V"*" MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN 1845-1899 BV TIMOTHY DWIGHT NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1903 Copyright, 1903, by Dodd, Mead and Company Published, May, 1903. TO THE FRIENDS OF THE PRESENT TIME AND THE PAST IN ASSOCIATION WITH WHOM IT HAS BEEN MY HAPPY FORTUNE TO GIVE MY SERVICE TO YALE UNIVERSITY THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED 2012391 PREFATORY NOTE. THE story of the years which is presented on the following pages has, like all records of personal memories, its starting-point and, in large meas- ure, its movement in the sphere of individual experi- ence. If, as a consequence of this fact, a certain prominence appears at times to be given to its author which, in a volume of a different order, would not be manifest, and which, had it seemed practicable at the outset, he would have gladly avoided, he can only ask indulgence of his readers, requesting them to turn their thought, as far as may be, from himself and to center it wholly upon the life of the University and the men who are described. For the graduates of Yale, whether of the earlier or the later time, the writer hopes that the story may have an interest because it tells somewhat of the growth and progress, during the half-century just ended, of the institution which they love. For others, who as friends of the University are ever ready to rejoice in its well- being, he trusts that the book will carry in itself a pleas- ant record of the past and a happy prophecy of the future; while to all, wherever they may be, who prize the privilege of the higher education, its pages, if they chance to read them, cannot fail, as he thinks, to bring some word of encouragement that the blessings attend- ant upon this privilege will hereafter be yet greater and more widely extended. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE HOPKINS GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND ITS RECTOR . . i II BEGINNINGS OF COLLEGE LIFE n Til OUR EARLIEST COLLEGE TEACHERS, 1845-46 THE IN- STRUCTION AND DISCIPLINE OF THAT PERIOD . . 24 IV PRESIDENT DAY'S RETIREMENT His CHARACTER AND WORK, AND His ERA 39 V STUDENT LIFE AT YALE, 1845-1849 55 VI RELIGIOUS EXERCISES AND PREACHING OF THE PERIOD COURSE OF STUDY AND DAILY STUDENT LIFE . . 76 VII LIFE AS GRADUATE STUDENT, AND IN THE TUTORSHIP 1849 to 1855 97 VIII THE OLD FACULTY PROFESSORS SILLIMAN AND KINGSLEY 114 IX THE OLD FACULTY PROFESSORS OLMSTED AND LARNED . 140 X THE OLD FACULTY PROFESSORS PORTER, THACHER, HADLEY AND STANLEY 157 XI DR. WOOLSEY His INAUGURATION, AND EARLY WORK . 181 XII OTHER INSTRUCTORS, AND TUTORS; AND SOME MATTERS OF COLLEGE LIFE, 1851-55 202 XIII STUDENT YEARS IN GERMANY UNIVERSITIES OF BERLIN AND BONN, 1856-58 223 XIV YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL, AND ITS OLDER FACULTY . 251 XV THE DIVINITY SCHOOL ITS REBUILDING AND ITS LATER FACULTY . 278 XVI DR. SAMUEL HARRIS, AND DR. LEONARD BACON . . 294 XVII DR. WOOLSEY'S ADMINISTRATION SOME MEN OF His TIME, 1846-71 311 XVIII DR. PORTER'S PRESIDENCY SOME MEN OF His ERA . 342 XIX THE UNIVERSITY 1886-99 CHANGES FROM THE EARLIER TIME . ... 369 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XX THE FACULTY PROFESSORS LOOMIS, JAMES D. DANA AND NEWTON 384 XXI PROFESSORS WHITNEY, EATON, MARSH AND LYMAN . 401 XXII PROFESSORS MCLAUGHLIN, EDWARD J. PHELPS, SALIS- BURY AND OTHERS 418 XXIII THE CORPORATION OF THIS PERIOD 1886-99 433 XXIV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY 1886-99 45 XXV QUESTIONS OF THE FUTURE 477 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE OLD BRICK ROW IN 1863 . .' Frontispiece FACING PAGE HAWLEY OLMSTEAD, LL.D. . . . 8 YALE COLLEGE, IN 1845 l8 The Old President's House in the Foreground at the Right of the Picture. PRESIDENT TIMOTHY DWIGHT, 1795-1817 . . 40 PRESIDENT JEREMIAH DAY ... . . .42 PROFESSOR ELEAZAR T. FITCH .... 76 PROFESSOR CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH ... 86 PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SILLIMAN . .. .114 PROFESSOR JAMES L. KINGSLEY . . .126 PROFESSOR DENISON OLMSTED . . . .140 PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. LARNED . . .152 PROFESSOR ANTHONY D. STANLEY . . .178 PRESIDENT THEODORE D. WOOLSEY . . .192 From a Portrait Painted in 1844. PROFESSOR NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR . . .256 PROFESSOR JOSIAH W. GIBBS .... 266 OLD DIVINITY HALL . . . . .280 Erected 1836, Removed 1870. DIVINITY SCHOOL BUILDINGS . . . . 290 Erected 1870-74. PROFESSOR SAMUEL HARRIS .... 294 REV. DR. LEONARD BACON . . . . 300 PRESIDENT THEODORE D. WOOLSEY . . . 312 REV. WYLLYS WARNER . . . . . 314 EDWARD C. IIERRICK . . ' . . .316 HENRY C. KINGSLEY . . . . ' , 322 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE REV. DR. JOEL HAWES . * . . . 326 PRESIDENT NOAH PORTER . . . 342 PROFESSOR THOMAS A. THACHER ... . 352 PROFESSOR JAMES HADLEY . . . -354 PROFESSOR LEWIS R. PACKARD . . . 356 PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. NORTON . . . 358 PRESIDENT TIMOTHY DWIGHT . . . . 370 PROFESSOR ELIAS LOOMIS . . . .384 PROFESSOR JAMES D. DANA . . . . 392 PROFESSOR HUBERT A. NEWTON . . . 396 PROFESSOR WILLIAM D. WHITNEY . . . 402 PROFESSOR DANIEL C. EATON .... 408 PROFESSOR OTHNIEL C. MARSH . . .410 PROFESSOR CHESTER S. LYMAN . . -414 PROFESSOR EDWARD J. PHELPS . . . 424 PROFESSOR EDWARD E. SALISBURY . . .428 REV. DR. NATHANIEL J. BURTON . . . 434 HON. WILLIAM M. EVARTS .... 442 OSBORN HALL AND UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS . 460 View from the Corner of Chapel and College Streets. VANDERBILT HALL ..... 462 Erected 1894. YALE GYMNASIUM 4^4 Erected 1891-92. WINCHESTER HALL 468 Erected 1892. CHITTENDEN LIBRARY ..... 474 Erected 1888. WELCH HALL ....... 480 Erected 1891. PHELPS HALL . . . . . . 484 Erected 1896. Pictures of a few of the buildings erected between 1887 and 1899 are inserted as indicating the changes in the later years. MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN The Hopkins Grammar School and Its Rector ON the sixteenth of August, 1845, m company with twelve or fifteen of my associates, who had been for a considerable period in a course of study, I left the Hopkins Grammar School, in New Haven, with the purpose of presenting myself for ex- amination for entrance into the Freshman class of Yale College. The Hopkins School is among the oldest of its order in the country, having been founded in 1660. Its history has been an honorable one, and the list of its teachers and students includes a large number of men who have rendered valuable service in the Church and the State. But perhaps the most interesting fact connect- ed with it is its very close relation to the University. Not only has it always been a preparatory school in which young scholars have received the education fitting them for the college years, but in a certain sense it may be properly regarded as the beginning of the College itself. It is well known that the most prominent leaders in the New Haven Colony, even from the early days after the settlement, had the earnest desire to establish within its limits a collegiate institution. Their definitely formed purpose answered to their desire, and they MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN waited only for the opening of the possibility of accom- plishing that for which they hoped. The time of this possibility seemed to have arrived when it was learned that Gov. Edward Hopkins, the second Governor of the Connecticut Colony, who died in London in 1657, had made by his will a bequest sufficient in amount, as it was thought, for the first foundation of the school which should become a college. Action was taken accord- ingly, and the school began its life. The anticipations of the founders failed, indeed, to be realized, because of special disappointing circumstances, and of difficulties which need not be recounted here. But the movement was then made, which renewed the courage and strength- ened the purpose of the men of the era, and which re- sulted, forty years later, in the establishment of the higher institution. It will not be regarded as inappropriate, I trust, if I begin my record of my memories with an allusion to the Hopkins School, and with a few words respecting the teacher who, from 1839 to 1849, carried forward its work of instruction and devoted himself to the interests of its pupils. We who were under his care during some of those years seemed to be in the true line of the Yale inheritance. The old principal of the school to whom I refer, Hawley Olmstead old he then appeared to our boyish thought, though he could not have been more than about fifty years of age had been engaged in the work of instruction ever since his graduation from the college, in 1816. He was a man of the earlier type, wholly given to his professional duty, and full of a quiet yet earnest enthusiasm for it. He believed most thor- oughly in the advanced school education of the time that education the end and aim of which were to fit the youth, who was privileged to enjoy its opportunities, for the collegiate studies as then arranged and prescribed. Possibly he had faith in the usefulness of some other MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sorts of mental training, in cases where boys were intend- ing to follow another kind of life. But he had little interest in such training. It was of a lower order, and teachers of a different class might care for and direct it. For him the college, together with that to which its course of instruction was designed to lead, was all in all. The truly educated man must be a college graduate. The youth who desired to become such a man must, of necessity, pass through what was known as the classical course, and must take this as opening the way to all the higher spheres of life. To prepare boys for college was, accordingly, in his view, the one, sole, all-sufficient, all- satisfying work for a schoolmaster of the first rank. No more important and no more honorable work could offer itself as a lifelong employment for any man, for it was the laying of the foundation on which everything pertaining to the future must rest. With reference to this preparation, the matter of single and supreme moment in the case of any individual youth was, as he felt, that it should be carried forward to completeness, in accordance with the ideal which had been establishing itself in his own mind during the thirty years of his past professional career. This idea was what was ever uppermost in his thought. The product of the school manufactory must reach the perfect stand- ard of the goods to be manufactured. The excellent man had, also, a sentiment of loyalty as related to the institution of which he was the head, and in connection with it he had the desire that every pupil whom he sent forth to the ordeal of the college examination and the college life should prove himself, by a successful meet- ing of the tests, an honor to the school and its teacher. This sentiment, however, and the desire which accom- panied it, were altogether secondary to the ideal that has been mentioned. No unworthy pride was mingled with his feeling. There was nev^er any wish on his MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN part for reputation, or for public confidence or esteem, other than that which should come to him as the result of the genuine work which had been done for and by his students. With such ideas and ideals in his mind, it was not strange that the question of time how much of it might be required for the attainment of the true fitness be- came to his thought, even more and more as the years moved onward, one of comparatively little significance. The impatient boy, as he was growing up to youth and manhood, might easily view the matter in quite another light. The impatient parents, over-confident with ref- erence to their son's powers and attainments, might, in many cases, sympathize with the boyish feeling. But all this is the result so the worthy principal said to himself and to them of a want of true understanding. The boy, he said, is at the beginning. He cannot appre- ciate what he will see and feel a few years later, and will see yet more distinctly and impressively when many years have passed. On some occasion long after this time, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is said to have re- marked to a friend: "Hindsight is better than fore- sight." The teacher of 1845, w h looked back over his own experience even to 1 8 1 6, certainly had abundant opportunity of "hindsight," which could also contribute its aid to his foresight. The backward look included in its survey a sufficiency of examples within his own experience which might be used effectively to the end of supporting every argument that he could desire to present, or of meeting every possible objection that could be urged, whether by parents or children. Thus he was ready for each and every case. How distinctly I recall the difference of opinion between him and myself, near the end of the school year 1844, as to the advisability of my entrance upon the college course at that time. I had had the fixed purpose of offering MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN myself as 3 candidate for such entrance then, and all my desires were to this end, My mother and father had, also, the same desire and purpose on my behalf, and no thought of any other plan had been in our minds. But the good Dominie, as we used to call him about three weeks before the school year was to close without my knowledge presented himself to my father for a conver- sation with reference to his son. "My dear sir," he said in substance, "your boy can undoubtedly pass the college examinations at this time. He can, without question, maintain a good standing as a scholar in the college years. But I want those years to do all for him that is within their possibility, and for this end he is not yet as fully prepared as he ought to be. I shall feel, if he enters the college now, that I have not done my full work for him, and that he has not done his full work for himself. His course will not be what it ought to be. He needs a year more to realize my ideal for him. I beg you, for his own sake, to let him remain with me for the additional year." My parents, in this regard, were what all intelligent parents ought to be. They did not decide the question for me, and then force .me by authority to accept their judgment. They laid before me what the good man had said to them, and we considered together his views and his advice. The result was though greatly to the dis- appointment, at the time, of what had been my long- cherished hopes that we all determined to be guided by his counsel. I continued in the school for the addi- tional year in question, and at its close I went forth with the Dominie's most hearty benediction, and, I may add, with a satisfaction in his decision and my own which has never left my mind from that now far-distant day to the present time. I give this simple story of my personal experience merely as an illustration of my early teacher's whole- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN souled devotion to his work, and of his thought of school and college education in their relation to each other. He was an enthusiast in all this matter. He was a schoolmaster, in the highest and best sense of the word, and his vision was wide and large within his own sphere of education. The late Dr. Leonard Bacon, whose apt- ness of phraseology was only equaled by his peculiar and remarkable humor, was wont to say: "Mr. Olm- stead seems to think that a man ought to spend one half of his life in getting ready for college, and the other half in going through college." This extravagant expres- sion was descriptive of the man. But his enthusiasm for his work, the singular character of which made the descriptive remark possible, was a sort of enthusiasm in which teachers everywhere, and in all ages, may most fitly pray with earnestness to have a share. It carried with it a lifetime blessing for every open-minded and open-hearted pupil who had the privilege of sitting under his instruction. The good man was an excellent teacher and an excel- lent disciplinarian. Intelligence and wisdom directed his efforts in both lines of his work. The characteristics of the martinet were entirely foreign to his nature. As related to the matter of discipline, he had a full under- standing of the difference between what was essential and what was non-essential. Estimating the two at their proper worth, he insisted on the one and was leni- ent with respect to the other. To tie himself to a mi- nutely arranged system, or to bind his own actions, or those of his pupils, by rules which could not be modified, or, if need were, disregarded, was contradictory to his whole theory of working. Rules should be, he thought, as few as possible, and should be applied or set aside according to the manifest demands of particular cases. The dread of the possible influence of disregarding them for the moment, which so often lays hold of teachers as 6 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN well as other men in official positions, and which rests as a heavy burden not only upon themselves, but those who are responsible to them, had no disturbing force for him. It found no entrance for itself into his mind. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," was a word which, in the widest and most far- reaching application of its fundamental principle beyond its own limits, he understood and followed. He was a lover of boys, and he knew well how to govern boys. All his pupils now living who remember the old days will recall to mind how skillfully he guided and man- aged them. He had no law, for example so essential in the view of many teachers that there should be no whispering among the boys in the school-room during the school hours. But, when any circle of boys passed beyond due limits in this matter, his eye would be quickly upon them. After a little, he would quietly request one of them the one whom he saw to be the leader or chief offender to come to his desk, and in an undertone, unheard by others, would say: " I notice, William [or John, or whoever it might be], that there is, and has been of late, an excess of whispering in your corner of the room. You will, no doubt, realize, as I speak of it, that it tends somewhat to disorder and to prevent others from giving their attention to their studies. I wish you would use your influence with those who sit near you to put a stop to this excess." All was so kindly, so shrewdly intelligent, so full of evidence to the boy's mind that the teacher knew him to be the most active whisperer, and yet so adapted to put him on his honor, that he became the master's man at once, and the whispering circle was made orderly for the future. There was no conflict, no imperiousness, no show of authority for its own sake, no threatening of dire punishment. The boys were won by wisdom, by supreme tact, by an appeal to their better nature, by the MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN exercise of that rare gift, whose value is inestimable common sense. So it was everywhere, in all his govern- ment and discipline. So it was also according to the measure of possi- bility in his methods and work of instruction. The custom, which prevailed in our colleges soon after this period, of requiring students to memorize their Latin grammars, so that they could repeat the pages without questions even to the extent of giving accurately all the minute exceptions in prosody would have been abhor- rent to his thought and feeling; as it ought to have been, but was not, to those who followed him. He was a generous-minded teacher. He knew the necessity of grammar as related to language, but he realized the order of progress and the subordination of the lower to the higher. It was an era, indeed, when the idea was so widespread and all-controlling that the teacher's work was, as some one has expressed it, to bring Cicero into adjustment with Andrews and Stoddard's Grammar, that no man, however free or gifted, could boldly make it his great effort to put Andrews and Stoddard in accord with Cicero. But within the limitations of the time he elevated the mind of his pupil, and prepared him to be a free man in scholarship, and to be fit for the work of educated life. He was no more of a martinet as a teacher than he was as a disciplinarian. His personality was somewhat striking, and rather attractive than otherwise. He was of good, though moderate height, and was fleshy even to corpulence, weighing probably from two hundred to two hundred and twenty pounds. He had a large head, which gave the impression of intelligence and thoughtfulness. His face was unusually florid, while his hands were exceed- ingly white and delicate, and the boys were wont to think that his one harmless and pleasant vanity was exhibited in the frequent indeed, it seemed almost constant 8 HAWLEY OLMSTEAD MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN gentle movement of his hands across his face, ever bring- ing out the contrast. His hair and whiskers, which were always close-cut, were perfectly white, so that he seemed older, probably, to all who met him than he really was. But, however, this may have been to the boys' minds, in that day even more truly if possible than at present, the gray-haired man of fifty appeared to be advanced beyond any reasonable counting of years. They called him the "Old Dominie," and the former of the two words had for them as much emphasis and truth as the latter. They all loved and honored him, and the title which they gave him was one of sincere affection and regard. After a few years more of further service, he retired from his work, passing his office in the school into the hands of his son. In the year 1862, the college con- ferred upon him, in view of his eminent and long-con- tinued service in the cause of education, the degree of Doctor of Laws= an honor which all who knew him may well have felt to be worthily bestowed. When he reached the age of seventy, he said to a friend, who congratulated him with birthday greetings and with best wishes for future years: "I have come now to the limit of threescore and ten. Henceforth I shall regard myself as a minute man, holding myself ready at a moment's warning." Time passed on and health con- tinued until, at seventy-five, the prophetic word, as it almost seemed, was fulfilled. A little circle of gentle- men, of advanced age and retired from active service, who were wont to meet together weekly for conversation and discussion, had assembled, on a December day in 1868, at his house, and in his turn he was taking part in the friendly debate, when suddenly the summons came, and in a moment his spirit had entered within the veil. He was a member of the last college class which graduated under the administration of the first President MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Dwight, and was its valedictorian. It is pleasant to me to place these few words in commemoration of him on these pages, and to see in what he did for me a uniting link, as it were, between myself and the life and influence of that honored ancestor. II Beginnings of College Life THE college entrance examinations, at that time, were held on the days immediately preceding Commencement, and in the galleries of the Chapel of the period. This building was used for the religious services of the institution from the date of its erection, in 1824, until the Battell Chapel was com- pleted, in 1876. From that time onward until 1896, when it was taken down, it was commonly called, in dis- tinction from the more recent and larger edifice, the Old Chapel. By this name it was known to most of the graduates of the last quarter of the century. To the students of to-day it is, like South College or the Athe- naeum, a thing altogether of the past. What the build- ing was, in its interior, in 1845, ' IS beyond the recollec- tion of the larger portion of the living graduates. The pulpit w r as of the old-fashioned order, raised far above the pews and almost on a level with the galleries. The great pillars, which supported the galleries and the ceiling, were of so formidable a character that each one shut out the preacher from the view of several persons whose seats happened to be in its vicinity. The seats themselves had straight backs, with a projecting molding at the top projecting not only backwards, but forwards so as to strike the occupants between the shoulders; a device which some of the students, no doubt, thought was intended to produce wakefulness, but which was not always successful in effecting its purpose. At the sides of the pulpit, and also near the middle of the side walls of the building, there were elevated seats or boxes MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN those near the pulpit being almost on a level with the pulpit itself which were assigned to the younger offi- cers or tutors, and from which they could take a wide observation of the student audience. The building was uniformly cold in winter and hot in summer, with no provision for ventilation. It would be regarded as for- bidding, not to say dreary, by the more luxurious youth of the present generation. Even to the young men of that era an era which some of the graduates, who think they can recall and describe it, characterize as one of " plain living and high thinking " it was hardly at- tractive or winsome. I doubt whether " plain living," in any line in which the plainness is extreme, is ever as fully satisfying even to a " high thinker " in his youth, as it sometimes seems to him to have been when he looks back from the stand- point of his later age, and especially when he is dis- coursing about his own contemporaries in their earlier days, as contrasted with his son's in theirs. My excellent father, as I remember, used to animadvert upon, and in a sort of self-comforting way grieve over, the degeneracy of the times when I was a young man, as compared with those when he was a youth. But I was wont to try to encourage him with the consolatory thought that, how- ever much things had changed for the worse between his early years and his later ones, they were doubtless much better in his later years than they would be in mine. But somehow he was not consoled. As for myself, the result was that I was led to question in my own mind whether there was quite as much high thinking in the old time as there was plain living and whether what there was of the former was so directly the result of the latter as it is sometimes supposed to have been. All this, however, is leading us away from the entrance examinations. In company with my associates I found my place in the Old Chapel gallery, and waited MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN anxiously for the tutors and processors. They presented themselves in due season not one or two only, with unmoved countenance, laying before me printed ques- tions to be answered in writing, and to be gathered up silently and fatefully after an hour's work on my part; and this to be repeated for two long days or more but all of them in succession, each having his inquiries in his own department to offer me orally, and each put- ting himself by the living voice into some personal connection with me as an individual. It was an ordeal. It was a serious hour. But, when we separated, we had spoken with each other and knew something about each other. I was not a mere number, and the man whom I had met was not a mere reader of a paper, with the power of marking according to a certain standard his own standard what he read. The old system could hardly be re-established now, even if its restoration were desirable. There were by no means so many subjects, in those days, of which the student's knowledge must be tested. There were, also, not more than one-fourth, or one-fifth, as many candi- dates presenting themselves for the examinations. Moreover, neither the teachers nor the pupils had come under the influence of what are now styled " modern methods; " and the science of pedagogy, at present com- ing into so much prominence in the educational sphere, was a thing, as it were, wholly of the future. One could, of course, do many things in such an unsystematic age, which would disturb the sensitive mind in this later era, when conventions of teachers and essays of authorities have discussed philosophically the intellect of the child and the youth, and have reached certain seemingly per- manent conclusions which are, however, to be sub- mitted for final adjustment to the next annual conven- tion. But whether it be possible, or not, to return to the old order of things, there was, at least, the one 13 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN happy circumstance connected with it to which allusion has been made. The examiners and examined met each other as living persons, and the former were able to get some more adequate impression of the personality and powers of the latter than it is possible to gain from the mere reading of written answers to printed questions. We boys of 1845 na cl this good fortune, if we had no other. I am glad in this view of the matter that I was one of them. The College Catalogue for that year had on one of its pages the following statement: " Candidates for ad- mission to the Freshman Class are examined in Cicero's Select Orations, the whole of Virgil, Sallust, Jacobs', Colton's, or Felton's Greek Reader, the first three books of Xenophon's Anabasis, Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, Goodrich's or Sophocles' Greek Grammar, Andrews' Latin Exercises, Arithmetic, English Gram- mar, and Geography; and hereafter, they will be ex- amined also in the part of Day's Algebra preceding Quadratic Equations." To this paragraph a note was added, as follows: " The deficiency of most candidates for admission, in the Latin and Greek Grammars, Latin Prosody and Composition, Geography, and the theoretical part of Arithmetic, makes it necessary to remark, that the ex- amination in these subjects will be strict and compre- hensive." This note, as I record it, brings to my mind certain pleasant memories and thoughts; among the thoughts, these: that arithmetic is now remanded wholly to the school years and examinations; and that Latin composi- tion is not so formidable a matter as it once was, and among the memories, this: that, after I became a mem- ber of the Faculty, at a meeting of that body on one occasion the elder Professor Silliman, who always ex- amined the candidates in geography, complained with 14 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN much emphasis of the deficiency of knowledge on their part, and by way of illustrative example, said: " I was asking one of them, 'Who founded St. Petersburg?' and he answered, ' St. Peter.' " It occurred to me, at the time, that neither the founder of the city nor the saint belonged within the sphere of geography; and the Freshman candidate might have given the professor this answer. But, apart from the appended note, an oral examina- tion on the subjects specified in the old catalogue, and on these subjects only the part of Day's Algebra pre- ceding Quadratic Equations being beyond the present requirements, and simply threatened for the future would, no doubt, if proposed to the candidate of to-day, seem a somewhat mild and tame affair. It should be remembered, however, that the curriculum of the schools was not then what it now is, and that the sphere of college studies was much more limited, both with refer- ence to departments of study and to individual studies. We who were then candidates for entrance trembled, as the young applicant now does for himself, lest we might not be able to command at the moment what, in other more favored hours, we had known. The scene, also, was as strange and solemn to us, as it is to the boy of this later time. The professors and tutors were almost, if not quite, as impressive and even appalling; with somewhat, as we thought, of the character of the cloud- compelling Zeus. The possibility and danger of being conditioned heavily, or of meeting the yet more terrible fate of hopeless rejection, were as present and constant in our thoughts throughout the ordeal. The suspense and the nervous strain, which continued until the an- nouncement of the final decision came, were as great. We were more cheerful when the hours were ended than we were when they began that is to say, those of us were so, to whom the announcement of success was 15 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN made at the end, and in whose minds the pleasing con- sciousness arose that we were actually members of the class of 1 849. I was myself one of these fortunate ones. The good Dominie's work for me had had its appro- priate and promised result. Possibly, the old grand- father's gift to me in the line of inheritance had wrought in harmony with the dominie's efforts. Possibly, I had had some part in the matter myself. It was of little moment to me then, how it had come to pass. The one, great, solid fact was, that I was no longer a candidate, but a Freshman; and I was satisfied. I seemed to my- self older and stronger than ever before with the first great success secured with the future opening brightly in its hope and promise. This is a common and familiar story answering to the experience of how many since that earlier time but its significance is unfolded more and more fully as we pass onward through our life. I am still learning what it had within itself for me. The summer vacation, at that period, continued for only six weeks Commencement Day being the third Thursday of August, and the autumn term beginning about the twenty-eighth of September. It was not then regarded as necessary for the health of young people that they should finish their yearly studies before the hot weather arrived, or to that of older persons, that they should spend the warm season among the hills or by the seaside. Indeed, for the ordinary citizen, vacations were not looked upon as an essential part of life. They were, in a certain measure, the privilege of boys and of their teachers the teachers having the enjoyment granted them because it was deemed needful that the boys should have it. Why it was universally considered so necessary for the boys, we young fellows never put ourselves to the task of finding out. Possibly, the task might have 16 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN been fruitless, if it had been undertaken. We accepted the fact, and, raising no troublesome inquiries, we felicitated ourselves on the good fortune which the world had consented to give us. It is half a century since then and I may say, in passing, that I have in all the years followed the wise course of my boyhood and have ever avoided the question which I then put aside adopting in this regard the comforting theory that " what is, is right, and what is right is best." My opinion is, how- ever, though I would not contend for it in argument, that some gentle saint of wide-reaching influence in a far distant age some saint whose saintliness manifested itself largely (as saintliness always should) in tender- hearted affection for boys and girls impressed upon the rest of the saintly company of his era the force of the Old Testament words, " Much study is a weariness to the flesh; " and so the resting-time was made to fol- low the working-time. If this be the true view of the matter, he was a blessed saint, worthy of an honorable place in the sacred catalogue; and like many of his fel- lows, he wrought better even than he knew, for what he gave to the young scholars proved to be a yet greater gift to the old teachers. The scholar fancies, in his boy- hood years, that he knows to the utmost the blessing of vacation time. But we may pity his ignorance. It is the teacher who has the full understanding, and he is the true and appreciative worshiper of the saint. And now, in the new age, the saint's gift is going out to all, both young and old, and life is growing richer and happier, as work and play move on together after a reasonable manner. On a beautiful September day, late in the month, the resting season came to its end, and the college community assembled for the new academic year. To us of the entering class everything was strange and everything 17 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was full of interest. We were ourselves strangers to one another, but we discovered ourselves to be objects of special thought on the part of the rest of the student body. It is scarcely necessary, however, to mention this. It will be understood of itself. Our first college exer- cise, which we were called to attend, was morning prayers in the Chapel then followed, at appointed hours, the three regular recitations in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics and the day closed with evening prayers. Our Freshman year fell within the period of the admin- istration of President Day. Until the end of his official term, the hour for morning prayers in the autumn and winter sessions was six o'clock, and in the summer it was five o'clock. Dr. Woolsey, on his accession to the Presi- dency at the beginning of our Sophomore year, made the time half an hour later, and this arrangement continued until 1857 or 1858. The first recitation of the day followed immediately after prayers, and the breakfast hour followed this. I have spoken of the Old Chapel as dreary taking the standpoint of the student of to- day. On a winter's morning, when we had been roused from the sweet slumber of boyhood by the sharp tones of the college bell or the sharper ring of the alarm-clock in our rooms, and had made our way at six o'clock, per- chance through a heavy snowstorm, to the Chapel doors, it seemed dreary even to our less luxurious tastes, and to our eyes less accustomed to the beauty of architecture. The Seniors, indeed, were there; or some of them, for, as they had no early morning recitation in that year, and as the kindly President was lenient in the matter of excuses, they indulged themselves in absences to a considerable extent. The Seniors were there; and I may say on their behalf that, though I have seen more than fifty classes since that time, I have never looked upon so impressive and dignified a body of men as they then seemed to me to be. The tutors were there also, 18 1-1 -5 1-1 13 to 2 9 R 3. 1 SO So w >-j MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN all of them, and the venerable President likewise. How venerable he looked almost as if his namesake Jere- miah, the Prophet of the Old Testament, had returned to earth to offer his prayer and give his benediction in paternal love for the young students of the present. But it was more than the Seniors, or the tutors, or the Presi- dent himself could do, to make the building seem cheer- ful, or attractive, or even solemn, unless with the solemn- ity of a winter wilderness. There was no organ in the building, and, at the morning service, no singing. One of the tutors read a passage from the Scriptures, and the President offered prayer. The Freshmen had their seats assigned them in the pews in the rear of the Seniors and Juniors the Seniors occupying the front portion of the middle aisle, and the Juniors one of the side aisles. Immediately upon the close of the service, the Freshmen were expected to leave the building, without waiting for any of the officers. The President slowly descended the pulpit stairs, and passing down the center aisle, with measured step and the dignity characteristic of the earlier generation, he bowed to the Seniors, and they respectfully returned his salutation, according to the custom which had its origin in the previous century, and which still continues with the hearty approval of all Yale men. The President had his residence on the college grounds, just southward of the present Battell Chapel. He was methodical and punctual by nature, as well as by long-continued practice. He retired every night at nine o'clock, and rose before six in the morning. Like most New England men who were born as early as 1773, he deemed the habit of early rising essential to the best use of life's powers, and to the complete fulfillment of life's duties. Like most of his contemporaries, also, he thought that the best and, indeed, the only way of establishing this habit for the lifetime was to compel the 19 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN growing boy, by rules and penalties, to rise at six or five o'clock. He had, moreover, the confidence common to his contemporaries, that, if the boy was forcibly sub- jected to this training in his boyhood, he would continue the habit ever afterwards. President Day was regarded by all his older asso- ciates in the Faculty as one of the wisest men that ever lived. So thoroughly established was this opinion re- specting him that it was passed over to the next genera- tion, and with such force and emphasis that the sugges- tion of what he thought came to be considered, often- times, a sufficient settlement of questions in dispute. I remember having a discussion one day in the college treasurer's office, some twenty-five years after my gradu- ation and when the good man had passed away from the world, on the comparative value of corner lots in a city and lots not thus situated. There was an exchange of views for a time. Arguments were presented on both sides, and the conversation became quite animated. But, suddenly, my friend, who was opposing my view, abruptly closed the talk, as if nothing further could be urged by me or any one, with the words: " President Day regarded the corner lot as the less valuable of the two." I shall never forget the impression of that hour. I felt that there was a difference between the President and myself and that a new age was beginning. The spirit of the new age was not limited, however, in its manifestation of itself, to the matter of corner lots. It stirred the thought and life within me and I think I may speak of my classmates as being like my- self in this regard with reference to the matter of early rising, and the opinions of the time respecting it. The plan and theory had worked admirably in the case of the President. The rules of earlier life had wrought for him what were regarded as their predestined and natu- ral results. The same thing had been true of many MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN other graduates of the college in the bygone years. But for us boys of the middle of the nineteenth century, how was it? Somehow, we were different from the fathers and grandfathers, whom we saw, or of whom we heard. They lamented the difference those of them who talked with us. We lamented it also, sometimes, at the early morning hour. But the system and discipline, which had been so good in the past, did not exhibit their excellent results in our experience. I fear that in the case of most of our number the habit, forced on us for our well-being in the college years, lost its hold upon the life when we became masters of ourselves. Those recitations before breakfast showed, perhaps, more of the influence of the early rising, than the habit- forming tendency in the individual student did. The recitation rooms for the Freshmen were located in the Athenaeum, which stood just south of South Middle College. If the Chapel was dreary before sunrise on a winter day, these rooms were yet more so. They were not cold, however, as the Chapel often was. They were occupied, as study apartments and living rooms, by three or four of the students of limited means, to whom the charges for rent were remitted as a compensation for the care which they gave to them. These students kept the fires in the Olmsted's stoves the common heating ap- paratus of the time vigorously burning; and, as they cooked their food in the rooms, the heat and the odors were equally impressive to the classmates who entered the doors at the recitation hours. An instructor's desk, or tutor's box as it was called, was in one of the corners of each of the rooms, and the seats for the students were oak boards, painted white, extending along the walls which furnished the only back against which one could lean. The center of each room was vacant, except in certain cases, where three or four chairs, or one or two extra benches, were found necessary because the numbers 21 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN were so large that all could not otherwise be provided for. In these rooms we began to translate Livy, and the Odyssey of Homer, and to form the acquaintance of Day's Algebra. We translated the passages assigned us. We answered, according to our ability, the mathematical or other questions that were put to us by the instructors. It was useful work. It was work which had a tendency to strengthen our minds. It had its bearing on the fu- ture. But it was not very stimulating, or calculated greatly to awaken enthusiasm. It limited itself to the means, if I may so say, instead of reaching out towards the end. So it appears to us now, as we look backward. .The memorizing of rules and the solving of problems had the largest place for themselves even, as it were, to the exclusion of everything else. The vocabulary of an ancient language, or the element in mathematics which makes the study interesting and attractive the things that render knowledge abiding for the future years had comparatively little attention. W T hat was called mental discipline was the one end in view the matter of all importance in the minds of educators, as well as in the system which they believed in, and to the full development of which they devoted themselves. I would not unduly blame the system or the teachers. The learned world had established the one, and had summoned the others to work in accordance with it. Moreover, the two together did us good. Those among us who yielded themselves to the best influence, and faithfully fulfilled the duties imposed upon them, grew strong and vigorous in their intellectual powers. They gained somewhat of a well-rounded education. They secured the discipline of mind which prepared them for whatever they might be called to do in subsequent years. They fitted themselves to be the men of our generation. It was no weak, second-rate, half-useless education, that MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was offered us. If pedagogical science and systems or endlessly discussed methods, or the bringing up of the youth from his earliest childhood under the hourly ap- plication of philosophically devised and adjusted rules, reaching into all minuteness, can give better results, the men of the next half century will be fortunate indeed. I would not blame the old system unduly, or reproach the men who wrought under it. But it, and they as in- fluenced by it, had their weaknesses. The work required and performed was not rendered attractive and inspiring in the measure which could have been desired. It was, if the comparison may be allowed, too much like the old recitation rooms or the old buildings in their contrast with those of the more recent time. The system was too exclusively devoted to mind-building. It was pro- portionately careless respecting culture. Of course, in those old Freshman recitation rooms and in all Fresh- man recitation rooms in any era mind-building is the first thing to be thought of and aimed at. It is, in the comprehensive sense of the word, the fundamental and essential, the all-important and final thing, to be kept in view in all the educational years. But the mind can be built out, as well as built up. It can be made rich, as truly as it can be made strong. It can be awakened to enthusiasm, and not merely moved to earnest and heroic effort. And the beginnings of inspiration and enthusi- asm can be cared for in the early beginnings of the work. Ill Our Earliest College Teachers, 1845-46 The Instruc- tion and Discipline of that Period THE Faculty of the Academical Department, at that time the Scientific Department was not yet established consisted of the President, six professors, one assistant professor, and seven tutors. The Freshman class was placed under the charge of the younger officers, and, until about the time of our entrance upon the course of study, there were no young officers except the tutors. In the summer of 1845, Mr. Thomas A. Thacher, who had, after four years of ac- ceptable service in a tutorship, been appointed, in 1842, an assistant professor of Latin, returned from a pro- longed course of study in Europe for the purpose of resuming his work of instruction in the college. The privilege of being under his guidance in his own depart- ment of study was granted to my classmates and myself, and we were regarded as peculiarly fortunate on this account. Our other instructors were Mr. Samuel Brace and Mr. Joseph Emerson the former in the Greek department, and the latter in mathematics. Both of them were graduates of the class of 1841, and they had al- ready held the tutorial office for a year. They were, as I suppose, about twenty-five years of age. Mr. Thacher, the assistant professor, was just thirty. I was myself sixteen, and was one of the younger members of the class. I can well remember that Messrs. Brace and Emerson had, to my eye, a look of maturity and serious- ness, not to say dignity, which seemed to be fitly char- acteristic of men quite removed from our period of life 24 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and quite elevated above our position. The fact that there were several members of the class nearly as old as they were, and one who was even older, had no influ- ence upon my mind in its judgment respecting them. They were at a remote distance beyond the Seniors, who were very far removed from ourselves. They had the weight and authority of their official position. They were enrolled in the Faculty. But, when we met Mr. Thacher in the recitation room, the tutors appeared like luminaries of the second magnitude. He was in middle life, or close upon it. Thirty was a great step beyond twenty-five, to our thought. He was, also, an assistant professor. He had lived in a foreign uni- versity. He seemed, indeed, to belong to an older generation, and we stood in awe of him, more than we did of the tutors. Mr. Brace was the leading scholar of his class in college rank its valedictorian and, according to the custom of that era, he was the one to whom the tutor- ship was first offered when candidates from the class were sought for. He held the office for four years, and was with us as our Greek teacher during one-half of this period. Subsequently he turned aside from classical studies and the work of teaching, and became engaged in manufacturing enterprises in which he had good success. He lived a life of usefulness, and died at about the age of sixty-three. It was, perhaps, in some measure un- fortunate for him, so far as our remembrance of his work in connection with us as a college class was con- cerned, that his instruction was limited to the earlier part of our course of study. He was, however, accurate and faithful in his scholarship. We were fitted by his teaching for what we were called to do as we passed, at the beginning of our Junior year, to more advanced work under the care of another instructor. In his per- sonal relations to his pupils, he was a kindly gentleman. 25 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN As a man of genuine character and high moral tone, he exerted an influence for good throughout his entire career. Mr. Emerson, unlike his classmate and fellow-tutor, devoted himself to scholarly work in the educational sphere during the whole period of his active life a long period, as he lived until the fourth of August, 1900, fifty-nine years after his graduation. His department of instruction, as he met us in our Freshman year, was mathematics. Whether his work in this line of teach- ing was undertaken voluntarily, or whether, on the other hand, some special and temporary need of the college called for his service, I am unable to say. But, in view of the fact that, in the preceding and following years, he chose for himself the Latin studies, and a little later accepted an appointment to the professorship of Greek in Beloit College, it would seem probable that his preferences were for classical, rather than mathemati- cal scholarship. In his work with us he was conscientious and faithful, but Day's Algebra, though a valuable book, was not a very attractive one to the average mind of the Freshman class. During our Sophomore year, as we read Horace and Cicero under his guidance, we gained for ourselves some true acquaintance with these authors. His own appreciation of their writings was that of an earnest student and scholar. Immediately upon his entrance into his more permanent office at Beloit, he became a most influential and valuable in- structor, and in many ways a power in the institution. Through all his active life there he won for himself, in a very marked degree, the affection and respect of his pupils their respect for him as a teacher and their affection for him as a man. He was eminently worthy of all the honor which he received, for he did much for the building and development of the college which he served. It was a pleasure to me to meet him in his later 26 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN years, and to see how kindly he remembered those whom he had known in the days long past. I could not help feeling that he had had a happy fortune as a teacher and a scholar in the sphere of the most beautiful of all languages the ancient Greek. Of Professor Thacher it may seem to Yale men who were under his instruction within the last twenty-five or thirty years of his life, unnecessary that I should say anything on these pages. They were so well acquainted with him as a teacher, a man, and a friend, that they may readily feel that no one can add to their knowledge. But, as I have already stated, my classmates and myself came into connection with him in the early days of his assistant professorship and immediately after his stu- dent years in Europe. We saw him, as it were, at the beginning. Moreover for myself personally I may say very early, so early that I cannot definitely remem- ber the date, he seemed to find in me something, I know not what it was, which won his friendly regard; and from that time, though I was a young boy and he a full- grown man, he took me, as it were, to his heart. His kindly friendship for me continued through all the years even to the end of his life, and he was wont often to speak of me to myself and others as his oldest son the son of his affection, to whom he gave a place in his regard near to that which was held by the sons of his household. I feel, therefore, that, in the telling of this story of my teachers, I may indulge myself in words of remembrance of what he was as I knew him in the earlier and the later years. When he met us in the old Athenaeum recitation room in the autumn of 1845, m * s peculiar gifts and character- istics as a teacher at once arrested our attention and awakened our interest. He seemed always to under- stand and lay hold of what was central in its importance in the lesson of the day or the subject brought before us. 27 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN With the utmost clearness and distinctness he presented it to our minds. He knew just what to say, and just how to say it, to the end of making each one of us compre- hend and appreciate what we were trying to learn. His questions guided and his explanations revealed. We received continually that which satisfied our present need and made us ready for further effort and progress. Be- yond any teacher whom I have ever known, he had the power of impressing what he desired to communicate upon the student's mind and memory so deeply that it could not be forgotten. His gift in this special line was wonderful, and as all will admit, it is one of the very highest and best gifts that a teacher can possess. Professor Thacher was of a commanding presence in the recitation room, and in his association with the class. With no apparent exercise of authority, he established and maintained order in every company. The disposi- tion to levity or mischief was immediately restrained when even the most frolicsome or thoughtless pupil en- tered the apartment where he was. Because of this forceful character, and for the reason that he appeared to us to be much older than the tutors, we thought of him as the impersonation of the governing power of the Faculty. There seemed to be a tinge of severity at times in his manner, and also in his words, which added to the awe in which we held him. But he was gifted by nature with qualities that were most helpful in dealing with college students. He had great practical wisdom and energy; unusual tact and intelligence; penetrating in- sight into character; warm-hearted and generous inter- est in those who needed his thoughtful aid and who proved themselves worthy of it. He was a true lover of his fellow-men. The kindness of his heart went outward towards his friends with an unceasing flow of tender, and yet manly feeling. The man of thirty had within himself the beginning of what the man of fifty and sixty MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN had in the later years. He was not all that he became afterwards. No genuine and true man can be so. The years record their history in the inner, as truly as in the outer life. The fruitage is better than the flower, and the autumn richer than the early springtime. Life would not be worthy of itself, were it not so. But if the promise manifests itself in the earlier days, the out- look is full of hopefulness, and may well be full of confidence. It was my privilege to watch the growing life of Professor Thacher for forty years; and it was oftentimes most interesting to me to see how the influence of time and its changes wrought within him its best results how the sterner qualities, without losing out of them- selves anything of genuine manliness, gradually took on more of what was gentle and kindly how the love of his children made him more affectionate and helpful towards the sons of others, as they came under his care how the severity of the early period turned into the benignity of advancing age, and the wisdom of age shone forth more brightly than that of youth, because of the maturer love which guided it. No man, in the half century that has just closed, won for himself the warm-hearted and abiding friendship of Yale students in larger measure than he did. No one who has passed beyond the limits of the earthly life is held in more loving memory. The thought which comes to us all as connected with his life and work whether we are of the earlier classes or the later ones is that of the infinite value of manhood in a teacher, and of the worth of what the teacher does through his genuine excellence of character for the minds and souls of his pupils. The recitation room with all that the idea of it involved constituted a larger part of the college life in all our colleges in 1845, tnan ^ does to-day. It con- 29 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN centrated more attention upon itself, as compared with other things; perhaps, because there were fewer of these other things on which the mind could rest. College- standing, as connected with the work of the recitation room rank in scholarship, as determined by the marks in the instructors' books from day to day was a matter of greater moment to the universal thought. Men had this door of success and distinction open to them. The other doors were not many in number. There were then of course, as there always are and will be, students who cared little for their studies, or indeed for anything else except their own enjoyment from day to day. But those who were moved by ambition, or by higher motives, were constrained to seek their reward either from the records kept by the tutors and professors, or in the sphere of writing or debating. In the making of their records with reference to the more studious men, these officials of the institution seemed to me, as I observed the success of my associates or noted my own progress, to have a more indulgent feeling, or to place a more favorable estimate upon the work that was done, than I had anticipated at the outset. The study and mental effort required to secure even the higher positions were proved by the results so I thought when the honors of our college life were an- nounced to be no more than could be properly asked for in the case of men who were possessed of good ability and were willing to be faithful in the discharge of daily duties. I have always, since the experience of my undergraduate years, believed that at least twice the number of students in any college class, as compared with what we see at present, could with no undue over- straining of their powers reach the more honorable scholarly ranks. The hardship of the demands for study made by our colleges, which is sometimes spoken of, is, in the case of the youth who is well fitted when he enters 30 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN upon the course and disposed to put forth his energies in a manly way, a figment of the imagination. These demands call only for what may with fitness be expected from university men. The indulgent sentiment manifested towards the more studious in the academic circle, to which I have alluded, did not exhibit itself with reference to those who were of the lower order in scholarship in the degree in which it might well have done. There was, on the part of the Faculty of those days, a measure of severity which seemed at times hardly reasonable, and was certainly, from our present point of view, excessive. It appeared often as if the governing thought, especially asserting itself and putting forth its energy at the close of each examination or of each term, were, that the fame of the institution depended on the numbers that should be known to have failed to meet its high standard of excellence. The idea of saving the weaker men and wakening their intellectual powers, that they might be educated, did not apparently find its true abiding-place in the minds of the teachers. This was the case in all the better colleges, in their measure. It was in accord- ance with the theory of the era. With the changes of the years, a new order of things has been realized. Bet- ter notions of what educational institutions should have as their purpose, and of the way in which they may best carry out that purpose, have come to be prevalent, even while, at the same time, education itself and its methods have made great advancement. I call to remembrance vividly a word of the vener- able President addressed to my classmates and myself before the ending of the first term of our college life. In accordance with a custom which then prevailed, he met us, on a single, special occasion, for the offering of wise counsel with reference to the life upon which we had so recently entered. He gave us his advice, to 31 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN which we listened respectfully as to the words of a prophet and then, with utterly unmoved face or feel- ing, as if he were saying the simplest and most natural thing in the world, he added: " Doubtless, not more than one half of your number will graduate." It was not a very encouraging word for a company of boys just beginning their Freshman year and just awaking to the joys and hopes of the new experience. But it was a word of prophetic foresight as was proved afterwards in our own history. The class numbered one hundred and ten, on that day when the President met us. On Commencement Day, four years afterwards, fifty-five of those one hundred and ten young men received their Bachelor's degree. Thirty-seven of the one hundred and ten terminated their college career as members of the class before the end of our Freshman year. Possibly some of the departing ones felicitated themselves with the thought that the President himself left the College, as they did, at the close of that year. But there were differences between the two and differences which were impressive to the thought of those among us who re- mained, as they may well have been to these others also namely, that he left voluntarily at the end of his course, while they went involuntarily, most of them, near the beginning of theirs, and that he left after he had uttered his prophecy, while they, in their leaving, ful- filled it. The times have changed, indeed and I presume that the wisest college guides and teachers of to-day would, with substantial unanimity, say that an institution which removed and lost one-third of its entering class in the first year of the course, and one-half before the end, must have in its ideas of education or discipline some- thing that needed correction and new adjustment. The thought which is said to have been once expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson to a professor in one of our 32 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN colleges who had been showing him the buildings, the libraries, etc., and who, in answer to a question asked by Emerson, had said to him that there were about five hundred students in the institution : "Among so many there must be four or five who are worth educating," is hardly the thought of the modern age. The old system tended towards the limit of the four or five not, how- ever, by reason of the idea which Emerson had in mind, but because of what had grown into itself and its methods. It was a system which has happily been modi- fied, and has largely passed away. The discipline of those years was administered after a similar manner, and in accordance with the same ideas. As I look backward from this distance of time, I cannot help feeling that of the thirty-seven, and the fifty-five, to whom I have alluded, a considerable number, whose departure was occasioned by disciplinary action on the part of the authorities, might easily and wisely have been saved, and would have been saved if the less abrupt and more reasonable methods of the present era had then been known or followed. But the influences of a hun- dred years earlier were still abiding with much of their original force. The governors of that period, intelli- gent as they were and worthy of all esteem, had no thought of any way of governing other than that which they and the fathers had known just as most of the Faculty, from 1825 to 1840, seemed to regard it as quite impracticable to carry on the institution with suc- cess, unless they maintained the old system and rules which required all the students, with a few very special exceptions, to take their daily meals in the College Com- mons or dining hall. There was a prolonged and ener- getic wrestling with the difficulties and disorders having their origin in the Commons among the most serious disorders ever arising in the College community. Every effort in the way of pains and penalties was put forth to 33 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the end of prevention. An immense amount of thought was devoted to the subject. But all proved to be of no avail. At length, and in some extraordinary manner, a new light came to the minds of some of the authori- ties, and a new suggestion was made. How the sugges- tion won its way to favor, I am unable to say. It was before my college days. But somehow, in the year 1842, the "powers that then were" were brought to consent to a trial of a new system, which abolished the " required Commons " altogether. The action was taken, and the disorders ceased at once never to return. After a similar manner, what were called the Christ- mas disturbances were brought to an end. The old ar- rangement of the college year extended the autumn term until about the 4th of January. The Christmas season was thus within the limits of term-time. By reason of the growth, through a long period, of a so-called " col- lege custom," the evening preceding Christmas was made an occasion for a special annual outbreak of dis- order on the college grounds, which had no equal in its peculiarities at any other season. There was frequent consideration of the matter on the part of the governing body, and also much debate as to possible ways of re- moving the evil. But the disturbances continued un- diminished until 1850, or a little later, when, through some happy inspiration or influence, a simple and abso- lute remedy was devised. The Christmas season was placed in the vacation. The method finally adopted in each of these cases seems to my own mind such an easy and natural one that it might have suggested itself at first thought. As I think of it, I am reminded of a story which used to be told of the early childhood of one of the old professors, in my undergraduate days. The child was noticed by a gentleman passing along the street to be under a horse that was feeding on the college grounds. He was in 34 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN much distress, and was crying with a loud voice. The gentleman observing that, as the horse now and then took a step forward, the child stepped forward also, but still remained under him said, " My little boy, why are you crying?" The child replied, "Because I am under this horse, and I don't know how to get out." " Why, come right out," said the gentleman. The child followed the advice, the problem was solved, and the distress came to its end. It is now more than forty years since I heard this story. During all this period I have been a close ob- server of college life, and I find it very impressive in the retrospect, as it has been in the years of experience, to call to mind the multitude of cases of difficulty and per- plexity of long-continued discussion and even animated controversy, in which the advice of the gentleman to the child offered the one and only sufficient solution, which, if chosen at the beginning, would have saved all debate and anxiety: " Come right out." That is the way. But the men of those days, in the forties, did not see it, in the matter of discipline; and, as the world goes, it is not so very remarkable that they did not. Changes in prevalent ideas come only with a slow progress. They come thus in the case of intelligent, as well as unintelli- gent men. Their coming at all is, perhaps, a greater marvel than their not coming more rapidly. It is not befitting to pass judgment from the standpoint of a later age. And yet I confess that in those days when I was a young man, and now also, when I am old, it seemed, and still seems, in some degree inexplicable that " the child," if I may borrow the words from the story, " re- mained so long under the horse," notwithstanding his distress, and that it did not occur to more minds that there would be an increasingly peaceful world, if the discipline were made less legal and more paternal. Whether the matter, however, was inexplicable or not 35 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN In the case of those men, or whether it is so in the experi- ence of the considerable numbers of college governors of to-day who seem to be in the same distressful condition, I may say for myself that I am, and have long been, happy in the thought that I " stepped out " very early in life, as the old professor did, and that I have had the freedom in this particular regard of which he may have been conscious in the later years. He never, indeed, fully escaped the besetting of perplexities and difficulties. Few men do escape altogether. I certainly have not found myself able to do so. But I made my escape from this one long, long ago much to my own quiet enjoy- ment of life and, as I think, to that of others also. Thus, with these possibilities and privileges, we en- tered upon our college course, and thus we moved on- ward, as related to our teachers and our studies, our ex- ternal surroundings and the orderings and discipline of our life a company of happy and hopeful youth. Of our relations to one another and what pertained to us afterwards in our membership of the academic com- munity, some words may be added on subsequent pages. The Freshman year passed on through the successive weeks. The unfamiliar scenes grew familiar, and the daily round of pleasures and duties became as if we had known it always. We were, as I have just said, happy and hopeful youth boys, most of us; young men, some of us. The oldest member of the class at graduation was thirty-three. The youngest was eighteen. The average age of the graduating members as we left the college walls was twenty-two years and three months but very little less than the average age at graduation of the Yale students of to-day. Probably, at our entrance upon the college life, the proportion of younger mem- bers to older was greater than at the end. Those that fell by the wayside were more largely of the younger 36 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN set, who failed in scholarship because they had not been thoroughly prepared, or were cut off in consequence of the thoughtless follies of their boyhood, which led them to transgress. the rules in one way or another. The older men were, as is almost always the case among college students, more serious with a certain kind of serious- ness. They had come to the institution with a more definite and earnest purpose, and had a larger measure of the sober-mindedness which the Apostle exhorted his youthful friend and helper in the ministry to have. Some of these older men had already been school-teach- ers. For this reason they naturally looked at the studies and the general daily life as if from the point of view of the Faculty a thing which was hardly possible in the case of the young boys. But, stating the matter in a general way, it may be said that we graduated at twenty- two and three months, and entered at about eighteen. I have just said that the older men were more serious and thoughtful. This was a matter of course. In our company, however, they did not separate themselves from the life and sympathies of their younger brethren. The oldest one among us was as genial and kindly, as full of genuine enthusiasm, and as heartily appreciative of boyish feelings and enjoyments, as any one of the classmates. He was charming in his youth fulness through all the years afterward; ever growing more win- some, for this very reason, even to the end. When, at the age of seventy, he passed into the other life at a moment's call, we who had known him so long felt that he had, indeed, gone to the home of eternal youth. In sentiment and the freshness of the heart he seemed, at the last, to be almost the youngest of us all. I was myself one of the younger members of the class, having entered college before I was seventeen and graduated before I was twenty-one. Two-thirds of the 37 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN classmates were farther on in years, and a very con- siderable number were, at graduation, from five to eight years in advance of me. I have always felt in the review of the past, and I still have the same feeling, that I was greatly privileged in graduating at such a youthful age, and have ever congratulated myself that the five or eight years which separated me from my older classmates were given to me after the college course was ended, instead of being finished, as they were in their case, before that course began. I am a firm believer in the wisdom of an early entrance upon college studies, and it seems to me, after the observation and experience of half a century, that the view of many parents and teachers, that stu- dents should not begin the college life before the age of nineteen, is an altogether mistaken one. The boy who has good advantages and is free from the burden of self-support should be urged forward, rather than re- strained or delayed in his educational course. It should not be forgotten, that the youth who graduates at twenty or twenty-one has years to spare whether he begins at once his work in preparation for his special ca- reer in life, or not which he can use to the end of his best manly development, and with more fully disciplined powers. Whether, however, the entrance, and thus the graduation, be earlier or later, the college discipline and experience may well be desired by all parents for their sons as they are truly fitted to profit by them, and by every young man for himself as he thinks of the best possibilities for his future. IV President Day's Retirement His Character and Work, and His Era I HAVE lingered longer than I might have done on my experiences at my entrance within the college walls, and upon those of the earliest year of my course. They were, no doubt, of less significance than my story may have appeared to claim for them. But, as they were the beginning of the new career, I have given them with somewhat of fullness because they seemed fitted to set forth in a kind of picture the life of the old time, in its contrast with that of the more recent eras. Henceforward, in referring to my college years, I shall endeavor to tell of them with less of detail, and to bring the things included within them into a more comprehensive whole. The close of our first year of study was contempora- neous with the opening of a new epoch in the history of the institution. As has been already intimated on a pre- vious page, the venerable President, whose term of service had extended through a period of twenty-nine years, resigned his office and passed over its duties to his successor. These twenty-nine years measured the time which had elapsed since the death of the first President Dwight that event having occurred on the eleventh of January, 1817, and the election of President Day having taken place on the twenty-second of the following April. The passing of the Presidency from one incumbent to another is an event of no little importance in any col- legiate institution. In the experience of our College and 39 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN University during the past century, it has been, in every case, one of peculiar significance. Certainly it was so at the time when Dr. Day entered upon his official du- ties, and in an equal measure at the time when he retired from them. The first President Dwight, as was univer- sally recognized by his contemporaries and as all who are familiar with the records of the past now acknowl- edge, was a man of creative mind; of comprehensive and generous views; of singular appreciativeness with reference to the claims and the value of all learning; of an inspiring thought of the future, and a confident be- lief that it would bring with itself the realization of greater things. He was the man who, at the opening of the century, grasped the idea of the University of the coming time, and by his efforts, his enthusiasm, his executive force, and his wise thoughtfulness in the years that followed, laid the foundations whereon the Univer- sity in its present life and development rests. The period of his administration was one in which the possibilities of results, as compared with our own age, were limited. But it was a period when, for a far-seeing and wide- reaching mind, the possibilities of vision were not thus limited. He had the great vision and he realized, within the limitations of what was possible, the actual results. The institution was constantly putting forth its powers and moving on in its growth. Its plan for the long future was formed, and was large and broad enough for the century's working. The unfolding of the plan into reality was accomplished so far as to make the promise of completeness an inspiration for coura- geous and believing souls. The demand of the period which opened at the close of Dr. Dwight's career was for a man of quite a differ- ent type. The growing life was now to be regulated and made enduring. Permanency was to be given to the ani- mating principles and impelling powers pertaining to it. 40 PRESIDENT TIMOTHY DWIGHT I795-I8I7 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN The entire order and system of things in which it had had its origin were to be established upon settled founda- tions. Under these conditions, it was fitting that the creative mind and uplifting force should be followed by a force and mind of a conservative character the wisdom of foresight and of execution passing, as it were, into the wisdom of calmness and caution the wisdom of the architect being succeeded by that of the safe and slower builder. President Day was the man for the time. His very personal presence carried with itself the impression, for every one who saw him, of stability, of composure, of deliberate thoughtfulness, of an ever watchful prudence. His inner life was in complete har- mony with his outward bearing; and his whole career made manifest, with constantly increasing distinctness, to his most intimate associates and friends this harmony which had become apparent to their minds even at the beginning of their acquaintance with him. As we look back over the years of his Presidency, we cannot doubt that he understood the meaning of the call that came to him. The work to which he gave himself, and which he carried forward even to the end, was that of rendering secure the inheritance from the previous era, together with all that this involved. In full sym- pathy with the plans of his predecessor, he held himself in readiness for the founding of new departments of the institution, when possible, and thus widening the range of its teaching and its influence. He led the way, for his time, in making the ideal of the college education, in every line, reality as contrasted with mere appearance or pretense. With the whole force of his nature he con- tributed to the placing of sound learning and true char- acter as the uppermost things for the thoughts of all in their preparation for their career as educated men. That he accomplished this work so successfully at the critical period when it was most needed, and that he thus passed 41 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN over to all the coming generations, as a sure and safe possession, the best elements of the Yale life originated in the earlier days, may well be a ground of thankfulness on the part of every one who loves the University. In a discourse commemorative of the venerable Presi- dent, which was delivered soon after his death, Dr. Woolsey mentioned an interesting fact giving evidence of the insight and foresight of President Dwight. " I am able," he remarked, " to state on the best authority that Dr. Dwight after the beginning of his fatal malady, one day when the Faculty of the College had been as- sembled and the professors had remained behind, turned abruptly to Professor Day and said, ' Mr. Day, you must be my successor.' " Dr. Day's colleagues and his pupils, from the time of his appointment to the Presi- dency to the very end of his term of service, recognized the wisdom of the choice which his predecessor had had in his thought and which the Corporation had made. As my own opportunity for personal knowledge of President's Day's administration was limited to a single year, and that year the earliest of my college course, I must be largely dependent for my estimate of him upon my observation of his life in its later period, and upon the testimony of others. But, recalling my own impres- sions, I may say and I think, with appropriateness that he was a wise disciplinarian, a judicious governor, a thorough and accurate scholar, a valuable teacher, and a man of intelligent and penetrative mind. In his tem- perament he was marked, in an eminent degree, by serenity. He had the characteristic peacefulness of the Christian life, as well as the moderation, long-suffering patience, and gentleness, which are commended in the Scriptures. At the same time there was always manifest in him a quiet, yet strong and earnest purpose, that moved him forward to the ends which he set before him- PRESIDENT JEREMIAH DAY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN self. In his relations to the students he was a friend a benignant and paternal friend, indeed venerable, to their thought, by reason of his age and dignified bearing, but at all times gracious and helpful when they presented themselves before him or needed his. aid. In his deal- ings with them individually, or as a body, he exhibited a high degree of intelligence and discretion; never mag- nifying little offenses, so that they became to his thought great ones; never making a show of authority for the mere sake of rendering it or himself conspicuous; never turning hastily or wilfully toward severity, when his calm and clear mind saw that the object to be desired could be secured by persuasion. There was no lack of manly decision and action on his part, if an emergency called for the display of such manliness. But not every occurrence in the college daily life which was indicative of student waywardness or disorder constituted in his judgment such an emergency. By reason of some singular chance, or the develop- ment of a peculiar era, the years near the middle point of his Presidency 1827 to 1832 brought disturb- ances, and even rebellions, into the undergraduate com- munity, such as had never been known before and have happily never since been repeated. He proved himself fully adequate to meet the demand which these disorders created. The government was victorious, even though rigorous measures were carried so far that more than half of the membership of one of the classes was re- moved from the institution. Even when he adopted or approved the severest action, however, he had so much wisdom, and was recognized as being of so judicial and kindly a spirit, that the students at no time lost anything of their reverential regard or affection for him. But after the great disorders had passed by and no signs of their renewal were manifest, he took the reasonable view of college life and acted in accordance with it. He did 43 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN not carry over the strictness of discipline which had, under special circumstances, become necessary, into a fol- lowing time when there was no call for it, and did not so fall into the habit of inflicting penalties that it seemed to him ever afterwards necessary to inflict them when the offenses were insignificant in comparison. He left the use of severity for its own sake to those to whom it was natural to make such use of it and there are always men of this order while, for himself, he measured his action by the measure of the case before him and its demands. He said at the close of his administration, in a public address: "A faithful and discreet college officer has his eye upon the minutest deviations from correct deportment. But he may suffer them to pass without censure, if he sees no danger that they will grow into evils of formidable magnitude. He distinguishes between the harmless light of the glow-worm and the spark which is falling on the magazine of gunpowder." "The best college government," he adds, u is that which occasions the least observation, except by its success. Public punishment may be sometimes necessary. But the benign influence which is continually moulding the character and regulating the deportment of students, is like the silent dew, which manifests itself only by the charm which it spreads over the verdure of the morning. All display of authority, all discipline proceeding from the love of power, is to be scrupulously avoided." The excellent President was too cautious, and too slow in his movements. This must be admitted, as I think, even when all allowances are made for the cir- cumstances of the time. But certainly, in reference to this matter of college discipline and government, he was in advance not only of his own generation, but of the generation that immediately followed. Had his ideas, as guided by his wisdom, gained controlling influence when he acted upon them or made them known, the hap- 44 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN pier age, in which we of the present time rejoice, would have been introduced, with its blessings, much earlier than it was. But the influences of the past were too strong to be overpowered, and even the ablest and wisest members of the Faculty found it difficult to grasp the thought of government apart from the constant dis- play of power, or of authority as exercised without vio- lence of repression. In his relations to his colleagues, whether older or younger, President Day acted upon principles kindred to those which guided his course with reference to his pupils. He never used his official position and dignity in the way of interference with their individual duties or prerogatives. On the other hand, as Dr. Woolsey says of him, he always confided in their readiness to do their appropriate work on principle, and without super- vision. This same generous treatment of those asso- ciated with him was characteristic of his predecessor in the chair of administration, and through the influence of the two men the idea of responsibility without inter- ference was established as the Yale idea for the future. That this idea this theory of the relationship of the individual members of the Faculty to the President, and to one another and I may add, of the entire board of instruction, when acting in their own sphere, to the Corporation of the University has contributed largely to the devotedness of Yale teachers to their work and to the interests of the institution, cannot be questioned. To this cause also is due, in no inconsiderable measure, the freedom from petty difficulties and jealousies, as well as from friction of every sort, which has been so marked a feature of the history of the College. It has been in- teresting to me to notice in how large a proportion of the cases of difficulty which have been presented to me by officers of other colleges, with the inquiry as to our ordinary course of action under similar circumstances, 45 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN I have been enabled to state that we have had no such cases in our experience. We have lived at Yale in undisturbed peace fulness through all the century, and we owe our happy condition in this regard very largely to the wisdom and generous sentiment of those who administered the affairs and directed the life of the in- stitution when the century was moving onward in its earlier years. President Day's deliberateness in decision and in action, as I have already intimated, had the effect upon his contemporaries which this characteristic in a man of his serenity and dignity often has. It established in their minds on the firmest foundations the conviction that he was, everywhere and always, not only judicious, but eminently wise. I do not know why it is that slowness in pronouncing judgment, or in adopting new measures, is so generally looked upon as a clear evidence 'of wis- dom. I have no doubt that such slowness is sometimes wise. But it is not always so; and as a permanent and prevailing characteristic of the mind, I cannot think that it is a mark of this gift in its highest order. Prompt- ness of decision is, oftentimes, essential to such wisdom. The man who has a practical question submitted to him and who deliberates on it for a year before coming to a decision, takes we may, in some cases at least, safely say too much time to be accounted more than prudent. The good President had the wisdom of deliberation, rather than that of the other sort, as even his intimate friends confessed. But the gift which he possessed was that which in their view, as they thought and spoke of him, constituted the wise man ; and they never pictured him to themselves in any other light. Their opinion was, beyond doubt, a testimony of weight to what he really was, and it is, perchance, unbecoming in us who were mere boys when he was old and venerable, and had little knowledge of his era and its demands, to 4 6 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN question in any measure what they told us. A corner lot may, indeed, be better than one not thus situated, and a year's deliberation may be longer continued than is consistent with the shortness of life or the needs of the special case; but, in an age of conservation, the conser- vative judgment which deliberates and waits must give beneficial results. President Day was too reserved and undemonstrative in the expression of feeling. This peculiar characteristic was nearly allied to the conservatism and caution which so strongly marked him. Possibly the one could not have existed without the other. No doubt, both of the two qualities may have been developed in their force by reason of the special circumstances connected with his physical health, which required, throughout his en- tire career, the utmost thoughtfulness and all possible freedom from excitement. So striking, however, was this reserve, that it was very impressive to the mind of every one who saw him even for a little time, while to those who were in more intimate relations of acquaint- anceship or friendship it seemed one of the most conspic- uous elements of his nature. It is said that on a certain evening, when his youngest daughter, then eighteen years of age, was about leaving her home to pass the winter with friends in another city, he came into the parlor where she was and, addressing her by name, said to her : "We shall miss you when you are gone," and that this was so much stronger an expression of his feeling than she had known before, that she was moved by it to tears. Such a story would seem strange in these more modern days. Even at that day, it indicated a personality un- demonstrative on the emotional side. But I can well remember a discourse commemorative of one of the most prominent citizens of Connecticut about forty years ago, in which his friend and pastor, when setting forth the grounds of confidence in his Christian character, said of 47 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN him: "He was, however, so reticent as to the feelings and experiences of the soul that, in a married life ex- tending over more than a generation, even his wife could not remember that she had ever heard him express him- self respecting them with distinctness or confidence." The New Englanders of the older time certainly lived more in the inside of themselves than they did on the outside so far as their deepest and truest life was con- cerned. This was the fact with reference to men who were born, as President Day was, in 1773, as well as to men who lived at an earlier period. The change which has taken place between the era of those whom the younger generation of fifty years ago called the fathers, and the days in which we are now living, is a marvelous one in this regard. But even to-day, New Englanders are called reticent. They are so, no doubt, as compared with some other peoples. The measured and methodical life which the excellent President lived accompanied, as it was, by his prudence and reserve had its origin partly, we may believe, even as already intimated, in the condition of his health in his earlier, as well as his later, years. He was obliged, by reason of his infirmity in this regard, to break off his college course at or near the end of his Sophomore year, and to suspend his studies until the time when the class which he had originally entered was graduated. Although at first a member of the class of 1793, he did not, accordingly, receive his Bachelor's degree until 1795. From 1798 to 1801 he held the position of tutor in the College, and in the last-named year he was elected by the Corporation to the Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Before the date of the election, however, he was attacked by a hemor- rhage of the lungs, and the signs of tubercular con- sumption became manifest. He was obliged to take a 48 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sea voyage in the hope of gaining new strength, and t-> pass several months in the islands of Bermuda. A letter from a friend of his, the late Mr. Charles Denison, of New Haven, to the elder Professor Silli- man, who was at that time in Europe, indicates the general feeling in the College with regard to Mr. Day's prospects of continued life. On the fifth of December, 1802, Mr. Denison writes: "I have lately heard from Mr. Day. He is no better, but rather worse than when he left us. Dr. Dwight told me, a short time since, that he had given over the expectation of ever seeing Mr. Day in the professor's chair. What a loss to the institu- tion !" Every one who knew him anticipated his early death. No doubt, he anticipated it for himself. His winter in the milder climate, however, and his scrupulous and constant attention to his health enabled him to re- turn to his home, in the following spring, with an in- crease of strength and of hope. Nevertheless he was compelled to use the utmost care, and to limit himself strictly in the way of exertion or excitement, in order that he might, if possible, prolong his life. Moderation in all things thus became a necessity for him in the suc- ceeding years; and it grew to be, as it were, a law of his nature, as the time of his living seemed to lengthen itself by slow degrees, yet ever with uncertain promise of the future. After the lapse of a considerable period, his disease entirely disappeared his case being one of the earliest in which it was proved that pulmonary con- sumption could be cured. But before this happy result was realized the law governing his conduct and his emo- tions had been already fixed beyond change. The man knew that he must move prudently and calmly, if he would move forward at all. In the later part of his career also, when he was somewhat more than sixty years of age, he was attacked by a disease of the heart, angina pectoris, to which he was subject at intervals afterwards. 49 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN This malady, like the earlier one, rendered caution and moderation essential to the continuance of life. The closing period thus answered to the beginning, and the call and demand of both were the same. We may not wonder, therefore, that, when his circumstances and condition united with the tendency of his native char- acter, he became, as he moved onward, a man of pru- dence, rather than of forth-putting energy; a man of reticence, rather than expression; a man of sure move- ment, more than of rapid progress, and of quiet, but not aggressive force. President Day's wisdom was displayed at the end of his public career as truly as it was throughout its course. As he approached the age of seventy he made known to the Faculty and, if I am not in error, to the Corporation also, his serious thought of resigning his office. This thought was connected with and inspired by the feeling that he was now at the period of life when the duties of his official position might fitly be laid aside by himself and be passed over to a successor. His colleagues and associates in both bodies that of instruction and that of administration urged him to postpone the time of retirement, and pressed upon him, with earnestness, their feeling that it was for the highest interests of the institu- tion that he should remain yet longer at its head. He was finally persuaded by them to change his purpose, and he continued in his office for three more years. Then, at the age of seventy-three in 1846 he pre- sented his resignation formally to the Corporation, and refused their further solicitations. To one or more of the members of the body, who attempted to influence him, he said, in his calm and wise way: "You had better let me resign now, when I have the intelligence to do so. The time may come when I shall not have it, but shall think I am wiser than you all, and than I ever was myself before," It is related of the Reverend Dr. 50 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN James Walker, one of the ablest and most distinguished among the Presidents of Harvard University, that, after his resignation of his office, some member of the Governing Board of the institution begged him to re- consider his action, saying "Nobody in the Corpora- tion wants you to resign," and that the Doctor replied, "Do you wish me to remain in the Presidency until everybody in the Corporation wants me to resign?" The two men, who were alike eminent in wisdom, and were equally respected and beloved by both students and officers, had a grand ending of their administrative career, because they had the intelligence to perceive that the time for the ending had come ; the time when no one else desired it, but when all were full of good wishes and regrets. They have left behind them a lesson and an influence for their successors in every generation. Our ideas of age change as we ourselves advance in years, and for this reason we cannot altogether trust the judgments or opinions of youth in this regard. But, so far as I am able to recall the impressions of past life, I think I have never seen a man who appeared so venerable as President Day did when he resigned his office, and afterwards.* The age of seventy-three cer- tainly meant very much to us young men of that time, when, with his slow and measured step and enveloped in his heavy cloak, he passed us on the streets or in the College yard. There were other men in the Faculty Professors Silliman and Kingsley, and Judge Daggett, the Kent Professor of Law who were near his own period of life. Judge Daggett must have been older, as his graduation preceded that of the President by twelve years. But no one even of these seemed so old * The picture in this volume is copied from a portrait of Dr. Day painted when he was fifty years of age and twenty-three years be- fore his retirement from his office. This is the only portrait of him in the possession of the University. Si MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to us, or, as I think, to the citizens of the city. That the end of life was not for him far distant in the future, must have been the thought of all who looked upon him. But he lived for twenty-one years after that date, and to a time that was within four years of the close of the Presidency of his successor, which extended over a quarter of a century. He retained his mental powers in their fullness to the last, and was ever a thoughtful and watchful observer of the life and welfare of the College, as well as of the outside world. On his retirement from the Presidential office, he was elected a member of the Corporation, and in this relation to the institution he continued until about two months before his death. With no anticipation of that event as near, but with a feeling that physical infirmity was increasing upon him, he then asked that his resignation might be accepted. His connection with the College as Tutor, Professor, President, and member of the Administrative Board had covered a period of sixty-nine years. The end of life came peacefully on the 22d of August, 1867 as Dr. Woolsey said of it, "With no apparent disease or cause of death, his lamp of life went out." Surely the ordering of his career was most remark- able we may even say, most wonderful. In the letter addressed by Mr. Charles Denison to Professor Silliman in 1802, from which a brief quotation has been made on a previous page, the writer, still referring to the pre- carious condition of Mr. Day's health at that time, says, "That such a man should be cut off in the very blossom of life is to the human eye dark and mysterious. We must, however, submit to Him who seeth not as man seeth." Mr. Denison was a college classmate of Pro- fessor Silliman, of the year 1796, and the two were intimate friends of President Day, who graduated in the next preceding class. The words of the letter were the heartfelt expression of affection and grief sent by one, 52 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN friend to another, with reference to a third who seemed to be about to die in his earliest manhood. The Biog- raphy of Professor Silliman was placed in my hands by its author, Professor Fisher, in 1866, with a request that I would write a review of it for one of the Quarterlies. As I read its pages I found this letter, and when I looked at its words I recalled the fact that, while its writer, whose thoughts were so full of sadness and of the mys- tery of a life cut off in early manhood, had after a worthy and honored career finished his earthly course forty years before, and the one to whom it was written, and who had lived until he was eighty-four, had already been dead for eighteen months, the young man whose condi- tion was so alarming that life was despaired of, was still alive at the age of ninety-two. There is, indeed, " One who seeth not as man seeth ; " but man's idea of what He sees how often it is a strangely mistaken one, by reason of the limitations of our human knowledge and vision. The meeting of those three friends, after the long years had realized for them their lives, and they were all united in the upper kingdom, must have been a thoughtful, as well as a happy one. Of the Faculty of the Academical Department, or College, during President Day's administration I shall defer what I may find myself able to say until my nar- rative or record of a later period begins. I feel that I can properly do this, because of the Professors who held office between 1825 and 1852 only one died before the close of the latter year, which was after my entrance upon the duties of the Tutorship, and only two before 1855, when I left that position. I knew them all, there- fore, both as a student and as a member of the Board of Instruction, and I can speak of them more fitly as they were in the later of the two periods. It will be appro- priate, however, for me to call attention here to the very 53 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN fortunate circumstance connected with the history of the institution during all that period, that the President and his two oldest associates, Professors Silliman and Kings- ley, were appointed to their positions as professors in the very early years of President Dwight's administra- tion. They were all selected by him for the chairs which they occupied and, as they were not yet thirty when they received their appointment, they grew up to the full maturity of their manly powers and attainments under his commanding influence, as well as in intimacy of asso- ciation with one another. When Dr. Dwight died, therefore, and the new President was called to succeed him, the counsel and aid of these associates rendered the important work to be undertaken much more easy of accomplishment than it could have been otherwise. The three men, now about forty years of age, were united in their views, and were ready to co-operate with the most hearty sympathy in every movement that seemed to be for the welfare of the College to which they had given their love and their lives. They did thus co-operate for the whole period of twenty-nine years the President relying with the most entire confidence on the helpful- ness of the two professors, while they, in their turn, believed in his wisdom and prudence, and willingly trusted the interests of the College to his keeping. 54 V. Student Life at Yale, 1845-49. THE student life at Yale from 1845 to l8 49 had, of course, many of the characteristics of the same life to-day. College undergrad- uates are much alike in all generations and in all nations so much alike that the intelligent traveler in foreign lands cannot fail to recognize in the uni- versity communities which he sees in them a kinship to those which he has left behind him in his own country. But among a people developing as rapidly as ours, and in an age of such wonderful changes and progress as the last fifty years have witnessed, it would be strange indeed if all things in the life of college men had remained as they were at the beginning. At the time when my classmates and myself entered upon our college course, the country was comparatively undeveloped in the matter of wealth. In regions like Connecticut, for example, where there were no large cities, men possessed of thirty or forty thousand dollars were regarded as having a competence, as it was called, while those who had a hundred thousand and they were few in number were considered rich. At this time also, the people had only recently if indeed they had as yet fully recovered from the great financial reverses and depression of the year 1837. As a con- sequence of these facts, we boys of the class of 1849 were, almost without exception, representatives of fam- ilies of quite moderate means. There were no differ- ences to separate us in this regard, and the thought of what are now considered luxuries had little opportunity, 55 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN or indeed none at all, of entering our minds. The era was certainly characterized by " plain living." The ordinary charges per week at boarding houses and clubs ranged from $1.50 to $2.50 the charge at the one most expensive and fashionable boarding-house in the city being only $3. Room-rent was in proportion. The college bills, so far as tuition was concerned, amounted to the small sum of eleven dollars for each term, or thirty-three dollars for the entire year, and the other items of these bills were quite insignificant. As for the furniture and other provisions for students' rooms, whether in the college buildings or in houses opened for their occupancy in the city, moderation and absence of expense were everywhere noticeable. I remember visit- ing the apartment of two students in Durfee Hall about the year 1878, in company with President Porter, who was showing the University buildings to the late Dean Stanley, and having the thought, as I looked upon its provisions for comfort and its tasteful decoration, that the furnishing of all the rooms occupied by my class- mates in their college days would hardly have equalled in expense what had been laid out by these two young men. A quarter of a century, however, has passed since then, and the evidences of wealth are now even more con- spicuous. Of course, under our circumstances, there was comparatively little difference between the man who had what was then called considerable freedom in ex- penditures and the one who had enough to meet the demands upon him only in case he practised strict economy and, indeed, no very marked distinction be- tween the latter and the one who was obliged to ask for remission of tuition or to seek for other pecuniary aid. We were a democratic community, with small tempta- tion on the part of any among our number to indulge in aristocratic feeling, so far as that feeling had relation 56 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to the sphere of money. During a brief portion of my Senior year as my family home was closed at the time I took my meals with a club the members of which, about fifteen in number, were classmates of mine. These classmates, I think, were all of them, with the exception of three or four, men who either received financial aid from benevolent funds or were obliged, for want of sufficient means, to support themselves throughout their course of study, partly or wholly, by their own efforts. They were, however, among the leading men in the class in the different lines of college success and prominence much more truly so than most of those who were regarded as the richer members of our class brotherhood. They were most influential in every way and most highly esteemed by every one. This fact, within my own ex- perience, is merely illustrative. The same thing was true, in its measure, of all college classes, and indeed, to a large extent, of the communities from which the mem- bership of these classes was gathered. The great change which has made the life of our people in the present period so different, in this matter of wealth and all that is connected with it, from what it ever was in the earlier time, first manifested itself, as is well known, near the close of the War of 1861 to 1865. In a wonderful way, and in a measure beyond the previous anticipations of even the most far-sighted among us, the nation, at that time, began suddenly to become rich and prosperous. The growth in prosperity was progressive, and, if we consider the entire period which has elapsed since that beginning, it has been re- markably uninterrupted. We are now in an age of abundance, and even of luxury. The old manner of liv- ing of the fathers and grandfathers, which was, as it were, that of a country village, or of a town of moderate pretensions, has been exchanged for that of a large and wealthy metropolis. The accumulations of property MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN have become great, and in some cases enormous, and the differences and separations between individual men, or classes of men, which are a natural consequence of this fact, have come to be a marked feature of the new age. Our institutions of learning, of course, are participants in this changed order of things. "The rich and the poor meet together" in our college life, in a certain sense, in these now passing years, as they did not in the middle years of the century that has just come to its end. All were at that time more nearly on a common level. There were, as already intimated, so few rich young men in the membership that they were scarcely worthy of reck- oning, as far as the general life of the community was concerned. The institution itself has also increased in its resources and property, in a remarkable degree, within the half- century. Its buildings for the accommodation of its students, and the provisions and facilities for comfort- able living which it furnishes, are far beyond the thought of either undergraduates or teachers in 1849. We are living and moving, whether within the university gates or outside of them, in an altogether new world, as related to this whole sphere of our life. For myself, I may say that I think we are living in a happier era that the new times are better than the old. Very few of the men of my own class, or of the classes that were grad- uated in the years nearly contemporaneous with my college life, would as I believe wish, if the possibility were offered, to have their successors in their families limited to the measure of comforts, in their outward surroundings, which they themselves knew when they were young. Certainly they do not thus limit them- selves or their children in their own homes. We college men were a democratic community, in those days in one view of the matter because there was nothing to prevent our being so; because there was 58 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN nothing in our daily life and experience to suggest the thought of our being anything else. There are persons at the present time strange as it may seem, there are college graduates, and recent college graduates who apparently have the idea that the University community cannot, in the new era, continue to be democratic unless all of the membership are brought to the same level of expenditures, and that there is a danger to the life of the democracy in the provision of buildings of architectural beauty or of the comforts which pertain to the better class of modern homes. That this view is without foundation even as the view, if held by any in the past or with reference to the past, that the old democratic life was wholly dependent for its existence on the limita- tions which pertained to all alike, was utterly baseless, is manifest so soon as we get the true idea of what the democratic spirit is. The men of fifty years ago had this spirit, not because there were no hindrances in the way of its entrance into their lives, but because, as mem- bers of the Yale fraternity, they inherited from the fathers of the earlier days of the College history the great foundation principles of the true Yale life. Had the inspiration had no deeper source than that which was found in accidental or temporary surrounding cir- cumstances, it would have been worthless as a moving force for noble living. The same thing is true to-day. It will be so always. If the democratic spirit animating our University is now, or ever becomes in the future, so weak and unmanly that it cannot endure inequalities in resources or expenditures in the means of satisfying the desire for special com- forts or even luxuries, or gratifying the artistic taste it will be unworthy of its origin; it will have contradicted its earlier self. The old spirit was one that estimated men according to their manhood, and not according to their surroundings or possessions. It believed in the 59 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN superiority of the man to his accidents. But it did not demand that the possessions or accidental things of all in the community should be exactly the same. It was a manly, and not pusillanimous spirit. It did not abide in continual fears lest some new danger might be threat- ening its further existence, or manifest itself by constant appeals for help that all obstacles or hindrances might be put out of the way. I rejoice that we men of 1849 had it as truly as we had, and that it still remains with us. I have no apprehensions as to its losing its vital force or passing away, if the men of the present and the coming time will recognize for and in themselves the essence of its life-power, and not mistake it for what it is not. As a natural consequence of the condition of the country with reference to wealth and all things bearing upon it, the opportunities opening to young men of college education in the commercial and financial spheres were, in those earlier days, comparatively few and rare. Moreover, the general sentiment of business men did not favor the employment of such young persons in their enterprises. They believed that the training for busi- ness life should be in business houses a training con- nected with practical experience and that the studies and discipline of a college course, whatever value they might have in relation to other callings, had the tendency to render the youth unfit for meeting the special demands of their own department of life's work. A marked change, in this regard, has taken place within the last ten or fifteen years, and new views of the whole subject are rapidly gaining ground among commercial men. But there were few, if indeed any signs of this change until a time considerably later than our college period. The field of science also, as a field for life-work, was scarcely open at that date. The beginnings of the new 60 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN age were visible to thoughtful minds, but the realization of what we see to-day was only in the dim and distant future. The young men who studied in our colleges in those years were, accordingly, almost altogether of the classes that were directed by the will or judgment of their parents, or were moved by their own impulses, towards professional life in one or another of what were called the three learned professions. Of these three profes- sions, that of the law and that of the ministry drew to themselves by far the larger number the students of medicine being then mainly persons who had not pursued .college studies. Thirty-five of the ninety-four class- mates who graduated in 1849 became lawyers; twenty- five studied theology; seven entered medical schools; while only nine chose for themselves a mercantile or business life. We were in this sense and the same was the case with other classes of our era a homogeneous body in a far higher degree than the students of more recent times, since the occurrence of the changes to which allusion has been made, and the wide-reaching develop- ment of the elective system that has been contempo- raneous with them. We were, as I may say, men of common purpose, satisfied with the studies prescribed for us, which seemed adapted to prepare us for the professional courses that would open afterwards, and happy in the thought of the scholarly and educated life to which we had been called. We were not more studious, in the measure of our studying, than our successors in these later years. We were, however perhaps I may say with truth more exclusively studious, or more given to study to the ex- clusion of other things, than they are. We had fewer other things to draw off our attention or interest our minds, and we knew nothing, in our experience, of that student life in presence of the public, if I may so 61 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN describe it, which is now so conspicuous in all our institu- tions. I am sure that we thought more of the intellectual in comparison with the physical in education than college men, or even their parents, do to-day. It may be, I think, that we dwelt more in the inner life. We were indolent and careless, many of us; as boys, and men also, often are. We were not praiseworthy beyond those who have followed us. But by reason of the community of thought and purpose, of which I have spoken as connected with the educational ideas of the time, we had a certain oneness or harmony of intellectual life that cannot be so easily realized amid the multitude of studies and of interests now appealing to the tastes of different minds. This oneness or harmony was a good thing in itself. It was helpful in developing that friendly senti- ment, or class feeling, uniting the brotherhood, which has been so marked and admirable a characteristic of our Yale life throughout the century. It had, perchance, an influence in rendering the sentiment a thoughtful one pertaining to the deeper mind and soul. But it was not essential to the existence of the sentiment, which is as manifest now as it ever was. I have called attention to it only because it was one of the things which marked our college years, and in the experience of which we had a privilege; not a privilege greater than others have enjoyed in more recent times, but a peculiar one which had its own gift for our class life and our individual lives. Another influence for unity in college sentiment and feeling, at the time when we were students, had its origin in the large societies, which included in their member- ship all the undergraduates. There were, indeed, three of these societies, and there were rivalries between the two larger ones the third was limited almost exclusively to students from the Southern States. But notwith- 62 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN standing the divisions connected with them, and their friendly strifes, they had nothing of that exclusiveness or separating tendency which so often pertains to smaller, and especially to secret clubs, consisting of only fifteen or twenty members. Every one could enter these large associations. Their privileges were open to all alike, and all were welcomed heartily to a share in them. The fact that there were two or three societies, and that the student in his earliest college days made his choice between them, and gave himself to the one which he had chosen, affected but in a very slight degree the freedom of the class intercourse and friendship. Where one-half of the entire academic community was found in one society, and one-half in another, it was, of course, impos- sible for either body to confine itself to narrow social limits. The condition of things was as if all the com- munity had been in one association, or as if there had been no society at all, except that which was coincident with the individual classes. The purpose of these large societies, also, that of cultivating the power of speaking in public discussions or debates, was quite in accordance with a unity of spirit in the community. The era like those which preceded it, but unlike those that have followed was an era of debating. Great questions bearing upon the development, and even the permanence, of the national life, were assuming immense importance in the public thought, and the universal belief was that they could not be settled except by open and free discussion. The young men of the time, it was held, must be educated to meet these questions, not only in the privacy of their own minds, but in the vigorous and fierce conflicts of opinion which were sure to arise in large assemblies and in the presence of multitudes. An education which did not include debating was, consequently, felt to be incomplete. It was an education which might discipline and 63 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN strengthen the mental faculties, but which did not give the power to use them effectively in the sphere of public life. The retiring scholar could, indeed, be permitted to keep silent, but the man of the world must know how to speak, and to speak in controversy with an antagonist. The students, accordingly, were moved as by a common impulse an impulse starting from within themselves, and also coming to them from the world outside to give their efforts and enthusiasm to these organizations which seemed to be so useful, and which even supple- mented in a most desirable way the education derived from the college studies. They were strengthened by this impulse in the unity of their life. The limitations of numbers in the academic body, and in the several classes, may also be mentioned as having had a unifying influence. The entire member- ship of the undergraduate College in 1849 was but little larger than that of the class of 1900 at the beginning of its course. The individual classes of the period num- bered only about one hundred. The acquaintance of the whole body of students, except for certain hindrances naturally arising from class distinctions, might as a consequence have been formed at that time, by each young man, almost as easily as that of all one's own classmates can be formed now. Certainly, it is a matter of much less difficulty to gain a measure of what may be called intimate knowledge of a company of a hundred members, than of one which consists of three hundred and fifty. We of the earlier era had this advantage, as connected with the fact that we were a comparatively small brotherhood. The stimulating influence which comes from a larger community, however, we could not fully know. As a result of all these causes, and of the general influences of the academic life at Yale, we became a 64 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN united body soon after the beginning of our course, and we grew stronger in our sentiment and sympathy as a fraternity with each advancing year. There were di- visions among us sometimes between parties, sometimes between individuals. But there were none, I think, that survived the college period; and, in this matter of class spirit and kindly feeling, I doubt whether there has ever been, in the two centuries, a company of students within the gates of the institution more thoroughly one in heart and mind, than the company which met together as strangers in 1845, and bade each other a loving fare- well in 1849. Let me now recall some other, and perhaps minor things, connected with the life of our college years. The subjects which we used to discuss in the larger societies how momentous some of them seemed to us; how far away in the distance of the past they seem now ! How remote we then thought any possible decision of them must be; how strange we are prone to think now that the decision could ever have been in doubt ! The great question of slavery was, at that time, uppermost in all minds. The irrepressible conflict was indeed already beginning, though many did not fully appreciate the fact; and the dangers of the future were threatening on every side. What would be the result of the con- troversy in the coming time? What ought to be the result? Would the slave-power ever be overcome? Would the nation ever be, in the true and full sense, a free nation? This was the problem of the century. Few of us dared to hope that it would be solved within the limits of the century. We college boys discussed the question. We contended about it. We exercised and cultivated our oratorical powers. We divided into parties, according to our residences whether in the north or south, and our prejudices whether on the conservative 65 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN or. progressive side. We did everything that was open to us to do, as we thought. But we could not foresee the early future, or what it had of promise in itself. And now it is all a matter of history of a by-gone generation, as it were and the young college boys of to-day, and of the recent days, cannot comprehend the interest with which we bring back to our remembrance the old uncertainties of the struggle and the blessing of the grand result. Or again to mention other questions how strange it seems to us now, to recall our old discussions respecting the gold of California; whether its discovery was likely to be of advantage or disadvantage to the welfare of the country. We thought then that AVC might not live to see the question settled. Or looking abroad how eagerly we discussed the possible results of the revolu- tionary movements of 1848 in Europe; or, again, look- ing backward, how earnestly we argued the matter of England's treatment of the first Napoleon. These were questions of the present or the past, which had a living interest for us then. The events of 1848 occurred in our Junior year. The first great migration following the Gold fever, as it was called, took place when we were Seniors. The battle of Waterloo was, at that time, one of the last great battles of history, and Ameri- can travelers in Europe visited the battle-field with eagerness of desire. The fall of Napoleon and his fate were not things of which we had only read in books relating to the past, but they were matters of which our fathers had told us as belonging within their own life- time. It is hard for us now to persuade ourselves that they were ever nearer to us than they are to the college men of these later years. But they were the old ques- tions and the old events, and we have lived to see the new men and the new times. 