LD6073 
 
 H7 
 
 Discourse delivered at 
 Williarastown, June 29th. 1886. 
 Marfc HopKins.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS 
 
 ELECTION AS PRESIDENT OF 
 
 WILLIAMS COLLEGE 
 
 MARK HOPKINS, (D.D., LL.D.) 
 
 1" 
 
 ENT 
 
 / 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHAELES SCEIBNEK'S SONS 
 1886
 
 COPTBIOHT, 1886, BY 
 
 CHARLES SOBIBNBR'S SONS 
 
 TROWS 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANV. 
 hW YORK.
 
 Mr. President and Brethren Alumni : 
 
 THE American people are much given to 
 the celebration of anniversaries. To say 
 nothing of those that recur annually, as 
 the Fourth of July and Washington's 
 Birthday, has a man been married, or a 
 minister settled, five, or ten, or twenty-five, 
 or fifty years ; has a battle been fought at 
 one of these intervals ; has a town been 
 settled or an institution founded fifty, or 
 a hundred, or two hundred and fifty years, 
 there must be a celebration, a gathering, 
 congratulations, sometimes gifts, some- 
 times a dinner, always a speech. 
 
 From this tendency the calls upon me 
 have been exceptionally numerous. When 
 this College had been founded fifty years, 
 having been for seven years its president,
 
 (4) 
 
 I was called upon by the Alumni for a 
 semi-centennial address. That address I 
 gave at Commencement, in the old church 
 on the hill by the Mansion House, for- 
 ty-three years ago. The following year, 
 being a native of Berkshire, I was ap- 
 pointed to a similar service at. the Berk- 
 shire Jubilee, celebrated at Pittsfield. 
 When the American Board had been 
 founded fifty years, in 1860, having been 
 three years its president, I was appointed 
 to give a semi-centennial discourse. That 
 discourse was given in Boston. By the 
 appointment of the Alumni I gave a dis- 
 course here on the hundredth anniversary 
 of American independence; also, by the 
 appointment of the Trustees on the first 
 anniversary of the assassination of Presi- 
 dent Garfield ; and now, when one would 
 suppose I might be suffered to rest, I am 
 called on by a voice which I have always 
 obeyed, to give a special discourse because
 
 (5) 
 
 it is fifty years since I was appointed presi- 
 dent. 
 
 In calling me to this service the Alumni 
 did not, as heretofore, assign me a topic. 
 What shall it be ? In view of my long 
 connection with the College and the natu- 
 ral garrulity of age, I incline to think you 
 will expect me, instead of discussing prin- 
 ciples or metaphysical points, to give rather 
 some reminiscences of that earlier history 
 of the College, so much of which I have 
 seen, and a part of which I have been. 
 This, if my turn were in that direction, as 
 it is not, my position would enable me to 
 do better than anyone else. 
 
 I have been connected with this College 
 as student and teacher sixty-one years : 
 three years as a student, two years as 
 tutor, six years as professor, thirty-six 
 years as president, and now again fourteen 
 years as professor, but without responsi- 
 bility for the government of the College.
 
 (6) 
 
 There have thus been fifty-six years of 
 continuous service. According to the last 
 General Catalogue there are but six gradu- 
 ates of the College living who graduated 
 earlier than I did. If we include the pres- 
 ent graduating class, the whole number of 
 the Alumni now living is seventeen hun- 
 dred and twenty-six. Of these, all except 
 thirty-one have been taught by me. I have 
 also taught five hundred and thirty-four of 
 the Alumni who have passed away : in all, 
 two thousand two hundred and twenty- 
 nine. Deducting these from the whole 
 number of the Alumni, but six hundred 
 and thirty-one are left whom I have not 
 taught. 
 
 When I entered college in 1822 but one 
 of the fourteen college buildings now on 
 the ground was standing. That was the 
 old West College. The old East College, 
 a larger and finer building than the West 
 College, was burnt down in 1841. The
 
 (7) 
 
 other buildings, as I have seen them arise, 
 let me have the pleasure of enumerating. 
 They are Griffin Hall, the Observatory, 
 East and South Colleges, Kellogg Hall, the 
 Chapel, Lawrence Hall, Jackson Hall, 
 Goodrich Hall, College Hall, the Field 
 Observatory, Clark Hall, Morgan Hall, 
 and the Gymnasium. In 1823 the College 
 owned but two houses: the president's 
 house, that stood on the north side of the 
 main street, since moved and now occupied 
 by Professor S afford, and a small house 
 that stood where the chapel now stands. 
 It now owns seven houses. The College 
 then owned no land - except about three 
 acres connected with the then president's 
 house. It now owns the land connected 
 with West College and Kellogg Hall, pre- 
 sented by Mr. Seth B. Hunt ; also the land 
 south of East College as far as the street, 
 presented by Mr. Elizur Smith, of Lee ; also 
 the large field beyond, recently purchased
 
