shade is thick
there ; "wilderness and desolate places there," but also much
moisture and dew; any how it is a wide space there and
besides Pliny says travellers went there before his time and
that there were cannibals there. And that is about as near
as Munster commits himself to deciding disputes.
The teacher had to come to systematize these rubbish piles
of knowledge. Keckerman one of the great arrangers of
the time, put his hand to the difficulty. He turned out a
wooden headed product, tedious and formal, mostly defini-
tions, all in a series of statements, usually numbered, with-
out logical connection or orderly development, in L,atin of
course. But a translation of one or two items will illustrate
his results — "a river is either steady or torrential, a river is
steady which glides with equal flow." His first half is
largely of this sort but his second has descriptions of differ-
ent countries, scarcely more than their boundaries and the
nautral features of land and water. He also was fascinated
by the idea of the tropics but he took the ground that
whoever lived there in America were terrible cannibals.
140 Our Colonial Curriculum.
LeGrand is another sample of the amusing groping
ignorance with regard to natural phenomena. He wanted
to unlock the puzzle of no rain in Egypt and he did so by
going down to mother earth and declaring that the ground
was of "such close and compact texture as not to have pores
large enough for the transmission of vapors." We get
another insight into his mind when he seeks to show why
rain drops are round. His metaphysics and his theology
come to his assistance because, he says, heavenly globuli
pound on these drops so as to drive all the parts towards the
center, while the globuli within are always butting outwards
and thus these two get a round shape to the drop. The air
of course is always full of these globuli flying about in all
directions and they are less liable to hit spherical bodies than
jagged ones.
Not Much Geography in American School.
Though the innocent cause of great development in this
branch, America could not spend much energy upon the
study of it. It is doubtful whether it was much more than
a pleasant recreation around the fire-side at home for the
youth of the land until they reached the higher grades of the
common school or entered the colleges. Even there scant
attention was its portion. The Boston preacher who re-
vived such pleasant flavors of pre-Revolutionary schools and
Noah Webster who can be so safely accepted both were
unable to remember any geography in their youthful school
days. So it was in Pennsylvania according to the educa-
tional historian of that state. 203
But there was deep interest in the matter among some at
any rate. There was much ingenuity in devising orreries
and planetariums, some of them of great size and intricacy.
m Common School Journal, Boston, Mass.,Vol. 12, page 312, Oct.
15, 1850. Barnard's Journal, Vol. 26, page 193. Wickersham, Edu-
cation in Penn., page 201.
Geography, History and Modem Language. 141
President Clap of Yale made such an apparatus for his insti-
tution "to represent the motions of all of the celestial
bodies." According to the specifications of it it seems to
have had a globe for the sun in the center and wire orbits
around that with balls on them for planets. These again
were encircled with small globes for satellites. There were
also some attachments for comets and eclipses and all of
this mechanism cost less than twenty shillings or five dol-
lars at present. 204
While the branch was not dignified with a space to itself
in the curriculum, instruction was often afforded under
mathematics or astronomy. It was very easy to connect
with either one of these subjects by starting out with the
earth as a planet.
Whether for this reason or not there was no lack of text-
books, which are to be found preserved in American libra-
ries and the only sensible conclusion is that there must have
been use for them in the schools. In addition some are
named in the courses of study.
One of the earliest was Clark's "New Description of the
World." 205 This is not at all a poor book especially for the
times, composed of simple descriptions of the different coun-
tries, the physical features, the people and the products. He
is not a mere lifeless copyist as witness one quotation on the
Indians of Florida: "The women upon the death of their
husbands cut their hair close to their ears and not marry
again until it has grown sufficiently long to cover their
shoulders (a very commendable way if used amongst us to
prevent our over hasty widows who are frequently provided
beforehand.)"
Another a few years after was by Hubner, "New and
Easy Introduction to the Study of Geography," 206 all in
"* American Magazine, Jan., 1744, page 202.
*" London, 1712, i2mo, pages 220.
"* 1742, i2mo, 271 pages.
M 2 Our Colonial Curriculum.
question and answer as he thinks that "the most excellent as
it is the most natural" way. As a consequence of following
that plan he shows but little more sequence or reason than a
parrot does in shouting out expressions it has learned.
Gordon's Geographical Grammar.
But perhaps the one most widely known and adopted
throughout our colonies was "geography anatomized or the
geographical grammar, being a short and exact analysis of
the whole body of modern geography after a new and
curious method," by Pat Gordon, M. A., F. R. S. 207 But
this is not one-tenth of what Mr. Gordon crowded in his
little page. Farther on he unblushingly introduces his vol-
ume as "a compendium of the true fundamentals of geogra-
phy digested in the various definitions, problems, theories,
and paradoxes ; with a transient survey of the surface of
the earthly ball as it consists of land and water," and still
farther he assures us that all of his work has been "collected
from the best authors and illustrated with divers maps."
The whole book is broken into five parts as follows : first
all those terms necessary for the right understanding of the
globe; second all those pleasant problems performable by
the artificial globe; third, divers plain geographical
theorems deducible from those problems ; fourth, paradoxi-
cal positions in matters of geography or a few infallible
truths in masquerade which may appear to some as the
greatest fables ; fifth, transient survey of the whole surface
of the terraqueous globe.
He elaborates each one of these. Among his terms he de-
fines zones, poles, equator, islands, mountains, etc., covering
twelve pages.
Under his problems he has such as "to know by the globe
when the great mogul and the czar of Muscovia sit down to
dinner." These problems run up to forty-eight in all.
207 London, 1730, 8vo, pages 416, 12th edition.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 143
His forms mount to forty-one fairly typified by such as
"to all places lying between the torrid zone the sun is duly
vertical twice a year ; to those under the tropics once ; but
to those in the temperate and frigid never." Again "in all
places lying under the same semi-circle of the meridian, the
hours of both day and night are always the same in one
as in the other."
He tells us that some of his geographical paradoxes are
amazing and we can readily imagine the stupefaction on the
faces of some boys when they met this example : "there is a
certain place of the earth, at which if two men should chance
to meet, one would stand up right upon the soles of the
other's feet, and neither of them should feel the other's
weight, and yet they both should retain their natural pos-
ture." Another, "there is a certain place in the Island of
Great Britain where the stars are always visible at any time
of the day, if the horizon be not overcast with clouds." He
has forty-five of these gems for both teacher and pupil to
try their wits upon. But he assures us that though they
may appear as fables yet there is no demonstration in
Euclid more unfallibly true than these paradoxes.
The bulk of his entire book is given up to descriptions of
the different countries under the heads of situation, name,
air, soil, armies, commodities, rareties, archbishoprics, bish-
oprics, religion, universities, manners, language, hygenic
conditions, but his most characteristic topics are manners
and rareties. Under manners a few crumbs will give some
taste. Of the Muscovites (Russians) he says "men of a
vigorous and healthful condition * * * a rude deceitful
and ignorant sort of people * * * a piacular crime
* * * to search after knowledge * * * brutish
temper and stupidity."
The Dutch are "reckoned none of the politest sort of
people either in thought or behavior * * * singular
144 Our Colonial Curriculum.
neatness of their houses * * * wonderful genius to a
laudable industry."
The Japanese are "generally of a tall stature, strong con-
stitution, and fit to be soldiers * * * naturally ambi-
tious, cruel and disdainful to all strangers."
It might be remarked here that although written nearly
two hundred years ago he managed to hit off some of the
prevailing traits of character that these nations have shown
since then.
Under the head of rarefies he finds in Russia a strange
"melon" that grows a skin and wool just like a lamb so that
no man can tell the difference between the two. New Eng-
land has a rare Troculus bird with "sharp pointed feathers
in his wings by darting which into the wall of a house he
sticks fast and rests securely" but so grateful is he to the
landlord that he always leaves behind in his nest a bird as
thanks for the use of the property.
It took some years of this kind of geography before
America developed authors of her own. The first and the
most famous of these was Jedediah Morse but for the pur-
pose of this study he is hardly available as his book did
not appear until after the Revolutionary war. It is said that
he was stimulated to do this as a correction of the errors in
a popular book by Guthrie, some of whose editions at least
appeared in London. The temperament and style of Guth-
rie are indicated by the following extract on Connecticut:
"The men, in general throughout the province, are robust,
stout and tall. The greatest care is taken of the limbs and
bodies of infants, which are kept straight by means of a
board ; ,a practice learnt of the Indian women, who abhor
all crooked people ; so that deformity is here a rarity. The
women are fair, handsome, and genteel, and modest and re-
served in their manners and behavior. They are not per-
mitted to read plays nor can they converse about whist,
quadrilles or operas ; but it is said that they will talk freely
Geography, History and Modern Language. 145
upon the subjects of history, geography, and other literary
subjects." 208
History.
In the first course of study that we have of Harvard, there
sits history serene and confident as any of her sisters in the
intellectual galaxy but what was actually included in this
term, or what was done in the class rooms, there is almost
nothing to be learned. Negative evidence is very tricky to
trust but if a long laborious search yields no results we are
reasonably justified in believing that there was very little
history taught. A century and a half afterwards we have
the word of that veteran of letters, Noah Webster, that in
the schools so far as he knew them before the Revolution
there was no history. 209 The pioneer prospector along this
belt, H. B. Adams, who was also one of the first to intro-
duce modern methods of historical study into America,
found also no pedagogical nuggets of history in Harvard,
and consequently throughout the colonial period as he found
substantially no advance of this subject at Harvard for
nearly two centuries after her foundation. 210
But our ancestors had appreciation of this muse. We
know our public men were rather diligent courtiers. Jef-
ferson, Adams, and others not so prominent, showed con-
siderable acquaintance with certain events of the past.
Adams drew from this arsenal considerable munitions in de-
fense of our triple division of government, going back with
sure tread to Grecian experiments in republican government.
There were instances also in the educational profession.
Fisher is a specimen of how history was often one of the
ingredients in the intellectual hodge-podges so cherished
208 Guthrie, Geographical Grammar, London, 1792, page 797.
209 Barnard's Journal of Education, Vol. 26, page 195.
210 History in American Colleges and Universities, U. S. Bureau of
Education, Circular No. 2, 1887, page 15.
10
146 Our Colonial Curriculum.
for hundreds of years. In his "Young Man's Best Compan-
ion" he gives up twenty pages on remarkable events and
short abstracts of the past. He smelted English history
down to a few words for each reign, dealing out such tit-
bits as the one on Edward third that he built the castle of
Windsor, and one about Mary that in her time a barrel of
beer with the cask included cost only six pence, but he was
not altogether wooden-headed, he had some spice in him,
he declared that the people of England during the Cromwell
era were "stark mad with bigotry and enthusiasm." 211
Infinitely higher and more helpful to the real cause of
history were the histories composed by such men as Mather,
Bradford and Hutchinson, in New England, and Jones and
Stith in Virginia. Professor Hugh Jones down in William
and Mary wrote a history of Virginia by 1722, the pro-
fessorial progenitor of the theses and monographs that have
burst forth with such prodigality in the last quarter of a
century. Within a score or so of years he was followed by
Rev. William Stith, perhaps the second of these pioneers. 212
The Light From Europe.
There was the weight of tradition, the endorsement of in-
heritance, and the solemn advice of the seer in favor of this
subject. Textbooks running back to the 5th century were
at hand. Orosius at that time had condensed the annals of
the universe and later his pages became the school history
of the middle ages. The humanists, with their taste for
beauty and ease naturally preferred those authors with fa-
cility of style who could inculcate lessons of right conduct
especially in public affairs. They went back to classical
days, doubting no statement provided it was couched in elo-
quent language and disdaining such vulgar propinquity as
history nearer to them than three or four centuries.
2n Page 329.
212 William and Mary Quarterly, Jan., 1898, page 179.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 147
Locke looked upon history as "the great mistress of pru-
dence and civil knowledge," the proper study for "a gentle-
man or a man of business." But unless the pupil learned
something from it of value in molding his character or in
shaping his deeds he had far better put his thoughts upon
something else. A mere bundle of facts, to Locke, was just
as unprofitable even though about Caesar or Alexander as
so many baseless statements about Robin Hood, or the seven
wise masters.
But words of wisdom fell on heedless ears with such text-
books as were provided, even though a lectureship had been
established in Cambridge as early as 1628, with the stipula-
tion that the incumbent should be well grounded in Latin
and Greek and should have neither wife nor child. There
were books packed with figures, tables, and genealogical
trees, looking such heaps of confusion at the present day
as brush piles in a new ground and serving about the same
end, only incumbrances to be burned as quickly as possible.
Dry, dogmatic, uttterly dull and uninteresting, indigestible
except for the strongest stomach, even if there had been
time in the curriculum for this study, only the most hardened
antiquarian could feel any real interest in the matter. It
goes almost without saying that they were all steeped in the
prevailing theology, tracing all the past back to "the slime of
the earth" that Adam was supposed to have been created
of. 213
English.
Latin was an imperious beauty that strove to monopolize
the whole stage in the drama of learning. She was not en-
tirely successful but she did crowd her English sister over
into the obscure corners for a long time. There were gal-
lant admirers for English who vainly tried to stay the tide
of neglect and contempt. Mulcaster who was born a little
2,8 Two good examples are J. H. Alsted, Thesaurus Chronologiae,
1650; and Helvicus, Chronology, 1687.
148 Our Colonial Curriculum.
more than a third of a century after Columbus discovered
the new world, stood up manfully for his mother tongue.
"But why not everything in English, a tongue in itself both
deep in meaning and frank in utterance? I do not think
that any language whatsoever is better able to express all
subjects with pith and plainness," 213
Locke was still warmer in his praise of English, still more
insistent that it is English an English gentleman should
chiefly cultivate because that is the language he will have
constant use of. Let scholars toil over Latin and Greek and
other foreign languages but a child should be taught the
speech that he will have to constantly work with the balance
of his days.**('Regretfully he found this branch universally
neglected because teachers thought it below their dignity
to attend to the every-day expression of their pupils. Latin
and Greek were the only linguistic forms worthy of peda-
gogical notice, as English belonged to the "illiterate vulgar."
Forestalling the future by some two cetnturies this bachelor,
who had almost never known a mother's tender care, who
had scarcely any playmates in his youth, almost outlined the
present course in English that has been so developed and
emphasized in the last quarter of a century. He urged the
advantages of narratives and he called for the application
of the precepts of rhetoric, sorrowing that the little learners
of his day had never yet learned how "to express themselves
handsomely with their tongues or pens in the language they
are to always use." This facility, as he very clearly saw, was
to be acquired "not by a few or a great many rules given,
but by exercise and application according to good rules, or
rather patterns, until habits are got." 215 After amplifying
the importance of story telling for giving ease of style he
points out the usefulness of letter writing, but with rare good
judgment condemns all straining after effect, limiting the
214 Mulcaster, Educational Writings, Oliphant edition, page 189.
216 R. H. Quick's Locke, page 163.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 149
whole matter to the purpose of expressing "their own plain
easy sense."
Strange it was to him that this indubitable duty had been
overlooked while the brain was racked with Latin themes
and verses, but he resignedly remembers that "custom has
so ordained it and who dares disobey," besides many of the
teachers were unfit for the task, and even of those who were
of sufficient skill their efforts would all be nullified by the
ignorance of the parents at home.
Grammars.
The writer and the thinker were not alone in their de-
fense of the vernacular. The eloquence of the pen and the
wisdom of the sage were reinforced by the practiced rules
of the grammarian. It can hardly ever be known whether
J. Wharton, one of whose books is now in the American
Antiquarian Society, having been printed in London in 1655,
was ever used in American schools, but it is a fair presump-
tion that either it was or it furnished the basis for subse-
quent ones. At any rate, at that early date, so impressed was
he with the good of this educational subject that he issued
his English grammar "containing all rules and directions
necessary to be known for the judicious reading, right speak-
ing, and writing of letters, syllables and words in the Eng-
lish tongue, very useful for scholars before their entrance
into the rudiments of the Latin tongue." Manfully does he
back up Locke in calling for the exercise of good English
as well as of good Latin, as it is capable of any "scholar-like
expressions." But the mold of medievalism is still upon him
as he sets forth his efforts to aid the study of Latin so as
to assist a boy in turning English into Latin. His 109 pages
are largely taken up with rules for spelling and with ex-
plaining the parts of speech, but he avoids that grammatical
snare of the subjunctive mood. Neither does he have syntax
or rules of parsing.
150 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Nearly three-quarters of a century later a more ambitious
attempt is put in type, "a grammar of the English tongue,
with the arts of logic, rhetoric, poetry, etc., also useful notes
giving the grounds and reasons of grammar in general." 210
This contains the elements of syntax without parsing, with-
out formal rules, really an essay in philology, arguing very
stoutly against the Latinizing of English grammar.
A decade later there comes from the press another that
was thumbed by American children, Isaac Watts's third edi-
tion in 1776, of "the art of reading and writing English."
Although nearly two centuries old the heart of the teacher
to-day will warm towards Watts because he speaks so feel-
ingly of the bad spelling in his day — "how wretchedly is it
practiced by a great part of the unlearned world." We are
prepared then to know that the most of his strength was
laid upon this torture, with some portion to reading, which
with him was really our elocution of to-day.
Of the same horizontal comprehensiveness is Benjamin
Martin's "introduction to the English language and learning
in three parts." 217 He also covers logic, which he divides
into the old four classes of preception, judgment, reasoning.
disposition. With this as the center he radiates over all
knowledge.
Our animosity to the mother country had not yet reached
a violent stage or we should most probably have objected to
the word British as a part of the title of "an essay in four
parts towards speaking and writing the English language
grammatically and inditing elegantly." 218 The author fol-
lows the prevailing custom for school books, of question and
answer, giving up half a page to the parsing of one noun.
All of these yielded very submissively in popularity to
Lowth, several of whose editions are to be found in that
ae London, 1714, i2mo, 264 pages.
"' London, 1776, i8mo, pages 228.
118 London, 1768, i2mo, pages 155, second edition. To be found in
the J. C. Brown library, Providence, R. I.
Geography, History and Modem Language. 151
treasure house for pedagogical history in Worcester, Mass.,
one as late as 1771 from London. 219
In spite of her ardent admirers even here at the very dawn
of the upheaval that was to usher in the nineteenth century
this English beauty is still shrinking and trembling in the
side scenes. Lowth apologizes for writing an English gram-
mar, but he plucks up courage when he thinks that "English
hath been considerably polished and refined, its bounds have
been greatly enlarged" during the past two centuries so that
it deserves some treatment in book form. He is very simple,
free from philological cob-webs and theories, without elab-
orated reflections and intricate tables, having none of the
sixty odd rules into which grammar later effloresced. His
specimens of parsing at the end differ only slightly from
similar exercises of twenty years ago, omitting questions
and leaving out reasons. All in all not a bad guide along this
new path.
Littije; Attention in America.
But even the largest of these grammars was only a short
intellectual meal and it is not certain that many schools had
even this morsel. Just before the Revolution Lovell's Latin
school in Boston, Mass., provided forfenglish composition
in the translation of Caesar's Commentaries. 220 This same
witness testifiesslhat he had learned some grammar in Dil-
worth's spelling book, but that generally in the secondary
schools there was no formal teaching of this subject. Later
when he went to college he was put into Lowth.
Mason, who has left reminiscences of Yale, though in the
period after the Revolution, says almost no pains were taken
with English in the college at that time. He himself was
quite deficient along with others in this branch, but still he
219 i2mo, 160 pages.
™ Common School Journal, Boston, Mass., Vol. 12, page 311, Oct
15,1850.
15 2 Our Colonial Curriculum.
past through college with good success, being among the
first of his class. 221
Noah Webster, in 1840, glancing back over his earlier
days, could find no traces of English grammar in the schools
before the Revolution. 222
Still from the earliest beginnings some clear thinkers
realized the educational value of English. It was studied to
some extent in the Hopkins Grammar School of New Haven
more than a decade before 1700, because it was then that
a committee of the trustees reported that only those boys
were to be admitted for learning English books who could
spell and had begun to read. Then they were prepared to
"perfect their right spelling and reading." 223 Down in
Virginia was the same solicitude manifested. Professor
Hugh Jones, mathematics, in William and Mary, in the
first quarter of the eighteenth century, followed in the steps
of Montaigne and Milton in providing the best training for
gentlemen. He prepared short treatises, one of them "a
short English Grammar." Unfortunately so far as can be
learned no copy of this is in America, though the British
Museum catalogues one.
As one of the first in America, and perhaps the rarest now,
some bibliographical details, enough to show the spirit of
the work would hardly be amiss here, especially when the
settlement of the locality in which the work was composed
is being celebrated so fully. Reliance has to be put on the
great English library in London, which is the only possessor
of a copy in existence so far as this investigation has gone.
Most trusted hands have transmitted the following descrip-
tion 224 of the one in the British Museum, in addition to the
221 Mason, page 11.
222 Barnard's Journal, Vol. 26, page 195.
223 Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. 4, page 710.
224 The great authorities on European Americana, B. F. Stevens
& Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, London.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 153
title which runs thus in the catalogue, "An Accidence to
the English Tongue" —
Contents of the Division and Use of English
Grammar page 1
Of the Characters and Sounds of English Let-
ters " 2
Of the Correction of our Alphabet ,. . " 3
Of the Organs of Speech and Formation and Use
of Great and Small Letters " 6
Observations upon the Vowels and Consonants . . ib
Of the Tangs, Brogues and English Tones and
Dialects " 11
Of the Methods of Learning the True Sound of
English Syllables and Spelling " 13
Page 13 treats of —
"The Northern Dialect, which we call Yorkshire
"The Southern, or Sussex Speech
"The Eastern, or Suffolk Speech
"The Western or British Language
"The Proper, or London Language."
The book consists of 86 pages in all, made up thus : Half-
title, two pages, unnumbered ; title, two pages, unnumbered ;
Dedication (to Her Royal Highness Wilhelmina Charlotte,
Princess of Wales, dated at end April 22, 1724), paged
III-V; Contents, VITX; page X unnumbered and blank;
Text, pages 1 to 69; pages 70-72, numbered, contain list of
books printed for John Clarke. This is followed by a blank
leaf unnumbered, — the signatures are A to G, 6 in sixes,
with a blank leaf at end in addition. The title page describes
Hugh Jones as "lately mathematical Professor at the Col-
lege of William and Mary at Williamsburg in Virginia, and
Chaplain to the Honorable the Assembly of that Colony."
It was "printed for John Clarke at the Bible, under the
Royal Exchange." It has woodcut initial letters at chapter
154 Our Colonial Curriculum.
openings, with woodcut ornaments at head or tail pieces at
chapter divisions. The British Museum copy is in an old
red morocco binding (contemporaneous) gilt tooled border,
with central gilt ornaments.
It differs considerably in philological flavor from "Young
Man's Best Friend,'' which was a general catch-all of all
the branches of education and learning from the alphabet to
rules of health for both young men and young women.
Although in the middle of the seventeenth century, he had
to pay his devotions at the altar of Latin. In the midst of
legal and business forms and recipes of all sorts he sand-
wiches ancient mythology.
A more ambitious aspiration than all of these comes to
light in the manuscript materials of Harvard University,
just four years after the close of the seventeenth century.
The authorities ordered the establishment of "a professor of
philology. 225 This advanced idea doubtless never got beyond
paper as the massive two volumes by one of Harvard's
presidents give no treatment of the instance.
Indirectly though, especially in Harvard, some of the best
English teaching was carried on in a practical way. As the
dominion of Latin was gradually narrowed, declamations,
and orations were publicly made in the mother tongue.
There were also dialogues with careful translations from
Latin sources. The college authorities yearned for "grace-
ful elocution" before a body of hearers and the trustees
would appoint committees for the purpose of passing upon
these exhibitions. After ten years of such insistence it was
required that there should be two such entertainrr/ents
yearly, covering dialogues, forensic disputations and all other
exercises that would stand as specimens of the student's
proficiency. 226
Of the history of English literature, of its master pieces,
m Harvard College Papers, Vol. I, No. 36.
"• Q.uincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 2, page 124.
Geography, History and Modem Language. 155
such as Shakespeare and Milton, there is no hint. There is
almost as little odor of compositions.XThe memorizing of
rules of grammar, lifeless parsing, with a mere breath of
linguistics proper and phonology, about contained the sum
total of requirement in formal English. But the constant
swapping of Latin and English expressions was in itself a
most excellent discipline in the native speech. And when
we add the set addresses, either in argument or from the
pulpit or platform, we have the rudiments for substantially
all improvement in daily speech. It was in these translations
and in the minute pondering of the massive eloquence of the
ancients that the orators of the first period of American his-
tory got their strength and vigor, their deep grasp upon the
foundations of human influence.
French.
For school purposes the foreign modern languages hardly
existed up to a century ago. If a man's own linguistic
medium was beneath his notice in the class room, still more
so was the speech of those with whom he was either at war
or at enmity for generations past. The merchant, the trav-
eller or the servant who wished to accompany his master
across the boundary, might tolerate these barbarous jargons
just as he might put up with strange cooking and outlandish
customs, all for his own benefit, but that there might be any-
thing in them for his own improvement and inward devel-
opment, why only the most enlightened among them had
reached that upper level of appreciation and culture. Still
there might be a few curious souls, or what is much more
probable, a few practical persons, who might either wish to
wander abroad or to follow up an investigation in another
dialect, and for these the study of French was permitted at
the English universities as far back as the thirteenth century.
John Locke pleaded for French and John Webster derided
the attainment of these other languages as useless labor.
-J
156 Our Colonial Curriculum.
His discriminating eye could see nothing in the procees
except the possession of a dozen symbols for one idea. The
whole thing to him was an intricate labyrinth wherein a boy
"is continually royling like a horse in a mill and yet makes
no great progress." 227 But truly, if a man wanted to get
the marrow of one of these other literatures or if he wanted
to provide himself with another set of words for trade, why
then it would be well to learn something of French. The
grammatical method though was a "guilty path of confusion
and perplexity."
Like a spark on a bare plain of darkness is the experiment
with a French tutor at Harvard in 1735, Langloissorie, who
held a very subordinate post there to give training in this
Latin off-shoot. But to the Puritan he was a Frenchman
and therefore dangerous to piety and morality. He was
charged with heretical performance in his classes and there
was much disturbance of heart among the faithful peda-
gogues lest his unorthodox pronouncements had found
lodgment in the immature minds. He was investigated,
cleared of the charge, but it was felt safest that he be re-
moved.
About a decade previous, Hollis, who was such a warm
friend of colonial education, had gagged at the idea of
French books in the college library although he thought that
such ought to be "esteemed in a public library" as so many
"very valuable books in history and philosophy are written in
French." 228 An old student of Harvard, recalling his years
there, records that French was allowed as an extra at
Harvard, fees being charged on the quarterly bills as books
were. 229 It is farther southward, where the colleges were of
slower growth for various reasons, in Virginia, that we are
to place the honor of founding the first chair of modern
227 Webster, Bxamen Academiarum, page 21.
228 His letter, Harvard Archives, Hollis papers and letters, page 58,
1718-74-
220 J. L. Sibley, letter to S. A. Eliot, Dec. 21, 1849.
Geography, History and Modern Language. 157
languages in America. Not much data is available, really,
this fact is nearly all that we have, except the additional one
of the name of the first occupant, Charles Bellini, of Italian
extraction, who came over two years before the outbreak
with England, at the very end of the period intended for
this investigation. 230 Some ten or twelve years later there
issued from the press in Boston a French grammar by John
Mary, an instructor at Harvard. 231 It is almost like looking
at the portraits of the ancestors to the third or fourth gen-
eration of persons to-day and pointing out the great resemb-
lance that has been handed down through these successive
steps. Not so exact in details and not so amplified in illustra-
tions as French school grammars to-day, but in the body of
principles and in the general treatment substantially the
same.
As compared with what is done in this tongue in our
schools to-day and as compared with what was done in
L,atin in medieval days, the course in French almost van-
ishes to a speck, so little was there done in it.
130 William and Mary Quarterly, Jan., 1898, page 181.
581 1784, 141 pages.
CHAPTER VI.
Mathematics.
As with a child so with a race, the mental qualities of
memory and imitativeness are the first to be developed.
Speech, words and phrases are the earliest acquisitions of
the individual and of the entire group of human beings.
Latin absorbed all energies, filled all moments, supplied all
intellectual food. Science of numbers, except in the rudi-
ments, was of very slow development. For practical pur-
poses the digits had to be evolved, counting was a necessity.
Next to these were the demands of religion for keeping
track of the great ecclesiastical epochs. For centuries the
chief incentive for studying mathematics was the desire to
calculate the time of Easter and the festival days.
The two great school authorities of the middle ages, Cas-
siodorus and Capella, had but little more of mathematics
than a few definitions mingled with superstitious absurdi-
ties about virtues of certain numbers and figures, Cassio-
dorus occupying only a few pages. 232 The universities of
the time had only a mere smattering of the subject. Oxford
up to 1300 covered only a little of Euclid. The Italian
humanists regarded a man who knew Euclid as a prodigy
of the intellect. The universities in that peninsula in some
cases had geometry as an extra, for which special fees were
charged. Roger Bacon, who spanned a large portion of
the thirteenth century, complained that very few went be-
yond the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid. For
long periods after him the six books were considered a
stupendous mountain for one to climb. But there was
progress, slow, and painful, and almost wholly along the
lines for usefulness in daily life. By 1750 Edinburgh Uni-
^Hallam, Literature of Europe, Chap. 1, Paris edition, 1837.
