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MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 John D. Philbrick 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LARKIN DUNTON, LL.D. 
 
 HEAD MASTEK OF THE BOSTON NORMAL SCHOOL 
 
 BOSTON 
 NEW ENGLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1888 
 
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 THO Mrs. Julia A. Philbrick, — 
 
 Whose wifely devotion and wise counsel comforted 
 and strengthened her honored husband, and whose kindly 
 and intelligent interest in education won the hearts of 
 teachers, this volume is respectfully dedicated by 
 
 The Editor. 
 
" Be ashamed to die without having accom- 
 plished SOME VICTORY FOR HUMANITY - ." 
 
 — Horace Mann. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This volume is intended to be what its title implies, 
 — a memorial of the life and services of him whom it 
 commemorates. It is not meant to be in any sense a 
 biography. Soon after the death of Dr. Philbrick, the 
 desire was often manifested that the expressions of 
 honor and esteem which had been called out on the 
 occasion should be put into some form for permanent 
 preservation. The death of no other educational man 
 in this country has produced so profound and general 
 a sense of personal loss ; for no other has been so 
 well and so favorably known, and no other has left 
 so strong an impress upon his age. It was not till he 
 had been called to his reward, that the deep respect in 
 which he was held, and the feelings of warm personal 
 friendship with which he was regarded, found full 
 expression. 
 
 Then, naturally, his more intimate friends wished to 
 have the evidence of the love and honor which he had 
 won preserved to the world. The present volume is 
 an attempt to gratify that desire. It contains the ad- 
 dresses delivered at a public meeting held in Boston in 
 his honor, a single paper from the pen of Dr. Philbrick 
 himself, an account of his last sickness and death, the 
 addresses at his funeral and at his final interment, 
 some of the eulogistic letters written to the public 
 press on the occasion of his death, the tributes paid 
 
v i PREFACE. 
 
 to his memory by the Boston Masters' Association, the 
 Schoolmasters' Club, and the School Committee of 
 Boston, an account of the public memorial meeting in 
 Boston, a letter from the Japanese minister to the United 
 States, and resolutions adopted by various associations to 
 which he was favorably known. 
 
 The addresses at the Boston meeting include an ac- 
 count of Dr. Philbrick's early life and education, by 
 his friend, Gilman H. Tucker, of New York ; an ac- 
 count of his educational work in Boston, by the editor, 
 and an estimate of his services to the cause of educa- 
 tion in general by Dr. William T. Harris. From these 
 addresses alone a stranger would be able to form a cor- 
 rect opinion of the man. 
 
 The paper selected to represent Dr. Philbrick him- 
 self is his address before the American Institute of In- 
 struction, July, 1884, entitled, " Reform of Tenure of 
 Office of Teachers." This was a subject in which he 
 had long taken a deep interest, and it was this address 
 that did much to secure favorable action upon the subject 
 by the legislature of Massachusetts in 1886. 
 
 The papers and addresses contained in the volume 
 constitute an honorable memorial to a noble man. If 
 they assist in extending and perpetuating his memory, 
 the editor's labor of love in preparing them for the press 
 will be amply rewarded. 
 
 Boston, August, 1887. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Early Life and Education. Tucker, .... 2 
 
 Life and Character, Dmiton, 31 
 
 Public Services, Harris, 57 
 
 Reform of the Tenure of Office of Teachers, Philbrick, 81 
 
 Last Days and Funeral Rites, Dunton, . . . 101 
 
 Address of Rev. Charles B. Rice, . . .106 
 
 Address of Dr. Spaulding, . . . . 108 
 
 Address of Daniel B. Hagar, . . . .in 
 
 Address of Larkin Dunton, . . . . 113 
 
 Letter from John G. Whittier, 115 
 
 Letter from Gen. John Eaton, . . . 115 
 
 The Final Interment, 116 
 
 Address by Gilman H. Tucker, . . . 118 
 
 Eulogistic Letters : 123 
 
 E. E. White, I24 
 
 William T. Harris, 126 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Eulogistic Letters : p AGE 
 
 John G. Whittier, 128 
 
 John Eaton, . . . . . . .128 
 
 John S. Clark, ...... 132 
 
 Gilman H. Tucker, 135 
 
 Thomas H. Barnes, . . . . . 138 
 
 Samuel W. Mason, 140 
 
 J. L. Pickard, 142 
 
 Robert C. Metcalf, 142 
 
 Mary A. Currier, 144 
 
 Justin H. Smith, 145 
 
 John W. Dickinson, . . . . . 147 
 
 Mellin Chamberlain, . . . . . .150 
 
 William A. Mowry, . 152 
 
 Moses Merrill, . ..... 155 
 
 Samuel Eliot, 157 
 
 A. A. Miner, 160 
 
 O. B. Cheney, 162 
 
 Hiram Orcutt, 164 
 
 H. F. Harrington, 166 
 
 A. P. Marble, 167 
 
 Henry E. Shepherd, 168 
 
 A. P. Stone, 170 
 
 E. C. Carrigan, 171 
 
 J. H. Hoose, 175 
 
 W. H. Payne, 176 
 
 International Tribute, .180 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 Page 
 Boston's Tribute, . . . . . . . 185 
 
 The Masters' Association, . . . .187 
 
 Address of C. Goodwin Clark, . . 188 
 
 Address of Robert Swan, .... 192 
 
 Address of Joshua Bates, . . . 196 
 
 Resolutions, . . . • . -203 
 
 The Schoolmaster's Club, . . . . 204 
 
 Address of James F. Blackinton, . .204 
 
 Address of Granville B. Putnam, . . 206 
 
 Resolutions, . . . . . .210 
 
 The School Committee, 211 
 
 Public Memorial Services, . . . .212 
 
 Address of Edwin P. Seaver, . . „ 213 
 
 Letter of the Japanese Minister, . . 215 
 
 Miscellaneous Resolutions, 219 
 
 Department of Superintendence of the National 
 
 Educational Association, . . . .219 
 
 Trustees of the Philbrick -James Library, . 220 
 
 Teachers of Denver, 221 
 
 Quincy School Association, . . . . 222 
 
 Trustees of Bates College, .... 224 
 
 Town of Deerfield, 224 
 
Early Life and Education 
 of 
 
 JOHN DUDLEY PHILBRICK. 
 
 By Gilman H. Tucker. 
 
Early Life and Education 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN DUDLEY PHILBRICK 
 
 BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND ANCESTRY. 
 
 The "Early Life and Education" of John Dudley 
 Philbrick contain the material, which, in the hands of a 
 master, would enrich a romance. But with plain speech, 
 and within a brief space, only the simplest and chiefest 
 facts can be recited. 
 
 He was born on the twenty-seventh day of May, in the 
 year eighteen hundred and eighteen. He always marked 
 his birthday by the time of the apple-tree blossoms, which 
 his father had told him were, in this day and year, at 
 their fulness. He was the youngest in a family of three 
 children, having a sister three years older and a brother a 
 year and a half older than himself. 
 
 The Philbricks were of a sturdy race of handworkers, 
 possessed of that strength and resolution which come 
 from battling with obstacles. Starting out as pioneers 
 in subduing a new country, all their powers were taxed 
 in winning a subsistence from the soil, and laying by a 
 modest competency for their families. Primarily farmers, 
 the necessities of living in a new country made them 
 
 (3) 
 
4 JOIIN D. miLBBICE. 
 
 at the same time carpenters, blacksmiths, and workers 
 in all needed handicraft. They were independent and 
 self-respecting men, but not otherwise distinguished. 
 
 Peter Philbrick, the father of John Dudley, was of the 
 third generation which had occupied the homestead farm 
 in Deerfield, N. H., his grandfather, James, having gone 
 there and taken up and cleared the wild land, in the first 
 settlement of the town. Peter was a man of individual 
 character, possessing strong moral qualities and an active 
 intellect, with a decided religious tendency in his nature, 
 and a touch of humor and poetry withal. From his spir- 
 ituality and power of natural eloquence, he became a 
 loader and exhorting Elder in his church, the Free Will 
 Baptist. In his homestead he possessed a fair country 
 inheritance, but it was burdened with a debt, through 
 some sharpness and dishonesty that had been practiced 
 upon his predecessor. He was an industrious, energetic, 
 and hard-working farmer, but not a thrifty manager, and 
 his devotion to preaching sometimes diverted him from 
 the closest attention to his farm. 
 
 With the hope of bettering his situation, he made 
 several removes, locating one year at Epping, another 
 at Stratham, and another at Amesbury, Mass., — when 
 John was from ten to thirteen years of age, — with hardly 
 any other result than enlarging the family horizon, when 
 they again returned to the homestead. 
 
 On the maternal side, through his mother, Elizabeth 
 Dudley, he came of a line of strong and fine intellectual 
 fibre. The Dudleys were prominent in the Eastern Col- 
 onies from the first settlement of New England, as gov- 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 5 
 
 ernors, judges, ministers, and lawyers. Mr. Philbrick 
 was the seventh generation in direct descent, from Gov. 
 Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts. His great-grand- 
 father, Judge John Dudley of New Hampshire, for whom 
 he was named, famous in that State during the period 
 of the Revolution, was one of the most pronounced char- 
 acters of his time, — of unswervable integrity, of deter- 
 mined will, of clear foresight, of broad views and sound 
 judgment. He was not a learned man, nor much read 
 in books, but Governor Plummer of New Hampshire said 
 of him that he would sooner trust Judge Dudley's native 
 faculties to decide a legal point right, than all the law- 
 yers' learning of the other judges put together. 
 
 His grandfather, Moses Dudley, was a remarkable type 
 of the New England country 'Squire of seventy-five years 
 ago, — wise after the manner of Ben Franklin, — who 
 gave the last forty years of his life entirely to the study 
 and reading of books. It was estimated that he had read 
 the equal of 6,000 octavo volumes of 400 pages each ; 
 and his daily conversation showed the fruits of this great 
 enrichment. 
 
 His mother was a woman of strong mind, well in- 
 formed, with a determined will, with definite opinions 
 and the power of expressing them, touched also with an 
 honest pride of family and with an ambition for position. 
 
 Such was the descent and parentage of John Dudley 
 Philbrick, and he inherited the best and strongest quali- 
 ties of both lines of his ancestors. In his character, there 
 was never a better illustration of the logic of heredity. 
 
 Deerfield, N. H., lies thirty miles from the coast and 
 
6 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 well within the belt of hill country. This whole region 
 is more attractive and picturesque than it is fertile, or 
 productive under cultivation. Nevertheless it is a pleas- 
 ant country to live in ; but to live, one must work, and 
 the bounds of social and intellectual life, as in all rural 
 towns, are rather narrow. The religious and political 
 newspaper, a few common books, neighborhood visits 
 and gatherings, occasional visits to the market-towns, the 
 town meeting, the schools and church meetings, repre- 
 sent about all. 
 
 In this town, in the midst of one of its loveliest valleys, 
 amid surrounding trees, and facing the south, stands the 
 Philbrick homestead, a large main house, made still more 
 ample by the additions of different generations. My per- 
 sonal recollections of it, from the merest boy up to this 
 hour, clothe it with one supreme virtue, — the warm 
 and generous hospitality which it always extended to all 
 comers. 
 
 These were the surroundings and this the home of this 
 boy of fifty and sixty years ago. 
 
 But here, at this time, the life of a farmer's boy, 
 possessed of imagination and spirit, doubtless, did not 
 seem to the boy to be an ideal one. Yet if somewhat 
 narrow, and unquestionably hard, it held some compen- 
 sation. It was an open, free, country life, everywhere 
 adapting itself to direct the forces of nature to the uses 
 and comforts of living. On the side of work and on the 
 side of play, it was full of education ; it made ingenious 
 hands, strong arms, swift feet, muscular and well-devel- 
 oped bodies. There was no question here of introducing 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 1 
 
 the new educational factor, industrial training ; the thing 
 itself was present in never-ending forms, — the spring's 
 work, the summer's work, the fall and winter's work. 
 When the spring sun began to run high and the fields of 
 snow to melt, the maples were to be tapped and the 
 season's sugar made ; then miles of fence were to be re- 
 paired, and the rocks to be picked and hauled from the 
 cultivated fields ; then the dressing was to be hauled and 
 spread upon the land, to be followed by the busy plowing, 
 sowing, and planting. The sheep were to be washed 
 and sheared, providing the wool for home-spinning and 
 weaving, — for the women made all the woolen cloth for 
 clothes, and a surplus to carry and sell in distant markets. 
 The cattle, the horses, the swine, the chickens and tur- 
 keys were a constant care. Then commenced the hand 
 to hand contest to keep back the weeds with the hoe, 
 until early July left the crops with a little start in their 
 favor, if rain and sun should be kind. 
 
 Then came the midsummer harvest of haying, with no 
 machines to lighten the labor, — mowing, spreading, rak- 
 ing, pitching, hauling, and stowing away, — every stroke 
 one of main strength ; work-days that began before sun- 
 rise, and ended with the late dusk of midsummer, — all 
 this for five or six weeks, interrupted only by lowering or 
 rainy weather. Then came cutting the stalks from the 
 corn, reaping the grain with the sickle, gathering and 
 husking the corn, digging and housing the potatoes, 
 gathering the apples, and making the cider ; and the 
 autumn ended with making all the buildings tight and 
 snug for the winter. 
 
8 J011N D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 In the winter, the season's wood was to be cut and 
 hauled home, and occasionally, logs to be hauled to the 
 saw-mill for boards and lumber, for home use or for the 
 market, — all these things, with the endless daily chores 
 of a farm. 
 
 It is at once seen, that being in the midst of a life like 
 this, early makes a man out of a boy. 
 
 But there were recreations also : a day off fishing or 
 gunning, a trip to the country store, a journey to the 
 market town, a visit to relations or friends, and long win- 
 ter evenings for reading and talk. 
 
 There was also a quiet factor at work, the most impor- 
 tant of all, and that was the district school ; this kept 
 three months in the summer and three months in the 
 winter. The boy attended both until he was so large he 
 could no longer be spared from the summer's work, and 
 then went only in winter. But, in the country phrase, 
 " he was a good scholar and loved his books." 
 
 And with this education, at sixteen years of age, he 
 was a man. 
 
 ACADEMIC LIFE. 
 
 But what is there for him beyond this narrow bound 
 of his home ? Where is the opening through which the 
 light can shine ? 
 
 To quote his own words : — 
 
 " This privilege of going away to school at an academy 
 seemed to be something too high for me ever to dream of 
 enjoying, But in the spring of 1834 some one suggested 
 that I should go to Pembroke Academy, and thus the 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 9 
 
 question was proposed, — Shall I stop with my common 
 school education, or try to get a higher education ? I saw 
 the great difficulty of leaving home, for now I was as good 
 as a man on the farm ; besides, where was the money to 
 come from to pay the expenses ? I did not then imagine 
 it to be possible for me ever to reach the college. But 
 the idea of acquiring an education above that of a com- 
 mon school, found lodgment in my mind, and the idea 
 must become a reality. A young uncle, though six or 
 seven years older than myself, was going to Pembroke to 
 complete his fitting for college. He was to board him- 
 self, and kindly offered to take me into the partnership. 
 This fortunate circumstance turned the scale in my favor. 
 My father, who had hesitated to give his consent, not that 
 he did not value education but that he valued my assist- 
 ance on the farm also, seeing that the opportunity was 
 too good to be lost, yielded, though reluctantly and sadly. 
 I remember the day well. My father, leaving the team 
 standing in the furrow, came into the house to hold a 
 family conference. It must be settled then, for the tai- 
 loress was there, and if it was decided in the affirmative, 
 she must be retained to make up the needed garments. 
 My mother said yes, though with some apparent mis- 
 givings." 
 
 Thus, at sixteen years of age, he went to Pembroke, 
 N. H., for his first term at the Academy. In the four 
 following years he managed to get five or six terms, or 
 parts of terms, of twelve to fourteen weeks, at this school, 
 and one term at Strafford Academy. Between whiles, he 
 returned to the help of his father on the farm, rendered 
 now all the more necessary from the untimely loss of 
 his elder brother, Peter, who died in 1835. This bereave- 
 ment left a deep and sorrowful mark on his early life. 
 
10 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 The brothers were very near of an age, and constant 
 playmates and workmates. This brother was uncom- 
 monly brighl and of a lovely character. Through Life 
 Mr. Philbrick never ceased to monrn this loss, and its 
 anniversary was always a sad day to him. By this blow 
 he became now his father's only dependence, and the 
 difficulty of his absence was accordingly increased, but 
 he still persevered in his course. 
 
 His name appears in the Pembroke catalogues of [834 
 and 1835, in thai of Strafford in [836, nowhere in 1837, 
 
 but again in the Pembroke catalogue of 1838. But he 
 was present at these schools only at odd terms. 
 
 Pembroke Academy, at this time, was a flourishing 
 and excellent higher seminary, and, with the exception of 
 Phillips Academy at Exeter, one of the best schools in 
 New Hampshire. Its catalogue of 1834, a little pam- 
 phlet of eight pages, as big over as your hand, contains 
 176 names, divided, to use its own words, into " 108 
 Males and 68 Females." It contains no regular course 
 of study, but names the books, in their order to be 
 studied in preparation I'm "college. It divides the year into 
 three terms, two of fourteen weeks each and one of six- 
 teen weeks. The fee for a certificate of admission is 25 
 cents. The tuition for the two shorter terms is $4.25, 
 and for the longer term $4.87, with an additional dollar 
 each term to each scholar who studies the French lan- 
 guage. The price of board is #1.25 or $1.50 per week, 
 but by walking a moderate distance from the Academy 
 students can be boarded for a less sum. 
 
 The catalogues for 1835 and 1836 are substantially the 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 11 
 
 same. During these three years Joseph Dow was princi- 
 pal. The catalogues of 1837 and 1838, when Isaac Kins- 
 man became principal, show a marked educational ad- 
 vance ; three-year courses of study are laid out, term 
 by term, both for the Male and Female Departments. 
 Some very pertinent observations are made under the 
 head of studies and courses. It is interesting to quote a 
 bit of its plain English : — 
 
 "The examination of compositions and the rehearsals 
 of declamations will each constitute a daily recitation. 
 The whole school will not attend these recitations to- 
 gether as a class, but in succession, four or five individ- 
 uals at a time. Each composition will be read by the 
 teacher, with the writer by his side. It will be scruti- 
 nized word by word and sentence by sentence. All its 
 superfluities and misconceptions, and, so far as possible, 
 its deficiencies will be pointed out. In oratory, the 
 scholar will be drilled. Tone, inflection, emphasis, 
 position, motion, if faulty, will be criticised on the spot." 
 
 Mr. Kinsman was a thorough and an inspiring teacher, 
 
 and as such exerted at this time and afterwards no little 
 
 influence over the young student, Philbrick. But the 
 
 main motive which led him to persevere at the academy, 
 
 and to go on to college, was the same which first started 
 
 him in this direction, — the sympathy and encouragement 
 
 of the maternal uncle, whom he mentions. This uncle, 
 
 in writing to his sister, Mr. Philbrick's mother, in 1838, 
 
 says : — 
 
 " I am extremely glad that John has manifested so 
 much determination and decision in pursuing his educa- 
 tion ; you can do nothing for him, in my opinion, which 
 
12 JOHN D. PniLBRICK. 
 
 will be of so much real and substantial benefit to him in 
 after life, and for which he will ever hold you in so grate- 
 ful remembrance, as to assist and encourage him in this 
 course. He must enter college this fall without fail ; if 
 he goes in debt a few hundred dollars, don't be scared ; 
 he will be able if he has his health, in one or two years at 
 most, to clear himself." 
 
 The debt of gratitude to this uncle, Elbridge G. Dudley, 
 afterward a lawyer in this city, was never forgotten. 
 
 Writing to his father from Pembroke, May 2, 1835, he 
 says he appreciates the valuable privileges there enjoyed 
 of intellectual and moral education, but is aware that they 
 will not always last, and that, as his father is doubtless 
 impatiently awaiting his return, he is using every ex- 
 ertion to accomplish what he can in the little time he 
 has to stay. Writing later, he says he regrets that time 
 should fly so swiftly, and that he has so short a time to 
 remain. It appears that this term of his school was to 
 close, July 30, and his father had expected him to return 
 home by the Fourth of July, to assist with the haying. 
 In a letter he pleads to be allowed to remain, if not the 
 whole term, at least until the nth, and says he has good 
 reason to hope that this request will not be denied him. 
 
 Such was the continual struggle which covered these 
 four years. An odd term or a part of a term at the acad- 
 emy was had, when he could be released from helping at 
 home, and when a little ready money for expenses could 
 be gathered together. To provide a part of this money, he 
 at this time spent his winters in teaching in the district 
 schools of his own neighborhood. In teaching one of 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 13 
 
 these schools he boarded round. One winter he taught 
 in his home district, where he had lately been a pupil. 
 These schools were attended by the large boys and girls, 
 as well as by the smaller of all ages, and he had pupils 
 as old as or older than himself. I have heard those who 
 were pupils at this school, old men now of seventy, within 
 the past year, tell what a good school he kept and how 
 much he was liked as a master. One told me how he 
 would go out and take part with the boys in the sports, 
 at noon or recess, and how on one occasion he acci- 
 dentally got a hard hit over the eye with a snowball, 
 so that the eye had to be bandaged for the afternoon. 
 " But," said the old man, " he made nothing of it ; I 
 tell you, we liked him." 
 
 In 1837 he does not appear to have gone away to 
 school at all ; but he taught in the winter of 1 836-1 837, 
 in the adjoining town of Nottingham. An old pupil from 
 this place, whom he scarcely remembered, writes to him 
 fourteen years after : " Your memory is still dear to the 
 citizens of this district; the school has not flourished 
 since as it did while you were here. Often do I hear 
 your evening school and exhibition spoken of ; they left a 
 deep and abiding impression on the hearts of all who 
 attended them." 
 
 In June of this year, 1837, he wrote his uncle saying 
 he had not attended school a single day, not having 
 found any opportunity to leave home ; that it was a source 
 of great anxiety to him that he had been able to make so 
 little progress in literary pursuits, because, he added, " I 
 fear I shall not be able to keep the promise I made you. 
 
14 JOHN I). P II IL BRICK. 
 
 I feel unwilling to lose so good an opportunity to go to 
 college. For that reason I have been trying to do all I 
 could at home, but I have labored with only a faint hope 
 of success. I am determined, however, to persevere in the 
 study of the languages till I see you, when I hope the 
 affair will be settled. Cicero and Sallust, I think with a 
 little study I can handle, but Virgil and the Greek 
 Reader will go rather hard." 
 
 LIF£ AT COLLEGE. 
 
 And he did "persevere," and his "faint hope of suc- 
 cess " became a hope realized. At twenty years of age, 
 in August, 1838, he successfully presented himself for 
 admission to Dartmouth College. This was a proud day 
 for the struggling student. He says in a letter written 
 at the time : " I went to the president and applied for 
 admission. I was immediately admitted to examination 
 on presenting my recommendation, and was directed to 
 two professors, to have the business "done up." Latin 
 went easy, as well as Algebra, but Greek did not go quite 
 so smooth, though my examination was on the whole by 
 no means a severe one. I, of course, had to promise to 
 make up that part of the Greek Reader I had not read, 
 and also the four Gospels. The others from Pembroke 
 had to do the same." 
 
 He at once set about to procure lodgings, and writes 
 that he and his roommate have two very delightful 
 rooms, one of which they used for a sleeping-room, 
 clothes-press, and woodhouse, and the other for a study- 
 room. For their furniture they paid twelve dollars, 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 15 
 
 having determined to get that which was decent and 
 durable. The price of board is $1.58 per week, or, with- 
 out tea and coffee, $1.42. He states that he is highly 
 pleased with his situation, and that his most sanguine 
 expectations are fully realized, and even far excelled. 
 He describes his routine of study, and says a college is 
 the place to learn. Here there are no impediments and 
 every necessary facility ; if the same prosperity which 
 has now dawned, continues, his college course will be a 
 happy one, and if he is permitted to go through, it will 
 be the May-day of his life. 
 
 He entered a freshman class of 101, the largest the 
 college had, up to that time, seen. The class con- 
 tained many bright young men, most of whom had been 
 much more thoroughly prepared than himself. Here he 
 remained throughout the course, availing himself, how- 
 ever, of the permission to be absent winters for the 
 purpose of teaching. These absences were, however, 
 sometimes prolonged in his case, by cutting off from the 
 end of the fall term or the beginning of the spring term. 
 By the money earned in this teaching and by small loans 
 he procured from time to time, he paid his own way 
 throughout the course. The college expenses at that 
 time were not heavy. I observe that those which were 
 classed as necessary, not including contingent, are fixed 
 in the catalogue of 1838, at $106.24. But there were 
 many contingent expenses, amounting to more, per- 
 haps, than the amount named. In these he practiced 
 the 'strictest economy. He traveled back and forth 
 from home sometimes by stage, sometimes by private 
 
16 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 conveyance, and often walked long distances to make 
 these connections. His clothes were made at home, 
 usually out of store cloth, which had been procured by 
 his mother's exchanging homespun of her own make, by 
 carrying it for this purpose thirty miles to a market town. 
 
 At this time Dr. Nathan Lord was president of Dart- 
 mouth College, a man known for his strong character and 
 wide scholarship ; and there was an uncommonly able 
 corps of professors, many of them excellent teachers ; 
 Charles B. Hadduck, Alpheus Crosby, Ira Young, Edwin 
 D. Sanborn, O. P. Hubbard, Stephen Chase, and Samuel 
 Gilman Brown. 
 
 He had entered college with the highest appreciation 
 of its advantages ; the struggle to reach its doors had been 
 long, difficult, and uncertain. He knew what it had cost 
 to get there, he knew how much it would cost to remain, 
 and therefore he valued it. He was determined to make 
 the best use of its every opportunity. He brought with 
 him health, energy, industry, perseverance, courage, and 
 ambition ; and as a solid basis for these, integrity and 
 every strong moral quality. What followed was a matter 
 of course ; he was a thorough and faithful student, always 
 acquitting himself well in the recitation room, and pres- 
 ent at every required exercise. 
 
 He also availed himself of every privilege outside of 
 the mere routine. He was active in the literary societies, 
 frequently writing and speaking, and especially ambitious 
 to excel in these respects. In the time left over, he pur 
 sued a "thorough course of reading, embracing chiefly 
 history, romance, and poetry. This reading he followed 
 
EAELY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 17 
 
 up with continuous assiduity in his lengthened absences 
 from the college. 
 
 He was by no means indifferent to such recreations 
 and athletic sports as then prevailed among the students. 
 His favorite recreation was walking, for which the coun- 
 try surrounding the college is so inviting ; and he made 
 many excursions among its hills and valleys. In the warm 
 season, swimming in the adjacent Connecticut River was 
 one of the college pastimes, and he became an adept in 
 this art. It is noted by one of his classmates that in 
 swimming a mile stretch, though taken with the cramp, 
 he refused to be taken into the accompanying boat, but 
 " kicked it out." He took pleasure in the military com- 
 pany organized among the students, and from his love of 
 obedience and discipline and his inclination to command, 
 always had a fondness for this service. He was inter- 
 ested also in politics, and near the end of his course 
 was elected president of the college democratic club. 
 
 He was an actor in a dramatic incident, which occurred 
 near the close of his junior fall, in the presidential 
 election of 1840. He was now 22 years of age, an 
 ardent democrat, but had never voted. He determined 
 at this time to cast his first ballot. To do this he re- 
 turned from Hanover to Deerfield, a distance of seventy- 
 five miles by stage, leaving on the last day of October 
 and arriving at Concord, on his way, at half-past one 
 o'clock the same night. He at once set out alone on 
 foot for Deerfield, still twenty miles distant, meeting, as 
 he says, the rising sun on the summit of Prescott's Hill, 
 four miles away, and arriving at home just in season for 
 
18 JOHN D. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 breakfast. The election was next clay, and he was on 
 hand. Party spirit ran high, and the voting list was 
 closely scrutinized by both sides. There was at that 
 time living with his father, as a cheap hired hand, an 
 ignorant but fairly intelligent fellow, named Francis York. 
 He had been brought up in the poorhouse of an adjoin- 
 ing town, but for the past eight years had been self-sup- 
 porting. The Whig magnate of Deerfield, a lawyer of 
 distinguished family and influence, overawed the select- 
 men, and induced them to strike York's name from the 
 voting list, on the ground that he was a town pauper. 
 Upon this, young Philbrick stepped up and protested 
 against the act. Amid the great crowd of assembled 
 voters he spoke for eight or ten minutes, with an ear- 
 nestness that filled them with astonishment. York's 
 name was quickly restored to the list. John went back 
 home, brought York to the town meeting, and saw that 
 he deposited his vote. 
 
 "To-day," said he, "has been the most glorious day of 
 my life. I have emancipated a man and defended his 
 rights." 
 
 On the whole he stood high at college as a man and 
 scholar, — among the first, — but was not distinguished 
 otherwise than for his sterling qualities. One of his 
 classmates writes that he was not so conspicuous in any 
 respect, compared with the average of his class, as to lead 
 to expectations of his career of distinction. He was un- 
 assuming, prompt in his exercises, doing justice to the 
 subject and credit to himself, writes another classmate. 
 Another says he was a resolute, plucky fellow, and upon 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 19 
 
 an attempt made to haze his roommate by some of the 
 sophomores, when he was a freshman, his assailants went 
 down stairs very much in a hurry, followed by sundry 
 billets of wood, and very much worsted. I may add that 
 when this incursion of four masked and cloaked soph- 
 omores was made into his room, he was engaged in 
 writing a letter home, which letter I have seen. With 
 the few minutes' interruption necessary to put out the 
 intruders and throw them down stairs, he calmly resumed 
 his writing, with as firm a hand as ever, only incidentally 
 mentioning this little disturbance, and saying that he 
 " pounced upon these fellows like an eagle upon his 
 prey." 
 
 Another classmate writes : " The most marked charac- 
 teristics of all which I remember were his ambition and 
 energy ; the former trait led me once to say to him that 
 I thought nothing but the presidency of the United 
 States would satisfy him. There was the same enthu- 
 siasm in everything that he undertook at that time that 
 he showed in all his after life. Firm in his opinions and 
 tenacious of his rights, he had also exceeding good-nature 
 and kindness of heart." 
 
 His classmate, the Hon. George Walker, now and for a 
 long time, United States Consul General at Paris, in an 
 interesting letter, states : " I remember him particularly 
 well as a steady, studious man of high character and 
 dignified manners. I have the impression that he was 
 a good scholar. I should say that he was a man who 
 was always growing, never rapidly, but assimilating what 
 he learned, and becoming every year that I knew him 
 stronger and more capable of useful work." 
 
20 JOHN />. PH1LBBICK. 
 
 Another classmate, Dr. J. Baxter Upham, writes : 
 "Everything he did, was well and thoroughly done. He 
 was a ready speaker and an excellent writer, a good 
 scholar, one of the best in the division in which we were 
 together. lie was also noted for his honor, integrity, 
 .iikI straightforwardness. He would not stoop to do a 
 low or mean thing. He also had pluck, boldness, and 
 courage, though he was as gentle and kind as he was 
 brave." 
 
 His senior year in college was very much shortened by 
 his prolonged absences for teaching. He left Dartmouth, 
 as he records, early in November of his senior year, with- 
 out leave or license, and did not. return until the last day 
 of the following May. On presenting his excuse tc the 
 president for this extended absence, he states that it was 
 immediately accepted and no questions asked. What that 
 excuse was we can readily infer: it was the necessity of 
 earning his own way. Still under this pressure for funds, 
 even now immediately upon his return to college, he was 
 casting about for a location to teach after he should 
 graduate. 
 
 It should be said here in explanation of the extreme 
 pressure he felt for earning money, that he not only 
 supported himself at school and college, but helped his 
 sister to obtain a liberal education, and was so keenly 
 sensitive to his filial obligations, that from time to time 
 he provided his father with help upon the farm to com- 
 pensate for his own necessary absence. Indeed, it was 
 "the custom of the country" for boys to help, and not 
 be helped ; and money was much more scarce, valuable, 
 and hard to get than it is now. 
 
EABL7 LIFE AND EDUCATION. '1\ 
 
 His mind at this time, as the end of his college course 
 was approaching, was filled with thoughts and plans for the 
 future. His determination and onfident expectation 
 
 from the time he lust went away l<» school up to I In- 
 close of his senior year in college, had been to study and 
 pursue the profession of the law ; indeed, al tins time he 
 
 had already begun its earnesl reading. Returning home 
 
 from his senior fall, he makes this note on the eleventh 
 
 of November, 1841 : — 
 
 "This eveniii" I kindled a lire in the west room, filled 
 my lamp, seated myself in grandfather's old armchair, 
 and commenced in earnest the study of my profession, by 
 reading the forty-fourth chapter of Gibbon's Rome, which 
 treats of Roman jurisprudence." 
 
 This studyof fin- law he continued in the leisure hours 
 from his teaching for several years after quitting college, 
 reading all of the elementary and many of the advam 1 d 
 treatises on this science. I'nt though better qualified 
 
 than most applicants, he never SOUght admission to the 
 Bar. He did not, however, give up the idea of following 
 this profession, for which he had a strong inclination and 
 many marked qualifications, but fully intended to pursue 
 it, until he bei ame master of the Quincy School, in 1047. 
 But to return to his outlook from college at the close 
 of his course. His mind was full of projects J lie had a 
 strong inclination to go I" Virginia, or some part of the 
 
 South. He was offered the Yarmouth Academy on Cape 
 Cod; he was invited to share the management of the 
 Gymnasium, at Pembroke, by Mi. Kinsman, He con- 
 sidered the plan of starting a high school in his native 
 
22 JOHN D. PniLBEICK. 
 
 town. The thing that he most wanted to do was to con- 
 tinue his study of the law, and his plan for this was to 
 enter the office of Franklin Pierce, at Concord, N. H. 
 
 Everything had to give way, however, to the pressing 
 and immediate need for funds, and he chose the most 
 promising opening in this respect. Through the friends 
 he had made at Danvers, Mass., he was now offered a 
 position as assistant in a private institution, the Roxbury, 
 Mass., Latin School, which he at once accepted. It is 
 curious to note that his ancestor, Governor Thomas 
 Dudley, was one of the chief founders of this school in 
 1645. Following the matter up immediately, that the 
 place might be secured beyond contingency, he left 
 Dartmouth on the last day of June, having remained 
 there in his senior summer just one month. His last 
 year in college, therefore, consisted of an attendance 
 there of about three months only. Under the rules, 
 owing to these absences, he could not graduate with his 
 class, but by making up the deficient studies, he was 
 accorded an examination at the next Commencement, 
 and given a diploma of the date of his class. 
 
 MR. PniLBRICK'S EARLY EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING. 
 
 On the principle that one learns by doing, a very im- 
 portant part of Mr. Philbrick's education came from the 
 relation where he was teacher instead of pupil. As we 
 have seen, during the course of his preparation for col- 
 lege, and while there, he taught seven winter district 
 schools and one term at an academy. The primary ob- 
 ject had in view was to get funds to pay for his own 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 23 
 
 schooling, but the secondary object attained was even 
 more important. He was educating himself as well as 
 instructing others, and unconsciously bending his mind 
 in a direction which led to the final choice of his life 
 pursuit. 
 
 He taught first in the intervals of his fragmentary at- 
 tendance at the Academy for two or three successive 
 winters, in the district schools of the vicinity of his 
 home. In his residence at Pembroke Academy, he had 
 become acquainted with several members of the family of 
 Putnam, who came from Danvers, Mass. Led by this 
 acquaintance, and hope of help from it in securing a 
 position, he started out at the end of his freshman fall to 
 look for a school in this town or its vicinity. He had 
 no difficulty in obtaining one through these friends, and 
 was engaged to teach in their own district. This same 
 school he taught for three successive winters. While 
 here, he became acquainted with his fellow teachers in 
 Danvers and in the near vicinity, especially at Salem. 
 He visited their schools and met them in social meetings, 
 finding among them several superior men. In this old 
 county in Massachusetts, he found a set of schools of 
 much greater excellence than the country schools he had 
 been accustomed to in New Hampshire. He was always 
 very enthusiastic and devoted to whatever he was en- 
 gaged in, and ambitious, as well, to excel in his work. 
 His uniform and continuous success in managing and 
 instructing inspired him with confidence in his ability, 
 and these surroundings afforded every incitement for him 
 to do his best. He observed and studied the methods in 
 
24 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 the best schools which he visited, and by himself striving 
 to excel them, became much interested in the subject of 
 education itself. Desiring to improve the schools of his 
 native town, on his return to it, from these winter expe- 
 ditions, he held meetings in the school-houses of the 
 different districts, and lectured to the people on the sub- 
 ject of common school education, and the last winter of 
 his college course, returned to Deerfield to take charge 
 of the school in one of the largest districts, that he 
 might exemplify the improvements in teaching, which 
 he had learned in Massachusetts. At the close of his 
 school there in February, 1842, he was invited by Mr. 
 Kinsman, his old principal at Pembroke, to take the place 
 of assistant in the new Gymnasium there, which Mr. 
 Kinsman had started as a secession from the old acad- 
 emy. He accepted this position, remaining at Pembroke 
 until the last of May, before returning again to college. 
 He made so marked a success in this place, that two or 
 three years later, upon the place of principal becoming 
 vacant, he was invited by the trustees to occupy it, which 
 offer, however, he was not able to accept. 
 
