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army. Yea, he was more than a dictator, since by the exercise of a Christian faith, and a warm and active love, he secured the affections of his pupils.

With his views of study we are not disposed to quarrel, for, though he aimed to make Goldberg a second Latium, he did no more than his contemporaries were continually doing around him. Neither do we censure him for his sentiments respecting physical education, although we can not entirely agree with him therein. It is stated of him that he did not insist upon exercise, but simply permitted it. And yet he would look on while the boys were wrestling or running, praising the active and skillful, and rebuking the indolent and awkward. However, one of the laws of the school forbade the boys to bathe in cold water in the summer time, and to go upon the ice, or to throw snow-balls in the winter. Surely such a law as this would have been disregarded in ancient Rome, and in ancient Germany too!

In the closing years of his life, the worthy old man experienced many misfortunes. In 1552 there was a great famine in Goldberg, and in 1553 the place was swept by a pestilence. During this period he taught the few scholars who remained with him, in the upper gallery of the church, as he thought the air purer at that elevation. Already earlier, in 1549, a crushing sorrow had cast its dark shadow across his path. Three of his pupils, Karl Promnitz, Jonas Talkwitz, and Wolfgang Keppel, were making merry over their wine in the Goldberg wine-cellar, when a drunken watchman staggered in upon them, and, without saying a word, took a full cup off from the table, and drank it down. Enraged at his impudence, Promnitz hurled an empty glass at him, and, without designing it, wounded him in the head. The watchman accused them before the court, and thereupon the three young men were imprisoned, and their case carried before Frederick III., Duke of Liegnitz. He summoned them to Liegnitz, and without listening to their defense, or entering into any examination of the case, condemned them to death. Promnitz alone, at the intercession of the Bishop of Breslau, who was his cousin, was pardoned, but the two others, who had committed no crime at all, were beheaded upon the Monday next following the feast of the Three Martyr Kings.

In 1554, the year after the pestilence, a great conflagration laid a large part of Goldberg in ashes, and Trotzendorf's school house. among the rest. He then went with his scholars to Liegnitz, and while there took measures to rebuild his school upon the old site. But he was never permitted to return thither. On the 20th of April, 1556, he was expounding the 23d Psalm, and as he came to the

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words, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me;" he was suddenly seized with apoplexy. He sank back, gazed up to heaven, and spake these words, the last he ever uttered ;*—" My friends, now am I called away to another school." He lingered speechless for five days, but retained his consciousness to the last. He died on the 25th of April, at the age of 66, and was buried on the 29th, in the church of St. John. His remains were followed to the tomb by high and low; men of princely rank uniting with peasants in paying respect to his memory. Abraham Bock erected his monument. But it was destroyed in 1699, when, by order of the Emperor Leopold, the church of St. John was given to the Jesuits.

Trotzendorf died unmarried. With a small income, and a benevolent disposition, he always remained poor. The few writings which we have from his pen, were first issued after his decease, and by some of his grateful pupils. The following is a list of the same:

1. Catachesis scholae Goltpergensis scripta a Valentino Trocedorfio cum praefacione Phil. Melancth. Vitebergae, 1561.

The preface is dated, 1558, two years after Trotzendorf's death. 2. Precationes V Trocedorfii recitatae in schola Goltbergensi, Lipsiae, 1581.

3. Rosarium scholae Trocedorfii. Viteb, 1568.

4. Methodi doctrinae catacheticae. Gorlic, 1570.

*Dr. Stevens, in his "History of the Public High School of Edinburg," makes the following record of the last illness and death of Dr. Adam, for forty years Rector of that institution.

"On the 13th of December, 1809, Dr. Adam was seized, in the High School, with an apoplectic affection. He lingered five days under the disease. Amidst the wanderings of mind that accompanied it, he was continually reverting to the business of the class, and addressing the pupils; and in the last hour of his life, as he fancied himself examining on the lesson of the day, he stopped short, and said: "But it grows dark, boys, you may go," and almost immediately expired."-ED.