 (8) 
 
 for a ball ground and for athletics. It 
 also owns the very valuable grounds con- 
 nected with the president's house, pre- 
 sented by Mr. Jackson, and Mission Park. 
 When I entered college there was no 
 mineralogical, geological, botanical, or nat- 
 ural history collection. Mineralogy and 
 geology were, indeed, but just beginning 
 to be known as sciences. The same was 
 true of chemistry, and the apparatus for 
 that consisted of little more than a blow- 
 pipe and a few retorts. The apparatus for 
 physics, including optics and astronomy, 
 was easily contained in a single room of the 
 common size in East College. The chapel 
 was in West College. That was divided 
 into two equal parts by halls running east 
 and west, and the chapel occupied the sec- 
 ond and third stories of the south end. The 
 library occupied a single room in the fourth 
 story of West College. The rooms of the 
 students were plainly and scantily fur-
 
 mshed. There was not a carpet in either 
 building. Partly, perhaps, because the 
 rooms contained little that was valuable, 
 and partly because of the greater honesty 
 of those times, nobody thought of locking 
 his door when he went out. Prayers and 
 recitation were before breakfast in the 
 morning, and in the winter by candle-light. 
 Commencement was in September, and so 
 the town was a resort for the students in 
 the summer, and not for summer visitors, 
 a species of the human genus not then de- 
 veloped. The long vacation of six weeks 
 was in winter, that the students, who were 
 mostly needy, might aid themselves by 
 teaching. Coming after the summer work 
 of the farmers was finished, Commencement 
 was a great day for the whole vicinity. 
 The procession with its band of music was 
 formed at East College and passed through 
 the lower hall of West College to the church 
 on the hill. It was long, the struggle to
 
 (10) 
 
 enter the church after the procession was 
 in was fierce, and the church was crowded. 
 Back of the church a multitude was gath- 
 ered about numerous pedlars, and there 
 were all sorts of shows. 
 
 The grounds about the buildings were 
 rough and uncared for. The students burnt 
 only wood, and during the autumn and 
 winter there were numerous wood-piles in 
 the college yards. These the students gen- 
 erally sawed and carried up for themselves. 
 In the spring they had a chip-day to clear 
 away the chips and rubbish. The walk 
 between the colleges, and that between the 
 West College and the church were innocent 
 of gravel, and, as the mud was fearful, the 
 students had, each year, in the autumn, a 
 gravel-day. Those who did not choose to 
 work paid a fine that went to procure 
 teams. The soil was clay, and in the spring 
 would undulate as you walked. Year by 
 year the gravel would disappear, and it is
 
 (11) 
 
 only within a few years that the walks 
 have become thoroughly compact. There 
 were then no trees about the buildings. 
 These were set out by the students, for 
 while there was at that day oftener than at 
 present an outbreak of the spirit of vandal- 
 ism, there was yet a large element of loy- 
 alty to the College and of desire for its im- 
 provement. Out of this grew a Landscape 
 Gardening Association, founded by the 
 students among themselves, my brother 
 Albert and Tutor Calhoun being members 
 and working with them. This association 
 was kept alive for several generations of 
 students, and had regular meetings and ad- 
 dresses. Through its agency an occasional 
 tree-day was asked, and thus the trees be- 
 came too numerous rather than too few. 
 In this way much was done to beautify the 
 grounds, but the work was not completed till 
 Governor Knight gave the sum of $3,000 for 
 that purpose, and to keep them in order.
 
 (12) 
 
 It was a feature of that day that water 
 for the students was brought in pails from 
 a spring at the foot of the hill south of 
 East College, they generally bringing it 
 themselves. The first mitigation of this 
 hardship was by a hydraulic ram which 
 drove the water up to the East College, but 
 the evil was not wholly remedied till the 
 Cold Spring water was introduced. 
 
 Such a thing as a gymnasium had not 
 then been thought of. The first one in 
 the country was at the Round Hill School 
 at Northampton, taught by Messrs. Coggs- 
 well and Bancroft George Bancroft the 
 historian and we were the first college to 
 move in regard to it. I was sent, when a 
 tutor, to Northampton to see it, and the 
 result was some apparatus in the open air 
 south of East College. I remember a 
 swing and some parallel bars. From that 
 swing and those bars the present gymna- 
 sium with its clock has been developed
 
 (13) 
 
 through several intermediate forms, much, 
 I suppose, as the higher animals were de- 
 veloped from the lower. There were then 
 no secret societies. The only one known 
 in any of the colleges was the Phi Beta 
 Kappa. There were no college publica- 
 tions, and there was no base-ball as that is 
 now known. A form of base-ball was 
 sometimes played, but the common games 
 were wicket and two-old-cat. 
 
 In those early days the College was sub- 
 jected to severe struggles. Its president 
 had left to become president at Amherst, 
 and had taken with him the larger number 
 of students. Amherst naturally drew the 
 students from the region east of the Hoo- 
 sac Mountain, and, besides, started with a 
 fund of $50,000, the income of which 
 was to be devoted to charity students, 
 and drew them away. Union, with the 
 great name of Dr. Nott, was just west 
 of us ; Middlebury on the north was flour-
 
 (14) 
 
 ishing, having more students than Will- 
 iams ; and Yale on the south. The funds 
 were low, and adequate salaries could 
 not be given. The College was in the 
 northwest corner of the State and difficult 
 of access. On the east, Hoosac Moun- 
 tain served as a non-conductor between us 
 and all farther east, and from the south 
 the only access was over Stone Hill. The 
 village was small, neither Spring Street 
 nor Park Street having been opened ; and 
 between the colleges, where Morgan Hall 
 now stands, was only a single small brown 
 house with a tailor's shop in it. As there 
 were no railroads, the centres of business 
 were too remote to be readily reached by 
 the professors, and the College had no 
 means of awakening the sympathy and in- 
 terest of men of wealth. 
 
 It was under such circumstances that 
 Dr. Griffin accepted the presidency of the 
 College the year before I entered it ; and
 
 (15) 
 
 it required strong faith, great energy, and 
 a wide reputation to do for it what he did 
 at the time and subsequently. He was a 
 man of towering height, fine personal pres- 
 ence, and great rhetorical power ; and his 
 coming immediately gave new life to the 
 College. His interest in the College and 
 his willingness to come arose largely from 
 a former acquaintance with Samuel J. 
 Mills, and his knowledge of the College as 
 the birthplace of American Foreign Mis- 
 sions. He did not much increase the en- 
 dowment of the College, but by great ef- 
 fort secured the funds to build Griffin 
 Hall, originally used as a chapel and 
 library. Probably no other man could 
 have done what he did. 
 
