PLATT R. SPENCER was born in Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York, on the 7th of November, 1800. He was the youngest of twelve children of Caleb and Jerusha Spencer-ten sons and two daughters.

Michael Spencer, the grandfather of Platt, came from England, and landed at Newport, R. I., in the year 1746. He was the father of seventeen children, twelve sons and five daughters—all the children of one mother.

Caleb Spencer, the father of Platt, served his country faithfully in the great struggle of the Revolution, and bore to his grave scars of the conflict honorable alike to his patriotism and courage. In 1802 he took possession of a beautiful farm which he owned at the mouth of Wappinger's Creek, Dutchess county. In 1804 he removed to Windham, Greene county, where he died in 1806, leaving his property so encumbered as to be of little or no value to his surviving family. Platt early evinced an excessive love for study, and was remarkable for his prompt attendance at school,

*It is due to the writer of this article and to ourselves to say that the manuscript did not reach us till twelve days after it was due. We had requested and expected only enough to fill four printed pages, but we found sufficient to fill ten pages. We had not space for so much, and have therefore cut down the copy one-half-Eps.

when that pleasure was afforded him, and not less for his well gotten tasks, and his honorable position among his class-mates, as a "perfect" scholar. In speaking of his first efforts in the mystic art of writing, he says:

"In December, 1807, I was furnished with three sheets of unruled paper, folded and stitched together with brown linen thread

-a Barlow knife to make pens with, and a quill fresh from the wing of the gander-and casting for myself from a stray bullet, a plummet, I took my post on a slab bench at a sloping, wide pine board attached to stays that held it to the wall, near a sham knot hole, and under the direction of Samuel Baldwin, Teacher.”

At this tender age, and in the midst of difficulties which beset him like a hedge of thorns, the young tyro began to reason upon the inconsistency of attempting to acquire a business style of writing by practicing from models that were anything else than business-like. It occurred to him then, as it has since to thousands, that the most reasonahle method of attaining to perfection in the art of writing was first to become perfect in those elements which were to be used in writing.

As paper was scarce in those days, and money with which to buy it, was even more so, with our young hero, he contented himself with the facilities afforded by the frosted ice, and snow surface to trace out the lines and curves, which, to his high-wrought imagination, seemed to combine the utile with the dulce.

Speaking of this deprivation, he says:

Paper was entirely too scarce to meet my wants. Up to February, 1808, I had never been the fortunate owner of a whole sheet of paper! At this time, becoming the happy proprietor of a cent, I despatched it by a lumberman to Catskill-distant about 20 miles, but the nearest point at which it could be obtained-to buy me that dearest object of my desires, a sheet of unblemished. foolscap. My agent made his return at midnight, and the bustle of his return awakening me, I inquired eagerly for the result of his mission. He had been successful, and brought the sheet to the bed to me, which was rolled in a small compass and tied tightly with a black linen thread. It was, of course, much wrinkledhaving been brought all the way in his bosom! But it was, not the less, a whole sheet of paper, and all my own; a consideration of sufficient moment to cancel all minor troubles. Before the arrival of my paper my imagination had pictured to me what beautiful work I could do thereon; but the trial proved a failure. I could not produce a letter that pleased me, and I returned to

bed after an hour's feverish effort, disappointed, and to be visited by restless dreams."

In the autumn of 1810 Mrs. Spencer removed with her halforphan children to the town of Jefferson, the county seat of Ashtabula county, Ohio. This was then the "far west," and the difficulties of travel in those days rendered the journey one of extreme hardship and no little peril. The journey, which would now occupy less than 24 hours' travel, consumed fifty-one days in its completion, requiring the largest outlay of hardidood and courage.

Few, perhaps, would be able to construct a system of hand-writing from hints furnished by the simplest processes of nature, in flower and streamlet. But those who have been fortunate enough to receive instructions from Mr. Spencer in the well-developed principles of his unapproachable system will properly estimate the following tribute to these beneficent influences, which we copy from his own pen. Speaking of his chirographic travels on the beach of Lake Erie, he says:

"A half-mile of written line brought me to a point where Indian Creek-a rivulet of some volume, whose source was some ten miles south-gently issuing from the unbroken forest, depressed at that point into a space of productive intervale-of broad, flowering maple and dense shrubbery, danced its way in gentle undulations over the soft sands and stones, polished to every shape, and sparkling in all the hues of emerald and alabaster. noiselessly, but replete with beauty, life and motion, this woodland currrent, in unbroken wavelets, blent gently its estuary pulses with the lake."

