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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030576502 
 
Cornell University Library 
 LB41 .P87 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 576 502 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 ANNIVERSARY EXERCISES 
 
 OP THE LITERARY SOCIETY 
 
 AT EDGEHILL SCHOOL, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J., 
 
 MARCH 27, 1854, 
 
 By GEORGE POTTS, D. D. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE BEQUEST OP THE MEMBERS OP THE SOCIETY. 
 
 PEINCETON, N. J. 
 1854. 
 
ADDEESS. 
 
 'Maxima debetur pueko beterentia.' — Juvenal: Sat. XIV. 47. 
 
 When requested to participate in the interesting 
 exercises of this occasion, I reluctantly accepted the 
 part assigned me — that of making an address — 
 mainly because I know that there is an extensive 
 and savory bill of fare before you, and do not 
 fancy being obliged to do the Jieavy work. But my 
 reluctance has proved vain — and the next best thing 
 I can do, is to promise beforehand that I will be 
 short. I shall thus secure for my poor speech, at 
 least the praise of brevity, which, for a modern speech, 
 is very great praise. Thirty minutes then 'by Shrews- 
 bury clock,' and I will relieve your attention. 
 
 Many things might we confer about on such an 
 ■occasion. It furnishes a field of thought so wide, 
 that for fear I should ramble too much, I will not 
 only take a text but will try and stick to it. It is 
 a good text, though taken from a heathen sati- 
 rist, who cracked his whip at many bad things and 
 some good ones, like most persons who make sarcasm 
 their business. The very poem in which we find 
 
it, shows that Juvenal knew next to nothing about 
 Moses and the Old Testament, and yet he goes 
 out of his way to abuse them. He probably formed his 
 notions of them from some vagrant old-clothes-man 
 who had cheated him ; a style of judging, however, 
 not peculiar to him. All he seems to know of the 
 ' arcanum volumen Moses,' as he calls it, is, that it en- 
 joined circumcision and the sacredness of a sab- 
 bath, forbade swine's flesh as food, and taught men 
 to adore nothing but the "Coeli Numen." It is 
 strange enough that such a ridiculer of image wor- 
 ship should find fault with this last peculiarity of 
 the Hebrew faith. But, for these blunders let us 
 pity poor Juvenal who knew no better. We may 
 feel sure that he would have been ashamed of them, 
 could he have read the sublime writings he ignorant- 
 ly satirizes, and found, that, regarded as mere ethi- 
 cal writings, they were incomparable and every 
 where enjoined the very moralities he praises, and 
 denounced the very vices which he condemns. It is 
 pleasant to imagine how astonished he would have 
 been to have had a good translation into Latin of the 
 book of Proverbs laid on his study table, and to find 
 that it contains a thousand expressions which con- 
 firm the very maxim which we have chosen as the 
 text of bur remarks. 
 
 It is a good text, I repeat, and not the less so because 
 the pen of a poor blind heathen sage stumbled on it. 
 It is this : 
 
' Maxima debetur puero reverentia ' : which, lit- 
 erally we render thus : 
 
 Our greatest reverence to the hoy is due. 
 
 He speaks to parents, and in reference to a par- 
 ticular class of evils : let us give the words a wider 
 application, and regard them as happily expressing 
 a Christian truth which underlies all sound educa- 
 tion. If they be true when viewed from a heathen, 
 how much more when viewed from a Christian stand- 
 point. 
 
 Let none quarrel with the word reverence. Only 
 the unreflecting will think it misapplied. Some 
 people can comprehend reverence for an old man, or 
 an able man, or an official man, and some — but they 
 will not admit the fact — know what it is to rever- 
 ence a rich man, with large farms, houses and bank 
 stocks. This they can comprehend ; but to talk of 
 reverence, and the greatest reverence as due to hoys, 
 will provoke their laughter. Forthwith they pic- 
 ture to themselves a squad of noisy fellows in the 
 play-ground, perhaps squabbling about trifles, and 
 soiling their clothes, and making work for the seam- 
 stress : or what is much worse — perhaps lying or 
 swearing or bragging or tyrannizing : perhaps play- 
 ing monkey pranks, firing crackers or turning some 
 long-eared animal into a college chapel, or some 
 work of equal cleverness — and the idea of reverencing 
 these in any shape or form, is simply ludicrous, and 
 to say the least, high-flown. They look upon them 
 
tis fledglings, whose highest destiny it it is to devel- 
 ope into politicians who scramble for place, or money- 
 making machines, or dandies whose souls are fired 
 with the noble ambition of having fashionable clothes 
 and fashionable manners. 
 
 I admit that too many youth are precisely so : too 
 many boys are manikins, with none of the merits 
 of boy or man, a sad conglomeration of the most de- 
 testable qualities of both. If the truth were known, 
 our sage Juvenal had seen such in the streets 
 and schools of Rome. There is a passage in old 
 Pliny, who lived at the same time, which describes 
 a class of Eoman youth, whose successors are not rare- 
 ly met with now. He says, ' Modesty is scarce among 
 our youth. How seldom will one of them yield to 
 superior age or authority ? They grow wise in a 
 trice : all at once they know every thing : they rev- 
 erence no one, imitate no one, but are their own 
 models.' One would think old Pliny had studied our 
 ' Young America.' Let us not do our poet the injustice 
 of thinking that he means to demand reverence for 
 bad boys ruined into worse men. And yet even they, 
 do not contradict but confirm the truth he meant to 
 convey. They are forcible illustrations of his maxim, 
 inasmuch as they would not be what they are, had 
 this maxim been observed in the process of their 
 training. All the samples of precocious folly and 
 crime we see in the world may be traced to the 
 neglect of this very principle, either on their own 
 
part or on the part of their parent* and teachers. 
 