 This comprised the whole course of his teaching, while 
 he was engaged in his own school and college studies. 
 It had aroused his mind to the importance of this pursuit, 
 and in becoming a teacher, he had learned the great les- 
 son of how to become a student ; and in his associations 
 in Essex County, he found himself a part of a teaching 
 fraternity, and of a social society, which in intelligence 
 and cultivation, exceeded everything in his previous ex- 
 perience, and these influences left a deep impression 
 upon him. 
 
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 25 
 
 It was here too, and in the old and honored family of 
 Putnams, that he formed an attachment which had great 
 influence for good on his future ; and on the 24th of 
 Augusr, 1843, while teaching in Roxbury, he married 
 Miss Julia A. Putnam of Danvers. The union proved a 
 most happy one, and thus for forty-three years he had the 
 cherishing support of a true helpmeet, and the comfort 
 and joy of an ideal home. 
 
 TEACHING IN ROXBURY AND BOSTON. 
 
 In any complete account of Mr. Philbrick's education 
 and growth, there must be mentioned his first five years 
 of teaching in Roxbury and Boston. Beginning as an 
 assistant in a private school in Roxbury, upon leaving 
 college in 1842, he successively filled various positions, 
 always exchanging a good place for a better one, until, 
 in 1847, he reached the Mastership of the Quincy School, 
 that first united and complete grammar school, which 
 marked so important an era in the school system of 
 Boston. 
 
 It was not until this time, I think, that he had discov- 
 ered his full abilities in the line of education, or had 
 appreciated the importance and vastness of this subject, 
 and its moral incentives for a high career. 
 
 His intellectual, moral, and social growth during his 
 college course had been very great, but during this five- 
 year period it was hardly less than marvelous. Coming 
 as a young man from the country into the quick intel- 
 lectual life of a cultivated city, and by his surroundings 
 thrown into congenial and intelligent society, through 
 
26 JOHN D. PIIILBRICK. 
 
 his keenness and aptness he assimilated all that was 
 best. Here he found a new education ; the college had 
 enlarged itself into a city, and the city again into a world. 
 In his apprenticeship in teaching he owed much to 
 Thomas Sherwin, Master of the English High School in 
 Boston, where he was for two years as assistant. 
 
 But the one man to whom he owed more than to all 
 others, in this time, was Dr. George Putnam, then min- 
 ister of the Unitarian Church in Roxbury. The preach- 
 ing and teachings of this great man, whose friendship 
 and confidence had been secured by the solid and attract- 
 ive qualities of this young man, and his influence in 
 close personal intercourse, left a deep and lasting impres- 
 sion upon Mr. Philbrick's character. The determined 
 ambition with which he had started out to pursue and 
 obtain the most obvious prizes of life was transformed 
 into a lofty ambition to attempt only the most worthy 
 objects, and to pursue a course which, first of all, should 
 be of benefit to mankind. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Thus his love of teaching, his eminent success in it, 
 the gradual opening out of its great possibilities, lighted 
 up by this new ambition, led him to adopt the profession 
 of Education as a life career. 
 
 With his schooling in the little country district, with 
 his severe training upon the farm, continuing at intervals 
 up to the age of twenty-four ; with his academic life, 
 struggled and fought for and obtained in fragments ; 
 with his college course, full of patient, industrious, and 
 
EA11LY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 27 
 
 successful study ; with his eight terms of teaching, 
 stretching through nearly as many years ; with his first 
 five years of teaching in Roxbury and this city, so full 
 of opportunity and culture, — we find him at length 
 standing, a young man of twenty-nine, equipped for his 
 life work, at the head of the first united grammar school 
 in the city of Boston. 
 
 In the ripeness of his manhood he looked back upon 
 this formative period of his youth through the fine, ideal 
 glow of distance, — its adversities, its struggles, its tri- 
 umphs, — as a thing wholly apart from himself; but 
 every aspiring youth, — nay, the whole human family of 
 children, — was to him the type of this striving boy, 
 reaching out for instruction and knowledge, while his was 
 the duty to answer this call, by upbuilding and establish- 
 ing the wisest methods of a broad education. 
 
Life and Character 
 
 of 
 
 JOHN DUDLEY PHILBRICK. 
 
 By Larkin Dunton, LL D. 
 
Life and Character 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 John Dudley Philbrick was born in Deerfield, New 
 Hampshire, May 27, 1818. He was the son of Elder 
 Peter Philbrick, a clergyman of the Freewill Baptist 
 denomination, and Betsey Dudley. 
 
 He fitted for college at Pembroke Academy, in Pem- 
 broke, New Hampshire, with the exception of two terms 
 spent in study at Strafford, New Hampshire. He was 
 graduated from Dartmouth College in 1842. 
 
 He was a teacher in the Roxbury Latin School, at 
 Roxbury, now a part of Boston, in 1842 and 1843. He 
 was made a teacher in the English High School in Boston 
 in 1844, an d the next year was chosen principal of the 
 Mayhew School in Boston, which position he occupied 
 till elected master of the then new grammar school in 
 Boston, called the Quincy School, in 1847. He served 
 as master there from 1847 to 1852. 
 
 During the early years of his teaching in Boston, he 
 studied law to some extent, and, contrary to the com- 
 monly expressed opinion, it was not till 1847, tne y ear 
 
 (31) 
 
32 JOHN i>. PHJLBBICK. 
 
 that he t < >< >U charge of the Quincy school, thai he decided 
 to adopl educal ion as a profession. 
 
 lie was called from Boston to the State Normal School 
 ;ii New Britain, Connecticuti and served there as principal 
 in [853 and [854 He was superintendent of the public 
 schools ol the State oi Connecticul in [855 and [856. 
 
 He was superintendent of the public schools of Boston, 
 from December 22, [856, to September 1, 1874, and from 
 March i, [875, to March 1, [878. 
 
 He was agenl of the Massachusetts State Board oi 
 Education during .1 pari ol [875—1876, in charge of 
 the preparation oi the Exhibition oi the Education and 
 Science oi ihc State al the Centennial Exposition at 
 Philadelphia; Massachusetts Special Commissioner of 
 Education, and United States Honorary Commissioner, 
 and Member of the International Jury, al the Vienna 
 Exposition in [873; and Director of the United States 
 Exhibition and Member ol the International Jury, a1 the 
 Taiis Exposition, in [878. 
 
 He was at differenl times one of the editors of the 
 Massachusetts Teacher. Ele was also editor of the Con- 
 necticut Common School Journal for two or three years, 
 when employed in thai State. 
 
 The following are among his published works: — An- 
 nual Reports oi the Public Schools oi the State ol Con- 
 necticut for [855 and 1856; twelve quarterly and thirty- 
 three semiannual Reports of the Public Schools ol 
 
 ton, ami several special reports relating to these 
 schools, printed in the annual volumes of the Reports 
 of the School Committee of Boston from 1S57 to 1878 
 
LIFE AND CHABACTEB. 33 
 
 inclusive ; the Reports of the Massachusetts State Board 
 of Education to the Legislature for the years 1865 and 
 1872; Report as Director of the United States Exhi- 
 bition at the Paris Exposition of 1878, printed with Re- 
 ports of the Commissioner in Chief; article Etats Unis, 
 Dictionaire de Pedagogic Paris; several lectures and 
 papers printed in the volumes of the American Institute 
 of Instruction, of the National Educational Association, 
 and circulars of the National Bureau of Education ; 
 articles for the Atlantic Monthly and North American 
 Review, 1 88 1 ; Catalogue of the United States Exhibition 
 at Paris, 1878 (pp. 124), London : printed at the Ches- 
 wich Press; American Union Speaker (pp. 588), Boston, 
 1865, and second edition (pp. 536), Boston, 1876; the 
 Primary Union Speaker (pp. 1 10), Boston ; City School 
 Systems in the United States, published by the Bureau 
 of Education, 1885 ; and School Reports printed in the 
 Proceedings of the Council, 1885. 
 
 I am not certain that the list is complete ; but it does 
 not include a considerable number of unpublished lect- 
 ures and addresses. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick was president of the Connecticut State 
 Teachers' Association, the Massachusetts State Teach- 
 ers' Association, the American Institute of Instruction, 
 and the National Educational Association. He was a 
 member of the National Council of Education, member 
 of the Massachusetts Board of Education for ten years, 
 member of the government of the Institute of Technol- 
 ogy from its establishment in 1861 to the time of his 
 death, and a trustee of Bates College for ten years. 
 
34 JOHN D. PUIL BRICK. 
 
 He received the degree of LL.D. from Bates College 
 in 1872, and from St. Andrew's University, Scotland, 
 in 1879; was ma< ^ e Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, 
 France, 1878, and also received the Gold Palm of the 
 University of Fiance, with the title Officio- d' Instruc- 
 tion Publigue. 
 
 Probably none of these titles and their accompanying 
 diplomas afforded him so much pleasure as a " Reward of 
 Merit," received from his first teacher, who occupied the 
 "little red schoolhouse on the hill," in School District 
 No. 1, in his native town. Dr. Philbrick remembered 
 this school district in his will. A quarter part of the 
 income from the money which he has left to the town of 
 Decrfield is to be given annually to this district, "in 
 addition to its legal share of school money." The reward 
 of merit read as follows : — 
 
 This may certify that John PL'ilbrick is at the head of 
 class No. 2, and for his good behavior and laudable im- 
 provement the week past has the approbation of his teacher, 
 
 Ruth Bailey. 
 
 Deerfield, July 2, 1824. 
 
 His foreign travels in 1873 included visits to Liver- 
 pool, London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, the principal cities 
 of Germany, and Brussels; and in 1878, France, Eng- 
 land, and Scotland. 
 
 Such are the positions he held, the works he wrote, 
 and the marks of honor he received. Let us now exam- 
 ine with more care some of the results of his labors. 
 
 Like many of the older teachers of New England, he 
 laid the foundation for his future success in the old dis- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 35 
 
 trict school. He taught in such a district in the town of 
 Danvers, Massachusetts, several winters while in college. 
 Here he was noted for his devotion to his school, and for 
 his interest in a small society of teachers of the town, 
 mostly college students like himself, who used to meet 
 in various parts of the town for mutual help in regard 
 to their professional work. The lessons of professional 
 help from association and conference that he here learned 
 from experience, he never forgot. Perhaps there is not 
 a man in this country who has contributed so largely 
 of time, travel, and talent to the various associations of 
 teachers in the country as our lamented friend. With 
 what patience, and interest, too, he listened to the essays 
 and discussions of others. For he welcomed free inter- 
 change of views as the best means of clarifying one's 
 own mind. He was the most sincere lover of criticism, 
 even adverse criticism, that I have ever known. How 
 often I have heard him say, " We should be thankful for 
 the criticisms of our enemies ; for our enemies will tell 
 us our faults, a thing which our friends are reluctant 
 to do." 
 
 Then what deference he always paid to the opinions of 
 those whose wisdom and experience entitled them to con- 
 sideration. He had no patience with educational char- 
 latanism ; but for a sincere student, for honest expe- 
 rience, his respect was genuine. How many of us have 
 been encouraged to excel ourselves by his appreciative 
 consideration of our opinions based on careful obser- 
 vation. This spirit made him both a teacher and a 
 learner at our conventions. 
 
3G JOHN J). PHILBRICK. 
 
 Of Dr. Philbrick's work in Connecticut I will let 
 Charles Northend speak : — 
 
 "He came here [New Britain] in 1852, at the request 
 of Dr. Barnard, to take charge of the State Normal 
 School, a position he filled with rare ability and success. 
 Some two years later, Dr. Barnard resigned the State 
 supcrintendency of schools, and, on his recommendation, 
 Mr. Philbrick was made State Superintendent of Schools 
 and principal of the Normal School. Of him at this time 
 Dr. Barnard wrote to the president of the State Teachers' 
 Association as follows : ' Mr. Philbrick is a wise, prac- 
 tical teacher, of large personal experience in every de- 
 partment of the educational field, and has shown himself 
 willing to labor ' in season and out of season,' and to 
 •spend and be spent' in the cause of popular education. 
 He enjoys the highest respect and love of the teachers, 
 and by his ability, common sense, and devotion to his 
 duties will deserve and secure the confidence and co- 
 operation of the people of the State.' 
 
 " Mr. Philbrick remained in this State about five years, 
 greatly to the benefit of the Normal School and to the 
 cause of education throughout the State, and when, in 
 1857, he resigned his position here to accept the superin- 
 tendency of the schools of Boston, it was greatly to the 
 regret of the friends of progress in school work ; but 
 brief as his stay was here, he was instrumental of great 
 and lasting good. 
 
 " I will close this article by naming two or three par- 
 ticulars in which Dr. Philbrick excelled, and to which his 
 great usefulness and eminent success were largely owing : 
 
 " 1. He was a perfect gentleman, — always courteous, 
 and kind, and winning in his manner, by which he both 
 made and retained friends. 
 
 " 2. He was a man of great earnestness, sound common 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 37 
 
 sense, and good judgment; a man of great firmness and 
 persistent effort in the execution of his views and plans. 
 "3. Dr. Philbrick had the rare faculty of gaining the 
 good-will and hearty co-operation of all in any way asso- 
 ciated with him. He always most cheerfully accorded to 
 all their full share of merit for what they did, and inspired 
 them with the feeling that he was their true friend." 
 
 Dr. Philbrick's first important work in Boston was in 
 making the Quincy school a success. To understand the 
 significance of this work, we must remember that the 
 organization of this school, under Mr. Philbrick, was the 
 beginning of a new departure in school management in 
 the city. Up to that time, 1847, the old " double-headed " 
 organization had prevailed. " By this singular arrange- 
 ment each school had two departments, called the read- 
 ing and writing departments. Each of these departments 
 was accommodated in a separate apartment ; each had 
 its separate set of studies ; the programme of studies 
 being divided for this purpose, not horizontally by grades, 
 but vertically by subjects ; each had its master and corps 
 of assistants, usually two or three in number; and the 
 pupils attended each in turn, changing from one to the 
 other at each half-daily session." The pupils all assem- 
 bled and prepared their lessons in the room with the 
 master. This room usually had a seating capacity of 
 about one hundred and eighty. Originally, all the reci- 
 tations were conducted in the same room, the master 
 hearing one section of pupils and the assistants hearing 
 the others. 
 
 By the arrangement adopted in the Ouincy school, 
 
38 J01IX 1). PIIILBItlUK. 
 
 each division was to occupy a separate room ; and when 
 one reflects upon the old state of harshness in discipline, 
 repression, confusion, and corporal punishment, that were 
 necessary, and then upon the quiet, the order, and the 
 kindness of spirit, that would be infused into a school 
 under the new system, he will at once understand why 
 it was so important that the new plan should succeed. 
 Then there were the economic reasons, the reasons that 
 were more potent in the minds of many of the school 
 committee at that time than the pedagogic ones. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick proved to be the right man for the new 
 scheme. He made it such a success that, in a few years, 
 the old double-headed system had entirely disappeared ; 
 and no more schoolhouses in Boston have been built on 
 the old plan. Whether the old system would have con- 
 tinued much longer in the event of his failure, it is im- 
 possible to say ; but it is quite evident that the better era 
 was much hastened by his wise and efficient administra- 
 tion. The influence of this change is now felt, perhaps, 
 in every State in the Union ; if not in the structure of 
 schoolhouses, certainly in the mildness of the discipline 
 that has been made possible. 
 
 Another great service rendered to the Boston schools, 
 and, indeed, to the schools of the whole country, was the 
 reform in the school programmes. The accomplishing of 
 this required the highest wisdom and the application of 
 the best common sense. Dr. Philbrick had the good 
 judgment, in this as in many other things, to proceed 
 slowly. Even after he knew the right, he took time to 
 do the work necessary for its introduction. 
 
LIFE AND CHABACTER. 39 
 
 The making of a good programme is undoubtedly the 
 highest kind of pedagogical work. It is easy to tinker a 
 programme, easy to say, " Put this into the schools, and 
 take that out " ; but to know the end of human develop- 
 ment, its successive stages, its breadth, the relative pro- 
 portion of each element to be introduced, — to know the 
 means to be used, the matter to be presented, the order 
 of presentation, the proper proportion of time to give to 
 this or that subject ; and then to be able to state intel- 
 ligibly all the processes in proper co-ordination and sub- 
 ordination, — in short, to determine just what shall be 
 done, when and how, by the children of a city, so that all 
 shall be educated in the best way, — this requires peda- 
 gogical skill of the highest order. It requires educa- 
 tional wisdom of no mean quality to know enough not to 
 attempt the task. 
 
 I doubt whether a greater advance in the constructing 
 of a good programme has been made in this country than 
 was made by Mr. Philbrick in the arranging of the course 
 of study for the primary and grammar schools of Boston. 
 In speaking of the effect of the programme of the pri- 
 mary schools twenty years after it went into operation, 
 he says : " The adoption of this programme was of so 
 much importance as to constitute an era in the history 
 of the primary schools. Its beneficial effects were soon 
 apparent, and they have gone on increasing ever since. 
 It gives definiteness of aim to. the teachers which they 
 did not before have, promotes unity and harmony of effort 
 on the part of teachers of different classes, and tends to 
 secure uniformity of progress in corresponding classes 
 
40 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 in different parts of the city, while it affords at once 
 a standard and guide in making examinations for pro- 
 motion." 
 
 This work of Dr. Philbrick has sometimes been spoken 
 of as though it was, in his mind, an end ; or, at least, that 
 school organization was an end, and not a means. Those 
 who make such criticisms fail to take into account, in the 
 first place, the fact that the making of a good programme 
 implies a profound knowledge of education, both philo- 
 sophic and practical, and in the second place, the fact 
 that, when his programme was made and well applied in 
 the schools under his control, he began to study the ways 
 and means of raising the teachers under his direction to 
 the rank of educational philosophers with as much zeal 
 as he had ever displayed in the construction or introduc- 
 tion of the programme. 
 
 It was just at this point that he was misunderstood by 
 his critics. Because he laid a necessary foundation first, 
 and then sought means for erecting the superstructure, it 
 was assumed that he would never build. Shrewdly has 
 Dr. White remarked, " His apparent conservatism was 
 the poise of deep insight and wide knowledge." While 
 others would fail on account of moving too soon, he could 
 wait till all contingencies were provided for. 
 
 Another important service rendered by Dr. Philbrick 
 was the making of the grammar masters principals of 
 districts. The primary schools of Boston remained un- 
 graded down to 1856; but between that date and 1864 
 they had been graded into six classes, and, when prac- 
 ticable, a single class was assigned to each teacher This 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 41 
 
 arrangement, of course, required promotions to be made 
 every six months, from one primary teacher to another, 
 unless the teachers were sent from grade to grade with 
 their pupils, a plan which was not generally adopted. 
 " This made it necessary that some one should be 
 charged with the responsibility of supervising the group 
 with reference to the admission of pupils, their proper 
 classification, and their qualifications for promotion, from 
 class to class, and to the grammar schools." 
 
 At the same time the number of pupils in each of the 
 grammar schools had become so much larger under the 
 "single-headed" organization that an improvement in the 
 supervision of the lower classes had come to be felt as a 
 necessity. The master was occupied in teaching the first 
 class, and consequently the labors of the subordinate 
 teachers were often undirected, or misdirected, and, con- 
 sequently, conflicting in their aims. This laid the foun- 
 dation for " high pressure " in the first class, for the 
 pupils often came up poorly qualified to do the work re- 
 quired. And the more the master tried to remedy the 
 deficiency in his own class, the more he was increasing 
 the evil for the succeeding class by neglecting the classes 
 below. And, beside, the pupils who left school without 
 reaching the first class received little benefit from the 
 superior experience and teaching power of the master. 
 
 To remedy all these evils, Dr. Philbrick conceived the 
 plan of relieving the master from the duty of teaching in 
 the first class, and of making him the principal, not only 
 of the grammar school, but of all the primary schools in 
 his district as well. This scheme had the ever potent 
 
42 JOHN l). PH1LBBI0K. 
 
 merit of cheapness ; and, after a long discussion, and the 
 support of an able report, it was adopted by the Board. 
 The conservative members, however, succeeded in adding 
 a modification to the original plan, to the effect that the 
 new duty of the master should be performed "under the 
 direction of the district committee." This qualification 
 WTOUghl much harm in some districts for a long time, but 
 in the main the plan soon went into effect. 
 
 Nearly ten years later Dr. Philbrick writes : — 
 
 " 'This measure has unified the whole system and 
 greatly increased its strength and efficiency. Without it 
 the new programme would have proved little better than 
 so much waste paper. Each master is now not merely a 
 teacher of one small class, — he is tin- training master and 
 real director of all the classes in his -district, II he does 
 his duty he ten lies more or less in every class to show 
 how they should be handled, and so aids and directs the 
 teachers in carrying out the programmes, that their labor 
 may, as far as possible, contribute to the accomplishment 
 of the desired objects." 
 
 Hut I must hasten on, for time would fail rac to treat, 
 with anything like fullness, of all the reforms wrought 
 in the Boston schools, through the wise foresight and 
 patienl labor ol I )r. Philbrick. 
 
 lie kept the school expenditures from being reduced 
 to a point thai would cripple the efficiency of the schools. 
 lie never boasted of cheap schools. The farthest he 
 ever wcnl in this direction was to show the people that 
 school expenses, in the time of high prices, were not in- 
 creased so rapidly as other city expenses, and that for 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 4',\ 
 
 the most extravagant use of nmncy for school purposes 
 the school committee were not responsible; but he never 
 so far yielded to the popular clamor for retrenchment as 
 to consent to the reduction of teachers' salaries, or the 
 cheapening of the necessary supplies for the schools, 
 lie saw clearly that the schools must cost money if they 
 were to be good, and his motto was, " Schools good 
 enough for the rich are poor enough for the poor." If 
 the public schools are patronized by the wealthy they are 
 economical, even for them, and so Mr. 1'hilbrick sought 
 to make the public schools better than it is possible to 
 inula; private schools. 
 
 1 1 is wise counsels were felt in the construction of 
 school houses. Mr. George A. Clough, the able architect 
 of the Latin and English High School building in Bos- 
 ton, says : — 
 
 "The earliest impressions that I received upon school 
 architecture were from Dr. Philbrick, as far back as LS71, 
 and now, after fifteen years' experience, I have had an 
 opportunity to see that his views were far in advance of 
 all other writers upon the subject in this country. In 
 reviewing my experience I find myself constantly associ- 
 ated with the early views of Dr. Philbrick." 
 
 In the matter of school furniture such a change was 
 wrought under his administration that the effect has 
 been felt all over this country, and even in other coun- 
 tries. To his wisdom are we, perhaps, mainly indebted 
 for the use of a single desk for every scholar, from the 
 primary school to the high. 
 
 lie was among the first, — perhaps the very first, — of 
 
44 JOHN D. PUILBBICK. 
 
 the leading educators of the country to perceive the value 
 of art education, and to take steps toward its promotion. 
 Mr. John S. Clark, of the firm of Prang & Co., a man as 
 well qualified to speak upon this point as any man in the 
 United States, says : — 
 
 " The movement for the study of drawing in the public 
 schools .... had its beginning in Boston. I do not 
 think I do injustice to the many gentlemen who took a 
 deep interest in starting the movement in Massachusetts 
 when I say that the leading spirit in the movement was 
 Dr. Philbrick. In my various consultations with him he 
 surprised me, not only by the thoroughness of his obser- 
 vation of what had been done abroad, but also by his 
 clear comprehension of what was necessary to be clone 
 here before any success could be expected. To Dr. Phil- 
 brick more than to any other one person are we indebted 
 for our Massachusetts Normal Art School. It was 
 through his instrumentality, mainly, that Mr. Walter 
 Smith was induced to come to Boston in 1872." 
 
 And, I mav add that the influence of this movement 
 upon the industrial productions and upon the artistic 
 tastes of the people of this country is beyond compu- 
 tation. 
 
 In the department of vocal music great progress was 
 made during Dr. Philbrick's administration. When lie 
 took charge of the schools, in 1856, singing was indiffer- 
 ently taught in only a portion of the classes of the gram- 
 mar schools, and in these it was not taught by the regular 
 teachers. In fact, " there was no prescribed programme 
 of instruction, no harmony of methods, no uniformity of 
 textbooks, no classification, — in fact, no system." At 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 45 
 
 the close of his connection Willi the schools, a thorough, 
 systematic, and progressive course of musical instruction 
 was given to all the pupils, beginning with the youngest 
 on their entrance into school, and ending with the last 
 year of the high school course; and there was, also, a 
 systematic course of instruction given to the pupils of 
 the Boston Normal School to qualify the students to 
 teach music when they should be called to take charge 
 of classes as teachers. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick, as long ago as i860, took strong ground 
 in favor of the introduction of physical training, or gym- 
 nastics, into the public schools. After much opposition, 
 the plan that he proposed in i860 was adopted in 1864, 
 and a special teacher of vocal and physical culture was 
 appointed. Not so much has been accomplished in this 
 department in Boston as is needed, on account of our lack 
 of facilities. The difficulty of improvement in this 
 branch of instruction is a good illustration of the con- 
 servative force of an established order of things. To 
 make physical culture really effective, a gymnasium is 
 necessary in connection with each school, and in Boston 
 the schoolhouses are so situated that the acquisition of 
 ground for suitable buildings would be very expensive ; 
 and so even those who are wise enough to see the need 
 of such buildings hesitate to move in the matter. 
 
 The plan at present in operation in Boston of employ- 
 ing a force of truant officers by the school committee was 
 developed during Dr. Philbrick's administration. At 
 first truant officers were appointed by the mayor and 
 aldermen, and were not responsible to the school com- 
 
46 JOHN D. PHILBBICE. 
 
 mittee for the performance of their duty. They for a 
 long time met the superintendent once a month as a 
 matter of courtesy, but not as a duty. At last the au- 
 thority to appoint these officers and fix their salaries was 
 conferred upon the school committee by general statute, 
 and then they met the superintendent once a week for 
 consultation and direction. After this system had been 
 developed and perfected by a series of experiments in 
 Boston, its beneficial effects were so marked that it at- 
 tracted the attention of other American cities, and finally 
 produced much effect in England and other foreign coun- 
 tries. The action of the truant force in Boston was so 
 moulded by the superintendent that the moral influence 
 of the officers in promoting a better state of feeling 
 toward the schools, among ignorant parents, and thus 
 securing greater regularity of attendance, was, perhaps, 
 quite as great as that of their direct, legally required 
 work. 
 
 Outside the public schools Dr. Philbrick's influence 
 was constantly felt for good. He was a member of the 
 association that secured the charter of the Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology. From the day of the chartering 
 of this institution to the day of his own death he was a 
 member of the corporation and of the committee on in- 
 struction. He was a constant attendant of the meet- 
 ings, both of the corporation and of the committees to 
 which he belonged, and, by his labors and counsel, did 
 much to develop this important institution. 
 
 He was no inconsiderable factor in the forces that cre- 
 ated the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He was the first 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 47 
 
 temporary secretary of this association, and did much to 
 secure the necessary funds for its establishment. Many 
 of those who listen to me to-day will remember his per- 
 sonal influence in this direction. 
 
 His last work for Boston, as well as for the rest of the 
 country, was his great argument in favor of a permanent 
 tenure of office for teachers. His lecture upon this sub- 
 ject before the American Institute of Instruction, and his 
 masterly treatment of the same in his report to the Com- 
 missioner of Education upon city school systems, did 
 much toward securing the passage of the act by the Leg- 
 islature last winter, which confers upon school commit- 
 tees authority to dispense with the annual re-election of 
 teachers, — a movement which, in the opinion of Dr. 
 Philbrick, is second to no reform in education that has 
 been inaugurated in this country. 
 
 But, were I called upon to single out from all the grand 
 achievements of Dr. Philbrick in Boston, the one more 
 potent than all the rest, the one stronger and more far- 
 reaching in its influence than all others, the one that has 
 done most to make the Boston schools known and hon- 
 ored wherever public schools exist in the whole world, 
 the one that is destined, unless destroyed by narrowness 
 and jealousy, to exert the strongest influence in the im- 
 provement of our schools in the future, I should name, 
 not schoolhouses, not school furnishings, not programmes, 
 not methods, not special schools, not even the diffusion 
 of a sound philosophical spirit, but rather the creation of 
 a higher ideal of the schoolmaster's office, — an ideal that 
 makes the office respected and honored by the people. 
 
48 JOHN l>. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 and that makes the school itself the master's pride and 
 
 glory, and the object of his entire consecration and devo- 
 tion. This was the crowning glory of Dr. Philbrick's 
 work in Boston. 
 
 One of the fundamental philosophical principles that 
 was early developed in Dr. Philbrick's mind, and that be- 
 came a guiding force in many of his reforms, was the 
 truth that specialized functions require specialized agen- 
 cies. As soon as it became evident to him that there 
 was a special work to be done he at once began to cast 
 about tor the proper agency for its accomplishment. 
 Hence we find growing up in Boston, under his wise 
 guidance, and developing under his fostering care, even- 
 ing elementary schools, evening high schools, evening 
 drawing schools, schools for licensed minors, a deaf-mute 
 school, in addition to the regular primary, grammar, and 
 high schools. The same principle, also, held him as a 
 firm advocate of the establishment of a separate Latin 
 school for girls, instead of having the work of fitting girls 
 for college done in the regular high school for girls where 
 the chief business is giving a general education. 
 
 The application of this principle compelled him to take 
 ground in favor of a separate and distinct normal school. 
 I te saw, with the insight of a sage, that the work of pre- 
 paring young women to become teachers in primary and 
 grammar schools was, in its finishing process, entirely 
 distinct from the general work of developing scientific 
 and literary power, and, therefore, as he believed, a spe- 
 cial agency should be employed for performing this spe- 
 cial work. I remember well a visit to the Boston Normal 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 49 
 
 School by the superintendent of schools of New York, — 
 Mr. Kiddle, — soon after the separation of the Normal 
 School from the Girls' High. We were then just strug- 
 gling into existence ; but, after witnessing the work of 
 the school for some time, he remarked, " You have the 
 right organization, — a special school for special work." 
 
 And yet this is only a single instance of the profoundly 
 philosophic mould of Dr. Philbrick's mind. He told me, 
 within a few years of his death, that he had never written 
 a sentence on education that he would wish to blot. It 
 is remarkable to observe what unity and consistency run 
 through all his writings. The reason of this is obvious 
 to those who know the deep principles that ran through 
 all his educational thinking and unified all his educa- 
 tional work. Dr. Harris well expressed this fact when 
 he said, " His annual reports were luminous with insight 
 into the relations of practical methods to the history of 
 pedagogy. He was a city set upon a hill. He never 
 wrote a paragraph without considering the relation of its 
 doctrine to the theory and practice of the world." 
 
 The ability to do this implies what we all concede, that 
 he was profoundly versed in educational history. Some 
 have attempted to separate a knowledge of educational 
 philosophy from that of educational practice, and to at- 
 tribute to him the latter, but to deny him the former ; 
 but those who so estimate the man know him only in 
 part. He was, indeed, deeply read in systems of school 
 organization, but these systems lay in his mind as the 
 development of corresponding philosophies. He was 
 strong as a practical school man, but the secret of his 
 
50 JOHN 1). PUILBRICK. 
 
 practical strength lay in his profound knowledge of the 
 principles that determine right practice. 
 
 This made him conservative. While others were ready 
 to embrace a newly presented theory or method, he felt 
 compelled to hesitate. He must first consider whether it 
 had not already been properly tested and rejected, and 
 whether or not it was in accordance with those principles 
 that he held as fundamental. Often would he reject a 
 method of teaching which, for the time being, was pop- 
 ular, well knowing that it was not in accordance with the 
 views of the wisest educators. If any new, really new, 
 method was proposed, he always inquired, before he ac- 
 cepted it, whether it was in accordance with the tendency 
 of the best practice of the world. But few men could 
 apply this test, lie had the necessary knowledge, and it 
 gave him great strength. He was so well versed in ped- 
 agogical history that he knew what the various nations of 
 the world had formerly done, what they were now doing, 
 and the changes both in theory and practice through 
 which they were going. And he judged that, if all the 
 most enlightened nations of the world were moving in a 
 given direction, that direction, while not necessarily ab- 
 solutely right, was more likely to be right than any 
 course that could be thought out by one single mind. 
 How many times I have heard him say, " This practice 
 is wrong because it is contrary to the unanimous opinion 
 of the wisest educators." This test he often applied 
 with wonderful skill. 
 
 It has been said of him that he was not a great man. 
 But what is the standard of greatness ? This is a relative 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 51 
 
 term, of course. No one talent of his overshadowed all 
 the rest ; but his mind was well rounded and evenly 
 balanced, and one of remarkable force. His power of 
 application was wonderful. His classmate, Rev. Dr. 
 Spalding, says of him, " No man in college was more 
 noted for his indefatigable industry." And the habit 
 thus early formed clung to him till the day of his death. 
 His judgment of men was excellent, and his opinion of 
 the best means to secure a desired end was rarely wrong. 
 His view of a broad truth was clear to a degree attained 
 by but few, and his power to apply general principles to 
 special cases was equal to his power of insight. If great- 
 ness be judged by success, we must accord it to him in 
 no small degree. Few men of a generation impress 
 themselves upon the world so strongly or so widely. 
 Probably no school man lives to-day who is so widely and 
 so favorably known as was Dr. Philbrick at the time of 
 his death. 
 
 Not only the esteem in which he was held by educa- 
 tors, but the affection they felt for him, was unusual. 
 What is the secret ? Is it not to be found partly in the 
 fact that his highest ambition was to be of real service to 
 mankind ? In the seclusion and sacredness of his own 
 study, July 9, 1865, he wrote : — 
 
 " I often urge as the chief end of man, self-culture, 
 with a view to use talents and acquirements for the ben- 
 efit of others. I got a glimpse of this great idea while in 
 college, I know not how, and it grew and expanded till it 
 came to be my guiding principle. It was this which at 
 length determined my choice of a profession. I felt that 
 
52 JOHN 1). PHILBBICK. 
 
 the educational field was that in which I could best de- 
 velop my own character and at the same time do the 
 most good to mankind. I expected labor and trials, but 
 these are necessary for culture. I have no regret on 
 account of my choice ; I only regret that I have not done 
 more. Not but that I have worked hard enough, but I 
 have not always worked to the best advantage. To ac- 
 complish great things one must have great power of 
 endurance and also great wisdom to direct his efforts, so 
 that he may always work to the best advantage." 
 
 The desire to do the most good to mankind determined 
 the choice of his profession ! Have we not here the key 
 to that cheerful and unruffled patience with which he 
 continually worked, to his catholic charity toward those 
 who delayed the accomplishment of his cherished plans, 
 and to that sweet spirit of Christian forgiveness of his 
 enemies that made him so lovable in the quiet retirement 
 of his later years ? Mow constantly he was guided by 
 this principle those know best who knew him most. In 
 his view education was a high and holy calling, worthy of 
 the ambition of the noblest minds, and to this he conse- 
 crated his life. 
 
 His integrity never faltered. Honesty, both intellect- 
 ual and moral, was a native clement of his character. 
 Selfish aims and ambitions found no lodgment in his 
 heart. 1 Ie preferred failure to insincerity. 
 
 Then he was generous and sympathetic. No man was 
 quicker to detect merit in others or more ready to give 
 credit where it was due. How many have been cheered 
 by his kind words of sympathy and his wise counsels, 
 lie was a real friend to all who were honestly working 
 for the good of public schools. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 53 
 
 Able and industrious, devoted to his profession, and a 
 student of its history and philosophy, sincere, generous, 
 and sympathetic, patient and forgiving, his life was a 
 grand success. Wherever public schools exist his influ- 
 ence is felt ; wherever popular education is studied he is 
 known. His mind was clear and strong ; his character 
 was round, and full, and sweet ; and his life contributed 
 abundantly to the good of mankind. Long may his 
 memory live in our heart of hearts, and long may his 
 noble example inspire us to emulate his virtues, and to 
 consecrate ourselves, head and heart, soul and body, to 
 the great work to which he devoted his life. 
 
