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LIBRARY OF CONGRES 
 
 ^A./.. L"D I tfe J3 
 
 - PRBSSSTTlfD BY 
 
 UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 
 
PROCEEDINGS 
 
 AT THE INAUGURATION OF 
 
 FEEDEEICK A. P. BAEMED, S.T.D., LL.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 
 MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1864. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 
 
 1867 ^ 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON, 
 
 401 Broadway, corner of Walker Street. 
 1865. 
 
 J 
 

 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 PaiNTED BY n. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 At the stated meeting of the Trustees of Columbia 
 College, in March, a. d. 1864, the President of the Col- 
 lege, Charles King, LL. D., tendered to the Board his 
 resignation of the office which he held, in the follow- 
 ing letter: — 
 
 Columbia College, President's Room, 
 2d February, 1864. 
 
 Dear Sir, — In pursuance of the purpose announced by 
 me yesterday at the meeting of the Trustees, I hereby ten- 
 der my resignation of the office of President of Columbia 
 College, to take effect at a period not. later than the next 
 Commencement, at the close of the month of June, or at 
 any earlier date that may possibly be deemed advantageous 
 for the College. 
 
 I am admonished by advancing years of the need of re- 
 pose, and feel that the daily responsibilities and cares of the 
 Presidency are becoming too burdensome. 
 
 In thus taking leave of a position which for the period of 
 fifteen years I have occupied with great personal satisfaction 
 and pride, I beg to express to you, and to the gentlemen of 
 the Board, my high appreciation of the courtesy and consid- 
 eration which have ever marked their personal and official 
 relations with me, and to assure them and you of the con- 
 stant regard and respect of 
 
 Your obd't hbl. se^v't, 
 
 CHARLES KING, 
 
 PresH Col Coll. 
 The Hon. H. Fish, 
 Chairman Board of T'rustees of Col. Coll 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 Upon the reading of this letter, the Trustees 
 passed the following resolution: — 
 
 Resolved^ That the resignation of President King be ac- 
 cepted, to take effect at the end of the present term, at the 
 close of Commencement ; and that a committee of three per- 
 sons be appointed to report appropriate resolutions. 
 
 Bishop Potter, Mr. Bradford, and Mr. Ruggles were 
 appointed the committee. 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees held April 4th, Bishop 
 Potter, from the committee appointed to prepare reso- 
 lutions, in consequence of the resignation of Presi- 
 dent King, reported as follows: — 
 
 The committee appointed to report appropriate resolutions 
 for the adoption of this Board, on occasion of the resignation 
 of President King, beg leave respectfully to offer, for the con- 
 sideration of tlie Trustees, the following preamble and resolu- 
 tions : 
 
 Whereas our esteemed associate of many years, Charles 
 King, LL. D., has tendered to this Board the resignation of 
 his office as President of Columbia College, assigning as rea- 
 son for the step that he is admonished by the advance of 
 years of the need of repose, and feels that the daily respon- 
 sibilities and cares of the Presidency are becoming burden- 
 some ; 
 
 And whereas this Board has felt that a resignation so 
 tendered, after many years of faithful service, could not be 
 properly declined, and has accordingly accepted the same, 
 ordering that it shall take effect at the end of the present 
 collegiate term, the latest day named in the communication 
 of the President ; 
 
 And whereas the presidential term of Dr. King has been 
 distinguished by the removal of Columbia College to its pi'es- 
 ent superior site, by much development and expansion of its 
 educational system, and by very considerable enlargement of 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 5 
 
 its means and appliances for instruction, an increase in the 
 number of students, and a consequent augmentation of its 
 importance and influence ; 
 
 And whereas the bearing of the retiring President in his 
 ofiicial relations with this Board has ever been marked by 
 courtesy and kindness, by a frank, generous, elevated, and 
 genial spirit, which engaged personal regard while it con- 
 tributed to the pleasantness of our intercourse : 
 
 TJierefore^ Resolved^ That the Trustees of Columbia Col- 
 lege contemplate with much sensibility the approaching re- 
 tirement of President King from a position that he has so 
 long filled with untiring zeal and eminent ability, and that 
 they unite in tendering him a unanimous expression of their 
 respect and warm personal regard, and of their grateful sense 
 of the earnestness with which he has labored to promote the 
 best interests of the institution under his charge. 
 
 Resolved, That the Trustees of Columbia College heart- 
 ily tender to their retiring President their best wishes for his 
 future health and happiness, earnestly praying that he may 
 be long spared to consult and labor with them for the pro- 
 motion of the best interests of education and learning;. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these preambles and resolutions, 
 attested by the Chairman and Clerk of this Board, be com- 
 municated to President King. 
 
 The preambles and resolutions were adopted. 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees held on the 18th 
 of May, it was resolved to proceed to the election 
 of a President of the College. A ballot having been 
 duly taken, it was found that the Rev. Frederick 
 A. P. Barnard, S. T. D., LL. D., was elected. Dr. Bar- 
 nard accepted the office in the following letter : — 
 
6 INTEODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 Washington, D. C, May 20, '64. 
 William Beits, Esq., 
 
 Clerk of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College, 
 New York City. 
 
 Sir, — Your letter of the 18th inst., officially informing 
 me that I have been elected to the Presidency of Columbia 
 College, has been received. 
 
 I accept the position with a deep sense of the honor done 
 me by the Board in conferring it, and with the hope that 
 by an earnest devotion to the important duties which it in- 
 volves, I may be so happy as, in some degree, to promote the 
 interests of the Institution, and, through it, of the cause of 
 education in the country. 
 
 It will give me pleasure to confer with the Committee to 
 which you allude. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your ob't serv't, 
 
 F. A. P. BARNARD. 
 
 On the 6tli of June the Trustees adopted the fol- 
 lowing resolutions, presented by the Committee of 
 Arrangements which had been previously appointed, 
 consisting of the Kev. Benjamin I. Haight, S. T. D., 
 William Betts, LL. D., Henry J. Anderson, M. D., Ed- 
 ward Jones, Esq., and the Rev. Morgan Dix, S. T. D. : 
 
 Ordered, That the President of the College be requested 
 and authorized, at the close of the exercises on the ensuing 
 Commencement-day, in the name and behalf of the Board 
 of Trustees, to announce to the assembled College that the 
 Reverend Frederick A. P. Barnard, S. T. D., LL. D., has 
 been duly elected President of Columbia College, and that 
 he will enter upon the duties of his office from and after 
 that hour ; and that his formal inauguration will take place 
 on the first day of the Fall Session, Monday, October 3d ; 
 and further, 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 7 
 
 Ordered^ That tlie President then deliver into the hands of 
 the President elect the keys of the College. 
 
 Ordered^ That a*copy of the foregoing order be given to 
 the President, as the warrant of the action requested of him 
 by the Board. 
 
 On Commencement-day, Wednesday, June 29th, 
 at the close of the usual exercises. President King 
 delivered the following 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 The hour has now come when I am to take my final leave, 
 as President of the College, of the members of the Board of 
 Trustees, of my long-time associates of the Faculty, and of 
 you, my young friends, graduates and sub-graduates of the 
 College. 
 
 After a service of fifteen years, and arrived at an age 
 which demands relaxation and repose, the Trustees have 
 been pleased to accept my resignation, and to appoint Rev. 
 Frederick A. P. Barnard my successor, whom it will be 
 my pleasure to introduce to you here. I do not renounce 
 associations and duties which have been so attractive to me 
 without many feelings of regi-et, — a regret, however, soft- 
 ened by the memories I shall carry with me of the har- 
 mony and kindness of our past intercourse, and by the hope 
 that I may, in the future, still hold a friendly place in your 
 regard. 
 
 To you, gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, I render my 
 thanks for the readiness and confidence with which you have 
 supported me in the performance of my duties. Of you, my 
 honored associates of the Faculty, I may now say what be- 
 fore might not have seemed quite allowable, that with such a 
 corps of teachers there is little excuse for any shortcoming 
 on the part of students, and less for any on the part of the 
 President, whose duties their zeal and intelligence so much 
 lighten. While of you, graduates and sub-graduates of the 
 College, I may declare, as the result of all my experience, 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY NAJIRATIVE. 
 
 that to no man, in my judgment, can be confided a duty 
 more honorable, more self-rewarding, or more enviable, than 
 that of assisting to form and to train such natures to knowl- 
 edge, honor, and truth. 
 
 It is not, indeed, all sunshine. The path is not always 
 plain and clear of difficulties ; for here, as elsewhere, the 
 frailties of our imperfect humanity play their part, just as 
 well with teachers as with learners ; but after all deductions, 
 the relations of the President of this College to its pupils 
 must be one of noble aspirations and inspirations, I say of 
 this College, because of this I can judge, and because I re- 
 gard our system, in which the refinements, the restraints, 
 and the affections of home are so admirably combined with 
 the instructions and discipline of this College, as affording to 
 generous natures and well-ordered dispositions the best op- 
 portunities for good education. 
 
 To the class that now goes forth I bid a cordial God-speed ! 
 They are the last whom it will be my fortune to avouch to 
 the world as well-deserving ; and I may say, in all truth, 
 that no one of the classes that have preceded them in my 
 day was more deserving. In the battle of life upon which 
 they are about to enter, they will quit themselves manfully 
 and skilfully, — I hope, too, for each and all, successfully. 
 
 In separating myself from the College I shall not, and 
 could not if I would, separate myself from interest in the 
 welfare of those with whom I have there been associated ; 
 and I shall ever watch with some personal solicitude the 
 pi-ogress of our alumni, and rejoice with the joy of friend- 
 ship in wdiatever may honor them, and through them the 
 generous institution from which they proceed. All hail, 
 then, my young friends, and farewell ! 
 
 And now, Sir, to you who are to succeed to the high office 
 which I am about to leave, let me offer my most cordial con- 
 gratulations. Familiar as you are with the duties of chief 
 officer of a University, it would be at once presumptuous and 
 unnecessary for me to advert in any manner to the nature of 
 those duties. Success elsewhere is the sure guaranty of sue- 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 9 
 
 cess here. I may be permitted, however, to bear my testi- 
 mony to the excellence of the material with which you will 
 have to deal, and the expression of my conviction, that, with 
 such acknowledged abilities, attainments, and experience as 
 you will bring to the fashioning of this material, there can be 
 only good results. 
 
 I therefore now resign my office into your hands, present- 
 ing to you the charter, statutes, and by-laws of the College, 
 and in the name and by the authority of the Trustees I salute 
 you as President of Columbia College, and as such I present 
 you to the students and to this goodly assembly. 
 
 REPLY OF THE REV. DR. BARNARD. 
 
 I accept, Mr. President, with unfeigned diffidence, the 
 weighty responsibility, which, after a protracted period of 
 honorable and successful service, you have chosen to lay 
 aside, and which the Board of Trustees of Columbia College 
 have seen fit to confide to me as your successor. Though 
 by your long and faithful labors in the educational field yoa 
 have fairly earned your title to repose, I feel assured that 
 you will be followed in your retirement by the sincerest re- 
 grets of all the friends of Columbia College, and by their 
 most fervent wishes and prayers for your continued welfare. 
 
 Suitably to fill the place which you have left vacant, I feel 
 to be an undertaking at once difficult and delicate. Should 
 the success attend me which your kindness has prompted 
 you to predict, it will be principally, without doubt, because 
 I shall enjoy the counsel and cooperation of the able and dis- 
 tinguished colleagues by whom you have been surrounded, 
 as well as the support and encouragement of an enlightened 
 Board of Trustees, who watch over the interests of this noble 
 institution with a vigilance which never slumbers, and a zeal 
 which never tires. 
 
 Nor do I count it as among the least, by any means, of 
 the encouragements which the prospect before me presents, 
 that I shall here meet a band of youthful aspirants after 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 knowledge, animated by elevated and generous sentiments, 
 distinguished for gentlemanly demeanor, and imbued with 
 the ennobling love of letters. 
 
 Under such circumstances, and favored by such advan- 
 tages, I trust that Columbia College may continue to be, 
 what she has ever hitherto been, a nursery of sound learn- 
 ing, and a school of thorough intellectual training. I trust 
 that she may continue to foster, no less assiduously than here- 
 tofore, the love of that noble literature of antiquity, which 
 has ever been esteemed the indispensable basis of finished 
 scholarship ; and that she may, at the same time, open wide 
 the way to those rich treasures of science which the tireless 
 spirit of modern investigation has wrung from nature by the 
 direct interrogation of the glorious works of God. I trust 
 that, while firmly holding fast that which is good of the ac- 
 cumulated learning of the past, she may show herself equally 
 alive to the splendor of the intellectual triumphs which dis- 
 tinguish and illustrate the present; and may even take rank 
 as a positive participant in those grand movements of prog- 
 ress by which the boundaries of human knowledge are ex- 
 tended, and the human race itself lifted to a higher level in 
 the scale of being. 
 
 To secure the fulfilment of these anticipations, my most 
 earnest efforts shall be unceasingly directed. And the known 
 and well-tested abilities of the gentlemen who will be asso- 
 ciated with me in my labors, furnish a secure guaranty against 
 any possibility of failure which might be a consequence of my 
 own conscious deficiencies. 
 
 Perhaps it may be permitted me here to add, that, in mak- 
 ing this city my residence, I do not feel that I come altogether 
 as a stranger. It was here that my active life began, and 
 though since that day I have wandered far and tarried long, 
 my heart has never wandered from the scenes made dear to 
 it by early associations ; and in returning at length to this 
 my starting-point, I feel like one who has found a long-lost 
 home. 
 
 But I trespass too far upon the patience of this assembly. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 11 
 
 already tried by the protracted though interesting exercises 
 of the day. Permit me, therefore, to conclude by offering 
 to you, Mr. President, to the gentlemen of the Board of 
 Trustees, to the gentlemen of the Faculty, to the alumni 
 and undergraduates of the College, and to you, citizens of 
 this great metropolis, whom I claim the privilege of hence- 
 forth addressing as my fellow-citizens, my most respectful 
 salutations. 
 
 On Monday, October Sd, a. d. 1864, being the 
 One Hundred and Tenth Year of the Foundation 
 of Columbia College, which day had been appointed 
 for the Inauguration of Dr. Barnard, as the Tenth 
 President of the College,* the Trustees received the 
 Faculties of Arts, Law, and Medicine, and the Pro- 
 fessors of the School of Mines, together with the 
 Alumni and the Invited Guests, in the Library, 
 whence, at twelve o'clock, they went in procession 
 to the Chapel, under the direction of Professor Peck, 
 LL. D., and A. I. Van Duzer, A. M., Secretary of the 
 Alumni Association, who had been requested by the 
 Committee of Arrangements to act as Marshals, in 
 the following 
 
 ORDER. 
 
 1. Chairman of the Board of Trustees and President Elect. 
 
 2. Ex-Presidents of Columbia College, and Emeritus Professor 
 
 of the Evidences. 
 
 3. Trustees of the College, headed by the Committee of Arrange- 
 
 ments. 
 
 4. Representatives of the United States, State, and City Govern- 
 
 ments. 
 
 5. Regents of the University of the State of New York. 
 
 6. Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of Trinity Church 
 
 (as the first and munificent patrons of the College). 
 
 * See Note at the end of this nan-ative. 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 7. Chaplain of the College. 
 
 8. Faculty of Arts and Librarian. 
 
 9. Faculty of Medicine. 
 
 10. Faculty of Law. 
 
 11. Other Professors. 
 
 12. President and Officers of the Alumni Association. 
 
 13. Presidents of other Colleges. 
 
 14. Officers of other Colleges. 
 
 15. Alumni of Columbia College. 
 
 16. The Clergy. 
 
 17. Officers and Representatives of Literary, Scientific, and Art 
 
 Associations. 
 
 18. Other Invited Guests. 
 
 19. Students. 
 
 In the Chapel, the Chairman of the Board of Trus- 
 tees, with the President Elect, Ex-Presidents Moore 
 and King, the Trustees, and the President of the 
 Alumni Association, with a number of the senior 
 Alumni and invited guests, took their places on the 
 platform, in front of which were arranged the mem- 
 bers of the several Faculties. After a Voluntary on 
 the Organ, by William H. Walter, Esq., the Organist 
 of the College, the Chaplain of the College, the Rev. 
 Cornelius R. Duffie, A.M., said appropriate prayers 
 from the Book of Common Prayer, read a Lesson 
 from the Holy Scriptures, and offered the following 
 Prayer, suitable to the occasion: — 
 
 PRAYER. . 
 
 O Almighty God, " in whom we live and move and have 
 our being," we desire that " all our works " may be " begun, 
 continued, and ended in Thee," that so we may in all things 
 "glorify Thy Holy Name." We therefore come before Thee 
 to-day to offer our prayers unto Thee in behalf of this our 
 College, at the commencement of a new era in its history, 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 13 
 
 and especially in behalf of him who now enters on his re- 
 sponsible duties as its newly appointed head. 
 
 O Fountain of all grace and blessing, do Thou bestow 
 upon him the spirit of wisdom and of strength ; of wisdom 
 to devise, of strength to carry into good effect, whatever may 
 be for the interest and prosperity of this Institution, and for 
 the temporal and eternal benefit of the youth intrusted to its 
 training. Do Thou bless and further all his endeavors for 
 the promotion of the honor and usefulness of this College, as 
 an instrument of " sound learning and Christian education." 
 Lead all who are connected with it, whether as Trustees, 
 Professors, or Students, to hearty cooperation with him in all 
 plans and efforts for the enlargement of its powers for good ; 
 and especially to the Pupils give the disposition to yield all 
 respect and subordination to the lawful authority of its head, 
 and avail themselves to the utmost, by diligence, docility, and 
 obedience, of the advantages here afforded them ; that so, by 
 the cherishing care of this our College, they may be fitted for 
 usefulness in their generation here; and, having served Thee 
 faithfully on earth, may be admitted to endless happiness 
 hereafter, " in Thy light to see light," and to advance from 
 knowledge to knowledge, and from glory to glory, through 
 eternal ao;es. All which we ask through the merits and me- 
 diation of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The President elect was then Inducted into Office 
 by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Hon. 
 Hamilton Fish, LL.D., receiving from his hands the 
 Keys of the College and the Charter, and took his 
 seat in the President's Chair. 
 