 In 1836 the health of Dr. Griffin had 
 become so impaired that he felt it neces- 
 sary to resign, and Dr. Absalom Peters 
 was chosen in his place. He declined the 
 appointment, and I was chosen. I accept-
 
 (16) 
 
 ed the place at a salary of $1,100, having 
 previously had $700 as professor. My 
 age was thirty -four, and I had been Pro- 
 fessor of Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy 
 six years. 
 
 From this point the College went on with 
 moderate success. The faculty was small 
 in number, as may be supposed when I say 
 that for more than twenty years I taught 
 all the studies of the senior class, corrected 
 all their literary exercises, and preached 
 once every Sabbath, there being then two 
 sermons a day. I may say, also, that dur- 
 ing the whole period of my presidency I 
 taught the larger part of the studies of 
 the senior class. Of the struggles of the 
 College, which were constant, I shall enter 
 into no detail except at two points that 
 seemed to be crises in its history. 
 
 The first was in 1841, when the East 
 College was burned. It was burned in the 
 autumn, was without insurance, and was a
 
 (17) 
 
 total loss. Every room had been occupied, 
 and it was feared that many students would 
 leave, from the seeming impossibility of 
 finding accommodations. There was, how- 
 ever, a spirit of enthusiasm for the College, 
 and not one left. The next year the old 
 East College was replaced by East and 
 South Colleges. But this rebuilding meant 
 debt, and great discouragement in regard 
 to funds. In this emergency, after some 
 vain attempts to raise money by subscrip- 
 tion, it was determined to ask aid from the 
 State. I accordingly went to Boston, and 
 presented a petition. That petition was 
 referred to a committee, a member of which 
 from the eastern part of the State boarded 
 at the same hotel with myself. On his re- 
 turn from the State House, after his ap- 
 pointment, he came to me to inquire about 
 the College. "Williams College," said he, 
 "let me see, Williams College is somewhere 
 on the North River, isn't it ? " Of course
 
 (18) 
 
 there was little chance of getting money 
 through a committee composed in part of 
 such material. The depression continued 
 till two years after, when I was in Boston 
 delivering a course of the Lowell Lectures. 
 At that time, without solicitation or sug- 
 gestion from me, Mr. Amos Lawrence sent 
 his son, Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, to me with 
 a check for $5,000. No sum given to 
 the College since has brought such relief 
 to my mind. Afterward, when riding with 
 Mr. Lawrence, he asked me if the College 
 needed anything; I said it needed a build- 
 ing for a library. He said he would build 
 it. Again, he wrote desiring me to go to 
 Boston. I went : he said he had ten thou- 
 sand dollars that he wished to give the 
 College, and wanted to know how it would 
 do the most good. I said, by giving it for 
 general purposes. He said at once, " It 
 shall be so given." He afterward gave the 
 telescope. Thus, in connection with an in-
 
 (19) 
 
 creasing number of students who paid tui- 
 tion, that cloud was gradually lifted. 
 
 The second crisis was caused by the war, 
 and few knew the peril of it. In six months 
 we lost about sixty students. Prices were 
 doubled and trebled. The professors could 
 not live on their salaries, and but for an un- 
 expected gift by the State of $25,000 a year 
 for three years, provided we should raise an 
 equal sum, I do not see how the College 
 could have got on. That gift was secured, 
 in connection with one to Cambridge, by the 
 watchfulness and ability of Messrs. Bower- 
 man and Wilcox, now both of Pittsfield, but 
 then members of the State Senate. I have 
 always felt that the College was under great 
 obligation to them. The 875,000 to be 
 raised in three successive years by sub- 
 scription was procured by my personal 
 solicitation. I found it could be raised 
 in no other way, and but for the leverage 
 furnished by the gift of the State I could
 
 (20) 
 
 not have obtained it. Of this, the largest 
 amounts given at any one time were three 
 thousand dollars by Mr. Arthur B. Graves, 
 and also by Mr. Samuel G. Wheeler, both 
 Alumni, of New York. Thus this cloud 
 was also lifted. 
 
 In connection with these references to 
 financial embarrassment, I desire to mention 
 with gratitude, in addition to Mr. Lawrence, 
 the other great benefactors of the College 
 in my day. These were Mr. Nathan Jack- 
 son, to whom we owe Jackson Hall, the 
 president's house and the grounds connected 
 with that; Mr. Alfred Smith, of Hartford, 
 an alumnus of the College, who gave $10,- 
 000 ; the Hon. J. Z. Goodrich, who gave 
 Goodrich Hall and a landed estate in New 
 Jersey ; Mr. Orin Sage, who founded the 
 Sage Professorship of History and Political 
 Economy ; the Hon. William E. Dodge, 
 who, with no intimation or knowledge on 
 my part, gave $30,000, the interest of which
 
 (21) 
 
 was to go toward my salary while I was 
 president, for my benefit afterward, and 
 ultimately as a presidential fund ; and the 
 Hon. David Dudley Field, the only one 
 now among the living, who gave the organ, 
 endowed the Field Memorial Professorship, 
 and built and furnished the Field Obser- 
 vatory. Of the benefactors of the College 
 since my day, as Governor Morgan, Mr. 
 Jermain, and others, greatly as we are in- 
 debted to them, I cannot now worthily 
 speak. 
 