Public Services 
 
 of 
 
 JOHN DUDLEY PHILBRICK. 
 
 By W. T. Harris, LLD. 
 
Public Services 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 We honor and esteem the development of human char- 
 acter above all other products of this world. We do not 
 value possessions so much as being. Character is not 
 the indifferent foundation of the soul which is capable of 
 becoming either good or bad, but it is the positive struct- 
 ure that is erected on that foundation. Hence, we speak 
 of a good man as a man of character, and of a bad man 
 we say that he has no character. 
 
 Again, it is evident that character is never the product 
 of external circumstances ; it is formed only by the reac- 
 tion of the human will against these circumstances. It 
 is always the product of the self-activity of the man him- 
 self. He reacts upon the world around him, and moulds 
 it by his will. In proportion as he attains power to real- 
 ize what is rational in this world he attains character. 
 Looking upon each individual as a possibility of this 
 precious outcome, we must value most highly any instru- 
 mentalities which tend to favor its growth and develop- 
 ment. All doings and havings which do not appertain 
 to the growth of human character fail in an essential par- 
 
58 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 ticular. They do not have any part or lot in what is 
 eternal. Only the going forth of the soul in the image 
 of its Maker is of prime importance in the affairs of this 
 world, and all deeds and events take rank according to 
 their near or remote relation to this essential purpose. 
 
 In view of this principle, we assemble to recount the 
 evidences of character in our great men after they have 
 gone from us. What they have done for us, what they 
 have done for their fellow-men, is the test of this sub- 
 stantial growth in themselves. For, strangely enough in 
 human life, it is true that one finds his deepest self in 
 the recognition that he receives from society. He works 
 for it by working for others. It is the Christian doctrine 
 that he who wishes to save his life in an immediate and 
 selfish manner shall lose it ; and he who loses his life for 
 the sake of others, he alone gains it ; he obtains a hold 
 on his true being, — he realizes character. 
 
 It is thus with the noble educator whom we celebrate 
 on this occasion. Early in life, as we have heard from 
 those who were most intimate with him, he consecrated 
 himself to the work which promised the most direct field 
 of usefulness to his fellow-men. There opened before 
 him many careers of honor and success, — careers, indeed, 
 that promised honor and wealth at a far less outlay of 
 endeavor. But he perceived that easily won honors are 
 not enduring ones ; he perceived that, in the long run, it 
 is only character that is honored, and character builds 
 itself by heroic self-sacrifice for the good of humanity. 
 The missionary spirit, the zeal of St. Francis of Assisi, 
 the zeal of St. Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, the zeal 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 59 
 
 of the noble army of Christian missionaries, is the type 
 of this highest unfolding of the human soul, for it is the 
 nearest approach to the Divine Model as revealed to us 
 in Christ. 
 
 Looking at human welfare in its broadest sense, we 
 shall agree, I think, in this : The highest service to men 
 is that which brings to bear upon them the influence that 
 will fill them with the spirit of self-sacrifice for the good. 
 Character is that which develops character in others. 
 Next after the heroes who preach the gospel of the high- 
 est religion to men come the teachers who open the win- 
 dows of the intellect and let the light of science into 
 the soul. 
 
 In a world full of sin and evil, full of poverty and suf- 
 fering, full, likewise, of discontent and mutiny against 
 established order, what is the first and best gift that one 
 can offer to his day and generation ? Certainly, we shall 
 say, next after the teachers who teach religion come the 
 secular teachers who teach science and enlighten the in- 
 tellect, while they train the will into moral habits. 
 
 Take the evils of society, poverty, vice, disease, and 
 crime, and consider their suppression and cure. The ad- 
 ministration of justice, the dispensing of charity, do much 
 to punish or cure, but very little to prevent. It is the 
 opinion of many wise and thoughtful people that charity 
 is often so managed that it aggravates evil by increasing 
 its producing causes. To the social economist, however, 
 one way is clear, — school education is a powerful pre- 
 ventive. It increases the productive power of the indi- 
 vidual by increasing his directive intelligence and by 
 
60 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 increasing his power of will, for the school rests on three 
 pillars : First, the cultivation of the habit of industry, 
 the will-power to do its reasonable task whether it is 
 easy, pleasant, and agreeable, or difficult and disagree- 
 able. Second, the training of the intellect into science, 
 the giving it possession of the tools of thought, the mas- 
 tery of written and printed language in which is revealed 
 human nature ; the mastery of arithmetic and its kin- 
 dred branches, in which are revealed the laws and condi- 
 tions of matter ; and such studies as give insight into 
 the structure of reason, like grammar, or into the growth 
 of human institutions, like history, or into our present 
 relations to all mankind, like geography. Thirdly, there 
 is the training into habits of courtesy and morality, the 
 great lesson of civil life, the combination with one's 
 fellow-men in peaceful forms of helpfulness, and the sup- 
 pression of animal tendencies to strife and contention. 
 The school teaches pupils to meet each other and co- 
 operate to secure a reasonable end by courteous and 
 considerate behavior. In fact, the humblest and most 
 elementary school, as well as the highest and most ad- 
 vanced school, does something to contribute to individual 
 and social welfare. It teaches the individual to help 
 himself and to combine helpfully with his fellow-men. 
 In an age of rapid changes in industry and in social 
 conditions, it is indispensable that the individual shall 
 be educated into the power to adapt himself to his cir- 
 cumstances, the power to readjust himself in case of 
 emergencies. All will acknowledge that industry, the 
 mastery of knowledge, and the tools of thought and cour- 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 61 
 
 teous behavior are the most essential requisites for this 
 age of change and transition. 
 
 While, therefore, we gladly recognize the nobility of a 
 life devoted to commerce and trade, to manufactures, to 
 agricultural production, or to the professions of law and 
 medicine, yet we must feel the weight of the motives 
 which moved Mr. Philbrick, when a serious-minded and 
 ambitious young man, to select the vocation of teacher. 
 Such motives the half-conscious, half-unconscious stuff of 
 feelings and aspirations moved his great contemporaries, 
 Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, Thomas Arnold, George 
 Peabody, Johns Hopkins, to devote life, or fortune, or 
 both, to the cause of education. Here is the field where 
 charity will make no mistakes ; here is the field where 
 justice will prevent, as well as suppress and cure crime 
 and vice and pauperism. The productive power of an 
 educated community surpasses that of an uneducated 
 community, not threefold merely, but three hundred fold. 
 The trained intellect can invent and bring to its aid the 
 forces of nature. The pupil trained to perform his task 
 without a murmur, when the subject is difficult and dis- 
 tasteful, — being far remote from his daily interests and 
 objects of life, — has conquered his selfish appetites and 
 has learned self-government, and thereby become fit to 
 govern others. 
 
 We have already listened to the reminiscences of Mr. 
 Philbrick's youth, and learned the story of his aspirations 
 and his struggles. We have heard, too, of his special 
 work here in Boston, first as assistant teacher, and next 
 as principal teacher or head master ; then, finally, as 
 
62 JOHN B. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 general superintendent of the entire school system of 
 Boston. It remains now for me to attempt a brief 
 summary of his significance to the cause of education in 
 general. I have, therefore, begun what I had to say by 
 calling your attention to the position which the cause of 
 popular education holds in human life as a whole. What 
 I offer here must necessarily be a very meager outline 
 of the rich and full history which Mr. Philbrick's rela- 
 tions to general education constitute. 
 
 More and more in our age is increasing the power of 
 example. It is becoming the general custom to look up 
 from the task before us to the history of all such tasks, 
 and to the manifold performance of the same in other 
 environments. In the history of popular education in 
 the United States Boston has been before all others the 
 city set on a hill. The most numerous, and the best, de- 
 vices for organizing schools and perfecting the methods 
 of instruction have come from it. Boston itself, between 
 the years of 1840 and i860, passed through one of the 
 most remarkable epochs of educational progress that we 
 find in history. It threw off the old shell of the un- 
 graded district school system and adopted a new organ- 
 ization better fitted for a city school system. 
 
 The student of our educational history will eagerly 
 search in the records of this city to find the successive 
 steps that inaugurated this great change. He cannot fail 
 to observe that the most prominent actor in this change 
 was John D. Philbrick. The cities and villages of the 
 mighty Northwest, and, following their lead, the cities 
 and villages of the Southwest, have been organized upon 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 63 
 
 the Boston system of the graded school. The idea of 
 this system is in the head of every successful school 
 manager in the new states of this country, and, in most 
 cases, I might add, it is not fully known how great a debt 
 is due to Boston for this idea. Boston is freely and gen- 
 erally accredited with numerous minor ideas relating to 
 school architecture and the courses of study, but only a 
 few know what deep and radical principles of organiza- 
 tion have proceeded from this city " set on a hill." 
 
 Most teachers who find themselves acting in an organ- 
 ization suppose themselves to be doing what the unen- 
 lightened common sense of the individual would dictate. 
 They think that school buildings were always built just 
 as they are now, and schools organized and classes ar- 
 ranged just as they arrange them. They do not realize 
 that every item of architecture, every item of the course 
 of study and method of instruction and management has 
 grown into vogue through fires of opposition ; that they 
 have supplanted other forms of doing these things. 
 
 We must not suppose that even the ungraded country 
 school is a rude product of nature and unaided common 
 sense ; even it has a long evolution behind it. But, con- 
 sider what changes are necessary when you pass from 
 the ungraded school organized by a teacher with his 
 twenty-five pupils in some single room in a district to 
 the large school in the city. In the country, sparsity of 
 population makes unnecessary whole ranges of school 
 culture. The city demands, first of all, that its children 
 shall be taught to live in one community without quar- 
 rels; that, on the other hand, they shall learn to live 
 
64 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 together in a co-operative spirit. For this it is necessary 
 before all that the children of the city shall be brought 
 together in large schools ; instead of twenty or thirty 
 pupils there must be five hundred or a thousand in one 
 school. Hence arises the necessity of inventing wise 
 methods of organization in order to civilize these masses 
 of children and secure humane results. 
 
 It appears that, in 1789, at a town meeting in Boston, 
 a report was presented from a committee of honored cit- 
 izens recommending the establishing of three schools, 
 respectively located in the northern, southern, and cen- 
 tral districts of the city. These schools were to belong 
 to what was called for a long time the "double-headed 
 system." They were to have one department called a 
 4< writing school," in which was taught writing and arith- 
 metic under one master, and another department called a 
 ''reading school," likewise under an independent master, 
 in which was taught reading, spelling, orthoepy, and 
 grammar. The pupils of these schools were to be boys 
 and girls from seven to fourteen years, after they had 
 attended the infant schools, or " women's schools." The 
 boys might attend the year round, but the girls could 
 attend only from April 20th to October 20th. These 
 pupils were to attend the writing school one half of the 
 day, and the reading school the other half of the day. 
 Here is the organization of the system of schools of 
 Boston for more than half a century. Mr. Philbrick was 
 appointed head master of the first single-headed school, 
 — the Ouincy School, — Sept. 6th, 1847, before the new 
 building to be named "The Quircy School" was com- 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 65 
 
 pleted. I cannot learn what influence Mr. Philbrick had 
 in determining the plans that were adopted in the new 
 building which he occupied in 1848. I learn only that 
 Dr. T. M. Brewer was chairman of the school, and that 
 great credit is given to Hon. John H. Wilkins, chairman 
 of the Public Building Committee, in conjunction with 
 George B. Emerson, the chairman of the Committee of 
 Conference, appointed by the School Committee. I 
 strongly suspect that to Mr. Emerson was due the radical 
 change in the arrangement of the rooms. Instead of a 
 large study room, with small recitation rooms opening 
 out from it, there were twelve separate rooms intended 
 to be occupied each by a single teacher, who was to have 
 charge of the discipline of the pupils while studying, as 
 well as of the classes when reciting. 
 
 This point in regard to architecture is by all means 
 the most important item in the whole plan of organiza- 
 tion. Instead of a small room, twenty-eight by thirty- 
 two feet, and holding fifty-six pupils, make a large 
 room holding one hundred and fifty pupils and you 
 change the entire morale of the school. While a hu- 
 mane, well-balanced teacher can easily manage the small 
 room and secure excellent discipline with very little or 
 no corporal punishment, it requires a person of strong 
 gifts in the direction of discipline, — so strong, indeed, 
 as to overbalance his other qualities, — to control and 
 discipline the large room. The tendency of the school 
 system with the large room is constantly toward the 
 employment of bullies and tyrants as head masters. The 
 influence of the whole school then goes toward military 
 
66 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 discipline sustained by brute force. I remember hearing 
 an usher in a Boston school so far back as 1845 boast 
 that the head master whipped up forty rattans in one 
 morning in suppressing a rebellion among his boys. In 
 the St. Louis schools, when I entered them in 1858, 
 where the large-room plan prevailed, it was not uncom- 
 mon for over one hundred cases of corporal punishment 
 to take place in one day in a school building containing 
 less than five hundred pupils. 
 
 The pupils in the small rooms remain under the disci- 
 pline of the same teacher, both in recitation and in study, 
 and teacher and pupil come to know each other and to 
 feel an intimate sympathy, whereas, in the large room 
 system, the number of pupils prevents intimate acquaint- 
 ance on the part of the head master, who is responsible 
 for the discipline. The constant danger of demoraliza- 
 tion renders summary measures indispensable. Every 
 case of misbehavior attracts the attention of one hundred 
 and fifty pupils. The teacher can have very little power 
 to hold so many pupils in subordination by the influence 
 of his eye and voice. In the small room a case of misbe- 
 havior disturbs only fifty pupils, and the teacher easily 
 holds the room under control by a mere look or a mere 
 word. I have not begun to name the advantages of the 
 new building over the old ; but it very soon reduced the 
 cases of corporal punishment to one tenth as many as 
 before, and finally to one-hundredth of the former num- 
 ber. Pupils were humanized ; the teacher's will pene- 
 trated each soul intimately and became an unconscious 
 governing power, and, finally, the pupils became self- 
 governed. 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 67 
 
 In the system of schools of St Louis after the adoption 
 of the Boston style of building, corporal punishment de- 
 creased from an average of five hundred cases per week 
 for seven hundred pupils to three cases for that number. 
 Judge of the benefit to the schools of the Central Plain 
 of the United States from this architectural innovation 
 of Boston. But another benefit of almost equal magni- 
 tude arose from the close grading of classes which the 
 new system produced. I think that Mr. Philbrick alone 
 deserves the credit for most of this latter improvement. 
 The large school was graded into classes from the lowest 
 to the highest so as to bring together in each room only 
 those of the same grade of advancement in their studies. 
 According to the ungraded system, such as exists in 
 small country schools now, each teacher had pupils of all 
 grades, from those just beginning to read up to those 
 studying algebra and perhaps Latin. Twenty-five pupils 
 in the country school admit of classification into divis- 
 ions of two or three pupils at most, and the result is, 
 forty recitations for the day's work, and five or ten min- 
 utes to each recitation. It is obvious that no thorough 
 work can be done on this plan ; no searching analysis of 
 the recitation, no discussion of the thought, no experi- 
 ments to illustrate it, — nothing, nothing but mere com- 
 mitting to memory and repeating the words by rote, — no 
 explanation of the process of an arithmetical problem, 
 but only a memorizing of the rule, and an inspection of 
 the figures in which the answer is stated. The ungraded 
 school in which this method of procedure did not prevail 
 was a rare phenomenon. In the graded school each 
 
68 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 teacher has two classes, — one recites while the other 
 learns its lesson. The recitation is as long as the atten- 
 tion of the pupil can be held without over-strain, — twenty 
 to twenty-five minutes in the lower grades, and thirty 
 to forty minutes in the highest classes of the grammar 
 school. Time is given for review of the previous lesson, 
 for investigation of the lesson for the day, for discussion 
 of authorities, for illustrations, for hints as to methods of 
 study. Each pupil prepares himself by study of the text- 
 book, and in the recitation sees the subject through the 
 perspective of the minds of his fellow-pupils and teacher, 
 thus widening his own narrow views of the subject by 
 seeing what different aspects it takes on in the minds of 
 his fellow-pupils. He acquires critical alertness by this 
 process and goes to his next lesson with his mind full of 
 new inquiry and reflection, thus re-enforcing his own 
 power of attention by what he has learned from the 
 whole class and the teacher. A good teacher can and 
 does use the recitation as an instrumentality for re< 
 enforcing each individual mind by all the minds of the 
 whole class. 
 
 The constant influence, therefore, of the graded school 
 system of Boston has been to change the memoriter sys- 
 tem of recitation into a system of critical investigation. 
 Such a system is not possible in an ungraded school, 
 even with a good teacher. Although bad methods are 
 possible with poor teachers, even in a graded system, yet 
 they are no longer necessary, and experience tends to 
 eradicate them altogether. 
 
 If we now ask ourselves how it is that, under Mr. Phil- 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 69 
 
 brick, the Boston schools attained their world-wide celeb- 
 rity, we may see two great and sufficient causes in the 
 fact that other parts of the United States have borrowed 
 the system of graded schools from it, and have learned to 
 look upon the Boston schools as the highest achievement 
 in the common school system. Foreign authorities have 
 been quick to perceive this original merit of Boston, and 
 have acknowledged it. 
 
 In Boston, more than elsewhere in the country, there 
 have been men of remarkable power and wisdom in the 
 school committee, and, besides these, a very superior 
 class of teachers. The bare fact that Mr. Philbrick held 
 the superintendency for twenty years in such a city would 
 itself imply the strongest eulogium that can be made. 
 He was able to inspire and unite the action of so large a 
 number of men of first-class ability on the school com- 
 mittee. He was able to secure and retain to the last the 
 respect and love of such a corps of teachers. The thing 
 is unprecedented and without the possibility of a par- 
 allel elsewhere in our country. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was chosen to organize the graded school 
 system in 1847 on the adoption of the "single-headed" 
 system of organization. All its possibilities were yet to 
 be unfolded. None of them had become apparent. 
 There was no model to go by. Any but a master-mind 
 for organization would have found himself trammeled by 
 the past, and would have failed to develop the advantages 
 of the new, and would thus have retarded the good work. 
 Mr. Philbrick, however, was quick to see what potential- 
 ities were in the new, and at once organized them into a 
 
70 JOHN D. rillLBRICK. 
 
 system. An institution once organized carries along 
 with it, by its own force, a whole system of second-rate 
 workers, and rc-enforces their feeble efforts by the 
 strength of the organized whole. 
 
 As soon as Connecticut had established a normal 
 school, in 1852, Dr. Henry Barnard, the state superin- 
 tendent there, secured Mr. Philbrick to organize it. As 
 principal, he preached in that normal school the new doc- 
 trine of graded schools ; and, finally, in institutes all over 
 the state, held by him after he became the state superin- 
 tendent, he continued to proclaim the same idea, reach- 
 ing all the intelligent minds open to new ideas on the 
 subject of education. 
 
 His return to Boston as superintendent, in January, 
 1S57, opened a new epoch. Already the graded system 
 had been established throughout the city. That was all 
 done within seven years after the Ouincy School had led 
 the way. Now began his efficient work on the infant 
 schools. They were classified and organized in accord- 
 ance with his recommendation, and his untiring supervis- 
 ion of them elevated them to the foremost rank in the 
 school system for excellence. His wise foresight made 
 fast this degree of excellence by securing the adoption of 
 a system of supervision by the grammar school masters, 
 relieving them from some of the labor of the actual work 
 of instruction of classes in order to gain the time requi- 
 site for this supervision. 
 
 To those unacquainted with school supervision, it seems 
 strange to hear that the mere circumstance of making 
 the head masters of the schools supervisors over a group 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 71 
 
 of schools is in itself one of the greatest of school re- 
 forms. The routine of school work is very narrowing in 
 its effects, and continually wears for itself ruts that pre- 
 vent spontaneity in the teacher. These ruts produce a 
 degeneration in school work. As soon as the head mas- 
 ter begins to have work of supervision over other classes 
 he begins to recognize new and good methods, and to 
 carry them from one teacher to the next, thus helping 
 each by the experience of all. He begins to replace 
 dead methods by new, live ones, and there begins to be a 
 vital circulation once more throughout the supervised 
 school. 
 
 I have seen a system of schools adopt gradually the 
 Boston method of local supervision. I used to say that 
 the school of four rooms, without supervision, attained a 
 degree of excellence that could be symbolized by twenty 
 to forty per cent. ; that is to say, the amount of real 
 ability brought into actual play in the school was only 
 twenty to forty per cent, of the possible power of the 
 teachers. 
 
 Again, in a twelve-room school, with a little supervis- 
 ion on the part of the principal teacher, the average 
 degree of excellence in discipline and instruction arose 
 to forty or sixty per cent, of the possibility in the teach- 
 ers. But, in a larger school, when the principal teacher 
 gave his or her time nearly all to supervising, the average 
 of actual excellence arose as high as eighty to one hun- 
 dred per cent, of the capacity. The assistants felt new 
 powers of work, and lived in a sort of vitalized atmos- 
 phere, accomplishing what they could never have be- 
 
72 John i). PHILBBIOK. 
 
 lieved il possible to accomplish under the system without 
 supei vision. 
 
 Organized supervision holds fast the ground already 
 gained, and moves on to new achievements, for supervis- 
 ion means thai the individual contributions to methods 
 of discipline and instruction are seen by the supervisor 
 and carried to all others, so that eaeh teacher is re- 
 enfoi i ed by all, and all by each. 
 
 The inventory of the great items of Mr. Philbrick's 
 work as an educator includes, besides the organization of 
 the graded school system, a multitude of suggestions re* 
 garding the proper methods of teaching special branches 
 of study. These are to be found scattered through his 
 school reports. The introduction of industrial drawing 
 into the Boston schools, the state law making it obliga- 
 tory on all ciiies of 10,000 inhabit, mis, the importing of 
 the requisite experience and teaching ability from the 
 great English Am School al South Kensington, the es« 
 lablishnieiii of the State Normal Art School, and, finally, 
 the spread of this branch of instruction to all the citi 
 of the land, — Mr. Philbrick receives justly greal honor 
 
 for the very proniinen i share thai he had in this move- 
 ment, both as mi originator and organizer. 
 
 To him, also, is due the introduction of evening 
 
 Schools, schools lor liiciised minors, and the evening 
 
 high schools. 
 
 In the matters of school architecture the questions of 
 hygiene greatly interested him. He discusses the mosl 
 important advances in this matter over and over in his 
 reports. The size of playgrounds, gymnastics and calis- 
 
run Lid SEBVICE8. 73 
 
 thenics, ventilation, proper heating, and, above all, the 
 proper lighting of schoolrooms, were favorite themes of 
 discussion and suggestion with him. The size of the 
 schoolroom, the method of seating by single desks, the 
 lighting of the room from the left side of the pupil by 
 
 numerous windows ascending to the ceiling of the room, 
 
 the proper size of the school for the best purposes of 
 grading and classification, have been discussed by him in 
 ;i i houghtful manner. 
 
 I come to what is, perhaps, his greatest intellectual 
 trait, lie believed in the study of the history of peda- 
 gOgy. He prided himself on possessing the best library 
 of education to be found in private hands in America. 
 His motto was: "Study education as a whole," — know 
 it as it is at home and abroad. You will find that the 
 history of education contains the career of most educa- 
 tional ideas, showing their inception and adoption, and 
 their subsequent effects, and, if they proved wanting on 
 trial, you will find that also in the history of education. 
 
 He had attained that noblest ideal of the supervisor 
 which we have described as exercising the function of 
 taking from each one the original and valuable devices of 
 method, and transplanting the same into the daily work 
 and routine of the others. lit: now held thai the Super- 
 visor must take all education, past and present, into his 
 survey, and try to improve his system of schools by intro- 
 ducing the good elements wherever found, and eliminat- 
 ing the bad. " Trove all things and hold last to that 
 which is good." Of course each teacher has his idio- 
 syncrasy and cannot be helped by all methods that arc 
 
74 JOHN D. PHILBEICK. 
 
 good for others. Each is in need of some specific, as it 
 were ; hence there must be careful and wise study of the 
 history and laws of growth of one's own system before 
 one undertakes to modify it in any particular. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's aim was to be judicial, and not parti- 
 san. This appeared even in his style of writing his 
 reports. He scarcely completes a sentence advocating a 
 much needed reform before he hastens to make qualifi- 
 cations suggested by experience and reflection. The 
 reform is not a cure-all, not a nostrum infallible in all 
 cases, but is good under such and such conditions. He 
 proceeds to quote its hostile critics, and to show just 
 wherein they are right. Almost all the great pedagog- 
 ical reformers have been men of one idea. Mr. Philbrick 
 was a many-sided reformer, and held that a reform is 
 unworthy of its name until it can be reduced to practice. 
 
 With his wide glance taking in the entire field of edu- 
 cation and cordially recognizing genuine merit every- 
 where, it was quite natural that he came to be recognized 
 himself in all quarters of the world. In Spain, Russia, 
 Japan, Austria, Belgium, England, and Scotland, and 
 especially in France, he was the best known of American 
 educators, and all foreign circles were prompt to acknowl- 
 edge his eminence and show him honor. It was fortunate 
 for our nation that Massachusetts sent this man to take 
 charge of its educational exhibit in 1873 at the world expo 
 sition at Vienna. It was more fortunate that the Bureau 
 of Education selected him in 1878 as commissioner in 
 charge of our national educational exhibit at Paris. He 
 took in the situation at a glance. Being thoroughly 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 75 
 
 familiar with the peculiarities of all systems he could come 
 at once to the special point of interest in our own sys- 
 tem which he wished to bring to the attention of the for- 
 eigner. To this ability is due the fact that Massachusetts 
 secured a grand diploma of honor at the Vienna Expo- 
 sition. At Paris, America carried off the lion's share of 
 honor for its education. It received 121 awards, more 
 than any other nation except France herself. He secured 
 for us by his unremitting diligence twenty-eight gold 
 medals, forty-four silver, and twenty-four bronze medals, 
 besides twenty-five certificates of honorable mention. 
 The French Directory distinguished him personally for 
 his able efforts by creating him a " Chevalier of Honor " 
 and an " Officer of Public Instruction " (with the insignia 
 of gold palm and title of "Officer of the Academy"), 
 while the ancient and venerable University of St. An- 
 drews in Scotland gave him the degree of Doctor of 
 Laws, "holding in regard," as the Senatus declared, " the 
 high merits of Mr. Philbrick's work in the sphere of edu- 
 cation." 
 
 The Belgian Inspector of Schools declared that at 
 Vienna he learned more from Dr. Philbrick than from 
 all other sources. The Japanese ministry make a sim- 
 ilar strong acknowledgment of his aid to them in plant- 
 ing English schools in Japan. In foreign accounts of 
 education in the United States, the Boston system always 
 bears away the palm as the highest type of our national 
 system of education. In the generous report of M. C. 
 Hippeau on our education, in the very favorable report 
 of Bishop Fraser, in the hostile exposition of Rev. James 
 
7G JOHN D. PIIILBRICK. 
 
 H. Rigg, and finally in the accurate presentation of our 
 system in Mr. Francis Adams' masterly work on The 
 Free Schools of 'the United States, Boston stands foremost 
 in a rank all by itself. 
 
 M. Buisson, French Commissioner to our Philadelphia 
 Exposition, commends in high terms the Boston schools 
 and pays equal honor to Mr. Philbrick. He commends 
 the plans of the Boston school buildings and the civil be- 
 havior of the pupils. Mr. Philbrick's school reports were 
 and are eagerly sought for by all directors of educa- 
 tional systems, both here and in Europe. They find an 
 author who discusses questions of education in the full 
 light of existing practice everywhere. 
 
 These gratifying tokens of recognition of the subject 
 of our eulogium suggest to us that there is a side to his 
 personal character which has been dwelt on by those who 
 have spoken here to-day before me, that has a national 
 and even international significance. His conciliatory 
 habit of mind, always endeavoring to see both sides of a 
 question and always trying to do justice to opponents, 
 was the basis of a cordial relation that grew up between 
 himself and fellow-educators everywhere in this country 
 and in Europe. 
 
 In private life his amiability was charming. He 
 seemed to feel it his duty to encourage young men in 
 the profession by kind words of appreciation wherever 
 he could see any merit. In his official visits to the 
 schools he made the teacher feel that he was a friend 
 and " not a mere taskmaster trying to spy out defects." 
 
 Through his labor on a programme of exercises for the 
 
PUBLIC SERVICES. 77 
 
 school he strove to break up the mechanical modes of 
 drill which crept into the system. Inasmuch as educa- 
 tion accomplishes its good things by repetition and drill, 
 the best work of the teacher is continually liable to de- 
 generate into lifeless routine. It is true that in habit and 
 routine lies the force of moral education. What are reg- 
 ularity, punctuality, silence, and industry, the four car- 
 dinal virtues of school training, but mechanical habits 
 when thoroughly learned, — notwithstanding they lie at 
 the basis all moral training whatsoever. The pupil must 
 learn self-restraint and subjugate his caprice and wilful- 
 ness before he can become a thoroughly rational being. 
 How to balance spontaneity and prescription is the con- 
 stant problem in education, and this Dr. Philbrick knew 
 better than any other man. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that the work of the school 
 superintendent is, even at the best, nine tenths of it 
 negative and preventive, to one tenth positive and con- 
 structive. He has constant need of vigilance to repress 
 one-sided and injurious efforts, — to hold back even the 
 good teachers, even the good members of the school 
 committee, from extremes. An excellent superintendent 
 appears to outsiders as though he were a mere balance- 
 wheel, or even a dead weight, hindering vital movement 
 and adding no momentum himself. 
 
 But the superintendent must see the real healthy, vital 
 movement of the system of schools, and, like a good phy- 
 sician, prevent congestions and inflammations in any of 
 its parts. Occupied in this way for most of his time he 
 can never receive his full meed of appreciation. He will 
 
78 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 have bitter enemies in the schools and outside of the 
 schools. 
 
 Happy, therefore, was Dr. Philbrick in his uncomplain- 
 ing, unresenting disposition. Even in his last great trial, 
 the gradual shutting down of darkness upon his eyesight, 
 he was never known to complain, and only once indicated 
 the great affliction which his blindness was to him. 
 When he found that his eyesight failed to distinguish 
 the large letters of a new Bible which had been pur- 
 chased for his daily reading, the tears silently coursed 
 down his cheeks, observed only by his faithful mate, no 
 word indicating his deep sorrow. 
 
 His cheerfulness and courage in all emergencies was a 
 perpetual fountain of strength to all his teachers and co- 
 workers in the system of education wherein he performed 
 his life work. 
 
 In taking leave of him after this brief and inadequate 
 summary of the events which have made him so widely 
 known and respected by educators at home and abroad, 
 there comes into my mind the words that I love to quote 
 from the prophet Daniel, — the words which are quoted 
 in the epitaph on the tomb of Fichte in Berlin : — 
 
 " The teachers shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as 
 the stars forever and ever." 
 
Reform 
 
 of 
 
 The Tenure of Office of Teachers. 
 
 By John D. Philbrick, LLD. 
 
Reform of the Tenure of Office of Teachers. 
 
 Good teachers, and what next ? There is no next. 
 This is the meaning of Jules Simon in his saying, "The 
 master is the school." In this sense the great German 
 pedagogue, when asked what his system was, made the 
 well-known reply, "I am the system." This was Gar- 
 field's thought, when paying a merited tribute to his great 
 college-master, he said, " Give me a log hut with only a 
 simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the 
 other, and you may have all the buildings, apparatus, and 
 libraries." This was Horace Mann's idea in declaring 
 the teacher's seminary to be one of the greatest instru- 
 mentalities for the improvement of the race. Hence, 
 the pivotal question in pedagogy is the question of the 
 teacher, everywhere and always. The cause of education 
 and the cause of the teacher are one. The best criterion 
 of merit in a school system is to be found in the char- 
 acter and qualities of the teachers in its service. 
 
 There is no really fruitful educational reform which does 
 not provide for increasing the competence of teachers. 
 The originators and founders of our normal school system, 
 Olmstead, Carter, Russell, Brooks, Mann, Barnard, and 
 others, all maintained and acted upon this theory. They 
 held that the end in view, the ideal education, imparted 
 
 (81) 
 
82 JOHN D. PUILBIUCK. 
 
 in the ideal school, could come only through the ideal 
 teacher. In maintaining this theory they stood on solid 
 ground ; their position was impregnable. The instru- 
 mentality which they advocated as essential for the real- 
 ization of their idea, was the normal school for the profes- 
 sional training of teachers. Too much cannot be said in 
 praise of their labors and devotion to this great cause. 
 The establishment of normal schools was a great achieve- 
 ment. It is not to be doubted that the normal school is 
 an essential element in a good school system. But his- 
 tory does not justify the assumption that it is the funda- 
 mental requisite for securing competent teachers. Some- 
 thing else more fundamental still is necessary to the full 
 success and the full utilization of the capabilities of the 
 normal school. That prerequisite is a desirable status 
 for the teacher who has made his preparation in the nor- 
 mal school. 
 
 The creation of such a status has no doubt been too 
 much overlooked and neglected by our educational leaders 
 and reformers, and the reason is obvious. The indispen- 
 sable requisite for such a status is security, — certainty 
 of position ; such security and certainty of position as is 
 afforded by tenure of office during efficiency and good 
 behavior. Fifty years ago this reform was impracticable. 
 Every school system must, in the nature of things, be in 
 substantial harmony with the other institutions of the 
 country where it exists. In forming the school system 
 of France, Guizot and Cousin took lessons of Prussia and 
 Holland, but they were obliged to adapt their plan to 
 the actual state of things in their own country. 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 83 
 
 Mr. Forster, on drawing up his school bill, the new 
 Magna Charta of the English people, had at his command 
 all the available results of foreign experience ; but he 
 was under the necessity of shaping every provision with 
 reference to existing national institutions and customs. 
 So our educational pioneers of half a century ago had to 
 shape the fabric and spirit of our school system, so far 
 as they were instrumental in introducing modifications 
 and improvements, in conformity with existing polit- 
 ical and social arrangements. Hence any attempt on 
 their part to advocate any reform relating to the status 
 of the teacher, in conflict with the prevailing theory and 
 practice touching the status of other public servants, 
 would have been impracticable and utterly futile. Im- 
 provements do not advance on all lines simultaneously. 
 They made advancement where advancement was pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Now what was the status of public officers and em- 
 ployes, whether in the service of the Nation, the State, 
 or the municipality, fifty years ago, in respect to tenure 
 of office ? Our political institutions are founded upon 
 the theory that public officers are public servants, and 
 precisely at that period, more than at any time in our 
 history, the opinion prevailed that the officers and em- 
 ployes of the public had no interest or property whatever 
 in the offices and situations which they occupied. Out of 
 this prevailing sentiment grew the pernicious custom of 
 what is called rotation in office ; where the tenure of 
 office was not fixed by law, as in the case of the Judiciary, 
 custom limited the tenure to one or two years. Taking 
 
84 JOUN D. PHILBRICE. 
 
 advantage of the prevalence of this sentiment, which 
 claimed for itself the credit of being the spirit of true 
 democracy, President Jackson inaugurated the custom 
 of removing officers without regard to their qualifications 
 for their duties or their behavior. 
 
 The assumption and exercise of this arbitrary authority 
 made the public officers in the service of the Nation de- 
 pendent for their bread and butter on the will of the 
 executive. Nearly all State officers, from the governor 
 down, held their office, for the most part, for a single 
 year only ; the same was the case with municipal officers, 
 including school committee. In some States even the 
 judges of the highest court were elected by the people, 
 to hold office for a short determinate period ; and so the 
 office of teacher of public schools, which, in the days of 
 Master Cheever, was held by life tenure, was made to con- 
 form to the general custom in respect to tenure of office; 
 and even the clergy, who had always held by life tenure, 
 began to hold by a limited tenure. He, therefore, must 
 have been not only a bold man, but an unwise one, who, 
 as an educational reformer, should have in those days 
 dreamed of undertaking to render the status of the 
 teacher more desirable by advocating for him a perma- 
 nent tenure of office. Hence the reformers of those days 
 directed their efforts to other objects. 
 
 But an immense change has taken place since that 
 time in public opinion, as well as in legislative provision, 
 respecting the tenure of office of public officials. The 
 civil service reform, to which has been accorded the 
 largest plank in the platform of the dominant political 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 85 
 
 party, is a declaration of the principle that Justice to ser- 
 vants is essential to good service, and that justice is incom- 
 patible with the tenure of office, which carries with it no 
 ownership or interest on the part of the incumbent. 
 