Mathematics, 159
versity offered trigonometry, logarithms, surveying, fortifi-
cations, dialling, conic-sections, theory of gunnery, with
astronomy and some allied physical branches.
Arithmetic.
The eldest of the mathematical family, because the most
practical, a trait of character imparted to it by the Egyptians,
is arithmetic. The second most distinguishing feature of it
was its fondness for formal rules and its contempt for
reason, as it was ordinarily presented in the schools for a
long time.
Its early range was very limited, scarcely extending
farther than nursery puzzles of the present day. Alcuin.
the great educator for Charles the Great, contains problems
designed to excite the curiosity and to whet the wits and to
furnish amusement for the boys of his day. How, he asks,
can you kill three hundred pigs on three days, killing an odd
number each time? After allowing his hearers to sharpen
their teeth on this nut for a time, he naively informs them
that it cannot be done. Many of his other examples are
like that one, familiar to all small children among us, such
as two geese before two geese, two geese behind two geese,
and two geese between two geese, how many are there in all ?
But for our colonial ancestry, an indefatigable investigator
ranks the Hornbook as our earliest arithmetical primer since
it had Roman numerals. 233 To go beyond this, generally,
each child had to make his own manuscript book from the
dictation of the teacher as printed books were a great rarity
among us up to the eighteenth century. Trade and the
counting room set the pace. Arithmetic was only a means
of getting along in the world, of bartering and dealing with
your fellowmen, of making money, but it was without edu-
cational value. In the arrangement of subjects for the
common schools the words usually ran "writing and arith-
238 F. Cajori, Teach, and Hist, of Mathematics, page 11.
160 Our Colonial Curriculum.
metic." The great light among arithmetical authors, Cocker,
wrote more books on calligraphy than on numbers.
The facilities were very scanty, no blackboards, no slates ;
instead cheap paper, often only the margins, blank leaves of
day books, backs of letters, even birch bark, with ink made
from the maple tree and copperas, were forced into duty.
A little mastery of figures was sufficient for the pedagogue.
If he could enumerate the minutes in a year or the inches
in a mile he was competent to instruct in this branch. He
was hardly expected to tackle anything but integral num-
bers, but if he could handle fractions and make excursions
into the rule of three he was a marvel. Only admitted
geniuses got beyond these. Often in the boys' school the
whole thing was shunted off to the evening, while spelling,
reading, and writing proudly occupied the day. The method
was simple and it has not died out yet. It is still to be found
on the frontiers and it was common three or four decades
ago in those sections that were educationally backward. The
teacher curtly gave out "sums" and each pupil strained his
very vitals to solve them. If he got the correct answer,
which his master decided by looking at a "key," he was given
another or pased on to some other subject. We can almost
hear now the childish voices piping around the teacher's
desk, six, eight, ten, or fifteen of them as the boys group
around calling out the answer that each had found. An
eagerness, a feverishness with each to get his work passed
upon, the whole mass of voices punctured and streaked at
times with a querulous complaint of the unlucky stupid
ones that they could not see through the matter at all. They
were even more insistent than their fellows for fear they
might be sent back to their seats forbidden again to seek
the shade of the trees outside, in summer, or the sunny side
of the rough cabin in winter, to go over the painful path
again. It was in fact almost a passion in some schools.
Nearly every other branch was excluded. "To understand
Mathematics. 161
figures well, we reckoned the height of learning," so runs
the testimony of a Virginia preacher only a score or so Of
years before the Revolution. 234
If it was such a mighty strain for the boys it was only
natural that the girls were saved from such efforts. The
road was too rocky, the heights too inaccessible for feminine
feet and hence while the boys were taught reading, writing
and arithmetic the girls had reading, writing and sewing.
To the colonial men it was much easier to thread a needle
and to sew a seam than to "do sums" — and also required far
less mental ability. There were few women teachers in those
days, but what there were were gallantly excused from im-
parting arithmetic. The average colonial would as soon
have expected a woman "to teach the Arabic language as
the numerical science." 236
Chief Text-Books.
We can learn the subjects in these early schools, we can
get the remininiscences of some of the students in their after
life, often in old age, we can draw upon our imaginations
to revive scenes for us, but there was no phonograph in
those days, nor was there the realistic newspaper reporter
sitting in a corner to jot down what occurred. A text-book
is not the ideal mirror for reflecting the actual education.
Even now the difference between the book and the instruc-
tion in the class rooms is often a mighty gorge. But in the
absence of the other infallible data, which we can never get,
the text-book is one of our safest guides in reviewing
the past.
Happily there were not many of these and specimens of
each still survive. Only six of those in common use in
elementary schools did those earnest pioneers, Cajori and
234 D. Jarratt, page 24, of his life.
*"W. Burton, page 152, District Schools.
11
1 62 Our Colonial Curriculum
Wickersham find. They are worthy of rather full picture
of their title pages with some other facts as follows :
i A primer or spelling book containing "Roman numerals,
lessons in the fundamental rules of arithmetic
and weights and measures, a perpetual almanac"
(Wickersham, 194) by George Fox, founder of Soci-
ety of Friends, published in 1674 in England,
republished at Philadelphia, 1701, at Boston,
1743, and Newport, 1769: Not much used outside of
Friends. (In Pennsylvania Historical Society).
2 "The American Instructor, or Young
man's Best Companion, containing spelling,
reading, writing, arithmetic, in an easier
way than any yet published and how to qual-
ify any person for business without the
help of a master," by George Fisher,
printed in Philadelphia, 1748, by Franklin and
Hall, also had bookkeeping: rules for
mechanical calculations, gauging, dial-
ling, and many recipes and directions
for various things.
3 James Hodder — "Hodder's arithmetick, or
that necessary art made most easy," in
London, 1661, American edition from 25th
English in Boston, 1719.
4 Coffer Konst, by Pieter Venema, Dutch
Teacher who died about 1612. English
translation in New York in 1730 —
apparently second oldest arithmetic
printed in America.
Mathematics. 163
5 Cocker's Arithmetic, really published
by John Hawkins, and hence may be under
his name: after death of Cocker, in
1667 in England, American edition in
1799 in Philadelphia.
6 Thomas Dilworth — Schoolmaster's
Assistant — first in London 1744
or 1745, reprinted in Philadelphia
in 1769; then others.
It will help us to get acquainted with these by knowing
some of their predecessors. One of the most prominent was
Record's "Arithmetic or the crown of arts." 23e It is a very
distressing book to look into as it is in that old style black
letter, all of it in question and answer. He is tainted with
the prevailing commercial conception of the subject, devoting
ten pages to expounding "profit of arithmetic" in the form
of a dialogue between the master and the pupil, in which
the latter, poor wretch, gets decidedly the worst of it when
he is unable to follow the ponderous reasoning of the peda-
gogue. Like a medievalist he dotes on tables and forms,
covering his pages with such complications, preceding some
of them with the proud announcement "lo! this is the
table." He had the honor of being edited too as before the
end of the century, Edward Hatton, "philomercat," based
his work on Record, assuring us that it is an improvement,
with a new method, and better tables. Both have Latin
sprinkled along the way.
Though not first in the above list, Cocker belongs in that
grade chronologically. His first edition, in 1677, appeared
after his death, and is considered by some to have been a
forgery, but perhaps based upon a manuscript left by
Cocker. To him belongs the high distinction of excluding
230 London, 1654, i8mo, 629 pages, copy in the R. I. Hist. Society.
164 Our Colonial Curriculum.
all demonstrations and reasonings while confining himself
to commercial questions only. He relied entirely upon rules
without giving any reason or basis for them so that it be-
came almost a proverb to settle questions by saying "accord-
ing to Cocker," a maxim that almost operated as a curse to
real learning. It was the great archetype for the brood of
arithmetics that followed. It went itself as high as fifty
editions before the middle of the eighteenth century. A
Philadelphia worshiper even called in poetry to represent his
devotion. In the edition of that city in 1779 there is a rude
portrait of Cocker and these lines:
"Ingenious Cocker, now to Rest thou'rt gone
"No art can show thee fully but thine own ;
"Thy rare Arithmetick alone can show
"Th' vast Thanks we for thy labours owe."
In the spirit of these descriptions we find his chief con-
tribution to education. He was through and through a
practical man, covering the usual subjects in the arithmetic
of the times, the four fundamental divisions, fractions, rule
of three, etc.
Of George Fox's Primer and of Venema's Coffer Konst
there is not much to be said as both were of limited use, the
first, as already noted, chiefly by the Quakers, and the sec-
and, as might be inferred from the name, almost wholly by
the Dutch element in New York. Very few copies of either
are known to be in existence, the largest book repository in
the United States and one of the largest in the world, the
Congressional Library in Washington, being unable to offer
either.
The young men of his day must have been very dull, or at
least George Fisher must have thought them so when he
got out his "Young Man's Best Companion," about the mid-
dle of the eighteenth century. In places he omitted rules,
but he gave the entire operation with all the painful particu-
Mathematics. 165
larity of a Japanese teacher of the solemn tea ceremonial,
with no more reasoning than a phonograph would grind out.
He had promised to make the thing easy and intelligent to
the meanest capacity and he largely kept his word. That
jagged mountain of difficulty, the rule of three, he very
suavely gilded as the "golden rule." As indicated above,
he attempted to be encyclopedic for virtually all kinds of
practical knowledge, meeting with a success in this road
travelled by so many in his day. 237
The remaining two, Hodder and Dilworth, of the above
half dozen, are here placed last, not because of their later
appearance in literature, but because of their wider use in
the colonies. Hodder must originally have been frightfully
full of mistakes, as William Hume, who got out a twenty-
seventh edition of him in London, 1739, boasts that Hodder
has been "augmented and above a thousand faults amended."
Even with all of these improvements the book is very de-
fective from the standpoint of logic and reason. There is
one good feature. The tedious dialogue method had been
dropped. 238
The Most Popular Arithmetic.
But Dilworth was the most popular of all these mathe-
matical efforts in colonial days after he once entered the
field. Perhaps his great success is due to the happy union
of both the practical and the theoretical as was claimed on
the title pages of some of his editions, but he was not plan-
ning to please those who like to "sweat at their business." 239
Even at that time he apologizes for getting out a printed
book, so strongly intrenched was the habit of each pupil
making a manuscript arithmetic, but he was a prophet to
recognize that type was far more likely to please the pupil
237 There is a copy in the Congressional Library.
238 There is a copy in the Boston Public Library, 121110, 204 pages.
239 Edition of 1767, i2tno, pages 192, in Congressional Library,
his New Guide to the English Tongue.
1 66 Our Colonial Curriculum.
and assist the teacher than any other device. He also sought
to tempt the palate by a collection of "pleasant and diverting
questions," two of which have come down orally to the
present and can be traced back in the past for nearly a
thousand years. A couple of them will not be amiss here as
illustrating the standard at that time, running substantially
thus:
A farmer with a fox, a goose and a peck of corn has to
cross a river in a boat so small that he can take only one of
these three burdens with him at a time. How can he so
handle matters that nothing will be destroyed, because he
cannot leave the fox and the goose together nor can he leave
the goose and the corn.
Again, the principle of this problem is retained under
the form of three jealous husbands each with his wife, meet-
ing the same conditions on the river bank. How are they to
cross so that none of the wives is left in company of one or
two men unless her husband is also present?
There is a third modification of this general puzzle in
which three sorts of wine and three vessels figure.
Another example is a little more mathematical: "Let
twelve be set down in four figures and each figure be the
same."
Like a successful teacher, after having once aroused the
interest of his readers by these alluring bits, Dilworth goes
ahead producing a book not so different in aim and in con-
tent from arithmetic to-day but radically otherwise as re-
gards reasoning and the use of the dialogue. In fact he is
the closest adherent of the Cocker school, disdaining all
analysis and explanation of every kind, but depending upon
a veritable thicket of formal rules.
Some Minor Titles.
On the shelves of New England libraries there are other
arithmetics not different appreciably from those already de-
Mathematics. 167
scribed. It is impossible to say that they were ever used in
colonial schools, but there is fairly solid ground for believing
that they were. Some of them are dated later than this
study covers, but as they were of advanced editions, some of
the earlier issues might have been available for colonial
schools. A brief reference to some of them will not be use-
less, if for no other purpose than to indicate that the colonial
teacher had the same itch for changing text-books that his
successors down to the present have always suffered from.
A short list is here appended:
Robert Hartwell, "philomathematicus," got out a seventh
edition of Blundevil, a large book of 800 pages, of which
arithmetic formed only a small part. 240
"Wingate's Remains or the Clerk's Tutor to Arithmetic
and Writing, being a miscellany arithmetical and mathe-
matical," admitting that he leans very heavily on Cocker. 241
There is one also by John Hill, containing logarithms and
other subjects not at all ranked as arithmetic with us. 242
The title of William Gordon's "Universal Accountant"
indicates very clearly the general drift of his volume, to be
practical. 243
Even Ireland was drawn upon, as there is Elias Voster's
arithmetic. It is rather hard to account for its presence in
New England after he announces on the title page that it
was "chiefly adapted to the trade of Ireland," though of
course a wandering son of Erin may have brought it along
in his baggage. 244
Daniel Fenning was almost a thesaurus in himself as his
240 In Boston Public Library ; — London, 1636, 8vo, square.
241 In American Antiquarian Society ; London, 1676, i2mo., pages
207.
242 In American Antiquarian Society ; London, 1761, 8vo., pages
382.
248 In American Antiquarian Soc. ; 4th edition, 1777, Edinburgh,
2 volumes.
244 In Rhode Island Hist. Soc. ; 20th edition, 1793, Dublin.
168 Our Colonial Curriculum.
"British Youth's Instructor" has everything practically that
concerns knowledge in general in a verbal contest between
"Philo" and "Tyro." There must have been some Tories
who adopted this for use as this edition came out after the
Revolutionary War. 246
Two American Arithmetics.
It was a long time before the American educators and
mathematicians undertook to prepare a book of arithmetic.
Here as in so many of the other lines of intellectual pursuit
Harvard blazed the path. After many claims and counter
claims it is now settled that to Professor Isaac Greenwood
is this honor due for his arithmetic of 1729, when he was still
on the staff of the oldest American University. It is not
known that his book was even adopted in Harvard or in
a.ny other school. As the first of Americans to light the
torch he should have credit, but that is all. He did not ad-
vance the cause, he followed in the beaten path of the others,
covering the usual ground in the usual way, of dead rules
without reasoning. It is not known that more than three
copies have survived the ravages of time. 246 For a time
Nicholas Pike was urged as a competitor of Greenwood for
the distinction of breaking the sod for Americans, but he
was finally disposed of in favor of Greenwood. There are
copies of his in existence, at least two being known. 247 He
covers the usual scope for arithmetic, but adds a great deal
else not included under the term at the present day, such as
bookkeeping, calculations on the calendar, physics, geometry,
trigonometry, surveying, measurements of all sorts, algebra
and conic-sections.
246 In Rhode Island Hist. Soc; nth edition, 1787, i2mo, 302 pages.
2,6 F. Cajori, Teach. Hist, of Math., page 14, one of these three
copies is in the Congressional Library.
M * Both, of 1788, 512 pages; one in Congressional Library, and
one in American Antiquarian Soc.
Mathematics. 169
The College Course.
Much of the arithmetic already described and many of the
books just noted were used in the colleges of the times.
Difficult it is now to draw the line between the preparatory
institutions and the colleges, but far more troublesome a task
to mark the limits of each in that period so dim, and so
scanty of material. But there is certainty to this extent,
that arithmetic was one of the regular college studies and
for a time was the only mathematical branch, excluding
astronomy and geometry. The first official glimpse afforded
us of the college curriculum in America 248 has arithmetic,
geometry, and astronomy in the last year, with no other
mathematics, and the next hundred years bring virtually no
change. Indeed, arithmetic survives much later. There is
record of it in the senior year in 1725, it is also listed in
the same place the following year. 249 Still more, down to
the Revolutionary era, both in Harvard and Yale both
student and teacher mention arithmetic in the college, even
being first begun there. 250
Early Mathematical Chairs.
It was a painful strain to rise from these rudiments, and
the effort could be made only after there had been enough
growth to allow a division of labor. One of the earliest
symptoms is connected with a benefactor of Harvard,
Thomas Brattle, who left two hundred pounds from his
estate in 1713 for "the maintenance of some master of
arts * * * one best skilled in the mathematics." This
auspicious start was followed by one of the best friends of
248 Harvard, 1643.
249 Wadsworth's manuscript diary, Harvard Archives, page 18;
Quincy, History of Harvard, Vol. 1, page 441, much being based on
Wadsworth.
""American Journal of Ed., Vol. 32, page 873, by Josiah Quincy;
Stiles's Diary, Vol. 3, page 312.
170 Our Colonial Curriculum.
the institution some ten years later, Thomas Hollis, in his
bestowal of a fund for a professorship of mathematics. The
holder was "to be a master of arts * * * well acquainted
with the several parts of the mathematics and of natural and
experimental philosophy; * * * to instruct the students in
a system of natural philosophy and a course of experimental
in which to be comprehended pneumatics, hydrostatics, me-
chanics, statics, optics, and in the elements of geometry,
together with the doctrine of proportions, the principles of
algebra, conic-sections, plane and spherical trigonometry,
with the general principles of mensuration, planes and solids,
in the principles of astronomy and geography, viz, the doc-
trine of the sphere, the use of the globes, the motions of the
heavenly bodies according to the different hypotheses of
Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe and Copernicus, with the general
principles of dialling the divisions of the world into its
various kingdoms, with the use of the maps, etc." In ad-
dition he was to give public lectures, and to finish all of
these sciences in two years. Brattle was very thoughtful in
excusing such a mathematician and scientist from assuming
the pastoral office in any church and he also graciously per-
mitted him to be free from other college duties than the
ones marked out above. 251 The first occupant was Isaac
Greenwood, who, as has been stated, signalized his position
by getting out the first arithmetic. But mathematics formed
only a small part of the post. It was really more science
than mathematics. Greenwood was most likely far more at-
tached to physics than anything else. Some six or seven
years after being installed he requested the privilege of tak-
ing some of the apparatus to his home for the vacation,
almost all being in the field of physics, such as mirrors,
cameras, telescopes and quadrants, with the orreries and
spheres.
While to Harvard is yielded the palm for priority of be-
a>1 Harvard Archives, January, 1726.
Mathematics. 171
ginning, to William and Mary belongs the primacy of es- ■
tablishment of a professorship of mathematics, preceding
her New England sister by a year or so. The first incum-
bent, Hugh Jones, was also an author, but of wider range
than his northern brother as he not only wrote mathematics
but English grammar, history and theology.
Science may have proved too much for Greenwood's re-
ligious principles, first undermining those fundamental
truths and then weakening his moral foundations. He be-
came intemperate and finally had to be removed. Hollis,
the founder of the chair, had been very skeptical about
Greenwood after having seen him on a trip to London pur-
chase half a dozen pairs of silk stockings. He gravely wrote
that it was doubtful whether a man of such luxuriant taste
was fit for the severe life of a scientist.
Nathan Prince followed him for a short time, but was in
turn superseded by John Winthrop, who served forty years
to 1779, but both of them were more interested in science
proper than in mathematics. During his long term, Win-
throp made considerable use of Ward as a text-book, which
will be described a few pages further on. He also used
Gravesande in science and Euclid in geometry. Astronomy
was in his care, in which he was much interested, winning a
reputation in it and going as far as Newfoundland at one
time to make some observations. Generally here as in the
other institutions, mathematics was a handmaid to the other
subjects. But slight encouragement was given to pure
mathematics, which was left as material for idle dreamers to
speculate upon.
At Yale, Wiujam and Mary, and Pennsylvania.
Elsewhere the general standard scarcely rose to the level
of Harvard. At the beginning Yale was even behind, as
late as the first quarter of the eighteenth century having
scarcely more than a little arithmetic with some survey-
172 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ing. 262 Gradually Euclid was added and there is some evi-
dence that algebra was taught for a time at least before
1750. It is not safe to place Harvard as early as this in
this branch if we have to demand written evidence. Beyond
the end of the period designed for this investigation, we learn
of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, conic-sec-
tions, and fluxions being in the course, but undoubtedly a
part of these were electives. Ward was the author of the
most of the books in all these branches.
About the middle of the eighteenth century a new head
of Pennsylvania University flamed out in a very full course
in mathematics, practically the same as we have seen at
Yale much later, but whether they were all actually studied
is a matter of inference largely.
As has been said, William and Mary out ran all others in
providing for a regular instructor in mathematics, Hugh
Jones, in 1724. It is the belief of the most thorough-going
student of the matter that William and Mary at that time
was fully abreast of Yale and Harvard in this subject. 253
The; Net Results in Cou^ge.
These subjects were numerous certainly for the needs
then and very largely for the discipline now, but they were in
a different atmosphere from ours. There was but little aim
to use them as means for mental development. The entire
spirit was utilitarian. With arithmetic as the bed rock
designed to fit men for the daily affairs of life, there were
usually some six books of Euclid to lay the foundation for
that other highly practical study, surveying. Necessarily
practice with the rod and chain called for trigonometry.
The more theoretical branches, such as algebra, conic-sec-
tions and fluxions, came very late in the period under in-
vestigation. It can be readily surmised that they received
BS F. Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics, page 28.
*" F. Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics, page 33.
Mathematics. 173
only cold glances upon their introduction into the college,
because warmth of welcome was extended to those branches
that would aid men in making a living. These were the ones
favored with donation in the shape of instruments and
books. It was a complete set of surveying instruments that
Joseph Thompson donated to Yale about 1730. It was sur-
veying that Jefferson studied at William and Mary to his
advantage, and it was in this subject that Washington re-
ceived his commission from this college, the only academic
connection he ever had with any institution. It was in the
allied subjects of navigation, dialling, and fortifications that
Pennsylvania University blossomed so abundantly under
President Smith.
Some of the Text-Books Used.
How far advance was made along each of these paths is a
matter of conjecture very largely, especially for the latter
part of the journey. There are, it is true, manuscript text-
books in that indespensable repository in Worcester, Mass.,
and elsewhere, but whether they represent the limit then no
one can assert positively, still less are they a fair index for
what was done after the printed books came into such
general use.
Nevertheless they are of considerable help in forming
our opinions. There is one by Nathaniel Bowditch, after the
Revolutionary War, almost a quarto of 324 pages, covering
algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, conic-sec-
tions, infinites and logarithms, with arithmetic at the end. 264
It is nearly all by positive directions and rules, emphasized
with question and answer. In algebra he went into quad-
ratics, extraction of roots, and evolution, but a large part
is devoted to miscellaneous questions. His conies are very
elementary, while his arithmetic is nearly all interest and his
B1 Dated August 23, 1788, beginning algebra on the first of August,
1787, as he states : in Boston Public Library.
174 Our Colonial Curriculum.
geometry may be about one-half of what we have to-day.
The most marked feature is the number of problems with
their detailed solutions.
But one of the most widely used is John Ward's Young
Mathematicians' Guide, which ran up to at least a dozen
editions with a total of some 500 pages. It was a little ency-
clopedia, for its day, of mathematics, as it had arithmetic,
algebra, geometry, conic-sections infinites, gauging and log-
arithms. All of these being in such small compass none was
expanded very much. He was meagre in all of them. His
arithmetic dispenses with reasoning but relies upon rules,
the universal crutch at that time. His algebra was without
factoring, and his notions of it were rather crude. Such as
he was he was the prevailing favorite for practically three-
quarters of a century at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth
and Pennsylvania.
Many others that have lived to the present are Samuel
Cunn, Edmond Stone, Isaac Barrow, all three still on the
shelves in Worcester. There are two others older and more
dignified than these, Gravesande and Alsted. The latter
furnished a geometry in use both at Yale and Harvard, but
not specially different from those already mentioned. Grave-
sande followed the custom of the day in ranging over great
stretches of knowledge, including physics and metaphysics
and logic. These last furnish a speculative tinge to his
efforts and at one place he gives us a mathematical demon-
stration of the care that Providence takes to protect the
affairs of earth by the relative number of the two sexes.
Outside of these religious shades his mathematics are of
the prevailing type.
One of the most interesting developments preserved for
us of the mathematics of the period is the collection of
mathematical theses at Harvard University. The most of
them are large and elaborate, showing the minutest pains,
evidently designed for exhibition purposes. They also indi-
Mathematics. 175
cate the bent of the teaching as the topics are drawn largely
from surveying and measuring. The astronomical ones are
very ornate, some of them having very creditable maps of
the world. There are questions in algebra, but largely ele-
mentary, though they are worked out with a vast display of
tabulation and beautiful lettering. For instance, there are
twenty-one steps covering a folio sheet for solving the fol-
lowing: "Three gentlemen, Tom, Dick and Harry, have
each so many guineas that if Tom's and Dick's be added to
half of Harry's that number will equal 92; that if Dick's
and Harry's be added to one-third of Tom's that number will
equal 92, and if Harry's and Tom's be added to one-fourth
of Dick's that number will equal 92; question, how man)
guineas have each gentleman?"
ALGEBRA.
This example occurs in the Revolutionary era. As has
been said, algebra was of rather slight development in our
colonial days, but it has a distinction pretty much its own
among the mathematical branches, it was the first cultivated
for its own sake without the ulterior intent of harnessing
it immediately for daily work.
Delightful it is to historians and philosophers to follow
a thread back to its beginning. Often this can be done only
by leaping over breaks or very carefully crawling over pre-
cipitous canyons where the line is worn almost through,
finally reaching a part where the original material is changed
into almost another element. But by such skillful gymnas-
tics algebra has been discovered as among the ancient Egyp-
tians in its germs at least, though the form was so different
that only by working up through the different stages could
the embryo be recognized as the original seed. But we do
come across something that we can consider as containing
the idea of this branch. There is found in the distant ages
176 Our Colonial Curriculum.
this example, "heap, its seventh, its whole makes 19," or
x
transposed to modern notions, " — plus x=i9." But it is
7
sharp insight to see all this and to discover algebra in the
middle ages as it is only in the seventeenth century that we
really find anything such as we now unite in calling
algebra. 265
As always, this plunge into the unknown excited men's
imagination. To the first explorers it was something huge
and incomprehensible. To John Ward it was "that mysteri-
ous science." 256 With such a tincture of mysticism and
metaphysics a hodge-podge of arithmetical geometry and
other mathematics was a very direct consequence. He still
had not divorced himself from the practical view of mathe-
matics as he had a great deal on interest computations.
Neither had he got over the sin of formal rules, as his
volume is built on those entirely. Three-quarters of a cen-
tury later to John Gough algebra was the "great art," "a
method of managing arithmetical and geometrical computa-
tions by letters." 257 There is another author to be found
in the list of colonial text-books, Hammond, filled mostly
with the detailed solution of problems. 258
How much was studied in our colleges in those early days
cannot be accurately determined now, but on this we can
rely pretty confidently that not much ground was covered.
There is data that Yale had something of it, not more than
the rudiments, as early as 1742. There is not positive men-
tion of it at Harvard so far as known earlier than 1786,
though we must infer that it was offered in the classes many
381 D. E. Smith, Teaching of Mathematics, 1906, pages 68, 145.
OT A Compendium of Algebra, London, 1724, 220 pages.
257 Edition of 1798, with appendix by W. Atkinson, on algebra en-
tirely containing binominal theorem but mostly dealing with
problems.
508 1742 edition, 8vo, pages 328.
Mathematics. 177
years before that time. There had been a development
along other mathematical branches, and besides it is not at all
likely that the two institutions so close to each other would
have been so far apart m the order of introducing this new
■branch. It is possible that it was also in use in the other
colonial colleges.
Astronomy.
Far more than algebra was astronomy a land of magic and
mystery to the masses of our colonial ancestors and still
more so to their medieval forefathers. Those boundless
spaces above and around were the haunts for ignorance,
superstition, credulity. Here the imagination had full play
for its wildest absurdities and most intricate perplexities.
From these vast unsounded depths came the awful misfor-
tunes that assailed the human race. The invisible powers
working there sent forth their dread portents and wrought
all the terrible disasters in the shape of drought, pestilence,
fevers, overwhelming storms, fiery darts and calamities of
all sorts that could neither he understood nor controlled.
Eclipses, auroras, comets, and all other unusual phenomena
struck terror into the breasts of people and filled their souls
with awe.
Whenever the theologians took the matter in hand and
tried to expound their doctrine they only added confusion to
stupidity. They could see fiery Tiorsemen in the Heavens,
they could almost feel the flash of the waving sword, and
almost hear the crack of doom and the roar of flames in such
an event as an aurora. Bishop Hall peopled the stars and
the depths around with throngs of angels to do the bidding
of the Almighty, so innumerable that only the Deity could
count them. But they kept the machinery in motion, they
turned the crystallized spheres, they whirled the moon
around and brought about those "strange concussations of
the earth" and "direful prodigies in the sky." To these
178 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ecclesiastical warriors the stars and the whole of the blue
vault above were only for man's edification and interest.