 For what is implied in it ? In what sense, recer- 
 ence tlie hoy ? Not so much for what he is, as for 
 what he is, \iewed in connection with what he may 
 and ought to be. The obscurest germ of existence 
 is interesting, is grand, when we know that there 
 are folded up in it all the parts of a wonderful or- 
 ganism, which, when unfolded, may reveal some form 
 of beauty or utility. It is one of the great glories 
 of the Maker of aU. that, himself Mcwimits in mini- 
 mis, he has arranged all things so that ' Tota uatura 
 exist it in m in im is.' Hence, in the mind of a wise man, 
 the admiration with which he regards the great, 
 easily transfers itself to the less. Insignificant I 
 banish the word from the language ! There is noth- 
 ing insignificant; that i^, nothing which does not 
 import something, which has not impressed on it 
 the sign manual of the great Being who made all 
 things for a purpose. Is not this so ? Then least of 
 all is that little human being insignificant, whose 
 wandering eye will by and by sparkle with in- 
 tellect, whose involuntary motions will become reg- 
 ulated and skilled to some wonderfol art, whose in- 
 articulate cries will be developed into the glories of 
 speech. Begarded as a merely intelligent animal, 
 the changes which the hiunan chUd will undergo, 
 make it an object of admiration akin to reverence. 
 
 But it is more than this. The lowest of its instincts, 
 its labored and amusing attempts at ai uculate speech, 
 
8 
 
 its feeblest efforts at comparison and inference, its 
 struggles to achieve the alphabet, to connect syllables 
 and words, and to master meanings, its very blunders 
 and ill-directed passions and energies, what are these 
 to the eye of a thinker but the beginnings of the end? 
 ' The bull-calf butts with smooth and unarmed brow.' 
 It is by these efforts that the child is developing the 
 powers, which, by and by will make their mark on 
 the world. His movements — every one of them — 
 are the buddings of the mighty forces of nature, in- 
 dicating what is to come. Did not the child Napo- 
 leon, the child Washington contain the elements of 
 what the man, the statesman, the soldier, afterwards 
 revealed ? The mother of a Paul, or an Augustine, 
 or an Archibald Alexander, or any other mother 
 who caressed the infancy and chUdhood of some 
 great and good soul, would have been justified in re- 
 garding the infant she held in her arms with rever- 
 ential feelings, could she have forcasted its history 
 even in this life. Even for this hfe, great things 
 will come forth from the nursery and the school- 
 room. In some segment of the world, every chUd 
 will suffer or enjoy, do good and promote happiness, 
 or do evil and inflict misery, in many hearts. Nay 
 it may be that the most potent influences upon the 
 course of human affairs, are waiting in that little breast 
 to be unlocked by some wise or reckless hand. This 
 too, warrants our maxim. 
 
 But this is only a part, and a small part of the chain 
 
9 
 
 of causes and consequences of which the boy shall be a 
 link. He is the heir, and to him belong the capacities 
 of an endless life. I will not dwell upon this. It is 
 too great for words. The eternity which is around 
 him, before him, behind him, is also within him. He 
 is a vessel which may be filled to the brim with glory. 
 That is the chief of his titles of dignity. Never, 
 never, never to die ! Faith, inspired by a revelation 
 of immortality which the Roman poet never dreamed 
 of, sees this sentence written on every youthful brow, 
 and it fills us with reverence. 
 
 And should we look upon the other, the dark side 
 of the possibilities that environ the boy, our rever- 
 ence is still due, though it partakes of an indig- 
 nant and gloomy awe. The creature that can en- 
 joy like an angel, can sufier like a demon : the 
 creature that can soar like the eagle, can grovel 
 like the swine. It may be a temple of God, or 
 satyrs may dance and owls hoot in its ruins. What 
 then ? Shall we despise the spring-head of a river 
 because hereafter it may run through a swamp ? or 
 the embryo of an oak because hereafter it may be 
 gnarled ? No doubt such has been the history of 
 many a bold-hearted, beautiful boy. I have seen 
 more than one such, converted into a miserable gold- 
 worshipper, or treacherous liar whom no one trusted, 
 or reckless sceptic, libertine, spendthrift, and drunk- 
 ard. Go down into some den where vice skulks 
 
 and festers, and you may see what beauty, strength, 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 intellect, and boyish modesty may become, when 
 sin allures the soul to ruin itself. But even 
 then, do not its very desolations bear an awful testi- 
 mony to the grandeur of the original structure ? 
 About the worst human ruin, there will always be 
 found some broken capital or fallen colunm, . whose 
 cunning carved-work tells eloquently what it might 
 have been. Every energetic heave of passion which 
 carries man hell-ward, is a testimony to the grandeur 
 of the nature that belongs to him. 
 