 An Address to the President from the Professors 
 in the several Faculties was then presented and 
 read by Professor Nairne ; and an Address from 
 the Alumni, by Dr. Anderson, President of the Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 
 
 The President then delivered his Inaugural Dis- 
 course. 
 
 The following Hymn, written for the occasion by 
 William Betts, LL.D., a member of the Class of 1820, 
 was then sung with great spirit by the congrega- 
 tion : — 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Spirit of the upper sky ! 
 Thou, whose all-pervading eye 
 Pierceth through Infinity, 
 
 Look upon our work to-day ; 
 Let thy form, celestial Dove, 
 Hover o'er us from above, 
 Filling every heart with love, 
 
 While we lowly bend and pray. 
 
 Grant us purity of soul 
 Evil passions to control. 
 Let thy bright effulgence roll 
 
 Light on this thy servant's heart ; 
 Grant him grace his work to do. 
 Grant him to be just and true. 
 With earth's knowledge e'er in view, 
 
 Heavenly wisdom to impart. 
 
 The Exercises in the Chapel were closed by the 
 Benediction, pronounced by the Reverend President. 
 
 Subsequently, the President and Trustees received 
 the Professors, the Alumni, and the invited guests at 
 the President's House. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. 15 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The following is a List of the Presidents of Columbia Col- 
 lege from its foundation : — 
 
 1. Samuel Johnson, S. T. D., LL. D., a. d. 1754 to 1763. 
 Resigned. 
 
 2. Myles Cooper, S. T. D., LL. D., a. d. 1763 to 1775. 
 Abdicated. 
 
 A. D. 1776 to 1784. College closed. 
 A. D. 1784 to 1787. No President. 
 
 3. William Samuel Johnson, LL. D., a. d. 1787 to 1800. 
 Resigned. 
 
 4. Charles Wharton, S.T.D., a. d. 1801 to 1801. Re- 
 signed. 
 
 5. Benjamin Moore, S. T. D., a. d. 1801 to 1811. Re- 
 signed. 
 
 6. Wilham Harris, S. T. D., a. d. 1811 to 1829. Died. 
 
 7. William Alexander Duer, LL. D., a. d. 1829 to 1842. 
 Resigned. 
 
 8. Nathaniel F. Moore, LL. D., a. d. 1842 to 1849. Re- 
 signed. 
 
 9. Charles King, LL. D., a. d. 1849 to 1864. Resigned. 
 
 10. Frederick A. P. Barnard, S. T. D., LL. D., a. d. 1864.* 
 
 /^ From A. D. 1811 to 1816, the Rev. John M. Mason, 
 S .T. D., was Provost. 
 
 * Dr. Barnard was graduated at Yale College, in the class of 1828, 
 and was a Tutor in that College, A. d. 1880-31. He was elected a Pro- 
 fessor in the University of Alabama, in 1837, where he remained seven- 
 teen years, filling successively the chairs of Mathematics and Natural 
 Philosophy, and of Chemistry and Natural History. In 1854 he was 
 chosen Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the Univer- 
 sity of Mississippi, of which Institution he became the President in 1856 
 and the Chancellor in 1861, filling also the chair of Physics and Astron- 
 omy. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Y''ale College, 
 and that of S. T. D. by the University of Mississippi. 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 THE HON. HAMILTON FISH, LL.B., 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES, 
 
 REPLY 
 
 PRESIDENT BARNARD. 
 
THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Doctor Barnard : — The corporate authorities of this 
 ancient institution, by a deliberate vote, and with a cordial 
 unanimity, have called you to the Presidency of the College, 
 made vacant by the resignation of its late amiable and ac- 
 complished occupant. We are assembled for the pur])osc of 
 completing your induction into office, by the delivery to you 
 of the keys of the College, and a copy of its charter, as the 
 symbols of the office committed to you. 
 
 In the discharge of your duties, you will have as your 
 assistants a Faculty well tried, and of approved ability, learn- 
 ing, and success in the several departments of science and 
 of arts. You will have the cordial support and sympathy 
 of the corporate authorities of the College, in every measure 
 tending to promote its interests, and the cause of education 
 and of learning. 
 
 We commit to your care a generous band of ingenuous 
 youths, — objects of interest, affection, and pride in the pres- 
 ent, of deep and earnest hope in the future, — preparing 
 for the stern contest of life, and soon to become busy actors in 
 the world's great drama. We bespeak for them, collectively 
 and individually, your tender care, your stern watchfulness, 
 your affection. Train, instruct, incite, restrain them, — 
 
 Viamque iusiste domandi, 
 Dum faciles animi juvenum, diim mobilis setas. 
 
 Our College is liberally endowed, has lands, has wealth ; 
 
20 THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Ibut these young gentlemen she esteems her most precious 
 treasures. 
 
 While we are full of hope and of affection for those now 
 committed to your care, we cherish a just pride in those who 
 have preceded them, and have heretofore gone forth from the 
 training and the discipline of this institution. 
 
 The presence with us, this day, of some of these, and the 
 still active engagements of others, restrain words of praise 
 which I should be most happy to express. But I trust that 
 it will he no invidious distinction to mention the names of 
 some whose talents and attainments have been devoted to the 
 service of the College. 
 
 Among your associates sits, on your right, the Venerable 
 and Reverend M'Vickar, eminent in piety, and of varied 
 and profound learning, who has devoted nearly half a century 
 of efficient labor to the instruction of the College. 
 
 Upon your left is Anthon, who for nearly an equal 
 period of time has given reputation to the College, and has 
 thrown attractions around the classic literature and learning 
 of which he is the accomplished master. 
 
 There, too, on either side, are Drissler and Van Am- 
 RiNGE, younger in years and in service, but bright and shin- 
 ing lights, brilliant in accomplishments, profound in attain- 
 ments. 
 
 No longer in the academic board, but still in the service of 
 the College, is Anderson, who filled, with consummate ability 
 and grace, the chair of mathematics. Renwick rests from 
 his labors, but his memory is fresh in these halls, and he 
 will ever be named when the College calls the roll of her dis- 
 tinguished sons. 
 
 And there is the beloved and venerable man * whose pres- 
 ence graces this occasion, the elder of your surviving prede- 
 cessors in the Presidency, — full of years, full of learning, and 
 full of affections and of sympathies, which are returned, in full 
 
 * Nathaniel F. Moore, LL. D., for many years Professor of the 
 Greek and Latin languages and literature, and subsequently President 
 of the College. 
 
THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 21 
 
 measure and overflowing, by all who were his pupils, by all 
 who appreciate learning and accomplishment, virtue and dig- 
 nity. More than fourscore years have failed to impair his 
 joyousness, to affect his powers, or to diminish his interest 
 in letters and in science, — " discenti assidiie multa, senecta 
 venit." 
 
 Passing to the ante-Revolutionary period, when our Institu- 
 tion was known as " King's College," and was but recently 
 established, and her sons were few, the names of Jay, Living- 
 ston, Morris, Benson, Hamilton, Van Cortlandt, Troup, Rut- 
 gers, Willett, Duane, attest the justness of our pride, and the 
 prominence of the sons of our College, both in council and 
 in the field, and their influence in moulding and in controlling 
 the events that resulted in American Independence, and in 
 the establishment of the government under which thirteen 
 feeble Colonies grew to be a great and powerful nation. 
 
 The genius of Alexander Hamilton, seen and felt every- 
 where in the early history of the Republic, is impressed upon 
 every page of the Federal Constitution. 
 
 The graceful and accomplished pen of Gouverneur Mor- 
 ris reduced to form the accepted priiiciples and the conclu- 
 sions of the Convention which framed the Constitution, and 
 gave them the language and the diction in which that sacred 
 instrument challenges our admiration, our gratitude, and our 
 confidence. 
 
 Truly and beautifully was it said by one who could appre- 
 ciate truth and purity and intellectual greatness, that " when 
 the ermine of justice fell upon the shoulders of John Jay, it 
 touched nothing less pure than itself." 
 
 John Jay, too, was an alumnus of this College, and was 
 an associate with Hamilton in the authorship of " The Fed- 
 eralist," that powerful, persuasive publication, whose logic and 
 eloquence subdued passion, overcame prejudice, and secured 
 to grateful millions the blessings of the ark of om- political 
 covenant. 
 
 Our College, claiming that these three of her sons breathed 
 its genius and life into the Constitution, gave it the style 
 
22 THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 that graces it, and contributed the clearest and most effective 
 arguments for its adoption, is thus bound, beyond all others, 
 by a triple tie, to its support and maintenance. It was the 
 boast of the father of Hannibal, (referring to his three sons,) 
 that he kept three lions to destroy his enemy. It is our boast 
 that we raised three sons to give life and genius to a nation. 
 And as the Carthaginian swore his son, at an early age, 
 to eternal enmity to his country's foes, so let the teachings of 
 our children, from their earliest childhood, be eternal war 
 against all who would lay rude or violent hands upon the 
 sacred instrument which holds together the Union committed 
 to our keeping by honored fathers : a Union full of happi- 
 ness in the past, and yet full of hope in the future, notwith- 
 standing parricidal hands raised in the vain hope of destroy- 
 ing that which rests upon principles that God himself has 
 ordained to be eternal and immutable ! 
 
 True to her history, let Columbia College send forth none 
 other than sons trained to the capacity and filled with the 
 resolution to maintain their fathers' wish ; yea, even to in- 
 scribe more plainly the landmarks of right, to drive deepei? 
 the stakes of truth, to implant more firmly the principles of 
 heaven-born justice, and to place upon a loftier eminence, 
 and upon a broader and stronger foundation, the standard of 
 love to God and good-will among men, of God's universal 
 supremacy and man's universal freedom and political equality. 
 
 Such is the duty and the high privilege of our colleges 
 and schools of learning. Theirs it is so to teach the great 
 truths of morality and of revelation, and to blend and unite 
 letters and science in such proportions and harmony, as to 
 constitute a full panoply, stronger than that of the fabled 
 goddess ; and thus arming their sons, to sejid forth men pre- 
 pared wisely and ably to assume their parts in the direction 
 and the responsibilities of every phase of man's varied life. 
 
 For this purpose, you have your departments of letters and 
 arts, with their refining tendencies, their culture, their disci- 
 pline, their teachings, their accumulation of the wisdom and 
 experience of the past, their subtle logic, and abstruse meta- 
 
THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 23 
 
 physics, to educate and prepare the youthful warrior entering 
 upon the stern battle of life ; while science will furnish the 
 armory and storehouse whence to draw the material needed 
 for the strife. And to this end science penetrates the lowest 
 depths of the planet which we inhabit, develops its contents, 
 and displays its composition ; divides and analyzes the impal- 
 pable and invisible air, and the minutest ray of the heavenly 
 orbs ; is not content to follow " the stars in their course,'' 
 but anticipates and foretells with awful accuracy their com- 
 plicated movements, and explores the mysterious relations of 
 those vast and innumerable masses and influences which, 
 moving and operating through illimitable space, acting, re- 
 acting, and counteracting, with mutual and diversified rela- 
 tions and compensations, under laws which Omniscience has 
 imposed, exhibit the perfection of harmony pervading the 
 infinity of creation. And far above and beyond the benefits 
 to man's material interests which science thus develops, stands 
 out, in letters of living light, its refutation of the hazy and 
 misty doubts which halting and superficial skepticism would 
 throw upon revelation. 
 
 Thus Science becomes the handmaid and the companion 
 of Religion, and confirms the faithful Christian in his reliance 
 upon the revelation he has received, and in his hopes of the 
 promises held out to the believer. 
 
 To you. Sir, who have travelled widely and profitably 
 through the various fields of letters and of arts, who have 
 explored the most intricate paths of science, who are vested 
 with a sacred commission to preach and to teach the gospel 
 of Christ, is now committed the care and the supervision of 
 this College. 
 
 To one who has devoted so many years and so much of 
 learning and of talent to the cause of education, it were super- 
 fluous to enlarge upon the dignity and the importance of 
 the training of youth up to the responsibilities of an age 
 already full of events, and pregnant with consequences of 
 portentous magnitude. It were superfluous to suggest how 
 
24 THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 much of the domestic happiness of unnumbered homes, how 
 many fortunes of untold famihes, how much, even, of the 
 future of empire hangs upon the threads which, as a skilful 
 educationist, you are to work, and to bind together. 
 
 It remains for me. Sir, in the name and by the authority 
 of the Trustees of Columbia College, to deliver to you these 
 keys, and copy of the Charter, which I now present to you 
 as the symbols of your office ; and in their name, and by 
 their authority, I formally proclaim you to be the President 
 of Columbia College. 
 
 As such I present you to the Faculty of the College ; to 
 the Alumni ; to the distinguished company who honor the 
 occasion with their presence. 
 
 To you, as such, I present and commend these young gen- 
 tlemen, our students ; whose respect, affection, submission, 
 and obedience I earnestly bespeak for the President of the 
 College. 
 
 President Barnard : — The cares and the duties of a 
 responsible office now are yours. May you be sustained and 
 supported in their efficient discharge. 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 It is with the Kvehest sensibiHty that I accept, Mr. Chair- 
 man, these symbols of the distinguished trust which the 
 enh'ghtened body you represent, the legal guardians of this 
 noble and venerable seminary of learning, have chosen to 
 commit to my hands. I know too well the magnitude of the 
 task before me, to enter upon it without a profound sense of 
 my dependence for support and guidance, and all that can 
 make success a possibility, upon the Divine Fountain of all 
 strength and all wisdom. It is only in humble reliance upoYi 
 the continuance of that gracious aid which has sustained me 
 heretofore under responsibilities similarly grave, that I find 
 encouragement to hope that my strength may here also be 
 made equal to my day. 
 
 There is something in the chain of incidents which has 
 placed me in my present situation which seems to me re- 
 markably to disclose the directing hand of Providence. A 
 quarter of a century ago, it was my privilege and my pride to 
 count myself a citizen of this great metropolis. Suddenly, 
 and almost unexpectedly to myself, I was called to lend such 
 aid as I might be able to contribute to advance the cause 
 of higher education in the great Southwest. Buoyant with 
 the hopes and animated by the enthusiasm natural to youth, 
 I responded to the call. I found an inviting field. I 
 encountered large-hearted and enlightened fellow-laborers. 
 I was cheered by the encouraging voices of the intelligent 
 and the influential throughout the community by which I was 
 surrounded. My proper life's work seemed to lie before me ; 
 4 
 
26 THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 and where my work lay, there I fixed my home. Of the 
 more than twenty years that followed, their labors and their 
 trials, their discouragements and their successes, it is un- 
 necessary here to speak. It is sufficient to say, that there 
 came at length an hour which seemed freighted with the 
 fruition of hopes long and ardently cherished, and with the 
 reward of toils patiently and willingly endured ; and that in 
 the same hour the arm c^ the beneficent government which 
 had shielded me there as here — a government so beneficent 
 and so mild as to be felt only in the protection it afforded and 
 the blessings it shed around — was suddenly paralyzed. I 
 discovered that the labor of my life had been practically 
 thrown away. I discovered that my home was no longer my 
 home, since rebellion, triumphant for the moment, declared 
 that it was no longer my country. 
 
 O you, whose happiness it has been to live where the 
 glorious emblem of our national authority has never ceased 
 to float upon the breeze ! it is not for you to know the anguish 
 that has wrung the hearts of fervent lovers of their country, 
 compelled to see that sacred ensign trampled in the dust. 
 Nor is it for you to know the bitterness of that stern necessity 
 which has forced such hearts to tear themselves from places 
 made dear by the remembrance of many peaceful and happy 
 years, — from all the traces they may have left of the earnest 
 labors of a life, — from communities with whose interests 
 their own have long been blended, and from friends whose 
 many kindnesses have made them dearer than kindred, — in 
 order to seek a sky beneath which patriotism shall not be 
 crime, to find an atmosphere where loyalty may be free to 
 breathe. 
 
 It was thus, that, from the scene of my ruined projects, my 
 frustrated labors, and my disappointed hopes, I turned away, 
 animated but by one purpose, possessed by but one longing, 
 — to find a spot over which the flag of my country might 
 still be waving. I found it at length, and with it the security 
 and the tranquillity of mind to which I had long been a 
 stranger. But, more than this, I found friends, encourage- 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 .27 
 
 ment, honorable distinctions. Chief among these last, the 
 highest academic distinction to which any ambition could 
 aspire, I esteem that which I have received at your hands to- 
 day. And in expressing my profound sense of this distin- 
 guished honor, 1 cannot but be struck with the remarkable 
 fact, that the spot to which by your invitation I return after 
 an absence so protracted, these buildings and these grounds 
 which you commit to my care, are the very same which 
 formed my residence — though then devoted to purposes 
 altogether different — when, a quarter of a century ago, I 
 left this city for my distant Southern home. 
 
 You have mentioned, Sir, in terms of beautiful and de- 
 served eulogy, the illustrious names of those early graduates 
 of this college, whose labors so largely contributed to the 
 formation, and to the adoption by the people, of the great 
 charter under which our country, for nearly three quarters of 
 a century, continued to enjoy a happiness so unbroken and a 
 prosperity so unparalleled. The interesting and memorable 
 facts which you have recalled to our minds, impose upon 
 every one, who shall ever in any capacity be connected with 
 Columbia College, a peculiar obligation to maintain and 
 defend the priceless heritage which they did so much to 
 secure for us. 
 
 I accept the obligation in its fullest extent ; but for myself 
 I needed no new stimulus to this sacred duty. Next to the 
 Bible in my heart, I cherish the love of that venerated instru- 
 ment in which is embodied the living principle of our national 
 unity ; and for one I never will consent to hold any parley or 
 to enter into any compromise with such as flout its authority, 
 until its insulted majesty is fully vindicated, and its unques- 
 tioned supremacy reestablished and acknowledged over every 
 foot of territory which its protection has ever reached, over 
 every smallest spot which its benign influence has ever 
 made happy. 
 
