tion is a certain warrant of failure. Although Dr.
Coit may have caught inspiration from Ai'nold's
method of managing Rugby, it would be ridiculous
to say that Coit was an imitation of Arnold. The
two men were in some points almost diametrically
opposed. On one point they were in complete
agreement. They believed that character was the
first thing to be aimed at in educating boys. They
\
daelieved that the great object of a schoolmaster
260 APPENDIX
was to cultivate in the child a type of moral convic-
tions, of moral habits, that should survive the vicis-
situdes of life, and be the firm basis of strength
and consistency in conduct. They both went one
step farther in holding that no other means could
successfully be employed in thus educating boys
than the religion of Christ.
Rugby was a great school principally because it
was a school of character. The influence of Arnold
may have produced a few prigs ; but it moulded a
great number of heroes, as well as of saints. Dr.
Coit was greater than Arnold in that he not only
applied old principles to a new condition of things ;
but he actually created the American " public
school." A greater test cannot be applied to the
goodness and wisdom of a schoolmaster than the
test which Dr. Coit stood for nearly forty years.
The criticism of the young, and the deliberate
opinion of the old and experienced, will not deny
to Dr. Coit the merit of having his plans fulfilled
in the success of his work. We feel convinced that
late posterity will look towards Concord with feel-
ings of veneration, and acknowledge that he who
raised those walls and bviilt that sanctuary was a
great American schoolmaster.
APPENDIX 261
D. MINUTES OF MEETINGS OF
ALUMNI
New York, February 6, 1895.
The great career of Dr. Coit as Rector aud Head
Master of St. Paul's School from its foundation,
nearly forty years ago, has already made its indel-
ible impression upon the educational institutions
and interests of this country. Throughout the
history of the school, from its beginning with three
boys up to its present eminent position among the
schools of America, the one commanding indi-
vidual influence and impulse in its progress was
that of Dr. Coit, who by his unswerving adherence
to the loftiest Christian ideals, by his impersonal
and disinterested motives, by his rare scholarship
and commanding personality, has made St. Paul's
School what its founder intended it to be — a
school from which boys were sent forth educated
Christian gentlemen.
We share with others, in the death of Dr. Coit,
the great and illustrious teacher and man, this
sense of a great public loss to the country and to
education. But for us old boys of the school,
whose privilege it was to know him, to be taught
by him, to listen to his words in the Chapel and at
the Thursday evening talks in the school-room, to
learn to reverence and love him as a friend, there
262 APPENDIX
is a more tender and personal grief whiela is pecul-
iarly our own.
Henry Skelton Carter,
Chairman of the Meeting of the Alumni of
St. Paul's School in the City of New York,
held February sixth, 1895, signing on behalf
of and at the request of the Alumni.
WiLMOT T. Cox,
Secretary of the Meeting.
The Philadelphia Alumni of St. Paul's School,
having met on Wednesday, the 6th of February,
unite in expressing their grief for the loss which
has fallen upon the school and all connected with
it. In the death of Dr. Coit we have lost one who
beneficently influenced our lives and characters at
their beginning, and who, when we left his direct
guidance, did not relinquish his concern for us, but
followed our careers unforgettingly. Beside our
personal bereavement, we feel that our whole coun-
try suffers from the closing of a life that was dedi-
cated to its highest welfare, the shaping of good
citizens and Christian men. We feel that the ex-
ample which he set in building up a school like
St. Paul's has been a benefit not only to us, but to
the boys of other schools modeled on its plan. The
older we have grown, the wider our acquaintance
with men, the rarer seems to us the character of
Dr. Coit. He was absolutely unselfish ; he gave
all his great abilities to, he wore out his life in, his
work ; he cared for nothing but the highest things.
APPENDIX 263
To the Rector's family we beg to express our
deepest sympathy.
George H, Fisher,
William Drayton,
Owen Wister,
Committee for Alumni.
Boston, February 21, 1895.
