Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/250

246 of the English school. At length Mr Dove, who had been for many years master of a school in England, and had come hither with an apparatus for giving lectures in experimental philosophy, was prevailed with by me after his lectures were finished, to accept that employment for the salary offered, though he thought it too scanty. He had a good voice, read perfectly well, with proper accent and just pronunciation, and his method of communicating habits of the same kind to his pupils was this: When he gave a lesson to one of them, he always first read it tchim aloud, with all the different modulations of voice, that the subject and sense required. These the scholars, in studying and repeating the lessons, naturally endeavored to imitate; and it was really surprising to see how soon they caught his manner, which convinced me and others who frequently attended his school, that, though bad tones and manners in reading are, when once acquired, rarely, with difficulty, if ever cured, yet, when none have been already formed, good ones are as easily learned as bad. In a few weeks after opening his school, the trustees were invited to hear the scholars read and recite. The parents and relations of the boys also attended. The performances were surprisingly good, and of course were admired and applauded; and the English school thereby acquired such reputation, that the number of Mr Dove's scholars soon amounted to upwards of ninety, which number did not diminish as long as he continued master, viz: upwards of two years; but, he finding the salary insufficient, and having set up a school for girls in his own house to supply the deficiency, and quitting the boys' school somewhat before the hour to attend the girls, the trustees disapproved of his so doing, and he quitted their employment, continued his girls' school, and opened one for boys on his own account. The trustees provided another English master; but though a good man, yet not possessing the talents of an English schoolmaster in the same perfection with Mr Dove, the school diminished daily, and soon was found to have but about forty scholars left. The performances of the boys, in reading and speaking, were no longer so brilliant; the trustees of course had not the same pleasure in hearing them, and the monthly visitations, which had so long afforded a delightful entertainment to large audiences, became less and less attended, and at length discontinued; and the English school has never since recovered its original reputation. Thus by our injudiciously starving the English part of our scheme of education, we only saved fifty pounds a year, which was required as an additional salary to our acknowledged excellent English master, which would have equalled his encouragement to that of the Latin master; I say, by saving the $o. we lost fifty scholars, which would have been ^200. a year, and defeated, besides, one great end of the institution. The Master of the English School, Mr. Kinnersley, Mr. Dove's successor, we have seen was in July 1755 made Pro-