No. 13,-[Vol. V. No. I,]—8.

IX. HISTORY OF COMMON SCHOOLS

IN

CONNECTICUT.

BEFORE proceeding to the Fourth Period, from 1800 to 1838, we add a few facts, which may serve as notes to the preceding.

JOHN HIGGINSON the first teacher in Hartford of whom we have any information, was born in England, August 6th, 1616, and came to America with his father, Rev. Francis Higginson, first minister of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629. He removed to Hartford early after the first settlement, and was a possessor of land there in 1639. After leaving Hartford, he became a preacher, and was chaplain at Saybrook fort; was afterward assistant to Mr. Whitfield, at Guilford, and subsequently his father's successor at Salem, where he remained until his death, in 1708, at the age of 92, having been a minister 72 years. His colleague, Rev. N. Noyes, in an elegy upon him, says :-he

"For rich array cared not a fig,

And wore Elisha's periwig;
At ninety-three had comely face,
Adorned with majesty and grace ;—
Before he went among the dead,

His childrens' children children had."

He was succeeded at Hartford, probably immediately, by a Mr. COLLINS, whom Winthrop calls "a young scholar, full of zeal, &c." He had been preaching at St. Christopher's or Barbadoes, with considerable effect, and brought some of his converts with him. Hearing of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson's opinions while at Hartford, he warned a friend against them, but upon himself meeting her, at once became her disciple, and afterward her son-in-law. He was murdered by the Indians, together with her and her family, in 1643.

WILLIAM ANDREWS, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the next teacher of whom any thing is known. He is the first mentioned in Hartford town records; where, date, 1643, it is ordered that he shall be paid sixteen pounds a year as salary. The site of his residence is now within the area of the Central Park, being the north corner of Elm Street and Trinity Place.

After Andrews, the next known teacher was CALEB WATSON, a graduate of Harvard College, 1661. He taught for many years; from shortly after 1670 to (probably) near his death, in 1725. It should not be forgotten, however, that, during a portion of this early period, "Goody Betts" kept a dame school in the city. She was cotemporary with Higginson.

PERIOD V.

FROM 1800 To 1838.

At the commencement of the present century, the Legislation of Connecticut, respecting the education and employment of children, and the establishment and support of schools, and other institutions and agencies of learning, stood as follows:

An Act for the Educating and Governing of Children.

Forasmuch as the education and well governing of children is of singular benefit to a people; and whereas many parents and masters are too negligent of their duty in the matter:

1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, That all parents and masters of children shall, by themselves or others, teach and instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed, all such children as are under their care and government, according to their ability, to read the English tongue well, and to know the laws against capital offenses; and if unable to do so much, then at least to learn some short orthodox catechism without book, so as to be able to answer to the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechism, by their parents, masters, or ministers, when they shall call them to an account of what they have learned of that kind.

2. And if any parent or master shall neglect the performing what is by this act required of them, every such parent, or master being thereof legally convicted before any one assistant, or justice of the peace, shall forfeit and pay the sum of three dollars and thirty-four cents, to and for the use of the poor of the town whereto they belong.

3. And that the selectmen of every town in this State, in their several precincts and quarters, shall have a vigilant eye and inspection over their brethren and neighbors; and see that none of them suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as to want such learning and instruction; and to take care that due prosecutions be made for the breach of this act.

4. And the grand-jurymen in each town, are hereby required to take care, and see that what is by this act required for the education of children, be duly performed; and to make presentment of all breaches of this act which shall come to their knowledge.

5. And be it further enacted, That all parents and masters shall employ and bring up their children and apprentices in some honest and lawful calling, labor, or employment profitable for themselves and the State.

