a central point from which
his mind radiated in all directions within the sphere of the subject.
Could he read Plato and Aristotle without studying the course of
ancient philosophy and its influence on the modern? or Demosthenes,
without an investigation of the virtues and failings of Athenian
statesmen? or Thucydides, without meditation on the causes of the
desolation of empires and states? or Homer and Sophocles, without a
quick comparison with Dante and Milton and Shakespeare? It was indeed
a characteristic of Professor Putnam, and one cause why his knowledge
was becoming, had indeed become, at once so ample and so serviceable,
that it was not an accumulation of facts disconnected or bound
together by mere accidental associations, but an organic growth, every
fibre of the most distant branch tracing itself back to the one trunk,
and the sap from the living root feeding and nourishing the whole.

In his special profession, Professor Putnam would be allowed to hold
rank among the very best. The most kind and winning of teachers, he
was the most exacting and stimulating. By questions sharp, pertinent,
and various, thoroughly testing the knowledge of the student, he at
once made him feel his deficiencies, and inspired him to supply them.
Even the dull and careless felt the singular fascination of his look
and tone, caught something of the life of his spirit, and were
gradually lifted above themselves. Gentle, affable, ready to
communicate, dignified, thorough, patient, and learned, never harsh,
never repulsive, he was earnest to meet every want of the student. His
whole course was marked by unwearied fidelity.

To instruct was an occupation and a duty, to which he made everything
else yield. He was thoroughly desirous to help those who came under
his care, so revealing to them their own deficiencies, and so placing
before them the methods and results of a better scholarship, as to
incite them to new exertions, and aid them to independent and vigorous
activity. No one, unless very groveling and earthy, could be long
under his training, without insensibly catching something of the finer
spirit of a beautiful discipline. His own philosophic thought imparted
its movement to their minds, and many are they who have gone from
these halls, within the last fourteen years, who can trace back to him
some of their best methods of study.

Language was, in his view, no dead product, but the finer breath and
effluence of the nationa