66 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN As for the smaller societies, there were several of them already existing at the beginning of our college years. There were more when we graduated, for our Class established three new ones for itself; one in the Fresh- man, another in the Sophomore, and a third in the Senior year. We solved in this way a difficult problem which is sometimes presented in the academic community, and which has, even recently, occasioned much perplexity and excitement. We made the natural, and probably the only satisfactory provision for the worthy men who could not, by reason of the limitations of numbers, find a place in the membership of the societies already in existence. These three societies, originating with us, were handed down to the classes which followed our own, and had a vigorous and successful life for a con- siderable period of years. They are now, however, and for a long time have been, altogether of the past. The Freshman Society ceased to exist, through a kind of wasting of its own vital forces. The one belonging to the Sophomore year met its fate, as did the others of its class, through a decree of the College which abolished all alike ; while the one for the Senior Class passed away I scarcely know how it was followed, however, after a time, by another still existing, which though having, so far as I am aware, no connection with it whatever, yet in a certain sense may be said to have taken its place. All these smaller societies were of what is called the secret order. Some of them so far as my own class was concerned seemed to me to be of comparatively little value to our intellectual or social life. I would not affirm that this was due to weaknesses inherent in the organization of the different societies. It may have been, and no doubt was in large measure, the result of circumstances peculiar to our membership and our era. They had, in general, very considerable power and influence in the College community especially those 67 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN pertaining to the Senior year but not as much, by any means, as they have to-day. They had no conspicuous buildings devoted to their uses. There was no public demonstration of any kind connected with the choice or admission of new members. The entire movement of their life from year to year was recognized by all as fitly and completely limited within its own sphere. The other and larger associations satisfied, in a measure, the desire for fellowship and friendly union. For these reasons there was less of eager curiosity to know what the small societies offered to their membership, and a less universal desire for participation in it. I think that comparatively few of my classmates had any over- burdening anxiety as to their own election even into the Senior fraternities. When the question for each and all was settled, the favored ones were happy and satisfied, but those to whom the new experience was denied were not greatly disappointed or disheartened. The existence and the growth in numbers and in influence of the smaller and secret societies have been regarded by many persons, at different times, as among the chief causes of the decline and passing away of the larger associations. From my own long-continued and close observation of college life at Yale, I am convinced that this is not the fact. The larger associations de- pended for their permanent existence and success on the old-time sentiment with respect to debating and the old admiration for the oratory of the earlier part of the century. The two things on which their life rested passed away, especially in New England and its neigh- borhood; and, as if by a necessity, the life passed with them. The old style of oratory of the legal profession is utterly of the by-gone days. That which then char- acterized the pulpit has mainly disappeared. Even that which was displayed in legislative and Congressional assemblies has undergone such changes that the few MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN genuine specimens of the original style, which are occa- sionally exhibited, excite a feeling of amusement rather than of respect. We are in a new era, and college men debate now with a view to prizes, and more after the manner of newspaper discussions than in that of the old debating halls. That the smaller societies according to the ordinary rule and condition of their life brought their member- ship into closer relations of personal friendship, than the larger ones could, was, of course, the fact. In this way, their growth may have been injurious to these large associations, but I do not believe that they were so, in any considerable degree, at the critical point of the his- tory for they had existed in numbers and in strength for a quarter of a century or more before the critical time came, and no harmful effect seemed to have become manifest. But turning aside from this question there can be no doubt as to the positive influence of the smaller bodies on the development of friendship among their members. This was especially true of the societies pertaining to the Senior year, and naturally so, in view of the fact that in our College, as contrasted with many others, the active membership in the fraternities of the earlier years ceased when those years came to their end. The men who were united in the fraternity fellowship as Seniors came together, accordingly, as a small and selected company, in the latest period of their course, when their minds and characters had developed to the highest point of college life; when the great questions of their future, with the seriousness attendant upon them, were rising before all alike; and when the very approach of the end of the happy period, which they had found so full of blessing, was bringing a sadness of spirit that could not but make the heart open itself with tenderness and sym- pathy. They met at the outset in their new relations, 69 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and continued to meet as the days and weeks passed by, with readiness to give and receive the best of influence in their power. They met, and continued to meet, with the utmost freedom in the interchange of their deepest and most helpful thoughts; with an intimacy which car- ried with it the promise of the future; and with a generosity of soul that enriched each one as it grew within himself, while it also enriched all others as it went outward in its gifts from him to them. They entered thus into, and abode for a year of manly youth- ful life in, a thoughtful, helpful, inspiring, elevating, character-building friendship with men whom they could know with a very deep and penetrating knowledge. If the companies selected were only what it was fitting that they should be, one could not wonder that the hearts of all were moved by the happy experiences, and afterwards by the happy memories. The company which I thus met for my Senior year, and my association with which made me glad that I had been offered the privilege of membership and had accepted it, was one well fitted to be helpful to me. In some views of the matter at least, I needed for my best and happiest growth the peculiar help that was given. I may not tell of what we did as we met together. I cannot recall much of what we talked about, or thought, in our communion with each other. The details of the old life are gone. But the man, and the men, what they have been, and what they are, in the inmost and noblest manhood, is the outgrowth of the influences of that fellowship, even as it Is of the love and the inspira- tion of the early home and the later home. The unity of the larger and broader life was a great blessing of my college years. The unity of the narrower and more limited life was an equal, or even greater blessing. It was my good fortune to enjoy the gifts 70 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN which came from both, and to make them, in their effective force, a permanent possession. There was another influence which had a certain help- fulness, in our Senior year, with reference to the matter of our friendly association. It was not of advantage to us in all lines of our college life, but was so in some measure in this one line. I refer to the arrangements of the studies of the year which gave us less work to do, and therefore afforded more leisure for friendly association, than the system of these later times allows. In the period of Dr. Day's Presidency certainly, in the closing part of it the Senior class had no early morning recitations, before the breakfast hour, and a very moder- ate number at other hours. The same was the case in the first year of Dr. Woolsey's administration. A change was made, introducing the recitation before breakfast for this class, at the beginning of the academic year 1 847-48 that is to say, the Senior year of the class preceding my own. I well remember the disturbance of the equanimity of that class, and the emphasis of their opposition to "the abandonment of immemorial usage" and the imposition of unwonted hardships. The good old times of privilege, and of elegant Senior leisure, were evidently gone by forever; and as for the rights of man of educated man what was there to be said? But, as has been oftentimes the case in the college world, when a new year had begun, and a new class, which had adjusted its mind to the change as fully estab- lished, entered upon the work of its closing year, all were reconciled to the inevitable indeed, all thought the in- evitable very reasonable. We Seniors of 1849 went about our daily business as if the arrangements and rules had always been in existence. Strange to say so op- posite was our sentiment to that of the class preceding ours we thought of ourselves as having a satisfactorily 71 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN easy and pleasant year. At the opening of the autumn term we found that we were called upon for six exercises a week at the early morning hour one of them being a lecture. These exercises were in the departments of Mental Philosophy and History, one half of them in each. We had a lecture every day, at noon, from the elder Professor Silliman on Chemistry, and in the after- noons of four days we had lectures on Oratory, or exer- cises in the study of Demosthenes on the Crown. These last-mentioned exercises were two in number weekly. In the first, the professor translated a brief section of the oration to the students, and in the second, they were expected to translate the same section to him. The translations given by the students were naturally made without special difficulty, and were easily brought into correspondence with those of the professor. The studies of the two remaining terms were arranged much after the same manner, and the demands upon the student's powers and efforts were scarcely more exacting. I re- member saying, one day, to the leading scholar of the class in allusion to the complaints made in the previous year that, if the Seniors had ever had less work re- quired of them than we were called to do, it might have been better to dismiss students from all connection with college duties at the close of the Junior year, only asking them to return for their diplomas at the appointed time. But if I had entered the Class of 1 848, as I have already said that I expected to do, I should no doubt have shared their feeling, and complained of the setting aside of customs and the invasion of ancient freedom. A college community is a peculiar one in many lines. It is so in the matters kindred to that of which I am writing. In one sense, college students are thoroughly progressive. In another, they are extremely conserva- tive. An immemorial custom can be established in a shorter time in a college than anywhere else ; and, when 72 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN established, the resistance to any change is, at the outset, more urgent and more unanimous than in any other place. The ease with which a custom becomes immemorial is due, no doubt, to the rapidly changing membership of the community. The Freshman of to-day knows sub- stantially nothing of the immediate past. The Senior knows little of what preceded his own college generation. The life of the existing brotherhood is an intensely present life, as if nothing different had gone before, and nothing new or better ought to come afterward. But if the new thing is actually introduced, and thus becomes a fact that cannot be avoided, the same rapidity of change in the community renders the acceptance of the new, after a little time, a matter of less difficulty; and the agitations of one academic year or generation readily pass into the quietness and peacefulness of the next. Illustrative examples might be given in abundance. One of the most memorable in the recent years was that connected with the removal of the old College fence, at the corner of Chapel and College streets. The re- moval was rendered necessary in order that Osborn Hall might be erected. But it was opposed with the utmost vigor. So strong was the feeling, that even graduates whose college life preceded by many years the introduc- tion of what may be called "the fence custom," were led to maintain that the institution might well give up all other uses of that most valuable part of the grounds for all time, in order that the "old things" should not pass away. A short period elapsed, however, and no one remained in the undergraduate community who had ever seen the fence which had been thought so essential. The life of the new men was adjusted to the new condi- tions, and the dangers that were supposed to threaten the continuance of Yale sympathies and friendships were seen to have passed away. But to return to the relation of our Senior studies to 73 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN our friendly association, from which this digression has been made; of course, we had more leisure for such association by reason of the arrangements described, than would have been possible under a different system. As this comparatively greater leisure, also, coincided in time with that more full development of our acquaint- ance with one another which pertained to our last year of college life, it contributed in an appreciable measure to the unity of the class sentiment and feeling. In this connection, I may likewise allude to a special time of leisure, or a special privilege in this regard, which we enjoyed in common with those who went before us, but which was continued only for a brief period after our graduation. The arrangement of the year for the Seniors placed the Class or "Presentation" Day, as it was called, six weeks before the public Com- mencement. All studies for the class ceased at Presenta- tion Day, and the six following weeks were a vacation season. With the freedom of communication between various and even distant parts of the country to which we are now accustomed, such a season would, of course, find the students widely scattered during almost its entire continuance. But in those days, the facilities for travel- ing were comparatively limited the railroad from New Haven to New York, for example, was not completed until near the middle point of our Senior year and the return of most of the classmates to their homes for so brief a time was, accordingly, impracticable. As a con- sequence, almost all of the company remained at the College during these weeks which, it will be remembered, were in the midst of the summer, when the city was in its greatest beauty and the words "beneath the elms" had their deepest meaning. Under such circumstances and conditions with free- dom from all college responsibilities; with a gratifying sense of realized results; with just enough thought of the 74 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN approaching end, to add to our mutual affection, and just enough feeling that the end was not yet at hand, to make us cheerful; with a little mingling, I fear I must add, of a too human satisfaction in the knowledge that the under-class men were still called to rise early in the morning, and to study Philosophy and Greek and Mathematics, while we were not we gave ourselves to the enjoyment of each others' society and to the happi- ness of men whose graduation was assured. Years after- ward, the words of a young student of the Class of 1862 were reported to me by a friend in that class. He said, "Yale College would be a most interesting and delightful place, if only all the literary and religious ex- ercises were omitted." If there was any truth in this remark, we classmates of 1849 had an experience of it in those lovely summer days, when all of the College life was over, and yet all was not over. No such arrangement of the year, as I suppose, would be either practicable or wise, in the present era. Even if it could be made with wisdom as related to the best inter- ests of study, the season of leisure could not realize for those to whom it was given the old rich results, because the men would not linger on the College grounds, nor spend the days in the final cementing of friendships and in strengthening one another for the coming time. But memory goes back to what belonged to the bygone life and recalls with gladness the happy things which it offered to us. So my remembrance rests upon that brief pleasant time; and with a satisfaction which has no in- termingling of selfishness, for I know that the Seniors of to-day would not enjoy the season as we did, if the opportunity were given them. They would hasten to other scenes, and other friendly meetings. 75 VI. Religious Exercises and Preaching of the Period- Course of Study and Daily Student Life. THE religious exercises of the College in my stu- dent days, and for a long time afterwards, included two Church services, with preaching, on Sunday, and also morning and evening prayers on that day, as well as on all the other days of the week. The College preacher was Professor Eleazar T. Fitch, who was elected to the Livingston Pro- fessorship, as it was then called, in the year 1817, a few months after the death of the first Presi- dent Dwight. At the time of the entrance of my class into the academic community, he had occupied his position for twenty-eight years and was about fifty-four years of age. In accordance with the usage which had been handed down from previous generations, he de- voted the morning service of each Sunday to the pre- sentation of theological doctrines thus giving, in the course of two or three years, a system of theology in the form of sermons. These "system sermons" were preached, again and again, during successive periods, so that every class heard all of them within the time of its academic career, and some of them even more than once. In the afternoons, the sermons were of a more general and practical character, and were of greater in- terest to many of the hearers because they seemed to be less technically scientific. It was the common custom of the period, to which educated and Christian families almost universally conformed, to attend Church services PROFESSOR ELEAZAR T. FITCH MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN twice on the days set apart for public worship; and, as the great majority of the students were members of such families, there was comparatively little complaint with reference to the rules of the College in this regard. Morning and evening prayers were, also, so thoroughly in accordance with the habits of religious households in those days, that it was not considered strange that the same daily custom should exist in an institution of learn- ing, or that attendance upon such exercises should be re- quired. It would rather have seemed strange, if it had been otherwise. Dr. Fitch was called to his position in the College pulpit when he was only twenty-six years old. and shortly after he had completed his course of study in the An- dover Theological Seminary. He was, however, re- garded as a young man of remarkable ability and promise, and great hopes were entertained for him at the beginning of his public career. These hopes were abundantly justified in the earliest period of his official life. It was, indeed, a severe test for the powers of a youthful minister, to be asked to equal the demands of a cultured audience of professors and students who had either listened with admiration to the discourses of Dr. Dwight, or heard of them from their fathers and friends. But Professor Fitch met the test successfully, and for many years he was held in the greatest esteem as a preacher by the entire academic community his ser- mons being highly appreciated because of the intellectual force manifested in them and the spiritually stimulating influence by which they were characterized. He was certainly, in his mental gifts, one of the most remarkable men whom the College Faculty has ever had in the circle of its membership. He was a theologian, a metaphysi- cian, a preacher, a poet, and a musician. He also pos- sessed rare mechanical skill, and was a lover of nature in no ordinary degree. Considered in the full measure and 77 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the variety of his powers, he had no superior among the eminent scholars and teachers who were associated with him. I believe this to be the judgment of those who were most thoroughly acquainted with the whole circle of men. He had, however, a nervous intensity or an in- tense nervousness which greatly interfered with his steady and quiet working power. For this reason, the composition of sermons was often a matter of the great- est mental and even physical strain, and sometimes the delivery of a discourse was an occasion of noticeable embarrassment. For this reason, also, during a large portion, if not indeed the whole of his more public life, he felt himself unable to speak before large audiences extemporaneously, or without a fully prepared manu- script. Probably no able preacher in the course of New England history has ever experienced this impeding in- fluence in the way of his most wide-reaching and com- plete success in larger measure than did he throughout his ministry. As a result in part of this peculiar element in his mental constitution, and in part of the custom of the time with reference to the repetition of the sermons on theology, as well as of the rapid succession of classes which rendered the repetition of other sermons more easy and natural, Dr. Fitch became less productive, in the matter of new discourses, as he advanced in years. In consequence of this fact, his power over his student audiences gradually diminished after the middle of his official career. In my own college days it was not as great as it had been at an earlier period. Even in my time, however, his discourses were stimulating and awak- ening to every intellectual and thoughtful man among the undergraduates, and their power for the whole com- pany was clearly manifest as soon as any other preacher occupied the pulpit. The visiting preacher's sermon was immediately subjected by the student mind to a com- 78 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN parison with those of the Professor, and to a very strict and severe judgment. The decision was rarely in favor of the stranger. I remember a remark of the well-known historical lecturer of the last generation, Dr. John Lord, when speaking of a celebrated French woman of the eighteenth century who lived to a very advanced age. "She retained her powers in their fullness," he said, "as indeed most people do who exercise their powers." If the good Pro- fessor had not been prevented, by the causes mentioned, from exercising his powers continually in writing new sermons, as he was ready to use them in other lines, he might well have been equally effective as a preacher to the end of his career. Occasionally, however, he put forth his energies in this way, and at one time, near the close of my college life or soon afterward, he did so for months together and with an effect upon his hearers which showed that there were still present in him the strength and vigor of the earlier days. The preaching of that period in the College pulpit differed in many respects from that to which we have become accustomed in these recent years. Even when it limited itself to the more practical sphere, it was in a far higher degree argumentative than it now is as if the discussion of questions and the defense of positions taken in connection with them were regarded as essential. Theological doctrine, though it might not be pressed directly upon the hearer's attention as the chief end and purpose of a discourse, had always a certain marked prominence given to it in its bearing upon the theme under consideration. The setting forth of the way of salvation for the individual man was never lost sight of, and the necessity of moving forward in that way, if one desired to attain assured hope, rarely failed to be sug- gested by the development of the thought, when it was not distinctly declared or urged. Sermons had, if I may 79 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN so express it, a more philosophical character. They corresponded more fully, in this regard, to the lectures which were given in other departments of instruction, and assumed on the part of those who listened to them an interest in thoughtful discussion. The preacher had, in general if not indeed always, the feeling that his audience, though mainly ^composed of young men just approaching maturity, could be fitly addressed after the manner in which he, and others of his profession, were wont to speak to those who were farther advanced in age. It was an intelligent audience, open in the same way, if not indeed in the same full measure, to religious ideas and Christian thinking, and therefore did not need to be dealt with as if its life and thought were peculiar to itself or apart from the world outside. For these reasons, whatever may be said of the spiritual effect of the preaching as compared with that of the present era, I think its stimulating influence for the intellectual pow- ers was greater and more constant. It had a force for the education of the man which has, in some degree, been lessened or lost. This loss, as it seems to me at least, when considered in itself alone, and aside from the matter in its other relations is much to be regretted. Dr. Fitch's discourses demanded and excited mental activity on the student's part as truly as did the teachings or lectures of any other instructor whom he was called to meet in his academic career. I think that, in this re- gard, they were helpful in no ordinary measure, and a real blessing, to the men who were my college contempo- raries. They were, no doubt, too argumentative and had more of what I have ventured to call the philosoph- ical character than one could have desired. They were liable at times, perchance, to the charge made against them by a young man in one of the classes that followed my own, when he said it was a hardship, after having had mathematics all the week, to be obliged to have it 80 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN again on Sundays. But they had in them thoughts and a course of thought which were not only interesting and suggestive, but in a special sense disciplinary for the mind a good thing, surely, for a college youth who is to live in the sphere of educated life. And as for mathe- matics, I cannot help feeling that it might be even a pleasure to have it introduced occasionally by a preacher on Sundays in this era, as a relief from the constantly repeated allusions to athletics to which we have been obliged to accustom ourselves. The young men of the academic company would be almost ready, I think, to unite with me in this sentiment. Sermons were ordinarily much longer then than they are to-day. If the preacher continued his discourse for fifty minutes, the hearer did not become wearied or in- attentive, unless indeed the thoughts presented, or the manner of presenting them, proved to be devoid of interest. Even young persons and college students had much of the same patience in receiving instruction from the pulpit which they had when it came from the teach- er's desk. The custom of the time allowed a similar lengthening of discourse in both cases; and custom, as we know, has great determinative force in all such mat- ters. Within the last few years a complete change has been realized, and the college preachers now appear to regard themselves as limited to one-half of the time which was freely granted to their predecessors. They seem sometimes, indeed, to vie with each other in the brevity of their discourses. As illustrative of the change I may mention the fact, of which Professor Thacher told me not long after my graduation, that Dr. Fitch, as they walked homeward from the Chapel together, was wont to make some remark of an apologetic char- acter in case the service had come to its end before twelve o'clock. Such an apology would hardly be expected now. There were times especially in the winter sea- Si MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN son and in the days of the Old Chapel when some of those who were younger then than they now are would have been quite contented, if the Doctor himself had not felt that it was called for. I shall never forget the impression made upon my own mind, on a very cold Sunday in the period of my tutorship, when the preacher, after the clock had already struck the noon hour, an- nounced that he would close his discourse with a word of admonition. But sermons of a thoughtful character meant more when they were longer, and were, as I have said, more influential to the end of strengthening the mind, if not also to that of developing true character and the soul's life. If they were sometimes too long in the old days, they are often too short in the later time too short, as they were then too long, for the best results. As connected with their length, and their argumenta- tive and, oftentimes, doctrinal character, the pulpit dis- courses of my college era were, in general, much more definitely marked in their divisions and progress of thought the divisions were, as we may say, more boldly and openly set forth by the preacher as he moved on- ward. In this more recent period with which we are now familiar, the divisions and subdivisions are intro- duced by some easy turn of thought or expression, so that the hearer is borne forward to the new almost with- out being aware that he is leaving the old. But then everything was made as definite and distinct as possible. The extreme abruptness of the preachers of a previous generation had, indeed, mainly passed away an abrupt- ness which must often have startled their audiences, as it would seem, when at the close of their discussion of a subject they uttered the word "Remarks," or "Im- provement," and thus proceeded to make the practical application of the truth. But it would have been deemed a loss for the plainness of the argument and the lasting 82 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN impression of the discourse, if the leading thoughts, in their succession, had not been marked by numbers. The numerical designation was also generally extended to the minor divisions subordinate to the main " heads," as they were called, and in this way the plan of the sermon was given to the hearer, to the end that he might keep it in his mind. In Dr. Fitch's sermons, as I remember them, there were commonly, if not always, three leading divisions which seemed, as it were, to be homiletically essential to the true idea or ideal. In the development of the thought pertaining to each of these, there might be three or more secondary suggestions or proofs tending to establish and confirm the main proposition. These be- ing all numbered, like the more prominent sections, as first, second, etc., it sometimes happened that the enumeration became burdensome, or that the hearer, in case of his momentary inattention, lost the immediate bearing of the thought. The very mark that was de- signed to indicate the stages of the progress might thus fail of accomplishing its purpose. Particularly was this the case, where the preacher distinctly mentioned, as the Doctor not infrequently did, that his closing thought under each leading division was the final one. The re- lation of finality to the end of a discourse was thus made obscure to the youthful listener, and, as a consequence, he followed the speaker's words less carefully, if not with less willingness, than he might otherwise have done. A classmate of mine, as I remember, once awakened much sympathy on the part of his associates though they were at the moment passing severe criticism upon the discourse of an officer of another institution which had just been preached in the College Chapel by the single remark: "There was, at any rate, one good point in the preacher's address. When he said, Finally, the sermon was more than half finished." 83 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN All these things, however, were of minor importance and, as they are referred to, they only serve to indicate the changes in style and manner, or in the presentation of thought, by which the progress of time is marked. Dr. Fitch's discourses, when viewed in relation to the history of preaching in our country, may fitly be regarded as having a prominent position. Though still under the influence of the past in no inconsiderable measure, they moved aside from and beyond the older order, and thus opened the way, as we may say, towards that which is best in our modern era. The theological element per- taining to them, conspicuous as it was, was united with the oratorical and imaginative. The poetic character of the writer's mind often exhibited itself in them as clearly as did its argumentative power. The movement of the emotional nature was, in its appropriate place, no less earnest than that of the intellect as it gave its energy to the defense of doctrine and truth. The persuasive force of the Gospel and its loving call to the souls of men were never lost sight of or forgotten. Preachers from outside of the College were, in those days, only occasionally invited to address the students in connection with the Sunday services of the Chapel. The Professor of Divinity fulfilled the duties of his office with almost as much regularity as was characteristic of his colleagues in their several spheres of instruction. His position was, in its demands in this respect, regarded by himself and by others as similar to theirs. It was that of a teacher, as well as that of a minister. From time to time, however, when circumstances seemed to make it desirable, or in case of some special religious interest which was the occasion of unusual efforts, men of greater or less eminence were called to speak in the Professor's place and, in this way, to give their helpful influence in the carrying forward of his work. Some of these men were the more prominent pastors of churches in the 84 MEMORIES OF VALE LIFE AND MEN city or its vicinity. Others were preachers from more remote places who had gained for themselves high honor and widely extended reputation. They belonged, of course, to the older generation, as compared with our- selves, and many of them were considerably advanced in years. Among the more noted ones whom I recall with a pleasant remembrance were Dr. Lyman Beecher; Presi- dent Nott, of Union College; Dr. Francis Wayland, President of Brown University; Dr. William Adams, of New York, and Dr. Horace Bushnell. In the later part of my undergraduate career and in the period of my tutorship, Dr. Bushnell, as I think, awakened greater interest on the part of the student company than any other even of the most distinguished preachers. The originality of his mind; his striking presentation of his thoughts and their peculiar richness; his style and use of language which were so characteristic of the man and were so fitted to excite attention; the very differences of his views from those of most of his contemporaries of his own order, and the new visions of truth which he opened and made beautiful all alike, and in their union with each other, rendered him exceedingly attractive to young men whose intellectual powers were waking to manly activity and to the enjoyment of their personal thinking. The years from 1849 to l %55 were those in which the greatest public excitement was manifested in connection with what were regarded by many as his heretical and dangerous theological opinions. Possibly we college men listened to him with a certain curiosity, and with more strict attention, because of this fact. But his sermons, which he gave to us, had very little, if any- thing, in them that could have been disturbing even to the most sensitive minds. They dealt rather with ques- tions pertaining to the deeper experience of the soul and with the beginning and growth of Christian life in the 85 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN individual man. In all this sphere of thought they were eminently suggestive and quickening. The difficulty which Professor Fitch experienced in extemporaneous speaking was so manifest and so marked that he felt himself inadequate to much of the pastoral work, which is generally regarded as pertaining to the preacher's office. He hesitated to undertake the services connected with the minor meetings of the Church, and shrank from the duty of addressing such meetings in an informal way. Happily his inability, as he conceived it, in this department of religious effort was abundantly supplemented by Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich, who had eminent gifts qualifying him for these special duties and was always ready to answer to the call which they made. Professor Goodrich, a classmate of Dr. Fitch and appointed at the same time to a permanent office in the College, became in reality the College pastor, while Dr. Fitch was the College preacher. Every student of the years between 1840 and 1858 whose mind turned with interest towards religious sub- jects will remember the voluntary meetings in what was called the Theological Chamber, in the Lyceum build- ing, which were held on Sunday evenings, immediately after the supper hour, and which were addressed by Professor Goodrich. He was always present at these meetings and always conducted the service. While as a preacher and sermonizer he was marked by no special ability or attractiveness, he had extraordinary power in the line of speaking called for in such assemblies. He was most interesting and quickening in his thought, most impressive in his manner and bearing, and most urgent, as well as eloquent, in his presentation of Christian truth and duty. In his language, as well as his delivery, he was in a high degree rhetorical, but his rhetoric was in harmony with the taste and spirit of the time and was 86 PROFESSOR CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN very effective in its influence upon undergraduate stu- dents. He had indeed, in a harmless way, some of the arts of the orator. These were, however, not manifest enough to affect his audiences unfavorably. They les- sened his power somewhat with those that heard him continuously after their graduation, but the greater part of the young men who listened to his words were still in their college years. He was a great religious force, and, if I may speak of him as compared with any other single individual, he was the great religious force in the student world. During the years to which I am now making special reference indeed, during all the years from 1839 to the time of his death, in 1860 Professor Goodrich was connected with the Faculty of the Theological Depart- ment; the chair which he held was that of Pastoral Theology. From 1817 to 1839, on the other hand, he had been a member of the Academical Faculty, as the Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory. The transference from the one chair to the other was a very happy circum- stance as bearing upon his influence with the undergradu- ate students, and the acceptableness of his pastoral work among them. In my college days, and for a very con- siderable period before and after them, his relation to the academic classes was entirely free from any adminis- trative or disciplinary element. He met us, indeed, as a lecturer for a few weeks in our Senior year, but it was only as any gentleman from another department of the institution, or from the outside world, might come to us for a little time with interesting addresses on some special subjects. We were not even reminded of the govern- mental idea by being called upon for an examination on the topics which he discussed. Otherwise and apart from these lectures we knew him simply as a pastor; and, in this relation, not as a man who had been formally appointed to the discharge of the duties of the office, 87 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN but as one who, out of love for the service and interest in the young men of the College, had voluntarily taken the work upon himself the work of doing them good in the sphere of Christian living. It was a remarkable change from the earlier period, when he was an Academical Professor. At that time he had not only the ordinary official connection with the undergraduate community which professors and instruct- ors always have, but also in a certain peculiar sense and measure he was the impersonation, as it were, of the gov- ernment in its relation to the daily life of the students. He had thus the most difficult and trying position which any member of a College Faculty can hold, and one in which a man, unless he has extraordinary wisdom and tact, is almost necessarily exposed to the danger, often- times, of awakening unfavorable feeling. The ideas of the period with respect to strictness of discipline, to which I have alluded on an earlier page, as well as the peculiar character of the Professor's rhetorical nature, rendered the exercise of such tact and wisdom in his case almost impossible; and the result was more or less disaffection on the part of the classes of students that were most ready to infringe upon the College rules or, in any way, come into conflict with the authorities. The new condition of things which was realized in the later years might well have been a source of satisfaction and happiness to him. It was certainly a blessing to the institution in its highest life. So completely had it be- come new, when my classmates and myself entered upon the experiences of the academic world, that we could scarcely appreciate what the older men told us of their times. The excellent Professor had the two elements in his constitution the strictly and minutely governmental one, if I may so call it, and the truly large-minded one of earnest and Christian desire for the good of those who MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN were even the most erring. He was in the better and happier sphere of working, both as related to himself and others, in the later period of twenty years when the second of the two elements had its full sway, than in the earlier one when the possibilities or duties of his office gave greater opportunity for the intermingling of the first. The wonderful success and usefulness and Chris- tian power of the later part of his honored career bore emphatic testimony to the wisdom of separating the pastoral office from the one that has within itself the details of government and discipline. The two men Professors Fitch and Goodrich if they could have been united in their powers of writing and speaking; of formal and informal address; of fit- ness for the preacher's and pastor's office combined, would have made one man of a very remarkable order. But it was better, perhaps, for the highest interests of the College that they were not thus united, but that each did his own work in his own sphere. It was fortunate, indeed, for the institution that the two lived and labored together for so many years, and that their influence entered into the lives of so many of the graduates of Yale. With reference to the studies of the undergraduate college course limitation was manifest everywhere in those days, as contrasted with the wide range and the abundant freedom of the present time. Elective courses were offered only in the third term of the Junior, and the second term of the Senior years. These courses, ex- tending over twelve or fourteen weeks in each year, were merely supplemental to the required studies, to which the main portion of the time was devoted. Two hours a week that is, two recitation hours, with the preparation which these called for were the largest number as- signed to them, and the student, accordingly, could not MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN select for himself more than a single course out of the few that were offered. The studies thus opened to choice, in the last part of my college life, were Modern Languages, Select Latin or Greek, Hebrew, Practical Astronomy, and, in the mathematical department, Analytical Geometry and the Calculus. A special vol- unteer class was formed in 1849 f r tne study of Mill's Logic. By far the largest number in each successive class made choice of one of the Modern Languages for their elective course; and most of these selected French as the language to be studied. The College, in the last two years of my undergraduate life, had no teacher of Ger- man in its board of instruction. There was compara- tively little disposition at that time to acquire the knowl- edge of Italian or Spanish. These languages were also regarded as demanding more diligent study than the French. Moreover, the time when the student was first called upon to make his selection was the summer term, and for this reason, if for no other, many were disin- clined to take upon themselves any burdensome work additional to that which was called for in the line of the required studies. The range of studies in the prescribed courses was also limited, as compared with what has been known in more recent years. Not only has remarkable progress in de- velopment, and in methods, been made in connection with all branches of learning, but the opening of oppor- tunities for the student has been widened. Studies which were not included in the curriculum have received an appropriate place, and books which were closed even to Seniors have been put into the hands of Freshmen. As a single illustrative instance related to books, Thucydi- des' History had, in 1899, a place among the studies of the earliest terms of the course, while in my own college period it could not be studied at all, except privately in 90 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the undergraduate years or with some college officer after graduation. The theory of the education of that time was clearly stated in the catalogue of the College, in a passage which I will venture to quote. "The object of the system of in- struction to the undergraduates is not to give a partial education, consisting of a few branches only; nor on the other hand to give a superficial education, containing a little of almost everything; nor to finish the details of either a professional or a practical education; but to commence a thorough course, and to carry it as far as the time of the student's residence will allow. It is in- tended to maintain such a proportion between the dif- ferent branches of literature and science, as to form a proper symmetry and balance of character. In laying the foundation of a thorough education, it is necessary that all the important faculties be brought into exercise. When certain mental endowments receive a much higher culture than others, there is a distortion in the intellectual character. The powers of the mind are not developed in their fairest proportions by studying languages alone, or mathematics alone, or natural or political science alone. The object, in the proper collegiate department, is not to teach that which is peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation which is common to them all. The principles of science and literature are the common foundation of all high intellectual attain- ments. They give that furniture, and discipline, and elevation to the mind, which are the best preparation for the study of a profession, or of the operations which are peculiar to the higher mercantile, manufacturing, or agri- cultural establishments." The introduction and very wide extension of the elective system, together with the changes in public senti- ment of which that system is in part, no doubt, the cause and in part the effect, have resulted in a different theory 91 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN as to education which, at present, is finding much favor. Young men should be educated, it is now said, for their special work in life even from the beginning of their college years, and all studies may be equally disciplinary one, therefore, or a few, may be as useful as a larger number covering a wider range. But the old theory had a certain reasonableness and wisdom in it, whatever may be its final fate, and it worked good results in the lives of the men whose early training was under its influence. The college examinations of our time were, like those for admission to the Freshman class, oral, and not written examinations. They occurred at the end of each term. At the close of the Junior year there was one which covered the studies of the entire course up to that point. They were not, by any means, formidable to the students whose success in scholarship was sufficient to assure their continuance as members of the institution. Very few, I think, except the most scholarly men in the classes, made any very special preparation for them, or gave themselves during the days or weeks of their con- tinuance to careful study. It was, for the majority, a period rather of leisure, than of work. The system of written examinations, as they are called, was first introduced two or three years after the class of which I was a member graduated. Its introduc- tion was one of the marks of advance in scholarly meth- ods which characterized Dr. Woolsey's Presidency. Ex- periments connected with the new system were tried occasionally afterwards, and sometimes, after trial, were abandoned. But when a number of years had passed, the oral method was given up altogether, and the exam- inations by means of printed /questions and written an- swers became thenceforth the permanent order of things. The development of the new system has continued now 92 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN for more than thirty years. It is justly regarded as having been helpful to the success and good results of college education. The numbers of students in our larger institutions would, no doubt, render a return to the older plan impossible, even if its merits were still worthy of serious consideration. Certainly the new which has taken the place of the old, in this matter, has introduced a remarkable change, and the students and Faculties of to-day would smile at the thought of a revival of the former times in this regard. For my own part not having entire confidence that the educational world has as yet reached the summit of human wisdom I have the hope, and I may even say, the faith to believe, that the present system of examina- tions will ere long, by evolution or transformation, pass into something higher and better, and that the knowledge of college students will be tested, as well as made sure, by a system of personal, individual research carried on in parallelism with the teacher's instructions, and under responsibility to him. That the examinations of the present time are more strict, and call for more study in immediate preparation for them, than those of my own college era, I have little doubt. But that the students of to-day have, at their graduation, a better knowledge of the things that they have studied than we had of those, fewer in number indeed, which were opened to us for our studying, I do not believe. That the young men of the coming eras in all our colleges may have a much better, and wider, and more permanently abiding knowledge than any of their predecessors, is greatly to be desired. But new changes must come if this result is to be realized. A writer whose recollections of his undergraduate days go backward only a quarter of a century would scarcely think of passing over, in his record, the subject 93 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of athletic sports. But, half a century ago, there were no sports which would now be deemed worthy of this high-sounding name. Almost all matters in the line of physical exercise were of a more individual character, or were limited to small companies who were of kindred tastes and had friendly fellowship. The one contest in our time that could in a sense be called public, was the annual football game between the Sophomore and Freshman classes, which took place early in the autumn term on the City Green or Square, just opposite the southern portion of the College grounds. This contest attracted considerable attention on the part of the stu- dent community, but comparatively little outside of its limits. It was, in many respects, different from that of the modern era, and it included five games, each one of which usually continued from twenty to thirty minutes. My class had in its membership four or five very excel- lent and prominent players the major part of whom had entered college from the Hopkins Grammar School, though I may say that the good old Dominie, whom I have mentioned, did not give special instruction in such matters. The consequence of this fact namely, that our best men were thus gifted was that we were at the opening of our Freshman year victorious over the class then Sophomores; a very unusual and almost unknown experience, which gave us a certain prominence in the College even from the beginning. A year later, when we had reached the Sophomore year, we gained the vic- tory over the Freshmen in every one of the five games, and finished all the games in thirty minutes. Our posi- tion in the community became thus permanently estab- lished and I think I may say, without undue commen- dation of ourselves, that we held a place of honor in the other lines of college life and work, which was not un- worthy of us as Yale students. There was no gymnasium connected with the institu- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tion at that period. There was no instruction as related to physical exercise. There was, as I may say, no athletic development, and no enthusiasm with reference to it or demand for it in the public mind. As for the matter of health, however, I believe that the graduates of our colleges then were as sound and vigorous as they are to-day. I am confident that the men of that period who were hard students the men who are often pictured now as having been weak and sickly, and candidates for early decline and death were quite as healthful as the average athletes of the more recent times. I was myself a member of a little company which numbered fifteen, and included several of the leading scholars and intel- lectual men of my class, during our Senior year. Of that number eight were living and in full vigor, and seven were present at our class meeting in New Haven, at the time when we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of our graduation. I would not be understood as recommending a return to the former condition of things, when the institution did little or nothing for its students in the physical sphere. But bodily strength and chances for long-con- tinued life are not characteristic of the later classes only. Earnest students and thinkers are quite as likely to live to old age in the fullness of strength, as the leaders among college athletes are. Such is the testimony of past experience, whether we look back over fifty years, or over twenty-five years. There is no greater error any- where, than that which sometimes takes possession of many minds and finds public expression of itself that students in the college years lose their health because they give themselves devotedly to scholarly work. They lose it, if at all, with very rare exceptions for other reasons than this, and other reasons only. Men are in- tended by nature to exercise their minds, as truly as they are to exercise their bodies, and to do this in the 95 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN youthful season and the after times alike. Those who do not use and strengthen their intellectual powers at the beginning fail to gain much that life has within itself to offer them. If the two departments of education can be perfectly adjusted to each other, and to the claims upon both alike, our universities and schools will realize their ideal. I have thus set forth somewhat of the details of the undergraduate life of my classmates and myself, and somewhat of the contrast between our experiences and possibilities and those of college students now. We had much. They have more. We had some things which were good, but which have passed away. They have many things that are good, of which we knew nothing, because they were not yet existing. But we were college undergraduates in the same sense, and with the same full- ness of meaning, as those who have followed us along the course of the half-century even to its ending. We passed on through the four years half using and half losing, like all our successors, the privileges that were offered us. We found our minds growing stronger, with the movement of time ; our knowledge becoming greater ; our vision of the future enlarging in its clearness and its hopefulness. We entered, with a deeper insight, into the understanding of each other's thoughts, and rejoiced in one another's friendship. We penetrated lovingly within the inmost soul-life of some more limited fellowship each one of us and carried away and onward for our- selves rich thoughts and helpful impulses. We were at the end what all the brotherhood of graduates will appreciate in its full significance, if only they may change the number of the year the Yale Class of 1849, tnen the youngest, now among the oldest in the sonship of the kind Mother who had given us her benediction. VII. Life as Graduate Student and in the Tutorship 1849 to 1855. IN the annual Catalogue for the academic year 1 848- 49, the following statement is made: "The avails of a bequest to the College by Sheldon Clark, Esq., according to the will of the donor, have been applied to the establishment of two Scholarships, to commence in the years 1848 and 1849 respectively, on a foundation of two thousand dollars each. The member of the Senior Class who shall pass the best ex- amination on the studies of the College course, will be admitted to the Clark Scholarship and entitled to receive the income of its fund for two years, provided he remains in New Haven as a graduate during that period, pur- suing a course of study under the direction of the Faculty." As it was my desire, and my purpose if possible, to remain in New Haven for a year or two after my graduation, and as the moderate income offered by this scholarship would be, as I knew, helpful in the way of meeting my expenses, I determined to present myself for the required examination. It chanced to be the case that I was successful in passing it, and as the result I became the Clark Scholar for the years 1849-51. I mention this Scholarship and this circumstance connected with my own relation to it, not because of any worthiness of the facts themselves in their union with each other to be thus recorded, but for reasons of quite a different character. 97 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN The Clark Scholarship fund has a special interest, in that it was the first one established at Yale which may be said to have had a connection with the beginning and development of what is now called the Graduate School. The Berkeley Scholarship reaches backward indeed, in the date of its foundation, to 1733. But, while it was intended to make provision for students who should re- main at the College during the time intervening between their first and second degrees in Arts, it accomplished but little, in the later years, in the way of inducing young graduates to continue their studies. The income avail- able for each scholar only about forty-six dollars was too small, even as measured by the standard of fifty- years ago, to have any special influence upon the student's mind or purpose. The Clark foundation yielded nearly three times this income for each one placed upon it; and it became available, after some twenty years of gradual accumulation, in the year following the first organized movement, as it may be called, for graduate instruction in the institution. This movement resulted in the estab- lishment of what was styled, "The Department of Phil- osophy and the Arts," in August, 1846, the object of which, as stated by the authorities of the College, was "to furnish resident graduates and others with the op- portunity of devoting themselves to special branches of study either not provided for at present, or not pursued as far as individual students may desire." After some years, this department resolved itself into two branches, one of which became the Sheffield Scientific School, and the other the School for Graduate Instruction. It was only a single year after the actual beginning of the de- partment when the first Clark Scholarship was offered, and there was thus a most timely connection of the two events. To-day, such a fellowship foundation seems a small one. It was not large even at that time; but it was large enough to give some impulse and encourage- 98 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ment to the work that was beginning. It is therefore worthy of special recognition as the first of the endow- ments which have accomplished so much, in the progress of the half-century, for the development of the studies reaching beyond the undergraduate course, and for the growth and transformation of the College into the University. The fact that this scholarship was assigned to me, as the representative of one of the two classes to whose members it was first offered, placed me, if I may so ex- press it, in a certain recognized and organic connection with the newly formed Department. I was thus one of its very earliest members, and I continued in its member- ship for two years, pursuing non-professional studies. There had, of course, been resident graduates at the Col- lege many times in previous eras of its history, but their relation to the institution was a looser one and less dis- tinctly marked. We were, in our day, the beginnings of a more definite and regular body of students, and we had, in a more true sense of the word, a position of our own. My scholarship and myself, therefore, were near the foundation of this section of the University, and the entire history of its growth and its work falls within the period over which my recollections extend. In each of the two years of my scholarship term, there were in the Department of Philosophy and the Arts about twenty students. Three-fourths of these were in the Scientific section, and were not College graduates. Not more than five or six were pursuing courses which naturally followed after those of the College curriculum. The special work which I recall with interest, and in which nearly all of us who were graduates were asso- ciated, was that which we did under the guidance and instruction of President Woolsey. We met him twice a week during the College year 1849-50 for the reading of Thucydides, and in the next year for the study of 99 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Pindar. The exercises were stimulating and helpful be- yond any that I had known in my undergraduate career partly, no doubt, because I had entered more fully upon the freedom of manhood, with an escape from the minor rules of the academic life, and partly because the President felt that he -was dealing with graduates, and thus might lay aside somewhat of the official element which pertained to the teacher's relation to younger stu- dents. I had the happiness, also, to be associated in the small company of five or six who formed the class with young men of very unusual scholarly ability. William Dwight Whitney, afterwards the eminent linguistic scholar and Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, who so greatly honored the University by his life and work within its walls, was one of the number. William Allen Macy, a graduate of the class of 1844, was another. He was a scholar of remarkable refinement, and in many, if not all respects, he seemed to me, at the time, to be the equal of Whitney. He gave himself a little later to the work of a foreign missionary, and after twelve years of faithful and efficient service in China, he died there, when he had scarcely reached the age of forty. No one who knew him can forget the charm of his gentle, intelli- gent, cultured, lovable personality. An interesting and fitting memorial of him will ever continue in the Univer- sity, in the Macy Scholarship, the foundation of which, in the interest of graduate studies, was given by a be- quest in his will. Another member of the class was Clin- ton Camp, who graduated in the next year after me and with whom I was united in one of the closest of college friendships. He died of consumption, in Italy, only three years after his graduation. In his death our gen- eration of educated men lost, as I have always thought, one who would have done an honorable work in scholar- ship, and would have had an inspiring influence for every MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND M E Ni student who knew him intimately. He had a fresh and joyous delight in all new and beautiful things, and a generous youthful enthusiasm as he studied the old writers and poets, or as he looked out upon the richness of the world about him. The pleasure of our reading of Homer's Iliad together in those long bygone days, and of our Sunday evening talks of the life within us and without us, abides with me still. With such men in his class no one of whom ever came to his exercises reluctantly, or as if meeting an ap- pointed task it was not strange that the President was always ready to give us what was best in his teaching. He gave us also of what was best in himself the oppor- tunity of seeing his own scholarship and his own intel- lectual power. It was a good fortune, indeed, to be near enough to such a man to be moved by his example, and to get for oneself some appreciation of his ideal of the genuine scholar. Those years were the most valuable of the educational period of my earlier life. They prepared me for my duties as a college tutor and for my European studies in the subsequent years, and became in this way the foundation of all my maturer life and its work. I presume that my holding the Clark Scholarship and my connection as a graduate student with President Woolsey's class in Thucydides had an influence as bear- ing upon my early admission to the teaching force of the College. The immediate cause, however, of my being asked to give instruction to undergraduate students was, as I may say, an accidental one. My older brother, who was at the time one of the tutors for the Freshman class, was called to spend a number of weeks in a distant part of the country. He waited upon the President with a request for a leave of absence, which, in view of the reasons presented, was given him. The question of a supply for the temporary vacancy in the office of instruc- tion was naturally raised in the course of the interview. MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Much to my brother's surprise and still more, if pos- sible, to my own, when I heard of the fact the Presi- dent suggested that I should take upon myself the work, and authorized me to do so. I was a graduate of only four months' standing, and had had no idea of being thought of as a college instructor, if indeed at all, until three years later. Such an early assignment to duty was almost or quite unknown at that period, and the responsi- bility of undertaking the work, even for a few weeks, seemed somewhat serious. After thinking of the matter, however, I gave an affirmative answer to the request, and in due time found myself in the tutor's box in the recita- tion room, with the members of the new class before me. The result of my action, as it proved afterwards, was, that I was called into the service whenever a vacancy of a similar character, whether for a few days or a few weeks, occurred, until I entered upon my regular official duties on an appointment for three years. In this way, I had the fortune to know the classes of 1851, 1852, 1853 and 1854 though the first class with which I became connected as a more permanent tutor was the one which was graduated in 1855. The class which I met in December, 1849, was tnat f 1853. The members of this class were, at that time, still in the first term of their Freshman year. Their entrance upon the College course coincided in date with my grad- uation, and I was, accordingly, almost as one of them- selves seeming to my own mind, if not to theirs, more like a member of the student body, than one of the board of instruction. There were men in the class older than myself, as indeed in all the classes which I afterwards taught in the years of my tutorship ; and the entire mem- bership appeared to me to be my equals in age. My feeling with respect to this matter, together with my realization of the fact that my connection with the class was to be only of a temporary character, had an influence MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN at least, as I recall the past, I think it may naturally have had an influence upon my subsequent life as a teacher. I was, as it were, a college youth with college youths. I knew just enough more of Latin, and of Lin- coln's Livy, the book which they were studying, than they did, to enable me successfully to hear the recitations and conduct the exercises. But I was only a little way beyond them in my learning, and a very little in my sympathies and hopes. Moreover, how much was it possible for me to teach them, or help them in their mental discipline, within the few weeks to which I was limited? It may well have seemed as if I could do al- most nothing. But I could, in a measure, open myself to their acquaintance. and begin to know them as men. The impulse of my nature moved me to do this; and I found, to my great satisfaction, that they were gener- ously responsive to my advances and were ready for kindly friendship. The foundations of what followed were laid in those weeks. The beginnings of lifelong regard and affection were realized. The Class of 1853 has had a very honorable career in the world, and many whose names are enrolled in its membership have held in the past, or are now holding, very prominent positions in Church or State. I esteem it a privilege of my earlier years that I began my work as a college instructor with them as my students. Whether they took away with them anything from my teaching, I do not know. I have many doubts. But if, at that time, as well as after- wards when we knew each other better, they took some- thing from myself and I have a pleasant thought that they did I am satisfied. The classes of 1851 and 1852 I met only on a few occasions, when their regular instructors chanced to be absent from the College. But with the Class of 1854 I was brought into close connection for a considerable por- tion of a term, at the beginning of their Sophomore year. 103 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN My association with the members of this class was of a character similar to that which I had had with the pre- ceding class, and my pleasant memories of our friendly intercourse still abide with me, refreshed and strength- ened by what I have known of their history since their graduation. The work of instruction to which I was called when I met this class was in the Latin depart- ment, as it had been during the few weeks of my associa- tion with the Class of 1 853. My earliest efforts in teach- ing were, thus, in that branch of study. But with refer- ence to the future the call was to another department. The system or rule of the College, in those days, had little or no regard for the wishes of a tutor just entering upon his office, or even to his fitness or unfitness for any particular branch of instruction. On the contrary, the choices of departments of teaching were made in the order of seniority, and the beginner or the youngest in the tutorial office was obliged to take the position that was left for him after the older men had made their selection for themselves. At the time when the call for more permanent service came to me, the arrangements for the year had been already made, and in consequence of this fact, as well as of other special circumstances, I found myself under the necessity of assuming the duty of instructing a class in Greek which had in the preceding term been taught by Professor Hadley. A hard neces- sity, indeed, it seemed to me to be when I first came to the knowledge that I had to meet it. Mr. Hadley had already attained so much success in his work, and had won such high esteem as a scholar both from the students and the Faculty, that I thought it beyond the power of any youthful inexperienced teacher to take up the work which he was laying aside. Certainly I had no confi- dence in my own powers, and I could only feel that the fates were against me at the beginning of my course. I yielded, however, to the inevitable, and afterwards I 104 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN found that there was a different meaning in it from what I had thought. It carried within itself a blessing, for it determined my life-work, and gave me my first entrance into the enjoyment and happiness of my career as a stu- dent and a teacher. I think of it now, not as an ordering of destiny which I could not understand, but as a kind interposition of Providence on my behalf. I continued in the tutorial office for four years after the time when its full duties were first assigned to me. During this period I acted as an instructor for three classes those of 1855, 1856 and 1857. With the first- mentioned of these I had a little longer connection than with either of the others, but I was brought into more than usually close and intimate relations with them all. I had as thorough and friendly an acquaintance, I think I may say, with the members of the class of 1855, as they had with one another. I knew them so well that they visited me at my college room with frequency, and in the most familiar way; and they counseled with me as to their plans for the future, or the matters of their daily life, with the utmost readiness. Even in the things per- taining to the class and its actions, respecting which they differed from each other, or opposed each others' views, they were oftentimes willing to communicate their thoughts and purposes freely to me both parties alike believing that what they said to me would be kept in ab- solute confidence. They made me, even in as full and complete a measure as this, a friend to their whole com- pany. By reason of this fact as to our pleasant relation- ships, and perhaps also because I had, under the difficult circumstances connected with my new work to which I have, referred, met their approval as a teacher in a higher degree than I had anticipated, they were moved to give me a special testimonial of their regard, at the close of their first academic year. With a kindly earnest- ness they requested the Faculty that I might be continued 105 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN with them as their instructor in Greek during the year upon which they were about to enter. The result was that I remained in connection with the class until, at the close of the first term of their Junior studies, Professor Hadley again took up the work, in accordance with an established arrangement of the time. This testimonial was one of an unusual character, at least at that period, and it may fitly have a place among the pleasant memo- ries of my earlier life as a teacher. The classes of 1856 and 1857 had much of the same friendly intercourse with me during their undergraduate years, and they have seemed to me ever since that period more like companies of my fellow-students than my pupils. My most recent meeting with the Class of 1856, at the time of the Bicentennial Anniversary in 1901, was one marked by the kindest College sentiment. But what I have said on this matter of my relations to the classes that I met while I was in the tutorial office has also another bearing, and I allow myself to make a special reference to it for this reason. Fifty years ago, the relationship between College officers and students in all our institutions, as has been already intimated, was mainly of the governmental order, and the prevailing idea of government was that of repression, of rules and laws, of force and the display of authority. There was correspondingly little of personal relationship of a friendly character, of the influence which goes forth in unrestrained or intimate association, of the openness and freedom of intercourse where all thought of violation of law disappears and the generosity of confidence is awak- ened. I was at the time and I have been ever since a thorough disbeliever in the old system, while almost all the other members of the Faculty were then largely under its influence, and were quite unprepared to aban- don it. On my entrance upon my official duties, I imme- diately formed my decision or I may rather say, so all- 106 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN controlling was my natural impulse that no decision needed to be formed to follow in my own dealings with students the new line of action, and not the old, and to begin as far as I was myself concerned, the carrying out of the ideas in which I believed. In the main, I limited myself to what I was called to do in my indi- vidual work. I was content to make a trial of my plan, and let its result bear its own witness. The tutors, however, then constituted a much larger part of the entire governing board of instruction than they do at present, and as a consequence they had greater influence and were more ready to press their opinions for acceptance. There were seven in the tutorial body when I entered into the membership of the Faculty, while there were only seven professors in the College depart- ment. The same even division between the permanent and temporary instructors continued until the close of my official term. The younger men, accordingly, when they differed in sentiment from the older ones, did not hesitate to give utterance to their independent thoughts. The individual young member, whether his associates of his own age agreed with him or not, did not shrink from the presentation of his views or, if need were, from the earnest advocacy of them. I recall some memorable controversies in which I took an active, or even a leading part, in opposition to the men of greatest influence in the older section of the board; and I was, as I have said, a constant advocate whether by my course of action or by my spoken words, of a new and, as I believed, a more wise and reasonable, and therefore a more efficient, sys- tem of administration of the daily life of the College community. Nearly half a century has passed away since that time, and the more desirable system has now been established for so long a period that the students of the present and the recent years have little idea of any other as hav- 107 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ing ever existed. It has, as I may almost say, re-created the academic life, and it has certainly brought with itself very happy results for all within the college community. I would not claim for myself anything more in respect to the change that has been realized, than the history of the times would justify. I would not, in these pages, place myself in comparison with others who wrought for the same end. But I was one of the pioneers in the matter, and I hare had my reward in the happy years of my Presidency. The elder Professor Silliman, in his lectures on chemistry and geology to the Senior classes, used to say, now and then, as he was led to speak in praise of Yale and its work: "The three great books of Yale and New Haven [this, it will be remembered, was in 1850] are Dwight's Theology, Webster's Dictionary, and Silliman's Journal of Science in respect to the last of which I may say, not, indeed, * Quorum magna 'pars fui' but, ' Quorum pars fui. 1 " It is a pleasure to me to know that, in con- nection with the matter to which I am referring, I can use the Professor's words: " Quorum pars fui" I be- lieve that it is a far easier task to govern an academic community of two thousand students to-day, than it was, fifty years ago, to govern three hundred; or a hundred and fifty years ago, to govern one hundred and thirty. The position of a chief administrative officer of a body of two thousand students in the period when the old system had dominion everywhere would have been, in- deed, a trying and unattractive one. When I entered upon my official term as tutor, the President's room was in the building called North Col- lege No. 1 17, a room on the second floor of the build- ing, used from 1895 to 1900 as a club-room for the German Club of the University. It was like the other rooms in the building except that the space ordinarily 1 08 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN occupied by sleeping rooms was added to the study- apartment. The meetings of the College Faculty were held in this place on every Wednesday afternoon of the academic terms. It was hard for me to believe that this could have been the fact, when by chance I looked into the room three or four years ago ; but as there were only fourteen persons who attended the meetings, the accom- modations were sufficient. At the time to which I refer, Professor Kingsley had just laid aside the duties of his chair of instruction, and had become Professor Emeritus, and Professor Stanley, who was one of the younger professors, had been obliged, by reason of ill health, to withdraw from his work. These gentlemen were still, in a certain sense, in the membership of the Faculty, but they were no longer attendants at the meetings or par- ticipants in the administration of the College community. The President, when the body was assembled, occupied the chair in which he usually sat at his study table, and which was near the center of one of the longer sides of the room. The professors occupied chairs beginning at the left of the President and extending about one-half of the distance around the walls, and then the tutors had their seats, reaching as far as the stove which heated the apartment, and was located just at the President's right hand. The professors arranged themselves in this order: the elder Silliman, Olmsted, Larned, Porter, Hadley, Thacher. The tutors were a more frequently changing body, and their order of arrangement was not so established except that the Senior Tutor, who was also the locating officer, having charge of the assignment and ordering of students' rooms in the College buildings, had his place regularly on the right of the President. The meetings of the Faculty were occupied largely with cases of discipline. They were oftentimes weari- some. They were rendered more so than might other- wise have been the case, because it was the custom then 109 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to bring forward before the whole body matters of minor importance, which are settled now by committees or by the officers of particular classes. They had the tendency, incidental to all assemblages of men, to pro- long the time of their continuance the law of humanity seeming always to be, that two intelligent men will spend twice the time in deciding any question, which would be allowed by either of them, if he were acting alone. This appears to be the common understanding of the significance of the Biblical phrase, " In the multitude of counselors there is wisdom." But these meetings were in general, if not always, interesting, and they were so not only because the matters discussed and the opin- ions set forth were of interest, but also because they afforded the opportunity of observing the intellectual and other characteristics of the men in the company especially the older men. The late Dr. John Todd, of Pittsfield, Mass., once told me that, in an interview which he had with President Nott, of Union College, he said to the President, " I suppose you have meetings of the Faculty in your institution." "Faculty meetings; " replied the President, " I remember having one once, some thirty-six years ago, but I never wish to have an- other." President Nott, if we make every allowance for his attitude with regard to the matter, evidently was thinking of the meetings in one aspect only. He did not turn his mind to the other view of the subject. Pos- sibly he was too autocratic to form a just judgment. The study of mind and character must be always inter- esting to an intelligent person, I think, unless there be some special reason which renders the individual case quite exceptional. I can appreciate President Nott's feel- ing, and, if I had ever experienced his difficulties or had had to face the problems which were presented to him, I might have fully sympathized with his view. But, not- withstanding the hours of life which would have been MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN saved for myself, and for my brethren as well, if meet- ings for deliberation and consultation had many times been shortened or made less frequent, I look back upon my earlier experiences, and my later ones, with the feel- ing of satisfaction and pleasure in the thought that I gained in such meetings much knowledge of my asso- ciates and friends. It will not be regarded as unfitting, I trust, if I suffer myself to follow the impulse which moves me, as I recall those Faculty meetings of the former days, and give some of my impressions of the older men who attended them. The younger men were my own contemporaries, and, of course, they were not quite so interesting as studies of fully developed manhood. We were tutors, and our minds looked upward to the professors. The professors, at that period as, indeed, in all periods differed widely from one another in many ways. In general, the younger ones, like the tutors, were, as re- lated to individual cases, more strict disciplinarians than their elder brethren at least, more thoughtfully, not to say more intelligently so. Both older and younger were believers in what I have spoken of as the old system in every point of which strictness was the marked char- acteristic. No one, in theory, accepted the new system, or thought it could be successful. But when theories come to be applied practically to the cases of individuals, older men are more likely to let their feelings affect their action, or, as some would say, warp their judgment. Young men are apt to act in the opposite way. They think that the law should take its course, and that there is an alarming danger in bad precedents. Some persons never get over the fear connected with precedents. Compara- tively few escape it, I think, under the age of forty or fifty. President Woolsey used to say that he had no- ticed that young people, before they had children of their MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN own, were generally very severe in their theories of family discipline, but that later, after their children were born, they dealt with them as leniently as their elders did. I have observed the same phenomenon myself, as I have moved onward in life. As I make this allusion to the President's remark, however, perhaps I ought in justice to add by way of a momentary digression that, when in the Faculty meetings he saw that a special case needed to be decided on the side of severity, he was wont, as he asked for the expressions of opinion or the votes, to begin with the younger men, instead of the older. But I have qualified my words in an earlier sentence, and have said that the younger men were in individual cases more thoughtfully, or perhaps more intelligently, strict than the older ones. This may naturally have been the fact. The young officer, even in those days, was nearer to the daily academic life and more intimately connected with it. He was much more likely to have a full understanding of the bearing, as well as the facts, of the cases presented for consideration. The older men especially those who met the students mainly as lec- turers, or only in occasional exercises often had no knowledge of the questions arising until they entered the meetings, and as a consequence of this fact they gained only a measure of true apprehension respecting them. They were liable to be affected by their ten- derness of feeling, on one side, or in just the oppo- site way by some strong presentation of the case as given by one who knew more of the matter than they did. Their votes might be for one verdict or another no one could conjecture accurately beforehand because they were, in a sense, thoughtlessly influenced at the moment. This condition of things pertains to all periods, and necessarily so; and herein is to be found one very significant reason why, as our college faculties grow MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN larger in numbers and many of their members have less immediate connection with student life, the matter of discipline and the government of that life should be intrusted to a smaller body of specially qualified and gifted men. But these older officers differed not only in their views of discipline and kindred matters; they differed, also, in their personal characteristics and peculiarities. Whether these differences were greater than they are in the membership of a Faculty at the present time, I will not venture to affirm with confidence. But however this may be, their individualities were quite distinct and striking, and the contrasts or divergencies that were manifest in their special mental gifts, as well as in their natural dispositions and qualities, were such as to awaken continual interest in the minds of those who looked upon them in their daily life. I would that I could give an adequate representation of them on these pages that I could so describe them that the reader of to-day might see, as it were, the living personalities, and might, in a true sense, know the men. But the most that I can hope to do is to set forth a few things which may serve, by way of suggestion, to bring them in a very incomplete measure before the mental vision. I write of them lov- ingly, for they did their work for us, who were their pupils in the earlier time, with generosity and with wis- dom, and our remembrance of them, as we move onward in the later time, is mingled with gratitude and rever- ence. VIII. The Old Faculty Professors Silliman and Kingsley. THE elder Professor Silliman, when I became a member of the College Faculty, was seventy- two years of age. He was a man of imposing figure and dignified presence six feet in height and well-proportioned. His face was uncommonly intelli- gent and handsome. His whole appearance and person- ality were in a very high degree impressive. He had somewhat of the venerableness of years, but he retained so much of the energy and vigor of earlier life that no one could think of him as really old. In his manner, he was always genial and gracious; benignant, as befitted one in his position and of his established fame, and yet friendly to all who approached him, whatever might be their age or their station in the world. As President Woolsey said of him at the time of his death, I think we may truly say to-day, after an interval of nearly forty years: " He was, among all the men who have lived in the city of New Haven during the century, as I think will be conceded by everybody, the most finished gentle- man. And this was true of him in the highest sense. I mean, that it pertained not to his exterior, but to his character and his soul." At the time of which I am writing, he had held his professorship for forty-nine years, his appointment hav- ing been given him at the early age of twenty-three. During twenty or more of these years, he had been not only a teacher honored and admired by his pupils, but also a lecturer of great reputation and of the highest SUL 114 PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SILLIMAN MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN cess in the leading cities of the country. As a consequence of this fact, he had become the most conspicuous repre- sentative of the College before the general public, and had rendered the institution an almost inestimable ser- vice at a critical period of its history, contributing, in a large measure, to the establishment and permanency of its national fame. To his earlier students those who came under his instruction during the first half or two-thirds of his official career and to the large numbers of cultured people whom he so frequently addressed in his public lectures, the scientific subjects on which he spoke were comparatively new as matters of thought or knowledge. He presented himself to his audiences, accordingly, with what was to their minds a kind of strange revelation of exceeding interest. He had thus a good fortune, which no one could have in these days of such remarkable de- velopment in every branch of science, and he was en- abled, because of it, to awaken greater enthusiasm than those who followed him or, at a later period of his own career, even he himself could possibly excite. His lan- guage and style however, his wonderful facility of ex- pression and clearness of statement, and the grace and force of his presentation of his thought were admirably fitted to arrest and hold the attention of his hearers at all times, as well as to impress upon their memory the facts and truths which he brought before them. With respect to the matter and the manner of his public teach- ing, he was certainly one of the most prominent and successful of the men of his era. He has been justly called the father of natural science at Yale. He created his department of investigation and instruction in the College. The story which he used to tell his students of his carrying all the minerals which the institution possessed in a small candle-box to Phila- delphia, when he went there for the purpose of study, us MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was illustrative of the conditions under which he began his work in every line. He was indeed one of the few men who are to be regarded as the pioneers in the sphere of natural science in our country. He had seen the growth of all things in this department of knowledge from the very beginning, and he enjoyed in later life the satisfaction which comes, in full measure, to those who have been originators of what is new and good and have lived to witness the great results to which they looked forward, at the outset, only with mingled hopes and fears. It is not strange that, after fifty years of such interest- ing experience and such wide-reaching thoughts and efforts, a man of established fame and genial nature should not have had the deepest interest in the ordinary meetings of a College Faculty, which were mainly de- voted to minor matters of government, or that at times, while present in body with his brethren as they were thus assembled, he should have been absent in spirit his thoughts dwelling apart, in the inner self, or with the old friends and the old memories. Fifty years make a long period; and I suppose that every kind-hearted man, after the passing of such a time, grows a little weary of discipline, and begins to think some questions of small moment comparatively, which he once deemed great in their significance. At all events, it was so in his case; and I am glad that it was. It was delightful to see him come back, as it were, from a far off meditation when, after an hour's discus- sion of some particular case or question, the President suddenly asked him, as the first of the company, to ex- press his opinion. How benignantly and graciously utterly unmoved by the fact, which he knew of course must be apparent to all, that he was ignorant of what had been said he would ask as to the individual or the subject under consideration. And then how calmly, and 116 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN with dignity, he would offer the judgment which seemed to him, at the moment, to be best. If the matter related to an individual student, his friendly sentiment disposed him to tenderness and leniency. I well remember one illustrative case, respecting which there had been long- continued deliberation, with the differences of views that were frequently manifest, and the minds of some of the gentlemen were convinced that disciplinary measures were essential. The kindly professor was requested to give the first vote in the decision. He took the College Catalogue which was lying on the table near him, and opening it he said, " What is the student's name, Mr. President? " " Jones," the President replied. " Ah," said he, after turning over the pages somewhat carefully, " Jones of the Junior Class? " " Yes," was the reply. " I notice that he is from Baltimore," the professor an- swered; "when I was lecturing in that city, his father entertained me most hospitably at his house. I think I would treat the young man as leniently as possible." Jones was not the young man's name, though I have al- lowed myself to call him so. I do not recall what fate befel him as the result of the vote on that afternoon. I think it not unlikely that I voted on the unfavorable side. Very possibly, that side of the case was the right and reasonable one to take. But it was not a matter of in- finite importance, and may well be forgotten after so long a time. There was, however, given to us, on that day, a vision for a moment of the kindly sentiment of a gracious gentleman, which remains with me at this hour, and which I think may, if remembered, have done more of good for all those to whom it was given, than any mistaken vote could have done of injury to the well- being of the academic community. Of course, if every one had imitated the professor, all discipline might have been endangered. But there was, in those days, no tendency toward such imitation, and the dangers, what- 117 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ever they may have been, were safely passed. I think that they pass thus more frequently more, if I may so say, as a general rule than many are apt to suppose. On another occasion, the remembrance of which has lingered with me, the attention of the Faculty was called by the President to the approaching biennial examina- tions. These examinations were instituted in the year 1850-51, and were held at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, for each college class. They were the first of the written, as contrasted with oral, examinations which were established. As they were attended by, or at least liable to, some of the evils which have been noticed in later days, it was deemed necessary to appoint several supervisors who should be present at each ses- sion, and whose duty it should be to prevent the use of any improper helps on the part of the students, as well as any communication on their part with one another. The supervisors were selected by the Faculty from their own number, and were assigned to their work in connec- tion with such sessions as they might choose to attend. The duty was regarded by the instructors generally as a somewhat burdensome one, but yet as one of serious im- portance. They had a certain want of confidence in a large company of young men, assembled under circum- stances not unaccompanied by a considerable measure of temptation. But the gentle andkindly professor, of whom I am writing, had a trustfulness respecting others, which was founded upon what he knew of himself. An edu- cated student in his Senior year, he said to himself, must be a man of honor. Why distrust him, or make him the object of suspicion? And so, on this occasion to which I have alluded, when the President turned to him and said, " Are you, sir, willing to act as one of the super- visors in the examination session for the Senior Class on Tuesday morning next? " he replied, with much suavity of manner, " Certainly, Mr. President, if the gentlemen MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of the Faculty desire me to do so, though, so far as my own opinion is concerned, such supervision is entirely unnecessary. Our students, I am sure, are young gen- tlemen of honorable character, and will take no unfair advantage if left to themselves." His idea of the gen- tleman was an exalted one, but not above the true ideal. His thought of the Yale student was, that he was a gen- tleman who should be growing towards the ideal, as he was moving on in the academic years. I picture to my mind the thoughts of those who sat around me at that meeting I recall some of my own thoughts. How absurd, and like an old man who had forgotten his youth, his words seemed to us. We said to ourselves, or to one another, " No doubt, if a man with such notions is to be a supervisor, the young fellows might as well be without one, as with one. Happily the other members of the Faculty have more wisdom than this. Otherwise, what would become of discipline and honesty and scholarship among the students? " The professor was certainly in a minority of one. Years have passed since then, and I have been a somewhat close ob- server of college life, in our own institution and else- where. I have no theory or system for which I desire to contend on these pages. But I have noticed, as I have moved onward and it has been very noticeable, in the recent years that college officers everywhere have lost, in good measure, their confidence in the old supervising methods as connected with examinations, and that an increasing emphasis is given to the call for the " honor system." The progress of half a century has turned the thoughts of educators towards new views and a new order of things, and I can easily believe that, if the men who were in that meeting of the bygone time could assemble again in the same place to-day, with the influ- ences of the world's movement working in their minds, the younger ones of the company might listen to the 119 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN words of the oldest, which he then uttered, with more doubts as to their former opinions, and more respect for his wisdom. As I am referring to his kindly sentiment towards students, and the trustfulness which he manifested in his dealings with them, I cannot forbear to mention a little circumstance of my personal college history. It had no significance in itself, but it was one of the every-day minor things which were constantly exhibited in his inter- course with pupils, showing the heart and feeling of the man. I had presented myself before him, on a certain occasion near the end of my academic course, for an examination on studies in his department. He asked me to take a chair near him in his room, and then, in a way peculiar to himself a way which was very helpful, rather than embarrassing to the student he questioned me on various points for half an hour. Then, rising and going to his table, he looked at some papers, and, select- ing one, said: " I suppose you would like to have me give you a certificate that your examination has been satisfactory, which you may hand to the President." I gave him, of course, an affirmative answer. He then handed me the paper, saying, " Not doubting that you would pass, I wrote the certificate before you came in." These last words that he spoke were better, if possible, than my assured success. They have remained in my memory as a part of my mental picture of the man. The men who knew him much earlier than I did such men, for example, as Professor Thacher and Dr. Woolsey saw more of him in what may be called the governmental relation. Their testimony shows that he was, in all cases of serious importance or grave emer- gency, a wise disciplinarian, and even, as Dr. Woolsey expressed it, a " tower of strength " to the government. In his personal diary of the year 1830, the professor himself says in referring to a college rebellion in which 120 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN nearly one-half of the Sophomore class had participated " We, on our part, have come to the painful but necessary decision that none of these youths shall ever return to the institution." Professor Thacher says of him, " He was willing to take his share of the labor and responsibility of discipline in all serious cases, and was quite ready to administer personal rebuke to students who were improper in their behavior." But even in those earlier days, President Woolsey states that " no especial part of the college discipline fell on him," and that " it was natural, therefore, that he should think less of rules than those whose business it is to enforce them; " .and Professor Thacher adds, " He was somewhat impa- tient of rules against petty offences, and reminded us [of the Faculty] that he had protested against the adoption of a system of rules which culminated in dismissing from college every student who incurred twenty marks for absence from college exercises in a term." He was thus the same person in 1850 that he had been twenty years earlier, only that he had grown more genial with the passing of time. He was no weak man, unable to cope with difficulties or to meet emergencies. On the con- trary, he was a high-toned gentleman, who trusted others because of what he knew to be within himself. As a consequence, he sometimes dealt with them more gently than they deserved. But he left upon all who were capable of receiving it an impression of himself which was stimulating to manliness and was permanent in its character. Professor Silliman's instruction was given to the col- lege students wholly in lectures. For this kind of teach- ing he was especially qualified. He had a remarkable command of language, and an unusual facility and fe- licity in the use of it. His utterance was clear and dis- tinct, though very rapid, and there was an alternate raising and lowering of the voice, as he spoke a kind MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of ocean-swell of tone, if I may so call it which was adapted to his style and rendered what he said even more attractive to his hearers. He had, also, in connection with his rapidity of utterance, a constant quickness of mental movement, by reason of which he easily gathered into his sentences, in the way of subordinate clauses, ex- pressions of side thoughts which added continual fresh- ness to his discourse and gave it a special interest for the hearer. He thus kept the mind delightfully awake through constant surprises, while he set forth his teach- ings with distinctness and emphasis. He illustrated his lectures, and roused the attention of his student audiences when it lagged for a moment, by pertinent and oftentimes amusing stories. Some of these were old that is, old for him and many times repeated to successive classes, but not old in the sense that they had long been known everywhere and had become a kind of public property. All things pertaining to his lan- guage and his manner of speaking were his own and peculiar to himself. But, like other professors and teachers who indulge themselves in story-telling, he re- garded each class that came before him as an entirely new audience, and allowed himself a certain freedom of repetition in consequence. If no such freedom were permitted, the college instructor would be, in this regard, at a disadvantage as compared with other men. The pupils, also, would lose many illustrations, not only pleasant but impressive, for the single and certainly in- sufficient reason that they had been given to their pre- decessors at an earlier time. Occasionally, of course, such stories are passed from class to class, and become, by this means, familiar to the new hearers before they are related to them by the teacher. In general, however, they do not fail of their purpose, even if this be the fact. Almost all good things will bear repetition, and the life of good stories is to be found largely in the momentary MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN application of them. The excellent professor of whom I am writing knew when and where to use his material of this character. While the material might, perchance, be old in itself, it might not be so, by any means, in the purpose which he made it serve. He certainly under- stood the art of rendering his lectures in a high degree interesting to all his classes, as they followed one another along the years. Not very long after my graduation, I happened, ac- cidentally, to attend a lecture on chemistry given by the professor, in his regular course