Tribute of bon. Perry Belmont.

Er-Minister to Spain.

Cbairman of Committee of House of Representatives on Foreign Relations.

It was Professor Dwight's attractive personality that drew mealthough a graduate of Harvard-to the Columbia Law School. It was he who taught me, as he did the graduates of other universities who have come to his classes, to feel a deep and lasting interest in the welfare and success of Columbia-while, of course, the more distant alma mater always claims our affectionate loyalty. Professor Dwight for a long time WAS the Columbia Law School. It hardly existed when he became connected with the College in 1858-a third of a century ago. Now it numbers over six hundred members, and is, with one exception, the largest institution of its kind in the country. The State University of Michigan is said to have more law students, but the conditions there are very different. The State bears a large proportion of the cost of instruction, and the admission fees are merely nominal; but, in the case of the Columbia Law School, many of the graduates have had to observe the strictest rules of self-denial, industry, and thrift to avail themselves of its benefits.

To his most able and interesting method of instruction he added the happy gift of so identifying himself with the students who came under his charge, and thus assured them that his personal interest in their careers would extend beyond the Law School itself. They saw the kindly concern he took in the progress of those who had preceded them, and they instinctively felt that the same generous solicitude would follow them also in after life. There could be no stronger incentive to earnest effort, and not a small part of the success which has attended Professor Dwight's labors in the College has been due to this sentiment. This is only one of the many reasons which caused the announcement of his retirement from active connection with Columbia College to be received with such deep regret by every student who has had the pleasure and the profit of his instruction; and it is a pleasing duty to give expression to so sincere a feeling, however inadequate these few words may be.

Tribute of Dwight Arven Jones.

The personality of a teacher is a powerful factor quietly at work to aid or hinder his teaching. In no other profession can an inspiring man accomplish better results. His enthusiasm awakens the dormant powers of the pupil, arouses his ambition, and spurs him on to personal achievement. And as each year brings under his influence many ripening minds, he is ever securing new and rich opportunities. Perhaps no better example of the far-reaching effects that may come from this personal power can be found than is illustrated by the affectionate regard with which the law graduates of Columbia College remember Professor Theodore W. Dwight. In him pre-eminently, there was the power of first gaining the interest and then absorbing the attention of the pupil. And thus it was, he speedily acquired a magnetic influence over all and obtained his great popularity. His stature, his scholarly appearance, his years, his courtly and frank carriage, made him an object of admiration to his students, and they could not but appreciate his profound ability, his keen wit, his unusual patience, and his unerring fairness. But, beyond these, it was his cheerful and earnest interest in the affairs of the lecture room,—in fact, his genuine enthusiasm in his work,-that controlled their wills and that gave him his great force with them. This enthusiastic interest in his calling, so freely exhibited by Professor Dwight, was the more admirable because it is nowadays seldom found in men of his parts and in his profession. Even instructors of wide reputation are too apt to leave upon their students an impression of the utter weariness of learning; and lawyers of mature age too frequently are given over to a critical condition of mind that precludes all enthusiastic display. But in Professor Dwight's case, the renowned instructor always retained his original fire, and the able lawyer never became too acute or profound to show his ardent interest in the affairs of the moment. As a result of this, while students were with him they were eager to hear him elucidate legal questions; and now several thousand lawyers look back upon him as the most remarkable instructor they have ever known, and carry with them a remembrance of him which is a constant incentive to better work.

But Professor Dwight has not held the regard of his students only by his enthusiastic interest in his work. The clearness and brilliancy of his mind opened to them the justice, the accuracy, and the pliability of legal

principles. He pictured the law as a just and equitable science, and based its teachings upon principles of right and justice. He brought out with wonderful acumen the nicety of distinction that abounds in it, and in this displayed striking power, for these distinctions constitute to a great degree the fascination of the study of law, as they require the closest reasoning and the keenest attention on the part of the student, and always offer an opportunity for individual thought. To Professor Dwight this art of just discrimination seemed natural and simple; and he was ever delighted to trace the logical development of some nice distinction from the well-known principle underlying it. He thus impressed one with the reasonableness of the law, deprived it of its mysteries and technical absurdities and brought all its doctrines to the test of right. Abstruse questions of law in his hands resolved themselves into clear propositions of fairness, and passages in text-books that seemed to have been written for the purpose of terrorizing students, became strangely simple when illustrated by him. This power of a master mind could not but impress his pupils. They looked up to him then as they look back upon him now, as a model scholar and teacher. one who was both learned and lucid, both profound and simple.