 After the crisis caused by the war, the 
 College was slowly recovering itself till my 
 resignation in 1872. Since then its pros- 
 perity has constantly increased. Through 
 the efficiency of President Chadbourne, 
 who enlarged and beautified the chapel, 
 and through the able and very successful 
 administration of President Carter, the 
 number of the students and the general re- 
 sources of the College have been so much
 
 (22) 
 
 increased that it now invites comparison 
 with the best-equipped institutions of the 
 country. 
 
 But while we may thus look back with 
 satisfaction on the growth of the College, 
 we may find still greater satisfaction in 
 looking at its results in the men who have 
 gone from it. This is the true test of the 
 value of an institution. These men have 
 filled every position of honor, from the 
 highest in the gift of the people down- 
 ward. About one-third of them have been 
 ministers of the Gospel, about one-fourth 
 lawyers, nearly one-seventh teachers, and 
 one-eleventh physicians leaving but six 
 hundred and twenty-six, including the re- 
 cent classes, who have not entered profes- 
 sional life. These have been business men 
 and farmers. Of the whole number there 
 are but few who have not made a good 
 record. These men have wrought, and are 
 working now, not in this country only, but
 
 (23) 
 
 in the remotest lands, and are powerfully 
 affecting the destinies of the race. 
 
 On the progress of the College, of which 
 I have now spoken, and its results, I con- 
 gratulate the Alumni and its friends. In 
 that progress and in those results I greatly 
 rejoice. This may well be supposed, as I 
 see in it a prospect of the permanence and 
 increasing influence of an institution to 
 which my life has been devoted. I see in 
 it a nearer approach than I had expected 
 to see to my ideal of what a college ought 
 to be. That ideal is, of an institution where 
 a young man, during the critical period of 
 transition from boyhood to .manhood, and 
 even later, may have an opportunity to do 
 for himself the best that he can do ; and 
 also one that shall do for every such young 
 man the best that can be done for him. 
 
 This brings us to the point around 
 which controversy is raging at present, 
 which is, how much the young man should
 
 (24) 
 
 be left to do for himself, and how much 
 the institution should do for him. On this 
 point I have but small encouragement to 
 say anything. For, if I should go beyond 
 the position of anyone in conservatism, he 
 would say, " Of course one of his age 
 would be conservative. He would natu- 
 rally hold on to old ideas and methods." 
 If, on the other hand, I should go beyond 
 the position of anyone in radicalism, or 
 the desire for change, he would say, " Ah, 
 he is not the man he was once." This 
 position I understand and accept. Still I 
 may venture to say a word, apologizing, 
 not as Elihu did in the days of Job, for 
 showing his opinion though he was young, 
 but for showing mine though I am old. 
 
 In an institution such as I have sup- 
 posed, with young men knowing enough 
 to know what is best for themselves to do, 
 and with a disposition to do it, four re- 
 sults would be aimed at and attained.
 
 (25) 
 
 The first result would be a sound body. 
 Barring original defects in the constitu- 
 tion, this would be attained. In this re- 
 spect I am thankful to say that Williams 
 College now meets my ideal so far as the 
 new gymnasium, the ground for athletics, 
 and its surroundings are concerned. By 
 surroundings, I mean these mountains by 
 which we are surrounded, which present 
 to those who have in them any love of 
 natural scenery, or who study botany or 
 geology, so many inducements to healthful 
 exercise in the open air, and, when the 
 weather is fine, are the best gymnasium. 
 A sound body is fundamental. Will the 
 average young man so know what is best 
 for himself, and be so disposed to do it, 
 that it may not be best for the institution 
 to interpose at some point, and to some ex- 
 tent ? I suppose not. 
 
 A second thing aimed at and attained 
 would be a disciplined mind. By this I
 
 (26) 
 
 mean a power of concentrated attention 
 for a long time on one subject. I do 
 not mean the power to hold the atten- 
 tion thus on some one subject to which 
 the person may have a bent, and to which 
 the tendency may become so strong as to 
 mount the man on a hobby, or to become 
 an insanity, but I mean the power of so 
 commanding the mind as to be able to give 
 concentrated attention to any subject when 
 it is required. Only thus can there be 
 profound thought, only thus can all the 
 relations of a subject, within and without, 
 be seen. Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, said he 
 wanted a student who could look fifteen 
 minutes at the point of a cambric needle 
 without winking. This power is attained 
 with difficulty. It is in the exercise of it 
 that mental labor consists, " than which," 
 says Dr. Barrow, "there is nothing more 
 laborious, more straining nature, and more 
 trying our spirits." It cannot be attained
 
 (27) 
 
 by light reading. That rather weakens it. 
 Nor do I believe it would be attained by 
 the average student by a wide range of 
 option. True, we attend most readily to 
 subjects that we like ; but what we need is 
 a mental robustness that gives the power 
 of hard study, that will enable us to attend 
 to subjects which we do not like at first, 
 which we never should choose, to master 
 them, and so to come to enjoy them. 
 When gold lies hidden in quartz, no mat- 
 ter how hard the quartz, we must be able 
 to break ifc up. 
 