 Permit me. Sir, in conclusion, to thank you for the kind 
 language in which you have addressed me, and to express my 
 especial gratification in having received my office at the hands 
 
28 THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 of one who has been himself so often and so worthily the object 
 of the highest honors his fellow-citizens could bestow.* 
 
 * The Hon. Hamilton Fish was graduated at Columbia College in the 
 class of 1827. He was a Representative from the City of New York in 
 the Congress of the United States from A. d. 1843 to A. d. 1845. He 
 was elected, successively, Lieutenant-Governor and Governor of the State 
 New York, which offices he filled from a. d. 1847 to A. d. 1851. He was 
 a member of the United States Senate, as one of the Senators from the 
 State of New York, A. d. 1851 to A. d. 1857. He received the degree 
 of LL. D., from Columbia College, in a. d. 1850, and was chosen Chair- 
 man of the Board of Trustees of the College in a. d. 1859. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 THE SEVERAL FACULTIES BY PEOFESSOR NAIRNE, 
 
 AND FEOM THE 
 
 ALUMNI BY Dr. ANDERSON, 
 
 REPLY OF PRESIDENT BARNARD. 
 
ADDRESS FROM THE FACULTIES. 
 
 Mr. President : — In the name of the Faculties of 
 Cohimbia College, I bid jou welcome to our presidential 
 chair. 
 
 Our feelings at this time, Sir, may be supposed to resemble 
 those of the peers in a monarchy at the accession of a new 
 sovereign. They are feelings of anxiety and hope ; for the 
 comfort of our situation and the prosperity of our school 
 depend not a little on the disposition and capacity of our pre- 
 siding officer. 
 
 Accustomed as we have been to the kindness, affability, 
 and urbanity of your venerable predecessor, we have natu- 
 rally desired to find the same qualities in you ; and naturally 
 too have we made inquiries as to the probability of our desire 
 being fulfilled. 
 
 Before we had the honor of your personal acquaintance, 
 our questionings both of public and of private opinion had gone 
 far to satisfy our hopes ; and our subsequent intercourse with 
 you, slight though it has yet been, assures us that our expec- 
 tations will not be disappointed. 
 
 Your success elsewhere in academic government promises 
 equal success in the city of New York ; and your experience 
 may suggest improvements which will add to the already dis- 
 tinguished reputation of Columbia College. 
 
 Your well-known scientific acquirements, and your accom- 
 plishments in elegant literature, as well as the knowledge 
 of philosophy implied in a theological education, qualify you 
 to appreciate good teaching in all our departments, and to 
 encourage us by an intelligent approbation of our labors. 
 
32 ADDRESS FROM THE FACULTIES. 
 
 You will be, in some sort, our representative at the Board 
 of Trustees ; and in that capacity you will possess our entire 
 confidence. Knowing by trial the toils and difficulties of the 
 educator's office, you will be able to give opinions of greater 
 worth and weight than they would be if you had never been 
 by profession a teacher. 
 
 We promise you our hearty coijperation in all matters 
 pertaining to instruction and discipline in the College. From 
 week to week, you and we will take counsel together at the 
 college-board ; and to our class-rooms, where, in a kind of 
 " State sovereignty," we individually preside, we hope you 
 will often resort, that you may cheer us by your countenance 
 and animate our students, as soldiers are animated when they 
 do duty under the eye of their commander-in-chief. 
 
 It delights us to understand that we shall have frequent 
 opportunities of knowing you socially as well as profession- 
 ally. The Professors of Columbia College, dwelling apart in 
 »a great city, find it more difficult to cultivate friendship with 
 each other than if they belonged to a rural institution ; but 
 we trust that your leading the way toward the establishment 
 of a closer social intimacy among us, may influence those 
 of us who can make it convenient, to follow your excellent 
 example. 
 
 Once more, Sir, I bid you welcome ; and I am sure that I 
 express the heart's desire of all my colleagues, as it is my 
 own, when I pray that your presidency over our beloved 
 college may be long, happy, prosperous, and honorable. 
 
ADDRESS FROM THE ALUMNI. 
 
 Mr. President : — It is but a holiday's space since the sons 
 of Old Columbia took occasion to do honor to her venerated 
 chief, when, closing a long energy nobly devoted to her ser- 
 vice, he passed his work gracefully over to the hands of his 
 worthy successor. 
 
 These sons then felt a sorrow which you were the first to 
 comprehend and respect. They now feel a joy which your 
 generous predecessor will be equally prompt to approve. Our 
 regrets at that time abated nothing of your rank in our 
 esteem, and what we now have to offer takes as certainly 
 nothing from his. Reassured by this belief, Alma Mater 
 (ever joyful in the joy of her sons) is unusually radiant to- 
 day, and tenders you, fresh from her heart, a triple saluta- 
 tion, as a grant of her prerogative, a measure of her trust, and 
 a token of her honest delight. Your accession has just now 
 been emphatically greeted by the administrators of her 
 powers, and again by the learned expositors of her thought. 
 In her wise liberality she has chosen that the members of 
 these bodies may or not be her own flesh and blood ; yet 
 their felicitations have been as loyal as a son's. Now we, her 
 issue, sprung of her very loins and nurtured at her breast, 
 must not be outdone in this encounter. 
 
 And first we rejoice because we recognize in you, what we 
 ever found in him you replace, (that surest title to all con- 
 fidence,) the old fidelity, the '■^ prisca fides " — the hard-tried 
 but proved allegiance to time-honored Truth. While you 
 will not be unregardful of what art can do for beauty, science 
 for use, and letters for both, you will yet maintain in full 
 
 5 
 
34 ADDRESS FROM THE ALUMNI. 
 
 supremacy that hallowed immemorial traditionary bond — 
 honor everywhere to the lawful superior, and reverence to 
 rightful authority. This bond and this supremacy, (without 
 which all else is but a treacherous illusion,) — yes, you will 
 maintain it, — suaviter, that it may be loYed, fortiter, that it 
 may be felt and obeyed. 
 
 You will justly appreciate the claims of modern knowl- 
 edge ; but you will not let it be believed that she has come 
 with any mission to contest, much less to curtail, our un- 
 abridged Inheritance of Faith. Holding high in your esteem 
 the grand capacities and noble disciplines by which wonders 
 are varied, labors relieved, enjoyments multiplied, and liber- 
 ties enlarged, you will not allow the best or boldest of them 
 all to outrank that Wisdom Increate not made nor unbegotten, 
 to whose God-given Jurisdiction all the philosophies and the 
 philanthropies, which ever amused or beguiled or bewildered 
 their human day and generation, will yet be brought to 
 submit. We rejoice, too, because we know from your antece- 
 dents, that, revering as you do all that age has rendered 
 venerable, you can sympathize most genially with what is 
 trustful or magnanimous in youth, so that even in its 
 giddier aberrations you will see nothing worse than a child- 
 like vivacity most easily subdued by a fatherly word. Your 
 record is our warrant that your government will be paternal, 
 with the mildness that takes from justice the semblance of 
 severity, the steadiness that lends dignity and safety to in- 
 dulgence, and the rare discretion that wins from the most 
 wilful a generous obedience to a gentle request. 
 
 For these and other reasons — believing as we do that you 
 will always cherish, as the consecrated objects of your care. 
 Alma and her children, as well those who like ourselves 
 have been lately or long since sent forward to the front, 
 as those who, now or soon, may come trooping to her side — 
 the Alumni of Columbia College join cordially in the general 
 welcome, and bid you, Mr. President, and your now happily 
 inaugurated rule, a hearty Vivat and a brave God-speed ! 
 
THE PKESIDENT'S EEPLY 
 
 TO THE FACULTIES AND THE ALUMNI. 
 
 I KNOW no situation in life which is attended with a more 
 oppressive weight of anxiety, than that of him who under- 
 takes, with a conscientious sense of duty, to administer the 
 affairs of a great educational institution. In most situations, 
 the influence for good or for ill, which can be exerted by an 
 individual upon the world around him, or the generations 
 which are to come after him, is limited to the consequences 
 of his own immediate acts. But the educator of youth, if 
 faithful to his task, moulds largely the opinions and shapes 
 the principles of others, and so, through the acts of many, 
 is felt through a circle which is always large and is ever 
 widening. He who, without a sense of misgiving, can assume 
 a position of so difficult responsibility, must be sustained 
 not only by an earnest zeal and a consciousness of good 
 intent, but by a confidence in his own wisdom and strength 
 which few have a right to entertain. Nor if, to one who 
 occupies a position like that in which I find myself to-day, 
 the future brings solicitude, will he be likely to find relief in 
 turning his thoughts backward to the past ; for in the hon- 
 orable history and noble reputation of the institution of which 
 he is bold enough to assume the direction, he will behold the 
 difficult measure by which his own work is to be tried ; and 
 in the men who have created that history and achieved that 
 reputation, he will see the standard by which he is himself to 
 be judged. This consideration comes home to me on this 
 occasion with singular force. For while I do not enter upon 
 
36 THE PKESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 the trust confided to me here without some experimental 
 acquaintance with its nature elsewhere acquired, it is new to 
 me to feel the burden of a responsibility which extends to the 
 past as well as to the future. Hitherto I have been a pioneer 
 in the great educational army, laboring to clear new ways 
 through the wilderness of ignorance, seeking to kindle new 
 beacon-lights upon heights in advance of the grand march of 
 intellectual culture across the continent. I have been en- 
 deavoring to build upon new foundations, and not to carry 
 on toward completion an edifice begun by others. Had I 
 accomplished anything, had Providence permitted me to 
 accomplish anything worthy of remembrance, the record 
 would have been but the beginning of a history, and not its 
 continuation. Had I finally failed, the failure would have 
 been my own, and would have brought to ruin no goodly 
 results of the labors of better men. It is not so here. My 
 distinguished predecessors, — two of whom, by honoring with 
 their presence the ceremonial of to-day, evince the undecay- 
 ing interest they feel in the institution which owes them so 
 much, — aided by the zealous cooperation of many learned 
 colleagues and counsellors, have made of Columbia College an 
 object of so just honor, veneration, and love, that any detri- 
 ment which might befall her in the hands of a successor 
 would bring to thousands of hearts an acute sense of a great 
 public calamity. All this I feel with a depth which will 
 greatly intensify the earnestness with which I enter upon the 
 discharge of my duties here. 
 
 To you. Sir, who on behalf of the Faculties of the College 
 have tendered me so cordial a welcome, and to the body in 
 whose name you have spoken, permit me to return the sincere 
 thanks of a grateful heart for your generous words. Your 
 language is to me a pledge that the harmony which, wherever 
 men are associated for a common object, is the first essential 
 to happiness as well as to success, shall ever preside over our 
 united counsels and be illustrated in our common acts. And 
 though there are few respects in which I can hope adequately 
 to fill the place left vacant at your Board by my able and 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 37 
 
 excellent predecessor, I can at least promise that no conscious 
 act of mine shall ever disturb the harmony which his genial 
 influence has diffused among you. With some of you, gen- 
 tlemen, it is my happiness to have been already acquainted. 
 Some, too, have been long known to me by the far-reaching 
 reputation which has rewarded their successful labors in the 
 field of letters and science. There 'are some, indeed, whom 
 not to know would argue a singular ignorance of the scholar- 
 ship and the literature of the country. To be associated with 
 such men I feel to be a distinguished honor. If through that 
 association I might attain to enjoy their friendship, I should 
 esteem it as more than an honor, — it would be a happiness. 
 
 You have kindly alluded to my past experience. If my 
 experience has taught me any lesson it is this : that while 
 the necessities of organization require that in every institu- 
 tion there should be an executive head, whatever of efficiency 
 an educational institution may exhibit, whatever of distinc- 
 tion it may attain, will depend upon the learning, the ability, 
 and the zeal of those who direct its several departments of 
 instruction. To yourselves, gentlemen, Columbia College 
 owes, in great part, her present honorable celebrity. To 
 yourselves, should it continue, she will owe its perpetuation. 
 And so long as the roll of her Faculty shall embrace the 
 names of scholars and men of science, such as those who fill 
 and adorn her several chairs to-day, so long she will main- 
 tain her present proud position among the foremost of Amer- 
 ican colleges. 
 
 Entertaining sentiments like these, I shall be the last to 
 question the legitimate exercise of that collegiate " State sov- 
 ereignty " to which you have so pleasantly alluded. In his 
 own proper province, each officer of a college should enjoy 
 that freedom to which his superior acquaintance with all that 
 relates to his peculiar domain entitles him. There is the 
 less danger in the concession, inasmuch as the limits of this 
 sovereignty are so clearly defined that the harmony of aca- 
 demic rule is not likely to be disturbed by resort to so violent 
 a measure as secession. 
 
38 THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 To your suggestion of the advantages which may arise from 
 freedom of social intercourse among those whose official duties 
 bring them daily here into contact, I respond with all my 
 heart. I embrace in this response the instructed no less than 
 the instructors. If there be moments when the artificial re- 
 lations created by academic law or usage may be forgotten, 
 and student and teacher may meet upon the common ground 
 of social equality, the consequences cannot but be, and my 
 experience proves that it always will be, to foster sentiments 
 of mutual kindness and mutual respect, and to promote the 
 harmony and happiness of the whole academic circle. 
 
 If I am cheered by the greeting which I receive from those 
 who are to be my associates and fellow-laborers, I am flattered 
 and gratified by that which meets me from you, gentlemen of 
 the Alumni. The Alumni of a college constitute at all times 
 its most fitting representatives. Their interest in the institu- 
 tion in which their growing intellects were nurtured is prob- 
 ably deeper than it was even when they were daily gathered 
 within its venerated walls, and were still the objects of its 
 fostering care. On the other hand, the institution looks on 
 them with an honorable pride, as the fruits of her accom- 
 plished labors, and the visible illustrations of her usefulness. 
 Through them, in the various avocations of life which they 
 fulfil and adorn, the beneficent influence of the college dif- 
 fuses itself throughout all the ramifications of society, and is 
 felt in giving elevation to the tone of public sentiment, and 
 disseminating enlarged and liberal views of public policy. 
 
 You, gentlemen, have much reason to be proud when you 
 recall the many honored names which lend their lustre to the 
 roll of your fraternity. There is no position of usefulness 
 which Columbia's sons have not filled ; there is no post of 
 honor which their virtues and their merits have not made 
 more honorable. Their eloquence has shed brilliancy over 
 the forum, their learning has added dignity to the bench, ad- 
 miring throngs have listened to their words of wisdom in the 
 senate chamber, and the persuasions of the pulpit have been 
 made more resistless by the charm of their piety. In the 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 39 
 
 infancy of our republic, as you have been already happily 
 reminded, Columbia's sons were among the foremost of the 
 statesmen who, by their identification with the origin and 
 early history of our glorious national constitution, made 
 themselves forever immortal ; and in the latest troubled days, 
 when, over a portion of our land, that sacred charter of lib- 
 erty is trampled in the dust, we find Columbia's sons still 
 among the foremost to avenge the insult offered to the noble 
 work of their fathers, and, if need be, to lay down their lives 
 in its defence. What encouragement, what inspiration, may 
 not the contemplation of such animating examples furnish to 
 the ardent and generous youth who are pressing forward to 
 inscribe their names upon the same honorable list. 
 
 You have been pleased, Sir, to allude to those principles 
 according to which, in my administration of the affairs of this 
 institution, you suppose that I may be guided. 1 am grati- 
 fied to recognize in your language sentiments which have long 
 been mine. None appreciate more fully than I do the neces- 
 sity of law ; or the value, as an element of character in young 
 or old, of a reverence for constituted authority. But, if pos- 
 sible, I would instil the principle of obedience, by ever asso- 
 ciating it with the sense of right. In most instances, indeed, 
 in which I have known authority to come into conflict with 
 the spirit of insubordination, I have found the most efficacious 
 appeal which can be addressed to an ingenuous youth to be, 
 Examine the case for yourself, and tell me honestly the de- 
 cision of your own conscience. Law, it is true, must be 
 obeyed ; but in order that obedience may be what it should 
 be, a part of a beneficial moral culture, it should be grounded 
 in a conviction that law is not only necessary, but is also 
 right. We should be able to feel as well as, in the language 
 of Hooker, to say, " Of law there can be no less acknowl- 
 edged than that her seat is the bosom of God, and her voice 
 is the harmony of the world." 
 
 You have spoken of my sympathy with what is trustful 
 and magnanimous in youth. In this you have touched the 
 key to whatever of success may have attended me as a col- 
 
40 THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 
 
 lege governor. I love young men. Seldom have I found 
 them otherwise than frank, truthful, arid generous. Their 
 very faults are often but the exaggeration of impulses which 
 themselves are noble. It is rare indeed that -they evince a 
 deliberate purpose of wrong. In most instances gently to 
 point out the error is sufficient to secure its correction. 
 
 I am cheered by the sunny hopefulness of the 3^oung. I am 
 warmed by their ardor. I give them spontaneously my con- 
 fidence, and look for theirs in return. It has not often been 
 my misfortune to meet with disappointment. Upon this basis, 
 college government has succeeded. I cannot doubt that it 
 will succeed again. 
 
 You are right. Sir, in attributing to me a high appreciation 
 of the value of modern science. We naturally value that 
 which has largely and continuously occupied our thoughts; 
 and my past professional pursuits have conspired with my 
 natural tastes to foster the sentiment to which you refer. It 
 seems to me, indeed, that no one can be an indifferent spec- 
 tator of a scientific progress which is daily making so vast 
 contributions to the increase of human comfort, and to the 
 enlargement of the wealth of nations. Yet I thank you for 
 doing me the justice to believe that I would allow no science 
 or knowledge of merely human origin to take precedence, for 
 a moment, of that heavenly wisdom whose office is, not exclu- 
 sively to enlighten the understanding, but, rather, to purify 
 the heart. 
 
