Garrett.] ^0*5 [Oct. 21, 



ship, in his class at Cambridge. He was one of a special advanced section 

 in mathematics, of which no member had had to take a lesson a second 

 time. They were therefore so much in advance of the great body of the 

 class that, at the end of the mathematical course, they had the advantage 

 of special instruction from Prof. Peirce in higher mathematics. He was 

 interested in all branches of physics. I remember him especially," writes 

 Mr. Hale, "as one of eight observers who made some of the first observa- 

 tions which are on record of the shooting stars. The record will be found 

 in the ' American Journal of Science,' of 1837, and I believe of the ' Comptes 

 Rendus ' of the French Academy of the same year. He was a quiet, unob- 

 trusive young man, but a favorite with the class from his uniform cour- 

 tesy, and a rare sense of humor, which never left him through life." 

 Upon taking his degree at Harvard, he immediately entered the pedagogic 

 profession, at first in district schools in Leicester and Worcester, then in 

 1840-1 as Associate Teacher in the Boarding-school at Providence, in 

 which he himself had prepared for College. In 1841-2 he taught at 

 Friends' Select School on Cherry street, in Philadelphia, and, from 1843 to 

 1844, conducted a private school in the latter city. On the 28th of June, 

 1843, he married Elizabeth Brown Oliver, of Lynn, whose brother. Prof. 

 James E. Oliver, of Cornell University, was a man of kindred tastes to his 

 own. The following two years were spent in New England, where he 

 prepared for publication his first book, the "Elements of Arithmetic, 

 Parts I and II," afterwards published by Uriah Hunt & Sons, of Philadel- 

 phia. This was followed, in 1848, by "The Common School Arithmetic." 

 In the course of 1850, in connection with Horace Mann, he prepared and 

 published " Mann & Chase's Arithmetic, practically applied," remodeling 

 the 1st and 2nd parts of the "Elements of Arithmetic" into a new 

 series, which was published by E. H. Butler & Co., Philadelphia. 



Dr. Thomas Hill, ex-President of Harvard University, bears the follow- 

 ing testimony to the value of his arithmetical works : "Chase's Arithmetic 

 was the best I ever saw. The two books 'Chase' and 'Chase & Mann, ' as we 

 called them, were worth all other arithmetics that I ever saw put together. 

 When I first introduced ' Chase ' into the public schools of Waltham, I 

 had a hard battle with the committee and with the teachers. They 

 thought it too difficult, etc., but, in less than one year, all were satisfied, and 

 at the end of three years, all enthusiastic. No schools in Massachusetts, 

 and I believe none in the world, equaled our Waltham schools in 

 arithmetic. But the publishers sold the plates to a Boston firm, who had 

 another and inferior book to push, and they melted up the plates of Chase, to 

 my intense indignation." Stronger proof of their merit could scarcely be 

 given. Dr. Hill regarded them not as compilations, such as the common 

 run of arithmetics, but as original contributions to pedagogy, and 

 "classed Mr. Chase not with mere compilers, but rather with the origina- 

 tors, whose work is more akin to Pestalozzi's, and who deserve to rank 

 very high ;" and probably no higher testimony could be produced than 

 Dr. Hill's, on this point. 



