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as day is from night; it is in fact the only way to be really unselfish."

"But Miss A.", said James, "it must be that soil and dryness have much to do with the growth of trees: on the bluff west of here there is a deep forest, you know, and yet the trees are small. The soil is rocky and does not hold moisture." "Yes," said "Yes," said Miss A., "the entire environment of tree or man must be considered. Struggle is not enough, or the fox jumping after grapes would have grown strong; Oak Bluffs is a summer outing on the east coast of Martha's Vineyard-the only soil is sand blown up from the coast into hills by the east wind: the oaks growing there are small and they always will be, just as they are in some of the Knob Stone regions of Indiana. In 1887 I went to the summit of Gray's Peak. As we passed through the prairies of Illinois, prairie sunflowers were on every hand

'Ten thousand saw I at a glance

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.' These grew on tall stems ten or fifteen feet high. Persons riding on horse-back could hardly reach to pull one. As we approached Denver, however, where the soil is poor and the altitude is something like a mile above sea level, we had to stoop to gather prairie sunflowers. From Denver we passed up Clear Creek cañon, one of the loveliest journeys it is possible for any one to make. The high granite hills, the great engineering skill it required to construct a railroad up the cañon, the miners washing the gravel from the gold in long troughs, Georgetown with its mountain rim, Silverplume with its white mounds and smoking chimneys, the irrigation canals, which mean so much to all our western country, here cut in solid rock and there crossing gorges in huge wooden conduits, Idaho Falls with its baths, Green Lake which we journeyed to see, with its unrivaled beauty and its lonely but majestic setting almost at the limit of vegetation,

new and interesting as they all were, could not keep us from noting that our prairie sunflower was still with us but with a still further shortened stem. At Gray, Montana, we took bronchos and started for the summit of Gray's Peak. Torry, Gray and other peaks shut in a great amphitheatre at their feet carpeted with stemless flowers. The prairie sunflower was there with many of its friends that had accompanied it with their shortening stems from the plains. It was a view never to be forgotten,-a circuit of bare peaks above, passing below into a circuit of snow, and this joined from side to side by a floor of many-colored flowers. The struggle with storm and frost and an unfriendly soil has reduced these flowers to the bare necessities of existence. It is the lesson of life everywhere, that so much struggle as is necessary to bring the powers to their highest development and leave time and freedom to employ them in productive ways, is necessary to the highest attainments of which the individual or the race is capable."

The reporter of these school lessons, one day in 1890, missed his connection with a steamer on the east side of Loch Long. The scene can be different from what it is there, it hardly can be more enchanting; the road on the east shore of the lake for miles is lined with holly trees: Cowper incidentally describes the adaptation of this tree to its environment:

"Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen;

No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound;

But above, where nothing is to fear,
Smoothe and unarmed the pointless leaves appear."

We gathered and mounted one of these "prickly" leaves from "below," and also one of the "smoothe, unarmed" ones from "above," and brought them to show to our friends.

RICHMOND, IND.

CHRISTOPHER DOCK.*

By ROBERT J. ALEY.'

"The seal, once laid on pliant wax,
Stamps its own image, cancelled never;
The teacher's lineaments on the soul
Their vivid impress leave forever.
Lay careful hand on head and heart,
While waits the youth at life's fair portal ;
So shall your work, in beauty wrought,
Be beauty, stamped with life immortal."
-Samuel Francis Smith.

THE

HE great teacher everywhere and in all times has been characterized by great earnestness. He has never been satisfied with mere intellectual development. He has never been willing to stop short of his pupil's salvation. His definition of salvation has not always been orthodox, but it has always included the idea of self-freedom. The fundamental motive, either explicit or implicit in the mind of every great educator from Plato to Arnold has been, "I must so teach my pupil the truth, that through it he shall become free," free maybe from the state, free possibly from the devil, or perhaps free from self.

Every great teacher has also been conscious of the very large part that he individually has in this struggle for freedom. The full realization of the fact that his "lineaments may forever leave their impress" on the soul of the learner, can scarcely fail to fill him with earnestness and humility. Sometimes a teacher who is really great may not be known far from home. He may be a modest man, and he may work in a community that is not given to advertising. If his work leaves an impress upon the community, such that the stranger who comes there years after he is dead can still find definite traces, we may be sure that he was a great teacher. Should you go into the valley of the Skippack, a tributary of the Schuylkill, you would be able to find there some traces of a country-school teacher, although he has been dead for more than one hundred twenty-five years. This man

*I am greatly indebted to Judge Pennypacker's sketch.

was Christopher Dock, the first writer on pedagogy in America.