 I think I do not misinterpret you when I presume, that, in 
 relation to this subject, your words have been chosen with 
 reference to the imaginary conflict asserted by some to exist 
 between the teachings of the sacred oracles of our religion 
 and certain of the conclusions of modern scientific research. 
 I do not recognize such a conflict, nor admit its possibility. 
 All true science is to me but a form of revelation from the 
 one great Author of all truth. I cannot conceive that He in 
 whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, will 
 ever be found to contradict in His works the declarations 
 which He has made us in His written Word. And what- 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 41 
 
 ever may be the amount or the seeming value of that truth 
 which has rewarded, by its discovery, the faithful labors of 
 modern scientific investigators, or whatever the grandeur of 
 the multiplied achievements of human intellect in every de- 
 partment of inquiry, I esteem all these things combined as 
 lighter than vanity, unless accompanied by that better and 
 higher and pm-er knowledge which lifts men above the mate- 
 rial world in wliich they dwell, and makes them wise unto 
 salvation. 
 
 Once more, Sir, permit me to thank you for the encour- 
 agement your words have given me, and for the hearty good 
 wishes with which you cheer me on my way. 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The occasion on which we are assembled, the cere- 
 monial in which we participate, and the associations 
 naturally clustering round a spot which learning has 
 hallowed by making it her seat, would seem to leave 
 little choice in regard to the theme which should oc- 
 cupy us to-day. A noble institution devoted to the 
 highest mental culture of generous youth, after more 
 than a century of honorable usefulness and distin- 
 guished success, is about entering upon another year 
 of its beneficent labors ; and at this moment the 
 guidance of its operations and the guardianship of 
 its interests are committed to an untried hand. It 
 would be in accordance with a generally prevalent 
 usage, and would be possibly also a compliance with 
 general expectation, that the brief space allotted me 
 on this occasion should be devoted to a declaration 
 of the views by which, as an educationist, I expect 
 to be governed, and according to which I desire to 
 see the course of education conducted in this insti- 
 tution. If I do not conform to this usage or meet 
 this expectation, it is not because there is anything 
 in those views uncertain or doubtful ; or anything 
 which I apprehend, before an enlightened audience 
 
46 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 like this, would be likely to meet with dissent ; but 
 rather because, on the other hand, I have already so 
 often and so fully made them public, as to leave me 
 no reason to suspect that they are either unknown 
 or misapprehended. 
 
 The subject of education is one which has occu- 
 pied the most thoughtful minds of every age ; and 
 it is probable that the fundamental principles which 
 should direct a truly liberal education may be as 
 clearly deduced from the writings of Aristotle, of 
 Seneca, or of Quintilian, as from those of the most 
 judicious thinkers of modern times. And yet there 
 is probably no subject in regard to which, were we 
 to judge from the controversial literature to which it 
 has given rise, we might be led to infer that there is 
 so little that is settled, and so much that is uncertain 
 or doubtful. Within the past twenty or thirty years, 
 our long-tested and successful system of collegiate 
 instruction has, in particular, been so persistently de- 
 cried and so seriously menaced, as to fill the friends of 
 sound education throughout our country with alarm, 
 and to compel them to discuss the whole theory and 
 practice of our higher education with anxious earnest- 
 ness and b}^ the light of first principles. In these dis- 
 cussions I have endeavored, according to my ability, 
 to bear my part. It has, by force of circumstances, 
 been made my duty — a duty which I have esteemed 
 a privilege — to withstand the dangerous assaults of 
 that blindly destructive spirit which would sacrifice 
 the admirable system of mental culture existing in 
 our colleges to some visionary scheme of presumed 
 higher utility. In acquitting myself of this duty, I 
 have held that the end to be kept in view in liberal 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 47 
 
 education should be to make of man all that, as an 
 intelligent and moral being, he is capable of becom- 
 ing, in view of the immortal destiny before him, and 
 with but secondary regard to the accidental interests 
 of this temporary life. I have held that such a cul- 
 ture will actually make him more fit to fill success- 
 fully any position to which he may be called in this 
 world, will make him a more efiicient worker, a more 
 useful member of society, a better citizen, than any 
 training especially planned with the intent to pro- 
 duce these specific results. And I have also held, 
 that the studies which now occupy the most promi- 
 nent place in the course of collegiate training, and 
 which have ever occupied that place since our coUe- 
 giate system was founded, are the studies which, on 
 psychological grounds, are manifestly best adapted 
 to furnish such a culture. 
 
 I hesitate to enter again to-day upon a path which 
 I have trodden so often before ; and I hesitate the 
 more because the controversies to which I have al- 
 luded have apparently subsided. I could offer but 
 little which would possess the merit of originality. 
 I might weary by presenting arguments which, 
 through repetition, have lost the gloss of novelty; 
 and I scarcely need now renew a profession of faith 
 which has been so often distinctly set forth before. 
 I presume, therefore, upon the indulgence of my au- 
 dience, so far as to select a theme suggested by the 
 peculiar circumstances in which I find this institu- 
 tion at the moment when my connection with it 
 commences. 
 
 The Board of Trustees of Columbia College have 
 long entertained a purpose to extend the field of in- 
 
48 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 struction occupied by the institution, so that it may 
 embrace at once larger and higher ground. Such a 
 design cannot, it is obvious, be carried out at once 
 in all its completeness. It is necessary, that, in the 
 beginning, it should be restricted to certain deter- 
 minate branches of knowledge ; and these, in order 
 to secure the largest probabilities of success, will be 
 most wisely chosen from among the class of subjects 
 in regard to which there is most urgently felt the 
 sense of a great public want. Such are, at present, 
 the physical sciences as applied to the arts : and the 
 object now immediately proposed contemplates the 
 opening of a department in which shall be taught 
 the modes in which geological, mechanical, and chem- 
 ical science may be brought to bear upon the devel- 
 opment of the mineral resources of the country. 
 
 It seems indispensable, in a country like this, where 
 nature remains to so large an extent unsubdued, and 
 the temptations to every description of industrial en- 
 terprise are so vast, that the first attempts to expand 
 educational institutions into the form of proper uni- 
 versities should be made with a view to take advan- 
 tage of that practical spirit which will encourage 
 more extended and more thorough teaching in the 
 direction in which it finds it profitable to do so. 
 By pursuing this course we secure permanence and 
 strength ; and when these are once ours, we may 
 make our schools the agencies by which not merely 
 the practical uses of science shall be made known, 
 but through which also investigations may be insti- 
 tuted with a view to enlarge the domain of science 
 itself 
 
 Moreover, to have established a successful school 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 in one branch of knowledge is to have created a nu- 
 cleus around which others may cluster. And as, in 
 our sister institution at New Haven, to the school of 
 science originally there established have been since 
 added schools of philosophy, philology, and history, 
 and will yet doubtless be added other schools em- 
 bracing every department of teaching in letters and 
 science, so we may reasonably expect that our pres- 
 ent beginning may be the means of drawing to us 
 such aid from those to whom the prosperity of this 
 college is dear, or who would not willingly see the 
 institutions of this magnificent city inferior to those 
 of many minor towns, as may enable us also to pre- 
 sent, as time advances, all the various attractions to 
 seekers after knowledge, which are necessary to com- 
 plete the full ideal of a university. 
 
 At present, however, our newly established school 
 is but a school of physical science ; and the circum- 
 stance that the commencement of its active opera- 
 tions coincides with the date at which my own con- 
 nection with the college begins, has led me naturally 
 to the train of thought to which I venture to in- 
 vite your attention. My theme may be briefly 
 stated to be the relation of physical science to 
 revealed religion. 
 
 While my life has been principally devoted to 
 the cause of education in general, it is known, I 
 believe, that my own special pursuits have been 
 connected with the science of nature. I love that 
 study both because it is beautiful in itself and be- 
 cause its influence upon the mind and upon the 
 character seems to me to be eminently salutary. I 
 believe that there is no study of which the legiti- 
 
50 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 mate tendencies are more distinctly to foster in man 
 the spirit of humility, or to awaken within him feel- 
 ings of profound reverence toward God. I believe, 
 indeed, that in spreading out His wonderful works 
 before us, and clothing them with so many attrac- 
 tions, it has been the manifest purpose of the Cre- 
 ator to make them the means of drawing men to 
 Himself And I believe that the religious sentiment 
 thus naturally inspired is one which disposes the 
 soul to receive with delight and gratitude those more 
 distinct announcements of Himself and of his pur- 
 poses toward men, which He has made in his writ- 
 ten Word. 
 
 It is nevertheless true, that modern physical science, 
 as it has been built up gradually by methods founded 
 on the precept of Bacon and the practice of Galileo, 
 has been fated, from its earliest beginnings, to en- 
 counter the jealous suspicion, or the open and active 
 opposition of those who have been charged with the 
 guardianship of the interests of religion. For the 
 earlier manifestations of this spirit a natural expla- 
 nation suggests itself Previously to the recognition 
 of the great principle of induction as the guide of 
 philosophic inquiry — the epoch from which our mod- 
 ern science dates — there was already in existence 
 a species of natural science resting chiefly upon hy- 
 pothesis, but interwoven with many inferences drawn 
 from passages in the sacred writings. To any intel- 
 ligent reader at this day it will be apparent that 
 these inferences are rarely warranted by the texts 
 from which they are deduced, but that they are in 
 most instances the offspring of the fertile imagina- 
 tions in which the system originated. Under the title 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 51 
 
 " De Principiis Renim Naiuralium^' this philosophy 
 was everywhere taught in the mediaeval schools. As- 
 suming to be founded on revelation, its truth became 
 matter of religious faith ; and any doctrine conflict- 
 ing with it was denounced .without inquiry as heret- 
 ical. 
 
 Thus, in her very birth, our modern science found 
 herself confronted with a formidable and discouraging 
 opposition growing out of the preconceptions of the 
 religious world. Nor, unfortunately, though the phi- 
 losophy of the Middle Ages has been long exploded, 
 has the breach which had its beginning there been 
 ever entirely healed. Nature still continues to be 
 studied in the Bible by the light of philology, and 
 the results of this study are made the touchstone of 
 the acceptability of conclusions founded on the most 
 careful and conscientious study of nature herself 
 That this is a process which ought to be inverted, 
 and that science should be made the torch by which 
 to read the Scriptures, or should supply the clew to 
 their interpretation, is a principle which is yet re- 
 ceived with very limited favor. And thus, for every 
 ancient controversy between science and religion 
 which has perished from the memories of men, another 
 and another more recent have sprung into life. A 
 state of things has thus grown up, which is most sin- 
 cerely to be lamented. It is one which, if it continue, 
 is destined to produce most injurious consequences 
 to science and to religion at the same time. It will 
 injure science by enlisting against her the most pow- 
 erful of influences, — the public opinion of probably 
 the largest portion of the Christian world. Such a 
 discouragement she is little able to bear. Even now 
 
52 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 her advances are made under circumstances of quite 
 sufficient difficulty. Though daily conferring upon 
 the human race gifts of inestimable value, few of 
 these are the return she makes for any benefit re- 
 ceived, for any honor conferred upon her sons, or any 
 support accorded to her by governments. Most of 
 the brilliant discoveries which have signalized her 
 history, which have brought wealth to nations, and 
 endlessly enlarged the sources of human comfort, 
 have been due to the solitary, patient, and unaided 
 labor of her disinterested votaries. An enlightened 
 regard for the highest interests of society would dic- 
 tate a policy very different from this. It would sug- 
 gest that the strongest incentives should be held out 
 to the prosecution of scientific investigation, by the 
 most liberal provision of the means necessary for 
 conducting difficult and costly researches, and by 
 crowning successful labor with its justly merited 
 rewards. The time may yet possibly come when 
 the world will sufficiently feel its obligations to 
 science, to recognize the wisdom of such a policy ; 
 but this certainly will not be unless she shall succeed 
 in commanding more fully than is apparently the 
 case at present the confidence of that better portion 
 of mankind by which she is too generally regarded 
 as an insidious enemy to man's highest interests. 
 
 Nor, on the other hand, can reHgion fail seriously 
 to suffer from the antagonism presumed to exist be- 
 tween her teachings and those of the investigators 
 of nature. It is not possible that scientific progress 
 should cease. Nor is it possible that scientific men 
 can forego convictions formed upon evidence which 
 human reason is incapable of resisting. If religion 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 53 
 
 disclaims them, they will be driven to disclaim re- 
 ligion ; and thus, without any choice of their own, 
 the whole weight of their great authority will be 
 marshalled in opposition to the truth of the Bible. 
 And, observe that this is a controversy which men of 
 science do not invite or provoke. They have not 
 been the first to seek for evidences of discordance 
 between the results of their inquiries and any real 
 or supposed assertions of the scriptural narrative. 
 On the other hand, when compelled to meet this 
 question by the injudicious assaults of men who, with 
 more zeal than wisdom, have denounced their con- 
 clusions as necessarily false because contradicted by 
 the Bible, many of the most eminent among them 
 have labored with earnest sincerity to demonstrate 
 the absurdity of the objections, and to show that 
 nature and revelation, so far from being at variance, 
 are entirely in harmony with one another. It is the 
 mistaken friends of religion themselves who insist 
 on occupying the perilous position, that, if modern 
 science be true, the Bible must be false. It is they 
 who deride and ridicule schemes of interpretation 
 honestly suggested with a view to reconcile the lan- 
 guage of sacred writ with the teachings of nature ; 
 and who, with singular lack of wisdom, maintain that 
 no such reconcilement is possible. They will not 
 recognize the fact, that, in planting themselves upon 
 this ground, they are doing more to subvert religion 
 and bring the Bible into discredit among men, than 
 all the speculative atheists like Spinoza, and all the 
 ingeniously logical skeptics like Hume, and all the 
 malignant scofiers like Voltaire, combined, have ever 
 been able to accomplish. In spite of the most deter- 
 
54 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 mined efforts on the part of these several classes of 
 enemies, the Bible still holds its place in human rev- 
 erence ; but let it be once distinctly settled as the 
 final and unalterable decision of the religious world, 
 that that volume makes it our religious duty to dis- 
 believe and reject the perfectly demonstrable truths 
 disclosed to us by such a science, for example, as 
 geology, and it needs no extraordinary prescience to 
 perceive, that, before another generation shall have 
 passed away, its authority will be utterly destroyed. 
 It has astonished me that there should be so many 
 good men who do not see this danger. It has aston- 
 ished me still more that there should be so many who 
 do see it very clearly, and yet imagine that it may 
 be averted by putting a ban upon science, and en- 
 deavoring to suppress its cultivation. Such efforts 
 are, in the very nature of things, futile. Truth can- 
 not be frowned out of existence, nor is there aiiy 
 weight of human authority heavy enough to keep it 
 down. On the other hand, error, in the field of physi- 
 cal inquiry, needs neither persecution nor denuncia- 
 tion to disarm it of its power to harm ; it has only 
 to be let alone, and it will inevitably die of itself 
 
 It is, therefore, at this moment the most desirable 
 of all things, it is the great need of the times, that 
 the friends of religion should be induced to lay aside 
 the distrust with which they so generally regard the 
 progress of modern science. And especially is it to 
 be desired that they should no longer disdainfully 
 repel the advances which thoughtful men of science 
 have honestly made toward a reconcilement of opin- 
 ions ; or assail, with the weapons of ridicule and con- 
 tempt, every scheme of scriptural interpretation de- 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 55 
 
 signed to prove that there is no necessary conflict 
 between the book of nature and the book of revela- 
 tion. Some reasons there are which suggest them- 
 selves upon the slightest reflection, going to show, 
 that, in assuming this new attitude, they need fear 
 no danger to the cause which they have nearest at 
 heart ; while it is obvious, that, in maintaining their 
 present one, there is a danger which is both serious 
 and real. AVithout attempting to exhaust the sub- 
 ject, I will mention a few of these reasons. 
 
 And in the first place, there is nothing in the ends 
 which science proposes to excite alarm in the mind 
 of any one who desires the largest improvement and 
 the highest good of the human race. For the object 
 of science is truth. Whatever the subject of investi- 
 gation, it is truth, and truth only, which she seeks. 
 In the pursuit of this end she puts out of view, and 
 for the time disregards, the prevailing and precon- 
 ceived opinions of men. She offers them no inten- 
 tional disrespect. She seeks to bring them into no 
 discredit. She undertakes neither to affirm nor to 
 deny their soundness ; but, in so far as they are opin- 
 ions or impressions, or even convictions merely, they 
 belong not to the class of evidences with which she 
 has to do. Experience has proved that many of the 
 beliefs which have at times prevailed almost univer- 
 sally, have had their foundation in ignorance or 
 prejudice or superstition. Many have been received 
 traditionally, and have been acquiesced in by each 
 succeeding generation for no better reason than that 
 they had received the assent of that which went be- 
 fore. And though all the opinions of men in regard 
 to natural things which have thus descended to us 
 
56 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 from the past may not be equally involved in error, 
 there is manifestly no security for the investigator 
 of nature, except in keeping his mind clear from 
 every possibility of bias which might arise from such 
 a source. 
 
 But while truth is the one simple aim toward 
 which the labors of Science are directed, it is not 
 claimed that she alone is competent to the attain- 
 ment of all truth. Her range is limited by the 
 range of human observation, and by the imperfect 
 power of the human understanding ; but within these 
 limits her methods are sure, and her results unques- 
 tionable. The great truths which relate to the being 
 and attributes of God, to the origin of sentient life on 
 earth, to the purposes of God toward His intelligent 
 creatures, to the duties they owe to Him, and to their 
 possible destiny hereafter, — these are truths which sci- 
 ence can never elucidate, and which can only become 
 known to us by direct revelation from the Author of 
 our being. And it is to this class of truths that reve- 
 lation has been confined ; while in regard to all which 
 man is capable of discovering for himself, he has been 
 left to secure the benefits of knowledge or to suffer 
 the evils of ignorance, according as he may exercise 
 the powers or improve the opportunities which he is 
 here permitted to enjoy. 
 
