purposes. He was an active member of the American Lyceum; originator and conductor of the American School Society, a shortlived but well conceived association for the extension of elementary education, which failed for lack of minds congenial to his own; was connected with the Society for the relief and improvement of the African race; and was an original and interested member of the Boston Phrenological Society. He was a member of the Geographical Societies of Paris, Berlin, and Frankfort, and was a correspondent, until his death, of Pestalozzi, Humboldt, Jacotot, and many of the literary, scientific, and philanthropic men and women of Europe.

NOTES.

DAVID MARKS was a teacher in Litchfield county, Connecticut, but subsequently taught at Wethersfield, and elsewhere, in Hartford county. He had much originality of view, and was much beloved by his pupils. He was a pioneer of the period of the early labors of Gallaudet, Holbrook, Wilcox, Dr. Alcott, A. B. Alcott, &c. He removed to the West about 1830.

A. F. WILCOX was a teacher in Connecticut, of some eminence, and much originality. About 1827 he taught in the High School at Bridgeport. His Catechetical Grammar, a work of some merit, was published in 1828, at New Haven and New York. He subsequently removed to Upper Middletown, and, for a time, lectured on common school improvements in various parts of the state.

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SOCIETY, which was formed at Boston, in 1834, grew out of a "School Agents' Society," organized at Andover, in 1832, by the influence of Rev. S. R. Hall. The former society operated by agents and circuit teachers.

The American School Society depended for efficiency mainly on the labors of Mr. Woodbridge and Dr. Alcott, who were too much occupied otherwise to continue long in its active service, and it declined and died after a few years. The meeting to organize the Society was presided over by Daniel Noyes, Esq., of Boston, and among the advocates of the plan were Professors B. B. Edwards, and E. A. Andrews. The first officers were: President, Rev. Francis Wayland, D. D.; Vice-Presidents, William Rees, Daniel Sharp, Rufus Choate, Richard Fletcher, Heman Humphrey, Thomas H. Gallaudet; among the Directors, E. A. Andrews, S. R. Hall, Rufus Anderson, Jacob Abbott, B. B. Edwards, Louis Dwight, William C. Woodbridge; Recording Secretary, W. A. Alcott; Treas. urer, S. H. Walley, Jr.

IV. THE SCHLETTSTADT SCHOOL, AND JOHN REUCHLIN.

[Translated for the American Journal of Education, from the German of Karl von Raumer.]

Louis Dringenberg. Wimpheling. Crato. Sapidus. Platter. WE have confined ourselves thus far to the labors of North Germans and Netherlanders for the restoration of classical learning, and for the cause of popular education.

Some of the men above-noticed led, as we have seen, a migratory life as it were: Wessel, Agricola and Erasmus, all lived a longer or a shorter time in South-Germany and Switzerland, and exerted an influence upon learning there. Three places in the south became by this means centers of intellectual light, namely, Schlettstadt, Heidelberg and Tubingen. We will now consider what took place at Schlettstadt; Heidelberg and Tubingen shall receive due attention when we come to Melancthon.

Schlettstadt, a small imperial town of Lower Alsace, grown wealthy on its lucrative wine traffic, determined, about the middle of the 15th century, to found a school, and for that purpose invited the Westphalian, LOUIS DRINGENBERG, to become its first rector. He took his name from Dringenberg, his native place, a small town six miles to the east of Paderborn: he was educated at the school of the Hieronymians at Deventer. Of his method of instruction we only know this, namely, that he gave his pupils a religious training, and that, with regard to the mediæval school books, the Doctrinal, especially, though he did not venture to throw them aside, he nevertheless aimed to make them as harmless as possible. But if the tree may be known by its fruits, then the many distinguished men, who were sent forth from Dringenberg's school, are our best witnesses that his method was a good one. He died in 1490, after having been at the head of the school for forty years.

