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CONFESSIONS OF 
 A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 AND OTHER ESSAYS 
 
CONFESSIONS OF 
 A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 AND OTHER ESSAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 LEWIS R. HARLEY, Ph.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA 
 
 AUTHOR OF "FRANCIS LIEBER: HIS LIFE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY"; 
 
 "the LIFE OP CHARLES THOMSON, SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 CONTINENTAL CONGRESS," ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1914 
 

 .K^^^^h^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I914, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHED DECEMBER, I914 
 
 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 
 
 DEC 31 1914 
 
■^ 
 
 TO 
 WILLIAM L. AUSTIN 
 
 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS AND BENEFACTOR OF THE CENTRAL 
 HIGH SCHOOL, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR 
 
PREFACE 
 
 After a service of nearly twenty years in a 
 large city high school, it is scarcely necessary 
 for me to offer an apology for expressing the 
 opinions on education contained in the first 
 essay of this volume. My views may be con- 
 sidered old-fashioned and out of date; but they 
 are, in fact, the ideals of a great school and their 
 worth has been proved through a long period 
 of seventy-five years. The real test of these 
 ideals is to be found in the lives and careers of 
 the young men who have received their train- 
 ing in the school. Education to be worth while 
 must be established on a broad and liberal 
 foundation, and as Dean West truthfully says: 
 ' * Like civil liberty, the higher liberal knowledge 
 is always in peril and always worth fighting 
 for." To those who would commercialize edu- 
 cation and place it on a narrow utilitarian basis, 
 the words of Alcuin are commended: "It is 
 easy to point out to you the path of wisdom, 
 if only ye love it for the sake of God, for knowl- 
 edge, for purity of heart, for understanding the 
 
 7 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 truth, yea, and for itself. Seek it not to gain 
 the praise of men or the honor of this world, 
 nor yet for the deceitful pleasures of riches; 
 for the more these things are loved the farther 
 do they cause men who seek them to depart 
 from the light of truth and knowledge." Al- 
 though this advice was given more than a 
 thousand years ago, it still forms a good modern 
 educational programme ; for it emphasizes those 
 great fundamental principles that should guide 
 us in the pursuit of all knowledge. It was this 
 thought that I had in mind in preparing the 
 essay on "Confessions of a Schoolmaster." In 
 the "Commencement Address at Wenonah," 
 my plea to scholars is that they shall consecrate 
 their talents and learning to an unselfish service 
 for mankind. In the paper on "Robert Ellis 
 Thompson: An Appreciation," the influence of 
 a great schoolmaster is described. With the 
 thought of Alcuin in his mind, he has given the 
 High School a distinctive character for culture 
 and scholarship. The essay on "Ranke and 
 His Pupils" shows how this group of German 
 historians carried the same ideals into the 
 realm of productive authorship, and how their 
 methods in searching for truth became the 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 models for the historians of our own time. 
 ''Gossip in a Library," "The Deluge of Books," 
 "Life Experiences of a Painter-Poet," 
 "Thoughts on Memorial Day," and "Germany 
 and England" complete the sequence of sub- 
 jects treated in this volume, all of which were 
 prepared at odd moments during the busy life 
 of a schoolmaster. My thanks are due to my 
 colleague. Dr. Harry F. Keller, who read por- 
 tions of the manuscript and offered many 
 valuable suggestions. 
 
 Lewis R. Harley 
 
 Central High School, Philadelphia 
 November 14, 1914 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Confessions of a Schoolmaster 15 
 
 II. Commencement Address at Wenonah, N. J 35 
 
 III. Robert Ellis Thompson: An Appreciation 51 
 
 IV. Ranke and His Pupils 59 
 
 V. Gossip in a Library 75 
 
 VI. The Deluge of Books 93 
 
 VII Life Experiences of a Painter-Poet 105 
 
 VIII. Thoughts on Memorial Day 129 
 
 IX. Germany and England 143 
 
CONFESSIONS 
 OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 In his charming Httle book, "The School- 
 master," Arthur C. Benson assures the teacher 
 that while he cannot hope to accumulate great 
 wealth, he may, after a life of useful service, 
 "have an abundant stock of bright memories, 
 tender thoughts and beautiful experiences; and 
 he will be a very hard and dull person if he is 
 not a little wiser, a little more thrilled with the 
 mysterious wonder of life, a little more con- 
 scious of the vast and complex design of the 
 world in which he has been permitted to play 
 a real part." This may, after all, be a very 
 slight consolation to the schoolmaster in an 
 age when there is a crying demand for higher 
 salaries; and yet, as the recollections of eighteen 
 busy years spent in the service of a large city 
 high school pass before me, I find much in the 
 vocation of the teacher to confirm Benson's 
 optimistic views. Time is, indeed, a kind and 
 gentle servant, removing from the mind the 
 memory of drudgery and seeming failure, and 
 cheering the vision with bright pictures of 
 cherished companionships and of young men 
 assisted to careers of successful achievement. 
 For years, the gray walls and towers of the 
 
 15 
 
16 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 High School have been my constant inspiration. 
 There it stands, a magnificent temple of learning 
 dedicated to the cause of higher education in a 
 democracy. While lacking the cloistered air 
 and mediaeval character of some of the great 
 English schools, this institution is situated in 
 the heart of a busy metropolis, and from its 
 windows I can behold nearly every phase of 
 our busy American life. The very situation of 
 the High School indicates its mission in our 
 city. Here, the various arts, sciences, com- 
 merce, industry, and the learned professions 
 flourish. It would, therefore, be a trite remark 
 to say that the purpose of this school is to fit 
 young men for their places among these complex 
 civic relations. 
 
 A retrospect of eighteen years should cure 
 the teacher of any cynicism that may get 
 possession of the human spirit. Progress is 
 inevitable in a great institution maintained by 
 public support; yet, Mr. Benson declares, "it 
 is not uncommon to see a man drifting into 
 cynicism as he goes on, teaching things in the 
 value of which he does not believe, looking upon 
 boys as necessary evils, thinking only of how 
 to get through his work with as little friction 
 and fatigue as possible." The best cure for 
 this feeling of despondency is to make a positive 
 effort to be cheerful, and to approach our task 
 with a conscious sense of duty and enthusiasm. 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 17 
 
 Mr. Benson adds that the educational cynicism 
 of to-day may generally be dispelled if we 
 possess a large fund of affection and pity and 
 patience, strong common-sense, tranquillity, 
 and width of view. In the quiet afternoon 
 hours, I love to saunter into the Assembly Hall 
 of our High School, adorned with memorial 
 windows, paintings of our Presidents, and the 
 magnificent pipe organ, which every morning 
 is vocal with the affection of a prominent 
 alumnus for the School. The surroundings are 
 all filled with an air of optimism, and seem to 
 stand for character in education. The Steel 
 Memorial Window is dedicated to the memory 
 of a man who had an abiding faith in learning, 
 and the portraits on the walls breathe words 
 of encouragement to the generations of boys 
 who regularly meet here as the years pass by. 
 The corridors, halls, and class-rooms also sug- 
 gest this same hopeful tendency, and the results 
 achieved, while far from perfect, are a constant 
 stimulus to more zealous efforts in the future. 
 Indeed, the whole educational movement in 
 America is encouraging in its progress, and we 
 cannot but agree with President Eliot, who, in 
 referring to the vast sums of money appropri- 
 ated to the public schools, said: "It is, indeed, 
 far the most profitable of all forms of public 
 expenditure ; and this is true whether one looks 
 first to material prosperity, or to mental and 
 
18 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 moral well-being; whether one regards chiefly 
 average results, or the results obtained through 
 highly gifted individuals." 
 
 How shall we dispel the clouds of intellectual 
 cynicism that darken the educational world 
 to-day? During the past two years, a tone of 
 pessimism has characterized most of the dis- 
 cussions on American education. Much space 
 has been given in certain magazines to articles 
 which fervently deplore the inefficiency of the 
 schools, and zealous statisticians have presented 
 a formidable array of figures to prove their 
 radical assertions. We all admit that nothing 
 in this world is perfect, not even the school 
 system, but oh, deliver us from these gloomy 
 pedagogical experts. Taking the more cheerful 
 view of the optimist, we all must agree that the 
 American schools are established on the only 
 proper basis, that of democracy. The system 
 then can be developed and improved only 
 through growth, and not by means of revolu- 
 tion. The despairing critics generally try to 
 show the shortcomings of our schools by the 
 comparative method. The educational sys- 
 tems of Europe are cited as models of perfec- 
 tion, besides which our own are made to appear 
 wofully deficient. But a personal observation 
 of the schools in England and Germany would 
 cure some of our fellow-countrymen of their 
 pessimism. Education across the seas is aristo- 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 19 
 
 cratic beyond the most elementary forms, and 
 the common people are excluded from even 
 free high school privileges; while in nearly all 
 the American commonwealths education is 
 democratic from the kindergarten to the uni- 
 versity. The Volkschule buildings in Germany 
 are generally antiquated structures, while in 
 our own country one of the most substantial 
 improvements to be noted is in the character 
 of school architecture. This is true in city and 
 country alike, notwithstanding the gross exag- 
 geration of the National Education Association, 
 that many of the rural schools are not as well 
 kept as pigpens. This learned body has re- 
 cently delivered another annual diatribe and 
 pronounced the schools absolute failures. 
 
 A service of eighteen years convinces me that 
 these charges against the schools should not be 
 allowed to stand unchallenged. The records of 
 the High School extend through a period of 
 seventy-five years, and the Historian of the 
 Alumni Association has kept in touch with 
 throngs of youth who have gone out from its 
 halls into various parts of the world. These 
 reliable statistics convince me of the following 
 facts: The teacher in America has a peculiar 
 responsibility not to be found among his 
 profession in other parts of the world. He 
 renders valuable assistance in the work of 
 assimilating the vast foreign element in our 
 
20 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 country. From him the children of aHens learn 
 the first lessons in democracy, and in this respect 
 he has met with a degree of success that is 
 entirely ignored by the critics. The quality 
 of instruction given in our schools also merits 
 favorable consideration. The teachers as a 
 body are professionally trained, and compare 
 favorably with their colleagues in other parts 
 of the world. The students who leave the com- 
 mon schools have at least an average degree of 
 intelligence, and acquit themselves creditably 
 in the vocations of life. Our universities are 
 not mediaeval cloisters, but servants of a prac- 
 tical age, sending forth a body of trained men 
 into the fields of diplomacy, law, medicine, 
 teaching, the mechanical trades, and business. 
 In this direction, the University of Pennsylvania 
 has been a leader among American educational 
 institutions. It stands ready to serve the public 
 in any capacity, as the comprehensive statement 
 of Dr. J. William White clearly shows. 
 
 For eighteen years, I have witnessed the 
 eager groups of freshmen trooping into the 
 High School, gazing in wonder upon the new 
 scenes around them, as they enter that impor- 
 tant scholastic period which lies directly be- 
 tween them and the busy world. I might well 
 call this the most critical stage of educational 
 work; for here great numbers fall by the way 
 through lack of preparation in the lower schools 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 21 
 
 and on account of the difficulties of the High 
 School curriculum. The schoolmaster has a 
 serious responsibility in dealing with these 
 immature boys, and he must practise generosity 
 and enthusiasm in leading them through the 
 trials of the first year. As Benson says, "The 
 schoolmaster is there to curb, to correct, and 
 also to encourage and to lift. And if he cannot 
 feel the solemnity of the charge, 'Feed My 
 Lambs,' which he receives as certainly as the 
 apostle of old, he is out of place as a school- 
 master." In the High School, this attitude 
 toward the new boys is rendered more intimate 
 through the labors of several committees of the 
 Faculty, who not only counsel the students, 
 but also regularly communicate with their 
 parents. Through this zealous care, the attend- 
 ance in the upper classes should increase; but 
 no human agency can possibly lead every boy 
 through the School to successful graduation. 
 
 As I gaze upon the High School, the imposing 
 building, with its costly equipment and superior 
 facilities for instruction, the question upper- 
 most in my mind is, what are its aims and pur- 
 poses in the general scheme of higher education ? 
 What is to be its mission in the future? If its 
 courses of study are merely to be vocational and 
 utilitarian in character, the higher liberal 
 knowledge will be in peril of destruction. Dr. 
 Andrew F. West says: "There is plenty of 
 
S2 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 money to be had for commercial, industrial, 
 and technical education, and it is money very 
 well spent, so long as these valuable forms of 
 training are well organized for their own ends 
 and are not put into relations destructive to 
 liberal education. There is little danger that 
 utilitarian studies will lack friends and money. 
 The danger is to the other studies." The High 
 School has always stood for liberal studies, and 
 yet it has responded to the demands of the 
 times for courses of a practical nature. But in 
 establishing commercial and industrial depart- 
 ments, the best traditions of scholarship have 
 been preserved. Its foundations were laid 
 after Alexander Dallas Bache had carefully 
 examined the best higher schools of Germany, 
 and it has successfully resisted the attacks of 
 seventy-five years. At times, the curriculum 
 suffered, but the aims of the founders were 
 never forgotten, and the School has emerged 
 from years of struggle with an ever-widening 
 influence in our civic life, and with an equip- 
 ment and facilities of instruction unrivalled in 
 the country. Commercial schools and voca- 
 tional schools have a right to exist; but they 
 should not usurp the place of institutions where 
 the liberal studies are cultivated. Indeed, one 
 of the greatest dangers to modem civilization 
 is the commercial ideal which engrosses the 
 life of the entire world, and threatens to destroy 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 28 
 
 the solid educational structure. The real 
 dangers are set forth by Dr. Andrew F. West 
 in his book, ''The Graduate College of Prince- 
 ton," as follows: ''The truth that all high- 
 minded knowledge is in the best sense useful, 
 is torn and twisted into the half-truth of 
 'service,' the doctrine that only the knowledge 
 of obvious use is worth having. Under this 
 notion historical, social, and political studies 
 come to be pursued as a kind of 'contemporary 
 topics' of 'live interest,' the study of literature, 
 even of our own, is narrowed to the most recent 
 periods, thus shutting off depth of background, 
 philosophy descends into the nursery of 'child 
 psychology,' and the great fundamental sciences 
 are neglected except in their most practical 
 applications. Other knowledge is of 'no use.' 
 Wherever this spirit enters professional schools 
 it tends to modify injuriously the sciences 
 which imderlie the professions, so that, for 
 example, pure mathematics is thought in some 
 quarters to be unsuitable for the engineer and 
 pure biology to be unsuitable as a foundation 
 for medicine. 'Modified' mathematics or 
 'modified' biology is the resulting hybrid. And 
 hybrids are sterile. No great wave of utilitarian 
 influence has ever swept unchecked into uni- 
 versities without disaster to liberal studies." 
 
 If life is worth more than a mere living, then 
 the High School must continue on its mission 
 
24 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 of advancing learning for its own sake, and not 
 for immediate utilitarian ends. It must seek 
 to teach those general fundamental principles 
 which underlie and connect all vocations and 
 pursuits. In the past, "hybrid knowledge," as 
 Dr. West calls it, has had no place in the cur- 
 riculum, and in the future, if the character of 
 the School is to be maintained, truth must be 
 sought for its own sake alone. I believe the 
 School will continue to insist on high intellectual 
 ideals, physical well-being, and character among 
 the students. Intellectual ideals cannot survive 
 in a school unless the members of the Faculty 
 have an abiding interest in good books and 
 possess a strong enthusiasm for some scholarly 
 pursuit. In this regard, the High School is 
 fortunate; for our worthy President, represent- 
 ing the best culture and scholarship, has been 
 a constant inspiration to professors and students 
 alike. Intellectual ideals must be preserved in 
 the School, and rigorous studies will not be 
 removed from the curriculum to make way for 
 hybrid courses; but at the same time, youthful 
 enjoyment should be encouraged, so that the 
 boys will attack the difficulties of the classics 
 and mathematics with as much interest as they 
 display in the hardest game on the athletic 
 field. While emphasizing the importance of 
 high intellectual ideals in the School, teachers 
 should endeavor to cultivate the original talents 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 25 
 
 among the boys. Lavisse, the historian, says, 
 ''All uniformity of education is dangerous, 
 because individual divergence is necessary for 
 the progress of human activity." This philo- 
 sophic writer claims that Rome destroyed the 
 individual genius of nations through her con- 
 quests, and that when the public life of the 
 Empire ceased, Italy, Gaul, and Spain were 
 unable to become nations until after the arrival 
 of the barbarians, and after several centuries 
 of experiments amid violence and calamity. 
 As the imperial idea crushes out originality 
 among nations, so school systems built upon 
 mere conventions are the foe to individual 
 genius. And yet, "standardization" is the 
 cry everywhere among those in charge of edu- 
 cational administration ; but these zealous advo- 
 cates of the levelling process should be made 
 conscious of the withering effect of uniformity 
 among communities and nations. Lavisse, in 
 his "Political History of Europe," raises some 
 questions, which those educators who believe 
 in mere standards and conventions should 
 weigh and consider. * * But how does it happen, ' ' 
 says this historian, "that the countries which 
 Rome did not conquer, or did not long have 
 under her sway, now hold such a prominent 
 place in the world; that they exhibit so much 
 originality and such complete confidence in 
 their future ? Is it only because, having existed 
 
26 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 a shorter time, they are entitled to a longer 
 future ? Or, perchance, did Rome leave behind 
 her certain habits of mind, intellectual and 
 moral qualities, which impede and limit activ- 
 ity? These are insolvable questions, like all 
 similar ones whose solution it would be impor- 
 tant for us to know. At any rate, let us not be 
 too prompt to pass judgment in this matter. 
 It is not certain that Caesar's conquest of 
 Vercingetorix was a blessing to the world." 
 These words have an ominous significance, 
 coming from the historian of a country whose 
 educational system has been standardized to a 
 most imperial form. As imperialism in govern- 
 ment finally breaks down with its own weight, 
 so in education, the same process will destroy 
 genius and original mental gifts, and finally 
 lead to intellectual revolution. 
 
