ed with several of the earliest female schools in New England and New Jersey. Indeed, he continued a teacher for fifty years of his lifetime, and died in the harness, as is believed, from excessive labors both in school and in the pulpit, when he was between seventy and eighty years of age. But what is most to our present purpose is the fact that he was President of the first School Association, in Middlesex county, Connecticut, as early as the year 1799; the object of which was the accomplishment of the same ends at which his son and his associates were aiming thirty years later. It is not needful to insist, in this case, on the doctrine of the hereditary descent of mental and moral qualities; but it is certainly a singular coincidence. The interest which very naturally attaches to this fact is increased when it is understood that at the very juncture of which I am now speaking, the elder Mr. Woodbridge joined his son at Hartford, and became, for a considerable time a fellow laborer in a cause which he still loved with all his youthful ardor.

Our united and separated efforts in behalf of education had enlisted a good deal of newspaper influence in this cause, especially at Hartford. But having become fatigued with this form of labor, I made known to Mr. Woodbridge my intention of establishing a periodical at Hartford, to be devoted to the cause that so much engrossed our attention. But there were difficulties in the way; and in the meantime Mr. Woodbridge purchased the American Journal of Education at Boston, changed the name to Annals of Education, and with the aid of his father and myself, and the promise of other occasional assistance, proceeded to act as its editor. This was in August, 1831. Later in the year he removed to Boston, whither he was soon followed by his associates.

No pains or expense were spared by Mr. Woodbridge or his associates, to render the Annals the one thing needful to the friends of education, especially to teachers. During the first and second years of its existence, he developed, in a clear, careful, and faithful manner, the whole system of Fellenberg; together with such other systems of distinguished European educators as were meritorious, particularly those of Pestalozzi at Yverdun, and Prof. Jacotot of Louvain; while his associates and contributors furnished most of the other articles. Physical education and methods of instruction, whether practical lessons, reviews, notices, &c., fell largely to the share of the writer.

Not only the Annals of Education, but the Juvenile Rambler, was started by Mr. Woodbridge, about the end of the year 1831, on his arrival at Boston. The last was a small weekly newspaper for chil

dren, designed not only for the family, but for the school-room, and even as a class-book for reading exercises. For a little while and in particular localities, it was exceedingly popular. A few large schools received it by hundreds; and in one or two it became a substitute for all other reading books. But it was not very long lived. Its editors, who had charge of it practically,-found their duties too arduous, and withal so poorly rewarded, that after the lapse of two years they were obliged to abandon it, and concentrate their influence on the "Annals."

It should also be remembered that during the first years of the "Annals," a weekly paper for teachers, entitled the Education Reporter was issued for a time, by Rev. Asa Rand. But this, too, proving unprofitable, and being supposed to conflict with the Annals, was at length purchased by Mr. Woodbridge, and after being published by him for some time, in an independent form, was merged in the monthly journal.

Besides, the original cost of the list of subscribers was a heavy bill of expense. For, though it was well received by the teachers of private seminaries and a few professional men, who respected the zeal, talent, and philanthropy of the editor, yet a large proportion of the teachers of the district schools regarded it as too high—or rather too learned for them; besides they thought they could hardly spare three dollars a year of their scanty wages for twelve prosy numbers of a journal of education. The result was, therefore, that though every body praised the work, nearly every body excused themselves from taking it, especially those who most needed its assistance.

But Mr. Woodbridge, did not shrink from the responsibilities he had incurred on account of the difficulties. He devoted himself to his task with all the energy which dyspepsia would permit, though at the end of every year deeply in debt.

After

He continued the Annals to the close of 1836, when failing health compelled him to make a third voyage to Europe. He embarked in October, and for two years continued to act as foreign editor. that time, except for an occasional contribution, the work was wholly in the hands of the writer. Mr. Woodbridge's pecuniary sacrifices for the Annals, during the six years and a half of its life, amounted to many thousand dollars.

In November, 1832, he had married Miss Reed, an assistant in Miss Beecher's school at Hartford; whose zeal for education was scarcely exceeded by his own, and who was an excellent helper to him in the cause. But her health was bad; and after joining him

in Europe, she died, at Frankfort, in 1840, leaving two children, a son and daughter.

Mr. Woodbridge's illness prevented him from making the educational researches in Europe which he had designed; and after spending the winter of 1840-41 at Berlin, he returned home in October, 1841. The next three winters he passed at Santa Cruz; but with steadily declining health. At his final return in 1844, it was evident that he was fast failing, and his business engagements were now made so as to provide for a speedy departure. He made a short experiment of the water cure and homeopathy at Brattleboro, but with no relief, his bodily powers being too low to rally; and in returning to Boston, entered Dr. Durkee's institution, but gradually grew worse, and died there, in November, 1845. His last days, and his death, were peaceful; though his feebleness prevented much conversation, and he scarcely said more to friends who visited him, than to remark that he supposed they met for the last time.

Although the actual results of Mr. Woodbridge's labors have been great, yet in making an estimate of him and of his work, we shall find him entitled to the credit of doing very much, under very great discouragement, if not of accomplishing results in themselves, absolutely vast and astonishing.

