no less willing and liberal; and in salaries, improvements on buildings and grounds, and in meeting current expenses for wear and tear, it has worked up to the very limit of its resources. I have made many requests of this Board, and there is not one of them which has not been instantly and cheerfully granted. I have sundry requests to come before the Peabody Board, and I have no doubt that whatever is reasonable in them will be granted. I do not intend that either of these Boards shall lose the habit of well-doing through any lack of invitation or opportunity. So long as the College prospers and grows it will have needs. A real school is an organism; and like every organism, it must be fed if it is to grow.

This is an appropriate occasion to state some of the ideas embodied in the organization of this College.

1. The ultimate aim of the school, to be realized as rapidly as the condition of the country will permit, is to give to teachers a professional education of the collegiate type. The intellectual defect of the teaching class is narrowness. There is the humility of ignorance and the humility of wisdom; but between the two, there is the tract of pedantry and conceit. It often happens that a school does no more than bring its pupils into this zone of intellectual conceit. Had they gone farther they might have become wise enough to take the dimensions of their own ignorance and thus have acquired the spirit of the scholar. Heaven forbid that this school should ever contribute to perpetuating the race of pedants! The remedy lies, as I believe, in assuring to teachers a liberal education. Here we shall hold fast to the doctrine that to be a teacher one must first of all be a scholar.

2. And this is a professional school, a school whose pupils are set apart for a special vocation, and to whom must be communicated a kind of knowledge known as professional, which converts a scholar into a teacher. The most precious endowment of the teacher is freedom, versatility, the power of adapting means to ends. Now, this freedom is to be found in truth and not in method, for dependence on rules arrests thought and stifles ingenuity. Speaking generally, the prevalent Normal-school idea is to base a teacher's success on method. The purpose of this College is to place the prime elements of a teacher's success first of

all in a liberal education, and next in a comprehensive knowledge of the history and the philosophy of education.

3. I do not intend that this school shall illustrate the law of the survival of the fittest. The question with me shall be not how few have survived the rigor of its examinations, but how many have profited by its nurture. The work of this world is done, in the main, not by the genius who soars, but by the men and women who labor and plod. Whether a pupil shall remain in this school or not depends on one simple question: With honest endeavor is he making good use of his time and opportunities? If he is, he shall stay, even though he does not soar; but if not, he must go, no matter what his native talent may be.

4. I find it necessary again to call attention to the fact that the membership of this College is not restricted to scholarship students. Any white youth, of either sex, of proper literary and moral qualifications, whose purpose is to become a teacher, will be received and educated for his profession. Nor is there any restriction as to territory. Students from States having no scholarships are just as welcome as students from the States that have them. And while this College was established primarily and principally for the South, I have official warrant for saying that its ultimate purpose is national. A student would not be rejected because his home is in Illinois or in Oregon.

As I stood in this hall one year ago, fato profugus, as it seemed to me, I was not sure that I had been wise in leaving the friends of a lifetime and one of the most desirable positions in academic life; but as I stand here to-day no doubt crosses my mind as to the wisdom of my decision. I do not love the University of Michigan less, but I love the University of Nashville and the Peabody Normal College more.

Governor Taylor was expected at the opening of the College, but was unavoidably absent; and Mr. FRANK GOODMAN read a letter from His Excellency regretting his inability to be present.

State Superintendent FRANK M. SMITH, representing the State Board of Education, made a short but appropriate address, in which he spoke principally of public education. His description of the school of half a century ago was

very amusing. He said that graduates of the Peabody Normal College need only present their diplomas to get any recommendation as teachers that they wished. He predicted a most brilliant future for the institution.

After these exercises the students passed into their respective rooms to prepare for another year's work. About two hundred registered yesterday. The present senior class numbers about one hundred.

TWENTY-EIGHTH MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES.

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 1889.

THE Trustees met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, on October 3, at 12 o'clock, noon.

There were present: Mr. WINTHROP, the Chairman, and Messrs. FISH, WHIPPLE, HAYES, DREXEL, GREEN, PORTER, MORGAN, CLEVELAND, COURTENAY, DEVENS, GIBSON, and FULLER; and Dr. CURRY, the General Agent.

The records of the last meeting were read and accepted, when a prayer was offered by Bishop WHIPPLE; after which Mr. WINTHROP addressed the Board as follows:

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees:

I am privileged to welcome to our little circle this morning Chief-Justice Fuller, of Illinois, Judge Devens, of Massachusetts, and Senator Gibson, of Louisiana, who were elected at our last meeting, and whose presence is the best assurance that they have accepted the trust which we have called on them to share with us.

We do not forget the valued Associates whose places they have been elected to fill, and whom we have so much regretted to lose by death or resignation. But we may well be satisfied that the prestige of our Board is in no danger of being impaired, and that we have secured the co-operation and counsel of those who are as worthy of the confidence of all by whom this Trust is held dear, as they are agreeable to ourselves personally.

I may be permitted to include ex-President Cleveland, also, in the same expressions of welcome. Prevented repeatedly by public duties, as he has been, from attending our Annual Meetings since his election as a Trustee on the death of General Grant, his presence to-day is a gratification to us all.

We miss, however, from our meeting this morning more than one whom we should have been glad to find here. The absence of Mr. Evarts cannot fail to be specially noted. As chairman of our Finance Committee, and a member also of our Executive Committee, and as one of the only three remaining original members of the Board, he has rendered himself too useful and too important for us to do willingly without him. We rejoice to learn, however, that the affection of his sight, which compelled him to go abroad for advice, is happily passing off; and I am sure you will all unite with me in sincere wishes for his complete restoration and early return home. Meanwhile the renewed attendance of Governor Fish does not leave me as the only original Trustee at this meeting, while it secures for us once more the counsel and experience of one who has been so familiar with all our proceedings from the first, and so faithful in the discharge of the manifold duties which from time to time have been assigned to him.

It will be remembered by the Board that I mentioned at our last Annual Meeting that I had received a letter from our Associate, General Henry R. Jackson, of Georgia, resigning his place as Trustee. As we already had three vacancies to be filled and were unprepared for a fourth, but still more as we were all sincerely desirous to retain him as one of our number, there was a unanimous concurrence in my proposal that we should take no action on the subject, and a general hope was entertained that he might reconsider his purpose. I am sorry to say that the hope has been disappointed. General Jackson was elected a Trus