 I mentioned physical well-being as the second 
 great subject in high school administration. 
 For many years, the old High School took an 
 interest in popular athletics; but in the new 
 building physical training was placed on a 
 scientific basis and provided not only with a 
 well-equipped gymnasium, but also with an 
 athletic field of generous proportions. The 
 athletic spirit has taken possession of the High 
 School as never before; in fact, it is sweeping 
 with a wave of popularity throughout the 
 world. It seems to be one of the national ideals, 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 27 
 
 a fact that is deeply deplored by many critics, 
 who claim that the sports of the field and 
 gymnasium interfere with culture and scholar- 
 ship, and divert the attention of the students 
 from the more solid pursuits of learning. The 
 subject of athletic interest, when viewed from 
 an impartial point of view, leads to the inevi- 
 table conclusion that there must be some good 
 in a movement to which a whole nation attaches 
 so much importance. Commenting on this 
 matter, Arthur C. Benson says, ''It was char- 
 acteristic of Athens at the time of her brightest 
 political eminence, when her writers were 
 pondering with careless ease works which have 
 given a literary standard to the most keenly 
 intellectual periods ever since, and are at once 
 the wonder and despair of creative minds, to 
 attach a similar importance to athletic pursuits. 
 It is not therefore a state of things inconsistent 
 with high political and intellectual fervor." 
 Physical training in the gymnasium of the High 
 School now needs no defenders and apologists, 
 although, when first introduced, it was looked 
 upon by some as an experiment of doubtful 
 value. History confirms its importance in the 
 life of a nation, when after 1806 the patriots 
 of Germany began to arouse a sentiment for 
 the regeneration of Prussia. Old Father Jahn 
 invented modern gymnastics, when he estab- 
 lished the Gray Cloister Gymnasium near 
 
28 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 Berlin, and also put up apparatus in the parks 
 and public places, where physical training was 
 accompanied by moral and political teaching, 
 and immediate effects were seen in the patriotic 
 impulse that seized the youth of the land. 
 Father Jahn also opened a gymnasium at Jena, 
 where he received a degree from the University. 
 His influence soon reached every part of Prussia, 
 and glowing patriotism took the place of 
 national decay. His followers even suggested 
 allowing a strip of wilderness to grow up be- 
 tween France and Germany and peopling it 
 with wild beasts. The gymnasium was a power- 
 ful factor in redeeming the fatherland, and 
 Jahn's pupils were inspired with the sentiment 
 of the poet Arndt : 
 
 That is the German's fatherland, 
 Where wrath pursues the foreign band, 
 Where every Frank is held a foe. 
 And Germans all as brothers glow. 
 
 That is the land. 
 All Germany's thy fatherland. 
 
 The charge that athletic interest shows a 
 tendency to frivolity and pleasure-seeking in 
 the nation can scarcely be maintained. On the 
 other hand, foreign observers are amazed at 
 the restless activity and boundless energy of 
 the American people, who not only perform 
 an unusual amount of routine work, but also 
 undertake vast constructive schemes that are 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 29 
 
 the wonder of the world. Not content with 
 this, the cry to-day is for still more efficiency, 
 and there is danger of reducing man to a human 
 machine. More work is also the demand of 
 the schools; therefore, some wholesome form 
 of amusement is needed to preserve the personal 
 equation in man and save him from the fate of 
 a mere grind. My observations lead me to 
 believe that athletics have a social value, 
 stimulating among the boys the spirit of com- 
 panionship. They afford a means for physical 
 exercise, thereby draining off the superfluous 
 energy which might otherwise be expended in 
 the School to the destruction of discipline and 
 good order. A united school spirit can also be 
 developed through athletics, and there is an 
 opportunity to display in the games moral 
 qualities of a high order. The spirit of the age, 
 then, is in favor of physical training and athletic 
 sports. We see this not only in school and 
 college, but in every walk of life. It manifests 
 itself in another form in summer camps and in the 
 Boy Scout movement, in Young Men's Christian 
 Association work, and in various other organi- 
 zations. People live more in the open, sleep 
 in the open, and obey the poet's injunction to 
 
 Go forth, under the open sky, and Hst 
 To Nature's teachings. 
 
 George M. Trevelyan's delightful essay on 
 ''Walking" should appeal to every lover of 
 
30 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 physical exercise and athletic sports. He said: 
 "I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. 
 When body and mind are out of gear (and those 
 twin parts of me live at such close quarters that 
 the one always catches melancholy from the 
 other) I know that I have only to call in my 
 doctors and I shall be well again." Here, then, 
 we have the solution to the whole matter. 
 Apply Mr. Trevelyan's principle of walking to all 
 physical exercise, in school, college, and the busy 
 world; make it, under proper regulations, and 
 above all else, a tonic for mind and body alike, 
 and then the physical, mental, and moral benefits 
 derived therefrom will become apparent to all. 
 I gaze back in contemplation through eighteen 
 busy years in the High School, and the forms 
 of a host of noble youths cross the horizon of 
 my memory. Their later careers of usefulness 
 impress me with the thought that character- 
 building is, above everything else, the mission 
 of the High School and of all similar institu- 
 tions in the land. These schools are free to all, 
 and the boys, therefore, live in a democracy of 
 learning, where they are taught to respect each 
 other's rights, and thereby acquire the habits 
 of good citizens. The pursuit of knowledge 
 and the struggles on the athletic field develop 
 moral qualities of a high order, and the friendly 
 competition of the class-room tempers the spirit 
 of selfishness which is often too common in the 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 31 
 
 world. My observations convince me that boys 
 in general are not laggards who shirk their tasks ; 
 for I have seen too many examples of courage, 
 sacrifice, endurance, self-control, generosity, hon- 
 esty, fairness, and calmness in defeat as well as in 
 victory, as they attacked the rigorous studies of 
 the curriculum. The High School has always in- 
 sisted upon character and quality in work, and 
 the student body has caught this spirit and car- 
 ried it forth into the busy world. What a brother- 
 hood, skilled in the arts and sciences, they form, 
 an unselfish body of workers, known of all men 
 and in all lands by their efficiency and accom- 
 plishments ! I have seen comparatively few boys 
 fall on account of temptation and moral lapses. 
 Indeed, how many have been saved through the 
 good-heartedness of our President and by the 
 aid of friendly committees of the Faculty ! 
 
 Schools grow venerable in years, but they 
 should remain youthful in service. This spirit 
 must necessarily be imparted to the institution 
 by the schoolmaster, who is a useful servant 
 only so long as he has an abiding hope and 
 interest in his work. As an eminent writer 
 says, the teacher must rule and stimulate him- 
 self in order to govern and interest others. My 
 purpose in writing this essay is to encourage 
 men to continue in their profession, and to 
 impress upon their minds the real problem 
 which they must solve. I wish to assure other 
 
32 CONFESSIONS OF A SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 readers that I have not endeavored to antago- 
 nize any particular type or form of schools, but 
 simply to emphasize as forcibly as possible the 
 fundamental principles and essentials of higher 
 education. The subject is of vital importance 
 at present on account of the intense national 
 earnestness which America shows in her schools, 
 an earnestness that should invite strong men 
 into the service; for the future is bright with 
 hope and rich with promise. 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 WENONAH MILITARY ACADEMY 
 WENONAH, NEW JERSEY 
 
 JUNE II, 1914 
 
 June is the month of commencements, and 
 it is an old established custom to offer advice 
 to the happy graduates, who are about to pro- 
 ceed to college or go out into the serious duties 
 of life. It must be a great satisfaction to the 
 graduates to-day who have completed the pre- 
 scribed course of this School, and are now saying 
 farewell as students to the institution forever. 
 But memories of the years passed here will 
 twine around the heart throughout life, and 
 your affection for this place will grow more 
 intense with fleeting time. The difficulties of 
 mastering hard lessons will fade from the mind, 
 and as later years bring to you their achieve- 
 ments, the days of youthful school life will 
 loom up cheerfully upon your vision as the 
 happiest epoch of your existence. It is a source 
 of pleasure and great profit for a man to have 
 his name enrolled with the alumni body of a 
 good school. While our American schools lack 
 the antiquity and historical fame of the institu- 
 tions of the old world, they are imbued with 
 
 35 
 
36 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 the spirit of progress of this new Republic, and 
 while they lack the cloistered air of the mediseval 
 times, they still are centres of culture, and, at 
 the same time, train the pupils for the practical 
 affairs of the western world. The founders 
 must have consulted the oracle in selecting the 
 site of this Military Academy, for here kind 
 nature smiles upon you with all her loveliness, 
 and yet, with Philadelphia as a centre, you lie 
 within a radius of a great throbbing population 
 of more than two million people. With your 
 beautiful rural surroundings, you still have at 
 hand all the resources of a great metropolis 
 which make for intellectual progress and indus- 
 trial life. And as a word of encouragement for 
 the future of your School, I may be pardoned 
 for the remark that within an hour's ride from 
 Philadelphia lie the most prosperous fitting 
 schools in the United States. 
 
 Education has grown to be the leading interest 
 in America. Public schools with their liberal 
 appropriations of money, and private institu- 
 tions with their rich endowments now reach 
 the masses in every part of the land, and the 
 return is more satisfactory than from any other 
 form of expenditure. Education is a popular 
 movement, and the people have faith in it as 
 a means of solving the difficult problems that 
 rise from time to time in our national life. 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 37 
 
 Fortunate, indeed, and thrice blest are you 
 who have thus been able to enjoy this environ- 
 ment of culture and scholarship. Yours have 
 been peculiar advantages and opportunities; 
 but great also will be your responsibilities. 
 American education trains the youth to take 
 their places in the most highly organized 
 democracy the world has ever seen. Our 
 government demands the services of every 
 citizen to help preserve these institutions from 
 decay; and we should remember that the most 
 insidious danger to the Republic lies in the 
 careless and selfish attitude of the people 
 toward the welfare of the State. 
 
 It is difficult to say anything new and inter- 
 esting at a school commencement. I fear that 
 any remarks that I may offer on an educational 
 theme would be very trite, indeed. But this 
 occasion encourages me to refer especially to 
 one among the many excellent features of your 
 Academy, and that is the course in military 
 training. We do not hope for war, and we 
 know that peace hath her victories no less re- 
 nowned than war. Likewise, peace demands 
 the same positive virtues no less than war, and 
 as a great nation, pursuing our course to a 
 higher destiny, the same qualities should in- 
 spire us that distinguish great soldiers in the 
 camp and on the field of battle. The civilian, 
 no less than the soldier, should be trained 
 
38 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 into the habit of obedience, of reverence, of 
 independence, and of honesty. ''Stranger, tell 
 the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedi- 
 ence to their laws." This was the simple 
 inscription, composed by Simonides, to com- 
 memorate the heroic and conscious devotion of 
 the faithful band of Leonidas at Thermopylae. 
 As Dr. Lieber says: "It was not merely the 
 happy conceit of an individual; it was the true 
 expression of the public spirit. Obedience to 
 the laws implies a true loyalty to the State, 
 and we should all learn that it is a privilege of 
 men to obey laws, and a delight to obey good 
 ones." Again, he remarks: "Man is wholly 
 man only in society; society is what it ought 
 to be only through laws ; laws are virtually laws 
 only when obeyed; therefore, man's destiny 
 requires obedience to the laws." That eminent 
 publicist, Dr. Lieber, has contributed a valu- 
 able and safe guide for the American youth in 
 his '' Political Ethics," and I repeat the sub- 
 stance of his observations on the value of 
 military training in the sentences that follow. 
 Military training also stimulates in man the 
 spirit of reverence, by which he feels linked to 
 his fellow-men in a serious and earnest contem- 
 plation of all things, striving to know their real 
 character and connection with life. The belief 
 that military training may lead to blind sub- 
 missiveness is only to be feared where education 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 39 
 
 is imperfect or liberty at a low ebb. On the 
 other hand, the soldier life develops the quality 
 of independence, for it includes the love of 
 justice, of right, of acting manfully by prin- 
 ciple, of disdaining popularity when need be, of 
 holding up the head in spite of the heavy blows 
 which fate may inflict, of being bravely yet 
 calmly a true man. Likewise, this training 
 emphasizes the habit of honesty, even in the 
 smallest details and trifles, both as to truth 
 and property. It is not sufficient that the 
 young learn to shun pilfering, but it is necessary 
 that a sacred regard for property, in all its 
 manifestations, be early instilled into their 
 souls. That greatest aim of all moral educa- 
 tion, to make men just and true, kind and 
 self-controlled, is also the most important edu- 
 cation for the State. Let men be just and true, 
 and what is not gained? For the soldier and 
 civilian alike, the motto should be : 
 
 Be just, and fear not: 
 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
 Thy God's and truth's. 
 
 Equipped with this happy combination of 
 military training and culture, the graduates of 
 this School should be prepared to go forth and 
 attack the problems of life with energy and 
 enthusiasm. Some years ago, Arthur C. Benson 
 wrote a book, ''From a College Window," in 
 
40 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 which he vigorously criticised the system of 
 education in the EngHsh higher schools and 
 universities. He said that he failed to see the 
 students flinging themselves with ardor into 
 modem literature, history, philosophy, science, 
 and practical subjects. But on the other hand, 
 he said: "I see instead, intellectual cynicism, 
 intellectual apathy, an absorbing love of physi- 
 cal exercise, an appetite for material pleasure, 
 a distaste for books and thought." This criti- 
 cism might apply to an aristocratic country, 
 where education is a luxury of the privileged 
 class, but in democratic America, even the 
 higher schools are within reach of the masses, 
 and these institutions have suited their courses 
 to meet the demands of a practical age. More- 
 over, an experience of many years with young 
 men in school convinces me that they do not in 
 this country form a leisure class, but that they 
 are anxious to get out into the world and apply 
 their knowledge to their various callings and 
 pursuits. Our educated men are generally 
 eager for action and ready to answer the de- 
 mands made upon them in public and private 
 Hfe. 
 
 The militant and aggressive spirit should be 
 found in the student body of this School. The 
 land of the strenuous life is beckoning men of 
 this type, and careers of usefulness are opening 
 to those who are ready and efficient. In this 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 41 
 
 connection, let us remember the words of St. 
 Paul, the militant hero of the ancient world, 
 who, when determined on journeying to Jeru- 
 salem, declared, '*I am ready," although per- 
 secution, and even death might await him. In 
 this day of religious freedom, men are not per- 
 secuted for their faith; but it is expected of 
 educated men that they shall be constantly 
 ready for every serious duty that awaits them. 
 The scholars are the minute men of the world, 
 responding to service in a thousand lines when- 
 ever called, and if they fail when summoned, 
 a serious indictment is framed against the 
 whole educational structure. The Minute Men 
 of the Revolution, how their deeds appeal to 
 the imagination, even after the lapse of one 
 hundred and forty years! They went from 
 the plough to the battle-field at a moment's call, 
 and by the bridge at Concord their glory is 
 perpetuated by a statue, and commemorated 
 by Emerson, in the lines : 
 
 By the rude bridge that arched the flood 
 Their flag to April breeze unfurled. 
 
 Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 This is the type of men that we need to-day 
 in every walk of life. As the troops were ready 
 at a moment's call in the Revolution, the Civil 
 War, the War with Spain, and at Vera Cruz, 
 
42 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 SO in days of peace the same spirit should 
 animate the citizen in the performance of every 
 serious duty. Admiral Fletcher's report on 
 the efficiency and readiness of our naval force 
 at Vera Cruz should not only be a source of 
 pride to our army and navy, but it should be 
 an example to every citizen to respond to the 
 call to patriotic duty, and to render efficient 
 service in the professional and industrial 
 world. 
 
 Likewise, military training should inspire the 
 student with a love of unselfish service for man- 
 kind. In this country, the soldier expects no 
 personal gain. On the other hand, in war his 
 only hope is either a costly sacrifice for his 
 country, or in case of survival, to receive the 
 praise of a grateful people. The days of the 
 mercenary are over, and armies are now re- 
 cruited from the best blood of the nation, and 
 called into action only to defend great moral 
 principles. This idea of service has pervaded 
 the sphere of government, and the individual 
 cannot escape his share in the general contri- 
 bution to the good of the masses. A hundred 
 years ago, Jefferson would have the national 
 government merely perform police powers and 
 preserve peace among the States and with 
 foreign powers ; but to-day we expect the authori- 
 ties at Washington to develop many lines of 
 social and economic service. There is no doubt 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 43 
 
 that the extension of these Federal activities 
 has made us one of the most happy, wealthy, 
 respectable, and powerful nations that ever 
 inhabited the globe. Besides, if we read the 
 platform of the Progressive Party, and ''The 
 New Nationalism," we find that a large ele- 
 ment of our population would have the govern- 
 ment go still farther into unexplored fields of 
 service. Such is the unmistakable tendency 
 of the age. 
 
 As an important part of our education, we 
 must learn that the individual cannot evade 
 this unselfish service to his fellow-men. We 
 are living under changed conditions. When the 
 Federal Constitution was adopted, we were a 
 rural nation, with a population widely scattered; 
 but now urban conditions prevail, and more 
 than forty per cent, of our people live in cities. 
 Our social relations are close, and it is an im- 
 portant fact to remember that our educational 
 stewardship will be largely measured by the 
 extent of our unselfish service to mankind. 
 Thus, by the very conditions under which we 
 live, we labor not for ourselves alone, but for 
 all mankind. The physician may become rich 
 in his profession ; but through the discoveries in 
 medical science, he is a benefactor to the human 
 race. The successful lawyer, it is true, receives 
 large fees; but through the ages, he has helped 
 to develop that science which binds large com- 
 
44 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 munities together into nations, and sacredly 
 guards property and human rights. The college 
 professor no longer lives exclusively among his 
 books, but by the very nature of our civiliza- 
 tion, his active service now extends beyond 
 the college walls. Of the Faculty of Wisconsin 
 University, more than forty are engaged in 
 public administrative positions, and professors 
 direct the work of nineteen State boards and 
 commissions. Likewise, the church, forgetting 
 theological differences, is making itself felt as 
 never before in the social uplift of humanity. 
 It is assisting in fulfilling the divine promise, 
 even in this world, that the people may have 
 life and have it more abundantly in all that 
 pertains to a general diffusion of wealth, happi- 
 ness, education, improved civic and rural con- 
 ditions, good government, and righteousness in 
 private and public life. The educated man must 
 be ready to join in this movement for the com- 
 mon good of mankind. The school furnishes 
 the necessary mental equipment, and directs 
 the mind into a proper attitude toward the 
 world. Then the student must go forth with 
 the thought that it is not enough to know; but 
 he must make the truth prevail. One of the 
 greatest blessings of school work is, that in the 
 friendly rivalry for academic honors, the heart- 
 less competition of life is greatly tempered, and 
 the boys learn that in the larger world, the 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 45 
 
 pick and the pen meet in the brotherhood of 
 man. Truly, we learn in school the social 
 value of the lines of Burns, 
 
 A man's a man for a' that and a' that. 
 
 In this connection, we all might turn with 
 profit to Arnold Bennett's little book, ''The 
 Human Machine," a work that emphasizes a 
 better knowledge of the mind and brain, and 
 of the art of right living. I should like to 
 urge the graduates to read this book; for 
 there is much truth in Bennett's remark that 
 people generally reach the age of fifty-five 
 before they begin to live with professional skill. 
 We finish our lives as amateurs, just as we 
 began them, and when the machine creaks and 
 refuses to obey the steering wheel, we say, 
 ''It can't be helped. It will be all the same a 
 hundred years hence." The author's thought 
 is that we have been using the human machine 
 without understanding it, and that in school 
 we should learn to know the mind and body, 
 as well as to acquire a proper knowledge of 
 the art of living. Even at the age of fifty, we 
 are apt to know more about the draught of a 
 chimney, or of the Greeks and Babylonians, 
 than we do of the human mind. Truly, in the 
 schools, we should be impressed with Sir 
 William Hamilton's remark, "In the world 
 
46 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 there is nothing great but man, and in man 
 there is nothing great but mind," and the 
 sacred record places him above all other works. 
 
 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy 
 hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. 
 
