EDITOR'S TABLE. 



411 



more or less help, and that help can 

 best take the form of placing them, as 

 we have expressed it, fairly opposite 

 successive objects of study, and leading 

 them to ask, one by one, the questions 

 necessary to draw out all the informa- 

 tion obtainable in regard to these. The 

 educator who makes all education prac- 

 tical — that is to say, who keeps the 

 idea of rational purpose ever in the 

 foreground — will certainly accomplish 

 better results, in the way of developing 

 thought, than one who teaches with 

 only an occasional reference to purpose. 

 We can not say more on this subject at 

 present ; but, as it is one of great im- 

 portance, and seems to be of special in- 

 terest to not a few of our readers, we 

 may attempt further elucidations at a 

 future day. 



TEE WORK OF PRESIDENT BARNARD. 



The death of ex-President Barnard, 

 of Columbia College, has removed from 

 among us one of the most successful and 

 far-sighted of American teachers. Dr. 

 Barnard was a leader in advancing edu- 

 cational movements ; among the fore- 

 most in steps to enlarge the scope and 

 improve the methods of academic in- 

 struction. His early training and associa- 

 tions might have been expected to make 

 him a conservative ; but they did not. 

 "While prizing and keeping what was 

 good in the old theories and forms, he 

 was a pioneer in the movement that has 

 liberalized the courses of university stud- 

 ies and given them greater flexibility 

 and adaptation. During the very years 

 previous to 1860, when he was closely 

 associated with institutions which seem 

 to have been crystallized in the formal- 

 ity of the ancient traditions, and with 

 men wedded to them, he was maturing 

 those views which, foreshadowed in his 

 papers and reports on " College Govern- 

 ment," "Collegiate Education," "Art 

 Culture," "The Improvements practi- 

 cable in American Colleges," " The Be- 

 lations of University Education to Com- 



mon Schools," and " University Educa- 

 tion," he carried out in the latter part 

 of his career. 



Notwithstanding its advantages of 

 age and endowment, Columbia College, 

 when Dr. Barnard was called to its 

 presidency in 1865, was not occupying 

 a conspicuous position. His accession 

 to the presidency was nearly coincident 

 with the removal of the college to its 

 present location and the establishment 

 of the School of Mines. These were for- 

 tunate events which contributed their 

 share to the growth of the college. But 

 the prosperity of the School of Mines it- 

 self, which has become one of the fore- 

 most American scientific schools, is large- 

 ly accredited to his executive ability, 

 conjoined with the fidelity of the Board 

 of Instructors who were happily asso- 

 ciated with him. While always urging 

 the giving of increased prominence to 

 scientific studies, he did not lose sight 

 of the value of the other departments. 

 He rather sought and secured a sym- 

 metrical development all around ; so 

 that, as one of the most temperate sum- 

 maries that we have noticed of the re- 

 sult of his work records, " under his ad- 

 ministration Columbia has made steady 

 progress, until he was able in his last 

 years to foresee a future in which the 

 institution shall grow into the dignity of 

 a university worthy of the metropolis." 

 During the last year of his active serv- 

 ice Columbia is said to have had the 

 highest enrollment of any college in the 

 country. 



President Barnard was successful be- 

 cause he was an original and independ- 

 ent thinker and a prompt executor; 

 because he was quick to discern what 

 was good and ready to accept it. He 

 was neither too strongly attached to the 

 old and established, nor so radical as to 

 grasp at visions and try to force changes. 

 Begarding education as something that 

 must grow and be developed, he looked 

 constantly forward, judged everything 

 by its merits, and seized and made the 

 best of whatever he found that was good. 