He was made of an upright form so that he could toss his
head back and look upon these creations and learn astron-
omy. But their notions of it were a medley of the Ptolemaic
theory which placed the world in the center, jumbled up with
the odds and ends of astrology and all kinds of specu-
lations. 269
Mather on Comets.
In this charnel house for the supernatural and the sensa-
tional, Increase Mather was in his happiest element. He
especially revelled in the study of comets. Here was some-
thing that he could let his fancy run upon without limit, as
these strange bodies came out of the obscurity and soon
disappeared in it again. To him they were "horrendous,"
and "portentous signs of evil events," but beyond the range
of man's intellect to grasp, being the manifestation of God's
inscrutable will. He preached a sermon on them, he wrote
a book about them. His deliverances were the very acme
of medieval scholarship. He raked all history, especially
the ancient, and he compiled their views but of real inde-
pendent thinking on his own part he was as bare as a
calculating machine, except in one respect. He sneered at
the astrologers who claimed to foretell the future from these
striking manifestations. He also rather shrewdly concluded
that they were of the same elements as the planets, both com-
ing from "natural causes" just as earthquakes did. 260
Educational Uses.
But all of this baseless speculation and all of these terrify-
ing fears eventuated very early in something practical.
259 Eggleston in his Transit of Civilization has a brilliant descrip-
tion of astronomical knowledge in the Seventeenth century.
200 His sermon on Comets was published in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, his book appeared in Boston in 1683, reprinted in London in
181 1, 8vo, page 60. Both are in the Boston Public Library.
Mathematics. 179
Throughout the dark ages it was a weapon for religion to
calculate the time of Easter and other church festivals. It
was soon degraded from this pious purpose by designers and
sharpers to work on the simplicity of the multitude. Astrol-
ogers twisted it for their aims and pretended to cast hore-
scopes by a study of the twinkling points in the darkness
overhead.
In time it was led to the further aid of man. Almanacs
were slowly evolved. Alexander Nowell perhaps deserves
the badge as the predecessor of all American astronomical
writers, with his Cambridge almanac of 1666. 261 A Harvard
man may be almost neck and neck in this race, as Urian
Oakes, a Harvard graduate of 1649, got out rather early in
his career a set of astronomical calculations. 262
Something more educational and more scientfic is a word
or two to be found about the telescope owned by Governor
Winthrop in 1664 and some subsequent communications to
him by three Fellows at Harvard some seven years later,
describing the Harvard telescopes. 263
From such mists and fogbanks with only small lights of
real knowledge, there could not be very helpful teaching in
the schools. But it was in the colleges from the beginning.
Being yoked with religion so intimately it went wherever
that branch was taught. The chief text-book was that of
Pierre Gassendus. 264 The bulk of his volumes is devoted
to what we would call mathematical geography at the present
day as he treats of the motions of the sun, moon, earth,
planets. He also has considerable historical material on
Copernicus and Tycho Brahe and Gallileo. Some of the
261 Eggleston, Transit of Civilisation, page 6.
262 Peirce, History of Harvard, page 44.
283 Proceedings Mass. Hist. Society, Second series, Vol. 4, page
265, 1887.
284 "Institution astronomicae," London, 1643. There is in the same
library, Boston Public, an edition of 1682, i2mo. Both are in Latin
throughout.
180 Our Colonial Curriculum.
later editions are also embellished with figures. And some
of the earlier ones are taken up in large part with an oration
on the value and scope of astronomy in education.
Springing from the gloom of primitive days, entangled in
the chaos of theology and metaphysics, distorted by the base
hands of astrologers fettered by the bonds of ecclesiasticism,
at first the mystery of science, the emergence of astronomy
into the educational highway was slow and painful. It
perhaps has at last reached its true rank in the lists of the
college curriculum. No longer is it indispensable for gradu-
ation but at least it is offered in a scientific way in all of
the stronger institutions, but required in none.
A Thoughtful Critic Unnoticed.
We can now see how thin and elementary the whole course
in mathematics was, and how it was pitched in the wrong
■key. But it is a rare wise man among us at any time that
gets the proper perspective of the present. The road behind
us is so much more easily measured and mapped than the
dim 'waving .paths we are trying to tread. We now look
back to those days and placidly note how the schools
blundered and sprawled in the mud and blindly drifted from
the road, and yet all done in loyal earnestness to the light
they had. But how infinitely superior is that observer who
could point out the mistakes as they were made. His voice
was muffled in the choking and discordant cries about him,
no heed was paid to his warnings, but after the lapse of
several centuries we can hear his tones high and clear, arous-
ing a regret that the great column of teachers had not lis-
tened and saved us from that weary straying in the wilder-
ness. In John Webster inhered such an eye of vision. It
was he that called in vain to the great mass groping help-
lessly here and there. They are words of condemnation too,
the few transcribed here to show how keenly he looked about
him.
Mathematics. 181
To him the whole subject of mathematics was "slightly
and superficially handled." Arithmetic was "useless, and of
no value, but transmitted over to the hands of merchants
and mechanics, as though it were a liberal science, or not
worthy the study and pains of an ingenuous and noble
spirit." In the teaching of geometry were the "same super-
ficial slightness and supine negligence:" no "clear demon-
stration:" no "perfect practice; contenting with the sole
verbal disputes of magnitude, quantity and the affections
thereof," "leaving the practice and application thereof to
masons, carpenters, surveyors, and such,like manual opera-
tors." Astronomy was taught "according to the peripatetick
and Ptolemaic systeme * * * extolled to the heavens ;" yet
in all scholastic learning there was "not found any piece so
rotten, ruinous, absurd and deformed: * * * they take for
granted * * * that the earth is the center of the uni-
verse * * * thence deduce the causes of gravity and
levity * * * grossly maintain that the heavens or orbs are
as hard as steel, and as transparent as glass." 265
m Webster's Examen Academiarum, page 40, etc.
CHAPTER VII.
Science.
For centuries the Bible had been to all the western world
the very acorn of the tree of knowledge. Theology was the
only true philosophy. All the ancient authorities were only
the unconscious revelation of the Almighty. The classics
then became a secondary source of learning. Even to the
Italian humanists the most profound truths in all the depart-
ments of life were to be sought for in the ancient literatures,
along with the church fathers. 266 Here then was the store-
house of the intellect contained in these pages of written
words. Enter, gather, arrange, extract the thoughts and
all ignorance can be removed. The champion systematizer,
the giant analyzer, the unrivalled dialectician, furnished the
method and led the way. It was to Aristotle that all thinkers
and investigators turned. He forged the tools, he built the
machinery. His mental ciderpress could squeeze the last
drop of meaning from the raw materials of thought. Know
your book, said Roger Bacon, and you know everything of
the subject that the book treats of. 267
It was treason to doubt Aristotle's infallibility, it was a
sacrilege to find something outside of him. The story of the
sun spots is well known and has already been related. It
is not so much a matter of common property, the scornful
question that Dr. Primrose asked of the English physician
who almost revolutionized medicine by his discovery of the
circulation of the blood : "Would you have us believe you
know something that Aristotle did not know ? Aristotle ob-
served everything and no one should dare to come after
*"W. H. Woodward, Vittorino, page 196.
287 Compayre's Abelard, page 188.
Science 183
him." 268 Like the shadow on the Hartz mountains Aris-
totle towered in the heavens with his feet lost in the distant
horizon, a mighty monarch of the mind to whom all were
in thralldom. With the sharp-edged weapons that he had
fabricated, with the arsenal of the early writers, all diffi-
culties were to be battered down, but all under the dominion
of religion. For seven centuries no composition of any
renown can be found, except from the pen of a professional
churchman. There was philosophy, which means a certain
freedom of thought, but there could be no science, as science
means free investigation. Even in their ideal schemes men
hardly recognized anything outside of the languages. Hoole,
a very capable teacher, whose notions of education contained
something good for us even at the present day, in an elab-
orate plan for the training of youth, covering six years, had
nothing about mathematics or science. But he ran glibly and
joyously over nearly all of the lines of knowledge, depending
upon past achievements of mankind, history, L,atin, hiero-
glyphics, rhetoric, witty sentences, customs, and all those
things for which men turn their faces to the rear for grasp-
ing. 269 The Italian revival of learning brought a little of
the fag ends of science, but chiefly to enable the pupils to
understand allusions to such matters in the old writers. 270
The University of Edinburgh climbed a little higher, but it
was only by the middle of the eighteenth century. Ap-
parently some of the elements of modern physics were
offered then, but much mixed with speculation and meta-
physics. They presented courses in pneumatical philosophy,
treating of spiritual substances such as God, angels, souls
of men. These lectures were heard by the same students
288 So quoted by Eggleston in his Transit, page 48, from the Aubrey
preparatory memoir to the reprint of Bxercitatio, or Willis's Life
of Harvey. These exact words were not found in the books on this
matter in the Library of Congress.
288 J. P. W. Adamson, Pioneers of Modern Education, page 166.
"° W. H. Woodward, Vittorino, page 223.
184 Our Colonial Curriculum.
that listened to expositions, hydrostatics, mechanics, optics
and other divisions of this branch. But these up to fifty
years before were only hollow sounding names, they meant
nothing really as the whole of "natural philosophy" at Edin-
burgh was only a rehash of Aristotle's utterances on that
subject. 271 In other places in earlier times there had been
lectures on physiology, "mixed or imperfect bodies, or per-
fect bodies." Meteors were a type of the former, while the
metals, plants and animals were classed as perfect. 272
The Attitude of the Great Thinkers.
Even the great names that we are accustomed to revere
excite only the pity and derision of even the half educated
among us to-day if we only consider their attitude towards
science. The great Lord Bacon "flounders like a stranded
leviathan when he seeks to explore the coasts of physical
science." 273 John Locke, who was so sane, and so prophetic
of the educational development of to-day, is very hazy and
confusing when he makes an incursion into science, reduc-
ing nature to spirits and physics, finally confessing that it is
too deep a matter for man to understand. The philosophers
who did have something of courage in their opinions were
halting and stammering, the religious leaders were timid and
obscure. Melanchthon is a specimen. He gulps down Aris-
totle in numerous broken doses, he sets out with metaphysi-
cal fogs, slides into some material descriptions, and closes
with religion and prayer, all a theological thicket, although
he claims to be discussing physiology.
John Baptist Porta.
But it is among the professional scientists of the day that
we run across the densest conglomeration of credulity and
m Grant, University of Edinburgh, Vol. 1, pages 272, 273.
2,2 J. W. Stubbs, page 44, University of Dublin.
™ Eggleston, Transit, page 10.
Science. 185
classicism. A voracious gosling was Porta, greedily swal-
lowing anything that had Latin or Greek mold on it. Aris-
totle is to him the final clincher for the most startling mar-
vels. So simple too and frank in his self-confidence that
he is amusing. It is a breath of freshness that strikes us
when he says that "if ever any man labored earnestly to
disclose the secrets of nature it was I," and this too in his
second edition, thirty-five years after his first which had
come out when he was the mature age of fifteen. "Cost
me much study, travel, expense and much inconvenience"
but he is content to make all this sacrifice in order to re-
move "all blindness and malice for finding both truth and
profit."
There is no cloying sense of modesty here to embarrass
our bold scientist and he does not falter at almost any topic
of nature. His Natural Magic 274 bridges theory and prac-
tice, the latter being a recognition of the spirit of the times
He is tinctured with abstractions. To him the whole uni-
verse is sexual, fire is male, air, female ; water is male, earth,
female; planets are partly both and mercury decidedly bi-
sexual. All monstrosities are swallowed whole. Water
birds come from rotting wood, eels from mud mixed with
rain water or from dead horses, fish from froth and oysters
from frothy mud. The loadstone attracts iron because of
the exceeding love between the two so that the iron will
stand on end as if it held up its hands in supplication to
the loadstone.
But it is in his account of the origin of life that he sails
out into the dark borders of superstition. In the early times,
as he develops his notions, the soft and slimy earth was soon
dried by the heat of the sun and tumors and swellings were
produced on the surface and uppermost parts of the earth.
"In these tumors were contained and cherished many putre-
274 Magiaenaturalis, libri viginti, Batavorum, 1651, i2mo, pages 670.
with index afterwards.
186 Our Colonial Citriiculum.
factions and rotten clods, covered with certain small skins;
this putrefied stuff being moistened with dew by night, and
the sun heating it by day, after a certain season became ripe ;
and the skins being broken, thence issued all kinds of liv-
ing creatures." Those that had the most heat were birds,
the earthly ones were beasts while the water ones were fish,
but a medley of all these were walking creatures. Now,
the heat of the sun continuing destroyed this creative capac-
ity of the globe so that all the different species were the re-
sult of crossing the breeds of these.
His grave recipe for the generation of bees from dead
cattle would surely have called down upon him the society
for the prevention of cruelty to animals of the present day.
Take an ox, he says, two or three years old and have lusty
fellows kill him with their cudgels, breaking his bones with-
out drawing any blood or striking him too fiercely at the
first — pounding him to death gently. Then cast honey under
him, close the doors and windows securely and after a few
weeks "you shall find the room full of bees clotted together
and nothing of the ox remaining besides the horns, the bones
and the hair." The best bees he believes come from young
oxen while the baser bees come from lower creatures — per-
haps the mule or the donkey.
But all of his profundity of information must be put at
the disposal of men for their aid and comfort. With the
throbbing soul of the philanthropist he is stirred especially
to help the weaker sex. He has full directions for the
preparation of unguents, cosmetics the removal of hair from
the face, for whitening the skin and reddening the cheeks.
Especially solicitous is he for the hair of women as women
dote on "yellow shining and radiant" hair, gray hairs of
course being very distasteful to them. To save this morti-
fication he tells them to annoint their hair with a corrup-
tion of leeches in vinegar in a leaden vessel but they had
better hold oil in their mouth at the time of application else
Science. 187
the stuff will strike through and make their teeth black
also. 275
He is not alone in his notions of nature. Some of his con-
temporaries narrated still greater wonders. — Such as a boy
with an elephant's head, a man with an eagle's wings and a
horse's tail, other men with one, two, three and four eyes.
The keenest intelligence was solemnly attributed to animals.
Bears were said to eat honey in order to have the bees sting
them so as to get a pleasant sensation or to revive them from
torpidity or to restore failing sight by letting out blood.
The very fat hippopotamus deliberately rolled himself over
sharp pointed reeds to bleed himself and prevent apoplexy —
a kind of river horse-doctor.
The Scientific Baggage Taken to America.
Our ancestors were the dupes that outfitted themselves
liberally in science from these abounding depots of credu^
lousness. They went to a strange land and soon adjusted
themselves to the seasons and the products when they had
to find food or provide shelter. But in the realm of thought
whenever they needed a pin or button they always rushed
to those trunks that they had lugged along with them across
the Atlantic. They relied on the ancients with the most
trusting childlike faith for any explanation of natural phe-
nomena that came under their eyes. The forests around
them rang with the cry of bird and beast, but when they
wanted to solve any puzzle that they noted in animal life
they leaped back years to Pliny, "the greatest gull of an-
tiquity." The best educated among them stared in the
greatest amazement at everything unusual and clutched at
baseless theories that the few naked savages around
them would have scarcely tolerated. The ministers
"acted as soothsayers and expounded the hidden meaning
of monstrous births and even played showman to exhibit
m Natural Magic, page 235.
188 Our Colonial Curriculum.
these ghastly messages from the Almighty." 276 The doctors
were almost as crude and primitive as medicine men in Cen-
tral Africa. They looked up to Paracelsus and wrought
cures on the principle of like by like. A toad has warts
therefore the application of them is good for small pox. If
you suffer from jaundice, why color the milk that you drink
with saffron and you will be free from your trouble.
Charles Morton as a Science Teacher in America
But a composite photograph is never as near the truth
as an exact likeness to some individual who is a fair ex-
ample of the group. Luckily we have such a portrait in
Charles Morton who came over from England highly recom-
mended to teach science in Harvard University, the apex of
education and learning in the new world at that time. He
left his imprint himself in scholastic works on logic and
physics. There are several copies of the latter in manu-
script, copied according to the fashion then by the boys and
young men before him, besides the printed form. 277 In
addition to these he preached a very profound sermon — still
for inspection to-day. 278
Here we have him at his best because he is uttering after
the most prayerful and fullest meditation and investigation.
He is a voice as he thinks for the great Ruler of the Uni-
verse. His whole soul is absorbed in the search for truth.
This contains the spirit of his scientific conceptions, and
through him we can see the greatest height attained by
science in his day.
He gets his text from Jeremiah, eighth chapter, seventh
verse; the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed
270 Eggleston, Transit, page 16, relying on Sewall's Diary, Vol. 2,
page 493.
m Compendium Physicac, 1687 ; Philosophia Naturalis. 1707 ; both
in Harvard University.
278 Harlcian Miscellany, Vol. 5, pages 498-511.
Science. 189
times, etc. The migration of birds had been a great mystery
for the ages past and now this minister of the gospel is go-
ing to make the whole matter as clear as the noonday sun.
What becomes of them when they go away from New Eng-
land, that is what he wanted to find out. They go to the
moon, "the nearest concrete heterogeneous or earthly body
of the planets," but that was some distance to fly, some 200,-
000 miles he remembered. But a race horse can easily cover
a mile in five minutes when he is hindered by his weight and
the air, but a bird is not embarrassed by either as he weighs
nothing and the air is no obstruction. He could on his
wings make 125 miles an hour, 3,000 a day, 180,000 in two
months. There it is all before you, two months going, four
months remaining, two months returning, four months stay-
ing here, twelve months in all. But here is a difficulty that
comes up, the moon is flying around the earth in one month,
200,060 miles away. Would the bird not lose time in racing
around after the moon ? No, the bird is guided by instinct,
he sets his gaze on the moon at a certain point in space, and
he goes straight there utterly regardless of the whirling mo-
tion of the moon. In one month the moon is back there
again, in two months the birds light on it. No railroad
man could fix up a better time table than Morton did for
these birds.
Here another doubt seems to rise in his mind as some
people might be very skeptical as to whether a bird could
fly at such speed for two months. Well, then, says our
pastor, how do you know that there are not some little
moons or other bodies floating between the two that birds
could roost on and take a rest? There certainly are such
rocky islands in the ocean that we know are used for such
a purpose, and there may be corresponding "globules or
ethereal islands" between us and the moon. Finally, he
winds up very lamely for a thorough going logician, they
must come from somewhere, you unbelievers don't think
190 Our Colonial Curriculum.
they come from the moon, I know they don't come from the
bottoms of the streams, therefore these half-way houses
fill the bill.
There had been quite a widely accepted theory that these
feathered prodigies on the approach of cold weather plunged
into the rivers and streams and hibernated at the bottom
until the next spring, but Morton hung back from that so-
lution because he thought it would be rather cold sleeping
quarters down there and furthermore the wings would be
too wet for them to fly after this prolonged bath.
In his college textbook he was just as ignorant and fool-
ish, and he tried to lighten the sapiency of his lectures by
scraps of poetry, altogether original it is to be judged,
which might help to impress the explanation. He attempted
to expound why the Indian monsoon changed its direction.
These currents of air streaming northward strike against
high mountains or vast clouds and are thrown back and
hence the rest of the year the winds blow in the opposite di-
rection. He is so satisfied with this that he puts it into verse.
"From breize, streams clouds the monsoons are North East
From the Atlantick vapors South and West."
His explanation of earthquakes is almost physiological.
They come from the choking up of wind below fermenting,
bursting out, causing "tremblings" and "strokes." He puts
it more forcibly but not so elegantly:
"In subterraneous caverns winds do frolick
When mother earth is troubled with the colick."
But through it all he is true to the medieval notion that
all knowledge is from the Bible. In his last chapter on the
world he says :
"The end of the world is twofold: primary and second-
ary. Primary: God's glory * * * his eternal power
and godhead. Rom. 1 :2c Secondary is the use of man
(Gen. 1:2:8) have dominion over it and verse 29, behold
I have given every herb, etc.
Science. 191
"World's matter aggregate; from order is
Maker God, End, his glory and man's bliss."
As the van of American science teachers the table of
contents of his ambitious production will help to illuminate
his general grasp and conception.
Table op Contents op 1687 Manuscript Copy by
Brattle.
Chapt. Index totius hujus libri
Preface to the book
1 Of Physicks in General
2 Of the general Part of Physicks
3 Of the Affections of Naturall Body in generall
4 Of the Speciall part of physicks
5 Of Heavens in speciall
6 Of Terrestrial body, of the elements in Generall
7 Of the Elements in Special and first of fire
8 Of Air
9 Of Water
10 Of earth
11 Of mixed body in generall and its affections
12 Of the species of mixed bodies and fiery meteors
13 Of comets
14 Of aery meteors
15 Of watery meteors
16 Of appearing meteors
17 Of perfectly mixed bodies and first of stone
18 Of metalls and mineralls
19 Of animate bodies in generall and speciall
20 Of the growing faculty
21 Of procreation
22 Of sensitive living bodies
23 Of seeing
24 Of hearing
19 2 Our Colonial Curriculum.
25 Of smelling taste and touch
26 Of interior senses
27 Of sensative appetite
28 Of 'locomotion
.29 Of secondary affections, awake and asleep
30 Of the species of animal brute and man
31 Of the world
Abraham Pierson.
There is another relic of these times, older than Morton's
teachings that are even more valuable as a witness for the
school work in science. Abraham Pierson, a Harvard grad-
uate in 1668, afterwards the first president of Yale College,
was very industrious with his pencil in taking notes. His
descendants had the historical spirit and it is to this lucky
fact that we can to-day go through Pierson's notes which
he afterwards used as a teacher at Yale. This little book
of less than two hundred pages, partly Latin and partly
English, and largely abbreviated in both languages, in a
torturous scrawl, epitomizes for us the scientific instruction
as well as other branches in both of these great institutions.
Along towards the middle of it he has what he himself
dubs "Compendium Philosophiae Naturalis" composed of
a series of 160 propositions, and virtually definitions of
such terms as affinity, motion, porosity, air, water, savor,
odor, color, species, senses. Interspersed with these are
statements to be proved. The following will give some ink-
ling of the tone of the whole: First, the world is neither
from eternity nor able to be of itself, but is a round body
the most capacious of all figures sent forth perfect. Sec-
ond, angels are a spirit, not made of one of the elements,
but of rare medium, endowed with reason and will, and min-
isters of God, having always existed from the beginning,
of least materiality but of many forms.
Science. 193
Gravesandb and Rohault.
Another authority of the day was William James Grave-
sande with his "mathematical elements of natural philosophy
confirmed by experiments or an introduction to Sir Isaac
Newton's Philosophy." 279 Although he claims to be a sort
of introduction to one of the great lights of modern science
for the world he was fairly drenched in metaphysical and
religious clouds. Holy writ he declares is the whole thing
in a nutshell, and reason so perfectly agrees with these di-
vine utterances that the least examination will show the
plain fact of supreme wisdom. The whole thing was cre-
ated by God, and we should not try to go down to the first
foundations of things nor should we have an immoderate
appetite for knowledge because such greediness has led
people into serious errors. There are to be no such gaps
and breaks in the road he marks out, for the unwary to fall
into, as he fills up the balance of his two volumes with very
formal directions, rule of thumb measurements for the many
experiments that are attended by diagrams and intricate
drawings. No thoughtful application of principles, no logi-
cal connection between reason and development of the ex-
periment, though he himself did seem to have some depth
of philosophy in him. We can almost believe that he rather
dimly understood that heat and light were modes of motion.
But he was very timid about getting beyond his own relig-
ious limitations because he draws himself back from this
venturesome deduction in the next breath as he says the
"notion of light has something unknown to us." 280 He is
not so far wrong also on the chemistry of combustion but
apparently suffers from the same nervousness of drifting
279 Originally in Latin, put into English, 3d edition, London, 1738,
2 volumes, 8vo, copy in Congressional Library.
280 W. J. Gravesande, Vol. 2, page 16, Math. Elements of Natural
Philosophy.
13
194 Our Colonial Curriculum.
beyond the borderland of ecclesiastics. He declares that the
"burning of bodies is a separation of their parts by the
mutual action of the fire and those parts on each other. 281
So far as the mere extent of his treatise goes, it coincides
most astonishingly with elementary physics to-day but the
spirit is so diametrical to the modern one and besides, in
unison with his contemporaries he mixes his mathematics,
astronomy, geography, and something of natural history.
Rohault, a Frenchman, follower of DesCartes, had pre-
ceded Gravesande at Yale, having been put into Latin by
Samuel Clarke. 282 He succeeded Pierson's manuscript
notes. We thus have the science authorities for Yale from
her beginning down to the end of the colonial period, Pier-
son, Rohault, Gravesande, Enfield. Rohault like Gravesande
has a number of figures, folded at the end of the volume, like
him he also ranges over physics, geography, astronomy,
meteorology, and biology.
The three are substantially along the same general road
and all practically guided by the same conception of science.
Metaphysics and religion rule. The first physical theses at
Harvard indicate the same drift of science.
Forma est accidens.
The form is accidental.
Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur.
Whatever is moved is moved by something else.
Nihil agit in seipsum.
Nothing acts upon itself.
In uno corpore non sunt plures animae.
In one body are not many souls.
Phantasia producit reales effectus.
An appearance makes real effects.
° M W. J. Gravesande, Vol. 2, page 15, Math. Elements of Natural
Philosophy.
282 London, 1718, 8vo.
Science. 195
Harvard, Yale, and all the other institutions that had
science labored Under the thralldom '61 ah unhappy ihmi-
en'ce. towards the latter end of the colonial period there
are signs that earnest teachers and thinkers were breaking
out of these mists that had clung around the schools for ages
but for the bulk of this study science was more metaphysi-
cal than mathematical. 28 *
Yet there was activity, there was observation. Very early
ih the life of Massachusetts a philosophical society had been
formed to meet fortnightly to advance the cause 'of natural
philosophy and to gather specimens of natural history.
Most remarkable of all, considering his attitude towards
comets, Increase Mather had been the organizer of this
body, and some of the collections they made were sent to
museums in Europe. There had also been gifts of mathe-
matical and scientific books, Benjamin Franklin having do-
nated some instruments to Harvard.
Physical Apparatus.
In all the branches of education dealing with man we
have bookSj lectures, reminiscences, but when it conws to
science we have these and one additional piece of testimony,
a very material one, the laboratory equipment. This does
not mean that we know what use was made of balances,
mirrors, and machine generally, but we know how service-
able all such helps are to-day and how accurately they gauge
the standard in our institutions.
Apparatus at Harvard.
At the oldest institution in America we also find the long-
est lists of apparatus for the study of science in the earlier
times. The Harvard Archives do not go back with any ful-
ness farther than 1731 though of course we know that there
B8 F. Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics, page 29.
196 Our Colonial Curriculum.
were physical aids used in scientific teaching before that
time. But the following rather numerous items will serve
as a basis for deductions as to scientific work there, due
to the generosity of Hollis who founded the chair of mathe-
matics and science: 284
A catalogue of the mathematical and philosophical instru-
ments, belonging to the apparatus, given to Harvard Col-
lege by Mr. Thomas Hollis of London, merchant, with
price sterling.
Mechanicks.
1. A strong ballance and stool for measuring the
the force of falling bodies, . £2- 5
2. The double cone and brass rules, o- i£
3. A sett of bodies for experiments of the falling
and rolling of bodies ; also a small ballance
for experiment of the center of gravity,
with a support for Ballance, 1-5
4. A Ballance with its weights, false scales and
pedastal, 5-5
5. An instrument for estimating oblique powers
in the axis in Peritrochio, 1-
6 Apparatus for explaining the three kinds of
Levers, with a sett of compound levers, . . 1-2
7. Apparatus for explaining the pulleys, 3-10
8. Apparatus for the wedge 5-10
9. A compound Engine, 5-5
10. Apparatus for experiments of centrifugal
force, together with apparatus for experi-
ments of light and electricity with solid
glass cylinders, 8-
^34-15
4 College Book, No. 6, Hollis, pages 20-22.
Science 197
Optics.
1. A large concave "] £02-10-0
2. A small convex Lmirrors, 00-12-6
3. A concave cylindrical .J 01-10-0
5. An instrument for showing that the lines of
the angles of Incidence and refraction
bear a constant proportion to each other, 1-10-0
5. Apparatus for experiments of light and col-
ors, 3- l 5-°
6. A portable camera obscura, 1-05-0
7. A cylinder and picture, 2-10-0
8. A small telescope with a concave eye-glass, 0-01-6
9. A single concave, a double concave, and a
miniscus glass, also multiplying glass, . . 0-10-0
£14-14-6
Hydrostaticks.
1. A large stool Ballance with a counterpoise
to one scale, a pillar for supporting it a
large glass jarr, a Ballance for weighing
levity, with all the particulars expressed
in Hyd. Plate 1, £8- 0-0
2. A sett of Troy weights 64 oz., with Penny
weights and Grains, 00-1 1-0
A box with lock and Hinges for the scales, 00-07-6
3. Apparatus for the grand Hydrostatical ex-
periment, 02-02-0
4. Three legg'd syphon, with two syphons, . . . 00-12-0
5. A glass with hydrostatical Images, 01-01-0
6. An hydrostatical Ballance, 01-05-0
7. A model of a sucking pump in glass, 00-15-0
Hydrostatics PI. 2, Fig. 2, 00-03-0
8. An areometer, 00-01-0
£14-17-6
X<$ Our Colonial Curriculum.
