Quoting  from  Rev.  B.  C.  Davis:  "His  methods  of  impart-
ing knowledge  were  unique.  By  a  simple  question  he  could
explode  a  theory,  however  subtle  in  its  construction  and  prized
by  its  author,  if  anywhere  it  contained  a  false  premise.  Even
a  true  theory  was  often  given  up  in  disgust  when  subjected  to
the  trying  questions  with  which  he  would  test  the  thought  of  its
propounder.
"In  discussing  a  subject  he  did  not  endeavor  to  give  us  a
completed  file  of  ready-made  ideas  and  statements,  to  be  stored
away  upon  the  dusty  shelves  of  memory,  but  he  aimed,  rather,
to  put  a  thread  into  our  hands,  which,  if  followed  up  by  personal
thought  and  original  investigation,  would  lead  into  the  labyrinth
of  science,  and  there  enable  us  to  discover  and  pluck  its  rarest
and  sweetest  flowers.  It  was  to  develop  the  independent
thought  and  personal  manhood  of  the  student  that  he  strove,
and  he  would  spare  no  time  and  pains  to  accomplish  this  result.
(87)


88  LIFE    OF    PRESIDENT    ALLEN.
He  impressed  upon  us  that  education  was  not  so  much  a  storing
of  certain  truths  but  a  power  to  think  and  discover  new  truths
for  ourselves.  He  sought  to  develop  all  sides  of  the  student,
the  physical,  the  moral,  and  the  religious,  as  well  as  the  intel-
lectual. He  strove  to  make  it  the  postulate  of  human  person-
ality, that  it  should  lead  all  men  to  become  not  only  politically
free,  but  educated  and  also  religious;  that  the  discovery  of  man
to  himself  must  lead  to  the  highest  development  of  himself."

ELOCUTION.
