Things Learned by Living (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...associated, became very great. His chief merit as a teacher was that he went, at once, to the substance of his topic, with an animated and interesting play of thought. He was quite sure to awaken the mind of the pupil, and put it "in act and use." He was formidable in the recitation room, but not in the least dogmatic. The student, aroused to eager inquiry, might catch, if he were not cautious, a ridiculous fall; but he was never pushed aside with mere brute force. A lively sense of humor was present, if not to relieve the immediate embarrassment of a mishap, at least to diminish the permanent sense of pain. Few have equalled him as a teacher in a lively, gracious interchange of ideas with those under his direction, and to many, therefore, he became the first vigorous, intellectual presence thay had encountered, and went with them, in this delightful relation, through all their lives. The alumni of Williams were very fond of returning to a conviction which President Garfield tersely put in the assertion, "A bench, with a student at one end and Dr. Hopkins at the other, makes a well-endowed college." This was with them a pleasant and dignified casting of a rich mantle over somewhat threadbare garments. That the method of Dr. Hopkins reached its primary purpose with the majority of students, is undoubtedly true; and that it suffered some severe limitations seems to me equally true. While many were awakened to activity, few were prompted to enter on any patient and profound research. Ready strokes of comprehension were more current than protracted investigation. While the unusual vigor, which belonged to Dr. Hopkins, prevented degeneration into superficial and verbal dialectics, his bold, self-contained movement anticipated that assiduous, ...