 A third thing that would be aimed at 
 and attained would be a liberal education. 
 I hold strongly to the distinction common- 
 ly made between a liberal education and 
 one that is special or professional. Blend 
 they may, and must, more or less, but in a 
 broad view their objects are different. Of 
 the one, the object is breadth, comprehen- 
 siveness, symmetry ; of the other, concen-
 
 (28) 
 
 tration. Of the one, it has been well said 
 the object is to know something of every- 
 thing ; of the other, to know everything of 
 something. Of the one, the object is to 
 make of the young man more of a man ; of 
 the other, to make of him more of a min- 
 ister, a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer. The 
 one is born of a conception of man as hav- 
 ing an intellect that is related to all knowl- 
 edge, as capable of pursuing it for its own 
 sake, of thinking, as Kepler said, the 
 thoughts of God, of finding in the compre- 
 hension of His works and word, and also of 
 abstract relations, as those of mathematics, 
 a high and pure joy, and of entering upon 
 a line of progress that cannot be limited 
 by time or space. The other is born of a 
 conception of man chiefly as he is related 
 to animal wants, and to social and political 
 distinction. The affinities of the one are 
 with the fine arts ; of the other, with the 
 useful arts. And what is thus true of the
 
 (29) 
 
 intellect is also true of the sensibility as 
 related to all beauty. Beauty the young 
 man should be taught to trace to its source, 
 to appreciate in all its forms, whether of 
 nature or of art, and to pursue for its own 
 sake. Nor is it for the sake of the in- 
 dividual alone that liberal education is 
 needed. Nothing adds so much to the 
 respectability, and security, and rational 
 enjoyment of a people as a large infusion 
 of this element. Such an education cannot 
 be had by the larger numbers. The con- 
 ditions of the present life preclude the pos- 
 sibility of that. But where it is possible 
 the way should be open for the pursuit of 
 an ideal perfection unrelated to animal 
 want. 
 
 But knowing the object of a liberal edu- 
 cation, we need also to know the studies 
 best fitted to insure or constitute it. At 
 this point there was formerly no doubt. 
 Those studies were chiefly the classics,
 
 (30) 
 
 mathematics, and logic. But now, a lib- 
 eral education, involving, as it does, the 
 power to survey in outline the whole field 
 of knowledge, and to follow in some meas- 
 ure every line of thought, must be quite a 
 different thing from what it was formerly. 
 Science has so marvellously advanced, 
 there are so many new branches of knowl- 
 edge, that opinions may well differ respect- 
 ing the studies that should occupy the 
 undergraduate course, which would best 
 discipline and furnish the mind, and which 
 should be regarded as constituting a liberal 
 education. To decide this point, including 
 the order of the studies as they are related 
 to each other and to the opening powers 
 of the student, requires wide information 
 and sound judgment ; and that the college 
 should decide it seems to me due to itself, 
 and to the young men who come to it. If 
 not the college, who then ? Is it said the 
 young men themselves are competent to
 
 (31) 
 
 do it ? Whence this competency ? Not 
 from heredity, for their fathers did not 
 have it, and certainly not from experience 
 or study. Some option there should be, 
 especially in the later part of the course 
 and in outlying branches of study, as mod- 
 ern languages and the higher mathematics, 
 and music and drawing. These I would 
 have provided for and made optional, but 
 would admit of no such range of option 
 as to make graduation possible with the 
 omission of the most essential parts of a 
 liberal education, as is done when a man 
 can graduate without studying either 
 mental or moral science. Nor would I, by 
 the range of option, so vacate the college 
 degree of any definite meaning as to pre- 
 clude the possibility of having, as we now 
 have, a body of liberally educated men 
 throughout the country standing on essen- 
 tially the same ground. Nor would I so 
 split up classes into miscellaneous and
 
 (32) 
 
 changing bodies as to lose that great ad- 
 vantage of associate study in a college 
 class as now constituted, by which a young 
 man finds his own level, and, if he is con- 
 ceited, has the conceit taken out of him. 
 For this there is no better place than a 
 college class. Nor, once more, would I so 
 widen the range of option as to convert a 
 college into a high-school. It is a mistake 
 to suppose that by giving a wide range of 
 option in undergraduate studies a college 
 approximates a university. It rather ap- 
 proximates a high-school, and may virtually 
 become one. 
 
 Of the particular studies that should now 
 be regarded as constituting a liberal edu- 
 cation, and of their order, I cannot now 
 speak. My views on this point are essen- 
 tially contained in an admirable article, by 
 Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, in the January 
 number of the New Englander. 
 
 A fourth thing that would be aimed at,
 
 (33) 
 
 and generally attained under the conditions 
 specified, would be a right character. 
 
 By a right character I mean one that 
 would make a man a vital co-operative 
 force in all that would tend to build up 
 society, and to aid in the onward movement 
 of the moral government of God. I mean 
 one in which education shall flower out, 
 not into mere knowledge, but into a divine 
 wisdom. Character transcends knowledge. 
 Knowledge is instrumental, character is 
 directive. Knowledge teaches us how to 
 do, character determines what we will do. 
 It is a man's deepest love, and will de- 
 termine his ultimate destiny. Hence the 
 highest form of benevolence is in seeking 
 to improve character. This is the object 
 of missions. It was the object of Christ. 
 His coming was a testimony to the value 
 of character. He who apprehends this 
 value clearly, and devotes himself with en- 
 ergy and self-denial to its improvement in
 
 (34) 
 
 himself and others, is the highest style of 
 man; and the institution that does most 
 for character will do most for the individual 
 and for the country. Mere teaching, with- 
 out formative influence on character, is 
 simply a trade. 
 
 But can education insure right char- 
 acter ? No. Character is not from the in- 
 tellect, but from the will, or rather from 
 the person that lies back of the will. To 
 the old question whether virtue can be 
 taught, we say, no. Knowledge, some 
 knowledge, may be forced upon us ; a right 
 character cannot be. Still, there are in- 
 direct formative influences, and the educa- 
 tion that ignores character is radically de- 
 fective. Whether the principle that leaves 
 the choice of studies to young m%n would 
 also leave them to their own ways in the 
 formation of character, I do not know. 
 If so, it is to be regretted. The most 
 important question a man can ask, who
 
 (35) 
 
 has a son to educate, would respect the sur- 
 roundings and influences that bear upon 
 character. 
 