 " His very crimes attest his dignity. 
 His sateless thirst of pleasure, gold or fame, 
 Declares him horn for hlessings infinite. 
 His passions — so mis-measured to this scene, 
 Stretch'd out like eagle's wings heyond his nest. 
 For earth too large — presage a nobler flight." 
 
 These views of the human being, give to the motto 
 we have chosen, a wider scope and a profoilnder sense 
 than the poet meant. They clothe in an august 
 dignity the child springing into youth, the youth in- 
 to manhood, and through all the changes of time, 
 ripening for a future of life or death eternal. 
 
 Now — for the inferences which naturally proceed 
 from this view of boyhood — let me say to parents, to 
 teachers, to hoys themselves, that our motto contains 
 a pregnant truth which they must make the starting 
 point, in the great work called Education. 
 
 Parents, even the wisest, do not fully appreciate 
 
11 
 
 the true dignity and importance of their children, 
 or they would commit fewer mistakes and oversights. 
 They often treat the baby as a precious play-thing, 
 and the boy as a pet, to be dressed and pampered 
 and sensualized. It is the grossest blunder to call 
 this love. If our boys be cherished for personal 
 beauty, real or imagined, or if they be valued as the 
 links by which the family name, wealth or honors 
 may be transmitted, or if on the other hand, they be 
 regarded as incumbrances, to be quit of by being 
 committed to hired menials or despatched to a 
 school — what can we hope ? This is to err altogether 
 as to the true nature of human life. 
 
 The physical and moral training of home, is gen- 
 erally critical and decisive of the future of the boy. 
 If the gentle and pliant disposition be strengthened 
 and the obstinate and self-willed softened, by home 
 influences ; if the virtues of truth, honor, honesty, 
 kindness, generosity, modesty, subordination and 
 kindred sentiments be there carefully cherished, half 
 the labor of the school may be dispensed with. And 
 it is precisely that half which makes the calling of 
 the teacher a drudgery and a risk, which no com- 
 pensation short of a successful cure of the mischief 
 can induce any man to accept. Parental work is the 
 great work : always difficult and incessant, and often 
 disheartening — ^but if it be neglected in the early years 
 of boyhood and left to take care of itself, the subse- 
 
12 
 
 quent school-life will betray the fact and furnish a 
 Herculean task for the skill and patience of a high- 
 principled teacher. I say a high-principled teacher, 
 for there are teachers who are not high-principled in 
 the respects in which high principles are most import- 
 ant, namely, the cultivation of the nobler sentiments 
 on which more than on any amount of head-knowl- 
 edge, the character and destiny for all time and eterni- 
 ty are dependent. We often tax the teacher too heavi- 
 ly. We require of him to do not only his own but 
 our work, and to repair our neglects. He is blamed 
 for results which are in a great degree beyond his con- 
 trol. I admit that there are bad schools where an 
 uncontaminated boy may contract moral diseases — 
 but it is equally true that there are good schools 
 into which a contaminated boy may carry mischief 
 which no teacher can cure. All he can do is to ex- 
 clude the tainted sheep. When we reflect how much 
 boys educate each other, that school must indeed 
 have a very pure atmosphere, in which there is no 
 danger even from a solitary case of contagious dis- 
 ease. I do not speak of ordinary forms of mischief, — 
 these are to be found in the family and the school 
 everywhere, in spite of generally good culture. I 
 speak of uncorrected home-bred sins ; lying, malice, 
 impurity, insubordination, profanity, and the like, 
 which have been fostered by the negligence, false 
 teaching and bad examples of domestic life. It 
 is asking too much that a teacher should expose 
 
13 
 
 his household to such as are more fit to be sent 
 to a house of refuge than to a school of well-trained 
 boys. 
 
 But would any difficulty like this occur, did parents 
 act upon the maxim of Juvenal ? Did they remem- 
 ber that they must have, whether they will or no, 
 the first responsibilities in the matter : did they 
 study what their boy is, and what they ought to 
 wish him to be : did they sustain the first school 
 discipline : did they guard the immortal treasure 
 from unfriendly influences in the earliest stages of 
 life ? But with a low ideal of boy qualities, and a 
 low notion of the difficulties of steering the vessel 
 through that narrow passage between boyhood and 
 manhood, which bristles with the rocks of temptation, 
 and the more dangerous because the winds of appe- 
 tite and passion then begin to rise into violence — 
 with an equally false notion, (which I fear prevails in 
 many minds,) that it is a sort of natural and inevita- 
 ble law that boys springing into manhood must drink 
 more or less of the dirty ditch-water of vice — must 
 sow their wild oats, as the phrase runs, — no wonder 
 that so many lads are to be found in our schools and 
 colleges, who, to say nothing of their incorrigible idle- 
 ness in study, carry a taint with them and subject 
 themselves to exclusion as soon as they are detected. 
 Let the blame rest where it should — upon the first 
 steps of a training, which did not make the fear of 
 the Lord the beginning of wisdom, and did not take 
 
14 
 
 this lesson from the mouth of a heathen, that the boy 
 is to be regarded with * reverence.' 
 
 Enough on this head. When we turn to the ap- 
 plication of our maxim to the Teacher — ^what can 
 we say but the most superficial things on a topic so 
 large ? 
 