 The essence of the civil service reform consists in its 
 aim to substitute a permanent tenure of office for the 
 short and uncertain tenure ; all the rest is incidental. 
 This carries with it appointments and promotions by 
 merit, and not by favoritism. This revolution in public 
 sentiment has made the opportunity to undertake a 
 reform in the status of the teacher by making his tenure 
 of office permanent. To secure a permanent tenure 
 of office for teachers in the public schools is the next 
 great step to be taken in the interest of the people's 
 schools. In my judgment this is the most important 
 educational reform of our school system that has ever 
 been undertaken. The substitution of the permanent 
 tenure for the present precarious limited tenure would 
 doubtless be regarded by teachers as a great boon, but I 
 am looking more especially to the public welfare, — the 
 public interest is the paramount interest. 
 
 The theory which it is my present purpose to pro- 
 pound and advocate is this : Permanency of tenure would 
 enormously increase the desirableness of the teacher's 
 status ; that while it costs nothing to the public to grant 
 this permanency, to the teachers it would be an inesti- 
 mable boon, ; that, as a means of compensating teachers, 
 it would be equivalent to a vast increase of school rev- 
 enue ; that the salary, even though raised to the highest 
 practicable limit, when subject to the offset of short and 
 
80 JOHN i>. PEILBBIOK. 
 
 precarious tenure, with all its train of evils, is insufficient 
 to bring into the service of teaching, and retain there the 
 requisite teaching talent. In substance, then, the ques- 
 tion of permanent tenure for teachers is, in the first 
 place, a question of economy, — the question of conser- 
 vation of forces ; that is, the question whether the money 
 compensation of teachers shall be in effect largely sup- 
 plemented by what costs nothing. In the second place, 
 it is a question <>f educational results, — for salary plus 
 permanent tenure is the indispensable condition of the 
 ideal leaching corps, and hence the indispensable con- 
 dition of the ideal school and the ideal education. 
 
 The reasoning on which this theory is based is ex- 
 tremely simple, and is the following : 
 
 i. Permanancy of sit nation everywhere and always 
 counts largely with the salary in estimating the emolu- 
 ment of the situation, and it is self-evident that these 
 two elements together are greater than one of them 
 alone. 
 
 2. The addition of permanency of tenure to salary is 
 necessary to make teaching a career sufficiently attractive 
 for persons of ability and culture, as a life work, and it 
 is only from such persons devoted to teaching as a life 
 work that the best teaching can come. 
 
 This reasoning is the plain lesson of history, which he 
 who runs may read. It is well known that the German 
 Stall's, and more especially Prussia, took the lead in the 
 organization and development of the modem system of 
 public instruction, And it appears that in Prussia from 
 the outset the life tenure of office for the teachers was 
 
BEFOEM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 87 
 
 adopted as the first principle of the incipient system; 
 and, in fact, the Prussian law long ago expressly prohib- 
 ited the appointment of any regular teacher for a deter- 
 minate period. This was the original stock upon which 
 improvements were from time to time grafted, until at 
 length its present vigor, completeness, and symmetry 
 of development have been produced. Forty years ago 
 Horace Mann thus characterized the teachers produced 
 by this system: "As a body of men their character is 
 more enviable than that of any of the three so-called 
 'professions.'" In all the other European countries the 
 point of departure and the process of development have 
 been substantially the same. It is safe, I think, to say 
 that in no one of them has it been thought expedient to 
 attempt to carry on a system of schools on the plan of 
 choosing teachers for a short, determinate period. 
 
 On the other hand, it seems to have everywhere been 
 taken for granted that there could not be such a thing as 
 an efficient and economical school system without making 
 provision for securing the services of teachers who should 
 be devoted to the business of instruction as a life pro- 
 fession. Accordingly, we find that, although public 
 school teachers have, perhaps, nowhere received entirely 
 satisfactory treatment, they have generally been secure 
 in their position and in their revenues, all too slender 
 though they may have been. Thus the beginning was 
 made by laying a foundation for a status of dignity and 
 independence. This was all important as the initial pro- 
 vision. The rest followed logically, although not without 
 delays and difficulties. As it is the teacher that gives 
 
88 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 character to the school, which no well-informed person 
 will deny, so we find that most of the measures of prog- 
 ress and improvement have been such as were calculated 
 to ameliorate the condition and elevate the status of the 
 teacher, to provide better professional training, to im- 
 prove the scheme of examination and certificating of can- 
 didates, to increase the compensation, to secure a more 
 competent and trustworthy superintendence and inspec- 
 tion, to afford the best means of appreciating and reward- 
 ing merit. These were the objects always uppermost in 
 the aims and efforts of intelligent promoters of educa- 
 tional progress. And thus by degress have been created 
 the conditions requisite to render teaching a veritable 
 career ; not a career, indeed, leading to wealth and lux- 
 ury, but a career of assured independence, dignity, and 
 support. 
 
 In our country the point of departure and the process 
 of development have been quite different from those we 
 have considered. We have undertaken to develop and 
 build up an efficient system of instruction while acting 
 on the assumption that the teacher cannot be recognized 
 as having a claim to any ownership in a position of 
 service. 
 
 In a French report on English schools it is stated as a 
 curious absurdity, that at the annual meeting of the 
 trustees of a certain old endowed school in London, the 
 headmaster is summoned into their presence, and in- 
 formed that the term of his service is at an end and the 
 mastership vacant. Thereupon, if he desires to be con- 
 sidered a candidate for reelection he so states, and retires 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 89 
 
 and waits for the result of the ballot. This is a type of 
 the tenure of office of substantially all American public 
 school teachers. Their position is not assured beyond 
 the term of one year. Nor is this the worst condition 
 of their tenure ; there is a lower deep yet. In general, 
 the public school teacher may be dismissed within the 
 year for which he is elected by a majority of the school 
 board, the teacher so dismissed having no legal right to 
 a previous notice, a hearing, or appeal to a superior 
 authority. This is 'the tenure in Massachusetts, and so 
 far as I have been able to ascertain, it is substantially 
 the same in other states. 
 
 Mr. Boutwell, in speaking of this in his commentary 
 on the Massachusetts school law, justly remarks, "This 
 power is as nearly absolute as any power in our govern- 
 ment." In point of law, therefore, the American public 
 school teacher holds office securely not even for the short 
 period of one year. His position, salary, and professional 
 standing are absolutely at the mercy of the local com- 
 mittee. A majority of a quorum of the school board, by 
 a secret ballot, may dismiss him without a day's notice, 
 without bringing any charge against him, and the dis- 
 missal so made is absolute and final. This tenure may 
 have some slight safeguards in some states, or some in- 
 dividual cities ; if so, let them be known and credited 
 therefor. The only exception within my knowledge 
 worthy of mention is that of the city of New York, where 
 the tenure is permanent, removals being made only for 
 cause. It has been ascertained that in the cities of 
 Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Newark, the tenure is also 
 
90 JOHN D. PHILBIilCK. 
 
 during efficiency and good behavior. In our system, 
 therefore there has been provided as yet no solid foun- 
 dation upon which to build up a desirable status for the 
 teacher ; consequently little has been done to environ the 
 teacher's office with the subsidiary guarantees requisite 
 to constitute a career of teaching service. The condition 
 of absolute insecurity and dependence in respect to posi- 
 tion is necessarily compensated in some degree by the 
 rate of the salary. In fact, our system, instead of taking 
 permanency of tenure as the point of departure from 
 which to develop a competent teaching corps in accord- 
 ance with the opinion and practice prevailing in all other 
 enlightened countries, has relied primarily and mainly 
 upon compensation in money as the mainspring in the 
 scheme for securing the desired teaching service. 
 
 This peculiarly and distinctively American feature of 
 public instruction is coeval with the modern organization 
 of our school system. It has been on trial for a long 
 time, on an extensive scale and with all sorts of condi- 
 tions. It is time now to ask, What has been the outcome 
 of this experiment ? In reply to this question it may be 
 said, without contradiction, that the American plan of 
 dealing with teachers has not built up a stable and perma- 
 nent profession of teaching. 
 
 The failure of our system of instruction to secure the 
 services of a body of teachers devoted for life to the work 
 was set forth in the remarkable Report on American 
 Education by the French Commission, of which the emi- 
 nent educator, M. Buisson, was the president, and con- 
 trasted with the success in this respect of the French 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 91 
 
 system. " In France," says the reporter,* "one embraces 
 the career of teaching with the intention of creating for 
 himself a stable and permanent position. Those who 
 abandon it before having obtained their retiring pension 
 form the exception. The young beginner expects to live 
 and die a teacher ; and each year of exercise adding to 
 the experience previously acquired, a moment arrives 
 when, possessing a competency of knowledge, both theo- 
 retical and practical, he can conduct his school with 
 method, with success, and thus limit the role of his supe- 
 riors to simple encouragement and kindly advice. In the 
 United States it is otherwise. The profession of a 
 teacher would appear to be a sort of stage, where the 
 girl waits for an establishment suited to her taste, and 
 the young man a more lucrative position. For many 
 young persons this temporary profession is the means of 
 procuring the funds to continue their studies. Few mas- 
 ters count more than four or five years of service, and if 
 instructresses remain longer in the profession it must be 
 remembered that marriage is ordinarily the end of their 
 desires ; and that once married, they almost always 
 withdraw from the service." 
 
 If this is the correct statement of the case, and that it 
 is, I think will be generally agreed, then our system has 
 failed to create a stable, permanent profession of teach- 
 ing ; while such a profession has been created not only 
 by the French system, but by the systems of all other 
 enlightened countries except our own. My inference is 
 
 * Monsieur B. Berger, Inspector General and Director of National Peda- 
 gogical Museum. 
 
02 JOHN D. PIIILB1UCK. 
 
 that the failure of our system in this vital particular is 
 owing to the short and precarious tenure of office of the 
 teacher. No argument is needed to prove that, other 
 things being equal, teaching as a career, as a life-work, 
 yields vastly better results than teaching as a temporary 
 occupation. 
 
 I would not be understood, however, to admit for a 
 moment that our system of free schools, as a whole, has 
 been a failure ; on the contrary, it has been a great suc- 
 cess, whatever may be said in its disparagement from 
 ignorance or bad intent. The last thought given to the 
 world by Barnas Sears, than whom no higher authority 
 on the subject can be cited, bore on this point, and was 
 expressed in the following words : " If the old district 
 school in New England, imperfect as it was, bore good 
 fruit, which none deny, the modern system, with its man- 
 ifold improvements, has borne them much more abun- 
 dantly ; and yet we have not reached the goal for which 
 we are striving." This is the testimony of a wise and 
 true reformer, ripe in wisdom, and experience, who recog- 
 nized and defended acquisitions already won while ear- 
 nestly striving for still further advancement. 
 
 The goal for which we are all confessedly striving is 
 the most economical and efficient system of instruction, 
 and the history of education proves that the best results 
 in instruction are produced only where teaching is pur- 
 sued as a career for life ; and second, it teaches also that 
 permanency of tenure is essential as a means of rendering 
 teaching a desirable career. 
 
 To render the permanent tenure effectual it must be 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 93 
 
 accompanied by a permanent, that is, an irreducible sal- 
 ary, as control of salary is virtually control of tenure. 
 
 We know what the objector to this plan will say : Your 
 permanent tenure, with its irreducible salary, constitutes 
 without doubt a desirable status for the teacher, provid- 
 ing the rate of salary is not too low. Whatever other 
 tribulations may await the teacher, he has no longer any 
 risks to run ; he has no longer to submit to an annual 
 humiliation in the shape of an annual election ; his repu- 
 tation and his living are no longer at the mercy of incom- 
 petent and prejudiced school officers. His status is in- 
 vested with dignity and independence ; he can hold up 
 his head like a man, and look the whole world in the face. 
 But in all this what have we done but shift the risk from 
 the employe to the employer, from the teacher to the 
 public ; you have insured the teacher against risk, but 
 what guaranty has the public that the teacher will do his 
 duty when he has no longer the fear of losing his situ- 
 ation, to act as a spurr to effort Are not the annual 
 election and the power of summary dismissal necessary 
 means of stimulating teachers to vigorous and sustained 
 effort, and of removing those who are delinquent and 
 incompetent ; and, besides, is not this permanency of 
 tenure contrary to the spirit of our free institutions, and 
 too un-American to find favor with us ? 
 
 To this question, which embodies the substance of all 
 that can be said in favor of annual election, and the 
 power of summary dismissal, I reply : First, that the pre- 
 carious tenure has not been found necessary for the end 
 in view in any other enlightened country on the globe ; 
 
94 JOHN B. PHILBEICK. 
 
 and, second, in our own country, the annual election is 
 unknown in universities, colleges, and the higher educa- 
 tional institutions, generally, outside of the public school 
 system, so that this odious annual election has no place 
 in the civilized world except the public schools of the 
 United States. But we do not deny that the public 
 should be guaranteed against risk as well as the teacher. 
 In the adjustment of compensation and service the rela- 
 tion of risks must always be taken into account. In this 
 case the guaranty of the public against risk is perfectly 
 feasible, as experience has satisfactorily proved. This 
 guaranty consists of six distinct provisions : 
 
 i. A thorough professional training of teachers in 
 normal schools suited to their destined functions. This 
 is necessary as the primary guaranty against the appoint- 
 ment of teachers without the requisite qualifications. 
 And it is evident that the state could afford a more lib- 
 eral expenditure for the education of a teacher who is to 
 serve the public thirty or forty years than for the teacher 
 who is to serve only three or four years. Only a small 
 fraction of the teachers now engaged in the service are 
 graduates of normal schools, there being no one state 
 that has not recoiled before the task of securing to the 
 whole body of teachers a professional education, and this 
 is because of the very great number of teachers which 
 teaching as a temporary employment necessitates. 
 
 2. Another guaranty should be provided by a system 
 of examining and certificating teachers by experts wholly 
 under the control of the central authorities ; and, besides, 
 the local certificate, the only one, with few exceptions, 
 
REFORM OF TENURE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 95 
 
 now issued, does little for the establishment of the stand- 
 ing and reputation of the holder. But a certificate 
 granted by the central authority, and valid throughout 
 the state, would create a professional rank and standing 
 which would elevate the status of the holders.* 
 
 3. As a third condition requisite to the permanent 
 tenure, probationary service must be provided. The 
 candidate must not only have his certificate, but he must 
 prove his capacity by actual service in teaching, before he 
 can claim a definitive appointment. The period of pro- 
 bation should not be less than two years, and it might 
 well be three or four. The judgment on the result 
 should be rendered by one or more approved experts. If 
 a further guaranty against failure is deemed expedient, it 
 may be obtained by an examination at the end of the pro- 
 bation, bearing especially on the practical work of the 
 schoolroom. 
 
 4. As to the choice to be made among candidates thus 
 prepared, the most judicious method appears to be for 
 the superior school authority to nominate three or four 
 candidates, having regard both to seniority and merit, 
 and that the election from this list should be left to the 
 local committee. 
 
 5. Provision for a suitable hierarchical situation for the 
 teacher. Such a situation would comprise a competent 
 supervision and the other means requisite for stimulating 
 the teacher to the best efforts, by recognizing his worth 
 and rewarding his merits ; and such a situation would 
 also comprise the necessary machinery for administering 
 
 * Provision has been made for state certificates in a few of the states. 
 
96 JOHN i>. PHILBBICK. 
 
 just and salutary discipline in cases of delinquency. In 
 France the hierarchical situation is so well contrived that 
 the young man of talents, entering upon his career as 
 primary teacher in the remotest mountain hamlet, may 
 hope to reach, by well-earned promotions, the principal- 
 ship of a metropolitan school, or to become director of a 
 normal school, or even inspector. 
 
 "It is the function of a good administration," says the 
 eminent Belgian publicist and educator, De Laveleye, 
 " !o seek by fixed rules which science indicates to ascer- 
 tain merit, and to class individuals according to their ap- 
 titudes; then there would be an end of solicitations, of 
 subserviency, of intrigues, of protections, of favors, of 
 injustices." And this is the paradise for which the 
 teacher prays, lie wants to feci that he owes his posi- 
 tion to his merit, and not to favor, and to be sure that his 
 efforts will be appreciated and recompensed. It is per- 
 il, ips, in vain to hope that the public school teacher's 
 path may be strewn with roses, but hitherto it has been 
 too much hedged up with briers and thorns; but the su- 
 preme misery of his lot is to be judged by incompetents. 
 This would necessarily be mitigated by the better super- 
 vision which the permanent tenure would require. 
 
 6. A retiring pension is requisite, not only as a secur- 
 ity lor old age, but. as a means of rendering practicable 
 the retirement of the aged and fatigued public servant, 
 without reflecting on his reputation or abandoning him 
 to destit ntion. 
 
 These six conditions are logically involved in the full 
 and complete application of the principle of fixity of ten- 
 
BEFOEM OF TEN U HE OF OFFICE OF TEACHERS. 97 
 
 ure. Moreover, they are at the same time the means of 
 producing an equilibrium of risks and of authorities, 
 which experience has proved to be indispensable to the 
 most efficient, economical, and harmonious working of a 
 school system. 
 
 In every point of view this reform in our system seems 
 to me fundamental in its importance ; all others are but 
 secondary, subordinate, accessory. It may seem to the 
 timid to be a bold undertaking, but it is not more bold in 
 the present circumstances than was the project of state 
 normal schools, or the project of a state board of educa- 
 tion fifty years ago. Every epoch has its peculiar task. 
 This reform I verily believe to be the task of the hour 
 for the friends of educational progress. Public senti- 
 ment is now everywhere drifting in this direction. In 
 the powerful movement which has been begun to reform 
 the civil service, I plainly see the dawning of a new and 
 better day for the public school and the public school 
 teacher. The press is daily teeming with arguments for 
 our cause, for the principles of a good civil service are 
 essentially the same as the principles of a good educa- 
 tional service. Hence the achievement of the civil ser- 
 vice reform will prepare the way for this reform. The 
 spoils system and the annual election are twin barbar- 
 isms, and with the abolition of the former the latter 
 must go. 
 
 But permanent tenure is not to be brought into suc- 
 cessful operation by a single legislative act. This rad- 
 ical reform must be reached by a series of steps. Initia- 
 tory steps have already been taken in various quarters. 
 
98 JOHN D. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 It is worthy of mention that, at the late session of the 
 Massachusetts Legislature, the chairman of the Commit- 
 tee on Public Service offered to include the teaching 
 service in the provision of the civil service reform bill 
 reported by his committee. This reform must begin 
 practically in the cities and larger towns. Teachers have 
 their duty in connection with this task. Everywhere 
 they should pour in their petitions and memorials upon 
 the legislatures, throughout the country, and do their 
 share of the work in creating public opinion which shall 
 demand this reform. 
 
Last Days 
 
 and 
 
 Funeral Rites. 
 
Last Days and Funeral Rites. 
 
 LAST DATS. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick's last sickness probably dates back to the 
 spring of 1882, when he made a journey to the far West. 
 This journey involved some long and tedious rides, 
 which, with the- labor of visiting schools, were too great 
 a tax upon his strength. In June, after his return home, 
 he was so ill as to call his family physician, Dr. Carlton. 
 For two months, July and August, he was confined to 
 the house, in which time he read much, and often in bed. 
 In October he seemed to take a severe cold, which so 
 affected his eyes that they were sore and painful. In 
 time, as the result of some simple remedies, they became 
 comparatively well, but, when the cold winds of winter 
 set in, they again became very painful, so much so that 
 Dr. Carlton wished an oculist to see them. 
 
 Accordingly, Dr. Coggin of Salem was called to see 
 him in January, 1883. He pronounced the disease a 
 severe rheumatic affection, but he also saw indications of 
 what his friends had already feared, namely, a loss of 
 sight. This Dr. Philbrick had himself feared from the 
 very first, as an inherited trouble, because several of his 
 relatives on his mother's side had been totally blind. 
 
 (101) 
 
102 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 In January, 1884, Drs. Coggin and Carlton performed 
 an operation upon one eye, hoping to let more light into 
 it, but the operation was not a success, and so the exper- 
 iment was not repeated upon the other eye. From this 
 time on his sight became more and more impaired. Still 
 he was able to move about his own house with compar- 
 ative ease ; but, when in a strange place, he moved so 
 much more cautiously that he seemed to see much less 
 than at home. 
 
 In the spring of 1884 he began his work on City 
 School Systems in the United States. His devoted wife 
 read to, and wrote for him. So constantly did he work 
 that, by the end of August, he had the work more than 
 half written. At that time he employed an amanuensis, 
 Miss Dudley, a relative of his, who spent a year with 
 him. She was a graduate of the Salem Normal School, 
 and was thus pretty well prepared for the work required 
 of her. During the year which Miss Dudley read and 
 wrote for him, he finished his work on City Systems, and 
 wrote the paper on School Reports, which is printed in 
 the Proceedings of the Council of Education for 1885 ; he 
 also did a great amount of preparatory reading, making 
 notes, etc., for a work on State Systems, which he hoped 
 to write in the winter of 1885-6. It was in the summer 
 of 1884 that he gave the address before the American 
 Institute on " Reform of Tenure of Office of Teachers." 
 
 In the summer of 1885 he, in company with Mrs. Phil- 
 brick, went to Hanover, where he served on the examin- 
 ing committee of the college ; then to Newport to the 
 meeting of the American Institute, then to Saratoga to 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. 103 
 
 attend the meetings of the Council of Education. Ail 
 these meetings he enjoyed very much, especially those at 
 Saratoga, where he met so many western friends. In 
 September of the same year he visited his old home in 
 Deerfield. It seems not unlikely that all the work of 
 this summer was too much for his impaired strength, for 
 the first severely cold weather in December seemed to 
 affect him unfavorably, so much so that he said he 
 "could not think well." 
 
 There were several times during the last year of his 
 life when he could not speak the word he wished to use 
 when talking, and twice he lost entirely the power of 
 speech for an instant. This he felt to be " an indication 
 of something serious," a premonition of what came at 
 last and caused his death. He once spoke to his doctor 
 of it, though, in talking of it, he called it a trouble of the 
 heart ; so it would seem doubtful whether he felt clear 
 in his own mind what the real nature of the trouble was. 
 
 The weather of the week preceding his fatal attack 
 was very cold, so that he gave up his ride which he was 
 accustomed to take almost every day ; this was through 
 fear of bringing on pain in his eyes. Up to Saturday, 
 the 16th of January, 1885, he had hoped he should be 
 able to go to Boston the next week to attend the Quincy 
 School reunion, but that day he said if it continued so 
 cold he could not go. On Sunday he did not seem as 
 well as usual. He complained of headache, so much so 
 that his wife did not leave him to attend church. When 
 Monday morning came he said he did not feel like get- 
 ting up, but must dictate some letters, one especially to 
 
104 JOHN I). PIIILBRICK. 
 
 the Quincy School boys. His wife advised him to wait 
 till afternoon, hoping he might get some sleep and feel 
 better. He took his dinner in bed and then dictated 
 three letters. 
 
 It was then so late that Mrs. Philbrick feared the 
 amanuensis would not have time to copy them before the 
 mail would leave, and stepped down into the library to 
 help her. When she went back to him, he said, " It has 
 come; something is the matter with my arm." His 
 wife, thinking it might be numbness, rubbed his arm, 
 but he evidently thought differently. She gave him 
 some hot drinks, hoping to start the circulation more 
 freely, and he soon seemed to feel better. When tea- 
 time came he took a cup of tea and a bit of toast. Mrs. 
 Philbrick then went down to supper, and upon her 
 return inquired how he felt, but he could not readily 
 answer, and she became alarmed and summoned the 
 nearest physician. 
 
 This was on Monday evening, Jan. 18, 1886. Dr. 
 Philbrick gradually sank, and died the second day of 
 February following. 
 
 Thus ended a noble life. Never was the true nobility 
 of his nature more clearly manifested than during those 
 years of approaching darkness. It was the good fortune 
 of the writer to visit him often in his home during that 
 time, and he never failed to be impressed with the sweet- 
 ness of his nature and the cheerful Christian resignation 
 with which he bore his great misfortune. Indeed, from 
 anything in the tone of his conversation, no one could 
 ever mistrust that he thought approaching blindness any- 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. 105 
 
 thing more than a part of the experience that was ap- 
 pointed for him by a kind Father. Then with what 
 kindness and broad charity he always spoke of his for- 
 mer co-workers ! He seemed delighted to remember all 
 the good and noble deeds and all the generous words 
 which he had known of others, but to consign differences 
 to oblivion. Many a silent blessing and inspiration has 
 been carried from that noble, patient presence. He still 
 lives in word and deed. 
 
 THE FUNERAL SERVICES. 
 
 The funeral of Dr. Philbrick was at his home in Dan- 
 vers, Feb. 4. The public schools of Boston were closed 
 for the day as a token of respect to his memory. The 
 day was one of the coldest and most uncomfortable of 
 the season, and yet a large number of friends from Bos- 
 ton attended the services. Among them were the super- 
 intendent of schools, several members of the Board of 
 Supervisors, a large number of the principals, and sev- 
 eral former members of the School Committee who had 
 served with Mr. Philbrick. In addition to these, many 
 teachers from other towns, many business men, and a 
 large number of neighbors and friends from Danvers 
 were in attendance, so that the house was crowded with 
 those desirous of honoring the distinguished dead. 
 
 The Boston masters showed their old-time love by tak- 
 ing with them a beautiful floral tribute in the form of a 
 closed book, on the cover of which was a crescent of 
 roses and lilies, and within the crescent the word 
 
106 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 CLOSED made of carnations. The casket was placed 
 in the parlor beneath a fine oil portrait of the deceased. 
 The portrait was entwined with smilax. The tribute of 
 the Boston masters was placed at the foot of the casket. 
 The services were conducted by Rev. Charles B. Rice, 
 of Danvers, Mr. Philbrick's pastor. He read from the 
 Scriptures the solemn sentences for the dead, beginning 
 with the passage, " Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling 
 place in all generations," and following with the twenty- 
 third Psalm, and with other selections setting forth the 
 Christian hope concerning the resurrection of the dead 
 and the life to come. He made, also, a brief address, 
 reviewing such portions of Mr. Philbrick's life as had 
 come under his own observation, and touching upon the 
 singular value of the services he had rendered to the 
 public. 
 
 ADDRESS OF KEY. CHARLES B. RICE. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's chosen work has all been in the line of 
 the elevation of mankind. It has been, throughout, a 
 work of enlightenment, and instruction, and guidance for 
 men. It was work of a higher order than that by which 
 many persons gain for themselves distinction. Now that 
 it is ended, his friends may review it with ample satisfac- 
 tion and with gratitude. 
 
 His life was in many ways representative, also, of the 
 best things in New England. There hangs upon the 
 wall a picture of his early home, — the house in which he 
 was born, — a typical New England farmhouse. From 
 such homes have come many of the men who have been 
 most conspicuous in the world, and whose lives have 
 
LAST DATS AND FUNERAL BITES. 107 
 
 most adorned and enriched the land. Mr. Philbrick him- 
 self had always a love for the place of his nativity, and 
 for all the places associated with the events of his domes- 
 tic life. He cherished this sentiment with respect to 
 this spot and the house within which these funeral ob- 
 servances are held. Near at hand is the schoolhouse in 
 which one of his first schools was taught. Still nearer 
 stands the ancient house in which he found the lady who 
 became his wife. It was characteristic, therefore, and 
 fitting with him, that he should retire to spend here his 
 closing years. The people of the neighborhood and 
 town have taken great interest and satisfaction in his 
 dwelling among them. He was himself, to a rare degree, 
 a man of genial feelings and kindly sympathies. He 
 entered easily into the thoughts of children. He was 
 marked as much by gentleness as by breadth of mind. 
 His calls at the parsonage, — one of which he made on 
 the last day of his going abroad for such a purpose, — are 
 remembered with interest by all the household. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick had a wonderful enthusiasm and courage 
 with respect to his work, holding on upon it in the face 
 of serious and increasing bodily infirmities. His mental 
 force was in these last years in no wise abated, and his 
 literary ability was scarcely at all relaxed. He left off 
 his labors only with his life. 
 
 There is need at such a time of the consolations and 
 hopes of the Christian faith, since the end of every life, 
 even the most successful and honorable, must be sad, if, 
 indeed, all life ended with the present time. Mr. Phil- 
 brick was a member, from his vouth, of a Christian 
 
108 JOHN I). FIULBRICE. 
 
 church, a daily reader of the Bible, accustomed to recog- 
 nize the hand of God in the disposings of human affairs 
 and the orderings of nature, and a man having the 
 deepest currents of his life devout, and reverent, and 
 trustful. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. DR. SPAULDING. 
 
 It was my privilege to have formed an acquaintance 
 with Mr. Philbrick at the outset of his college course. 
 He was a member of a large class of nearly one hundred ; 
 yet of that number he was individualized by the same 
 characteristics which would be recognized by those who 
 knew him only in his subsequent profession and career. 
 In this way his character, and the life flowing out of that 
 mind and character, seem a unit. It is the same stream, 
 only becoming broader and fuller with the added work of 
 years. 
 
 No man in college was more noted than Mr. Philbrick 
 for indefatigable industry. He was not a man of brill- 
 iant parts, but he was a man of steady aim, of strong 
 motive power, of inflexible perseverance, so that he was 
 certain to accomplish, and to accomplish well, whatever 
 he might undertake. It was equally certain that he 
 would never propose to himself any common result, yet 
 his was not a vaulting ambition, but a strong, mature, 
 solid purpose. It was thus with his college studies. In 
 the second year of his college course, when the students 
 were called upon to volunteer to take up the study of the 
 differential and integral calculus, Mr. Philbrick was one 
 of the first to go into it. The writer said to him, "John, 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL RITES. 109 
 
 what can you find in that which will be of any use? 
 What can you do with it ? " Mr. Philbrick replied, 
 "There is nothing that I can learn in this world that I 
 cannot make use of somewhere and somehow." And 
 this high standard of the value of knowledge he showed 
 always, from first to last. 
 
 His was not an allegiance to mere matters of intellect. 
 He was a man of the strictest integrity, — a man of high 
 moral principles in all the conduct of his life. He was 
 as true to his convictions as the sun in its course. Mr. 
 Philbrick always stood for what he deemed right, and, 
 standing there, he never could be moved ; he was a wall 
 of strength. To the younger members of his class, who 
 at one time embraced views opposed to what he believed 
 true, he proved a great help ; opposed to them in opin- 
 ion, he labored so kindly, so faithfully, with a devotion 
 so unyielding, that he led them to a deliberation upon the 
 matter, and brought them to a thorough change of view. 
 
 The same sterling firmness of character was seen in 
 his connection with the public schools of Boston. He 
 had early decided to give his life to education. This 
 choice of a profession dated as far back as his sophomore 
 year, and he had great affection and loyalty to it as a 
 profession, feeling that it demanded and rewarded all a 
 man's best powers. His theories were never abstract 
 views, but matters of vital interest and practical impor- 
 tance, and as such he grappled them " with hooks of 
 steel." We know how true he was to his convictions in 
 educational decisions. He would rather suffer personal 
 defeat than give them up, and he did endure defeat 
 
HO JOHN D. PHILBBICE. 
 
 many times ; but he persisted in what he thought right 
 until his point was gained. Even in circumstances of 
 great excitement, when he was most earnest for meas- 
 ures, he was remarkably free from any bitter, unkind, or 
 ungenerous judgments of those who differed from him in 
 opinion. 
 
 Both teachers and pupils could rely on his kindly sym- 
 pathy ; he loved their work. No one could ask aid of 
 him without feeling that he rejoiced to be a friend and a 
 helper ; he sympathized with the difficulties of another 
 by bending all his enthusiasm, all his energy, to over- 
 come them. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's wonderful power of discipline was the 
 natural outgrowth of the order, perseverance, and desire 
 for progress seen in his early school life. When he came 
 to regulate schools he knew all about them. When he 
 was sent to Paris to arrange the educational department 
 of the United States, it was evident that the government 
 had put the right man in the right place. He did 
 remarkable work as an organizer. Nothing was over- 
 looked or neglected ; thoroughness of detail stood side 
 by side with the great principle, " the greatest good of 
 the greatest number." As a friend of the public schools 
 no man has done more for their highest and best inter- 
 ests. No words of eulogy are needed for him whose 
 work has been to mould, to stimulate, and to elevate the 
 minds of the youth of his time, and to place the results 
 of the educational system of his country on a broad and 
 permanent basis in the world's record. For ourselves, it 
 is well that we should stop to look carefully at such a 
 
LAST LAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. HI 
 
 work, to take fresh inspiration from so noble a life as 
 that of John D. Philbrick. 
 
 ADDRESS OF DANIEL B. HAGAR, Ph.D. 
 
 Nearly forty years ago I made my first visit to the 
 Ouincy School, in Boston, which was then under the 
 charge of him over whose death we are now called to 
 mourn. I had learned that the school was one of extraor- 
 dinary excellence. I found it to be well worthy of its 
 high reputation. Although a stranger to the master, he 
 received me with that genuine courtesy which was one of 
 his marked characteristics. From that day to the close 
 of his life it was my great privilege to regard him as my 
 warm and faithful friend. Coming to know him inti- 
 mately, I found him in all respects worthy of esteem and 
 confidence. His admirable personal qualities and his 
 intellectual ability attracted to him hosts of friends, and 
 commanded the highest respect of all who best knew 
 him. To young teachers he was always kind, endearing 
 himself to them by the interest he manifested in their 
 welfare and the readiness with which he rendered aid in 
 their behalf. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's work as an educator was too broad and 
 comprehensive to admit of even an outline at the present 
 time. His career was one of vast usefulness. His rep- 
 utation as a leader in educational affairs is world-wide. 
 Prof. L. W. Mason, while visiting all parts of Europe, 
 investigating methods in his department of instruction, 
 was everywhere greeted with kindly inquiries in regard 
 to Dr. Philbrick, and listened to the warmest expressions 
 
112 JOHN I). PHILBRICK, 
 
 of regard for him and his work. The Japanese Minister 
 at Washington states that when commissioners of Japan 
 had been appointed to examine systems of education, 
 with reference to the adoption of the best system for 
 Japan, they visited the principal cities of the United 
 States, including Boston ; they carefully studied the lead- 
 ing systems of Europe, and then returned to Boston, 
 having decided that the Boston system, as devised and 
 conducted by Superintendent Philbrick, was, in their 
 judgment, the best. On their return to Japan, they took 
 with them specimens of the school furniture and the 
 various school appliances of Boston. To-day there may 
 be found in Tokio a Boston schoolroom in all its com- 
 pleteness. As a result of Mr. Philbrick's labors, Boston 
 has long been a Mecca for educators from all parts of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 His influence does not end with his life. His wise 
 opinions on educational subjects have been embodied in 
 a series of reports whose excellence has never been sur- 
 passed, if ever equaled. Even after he had lost his eye- 
 sight, so that he was compelled to write by dictation, he 
 prepared for the National Bureau of Education a report 
 on the city schools of the United States, whose great 
 value cannot be overestimated. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick held positive opinions on education, 
 which he maintained with unflinching fidelity, — opinions 
 which were not formed hastily, but were the outcome of 
 extensive knowledge and careful deliberation. 
 
 As an educator he may well serve as a model for 
 young men who are ambitious to become distinguished 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. 113 
 
 in the field of labor in which he wrought so long and so 
 successfully. His life was one of constant usefulness. 
 We who are teachers mourn over him as a departed 
 friend. Death has come ; but to him " death is the 
 crown of life." 
 
 ADDRESS OF LARKIN DUNTON, LL.D. 
 
 A great and good man has gone to his rest. We meet 
 to-day to pay our last sad tribute of respect to his mem- 
 ory. To know him was to trust him and to love him. 
 
 Of all the men of the present generation who have 
 devoted their lives to the cause of popular education, 
 John D. Philbrick was the foremost. I think it not too 
 much to say that among the educational men of all the 
 civilized nations of the world there is not a living man 
 to-day whose name is so widely and so favorably known. 
 Not to know him is to be ignorant of the history of public 
 education. 
 
 His profound and minute knowledge of the origin and 
 development of the public school system of Boston is well 
 known to many of those present ; but his acquaintance 
 with the school systems of other important cities in this 
 country, and, indeed, with the school systems of all civil- 
 ized nations, was just as profound and little less minute. 
 I have often heard him say that the best data for deter- 
 mining the value of educational theories and methods 
 were the tendencies of educational practice among civil- 
 ized nations, and judged by this standard no man was 
 more competent. 
 