with the Senior Class, in company with two gentlemen who had graduated twenty- two and thirty-four years before myself. As we came away at the close of the hour, and were walking across the college yard, our conversation naturally turned to what had been said, and to the characteristics of the speaker. After a few moments, while we talked of his peculiar style and the attractiveness of his discourse and manner, I alluded to the stories which he had told, and to my remembrance of some of them as given to my own class when we were Seniors. The younger of the two gentlemen immediately stated that he had heard one or two of them when he was in his Senioryear,and the other added a similar statement with respect to his own col- lege experience. And yet neither of the two gave more than a passing thought to the fact of the repetition. Their thoughts were occupied with their interest in the man, and in their hearing him again as in the older time. The testimony to his ability and success as a lec- turer is abundant and comes from the highest sources. Dr. Woolsey remarks of him, in this regard, that he was unsurpassed, and all audiences delighted to hear him. " In his own lecture room," he adds, " the students felt the genial sway of his oratory. No other such instruc- tions were given, uniting at once pleasure and improve- 123 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ment. Hence for many years the study of chemistry was, perhaps, the most popular one in the institution." The late Professor Jeffries Wyman in a letter which we find in the Biography of Mr. Silliman already men- tioned said of his lectures in Boston, in 1840: " His gifts as a teacher were of such marked excellence that it is not easy to do justice to them. There was a charm in his cordial manner and genial temperament which at- tracted all, and a sympathy at once grew up between himself and his audience. As he entered the room, they were assured by the dignity of his presence and the earnestness of his manner that his heart was in the work. The best evidence of his power is to be found in the fact that he was able to hold the attention of so large a number [some fifteen hundred persons, it is said] for two consecutive hours, with only a short recess, not- withstanding it had become the established usage in the community that a lecturer was not expected to exceed a single hour." Testimonies like these, to which many others might be added, had reference to the days of his highest activity and success, and a period which pre- ceded my own college years or my personal knowledge of him. But the power and attractiveness of the earlier time lingered, in its measure, in the later, and his pupils who were my contemporaries have a lively recollection of the winsomeness of his manner as a speaker and of a certain eloquence peculiar to himself. In view of what he was as he presented himself before the public on occasions of interest and importance, it was natural that he should have been oftentimes selected as the representative of the College, who should urge upon its friends the generous consideration of its wel- fare or the importance of its enlargement and growth. During the period from 1820 to 1850, he served the institution in this sphere of its more public life, in a degree be^ ond any of his associates in the Faculty. He 124 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN drew favorable attention to the College wherever he journeyed throughout the country, and, in this way, con- tributed in no small measure to the increase of its stu- dent-membership. In the matter of its resources, also though that period was an era of limitation and of com- paratively little wealth he was one of those on whose activity and influence in critical seasons especial reliance and confidence were reposed. Even as late as the year 1851, when a special effort was made for the purpose of securing an addition of one hundred thousand dollars to the funds of the institution, he was, although in ad- vanced age, called upon to take an active part in the first presentation of the matter to the graduates. His appeals were addressed to them with a characteristic earnestness and impressiveness. It is not the object of these brief sketches to give any full description of the men to whom they relate much less to set forth their work in life in its wide range and extent, or in its bearing upon the welfare of the genera- tion to which they belonged. I only desire to picture them as I saw them from my point of outlook in the associations of the Faculty life, and from my youthful age when they were older or even venerable men. I cannot refrain, however, from referring to the high Christian principle which marked Professor Silliman in his daily living and in his intercourse with men; to his genuine respect and kindly consideration for those who were inferior to himself in social rank, or were deprived of the privileges which he had enjoyed; to his gentleness and grace in his meetings with children; to his courtesy towards all such courtesy as was characteristic of the so-called " gentleman of the old school." This courtesy was so natural to him that he never lost it even for a moment or among his most intimate friends. His ex- pressions had somewhat of the formality of the earlier times as when, in one of his letters to his wife which is 125 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN given in the Biography, he said of a gentleman whom he had just met in Washington, " He reminded me of your excellent father, the late Governor Trumbull." But they were so characteristic of himself, and so natural to him, that they only made the man more strikingly mani- fest. The lessons which the presence of such a man in the Faculty of a college impresses upon the minds and hearts of its students, in successive years, are such as find silent, yet forceful entrance into many lives, and abide after the memory has lost from itself many of the old experiences and much of the old knowledge. The lines of Cowper, which Professor Fisher places at the beginning of his Biography of Professor Silliman, are so true to the man as he was, that I may fitly close my brief description of him, by repeating them: Peace to the memory of a man of worth, A man of letters, and of manners too ! Of manners sweet as virtue always wears, When gay good nature dresses her in smiles. He graced a college, in which order yet Was sacred ; and was honored, loved, and wept, By more than one, themselves conspicuous there. Professor Kingsley, as I have said on a previous page, had just become a Professor Emeritus when I entered upon my full term of office as a tutor, and had conse- quently ceased to be an active member of the Faculty. He was, however, still so closely connected with his former colleagues, and was, at the same time, so inter- esting and conspicuous a personage in himself, that no record of the Faculty of that period could be complete, which should omit a reference to him and his work. Moreover, he had been an instructor in his own depart- ment of study, the Latin language, during the whole of my undergraduate course, and my class became ac- quainted with him in this relation in the latter part of 126 PROFESSOR JAMES L. KINGSLEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN our Junior year. I can speak of him, therefore, as one of whom I had a knowledge similar to that which I was enabled to gain of the other gentlemen who were in the membership of the board of teachers. Mr. Kingsley was born a year earlier than Mr. Silli- man, but by reason of longer delay in entering upon his collegiate studies, he did not graduate until three years after his friend and associate. They were, however, in the full sense of the word contemporaries. The aca- demic life belonged, in part, for both of them within the limits of the same college generation. Both of them were called to the tutorial office after their graduation, .and for a single year they were united in discharging its duties. Mr. Silliman was appointed to his professor- ship in 1802; Mr. Kingsley received his appointment in 1805. For nearly half a century they worked together in harmony and friendship, for the well-being of the institution. The two men were unlike each other in many respects. In some points, they were the counterparts of each other. The one was, as I have described him, a man of impres- sive personal presence; of marked gifts as a public teacher and lecturer; of qualities which fitted him to be a pioneer in science and a force for education in the community; and of such grace of manner, dignity of bearing, and winsomeness of speech as to render him both interesting and attractive, even to strangers who had the privilege of meeting him but for a brief season. The other was a retiring scholar; a penetrating critic; pos- sessed of the keenest intelligence and wit; accurate in the extreme; a clear, pungent, and vigorous writer, but not a speaker not even having strength or volume of voice sufficient to make him easily heard in a large assembly; a man to help forward learning, but not having the gift nor the wish to press himself forcibly upon the general public. Their labors in, and on behalf of, the College 127 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN were in widely different lines, but they co-operated in the most generous spirit, and were alike of greatest service to its highest interests. In the earliest days of Professor Kingsley's official life, his sphere of instruction included not only the Latin but also the Greek and Hebrew languages. The work in the two latter, however, had been laid aside after other specially appointed professors were called into the service of the institution, and from 1835 onwards he confined his teaching to the Latin department. During the period of my own college course he had the valuable assistance of Professor Thacher, whom he looked upon with pleasure as the one who should succeed him in his chair, and he was already passing into his hands a large share of the duties pertaining to it. Our meetings with him, accordingly, were comparatively few in number and were limited to a brief portion of a single year. We had, however, the opportunity to observe his character- istics as an instructor, and to get an impression of what he had been in the prime and vigor of his manhood. As Professor Kingsley took up his work with us, we saw at once that he met us with no severity of manner, but with a kindly and benignant spirit yet with an evi- dent feeling in his own mind that we did not know as much about Latin as we might, or as much as, very pos- sibly, we ourselves thought we did. He also made it manifest to us, from the very beginning, that he had what I may call an intense accuracy, or love of accuracy, and that his intention was to let us see that no slightest error could escape his notice. He had, as it were, a pas- sion for correcting the student in his translations, or his pronunciation of Latin words, so that he seemed, in an amusing way, to be grieved or aggrieved, if he was obliged, in any case, to accept what was given as satis- factory. To such an extent, or even excess, did he carry this habit, if I may give it the name, that, in cases where MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN there were two possible, and perchance equally possible, renderings of a word, he would correct the student in opposite ways, on successive days. That is to say, if the word was translated by the young man in a way which I may designate by a b, in a passage that was contained in what was called the advance lesson, on a certain Mon- day, he would direct him to render it by c d. When the same passage came to be read in the review lesson on the next day, the person called upon to recite would naturally give the translation c d. But to his surprise, and to the surprise and entertainment of his fellow-students, he would find himself immediately called upon by the pro- fessor to substitute for it the rendering a b. Evidently, the good man knew that the word had equal claims to both meanings. But with his two long-established habits of accuracy on the one hand, and making corrections on the other, he was unable to resist the impulse to set the pupil right, whatever the pupil might do. Such corrections were also rendered more emphatic and striking as were, indeed, all others that he made by the fact that he would, in each case, repeat the changed translation or pronunciation, which he sug- gested, until the student adopted it for himself. They were also emphasized in the impression which they pro- duced by the feebleness of his voice. They would come forth, as it were, through an effort of all the powers of the man, uniting themselves to make the utterance dis- tinct and authoritative. But all was done in the kindliest way. The pleasant smile on his face and the friendly humor indicated in his whole bearing were as far re- moved from the characteristics of the stern pedagogue or exacting professor as possible. We were always ready for his appointed exercises and had a certain peculiar enjoyment in them. College professors and teachers differ very widely in their attitude towards students, as well, as in their 129 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN methods of dealing with them in the recitation room. Some instructors, even though they may secure discipline and maintain order by a certain authoritative manner or personality, have little appreciation of the student mind or knowledge of the happiest way of meeting it. Com- paratively few perhaps I may say have any full understanding of the power which kindly humor gives the teacher over the company of his pupils in the under- graduate years. I would not affirm of course, I would not that such humor is the best gift which an instructor can have as fitting him for his work. It is certainly not the best gift in every point of view. It may not even be the best for his work as a disciplinarian, though if we consider it in all its relations and influences as bearing upon them and upon himself, I am not sure but it is. Whether it is or is not the best, however, it is, beyond question, one of the best. Many men fail in a most un- fortunate way for the want of it. Many who have partial success find their success attended constantly by friction and ill-feeling because it is not an element in their mental constitution. Professor Kingsley had this happy gift in abundant measure. In my college days, certainly, he had no other humor than that which was kindly and I doubt whether in his wit which was often brilliant, or his satire which was most incisive, he was ever impelled by any spirit of genuine unfriendliness or hostility. But his arrows always hit the mark and effected his purpose. In the recitation room he was almost inimitable in his humorous way of meeting difficulties or adapting himself to an emergency. I may refer, as a single instance, to an incident which, though quite insignificant in itself, has by some strange chance remained in my memory from my college days. As we assembled, one day, for our recitation in the Professor's lecture room, a classmate of mine by the name of Campbell, took his dog with 130 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN him. The dog moved about the room somewhat, and of course excited the attention and interest of the class considerably, before the Professor appeared; just as he entered the door, however, Campbell carefully placed the creature under his own seat and, as he supposed, quite out of sight. All became quiet, and the beginning of the exercise was awaited, but there was a little longer pause than usual on the Professor's part; and then in an undertone, almost a stage-whisper, he said, " Campbell, either you or the dog will have to go out." These words were followed by the departure of one of the two I need not say which and the unanimous sentiment of the class ever afterward was that, whatever might happen elsewhere, it would be desirable to keep all disorder and impropriety outside of Professor Kingsley's lecture room. The professor won for himself the kindly feeling of all, even of Campbell himself, while he settled satis- factorily the case of the dog, from which the class had eagerly expected some sudden embarrassment for the good man. The boys found the teacher quicker and shrewder than they were, and they laughed at them- selves, not at him. The College atmosphere was full, at the time, of the professor's sharp and witty sayings which had been handed down gleefully from class to class for years, and we enjoyed them all as we heard them repeated by our elders. But he had now come into the mildness and gen- tleness of advancing age, and his wit was less pungent, and less frequent in its exhibition of itself, than it had been in his earlier life. I shall never forget, however, the pleasure with which I listened, and the satisfaction which he manifested, as he told me, not long after my graduation, the story of his controversy nearly twenty years earlier with his con- temporary and college classmate, the late Professor Moses Stuart of Andover Theological Seminary a con- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN troversy which was then somewhat celebrated. Pro- fessor Stuart was an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher; ardent and impulsive; full of interest in new ideas, and ready to give them forth with all confidence and em- phasis as soon as he had received them. Mr. Kingsley himself had said to him, just before he went to Andover, " If you go there, in six months you will make the young men there feel that a knowledge of Hebrew is as essen- tial to success in the ministry as air is necessary to animal life." The word was almost literally fulfilled. No in- structor in any branch of study, within the limits of the century, has had a more awakening force for his stu- dents' minds, we may safely say, than Professor Stuart had during a large portion of his long career. He was however, too ardent to be in the highest degree accurate, and too absorbingly interested in the new things which he learned, or thought he learned, to test them with the utmost carefulness before he made them known to his pupils. If he had been slower, very probably he would have been less interesting. In the matter of accuracy he was far removed from Professor Kingsley. At one period in his career Professor Stuart became, for some reason, thoroughly dissatisfied with the results of the classical training of the time in the colleges, as manifested in his intercourse with the young graduates who entered the Seminary at Andover for their theolog- ical studies. He even went so far as to devote a part of the first year's theological course to the work of remedy- ing the evil, by going over again with his pupils the pre- paratory studies in the Greek language. Not only this; but, with somewhat vehement emphasis, he made known publicly the reason which, as he declared, rendered it necessary for him to make such provision for supplying the defects of college education. He affirmed that stu- dents from the leading colleges came to his classes with- out the ability to decline an ordinary Greek noun of the 132 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN first declension, like /u,ovo-a (which was then uniformly pronounced mowza) . This severe criticism of the col- lege training came, in due course of time, to the ears of Professor Kingsley, and not unnaturally excited his mind in considerable measure. He knew his old class- mate and fellow-tutor, now his critic, with a pretty thor- ough knowledge. He understood his strong points and his weak ones, and he felt sure that the time would come, ere long, when there could be some appropriate criticism on the opposite side of the question. The time, indeed, was not long delayed. Professor Stuart prepared an edition of " Cicero's Tusculan Questions," in connection with the issue of which, if I remember rightly, it was publicly intimated that it would present, in some sense, an example of a properly ordered text-book for college classical instructors, suggestive of the true style of teach- ing. The book, when it appeared, was characterized by some of its author's excellences and by some of his weak- nesses, and it was, through many inaccuracies of a more or less striking sort, a tempting subject for a reviewer. Professor Kingsley, who had waited for the publication, eagerly took upon himself the reviewer's work. Aftei* a few weeks, he gave to the public a paper, which for humor and wit, as well as for scholarly criticism, was of a surpassing character. Nothing which equalled it had for years appeared in the literary journals of the period. The Professor told me the story, in answer to my inter- ested and urgent inquiries, with much vividness of de- tail and with a pleasure of a peculiar character, as if he had been relating some successful and felicitous action of another person. Then, as he continued his narrative, he said: " Mr. Stuart, when he published his volume, announced that he was expecting to prepare editions of the writings of other Latin and Greek authors, and that the next volume would be one of Plato's works." A few 133 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN weeks after the review appeared, however, a young grad- uate of Yale, who had been a student at Andover, came back to New Haven to enter upon a tutorship, and in conversation, one day, he said to Professor Kingsley that Professor Stuart was thinking of bringing out his volume of Plato soon, but would like to know whether, in case of its publication, Professor Kingsley would review it. The Professor replied and, as he told me of his reply, his face lighted up and his eye sparkled " I do not know whether I shall review the book or not ; but this I will say: Mr. Woolsey and I have abundant means now, in the College Library, for the study of Plato ; and if the book appears, it will be noticed. Yes, I may not review it, but the book will be noticed, and we shall endeavor to have the question settled between the author and ourselves, as to which of us can decline mowza the best." Then he added : " The book never appeared; " and the story was completed. I doubt whether the two men had any unkindly feel- ing towards each other. I am sure that they respected each other highly, and justly estimated each other's powers. But the one was a man of eagerness, and was ever forthputting by reason of his rushing enthusiasm; while the other was a quiet scholar, keen-sighted, thor- ough, accurate, earnest for the exactness of knowledge, and a layer of foundations for the soundest learning. Professor Thacher once told me a little story of the two men, which he had heard from an earlier time, and which sets forth something of the contrast between them. On a certain occasion, when they were, both of them, still in the tutorial office, they were in attendance at a meeting of the Faculty. The meeting was prolonged much beyond their anticipation, and, as the afternoon recitation hour was drawing very near, Mr. Stuart turned to Mr. Kingsley, and said, " I had no idea of being detained here so long, and I am much disturbed 134 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN as I have had no time for my preparation for the lesson which I am to hear recited at five o'clock." " Oh," said Mr. Kingsley, " do not trouble yourself. You can go into your recitation room and give your class a lec- ture; they will all be delighted with what you say to them." Mr. Stuart followed his suggestion. He began his exercise by calling upon one of the students to trans- late a brief passage from the book which they were read- ing. In the first line of the passage, the student came upon the word Zeus. "Who was Zeus?" asked Mr. Stuart. The student, as it happened, did not answer the question in a way which indicated the most complete knowledge, and Mr. Stuart thereupon proceeded to fill the hour with a discourse concerning Zeus, which was received with much enthusiasm. Mr. Kingsley, of course, went to his own exercise with the preparation fully completed beforehand, and gave his teaching as methodically and accurately as was his custom. Which of the two men was the more helpful to his pupils on that afternoon? We may not affirm with absolute con- fidence. Enough it is to say, that accuracy and enthusi- asm are alike important, if the student is to become the true scholar, and that the teachers who lead him to the attainment of each of the two essential things unite in contributing to his highest happiness and success. That the feeling between the two eminent professors was not an unkindly one that there was a certain play- fulness in Professor Kingsley's wit I think may be indicated by his reply to Professor Stuart with reference to an honorary degree which the latter had received. Mr. Stuart was one of the first, if not the very first, of the distinguished theological men in our country who declined to accept the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, conferred upon him by one of the colleges. After declining it, he wrote to Professor Kingsley, who at that time had charge of the publication of the Yale 135 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Triennial Catalogue, asking him to see that the degree was not attached to his name in that document. Mr. Kingsley replied, " Of course, my dear friend, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill your request, for, as you know, colleges have power to put on those things, but they have no power to take them off." This amiable witticism had no sting of unkindness in it, and must have been equally enjoyed on both sides. But how sug- gestive it is ! There are other things besides honorary degrees which colleges can easily put on, but cannot easily take off. And so it is in other spheres, as well. " If they could only be taken off " do we not sometimes say? Professor Kingsley was a genuine scholar in a some- what wide range of learning. He was not only a suc- cessful teacher, for many years, of three different lan- guages, as has been already intimated, but he had, for a considerable period, the instruction in ecclesiastical his- tory under his charge, and for a more limited time, during the absence of the professor of mathematics, he rendered valuable service in carrying forward that de- partment of study. In his private studies, he was earnestly devoted to historical investigation, and with reference to historical facts few men of his time had more accurate knowledge. The retentiveness of his memory was very remarkable. It extended even to minutest details; so that, while he was quick to discover the errors made by others, it was almost an unknown experience for him to be himself found in a mistake. His accuracy of knowledge and his richness of anec- dote and story respecting men and things made him unusually interesting in conversation. He was not a talker, nor one who carried on a monologue, expecting others to listen in silence, or perhaps admiration. On the contrary, he was retiring, or even seemingly diffident, and was quite as ready to listen as to speak. But when 136 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN he was led to speak, those who heard him were always charmed and instructed by what he said, for his words were full of intelligence and, also, of a peculiar liveliness and humor. In a commemorative paper, Professor Thacher, referring to his conversational power, calls attention to a special characteristic, and says : " He had something of a naturalist's interest in the human species, only his interest was higher and more worthy, by as much as man is higher and more worthy than the lower animals. Every fact, therefore, which came to his knowledge respecting an individual whose existence and character had for any reason impressed itself on his memory, was likely to take its place in its right connec- tion in his mind, and have its effect in making more com- plete his conception of the individual whom it concerned. Thus there were multitudes of men to whose history he had given a completeness and individuality by his almost unconscious habit of grouping in their natural connec- tion the scattered facts of personal history, which were accidentally brought to his knowledge. This tendency gave to the people of his mind a personality which heightened very much his own interest in them, and the effect of his conversation respecting them was, at times, quite similar to that of an introduction to a living per- son." This is a striking testimony from a personal friend, and a testimony to a remarkable gift which must, in its revelation of itself, have awakened an especial in- terest in the minds of all who enjoyed the privilege of witnessing it. The service which Mr. Kingsley rendered to the Col- lege was fully equal to that of either of his two col- leagues, Professor Silliman and President Day, who were so long associated with him. It was, however, a different service, at least in a considerable measure, from that which made them so valuable to the institution. Professor Kingsley was more distinctly, and in the strict 137 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sense of the word, a scholar more exclusively so than either of them, and his special work and its results were seen within the sphere of scholarship. He did for his time what Dr. Woolsey afterwards did for his, and we may not doubt so closely related in their studies of the classics were the two that the elder professor gave much of his own thought and inspiration to his younger associate. But Mr. Kingsley's era was one of beginnings and of limited possibilities, as compared with Mr. Woolsey's, and of course the measure of results was very different. The advance, however, in the study of the ancient languages and in the methods and means of study, between the time of Mr. Kingsley's entrance upon his professorship and the beginning of my own college days, was quite remarkable. It was such, indeed, as to make classical education a different thing from what it had been at the opening of the century. This advance in our own institution was due, in largest measure, to the influence and efforts of Professor Kingsley. Other in- stitutions also were benefited, and excited to new life, by reason of his example and what he accomplished. The vision of him which lingers in my mind is a pleas- ant one. As he walked through the streets on a winter's day, he always gathered his long cloak (the wonted outer garment of the time) tightly about his ankles so tightly that it seemed as if it might be difficult for him to move forward. His closely-shaven face and his eye sparkling with intelligence and humor showed them- selves above his heavy cape and collar, as if he were peering out of a narrow window. In general, he carried an umbrella in his hand, even in fair weather, and he used to say that anybody could take an umbrella with him when it rained, but it needed a wise man to take one when the sun was shining. He walked rapidly, notwithstanding his cloak, and he looked outward and inward happily whithersoever he went. We college 138 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN boys, as we spoke of him and Professor Silliman, in our daily conversation with one another, were wont to give them the title of " Uncle " Uncle Jimmy and Uncle Ben and we honored and esteemed them both. They were marked characters in the College history. 139 IX The Old Faculty Professors Olmsted and Lamed PROFESSOR Olmsted, who occupied, in the Fac- ulty meetings, the chair next to Professor Silli- man on his left, was only twelve years younger than his colleague. Owing to the less favorable circum- stances of his early life, however, he entered college at a later age, and in the dates of their graduation the two were separated by an interval of seventeen years. In his undergraduate career, accordingly, he was not only a student under the instruction of President Dwight as his elder associate had been, but also of this associate himself and of the other two gentlemen whom Dr. Dwight had selected as his helpers and as permanent professors. He was a pupil while these gentlemen were teachers, and thus seemed, no doubt, to himself as well as to them, according to the college standard of meas- urement, a man of a younger generation. Even more truly with respect to his professorial office he must have regarded himself as pertaining to a later time, for a period of eight years after the date of Dr. Day's acces- sion to the Presidency had elapsed before he received his appointment from the Corporation. Moreover, within this period, the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, to which he was called, had been filled by two gentlemen in succession a fact which, in itself, was calculated to impress his mind, and the minds of others, with the difference between his college age and that of his older colleagues. The eight years had been spent by him in the University of North Carolina. In that 140 PROFESSOR DENISON OLMSTED MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN institution he had held the professorship of chemistry, and in addition to his duties in this department of study he had given instruction in mineralogy and geology. When he returned to Yale he was summoned, according- ly, to an untried work, upon which he was to enter at the age of thirty-four. All things thus combined, as it would appear, to make him feel that he was, indeed, a new man among those who had begun their career in an earlier era and were now in advancing years. He gave himself immediately on his arrival in New Haven, in 1825, to the studies which were assigned to him. Although in the sphere of mathematics he was not possessed of natural gifts and genius such as belonged to his college classmate, Alexander Metcalf Fisher, who had preceded him in his official position, and whose early death was justly regarded as a great loss to science, he soon proved by his attainments and success his worthiness to hold a permanent place in the board of teachers. In the year 1836, the department of mathematics was set apart for a special professorship, to which a young grad- uate of six years earlier, Mr. Anthony D. Stanley, was called. From this time onward Mr. Olmsted's chair was that of natural philosophy and astronomy. This change or limitation of his work was, no doubt, most satisfactory to him. In accordance with the arrangement of the curriculum at the time, the studies in his department were assigned especially to the Junior year. In that year he came, as I may say, into a twofold connection with each successive class namely, through his books and as a lecturer. His text-book, Olmsted's Natural Philosophy, was made one of the principal studies of the first two terms of the year. That relating to Astronomy held a similar place in the third term. The teaching of the former was placed in the charge of one of the tutors. It was mainly limited to the hearing of recitations. That 141 MEMORIES OF YALE .LIFE AND MEN which pertained to the latter subject he reserved for himself, and the recitation work was supplemented by lectures. It may well be borne in mind, as we recall the studies and instruction of those days, that it was, in special aspects of the matter, a much earlier era than the present an era in educational means and facilities, in our country, much nearer to the beginnings. In the sphere of studies such as those to which Professor Olmsted's attention was devoted, there was, when he entered upon his duties at Yale, an absolute want of suitable text- books. If therefore he would accomplish his purpose, as an instructor, it became a necessity that he should himself prepare such as would be more adequate and satisfactory. This he did, and with benefit to his students. But his works of this order are to be judged by the standard of the time when they were written. The one on Natural Philosophy, in particular, was char- acterized very markedly by the style of the lecturer, even that of the lecturer addressing popular audiences. It seems, indeed, to have been modeled, in some degree, on books containing such lectures which had, not long pre- viously, been published in England. I thought, when as a teacher I used the book, that it was not as fully adapted to recitation purposes as it might have been, and that too large a portion of the year was assigned to the study of it. But in a conversation which I had with the Professor on the subject, I found that his view was diametrically opposite to my own. As I recall and mention this fact, it becomes me to say that he was, if I may use the term, a natural philosopher, while I was not. As a lecturer, whether on Experimental Philosophy or Astronomy, Professor Olmsted was very successful and instructive, though he did not have the peculiar attractiveness and inspiring power which were charac- 142 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN teristic of the elder Professor Silliman. He was careful and thorough in his preparation for his lectures, always ready and desirous to bring before his pupils what was new, and, at the same time, interesting and useful. In his manner he was dignified, and in his personal presence he had the appearance of a man of ability and a scholarly gentleman. With respect to style, he was marked by clearness and force, but with a slightly excessive tendency towards the rhetorical. The students of successive classes with the characteristic impulse of all college boys to amuse themselves by noticing the peculiarities of every individual teacher were wont to make merry in a kindly way, in their talk together, about his some- what ornate and elevated modes of expression. Espe- cially was this the case, as they came, in their study of his text-book on Natural Philosophy, to a passage, quite famous in the undergraduate community of the time, in which a description was given of a stove invented by the author and very widely used. This passage, which was in its style like the rest of the work as already described, was carefully learned, word for word, by pupils who were careless on other occasions, in the hope that they might have the pleasure of reciting it with due emphasis in the presence of their classmates, and thus of putting the solemn dignity of the one who chanced to be their instructor to the severest test. But it may fitly be remembered, on the Professor's behalf, that the young students themselves, in their admiration of the oratory of the era, often sought after a somewhat similar style when they turned their efforts towards writing or speaking. In addition to his lectures on Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, which were delivered to the students in their Junior year, he gave a valuable course annually to the Senior class on the subject of Meteorology. This course had a special interest by reason of his peculiar 143 MEMORIES OP YALE LIFE AND MEN enthusiasm as connected with that science, and also be- cause of his careful observation of the remarkable meteoric showers of 1833, and of his theory respecting the phenomena of such showers. The classes saw that he was a faithful and earnest investigator and a genuine devotee of science in each department in which it opened itself to him. As a consequence they attended his ex- ercises with readiness, and those among their member- ship whose minds were most adapted to scientific studies derived no little advantage from his instruction. According to the best of testimony, Professor Olmsted was active and influential during the period between 1825 and 1840 in advancing the scholarship of the College, and especially in raising the standard and im- proving the method of examinations. During my own undergraduate life and in the years which immediately followed, I think he accomplished little in this regard partly, no doubt, because of the greater activity of others with reference to these matters, but partly, perhaps, because of some personal changes in himself. He did not lose his interest in devising ways of making his examinations more successful for the attainment of the desired results. He was ever watchful and thoughtful to this end. But, either because he became more dis- posed to trust the honor of the average student, as he grew older, or because he did not understand all the possibilities or dangers connected with the newly intro- duced system of written examinations or for some other reason his best formed plans, not unfrequently, proved to be failures. In the latter part of my official term as tutor I occupied a college room which was near his own, and I well remember the confidence and satis- faction with which he came to me, again and again, assuring me that he had in mind a new scheme which he thought would be eminently wise and useful. He never informed me what it was. But, within a few 144 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN weeks after it had been tested, he was sure to visit me again, and to say that he had found reason to believe that the scheme had not been attended with the success for which he had hoped. Yet he never despaired of the coming time, and he kept his mind always awake for what might seem better things, as well as for what should prove advantageous for his department of study. As a scholarly writer, he was active beyond many of his contemporaries his articles in the Quarterlies of the day, as well as his more extended works, being of goodly number and of wide influence. Many of them exhibited less of the rhetorical style that marked, as has been already stated, his book on Natural Philosophy, and was characteristic of his lectures and public ad- dresses. Indeed, the rhetorical element never interfered with his clearness of statement, and he certainly did not have the redundancy or exuberance of language which was so often noticeable in the elder Silliman's discourse. I think he was even impatient, at times, when more was said than seemed necessary for the satisfactory pre- sentation of the subject in discussion. I recall a little instance of such impatience, which will serve as an illus- tration. In one of the later years of my tutorship, a movement was made by the Faculty to change "the sys- tem of excuses," as it was called so that in place of the old arrangement, according to which the students pre- sented their excuses for absences from college exercises, or for other delinquencies, to their instructors orally, all such communications were thereafter to be made in writ- ing. This appeared from the standpoint of the time to be a much greater and more serious change than would now, after so many years of experience with the new order of things, seem possible. The matter was, after discussion, placed in charge of a committee for further careful consideration, and for the perfecting of a plan. When the chairman of this committee, who was perhaps MS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the most influential of the younger professors and the one most familiar with the disciplinary matters of the College, presented their report, he submitted a form of excuse-paper which should be put into the hands of the students a paper having a statement of the character and manner of the excuse to be offered. This intro- ductory statement, to be printed on each paper, was quite elaborate and extended, and was read to the Faculty by the Professor. When the reading was finished, Profes- sor Olmsted commented upon it, and said, "It seems to me to be altogether too long." The chairman of the committee replied: "We gave special attention to the matter of brevity and conciseness, and I do not see how it would be possible to make it any shorter than it is." "Will you be so kind as to read it again?" said Mr. Olmsted. The chairman of the committee proceeded to do so. He read the first sentence, which was somewhat as follows: "In writing his excuse, the student should make his statement as to the time and cause of his ab- sence, or as to his other delinquency, with exactness, clearness, and brevity." Professor Olmsted immediately interrupted the reading, with the remark: "If you had stopped there, you would have said all that was neces- sary." The Professor's rhetorical style was a matter of words of an ornate character and stately progress, rather than of long-extended sentences or excess of ex- pression. It was said of him by a critic of higher quality and attainments than I can claim to be, that he had no poetry in his nature. For myself, I should be disposed rather to say, that there was a certain poetic element, or an element kindred to the poetry of the more ponderous and weighty order of the later part of the eighteenth century, which affected his words rather than his thoughts, and that thus his style, in its two charac- teristics taken together, had its explanation. There was somewhat of a similar element of an 146 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ornate or elevated character, if I may so describe it in the worthy Professor's bearing and general appearance. He was more nicely careful in his dress, and more punctilious in his manner, than most of his colleagues, and always had in consequence, to the student mind, a certain conscious professorial aspect. He had also an apparently upward look in the eyes towards the fore- head, from which the hair was always brushed upward, or naturally grew thus, a look that added to the im- pression mentioned. There was, so far, a measure of the dignity of the older generation which attracted atten- tion and, oftentimes, excited comment among the young men of the later period, when the former things were already passing away. As I recall how his sense of pro- priety was shocked, when some of us who were tutors at the time followed the passing fashion of those years in the wearing of shawls, instead of cloaks or overcoats, I can easily picture to myself the astonishment and hor- ror which would have filled his mind, if he could have foreseen the day when even elderly professors and men eminent in the State should ride on bicycles, or array themselves in a manner adapted to the playing of golf. But, though I have to acknowledge that I was myself, for a season, a voluntary victim to the shawl fashion, and that the Professor indulged himself, in consequence, in unfavorable comments, I confess that I have a yet lingering respect for the good man's views and example, and a feeling from which I am unable to free myself, that men of venerable years and official position may fitly have a dignity of bearing and a style of dress in accordance therewith. The gentleman of the old school is altogether of the past now, and of the increasingly distant past. But it will do us of the present no harm to remember his excellences and to let the influence of his example work upon us as far as it may. There is 147 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN little danger that we shall carry our imitation of him too far. For a considerable period in his boyhood Professor Olmsted stood in close relations to the family of the Hon. John Treadwell, of Farmington, Connecticut, and during a part of this time he lived in their home. Mr. Treadwell held a very prominent position in the com- munity, and for a term of years in the early part of the century he filled the office of Lieutenant Governor, and that of Governor of the State. His characteristics both of mind and manner were those of what we may call the old re'gime. Dignity and formality marked all his in- tercourse with others, even with his familiar friends and the members of his family. I remember hearing Mr. Olmsted, when speaking of him, mention more than once the fact, that in accordance with the order of the house- hold whenever he entered the room where his children were, they all rose respectfully and remained standing until he had taken his seat. The influence of such a man and of rules like these must have had a formative force for a boy who was at the most impressible age, and I have the thought that the Professor's demeanor in this regard may have been in no small measure due to this experience of his early life. There was, however, in his nature an element which rendered him especially susceptible to such influence, and which would, no doubt, have made itself manifest in his bearing, as well as in his thoughts, whatever might have been the surroundings of his youth. The allusion thus made to Governor Treadwell re- minds me of the partisan spirit of the early days of the century and recalls a word of Mr. Olmsted in connection with it. The Governor was a stanch Federalist, and to the Federalists of New England the Democrats of the time were offensive in a far higher degree than we of the modern era find it easy to realize. The oppositions 148 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN among us are of a milder order than they, were in the days of the Fathers. Mr. Olmsted said that, when he was a young boy in the Governor's house, he received such an impression from the conversation of the men of the period which he there overheard, that he some- times found himself afraid to go out into the fields after dark, if by chance he was called to do so, because of the thought that he might meet a Democrat. Happily we New Englanders have freed ourselves from the old-time apprehensions, and men of the party opposed to our own, whichever it may be, have no terrors for the youngest of us, even in the darker hours of the day. But to turn again to the Professor himself the cor- diality of his gentlemanly nature, uniting itself with his affectionate interest in the students, led him to offer them in a generous way the privilege of his friendly acquaint- anceship. He received them in his college room with readiness, whether for conversation or for counsel and helpful advice. He also offered them the hospitality of his home, and as they accepted it, he gave them a sincere welcome. The welcome, indeed, was that of dignified age in its meeting with cultured youth, but it had in it the kindliness of the older towards the younger in the scholarly brotherhood. There was no formality in the outward manner which bore testimony of the absence of feeling in the spirit within. There was only what seemed to his thought the appropriate mingling of the paternal with the fraternal. He was, moreover, ever thoughtful and earnest in his work for the upbuilding of personal character in the student community. This work he regarded as a most important part of the service which he was called to render to the institution and its membership. He had a deep-seated conviction that it was the duty of the College to make men, as well as scholars to educate its pupils not only intellectually, but also morally and 149 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN spiritually. As the result of this conviction, he gave himself, according to the measure of his opportunities, to the fulfillment of the duty; and by his example and his friendly suggestions and teachings, he commended the true life to all who came under his influence. In the later part of his career, he was called to the endurance of unusual sorrows and afflictions through the loss of four sons, young men of much ability and promise, who died in their early manhood not long after their college graduation. But notwithstanding his burden of grief he moved on in his course in the manliest and most courageous way, being even to the end un- wearied in his labors and conscientiously devoted to the well-being of those who were about him. In the sum- mer of 1859 he died, at the age of sixty-eight. His elder colleagues, Silliman and Day, survived him the former for more than five, and the latter for eight years. Toward myself personally Mr. Olmsted had a friendly feeling which I remember with pleasure and gratitude. He visited me not unfrequently at my room, when" our apartments were near each other in North College, and talked with me freely, or even confiden- tially, notwithstanding our separation in age. He had, I think, a kind of family regard for me, which came from the associations of former years, when he knew and honored my grandfather as his instructor, and was united in the bonds of a college friendship with one of my uncles, who was his classmate. He was, certainly, al- ways most gracious and considerate in all his intercourse and dealings with me. Almost on the very day of my return from my studies in Europe, he called upon me, and said that he had received a letter requesting him to suggest the name of a desirable candidate for a professorship in one of the prominent universities of the Northwest. This letter, he said, he had kept in his MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN hands for a time, awaiting my arrival, in order that he might, if I were willing to accept the position, give me his best commendation for it. My desires in the line of college life were limited to New England, and the department offered in the Western institution was not in accordance with my preference. I therefore declined the Professor's proposal, but I have always carried in my thought the recollection of his friendly offer at a critical time in my career, and I am glad to record in these pages my respect for him as a man, and my appre- ciation of his kind regard. To many students of the earlier years, as I cannot doubt, he was a more efficient and helpful friend than it was possible for him to be to me. Most of these, like himself, have now passed beyond the limits of their earthly career. But while they lived, they must have kept in pleasant memory what he did for them, and the results of what he did in the happy experience of their subsequent history. Doubtless, also, there are some still living by whom his personality, like that of his associates in the old Faculty, is held in fresh recollection, and in whose minds the vision of the former days has much of its distinctness yet remaining. The place next to that of Professor Olmsted in the order of arrangement was held by Professor Larned, who succeeded Dr. Goodrich in the chair of Rhetoric. He received his appointment in 1839 the year in which Dr. Goodrich left the College Department to take up his work in the Divinity School. He was, at that time, a graduate of thirteen years' standing and a man of thirty-three years of age. His original purpose, when an undergraduate student, had been to enter the legal profession, but near the end of his tutorship in the College the influence upon his mind of the remarkable religious revival which occurred in 1831 led him to MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN change his plan of life and to enter upon a course of study in preparation for the work of the Christian ministry. Owing to an enfeebled condition of his health, however, he was obliged, after a brief term of service, to give up his pastoral duties to which he had been successively called in two different places, and near the beginning of the year 1839 he returned to New Haven, for what he supposed would be a temporary residence, in order that he might regain his strength and vigor. It was during the period of this sojourn that the chair of Rhetoric became vacant, and a new occupant was sought for by the College Corporation. That body made choice of Dr. Leonard Bacon, but, on his declining the appointment, the attention of its members, as well as of the members of the Faculty according to the statements which I heard, a few years afterwards, from those who were familiar with the facts was specially called to Mr. Larned as a desirable candidate for the position by the elder Professor Silliman, who had known him with more than usual intimacy and had a high esti- mate of his ability and worth. The offer of the position was made and, on Mr. Larned's acceptance of it, the title of the professorship was changed from that of "Rhetoric and Oratory" to that of "Rhetoric and Eng- lish Literature." The formal recognition of English Literature as descriptive of the chair of instruction was thus given at this time, though of course Dr. Goodrich had, in his teaching, turned his attention, in a measure, to this subject in connection with Rhetoric. The classes of my undergraduate period met Profes- sor Larned, for the first time, at the opening of their Senior year. All that was then offered in the line of instruction in English during the earlier part of the College course was under the charge of the tutors, and was limited to more or less regular exercises in English composition, and occasional private criticisms on the 152 PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. LARNED MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN part of these younger officers. The criticisms dealt, in general, with minor points only, and were of no signifi- cant value or importance. Even with reference to the matter of oratory, the student was largely left to himself, and he gained whatever power resulted from his college education mainly from his personal efforts as a par- ticipator in the discussions of the larger debating societies of that day. The modern system of coaching for special debates was unknown in connection with those societies and I think, happily so, as the students in such an age of debating as that was could be safely left to them- selves; and they derived certain advantages, in my judgment, from the fact that the responsibility of their progress and success rested upon themselves alone. It may be remembered that it was not an era of inter- collegiate contests and recorded victories. There was much reading of English literature on the part of many in the undergraduate classes in those days quite as much as, I think, and probably more than there is, at present, apart from the requirements of the regular college exercises. But such reading was under- taken and carried forward according to the individual student's impulses and, in the main, without any guidance or suggestion from any of his teachers. The institution through its officers or its organized system made, as I may say, almost no provision for this department of instruction, except within the sphere of rhetoric, and even within that sphere the teaching was scarcely ade- quate to the demands of the case. Professor Larned entered upon his duties at the be- ginning, and continued in the discharge of them during all the earlier portion, not to say, the whole, of his official career, under the power of influences which were thus almost exclusively rhetorical. He found it difficult also, as we may believe, to free, himself from the au- thoritative force of Professor Goodrich's methods and 153 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN personality especially, as the latter continued, until the closing years of his life, to deliver to each successive Senior class his courses of lectures on the British Orators, which were regarded as very instructive and interesting. When we met Mr. Larned as Seniors, accordingly, we found no very marked change from what we had known in the previous years. We hnd a new instructor, indeed, and one whose assigned duty was altogether within the English department. But the exercises to which we were called in the first term had relation, as already stated on an earlier page, to the Oration of Demosthenes on the Crown, and in the remaining part of the year the lectures that he gave us on literary matters were few in number. I have reason to believe that, in the period which followed our graduation, he accomplished more for his classes thnn he did for us, because of his more frequent meeti'ngs with individual students for confer- ence as to their personal work in his department. He was thus easily enabled to give them, in much larger measure, such suggestions and criticisms as would have a helpful influence in relation to their own writing or to their study of the best authors. But while he was a faithful worker in the studies pertaining to his chair, his effort and thought in connection with his teaching were always, as it seemed to me, directed towards the matter of style and expression, rather than to the survey of literature or the unfolding of its richness before the student's mind. His associates in the Faculty who knew him best, and his most mature and thoughtful pupils who were able, in some measure, to form a true judgment respecting his mental gifts, were united in the oninion that he was by nature better fitted for philosophical, than for literary studies, that the logical element was strongest in him, and that his special tastes and impulses moved easily in the direction of metaphysics. When the call came to - 154 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN him to turn toward literature, therefore, it was natural that he should be most deeply interested in the logical and the constructive parts of it. He guided his pupils safely as far as he led them or went forward with them. But in comparison with the best and most inspiring teachers of the present day, he was a man of the earlier generation in his department. The age to which he belonged and in which the duties of his office were ful- filled was, certainly, far behind that in which we are now living. As a man of ability and character, Professor Larned was of the old New England type. He was charac- terized in his mental gifts by soundness and solidity, rather than by the brilliancy of genius. With earnest- ness of purpose and unyielding energy he devoted his time and his powers to his work in the intellectual sphere. He was a clear and intelligent writer, and his many articles, as a contributor to the pages of the New Eng- lander, or as the editor of that Review for a term of years, show that his mind was interested in the most important questions of the day, as well as in matters of literary significance. He had somewhat of the distrust- fulness of himself which was often noticed in New Eng- land people in those days, and to this element in his nature was due, perchance, a certain hesitation in press- ing forward to the accomplishment of new plans or the carrying out of new ideas, which otherwise he would have been ready to bring to their realization. In his relations to the students he was open-minded and con- siderate, but like the other officers whose work was mainly limited to the instruction of the Senior class, he had comparatively little to do with the minor and gen- eral discipline of the academic community. To his colleagues he proved himself throughout his official career to be a true friend. Generous in his sentiment and feeling, free from undue self-assertion or jealousy, 155 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN indisposed to entertain suspicions of others' motives, sincere in his thoughts and honorable in his actions, he was recognized by them all as a genuine man, worthy in this regard of membership in their fraternity. He enjoyed greatly the privileges of the academic life. The studies, the associations, the influences of the College were prized, both because of what they gave to himself and of what they enabled him to give to those who were connected with him. He was happier, I think, than he would have been in the more public duties of a professional career. 156 X. The Old Faculty Professors Porter, Thacher, Hadley and Stanley. PROFESSORS Porter, Thacher, and Hadley, who were the other members of the permanent Fac- ulty of the time, seemed to me, as I entered upon my tutorship and passed through the years of its continuance, to be nearer my own age than their col- leagues already mentioned. Professor Thacher, of whom I have written somewhat on previous pages of this volume, was only fourteen years, and Professor Hadley only seven years, in advance of me ; and though Professor Porter was but five years younger than Pro- fessor Larned, he appeared perhaps because his official term began so much later, and even within the time of my undergraduate life, or possibly by reason of a certain geniality which rendered him more easily accessible to younger men to be much less removed from the ex- periences and sympathies of my associates and myself. I may have occasion to advert hereafter to my recollec- tions of these gentlemen in their subsequent career. What I say at this point of my story will have reference to what they were, or what I thought them to be, as I knew them in the early days or sat with them in the meetings of the College Faculty. Professor Porter was elected to his professorship in the summer of 1846, but he did not enter upon the dis- charge of his duties until January, 1 847. He had grad- uated in 1831; had filled the office of Tutor in the iS7 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN College from 1833 to 1835; had studied Theology in the Yale Divinity School ; and had subsequently held the pastorates of two churches in succession one in New Milford, Connecticut, and the other in Springfield, Mas- sachusetts. During the years of these pastorates, and even in the period of his preparatory theological studies, he had been greatly interested in the discussions and investigations of the time in the department of Mental and Moral Philosophy. His attainments and learning in this department were recognized by all who knew him, and I have the impression that the thought of the Faculty and the Corporation had, for some years, been turned towards him as a desirable occupant of the chair of Philosophy, whenever the resources of the institution should render the establishment of such a chair prac- ticable. The time of the realization of the possibility drew near in the early forties, while Mr. Porter was settled in Springfield, and it arrived just as Dr. Day was leaving the Presidential office, and Dr. Woolsey was assuming its duties. The bequest of Mr. Sheldon Clark, already alluded to on an earlier page in connec- tion with the two scholarships bearing his name, made provision for this professorship. The amount given to the College had, in accordance with the wishes of the donor, been allowed to accumulate for a period of years until, in 1846, it reached the sum of twenty thousand dollars as the foundation of the professorship. On the scale of salaries paid to the professors at that time, this sum was an ample endowment for the new chair. The Corporation and Dr. Woolsey availed themselves I have no doubt, with much satisfaction of the oppor- tunity thus afforded them for securing Mr. Porter's services. There was, indeed, an especial timeliness in the matur- ing of this bequest at this particular moment, for, with the change of the Presidency, a new arrangement of 158 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN studies became a matter of importance, and almost, as it would seem, of necessity. The instruction of the Senior classes in Mental and Moral Philosophy under the administration of Drs. Dwight and Day, and in the time preceding theirs, had heen included within the duties of the President of the College. But the depart- ments of History and Political Science were now begin- ning to make greater demands upon educators and to claim for themselves a place of prominence in our higher institutions of learning. The taste and inclination of Dr. Woolsey's mind turned towards these branches of study, rather than Philosophy, and the general desire of his associates in the Faculty and Corporation was in harmony with his own, that he should devote himself to them. With the two men, the President and the new Professor, engaged in the work of teaching the Seniors, it was felt that the closing year of the undergraduate course would be made much more valuable in its results, and that there would be a healthful broadening of the education that was offered. Professor Porter's entrance upon his official duties was fortunate both in respect to its date and with refer- ence to all the circumstances connected with it. He was at that time, as he was in all the years that followed, a man of active and alert mind; reaching out with ever fresh interest towards new thought and knowledge, and moving eagerly and happily through a wide sphere of truth. The field pertaining to his own science opened itself for his efforts under the most favorable conditions. He had entire charge of his department of instruction. The College authorities were glad to give him all schol- arly freedom in his investigations, and complete inde- pendence in his plans and methods of teaching. From the very beginning he enjoyed the warm friendship of Dr. Woolsey, who co-operated with him heartily in the carrying out of his desires and purposes. The kindly T5Q MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN feeling of the students, also, was immediately won by the cordiality of his manner and disposition, as well as by the geniality, if I may so express it, of his intellectual nature. His first work was coincident with the opening of a new era in the history of the institution an era which promised then to be one of marked scholarly progress, and which afterwards, as the years moved on, realized the fulfillment of the promise. In every re- spect, the future offered him a happy outlook. The class of which I was a member was the third which came under his instruction. He had just become settled in his plan of working, having had two years of experience, and he no doubt felt himself more com- pletely than before the master of the situation. He was of course, however, in the early days of his service, and had not yet gained what the subsequent years were to bring with themselves. He met us three times in each week, alternating with Dr. Woolsey in the ex- ercises of the early morning hour. These exercises were mainly given to recitations from a text-book, in connec- tion with which he would offer suggestions or make such comments as appeared to him likely to be helpful. But from time to time, a lecture was substituted for the recitation work and was made to serve the purpose of giving to us more immediately and directly his own thoughts. He was a wide-awake teacher, and was ready to adapt himself in private conferences with individual pupils to their special needs and desires. He was ever very attractive, and even stimulating, in conversation with those who visited him in his College room, or at his house. To us of the earlier days there seemed, sometimes, to be a certain indefiniteness, or perhaps I may more properly call it indistinctness, in his teaching in the class-room, which left the mind of the pupil in a greater or less degree of uncertainty, or a state of in- decision. He was quite at a remove in this regard from MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN such teachers as Dr. Woolsey and Professor Thacher. Doubtless, this may have been owing, in part, to the nature of the subject which he had to teach, but it was due, also, to his desire to place before our minds the considerations and arguments favoring the opposite sides of questions under discussion. There is a certain fair- ness or fitness in such a method of instruction, but it is less adapted to students who are in the early stages of their investigations, than to those who have moved farther onward and are consequently better able to form a judgment for themselves. The Professor's own mind, however, was of the order which finds an interest in all views of science and truth. For such minds the dog- matic method is distasteful, and the adoption or follow- ing of it is difficult, and sometimes well-nigh impossible. In the period of my college life and for a few years afterwards, he was accustomed to offer instruction in John Stuart Mill's work on Logic to members of the Senior class, who might be disposed to take this study as an optional course. In company with ten or twelve of my classmates, I availed myself of the offer, and thus had the privilege of meeting him in connection with a small and select body of pupils. He was at his best in his association with such a body. The choice of the study indicated the interest of each and all in it; and, in the case of such studies as Logic and Metaphysics, the fact of the choice rendered it probable, or almost certain, that the members of the class were men of serious pur- pose in their working. The teacher, in general, especially the teacher of alert mind, most of all, the teacher who is at his best in what may be described as conversational teaching, finds his largest freedom, and the widest opportunities for his enthusiasm in connection with such a company of pupils. An inspiration from without unites itself with the inspiration of his own mind as he sees the responsive ardor of his students 161 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN awakened by his thoughts and words. His work is thus rendered an easy and delightful one. The ideal posi- tion for a college professor, so far as his highest enjoy- ment, and also the best results of his instruction for each and every individual pupil are concerned as I have often pictured it to myself is that where he can be seated with ten or fifteen students, all of the best order, about a table, and can have the utmost freedom of scholarly conversation with them, listening to their in- quiries and imparting to them of his own thoughts and knowledge. Certainly, this was the ideal position for a man like Dr. Porter. I would not say that the small optional class in Logic, to which I have alluded, was of this ideal character. It was not so, but it approached somewhat more nearly to the ideal than would have been possible, if all the classmates who had no interest in the study, or at least no special interest in it, had been within the membership. It was happier for the membership and for the Professor that the number was limited. The student of my college days when Cousin's Psychology was the text-book in that department of whom it was said that, on being inquired of by a friend as to his success in one of the examinations of the course, he replied that he had been conditioned in Cousin, and in Psychology supposing, until his friend relieved his mind, that they were two studies, instead of one could hardly have been a help- ful or stimulating member of a class in Metaphysics. The Professor gave us more than he could otherwise have done, because we were a selected body selected by reason of our own impulses and interests. The ex- ercises which we thus attended I remember, and I presume that my associates who may recall with vivid- ness their college days also remember, with a special satisfaction. They were more awakening to mental activity and more effective for mental development than 162 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN those which pertained strictly to the daily routine of the department of study. 'Instructors in Metaphysics are quite often supposed to be what college students call dry men, and their science is widely regarded as peculiarly characterized by dryness. I do not know why it should be so. The science which deals with the human mind would seem, antecedently, to be as interesting, as stimulating, and as soul-stirring, as that which investigates animal life, or the forces of nature. Possibly the supposed dryness is kindred to that which is frequently said to pertain to mathematics a science which, it is claimed by those who know most about it, has its true life and abiding- place in the sphere of the imagination. Perhaps the idea of dryness comes to the mind of the student, or even of the average man of education, as it does in the case of mathematics at the outset, because it requires, even in its beginnings, vigorous and strenuous intellectual effort. In the case of scholars in some other depart- ments, I have sometimes thought it might be due to the difficulty of reaching, within its domain, absolutely definite and immovable conclusions. But, after half a century of observation, one does not find conclusions alto- gether immovable in sciences apart from metaphysics. Whatever may be said of any other teachers of Metaphysical science, however, Professor Porter was not dry. The dryness of the study, in case it was felt by pupils to exist, pertained to the subject as they looked upon it, and not to the man. We left our exercises under his instruction with the conviction that a knowl- edge of the science need not make the possessor of it un- interesting, either within himself or in his relation to those about him, and that he might be, as truly as men in other lines of work or study, a man full of life, and of interest in the world's life. Those of our number who formed his optional class in Logic, and I think also MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the larger part of the classmates who followed only the prescribed courses, had the feeling, as we moved forward in and reached the end of our Senior year, that the study was for us one which, in a very special sense and measure, developed and quickened the intellectual powers. Speak- ing for myself, I have always had, and still have, this feeling; and my conviction is, that a college education should include mental science in its required curriculum, and that without it the best results are not likely to be realized. While saying this, however, I would admit that there are exceptional cases of individual students as there are in relation to Mathematics, another science the study of which has a peculiar strengthening force for the mind where a release from the requirement may, for particular and sufficient reasons, be granted. The young man whom I have mentioned, who failed to understand the exact connection between Psychology and M. Cousin, may have been one of these exceptional persons. But there are not many like him if indeed we are to believe that the difficulty and failure in his case pertained wholly to the original constitution of his mind. Most young men who turn away from the study of Mental Philosophy, or of Mathematics, do so simply because these studies seem dry or hard. But the man who is never ready to do what appears to him unat- tractive or difficult, has not developed the manliness of his manhood intellectually, or in any other line. The theory of doing only what is pleasant, or what requires no forcing of the will against its first inclinations, has no better foundation to rest upon in the educational sphere, than it has elsewhere in human life. I am disposed to think, however, that the required course in mental science in the period of my undergrad- uate career included about as much as is desirable. It was a general course, or a course which gave every man an introduction to and survey of the science, and 164 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN also such knowledge of it as was strengthening to the intellectual powers and helpful to all educated persons. In the progress and development of this science during the last half-century, a wonderful advance has been made, as in the case of other sciences, and discussions and investigations have moved into all minuteness, as well as into the widest possible range of thought. I doubt whether it is wise, or in the interest of the best education for the average student, to carry him forward along the pathway of all these investigations or discus- sions. Beyond a certain limit, the work belongs, as in the case of natural or physical science, rather to the man who, in some sense, intends to make it a specialty, than to one who turns to the study as a part of a general educational course. It may fairly be questioned, also, whether the time required, if the study is carried beyond certain limits, is not too great, as considered in relation to the length of the undergraduate period, and with reference to the demands of other branches of knowl- edge. A reasonable share of one year's studies, as already intimated, was allowed to this department in my college era. I think this arrangement a just and satis- factory one, so far as required exercises are concerned. If the study is carried farther forward, it may be more wisely provided for in the plan of the elective courses and there can be no doubt that abundant provision should be made for it among these courses. As a disciplinarian, Professor Porter was, in the early days though abiding, as his colleagues did, within the older system more like President Day than he was like Professor Goodrich; that is, more disposed to leniency in individual cases which appealed to his kindly feeling, than to strictness in following the line of established rules and published law. Some thought him too lenient, and probably he was so oftentimes. But it is well for a College Faculty or perhaps it is to have all the 165 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN better qualities of human nature represented in its mem- bership, even as a man may fitly have them mingled in due proportion in his individual constitution. However this may be, we of the older age may felicitate ourselves in the thought that President Day was regarded by all his associates as the wisest and best of men, and that both he and Professor Porter won the hearts of the students, and thus gained a peculiar power and influence over them. I doubt whether a man like Mr. Porter could have been otherwise than lenient in his disposition whether he could have been as strict as is a rule with no exceptions. As a personality in the College com- munity he was a stimulative force, for he was always sympathetic with those who were seeking after light; always hopeful with reference to the promise of the future; always giving evidence as Dr. Bacon said of the Yale scholars in general to a German professor, who was comparing our College in this respect with another that he had just visited that "his eyes were in the front, and not in the back of his head." With reference to Professor Thacher, I have said so much in a former chapter, describing him as he was in my undergraduate years, that I will only add a few words in this place. In the period of which I am now writing, he was perhaps the most influential person in the professorial body as related to all things pertaining to the government and discipline of the student community. Dr. Woolsey and his older colleagues depended on him, as they did ever afterwards, in such matters, and relied with great confidence upon his judgment. Their con- fidence was well founded, for he had unusual qualifica- tions for this sphere of duties. In cases of disorder or impropriety of conduct his intelligent understanding of college men enabled him to make the investigation which was necessary in the wisest way. He did not suffer 166 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN himself to be led into mistakes through any excess of suspicion. No more, on the other hand, did he take advantage of his official position to overbear the student with his authority. He dealt with him in a manly man- ner and in all sincerity. That he never failed in his methods, or never passed in his actions beyond the limits of the charity that believes and hopes all things, I would not affirm. It would be too much to say this of any man of the authoritative order to which he belonged. But the instances of such fault or failure were few and far between, and are in the memory of the smallest number of his pupils, if indeed they still linger in the minds of any among them. On the contrary, by his kind and judicious action in his personal conferences with those who were charged with offences or supposed to have committed them, he often opened the way for their relief from all suspicion on the part of the au- thorities. His helpfulness, which was manifested in many ways in his more private relations to students and his familiar meetings with them, was widely recognized. Throughout his entire professorial career he acted as a friendly guardian for individual pupils, on behalf of whose interests and welfare he never ceased to be watch- ful. The service which he thus rendered was as generous as it was wise. In those years there were not as many questions respecting the general development of the educational system of the College, which pressed themselves upon the attention of the Faculty, as there have been in the periods that have followed. With reference to this whole subject, however, so far as it was brought under discussion, he had definite and decided opinions which he was always ready to make known. They were founded upon what he deemed satisfactory and sufficient reasons, and his expression of them was accompanied by an earnest setting forth of the arguments in their support. 167 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN A genuine and strong faith in the Yale ideas of college training and of manhood, which suffered no intermin- gling of doubts as to their fundamental truth, dwelt always in his mind. To realize these ideas in their richest results, both for himself and for all within the walls of the institution, was his most ardent desire. To this end he consecrated himself as one who had been summoned to an honorable work in a sphere of highest usefulness. This self-devotion was manifest in the earlier and the later years alike. In his personal appearance, he seemed at that time at the age of thirty-six to forty even as he did after- wards, to be a man of vigorous health and manly force. His deeply set, yet clear and keen eyes, his high and projecting forehead, and his large head gave one the impression of intellectual strength. His general bearing was characteristic of a man of executive power and of business ability and energy. We all felt that he would have a constantly increasing prominence in the institu- tion as he should move forward in his career. Professor Hadley entered upon his work as an in- structor in the College at the beginning of my under- graduate course. He became an assistant professor at the opening of my Senior year, and was appointed a professor in the summer of 1851. When my term of service as a tutor began, accordingly, he was not far beyond the starting-point of his more permanent official life. My first acquaintance with him was formed at the time of my coming under his instruction as our tutor in Greek, in the academic year 1847-48. From the very outset he seemed to me to be more accessible than most of our other instructors had been. By reason of this fact, I was encouraged in approaching him with greater readiness and confidence, and, as the result, I soon found myself on friendly terms with him as a pupil 168 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN may be with his teacher. He was, as already stated, but a few years older than myself. Consequently, the bar- rier to freedom of intercourse, which is oftentimes occa- sioned by differences in age, did not prevent us from coming together, as it were, on common ground in thought and sympathy. Moreover, there was on his part no assumption of official dignity, which set him apart by himself, or interfered in any measure with a student's friendly talk concerning things pertaining to the scholarly life. I think he greatly enjoyed conversa- tion. He was, certainly, always willing to give expres- sion to his thoughts. Such association with a teacher I felt to be an unusual gift of good fortune, and I was very glad to avail myself of the advantage of it, from time to time, during my Junior and Senior years. In the second year after my graduation I had the privilege, together with my friend, Clinton Camp, whose name I have already mentioned, of taking my daily meals at the same table with him, for a period of several months, at the hotel which was then the principal one in the city. We thus entered into somewhat more of the intimacy of friendship, and I came to know him in a new relation, wherein the distinction between pupil and instructor altogether disappeared. After two years more, I became the senior official among the tutors, while he was still the junior among the professors, and we seemed to each other to stand yet more nearly on the same level. There was indeed a separating space be- tween the temporary teacher, who had no assurance of the future, and the permanent one, whose plan of life was already determined and for whom all anxious ques- tionings concerning it were laid aside. But as bearing upon the intercourse of one young man with another, the separation appeared but a small matter. We dis- cussed subjects of general, or personal interest, without any disturbing thought as to a difference in age between 169 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN us. We even opposed each other in the debates of the Faculty occasionally, with entire forgetfulness on both sides of the remove of the professor's position from that of the tutor. I will try at this point of my story to give the impression which I had of him in those days of our earlier acquaintance, reserving some further words re- specting his life and work for a later page. Mr. Hadley in the years between 1845 an d 1855 that is, from the twenty-fourth to the thirty-fourth year of his age was a young man of somewhat peculiar and striking appear- ance. His features individually were not impressive, except that his eyes were exceptionally bright and full of the manifestation of mental life. As the result of an unfortunate accident in his childhood, he was afflicted with a permanent lameness in one of his lower limbs, and was obliged to walk with the aid of a crutch and cane. During the time to which I am referring he always wore a cap, like those of the younger students, which he placed, as if of set purpose, far back upon his head. He was of only medium height not more than five feet and six or seven inches. In his walking and other movements he was active and seemed to make no special effort. He moved, indeed, oftentimes, with rapidity, and in the ease and quickness with which he descended a flight of stairs he equalled, or even surpassed, his associates who had no physical infirmity. I think he could, in case of necessity, have pursued a retreating student, who desired to escape him, with a considerable measure of success though, of course, there was not often occasion to make the attempt. His pursuit of students was prevailingly in the mental sphere; and there when the race began no chance of escape was of- fered. The undergraduate community respected him and had an admiration for his intellectual gifts. They were proud of him as a representative of Yale scholar- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ship. They felt that he honored them and the institu- tion by his presence within its walls. Professor Hadley, as a scholar, was characterized in a remarkable degree, by accuracy, wideness of range, penetrative research, ever wakeful enthusiasm, and a power of retaining in his mind everything that he ac- quired. His accuracy was unaccompanied by the pettiness which is sometimes attendant upon it in other men. The wideness in his range of learning did not have as its result any measure of superficiality, or any want of depth or thoroughness. His spirit of research could never be satisfied until it had reached the farthest limits of possibility. His enthusiasm was quiet and undemonstrative, but was equally ready for the entrance upon new studies or the further prosecution of old ones. His memory was phenomenal, beyond that of almost any man whom I have ever known. He not only had the gift of remembering with definiteness and in detail all that he had learned or read, but a very uncommon power of stating and presenting what was in his recollection, which rendered the possession of the knowledge doubly useful to him. I recall the fact that, on one occasion, I myself communicated to him, with some minuteness of par- ticulars, certain facts, not very important in themselves, of which he evidently had not been previously informed. Two days afterwards, having forgotten, by some ex- traordinary lapse, the source of his information, he called at my room, and in the course of the interview he told me of the matter as if it were unknown to me. As he gave the details, he set them forth so accurately, so distinctly, so impressively as if he were himself the only person who had ever been cognizant of them, that it was almost impossible for me to realize that he had learned the whole matter from myself. He had, indeed, lost for the moment the recollection of the person who had related to him the facts a matter of minor consequence, MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN but, as for the facts themselves, they had been at once imprinted indelibly on his mind; so that he could have them in readiness for future use, whenever such use might become desirable. And yet I remember a con- versation with him in which he maintained, with all seriousness, that his memory was not excellent that it was even imperfect. I have known other men of re- markable powers in this line who have affirmed the same thing with reference to themselves. I suppose it may be because their standard of excellence is as much higher than that of their less gifted associates, as the measure of the power in them is greater. But if I could have been the possessor of a memory like that of James Hadley, I know that I should have been satisfied and nobody in the Yale circle would, in this regard, have surpassed me, or even have equalled me except himself. His memory was one which was retentive of all things that were worthy of retention, alike in the sphere of scholarship and in that of ordinary life. His faculty of precise statement, and of expressing his ideas in the most appropriate forms of speech, not only contributed to the value of his instruction, but added much to its interest for the minds of his students. In the Greek studies, which were his special department, he led us forward in the way of linguistic accuracy, and of an intelligent understanding of the thoughts of the authors whose works we were reading. He set before us, also, a standard of scholarship which we should strive to attain, and by his method of teaching, as well as his personal habits as a student, he gave us an impulse for our efforts. Had the emotional element been as strong within him as was the intellectual, he would have been a more remarkable teacher even than we all thought him to be and we certainly had a very high estimate of his powers. The intellectual element, however, as I think, was predominant, if not indeed in his native 172 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN endowments, at least in its ability and readiness to mani- fest itself. As a consequence, though he was a stimulat- ing instructor for scholarly men, he did not as it seemed to me possess what I may call the magnetic gift, or that peculiar power which inspires the pupil with an almost resistless desire to press forward at once, and to the farthest limit, in the study which is opened Before him. In my personal relations with my early instructors I met, indeed, only three or four who had this special gift in any large or remarkable degree. One of these was the late Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, the eminent theologian, and professor in our Yale Divinity School, and the others were professors in the universities of Germany. With the many excellences and talents by which the ablest and best of my college teachers were characterized, this power was not united, as indeed it is not in the case of most of the able men in any profes- sion or department of life. I remember once hearing Dr. Woolsey say that he thought that he himself did not possess it. Possibly in his case and in Mr. Hadley's the gift, if possessed, might have limited in some meas- ure the full exercise of other extraordinary powers through which they rendered their pupils especial ser- vice. If so, the loss might have seemed greater than the gain. It would have been a loss which all would have appreciated and deeply regretted. The required studies of the curriculum in the Greek department were completed, in those days, at the close of the second term of the Junior year. In the third or summer session, History took the place of Greek, and Mr. Hadley had charge of the instruction in this sub- ject. He fulfilled the task assigned to him with fidelity and by his teaching added to the students' knowledge according to the possibilities of the case. But within the limits of the few weeks which made the term there was not much opportunity to awaken enthusiasm for the 173 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN study in their minds especially, as the exercises were confined to recitations from a text-book, and the text- book used was Taylor's Manual of History. Such Manuals are now mainly or wholly things of the past, so far as college instruction is concerned. At that period, however, they were extensively used, and were regarded as very helpful, if not indeed essential, to the student's best historical education. The Manual which my class used was as good as any that had then been published, but it was, like books of its character in general, far from inspiriting. We certainly found it a difficult task to possess ourselves of its contents so accurately, and so far in detail, as to enable us to recite in any satisfactory measure after the memoriter method, which was then more approved and insisted upon by teachers than it is at present. As an evidence of Mr. Hadley's extraordinary gift in the sphere of memory, and an evidence which never ceased to astonish us, I may mention that, at every successive exercise, though he brought the book with him to the recitation-room, he closed it as soon as he called upon the first member of the class to recite, and did not open it again until the hour came to its end and we were dismissed. Mean- while, he noticed and corrected every error which the students made in facts or statements, and showed that he was everywhere more familiar with the lesson than they were. As I recall my old conversation with him about his memory, now fifty years ago, I cannot help thinking that, notwithstanding his affirmation respecting himself, my view of his gift rested on a truer basis than his own. No description of him as a man or as a teacher, even at that early period, would be complete without an allu- sion to his wit and humor. All who knew him will remember with distinctness and with pleasure this char- acteristic of his mind, which rendered him especially 174 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN attractive in social intercourse. His wit was of the higher order. It pertained to, and was the outcome of, the remarkable brightness of his intellectual powers. It seemed to be always present when it might happily reveal the thought which was expressed, or might give moment- ary delight to the speaker or the listener as they con- ferred together. Yet it was rarely, if ever, suffered to display itself as if merely for its own sake, or to make any show which tended to lower the thoughtful char- acter of the conversation or discourse. His voice and mode of utterance were somewhat peculiar. There was a kind of drawl, which attracted attention, in a special degree, when one met him for the first time, and which was not altogether pleasing. But as one became accustomed to it, one lost thought of it in large measure; and as for myself, I found it difficult in the later years to realize the fullness of the impression which it had made upon me at the beginning. I have to confess, however, that in my younger days I used to try sometimes to imitate him, for my own entertainment and that of my youthful friends. As I did so, I discovered for myself more fully what was manifest indeed to all, without any such effort on their part that the pecu- liarity of his utterance gave a certain additional humor- ous force to his witty sayings. College students always enjoy humor which has a certain intellectual element in it. They enjoyed his humor greatly, and the sayings of "Old Hadley" as they began, almost from the first to call him, in distinction from his younger brother who was of the Class of 1847 were often passed gladly from one to another, and were cherished in the memory with much satisfaction and delight. I wish I could recall many of them which were long familiar to me, even as household words. But the pleasurable things that lose their hold upon the remembrance in the passing of half a century are almost numberless. They remain MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in the dim retrospect as a kind of half-living presence, but the vividness of the reality is gone. So it is in every part of the mind, and throughout the whole sphere of memory and of knowledge. Our human lives on every side are the growth of forces, once seen and after- ward unseen ; and the wonder of them for us all is in the joyous delight of the growing. The rules of the College, in the period to which I am now referring, provided that in the Junior year the students should, from time to time, discuss before their instructors in written argumentative essays questions of special or public interest. The exercises were called Disputes, and at the close of each of them the instructor was expected to give his "decision," which was a some- what extended familiar talk expressing his own personal views. Mr. Hadley gave many of these talks, on a large variety of subjects, to members of successive Junior classes. They were thus in a very happy way brought into connection with him in his thoughts and were en- abled to observe most pleasantly the working of his in- tellectual powers. None of his old pupils can forget the stimulating influence of those decisions, as it united itself with that of his instruction and his scholarship. Professors Hadley and Thacher, as teachers, belonged to a transition period, or did their work at a particular stage in the progress of instruction in our colleges, as related to the department of the ancient languages. Their term of service was quite in advance of the era preceding it, and they gave themselves with intelligence and earnestness to that which seemed to open for them to do. It was the time when grammatical and linguistic study was beginning its great advance movement, the time when philology was, as we may say, first mani- festing itself in our scholarly world as a science. The earlier days had been, at the most, only preparatory in 176 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN their work. At Yale, Professors Kingsley and Woolsey had filled those days with their appropriate service. They had seen the promise of the future, and had been impelled, by reason of the vision, to make all things ready for its realization. Their more youthful col- leagues and successors entered into their labors, but the opening of the new epoch was coincident with the begin- ning of the younger men's career. Dr. Woolsey, indeed, lived even to the close of that special period, and beyond it, and he did much in the way of co-operation, and somewhat even in that of leadership, during the years of his Presidency. His duties in this administrative office, however, which necessarily turned his energies in large measure in other directions, as also the work con- nected with his new department of instruction, obliged him to leave to his associates the chief responsibility per- taining to this sphere of scholarly development. The two younger men were admirably adapted to the work which the epoch called for. They moved forward, from the very outset, with a truly progressive spirit, with a genuine enthusiasm, and with a scholarship which ever kept in mind the possibilities of the future. Professor Thacher, as a gifted teacher and an accurate student; Professor Hadley, as a scholar of large attainments, and with capacities and impulses of a remarkable character fitting him for philological investigation and research ; the two men appeared to all who knew them in the Yale fraternity to have been assigned by some happy destiny or favoring fortune to the office which they were to fill. The work of these two instructors each eminent in his own way was, however, in its turn, like that of their predecessors who have been mentioned, and indeed like that of all University men, preparatory for what was to come in a later period. There can be no doubt, from the standpoint of the present time and of a time beyond the present, that the grammatical and philological ele- 177 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ments in the matter of classical scholarship were made too prominent and had too exclusive attention given to them in the years from 1850 to 1885. According to the general laws of progress in the world, it may have been legitimate or, as we may say, in a manner necessary for the movement to be just what it was. The transition from the imperfect and comparatively unscholarly condi- tion of the earlier part of the century may have required such an exclusively linguistic development. But if so, this development was not the full growth and perfection which many of the men of the era seemed to think it was. It was happily but a preparatory stage of the progress. The scholarship of the present and the future has and will have in it the best results of that era, but it will be broader and more inspiring, and more full of vitalizing force for the student of the classical languages and literature. The men of whom I am now writing were, certainly, among the number of the ablest and most useful of those who, in the history of our Univer- sity, have been called to its chairs of instruction. They did their work admirably for their time, and passed it over at the end in full readiness for what was to come afterward. But the afterward was to be better and greater than they knew, even as it is and must be always. Of Professor Stanley I am able to say only a few words. He had been obliged, by reason of the disease which not long afterwards caused his death, to leave his college work in the autumn following my graduation, and to go to Europe, where he spent two years partly in seeking recovery of strength, and partly in study. At the opening of the academic year 1851-52, he resumed his collegiate duties, with the hope that he might soon find his health fully re-established. But the disease which was upon him pulmonary tuberculosis was de- ceptive in its promises, as it so often is, and at the close 178 PROFESSOR ANTHONY D. STANLEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of the first term of the year he was again compelled to abandon his work, and to return to his early home. It proved to be a final return, for, after about fifteen months of gradually wasting strength and declining life- force, the end came, and he passed away peacefully to the world beyond. My only knowledge of him, accord- ingly, was that which I gained while under his instruction in my Sophomore year and in occasional interviews in the years that immediately followed. His mathematical gifts and his inclination toward that class of studies had already in his undergraduate years become manifest to his instructors, and their minds .were early inspired with the hope that he might, in due time, be prepared to take a permanent position in the College. This hope was strengthened by reason of his marked success as a scholar and teacher while he held for a time the office of tutor. It was accordingly with great satisfaction that the Corporation offered him, in 1836, a Professorship, and found him ready to accept it. He entered upon his work after an interval of two years of study in Europe which, at his request, had been allowed him by the College authorities. In the period which preceded my undergraduate life, he had made large attainments and had already gained for himself recognition and esteem. His first published work ap- peared just as my class came under his instruction. This was a large volume consisting of Tables of Logarithms which, as it was placed in our hands, seemed to our minds a marvel of scholarly labor and accuracy. The same judgment respecting it was found everywhere among teachers and the men who were qualified to esti- mate its value. The burden of the mere proof-reading of such a book, which must have been of necessity re- peated several times, impressed me as I first opened the volume, and I well remember how the Professor him " 1 afterwards spoke to me of the exhaustive effect upon ti. 179 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN nerve force which he had experienced as the result of it. He was ready, however, for any measure of effort that was demanded of him, and within two years another book gave testimony to his industry as well as his ability. His working was too continuous, no doubt, and in conse- quence was harmful, but the impulse of his nature moved him with an almost irresistible power. As I recall him to mind, he appeared, whether one met him on the street or in his room, to be what he really was a man of retiring disposition and unobtrusive man- ners; one who, though evidently a scholar, had no desire to impress others with the extent of his knowledge or the wideness of its range. He seemed, indeed, as we came to know him to be more truly himself in his room, than on the street, for the atmosphere of study was the genuine atmosphere of his life. When he presented him- self before his classes at the appointed hours, the schol- arly influence of the man was felt as attendant upon his work of instruction. There was no doubt in any mind that he had the mastery of his science and that, if the student followed his leading, the best discipline, as well as the most accurate knowledge, would be secured. But beyond this the thought of the satisfaction for the lover of learning which could be found, apart from the outer world, in the studies of his choice, suggested itself to every one who looked upon him. If he had lived to advanced age, it is believed that he would have held a most prominent position among the mathematicians of the country, but his more direct service to the College would have been always rendered in the sphere of its quiet daily life and through his faithful working in the retirement of his own room. XI. Dr. Woolsey His Inauguration, and Early Work. IN this company of Professors the presiding officer was Dr. Woolsey. At the time when I entered the board of instruction as one of its younger members, he had held the executive position for a period of five years his induction into his office having taken place on the 2ist of October, 1846. With a very dis- tinct remembrance I recall the service and ceremony of that occasion. A young student just entering my Sopho- more year, I was deeply impressed by all that I saw and heard. I listened intelligently and with close attention, as young students are wont to do when they are inter- ested, to the addresses which were made by the outgoing and the incoming Presidents, as well as to the sermon which was preached by Dr. Leonard Bacon in the earlier part of the day, when Dr. Woolsey was formally ordained as a minister of the Gospel. Dr. Woolsey had, indeed, studied theology soon after his graduation and had preached occasionally, but he had not previously de- voted himself to the work of the clerical profession or received ordination. The whole scene the large assembly of distinguished personages invited to be present, as well as of graduates and friends of the College ; the venerable man who was laying aside the responsibilities and duties of his official position, and his successor, now in the prime of life, upon whom they were to rest in the new era ; the reverend and honorable members of the Corporation who seemed to me, especially the former, to be the dignitaries of an 181 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN older generation, solemn with the seriousness of age and of conscious power; the students, a happy, hopeful com- pany, all having a sweet satisfaction in the present and a joyous outlook towards the future the whole scene had an imposing character which was fitted to make a deep and permanent impression upon those who witnessed it, and especially upon a youthful undergraduate like my- self. How far remote from my age and position the old President and the new one seemed to me to be, as I looked upon them from my seat in the gallery of the church so remote, both of them, that the one appeared almost like the other in the dim region beyond my present life. How far distant from my mind was the thought that, on a future day when the years had passed onward, there would be a ceremonial of a similar nature, and that I should myself stand in the place where I now saw Dr. Woolsey ready to assume the duties of the office which he was taking upon himself and seeming, no doubt, to the young student company as old, and perchance as grave and serious as himself. It would have been a strange vision for me, indeed, if it could have been revealed at that hour. Dr. Woolsey, when he became President of the Col- lege, had held the Greek professorship for fifteen years, during which period he had served the institution most efficiently as an instructor, and had attained to a very prominent position, if not indeed even to the first place, among the Greek scholars of the country at the time. When President Day made known his intention of re- signing his office, a considerable section of the Yale fraternity turned their thoughts at once towards the Professor as a person well fitted to succeed him. The movement of the public mind at first, however, as I think, was towards the elder Professor Silliman, or Dr. Leonard Bacon, as the most desirable and available can- didate for the position. These two gentlemen had both MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of them, though in different ways, become conspicuous before the people as men of striking ability and men who seemed to have special adaptation for leadership. It was felt that a man of such an order would be needed in the opening era, while retired scholars like Dr. Woolsey, however able or successful in their own sphere, could hardly be expected to meet its demands. But Professor Silliman was sixty-seven years old, and some of the members of the Faculty, as well as other friends of the College, deemed it best for the interests of the institution that a younger man should be placed in the office. With reference to Dr. Bacon on the other hand, though he was a college classmate of Dr. Woolsey and of the same age, the feeling of these gentlemen in the Faculty and of a considerable number of the graduates was, that he had been too much engaged in the controversies of the time, and that it was somewhat doubtful whether he had the particular administrative faculty that was required in the College. As the months passed on, the sentiment in favor of Dr. Woolsey became more established and more general, and at length, some time before the matter was finally decided by the votes of the Corporation, it was commonly regarded as certain that the result of the election would be favorable to him. The college world was abundantly satisfied when the result was made known. It was so, if possible, in increasing measure as the years of the new President's official term revealed yet more and more clearly his eminent qualifications for the position. So far as Dr. Woolsey himself was concerned, vc is evident that he not only had no special desire for the new office, but that it was with much hesitation, and even reluctance, that he consented to allow his name to be formally considered by the Corporation. A few years ago I saw a letter addressed by him to Professor Kings- ley, in which he expressed himself very clearly cm the $3 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN subject. He was in Europe during the year preceding Dr. Day's withdrawal from the Presidency, and this letter was written from England in reply to one in which Mr. Kingsley had urged him, on behalf of his many friends and for the interests of the College, not to de- cline to be a candidate for the position soon to be vacated. Without refusing to yield to his elder col- league's request, he set forth his own feeling with much earnestness and emphasis. Very possibly he may have had somewhat of the sensitive shrinking of a retiring scholar, as he looked towards the public and administra- tive responsibilities of the executive office. Not im- probably he had a regretful indisposition to give up, in considerable measure, the studies of the past years, which had so pleasantly occupied his thoughts and so greatly awakened his enthusiasm. Strange as it must seem to all who knew him, then or afterwards, there was another ground of his hesitation a feeling of doubt as to his fitness for ordination to the ministry which, in his judg- ment, was essential to his entrance upon the Presidential office. He had the self-distrust which was characteristic of the Christian development of the time, and which seemed sometimes to be excessive in persons who had the least occasion for its presence in their souls. Happily, however, his friends were able so far to satisfy his ques- tionings and influence his views, that he was led to yield to their persuasions. Most happily as all who gradu- ated during his administration will unite in saying he consented to be ordained, and thus became a preacher whose thoughtful Christian teaching will be remembered by them to the end of their lives. Dr. Woolsey brought with him to his new office the high ideal of scholarship which he had formed in earlier years, as the result of his studies in Europe before enter- ing upon his professorship, and of his intimate associa- tion with Professor Kingsley. His mind, indeed, was of 184 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN such a character that his ideals, in this regard, must have been high, had there been less propitious influences in his experience. He had, however, a favoring fortune, which not only removed hindrances, but also added an ever stimulating force. The entire College community began almost immediately to appreciate the power of a freshly awakening life. The Faculty and the students alike were conscious of a new impulse, and were filled with large hopes for the future. There was, however, no action of a radical character, and no great overturn- ing, as if the past should be neglected or forgotten. Neither was there undue haste in the movement for changes. It was evident to every intelligent observer that the advance was not to be revolutionary that there was to be a legitimate growth from the development of former times, and that the new was only to be more than the old. I have already referred, in another con- nection, to the increase of work and enlargement of the field of study, in the Senior year, and the consequent addition to the value of that year in the education of the students. But the infusion of the spirit of true learning, in larger measure, into the entire community was more than any single or special arrangement of the curriculum, in the present benefits which it secured, as well as in its promise of yet greater ones that should follow. In his work of instruction, Dr. Woolsey gave himself, at once, to the departments of History and Political Science, in which comparatively little had been previously done in any part of the College course. These studies were, in a more special manner, introduced into the Senior year, and were placed on an equal footing with those pertaining to the sphere of Mental and Moral Philosophy. The exercises were mainly of the order of recitations from text-books. The President, however, added remarks and suggestions of his" own in connection with, or at times in opposition to, the views and state- 185 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ments of the authors of the books. He gave us also occasional lectures in which, of course, we had the re- sults of his own studies and thinking. He was somewhat impatient of the memoriter style of reciting, which, as I have intimated, was characteristic of the time and was encouraged in the earlier years of