EULOGY ON PROFESSOR ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 363 



obliged to leave to his wife the task of breaking the unwelcome tidings 

 to her son. On receiving the information, he stood for a moment, per- 

 fectly silent, then hurried out into the open air to conceal his emotion 

 and trauquilize his feelings. After a short interval he returned, calm, 

 affectionate, and apparently cheerful, and neither by word nor look gave 

 any indication of the pain and disappointment he had so severely expe- 

 rienced. 



It should not be forgotten that the labors to which we have alluded 

 were performed in hours not devoted to his regular duties as a professor 

 in the university. To these he was obliged to give three hours a day, 

 besides other time to the preparation of illustrations for his lectures, 

 while several evenings of the week were claimed by committees of the 

 Franklin Institute and the Philosophical Society. He was enabled to 

 execute these multifarious labors by a division of his time into separate 

 periods, to each of which was allotted its special occupation. By a 

 rigid adherence to this system he was always prompt in his engage- 

 ments, was never hurried, and found time, moreover, to attend to the 

 claims of friendship and society. He was a zealous and successful 

 teacher, to whom the imparting of knowledge was a source of unalloyed 

 and inexhaustible pleasure. His pupils could not fail to be favorably 

 impressed by his enthusiasm and influenced by his kindness. He 

 always manifested an interest not only in their proficiency in study, but 

 also in their general welfare. Tbey regarded him with affection as 

 well as respect, and while in other class-rooms of the university disor- 

 der and insubordination occasionally annoyed the teachers, nothing was 

 to be witnessed in his, but earnest attention and gentlemanly deport- 

 ment. 



His success as an instructor affords a striking confutation of the fal- 

 lacy which has not unfrequently been advocated in certain quarters, that 

 men devoted to original research and imbued with habits of mind 

 which it generates are not well qualified for the office of instructors. 

 So far is the proposition from having any foundation in fact, that it is 

 precisely among the most celebrated explorers of science of the present 

 century that the most successful and noted teachers have been found. 

 In proof of this the illustrious names of Priestley, I)e Candolle, Dalton, 

 Davy, Oersted, Faraday, and a host of others, immediately occur. At 

 the same time it cannot be denied that it is questionable economy to 

 devote to the drudgery of drilling youth in the elements of knowledge, 

 a mind well qualified by nature and training to enlarge the boundaries 

 of thought and increase the stores of knowledge. But it is equally 

 clear that the practice of teaching is, to a certain extent, not incompati- 

 ble with the leisure and concentration of mind requisite for original 

 research; that the latter must, in fact, act beneficially alike on the 

 instructor and instructed; the former gaining in clearness of concep- 

 tion in the appreciation of the new truths he is unfolding by imparting 

 a knowledge of their character to others, while the latter catch, by syin- 



