become its principal, and accepted the office. He at once gathered around him a corps of teachers, and opened his second Normal school, three weeks after he left Leavenworth. The regents of the University welcomed him back to the state, and expressed their estimation of his ability by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the summer of 1869, and his _alma mater_ added an LL.D. the following year. The school at Potsdam was no sooner organized than he gave himself anew to the study of methods of instruction and the philosophy of education, for which he possessed a peculiar aptitude. Being encouraged by the other principals to work out his ideas into permanent shape for the general good, he became the author of several books on arithmetic; he also became the author and inventor of various important devices to illustrate, objectively, principles of arithmetic, geography and astronomy. Meanwhile there arose a degree of friction between the academies and Normal schools of the state, which made itself felt in the legislative session of 1876, in a threat to cut off the appropriations from the Normal schools, unless the academies were treated more liberally. At the next meeting of the Normal school principals, the matter was discussed, and the cause of the difficulty was found to be the double-headed management of their educational system. It was agreed that the remedy for the existing difficulties was found in uniting the management of all the schools of the state under one head. Dr. MacVicar and Dr. Sheldon, of the Oswego Normal school, were appointed to urge this view on the State Legislature at its next session. They conferred with a deputation of academy principals, and won their approval of the plan prepared. It was then embodied in a bill, and brought before the legislature in 1877. Although much time was spent in bringing the matter before the committees of the assembly and the senate, and many of the prominent men of both houses, who generally approved of the measure, yet the private interests of aspirants to the office of state superintendents conflicted with it, and it was thrown out when it came up for a hearing. In the autumn of 1880, Dr. MacVicar was invited to take the principalship of the Michigan State Normal school, at Ypsilanti, and finding it the only school of the kind in that state, and there being no diversity of interest in the educational management of the state, it seemed to offer an opportunity for something like ideal Normal school work, so he accepted the position. He remained there, however, but one year, when, being thoroughly worn out with hard work, and being urgently pressed to join the faculty of the Toronto Baptist College, just then opened, he resigned his position in Michigan and came to Canada. Dr. MacVicar excels as a mathematician and metaphysician, having read extensively in both directions, as well as in the natural sciences. He has also made the relation of science and religion a