the course. I think he was, for this reason, inclined to give his approval to the older and more mature men in his classes since they were likely to grasp the thoughts rather than the words of the books recited, and thus to make more clearly mani- fest their understanding of what they had learned. How- ever this may have been, he taught us a valuable lesson in this matter, for which I may fitly record my grateful acknowledgment on these pages, as it was for me, at least, an awakening force for my subsequent career as a teacher. In his lectures he was instructive. He could not be otherwise, for his mind was very rich in ideas and in learning, and his knowledge was as accurate as it was extensive. We admired him for what he knew and for what he thought. In my time, however, which was, of course, near the beginning of his Presidency he crowded too much into each lecture, and thereby dimin- ished in some degree the value of what he gave us. He gave more than we were able fully to make our own. Had he divided the matter of each lecture into two parts, enlarging in the way of detail and explanation or illustration on the one part, and reserving the other for another occasion, the advantage gained by the pupils would have been greater even if the necessary conse- quence had been an increase in the number of lectures and a lessening of the hours devoted to recitations. Whether this characteristic of his lectures was equally noticeable at a later period, I do not know. Very prob- ably it was not so; especially after he had laid aside the teaching of History, and given himself wholly to the 186 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sphere of Political Science and International Law. Yet such was the character of his mind and his knowledge, that I presume this feature of his instruction may have been manifest, in greater or less degree, in the later, as well as in the earlier period. The most powerful impulse which he gave us was that which came from his personality as a man of intellectual power and as a genuine and truly erudite scholar. If I may look at myself as a representative of my fellow- students, in this regard and I have confidence that I may do so I may say that we all felt, as we met him, that we were in the presence of true greatness, and this impression of him has not, as I think, passed away from any of us in the years that have carried us far beyond the limits of our college life. He was a man who never seemed to me to grow less in the impressiveness of his intellectual power, however near I came to him or how- ever often I heard him give forth his thoughts. In the matter of social and friendly intercourse with students, Dr. Woolsey was not in my time, and I think that he never was, accessible in the degree in which Dr. Porter showed himself to be, both before and after he entered the chief executive office. There was a kind of separating wall or fence, if I may so express it, which set Dr. Woolsey, in this regard, within himself, and made him appear to others to be a man whom it was some- what difficult to approach. He felt himself unable to pass through or over the barrier, and others, in turn, had a similar feeling with reference to themselves. It seemed to me, as I came to know him better in the later years, that he did not appreciate the cause of the difficulty, so far as others were concerned that, while he clearly saw the barrier as related to his own outgoing, he did not understand that there was anything manifest to them. It was thus, as I thought, a mysterieus and inexplicable thing to his mind, that there was not the freedom of 187 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN intercourse between himself and those about him, which he would have desired. The question why they did not approach him easily was, accordingly, one which he could not answer. It was my privilege to be associated with him in the work connected with the Revision of the English Version of the Bible during the ten years that immediately fol- lowed the close of his Presidential term. I often thought, while those years were passing, that they were the hap- piest years of his life. They were so in part if my thought of him was right because, in laying aside his official character, he had unconsciously removed in a measure the barrier to which I have alluded, and thus had opened the way for the freedom desired. Certainly, the kindly affection of all moved readily, at that period, through the more widely open door, and I could see that he rejoiced in the rich and happy experience. Those ten years from seventy to eighty, when the infirmity of old age had not yet come upon him, were indeed a grand period of a scholar's life, filled with intelligent activity on his own part, and with the assurance of the reverence and regard of all who knew him or knew of him. It was a pleasure to witness the satisfying reward of his life's work which he had in those years. As the presiding officer in the meetings of the Faculty during this period of which I am writing, 1851 to 1855, Dr. Woolsey was considerate of the opinions of his associates, and listened respectfully to the expression of their views. His own strong convictions, however, which generally made themselves manifest, carried with them great weight of authority. He had a clear insight into the intricacies and difficulties of special cases as they arose. He had, also, a wise judgment as to what each case demanded, which commonly, if not always, guided him to a right or reasonable decision. In the matter of discipline he was disposed to be strict and authoritative, r88 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN though not so much so at that time as, according to re- port, he had been fifteen or twenty years earlier. There was a certain quickness of temper, characteristic of him, which occasionally made him appear more rigorous and severe than he really was at heart. He had, also, a peculiar and if I may use the term without being mis- understood, excessive truthfulness, which led him not to measure his words, or conceal his feeling, when he dealt with students who were violating the laws or the proprieties of the College life. He had, like all the men of the time, too much of the idea that the true course to be adopted with offenders was to remove them at once from the community. But he was, beyond doubt, a wise administrator of the government, in general, and there were very few, I think, in the student body who ever had the feeling that he was intentionally unjust or unkind in his dealings with them, even where he had occasion to inflict penalties for wrongdoing. The abso- lute honesty and sincerity of his character secured for him the highest respect. No one ever had a suspicion that he was influenced, at any time, by partiality or self- interest. The whole company of his pupils reposed con- fidence in the man, and they were always ready, rather than otherwise, to give him their approval in his method of administration. By reason of his official position, he had the veto power with reference to all questions which arose for dis- cussion in the Faculty meetings. This power was, how- ever, rarely exercised, although the existence of it may, doubtless, have often had an influence which proved decisive, and thus made its actual use unnecessary. The possession of this prerogative on the part of the Presi- dent is common to all our older institutions of learning, if not indeed also to those of more recent origin. I have supposed that it was so ordered at -first, because in the earliest days the President was the only permanent officer 189 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of instruction. He was surrounded or assisted by a small body of teachers who held, and were expected to hold, their positions for a very brief period. Our col- leges were, as Yale was called at the beginning, Collegi- ate Schools ; and the President was the Headmaster, with the entire responsibility of administration and govern- ment resting at least, in the last resort upon himself. Certainly, it was reasonable, not to say essential, that, under such circumstances, he should have this power placed in his hands. Whether the power should be con- tinued, as one of the official prerogatives of the Presi- dent, when our colleges have become so great in their de- velopment, and when they have, or may have, a hundred or more professors whose relation to them is as per- manent as his own, is a question which possibly may hereafter present itself for discussion. I remember that Dr. Woolsey himself, in his Historical Address pro- nounced in October, 1850, on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the College, went even so far as to suggest the thought that, after a time, the general sentiment might favor the setting aside of the permanent Presidential office, and the substitution for it of Rectorships limited to a brief period of years, which should be held, perchance, by different members of the professorial board in succession. This latter suggestion seems to have met but little favor in any of our institutions during the half-century which has passed since it was offered. So far as I am able to look out with anything like clearness upon the future, I have grave doubts whether it will ever be gen- erally adopted as a feature of college organization in our country. Indeed, with the great enlargement in the number of professors that we already see in many col- leges, there is a manifestly increasing tendency on the part of individual officers to limit their thoughts and energies to their own special spheres. The need of a 190 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN central official, who has a wider and an all-embracing survey, thus becomes even more emphatic than in the days of smaller things and less diversified interests. Such an officer can be of the greatest service at times, of al- most incalculable value to the best and largest life of the institution. The observation of years has, also, mainly or wholly changed the feeling which I once entertained, that the veto power should, under modern conditions, be discontinued as a prerogative of the Presidential office. It is a power of great importance, especially in serious emergencies, and I am disposed to believe that, as our Faculties increase in numbers, the fact that it is .held by the President will be most helpful in its influence to the end of wise and reasonable administration. In the history of our own institution during the past fifty years, this power has been exercised only on very rare occasions; and wherever the tendency of official life in a college or university is prevailingly, as it has always been at Yale, towards peace and good-will, there is little danger that it will be pressed in its exercise beyond the proper limits. Certainly, it was not thus pressed during the period of President Woolsey's administration, to which I am now referring. To return to the description of Dr. Woolsey as a man : in his general appearance and physical form, he is successfully represented, I think, in the statue by Pro- fessor Weir which was placed, in the year 1896, in front of the Old Library building on the College grounds. His face, as it is doubtless remembered by most of the graduates who met him in the later years of his Presi- dency, is given with reasonable faithfulness in the por- trait by Baker, painted in 1871, which hangs on the walls of Alumni Hall. There is, however, a portrait by Jocelyn, of the year 1844, that has been for a long period in the official room of the President of the insti- tution, from the study of which one may gain a much 191 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN more accurate idea of him as he was at the age of forty- five or fifty. The picture adjoining this page is copied from it. It may be hoped that this portrait, as well as the one previously mentioned, will find a permanent place hereafter in the Memorial building of 1901. Dr. Woolsey was a man of about five feet, ten or eleven inches, in height; of slender build and wiry frame; hav- ing a high and slightly receding forehead, and an eye of wonderful clearness, penetration, and intelligence. He impressed every one who saw him even those who met him for the first time as a man of gentlemanly birth and culture. He had the stooping shoulders which suggested the idea of the scholar, and the general bear- ing of one who had lived in the sphere of thought and the higher learning. His step was quick, as he walked through the streets his movements always indicating energy and alertness. Even until he was nearly seventy years old, he often ascended the stairs of the College building, in which he had his office, after the manner of young students mounting two steps at a single stride. As he sat in his chair in the meetings of the Faculty, he was a striking figure, especially because of the intellectual force which was manifested in his face and eyes. We all felt that he was the leader of the company. Of his intellectual gifts, those which impressed me most strongly were his penetrative insight into truth; his thought-power, reaching out very widely and having in itself a creative force; his memory which, though not phenomenal like that of Professor Hadley, was extraor- dinary, and extraordinarily retentive; his wit which, while not obtrusive or even frequently manifesting itself, was of a very high order; his clearness of understanding, which rendered everything that he read or learned com- pletely and permanently his own; and his mental honesty, which made him a true scholar. . A similar honesty and sincerity were characteristic of 192 PRESIDENT THEODORE D. WOOLSEY From a portrait painted in 1844 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN his moral and spiritual nature. No one could doubt that the outer life answered fully, and in the most genuine manner, to the life within the man. The lesson of true manhood was, accordingly, one of the most constant and impressive lessons which he taught a lesson given forth with as much emphasis by his personality, in its exhibi- tion of itself, as by his spoken words in his most earnest teaching. In his spoken words, indeed, there was mani- fested at times what I have called, in another connection, an excess of truthfulness his sense of justice in the ex- pression of his thought seeming, for the moment, to overpass the fitting limitations. Such overpassing was, no doubt, partly due to a certain satisfaction which he felt in the courage and boldness of his utterances, and to a certain passionateness of judgment, as I may call it, which occasionally displayed itself as pertaining to his mind. But in the inner life he was true to himself, con- demning and excluding all that was false, or seemed to be more than it was in reality, and few men have ever, in their daily living, borne witness to the truth more fully than he did. The sense of the evil the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the sense of justice in relation to it, were so strongly developed in his mind, that he was led even by his religious thinking toward the governmental side of life and thought. And yet his heart moved easily, and with great tenderness, when he saw the evidences in others, who had offended in any way, of a regret for the past and a desire for better things. The tender element of the religious life was deeply fixed in his soul, though the severer element was oftentimes more manifest to the outward observer. He dealt with himself more strictly and sternly than he did with any one else as the most seriously thoughtful and honest men are wont to do, and I recall his expressing in my hearing -his conviction of the power of Christianity to renew all souls, even the most 193 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sinful, because he felt that it had had renewing force in his own. To such a man the moral and spiritual educa- tion of young men must have seemed the thing of high- est importance, and when he saw them wilfully or per- sistently turning from the right and toward the wrong, it could not be strange that justice and the governmental element should first appear in him the justice with which he condemned all wrong-doing that he had seen or thought of in himself. Dr. Woolsey was a man of authoritative character. He had what seemed to the student body an imperious element in his nature, which made them stand in awe of him, and which gave to his official utterances, and even to his personal presence as a college officer, a special weight and force. A few words from him were often more effective than the formally pronounced or estab- lished rules of the Faculty. Many instances in the way of illustration will, doubtless, be easily recalled by men who were students during his administration. One which comes to my mind was mentioned to me by a member of a class that graduated about forty years ago. The class, or a large number of its members, had been planning and arranging for a public entertainment of some sort accompanied with dancing, in the success of which much interest was excited. As not unfrequently happens in such cases, however, during the progress of the prepara- tions, the interest developed into considerable partisan excitement and a consequent greater or less measure of unfriendly feeling between different sections of men. The excitement increased as the days passed on, until the final issue of it became a matter of conversation and of questioning. Without the knowledge of the class, the President, at a late stage of the controversy, was made aware of the condition of things. He met the emergency at once in his own mind, and on the morning of the day before the entertainment was intended to be given 194 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN when all thoughts were eager with expectation and doubtful as to a peaceful result he rose in presence of the assembled company of students, and said : "I under- stand that a plan has been formed by the Senior Class for a ball to-morrow evening, and that much contention has arisen in the class respecting certain matters con- nected with it. There will be no ball." The question was immediately settled for every mem- ber of the class, and the excitement died away because its cause was removed. Of course, the effective power in the case, and in all cases of a kindred sort, however great seriousness and importance they might have, had its source and foundation in the personality of the man. Many men, by taking such a course, would only have aroused opposition, or even a renewed and yet stronger determination in some way to carry out the original plan and purpose. They would, through the lack of the per- sonal element which was in him, have manifested to the quick and penetrative minds of the youth before them their inability to make good their word of prohibition. But in him every young man saw clearly the masterful spirit, and there was little disposition to trifle with it, or resist it. It commanded obedience, and not only obedi- ence but respect and esteem. In connection with the genuine excellence and strength of character and the high order of intellectual ability, which were universally rec- ognized as belonging to him, it awakened in the minds of all a sincere reverence. This reverence grew in its measure as he advanced in years and the separation be- tween his age and that of his pupils became wider and more impressively manifest, until at length, in the later period, it turned into true veneration. It existed, how- ever, in the earliest time, to which I am now especially alluding, because the man was what he was a growing man, and yet the same from the beginning to the end. I may be pardoned, I trust, if I close what I would J9S MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN say of him as connected with this period of his career, by recalling an incident having a personal relation to my- self. I have referred more than once, on these pages, to the old ideas of college discipline, and to my own con- viction, even from the outset of my career, that they were radically wrong. I have also said that, in common with his associates in the Faculty of that era, Dr. Woolsey was largely under the influence of those ideas. Not long after I had resigned my tutorial office, and had begun a residence for purposes of study in Germany, I had occasion to address him a letter on a matter of pass- ing interest. In the course of this letter I alluded, in a side paragraph or two, to my years of instruction just closed at Yale, and said, that I had sometimes thought that my views of college government might not have met his approval, or might even have seemed to him to be of a subversive order; but that, if so, he might be assured that I had advanced them, or advocated them, with no wish to make any undue opposition to him or his opinions, but simply because I felt that the system then established might be changed with advantage to the highest interests of the institution. In his reply to my letter after giving an answer relating to its main sub- ject he referred to what I had written on this second- ary matter, and said, "While I cannot deny that I have sometimes felt that what you contended for would, if adopted, be injurious to discipline, and would tend to destroy our long-established system which I regard as a wise one, I am free to confess that I have been greatly impressed with the influence which you have gained over students in the carrying out of your views an influence which I wish that all college officers might have. I may add that so far is my feeling from that which you sug- gest as having possibly been in my mind I would be glad to have you permanently connected with the Col- lege what can I say more?" Whether my views were 196 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN right or not, he was certainly not immovably fixed and fettered in his own. He was a large-minded man, and was worthy of the office which he held, not only by rea- son of his other powers and characteristics, but because he looked toward the future and was hopeful with refer- ence to it because, with firm and strong convictions, and vigorous and commanding will, he was, at the same time, generously responsive to what others thought and kindly in his estimate of their purpose and their efforts. Such, in some imperfect and half-satisfactory descrip- tion of them as they appeared to me in those bygone days, were the more permanent members of the Academ- ical Faculty, who met together as a body from week to week in the years 1851 to 1855, and administered the affairs of the institution. The older ones among them, together with Dr. Fitch, the College preacher until 1852, and the Professors in the Theological School, were a little company of friends and neighbors whose lives had been in very close union for many years. They were almost like brothers of a common household, who had established themselves with their families around their ancestral home. They knew one another with perfect intimacy. The one great interest which they had in common united them not only in their work, but in their hearts. There were no ambitions, or jealousies, or divisive influences, to part them asunder, or in any way to prevent complete harmony in their plans or their efforts. Each one of their number was conscious that he had given himself from the outset to the service of the institution with a spirit of consecration kindred to that which inspired him in relation to those within the circle of his own home. Each one had, if I may use the word, a similar consciousness with reference to all the rest. They visited each other after the old New England 197 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN fashion, and knew each other's children almost as famil- iarly as they knew their own. In their studies they dif- fered, indeed, but this difference, inasmuch as they were all contributing to the common end and purpose of the College life, seemed in itself to have a tendency to render them more truly and entirely one. Everything also in the special detail of their relation to the College and its condition had the same tendency. The arrangement of the curriculum was such that each one of the Academical Professors was brought into per- sonal connection with every student, as his instructor, during some portion of his undergraduate course. The Professors therefore had, all of them, a certain measure of acquaintance with the entire student body. They were able to get some understanding of the character, the gifts and capacities, the present needs, and the prom- ise for the future, of the individual men who were under their care. The comparatively limited numbers in the classes rendered such acquaintance and understanding possible, in a degree which could not have been realized under other circumstances. The classes were not too large for so small a number of teachers. I would not be understood as affirming that every Pro- fessor knew every student well or, in any sense, inti- mately. I would not say that, in the case of some of the professors, there was even a general acquaintance with the classes, of such a nature that they had an abiding or satisfactory impression as to the characteristics of many of the individual members. The professors, for ex- ample, who met the students only or mainly as lecturers, were afforded comparatively little opportunity to gain such impressions. But, notwithstanding these limita- tions, the order of the College life and instruction was fitted to give the entire Faculty an appreciation of the young men their intellectual standing, their attain- ments, their worthiness, and their needs. The members 198 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of the Faculty could thus easily co-operate with one an- other, and the influences which came upon them from the fact that they were each and all working for the same pupils, and doing their part to make them educated men, were of much force in binding them together in friendly harmony. There was another uniting force which contributed greatly to the same end. The College, though small in comparison with what it became in subsequent years, and especially with what it has grown to be at the present time, was large, and even very large, as viewed from the standpoint of its financial resources. To one who, like myself, is able to look back over the half-century which has come to its end, and whose boyhood could gather within itself some knowledge of even earlier years, it seems marvelous indeed that the men of that former time could have accomplished what they did, or that they could have had the heart and courage to press forward, with their very limited and inadequate means, in the great and ever-enlarging work to which they were called. But as they had the self-devotion and the faith which inspired them to move on, notwithstanding all difficulties and hindrances, we may readily see how the very limitation of their resources, and the consequent hardness of the struggle for each and every one of them, became for them all alike a power in the inmost life, ever binding them closely together and ever impelling them to put forth their energies as one man of sevenfold force for the upbuilding of the institution which they loved. They were no hired servants, ready to labor for a time, if all should go well, but open to a call for easier, or more agreeable or remunerative service elsewhere, whenever it might come to their hearing. They were sons of the old and honored household, who gave themselves in gratitude and love to the grand duty of making the home larger and better, more fitted to bestow blessing 199 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN upon all who should come to it and more noble and beautiful in all its life. Their service, as they felt in their deepest souls, was a life-long service. Whether it should be rewarded according to the measure of its merits, or not, was a question of secondary importance even of insignificant moment. The one all-controlling thought in their minds was that of the upbuilding of Yale. If pecuniary reward could come to them as the greater work was going forward, they would be grateful and rejoice. If it should not be granted them, they would be patient and satisfied, provided only that the College which they loved was growing towards the full- ness that filled the bright vision of their hope. When I bring before my mind the fact that the total income of the Academical Department, at the time of my graduation in 1849, was less than thirty-four thou- sand dollars and, apart from the term bills paid by stu- dents, was not more than sixteen thousand and when I find, by the records, that in 1831, the year in which Dr. Woolsey entered upon the duties of his Professorship, the sum of the permanent funds of the Department, after deducting debts that were owed, was scarcely equal to the second of the two amounts just mentioned I can only wonder at the unfailing courage and self-devotion of this brotherhood of men. I can only render them honor, and express my admiration for them. We of the later period have witnessed much greater things, and have accomplished perchance what, as measured by its mere magnitude, is far beyond anything that was real- ized, or even supposed possible, by them. But may it not fitly seem to us, when we think of their era and their heroism, that theirs was a grander work, and may we not rightly feel that the history of our University, as it moves onward through the future, can have no brighter page than that which faithfully recounts the service and MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN efforts of those who were builders of its walls and guard- ians of its life in the earlier half of the nineteenth cen- tury? As one of the men who followed them in the later portion of the century, and one who entered in some measure into their labors, I would give expression most gladly to my recognition of the inspiring influence which they passed on to their successors. If we, of the fifty years just now ended, have had within us, or have manifested to others, anything of the spirit of unselfish and undying consecration to the interests and welfare of Yale, we may, as we think of ourselves or of the work which we have brought to its accomplishment, grate- fully acknowledge the inheritance which came to us from these older men. XII. Other Instructors, and Tutors; and Some Matters of College Life, 1851-55. AMONG the old College teachers of my under- graduate days, and of the years to which I am now referring, there were three who had more or less connection with the students, but were not mem- bers of the Faculty. One of these was Mr. Robert Bakewell, the Instructor in Drawing and Perspective an English gentleman who came to this country about the year 1830, and established his residence soon after- wards in New Haven. When I became acquainted with him, after my college graduation, he must have been between fifty and sixty years of age, and he had held his office as instructor for nearly twenty years. He was a man of cultured manners, of very sweet and kindly dis- position, of gentle and charming nature, of transparent purity of character, of the most sincere and simple Chris- tian faith. His genuine artistic taste influenced and af- fected his mind and manhood in every part. At that time there was comparatively little interest among the students in the subject of Art. Indeed, there were few persons in the country who appreciated the value of art, in any true measure, as a branch or de- partment of education. The expediency or wisdom of connecting an Art School with the University was ques- tioned by very many of the friends, and even of the officers of the institution, as late as the year 1865, when Mr. and Mrs. Augustus R. Street proposed to erect the Art Building and establish the school. Mr. Bakewell, MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN whose work of instruction had ended some years before that date, had of course only a small number of pupils at any period of his career. For those who sought his aid and guidance, however, he was a faithful, as well as useful teacher, while to all who knew him he manifested the spirit of a true gentleman, having in himself the refining influences of his art studies. He was an intimate acquaintance and friend of Mr. and Mrs. Street, who were in all their life greatly devoted to art, and I think that his association and conferences with them may have been a force, co-operating with many other forces, in in- ducing them to make their great and most valuable gift to the University. Be this as it may, he was the first of the teachers in the field of Art at Yale; and though he did not move in the highest sphere of the artist, he may be fitly remembered because of his true and earnest working in the early days, even as he will be held in memory, by those who knew his pure and simple life, as a man of Christ-like spirit. The second of the three men referred to was Dr. Erasmus D. North, the Instructor in Elocution in the College from 1837 to 1854. Dr. North was a graduate in Arts of the University of North Carolina, of the year 1826, and in Medicine of the Yale Medical School, of the year 1833. ^ e was a gd elocutionist. As a teacher he had sound ideas and theories, and devoted himself honestly to his work. By reason of a certain weakness in the power of discipline, however, he failed to gain full control over his students. Consequently, he was not able to do for them what he might otherwise have done. It was unfortunate for his success, also, that he was not a member of the Faculty. The students recognized the distinction between his position and that of their other teachers, and they took advantage of him, if the expression may be permitted, as young boys are apt to do of their instructors when circumstances allow 203 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN it. It was a rhetorical age, indeed, as compared with the present that period in which he served the institution. But college boys were, nevertheless, not very much dis- posed to give themselves to the regularly appointed elo- cutionary exercises. Especially when a large company or nearly a whole class came together for these exercises, as was often the case, the tendency to inattention, or to disorderly conduct of a minor sort, was likely to manifest itself; and the teacher who could not restrain it by his masterful force, found himself many times in a more or less unhappy condition. The students had no unkindly feeling towards the worthy Doctor, I think. They were only mischievous youths, who entertained themselves with a little, or with considerable, by-play while he was listening to the oratorical efforts of their fellows, or offering his criticisms. This state of things occasionally disturbed the equa- nimity of Professor Larned, who had the general charge of the rhetorical department, and at rare intervals he made known his feeling to his associates in the Faculty. But Dr. North was very sensitive as most instructors are with reference to any outside interference with his exercises. He felt himself quite as adequate to arrange and manage them properly as the Professor was or could be, and, as I recall those days, I cannot but think that he was more nearly correct in his judgment than some of the Faculty may have been disposed to admit. On one occa- sion, when the Professor addressed him a formal note, proposing himself to attend the exercises for the purpose of maintaining perfect order, the Doctor appealed to the President. After intimating that no one of the professors, as he believed, was more successful in man- aging students than himself, he suddenly rose into the rhetorical style, and said that "all that he wished was to be treated by the Faculty with respect as a man, a citizen, and the father of a family." It was difficult to 204 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN resist this appeal, and he remained in his position undis- turbed until the year 1854, when he offered his resigna- tion. He died four years later, in 1858. Dr. North was a man of wide reading and of much interest in science. He was a somewhat intimate friend of the poet Percival, who had his residence in New Haven during the years of my undergraduate course and of my official life as a tutor. Percival was a person of very peculiar character, having idiosyncracies of a most eccentric order. But as a poet and a scientist he had much prominence and wide reputation. I can recall his appearance very distinctly, as he now and then pre- sented himself on the College grounds, arrayed in his long brown cloak brown by reason of age, but possibly of another color originally and having an outlandish looking cap on his head, and a weather-beaten umbrella in his hand. He seemed anything but a scholar and a poet. The most eccentric and careless German professor could hardly be placed in comparison with him. He was self-withdrawing, and moody also, with much of the disposition of a hermit. When he erected a house for himself at some distance from the center of the city, he placed the only door of entrance on the rear of the building, as an indication that he did not desire to receive visitors. Seclusion and privacy seemed to be the satis- faction of life for him. And yet there was a small circle of friends to whom he opened himself; and when he was with any of those who were within its limits, he talked with the utmost freedom and at interminable length. Dr. North was one of this circle of friends, and it is related that, on a certain evening, the two men met each other on the street, by chance, and fell into a conversation on some topic which was interesting to both of them. They moved on and on in their talk together, wholly oblivious of the lapse of time, until their attention was arrested by what seemed a strange light in the eastern sky. At 205 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN once, they began to speculate as to what it could be, yet with no satisfactory result. But while their questioning and uncertainty continued, the sun lifted his light upon them ; and lo, the night had passed, and the new day had come. There was something evidently in the good Doctor which the poet saw, but which was hidden from the eyes and minds of the young fellows who spoke their pieces before him, or played while others were speaking theirs. There was something which, as I cannot doubt, seemed more edifying to his own mind and soul, during the four years of life that followed his withdrawal from his teaching work, than any of his efforts to create orators out of college students, or to keep them in order while he was trying to make them what he, and perchance they also, desired that they might become. Luigi Roberti, the third of the three gentlemen, was the Instructor in French and Italian. His connection with the College, however, was a rather loose one, as he only gave instruction to optional classes during a sin- gle term in the Junior and Senior years. He was a very worthy and intelligent man, and became in later years a successful teacher of a young ladies' school, which gained for itself considerable reputation. But he had little op- portunity to accomplish satisfactory results within the brief period allowed for his studies in the arrangement of the curriculum. The students, moreover, did not re- gard the exercises in French and Italian with any con- siderable measure of serious interest. The larger part of those who made choice of these studies, particularly of French, did so because they felt that they could meet the demands of the exercises with comparatively little effort. Sometimes they found themselves able to obtain excuses for absence from the recitations without much difficulty, and they gave themselves, in consequence, large in- dulgence in this regard. The instructors, who were of 206 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN foreign birth and education, did not in those days easily understand and appreciate American college pupils, and occasionally as in the case of one such teacher near the period of my tutorship in a kind of despair, or possibly in an excess of amiability, they even co-operated with students in their attempts to pass very easily through the course of study assigned for them. This particular teacher is said to have excused several members of one of his classes from nearly all the exercises of a term giving them permission to be absent until the time of the final examination, when he promised to treat them as leniently as possible. Not improbably, he may have been disquieted or harassed by their presence in the early days of the session, and, realizing his inability to meet the emergencies of the case if their continued attendance were required, may have felt that a formal release from all such obligation would be the lesser evil of the two. However this may have been, and whatever may be said by way of comment, it is evident that the era of modern languages in our American colleges had not as yet arrived. As Dr. Andrew P. Peabody said of one of the estimable French instructors at Harvard College twenty years earlier: "It was probably never known how good a teacher he could have been, if he had had teach- able pupils. His French classes were large, but were composed mainly of students who sought amusement rather than instruction, and whose chief aim was to im- pose on his long-suffering good nature." The fathers of that period, and their young sons, had comparatively little apprehension of the value of these languages as bearing upon the education of college men even as they had little understanding of the value of art. But happily, as the sons grew in their turn to the age of the fathers, the thought of the new era came to them, and they began to appreciate the worth, for those who were following after them, of what they had not realized to 207 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN be valuable for themselves. It is an interesting fact in our college history, that Mr. and Mrs. Street, whose generosity established our School of the Fine Arts, were the founders also of the first endowed professorship in the department of Modern Languages. Of the company of tutors whose terms of office were partly coincident with my own eighteen in all thirteen have died, and five are still living. Among those that have died, the two who attained the highest prominence were Hubert A. Newton, of the class of 1850, and Franklin W. Fisk, of my own class. With reference to Mr. Newton, who afterwards filled the professorship of mathematics in the College, I shall write more fully on a later page. Mr. Fisk was one of the oldest of my class- mates, and nearly nine years older than myself. He had prepared himself for entrance into the College in 1837, but had subsequently given himself for a series of years to the work of teaching in the schools. He stood, there- fore on a different level as compared with most of our number, when we came together in the membership of the Freshman class. Indeed, as I recently learned, he was a fellow-student, and of the same rank in the school calendar, at Phillips Andover Academy, with our Tutor Emerson, of whom I have already made mention. The two had separated on leaving Andover, and now, after an interval of eight years, they met again the one as a just-entering Freshman, and the other, as we boys thought, a dignified and self-conscious tutor. Moreover, as chance or fate would have it, my friend Fisk was placed in the section of the class of which Mr. Emerson had particular charge. The latter was, therefore, in relation to the former, the special representative of the idea of the time that the College government stood in loco parentis for each and every student during his undergraduate career. It must have been a strange MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN experience for my good friend. He must, as it would seem, have had a feeling, now and then, half-way rebel- lious and half-way diverting a sort of mingled frown and smile, as it were, upon his face as he thought of the old days and the new. But he never whispered his thought or feeling to me, or to any one. Possibly the lesson of the schoolmaster's life in those years had im- pressed upon him not only the duty but, for good order, the necessity of respect for " the powers that be," and so he was content to place himself on the same footing with his young associates and to set them an example of propriety. But the question comes to my mind, and I record it here for the reader to answer as he may did not the two gentlemen, when they were united as pro- fessors in the same institution in the Northwest a few years afterwards, occasionally refer in their talks with each other to the strange relation of the old college days? And if so, did not the frowns of authority on the one side, and a half-way insubordination on the other, become changed for both into smiles which gradually grew into a genuine boyish laughter? But all this pertains in reality to our undergraduate life, and I am now writing of my fellow-tutors. After holding his office for one or two years, Mr. Fisk left Yale, and completed a course of study in preparation for the work of the ministry. In 1854, however, he received a call to the professorship of Rhetoric and English Litera- ture in Beloit College, Wisconsin. This call he accepted. He held the professorship for five years, and during this peiod he rendered valuable service to the institution. In 1859 he began what may be regarded as his life-work, as Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in the Chicago Theological Seminary. For thirty-one years he consecrated himself to the upbuilding and enlarging of that school of the- ology. His thoughts and his efforts were constantly de- voted to the promotion of its interests, and I am sure 209 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN that no one of the honored men who labored for its welfare throughout those years was more faithful to the cause or more helpful towards the realization of results. He was most highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens and by all who knew him. A welcome was given him in the churches, wherever he preached. He won the regard and friendly sentiment of his students. The appoint- ment to the Presidency of the Seminary, which he re- ceived, carried with itself the highest testimonial that could be given by the trustees, as manifesting their con- fidence and respect. The influence exerted by him in the whole region of the country where his life was passed will be permanent and wide-reaching, as it is continued through others to whom he gave inspiration for their work. At the close of the seminary year in April, 1900, he retired from the duties of his office, but in accordance with the request of the Board of Trustees he retained his connection with the institution as President Emeritus. He had, at that time, just passed beyond his eightieth birthday. Not many months later his health, which had been vigorous in a remarkable degree throughout his mature life, became impaired. Recovery proved to be hopeless, and on the 4th of July, 1901, he died. He was a warm-hearted friend of mine from the college days to the end, as he was of all his classmates. They all looked upon him as one of the chief men of the company. Henry Hamilton Hadley, who was commonly known among us as the younger Hadley, was called after he had left the tutorial office to an instructorship, and a few years later to a professorship of Hebrew, in Union Theological Seminary, in the city of New York. For a single year he discharged the duties of a professor in our Divinity School, but he did not at that time sever his connection with the New York institution altogether, MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN nnd his whole scholarly work may therefore be properly said to have been accomplished in that seminary. It was a work which was highly appreciated by the students in the membership of his classes. He was a scholar of a high order and of great promise, and much was antici- pated from him and for him, but to the regret and grief of his many friends the hopes which had been cherished failed of their realization by reason of his early death. His life came to its end, as the result of a disease con- tracted while he was on a temporary service with the army on behalf of the Christian Commission, in the summer of 1864, when he was only thirty-eight years of age. James B. Miles, a classmate of mine, who died in 1875, filled, for a period of nearly seventeen years, the pastoral office of the First Congregational Church in Charlestown, Mass. During the last four years of his life he was the Secretary of the American Peace Society. He held this position at a time when the Society was especially active in connection with organizations in European countries which had the same object in view, and as a consequence he spent a large portion of his time in those countries. Very few graduates of Yale within the century, as I think, have been brought into connection with a larger number of eminent Europeans men distinguished whether by ability or by official position than was Dr. Miles in those years. Fisk P. Brewer and Evan W. Evans, the latter of the Class of 1851, and the former of that of 1852, became professors in different collegiate institutions. Mr. Brewer occupied chairs of instruction successively in the universities of North Carolina and of South Carolina, and in Iowa College. Mr. Evans held a professorship in Marietta College, and subsequently a similar position at Cornell University. They were genuine scholars; the former especially in the line of classical studies, and the MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN latter in the departments of Mathematics and of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. Professor Evans attained a higher than ordinary reputation. Of the others, Joseph Hurlbut, of my own class, and Francis L. Hodges, of the Class of 1847, died so early in life that the work for which they were preparing in their thoughts or hopes could not open to them, even in its beginnings. William Kinne, of the Class of 1848, was a successful school teacher for a long period until, in advanced life, he retired to a quiet residence in his native village. Dr. Lebbeus C. Chapin (1852), after leaving the College, devoted himself to the work of the medical profession in Michigan. Rev. William Pope Aiken (1853), was an honored and useful minister in Rutland, Vt. Rev. Thomas S. Potwin (1851) gave himself to the clerical profession for a long period, but in the latter years of his life, his health having failed him, he withdrew from active service, and devoted his energies to literary pursuits and authorship. Only one other remains to be mentioned my elder brother, Mr. James M. B. Dwight, who was a graduate of the Class of 1846. He was a cultivated and scholarly gentleman, but of his life and influence it is befitting that others should give an estimate, rather than myself. Five of the company, as I have already stated, are still living. Rev. Dr. Henry Blodget (of the Class of 1848) returned, not long since, to his native land for the resting-period of life, after a long-continued and very honorable missionary service in China. Rev. Willis S. Colton and Rev. Moses C. W T elch (both of the Class of 1850) are retired ministers, who can look back, with much satisfaction, upon useful and faithful work ac- complished in the pastoral office on behalf of the Chris- tian cause. Professor Daniel Bonbright, a classmate of the two gentleman just mentioned, has had the chair of Latin in the Northwestern University, at Evanston, UK, MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN for more than forty years, and has recently held the posi- tion of Acting President of that institution. Mr. Rob- bins Little gave himself to the legal profession after leaving the College. For nearly twenty years he held the office of Superintendent of the Astor Library in the city of New York, where he now resides. It will be noticed, as these brief statements are passed under review, that almost all of the gentlemen who were my fellow-tutors became either teachers or preachers after the ending of their temporary service at Yale. That so many should have entered upon the work of teaching as the business of life will not seem strange, if the fact is borne in mind that the acceptance of the tutorial office on the part of any individual is, in itself, suggestive of a tendency of the mind in this direction. With reference to the ministry, on the other hand, the reader may properly be reminded that, in those days, it was much more customary than it is at present for young men, after their college graduation, to teach for a time in schools, or higher institutions of learning, in order that they might thereby secure for themselves the means of meeting the expenses connected with their professional studies. It may fitly be remembered also, that the men who most needed such provision for the future just be- fore them were, ordinarily, those who were intending to enter the clerical profession. This profession, moreover, had then, if indeed it has not now, a nearer kinship to that of teaching, than any other which opened itself to educated young men. The progress and changes of the last quarter of a century, in connection with which teaching has become a more fully established and independent profession, after the manner of the law, medicine, and theology, have had as an incidental result the. exclusion of the second class of persons mentioned above from our Tutorial Board. Within the fifteen years from 1885 to 213 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN 1900, only one person having had membership in the board has entered upon any life-work other than teach- ing. This more strict limitation is in some respects, and perhaps in all, helpful to the best interests of college education. There was a loss of force and efficiency on the part of the instructor, and of his best intellectual in- fluence upon his pupils, which resulted from his want of entire and permanent consecration of himself to the busi- ness in which he was engaged. But the condition of things in this regard was incidental to the age and its place in the educational development of the country. If the young men of the present era have greater advan- tages by reason of the change which has taken place, it is only an additional instance of the advance in their good fortune beyond that of the men who went before them. Whatever may be said upon this point, the tutors at that time had as large opportunity to receive benefit from one another as their successors now have. The man who remained in his office as long as I did enjoyed the privilege of familiar and friendly association with a very considerable number of young graduates of scholar- ly tastes, and of free and helpful conference with them on the great questions of life, as well as on the most deeply interesting subjects of thought. The younger instructors then, as now, constituted a distinct company or fraternity by reason of their age. They were drawn together and united in a special manner, as must always be the case, because of the common fears and hopes, resolves and purposes, which pertained to all alike. It was my good fortune to have associated with me in the board, for one or two years, three of my college classmates, all of whom had been somewhat intimate friends of mine in our undergraduate career. They were, of course, the men with whom I was most thor- oughly acquainted, and from whom it is natural that I 214 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN should have gained the most helpfulness and stimulating force. But the others, who came from the classes im- mediately preceding and following my own, were men of intellectual ability and activity, of earnest purpose, of high character, of kindly spirit, who lived together harmoniously and wrought together for the ends which all alike had in view. There are many influences and very precious ones, as we all know, which the college man receives from his classmates. But the college man and his classmates grow in maturity as the years begin to move on after the day of graduation, and if he and some of them can meet again in a common life for a happy season, when a few of the years have fled, he may get a new blessing, and in even richer measure perchance, from the new and yet more joyful association. The two marked events of the years between 1851 and 1855 as connected with the more external life of the institution were the securing of what has since been called the fund of 1854, and the erection of the first building of the latter half of the century. The commemoration, in October, 1850, of the one hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of the foundation of the College was the occa- sion of an assemblage of a large number of its graduates and friends at New Haven, and an awakening cause of renewed interest in its welfare and development. At about the same time, the members of the Faculty espe- cially the most thoughtful and energetic among them became convinced that the hour had arrived for an earn- est movement for the increase of the permanent endow- ment. As a result of this conviction, and of the inspiring influence of the new era which was just opening, a vigor- ous and systematic effort was entered upon with a view to the addition of one hundred thousand dollars to the already existing funds. The raising of such a sum at 215 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN that period was a matter of much more difficulty, and one which required for its accomplishment a much longer time, than any of those who are unable to recall the past with fullness of recollection can easily realize. The work moved forward encouragingly indeed, but with only moderate progress, and one or two years elapsed before any very considerable amount was received by the College Treasury. The entire sum, however, was finally made sure, to the great satisfaction of all Yale men. The realization of success in this most important under- taking was only second in its influence to that which at- tended the similar effort made in the years 1 830 to 1833. The two movements were alike in that, at a most critical epoch in the history of the institution, they were essen- tial to its future growth to its growth towards the realization of the university idea. The later movement was secondary to the earlier only in so far as the earlier was an effort on the results of which the continued existence of the College seemed to be almost absolutely dependent, while the later was necessary for its larger and more complete development. The period of finan- cial limitation, even as measured by the standard of those days, did not then, indeed, reach its end. But the successful issue of the undertaking was attended by a more assured hope of the coming time. The building to which I have referred was the one at the corner of Elm and High Streets, called Alumni Hall. This building was designed for the purpose of furnishing a hall for meetings of the graduates on the annual Commencement occasions as well as other large assemblages on the College grounds, and also rooms for the uses of the three principal debating societies the Linonian, Brothers in Unity, and Calliopean. The first- mentioned hall occupied the whole of the first floor of the building, while the other three filled the space on the second floor. The total expense of this building was 216 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN a little more than twenty-seven thousand dollars. About eleven thousand dollars of this sum was secured through special efforts on behalf of the Linonian and Brothers Societies, made by committees of those societies that solicited contributions from graduates connected with their membership. I was myself one of the committee of the Linonian fraternity, and was quite active in the work which was assigned to it. It was my first experience in the matter of soliciting gifts for purposes of public interest, and I learned some of the lessons which such experience, alike in its beginning and in its progress, is apt to teach. How- ever, in connection with my colleagues of the committee, I was in a very considerable measure successful in the good work as I would gratefully acknowledge that I have been in later years, when I have been called to similar service. In due time, we had the satisfaction of entering our new hall, and of joining with our fellow- members, older and younger, in celebrating within its walls, at the Commencement season of the year 1853, the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of our society. How far from our minds, at that interest- ing and happy time, was the thought or even the pos- sibility of the thought that twenty years later, all the debating societies would have ceased to exist, and that the halls which had been solemnly dedicated to their forensic contests would thereafter become college recita- tion rooms, or apartments for musical or other exercises. There were two experiences, which I had while in the membership of the committee just now mentioned, that have remained in my memory as instructive or sugges- tive, and that may perhaps, for this reason, be worthy of a moment's reference here. The first was connected with the fact that, though one of the youngest of the committee, I came at one time, for a "few weeks, to be regarded as the member upon whom the financial respon- 217 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sibility rested. Within these weeks a note, which had been given by the committee, matured some time before the amount necessary to pay it had been secured. The excellent officers of the bank where the note was placed, called my attention to the fact that payment had not been made, and that the note might be protested. By urging upon their notice, with fitting emphasis, the names and financial standing of my elder associates in the committee who were well known to them, I mitigated the sternness of their demeanor, and secured a delay of a few days. Quite unexpectedly, within this brief limit of time, contributions for our funds were received which were sufficient to meet the demand of the case; the amount of the note was paid; and the threatened danger which had disturbed my mind was escaped. The danger of the moment passed; but there was for me a suggestion connected with it, as bearing upon the rela- tion of personal income to expenditures, and the order of arrangement fitting for the two, which has continued with me in its influence and, as a consequence, has given me much comfort in the subsequent years. The other experience or incident, to which I allude, was of quite a different character. Among the many graduates to whom I addressed letters of appeal for gifts for Linonia, was one of the Class of 1 8 1 8, an entire stranger to me, who resided in Baltimore. A few days after my letter reached him he sent me a reply, in which he declined to make any contribution whatever for the purpose indicated and, by reason of strong feeling, he fell into the oratorical style and said: "A debating society! I will never give a penny for such an object. The curse of the world that which the world is perish- ing of, is Gab ! If any one will ask me to contribute for the building of a deaf and dumb asylum, I will gladly respond with a liberal gift." The good old gentleman's answer, I confess, was not very encouraging to me at 218 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the moment, though there was an amusing element in it which was, in a measure, comforting to my spirit. But as the years have passed on a long way since the letter came to me, and I have had many suggestive experiences as I doubt not is the case with all men who are in more or less public positions I have often meditated on the old graduate's views, and have realized, far more than I did at the beginning, how much there is to be said for deaf and dumb asylums. We accomplished our purpose, however, without the venerable gentleman's aid, and he lived long enough to see the end of the existence of the debating societies; and so both parties may well have been satisfied. The prog- ress and process of time have brought the halls to new uses, in which both alike, as sons of Yale, might now fitly see much good for the institution, as related to its most direct and largest work. The life of the student community in those four years differed but little in its general features and character- istics from what it had been while I was an undergradu- ate. As the interval between the two periods was so brief, it can hardly be supposed that many changes could have taken place. My own thought of the life, however, was in some measure a new one, because it was taken from a different point of view. The boys seemed younger than they did in 1849, or I myself seemed a little older. They were subjects of college government, while I was a college officer. They were under the in- fluence of all the customs and rules (immemorial in their origin, as they thought), which have such well-known power in all institutions of learning. I, on the other hand, was beginning to feel that manly life might rise above the all-controlling force of these law-giving cus- toms, and might even go so far as- to establish for it- self new and better ones. It is strange how largely 219 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN men are affected, oftentimes, by a mere change in the place of their outlook. I remember a conversation which I had, on one occasion within my tutorial career, when a miniature rebellion was threatening a disturbance of the College peace, with a young Senior who had just finished, only a week earlier, his final examination and been listed for his degree a conversation illustrative in its character. He was a man whom I had known familiarly through all his course, and between whom and myself there was then, as there still is, a kindly friendship. Feeling sure that he would have been in hearty sympathy with the irate students, if they had been his own classmates, and would very possibly have par- ticipated in their action, I asked him, out of curiosity and scarcely able to conceal a smile, his judgment as to what the Faculty ought to do in the case. In the most sober and authoritative manner, as if he were the Presi- dent himself, he replied: " There is but one course for the Faculty to pursue, as I view the matter; and that is, to quell the disturbance, whatever it may cost." The day which passed him on toward the company of graduates had made a new man of him in relation to the subject of college government. So it is with us all. The times, in our personal living, change, and we change with them. I may say for myself, however, that I had not then outgrown the sympathies of the student life and, though I am older now by many years than I was then, I have not even yet passed beyond their influence alto- gether. But as I say this, I am sure that the younger men and the older men of the present age will all agree, in their thoughtful hours, that the student life like the life of the world realizes its ideal only as it rids itself of what is unworthy of genuine manliness. It cannot claim the fullness of our sympathy except as it reaches out after the ideal. There was, I think, a silent move- ment in those years which had promise in it. It was MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the beginning of what has been witnessed in the later time, and of that which, as we may believe, will be yet more clearly seen in its completeness in the future. With reference to the friendly relations between the younger members of the Faculty and the students, I think that in these years the smaller and secret societies began to exert an influence of a special character. These societies, during the larger portion of my tutorial career, drew into their fraternal fellowship, more fully and fre- quently than they had done before, their members who were already graduates, and, among them, those who had been appointed to offices of instruction in the Col- lege. An opportunity was thus opened for a very free and unrestrained intercourse, from time to time, between the teachers and their pupils. The two parties were easily rendered able to understand each other's thoughts and feelings, and to gain, each from the other, opinions or suggestions which might have the best and happiest influence. For myself, I am sure that such opportuni- ties, in my younger days, were of very great service and benefit. They gave me the knowledge of the student mind, as well as a familiar and friendly acquaintance with the ideas and sentiments of individual students. It was my privilege, for which I have been ever grate- ful, to know by this means, and even to know with much of intimacy and affectionate feeling, many members of the successive classes which came under my instruction while I was in the tutorial office. It is a pleasure to me, as I review the past history, to feel that they and I worked together not only, as I believe, for our mutual upbuilding in knowledge and character, but also for the introduction of better life in the student community and more truly kindly relations between the younger and the older portions of the College world; in a word, that we took part as friends our part, whatever it may have been as to its measure in making the University a MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN brotherhood of educated men, bound together in a com- mon earnestness of purpose and having, each and all, the generous feeling which pertains to liberal scholar- ship. In December, 1855, I resigned my office with happy memories of its service, and happy thoughts of what was before me ; and, a month later, I sailed for Europe for a course of study which extended over two and a half years. XIII. Student Years in Germany Universities of Berlin and Bonn, 1856-58. THE period of my residence abroad extended from the beginning of February, 1856, to the end of June, 1858. During this period, I had no official connection with the College, and no definite prospect or expectation of any such connection in the future. These two and a half years, accordingly, do not, in the strictest sense of the words, belong to my Yalensian life. In view of the fact, however, that, in consequence of advice offered by President Woolsey soon after my arrival in Germany, I devoted myself largely to New Testament studies while there, and of the ad- ditional fact, that, almost immediately upon my return homeward, the appointment to the professorship in the line of these studies in the Divinity School was given me, I have always regarded these years as having a prepara- tory character, and as, in reality, forming no break or interruption in my university career. It may not be un- fitting, therefore, if I place within my record a very few words respecting some of the professors whom I knew as my teachers at the universities of Berlin and Bonn, and recall a few of the old memories and experi- ences of my student life in those schools of learning. It was, I think, a greater privilege for a young scholar to spend two or three educational years in Germany forty-five years ago, than it is now. Certainly, it was a privilege less often enjoyed, and for this reason, if there had been no other, it was one worthy of being 223 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN very highly prized. There were, however, other reasons of much more significance and weight. The opportuni- ties for advanced study in our American institutions, at that time, were quite limited. The progress which these institutions had made in the earlier part of the century which was, indeed, very marked was in the sphere of the means and facilities for undergraduate instruc- tion. Even in this sphere, the opening future was mak- ing manifest still greater demands, the supplying of which, it was already seen, would render necessary a more complete equipment of professors and teachers for their work. But in the region of graduate studies, as that term is now understood, very little had as yet been accomplished. Yale was the first, or one of the first of our institutions to take action in this matter, but what it had done amounted to but little more, as viewed from the present stage of progress, than the very earliest beginning. It was indeed an era of limitations in this regard. The means of development were not in the possession of those who had begun to appreciate the needs, while the mind of the general educated public, and even of generous givers, had not yet awakened to the importance of such development. A resort to the larger and longer established universities of the Old World was in the highest degree helpful, not to say essential, if the stu- dent would educate himself according to his truest ideals. Those universities had very much to give him in the way of learning and knowledge. They had much also to offer in connection with their methods of instruction and their provisions of every sort, while in the very atmos- phere of their scholarly life there was an inspiration un- known elsewhere. With the movement of the years since that time, a great change has come a change, not in the Old World, but in the New. Our universities have advanced towards 224 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the standard of those beyond the ocean, and to-day the young student may gain for himself here, in very large measure or even in its fullness, what he might hope to gain there ; so that his going abroad for studies finds its happiest results, not so much in new knowledges, or methods, or inspirations in the scholarly sphere, as in the gift that comes from a sojourn for a season in a dif- ferent country from his own, and from a consequent change in his point of view and his outlook. But, whether the privilege was greater then than now, or not, it was one the blessing of which, in my own case, I have realized more fully as the subsequent years have passed on in their course. The German professors, at the time when I was a young student, were, in their thinking and living, much more apart from the common life of the world than were those of our own country. They dwelt more exclusively in the region of their special studies, and were, in a far higher degree, disposed to allow the men about them, who were engaged in other duties and other spheres, to manage the affairs pertaining to the general interests of society or the State. It seemed to them, indeed, to be in no manner or measure to their discredit to be wholly neglectful, or even wholly ignorant, of very simple things that were outside of their own particular lines of work or thought. The story which was occasionally told of the professor who, at the close of his career, ex- pressed his regret that he had not confined his studies entirely to the dative case, was descriptive, though, of course, in an exaggerated way not only of the tendency characteristic of them all, to limit themselves in the range of their investigations as scholars to the end that they might be exhaustive in their researches within the self-imposed boundaries but also df the kindred tend- ency to move, in their own field, along some narrow 225 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN pathway without turning or looking towards the other paths which opened on either side. As a natural, and almost necessary consequence, they often became enthusiasts in their teaching, with an en- thusiasm which imparted itself in greater or less measure to their pupils; and even .more frequently became in themselves men of such marked singularities in manner and appearance, or in their ways of thinking and speak- ing, as to excite a special interest in the minds of all who saw them or entered their lecture rooms. Of all the professors on whose exercises it was my privilege to attend, the most peculiar was Leopold von Ranke, the celebrated historian. His distinguished abil- ity and well-known learning attracted comparatively large numbers of students, who listened to him with profound respect, as well as with closest attention. They were impatient, like all German students of those days, whenever any noise or interruption occurred which, in the least, arrested the continuity of the discourse, or hindered them in following the thought of the speaker. In this regard, and indeed in every view of the matter, they were model hearers, affording an example worthy to be imitated by students everywhere. The lecturer, however, on his part, seemed to be alto- gether oblivious of his audience. It was so it impressed me as if he had by reason of habit, or the force of some law which had established itself in his mind and memory, taken his way to a certain room in the uni- versity building at a particular hour, and, when there, had begun as it were to meditate aloud on his favorite theme. He was a man of small stature, of a round and closely shaven, smooth face, and with bright, piercing eyes which had a tendency to look upwards. As he en- tered the lecture room, he seated himself in the chair behind his desk, and immediately began his discourse his words being uttered with very great rapidity; his 226 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN eyes turning away from the hearers and toward a point in the ceiling near the side windows of the apartment. He reminded me, whenever I looked upon him after the excitement of the lecture had taken full possession of his mind, of one of the cherubs in the Sistine Madonna of Raphael. He seemed as joyous in the vision which opened itself before him, and as far away in his thoughts from all things else. Occasionally, indeed, he wakened to a consciousness which is inseparable from the German professorial mind, and recognized the existence of his hearers as he uttered the inevitable words: " Meine Herren." But it was for a moment only, and again he passed into what appeared like a delightful revery. His emphasis was, oftentimes, as remarkable as the rapidity of his utterance. As he moved on through his sentences and paragraphs, he would lower his tone of voice and, peradventure, moderate his excitement of manner, seeming to his audience, perchance, to be just establishing a conclusion. But suddenly as if a new objection or difficulty, or a new thought tending to greater clearness, had occurred to him he would break forth into an almost startling loudness of tone with the utterance of the word, " Aber." Then, with a greater velocity than at any earlier moment, and with a voice rapidly sinking into a whisper his eye, meanwhile, still more rapt in its own vision, and his hearers passing still farther away from his thought he would move on to the end of his discourse and to a kind of victorious silence. It was delightful to see the man, and to witness his scholarly joy in his work and his learning, as he sat in the presence of his pupils. But I wondered sometimes whether, in these not infrequent outbreaks or outbursts of his thought, even those who were most familiar with his language and style were able to understand, with 227 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN absolute clearness, what he said. It seemed like the whizz of a bullet as it passes by the ear, and then passes beyond the hearing. I was a stranger, however, of an- other land and another tongue, while they were his fellow-countrymen, and if I may be permitted thus to use the term were " to the manner born." At all events, the lecture room was filled from day to day; and well it may have been, for he was the leading scholar in his sphere of learning, and one of the most prominent scholars of his time. He lived for long years after my student days, and even beyond the age of ninety. Professor Karl Ludwig Michelet was, beyond all the other men whom I met in Germany, an inspiring lecturer. He belonged indeed, in this particular regard, to the very highest class, and had what I have called magnetic inspiration the gift which moves the pupil almost irresistibly to press forward at once and with earnest- ness in the study which the teacher opens to him. He lectured, in successive university terms, on a variety of subjects generally, of course, related to his more special department of philosophy, but sometimes quite outside of its limits. But whatever his theme might be, the inspiration, for me at least, was ever the same. I was moved by so strong an impulse that it was with diffi- culty that I could restrain myself, while under his influ- ence, from following after him in the way which he pointed out, to the neglect of other and, for me, primary subjects. He had not been promoted to the highest grade of professional rank, but was still, though fifty years of age, a Professor Extraordinarius. As I recall the con- dition of that era, the thought suggests itself to my mind, that the reason for his continuance in the lower position may have been of a political character that his senti- ments in this regard were not satisfactory to the chief authorities. Whether it was so, or not, I would not at- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tempt to say; but he certainly had a favorable disposi- tion towards republican institutions, which was not manifested by his colleagues and associates in general, and he sometimes exercised considerable freedom in his expression of opinions concerning them. I remember one occasion on which, after discoursing for a consider- able time, in a lecture, on the United States and our system of government, he said evidently with great personal satisfaction : " The monarchical powers in Europe are ever ready to call attention to what they style the instability and want of permanence manifest in the history of republics; but the United States Govern- ment has now existed, without disturbance, for seventy years. How many overturnings, ' meine Herren,' have there been within these seventy years in European coun- tries?" This was, indeed, only four years before the outbreaking of our Civil War, which the professor, like all other men, was not able to foresee. But that great struggle did not shake the foundations of republican government, or republican ideas; and I have no doubt that, when it came to its end, his faith in our institutions had new strength and his satisfaction in his long-cher- ished beliefs took to itself a still greater measure of joy. The general movement of my studies being in other lines than those which he followed, it was impossible for me to be more than an occasional attendant upon his lectures. I have always remembered him, however, with a feeling akin to gratitude, because of the inspiration which he gave me and the almost limitless enthusiasm which he manifested. The most distinguished teacher of theology, in the doctrinal sphere, in the University of Berlin at that time was Karl Immanuel Nitzsch, and there was none at Bonn who had equal prominence. He was, however, some- what advanced in years, and his lectures were valuable, rather for the matter which was in them, than for any 229 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN additional life or interest which they gained by reason of his personal presence. One felt, in listening to him, that the same words read in a book would be equally useful. In his earlier years he may, not improbably, have been more full of life-giving vigor. But now the feeling of his students was that of esteem and reverence for the man, rather than that of interest in his forth- putting of his thoughts. Dr. August Twesten was younger than Nitzsch by two years and of a less wide-extended reputation, but he held perhaps the next highest place in the theological faculty. He had the great advantage, so far as his relations to students were concerned, of being a stimu- lating lecturer one of the most stimulating, indeed, in the entire professorial body. He lectured on Exegesis also, as well as on doctrinal theology, and thus was especially helpful to me in my own particular department of study. He was a man of moderate height; broad and well- developed in frame; corpulent enough to be happy and good-natured, yet not enough to make him overweight- ed; with a kindly face, an intelligent eye, and a pleasant voice. He seemed to me, as I saw him in his lecture room, to be not more than fifty-eight years of age, though I find, by the records, that he was ten years older than I supposed. His enthusiasm was of the char- acter and measure which men of thirty or forty exhibit more frequently than men already nearly seventy. But when enthusiasm pertains to the nature, it does not pass away with the years. Sometimes it starts into new life and energy in the later season, when ordinary men who have never had its genuine vitalizing force, within them- selves are becoming dull in their minds and motionless. In my own special studies, I derived more, perhaps, from him than from any other teacher whom I met, for as a lecturer he was an excellent example of the true 230 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN exegete and admirably adapted to give the best influences of the German methods of the period. Withal he was friendly to all his pupils, and through his kindliness he gave to many of them a very pleasant impression of the home life of the Fatherland and of the peculiar Gemuth- lichkeit of the best of his countrymen. The successive classes of young men who came under his instruction carried with them as they left the University the im- press and stimulus of his scholarship. They also cher- ished a most pleasant memory of the personality of their teacher. Hengstenberg was still in the full vigor of his man- hood, being only fifty-five years old. He lectured mainly on the Old Testament, but at times also on the New Testament, especially on topics pertaining to the Intro- duction. As a lecturer he was so scholarly that he com- manded respect for his learning, but he awakened no very special interest, as I should judge, except in minds having more or less resemblance to his own. His views, which were ultra-conservative, were expressed in the most pronounced and positive manner. Even the intona- tion of voice with which they were uttered was pecu- liarly dogmatic. It seemed to me, whenever I heard him, indicative of the animosity of an obstinate theo- logical combatant. He was possibly more stimulating than Rodiger of Halle, but much less of an impulsive and independent scholar, I think, than Ewald, who was then at Gdttingen. The Philosophical Faculty at Berlin included in its circle Karl Ritter, the eminent geographer, in whose lec- ture room I had my first introduction into German student life; Bekker and Haupt, in the department of classical philology the former having very few hearers and seeming to be little interested in what he was saying to them; the latter giving the indications of scholarship which are found in his books; Trendelenburg, who was 231 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in the foremost rank among the scholars devoted to mental science; Lepsius, who held the first position in Egyptology whom it was a privilege to hear, and even to see, for in his face and person he was as prominent in the University citizenship as he was in his fame and learning; and others in other lines, who were of similar distinction in their own special spheres of work. For the student of wide-reaching tastes and desires, having a mind ever opening with fresh ardor towards new knowl- edge, there was enough to meet every wish or want there was more, indeed, than he could take to himself and make his own. Such a student could not fail to find new impulses and new enthusiasms continually stir- ring within him. Even the ordinary student, of slower movement and less wakefulness, might well feel inspir- ited by what was so richly offered to him on every side. The true university, as I have always thought, has a special inspiration for every man of generous mind and heart in its membership an inspiration additional to all others which has its source in the fact that it is a place of universal learning, a place where those about him are men who, in their union as a company of scholars, know somewhat, at least, of the wide range of knowledge. At the university in Bonn, where I spent the summer semester of my first year in Germany, I gave myself wholly to classical studies. I had not yet determined to take up New Testament work. In the Greek depart- ment Welcker, who was seventy-two years of age at that time, was the senior professor, and Friedrich Ritschl was the next in reputation and influence. I had letters of introduction to both of these gentlemen, but for some reason I happened to make my first call upon Welcker, a few days after I had settled myself in my rooms and just as the university term was about to open. My letter to him was from Dr. Woolsey, who had been one of his 232 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN students twenty-five or thirty years earlier. He received me kindly ; but he had evidently passed beyond his inter- est in younger life, though apparently his love for his favorite studies yet lingered in its strength. When I said to him, that I hoped to see Professor Ritschl, and added that I supposed him to be of the highest standing in Greek scholarship, he replied: " Yes, he is a rising scholar of promise." To my surprise, when I saw Ritschl a little later, I found him to be a man of fifty, giving every indication in his appearance of being al- ready " risen," if indeed it was in his appointed destiny ever to become so. In Welcker's view, however, I sup- pose that no man of the following scholarly generation could be considered, even at the highest estimate, as other than in the process of " rising." This process was, possi- bly, a somewhat slower one for German scholars in those days, than it is at present. As for Welcker himself, there could be no doubt that he had passed out of and beyond the " rising " class. He was interesting to me by reason of his fame, and of his representative character as a man of the era which was just closing. But his day was manifestly drawing towards its end, and he was less effective and awakening than he had been in Dr. Wool- sey's student years. Professor Franz Ritter, then about forty-five years old, was one of my teachers at Bonn whom I can never forget. He lectured on one or two of the tragedies of Sophocles, and his characteristics as a lecturer, as well as his personality, were calculated to impress themselves on the memory of those who heard him. He had but thirteen in his class, during that semester. Of these, there were never more than seven present at any one lecture; generally not more than five; and occasionally only three these three being two friends, with whom I occupied a suite of rooms, and myself. It seemed, however, to make no difference to the professor whether 23.3 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN his class was large or small, or whether the major part of those who belonged to it were in attendance or not. It was the subject, not the number of listeners not these or those students, three or thirty-three which in- terested him. The old Greek characters and the old Greek poetry and life were all-absorbing to his mind. The excitement of his ardor knew no bounds. He would be in a rapture of delight as he moved on in his dis- course a delight which manifested itself in the intona- tions of his voice, and in the swaying of his body and his earnest and vigorous gesticulation. He did not forget the hearers, as Ranke seemed often to do, but, if he had but a single one, he gladly poured forth his thoughts and his ideas of the poet's thought with the most intense pleasure and satisfaction. The poet himself would surely have been glad to hear him. Ritter opened his house with kindly hospitality to his students. His wife was cordial and affable, like him- self. His children were either in their early youth or just coming to their maturity. Together they consti- tuted a typical pleasant German household, simple and unpretentious, but friendly and intelligent. One of the sons holds at present a professorship in the University of Bonn, not in his father's line of studies, but in the department of History. When I was in the University, Ritter was a Professor Extraordinarius. Though he was the author of some valuable and scholarly books, I think he was not very widely known. He lived only about fifteen years after the time of my residence in Bonn, and when I visited that interesting and beautiful city in 1891, his life and work seemed to have passed out of the remembrance of the persons whom I chanced to meet. But he had not passed from my memory, and I went to the place of his burial with the affectionate feeling of an old pupil 234 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN who had gained from him both instruction and inspira- tion. Otto Jahn, though at that time comparatively near the middle point of life, had already attained high repu- tation in Latin scholarship and had received an appoint- ment as Professor Ordinarius. He did not have the peculiar enthusiasm which was characteristic of Ritter. He gave his lectures, if I remember aright, while sitting in his chair behind his desk, which Ritter could not have done. He had, however, a measure of this gift beyond that of ordinary men, and by his clear voice, his distinct and earnest utterance, his sparkling eyes, and his abun- dant growth of hair which added to the striking expres- sion of his face, he impressed himself upon the minds of his hearers as a man of eminent ability. He was much devoted to archaeological studies, and his lectures in con- nection with them were regarded as especially valuable. His contemporaries in his department of learning had large hopes with reference to his future work. But these were only partially realized, as he lived but thir- teen years after the time of which I am writing, and died at the age of fifty-six. The University preacher at Bonn, in 1856, was Pro- fessor Steinmeyer, one of the Faculty of Theology. He held the position which was afterwards filled by Christ- lieb, who was at that time a young graduate and school teacher and two years later became pastor of a Ger- man church in London. Steinmeyer was an attractive preacher. Large audiences were always in attendance upon his ministrations. He awakened much interest, also, among the students. He did not, however, attain to the eminence as a scholar or a public speaker which was gained by his successor in subsequent years. Lange the author of the voluminous and burdensome Com- mentary on the 'Bible, which was translated and pub- lished in our country under the editorship of the late 235 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Professor Philip Schaff was lecturing, in that semester, on Biblical Theology and the History of Doctrines; and Albrecht Ritschl, then a young man of thirty-four years, on Doctrinal Theology. Ritschl's later prominence in the German theological world was, in these earlier days, only a matter of anticipation on the part of his more intimate acquaintance and friends. Several of the most distinguished theological scholars and professors at that period were holding positions in other universities than the two which I have mentioned. Tholuck and Julius Muller were in Halle; Ewald and Dorner, at Gottingen; and others elsewhere. Students from our country who were devoting themselves to the- ology only, or even to the exegetical department of it, were wont to spend the whole, or at least a part, of the time at their command under such teachers. But, in my own case, the uncertainties of the future and the orig- inal purpose with which I visited Europe occasioned less unity of plan, and made the work in Bonn and Berlin seem more desirable and the opportunities afforded in those cities more advantageous. I came in contact, ac- cordingly, with the men whose names I have just men- tioned, only as I was a listener to their lectures on brief visits to their universities. They were all of them, with the exception of Dorner, men of fifty-five to sixty years of age. I can scarcely realize that they were no older, as I try to recall them. But they lived for twenty years after that time, and rendered much service to the cause of learning. Of the three most eminent New Testament exegetes of the era De Wette, Bleek, and Meyer the first had already, seven years earlier, finished his career, and the last had no university position. Bleek was still lecturing at Bonn, but he was drawing near to the end of his life. He died, three years afterwards, at the age of sixty-six. 236 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Meyer was seven years younger than Bleek. He was then in the midst of theworkof preparing and publishing one of the editions of his Commentaries. It is a matter of regret to me that I did not hear Bleek, for, as a com- mentator and writer on the New Testament, he has always, in my subsequent years, appeared to me to be exceedingly able, and also very satisfactory to an open- minded and earnest student of the Bible. But I was then limiting myself to another line of studies, and the opportunity passed by. The three men, however, had all the influence and helpful power for me, after the be- ginning of my career as an exegetical scholar, which either I or they could reasonably have desired, and I bear them in mind as among the teachers of both my earlier and my later manhood. In the field of Biblical scholarship during the years of my European life and the period that followed it, there was, comparatively speaking, a freedom from conflicts relating to what may be regarded as the most fundamental questions. The earlier controversies even those of most recent date had, in the main, passed by, or had at least lost, for the time, much of their energy. The renewal of the old warfare, or the begin- ning of a new one, was a matter pertaining to the future. The forces of the scholarly life were, accordingly, given in largest measure to the work of interpretation. Bibli- cal scholarship was exegetical scholarship, and the effort of the New Testament teacher, as well as that of the student, was to discover fully and precisely what Christ and the apostles meant by the words recorded in the sacred writings, and not so much to determine whether they had used these words, or whether the books which profess to record them were written by the authors whose names they bear. I remember hearing Dr. Woolsey, who was himself a very able New Testament 237 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN scholar, remark, in the later sixties, that the assault of the hostile critics on the Johannean authorship of the Fourth Gospel was, as he thought, already so success- fully overcome, that that question in the controversy might be regarded as finally settled. His view of the matter in the light of the opening years of the new century seems not to have been correct. But the fact that it was the opinion of so intelligent, calm, and judi- cious a scholar as he ever showed himself to be, is indica- tive of the condition of things at the time. The exegetical scholar thus had, in a special sense, the field for himself, and also had a large measure of peace within it. There was a kind of completeness in his peculiar and distinctive work. He was able to devote himself to it, and to enjoy it, with a certain freedom from weighty responsibilities outside of its limits. Moreover, exegesis had already assumed in Germany what it was soon to begin to assume in our own country its fitting position among the departments of theology. It was no longer to be merely preparatory, and hence subordinate, to the doctrinal department, but was to be recognized as having an independence of its own, and as dealing with that which is fundamental and all im- portant. It had, for these reasons, an attractiveness as a sphere for a young scholar's life-work, which was of a peculiar character. It had also elements pertaining to it, as such a sphere, which rendered the knowledge of the German methods in the highest degree valuable, and the influences derived from them most beneficial. The period was certainly a fortunate one for any student who possessed capacities and tastes for this order of studies. It was a period in which a sojourn in the "fatherland" could give him the gifts which he most needed and which would be for him a continuous life-impulse in his personal working, as well as a life-imparting power in his work for others. 238 MEMORIES OF YALE L I F AND MEN The theological world changes with the movement of time even as does the world of medicine, or science, or philosophy. The era of exegetical scholarship as I have described it has, in the more recent years, passed, as we may say, into the era of the so-called higher criticism, or of the old questions rising with a new energy or in a new form. Whether the "fatherland" has as much for the young Biblical students of the pres- ent, or will have for those of the early future, may be a question for the men of the new time to determine. We whose youth belonged to the earlier days have no doubts, I am sure, as to what it gave to us. The student life in the University at Berlin, so far as I had the opportunity to observe it, was more like that of the professional schools of law, medicine, and theology in our country, than that of our undergraduate colleges. It had somewhat more of this higher char- acter, as viewed from the standpoint of manhood in its contrast with boyhood, even than that which was found in the smaller German universities. That this should have been the fact is not unnatural, since the institution was located in a great city where the membership was widely separated both in residence and in the matter of personal work. The young men who attended its courses of lectures were, for this reason, more likely to be affected by the influences of maturer years, while they had less opportunity for intimate acquaintance or fre- quent association with one another. As for the foreign students in attendance at that period, I think they were in large measure outside of this peculiar life, whatever there may have been of it; and, in general, they had comparatively little desire to participate to any considerable degree in the privileges or pleasures which it offered. It may fitly be borne in mind that the number of foreign students certainly, of 239 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN those speaking our own language was much smaller then than it is now. They were, for the most part, men who had connected themselves with the University with a serious purpose and for a limited period. They de- voted their time and energies, accordingly, to the end which they had in view a more complete preparation for their chosen life-work, upon which they were expect- ing soon to enter. Even in Bonn, which was a city of only twenty thousand inhabitants, and where the Uni- versity had not more than one-third or one-half of the number enrolled in its membership as compared with that in Berlin, the same fact with reference to the foreign students was quite noticeable. The period of my residence in Bonn was the summer. At that season a considerable number of students re- sorted thither because of the attractiveness of the place leaving other universities for the second semester of the year. Of this number, a certain portion had little desire to prosecute their studies, or to devote themselves to anything beyond the pleasures incident to youthful life and companionship. Attendance at lectures being entirely voluntary, this class of young men became con- spicuous for their uniform absence from the exercises, rather than for their, even occasional, presence. Others also, whose plans and purposes in regard to their studies were more serious than were those of the persons just mentioned, yielded themselves from time to time to the attractiveness of the life outside, or to the temptation which was attendant upon the University freedom, and as a consequence failed of regularity in devotion to the daily lectures. What has been said of those who were on Professor Ritter's list of hearers was proportionately true of the young men on other lists. But the working men were in large numbers. They were the men who gave tone to the university life and determined, as we may say, its atmosphere. The hold of the University, 240 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN moreover, upon such as were thoughtless, or neglectful, was greater than it might have been under other condi- tions, or would have been, even under similar circum- stances, in some other countries. This secure hold upon all was due to the laws and customs of the state, which made the satisfactory passing of the examinations at the close of the university years or courses essential to the most successful entrance of the student upon his life-work. At some period, accordingly, in the student's academic career whether in term-time or, as the case might be and often was, in the vacation seasons study, which had meaning and earnestness in it assumed, even for the idler, the place of play or of devotion to his own sweet will. The teachers and authorities were able to overlook, or regard with a kind of indulgence, irregularities in attendance, or neglect of special duties which continued for a time, since they knew that such continuance must cease when the nearer approach of the fateful period should give full emphasis to its own imperative demands. I must acknowledge, however, that it was a matter of some surprise to me as a stranger to the customs in this regard when I first found that men on the lists who had rarely, if ever, during the semester presented them- selves in the lecture-room, received at its end the same testimonial of faithful and punctual attendance, which was given to myself and others, in whose case the virtue of regularity in fulfilling this duty had been more mani- fest. And yet, as I recall the old days, after so long a time, I feel that I could have signed a most kindly statement, if not that particular testimonial, on behalf of the younger portion of those who were then, in name at least, my fellow-students, even though the outer world, in that delightful summer, seemed more winsome to their thoughts and desires, than diH the world within. The city, with its green park and shaded walks, and 241 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the country near it on either side, offered, at that season, almost every attraction in the way of outdoor life which could be desired. The city itself was situated just at the opening of the beauties of the Rhine-land. The hills and valleys which were close upon its boundaries were so charming that one could never weary of them. The so-called Seven Mountains Drachenfels and the rest at a distance of only a few miles southward bordered the landscape on the opposite bank of the river, and filled the mind of the beholder with joy as they reflected the sunlight in the peaceful hours of the later afternoon. The river itself was ever tempting youthful energy and enthusiasm to spend the hours in sailing on its surface towards the hills, or wandering along its shores to find new beauties or new scenes of interest. It seemed to be the ideal region fitted for the enjoyment of the ideal summer. We older men whether strangers, or of the home-country could resist the temptation, because of our years and of the demands of life which were so near to us; or we could yield to it when the hours were less full of duty. But the younger men were in the spring and joyousness of their youth, and if the world's beauty was for the time more to them than the world's philosophy, they might be forgiven. The serious days and the sterner duties would come later, when they had, like us, moved farther on in their life's progress. The city of Berlin had, in 1856, a population of not more than four hundred and fifty thousand. When I revisited it forty years afterwards, in 1896, its popula- tion had increased to seventeen hundred thousand, and wonderful changes had taken place which had made the city, in a new and higher sense, one of the great capitals of Europe. As I wandered about the streets, I recalled many of the old scenes and old places, but growth was 242 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN manifest everywhere, and the rush of business and of cosmopolitan life appeared to have banished forever the greater simplicity of the earlier time. The city seemed less fitted to be the home of a university than it had been when I first knew it as a young student. Certainly the University had become a smaller part of the city's wide-extended life. The professors of my student days had, all of them, finished their life-work. Their places had been filled by scholars of a second, or even a third generation scholars, some of whom had received in- struction, or incentive to effort in the sphere of learning, from their lectures and their published writings. The University building, however, remained as it was forty years before, and as I entered one or two of the lecture- rooms, it seemed as if the very same young men who had been my contemporaries might enter at any moment and arrange themselves as listeners on the same seats, with the same attire and appearance. But no those companions in study whom I met in other days had moved onward in life's work as I had done, and some of them were perchance thinking, as I was, of the changes which time had wrought in the world and in themselves. If such was indeed their thought, how many pleasant memories of the earlier years, and of the years that followed, it may have gathered about itself for each and all! The changes which time had wrought my European student-years began while Frederick William IV was the King of Prussia, and while he was in the full exercise of his regal power. They ended in the very early part of the regency of his brother then the Crown-Prince who afterwards became the Emperor of Germany, William I. The regency, which was established because of infirmity that had come upon the King, continued until his death, in 1861. The marriage of the young Crown Prince, subsequently the Emperor Frederick III, 243 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and the Princess Victoria of England took place in 1858, and 1 well remember the enthusiastic reception which was given to their youthful Highnesses during the last winter of my residence in Berlin. All this seems indeed a long way back in the past a past era of history, as we look upon it from the point of view of to-day. It was a time when the estab- lishment of the German Empire was a thought utterly foreign to the minds of most men, and a thought of the far distance in the future even for those to whom it sometimes presented itself; a time when a united Italy was only a dream of a few patriots, and a heroic pur- pose of Victor Emmanuel and Cavour which gave as yet only the faintest promise of its fulfillment; a time when the imperial power of Louis Napoleon was rising to greater heights of absolutism and of imagined glory with every succeeding year; a time when Russia had but lately passed from the reign of the Emperor Nicholas I to that of his son Alexander, and had not as yet realized the change which came through the emancipation of the serfs; a time when Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, and Lord John Russell were the men of greatest influence or authority in English public affairs; a time when, in our own country, the great conflict between slavery and free- dom had reached the extreme limits of earnest and even angry discussion, and was already threatening, though men did not yet fully realize it, to become a conflict of arms. It was the time of the opening years of the half-century which has now just come to its end the most interesting half-century, perhaps, of the world's history. I cannot repress the thought that the men who have witnessed the closing of this eventful period, and who also saw, when they were in the maturity of their early manhood, its beginning, have had a peculiar hap- piness in the allotment of their life-time. The ordering of my own life, and of that of others, who like myself 244 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN had the privilege of seeing the European world in those earlier days, held in itself, and as its gift, a special meas- ure of this happiness. It was my good fortune, during the last autumn and winter of my residence in Berlin, to be closely associated with three friends whom I had known in their college years. They were members, respectively, of the classe r of 1855, I ^56, and 1857 the three classes with which I had been brought into most intimate connection while I was holding my office as tutor in the College. Our relations were now those of friendship only, but by mutual consent we formed a plan of spending our even- ings together and, as I was the oldest of the company, of making my apartment the place for our meeting. The three young men were William Wheeler, Lewis R. Packard, and Storrs O. Seymour. Wheeler gave himself to the legal profession on his return to his home, but, after the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted as a soldier in behalf of the Union. He became a Lieutenant and, subsequently, a Captain of Artillery, and was actively engaged in some of the more important battles of the war, particularly that at Gettys- burg, which was a decisive turning-point in the great conflict. On the twenty-second of June, 1864, in the battle at Gulp's Farm, near Marietta, in Georgia, he met his death. Packard was offered a tutorship at Yale in the year 1859 and, as the result of his successful work in this office, he was promoted to the position of Assist- ant Professor in 1863, and four years later to that of Professor in the Greek department, so that his subse- quent life was entirely passed at Yale. Seymour, now the Rev. Dr. Seymour, of Litchfield, Conn., has had an honorable career as a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. He is active as an official in the Diocese of Connecticut, and is very highly esteemed both in his own 245 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN parish and throughout the State. They were wont in those pleasant days of our foreign life to give me, in an affectionate way, the title of "venerable." I suppose that, in reality, I seemed old to their youthful minds. I had just reached the age of twenty-nine, while they were twenty-one or twenty-two. Twenty-nine has in it, for one who has just passed his majority, more of the element of venerable years so it appears to me now than threescore and ten has for the one who, having reached it, looks at or upon himself. But life, in the varying estimate we put upon it as we move onward, is a strange thing indeed. The men who are ten years older than ourselves seem so far beyond us. We never get any nearer to them than we were at the beginning. Those who are ten years younger than we are seem ever young too young, sometimes, to carry the burdens and responsibilities of our own age. William Wheeler was one of the most brilliant and charming young men whom I have ever known. His mind was eager for all knowledge, joyous in all elevated thought, sparkling in its intelligence and enthusiasm, awake to everything beautiful, full of self-propelling impulse, and as clear in its apprehension as it was wide- reaching in its happy movement. He had a most de- lightful humor, peculiar to and characteristic of himself a humor which always manifested the intellectual ele- ment pertaining to it, and which was consequently most pleasingly stimulative to other minds. He possessed much of the scholarship which should characterize the cultured gentleman a scholarship which is far more rare in our age and country than it well might be. He was a generous minded, generous hearted youth one the fountain of whose youthfulness would never have lost the freshness of its upspringing and its outflowing, had he lived to the latest age. His face had unusual manly beauty a beauty which increased as he moved 246 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN onward in the manly years. It mirrored forth the mental life behind it most attractively, and was winsome by reason of its thoughtful and happy outlook. His eye indicated the quickness of his intelligence and the ardor of his intellectual enthusiasm. His command of lan- guage was quite uncommon, as was also his command of the knowledge which he had gained by reading. He had, in consequence, an ease and richness in conversation which rendered him a most agreeable companion. Withal there was in his nature a spirituelle element that adapted him to meet the demands of the higher order of friendship the friendship that exists between cul- tivated and magnanimous men. It was with the inspiration of enthusiastic and gen- erous youth that he gave himself to the service of his country, when its call came to him, as it did to so many of his generation in their early manhood. The senti- ment which moved him had in it as much of noble generosity as it had of high enthusiasm. It was the sentiment of truest patriotism, involving the readiness for whatever of self-sacrifice the cause might demand, even to the offering up of life itself. The future proved that for him the sacrifice was to reach the utmost limit. But as he had entered upon the soldier's work with serious thoughtfulness, he did not ever, as he went for- ward, put away from his mind's vision the possibility of the ending, and when the possibility was changed into a reality, he met the fate appointed for him with the courage of a heroic soul. He whom the gods love dies young, is the ancient saying. This saying seems often in human experience to find its fulfillment. The word of a Christian believer, which I heard years ago and have oftentimes recalled to mind, is no doubt more full of truth, as well as of comfort. God who is our Father has, as we may believe, worlc for His younger children to do, in the greater world beyond us, as well 247 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN as for His older ones; and His call comes to each and all in the best time for themselves and for the well-being of His Kingdom. The mind of a youth like William Wheeler must have opened with almost infinite delight upon the thoughts and life of the unseen world. Mr. Packard was very well known in the College, as a tutor or professor, for a quarter of a century. From 1863 to 1872 he was the younger colleague of Professor James Hadley in the Greek department. Though not possessed of all the remarkable gifts of that eminent scholar, he was his worthy companion in classical studies, and, as all within the academic community felt, he was fully adequate to the carrying forward of the depart- ment with honor to himself and the institution when, at Mr. Hadley's death, the chief responsibility was laid upon him. As a scholar, he was accurate and exact, intelligent and appreciative, awake to the richness and beauty of Greek thought and the Greek language, and ever active, within this sphere, in extending his knowl- edge and widening his field of vision. His face was so strikingly of the Greek type, that it seemed as if nature had fitted him for the position in life which he was called to fill. The inward man, as the years moved on, answered more and more completely to the outward. He taught the language as one who loved it as one to whom it was the best of all tongues. In his work of teaching he was faithful; being strict in his requirements, but ready to guide those who, on their part, responded