Among his pupils the name of JACOB WIMPHELING has become the most familiar to us. He was born at Schlettstadt in 1450, and died there in 1528. At the close of his school-education, he studied at Freyburg, Basle and Erfurt. He took his master's degree at Heidelberg, in 1479, was created dean of the philosophical faculty there, and during the years 1481 and 1482 he was Rector of the university. Afterward he became a preacher at Spires, where he No. 13.-[VOL. V., No. 1.]—5.

lived somewhat longer than at Heidelberg; then he went again to Heidelberg, where he read lectures upon St. Jerome, and also directed the studies of many young men, Count Wolfgang Lowenstein among the rest. To the latter he dedicated his educational treatise, entitled "Adolescentia," in which he gave prominence to moral precepts, illustrating and enforcing them by quotations both from the Bible and the classics. A second work, the Isidoneus, (eiridos, introduction,) is devoted on the other hand mainly to his method of conducting the study of the liberal arts in general, but with a special application to the classics: his "Elegantiae majores" and "Elegantiarum medulla" are school books. His epitome of German history was likewise designed for a manual of instruction.

One of Wimpheling's pupils, the distinguished James Sturm, we shall meet with again. For him it was that Wimpheling composed the essay "De integritate," containing rules for study and for the conduct of life, and enjoining upon him, above all things, a diligent perusal of the Bible. Some expressions in this essay, reflecting upon the monks, drew from the Augustinians demonstrations of hostility toward the author, to which, however, Pope Julius II. put

an end.

*

Of Wimpheling's efficiency at Strasburg we shall speak in another place. Strongly as he inveighed against the corruptions of the church, yet he did not go over to the side of the Reformation. This violent movement and schism in the church, coming as it did in his old age, accordingly occasioned him much anxiety and care. He retired to Schlettstadt to the house of his sister, Magdalena, where he died in his seventy-eighth year.

A second scholar of Dringenberg's was George Simler, afterward Melancthon's teacher, both at Pforzheim and Tubingen; a third, Eitelwolf Stein, is known to us by his active friendship for Hutten.

Dringenberg's successor in the rectorate was Crato, (or Craft Hofmann,) who may lay claim to Beatus Rhenanus as one of his scholars. The real name of Rhenanus was BILD. He was born at Schlettstadt in 1485, and died at Strasburg in 1547. He labored much in the field of German history, wrote annotations on Tacitus, edited Vellius Paterculus, Procopius, etc.

Rhenanus continued at the Schettstadt gymnasium under the rectorate of Crato's successor Gebwiler, and with him John Sapidus,

Under "John Sturm."

"In addition to other calamities, which put Wimpheling's virtue sorely to the test, this fatal division, which has extended throughout the whole church, came in, and with its superinduced weight, well nigh crushed him; he had no sympathy with this corrupt age."-Erasmus.

(Witz,) a nephew of Wimpheling's. This latter, born at Schlettstadt in 1490, about the year 1514, after traveling and studying at Paris, himself became Rector of the gymnasium in question.

And under his rectorate the school grew so rapidly that in 1517 it numbered no less than 900 scholars. Among these was Thomas Platter of Switzerland, whose autobiography* calls up before us a vivid picture of life and manners, as he found them at the school.

But the school did not long continue to be so full. As early as 1520 Sapidus joined himself to the reformatory movement, and in consequence became alienated from Wimpheling. And, because Schlettstadt declared decisively against the Reformation, Sapidus left the place and settled in Strasburg, where he was employed as a teacher in the new gymnasium, and where he died in 1561.

After a while the Schlettstadt school lost its reputation, and the Jesuits obtained control over it. The original school house is standing to this day.

JOHN REUCHLIN.

[Born at Pforzheim, Dec. 28th, 1455. Died at Stuttgart, June 30th, 1522.]

REUCHLIN'S parents were worthy and honorable people. The young John early made a marked progress in the languages and in music. Because of his good voice he was taken to the court at Baden; in 1473, when eighteen years of age, he accompanied the Margrave, Frederick of Baden, to Paris. Here he formed the acquaintance of Wessel; and here Hermonymus of Sparta gave him lessons in Greek, whereupon he studied Aristotle before all other authors, bestowing diligent study the while upon Latin.