 What, then, are the surroundings and 
 influences that bear upon character, and 
 what should they be ? Into these, those 
 things that constitute the equipment for in- 
 tellectual education buildings, apparatus, 
 libraries, cabinets enter but slightly, if 
 at all. The first thing to be mentioned is 
 negative. There should be, as far as pos- 
 sible, the absence of temptation. Tempta- 
 tion must come, and some are disposed to 
 rather welcome it as tending to form a 
 strong character, but a wise parent will 
 heed the spirit of the petition, " Lead us 
 not into temptation." That character in 
 its strict sense is largely affected by the 
 surroundings of natural scenery I am not 
 prepared to assert. Character is moral, 
 nature is not. It is characteristics rather 
 than character that are thus affected. Most
 
 (36) 
 
 young men are absorbed in other things. 
 Seeing, they see not. Still, there is a re- 
 fining and elevating influence in fine scenery 
 that will reach some in every class. Be- 
 tween this and moral influence there is an 
 affinity, and I should have little fear for 
 the character of a young man who has a 
 genuine love of nature. 
 
 But whatever may or may not be the 
 effect of nature, the law prevails, here as 
 elsewhere, that like produces like. " He 
 that walketh with wise men shall be wise." 
 If right character is to be produced in 
 connection with an institution, it must be 
 through the influence of those who have 
 a right character. This influence will be 
 either unconscious or from direct and pur- 
 posed agency. Of these two forms, the 
 silent influence of high character, moving 
 steadily as the sun in the path of duty, is 
 invaluable. This is so far understood and 
 conceded that it need not be dwelt upon.
 
 (37) 
 
 The main inquiry respects what can be 
 done by direct or purposed agency. 
 
 Where classes are not too large much 
 may be done in this way by personal inter- 
 course. In this there should be nothing 
 magisterial, of which there was formerly 
 too much. It should be natural and free. 
 Everything opposed to this is to be dep- 
 recated. But the chief influence that 
 can be brought to bear upon character 
 is through Christianity. Manward, Chris- 
 tianity is God's method of renovating and 
 improving character. The character it 
 would form is the only perfect character 
 for man ; and the influences connected with 
 it, as the word and spirit of God, are the 
 only influences that will lead him to form 
 such a character. 
 
 That Christianity will form such a 
 character, must form it if fully received, 
 is its glory, and an absolute proof of its 
 truth. If, therefore, the college is to be
 
 (38) 
 
 responsible for character at all, and is not 
 bewildered, it must avail itself of this 
 as a means of forming it. But here, too, 
 the rule holds that character is from 
 character. No formal arrangement with- 
 out Christian men, no having or saying of 
 prayers, will avail anything without men 
 who pray. Christianity is not a mere set 
 of dogmas. It is Christ revealed in His 
 perfect character. He is the head of the 
 race. He is not only the light of the world 
 as a perfect teacher in all that relates to 
 character and ultimate destiny, but also a 
 perfect example. He is the man. In His 
 religion is the hope of the world. The 
 greatest boon that can come to anyone is. 
 to be brought into personal relation to Him 
 and sympathy with Him by voluntary 
 commitment, and by having a character- 
 like His. 
 
 Herein is the difference between the 
 place of Christianity in a theological semi-
 
 (39) 
 
 nary and in a college. In a college it should 
 be so handled as to bear upon character 
 without sectarianism. This can, and ought 
 to be, done. Christianity is the greatest 
 civilizing, moulding, uplifting power on 
 this globe, and it is a sad defect in any in- 
 stitution of high learning if it does not 
 bring those under its care into the closest 
 possible relation to it, so far as it is such a 
 power. Through it the students are to be 
 trained in moral and spiritual gymnastics. 
 Why should not manhood, and conscience, 
 and Christianity become identical, and assert 
 themselves fully in every young man who 
 has the great opportunity of a college 
 education ? Why not ? We here reach 
 the broadest and most philosophical con- 
 ception of education. It includes the whole 
 man. If man is to be educated physically 
 and intellectually because he has a physical 
 and intellectual nature, why should he not 
 be educated and trained morally and spirit-
 
 (40) 
 
 ually because he lias a moral and spiritual 
 nature ? I see no reason why there should 
 not be in a college, and enter into the very 
 conception of it, those who are engaged in 
 the higher gymnastics. If men are to be 
 trained to be strong in muscle, why not to 
 be " strong in the Lord ? " If to wrestle 
 with each other, why not with " wicked- 
 ness ? " If to carry on mimic fights in 
 boxing, why not to "fight the good fight 
 of faith ? " If to gain the crown of victory 
 in contests with each other, why not " an 
 incorruptible crown ? " If to run races in 
 the gymnasium and on the campus, why 
 not to run the race that is set before them 
 in which they are " compassed about with 
 so great a cloud of witnesses ? " Why, in 
 short, if they are to be trained in bodily 
 exercise that " profiteth little," should they 
 not be trained in " godliness that is profit- 
 able unto all things ? " This broad con- 
 ception of education has been the concep-
 
 (41) 
 
 tion of it in this College in the past. If 
 not formally recognized, it has pervaded 
 its atmosphere. It has made ministers of 
 the Gospel, and missionaries, and has had 
 a general uplifting power. It is the con- 
 ception of education here to-day. I trust 
 it will continue to be. If not, the glory of 
 the College will have departed. If this 
 College shall drop down into a merely 
 secular spirit, and a training of the lower 
 parts of man's nature, so that it shall cease 
 to be in sympathy with Him whose object 
 it is to train to a perfect character that 
 world which is symbolized on the mission- 
 ary monument, it will no longer be Will- 
 iams College. 
 