 I remember well his first official visit to my school. I 
 
114 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 was then a subordinate teacher in a grammar school of 
 Boston, where he was superintendent. After listening 
 for half an hour to the school exercises, he drew me into 
 general conversation upon schools, and in a few moments 
 I believed myself in the presence of the wisest school 
 man that I had ever known. This belief has been gain- 
 ing strength for the last eighteen years. It was my priv- 
 ilege to spend a day with him about a month ago in this 
 very room. He was then in pretty good health and in 
 excellent spirits. I never left him with so profound a 
 sense of his great educational wisdom as on that evening. 
 
 Another of his characteristics was his patience. I 
 have never known a man who better understood the 
 value of waiting. He was wonderfully tolerant of opin- 
 ions at variance with his own, and was quite willing to 
 wait till knowledge and reason had produced conviction. 
 
 His mantle of charity was so broad that it covered 
 friends and foes alike. For those who differed from him 
 on matters of educational policy, and even for those who 
 had caused him infinite labor and trouble, he was ever 
 willing to accord the best of motives. He was preemi- 
 nently a man of sweetness of temper. 
 
 Add to this a serene and cheerful mind, a broad, cor- 
 rect judgment, and a keen insight into the tendencies of 
 educational movements, and you have the elements of 
 character that made him so universally respected, trusted, 
 and loved by the old Boston masters with whom he 
 worked for so many years. 
 
 To his stricken widow and other mourning relatives, 
 permit me to say, that it has fallen to the lot of few mor- 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. 115 
 
 tals to be so widely known, so highly respected, and so 
 deeply loved. 
 
 At the close of these addresses, Mr. Rice read the fol- 
 lowing letters : 
 
 LETTER FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
 
 Oak Ridge, 2d Mo., 4, 1886. 
 Dear Mrs. Philbrick; — It is not possible for me to be 
 present at the last services to thy honored husband and 
 my very highly esteemed friend and neighbor. I had 
 hoped, not without reason, that he would outlive me, and 
 that we should after have the pleasure of meeting each 
 other in the future. He leaves a noble record, and his 
 memory will long be cherished as a wise and successful 
 friend of learning, and as a worthy and upright citizen. 
 With sincere sympathy, I am thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 LETTER FROM GEN. JOHN EATON. 
 
 Marietta, O., Feb. 3, 1886. 
 Mrs. Dr. Philbrick: — Deeply regretting the impossi- 
 bility of my attending Dr. Philbrick's funeral, I am one 
 of that great number who mourn his death as his per- 
 sonal loss, and whose tenderest sympathies are with you. 
 An able, scholarly, noble man, dear friend, great educa- 
 tor, full of knowledge, wise to plan and faithful to exe- 
 cute, his death is a calamity to sound learning the world 
 over. John Eaton. 
 
 The hymn of Addison, " The Spacious Firmament on 
 High," which Mr. Philbrick learned when a boy, and 
 which was always a favorite with him, and which he 
 repeated during his last sickness, was read, and the exer- 
 
11G JOHN D. PUILB1UCK. 
 
 cises closed with prayer and the benediction. The 
 remains were then placed in the receiving tomb to await 
 final burial in the spring. 
 
 THE FINAL INTERMENT. 
 
 The remains were removed from Danvers, Mass., the 
 final interment taking place at Deerfield, N. H., May 3, 
 1886. It was the wish of his neighbors and townsmen 
 that, on this occasion, there should be some simple public 
 services by which they could testify their love and re- 
 spect to their honored friend. This was arranged for, 
 and on a beautiful spring day, amid a crowded gathering 
 of his early friends at his old homestead, his body was 
 borne to its last rest by the arms of those who had been 
 his pupils nearly fifty years before. Rev. Mr. Walker 
 offered prayer at the house, and Rev. Mr. Kingsbury 
 invoked a blessing at the grave. The following readings 
 and address were given by his friend, Gilman H. Tucker. 
 
 READINGS. 
 
 " They that put their trust in the Lord are as Mount 
 Zion, that cannot be moved, but abideth forever." 
 
 " Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of 
 trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down ; 
 he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not." 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, 
 believe also in me. In my Father's house are many 
 mansions : if it were not so I would have told you. I go 
 to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a 
 place for you I will come again and receive you unto 
 myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 
 
LAST DATS AND FUNERAL RITES. 117 
 
 " Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of 
 man conceived the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him." 
 
 "And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, 
 behold the tabernacle of God is with man ; and he will 
 dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God 
 himself shall be with them and be their God." 
 
 " I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write, 
 from henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord, even so saith the spirit ; for they rest from their 
 labors and their works do follow them." 
 
 HYMNS. 
 
 Rest for the toiling hand, 
 Rest for the anxious brow, 
 Rest for the weary, way-sore feet, 
 Rest from all labor now. 
 
 It is not death to bear 
 The stroke that sets us free 
 From earthly chain, to breathe the air 
 Of boundless liberty. 
 
 It is not death to fling 
 Aside this mortal dust, 
 And rise on strong, exulting wing 
 To live among the just. 
 
 We will not weep, for God is standing by us, 
 And tears will blind us to the blessed sight ; 
 
 We will not doubt ; if darkness still doth try us, 
 Our souls have promise of serenest light. 
 
 We will not faint ; if heavy burdens bind us 
 They press no harder than our souls can bear : 
 
118 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 The thorniest way is lying still behind us ; 
 We shall be braver for the past despair. 
 
 Oh, not in doubt shall be our journey's ending, 
 Sin, with its fears, shall leave us at the last ; 
 
 All its best hopes in glad fulfillment blending, 
 Life shall be with us when the Death is past. 
 
 Help us, O Father, when the world is pressing 
 On our frail hearts that faint without their friend ! 
 
 Help us, O Father! let thy constant blessing 
 Strengthen our weakness till the joyful end. 
 
 ADDBKSS. 
 
 Here we have met to perform this last sad act of love; 
 here in the fragrant breath of spring, amid freshening 
 green, the opening of flowers, and the song of birds, on 
 this pleasant slope opening to the sun, in this sacred 
 earth in which his fathers sleep ; from this outlook so 
 full of that beauty of scene, upon which his eyes so many 
 times lingered, and where they dwelt with such fondness 
 and delight, — here we have come with tearful hearts and 
 lovins: hands to commit the dear form of our relative and 
 friend to its final rest. 
 
 After a full life, long, and yet so short, filled with 
 activity in the noblest of pursuits, the educating and up- 
 lifting of mankind, world-wide reaching in its influence, 
 crowned with success and honor, he has come to lie 
 down in his final sleep upon this spot of earth, where his 
 eyes first opened upon the strangeness of the world, and 
 where again he was born into lofty aspirations and 
 ambitions. 
 
 Rest and sleep, — sleep and rest ; these are the touch- 
 
LAST DAYS AND FUNERAL BITES. 119 
 
 ing symbols ; these, the sweetest of words known to 
 toiling and suffering humankind, are what we use to 
 describe this last stage in our mortal journey, — this 
 which is not death, but transition. 
 
 If a man die shall he live again ? Revelation answers, 
 " Christ the divine has arisen." Eighteen Christian 
 centuries have answered, and the great and good of all 
 ages have answered. The human heart and human rea- 
 son answer. Science answers that no particle of the 
 universe can be destroyed. Can, then, the spirit which 
 makes the human soul ? 
 
 How great, then, is life ! change, transition, death, but 
 through all, and in all, an ever-continuing life. In our 
 memory and affections how strong and real is the life of 
 our friend to-day ! How vivid he is in influence and 
 power, — in that wide world wherein he moved and 
 wrought. Can the influence of his good words and 
 works ever have an end ? Not until you shall turn back 
 time, and blot out the span of his mortal existence. 
 
 And I see him now, as I saw him so lately, in yonder 
 cemetery, planning and working to beautify and protect 
 it ; as I saw him here, at his house, filled with a certain 
 homeish gladness to be among these scenes, with old 
 neighbors and townsmen, — simple, honest, working peo- 
 ple that he loved. I see him with his noble, illumined 
 face, his frank and winning manner, his hearty clasp of 
 the hand, his serious words lighted up with flashes of 
 pleasantry, — the warm welcome of his whole soul! I 
 see in all his generous and sympathetic spirit, thoughtful 
 of all but himself, constantly planning some individual or 
 
120 JOHN 1). I'UIL BRICK. 
 
 public benefit, like the free public library which he estab- 
 lished here in his native town. And in these last years 
 I have seen him clothed in that gentle mist of divine 
 patience, visible, through his natural buoyancy of spirits, 
 only to loving eyes, with which he met his increasing 
 loss of sight. 
 
 So will that life he lived always exist in one form or 
 another upon the earth. Thus living here, how much 
 more shall there always be life for him in some happy 
 sphere above and beyond. It is these great and good 
 souls that quiet our doubting minds, that prove to us this 
 truth of immortal life. To be forever with him we need 
 only to be like him. Always, now and forever, we are 
 with, one with, in heart, mind, and soul, those whom we 
 are alike ; no height, nor depth, nor distance, nor time, 
 can ever separate such as these. 
 
 Now, as companions and travelers, we part for a little 
 with our friend, who has finished one stage of the jour- 
 ney and taken on another. Sweet, generous, gentle 
 spirit, hail, but not farewell ! rather let us whisper our 
 loving " good-night " till we all meet at the dawn of the 
 great morning. 
 
 I wage not any feud with Death, 
 
 For changes wrought on form and face ; 
 No lower life that earth's embrace 
 
 May breed with him can fright my faith. 
 
 Eternal process moving on, 
 
 From state to State the spirit walks; 
 And these are but the shatter'd stalks, 
 
 Or ruin'd chrysalis of one. 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 
 
Eulogistic Letters. 
 
 About two weeks after Dr. Philbrick's funeral, the 
 New England Journal of Education published a memorial 
 number, consisting of eulogistic letters from all parts of 
 the country. These letters, perhaps, indicate as clearly 
 as anything can the estimate in which Dr. Philbrick was 
 held by the educators of America, and the warm place he 
 filled in their hearts. Below are given many of these 
 letters. Explanatory of the purpose of publishing these 
 letters, there appeared in the memorial number of the 
 Journal, under date of Feb. 18, 1886, the following 
 
 EDITORIAL. 
 
 It was our purpose to give a liberal share of the Jour- 
 nal this week to tributes to the memory of Mr. Phil- 
 brick ; but, so generous and prompt have been the 
 responses, and so valuable are the reminiscences, reviews, 
 and estimates of his life, that we most cheerfully sur- 
 render our editorial, as well as other pages, to the words of 
 high esteem and noble affection which flow from so many 
 pens. It is most worthy of record that these contribu- 
 tions are not fulsome eulogies, nor unbecoming praises 
 of Mr. Philbrick. All bear, in their deepest meaning, 
 honest and heartfelt testimonies to some trait, quality, or 
 service, which are established by the mouths of many 
 
 (123) 
 
124 JOHN D. PIIILBBICK. 
 
 ready witnesses. We had intended to add our own 
 humbler word to these, but must withhold it for another 
 opportunity, preferring that the brethren, who speak so 
 truly and eloquently, should express their sentiments of 
 appreciative affection. Their contributions to his worth 
 form a monument as enduring as can be built, having for 
 its foundation, a noble, devoted, generous, Christian man- 
 hood. We shall be greatly surprised, if our readers in 
 all parts of our country do not welcome these tokens of 
 regard, which are not only personal to Mr. Philbrick as a 
 man and an educator, but are of greater moment to the 
 whole body of teachers, as the recognition of a profes- 
 sional spirit and devotion, which are the best evidence 
 that his life had a purpose, and that it was crowned with 
 most gratifying success. With Mann and Agassiz and 
 Page and Philbrick among our worthies, we certainly 
 have some reason to be proud of our calling, and of all 
 who bear the name of Teacher. 
 
 LETTEK OF E. E. WIIITE, IX.D. 
 
 The death of the noble Philbrick has touched me more 
 deeply than that of any other New England educator 
 since the death of Horace Mann, and Mr. Mann, as you 
 know, spent his last years in Ohio as president of An- 
 tioch College, thus adding to my high esteem for him the 
 felicity of a personal acquaintance. 
 
 I first met Dr. Philbrick in the superintendent's office 
 in Boston, the city so long and so highly honored by his 
 professional labors, and the acquaintance there formed 
 grew with passing years into an intimate friendship ; 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 125 
 
 and, though the distance between our homes denied me 
 the close personal fellowship enjoyed by his New England 
 associates, I am sure that few of them think of his death 
 with a deeper sense of personal bereavement. I have not 
 only admired Dr. Philbrick for many years, but I have in- 
 creasingly esteemed his wisdom, and leaned upon him 
 for counsel and guidance. Few American educators have 
 spoken or written fewer unripe views on education than 
 he. He was blessed with that poise and catholicity of 
 mind that enabled him to look on all sides of a complex 
 truth, and especially a truth to be embodied in methods 
 of teaching. If he were less enthusiastic than some oth- 
 ers, it was because he saw more clearly their limitations. 
 His apparent conservatism was the poise of deep in- 
 sight and wide knowledge. He held firmly to the good 
 that had been tested, while he sought for and welcomed 
 better things. 
 
 His reports as superintendent of the Boston schools, 
 so admirable in contents, spirit, and diction, and his 
 more recent papers on current school questions, will be 
 consulted a few years hence as the wisest contributions 
 of these days. His comprehensive papers on " City 
 School Systems," published in 1885 by the Bureau of 
 Education, and on " School Reports," submitted to the 
 Council last summer, embody wise experience, patient 
 research, and profound wisdom. But I must leave a fit- 
 ting recognition of Dr. Philbrick's great services in the 
 cause of education to others. My heart calls me back to 
 a simpler tribute of obligation and love. 
 
 When I assumed the principalship of a Cleveland 
 
126 JOHN B. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 school many years ago, I was so fortunate as to take a 
 "peep" into a Boston school, through the keen eyes of 
 the lamented Cyrus Knowlton of Cincinnati. The school 
 thus seen became an inspiring ideal, and greatly contrib- 
 uted to my success as a teacher. Years afterward I 
 learned it was Mr. Philbrick's school that had been so 
 vividly pictured to me, and so for a third of a century I 
 have been his debtor. There now lies before me a pre- 
 cious letter from his stricken home, informing me that 
 Dr. Philbrick wrote his name the last time to attest his 
 friendship for me, and that my name was among the 
 last words which he uttered. Thus the debt of long 
 ago and this last touching honor span all the years be- 
 tween with inspiration and benediction ! 
 
 A prince among American educators has fallen ! 
 Peace to his ashes, and consolation and blessings to the 
 afflicted widow ! 
 
 LETTER OF WM, T. HARRIS, UL. D. 
 
 I feel keenly the grief that comes to teachers and 
 friends of education, at the announcement of Dr. Phil- 
 brick's death. There is an inner circle of personal 
 friends who knew him and loved him and honored him, 
 for both personal and professional reasons. There is an 
 outer circle who knew him and respected him as a veteran 
 authority in matters pertaining to education, and this 
 circle includes the entire profession devoted to teaching 
 and the management of schools, in every civilized coun- 
 try in the world. I would fain lay claim to belong to the 
 inner circle, although I have never been officially con- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 127 
 
 nected with him. I knew him many years as a laborer in 
 the same field of work. Indeed, my first acquaintance 
 with him dated back to 1852, when I met him at an 
 educational institute. I watched with eager interest his 
 career as superintendent of the State system of Con- 
 necticut and subsequently of the schools of Boston. 
 
 His annual reports were luminous with insight into the 
 relations of practical methods to the history of pedagogy. 
 He was a city set upon a hill. He never wrote a para- 
 graph without considering the relation of its doctrine to 
 the theory and practice of the world. The effect of his 
 writings, therefore, was a broadening one. Teachers 
 learned from him to look at their work from an elevation, 
 and to take in its perspective. 
 
 I have often noted his generosity toward his contem- 
 poraries. He seemed to take especial pleasure in cred- 
 iting others with any good points that he could detect in 
 their methods or theories. In this respect his influence 
 was specially inspiring to young men ambitious to excel 
 in their profession. I should lay great emphasis on this 
 grand feature of his character as it appeared from a dis- 
 tance. I have no doubt that the memories of those who 
 worked near him can supply innumerable examples of the 
 manifestation of this noble trait. 
 
 There comes into my mind, as eminently fitting on the 
 occasion of the death of a great teacher, the words from 
 the prophet Daniel, quoted in the epitaph of Fichte on 
 his tomb in Berlin : " The teachers shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." 
 
128 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 LETTER OF JOHN G. WHITTIEB. 
 
 I am glad to hear that the Journal of Education will 
 issue a memorial number devoted to my honored friend, 
 Dr. Philbrick, of this town. I had known of his educa- 
 tional work for many years, but had never the pleasure 
 of his personal acquaintance until he took up his resi- 
 dence in my neighborhood. I found him a busy student, 
 deeply interested in the cause to which his life had been 
 devoted, but at the same time a genial, unpretending gen- 
 tleman, and a very pleasant addition to our social circle. 
 
 The last time I saw him, some two months ago, he was 
 suffering from partial blindness, but seemed in his usual 
 good spirits. He was specially interested in the educa- 
 tional progress of Europe, and in the female colleges 
 established recently in France. He warmly commended 
 Wellesley College and its young and able president, and 
 expressed great satisfaction at the auspicious opening of 
 the Bryn Mawr College, in Philadelphia. He was deeply 
 impressed with the imperative necessity of the education 
 of all the people of the United States, irrespective of 
 color or nationality, as the only sure safeguard of liberty 
 and progress, regarding the ballot in the hands of igno- 
 rance a cause for serious apprehension of national dan- 
 gers. A good and true man, who served his generation 
 faithfully and successfully, he deserves to be held in 
 grateful remembrance. 
 
 LETTER OF GEN. JOHN EATON, EL.D. 
 
 Your plan is most fit. But it would be easier to write 
 a volume than " a word " exactly descriptive of Dr. Phil- 
 brick, or of my memories of him. 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 129 
 
 I first heard of him when I was fitting for college 
 under Dr. Orcutt, his classmate. In my earliest knowl- 
 edge of educators I read of Mr. Philbrick as a " Boston 
 teacher," then as in Connecticut ; and soon, again, as in 
 Boston, and at the head of the city schools. 
 
 In returning East from my year's work in Ohio, I was 
 accustomed to see for myself all I could of schools and 
 leading teachers and educators. On my first return 
 through Boston I learned much, through Nathan Bishop, 
 of his first experience as superintendent in Providence 
 and Boston. On my next visit I met Mr. Philbrick, and 
 his strong characteristics impressed me deeply. In my 
 mind were definite questions, some theoretical, others 
 practical. In his answers there was no assumption of 
 superiority, no brag, no ex catliedra announcements. He 
 was a master, — strong, on the alert, but judicial, and 
 employing the scientific methods for working out the 
 great problems before him. He quoted what had been 
 tried here and there, and failed or succeeded, and stated 
 what he was trying, giving me most valuable facts and 
 suggestions specially available for my study and practice. 
 His mind had before it most abundant information and 
 theories, but I specially felt his power to hold all in abey- 
 ance until their adoption in administration was clearly 
 expedient. 
 
 I have been a debtor to Dr. Philbrick in education from 
 the first. How many teachers obtained their first hints 
 from him ! From this experience of mine I readily saw 
 later, when I referred foreign educators to him, how they 
 were sure to report the great benefit they gained from a 
 visit to him. 
 
130 JOHN D. PUILBRICK. 
 
 He did not put affairs out of joint. He administered 
 city schools, but he studied profoundly the general prin- 
 ciples of education, and saw how part fitted part and 
 threw light upon the whole. Again and again I met for- 
 eign educators, after Dr. Philbrick's visit to Vienna, who 
 could hardly find language strong enough to express their 
 high opinion of him. Among them a most eminent in- 
 spector of normal schools in Belgium, who had taken the 
 great step to call to his aid a lady as an assistant in- 
 spector, declared himself fully confirmed in his view by 
 Dr. Philbrick's approval, and that he prized what he 
 learned from Dr. Philbrick about education more than all 
 else that he gained at Vienna. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick's representation of education at Paris, in 
 1878, was of the greatest possible service. He could do 
 justice to any part of it. He won for us the confidence 
 and respect of all inquirers, however humble or renowned. 
 He and his exhibit, though small, were sought by the 
 most eminent students of education. His great ability 
 and attainments, his industry and devotion, his skill and 
 aptness to teach, all served him well, and none who came 
 went away unenlightened. He became a favorite Amer- 
 ican guest at distinguished gatherings. The honors con- 
 ferred by the French and the " Doctor of Laws," by the 
 Scotch University, and the remembrances which flowed 
 in till the day of his death, were most deserved. 
 
 The French Commissioner to the New Orleans Exhi- 
 bition made a special pilgrimage to Asylum Station, and 
 could not restrain his lamentations when he learned that 
 the Doctor was in New Hampshire, whither he could not 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 131 
 
 go before the sailing of the vessel on which he had 
 engaged passage. 
 
 The great benefits derived from him and his work 
 by the Japanese are well known, and have been often 
 acknowledged. Bishop Frazer, until his death, was the 
 Doctor's admiring correspondent. Dr. Philbrick's mar- 
 velous power of seeing a situation in education, and 
 meeting it, enabled him to give most timely counsel to 
 those dealing with difficulties, old or new. How many 
 state and city systems has he helped ! He was quick to 
 discover and recognize good work wherever done. 
 
 He set a high value upon associations for the promo- 
 tion of education, as will be recognized by his frequent 
 sacrifices to attend meetings and take part in them. His 
 inspiring a great body of Eastern teachers to attend the 
 National Association at Chicago will not be forgotten, 
 and illustrates his ideas and activity. What an impulse 
 they left behind them, and how much they learned and 
 enjoyed ! 
 
 He specially aided in educational journalism as editor, 
 writer, and adviser. Who that saw him at Saratoga, 
 nearly blind, and led about by his devoted wife, can 
 forget him, or his masterly paper, or his wise and delight- 
 ful conversation ! Even after his retirement to his coun- 
 try home, no great movement in education escaped him, 
 whether affecting the entire country, or a state, or city, 
 or institution, and he had the courage of his convictions ; 
 he stood by his colors. His works will remain to honor 
 him and instruct coming generations. What a set of 
 city reports is that which he made of the Boston schools ! 
 
132 JOHN D. FUILBBICK. 
 
 Every one is a study. When has there appeared so 
 much wisdom in a single pedagogical paper as in the cir- 
 cular prepared by him for the Bureau of Education, and 
 published by it ! 
 
 His life covered a most marked period in the progress 
 of education, in which he was a most effective actor, and 
 in which his name will ever be associated. He gathered 
 the richest fruit for his chosen profession to the last. 
 Teachers everywhere may well honor him and emulate 
 his virtues. 
 
 LETTER OF JOHN S. CLARK. 
 
 I had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Philbrick very well 
 for the last twenty years of his life, and of one feature of 
 his work I may, perhaps, be permitted to speak with 
 exceptional knowledge. Among the prominent educa- 
 tors of the country he was the first to perceive the value 
 of art education in general education, as well as the first 
 to take active steps toward its promotion. I think it is 
 generally conceded that the movement for the study of 
 drawing in public schools, which, within the last fifteen 
 years, has extended over the whole country, had its begin- 
 ning in Boston in 1870. How important a movement 
 this has been, and what a development it has given to 
 education in many directions, is well known to all observ- 
 ers of public schools for the last ten years. I do not 
 think I do injustice to the many gentlemen who took a 
 deep interest in starting the movement in Massachusetts, 
 when I say that the leading spirit in the movement was 
 Dr. Philbrick. He was at that time superintendent of 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 133 
 
 the public schools of Boston, and a member of the State 
 Board of Education. My intimate acquaintance with 
 him began about this time, and, above all others, he 
 seemed to have clear ideas in regard to how the work 
 should be begun in the schools, and how it should be 
 developed. In my various consultations with him he 
 surprised me, not only by the thoroughness of his obser- 
 vation in regard to what had been done abroad, but also 
 by his clear comprehension of what was necessary to be 
 done here before any success could be expected. 
 
 While his official reports at this time bear evidence of 
 his earnest conviction in regard to the importance of 
 drawing and art education generally, they give little indi- 
 cation of the very earnest personal efforts he was making 
 in every direction to promote the undertaking, both in 
 the city and in the state. To Dr. Philbrick more than 
 to any other one person are we indebted for our Massa- 
 chusetts Normal Art School. The necessity for such an 
 institution became apparent to him at the outset of the 
 movement, and his experience as an educator enabled 
 him to see, with perhaps greater clearness than others, 
 its necessity in order to carry on the work throughout 
 the state. It was through his instrumentality, mainly, 
 that Mr. Walter Smith was induced to come to Boston 
 in 1872, and in the early years of Mr. Smith's labors he 
 had Dr. Philbrick's earnest support. 
 
 The art movement in education, which he did so much 
 to inaugurate, engaged his deepest attention to the last. 
 The closing years of his official life in Boston showed in- 
 creased interest in the subject ; and since his retirement 
 
134 JOIIN D. PUILBRICK. 
 
 at Danvers he has evinced the liveliest interest in the 
 spread of drawing throughout the country, and I have 
 been in the habit of consulting him frequently in regard 
 to various educational points that have arisen in my own 
 work. I always found him full to repletion of wise coun- 
 sel ; and I never left him without feeling myself his 
 debtor to an extent that could not be paid. His presence 
 at the National Association at Saratoga was especially 
 memorable by reason of his visit to the Art Exhibition. 
 In the excellent work there exhibited from the schools of 
 Worcester, St. Louis, Chicago, and Ouincy, he took the 
 greatest delight. He was able to see the development 
 that had taken place within the last few years in the 
 study of form and drawing, and, as he expressed himself, 
 " It was the realization of what he could only hope for 
 fifteen years ago." As I knew the deep interest he took 
 in this particular line of educational work, I was greatly 
 pleased that his partially dimmed eyes were gladdened 
 by a sight so full of promise to the future of public edu- 
 cation before they were closed forever. 
 
 There are so many who will pay fitting tribute to Dr. 
 Philbrick's eminent public services that I have felt like 
 speaking only'on that feature in his work with which I was 
 intimately acquainted. He was a leader and a pioneer in 
 the art movement in education which is now going so 
 successfully over the country ; and in all stages of its 
 progress his labor and his counsel have been invaluable. 
 
 Fully cognizant of his efforts in behalf of this feature 
 in education, and his faith in its future development, it 
 gives me great pleasure to add this tribute to his memory. 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 135 
 
 LETTER OF GILMAN H. TUCKER. 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1853, I went as a boy from my 
 country home in New Hampshire to New Britain, Conn., 
 to be under the immediate instruction and direction of 
 Mr. John D. Philbrick, who, as assistant superintendent 
 of common schools for the state of Connecticut, had 
 assumed the charge of the State Normal and Training 
 Schools located in that place. My uncle, who responded 
 to my desire to "go away to school" by sending me 
 there, had a very high estimate of the value of the teach- 
 ing and influence of Mr. Philbrick, and, I remember, 
 quoted some Plutarch saying, that it was regarded as the 
 greatest good fortune that a youth was born at a time 
 when he could have the teaching of Socrates. He rightly 
 judged that nothing was so important to one in obtaining 
 an education as to come under the influence of a gifted 
 teacher and a great and good man. 
 
 From this time commenced a personal intimacy which, 
 growing into a close friendship, lasted to the end of Mr. 
 Philbrick's life. Later, after completing school and col- 
 lege, as a young man " beginning the world," I was for 
 several years a member of his household in Boston, and 
 since have always been a frequent and welcome visitor in 
 his home. In these thirty-three years what have I not 
 owed to him as teacher and friend ! 
 
 As a teacher Mr. Philbrick placed before himself the 
 highest ideal. No man could ever be more in love with, 
 or more completely devoted to, his profession. He read 
 and studied its greatest authors, and associated with its 
 
136 JOHN D. PHILBUICK. 
 
 best exponents. And his mind was so receptive and so 
 practical that he assimilated all, so that the fruit of his 
 knowledge always appeared in his daily work. His plans 
 were always broad, and his system founded on sound 
 principles. Teaching was to him a great thing, — a phi- 
 losophy ; not a mere theory or art, but both and more, — 
 the love and pursuit of wisdom. Its aim was to develop 
 intelligent, well rounded out, and evenly balanced men 
 and women. 
 
 The governing principle of his own life was not merely 
 seeking increase of knowledge, — though none pursued 
 that with more industry and success, — but growth in 
 wisdom. His whole career exemplified this, and he 
 became the Franklin among educators. He was, in his 
 ripe years, certainly the wisest man in his profession of 
 public educator in this whole country, if not in the world. 
 
 As a teacher he was a very strong personality. His 
 presence was always a sunshine and stimulus, his enthu- 
 siasm generous and unbounded, and dull indeed must be 
 the mind not waked into activity and ambition by contact 
 with his own. He had a real, personal interest in the 
 individual students, studied and recognized their pecul- 
 iarities, and instructed and influenced them accordingly. 
 The breadth, and I may say height, of his teaching was a 
 peculiarity. He was constantly broadening and elevat- 
 ing the minds of his pupils, and, without noise or demon- 
 stration, continually building up character. The purest 
 and noblest aims were caught, not taught, by magnetic 
 contact with his own clear and lofty character. The true 
 teacher is so much greater than a book as a living organ- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 137 
 
 ism is greater than a lifeless machine. Fortunate those 
 who were pupils of this great teacher, and greater man, 
 and more fortunate to have carried his impress with them 
 through life. 
 
 To speak of Dr. Philbrick as a friend, — and here, with 
 me, only affection can speak. He was a very social per- 
 son by nature, and a wide acquaintance among the best 
 had afforded him means to highly cultivate himself in 
 this direction. He was a superior conversationalist, and 
 his flow of talk was always rich and entertaining. Pleas- 
 ant, genial, and kind-hearted to all, to his intimates he 
 was warm, sympathetic, generous, self-forgetting, and 
 devoted. He idealized his friends. He did not see their 
 faults, or, if he did, they were overlooked. He dwelt 
 upon their abilities and virtues. How he loved to 
 recount their good qualities, and what great things they 
 could accomplish if they dared and tried ! How often 
 his cheerful courage and generous confidence carried 
 hope and faith to his friends, which enabled them to 
 accomplish work which had otherwise been unaccom- 
 plished ! His sympathetic helpfulness, extended during 
 his whole life toward young men and women who sought 
 his aid and advice, especially those beginning the profes- 
 sion of teaching, must be remembered by thousands in 
 all parts of the country who were benefited by it. His 
 confidence once given was perfect unless basely betrayed, 
 and no man was a better judge of character or less often 
 mistaken. While he understood the maxim that to have 
 a friend one must be one, he constantly helped his friends 
 in all possible ways when he knew there could be no 
 
L38 JOHN n. PHILBBICZ, 
 
 return in kind. He gave more than Ik- look, — he had 
 so much to give, and it seemed to enrich the giver as 
 well as the receiver. 
 
 in his home he was brightness itself, thoughtful always 
 oi others, and here his life was as tender and beautiful as 
 his public life was greal and strong, As a host, joining 
 with his worthy wife,— always so true a helpmeet to him 
 in contributing to a perfeel home, — what pleasure or 
 comforl Eor a guesl was evei overlooked, or whal warmth 
 of welcome wanting I 
 
 Such, km so Imperfectly sketched, Is a glimpse of the 
 greal and good man, John Dudley Philbrick, His earthly 
 life is ended. May Heaven enrich the world with an- 
 other like him I 
 
 LXTTEB OF THOMAS ". BAKNBS. 
 
 There are some people who must be known intimately 
 to be understood and appreciated. Mr. Philbrick was 
 one oi these. Those who saw him merely upon the plat- 
 form or at a distance wore Inclined to think he was over- 
 estimated by his friends j bu1 those who came into inti- 
 mate relations with him very soon learned that they wore 
 enjoying the acquaintance of a man of no ordinary mind, 
 and one who formed his opinions with due deliberation 
 
 and undoubted evidence and authority. I never really 
 
 knew him until I was brought into the eloso relation 
 
 which exists between a master and the superintendent ; 
 then I learned how much oi a man 1 was dealing with, 
 
 and how sound he was upon all matteis relating tO edu- 
 cation. 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTEBB. 139 
 
 When one knowing Mr. Philbrick well differed from 
 him upon educational subjects, it became him to well 
 weigh his own views before deciding that Mr. Philbrick 
 was in error ; for he would always be aware that Mr. 
 Philbrick never came to his conclusions hastily, but 
 always bad well-grounded reasons for the opinions he 
 entertained. He was a man who could be approached by 
 the humblest of educators and be kindly received, for he 
 was a large hearted man, and had a pleasant and encour- 
 aging word for all who desired advice and were trying to 
 help themselves. 
 
 Although I knew him well, yet I was surprised to find 
 that he was even better known out of New England than 
 in it. When I was in Washington, in the winter of 1877 
 -78, just as he was completing his preparations to go to 
 France as representative of the educational interests of 
 this country, I gave myself the pleasure of calling on 
 him at his headquarters at the rooms of the National 
 Bureau of Education. I met there General Eaton and 
 other wclbknown educators, and I found that he was 
 accorded by them the highest place as a man of sound, 
 practical views upon education. It was a matter of great 
 surprise to them that Boston would consent to accept his 
 resignation as superintendent of our schools, but they 
 felt that Boston's loss would be the nation's gain. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick as a writer upon education had no supe 
 rior, as is clearly indicated by his many and voluminous 
 reports, which show a thorough acepjaintance with the 
 progress of education in this and other countries, and are 
 in themselves a complete history of the same. 
 
140 JOIIN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 LETTER OF SAMUEL W. MASON. 
 
 I really wish I could say something worthy the name 
 and fame of Dr. Philbrick, but, as others will write of his 
 merits as a man and an educator, I will mention only one 
 or two items among the many reminiscences I have of 
 him. 
 
 After he had been appointed master of the Quincy 
 School he visited the college from which he graduated, 
 and some of the students were introduced to him. Such 
 was his zeal and enthusiasm in the profession to which 
 he was to devote his life that many of us were induced to 
 choose teaching as a vocation. I thought if I could only 
 be one of his corps of teachers, have him for a guide, I 
 should be content to labor a lifetime under such a 
 director. 
 
 When teaching in a distant state, I heard that there 
 was a vacancy in the Quincy School ; I immediately 
 came to see Mr. Philbrick, but found I was too late, for 
 another had obtained the place. But my journey to Bos- 
 ton was not for naught, as I saw Mr. Philbrick in school, 
 and noticed what a power he had over his teachers and 
 boys, — what an interest he awakened in his intercourse 
 with others, and how splendidly he " kept school." I 
 returned to my country school a better teacher, deter- 
 mined, if possible, to teach in Boston, and learn how to 
 teach by knowing and watching Mr. Philbrick. I was 
 connected with the Boston schools when he was master, 
 and I lost no opportunity to visit his school and learn of 
 him. I never went to his school without feeling my own 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 141 
 
 deficiency and the infinite resources at his command to 
 make an excellent school. 
 
 He was willing and anxious to help young teachers, 
 and we looked up to him as a safe adviser, a wise coun- 
 sellor, and a true friend. 
 
 During his first term of service as superintendent I 
 was one of the Boston masters, and I know how we 
 looked to him for direction and advice, — never in vain. 
 He took a deep interest in us and in our individual 
 schools, and often commended us if we tried to develop a 
 subject in which, at the time, he was specially interested. 
 He had no hobbies to ride, but believed that education 
 meant a development of the whole man, mentally, phys- 
 ically, and morally. He endeavored to stimulate one's 
 noblest faculties to action, to incite him to form good 
 habits, and to mould an excellent character, — to make 
 him what he should be, a whole man ; but sometimes he 
 laid particular stress on a certain subject when he 
 thought it had been neglected. 
 
 He always was popular with the Boston masters be- 
 cause he confided in us, trusted us, and thought we knew 
 how to manage our individual schools. He let us do as 
 we pleased if we pleased to do right, but he was not 
 slow to point out our faults, and kindly helped us to 
 correct them. 
 
 He did a noble work for our schools, and not alone for 
 our schools, but for the cause of good learning. He was 
 the teachers' friend, and did much to make the profession 
 of teaching noble and honorable. His reputation as a 
 true educator will increase wherever true culture is 
 known and appreciated. 
 
142 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 The name of Dr. Philbrick is a benediction to us who 
 still labor and wait. 
 
 LETTER OF J. L. PICKAED, IX.D. 
 
