III. DENISON OLMSTED.

DENISON OLMSTED, one of the earliest advocates of special institutions for the professional training of teachers in the United States, and for nearly fifty years a successful teacher, and promoter of education and science, was born in East Hartford, Connecticut, on the 18th of June, 1791. Having lost his father in very early life, his education devolved, from the first, on his surviving parent, who will long be remembered by those who knew her, for her native strength of mind, her soundness of judgment, and her uncommon piety and benevolence. He was early trained to those habits of order, diligence, and perseverance, for which he has been so much distinguished throughout life. About the age of thirteen, he was placed in a country store with a view to the mercantile profession; but he soon showed so strong a taste for science and literature, as to convince his associates that he was destined to higher employments. Even at this early period he became an earnest student of English literature, and made very considerable advances in the elementary mathematics. Nothing could satisfy such a mind but the highest advantages for education; and, with the reluctant consent of his guardian, he resolved, at the age of sixteen, to prepare himself for admission to Yale College. He accordingly commenced his studies in the year 1807; and, with a view to husbanding his limited means, he undertook the care of a public district school. He thus gained those practical views of teaching, and that acquaintance with the youthful mind in its early development, which have made him eminently qualified to prepare text-books in the simplest rudiments, as well as in the higher departments of science, and to take an active part in promoting the interests of general education in our country.

Mr. Olmsted entered Yale College in 1809, under the presidency of Dr. Dwight, then in the maturity of his powers and the hight of his distinguished reputation. He at once took rank among the best scholars of his class-a class distinguished for the eminent men it produced-and graduated with the highest honors of the institution in the autumn of 1813, when he delivered an oration on the "Causes of Intellectual Greatness." He immediately resumed his favorite employment of teaching; and for two years had the charge