 The knowledge of ourselves and of the art 
 of right living transcends in importance all the 
 accumulated learning of the books. If the 
 sage of Greece were living to-day, he would 
 repeat his maxim, ''Know thyself," with ever- 
 increasing emphasis; and Marcus • Aurelius 
 might well remind us that "the perfecting of 
 life is a power residing in the soul" ; but to-day, 
 under changed conditions, abstract specula- 
 tions must become vital action; that power 
 residing in the soul must become a living force, 
 and along with knowledge of self, dedicated to 
 a fruitful service for mankind. In perfecting 
 this art of living, let us then remember that it 
 does not lie in bookish culture, nor in contem- 
 plating the achievements of past civilizations. 
 Books are a true delight and a comfort to the 
 scholar, and they contain the accumulated 
 sources of knowledge. But the art of proper 
 living in this age when populations, communi- 
 ties, and nations are drawn so close together, 
 is to establish harmonious relations with all 
 mankind. Nations now accomplish this through 
 treaties, international law, and in arbitration as 
 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 47 
 
 a substitute for war. Individuals must assume 
 the same attitude through kindness, mutual 
 sympathy, and a recognition of rights and duties 
 to each other. This spirit of service and unsel- 
 fishness we must, therefore, carry from the 
 schools into life, and its constant practice will 
 destroy the antagonisms and still the jarring 
 sounds that so often disturb our social peace. 
 Then the comforting hope of "Peace on earth; 
 good will toward men," will become a living re- 
 ality, and then this great nation will throb as with 
 one heart, and act as with one mind in moving 
 towards the higher destiny that awaits us. 
 
 But it is now time to end these serious 
 reflections, offered to you, I must confess, in a 
 rather desultor}^ fashion. I sincerely hope that 
 the members of the graduating class may have 
 all the joys that go with scholarship, and 
 possess the manly virtues that I have empha- 
 sized, in dealing with the responsibilities of 
 life. Like Theseus of old, you have been 
 furnished with the weapons to fight the battles 
 of life. Two roads, the easy and the difficult, 
 lay before him on his way to Athens. He chose 
 the rugged path beset with many dangers, but 
 properly armed and with a resolute spirit, he 
 conquered every foe and reached his journey's 
 end in safety. It is not my thought that you 
 should be engaged in constant struggle, but I 
 believe that serious duties and responsibilities 
 
48 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 
 
 you will not avoid for an existence of mere 
 ease and comfort. We need not refer to classical 
 examples of the heroic type of man; for our 
 own history is rich with this noble quality 
 which has done so much to develop American 
 civilization. It has always been a conspicuous 
 trait of manhood in this country, and our faith 
 in you is such that we are confident that as 
 you go out into life you will preserve all the 
 best traditions of American character. I sin- 
 cerely trust that the bright expectations of 
 parents and friends may be abundantly realized, 
 and that these young men, the pride of the 
 home and the hope of the future, may complete 
 the happiness of all interested in their welfare, 
 with successful careers and rich accomplish- 
 ments. The debt of gratitude will then be fully 
 repaid, and the Military Academy honored and 
 encouraged in its services to the community 
 and country at large. 
 
ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 
 AN APPRECIATION 
 
ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 
 
 AN APPRECIATION OF HIS TWENTY YEARS' SERVICE AS 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 FEBRUARY 26, I914 
 
 The month of February, 19 14, has a special 
 significance to Philadelphians in the seventy- 
 fifth anniversary of the Central High School. 
 The twentieth anniversary of Dr. Robert Ellis 
 Thompson's presidency of the School, occurring 
 at the same time, gives an additional interest 
 to the occasion. His connection with the School 
 is contemporary with a great period of educa- 
 tional expansion and reform in this country. 
 With a rich experience of more than twenty 
 years as a university professor, he brought to 
 the Central High School a combination of rare 
 culture and liberal ideas without a parallel in 
 any modern secondary school. With the hope- 
 ful characteristics of the Celtic race, he has 
 constantly held out to the Faculty and student 
 body a brighter future for the School, and his 
 presidency is a remarkable epoch, the history 
 of which will be adequately recorded in years 
 to come. Institutions take character from the 
 men who labor in their founding and history, 
 and this is true of schools as it is of political 
 societies. Doctor Thompson's constant insist- 
 
 51 
 
52 ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 
 
 ence on culture in Faculty and students alike 
 has left an indelible impression on the character 
 of the Central High School. 
 
 On his accession as President of the School, 
 Doctor Thompson at once began to introduce 
 many reasonable incentives to excellent work 
 among the students. He devised the plan of 
 exempting those boys from examination who 
 had done well in their studies during the year, 
 and good results were at once observed. He 
 established the Committee on Discipline to 
 deal with offences among the boys, and the 
 meetings of this body every Thursday have 
 .been a feature of High School administration 
 for twenty years. Another feature of discipline 
 introduced by Doctor Thompson is the Con- 
 ference Committee, in which the student body 
 and Faculty are represented, to which all matters 
 are referred which may improve the relations 
 of the students to the School. These means of 
 discipline were prompted by the spirit of fair 
 play, which has been so notably conspicuous in 
 Doctor Thompson's administration of school 
 affairs. While imposing high standards of 
 scholarship and a rigorous curriculum upon the 
 students, the boys have at all times been treated 
 with a liberal spirit, and the serious work of 
 the class-rooms has been conducted with reason- 
 able methods, free from the drudgery so often 
 to be found in the schools of the fathers. 
 
ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 53 
 
 A fresh impetus to secondary education was 
 aroused in Philadelphia with the occupancy of 
 the new Central High School building in Novem- 
 ber, 1902. In this magnificent temple of learn- 
 ing the Central High School was given a new 
 opportunity for expansion, and rapid growth 
 immediately followed. Our institution thus 
 became a mother of high schools ; for in response 
 to the popular demand that arose from every 
 part of the City, several district high schools 
 have been established and additional ones are 
 being projected. Doctor Thompson generously 
 gave counsel in the organization of these new 
 schools, and impressed upon the authorities 
 the necessity of liberal courses of study and 
 ample equipment in each of the additional 
 high schools. 
 
 The Central High School, estabHshed in the 
 new building, entered upon a fresh period of 
 growth and usefulness. Its advance has been 
 marvelous, not merely in the numbers of the 
 students, but also in the expansion of the de- 
 partments. Thus, the department of commerce 
 has developed into a high school of commerce. 
 The department of pedagogy has grown into 
 the school of pedagogy, and has gone forth 
 like a Greek colony into a territory of its own. 
 In order to insure growth, every institution 
 must be possessed with a high ideal which it 
 seeks to attain. Doctor iThompson's constant 
 
54 ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 
 
 ambition has been to extend the course of study 
 by adding additional years, so as to increase the 
 value of the degrees conferred. It should be 
 remarked that this ideal has been a permanent 
 influence for good with the Faculty, the members 
 having ever before them the possibility of an 
 institution with collegiate rank, in which their 
 sphere of influence would be considerably en- 
 larged. This ideal has also been a source of 
 inspiration to the professors to pursue original 
 research and authorship in their various depart- 
 ments, and thus make contributions to the 
 stores of knowledge. Doctor Thompson has 
 frequently set an example to the Faculty in this 
 direction by his own publications, and he has 
 encouraged the professors not merely to be 
 teachers, but also to engage in productive 
 scholarship. 
 
 In Doctor Thompson, it may be truly said 
 that the professors of the Central High School 
 have ever been in the presence of a master who 
 has unselfishly given them of his stores of 
 knowledge. The mere mention of a good book 
 by a professor suggests to the Doctor the text 
 for a learned discourse, and seated about the 
 table in the Faculty Room, we have enjoyed 
 the rare pleasure of listening to his profitable 
 talks on the subject at hand. As members of 
 the Faculty, we feel that we have been attending 
 school with Doctor Thompson as our teacher. 
 
ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 55 
 
 The chief elements in a great school are not 
 the petty details of administration; but more 
 important is the rare presence of a great mind 
 with ample stores of knowledge. So much 
 time is wasted to-day by school authorities in 
 gathering statistics, and in trivial matters 
 which have no permanent value. But the few 
 great schools of the world are what great minds 
 have made them, and ordinary matters of 
 administration are justly subordinated in schools 
 of this type. A history of twenty years of the 
 Central High School will not deal with the daily 
 routine of administration, but with the ideals 
 of the School, which, we hope, will in the future 
 meet with a good measure of realization. 
 
 The impressions made by Doctor Thompson 
 on the student body of our School will grow 
 stronger with the passing years. These are, 
 after all, the enduring foundations which the 
 teacher lays. Doctor Thompson's influence in 
 the High School extends far beyond the ordi- 
 nary pedagogical limits. The feeling manner in 
 which he reads the Scriptures in the morning 
 exercises, and the eloquent addresses to the 
 boys on these occasions, are a power for good 
 which cannot be forgotten. His baccalaureate 
 sermons to the graduating classes are marked 
 by a true spiritual dignity, and his regular lec- 
 tures on ethics and economics are an unusual 
 treat for students of a high-school grade. In 
 
56 ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON 
 
 referring to the vast sums of money expended 
 on public schools in America, Dr. Eliot declares : 
 "It is, indeed, far the most profitable of all the 
 forms of public expenditure; and this is true 
 whether one looks first to material prosperity, 
 or to mental and moral well-being ; whether one 
 regards chiefly average results, or the results 
 obtained through highly gifted individuals." 
 A review of twenty years of the Central High 
 School confirms our belief in Dr. Eliot's con- 
 clusions, and convinces us that the labors of 
 these years have not been in vain, but that the 
 reward has been rich and abundant. 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS* 
 
 In writing the preface to the fourth volume 
 of his history, Gibbon said: "I shall content 
 myself with renewing my serious protestation, 
 that I have always endeavored to draw from 
 the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well 
 as a sense of duty, has always urged me to 
 study the originals ; and that, if they have some- 
 times eluded my search, I have carefully marked 
 the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage 
 or a fact was reduced to depend." This was 
 written in the eighteenth century, when history 
 in its modern sense was at its lowest ebb, and 
 my friend, H. Morse Stephens, declares that 
 Gibbon was the first to foreshadow the attitude 
 of the historian of to-day. Prof. Stephens truly 
 states that others than Gibbon, and before his 
 time, may have held the views and practised 
 the methods of modern historians ; but Niebuhr 
 and Ranke not only formulated these ideas and 
 put them into practice, but they founded the 
 modern scientific school of history. It was 
 Niebuhr 's great ambition to write a history of 
 Rome which should end where Gibbon began; 
 but his task remained unaccomplished, for he 
 
 *A review of certain chapters in G. P. Gooch's "History 
 and Historians of the Nineteenth Century." 
 
 59 
 
60 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 never got farther than to the Punic Wars. 
 Prof. Stephens, in describing his services to 
 modem students, claims that in rejecting the 
 fables of Livy, and showing why they were to 
 be rejected, he showed the way for all later 
 historians. 
 
 Bartholdt George Niebuhr was a Colossus 
 among the scholars of the modern world, and 
 I have read and re-read with pleasure a little 
 book, ''Conversations with Niebuhr," by 
 Francis Lieber during his residence in Rome, 
 when Niebuhr was gathering material for his 
 history. This little book should be in the 
 possession of every professor of history; for 
 it reveals the vast learning of the founder of 
 modem historical method, and describes his 
 patient and diligent researches among the ruins 
 of Rome for reliable source material. Ranke 
 followed Niebuhr and farther developed his 
 critical methods, applying them to all his 
 voluminous works, and impressing upon stu- 
 dents the necessity of discovering how things 
 actually happened. He claimed that, first and 
 last, the duty of the historian was to search for 
 truth, and that all possible material must be 
 sifted out with trained and critical judgment. 
 G. P. Gooch, in his "History and Historians 
 of the Nineteenth Century," has given us an 
 elaborate treatment of the influence of Ranke 
 upon the scientific tendency of history, and 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 61 
 
 how he was instrumental in taking the subject 
 out of the realm of philosophy and literature. 
 Mr. Gooch declares that while Ranke's prede- 
 cessors emphasized politics, law, religion, or 
 patriotism, he was the first German to pursue 
 history for no purpose but its own. He ex- 
 pected no professional knowledge from his 
 readers, and never wrote for specialists. He 
 practised moderation and restraint, and his works 
 are a triumph of fairness and impartiality. He 
 outlived all rivalry and antagonism, and heard 
 Ameth declare before the assembled historians 
 that he alone among all prose writers had 
 furnished a masterpiece to every country. 
 
 In reviewing this scientific trend of history, 
 we may turn with profit to George M. Trevel- 
 yan's recent work, ''Clio, a Muse, and Other 
 Essays." Mr. Trevelyan is not entirely satis- 
 fied with this new treatment of history, and 
 he sees the popular influence of the subject 
 greatly diminished since it was proclaimed a 
 science for specialists, and not literature for 
 the common reader of books. While, in the 
 early Victorian age, historians did much to 
 form the ideas of the new era, to-day the thought 
 of the young generation is derived from novelists 
 and playwrights. Thus, he beholds with sorrow 
 a constant demand for books like the ''Criminal 
 Queens of History," and spicy memoirs lightly 
 served up for the general appetite, while 
 
62 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 "serious history is a sacred thing pinnacled 
 afar on frozen heights of science, not to be 
 approached save after a long novitiate." At 
 the same time, he notes that ''The Cambridge 
 Modern History" is bought b}^ the yard to 
 decorate bookshelves, and like the ''Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica," its mere presence in the 
 library is enough. And yet, Mr. Trevelyan 
 admits that while Ranke and his successors 
 banished the prophets and bards from their 
 seats among the mighty, and established a new 
 order of priesthood among the historians, there 
 has been a vast gain in the deeper academic 
 life of the nation. While history is regarded 
 as literature no longer, it has acquired an impor- 
 tant standing in higher institutions, and this 
 he regards as one of the most important facts 
 in modern education. Mr. Trevelyan offers a 
 happy suggestion that all historical scholars 
 can adopt without sacrificing truth or scientific 
 treatment. He would have them write their 
 works not merely for the perusal of brother 
 historians, but for the best portion of the gen- 
 eral public. He claims that fine English prose 
 can be devoted to the serious exposition of fact 
 and argument, and in this respect, it has a 
 glory all its own. May we not all profit by 
 Mr. Trevelyan's closing words: "To read 
 sustained and magnificent historical narrative 
 educates the mind and the character ; some even, 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 63 
 
 whose natures, craving the definite, seldom 
 respond to poetry, find in such writing the 
 highest pleasure that they know. Unfortu- 
 nately, the historians of literary genius have 
 never been plentiful, and we are told that there 
 will never be any more. Certainly we shall 
 have to wait for them, but let us wish for them 
 and work for them. If we confess that we lack 
 something, and cease to make a merit of our 
 chief defect, if we encourage the rising genera- 
 tion to work at the art of construction and 
 narrative as a part of the historian's task, we 
 may at once get a better level of historical 
 writing, and our children may live to enjoy 
 modern Gibbons, judicious Carlyles, and 
 sceptical Macaulays." 
 
 As to the particular subject of my paper, 
 Ranke was bom in the year 1795, and was 
 educated at Leipsic University, where he 
 studied theology and classical philology, and 
 also devoted much attention to the ancient 
 historians. He taught philology for seven 
 years in the gymnasium at Frankfort on the 
 Oder, and was finally convinced by Niebuhr 
 that historians could exist in the modern world. 
 His professional duties as a teacher also had 
 much to do with turning his attention to history, 
 and his first work, ''History of the Romance 
 and Teutonic Peoples," was written for his 
 own satisfaction rather than for the public. 
 
64 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 In this history, Ranke revealed his great moder- 
 ation and tranquillity of mind in treating the 
 larger themes of the past. He was strongly 
 attracted by the human side of history, and 
 declared that it was so sweet to revel in the 
 wealth of all the centuries, to meet all the heroes 
 face to face, to live through everything again. 
 He inclined toward the personal side of history, 
 and held the view that the deciding factor in 
 history is men in action. Thus, we hear less 
 of the masses than their leaders, and less of 
 conditions than of actions. Although Ranke 
 again and again declared that his only aim in 
 history was to show what actually occurred, 
 yet he is constantly teaching moral lessons; as, 
 for instance, when he portrays the shameless 
 corruption of Italy as sealing her doom, and 
 his judgment on the death of Alexander the 
 Sixth, when he writes, "A limit is set to human 
 crime. He died and became the abomination 
 of the centuries." The reception of the work 
 of the young Frankfort teacher was highly 
 favorable, and he was rewarded by a call to 
 Berlin University. In his own language, the 
 door to his true life was now open so that he 
 could spread his wings. At Berlin, Ranke 
 profited by the friendship of Savigny, Rahel, 
 and Vamhagen ; but his greatest joy was to be 
 found in the riches of the archives, including 
 the relations of the Venetian ambassadors of 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 65 
 
 the sixteenth century. In the presence of this 
 wealth of original material, he determined to 
 rewrite the history of modem Europe. With 
 the aid of the Venetian reports, he wrote the 
 "History of the Ottomans and the Spanish 
 Monarchy of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth 
 Centuries," a work that brought him the privi- 
 lege of subsidized travel for four years. In 
 Vienna, he wrote the "History of the Revolu- 
 tions in Servia," and proceeding to Rome, he 
 prepared "Venice at the End of the Sixteenth 
 Century." He remarked later that he had 
 never learned or thought more than during 
 these crowded years of travel. Returning to 
 Berlin, he became editor of the Historico- 
 Political Review, a journal founded for the 
 purpose of combating the French influence; 
 and while engaged in this capacity, his "History 
 of the Popes" began to appear. This work did 
 more than any other to raise its author to that 
 supreme rank among historians which he has 
 so long enjoyed. It is founded largely on 
 documents still in manuscript and lying un- 
 edited in the libraries of Venice and Rome. 
 His "History of the Reformation in Germany" 
 began to appear in 1845, and it forms a series 
 of commentaries on the Reformation rather 
 than a history itself. Its greatest value is in 
 the light it throws on the relations of Prussia 
 to the other states of Germany while the Refor- 
 5 
 
66 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 mation was in progress. It is to be valued for 
 its judgments on difficult and obscure points 
 rather than for its descriptions. His "History 
 of England," published in 1876, completed the 
 cycle of his works dealing with the great powers 
 of Europe. While the author treats in some 
 measure the whole of English history to the 
 death of George the Second, he evidently 
 regarded the portions relating to the Reforma- 
 tion period as the body of the work. To one 
 who is just beginning the study of English 
 history, much of Ranke's England will be in a 
 measure incomprehensible, but for one who has 
 already considerable knowledge of the subject, it 
 is not surpassed by any other. As Gooch says 
 in his ' * History and Historians of the Nineteenth 
 Century," **It is the history for historians." 
 
 In 1880, at the age of eighty-five, Ranke 
 began to publish his new work on universal 
 history. For several years he had been unable 
 to read and write, and he had to labor through 
 two secretaries. It is a wonderful production, 
 considered merely as the intellectual achieve- 
 ment of a man between eighty and ninety who 
 could no longer read and write. Though this 
 history deals above all with great tendencies, 
 the importance of the individual actor is em- 
 phasized on every page. He says: "On the 
 summit of deep, universal, tumultuous move- 
 ments appear natures cast in gigantic mould 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 67 
 
 which rivet the attention of the centuries. 
 General tendencies do not alone decide; great 
 personalities are always necessary to make 
 them effective." 
 