In his twentieth year he went to Basle, there continued his Greek under the tuition of Andronicus Contoblacus, a native of Greece, at the same time reading Latin and Greek authors. At that period he also compiled a Latin dictionary, under the title "Vocabularius breviloquus."

He now revisited France, studied law in 1479 at Orleans, and in 1480 at Poictiers, teaching at the same time; then returned to Tubingen, married, and entered upon the active duties of the legal profession. In the year 1482 Reuchlin accompanied Eberhard, the elder, on a journey from Wittenberg to Rome; he was selected, principally for the facility with which he spoke Latin, and for his correct pronunciation. He delivered a most admirable speech in the presence of Sixtus

⚫ We give extracts from Platter's Autobiography, on pages 79-90.

† When the ambassadors of the Pope met Eberhard, his chancellor replied in Eberhard's name to their greeting as follows: (mark the pronunciation!) Ceilsissimus et Eillustrissimus naoster Prainceips eintellexit, etc. This the Italians did not understand, and accordingly Reuchlin was called on to reply to them.-When a certain French ambassador had addressed the Emperor Maximilian in a Latin speech. the Count of Zollern replied in the emperor's behalf, but in a broad and barbarous Swabian accent. To the question of Philip, Maximilian's

IV.; and soon after, together with Eberhard, waited upon Lorenzo di Medici.

In the year 1486, Reuchlin was sent, with two other ambassadors, by Eberhard to Frankfort, to attend the coronation of Maximilian I.; and in 1489 he took charge of an embassy to Rome. During this latter journey he became acquainted with Picus Mirandola, at Florence. In 1492, he attended Eberhard to Linz, to the court of the Emperor Frederick III., who raised Reuchlin to the rank of nobility, and created him Count Palatine. He there made a valuable acquisition, in the acquaintance of James Jehiel Loans, the emperor's physician, a learned Jew, who gave him a most careful and accurate course of instruction in Hebrew. Frederick presented Reuchlin with a Hebrew Old Testament, valued at 300 gold florins.

The excellent duke, Eberhard, the elder, died in the year 1496, and was succeeded by a profligate ruler, Eberhard, the younger. He appointed for his chancellor, Holzinger, an unprincipled Augustinian monk, who had once been arrested through Reuchlin's means. Under the government of such persons, Reuchlin had nothing but evil to look for; and hence in the beginning of the year 1497 he returned to Heidelberg, where he received a most friendly welcome at the hands of Dalberg. There he wrote Sergius, a satirical comedy in ridicule of Holzinger; a second comedy, which he transferred from the French, Dalberg gave to the students to act.

In the year 1498 Reuchlin was sent by the Elector-Palatine Philip on an embassy to Pope Alexander VI., before whom he delivered a Latin address. He remained a year at Rome, and took lessons in Hebrew daily of Abdias, the Jew, to whom, for every hour of instruction, he gave a gold florin: while there, he also attended the lectures of Argyropulus on Thucydides. The first time that he heard Argyropulus, this one asked him to what country he belonged, and then, whether he had paid any attention to Greek before? when Reuchlin replied, that he was from Germany, and was not wholly unacquainted with Greek, Argyropulus put a copy of Thucydides into his hands, with the request that he would read him some of it. Hereupon Reuchlin translated the Greek text very correctly and into pure Latin, so that Argyropulus cried out in admiration, "Our bereaved and exiled Greece has at last found a home beyond the Alps."

Eberhard, the younger, was formally deposed in 1498, and

son," what sort of Latin is that ?" the Wirtemberg chancellor, Lampart. replied, "that, princes, is Hechingen Latin." "Where did the count learn it ?" continued Philip. "At Hechingen," said the chancellor, "a small Swabian town on the count's domains, where very coarse sackcloth is made. There the count's Latin was woven too." This incident afterward caused all such Latin to be designated by the name, Hechingen Latin.