to his efforts and instructions. This strictness was, as he thought, necessary for the furtherance of scholarship. In accordance with the tendency and custom of the period, he devoted himself in larger measure to the linguistic side of teaching than his successors of the present day are wont to do. He was not forgetful of the literary side, however, as if he considered the gram- matical scholar to the exclusion of the cultured one 248 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the only proper result and product of college education. The best students appreciated what he accomplished for them on both sides, and carried away from their undergraduate years a very high esteem for him as a man of ability and learning, from whom they had gained much for themselves. Professor Packard was not as ardent and emotional as his friend Wheeler was the two were most intimate in their companionship. It would have been better for him, perhaps, if he had been. But he was of a different constitution and nature. He had not the Greek char- acter in this respect. He was, however, winsome in his association with other men, and had many attached and devoted friends. All who knew him were assured of his uprightness, his sincerity, his unselfish affection, and his truly manly spirit. His long and courageous struggle with an hereditary disease was but the manifestation of the strength and vigor of his native endowments. His conscientious devotion to truth and duty indicated the same strength, only in another line of the soul's move- ment, and it established in all minds the conviction that he was, in the best sense, a genuine Christian man one who would ever stand firm, and could ever be trusted. In the earlier years of his work as an instructor, Professor Packard pursued a course of study in theology, and in the later years he preached occasionally, both in the College Chapel and elsewhere. His sermons were full of thought which was fresh and peculiar to himself. They were original and suggestive in their character, and were written in the clearest and purest English style. The student audiences, as well as the Faculty and the other members of the congregation in the Chapel, listened always with much interest when he addressed them, and gladly welcomed him to the pulpit whenever he was able to occupy it. In two different years, with a considerable interval 249 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN between them, he was the chief officer of the American Classical School at Athens. No one in the country, at the time, was better fitted for such a position. In the former of these years, he enjoyed greatly the work connected with the office, as well as the opportunities for scholarly and archaeological research which it afforded him. He was, also, exceedingly helpful to the students who were in attendance at the school. In the latter year, though much enfeebled when he left home, he entered upon his duties with earnestness and with hope. But disappointment followed after a brief season, as his malady made progress and the prospects for the future were overshadowed. Still, with his wonted strength of purpose, he rendered his service, according to the pos- sibilities that were open for him, to the students who were under his care and guidance, until the end of his official term was reached. He was able to return to his native land and to his home in New Haven, but his life continued only for a few weeks after his arrival. He died on the 26th of October, 1884. To the grad- uates of the years since that time he is known only as one of the honored teachers of an earlier period, but to the minds of many of their predecessors the thought of him brings pleasant memories of a faithful and true man. 250 XIV Yale Divinity School, and Its Older Faculty TWO months after my return from Europe on the 1 6th of September, 1858 I received an appointment from the Corporation of the College as Assistant Professor of Biblical Literature. At that time the election to an Assistant Professorship carried with it the assurance of permanency, and all the other prerogatives and privileges which pertained to the full professorships. The term "Assistant" was simplv indicative of the fact that there was an older officer in the department who had not as yet resigned his position, and with whom, in a more or less limited measure, the younger appointee was to be associated. In my own case, which was quite unique in this respect, this con- nection or association was from the outset, in accordance with the understanding and purpose of the Governing Board, merely nominal. In reality, the Professorship of Sacred Literature, which had previously included in its sphere of study and instruction both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, was divided at this time into two chairs the one being devoted, in the duties pertaining to it, to the Old Testament, and the other to the New Testament. My venerable elder colleague, Professor Gibbs, took thereafter the work in the former section of the department, while that belonging to the latter was assigned to me. The appointment to an Assistant, Professorship in these later days, when our institutions have developed so greatly in every way, has much less significance than 251 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN it had then. It gives no absolute assurance that the one who receives it will be continued in his office beyond a certain very limited number of years. Even less does it give a promise of promotion to a higher grade when the limited term expires. The young scholar is afforded opportunities and chances, indeed chances and oppor- tunities which are generally favorable, rather than un- c avorable but he is still on probation, and his future is uncertain. Moreover, in these days, when the oldest Professor in a particular branch of learning is, at least in the larger universities, commonly constituted the Head of the department, the younger scholar is con- tinued in a subordinate condition during his term of trial, and thus cannot enjoy the independence which was the privilege of the earlier era. In that sphere of inde- pendence was found, in a very large measure, the happi- ness of the position. In it also, in my own case at least, and I think in the case of others, was found no small share of the forces for the making of the man. At all events, the condition was a happy one to be in from the very beginning. I was my own master in my own department, and I knew that my office was a permanent office. I could work out my individual plans as freely, and as much without interference on the part of others, as could any of my elder associates, and I could look forward with hope to a long future. I would not enter upon a discussion here as to the comparative merits of the new system and the old. The advantages of the new order of things for the Univer- sity may be greater; and if so, they may more than counterbalance any losses or disadvantages for the in- dividual. Even for the individual, in many or most cases, the sum of the benefits in the way of incentive to diligence and faithfulness, and in other lines may tie greater at present. But this is a volume of personal memories and, as I remember the condition and heeds 252 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of our Divinity School forty years ago and recall my own history in connection with it, I am sure, beyond a doubt, that if it was well for the University for me to be in its work at all, it was for the best that I should have the independence and the assurance of permanency which were given me at that time. My share, whatever it was, in the re-creation of the school and in its work of instruction in the subsequent years, was of far more significance than it could have been under the more modern system. The Theological Department of our University in September, 1858, was in a very depressed condition, and the outlook for its future was quite discouraging. It had been for many years in a flourishing state its reputation being wide-extended, and the number of its students being large for that period. Tliere were, how- ever, two elements of weakness in its life, the seriousness of which was not appreciated, at the time, either by its officers or by the central authorities of the College. The first of these was connected with the fact that its existing reputation on which the size of its student membership almost wholly depended was founded altogether on the fame of its professors, and especially on that of Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, the Professor of Doctrinal Theology. He was one of the greatest and most inspir- ing of the teachers of the earlier half of the century. He was thus, in the highest degree, attractive to young men. Moreover, he was the leader in a great movement of theological and religious thought, which revolted against the narrower orthodoxy of the time, and turned towards a true Christian freedom. The leaders in such movements are wont to become winsome to the new generation, and to seem satisfactory to their eager minds and deepest desires. So long as he' and his system of theology held their full sway, the institution where he 253 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN lectured gathered to itself pupils, and was strong in its present realizations and its future hopes. His col- leagues co-operated most heartily with him, acknowledg- ing him as the chief among brethren. The school was thus full of intellectual activity and power. All was well, so long as the teachers continued in the strength of their life and their influence. But there was no institutional vitality which was so far independent of these instructors that it could remain undiminished in case the forces which came from them should pass away. The second of the two elements of weakness was connected with the fact of the inadequacy of the existing funds of the school to meet the demands which the coming time must, of necessity, make in many lines. Indeed, the limitation of its funds throughout the earlier period of its history was so extreme that one can scarcely understand, as one looks backward, how the school was able to continue its existence and fulfill its work. For several years before the date which I have men- tioned, the number of students in attendance, as the result of a variety of causes, had been steadily decreas- ing. There had also been comparatively little effort, if indeed any effort at all, put forth in the way of securing a larger endowment, which was so greatly needed. The attention of the College government, at that period, was almost exclusively given to what is known as the Aca- demical Department. All other departments were out- side of the main institution additions to it. They might live, if they could. Well, indeed, if they did sur- vive and grow strong. But they were not the "Old College;" and their fate must be left to their own in- structors, without the independent, or even actively co-operative forces of the central officials. As a natural result of all this, the school in 1858 had reached a point 254 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of alarming, and as it seemed to many, if not most, even of its friends, almost hopeless decline. In the spring of that year came what appeared, as it were, the final calamity, in the death of Dr. Taylor. He who had been, in the highest sense, its pillar of strength had now fallen, and it was not strange if men thought that the very foundations were destroyed. It was just six months after Dr. Taylor's death when I was called into the service of the school, through my appointment to the New Testament chair. Professor, afterwards President, Porter was invited, at the same time, to take the chair of Systematic Theology, as Dr. Taylor's successor, but a little later he declined the in- vitation, though he consented to assume, in addition to the work of his professorship in the College, the re- sponsibility of giving the lectures on Theology to the Seminary students. He continued for several years to perform the twofold duties which he thus took upon himself. The three members of the Theological Faculty who had been associated with Dr. Taylor since the beginning of his work were Professors Goodrich, Fitch, and Gibbs. Professors Goodrich and Fitch were the most active and efficient persons among those whose influence moved the Corporation, in 1822, to establish the Divinity School as a distinct and separate department of the Col- lege. From that time onward they had rendered valu- able service within the school, as well as on its behalf, though the former held a professorship in the Academ- ical Department, as already stated, until 1839, and the latter until 1852. Professor Gibbs was called to be the Instructor in Sacred Literature in 1824. All of them had had a more or less intimate connection with the school for a period of about thirty-five years when I was asked to take part in their work, and they were 255 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN all men of nearly seventy years of age. They had given the efforts of a life-time, in large measure, to the institution, with gratifying results in the way of success, yet amid many limitations and, in the later years, with much anxiety and discouragement. They were now drawing near the end of their career, when the energies and inspirations for the coming time were already pass- ing away. The only member of the Faculty whose life, in the deepest sense, took hold upon the future of the institution and was, in reality, dependent on the success or failure of that future, was myself. This fact I began to appreciate very soon after I entered upon the duties of my office. I saw that I must find the forces for the new era within my own mind and heart, for the old forces which my revered colleagues had put forth so effectively in the former period were no longer available. The institution had indeed come to a critical turning- point in its history, and its work must hereafter belong to the younger generation. Dr. Taylor and his three associates were remarkable men. They were as remarkable in their differences from one another as they were in their individual mental gifts. Dr. Taylor himself was an original thinker of a high order. He had a creative mind and was fitted to be the founder of a new system, whether of theology or philosophy. His intellectual powers were self- impelling, rendering him ever alive for the investigation of truth, and ever ardent in the desire to lay hold upon the deepest and the highest things. He was possessed of that peculiar mental enthusiasm which, by reason of its inspiring force within the man himself, imparts itself as by a necessity to other men. He had a commanding personality as he sat in his professorial chair in his lecture-room his head and face being indicative of greatness and his eyes suggesting to all who looked upon 256 PROFESSOR NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN him clearness of insight and penetrating intelligence. With the characteristic decisiveness of men of his order, his confidence in the conclusions which he reached was very strong and his announcement of them was, in an equal degree, emphatic. He was dogmatic, not in a bad sense, but in a good sense. He was ever ready to go through a process of reasoning or argumentation with those who found objections to his views or were moved to oppose them. But he made it manifest, in every discussion, that in his own mind he had passed through the entire domain of the subject, and that the difficulties which might be troublesome to those who presented them had been already met and set aside in his personal thinking. Of the Pauline type in many respects, he had much of the heroism of the Apostle; much of his large- mindedness; much of his true Christian freedom; and much of his readiness to meet any and every adversary on the field of doctrine or of argument. I have already, in another connection and on an earlier page, alluded to his magnetic power as a teacher. This power, in addition to its other manifestations of itself, exhibited its remarkable character in the fact that his students, after the close of his lectures which, on each occasion, continued for an hour, were accustomed to remain, of their own choice, for half an hour, or even an hour, longer in the lecture-room for the more personal and extemporaneous discussion with him of the themes which had been presented. No better evidence than this could be given of any teacher's awakening and stimulating influence. As a preacher he had the same magnetic power for very many of his hearers, and he was con- fessedly among the most forceful and prominent pulpit orators of his time. It was not strange that, when the establishment of the Theological School became a mat- ter of special interest and importance, the thoughts of those who were foremost in the new undertaking should 257 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN have turned, as if by a common impulse, towards him as the one who should hold the central place in its Faculty. This volume, which is one of personal memories, is not an appropriate place for a presentation or discussion of the theological views and system to which Dr. Tay- lor's name was attached. Such a discussion indeed would fail to awaken the old interest, even if it should be entered upon at the present time. The questions which stirred and agitated the minds of Christian men in our part of the world fifty and sixty years ago have passed into forgetfulness, or have long since reached a state where there is a willingness to look upon them as settled; and the thoughts, and controversies if there be such, move in new spheres of questioning as these modern days have come to us. But as one who knew something of the earlier era, and wrestled much with the old ideas, I cannot fail to record briefly on these pages my appreciation of the service which that great theologian rendered, in his day, on behalf of a true and genuine Christian freedom of thought and of faith. He knew the Gospel as Paul knew it in its largeness and fullness in the freeness of its offers and the richness of its promises. The truth which he felt himself to have learned, and received as the gift of Christ, was for him the most precious of all treasures. With the ardor of the apostle he would carry it to all. With the earnest- ness and valor of the Christian soldier he would contend for it against all enemies and all errors. Such was the sentiment of his heart, and such the purpose of his life. It was a faithful ministry that in which he served. It was a long conflict that in which he enlisted. But at the end the blessing was secured, and we of the later years know more of the liberty of the children of God because of its possession. The heroes of the Chris- tian faith deserve our honor. 258 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Dr. Goodrich was a man of another order, as com- pared with his friend and coadjutor. I have written of him at some length in an earlier part of this volume. The fact of his selection at the beginning, in 1817, as the Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in the College was quite in harmony with the characteristic qualities of his mind. On his transference to the Theological School twenty-two years afterwards, his activity was largely given to the department of Sacred Rhetoric, though his professorship, by its title, was that of the Pastoral Charge. He was, as has been already stated, a rhetori- cian and a rhetorician also of the type of his own time and of the earlier half of the century. He was a striking example of that type. As such, he had much influence with his theological pupils. They saw in him what they desired to become in themselves and, as a consequence, they were ready to give heed to his instruction, as well as to imitate what was manifested in his own personality. He was, also, a forceful and executive man, with the disposition and impulses which pertain to such men. In the line of executive management and the forth- putting efforts attendant upon it, he surpassed any and all of his colleagues. The propelling power of the institution that which, apart from the personal at- tractiveness of its teachers, carried forward its life was found mainly in him. Withal he was one of its most generous friends and benefactors in its earlier history. He filled a place, accordingly, of great significance and importance as related to its highest interests. In the theological sphere, he was in cordial sympathy with his friend, Dr. Taylor, but he did not, so far as I remember him, share in equal measure his friend's in- trepid boldness in the expression of his views. His rhetorical nature was, perchance, inconsistent with such a degree of boldness. Yet in his opinions he was de- cided and firm, and as a man of administrative capacity 259 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and strength he was free from all wavering when the hour for action arrived. As little as Dr. Taylor, I think, was he tolerant of the hesitation sometimes characteristic of a genuine scholar. The minds of the two men, though different from each other, were alike impatient of con- tinued questioning. They demanded, by reason of their native constitution, absolute definiteness of conviction and of statement. Through the force of his rhetorical character and manner he was, perhaps, even more repres- sive to an associate or friend of evenly-balanced mind, than was his doctrinal colleague with his soldier-like freedom of utterance. Of Professor Goodrich's peculiar gifts exhibited in the pastoral work in the College I have spoken elsewhere. These gifts rendered him, also, a very useful and stimu- lating guide and helper to his students in the Divinity School, who were themselves expecting to enter upon the interesting and often difficult duties of pastoral life. He was never weary of the work of conferring with them privately, or of giving to them the results of his experience and his wide observation of men. He was a kindly friend to each and all alike a friend who made a deep impression upon their minds, and oftentimes a very deep one upon their spiritual life. Professor Goodrich was an indefatigable worker. He was a worker after the manner and measure characteris- tic of men having the peculiar executive capacity which pertained to his nature. Not content with the discharge of the duties of his professorial office which, especially in the earlier years, were sufficiently burdensome, he gave himself to other tasks involving continuous labor and much responsibility. For a considerable period, he had the entire charge of the department of Rhetoric his sphere of instruction extending even to the criticism of students' compositions and declamations, as well as the careful preparation of the speakers chosen for the more 260 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN public exercises of the annual Commencements. Such work of individual criticism, as is well known by all teachers of experience, is exhaustive both of time and force. It is wearisome enough to render one indisposed to add other labors, when it has been satisfactorily com- pleted. But Dr. Goodrich was always ready to push outward and onward. He was the incarnation of energy. His very appearance, as he walked abroad or met his classes, indicated ceaseless, and almost restless activity. In the years of his tutorship from 1812 to 1814, when he was not yet twenty-five, he prepared a Greek Gram- mar for the use of students the first of real value pub- lished in our country and subsequently issued new and improved editions of it which were widely used for a long period. At a later time, when the theological con- troversies of the earlier period of Dr. Taylor's career in the Theological School were most active, he purchased and for several years edited the Quarterly Christian Spectator, which he made, as it were, the organ of the so-called New Haven doctrines and views. But his greatest work, outside of the limits of his college teach- ing, was that which he performed in connection with Webster's Dictionary. Dr. Webster was his father-in- law, and almost from the date of the first publication of the work he was a helper in the labors which it de- manded. At the death of Dr. Webster in 1843, ne ^ e ' came its chief editor, and from that time onward he was largely responsible for it. This service was very exact- ing in respect both of time and effort, but in his case there seemed never to be a lack of either. He had energy enough for any and all demands, enough to keep his own powers in constant movement and, at the same time, to give a continual impulse to those who were associated with him, or aided him. The work on the British Orators, which he published .-eight years before his death, was founded upon the lectures which he was 261 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN accustomed, for a long period, to give to the successive Senior classes in the College. From this volume one can get a correct impression at least, within certain limits of his character and style as a rhetorician. The re- sults which he accomplished in such different lines, as a teacher, a scholar and a pastor, may fitly be regarded as extraordinary, and as exhibiting a very high order of effective, as well as executive force. Professor Fitch was less closely connected with the daily life and work of the Divinity School than the other members of its Faculty. In consequence of the demands of his position as preacher in the College pulpit, and instructor of the academical students in Natural Theology and the Evidences of Christianity, his opportu- nities for meeting the members of the Theological Sem- inary were quite limited. He came into immediate con- tact with them, however, during a brief portion of each year, as a Lecturer on Homiletics a subject which he was eminently fitted to present and discuss. After his retirement from his professorship in 1852, he continued to give his lectures on this subject, but he did not assume any additional duties as an instructor in the school. Yet, notwithstanding the limitations which have been indi- cated, the other professors always regarded him as truly one of the theological circle. They recognized in its full measure the service which he had rendered the insti- tution not only in its earliest days, but throughout the course of its history, and they rejoiced in his presence with them. He was not the equal of Dr. Taylor as a man of crea- tive mind and commanding force, but in the qualities of genius and the variety of his mental gifts, he may be said to have surpassed him. He did not possess the executive ability or gift of leadership which belonged to Dr. Goodrich, but as a thinker and theologian he was his 262 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN superior. In regard to the matter of public discourse he stood apart from both. He was almost the exact oppo- site of the latter, in whose addresses, generally of an extemporaneous character, the rhetorical element was pre-eminently conspicuous, and at a very wide remove from the former who, though he used a manuscript in his preaching, had in largest measure the boldness and con- fidence of the fearless advocate. As a writer, however, he had a felicity of style and clearness of statement which made his carefully prepared sermons, in connection with the rich thought that they contained, very impressive, as well as very attractive, to intelligent hearers. The im- pressiveness was increased by reason of "the tremulous music of his voice, which was so full of tenderness and yet so full of power" I quote the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon with reference to him; a tenderness and power, I may add, that were strikingly manifested in his reading of hymns and other poetry. He was the most impres- sive reader of hymns to whom I have ever listened. Their words, as he read them, seemed to have an added sweetness and force which came from the poetic sense and feeling of his own nature. The nervous sensitiveness pertaining to his physical constitution, to which reference has been made in an earlier part of this volume, had its effect upon his teach- ing, as well as upon his preaching. It often proved bur- densome even in the utterance of brief sentences, which seemed desirable as an addition to the written lecture or to the words of the text-book. Sometimes also it occa- sioned a certain embarrassment in the very presence of his classes, assembled before him for their college exer- cises, which manifested itself in his appearance and bearing. All this was less in its measure when he met the students of the professional school, than when he was called to give instruction to undergraduates in the College. The former were a smaller number than the 263 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN latter, and, as he well knew, had more universally the interest in their studies which comes with maturer years. The responsibility resting upon him, therefore, he felt to be diminished because he could confidently depend upon them for earnestness in work and willing receptivity of mind. The College boys, as truly as the members of the Divinity School, had a kindly and, as it were, a filial feeling towards the Professor. But they were boys, or called themselves so, and so they indulged themselves in pleasantries which, as they thought, belonged to their age. When they should become graduates and members of the higher departments of the institution, it would be the fitting time for the uniform seriousness of man- hood. They could, for the present, tell one another of their teachers' idiosyncracies, or smile at their peculiari- ties in a friendly way, even while they had for them a most affectionate regard. Life would lose something of its brightness and joyfulness, I think, if there were no college boys. A story of the undergraduate order which was sug- gestive of the impression made by the Professor's hesi- tancy in extemporaneous address, but which nobody was expected to believe, was put in circulation for a brief time within the period of my tutorship. It was, in sub- stance, as follows: that on a certain evening, when the good Doctor's windows were broken by a small body of noisy and disorderly youths, he presented himself and began to address them on the impropriety of their con- duct. Very soon, however, he became embarrassed and, finding himself unable to proceed farther in his discourse, he paused for a moment, and then said, "I regret that my notes are in my room upstairs, but if you will come here to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock, I will read to you what I intended to say." 264 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN I suffer myself to mention this story which is char- acteristic of the humorous side of student life, but which had in it, on the part of its authors, no intentional dis- respect, and no element of unkindly feeling towards the Professor that I may make it, in its contrast, prepara- tory to the statement of a singular fact; namely, that on two or three occasions in the later years of the Pro- fessor's life, I heard addresses from him in the presence of assemblies of ministers which were evidently extempo- raneous and yet were, in an eminent degree, able and successful. Old age had given him a new power, or the inspiration of the hour and the scene, in each case, had caused him to forget himself and his nervous apprehen- sions altogether, and to dwell for the time only in the charming region of the thoughts to which he was giving utterance. Possibly it was not so strange as it seemed for he was a musician and a poet; and poetry and music are spheres wherein the mental visions fill the soul and all one's fears are charmed away. Professor Gibbs was, in the strict sense of the word, the scholar of the Faculty. He was a retiring scholar; a scholar most evenly-balanced in his judgment, and hesitant in the utterance of his opinions; a scholar so dis- posed to give full weight to both sides of the question in every case, and so indisposed to pronounce categoric- ally for either side, that dogmatic men might even be ready, at times, to call him timid. His colleagues, Drs. Taylor and Goodrich, though in the highest degree friendly to him, were never quite able to appreciate his position the condition of mind which pertained to his very nature, and was established in strength and perma- nency by his studies. They felt, by reason of their mental constitution and habits, that definite conviction in all cases of questioning was to be reached, or nothing would be accomplished. Indecision was a state of which 265 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN they were intolerant. The man must have settled opin- ions in every instance, or he is at sea drifting any whither. He must find and declare that upon which he can rest for himself and take his firm stand against others. Even-balancing between two views of a subject means nothing, has no results. I remember hearing Dr. Taylor say, on one occasion half jocosely, of course "I would rather have ten settled opinions, and nine of them wrong, than to be like my brother Gibbs with none of the ten settled." The fact of the case was or so, at least, it seems to me that Professor Gibbs was a scholar of the German order, while his two colleagues were not. He was, as it were, a German scholar who had landed on American soil a little too early to be understood by more dogmatic men, such as they were. Possibly he was rendered somewhat less bold in expression than he might other- wise have been, because of the boldness of these col- leagues. They may occasionally by their attitude have turned his courage into a caution which seemed to them like fear. His questionings were not sceptical in their character, and his hesitation was by no means the result of apprehensions or unworthy doubts. He was, on the contrary, an exegetical scholar, who gave the work of his lifetime to studies in which absolute fairness, as well as honesty, is the governing law, and within the sphere of which the student is led by a sense of duty, if he is true to his calling, to look calmly and faithfully at all the possibilities of interpretation. That he carried his evenness of balance in judgment too far at times may, no doubt, have been the fact. But his example had much in it of beneficial and, at the same time, restraining in- fluence. It impressed upon his students the duty of careful investigation before firmly establishing their con- victions, and urged upon each one of them, with a living force, the exhortation, "audi alterant partem" PROFESSOR JOSIAH W. GIBBS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN I cannot help thinking, however, that if he had had greater readiness to pronounce decided opinions when he held them, and had thus taken the lead for his pupils himself, instead of referring them so exclusively to the views of other, and perchance discordant, scholars of eminence, he would have been a more helpful and stimu- lating instructor. The majority of young students, if not all, need a leader for their highest success a leader who is fair-minded, judicious, ready to consider all rea- sonable views indeed, but who can bring them, after all the course of inquiry, to definitely pronounced results definitely pronounced by himself. But the presence of such a scholar as Mr. Gibbs was, in such a company of four as then constituted the Theological Faculty, gave a completeness to the body which could not well have been spared. In his work as an instructor, Professor Gibbs was quiet and not self-assertive, yet faithful and painstaking; accurate in communicating knowledge, as he had been in acquiring it for himself; patient with the slow progress of some of his pupils, but pleased with the more rapid movement of others; fitted rather to guide earnest work- ers in his spheres of study, than to stimulate, and lead onward in spite of themselves, those who were listless or careless. He was a man of comparatively few words, but these were well chosen for his purpose. So few were his words, indeed, that they often seemed not quite suffi- cient for the needs of beginners in a strange and difficult language, and in a professional course which had in itself so much that was as yet unknown. I remember that it sometimes appeared to me that he had, as it were, made a careful selection of all the words which he re- garded as, in any way, necessary for the full explanation of every point in the lesson assigned for the day that he had made this selection in his own room before the recitation hour, and that, when the hour arrived, he 267 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN had taken these words with him in his mind, even as he had taken the books which he needed under his arm, and had carried them for his use to the lecture room. These words were, indeed, sufficient for all ordinary cases. But occasionally some unexpected question would arise, or a difficulty would be presented by some student, which, perchance, had not seemed to him worthy of considera- tion by any one and the word supply proved to be ex- hausted. It was as if he must, in order to meet the emergency, return to his study room and procure what was needed. But in fact he could not do this. After this manner, as I have said, it appeared to me. In such cases, he would suddenly raise his right hand in front of his eyes pause, and look steadily at it and then, with equal suddenness exclaim, "Oh, there is a difficulty!" which difficulty would be sometimes ex- plained by him, but at other times would be left without further notice, or would be turned unexpectedly into what was quite different from itself. He was not pre- cisely absent-minded on such occasions, in the common sense of that phrase, but there was apparently a singular mingling of what was far removed with what was present, which made him seem apart from us while he was indeed with us. Such little idiosyncracies awakened in us a peculiar interest, and we had the kindliest feeling toward him as he guided us on our path. Professor Gibbs was one of the class of scholars not very numerous, but in their own way very interesting for whom words seem to have the same sort of vitality and independent life that human beings have. They dwell among words after the manner in which other men live in relation to their friends and associates. They enjoy in the same way the study of their peculiarities; of the uses which they serve or may serve; of their origin and individual growth; of the varied possibilities that are within them. They are pleased when others treat 268 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN them well by giving them the exactness of their appro- priate meaning and placing them in their most fitting position. They have a kind of real grief like that which one feels if a friend is dealt with unfairly when- ever they are misunderstood, or bereft of their true sig- nificance, or made to render a service which should not be demanded of them, or brought into wrong associa- tions. Such scholars are philologues in the most precise meaning of the term. They are, in reality, lovers of words, as the artist is a lover of nature, or the philan- thropist is a lover of men. They form a separate group apart by themselves in the company of students of language, and even of those who are exclusively given to the science of philology. All such students have a special interest in words, of course, and a love of and devotion to their science. But these men are the inner circle within the outer one, for whom the external world seems to withdraw itself, and what are its mere signs of thought, or means of expression, assume a reality like its own. Among the scholars more nearly contemporary with myself in age, the late Professor Ezra Abbot, of Har- vard University, seemed to me the most striking example of this class of men. He was perhaps the ablest New Testament scholar of his generation in our country, and he had the highest esteem of all his fellow-workers in that field of study. But his attainments were no more remarkable, to my thought, and the honesty, sincerity and wonderful ability manifested in his working were no more interesting, than was this peculiar characteristic to which I refer. I well remember when the American Company were engaged, between 1871 and 1881, in the work preparatory to the publication of the Revised Version of the New Testament in 1881 how sensitive he was with reference to the selection of words, as if he 269 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN were judging of his friends or choosing them for him- self; how pleased he was, as with a child's innocent pleasure, when his associates seemed to appreciate as fully as himself the word which he suggested; and how a child-like impatience took possession of him for the moment, if any one gave to a word a wider or narrower significance than that which, in exactest justice, belonged to it. There was a certain charm in observing him, and in thinking how he had peopled for himself a kind of ideal world, in which he dwelt with the same sense of reality which the men about him saw in what they could touch with their hands. There is an imaginative element in such men. They are not mere dry linguistic scholars, or scholars to whom words, as lifeless things, are all- absorbing for thought and interest. They are scholars who, for and in their own minds, give independent life to words, and love them as men love living things. As in the case of all such men, kindly but amusing stories used to be told in connection with Professor Gibbs,' and repeated among the students of successive classes. They were intended to be illustrative of his minute verbal scholarship and his absorbing interest in it; but they were, in fact, rather illustrative of their authors' own want of appreciation of scholarship of that order. One of them has survived the passing of the years, and is occasionally heard in these later days. It tells of a long-continued controversy, extending over a period of several months, between Professor Gibbs and Professor Stuart, of Andover, concerning a vowel-point in a certain Hebrew word a controversy which grew even more animated as it was prolonged; the question in dispute being whether there was such a point or not. After the protracted correspondence had become weari- some, and even seemed likely to result in no definite decision, one of the two professors, on a certain morning, by chance drew his handkerchief across the page of his 270 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Hebrew Bible where the word occurred; and lo, the point disappeared. It was a fly-speck on the paper. The impossibility of the truth of such a story as con- nected with two such eminent Hebrew scholars is mani- fest, at the first moment, to any one who has any ac- quaintance with the Hebrew language and the matter of vowel-points, as the original fabricator of the story may, very possibly, not have had. But it served its purpose for the young students, to whose minds vowel-points and fly-specks were alike suggestive of extreme minuteness; and so they heard it with pleasure from their predeces- sors, and told it gladly, in their turn, to those who suc- ceeded them. A second anecdote no doubt, equally without foun- dation in reality is one which has always, since I first heard it, been quite suggestive to my own mind. It was to the effect that, on a certain day, the professor was found by a student, who called upon him at his college room, in a state of profound and serious meditation, which seemed to remove him far from the common studies and thoughts of the theological sphere. So marked was his appearance, and so evident were the in- dications of serious thoughtfulness and anxious doubt, that the student was moved to put to him an inquiry as to the subject which occasioned his agitation of mind. The Professor's reply was, that he had been thinking of the strangeness of the fact that, while the words patri- mony and matrimony were formed in the same way from kindred roots, they had such entirely different meanings. Time certainly works wonderful changes. If there had been any truth in this story as, of course, there was not we of to-day might well say, that the Professor found his question insoluble, only because he entered upon the consideration of it at too early a date. Much of the wonder of the problem has n'ow ceased, and the kinship of the two words shows itself, at present, even to 271 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ordinary thoughtful minds, to be almost as close as that of the two from which they are derived. The relation of patrimony to matrimony is now well understood, and if the patrimony comes through the matrimony there is no longer any difficulty as to the meaning or likeness of the words. But is there not a charm in the story, after all? Does it not give a charming picture of a meditative scholar, who moved among words as if they had life and breath, and who could muse and ponder upon them with unceas- ing interest in the retirement of his University home? In his external personality, Professor Gibbs was somewhat unique, and for this reason, he attracted the notice even of strangers who chanced to meet him. An excellent portrait of him, painted in 1856, by Carpenter, is placed in the Library of the Divinity School, and from it one may gain a satisfactory idea of his face, which was intelligent, thoughtful, and indicative of the schol- arly mind that lay behind it.* As compared with the portraits of his three colleagues, in the same building, it gives the beholder the impression that in intellectual ability he was their equal, though his special gifts and theirs might be, as in reality they were, of different kinds. He was not what would be called a tall man, but was of good height, and as his figure was spare and thin, he seemed perhaps somewhat taller than he was. As he walked in the streets he inclined his head forward, and a little to one side, the sideways inclination extending through his body, so that his gait was in some degree peculiar, and he sometimes became aware of the ap- proach of a friend who was walking behind him, when he would not have seen the same friend in case he had been drawing near in such a way as to meet him face to face. His whole appearance was suggestive of a quiet, thoughtful, meditative man of learning, who lived * The picture in this volume is copied from this portrait. 272 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN among books in larger measure than among men whose thoughts afforded him sufficient companionship, whether at home or abroad. When the Theological School was first organized, in 1822, the College Corporation did not feel able to ap- point a Professor of Hebrew and New Testament Greek, on account of the insufficiency of the funds at their com- mand. During the two years immediately following that date, Professor Kingsley of the Academical Department had charge of the instruction in the former of the two studies, and Professor Fitch rendered the necessary ser- vice in the latter. This provision for the work, it was realized from the outset, was quite inadequate to the de- mands of the school and could in its nature be only tem- porary. In 1824, accordingly, though there had been but a comparatively insignificant increase in the funds, it was deemed advisable to employ an instructor who should give himself to Biblical teaching, and should, if successful, receive a permanent appointment to a profes- sorship as soon as it should be possible to secure a foundation for it. Mr. Gibbs was, at that time, resident at Andover, Mass., where he had for a considerable period been carrying forward valuable work, especially in the line of Hebrew Grammar and Lexicography. The minds of Drs. Taylor, Fitch and Goodrich had, from the begin- ning, turned towards him as the scholar best fitted for the new sphere opening at Yale. Not improbably, the Corporation also had in their own consideration of the matter, as well as under the influence of these gentlemen, been already led to regard him with favor. At the meeting of the governing body held in September, 1824, the subject was discussed and the final decision was reached. The vote which was passed is a very suggestive one, when considered in its relation to the limited state of the financial resources of the College in those early 273 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN days, and also in connection with the changes which time has brought in the life of Yale and of the country. It was voted that an invitation should be extended to Mr. Gibbs to take the office of Librarian of the College, and that, in connection with this office, permission should be given him to instruct graduates and theological students in Hebrew and Greek. He was invited, as it might seem at first thought, to a position other than that which he was really desired to fill. But the suggestion of the other words of the vote explains the seeming strange- ness. There was a salary, though a limited one, attached to the Librarian's office, but there was none attached to the "permission" the instruction was to be given to such graduates and theological students as might desire to receive it at their own expense, or on the foundation of such provision as might be made for it through a further increase of the funds. I have sometimes tried to picture to myself this young scholar, as he received this invitation from the Yale authorities, and as he took his journey from Andover to New Haven in answer to the summons. What must have been his thoughts as to the probabilities respecting an addition to his salary by reason of what might be re- ceived from students who should show themselves eager for the study of Hebrew, in case special charges for in- struction were to be made? The elder President Ed- wards says, somewhere in his letters or diary, that he made a journey from Northampton to Boston on horse- back in which he spent a fortnight, and that he "enjoyed much sweet meditation on the way." The young scholar, it would seem to us of to-day, may have had opportunity for considerable meditation as he made his way slowly through the country; but its sweetness, however much of it there was, must have been connected with other than financial subjects. Was it not, indeed, that which came easily and naturally into the mind of one who looked 274 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN forward with cheerful hope to a life consecrated to learn- ing and who had the self-sacrificing spirit of a true son of Yale? In September, 1826, two years after his arrival in New Haven at his entrance upon his work as Librarian and instructor a moderate sum was secured as a partial endowment of the chair of Sacred Literature, and Mr. Gibbs was asked to take it. He became thus a full pro- fessor in the Theological Department, and was a mem- ber of its Faculty from that time until his death. He continued, however, to act as the College Librarian until 1843. He had held his professorship for nearly a quarter of a century when I met him as an instructor. My acquaintance with him in this relation was mainly in connection with the Hebrew language, since his New Testament Greek exercises occurring, as they did at the same hours with college recitations which my tutorial office obliged me to attend were practically closed to me. The opportunity for enjoying his teaching or observ- ing his methods in the special department which was afterwards assigned to me as his colleague was, accord- ingly, of the most limited character. Of course, how- ever, I could gain a reasonably satisfactory impression in both regards as I pursued my Hebrew studies with him. This impression I have already, in some measure, given. At the time when I was in the membership of his classes, he was, as I think, somewhat more interested in the general study of language, than in the particular languages which he was teaching. He was a philolo- gist by nature one of the first in our country of the more modern type. He had been awakened to great interest, and much quiet enthusiasm, through his ac- quaintance with the work of German scholars of the period in this branch of linguistic science, and had begun, with renewed energy, to make researches and investiga- tions for himself. He was thus, perhaps more than he 275 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN had been, a verbal scholar. Yet he must always have had this characteristic in large measure. As an exegete, we who were then his pupils felt an absolute confidence in his honesty and sincerity, and also in his clearness of insight and understanding. We often wished, indeed, that he would give us the result of his investigations in a pronounced and definite judgment of his own, when he failed to do so. But we were assured that he had always, when the discussion was closed, presented the strength of the argument on either side, and had submitted the question fairly and fully for our own most enlightened decision. In this respect, the influence of his teaching and method was to make us patient, thorough, and genuine scholars. In reply to a question of one of his pupils, who was quite within the circle of his friendly acquaintance when I was a student under his instruction, as to why he had dated many of the brief articles which he published on philological points, he said, "Because I did not wish to be responsible after that date for an opinion which I might see just reason subsequently to change." This was but an expression of the hesitancy which belonged to the even balance of his mind. I have thought many times, as I have moved onward in life since those days, that it would be well if considerable numbers of other men, who do not seem inclined to do so, would follow his example, and date their published opinions. Possibly it would also be well if bodies of men, political or ecclesi- astical, or even medical, were more frequently disposed to do the same thing. Dates have sometimes a soothing and quieting influence both for the individual mind and the public mind. It is with great pleasure that I record on these pages my grateful acknowledgment of the kindly and generous manner in which Professor Gibbs received me as his 276 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN younger colleague and gave into my charge the portion of the work pertaining to the department of Sacred Lit- erature which had been assigned to me by the Corpora- tion. The peaceful enjoyment of my earliest years as a teacher in the Divinity School was assured by reason of his friendly attitude towards me. My remembrance of him will always be closely united with my thought of those years, as it will be also with the recollections of my life as a graduate student. 277 XV The Divinity School Its Rebuilding and Its Later Faculty IT was a happy fortune, as I have always thought when looking backward over the past, that I was placed for a season in association with the col- leagues of Dr. Taylor who survived him. By reason of this fact, my professorial life had, at its beginning, some small share in the earlier history of the Divinity School, and I thus became the connecting link between the Faculty of the old era and that of the new. The final closing of the old era came in the summer of 1 86 1. At that time, Drs. Goodrich and Gibbs had, both of them, passed away the death of the former having occurred on the 25th of February, 1 860, and that of the latter on the 25th of March, 1861. The two im- portant professorships which they had held were thus made vacant. The chair of Systematic Theology had not as yet been permanently filled, and the work of Dr. Fitch, the only remaining member of the original Faculty, was limited to a single course of lectures which extended over a very few weeks of the seminary year. It was evident that, if the institution was to have a con- tinuance of life, provision must be made at once for its successful entrance upon another era of its history. A new Faculty must be created, and new forces must be set in operation. During the year following the death of Dr. Goodrich, I had rendered such service in carrying on his work, in addition to that pertaining to my own department, as proved to be practicable. In the four months of the 278 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN academic year 1 860-61 which intervened between the death of Professor Gibbs and the annual Commence- ment, the whole charge of the school was in the hands of Professor Porter and myself. The thought of such a condition of things seems strange at the present time, but it was then a thought of very serious reality. One cannot be surprised to learn that it was exceedingly impressive in its suggestiveness and force to the minds of those within the College circle, and also of many outside of that circle, who turned towards the Divinity School with an especially friendly interest. As for myself, I felt that the critical hour of the institution had arrived the hour when a decision with reference to the future must be made by the central authorities of the College. What- ever that decision might be, it would involve conse- quences of deepest significance. If it should terminate the existence of the school, a department of the institu- tion would be sacrificed and lost. If, on the other hand, it should be for the continuance and upbuilding of what the men of the earlier generation had founded and labored for, there would be an imperative demand upon the energies and courage of the workers of the new period, which could not cease for long years to come. It was well, I believed, that the hour had arrived. I was glad that the decisive step must now be taken. I could not persuade myself, however, that the Yale Corporation would do anything other than that which the event proved that they did. They were Yale men, who had the spirit of the institution and of its fathers. How vividly I recall the meeting at the house of President Woolsey, when two or three of the younger men of the College conferred with him, at his request, as to the possible arrangements for the future. A plan had just been proposed, in accordance with which Pro- fessor Fisher, who for the seven preceding years had 279 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN filled the office of College Preacher, was to be transferred from the Livingston Professorship in the Academical Department to the chair of Ecclesiastical History in the Divinity School, and Professor Hoppin was to be ap- pointed the successor of Dr. Goodrich in the professor- ship of the Pastoral Charge. It had been suggested, also, that Mr. Henry H. Hadley, then an instructor in Hebrew in Union Theological Seminary, in New York, should be invited to take the Hebrew chair, as the suc- cessor of Dr. Gibbs. The question which occupied, and even oppressed the minds of those who were present at the meeting, was a financial one. Was the school in such a condition as to justify the attempt to reorganize it in this way? Could the responsibility for such an outlay of money as would be necessary for the successful carry- ing out of the plan be properly or safely assumed? The question was a grave one, indeed. But we who were in conference with the President were young men, with much of the hope and energy belonging to our age. We determined to make the venture to commit our- selves to what seemed to be essential to the growth of the school in the future as a department worthy of the University, although, when viewed in the light of the present, it could scarcely be regarded as within the limits of possibility. We put in exercise the faith which is if I may use the Scriptural words the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The friendly President, whatever doubts or fears may have mingled with his generous feeling, sustained us in our resolution ; and with all boldness we presented, through him, to the Corporation the requests which our plan in- volved. These requests were granted, and in the autumn of 1 86 1 the new life began. It was, indeed, only a beginning. The number of students was small. The single building which belonged at 3 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to the school was wholly inadequate to the demands that would become imperative in case of any considerable in- crease in attendance. There was no lecture-room for the use of the professors, except one which had been pro- vided by a slight enlargement of one of the ordinary study-rooms designed for students. There was no apart- ment in the building adapted to the purposes of a library; no meeting-place for the student body; and nothing which could, in any measure, give a home-like character to the daily life of the young men. Moreover, the build- ing itself was not a permanent possession of the school. It had been originally erected, in 1835-36, and allowed its place in the line of the dormitories on the College grounds, under the condition that, in case the growth of the Academical Department should render such action necessary, the Corporation might purchase it, at a valua- tion to be determined by appraisal, for the uses of that department. The time was now drawing near when the necessity indicated would be likely to make itself mani- fest, and the school would accordingly, so far as its old abiding-place was concerned, become homeless home- less, also, with quite uncertain prospects for the future. The appraised value of the building, as determined after- wards, was but thirteen thousand dollars, while it was certain that the expense connected with the erection of a new one would be from seven to ten times that amount. The sum of the productive funds in possession of the school including twenty thousand dollars which had recently been offered for the more full endowment of the chair of Pastoral Theology and was received a short time afterwards was only about one hundred thousand dollars. There were no scholarships, or endowments of any kind, for the aid of students whose circumstances were such as to render financial assistance necessary to their prosecution of their work. There was, also, no 281 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN provision for instruction in elocution or music so im- portant for young men who are about to enter the min- istry; none for special lectureships on the subject of for- eign missions, or kindred subjects of interest that are closely related to theological education, though not im- mediately in the line of the regular course of study; and none for the other matters which are only secondary in their value, in such an institution, to those which may be called primary because they are absolutely essential to its life. It was certainly, in all respects, a situation which de- manded the hopefulness and courage of men in the earlier years of their vigorous manhood a situation which my older colleagues, the men of the former period who had just passed away, could not in their later days have had the heart to meet in all its necessities and all its responsibilities. Everything was to be newly created and established funds, buildings, the vigorous life of the student community, the methods and courses of instruc- tion as related to the requirements of the opening era, the reputation of the school as a seminary of learning, even its position of honor in equality with all other de- partments of the College. The work of long years was upon us, the fullness of the results of which might well seem to our minds to be in the far distance, or perchance, at times, to be even beyond the possibility of our attain- ment. Moreover, within a month after the death of Pro- fessor Gibbs, the outbreak of the Civil War in our coun- try had taken place, and already, before the opening of our new Seminary year and the beginning of our new arrangements for the school, it was becoming evident that the avenues for the ingathering of funds were rap- idly closing, and that the call of the nation to educated young men was summoning them away from professional studies to active service in the military sphere. As the MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN war prolonged its course beyond the first expectations respecting it, and continued into the next following years, the difficulties in both of the lines mentioned perpetuated themselves, and even increased. In the progress of those early years of the conflict, the minds of many of the friends of our institution, as they found that there was only a small growth in our membership and but little enlargement of our financial means, became discouraged. Some of them began to doubt the possibility of our suc- cess. Others distinctly prophesied failure. A few even openly advised that the school should make no further effort, and that its existence as a Theological Seminary should be terminated, or, at least, suspended until a day of better fortunes and better hopes. It was not a cheerful outlook for us who had under- taken the work of renewal, and upon whom the responsi- bility rested. One of our number, Mr. Hadley, who had joined us with very grave doubts as to the success of our plans, and even as to the practicability of continuing a theological school at Yale, in such near proximity to other eminently prosperous schools, became rapidly more disheartened, and, at the end of his first year of service, resigned his position in order that he might accept a professorship in Union Seminary where, as al- ready stated, he had been an instructor. We who re- mained in the institution could not blame him for his questionings and disheartenment. He had our very high esteem for his scholarly ability and acquirements and our friendly regard for him as a man, which continued unchanged until his early and lamented death. But after the years had moved on and the work was accom- plished, we were happily able to say to ourselves that, like many others, he had not foreseen the future which held, though we then knew it not, a bright promise in itself, that was to bring in due time a very rich reward. Fortunately we who remained irf the school, though MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN often discouraged, were never thoroughly or hopelessly disheartened. We pressed onward, and waited for the coming time. As for myself the one who had, as it were, come out from the old Faculty into the new I never allowed myself, for a moment, to think of aban- doning the largest and widest plan which had been formed for the new era, or of being moved, in the least, by the suggestions of friends who, as onlookers, were disturbed by doubts or advised us to yield to adverse fate. The Faculty of the Divinity School, in September, 1 86 1, consisted of the five gentlemen already mentioned, Professors Hoppin, Fisher, Henry Hadley and myself, who held professorships in the school itself, and Pro- fessor Porter, who was associated with us in the work of teaching though his official position was in the Academ- ical Department. Some important changes occurred between this date and the opening of the college year in September, 1866. When Professor Hadley offered his resignation after his service of a single year, the work which had been placed under his charge was given to Mr. Van Name, now the University Librarian, as In- structor in Hebrew. Mr. Van Name was appointed to his office in the library in 1865, but he kindly continued his teaching in the school until the close of the following academic year, when Professor George E. Day, then of Lane Theological Seminary, was called to become the Professor of the Hebrew Language and Literature. At the same time with the appointment of Professor Day, Dr. Leonard Bacon was asked to take upon himself the duties connected with the Department of Systematic Theology Professor Porter, after eight years of valued service, being released from this sphere of instruction. Dr. Bacon remained a member of the Faculty until the end of his life, but he resigned the chair of Theology MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to Dr. Samuel Harris when the latter was elected to the professorship, in 1871. The period from 1866 to 1871 was that in which most of the efficient work was done for the establishment of the school on a firm foundation. In the five years pre- ceding 1866, because of the continuance of the war and for other reasons, comparatively little could be effected, either in the matter of securing funds or of enlarging the numbers or opportunities of the institution. Much that was of a preparatory character, however, was accom- plished. A good measure also of new impulse was given to the students and new inspiration imparted to the life of all. A not inconsiderable addition to the funds was likewise secured. But after the year 1866 the war being ended and prosperity having become more general throughout the country the work was undertaken with new energy and new hope. The members of the Faculty gave their best efforts to the instruction and help of the students never suspending or abandoning their exer- cises with them but, in addition to what they endeav- ored to do on their behalf, they took upon themselves the burden of securing the funds which were essential to the growth of the school and, primarily, the amount requisite for the new building which, by reason of the removal of the old Divinity Hall, was becoming a matter of vital importance. In view of all the circumstances and special difficulties of the case, the accomplishment of the work connected with this building has, ever since that time, seemed to me a greater success than any other financial undertaking of the kind within the past half-century of the College his- tory. But the accomplishment was, in due season, real- ized; ancl in the autumn of 1870 we found ourselves in a position which enabled us to lay the corner-stone of the building, with very strong confidence that it could be completed and the expense of its erection could be met. 285 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND M E N" The detailed story of the Divinity School, in these ten years to which I have referred, is so intimately con- nected with my inward and outward personal life, and so full of experiences which touch the soul's deepest feeling, that I cannot record it on these pages. It will be enough to say that the seed-time was followed by the harvest. The period of preparation a preparation which involved in itself the laying of foundations anew, and an upbuilding in every line extended over all these years. But in what seemed, as we looked back upon the work afterwards, a wonderful way, all the preparatory things were completed, as it were, at the same moment. The result was accomplished, to the surprise of all who were friendly to us and even of ourselves; and from that moment the school became a vigorous institution, having an institutional life, if I may use the expression, which was independent of any individual teacher's power or reputation, and which had in itself the promise of per- manence. It was stronger in this regard than it had ever been in its earlier history. Every room in the new building then just completed, with a single exception, was filled, and we found ourselves at once forced to consider the question of providing additional accommodations for increasing numbers. The student body, which in the old days had been mainly limited in its membership to the graduates of our own College, began now to gather into itself young men from other institutions in different parts of the country. The sphere of the school's influ- ence was thus widened and the forces for its life and growth were strengthened. Students of different re- ligious denominations, also, were soon attracted to the school a fact which added much to its power for good, while at the same time it gave occasion for the develop- ment of the happiest and truest Christian fellowship and unity. The Faculty had, in these years, received impor- tant additions to its circle. It was now complete in its MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN number, every chair being filled. All the professors were in the vigor of life. They were enthusiastic for the work of their own departments of study. They were as har- monious in sentiment and as friendly in feeling as any body of men could be each having a generous sympathy for his associates in their individual spheres of thought and effort, and all alike being, with whole-souled devo- tion, consecrated to the common interests and welfare. With reference to myself everything was changed most satisfactorily. In contrast to my position in 1858 when I was a beginner in my work, in association with vener- able men who were drawing very near to the end of their career, and in 1861 when, for a little time, I was the only teacher whose home was in the school and whose life was committed to it, I found myself, in 1871, with a strong and earnest company of students ready to re- , ceive instruction, and in union with a Faculty which was equal in numbers and in reputation to that of any Theo- logical school in the country. The days of uncertainty and discouragement had indeed passed away, and the new day of light and success had come. It was, in fact, a day of light and success, as I thought at the time and have thought ever since, a day of great significance and promise, for the entire College in its growth towards the University. The ordering of events was such, that the possibility or opportunity of renewing the life was opened for the Divinity School at an earlier date than it was in the case of the Law and Medical De- partments. For this reason we were the first who had the privilege of undertaking the work of renewal, and of ac- complishing the result which was of such vital importance for the future. Our happy fortune in those years, there- fore, carried in itself hope and inspiration for the other schools when their time should come. Even more than this, it carried in itself for the workers who had faith, 287 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and the energy which faith gives, the assurance that they also would reach the end to which they should direct their efforts. We rejoiced, accordingly, as the blessing came to us, not alone because of what it was to our- selves, but for what it would prove to be, through the influences connected with it, for the greater and more perfect institution of which we had a happy vision. It is an interesting fact in connection with the renewed life and development of the Law and Medical Schools, and the successful growth of the Scientific School and the School of the Fine Arts a fact having in itself, as I think, much suggestiveness and inspiration for the future that in the case of some of them a very large share, and of others almost, if not quite, the whole of the needed work was accomplished by the young men who were called into the service of the institution at the criti- cal period of the history. Their presence and their faithfulness united with efficiency constituted a most important and even essential factor in the realization of the desired end. As I recall the earlier days, I count it among the spe- cial privileges of my career that I was brought into asso- ciation with some of these young men who were my con- temporaries in age or a few years younger than myself and who were, in their separate spheres, endeavoring to advance the life of the University towards the ideal which they had in mind. By reason of our union in the common cause I was enabled to gain for myself the help- ful influence of their energy and wisdom, as well as their whole-souled devotion, and also somewhat, as I trust, of the generosity of sentiment which was naturally awak- ened by the fact that our working was in different depart- ments of the institution. Especially was this true, even from the outset, in my relations to Professor Brush, whose long-continued service to the School of Science has always been so conspicuous and is now so universally and MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN gratefully acknowledged by its graduates everywhere. The kindness of fortune brought us together when our work was just opening. The movement of the years led us both to lay it aside, almost at the same moment, as the half-century was drawing to its close. We were thus united in our purpose and our hopes from the beginning to the end. Our University has also been peculiarly happy in its history, in the fact of the harmonious working of its older and younger officers, who have ever trusted each other, and have alike been ready for the discharge of all duties to which they were summoned in furtherance of the common cause. Such sympathy and co-operation as .we have witnessed here at Yale may fitly strengthen our faith as we look forward to the development of the University life in the coming time. They give encour- agement that the progress of the years may be marked hereafter, as it has been in the past, by a large-minded conservatism accompanied by a generous hopefulness by the wisdom of age and that of youth in their union with each other. The funds required for the other three buildings now belonging to the Divinity School the Marquand Chapel erected in 1871; West Divinity Hall in 1874; and the Bacon Memorial Library in 1881 were se- cured under more favorable circumstances. The school had now proved itself to have a new and vigorous life, which gave promise of continuance. Its appeal to its friends, accordingly, had a more manifest foundation than it had had in the preceding years. There was a greater measure of hope, both for those who asked for gifts and for those who made them. An imperative de- mand for enlargement in the home of the institution be- came so evident, as the numbers "of students greatly MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN increased beyond its present possibilities of accommoda- tion, that the necessity of the case was apparent to all. We had reached the time when we had the inspiration which comes from actual and assured growth. More- over and this was an all-important element in the case we had the good fortune, at this time, to awaken the interest in our cause of a great benefactor, whose gener- ous and munificent gifts contributed, in the highest de- gree, to our success. In our first building enterprise, we had found no such helper. The individual subscriptions for that enterprise were, for the most part, compara- tively small in amount. No one of them was larger than ten thousand dollars. In 1871, however, Mr. Frederick Marquand, of Southport, Conn., became deeply inter- ested in the school, and, after learning of its needs, he generously offered to bear the expense of erecting a chapel for its uses. Subsequently, when the necessity of a new dormitory building became so pressing as to call for immediate action, he promised to give one-half of the sum that should be required. His gift for this purpose amounted to eighty thousand dollars, and to it we owed our success in securing the building. A few years later, with the same generous spirit, he took upon himself the expense of the building which was desired for the Li- brary of the school a library the fund for which had been previously given by the late Mr. Henry Trow- bridge, of New Haven, as a memorial of two of his children who had died in their early childhood. The Li- brary building was named, at Mr. Marquand's request, in honor of Dr. Leonard Bacon, whose death occurred at the close of the year in which it was completed. The Chapel, built ten years earlier, had already at the date of its erection received, by vote of the Corporation, the name Marquand. It was erected in memory of Mr. Marquand's wife, Mrs. Hetty Perry Marquand, who died in 1859. 290 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN An interesting fact connected with Mr. Marquand's gifts, and one of much significance as related to the his- tory of the Divinity School, may fitly be mentioned as I close this brief account of what he did in its behalf. In a conversation with one of the members of our Faculty, two or three years after the date of his first benefaction, he said, that his mind was led to think favorably of giving to the school, when the subject was presented for his consideration, by his remembrance of the first Presi- dent Dwight and the reverent esteem in which he had always held him. The influence of that eminent man had survived the half-century which had passed since his death, and had wrought results of blessing for those who followed him in the later generation. It is well known that Dr. Dwight was deeply interested in the idea of establishing a Theological School as an essential part of his plan of developing the College into a University. It was not possible to realize this idea within his life- time. He, however, suggested to his eldest son that he should, when he found himself able to do so, make a gift for the foundation of the school. The son's gift was offered in 1822. Though a small one as meas- ured by the standard of to-day, it was the largest that was received at the time, and the one which assured the success of the undertaking. The two gifts were sep- arated by fifty years, but the same influence was the moving force which prompted both of the givers. How true it is of large-minded and generous-hearted men, con- secrated to noble ends, that as in the words of the Book of Revelation "their works do follow them." The name of Frederick Marquand will surely be al- ways held in highest honor in the Divinity School of Yale University, and with it will be joined the names of Mr. and Mrs. Elbert B. Monroe, who were heirs to a large part of his estate and who continued his benefac- tions for years after his death. We who began our work 291 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in the school in the days of its temporary but serious de- cline, had the deepest gratitude to these and the other generous friends who aided us in the great undertaking. Prominent among these friends was the late William E. Dodge, whose gift of ten thousand dollars, offered at the beginning of our first building enterprise, gave us the courage and inspiration to go forward with our effort for the securing of the necessary fund. Of equal prom- inence, and as great usefulness to the school, by reason of their benefactions, were Mr. Augustus R. Street who by his will provided an endowment of nearly fifty thou- sand dollars for the chair of Church History, and the late Governor William A. Buckingham, a timely gift from whom, amounting to twenty-five thousand dollars, did much to assure success in our entire plan and under- taking. The late Daniel Hand also, whose bequests to the American Missionary Association have proved of so great service in our Southern States, was a most help- ful contributor to our work on two different occasions his gifts being offered at an hour when they had the greatest influence for the accomplishment of the end which we had in view. Mr. Henry W. Sage generously founded the Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching, and thus rendered us a great and lasting service. The late Aaron Benedict, of Waterbury, Conn., and his son, Mr. Charles Benedict, came to our assistance at a critical moment in the history of our first building, and the late Samuel Holmes, for many years an honored resi- dent of the same city, was from the beginning of our work even to the close of his life a liberal and magnani- mous friend, on whose sympathy we were able ever to rely. I wish I could name them all on these pages, with a fitting word of praise and gratitude for each and every one. But this would be impossible, because of their numbers. They were a noble body of men, among the best of our state and country a company of benefactors 292 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN whose very presence with us seemed to be a manifestation of the Divine favor as resting upon our cause. We were glad to feel that they and ourselves were co-laborers in the sphere of the highest Christian education. The teachers in a University are not alone its makers and builders. Its benefactors, who strengthen it in its life and enlarge its power for good and its opportunities for usefulness, are a true part of itself, ever working within it and upon it through that which, out of their wealth or perchance of their poverty, they have placed in its possession. The aim and the hope of all workers in an institution of learning must naturally and always be directed to- wards the time when its resources shall be equal, or more than equal, to all the demands which come upon it. But, notwithstanding the trials and limitations attendant upon the weakness of the earlier stages in the develop- ment, there is a satisfaction, which every large-minded and large-hearted man can appreciate, in the efforts and labors that are nearer to the beginning and that lead in their results to the final realization. This satisfaction my colleagues and myself had in relation to our work for the Divinity School in the years from 1861 to 1875; an d it remains with us who survive, I am sure, as a happy memory of the past. By the Divine favor, we had also, during the subsequent years, the satisfaction in some measure which comes with the accomplishment of the re- sults and the attainment of the desired end. The fullness of the attainment yet waits to be realized in the future, when new benefactors, having the same large-minded generosity which characterized their predecessors, shall have co-operated with teachers who follow us in placing the school on financial foundations, which are strong enough to remove all anxieties or fears. 2Q? XVI. Dr. Samuel Harris, and Dr. Leonard Bacon. OF the members of the Faculty of the Divinity School which was made complete in 1871 the Faculty of the new era only two have died, Dr. Leonard Bacon and Dr. Samuel Harris. With reference to those who survive it is not fitting that I should write at length, pleasant as the work would be and full of happy recollections gathering about the by- gone years. But of these two who have passed on into the other life I will endeavor to give a few descriptive words, which may serve, in some measure at least, to picture them to others as they presented themselves to my thought and vision. The full, large manhood of a man of greatness and goodness is, probably, never seen by any single one of the circle of his friends. The sum of the revelations which he makes of himself to the whole company is needed, in order that he may be known as he truly is. But the thought of each one con- cerning him has its value, and may be helpful in its own way and measure. When Professor Harris came to us, he was fifty-seven years of age. He was a native of the state of Maine, and was a graduate of Bowdoin College. His pastoral life, from 1841 to 1855, was spent in Massachusetts, but for sixteen years previous to 1871 he had been, at first a Professor of Theology in the Divinity School at Bangor, Maine, and subsequently the President of the college which had given him his early education. He was, as a consequence, comparatively a stranger to us 294 r PROFESSOR SAMUEL HARRIS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN when we presented to him our invitation to the Dwight Professorship and, greatly to our satisfaction, received his acceptance of our offer. We knew him, however, by reputation, and through acquaintance with his writings and his work as a theologian. Some of us had enjoyed opportunities of meeting him occasionally, while all of our number were persuaded of the general, as well as thorough harmony of his views with our own. His entrance upon his duties was coincident in time with the completion and the opening of the first of our new buildings, and with the beginning of the marked increase in the number of our students. At the very outset, he commanded the respect and excited the interest of the young men in his classes. His lectures were highly ap- preciated. They were full of thought coming from his own mind, and were stimulative to thought in other minds. His style was admirably adapted to the wants and desires of his hearers. It was, in a remarkable de- gree, perspicuous, while at the same time it was literary and had also an imaginative element. His power of helpful and lucid illustration surpassed that of most of the lecturers and public speakers to whom it has been my fortune to listen. In a word, his ability to present truth to others fully equalled his clearness of insight respecting it. We were at once convinced that we had acted wisely in calling him to official service in the school, and this conviction remained ever afterwards. As our preparatory work preparatory to the com- plete reorganization of the school had already been accomplished before his coming to New Haven, Dr. Harris was happily freed from some of the heavier burdens which had rested upon his colleagues. He felt himself also, at that time, to be a stranger to the region, as indeed he was, while he recognized the fact that all the rest of the professors had been long-continued resi- dents of the city and the state, or were, at least, familiar 295 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN with the life and history of the institution. For these reasons, he did not find it practicable to do as much of certain kinds of work particulaly, in the line of effort for the increase of endowments as some of his asso- ciates were called to do. For these reasons likewise as I have been always disposed to believe he never as- sumed for himself the prominent position with reference to public affairs in Connecticut, which he had easily taken in Maine. He lived a more retired life during his years at Yale a life more characteristic of a scholarly theolo- gian and a writer of books, than of one who was a leader in the discussions and contentions pertaining to the commonwealth. The period of his residence in Maine included the era of the Civil War. At that critical time, he was one of the most active and influ- ential citizens in his devotion to the national interests. He was incessant and urgent in his efforts and appeals. He was a speaker even a political orator of very unusual, and very universally acknowledged, force and eminence. Many seriously thought of him as a candi- date for membership in the United States Senate, and he might not improbably, had he been willing to accept it, have received the office. All this was changed in the subsequent years and in his new abode. He was an able preacher, but rarely if ever an impassioned one. He had an ability in extempo- raneous preaching which was of a very high order, and which in its peculiar character I have never seen sur- passed, if indeed equalled, in any other man. But he did not exhibit the eloquence of the political orator, nor indeed that eloquence which arouses to excited feeling, and sways with emotion large audiences. He was every- where, in the street, in his lecture-room, in the pulpit, in his friendly associations, the calm, thoughtful, medita- tive man of intellect and learning; able to set forth 296 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the truth with distinctness and emphasis with imagina- tive force also, and rich abundance of illustration to intelligent hearers, but not after the manner of the orators of the anti-slavery conflict and the struggle be- tween the South and the North. Dr. Harris was a highly valuable officer of the Divinity School one whose contributions of service in its cause his associates appreciated most fully. He held himself ready for any effort which he could wisely undertake, and was heartily willing to co-operate, both in the way of sympathy and of action, with each and all of the company. Even in the matter of the financial interests of the school, he was, in special instances, in- strumental in securing important gifts. As a colleague he had the kindliest sentiment, the most liberal-minded charity, the largeness of heart which cherishes no sus- picion and opens itself only to confidence and to the purest and noblest feeling. He seemed to dwell, with great pleasure and satisfaction, in the sphere of his own thoughts. His mind, however, was open everywhere to nature and the natural world. He was a lover of trees and flowers, and had much knowledge of them. It was a delight to him to take long solitary walks in the coun- try to commune with nature and his own mind, and bring the two together lovingly. From those happy walks, he brought with him many pictures illustrative of truth and of his meditations, which he placed in most fitting language before his hearers in his public dis- courses. In conversation with others, he was disposed to reticence. He waited for his friends to offer sugges- tions or to lead the way, seeming thus to hesitate in the forthputting of himself. And yet, at times, when roused by some special exciting cause, he would express himself with greater freedom, and as if under the impulse of strong emotion. The fire of the orator within him was 297 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN perchance, at such moments, manifesting itself with a measure of its old ardor. As a theologian, Professor Harris was thoroughly Christian; holding fast to the fundamental truths, and looking for ever-increasing light. Having a belief in the future as resting upon and growing out of the past, he had many hopes and no fears, and thus was always calm as a philosopher should be. His theological system had been carefully thought out by himself. He was an independent thinker; not independent in that he counted the thoughts of others who had gone before him as of no account, but in that he subjected every question to his own personal consideration, and so determined it for himself, with the use of all possible light at his command, yet at the same time with a full recognition of his responsibility to the truth and to God. He had no inclination or desire to be a leader in theological contro- versy, and perhaps did not possess the special gifts which qualify a man to become one. On the other hand, he was fitted both in mind and soul to render service as a guide to thoughtful and earnest students in their search for the highest truth. As such a guide he gave his pupils the results of his studies and his thinking of the latter as taking up into itself, and making its own by its inde- pendent work, all that the former could give. By this means he led them to a true and genuine Christian free- dom. No theologian of the last forty years, whether in New England or in any other part of the country, has sur- passed him in ability. None has rendered a greater service in furtherance of his science, than he did. His published works have had a wide circulation, especially his "Philosophical Basis of Theism," which contains the substance of his lectures to the successive Junior classes in the Divinity School. This book was everyhere re- ceive/;) by scholars in our own country and in England MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN with marked favor. It was also translated into the Japanese language and published in Japan. A portion only of his Doctrinal System two volumes entitled, "God the Father and Lord of All" was given to the press during the closing years of his life. He was busily engaged, almost to the very end, in the preparation and revision of later volumes, which, if they could have been published by him before his death, would have been re- ceived with gratitude by his pupils and by theological scholars of a wider circle. Dr. Harris continued in his professorship during a period of twenty-four years, from 1871 to 1895. In the latter year, he offered his resignation and received the title of Professor Emeritus. At the request of his suc- cessor, Professor George B. Stevens, and of the other members of the Faculty, he gave, for one or two years afterwards, a single course of lectures, but then, in ac- cordance with his own desire, he withdrew entirely from active service in the school. On the 25th of June, 1899, after a brief illness, he died at his summer residence in Litchfield, Conn. He had just passed his eighty-fifth birthday. His career as a preacher, a theological teacher and a college president extended over more than half a century, his first settlement in the pastorate of a church having taken place in the year 1841. His service as President of Bowdoin College was given at a critical time in the history of the institution, and was most valuable in accomplishing the results which were spe- cially desired by its wisest friends. His tastes and pref- erences, however, it is believed, turned toward the pro- fessorial, rather than the presidential duties. It was partly for this reason, no doubt, that he found himself disposed to accept the position that was offered him at Yale. I cannot question knowing him, as I did, in the last twenty-eight years of his career- that his life was 299 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN happier because of the decision that he made. He would have been an able president, if he had continued in that position. But it seemed to me that much of the work necessarily connected with the presidential office in al- most all our colleges would have become more and more burdensome to him with the progress of time. He was, by his very nature, a thinker and teacher. His sphere was his study and his lecture-room at least, it was so in case he turned, as he did, to university life rather than the public life of the state and he found, I am sure, the largest happiness when he came to our institution, even as he gave great happiness to us who were co-labor- ers with him. Dr. Bacon, though he was born in Detroit, Mich., where his father was then in missionary service, was of Connecticut parentage. He graduated at Yale College in the Class of 1820. Five years later, in 1825, he re- ceived ordination as pastor of the First Church in New Haven. When he began his work in the Theological School he had held this position continuously for forty- one years. He had long been a conspicuous figure, also, in the life of the city. If he was not actually the most prominent citizen, there were very few who equalled him in influence and in the public esteem. Soon after his resignation of his pastorate, it became evident that some new arrangement with reference to the chair of Doctrinal Theology was necessary for the highest interests of the Divinity School. The Faculty, indeed, had had the subject under serious consideration for one or two years previous to this time. Professor Porter had been called upon to carry forward for too long a period the work of this professorship, as an additional burden to that which pertained to his office in the Academical Department. It was only right and fitting, that he should be no longer asked to render a twofold service. The release of Dr. 300 REV. DR. LEONARD BACON MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Bacon from his parish duties seemed to open a new pos- sibility in the case; and after deliberation upon the mat- ter, the Faculty and the Corporation united in the opinion that he would fill the position with much success and usefulness, at least for a number of years and until a younger man, having all the desired qualifications for the office, could be secured. Dr. Bacon was, accord- ingly, requested to become the acting professor. He began his work in the autumn of 1866, and continued in it until 1871, when President Harris was invited to take the professorship. The authorities of the school then requested Dr. Bacon to accept the office of Lecturer on Church Polity and American Church History sub- jects in respect to which he was eminently fitted to give instruction. This office he held from 1871 to 1881. On the 24th of December, 1881, he died. His work in the Theological School was, in every line, very helpful and successful. It was as agreeable and stimulating to his own mind as it was serviceable to his associates and his pupils. For himself, there was opened, at the moment of his withdrawal from his long and busy pastorate, a new sphere of effort, in which he could find ever-fresh impulse and inspiration. For the institution, the advantage of his wide influence, as well as of his intelligent counsel and his hearty sympathy and co-operation in all labors for its well-being, was secured. He was with us from the beginning to the end of the years when we were most successfully pressing forward the great work of renewing the life and establishing on a satisfactory basis the endowment of the school. His efforts constituted an important factor in the accom- plished results, the significance of which was recognized by his colleagues. He rejoiced as sincerely as any of our number in the final realization of our hopes. In the relations of the Faculty circle, Dr. Bacon was all that could have been desired. He was the oldest 301 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN among Ub, and had long since attained eminence both in his own profession and as a participant and leader in great movements. His position and life had accord- ingly been such as would, in the case of most men, have tended to self-assertion, or even to somewhat of the domineering spirit. So far from this, however, in his case there was no placing of himself, in any way or measure, above the youngest of his associates. He held his mind always open to conviction, as he listened to the arguments of others or discussed serious questions with them. When he differed from the majority of his col- leagues, he yielded his opinions as gracefully as any man could have done opinions too, which had been ex- pressed with a force and emphasis characteristic of him- self. There seemed to be a readiness ever, as he met with us in our deliberations, to lead, or to be led, as the occasion might seem to require, to the end of realizing the best results. He was, indeed, a whole-hearted, whole- souled man, with whom it was an unceasing pleasure to be connected in the intimate relationships of the Faculty. In his intellectual gifts Dr. Bacon was a man of re- markable character. He had a very clear and distinct perception of truth, and laid hold upon it with a firm grasp. His logical power was conspicuous and was of the order pertaining to the ablest advocates in the con- flicts of thought. He had an extraordinary memory, which seized upon everything of importance and interest that he learned or read, and made it his own for use whenever it was needed. His mind was exceedingly rich in its thinking. It was awake on every side,- never inactive or at rest, effervescent and scintillating with wit and brightness. His rhetorical skill, and felicity, as well as facility of expression, were equal to those of the best English writers. He had powers* of oratory that placed him on a level with the ablest orators of his time. His humor was so exquisite that it was a continual charm 302 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to listen to him when he was engaged in conversation with friends. His poetic sense was ever clearly mani- fest in his written discourses, in his public prayers, in the services of the Church, in his impressive reading of hymns, and in the tender and the grand hymns of which he was himself the author. It was not strange that he held a very prominent place in the city, the State, and the Church. He was designed by nature for public life. His powers qualified him for the part which he took in the great struggles and controversies of his generation. These struggles kin- dled his ardor and excited his enthusiasm. He had the spirit of a true soldier in a conflict. His whole heart and soul were stirred to the very depths by the long anti-slavery contest, alike in its era of discussion, and in that of actual warfare which followed. He lived through the whole of a period in which, whatever may be said of other times, there was a call, full of emphasis, upon the clergy to preach on themes connected with the political, as well as the moral, well-being of the country. His voice was heard in all these years, and it gave forth its utterances with no uncertain sound. As a citizen of Connecticut, he was in the truest and deepest sense loyal to the commonwealth to its his- tory, its traditions, and the ideas which it had always represented. As a citizen of New Haven, he took a foremost place in its life, even from his early manhood, and in his later years he had a position in the esteem of his fellow townsmen which was quite unique and quite his own. A somewhat amusing illustration of this peculiar influence in the city was given, about the year 1875, m a story which an able, and rather eccentric, pastor of one of the Methodist churches related concern- ing himself and his own experience. He said, one day, to a friend of mine, " I never knew any place, in which I have lived before my coming hither, that was like 303 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN New Haven." " What do you think ? " he added. "A few evenings ago, we had a meeting in our church to consider the question of building a small chapel to be used for the purposes of the church. Now in all the towns where I have lived, when the Methodists have had any question relating solely to their own interests, they have felt entirely adequate to make their decision for themselves. But here, after the discussion had gone on for some little time, one of the brethren rose, and said, ' Has any one learned what is Dr. Bacon's opinion on the subject? ' So it is always in New Haven. Even Methodists must wait to know Dr. Bacon's judgment before they take action." This power of his in the community was the more re- markable, because of his active and fearless participa- tion in the controversies of the time. He was, as we may truly say, a controversialist by nature and tempera- ment. Persons of this character are wont to excite hos- tility, and to retain their influence only with those of their own party. But men who knew Dr. Bacon, as his fellow-citizens did, recognized him as he truly was, in this regard. They saw or they gradually came to see, as he moved on towards later life that he was a con- troversialist, if we may so say, in the region of the mind rather than the heart. Even as he uttered his impas- sioned denunciatory words, he had no unworthy bitter- ness of feeling towards his adversaries. It was the sin that he denounced; not the sinner apart from it. He would drive away the evil, and would reform the evil man. As the last years came, he was honored and esteemed by every one. When he walked through the city streets, all who met him looked upon him with a reverential, and even an affectionate feeling. They felt that he had honored the town by his presence in it, and they wished for him long-continued life and happiness. His mind was very rich in its wit and humor. His 304 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN memory held in its possession a multitude of stories, which he narrated with great effect upon those who heard them. But he differed from ordinary story- tellers, and even from many of the best, in two important and interesting points. In the first place, he rarely, if ever, told a story simply for its own sake ; it was always used to enforce or illustrate some remark or statement that he was making. It was, in the second place, a very uncommon thing for him to repeat a story in the hearing of a person to whom he had, on any previous occasion, related it. He stood thus at as wide a remove as pos- sible from the class of men who tell stories in succession, by the hour as it were, and likewise from those whose humor and wit are limited to story-telling. His humor was in his thoughts and the expression of them. He was, therefore, never wearisome, as some humorists, even of high repute, occasionally are. The witticisms which made his conversation with his friends attractive seemed always to be instantaneous flashes of thought, coming into his mind as suddenly as they came forth from it. In the most full and complete sense, they were his own and characteristic of himself. A record of many of them, if it could have been preserved, would have a peculiar interest. But they belonged mainly, of course, to the passing moment of their utter- ance. I may mention an instance of his wonderful quick- ness which comes to my mind as I am writing. In a little company of gentlemen who had assembled one evening, in accordance with their custom of meeting together from time to time, a question arose as to a paper to be written or public address to be delivered, in regard to which it was desired that some one of very special ability should be assigned to the work of preparing it. Dr. Woolsey and Dr. Bacon were the two oldest and the two most prominent men who were present at the meeting. They were college classma'tes, and had been 305 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN intimate friends ever since their graduation. As it hap- pened, Dr. Bacon's name was the first in the alphabet- ically arranged list of the class, and Dr. Woolsey's the last. When the discussion of the question had been car- ried on for a little time, Dr.Woolsey said that Dr. Bacon was the man among them all to do the work he had the gifts and the learning he had the eloquence and rhetorical power he was the one whom his class, the Class of 1820, always selected for such an emergency because he was in this regard, even as he was in the cata- logue, the head of the class. After he had finished his urgent remarks, and had become silent, Dr. Bacon very quietly, but immediately, said: "There are some animals, and the Class of 1820 is one of them, whose strength is in their tails." The subject was exhausted, and the de- cision made. I remember that, on another occasion, when a discus- sion on the subject of additional instruction in English Literature was under consideration at a similar meeting, I had myself spoken with some earnestness, and at some length, upon the manner of teaching the classics which was at that time (thirty-five years ago) prevalent in all our colleges. I had called attention to the excess of grammar, in all the instruction, as compared with the vocabulary and the literary elements of the language, and to the consequent fact, that young men gave up read- ing the ancient classics after their graduation. I had said also, what I have thought and said since then, that college graduates would read as little English, as they then read the classical languages, if they knew the vocab- ulary as little, and were as absolutely dependent on the constant use of a dictionary. Soon afterward, when it came to be the Doctor's turn to speak, he said: "If English is to be taught after the style which Professor Dwight sets forth in speaking of the classics, in my judg- ment there should be no additional instruction; for, 306 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN when the new additions have been made, our graduates will not know how to read." We teach the classics in a better way now, and the danger which the Doctor pointed out so keenly is diminished, if it has not disap- peared. I may give another illustration of the fitness and idiosyncrasy, if I may use the word, of the terms or phrases which he used in the expression of his humor. One of the older professors in the institution at that time was very learned as a scholar, but was somewhat slow and undemonstrative as some thought, dry as a teacher. A friend was speaking of him to Dr. Bacon, and saying that it seemed very unfortunate, and much to be regretted, that one who had so much knowledge as the Professor evidently possessed, did not in a higher degree stimulate his classes. " Yes," said Dr. Bacon, " he is an excellent man, and an admirable scholar, but he needs a dose of bumble-bees." The possible useful- ness of bumble-bees in the sphere of the materia medica has often impressed itself upon my mind, since I heard of Dr. Bacon's proposed remedy. There are cases among teachers, where this is the only medicine which can effect a cure. But it is very difficult to apply the remedy where it is especially needed. In the case of this old professor, however, there was an occasion when he evidently took the medicine for himself. He was a man who conscientiously and relig- iously condemned negro slavery, and was intolerant of it and of sympathy with or acquiescence in the system. On a certain summer afternoon, about the year 1855, he met a gentleman of his acquaintance on the street a gentle- man who commonly lived in one of the most southern states during the winter, but was accustomed to spend the milder season of the year in New Haven. As this meeting of the two happened to be the first in that ye* they naturally greeted each other, and had a brief con- 307 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN versation before they separated. In the course of the conversation, the Professor said: "I have sometimes wondered how you are able to live comfortably in a slave State." " Why so?" said the gentleman. "You believe slavery is wrong, do you not?" said the Professor. " Yes," was the reply. " And you are an anti-slavery man?" " Yes." "And are ready to express your senti- ments here?" " Yes." " But if this be true, how can you get on comfortably at the South?" " Oh," said the gentleman, "I get on well, because I do not say any- thing on the subject when I am there." After a few words more, the two men parted, and each went his way. The next morning, they chanced to meet again on the street. The Professor said, " Good morning, Mr. B." The gentleman replied with a similar greet- ing. The Professor then went through the questions and answers of the preceding day, and asked if his statement of each was correct, and received from the gentleman an affirmative response. " Well," said the Professor, "I have been thinking over your course of action since we met yesterday; and I consider it a mean one. I bid you good morning." Then he turned, and passed on his way. The medicine had evidently been taken, at least on this one occasion, and had had its effect. The quiet scholar and unemotional teacher had, for the moment, surpassed even what Dr. Bacon himself could have done. The quickness of Dr. Bacon's mental action and his fertility in thought were manifest to every one who came within the circle of his acquaintance. I have said of him oftentimes in the past, and others have said the same thing, that he seemed to have more fresh thoughts in a day than most men, even men of ability and culture, have in a week. Herein, indeed, was one of the marked peculiarities of the man, and one which rendered him exceedingly interesting. As a consequence of it, he was MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN able, with quickness of vision, to see both sides of a question under discussion, and often to state the argu- ments on both sides as fully, and even more clearly than any one else. Sometimes, when the topic was not one of serious importance, or was one to which he happened to be giving no very careful consideration, he might easily be led, by reason of this rapid thinking, to advo- cate, within an hour or two, two opposite opinions. I remember myself to have led him, quite to my surprise, to do this on one or more occasions. But these were, if I may so express it, only playful movements of his mind. With reference to great questions, and matters of real significance, he was thorough in his investigations; well- grounded and well-established in his judgment; firm and strong in his convictions; a man adapted to press forward as an earnest advocate in every good cause. The playful movement, however, was in itself delightful, and withal it showed how generous and tolerant and large-hearted he was. It proved helpful also to those who were engaged with him in a common effort for the accomplishment of some desirable end. It opened the way for persuasion, since he had a listening ear for every reasonable suggestion, and was thus altogether free from the obstinacy of one-sided and prejudiced men. He had much of what the Apostle James calls the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. His quickness of thought, I may add, both enabled and disposed him to be an active intellectual worker. He was always read- ing, studying, writing, speaking, putting forth his mental energies in every way. The mind, in his case, never went to sleep. It knew no dead line of fifty, of which many talk; or even of sixty, or of seventy. He was ever the same to the very last full of new ideas, full of energy, full of hope, full of life. .-It was a beautiful 309 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN picture of the scholarly and thoughtful man, which he presented to the people of his Church when, at the end of forty years of service, he asked to be released from the duties of the pastoral office, and said to them of himself and his outlook toward the future, "I know more now than I knew a year ago. I hope to know more next year than I know now." And again, ten years later, as a true Christian scholar, he said, "I know more to-day more adequately and exactly what God reveals to us by the Bible, than I knew fifty years ago more than I knew ten years ago ; and I am still a learner, and hope to be a learner to the end." It was, indeed, a happy thing for one's experience, and for one's remembrance afterwards, to be for fifteen years associated with such a man in the close relations of the Theological Faculty. It was an inspiration to be in daily intercourse with an older colleague who was ever wakeful, ever learning, ever reaching out for greater things, and ever abounding in hope of the larger and better life of the coming time. So he was with us even to the end. He met his classes on the last day of the autumn term, just before the vacation for the Christmas season. He then gave himself to the discussion of one of the great questions that were at the time awakening national interest, and on the evening of December 23d he was engaged in writing a paper on the subject for publication. When the hour for retirement for the night arrived, he left the paper unfinished on his table, intending to add what might be needful on the day that should follow. But at an early morning hour, soon after the dawn of the winter day, his spirit passed beyond our earthly sight. There seemed, indeed, to be no ending of a life, as he left us, but only an entrance, in answer to a loving call, into a new sphere of mental and spiritual activity a sphere larger and more full of beauty than that which had opened itself for the efforts, and realized in its measure the possibilities, of the earlier years, 310 XVII. Dr. Woolsey's Administration Some Men of His Time, 1846-71. IN the year 1871, which was so memorable in the history of the Divinity School, the administration of President Woolsey came to its end. The quar- ter of a century which was included within his official term, as is evident from what has been already said respecting it, was a period of great interest and im- portance in the history of the entire institution. Before writing further, however, of its work and its results, 1 may allow myself, not unsuitably as I think, to say a. few words respecting some of the other central officialt of the College in the years between 1858 and 1871. The Secretary of the Corporation during the greatei- part of this period was Wyllys Warner. The office oi Treasurer was held successively by Edward C. Herriclj and Henry C. Kingsley. Mr. Warner was a graduate of the College, of tin Class of 1826. He studied theology in the years fol- lowing his graduation, and was ordained to the ministry. In 1833, he became Treasurer of the institution. Thife office he held for nineteen years until 1852, when, on account of somewhat enfeebled health, he offered his resignation. Six years later he was asked to take the position of Secretary, which he accepted and retained until his death in 1869. From the days of his student life as a member of the Theological Department, he seems to have been deeply interested in its welfare and earnest in his desire that its means of usefulness might 3" MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN be enlarged. His earliest efforts in the financial sphere, even while he was still pursuing his studies, were put forth in its behalf. Subsequently, in 1830, he became, by request of the College authorities, an active agent in the work of securing the fund of one hundred thou- sand dollars for the further endowment of the institu- tion which, as already stated, was the first great move- ment of the kind in the earlier part of the century. His success in this important enterprise, it is believed, was the determining cause of his call, three years afterwards, to take charge of the entire business of the treasury. The duties of this office he discharged with fidelity and efficiency. He was one of the most energetic solicitors of funds, and one of the most successful of those whom the institution has had in its service, if the matter of success and energy be measured by the possibilities of that era. He deserves to be held in kindliest memory by all who are interested in the progress and develop- ment of Yale. As for myself, I place his name upon these pages with grateful recognition, for it was, in no inconsiderable measure, due to him that my appointment to the chair in the Divinity School was made when it was. He had just been elected Secretary of the Corporation when I returned from Europe, and was consequently present at the meeting of that body in September, 1858, which was held for <"he purpose of appointing a successor to Dr. Taylor in the Doctrinal Professorship. After the vote upon this important matter had been taken, the question of adding a new instructor in the Biblical department was presented for consideration. The limited condition of the funds, however, made the members of the body hesitant, and disposed to defer any definite action until a later time. Mr. Warner had been for a long period the Treasurer of the institution, but he had also been active in increasing its resources. 