 Ranke's services to history, as summarized 
 by Gooch in his "History and Historians of 
 the Nineteenth Century," are, first, to divorce 
 the study of the past from the passions of the 
 present and relate what actually occurred. His 
 own strong opinions remained locked in his 
 bosom. In the second place, he established the 
 necessity of founding historical construction on 
 strictly contemporary sources. When he began 
 to write, historians of good repute still depended 
 on memoirs and chronicles; but when he laid 
 down his pen, every scholar had learned to 
 make use of nothing less than the papers and 
 correspondence of the actors themselves, and 
 those in immediate contact with the events 
 they describe. In the third place, he founded 
 the science of evidence, by the analysis of 
 authorities, and henceforth every historian 
 must inquire where his informant obtained his 
 facts. 
 
 Ranke was a brilliant teacher, as well as a 
 great historian, and Mr. Gooch summarizes the 
 impressions left by a number of his students. 
 Giesebrecht said: ''The unusual liveliness was 
 at first disconcerting. The lecture was thor- 
 oughly prepared. The notes lay before the 
 
68 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 teacher, but his words came forth as a creation 
 of the moment and at times his material seemed 
 to overwhelm him. The stream rarely flowed 
 evenly. First it would issue slowly and then 
 so rapidly that it was difficult to follow; or 
 again there would be a long pause, because 
 the speaker seemed unable to find the word 
 which conveyed the picture of his fancy." 
 "Ranke's lectures," writes Hermann Grimm, 
 "chained me from the first word to the last. 
 He filled beginners with the feeling that they 
 were witnessing the affairs of men with the 
 experience of veteran statesmen. He spoke as 
 if he had been present at all the incidents which 
 he described." Ranke continued his lectures 
 until 187 1, when he was compelled to retire 
 on account of ill-health. His later years as a 
 teacher are described by Reuss, who said: "He 
 spoke without great animation, and was only 
 audible on the front benches. But sometimes 
 he arrived with a more rapid step, produced 
 some new book from his pocket, and discussed 
 in animated improvisation questions of method 
 and criticism arising out of it. Then his 
 wrinkled face lit up with a singular flame, he 
 gesticulated like a young man, and those who 
 were attentive and advanced enough to profit 
 by the oracles, were amply compensated for 
 many dull sittings." In 1833, Ranke founded 
 a Seminar in his own study at Berlin for the 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 69 
 
 purpose of training those who wished to make 
 history their profession. Gooch says that this 
 Seminar was attended by a group of students, 
 every one of whom was to win fame in the fields 
 of research. Ranke set the young men to work 
 on a critical study of the Middle Ages, and every 
 member of the group found his life work and 
 was destined to become engaged in productive 
 authorship. 
 
 Of the members of Ranke 's Seminar, three 
 men gained particular distinction in the fields 
 of historical research. The first of these 
 students was Waitz, who after pursuing critical 
 studies of the sources, wrote the "German 
 Constitutional History," and later became 
 professor at Kiel, Gottingen, and Berlin. He 
 died the same day as Ranke, the latter aged 
 ninety, and the former seventy- three. While 
 Ranke 's books were written for the masses, 
 Waitz worked and wrote for scholars, and it is 
 only scholars who can measure the value of his 
 services. The second of Ranke 's pupils to reach 
 world-wide fame was Giesebrecht, who, being 
 trained in the art of his master, prepared after 
 twenty years labor, "The History of the German 
 Imperial Idea." His dream was to see a re- 
 united Germany, and his ideal was a powerful 
 empire, a vigorous church, and a God-fearing 
 people. His original intention was to bring 
 his narrative down to the end of the Hohen- 
 
70 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 staufen period; but the plan was modified, and 
 when he died, he was still at work on Barbarossa. 
 Giesebrecht's book afforded a powerful stimulus 
 to his generation, and his imperialism and pride 
 in his race helped to make his work the political 
 and moral influence that he desired. He lived 
 to see the new empire formed in 1871, taking 
 on a better form than he had glorified in his 
 history. He spent a long life in mastering a 
 single epoch, and in writing a single book; but 
 among all his countrymen employed on the 
 Middle Ages, no one was more widely read and 
 trusted. The youngest and most scholarly of 
 Ranke's pupils was Sybel, who devoted his 
 energies to renewing the connection between 
 history and politics, which Ranke had done his 
 utmost to break. He went to Berlin in 1834, 
 at the age of seventeen, and was at once 
 admitted to the Seminar. After being thor- 
 oughly trained in the sources, he wrote the 
 "History of the First Crusade." The work was 
 highly praised for its critical and narrative 
 qualities. Gooch declares that he put the old 
 chroniclers of the Crusades under the anatomical 
 knife, and thereby robbed this movement of 
 many legends, took from Peter the Hermit and 
 Godfrey of Bouillon their aureole, and wrote a 
 plain story from the best sources. He was 
 called as Privat Docent to Bonn, where he 
 began to prepare his work on German institu- 
 
RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 71 
 
 tions, publishing **The Origin of the German 
 Kingship" in 1844. He was rewarded by a call 
 to Marburg University, where he was converted 
 from mediaevalism to become the spokesman of 
 the national liberals. It should also be remem- 
 bered that among Ranke's pupils was Maxi- 
 milian of Bavaria, and when that prince became 
 king in 1848, he determined to bring Ranke to 
 Munich. The formal invitation was received 
 by the historian in 1853, but he refused to leave 
 Berlin. Although Maximilian failed to attract 
 his old teacher to Munich, he founded the 
 Historical Commission of the Bavarian Acad- 
 emy, with Ranke as President, and Gooch 
 claims that this Commission has done more to 
 further historical studies than any other 
 institution. 
 
 Gooch relates that Ranke in his old age, 
 when surrounded by his children and grand- 
 children, used to say, "I have another and 
 older family, my pupils and their pupils." He 
 was proud of Sybel, Waitz, and Giesebrecht, 
 and wrote to the last named, ''You make my 
 glory as a teacher complete." If Ranke were 
 living to-day, his pride would be increased on 
 witnessing the universal recognition of history 
 in the high schools, colleges, and universities of 
 the world; for as Mr. Trevelyan says: "Clio is 
 driving the classical Athene out of the field as 
 the popular Arts course in our universities." 
 
72 RANKE AND HIS PUPILS 
 
 The influence of Ranke and his family on the 
 scholars in our own land has been profound. 
 Beginning with George Bancroft, a host of 
 Americans have proceeded to the German 
 universities, where, as students, they acquired 
 the critical methods of historical research. 
 Our own universities have also introduced the 
 Seminar methods of graduate work, employed 
 with marked success by Ranke at Berlin. Our 
 debt to Ranke and his pupils is great, and the 
 American historians would perform a gracious 
 act by observing next year the one hundred 
 and twentieth anniversary of his birth, thereby 
 recognizing the contributions of German culture 
 and scholarship to our civilization. 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 In my library I can always meet with faithful 
 friends, who greet me with a kind word, ever 
 ready to unfold their ample knowledge, and 
 share with me their boundless stores of wealth. 
 In the companionship of books there is a true 
 democracy. Poets, sages, and historians alike 
 condescend to form intimate relations with me. 
 Surrounded by such companions as these, I 
 love to choose some theme relating to the distant 
 past, and my erudite friends invariably begin 
 a conversation leading to the realm of history, 
 whose by-ways are filled with interesting scenes 
 and charming subjects. 
 
 This evening I have been consulting a number 
 of old worthies who wrote much about America 
 in the eighteenth century. Their names are 
 rarely mentioned to-day, and the average 
 student does not become acquainted with their 
 works. I first held an extended conversation 
 with Thomas Pownall, whose interest in America 
 led him in 1764 to publish a book entitled "The 
 Administration of the British Colonies." I have 
 before me the fifth edition of the same, pub- 
 lished in 1774, containing much additional 
 information. The author, Thomas Pownall, an 
 Englishman, was born in 1722 and died in 1805. 
 
 75 
 
76 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 He held various positions which gave him much 
 detailed information concerning the American 
 colonies. In 1745, he became Secretary to the 
 Commission for Trade and Plantations. In 
 1755, he acted as commissioner for Massachu- 
 setts Bay in negotiating with the other colonies 
 for the expedition against Crown Point. In 
 1757, he was appointed Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts, and shortly afterwards held the same 
 office in New Jersey and South Carolina suc- 
 cessively. In 1 76 1, he was made Comptroller- 
 General of the army in Germany, and later 
 became a member of Parliament, until 1780, 
 when he retired to private life. 
 
 Pownall was one of the first Englishmen to 
 understand the position of our country geo- 
 graphically. He realized the importance of 
 the Atlantic Ocean and the great inland waters 
 in the development of our trade and commerce. 
 He desired to call England's attention to these 
 opportunities for commercial supremacy in the 
 New World; and so in **The Administration 
 of the Colonies" he wishes to see the British 
 Islands and the American possessions united 
 into "one grand marine dominion." Referring 
 to the differences between the colonies and the 
 mother country, he says: ''As the rising of 
 this crisis forms precisely the object on which 
 government should be employed, so the taking 
 leading measures towards the forming all those 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 77 
 
 Atlantic and American possessions into one 
 empire, of which Great Britain should be the 
 commercial and political centre, is the precise 
 duty of government at this crisis." Pownall 
 possessed what most of the English statesmen 
 of his day hopelessly lacked — an accurate 
 knowledge of American conditions and affairs. 
 This ignorance inspired the Navigation Acts 
 and other harsh commercial regulations, all of 
 which helped to alienate the colonies from the 
 mother country. He knew of the resources of 
 America, and saw in the distance the approach- 
 ing storm long before it burst in its awful fury. 
 This he predicts in his book, as follows: "The 
 whole train of events, the whole course of 
 business, must perpetually bring forward into 
 practice, and necessarily in the end, into 
 establishment, either an American or a British 
 union. There is no other alternative." Again, 
 he says: ''Such is the actual state of the 
 really existing system of our dominions, that 
 neither the power of government over these 
 various parts can long continue under the 
 present mode of administration, nor the great 
 interests of commerce extended throughout the 
 whole long subsist under the present system 
 of the laws of trade." 
 
 In the midst of the Revolutionary War, 
 Pownall was a warm friend of America. On 
 December 2, 1777, he declared in the House 
 
78 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 of Commons, that "the sovereignty of this 
 country over America is aboHshed and gone 
 forever. ' ' Speaking further on the same subject, 
 he said : * ' Until you shall be convinced that you 
 are no longer sovereigns of America, but that 
 the United States are an independent, sovereign 
 people, — until you are prepared to treat them 
 as such, — it is of no consequence at all what 
 schemes or plans of conciliation this side of the 
 House or that may adopt." In following the 
 writings of this friend of America, I find a 
 sympathetic tone in all his arguments. In his 
 "Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe," 
 published in 1780, he says of our country: 
 "North America is become a primary planet 
 in the system of the world, which, while it 
 takes its own course, must have effect on the 
 orbit of every other planet, and shift the com- 
 mon centre of gravity of the whole system of 
 the European world. North America is de facto 
 an independent power, which has taken its 
 equal station with other powers, and must be 
 so de jure. The independence of America is 
 fixed as fate. She is mistress of her own future, 
 knows that she is so, and will actuate that 
 power which she feels she hath, so as to establish 
 her own system and to change the system of 
 Europe." 
 
 Gracious and prophetic words are these from 
 this friend across the seas! In closing my 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 79 
 
 gossip with Thomas Pownall, I wish to quote 
 his remarks on the birthright of the American 
 citizen, as he describes it in his "Memorial to 
 the Sovereigns of America": "Every inhabi- 
 tant of America is de facto as well as de jure, 
 equal, in his essential, inseparable rights of the 
 individual, to any other individual, and is, in 
 these rights, independent of any power that 
 any other can assume over him, over his labor, 
 or his property. This is a principle in act and 
 deed, and not a mere speculative theorem." 
 
 I next began a friendly chat with Peter Kalm, 
 the Swedish traveller, who made a visit to 
 America in the year 1748. The observations 
 and experiences of this tour are published in an 
 interesting work, now before me, the pretentious 
 title of which reads as follows: "Travels into 
 North America ; Containing its Natural History, 
 and a Circumstantial Account of its Plantations 
 and Agriculture in General, with the Civil, 
 Ecclesiastical, and Commercial State of the 
 Country, the Manners of the Inhabitants, and 
 Several Curious and Important Remarks on 
 Various Subjects. By Peter Kalm, Professor 
 of (Economy in the University of Aobo in 
 Swedish Finland, and Member of the Swedish 
 Royal Academy of Sciences. Translated into 
 EngHsh by John Reinhold Forster, F.A.S. 
 Enriched with a Map, Several Cuts for the 
 Illustration of Natural History and Some 
 
80 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 Additional Notes. In Three Volumes. London, 
 1772." 
 
 These volumes contain one of the best of the 
 numerous accounts of America that appeared 
 in the eighteenth century. Peter Kalm, the 
 author, was born at Osterbotten in 17 15, and 
 died in Aobo in 1779. In the year 1745, he 
 was made a professor in the University of Aobo, 
 Swedish Finland. Ab6ut 1740, Baron Charles 
 Bielke, Vice President of the Court of Justice 
 in Finland, made a proposal to the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, to send an 
 able man to the northern parts of Siberia and 
 Iceland, there to make such observations as 
 would improve the Swedish husbandry, garden- 
 ing, manufacturing, arts and sciences. Dr. 
 Linnaeus suggested that a journey through 
 North America would be of greater utility; for 
 the plants of this region thrived well in the 
 Swedish climate, and promised to be very 
 useful in husbandry. The project of such a 
 journey was revived in 1745, when the Royal 
 Academy agreed to send Professor Kalm to 
 North America. 
 
 Professor Kalm started for the New World 
 in October, 1747, accompanied by Lars Yung- 
 straem, a gardener well skilled in the knowledge 
 of plants. He arrived at London in February, 
 1748, and then visited different parts of 
 England, making observations in gardening 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 81 
 
 and husbandry. On August i6, he embarked 
 on the long voyage across the Atlantic, his 
 destination being New Castle on the Delaware, 
 which was reached on the 26th of September. 
 Kalm employed the remainder of the year 1748 
 in collecting seeds of trees and plants, and send- 
 ing them to Sweden. He passed the winter 
 with the Swedish people at Raccoon, New 
 Jersey. In the spring, he travelled through 
 New Jersey and New York, along the Hudson 
 and the Great Lakes, to Montreal and Quebec. 
 Returning in the fall to Philadelphia, he sent 
 a new cargo of seeds and plants to Sweden. In 
 1750, he made a tour of Western Pennsylvania, 
 and visited the Indian tribes in New York. In 
 October, he returned to Philadelphia from this 
 summer expedition. 
 
 In the spring of 1751, Kalm embarked at 
 New Castle for his native country, and on 
 June 13 arrived at Stockholm. He at once 
 resumed his professorship at Aobo, and in a 
 private garden began the cultivation of many 
 American plants. As publishers in Sweden 
 were few, the account of his journey appeared 
 at intervals and at his own expense. It was 
 first pubHshed in the Swedish language, but 
 was soon translated into German. The English 
 edition in three volumes was offered to the 
 public in the year 1772. 
 
 Kalm relates his observations as they occurred 
 6 
 
82 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 day by day, in the form of a diary, or journal. 
 As everything was new to him, his descriptions 
 are filled with the minutest details, now giving 
 a scientific account of the petrel that hovered 
 about the vessel, and of every seaweed noticed 
 on the waters; and again, telling his readers of 
 the art of making apple dumplings in Pennsyl- 
 vania. His interest in the Swedes on the 
 Delaware naturally led him to give much space 
 in his "Travels" to Philadelphia and Eastern 
 Pennsylvania. He states that on his arrival in 
 Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was the first 
 to notice him, and to give him all necessary 
 instructions. He says: ''I found that I was 
 now come into a new world. Whenever I looked 
 to the ground, I everywhere found such plants 
 as I had never seen before. When I saw a tree, 
 I was forced to stop, and ask those who accom- 
 panied me, how it was called. I was seized 
 with terror at the thought of ranging so many 
 new and unknown parts of natural history. 
 At first, I only considered the plants, without 
 venturing on a more accurate examination." 
 
 Kalm expresses his admiration of the fine 
 appearance of Philadelphia, its regular streets, 
 comfortable houses, numerous churches, and 
 the old Town Hall, having a tower with a bell 
 in the middle, "the greatest ornament in the 
 town. ' ' He praises the public spirit of Benjamin 
 Franklin in founding the Philadelphia Library, 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 83 
 
 which, he says, "is open every Saturday from 
 four to eight o'clock in the afternoon." How 
 different from our ample library facilities to-day ! 
 There were no Carnegies in the times of Peter 
 Kalm. His comments on the water supply of 
 Philadelphia may interest the reader of our 
 generation. He says: "The good and clear 
 water in Philadelphia is likewise one of its 
 advantages. For though there are no fountains 
 in the town, yet there is a well in every house, 
 and several in the streets, all of which afford 
 excellent water for boiling, drinking, washing 
 and other uses." 
 
 Kalm visited John Bartram at his residence 
 southwest of Philadelphia, and from him ob- 
 tained an exact knowledge of the state of the 
 country, and of the forest trees that covered 
 the hills. He speaks in the highest terms of 
 Bart ram's abilities and genius for natural 
 history. It was through Bartram that he 
 became familiar with the plant life of Pennsyl- 
 vania. As a result, these volumes of travel, 
 although written by a Swedish scholar, are 
 stamped with the genius of our first American 
 botanist. 
 
 The author gives an interesting description 
 of the simple mode of life followed by the 
 Swedes on the Delaware, in colonial times. 
 They lived upon bread and butter and small 
 quantities of meat. Their clothing was made 
 
84 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 from the skins of animals, or rough worsted 
 goods, while their beds were skins of animals, 
 such as bears, wolves, etc. Speaking of their 
 houses, he says: "The whole house consisted 
 of one little room, the door of which was so 
 low that one was obliged to stoop in order to 
 get in. As they had brought no glass with 
 them, they were obliged to be content with 
 little holes, before which a movable board was 
 fastened. The chimneys were made in a comer, 
 either of gray sand or clay which they laid very 
 thick in one comer of the house. The ovens 
 for baking were likewise in the rooms." 
 
 I must now bring this conversation with 
 Professor Kalm to a close. The volumes before 
 me testify that the author carried home to 
 Sweden a vast store of knowledge concerning 
 America. He conducted his researches with 
 more patience than the ubiquitous globe-trotter 
 of this century, who explores the Philippines, 
 Japan, China, and Siberia in a few weeks, and 
 then goes on the lecture platform with a series 
 of illustrated talks. 
 
 I will now summon up another eighteenth 
 century worthy, who published a valuable 
 account of his tour to America, in a work en- 
 titled: "Travels Through the Middle Settle- 
 ments in North America, in the Years 1759 
 and 1760, with Observations upon the State 
 of the Colonies, by the Rev. Andrew Burnaby, 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 85 
 
 A.M., Vicar of Greenwich. London, 1775." 
 Mr. Burnaby, a noted divine and traveller, the 
 eldest son of Rev. Andrew Burnaby, of Bramp- 
 ton Manor House, Huntingdonshire, was born 
 in the year 1734. He was educated at Winches- 
 ter School, and at Queen's College, Cambridge, 
 where he took the degree of B.A. in 1754. In 
 1759 and 1760, he made a tour through the 
 middle settlements of North America, and 
 afterwards, in 1775, published an account of 
 his travels, which reached a second edition 
 within a year; while in 1798, the work was 
 reissued in an enlarged form. 
 