Pneumpticks.
i. Two setts of Tubes for Torricellian experi-
ments, £01-05-0
2. A frame for supporting them, 00-07-6
3. Apparatus for Mons. Auzout's experiment, 01-05-0
4. A large double air pump with its apparatus, 26-05-0
5. A Tube in a screw for experiment against
suction, 00-02-6
6. Apparatus for the lifting of weights by the
spring of air, contained in a bladder, . . 01-10-0
7. A bottle for weighing the air, with a bent
pipe for exhausting the bottle, 00- 17-6
3. Capillary Tubes and Glass plains for the
ascent of fluids, 00-05-0
9. A pair of brass plains, 01-01-0
10. Apparatus for the Hemispheres, 04-10-0
11. A syringe for the compression of the air, . . 01-10-0
12. A portable Barometer;, 01-05-0
13. A Thermometer, 00-15-0
14. Six vials in caps, 00-09-0
15. 48 ditto without caps, 00-08-0
16. A small bowl fountain, 00-01-0
17. A Diving Bell, 00-02-0
£41-18-6
Miscellanies.
1. 12 Lbs. of Quicksilver, £93-06-0
2. 12 Glass Tubes of different Bores 00-12-0
3. A Loadstone, , 02-1,2-0
4. Solid Phosphpnes, 00-05-0
5. 12 Doz. of G.ranade Drops, 00-03-0
6. 6 Doz. of the Lacryme vitrol, 00-02-0
7. Cement and Ladles, 00-04-6
8. An hand vice, 00-03-6
Science. 199
9. Two spare double screws, 00-02-0
10. A duplicate of the Gunpowder Glass un-
fixed, 00-04-0
11. Tube for Rec. Pneu, p. 2, fig. 2, 00-01-6
£7-15-6
Cambridge, September 6, 1731.
The particulars of the foregoing Catlogue, the generous
benefaction of Mr. Hollis to Harvard College, I acknowl-
edge to be now in my sole custody at Mr. Hollis's chambers
for the use of such as are his students and Subscribers to
the Hollisian Lectures. Isaac Greenwood.
Inventory Seven Years Later.
As the foundation for laboratory teaching of science in
America it is a just tribute to the memory of Thomas Hollis
to give the above in full although college records in 1738
repeat that, with the important addition of the apparatus
already at Harvard before the goodness of Hollis had sent
a large collection across the Atlantic. The following one
is therefore of interest as showing the reliance Professor
Greenwood placed upon Hawkins: 285
A catalogue of the Mathematical and Mechanical instru-
ments belonging to the apparatus both such as were given
to Harvard College by Mr. Thomas Hollis of London,
Merchant, and' such or before belonged' to the college,
•which catlogue was taken April 19, 1738. Vid pag. 20.
The numbers here mentioned refer to those on page 20.
The plates and figures mentioned are those in Hawkins's
Mechanics, Optics, Hydrostatics, etc.
1. A strong Ballance with a stool, square leaden weights
m College Book, No. 6, Hollis, pages 35-38.
200 Our Colonial Curriculum.
and perforated brass ball for measuring the force of
falling bodies. As. Plate i. Fig. 2. Mechan.
2. A double cone and brass rules. PI. 1. Fig. 5.
3. A set of bodies for experiments of falling and rolling
of bodies, consisting of three short Prisms of Brass,
1, Octang., 2, Hexang., 3, Quinqang., and a brass
Rhombus. Plat. 1. Fig. 3 and 4. The triangular fig.
3 wanting. Also a smaller ball a with one brass sup-
porter for the Ballance. Also four brass balls upon
an iron wire.
4. A Ballance with its false scales and weights, viz: bul-
lets hung with brasses and pedestal also a false beam
with scales. Plat. 1. Fig. 6, 7, 8, and PL 2. Fig. 1.
5. An instrument for estimating oblique powers with axis
in Peritrochio, to be fixed into the Pedestal. PI. 1.
Fig. 6.
6. Apparatus for explaining the three kinds of Levers con-
sisting of one 18 inch brass rule, a small brass pul-
ley, and four brass Balls. Plat. 2, fig. 5, 6, 7 and 9.
7. Apparatus for explaining the Pulleys, consisting of a
pulley. PI. 3, fig. 1. Also two treble pulleys, each
one on a different axis, PI. 3, fig. 6, and two treble
pulleys move three upon one axis. PI. 3, fig. 7.
8. Apparatus for the Wedge, being the Fig. 5 in PL 4.
9. A compound Engine with all the parts described. PL
5- Fig. 1.
10. Apparatus of experiments of centrifugal force, together
with the apparatus for experiments of Light and elec-
tricity with a solid glass cylinder, all represented.
Plat. 5. Fig. 6. Also Pneumat. PL 6, in all the
figures of it.
1. A large concave.
2. A small convex.
Optics.
Science. 201
3. A concave cylindrical.
Mirrors.
4. An instrument for showing that the lines of the angles
of incidence and refraction bear a constant propor-
to each other. Plate 2. Fig. 2.
5. Apparatus for the Experiment of light and coleur, con-
sisting of one large double convex lens, of 7 or 8
inches diameter and about 2 foot focus, with its
handle loose. Another ditto of about 8 feet focus.
Two triangular glass prisms, one oblong brass plate
with a circular one fastened to it, moving on a
centre. Two square boards to receive images upon.
A pedestal with a crotch of wood fastened on the
top of a strong wire or rod, on which to hang the
glass prisms. Two other pedestals which also are
common to some other experiments.
6. A portable camera obscura very much broken.
7. A cylinder and picture as represented. PI. 1. Fig. 8.
8. A small telescope or rather perspective with a concave
eye-glass. The eye-glass loose.
9. A double concave. A miniscus and a multiplying glass
and a blue pair of spectacles. Mem y e simple con-
cave wanting.
Hydrostatics.
1. A large Steele Ball 1 with a counterpoise to one scale
and Pillar for supporting it, with a large glass jarr
with a glass vessel with a lock. Also a Ballance for
weighing levity, as it is represented in fig. 1, PI. 1.
Also all the particulars expressed in sd plate.
2. A set of Troy weights 64 oz. with penny wts. and
grains. Also a box with lock and hinges for the
scales.
3. Apparatus for the grand hydrostatical experiment con-
sisting of one flat seat (?) with a strong wire in it
202 Our Colonial Curriculum.
and severall jarrs and glasses hereafter mention'd
and number'd.
4. A three-legg'd Syphon with two others.
5 f A glass with hydrostatical images, the images much
broken. Plat. 2. Fig. 14.
6. An hydrostatical Ballance. PI. 3. Fig. 5.
7. A model of the sucking pump in Glass. PI. 3. Fig. 2.
The instrument described. PI. 2. Fig. 2.
8. An Areometer.
9. Four hydrostatic jars referred to in No. 3 above and
one thick low jarr or Glass bason*
Pneumatics.
1. Two setts of Tubes for Torricellian and other experi-
ments, viz: thirty-one in number and most of them
whole.
2. The frame for supporting them unknown.
3. Apparatus for Monsieur Auzout's experiment. PL 1.
Fig. 6.
4. A large double Air Pump with its apparatus as de-
scribed. PI. 2. Fig. 1. (?)
5. A tube in a brass screw for experiment against suction.
Plat. 2. Fig. 4.
6. Apparatus for the lifting of weights by the spring of the
air contained in a bladder, consisting of low wooden
cylinder with a bottom and one round flat leaden
weight with a strong perpendicular wire in the
centre, and several other weights, the glass being
broken. This is represented. PL 5. Fig. 7.
7. A bottle for weighing the air with a bent pipe for ex-
hausting the bottle.
8. Capillary Tubes and glass plains, for the ascent of
Fluids.
9. A pair of brass plains, PL 5. Fig. 6.
Science. 203
10. Apparatus for the hemispheres. PI. 5. Fig. 1.
11. A syringe for the compression of the air. PI. 1. Fig. II.
12. A portable barometer.
13. A Thermometer.
14. Six vials in caps. Some of these broken in experi-
ments.
16. A small bowl fountain. This received broken.
17. A diving bell k
Miscellaneous.
1. Twelve pounds of mercury.
2. Twelve glass Tubes of different bores taken notice of
in No. 1, Pneumatics.
3. One loadstone cap'd with silver.
4. A solid phosphorus — all consumed in experiments sev-
eral years ago.
5. Twelve dozen of Granade Drops, all broken, 9 dozen
of which broken in bringing to us.
6. Six doz. of Lachrymee Vitrol; few bro't whole.
7. Cement and Ladles.
8. An hand-vice.
9. Unknown, wha,t they are.
10. A duplicate gunpowder-glass, unfix'd, one broken. PI.
2. Fig. 3.
11. Tube for a pneumatic receiver. PI; 2. Fig. 2.
12. A newly contriv'd steelyard all as described. Pneum.
PL 5, Fig. 3, 4 ajid 5.
13. A Transferron being one of those plates described..
Plate 4, pneumat, fig. 3.
These three things were sent by Mr. Hollis, Mercht. in
London, nephew to our worthy benefactor. At another
time, Vid^.p. 29,:
1. An orrery wi$h its case.
2. An Auxiliary sphere with its casq.
3. A large microscope, Wilson's.
204 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Such as here follow were put into the
i. Apparatus from the library.
2. The 24 feet Telescope.
3. The 8 feet Telescope.
4. A box of microscopes, eight glasses.
5. Surveying instruments, viz : a semicircle, a triangle and
a chain.
6. An astronomical quadrant of more than two feet radius.
Cambr., April 19, 1738.
The particulars of the foregoing catalogue, most of which
were sent us by our generous benefactor, Mr. Thomas
Hollis, the rest put into the apparatus chamber from
the College Library. I acknowledge I have this day received
from the Rev d the corporation of Harvard College, to
be us'd in experiments, Mechanical, Mathematical and Phil-
osophical, for the service of the scholars of the said college,
for every of which instruments aforementioned I acknowl-
edge myself accountable to them the said corporation and
hereby declare myself obliged to restore them upon their
demand. Isaac Greenwood.
The Attitude oe Thomas Houjs.
There is in the same manuscript repository a letter from
this first prominent promoter of scientific study in America,
enumerating some instruments that he had sent and also
stating his purpose in making this endowment — "The ad-
vancement of natural and revealed religion." This extract
deserves the space here below for the light it throws upon
the philanthropy of Hollis and upon the scientific notions of
the day. 286
Extract out of a letter of Mr. Thomas Hollis, of London,
to Col. Hutchinson, Treasurer of Harvard College.
Dated July 20, 1732, viz:
"'College Book, No. 6, Hollis, page 29.
Science. 205
"Inclosed I send you a bill of Lading for two cases. No.
T. H. 1. 2. shipt in the Union. John Homans; the one
contains a sphere, the other a new invented Engine or ma-
cheen called an orrery, showing the daily and annual mo-
tion of the sun, earth and moon. I have also delivered the
Captain a small shagreen case with a double microscope and
its utensils, which upon receipt I desire you to present, with
my humble service to the corporation for the use of the col-
lege. I hope Mr. Professor Greenwood will make good use
of each, for the promoting useful knowledge and to the ad-
vancement of natural and revealed Religion."
Apparatus in 1764.
It was nearly a third of a century after Hollis penned
these sentiments that we have another itemized description
of the apparatus at Harvard in the enumeration of the loss
suffered in the great fire then. As this has all been pub-
lished in full, 288 it hardly seems necessary to repeat it here
further than the following general sample :
Long list of apparatus burnt 1764, two globes ; apparatus
for mechanics, as levers," "balances," "compound engines,"
etc.
In hydrostatics, jars, glass models of pumps, for "hydro-
static paradox," etc.
In pneumatics, for "Torricellian experiment," syringes,
barometers, thermometers, etc.
In optics, mirrors, lenses, prisms, camera obscura, etc.
Also orrery, microscopes, telescopes 24 feet long, quadrant
of two feet radius, surveying instruments, "a curious tele-
scope * * * for * * * difference of level."
Compass and dipping needle, instruments for "magnetical
and electrical experiments."
J87 J. Quincy, Hist. Har., Vol. 2, page 482.
2o6 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Apparatus iNt 1779.
Some fifteen years later the ravages of this destruction
and conflagration had been largely repaired if we are to
judge from the inventory below. 289
An Inventory of the apparatus of Harvard College as found
therein by the Committee appointed 11 May 1779 for
carrying on Mathematical and Philosophical Instruction
at the lime they took possession of the Key by order of
the Corporation. May 20'th, i 1 / 79.
Class 1. Altitude 1.
1. A cylindrical weight to be used with the inclined
plane.
2. A loaded mahogany cylinder for D°.
3. An inclined Plane.
4. A wooden Spheroid.
5. A Tin do.
6. Two wax do.
7. Two leaden balls for pendulums.
8. A brass stand for a Pully.
9. An iron circle.
10. A Brass do.
1 1. A machine containing the various combinations of
pullies with their weights.
12. A pine box, containing one Cork, two boxwood, three
ivory, and three brass balls, fifteen brass cylindric
weights and two wooden cylinders.
13. A mahogany box containing a small glass jar, and a
brass stand, together with a circular brass plate in
a shagreen case for hydrostatic experiments.
14. A fountain for compressed air, with spouts, syringes
and other appendages.
15. Hydrostatic bellows.
288 College Book No. 6, Hollis, last part.
Stienct. 267
1 6. A graduated semicircle for the hydraulic machine.
17. Four small square copper plates.
18. Six square and three round small steel bars.
19. Four coils of iron, and five D° of brass wire, with
six remnants of brass.
20. Five small oblong brass plates.
21. A loaded pine cylinder.
22. Two catgut wheelbands.
23. A brass chain for surveying.
Alt. II.
1. A glass model of a sucking pump.
2. A glass model of a diving bell.
3. A glass tube mounted for a water-level.
4. Fourteen glass jars of different magnitudes for hydro-
static experiments.
5. A glass bubble for specific gravities.
6. Tantalus' cup.
7. Two brass ballances.
8. A waxen cylinder.
9. A small tin cup.
10. A glass syphon for the Hydrostatic Paradox.
11. Six glass syphons of different shapes and lengths.
12. Four glass tubes with brass screws at their ends.
13. Five glass d° without screws.
14. A chip box containing six glass bubbles.
15. D° containing six glass images for the magical ex-
periment.
16. D° containing five glass bubbles,.
17. A nest of brass weights.
18. A wooden axis in peritrochio.
19. A small stone jugg containing quicksilver.
Alt. III.
1. A brass steelyard.
2. A rolling cone and stand.
208 Our Colonial Curriculum.
3. A bent lever.
4. A brass tip to a stand.
5. A Carman's lever.
6. A small brass stand to determine the centre of
gravity.
7. A combination of brass levers.
8. A machine for illustrating the wedge.
9. A brass ballance-beam with three scales.
10. A brass 18 in. Ruler.
11. A brass axis in peritrochio.
12. A single wooden wedge with its apparatus.
13. A brass screw.
14. A combination of the screw and Pulley (brass).
15. Two rectangular brass plates for the whirling table.
16. A small mahogany inclined plane.
17. A combination of all the mechanic powers (brass)
fitted to an inclin'd plane.
18. A copper scale.
Class 2. Alt. I.
1. Leathers for the air pump.
2. Small quantity of wrapping paper.
3. An iron cup.
4. A leaden weight with a brass stand for determining
specific gravities.
5. A large glass jarr.
6. A copper flask for determining the weight of air.
7. A model of an Engine for extinguishing Fires, the
outer tube broken.
8. Three receivers for the air pump.
9. A machine for shewing the expansion of air.
10. A machine for shewing the respective ratios of refrac-
tion and reflexion.
Alt. II.
1. Four circular pieces of tin.
2. A chip box, containing 27 leaden, and 2 brass oz.
weights for the mechanic powers.
Science. 209
3. D° containing 5J oz. & 4% oz. leaden weights for do.
4. A brass stand to hold 2 exhausted receivers.
5. Two brass hemispheres to shew the pressure of air.
6. A glass cup for a barometer.
7. Eight receivers for the air-pump, of different sizes.
8. A Gauge for the air pump.
9. Ten glass-Tubes of different sizes, three of them
cap'd with brass.
10. Two electric brass conductors.
Alt. III.
1. Four brass screws for the fountain.
2. A jelly glass.
3. Thirteen glass receivers of different sizes, one of
them fitted with a bell, & two others adapted to
shew the pressure of air.
4. Two lung glasses.
5. A leaden weight with a brass syringe for shewing the
elasticity of Air.
6. A small ballance with a cork & a brass guinea.
7. A copper swan neck for a dust air.
8. A glass with a leaden weight for specific gravities.
Class III. Alt. I.
1. A Camera obscura.
2. A terrestrial globe of 28 inches diameter.
3. A portable electric machine.
4. An electric battery consisting of 15 Jarrs.
5. A Box conaining two glass plates.
6. Two small rolls of Tin-foil.
7. A box containing one drill plate, 3 hammers, a drill
vice, 1 Saw, 2 drills, 1 1 small files, 1 Vice, 1 Screw
plate, 1 whetstone, a file handle, a screw-driver, a
pair of shears, and 2 awls.
14
210 Our Colonial Curriculum.
8. A Box containing 36 prints for the diagonal glass, 6
anamorphoses, a semi-cylindric mirror to be used
with the anamorphoses, and 2 squares of window
glass.
9. A box containing 12 coated jarrs of different sizes
for an electric battery.
10. A box containing 5 towels.
11. An empty box.
12. A drill bow.
13. A piece of sheat lead.
Class 2. In a Drawer.
1. Two pair of dividers.
2. A skain of silken cord.
3. A brass sector in a shagreen case.
4. A diagonal scale in a shagreen case.
5. Four wooden Pins with strings for pendulums.
6. A large silken cord.
7. A small quantity of red and green silken cord.
8. Two small pieces of green silken cord of different
fineness, and 3 small pieces of silk ferret
9. Two small plane glass mirrors.
10. Two wooden hemispheres.
11. A multiplying glass.
12. One small convex, and one small concave lens.
13. Eighteen painted glasses for the magic-lanthom, 2 of
them broken.
14. Twelve painted sliders for the magic lanthorn.
Class 3. Alt. II.
1. Two brass plates and a ring to shew the pressure of
air.
2. Fifteen capillary tubes.
3. A large roll of sealing-wax for electrical experiments,
broken.
4. Three small glass tubes.
Science 211
5. Eight larger D°.
6. A mahogany box containing.
1. A chip box containing a number of lenses of
different magnifying powers.
2. A chip box containing 2 prisms, 3 brass screws,
& 2 lenses.
3. Five prisms of different sizes, fitted with brass
caps.
4. A double prism with brass caps.
5. A brass plate for optical experiments.
6. A small glass mirror set in brass.
7. Two small speculums set in brass.
7. A stand for supporting Prisms.
8. One electric globe mounted.
9. One pyrometer.
10. Two magic Lanthorns with one slider.
11. Two artificial eyes.
12. One lens set in wood.
13. A shagreen box containing a solar microscope, except
such parts as are fixed to a window shutter, and a
scale of magnifying powers, which is missing.
14. A shagreen case containing a standing microscope.
15. A five feet perspective glass.
16. A mahogany case containing a pair of artificial mag-
nets.
17. A mahogany case containing a variation compass.
18. A mahogany case containing a dipping needle.
19. Several wooden wedges and cylinders.
20. A Pine box containing 1 iron screw, 1 brass pin, two
small brass bars for an electric conductor, 1 pair of
caliber compasses, four brass screw-kegs, & 7. brass
pullies.
21. A pine box containing several models of prisms of
various shapes.
22. A pine box containing 2 pair of pliers, 1 pair of nip-
212 Our Colonial Curriculum.
pers, 2 hand vices, i pair of scissors, 6 screw driv-
ers, I small steel anvil, 2 awls, i knife, 4 gimblets,
& a key for the air pump,
23. One chip box containing shot, cork-balls, and a num-
ber of small brass screws.
24. One pine box containing wood screws.
25. Five small chip boxes containing lead and shot.
26. One brass arm of the Transit instrument from the old
apparatus.
27. One natural magnet cased in silver.
28. A brass circle with five glass tubes, fitted for the
whirling table.
Class 3. Alt. III.
1. One large convex lens.
2. Two smaller d°.
3. One stand for prisms.
4. Two triangular water-prisms.
5. One square d°.
6. One electric globe mounted.
7. One microscopic stand.
8. Two draw tubes for the large refracting telescope.
9. A box containing a lens for a camera obscura.
10. A box containing a solar microscope.
11. A small perspective glass.
12. Six glass jarrs, one of them partly coated on the out-
side; two coated and filled with iron and brass
filings; one with brass filings, not coated; two
neither coated nor filled.
13. A magnetic compass, the remainder of an old Theodo-
lite.
14. A case containing an azimuth compass.
15. A d° d° a mariner's compass.
16. Five painted tin utensils for hydrostatic experiments.
Science. 213
17. Twenty-one small spermaceti candles for the pyro-
meter.
18. Two pieces of wood coated with Tin-foil for electri-
cal experiments.
19. Six vials containing oils of various kinds.
20. One empty vial.
21. One water-prism set in brass, mounted upon a stand.
Classes I, II, III. Alt. IV.
1. Two large paper screens for the solar microscope.
2. One apparatus for illustrating the motion of the
planets.
3. Three spare globes for the portable electric machine,
two of them cap'd with brass.
4. A glass jarr and two bubbles for specific gravities.
5. A glass tube, with a cup at each end.
6. Three spare glass barrels for the fire-engine.
7. Four syphons of different shapes.
8. A Lungo glass.
9. Three receivers with open tops.
10. Three glass tubes.
11. One broken glass mug.
12. Thirty five glass vials for shewing the pressure and
elasticity of the air.
13. A compound barometer void of quicksilver and the
case unglued in part.
14. A thermometrical Tube for the compound barometer.
15. A wooden apparatus for shewing the effect of refrac-
tion.
16. A box containing two thermometrical tubes, one baro-
metrical tube broken in transportation, six baromet-
rical tubes intire, four capillary tubes, one capillary
tube broken, and four larger open tubes.
17. A wooden frame containing a compleat set of dials.
18. Eight handles for screw drivers.
19. A bundle of wood-screws.
214 Our Colonial Curriculum.
20. Fourteen handles for screw drivers.
21. A bundle of drills and engraving irons.
22. Eight files.
23. Two yellow bowls.
24. Five leather covers for the air pump.
25. Four brass plates which belonged to the old apparatus.
26. A brass shade for a quadrant.
27. A circular black board.
28. A pine stand for a prism.
29. Two spare globes unmounted for the electric ma-
chines.
30. One tube for electrical purposes.
31. A paper cone.
32. A brass slider.
33. Two mahogany cars for illustrating the laws of mo-
tion.
34. One chest lock without a key.
35. Three large and four small wooden pullies.
36. An Aeolipile.
37. A small wooden trough.
38. A wooden endless screw.
39. A tin electric conductor.
40. Five large electric Jarrs with wooden beds, one of the
jarrs coated and two of them broken.
41. Two tin candlesticks and one pair of snuffers.
42. A number of pamphlets, viz :
1. Principles of Pump work.
2. Elements of Opticks, Parts 4th,
5th, & 6th.
3. Institutions of astronomical cal-
culations.
By B. Martin.
4. Principles of Perspective.
5. Compendious way of finding the autumnal
Aequinox by common Arithm , anon:
Science. 215
6. Mountaine on the variation of the magnetic
needle.
7. Nairne's description of a single microscope, 2
Copies.
43. Three short open Tubes.
Class IV.
1. A Barometer.
2. An orrery with its stand.
2. A celestial globe of 28 inches diameter.
4. A small box containing appendages to the orrery, and
a semicircle for the hydraulic machine.
5. Six Iron screws, and 2 Screw-keys.
6. Four wooden legs for a stool.
7. One surveyor's Iron chain.
8. Eleven loose pieces of mahogany, 8 of them with
screws.
9. One small Pully, and one small empty pine Box.
10. One small iron Ladle.
11. A lump of cement.
12. An hydraulic machine.
13. An air-pump.
14. A brass stand for pendulums.
15. A window-shutter with part of a Solar microscope
screwed to it.
16. A square black-board.
17. A pine'ibox for the 18 Inch Telescope, which Tele-
scope was entrusted by Dr. Winthrop to Mr. Gan-
net & the librarian and is now in their possession.
18. A whirling table and its appendages.
19. Four boxes ; one of them containing a refracting tele-
scope, and the other three containing the several
parts of the Transit instrument.
20. A chip box, containing a number of screws, with a
small brass circle.
216 Our Colonial Curriculum.
21. A. cometarium.
22. Two mahogany boxes containing an Eciipsarium and
a Tellurium with a Terrestrial globe of 3 inches
in a shagreen case.
23. A Planetarium.
24. A small auxiliary sphere.
25. Two electric globes mounted.
26. A diagonal glass.
27. A brass screw key.
28. Two brass cocks.
29. A vial of oil.
30. A Towel and Pincushion.
31. A Thermometer.
32. A delph bowl.
33. A plane mirror, the frame unglued.
34. A concave mirror.
35. A convex d°.
36. A cylindric do concave.
37. Four maps.
38. A view of several Transits of Venus.
39. Martin's advertisement framed.
40. D° wonders of the cometary world.
41. D° view of the Solar system.
42. D° Synopsis Scientiae celestes.
43. Two tables.
44. A large chair broken.
45. A surveyor's chain of 50 links.
46. A Thermometrical scale.
47. A Theodolite.
48. A reflecting telescope with a micrometer.
49. A mahogany box containing Hadley's Quadrant.
There is also in the apparatus a Jewish lamp with
its appendages belonging to the college.
In the Philosophy chamber are the frames of two elec-
trical machines belonging to the apparatus. A mahogany
Science. 217
stand for the Transit Instrument, and a brass quadrant of
four feet Radius.
At the House of, Mrs. Winthrop.
1. A clock.
2. A standing quadrant of 2 feet Radius.
3. An acromatic Telescope — the frame damaged.
4. A large reflecting telescope.
5. A mahogany case containing a brass 3 feet ruler
6. A reading glass set in silver in a tortoise shell case.
7. An Oaken box containing an hydrostatic Ballance.
8. Farenheit's Thermometer.
9. Two boxes for the clock and the acromatic telescope.
10. Two oaken boxes containing a spirit level and its
stand.
11. The eye piece of a refracting telescope.
Caleb Gannett,
James Winthrop,
Copy examined by Saml. Langdon, Pres dt .
Apparatus in 1790.
As a contrast to the extended items above it is worth
while to show how the institution had come through that
terrible struggle for our independence although the period
extends beyond the general limits for this study.
An Inventory of the apparatus of Harvard University taken
January, I'jgo.
Class I.
Under the first shelf — some crown paper.
Alt. I.
1. A cylindrical brass weight, to be used with the inclined
plane.
2. A loaded mahogany cylinder for d°.
VComtee.
218 Our Colonial Curriculum.
3. A tin spheroid.
4. A wooden d°.
5. A brass stand with a pulley.
6. A loaded pine cylinder.
7. A large cylindric brass weight.
8. A machine containing the various combinations of
pullies with their weights.
9. A pine box containing one cork, two box wood, three
ivory, two leaden, and four brass balls, and fifteen
cylindric weights.
10. An oaken box containing a hydrostatic balance.
11. A fountain for compressed air, with its appendages.
12. Hydrostatic bellows.
13. An iron and a brass circle.
14. An inclined plane.
15. A graduated semicircle for the hydraulic machine.
Alt. II.
1. A brass top to a stand.
2. Two chip boxes, one containing five, and the other six
glass bubbles.
3. Two d° one containing six, and the other three glass
images.
4. A small tin cup.
5. A piece of cork loaded with lead and two wooden cyl-
inders.
6. A waxen cylinder, two waxen bodies in form of an egg
and two small waxen balls.
7. A glass loaded with lead.
8. A small stone jug, containing quicksilver.
9. Three beakers.
10. A glass syphon for the hydrostatic paradox.
11. A mahogany box containing a small glass jar, a small
pair of brass pliers, a circular brass plate, in a sha-
green case and a hydrometer.
Science 219
12. Two glass jars and three glass bubbles for specific
gravities.
13. A wooden axis in peritrochio.
14. Two glass models of a diving bell.
15. Tantalus's cup.
16. The top of a machine for impregnating water with
fixed air.
17. A glass fitted to take off the upward pressure of fluids.
18. Seven glass jars of different sizes.
19. A glass fitted to take off the downward pressure of
fluids.
20. A mahogany case containing a brass three feet ruler.
21. A glass model of a sucking pump.
22. A glass machine to exhibit a natural fountain.
23. Eight glass tubes and four others with brass screws at
their ends.
24. Six glass syphons.
Alt. III.
1. Three brass scales and one copper d°.
2. Two brass balances.
3. A machine for illustrating the wedge.
4. A brass axis in peritrochio.
5. A bent brass lever.
6. A carman's lever.
7. A compound brass lever.
8. An eighteen inch brass ruler.
9. A nest of brass weights.
10. A brass balance beam.
11. A brass screw.
12. A small brass stand to determine the centre of gravity.
13. A small mahogany inclined plane.
14. A single wooden wedge with its apparatus.
15. A double cone and stand.
16. A combination of the screw and pulley in brass.
220 Our Colonial Curriculum.
17. Two rectangular brass plates for the whirling table.
18. An iron wire and two small brass balls.
19. Two clip boxes, one containing eight half-ounce and
four quarter-ounce, and the other twenty-seven one
ounce leaden balls.