His mental powers were great. Both his intuitive perception of principles, and his faculty of methodically arranging facts, were rapid and thorough; and his ability to give clear expositions of the relations, bearings, and consequences of both, was remarkable. Hist moral endowments were, perhaps, still more eminent. His honesty, both in pecuniary matters, and in stating facts and searching authorities, was unbendingly rigid; his father was accustomed to say that in "extra corrections," made to embody the latest or most accurate matter, on his geographies alone, he had expended a good estate. He was at once frugal almost to parsimony in his personal expenditures, and liberal to nobility in assisting the educational or other benevolent enterprises in which he was interested. Except a bare support for his aged father, and a still more slender one for himself and family, he was uniformly accustomed to devote to the perfecting of the Annals of Education, irrespective of mere stipulations with subscribers, his whole income, from whatever source.

His aspirations, indeed, both intellectual and moral, were of the very highest order. It was the incessant prostration of his efforts by the most wretched and irritating of all diseases, dyspepsia, probably complicated with scrofula, and certainly with great nervous weakness, which prevented him from realizing those aspirations, at least to a de

gree which would have placed his name very high on the list of benefactors to his race. This physical incapacity was in part constitutional, and was doubtless aggravated by early ill training. And it was this which forced him to relinquish one plan after another, which rendered him often a severe sufferer from small self-indulgences, which made him irritable in conversation, and which, in connection with a constitutional diffidence, and yet an unsparing honesty in expressing opinions when driven to do so, made him often seem positive or even rude in receiving or opposing the views of others.

He was always a poor man, and was too liberal in giving what came to his hand, to the objects of his life, ever to escape from the vexations and discomforts of poverty.

Yet in spite of all he accomplished much. How much influence his labors had in producing those educational changes which have been taking place in this country ever since, is not easy to say; but undoubtedly a large share of what we deem educational improvement, must be set to the credit of him and his associates. A writer of his obituary, in the "Express" of New York-the only notice of him we have ever seen-by one who well knew his whole history, thus speaks:

"With his return from his first foreign travels, we may date the commencement of the operations for the improvement of common schools in this country. For though he had before aroused much interest in Baron Fellenberg's institution at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, by the publication of a series of letters written on the spot, and which contained almost every thing that our countrymen have ever read on that subject, no considerable attempt was made to produce any general coöperation for the benefit of common education, until he made known his plans and commenced his operations.

"The American Annals of Education, which he conducted at Boston for a series of years, under many difficulties, abounded in facts and suggestions of the soundest kind; which were the groundwork as well as the exciting cause of the movements successfully made by the legislatures of different states, and the friends of education who gradually arose in all quarters of the country. The conventions of teachers and others, in counties and larger districts, owed their plans and first impulses, in a great measure to Mr. Woodbridge, as did the innumerable-lyceums and other popular literary societies. Не was one of the first to foresee popular opportunities to act in Massachusetts for the advantageous distribution of the money appropriated to the schools, and the most energetic, in taking measures for that purpose. At every meeting held for the promotion of this favorite

cause, he was personally present or represented by some valuable essay or other communication; and most of the enlightened and liberal proposals offered, came from him or received his cordial support. He wrote the first letter on popular education in music, and excited and aided Messrs. Mason & Son to attempt the introduction of that important science and art on modern principles. It is needless to remark on the extent to which their example has since been followed.

"Mr. Woodbridge moved the first resolution ever offered, recommending the study of the Bible as a classic. The first Literary Convention in New York placed him at the head of a committee on that subject; and he not only drew up, but gratuitously published and widely circulated the report, which embraces, in a most distinct and forcible manner the grand arguments in favor of that object, in a style which no man can read without admiration. No writer before or since has exceeded it; and in all the discussions which have taken place, it would be difficult to discover any new thought or argu

ment."

While thus engaged, through years of ill health, and all the difficulties and discouragements arising from very limited pecuniary means, Mr. Woodbridge not only found strength to perform numerous journeys, to carry on an extensive correspondence, to hold innumerable interviews with intelligent persons, and to devote money with a liberal hand for the public benefit, but his heart and hand were ever open at the calls of philanthropy. Few men, it is believed, have ever been more noble in giving, in proportion to their means.

He was as influential as any one man, in awakening and maintaining that interest in the cause of education generally, which arose in Massachusetts between the years 1830 and 1840. He was an efficient agent in drawing public attention to the necessity of normal schools. He was, if not the very first, one of the earliest writers in favor of the introduction of the studies of physiology and vocal music, into our schools. He drew from behind the counter of a country store, and introduced into the higher sphere in which he has done so great and useful a work, the celebrated Lowell Mason; a service which alone would have made him a public benefactor. His letters in explanation of the systems and institutions of Fellenberg, besides being the first introduction, to America, of those men and their works and principles, are distinguished for clearness of style and completeness of analysis and exposition.

Besides these labors in the immediate path of his duty, he was ready and active to the uttermost of his strength, and even beyond it, in founding or conducting organizations for benevolent or educational