Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/247

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S. Paul's School.
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to masters and boys alike, because, best of all human examples, they point continually to the perfect example of S. Paul's divine Master and Teacher. There is something inspiring and bracing to a man living in the present age to see the evidence furnished here that the faith of S. Paul has not changed one whit, and that its power to make men unselfish and noble and good is as great to-day as when he, who carried that faith to Greece and Italy, a lonely messenger, looked down upon cities reeking with vice, and self-consumed with intellectual pride.

But leaving this portion of the subject, upon which it was not our intetion to dwell so long, let us take another look down into the valley. Towairds Prospect from the chapel we see a mass of roof; it covers a building not attractive in its outward appearance, and yet somewhat striking by reason of the absence of windows in the lowest story, and the line of long ones in the second. This is the school-house, and represents the intellectual side of the place. New Hampshire has many educational institutious, but we are reminded that our subject is one of the youngest, for thirty years ago this spot was known only as the summer residence of a gentleman who was then, and is even more so to-day, among the foremost of the citizens of Boston; and if we are to judge him by what he has done to spread the light of learning and godliness throughout the length and breadth of this land, he is also one of America's greatest and best of sons. Upon entering the school-room we see the explanation of the striking feature noticed on the outside. It occupies two full stories, and the windows are arranged so as to throw down the light from above. It is lighted mainly by gas, though oil lamps are provided for those with weak eyes; it is heated by steam and admirably ventilated. There are nearly two hundred desks. On the rostrum at one side is the master's desk, and above it the school motto, "Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in Coelis." Along the two end walls are the sixth form stalls occupied by them at the Thursday evening "talk," and when the week's reports are read out on Saturday afternoon. The numerous photographs of classical subjects, the paintings, the light panels and dark red of the spaces between them, add much to the attractiveness of the room. There are nine recitation-rooms in the school-house, one of which contains the cabinet and another the library. The instruction is by twenty-three masters; and the fact is not a little interesting and significant, that the twenty-one who left in the middle of June for their long summer holiday returned the 10th of September, to a man; with the two last additions, the "old boys" who are now aiding in the school work number eleven. The course of study is practically the same as in all schools which fit for colleges with the highest standards. It may be described as classical with a scientific division. In the preparatory form the youngest boys, averaging eleven years, are started in the elements of Latin, and made ready to begin the regular five years course, which is classical to the end of the third year, and this means that Greek is required for one year at