bours very far from being light. In his third year
(1898-99) he still gave five courses of two hours a week each, with
the exception of a single one-hour course. For these no less than
eighty-six students were registered; and in the following year,
fifty-two students were registered in one of the courses. In 1901-02
he gave six courses: a general course in musical culture, for which he
had thirty-seven students; an advanced course in musical culture, for
which he had fourteen students; a course in counterpoint, twelve
students; in orchestration, twelve students; in practical composition,
thirteen students; in free compositions, two students. This continued
to be, in general, his work until he resigned in 1904. To these
labours he added the appalling drudgery of correcting examination
books and exercises--a task which he performed with unflagging
patience and invariable thoroughness. Some of his friends remember
seeing him at this particular labour, and they recall "the weary,
tired, though interested face; the patient trying-over and
annotating." In addition to his regular duties, he devoted every
Sunday morning to receiving students in the more advanced courses who
were invited to come to him for help in their composition and piano
work. He was, as his friend Hamlin Garland has said, "temperate in all
things but work--in that he was hopelessly prodigal."

These facts are worth stating in detail; for it has been said that
MacDowell had no drudgery to perform at Columbia; that he had few
students, and that the burden of the teaching work was borne by his
assistant. The impression has gone abroad that he had little didactic
capacity, that he was disinclined toward and disqualified for
methodical work. It cannot, of course, be said that his inclinations
tended irresistibly toward pedagogy, or that he loved routine. Yet
that he had uncommon gifts as a teacher, that he was singularly
methodical in his manner of work, are facts that are beyond question.
His students have testified to the strikingly suggestive and
illuminating manner in which his instruction was imparted. His
lectures, which he wrote out in full, are remarkable for the amount of
sheer "brain-stuff" that was expended upon them. They are erudite,
accurate, and scholarly; they are original in thought, they are lucid
and stimulating in their presentation and interpretation of fact, and
they are often admirable in expression. They would reflect uncommon
credit upo