444 BARNAS SEARS, D.D. 



society, while his broad learning and intuitive tact gave him a control- 

 ling influence in removing old prejudices or introducing new measures. 

 He was alvvajs heard with deference by the members of State legis- 

 latures ; his advice was welcomed by statesmen and scholars and edu- 

 cators, and he was a universal favorite in social circles of every grade. 

 At his death the first part of his plan for administering the trust was 

 considered by the board as accomplished ; the system of free schools 

 was established in every Southern State. The board were prepared 

 to carry out the second part of the plan, the* elevation of the standard 

 of education through normal schools of a high grade. Mr. Wiuthrop, 

 in a tribute of rare beauty at the funeral services, which was the 

 more welcomed because wholly unpremeditated, said with tenderest 

 pathos: " I am expressing the feelings of my colleagues, no less than 

 my own matured judgment, when I say, that neither among the living 

 nor the dead do we know the man who could have discharged the 

 delicate and responsible duties of this important trust with more con- 

 scientious fidelity or greater success." 



Dr. Sears was married, Feb. IG, 1830, to Elizabeth Griggs Corey, 

 of Brookline, Mass., wlio survives him with four children, three sons 

 and a daughter. 



He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Har- 

 vard University in 1841, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws 

 from Yale College in 1862, He was for many years the editor of the 

 " Christian Review," and an associate editor of the " Bibliotheca Sacra," 

 contributing valuable literary and theological papers to these and other 

 periodicals. He published a " Life of Luther," which had a wide 

 circulation in this country and in England ; and in connection with 

 Profs. E. A. Park and B. B. Edwards prepared a volume on " Classi- 

 cal Studies." He edited an American edition of Nohden's German 

 Grammar and of Roget's "Thesaurus," with many additions for Ameri- 

 can students ; and prepared a volume called " Ciceronia," with ex- 

 tracts from Cicero and an account of the Prussian method of classical 

 instruction ; also " Select Treatises of Martin Luther," with philologi- 

 cal notes, and essays on English and German etymology. He was an 

 active and useful member of many learned societies, and a cordial 

 worker in religious and philanthropic institutions. 



