instruction; of
Spurzheim as the expounder of the philosophy of education, and of Horace
Mann as its most eloquent advocate; but Mr. Barnard stands before the
world as the national educator. We know, indeed, that he has held
office, and achieved great success in the administration and improvement
of systems of public instruction in particular States. But these labors,
however important, constitute only a segment, so to speak, in the larger
sphere of his efforts. Declining numerous calls to high and lucrative
posts of local importance and influence, he has accepted the whole
country as the theatre of his operations, without regard to State lines,
and by the extent, variety, and comprehensiveness of his efforts has
earned the title of the American Educator. It is in this view that his
course has been patterned after no example, and admits of no comparison.
But if in his plan, equally beneficent and original, he had no example
to copy, he has furnished one worthy alike of admiration and imitation.

[5] "Massachusetts Teacher," January, 1858.

Mr. Barnard was a native of Hartford, Conn., where his family had lived
from the first settlement of the colony. He was born on the 24th of
January, 1811, in the fine mansion where he now resides. The son of a
wealthy farmer, and living within half a mile of the centre of a
considerable town and the State capital, he was placed in the most
favorable circumstances for early physical and mental development.

His elementary instruction was received at the district school, which,
with all its imperfections, "as it was," he remembers with gratitude,
not indeed on account of the amount of learning acquired in it, but
because it was a common school, "a school of equal rights, where merit,
and not social position, was the acknowledged basis of distinction, and
therefore the fittest seminary to give the schooling essential to the
American citizen."

While pursuing the studies preparatory for college at Monson Mass.,
and at the Hopkins Grammar School in Hartford, his proficiency was
brilliant; and such was his eagerness for knowledge that, in addition to
the prescribed course, he extended his reading among the works of the
best English authors.

Having entered Yale College in 1826, he graduated with honor in 1830.

The five subsequent years were mainly devoted to a thorough professional
training for the practice of the law, the severer study of the legal
text-books being relieved by the