 We acknowledge with pleasure, that a considera- 
 ble change has come over the public mind in its esti- 
 mate of the importance of the ofl&ce, and as a conse- 
 quence, in the social status and compensation it has 
 now reached. But there is much to desire in these 
 respects before the true magnitude of the important 
 fuilction of teaching is reached by Parents or Teach- 
 ers. For example, there is still a most anomalous 
 blunder committed, that of rating the cheapness of 
 an education as its first quality. The Lawyer and 
 Physician make their own charges, and though 
 grumbled at, they are not rejected. Why ? Oh ! the 
 body and the purse must be well taken care of: but 
 the mind and the soul ! — teachers and preachers 
 have a sinecure when they undertake the charge of 
 these small affairs — -why should their labors be en- 
 titled to a similar remuneration ? Many, in this 
 spirit commit these interests to incompetent, and 
 none the less incompetent because pretentious per- 
 sons, who promise to do great things — cheaply. 
 Shall we ever detect these fathers and mothers en- 
 gaging their doctor or lawyer or clerk or even their 
 
15 
 
 groom or cook upon this principle. Why should 
 economy begin here ? Let it begin in other direc- 
 tions first, if they expect that competent men will 
 be willing to assume the incessant labors and risks 
 of this most noble profession. Cheap education, 
 very cheap, may be secured — but what will the boys 
 be ? ' Yes,' said an eminent preacher to the econo- 
 mists who were calculating his support at starva- 
 tion prices — ' yes, I doubt not you may get a preach- 
 " er for fifty dollars, but I would have you remember 
 " he will be a fifty dollar preacher.' So we may say 
 of the teacher. Infinitely detestable are the Squeer- 
 ses, who collect boys with the promise of making 
 cheap wonders of them, and who are forced to make 
 their money out of the poor fellows, by converting 
 them into drudges, starving their bodies, and provid- 
 ing poor, half-paid, dispirited drones of under-teach- 
 ers. who more than starve their minds. The Scot- 
 tish description of such schools, though coarse is true : 
 ' the lads gang in sturks and come oot asses,' that is, 
 'they go in little donkeys and come out big donkeys.' 
 Are not all the Dotheboy's Halls, dear at any price ? 
 But I am glad to believe, that this description of 
 schools, is comparatively rare in our land. From an 
 early period, a nobler conception of the nature and 
 value of education took possession of the American 
 mind. It may be fairly ascribed to the reKgious 
 element brought over by the first pioneers. This, of 
 course, always developes itself in the direction of our 
 
16 
 
 motto, for at its very basis lies the assumption of 
 the importaiwe of the hwnan heing. From this cause 
 chiefly, has come the sustained advance in education. 
 Other causes have contributed to the result, but this 
 is the chief. It is this which has always planted 
 the School-house and the College beside the Churches 
 and the Homes of the land, and which, we may 
 hope, will make each successive generation a better 
 judge and more willing supporter of competent in- 
 structors ; and then the miserable pretenders and spec- 
 ulators we have referred to, may try some other bus- 
 iness. Let our maxim be kept in mind, and we have 
 no apprehension that the true standard of teaching 
 and teachers will not rise more and more into public 
 view. 
 
 Again, we do not deny that much is yet to be 
 learned by Teachers themselves before the magnitude 
 of their profession is realized. Unless the best qual- 
 ifications are devoted to this profession ; unless its 
 true scope and aim are considered, unless it embodies 
 in its fullest sense the maxim of our poet — its pro- 
 fessors will not be respected nor remunerated. Men 
 are needed for it who might shine in other orbits. It 
 must not be regarded as the ' Sleepy hollow,' to which 
 the stupid, thriftless and unsuccessful of other callings 
 may resort, and drone away life. We want no trick- 
 sters, no humbugs, no pretenders great upon paper. 
 We want men sagacious in discriminating character 
 and applying principles, men spirited, energetic, con- 
 
17 
 
 stant, men of conscience and common sense, (the 
 necessary elements of all self-improvement), men 
 "who not only know something worth teaching, but 
 know how to teach it. There is a great mistake 
 made, when it i^ supposed that education means 
 cramming a mind with all the knowledges. As the 
 very word signifies, it is a drawing out, a leading forth 
 the several latent forces within. Literally, it is the 
 bringing a boy out : a persuading of his reluctant 
 mental limbs to step and walk, a teaching him how 
 to sharpen and handle the mental tools. It is assist- 
 ing the mind to understand its own powers, and how 
 they may be improved. It is in short, the science 
 of mental gymnastics. The teaching which does not 
 start with this in view, is no better than a baby-jumper 
 or a go-cart, by which a child will never learn to walk, 
 but only to imitate walking. The chief thing is not 
 to pour the water of knowledge down the throat of 
 a pupil tiU he can hold no more, but to teach him 
 the road to a spring where he can help himself. The 
 actual accumulations of school life, are not often much 
 in amount or consequence. The most that can be 
 done at school is to lay foundations, and to discipline 
 the thinking powers. And almost any thing may 
 be employed so as to contribute to this. Why ! even 
 Latin and Greek, those old fogeys so much scofied at 
 in this very practical age, may be taught so as actu- 
 ally to sharpen the intellectual skill necessary to the 
 chief end of modern man, that of turning an honest 
 penny and growing rich. 3 
 
