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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 55
but also from adjoining and distant counties. It AA'as frequently the
case that his pupils from a distance outnumbered the resident pupils.
TAVO of Mr. Fish's pupils have written some impressions of Mr. Fish
and his leaching which are given IICIOAV:
"Ilis aim from the beginning of his teaching to the end AA'as to
develop his pupils' minds. He forced nothing, but only furnished
exercise for the pupils' mental faculties; from the first he saAV that
the brain like the body loves and demands exercise, and it is a fact that
his students Avere as intent on the inspiring exercises in the school room
as they Avere on the games out of doors. In his youth he Avas an
athlete; he joined his scholars ouldoors and in, and a Avintcr in his
school Avas one continuous merry-making. It is no Avonder that the
children in the loAver schools looked fonvard to the great day when
they could attend his school, nor that youths from a distance were
happy and content with any plan which Avould place them among his
pupils. And the best part of it Avas that Avhat they found in the school
AVIIS better and more Avonderful than their anticipations.
"Certainly he had every qualification for a teacher. He Avas a
natural-born mathematician, and if he had had no other gifts, he Avould,
by devoting himself to mathematics, have risen to a high place. He
had a still greater gift in language, not in mere words of which he
had all, but in the language that is true and fitting; and he had a still
greater gift in philosophy, and not in that visionary philosophy of which
there are as many kinds as there are visionary philosophers, but in
1 lie philosophy of reality of which there is but one kind in the universe.
I>ut beyond these gifts, he was a lover of everything beautiful in
nature, art, .literature, lie was deeply moved by music, and if he has
admired and studied men who were great in other things he has gone
through life as if hand in hand with the great poets.
"It seems sometimes a pity that his work could not have had a wider
field, that he could not have directed an educational system to cover
a great territory, but Antonius Stradivari Avas not at the head of a
factory, but made his violins with his OAVH hands. There are hvo other
gifts that he has ahvays had in the highest degree: one of them is
memory, such a memory as people had when there Avas no printing and
they had to remember. To this day he Avill easily tell you the names,
the surnames, the given names and the nicknames of nearly every one
of his scholars—from 1845 to 1898. He will tell you as if the school
they al tended Avere only out for evening—yes, as if it Avere only out
for noon. The other gift Avas humor and love of Avit and humor, and
Avith this went and still goes the grandest, biggest, most contagious laugh
that ever made a merry Avorld. No wonder that so complete a human
being took the fullest interest in all other human beings."
"Ilis aim, from his first school to his last, Avas to develop his pupils
capacities for thinking, rather than to burden their minds Avith mere
information. Owing to his wide and thorough knOAA'ledge of the subjeels
which he taught, and a facility of diction which enabled him to choose
his words with precision, his expositions to his pupils were both clear
and luminous. His extensive reading and the habit of thinking on Avhat