20. A combination of all the mechanic powers in brass, fitted
to an inclined plane.
21. A brass steelyard.
Class II.
Under the first shelf.
1. Seven brass remnants, one coil and almost another of
iron wire, together with some remnants of iron and
brass wire.
2. Three large broken catgut wheelbands and a few pieces
of catgut and hempen cord.
Alt. I.
1. A large glass jar and leaden weight with a brass stand
for determining specific gravities.
2. Two parts of a receiver.
3. A machine for shewing the respective ratios of refrac-
tion and reflection.
4. A model of an engine for extinguishing fire.
5. A copper flask for determining the weight of air.
6. A receiver.
7. A machine for shewing the expansion of air.
Class II. Altitude I.
Drawer.
1. Thirteen painted slides for the magic lantern.
2. Eighteen painted glasses for the magic lantern — two of
them broken.
3. About five yards of green Persian silk.
4. Two small plane glass mirrors.
Science. 221
5. A reading glass set in silver in a tortoise shell case.
6. A small convex and a small concave lens, each in a
horn case.
7. A multiplying glass.
8. A spirit level belonging to the astronomical quadrant.
9. A small vial with papers fastened to it.
10. A brass sector in a shagreen case.
11. A brass diagonal scale in a shagreen case.
12. Two pair of brass compasses.
13. Two wooden hemispheres.
14. Four wooden pins with strings for pendulums.
15. Two wooden models of towers covered with paper.
Care of the Apparatus.
It is not an unknown thing for a college to have a rather
respectable variety of apparatus without making any use of
it practically but there is evidence in the Harvard Archives
thac something was done with these implements of science.
Either they were handled very carelessly or they were of
real service. The following bill of expenses for repairs is
enough demonstration. There may be others like it but
this is a fair sample, during the incumbency of John Win-
throp who did so much to advance the work of science : 289
Expenses for the apparatus from April, 1740, to April, 1741,
alloiifd the corporation June 15, 1741, being signed by
the mathematical professor.
1740.
April 9. To cash p d for 4 turned balls for va-
rious experiments with hooks to be
screwed in, viz, 1 Ivery, 1 Boxwood & £ s. d.
of lead 3. 5.
July 31. To 2 Sheepskins, o. 6. o
*" College Book, No. 6, Hollis, page 47.
222 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Sept. 13. To 4 hoops for electrical experiments,., o. 4. o
Novr. 4. To mending the portable camera ob-
scura, o. 5. o
1741.
April 3. To turning a loaded cylinder & 3 balls
of light wood, o. 8. o
To 2 lbs. lead for the loaded cylinder &
a plummet for the astronomical
qadrant, o. 2. 4
April 18. To a set of grain weights, o. 1 . 6
April 27. To a plain mirreur for optical experi-
ments, o. 12. o
The acco. of Jno. Dabney, mathematical instru-
ment maker, for work done at Sundry times.
June 21. To fixing the astronomical quadrant by
making a skrew, putting in cross
hairs & turning a (cell) to hold a
smoak'd glass and cleaning it through-
out, 1. 8. o
May 24. To fixing cross-hairs in a cell in the 8
foot telescope, — . 1 . 6. o
May 30. To making a spring for the strong Ball-
ance for measuring the force of fall-
ing bodies, o. 8. o
Sep. 25. To mending the ballance for weighing
levity, o. 13. o
1741.
Febr. 24. To brass wire for plum lines, o. 3. o
March 13. To fixing a screw on the handle of a
large optic lens, o. 5. o
£g. 6.10
(Signed) John Winthrop.
Science. 223
At Yale and Elsewhere.
If the data were as abundant for the other institutions
as for Harvard we might be able to repeat these lists to a
considerable extent but it is unnecessary even if possible.
There could have been no great difference in the progres-
sive institutions of the day. A very brief glance is afforded
of the facilities at Yale by President Stiles some two or
three years beyond the end of our colonial period, but it is
enough for us to see that Yale was moving along the same
road with her sister a few miles northward. 290 Here in a
blunt sort of way we have the following list:
President Clap's planetarium about 7 ft. diameter.
Mr. planetarium, exhibiting astronomical movements
by mechanism.
Mr. Austin d° in wires about 3^ diameter.
Mr. William's cometarium; Mr. Austin's Lunarium, air
pump, hydrost. balance, barometer, sextant, prism,
specula sphero-concave & plano-concave microscope;
telescope a reflector; theodolite.
Mr. Clap's comet of 1774.
Hadley's quadrant, 2 pair globes.
Brass d° astronomical.
Small electrical apparatus.
Compleat sett of surveying instruments.
Paintings of the human body skined Anatomical.
Human skeleton.
A portable sextant about 5 ft. radius.
According to an experienced, capable teacher of
physics, 2903 these lists indicate a good equipment in elemen-
tary optics and hydrostatics, but a poor outfit for mechanics.
Naturally the applainces for sound and electricity are very
meager, as but little development had been made in those
branches.
290 E. Stiles, Diary, June 23, 1779, Vol. 3, page 348.
"»W. A. Hedrick, Ph. D., Washington, D. C.
224 Our Colonial Curriculum.
The whole of the science came from tiny rootlets far
down in the mold of ignorance and superstition. A strug-
gle it was with generally accepted religion and with
strongly intrenched conservatism for this little plant to
push its way up on a level with the humanistic branches.
Latin had been in the saddle for centuries practically, alone,
beating off every aspirant who wished to share that honor.
Greek never climbed up alongside of her, logic, ethics, and
philosophy even were only adjuncts. Mathematics had but
little more success. Finally the last champion from the
outside comes forward in the guise of science. At first he
had to wear the Latin garb and to follow the old beaten
track of question and answer, of dogmatic statement, of
directions without reasons, of dead memorizing of the
words of the printed page or from the master's lips. Slowly
inventiveness came to the aid with apparatus, and eventually
with laboratories but not until far into the nineteenth cen-
tury. There is no evidence whatever that any of this appar-
atus was used by the students. Very likely the class only
viewed portions of it as the teacher performed experiments
in front to illustrate some point
Of the scientific attitude as it is cultivated to-day, of cold,
dispassionate study of nature without the lingering flavor
of authority or of religion, our colonial ancestors knew
nothing. Of the great range of subjects now in profusion
in one-half of our colleges the colonial youth had no con-
ception. Substantially, he had no geology, no zoology, no
chemistry, and but little botany. Physics alone was prepared
for him with anything like the fullness of to-day. For a
long time it was an off-shoot of mathematics from which it
originally sprang. But in the dim light of the dawn the
soil was being stirred and the seed being dropped from
which we have reaped so abundantly. To that extent are
we indebted to our colonial ancestors for preparing the
way.
CHAPTER VIII.
Disputation.
"They dispute before dinner; they dispute after dinner;
they dispute in private and in public, at all times and at
every place;" thus runs the description of one of the lead-
ing educational functions of the middle ages, left us by one
of the stars of the period, Giovanni Ludovico Vives who
died in 1540, a little under fifty years of age. A Spaniard,
educated in France, teaching in the Netherlands, lecturing
in England, writing profusely on educational topics, he
was in the very center of the vortex, with every oppor-
tunity of observing all phases of the whirling stream about
him.
The exercise did become absurd but its origin was natural,
even necessary. It degenerated into the spinning of cob-
webs in a circle, there was incessant movement but no ad-
vance, a species of marking time, treading ostentatiously
but getting nowhere. 291 But the intellectual conditions, the
very structure of social life itself forced this product into
being. Authority reigned, in conduct, in morals, in relig-
ion, and in intellect. The Bible, the church fathers, the
classical authors, the formal deliverance of ecclesiastics,
were the metes and bounds for mankind, and Latin was
the medium of utterance. In these pages were rules for the
guidance of our daily steps, in them were the finger posts
to the shores of eternity, in them was truth on all the re-
lations of life whether of the head or of the heart. To
weigh, to analyze, to criticise, to melt in the crucible of
logic, to dissect, to arrange, to combine the ideas con-
tained in these sources, that was the refined essence of edu-
B1 Eggleston, Transit, page 249.
15
226 Our Colonial Curriculum.
cation. Discussion became a passion, dialectics became a
creed, disputation was almost an act of worship, textual
study was almost a supersition, the polemical faculties were
sharpened. Education gloated on the past, poring over
lands already trodden by thousands of feet instead of seek-
ing new roads in other fields. The dead hand shaded the
world.
Disputation a Patriarch.
There was the sanctity of conservatism and the blessing
of age upon the discipline. Socrates was not the father of
ifc but he was a very great promoter of it. His wonderful
pupil, Plato, assisted and preserved 1 the method: The title
istelf of the Tusculan Disputations of Cicero evinces his
aid' in the cultivation' of this process. It was a slow growth
for centuries, perhaps showing but little increase of
strength till Charlemagne's pedagogue, Alcuin, has left his
use of it in his educational dialogues. A century or so
afterwards, in the ten hundreds, at the University of
Rheims, greater stress was laid' upon it, elevating it into the
ranks of. the regular studies. 292
Some two centuries after came the fruition in the bril-
liant lecturer, Abelard; who had such a daring romance in
his career, especially for a closet student. He stood for
the sovereignty of dialectics. He perfected the system
which was the soul of scholastic philosophy and lasted foi
cycles of years. 21 * 3 From him onward : came the abundant
Amazonian foliage.
Teachers Argue.
Both teachers and pupils were entangled in this luxuriant
growth. It was the same problem for the two to squeeze
out the meaning from written words. But it must have
292 S. S. Laurie, page 62, Rise of Universities.
203 Compayre's Abelard, page 21.
Disputation. 227
been a shrewd educational captain of the day that required
the instructors to hold disputations among themselves in
the presence of- the students. Weekly in the University of
Paris, for a time, there were these joint meetings in which
one of the staff would defend a proposition while another
would; attack. What a stimulus to the master to be thus
tested before his class, what a squelcher to pedagogical con-
ceit and what a help to clearness of vision. 294 They were
fortified; buttressed and armored with thorny syllogisms,
more agile and more resourceful in contests with their
youthful pupils. Not seldom too, we can easly conceive,
that they went from words to blows or at least to undig-
nified quarrels in which the personal element would be far
more apparent than the logical. There is one little incident
that may be a key hole glance upon a room full of bitter
acrimony and loud jarring of voices. Newton's theory of
the vacuum supplied an opprobrious epithet that one dis-
putant applied to the inside of the other's head, that that
was the one vacant space in all nature. Vives is very
graphic, most likely including the teachers, when he says
"men shout out till they are hoarse; they make use of in-
suring speeches and threats, they even come to blows,
fights, and bufferings. Discussions degenerate into quar-
rels and quarrels into fighting." 296
The Enthusiasm of the Pupils.
But the zeal and energy of youth mounted the highest.
They were not only eager for this kind of verbal fighting
in the school room but they were ready for such fray all
the time, getting up "questions on the simplest propositions.
On the mere words scribi mihi they put questions of gram^
284 Compayre's Abelard, page 174.
295 Compayre's Abelard, page 189, quoting from Vives. Stow in
his Survey of London, Morley edition, speaks of the decline of the
custom of the masters disputing with each other.
228 Our Colonial Curriculum.
mar, physics, and metaphysics. They had no concern for
truth, but sought merely to defend their own opinions." 299
But there is a dash of stronger color in England, than
to be seen in this general picture of European conditions
by Vives, furnished by an observer of London life just
about a decade of years before our fathers set foot on Vir-
ginia soil in 1607. Of the contentious, high-keyed, shrill
voiced mob of boys pushing and crowding, stamping and
gesticulating, scratching and striking, on some green sward
in this mightiest city of the earth, we have realistic scenes
from the pen of this quaint author who wrote as follows:
"As for the meeting of Schoolmasters on festival days, at
festival churches, and the disputing of their scholars logi-
cally, whereof I have before spoken, the same was long
since discontinued. But the arguing of schoolboys about
the principles of grammar, hath been continued even till
our time; for I myself (in my youth) have yeerely seen,
on the even of Saint Bartholomew the Apostile, the schol-
ars of divers grammar schools repair unto the churchyard
of Saint Bartholomew the priory in Smithfield where upon
a bank bordered about a tree some one scholar hath stepped
up and there hath opposed and answered, till he were by
some better scholar overcome and put down. And then the
overcomer taking the place, did like as the first ; and in the
end the best opposers and answerers had rewards, which
I observed not; but it made both schoolmasters, and also
good scholars (diligently against such times) to prepare
themselves for the obtaining of this garland."
He also paints street fights between boys of Saint An-
thony and Paul's Church schools ; one set would call others
Paul's pigeons as many pigeons at Pauls, but these would
retort with "Saint Anthony's pigs" as Saint Anthony was
always figured with a pig following him. But they "did
for a long season, disorderly in the open street, provoke one
m Thus records Vives, as quoted, page 189 of Compayre's Abelard.
Disputation. 229
another with salve tu quoque; placet tibi mecum dis-
putare? placet. And so proceeding from this to questions
in grammar, they usually fell from words to blows, with
their satchels full of books, many times in great heaps, that
they troubled the streets and pa'ssengers, so that finally they
were restrained with the decay of Saint Anthony's
school." 287
The Scope op Disputation.
This fiery fervor of controversy extended up and down,
to right and left. It was nurtured in the universities and it
was fostered in the training schools. In the University of
Paris the regent met his pupils three times daily, at sun
rise, noon and evening. At one of these meetings disputa-
tion held the floor. 298 It began with theology, in an at-
tempt to extract the ideas first, and later in a burning effort
to reconcile dogma with reason. Here it attained its abound-
ing growth, here was its favorite haunt. From this embryo
it spread to the philosophical branches, to law, and to medi-
cine. Even disease was to be treated with the syllogism.
Grammar, that is Latin, mathematics, and all other subjects
of pedagogical interest were washed in this acid of the mind.
Even the declensions, both of nouns and verbs were sub-
jected to this strainer.
Questions Debated by Medievalists.
Fortunately many specimens of the topics discussed have
come down to us, though most largely in theology. There
are however enough in other domains to give us a tincture
at any rate of the whole volume. Alcuin has faint streaks
of this method in his goat like quips and starts in one of his
dialogues, running thus:
207 Stow's Survey of London, edition of 1633, pp. 64, 65.
108 S. S. Laurie, page 271, of Rise of Universities.
230 Our Colonial Curriculum.
"What is language?"
"The betrayer of the soul."
"What is the tongue?"
"The whip of the air."
"What is snow?"
"Dry water." 298
Of a higher and more sustained flight are some that Mil-
ton inhumed in his ponderous style. Seven of these have
been gathered from the wrecks of time and are appended
below.
1. Utrum dies an Nox Praestantior.
WhetherDay or Night is the more excellent.
2. De sphserarum concentu.
the music of the spheres.
3. Contra philosophiam scholasticam.
Against scholastic philosophy.
4. In rei cujuslibet interitu non datur resolutio ad Materiam
primam.
In the destruction of anything whatsoever there is no
resolution into first matter.
5. Non datur formae partiales in animali prseter totalem
There are no partial forms in an animal in addition to
the total.
6. Exercitationes nonnumquam ludicras Pholosophiae
studiis non obesse.
Occasional sportive relaxations are not obstructive to
philosophical studies.
7. Beatiores reddit hdmines ars qiiam ignorantia.
Art is more conducive to human happiness than ignor-
ance.
Three of the obove were recited in college, three in the
public schools, while another was considered as a burlesque
"* West's Alcuin, page 106.
Disputation. 231
upon the exercise of disputation, and delivered at a meeting
of the students. 300
But it is in the realm of religion that we find a thicket of
them. Many of them are absurd, they would be worthy of
a place here for ridicule only, if we did not remember the
tense earnestness with which genuine young souls once
tackled these problems.
"How many angels can stand on the, point of a needle?"
Can the rite of baptism be performed with air, sand, or
• earth; with beer, fish broth, or rose water, as well as with
water?"
"What is the interior structure of Paradise? What do
the angels do with their bodies of which they have made use
to fulfill a mission on earth? What was the color of the
Virgin's skin?"
"Why did Adam eat an apple instead of a pear?" 301
"Where was the earthly paradise?"
"What was the forbidden fruit?"
"Where was Lazarus's sotil while his body lay dead?"
"What sort of bodies shall we have at the resurrec-
tion ?" 302
Not all were in the form of .question and answer. Some
were more what we would call a, proposition at the present
day than a struggle of wits. A professional theologian,
Melanchthon, furnishes us a good example of this sort of
question in his Disputatio de Baptismo which proceeds in
regular feteps as follows:
1. Baptism is the sign of promised grace.
2. Nor is the significance to be referred to one time but
to the whole life.
800 Masson's Milton, Vol. I, ■ page 241.
""'Seeley quotes several of these, from the German history of '-edu-
cation by Schmidt.
802 R. H. Quick's Locke, page 193.
2 3 2 Our Colonial Curriculum.
3. Verily does Baptism justify since comforted by this
sign we believe our sins to be remitted through Christ.
4. When Paul says the Israelites passing through the
Red Sea were baptized it is to be understood they were truly
Baptized. 303
"Can God order men to do ill?"
"Can He make man incapable of sin?"
"Could He have made the world better than it is ?"
"Can He be comprehended under a predicate?"
"Can He create a universal which has no particulars?" 30 *
Jesuit Disputation.
Such an important exercise had its own pedagogical har-
ness. There were formal rules drawn up for the proper
carrying on of these verbal duels. None of the educational
agencies attach more importance to this discipline that that
organization, wonderful both in religion and in education,
the Jesuits. Robert of Sorbonne,founder of the college of
that name, one of the foremost men of his order, struck to
the very core of the pedagogical notions of the day when
he laid down the principle "nihil perfecte scitur nisi dente
disputationis feriatur," or "nothing is perfectly known un-
less masticated by the tooth of disputation." 305 On this
foundation the Jesuits built declaring that one disputation
did more good than many lectures. They held that theology
and philosophy were acquired by discussing not by hearing.
In such contests all energies they held are wrought up to
the highest pitch. Besides in that era of religious compe-
tition with the growing force of the reformation they very
wisely saw that victory in such struggles was an advertise-
ment for the school, as wise in their declaration as any of
808 From Bretschneider's work on Melanchthon.
SM J. A. Froude's Erasmus, page 123.
*™ Hughes's Loyola, page 208, quoting from Vaughan's Aquinas.
Disputation. 233
us are to-day in the physical counterpart of athletics but on
a higher plane. They knew human nature and always in-
sisted on an audience because argument "freezes except in
a crowd." They gave two hours weekly in their ordinary
schools to disputation, forcing the teachers to be present.
Before 1600 they drew up a most comprehensive outline for
the proper conducting of this exercise. 306
English Insistence;.
At the University of Cambridge it was an ironclad stipu-
lation that every candidate for a degree should have at
least two of these public acts in the university during the
last year before graduation, besides the minor ones in his
college. Each one would hand in a list of three propositions
that he would maintain in debate and usually a moral or
metaphysical one would be selected as the gauge for battle.
Then he as "respondent" would face his adversary as op-
ponent. In such a large institution it became a regular per-
formance immediately after dinner in either the university
or the college, often times it was an intercollegiate contest
though it is not clear that the moderator gave a decision
in every instance.
There was all the weight of governmental authority be-
hind this as one of the regular duties of the university. The
three following chapters from the Statutes of Elizabeth
for the government of Cambridge will show how high
disputation was in the curriculum. 307 The directions are
given in some detail, covering the times and the qualifica-
tions necessary for the proper performance of this task,
all in the original Latin.
308 In the ratio studiorum of 1586 is an entire chapter on disputa-
tion, to be found in volume 5 of Monumenta Germaniae Pedagogica,
pages 100-107.
""Dyer's Privileges of Cambridge, Vol. 1, pages 173-174.
234 Our Colonial Curriculum.
De Disputationibus Sophistarum.
Ordo disputationum hie est. Inter sophistas veterrimus se
responsorem exhibebit, et ordine sequentur alii juniores ad
finem illius Anni. Primus dies Termini erit decimus Octo-
bris : non respondebit, nisi qui secundum annum expleverit.
Tres principes questiones proponat, unam in Mathematicis,
alteram in dialecticis, tertiam in Philosophicis naturalibus
aut moralibus ; quas Triduo ante affiget valvis Scholae suae.
Caeteri contra disputando. Ubi responsor haesitaverit, mod-
erator alter si possit nodum dissolvit. Tempora earum dis-
putationum erunt Diebus Lunae, martis, Mecurii, Jovis et
veneris, a prima post Meridiem ad tertiam. Scholae Mod-
erator per singulas Disputationes tres suo Arbitrio per-
mittat, vetustatio ordine argumenta Respondenti proponere
praeter principatem Disputatorem."
De Baccaiaureorum Disputationibus.
"Baccalaureorum Disputationes fient Die Veneris a nona
ad undecimam si nulla tunc magistrorum Disputatio sit ; tunc
enim fient ab Hora prima ejusdem Diei usque ad tertiam
Respondebit non nisi Baccalaureus secundi Anni. Incipiat
veterrimus, et ordine reliqui sequentur. Contra disputabit
unus suo Ordine, cui scholae moderator adjunget quatuor
aut plures pro suo arbitrio in singulis Disputationibus, qui
Argumenta Respondenti objiciant. Qui cursum suum in
Respondendo omiserit decern Solidis Mulctetur qui vero
in opponendo cursum omiserit, tribus Solidis et quatuor
Denariis."
'De Declamationibus Baccalaureorum.
"Baccalaureorum Declamationes erunt Diebus Sabbati.
ab'Hora octavaad nonam ante meridiem. Primo vero Heb-
domada duo ordine Baccalaurei unum Thema tractabunt,
cujus contrariam Partem duo alii dependent Hebdomada
Disputation. 235
sequenti sub Paena quinque Solidorum, si quis cursum suum
omiserit."
American Lov£ for Disputation.
Neither the Jesuits nor the English outclassed our an-
cestors in their devotion to this branch of education. The
first school course of study in the new world, that at Har-
vard in 1642, called for disputation in each of the three
classes twice every week, on Mondays and Tuesdays. We
tracked right after our English forefathers in laying stress
upon this work. The freshmen had also to give these pub-
lic exercises every year while the sophisters had to be pres-
ent twice a week. The bachelors had to appear in public
once every fortnight under the eye of the president, besides
having regularly, with the sophisters, to write out an analy-
sis of some branch of sacred literature. Mather in his Mag-
nalia, 308 gives the formula for investing the privilege of dis-
puting upon the pupils: "Admitto te ad primum gradum
in Artibus, scilicet, ad respondendum questioni, pro more
academiarum in Anglia," or "I admit you to the first de-
gree in arts, that is to say, to the privilege of responding in
debate, according to the custom of the English universities."
There Was a similar formula for the master's degree.
Mather was a pugnacious fellow, even in philology. He
knew the exercise was really a fight and he got "bachelor"
from "batualius," a term that carries the idea of beating or
battling. Most likely this derivation is fanciful but it is all
the more significant of the enthusiasm for this educational
encounter. 309
There was no decline, either, in the affection for this form
of training. The Harvard course, nearly a century after-
wards, in 1728, demanded two disputes a week from each
308 Hartford edition of 1853, Vol. 2, page 13.
808 Neither the Oxford nor the Century Dictionary refers to this
theory.
236 Our Colonial Curriculum.
of the first three classes, and one from the seniors. 310 On
towards the middle of that century disputation was re-
quired as a part of the entrance examination to Harvard
as we are told by one of the students that in 1742 the presi-
dent gave out the two following themes:
Sapientia praestat viribus.
Labor improbus omnia vincit 311
On beyond the middle of that hundred years, the gradu-
ating class were required to dispute in Latin under the su-
pervision of the President who also corrected them in that
tongue. They conducted the exercises in the form of syl-
logisms. 312
Yale of course was not behind Harvard along this line.
Her earliest laws stipulated for disputations, bachelors once
weekly, undergraduates five times, after they had begun to
learn logic. A score of years later the general body of
students had to go through this contest every Friday some
half dozen at a time in Latin, Greek or Hebrew, while the
senior classes did the same twice a week. 313
That other early institution in our colonies, William and
Mary, most naturally had the same exercises with the same
formalities, coming from the same English source. The
early statutes provided that the president and professors
"diligently attend their lectures and disputations." 314
Keckerman's Ruixs.
We have seen specimens of the subjects discussed, we
have noted the emphasis laid upon the matter, but it was
left to a very solemn stick, Bartholomew Keckerman, to
310 Quincy's Harvard, Vol. 1, page 441.
m Peirce's Harvard, page 238, quoting from Holyoke's manuscript
diary.
312 Peirce's Harvard, page 308, quoting from Judge W. Paine who
was at Harvard 1755 to 1759, but wrote his recollections in 1831.
318 Kingsley's Yale, Vol. 2, page 497.
814 History of William and Mary, 1817, Philadelphia, page 52.
Disputation. 237
draw up the minutest regulations for the grave and cere-
monious management of this subject. Keckerman was born
at Dantzig in 1573 and was afterward engaged in some of
the more eastern universities. He is a typical product of the
times, prolix, pedantic, and frightfully methodic. He had a
raging itch for outlines and schemes of classification. In
the two volumes of his completed works there are nineteen
folio pages of logic tables and sixty-two for philosophy. He
was by instinct a sermonizer, curling his tongue deliciously
up to I7thly and 33dly with a canebrake of main heads and
subheads and minor divisions interspersed with long and
short brackets. He is awfully tedious in his serious at-
tempts to cover the whole realm of the known. Fortunately
for subsequent students he died early, at the age of 36. If
he had lived the allotted span of years his collected works
would be equal to a Japanese novel of 200 volumes.
He devotes a whole chapter to disputation and a rather
exact rendering of his Latin is here given. It is perhaps,
certainly so far as this investigation disclosed, the com-
pletest treatment of the subject in existence, it is also worth
all the type it requires as a snap shot picture of the medieval
education, its drudgery, its worship of authority, and conse-
quently its slavishness and weakness of individuality.
Chapter seven of volume 1 of his work contains what
he has to say on disputation formally though there are
many other side lights in other places especially in his logic.
In English we have him thus :
Chapter 7.
On Disputation.
I. We have divided the treatment, of connected topics
into individual and social. But; since we have thus far fair
ished the treatment of all problems theoretical as well as
practical) therefore our path leads us to the social which is
likewise more theoretical or more practical. Tthe more
theoreticalibya special term is called Disputation; the more
practical is indeed called' Conference,
II. Disputation, therefore is that sort of treatment of a
problem or connected matter in which 1 two adversaries con-
tend with each other so that the one as opponent, the other
as respondent- join battle.
Itll> The general principles of disputation are:
1. Disputation is not only a logical act, but also an ethi-
cal one, even a theological and political one, if there
is indeed argument on these things.
2. Hence, for- properly carrying on a disputation there
is needed not only logical but ethical and political vir-
tue, even sacred, and theological spirit and to that
extent disputation should follow not only the logical
rules but the political and ethical ones of affability
and moderation, and' certainly those of Christian piety
and custom.
3. Since disputation is a logical act, all depends on the
individual treatment of questions, or arguments, and
hence it is the duty of those trying to dispute happily
to be trained beforehand in the individual handling
of connected questions.
IV. Certainly about disputation are two things to be con-
sidered: (1) its principle or object; (2) its parts.
V. Its principle or object is the matter of the dispute.
Disputation, 239
VL On this- are these rules:
1., Ahove all, a certain. question must be stated; on which
you wish to. dispute^ since any act- whatever is limited
hy a, fixed point if itcisto be legitimate;
2. If the disputation depends on the exposition of simple
matters even then the aim should be stated, but there
should.be no argument on, those questions which are
inexplicable.
3» Here is the scope of disputation: (i). enquiry for
truth, (2) illustration and confirmation, of truth.
Therefore not all. questions are to»be disputed, and
not all questions to ■ the same degree, and not at all
those that men accept from natural instincts and
prompting.
For example there should be no dispute as to
whether there is a, God, whether the whole is. greater
than the parti, whether parents are to be honored, be-
cause these are principles- whose truth is. born with
man, so that there is no need of enquiry, just as Aris-
totle rightly says in. his secondi Topic that those men
who argue such things are not worthy of considera-
tion but of punishment.
4. Disputation as we have said is not only, a logical act
but also ethical, political; and frequently a divine or
theological one. Therefore the object or material of
disputation ought, not to war against good manners or
public peace, or piety and likewise we should not
deal withi scandalous matters.
VII. So much on, the subject of disputation : here follow
the sides which are either opponents or respondents.
VIII. On the side of opponents are these general rules :
1. The opponent first attends to the scope or object,
namely the proposition which he wishes to oppose.
2. The exact question having been stated, he forecasts
the evident proposition bearing on that question, cer-
240 Our Colonial Curriculum.
tainly the subject as well as the predicate according
to the rules laid down above for the treatment of a
question, so that he can see without doubt whether
the propositions are perfect or imperfect, and how
far he must explain.