18 
 
 But after all, this development of the intellectual 
 powers is not what Bacon calls the " furthest end of 
 knowledge" — and therefore not the best index of a 
 Teacher's qualities. It is to make knowledge and 
 the thinking power subserve goodness — to make of 
 smart fellows, noble fellows, arid good fellows. ' The 
 business of a Teacher,' said one who had well studied 
 his own responsibilities — Dr. Arnold — ' no less than 
 that of a parish minister, is the cure of souls.' 
 The man who feels the maxim of the poet in its 
 real extent, will have the training of the moral and 
 religious character in his eye. Starting from the 
 point of immortality and accountability, he must aim 
 to inspire his boys with a modest self-respect, to pro- 
 tect them from the effects of ignorance and conceit, 
 (which, I humbly suggest, are still occasionally met 
 with among our lads) — to persuade them that life has 
 nobler aims than to make money, to gain the fame of 
 talents, or to drink the Circean cup of sensuality — 
 in a word, to teach them that in a profound rev- 
 erence for God and the soul, lies the highest wis- 
 dom. This, I say, should be the top of every good 
 teacher's prayers and labors. It will be, if he be 
 impregnated with the spirit of our maxim viewed 
 from a Christian point. Then he will make whole- 
 souled, full-orbed men, men that will do well by their 
 Country, in both Church and State. 
 
 Now — Boys — in the last place, let me respectfully, 
 
19 
 
 but with free speech — turn to you. Not that I 
 might not say more to your Parents and Teachers 
 in exposition of my text, but because I remember 
 my promise to be short. The significant saying of 
 the Eoman, magnifies your importance, and justifies 
 all and even more than we have said. ' Our greatest 
 reverence to the boy is due.' 
 
 The boy! But have we any boys now-a-days? 
 Somebody has hinted that a new division of society 
 must shortly be made, namely, into big men and 
 women and little men and women, the old-fashion 
 appellations of hoys and girls having become offensive 
 to the majesty of our youth. They say that our 
 republican doctrines have already gone far to oblite- 
 rate the distinction of age, — as well as some other dis- 
 tinctions. Without meaning any disrespect, I wiU 
 persevere in employing these terms, believing that 
 there are boys, and will be boys, and ought to be boys 
 to the end of the chapter : boys, and noble boys, too, 
 with more of true character and dignity than many 
 so called men. Full of fun, but not silly and mis- 
 chievous monkeys — full of play, yet not idle — fuU of 
 mistakes and thoughtless impulses, and running risks 
 from ignorance and inexperience, but not mulish, 
 conceited and intractable. For my own part, I had 
 rather take ofi" my hat to a real specimen of a fine 
 boy than to many a full grown human, for I see in 
 him the making of the highest style of man — a 
 Christian gentleman. This is the only sense in which 
 
20 
 
 I accept the phrase, to make a man of one. A boy 
 may be converted into a coarse, ignorant, harsh, 
 priggish, pleasure-hunting, money-scraping man : or 
 he may be converted into an exquisite and sensualist, 
 who prides himself on the mere refinements of 
 manners, accomplishments, dress or such like, — 
 but no boy will be either manly or gentlemanly, 
 until Reverence for God and Truth is the leavening 
 quality of his sentiments and acts. Then only will 
 he be truly just, generous and self-respectful. Hav- 
 ing these traits, bright talents will be more shining, 
 and dull talents redeemed from insignificance, wheth- 
 er in man or boy. 
 
 ' Boys will be boys' — ' you cannot look for old 
 heads on young shoulders :' these and kindred saws 
 have a true meaning, but they are too often made 
 apologies for the vices as well the weaknesses of youth. 
 But in fact, the noble qualities are of no particular age. 
 We may expect, indeed, to see greater knowledge and 
 more practised intellectual power among men than 
 among youth, as a general rule, — but not greater 
 generosity, justice, frankness, transparency, purity. 
 Certain it is, that many a boy of fourteen is both 
 wiser and better than many a man of forty. 
 
 You will have noticed that I have had compara- 
 tively little to say about smartness, talent, learning, 
 scholarship. It is not because I do not value them, 
 but, I tell you honestly, I think they are over-rated 
 in our system of education. For idleness in school 
 
21 
 
 studies there is no excuse, but I fear that a natural 
 want of bright parts is too often scorned as if it were 
 a crime, and smartness too often admired as if it 
 were a virtue. Our applause ought to be given to 
 the diligent, rather than to the talented, for diligence 
 is voluntary and therefore praiseworthy, talent consti- 
 tutional and undeserving. Yet talent is the idol of 
 modern times : and the systems of education I am 
 afraid are in a great measure accountable for the 
 fact. They magnify it, and frown on the want of it. 
 But in the ethics of Religion, high-principled goodness 
 is the best greatness— and both life and death will prove 
 it to be so. If we can have ability and moral excel- 
 lence combined, well : but if not, let the latter have 
 the highest place in our schemes of life. This is the 
 quality which demands our reverence for the boy, 
 our reverence for the man. 
 