312 PRESIDENT THEODORE D. WOOLSEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN He had thus realized in himself not only the caution which treasurers sometimes have, but also the impelling force which is essential for the men who would seek additions to the treasury. He had the outlook towards the future, and not simply the thought of the present. With this outlook, he felt that the time for a forward movement had now come, and he said, with courage and emphasis, that the school needed, at that critical mo- ment, a young man in its Faculty, who should have already made some progress in his work, and have be- come, in some measure, master of the situation, before the older men passed off the stage. His words were effective, and the result was a happy one for me deter- mining my future at that early moment. The financial venture, on the part of the Corporation, was not a very serious one, at least, it would not appear so, as viewed from the standpoint of to-day for there had fallen into the possession of the school, within a few weeks, a small legacy, and the salary of the young professor, though more than the income of the new fund and quite beyond that of my predecessor when he was first called to his office, was not large enough to frighten any one except the person who received it. It is interesting to look back over the old records of Mr. Warner's work from 1830 to 1835, and to see what the contributions to the funds were at that time, as com- pared with what we look for in these days. When an ef- fort was made in 1834 and 1835 to secure the sum neces- sary for the erection of the old Divinity Hall, which stood at a little remove from North College and in a line with what we now speak of as the Old Brick Row, it was ascertained that thirteen thousand dollars would be required. There were nearly two hundred and fifty donors to this fund two of whom gave fifteen hundred dollars each, and three others five hundred each. The contributions of two hundred and " forty-five persons 313 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN were, accordingly, needed to make up the remainder of the amount desired that is to say, eighty-five hundred dollars. When we think of the labor which was involved in seeing and persuading such a number of persons, we may fitly give an honorable place in our records to the names of the men who heroically performed it. We may congratulate ourselves also, that we live in an era of larger gifts. In this connection I recall the story of an experience of Mr. Warner, which he related to me in the first years of my professorial career. At the time of his efforts on behalf of the Divinity School, in the early thirties, the theological controversies between what were called the Old and New School parties in Connecticut were at their height. Dr. Taylor was the leader of the New School party and, as a consequence, the Theological Seminary of which he was, in a sense, the head was exposed to the violent opposition of the Old School men. These men were pastors of many of the churches in the State and, among them, of some which were located in towns not far from New Haven. To one of these neighboring towns Mr. Warner first took his way, making his journey with his own horse and chaise, as there were no railroads in Connecticut at the time. Having reached his destination he established himself at a house of entertainment, and proceeded to make a beginning of his work. He called upon a certain gentle- man in the village who, after hearing his presentation of the case, made him a gift of five dollars. As the evening was drawing near, he returned to his place of temporary abode, intending on the next day to continue his solicitations. When the morning came, however, he learned that the pastor of the church had already been informed of the gift which he had received for the Divinity School, and had become so excited and incensed by the fact, that he had done his utmost to rouse his 314 REV. WYLLYS WARNER MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN parishioners to hostility to the intruder upon his domain, and to a refusal to listen to his requests. The result was that Mr. Warner was obliged to leave the town. A suggestive story indeed this is suggestive, not only in the sphere of theology, but likewise in that of money. The sum of five dollars was helpful and en- couraging to the college worker of that period. It was the cause of alarm and indignation to his theological opponent. My colleagues and myself, in our efforts to secure endowments for the school a generation later, had a happier lot, in that we labored in an era when party strifes had diminished, and when the possibilities of gifts had increased. Mr. Warner, however, was not discouraged by his experience, but, in accordance with the bidding given to the apostles, when rejected in one place he moved onward to another; and finally his work was completed. The matter of securing the fund of one hundred thousand dollars for the College was, of course, a much larger undertaking, but it was equally successful. It was free from some of the special difficulties which attended the other enterprise, yet the limitations in the amounts of individual gifts were conspicuous in com- parison with what we have become accustomed to in more recent times. Mr. Herrick was called into the service of the College at the time when the fund for the erection of a building for the College and Society Libraries was secured. This building, which is now commonly called the Old Li- brary, was first occupied in the year 1843. The College Library had, for twenty years previously, been located in the fourth story of the Chapel of that period. It consisted of not more than about fifteen thousand vol- umes. The use made of it was quite limited. It was opened only once or twice a week, and there was little, if any, provision for persons desiring to pursue investiga- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tions. Undergraduate students of the two lower classes had no access to it, while those of the two upper classes availed themselves only occasionally of the privileges which were allowed them. The completion of the new building was the beginning of a new life for the institu- tion in this regard. No more satisfactory appointment to the office of Librarian could have been made, at that critical moment, than that which was determined upon by the Corpora- tion, when they turned, with unanimous sentiment, towards Mr. Herrick as the man for the position. He was then thirty-two years of age. He was not, indeed, a graduate of the College having been prevented by special circumstances from pursuing his studies in preparation for the academic course. But he had had peculiar and very favorable opportunities for gaining that intimate knowledge of books which is of essential importance to one who is to have charge of a college library. His mind was most alert and active on every side. It was so alert and active that he must have become a thoroughly educated man, as it would seem, however unfavorable might have been the condition in which he was placed. But, by good fortune, he was placed where he had the possibility of acquaintance with the best literature, and also with educated and learned men. His self-cultivation, therefore, was rendered com- paratively easy and, as the result, he made himself the peer of his associates of the Faculty. His acquirements in different languages were of no ordinary character. In the domain of science, especially in entomology and astronomy, he was not only an investigator, but a dis- coverer as well. His interest in these studies continued undiminished throughout his life. In historical research, especially with reference to the history of New England and Connecticut, he was remarkable both for his en- thusiasm and his accuracy. In his later years his mind 316 EDWARD C. HERRICK MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN had become, as it were, a storehouse of knowledge and information respecting the graduates of the College. As a student of words all regarded him as an authority, and for this reason his services were called for, in large measure, in connection with the edition of Web- ster's Dictionary which was published in 1847, an d with other editions issued before his death. In conversation, he had great attractiveness, being full of intelligence, rich in his command of language, felicitous by reason of a peculiar humor, and winsome because of his kindly spirit. He seemed to know some- thing of everything that was worth knowing a happy result of a broad education in the best order of men; in his case, the result of the brightness and ardor of a mind which was ever ready to put forth its energies on all sides. He watched the stars, and communed with them, by night. He rose with the dawn or the sun-rising in the morning, and, before the beginning of the day for other men, he had already accomplished a large portion of his daily task. Whenever a friend called upon him, therefore, he appeared to be at leisure not fretted or troubled because of interruptions; perfectly free to converse on any subject of interest; in full posses- sion of all the time and strength which the friend might ask him to place at his disposal. The generosity with which he offered his personal service to others whom he found to be in need manifested itself at all times, and was as conspicuous in his relations to the poor of the city as it was with reference to those who enjoyed the privilege of intimate acquaintance with him. He abounded in sympathy for college men when they were in financial difficulties, or in any way distressed, and made known to him their trials or their wants. The wisdom of the wise was united in his character with the simplicity of the child. In mind and heart he was helpful to all. With this spirit of helpfulness, he made 317 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the library of the institution a center of intellectual life for the college community a source of light and knowl- edge for those who were eager learners, and a working- place for the men who were willing to search into the deeper things. For nine years he rendered his valuable and faithful service in his office as Librarian, giving himself wholly, and with increasing satisfaction, to the discharge of the duties which it involved. At the end of those years, in 1852, when Mr. Warner's impaired health constrained him to give up his position as Treasurer of the College, Mr. Herrick was selected by the Corporation as the person best qualified to fill the place. With considerable reluctance, he accepted the appointment, but for the six following years he held the two offices. In 1858, he was released altogether from his duties in the Library, and, from that time until the end of his life, he devoted himself exclusively to the work of the Treasury. In this work he proved to be as successful as he had been in his former position. He was open-minded, energetic, possessed of much financial skill and wisdom. In the organization of the office and its business, he made improvements upon the earlier time, which were at once recognized as advantageous, and which, in some respects, have retained their influence even to the present day. An instance or two of Mr. Herrick's humor, of no significance except by way of example, I give from my memory of him. Hundreds of others more worthy of record may, doubtless, be recalled by other friends who knew him intimately. He was, as I have already said, a lover of the stars, and, like all astronomers as I sup- pose, he loved them more than he loved the moon. He watched them on the clear starry nights with infinite delight. To the common mind, on the other hand, how- ever beautiful the stars may seem, the moonlight has even a more wonderful charm. One evening, a friend 318 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of mine was talking with him and, in the course of the conversation, expressed the pleasure felt in the bright moonlight of the preceding night. "Oh," said he, "it was beautiful enough; but did you not notice that it ob- scured the brilliancy of the stars?" "Yes," was the reply, "but I like to see the moon better than I do to see the stars." "Impossible," he answered; "it cannot be so, for what intelligent person has ever thought the charms of Diana equal to those of Venus?" On another occasion, in a talk with the same friend, a lecture by a scientific gentleman which had just been given on the subject of earthquakes was spoken of. Mr. Herrick lived directly opposite this friend on one of the city streets, and in a house rented of a gentleman who, in the sphere of money, had the reputation of being very anxious and watchful. In the course of the con- versation, my friend expressed a sense of apprehension connected with earthquakes, and their destructiveness as portrayed in the lecturer's discourse, and asked Mr. Herrick if he did not have some of the same disquieting fears. "Oh, no," he replied, "I have no anxious thoughts about earthquakes. I rent my house from my neighbor, whose character you well know, and I leave all the fears, and the reckoning as to losses, to him." Even on the last day but two of his life when the final illness, though he knew it not, was just coming upon him the same humor of his nature was manifested. On the afternoon of that day he had a long and evidently wearisome talk one of many such with a worthy gen- tleman, a benefactor of the College withal, who was noted for the continuousness of his discourse. On his way from his office to his house, at the close of the after- noon, he called on his physician, and said to him, "I am unwell, and wish a remedy which will cure me imme- diately, as I have no time now to be sick." The physi- cian asked him what he had been doing that should have 319 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN brought on such an attack of weakness. He replied, "I know of nothing except that I have had a conversation of two and a half hours with Mr. X." It was always thus some unexpected turn of thought or peculiar form of expression would give new life to all that was said, and the hearer, however often he had met him before, would be charmed with a new vision of the brightness of his mind. The oak tree near the Battell Chapel on the College grounds, which is now so beautiful in the autumn season, was planted by him, and is a pleasant memorial of him for those who remember his interest in its early growth. I wish that it might bring him, in a vision of his generous, manly life, to all the sons of Yale. But as the older generations pass away and the new ones come forward in our college world, the men of the by-gone days are soon forgotten. It was a touching request which Mr. Herrick made of his friends just before the ending of his life that the inscription on his monument should be as simple as possible, and that there should be no eulogy. He had done his work well; with noble impulse; with ceaseless energy; with loving helpfulness; with wise intelligence; with happy success; a work for others, rather than himself, and for a good and worthy cause. But he had now come to the hour when the soul looks inward upon itself and onward to the great future, and words of praise seem far beyond its thoughts and outside of its real life. His request was characteristic of his manhood. His principle of action was to leave every- thing to which he gave his efforts better than he found it. But he looked for his reward in the accomplishment of the work, and he asked for nothing more. Mr. Herrick's successor in the Treasurership, as already intimated, was Henry C. Kingsley. His official 320 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN career extended over a period of nearly a quarter of a century, from 1862 to 1886. The College, within this period, was rapidly developing toward the University. It was a time when larger life was continually opening the time, indeed, when the change from the limitations of the earlier part of the century to what is now realized was beginning to make itself clearly manifest. This change was as marked in the sphere of the treasury, as it was elsewhere ; and though progress here was slow in comparison with that which has characterized the more recent years, the Treasurer's office required a wider vision than before, and a greater executive power in the financial line. Mr. Kingsley had been connected with the business affairs of a railroad company for some years, and previously had been an active worker in the legal profession. His experience, accordingly, fitted him, in a very considerable measure, for the new duties which he was called to take upon himself. His mental gifts also qualified him for the office assigned him. The history of his administration of the office is an interesting part of the College history, and gives abundant proof of his wisdom and success and, at the same time, of his generous and self-sacrificing devotion to the welfare of the institution. Mr. Kingsley was a son of Professor Kingsley, and he had many of the characteristics of his father. He was a man of unusual ability, but disposed by nature to self-withdrawal and retirement. He resembled his father in his fondness for historical investigation, being much given to reading. He had somewhat of his father's clearness and facility in the expression of his thoughts in writing. A measure of his father's wit was, likewise, an inheritance of his, though it was, in his case, far less frequent in its display of itself. He was, by no means, a mere business man, but, at the same time, a man of 321 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN scholarly culture at home, by reason of his sympathies and acquirements, in the academic circle. The first nine years of Mr. Kingsley's official career belonged to the period of which I have been writing in the preceding chapters the period from 1858 to 1871. He was a kindly friend to us who were of the Theologi- cal Department, in those critical years, aiding us with generosity according to the special need of the time, whether in the way of wise counsel, or of efficient man- agement of funds received, or of personal gifts. I was myself brought into somewhat close relations to him in connection with our financial efforts, and was an observer of his methods, as well as of his tendencies, in the matter of investments. He seemed to me, as I believe he did to all who were acquainted with him in this department of his life, to be characterized by much wisdom. He carried in his mind and memory, not only all the details of importance pertaining to the funds, but also the his- tory of the office and everything connected with it. As a consequence, he was always ready to act with prompt- ness and efficiency. He was prepared for all emergencies, and was so skillful in his management of the resources of the institution that he succeeded in keeping its income very nearly, if not quite undiminished, notwithstanding the lessening of the rates of interest which began to be realized in the later years of his official term. The three successive Treasurers were men widely different from one another, but, happily for the College, each one of them had the special qualifications which the period of his service seemed to require. They were all equally consecrated to the interests of the institution putting forth their energies continually under the guidance of their financial wisdom, and never losing heart or courage in their work. The office of the Treasurer in a university is very near the center of its 322 HENRY C. KINGSLEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN life's forces. The man who fills the office with large intelligence and success cannot be too highly esteemed. The Corporation of the College in 1858 consisted, as had been the case since 1792, of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State and six members of the State Senate, together with the President and ten Clerical Fellows who were the successors of the original trustees. The senators were quite irregular in their attendance at the meetings of the body and, as their term of political service was usually very short, they took but little interest in college matters. The ten ministers and the President were the real power in the institution. They constituted the majority of the Board, and exercised authority as their predecessors of the early days had done. These ten ministers of the year 1858, who elected me to my professorship, were remarkable for the long con- tinuance of their official service. One of them remained in the membership of the body for forty years, from 1821 to 1861 ; two others for thirty-nine years; a fourth for thirty- four years; a fifth for twenty-eight; a sixth for twenty-five ; and a seventh and eighth for twenty-one years. They were all pastors of churches, with the exception of ex-President Day. Their pastorates in the churches where they were then preaching had extended over a long period; in the case of three or four of them, over a period of more than forty years. They were in this respect representatives of the earlier age, when changes of settlement were comparatively infrequent, and when the young minister, as he was called to his first parish, might naturally think of it as the field of his life-long labor. All except two were residents of the smaller towns of the State, but they were men of recog- nized ability and of more than ordinary influence not only in their own neighborhood, but- also among the 323 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN ministry throughout the commonwealth. No wonder that they seemed old to me when they called me into their service. Several of them had been settled in the ministry before I was born. One of them was of the same class with my father, and another of the next preceding class, while a third was, like President Day, a member of the first company of students on whom my grandfather, as President, had conferred the Bachelor's degree. They were indeed, as Daniel Webster said in addressing the surviving soldiers of the Revolutionary War, venerable men who had come down to us from a former generation. But old as they were or, rather, as they seemed they turned a kindly eye and thought towards me, and I am grateful to them for it. The ministers of the earlier half of the century, especially if they continued for a long period in the same place, acquired, in many instances, a certain Pope-like character and power, which rendered them, as it were, an essential element in the life of the community. The towns or cities were influenced and moulded by the per- sonality of these ministers in a way and measure which, in this age of changes, can scarcely be appreciated. They were not merely leading men, but the leading men, in the town or city commonwealth. Three or four, at least, of this body of ten clergymen, of whom I am writing, had this remarkable and wide-reaching influence and power. They were men of authoritative nature, and they had the impulse ever abiding within them to ex- ercise and strengthen their natural gifts in this regard. Some of them, indeed, exerted their powers in a more quiet and gentle way; others after a manner more de- monstrative and forceful. But none left the powers unused. Such cities as Hartford and New London, and such smaller towns as Farmington and Norfolk, have not yet lost out of their characteristic public life what was wrought for them by the long-continued presence 324 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN within their borders of Drs. Joel Hawes and Abel Mc- Ewen, Drs. Noah Porter and Joseph Eldridge. These towns will make manifest the results of their work and their personality in the coming time, though years and generations may remove the living citizenship from all remembrance even of their names. The places that knew them may know them, as the Scripture says, no more forever. But life in those places will have within itself a vigor and a richness which came from them. The most striking personality in the company was Dr. Joel Hawes, of Hartford. He had been, for more than the life-time of a generation, the pastor of the First Church of that city and was known as a man of influence by every citizen. His personal appearance was impres- sive. Nature had not, indeed, been generous to him in the elements of manly beauty or grace. Quite the opposite. There was force, as well as intelligence, in his face, but his features were rugged and even homely. His figure was gaunt, and his gait and bodily movement were awkward. In stature, however, he was tall and, in a sense, commanding. I do not know why it was so, but he appeared to be taller than any one else taller even than men who were of equal height with himself. Though differing almost as widely as possible from that distinguished preacher of recent years, he resembled in this respect the late Dr. John Hall, of New York. Each of the two men produced on the minds of those who met them the impression of bodily stature which was beyond all ordinary limits, and which was so remarkable as to justify and render appropriate a certain benignity of manner, as if they were looking down upon others with a kind of paternal interest. No inconsiderable measure of Dr. Hall's power was connected, as it seemed to me, with this fact, and the same was true in the case of Dr. Hawes. Their physical presence, even in and of itself, 325 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN added to their effectiveness in the pastoral relation, and enabled them to make their genuine and tender interest in the soul's well-being of their parishioners more mani- fest, and also more fruitful in results. No two ministers within the last half-century, in our country, have had a larger measure of such genuine interest of the sincere desire to help the inner life of others than had they. As a preacher Dr. Hawes was of the older type. He presented the truths of the Gospel which he had received from the fathers s and to which he had accorded his unhesitating belief. He did this with a directness and force that gave his discourses a peculiar power for the minds of his hearers. He was often called upon for service in other cities than his own, in cases of special religious awakenings or revivals. His preaching, at such times, exhibited a seriousness and earnestness of tone and manner which were characteristic of but few even in that revivalistic period. As an intimate and highly esteemed friend of Professor Fitch, he was invited to the College pulpit, during my undergraduate career, whenever the thoughts of the student community turned with more than ordinary interest to the questions of per- sonal Christian life and duty. No preacher from the sphere outside of the College, at such times, made a deeper impression on the students, or was more heartily welcomed by them. The appeal which he made was directed to the central personality of the individual man, and it reached the inmost soul. The call to repentance and renewed character, as it came from him, had in it the solemnity of the great issues of the future, while his persuasive exhortations were full of the force of his own experience. I cannot doubt that many of the students of those days remember him, in these later years of their life, as the Christian preacher who first awakened them to religious thoughtfulness or stirred them to a new and more complete consecration of themselves to 326 REV. DR. JOEL HAWES MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the service of Christ. They all felt that he was himself, in the deepest sense, under the influence of the powers of the world to come, and that his one object in his preaching was to bring his hearers under the same influ- ence. Dr. Hawes was not, indeed, a great preacher, nor a great man, as his neighbor in the ministry, Dr. Horace Bushnell, was. He had, in no sense, the characteristics of Dr. Bushnell as an independent, ever restless, ever advancing thinker. On the contrary, he moved in the sphere of already established thought, and was satisfied with what he had received the faith, as he would have said, once for all delivered to the saints. The two men, if I may so express it, were built up from the very foundation after a different plan. So widely apart did they stand in their mental constitution and nature, that they were unable to appreciate or, in any considerable measure, understand each other. But, however great or forceful Dr. Bushnell was and the world has its own high estimate of him Dr. Hawes also had a power peculiar to himself such as any man might desire to possess for the good of his fellow-men. He was a man of very noticeable idiosyncrasies. Much as we respected and honored him, we of the Col- lege community were wont to tell of these and often to be diverted by them. The same thing was true with reference to his friends and neighbors in Hartford. Their regard and even veneration for him continued ever undiminished, but they were ready always to repeat to one another, or to those whom they knew elsewhere, pleasing anecdotes illustrating the peculiarities of the honored pastor and preacher. Some of these set forth his imperious tendencies; others, the singularities of his manner and address; others still, his attitude towards younger and older men. He was what very many men are not a person of whom anecdotes could be freely 327 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN told which afforded amusement to those who heard them, while they added to the hearers' interest in the man, without in the least lowering him in their esteem. In comparison with his parishioners and fellow-towns- men, I saw, of course, but little of him in his daily life. Yet even to us, who were farther removed from the center of his living, there were occasional revelations which made it clear that he was no ordinary personage. When I was ordained to the ministry, in 1861, he was invited by the College authorities to be the preacher of the occasion. Very characteristically of himself for he was, in unusual measure, a laudator temporis acti, and had much distrustfulness of the present and its imme- diate issues in the future he selected as his topic of discourse, "The decline of power in the pulpit." The theme was not a very encouraging one for a young preacher just beginning his work. He could hardly regard it as a happy "send off" in his new career, or as a word of very good omen for his success in his profes- sion. But the young preacher, in this particular instance, had some knowledge of his elder brother or father in the ministry; and so he took courage from his own hopes, instead of yielding to another's fears, and thus strengthened his heart in spite of the gloomy vision set before him. I confess that, in the passing of the years, I have forgotten almost everything that the venerable Doctor said in his sermon. But one or two matters connected with it have remained in my memory even until now. The good man remarked, as he opened his discourse and stated his subject, that he should devote himself to the consideration of two leading questions: first, What are the causes of the decline of power in the pulpit, and secondly, What are the remedies? Having dwelt with considerable minuteness, and at reasonable length, upon the several points involved in the first of the two ques- 328 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tions, he turned to the second, saying, I now ask, What are the remedies ? and I answer, Remove the causes ! Strange to say, I did not, at the time, regard this as a very happy way of answering the inquiry or developing the subject. It seemed to me even somewhat amusing. But I was young then, and inexperienced. The long years since that hour have made me realize that there are many cases in human life where the only effective remedy is to be found in the worthy Doctor's suggestion : Re- move the causes. In college history, as well as in the history of the world outside, how true it is, that we discuss and try to wrestle with difficulties or evils, and waste thought and effort while we wait as patiently as we can, perhaps for years, only to learn, by a slow and sorrowful teaching, that the one remedy has alone in itself the healing power that when, and only when, the cause is removed, can the happy result be realized. How often I have thought of this sufficient remedy, when, alas, it could not be applied. And yet I must admit that, however penetrating and incisive this lead- ing thought of the preacher was, his discourse as he developed it by a new consideration of each individual cause, in connection with the proposed remedy seemed to my mind, at the time, to be less characterized by a continuous advance of ideas than it might have been; ' that it had less than one could have wished of what Dr. Blair, the old Scotch writer on Rhetoric, declares to be essential to an Epic poem ; namely, a beginning, a middle, and an end. So I failed, at the time, to lay the teaching to heart for my opening life as a preacher, and quieted myself with a smile at the Doctor's lugu- brious view of the younger generation. I recall an anecdote illustrative of this general order of thought, on the Doctor's part, respecting young men as compared with those who were, like himself, in the 329 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN older years, which was told me once by a young parish- ioner of his, now a man of advanced life and very widely known. On a certain occasion, in the later period of the Doctor's pastorate, this gentleman and a number of his youthful associates who were in their early manhood, interested themselves greatly in preparations for a Sun- day evening meeting in the old First Church of Hart- ford, which was to be conducted entirely by the young men of the congregation. The program for the occasion was most carefully arranged, the speakers selected, and everything provided for in the most definite and satis- factory way. A committee of the young gentlemen then waited on the pastor, and asked him to preside at the meeting. At the same time, however, they explained to him what they had in mind, and urged upon him to make no change in the program, as all the speakers were to be the young men whose names were given on the printed order of exercises. He assented to their request, and they went forward with much satisfaction. In due time, the meeting was held. The venerable pastor took the chair as the presiding officer, and began the order of proceedings as appointed. He called succes- sively upon the youthful speakers, until four or five of them had given their brief addresses. But, after a little while, it was noticed by persons who were near him that he was becoming more and more restive and ap- parently dissatisfied. Finally, as one of the speakers finished what he had to say, and another was, according to the program, to be called forward, the Doctor was overheard saying, in a suppressed tone, to himself, "This thing has been going on long enough." Then, immediately in a loud voice, he said, "Chief Justice Ellsworth, will you make a few remarks?" I was myself present at what the Doctor called a social religious meeting of his church, at which all, he said, were to speak freely as they felt, when something 330 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN similarly illustrative of his characteristics occurred. It was in the time of the Civil War. After the Doctor had spoken at considerable length on the demoralizing influences of the war and the dangers which threatened the spiritual life of the people, and one or two others had followed with other and more general thoughts, a very prominent member of the church rose and, in a brief address, expressed the opinion that the pastor had taken too gloomy a view of the matter, and stated that, in his own mind, the outlook for the future with refer- ence to religion was bright. As this gentleman resumed his seat, the Doctor immediately said, "Nobody doubts that the kingdom of God will finally come, but I was speaking of the manifest evils which threaten us in the present and the near future. Mr. Jones, will you close the meeting with prayer?" These little incidents show the man in the aspects of his character to which reference has been made. He had a happy outlook towards the past. The golden vision was there. The virtue and the good which be- longed to it were in remembrance. The evil was. lost out of it. But as for the present and its movement into the early future he was conscious of the imperfection and the dangers. Too often he noted with inward grief and apprehension the decline everywhere, even as he thought he clearly saw the decline of power in the pulpit. All this was, in part, the result of his distrust the distrust which older men oftentimes have, in greater or less degree, of the ability and power of the younger generation. It was also due, in part, to the imperious nature of the man. This imperiousness was not allied to tyranny. It was the strongly developed governmental disposition which pertains to the executive order of men, many of whom are most reasonable, and even ready to yield to wise and just views which, at first, were not their own, but were pressed by others, yet almost all of whom 331 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN have confidence in their individual personal powers as qualifying them to take the position of leaders. In a conversation which I held with Dr. Hawes soon after- he had, in his advanced life, asked his people to give him a colleague in his ministerial labors, an allusion was made, by chance, to Dr. Noah Porter, of Farmington, who had just then presented a similar request to his own church. I said to Dr. Hawes that Dr. Porter, as I understood, had declared his purpose to pass over his work entirely into the hands of his younger associate, and to be himself simply the pastor emeritus. The Doctor quickly and energetically replied, "I shall not do this." He was not able voluntarily to withdraw from the com- mander's position. He did not have the gift of resign- ing, which is, indeed, one of the rarest gifts possessed by men. And yet I well remember his coming to my college room one morning, at a later date, and saying to me, "I have just now been writing a sermon; and what do you suppose was the subject?" I replied that I could not conjecture. He answered, "It was on the duty of being happy; and what do you suppose was the first head?" On my giving a similar reply to that which I had previously made, he said, "It was this: If you want to be happy, don't try to govern the world." It was a charming picture. The good old gentleman's thought might well have been the result of a life-time's meditation on the part of a ruler, who had come to see the vanity of the attempt always to govern. But his tone and bearing, as he uttered all the words, were those of a man who had no more idea of resigning his au- thority, than he had of losing his personal identity. If he could only have followed for himself the doctrine of that new sermon and its first head, he would, I think, have been happier in his latest years. But it was not in his nature to do so. 332 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN The excellent Doctor had, like many of the preachers of his era, a more constant sense of the uncertainty of life and the nearness of its ending or, at least, greater readiness to give expression to his thought than the majority of his more recent successors in the ministerial profession seem to have. Even beyond his own con- temporaries, he was disposed to make allusion to these solemn subjects in his public discourses. Indeed, when- ever he preached in the College Chapel, he spoke with serious earnestness on this matter. He was wont to say, on each occasion, that not improbably it might be the last on which he would have the opportunity of urging upon his hearers the message of the Gospel. So impressive were these utterances to me in my student days, that I could scarcely credit the statement which I heard ten or twelve years after my graduation, that he was only at that later time just about to celebrate his seventieth birthday. But he had a sweet and tender thought of the entrance into the other life, when the ending here should in reality have come. He said to me one day, when speaking of the great future, "The crawling worm changes into the winged butterfly. So of ourselves. I think of the life beyond. I know not what it will be, or what I shall be. But I know and that is enough that it will be something very beauti- ful." However long I may live, I shall never forget the words which he said to me on that day, or the man as he said them. My acquaintance with the other members of the Board was more limited in its character. I will, however, add a few words respecting some of them. Dr. McEwen was a man somewhat after the order of Dr. Hawes, and he exercised, in his own sphere in New London, a ruling power similar to that of his colleague. In intellectual ability he was quite equal to any of his associates. In 333 MEMORIES OF VALE LIFE AND MEN moral force he was recognized at all times as a leader. His earliest desire and purpose, as he thought of becom- ing an educated man, were to enter the legal profession. Some of his friends, in his later life, questioned whether his natural gifts would not have found in the work of that profession larger and more fitting opportunities for their exercise. But the call to the ministry came to him so clearly and with so much emphasis, as he thought, that there was no doubt in his own mind as to what he ought to do. His efficiency in his parish, his great and long-continued influence over his associates in pastoral life, and the universal esteem in which he was held in the city where he lived for more than fifty years, gave satisfying testimony to his wisdom, as well as his Chris- tian spirit of consecration, in his yielding obedience to the call as he believed himself to have heard it. He was, as we may judge in view of the record of his life, one of the men, not many in number, who have fitness for either of two professions, and to whom, perchance, equal success will open whether they move forward in the one or in the other. His friend and colleague in the Corporation, Dr. Porter, said of him, soon after his death which occurred in 1860, "Domestic life was his greatest earthly delight. At the table, at the fireside, in the parlor and on the way, his desire and his power to please made him pre- eminently the light and joy of his house. In the morn- ing, he of all the family arose first. It was part of his early farmer education he was a farmer's son to make the morning fire. It was at the fireplace that the older children used to meet him, morning by morning, as they left their beds. There they first learned grammar, the English and the Latin, at his lips, and there he dramatized for their entertainment the stories of the Old and New Testaments. And there, too, before the chil- dren were up, as he once remarked to a friend (rare 334 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN instance of self-revelation for him) 'he had musings in his own heart before God, which were his strength and joy for the day.' " The statement of this last sentence that the joy of his morning prayer, as he sat alone before the early morning fire which he had made, was the gladsome experience of his Christian life I remem- ber to have heard in his latest years, and I have carried the thought of it in my mind ever since. It was the filial communion, intimate and loving, of a son with the Divine Father. There is something very interesting in the thought of the old pastorates which continued for half a century so different from the brief and rapidly changing ones of to-day. But there was in general a loss of effective- ness in the later years, I think, which was the result of the length of time. The same voice had been too often heard; the monotone of thought had become a little wearisome; the authority of the governing power had begun to be, in some measure, a burden. "Forty years would have been the better limit," I am sure, was the thought of many at the end. But, after all, there was a power in those lives of the former time, and the men who lived them were often as fully qualified to rule as they were disposed to do so. This was true of Dr. McEwen. He had a humor withal which made him a reasonable and tactful ruler, as he showed when the ending of his service came. At this time though his resignation was offered the prominent men of his congregation had the feeling that, in view of his char- acter and history, he could hardly be expected willingly and completely to give up his power. Some of them, accordingly so I was told years ago waited upon him, and frankly stated their apprehensions. They then pro- ceeded to request him to promise that he would not interfere with the management of church affairs and the church life; and in doing this, th'ey presented the 335 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN matter with much detail asking him to say definitely that he would refrain from all action in each particular case specified. He assented to their urgent and per- sistent requests. A short time after the interview, and while the pastor's office was yet unfilled, a church meet- ing was held, and he was asked to open it with prayer. To the surprise of all present, he declined. The next day one of the church members met him on the street, and questioned him as to the reason why he did not offer the prayer at the meeting. "Oh," said he, "I agreed that I wouldn't." He was evidently adequate to the emergency. His answer showed such evenness of temper on his own part, and at the same time carried with it such a felicitous suggestion respecting the pres- sure which had been put upon him, that every one who heard the story had a more kindly feeling toward him because of it. To the end he remained the most honored and revered citizen of the city. Drs. Porter and Eldridge were men of a different type from the two whom I have mentioned. They were far more content to influence others without exercising, or trying to exercise, positive control. They were, both of them, men who were satisfied with a life and work in the quietness of a small country town. Dr. Porter had the very rare fortune of holding for a period of more than fifty years the office of pastor in the church of the town in which he was born and grew to manhood. As his life moved onward he seemed, as it were, to center the town in himself. He became, more and more truly, the vital force and inspiring power in the com- munity as related to all things pertaining to the higher sphere of living. Young and old alike looked upon him with reverence and love. Children and grandchildren recognized the saintly element in his character and yielded themselves to its influence, as the parents and 336 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN grandparents had done in the earlier time. As Drs. Woolsey and Bushnell said of him, he was a marked exception to the universality of the proverb : A prophet is without honor in his own country. "And yet," Dr. Bushnell adds, "it was not honor exactly that his towns- men learned to pay him, but something deeper and closer to necessity. We do not so much honor our heads as accept them, and let them go through our body ; giving dear welcome to what they think, contrive, and impel in our motions all the benefits they propose, all the configurations of body, and feeling, and life in which their sway is exerted. So he grew up with his people as they grew, went with them week by week and year by year in his teachings, and they took him pervasively." He was, indeed, we may truly say, a beautiful example of the best New England pastor of the olden time. But while he was retiring- in his disposition, and content with his home surroundings as related to his work and his enjoyment, he had, by reason of his wisdom and his high character, his unusual intelligence and equally uncommon soundness of judgment, a wide in- fluence among the clergy of the State. His counsel, therefore, was often sought for and greatly valued. These qualities and powers made him a very useful and highly honored member of the Governing Board of the College. Dr. Eldridge was a man of much intellectual power and activity among the ablest ministers of the common- wealth. But he, like Dr. Porter, was one of those who live happily in a limited sphere. His own thoughts and studies were more to him than anything that per- tained to the Wider and more public life of the world. At the same time, he held himself in readiness for the call of duty, whether at home or abroad. When moved 337 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to action, he exhibited the natural force of his character. In public discussions of questions of importance in their bearings upon the welfare of the community or the Church, he was often roused to eloquence in the ad- vocacy of what he believed to be right. On such occa- sions he displayed true oratorical power. Dr. Eldridge and his college classmate, Rev. Edwin R. Gilbert, a gentleman of sterling character and judi- cious in his opinions and actions, were the youngest members of the Board at the time. They were grad- uates of twenty-nine years' standing, and had already passed beyond the age of fifty. Most of the other Clerical Fellows who elected me to my professorship were at that time approaching the end of their official career. One of them, however, the Rev. George J. Tillotson, continued in the membership of the Corpora- tion for thirty years after that date, and was among those who, in 1886, gave me the appointment to the Presidency of the institution. His term of service ex- tended over a longer period than that of any other Fellow of the College since its foundation, with the exception of his colleagues, Dr. Porter, whose term was of equal length, and Dr. David Smith, the duration of whose official life exceeded his by a single year. Of the membership then representing the State all have passed beyond this life some of them, long since. They were men of usefulness in their time, and, as indicated by the official position given them by their fellow-citizens, of prominence in the communities to which they belonged. It is a pleasure to me to remember, as I look back over the years, that among this company of gentlemen, whose kindly judgment determined my life-work for me, was the venerable man who, in the earliest part of my undergraduate course, had filled the chief office of administration in the College. That the benediction of 338 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN President Day rested upon me at the beginning of my career as a teacher at Yale was a cause for gratitude. The administration of President Woolsey, with refer- ence to its main features, has been already characterized in the description which I have given of the man. It was certainly as is fully recognized by all who are familiar with its record one of the great administra- tions of the College history. That which especially distinguished it in relation to the growth and develop- ment of the institution, was the higher ideal of scholar- ship which it introduced. It was this that gave it its prominence in the order of progress from the earlier days towards the later ones. Following, as it did, after what I have called the creative period, coincident with the first Presidency of the century, and also after the next era, when the principles and laws of the permanent Yale life were established, it seemed to have its place, as if by a Providential arrangement, just where and when it was needed with reference to the true growth of the institution. Its work, as we may now see in reviewing the past history, would have been unfitted for the earlier days. There was, for the best interests, a necessity that it should rest upon, and have its beginning in, what those days had accomplished in preparation for it. Had the work, on the other hand, been longer delayed, the in- spiring force in the subsequent development of the Uni- versity would have been lost. The growth of the institution, however, manifested itself during the years of his Presidency, not only through the advance in scholarship, but in other spheres and departments of its life. The increase in the number of students from five hundred and eighty-seven to seven hundred and fifty-five; the more complete organization of the Scientific School; the establishment of the School of the Fine Arts; the earlier work "of rebuilding the 339 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Theological School; the first movement toward the be- ginning of new life for the Law Department; the pro- vision for more systematic Graduate studies; all these things indicated progress which was worthy of the new age. In addition to Alumni Hall which, as mentioned on an earlier page, was completed in 1853, seven other Col- lege buildings were erected within the period of his administration : three of them, namely, the Old Gym- nasium, afterwards used as a Dining Hall, Farnam Hall and Durfee Hall, for the Academical Department; two for the Divinity School, East Divinity Hall and the Marquand Chapel; one for the Medical Department; and one for the School of the Fine Arts. The decision which was made by the College authorities to place Farnam and Durfee Halls where they now stand de- termined the plan of the quadrangular arrangement for the future, and also the final removal of the older build- ings of the so-called Brick Row. The permanent loca- tion of the Scientific School was also settled by the assignment to it of the Medical College building facing College Street at its north end, which was vacated when the Medical Department took possession of its new quar- ters on York Street. The first marked event of his era in relation to the enlargement of the resources of the institution was the movement for the securing of one hundred thousand dollars, to which allusion has been made on an earlier page. The addition of this fund to the limited endow- ment of the College was most serviceable at the time, and had much significance as bearing upon the future. Other and very valuable gifts were received, within the period of his administration for purposes immediately connected with the work of instruction, as well as for the erection of needed buildings, among which those of Mr. and Mrs. Street for the School of the Fine Arts, that of 340 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Mr. George Peabody for the Museum of Natural His- tory, and the earliest donations of Mr. Sheffield for the Scientific School, are deserving of special mention. The available funds of the College were increased in these twenty-five years by nearly or quite a million dollars. The President and his associates in the Faculties cer- tainly wrought well and accomplished a good work in this sphere of effort, where successful results are so essential to the institution's life. At the close of his Presidency, Dr. Woolsey was elected to membership in the Corporation, as one of the Clerical Fellows, as his predecessor, Dr. Day, had been under like circumstances. The election in each of the two cases was a gratification to the ex-President and in accord- ance with his wishes, I am sure, even as the acceptance of the offered position on the part of each was gratifying to the Board. Each of the two was also, in his turn, an able and valuable member of the body during the years of his continuance in it. The wisdom and counsel of each were highly appreciated. It has been for a long period, however, my personal feeling that it is better for the President to retire altogether from the College gov- ernment when he withdraws from his administrative of- fice to the end that his successor may have the least possible hindrance in carrying out his own views. The judgment of these two venerable gentlemen may have been wiser than my own, but mine, as I think, is worthy of consideration, and it has governed my personal action. Dr. Day continued to hold his position in the Corpor- ation, as already intimated on an earlier page, for twen- ty-one years after he left the Presidential office. Dr. Woolsey remained in his membership for fourteen years. Each of them was, accordingly, in the Board until very near the end of his successor's official term. XVIII. Dr. Porter's Presidency Some Men of His Era. DR. WOOLSEY made announcement, in the au- tumn of 1870, of his intention to resign his office at the next following Commencement. Abundant time was, therefore, given for the considera- tion and decision of the matter of the new appointment that was to be made. The discussion of the subject, as is always the fact under such circumstances, was carried on for some months, both in the Governing Board of the College and outside of the membership of that body. Three or four gentlemen were more or less earnestly advocated as well qualified to fill the posi- tion which would soon be vacated. But, after a time, the Corporation became settled in their conviction that Professor Noah Porter was the most desirable person for the place. When the end of the College year had nearly arrived, and the members of the Board were called together for the purpose of electing a new Presi- dent, Dr. Porter received the appointment. He began the discharge of the Presidential duties at the opening of the autumn term of 1871, but the inauguration serv- ices were not held until the i ith of October. Dr. Porter was just approaching his sixtieth birthday when he was installed in his new position. He was thus considerably older than any of his predecessors, since 1795, when they entered upon their work. As a natural consequence, the period of his Presidency was much shorter than theirs. Dr. Dwight, at his accession to the office, in the year just named, was only forty-three years of age. Dr. Day, when he assumed its responsibilities, 342 PRESIDENT NOAH PORTER MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was but forty- four; and Dr. Woolsey, in his turn, was forty-five. Dr. Porter was different in his mental gifts and in his characteristics from Dr. Woolsey. He was, however, an intimate friend of the latter, and he had during the entire course of the latter's administration co-operated with him as a college officer, and had stood in the closest relations to him as an instructor of the Senior class. His executive ability, as I think, did not equal that of Dr. Woolsey, whose gifts in this respect were, indeed, quite remarkable. On account of this fact, he did not, at all times, hold himself in readiness, as completely as his predecessor had done, to assume the authority of a gov- erning official. He was accordingly not so strong as a leader, and not so efficient a helper in matters which re- quired instant energy and a general's activity. There was, if I may so express it, somewhat less of the fortiter in re element in his manhood, and somewhat more of the suaviter in modo element. The mingling of these ele- ments in different measures may have been the cause of this distinction between the two men. Dr. Woolsey, as we may say, was a ruler by his very nature, while Dr. Porter was not. Dr. Porter had, however, some of the characteristics which eminently qualify a man to guide and influence a company of educated youth, such as we find assembled in a college. Not only was he in his bearing and manner winsome and attractive to all, but he possessed in an unusual degree that peculiar kind of intelligence which belongs to New England and which appreciates and has a readiness to adapt itself to the conditions and circum- stances of life as they present themselves. He was free from the fears which beset and disturb many college officers in their governmental or disciplinary dealings with students. Though he had a keen insight into character, and thus was gifted with the power of" forming accurate 343 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN judgments respecting men, whether young or old, his disposition led him to believe in the possibilities of good that were open for all, and thus to treat them in a hope- ful way. The two men were unlike each other, also, in what I may call the natural outgoing of their minds. Dr. Woolsey was a man of extraordinary powers, and his intellectual range was wide and large. But Dr. Porter had an ever fresh enthusiasm, and constantly forth- putting interest, as related to all subjects of elevated thought .and knowledge, which reminded one of the eagerness of a child for what is new or beautiful. Dr. Porter was less under the influence of the earlier religious education of the century and, as the result of this fact, he had a happier freedom in the spiritual sphere. He had in his nature also a larger measure of the optimistic character, which has confidence that results will prove better than the present circumstances may seem to indi- cate, and will prove thus even if we do not ourselves intervene to direct the progress of events towards them. These differences and others which might be mentioned were such as may, no doubt, have tended to establish and strengthen the friendship that existed between them. They may possibly have contributed, in their influence upon Dr. Woolsey's mind, toward the feeling which he had that Dr. Porter was the man who possessed peculiar fitness to be his successor in the office which he was him- self about to lay aside. It is well known that Dr. Wool- sey heartily favored the election of Dr. Porter. The fifteen years of Dr. Porter's Presidency were, in many respects, prosperous years. The forward move- ment of the College towards the larger life of the later period was more conspicuous during his official term than it had been m the time of Dr. Woolsey's administration. Dr. Woolsey was nearer the beginning, in this regard, 344 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN and the early development in all cases, though as real, is less manifest than that which follows afterwards. At the Commencement season which was the dividing- point between the two Presidencies, a proposal was made and adopted with much enthusiasm, to undertake the work of securing a large fund for the benefit of the in- stitution as a whole, which should be commemorative of President Woolsey and should bear his name. The work was at once entered upon with energy, and the results were at the outset encouraging. Notwithstanding the period of financial depression, which began not long afterwards and proved more continuous and serious than had been at first anticipated, a sum of nearly one hun- dred and seventy thousand dollars was realized from the effort. This movement and the success which at- tended it seemed to awaken new interest and a new im- pulse in the minds of the graduates and friends of the College. At the same time, the growing wealth of the people and the broadening ideas of the age quickened the spirit of generosity throughout the country in a man- ner and measure unknown in earlier days. When the temporary difficulties and fears of the years of depres- sion had passed away, the era of greater benefactions opened. The College, accordingly, began to realize what had been almost beyond the thought of the most hopeful of those who were nearest the center of its life the possibility of an enlargement of its resources which should, in some true meaning of the words, meet the increasing demands of the future. The increase in the funds of all the departments within this period of fifteen years was nearly a million dollars. The first establishment of what are called University Funds, as separate and distinct from those of the several depart- ments, was rendered possible by reason of this increase. If to the sum mentioned the amounts received for the erection of buildings be added about eight hundred 345 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN thousand dollars the institution, in its endowments and its means of providing for its students, may be said to have been placed in quite an advanced position. In these years ten new buildings were erected name- ly, the Battell Chapel, Durfee and Lawrance Halls, and the Sloane Laboratory, for the Academical Department ; North Sheffield Hall, for the Scientific School; West Divinity Hall and the Bacon Memorial Library, for the Theological Department; Dwight Hall, for the Young Men's Christian Association and the general religious interests of the institution; the Astronomical Observa- tory, and the Peabody Museum of Natural History. These buildings were a most important and valuable ad- dition to the possessions of the University, and the ad- vantages resulting from them have been very highly appreciated. The quadrangular arrangement of buildings on the College Square was planned, and a beginning was made in the work of carrying the plan into effect, as has been already stated, within the official term of Dr. Woolsey. As a consequence of locating four of the buildings named above in accordance with the proposed arrangement, the northern half of the quadrangle was made complete, be- fore Dr. Porter's retirement, and thus, so much was ac- complished that the prospect of the final realization of what was desired seemed in the highest degree encour- aging. As I thus refer to the earlier stages of this great work, I may without impropriety, I trust, express my regret, as a son of Yale greatly interested in its architectural fu- ture, that the first of these buildings of the northern half of the quadrangle, Farnam Hall, erected in 1870, and the last, Lawrance Hall, completed in the summer of 1886, were built of brick. That the new edifices should have been all alike of stone seems to me beyond the possibility of question. If the buildings on the original 346 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN campus had all been stone buildings, and the use of brick had been reserved for certain others placed elsewhere, I am sure that the men of the coming time would have had a deeper satisfaction. Comparatively little advance was made in the move- ment towards elective studies in the Academical Depart- ment within the years previous to 1871, when Dr. Wool- sey retired. The first five years after that date also wit- nessed few changes in this regard. Both Dr. Porter and his predecessor, though they had openness of mind with reference to all true learning, were believers in the older system of required studies, and were strongly attached to it. Hence they were not only indisposed to favor rad- ical innovations, but also disinclined to go forward at all in this matter, unless it were by slow and well-considered steps. There were, however, two occasions in the period of Dr. Porter's administration, when the curriculum was, in this regard, to a considerable extent rearranged and newly adjusted. One of these occasions was in 1876, when nearly one-half of the studies of the last two years of the course were made elective. The other was near the close of his term, in 1884. At this time all studies of the Senior year, except those pertaining to the sphere of Mental Science, were opened to the choice of each individual student. The urgency of his associates in the Faculty, on these occasions, overcame his hesitancy or induced him to yield to their wishes. The introduction of the elective system in the degree thus indicated into the working arrangements of this de- partment, and the continuous growth in the number of students in the whole institution occasioned a demand for a larger body of instructors. Fortunately the in- crease in the resources of the College rendered it possible to meet this demand in considerable measure. The mem- bership of the Faculty received valuable additions in 347 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN both of its sections that of permanent and that of tem- porary teachers. As indicative of the progress and growth of the insti- tution during these years, several interesting facts addi- tional to those already mentioned may be briefly noticed. The number of students increased from seven hundred and fifty-five, in 1871, to one thousand and seventy-six, in 1886. This increase was almost wholly in the de- partments outside of the Academical, the growth in the membership of the latter department being only forty- one. Evidently the development in the matter of num- bers was towards the University, rather than the College a fact of interest, and suggestive as to the near future. It was the special development which was greatly to be desired at that particular critical time. With reference to the Professional Schools, it may be stated, that the School of Theology came to the more full realization of the results of long preparatory years of work; that of Law was brought to new life by the energy of its new and, at that time, young body of instructors; that of Medicine was greatly advanced, in the value of the education which it offered, through the adoption of a new system of study and teaching. The School of the Fine Arts, at the same time, passed through its earliest stages with success and made itself ready for its larger and more useful work. Through the erection of the Peabody Museum, the exceedingly rich and valuable pa- leontological and zoological collections made by Profes- sors Marsh and Verrill were opened to the public as well as to the students, and by reason of the gifts of Lieuten- ant-Governor Winchester and the Hillhouse family, the work connected with the Astronomical Observatory was made possible. The Scientific School developed largely and most satisfactorily along the lines which had been determined by its officers in the later part of Dr. Wool- sey's administration. The Academical Department took 348 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to itself new and more vigorous life as the years moved onward. The young men in the several Faculties, who were in very considerable numbers, gave themselves with much energy to the work of preparation for the coming time, as well as to that of the immediate present. The older men were, in their measure, sympathetic and help- ful in the forward movement. All looked earnestly to a new era, and hoped for its coming. At the close of the first year of Dr. Porter's official term, the great change in the constitution of the Board of Trustees, which had been suggested by President Woolsey and rendered possible through his efforts and the efforts of others who co-operated with him, was con- summated in the election of six members of the body by the graduates. These members took the places of the six members selected from the State Senate. The nat- ural result of this change was the awakening of what may perhaps be called a more organized interest in the institution on the part of its alumni than had been known in earlier times. Individual attachment to the College had always been conspicuous. But now the graduates as a body were called to choose their own representa- tives in the Governing Board, and the attention of all alike was thus more definitely turned to the subject of the College growth and welfare. It was, doubtless, for- tunate for the new President, rather than otherwise, that this important change was so nearly contemporaneous with his entrance upon the duties of his office. Many questions arose afterwards which occasioned much dis- cussion and even divided parties. But in the midst of all differences this select body of graduates at the center of the institution's life held a position given them by their fellow alumni and shared the responsibility of all movements of whatever character. Dr. Porter, like Drs. Woolsey and Day, was through- out his Presidential term, a teacher, as well as the execu- 349 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tive of the institution. The Presidency, though nomin- ally a University office, was in reality until 1886 so far as its sphere of constant service was concerned more like the chief position in the Academical Department with certain additional duties of general oversight at- tached to it. The relations of the office to the other departments were comparatively indirect and informal. These departments, except in cases of special importance and when the attention of the executive was particularly requested, were left entirely in the charge of their own officials. I remember that I once addressed a brief letter to Dr. Woolsey, near the end of his Presidential term, in which I expressed to him, for myself and on behalf of my colleagues of the Theological Faculty, my thanks for his kindness and helpfulness in connection with our work for the Divinity School and its upbuilding. In his re- ply, after some gracious words in acknowledgment of my letter, he said, "With respect to helpfulness, I do not know that I have done anything for the Theological professors, except to allow them to raise their own sal- aries." This remark, which was quite characteristic of the man, was suggestive of the condition of things to which I allude. Under such circumstances, it was altogether practica- ble for the President to add to his own more special and appropriate duties those which pertain to a professor's chair, or to continue in the work of the professorship which he had previously held. The instruction in Men- tal and Moral Philosophy was under Dr. Porter's sole charge during the first ten years of his Presidency. In the five remaining years, he had the aid and co-operation of Dr. Ladd, who was called to a professorship in this department in 1881. Still later, as the sphere of the studies was constantly enlarging, the assistance of addi- tional instructors was secured; but this was after he had retired from the executive office and near the end of his 350 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN life. By means of this teaching he kept himself in famil- iar relations with the students during the final year of their academic course, in a measure and degree scarcely possible when there is no frequency of meeting between a college officer and the young men under his care in the recitation or lecture room. But he was, of course, pre- vented by it from giving his exclusive attention to the work of his higher and more special office. The alert- ness of his mind, however, and the wide range of his intellectual interests, rendered the hindrances thus occa- sioned less significant than might otherwise have been the case. As I look backward over the years of President Por- ter's official term, and bring before my mind the results which were accomplished within them, my impression of what they realized for the College is deepened. They were certainly years of marked progress in the growth of the institution. On his retirement from his executive office, though he was somewhat older than Dr. Woolsey and Dr. Day were at the time when they resigned, he did not sever his connection with the College or with- draw from the work of instruction. On the contrary, he retained his professorship, and he continued to dis- charge the duties pertaining to it until his death, which occurred on the fourth of March, 1892. With all his mental activity, which moved outward in many lines, there was united a desire and fondness for communicat- ing his thoughts and imparting instruction to others. He had been for so many years a teacher, that he felt the continuance of his work with his classes to be essential to his happiness. Beyond the limits of his lecture-room, however, he took no part in the College life. The priv- ilege of withdrawing from all ordinary duties and re- sponsibilities, other than those connected with teaching, was granted him by the Corporation, at his request, when he resigned the Presidency. He was thus relieved 35i MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN from everything that might have proved burdensome, while the work which was especially congenial to his feeling was left in his charge. My own personal associations with President Porter were most friendly, from the days when I first met him in the membership of the Faculty to the close of his career. He was, as I have already indicated, united with me in the work of theological instruction for sev- eral years, beginning with the time when I was called to my professorship in the Divinity School and continu- ing until 1866. I saw much of him during that period, and on important occasions sought his counsel and ad- vice. He was appreciative of the thoughts and question- ings of those who were much younger than himself. I can well remember the help and encouragement which he gave me at some critical moments in our work for the rebuilding of the School. Had it not been for his kindly words and those of Professor Thacher, I might not have pressed forward in my part of that work to its completion. Professor Thacher was a source of strength to the ad- ministration of Dr. Porter, as he had been to that of President Woolsey and not only in its relation to the students, but also in its larger and more widely extended sphere of duty. By the very force of his nature and the tendencies of his mind, he was almost compelled to take a leading part in the organization and direction of any work or enterprise in which he was called to have a share. He had certain powers which the President did not possess in equal measure, and for this reason he was helpful to him in carrying out efficiently some of his wisest plans. His influence with the Faculty and the Corporation equalled or even surpassed that of any other College officer. This influence he had acquired, in large measure, by his long-continued and highly useful service in the institution. But it had its foundation in the prac- 352 PROFESSOR THOMAS A. THACHER MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tical wisdom and forceful character of the man. For a number of years between 1874 and 1884, the work of securing much-needed additions to the resources of the College was in large measure assigned to him. This work he carried forward with great energy and marked success; but by reason of the demands which it made upon him, and of the serious impairment of his health at this time, he was obliged to lay aside mainly or wholly the duties connected with his office of instruction. The service which he rendered in this special line of effort was of so much value that the Corporation presented to him their most grateful acknowledgment of his gen- erous devotion to the welfare of the institution. He . lived until within three months of the close of the ad- ministration. He was thus a power in connection with it throughout its course. Professor Thacher, at the time of his death, had al- ready entered upon his seventy-second year. His very intimate and highly valued associate in the department of the Ancient Classics, Professor Hadley, when he died, was not yet fifty-two. The twenty years which were given to the one, and denied to the other, separated the two men in the measure of the opportunities that life offered. But each filled out to its fullness the meas- ure that was granted him, through faithful service and with rich results. Every son of Yale, as he heard of the ending of Pro- fessor Hadley's career, wished most sincerely that the score of years might have been added for him also, yet with this wish was united the feeling of deepest gratitude that his work in the College had extended over a quarter of a century, and that so many classes had enjoyed the happy fortune of being under his influence. The sadness which came to all with the tidings of his death was that which accompanied the thought of what the future, had life continued, might have realized. He had, as it 353 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN seemed to us, just reached the beginning of the harvest time the time when the fruits of his varied learning and his intellectual resources of every sort would be given abundantly to the world, and when he might by his writings become for scholars everywhere what he had already been for his pupils through his teaching, a highly esteemed helper and guide. Within the period of his professorship Professor Hadley pressed forward his studies in many lines. While he devoted himself with the most conscientious fidelity to the special department of learning in which he was called to give instruction and became, as a consequence, the equal of any Greek scholar in the country, his active mind was constantly putting forth its energies in new spheres, and to the end of yet larger attainments. His knowledge of the Hebrew language was such that earn- est and intelligent friends of the College, after the death of Professor Gibbs in 1861, urged his appointment to the chair of Hebrew in the Divinity School. At a little later time he was most favorably thought of in connec- tion with the professorship of History, then recently established in the Academical Department. The Law professors were glad to secure his services as a lecturer on the subject of Roman Law. The acquisitions which he had made, not only in Hebrew, but also in Sanscrit, were evidenced by his membership in the American Oriental Society, and by the fact of his election to the presidency of that organization. By reason of his high standing as a Biblical scholar, he was chosen as one of the members of the New Testament section of the com- mittee who were asked to prepare the Revised English Version of the Bible. He was among the earlier lead- ers in the development of the science of Comparative Philology during the latter half of the century which has just closed. The knowledge which he possessed of the languages of modern Europe, including German, 354 PROFESSOR JAMES HADLEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN French, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish, was thorough and accurate, while his acquaintance with his own lan- guage, both in its literature and in the matter of its sources and early forms, rendered him worthy of a place among English scholars. He had such gifts and acquisi- tions as related to mathematical science that, if he had made the study of it his life-work, he would undoubtedly have attained eminence. There was, indeed, no one in the whole company of Yale teachers, in those days, who equalled him in the range of his learning, or in the ease with which his mind worked in accordance with the out- going of its impulses. For a man like him, however so eager, yet so patient in his studies ; so thorough and conscientious in his daily work; so high in his ideals, and so hopeful that he might reach them if he moved still farther onward and upward the years beyond fifty are the years of author- ship. They are the years which, in a peculiar sense, form for such a man the fruitage season. If they could have been granted him, we may believe that the results would have greatly enriched American scholarship, while they would also have given additional honor to his name. The place which he held among the scholarly men of his time will be fully recognized by all who acquaint themselves with the past history. Professors Thacher and Hadley, as intimated on ear- lier pages of this volume, differed from each other in many points, but through their personal influence, as well as their teaching, they contributed largely, and we may perhaps say in equal measure, to the development of the true life of the academic community. The power of Mr. Hadley as related to his students was more strik- ingly and predominantly manifested on the intellectual side. He appeared before them as a genuine and almost ideal scholar, and his every presentation of himself had a certain stimulative force for the awakening of their 355 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN mental energies and the exciting of their best desires for knowledge and culture. Mr. Thacher's influence, on the other hand, came more evidently from the active working of his entire manhood. There was in his nature a forth-putting tendency which impelled him, at all times, to move outward, and to use every gift of mind or character in positive effort for those who were under his educating care. The two men left the impress of thought and inward life upon their pupils. But in the one case it was the result more exclusively of the per- sonality in itself, while in the other it was due also to the outgoing of the personality in action. We all, who knew them, gladly remember their long and happy union in the service of the College, as we see within ourselves the helpful influence of their lives and of their work. Professor Hadley lived only a single year after Dr. Porter's accession to the Presidency. Twelve years afterwards, his younger associate and successor in the Greek Department, Professor Packard, of whom I have elsewhere written briefly, reached the end of his career. The College thus lost, within the period of this adminis- tration, two prominent Greek scholars who, by reason of their ability and learning, had acquired for themselves most honorable fame. The loss was the occasion of very sincere regret and grief on the part of the entire company of instructors who had been intimately con- nected with them in their work and life. It was fully appreciated also by other collegiate institutions, and by all educated men who felt a deep interest in the progress of classical education in the country. Two professors of prominence in connection with the Scientific School one of them in its early beginnings, and the other during many years of its history whose life-work came to its close not long before Dr. Porter's retirement from his office, will be remembered by the 356 PROFESSOR LEWIS R. PACKARD MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN older graduates. These two gentlemen were Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and Professor William A. Nor- ton. The former died in 1885, and the latter in 1883. Professor Norton was not a son of Yale by reason of his early education, but through his long-continued serv- ice in our board of instruction he became, in the most complete sense, one of our fraternity, even as if he had known no other home from the beginning. He was possessed of the true Yale spirit, and was recognized by all as in heart and soul a Yale man. In his student years he entered the Military Academy at West Point. Soon after finishing his course there he was called to an office of instruction in that institution, which he accepted and filled with credit to himself for two years. At the end of this period he received an invitation to a professor- ship in the University of the City of New York. Here he continued for five years, and then for eleven years he had connection with Delaware College, as one of its professors, or its President. Subsequently the trustees of Brown University secured his services as a member of its Faculty. The term of his service in this institution was quite brief, but it was long enough to secure for him very high esteem and warm affection from his pupils, a considerable company of whom followed him to New Haven when he entered upon his work at Yale. He came to us when he was forty-two years of age, and after an experience of twenty-one years as a teacher. Immediately upon his entrance into his ,new sphere of duty, his ability, thoroughness, enthusiasm, and excel- lence as an instructor commended him to his pupils, while these same gifts and others equally conspicuous gave his colleagues in the Faculty the assurance that his presence among them would be of continual benefit to the School. For thirty-one years the life-time of a generation he discharged the duties attendant upon his position, ever devoting himself alike to the interests of 357 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN his department of science and to the well-being of those who came to him for instruction. Those years were, all of them, rich in scholarly endeavor and attainment. They were also marked by the growth of most genuine character in himself, as well as by most helpful influence for others, young and old. With reference to Professor Norton's relations to his students, Professor Du Bois said of him soon after his death: "As with the best teachers, the advantages un- consciously imbibed by his pupils from personal contact ; the unconscious influence of high ideals; of love of truth and honor; of personal integrity, of scrupulous exact- ness; these were lessons daily enforced and more val- uable than any of those he so well knew how to extract from the text-book, or illustrate on the black-board. His patience and courtesy were unfailing. No student, how- ever trying or dull, ever heard from him an impatient or sarcastic word. With perfect gentleness, a thoroughness which spared no pains, and a clearness of exposition which, in the writer's experience, is very rare, he took every student with him in the prescribed course, and sent him away at graduation not only a wiser but a bet- ter man, and a personal and enthusiastic friend." Pro- fessor Du Bois adds, "A teacher's best testimonial is the esteem and respect of his pupils; his best reward their love and confidence." These most fitting words were written by one who had familiar relations with Professor Norton, both as a pupil and in the membership of the Faculty. I give myself the privilege of quoting them, not only as descriptive of the man, but as suggestive also in their wider applica- tion. The professor was characterized in his teachings, his colleague says, by a thoroughness which spared no pains and a rare clearness of exposition and so his pupils became wiser men, because of their meeting him in their undergraduate years. But he had also, 'it is 358 PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. NORTON MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN added, an unfailing courtesy and gentleness. This it was that made them his enthusiastic friends. Not court- esy only, but unfailing courtesy. How different the one is from the other. How much less frequently we see the latter than the former in the relations be- tween teachers and their pupils, or even between gen- tlemen and their associates. What an emphasis the word unfailing carries in itself, rendering the virtue almost a new and loftier one, and giving in the sphere of friend- ship a creative and inspiring force. The college in- structor who has this gift of courtesy that never fails as the outflow of the soul's life within him, is sure of the loving remembrance of his students, and thus of his best reward. But the source of the outflow, we may well remember, is ever to be found in "the patience and gen- tleness" of the inner life. Professor Norton was, as I think, one of the class of college teachers to whose minds the duty of instruction which they owe to their pupils appears to be the first and highest of all obligations resting upon them. Such men, and this was true in his case, make research subordinate to this duty, and engage in it, primarily, that they may give the results to their classes. As a consequence, though they may be scholars of a superior order, they do not publish as much in the form of treatises or vol- umes, as do those for whom their personal investigations and acquirements are the matter of chief importance. Everything, however, which Professor Norton gave to the public bore the marks of much ability and learning, and was received with great respect by those who were devoted to his department of science. It was fortunate for our University that he came to it at so early a time in the history of the new School, which was destined to accomplish a work far beyond the largest expectations of its friends at the beginning. It was fortunate, also, that his years of work within it, and on behalf of its 359 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN students, were prolonged until he had reached the age of seventy-three. Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr. the younger Silli- man, as he was often called, in distinction from his father was a member of the Yale Class of 1837. The inheritance of scientific aptitudes and tastes came to him in such full measure that as soon as, by reason of his age, the opportunity for the choice of the work for his mature life presented itself, he had only to make his decision in accordance with the impulses of his nature. We may not doubt that his daily observation of his father's enthusiasm also, and of the success and satis- faction which were so conspicuous in his working, ren- dered him yet more earnest in the desire to follow in the same pathway. Accordingly, he began his professional career almost immediately after his graduation, becom- ing an assistant in the Laboratory of the period, and thus giving himself the best advantages for the prosecu- tion of his studies and investigations. At the date of my entrance upon the College course he had already undertaken the work of instruction, if not in the way of aiding his father to some extent in his regular exercises with his pupils, yet at least as a teacher of special stu- dents who resorted to New Haven for the purpose of acquiring knowledge in his department of science. We may believe that the presence of these students quickened and strengthened in his mind, and in his father's also, the desire which their favorite studies and the opening possibilities that seemed to await them in the early future, had already awakened to establish a new school within the College sphere, in which Natural and Physical Science should have the pre-eminent place. However this may be, it is a fact of our College history, that in 1846, in co-operation with Mr. John P. Norton, who had re- cently been one of his studentSj he took a most active 360 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN part in pressing the matter of founding the school, upon the attention of the President and Fellows, and that a year later, when decisive action was taken by the author- ities, the two gentlemen assumed the responsibility of its organization and of the work of instruction which was to be carried forward in it. They certainly deserve to be held in most kindly remembrance, as well as in honor, for this great service which they thus rendered, in their early manhood, both to science and to Yale. As indicative of the limitations of the period in re- spect to the financial resources of the College, and of the caution which, as a consequence, was wont to be exhib- ited by the central authorities, a fact of interest as re- lated to this matter may be mentioned. The withdrawal of President Day from his office, which was contempora- neous with the action establishing the school, left the Presidential house then standing on the College Square vacant; and, as Dr. Woolsey did not wish to occupy it, it was placed at the disposal of the Corporation. That body appointed the two young men to professorships which, so far as salary was concerned, were almost en- tirely dependent on the fees that should be received from the small number of students who might be expected to take their instruction; and then no doubt, at their re- quest assigned this house to the new School for its uses. It was regarded as impracticable, however, to grant the professors the occupancy of it free of rent, or to make provision for the expense of fitting and furnishing it as a laboratory. The burden of meeting all such expenses was laid upon the professors, as if the entire work had been personal to themselves. The governing authorities of that era were certainly gifted with the virtue so often claimed and commended by political leaders of making "an economical use of the public money." But it was a virtue which the limitations of the period ren- dered not only more essential to the continuance of the 361 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN life of the institution, but more easy of attainment, than it sometimes is in these later and more prosperous days. The old Corporation must have had daily lessons respect- ing this virtue which made a deep impression on their minds. Mr. Silliman's work in the Scientific School was, I think, less in its measure than that of Professor John P. Norton, even from the first; certainly it was so after the year 1849, when he was elected to a professorship in the Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky. From that time until 1854, though he still retained his con- nection with Yale, his official position in the other insti- tution rendered his presence with us, except for brief periods, quite impracticable. In those early years the daily duties in connection with teaching the young men who were students, rested mainly upon Mr. Norton, and he was the inspiring force which impelled them to their efforts and investigations. Mr. Norton had only a very brief career. He died in 1852, at the age of thirty-one; but those who knew his work and what he accomplished are united in the feeling that he was the one who laid the foundations of the greater life and the very remarka- ble success which the school has had in the half-century that has followed his time. In the summer of 1852, just before Professor Nor- ton's death and while Mr. Silliman's work in Louisville was not yet ended, Professors John A. Porter and Wil- liam A. Norton were appointed to official positions in the school, and, as a consequence, they took charge of its instruction and general management during the period of the next four years, until the membership of the Faculty was enlarged by the election of Professors Brush and Johnson to the chairs of Metallurgy, and Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry. Mr. Silliman thus filled a place rather in the sphere of sympathy or friendly aid, than in that of constant service. Indeed, from the year 1854, when he withdrew from his office in 362 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Louisville, he devoted his energies to the work of in- struction in the Academical and Medical Departments. The Professorship which the father had filled for half a century was thus passed to the son. He continued to hold this chair, so far as it had relation to the undergrad- uate college, until 1870; and in its connection with the Medical School until the end of his life. He was, there- fore, in the membership of the professorial board for thirty-nine years. Of Professor Silliman's attainments in science and the results of his work in his chosen field of study, I can hardly regard myself as competent to express an opinion. That he was a man of very active mind, and of promi- nent ability and much learning, is evidenced by his scien- tific publications; by his articles in the American Journal of Science, and the editorial care of that periodical which he shared with his father for some years, and for more than a generation with his brother-in-law, Professor James D. Dana; and also by his special work in the sphere of applied science. He was a graduate of ten or eleven years' standing when my classmates first came to know him. With the freedom in which undergraduates indulge themeselves, we were wont to speak of him as " Young Ben." But college names and titles, as given to men by their pupils, are, at the most, only half-way disrespectful. Indeed, they are, oftentimes, simply affectionate representing the kindly feeling of those who give them. The man, whether young or old, who is aggrieved or distressed by the discovery that he has what we call a nickname in the academic community, may well be recommended to trans- fer himself to some other sphere of life. His condition in a college will certainly be hopeless, in this regard. But I doubt whether Professor Silliman was ever dis- turbed in mind because he was thus distinguished from his more venerable father who, as I have already stated, 363 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was generally called by us " Uncle Ben." The elder and the younger were, both of them, too youthful in senti- ment and genial in character to misunderstand the feel- ing of their pupils. And after all, "young" is not a title to be rejected; while, as for "uncle," I remember a man of the by-gone years, whom I was privileged to call by this name, every thought of whose life and love fills my soul with pleasure even to this day. Professor Silliman, the younger, of whom I am here writing, had much of his father's geniality. He was kindly to all. The hospitality of his house was appre- ciated by every one who knew him. The winsomeness of his manners rendered him attractive. His readiness for conversation fitted him for social intercourse and made his companionship pleasant to his friends. The knowledge and information which he had gained in dif- ferent lines, through his studies and his travels, he was ever willing to communicate to others and he was thus disposed to be helpful to them. In his temperament he was cheerful and sanguine. A certain roseate view of life seemed to place him apart in his thoughts and hopes from many around him who had, in their own opinion at least, a more just and sound estimate of things. There was something inspiring for him, no doubt, in this mental attitude, but it was attended at times by a possibility of disappointment. His courage and ardor, however, were unfailing, and he moved forward under their influence toward the end which he had in view. One of the very interesting men of the University be- longing to the period of which I am now writing a man whose service within its walls began and ended while Dr. Porter was in the Presidency was Professor S. Wells Williams. After a long and eminent career in China, he was called, in 1877, to the Professorship of the Chinese Language and Literature in our University. 364 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN He accepted the invitation, and discharged the duties of the office until his death, in 1884. Dr. Williams went to China, when he was a young man of only twenty-one years, and in response to a proposal that he should take charge of the missionary printing press which had just been established at Canton. He devoted himself assiduously to the acquisition of the lan- guage and speedily became adequate to the duties to which he was called. In connection with his work he edited and published a monthly journal, the purpose of which was to make known to the people of Europe and the United States the life of the Chinese Empire its government, literature, religion, etc. with a view to the Christianizing of the inhabitants of that part of the world. After residing in China for four or five years, he acquired a knowledge of the language of the Japa- nese, and became so far familiar with it that he was able to act as the interpreter for Commodore Perry and those who accompanied him on the expedition to their country in 1853. Not long after this, he was appointed Secretary of the American Legation at Peking, where in 1858 he rendered valuable assistance in negotiating the important treaty made at that time between China and our country. His entire residence among the Chinese covered a period of nearly forty years. During this period he made himself one of the most eminent scholars in his sphere of studies. He was respected everywhere for his ability, his attainments, and his truly unselfish and Christian labors. His final return to America, in 1876, closed his long career of useful and honorable service in the Eastern world, but a new sphere was happily opened for him in the home land. When he came to Yale in answer to the call of the Corporation, he had reached the age of sixty- five. He was thus in the full ripeness of his learning and his manhood. Seven years he lived in our Academic 365 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN circle, impressing all his associates within its limits as a man of the highest ideals and of the most undoubting Christian faith. Abounding in knowledge and rejoicing in the possession of it for himself, he held himself ever in readiness to impart it to others. His large attain- ments which were of an uncommon order, together with the suggestiveness of his thoughts connected with them, rendered his teaching and his conversation as attractive as it was helpful. The hope of the coming time was very strong in his soul. He had a bright vision of the fu- ture of the people among whom his life had been so largely spent, and was wont to prophesy that his younger contemporaries would witness great and happy results for China before the ending of their life-time. What would have been his feeling, if he had survived until now, and had known of the movements and events of the recent years, we may not say. But that he would have been most deeply interested, and that his confidence in the overruling Divine power would have continued undi- minished, no one who knew him can for a moment ques- tion. His outlook toward the hereafter beyond our present life was peaceful and delightful. Not only were there no doubts nor fears in his mind, but there was ever abiding within him the assurance of hope the hope that was truly an anchor to the soul. Two years before his death, he said to a friend that he sometimes had an almost irrepressible desire to move on into the coming scenes a feeling that he could not wait for the months or years to bring the happiness within his experience. It was a benediction to us all to have him with us in his advancing age, and to see him pass out from among us so calmly and so joyfully at the end. The presence in the University of men like Dr. Will- iams, who are scholars in regions quite outside of the ordinary curriculum of study and who, if they give instruction at all, must give it to but few, is a gain and 366 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN blessing to the university life. Such men may not, and indeed cannot, do the ordinary work of the institution. But they are representatives of learning; and the more truly the University is the home of scholars, the more completely is it worthy of its name. There is an edu- cating power in an institution like ours additional to that of the lecture-room a power in the atmosphere of its scholarly life. During the last few years of President Porter's con- tinuance in the executive office, there was much discussion of questions relating to the general policy of the College. Some of these questions had reference to matters of very considerable importance. The discussion was carried beyond the limits of the academic fraternity and, through the press, to the knowledge and attention of the general public. As a consequence of it, there arose unfortunate divisions between the graduates of the more progressive and those of the more conservative order, which threatened injury to the well-being of the institu- tion. It was perhaps we may say a time when the future and the past met together, and could not thus meet without awakening more or less of conflict. This discussion and division were most noticeable in the period between 1883 and 1885. The classes entering the Col- lege department in this period were somewhat smaller than the average of previous years. This diminution of numbers may have been due, in some degree, to the controversies. Many had the opinion that they were the sole cause of it. But it is more probable that the main occasion of the fact was altogether outside of the academic sphere, in certain temporary financial limita- tions and other unfavorable conditions of the country during those years. The fact itself, however, tended in its influence to accentuate the controversies. By a happy favoring of fortune, the divisions ceased 367 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN when the new administration began, and a unanimity of sentiment among the entire company of graduates was again realized. It was as happy a fortune for the Col- lege as it was for the new President. Indeed, it was happier, in proportion as the life of the institution is greater and of more importance than that of any indi- vidual man. Fortunately also, no interruption nor les- sening of the harmony occurred in the years that fol- lowed, and none seems likely to occur in the future. 