 Mr. Burnaby relates that a few days before 
 embarking for America, while seated in a coffee 
 house, an elderly gentleman gave him the 
 following advice: "Sir, you are young, and 
 just entering into the world; I am old, and 
 upon the point of leaving it: allow me, there- 
 fore, to give you one piece of advice, which is 
 the result of experience; and which may pos- 
 sibly, some time or other, be of use to you. You 
 are going to a country where everything will 
 appear new and wonderful to you; but it will 
 appear so only for a while; for the novelty of 
 it will daily wear off; and in time it will grow 
 quite familiar to you. Let me, therefore, 
 recommend to you to note in your pocket-book 
 every circumstance that may make an impres- 
 sion upon you; for be assured, sir, though it 
 
86 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 may afterward appear familiar and uninterest- 
 ing to yourself, that it will not appear so to your 
 friends who have never visited that country, 
 and that they will be entertained by it." 
 
 As the result of these suggestions, Bumaby 
 wrote his "Travels Through the Middle Settle- 
 ments in North America." It is interesting to 
 gather from so reliable a source an account of 
 the social and political conditions in America 
 one hundred and fifty years ago. I shall follow 
 the author through his book and allow him to 
 describe his journey along the Atlantic sea- 
 board from Virginia to Massachusetts Bay and 
 New Hampshire. Mr. Bumaby embarked for 
 the New World on April 27, 1759, and on July 5 
 of the same year, his vessel came to anchor 
 in the York River, Virginia. The author's 
 stay in Virginia was prolonged almost a year, 
 during which time he made several excursions 
 into different parts of the country. The 
 author devotes more than seventy pages of 
 his book to the Old Dominion and Maryland. 
 He describes the rivers, climate, and soil of 
 Virginia, and also dwells at length upon the 
 political and social institutions of the South. 
 Referring to the evils associated with slavery, 
 he says: "Their authority over their slaves 
 renders them vain and imperious, and entire 
 strangers to that elegance of sentiment which 
 is so peculiarly characteristic of refined and 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 87 
 
 polished nations. Their ignorance of mankind 
 and of learning exposes them to many errors 
 and prejudices, especially in regard to Indians 
 and negroes, whom they scarcely consider as 
 of the human species; so that it is almost im- 
 possible in cases of violence, or even murder, 
 committed upon those unhappy people by any 
 of the planters, to have the delinquents brought 
 to justice: for either the grand jury refuse to 
 find the bill, or the petit jury bring in their 
 verdict, not guilty. The display of a character 
 thus constituted will naturally be in acts of 
 extravagance, ostentation, and a disregard of 
 economy; it is not extraordinary, therefore, 
 that the Virginians out-run their incomes ; and 
 that having involved themselves in difficulties, 
 they are frequently tempted to raise money 
 by bills of exchange, which they know will be 
 returned protested, with ten per cent, interest." 
 Leaving Virginia, Burnaby travelled north 
 through Maryland to New Castle on the Dela- 
 ware, and then proceeded to Philadelphia, at 
 that time a city of twenty thousand inhabitants. 
 He saw here a prosperous settlement — fine 
 public buildings, two libraries, hospitals, and 
 churches. He found the whole colony of Penn- 
 sylvania to be in a most prosperous condition. 
 The people were frugal and industrious, and 
 filled with the republican spirit. The women 
 were exceedingly handsome and polite, and 
 
88 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 would have made good figures even in the first 
 assemblies of Europe. 
 
 Bumaby continued his journey through New 
 Jersey to New York City, where he visited 
 King's College, which he believed to be the 
 most beautifully situated of any college in the 
 world. He sailed through the Hell Gate, which 
 reminded him of the description of Scylla and 
 Charybdis. The vessel carried him to Newport, 
 where he began a study of the New England 
 life and character. He says: *'The character 
 of the Rhode Islanders is by no means engaging 
 or amiable, a circumstance principally owing 
 to their form of government. Their men in 
 power, from the highest to the lowest, are 
 dependent upon the people, and frequently act 
 without that strict regard to probity and 
 honour which ever ought invariably to influence 
 and direct mankind. The private people are 
 cunning, deceitful, and selfish: they live almost 
 entirely by unfair and illicit trading. Their 
 magistrates are partial and corrupt: and it is 
 folly to expect justice in their courts of judica- 
 ture; for he who has the greatest influence is 
 generally found to have the fairest cause." 
 Bumaby's impressions of Rhode Island were 
 those of the globe-trotter, who recognizes only 
 the evils that appear on the surface of society. 
 The paper-money craze was sweeping over the 
 colony during his visit, and the abuses of this 
 
GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 89 
 
 system led him to conclude that a general moral 
 and political decline had begun. Passing on to 
 Boston, he found conditions more to his liking. 
 He says: "Arts and sciences seem to have 
 made a greater progress here than in any other 
 part of America. Harvard College has been 
 founded above a hundred years; and although 
 it is not upon a perfect plan, yet it has produced 
 a very good effect. The arts are undeniably 
 forwarder in Massachusetts Bay than either in 
 Pennsylvania or New York. The public build- 
 ings are more elegant; and there is a more 
 general turn for music, painting, and the belles 
 lettres." After a brief visit to New Hampshire, 
 the author closes the narrative of his travels 
 with some general observations concerning 
 America. He doubts the possibility of a per- 
 manent union among the colonies on account 
 of the jealousies due to their heterogeneous 
 character. Again, he says that independence 
 can never be maintained until the united 
 colonies become mistress of the seas. His view 
 as to the impossibility of union was held by 
 many at the time ; but the Federal Government 
 became an established fact, notwithstanding 
 the gloomy predictions of statesmen and sages. 
 Our maritime position was acquired by the 
 War of 1812; and so the union formed of dis- 
 cordant elements, now bounded by a coast line 
 thousands of miles in extent, is rendered secure 
 
90 GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY 
 
 by a naval power that commands the respect 
 of the leading nations of the world. And yet, 
 Andrew Bumaby predicted that half a dozen 
 frigates would, with ease, ravage and lay waste 
 the whole country from end to end, without a 
 possibility of our being able to prevent it! 
 
 I will now close this gossip in a library, hoping 
 that through my conversation with these 
 eighteenth century worthies, the student of 
 history may be attracted to their merits. In 
 these old volumes relating to America there is 
 abundant material which adds a lively interest 
 to the dry annals of colonial times. Contem- 
 porary narratives written by foreigners are 
 always valuable, although at times erroneous. 
 Criticism by writers from abroad has been of 
 vast benefit to us; and from the days of the 
 earliest travellers in America to the times of 
 De Tocqueville and Bryce, a copious literature 
 of this kind has been published, most of which 
 is friendly in tone and hopeful for the future of 
 our institutions. 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
 With the development of universal education, 
 there has been so great an increase in the num- 
 ber of books in the world that librarians now 
 face the problem of overcrowded shelves, and 
 the ardent reader is simply overwhelmed with 
 the task before him. Still, books continue to 
 multiply in number, at least twenty thousand 
 being published annually in the English lan- 
 guage alone. The bibliophiles who lived in the 
 days of Gutenberg and even a hundred years 
 later, counted their bookish treasures in a few 
 portly folio tomes, and in 1650, at the book 
 fair in a German city, only nine hundred and 
 fifty volumes were displayed. Now the number 
 of books printed in the United States exceeds 
 two hundred thousand, and there is no indica- 
 tion that the deluge is likely to subside. It is 
 a fact that publishers have rendered a valuable 
 service in checking a still greater flood ; for only 
 one per cent, of the manuscripts submitted 
 ever get into print. The rapid production of 
 works of fiction is chiefly responsible for the 
 literary deluge; in fact, this class of works is 
 most widely read, with history and biography 
 as a close second. Thus we see that the most 
 popular books are those which deal with human 
 
 93 
 
94 THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
 life and character, and this, no doubt, will 
 continue to be the case. No harm will ever 
 come to the great books of the world by the 
 appearance of these works of transient interest. 
 Although the immortal authors are few in 
 number and all their books can be placed on a 
 ' ' five-foot shelf, ' ' they will always have an 
 abiding place in the world of letters. Their 
 merit survives the lapse of time, and what they 
 wrote does not go out of fashion. Truly, did 
 Emerson say: "Consider what you have in 
 the smallest, well-chosen library. A company 
 of the wisest and wittiest men that could be 
 picked out of all civilized countries in a thousand 
 years have set in best order the results of their 
 learning and wisdom. The men themselves 
 were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of 
 interruption, fenced in by etiquette, but the 
 thought which they did not uncover to their 
 bosom friends, is here written in transparent 
 words to us, the strangers of another age." 
 
 Probably it was this deluge of books that 
 drove the poet to despair and led him to exclaim : 
 
 Books, 'tis a dull and endless strife, 
 Come, hear the woodland linnet, 
 
 How sweet his music. On my life, 
 There's more of wisdom in it. 
 
 One impulse from the vernal wood 
 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good, 
 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 95 
 
 A certain English author, while a student at 
 Cambridge, always entered the library of his 
 college with a sense of desolation and sadness. 
 He could see no good in the old editions of the 
 classics and the folios of the Fathers, and he 
 bemoaned the fact that these college libraries 
 were not kept up to date. He confessed that 
 they were wholly un visited, and expressed the 
 opinion that they have no use left, save as 
 repositories or store-rooms. But this severe, 
 yet honest, critic is evidently wrong in advocat- 
 ing the reading of books which deal only with 
 contemporary subjects. The roots of all knowl- 
 edge lie buried deep in the past, and many 
 priceless gems of wisdom are hidden in the dust- 
 covered volumes of former centuries. College 
 and university libraries will continue to welcome 
 the literary treasures of former ages, notwith- 
 standing the criticisms of the friends of modern 
 utilitarian studies. The chief function of the 
 university is to foster the higher liberal knowl- 
 edge, and the library, with its accumulated lore, 
 is the fountain of research and scholarship. 
 Longfellow's words in "Hyperion" are still 
 true, when he says of a university: ''What a 
 strange picture a university presents to the 
 imagination! The lives of scholars in their 
 cloistered stillness; literary men of retired 
 habits, and professors who study sixteen hours 
 a day, and never see the world but on a Sunday. 
 
96 THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
 Nature has, no doubt, for some wise purpose, 
 placed in their hearts this love of literary labor 
 and seclusion. Otherwise, who would feed the 
 undying lamp of thought? But for such men 
 as these, a blast of wind through the chinks 
 and crannies of this old world, or the flapping 
 of a conqueror's banner, would blow it out 
 forever. The light of the soul is so easily 
 extinguished. And whenever I reflect upon 
 these things I become aware of the great 
 importance, in a nation's history, of the indi- 
 vidual fame of scholars and literary men." In 
 the university, then, where knowledge is sought 
 for its own ends, the chief motive for reading 
 is intellectual, and the library must supply the 
 sources for this purpose. To the interested 
 student, the apparently dry-as-dust contents 
 of the shelves are rich with living material, 
 revealing the social, economic, literary, and 
 artistic conditions of past ages. In the labora- 
 tories and libraries of the universities, those 
 discoveries are made which now "kindle the 
 brightest Hghts on the Muses' sacred hill." 
 The great colleges and universities of the world 
 had their origin around clusters of books. In 
 our own country, it was thus that Harvard and 
 Yale were founded, and this tradition is being 
 preserved at Harvard, in the magnificent 
 library erected to the memory of Harry E. 
 Widener, that modest, yet devoted, lover and 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 97 
 
 collector of good books. University students, 
 by pursuing highly specialized courses of study, 
 escape, to a certain degree, the threatened 
 deluge of books. Having definite objects in 
 view, and guided by the counsel of professors, 
 these young men read along particular lines, 
 and in their investigations endeavor to explore 
 the sources as far as possible. This kind of 
 training leads to discrimination in the art of 
 reading and enables the student to extend his 
 intimate acquaintance with books in other fields 
 beyond his own department. With the aid of 
 a disciplined judgment, the best works of human 
 culture become his regular companions, and, as 
 David Pryde says, "Thus does this scholar's 
 soul grow and extend itself until it lives in every 
 region of the earth and in every by-gone age, 
 and holds the most intimate intercourse with 
 the spirits of the mighty dead." The deluge of 
 books need not disturb the serene, yet busy life 
 of the college-bred man. His intellectual heri- 
 tage is a goodly one, having received that rich 
 mental gift which enables him to select and 
 read the best works of the ages. How does the 
 scholar use this rare bequest? If he does not 
 make contributions of knowledge to his own 
 department, he should at least continue his 
 reading with diligence, so that his own enthusi- 
 asm may act as a contagion upon others. By 
 the terms of the stewardship imposed upon 
 7 
 
98 THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
 him he must "feed the undying lamp of 
 thought," and show through Hfe a sincere 
 interest in those books which contain the best 
 treasures of thought. 
 
 The less fortunate of our fellow-men, who 
 have not had the advantages of a college train- 
 ing, deserve sympathy and advice in the art 
 of reading so as not to become discouraged by 
 the deluge of books. Abraham Lincoln, in a 
 region where books were few and almost inac- 
 cessible, mastered the Bible, Euclid, and Shake- 
 speare, although it was claimed of him that he 
 had read no great work of the eighteenth or 
 nineteenth century. He became so familiar 
 with Euclid that he could give any proposition 
 in the six books of this author at sight. He was 
 fond of Shakespeare, and the mere mention of 
 any play would waken up in him a train of 
 deep and original thought. He astonished 
 visitors by reciting lengthy passages from the 
 plays, and Mr. Sinclair has declared that he 
 never heard these choice passages rendered 
 with more effect by the most famous modern 
 actors. By constantly meditating on the Bible 
 and Shakespeare, he acquired that rich fund 
 of expression which gives his writings a charm 
 and a permanent place in our literature. In 
 preparing his most famous state papers, he 
 exercised the same patient care as he did in 
 struggling with Euclid in his early days. He 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 99 
 
 devoted weeks to his First Inaugural, locked 
 in a second story room in Springfield across the 
 street from the State Capitol, and amid those 
 dingy surroundings, with the Constitution, 
 Clay's Speech of 1850, Jackson's Proclamation 
 against Nullification, and Webster's Reply 
 to Hayne for reference, he prepared what is 
 now considered to be an immortal state 
 paper. Lincoln was not confused in his 
 reading by the deluge of books; on the 
 other hand, he had to walk miles to find a 
 single volume. But he fortunately became 
 acquainted with the masterpieces of the ages, 
 and as they were constantly in his mind, he 
 developed a style of prose that attracted the 
 attention even of foreign critics. It may be 
 added in this connection that a copy of the 
 letter which Lincoln wrote to the mother who 
 had sacrificed five sons to the Union cause 
 adorns the halls of Oxford University as an 
 example of perfect English. What Lincoln 
 accomplished in the way of reading in an ob- 
 scure frontier community can now be done 
 in our day without sacrifice, notwithstanding 
 the deluge of books which sometimes makes an 
 intelligent selection of the best works well-nigh 
 impossible. I recall with satisfaction a book, 
 David Pryde's "Highways of Literature," 
 which fell into my hands in boyhood. The 
 suggestions of this author proved so valuable 
 
100 THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 
 
 to me that I feel like repeating them for the 
 benefit of others. Dr. Pryde answers the ques- 
 tion, What books are we to read? as follows: 
 I. Read first the one or two great standard 
 works in each department of literature; 2. 
 Confine then our reading to that department 
 which suits the particular bent of our mind, 
 The second question that arises is, How are we 
 to read these books? which the author answers 
 by giving the following definite rules : 
 
 1. Before you begin to peruse a book, know 
 something about the author. 
 
 2. Read the preface carefully. 
 
 3. Take a comprehensive survey of the table 
 of contents. 
 
 4. Give your whole attention to what you 
 read. 
 
 5. Be sure to note the most valuable passages 
 as you read. 
 
 6. Write out in your own language a summary 
 of the facts you have noted. 
 
 7. Apply the results of your reading to your 
 every-day duties. 
 
 Reading, if conducted in the spirit of the 
 above-named rules, will give culture and disci- 
 pline to the mind, and at the same time afford 
 much pleasure to the individual. But even the 
 most earnest student needs, at times, a certain 
 degree of relaxation from so rigid a method of 
 reading. He should also read for pleasure and 
 
THE DELUGE OF BOOKS 101 
 
 recreation; for, as Dr. Pryde says, ''It refreshes 
 us after hard work, and helps to restore the 
 tone of the mind. It may even do more. Mr. 
 Boffin grew rich by sifting dust-heaps ; and you 
 may (if you follow a method) become wise by 
 skimming over gossipy literature." Some find 
 this recreation in the newspapers, magazines, 
 and works of humor ; while others enjoy mental 
 relief in serious books in fields beyond their 
 own department. Provost Edgar F. Smith, a 
 noted chemist, maintains an enthusiastic inter- 
 est in biography, and another instance comes 
 to my mind of an eminent authority on public 
 hygiene who has won recognition in genealogical 
 researches. The conclusion of the matter is 
 that the man is more useful in his own depart- 
 ment who does considerable reading in other 
 lines, whether for amusement, recreation, or 
 more serious purposes. 
 
THE LIFE EXPERIENCES OF 
 A PAINTER-POET, THOMAS 
 BUCHANAN READ 
 
THE LIFE EXPERIENCES OF A 
 
 PAINTER-POET, THOMAS 
 
 BUCHANAN READ 
 
 Pennsylvania's two leading poets, Bayard 
 Taylor and Thomas Buchanan Read, were 
 both natives of Chester County, and although 
 more than a generation has passed away since 
 their death, no serious effort has been made to 
 honor either of these distinguished men until 
 quite recently. About two years ago the Ches- 
 ter County Historical Society erected granite 
 monuments at Cedar croft, the home of Bayard 
 Taylor, and at Read's birthplace in Brandy- 
 wine Township. Some years ago, Dr. Con well 
 prepared a biography of Bayard Taylor, and 
 my lamented friend and colleague, the late 
 Albert H. Smyth, wrote his life in the American 
 Men of Letters Series. Professor Smyth, too, 
 has passed to the other shore, and scholars 
 realize that with his going there is a void in 
 the realm of letters difficult to fill. So have 
 departed the men who maintained the best 
 literary traditions in Pennsylvania, Thomas 
 Buchanan Read, George H. Boker, Bayard 
 Taylor, Henry Reed, Albert H. Smyth, and 
 Horace Howard Furness. How appropriate are 
 
 105 
 
106 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 the lines of Read's poem, ''The Celestial Army," 
 to the passing of these gentle spirits: 
 
 I stood by the open casement, 
 
 And looked upon the night, 
 And saw the westward-going stars 
 
 Pass slowly out of sight. 
 
 The stars and the mailed moon. 
 Though they seem to fall and die. 
 
 Still sweep with their embattled lines 
 An endless reach of sky. 
 
 And though the hills of death 
 
 May hide the bright array, 
 The marshalled brotherhood of souls 
 
 Still keeps its upward way. 
 