 My dear young friends — when I summon before 
 my mind the possibilities of the future, and think of 
 what may be the career of those who are assembled 
 here, I feel as if I heard the very sounds of the 
 strifes of life into which you will go forth. On which 
 side in the great battle, will you be found ? Fight- 
 ing for Truth, Honor, Benevolence and Justice in the 
 company of the wise and good, or moral cowards 
 who skulk whenever a blow is to be struck or a blow 
 borne on the right side — or what is still worse, the 
 companions of fools, fighting in the ranks of the ene- 
 
22 
 
 mies of God and man. Say, shall life, to any boy 
 here, verify the poet's lines : 
 
 ' Fair laughs the mora, and soft the the zephyr blows. 
 While proudly riding o'er the azure realm 
 In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes. 
 Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm : 
 Regardless of the coming whirlwind's sway. 
 Which hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey.' 
 
 These questions are to be decided now. The worst 
 enemy of society was once a school-boy, and a keen- 
 sighted observer might have even then prognosti- 
 cated his future history. So may we predict, that 
 the boy who goes from home a scorner of the sanc- 
 tities of life will be a violent associate at school, 
 a tyrant over the weaker, a truckler to the stronger, 
 a plotter against authority, a sneak, a perverter of 
 truth. What then? "The boy is Father to the 
 man." It is of such stuff that the domestic tyrants, 
 demagogues and rogues of society are made — bad 
 men, restrained only by a selfish fear of collision 
 with those who are stronger than themselves. While 
 on the contrary — it scarcely requires a prophet to 
 foretell, that the good citizen and patriot, the bene- 
 factor of the poor and patron of merit, the good hus- 
 band and father, are found in embryo in the noble 
 boy of the school. Sensibility to right and wrong? 
 courage to resist evil, subordination to just authority, 
 humility, control of the selfish passions, gratitude 
 and, that crowning glory, Truthfulness to God and 
 man, are the elements which go to make the Chris- 
 
23 
 
 tian gentleman, over whose future career parents 
 will rejoice, and in whose respectability and useful- 
 ness conscientious teachers will find all their labor 
 richly repaid. 
 
 Money cannot make such a man : talent and 
 learning even, cannot do it. But industry, common 
 sense and conscience, under the impulse of the grace 
 of God, can. 
 
 With this belief, I take my leave of you. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 To furnish some information to the friends of Edgehill respecting its 
 early history, the character, motives and success of its founder, a MS. was 
 prepared daring the last session of the school, and parts of it were read on 
 the night of the anniversary exercises — ^having been called up at the supper 
 by his Excellency Grov. Price, who proposed a sentiment " To the memo- 
 " ry of Professor Robert B. Patton, the illustrious scholar and the founder 
 " of the EdgehiU school." A desire having been expressed by many per- 
 sons and especially by some of Prof. Patton's pupils, to have this account 
 in a more permanent form, the substance of it, is here put in print. 
 
 Mr. Robert B. Patton was a native of Philadelphia. He was educated, 
 partly at Middlebury College and partly at Yale, where he graduated in 
 1817. Being soon after appointed Professor of Ancient Languages in Mid- 
 dlebury College, he went to Europe and spent several years in the German 
 Universities, engaged in the study of languages, particularly of the Greek. 
 He was in Germany at the same time with Edward Everett and George 
 Banorofb, who were engaged in similar pursuits. " During his residence 
 in Europe," writes Dr. J. Addison Alexander, "Mr. Patton made himself 
 one of the most thorough and exact Greek scholars that America has ever 
 known." After his return to Middlebury he published (1822) a transla- 
 tion of Thiersch's Greek tables. In the autumn of 1825 he became Vice 
 President and Professor of Languages in Princeton College and during 
 Dr. Hodge's two years absence in Germany (1826-1828) edited the Bibli- 
 cal Repertory. In the summer of 1828, Mr. Patton organized a Philolo- 
 gical Society, composed of graduates and students of the College affording 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 them the use of a very valuable select library of 1500 volumes, collected 
 chiefly while abroad. The exercises of this Society, consisting of trans- 
 lations, essays and debates on classical and other literary topics, excited 
 a considerable interest in studies of that class, during the remainder of 
 his connection -with the College. 
 
 Professor Patton had long entertained the idea of establishing a school 
 that should take a stand far in advance of any Institution of the kind 
 then existing in this country — and one that should embody some pecu- 
 liar vieTvs which he entertained upon the subject of education. " So early 
 as the year 1828," says Eev. K. S. Cooke, Principal of the Yoimg Ladies 
 Seminary, Bloomfield, N. J., "he engaged me to assist him in a school, 
 which he designed to open in Virginia, the site of which he went so far as 
 to select. For some reason, which I cannot now recall, this location was 
 abandoned, and Princeton was finally selected as the place most suitable 
 for the contemplated enterprise.'' The place alluded to by Mr. Cooke, was 
 Monticello, the mansion of Thomas Jefferson, near Charlottesville, Va. 
 Dr. J. Addison Alexander had also agreed to accompany Professor Patton 
 to Virginia as one of the Teachers. Before opening the school at Prince- 
 ton, he received the appointment of Principal of the High School, New 
 Tork City, but this place he declined as not affording him sufficient lati- 
 tude for carrying into full effect, his ideas of a school. 
 