 And in this very abandonment of His intelligent 
 creatures to their own resources, we have an evi- 
 dence that the investigation of nature, the prosecu- 
 tion of human science, is in accordance with God's 
 will. For deep in the nature of the creature He has 
 implanted the desire to know, and the capacity to 
 enjoy knowledge, as well for its own sake as for any 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 57 
 
 of its possible uses. And the truths which He has 
 placed at the level of the creature's understanding, 
 and permitted to be disentangled from among the 
 mysteries of creation, are singularly fitted to awaken 
 emotions of reverence, and turn the thoughts to 
 Him who is the Author of all truth. It would seem, 
 indeed, that these truths had been purposely veiled, 
 covered up, and concealed under the countless diver- 
 sified forms of this majestic and beautiful universe, 
 to the end that reason may have an incentive to in- 
 quiry, and, discovering, may wonder and adore ; yea, 
 to the very end that man, by searching, may find 
 out God, though he can never hope to find Him out 
 to perfection. The spirit, therefore, in which science 
 has its birth, is a spirit implanted by God himself; 
 the subjects on which it is employed are God's own 
 works ; and to suppose that the conclusions to which 
 its inquiries legitimately lead can be at variance with 
 God's own immediate testimony, is to throw dishonor 
 upon God himself 
 
 I will not be so unjust to any who oppose the 
 progress of science on religious grounds, as to sup- 
 pose that they are afraid of truth. I will not so 
 disparage their understandings as to presume them 
 ignorant tlmt truth is never inconsistent with itself 
 And yet it seems impossible to explain the anxiety 
 and alarm which they so often betray in connection 
 with this subject, unless upon one or the other of 
 these hypotheses. It is too late in the history of in- 
 tellectual progress to take the ground that science is 
 delusion. If the conclusions which it claims to have 
 fully established are not to be relied on, then noth- 
 ing in the whole circle of human knowledge is cer- 
 
58 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tain. The fact of revelation itself is ascertained to 
 us by evidence offered to the reason. To us, it is 
 a fact purely historical, to be examined precisely 
 as other historical facts are examined. If we are 
 competent to judge of its credibility, if we are even 
 justified in asserting that we know its truth, then 
 certainly we may reasonably claim that we are capa- 
 ble of tracing effects in the material world to their 
 physical causes, more especially when, in our per- 
 sonal experience, we have been familiar with the 
 operation of those causes all our lives. 
 
 But these physical causes, these powers of nature, 
 as they are called, what are they ? If we suppose 
 that they exist without God, that they operate by 
 any inherent energy of their own, we are pantheists, 
 we have no need of God at all, our only God is na- 
 ture. But if, on the other hand, we suppose that 
 they are only modes through which God sees fit to 
 manifest His own energy, the truths to which we are 
 led by their attentive study are nothing less than 
 revelations. They, demand our acceptance not merely 
 upon the authority of imperfect human reason, but 
 as being directly vouched for by God himself The 
 distinction commonly made between nature and rev- 
 elation, therefore, as means through whicl we may be 
 permitted to know God, is in this view imimportant, 
 perhaps prejudicial to the interests of true religion. 
 It is at any rate a distinction of form merely, and 
 not of essence. To the prophet God speaks through 
 His Spirit, to the philosopher through His works ; in 
 either case the truth of the communication rests 
 upon the same guaranty. 
 
 We often hear men talking of the God of nature 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 59 
 
 and the God of revelation, in terms which might jus- 
 tify the inference that they supposed that they were 
 speaking of two different beings. If in any case 
 such a duahstic notion is really entertained, — though 
 to entertain it must imply very imperfect concep- 
 tions of what is necessary to the Divine nature, — 
 the absurdity of a possible conflict between natural 
 and revealed religion is not upon the surface obvi- 
 ous. But even to use the language without con- 
 sciously admitting the false conception, is so far to 
 keep this absurdity out of view as unquestionably 
 to have led many good and pious men to deprecate 
 the study of nature altogether, and to desire that it 
 might be completely suppressed, through fear that 
 the truths it reveals should not be in harmony with 
 those other truths which have been made known to 
 us by the same Author, through His written Word. 
 
 But it may be said this apprehension is not an idle 
 one. It is justified by the actual history of biblical 
 interpretation and physical science. If science and 
 the Bible had never come into conflict, it might, says 
 the objector, be very plausibly argued, or assumed, 
 indeed, without argument, that they never could do 
 so ; but when such a conflict is asserted to have actu- 
 ally occurred, the question becomes a question not 
 of probability, but of fact. Is it, then, a fact that such 
 a conflict as is above supposed in any case really 
 exists ? I should be very sorry to believe so. I 
 do not believe so. Unfortunately'-, my belief seems 
 not to be the universal belief Otherwise, indeed, I 
 should have no motive for these observations ; there 
 would be no breach between science and religion to 
 be healed ; no estrangement between the Academy 
 
60 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and the Church to be overcome ; no want of har- 
 mony between the pious hearts that simply feel 
 God's power and the comprehensive intellects that 
 perceive and know it. And yet, if we inquire to 
 what source are to be ascribed these suggestions of 
 possible discordance between physical and scriptural 
 truth, we shall not find that they have generally 
 originated with scientific men, — not at least with 
 that higher order of men who have been first to dis- 
 cover the great truths which weaker minds have after- 
 wards sought to employ in sapping the foundations 
 of Christian faith. In so far as the scientific world 
 is to be held responsible for these unhappy divisions, 
 they are mainly due to a class of which it has little 
 occasion to be proud, — shallow and conceited sciolists, 
 whose shreds of knowledge are gathered at second- 
 hand, and who pronounce their conclusions with a 
 confidence so much the greater as the weight of 
 their authority is less. I do not mean to say that 
 there have not been some distinguished students 
 of nature, even original discoverers, who have also 
 been skeptics in religion ; but I believe not more 
 frequently than in the case of other men of equal 
 mark. I believe, indeed, that the rule is entirely 
 the other way. I believe that the study of nature 
 tends positively to foster the spirit of humility, of 
 self-abasement, of reverence, of devotion. I believe, 
 indeed, that it is the only study, except that of the 
 Bible itself, that does so. With the study of lan- 
 guage or of abstract mathematics it cannot in this 
 respect be compared, for in regard to the senti- 
 ments just spoken of, their influence is indifferent. 
 But with abstract philosophy, or even with that 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 61 
 
 theology which affects philosophy, the comparison is 
 easy; for the world is full of inslructive examples. 
 Philosophy, I suppose, is as far from physical science 
 as it is possible to be. Philosophy and Physics are 
 each other's antipodes, — the two poles of the intel- 
 lectual sphere. Now it is a question worthy of the 
 consideration of those who are accustomed to decry 
 science for its asserted Antichristian tendencies, how 
 it happens that most of the theological schools of 
 Germany have been, during a great part of this 
 century, if they are not still, schools of irreligion; 
 while of the names which adorn or have adorned the 
 annals of physical science in the present or the past, 
 the most illustrious, with scarcely an exception, are 
 names of single-minded, humble Christians. Have 
 we not here a strikingly significant fact ? These 
 two subjects, philosophy and the physical sciences, 
 are the two, and we may almost say the only two, 
 which stimulate the curiosity of men to know the 
 causes of things, which lift men's thoughts to the 
 Great First Cause of all things. The first of these, 
 rising on presumptuous wings into the limitless re- 
 *gion of the transcendental, boldly essays to bring 
 God himself within the grasp of the finite intellect ; 
 but bafiled in the vain endeavor, ends usually in blot- 
 ting Him out of existence, or confounding Him with 
 His works. The other, bowing before the august 
 majesty which it dares not attempt to conceive, 
 seeks, in a lowly and teachable spirit, to compre- 
 hend some little fragments of these lower works 
 themselves, and, shrinking from the arrogance 
 which would demand what God is, limits itself to 
 the humble and reverential inquiry, "What hath 
 
62 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 God wrought?" The very statement of the case 
 is sufficient to show the relative tendencies of these 
 studies. Philosophy may no doubt be pursued in a 
 Christian spirit ; but it has had^ in point of fact, too 
 often the fatal effect to undermine, subvert, and de- 
 stroy in its devotees all belief in the personality of 
 God, and so to obliterate every sentiment of fear or 
 reverence for Him in the human heart. Physics, on 
 the other hand, by constantly presenting new and 
 ever -varying examples of power and forethought 
 and design in the adaptation of means to ends, fos- 
 ters and cherishes into ever-increasing strength the 
 conviction that God is, that God reigns, that He 
 works perpetually before us now, that by Him all 
 things were made, and without Him was nothing 
 made that was made. Now what if there has 
 been here and there a physicist who disowned rev- 
 elation ? How many unfortunately are there who 
 are not physicists nor philosophers who have done 
 the same ! This latter fact proves that men may be 
 perverse without any obvious perverting influence ; 
 the former that they may be so in spite of influences 
 positively salutary. 
 
 It may, then, be safely asserted that there is noth- 
 ing in the nature of the object which science proposes 
 to itself, — the discovery of truth, — which should 
 disquiet any sincere believer in the truths of revela- 
 tion. The same remark may be extended to em- 
 brace the results to which the systematic pursuit of 
 scientific investigation conducts. For science leads 
 to the detection of law. Physical truth presents 
 itself to the inquirer at first in the form of isolated, 
 disconnected facts. But as facts accumulate, they 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 are observed to stand in certain relations to each 
 other, to arrange themselves spontaneously in cer- 
 tain natural groups. These relations presently ap- 
 pear to be necessary, and to depend upon a principle 
 of constant causation. By carefully studying them, 
 we acquire confidence to predict, in certain determi- 
 nate circumstances, what consequences shall follow. 
 If our prediction shall be verified under all the 
 varying conditions necessary to insure precision and 
 eliminate error, we conclude that we have discov- 
 ered something more than facts, that we have de- 
 tected a governing principle, in other words, a law. 
 It was in this way that Kepler, after seventy labori- 
 ous, long-continued, and unsuccessful efforts, pursued 
 through a period of twenty weary years, arrived at 
 length at a principle which harmonized the observed 
 positions of the planet Mars. It was in this way that 
 Newton, after comparing the moon's deflections with 
 the observed fall of heavy bodies on the earth, was 
 enabled, at a distance of some ten or twelve years 
 from the commencement of the inquiry, to announce 
 the great law of universal gravitation. Through all 
 the domain of physical research, such has been the 
 constant progress, and such, where progress has been 
 sufficiently advanced, the invariable result. And al- 
 though yet much, very much, of the great field of na- 
 ture remains to be exjDlored, and though there may 
 be many phenomena which we do not yet sufficiently 
 comprehend to be able to refer them to their laws, 
 every successive instance in which order has been 
 observed to exist where ignorance had assumed law- 
 less irregularity or blind chance to rule, adds new 
 force to the presumption which has at length been 
 
64 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 adopted as an axiom in physics, that law is' every- 
 where present. 
 
 But law in nature is one of the most conclusive 
 evidences of the presence and power of God. If God 
 is felt in His creation, how can He be felt except 
 in the form of law ? His truth and His immutability 
 require that His acts should be consistent with them- 
 selves. Contradiction and caprice are excluded by 
 the very necessity of the case. So that law in na- 
 ture is neither more nor less than God in nature ; 
 and natural phenomena are the direct manifestations 
 of divine power. Now I know that it is often said 
 that this idea of the invariability and universality of 
 law tends to bring into discredit those narratives of 
 events in which law has been manifestly suspended. 
 This is another of the grounds on which science and 
 the Bible have been brought into conflict. But in 
 the view just taken of law the reproach thus brought 
 against science is without any substantial foundation. 
 For if law is but the manifestation of God's power, 
 the suspension of law is just as much so. 
 
 There is, however, undoubtedly, a speculative theol- 
 ogy which teaches a doctrine widely different from 
 this ; which beholds in law an energy irresistible, 
 inexorable, unalterable; which makes, that is to 
 say, law itself God. This, at least, if I understand 
 it, is essentially and ultimately the meaning of pan- 
 theism. If such be the view which we take of the 
 divine nature, miraculous occurrences are, I admit, 
 quite impossible ; for the God of pantheism is with- 
 out personality, without consciousness, without will. 
 But it must be remembered that pantheism is born 
 not of Physics, but of Metaphysics ; that it is radically 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 65 
 
 at variance with the rehgion of the Scriptures -, and 
 that, after we have consented to receive its more gen- 
 eral teachings, the particular point here in question 
 loses whatever importance or interest it might pre- 
 viously have possessed. To the Christian, however, 
 or even to the Deist who admits that God is anything 
 more than an impersonal figment, the universality of 
 law in nature must bring a grateful confirmation to 
 his faith. 
 
 I would observe, in the third place, that while 
 science in its progress is favorable to the growth of 
 sound religion, it is totally destructive of those idle 
 superstitions by which religion has been so often 
 marred, and which have caused her to bring only 
 gloom and terror where it should be her holy mission 
 to comfort and cheer. In using the term science 
 here, I intend it to embrace all intelligent acquaint- 
 ance with the causes of things. In its common ac- 
 ceptation, the word is supposed to apply only to that 
 abstruser knowledge which is comprehended with 
 difficulty and confined to the few. But there is very 
 much which in this sense was once science that has 
 now become the common property of all the mem- 
 bers of every enlightened community. It is, indeed, 
 principally through this process of diffusion that 
 science contributes to the benefit of mankind. A 
 new truth, in its first discovery, has rarely any ob- 
 vious relation to human interests. When the elastic 
 force of watery vapor was first observed, we were 
 very far from the steam-engine. When the attrac- 
 tive power of the galvanic wire for iron was first 
 noticed, we were very far from the electric telegraph. 
 With the progress of discovery, scientific truths be- 
 
66 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 come principles of art, and scientific knowledge 
 becomes popular knowledge. There are now few 
 natural phenomena, even though occasional and rare, 
 of which the causes are not generally known ; few, 
 therefore, which excite anxiety or awaken alarm. And 
 more than this, the idea of the universal prevalence 
 of law has become a popular idea ; so that phenom- 
 ena which are not understood are no longer attrib- 
 uted to causes above nature. Where ignorance 
 prevails, the case is very different. Incidents of 
 which the causes are obscure or unperceived are 
 ascribed to influences capable of controlling natural 
 events and affecting human happiness, — - often to 
 agencies supposed to be at the same time intelligent 
 and malign. Particular times, again, are, for no intel- 
 ligible reason, esteemed to be lucky or unlucky, par- 
 ticular places fall under suspicion and are shunned, 
 particular acts or utterances are supposed to exert 
 a mysterious power, and occult virtues are ascribed 
 to amulets and charms. Into minds capable of re- 
 ceiving notions like these, it is not difficult for a 
 belief in all the extravagances which have been 
 imputed to sorcery, magic, and witchcraft to enter. 
 And the history of even comparatively recent times 
 sadly illustrates the degree to which human nature 
 can become temporarily divested of all its more 
 amiable traits, in the general terror produced by a 
 supposed prevalence within a given community of 
 these diabolical practices. 
 
 Now it might seem that the Bible alone, to those 
 who make its pages their study, should be sufficient 
 to dispel such idle imaginations as these, and to re- 
 deem men generally from the dominion of supersti- 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 67 
 
 tious fears. But that this is not true is made evi- 
 dent by the historical fact that every one of the 
 superstitions just mentioned has prevailed in Chris- 
 tian times and among Christian peoples. Many of 
 them are not yet extinct, — none of them perhaps 
 universally. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, 
 magical practices were visited with the severest 
 denunciations and penalties by the public authori- 
 ties, both ecclesiastical and civil. No man could per- 
 form the simplest experiment in physics without fall- 
 ing under suspicion. In the thirteenth century, to 
 have produced a friction match or a toy-torpedo such 
 as a child cracks upon the pavement would have 
 probably cost the inventor his life. It was in that 
 century that Roger Bacon, a man of wonderful origi- 
 nality and independence of thought, two hundred 
 years in advance of his generation, was arraigned, at 
 the age of sixty-four, upon a charge of magic, and 
 imprisoned for ten years. His works, which contained 
 nothing more dano-erous than a discussion of the 
 causes which had obstructed the progress of science, 
 had already been condemned many years before, and 
 he had been deprived of the privilege of teaching. 
 All works on physics were suppressed with like 
 severity. Two French councils successively included 
 the whole in one sweeping denunciation. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to multiply specifications of 
 this description. History is full of them, as late as 
 the end of the seventeenth century or later ; nor 
 were even those pious colonists who fled from relig- 
 ious intolerance in their own country, to plant upon 
 the rocky shores of New England the germs of civil 
 and religious liberty, exempt from the common weak- 
 
68 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ness which characterized their age and generation. 
 These things may seem to us now sufficiently incom- 
 patible with the spirit of Christianity and with the 
 teachings of the Bible. But the truth is, the Bible can- 
 not be read aright except in the light of science. It is 
 not in the particular we have been considering only; ' 
 that the Christianity of an unenlightened age appears 
 in unfavorable contrast with that of one more ad- 
 vanced : it is in the entire character and tone of the 
 religion. " Christianity," says Milman, " may exist in 
 a certain form in a nation of savages, as well as in a 
 nation of philosophers ; yet its specific character will 
 almost entirely depend upon the character of the 
 people who are its votaries. It must be considered, 
 therefore, in constant connection with that character j 
 it will darken with the darkness and brighten with 
 the light of each succeeding century ; in an uncon- 
 genial time it will recede so far from its essential 
 nature as scarcely to retain any sign of its divine 
 original; it will advance with the advancement of 
 human nature, and keep up the moral to the height 
 of the intellectual culture of man." 
 