We are accustomed in our thinking of America to give New England the credit for everything. We credit her with all that is good in politics, religion, art, literature, education and what-not. We have done this so long that New England actually thinks she deserves the praise, and in turn tells us that if we would drink from the fountain head we must come to her. Perhaps in the future when some historian tears himself loose from New England influence and gives himself without reserve to the study of the Schuylkill valley, it will be found that here where the Dunker, Mennonite, Schwenkfelder, Pietist and Quaker lived together in peace and harmony, many of the things which we hold dear either had their origin or were greatly modified. The student of the history of education soon finds that it is to this field he must look for much of his knowledge of colonial schools. To this region came a superior class of people. They were thinking people-that is why they left Europe. Among the Pietists, Quakers and Mennonites were many really distinguished scholars. With such a class of people schools were a matter-of-course. The schools were naturally modeled after the best German ideals. may not be wholly devoid of interest if we study one of these schools and its teacher, Christopher Dock.

It

Christopher Dock was a Mennonite who came from Germany to Pennsylvania about 1714. Nothing whatever is known of his ancestors or of his own early life. We may reasonably infer that he was a well-educated young German. He was certainly an enthusiastic believer in his church. Its tenets were so strongly impressed upon him that they were always the guiding principles of his life. Tradition has it that before coming to America he was drafted into the German army, but was discharged because of his

convictions and refusal to bear arms. He had himself under perfect control, and in his whole life was never known to show the slightest anger. Two men who had a discussion about this element of Dock's character concluded that he had never been fully tested or he would show anger. They decided to test him. Soon after, as Dock passed along, one of the men reviled him in the most bitter and profane manner. Dock's only reply was,-" Friend, may the Lord have mercy on thee." This self-control must certainly have served him well in his long service as a teacher, and is surely not the least of the many elements that contributed to his remarkable success.

Soon after coming to America Dock opened a school among his brethren on the Skippack. Although the compensation was very limited, he continued the school for ten years. He then became a farmer, buying a small farm from the Penns. He continued to farm for ten years, teaching, however, four summer terms of three months each in Germantown. All the time he was on the farm he had the consciousness that he ought to be in the school-room. He felt that he was called to be a teacher-and he was. What great teacher is not called? The real teacher receives as divine a call as ever comes to the preacher. His work, if he deal with children, is more important than that of the preacher. He has it in his power to mould life, in fact he comes in contact with the only really plastic thing in the world. The preacher's contact is with material that has largely lost its plasticity, and as a result he turns out products many of which are formal. The teacher has it in his power to turn out only real products. This call finally became so emphatic that he could resist it no longer, and in 1738 he gave up his farm and returned to the school

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opened two schools, one in Skippack and one in Salford. These schools. were twenty miles apart. He taught in one on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday evening he walked over to the other school and taught it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, walking back to the first school either Saturday evening or Monday morning. One will read much history and touch much life before he finds a nobler example of the higher sacrifice, than this answer that Christopher Dock gave to what he believed to be the divine call to duty.

He did his work so well that his fame extended beyond the two townships of Skippack and Salford. In 1750, Christopher Sauer, the well-known Germantown publisher, concluded it would be wise to have Dock write a work on pedagogy for publication. He said this ought to be done, so "that other school-teachers whose gift is not so great, might be instructed, that those who care only for the money they receive, might be shamed, and that parents might know how a well-arranged school is conducted, and how themselves to treat children." Dock was very modest and besides he had religious scruples against doing anything that might seem for his own. praise. It required diplomacy to secure from him the desired work. Sauer worked through Dielman Kolb, a prominent Mennonite preacher and a very warm friend of Dock. After much persuasion, Kolb finally induced Dock to undertake to answer certain questions which Sauer had proposed. Dock completed the work in August, 1750. One of his stipulations, however, had been that it should not be printed during his lifetime. lifetime. For nineteen years his wish was respected. Finally, a number of friends tired of the long delay, banded together and succeeded in getting Dock's consent to print. But now the manuscript was lost. Dock characteristically wrote to the publisher, "I should not trouble myself about the loss of the writing. It has never been my opinion that it should be printed in my

lifetime, and so I am very well pleased that it has been lost." Finally, after more than a year's search, the manuscript was found. It was immediately published, 1770. The title of the work is very long, and it is usually known as the Schul-Ordnung.

The importance of the essay consists in two things; first, it is the earliest work on school teaching written and printed in America; second, it gives us the only picture of the colonial country school. Very few copies of the original publication are in existence, possibly only one-that owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Sauer issued a second edition in the same year as the first. Only two or three copies of this edition are known to be in existence. In 1861 the Mennonites of Ohio made a reprint of the second edition. Dock is also the author of A Hundred Rules of Conduct, which is perhaps the earliest American work on etiquette. He wrote some seven or eight hymns, some of which are still used in the church service of the Mennonites.

One evening in the fall of 1771, Dock did not return from his school at the usual time. Heinrich Kassell, the farmer with whom he lived, made search for him, and he was found in the school-house on his knees-dead. It was his custom every evening after school to spend some time in the school-house alone in communion with his God. It was while trying to gain inspiration and strength for the next day's work that the silent messenger of death found him. His was certainly a fitting death to a life well spent.