368 XIX. The University 1886 to 1899 Changes from the Earlier Time. PRESIDENT PORTER closed his official term on the 30th -of June, 1886. His purpose of laying aside his duties at that time had been made known to the Corporation several months earlier, and that body, in view of this fact, elected me as his suc- cessor on the 2Oth of May in that year. The cere- monies of inauguration took place on the ist of July. The kindly approval of my appointment which was mani- fested by the members of the several Faculties, and by the whole body of the Alumni, was most gratifying to me, as well as most encouraging, as I entered upon the duties of the new position. Indeed, without such ap- proval, I could not have brought myself to accept the offer which the Corporation extended to me. The central idea of my administration, as I looked out upon it from its beginning, was determined in my own mind to be that of the University, as distinguished from the College. This idea had come to me as an inheritance. It had been also, in no small measure, that which gave me an inspiration for all the upbuilding work of the Divinity School, so far as I had the privilege of sharing in this work. As early as the years 1870 and 1871 I had taken my part in urging this idea upon the thoughtful attention of the authorities of the institution, and of Yale men elsewhere. As I was now called to the executive office, in which I might have a special influence, I could not help regarding the appointed work of the 369 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN new era as that of bringing the thought of my predeces- sor in the earliest years of the century, if this should be possible, to its full realization in the closing years. As so much had been accomplished, also, during the prog- ress of the century, in preparation for the completeness of the result, there seemed to be no possibility of mis- taking the emphasis of the call. The idea of the University, as it was understood at the time and as it had found its place at Yale, was not such as to involve the substitution of something else for the College. It was, on the contrary, that of an institu- tion including in itself all the Faculties of the College, of Natural and Physical Science, of Art, of Law, of Medicine, of Theology and having the several depart- ments, together with such as might be added to them at later periods, co-equal and co-ordinate. The old era of an undergraduate College, with schools for professional or other education attached to it indeed, but holding in relation to it as a center, only a secondary position in importance, or in the interest of the governing powers, was to pass away, and to pass into a new one, in which all alike should stand united in the full privileges and rights of the common citizenship in which all, as thus bound together, should constitute the Yale of the greater future. To the establishment of this idea as, if I may so express it, the central principle of the institution's life, I felt it my duty, and my good fortune also, to consecrate myself; and this to the end that the second century of our history might give to the third the University as a realized and completed fact. The development toward the fullness of a yet larger life beyond the limits of the powers, or even the vision, of the present, would then be the appropriate and the inspiring work of the century which was soon to open. With these thoughts in mind and these hopes reaching forward, I felt that the time had already arrived when 370 PRESIDENT TIMOTHY DWIGHT MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the true idea should be formally recognized. Accord- ingly, at an early meeting of the Corporation, I urged a change of the name of the institution, by which it should thereafter be called, not Yale College, but Yale University. There had been hitherto especially on the part of some leading Yale men, both within and out- side of the College a very considerable hesitation with respect to adopting such a change. Some even felt a satisfaction in retaining the old name, on the ground that it manifestly claimed less for the institution than justly belonged it. This feeling, however, had now passed away almost altogether the movement from one Presidential term to another naturally turning the general thought forward toward the future, rather than backward to the past. The consequence was, that the Corporation, by a unanimous vote, requested the Legis- lature of the State to authorize the use of the new name. Within a few weeks, the Legislature took favorable action, which was accepted and approved by the Presi- dent and Fellows. In May, 1887, the title " Yale Uni- versity " was formally adopted. The universal senti- ment, when the change was made known to the gradu- ates, was, as I am sure, one of satisfaction and gratification. All felt that the new name was a recogni- tion of what had been accomplished and an assurance of what was to come. A necessary result of this change which has been alluded to was an enlargement of the sphere and scope of the executive duties pertaining to the Presidential office. The office, if these duties were to be rightly dis- charged, must thereafter, of necessity, have much closer relations to all the Departments outside of the Academi- cal College, than it had ever sustained before. The one who was placed in it, and who attempted to fulfill its work, must keep his mind constantly open with a wider outlook, and awake to all the separate and varied 371 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN interests on every side. He could no longer unite the two functions of Professor and President in himself. The marked growth of the institution, as well as the new position which it assumed, rendered such a union not only inappropriate, but even impracticable. Foreseeing the necessity of the case, I requested the Corporation, at the time of my election to the new office, to release me from all obligation to carry on any personal work of teaching. I also requested that I might be freed from the burden of the minor details of discipline in the Col- lege, which had previously rested in considerable meas- ure though not by any means wholly, as in some smaller colleges upon the President. We had reached a critical turning-point in our history, and the time seemed to me and happily for myself and, as I think, for my successors, to the Corporation also to have come, when there should be a modification of the earlier arrangements with reference to these matters. My two- fold request was granted, and the Presidency was thus put on a new basis the basis, as I may say, of the Uni- versity, rather than the College. It was not appointed for me, however, in the order- ing of events, that I should long continue to discharge the duties of only one office. On the igth of December, 1886, as the first college term which followed my elec- tion to the Presidency was closing, the University Treas- urer, Mr. Henry C. Kingsley, died. His death was the result of an accident, and was sudden and unexpected. Owing to special circumstances and conditions at the time, the vacancy in the Treasury administration was a matter of even more than ordinary significance. That it should be filled, when a new appointment was made, by a person of eminent fitness, and one giving satisfac- tion to all, was greatly to be desired. The gentleman who was subsequently called to the position was then absent from the country, and the Corporation found 372 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN much difficulty in selecting any one who could be secured for the place and was also, in their view, entirely ade- quate to its demands. Moreover, the condition of the Treasury though the funds were much larger than they had been ten years earlier was such, in relation to in- come and expenses, as to render careful economy, at least for a time, very desirable. The result was that the charge of the Treasury was given to me for a limited period, until some satisfactory appointment of a per- manent character could be made. Contrary to my expectations at the outset, I continued to discharge the duties of the office for two years, until the time when we were so fortunate as to induce Mr. William W. Farnam to became the Treasurer. I may state in this connection also as indicating that it was allotted to me that I should not be limited to the duties of a single office that, at the end of the first year of my administration, Dr. William M. Barbour who, as the Chittenden Professor of Divinity, had been the Col- lege Preacher since 1877, retired from his position, that he might accept a prominent office in connection with McGill University, in Canada. As the result of his withdrawal, the responsibility connected with the supply of the pulpit was laid upon me. This responsibility which involved much preaching on my part, both in the College Chapel and, by exchanges with others, in vari- ous places, continued for six and a half years. Impor- tant work, connected with two positions, was thus for a time added to that which pertained to my own special sphere. My request addressed to the Corporation at the beginning realized its purpose through their kindness, but, as the event proved, it only gave me freedom from one kind of services, while it opened the way for those of other orders. By good fortune, within the two years when I was the Acting Treasurer, the resources of the institution were 373 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN so far increased that all the special limitations and causes of anxiety which had existed passed away. The new Treasurer entered upon his duties with nothing of this particular burden resting upon him, and the difficulties were overcome without occasioning even any temporary inconvenience to the members of the Faculty. It has been, from that time onward, a pleasant remem- brance, that I was able to accomplish this result during the period of my service in this office which opened to me so unexpectedly and at so critical a moment. But I resigned my duties, at the end, to the charge of my suc- cessor with a sense of relief in laying aside its special responsibilities. The demands of the Treasurer's position in the years that followed became so great, and the range of the cares and duties connected with it was so much widened, that it would have been scarcely possible for one man, in any adequate measure to assume even a general respon- sibility for it and at the same time fulfill the duties of the Presidency. That the President of the University, however, should have as thorough an acquaintance as possible with its financial condition, can hardly be ques- tioned; and, in my own case, the knowledge which I gained by reason of the experience mentioned proved to be of much benefit to myself and, I think I may also say, of advantage to the institution. The perfect sympathy and harmony which existed always between Mr. Farnam and myself, in the years of his official term as the Uni- versity Treasurer, was due in part to this knowledge. It may easily be realized from what has been already said of the two men, that the death of Professor Thach- er, occurring just before, and that of Mr. Kingsley, occurring soon after my entrance upon my administra- tive office, removed from me efficient counselors and helpers on whom, in my thought of the coming years, I 374 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN might naturally have rested many hopes. They had, both of them, cordially favored my election to the Presi- dency, and were ready to give me their confidence and support. Professor Thacher had been, as I have else- where stated, a kindly friend from the days of my youth. I felt that in him I should find much wisdom, gained from long experience in the sphere both of instruction and government and through intimate acquaintaince with the academic community and life. Mr. Kingsley, on the other hand, had had charge of the Treasury for twenty-four years, and his ability and success in connec- tion with his office had been so marked that I could leave with him the entire responsibility of all its exacting and important duties. The two men were, also, in close sympathy with each other in their views respecting Col- lege needs and interests. So far, accordingly, as their spheres of action bordered on each other, they acted har- moniously, and with a union in efficiency which was most serviceable to the institution. It would have seemed strange to me, indeed, if I had foreseen at the outset that my new work was to go forward wholly without them, and that I was even to take upon myself, for a time, the office which one of the two had held. But while I was thus deprived of the aid which these valued officials of the University would have given me, I had a pleasant experience at the beginning of my Presidency, which none of my predecessors had enjoyed. Two of those who had previously held the executive position Dr. Woolsey and Dr. Porter were still liv- ing in New Haven, the former having the closest rela- tions of friendship to the institution and the latter con- tinuing in its work of instruction. Both of them took part in the services connected with my inauguration and both gave me their kindly approval as I entered upon the duties of the office which they had filled. I may add, in this connection, a single word of happy remembrance, 375 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN that the exercises of that day of so much interest to myself were closed with a benediction which seemed to come from the days of old pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Joseph D. Wickham, at that time the oldest living graduate of the College, and in his early manhood the amanuensis of the first President Dwight. The three Presidential terms of Drs. Dwight, Day, and Woolsey covered a period of three-quarters of a century. The fourth quarter was divided between Dr. Porter and myself. At the opening of Dr. Porter's term, I had nearly reached the age of the three earlier gentlemen at their accession to the office, but at the close of his administration, I was within three years of his own age when he entered upon its duties. In general, I think it is desirable that a person who is to occupy the position of the Presidency of a University should, at the time of his election, be not more than forty-five. If he is not older than this, he has the possibility of a long period of service, and also the advantage, both for himself and for others, of moving forward as, in the full sense, 'a contemporary of the men who are to be co-workers with him. He is a man of the new era, in association with men of the new era. This advantage is, in greater or less measure, lost if the man be much farther advanced in age at the beginning of his official term unless, in- deed, he is of youthful spirit and progressive thought and energy. But, as related to my own individual case and my personal happiness, it was, as I think, a kindly ordering of life, that I was not called to the executive position earlier than I was that a longer period was allowed me in my Professorial career. Those additional years were, if I may so express it, the harvest time of my student life, and I look back upon them, and upon the work and associations pertaining to them, with most de- lightful recollections. They were the years when the enjoyment of our completed effort to re-establish the 376 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Divinity School, and of our connection as teachers with an earnest and enthusiastic company of young theological scholars, came to us in abounding richness. I was called to my new office when the blessing of the old one had thus been fully realized, and that which was now opened to me was an addition to the happiness of the life-time accompanied by no loss. The fact that, in my earlier years, I had been a mem- ber of the Academical Faculty, was of much advantage to me in the Presidency. By reason of this fact I knew well the life and movement of the College in all its range; and, as my memory reached backward farther than that of almost any of my colleagues in that De- partment, I was quite as familiar as they could be with the precedents and history of the former time. On the other hand, it was, I am sure, a benefit to the institution as well as to myself, that I had been connected, during the period of its renewed growth, with one of its Schools which was farther removed from the older center of thought and interest. There were two members of the Academical Faculty, when I became associated with it as President of the Uni- versity, who were much older than myself Professor Elias Loomis, who graduated as Bachelor of Arts nine- teen years before me, and Professor James D. Dana, whose graduation preceded my own by sixteen years. Neither of these gentlemen was an active member of the body during the period of my Tutorship. Professor Loomis had held the Tutorial office from 1833 to 1836, but from the latter year until 1860, when he was elected to the Professorship of Natural Philosophy and Astron- omy, he had been connected with other institutions. Pro- fessor Dana, on the other hand, though elected to his office in 1850, did not enter upon his duties as one of the governing board until two months after I had given 377 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN up my position. In a certain sense, indeed, and an im- portant one, Dr. Porter also still had a relation to the Faculty, by reason of his retention of his professorship. But, as he requested, on his retirement from the Presi- dency, that he might not be called upon to attend Faculty meetings, and as he never afterwards attended but one such meeting one, moreover, which had no reference to any matter of discipline or government I have not in- cluded him with the two whom I have just mentioned. Of the other gentlemen who composed the body in July, 1886, all with a single exception were members of classes of which I had been a teacher during a por- tion of their undergraduate career, or as was true of the very large majority of classes at Yale, or else- where, the date of whose graduation was not earlier than that of my entrance upon the duties of my office in the Divinity School. The single exception alluded to was Professor Hubert A. Newton, who was nearly of my own age. As he had received his appointment to the office of Tutor in 1853 and to his professorship in 1855, ne nac ^ been already engaged in teaching for more than thirty years. His associates in the Faculty at that time had, at least the larger proportion of them, been his pupils in their college days. By reason of the comparative smallness of the num- ber of older men in the membership of the body at that date at present, there are nine or ten who are farther on in years than I was then and because of the facts alluded to in connection with this limited number, the Academical Faculty which I met in 1886 was an entirely new one, as compared with that which I had left thirty- one years before. As individuals, however, they were, most of them, by no means, new men. In the University circle I had known them with more or less intimacy of acquaintance and, as a consequence, I entered upon my office,-not as a stranger, but quite as if I had been placed, 378 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN though in a somewhat different position, yet still within the limits of the former relationships and the old life. I had, accordingly, every advantage which this fact could give. My three predecessors, Drs. Day, Woolsey and Porter, were, like myself, called to the executive office after a prolonged period of service as Professors in the institution. In the first century of the College history, there was no Faculty having in any measure a per- manent character. Even at the date of Dr. Dwight's election to the Presidency, there was but a single Pro- fessor in the institution, and he was holding his position only by an annual appointment. It may be said, there- fore, that the custom in regard to this matter has been uniform at Yale, ever since such a custom could, by the possibilities of the case, be established. The same course has also been followed with reference to the opening of the new century, in connection with the choice of Presi- dent Hadley, towards whom personally Yale men have the friendliest sentiment and in the success of whose ad- ministration they feel a very deep interest. Whether a constant and unvarying adherence to the custom in the future will be of advantage to the Uni- versity, it may not be wise for us, who are of to-day, to try to determine. The coming time may prove to have peculiar conditions or special demands, which can- not now be foreseen. But we may safely say that, other things being equal, there are, and are likely to be, mani- fest benefits resulting from elections to the chief office of persons within the membership of the Faculties, which may not otherwise be realized. But if the custom is to have continuance in the new century especially in view of the fact that the Presidency is becoming, of necessity, in larger measure an executive office, it would seem essen- tial that the authorities of the University should, in their selection of Professors, consider sometimes at least those 379 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN gifts and qualities which especially fit one for the impor- tant duties of administration. The executive faculty be- longs to some scholars, but not to all. The thirteen years from 1886 to 1899 are so recent that the record of their progress and results is written in the living memory of the graduates of the University, The time for presenting it from the historian's point of view has not yet arrived; and, as I have already inti- mated, such a presentation with any fullness of detail would not be in accordance with the plan and design of this volume. I shall only allow myself to call attention to some of the changes and growths as compared with the earlier periods, and to give a few descriptive words respecting the men whose service to the institution and whose life-work ended within these years. As I returned, by reason of my entrance upon the Presidential office, to the more immediate and close con- nection with the Faculty of the Academical Department and its student community, such as I had known in the beginning of my career as a teacher, I was deeply im- pressed with two great changes which time had brought. The first of these had relation to the Faculty, and the second to the students. The Faculty had grown in num- bers so far that it seemed to be a body of an altogether different character from that of the former days. It was no longer a little company of seven or eight per- manent officers and as many more temporary ones, who could meet together in a small study-room and talk with each other freely of matters of which all, or nearly all, had a common knowledge, and in which all, without ex- ception, had a common interest. It had become a body of a more legislative character; its membership being more than twice as large, and being separated by the elective system into sections of men, harmonious indeed in feeling and sentiment, but limited in their relations 380 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to students, and familiar acquaintance with them, to such as were pursuing their own special courses. As a consequence of this changed condition, new questions of government and discipline, as well as of the general life of the community, began to suggest themselves for con- sideration questions well worthy of thought, and ap- pealing for their decision to the highest wisdom. These questions, as bearing on the future, were emphasized by the rapid increase, in the following years, of the mem- bership of the board of professors and instructors. To some of these questions I may find occasion to refer on a later page. A marked change had, also, taken place in the under- graduate student community, which had its bearing, and an important one, on matters of discipline and govern- ment. The advance of the years from 1855 to 1886 had been attended by what I may call a civilizing proc- ess in our colleges. As the result of this, students were now, in a measure quite beyond the earlier period, young men rather than schoolboys, in respect to many individ- ual things pertaining to their daily life and manners, and also as related to the prevailing tone and spirit of the community. Disorderly tendencies and practices which were characteristic of the former time had, many of them, so entirely passed away that they were not only beyond the remembrance of the present generation, but even beyond the limits of its desires or of its thoughts. The social atmosphere was now that of a large Uni- versity of the new age, as contrasted with that of a small college of the older era. Not that all evils had ceased, nor that there were no longer things existing which were unworthy of educated youthjustapproaching manhood. But there was very manifest growth in and towards the life that may become the ideal. It was a pleasure to observe and know the student body as looking upon it from the office of central administra- MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tion, a pleasure which could not have been so fully realized thirty or fifty years before. Partly as a consequence of the new condition of the student community in the aspect referred to, and partly, no doubt, as a cause of it, the relations between instruc- tors and their pupils had become, within the period men- tioned, less formal and less fully, if I may so say, in the governmental sphere. The two parties were now more friendly with the friendship of older and younger men the sense of authority on the one side, and the feeling of opposition to it or desire to be free from it on the other, giving way to scholarly sympathy and mutual helpful- ness. This change or growth of sentiment by which the later years of the century have been marked in the Uni- versity life awakens large hope for the future. With reference to my own personal feeling as related to these changes, I may allow myself to say that, as indi- cating the progress of the institution and its history, they were peculiarly interesting and gratifying. They could not be otherwise, for they were in the line of my faith and hope from the beginning of my career as a college teacher. There was one thing, however, incidental to the great increase in the membership of the student com- munity and to the enlargement of the sphere and re- lations of the Presidential office, which I could not but regret. The familiar personal acquaintance with stu- dents individually, which I had found possible in the early days, was no longer open to me. They were too many in number I was burdened with too many im- perative official duties. One source of enjoyment and of special influence, at least in the measure which I had desired, was thus closed to me. I was obliged to stand only in a more public relation to the young men collec- tively, and to have such power for good in their personal lives as might result from it alone. I trust that this power was not altogether wanting; and if I may judge 382 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN from the universal kindly feeling which the young men manifested during the college years, and have exhibited also in the years that have followed, I may believe that my trust has some true foundation. It may be well for us all to remember when such regrets come to us that intimacies of friendly acquaintance have their limita- tions, almost of necessity, to equalities in age, and that the sons cannot know the men of the older generation, or open themselves to their knowledge, as fully and freely as their fathers did. If we can be in any measure, though in another way, to the sons what perchance we may have been to the fathers, we may have a happy re- membrance, after we have bidden them farewell, that they knew us and we knew them. So life has much of the richness of its reward even to the end. For me, cer- tainly, the pleasures of memory go back not only to the earlier years, but to the later ones. XX. The Faculty Professors Loomis, James D. Dana, and Newton. THE life-work of twelve members of the several Faculties of the University came to its close within the thirteen years of which I am now writing. My personal relations to them all were of the most friendly character, and they honored me by their confidence and kind regard. Of two of the number, Drs. Porter and Harris, I have already given some com- memorative and descriptive words. I will now en- deavor, as best I may, and with true appreciation of their eminent worth and service to the institution, to present the thought of the others which I have in mind. Professor Loomis was a man of such marked indi- viduality and striking idiosyncrasies, that he would have been a noticeable figure in any company in which he might have found a membership for himself. I re- member the impression that he made upon me when I met him for the first time, and was introduced to him as a young graduate of Yale. It was while I was still in Germany as a student, and soon after he had arrived in the city where I was spending a winter. On my name being announced to him, he immediately began to ask me for information respecting myself putting questions concisely, and in rapid succession, as to my year of graduation, my purpose in visiting Europe, my studies, the probable length of my absence from home, etc., etc., until I had the feeling that he was desirous of making an exhaustive search throughout my outer and inner life 384 PROFESSOR ELIAS LOOMIS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN for all that I had or was. It seemed strange, indeed, for a first interview; and yet not altogether, perhaps, like ordinary curiosity. He was apparently taking into his mind all the items of knowledge respecting a new speci- men of human nature which he had chanced to discover, and was doing so with the intention of placing them in some catalogue or collection belonging to himself. I almost wondered whether, after he had completed his investigation, there would be anything in my past his- tory, or my purposes or hopes for the future, which would remain, in any full measure, my own. I said to myself, as I parted from him : " I ne'er shall see his like again." .Nothing could have been more remote from my mind at the time of that interview than the thought that my new acquaintance and myself would, after an interval of three years, both of us be professors at Yale, and that our connection in the membership of the Faculties would continue for nearly a generation. Such, however, was the fact, as yet hidden from our knowledge, which the future was to realize. The death of Professor Olmsted, of the older Faculty, occurred in 1859, and a year after- wards, Professor Loomis was called to fill his place in the Chair of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. As I came to know him more fully in the subsequent years, I formed a more distinct impression of the man as he was, and saw clearly that his questionings and his manner of presenting them were simply the result of what I may call the quite peculiar mathematical characteristics of his mind. He measured, and labeled, and put aside in some compartment as it were, everything which excited his attention or interest. Persons and subjects of thought were alike submitted to this definiteness of inquiry and accuracy of investigation. The brevity of his questions, and indeed of his expressions in general, as well as the consequent seeming rapidity with which they followed 385 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN each other had a close relation to the same mathemati- cal characteristics. With great clearness of intellect to grasp an idea, and an insight which enabled him to set it forth in the fewest words, he was disposed by his very nature to limit whatever he had to say within such nar- row bounds that he seemed to others to be oftentimes not only inquisitive, but also abrupt. His utterances were, as I once heard a clergyman of the Anglican Church say concerning John the Baptist's answer to the Pharisees, " short, concise, and appropriate " appropriate, cer- tainly, to the end which he had in view. But the inquisi- tiveness was not of the common sort. It was that of the scientific investigator. And the abruptness was such as characterizes a man of mathematical mind who desires to say no more than is necessary for the setting forth of his idea. Of course, this peculiarity of his afforded amusement to his friends at times. I suppose we all amuse those who know us, occasionally and when, perchance, we are ourselves quite unconscious of the fact. But we may find comfort in the thought of our happy fortune in that we are not all alike our world would be a prosaic world indeed, if we were and also in the other thought, nearly akin to it, that our unlikeness to a friend, and this only, is oftentimes that which excites his criticism. A little story, illustrative, as my first interview with him was, of the professor's method of questioning, found easy circulation and credence in the undergraduate com- munity twenty-five years ago. A young graduate of a few years' standing, so the story said on returning to New Haven, met the professor on the public green, and greeted him in a respectful and friendly way. The professor, not being quite fresh and sure in his remem- brance of him as professors cannot always be, when years have passed proceeded to make inquiries after the following manner: Name? The answer came as 386 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was fitting. Given name? Again the appropriate re- ply. Residence? This was mentioned. Class? The subject was exhaustively treated so the young man thought. But after all, the information was gained as quickly, and with as little detail or effort in the process, as once, within my own experience, an answer was se- cured from a very eminent mathematician to a question involving only the addition of sixteen to nine. At all events, if the story was true, it must be admitted that the inquiries could not have been shorter, each one of them, or more to the point which was in the inquirer's mind and purpose. Why should one use more words than are necessary ? he would have been disposed to say. . A similar brevity was oftentimes exhibited in his answers to questions presented to him by others. On a certain day within his later years, when he had been for some time in impaired health, a friend of his, who was a member of one of the Faculties, called upon him in a social and friendly way. This friend, having seen a statement in one of the morning papers of the day to the effect that the professor's health had recently been im- proving, opened the interview by saying, " I am glad to see that the papers this morning report that you are better." " False," was the quick and brief reply and the professor moved on, at once, to a quite different topic. I remember that I was myself once walking with him for a little distance on one of the city streets, on a day near the end of the month of January, and that I said to him, as I thought I was justified by the facts in saying, " We have had an unusually cold January this year; is it not so, Professor Loomis?" " Exactly the average of the last forty years," was his response. Short, concise, and, as the worthy clergyman might have added with refer- ence to the prophet's answer, exhaustive I said to my- self. But, in a moment, I changed my thought, and was disposed to be forgetful of the professor's brevity, and 387 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to felicitate myself on the happy fortune which I had, in that I was not a statistician nor a recorder of averages. Professor Loomis, however, was not merely a man of few words, nor abrupt in his questions and answers. When the first barrier was passed if I may so express it he opened himself freely, and with pleasure, to con- versation. He was interested in subjects of varied char- acter; was possessed of much information; had readiness for discussion and for communicating what he knew; and withal had a certain humor which was of a quiet order, indeed, but yet was quite attractive and pleasing. He lived, for many years, much of the time alone, and was more disposed to solitude than to social life, yet not as much more so as to many he seemed to be. His wife had died before his coming to New Haven to enter upon his professorship, and his sons, after their graduation, were removed from him in their residence and occupa- tions for a considerable portion of his later life. His solitude was largely, therefore, due to the ordering of his life's experience. But it was also largely the result of his natural tastes and inclination. Scholars and men of thought generally have a stronger tendency to retire- ment within themselves, than those whom we call men of affairs. They live more apart from the world, be- cause the sphere of their mental working is farther removed. This is eminently true of scholars in certain special departments, among which mathematical science may surely be reckoned as having its place. The man whose natural gifts fit him for the pursuit of this science, and such sciences as have affiliation with it, finds himself in large measure independent of other men. He can be alone, without any oppressive feeling of loneliness. He can, if need be, talk to himself, and find in himself a most intelligent and satisfactory listener one most re- sponsive to his inmost and deepest thoughts. But it does not necessarily follow, that such a man must always MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN separate himself from companionship with others, be- cause he is able to find enjoyment in solitude. The hermit element is seen in its full power and absolute control in but few, whether of the scholarly class or of other classes. Professor Loomis was, by no means, one of these few. He was content to be alone, and yet also not to be alone. He was more content to be alone than most of those who surrounded him were. But social life was not without attractiveness to him, and he could leave his studies and meditations for a season, with no regret, in order that he might have con- verse and conference with other minds and on other themes. . In his early manhood, soon after he left the office of Tutor at Yale, in 1836, Mr. Loomis was invited to take a position in Western Reserve College, then recently founded. His professorship in that institution included Mathematics, as well as Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. In the chairs which he afterwards filled, in the University of the City of New York, at Princeton, and in our own College, his work as an in- structor was devoted to the two last named studies. If we look at his career, as a whole, we may say that it was consecrated and with a truly remarkable per- sistency of endeavor and a wonderful concentration of purpose and desire to the science of Astronomy. There have been few instances, indeed, in our country's history of such constancy in the earnest pursuit of one great end, in spite of all difficulties and delays, as that which he manifested during the long years of his stu- dent life, and even to its end. He lived to see and realize, in part, the consummation of his hopes. But he looked forward beyond his own time and, with the same love of his science and devotion to it still continuing, he provided by his will for the carrying on of the work. He gave his entire estate of somewhat more than three 389 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN hundred thousand dollars to our University one-third of it at his death, and the remainder after the death of his sons for the uses of the Astronomical Observatory, in the way of making observations for the promotion of the science, and of publishing such observations and the investigations founded upon them. He was himself a scientific investigator, and he desired the income of his bequest, in all the future, to be thus devoted to science. It is pleasant to think that his name will always be con- nected with the University as that of a friend who, in what seemed to men about him the silent progress of his life, ever kept in mind one work in its behalf which, by his generosity at the end, was made perpetual for its future history. As an instructor, he was, as might naturally be in- ferred from what has been already said of him, char- acterized by great clearness of statement and equally marked conciseness in his expression of his ideas. The student who was attentive could not fail to understand his meaning and to gain from him the light which he wished for or needed. I have rarely, if ever, seen a man who, having distinctly grasped an idea, could set it forth in such aptly chosen words, or in so few of them. He had mathematical precision in its exactest measure. As an astronomer he must, it would seem, have also had an imaginative element in his nature. But he did not display it in his teaching, in any considerable degree. He was inexpressive, also, on the emotional side. This part of the inner life was kept within himself, and he appeared before his classes in the lecture or recitation room as a man of intellect only, dealing with purely in- tellectual matters. There was, as a consequence, a cer- tain strangeness or marvel about him in the thought of his students, as if science were personified, and its utter- ances were only of itself and were brief with the brevity of a definition. Yet his pupils who cared for their 390 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN studies in his department of learning respected him high- ly for his attainments and scientific ability, and they all recognized the fact that there could be no misappre- hension of the meaning of what he said, even as there was no indefiniteness in his own ideas, or in the words by means of which he gave expression to them. The very great success which attended and followed the publication of his mathematical works, and of his books on astronomy and meteorology, in which last-men- tioned sciences he was one of the most prominent Ameri- can scholars of his generation, is a testimony to the un- usual ability which he had both as a man of science and as a man of clearness and distinctness in the presentation of truth. The estate left by him at his death was largely founded upon the extensive and continuous sale of these books. In addition to his mental gifts which fitted him for scientific investigation, he possessed a greater than ordinary business capacity, and in the business sphere he was characterized by the same exactness, incisiveness, and clear insight, that he manifested as a man of learn- ing and research. Professor Loomis continued his work of instruction in the College until the end of the first year of my Presi- dency. But his health, in his advancing life, had already begun to fail before this time, and at length he was con- strained to withdraw altogether from public duties. He continued his private studies, however, as one who was limited, indeed, in physical strength, but was still in full vigor of mind. With the utmost care he prepared and arranged the results of his investigations, in order that they might be given to the world. In fulfillment of his earnest desire, he was enabled to complete the last work to which he had given his thought and effort and then, with a feeling of satisfaction that all had been accom- plished, he looked forward, in quietness of spirit, to the closing of his life. His name is recorded in a place 391 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of honor among the scholars and teachers, and among the devoted sons and generous benefactors of Yale. Professor Dana was a man who stood in the academic community in quite marked contrast to Professor Loomis. He had none of the peculiarities of his col- league which have been alluded to, and nothing of that strangeness of the inner and outer life, as it seemed to many of the latter's pupils, which made them regard him as an almost unknowable personality. In this re- spect, he was less of a historic character in the life of the institution, recalled by graduates, in all their memories of the past, as a striking and peculiar figure in the old scenes that could not cease to be interesting. There is a certain pleasure in the remembrance of such men be- cause they give a kind of picturesqueness to the former days. Professor Dana was, also, by reason of the arrange- ments of the course of study, brought into less frequent or continuous intercourse with the students than Profes- sor Loomis and the majority of his other associates of the Faculty. The subjects which he taught were mainly or wholly confined to the Senior year, and were limited, in the time allowed for them, to a comparatively brief period. During the larger portion of his active pro- fessorial career the elective system was either not yet, in any true sense, introduced, or was only developed in a moderate degree. There was, accordingly, but little opportunity afforded for any full study of the subjects, or any extended research. Instruction was given, in large measure, by lectures, and these were not accom- panied by strict requirements of personal investigation on the students' part. The changes in the methods of teaching, in this regard, even within the past twenty- five years can hardly be appreciated by any except those whose familiar acquaintance with the College 392 PROFESSOR JAMES D. DANA MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN world has extended over the whole period in which they have gradually been realized. As a lecturer, however, and as a teacher through lec- tures, Professor Dana was regarded with the highest favor, as well as the highest esteem, by the students, even from the very beginning of his career. They saw that he was a master of his subject, and they recognized at once the fact of his power to make it interesting. His language was admirably fitted to his thought and was felicitously chosen for the accomplishment of his pur- pose. He had marked simplicity of style, and yet his style was always elevated and dignified. There was a certain element manifest in his writings and discourses, which rendered him specially attractive to his student audiences, and particularly when he rose in his lectur- ing, as he not infrequently did, into the region of true eloquence. In his later years when the arrangements of the College system, by reason of their greater free- dom, allowed it he accompanied his lectures and pub- lic instruction by a more private and familiar teaching. He invited his classes, or such members of them as were disposed to do so, to join him in pedestrian excur- sions into the region about New Haven. In these ex- cursions, which were always made for a scientific pur- pose, he pointed out everything of interest, and gave his pupils most helpful talks and explanations ever awakening their enthusiasm, and ever reaching beyond them in the joy of his own. In the disciplinary and minor administrative functions of the Faculty, I think he never took any very active part. Certainly he did not, in his later years. I doubt whether his tastes and the interest of his mind ever turned in this direction. The sphere of his professor- ship, as already indicated, was in considerable measure outside of the daily college life. He was, accordingly, not brought into contact with that life as some of his 393 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN colleagues were. In the larger matters pertaining to the institution, on the other hand, he kept his thoughts wakeful and held his energies always ready for emergen- cies as they arose. The Scientific School, in relation to its organization and early development, owed much to his counsel and his efforts. The sympathy and aid which he gave to the first professors in the school were a con- stant encouragement to them as they undertook their work, which then had small promise for the immediate future and demanded heroic faith with reference to the future in the far distance. He was also helpful to the School as it moved onward in its history. Though con- nected in the sphere of his special duties with the Aca- demical Department, his influence as a man of science, and his advocacy of science as a force in liberal educa- tion, became a factor in the successful life of the new department, which none of its friends or teachers failed to recognize. In the general advance of study and the enlargement of the provisions for study, in both of the two departments, he had in like manner his share, as he was always interested in the true university life. The limitations of health, during a considerable part of the later half of his professorial career, rendered it difficult, and at times impracticable for Professor Dana to open himself freely to social intercourse with his pupils, or even with his friends. His physical condition often caused the excitement of conversation to be quite harmful to him, and he denied himself, in consequence, that which he might otherwise have enjoyed. His working force, however, did not seem to fail. By a judicious arrangement of his time and measuring of his strength, he enabled himself to do what few men in the full vigor of their bodily powers accomplish. The results of his labors will ever be a testimony in proof of the greatness of the man to the minds of those who have acquaintance with his history. 394 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN The personal appearance of Professor Dana sug* gested and answered to his character. His movement, as he walked in the streets, was quick and energetic, as if he had the spirit and strength of youth even when ill health or advancing years had laid a heavy burden upon him. The mind overpowered all the infirmities of the body, and it often seemed to a chance observer impos- sible that he could be otherwise than in the complete possession of manly vigor. His eyes exhibited the bright- ness and eagerness of his intellect. They were always open, in the sphere of science, and always penetrative into its mysteries and, as it were, alert with respect to its revelations. There was a quiet kindliness in his look, and yet every one who saw him appreciated the fact, that it was the kindliness of a man of strong character. The force of his nature was manifest in his whole bearing, while at the same time his friendly disposition and kind feeling were equally evident. In his ordinary intercourse with others he was characterized by a graciousness of manner which was very pleasing, and which was in itself indicative of the scholarly gentleman. In the circle of his more intimate associates he awakened a sentiment of esteem and regard to which added strength was given as they moved onward with him in the duties and ex- periences of their common life. My memories of Professor Newton go back even to our undergraduate days. He was a student in the class which was graduated in the year next following my own, and thus we were fellow-members of the academic community during three-quarters of the period of my college course. We were associates in the Tutorship from 1853 to l8 55- We had somewhat of the same society connections in a part of our student life and, after closing our Tutorial career, we were for a short time traveling companions in Europe. But when two persons 395 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN live in such close relations of fellowship as pertain to a College Faculty for nearly forty years, the distinctness of the old impressions is apt to fade away. We forget the man of the early time, as our thought is filled with the man of to-day. As with ourselves, so it is with him. The growth of the years is so gradual it is, as it were, so silent and imperceptible in the process of its move- ment that there seem, at the end, to have been no changes. The years, indeed, have gone, but the man remains. It is a happy fact of our life, no doubt, that this is so. The fading of older memories into later ones is not to be regretted ; and yet we cannot help some- times wishing that the old ones could retain their own freshness. If the company of my associates in the Tutorial office could come before my mental vision just as they were in the early fifties, and I could once more see them in the life of those days, it would be a pleasant remembrance, for it would recall the beginning of the manhood of each and all. I would pass, however, from this brief digression to Professor Newton, and say a few words of him. He was taken out of our Tutorial board, because of his already recognized mathematical ability, and of the feeling of the College authorities that the professor- ship then recently made vacant by the death of Professor Stanley should be filled as soon as possible. In the sum- mer of 1855 the appointment was given him to a per- manent position as the occupant of that chair. At that time he was only twenty-four years of age, yet notwith- standing his youth his friends had strong confidence that the years, as they passed, would show his fitness for the work assigned to him and would witness his success. His intellectual gifts, as they thought, were such as qualified him in no ordinary degree for the studies to which he was called to devote himself. He had the in- sight of the true mathematician and easily comprehended 396 PROFESSOR HUBERT A. NEWTON MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the problems, whatever they might be, which his science offered. His thought reached out with readiness to- wards the things as yet unknown, and he moved forward to the understanding of them by means of the most care- ful and accurate reasoning. The broadness of his mind as related to science was shown, in later years, by his attainments in astronomy and meteorology. He was perhaps the most efficient agent in the establishment of the Astronomical Observa- tory at Yale. His devotion to its interests manifested itself at all times. For a considerable number of years he held the office of its director, and until his death he was continuously a member of its Board of Managers, and the Secretary of the Board. The University lost, when he died, an astronomer of high reputation, as well as a mathematician of the first rank. Like many men of mathematical powers though not indeed all he had a certain hesitation of speech and slowness in utterance. Whether this interfered in any measure with his success in teaching, I do not know, but it affected him somewhat in social intercourse. It was mainly, no doubt, natural to his physical constitution, yet it may have been in part also the result of that ex- treme desire for accuracy which is characteristic of men devoted to his science. Mathematicians must be sure of every step which they take. Inaccuracy is ever before their minds as fatal to all proper investigation and the successful search for all true results. It is no wonder, therefore, if they speak slowly, or pronounce decisions with much deliberateness, in cases where others might affirm with immediate confidence or even with emphasis. Nor can we be surprised, if the habit of hesitation in utterance grows upon such a man, so that it gains a mastery over him when there would seem to be little or no occasion for his yielding to its control. In Professor Newton's case, the habit was the same in youth, as it was 397 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in later years. We who knew him well were accustomed to it, and his pupils thought little of the matter when they came to have familiar acquaintance with him as an instructor. It was merely one of his peculiarities which they noticed after the manner in which other things, not common to all alike, were noted by them as specially characteristic of individual teachers. It was outside of the ordinary thought, and quite amusing to the hearers, when a young student, who had recently entered one of his later classes, expressed to several of his associates his fear that the professor, because of the slow and hesi- tating way in which he talked, might be finding the prob- lems presented to him troublesome or might be doubtful as to their solution. That the professor should be thus disturbed by questions arising in the class-room had not entered the minds of the young man's companions, as they all knew that he had the true mathematician's pene- trative power. Another reason for hesitancy such as that which has been mentioned may, as I think, be found in the fact that the mathematical mind, by reason of its instincts and its education alike, is wont to discover difficulties and ob- jections, as connected with any question which arises, more easily, and in greater numbers, than other minds having different or opposite gifts. All possible difficul- ties must be removed, as well as all inaccuracy guarded against, or the result may not prove to be sure. Profes- sor Newton was characterized by this peculiarity, as he was by the one already alluded to. He saw many things of this character when men about him did not, or when, if they saw them, they did not think it necessary, or possibly did not wish, to give them attentive consid- eration. He was not an unreasonable combatant, be- cause of the objections which presented themselves to his mind. He thought that they should be fairly stated and duly weighed in any intelligent discussion. But he 398 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN could be reasoned out of them, so far as their force for his own thought was concerned, or could yield to the opinions of others, or of a majority, when these were not in accordance with his own. Yet he felt that he must take notice of them for himself, and must be honest in his treatment of them. So honest was he, that on one illustrative occasion, which is well remembered by those who were present (when he had vigorously advocated in a meeting of the Faculty a measure which divided the members in sentiment, and when, after answering all objections brought forward by others, he found the de- cision of the question to be still very doubtful) he said, before giving his vote, that there was a further objec- tion to his own view and proposal which had' not been mentioned by any one. He then proceeded to set it forth in its full force. The measure which he advocated was carried; but the characteristic of the man, as he saw and stated, in its bearing against himself, what none of his opponents had thought of, produced its own impres- sion. I well remember, also, his word of objection when, in 1888, it was proposed that the old one-story labora- tory building, which stood in the rear of South Middle College, should be removed. The building had not been used for years, and no one disapproved of its re- moval. But there was a reason for retaining it which he felt should have consideration, before the final de- cision should be made. During the first twenty-five years of his professorial career, he carried on the regular instruction of entire classes in his department and was, as we may say, one of the routine workers of the Faculty. In the later period, he limited himself to the teaching of smaller bodies of students, who made choice of courses which he offered as electives. Finally, in the last two or three years of his life, he was able to offer only one or two courses his health being much weakened at this time. 399 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN To his optional classes he was able to give more freely and fully than he could do to the larger and less care- fully selected bodies of students, the results of his studies and investigations. In meeting these classes he had peculiar pleasure and satisfaction. His duties as a mem- ber of the Faculty he continued to fulfill even to the last, though of course, as one of the older men, he had, in the latter years, only a small share in the daily administration of the life of the institution. Professor Newton was a man of very kindly nature. He had a warm affection for his friends, and a genuine desire to make friends. Students who went to him for help of any sort found him always ready to give them a welcome and to do for them whatever was in his power. His kind-heartedness was manifested to me in the early days and the later days alike. To some of the younger scholars in his own department of study, who were called to assist him or become his associates in the work of College instruction, his generous aid and friendly attitude were such as to render them ever after- wards grateful to him as their teacher and older col- league. He was of a family which seemed destined to long- continued life, his parents and grandparents having survived to a very advanced age. His expectation throughout almost the whole of his career, I think, was that his own experience would prove to be like theirs. But when he had reached the age of sixty-three he be- came enfeebled by a disease of a dangerous and threat- ening character, and after a gradual decline of about two years, during which he kept on working up to the limit of his powers, he died in August, 1896. He was, at that time, the oldest Professor in the Academical De- partment. 400 XXI. Professors Whitney, Eaton, Marsh, and Lyman. ON one of the early pages of this volume I have mentioned the name of William D. Whitney in connection with his membership and my own, in 1850, in a "small class of graduates who read some of the Greek classics with President Woolsey. He had graduated with the highest honors at Williams College four years before the graduation of my class at Yale, and was already, as I think, turning in his mind and purpose towards the life of a linguistic scholar. He had, indeed, come to New Haven with the desire, especially, of studying Sanscrit with Professor Salisbury, then almost the only teacher of this language in the country. He may have thought of becoming a teacher of Sanscrit himself, though this might seem almost incredible as we look backward to the condition and circumstances of that period. But even if this thought had entered his mind, a position at Yale could scarcely have suggested itself to him, for the reason that there was already a professor here, who was only thirty-six years of age, and surely there could not be an opening for two professorships of that language in one institu- tion. There are cases where the Divine guidance with respect to human lives seems to make itself peculiarly manifest a guidance which leads, through all seeming uncertainties and improbabilities, or even impossibilities, to the fulfillment of a Divine purpose. I cannot help thinking of Mr. Whitney's case as one of these. It was 401 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN for the advancement of linguistic science, and for the good of our University as a seat of sound learning, that he was brought hither with his scholarly zeal and ardor, and that the way was opened for him, when he was in readiness, that he might have a permanent life within the University walls. It needed but to see and meet him, to appreciate the fact that he had the scholar's gifts and nature. We who were his associates in Dr. Woolsey's class per- ceived his ability and understood his character, in this regard, even from the beginning of his connection with us. What we saw in him was, of course, more evident to his instructors, Professor Salisbury and the President, for they had a clearer vision than it was possible for his young fellow-students to have. They doubtless soon began to wish that he might be secured for Yale in the future, though the hindrances and difficulties were con- spicuous and the outlook was full of discouragement. He remained with us as a student but a single year, and then following his own strong impulse, and aided and strengthened by the advice of his two teachers he entered upon a course of study under the leading scholars in his department in Germany. This course of study was continued for three years. Near the close of these years, a generous gift from Professor Salisbury rendered it possible for the authorities of the College to offer him a professorship; and with the hearty approval of the Faculty and the President, the offer was made. The professorship which Professor Salisbury had held for the twelve preceding years was, according to his own proposal, divided into two chairs Professor Whitney taking that of Sanscrit, and Professor Salisbury retain- ing that of Arabic. But for this generous gift and proposal, the call to Mr. Whitney, which made him one of the Yale fraternity, could not have been given, and his life-work with us would have failed of its 402 PROFESSOR WILLIAM D. WHITNEY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN realization. A similar generosity, I may add, and a yet larger gift on the part of Professor Salisbury, sev- eral years afterwards, so fully established the founda- tion of the professorship, that Mr. Whitney was able to decline tempting offers from other institutions. In the earliest period of my own professorship, which began four years later than his, my study room in the old Divinity Hall was near, and during a part of the time directly under, the one which he occupied. Our duties were quite different, even as our studies were. He was a University professor. My position was in the Theological School. He had, in his special depart- ment of instruction, no pupils, or only an occasional one. His time was, consequently, at his own disposal, for the furtherance of his attainments and learning. On the other hand, as I have already stated, I was called to the work of daily instruction and, in addition to this, the burden of the beginning of the re-establish- ment of the Divinity School was, in large measure, laid upon me. I often thought of him in those days in contrast with myself, and said to myself, Is not he, engaged as he is almost exclusively in his studies, render- ing a greater service to the institution, to its fame and its truest life, than any of us, his associates, who are full of active duties and may seem to those who lodk upon us to be the real workers ? I have never doubted, since I saw him in those years, the value to a university of the presence within its walls of scholars given wholly to scholarship and research. In the after years, however, he became not only a scholar, but a highly esteemed and gifted teacher. When the waiting period, as I may call it, was ended the period during which our best colleges were develop- ing towards higher ideals and a wider reach of learning the demand for instruction in Sanscrit and Philology began to be more manifest. Students of the best order 403 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN came to him, not in large numbers indeed, but with much scholarly enthusiasm and a full appreciation of the bearing of what he taught them upon their own linguistic attainments. In the year 1861 when the curriculum of the Scientific School was considerably broadened, he became an instructor in Modern Lan- guages in that department of the College. He had, indeed, before this date met optional classes in German and French, but now he assumed more regular and continuous duties in this sphere of teaching, and united himself, though still holding his University chair, with the Faculty of that school as one of the members of its Governing Board. For a third of a century he remained in this membership. As this was a time of marked development and constantly advancing growth in the school, he had the opportunity, which he most wisely and faithfully used, of influencing it for its highest good. His career seems thus to have been happily ordered for him and likewise for the University not only in the earlier, but also in the later years. He had at the beginning a period of scholarship, mainly apart from teaching, while afterwards, during the long continuance of his official term, scholarship and teaching were united in the most fortunate and most useful way in a way, also, most satisfying to himself. I knew Professor Whitney as a pupil knows his teacher for a short period in the earliest days of his professorship. With three or four friends of about my own age, I studied the German language under his guidance. We had formed a volunteer class and, at our request, he gave us his aid. The impression which I then received respecting him was, that as an instructor he possessed unusual gifts and singular ability. The same impression, I am sure, was made upon the minds of all his students in the years that followed. He had, in an uncommon degree, the power of setting before the 404 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN learner what he needed and enabling him to make it his own. As a consequence, he led him onward, without ever suffering him to lose what he had once gained. The old things were held firmly and the movement was constantly towards the new. The pupil thus felt an abiding confidence in his teacher that no mistakes would be made by him ; that the limits of his knowledge would not be overpassed; that difficulties would be ex- plained; that the force and beauty of the language would be made known; that there would be nothing to undo, and that all would be done well. Those who were faithful to his instruction left his classes, at the end of their course of study, with a firm grasp of the knowledge which he had communicated to them. They had become, under his care and training, scholars adequate to meet the demands of the future, and to move yet farther onward if the call should come. Mr. Whitney was, I think I may say, the truest and purest linguistic scholar that we had in the Yale Faculty in his time not only beyond the elder Professor Gibbs, who really belonged to the earlier period and was thus nearer the beginnings of philological learning in our country, but even beyond his teacher, Professor Salis- bury, or his fellow-student and colleague, Professor James Hadley. The four men, in their succession and their union, did a great work in this department of scholarship, in preparation for the era which has already begun, and the promise of which is very rich as we look forward into the new century. They were not, however, linguistic scholars of the narrower order, but scholars of wider vision and broader interests. The inheritance which they have left to the University has, therefore, a special richness of blessing in itself. If their best influ- ence shall remain in its full force in the minds of the linguistic scholars who follow them, it will be fortunate for our University education. 405 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN In his association with his -friends Mr. Whitney was affectionate and kindly. He had an open mind and heart towards them. Like many, if not most scholars of his order, however, he was somewhat undemonstra- tive. His emotional nature, however strong in character, did not ordinarily overcome his self-restraint, and in conversation with those who met him in social life there was, in general, no overflowing of feeling in words through irrepressible excitement, as in the talk of some very interesting men. He had firmly established con- victions indeed, and at times he gave expression to them with emphasis, and even a sort of apparent impatience. But the ordinary movement of his thought was calm and quiet, sympathetic and intelligent, yet not aggressive or impulsive. Some men enjoy their thoughts and feelings so greatly that they cannot help making them known in friendly conference with those whom they chance to meet. Others have their enjoyment so fully within them- selves, that they have much less impulse towards an outward expression of it. The two orders of men may have an equal richness of mind or spirit, and may give to their associates an equal measure of satisfaction, but they are not alike. What we gain from them comes to us by different pathways, if not from different sources. Professor Whitney belonged to the latter class, yet he had the affection and the admiration of his friends, and the more as they knew him more intimately. The amount of scholarly work which he accomplished was very remarkable never more so than in the last eight years of his life, after the disease which at the end proved fatal had seized upon him. Like Professor Dana in this regard, he contended manfully and with heroism against his infirmity. Guarding and restraining himself most carefully, that he might lose no measure of his remaining strength, he went forward in his studies, his teaching, his preparation of papers for the press, his 406 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN editorial duties in connection with the Century Dic- tionary, and his yet larger efforts in his own departments of learning, with a continuous devotion and energy. It was a most interesting sight to see him in those years. He had ever the consciousness that the end might come at any hour. So there was a calmness and serenity in his appearance as he was working at home or walking abroad. Yet there was no weakening of endeavor as if life's duties were over, and no loss of manly courage or purpose. The inspiration which comes from the things that are beyond all present attainments was still the impelling force within him, and the movement of the mind under its influence could not cease. Professor Whitney, as has been intimated, was by reason of the chair which he held a University Professor, but during the main part of the time of his official service he had a place, as an instructor in that department, in the membership of the Governing Board of the Scientific School. The position of Professor Daniel C. Eaton was similar, in this regard, to that of Mr. Whitney. He also held a University Professorship the provisions of its endowment being such as to open his instructions freely to students of different departments of the insti- tution. The close relations, however, of the science of Botany the science which he taught to the other sciences pursued in the Sheffield School naturally occa- sioned a special connection between him and its Faculty, and he acted for many years as one of the Board. These two professorships were happily suggestive of the Uni- versity idea. Professor Eaton was a faithful and energetic student in his branch of science. In certain lines of investigation pertaining to it, he \vas an enthusiast, and he had a knowledge which was not surpassed, if indeed it was equalled, by any other scholar in the country. From his 407 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN early youth his tastes and impulses moved him to the study of plants and flowers. As he reached the deter- mining point of his career, therefore, there could have been little doubt, either in his own mind or in the minds of those who knew him, as to what might fitly be his life-work, if only a favoring fortune should open the way before him. Seven years after his graduation, the way was thus opened. A professorship was established through the generosity of friends of the institution in 1864, and he was called to fill it. During these seven years he had prepared himself thoroughly for the duties which the position demanded. It was a position which offered many opportunities and much happiness for such a man, and we cannot doubt that he accepted it with great satisfaction, as well as with abundant hopes. These hopes were pleasantly and largely realized during the thirty-one years of his subsequent life. Soon after his death, his herbarium and the botanical library which he had collected both of much interest and value were generously given by his family to the Scientific School. This gift was made in accordance with a thought and wish on his own part which, it is believed, he had long had in mind. It will have a special interest as a memorial of his affection for the University and of his life-work in it and on its behalf. Professor Eaton was, in his undergraduate years, a member of the last College class with which I had immediate connection while in the Tutorial office. He was at that time a faithful student in the various lines of the course as then prescribed, but his special interest was doubtless where it was from the earlier time and in the later time. He fitted himself for educated life and strengthened his powers and tastes in preparation for the future. Of a kindly disposition and with pleasant manners, he drew his friends closely to himself. He gave them his affection in a manly way and they heartily 408 PROFESSOR DANIEL C. EATON MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN reciprocated his feeling. The gentlemanly character was always manifest. The same was true of his later years. He moved on from his youth as he had been in his youth, only with the development of mind and heart which belongs to maturer life. His career in the University was an honorable and a useful one. Professor Marsh consecrated his powers and his life to science in his own department with even more re- markable devotion and persistency, if possible, and with a yet more unbounded enthusiasm, than were manifested in other lines of study and investigation by Professor JLoomis and Professor Whitney. His love for science and scientific research was deeply implanted in his nature. It exhibited itself very distinctly and in a most uncom- mon way in his youth, and became an impelling force for all his maturer years. I know of no more interesting spectacle in human life than that which is afforded by men like him and the others, his colleagues, whom I have just mentioned, in this regard. They pursued the one object which they had in view with all the energy of their nature, subordinating everything else to its attainment, and finding their reward only as they ad- vanced farther and yet farther towards it. Our Uni- versity has had a happy fortune indeed, in that it has numbered so many men of this high order in the circle of its scholars and teachers. Professor Marsh's interest in his life at Yale, and in the University as the place where the results of his studies and researches might be permanently treasured, was equalled only by that which he had in the work itself. His affection for the institution was awakened in his undergraduate years. It was constant and abiding throughout all the time that followed. The munificent gift of his most extensive and valuable collections, which he made to the University in 1898, was a unique and 409 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN remarkable testimonial of the sentiment which had char- acterized him from the beginning of his professorial career. By this gift he became one of the great benefac- tors to whom the highest places of honor must always be given in the history of Yale. It is worthy of notice, and of remembrance also, that he was one of a small number among the University officers within the past century, who have rendered their service to the institu- tion freely, without salary. In his personality, Professor Marsh was, as we may say, a man quite by himself. He was intelligent, with a manly intelligence, and a careful student, patient in his researches. But at the same time, as a collector and discoverer, he had the irrepressible zeal which is characteristic of an enthusiast. Every new thing in his own sphere of investigation which revealed itself everything which had in it the promise of a revelation gave him happiness and stirred him to fresh activity. He would press forward with all energy, and any needed outlay of effort or means, to secure what it might have to give him. When he had made it his own, and found it of true value, he hastened with joyful ardor to relate his good fortune to his friends, as if he had possessed himself of a hidden treasure. His manner of speaking rendered what he told more impressive. It was a part of the man, which united itself with his inward satisfac- tion and the intensity of his feeling, and thus brought the listener, for the time at least, into sympathy with his delight. In conversation with friends or intelligent visitors especially when his visitors were prominent men in scientific lines his mind was often wakened to its high- est activity and interest. He showed himself, at such times, to be full of information, gained alike through his own researches and as the result of his intercourse with scholars in different parts of the world. He had 410 , PROFESSOR OTHNIEL C. MARSH MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN travelled extensively and, wherever he went, had formed the acquaintance of those whom it was most desirable to know. He thus had abundance of anecdote, as well as of learning, and could make use of whatever he pos- sessed for the entertainment or instruction of his guests. No undue prominence, however, was assumed for him- self in such friendly interviews; he was as ready to listen, as to speak, and was ever with open mind towards new knowledge, from whomsoever it might come. In his attitude and in his manner of expressing him- self, a certain formality was characteristic of him. Especially was this manifest in cases where he sought an interview with others on matters of business, or on subjects of interest with respect to his own particular work. The slight and somewhat peculiar hesitation in his utterance rendered this formality more conspicuous. I was always struck with this singularity of manner when he called upon me, as he occasionally did, for the purpose of securing some minor appropriation of money for his department of the Museum, or for the introduc- tion of a new teacher into its service, or of some change of arrangements which would aid in enlarging its work. Whatever the object might be, the manner of the man was the same. It was as if we had been two ministers of state having little acquaintance with each other, who had met for the settlement of some great question of public concern. All was serious with a dignified solemnity, and measured with a diplomatic deliberate- ness. My own bearing was, as of necessity, determined by his. One could not talk after the ordinary method, and with the freedom of a common conversation, when the other party in the interview seemed to place the subject and the discussion on a plane so much higher. I was not able fully to equal him, but my approaches to his standard were, for the time and by reason of effort, so near to it that I think he was satisfied. I could, 411 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN indeed, be as immovably serious in my look, as he could himself be. This is a gift for which I have sometimes felt that I ought to be grateful. My look, also, in a measure, solemnized my speech; and so, with the friendly spirit which we always had, we moved on with a reasonable success. But I used often to think, just after such an interview had closed, of the possibilities of the thoughts on the two sides respecting it. Did either 0f the two parties quite understand the impression pro- duced on the mind of the other? Was the look of either quite the same that it had been a few moments before? It is enough, no doubt, to know that all is well that ends well. The Professor usually gained, as the result of the interview, what he desired always, if I remem- ber aright, when it was within the power of the Uni- versity to grant it. Such idiosyncrasies made the man more interesting. They certainly gave him an indi- viduality which distinguished him from others. In his inmost thinking the deepest life of his man- hood my belief is that he always lived apart from those about him. He thought after his own manner, and in an independent way, and I doubt whether even his most intimate friends penetrated the recesses, or really in any measure understood him in that central region of the soul where it turns towards the unseen things. I question, indeed, whether he had intimate friends, in the fullness of intimacy which is known by men whose inner life opens itself with greater readiness. When we pass onward to what may be hereafter the clearer revela- tions of the soul's deepest self, we may find that the things which we did not see before in others were unseen only because of the limitations of our vision, or because of the veil which the very differences of nature placed between ourselves and them. There was a solitariness of this character in Professor Marsh's life, notwith- standing the abundant outwardness in its activities and 412 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN its intercourse with men, which, as I observed or thought of him, was very suggestive to me. The words "we know in part" true of all spheres of knowledge as they may be are equally true, or even more so, of the knowl- edge of the soul. For himself, I think, this character- istic of his nature lessened in some degree the happiness of his life, and gave him sometimes the feeling that he was a lonely man ; a feeling respecting him which those of his friends who visited his house so rich in its in- terior and so beautiful in its location after his final departure from it, must have found arising within them- selves. He made the University the heir of his entire estate, with the exception of a moderate sum connected with a single bequest, and thus completed, as it were, the gift to science at Yale which he had offered previously in his long-continued service and his rich and great col- lections. Surely, as has been already said, it is not the teachers only who make the University, or advance its life and usefulness. All the men who work in it, and for it, are helpers in the upbuilding of what all alike desire, and the history of the century includes in its record a company of scholars and workers having a variety of gifts, but the same spirit. Professor Lyman was connected with the Scientific School as its instructor in Physics or Astronomy for thirty years. His career presents another instance, kindred to those of Whitney, Marsh, and others whom I have mentioned, of a life which realized in its later period the aptitudes and desires that were manifest even in boyhood. I venture to borrow a few words, as in- dicating this, from a brief record in the biographical story of the Yale Class of 1837, which was prepared in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of their gradua- tion. 413 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN "Before he was nine years old," this record says of him, "he evinced considerable mechanical ingenuity, making small wind-mills, water-wheels, and other toys of the kind. He also began to show a great interest in Astronomy and the kindred sciences, which was first awakened by an intense curiosity to know how a common almanac is made, and how the stars look through a telescope. This latter desire was first gratified when he saw the Pleiades through a rough telescope, which he extemporized from his mother's spectacles, a small burn- ing glass, and a yardstick, of which he said in later life: 'I never can forget the delight with which I saw, for the first time, this cluster expand into a large number of brighter stars.' "When he was about thirteen years of age, a copy of Ferguson's Astronomy fell into his hands, and was studied with great interest. From that time until he was sixteen, he spent most of his spare time either study- ing, without assistance, or in a little tool shop of his father's constructing astronomical and other instruments, which he had never seen except in the diagrams of books. Among these instruments, which were of course mainly of wood, were a quadrant, a sextant, a terrestrial and a celestial globe, an orrery, an eclipsareon, a solar microscope, and many others. He also constructed a reflecting Herschelian telescope, four feet long, which enabled him to show Jupiter's satellites and belts, Saturn's rings, the moon, and other celestial objects, to the country folks, who came from miles around to look through it. "He computed all the eclipses for fifteen years to come, and made almanacs for 1830 and 1831. In order to give the places of the planets in these almanacs (never having seen a nautical almanac or tables of the planets), he computed tables for himself from the elements of 414 PROFESSOR CHESTER S. LYMAN MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the planets' orbits, as given in a small book by Blair on Natural Philosophy." When we consider that all this was the work of a boy born in the country, and having only the oppor- tunities of a common country school of those days, who was not yet sixteen years of age, we can hardly question the meaning of his gifts as bearing upon his life-work. His choice of a profession, however, was made in early youth and was determined, not by the natural tastes and inclinations of his mind, but as the result of his religious convictions. In accordance with this choice he studied theology after his graduation and, in due time, became the pastor of a church in New Britain, Connecticut. Not improbably he might have continued in the pastoral work throughout his life, had he not been constrained to withdraw from it by reason of a failure of his health when he had been settled in the ministry only two years. His career was a varied one for fourteen years after this time his residence having been, during a considerable part of the geriod, in the Sandwich Islands and in California, and his occupations having been largely in the sphere of teaching, or of scientific studies and pursuits. In 1859 he was called to his professorship in our School of Science. That he would have been a useful and devoted minister, if he could have carried out his original purpose, may not be questioned. The early beginnings gave promise of the future. But it was not the Divine appointment for life for him, and we may see why it was not. Happily the sphere for which he was peculiarly fitted, and in which he at length found his appropriate duties, was one where all his powers could find their best exercise, while, at the same time, there was large opportunity for moral and Christian influence. By his character, as well as by direct instruction and personal helpfulness, he was able to do much good to the young men whom he 415 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN met in their educational years. In some very appreciable degree, therefore, he was enabled to accomplish the ends for which he gave himself to the ministry at the outset, and many of his pupils acknowledge their obligation to him for this reason, as well as for the value of his instruction in his special department of study. Professor Lyman's call to his chair at Yale was given him one year later than my own to my professorship came to me. My personal knowledge of him began after we were thus united in the Faculty of the institu- tion. As our special work, however, was in different schools of instruction, we did not have the opportunities for familiar acquaintance which were open to others, whose daily duties brought them more closely together. Our meetings were only occasional, and yet an associa- tion of thirty years could not but give me some true understanding of his mind and character. His intel- lectual powers were of a high order. Their manifesta- tion of themselves was especially conspicuous in the lines of scientific inquiry and research. Along these lines he moved most readily and naturally. But he did not limit himself to a single sphere. He was interested in a wide range of subjects. He gave his attentive con- sideration and study to questions of political life and national well-being, and had his own well-matured views with reference to them, which guided him in his personal action. In discussions respecting educational matters he was ready to participate and, whenever he did so, he exhibited the results of careful and independent thought. As a thinker on theological topics he was characterized by a Christian conservatism, and yet, at the same time, by a large-minded and healthful liberality. His special interest in theology had its origin, no doubt, in his early studies in preparation for the ministry, but his mind and character alike were of such an order that, whatever 416 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN his work in his daily life, he must have been always moved to thoughtfulness on this great subject. There was in him a certain openness to investigation and a readiness for a measure of faith in new spheres of thought, which were possibly akin to, if not more closely connected with, the inventive element in his mental nature. He was hospitable in his thinking in relation to the phenomena of mesmerism and, afterwards, those of spiritualism, though he never put himself prominently forward in connection with these matters. He held his mind in readiness for whatever revelations of truth might be given; not rejecting, as many about him did, all evidences or proofs which made a claim for them- selves, but accepting them according to what he esteemed to be their real value, and comforting himself with the thought and hope of new and yet clearer truth. Thus he found much pleasure in his meditations, while he was occupied with his scientific researches and his work of instruction. In conversation and discussion with others, he had a deliberateness which seemed as if, perchance, the result of the careful working out of his convictions under the influence of the thoughts of the hour. He was, however, always willing to contribute whatever of wisdom or knowledge he had at command, to the end that the sub- ject in question might be brought into the clearest light. His kindly spirit, also, rendered his daily intercourse with friends, and the chance talk with others whom he met less frequently, attractive; and all were glad to know him. 417 XXII. Professors McLaughlin, Edward J. Phelps, Salisbury, and Others. IN contrast to these seven scholars whom I have thus mentioned men whose life-work in the in- stitution was long continued and to whom its end- ing came only in advanced years Professor McLaugh- lin, who died in 1893, was at that time a graduate of but ten years' standing. His brief history was an un- common one, in that he was called to enter upon the work of instruction in the College when he had been graduated only twelve months. The demands of the department of English Literature seemed then to render an addition to the teaching force necessary, and the question as to meeting these demands was pressed upon the authorities for decision. Mr. McLaughlin had so greatly commended himself to his instructors during his course as a student, that they were led to urge his ap- pointment to the new position. In view of their favor- able judgment, the Corporation took action, and the ap- pointment was made. The success of the young in- structor was very noticeable, even from the outset. It became increasingly manifest as the years moved onward. He showed himself to be a true and cultured scholar in the field of literary studies. At the same time, he exhibited a very special power of awakening and stim- ulating the minds of his best pupils. He led them by his influence to an appreciation of literature. He in- spired them with a genuine love for it. His private work with such pupils was as helpful as was that of the 418 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN lecture-room, and many of those whom he thus aided were greatly quickened. After a few years of service, he received, in recogni- tion of his ability and of his usefulness as a teacher, an election to an Assistant Professorship in his department. This position he held until 1893, when he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. His sphere of work and duty for a long life-time seemed to be determined. It was the sphere most congenial to his feeling and most adapted to his mental powers. Every- thing appeared to be opening before him in the happiest way, with a promise of rich results in the future for himself and also for the College. But just at the coming of what all who knew him thought to be the hour of youthful fruition and abundant hope, a disease which proved fatal seized upon him, and he died only a few weeks after the announcement of his election to the new Professorship had been made. Two other members of the professorial body in the University were removed by death within the period of which I am now writing Professor Johnson T. Platt of the Law School, and Professor James K. Thacher of the Medical Department. The former died in 1890, and the latter in 1891. Professor Platt was one of the three young lawyers the others being Judge Baldwin and Professor Robinson, now of Washington, D. C. who, in 1869, undertook the work of the renewed up- building of the Department of Law, which had, in the preceding ten years or more, lost much of its earlier success and diminished largely in its numbers. To these young men the first beginnings of all that followed were due, since they, in a time of much discouragement and many apprehensions on the part of the central au- thorities of the institution, voluntarily and of their own impulse took upon themselves the task and the 419 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN responsibilities that it involved. In the year 1872, they were appointed professors, and Professor Wayland, the present Dean of the school, was called into association with them. From that time onward, the new life was developed gradually at first, but more rapidly and fully afterwards and confidence in the future increasingly took the place of doubts. Professor Platt lived long enough to see the fulfillment of his hopes in large measure, but not long enough to enjoy all that has now been realized. He was an earnest worker in connection with his colleagues, and a faithful instructor of the students whom he met in his classes. Professor Thacher was the eldest son of Professor Thomas A. Thacher. He was a graduate of the College Class of 1868. His studies in the earlier years following his graduation were carried forward in other lines than those of Medical Science, but he subsequently devoted his energies with so much intelligence and earnestness to his special work, that he won for himself very high esteem, and was regarded as a scholar and instructor of great value to the school. His life in his professorship that of Physiology was limited to the period when the school was at its lowest point in the number of its students, but it covered the eleven and a half years, from 1879 to the early part of 1891, during which much was effected in the way of advancement in medical education, as well as of preparation for the success which began to make itself manifest not long afterwards. My story of the years at Yale is intended to reach its close in June, 1899, when I retired from my official connection with the University. I have therefore limited myself in what I have said on these immediately preced- ing pages to commemorative words respecting the pro- fessors whose career ended before that date. There were, however, four others, in remembrance of whom 420 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN I feel that I may, in accordance with my earnest desire, add a few brief sentences, in view of the fact that a large part of their work in the case of two of them, the whole of it was fulfilled within the years of my Presi- dency, and because the closing of that work was so nearly coincident with the ending of those years. These four gentlemen were Professor Jules Luquiens, of the Academical Department, Professors Moses C. White and James Campbell, of the Medical School, and Professor Edward J. Phelps, who was connected with two departments the Academical College and the Law School. Professor Luquiens was a native of Switzerland, and was graduated as Bachelor of Divinity at the University of Lausanne in 1866. Not long after his graduation he came to America. In 1 873, at the close of a course of study at Yale, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. During his residence here he won for him- self the regard of the professors under whose guidance he carried forward his work, and when he left the in- stitution he bore with him not only their best wishes, but their confident hopes for his success and usefulness in his subsequent career. He accepted an invitation to an Associate Professorship of Modern Languages in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this office he remained for several years, but after the resig- nation of the Street Professorship by Professor Knapp he was called back to Yale in 1892. From that time until his death in 1899 he filled most acceptably the chair of the Romance Languages and Literature in our University. Professor Luquiens was a thoroughly equipped and able teacher. The successive classes of his pupils were united in their testimony respecting the faithfulness with which he discharged all his duties, as well as the interest which he excited in their minds as he led them forward 421 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in their studies. As a man he was of the highest char- acter and was possessed of vigorous intellectual powers. He had, however, a modest estimate of himself, in consequence of which he was indisposed to press his views with demonstrative energy upon those who were in conference with him, or to manifest any ungracious feeling, as some men do, in yielding to the opinions of others. In his relations to his colleagues the gentleness and friendliness of his nature were at all times con- spicuous. As he united with them in the work of the University, he gave himself with unselfish devotion to the common interests and thus showed the generosity of spirit which characterized him. By his manly excel- lence he won the esteem and affection of all who were associated with him in the company of scholars. The period of his service with us was a brief one, extending over only seven years, but his influence in his own de- partment of instruction we may hope will remain. It was a happy fortune for the institution that it had, even for a time, his presence in one of its Faculties, and it is a pleasant thought for myself personally that the years of his service were included within my own official term. Professors White and Campbell were esteemed mem- bers of the Medical Faculty the former having held a professorship for thirty-three years and the latter for thirteen years. Dr. White graduated as Bachelor of Arts at Wesleyan University, in 1845. He pursued medical studies in our own institution, and received his degree in Medicine here in 1854. For a few years he was engaged in the foreign missionary work in China, but soon after his return to his home, in the year 1867 he was offered the chair of Pathology and Microscopy at Yale, which he accepted. During his entire career in New Haven he was ardently devoted to his profession on its scientific side. By reason of this fact he took a 422 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN prominent position even from the early days of his professorial life, and he soon became an authority in his more special sphere. In his outward appearance, he seemed always to retain the characteristic marks of a serious-minded minister or missionary, but those who came into nearer association with him saw at once the enthusiasm of his mind for scientific investigation and his ability which fitted him for his chosen work. In an unusual measure he kept alive his interest in his studies during his far-advanced years. He held his professorship until he had already passed the age of eighty, but when he laid aside its duties, and even until after the beginning of the illness which proved fatal, he looked forward earnestly and hopefully to new efforts. He had no thought of an ending of his personal work- ing, except as life itself should end. The term of his service in the school was of longer continuance than that of any other of its professors since its establishment in 1813, with the exception of three two of whom, Dr. Jonathan Knight and Dr. Eli Ives, were members of its earliest Faculty and occupied their chairs of instruction for forty and fifty years, and the third is Dr. Charles A. Lindsley, now Professor Emeritus, who has been connected with the school since 1860. Dr. Campbell's official term, on the other hand, was much more limited in its duration. He held his professorship from 1886 to 1899. In the latter year he resigned the office, and very soon afterwards he died. He was a generous friend and kindly benefactor of the School, earnest and efficient in his efforts for its develop- ment and growth, and in full sympathy with the best ideas of the time in respect to the higher standard of medical education. By reason of his professional work in another city, it was not possible for him to have quite as close and constant connection with the ordinary life of the School as his associates in its Faculty had. These 423 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN associates, however, and also the friends of the School who were deeply interested in its welfare and most watchful of its progress, were appreciative of the service which he rendered to it, as well as of his ability as a man. His life came to its end while he was yet in his prime, but he was faithful to his profession and suc- cessful in it through all his working years. Hon. Edward J. Phelps was appointed Kent Profes- sor of Law in the Academical Department in 1881. From the beginning of his official term he not only ful- filled the more immediate duties of this professorship by giving instruction to undergraduate students in their Senior year, but also stood in close relations of sympathy to the Faculty of the Law School. After two or three years he became, at the request of that Faculty, a lec- turer in their courses, and in this way his presence in the University was rendered most helpful to students who were more immediately and directly preparing themselves for the work of the legal profession. For both classes of pupils he had a special attractiveness as a teacher. His clearness of statement, the felicity of expression which was characteristic of him, the enthusiasm for the study of the law that was always evident, his gracious and gen- tlemanly manner, and the friendliness and dignity of his whole bearing, awakened the interest of his hearers and made them most attentive listeners to his lectures. He was himself a true lawyer of the best type. His personal example, as well as his instruction, moved his pupils to set before themselves the highest ideals. During the first Presidential term of President Cleve- land, from 1885 to 1889, Professor Phelps represented our Government as Minister to the Court of Great Britain. By reason of this official position, he was neces- sarily separated from the University throughout the whole of the period, but on his return to America he re- 424 PROFESSOR EDWARD J. PHELPS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sumed his professorial duties. From 1889 until his death, which occurred near the beginning of 1900, though the special work connected with his chair was still in the College, his relations to the Law Department were much closer than those which he had previously sustained, and he gave to that department a large share of his time and effort. It was with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that we welcomed him again to our Yale fellowship. He was such a cultured gentleman, and so friendly in his attitude, that all who enjoyed in any measure the privilege of association with him es- teemed themselves most fortunate. In conversation his large knowledge and experience rendered him very help- ful, as well as agreeable, to those who met him, and es- pecially to such as were in the intimacy of his friendship. As a member of our University Faculty he manifested always the true spirit of the institution. He believed in the ideas of education which it represents and gave his heartiest support to it in all its life. Though not a grad- uate of the College, he had pursued his studies in prepa- ration for his profession for a considerable time in our Law School. In this way he had become familiar with its system of instruction at that period. He had also gained inspiration from its teachers and had formed friendly relations with its students. Moreover, the Yale spirit had come to him by inheritance, as his father grad- uated here under the administration of the first President Dwight, and the early family associations were such as to awaken interest in this College. He was thus no stranger to us as he came to our Faculty, though he had lived in Vermont and had received his college education at Middlebury College in that State. The date of his college graduation was 1840. At that time, and for ten years or more afterwards, his father represented his State in Washington as a member of the United States Senate. Within these years the 425 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN younger Mr. Phelps had, accordingly, the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the eminent men then at the seat of Government among the most eminent who have ever been in that interesting center of our national life. From Mr. Webster and other leaders associated with him, he received much inspiring influence, and he was never weary of talking of them to his friends of the younger generation. In his own personality he had a happy union of the past and the present. The past min- gled with the present by its inspiration, but did not over- power it. It imparted a richness and grace to the life of the man, yet the man himself was a living, earnest per- sonality of the present. He was a manly citizen of the republic of to-day, honoring it by his life and devoted to its highest interests. As a citizen in the common- wealth of learning, he had the ideal of culture ever in his mind and he realized it in himself in wonderful measure. Any university might well have been proud to enroll his name in its list of scholars and of educated Christian gentlemen. The Yale brotherhood had a blessing of no ordinary character in his life at our University for so many years. To me his presence here and my friendly acquaintance with him are delightful memories. I give myself, at this point, the privilege of adding to my brief commemorative words respecting these asso- ciates in the Board of Instruction a few sentences with reference to two gentlemen who were very near to us, though not of our number. Professor Edward E. Salisbury had not been con- nected with the Faculty of the University since the year 1856, but his relation to it as a constant benefactor, and as a member of the chief committee of the Library and of the Council of the Art School, was so close that we all looked upon him as one of the inner circle of the Yale fraternity. The appeal which the institution made 426 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to his filial affection or to his generosity always met a kindly response. As a scholar he rendered it a great service through his deep interest and large attainments in the sphere of philology. He was the first to introduce and provide for Oriental studies in the College. As a result of this fact, as well as by reason of his large-minded apprecia- tion of learning and scholarship, he sympathized and heartily co-operated with Dr. Woolsey and others in the matter of the organization of courses for graduate stu- dents. We may indeed regard the establishment of his professorship and the opening of instruction in his de- partment as, in a sense, the earliest beginning of this more definite organization. What he did at a later time in relation to the chair of Sanscrit I have already men- tioned when writing of Professor Whitney. His action in this regard was certainly as praiseworthy as it was unique. Not content with a voluntary acceptance at the outset of a professorship for himself without salary, he held himself ready, when he had found a pupil of whose fitness to be his associate he was assured, to offer the Corporation an endowment which would secure his serv- ices, and to assign him a portion of his work. And when years had passed and the younger scholar had attained the eminence which in his own mind he had prophesied for him, he willingly added to his gifts according to the demands and possibilities of the new era. The institu- tion of learning which has within its gates or in close connection with its life men who are animated by such a spirit may well congratulate itself, for it enjoys what may fitly be regarded as a rare good fortune. To the University Library Professor Salisbury gave most kindly thought through all his long career. His interest in it as having in itself one of the central forces of the life of the institution was very early awakened. In the year 1843, when the building now called the Old 427 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Library was erected, the donation received from him was one of the largest, if not indeed the largest of all that were made by the friends of the College. In 1870 he presented to the Corporation the exceedingly valuable collection of Oriental books which he had gathered in many previous years, and soon afterward he provided a fund the income of which should be devoted to securing the additions to it that might be desired. In later years, still further gifts for this collection were made by him, which increased its value and usefulness, and in his final disposition of his property he manifested his continued interest in the department of studies and literature to which he had specially devoted his life. These, how- ever, were only prominent instances of his generosity. The donations of a less marked character, which were so often repeated that they were looked for with confi- dence, had a value appreciated most fully by those who were in immediate charge of the interests of the Library or were intimately acquainted with its history and needs. The interest which he had in Art was also very con- spicuous. He was among the first to welcome the idea of the establishment of a School of the Fine Arts in connection with the University. The originators of the school found in him a friend who heartily sympathized with their views and purpose and one to whom they could look as having a spirit kindred to their own. In the subsequent years also, the officers and teachers of the school were aided in their work by the generous and friendly help which he was ready to afford them. I think he had even from an early time the desire and purpose of making the University in the future the pos- sessor of the artistic works which he had collected in his own home. Through the generous gift made to the fund for the foundation of the Professorship of Natural History, in 1850, he contributed in no inconsiderable measure to 428 PROFESSOR EDWARD E. SALISBURY MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the end of securing for the College the services of Pro- fessor James D. Dana. This gift exhibited the wide- ness of the range of his liberal sentiment. The needs of the institution were in his thought, and he was ready for helpfulness in the sphere of science or art or litera- ture, believing in the worth of all alike for educated men. By reason of his testamentary bequests the Uni- versity will ultimately come into possession of a very considerable share of his estate. In his own special department of scholarship Profes- sor Salisbury held an honorable position and one which was peculiar to himself. Among the earliest of our countrymen to choose Oriental studies for the work of life, he found himself, in a sense, in the position of a pioneer and leader. The way for others was to be opened and interest in a new sphere of study awakened. He certainly did the work of the early years with ear- nestness and the true scholarly spirit. By his efficient agency in establishing, and for a considerable period largely sustaining through his own efforts and contribu- tions, the American Oriental Society, the cause of learn- ing in this interesting sphere was greatly advanced. The younger men who followed in his pathway as Oriental scholars found encouragement when meeting him, as they saw in him one who had worked before them and for them. In his personality he impressed every one with the thought of a cultivated and refined gentleman of the highest social rank, yet of one who was self-withdrawing and perhaps self-distrustful. He had, indeed, much strength of character and force of will. But he was willing to let his influence go forth from himself quietly and work with a silent power for the good of others. The lessons of such a life have their own peculiar worth. Dr. William L. Kingsley, who died five years before 429 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Professor Salisbury, in April, 1896, was a graduate of the College of the year 1843, but he did not hold any official position within it. He had, however, from his earliest years, lived in the very midst of its inmost life, inasmuch as he was a son of Professor James L. Kings- ley, and was, even as a child, acquainted with his father's associates and friends. The history of the institution in the first half of the century came to his knowledge easily, as he listened to the familiar conversation of the different households. That of the previous century, also, was readily opened to him by reason of his father's careful and thorough researches. Like his elder brother, the College Treasurer, of whom I have already written somewhat, he had from his father the inheritance of the historian's mind and im- pulses, and thus, as he grew up to early manhood and beyond it, the studies of the historical order became to him increasingly attractive. These studies, as they were directed from time to time toward the past life of the College, strengthened his affection for the institution and awakened ever more and more interest in its well- being and earnestness in its behalf. The enthusiasm of his nature, which was remarkable, exhibited itself more conspicuously, if possible, in his thoughts and efforts in relation to the College than in any other sphere of his working. I have never known a more ardent, whole- souled, devoted son of Yale than he was in all the years of my acquaintance with him. His service was given freely to the institution in dif- ferent ways and on many occasions. The most contin- uous and helpful work which he did in its behalf was, no doubt, that connected with the New Englander the periodical, or Quarterly, which was for a long time under his control as its owner and editor and was, by reason of his judicious and generous management, a representative in large measure of the thoughts and 430 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN opinions of Yale professors. For the editorship of such a Quarterly he had gifts of an unusual order, which he was always willing to put in exercise for the best interests of the University. His editorial care also, and his par- tial authorship of the large Yale Book, as it is often called, which was published in 1879, and in which much of the history of the institution in various departments of its life is given, ought never to be forgotten. This very valuable book, as we may believe, would not have been prepared and published, had it not been for his energy. The fact that he was such a disinterested and devoted friend of the University one who, though not engaged in its immediate work, could be relied upon for enthusi- astic effort whenever there was a call for his activity was of much advantage to its officers and those who were nearest to its central life. He had at times a special in- fluence by reason of his position, which could be made available for the best results. His helpfulness in one or two important crises, though it was known to but few, contributed in no small degree to the highest welfare of the institution. He was indeed one of its genuine bene- factors. In recognition of his literary attainments and ability the University conferred upon him, in the year 1892, the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters a well-de- served mark of distinction, which may fitly have been especially gratifying to his feeling because it was the first degree of this order given at Yale. As a friend and associate Mr. Kingsley was of the number of those whom we are wont to call the kindest- hearted men in the world full of generous feeling, sympathy, affection, and readiness to make life happier and better for all about him. He had a nervous energy which was very uncommon. United with a pecu- liar and extraordinary ardor and moved by his wide- 43i MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN reaching interest in matters of thought and of effort, it seemed to give him more vitality than most men possess and to render his mind alive to all that was new and good. His every movement indicated the eagerness of his spirit, and the outgoing of his sentiment was charm- ing to all his friends. Their thought of him, as the years pass on, is always a pleasant thought. 432 XXIII. The Corporation of This Period 1886-99. THE Corporation of the University within the period from 1886 to 1899 differed very wide- ly, in respect to the official tenure of its indi- vidual members, from the same body as it was consti- tuted at the time when I was elected to my professorship, in 1858. Six of the ten ministers who were in the Board at that earlier date held their membership in it, as we have already seen, for terms extending from twenty- five to forty years. In 1886, on the other hand, only three of the members, whether of the clerical order or of the class chosen by the alumni, had occupied their posi- tions more than twelve years, and in 1899 only one had reached the limit of a quarter of a century of official life. Of the sixteen members of the Board exclusive of the President of the College and the Governor and Lieu- tenant-Governor of the State who were in office at the time of my election to the Presidency, May 20, 1886, six had been removed by death before 1899, and two had withdrawn from service one of them because of the expiration of the term for which he had been elected, and the other by reason of a call to a different position in the University. Two others passed out of connection with the Board at the close of my administration. As a consequence, only six of those who appointed me to my office, and to whom I looked for counsel and support, remained as advisers or helpers of my successor. So rapidly do we move from one generation and one era to another. 