 The emancipation of the race from the slavery 
 which is born of superstitious error is here ascribed 
 to the progress of intellectual enlightenment in gen- 
 eral. And this is the view of the subject which is 
 perhaps most commonly taken. History, however, 
 furnishes abundant evidence of the inefficacy of mere 
 learning to accomplish such a result. The age which, 
 in England, produced a Milton, a Bacon, a Dryden, 
 and a Pope, was certainly not an age deficient in lit- 
 erary culture of the highest order. Yet the legisla- 
 tion of that age and its judicial history are deeply 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 69 
 
 tinged with the errors I have signahzed ; and it surely 
 cannot be said of these that they received their char- 
 acter from the men the least enlightened of their 
 time. In this country the extravagances of the 
 Salem persecution were encouraged, if not originally 
 instigated, by the educated clergy, including among 
 their number the president of the only seminary of 
 higher learning then existing on the continent. The 
 fault of the education of that time was its neglect 
 of the study of the phenomena of nature. Physical 
 science had indeed made some progress, but it had 
 attained to no diffusion beyond the narrow circle of 
 its immediate votaries. Scientific men were gener- 
 ally learned, but there were very few learned men 
 who were scientific, y '^.Tl,,^.^ . 
 
 Now I presume I need not argue that superstition 
 is hostile to true religion. I need not argue that the 
 Christianity which, according to Milman, may exist 
 among a nation of savages, and the Christianity 
 which sheds its benign influence over the civiliza- 
 tion of our own continent to-day, cannot be both of 
 them equally the Christianity of the New Testament. 
 The spirit and the power of Christianity manifest 
 themselves in doing good, in pity toward the erring, 
 in the imremitting endeavor to soften for all men the 
 mevitable miseries of this lower life. But the spirit 
 which is fanned by superstition makes of religion a 
 terror rather than a blessing. It divests Christianity 
 of those features of mildness and benignity by which 
 it is adapted to the wants of our weak and imperfect 
 nature, and converts it into a source of ^^erpetual 
 anxiety and apprehension. Consider, for example, 
 the asceticism which came in with the corruption of 
 
70 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Christianity, and which has not even yet entirely 
 disappeared, the gloomy isolation to which it led 
 numbers to subject themselves, and the extraordinary 
 forms of self torture to which it impelled them to 
 submit, and say in what respect these things are less 
 melancholy subjects of contemplation than the more 
 recent suttee of India, the exposure of infants on the 
 Ganges, or the self-immolation of frenzied fanatics 
 beneath the wheels of Juggernaut. If the philosophic 
 study of nature has contributed in any degree, as I 
 believe it has greatly, to disinthrall the human im- 
 agination from that slavery to error in religious 
 beliefs which has so painfully in every age embit- 
 tered human life, it has rendered an inappreciable 
 service at the same time to the cause of enlight- 
 ened Christianity. 
 
 In what I have said, I have aimed to show that 
 there exists substantial reason for assuming the truth 
 of the following propositions : — 
 
 1. Science, in its legitimate tendencies, is posi- 
 tively favorable to religion. 
 
 2. The religion which science favors is in its spirit 
 such a religion of love to God and good will toward 
 men as we find inculcated in the gospel. 
 
 The truth of the first of these principles was 
 clearly perceived and distinctly affirmed by the pro- 
 foundest thinker of the seventeenth century; and 
 nothing in the celebrated " Essay on the Advance- 
 ment of Learning " better illustrates the singular 
 sagacity and acute discrimination of the illustrious 
 author of that admirable work, than the manner in 
 which he accounts for facts which seem occasion- 
 ally to conflict with his doctrine. " It is an assured 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 71 
 
 truth and a conclusion of experience," is his lan- 
 guage, "that a little or superficial knowledge of 
 philosophy [natural philosophy] may incline the 
 mind of man to atheism, but a farther proceeding 
 therein doth bring a man back again to religion : 
 for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second 
 causes which are next unto the senses do ofier them- 
 selves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, 
 it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause ; 
 but, when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the 
 dependence of causes and the works of Providence, 
 then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will 
 easily believe that the highest link must needs be 
 tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair." 
 
 But it may be replied that the foregoing reason- 
 ing is too general to meet the difficulties which em- 
 barrass the actual relations of physical science to 
 revealed rehgion. It may be asked what we have to 
 say of such startling speculations as the nebular 
 hypothesis in astronomy, the teachings of geology 
 in regard to the age of our planet, the asserted dis- 
 coveries relating to the antiquity of man, the doc- 
 trine of progressive development, and other similar 
 matters, in which science is in direct conflict with 
 impressions which are generally supposed to be legit- 
 imately derived from Bible history. To these ques- 
 tions it would be impossible in this place to reply in 
 detail ; but it is easy to state the general principles 
 by which the reply should be guided. 
 
 And in the first place, the Bible is not a book of 
 science. Its messages to man relate to matters of 
 deeper, more permanent, and more solemn interest 
 than any questions concerning the phenomena of the 
 
72 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 material world, or the laws which govern them, can 
 possibly possess. Its language is dictated simply 
 with a view to intelligibility. It was adapted to the 
 understandings of the generations to which it was 
 addressed. If it refers to objects or phenomena in 
 the natural world, it speaks of them as they seem, 
 and as they are spoken of even now in the language 
 of common life, without referring them to their 
 remoter causes. 
 
 To have given professedly a philosophic exposition 
 of the principles of natural things would have been 
 inconsistent with the objects for which the Bible it- 
 self was given. Such an exposition must either 
 have presented truth as it will be when (should that 
 ever happen) the process of discovery is exhausted, 
 — truth, therefore, which would in many points con- 
 flict with our present convictions, and which must 
 always have been in conflict with the convictions of 
 the ages which have gone before us ; or it must have 
 embodied the imperfect, and, in most things, errone- 
 ous philosophy of its own day, and so have been 
 brought into permanent discredit by the earliest 
 steps of advancement. On either supposition, it 
 would have been out of harmony with the actual 
 state of scientific opinion at any given period, and 
 would have lost, or have failed from the beginning 
 to secure, the confidence of men in its divine origin. 
 In the fact, therefore, that the science of nature is, 
 to beings of limited powers, like the human race, a 
 science of necessary progress, in which truths which 
 seem to be most assuredly established are ever liable 
 to be superseded by profounder truths, we find a sat- 
 isfactory reason why we might expect it to be ex- 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 73 
 
 eluded from a revelation relating only to the inter- 
 ests of man's higher nature. 
 
 In the second place, without undertaking to deny 
 that the conclusions gathered from the study of the 
 book of nature may sometimes seem at variance with 
 impressions derived from the pages of the Bible, 
 it must be remembered that these impressions are 
 themselves hable to be determined by the precon- 
 ceived notions of the reader, and that they are not 
 of necessity the only interpretations which the lan- 
 guage will bear. On the occurrence of any such 
 apparent disagreement, the proper and reasonable 
 course is to use discovery as an aid to interpreta- 
 tion ; and not to insist, as is so often and so unwisely 
 done, that the discordance is irreconcilable. 
 
 Another observation may here be fitly made. Of 
 the more recent theories which, in their discussion, 
 have excited among the friends of religion the great- 
 est uneasiness, it can hardly be said of one that it is 
 an accepted theory of science. The speculators who 
 show the least respect for the religious convictions 
 of men are often quite as regardless of the ordinary 
 principles of common sense. Take, for example, the 
 doctrine of progressive development. It is only the 
 ingenuity displayed by its advocates which has se- 
 cured for it more than a momentary attention. The 
 strength of the scientific world has always been en- 
 listed against it. Though repeatedly revived, it has 
 been just as often trodden out of life. And so it 
 must be with all mere hypothesis. Nothing can 
 claim a permanent place in science which fails to 
 attain the certainty of truth. And nothing which 
 is true can be dangerous. 
 
 10 
 
74 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Now there are two things needed, in order that 
 the scientific and the rehgious world may be led to 
 lay aside their mutual distrust, and induced to work 
 harmoniously together in the cause of truth, which 
 is the common cause of both. The first is that re- 
 ligious men should be willing to study science for 
 themselves, and should refrain from pronouncing 
 upon its tendencies until they first understand it. 
 For, by thoroughly acquainting themselves with its 
 conclusions and the evidences by which they are 
 supported, they may discover that these are not so 
 irreconcilable as they had supposed with the rightly 
 interpreted language of the Bible. They will learn 
 that there is much which is demonstrably and un- 
 deniably true, and will perceive the great danger 
 of assuming that this is or can be in possible con- 
 flict with anything contained in God's written Word. 
 They will learn, in short, the indispensable necessity 
 of reading Scripture by the light of science, and not 
 attempting to control the conclusions of science by 
 an exegesis which has all the possibilities of error 
 which spring from human imperfection. 
 
 On the other hand, if unconvinced by the evi- 
 dences presented, they will, in any controversy on 
 the subject in which they may engage, be placed, 
 by understanding them, in a position of powerful ad- 
 vantage. Hitherto it has unfortunately happened, 
 in numerous instances, that those who have felt 
 themselves called upon to defend religion against 
 what they assumed to be the dangerous tendencies 
 of science, have evinced in their arguments so little 
 acquaintance with the subjects they undertook to dis- 
 cuss as to injure rather than benefit the cause they 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 75 
 
 have had at heart. They have committed the fatal 
 error of attempting, with incredible labor, to disprove 
 facts rather than to invalidate inferences ; thus fail- 
 ing to perceive where their strength might really 
 tell, and where it must be worse than wasted. In 
 this failure, they have failed at the same time to 
 command the respect of their opponents ; and have 
 naturally contributed to encourage the opinion that 
 the cause they advocate is equally undeserving of 
 respect. There is, therefore, no more urgent need, 
 at the present time, than that pious men and ear- 
 nest Christians should be also cultivators of scientific 
 study. By becoming such they may, if they please, 
 purify science from the reproach of irreligion which 
 they bring against it. If there be a semblance of 
 justice in the reproach, to what can it be owing but 
 to the fact that the field has been voluntarily aban- 
 doned by the religious. The wonder, indeed, is, that 
 in some departments of science there is any religion 
 left. Who would not suppose, that, after geology 
 had been put under the ban of the modern church 
 almost as unqualifiedly as astronomy was by the 
 ancient, a devout Christian geologist would be an 
 unknown phenomenon. And yet we shall hardly 
 find anywhere more beautiful examples of personal 
 piety than have been presented by such geologists 
 as Hugh Miller, Adam Sedgwick, Edward Hitchcock, 
 and Benjamin Silliman. I could largely extend this 
 list, but it is unnecessary. It is men like these who 
 are qualified to pronounce upon the tendencies of 
 the sciences which they cultivate. And if they find 
 in them nothing to disturb their Christian faith, how 
 can we doubt that other men equally pious, though 
 
76 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 without their special knowledge, whom the course of 
 science seems to fill with so continual anxiety, would 
 attain a similar tranquillity, if they would consent to 
 be better informed. In short, the true position, the 
 strong position, the only impregnable position against 
 the assaults of skeptical physicists is in the field oc- 
 cupied by the assailants themselves. 
 
 There is, on the other hand, perhaps, a spirit to 
 some extent prevalent among scientific men which 
 ought to be corrected. If they have sometimes been 
 held up^to undeserved opprobrium, they have repaid 
 the injury with too manifest contempt ; and if their 
 best-established conclusions have not been respected, 
 they have possibly maintained too positive a tone in 
 regard to those whose claims to resjDCct were more 
 questionable. While the object of science is truth, 
 there is much in the scientific teaching of any given 
 period of which the proof is only a high degree of 
 probability. Every such portion of doctrine holds its 
 place only provisionally, and is liable to be displaced 
 or subverted by a truth more assured. Now, just in 
 proportion to the obstinacy with which the highest 
 evidence is resisted, a disposition seems to manifest 
 itself to insist unwarrantably on positions sustained 
 by feebler evidence. And the controversialist who 
 assumes to speak in the name of science displays a 
 spirit of self-satisfied superiority, and indulges a tone 
 of confident assertion, which confirm opposition in- 
 stead of conciliating favor. 
 
 If, then, reHgious men, on the one side, should 
 acquaint themselves better with science, scientific 
 men who are not professedly religious, on the other, 
 should cultivate a more modest tone in presenting 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 77 
 
 views which are still open to doubt. Let neither 
 party bring against the other railing accusations; 
 but let each use toward the other the language of 
 Christian charity, and act in the spirit of Christian 
 forbearance. Both are in the pursuit of the same 
 avowed object; let them harmoniously pursue it 
 together. 
 
 Something like this must take place, and must 
 take place soon, or most deplorable consequences 
 are in store for the world. The progress of science 
 cannot be arrested. It has an inherent vitality 
 which acquires new vigor with each succeeding 
 year. It is, moreover, day by day and hour by 
 hour, securing a stronger hold upon men's consid- 
 eration and regard, by intertwining itself more and 
 more with all their earthly interests. Estranged 
 from rehgion it may exert a fatal power in drag- 
 ging men after it. It may become in fact the bale- 
 ful influence which it is now only suspected of being 
 capable of becoming. 
 
 Let science and religion be harmonized, let their 
 devotees unite lovingly their efforts in one common 
 search after truth, and nobler triumphs than have 
 ever yet been realized may crown their alliance. 
 Their labors will be fruitful, for God's blessing will 
 be upon them. Year by year, in constantly increas- 
 ing profusion, the hand of science shall scatter bene- 
 fits over every land. But infinitely more valuable 
 than all she has ever done or can do to promote the 
 comfort of mankind, will be the lesson she will bring, 
 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His right- 
 eousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
 you." 
 
78 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Keverting now, in conclusion, to the idea which 
 originally suggested the train of thought to which 
 your attention has been invited, and holding still the 
 views which it has been my duty and my privilege to 
 express elsewhere on the nature, limits, and office of 
 the American college, and on the necessity of greatly 
 enlarging the subjects and increasing the thorough- 
 ness of liberal education in this country, I enter upon 
 the duties of my present position with the greater 
 satisfaction at a time when a new school or departr 
 ment of scientific instruction is about to be inaugu- 
 rated, because, if this school should be successful in 
 helping to meet a great national necessity and in se- 
 curing the confidence of religious and liberal-minded 
 men, it will prepare the way for other special schools, 
 in which Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemis- 
 try, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Philology, 
 History, Political Science, National and International 
 Law, Esthetics, and the Principles and Art of Edu- 
 cation will receive that exhaustive treatment which 
 their practical importance in a system of national 
 education demands. Then will Columbia College, 
 with its associated special and professional schools, 
 become a repository of universal truth, a dispenser 
 of universal knowledge, and a contributor to the dis- 
 covery of new laws of nature, and new and more 
 beneficent applications of those laws to the advance- 
 ment of human society. Then shall we more nearly 
 realize the beautiful ideal sketched out by Milton, of 
 "a complete and generous education," "by which 
 to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining 
 to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to 
 love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him as we may 
 
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 79 
 
 the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue, 
 which being united to the heavenly grace of faith, 
 makes up the highest perfection." Then will the 
 ingenuous youth of the land resort here, "inflamed 
 with a love of learning and the admiration of virtue, 
 stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men 
 and worthy patriots, dear to God and famous to all 
 ages," zealously aiming thoroughly to equip them- 
 selves "to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
 mously all the offices, both private and public, of 
 peace and war." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE RECEPTION. 
 
 11 
 
THE RECEPTION. 
 
 The Reception at the President's House, at the close 
 of the Inaugural Services, was one of no ordinary interest. 
 Many old friendships among the Sons of the College were 
 renewed and quickened. Friends of religion and learning, 
 men distinguished for their labors in literature, science, and 
 art, and for their services as educators of youth, were heartily 
 welcomed, exchanged friendly greetings, and animated each 
 other to renewed efforts in the great work of Christian edu- 
 cation, and the diffusion of true knowledge in our country 
 and throughout the world. 
 
 Several impromptu addresses were made by distinguished 
 gentlemen present, upon the call of Governor Fish, who pre- 
 sided. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cummings, President of the Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, Middletown, Conn., spoke as follows : — 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, — The call to respond, as a 
 representative of other colleges, to the sentiment just given, comes 
 to me unexpected, and would more appropriately be -obeyed by one 
 of greater experience and the head of an older college. The inter- 
 est of kindred institutions, in this important and joyful occasion, is 
 sufficiently indicated by the many congratulations offered, and the 
 kind wishes expressed, for the success of the newly-inaugurated 
 President of this venerable institution of learning. 
 
 It is one of the pleasing circumstances connected with such a day 
 as this, that the best understanding and kindest feelings exist be- 
 tween all colleges. They were all founded with the same design, 
 and they strive for the same object ; yet in a noble competition in 
 the use of their resources to elevate the race, they are moved by 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 no envy or illiberal rivalry. As the generous scholar rejoices that 
 the thoughts he originates, once uttered, becomes the property of 
 the world, so do the friends of each institution of learning rejoice in 
 the general use of any means that may more efficiently promote 
 the cause of sound learning and true piety. The prosperity of any 
 one college is, in an important sense, a benefit to all. It stimulates 
 their supporters to gain a higher standard of education, and furnish 
 greater facilities for instruction. It is therefore a circumstance 
 of interest and of gratifying significance that, mingled with the 
 array of scholars and distinguished men specially and personally 
 interested in this honored institution, are so many of the ofiicers and 
 friends of Qther colleges. All rejoice when they consider how great 
 are the resources of wealth and intellect here consecrated to the 
 cause of education, and are confident that, under the wise and able 
 administration to which the affairs of the College are committed, 
 they will be used to secure the advancement of learning, honor to 
 our country, and the elevation of the race. 
 
 The ancient fame and power of Columbia College ax'e too well 
 known to need commendation. Her influence, in the early history 
 of our country, in elevating the standard of education, has well been 
 described as beneficial and wonderful. Her record is found in the 
 history of our country. Within her halls have been trained scholars 
 and statesmen distinguished for their erudition, their devotion to the 
 cause of justice, liberty, and human rights, and illustrious in the 
 annals of the good and the great. She has contributed her part in 
 securing to our land the high state of civilization and civil and re- 
 ligious liberty it now enjoys. 
 
 Our colleges, as a part of our extended system of education, are 
 the glory of our country, and from their veiy nature are identified 
 with republican institutions. They teach practically the true doc- 
 trine of equality. In the distribution of their privileges and honoi'S, 
 wealth and family name are nothing, but merit alone gains pre- 
 eminence. Columbia College, distinguished in the past for her 
 loyalty and devotion to the true interests of the country, gives a 
 new proof of her unchanged spirit in the selection of a president 
 who has known sacrifice for patriotism, who, because he loved his 
 country more than personal interests, left the scene of his labors 
 and his unfinished plans, and removed to a distant State, where he 
 could speak and act as a true man and a patriot. 
 