 A sound body, a disciplined mind, a lib- 
 eral education, a right character these 
 ought to be the result of a four years' 
 course in college. As an institution de- 
 signed to give these, just these and nothing 
 more, the American college is the growth
 
 (42) 
 
 of American soil, and ought to be main- 
 tained. These it will give if the young 
 men are disposed to do for themselves the 
 best that they can do ; and if the college 
 have the means to do, and will do, the best 
 that can be done for them. 
 
 For young men rightly disposed, we must 
 look to the community. A college is not a 
 reformatory. If parents do their duty the 
 young men will generally be rightly dis- 
 posed. For a college so equipped and 
 manned that it can and will do for the 
 young men all that can be done for them, a 
 model college, which is all that 1 desire 
 just that and nothing more we must look 
 to the liberality and wisdom of its Alumni, 
 and friends and guardians. For its whole 
 prosperity, and especially for its moral 
 and religious power, that is, its power over 
 character, we must look to God. " Except 
 He build the house they labor in vain that 
 build it."
 
 (43) 
 
 I close, with a thanksgiving to God that 
 He has preserved my life for so long a time, 
 and my faculties to such an extent ; and 
 with thanks to the Alumni for overlook- 
 ing as they have my mistakes and short- 
 comings, and for their uniform considera- 
 tion and kindness.
 
 AN OUTLINE STUDY OF MAN; or, the Body 
 and Mind in One System. With illustrative diagrams. 
 By MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., late President of Williams 
 College. I vol., 121110, $1.75. 
 
 Few colleges owe so much to the influence of a single man as 
 the institution, with which Dr. Hopkins has so long been identi- 
 fied, owes to his genius for instruction and to the weight of his 
 character. His power of making abstuse and difficult matters 
 clear and easily mastered, of interesting and stimulating his pupils 
 and of impressing them with his own lofty views, have given 
 him an almost unique position as an educator. 
 
 Among all his works, that which illustrates best his peculiar 
 lucid mode of teaching difficult subjects is An Outline Study of 
 Man, which is a model of the developing method as applied to 
 intellectual science The work is on an entirely new plan. It 
 presents man in his unity, and his several faculties and their rela- 
 tions are so presented to the eye in illustrative diagrams as to be 
 readily apprehended. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins' work has come into more general use in this 
 country than any other book designed for instruction in mental 
 science. It has been found to be better adapted for educational 
 uses than any other, and the demand for it is increasing every year. 
 
 THE LAW OF LOVE, AND LOVE AS A LAW; 
 or, Christian Ethics, i vol., ismo, $1.75. 
 
 This work is designed to follow the author's Outline Study of 
 Man. As its title indicates it is entirely an exposition of the 
 cardinal precept of Christian philosophy in harmony with nature 
 and on the basis of reason. 
 
 Like the treatise on mental philosophy it is adapted with un- 
 usual skill to educational uses. 
 
 It appears in a new edition, which has been in part rewritten 
 in order to bring it into closer relation to his Outline Study of 
 Man, of which work it is really a continuation. More prominence 
 has been given to the idea of Rights, but the fundamental doctrines 
 of the treatise have not been changed. The very interesting cor- 
 respondence with Dr. McCosh is retained. 
 
 From an able review of the work on its first appearance we 
 quote the following : 
 
 "In this work Dr. Hopkins has given the world a clear exposition of the 
 principles of moral science, and practical rules for their application. The sim- 
 plicity, strength, and exactness of its style and language; its discriminating 
 analysis and forcible logic ; its accurate adjustments of relative truths ; its 
 admirable blending of the independence of human reason with dependence 
 upon the Divine mind ; in all these respects we have no hesitation in saying that 
 its combined excellences place the work at the head of all similar treatises "
 
 BOOKS AND READING. A new edition. By NOAH 
 PORTER, LL.D., President of Yale College. With an appendix 
 giving valuable directions for courses of reading, prepared by 
 JAMES M. HUBBARD, late of the Boston Public Library, i voL, 
 crown 8vo, $2.00. 
 
 It would be difficult to name any American better qualified than President 
 Porter to give advice upon the important question of " What to Read and How 
 to Read." His acquaintance with the whole range of English literature is most 
 thorough and exact, and his judgments are eminently candid and mature. A 
 safer guide in short, in all literary matters it would be impossible to find. 
 
 "The great value of the book lies not in prescribing courses of reading, 
 but in a discussion of principles, which lie at the foundation of all valuable 
 systematic reading." The Christian Standard. 
 
 " Young people who wish to know what to read and how to read it, or how 
 to pursue a particular course of reading, cannot do better than begin with this 
 book, which is a practical guide to the whole domain of literature, and is fall of 
 wise suggestions for the improvement of the mind." Philadelphia Bulletin. 
 
 "President Porter himself treats of all the leading departments of litera- 
 ture of course with abundant knowledge, and with what is of equal importance 
 to him, with a very definite and serious purpose to be of service to inexperi- 
 enced readers. There is no better or more interesting book of its kind now 
 wi thin their reach." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 A Manual for Schools and Colleges. Abridged from " The 
 Human Intellect." I vol., 8vo, $3.00. 
 
 This work is used as a text book in Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Oberlin, 
 Bates, Hamijton, Vassar, and Smith Colleges ; Wesleyan, Ohio, Lehigh, and 
 Wooster Universities, and many other colleges, academies, normal and high 
 schools. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE, Theoretical and 
 Practical, i vol., 8vo, $3.00. 
 
 From George S. Morris, Professor of Ethics, University of Michigan. 
 
 "I have read the work with great interest, and parts of it with enthusiasm. 
 It is a vast improvement on any of the current text books of ethics. It is tole- 
 rant and catholic in tone ; not superficially, but soundly, inductive in method 
 and tendency, and rich in that kind of practical suggestion by which, even 
 more than by the formal statement of rules, the formation of character is 
 capable of being determined." 
 