 To the workers in the broad West the death of Dr. 
 Philbrick came as a bereavement. For many years we 
 have looked on and criticised his work, but with an ever- 
 increasing conviction that his plans were well laid and 
 his methods comprehensive. No one knows better than 
 those who have labored in fields similar to the one he so 
 faithfully cultivated, how hard the task of organizing and 
 administering city schools, — hard indeed, when old and 
 deep-rooted prejudices must be overcome. Some of us 
 at the West have felt the wisdom of his counsels, with- 
 out realizing the benefit to us of being able to plant the 
 good seed in virgin soil. We may, on this account, have 
 been ready to attribute to him tardiness of movement. 
 Looking back over the past, we see no retrogression, but 
 steady progress. What fitter tribute can we pay to the 
 memory of our departed brother than this ? In labors 
 abundant, not always appreciated as they deserved, Dr. 
 Philbrick moved on serenely, conscious that he was right, 
 and in this was his success. 
 
 LETTER OF ROBERT C. METCALF. 
 
 My earliest recollections of Boston schools are con- 
 nected with the administration of Mr. Philbrick as super- 
 intendent. The number of schools in the city thirty 
 years ago was so small when compared with the number 
 at the present time that a visit from the superintendent 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 143 
 
 was by no means so rare an occurrence as now. I re- 
 member well those visits, and the words of encourage- 
 ment that were to me so helpful. Many a time has the 
 recollection of them prompted me to encourage others by 
 seeing only what was worthy of commendation. Most of 
 us know of vastly more faults than we are able to cor- 
 rect ; and there is little need that they should be pointed 
 out by superiors. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was kind-hearted and sympathetic. An 
 excellent teacher himself, he recognized and appreciated 
 the good work of teachers under his supervision. A man 
 of broad views, he labored steadily to systematize the 
 work of the Boston schools. A close student in educa- 
 tional matters, he was thoroughly acquainted with the 
 school systems of other cities and of other countries. He 
 believed that good schools implied good teachers and 
 wise supervision. To procure the former he was instru- 
 mental in establishing the city normal school, and he 
 hoped to secure the latter by bringing the primary and 
 grammar departments under one head, and placing one 
 principal over both. 
 
 Under the superintendency of Mr. Philbrick the most 
 cordial relations were established between the different 
 schools of the city. The masters were no longer rivals, — 
 they were brethren, and have remained such to this day. 
 
 The schoolmasters of Boston owe a debt of gratitude 
 to Mr. Philbrick that even the love which they lavished 
 upon him when alive, the heart-felt grief which followed 
 him to the grave, and the tender recollections which 
 cluster about his memory, can never repay. 
 
144 JOHN D. PMLBUICK. 
 
 LETTER OF MARY A. CURRIER. 
 
 It was my privilege to know Mr. Philbrick as a friend, 
 a neighbor, a townsman, and an educator. From a child 
 his name was familiar to me, but I did not know him 
 personally till 1862, when I came to Boston for an ex- 
 tended visit. His large-heartedness and his great wisdom 
 in all educational matters at once impressed me, and I 
 was very soon led by his influence into the public schools 
 of Boston. From that time till his death he has ever 
 been ready with his counsel and encouragement, and as a 
 teacher I owe him more than any other person excepting 
 the late Lewis B. Monroe. 
 
 I will not here dwell, however, upon the many pleasant 
 memories connected with his professional work, but will 
 allude briefly to a phase of his life not so well known to 
 most of his educational friends, — his loyalty to his 
 native town, and his attachment to the old homestead. 
 Amid all his successes he never lost his love for his boy- 
 hood home, nor his interest in the humblest of his neigh- 
 bors, and his devotion as a son and a brother was beauti- 
 ful in the extreme, commanding the admiration of all 
 who knew him in this relation. He used to say, in 
 speaking of the Deerfield home, " It is the prettiest spot 
 in the world to me ; you ought to go out in the field just 
 beyond the house and see what a view there is ! " 
 
 Through his influence each school district in the town 
 was long ago supplied with an Unabridged Dictionary, 
 and improved seats and desks were put into the high 
 school. He saw the need of a public library, and in- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 145 
 
 duced a wealthy gentleman of New York, a former resi- 
 dent of the town, to give the money, himself selecting all 
 the books. It is called the Philbrick-James Library. In 
 his own school district he has annually appropriated a 
 sum for a Fourth-of-July picnic, and has, when possible, 
 been present himself. 
 
 We had thought to enjoy his wise counsel many years, 
 and to do much to express our gratitude for his benefac- 
 tions. He is to be laid at rest with his father and 
 mother in the family burial ground on the old place, 
 which he had just surrounded with a unique granite wall, 
 in English style. Here we shall gladly, every summer, 
 place upon his grave the old-fashioned flowers he so 
 much loved. 
 
 LETTER OF JUSTIN H. SMITH. 
 
 Early in 1878 Mr. Philbrick was selected by the gov- 
 ernment to direct the National Exhibit of Education at 
 the Universal Exposition, opening in Paris on April 1st 
 of that year. The authorities were scantily informed of 
 the need for such an exhibit, and of the magnitude of the 
 undertaking ; the decision was late, the appropriation 
 meager, the educational public indifferent or disheart- 
 ened. Had there not been in Mr. Philbrick full knowl- 
 edge, prompt action, ample resources, and resolute 
 enthusiasm, the enterprise must have proved a failure. 
 Warmly and ably supported by General Eaton, the Com- 
 missioner of Education, he was able to sail the 20th of 
 March with an abundance of choice material secured. 
 
 Arrived at Paris, full of enthusiasm, he found he had 
 
146 JOHN D. PHIL BRICK. 
 
 not a foot of space, and was only one of half a hundred 
 eager and disappointed applicants. The difficulty was 
 met with characteristic patience, tact, and perseverance, 
 and at last he was given a space of about 21 by 25 feet, 
 in which to unfold his representative exhibit of the fore- 
 most educational country of the world. 
 
 In organizing and in conducting the department he was 
 indefatigable and sagacious, always enthusiastic, cheer- 
 ful, and philosophic, never losing sight of his constitu- 
 ents' interests, while continually in demand to confer 
 with his colleagues of the Jury, attend social and official 
 gatherings, deliver addresses at the Sorbonne and else- 
 where, explain the exhibit to deputations of teachers, and 
 meet his professional friends from Great Britain, France, 
 Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Japan, 
 Canada, and Australia. At the close of the Exposition 
 his collection was solicited by the French government, 
 and, substantially a unit, was permanently established in 
 the palace that contains Venus de Milo and masterpieces 
 of Raphael, Murillo, Titian, and Rubens. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick brought back to America for his constit- 
 uents 121 high awards, — more than any other country 
 except France herself received, — and for himself the 
 cross of the Legion of Honor, the gold palm of the Uni- 
 versity de France, the Doctorate of Laws from the ancient 
 University of St. Andrews, and, — the only reward he 
 sought, — the respect and esteem of the most eminent 
 educators in all the civilized countries of the globe. 
 
 To this work, as to all his professional duties, Mr. 
 Philbrick was ardently devoted, and he gave it the most 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 147 
 
 a man could give, — himself, — for to its success he con- 
 sciously sacrificed the continuance of his public career, 
 and many of the hopes he had cherished for his declining 
 years. 
 
 LETTER OF HON. JOHN W. DICKINSON. 
 
 Mr. John D. Philbrick was born in Deerfield, N. H., 
 on the 27th of May, 18 18, and died at Dan vers, Mass., 
 on the 2d of February, 1886. Mr. Philbrick received his 
 collegiate education at Dartmouth College, from which 
 institution he graduated in 1842. While a student in col- 
 lege, he was noted for his industry and his persever- 
 ance. He entered college for a purpose, and he never 
 lost sight of it until it was fully accomplished. During 
 his sophomore year he chose teaching for his life-work, 
 and from that time he studied with reference to prepar- 
 ing himself for the duties of his chosen profession. 
 
 On graduating from college he came to Boston and en- 
 tered at once upon his chosen work, beginning as assist- 
 ant teacher in the Latin school in Roxbury. The same 
 qualities of mind and heart exhibited themselves in his 
 practical life as a teacher, that had distinguished him 
 through the years of his college course as learner. He 
 was industrious in preparing his daily tasks and persever- 
 ing in the application of his methods of teaching and 
 control. 
 
 His success as a teacher attracted attention, and in 
 1844 ne was transferred from the Roxbury school to the 
 English High School. In 1845 he was made master of 
 the Mayhew School. Three years later he was appointed 
 
148 JOHN D. FEILBRICK. 
 
 to organize the Ouincy School, the first of the present 
 system of grammar schools of the city. In 1852 he was 
 called from Boston to New Britain, Conn., to organize 
 the State Normal School, established two years before in 
 that town, for the training of teachers of the public 
 schools. By an act of the Connecticut legislature, passed 
 in 1849, the office of Superintendent of Common Schools 
 and that of principal of the State Normal School were 
 united. Mr. Philbrick accepted the twofold office, and 
 did all in his power to perform well the responsible duties 
 committed to his care. As principal of an important ed- 
 ucational institution, and as superintendent of a system 
 of schools, he did enough for Connecticut to eventually 
 provide for her public schools better trained teachers, and 
 for the teachers themselves a more generous support. 
 
 By invitation of the school committee of Boston, he 
 came back to Massachusetts in 1857, and commenced 
 what proved to be the great work of his life, — the re- 
 organization and direction of the public schools of the 
 city. Mr. Philbrick was superintendent of the public 
 schools of Boston from 1857 to 1874, and again from 1876 
 to 1878, and when he resigned his office he left these 
 schools the best organized and conducted public educa- 
 tional institutions in this or any other country. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick performed some important educational 
 service outside of his labors as superintendent of schools. 
 He was for ten years a member of the State Board of 
 Education, during which time he gave full sympathy and 
 cordial support to the State Normal Schools, then in the 
 infancy of their existence. He was appointed by the 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 149 
 
 government to represent our educational affairs at the 
 Vienna Exhibition, in 1873, and again at the great Paris 
 . Exhibition in 1878, of which he made elaborate and able 
 reports. He organized and superintended our own edu- 
 cational exhibit at Philadelphia, in 1876, and did his work 
 with so much skill and good judgment, that the products 
 of the Massachusetts public schools were judged to be of 
 the highest excellence. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick has contributed much to our educational 
 literature by his able public addresses, and by his val- 
 uable school reports, which have embodied his best 
 thoughts on a great variety of educational topics. These 
 reports will be read, I am sure, with increasing interest 
 by all educators who have access to them, as the years 
 goby. 
 
 And, finally, I find that Mr. Philbrick was a member of 
 that association of gentlemen, who, interested in the pro- 
 fessional applications of science, and in the practical and 
 fine arts, began to form those ideas, which, after strug- 
 gling for a long time for an opportunity to make a mate- 
 rial expression of themselves, finally, on the eighth day 
 of April, 1862, were organized into the Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology, — an institution that introduced 
 at once a new and most important element into our 
 systems of education. From the day of the organization 
 of this distinguished institution to the time of his death, 
 I believe Mr. Philbrick was a member of its corporation 
 and of its committee on instruction. He was an earnest 
 and intelligent friend of the Institute, for he was deeply 
 interested in its objects and its methods. 
 
150 JOHN J>. PHILBBICK. 
 
 In his written words, found at the close of what he 
 thought to be his last report to the School Committee of 
 Boston, arc expressed the great principles of action by 
 which he was moved throughout his educational life : — 
 
 " For upward of thirty years, — all but four in this 
 city, — I have occupied, without the intermission of a 
 day, various positions of service in connection with the 
 public schools. Here my professional career has been 
 run. It was the career of my choice, and my highest am- 
 bition. My heart has been in it. It has afforded me the 
 desired opportunity for making my humble contribution 
 to the general welfare. I am thankful for it. I shall 
 never cease to be grateful to all who have co-operated 
 with me in my efforts to make the Boston public schools 
 the best in I lie world ; and I will venture to say that I 
 ask no ill thing for the eause, when on parting from such 
 place, I pray that whomsoever you shall choose to succeed 
 me, he may resemble me in the uprightness of his inten- 
 tions, and sin pass me in the degree of his abilities." 
 
 LETTER or iion. BffEIXEN CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 I have a vague recollection of the late John D. Phil- 
 brick when he was preparing for college at Pembroke 
 Academy, but my intimacy with him began when I en- 
 tered Dartmouth College, in 1840, where he preceded me 
 by two years. 
 
 I succeeded him as teacher of a district school at Dan 
 vers, and soon found in my pupils indications that they 
 had been under the instruction of a strong mind, but 
 otherwise 1 had no particular knowledge of his distinctive 
 life-work, lie was in one line of business and 1 in an- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. \;,\ 
 
 other, but I always watched his career and rejoiced in his 
 success. I knew him best as a man, and I think I knew 
 him well. 
 
 At one time he thought of entering the legal profes- 
 sion, and made some progress in his reading. Had he 
 finally given himself to the law he would, I have no 
 doubt, attained to great eminence in it. He always im- 
 pressed me as a man of extraordinary grasp and vigor of 
 understanding, equable in its manifestations, and depend- 
 ing but little upon external conditions. His results were 
 reached less by intuition than by labor, but he had great 
 power for labor, and honestly applied it to the work in 
 hand. I should be much surprised to learn that he ever 
 neglected a known duty, or was satisfied with merely its 
 perfunctory performance. He seemed to keep before his 
 eyes in all his work the highest attainment. 
 
 1 1 is moral qualities were no less marked. He had 
 ambition for honorable distinction, but none other would 
 have given him the slightest satisfaction, for his mind 
 was thoroughly honest. He was a firm friend, — no one 
 was more so, — and his judgments of others were gener- 
 ally correct ; or, if there was any tendency to err, it was 
 on the right side. He had the power of inspiring others 
 to excel themselves, and, by so doing, he acquired many 
 faithful coadjutors in his great work. 
 
 Of my own personal relations to Mr. Philbrick I do not 
 trust myself to speak. When he died the cause of edu- 
 cation lost one of its most able and devoted friends, and 
 there are thousands who mourn his loss. 
 
152 JOUN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 LETTER OF WM. A. MOWRY, Ph.D. 
 
 John D. Philbrick may well be called the apostle of 
 public school education. When he was a young man 
 he devoted himself to the cause of education. He deter- 
 mined to make it his life-work, and he adhered to that 
 resolution to the end of an active and an honorable ca- 
 reer. For forty years he was closely identified with the 
 interests of popular education ; and during most of that 
 long period he held responsible positions in Boston. As 
 teacher in grammar, high, and normal schools he was 
 ever studying and applying the highest principles of ped- 
 agogy and psychology. As superintendent, whether of 
 city or state schools, he was always foremost in the dis- 
 cussion of fundamental principles which should govern 
 in reference to the organization, courses of study, meth- 
 ods of teaching, and all that pertained to the work of the 
 schools. Now that he has gone to rest, and the leading 
 men who have been most intimately acquainted with his 
 work reflect upon his chief qualities and characteristics, 
 they will agree that above all men he was familiar with 
 all that belonged to the province of educational affairs. 
 
 He was thoroughly acquainted with the schools of Bos- 
 ton. He knew every detail of their organization, their 
 condition, their history, and their prospects. He was 
 equally at home in regard to the schools of the world. 
 The peculiarities of education in France, in Great Brit- 
 ain, in Germany, Austria, or St. Petersburg, were as clear 
 to his mind as the alphabet or the multiplication table. 
 He was no less familiar with the whole history and pur- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 153 
 
 pose of education in the past. Upon all these subjects 
 his mind was a storehouse of wisdom, filled to overflow- 
 ing, and the door standing wide open to all who desired 
 to avail themselves of his accumulated knowledge. Prob- 
 ably there is no man in the world, now living, who pos- 
 sesses so full, so valuable, so minute, and so exact a 
 knowledge of all educational history and principles, ex- 
 periments and practices, as John D. Philbrick carried to 
 the grave with him. 
 
 Another characteristic of Dr. Philbrick was his abso- 
 lute devotion to truth. He was always and everywhere, 
 and under all circumstances, true to his convictions. He 
 was the soul of honor and uprightness. lie was a true 
 friend, never failing in time of need. This is a great 
 thing to say of a man in this age of the world. The num- 
 ber of lamentable failures to come up to this standard in 
 these times is so great that the life of a true man, a firm 
 friend, always reliable and to be relied upon, is a marked 
 life. All this was Mr. Philbrick. Now that he is silent 
 in death, no man will dare to say, " He betrayed me," 
 or " He failed me in the day of need." Beside he was 
 especially the warm, personal friend to the young teacher. 
 The time would fail to tell the instances that come to the 
 mind where he has proved himself a true friend to some 
 young man who needed a word of encouragement, appre- 
 ciation, or caution. He was also always honorable as an 
 opponent. Never would he take any undue advantage, 
 or resort to any questionable methods to accomplish his 
 ends. Bold, aggressive, manly, he was at the same time 
 simple, ingenuous, honest, and straightforward. 
 
154 JOHN D. PUILBBICK. 
 
 His reputation was deservedly world-wide. His name 
 was a household word among educational men, not only 
 in New England, the South, the great Northwest, and on 
 the Pacific slope, but also in England, France, Germany, 
 Austria, Russia, China, and Japan. The present high 
 reputation of the schools of Boston, the world over, de- 
 pends, probably, more upon what John D. Philbrick has 
 done for them and written and said about them than 
 upon any other cause. 
 
 He had a remarkable judgment of men. Rarely did 
 he err in his estimate of men or measures. He was 
 always a wise counselor. Above all he was a devout 
 man. With no cant, no show, no pretension, he was a 
 sincere, humble, devout worshiper of God. The funda- 
 mental sentiment of his life is voiced in that beautiful 
 hymn attributed to Addison, which he learned in his boy- 
 hood, which was ever sweet to his ear, and which was so 
 impressively sung at the close of his funeral services : — 
 
 " The spacious firmament on high, 
 With all the blue ethereal sky, 
 And spangled heavens, — a shining frame, — 
 Their Great Original proclaim. 
 
 -ff "ft Tf TT "7C 
 
 " In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
 And utter forth a glorious voice ; 
 Forever singing, as they shine, — 
 1 The Hand that made us is divine.' " 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 155 
 
 LETTER OF MOSES MERRIIX, Ph.D. 
 
 As early as 1857 an d 1858 the schoolhouse on Bedford 
 street, Boston, became too narrow for the accommodation 
 of the Latin and English High Schools, which were occu- 
 pying it. The addition of another story was only a 
 temporary relief. The schoolhouse on Mason street, 
 abandoned by the Girls' High and Normal School, was 
 brought into requisition ; then the Bowditch, on South 
 street ; last of all, the Primary schoolhouse on Harrison 
 avenue. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick declared the necessity of a new building 
 for these two schools in his " Third Semi-annual Re- 
 port," in 1 861. As time advanced, and the necessity 
 was beyond question, he became more urgent in his im- 
 portunities for relief. He saw the need of a building for 
 the future, and not simply for the present. At last the 
 City Council, upon the recommendation of the School 
 Board, voted to purchase a lot of land upon which to 
 erect the largest schoolhouse in America, if not in the 
 world. 
 
 The great fire of 1872 and the financial crisis of 1873 
 delayed operations till the election of Mr. F. O. Prince as 
 mayor. In his first inaugural he proposed to plan for 
 the erection of a building, without increasing the tax levy 
 or the city debt. 
 
 Mr. George A. Clough, the city architect at that time, 
 entered into the enterprise with the heartiest zeal, en- 
 couraged and aided by Dr. Philbrick, whose knowledge 
 of schoolhouse architecture in Europe, — especially in 
 
156 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 Vienna, — and of the needs of Boston, was most valuable 
 in forming and completing the plan of the proposed 
 building. Mr. Clough writes thus : — 
 
 " The earliest impressions that I received upon school 
 architecture were from Dr. Philbrick, as far back as 1871, 
 and now, after fifteen years' experience, I have had an 
 opportunity to see that his views were far in advance of 
 all other writers upon the subject in this country. In 
 reviewing my experience, I find myself constantly associ- 
 ated with the early views of Dr. Philbrick." 
 
 The schoolhouse was erected within the limits of the 
 appropriation, and is a very useful auxiliary to the school 
 system of Boston. It is indeed a large structure, but 
 thoroughly substantial, and excites the admiration of all 
 visitors. Dr. Philbrick lived to see the building occupied 
 by the two schools above named, and by various evening 
 schools, and to have the satisfaction of knowing that it 
 was not too large. 
 
 While we are indebted to many municipal officers and 
 private citizens for their deep interest in this project, yet 
 no one could more justly claim the credit of urging and 
 aiding the prosecution of it, from the beginning to the 
 very end, than the lamented Dr. Philbrick. 
 
 All interested in high school education, and especially 
 the graduates and pupils of the Latin and English High 
 Schools, will ever cherish his memory for what he did for 
 the welfare of these two schools. But no one knew better 
 than he that it was not an imposing structure that made 
 the school. Others will speak of his great and contin- 
 uous influence, through a long life, upon the cause of edu- 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 157 
 
 cation in its more direct and positive forms, and show 
 that this influence extended wherever popular education 
 exists. 
 
 LETTER OF SAMUEL ELIOT, LL.D. 
 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Philbrick was but slight 
 until we were connected, twenty years ago, in the Amer- 
 ican Social Science Association. In the rather nebulous 
 mass of that body there was a very distinctly formed 
 nucleus devoted to education, and this attracted him. 
 He shared in the discussions of the Department Com- 
 mittee, attended the general meetings, spoke at them, 
 and wrote for them. There were not many really active 
 members. Such as took part, unpremeditatedly and often 
 unhappily, in annual meetings, and then disappeared from 
 the sight of their associates for a twelvemonth, were the 
 rule. He was one of the exceptions, and showed his in- 
 terest in the less public work of the association through- 
 out the year. He was regarded as an educational au- 
 thority, and his opinions, if not always followed, were 
 always respected. He represented what is called the 
 practical side. Other members took views that may 
 have seemed larger, and were certainly more inspiring 
 to some of us ; but he stood intelligibly and strongly for 
 progress that might be made at once, while that which 
 they urged needed a long, in some instances a very long, 
 preparation. Perhaps this contrast would have faded had 
 the educational life of the association continued, but it 
 came to a pause, if not to an end, and those interested in 
 it, Agassiz, Pierce, Philbrick, and the rest, were separated. 
 
158 JOHN D. PTIILBEICK. 
 
 A year or two later I was unexpectedly called to the 
 charge of one of the Boston schools, — I might say, one 
 of Dr. Philbrick's schools, for it was one he had done 
 much to strengthen, and it had recently removed to a 
 new building which he had exerted himself to plan and 
 to secure. This brought me face to face with him as 
 superintendent, and I could see from within what I had 
 hitherto seen from without. My observations increased 
 my regard for him and for the work he had done. He 
 held a position strong in sixteen years of solid service. 
 His opinions, generally speaking, were dominant in the 
 school committee, at that time a more numerous body 
 than the present board. Many of the masters and teach- 
 ers in the schools owed their places more or less to him. 
 Many of the schoolhouses had been built under his direc- 
 tion. The courses of study in all grades had been laid 
 out or modified by him more than by any other individ- 
 ual. The system of public instruction had just been 
 completed to his satisfaction by the independent estab- 
 lishment of a normal school. It was a triumphant 
 moment in his career, and there were few, perhaps none, 
 to dispute the success of his administration. Closer 
 scrutiny might show, or appear to show, deficiencies. 
 Education had become somewhat mechanical. The 
 schools, as a whole, were possibly too much like a vast 
 machine. It was the penalty, one may say, of an organ- 
 ization that had been painfully perfected, and in conse- 
 quence, it may be, of the struggles required to perfect it, 
 had become too much of an end and too little of a means. 
 But, whatever might be thought of the system, no one 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 159 
 
 could question the zeal or the ability of its head. He 
 was seen, or heard, or felt, in every part of it. Its inter- 
 ests were his, and he was quick to perceive where they 
 were threatened, or how they could be advanced. He 
 was contented with it, yet by no means so blindly as to 
 be indifferent to its improvement. On the contrary he 
 was unwearied in suggesting and in promoting such 
 changes as he thought better than existing things. 
 There is nothing in the present system, from the plan of 
 a school building through all the offices of administration 
 and instruction, and all classes of pupils, that does not 
 feel, whether consciously or unconsciously, the touch of 
 his hand, — a hand that has not vanished, and we may 
 say will never vanish, from the Boston schools. 
 
 Of Dr. Thilbrick's personal traits there are others to 
 speak more fully. Let me but speak of one, and this is 
 the generosity with which he welcomed a new associate 
 in his labors. I could not forget if I would, — and assur- 
 edly I would not, — the cordial kindness he showed me 
 when I became one of the schoolmasters under him. He 
 made it easier for me to enter upon a field of work, not 
 new in substance, but utterly new in form, and in which 
 I might have found greater difficulties but for his sup- 
 port. He resigned his office for a time while I was at 
 my post, and I wrote him a note of regret which was 
 wholly genuine. The last time I met him for any con- 
 versation by ourselves, he said, " I have been reading the 
 lines you sent me in 1874." "I am glad of it," I an- 
 swered, " for I can say now I meant every word I wrote 
 then." 
 
1(50 JOUX I). PHILBEICE. 
 
 LETTER OF A. A. MINER, D.D. 
 
 I am glad to pay my humble tribute to the memory of 
 our late distinguished fellow-citizen, John D. Philbrick, 
 LL.D., in view of his high personal character, and of his 
 valuable services in the cause of education. 
 
 When I became a member of the Board of Education, 
 in 1S69, he had already rendered some years of service in 
 that body. His large experience in various positions in 
 the educational field eminently qualified him to promote, 
 by his counsels, the most important interests of the Com- 
 monwealth. As a teacher in the public schools in early 
 life, and in the higher schools in later years ; as superin- 
 tendent of the public schools of Boston, which were in 
 no small measure transformed during his administration, 
 and very largely through his influence ; and as Commis- 
 sioner of the International Exhibition at Vienna, in 1873, 
 affording him rare opportunities for becoming widely ac- 
 quainted with institutions and methods of instruction 
 both at home and abroad, — he became possessed of such 
 treasures of knowledge as made his services in the Board 
 of Education of especial value. 
 
 One of the most marked departures from the customary 
 course of common school studies, during the term of Dr. 
 Philbrick's membership of the board, was the introduc- 
 tion, into the schools, of elementary instruction in indus- 
 trial drawing. In response to a petition from some of our 
 foremost citizens, seconded by the Board of Education, 
 the legislature, in 1870, passed an act introducing indus- 
 trial drawing into the school curriculum in cities and 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. IQl 
 
 towns containing more than ten thousand inhabitants. 
 But brief experience under the law made it apparent that 
 special preparation of teachers for this work was neces- 
 sary to give definiteness of aim and adaptation of meth- 
 ods to the end in view. 
 
 Out of this discovery, among other instrumentalities, 
 grew the State Normal Art School. In 1873 an appro- 
 priation of $9,000 was made for that purpose, and rooms, 
 entirely inadequate, in the two upper stories, — one being 
 the attic, — of 33 Pemberton Square, an ordinary dwell- 
 ing-house, were assigned for the school. Out of this 
 very humble beginning has grown an institution which is 
 both an honor to Massachusetts and a blessing to the 
 whole country. Appreciating this honor and usefulness, 
 the State, in 1885, unconditionally set apart a piece of 
 land at the corner of Newbury and Exeter streets, worth 
 from $50,000 to $60,000, for the site of a suitable build- 
 ing for the school, and appropriated $85,000 for the 
 erection of the building itself, which has already been 
 put under contract. 
 
 The beginnings of this enterprise, now so full of use- 
 fulness and promise, were not secured without much 
 thought, study, and argument, repeated year after year, 
 by the Board of Education, in all the earlier of which 
 labors Dr. Philbrick bore a conspicuous part. The 
 school was opened in the autumn of 1873. During the 
 first year of its history he held the responsible position of 
 chairman of its board of visitors, and would doubtless 
 have been continued in that office had not his member- 
 ship of the Board of Education terminated. All who 
 
1G2 JOHN 1). PIIILBUICK. 
 
 have been associated with Dr. Philbrick in these various 
 labors, I feel warranted in saying, hold his memory in 
 very high esteem. 
 
 LETTER OP O. B. CHENEY, D.D. 
 
 I had the pleasure of Mr. Philbrick's acquaintance for 
 nearly forty-eight years. We first met at Hanover, 
 N. II., as students of Dartmouth College. Several things 
 served to make our acquaintance speedy, and to intensify 
 it from that day until the closing clays of his life. 
 
 His father, the late Rev. Peter Philbrick, of Deerfield, 
 N. H., and my father, as well as Mr. Philbrick and my- 
 self, were members of the same religious people, — a de- 
 nomination about that time becoming interested in estab- 
 lishing several institutions of learning, such as academies 
 or seminaries. 
 
 It is not for me to say anything about John D. Phil- 
 brick's great work in bringing up the public schools of 
 Boston to their present high standard, — a standard that 
 makes them, I am safe in saying, a model for the world 
 to pattern after. Neither am I called upon to speak of 
 his labors in foreign lands in behalf of the cause of edu- 
 cation. Others among his many friends who know what 
 he has done for this cause at home and abroad (for he 
 yet speaketh) will do justice to him in this respect. 
 
 It is for me, in few words, to speak of his interest in 
 the work of founding the school over which I have had 
 the honor to preside from the beginning. It is over 
 thirty-one years since the work of founding this college 
 was begun, and, whatever part I have had in establishing 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 163 
 
 and managing it, I have always had Mr. Philbrick at my 
 right hand as a friend and adviser. He took pride in the 
 fact that the religious people with whom his honored 
 father was during his life connected, are laying the foun- 
 dations of a college yet to rank among the first in the 
 country. It should be said that this college had his 
 heart, his purse, and his vote. He was a trustee for ten 
 years, from 1873 to 1883. 
 
 All who knew Mr. Philbrick know, without my telling 
 them, that he did not believe in having honorary mem- 
 bers of college boards of trustees, and as the state of his 
 health forbade his presence longer at our commencement 
 exercises, he sent me his resignation as a trustee. How 
 reluctant the board was to accept it may be known from 
 the fact that it was laid upon the table and not accepted 
 until a year after, at his persistent request. 
 
 He received his high degree from this college in 1872. 
 The record in our last Triennial is as follows : Johannes- 
 Dudley Philbrick, Curator, Dart. 1842 et Mr., Superin- 
 tentor Bostoniae Scholarum, LL.D. ; Univ. Sancti An- 
 dreae apud Scotos, LL.D., 1878; Officier de l'lnstruction 
 Publique, France, 1878 ; Chevalier de la Legion d' Hon- 
 neur, 1878. 
 
 The number of men who have done more than John D. 
 Philbrick to make the world better is small. How sad 
 that a life such as his was, — so true, so pure, so noble, 
 so unselfish, — could not have been longer ! Yes, it 
 must be that he is a living, happy man still. I have not 
 a doubt of it, for, if I doubted it, I should be of all men 
 most miserable. 
 
101 JOHN /'■ PHILBRICK. 
 
 " For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also 
 we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 ( hiii r our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto 
 his glorious body, according to the working whereby he 
 
 is able own to subline all things unto himself." 
 1.1:111:1; OF niKAiii OBCUTT, LL.D. 
 
 John Dudley Philbrick, a classmate in the same sec- 
 tion, occupying the same line of seats in the classroom, 
 and .1 room only two doors distant, 1 knew him well ; and 
 having chosen the same profession, I continued my ac- 
 quaintance with him to the end. Many kind, apprecia- 
 tive and tender wools have already been spoken of him 
 
 since his departure. I beg to add my tribute of respect 
 
 and affection ; for I knew him only to lienor, admire, ami 
 
 love him. 
 
 It has been said that Mr. Philbrick was not " a natural 
 
 leader in scholarship." That he was a thorough and sue 
 cessful scholar, his record will show. That he was" not 
 brilliant," in the sense this word is generally understood, 
 may be accounted for by recalling two facts ; viz., his 
 preparation for i • was limited ( fourteen months 
 
 time was allowed hint) t and his aim was not to gain the 
 elass leadership and the valedictory, but to acquire a 
 
 broader and more practical culture. llenee, while many 
 .i valedictorian has passed oil the stage to be forgotten, 
 Mr. Philbrick came to the front in his profession, and 
 not onh became a "leader oi men," but "of all the men 
 oi the present generation who have devoted then- lives 
 to education, •'.-. tost" This fact, it seems 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 105 
 
 to me, affords the best possible evidence that he was, 
 after all, a man of " brilliant parts." 
 
 It was well said, " Mr. Philbrick always stood for the 
 right, and standing there he never could be moved." 
 Yes, and he would fight for it. With the rowdyism of 
 college life he had no sympathy. An anecdote will illus- 
 trate. The self-styled " Dart. Guards," a band of hazers, 
 whose object was to annoy and insult freshmen, came, 
 masked, one evening, into his room. His room-mate hid 
 in the closet, but Mr. Philbrick, armed with a stick of 
 wood, ordered them to leave. Not obeying, he attacked 
 and drove them, sore-headed, from the premises. lie had 
 so severely punished them that the organization was 
 never heard from afterward. 
 
 That Mr. Philbrick was a true, earnest, and helpful 
 friend, the writer is a grateful witness. Always atten- 
 tive, kind and sympathetic, he at once gained my confi- 
 dence and affection, and many times, during our forty 
 years of toil in the same profession, did I seek his coun- 
 sel and never sought in vain. From no other man have 
 I ever received so much help, encouragement, and in- 
 spiration. 
 
 But " the great and good man " has gone to his rest, — 
 
 " Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 His book of life, as indicated by the magnificent floral 
 book laid upon the foot of his casket by the Boston mas- 
 ters, is " closed," but at least one chapter was unfinished. 
 During my last pleasant interview with Dr. Philbrick, at 
 
166 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 his home, he told me of his plans and work laid out for 
 the immediate future, and that he was ready to com- 
 mence it the next morning. He did commence, but 
 could not finish it as he had hoped. Yet " Well done, 
 good and faithful servant," has been spoken, and a monu- 
 ment has been erected to his memory which will never 
 crumble. 
 
 LETTER OF H. F. HARRINGTON, A.M. 
 
 I heard of the death of Dr. Philbrick with peculiar 
 feelings. I have repeatedly drawn upon his kind friend- 
 ship for assistance, and it was only a week or two pre- 
 vious to his death that I received from him an extended 
 argumentative letter on a topic of great interest to me. 
 I was preparing an early expression of my gratitude for 
 the benefit it had been when I was saddened by the 
 report that he was no more. 
 
 I have known him intimately since the inception of 
 the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in the Educa- 
 tional Department of which he held a prominent official 
 station. Deputed by him to organize a distinct section 
 of the Massachusetts Exhibit, and repeatedly brought 
 into consultation with him on that and other points con- 
 nected with the great undertaking, I had ample oppor- 
 tunity to test his powers both as a thinker and an organ- 
 izer, and I learned to hold him in great respect for his 
 comprehensive grasp of principles, and his sagacious 
 management of affairs. 
 
 His services to the cause of education in this country 
 are well known. He was an authority and a power as 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 167 
 
 long as his health enabled him to take an active part 
 in affairs. It can truly be said of him, and it would be 
 a proud record for any man, that there has not been a 
 forward movement in this country in the great cause, 
 which was the paramount joy and interest of his life, 
 with which he was not identified as one of its intelli- 
 gent instigators and its heartfelt and devoted sponsors. 
 The good he has done is his noblest monument. 
 
 LETTER OF A. P. MARBLE, Ph.D. 
 
 John D. Philbrick has, for the last quarter of a cent- 
 ury, been one of the most conspicuous figures in connec- 
 tion with the American system of common schools. He 
 became superintendent of schools in the city of Boston 
 when that office was yet in its infancy ; he was the 
 second incumbent of the office in that city. The organ- 
 ization of the schools in classes, each in a separate room 
 and in care of a separate teacher, was adopted through 
 his influence, in place of the large assembly rooms, with 
 assistant teachers to conduct classes in adjoining recita- 
 tion rooms, — a plan in vogue generally before this 
 organization. The impetus given to public schools in 
 that city by this organization extended itself to other 
 cities and towns throughout the country. This organiza- 
 tion, indeed, has in some instances been carried to excess, 
 no doubt, and there has recently been a healthy reaction, 
 To no one man, perhaps, is due the present advance in 
 education so much as to Mr. Philbrick. 
 
 In the exhibits of education at the Centennial in Phil- 
 adelphia, and at the World's Fair at Paris and at Vienna, 
 
1C8 JOHN D. FUILBEICK. 
 