THE RECEPTION. 85 
 
 Called to succeed noble and honored men in the high office of 
 President of this ancient and honored Institution, the congratula- 
 tions and sympathies of all friends of learning are with him, and 
 their earnest prayer is, that ever-increasing prosperity may attend 
 his administration. 
 
 President Cummings was followed by the Rev. Dr. Ker- 
 foot, President of Trinity College, Hartford. 
 
 The response already made, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, by the 
 Rev. President of the Wesleyan University to the courteous notice 
 of the " Heads of other Colleges present," had, I thought, fulfilled 
 our pleasant part in the congratulations to Columbia College, and in 
 the welcome to your new President. But as I am called upon by 
 name to add my word of salutation, I cannot for a moment hesitate 
 to do so. Using the familiarity the occasion is prompting, I may 
 be permitted to say, that though now my personal acquaintances 
 here are no longer numerous, yet I am no stranger in this city and 
 its vicinity. My youth and college days were passed not far from 
 this ; here I formed the closest ties of my life, and some of its dear- 
 est friendships ; and here I laid up the treasure of early confidences 
 and memories. Then, too, I am not an alien in the walls of old 
 Columbia ; for she made me one of her own Society, when, some 
 years ago, she conferred on me the honor of the Doctorate in Divin- 
 ity. Would that I could have merited it as much as I prized such 
 an honor from such a source ! So I feel at home here to-day, and 
 my words of congratulation now may easily be very hearty ones. 
 
 And since this part and occasion in our pleasant day seem, by 
 general consent, readily, and properly, too, to provoke and justify 
 some egotism, I can best and most naturally utter my welcome to 
 President Barnard, by saying, that his response, Mr. Chairman, to 
 your official recognition of him in his new office, awakened in me a 
 sympathy and an appreciation of his feelings that probably no other 
 man present could have felt. There were some strange coincidences 
 in our experiences. Not only had our work been the same in two 
 different southern States, — the building up, by much toil and care, 
 of a college of liberal Christian learning ; not only had we wrought 
 for years with hearty purpose among cordial and valued friends in 
 those States, and had reared our edifices in substance and in reason- 
 able hopes to a goodly height, but the very years of effort he num- 
 
86 APPENDIX. 
 
 bered were the same with my own, and the sad cause of his inter- 
 ruption, three years ago, reached the same disappointing result with 
 me, in the suspension of St. James's College this summer. Twenty 
 years of full, and, for the time, successful, collegiate life and work, 
 ending in the suspension, perhaps overthrow of such hopes as grew 
 up in earnest hearts from so many years of loving work ; the sever- 
 ance from dear old ties and noble-hearted friends, — and no latitude 
 can furnish these more richly than the States in which Dr. Barnard 
 and I have been working ; a transfer in mature life to resume, 
 among new scenes and associates, the work long ago began else- 
 where in early manhood ; to meet new friends and hopes, while the 
 old ones are not, cannot be, forgotten, — I can well sympathize with 
 your new President. 
 
 So can I in his earnest words about our dear old flag. It is 
 pleasant to see it wave over us, fearless of insult or rivalry. We 
 know what such a sight of that flag, safe from peril, means. Not 
 that I have ever seen all in this way that Dr. Barnard saw. Mary- 
 land was always at heart fully loyal to the national cause, and she 
 is coming out all right and true. God speed the time when that 
 flag shall wave triumphantly and peacefully over our whole coun- 
 try ! When the institutions of religion and learning, which the war 
 has paralyzed, shall rise up again in new and enduring life and vigor, 
 and when every American shall be loyal and obedient to the na- 
 tional authority, and to that God who has established that authority 
 as His ordinance over us all in this land.* 
 
 From many letters which had been received by the Chair- 
 man of the Committee of Arrangements from Presidents of 
 Colleges, and extracts from which were read, the following 
 have been selected for insertion in this Narrative, with the 
 omission of the introductions and conclusions. 
 
 From President Woolsej, of Yale College : — 
 
 " It will give me pleasure to be at President Barnard's inaugura- 
 tion next Monday, if I find it in my power. Whether it will be in 
 my power depends in part on the time of the day at which it takes 
 
 * Chancellor Ferris, of the University of the City of New York, and 
 President Webster, of the Free Academy, N. Y., were also present. 
 
THE RECEPTION. 87 
 
 place. I can be in New York from about 1 o'clock until near 8 
 p. M., but my duties here will prevent me from being away from 
 College at any other time." 
 
 From President Hill, of Harvard College : — 
 " I am very sorry that it is not in my power to be present at the 
 approaching inauguration of Dr. Barnard. Many personal reasons 
 make me desirous of being present, and assuring Columbia College 
 of the friendly relations in which Harvard desires to stand toward 
 her, but previous engagements render it impracticable." 
 
 From Vice-President Hickok, of Union College : — 
 
 " The communication from the Committee of the Board of Trus- 
 tees of Columbia College, dated the 15th inst., conveying the friendly 
 greeting to this sister College, and an invitation that I attend at the 
 inauguration of their President on the 3d day of October next, has 
 been duly received, and I would return a grateful acknowledgment 
 of the kindness and courtesy therein manifested. 
 
 " It would be a pleasure to be able to comply with the invitation, 
 and I truly regret to be obliged to say that engagements here will 
 necessarily prevent my attendance. In behalf of this College I 
 cordially reciprocate the respect and good will from Columbia, and 
 sincerely pray that the coming occasion may be highly auspicious, 
 and the presidential inauguration eventuate in her increased pros- 
 perity and the enlargement of the cause of literature and science." 
 
 From President Fisher, of Hamilton College : — 
 
 " Pex'mit me, through you, to thank the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments for the honor of an invitation to the inauguration of Rev. Dr. 
 Barnard, as President of Columbia College. The occasion, I doubt 
 not, will be one of deep interest to all interested in the higher educa- 
 tional institutions of the State. I regret that official engagements 
 compel me to forego the pleasure of being present with you. Co- 
 lumbia College, under the wise presidency of so accomplished a 
 scholar and educator, will not only maintain her ancient renown, 
 but advance, with our advancing country, in the work of affording 
 facilities for an enlarged education, until the universities of this 
 New World shall surpass those of the Old, as much as our lakes 
 and rivers and cataracts surpass theirs." 
 
88 APPENDIX. 
 
 From President Hopkins, of Williams College : — 
 
 " I should be much gratified to accept the invitation by which I 
 am honored, to attend the coming inauguration of the President- 
 elect of Columbia College, if it were in my power. Unfortunately 
 it comes at the same time with the meeting of the American Board 
 of Missions, which I am required to attend. I trust the occasion 
 may be a happy one, and wish great success to the new President." 
 
 From President M'Lean, of the College of New Jersey, 
 Princeton : — 
 
 " It would give me very great pleasure to accept the invitation of 
 your Committee of Arrangements, to be present at the inauguration 
 of the Rev. Dr. Barnard as President of Columbia College ; and, un- 
 til to-day, I hoped it would be in my power to do so. But I find 
 that my engagements at home, on the 3d instant, will deprive me of 
 the pleasure of being with you on that interesting occasion. With 
 the best wishes for the continued prosperity and usefulness of your 
 venerable and distinguished institution." 
 
 From President Smith, of Dartmouth College : — 
 
 " Your communication of the 15th inst., inviting me to be present 
 at the inauguration of the Rev. Dr. Barnard, as President of Co- 
 lumbia College, has just reached me. I hasten to reciprocate, on 
 behalf of Dartmouth College, the greetings of her elder sister, and 
 to congratulate you on the auspicious occasion to which you are 
 looking forward. It is gratifying to all the friends of learning, that 
 the vacancy caused by the resignation of your late distinguished 
 President, is to be so soon and so worthily filled. 
 
 " I am sorry to say, however, that I shall be unable to comply with 
 your courteous invitation. Public engagements of an imperative 
 character will forbid. I the more regret this, as my long residence in 
 the city of New York gave me special opportunity to see what ser- 
 vice Columbia College has rendered to the cause of science and let- 
 ters, and to appreciate, I may add, the elevating general influence 
 of such an institution in the midst of a great commercial metrop- 
 olis. May the divine blessing be largely vouchsafed to the Pres- 
 ident-elect, and to the venerable College over which he is to 
 preside." 
 
 \ 
 
THE RECEPTION. 89 
 
 From the Rt. Rev. Bishop Odenheimer, President of Bur- 
 lington College, N. J. : — 
 
 I have to thank you, and through you the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, for the honor of an invitation to be present at the inaugura- 
 tion of the distinguished gentleman who has been chosen as the 
 tenth President of Columbia College. 
 
 I sincerely regret that official duty, in my diocese, will deprive 
 me of the pleasure of being present on an occasion as auspicious 
 for the interests of'academical culture in general, as it is in its bear- 
 ing on the prosperity of your venerable and illustrious institution. 
 
 From President Bourns, of Norwich University, Ver- 
 mont : — 
 
 I have had the honor to receive a letter from the Committee of 
 Arrangements of Columbia College, an invitation to attend at the 
 inauguration of Dr. Barnard, as President, on Monday next. I 
 regret extremely that my double duties here, in which I am now, 
 in our term time, engaged, will prevent my being present with you 
 on that occasion. 
 
 It would give me very great pleasure to have opportunity of 
 paying my humble tribute of respect to your noble old institution, 
 and also personally to your new Pi-esideht, and to assure him of ray 
 warm sympathy and sincere desire for his success in the arduous 
 and important position to which he has been called ; all minor in- 
 stitutions of learning, indeed the whole educated community, and 
 those interested in education, must, I feel, be affected for good or ill 
 by the condition of an institution so prominent and influential as 
 Columbia. 
 
 From President Loomis, of Allegheny College, Penn. : — 
 
 In the name of Allegheny College I would reciprocate the kindly 
 greetings of Columbia College, and hereby express my regrets that 
 prior engagements will prevent my presence at the inauguration of 
 Dr. Barnard. 
 
 I would congratulate Dr. Barnard on being called to the Pres- 
 idency of one of the oldest and best of the sisterhood of colleges, 
 and would congratulate the College on having as its Pi-esident 
 Dr. Barnard. 
 
 12 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 From President Anderson, of Rochester University : — 
 
 The note inviting me to attend the inauguration of President 
 Barnard, was, through no fault of yours, kept from my hand until ' 
 too late to enable me to accept it by letter or to attend in person. 
 I regret this very much, as it would have given me great pleasure 
 to have joined with you in the ceremonies connected with giving a 
 new head to the venerable institution which you represent. Please 
 accept ray thanks for your politeness in sending me this invitation, 
 and the assurance of my most earnest wishes for the highest success 
 of an administration of your College begun under such favorable 
 auspices, and by a gentleman of such high ability as Dr. Barnard. 
 
 From President De Koven, of Racine College, Wis. : — 
 
 The polite invitation of the Committee of the Trustees of Co- 
 lumbia College I have duly received. I regret very much that the 
 approaching examinations and Commencement here will deprive 
 me of the pleasure of being present on the occasion. 
 
 Permit me to offer my congratulations, and those of the College 
 over which I preside, to my own Alma Mater on this the inaugura- 
 tion of her tenth President. 
 
 Letters were received, also, from the following Presidents, 
 expressing their regrets at their inability to accept the invi- 
 tation of the Committee : Johnson, of Dickenson College ; 
 Woods, of Bowdoin College ; Jackson, of Hobart College ; 
 Goodwin, of the University of Pennsylvania ; Gerhart, of 
 Franklin and Marshall College ; and Torrej, of the Univer- 
 sity of Vermont. 
 
 James W. Gerard, Esq., LL. D., an Alumnus of the Col- 
 lege of the Class of 1811, responded to a call from the Chair, 
 in part as follows : — 
 
 I am very happy on this bright day, on this intellectual and fes- 
 tive occasion, to meet in the halls of our Alma Mater so many of 
 the early friends of my youth, whom time and circumstances have 
 separated, but who, now in the full day of our manhood, meet to re- 
 ciprocate, not the mere compliments of the occasion, but to express 
 
THE RECEPTION. 91 
 
 our heartfelt congratulations at meeting each other at this interesting 
 ceremonial. 
 
 Many years have rolled by since I acquired, at the feet of the 
 learned Gamaliels who then dispensed their stores of learning in 
 the class-rooms of this College, those elements of instruction and 
 lessons of wisdom which form the character and prepare the student 
 to go out in the world and fight, with hope of victory, the great 
 battle of life, but which, however, the sad experience of the grad- 
 uate shows, has its defeats as well as victories. When we take 
 our first degree and start upon the race of life, how few arrive at 
 the goal foremost in the strife ! Many stumble on the course and 
 fall by the wayside ; others strive beyond their strength to go ahead, 
 but soon, panting for breath, give out ere the course is half run. 
 Some favored few gain the prizes in life, but many are distanced. 
 When I look back upon my contemporaries, and seek for them now, 
 how few shining lights are to be seen among them ! The greater 
 part have gone to an early grave ; blighted hopes, disappointed 
 ambition, and the world's neglect, have broken the spirit of many a 
 bright youth whose budding genius gave rich promise of success ; 
 while, on the other hand, the prize has been gained by many a one 
 who gave no early promise in the race, but who, by steady gait, nas 
 kept on the even tenor of his way. Truly the race is not to the 
 swift, nor the battle to the strong. 
 
 But I came not here to preach, for I am surrounded by a galaxy 
 of reverend divines whose high prerogative and duty it is to point 
 the moral from the past, and to enforce those lessons of wisdom on 
 human life which experience and observation suggest. 
 
 Around this festive board, that groans with the good things of the 
 season, I delight to hear the ring of merry laughter from learned 
 scholars, professors, and divines, from the man who is in the middle 
 of life, and the young Alumnus who is beginning it ; for there is a 
 time to play as well as preach. I like to see the clergy, who wit- 
 ness enough of the ills and sorrows of life, cast away, for a brief 
 season, the sober hue of thought from their solemn countenances, 
 relax in festivity from the gravity of their profession, and mingle in 
 the little social pleasantries which give to life its occasional zest ; 
 and I congratulate them that — this being Monday, and not Satur- 
 day — they may enjoy this holiday, and, in one sense, have no care 
 for the morrow. 
 
92 " APPENDIX. 
 
 But, Gentlemen Trustees, I think, in the exercises of the day, 
 there has been an hiatus in the ceremonies, which I beg leave, in 
 some small degree, to fill up. While we have been paying our 
 adoration to the rising, we have lost sight of the setting sun. No, 
 gentlemen, I take that back. The sun of the late President Charles 
 King is now at its meridian ; bright and unclouded, and far distant be 
 the day when his sun shall set. If I had the power of Joshua, I should 
 even stop the wheel of Time and arrest the sun in his course, pro- 
 vided thereby I did not come in collision with Science. The late 
 President is now as bright and buoyant in spirit, as full of energy, 
 intellectual vigoi', and young blood, as he was when first he took 
 upon himself the burdens and the duties of the presidency of this 
 flourishing institution. With sagacity and foi-ethought his far-see- 
 ing eye saw that mammon was encroaching upon the sacred shades 
 of the old consecrated college-grounds, and that the royal elms, 
 which for so many decades had cast their shade upon the successive 
 classes of students, — who, like the waves of the sea, chased each 
 other before them, — would soon be cut down to make way for the 
 marble palaces of trade which were to supplant them, and that the 
 " woodman " could no longer " spare the tree." He looked around 
 for a new home for his respected Alma Mater and her numerous 
 children, and with the anticipation of working miracles in his new 
 location, he pitched upon this secluded spot, where, from its halls 
 that never were vocal before with the human voice, he determined to 
 make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak ; and he has wrought, 
 doubtless, many miracles on the young gentlemen committed to 
 his charge. They, indeed, must miss him ; for while he had the 
 faculty of commanding their respect and obedience during the juris- 
 dictional hours of study, lie knew full well that boys were boys, and 
 he remembered that he had been a boy himself, — I might almost 
 say was now, — and sympathized with their pleasures. In any new 
 duty to which he may be called, he carries with him the esteem of 
 professors, alumni, and students, and of all who know him ; and 
 may his way through life be long and straight, and strewn with flow- 
 ers, and may there be no thorns among the roses that still lie in his 
 path. 
 
 I deem it fitting, Gentlemen Trustees, that I should embrace this 
 opportunity to return my acknowledgments to my Alma Mater, 
 for the unexpected honor she has lately conferred on me, by 
 
THE RECEPTION. 93 
 
 granting me the degree of Legum Doctor, commonly called LL. D. 
 Whether I am learned hi the law, it is not for me to say. That I 
 have take7i in a good deal of law in my time, and let a good deal 
 out, all know who know me ; and the greater I deem the compli- 
 ment conferred on me by this College, for it, of all existing institu- 
 tions, found out my modest merits, when the world was generally 
 quite blind to them. I was on the banks of the Seine during the 
 summer of the past yeai', enjoying the pleasures and excitements of 
 the great French capital, moderately, when a letter missive from 
 my esteemed friend, the late President, announced to me the honor 
 that had been conferred on me, at which my better half was much 
 delighted, believing that I had letters-patent for " being skilled in 
 all the learning of the Egyptians." 
 
 But on my return to my country no one called or addressed me 
 as Doctor, (although my good old friend. Dr. Francis, did, before I 
 had the honor,) and, in reality, I had forgotten my degree and its 
 dignity, when, about three months since, I received a letter through 
 the mail, from Long Island, in a fair female hand, adding, after my 
 name, the mystic letters LL. D. I wondered by what miracle the 
 fame of my new degree had reached that distant region. On open- 
 ing it I found an invitation from a young lady, requesting me to be 
 present on an exhibition of a public school for girls, in the back part 
 of Brooklyn. Of course the LL. D. could not refuse the invitation, 
 and I was present at a very charming exhibition of their educational 
 exercises by some five hundred intelligent girls ; and that is the 
 only time that I have ever been recognized in the community as a 
 leai-ned Doctor. 
 