6. And if the selectmen of the town where such parents or masters live, after admonition by them given to such parents or masters, shall find them still negligent of their duty in the particulars aforementioned in this act; whereby such children grow rude, stubborn, and unruly, such selectmen (with the advice of the next assistant or justice of the peace) shall take, and they are hereby fully authorized and empowered to take such children and apprentices from their parents or masters, and place them with and bind them to some master or masters; males till they are twenty-one years of age, and females till they are eighteen years of age; to the end they may be suitably instructed, employed, and governed; which binding shall be good and effectual, for the holding and governing such children, the terms aforesaid.

7. And that whatsoever child or servant, upon complaint made, shall be convicted of any stubborn or rebellious carriage against their parents or governors, before any two assistants or justices of the peace, such assistants or justices are hereby authorized and empowered, upon such conviction, to commit such child or servant to a house of correction, there to remain under hard labor and severe punishment, so long as said authority shall judge meet; who on the reformation of such children and servants, may order their release, and return to their parents or masters aforesaid.

The first six sections of the foregoing Act, constituted the title

"Children," in the code of 1650, and as originally adopted, was a literal transcript of the law of Massachusetts on the same subject passed in that colony in 1642. The substance of the seventh section is contained in an Act under the title of "Rebellious Children and Servants," in the statutes revised and published in 1672. It was annexed to this act at the revision in 1702.

The laws respecting schools, as has been already stated, were carefully revised and consolidated in May, 1799, so as to read as follows:

An Act for Appointing, Regulating and Encouraging Schools.

1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, That each school society in this State shall, by their vote in legal meeting, have full power to grant rates for the building and repairing of school-houses, and the supporting of schools therein, or to make any lawful agreements for the same purposes, and what such society shall agree upon and vote, and respecting the encouragement and support of schools, shall bind itself and all its members; and if any officer duly appointed at any time by such society shall refuse to execute the trust committed to him, he shall suffer the penalty which town officers are liable to, for refusing to serve in the offices to which they are chosen.(1)

2. Be it further enacted, That each school society shall have full power to divide itself into proper and necessary districts, for keeping their schools, and to alter and regulate the same, from time to time, as there may be occasion ;(2) and whenever it may be necessary and convenient to form a district out of two or more adjoining societies, such district may be formed by the vote of the said societies, and may be, by a like vote, altered or dissolved at their pleasure; and every such district shall be under the inspection and superintendency of the society where its school-house shall be situate, and when such district may agree to build a school-house, the place on which the same shall be erected, shall be fixed by a committee agreed upon by said societies, upon application of said district, or any distinct component part thereof: and the committee shall return their doings in writing to the clerk of the society within the limits of which the place shall be fixed, which shall by him be recorded.(3) And each shool society is hereby empowered to appoint annually some proper person, a committee, for each school under its superintendency, to provide an instructor for such school, with the approbation of the visitors thereof, herein after provided, and to manage the prudentials of such school: Provided nevertheless, That nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to affect any district incorporated by a special act of the general assembly.(4)

3. Be it further enacted, That the treasurer of this State shall annually deliver the sum of two dollars, upon every thousand dollars, in the list of each school society and proportionably for lesser sums, out of the rate of each town, as the

The following notes are copied from the revision of the statutes, made in 1808. and printed with chronological notes, under the supervision of John Treadwell, Enoch Perkins, and Thomas Day.

(1) In May, 1717, the major part of the householders of the several ecclesiastical societies were empowered to grant taxes for the support of their respective schools, and to appoint collectors. At the same time, it was enacted, that what such major part should agree to, respecting the support of schools, should be binding on the whole. The appropriation act of May, 1795, recognized a distinct capacity in these societies, and denominated them "school societies," as relative to the objects of schooling In May, 1798, they were, in that capacity, invested with the powers, and subjected to the duties, which the former laws had given to and required of ecclesiastical societies, relative to the same objects At the revision of this act in May, 1799, the section to which this note relates, was moulded into its present form. (2) Passed in October, 1766.

(3) Passed in May, 1799.

(4) It appears to have been the practice for towns and societies to appoint committees for the schools previous to October, 1708; but no statute expressly provided for their appoint. ment, until the general revision in 1750. In May, 1799 the provision referred to was consid erably modified.

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