3. The simple propositions having thus been cleared
away, he has to come to the arguments confuting the
position of the respondent which, must indeed be
thought over in the same way, as we taught about the
individual treatment of a problem.
4. Therefore he will separate the necessary arguments
from the probable ones, and cling the more to the
necessary ones.
5. He will argue partly from the nature of things inher-
ent in the question, partly from the sentiment and
opinion of his adversary so as by syllogism to up-
set those propositions which although not true in
themselves still are true in the opinion of his adver-
sary.
6. In case he reaches out to the artificial arguments, or
testimony, effort is to be made first of all to press the
adversary with his own admissions and to show con-
tradiction in his own sentiments and thus far to con-
tradict himself with himself either elsewhere or even
now in this exercise of disputation.
7. In case he reaches out to the syllogistic style, to
summon that double method in disputing, (1) the di-
rect, (2) the indirect or that which leads to the im-
possible, and he will employ even that most effective
plan, which is named from opposites, by which indeed
opposite is brought against opposite.
8. Let the opponent think carefully and for a time before
ponder whether the adversary is going to defend his
thesis unreservedly or merely relatively and with cer-
tain limitations, also let him ponder what limitations
Disputation. 241
and distinctions he is going to use. Thus he will be
able the more readily to offer attacks on the adver-
sary's position or if the adversary responds not by
drawing boundaries but by denying, then the oppon-
ent is prepared for the proofs.
9. But if the adversary shuffles, and is not willing to
answer directly either for the conclusion or for the
premises, and even wants to evade the question, and
to draw off the opponent from the purpose or to reply,
as we say, through certain generalities, and even if the
opponent has such adversary before him, whom he
suspects about to do that, let him write his arguments
as far as meaning of the word goes, and require the
same of the adversary, and even himself write his re-
joinder either to this or to the conclusion of the ad-
versary's syllogism. For thus the adversary will be
the more easily cornered.
10. Because indeed disputation is a truth sifter. No one
sifts rightly who shakes the sifter only once, and who
does not whirl the sifter several times. For this
reason rarely is a disputation carried out fully with
profit and credit if only one objection is made by the
opponent and that is not pressed with great force.
11. It is better to bring forward the fewest objections and
to urge the same fitly and forcibly than to utter many
objections and to press none — a policy logical stu-
dents trained in disputation particularly follow.
Many when they are going to dispute publicly or pri-
vately labor the hardest to think up the most argu-
ments and they often iterate "I propose another ar-
gument." But I do not approve that custom in all
cases, except perhaps with a tyro who has never exer-
cised himself in debate. With such many things are
excused, since disputation is a severe effort which de-
16
242 Our Colonial Curriculum.
mands the great exercise of mind, and an unusual
readiness of speech.
12. In order that you may be able to press upon and urge
successfully first of all think whether or not the adver-
sary has given a solution, whether he has really re-
sponded or apparently at least. But how many and
what are true solutions and what are only apparent
that is to be sought in the system of logic.
13. But it is a matter of ambiguity whether one has really
answered when he claims he has. (1) It is a point
whether the response of itself was directed to one of
the three propositions of your syllogism either as to
the form or the substance. (2) Whether there is
surely pointed out a certain sort of fallacy committed
in your syllogism. Wherefore since the adversary's
response bears neither on the form nor the substance
and if he is not able to point out any fallacy in your
syllogism, then you will certainly declare he has an-
swered nothing, and has chattered much, and you
will not be anxious for a solution or answer, but you
will always urge this that he shall first respond, nor
will you allow yourself to be led aside even though
he asserts a hundred times that he has responded.
Finally if he persists in chattering you will claim him
for victim, and call for a decision because he has as-
suredly spoken much and said nothing.
14. If a fallacy should be pointed out in your syllogism,
carefully consider whether it is in the form or sub-
stance. If the fallacy is in the form, then that syllo-
gistic canon said to be broken should be examined.
If the particular canon cannot be named, you will per-
severe in that purpose because the syllogistic form is
good, and an assault on the form is in vain.
15. If the explanation and response rest on the substance,
Disputation. 243
think carefully whether on the conclusion or the
premises.
16. If the response bears on the conclusion, it will either
be an instance of missing the point (ignoratio elenchi)
or of many questions taken for one.
17. But if it is said to be a missing of the point (ignoratio
elenchi), search the canon of the legitimate opposi-
tion that your conclusion violates.
18. But if he says there are more questions, order that
plurality to be shown to you, and even those diverse
questions which certainly are not subordinate but dis-
crepant and separate, because if he is not able to show
those, no answer is made.
19. If he attacks the premises, he will attack either the
words or the matter of the premises. If he attacks
the words, he will attack either the simple or com-
posite ones or the phrases.
20. If he attacks the simple vocabulary and asserts that it
has many meanings, and even desires to expound
them, you will reply that you accept the most com-
mon usage. But if he alleges certain meanings
hatched in his brain demand of him the localities of
those authors with whom he thus sets aside a vocabu-
lary as he said he did.
21. But if he attacks the phrases and brings forward his
interpretation, examine that interpretation according
to the canons taught in the second part of logic on
the interpretation of obscure propositions.
22. But if he does not attack the words but the thought,
he will attack either by denying or by exacting the
reason of the result or by limiting.
23. If he attacks by denying, he will deny either the man-
ifest matters or the less manifest. If he denies the
manifest his reason is to be demanded, why he denies
so manifest a proposition, by declaring: "you ought
244 Our Colonial Curriculum.
to have a weighty reason for denying that which is
so plain to others," therefore let us hear that reason.
Because if he cannot adduce a reason, he is to be plied
with arguments leading him to an absurdity. This
pertains to what Aristotle says: It is allowable to
require from an adversary the reason why he an-
swers thus or thus, because I am the strongest about
that answer in which the very manifest things are de-
nied for then it is proper to ask the cause why so
clear a thing is denied.
34. But if the adversary denies those things which are
not manifest and which need proof, then he can be
harassed in no other way than by proving that
premise which is denied by him. Thus you ought al-
ways to be quick and prepared for proof or for mak-
ing syllogisms, major or minor; especially the minor
which are besides more often denied, because the
major very often is a general axiom, but the minor is
a more special proposition. But specials are more
obnoxious to proofs than universals.
25. If the adversary answers by a denial of the conclu-
sion in the major, immediately give the reason for
the result itself, and order him at once to take an ex-
ception to that if he has any.
26. If, indeed, he answers by the argument from limita-
tion, you shall know that repulse of such an answer
is difficult, especially if you are not well versed in
logic.
27. Whoever is well versed in logic has three methods by
which he can repulse the limitation argument. First
Method : Consider what the adversary wishes to con-
fine to the subject by limitation, and whether, I say,
he does not imply contradiction with the subject. For
if he does, you will say at once: "Contradictions by
no limitation can be reconciled with the subjects that
Disputation. 245
they contradict." This rule have well commended to
yourself in disputation.
28. Second Method: examine the limitations for the
species of limitation taught in the second part of logic.
29. Third Method: say to the adversary if the limitation
is very intricate: "Show me some absurdity," which
should follow if the proposition is not thus limited in
proportion as you fix the bounds. If he can show
no absurdity, then the argument will be cast aside.
30. There is another response which is customarily given
by denying doubtless the universality of the major
to which answer a repulse is to be given as a postu-
late, namely, that in answering you he gives an inap-
propriate example for destroying the universality
of the major. But if he is able to give no example
or exception, he is conquered.
IX. Thus far on the duty of the opponent as well in de-
fending as attacking. Now follows the duty of the re-
spondent either inferior or superior who is chief.
X. The inferior respondent is properly the respondent,
therefore, the special parts of the response are contained
in his duty, and comprehended in these canons :
1. L,et the respondent first run over the argument of
the opponent either in a loud voice or quietly, usually
in a loud voice, for three reasons : ( 1 ) on account
of the opponent himself lest he protest afterwards
that he did not advance such argument. For when
many hear their arguments attacked and destroyed
with ease, they feel ashamed and declare they did not
advance such argument. (2) He should do this on
account of the hearers in order to arouse them by
this repetition to a solution to be grasped by closer
attention. (3) Finally he should do this on account
of the respondent himself in ordef to get some delay
and space for proffering a more accurate answer.
246 Our Colonial Curriculum.
This leisure is given to him when he repeats the argu-
ment of the opponent.
2. This was indeed the first duty of the respondent. An-
other duty is to answer the arguments enumerated,
and here first of all he should deliberate whether the
argument militates against himself, or against the
adversary himself. If it does not lie against himself,
he should frankly concede it all.
3. Finally he should pay regard to the syllogistic form,
and if it is not good, he should point out the canon
violated.
4. The form considered and granted, let him turn to the
conclusion and bear in mind these three : ( 1 ) whether
the status of the debate is correctly fixed by the op-
ponent. (2) Whether the opponent fairly opposed
his conclusion to the thesis which the respondent de-
fends. (3) Finally whether the opponent has mixed
several questions and disputes into one.
5. When he has ended with the conclusion then the mind
of the respondent will turn to the major proposition
and he will consider it in this order : ( 1 ) Whether it
is simple or compound, and if composite, whether it
has a certain reason for the result or even exacts a
reason for the result from the opponent. (2) If it
is a simple proposition he will consider whether true
or false, will answer by denial, demanding proof. (3)
If it is a true proposition, he will consider whether
universal or particular, and if particular, he will re-
ject with a given defence. Finally, (4) he will con-
sider whether it is true absolutely or only relatively.
If it is true relatively then he will limit it, for often
there are many limitations with regard to the major
premise, but few with the minor. Therefore, the
most strength of the response hangs on the major.
6. In the next place the minor proposition will be ex-
Disputation. 247
amined to which, we said, response is to be made
rarely by limitation, oftener by denial.
7. If the opponent argues unfairly from testimony, then
the respondent has these three resources: (1) to
consider whether the evidence is necessary or con-
tingent. (2) He will weigh the words of the evi-
dence and, if perchance they are obscure, he will be
guided by the rules already laid down. (3) If the
evidence is contingent and personal (bears on man)
let him reconcile it with his own view as far as
possible, but if he cannot do so, let him impinge the
authority of the testimony brought up by the evidence
of even great authority.
8. To the direct response, as the retort is made on the
adversary, he will add the indirect and similar mat-
ters which are taught in the portion treating of the
solution of fallacies in systematic logic.
XI. Thus much on the duty of the lower respondent who
is properly called Respondent. Of the superior respondent
or chief, are canons thus:
1. There are three duties of the chief: (1) directing,
(2) succoring, (3) increasing and augmenting.
2. In his duty of managing, if the opponent breaks the
laws of opposition, or if the respondent sins against
the rule of disputation, the chief will warn the one
of his duty and will hold the other within metes and
bounds.
3. In his duty of assisting, if perhaps the respondent is
lacking in response, the chief will himself give an-
swer.
4. Finally in his duty of increasing and augmenting, if
the respondent does not answer with sufficient fulness,
he will add matter, or if the respondent is obscure or
involved, he will make plain.
248 Our Colonial Curriculum.
American Disputes.
Of course these tiresome and complicated regulations
were not adopted in full in American schools, or at least
there is no evidence of such, but the spirit of them must
have been retained in the collegiate centers. Copies of
Keckerman's book are still to be found in the eastern part
of the United States and his logic was a textbook at Yale
for a time. It was under their influence that the youth in
this new land of freedom developed their debating powers,
and their hair splitting faculties upon a multitude of ques-
tions for nearly a century and a half. There is no full file
even of those questions formally handled but specimens have
been preserved amply sufficient to revive the flavor of those
days for us. As in other departments of this study we find
the most data in connection with Harvard. A number of
the questions were repeated literally from year to year, again
others were varied slightly in their terms. A quarter of a
century ago Professor E. J. Young classified a number of
the themes for the master's degree from 1655 to 1791, and
translated the Latin into English. 315 The questions begin
with almost the earliest records that we have of Harvard
University in 1642 and 1643 °f which the following half a
dozen are a fair sample :
1. Linguarum scientia est ultilissima.
2. Hebraea est linguarum mater.
3. Lingua Bracca est ad accentus pronuntianda.
4. Linguae prius discendae, quam artes.
5. Literae diversae sonum habent diversum.
6. Synthesis est naturalis Syntaxis.
The following list is culled from the long series that Pro-
fessor Young prepared, adopting his classification :
"• Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, June, 1880,
Vol. 18, pages 119-151.
Disputation. 249
On Society and the State.
Is a monarchical government the best?
Are the Americans Israelites?
Does a college education incapacitate a man for commer-
cial life?
Is agriculture unbecoming a gentleman?
Are polished manners an ornament to a man?
Is the voice of the people the voice of God?
Does civil government originate from compact?
Is it lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the com-
monwealth cannot otherwise be preserved? (Sam. Adams,
1743- )
Is civil government absolutely necessary for men? (John
Adams, 1758.)
Is commerce in a republic worthy of the attention of the
aristocracy ? ( 1 784. )
Philosophy.
\ Did primitive matter have form ?
n Is the act of creation eternal?
Does genus exist outside of the intellect?
Is there a summum malum?
Is the spirit of man distinct from his soul ?
Science.
Is the starry heaven made of fire? (1674.)
Does a shadow move?
Were comets created in the beginning?
Can metals be changed into one another alternately?
Is the earth the centre of the universe?
\ Was there a rainbow before the deluge ?
Did the reptiles of America originate from those preserved
by Noah?
Were the aborigines of America descended from Abra-
^ ham?
250 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Medicine, Physiology.
Is there a circulation of the blood (An motus sanguinis
circularis) ? (1660, 1699; Harvey's announcement was
made in 1628.)
Is there a universal remedy?
Does the heart make blood ? ( 1710.)
"^ Ought physicians to pray for the health of the people ?
Is a temperate life the best medicine ?
Is the color of the Indians the original color of man?
Did Adam have an umbilical cord? (1765.)
Can the whooping cough affect a human body twice?
Law.
"Can an atheist appear in court?
Is extortion becoming a lawyer?
■v. If Lazarus, by a will made before his death, had given
away his property could he have legally claimed it after his
resurrection.
Ethics.
Are duels lawful ? (1690.)
Is it lawful to take any interest for the use of money ?
Is it lawful to sell Africans ? (1724) .
- Is matrimony necessary to the safety of the State?
Is it lawful to subject Africans to perpetual bondage?
(1761.)
- Does dancing produce softness and urbanity of manners?
Theology in General.
Are the Hebrew points of divine origin?
When Balaam's ass spoke, was there any change in its
organs ?
Was the star which appeared at the birth of Christ a
comet?
* Does music promote salvation?
Disputation. ' 251
'- Should the deaf be required to worship God in the
churches ?
Does the devil know the thoughts of men?
Was sin in the world before the fall of Adam?
Will a comet be the cause of the world's final conflagra-
tion?
Does the falling of rain prove a providence?
Is there a paradise distinct from heaven ?
Are disputes relating to theology generally injurious to
religion ?
Is polite literature an ornament to a thelogian?
Should the children of unbelievers be baptized?
A few may be added to these gathered from other sources
as follows: 316
Rhetorica est ars ornata.
Mathematica est disciplina circa mensurabilia et numer-
abilia.
Triangulum in piano est rectilineum in sphaera circulare.
Physica est naturae ej usque legum explicatio.
Sensus externus est unicus.
Bruta non agunt mechanice.
Aeris pressura est suctionis causa.
From another source 317 we gather these :
Religio naturalis non est sufficiens ad salutem.
Bona opera sunt necessaria ad salutem.
Anima rationalis est substantia spiritualis incorporea.
Consolatio divina est necessaria ad salutem.
Of different form although under the same name, are the
disputations of Ezekiel Cheever, really more of a student's
note book on his lectures than of formal discussions. 818 His
810 From a large folio volume in Harvard Archives entitled "Theses
from 1687 to 1810."
"' Wadsworth's Diary, in Harvard Archives.
™ In manuscript, 414 pages with a few lost, in the Library of the
Mass. Hist. Soc.
252 Our Colonial Curriculum.
deserve room here on account of his eminence as a school
teacher, besides opening slits in the wall of the past upon
the educational machine of the time, especially supplement-
ary are all the selections from this volume upon the science
instruction. A few specimens are taken here while the ex-
plication of some of the notions will come later on.
An idem sit finis et bonum et num omnia agunt praeter
finem.
Num detur finis simpliciter ultimus et unicus.
Quomodo causae secundae intendant finem ultimum.
Solvuntur nonnullae objectiones.
De naturali hominis felicitate.
Quid sit voluntarium et quantuplex.
An quae fiunt ex motu ira et concupiscentia sint volun-
taria.
De ordine et numero passionum.
De passionibus simplicibus.
De consultatione et deliberatione.
De natura et composito substrati.
De infinito.
De loco et vacuo.
In physicam specialem de generatione et alteratione.
De anima sensitiva.
Some Examples from Yale.
While the examples for Yale are not so comprehensive or
chronological from the beginning as those from Harvard
there is the same general discipline and in many instances
the identical questions. We have the same puzzle about
the descendants of Adam or as expressed in Latin, omnes
gentes ab Adamo descenderunt. Later there is another
Adamic problem to be solved, "whether Adam knew that
eternal damnation would be his doom if he ate of the for-
Disputation. 253
bidden fruit." 819 Adam must have been roundly hated by
college youth in those days.
There is a very familiar question, still mouthed over very
vigorously by boys to-day, left us by Jeremiah Mason, who
took the negative of it at his graduation in 1788, "whether
capital punishment in any case is lawful." 320 In after years,
as with many a man in his college reminiscences, Mason
became very frank and genial on some of his experiences.
With a slight glow of pardonable pride Mason confesses
that he got up his arguments, which made quite a hit, from
Beccaria's Treatise, which, happily for Mason, was very
little known at the time. And no doubt it was all attributed
to his originality when his, performance was praised as the
best of the day.
However, it is to Stiles that we are largely indebted for
samples of Yale forensics. It is true they occurred after
our colonial days had ended by the action of 1776, but as
it is indubitable that many of them reached back for perhaps
half of a whole century they serve as a mirror almost as
distinctly as if they had been recorded fifty years earlier.
Stiles, was the president of Yale and a warm defender of
disputations, generally presiding at the exercises. The fol-
lowing have been gathered from his indispensable diary, the
volume and page being given usually :
1 "Diluvium Noachi fuit universale." |
2. "earning increaseth happiness?" )
3. "Whether a toleration of all religions is beneficial to
the State?" 2—287.
4. "An bellum est licitutti." )
5. "Are there any innate ideas?" j
"" Kingley's Yale, Vol. 1, page 444, basing on the Diary of Bald-
win, who discussed this question at Yale as a junior in 1762.
w Stile's Diary, Vol. 3, page 328, or Mason's autobiography,
page 12.
254 Our Colonial Ctirriculum.
6. "Whether the Scriptures are of divine inspiration?"
3—314.
"* 7. "Whether the same body shall rise in the resurrec-
tion?" 2 — 315.
"^ 8. "An Diluvium Noachi fuit universale?" 2 — 315.
9. "Differentia inter Bonum et malum morale est aeterna
et immutabilis." 2 — 328.
10. "Nullae dantur ideae innatae." 2 — 348.
11. "Whether a private was to be preferred to a public
education ?" 2 — 348.
^ 12. "Whether all religions ought to be tolerated ?" 3 — 255.
13. "Whether there are any innate ideas?" 3 — 97.
_^ 14. "Whether the planets are inhabited?" 3 — 98.
15. "Whether a public be preferable to a private educa-
tion ?" 3 — 99.
16. ''Whether the change of the Sabbath from the last
to the first day of the week be jure divino ?" 3 — 101.
17. "Whether the witch of Endor really raised Samuel?"
3— 101.
18. "Whether the present passion for college education is
for the advantage of this State?" 3 — 102.
19. "Whether Congress ought to have more power and
authority ?" 3 — 102.
20. "Whether the will has a self-determining power?"
3—103.
21. "Whether the flood universal?" 3 — 112.
22. Whether different climates be the principal cause of
the different geniuses of mankind?" 3 — 112.
23. "Whether a representative ought to be bound by the
instructions of his constituents?" 3 — 115.
24. "Whether the institution of the Cincinnati will prove
detrimental to the public?" 3 — 118.
25. "Whether confiscation right?" 3 — 118.
26. "Whether literature or the military art be most sub-
servient to the public welfare?" 3 — 119.
Disputation. 255
27. From this on, are others on, whether best to have
state religion: lower house too large in legisla-
ture: immersion: on suicides sane or not: revela-
tion be proved by miracles : to obey another in state
of nature : whether Republic be preferable to mon-
archy. 3 — 142.
28. "Whether planets are inhabited?" 3 — 144.
29. "Whether light is invisible?" 3 — 144.
30. "Whether reading Novelles is beneficial?" 3 — 149.
31. "Polygamia non est licita." 3 — 151.
32. "Whether the Latin and Greek languages are studied
too much in America?" 3 — 152.
33. "If hole made through earth, air exhausted, would a
body dropped in it oscillate from side to side forever
or finally come to stop at center?" 3 — 157.
34. "Whether laws prohibiting emigration are for the gen-
eral interest of nations?" 3 — 198.
35. "Whether distilled spirituous liquors have been of
more service or injury to mankind?" 3 — 209.
36. Private or public education again. 3 — 210.
37. "Whether independence better for U. S. than to re-
main with England: Whether to borrow money
to subsidize algerines?" 3 — 203.
38. "Comparison of ancient and modern learning?"
3—213-
Some Burlesques.
A cartoon nearly always deals with the crux of an affair.
It seizes upon and emphasises a prominent feature. It
means that the attention is attracted to that particular thing.
Youth is the era of exaggeration and it is some unusual
trait of a teacher's character or some striking element in his
education that he delights to seize upon and magnify. It is
the instructor with some marked individuality, some strength
of temperament, some accomplishment of power, that gets
256 Our Colonial Curriculum.
the "knocks" on class nights. It is the new or the unusual
or the leading portion of the curriculum that is caricatured.
It is something that hits the imagination or arouses the
attention that he loves to take off — 'the strongest testimony
to its importance and the impression that it makes at the
time.
It is just such testimony that has come down to us from
one of the early years at Harvard, 1663, when an elaborate
program of disputations was got up in this spirit of fun by
some of the students. 321 It is perhaps the only humorous
product of the sort that has weathered the warfare of time.
There are some admirable keen little touches of satire. He
was smothered in religion, he was covered with the moss
of medievalism, but the colonial boy had the same youthful
toughness- of fibre within that fortunately the boy still has.
He saw through the solemn mist and he winked roguishly
at some of the grave shams. Here is a handful of his barbs :
Technological —
The precepts of art know neither rising nor setting.
Nature is the nurse of art ; art is the handmaid of nature.
Logical —
Logic, with respect to the perception of ideas, is the
optic nerve.
Substance is the caravansary of accidents.
Related things are contemporary twins.
The subject is the porter of attributes.
The syllogism is a triangle of which the vase is the con-
clusion.
Sophistry is the display of arguments for sale.
Rhetorical —
Rhetoric is the clothing in purple of reason and oratory.
Monotony is rhetoric without the muse.
" a Edes Vol. 5, Transactions of Colonial Society of Mass., pages
322-339^
Disputation. 257
Mathematical —
Ciphers give what they have not.
The geometer is an angular wretch.
The planets are the fixed stars ; fixed stars are paralytics.
Time is the offspring of celestial motion.
Ethical —
Ethics is a corrosive plaster for vices.
Virtue knows neither latitude nor declination.
Granted a good temperament of body, virtue follows, and
vice versa.
Grammatical —
Grammar is the door of language and the primary school
of philosophers.
Etymology is the analytical fracture of words.
Ha Ha He is a well-known expression of hilarity.
Poetic license is grammatical heresy.
Physical —
The student of natural science is the ripper up of natural
bodies and of nature.
Primal matter was fermented from quantity.
Every form will not join in matrimony with every ma-
terial.
Civic Cuwure.
There is a rather leaping vein of vigorous young blood to
be traced among these questions. There are the freshness
and independence of sterling manhood that might have
opened the dull eyes of English ministers if they had scanned
these lists. They are the raw winds of a coming storm.
Disputation was a silly quibbling in most cases, a chewing
of old chips of definition in many instances, but it bred
skepticism, it cultivated criticism, it loosened the hoary
17
258 Our Colonial Curriculum.
bands of conservatism. The two Adamses, Samuel and
John, were beardless forerunners of the upheaval. A whole
generation before the thunder clap startled the sedate aris-
tocracy across the water, Samuel Adams was seizing upon
the very vitals of the relations between the mother and her
colonies. At his graduation he was questioning the right of
revolt against the statutes of government, as to be noted in
his question above. 322 His kinsman, John Adams, perhaps
not so radical but more philosophical and comprehensive,
was also dealing with the subject of human control. We
don't know what they said, much raking over the dead leaves
of the past has failed to bring to light their words, but we
know the general lines of their thought and we see the first
faint bubbles simmering towards the top.
Actuai, Disputations.
There are, however, copies of these boyish efforts, very
stilted and unnatural, but all the better for that reason be-
cause we can rely upon their genuineness as they have come
down to us unedited by the school teacher.
Mii/ton.
Milton, who wrote the greatest ethic in the English lan-
guage, at least everyone says so, and almost no one reads it.
has left us several of his productions, which have been de-
scribed as "stately," though really very tiresome and tedious
One of these, condensed below, is an equitable index to all
of them. 323
He took the side of day on the proposition "Whether day
or night is the more excellent?" After a long, labored ex-
ordium he asserts that day is better because (1) of more
honorable parentage; (2) of the greater respect of an-
822 See Everett's Orations, Vol. 2, page 177, giving such depth to
Adams.
BS Masson's Milton, Vol. 1, pages 242-246.
Disputation. 259
tiquity; (3) of higher utility for human uses. Under the
first two he goes into Greek mythology. "How pleasant and
desirable day is to the race of all living things" — "the birds
cannot conceal their joy" in "sweetest songs ;" they "fly as
near as they can to the sun ;" "the sleepless cock trumpets
the approaching sun." "The kids skip also in the fields and
the whole world of quadrupeds leaps and exults with joy."
"The marigold also and the rose * * * opening their
bosoms breathe forth their odors * * * which they disdain
to impart to the night." "The other flowers raising their
heads a little drooping and languid with dew offer them-
selves, as it were, to the sun and silently ask him to wipe
away with kisses those little tears which they had given to
his absence." "The earth too clothes herself for the Sun's
approach with her comelier vestment." There is no wonder
in this because Day is alone "suited for the encountering of
business. Who would cross broad seas if he despaired of
the advent of day. Men would shut themselves up and
human society would be straightway dissolved." Poets say
justly that "night takes its rise from hell." In the night "all
things grow sordid and obscure." Everything, man and
beast, at night hastes to its house or cave and "shuts its eyes
to the terrible aspect of night." None go out save "robbers
and light — shunning rascals, who, breathing murder and
rapine, plot against the goods of the citizens and wander
only at night. * * * Day searches out all criminality,"
but at night you "will meet nothing but goblins and phant-
oms and witches which night brings with her as her com-
panions from the subterranean regions." "Who, then, unless
he were a son of darkness, a burglar, or a gambler, or unless
he were accustomed to spend the whole night in debauchery
and to snore through entire days, would have undertaken
the defence of so dishonorable and so invidious a cause as
that of night? You therefore, my hearers, since night is
260 Our Colonial Curriculum.
nothing else than the decline and as it were death of the
Day, do not allow death to be preferred to life."
John Cujvixand's Arguments.
To another English poet, John Cleveland, of whom Mil-
ton's nephew was jealous lest the fame of Paradise Lost be
overshadowed, the good or bad luck has come of having his
youthful effusions projected into the keeping of posterity.
We do not know the title of the one transferred here as a
symbol of all the others, but the tone of it fixes it as one
side of the battle as he himself calls it. There is scarcely
anything to it, except verbosity and swelling sounds, but
what better evidence could we want for the hollowness of
so much of education then. Both the Latin and English
dress are displayed. 324
Quos ne videre possum citra oculorum hyperbolem,
quomodo vos compellarem ? Etcum altissimus vester gradus
sine scala occupari nequeat, quaenam Orationis climax
vestram scandet dignitatem; vestram dum suspicio in meo
vultu invenio purpuram; et ingentis curae quae praetandae
observantiae me habet solicitum, non novi subtilius argu-
mentem puam stuporem. Quod autem poetarum Princeps
Deorum Senatum cogit ad suam Batrachomyomachiam, pari
audacia liceat et mihi vos ad ludicrum hos certamen nostrum
invitare. Umbra est haec nostra contentio et Icon belli.
Murium et Ranarum pugna, quid aliud quam Iliadis Brachy-
graphia? Et in Pusillis istis Animalibus Hector et Achilles
(tanquam Iliades in Nuce) coarctantur. Ea siquidem est
pensi nostra conditio ; ut hie etiam Mars et Venus implicari
jacent. Pugna est, sed ludicra; Ludus et tamen bellicus;
ita ut nee bis cincta placeat Philosophia, nee nuda lythearea.
Qui virilli toga indutus, nee dum reliquit nuces, sed torus ( ?)
