well read in philosophy, especially of the Scottish school, Brown being his favorite author.  But he had fully assimilated the matter and had thought independently.  He also had a fund of fresh and suggestive illustrations coming within the daily experience of men, which brought his lectures close to the minds of the students.  Whatever positions of honor or of trust his pupils held in their later careers, they never ceased to feel the impulse which came from Dr. McGuffey as a teacher.

On March 29, 1829, he was licensed as a preacher in the Presbyterian church, and from that date he became a frequent public speaker.  He never had charge of a parish as minister, but usually preached on Sunday in the college chapel to the students and to such of the public as could obtain space to sit or to stand.  The preacher’s unassuming manner, the clearness of his thought, and the simplicity of his language produced impressions that were enduring.  He never wrote his sermons.  He simply thought them out rigorously, and his mind worked so logically and in such definite lines that he could repeat on request a sermon, preached years before, in a form recognized by his hearers as substantially the same.

[Cincinnati College]

After ten years spent in teaching and preaching at Miami University, Dr. McGuffey resigned, August 26, 1836, and accepted the presidency of Cincinnati College.

This institution was chartered in the winter of 1818-1819 by the legislature of Ohio, largely at the solicitation of Dr. Daniel Drake.  It was partially endowed by the gifts of the public-spirited citizens of Cincinnati.  But its collegiate functions had been allowed to drop, although a school on the Lancastrian system was maintained.

The election of Dr. McGuffey as president of this college was a result of renewed activity on the part of the leading men in the city to found a genuine college of high character in that city.  They believed that if well conducted such an institution would bring to its doors students enough to support the college by their fees.

A medical department was organized in June, 1835, with eight competent professors, a law department with three professors, and a faculty of arts with seven teachers.  In this faculty, William H. McGuffey was president and professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, O.M.  Mitchell was professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, and Edward D. Mansfield was professor of Constitutional Law and History.  Dr. McGuffey accepted the presidency with a full knowledge that the work was experimental.  A trial of three years demonstrated that a college could not be sustained without an invested endowment.  Cincinnati College “was endowed with genius, and nothing else.”

[Ohio University]

In 1839, Dr. McGuffey accepted the presidency of the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, which office he held for four years.  During these years his faculties were at their fullest development.  He had become an experienced, scholarly teacher and a popular speaker on religious and educational subjects.  The students at Athens held him in the highest esteem, and the influence of his teaching became deeper as years rolled by and experience emphasized his lessons.