We shall now examine somewhat in detail the picture he gives us of the colonial school. In his introductory statement he deplores the fact "that school teaching in this country is far different from in Germany, since there the school stands upon such pillars that the common people cannot overthrow it." He fully understood the great difficulties encountered by the teacher and the great responsibility resting upon him. "I considered," he says, "my own unworthiness, and the unequal influence of parents

in the training of children, since some seek the welfare and happiness of their children. in teaching and life with their whole hearts, and turn all their energies to advance the honor of God. Others are just the opposite in life and teaching, and set evil examples before their children. Through this it happens that not only between the school-master and the children comes this unequal training, though he otherwise follow his calling truly and uprightly before God and man, but he is compelled to use unequal zeal and discipline; whereupon the school-master at once gets the name of having favorites, and of treating one child harder than another, which, as a matter of fact, he must do for conscience sake, in order that the children of good breeding be not injured by those of bad breeding. In other respects it is undoubtedly the school-master's duty to be impartial, and to determine nothing by favoritism or appearance. The poor beggar child, scabby, ragged and lousy, if its conduct is good, or it is willing to be instructed, must be as dear to him, though he should never receive a penny for it, as that of the rich, from whom he may expect a great reward in this life. The great reward for the poor child follows in the life to come. In brief, it would take too much time to describe all the duties which fall upon a school-master to perform faithfully toward the young, but still longer would it take to describe all the difficulties which encompass him at home if he is willing to economize as his duties require. As I took all this into consideration I foresaw that if I would and should do something valuable to the young it was necessary for me, daily and hourly, with David, to raise my eyes to the mountains for help." It would be difficult to find a modern educator who has more truly grasped the real problem of school management. It would also be hard to find a teacher who goes at his work with better spirit.

The method of receiving a new child at school is quaint, interesting, almost amusing. "The child is first welcomed by the

other scholars, who extend their hands to it. It is then asked by me whether it will learn industriously and be obedient. If it promises me this I explain to it how it must behave, and if it can say the A, B, C's in order, one after the other, and also by way of proof can point out with the forefinger all the designated letters, it is put into the a-b, abs. When it gets this far its father must give it a penny and its mother must cook for it two eggs, because of its industry; and a similar reward is due it when it goes further into words, and so forth." After some further explanations, the duty of obedience was impressed upon the child, and it was again asked to solemnly promise to obey and work. Then the child was stood up before the school and some older pupil was asked to volunteer "to receive this new school-child and teach and instruct it." Dock quaintly observes "accordingly as the child is strange or known, or is agreeable in appearance or otherwise, there are generally many or few who are ready to offer to instruct it. If there are none willing, then I ask, who for a Script or a Bird will instruct the child for a certain time, and this rarely fails."

It is certainly interesting to note that the idea of having one pupil teach another not so far advanced was seized upon by two men, Lancaster and Bell, nearly fifty years later and made the foundation of a movement which shook to the very center the educational work of England, and exerted a great influence upon the whole of Europe. Later Lancaster came to America and for a time much attention was given to his method. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the city named for him, the plan has been abandoned but a few years. If Christopher Dock had had less modesty and more ambition he might have been known to history as the originator of what we now call the Lancastrian movement. As near as we can infer from Dock's school and his writings, he never carried the idea of pupil-teacher to the extremes reached by Lancaster and Bell. Of course, they all found justification for their practice in the

erroneous adage of Quintillian, "He teaches best to another that which he himself has just learned."

The following picture of the opening of school shows much of the spirit of the man: As the pupils came in the morning they sat on a bench, the boys on one the girls on another. They were then directed to some chapter in the testament and without having studied it they read in turn. While this was occurring Dock sat at a table writing the copies for the day. Those who made no mistake in reading their verse came to the table and wrote, while those who made mistakes went to the foot of the bench. Those who came in later took their places in order at the foot of the bench also. As they were freed by perfect reading they took their places at the writing-table until' all were together. The last one to leave the bench was a "lazy scholar." After they were all together at the writing-table they were carefully examined to see whether they were washed and combed. This last practice is still regarded everywhere, I believe, as good pedagogy. Cleanliness is next to intellectual development. After this examination was successfully terminated a morning hymn was sung and prayer offered. After the prayer they again went back to their reading. Those who read without mistake had a letter "O" marked with chalk upon their hands. Those who failed as many as three times, intervals between trials having been given for study, were pointed out to the school and all the scholars shouted at him, "Lazy!" and his name was written down.

Concerning this practice Dock says: "Now whether a child naturally fears the rod or does not fear it, this I know from experience that this shaming cry of the children gives them more pain and drives them more to study than if I should hold the rod before them all the time." He further tells us that if the child becomes industrious and makes up its deficiency, the school is again notified and now all the scholars shout, "Industrious." Its name is now rubbed off the

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