433 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN All the members of the Corporation as it was in 1886, who have died since then, were interesting and valuable men. Some of them were men of extraordinary gifts, as well as great attractiveness because of their peculiar and even charming characteristics. Pre-eminent among them were the Hon. William M. Evarts, whose life continued until the year 1901, but whose membership in the Board ceased in 1892, and the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel J. Burton, who died in 1889. Dr. Burton was a man of rich and royal nature; one who, by reason of his personal appearance, his intel- lectual ability and even genius, his wide-reaching and all-embracing humanity, his joyous and inimitable humor, and the affluence of his imagination, would have been conspicuous in any company of men, however able or gifted. He was lovable in a high degree, yet one's affection for him seemed, as it were, to have a different starting-point and a different order of movement, as compared with that which one felt for other friends. The charm of his personality was all his own. It ap- peared, as I thought of it, to have its place in the very center of the manhood at the source alike of all emo- tional and intellectual activities. These were the means by which it manifested itself, indeed, but it used them in a most unique and singular way making the two activ- ities intermingle and unite their forces, so that each wrought harmoniously with the other, and the result was the combination of both. The intellectual did not and could not move by itself. No more could the emo- tional. But each entered, as it were, into the other, and contributed its helpful and valuable influence. In no man whom I have known has this peculiarity of nature been so marked. There were no thoughts in his mind, we might almost say, which were not quickened and in- spired by genuine and generous feeling. There was no 434 REV. DR. NATHANIEL J. BURTON MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN exhibition of emotion through which the brightness of the intellect did not shine forth with a beautiful light. As a consequence of this, every new idea which came to him seemed to be taken up into his whole nature, and when it came forth from him to others, it had a new richness that rendered it doubly interesting. The inter- change of ideas with him was, for this reason also, very stimulating and very suggestive. One carried away from such friendly talks thoughts which had not come to one's mind before thoughts also, which though already well- known, presented themselves with a freshness of living force. A mind and spirit like his, ever moving in unison, could not be limited by any narrowness of sentiment or of faith. Yet the stability of his nature kept him firmly fixed upon the foundations of belief and thought, while it also prevented feeling from usurping the place of rea- son or breaking away from its control. For this reason, while he was liberal and progressive in his thinking, he was never destructive. There was growth always, and a readiness for it. It was, however, a growth which had its origin and movement within the sphere of the truth. He had the hospitality of a generous mind with refer- ence to new ideas, yet did not lose his confidence in the old ones which had borne witness in his own experience of their life-giving force, and thus had become very precious to him. He once said, in my hearing, that he could in a sense accept any Christian creed, whatever minor faults there might be in it, because he liked to look at it on the good side and in the large way. The littleness of the divisive spirit he knew nothing of. He was too large-hearted for quarrels and too broad-minded for controversy. The outgoing of his sympathy made him wide-reaching in his Christian fellowship. The influence of it in its bearing upon others, who were brought into association with him, 435 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN tended towards the same happy result in their minds. Eager and even angry combatants could scarcely fail, in his presence, to find their bitterness passing away and a kindlier and more tolerant feeling taking its place. He was a Christian in the truest sense one whose life grew more like that of the Divine Master, as he advanced in years. But he was one who, like the Divine Master Himself, recognized the fact that "there are other sheep that are not of this fold." What a happy thing it is, to see a man whose largeness of heart gives broadness to his thought, and whose richness of thought renders the emotional nature yet more far-reaching in its affec- tion. We who knew Dr. Burton had the happiness of seeing such a man. His imaginative power made its contribution, as I think, to his manhood in the aspect of it which I have tried to present. This faculty of his mind was so rich and exuberant in its varied manifestations that it made itself conspicuous in all his thinking and speaking. The thoughts which came to him refused to be confined with- in narrow bounds, or to limit themselves in their utter- ance to old or wonted forms of expression. If I may use again words which I wrote of him years ago, I would say: The moment the truth revealed itself to him it was taken up and transfigured by a mysterious working of mental power, so that it gained a freshness and beauty which made it a thing of life and joy. It continued, also, a living thing. It did not remain to-day what it was yesterday, but with each new morning it presented itself in some new aspect, and thus awakened the mind to see within it a fresh charm and an added blessing. Thoughts came to him respecting it as sweetly as flowers come in the summer and with the exhaustless fullness of a fountain. The outlook seemed to reach ever farther into the distance and, beyond what could be seen by the utmost stretch of present vision, there was 436 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN a greater glory to inspire and allure the seeking mind in the future. Dr. Burton's humanity was another significant char- acteristic, as bearing upon his thought and expression. He was remarkably appreciative of men and his estimate of them was generous. He recognized the common na- ture of all men, seeing in himself its limitations, its hopes, and its possibilities. The tendency and the im- pulse of his manhood moved him always to look for and upon the better side of those with whom he came in contact. His native disposition was to make kindly allowance for their weaknesses and to take them at their best. In the same way he opened his mind, with a true liberality, towards the half-truths which others were ready to advocate, to the end that he might, in his own thinking, fill them out to their completeness, or, again, towards the narrow views of those who could see but little, that he might broaden them by his own wider vision. But not only this. His humanity also rendered him hopeful in all his Christian work. There was in him a deep-seated confidence in the nobility and real grandeur of the human soul, which made him a believer in the final triumph of good over evil, and gave him a never- failing enthusiasm in his work for this end. The pessi- mistic element had no place in his nature. Not that he had no seasons of depression, nor never saw the darker side of things. All thoughtful, loving souls, that have an inward look, have such seasons. But the generous thought of the world was victorious, and no dark hour cast a long-continuing shadow over the many brighter ones that followed. I believe that the sweetest charac- ters those in which sweetness and richness are united have, in almost all cases, a tinge of melancholy. This is, in reality, a part of the rich inner life, which gives beauty to it and makes it full of helpfulness and comfort 437 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to other lives. The shadows, however, must not per- manently obscure the sunlight. If they do, the richness and the sweetness vanish together. No man of the broad and magnanimous human feeling which Dr. Bur- ton had could abide in the dark regions of the soul's ex- perience. The windows of his mind and heart were ever open to the light, and the clouds soon passed away. His preaching and his thinking, consequently, were hopeful, stimulative toward the better things, inspiring to nobler life, encouraging for the attainment of the highest possi- bilities. Dr. Burton's humor was but the outflow of his whole manhood. The manhood would not have been com- plete without it. It was not so much a succession of sparkling witticisms, or bright sayings standing apart by themselves, or quick responses to others' thoughts, giv- ing to them a new and unexpected turn. Many brilliant men, as we all know, have wit or humor of this order, in greater or less degree. In his case, it was as if a bub- bling spring of joyous thought, the outflowing of which in expression gave pleasure to himself, and to those who talked with him, by the amusing strangeness of the words or analogies, even as, in another way, delight was afforded by his imagination. An essential element in humor so it is said is found in its surprises. The surprises were everywhere, as it seemed, in his case. At any and every moment, the mind of the listener was charmed by the unexpected comparison or the peculiar turn of expression, which gave a bright flash of light to the thought and rendered it more clear and fascinating. His humor, as it uttered itself in words, appeared to me to have a likeness to the gift of illustration which was so remarkable in Henry Ward Beecher. The expression came naturally, as I have already intimated, out of the richness of the mind and soul out of the fullness of the fountain. It was not the result of careful searching, or 438 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN something made ready for use at a future time when there might be a call for it. It was, on the contrary, the outcome of an enthusiastic and joyous nature. When I had reached this point, in my writing of Dr. Burton, I opened at random the volume containing his Yale Lectures on Preaching, which were given in our Divinity School, in the year 1882. My eye, as it chanced, fell upon the following passage, which reveals so much of the man not more, indeed, than many others, nor half so much as many, yet enough to show in some measure what he was that I venture to quote it, and with it to complete my imperfect description of him. "While I am on this matter of language, with its coinage all effaced by centuries of use" a subject of which he had just been speaking at some length "per- mit me to refer you to old creeds and old liturgies as frequently examples of that thing. The creeds and the liturgies, in themselves, are well enough; but reiteration tends to dull a man's sense of words. If he does not watch, and incessantly energize upon them, he loses not only their genetic meaning and vigor, but also their present meanings; and, in this loss of all meanings, the recitation of the forms is as useless as an inarticulate monotone. Even that monotone might have some good influence in it, provided it was solemn, and I should advise people to congregate on the Lord's day and go through that, if nothing better could be had. The sound of the wind in the pine forest is moral. All grave tones steadily prolonged are moral; and liturgies will live and creeds will keep on, for the sake of the sound of them, if for no other reason. But it must hurt their feelings dreadfully to be reduced to that, when they are conscious that they are live things; that they had a parentage, and a powerful parentage, and have had a career, too; that they did mean something on the lips of 4-39 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN those who made them, and were intended to describe forever certain august realities. "I should like to spend about twenty-four hours of continuous speech here in your presence, running the terms of the Nicene Creed back to their radicals (as far as possible), reproducing the history too of that great symbol, and especially its origination; and then, when you and I had come into a full possession of the dear old things, standing up all together and reciting it. We should hardly be able to contain ourselves. The famil- iar drone of utterance would be changed to a play of thunderclaps, comparatively. We should have a Mount Sinai here, and an awfulness as of God made visible and audible." Then he adds: "For me, I have ceased fearing that time-honored forms in the Church, creedal and liturgic, will suffer permanent damage in the vehemency and crash of debate. The Catholic symbols are the common- sense of the Christian ages, crystallized and solidified; and they will bear a good deal of knocking about. They are the survivals of the fittest, and are therefore likely to survive. I do not know what verbal modifications may be forced upon them ; but I certainly do not look to see any breach in their substance. And as to forms less hallowed, whatever they may be, forms provincial, forms denominational, forms philosophical, I am glad to see them put through the threshing-mills of debate, at intervals, so that the immortal in them may redemon- strate its indestructibility, and the partial and ephemeral in them may be compelled to show its insufficiency. Not all insufficient things are worthless. The butterfly needs a worm-form by which to climb to its winged state; and Truth seems to be willing to put up with imperfect state- ments by way of transition to something higher. She is a veritable butterfly, though, in heart and fact, whether 440 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN detained as yet in her worm-life, or all emerged and fair." How much of the man's mental processes and work- ings, so individual and delightful; how much of his im- aginative power, of his generous confidence in mankind, of his immovable hopefulness, even of his genial and outflowing humor, may be seen in these words upon which we come, as it were, by accident. .The man, in the riches of his nature, was before us whenever we heard him giving expression to his thoughts. His very countenance, as we looked upon it, showed his master- ful power. Mr. Evarts was so well and widely known throughout the country, and' his career and character have been set forth before the public by others so fully and faithfully since his death in 1901, that I feel much hesitation in attempting to add any descriptive words of my own on the pages of this volume. I am sure, however, that I am justified in saying that of the sons of Yale who have graduated within the last seventy years, he was one of the very foremost and most illustrious. His keenness of intellect, his mental grasp, his comprehensiveness of un- derstanding, the depth and clearness of his thought, his force in argument, and his forensic ability in the best and largest sense were so conspicuous, that he was every- where regarded as one of the most eminent leaders in his profession. His connection with the Yale Corporation extended over a period of nineteen years, from 1872 to 1891. His official 'term included the whole of Dr. Porter's Presidency, with the exception of a single year, together with the first five years of my own. During the larger part of this time, his duties at Washington, as was the case also with his College classmate and associate in the Board, Chief Justice Waite, were so exacting that there 441 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN was comparatively little opportunity allowed him for very special attention to the affairs of the University. He and his associate, however, were thoughtful of its interests. They were also of much value to it by reason of the public positions which they held and the honor which they brought to it as it was represented by them before the world. The prominent offices which were given to Mr. Evarts at Washington in the Cabinet, as Attorney General and afterwards Secretary of State, and in Congress, as a Senator from New York carried in and with them- selves an emphatic testimony to the high esteem in which he was held by the people and by the Government. They were the well-merited reward of his life-work. They gave him, however, no greater distinction than he gave them. His service in each one of them was rendered conscientiously and in a manner characteristic of him- self, even as it always was in his more private profes- sional career. Among the many noted cases in which he was engaged as an advocate, no two, perhaps, were more conspicuous than that of the proposed impeach- ment of President Johnson, and that connected with Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. His valuable service in these two cases in the former of which he contributed effectively to the right result in a very serious and impor- tant crisis of our later history, while in the latter he did much to the end of freeing one of the largest-minded and great-souled men of the country from the hostile attacks made upon his character and fame may well be remem- bered by all who can recall the years gone by and the events that belonged to them. Much has been said of late of Mr. Evarts' wit, which was indeed of a very remarkable order. I may almost say that it was of every kind within the sphere of a re- fined and cultured scholar and gentleman. It was as bright and keen as was his intellect -itself. It was as 442 HON. WILLIAM M. EVARTS MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN quick in its movement as it was brilliant in its display. It was inexhaustible, always ready for the demand of the moment, and always exquisitely adapted to the emergency that presented itself. I shall not try to give examples of it which are unknown to others, or to dwell upon or characterize it at any length. I may say, how- ever, that among his witticisms the one pertaining to his interview with Lord Coleridge seems especially worthy of mention. When we consider the peculiarities of the English mind as compared with the American pecu- liarities in the matter of appreciation and recall to mind the financial circumstances of the time, I cannot help regarding it as quite inimitable. The English Chief Justice, when visiting Mount Vernon in company with Mr. Evarts it will be remembered spoke to him of the story, which he had heard, that Washington had thrown a dollar across the Potomac River, and expressed a doubt, as he saw the width of the river, whether it could be true. He asked Mr. Evarts' opinion on the matter. I will not affirm it with confidence, Mr. Evarts replied, but a dollar, you know, went farther in those days, than it does now. I can picture to myself the Chief Justice, or some of his friends at home, to whom he may have repeated the remark, as questioning with themselves what bearing this fact about the value of a dollar had upon the point. One of the best examples of his quickness and felicity in the line of repartee was given, as I think, in response to a word spoken by myself. On occasion of one of our Yale Commencement dinners I had the duty, as the pre- siding officer, of introducing the speakers. In perform- ing this duty with reference to Mr. Evarts I said, in allusion to the well-known length of his sentences in public address, "Mr. Evarts will now give us a single sentence." He rose, and instantaneously replied, "It 443 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN will be a life-sentence." Nothing, surely, could have been more apt and delightful, or more like himself. I will only add one further instance of a different order, in which his humor displayed itself very charac- teristically, and in a manner peculiarly charming to my own mind. He was calling upon me not long after his recovery from a very serious accident which had befallen him at his country home in Vermont and, in the course of the conversation, he was speaking of some of the ex- periences which he had had in his illness. "One day," he said, "just as I was beginning to recover my strength, the physicians, who were in attendance upon me visited me at the usual hour and, when they had finished their consultation and advice, one of them remarked, It must be rather trying to you to have three doctors come in together to see you every day. Yes, I replied, but there is one mitigation of the trial I notice that they all go out together." That word of his found a happy lodg- ing-place in my mind a place in the region of my sym- pathetic nature, and there it has remained until now. Mr. Evarts' wit, however, was only the play of his powers. It was not his power itself as it is not in the highest order of men. His intellectual forces moved in many directions. By reason of his clearness of appre- hension and insight, their movement was always most effective for the desired result. They were, also, fully under his control at all times, so that his work was car- ried forward with ease and precision. He perceived, at the first thought of a subject presented for his consid- eration, the central point which was of all importance, and thus wasted no time or energy. A mind like his is interesting in every aspect of it. Of the other members of the Corporation who held their official positions partly or wholly within the period of my administration, but whose life has not continued 444 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN to the date of the writing of these pages, I can allow myself space only to say a few words. Rev. Samuel G. Willard was the oldest but one among them all in his term of service. His election to his membership in the Board took place in June, 1867. He had, accordingly, been in his office for nineteen years at the time of my appointment to the Presidency. In all these years his efforts had been given without reserve to the interests of the institution, so far as the opportunities and possi- bilities pertaining to his office demanded them. During several of the later years he had served as one of those who formed the principal Committee of the Board, and in the discharge of the duties connected with this posi- tion he had proved himself efficient and had won the regard of his associates. His health, however, became seriously impaired in the summer of 1886, so that he was unable to attend any of the meetings of the Board, or to take any active part in administering the affairs of the College, after that time. It was not permitted me, therefore, to have conference with him on the questions of interest which presented themselves, or to enjoy the benefit of his wisdom and counsel. I had long had the pleasure of his acquaintance, however, and had thus learned to esteem him for the excellence of his character. He was a man of sound New England mind, of kindly temper and amiable disposition, of calm judgment, and of earnest piety. For more than thirty years he filled the pastorate of a quiet village Church, in which his Christian work was rich in its fruits, and abundant in its blessing for all who knew him. He died in the early summer of 1887. Dr. Lavalette Perrin, the father of Professor Perrin, was a member of the Board for only seven years, from 1882 to 1889. He was a man of wider activity in the Church life of the State than Mr. Willard, and thus of more extended influence, but the services rendered by 445 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the two to the University were inspired by a similar gen- erous interest in its well-being. Dr. Perrin held the pastoral office in two or three different places during the larger part of his career, in each one of which his ministry was very successful. In the latest years, how- ever, he entered into the more general and public work of the Congregational Churches of the State, and had his residence in Hartford. In that city, on the night of the 1 8th of February, 1889, both he and his wife lost their lives through the burning of the hotel in which they had their apartments. They are both held in af- fectionate remembrance by a large company of friends who honored and revered them while they lived. Dr. Perrin graduated with the Class of 1840, and Mr. Willard with that of 1846. Rev. Edward A. Smith, who was selected to fill the place of Dr. Perrin, received his Bachelor's degree in 1856. He was ac- cordingly from ten to fifteen years younger than these gentlemen. His official term, however, continued only for a brief period, as his life came to its end in the autumn of 1895, when he had not yet passed beyond the prime of his manhood. A cultured and refined gen- tleman, he manifested always great interest in scholar- ship and intellectual life. Though modest and retiring in his disposition, he had such abundant mental re- sources and such suggestiveness in his thoughts, that his conversation was stimulating to meditative and earn- est minds. The people of his parish in Farmington, Conn., to whom he ministered for thirteen years as a successor to Dr. Noah Porter, the father of President Porter, were very strongly attached to him. His friends in the ministry, also, fully appreciated his powers. He was a generous and magnanimous son of Yale. Dr. George Bushnell's membership in the Corpora- tion extended over a period of ten years, from 1888 to 1898. He was the younger brother of Dr. Horace 446 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Bushnell and, though not possessed of his remarkable genius, had some of the characteristics of his mind. He had much originality of thought. His style of writ- ing and preaching bore the marks of this originality. He was independent in his thinking and a man of lib- eral mind. The disposition to move hastily after what was new, however, simply because of its newness, was not in him, and he had no desire to become a combatant for the mere pleasure of a contest. He sincerely loved the truth, believed in the wideness of its reach beyond any present application of it, and entertained no doubts of its final triumph, or of the blessing of the emancipa- tion which that triumph would bring. Like all intel- lectual men in whom there is such hope and confidence, he had much enjoyment in his inner life, as well as in his studies and his work for others. The sphere of Dr. Bushnell's ministerial labors was mainly outside of Connecticut. Though he held for some years a pastorate in one of our cities, he served during the larger part of his career churches located in Worcester, Mass., and Beloit, Wis. In the latter city, he was closely associated in sympathy with the gentle- men connected with the College established there. After his retirement from his work in his Western home, his place of residence was transferred to New Haven. He did not again take upon himself the duties of the pas- toral office, but he was actively engaged in preaching until within two or three years of the ending of his life. His service to the University in his advanced age an- swered, in its faithfulness and devotion, to the warm affection which he bore towards it from his early youth. Dr. Bushnell entered our Corporation as the suc- cessor of the Rev. George J. Tillotson, whose member- ship in the body, as already stated on an earlier page, continued for thirty-nine years from the end of the third year of Dr. Woolsey's Presidency to the beginning 447 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of the third year of my own. Mr. Tillotson had a deep and generous interest in the higher education; an in- terest which was manifested by his constancy in attend- ance upon the duties of his office in our institution, as well as especially by a liberal bequest made in his will for a collegiate school in the state of Texas. Rev. Dr. George Leon Walker succeeded Dr. Burton as a member of the Board. He was disabled by reason of physical infirmity as early as the autumn of 1896, so that his period of active service was not a long one, but his final withdrawal was, at the desire of his col- leagues, deferred until the close of the academic year in June, 1899. The prominence of Dr. Walker as a preacher, and as a leader in the Congregational minis- try, was everywhere recognized for many years before his death. The pastorates of two of the leading Churches in New England, the First Church in New Haven and the First Church in Hartford, were held by him. In the former position he continued for five years, from 1868 to 1873; an d in the latter for twenty-one years as pastor from 1879 to 1892, and as pastor emeritus from 1892 to 1900. At an earlier period he had for several years filled the pastoral office in one of the Churches of Portland, Maine. In the public life, also, of the Con- gregational denomination he was quite prominent, being deeply interested in the most exciting questions which came under discussion in the later period of his more active career. As a preacher, Dr. Walker had an impressive style and manner. His sermons were full of interesting thought, which was presented in forcible language, and oftentimes with true eloquence. W T hen he first came to New Haven I was greatly attracted by his preaching, and the same influence was manifest in the case of all who heard him. His service in the Church to which Dr. Leonard Bacon had so long ministered proved to be 448 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in the highest degree acceptable and useful, so that his withdrawal from it by reason of infirmity of health oc- casioned deep regret. In his personal characteristics, he was a man of force and energy, together with strong will-power and clear perception, which fitted him for vigorous action and, if need were, for leading others. At the same time, there was ever a readiness to co-operate with those about him in their efforts for the accom- plishment of good results. The affectionate regard of his parishioners and the respect of his ministerial breth- ren were won by his strong character and his kind feel- ing which moved in unison to helpful ends. Rev. Dr. Joseph W. Backus was a graduate of the Class of 1846. Three years after he finished his college studies, and just as the class to which I belonged was leaving the institution, he received an appointment as Tutor, which he accepted. In this office, however, he continued for only two years, and then he entered upon the work of the ministry to which he had already con- secrated his life. Six pastorates were successively opened to him. In these he rendered most faithful and acceptable service for more than a generation. Three of them were connected with churches located in thriving and active manufacturing towns in Connecticut, where there was among the people much intelligence, as well as business enterprise. In all these places, whether he was in his youth or his age, he was regarded by every one as a Christian minister of the true order one who manifested in his daily life the reality of the faith which he professed and the doctrine that he taught, and one who, in his efforts and labors, was sincerely desirous of doing good to those about him. His parishioners and his fellow-townsmen, in each place where he was called to make his home, learned to esteem him very highly for his works' sake. He left behind him, as he parted from them, a memory full of sweetness and of blessing. 449 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN None knew him without loving him, or named him without a kindly word of praise. He was possessed of a sound and safely acting mind, of a wise judgment, and of a thorough knowledge of human nature. A certain quietness and modesty char- acterized him, which prevented his pressing his views and thoughts, in discussion with others, after the vigorous manner that marks many men of the more self-assertive class. But when he expressed his opinions, however unobtrusively, they were recognized as worthy of con- sideration and respect. He had, as it seemed to me, a certain poetic element in his nature, which was the re- sult of the intermingling of thought and affection. It was the poetry of a loving, thoughtful soul. In friend- ship he was warm-hearted and generous. In all his as- sociation with others he exhibited the virtues of the Christian gentleman. I had the good fortune to enjoy his friendly regard from the College years until his death, and I can give my thought of him no more fitly than by using the Scripture words : Of such is the kingdom of Heaven. After twenty-four years of service, he resigned his membership in the Corporation in 1899, because of the enfeebled condition of his health, which rendered the further discharge of its duties, as he thought, no longer possible. It was, indeed, only at my urgent solicitation that he consented to remain in his office until the time of my withdrawal from my own. He lived until the 4th of July, 1901, and then the end came for him as peacefully and quietly as he could have wished. Hon. William Walter Phelps and Mr. Evarts were the only members of the Board elected by the graduates in the year 1872 the year in which the change in its constitution took effect who continued in office later than 1886. Mr. Phelps was, perhaps, the most ener- getic and effective person among the Alumni in advo- 450 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN eating and accomplishing this change. For this reason, I think, there was a very general sentiment in his favor, when the question respecting candidates presented itself for decision. By the allotment made after the first elec- tion, his official term was limited to two years, but he was subsequently chosen for three full terms in suc- cession, so that his membership continued until 1892, when he declined a re-election. During three or four years previous to this date, he was the Ambassador of our Government in Germany. Because of this fact he was prevented, in these years, from attending with regu- larity the meetings of the Board. His interest in the University, however, did not in any degree diminish while he was thus removed from it. On the contrary, he held himself ready to render to it his service and help, whenever an opportunity offered. Through a be- quest of fifty thousand dollars from his father, the late John J. Phelps, and one of the same amount from him- self to which generous gifts from his family were after- wards added, the very imposing and highly useful build- ing which includes the main entrance to the College quadrangle and bears the name of Phelps Hall, was erected in 1896. Mr. Phelps was a man of unusual ability, and as a member of the National House of Rep- resentatives, a Judge of the Court of Errors in his own State, New Jersey, and the Minister of our Gov- ernment at two of the principal Courts in Europe, Au- stria and Germany, he had a career of distinction by which he honored the University. The University in its turn, recognized him as one of its prominent graduates by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Mr. Edward G. Mason, as related to the College years, was of the same class with Mr. Phelps the class of 1860. In his membership of the Corporation, he was the successor of Mr. Evarts. Much interest was felt in his election, on account of the fact that he was the 45i MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN first candidate who was presented as a representative of the graduates residing in the Northwestern States. This interest was deepened for his many friends by rea- son of the winsome qualities of his character and the freshness of an almost youthful enthusiasm which was ever manifest in him. Few men have gained a warmer affection from others than he did. He seemed to all, even at their first meeting with him, to have the genuine manliness of a true man. By profession he was a lawyer, but by his natural gifts and tastes he was a scholar. He devoted himself with great assiduity, and with equal enjoyment, to historical investigation, especially in ref- erence to the early history of the region of country in which he had made his home. As one of the Govern- ing Board of the University he was progressive and in- dependent in his views, yet there was no disregard for the past on his part much less any obstinate or con- tentious opposition to the opinions of others, who might perchance, at the time, find themselves not ready to be convinced. He was a man whom no friend could meet without being moved by the kindliest feeling, and from whom none could part without saying to himself: "Ned Mason (his friends always called him so) is a manly fellow." The name which we all gave him, even to his latest years, showed how the ever-abiding youth- fulness of his nature stirred the old youthful feeling in ourselves. Mr. Thomas C. Sloane entered the Board in June, 1889, when Mr. William W. Farnam had just been elected the University Treasurer and, as a consequence, had withdrawn from the membership which he had held during the four preceding years. Mr. Sloane's election seemed to me at the time and, as I think, to the officers of the institution generally, a very happy event and one full of promise for the future. The promise, as related to continued service, was not realized, since he lived 452 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN only a single year after this, but the fitness of the fact that he was chosen to the membership impresses my mind in the remembrance, as it did at the beginning. He belonged to the class of men who are eminently fitted for an office of this order in a great institution of learning. He had the intelligence and practical wisdom which are so greatly to be desired. Broad-mindedness towards all scholarship was characteristic of him, as well as readiness to make the largest possible provision for every department of learning. Unselfish in his disposi- tion and generous in his impulses, he strengthened and encouraged those who were associated with him in all their best efforts. His mind turned naturally toward the positive side of things, rather than the negative. For this reason, and also because of his kindly sentiment, he was free from all petty and hurtful criticism. In the moral and religious well-being of the members of the student community he had a very strong interest. His desire for their true culture as educated men was equally manifest. Such a man was needed at that time. Such men, indeed, are needed at all times. It is a happy fortune when they are secured. Among the benefactors of the University Mr. Sloane and his brothers hold an honorable place. The bequest of two hundred thousand dollars, which he made by his will to the Corporation, to be determined in its uses by their wisdom, and which was afterwards assigned to the University Library as a part of its endowment, is one the value of which will be most highly appre- ciated in all coming time. His other bequest of seventy- five thousand dollars for purposes connected with the de- partment of Physics has already been of much service and will be also in the future as a large addition to the gift made by him in connection with his brother, Mr. Henry T. Sloane, in 1882, for the erection of the Physi- cal Laboratory which bears their family name. He was 453 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN also during his lifetime a liberal giver to the University, as his brothers likewise have been on different occasions, for other objects of much interest and importance. In every time of forward movement in the University, when additions to its means were needed for the carry- ing out of plans which had been formed, it was pleasant to think of him as one of those of whose sympathy we could be assured. The place in the Board which was made vacant through the death of Mr. Sloane was filled by the elec- tion of Mr. Buchanan Winthrop, of the Class of 1862, as his successor. Mr. Winthrop was in the fullness of health and vigor at the time when I withdrew from the Presidential office; but as he, like Dr. Walker, has passed to the other life before the date of my writing these pages, I would give expression here to my kindly remembrance of him. He had, I think, as deep and constant an interest in the duties of his position and their relation to the welfare of the University as any one among his colleagues. For some years he rendered ser- vice as a member of the Prudential Committee of the Corporation. This service involved a very considerable acquaintance with the details of the affairs, financial and otherwise, of the entire institution. It also called for the exercise of sound judgment and discretion. In connec- tion with the plans originated in 1898 for the commem- oration of the Bicentennial Anniversary of the granting of the Charter of the College, he manifested much zeal and activity. He was ardent in his hopes that the new century -might open in a manner worthy of the Uni- versity and this in its outward, as well as in its inward life. His desire was very strong that the buildings which were proposed to be erected especially the Com- memorative Hall should have architectural fitness and beauty. They should be, as he thought, impressive as academic edifices and suggestive of academic life. With 454 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN this thought and desire in his mind, he gladly consented to give his best wisdom and efforts for the realization of what seemed of so much importance. There was no one among the graduates who looked forward with more pleasurable anticipations, than he did, to the coming of the Memorial Days. There was no one who could have taken a greater satisfaction in what those days brought with them, when they came, than would he, if his life had continued as all who knew him wished that it might. In his personality Mr. Winthrop had, in a very pe- culiar measure and degree, the appearance of a refined gentleman. In social intercourse his gentlemanly bear- ing was attractive to strangers as well as friends. The prizes which he established in the College for the en- couragement of the study of the Greek and Latin poets were an evidence of his appreciation of Classical scholar- ship and his interest in it as bearing upon the best cul- ture. He believed that College graduates should be truly cultured men. I have already made a passing allusion to Chief Jus- tice Waite in connection with what was said of Mr. Evarts. He was elected to his membership in the Board in June, 1882, and held the position until his death, which occurred on the 23d of March, 1888. As the date of his election preceded that of my entrance into the Presidential office by four years, my association with him in administrative duties was limited to a com- paratively brief period. The knowledge of his ability and wisdom, however, which was easily gained through meeting him from time to time, assured me that all who, like myself, had urged or advocated his candidacy at the beginning, had done a good work for the institu- tion. He would undoubtedly, had he lived, have been re-elected by a substantially unanimous vote of the grad- uates. On one occasion, as I well remember, he was most 455 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN kindly, as well as efficiently helpful to me, and also to the University. It was at a time when, in consequence of the death of Mr. Kingsley, the Treasurer, certain bonds of the United States belonging to the University needed to be newly registered. The facts of the case, the importance of the new registry, and the request of the institution were made known to the authorities at Washington in the most distinct and most respectful manner, and the question as to what steps should be taken to accomplish the end in view was asked. A protracted correspondence ensued. The requirements deemed necessary were communicated to me in reply to my inquiries, and were complied with. Thereupon new requirements were added, and these were met in detail. Officials of another order then wrote of further de- mands; and so on, until the delays connected with bureaucratic red-tape became such as to make one doubt whether the difficulties could ever be removed and the bonds recorded as our own. Finally with some hesita- tion as to pressing the matter upon his kind attention I wrote to the Chief Justice. Giving him a full account of the case and telling him that the labyrinthine involve- ment seemed well-nigh inextricable, I requested him to go to the Treasury Department, and see if he could not induce the officials to take some final action in the mat- ter. Three days afterwards, I received a letter from the Department, informing me that, if I would forward the bonds, they would be returned to me with the new regis- try immediately. Had the Chief Justice not been, through his membership in the Corporation, a connect- ing link between the University and the Government, I fear that my correspondence with the Treasury Depart- ment might have continued until now. But the man himself, by reason of his presence in the Governing Board, was more to the University than he could be through any special services which he might 456 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN render. In character, in mind, in honorable and noble personality, he was fitted to impress every member of the academic community, and to move all towards the highest life. My personal association with all these gentlemen and with their colleagues who still survive whether in the discharge of our public duties, or in the conferences of friendly acquaintance was a part of the happi- ness of my executive official life. The Corporation of Yale University, as I knew it in those years, was a body in whose membership it was a pleasure to have a place. 457 XXIV. The Development of the University 1886-99. THE development of the institution in the lines of its more outward and its more inward growth, during the thirteen years 1886 to 1899 of which I am now writing, was quite beyond the thought of its officers or its graduates at the begin- ning of the period. I desire to refer to it briefly not at all by way of measurement with that of other universi- ties, whether the advances made by them have been greater or less than those which we have known but only in its connection with the progress of the half-cen- tury of our own history over which my memories ex- tend. The review, and the comparisons attendant upon it must, I am sure, bring encouragement to every friend of the University when he turns his mind towards the possibilities awaiting it in the future. For the purpose of such a brief review, as in other relations of the subject already noticed, the half-century may be fitly regarded as having its opening in 1846 and its close in 1899, since the three presidential terms which belonged to it covered the period included be- tween these two dates. The three terms of twenty-five, fifteen, and thirteen years respectively may also, for our comparison, be taken as the sections of the entire era which mark its progress ; and we may bring the matter before us in the best way, perhaps, by considering it with reference to the number of students in attendance, and of officers connected with the work of instruction; the buildings provided for its own uses; the funds and 458 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN resources at its command; the education afforded by it; and the character of its intellectual and religious life. In August, 1846, when President Day offered his resignation of his executive office that is, at the begin- ning of the history of the half-century that has recently come to its end, and the point of time from which we make our measurement of progress there were in the entire institution five hundred and eighty-seven students. Twenty-five years later, at the close of President Wool- sey's administration in 1871, the total membership, as already stated on an earlier page, had reached the num- ber of seven hundred and fifty-five. The increase dur- ing this period was, accordingly, one hundred and sixty- eight, or very nearly twenty-nine per cent. When Presi- dent Porter retired, in 1886, the whole student com- munity included in itself one thousand and seventy-six members. An addition of three hundred and twenty- one was thus realized within his official term, beyond the number that had been previously enrolled, and the measure of the growth of its fifteen years was close upon forty-three per cent. If we turn now to the thirteen years from 1886 to 1899, and bring them into comparison with the preced- ing periods, we find that the increase in the membership of the University was one hundred and thirty-three per cent. the number of students in the academic year 1885-6 being one thousand and seventy-six, and that of the academic year 1898-9 being two thousand five hun- dred and eleven. It is an interesting fact also, that the growth thus indicated was manifest in the several De- partments of the University within these years. The membership of the College or Academical Department increased from five hundred and sixty-three to twelve hundred and twenty- four; that of the Scientific School, in its undergraduate classes together with its small class 459 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of special students, from two hundred and twenty-eight to five hundred and eight, or including those pursuing graduate studies, from two hundred and fifty-one to five hundred and sixty-seven; that of the three profes- sional schools from two hundred to three hundred and ninety-nine; that of the Graduate School from forty- two to two hundred and eighty-three. The develop- ment in each of the first three cases was thus twofold or somewhat more, while in the last-mentioned school it was nearly sevenfold. The Art School also had an in- crease of about one-fourth in the number of its profes- sional pupils, and its privileges were more freely offered to students in the College. The School of Music was not established until 1892. It had in attendance upon its courses in 1899 sixty students who were not connected with other branches of the University. These brief statements, which in themselves are quite suggestive, may gain a certain additional emphasis, as I think, if we call to mind the fact that of the entire number of graduates of the institution, in all its de- partments, from the beginning of its history to the close of the academic year 1899, nearly one-third received their degrees within these thirteen years, while of the alumni who were living at the date of the Bicentennial Anniversary in 1901 one-half were graduates during the same period. Passing now from our consideration of the student community in order to observe the increase in the mem- bership of the Faculty, we may notice that, in 1846, there were in all the departments of the institution twen- ty-one professors and permanent officials, including the President, together with fifteen tutors or other tempo- rary teachers, connected with the Board of Instruction. At the close of the academic year 1870-71, the total number in the Board was sixty- four; forty-five being 460 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN professors or gentlem n having permanent positions, while nineteen were tutors or instructors appointed only for a limited period. The body of permanent officials, as well as of those of a more temporary order, was so far enlarged by successive additions during the fifteen years following 1871, that in June, 1886, there were one hundred and fourteen persons enrolled in the member- ship of the Board. Of these persons seventy-six held professorships, assistant professorships, or positions of a somewhat similar character, and thirty-eight had been called to render service as instructors for a more or less definite term. Between 1886 and 1899 the enlargement was still further manifest, and in the last-named year there were in the Faculty of the University one hundred and twenty officers of the former class and one hundred and forty of the latter. The total number at the end of these thirteen years, accordingly, was two hundred and sixty as compared with one hundred and fourteen at the beginning. The increase in the membership of the Board of Instruction within this period was thus very nearly the same with that of the student body the numbers in each case being about two and one-third times as large in 1899 as they were in 1886. By reason of this very marked enlargement of the teaching force, new opportunities for study and investi- gation were opened, and in some cases the number of professors in a particular department of instruction was doubled or more than doubled. The advantages af- forded to students were in this way greatly increased, and a very helpful division of labors among the teachers was rendered possible. The buildings belonging to and occupied by the insti- tution in August, 1846, were, including the President's house, fourteen in number. Of these, four were erected in the time of Dr. Dwight's administration; four at an 461 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN earlier period, between 1752 and 1793; and six within the official term of President Day. To these buildings, as indicated in the brief review which has been given of the service rendered to the College by Drs. Woolsey and Porter, eight were added while the former held the Presidential office, and nine in the years when the latter had the same position. The only two of the entire number which were not standing in July, 1886, were the President's house and the old Divinity Hall. In connection with the carrying out of the plan of the quadrangle, however, six of the older buildings were removed between 1886 and 1899; and thus twenty- three were still standing at the close of this period. Within these thirteen years, seventeen buildings were added to those already possessed by the University. Of this number, five were erected on the College square, and by this means the quadrangular arrangement was com- pleted, preparatory to the removal of what remained of the older Brick Row. These five buildings bear the names of the donors The Chittenden University Li- brary building; Phelps Hall and Osborn Hall, devoted to purposes connected with undergraduate college in- struction; Welch Hall and Vanderbilt Hall, which are dormitories for students of the College department. Berkeley Hall, Pierson Hall, and White Hall, which are College dormitories, and the Kent Chemical Labor- atory, are buildings outside of the quadrangle, but are designed for the uses of the Academical Col- lege. The first two of these were erected by the Cor- poration and were named in commemoration of Bishop Berkeley, and of Rector Pierson, the first Presi dent. The third and fourth have the names of the gentlemen who gave them to the institution. Winchester Hall, the gift of Mrs. Winchester, in memory of her husband, Lieutenant-Governor Winchester; Sheffield Chemical Laboratory; and the Biological Laboratory M o m I MEMORIES OF YALE LiFE AND MEN belong to the Scientific School. The first section of the building now called Hendrie Hall was built for the Law Department, and the Medical School Laboratory for the purposes of that School. The Gymnasium and the Infirmary, the means for the erection of which were provided by graduates and friends of the institution, and the College Street Hall, purchased by the Corporation, are University buildings. The Battell Chapel was also much enlarged within this period, the expense being met by a gift from the late Robbins Battell. The seven- teen buildings mentioned as newly added constitute one- half of the entire number secured for the institution in the half-century the history and progress of which we are now briefly considering. As I thus refer to these buildings which are so essen- tial to the University in its enlarging life, and which so greatly contribute toward making its home worthy of itself, I would express my most sincere and grateful appreciation of the special gifts which, in the case of most of them, rendered their erection possible. The munificence of the honored friends whose benefactions made the closing years of the century conspicuous in Yale's history, in this regard, can never be forgotten. With equal gratitude, I would on these pages com- memorate the abundant generosity of each and all of those large-hearted men and women who, by their gifts or bequests in these years, increased the resources of the institution thus widening the sphere of its teaching and aiding it, in different lines, in its work for education and scholarship. What they have done, all of them with the same kindly sentiment will bear rich fruit for our University and for its sons in the coming generations. The permanent funds of the University in July, 1886, amounted to two million one hundred and eleven thou- sand dollars. In July, 1899, they had increased to four 463 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN million five hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars, or in other words, two million four hundred and forty- three thousand dollars had been added in the interven- ing period. The sum of the endowments was thus en- larged, within these thirteen years, by a more than two- fold increment. The gifts received for the erection of new buildings in the same years were very nearly two millions of dollars, and if to these sums already men- tioned the donations and subscriptions for the Bicenten- nial Funds which were secured before the middle of the year 1899, together with the gifts for the income of the University in the period and for special objects of interest of a minor character, be added, the total amount obtained will be found to be somewhat more than five millions. The income derived from investments and from fees paid by students, which in 1886 was two hun- dred and sixty-three thousand dollars, amounted in 1899 to seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The increase in the endowment and the income of the insti- tution, and in the number of buildings occupied by it, was substantially equal, in proportion, to that which has been already noticed with respect to the community of students and the membership of the boards of instruc- tion. For myself personally, I may say that there was one special cause of satisfaction as related to the marked enlargement of the University resources during these thirteen years. The increase in the permanent funds, like that of the student company, was confined to no single department, but was happily shared by each and all. Not only this; but more adequate provision was made for almost every branch of study, as well as for meeting the demands of the age in the other and various lines of the institution's life. As my controlling thought on behalf of Yale was that of the University and its upbuilding, and as the consequent outgoing of my de- 464 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN sires was for its well-being in all its parts and success in all its work, I could only be grateful that so much was accomplished for the realization of this thought and these desires. With reference to the education afforded by the Uni- versity it is scarcely possible, within the limits of this volume, to present a detailed record of progress during the half-century which has just closed. Certain great advances have been made, however, and marked changes introduced, the mention of which will render the char- acter of the development manifest. The most striking change wrought within the period, so far as the undergraduate college curriculum is con- cerned, is that connected with the elective system. No thought of systematizing optional studies in courses pre- paratory for graduation seems to have entered the minds of the authorities and teachers of the institution fifty or even forty years ago. The beginning of the movement in this direction, indeed, as related to definite and per- manent results, may be placed near the opening of the last quarter of the century. In the widening of the opportunities of study in special lines, the extension of the system was very noteworthy between the years 1886 and 1899. A comparison of the schedules of studies in these two years, as presented in the University Cata- logues of the time, will make this evident to any one who will give his attention to the subject. It is not my purpose or wish to discuss here the relative merits of the old and new systems, viewed as a whole and in contrast with each other. But that the change from the former time has been a radical one cannot be denied. A graduate of 1850 or 1860, or even of 1870, who if that were possible should, without any previ- ous knowledge of what had happened, return to the institution in the present year for the first time after his 465 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN graduation, would certainly find himself in a new world in this regard. The Yale of the former days would seem to have passed away, and a strange college of another order to have taken its place. If, however, he were a thoughtful man, with a mind open to large and wide observation, he would, as I cannot doubt though pos- sibly after a regretful hour or two of looking backward appreciate the significance of one great fact connected with the change, to which I have elsewhere briefly al- luded. The very remarkable enlargement of the pos- sibilities of acquisition would be so impressive as to lead him to count the student of the later years fortunate in his era. Contemporaneous with, and in part at least attendant upon, the growth of the elective system, another impor- tant change has made its appearance in our College edu- cational scheme and methods. The old custom, which simply demanded of the student that he should le^rn an assigned lesson from a text-book, and be prepared to answer such questions connected with it as might be pre- sented to him by his instructor in the recitation-room, has given place, in large measure, to a new order of things. We learned from a book in the older time. Our successors of to-day learn much more, in compari- son, from the living teacher. No one, as I think, can question the beneficial influence of this change. The in- struction of the lecture or recitation room takes easily, in consequence, a wider range and becomes more inspir- ing. The teacher places more successfully before his pupil and within his reach whatever may be most helpful to him. In every way the student is brought more fully within the genuine scholarly life. The elective system, in its development, has also, as a matter of course, had a tendency to bring together in particular studies those who have an interest in them or, at least, a willingness to pursue them, and to exclude 466 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN others for whom they have no attraction. The dead weight resting upon the instructors, and likewise upon the interested students, which is occasioned by the pres- ence of such as have no heart in the matter, is conse- quently lightened or removed. What Dr. Woolsey used sometimes, with impressive emphasis, to call the tail of the class the tail which has not even happiness or energy enough connected with its life to put itself in motion is the most dreadful attendant upon the teacher in his work. How often he wishes, for his own comfort, that it might be cut off, or given to some one else in whose keeping it might learn to move, or might move in its way to learning. The elective system is the remedy, or at least the partial remedy, for this evil. Its tendency is, after the method of good old Dr. Hawes, to remove the cause. The memory of my early days as a college teacher brings up before my mind some of my own trials and wrestlings with this matter. How could the earnest and the careless, the willing and the unwilling men in my classes be put apart from one another? But there was no solution of the difficulty. It seems strange enough, to-day yet, as I am writing, I recall the fact that, as late as somewhere in the early sixties, I ventured to suggest to three or four of the leading gentlemen in the Academical Faculty the question, whether the classes could not be divided for their studies according to their rank as scholars, instead of being arranged, as they then were, by an alphabetical division. But they all agreed in the opinion that such a change would be quite impracticable. It was made, however, and safely and happily made, before the sixties were ended. There are frequent evidences in human experience that men do not always nor easily foresee the future. But the elective system has, in its measure, realized for us a more complete solution of the difficulty. It is a solution also which, while it relieves the teacher 467 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of his trial, may be of benefit rather than injury to the pupil, for there are cases, perhaps many in number, where the pupil who cannot be moved in one study may be awakened to interest in another. But quite apart from this system or any question re- specting its merits, the young man, by reason of the requirements of the entrance examinations, begins his college course at an advanced stage of preparatory studies as compared with his predecessors. He finds, also, throughout his course, a wider outlook offered him in all the spheres of knowledge that are opened; he has facilities for prosecuting his work which were unknown in the earlier time; he is brought under the influence of impelling forces by reason of which his w'orking energy may be continually quickened. If he consecrates himself to the duties and fitly uses the privileges which belong within the college period, he cannot fail to be, in his knowledge and acquirements at the end of his course, in advance of those who have gone before him in their undergraduate career. The familiar acquaintance with the more scholarly members of the student company which my associates in the Faculty had in the recent years will lead them, I am sure, to confirm the truth of this statement. As I turned my thoughts and inquiries in every direc- tion during the period now especially under review looking out from the central point of the University I could not help feeling that the institution was growing in its provisions and opportunities in this regard as truly as it was in the things pertaining to the outward sphere. The growth awakened my own scholarly en- thusiasm, as with a new impulse, and I often wished that I could place myself as a listener in every lecture-room, and open my mind on every side to the incoming of the new knowledge of the new era. I would that every student in the University might have somewhat of the l MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN same awakening that he might be moved, as its conse- quence, to take to himself, in his early life, of the abundance which is offered, and thus might know, in and for himself, the riches of that wide-extended education which will bring him fullness of power, as well as the never-failing presence of happy thoughts. In the Scientific School the elective system has, from its first introduction, been limited in its scope to a selec- tion among courses of study definitely grouped and clas- sified for the Junior and Senior years. This arrange- ment, as contrasted with that which extends the oppor- tunities of choice for the individual pupil to a wide circle of particular studies which may not be closely related to one another, is rendered necessary by the gen- eral purpose of the education which the school offers. The development of the later years has, accordingly, been along the lines of the original plan, but it has been marked by noticeable advances in connection with the progress of the era. The growth of the school in re- spect to all the excellent work which pertains to its sphere is one of the most interesting facts of our recent history. The number of students enrolled in its mem- bership in 1899 was equal to that enrolled in 1886 in the Academical Department. The relations of the School of the Fine Arts to the Undergraduate College became during this period much closer than at any earlier time, and its helpful influence for the entire University as well as for the education of its students was more fully -realized. We may hope that, in the future, the elevating power of art will be witnessed in connection with all the other studies of the higher order, and that thus the educated men of the coming generations will be broadened and uplifted in their intellectual life. The development of our Art School and the foundation of our School of Music within these years are certainly evidences of progress, 469 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in this view of education, which must be appreciated by every true friend of the University and of the best cul- ture. I am glad to have seen, during my own term of service, the beginning of what has so large promise of good in itself. The courses in the Schools of Medicine and Law were lengthened, during this period, by the addition of a year in each case, so that four years of study were re- quired for the attainment of a degree in the former, and three in the latter. The introduction of the modern sys- tem of medical training in our University reaches back in its date to 1879, but the more complete provision for carrying forward the work connected with it was most successfully made only after the year 1895-96. In the Law Department the plan of studies was adjusted to the new arrangement in 1896. In both of these schools the Board of Instructors was considerably increased and the standard of admission was raised. In the Department of Theology a number of optional courses were added to the required curriculum, in which what is called " the seminary method " of original research was adopted. With the advance of learning in all branches of profes- sional study, the opportunities for the best and most valuable education have been enlarged, and in no re- spect, perhaps, more than in the line of individual and independent investigation to which the student is en- couraged to devote a portion of his time and for which he is held responsible. This is true in the undergraduate departments also, in their measure, though the possibili- ties here may, perchance, not be as great as in the schools which receive the students at a later stage of their progress. The development of the entire plan of the Graduate School has certainly been very remarkable. It has kept pace with the great increase in the membership of the school, as well as with the rapid progress in all lines of 470 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN investigation. Whatever may be said as to the com- parative advantages for young men in their undergradu- ate career of the elective and required systems, there can be no doubt that the former is the one demanded for those who have already received the Bachelor's de- gree, and who desire to pursue non-professional courses for a time. As wide-extended opportunities as possible should be opened to such advanced students, so that the wishes and best impulses of each and all may be satis- fied. How much was accomplished for the realization of this most desirable end, during the years specially referred to, may be seen by any one who will examine the courses offered in those years, and will be more im- pressively manifest as one considers the service for edu- cation which has been already rendered by men who have enjoyed the privilege of pursuing these studies. Within these years also, the influence of the Graduate School upon the general scholarly life of the University has been largely increased, and has become exceedingly helpful, through the formation of clubs established for special investigation and study in various departments of science and learning, and provided with depart- mental libraries and rooms for the membership in which they can meet for discussion or carry on individual work. As we turn finally, in our brief review of the half- century, to a comparison, or an estimate of progress, in respect to the intellectual and religious life of the insti- tution, we may well bear in mind certain changes that have marked the advance of the age. The entire move- ment of men in both spheres of their living, as I think we may fairly say, is more external now, whereas it was more internal fifty years ago. Certainly, this is true of the religious life. It is true in this sphere, and emphati- cally so, even if we limit our comparison to the years from 1875 to the end of the century. The thought of 47 1 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the personal soul of the individual man how it is de- veloping is less prominent than it was in the earlier days. What are its outgoings in efforts for other men ? is the question that is now asked with all interest, and with constant repetition. The evidence of love to God is sought for and discovered through its manifestation of itself in love to mankind. To many, if not most minds this change seems, in and of itself, to be an indication of progress towards the highest Christian ideal. Whether this be the fact or not, however, our judgment with reference to present and past conditions must take ac- count of the change. In close relation to what has just been mentioned, and in some measure at least as a consequence of it, a much more complete system of organized religious work has been instituted in the more recent years. There was indeed no organization half a century ago none, that is to say, beyond what is necessarily involved in the fra- ternal union of classmates and the fellowship of the College Church. Earnest Christian effort was often put forth by individuals on behalf of their associates and friends. Not unfrequently such effort was made more effective and this was always the case in seasons of re- vivals or special awakening through a voluntary com- bination of a small number of religious men continuing for a time. But the organized Christian Associations of the present era were entirely unknown. These origi- nated in our University twenty years afterwards, and their most vigorous life here has pertained to the last fifteen years. Dwight Hall, the existence of which has contributed very greatly to all that has since been ac- complished, was opened and dedicated to its uses in September, 1886. The extension of religious effort on the part of the students among the working classes of the city is largely the result of influences connected with Dwight Hall. 472 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN Another change which may be noticed has relation to the approach toward and development in the religious life in the case of the individual man. Such approach and development are attended by much less difficulty, and by no means so many hindrances of a certain char- acter, as compared with what was true of the earlier period. I refer to the hindrances which were occa- sioned by the theological and Christian thought of the former time. The legal side of Divine truth, rather than the loving side, was then presented, and the gate- way of the new life was oftentimes made so narrow that even the most serious souls were fearful as to their entrance. Religion became, in undue measure, intro- vertive in its character, and self-examination was at- tendant upon every stage of growth. The change in this regard was beginning to make itself manifest in my undergraduate years; but it was only beginning. The Christian life of to-day is happier for thoughtful men than it was. The winsomeness of the Church for those who are turning towards that life is greater. Bearing these changes and others which might be mentioned in mind, I think we may say that, while our University has always been an institution in which Chris- tianity has had a living and powerful influence, no period in its history has witnessed a more pervasive and con- trolling force as pertaining to it, nor a more continuous and earnest forthputting of its energy, than has this of which I am now writing. If the religious ideas of the age, as I have referred to them, are founded in truth, the Christian life of the University, as of the larger world outside of it, is moving forward towards the ideal of the future. It is very difficult if indeed it be possible for a graduate of fifty years standing to give an accurate judgment as to the intellectual life of college students 473 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of to-day in comparison with that of his own contempo- raries in their youth. Such a graduate is apt to forget precisely what he and his companions were, and just how far advanced was his and their development within the undergraduate period. Life moves onward with a growth as silent as it is gradual, and we fail to keep our early selves in vivid remembrance. The young man of the present hour stands out very clearly before our vision, but the young man of the past is afar off; and through the dim light of the years he often seems to have been almost the same that he is now in mature and advanced age. This is one of life's deceptions, coming to us all. It is kindred to that which cheats us as to our years, so that though the fathers seemed to us to be fifty or seventy, when they were so, we have no thought that these figures tell the same story for our- selves. On the other hand, I think that the kindly feeling which is characteristic of genuine and generous advanc- ing age tends to make us overestimate the mental work and attainments of the youth of the later generation. We become thus liable to fall into an opposite error, or an opposite sort of forgetfulness ; and while we were, at first, losing our memory of the past and, as a conse- quence, thinking more highly of ourselves as college youths than we ought to think, we are now putting too low an estimate upon our powers by reason of the same loss of distinct remembrance. In some hours of reasonable and calm reflection, however, the older man may so balance his mind and thought that the two opposite tendencies shall counteract each other, and that his judgment shall be of value as in accordance with the truth. If I may venture to believe that, as I write these words, I am passing through such an hour, I would say that the best intel- lectual efforts and productions of our Yale undergrad- 474 < w P* Q 00 g < ^ ' MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN uates of to-day appear to me to be in advance of those of the earlier period. This is the impression left upon my mind as I have, in successive years, listened to the essays or addresses of students prepared for public occa- sions. The result which we may naturally expect in view of the wider range of knowledge opened to the college man in these days, and of the larger opportunities for instruction and influence in the sphere of literature afforded by the provisions of our present courses of study, is thus seen to be in a true measure realized. The fitness f.or higher studies, and the activity and earnest- ness, which are exhibited by those who enter our Grad- uate School must also be regarded as indicating truly awakened mental life in the students of the College years. In this school, certainly, and in the departments of the University which fit men for the professions and for the scientific sphere, there is an intellectual interest characteristic of our graduates which gives rich promise for their future career; and we may find satisfaction in the progress of the University in this regard, even as we find it in other lines of its life. There is, however, in the intellectual, as well as in the religious, life of the present era an external move- ment beyond what was known in the former time, and this outward tendency has become increasingly manifest in the latest years. The mental effort which looks towards results in the external world in public, or social, or business life has taken in larger measure, even for educated men, the place of that which turns to the inward sphere and satisfies itself there. This is in accordance with the spirit of the age, and it must not be forgotten when we try to answer our question. This question is, whether the intellectual life of the academic community and, as a consequence, of those who go forth from it as graduates, is better developed, stronger, more active to-day, than it was years ago; not whether its 475 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN movement is in one direction or another. We are in the outward age now. The fathers were more within the limits of the inward one. The movements in both are good. We may hope that the coming time will unite the two, and bring them more fully into harmony. In view of all the results, in different spheres, which have thus been set forth, I think we may fitly say that the academic life of the century was happily completed in these its closing years, and that the University was made ready for the new age. 476 XXV. Questions of the Future. AS we whose career belongs mainly to the half- century which is past look forward to the one which is to come, it is befitting, I think, that we have as much trustfulness with reference to those who follow us as we asked for ourselves when we assumed the responsibilities of our own life-work. Men are adapted to the particular era in which they live. Through the influences that it carries in itself and all its educating forces, it renders them fit to be the workers or, perchance, the guides that it needs and demands. So it has proved to be in our own case, so far as we have been adequate to the positions which we have filled and the duties that they involved. But as time moves for- ward and changes come, there is a call for service of a different character. The new has its beginning from the old, indeed, and rests upon what has been already accomplished, but it does not and cannot abide in the old. Ideas of another order, development of pos- sibilities altogether unexpected, progress which the earlier generation had no power to foresee, openings of knowledge beyond the attainments of the past, even of the recent past, make themselves manifest; and those who grow up as the years advance and are moulded in their thoughts and powers by all these things which the years bring with them, are the men prepared, as their predecessors could not be, for the deciding of ques- tions or the direction of life in their own age. If they are selected with wisdom for the positions which they 477 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN are to occupy, we may look forward without doubts or fears as to the interests intrusted to their charge. We may have confidence respecting the future, that it is as full of promise as the past has been of realization. The thought thus presented may naturally and fitly make us, each and all, hesitant in attempting to deter- mine for our successors, what they should do in their work for the development of the coming time. They ought to be and, if equal to the demands upon them, will be more capable than we are of ordering their course of action in view of the opportunities or emer- gencies which may arise. There are, however, as we all know and must admit, lessons of moment which come from the past, and to which the intelligent man of the future may properly give his attention, if he desires to guide his actions aright. The errors and successes of the by-gone days have in like measure, and often in their union with each other, a teaching even for all time, which cannot be wisely disregarded. And this is as true in the sphere of university life as it is else- where. To a few suggestions which seem to me to be connected with such lessons from our past history I will allow myself briefly to call the thought of my read- ers who may chance to be of the Yale fraternity. The first of these suggestions has reference to the matter of undergraduate college government. If I have any understanding of the teaching of the century behind us, there is no sphere in which the truth of the proverb, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," has become more manifest than that of the administration of the daily life of our College. The evils of the undergraduate body were largely misunder- stood by the fathers of the olden time, in that they were supposed to be, or at least were dealt with as if they were, of precisely the same order with those of the 478 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN community or the State. The youthful age of the student company, its momentary thoughtlessness, its love of temporary enjoyment unaccompanied by any desire to do serious harm or wrong; and on the other hand, its better aspirations, its generous sentiment, its susceptibility to persuasive influence, its openness to friendly feeling all these things were, in far too large measure, lost sight of and disregarded. As a conse- quence, the authorities took the attitude of a governing body waiting until offences had been committed and then inflicting penalties, rather than that of an educating force intervening beforehand to check wrong desires or lead by kindly influence away from the evil act. It is certainly not too much to say, that the very gratifying and very marked change which has been realized, within the past thirty years, in the general quietness and pro- priety of our college life is in no inconsiderable degree if, indeed, it be not mainly due to the introduction of better notions of administration or, in a word, to the following out of the idea of the proverb. The oppor- tunity for prevention in a college community is almost unlimited. Prevention is the one cause that effectually puts an end to the evil. But if this be true, it follows of necessity that the men in a Faculty who are specially endowed with the gift of prevention if I may so describe it, that is to say, who have the genuine appreciation of the mind and feeling of those with whom they have to deal, and the peculiar intelligence and sentiment that fit them for suc- cess in this particular work, should be placed in charge of the matter of discipline. They should be allowed to take the initiative; and their judgment may properly have the largest, if not indeed the all-controlling influ- ence in every case. The college officer who does not possess this gift, ought to be assigned to other spheres of duty, for which he is fitted it may be, by reason of 479 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN more than ordinary powers, even as the classical scholar, whose studies and learning give him eminent qualification for his own department, should be called to teach the Classics, and not be asked to offer instruction in Metaphysics or Chemistry of which, perchance, he knows little or nothing. The lesson of the past in this matter is surely one which has a bearing upon all time. Another suggestion which comes to us as closely con- nected with the one just mentioned is, as I think, this: that in the large growth in the membership of our Faculties which must take place in the future, even as it has begun already to be realized, men of various talents and capabilities should be selected for official appointment. By this, of course, I do not mean men devoted to different branches of learning. That such men should be chosen as instructors is self-evident. I refer rather to differences as bearing upon the general educational work of the institution on behalf of its students. Scholars given wholly to scholarship may indeed, in one aspect of the matter, make in and of themselves a college or university. But an institution of this order which undertakes to educate young men for mature life and its duties, and for manhood in its best and widest sense, needs something more. It de- mands for the accomplishment of its purpose not only men who are simply and purely scholars there may well be such, and for its highest well-being there should be such, in every university, and they are worthy of all honor. But it requires also men who can teach, as well as learn or know; who can teach forcefully and help- fully, even if their special gift be attended by some lessening of power for greater acquisitions. The teacher who deals with pupils, as well as the scholar who devotes himself wholly to books and learning, is a necessity of its very life for a university like ours. 480 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN No less true is it, that such an institution, if it is to fulfill its proper work, must have within its official circle men of what I may call effective character. All college officers should be persons of high character. There is a universal agreement on this point. One who has not this possession for himself has no proper place in such a sphere. He is an alien from the commonwealth of university teachers. But there is a marked distinction between character and what I here refer to by the words effective character. I have in mind character which has not only a silent force by reason of its very existence in the man, but also an outgoing energy per- taining to his nature and manhood. The influence of such a man is of inestimable value for the entire student community. Who can measure the results for the highest education for the development of mental and spiritual life which have been realized by the Yale graduates of the years from 1846 to 1886 because of the presence with them and among them of Professor Thomas A. Thacher? What would have been the loss to the institution, if he had not been called into its service ? Such men are needed in every generation. How evidently also the past has made manifest the demand for men having the gift of administration in the larger and wider sense. I refer to such as have open minds to perceive the needs of the present and the future, the wide outlook which reaches to all interests alike and brings with it the appreciation of every part of the common life, and the ability and energy which are essential to the realization of the desired ends. Yale University could never have been made what it is to-day had it not been for such men in its board of instruction, as well as that of government. The future, in this regard also, will answer to the past. If what we hope for is to be made the possession of those who follow us, there must be able teachers, as well as eminent scholars, 481 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in the official body. There must be men gifted in guiding and elevating and bringing to still better ideals the student life in the institution. There must be also men not only of genuine and noble character in them- selves, but of forceful personality moving others to at- tain the same. Yet, in addition to all these, men will be imperatively needed who can appreciate the demands of the coming era and foresee, with some measure of prophetic vision, its possibilities, while at the same time they have the power to lay hold upon what these involve. Such men are the creators of the new and greater things. The experience of the past, whether in the way of failures or successes, seems to me also to impress upon the mind the thought that, in the coming time, every instructor in the University should endeavor, by all the means at his command, to awaken and keep alive in his pupils enthusiasm for the study which they pursue under his guidance. To this end, it will be essential for him to preserve in its freshness his own enthusiasm as he moves along the pathway of his personal learning. The way to stir intellectual life in others is, first of all, to have such life in oneself. This, however, will not be enough he will need also to throw into his teaching all the energy of his own awakened and inspired in- dividuality. The man within him must be moved by an all-controlling impulse to give forth its vital and vitalizing force, so that his instruction will carry in itself for those who receive it intellectual stimulus, as well as an increase of knowledge. His lecture-room must become a place of life-imparting power, and not only a place for teaching, or for testing the student's acquisitions. But apart from his public meetings with his pupils, and his more formal work of instruction, there are possibilities open to him for accomplishing results in MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN the matter to which I now have reference which should by no means be lost sight of by the college teacher, or disregarded. As the field of knowledge in every depart- ment widens and the numbers of those who present themselves for instruction become greater, the professor or teacher is often led to limit himself to what he con- siders his appointed duties the duties assigned him in the regular order of daily or weekly exercises and to feel satisfied when these have been discharged. The hours remaining to him are too few to suffer any of them to be taken from his private studies. The pupils are too numerous to give them more individual and personal attention. Is it not fitting or even an obliga- tion laid upon him by his science to leave his students to themselves at the close of the stated hours, as truly as it is to meet them when the hours begin? So he is prone to question with himself; and the answer which he gives leads him homeward to his own employments and investigations. The tendency of the recent years, I think, has been somewhat in this direction. But the lesson of the past century as a whole, as it seems to me and here again I would say, the lesson of its suc- cess and failures alike has in it a different teaching. It tells of the almost inestimable value of the personal relation of the instructor to his pupil in the sphere of enthusiasm. In such a relation it is more truly, we may almost say, than anywhere else that the fire of the mind and soul of the former can be enkindled in the latter. The teacher who cares nothing for it loses one of the greatest powers for good, both for himself and for the institution which has called him to its service. He may have larger learning at the end of his career, but he will not have done so large a work for the inmost lives of those who have come to him for help. The call of duty, thus, for the coming years, as I think we must admit, is that every college officer, who MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN is an instructor coming in contact with students, should give a portion of his time to personal conferences with those who are in his classes, and should consecrate such time to. awakening in them enthusiastic devotion to study and thus making them, in the intellectual sphere, joyfully self-propelling men. It is, in part, because we find herein a means to this end, that every teacher should unite with his own per- sonal and public instruction what I have incidentally alluded to on an earlier page namely, the call for private work and investigation, under his own guidance and with responsibility to himself, on the part of each and all of his pupils. There are few better ways, if indeed any, of stirring or keeping alive enthusiasm than this, which gives opportunity both for the student himself and his instructor in their union with each other. The learner becomes, by this means, both receptive and active, and he makes what he gains in the most complete sense his own, while he is moved by a continual impulse to acquire yet more. All this which has been said respecting enthusiasm has its application to graduate students, as well as undergraduates. In the departments of the University whose membership is composed of young men who have finished their college course, and are preparing them- selves for their life-work as professional and educated men, the teacher may, however, presume upon more self-consecration and earnestness on the part of his pupils. In the younger years, it is natural that many should fail to see the value or the beauty of what they are learning, and thus should think of study only as a task. But if the man is ever to have the true inspira- tion of manhood, he may be expected to exhibit it as he moves forward in the work which opens into his entire future career. The task must now have an ele- ment of pleasure and delight in it, it would seem, or the 484 PHELPS HALL Erected 1896 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN dulness of the soul and mind is beyond hope. Yet even in these higher schools, the professor cannot fulfill his duty as he ought, unless he adds by his own force to the enthusiasm already aroused in the student's mind, and thus proves to him, as it were through a personal experience revealing itself before his eyes, that knowl- edge is infinitely precious and is ever giving to its possessor its own reward. In connection with the subject of enthusiasm in study, I may properly allude to another matter which has sometimes a direct, and always a more or less indirect bearing upon it. I refer to the honor, or, as the word is more frequently used, the honors, given by the University in the sphere of scholarship. That a young man may work and strive for such honors without any scholarly inspiration with earnestness indeed, but with no real stirring of the inner life-powers cannot be denied. But their natural influence is seen in the appeal which they make to the higher element in the manhood ; and so, when they move, in the forces which they exert, along the true lines, they tend towards the development of a genuinely enthusiastic mental life. It would be unfortunate in this view of them, as well as in others, to separate them altogether from our university sys- tem. If they are to be retained as a useful and helpful part of it, however, there can be no doubt, it would seem, that their true power for the student community should be given them at all times. The question may fairly be raised, I think, whether they have not recently, in connection with some of the desirable changes of the time, been suffered to lose something of their just promi- nence in the thought of the academic company. If this be so in fact, we may also ask whether the loss is not of greater significance because it has been contempo- raneous with the rising in the student mind of the value 485 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of honors in other spheres of effort. I do not refer to the matter here as bearing upon the possibilities of col- lege education. These are greater now than they ever have been in the past. But in the relation of these honors to the awakening and growth of enthusiasm, and thus to the elevation of the scholarly life of the institu- tion, I think they should be regarded as worthy of most attentive consideration by those who shall in the future have the academic interests in charge. As I offer this suggestion, I would also express a thought and feeling which I have with reference to our Graduate School. That this school has accomplished an admirable work already, and has added greatly to the university life, is universally acknowledged. Its growth and prosperity awaken a sentiment of satisfac- tion and gratitude. But I think that in the future its influence will become more widely extended, and may be made much more helpful to the best culture, if its students are not limited hereafter, in the degree which is now manifest, to such as are desirous of preparing themselves to be teachers in schools or colleges. One of the great advantages and blessings of such a school, whether to the university or to the cause of education, will be realized, as it seems to me, if many of the best and most enthusiastic students in our college classes, who have no desire to enter the teacher's profession, can be led to pursue their studies for one or two years after graduation with the purpose of securing for themselves a yet wider and more liberal culture. These young men would have an honorable place in the community of scholars. If graduate fellowships with or without in- come, as might be determined by the needs of each par- ticular case could be offered to students of the best and highest order as they finished the undergraduate course, this reward would surely be an inspiration in the university life. The future of our country, as we may MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN hope may we not say, as we cannot doubt will de- mand with increasing earnestness and emphasis men of a culture wider than that of their individual profession or calling. Our Graduate School in the University should educate such men. Graduate fellowships of this character might also be fitly given to the leading scholars in the classes, on re- ceiving their Bachelor's degrees, in cases where the call of life should seem to come for a more immediate en- trance upon a course of professional study. Their stimulating influence, if thus offered, would be equally great, as bearing upon those in the undergraduate period to whom they would make their appeal, and they would thus be an inspiration for scholarship which would have in itself a life-giving force. The founding of such fellowships is worthy of the serious and generous thought of the authorities and friends of the Univer- sity. In most of our collegiate institutions in New England, the selection of persons who shall fill professorships and instructorships is one of the prerogatives of the Presi- dent. He determines whom he will nominate to the Board of Trustees, whenever an appointment is to be made, and the candidate presented by him is, almost as a matter of course, placed in the designated position. The same order of things pertains, as I think, to the institutions in other parts of the country, most of which have been, in greater or less degree, modeled after those of our own section. Public sentiment seems to accept this provision as a part of the legitimate system of college government. I remember hearing one of the most prominent among the presiding officers of our universities say, a few years ago, that he regarded any other arrangement with reference to the matter as un- wise and unfortunate. A recent writer, who states that 487 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN he has held a similar office, carries his views on the subject still farther, and claims that the chief executive official in such an institution should have powers kindred to those of the head of a great commercial establishment or railway enterprise that he should have authority not only to appoint his associates in instruction to their sev- eral chairs, but also to remove them from their positions according as it should seem best to him to do so. All instructors of whatever name or rank would, under such circumstances, be in the strictest sense subordinate to the President, and would be dependent on his will and pleasure. In the early part of the century which has just closed, a different system of appointments was introduced and established at Yale. The decision in respect to the candidate who should be presented to the Corporation for their action was intrusted, not to the President alone, but to the professors in connection with him. This was ordained as the rule of the institution in this regard, or, what was perhaps better, it passed by universal con- sent into an unwritten law of the University life. In accordance with it, as the institution extended itself and added to the original College new Departments, the Faculties of each section became independent the per- manent officers in each uniting with the President in the selection of those who should be associated with them. The President, by reason of his office, held the prominent place; but he was the first among equals, rather than the sole judge and authority. The newly- elected professor or instructor was thus assured of a kindly welcome as he accepted his appointment, and the Corporation, in electing him, had the best of evi- dence that he was the choice not of one, but of all. Notwithstanding the opinion of eminent authorities and the prevailing order of life in other institutions, my own judgment, confirmed by all my observation and MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN experience, is that the Yale plan is, in every way, preferable, and is the one, in all essential points, adapted to the modern age. I do not believe that any Yale professor, or any president, who has held office since the system was first introduced has ever, for a moment, desired to change it for that which is known elsewhere. As for myself, I am sure that its establishment here has secured for our University no inconsiderable meas- ure of its prosperity, as well as of the happiness of its membership. It is undesirable, as I think, that the President of a college should have in his hands too much power. It is better, even as it is in the case of the Chief Executive of the country, that limitations should be set upon his authority, and that he should be in a degree dependent on his more permanent associates, while he is indeed their leader. The prerogative of selecting the new members of a Faculty is one that may be attended by grave dangers, especially if the power of removal, such as has been suggested, is added to it. We may have con- fidence in the present President whom we know, because of the qualities of manhood that are in him, but the system is continuous, and includes in its provisions his unknown successors, as well as himself. There is, however, one new element in the question relating to this matter in our own University which, as I think, may justly demand consideration. In the growth and changes of the recent years, the larger Faculties, especially, have divided themselves, not indeed in sympathies, but in studies and personal interests, into subordinate sections, to a degree far beyond what was known or was possible at an earlier period. These sections have, each one of them, a certain separate unity and a kind of organization, so that each has its head professor to whom the other instructors are in a measure responsible and with whom they are closely allied. As 489 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE -AND MEN a result of this new condition of things, and of the concentration of thought in the case of the smaller bodies of men on the matters pertaining to themselves as in- vestigators and scholars, there is already beginning to appear a tendency to leave the suggestion of new ap- pointments to the men of the particular section or de- partment in which they are called for. In many such cases, if not in all, the influence of the leading professor is likely to become unduly powerful, and the result may be that he, in effect, nominates, or indeed makes choice of his associate or possibly his successor. That there are evils or dangers connected with such powers of nomination, can hardly be doubted, as it seems to me, by any one who carefully reflects upon the subject. There are certainly many scholarly men who are not fully qualified to name their successors; and I believe it is not altogether wise or safe to entrust to a small section of such a company as a college faculty the decision as to persons who shall be admitted to its membership. As our Faculties grow larger in numbers, accordingly, there will be an emphatic call upon each professor to acquaint himself as far as possible with the gifts and qualifications of every new candidate, whatever may be his department of study and teaching, and especially upon the President to have a very wide and intelligent outlook, a generous sympathy for scholars in all lines, and a never-failing watchfulness for the highest interest and welfare of the University. In what has been said I have referred to the matter of nominations for membership in the Faculties. The appointments or elections to all offices of instruction, as well as to other positions, belong appropriately to the Corporation or Board of Trustees, in which body the President should, of course, have a prominent place. The Corporation, however, will in all cases, if their course of action is guided by wisdom, give the views 4QO MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of the nominating Faculty their most respectful con- sideration, and will not fail, unless for reasons of the weightiest character, to confirm the nominations that are presented to them. In this matter, as in the sphere of studies, the opinions and judgment of the permanent teachers of the institution must, of necessity, be of much more value than those of the trustees can be, for they know the needs and the men who are fitted adequately to meet them. The relations of the Yale Corporation and the Yale Faculties to each other have been almost of an ideal character during the entire period of which I am writ- ing. The two boards of instruction and administration have been harmonious in sentiment and action, each generously contributing in its line of special. service to the common life. No jealousies or conflicts have hindered the progress or disturbed the peacefulness of the institution. That the inheritance which has come to us with so much of blessing may abide in its influence and its gifts with the University that we love, may well be our earnest desire and our confident hope. Within the most recent years, our undergraduate colleges are beginning to find themselves subjected to a pressure alike from above and from below from the professional institutions on the one side, and the second- ary schools on the other which may well awaken, as I think, the most serious and deliberate consideration on the part of university leaders. For some time past, as we all know, the schools of medicine and law have pressed with urgency the demand that the course of study distinctly preparatory to those professions should be lengthened. In view of this need which is affirmed to be imperative, prominent schools in both of these spheres of learning our own among them have al- ready added a year or two to the curriculum required 491 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN for the attainment of a degree. As such an addition delays the entrance upon professional duties for the young men who are preparing for their life-work in those lines, a remedy for the evil is called for, and the claim is made that it can be found only in a shortening of the undergraduate college period. It is manifest, on the other hand, that the governors of the secondary schools have of late years been or- ganizing their institutional life, and arranging their plans of work, in such a way as to render it more and more difficult for the youth who is in their school mem- bership to finish his studies preparatory for the college course within a more limited time than that which is scheduled for their curriculum. If there is to be any change, it is maintained on their part that it should be through adding to the school years, rather than dimin- ishing their number. The guardians of the colleges are expected by both parties to yield readily and gracefully to the pressure which is thus brought upon them, as if the question of duty and propriety in the matter were already passing beyond the sphere of dispute. At the same time, the opinion is asserting itself among educational leaders, that the attainment of a bachelor's degree in the under- graduate college course should be required as a condition of entrance into our university professional schools. The learned professions must be filled, it is said, with truly and genuinely educated men. The old-established college curriculum, however, demands so long a time that very considerable numbers of young men who might otherwise take the studies pertaining to it and receive the accompanying degree are now altogether excluded from it. They turn away at the beginning, because they cannot devote the years which are needed to secure what comes only at the end. In justice to these men, as well as to the demands for the highest education of 492 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN those who enter the learned professions, the colleges must, in some way, yield a portion of the period which has been at their command. At the present moment, the authorities of some of our colleges seem disposed to accept the situation at once, and to make provision for a more limited course. In one or two, the suggestion has been made that the degree of bachelor of arts may be conferred at the close of the second year. In connection with such a suggestion as this, it would seem that the question might naturally arise, whether it is not as well for the culture of our lawyers or physicians to admit them to the professional schools at the end of the Sophomore year without a degree, as to confer one which must have such minor significance. A degree without meaning in it is, cer- tainly, of no very great value, either to the true life of the individual who receives it or to the cause of the higher education. I would not attempt here to forecast the future, or to anticipate the final decision which may be reached hereafter. But it may not be out of place to inquire briefly as to the alleged evil on which the whole dis- cussion is based, and, in case its existence is acknowl- edged, as to the necessity of the remedy that is pro- posed. The evil which is claimed to exist is this that the present educational system does not allow those who are under its control to enter upon the work of their mature career at a sufficiently early age. Is this claim well founded? It seems to me very doubtful whether this can be affirmed. The average age of our Yale stu- dents, in the present era, is, at the most, from three to six months higher than it was fifty years ago. It is between twenty-two years and six months, and twenty- two and nine months. The young man who graduates at this age can take his law course and be ready for his 493 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN entrance upon his profession when he is twenty-six, or he can complete his medical course just before he is twenty-seven. In case he begins his undergraduate life at eighteen, he may save nearly a year, and if at seven- teen, nearly two years, for his future work. I cannot think that, under these circumstances, he is to be re- garded as being at an unfortunately late period of life when he begins the business of his manhood. The college, as it seems to me, can scarcely be held responsi- ble for an unnecessary demand upon his time, or for a sad loss, which he is made to suffer, of a portion of his working career. That there are some young men, or even a very con- siderable number, who are unable to enter college at nineteen or earlier, is of course the fact. But the col- legiate and educational system is and, as it seems to me, must be founded upon the idea of the earlier entrance, and all these cases are to be considered exceptional. If provision is to be made for such persons because of the lack of time at their command, it may fitly be of a special character, and need not involve an entire change of the system. There are men in almost every college class, the condition of whose life renders it impossible for them to be prepared for a professional career before they are thirty-one or two years old. They are un- fortunate, because of their limitations. We may be called upon to treat them as generously as we can, but surely we are not called to limit the general life for their sake, or to send them forth at the end of their second year with a bachelor's degree. With reference even to these men, my observation of my own class- mates, and of many classes since my college era, leads me to believe that the longer period of the undergrad- uate course is, in general, highly advantageous, rather than otherwise. The educated man will realize more for himself, and be more effective for others there can 494 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN be no question as to the truth of this in proportion as he knows more and has larger and more wide-extended learning. It is better to begin the manly career a little later with more knowledge, than a little earlier with less. In the case of those who have early advantages, and are free from the limitations alluded to, the saving of time which is called for should be secured at the begin- ning. There is, as I believe, no just ground for the delays which are so general in the earlier period. The boy can commence his studies which tend in some meas- ure toward the college work when he is ten years old, instead of waiting until he is twelve or thirteen; and if he has ordinary quickness of mind and good instruction, he can be prepared for college at seventeen, or even sixteen, as well as at nineteen. The wasted years, in this regard, are found in the early time. The mistake in our educational arrangements goes back, not only of the college, but also of the secondary schools. The opportunities and possibilities which should be opened to the youngest boys, in the study of languages as well as in other lines, are neglected through an erroneous view on the part of parents or teachers as to what they are capable of doing; and the time is thus left unfruitful, to the injury of the later youthful development. The idea, however, that the curriculum of the secondary schools cannot be shortened in the period devoted to it, while that of the colleges should be, we may properly regard, I think, as mistaken and without foundation. The bright and intelligent youth, and even the one of moderate gifts, can prepare himself for col- lege work in a briefer time than the schools require, and in many cases at least, he should, as I am per- suaded, do this for his best and highest interests. The spending of five or six years in secondary school work, to the end of putting oneself in readiness for the college studies, and only three in doing all that these studies 495 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN call for as disciplining and strengthening the man for his manly career, must be considered, I think, an ar- rangement of youthful life which is out of proportion to the demands of the case and to the claims of the higher education at its different stages. In the consideration of this whole question, as it seems to me, we should also bear in mind the educating forces which pertain to the college community in the sphere of its own peculiar life, apart from the studies and instruction. Mind and character are developed largely, as all agree, by the associations and friendships of the undergraduate period. The power of these friendly associations is, however, especially manifest in the latest part of the course; and naturally so, because of the passage of time and of the growths connected with it. The man who terminates his college life at the end of his Junior year, though he may by extraordinary efforts have, perchance, accomplished what he would otherwise have done by the use of an additional twelve months' time, cannot know the fullness of the gift which comes from the personal influence of his fellow- students. He will lose even somewhat of the best part of it, and thus somewhat of the rich blessing which the university bestows. The remembrance which we all have of the college years, and of the later portion of those years, may most fitly make us serious in our thought of the changes suggested. Such remembrance may also, not inappropriately, have its own power in the minds of those who order and administer the uni- versity life in the coming time. Questions respecting the fundamental idea of the university seem to be already, as the new century opens upon us, beginning to rise in many minds; questions as to what the university should be in its relation to the undergraduate college; or how far its various courses MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN of study may properly be intermingled in their oppor- tunities as offered to the entire community of its students ; or in what measure the development of the several sec- tions existing at present is to be modified; or whether its Faculties should, in any way, be brought into a more organic unity. It is my personal conviction that changes in the directions suggested by these questionings should be made, if at all, only after the most careful considera- tion of the whole matter in all its bearings. The past in its ordering has reason in itself. I find myself unable to believe that the system which, in this regard, it has handed down to us should be set aside and abandoned. The elective possibilities may certainly be extended too far, and the later studies may be begun before the education of the youth in the earlier ones has been properly gained. It seems to me also to be evident from observation and experience that men pursue the higher studies more appreciatively and successfully, when they are wholly given to them and are in closest union with others who are altogether within the same sphere. The professional school has its own place and may not fitly, as I think, attempt to usurp that of the college, or to press its way into it too forcibly and too fast. But apart from the decision of* these questions there is a suggestive thought for our own University which comes from its history. Its past growth and development and the plan according to which it has come to its present life have been in the line of distinct and separate departments, having as their design and purpose the preparation of their students for different educational ends. It would seem to be beyond question that, in some sense and measure at least, this life- principle of the institution must continue as its animat- ing and directing force in the coming period. There must needs be special courses of study for particular professions or spheres of work, to which those who are 497 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN in preparation are required to give themselves; and such students and their professors or instructors must, for the best results, be in no inconsiderable degree set apart by themselves. In some sense of completeness, it would seem, they must form a school of their own. The effectiveness of the entire institution, and its power for good as bearing upon the public life, will thus be greater than would otherwise be possible. Whatever changes or modifications may take place, we are at least safe in affirming that there will, of neces- sity, be separations of studies and a call for professor- ships, as well as for other provisions with reference to learning or instruction, in the case of each and all. The demand of the past century therefore enforced by its entire history whether of unhappy neglect or of happy and successful effort will come, with an even greater emphasis, to the central authorities in the century now beginning, to keep in mind all the varied university interests; to have the widest and most generous outlook; and to esteem every school or section of the institution as having a like, as well as constant, claim upon their thoughts and their energies. It would be doubly un- fortunate a mistake and failure ever afterwards to be regretted, and protfably never to be overcome in the evil effects resulting from it if the governors of the Uni- versity should lose thought of or disregard this demand. It would be the more to be lamented, by reason of the fact that so much has been accomplished for the realiza- tion of the true idea of the institution within the very recent years. The University is strong let it not be forgotten only as each and all of its departments are strong, and are rich in resources as well as in the best and most genuine life. The very rapid and remarkable growth of the Uni- versity in the latest part of the century just ended bears 498 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN also with itself a most impressive suggestion and lesson with reference to the need of a constant increase of its endowment. Every growing institution demands for its life the means of larger development, while the one which does not grow begins soon to show signs of weakness or decay. No one, I am sure, who has been a 'close observer of Yale and its progress, even since 1886, can have failed to see how immediately every addition to its funds has been made helpful in its educational work, and thus in a high degree advantageous to its students. But each forward movement, which has in this way been rendered possible, has only brought with greater distinctness before the mind the desirability and importance of a still farther advance, to the end that a yet larger measure of good may be realized. The lesson and suggestion are the same in the case of every school or department of the University. The effective- ness of every one is, and must be, dependent on the supply of its imperative and growing necessities. The era in which we pass from the second century of our history to the third is one which, as I cannot help feeling, brings a special appeal to all the graduates and friends of the institution to do great things for it. We are far more able to render it such service than our fathers were, and a far larger work is opening upon us and those who are to follow us. It becomes us, surely, to have the spirit which the fathers had the spirit that led them to determine that the college which they knew in their time should become a grand university in the days of their descendants, and to devote themselves with generosity to its highest interests. This volume, however, is one of memories not of prophecies, or outlook upon the future; and, as I close 499 MEMORIES OF YALE LIFE AND MEN its pages, I gladly turn backward for a moment from the end to the beginning. The little company of youths who entered within the College gates on that pleasant autumn day, in 1845, na d varied callings and allotments in life awaiting them when the manly career opened after their graduation. To me alone of all the number it was given to find my permanent home and sphere of life-work in the University itself. The studies and the friendships of the long years, the pleasures of teaching, as well as of learning, the possibilities of service in the upbuilding and the administration of the University, the blessing which is brought to the soul through the kindly regard of all the sons of the institution, and by reason of an affectionate sentiment towards all, the joy of witnessing the success that has been realized for Yale in a measure beyond my highest anticipation these gifts have proved to be included in the privilege that was granted me, and they have made me ever thankful for it. That autumn day of the past was indeed full of promise that day of the beginning, and the teaching which has come from it to my mind and heart, as the years have passed, is that life grows happier as we move onward in its course. 500