While the class of 1877-the largest ever graduated-was under his instruction, the amount of college work done by Professor Dwight was astounding, especially when other work done by him is considered. At that time, each division of each class thought itself ill used if he did not conduct every recitation. It would be easy, if space allowed, to give the daily duties that he undertook; but as the memories of all those who attended the Law School at this time will recall his constant presence, there is no need to do this. His unremitting attendance in the lecture room must have put a most severe test upon his patience and energy; but it was just at this time that he displayed fully his wonderful strength. All who then attended his recitations and lectures will remember the crowds that filled every available spot in the old lecture room, the students even sitting about on the edge of the Professor's platform. And this was the daily experience. The instance simply illustrates the desire that then existed to hear him expound the lesson of the day-a desire which has continued undiminished to the present time. And now, as Professor Dwight retires from active work in the Law School he has made famous, I am sure it is the hope of a host of his old pupils, that he may realize how widely he has impressed his powerful personal influence upon them, how greatly he has elevated the study of the law both for them and for all scholars, and how successfully he has set before them a living example of a calm, a wise, and a just man.

NEW YORK, April 24, 1891.

Tribute of Ethelbert D. Warfield.

President-Elect of Lafayette College.

I suppose that it is the common sentiment of my contemporaries in the Law School that Professor Dwight was the law school. Certainly it was far truer of him than Louis le Grand's favorite saying, "L'état c'est moi," was true of him. His personality pervaded it, his ideas dominated it, his will guided it; above all, love for him controlled it. Professor Chase, whom we admired and respected, was so completely a result of Professor Dwight's methods that we scarcely thought to distinguish him and his teaching from the elder and, for the time, dominant influence.

I came to Columbia, a Princeton graduate, from a period of special study in the University of Oxford, and in Germany, where I had laid a foundation in Constitutional History and Roman Law. My mind had been thoroughly liberalized and I was dead in earnest. It was, therefore, I think, a fair tribute to Professor Dwight as a teacher that I was entirely captivated, and I say, without hesitation or reserve, that he was, me judice, the best instructor I ever knew. As a teacher he compelled the students to work, he imparted information with ease and accuracy, and he stirred up those of scholarly instincts to independent investigation. In all his dealings with the students he had the happiest way of removing misconceptions, and opening up by a fine, incisive, critical method a way through the most tangled maze of conflicting decisions. In this there was none of that pyrotechnic display so common in brilliant men who are inferior teachers. It was simple in method, outspoken in manner, and bred a confidence in the students which has seemed to me to be the most marked characteristic of Columbia men at the bar. In a word, Professor Dwight made us all understand that the English Law was a SYSTEM, and that induction was not the sole logical method to be employed in its study or practice.

The school was meant to make lawyers, and it made them well. Professor Dwight taught practical law with a practical end to practical young men. The end was ever in view, and the means were perfectly adapted to it. But in those who were fitted for more philosophical studies in connection with the law he awoke a love of scholarly treatment

and pursuit which was a true example of the power of "influence" in teaching. I tried the School of Political Science, but had done the work of the courses offered there elsewhere, and pursued an independent course of research, in which the Warden was ever interested and ready to advise. In every relation, in public and private, there was the same unvarying genial, kindly, friendly way, often warming into humor, sometimes chilling into rebuke; but if there was anything in his class-room manner open to criticism, it was that he was too indulgent to that class of men who have neither self-respect enough to study themselves, nor to abstain from being a check and a nuisance to those who do study. These men often imposed on his good nature, and if any proof of its genuineness was required, they gave him "the concrete case on which to raise the issue."

I went to Columbia because I believed in the theory of the school, so my critical judgment has not been altered, though possibly strengthened, through admiration of the man who may be said to embody that theory. It is a singularly complete gratification to recall my law school days, since in theory and in personnel I was so entirely led by the right path to the desired goal. In the few years I passed at the bar, and have since passed as an instructor in Jurisprudence and the outlines of English and Roman Law, I have had nothing to regret in my training, and I shall hope that my alma mater shall at last find a man imbued with the ideas and methods so long so successful in Columbia. For our beloved and honored friend and preceptor I trust there may be a long and honorable repose in the midst of those for whom he has so faithfully labored.

MIAMI UNIVERSITY, April 17, 1891.