EULOGY ON PROFESSOR ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 97 



pathy, a portion of the enthusiasm of the master, and are stimukited to 

 exertions of which they wouhl otherwise be incapable. 



In 1836, when Professor Bache had just attained the thirtieth year of 

 his age, his attention and energies received a new direction, constitut- 

 ing, as it were, a new epoch in his life. This change was caused by a 

 movement on the part of the trustees of the Girard College for Orphans, 

 an institution munificently endowed by a benevolent citizen of Phila- 

 delphia. Preparatory to organizing this institution it was thought 

 desirable to select a suitable person as president, and to send him abroad 

 to study the systems of education and methods of instruction and disci- 

 pline adopted in Europe. The eyes of the entire community were with one 

 accord directed to our professor as the proper man for this office. He 

 had, however, become enamored with the jjursuit of science, and it was 

 with difficulty that he could briug himself to regard with favor a prop- 

 osition which might tend to separate him from this favorite object. 

 The consideration of a more extended field of usefulness at length pre- 

 vailed, and he accepted, though not without some lingering regret, the 

 l)roftered position. No American ever visited Europe under more favora- 

 ble circumstances for becoming intimately acquainted with its scientific 

 and literary institutions. His published researches had given him a 

 European reputation, and afforded him that ready access to the intelli- 

 gent and infiuential classes of society which is denied the traveler 

 whose only recommendation is the possession of wealth. It cannot be 

 doubted that he was also favored in this respect by the admiration 

 which in Europe still attaches to the name of his renowned ancestor.* 

 He was everywhere received with marked attention, and from his moral 

 and intellectual qualities did not fail to sustain the prepossessions in his 

 favor and to secure the friendship aiid esteem of the most distin- 

 guished savants of the Old World. 



He remained in Europe two years, and on his return embodied the 

 results of his researches on edncation in his report to the trustees of 

 Girard College. This report forms a large octavo volume, and is an 

 almost exhaustive exposition of the scholastic systems and methods of 

 instruction in use at the time in England, France, Prussia, Austria, 

 Switzerland, and Italy. It has done more, perhaps, to improve the 

 theory and art of education in this country than any other work ever 

 published ; and it has effected this not alone by the statement of facts 

 derived fror># observation, but also by the inferences and suggestions 



'The force of this sentiment was quaintly but strongly marked by a slight incident 

 Avhich occurred when he was in Germany. An elderly savant, on being introduced, 

 clasped him in his arms, saluted hira with a kiss on either cheek, and greeted him with 

 the exclamation, "Meiu Gott, now let me die, since I have lived to see with mine own 

 eyes an emanation of the great Franklin!" This comiilimeut was perhaps more flat- 

 tering than agreeable, since the old professor in question was wont, after the fashion 

 of his day, to stimulate his lagging faculties by freqirent and profuse extractions 

 from the snuff-box. 



7S 



