Putnam patriot., 1910-11-18
Putsam's Great Educator.
DAVID N. CAMP.

North Kiliingiy, Ct., Sept. 10, 1855.
 He was first known to me as . mod. est. diflident young man, without any
 pretense, bashfui and thoroughly hon. est in speech and actions.
 He was striving to obtain an educa. tien, teaching . part of the time. He
 prepared for college at Phillips Acade- my, Andover, and entered Yale Col. lege with the class of 1858, struggling with the circumstances in which he was placed, being his own housekeeper and cook. After two and half years he left Yale and in 1857 removed to St. Louis.
 In this city he was first teacher then principal, assistant superintend. enl, and in 1868 was elected superin- tendent, an office which he held until ESQ.,
 During the last twelve years of his residence in St. Louis, by his studies, addresses and published reports, he ae. quired national reputation and be- came known as one Of the leading edu- cators Of the country and the world.
 These reports became part of the Ed ueationai Exhibit Of the United States, at the Paris Exposition of 1878, and won for their author the honorary title Of Academy Professor. These reports were esteemed so highly that they were placed in the principal public Ii. bfaries Of Europe.
 In 1880 pr. Harris represented the L. :. Bureau of Education at the In. ternational Congress of Educators held in Brussels, and in 1889 he represented the '. s. Bureau of Education at the Paris Exposition, and from the French government received the title of Of fieer de l'instruction publique.
 He became U. $. Commissioner of Education on Sept. 12 of the same year, an office which he filled with great credit, and to the great benefit to the cause of Education in this country. He retired from this office on June 30, lgo6.
 On returning from his visit to Eu- rope in 1880, he became a resident of Concord, Mass, and one of that group of philosophers who made that place famous.
 During his residence in St. Louis, he found much time for reading and study and gave his attention paTticu- lariy to the productions of the great thinkers of all ages. With a physical constitution capable of great achieve ment and endurance, an intellectual energy that was tireiess, love for truth and desire to know the reason of things, that were inexhaustible, he sought the works of the great thinkers and writers of the ages, and held com munion with them. He was ever looking for and studying the genesis of things.
 A keen observer of the works of na- ture, and, at the same time ever notic- ing social and political changes, he was never satisfied with appearance alone, but would know the causes. He was familiar with the writings of Kant, Laplace, Lagrange, Humboldt and Lyell, but probably read more ire Quently from the works of Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Baird and their con- temporaries.
 In whatever direction he,turned his thoughts he was ever seeking the per manent and the real, in distinction from the evanescent and outward ap- pearance.
 His mission was not to startle men with new theories or doctrines founded upon doubtful hypotheses, but to make the great truths that underlie all be- nefieent action clear to others.
 He lived in an age Of great unrest. In physics, inventions and discoveries were following each other with great rapidity. In metaphysics, bold minds were proposing new theories Of cause and effect, which were to have their influence upon society and the world.
 While DT. Harris kept abreast Of every improvement, and became con Nersant with every element Of progress in the race, he dweit not so much upon the outward manifestations Of changes as upon the underlying causes and sought to do for education and the un- foldment of human character, what had been done by others in physics, and the explanation Of material phe- nomena. A friend says: "His special work was to gather up, and to arrange concrete phenomena under general laws, and to show how these included the highest results of human reason. His mind was one of the most critical and searching of any age.
 Horace Mann, Henry Barnard and others had done much for the improve ment of schools, and for the advance of the cause of universal education, during the first half of the last century, but to William Torrey Harris, more than to any other person, is the coun- try indebted for that dear and comPre- hensive analysis of the logic of thought, and that explanation of the laws oi sii mental processes, which have caused a revolution in the method of teaching during the last half of the last century. By the application of these principies to the forming of . curriculum TOT every grade of schools, and every oe- partment of leaning, he was aoie 70 map out the special sphere of each Tn that way his study and thinking nsu an influence of importance upon every grade of instruction, from the eietnen- tary school to the university.
 Dr. Harris became member oi me National Education Association m Is-6. From that time 10 the iast year of his life he was . constant attendant upon iss annual meetings, and nis words commanded attention given 70 no other speaker.
 His addresses and papers were anong tho most important, ai1ays cootaining something 70 awaksn thooght and secure renecftou. ne vns souRht mose than any other mem ber to reply to address of welcome from eoyernoss, mayors and other ex- eeastve od5ces, presented q the an- nual uaesingx, and always ned some- ching eo ". especially relating to the fc,eIssv >f fk> rn>rainR At Toronto,