ities, of this
movement, as we behold the fruits, already maturing, of the wisdom and
Christian benevolence of our honored commonwealth?

We are assembled to review the past, and to gather from it strength and
courage for the future; and we may with propriety congratulate all,
whether present or absent, who have been charged with the administration
of this school, and have contributed their share, however humble, to
promote these benign results. And we ought, also, to remember those,
whether living or dead, whose faith and labors laid the foundation on
which the state has built. Of the dead, I mention Lyman, Lamb, Denny,
Woodward, Shaw, and Greenleaf,--all of whom, with money, counsel, or
personal service, contributed to the plan, progress, and completion, of
the work.

The good that they have done is not interred with their bones; and their
example will yet find many imitators, as men more generally and more
perfectly realize the importance of faith in childhood and youth, as the
element of a true faith in our race. If this enterprise, in the judgment
of its founder, was not an experiment ten years ago, it cannot be so
regarded now; yet the public will look with anxiety, though with hope,
upon every change of the officers of the institution. The trustees
having appointed a new superintendent, he now assumes the great
responsibility. It may not be second to any in the state; yet a man of
energy, who is influenced by a desire to do good, and who will not
measure his reward by present emoluments or temporary fame, can bear
steadily and firmly the weight put upon him. The superintendent elect
has been a teacher elsewhere, and he is to be a teacher here also. His
work will not, in all particulars, correspond with the work that he has
left; yet the principles of government and education are in substance
the same. The head of a school always occupies a position of influence;
the characters of the children and youth confided to him are in a great
degree subject to his control. Here the teacher is neither aided nor
impeded by the usual home influences. This institution is at once a home
and a school; and its head has the united power and responsibility of
the parent and the teacher. Here are to be combined the social and moral
influences of home, the religious influences of the Sunday-school, with
the intellectual and moral training of the public school. He who to-day
enters upon this work should have both faith and courage. H