Dear Sir, — We, St, Paul's School alumni of
Boston and vicinity, have been brought together
by a conmion wish to tell you, and through you the
family and masters at the school, of our overflow-
ing feelings, caused by the death of our dear Dr.
Coit.
There is not one of us who does not owe much
of what is best in us to him. We feel we have
lost, for the rest of our lives here, a friend, than
whom none could be truer. The loss is not only to
you, ourselves, and the other alumni, but to the
Church and the whole country.
But amidst all our profound sorrow it is a com-
fort to think in how many lives he continues to
live, how many men he has influenced to aim for
what is good and noble. It is a satisfaction to
think of his large work completed : the great
school, with its buildings all free from debt ; the
beautiful and now finished chapel, which is the ap-
propriate emblem of the spiritual centre of the
school's life ; the thorough organization ; the re-
fined, cultivated, manly, and uplifting Christian
264 APPENDIX
traditions ; the vice-rector and masters whom he
had brought about him through devotion to his
most important work, and whom he inspired, we
feel confident, to carry on the school successfully
in the way to keep it up to his high standard.
While we cannot but grieve that a presence so
full of rich blessings has gone from us, we must
yet express our warm appreciation of the great
privilege of having been with one of such rare
gifts and high attainments.
With earnest loyalty to St. Paul's School and
Dr. Coit's memory, believe us, faithfully yours,
Geoege B. Shattuck,
Feed. C. Shattuck,
RiCHAED H. Dana,
Feancis H. Appleton,
Feancis V. Paekee,
Geoege B. Little,
Geoege A. Comins,
W. Dudley Cotton,
RiCHAED M. BeADLEY,
Cleaveland a. Chandler,
James G. Mumfoed,
John W. Lavalle,
William T. Ceockee,
Chaeles B. Peekins,
Chaeles p. Cheney,
Feank R. Petees,
w. h. pulsifee,
APPENDIX 265
Robert P. Bowler,
W. A. L. Bazeley,
B. B. Crowinshield,
Charles C. Barton,
Ellis L. Dresel,
Harry K. White, Secretary.
At a meeting on February 11, 1895, of persons
living in and near Baltimore, who have been stu-
dents at Saint Paul's School, Concord, New Hamp-
shire, the following minute and resolution were
adopted : —
From April, 1856, when our Rector began the
work of Saint Paul's School, with the sympathetic
aid of his young wife, — who continued always to
be, until her lamented death, his ablest assistant,
— to February 5, 1895, when he was called to his
reward, it is no more than the truth to say that
the life and the moving spirit of that school, which
has now become so strong and famous, was Henry
Augustus Coit.
A munificent and always helpful founder, gen-
erous friends, and many accomplished instructors,
have contributed largely during nearly forty years,
in their several departments, to the great work ;
"but through all this tract of years " his was the
guiding mind and the master spirit which moulded
and formed Saint Paul's School ; his the directing
personal influence, which has ever been exerted
for good upon all, — masters and boys alike, —
266 APPENDIX
who at any time enjoyed the privilege of his friend-
ship or were subject to his direction.
Now that his life's work is ended, and he him-
self has gone to render his own account to the
Great Taskmaster for the faithful and noble use
made of the varied talents which were committed
to his charge, we, who were his boys, — each one
gratefully remembering our Rector for benefits
received which were appropriate and personal to
himself, — can all unite in bearing our testimony
that, at the school which he created, generation
after generation of young men have enjoyed every
advantage of training and education, — religious,
moral, intellectual, and physical, — which it was
possible for devoted intelligence to command or
liberality to bestow.
And apart from all that we enjoyed in common
with the multitude of the boys of Saint Paul's
School, who are now so widely scattered over every
portion of the country, we who went, before and
during and since the Civil War, from Southern
homes, to the far distant school in New Hamp-
shire, have reason to remember with especial grat-
itude the Rector, whose loving sympathy and
all-embracing patriotism were bounded by no sec-
tion and rose superior to all differences : and made
him, in peace and war, — even in camp and hos-
pital and imprisonment, — the chivalrous and con-
stant friend of his Maryland boys.
