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 William Campbell Preston. were then in the highest state of perfection, and Mr. Legare, being well acquainted with the French drama as a literature, studied and enjoyed its representations on the stage with intense delight. Talma and Duchenoise had brought tragic acting to perfec tion, and Mars was inimitable in polite comedy. To Mr. Legare, their representa tions were not only amusement, but a study. The theatre was to him, what it was when Bolingbroke applauded a play of Addison, or Johnson the acting of Garrick. It was, however, illustrative of a trait in his charac ter, that he frequently sought and enjoyed the rich farce of Potier, or the naivete and idiomatic finesse of the vaudeville — for al though his general demeanor was grave, and sometimes even austere, yet there was a vein of fun running through his character, with a keen perception of the ludicrous, which not unfrequently manifested itself in the presence of his intimate friends. At such moments, his joyousness, his entire abandon, and a rich play of a riotous imagi nation, afforded an amusing, and not u11pleasing contrast with his habitual reserve. . . . From Paris he went by the way of London to Edinburgh, to attend a course of lectures at the university, then adorned with the names of Playfair, Leslie and Brown, while the presence of Scott shed a glory over the city, which almost obscured the lustre of Jeffrey, the Wilsons, Alison, and others, who, 01 themselves, by their science, learning, and social position would have made Edinburgh the most intellectual and agreeable city in Europe, to any foreigner who had claims to denizenship in the re public of letters." And now the plan of education, in its main features mapped out by Francis Pres ton for his son William's training, has been acted on and completely carried out. What a splendid plan it was! An admirably equipped teacher for the academic years — one thoroughly trained in the classics and well versed in polite literature; Washington

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College, with its then high prestige, for a few months, and then the South Carolina College, with a reputation, at that period, vieing with the great universities of the East; a winter at Richmond, the home of southern chivalry, refinement, and culture, and at Washington, the capital of the nation, with its atmosphere of eloquence, learning, and statesmanship; a season in the office of per haps the most eminent lawyer of his day; an extensive tour on horseback through the leading States of the "Far West"; a voyage across the water, and, finally, a tour through England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Scotland, embracing in it a stay for a while in London, the metropolis of the world, a sojourn of several months in Paris, leading the cities of the world in beauty, gayety, and fashion; and culminating with a winter at Edinburgh in attendance upon the lectures delivered in the celebrated university located there — an institution at that time eclipsing all others in learning and scholarship, — such was the plan of Preston's education. Where can we find it equalled, not to say surpassed? Can the president of Yale or Harvard, in this year of our Lord, 1899, improve upon it? I have read some able articles advocating travel as a substitute for a collegiate course. I see every now and then propositions advocating the abolishment of the classics from the college curriculum and the substitution of the sciences therefor, I hear a great deal about co-education; — but, after all, in my humble judgment, the educational equipment and training of Pres ton were admirable and we have yet to see suggested an improvement upon them. Mr. Preston returned to this country in 18 19 and was admitted to the bar in Virginia, in 1820. It was in 18 19 also that he was married " to that beautiful and excellent lady, Miss Maria Coalter, to whom he had become attached while in college." It seems that both Mr. Preston and his wife concurred in selecting Columbia, South Carolina, as their home and place of resi