I. MEMOIR OF CYRUS PEIRCE.

BY REV. SAMUEL J. MAY.

CYRUS PEIRCE, for fifty years a teacher in schools of different grades, and, for eight years, a "teacher of teachers," as the first Principal of the first Normal School in the United States, was born August 15th, 1790, in the town of Waltham, Massachusetts, the youngest of twelve children of the same parents. He spent his boyhood at home, on the retired farm, which his father and ancestors, for several generations before him, had cultivated. His physical constitution, hereditarily sound, was confirmed by the pure air, wholesome food, genial sights and sounds, early hours of retirement and rising, and by a due participation in the toils and the sports of country life. He enjoyed the good influences of a well-ordered family, and of a steady, judicious parental discipline.

At a very early age, he was sent to the district school, and went through the dull routine then usually pursued with little children. The only intimation we have been able to gather from his childhood, that was at all prognostic of his manhood, is that, when only five or six years of age, he thought his teacher was not judicious, was not teaching him as much as she should, nor giving her instructions in the best manner. He intimated that, at some future time, he should himself keep school, and then he would show how it ought to be done. Very probably, some impression, made upon his mind at that early day, did give the direction to his course in life.

Perceiving his inclination to thoughtfulness and study, his parents determined to give him a collegiate eduation. Accordingly he was sent to Framingham Academy, and afterward was placed under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Stearns, of Lincoln, at that time reputed to be a thorough scholar.

In 1806, Cyrus Peirce entered Harvard College. There he soon gained, and, to the end of his course, maintained the reputation of a pure, upright young man, a faithful, indefatigable student, and an accurate, though not a brilliant recitation, scholar. One of his classmates has favored me with the following account of him at that time:

The uniform success of Cyrus Peirce, in whatever he undertook, was owing to his singular fidelity and perseverance. No one could have been more faithful,

patient, persevering, than he was. Whatever the subject of study might be, his mind took hold of it with a tenacious grasp, and never let go, until he had reached a satisfactory result. In this particular, I have never known his equal. The action of his intellect was rather slow, but he investigated thoroughly and reasoned soundly. I therefore always considered his statement of facts, unquestionably true; and his opinions as entitled to especial regard. His very studious, as well as reserved habits, kept him much of the time in his room. At recitations, from which he was never absent, no one gave better evidence of a faithful attention to the exercises, in whatever department they might be. He always showed,* when "taken up," that he had "got the lesson." Yet, owing to his great modesty, his slow utterance, his entire lack of the faculty of "showing off," he did not pass for half his real worth as a scholar. He was thorough in whatever he undertook. He was inquisitive and candid. The exact truth was his object; and he patiently removed every obstacle in the way of his attaining what he sought.

During his Sophomore year, in the winter of 1807-8, Cyrus Peirce commenced his labors as a school-teacher, in the village of West Newton, the same town, and not far from the very spot, to which he came, nearly fifty years afterward, to close his career, and crown his brow with the last of those unfading laurels, which encircle it, in the eyes of all who have felt or seen his influence as a Teacher of Teachers.

In order to appreciate duly the value of his services, one must know what was the character of our common, especially our rural district schools, fifty years ago. Those who commenced their education since maps and globes were introduced; since the exclusive right of Dilworth's and Webster's Spelling Books, and Morse's Geography, and Dabol's Arithmetic, to the honor of text-books, was disputed; since blackboards were invented, or belts of black plastering, called blackboards, have come to be considered indispensable in our school-rooms; those who commenced their education since Josiah Holbrook's, and such like simple apparatus, intimated to teachers how much more intelligible and attractive, visible illustrations are than verbal descriptions,-how much more easily any thing which is understood is grasped by the mind, and held in the memory; especially those who have commenced their career since Warren Colburn made so plain, so self-evident, " the recondite powers and mysterious relations of numbers," showed how much of Arithmetic may be learnt from one's own fingers,-how many problems may be solved without having "learnt the rules,"-solved by the intuitive deductions of any mind that understands the premises; those who did not live until after Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, William Russell, William A. Alcott, Alonzo Potter, S. S. Randall, Samuel Lewis, Warren Burton, and their zealous fellow-laborers, had awakened the community throughout New England, New York, Ohio, to the consideration of

* Throughout his college course, he made himself master of every lesson but one, at the time; and that one he learnt afterward.

the inestimable importance of common schools; of the indispensable necessity of convenient, light, airy, warm, well-ventilated school-rooms, comfortable seats and desks, suitable text-books and blackboards, maps, globes, apparatus; and, more than all, well-prepared, skillful and amiable teachers; in short, those whose "school days" began within the last twenty-five years, can have little idea of the character of our common, especially our country district schools, at the time Cyrus Peirce commenced his labors.