 Upward, forever upward, 
 
 I see their march sublime, 
 And hear the glorious music 
 
 Of the conquerors of time. 
 
 So these men live in their works, and as they 
 keep on their upward way, their memory will 
 never fail; for literary friendships are like the 
 fixed stars of night, constant and unchanging, 
 and, as Read says: 
 
 And long let us remember, 
 That the palest, fainting one 
 
 May to diviner vision be 
 A bright and blazing sun. 
 
 Thomas Buchanan Read was born March 12, 
 1822, and his early boyhood was spent among 
 the wooded slopes that bound the Chester Valley 
 on the north. To the east in the distance 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 107 
 
 rise the blue hills of Uwchlan, while a mile or 
 two away flows the east branch of the Brandy- 
 wine, which he describes in song, as follows: 
 
 Not Juniata's rocky tide, 
 That bursts its mountain barriers wide, 
 Nor Susquehanna broad and fair, 
 Nor thou, sea-drinking Delaware, 
 May with that lovely stream compare. 
 That draws its winding silver line 
 Through Chester's storied vales and hills, 
 The bright, the laughing Brandywine, 
 That dallies with its hundred mills. 
 
 Thus, young Read learned his lessons from 
 the blue hills in the distance, from the rippling 
 Brandywine, from the well-tilled fields of wheat 
 and corn, and from the seasons with their 
 variety of gifts. For several winters, he at- 
 tended the school at Hopewell, a mile distant, 
 taught by Rev. Daniel Myers, a miller and 
 local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church. While attending Parson Myers' school, 
 as a mere boy. Read's genius for art and poetry 
 began to develop. In referring to his early 
 love of art, he once said: ''Often as a boy of 
 ten or twelve, I wandered away to the hills, 
 and amid haunts where men seldom strayed, 
 there would I pass the day in making sketches, 
 perchance of some peculiar tree, crag, water- 
 fall and hill, and then amuse myself by fantas- 
 tically weaving them into one." About 1832, 
 the old home was broken up, and several of the 
 
108 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 family migrated to the West. The regret that 
 young Read experienced as he saw his birth- 
 place pass into other hands was expressed years 
 afterwards in the lines of ''The Stranger on the 
 Sill": 
 
 Between broad fields of wheat and corn 
 Is the lowly home where I was born. 
 The peach tree leans against the wall, 
 And the woodbine wanders over all ; 
 There is the shaded doorway still, 
 But a stranger's foot has crossed the sill. 
 
 With the passing of the old home, Read was 
 apprenticed to James Harner, a tailor, at Whit- 
 ford, Chester Coimty. He soon left this cruel 
 master, and began a series of adventures as 
 strange as David Copperfield's. He walked to 
 Philadelphia, and at last found employment in 
 a grocery store, and later was apprenticed to a 
 cigar maker. In the spring of 1837, he deter- 
 mined to go to Cincinnati, where his relatives 
 had made their home. He crossed the moun- 
 tains of Pennsylvania on foot, and reaching 
 Pittsburg, made his way down the Ohio on a 
 fiatboat to Cincinnati. His struggles and 
 wanderings were by no means ended; but in 
 Cincinnati, his highest ambitions were encour- 
 aged, and here his genius as a painter and poet 
 was first recognized. Even at that early time, 
 Cincinnati had produced a number of authors 
 and artists of merit. The first artist of note 
 whose name appears in the annals of Cincinnati 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 109 
 
 was A. W. Corwine, a miniature painter, whose 
 career began about 1821. Before 1830, Joseph 
 Mason, Joseph Hyle, Samuel W. Lee, Charles 
 Harding, and Mr. Tuttle had opened studios, 
 and were engaged in portrait painting. Among 
 Read's early contemporaries in Cincinnati 
 were Miner H. Kellogg, James H. Beard, John 
 Frankenstein, WiUiam H. Powell, T. W. Whitt- 
 redge, Charles Soule, and William L. Sonntag. 
 In sculpture, Cincinnati likewise achieved a 
 fair name. The same year that Read made his 
 humble beginning in this city, Hiram Powers 
 arrived in Florence to study the masters of the 
 Old World. Like Read, he had drifted to 
 Cincinnati as a poor boy, toiling and hoping 
 so earnestly as to excite sympathy. He finally 
 mastered his art through the greatest sacrifice, 
 and remembering his own struggles, he always 
 took a fatherly interest in Read. Another 
 sculptor of that period who became attached 
 to Read was Edward A. Brackett. Born in 
 1 81 9, in the State of Maine, he went as a boy 
 with his parents to Cincinnati, and working 
 in an obscure garret, finally modelled the first 
 statue in the Mississippi Valley, that of ' ' Nydia, 
 the Blind Girl of Thessaly." 
 
 But it was Clevenger, the lamented Shobal 
 Vail Clevenger, who first encouraged Read's 
 artistic abilities, and gave him an opportunity 
 to display his genius. Read's first employment 
 
110 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 in Cincinnati was that of a painter of canal 
 boats on the Miami Canal, and while engaged 
 in this humble work, he was discovered by 
 Clevenger, who offered the young man a place 
 in his studio. Clevenger, like Read, had many 
 strange adventures in early life, working first 
 in a marble yard, and later opening a studio 
 in Cincinnati, where Read was employed to 
 carve letters and figures on monuments. Clev- 
 enger 's daughter wrote me that her father took 
 a deep interest in young Read; but his hopes 
 of becoming a sculptor were shattered when 
 Clevenger removed to Boston in 1838, to finish 
 a bust of Webster. In 1840, Clevenger went to 
 Florence, where he carved the famous statue, 
 "The Indian Warrior." Threatened with 
 consumption, he sailed for home in 1842, but 
 he died on the voyage and was buried at sea. 
 
 Although Read was not able to follow his 
 original plan of becoming a sculptor, his inter- 
 est in art continued, and he opened a shop over 
 a grocery store in Cincinnati, where he practised 
 sign painting. Struggling along without in- 
 struction, his progress was slow and discourag- 
 ing. In 1840, he decided to leave Cincinnati, 
 and he opened a studio in Dayton, where he 
 failed to secure any business. So he depended 
 on his wits for a livelihood, as he had often 
 done before. His taJents were recognized by 
 a theatrical company, and he was engaged for 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 111 
 
 a brief period, taking the female parts, for 
 which his sHght figure so well fitted him. But 
 he had longings for art and for Cincinnati; so 
 he returned after this novel experience on the 
 stage, to open a studio in his adopted city. 
 He made a number of successful studies of the 
 human face, and decided to give his sole atten- 
 tion to portrait painting. Nicholas Longworth, 
 the first millionaire of Cincinnati, gave Read 
 the funds to maintain a studio while waiting 
 for sitters, and he was one of the first to have 
 his portrait painted. In 1840, Read painted 
 the full-length portrait of General Harrison for 
 friends of the old hero. It was in the midst of 
 the presidential campaign, and this fact helped 
 to bring the young artist's name before the 
 public. The picture was pronounced an excel- 
 lent piece of work for one so young; but years 
 afterward. Read freely admitted that it was ''a 
 sad daub." At the same time, many of his 
 fugitive verses began to appear in the Cincinnati 
 papers, the Times and the Chronicle; but he 
 followed painting as the major passion. He 
 wished to improve in technique, but there were 
 no good schools for artists in the West. He 
 thought of Powers and Clevenger, how they 
 achieved fame in the Old World, and his soul 
 longed for Italy. Circumstances prevented the 
 realization of this dream at once; so he deter- 
 mined upon the next best thing, to go to Boston, 
 
112 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 where there were many opportunities to study 
 his profession. 
 
 Read said farewell to the West early in 1841, 
 at that time a youth of only nineteen years, 
 and what a succession of experiences had been 
 crowded into his life ! Like Thomas Cole, who 
 wandered from town to town with his pictures, 
 Read worked his way East by painting por- 
 traits in the villages and hotels along the road. 
 After spending a few months in New York City, 
 he reached Boston in the fall of 1841. Here he 
 at once became acquainted with Washington 
 Allston and Henry W. Longfellow, a most 
 fortunate circumstance in his career. Allston, 
 whose life-work was drawing to a close, willingly 
 gave Read counsel and instruction. His dis- 
 tinguished work as a painter and lecturer on 
 art deeply impressed the young man. But 
 these happy relations were unfortunately ended 
 with the death of Allston in 1843, the paint 
 still fresh on his great picture, "Belshazzar's 
 Feast." After becoming established in Boston, 
 Read visited Andover, bearing letters of intro- 
 duction to the leading men of that town. Here 
 he painted President Leonard Woods and 
 Professor Moses Stuart, of the Theological 
 Seminary. His studio in Boston was located 
 in the basement of the Park Street Church. 
 His charming manners and keen wit and humor 
 attracted the wealth}^ classes, and it became 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 113 
 
 the fashion to sit for a picture in Read's studio. 
 Although his devotion to painting was sincere, 
 Read soon began to give half his heart to poetry. 
 He composed a few stanzas each evening, 
 which were recited next day to his friends as 
 he worked at the easel. Among Read's fre- 
 quent callers was the good and genial Long- 
 fellow. At times, Read became discouraged 
 with his poetical efforts ; but Longfellow showed 
 his appreciation, urging him to keep on, de- 
 claring, ''You will yet be a poet." His regard 
 for Longfellow was almost akin to veneration, 
 and is beautifully expressed in the poem, "A 
 Leaf from the Past," published in Graham's 
 Magazine, October, 1846: 
 
 With thee, dear friend, though far away, 
 
 I walk as on some vanished day, 
 
 And all the past returns in beautiful array. 
 
 I listen to thy charming word, 
 
 And sadness, like the affrighted bird, 
 
 Flies fast, and flies afar, until it is unheard. 
 
 After 1842, Read began to contribute poems 
 to the magazines. His lines are found in The 
 Rover, a New York weekly, edited by Seba 
 Smith, who wrote satirical letters under the 
 pen name of Major Jack Downing. A number 
 of Read's poems also appeared in The Symbol, 
 a Boston magazine published in the inter- 
 ests of Odd Fellowship, one of exquisite beauty 
 being "The Fount of the Nile," not found in 
 8 
 
114 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 his collected works. In 1843 and 1844, many 
 of his poems were published in McMakin's 
 Boston Courier, and were widely copied by the 
 press all over the country. Literary men every- 
 where were attracted by "The Winnower," and 
 "The Swiss Street Singer," which compare 
 favorably with his later efforts. 
 
 Although for two years Read had contributed 
 fugitive verses to the Boston magazines, his 
 first formal appearance as an author was in a 
 prose work, entitled, "Paul Redding: a Tale 
 of the Brandy wine," published in Boston in 
 1845, a^d dedicated to his old benefactor, 
 Nicholas Longworth. This book is not found 
 in printed lists of Read's works, and its exist- 
 ence is not generally known. The hero of this 
 vStory, Paul Redding, is undoubtedly Read 
 himself, and its purpose is to portray his own 
 early life and struggles. 
 
 In 1843, Read married Mary J. Pratt, of 
 Gambier, Ohio. She had just graduated from 
 the Seminary at Bradford, Massachusetts, and 
 was regarded as a fine classical scholar. Read's 
 devotion to her is expressed in his poems, "The 
 Light of our Home," "Beside the Murmuring 
 Merrimac," and "The Toll Bridge." He now 
 lived more intensely than ever in his dreams 
 and poetical visions, and he hoped some day 
 to take his wife away from the crowded city, 
 and build her a home in the beautiful Chester 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 115 
 
 Valley. But the hand of Fate is apparently 
 cruel at times, for within ten years she died a 
 victim of the plague in the city of Florence, 
 Italy. 
 
 In 1846, Read made his home in Philadelphia, 
 where he opened a studio for the painting of 
 portraits ; but the magazines of the day indicate 
 that he must have given at least half his heart 
 to poetry. Between 1846 and 1850, he con- 
 tributed many poems to the Philadelphia 
 Saturday Courier, under the name of " Hazel 
 Dell." People read these poetical gems with 
 much interest, and for months they were 
 unable to identify the "Hazel Dell" poet. 
 During the same period of time, George R. 
 Graham and John Sartain gave Read generous 
 assistance by publishing his poems in their 
 magazines. It is interesting to-day to look 
 through these Philadelphia journals, and see 
 there the contributions of the young poets of 
 that generation, Whittier, Longfellow, Boker, 
 Read, and Bayard Taylor. In 1847, W. D. 
 Ticknor, of Boston, published a volume of 
 Read's poems, including most of the verses 
 that had appeared in the Boston Courier. The 
 next year, he published in Philadelphia another 
 collection under the name, ''Lays and Ballads," 
 containing the ''Hazel Dell" poems from the 
 Philadelphia Courier. I have an interesting 
 letter from Read to J. Bayard Taylor, Phoenix- 
 
116 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 ville, written March 15, 1847, which describes 
 the young painter-poet's feeHngs at this time. 
 Read complains to Taylor of overwork, declar- 
 ing that constant toil was destroying his health 
 and undermining his imagination. He says: 
 "I am sometimes more than half inclined to 
 give up writing altogether, and confine my 
 ambition and impulse to the easel. Such a 
 course would put more money in my purse." 
 But he said he hated this mercenary thought, 
 and believed it his duty to follow the ideal. 
 Although Read complained to Taylor of the 
 miserable prices paid for his poems by the 
 magazine editors, he must have prospered with 
 his art in Philadelphia. He was patronized by 
 several wealthy picture buyers, among them 
 James L. Claghom; so that, in 1850, he was 
 able to sail for Europe to study in the schools 
 of art in the Old World. 
 
 Fortunately, I have a vast amount of material 
 for this period of Read's life, including his 
 foreign correspondence to the Cincinnati Com- 
 mercial, letters to Bayard Taylor, letters of 
 William Michael Rossetti, and reminiscences of 
 a number of his friends. Read reached London 
 early in October, 1850, where he visited the 
 National Gallery, and met Leigh Hunt, Tenny- 
 son, William and Mary Howitt, Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti, and others of the Pre-Raphaelite 
 painters, a brotherhood of artists that had just 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 117 
 
 been formed. Mary Howitt, in her "Remi- 
 niscences of My Later Life," describes the recep- 
 tion given to Read by the Pre-Raphaelites just 
 before he departed from London, and it seems 
 that they could not part with him. In fact, it 
 was reported that they had carried Read off in 
 a chariot of fire. WilHam Michael Rossetti, 
 in writing to me, confirms all this, and elo- 
 quently describes the impression made by Read 
 in England. In January, 185 1, Read proceeded 
 to Aix-la-Chapelle, and then to Diisseldorf, at 
 that time the most important art centre in 
 Germany. I cannot understand why American 
 travellers to the Continent fail to visit Diissel- 
 dorf; for it is one of the most beautiful of the 
 European cities. I shall never forget its broad 
 and shady avenues, lined with imposing build- 
 ings, statues, and monuments, and best of all, 
 its art gallery, with Janssen's famous mural 
 painting representing Shakespeare's "Seven 
 Ages." At Diisseldorf, Read met Leutze, the 
 painter, and Freiligrath, the German poet. He 
 found Leutze at work on his great picture, 
 "Washington Crossing the Delaware," and 
 going to Cologne, he saw Whittredge and several 
 other American painters, Whittredge being 
 engaged upon the famous Rhine landscape, 
 "The Seven Mountains," a scene so often 
 painted by the French and German artists. 
 Read spent several months at Diisseldorf and 
 
118 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 Cologne, and then journeyed up the Rhine, in 
 the midst of scenes beloved by the poets, and 
 hallowed by all the light that history and ro- 
 mance can give. I learn from one of Read's 
 letters to Bayard Taylor that he reached 
 Frankfort in September, 185 1, and after that 
 his itinerary would include Switzerland and 
 Northern Italy. 
 
 From this time, Read vibrated between two 
 continents, back and forth, like a bird of 
 passage, absorbed in his devotion to the twin 
 arts to which his life was consecrated. Early 
 in 1852, he returned to Philadelphia, and opened 
 a studio at 215 Chestnut Street, but residing 
 with his family in the old Bonaparte home at 
 Bordentown. During this year, **The Closing 
 Scene" appeared, in reviewing which, Coventry 
 Patmore declared Read the most promising of 
 the trans-Atlantic poets, and that the poem 
 surpassed Gray's Elegy in simple language and 
 imagery. The same year, an English edition 
 of Read's poems, beautifully illustrated by 
 Kenny Meadows, was published by Delf and 
 Triibner, London. 
 
 Late in 1853, Read sailed with his family for 
 Europe to make his home in Florence, Italy. 
 Florence at that time was at the height of its 
 glory. The city itself had changed but little 
 since feudal days, presenting romantic contrasts 
 at every turn. The people were spirited, and 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 119 
 
 the sentiment for Italian unity was strong. 
 When Read arrived in Florence, it was the 
 abode of many literary men and artists. There 
 were Hiram Powers, Owen Meredith, Charles 
 Lever, Robert and Mrs. Browning, Mrs. Trol- 
 lope, and George Sand, besides a host of others. 
 During his residence in Florence, Read painted 
 many of his most ideal pictures, among them 
 being "Titania," "The Lost Pleiades," "The 
 Spirit of the Waterfall," "Undine," and "Cleo- 
 patra and Her Barge," which were immediately 
 purchased by several devoted friends. He also 
 finished the lengthy poem, "The New Pastoral," 
 which was published in 1835, by Parry and 
 McMillan, Philadelphia. Read's hopes of a per- 
 manent residence in Florence were destroyed, 
 when, in May, 1855, the cholera appeared in 
 that city, among the victims being his own wife 
 and daughter. Read himself became ill, and 
 to save his life, he was hurried off to the Baths 
 of Lucca by his friends, Hiram Powers and John 
 R. Tait. At this place, near the gulf where 
 Shelley lost his life. Read found solace for his 
 grief by composing a lengthy poem, "The 
 House by the Sea," a wild, sad tale, containing 
 the moral lesson that the temptations of life 
 are not so much to be found amidst the every- 
 day realities of the world, as in solitude and 
 retirement; and the best way to avoid them 
 is to mingle with our kind, to be a part of the 
 
120 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 busy world about us, and to partake of its 
 occupations and enjoyments, and share in its 
 feelings and sympathies. 
 
 In November, 1855, Read sailed with John 
 R. Tait for America, the ambition of making 
 a permanent home in Florence being now but 
 a cherished memory of the past. He hastened 
 to Philadelphia, and on December 18, "The 
 House by the Sea" was published. The poem 
 was well received by the critics and the public, 
 the first edition being exhausted in a few weeks. 
 It is to be regretted, however, that poems like 
 this do not recommend themselves to the masses 
 of our day, when everybody is busy chasing 
 the golden phantom, and literary tastes crave 
 the comic supplement, the jingling rhyme, and 
 the moving picture show. 
 