8! * Oratio in scholiis Publicis habita cum junior Baccalaureus in
Tripodem disputaret, Cantab., is the title of his speech, on page
132 of Works.
Disputation. 261
jocos crepat, hujus ego Palladem posthumam cerebri sui
prolem existimabo. Qui in hisce Kloralibus solus Cato, et
inter Philosophiae flores, hujus Minerva (ad Amazonis
instar) altera Mamma destituitur. Ille demum sit noster
miles, qui et sese praestet ingenii Velitem, et Philosophiae
Cataphractum ; qui et viriliter audet disputare, et pueriliter
cum Bipode Tripode par impar ludere. Me quod spectat
ita rationem ad agendam subduxi meam, ut utrinque munus
moliar et subterfugiam, et pudibunda metum inter et
officium Musa, et fugit ad salices, et videri cupit.
English for above :
"Speech delivered in the Public Schools (University, not
the college) when as junior bachelor he disputed in the
tripod.
"How shall I address you whom I am not able to see
within the sweep of my eyes? And when your highest
grade cannot be occupied without a ladder. What climax
of oratory will measure your dignity? While I look up
I find your purple in my face : and I am not more plainly
acquainted with the signs than with the stolidity of the
great solicitude which makes me apprehensive of the rever-
ence to be warranted. But since the Prince of poets con-
densed the Senate of the Gods into his battle of the frogs
and mice, it is allowable for me to invite you to this game,
our contest. The shadow and image of war is this our
contention. The battle of mice and frogs, what else is it
than the Iliad in embryo? and into these petty animals are
Hector and Achilles (as if the Iliad in nutshell) com-
pressed. This, indeed is the limitation of our task, that
here Mars and Venus lie entwined.
It is a fight, but a game. A play and yet warlike; so
that thus neither double girdled philosophy is pleased, nor
naked Cytherea. This one who, clothed in his manly toga,
does not relinquish his rattles but cracks his jokes, I will
account Pallas the offspring of his brain. Minerva is de-
262 Our Colonial Curriculum.
frauded of another breast (by) this one who> a solitary Cato
in these flowers, admits no buds of rhetoric among the
thorns of whilosophy. In the end may he be our warrior
who puts himself forward as the scout of the intellect and
the mailed guardian of philosophy; who dares to dispute
both boldly and to play at even-odd boyishly with the
double footed tripod. Whatever tests me I have thus de-
liberated for guidance that on both sides I undertake duty
and deception, and the Muse shameful between fear and
obligation both flees to the willows and desires to be seen."
Something From Cheever.
Cheever's disputations, as has been said, are really notes
taken of his lectures or textbooks but as they have the title
of disputation they throw another light upon the vast scope
of this exercise and the solemn importance attached to it
in education. Here are a few specimens from him bearing
chiefly on science and logic:
Summa capitis libri secundi physicorum.
Liber hie secundus constat 9 capitibus quae dividi pos-
sunt induas partes; Priore parte agitur de natura et dis-
crimine inter phiiosophiam naturalem et mathematicam,
posteriore parte agitur de causis.
Summa Cap i.
Quaedam sunt entia quae constant natura, qualia sunt
plantae, elementa etc : alia sunt quae allis constant causis
qualia 1 sunt artefacta. Priotfa habent in se principium sui
motus: posteriora minime. Definitur natura principium
et causa motus et quietis illius m primo per se et non per
accidens. Subststantiae naturalis materia et forma con-
stantes habent naturam. Secundum naturam sunt quae
vulgo vocantur proprietates naturales. Denique dicitur
naturam esse duplicem, materiam et forman: sed forma
magis est natura quam est actus.
Disputation. 263
Summa Cap 2.
Physicus, geometra, astrologus, in iisdem versant magni-
tudinibus, solidis, punctis, figuris, sed diverso modo, physi-
cus enim haec contemplatur quatenus sunt termini et affec-
tiones corporis naturalis et quatenus sunt in materia, mathe-
maticus autem abstrahit haec a materia. Physici est ma-
teriam et formam simul contemplare, quae cognitio
utriusque pertinet ad eandem scientiam, et artem ut patet
in medicina et architecture ; haec enim non solum con-
siderat materiam domus sed etiam formam, de arte dicitur
quae naturam imitatur.
Summa Cap. 3.
Quatuor sunt genera causarum. Materia et forma quae
dicuntur causae internae: effiiciens et finis quae dicuntur
causae externae. materia est causa ex qua res sit eo pacto
ut insit, sic aes est materia statuae. forma dicitur ratio
essentiae, sive id per quod res est id quod est. Efficiens
est primum principium mutationis et quietis, ut agens
naturale. Finis est id cujus grati'a res est: sicut sanitas
est finis deambulationis. Praeterea dicitur unius effectus
plures esse causae per se, et causas sibi invicem esse causas :
idem et idem potest esse causam contrariorum. Causa
dividitur in proximam et remotam, in causam actualem et
potentialem, in particularem et universalem. In causarum
investigatione ad ultimam progredi- oportet. Dein causae
particulares effectuum particularium sunt reddendae:
Denique effectuum universalium causae item universales
sunt reddendae, et sic in caeteris.
Summa Cap. 4, 5, 6.
Fortuna et casus (inquit) sunt causae multorum effec-
tuum, licet negent quidam qui dicunt dari definitam causam
omnium, sunt alii qui omnia fortunae subjiciunt immo et
pisum caelum sed hi errant (inquit) quia animalia et plan-
264 Our Colonial Curriculum.
tae certas causas suae generationis habent. Caelum vero
eodem semper tenore et constantissime movetur. Praeterea
(inquit) alii sunt qui faciunt fortunam deam sed hominibus
incognitam. Non est inquit fortuna in iis quae per se,
semper eodem modo fiunt, aut plerumque, sed in iis quae
raro eveniunt sed per accidens, et praeter intentionem, est
enim casus et fortuna in iis quae alicujus gratia fiunt sive
ea fiunt consilio sive natura. Definit fortunam causam per
accidens in iis quae per electionem alicujus gratia fiunt
casus autem latius patet, nam quod est a fortuna, est etiam
a casu, sed non contra casus, sit causa per accidens in iis
quae alicujus gratia fiunt, Igitur si stricte sumatur casus in
iis reperitur quae agunt sine consilio. Fortuna vero in
humanis utraque haec causa inquit est referenda ab effi-
ciente.
Sum ma Cap. 7.
Tot sunt genera causarum statuenda quot sunt quaes-
tiones sed quaestiones sunt 4, ex quo et est materia; per
quid, et est forma ; a quo et est efficiens, cujus gratia, et est
finis. Denique inquit physicum haec omnia perquirere; et
proinde eum per omnia genera causarum demonstrari.
Sum ma Cap. 8.
Licet naturam agere praeter finem et proinde alicujus
gratia unde non temere nee casu. Ratio est qua quae fiunt
a natura eodem semper modo fiunt. Insuper dicit araneas,
formicas et hirundines sine consilio et impetu naturae telas
texere et nidos condere. Immo et stirpes folia emittere ad
fructus tegendos, et radices deorsum agere non sursum.
idque alimenti causa, quod e terra exsurgunt, ad haec ma-
teria inquit quae est natura tendit ad formam quae est ejus
finis, est igitur natura alicujus gratia licet interdum suo
fine frustretur ut in monstris, quae tamen non intendit pro-
ducere neque enim monstra producit nisi sit impedita, et
proinde monstra dicuntur peccata naturae. Dicit naturam
Disputation. 265
agere praeter finem licet non deliberet Ars enim non
deliberat saltern agi tamen praeter finem.
Summa Cap. 9.
Necessitas est duplex, absoluta quae est a materia sic
absolute necessarium est serram esse duarum qua est ferra,
hypothetica quae desumitur a fine et a forma supposita sic
necesse est serram esse duram qua ad secandum est com-
parata. utraque necessitas reperitur in rebus physicalibus
licet veteres solam absolutam ex materia amplexi fuerint:
imo necessitas simpliciter in naturalibus non est ex materia
sed ex suppositione, sive fine, quia forma quae est finis
materiae et generationis est causa materiae, cum forma sit
praeter materiam, non contra: unde finis et forma praeci-
pue sunt considerationis in physica licet non sit neglegenda
materia. Sed physicus et artifex omnes suas ducunt defini-
tiones a forma et fini.
Another Harvard Disputation.
Nearly a century after Cheever, in 1760, we have some-
thing of the same kind from a Harvard student, Perez
Fobes, 323 preserved in a small oblong manuscript volume, in
the original English, in the archives of his alma mater. One
of them after a harrassing scrutiny is here given in full. He
proceeds thus :
"Among the various Disputes that have been extant in
the world this, viz., whether the earth moves around the
sun or not, has been none of the least. That this our earth
is immovable or at least moves not around the sun was the
received estabished and unalterable opinion of our ances-
tors, sacred as well as profane; who for their excellency
and strictness in Eusebia and piety, sanity of mind, in-
variableness in judgment, ingenuity in invention, reason-
3B Perez Fobes, student of Harvard, 1759-60 ; small oblong, 6 in.
by 3, open at end : about 30 pp. : both lids gone.
266 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ableness in argument and quickness of thought, were so
incomparable that their illustrious names will stand written
with indellible characters in the annals of all succeeding
posterities — But my present design is not to panegyrize on
their excellent endowments, nor enter into a detail of the
eulogical apophyms (apothegms) and excellencies, but to
produce a few arguments in favor of their opinion or in
defence of the earth's immovability, and I shall first answer
to the unheard of (to all humane ears grating) absurdities
that arises from the supposition of the earth's motion.
"i. If the earth be supposed to move around the sun the
motion must absolutely be either violenter vel naturalis
(violent or natural) and I see not how it can be natural un-
less you suppose this earth with all its various appendages
and appurtenances to be but one single body which is no
less dissonant to our sages than incompatible with reason,
for to imagine that one natural motion agrees to complex
bodies is not only the height of stupidity but it argues infat-
uation in the abstract.
"2. The earth's motion cannot be violent. For you that
suppose the earth to move around the sun allow it to move
with a perpetual unabated motion and therefore cannot be
forced because forced motion cannot be perpetual.
3. If the earth moves I ask what the reason may be, why
a cannon [ball] when cast 50 feet in air descends in same
place from which it was ejected. Perhaps you will
answer — tis the attraction which the atmosphere has upon
bodies. Then I ask whether it is rational to suppose in-
visible vapour to have a power to attract bodies, and that
too equal with the earth for whether body be great or small
it falls in the same place (which supposition I think very
absurd). And many more of the like nature I might pro-
duce but not opinating myself to be invested either with the
power of enthusiasm or exorcism, therefore I am more
Disputation. 267
liable to falsify than they that were divinely inspired where-
fore I shall now deduce some from those men [ ?]
"From that too much neglected and by our hair brained
respondents slighted book, the Bible — and [in] that [that
is, the Bible] a certain eastern writer (the laity call him
David) whose writings are no less demonstrative of intri-
cate enigmatical truth than he himself was inimitably ex-
emplary in piety — speaking of the magnificent works of the
Lord says, see Psalm, 104, 5 : Thou, O Lord hast laid the
foundations of the earth that it should not be removed
Forever, id est, moved again. Consonant to which are
those words in Psalm in 7.8, The works of God's hands
are verity [?] and judgment they shall stand fast forever
and ever."
"Another excellent writer says : see Joshua 10, 13. The
sun stood still and that in the midst of Heaven. Here per-
haps our respondents may object and say [thus] that
Joshua himself knew to the contrary but thinking it might
be more easy and better adapted to the agricolated intellects
of the vulgar to say the sun stood still than the earth, of
these I would ask whether it is correspondant with reason
to suppose a man who infallibly was actuated by the imme-
diate power of inspiration should say one thing and' at the
same time intend another.
Shocking Thought ! The Almighty prevaricate ! Every
hair in my head unavoidably assumes a power of perpen-
dicular erection ! When at the same time to suppose the
earth to move (had that been his opinion) would, accord-
ing to your own argumentation have been much more con-
gruent to the capacities of the illiterate.
Secondly. Our ostentatious and as they think self abne-
gating respondents will; undoubtedly say that Joshua was
unskilled, in such abstruse sciences as astronomy and
geology are. From those that thus imagine I may infer
and that justly too that they measure the longitude of
268 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Joshua's knowledge by the latitude of their own brains, or
else you would not have the audacity or at least the stu-
pidity to suppose that a gentleman who was perchance not
only educated at the schools of the prophets and had for
his inspector [instructor] and tutor no less a man than
Moses but that he who was such a renowned Alexandrian
warrior and perhaps had reiteratedly circumambulated all
Asia and Africa and now that he should be ignorant of
geometry and astronomy — such a thought almost obstructs
respiration, my blood runs cold and had almost laid stag-
nated in my veins at such uncouth fanaticism — "And thus
I have undeniably proved immobility of the earth and
would now just give our numheaded respondents a timely
caution and so conclude — that altho our assertion has been
sufficiently proved even to a demonstration yet perhaps
they will pique themselves with a vain, groundless conceit
that our arguments are nihil ad rem, yet I hope the time
will come when their now obscure intellectual faculties will
be illuminated and they brought to see not only their
egregious errors and exotic suppositions but also their (as
they now think powerful arguments) utterly refuted and
totally invalidated, your assertions have been no less daring
than impertinent —
"Now I think it very preposterous that our inebriated
bigoted and fascinated [ ?] respondents should prefer their
own reason so much above inspired writing and apocalyp-
tical truths, as wholly to embrace the former and entirely
expunge the latter, and if it be now your real opinion, and
notwithstanding the above absurdities that arise from such
suppositions I would amicably desire you to not to com-
municate this your opinion to the commonalty lest instead
of diminuting the camel to the bigness of a gnat you
augeate the pismire and make a catemount. Its dangerous
denying inspired truth.
"[Some illegible Greek letters] — and you undoubtedly
Disputation. 269
find that the greatest consolation that arises to those scrip-
tures rejecting infidels will be the barbed stimulation and
reluctant compunction of self condemning conscience here,
and the inexorable vengeance of incensed omnipotence
hereafter."
He has another question on: "Whether God at first
created a great number of every kind of living animals or,
only two of each species, a male and female, from which
all rest proceeded by generation ?" Then follow arguments
also in quotation: 1st by analogy of men the latter view
obtains with many: but 2nd first view seems more con-
formable to scripture which speaks of fish as abundant
(Gen. 1 :20, 21).
The Master Satirist.
Again we know what a monster disputation loomed up in
the educational world since Rabelais, who lampooned the
life of his day, devoted a special chapter or so to taking off
this pedagogical craze which had swollen beyond the giant
size in his day, before the middle of the sixteenth century,
more than half a century before the Indians had been
startled by the sight of the white man on the banks of the
James. The animal was masterful in man in those days,
passions were rude and unregulated. One of the world's
monarchs of satire had to choose words strong and coarse,
usually too broad and plain for young ladies of to-day, but
they hit the mark. One of his chapters in book two of his
complete works has a keen lash for the disputation about
him. He makes his contest a silent one, carried on by
absurd gestures in which the two competitors are wrought
up to the highest pitch of excitement. Elsewhere he whips
the custom as when he says through a character : "And as
for disputation contentiously, I will not do it, for it is too
base a thing, and therefore leave it to those sottish sophis-
270 Our Colonial Curriculum.
ters, who in their disputes do not search for the truth, but
for contradiction only and debate."
But still better is a sentence from an argument in court,
as foolish, intricate and nonsensical almost as some of the
above from that Harvard boy, as we have it in English : 826
"There passed betwixt the two tropics the sum of threepence
towards the zenith, and a halfpenny; forasmuch as the
Riphaean mountains had been that year oppressed with a
great sterility of counterfeit gudgeons, and shews without
substance, by means of the babbling tattle and fond fibs,
seditiously raised between the gibble-gabblers and Accursian
gibberish-mongers, for the rebellion of the Swissers, who
had assembled themselves to the full number of the bumbees
and myrmidons to go a handsel-getting on the first day of
the new year, at that very time when they give brewis to the
oxen, and deliver the key of the coals to the country-girls,
for serving in of the oats to the dogs."
Grave Contemporary Opinion.
Rabelais had strong associates, matching his sarcasm with
their deliberate condemnation. Vives was one of the
clearest-headed and most out-spoken in showing the in-
herent viciousness of the exercise. It leads to no results he
said, it is not mouthing but the silent observation of nature,
investigation, careful questionings that advance knowl-
edge. 327
A witty chancellor of the University of Paris scraped off
the gloss by a homely comparison. S2S "What," he said, "are
the contests of our Savants if not real cock fights? One
cock struts up to another and bristles his feathers. Our
people do the same. They have not beaks and spurs like
826 Book 2, chapter 11, Chatto and Windus edition.
827 S. S. Laurie, page 42, Rise of Universities.
828 Compayre's Abelard, page 190.
Disputation. 271
the cocks, but their self conceit is armed with a redoubtable
ergot." 329
Petrarch's Views.
This eminent author of the 14th century, who has
been described as "the first modern man," did not fail to
notice the hollowness of these argumentative efforts. In a
kind of raillery and contempt he calls our attention to the
performances thus: "Look at these men who spend their
whole life in altercations, sophistical subtleties, in incessantly
turning their brains upside down in order to solve empty
little questions ; and accept as true my prophecy concerning
their future: their reputation will pass away with their ex-
istence, and the same sepulchre will suffice to enshroud their
names and their bones " 329a
John Webster's Btting Wrath.
At this as well as other branches of the educational tree,
John Webster hewed and hacked with all of his soul. He
looked upon this jarring discord of sounds of a beUum in-
testinum, or "a civil war of words, a verbal digladiation,
contest, a combat of cunning craftiness, violence and alter-
cation, wherein all verbal force, by impudence, insolence,
opposition, contradiction, derision, diversion, trifling, jeer-
ing, humming, hissing, brawling, quarreling, scolding, scan-
dalizing, and the like, are equally allowed of, and accounted
just, and no regard had to the truth, so that by any means
they may get the conquest, and worst their adversary,
and if they can intangle or catch one another in the spider
webs of sophistical or fallacious argumentations, then their
rejoicing and clamour is as great as if they had obtained
some signal victory. And indeed it is the counsel of the
828 This word, Compayre holds in foot note, page 190 is from ergo,
though others holds from ergot (spurs).
sal a Compayre's Abelard, page 213.
272 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Arch-sophister Aristotle, their master, to speak ambiguously
while they dispute, to obfuscate the light with darkness, lest
the truth should shine forth, nay rather to spatter and
blurt out anything that comes into the budget, rather than
yield to our adversary." Aristotle advises "the respondent
not to take the business grievously, but by putting those
things which are not profitable to the proposition, to signifie
whatsoever doth not appear. * * * Oh excellent and
egregious advice of so profound and much-magnified a
philosopher! Is this to be a lover of verity, or indeed to
play the immodest sophister and caviller? * * * Alter-
cations and abjugations * * * civillation." In syllogisms
"conclusions beget but bare opinations, and putations, no
infallible scene * * * vaporous and airy sounds of words
* * * vain glory of syllogising sophistry * * * they opin-
ionate their ignorance to be sapience * * * we know
nothing, yet nothwithstanding we think we know all things."
Even best logical systems leave "the intellect nude and
unsatisfyed because it produces no certitude, nor evidential
demonstration * * * fills the mind full of opinions * * *
makes men parrot-like to babble, argue, and say very much,
but still to remain nescious and ignorant, so vast is the
difference betwixt putation and true knowledge." 32911
The; Ponderous Miwon.
Milton's shafts were just as numerous and more pene-
trating as they came from a higher authority. Milton was
one of the finest flowers of medieval education. When he
spurned and ridiculed the teaching of his day he spoke from
the chair of a master who had been the whole round in glit-
tering success and could put his finger upon the delusion
of it unerringly. He ransacked the arsenal of language for
missiles to hurl upon the curriculum, which he thought a
8M b Webster's Academiarum examen, page 33.
Disputation. 2"J2>
pure trifling at grammar and sophistry. In disputation he
declared boys mocked and deluded themselves with ragged
notions and babblements while they expected worthy and
delightful knowledge. 830
A Battering Ram.
The educator, the poet, the critic, were all backed up in
their attacks by the philosopher John Locke. Although a
bachelor, an orphan at an early age, without the tender care
of woman, without the sympathy of a child associate, he had
the insight of a seer for the deep principles of education.
A pregnant characterization he leaves us on "that maze of
words and phrases * * * little or no meaning * * * with-
out a progress in the real knowledge of things * * * fill
our heads with empty sounds which" no more "improve
our understandings and strengthen our reason than the
noise of a jack will fill our bellies or strengthen our bodies."
To parents he says if you want your boy to have "right
notions * * * right judgement," to distinguish between
"truth and falsehood, right and wrong * * * act accord-
ingly * * * be sure not to let vour son be bred up in the
art and formality of disputing;" unless, indeed, you want
him to be "an insignificant wrangler, opiniator in dis-
course * * * contradicting others * * * questioning every-
thing, and thinking there is no such thing as truth to be
sought but only victory in disputing." The whole thing is
"disingenous, so misbecoming a gentleman * * * as not to
yield to plain reason and the conviction of clear arguments."
It is "the way and perfection of logical disputes that the
opponent never takes any answer, nor the respondent ever
yields to any argument," unless he be "a poor baffled
wretch * * * under the disgrace" of not holding his side,
which is "the greater aim and glory in disputing."
830 Eggleston's Transit, page 246.
18
274 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Some Defenses.
But disputation was not all one black spot, there were
some specks of enlightenment about it. It was wooden-
headed, it was servile, but submissiveness, respect for
authority, was good training among a rough, barbaric
people. It was also a means of publishing ideas at large.
There were not many sources of knowledge, and that was
a very skillful use to make of those few, helping the speaker
and also informing his hearers. It was in time a develop-
ment as it was an instinctive revolt against the deadening
influence of mere memory. Indirectly, and far down in the
mold of ignorance and conservatism, it began the founda-
tions for the modern temple of freedom of thought and
liberty of opinion. It bred skepticism, it loosened the cere-
ments bound around the body centuries before, it encour-
aged independence and made the mind acute. It also gave
acquaintance with the principles of formal logic and was
an admirable practice in the application of the knowledge
got from lecture and book. Within bounds it was admirable
training. The world will never find a substitute for wring-
ing and torturing the very essence of meaning from
language. No one can tell what delicate shades of thought,
what curious twists of logic, what shadows and obscurities
lurk in the corners of discourse until there has been a bitter
contest between two competitors. The legislator, the advo-
cate at the bar, the judge on the bench, the jury in the box,
are to-day the debtors of this old medieval process.
George Henry Lewis's Tribute.
The author of the most fascinating history of philosophy
in our speech has a gentle pat of commendation for this
exercise, which he had such a fine opportunity of judging
from his long tramp through the thorny wilderness of philo-
sophical speculations from the beginning of time. He apolo-
Disputation. 275
gizes for it, stands up for it ! "Something may also be said
in favor of that art of disputation, against which so much
eloquence has been expended. It was doubtless carried to a
dangerous and ridiculous excess and seems utterly worth-
less and wearisome now. Yet it was to the athletes of the
middle ages that parliamentary debate has been to the Eng-
lish people : a good though by no means an unmixed good,
and far from the best." "To Scholasticism we owe the
emancipation of Philosophy. It was the first, and at that
period, the only possible solvent of Theology. By estab-
lishing the claim of reason * * * it brought into vigorous
activity the great instrument, doubt, the instrument of
research." 3S1
QuASI-DlSPUTATIONS.
There were several other educational exercises very sim-
ilar to disputation, though none of them attaining a thous-
andth part of the size. Beginning in the midddle ages we
find "declamations," which most likely did not differ very
much from the exercises of that name to-day. In some in-
stances though the two words are almost confused so that
the same exercise might have been meant. The scholarly
biographer of Milton is of the opinion that declamations
were utterances preceding the regular disputation, a kind of
soothing harmless utterance, such as the chairman of a
political meeting might deliver just before the joint debate
starts. 832
There is also to be found frequent mention of determina-
tion, clearly a minor act. As the very term itself implies, it
was largely confined to the definition of some term and then
the subsequent maintenance of that view against any
opponent.
S81 Lewes's History of Philosophy, Vol. 2, page 4.
° 82 Masson's Milton Vol. 1, pages 241, 2A.6.
276 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Com monplacing.
Allied to disputation also was a very popular pedagogical
performance usually called commonplacing. In reality it
was a short sermon, very often delivered at the opening of
the day's work in the presence of the whole school. It was
a logical outcome of the religious conception of all educa-
tion, but it was degraded by unscrupulous students taking
advantage of the occasion to get even with some of their
instructors and some of their fellows by indulging in scur-
rilous personalities. 333 It was sometimes based upon ser-
mons delivered the previous Sunday, afterwards it rose to
the dignity of a discourse on some text of Scripture and
the prig D'Ewes, just two years before the Pilgrims set
foot on that everlasting rock at Plymouth, notes the whine
of a minister that the students filled great volumes with col-
lections on human arts and sciences but ignored divinity.
In other instances some moral or theological subject was
often assigned for a student to expound and philosophize
upon, such as man being created in God's image or the
creation of the soul. It is to this quaint, soul-exposing
diarist, Samuel Sewall, that we owe our gratitude for a
definition of commonplacing, which he says "denotes the
reducing and treating of topics of theology, philosophy, etc.,
under certain common-place or general heads, and is recog-
nized as follows in Laws, Liberties and Orders of Harvard
College, 1642-46, as an exercise expected at certain times
of Resident Bachelors as well as Sophisters among the
undergraduates." 33 *
This eternal habit of moralizing and sermonizing was
dubbed analyzing by Wadsworth in certain places of his
journal, interchanging that with common-placing.
888 J. B. Mullinger, Vol. 2, page 472, of his Cambridge.
'" Samuel Sewall's Diary, 1674, > n Vol. 5, 5th series, Mass. Hist.
Soc. Coll., pages 4, 5. 51.
Disputation. 277
Common-Pi^.ce Books.
It was a very soft transition from the dictation of text-
books to the making of common-place books. Perhaps they
might be more accurately portrayed as note books, covering
daily events, summaries of lectures, notes on books read,
and references to sermons, in short an index to a man's
life. Milton has left one in which he has great classes, such
as politics, Republica, Leges, Rex, Tryannus, Nobilitas,
covering such heads as
"Malum Morale"
"De viro bono"
"De duellis"
"De morte"
"De curiositate." 335
His comments will range from a few words to a page or so,
though the most are abbreviated.
As a new world counterpart of Milton we have the topics
of the little common-place book of Perez Fobes, a student
at Harvard in 1760, the contents of his thin note book
being appended below, the three numbered heads lacking
being covered by his disputation above.
4. Has another on "The soul thinks always?" Several
pages.
5. Quotes poetry on grace and patience.
6. Notes an excellent sermon heard.
7. Other sermons; abstracts one.
8. [Starting at other end,] some pages, diary mixed
with Latin.
9. Moralising. "If we would ever get to Heaven we
must fight the good fight of faith." [Others fol-
low.]
10. Bought tea, picture.
885 Camden Society, Volume XVI, 1876, edited by Alfred J. Horn-
wood, pp. 60, including original index.
278 Our Colonial Curriculum.
11. Notes on geography lesson that earth so large, other
dimensions.
12. Notes sermons.
13. Notes on Joseph, Potiphar's wife.
14. Diagram of "solar system with the orbits of five re-
markable comets." — Table of distances of planets
from stars : planetary diameters : notes on astron-
omy, as distances, sizes, seasons, revolutions, etc.,
concluding with pious ejaculations on greatness
and power of God, etc.
15. Notes, examined by President, Tutors, and overseers.
16. Constantly notes derivation of words.
17. Notes on history and geography.
18. "To collect books" "to examine them."
19. All along notes "our question this day was."
Specimen, "Idae clarae et distinctae sunt cri-
terion veritatis."
20. Notes on physics — pressure of air.
21. Geometrical figures.
22. Celebration over taking of Quebec.
23. Notes on studying Homer.
24. "Was ordained."
25. 25 pp. Definitions: "cascades," "archetype," "Bal-
last," "brigade," etc., "athletic," "bibulous;" ap-
parently taken from dictation, as some words
copied, not defined.
Last Traces of Commonplacing.
Naturally if this custom survive anywhere it would be
fittingly in connection with divinity, with which it started
and with which it was linked hand in hand throughout its
career. Tucked away in Christ's College, Cambridge, Eng-
land, over half a century ago, was the remnant of this cen-
tury-old practice. The Fellows of that institution were in
the habit of giving talks or short sermons on Monday morn-
Disputation. 279
ings in the chapel, based on biblical texts, covering such
notions as happiness, baptism, study of the past, times of ig-
norance, purging of the conscience, we know in part, etc. 336
Died With Coloniausm.
As a formal part of the curriculum disputation expired
substantially with the close of our colonial period. Death
was not sudden, it came gradually with the intrusion of
other ideas. It was the passing away of an old friend
whom we mourn, although his day of usefulness has de-
parted. There is a very plaintive wail from President Stiles
of Yale in 1789: "the seniors have had but one syllogistic
disputation this year and perhaps half a dozen last year.