Thanks to the gentleman last named in the above list of distinguished friends of education and school reformers, thanks to Mr. Warren Burton, there has been preserved a most truthful and graphic picture of "The District School as it was." In the volume bearing this title, written by Mr. Burton twenty-five years ago, he has given accurate, lively sketches of methods, scenes, and characters, that were common in the schools, as they were when he was a child, and not wholly extinct when he took his pen to delineate them. His book has been republished several times in this country, and once in England. It should never be out of print, nor be wanting in any of our public or private libraries, but kept at hand, that the children of this and coming generations may be informed, how many more, and how much greater, are the advantages provided for them, than were enjoyed by their parents and grand-parents, when young; so that they may be prompted to inquire who have been their benefactors, that they may do them honor. Then, I am sure, few will be found to deserve a higher place in their esteem, than the subject of this memoir. Immediately on leaving college, in 1810, Mr. Peirce accepted an invitation, from an association of gentlemen at Nantucket, to take charge of a private school. He taught there two years very successfully, and gained the entire confidence and sincere respect of all who witnessed his impartial regard for those committed to his care, and his scrupulous fidelity to every duty he undertook to discharge. But at that time his heart was set on another profession. So, in 1812, he returned to Cambridge, to complete his preparation for the Christian ministry. For three years he prosecuted his theological studies, with an assiduity not surpassed, it is believed, by any one, who ever dwelt within the walls of Harvard. He seldom allowed himself more than four hours out of the twenty-four for sleep; and he preserved his health by strict attention to his diet and exercise. He never ate and drank merely to gratify his appetite, but to keep his body in the best condition to subserve the action of his mind. Every subject that came up for consideration, in the course prescribed, he studied until he was satisfied that he had arrived at the truth. Many of the dogras

taught in the churches before that day, he was led to distrust; but he rejected nothing hastily. If he, like most other young men, could give no sufficient reason for the faith of his childhood, he dismissed nothing from his mind, which he had been taught to believe, until he could give a satisfactory reason for dismissing it. He was most scrupulously conscientious. He was severe in his demands upon himself; and, wherever truth and right were concerned, not indulgent to others. Yet am I assured by those who knew him best, that he was cheerful, amiable, tender in his sensibilities, and very companionable. After three years thus spent in theological studies at Cambridge, Mr. Peirce was persuaded to return to Nantucket, and resume the work of a teacher. His former patrons had not found another, who could adequately fill his place. During his previous labors in their service, he had given them intimations of ability and skill in the work of teaching, which they were anxious to secure for the benefit of their children, even at a much greater cost.

Under this second engagement, Mr. Peirce continued at Nantucket three years, laboring as the teacher of a private school, with great success, and to the entire satisfaction of most of his pupils, and all of their parents. In 1818 he left, and commenced preaching.

Up to this period Mr. Peirce was not only strict in his government, but severe in his discipline. In the outset of his career, he very naturally resorted to those instrumentalities that had hitherto been most confidently relied on. Until after the first quarter of the present century, corporal punishments of children, by parents and schoolmasters, were matters of frequent occurrence. I could fill more than all the pages that will be occupied by this memoir, with narratives stored in my memory, or preserved in files of old newspapers, or in the Criminal Court Records, of cases of cruel chastisement of children,―girls as well as boys,-by ferules, rattans, cowhides, stocks, pillories, imprisonment, privation of food, and so forth. Little do they realize, who have been born within the last twenty-five years, how much they may have escaped of suffering, as well as of weariness at school; and how much they have gained from the greatly improved methods of teaching and governing, that have been devised since the commencement of that period. And it ought to be told them, that to no individual are they, and the coming generations, more indebted for these improvements than to Mr. Peirce. When he commenced the work of a schoolmaster, the idea of managing a school without corporal punishment had hardly dawned upon the mind of any one. On Nantucket especially, the people were familiar, in the whaling service, with severe bodily chastisements; and the proposal to manage

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