Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/20

14 One of these was Dock; the other, Alexander Mack, a Bishop of the Dunker Church in Germantown and a man of rare piety and literary power. It is probable that Mack, like the younger Saur, was a pupil in Dock's school in Germantown.

During the ten years devoted to farming Dock could not wholly neglect the children. For at least four summers, in sessions of three months each, he taught school in Germantown. His school wasconducted in the old log meeting house of the Mennonites, the ground for which was deeded by Arnold Von Vossen February 10, 1702-3, to Jan Neuss, on behalf of the Mennonites. The teaching of this school had far-reaching consequences. Here Dock enrolled among his pupils the only son of the great printer to the Germans of Colonial America, Christopher Saur. Young Saur, who was born in 1721, was then in his teens. The method of Dock attracted the attention of the elder Saur, who as early as 1749, impressed by the great skill and ability of his son's teacher, urged Dock to write a treatise on his method of organizing and conducting a school. This treatise Saur wished to publish for the guidanceof less gifted teachers and of parents who by knowing how a good school is conducted might the better bring up their own children.

Dock was averse to the suggestion, holding that it was sinful to do anything for his own praise, credit or elevation. Saur then resorted to