There was only one last commencement — none this. Thus
farewell syllogistic disputation in Yale College much to my
mortification." 33T
Six years later at Leicester Institute, in Connecticut, is
another note of remorse when the trustees desired dispu-
tations to be included in the school exhibitions. 338 These
two are certainly among the latest instances of the survival
of this old medieval scholastic exercise among our Protest-
ant institutions.
Remnants in England.
In England, however, there is evidence of its continuing
much longer, even to about the middle of the nineteenth
century. At Westminster, "those tournaments of Latin
and logic, in which Queen Bess was want to reward a suc-
cessful champion with a purse of gold from her virgin hand,"
were still carried out by boys who stood forth to challenge
for their schools. The act was given with practically all
""Loci Communes, by C. A. Swainson and A. H. Wratislaw, 1848.
38r Stiles's Diary, Vol. 3, page 360.
838 Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. 28, page 799.
280 Our Colonial Curriculum.
the fullness of several centuries earlier, in some instances
lasting from early morn till nine at night. 889
In some of the divinity work at Oxford the custom re-
mains, though of course greatly modified. "Disputations in
divinity are still delivered, though without opponents, by
candidates for divinity degrees," thus we learn from a late
newspaper letter. 340
Religious Disputations.
In the education of Catholic priests disputation is still a
favorite discipline. It was recorded of Pope Leo XIII
that he was very successful when preparing for his clerical
life in disputation in public. 341 The Jesuits are rigorously
drilled in Latin disputation during their educational prepa-
ration. Great stress is laid upon it at Woodstock, Mary-
land, and also in St. Louis. President Roosevelt heard an
exercise in the latter only a few years ago, "the grand act,"
a defense of Catholic theology against all comers. 342
In Georgetown University.
Not only in the theological courses of Catholic institutions,
but also in some of the secular departments is disputation
still carried on. In one of them at least, Georgetown Univer-
sity, Washington, D. C, can be witnessed several times a
year this medieval educational exercise, conducted with all
of the formality and rigidity possible after these centuries of
modifications, juniors once weekly, seniors twice. But the
essentials are still there and the incidentals, so far as the evi-
dence can restore the olden times, are but slightly altered.
There on a bluff overlooking the Potomac, in the quiet and
solemnity of an academic hall, before an assemblage of
m Public Schools, page 182.
"° The Nation, August 23, 1906, page 163.
841 J. B. O'Reilly's I en XIII, patje 77.
""St. Louis Republican, April 30, 1903.
Disputation. 281
teachers and student, one feels transported back across the
intervening periods to the atmosphere of three or four hun-
dred years ago, as the earnest youthful contestants face
each other and in a logical combat struggle for the mastery,
finally beating out the last grain of thought from the ques-
tion at issue, all done in the calm, passionless manner of
automatons that are pure intellect only. The program for
one of these frays, on a bright bracing fall day is shown
below, though not all the points were worked over at that
time. Though the issues are in Latin the argument was in
English.
THESES
EX ETHICA DEFENDENDAE
IN
COLLEGIO GEORGIOPOUTANO
Die XXIV. Nov., MCMVI.
I. Deus solus est finis ultimus objectivus hominis.
II. (a) Ignorantia invincibilis, sive juris sive facti, tollit
voluntarium, ac proinde acto ex tali ignorantia
facta non est imputabilis ad culpam.
(b) Ignorantia vincibilis non excusat a peccato.
III. Intrinsecum discrimen inter bonum et malum
morale intercedit.
IV. Moralitas non est desumenda ex utilitate, nee pri-
vata, nee publica.
V. Moralitas actuum desumitur ex objecto, fine et cir-
cumstantiis.
VI. (a) Existit lex aeterna.
(b) Existit lex naturalis.
Defendet :
Objicient:
Datur cuilibet facultas objiciendi.
282 Our Colonial Curriculum.
It will be noted that two of the terms are different from
their ancient progenitors as we have here defendet and
objicient instead of respondens and opponens. The plural
of the verb is due to the presence of two objectors. In the
actual verbal clash there must also have been a considerable
gap between to-day and yesterday. There was nothing of
the lively snap and fire that the authorities record of medie-
val battles. Here these gallant young knights confine them-
selves to a series of propositions in syllogistic form, with
every vestige of personal element sternly excluded. But
Keckerman, with his complicated directions, came to mind
when each side before answering the other would solemnly
and carefully repeat almost the exact words of the reason
just given, before offering his response. In all of this
repetition the third person was used.
A taste of former feasts is afforded by a relic in the
library, a framed schedule of a dignified disputation more
than a century ago, large and imposing, two feet long by
nearly the same width, crossing the Atlantic to Europe.
A Catholic author also has recently, in his treatment of
theology, laid down minute directions for the proper ob-
servance of disputation at the present day, not as didactic
and educative as Keckerman, and happily not as swollen. 343
Survivals at Present.
No branch of knowledge is entirely lost. It may decay,
it may be even considered dead, it may be snatched off and
cast aside, but there are rootlets or fibres or jagged ends
and rough edges that stand as testimony of what has been.
Education has broadened enormously and in an ordinary
use of words we can speak of certain studies having dropped
out, but they have all left their impress behind, sometimes
obscured so that they are practically forgotten.
m S. J. Hunter, Outline of Dogmatic Theology, three volumes in
all. Pages 514-518 of Vol. 1.
Disputation. 283
Disputation, in some of its influence, is still with us. The
theses for the doctorate in our great universities grew out
of medieval disputation. To-day the candidate faces a board
of examiners ready to maintain views he has advanced in
his dissertation. Half of the exercise, it is true, has gone,
there is no opponent. Our seminaries are the breeding
places for these exercises, preparing young men for this
contest.
Our debating societies, in the patterns of our legislatures,
sprang in part from the old custom. Stiles speaks of two
library companies in Yale which used to hold their quar-
terly exhibitions separately, very likely the faint beginnings
of the debating clubs. 3 "
The most notable survival, however, is the new interest
being manifested in forensics by the number of institutions
in this land. Some of them require every student to take
some part in the work, stipulating the number of times de-
bates are to be held during the session. A wearisome string
of text-books has come out of late years. The preface and
the directions generally read very much like their fore-
runners of the middle ages. One of the latest is almost as
minute as Keckerman, just as tiresome and just as useless.
We might groan in agony to see this reversal to a discarded
study, a lusty man trying to go back to the knee breeches
and jacket of his youth.
Summary.
The Food That Made the Giants.
A unique and remarkable educational leader, one of the
greatest of the new world, rather early in his career wanted
to know what fare great Revolutionary captains had fed
upon that had made them so capable in a grave emergency.
Mr. D. C. Gilman, in 1871, in an academic utterance, had
M Stiles's Diary, Volume 3, page 337.
284 Our Colonial Curriculum.
said: "It will be a curious inquiry for some philosophical
writer on the intellectual progress of this country to ascer-
tain what were the themes, the text-books, the methods of
instruction and tuition which prevailed in the American col-
leges prior to the Revolution; what sort of instruction at
Cambridge filled Samuel and John Adams with their notions
of civil liberty ; what sort of culture at New Haven brought
Jonathan Edwards to his lofty rank among the theologians
of this country and of Scotland ; what discipline at Prince-
ton fitted James Madison to exert such an influence upon
the formation of the Constitution ; and what academic drill
at Columbia College, in New York, made Alexander Ham-
ilton the founder of our national credit and our financial
system." 345
It is not within the limits of this study to attempt an
answer in full to this pregnant utterance as so much of the
strength of these eminent characters was developed after
they had left the care of the schoolmaster, but it may be
worth while to consider what mental nourishment they got
in school that fitted them for the huge tasks they performed.
It was another sky over their heads, another atmosphere
around them, another problem for them to solve. It was
an age of discussion, not of investigation; it was a war of
words, not a research into nature. Men harassed their
souls to know what the masters meant, they did not gather
their forces and concentrate their efforts to learn the results
of science. For the epochs past they had been dealing with
terms of speech, they had been fashioning their language,
they had been sharpening their dialectical wits, they had
been polishing the symbols of sound. They had been delv-
ing in the past and they had begun to weigh the value of
tradition and custom. They were hoarding their powers
to break the crust of conservatism.
m H. B. Adams, History in American Colleges and Universities,
Circular No. 2, Bureau of Education, 1887, page 50, quoting from
Gilmnn's Cornell address.
Summary. 285
Their Latin, their Greek, their Hebrew,, their linguistic
study generally, had given them a verbal razor for splitting
the hairs of discussion. Logic, metaphysics, and theology
had whetted their ardor still more keenly and had furnished
them with great principles, which became bulwarks of safety
to fall back upon. The little history they had supplied
them with another form of argument, the most convincing
to the average human mind, that of example. The shreds
and patches of science that they got hardened them in their
respect for authority. The formal rules and processes of
mathematics that they memorized set them in crystals of
unchangeable faith.
Thus they stood, with trained memory, fortified with
great axioms, equipped with flexible and adaptive language,
panoplied with hard dry logic. But all this arsenal, choked
with the lore of the ancient world, needed the hand of ac-
tivity, the power to do. The gymnasium lacked the athlete,
and disputation met this want. All of this outfit was mere
lumber and rubbish unless it could— be transformed into
the energy of accomplishment. In this contest the powers
of the mind were put to service. It was only a game, it is
true, over a fantastic difference, but just as friendly trials
of strength develop for future combats of importance so
these mimic battles taught how to win.
The contest with England hinged upon the construing of
language, the meaning of statutes, the essence of practice
and customs. It was a great debate as to the rights of each
side in which ultimate decision rested upon the deep founda-
tion stones of human conduct. The two Adamses, Madison,
Jefferson, and their brethren were at home in this field.
They knew how to thrust, to parry, to ward, to defend, to
attack with the pen, because they had been at that form of
warfare all of their days. They knew how to build an
argument, to construct a logical fortress ; that had been
their pastime since youth. They could marshal words,
286 Our Colonial Curriculum.
they could explore the past, they could clinch with quota-
tion or with reference to an overshadowing name ; they had
been doing that for years. They could apply doctrines, they
could draw conclusions from accepted premises, they could
formulate new lines of departure, because these things had
been their meat and drink.
But when they had tramped the whole matter out, had
laid down the philosophical guide lines, had triumphed over
the king and his stupid advisors, had taken the old mudsills
and reared upon them another edifice for the housing of
a new nation, their work was done and has been done for
all time. With infinite care they fixed the relations for
the different elements in this household, but in all of their
labor they got very little from the beaten road that they had
walked in from their infancy. They were still dealing with
the maxims and the environment of human behavior, they
were still using the tools they had been supplied with in
philology, in ethics, and in elementary philosophy. They
were victors over their antagonists across the water because
they were more powerful in elevated discussion. They had
struck against the shell that cramped the growth of the
human race and shattered it. Without knowing it they had
ended one epoch in the struggle of humanity upwards.
With the implements forged for them in the medieval
school they reared a mighty fabric as an example that men
could live in unity and peace under their own government.
All the advances towards human liberty since then on the
face of the globe have been lighted by the reflection from
the structure they erected. The school did its work, and
they did theirs, and we are the debtors of both.
Man was emancipated from his own past. Since then
he has turned to science. Getting control of himself he
sought control of nature. He had done forever with raking
and gloating in the charnel houses behind, he set his face
to the morning light ahead. He has seen more in one cen-
tury than his fathers saw in twenty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The following list by no means includes all the books
handled in the course of this investigation. A good many
that furnish an important idea or suggestion are not repre-
sented here, as the limitation of space required some selec-
tion to be exercised. After much deliberation it was deemed
best to arrange all of them alphabetically by the authors
where possible, with enough of cross references to enable
any title to be found. A classification would have necessi-
tated a painful amount of repetition, as in many instances
the same authority would be used for a half dozen or more
of the previous heads. It may not be amiss to express a
lively sense of gratitude even though to inanimate institu-
tions, but this task could never have been accomplished
without the cheerful assistance of librarians and their staffs
in all of the large libraries in the eastern part of this country.
A special acknowledgment is due to one, very much smaller
than some of the others, but a diamond mine for educational
purposes, especially in text-books — the American Anti-
quarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. The different
manuscript sources are indicated below, though it is only
fair to state that along that line Harvard was found the
most beneficial. This is only natural considering that it is
the oldest. Unfortunately the early records of William and
Mary were destroyed by fire, a fate that the Harvard library
suffered also, especially in 1765, but fortunately the archives
have been pretty well preserved.
The titles below have all been condensed, just enough
being retained to enable the book to be found in a library by
any investigator so minded. No attempt has been made to
satisfy the technical bibliographer, as he, if capable, is
amply able to care for himself, and further would never rely
on another's collation.
2 88 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Abbot, Abiel. History of Andover. 1829.
Aboard. See Compayre.
Adams, Herbert B. William and Mary. U. S. Bureau
Educ, 1887.
Adams, Herbert B. History in American colleges and
universities. U. S. Bureau of Education No. 2, 1887.
Adamson, John William. Pioneers of modern educa-
tion. 1905.
Alcott, A. Bronson. New Connecticut. 1887.
Alexander, S. D. Princeton College. 1872.
Alstedii, Johannis Henrici. Thesaurus chronologiae.
1650. Latin.
American-Jewish Historical Society. Organized 1892.
American Journal of Education, The. Edited by
Henry Barnard. 31 volumes. 1855-1881.
American Magazine. Vol.i, 1743-44.
Ascham, Roger. English works. 1761.
Ascham, Roger. The whole works of Roger Ascham.
4 volumes". 1865.
Atkinson, Thomas. Cambridge. 1897.
Baker, Thomas. History of the College of St. John the
Evangelist, Cambridge. Edited by John E. B. Mayor.
2 vols. 1869.
Benezet, Anthony. The Pennsylvania spelling book.
1779.
Beverly, Robert. The history and present state of Vir-
ginia. 1705.
Boone, Richard Gause, A. M. Education in the United
States. 1889.
Boston Public School. See Catalogue.
Brodhead, John Romeyn. History of New York. 1853.
Brooks. Charles. History of Medford. 1855.
Brooks, Phillips. Essays and addresses. 1894.
Brown, Elmer Ellsworth. Our middle schools. 1903.
Bibliography. 289
Bureau oe Education of the United States. Various
publications.
Burgersdicii Fr. institutionum logicarum libri duo. Lon-
don : 1641.
Burton, Warren. The district school. 1897. Boston:
Lee and Shepdrd. (One of the most entertaining and de-
tailed accounts of actual child life in school to be found.
The name "Warren, Burton" appears only in pencil on
the title page.)
Cajori, ElorIan. The teaching and history of mathe-
matics in the United States. U. S. Bureau of Educ. Cir-
cular No. 3, 1890.
Camden Society Publications: Over fifty volumes.
Catalogue oe the Boston Public Latin School. 1886.
Chaplin, Jeremiah. Life of Henry Dunster. 1872.
Chase, George Wingate. The history of Haverhill. 1861.
Cheever, Ezekiel. (Some note books of his, in a very
painful hand, in the library of the Massachusetts Histori-
cal Society.)
Clark, S[amuel]. A new description of the world. 1712.
(The library catalogues to-day spell the name Clarke.
Small 18 mo. no maps, only one illustration.)
Cleveland, John. The works of Mr. John Cleveland.
1687.
Cocker, Edward. Cocker's arithemtic, being a plain and
familiar method. By Edward Cocker. 56th edition.
London. 1767.
First page has, as noted in text:
"Ingenious Cocker, now to rest thou'rt gone,
"No art can show thee fully, but thine own.
"Thy rare arithmetic alone can show
"Th' vast sums of thanks, we for thy labor owe."
Colonial Society oe Massachusetts. See Publications.
Compayre, Gabriel. Abelard and the origin and early
history of Universities. i2mo. 1893.
19
290 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Compayre, Gabriee. The history of pedagogy. Boston.
1886.
Corderi colloquiorum centuria selecta in usum tironum.
Editio prima portsmuthiensis edita Carolo Tappan
i2mo., pp. 108. Portimuthi Neo-Hantonia. 1810.
Davidson, Thomas. A history of education. New York.
1900.
D'EwES, Sir Simonds, Bart. The autobiography and cor-
respondence of. 2 volumes. 8vo. London. 1845.
Dexter, Edward Grant. A history of education in the
United States. New York. 1904.
Dexter, Frankein Bowditch, M. A. Biographical
sketches of the Graduates of Yale College. 3 volumes.
New York. 1885.
Dictionary oe National Biography.
Dileaway, ChareES Kirkham. A history of the gram-
mar school, or, "The Free Schoole of 1645 m Roxburie."
Roxbury. i860.
Dieworth, Thomas. A new guide to the English tongue.
Harrisburgh. 181 1 .
Dieworth, Thomas. The young book-keeper's assistant.
York. 1839 •
Documents relating to the university and colleges of Cam-
bridge. 3 volumes. London. 1852. (Practically all in
Latin: very rare and valuable.)
Drake, Samuee G. The history and antiquities of Bos-
ton. Boston. 1856.
Dunshee, Henry Webb. History of the school of the col-
legiate reformed Dutch church in the city of New York.
New York. 1883.
Dyer, George. The privileges of the University of Cam-
bridge. London. 1824.
Education, a monthly magazine. Boston.
EcgeESTon, Edward. The transit of civilization in the 17th
century. New York. 1901.
Bibliography. 291
Enfield, William. Institutes of natural philosophy. Lon-
don. 1785.
Enfield, William. The history o* philosophy. London.
1839.
Everett, Edward. Orations and speeches on various oc-
casions. Boston. 1850.
Felt, Joseph B. History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamil-
ton. Cambridge. 1834.
Felt, Joseph B. The annals of Salem. Salem. 1827.
Fisher, George. The instructor: or young man's best
companion. London. 1779; also 1799, 1801.
Fithian, Philip Vickers. Journal and letters, 1767-
1774. Princeton, N. J. : The University Library. 1900.
Fowler, Thomas. Locke. i2mo. New York. English
Men of Letters series.
Fox-Bourne, H. R. The life of John Locke. New York.
1876.
Frothingham, Richard. The history of Charlestown.
Boston. 1845.
Froude, J. A. Life and letters of Erasmus. New York.
1894.
Fuller, Thomas. The church history of Britain. Ox-
ford: University Press. 1845.
Gassendi Petri opera omnia in sex tomos divisa. Lug-
duni. 1658.
Gassendi, PiERRR Institutio astronomica. London: H.
Dickinson. 1683.
Gibbon, Edward. The history of the decline and fall of
the Roman empire. With notes by the Rev. H. H. Mil-
man. 6 volumes. New York : Harper and Bros. 1858.
Gibbs, David. Article, "Pedagogy of Geography," in
March, 1907, issue of Pedagogical Seminary, Worcester,
Mass.
Glimpses of Colonial Society. Edited by W. Jay Mills.
Philadelphia and London.
292 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Gordon, Pat. Geography. London. 1693.
Gordon, William. The universal accountant, and com-
plete merchant. Dublin. 1796.
Gough, John. A treatise of arithmetic. Philadelphia.
1788.
Gough, John. Practical arithmetick in four books. Dub-
lin. 1798.
Grant, Sir Alexander. The story of the University of
Edinburgh. London. 1884.
Gravesande, William James. Mathematical elements of
natural philosophy. London. 1737. 4th edition. Nu-
merous illustrations.
Greenwood, Isaac. Arithmetick vulgar and decimal, with
the application thereof, to a variety of cases in trade and
commerce. Boston : N. E. Printed by S. Kneeland and
T. Green, for T. Hancock at the sign of the Bible and
three crowns in Ann street. 1729. Only a few copies
known, perhaps only three, Congressional Library copy
does not have name of any author on title page, but
"Isaac Greenwood" is pencilled in proper place, and vol-
ume is catalogued under Greenwood. Clearly some
pupil's copy as many of examples have been worked out
in ink in the blank spaces evidently left for that purpose.
Possibly Thomas Jones did this as his name appears on
title page thus : "Thomas Jones's Book.")
Guthrie, William. A new geographical, historical, and
commercial grammar. 1777.
Hallam, Henry. Introduction to the literature of Europe
in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. 1837.
HarlEian Miscellany, The. London. At least 12 vol-
umes, 8vo.
Harvard Archives, Mss.
Through the courtesy of Dr. W. C. Lane, the librarian, all the
Mss. data in Harvard at all likely to yield any points were leafed
over. The abstracts made by one of the foremost American his-
torical scholars were found of great assistance. A very careful
Bibliography. 293
analysis of the yearly records has been made by Mr. A. M. Davis,
published as No. 50 of the bibliographical contributions of Harvard
University. The exercises left by former students were also ex-
amined and something found in these bearing on mathematics and
disputation. No. 32 of these biographical contributions, edited by
J. Winsor, has a list of mathematical theses of the two upper classes
but not beginning till the end of the struggle with England, all ac-
curately listed by Henry C. Badger.
Hazen, Rev. Henry A. History of Billerica. Boston,
1883.
HeErEboord, Adrianus. Meletemata philosophica in qui-
bus pleraeque res metaphysicae ventilunter. .Lugduni
Batavorum. 1659. (British Museum catalogue in Con-
gressional Library.)
Copy in Boston but none in Congressional Library of this study
of philosophy.
Helvici, Christophori, V. C. Theatrum historicum et
chronologicum. Editio sexta. Oxoniae. 1662.
Of course this is hardly a tenth of what Helwig has on his folio
title page, but enough to indentify him; printed on one side of
page only, perhaps for notes. One of Oxford editions put into Eng-
lish as thus.
Helvicus, Christopher. The historical and chronological
theatre of Christopher Helvicus. London: printed by
M. Flesher for George West and John Crosley. 1687.
Both have outlines, tables and diagrams in such order and pro-
fusion as to suggest an architectural head, wooden at that, on the
shoulders of Christopher Helvicus.
Holyoke, Thomas, D. D. A large dictionary in three
parts: English, Latin and proper names performed by
the great pains and many years study of Thomas Holy-
oke, D. D. London. 1677.
Hosmer, James K. Samuel Adams. American Statesmen
series. Boston. 1885.
HubneR, Johann. A new and easy introduction to the
study of geography. London. 1742.
294 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Hughes, Rev. Thomas Aeoysius. Loyola. New York,
1892.
Hunter, Sylvester Joseph. Outlines of dogmatic the-
ology. New, York, Cincinnati, Chicago.
Hutchinson, Thomas. The history of Massachusetts.
Boston. 1795.
Jarratt, Rev. DeverEux. Life. Baltimore. 1906.
Jones, Hugh, A. M. The present state of Virginia. Lon-
don, 1724.
Author also wrote the accidence, below, of which so few copies
known to be extant, one copy listed in the British Museum catalogue
of printed books, London, 1889, but long search and much corre-
spondence failed to locate any copy in this country either in public
or private hands. Jones also wrote on mathematics.
Jones, Hugh, A. M. An accidence to the English tongue.
1724.
Keckerman, D. Bartholomew. D. Bartholomaei Keck-
ermanni Dantiscani, in gymnasio patrio philosophiae pro-
fessoris eruditissmi, operum omnium quae extant.
Genevae: apud Petrum Aubertum 16 14. 2 volumes.
Kemp. E. L. History of education. Philadelphia. 1902.
KiddeE and SchEm. Dictionary of education and instruc-
tion. 1 88 1.
Kingseey, Wiixiam L. See Yale College in this bibli-
ography.
Laurie, S. S. John Amos Comenius. Syracuse, New
York. 1892.
Laurie, S. S., LL. D. The rise and early constitution of
universities. New York. 1887.
One of most entertaining of writers on educational history.
Leach, Arthur F. English schools at the reformation.
Westminster. 1896.
Legge, James. The life and teachings of Confucius. Lon-
don. 1872.
Bibliography. 295
Le Grand, Anthony. An entire body of philosophy.
London. 1694.
Leland, John. The itinerary. Oxford, England. 1770.
Leverett, C. E. A memoir, biographical and genealogi-
cal, of Sir John Leverett. Boston. 1856.
Lewes, George Henry. The history of philosophy. Lon-
don. 1867.
Locke, John. See Quick.
Lowth, Robert. A short introduction to English gram-
mar. London. 1793.
Maitland, Rev. S. R. The dark ages. London, 1844.
Martin, George H. The evolution of the Massachusetts
public school system. New York. 1894.
Martin, W. A. P. The lore of Cathay. New York. 1901.
Mary, John. A new French and English grammar. Bos-
ton. 1784.
Massachusetts Coi,oniai, Society. See Publications.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Organized in 1791, has two sets of publications, Collections and
Proceedings. Very troublesome for reference purposes, and diffi-
culty enhanced by several series of each. Still it's work of most
dignified and valuable character, with indexes at intervals coming
nearly to the present. Especially to be noted is the index to the
Proceedings.
Massachusetts Records. See Records.
Masson, David. The life of John Milton. Cambridge.
1859.
Mather, Cotton. Magnalia christi Americana. Hart-
ford. 1853.
Mather, Increase. Kometographia, or a discourse con-
cerning comets. Boston. 1683.
McCabe, W. Gordon. Virginia schools before and after
the Revolution. Charlottesville, Va. 1890.
Meade, Bishop. Old churches, ministers and families of
Virginia. 2 volumes. Philadelphia. 1897.
296 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Melanthonis Phillippi Opera Quae Supersunt Om-
nia. Edidit Carolus Gottloeb Bretschneider. Halis
Saxonum: C. A. Schwetschke et Filium. 1834. Latin.
28 volumes.
Memoir and Correspondence oe Jeremiah Mason. Pri-
vately printed. Cambridge. 1873.
MignE, J. P. Patrologia latina. 1863.
Collection of writings of learned ecclesiastics and fathers. A
mammoth undertaking well carried out. The above is the binder's
title.
Milton, John. A commonplace book, and a Latin essay
and Latin verses presumed to be by Milton. 1876.
Milton, John. The works of John Milton in verse and
prose. London. 1851.
Minchin, J. G. Cotton. Our public schools. London.
1901. ,
Monroe, Paul. A textbook in the history of education.
New York. 1905.
More, Henry. Enchridibn metaphysicum : sive, de rebus
incorporeis succincta & luculenta dissertatio. Londini:
Guilielum Morden, Bibliopolam Cantabrigiensem, 1671.
Mulcaster, Richard. The educational writings of Rich-
ard Mulcaster, 1532-1611. Edited by James Oliphant.
1903. Glasgow.
Mullinger, J. Bass. The schools of Charles the Great and
the restoration of education in the 9th century. London.
1877.
Mullinger, James Bass, M. A. The University of Cam-
bridge from the earliest times to the royal injunctions of
1535. Cambridge, England. 1873.
Mullinger, James Bass, M. A. The University of Cam-
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Mullinger, J. Bass. A history of the University of Cam-
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Munster, Sebastian. Cosmographia universalis lib. VI
in quibus, juxta certioris fidei scriptorum traditionem de-
seribuntur,. . . 15.50.
Immense folio, with some dozen maps, and hundreds of illustra-
tiops, two very realistic ones, pages 1 100, 1101, showing cannibalis-
tic butchers chopping up a dead body, and roasting one complete
on a spit. Book of special interest to Americans as a part of it,
rendered into English three ye^rs later, in 1553, is described as "the
second English book on America," appearing thus : —
Munster, Sebastian. "A treatyse of the newe India with
other newe founde landes. . .after the description of Se-
bastian Munster in his boke of universall cosmographie."
. London: E. Sutton. 1553.
Reprinted by Edward Arber, editor, in 1895. To be noted that in
neither of these titles is the spelling of his name Muenster or Miins-
ter, but library cards have this form tOrday.
New England Primer, The. Edited by Paul Leicester
Ford. New York. 1897.
New Hampshire Historical Society.
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Pierson, Abraham. (The manuscript copy of his notes on
lectures he took at Harvard and used afterwards when
he taught at Yale, preserved in the library of Yale Uni-
versity. He was the first president of Yale and his
statue now adorns the campus.)
298 Our Colonial Curriculum.
Pike, Nicholas. A new and complete system of arith-
metic. Newbury-Port. 1788.
Plunkett, Mrs. H. M. Ten co-educated girls two hun-
dred years ago. Scribner's Magazine, January, 1903.
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lated into English as follows : —
Porta, John Baptist. Natural magick. London. (1658,
written in ink at bottom of Congressional Library copy.)
Pratt, Daniel J. Annals of public education in New York.
In 82d annual report of Regents of the University of
New York.
Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Boston.
Public Schools, The. By the author of "Etoniana."
Edinburgh and London. 1867.
Quick, Rev. R. H. Some thoughts concerning education
by John Locke with introduction and notes. Cambridge.
1880.
Quick, Robert Herbet. Essays on educational reformers
1890.
Quincy, Josiah. The history of Harvard University. 2
volumes. Cambridge. 1840.
Rabelais. Works. Translated from French, by Gustave
Dore. London, Chatto and Windus. (No date in con-
gressional library copy.)
Rami, P., scholae in liberales artes, quarum elenchus est
proxima pagina. . . 1569.
Ramus, P., See Waddington.
Ramus, Peter (Pierre de la Ramee). The art of logic
out of Aristotle and set in due forme. London. 1626.
Rashdall, Hastings. The universities of Europe in the
middle ages. 2 volumes. Oxford. 1895.
Ratio Studiorum atque institutio studiorum societatis
Jesu. Autoritate septimae congregationis generalis aucta.
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Ratio Studiorum et institutiones scholasticae societatis
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