WILLIAM AUGUSTUS STEARNS. 293 



learning by getting surreptitious possession of the Latin grammar, — 

 for the good minister's means admitted of but one for all his sons, 

 — and secretly beginning the study of Latin by himself, an effort 

 which proved to be quite beyond his boyish strength. 



When young Stearns reached the age at which his brothers had 

 been sent to Phillips Academy, in Andover, where his father also had 

 had his school education, he naturally asked to be allowed to go thither 

 in his turn. But his father, oppressed by the res angusta domi, replied, 

 sadly, " My son, desirous as I am of doing what you ask, I do not see 

 that Providence opens the door ! " "I do not iDelieve, sir," replied the 

 boy, " that Providence will open it, unless you knock ! " Struck by the 

 spirit or the good sense of the answer, the father knocked in faith: 

 the door o^jened and remained open until the sou had passed through 

 the school and afterwards throui2;h the college. It was a favorable 

 time when the boy of fifteen took up his abode in that beautiful town, 

 which Improvement had as yet spared, and where he spent three 

 hajjpy and profitable years. The academy was then under the mas- 

 tership of the excellent Principal, John Adams. The government of 

 this gentleman differed from that of most masters of his time and 

 before and since. His rule, though firm and decided, was gentle and 

 kind. Corporal punishment was almost unknown, and inflicted only 

 in cases of the grossest misconduct. He did not permit the principle 

 of rivalship and emulation as motives of action. There was no head 

 and no foot to classes, no medals or rewards of merit, no parts at the 

 Annual Exhibition distinguishing degrees of scholarship. His pupils 

 were expected to study because it was their duty and what they were at 

 school to do. He thus saved them from the jealousies, heart-burnings, 

 and disappointments which so cruelly wring the breasts of very young 

 persons. At the more mature age of young men in college, the case 

 may be different, and such contentions and prizes may be fitting prepara- 

 tion for the conflicts of life. But for young children we are satisfied that 

 Mr. Adams's philosophy is the wise and true one. His system justi- 

 fied itself by its success. The scholarship of his pupils was quite 

 equal to the best of his time. We believe that there was ne.ver an 

 instance of one of his scholars failing at the examinations for admission 

 to college, and in college they won their fair share of college distinc- 

 tions. In his old age his Alma Mater, Yale College, gave him the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws, an honor which she might have gracefully 

 bestowed forty years sooner, when, besides being a compliment and a 

 gratification, it would have been a professional advantage. For he was 

 a most dutiful son of that mother of his mind, and always did what he 