 The school was advertised to open on Monday, Nov. 3, 1829, in the 
 family mansion of the late Samuel Bayard, Esq., and now the property 
 of Capt. Conover. Owing however to the iUness of Professor Patton, the 
 actual opening of the school took place on the Monday following (Nov. 9), 
 in the presence of the Rev. Drs. MiUer and Alexander, the first of whom 
 prayed, and the latter made an address to the boys. The following pupils 
 were enrolled as members of the school. John H. Weir, John L. Thomp- 
 son, and Wm. 0. Jenkins, of Pa., Henry L. Young and John S. Garret- 
 son, of X. T., Charles C. Cocke of Va., and Eobt. R. Patton his own son. 
 Three more names were added during the week : Augustus H. Geisse, 
 Pa., Horatio S. Botch, Mass., and Mr. P.'s nephew, "Wm. W. Patton. 
 The following Sabbath Nov. 15, the members of the school made their 
 first appearance, in occupying the east end of the southern gallery in the 
 Presbyterian Church, then the only one in Princeton. The students of 
 the Seminary at that time worshipped with the Congregation and the 
 Professors preached alternately with the Pastor, the Rev. George S. "Wood- 
 
27 
 
 hull. The sermon on that day was Tjy Dr. Archibald Alexander on the 
 text "My grace shall be sufficient for thee." In the afternoon there was oom- 
 rnoridod, at tlio school, a regular courHr; of instruction in the sacred scrip- 
 tures, to wliich, shortly after, wan added a Borios of discourses liy the differ- 
 ent i:li!rgymi!n of I'rirjoetori . I'ho first of tljCHi; was by Prof. John Maclean 
 nowtho l'i-(!Hiili;ritelcotoftl]o Oollogo. "The Sabbath evenings wore usually 
 spent Im religious r<!ading or in familJiir instruction, and generally ended 
 witi] a brief iiddrcsH from the Principal, enforcing the duo observance of 
 the SiUil.ath."— J. A. M'A. 
 
 ProfoHHor .). AdiJiHon Alexander had charge of tlio Latin, Ancient Oe- 
 ograpliy iuid Ifistory; Mr. I!.. S. Oool<o taught Matljomatics and Mod- 
 ern (ioograpliy ; Monsieur JjOuIh liargous now of Trenton, was the in- 
 structor in the ModeiT) Languages, while Profe.HSor Patton reserved for 
 himself the Oreek and such brfujohes as wore not included in the depart- 
 ments of tho other Teaiiliers. The very firHfc week ho introduced Jiis fa- 
 vorite method of examining the whole school, on the various studies 
 of the day, for a lialf hour before dinner. 1 1 was during this winter tliat 
 Prof. I'atton prepared for the C'arvills, then the loading publishers in Now 
 York, an edition of Ponncgan's (ivack Lexicon, with large additions from 
 tlie (iernian work of Passow. In this he was assisted by Prof. Alexander. 
 
 As orjiy the tcrnfioritry use of Judge Bayard's house had been proour- 
 (!(i, i'rof I ':itloti was obliged, in the Hpring of 1830, to find a new placo 
 for his school. lie oxyic;cted for some time to obtain at least the tempo- 
 rary use of tlin hooMo tluin, as now oeeupiod by Hon. John P. Thomson, 
 but failing in this, he at last obtained a lease of the house and grounds 
 now oeeijpied by the school. Tho building had heen eroctod in 1824, by 
 the llev. Pohert (jliljHotj, and was then tho property of his widow. The 
 school was re-oy)enod at thifl jdaco April 14,1830. All the former pu- 
 pils rc-!ippeareil, and with thom, or soon afterwards, Kobert Gibson, E. 
 S. Miller and John Miller, of Princetfm ; Alex. II. Woir, Silas E. Weir, 
 Kichard MdJall, Ilohort Karss, Alexander Henry, of Pa. ; llemson Oar- 
 r<:twiu, ThaddeuH M. llalstod, Wm. Nicholl, of N. Y.;Wm. Anthony, 
 Mass.; and for a part of the session, Saml. Miller, Jr., now the Principal 
 of a largo and flourishing school lor boys in Mount Holly, N. J. Tho 
 present frame building was erected in tho fall of this year by Professor 
 Patton who had succeeded in purchasing tho property and designed mak- 
 ing his school permanent. 
 
28 
 
 Erom some of tlie letters obligingly fumished by many of the old 
 Teacliers and scholars at Edgehill, a few extracts may be given to show 
 the impression made upon their minds by the school, and their opmion of 
 Prof. Patton's character and his success. 
 