 From E. G. Robinson, President of Brown University. 
 "It has all the distinguishing marks of the author's work on 'The Human 
 Intellect,' is full and comprehensive in its treatment, dealing largely with 
 current discussions, and very naturally follows it as a text book for the 
 class room. "
 
 PROF. G. P. FISHER'S WORKS. 
 
 THE GROUNDS OF THEISTIC AND CHRISTIAN 
 BELIEF, i vol., crown 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 The need of a new book on Evidences to replace the older treatises, which 
 do not meet the wants of the present time, is universally admitted. Prof. 
 Fisher possesses eminent qualifications for supplying this need in his thorough 
 knowledge of all the later thinking on the subject and an extensive acquaint- 
 ance with the arguments on both sides of the question, combined with a power 
 of condensation and a clear, attractive style. 
 
 Front a Letter of Julius H. Seelye, President of Amherst College. 
 *' I find it as I should expect it to be, wise and candid, and convincing to 
 an honest mind. I congratulate you upon its publication, in which you seem 
 to me to have rendered a high public service." 
 
 From Prof. James O. Murray, of Princeton College, in the N. Y. Evangelist. 
 "The volume under review meets here a great want, and meets it well. 
 It is eminently fitted to meet the honest doubts of some of pur best young men. 
 . . . . Its fairness and candor, its learning and ability in argument, its 
 thorough handling of modern objections all these qualities fit it for such a 
 service, and a great service it is." 
 
 From the Congregationalist. 
 
 " We hope that this treatise will be widely scattered and diligently studied. 
 It is wholly in the right direction. It is liberal without being loose, learned 
 without being dry, conclusive without being assuming, and indicates its 
 author's place among the ablest writers of the day on Christian themes." 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN OF 
 CHRISTIANITY. ivol.,8vo, new and enlarged edition, 
 $3.00. 
 
 From the North American Review. 
 
 "Able and scholarly essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity, 
 in which Prof. Fisher discusses such subjects as the genuineness of the Gospel 
 of John, Baur's view of early Christian History and Literature, and the mythi- 
 cal theory of Strauss." 
 
 From the Methodist Quarterly Review. 
 
 " The entire work is one of the noblest, most readable, most timely and 
 effective in our apologetic literature, which has appeared at the present day." 
 
 From the New York Tribune. 
 
 'The author seems equally at home in every department of his subject. 
 They are all treated with learning, with insight, with sense, and discrimina- 
 tion. His volume evinces rare versatility of intellect, with a scholarship no 
 less sound and judicious in its tone and extensive in its attainments than it is 
 modest in its pretensions." 
 
 From the British Quarterly Review. 
 
 " We know not where the student will find a more satisfactory guide in 
 relation to the great questions which have grown up between the friends of 
 the Christian revelation and the most able of its assailants, within the memory 
 of the present generation. . . . To all these topics the author has brought 
 a fullness of learning, a masculine discernment, and a sturdy impartiality 
 which we greatly admire."
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. " A Popular 
 Manual for Instruction and Study." I vol., crown 8vo, new 
 and cheaper edition, $2.50. 
 
 From the Christian Union, 
 
 "The book is a remarkable instance of that power of lucid condensation 
 which its author possesses in a high degree. . . . The quality of condensed- 
 ness renders it worthy to be studied, not merely read ; and it would be excel- 
 lent as a text book in college. The references are full and valuable, and the 
 chronological table and list of authorities will be appreciated by all students." 
 
 From Prof. Charles 'A. Aiken, D.D., Princeton Theological Seminary. 
 
 "Professor Fisher's History of the Reformation presents the results of 
 prolonged, extended, and exact study, with those excellent qualities of style 
 which are so characteristic of him clearness, smoothness, judicial fairness, 
 vividness, felicity in arranging" material, as well as in grouping and delineating 
 characters. It must become not only a library favorite, but a popular 
 manual, where such a work is required for instruction and study, For such 
 uses it seems to me admirably adapted." 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY. With a 
 view of the state of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ. 
 I voL, 8vo, $3.00. 
 
 From the Boston Advertiser. 
 
 " Prof. Fisher has displayed in this, as in his previous published writings, 
 that catholicity and that calm judicial quality of mind which are so indispens- 
 able to a true historical critic." 
 
 From ike Examiner. 
 
 "The volume is not a dry repetition of well-known facts. It bears the 
 marks of original research. Every page glows with freshness of material and 
 choiceness of diction." 
 
 Front the Evangelist. 
 
 "The volume contains an amount of information that makes it one of the 
 most useful of treatises for a student in philosophy and theology, and must 
 secure tor it a place in his library as a standard authority." 
 
 DISCUSSIONS IN HISTORY AND THEOLOGY. 
 I voL, 8vo, $3.00. 
 
 " Prof. Fisher has gathered here a number of essays on subjects connected 
 with these departments of study and research which have engaged his special 
 attention, and in which he has made himself an authority. 
 
 FAITH AND RATIONALISM, i vol., i2mo, new and 
 cheaper edition, 75 cents. 
 
 From the New York Times. 
 
 "This little volume may be regarded as virtually a primer of modern 
 religious thought, which contains within its condensed pages rich materials 
 that are not easily gathered from the great volumes of our theological authors." 
 
 From the Presbyterian. 
 
 " The author deals with many of the questions of the day, and does so with 
 a freshness and completeness quite admirable and attractive." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. i vol., i6mo, cloth, 
 50 cents net. 
 
 " This masterly essay of Prof. Fisher is one of the best arguments for 
 Christianity that could be placed in the hands of those who have come under 
 the influence of sceptical writers."
 
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