 Mr. Fhilbrick was prominent. He has been influential 
 in bringing this important interest before the public and 
 into a position which its essential character demands. 
 Education is now in the foreground among our national 
 concerns through the life-long activity of Mr. Philbrick. 
 His proud position as an educator places him among our 
 national benefactors, on a line with the statesmen of the 
 land, — the Sumners, the Garfields, and the Manns. 
 
 LETTER OF HENKY E. SHEPHERD. 
 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Philbrick began during the 
 time that I was Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 Baltimore, Md., 1875- 1882. The annual convention 
 of school superintendents, which met usually in Wash- 
 ington, first brought us into personal relations. Our 
 acquaintance soon ripened into a warm friendship, a 
 friendship which, I trust, has not been dissolved, even by 
 death. 
 
 " They do not change who die, 
 Nor lose their mortal sympathy, 
 Nor change to us, although they change." 
 
 In conventions and associations in which were em- 
 bodied the purest and most advanced educational thought 
 of our era, Mr. Philbrick was an acknowledged leader. 
 Indeed, the position seemed to be spontaneously conceded 
 to him ; no one thought of disputing his supremacy. 
 Perfectly devoid of pretentiousness or assumption, some- 
 what reserved in his bearing toward strangers, he was 
 everywhere recognized, almost intuitively, as an oracle 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 169 
 
 whose utterances upon the grandest educational problems 
 of the time were to be received with profoundest regard 
 and respect. My own opinion is, that the beginning of 
 Mr. Philbrick's national renown as a wise and judicious 
 educator, may be traced to the series of Reports issued 
 by him while Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 Boston, from about 1856 to 1875. The Boston Reports 
 of those years are unsurpassed in modern literature for 
 soundness of judgment, breadth of view, and definiteness 
 of purpose. If collected into a single volume, and pub- 
 lished in such form as to be easily available, they would 
 prove invaluable to teachers of all classes throughout our 
 common country. When I first entered upon the deli- 
 cate and complex duties of Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction in Baltimore, Mr. Philbrick's wise and dis- 
 criminating Reports were my most trusted guides and 
 counselors. Doubtless scores of others, who never saw 
 his face, can bear testimony similar to my own. The life 
 and work of Mr. Philbrick are a striking refutation of 
 that morbid sentiment which the Poet Laureate has ex- 
 pressed in one of his best-known creations : — 
 
 " The individual withers, 
 
 And the world is more and more." 
 
 The colossal results achieved by such men, despite of 
 the most formidable opposition, demonstrate that in no 
 age has the power of individual influence, directed by 
 rational intellect, been more productive and more resist- 
 less than in our own. 
 
 My last meeting with Mr. Philbrick was in Washing- 
 
170 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 ton, March, 1882, at the session of our Superintendents' 
 Convention. It was there, if I mistake not, that he read 
 his admirable paper upon the work accomplished by our 
 " city systems," — a paper since issued in its elaborated 
 form by the Department of Education. To those 
 younger than himself, and needing the rare benefits of 
 his matured judgment, he was most kindly and sympa- 
 thetic. I can never efface the recollection of my last 
 interview with him at the Ebbitt House in Washington, 
 during the session of our convention. How little did I 
 imagine that it was the last ! 
 
 No man of our generation has surpassed Mr. Philbrick 
 in serene wisdom, discerning judgment, singleness of aim, 
 and continuity of effort. Many of the most excellent 
 characteristics of our school system may be traced to his 
 inspiration ; his whole life was a protest against empiri- 
 cism, mechanism, and all the disingenuous arts by which 
 men of lesser mould have won transient fame. 
 
 LETTER OF A. P. STONE, I. I..l>. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. Philbrick extended over 
 the whole of his professional life. From the first I was 
 attracted to him as a bright, pleasant man, with winning 
 ways, and an active participant in the early meetings 
 of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association and other 
 gatherings of school workers. On such occasions he was 
 always helpful and inspiring, for he had an intense in- 
 terest in teachers' meetings, and his professional enthu- 
 siasm, which was always of the highest type, gave a kind 
 of glow to his thoughts and words that was peculiarly 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 171 
 
 elevating and enjoyable. As a student of education he 
 was profound in its history, philosophy, and methods. 
 To the progress of the cause of education for the last 
 forty years, and especially in the line of the common 
 schools, he contributed his best thoughts and strength, 
 and with great success. 
 
 One of the most noticeable characteristics of Mr. Phil- 
 brick was his warm personal interest in his fellow-teach- 
 ers. For them he always had a pleasant smile of wel- 
 come, as well as a word of encouragement and of counsel, 
 if asked for or needed. By his advice to school com- 
 mittees and superintendents, many teachers have found 
 themselves called to improved situations, and oftentimes 
 without ever knowing by whose counsel it was done. 
 
 In the death of Mr. Philbrick the cause of education 
 loses one of its most devoted and efficient workers. As 
 a personal friend I feel his loss most keenly. 
 
 LETTER OF E. C. CAKRIGAN, ESQ. 
 
 "We will sell, or deny, or defer right or justice to no 
 man," was a principle of Magna Charta which the barons 
 and the primate of England exacted from an ambitious 
 king. Upon the key-stone of the free, universal educa- 
 tion of the people stood John D. Philbrick, foremost 
 among American educators, delaying and denying to 
 none the most liberal tuition offered by a generous 
 public. Whether a child of the city or country, native 
 or foreign born, attending school morning or evening, 
 Mr. Philbrick guarded with watchful, parental care the 
 welfare of every ward of the Commonwealth, encour- 
 
172 JOHN D. P1IILBIUCK. 
 
 * 
 
 aging all to the highest possible advancement. To him 
 there were known no boundaries in education, and in 
 every department of the common school system, at all 
 times, he insisted that in both day and evening schools 
 " the best is the best everywhere." Urging this prin- 
 ciple, he was practically the sole official promoter, if not 
 the founder, of our present system of evening schools. 
 With the yearly influx of foreign population, and the 
 proneness of parents early to call their children from the 
 schoolroom to the factory and family support, he claimed 
 that a well-matured system of evening schools was but 
 the natural and necessary complement of the day schools. 
 Instead of committing to the guardianship of an indiffer- 
 ent tax-paying community, he wisely contended for their 
 establishment under a general mandatory enactment, that 
 they might be made a permanent part of the State school 
 system. To this end he most freely gave his voice and 
 his pen, and added his great influence. 
 
 I remember his happy expression and hearty counsel, 
 when I presented for his criticism the bill then pending 
 enactment by the legislature of 1883, and which to his 
 great satisfaction was passed and approved in May of 
 the same year. Though the act provided for the main- 
 tenance of evening schools in all cities and towns of ten 
 thousand and more inhabitants, he still urged the per- 
 manent establishment of high schools in larger cities 
 under the same law. 
 
 For evening art and industrial schools he held the 
 same generous and intelligent views. He thought it im- 
 portant to imitate Great Britain and Continental Europe 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 17.'$ 
 
 in the establishment for artisans and others, evening 
 courses, free to the public, irrespective of sex and occu- 
 pation. His theory of evening school work was espe- 
 cially practical and wise. He insisted upon close organ- 
 ization and classification, and, like Guizot, believed that 
 " it is the master that makes the school " ; that these 
 schools were not designed as an asylum for the superan- 
 nuated and rejected teachers of day schools, nor to be 
 made the depository of cast-off supplies. On the con- 
 trary, he would provide the best accommodations and 
 supplies, and give their management to competent day 
 masters. 
 
 In his earliest conception of the design, scope, and 
 management of evening schools, Mr. Philbrick proved 
 himself a wise counsellor ; and in every department, 
 whether advising or supervising, as was said of Welling- 
 ton, he was something more than a commissary and clerk. 
 He was the founder of principles and originator of 
 methods for these schools, and a master every way com- 
 petent to direct their use to practical and profitable ends. 
 In criticising a wrong he was ready to suggest the 
 remedy, and his great success in the direction of evening 
 school service was but the legitimate and necessary result 
 of honest, studious, and intelligent effort. 
 
 As a friend, a promoter and advocate of secondary in- 
 struction in evening schools, his reports offer the best 
 evidence. Of the Boston Evening High School he said, 
 as early as 1874, when it was in charge of Mr. W. Nichols, 
 " I never visited a school in the city that afforded me more 
 satisfaction than this, and in none is the public money 
 expended to better advantage." 
 
174 JOHN D. PUILBBICK. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's latest encouragement to the mainte* 
 nance of the school of which he was the founder was 
 probably expressed to a gathering of a few of his personal 
 friends at the recent reunion of the Franklin School grad- 
 uates, when, after expressing his great satisfaction at the 
 establishment of the school in the High and Latin School 
 building, he said, " Our high schools are the most demo- 
 cratic of all our schools, but the most democratic of high 
 schools is the evening high school." In his work for this 
 branch of education his heart was always as generous as 
 his mind was great. A staunch supporter of the most 
 liberal appropriations for higher instruction in both day 
 and evening schools, his counsel and influence were 
 sought in everything material to the welfare of the even- 
 ing high school. Of the petitioners who urged the re- 
 establishment of this school in the high school building, 
 Mr. Philbrick was among the foremost to champion its 
 support ; and to the day of his death his services were 
 remembered by the pupils, as expressed in the following 
 resolutions : — 
 
 Whereas, The Boston Evening High School was established 
 and generously maintained under the direction of Supt. John 
 D. Philbrick, whose death we regretfully learn : 
 
 Resolved, That, by the death of John D. Philbrick, this 
 school has lost a most constant and faithful friend, whose 
 labors for evening education were specially marked by zealous, 
 untiring devotion in all its departments. 
 
 Resolved, That, while we, the pupils of the Evening High 
 School, record our earnest appreciation of his services in our 
 behalf, we would extend to his bereaved household and 
 friends our heartfelt sympathy. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five attend the funeral, and 
 present to the widow an engrossed copy of these resolutions. 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 175 
 
 Having resigned his trust, and in every department 
 rendered an account approved by his Commonwealth and 
 country, it was especially fitting that those whom he 
 served with such constant, unselfish devotion should thus 
 record their appreciation of a benefactor and friend, and 
 that we all should pause, if but to consider for a moment 
 the briefest review of the life and labors of one of the 
 greatest savants of his age and the nation's greatest edu- 
 cational public servant. 
 
 LETTER OF J. H. HOOSE, Ph.D, 
 
 The Journal for Feb. 18, 1886, is just at hand. I have 
 read it with peculiar and deep interest. It has been my 
 good fortune to know Mr, Philbrick, although not inti- 
 mately. I remember him with marked pleasure for the 
 interest that he always took in me, — a comparative 
 stranger to him. I remember the deep interest that he 
 took in the tenure of position of teachers. His sympa- 
 thies were always warm and right. He was, perhaps, the 
 highest type of the practical schoolman, and the most 
 enlightened educator that America has yet produced. 
 
 But I write for an additional purpose, which is this : 
 You have devoted one issue of the Journal entirely to 
 a memorial of a teacher. This is unprecedented in the 
 history of educational journalism, and it is one of the 
 most thoughtful and praiseworthy acts of these times. 
 The example set by you in this instance will have its 
 influence upon the members of our profession, for it will 
 show to teachers at large that there are many lines of 
 tender memories of teachers which are cherished by the 
 
17C> JOHN 1). PUILBLllUK. 
 
 worthy men and women of our fraternity. This memorial 
 will make teachers feel less lonely ; it will strengthen the 
 bonds of brotherhood among them, and help on the era 
 of fraternal sympathy. In honoring the memory of an 
 educator in the manner that you have, you have ennobled 
 the teacher, magnified his profession, and honored educa- 
 tional journalism. 
 
 LETTER OF PROF. W. H. PAVNE. 
 
 Of the duties binding on men toward their fellows, 
 none is higher or sweeter than that of rendering just 
 praise to those whose forms have forever disappeared 
 from human sight. The tears we shed over the graves of 
 our departed friends are unselfish tributes, pleasing to 
 heaven and wholesome to the soul that weeps. We may 
 thus have the delicious joy of doing a service for which 
 there can be no return ; and by this respite from selfish 
 emotions, the soul gains strength for a new start towards 
 the higher life. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was my dearest professional friend, and 
 his death was a shock whose effects are still vividly felt 
 in my heart. My affection for him was the greater be- 
 cause out of his own generous impulses he bestowed on 
 me his good offices while I was still a stranger to him. 
 Soon after he retired from Boston to Asylum Station, he 
 sent me warm words of commendation for the expression 
 of some sentiment which he approved, and a hearty invi- 
 tation to visit him whenever my duties might call me 
 to the East. Learning of my contemplated visit to 
 Boston in the winter of 1884-5, he repeated his request 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 177 
 
 for a visit from mc, and when I reached my hotel I found 
 a note regretting his inability to meet me in the city, and 
 again urging me to see him at his home. One leading 
 motive for this journey to the East was the pleasure of 
 paying my respects to the friend for whom I had such 
 veneration ; and the moment my immediate duty was 
 done I made my way to Asylum Station. Mr. Philbrick's 
 home was a little way from the station, and his directions 
 had been so minute that I needed no guide to my desti- 
 nation. I was hardly half-way to his house when I was 
 met by a horseman galloping towards the little station. 
 As he came near he seemed to suspect my mission, and 
 in a moment there was mutual recognition. In a few 
 moments more I reached the house, and a hearty welcome 
 by my good hostess was hardly over before Mr. Philbrick 
 returned from his morning gallop to the post-office. I 
 find it impossible to express any adequate notion of my 
 serene enjoyment during the afternoon and evening of 
 that memorable winter's day. I thought then, as I think 
 now, that a more beautiful mode of spending the evening 
 of one's life could hardly be imagined. Otium cum dig- 
 nitate most nearly expresses my impression of Mr. 
 Philbrick's life in the calm retirement of that charming 
 home. The picture of serene and lovable age that is 
 embalmed in the Cato major, I seemed to see realized in 
 that New England country seat. 
 
 As might be anticipated, our conversations went far 
 into the night and ran chiefly on men and books and in- 
 stitutions as they were related to education and schools. 
 As is well known, Mr. Philbrick had had exceptional 
 
178 JOHN D. PHILBBICE. 
 
 advantages for educational observation and study. At 
 Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia he had employed his time 
 as an expert in the study of education in all its phases, 
 and at the time of his death he was doubtless the wisest 
 public school man in this country. He had gathered 
 books and documents from all the countries he had vis- 
 ited, and his memory was teeming with interesting recol- 
 lections of the most eminent educators of the world. 
 My professional enthusiasm was rekindled and nourished ; 
 and as I bade my good friends adieu on that winter morn- 
 ing, I was grateful to Heaven for such examples of 
 wisdom, goodness, and content as I had seen in that 
 charming home. 
 
 In the July following I visited Boston again, and on 
 the morning of the fourth I was again Mr. Philbrick's 
 guest. I met the same hearty greeting as before, and 
 there was a renewal of the same delightful conversations. 
 In the afternoon of that day Mr. Philbrick had his car- 
 riage brought to the door and asked me to go out with 
 him for a ride. We drove through shaded lanes for a 
 a few miles, and then into the grounds of a beautiful 
 country residence. Mr. Philbrick presented me to the 
 ladies of the house, and soon after there entered the 
 parlor a plainly dressed man of dignified bearing whom I 
 had observed coming up the lane as we approached the 
 house. Mr. Philbrick had given me the unexpected 
 pleasure of an afternoon call on one of his neighbors, 
 Mr. Whittier. 
 
 I dare say Mr. Whittier remembers me, for I did not 
 ask him for his autograph ; I have what is better, — a 
 
EULOGISTIC LETTERS. 179 
 
 charming mental photograph of the poet, his home, his 
 study, his pet on the porch (a lusty fox squirrel), the con- 
 versation on men and books, in which, it seemed to me, 
 that, after all, the man was greater even than the poet ; 
 and, finally, the kindly farewell as we took our leave. 
 
 Our homeward ride took us through Danvers Meadows, 
 and past the old Salem church ; and it was twilight 
 when the thread of our conversation was broken by our 
 arrival home. 
 
 A few days after I met Mr. Philbrick again at Newport, 
 at the meeting of the American Institute of Instruction ; 
 and still later by a few days, at the meeting of the Na- 
 tional Association in Saratoga. Finally, I took my leave 
 of him in the parlors of Congress Hall, and was never to 
 see his face again. 
 
ISO JOHN D. PEILBRICK. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE. 
 
 in the Revut PA ,/.v<-, a monthly educational mag- 
 
 .1 ine published in Paris, there appeared, March, [886, 
 the following appreciative article upon the character and 
 work ol Dr. Philbrick, li was written by ML Buisson, a 
 man better qualified than any other in France to estimate 
 Mr, Philbrick* s work al Its true value, and to do ample 
 justice to his private character. M. Buisson had not only 
 visited the Boston schools, while under Dr. Philbrick's 
 charge, but had often me1 him at international exhi- 
 bitions, and had received him into his own home in Tans 
 as a guest, for months during the year of the Paris 
 
 Exposition. It is no small honor to have won such 
 an opinion from SO eminent a scholar and school man as 
 
 M. Buisson. 
 
 .10 ll IS l). PHILBRICK. 
 
 iM;iy '-'''• 1S1S Vc[K '■'■ 1888.) 
 
 We cannot let the sad news, brought to us by the 
 
 . oi Boston, pass without giving a 
 word oi respectful sympathy and homage to the memory 
 
 ol a worthy man. whose loss the United States mourns 
 
 tO '■l.W. 
 
 Idie reputations of teachers and school superintendents 
 
 rarely cross the ocean from the New World to the Old, 
 01 from the Old tO the New. The name oi Mr. Philbrick 
 
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE. LSI 
 
 has proved one of the firsl exceptions to this mutual 
 ignorance and indifference. Kor twenty years his name 
 has been the best known in Europe of all the American 
 educators. And this was only just, 
 
 No man has worked more, nor more happily succeeded 
 in making known, in school matters, America to Kuropc 
 ans, or Europe to Americans. He was by his work, his 
 travels, his missions to the greal Expositions of Vienna 
 and Paris, his reports, his official publications, the bond 
 of union between two worlds ; he was among the firsl to 
 understand and prove the incomparable advantages of 
 these international relations. 
 
 Such a tribute ol gratitude as has been rendered to the 
 
 memory of Mr. I'hilbrick by his fellow citizens in the 
 United Slates, is a beautiful end to a man's life. The 
 number of the Journal of Education which is consecrated 
 to him forms one of the mosi touching memorials which 
 could be given to a man to merit. There are in itaseries 
 
 of tender testimonials, all Coming from men who have seen 
 him at his work, all full of fuels, and of an American 
 
 directness, without other eloquence than that of personal 
 
 feeling and sincerity. 
 
 One cannot read these pages withoul seeing how much 
 
 they honor both the man and the <oiintry. A people 
 
 must be great, free, profoundly republican, and must feel 
 more deeply than i rii(- phrases cm express, what educa- 
 tion is in the destiny of a country, to give, outside of 
 official recognition, this outpouring of public sympathy, 
 this diversity of admiration, ol gratitude, and respect for 
 a man who has been all his lib; nothing bul a school man, 
 
 A man must be of rare moral worth to have acquired, by 
 BUI h a work, such a popularity, But whoever has known 
 
 Mr. Philbrick can understand the set rel of his power and 
 
 ol his success. lie was a spiiil upright, guileless, and 
 frank, one of those souls who continue young because 
 
182 JOIIN D. PHILBEICK. 
 
 they remain sincere. He had found his vocation and he 
 never left it, even in a country and in a time in which 
 men of his ability could find in political life so many more 
 brilliant openings. He never thought of change. He 
 was of those who love teaching, — let us say, rather, let 
 us say as the Americans say, education. He had the 
 happiness to conceive this most beautiful dream and to 
 live it. 
 
 When quite young he had heard Horace Mann, and 
 that powerful voice had stirred him even to his inmost 
 soul ; he remembered still, in his last years, some admir- 
 able fragments of the lectures of this great patriot, and 
 recited them to us with an emotion that made it impos- 
 sible not to share in his feeling. Those dying words of 
 Horace Mann had been the motto of his whole life, had 
 sunk into his heart, " Be ashamed to die without having 
 accomplished some victory for humanity." 
 
 Through Horace Mann came to him a sort of vision of 
 what a life wholly consecrated to the work of popular 
 education might be. Mr. Philbrick was at that time a 
 simple professor in a small college. He did not dream 
 that for him was reserved the overwhelming task of 
 succeeding Horace Mann, and of being for more than 
 twenty years superintendent of the schools of Boston. 
 
 He was still in that position in 1876, at the time of the 
 visit of the French delegates sent to the Centennial 
 Exposition at Philadelphia. 
 
 This is not the place to repeat what the delegates said 
 in their joint collective report upon Boston and her 
 schools, the finest, perhaps, in the world. Let us remem- 
 ber that their organization, commenced by Horace Mann, 
 was mostly carried out by the personal work of Mr. 
 Philbrick. 
 
 His mind was clear and just, he was always open to 
 ideas of progress. He read or saw all that could in- 
 
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE. 183 
 
 struct him, and he borrowed freely from Germany, Eng- 
 land, and France all the details of school organization, all 
 the methods of teaching which seemed to him worthy of 
 imitation. But under all the borrowing, there was always 
 something which was his own, and which gave unity to 
 his plans, force to his actions, and originality to his 
 system ; he had an aim and he never lost sight of it, either 
 in the whole scheme or in the details. This aim was to 
 make free citizens for a free country ; it was to give them 
 education, not from without, but from within ; it was to 
 reach the life of the soul, and to make education the 
 apprenticeship of self-government. 
 
 How many times in our conversations in Boston, 
 during our visit, and in Paris during his stay at the 
 Exposition of 1878, have we noticed with what wonderful 
 clearness he threw light upon the most delicate and most 
 complex school questions, by raising himself with a single 
 bound above secondary interests, to judge and decide 
 summarily, categorically, in the American fashion, 
 according to the single criterion, " Is such a practice, 
 such a method, fit to form freemen ?" Or again, " If it 
 is adopted, will our pupils be improved in mind or in 
 character ? Yes, then it is good. If not, no. 
 
 We design at this time neither to undertake the biog- 
 raphy of Mr. Philbrick, nor a deep study of his school 
 work. But it may be allowed here to reproduce some 
 lines of his, which will picture him better than any 
 eulogy. They are at the end of one of his last reports 
 to the school committee of Boston ; he is going to resign 
 his office, and he cannot help reverting to himself at the 
 moment of bidding a last adieu to his fellow citizens : — 
 
 " For upwards of thirty years, — all but four in this city, — • 
 I have occupied, without the intermission of a day, various 
 positions of service in connection with public schools. Here 
 
184 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 my professional career has been run. It was the career of my 
 choice, and my highest ambition. My heart has been in it. 
 It has afforded me the desired opportunity for making my 
 humble contribution to the general welfare. I am thankful 
 for it. I shall never cease to be grateful to all who have 
 co-operated with me in my efforts to make the Boston Public 
 Schools the best in the world. And I will venture to say that 
 I ask no ill thing for the cause, when, on parting from this 
 place, I pray that whomsoever you choose to succeed me, he 
 may resemble me in uprightness of intentions and surpass me 
 in abilities." 
 
\ 
 
 BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 
 
Boston's Tribute. 
 
 T II E MASTERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Boston Masters' A ssoci.i1 ion is composed of all 
 the principals of the Normal, Latin, High, and Grammar 
 Schools, employed in the city of Boston. This Associ- 
 ation meets once a month, at the call of the superin- 
 tendent of schools, for the discussion of educational 
 questions, and for conference in regard to the manage- 
 ment of the schools. These meetings arc held at the 
 rooms of the school committee, and are followed by a 
 dinner at Parker's. 
 
 Here it was that the Boston masters were brought 
 into the most intimate relations with Dr. Philbrick. 
 Here, more than anywhere else, that they learned to 
 appreciate his wisdom, his power in practical affairs, his 
 patience, his thorough appreciation of good work and 
 honest endeavor, and his constant effort to dignify I In: 
 office of the teacher and make it honorable and desirable. 
 Here, too, it was that the simple honesty of his nature 
 most showed itself, and that warmdicartcd generosity 
 which gave due credit to all his co-workers in the cause of 
 education. Here were cemented those bonds of person d 
 friendship which united superintendent and teai hers into 
 a band of faithful friends working for the common good 
 
 (1H7) 
 
188 JOHN D. PRILBBICK. 
 
 of the schools. Here, in short, he learned to respect and 
 love the Boston masters, and here they learned to regard 
 him as the ideal superintendent. 
 
 The March meeting of this Association was given up 
 to a commemoration of the work and character of Dr. 
 Philbrick. Among the addresses that evening were the 
 following : — 
 
 ADDRESS OF C. GOODWIN CLARK. 
 
 Mr. Superintendent and Brotlicr Masters : — 
 
 In offering these resolutions for the committee, I wish 
 to add a few personal words of appreciation of the char- 
 acter and characteristics of our beloved and lamented 
 friend. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. Philbrick began in New 
 Britain, Conn., in the winter of 1852. I had charge of 
 the grammar department of the model school connected 
 with the Normal School, when he was appointed to 
 the principalship, and the following year I became a 
 student of the Normal School, and came daily under 
 his teaching and influence. It has been my good fortune 
 since that time to be on terms of friendship, to go to 
 him for advice, and, for the last twenty five years, to 
 co-operate with him to do the best thing for the schools 
 of Boston. 
 
 His deep personal interest in the students of New 
 Britain attached them to him. He set before them a high 
 ideal, and inspired them with needed confidence. His 
 enthusiasm was contagious, and aroused in them a zeal 
 for improvement and for the doing of worthy work for a 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 189 
 
 noble calling. No matter how short the interview, they 
 left him with enlarged views and nobler aspirations. He 
 was like a charged " Leyden jar" ; whatever teacher 
 came in contact with^ him received a spark, and he was 
 an unimpressible dullard who was not improved by 
 contact. 
 
 I called on him once during a serious illness, when 
 visitors were a hindrance ; but his interest in the work 
 in New Haven, where Prof. Moses True Brown and 
 myself had been sent to do pioneer work in reorganizing 
 the school system of that city, was unabated, and his 
 faithful wife had to check him for exceeding his strength 
 in cheering and counseling us. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick had common sense in an uncommon 
 degree, which men call wisdom. He was a needed 
 and appreciated counselor in educational affairs. His 
 growth in wisdom was continuous and symmetrical, like 
 the growth of a tree, and as we who have been long asso- 
 ciated with him have grown in years and experience, we 
 have not outgrown his judgment, but have appreciated it 
 more and more. His consecration to education was com- 
 plete. In him was illustrated the saying of the Great 
 Teacher, " If thine eye be single thy whole body shall 
 be full of light." 
 
 It is human for ignorance and inexperience to speak 
 lightly and perhaps disparagingly of our official supe- 
 riors, whom we do not know or cannot appreciate. I 
 have heard such remarks regarding Mr. Philbrick, and 
 it has been interesting to note the changed opinions of 
 such when placed in responsible positions. " I did not 
 
190 JOHN D. PMLBRICE. 
 
 appreciate Mr. Philbrick until I came to this responsi- 
 bility," has been the usual remark. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick had a cheerful theory for earnest, ambi- 
 tious young men ; it was that whatever happened was for 
 the best, and that the lesson they were to learn was " to 
 labor and to wait." There are those present to whom 
 his words were the silver lining to their cloud of dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 It has been said by one who knew him most intimately, 
 that he " idealized his friends." I think the charge is 
 true, and am sure that he often embarrassed them by his 
 opinion of what they were capable of doing, and his 
 earnestness to have them do it. What a tribute to 
 his generous heart that he " idealized his friends " and 
 thought them capable of doing things beyond their own 
 estimate ! How many of us think more highly of our 
 friends than we ought to think ? Yes, there was nothing 
 disparaging in Mr. Philbrick's nature. He saw the best 
 in every school, in every teacher, in every school official ; 
 he saw merit from afar. 
 
 His charity was Christ-like. " They know not what 
 they do," was his feeling toward ignorant and wrong- 
 headed officials, for whom he never seemed to entertain 
 bitterness or ill-nature, though they would have over- 
 turned the slow progress of years, and illustrated the 
 saying of Goethe, " There is nothing so terrible as active 
 ignorance." 
 
 I once called on Mr. Philbrick at his office, and he told 
 me that he had just written a letter of sympathy to a 
 member of the school committee, then in his last illness, 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 191 
 
 who, for a quarter of a century, had opposed all his 
 recommendations, disparaged his labors, and seemed to 
 delight in keeping things as they were. I said, " How 
 could you do it ? " He replied, with tenderness, " I 
 couldn't help it ; I never laid up anything against him. 
 He never understood me." 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was fortunate in his time of coming to 
 Boston. There was a great work to be done in harmo- 
 nizing and systematizing the educational work, and in 
 reconstructing the primary schools in accordance with 
 modern ideas and methods ; work that once done wisely 
 needs not to be done again. How patiently, persistently, 
 and wisely he labored, with no assistant, not even a clerk, 
 you, senior Masters, well know, and with what success 
 all well-informed educators also know. This leavening 
 of the schools was accomplished without the authority to 
 appoint or remove a single teacher. It was like the 
 genial influence of the sun on the vegetable world. 
 
 He was fortunate in his last visit to Europe, after his 
 work in Boston was done, and his able reports had been 
 read abroad, and given reputation to the Boston schools. 
 
 The congress of educators from the chief countries of 
 Europe, after such an acquaintance as long service on 
 important juries and committees afforded, paid him honor 
 and deference. His genial spirit and courtly manners, 
 united with wide knowledge and wisdom in counsel, won 
 the affection and esteem of his associates. Educational 
 men traveling in Europe afterwards found Mr. Phil- 
 brick the most honored educational man in America. 
 
 As highest summits are first seen from afar, he 
 
192 JOHN D. PHILBR1CK. 
 
 returned from Europe with the reputation of a leader and 
 an authority in educational affairs. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was fortunate in his domestic relations ; 
 his devoted wife was a hearty co-worker in his plans. 
 She was an ideal companion in her hospitality to his 
 friends, and in her sympathy with his aspirations. His 
 domestic life was congenial to his heart and stimulating 
 to his ambition. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was not blessed with children, but he 
 gave his life to educate the children of others. He took 
 the children of Boston in his arms and blessed them. 
 Let us, above all men, speak his name with loyalty to 
 his memory, with gratitude for his great service, with 
 reverence and admiration for his character, and affec- 
 tionate remembrance of his friendship. 
 
 Let us ask that a noble schoolhouse be named for him 
 who did so much for Boston schools. 
 
 ADDRESS OF ROBERT SWAN. 
 
 Mr, Superintendent and Brethren : — 
 
 It was not my privilege to enjoy intimate personal 
 relations with Dr. Philbrick, but it was my privilege to 
 be the master of a school during the whole time of his 
 administration of the office of superintendent ; and I can 
 certify without bias to the manner in which his duties 
 were performed. 
 
 My first knowledge of Mr. Philbrick was at the time 
 of his appointment as writing-master of the Mayhew 
 School, forty years ago. The schools were then on the 
 old system, so called, each with a grammar and a writing 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 193 
 
 master, the scholars alternating, morning and afternoon. 
 My brother, William D. Swan, was master in the 
 Grammar Department, and, consequently, I was fully 
 informed in regard to the enthusiasm and ability with 
 which Mr. Philbrick discharged the duties of his 
 position. There were two large halls, in each of which 
 there were four teachers and two hundred boys, the 
 master at one end of the room, an usher at the other, 
 with two female teachers between them, who retired with 
 half a class at a time to recitation rooms. What a school 
 of experience for a young master! 
 
 His success here pointed to him, emphatically, as the 
 man to take charge of the new Quincy school, the build- 
 ing for which was then in progress of erection, and he 
 was transferred to this position, leaving the Mayhew 
 with Mr. Swan as sole master, and inaugurating the 
 Quincy with single classrooms, on the new system with 
 a single head. There is no need of reciting the story of 
 his great success in the new school. The two schools 
 were so conducted that the old system, though strenu- 
 ously supported by its advocates, was abandoned, and the 
 new order became general, and is in vogue at the present 
 time. 
 
 The next step in progress in the school system was the 
 permission from the legislature for the city to appoint a 
 superintendent of schools, and Mr. Philbrick was a prom- 
 inent candidate for the place. Mr. Bishop, who had been, 
 for some time previous, superintendent of the Providence 
 schools, was chosen, and Mr. Philbrick soon after 
 resigned his mastership in Boston to take charge of a 
 
194 JOUN B. PUILBRICK. 
 
 normal school in Connecticut. The gentleman opposite 
 has spoken of the good fortune that always attended 
 Mr. Philbrick, and we can now appreciate how fortunate 
 he was in not succeeding in his first application for the 
 position of superintendent, for the experience in Connec- 
 ticut was absolutely necessary to properly prepare him 
 for his great work, which he afterward so successfully 
 matured, of perfecting a school system for Boston. 
 
 Mr. Bishop soon resigned, and Mr. Philbrick was then 
 appointed without opposition. When he commenced his 
 duties, the Grammar and Primary School committees 
 were entirely separate organizations, the Primary Commit- 
 tee being chosen by the Grammar Board from names sent 
 in to them by individuals who were willing to serve in 
 that capacity. Each primary schoolroom contained all 
 the classes of the primary grade. The law was changed, 
 bringing all the schools under one Board, and, later, the 
 schools were organized in groups of six classes, each class 
 in a separate room. Then came the placing of the pri- 
 mary schools under the supervision of the masters of the 
 districts, thus making a systematic grading from the 
 child's entering the schools, at five years of age, till the 
 graduation from the grammar school at fifteen. The 
 magnitude of this improvement, in accomplishing which 
 Mr. Philbrick was the leading, directing spirit, those 
 listening to me can fully appreciate. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick's influence was powerful in advancing 
 the status of the teacher's calling in the estimation of 
 the public, and in thus increasing their compensation. 
 The salaries in many instances are now double what were 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 195 
 
 paid in 1857, calling in superior service, and attaching 
 men to the occupation for life, rather than, as was too 
 often the case in former times, making teaching a tem- 
 porary expedient to provide the means to pursue some 
 one of the professions. 
 
 I might enumerate the judicious programme prepared 
 for the schools, the establishment of the Normal School 
 for girls, the advancement of industrial work, now 
 so popular but in former years lacking support among 
 educators, and other elements of progress all around us, 
 but the minds of most present are too familiar with his 
 later work to make such enumeration in this presence 
 necessary. Our thoughts at this time turn to him as the 
 leading educator among the many noble men who have 
 labored among us. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick was considered by some a timid man, but 
 what was thought timidity was only extreme carefulness. 
 He fully surveyed the whole field before making any 
 important change, and his sagacity was such that, 
 throughout his whole term of service, there was con- 
 stant progress. There was never at any time a necessity 
 for taking any step backwards. 
 
 Words of eulogy are too often exaggerated, and awaken 
 in those who hear them painful comparison with the 
 person's actual character ; but to-night no sentiment of 
 the kind suggests itself to any one present. We have 
 listened to words truthful and sincere, bearing the cor- 
 responding impress from the depths of feeling. If any 
 other token of the estimation in which our departed 
 friend was held was necessary, the throng of men, edu- 
 
L96 JOHN i>. PHILBRICK. 
 
 cators from various parts of the state, who braved the 
 most inclement day of the winter to stand sorrowing 
 about his body in the beautiful home made desolate by 
 his death, would attest the love and esteem in which he 
 was held by those who had known him longest and best. 
 
 ADDRESS OF JOSHUA BATES, IX. I). 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of tlic Masters' Association : 
 
 I desire on this occasion to add my testimony to the 
 many expressions of regard which have already been 
 uttered in appreciation of our departed friend, the Hon. 
 John D. Philbrick. 
 
 Born in the Granite State, of worthy parentage, Dr. 
 Philbrick, amidst comfortable surroundings, was trained 
 by the circumstances of his early life to habits of industry, 
 and patient labor. lie early learned that success in 
 life could be secured only by personal effort and close 
 application to all duties. It is a prominent characteristic 
 of our republican institutions that many a boy early learns 
 that he must depend on his own resources, often under 
 almost insurmountable difficulties, in order to reach posi- 
 tions of usefulness and honor. 
 
 In the school, academy, and college, we find young 
 Philbrick the vigorous boy, the industrious young man, 
 assiduously devoting his time and talents to the faithful 
 performance of all requirements. 
 
 Early in life, he made the decision to devote his ener- 
 gies to the profession of teaching. He was not, per- 
 haps, what could be called a genius ; yet his applica- 
 tion was so untiring that he accomplished by industry 
 
BOSTON 'IS TRIBUTE. 11.(7 
 
 what genius often fails to do. lie had unlimited influ- 
 ence with his classmates, and was thoroughly appreciated 
 and respected by all the college officers. 
 