 In January, 1856, Read opened a studio in 
 Philadelphia, and he writes to Mr. Tait that 
 he is ver}^ busy with sitters. During the sum- 
 mer, he married Harriet Denison Butler, of 
 Northampton, Massachusetts, and immediately 
 sailed for Europe, reaching Liverpool on Sep- 
 tember 13. In London, he painted a full-length 
 of Mr. Peabody, and heads of Tennyson and 
 Leigh Hunt. He also sent back to America 
 the proofs of a new volume of poems, ''Sylvia, 
 the Last Shepherd," a beautiful story of country 
 life, published in Philadelphia in 1857. Read 
 did not arrive in Rome until the winter of 1856, 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 121 
 
 and he declared it to be the only city in the 
 world for an artist or poet. He returned to 
 England in 1857, to finish some portraits; while 
 in 1858, he was back in America, opening a 
 studio in the Parkinson Building, at present the 
 site of the Chestnut Street Opera House, Phila- 
 delphia. The late John Bunting related to me 
 that he once visited the studio. Three of 
 Read's best pictures were on the walls, "The 
 Ascension of the Innocents," "The Spirit of 
 the Waterfall," and "Hiawatha's Wooing." 
 Seated by Read was his friend and fellow-poet, 
 George H. Boker, and in silence they contem- 
 plated these fanciful paintings. In December, 
 
 1858, Read opened a studio in New York City. 
 In June, 1859, he made a five weeks' trip to 
 Boston, and spent most of the time in the family 
 of Longfellow, where he painted a portrait of 
 him and also one of his three daughters. Then 
 he visited Dr. Holmes and painted his portrait. 
 Read regarded this as a great triumph, and he 
 wrote to Mr. Tait : "In the language of Napo- 
 leon, 'great battle, great victory.'" One of 
 Read's most beautiful and best known poems, 
 "Drifting," was written in Brooklyn, in March, 
 
 1859, before he had ever seen the Bay of Naples. 
 It was a stormy Sunday and he was ill at the 
 time. Filled with depression, he longed for the 
 radiant beauty of the Italian shores, and he 
 composed the lines of "Drifting." Read 
 
122 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 visited Naples for the first time in 1868, and 
 great was his delight at seeing the beautiful 
 bay. To make the picture complete, he later 
 wrote the additional stanza: 
 
 In lofty lines, 
 
 Mid palms and pines, 
 
 And aloes, olives, elms, and vines, 
 
 Sorrento swings 
 
 On sunset wings. 
 
 Where Tasso's spirit soars and sings. 
 
 If we read this beautiful poem and then visit 
 the Bay of Naples, we realize what Hawthorne 
 meant when he said Read's poems were pictures, 
 iand his pictures were poems. The traveller 
 who has read "Drifting" sees Sorrento, Ischia, 
 and Capri invested with a new glory; but how 
 soon the lines of the last stanza would be true 
 of Read himself, as his soul drifted to the 
 heavenly shore, when he says: 
 
 No more, no more. 
 
 The worldly shore 
 
 Upbraids me with its loud uproar. 
 
 With dreamful eyes 
 
 My spirit lies, 
 
 Under the walls of Paradise. 
 
 In i860, Read made another voyage to 
 Europe, and reached London in September of 
 that year. He painted a portrait of George M. 
 Dallas, and in January, 1861, proceeded to 
 Rome, where he painted "Hiawatha Carrying 
 Home His Bride," and "Diana in the Moon." 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 123 
 
 Although deHghtfully situated on the Pincian 
 Hill, and prospering in his art, Read was much 
 aroused by the threats of civil war in America. 
 He wrote to John R. Tait: "But if the Union 
 breaks, who cares then what breaks; if that is 
 a failure, success is not worth having. I shall 
 be content to sit in dust and ashes the rest of 
 my days." Before the close of 1 86 1, he answered 
 his country's call and returned to America. It 
 should be recalled that Read rendered valuable 
 service to the Union during the Civil War, 
 writing patriotic poems, giving public readings 
 for the benefit of the soldiers, and reciting his 
 war songs at the head of the armies. When 
 Cincinnati was threatened by the Confeder- 
 ates, he volunteered for the defence of that 
 city in General Lew Wallace's army, and after- 
 wards wrote an account of the siege in the 
 Atlantic Monthly. In 1863, he published a 
 longer poem, * ' The Wagoner of the AUeghanies, ' ' 
 which is filled with gems of patriotism, many 
 of which he pubHcly recited during the war. 
 Read's poem, "Sheridan's Ride," was composed 
 in a few hours in Cincinnati, on November i, 
 1864, the theme being suggested by a picture 
 in Harper's Weekly of "Sheridan's Ride to the 
 Front." The same evening, the poem was read 
 by James E. Murdoch in Pike's Opera House, 
 and in a few days it was published in the news- 
 papers throughout the land. The effect of this 
 
124 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 war lyric is a part of the history of the Rebellion, 
 and to this day it remains the most popular 
 poem of that class produced in America. The 
 influence of Read's war lyrics on the Union 
 cause entitles him to a memorial in Statuary 
 Hall under the dome of the National Capitol 
 at Washington. With James E. Murdoch, he 
 appeared in the leading cities and recited from 
 ''The New Pastoral," "The Relics," "The 
 Three Eras," "The Oath," "The Rising of 
 1776," and "Sheridan's Ride." Who can 
 measure the influence of this service? Nations, 
 like individuals, respond to poetic sentiment, 
 and as slumbering Sparta was aroused by the 
 verses of Tyrtaeus, so the regiments of the 
 Civil War caught the spirit of "Sheridan's 
 Ride," and a new enthusiasm was carried along 
 on the billows of war from the Potomac to the 
 Rio Grande, until the tide of battle ebbed for- 
 ever at Appomattox. 
 
 In 1867, Read returned to Europe, and spent 
 the next five years in the city of Rome. Over- 
 work during the Civil War had broken his 
 health; yet he was at his easel with the earliest 
 sunlight, and he burned the midnight oil in 
 writing poetry. In Rome, he completed the 
 painting, "Sheridan's Ride," having made 
 studies for this picture before going abroad. In 
 the summer of 1868, Read became ill from over- 
 work, and was compelled to leave Rome for a 
 
THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 125 
 
 cooler climate, passing three months in Swit- 
 zerland and at Diisseldorf . In the winter, he 
 returned to Rome and painted a large portrait 
 of the ex-Queen of Naples. During the next 
 year, he painted the beautiful pictures, "The 
 Star of Bethlehem," "The Christmas Hymn," 
 "The Three Martyrs at the Sepulchre," and 
 "Abou Ben Adhem." There are persons still 
 living who tarried at Rome in those days, and 
 enjoyed the hospitality of Read's home. At 
 the request of friends, he would recite his 
 favorite poems, "Drifting" and "Brushwood," 
 bringing tears to many as the verses were read 
 in his effective style. Read had the good for- 
 tune of residing in Rome when Italian nation- 
 aHty was completed, and the armies of Victor 
 Emmanuel entered the Eternal City. The 
 struggle of a thousand years was ended, and 
 two great states, Germany and Italy, took their 
 place among the nations of the earth. Read 
 caught the inspiration of the hour, and wrote 
 a poem of welcome to Victor Emmanuel, one 
 stanza reading : 
 
 Italia through her hundred roads 
 
 Is marching into Rome; 
 She comes not as a conqueror, 
 
 But exile welcomed home. 
 
 From that time. Prince Humbert and Princess 
 Marguerite were his constant friends, and 
 visits between Read's studio and the Quirinal 
 
126 THOMAS BUCHANAN READ 
 
 Palace were frequently exchanged. Declining 
 health prompted Read to sail for America in 
 April, 1872. He lived to reach New York, 
 where he died on May 11, entering into that 
 higher life foreshadowed in his own lines: 
 
 We nightly die ourselves to sleep, 
 
 Then wherefore fear we death? 
 'Tis but a slumber still more deep 
 
 And undisturbed by breath. 
 We daily waken to the light, 
 
 When morning walks her way. 
 Then wherefore doubt death's longer night 
 
 Will bring a brighter day. 
 
 In closing these experiences of a painter-poet, 
 I will quote the estimate of so severe a critic 
 as Richard H. Stoddard. He says of Read's 
 poetry: "I would rather have written the 
 song of his beginning, 
 
 Bring me the juice of the honey fruit, 
 
 than anything I remember in American poetry. 
 It is as perfect as the best things of Lovelace, 
 Suckling, or Carew, and any poet, great or 
 small, might be proud to write it." 
 
THOUGHTS ON MEMORIAL 
 DAY 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 Almost fifty years have passed away since 
 General Ulysses S. Grant met General Robert 
 E. Lee at Appomattox Court House and received 
 from him the surrender of the Army of the 
 Confederacy. Four years of war and desolation 
 had brought a long train of sorrows into nearly 
 every American home, and we look back with 
 feelings of overwhelming emotion at the costly 
 sacrifices made by our relatives and friends on 
 the consecrated altars of freedom and nation- 
 ality. In the hour of final triumph, the victori- 
 ous general, with his constant longings for peace, 
 treated his vanquished foe with a spirit of 
 charity unknown to former ages of the world. 
 Chivalry did not perish with the close of the 
 Middle Ages, but it reached its subHmest 
 heights at Appomattox, when the Union Army, 
 backed with all national power, witnessed in 
 silence the defeated adversary file by in broken 
 ranks and return to their Southern homes, a 
 shattered remnant of the once powerful force 
 that resisted the supremacy of the Constitution, 
 and for years imperilled the very existence of 
 the Republic. Truly, the spirit of Saladin was 
 revived in our modern times, and we need not 
 revert to mediseval romance for inspiring ex- 
 amples of knighthood in battle and moral 
 grandeur in the hour of triumph. One day the 
 
 9 129 
 
130 MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 rebel forces were our enemy; the next day they 
 had melted away like the morning dews before 
 the rising sun, and in a few weeks the Army 
 of the Potomac and the Army of the West 
 had stacked their arms and furled the battle 
 flags, while the stars and stripes floated once 
 more over a reunited country. In eulogizing 
 these soldiers, Charles Francis Adams says : 
 ''Both generals were typical; the one of Illinois 
 and the new West, the other of Virginia and 
 the Old Dominion. Grant was magnanimous 
 and restrained in victory; Lee, dignified in 
 defeat, compelled respect. Verily, it is true, 
 even of soldiers, that he that ruleth his own 
 spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." 
 
 Their deeds now belong to history and fame, 
 and with the advent of each Memorial Day, we 
 review the soldier's story, and join in the hal- 
 lowed service of devotion by placing the fairest 
 garlands of spring on the graves of the honored 
 dead. 
 
 We hear the bugles adown the street, 
 
 And hoof of horse and rattle of drum, 
 And rhythmic fall of marching feet, 
 
 And know the men and maidens come 
 To stripe with flag and star with flowers 
 
 The soldier graves, 
 
 O, faithful graves 
 Of those who gave the flag its flowers. 
 
 As wide as the extent of our common coun- 
 try is this beautiful service observed. In the 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 131 
 
 crowded city and amidst the quiet rural scenes, 
 willing hands bear these tributes of nature to the 
 soldier's resting place. From the mighty East to 
 the farthest West, the martial host repose, and 
 
 By the flow of the inland river, 
 
 Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
 Where the blades of the grave grass quiver, 
 
 Asleep are the ranks of the dead: 
 Under the sod and the dew. 
 
 Waiting the Judgment Day, 
 Under the one the Blue, 
 
 Under the other the Gray. 
 
 And with a pathos beyond the power of 
 human expression, we view the nameless graves 
 in the cemeteries at Gettysburg, ArHngton, and 
 Antietam, the first immortalized by Lincoln in 
 his oration in 1863. At Gettysburg, the name- 
 less dead repose on the hillside where once the 
 tide of battle flowed; but now no thunders of 
 conflict disturb the soldier's rest. The swords 
 have been beaten into ploughshares and the 
 spears into pruning hooks, while the glorious 
 sun of peace lights hill and valley and the far- 
 off Blue Mountains with its radiant glow. As 
 the American pilgrim resorts to this sacred spot, 
 memories of the struggle for liberty and nation- 
 ality in all the ages crowd the mind, and he 
 realizes that at Gettysburg the world's best 
 hope was saved when Pickett's men were rolled 
 back in defeat and the flag of the Union was 
 seen once more waving in triumph through the 
 
132 MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 rifts in the lowering clouds of war. Cherished 
 forever will be our memory of the nameless 
 dead at Gettysburg, nameless it is true in 
 human records, but, as the poet says : 
 
 While the prayer is floating upward, 
 
 Sits apart an angel form, 
 With a scroll like whitest fleece cloud 
 
 That follows up the storm. 
 And she writes with diamond pencil 
 
 Each buried soldier's name. 
 And the angel form is Justice, 
 
 And the angel pen is Fame. 
 
 Truly, did Pericles say: "The whole earth 
 is the sepulchre of famous men; not only are 
 they commemorated by columns and inscrip- 
 tions in their own country, but in foreign lands 
 there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, 
 graven not on stone, but in the hearts of men." 
 Thus, every nation has beautifully enshrined 
 the memory of the soldier dead, and down the 
 ages, from ancient Greece to the hills of Gettys- 
 burg, the voice of praise is heard. Every field 
 of strife has also been fittingly marked by simple 
 mounds or the finest creations of the sculptor's 
 art, whether we recall the Lion's Mound where 
 
 The mountains look on Marathon, 
 And Marathon looks on the sea, 
 
 or the earth barrows of Thermopylae, immortal- 
 ized by Simonides, in the lines : 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 133 
 
 No tears for them, but memory's loving gaze, 
 For them no pity, but proud hymns of praise. 
 Time shall not sweep this monument away, 
 Time the destroyer, or dank decay. 
 This not alone heroic ashes holds, 
 Greece's own glory this earth shrine enfolds. 
 Leonidas, the Spartan king; a name 
 Of boundless honor and eternal fame. 
 
 Or, in later ages, triumphal arches and imposing 
 columns were erected in memory of the deeds 
 of kings and conquerors ; but no Colossus of the 
 builder's art, towering in its majestic proportions, 
 brings from the Old World a meaning like the sim- 
 ple tumuli of Marathon and Thermopylae, where 
 the struggle gave freedom not only to Greece, 
 but the hope of political and intellectual liberty 
 to all the nations of the West. Our own country, 
 rich with historical memories of the struggle for 
 constitutional liberty, has with an unparalleled 
 devotion sought to glorify the valor of the sol- 
 dier dead. Fitting monuments rise at Concord, 
 
 Where once the embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world; 
 
 at Valley Forge, where the patriotic devotion 
 of George Washington kept alive the smoulder- 
 ing campfires of the Revolution; and on the 
 many battle-fields of the Civil War, imposing 
 columns of granite and marble tell the thrilling 
 story of sacrifice and love of country. 
 
 To-day, the aged survivors of the Rebellion 
 assemble once more, not in battle array with 
 
134 MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 the implements of war, but with meagre ranks, 
 bearing garlands of flowers through the quiet 
 aisles of the cemetery to the graves of their 
 comrades in arms. How few remain of that 
 mighty host, who, answering their country's 
 call, left our Northern cities and marched in the 
 flush of youth down to the fields of strife, many 
 to a glorious death, that this nation, freedom's 
 brightest hope, should not perish from the earth ! 
 The great majority have gone to swell the 
 numbers on the farther shore, where the din 
 of battle never disturbs the soldier's rest, and 
 
 On Fame's eternal camping ground, 
 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And Glory guards with solemn round 
 
 The bivouac of the dead. 
 
 And how shall we find appropriate language 
 to praise these soldiers of the Republic, of 
 whom, as Pericles said of the Athenians, "Their 
 deeds, when weighed in the balance, have been 
 found equal to their fame; for on the battle- 
 field, their feet stood fast, and in an instant, 
 at the height of their fortune, they passed away 
 from the scene, not of their fear but of their 
 glory." In the American armies flowed the 
 noblest blood of the Saxon race. Bright youth- 
 hood with all its rich promise swelled the 
 Northern ranks, and since the days of Crom- 
 well's Ironsides, no finer battalions were ever 
 marshalled on the fields of war. Until the 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 135 
 
 French Revolution, the conflicts of Europe 
 were generally fought by mercenary troops, 
 whose one ambition was to plunder and destroy, 
 or, perchance, to win a ribbon or a cross for 
 valor. They looked unmoved upon human 
 suffering, and cared nothing for the political 
 and moral questions involved in war; but the 
 soldiers of the Republic sought neither fame 
 nor military glory, and as they offered their 
 services on the altars of nationality, their only 
 hope was either a costly sacrifice for their 
 country, or, in case of survival, to receive the 
 thanks and plaudits of a grateful people. The 
 character of the Union soldiers won the admira- 
 tion of foreign observers, and William H. Russell 
 wrote to the London Times: ''Never perhaps has 
 a finer body of men in all respects of physique 
 been assembled by any power in the world, and 
 their morale is equal to that of the best troops 
 in Europe." Governed in the camp and field by 
 Francis Lieber's humane and enlightened code 
 of war, now adopted by all the nations of the 
 world, and marching into battle to the sublime 
 sentiments of the * * Battle Hymn of the Republic, ' ' 
 the Union cause was defended with a burning re- 
 ligious zeal before unknown to military history. 
 
 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
 He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat ; 
 Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet, 
 Our God is marching on. 
 
136 MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 The majestic sweep of these lines and the 
 sturdy rhythm of the music inspired our 
 soldiers on many fields of battle; for they sang 
 of country, freedom, and God, and whether by 
 the watchfires of the circling camps, in the 
 loathsome prison cells of the South, in the hour 
 of defeat or final triumph, they swelled the 
 refrain of ''Our God is marching on," and the 
 echoes reverberated from every hill and moun- 
 tain, and rolling through the farthest valleys, 
 finally increased in volume, until they became 
 the grand anthem of victory over secession and 
 disunion. 
 
 Lord Byron, in his beautiful poem, "The 
 Isles of Greece," sounded a dirge-like note of 
 despair when reflecting on the past glories of 
 that land in comparison with the dearth of 
 fame that he witnessed among the fettered race. 
 Pathetic, indeed, are his lines : 
 
 Must we but weep o'er days more blest? 
 
 Must we but blush? Our fathers bled. 
 Earth, render back from out thy breast 
 
 A remnant of our Spartan dead. 
 Of the three hundred grant but three, 
 To make a new Thermopylae. 
 
 To Byron's appeal he could hear no response 
 but the voices of the dead, sounding like the 
 distant torrent's fall. But he failed to recognize 
 the silent intellectual revival which was arous- 
 ing the national consciousness of the people 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 137 
 
 and acquainting them with the common heritage 
 of a glorious past. The national spirit was not 
 dead; for on April 4, 182 1, when Germanos, 
 Archbishop of Patras, proclaimed the insurrec- 
 tion against the Turks, and raised the symbol 
 of the cross before the Church of Saint George, 
 the assembled throng swore to take up arms for 
 the Fatherland, and in a few years Greece was 
 free. In the bloody struggles of this war, a new 
 Leonidas was born to fame, Marco Bozzaris, 
 
 One of the few, the immortal names, 
 That were not born to die. 
 
