WILLIAM B. HORNBLOWER.

45

Tribute of William B. Hornblower.

I cannot forego the pleasure of contributing my share towards a testimonial to Professor Dwight, upon his retirement from active service in connection with Columbia Law School.

Whatever may be said as to the comparative merits of various systems of instruction as pursued in the different law schools of the country, and whatever theoretical advantages one system may have over another, I think it will be generally conceded that Professor Dwight has achieved a pre-eminence among the legal instructors of his time in attaining the practical result of imparting to his students a clear, coherent, and logical view of the law of the land as the student is called upon to deal with it in the practical affairs of life. No man with average ability can have graduated from Columbia Law School under Professor Dwight's tuition without being a reasonably well-equipped lawyer for the work that he has before him. The luminous exposition of legal principles, the constant and patient reiteration of those principles, the copious fund of illustration showing the application of the principles to legal controversies, which have characterized Professor Dwight's instruction, have necessarily furnished to the student who has carefully followed the Professor's course with a fund of information which cannot fail to have made him a ready and accurate lawyer at the very outset of his career. If himself endowed with a love of learning for its own sake, and a fondness for research, he has received a stimulus which will enable him during his professional life to add to his fund of information by historical study of the sources of the law; he has a nucleus of legal principles, around which he can gather and assort in orderly arrangement all the results of his individual investigation. If, on the other hand, as happens with most lawyers, he is thrown at once into the practical discussion and conduct of legal controversies growing out of the daily affairs of life, he is able to bring to bear upon those controversies the principles and rules which during his Law School course have been so thoroughly and constantly enforced upon his mind. I do not mean to be understood as intimating that Professor Dwight has ignored the historical study of the law. On the contrary, so far as can be done in the time allotted, I believe he has

given a sufficient résumé of the history of legal principles to throw light upon their real meaning as finally evolved and developed; but the emphasis has been placed by him in his teaching rather upon the results than upon the process by which the result is reached. Bracton, and Shepherd's Touchstone, and Coke upon Littleton, and the Year Books have been by no means overlooked by Professor Dwight in his instruction, but he has recognized the fact that the average student has neither the time nor the disposition for curious historical research, and if he be above the average, and has the time or the disposition, he will for himself pursue the lines of investigation to which his tastes direct him. Professor Dwight has, if I mistake not, proceeded rather upon the idea that it is more important for the legal practitioner, as for the medical practitioner, to know how to deal with actual cases and to apply the settled rules of his science, than to know what were the rules a hundred or two hundred or five hundred years ago. I do not mean by this to be understood as belittling historical research, or what may be called the more theoretical mode of studying the science of jurisprudence. Each system has its advantages, but I am inclined to think that for the average man Professor Dwight's system is the better. At any rate, in my own case, I cheerfully bear testimony to the fact that I received under Professor Dwight's instruction such a thorough and comprehensive and lucid exposition of the principles which I have since been called upon to practically apply, that I would not exchange it for any other instruction which I might have received under some other theory or plan.

Professor Dwight's personal qualities have aided him much in dealing with the minds of the young men brought before him. His imperturbable good-nature, his gentleness and kindness of manner, his indulgence for the errors and mistakes and even the heedlessness and indifference of his students, and his patient persistence in re-explaining and re-enforcing what many another man would think had already been sufficiently explained and enforced, have stimulated many a mind which otherwise would have given up in despair. No student, I venture to say, ever felt rebuffed or snubbed by Professor Dwight, so long as he was seeking for light, however irritating and exasperating might have been his apparent slowness of apprehension or forgetfulness of principles frequently brought to his attention.

It is a matter of great regret to all the graduates of Columbia Law School that Professor Dwight is about to cease from active work in that institution. We trust that his successors will be worthy of him in his qualities of mind and heart.

NEW YORK, April 25, 1891.

HON. PERRY BELMONT.

47

Tribute of bon. Perry Belmont.

Er-Minister to Spain.

Chairman 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

DWIGHT ARVEN JONES.

49

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.