 Success in discipline and instruction in his first school 
 experiences, led him soon to find and secure positions 
 that developed great executive ability in all educational 
 organization and administration. Blest in youth with 
 robust health and a mind acute and vigorous, with a keen 
 sense of moral rectitude, we find Dr. Philbrick in his 
 manhood equipped and ready for all undertakings, how- 
 ever laborious and difficult. His character was remark- 
 able for strong common sense, symmetry, and complete- 
 ness. He had a clear, intuitive insight into the charac- 
 ter of men, as well as the relation and fitness of things. 
 He exhibited, in a remarkable degree, kindness of heart 
 and gentleness of spirit, but also uncommon strength of 
 purpose. His social qualities were of a high order ; he 
 was always cheerful and affable, which, with a cultivated 
 intellect and courteous manner, made him the most de- 
 lightful of companions. He acquired knowledge by con- 
 stant study and retained it with great tenacity, and was 
 able to apply it with skill and efficiency. His per- 
 ceptive faculties were quick and his memory ready 
 and retentive, so that in company, at home, and in his 
 travels, he was at school, gathering knowledge for future 
 use. He kindly sympathized with all teachers desirous 
 to do their duty, and aided them in all their trials by 
 judicious encouragement and advice. 
 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Philbrick dates from the 
 year 1844, while he was connected as usher with the 
 
1<J8 JOHN i>. PHILBBICE. 
 
 English High School. On the organization of the Quincy 
 
 School in 1848, and tin- appointment of Dr. Philbrick as 
 its master, I SOOn learned the worth and value of his com- 
 panionship. Owing to tin* proximity of the Quincy and 
 Brimmer districts, we naturally had occasion to consult 
 on matters pertaining to our respective schools, and 
 
 thus vvc became quite intimate. Such was the harmony 
 of our views on all educational subjects, thai our hitherto 
 casual meetings were changed tofrequenl interviews, that 
 ripened into mutual and warm friendship, which contin- 
 ued uninterrupted to the last. 
 
 I propose- to speak brielly of Dr. Philbrick, as some of 
 this association of masters knew him in years past ill 
 friendly and professional intercourse, calling up in plea 
 
 in", reminiscences some characteristics familiar to those 
 of us who were associated with him in social life and in 
 
 educal ional work. 
 
 The social element in his character and his genial 
 nature were such as to gather around him a host of 
 hi. aids; and the; (piiet but Sterling integrity of the man 
 
 created confidence in all who secured his friendship. 
 Any one at all acquainted with our friend must have par- 
 ticularly noticed his calm demeanor, fortitude, and noble 
 bearing undei ill circumstances, either of success or dis- 
 couragement, in his professional life. Dr. Philbrick's 
 
 character never shone brighter than when he was sur- 
 rounded by difficulties and trials. Such firmness and 
 dignity, SUCh undisturbed peace of mind, such conscious- 
 ness of no wrong-doing, — for his natural frankness for- 
 bade all duplicity, — ami such manly and Christian resig- 
 
BOSTON'S TBIBUTE. L99 
 
 nation gave a peculiar loveliness to the man, and all his 
 friends admired his noble bearing under all trials and 
 oppositions. 
 
 Dr. 1'hilbrick, after carefully and thoroughly investi- 
 gating any subject, and becoming convinced what course, 
 in his besl judgment, was the proper and honest one to 
 pursue, held fast and firmly to his convictions, and was 
 
 decided and independent in action. Jle was emphat- 
 ically practical and sound in all educational opinions. 
 Jle was distinguished for completeness in mental endow- 
 ments, and was so well stoi I'd with good common sense 
 that he could not brook or sustain any sensational or 
 empirical notions in any department of his work ; bul be 
 
 was never rude or offensive in bis opposition to wbal he 
 considered unsound and visionary theories. He labored 
 constantly and aimed conscientiously to encourage and 
 sustain all methods in discipline and teaching that would 
 lead to thorough instruction and complete scholarship, 
 lb: so heartily and truly desired Substantial and definite 
 results, that he totally ignored all shams and all desultory 
 and uncertain nut bod:,. lie was far more willing to 
 
 submit peaceably to defeat, than ignobly to compromise, 
 or substitute any system that would encourage super- 
 
 fi< ial teaching and the fanciful schemes of modern 
 agitators. In this particular he ranks pre-eminent for 
 honesty and unflinching purpose in all undertakings. 
 While some constantly Cater for public approbation, and 
 shift and turn to gain applause, be was ever truly and 
 perscvcringly committed to such methods as would con- 
 duce to practical and genuine results. 
 
200 JOHN 1). PHILBBICK. 
 
 In his domestic, social, and public life we know his 
 worth, as an affectionate husband, a faithful brother 
 teacher, and more recently as a wise, conservative, and 
 judicious superintendent and director of all school ad- 
 ministrations ; we well know how earnestly and inde- 
 pendently he devoted himself to duty, and the deep 
 interest he ever felt in all teachers and their profession ; 
 and how kindly and patiently he always listened to any 
 suggestions and inquiries, and never in an authoritative 
 manner forced his opinions on any one. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick will ever hold a high rank as a clear and 
 vigorous interpreter of the best educational methods. 
 He wrote from the amplest intellectual resources and 
 from deliberate thought. He had the rarest opportu- 
 nities, both in this country and abroad, and by study and 
 personal observation he became familiar with various 
 systems in education, and learned to utilize philosophical 
 deductions therefrom, so that he may justly be ranked 
 among the foremost exponents of pedagogical science in 
 the world. 
 
 His reports, lectures, and essays on various subjects 
 of school interest and importance are prolific and thor- 
 ough, and designate him as the highest authority in all 
 questions of popular education. His series of school 
 reports, as superintendent of the Boston schools, will 
 ever be prized for the great amount of sound, practical 
 information they contain, and as highly important con- 
 tributions to school literature. His recent admirable 
 circular of the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, 
 entitled, " City School Systems of the United States," 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 201 
 
 may justly be considered almost unrivalled, as the ablest 
 and fullest document on educational matters, that has 
 yet been issued from the American press ; thorough, pro- 
 found, and completely covering all the ground in educa- 
 tional investigation. The wide range of topics so ably 
 considered and analyzed, and the rare power of observa- 
 tion brought to bear on all subjects of organization and 
 methods of instruction, for city schools especially, give 
 the entire report a remarkable interest, and assign the 
 author a prominent place in educational science. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick expressed the hope, if health and 
 strength permitted, to write the History of American 
 Education. He was engaged at the time of his death on 
 some important papers ; and it is to be hoped he has left 
 complete additions to his already valuable publications. 
 Says the poet Whittier, for many years the friend and 
 neighbor of Dr. Philbrick, "lie leaves a noble record, 
 and his name will long be cherished as a wise and suc- 
 cessful friend of learning, and as a worthy and upright 
 citizen"; and his friend, General Eaton, recently United 
 States Commissioner of Education, bears this testimony 
 to his work : "An able, scholarly, and noble man, dear 
 friend, great educator, full of knowledge, wise to plan and 
 faithful to execute, his death is a calamity to sound learn- 
 ing the world over." What higher eulogiums could be 
 engraven on the monument of any man, than such praise, 
 emanating from men ranking high in literary attainment 
 and scholarship. 
 
 Dr. Philbrick always took a deep interest in this Asso- 
 ciation, believing in a full and free discussion of all 
 
202 JOHN D. PUILBRICK. 
 
 subjects pertaining to the best welfare of the schools. 
 As a presiding officer, he presented his views with 
 clearness and sincerity. He never in a dictatorial or 
 offensive manner urged the adoption of any measure, 
 but waited patiently till all became satisfied that his 
 suggestions and recommendations would conduce to the 
 best interests of the schools. 
 
 The important lesson to be drawn from such a life of 
 upright and independent action as vitalized the whole 
 being of Dr. Philbrick, should create an anxious desire, 
 especially in teachers, to foster and develop those leading 
 and prominent characteristics which gave a peculiar 
 charm to his public and official life. His defence of 
 truth and honest opinion was a marked feature in the 
 career of this noble man, and this should be cherished 
 and remembered of him, as it is the key-stone of all that 
 is lofty in character, and the most fitting armor for the 
 greatest in this world's arena ; and it should be the con- 
 stant aim of all to cultivate and unfold in their teaching 
 that independence and conscientiousness which prepare 
 the opening and receptive minds of the young for stations 
 of influence and honor in life's career. 
 
 The name of the departed will still live in all its 
 blessed influence, not only in the hearts of a multitude 
 of friends, but also in most grateful recognition by all 
 who can appreciate his noble work and the vast amount 
 of good accomplished by him in his industrious life. 
 
 Says Pericles, the Grecian statesman, " The earth is 
 the sepulchre of illustrious men ; nor is it the inscription 
 on their monuments alone that shows their worth, but the 
 
BOSTON'S TBI BUTE. 203 
 
 unwritten memorial of them in remembrance." So we, 
 my brethren, may never stand by the grave, or read the 
 epitaph of him we all so mourn, but we shall often recall 
 his many virtues and dwell with satisfaction and profit on 
 the noble record of a life so active, so useful, and so 
 honorable. 
 
 At the close of these addresses the following resolu- 
 tions, offered by a committee appointed at the previous 
 meeting of the Association, consisting of C. Goodwin 
 Clark, W. E. Eaton, James F. Blackinton, Elbridge 
 Smith, and Granville B. Putnam, were unanimously 
 adopted, and the meeting adjourned: — 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 The masters of the public schools of Boston hereby express 
 their sense of personal bereavement at the great loss they 
 and the cause of education have sustained in the death of 
 John D. Philbrick, who for twenty years was superintendent of 
 the public schools of this city. 
 
 He was great as an organizer and masterly in execution. 
 To his devotion, wisdom, enthusiasm, and wise conservatism, 
 the excellence of our schools to-day is, in Iar^e measure, due. 
 
 His forty-five reports to the school committee are valuable 
 contributions to education. They are notable for sound judg- 
 ment, wise suggestions, and statesman-like sagacity. They 
 have given an educational reputation to Boston at home and 
 in foreign countries. 
 
 We lament the loss of a noble man and a sincere friend, 
 whose wise counsel was always at our command, whose kindly 
 sympathy encouraged and strengthened us in trouble, whose 
 enthusiasm was contagious, whose cheerfulness was perennial, 
 whose patience was unwearied, and whose charity extended to 
 all, even to those who could not understand his motives or 
 appreciate his labors. 
 
204 JOHN l). PEILBBICZ. 
 
 While we bow in submission to the will of an all-wise and 
 loving Father, we confess our disappointment that his life was 
 not prolonged to serve Btill further the cause which he loved, 
 and for which freedom from public duties had furnished the 
 opportunity, and his ripened wisdom had so eminently fitted 
 him. 
 
 May his elevated character, his devotion to the cause of 
 populai education, and his love for those who labor in it be to 
 us an example and an inspiration. 
 
 Till; SCHOOLMASTERS' CLUB. 
 
 The Schoolmasters' Club is a social and professional 
 club, composed of teachers, superintendents, editors of 
 educational journals, and other school men of New Eng- 
 land, who dine together several times each year, and 
 discuss educational questions. Dr. Philbrick was one 
 of the original members of the New England Pedagog- 
 ical Society, from which the Schoolmasters' Club sprang. 
 lie had always retained his membership in the club, — 
 indeed had been made an honorary member. 
 
 At a meeting of this club, held Feb. 20, 1887, addresses 
 were made as follows, in support of resolutions read by 
 Larkin Dunton : — 
 
 ADDBBSS OF JAMES F. 15I.ACKINTON. 
 
 Among those who have taken a prominent part in 
 educational affairs in our day, the name of John D. 
 Philbrick stands in the foremost rank. During his 
 career in this city, some of us, members of this Asso- 
 ciation, were witnesses of his course from the beginning, 
 from his position as assistant teacher to his crowning 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 205 
 
 work, the re-organization and successful management of 
 the Boston schools. We saw his untiring industry, his 
 persistent purpose, his calm patience under opposition 
 and provocation, and when the triumph came, we saw 
 how meekly and gracefully he bore his honors. 
 
 One of the strong points in Mr. Philbrick's character 
 was the rare judgment he showed in steering between 
 extreme educational conservatives on the one side, and 
 violent radicals on the other. He had a profound 
 distrust of all educational hobbies. Always ready to 
 examine what was new and promised to be valuable, he 
 pursued the even tenor of his way, refusing to be turned 
 aside from his purpose by any patent devices or short 
 cuts to educational success. 
 
 Another of his peculiar traits, as I knew him, was his 
 desire to find out the best side of every teacher's char- 
 acter. Too many of us, I fear, who have the supervision 
 of teachers, seem to regard criticism as the principal 
 function of our office. We seem to think if we find the 
 bad, the good will take care of itself. This was not Mr. 
 Philbrick's method. He first carefully sought and com- 
 mended all that was excellent in a teacher's work, and 
 then, in the kindest manner, pointed out what needed 
 correction. This was one thing that gave him so strong 
 a hold on the love and respect of the teachers of Boston. 
 As the years go by, I believe the work of Mr. Phil brick 
 in all departments, as teacher, superintendent, and 
 writer, will be more and more appreciated, and the con- 
 viction will be strengthened that this work will bear the 
 test of near approach and strict examination. 
 
206 JOHN n. PEILBBICK. 
 
 But we are told that Mr. Philbrick was not a threat 
 man. No, as the term is generally understood, perhaps 
 not. What is a great man ? I once heard Mr. Everett 
 say, a great man is one who sets his mark on the insti- 
 tutions of his age, and leaves the world better for his 
 having lived. John Dudley Philbrick set his mark on 
 the educational institutions of Boston, and left them 
 better than he found them. 
 
 It lias been said within the last few weeks that Mr. 
 Philbrick'a death was untimely. So it was when we 
 remember what was expected of him. When he left us 
 here in Boston, we had a right to look for ten or fifteen 
 years more of active educational work from him. But 
 when we look at what he did, his death was not untimely. 
 He accomplished more in that fifty years than others 
 would have accomplished in a century. So far as the 
 true purposes of living and doing for his fellowmen are 
 concerned, the span of a patriarch's life was but a frac- 
 tion compared witli that threescore years and nearly 
 ten, st) nobly and so grandly filled. As we said a few 
 months ago of one of our departed members, we look 
 with just pride and satisfaction on the record of a full 
 and rounded life, devoted, for half a century, to the 
 noble cause that lay nearest his heart. 
 
 ADDRESS 01 <;k anvim.i: B. PUTNAM. 
 
 Jlfr. President and Gentlemen: — 
 
 As 1 have known our friend, Mr. Philbrick, lou 
 and, in some respects, more intimately than any Other 
 one present, I desire to say a few words upon this 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 207 
 
 occasion. As you know, he was born in Dccrfield, N. II., 
 and this home of his childhood was ever dear to him. 
 Until the timeof his death he retained the old homestead 
 in his possession, and it was his delight to revisit it. 
 Every rock and tree was a familiar friend. To trim 
 these trees seemed almost a passion, and he took great 
 pride in their growth and symmetrical development under 
 his pruning hand. He often spoke in admiration of the 
 scenery, which was so rugged and picturesque, and pre- 
 dicted that the time would come when Dccrfield would 
 be a favorite place of summer resort. 
 
 His father was a man of strong character, whom he 
 much resembled. As he lay upon his death-bed, a 
 likeness of his father was placed in my hand, and as I 
 looked from one to the other, I was struck with the 
 marked resemblance. 
 
 lie spent his time much as country boys do, attending 
 school during short terms, making maple sugar, breaking 
 steers, etc. He was a young man of courage and muscle, 
 and I have often heard him tell the story of the reception 
 he gave the sophomores who visited his room early in 
 his freshman year. Instead of complying with their 
 demands, he seized a chair and with a tiger-like strength 
 and agility drove them not only from the room but down 
 the stairs, lie was soon summoned to the study of the 
 President. lie went with a good deal of trepidation, told 
 his story, and waited for his sentence. The President 
 slowly said, " Freshman I'hilbrick, you did just right, 
 just right. You can go, sir." 
 
 My personal knowledge of Mr. I'hilbrick dates back to 
 
208 JOHN D. PHILBlilCK. 
 
 the year 1839, I think, when he was a student in Dart- 
 mouth College. Having had a little experience in 
 teaching, he resolved to secure a winter school in Massa- 
 chusetts, and fixed upon $20 per month as his price. He 
 started out on foot, traveling from town to town, seeking 
 a situation in the town of Dan vers, until he reached a 
 schoolhouse painted white, with green blinds. This 
 structure seemed to him palatial, and he decided that if 
 he could secure a position there he would teach for $19 
 per month. 
 
 My father was Prudential Committeeman that year, 
 and young Philbrick sought him out and presented his 
 application. He was taken out upon a bridge leading 
 from the shoe factory to the storehouse for a private 
 consultation. The bridge was in plain view from a 
 kitchen window, where were grouped the young ladies of 
 the family, who indulged in remarks at the expense of 
 his personal appearance. Foremost among these was my 
 aunt, who afterwards became his devoted wife. His was 
 the first winter school which I attended. 
 
 In the spring of 1849 I came to Boston, and was again 
 his pupil, having entered the first class in the Ouincy 
 School. This was soon after its establishment upon the 
 single-headed plan. Mr. Philbrick was its first master, 
 and fully believing in this plan of organization, he entered 
 with all the energy of his nature upon the task of making 
 it a success. He was rewarded by being permitted to 
 see this plan, together with that of having a single room 
 for each teacher and a single desk for each pupil, adopted 
 in every portion of the land. 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 209 
 
 This was the first school to be furnished with a large 
 assembly hall. In this he was accustomed to have public 
 exercises. These were very fully attended, and aided in 
 increasing the fame of the school. His discipline was 
 firm, and upon frequent occasions he vigorously applied 
 the rod, as I can testify from personal experience. I 
 should, however, consider his government mild for those 
 days. 
 
 Mr. Philbrick was a man of scholastic tastes, and a 
 hard student. Mr. Wm. II. Leonard, for many years his 
 next-door neighbor, once told me that when awake he 
 could always tell the midnight hour by hearing him split- 
 ting his wood for the morning fire ; for this he always 
 did when his evening work in the study was ended. Mr. 
 Philbrick possessed a great store of educational facts, and 
 had them at his command, so that he was, in my opinion, 
 better equipped for writing the history of Education in 
 America than any other man. This would have been 
 for hira a noble task, but if ever written it must be by 
 another hand. 
 
 I must not occupy your time longer, but I would bear 
 witness to his nobleness of character and usefulness to 
 men. His manner was so simple and unassuming that 
 some said he was not a great man ; but if the standard 
 which Brother Blackinton has suggested is the true 
 one, — namely, that he is great who leaves his mark 
 upon his age, surely John Dudley Philbrick was a 
 great man. 
 
'210 JOHN D. PHILBRICK. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 The following resolutions were then unanimously 
 adopted, and a copy ordered to be engrossed and sent to 
 Mrs. Philbrick : — 
 
 Resolved, That the Schoolmasters' Club of Boston desire 
 to place on record the following statement of their appreci- 
 ation of the life and services of their late beloved associate, 
 I),. John I). Philbrick: — 
 
 lie was a man of eminent ability. No one talent, indeed, 
 over-shadowed all the rest ; but his mind, well-rounded and 
 evenly balanced, was one of remarkable force. 
 
 lie had great power of application. From the beginning of 
 his college course, almost to the day of his death, he was an 
 incessant worker. For him no pains was too great, and no 
 needed labor was too severe. 
 
 His life was given to the cause of education. His profes- 
 sion was chosen as early as his sophomore year in college, and 
 seems to have been followed with his whole soul to the very 
 end. In his view it was a high and holy calling, and worthy of 
 the highest ambition of the noblest minds. 
 
 He studied education from the standpoint of history and 
 philosophy. No man of the age in which he lived was better 
 acquainted with the history of school systems, educational 
 theories, and methods of teaching. His very conservatism 
 resulted from his knowledge of limitations. 
 
 Mis integrity never faltered. Honesty, both intellectual and 
 moral, was a native element in his character. Selfish aims and 
 ambitions fouml no lodgment in his heart. He preferred 
 failure to insincerity. 
 
 I [e was generous and sympathetic. No man was quicker to 
 detect merit in others, or more ready to give credit where it 
 was due. Thousands of teachers have been cheered by his 
 kind words of sympathy and wise counsel, lie was a friend 
 to all who were honestly working for the good of public 
 schools. 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 211 
 
 Patient toward those who differed from him in opinion, he 
 was possessed of the true Christian spirit of forgiveness 
 toward his enemies. His later life was a constant exhibition 
 of his conviction that it is belter to suffer wrong than to do 
 wrong. It was impossible to provoke him to the doing of an 
 impolite act or the saying of an impolite word. 
 
 His life has been a grand success. Wherever public schools 
 exist his influence is felt, and will long continue to be bit, for 
 good. His mind was clear and strong; his character was 
 round and full and sweet; and his life contributed in no small 
 measure to the well being of the world in which he lived. 
 
 May we cherish his memory and emulate his example. 
 
 TIIE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 
 
 The following resolutions were offered at a meeting of 
 the School Committee of Boston, February g, 1886, by 
 William C. Williamson, a member who had served on 
 the old board of school committee, while Dr. Philbrick 
 was superintendent. The resolutions were unanimously 
 adopted by a rising vote : — 
 
 Resolved, That the School Committee desire to place on 
 record their deep and abiding sense of gratitude for the long 
 and eminent service rendered in the cause of public education 
 by John D. Philbrick, lately deceased. For twenty years he 
 was superintendent of our schools. During that perDd his 
 efforts were constant and untiring to enlarge their usefulness 
 and powers, to raise their standard, and to keep them fully up 
 to the requirements of advanced intelligence, and he left them 
 in a better condition than when he entered upon his office, by 
 reason of his labor, watchfulness, and forethought. He was 
 in his profession an idealist, an enthusiast. " lie was a 
 scholar, and a ripe and good one, exceeding wise, fair-spoken, 
 and persuading"; but he was also a conservative, nol loo 
 easily convinced of the soundness of new fashions in edu- 
 
212 JOHN D. PI1ILBRICK. 
 
 cation ; gifted with executive and practical skill, and with a 
 personal influence which made him known throughout the 
 schools. In his forty-five printed reports he has placed upon 
 the files of this committee a lasting memorial of his learn- 
 ing, his good sense, and his sanguine hopes. These, with 
 their wise suggestions drawn from his experience and obser- 
 vation of the progress of education at home and in foreign 
 countries, will afford light upon many questions, and bear 
 fruitful testimony to his ability and character for many years 
 to come. 
 
 PUBLIC MEMORIAL SERVICES. 
 
 At a meeting of the Boston Masters' Association, held 
 March 2, 1886, a committee, consisting of Robert Swan, 
 of the Winthrop School, Moses Merrill, Ph.D., of the 
 Latin School, Larkin Dunton, LL.D., of the Normal 
 School, C. Goodwin Clark, of the Gaston School, and 
 George R. Marble, of the Chapman School, was appointed 
 to arrange for holding a public memorial service in 
 Boston, sometime the following autumn, in honor of 
 Dr. John D. Philbrick. 
 
 This committee decided to invite Gilman H. Tucker 
 of New York, Larkin Dunton of Boston, and Dr. Wm. 
 T. Harris of Concord, Mass., to address the friends 
 of the honored dead, at a meeting to be held the fol- 
 lowing autumn. All these gentlemen accepted the 
 invitation. 
 
 The meeting was held, November 5, 1886, in the 
 spacious hall of the Public Latin School building, on 
 Warren avenue, Boston. The public schools of the city 
 were dismissed on the occasion. Mr. Edwin P. Seaver, 
 Superintendent of Schools, presided. The hall was 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 213 
 
 crowded with teachers, past and present members of 
 the Boston School Committee, and other school men. 
 The widow of the lamented dead and a large circle of 
 intimate friends occupied seats reserved for them. 
 Prayer was offered by Granville B. Putnam of the 
 Franklin School. Mr. Seaver, on taking the chair, 
 spoke as follows : — 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. EDWIN P. SEAVER. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — 
 
 We have met to-day, that we may testify our respect 
 for the memory of one, the record of whose life-work 
 fills a large place in the educational history of Boston, 
 — John Dudley Philbrick. If one were to begin with 
 the benefits of a mere physical or material kind for 
 which the cause of education is indebted to Mr. Phil- 
 brick, there would be much to say of the convenient, 
 cheerful, often beautiful schoolhouses, which adorn all 
 parts of our city ; but it is enough now to remember 
 that the crowning glory of them all, — this palatial 
 building in which we are now assembled, — is due 
 more to his efforts than to those of any other one man. 
 And yet benefits of this kind are among the least of 
 his claims to remembrance. The visitor to St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, in London, is reminded, by the inscription 
 he reads over the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, that 
 if he would behold the great architect's monument he 
 must look about him. But he who may hereafter look 
 for Mr. Philbrick's monument will find it not in marble 
 tablet or granite shaft that may mark his grave near 
 
214 JOHN D. PII1LB1UCK. 
 
 his country home, nor even in the palatial schoolhouses 
 raised during his long administration, all around us, 
 but in the common school system itself of the city of 
 Boston, — and in the vast influence which, through that 
 system, he has exerted upon schools and scholars through- 
 out this land. 
 
 The three characteristics of Mr. Philbrick which 
 have impressed me most were his sound, practical 
 wisdom, his steadfastness or courage in defence of his 
 opinions, and his ardent professional enthusiasm. In 
 his earlier years he was a reformer, and these charac- 
 teristics made him successful. Later in life his 
 position was more conservative ; not, however, because 
 he had surrendered his cherished convictions, or abated 
 his enthusiasm, but rather because the later advances in 
 educational methods were not fully trusted by him. 
 
 But others will speak of his character more fully 
 than I have a right to speak now. It is for me to intro- 
 duce to you speakers who have known him long and 
 loved him well. Let me add but one word more. We 
 say we have assembled to do honor to Mr. Philbrick's 
 memory. How shall we truly do that? If all wish to 
 honor his memory sincerely, — in the manner in which- 
 he would most approve, — we shall carry some of the 
 inspiration of this hour into our daily duties, and ded- 
 icate ourselves anew to all that is high and noble in 
 the great work which he loved so well. 
 
 The Superintendent then introduced the speakers 
 whose addresses form the first three chapters of this 
 
BOSTON'S TRIBUTE. 215 
 
 volume, and at the close of the speaking read the fol- 
 lowing letter from R. Kuki, the Japanese Minister to 
 the United States : — 
 
 liKTTER Or THE .lAI'ANKSTC MINISTER. 
 
 Washington, D. C, Nov. 3d, 1886. 
 Gentlemen : — 
 
 Although unavoidably prevented, to my 
 great regret, from being with you in person, I desire 
 most sincerely to join with you in doing honor to the 
 memory of that very distinguished man, the late John 
 D. Philbrick, whose benevolent labors have been pro- 
 ductive of so much good, not only in the United States 
 of America, but all over the world. I first had the 
 pleasure of being associated with him in 1878, at the 
 Universal Exposition at Paris, where both of us were 
 appointed " Me nib res de Juries " on the subject of 
 education. I found him to be a gentleman who won 
 universal respect, not only as a savant, but also on 
 account of his attractive manners. I was one of many 
 who became warmly attached to him, and derived great 
 benefit from my intercourse with him, particularly in our 
 conversations on topics connected with education. I 
 shall never cease to cherish, with the most profound 
 respect, the memory of our friendship and of his thor- 
 ough knowledge and excellent judgment, as well as his 
 eminently admirable character. With the assurance of 
 my sincere sympathy with you on this occasion, believe 
 me to remain, 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 R. Kuki, 
 
 His Imperial Japanese Majesty's 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTIONS. 
 
Miscellaneous Resolutions. 
 
 The following resolutions, adopted by various asso- 
 ciations and communities in different parts of the 
 country will show something of the extent and strength 
 of Dr. Philbrick's influence throughout the nation : — 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OP THE NATIONAL 
 EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Alliance, Ohio, March 15, 1886. 
 Mrs. John D. Philbrick, Danvers, Mass., 
 
 Dear Madam : — At the late meeting of the De- 
 partment of Superintendence of the National Educa- 
 tional Association at Washington, D. C, the following 
 resolutions were unanimously adopted: — 
 
 Whereas, We, the officers and members of the De- 
 partment of Superintendence of the National Educa- 
 tional Association, have learned of the death of John 
 Dudley Philbrick, LL.D., of Massachusetts, who for 
 more than twenty-five years has been an active and 
 enthusiastic member and an ex-President of the Asso- 
 ciation, desiring to place upon record our appreciation, 
 esteem, and love of him, adopt the following:- — 
 
 Resolved, That this Association mourns the loss of 
 one of its most devoted and intelligent workers in the 
 
 (219) 
 
220 JOIIN D. PUILBBICK. 
 
 cause of popular education. As a teacher, superin- 
 tendent, and writer upon educational topics for more 
 than a third of a century, he has ranked among the 
 foremost educators of this country. Wise and discreet 
 in counsel, energetic and enthusiastic in action, helpful 
 and sympathetic in his relations with his co-workers, 
 he left behind him a record full of inspiration and 
 worthy of imitation. 
 
 Resolved, That the cause of general education has 
 sustained a heavy loss in being deprived of his zeal, 
 energy, and wisdom, which have pre-eminently charac- 
 terized his long career. 
 
 Resolved, That the Department of Superintendence 
 especially desires to recognize the eminent services of 
 Mr. Philbrick in this special field of educational work, 
 in which he labored nearly a quarter of a century, 
 achieving not only a national, but a world-wide repu- 
 tation as a superintendent of instruction. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the 
 minutes of this department, and that a copy of them be 
 sent to Mrs. Philbrick, to whom we tender our sincere 
 sympathy in her great bereavement. 
 
 W. E. Sheldon, 
 A. J. Rickoff, \ Com. 
 R. W. Stevenson, 
 Charles C. Davidson, 
 
 Sec. Dep't of Superintendence. 
 
 TRUSTEES OF THE PHILBRICK-JAMES LIBRARY. 
 
 The trustees of the Philbrick-James Library, having 
 learned with deep regret of the death of Hon. John D. 
 Philbrick, desire to place on record their appreciation of 
 his worth as a man, of his long and successful labor as an 
 
MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTIONS. 221 
 
 educator, and especially of his interest in, and his ser- 
 vices for the Philbrick-James Library. 
 
 Personally and as a Board we lament the loss sustained 
 by his native town and by the Library which bears his 
 name. His interest in both was great, and the aid ren- 
 dered in selecting the Library was invaluable. 
 
 His thorough knowledge of the wants of the commu- 
 nity and his intimate acquaintance with books enabled 
 him to make the Library of the greatest possible value. 
 
 We express our sense of the salutary influence the 
 Library has exerted, and feel that in it Mr. Philbrick has 
 a memorial in the contemplation of which his friends 
 may well be gratified. 
 
 We extend to his widow our sympathy in her great 
 sorrow, and have instructed our Secretary to forward to 
 her and to place on our records this expression of our 
 appreciation of Dr. Philbrick's worth, and the greatness 
 of his love. 
 
 Deerfield, N. H. y March 4, 1886. 
 
 TEACHERS OF DENVER. 
 
 The following communication to the Journal of Edu- 
 cation will explain itself : — 
 
 Dear Sir: — I could write a volume without exhaust- 
 ing the expression of my admiration and love for the life 
 and work of Dr. Philbrick. But you have no room, and 
 I lack ability. Herewith please find an expression of my 
 associates. 
 
 Very respectfully, Aaron Gove. 
 
 At the meeting of the teachers of District No. 1, after 
 the superintendent had announced by appropriate re- 
 marks the death of Dr. Philbrick, at his home at Asylum 
 
222 JOIIN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 Station, Massachusetts, a committee, representing the 
 three several departments, — primary, grammar, and high 
 schools, — was appointed to prepare fitting resolutions of 
 respect. 
 
 The Committee prepared the following, which were 
 adopted : — 
 
 With the death of John D. Thilbrick, we realize the 
 loss to the profession of one of the ablest, truest, and 
 noblest of schoolmasters ; of a life devoted to the inter- 
 ests of public education, stopped in the midst of its best 
 efforts. 
 
 Along with the thousand other tributes that will be 
 presented, the teachers of Denver beg leave to submit, in 
 token of their respect to his memory, an expression of 
 their kind remembrance of his life and works, and of 
 their high appreciation of the magnitude and value of his 
 career to the school world of America and Europe, and 
 offer the prayer that many teachers of this land may 
 follow in the footsteps of their cherished friend whom the 
 Lord has called home. 
 
 They tender their sympathy, first, to the bereaved 
 
 widow, and, second, to all friends, and rejoice with them 
 
 that the memories of his pure life are so redolent with all 
 
 that is sacred and lovely. 
 
 F. Lee Forman, 
 
 N. B. Coy, 
 
 Denver, Col., Feb. 6, 1886. Helen Dill. 
 
 Queer SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the 
 Ouincy School Association of Boston, held Feb. 12, the 
 following testimonial to the late Dr. John D. Philbrick 
 
MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTIONS. 223 
 
 was unanimously adopted, and it was voted that a copy 
 be sent to the family of the deceased : — 
 
 We, the officers and members of the Quincy School 
 Association of Boston, desirous of expressing our heart- 
 felt sorrow at the death of the late Dr. John D. Philbrick, 
 the first master of our school, lovingly place upon the 
 records of the Association this expression of our esteem 
 and affection for our former teacher and early friend. 
 
 We deeply feel the loss which not only this Associ- 
 ation, but the cause of education in general, has sustained 
 in being deprived of the zeal, energy, and wisdom which 
 characterized his administration of the various offices 
 which he was called upon to fill, and for which he was so 
 eminently qualified. 
 
 We personally lament the loss to this Association of 
 one of its chief officers, whose hearty interest in its for- 
 mation was an earnest manifestation of his affection for 
 his former pupils in the school organized and made prac- 
 tically successful by his personal exertions and enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 We bear our testimony to his abounding kindness and 
 amiability amid the vexations of the schoolroom, and to 
 the unconcealed affection which he bore for all with whom 
 he was associated. 
 
 We tender to the widow and relatives our sincere sym- 
 pathy in their bereavement. Sorrowing at the departure 
 of husband and friend, they are yet blessed in the memory 
 of his worth and the fact that thousands mourn with 
 them, and bear unanimous testimony to his superior qual- 
 ities of mind and heart. 
 
 Spencer W. Richardson, Prest.~\ ^ ■ 
 
 B. W. Putnam, First VicePrest. I s/{ 
 
 F. W. Bullard, Treas. ( , c l0 ° 
 
 r* tj Ty c Association. 
 
 C. H. Brigham, Sec. ) 
 
224 JOHN D. PHILBBICK. 
 
 TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE. 
 
 Dear Mrs. PJiilbrick : — 
 
 The following is a copy of the resolutions passed by 
 the Trustees of Bates College in reference to the death 
 of your late husband: — 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize in the death of Hon. 
 John D. Philbrick, LL.D., for many years an honored 
 member of our Board, the departure of one of the most 
 helpful and zealous friends of this college, whose valu- 
 able services and hopeful spirit, remembered with grat- 
 itude, remain as an inspiration to our work ; a gentleman 
 of genial and catholic mind, whose services, of inesti- 
 mable value to the educational interests of the nation, 
 fitly received the highest national recognition. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be for- 
 warded to Mrs. Philbrick, to whom we tender our sin- 
 
 cerest sympathy. 
 
 O. B. Cheney, Prest. 
 
 L. G. Jordan, Sec. 
 
 Lewis ton , Maine, July 12, 1886. 
 
 TOWN OF DEERFIELD. 
 
 Deerfield, N. H., March, 1886. 
 The Resolutions herewith enclosed represent the action 
 taken by the people of Deerfield on the death of Hon. 
 John D. Philbrick. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 G. B. Hoitt, Town Clerk. 
 
 The citizens of the town of Deerfield, having learned 
 with regret of the death of Hon. John D. Philbrick, 
 would place on their records and transmit to his family, a 
 
MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTIONS. 225 
 
 testimonial of his worth, and an expression of their sense 
 of loss in his decease. They recognize the service he 
 has rendered to the cause of education, and would witness 
 to its great value. They also gratefully acknowledge 
 their indebtedness to him, for his interest in his native 
 town, especially for his wise and careful selection of the 
 books for the library, with which his name is associated. 
 Its value is in no small degree owing to his painstaking 
 labor. 
 
 They would testify to his worth as a man, and to the 
 great good that his life-work has accomplished. 
 
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