 Our own country lay fettered in a slavery 
 more cruel and blighting than that of Greece, 
 and the prospect of a broken and dismembered 
 Republic fell like a dark cloud over the land 
 between 1850 and i860. The national senti- 
 ment was buried in sectional strife, and neither 
 the eloquence of orators nor the wisdom of 
 statesmen was apparently able to arouse that 
 passion for the Union which was purchased by 
 the blood of heroes in the Revolution, and 
 strengthened by the Fathers of the Republic 
 through the guarantees of the Constitution. 
 But out of the gloom and uncertainty of that 
 period a powerful nation was destined to rise, 
 and the bombardment of Fort Sumter quickened 
 the patriotism of every heart. Its echoes rolled 
 not only to our farthest shores, but were, indeed, 
 like a shot heard round the world. Unlike 
 
138 MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 Byron, we did not beg for three to make a new 
 Thermopylas ; for in response to Lincoln's call 
 for troops, a mighty host from all the loyal 
 States sent back the prompt assurance: 
 
 We are coming, Father Abraham, 
 Three himdred thousand more ! 
 
 firm in their resolve to save the nation of our 
 Fathers, and transmit it to us untarnished, and 
 destined, we hope, to serve mankind for un- 
 numbered ages to come. It is our proud belief 
 to-day that never in the future need we weep 
 o'er days more blest, and that never need we 
 call in vain for loyal hearts; but that, on the 
 other hand, every appeal to patriotic duty will 
 be answered by a whole nation, responding as 
 with one mind to save the State, whether from 
 domestic violence, or from the attacks of foes 
 that may hover on our shores. The latter 
 possibility is remote, while the danger of civil 
 war will never again darken the land. This 
 is the beHef of representative men in the South 
 like General J. B. Gordon, who said on the 
 lecture platform in Northern cities: ''The 
 issues that divided the sections were born when 
 the Republic was born, and were forever buried 
 in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then 
 see that, under God's providence, every sheet 
 of flame from the blazing rifles of the contending 
 armies, every whizzing shell that tore through 
 the forests at Shiloh and Chancellors ville, every 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 139 
 
 cannon shot that shook Chickamauga's hills or 
 thundered around the heights of Gettysburg, 
 and all the blood and tears that were shed are 
 yet to become contributions for the upbuilding 
 of American manhood and for the future defence 
 of American freedom. The Christian church 
 received its baptism of Pentecostal power as it 
 emerged from the shadows of Calvary, and went 
 forth to its world-wide work with greater unity 
 and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising 
 from its baptism of blood with a national life 
 more robust, a national union more complete, and 
 a national influence ever widening, shall go for- 
 ever forward in its benign mission to humanity." 
 In closing, may the sentiment of the poet be 
 our hope to-day: 
 
 No more shall the war-cry sever, 
 
 Or the winding rivers be red; 
 They banish our anger forever 
 
 When they laurel the graves of our dead. 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the Judgment Day, 
 Love and tears for the Blue, 
 
 Tears and love for the Gray. 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND * 
 
 But little more than a century intervenes 
 between the appearance of Immanuel Kant's 
 treatise on "Perpetual Peace" and Bernhardi's 
 ''Germany and the Next War," and if this 
 latter work expresses even to a slight degree 
 the aspirations of the German race, war is as 
 much a passion among this restless people as it 
 was when Tacitus wrote his account of the 
 Teutonic tribes nearly two thousand years ago. 
 Bernhardi believes with Treitschke that "war 
 will always recur as a drastic medicine for the 
 human race," and that its blessings, as an 
 indispensable and stimulating law of develop- 
 ment, must be repeatedly emphasized. To the 
 apostle of peace, he would recall Goethe's words : 
 
 Dreams of a peaceful day, 
 Let him dream who may. 
 War is our rallying cry, 
 Onward to victory. 
 
 And with this motto ever before the vision of 
 his aspiring countrymen, he assures them of 
 Goethe's promise : 
 
 * "Germany and England," by Prof. J. A. Cramb, of 
 Queen's College, London. London, 19 14. 
 
 143 
 
144 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 Bid defiance to every power, 
 Ever valiant, never cower. 
 To the brave soldier open flies 
 The golden gates of Paradise. 
 
 Bemhardi declares that war is the impelling 
 force that is carrying Germany forward to a 
 higher destiny, and the direction of this strife 
 is the isolation of Russia, the final humiliation 
 of France, and then the inevitable conflict with 
 England. Imbued with the philosophy of 
 Nietzsche and Treitschke, he shows not merely 
 how Germany could make war upon England, 
 but why she ought to make war upon England. 
 He frankly admits that England with her vast 
 empire stands in the path of the highest aspir- 
 ations of the German race. He believes that 
 Germany, no less than England, is endowed 
 with the genius for empire. The Fatherland 
 once had an empire but lost it ; but the yearning 
 for its recovery has ever occupied the mind of 
 the nation and been the theme of her scholars. 
 Treitschke declared that England secured pos- 
 session of one-fifth of the habitable globe by 
 theft, while Germany, cooped up between the 
 North Sea, the Danube, and the Rhine, is com- 
 pelled by her crowded conditions to lose each 
 year thousands of her countrymen who emigrate 
 to foreign lands. Thus, to a virile nation like 
 Germany, anxious to assume her place in the 
 sun, the spectacle of England's supremacy and 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 145 
 
 arrogance cannot be peaceably endured. Either 
 England will inevitably decline on account of 
 her moral weakness, like Venice after 1500, or 
 war will surely follow. In the face of the 
 approaching crisis, Bernhardi frankly admits 
 that for Germany there are only two alterna- 
 tives, ''World Dominion or Ruin." 
 
 Prof. Cramb's new book, which appeared in 
 June of this year, makes a critical analysis of 
 the militant philosophy contained in the writ- 
 ings of Treitschke and Bernhardi, and a careful 
 reading of its pages will give a clear insight of 
 the causes underlying the present war. As the 
 old German imperialism begins by the destruc- 
 tion of Rome, will the new imperiaHsm begin 
 by the destruction of England? Prof. Cramb 
 raises this portentous question and then pro- 
 ceeds to analyze the political and moral origins 
 of the sentiment of antagonism between England 
 and Germany. The reader should not fail to 
 remember the contention of Germany that two 
 states, each endowed with the genius for empire, 
 confront each other, and that to the Teutonic 
 mind, England has lamentably failed in her 
 imperial policy. For years the German scholars 
 have been preparing the particulars of a strong 
 indictment against the British Empire. The 
 historians have bitterly arraigned the English 
 rule in India, while a different group of critics 
 has attacked the civic and national life, the 
 10 
 
146 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 laws, the Anglican Church, the universities, the 
 army, and English society. The significance 
 of this indictment is the moral scorn which 
 prevails in Germany for England. This feeling 
 of contempt is expressed by Treitschke, who 
 says: "A thing that is wholly a sham cannot 
 in this universe of ours endure forever. It may 
 endure for a day, but its doom is certain ; there 
 is no room for it in a world governed by valor, 
 by the will to power." 
 
 Prof. Cramb writes with dramatic interest 
 when he reviews the yearnings of the German 
 scholars for the inevitable day of reckoning 
 with England, and how with warrior laughter 
 they measure the certainty of triumph over an 
 ignoble foe. They produce their title-deeds to 
 world empire in a series of heroic and tragic 
 forms that meet the wondering eye, among 
 them Charlemagne and the Hohenstaufen, who 
 inspire the youthful Germans with their im- 
 pressive figures. In meditating upon the apathy 
 and stolid indifference of England, Prof. Cramb 
 seems to hear again the thunder of the footsteps 
 of a great host. *'It is the war-bands of Alaric." 
 England, he claims, has had sufficient warning, 
 for did not Lord Salisbury in the year 1 900 pro- 
 claim the construction of the Kiel Canal and 
 the "Dreadnoughts" assembled there the first 
 conflict between Germany and England? And 
 Lord Roberts, "the Sidney of these later times," 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 147 
 
 in 1 9 13 added his message, challenging the 
 attention of every Englishman who cares for 
 more than the transient interests of the day. 
 
 Prof. Cramb asserts that while two great 
 nations confront each other, both endowed with 
 the genius for empire, England has been 
 schooled in the practice of imperialism for two 
 hundred years, whereas Germany as a nation 
 is undisciplined in empire. England, weary of 
 the glory of empire, has allow^ed political power 
 to pass more and more into the ranks of the 
 English race itself, and now the nation is fre- 
 quently expressing the desire for arbitration, 
 for the limitation of armaments, and for peace 
 at any price. Prof. Cramb raises the question, 
 what is likely to result, if, confronting this, you 
 have a nation high in its courage, lofty in its 
 ambitions, moving on in its own path, which 
 in the future may lead it to destinies to which 
 even the imagination of a Treitschke can hardly 
 assign a limit? He assures the reader that 
 Germany's reply will be something like this: 
 ''You are the great robber-state; yet now in 
 the twentieth century, as if the w^ar for the 
 world were over because you are glutted with 
 booty, now it is you, you who preach to us 
 Germans universal peace, arbitration, and the 
 diminution of armaments. But our position 
 is that this war is not over." Prof. Cramb be- 
 lieves that peace is but an ideal, and that while 
 
148 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 in the twentieth century men talk of disarma- 
 ment because war is opposed to social well-being, 
 and, economically, is profitless alike to victor and 
 vanquished, man's dreadful toll of blood has 
 not yet all been paid. Declaimed against in 
 the name of religion, in the name of humanity, 
 in the name of profit and loss, war still goes on. 
 
 Nations like individuals, says Prof. Cramb, 
 are controlled by ideals which defy analysis. 
 In Germany, for instance, seven hundred books 
 appear annually dealing with war as a science. 
 This points at once to an extreme preoccupation 
 in that nation with the idea of war. Again, in 
 Germany, the army is simply the natural ex- 
 pression of the vital forces of the nation, and 
 Treitschke's solution of the whole matter is 
 that a nation's military efficiency is the ex- 
 act coefficient of a nation's idealism. With 
 Treitschke's disciple, Bernhardi, war is a duty, 
 and nothing is more terrible than the govern- 
 ment of the strong by the weak, and war is the 
 power by which the strong assert their dominion 
 over the weak. This is the spirit in which war 
 is regarded in contemporary Germany. It is 
 given a high moral place in the State, and 
 what a powerful weapon is the sword in the 
 hands of a people possessed with this ideal! 
 
 Prof. Cramb gives a deUghtful picture of 
 Treitschke as a teacher and historian, in which 
 capacity his governing idea was the greatness 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 149 
 
 of Prussia, the glory of an army which is a 
 nation and of a nation which is an army. His 
 hatred for England is attributed to her success 
 in the war for the world while Germany was 
 preoccupied with higher and more spiritual 
 ends. But for her absorption in those ends, 
 Germany might, in the seventeenth and eigh- 
 teenth centuries, have made the Danube a 
 German river and established a German pre- 
 dominance from the Bosphorus to the Indus. 
 Prof. Cramb compares Treitschke's immense 
 and enduring influence, not only in Prussia, 
 but throughout the German world, with the 
 influence exercised by Carlyle upon England 
 since 1845. Treitschke's influence has gone on 
 steadily increasing throughout Germany until 
 the present day. Treitschke and Carlyle 
 resemble each other in their high seriousness, 
 sincerity, downrightness , and deep moral 
 strength. "Do not imagine, however, that 
 there is any further resemblance between them. 
 For instance, there is not in all the seventeen 
 volumes of Treitschke any hint of that broad 
 human laughter which you find in very nearly 
 every page of the thirty volumes of Carlyle. 
 You may say, if you like, that this is because 
 Germany has obtained free political institutions 
 so recently and therefore has not yet acquired 
 the power to take them humorously." Prof. 
 Cramb states that fate was strangely kind to 
 
150 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 Treitschke. "Though dwelling in that silent 
 universe of the deaf, and threatened in age with 
 the darkened universe of the blind, he lived 
 just long enough to see upon the silver horizon 
 of the North Sea, and upon the more mysterious 
 horizon of the future, the first promise of the 
 German fleets of the future. He saw Germany 
 thus fitting herself for that high task which he 
 had marked out to one generation after another 
 of students, the day of reckoning with England, 
 the day of reckoning with the great enemy for 
 whom he had nevertheless that kind of regard 
 which every great foe inspires, which England's 
 strength inspires. And yet his im.agination 
 pierced beneath the semblance of her strength, 
 which to his imagination was but a semblance." 
 In the final chapter of his volume, "Past 
 and Future," Prof. Cramb asks the question, 
 how is it possible to discover any principle 
 which will enable us to conjecture, even in 
 outline, the future of two such empires as 
 Germany and England? In endeavoring to 
 determine the future roles of these two nations, 
 the author suggests that we seek for them in the 
 region in which England's needs come most 
 sharply into conflict with Germany's desires. 
 Here a law, universal and inevitable in its 
 application, discloses itself concerning the 
 struggle for power. Amongst free independent 
 nations weakness means war; and the empire 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 151 
 
 which is not able to defend itself by forces pro- 
 portionate to the magnitude of that empire 
 must fall. The period at which an empire 
 becomes stationary can never be more than 
 approximately determined, and the question 
 arises whether England has reached the limit 
 of expansion. On the other hand, the attitude 
 in Germany is, are we to acquiesce in England's 
 possession of one-fifth of the globe, with no 
 title-deeds, no claim, except priority in robbery ? 
 Is all, indeed, lost, and is the war for the world 
 ended? In the world-arena has Germany, like 
 a belated champion, girt in her shining armor, 
 ridden up to the great tourney too late? The 
 answer to these questions is, "World Dominion 
 or Death." Prof. Cramb then proceeds to 
 examine the problem in the light of history. 
 Assuming for a moment that this world-pre- 
 dominance is possible to Germany, what is the 
 testimony of Germany's past to her capacity 
 to play this part ? We find Germany an empire 
 in the twelfth century under the Hohenstaufen, 
 and her record in Italy is the record in Ireland 
 of England at her worst. Again, Germany is 
 an empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, and her power at that time in Italy 
 is synchronous with the defeat and obliteration 
 of Italian art, Italian literature, Italian religion, 
 and Italian patriotism. Also, in the nineteenth 
 century, Germany's power in Italy centres in 
 
152 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 the name of Metternich, the high-priest of 
 reactionary poHcies and oppression. Here, 
 then, is the record of the past as to the future 
 of Germany as a world-civiHzing power. But 
 Germany's past as a world-civiHzing power 
 does not concern the German thinkers of to-day. 
 Treitschke has defined the aim of Germany, 
 and it is this: "That just as the greatness of 
 Germany is to be found in the governance of 
 Germany by Prussia, so the greatness and good 
 of the world is to be found in the predominance 
 there of German culture, of the German mind, 
 in a word, of the German character." The 
 prevalent bent of mind at the universities, in 
 the army amongst the cultured, is towards 
 what may be described as the religion of Valor, 
 the glory of action, heroism, the doing of great 
 things. Prof. Cramb declares that it is in 
 politics and ethics Napoleonism, for the young 
 men of Germany see in Napoleon's creed the 
 springs of his action, a message of fire: Live 
 dangerously. Admiring the aspirations of the 
 Fatherland, Prof. Cramb says: "That world- 
 empire of which Germany dreams, she may, or 
 may not, on its material side, attain; but in 
 this race for the spirit's dominion, the mightier 
 empire of human Thought, who is her rival? 
 Where even is her competitor? Not England, 
 assuredly; for in that region England in the 
 twentieth century has a place retrograde 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 153 
 
 almost as Austria or Spain; not America; not 
 Russia; not Japan, with her tasteless, over-eager 
 efforts to enter the comity of Europe. Is it 
 France?" 
 
 Prof. Cramb asserts that if these are the 
 legitimate impulses and ambitions of Germany, 
 no Englishman remembering the methods by 
 which the British Empire has been established 
 in India, in America, in Africa, in Egypt, dare 
 arraign those impulses and ambitions. The 
 question to be answered is, what of England 
 and those needs of England with which they 
 enter most immediately into collision ? England 
 in the twentieth century has reached the transi- 
 tion stage in the history of all empires when 
 more or less unconscious effort passes into 
 conscious realization and achievement. Her 
 policy becomes definitely a policy of peace, not 
 war, of internal organization, not of outward 
 expansion. England's task now is the evolution 
 of an inner harmony and the founding of an 
 imperially representative government. Again, 
 there is the wider and more intricate problem 
 of India. How is that freedom and justice, in 
 any conscious and self-governing sense, to be 
 extended to India? And to that problem may 
 be added the like problem in Egypt. These 
 are merely the central strands of a complex 
 ganglion of questions which, with every year 
 and every decade, will become more pressing. 
 
154 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 Prof. Cramb believes that what England 
 needs at the present time is tranquillity and 
 security, that immunity from cares so necessary 
 to free operations of the great faculties of the 
 mind. But it is just this tranquillity, this 
 security, which she cannot find. For whilst 
 England may pray for peace in order to shape 
 out these problems in politics, there still beyond 
 the North Sea is the stern Watcher, unsleeping, 
 unresting, bound to her own fate, pursuing her 
 own distant goal undeviatingly, unfalteringly, 
 weighing every action of England, waiting for 
 every sign of England's weakness. It is here 
 that Germany's will to power comes into tragic 
 conflict with England's will to peace. It is 
 useless to speak of friendly rivalry and generous 
 emulation; for the Germans will not sit still 
 in generous emulation of England, a power 
 which they believe to be already tottering to 
 its grave. Prof. Cramb finds it equally useless 
 to seek a practical policy in arbitration, and 
 it would be likewise futile to depend upon 
 alliances as a permanent means of securing the 
 peace of Europe. Treaties are binding only 
 so long as you can make your enemy see gleam 
 behind the parchment the point of a sword; 
 for nations and states are governed by self- 
 interest only. Peace he declares at best a 
 truce on the battle-field of time. 
 
 In closing his interesting book. Prof. Cramb 
 
GERMANY AND ENGLAND 155 
 
 expresses the opinion that the creative power 
 which has shaped the British Empire is not 
 really dead, and that the momentary apathy 
 and indifference to be a thing that shall pass 
 away. Even now, he discovers everywhere 
 stirrings of a new life, to hear the tramp of 
 armies fired by a newer chivalry than that of 
 Crecy, and on the horizon to discern the outline 
 of fleets manned by as heroic a resolve as 
 were those of Nelson or Rodney. Democratic 
 England has known nothing of war, and in the 
 hour of conflict, democracy will understand and 
 assert its power, and defend the institutions 
 that have been fashioned through the struggles 
 of a thousand years. In closing, he says: 
 ''And if the dire event of a war with Germany, 
 if it is a dire event, should ever occur, there 
 shall be seen upon this earth of ours a conflict 
 which, beyond all others, will recall that de- 
 scription of the great Greek wars: 
 
 ' Heroes in battle with heroes, 
 And above them the wrathful gods.' 
 
 And one can imagine the ancient, mighty deity 
 of all the Teutonic kindred, throned above the 
 clouds, looking serenely down upon that con- 
 flict, upon his favorite children, the English 
 and the Germans, locked in a death struggle, 
 smiling upon the heroism of that struggle, the 
 heroism of the children of Odin, the War-god." 
 
156 GERMANY AND ENGLAND 
 
 Such are the predictions of Prof. J. A. Cramb, 
 of Queen's College, London, published in June, 
 1 9 14, and now the Teutonic kindred are engaged 
 in that mortal conflict, which he regarded as a 
 possibility, and which, no doubt, is destined 
 to decide the fate of empires and of ruling 
 dynasties.