Able, learned, and accomplished, gentle and gen-
APPENDIX 267
erous, courteous and brave, a servant o£ God, and
a lover of his fellow-men, his life was a benefaction,
and his example will continue long to be an incen-
tive.
Resolved^ That this minute be adopted, and that
copies be sent by the secretary to the family of
Dr. Coit, and to the Vice-Rector of Saint Paul's
School, and the school paper.
(Signed) Laurason Riggs,
Leigh Bonsal,
Wm. L. Deyries,
Committee.
At a meeting of the St. Paul's School Club of
Yale University, to take action on the death of the
Rev. Dr. Henry A. Coit, the late Head Master of
the school, the following resolutions were unani-
mously adopted :
Whereas, It has pleased God to take from us
our beloved Rector of St. Paul's School, the Rev.
Dr. Henry Augustus Coit, and
Whereas, He has been among the foremost of
the educators of this country, and has with untir-
ing zeal built up St. Paul's School to the high
place which it now occupies, and has by his per-
sonal interest and encouragement in each boy,
gained the place of a sympathetic and trusted
friend, yet especially shall we, to whom the noble
character of his Christian life was always evident,
feel the loss of his example, be it
268 APPENDIX
Resolved, That we, the alumni of St. Paul's
School in Yale University, make known our sense,
not only of the irreparable loss to St. Paul's
School, but also of the individual loss that each of
us has sustained ; and do from our hearts extend
our sympathy to his family and friends and to the
school with which we have all been so closely con-
nected ; be it further
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed
by the President of the St. Paul's Club, who,
together with the officers of the club, shall extend
these resolutions to the family of the deceased, and
that they be printed in the " Yale News " and the
" Horse Scholasticae."
(Signed)
C. Vanderbilt, Jr.,
Philip Stillman,
A. B. Shepley,
Z. Bennett Phelps,
James A. McCrea,
Robert S. Brev^^ster,
Paul H. Lyman,
Charles V. Hopkins,
Committee.
At a meeting of the trustees of Groton School,
called to take action upon the death of the Rev.
Henry Augustus Coit, D. D,, LL. D., late Head
Master of St. Paul's School, Concord, held in
Boston, February 22, 1895, the following minute
was adopted : —
APPENDIX 269
When a leader falls his loss is realized by those
who at some distance have felt the inspiration of his
life, as well as by those who have been closest to him.
Groton School joins with St. Paul's in deep
sorrow at the death of Henry Augustus Coit. The
ability, courage, and devotion with which Dr. Coit
built up St. Paul's School has long been recog-
nized. An intelligent student of the English pub-
lic schools, a discriminating admirer of Arnold, a
disciple of Muhlenberg, he developed a school
which, while adopting certain English features, was
American in spirit.
A strong Churchman, of deep evangelical piety,
he led boys and masters to love the Church and to
devote themselves to their Master.
As a leader in the education of boys he empha-
sized the unity of the boy life. The chapel, the
schoolhouse, and the playground were all essential
features. Faith was linked to duty, mental culture
to spiritual development, and physical strength to
moral courage.
Thorough, patient, and inspiring as a teacher,
firm and sympathetic in discipline, keen and exact
in his insight of character, regarding each boy with
tender solicitude, he has given to American teach-
ers, especially those in Church schools, a great and
noble ideal of their office.
Through the influence of his leadership, other
schools have been founded, and to his memory
Groton turns with deep gratitude.
270 APPENDIX
Voted, That this minute be spread upon the
records, and that copies be sent to the family of
Dr. Coit, the Trustees of St. Paul's School, and
" The Churchman."
William Laweence,
President.
Electroiyped and printed by H. O. Hojighton dr" Co.
Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
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