 " Prof Patton was a thorough man in erery thing he undertook, and 
 spared no expense to render his Institution perfect. He personally su- 
 perintended every arrangement The school soon became popular and 
 the number of scholars which was limited to 40, was always complete." 
 R. L. C. "Prof. Patton was a most remarkable man and scholar. For 
 years, Middlebury College felt the impulse of his enthusiastic love for 
 classic Greek. Prof. Stuart early pronounced him the first Greek scholar 
 in America. It was no small privilege to be with such a scholar, but 
 rather a critical task to please him in drilling lessons with the boys." 
 S. S. H. " The school I do not hesitate to say was one of the very best 
 of which I have ever had any knowledge. I have always thought I would 
 take it as a model if I were to engage in that employment." W. "W. P. 
 " As a teacher. Prof. Patton was thorough, prompt, earnest and attrac- 
 tive. His especial adaptedness seemed to be Greek and Natural History, 
 which he taught from Cuvier's great work. He would shoot the speci- 
 mens of native birds, and lecture to us, having them upon his table. 
 As a Lecturer he was interesting and painstaking, giving to his pupils 
 generally an accurate knowledge of the subject discussed. As a moral 
 instructor he was kind and sympathising, and well calculated to produce 
 sound and abiding impressions on the young mind." A. J. F. " In- 
 nocent games were always countenanced. A huge wooden building 
 known as ' the course,' was fitted up as a gymnasium, and at certain 
 hours of the day, some of the pupils were there instructed in horseman- 
 ship. Every boy had his garden, and those who were disposed and had 
 the means, were at liberty to build huts and shanties, which in most in- 
 stances were far from being ornamental to the grounds." J. A. M'A. 
 Another writer says these huts were afterwards forbidden " as affording 
 retreats inaccessible to the eye of the Teachers, and too frequently appro- 
 priated as cachis for green peas and apples, the fruits of predatory ex- 
 cursions ' out of bounds.' A narrow lane separated the school grounds 
 from farmer Mapel's premises, and a thicket of berry bushes along the 
 fence afforded a screen to the adventurous lads who were willing to run 
 
29 
 
 the risk of detection, to be most certainly foUo-wed by side table* and 
 exile." " My feooUeotion of Mr. Patton is of a man in the prime of 
 life ; of tall stature and well developed frame, but of spare habit, some- 
 ■what stooping — his countenance indicating rather the scholar, than the 
 preceptor, stern, rarely relapsing into mirthful expression, and in some 
 measure, wanting in that open good humor, which so readily commends 
 itself to the young. Mr. Patton was a bookish man and much given to 
 moods of abstraction. He would walk up and down for hours with his 
 left arm across his breast, supporting the other which was upraised, and 
 applying the index of his right hand to the right side of his nose, in a 
 series of taps executed with mechanical precision — a peculiarity which 
 did not escape the notice or the impertinent imitation of the boys. Mr. 
 Patton possessed a high reputation as a Greek scholar. He was also a 
 clever ornithologist, and had a fine collection of birds of his own prepa- 
 ration. Continual practice had given him unusual skill in the use of his 
 gun, and not unfrequently from the playground he would discharge its 
 barrels right and left with deadly effect at the swallows, that in swift 
 flight were foraging the heavens — their muscicapal propensities being thus 
 suddenly arrested, not wantonly, but for the sake of several favorites of 
 the genus stryx, who were lodged beneath the stairs, at the south side of the 
 portico, and whose daily rations were much improved by the gratuity of 
 a few rats and swallows."' — ^A. H. 
 
 On the 1st of March, 1833, Professor Patton associated with himself in the 
 teaching and government of the school, the Rev. E. C. Wines, D. D., now 
 
 * These allusions will doubtless recall to many of Prof. Patten's pupils the 
 ancient ' side table ode' — especially the two verses which follow : 
 
 Integer vitse scelerisque purus 
 Non eget slap-jacks, gingerbread and coffee, 
 Butter et molasses — nor compelled to eat is he 
 Dry bread and water. 
 
 Nunquam me a Tutor saw in Mapel's orchard, 
 Dum eating berries from the hedge ! et ultra terminos 
 Grappled me, dexter et sinister — 
 Oh bread and water ! 
 
 The whole of this ode, once so popular at Edgehill, found its way into the 
 last printed number of the Society's paper, The Pokcupine — which was read 
 on the evening of the anniversary exercises. 
 
30 
 
 Professor of Ancient Languages in Washington College, Pa., and in the 
 fall of the same year withdrew from the school altogether. He made an- 
 other voyage to Europe, and on his return was elected Professor of Greek 
 in the New York University. This was his last public position. IIo 
 died in 1839. " such men are not often to be found, so noble, so gen- 
 erous, so devoted, so loving, so persevering yet so entliusiastic." 
 
 The history of Edgehill after the retirement of Professor Patton, to- 
 gether with a complete catalogue of all the Teachers and pupils, may be 
 given at some future time. At present it is only necessary to say that 
 in October 1836, Mr. Wines was succeeded by Mr. John S. Hart, then 
 Adjunct Professor of Languages in the College, and now Principal of the 
 Central High School, Philadelphia. The school was under his manage- 
 ment till December, 1841. It afterwards passed into the hands of Messrs. 
 Pratt and Rinker for a short time, and in 1849, came into tlie possession of 
 the Trustees of the College, from whom it was purchased in 1853, by tlie 
 present Principals, Rev. Thomas W. and William C. Cattell. 
 
 COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, 
 
 ANNI'^'ERSARY EXERCISES, 
 Mabcd, 1854. 
 
 MORRIS H. STRATTON, 
 
 FRANCIS B. HODGE, 
 
 PIERCE B. WILSON, 
 
 ELLIS P. CAYCE, 
 
 FRANK PRICE, Jr. 
 
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