Thus

Here was a chirographic lesson which the ardent and imaginative mind of the young author could not afford to lose; and to those who appreciate the characteristic beauties of the now fully developed "Spencerian System," the following application of the lesson will be clearly intelligible :

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Every word is a short stream, essential particles uniting principles, letters and syllables, till complete, when mingling with the smooth sentence, it expands into the vast ocean of recorded thought." *** 66 Writing through whole lines, without lifting the pen, increases motion and need not mutilate form. Thus the streamlet taught me the lesson of concatenation, and practicing on this hint gave me greater freedom."

To those unacquainted with the special characteristics of the

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Spencerian System of Writing," it may be well to state that since its successful introduction into schools and private classes throughout the country-and especially the west-a fresh impetus has been given to the Art, and a perceptible change in the style of business writing is apparent.

Mr. Spencer commenced the labor of professional teaching while very young, and for many years was the only teacher in the country who approached the business standard. In speaking of the difficulties he encountered while warring against the crude devices of the old system, he says:

"As soon as I commenced teaching the 'Spencerian' beyond my own immediate neighborhood, I met with the most stubborn opposition from the old coarse-hand then in vogue--more from parents and older people than from the young. With the old it was the prejudice of youth, and predominated with those who were no longer in the field of progress, if they had ever been. Some of the young would leave the class because I would not give them coarse-hand copies, but most of the young who solicited coarse-hand copies, on being inquired of if men transacted business in coarse-hand, became mute; and on my telling them that I wished to teach them just such a hand writing as they would desire to use in business, they seemed satisfied, and even pleased." * * * "Up to 1829 I knew no teacher, nor heard of one, who taught a business styleseparate from the old coarse-hand basis-besides myself. Then, Samuel Edgerton, a pupil of mine from the first rudiments, began to instruct classes, frequently returning to me for more science and practice. He became a most splendid artist, and taught thousands-mainly in the south-and died in Mississippi in 1839."

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It is safe to say that no man in the country has prepared more teachers for the duties of their profession than Mr. Spencer, most of them starting out as did Mr. Edgerton, and "frequently returning for more science and practice;" and it is equally true that today nineteen-twentieths of the successful teachers of writing throughout the country, are either pupils of Mr. Spencer, or have become familiar with his system from instruction elsewhere.

In 1836, Mr. Spencer was elected to the office of Assessor for the county of Ashtabula, which position he filled for two years, and was then elected County Treasurer, in which capacity he served twelve years, with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public.

In 1848, Mr. Spencer, in connection with Victor M. Rice, subsequently Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of New York, first published his system of Writing in slip copies,

beautifully engraved on steel. This form was greatly his choice, before the learner than to have the There are many sound arguments

believing it better to put slips copy at the top of each page. in favor of this plan; but it was found not so well for introduction into large schools, and consequently, in 1859, he was induced to republish and enlarge in copy-book form. His system has been recently re-engraved in the best style of the art, and is now published by the extensive school-book publishing house of Ivison, Phinney & Co., 48 Walker street, New York.

Already these books are introduced and extensively used in the public and private schools of nearly all the important cities of the Union, and are universally commended by teachers as the most practical and successful series of writing-books extant.

We have thus briefly alluded to the important services of a true American in projecting a system of writing which is most surely destined to become the standard for business purposes in this country, if not in Europe.

The small space allotted us has afforded little opportunity to dwell at length on any point either in the history of the system or its author. It is the good fortune of the writer to be reckoned among the personal friends of the author of the "Spencerian," as also to have an intimate personal acquaintance with many professional teachers of the Art of Writing, in various parts of the country; and it is with no slight degree of pleasure that he is enabled to close this sketch with the assurance that, while thousands look to Mr. Spencer with the respect and reverence due to a man of exalted character and superior endowments, none who know him personally fail to bear him in mind as a dear and valued friend.

GEOMETRY IN THE SCHOOL.

BY REV. THOMAS HILL.*

The modern neglect of geometry in common school instruction. is partly owing to the eagerness with which the claims of other studies have been pressed upon the teacher's attention, and partly to the insufficient reasons which have been given for the study of the Science of Space.

Enthusiastic men advocate with zeal the introduction into the *President of Antioch College, Yellow Springs.