 Allow me, gentlemen, to digress a little from the particular ob- 
 ject with which I arose to address you, and to ask of you a kind 
 word, which this incident suggests, for the prosperity of that great 
 institution, the Public Schools of our city, — connected as they are 
 with education, and the preparation of many young men for enter- 
 ing this and other neighboring colleges. It may be that many gen- 
 tlemen present are not familiar with the great extent and practical 
 influence of the system, and it may be that many of you have never 
 darkened the door of a public school. To such, a few words from 
 me, explaining the gi'eat objects and results of the system, may not 
 be inappropriate or uninteresting. 
 
 By the magnificent provision of the laws of the State for the 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 erection and support of the public schools of this city, there is an- 
 nually raised, by tax on the citizens, about a million and a half of 
 dollars, with which lots are purchased, extensive, commodious, and 
 comfortable buildings are erected, which are an ornament to the 
 streets in which they ai'e built, whose portals are daily opened to 
 the children of both sexes, of all nationalities, and of every station 
 in life, without charge, without stint, without any form of admission ; 
 whether native or foreign born, whether Jew or Gentile, Catholic 
 or Protestant ; whether they come from the banks of the Rhine or 
 the Liffy, the Danube or the Po ; whether they are rich or whether 
 they are poor ; whether they are clothed in purple and fine linen 
 or in rags, admission is free to all, and all are received with kind- 
 ness. Thousands and tens of thousands of such children may be 
 daily seen wending their way through every street in the city to 
 their ward school, with their books under their arms, with quick, 
 elastic step and smiling face, as if they had well prepared the studies 
 of the day, and as if the school-house was to them — and which it is 
 really made by the beautiful system of gentle discipline which gov- 
 erns — a happy home. As the clock strikes nine, in more than a 
 hundred of these stately buildings, from the Battery to Kingsbridge, 
 from the East to the North River, nearly one hundred thousand 
 children, such as I have described, with attentive and respectful 
 reverence, listen to a portion of the Scriptures read to them by their 
 principals, then clasp their hands in open prayer, (and many never 
 prayed before,) and a hundred thousand voices are afterwards raised 
 in a hymn of praise to the God of all nations, all kindred, and all 
 tongues, — a beautiful preparation for the work of the day, not only 
 to the children, but to their teachers and school officers and friends 
 who are present. 
 
 In these schools, under the instruction of able teachers, (four 
 fifths of whom are young ladies of the most approved education, 
 morals, and manners,) these masses of thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands receive the elements of a thorough English education, which 
 is useful to them for any position in life to which they may be called. 
 But it is not only the intellect that is cultivated ; the heart and the 
 morale are not neglected. A quiet and gentle discipline governs 
 these masses, or, rather, by self-discipline the children govern them- 
 selves. Every girl and boy know their duties, and what is expected 
 from them. These duties are not enforced by a stringent or noisy 
 
THE RECEPTION. 95 
 
 discipline, but the commands of their teachers are communicated by 
 a gentle look, or the striking of a little bell, or the touching of a note 
 on the piano. Military evolutions for the boys, and calisthenics for 
 the girls, accompanied by the lively music of the piano, give ease 
 and character to their movements, and the chorus of the merry song 
 which rings through the building, would cause a stranger to suppose 
 that it was a place of amusement, rather than an educational estab- 
 lishment. But let him go into the class-room and see the energy and 
 rivalry with which they recite their lessons, the quickness and intel- 
 ligence with which they answer questions in arithmetic, geography, 
 history, astronomy, «fec., and the admirable order of the class, and 
 he will imagine tha the teacher has some magic spell by which 
 so many discordant elements are reduced to harmony. Especially 
 will a visitor be struck with the material of which the schools are 
 composed on the river margins of our city. He will there see 
 masses of children of the laboring classes, of the poorer operatives, 
 of all nations, — brands snatched from the burning, — many of whom 
 come from miserable homes to the happy influences of their young 
 teachers. 
 
 For fourteen years I have been intimately connected with the 
 public schools of the city, for the first ten having been a school offi- 
 cer of the 18th "Ward ; but, about four years ago, the politicians of 
 that ward thought proper to take the election of school officers into 
 their hands, and as I was not a politician myself, they elected their 
 political friends. But I did not discontinue my interest in and 
 visits to the schools of my ward, and those of the city at large, to 
 which I am daily invited ; so that I may say, that for fourteen years 
 hardly a day has passed, for the greater part of the year, that I have 
 not seen five hundred or a thousand of the young people of this city, 
 and in brief addresses and examinations have endeavored to improve 
 their intellectual and moral condition. 
 
 The public schools have also their college ; and seven to eight 
 hundred young men, selected from the different grammar-schools, 
 are admitted to the Free Academy, (the people's college,) where the 
 lustre of many a rough diamond is brought out by the skill of its 
 learned professors. 
 
 I can assure those gentlemen who have never visited any of our 
 public schools, that they will be amply repaid for any trouble or 
 time it may cost them in so doing, and that they will find there 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 much subject for hopeful contemplation in the rising generation 
 of our great city; and they will not think the heavy sum annu- 
 ally expended for their support a misappropriation of the people's 
 money. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Hicks, of the class of 1823, responded to a 
 call from the Chair as follows : — 
 
 I thank the Chairman for the honor he has done me. I have 
 always cherished a deep interest in old Columbia, and have come 
 three hundred miles, with no little personal inconvenience and ex- 
 pense, to attend these services. But, sir, the occasion awakens 
 painful as well as pleasurable emotions. I find myself a stranger 
 here. My collegiate life was spent within other walls, which no 
 longer exist except in memory. How many hallowed associations 
 cluster around that dear old building in Park Place ! I well remem- 
 ber the sadness that came over me, and the tear that I could not 
 restrain, when, on a visit to this city from my distant home, I passed 
 its ruins, and saw the workmen removing the last stones of its foun- 
 dation. Among the recollections of departed associates and friends, 
 none is more vivid than that of our venerable President, the Rev. 
 Dr. Harris, whose memory we all delight to honor. If I have had 
 any success in my profession, I hold myself indebted for it chiefly 
 to the training which I received in Columbia College ; and to no one 
 of its able faculty do I owe a greater debt of gratitude than to my 
 faithful friend, the reverend Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Let- 
 tres, whom I am most happy to see present with us to-day. I give 
 the health of the Rev. Professor McVickar. May many years be yet 
 added to his long and honored life. 
 
 Professor McVickar responded as follows : — 
 
 Thus called on, Mr. Chairman, by one of my now silver-haired 
 " boys," and on such a festive occasion, I cannot choose but answer, 
 as best I may. In truth, such obedience to a college call has be- 
 come part of my very nature. It began in boyhood, sixty-four 
 years ago, when my Alma Mater first called me to answer as her 
 " student " ; that obedience ripening into a higher duty when, seven- 
 teen years after, she called me, young as I was, to speak and answer 
 as her " professor " ; and thus, through a long life of academic duty, 
 even to my seventy-eighth year, has not only her word been to me 
 
THE RECEPTION. 97 
 
 law, but her narae and fame have been often on my lips, and always, 
 I may say, in my heart, and my words, however feeble, always at 
 her call and service ; so that it forms now, I may say, a portion of 
 my very " personal identity " to feel myself as part and parcel 
 of Columbia College, and answer to the name of " Professor " ; 
 and I owe it to the recent liberal kindness of the Trustees, that, 
 in relieving me of its active duties, I am still permitted to claim 
 its quiet honors, and respond to the title of Professor McVickar. 
 What Lord Nelson affirmed of his ship, I might almost anticipate 
 of my College, namely, that its name would be found by the doctors, 
 after death, visibly engraved on the heart. 
 
 As touching Columbia College, there are few who have known 
 her so long or loved her better, and none who can now feel bound 
 to her by so many ties of early remembrance, — our baptismal 
 names, so to speak, are of the same date, 1787. Born within sound 
 of her college-bell, nurtured and trained almost within the shadow 
 of her honored walls, my classical preparation was yet, through 
 foreign scholarship, fitting me for entrance before my thirteenth 
 year. 
 
 I entered, then, the most youthful of all her students, and gradu- 
 ated, accordingly, after four years, the youngest of her sons. That 
 long looked-for Commencement-day stands marked in my memory. 
 Gen. Alexander Hamilton, the pride and boast of our Alma Mater, 
 had just fallen in the field of mistaken honor.* The stage, draped 
 in black, gave evidence of our sense of loss. His two sons, college 
 students, the eldest my classmate, — one of the graduating class, — 
 brought the event doubly home to my feelings, already deeply ex- 
 cited by my own duty of opening the services of the day by a Latin 
 salutatory, — then the highest honor, — whose prescribed subject was 
 " Eloquence," and its choicest illustration Hamilton, — the earliest 
 eulogium, it comforts me to think, delivered after his death, and by 
 the youngest of his reverential admirers, and in the halls of his own 
 College. 
 
 Thirteen years after my graduation I was called as successor to 
 the Rev. Professor Bowden, in his various college duties, with little 
 
 * An appeal which his heart and conscience rejected, but wanted 
 strength to resist. A doubter in his youth, under the influence of 
 French infidel companions in the camp, but in his closing hours re- 
 turning to his early faith, a sincere and humble believer. 
 13 
 
98 APPENDIX. 
 
 of preparation beyond faith in my early training and favorite maxim, 
 '■'■ Perseverantia omnia vincit." Of our College professors I was 
 the first "native-born," as well as the first among her own sons 
 called to that honor ; so youthful, indeed, was my appearance, that 
 my first greeting at the College Board — from old Dr. Wilson, its 
 presiding officer — was, "Pray, Mr. McVickar, bow old are you ?" 
 To which query I was happily able to reply, (having a few days 
 before completed my thirtieth year,) " Oh, Doctor, between thirty 
 and forty," — a margin of age that raised me visibly in his good 
 opinion. " Oh," said he, " I did not take you to be so old." * 
 
 And now, Mr. Chairman, to turn to the present time and scene 
 before me, I here look around on the sons and grandsons of those 
 once my companions, and with pride behold so many of them add- 
 ing reputation and strength to our common Alma Mater ; and 
 the thought often crosses my mind. What a battalion of strength I 
 might summon to her side, could I with trumpet-call gather from 
 every corner of our land, and every class of honor in it, all who, 
 for the past half century, have been to me as pupils and as sons ! 
 What a gallant host it would be, Mr. Chairman, to speak in her 
 favor and to battle for her cause ! 
 
 But to conclude my " old-world " story. Among the sons I see 
 before me, I mark the earliest-born of my College life ; one gradu- 
 ating with all its honors, unquestioned head of the first class which 
 passed from my hands ; one, even in early life, so eminent in a de- 
 partment owing nothing to me, (I mean the higher mathematics,) 
 that within a few years he was called to the professor's chair of 
 the same, and there adding largely to its reputation, not only at 
 home, but abroad ; which last I speak boldly, on the authority of 
 the eminent Bowditch, who named him to me as the acutest and 
 ablest analyst in our country. I therefore, Mr. Chaii*man, give 
 you the health of Professor Henry J. Anderson, the oldest of 
 my College sons, — for years our College's learned Professor, and 
 now one of our honored Trustees. 
 
 * Professor' McVickar took his degree of A. B. in 1804 ; was elected 
 Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Belles-Let- 
 tres, &c., in 1817; and filled the Chair from that time to the year 1857^ 
 when he resigned it, and was made Professor of the Evidences of Natural 
 and Revealed Religion. From this Chair he retired in 1864, and was 
 made Emeritus Professor of the Evidences of Christianity. He received 
 from the College the Honorary Degree of S. T. D. in 1825. 
 
THE RECEPTION. 99 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Montgomery, being called upon to respond 
 on behalf of the clergy, spoke in siibstance as follows : — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — It gives rae great pleasure to respond to your 
 kind summons, and to utter a few words, by way of contribution 
 from the clerical order — always the friends of learning and the 
 promoters of sound education — to this genial and interesting oc- 
 casion. Ahhough an alumnus of, a sister institution of no mean 
 celebrity, — the University of Pennsylvania, — yet as a resident of 
 New York, as well as an ardent lover of classical Hterature, I am 
 rejoiced at every fresh token of the fame of Columbia. Year after 
 year I have watched, with increasing interest, the lengthening roll 
 of her distinguished sons, and have always entertained the deep 
 conviction that she had a great and beneficent mission to fulfil in 
 the metropolis where she has been so long known and so highly 
 esteemed. Surely we are entitled to expect the noblest results from 
 a college so richly endowed, so advantageously situated, and of such 
 a continental fame. • 
 
 Is it too much to ask that, through the combined efforts of her 
 professors, alumni, and trustees, our venerable College shall become, 
 in the strictest sense of the word, an University, where every branch 
 of scientific studies shall be pursued, and where languages, philoso- 
 phy, history and physics, mathematics and jurisprudence, shall all 
 be crowned and consecrated by religion ? Colleges, sir, should aim 
 at being not only seats of learning, but seminaries of virtue, from 
 whose classic halls, every year, should go forth a noble band of 
 young men fitted to become useful and honored citizens of the 
 Republic. 
 
 I am sure that we were all delighted with one particular feature 
 of the Inaugural Address of our new President. We all responded 
 to his sentiment, that the duty of loyalty to the Government was 
 only second to the allegiance that we owe to our God. Sir, from my 
 very heart I can echo that just and noble assertion. And where, 
 let me ask, can we most naturally look for this sacred principle of 
 patriotism, — especially in these times of sore trial to our beloved 
 country, — save to these very precincts, where Columbia (never 
 did the name seem more appropriate than now) is training so many 
 of the future citizens and statesmen of the nation in those liberal 
 studies which tend so strongly to the formation of a true-hearted 
 manhood ? 
 
100 , APPENDIX. 
 
 Sir, in this connection, let me attempt to supply an omission 
 which has hitherto characterized our festal proceedings. Upon 
 such a day in the history of Columbia nothing that distinguishes 
 her should be forgotten. We have listened with reverential admi- 
 ration to the encomiums pronounced upon the honored dead who, 
 in one or other of various official trusts, have been associated with 
 our institution of learning. We have joined in the eulogies that 
 have been bestowed upon the living professors. But, as yet, we 
 have forgotten to make special mention of those students of Colum- 
 bia, who, in their earliest manhood, have so loved their native land, 
 that, leaving behind them these classic halls, and all their familiar 
 associations, they have assumed the harness of the warrior, and, 
 hastening to the field of fearful strife, have generously imperilled 
 their lives in the service of the afflicted Republic. Sir, we give 
 these noble young men our heartiest thanks for their patriotic devo- 
 tion ; and our gratitude is increased by the conviction that, through 
 their self-sacrifice and courage, they have shed an abiding lustre 
 upon their Alma Mater. 
 
 It was under her training that these true-hearted champions of the 
 RIGHT have gone forth to the battle that is waging for the nation's 
 integrity and life ; and as we have watched them enduring the toil 
 and facing the danger of the conflict, we have been animated with 
 a still firmer faith that the righteous cause would triumph, the 
 national honor be vindicated, and this unholy rebellion be forever 
 crushed. God in his infinite mercy hasten the glorious consum- 
 mation ! and, hereafter, when we meet in the happier days of 
 restored union and peace, we will delight in inscribing, among the 
 foremost on our College rolls of distinction, these soldier-students of 
 Columbia. 
 
 And now, Mr. Chairman, I will detain the company no longer, 
 save to express our grateful sense of the abundant hospitality to 
 which, as has been already humorously hinted, my clerical brethren 
 and myself have done such ample justice, by proposing, as a con- 
 cluding sentiment of thanks to those to whom we are indebted for 
 the entertainment, the health and happiness of their distinguished 
 representative, the gentleman who so worthily occupies the Presi- 
 dency of the Board of Trustees, the Hon. Hamilton Fish. 
 
 The following letters were received from Alumni of the 
 College. 
 
THE EECEPTION. 101 
 
 From the Rt. Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, Bishop of Illinois : — 
 
 I received, only last evening, the invitation of the Committee of 
 Arrangements to be present at the inauguration of the tenth Presi- 
 dent of Columbia College. 
 
 I deeply love and honor my Alma Mater ; and she has perpet- 
 uated with intenser interest every feeling of my personal life, by 
 the education of my four sons in her venerated halls. 
 
 It is, however, impossible for me, on such short notice, to secure 
 the high indulgence of being present on the occasion, especially as 
 the annual meeting of the " Board of Missions " takes place on Tues- 
 day, in Cleveland. 
 
 I am compelled,' therefore, to content myself with the expres- 
 sion of the heartiest interest in this event, as well as all that con- 
 cerns the honor and usefulness of the institution. 
 
 I am assured that the Presidency of Dr. Barnard, whom I have 
 long known and admired in his public career, will eminently con- 
 tribute to secure both. 
 
 From the Hon. W. B. Lawrence, of Rhode Island : — 
 
 I delayed replying to your note of the 15th instant, in the hope 
 of being able to be present, on Monday next, at the inauguration of 
 the Rev. Dr. Barnard, as the tenth President of Columbia College, 
 and thereby evince my respect for my Alma Mater. I could, how- 
 ever, have scarcely expected to meet many of those who, with me, 
 received, forty-six years ago, the honors of the institution. One 
 name I do recognize, among the members of the Committee, as that 
 of a friend of my boyhood ; who, during a four years' course, main- 
 tained a superiority that no one of his classmates ever attempted to 
 question.* There is, moreover, in the Academic Board a professor 
 who received his appointment during my junior year. To the Rev. 
 Dr. McVickar's instruction in subjects which have since constituted 
 my special studies, I feel under the greatest obligations. 
 
 I thank you for the courtesy of your invitation, of which I regret 
 my inability to avail myself. 
 
 Letters of regret for their inability to attend w^ere received 
 from the Rt. Rev. Dr. Kemper, the venerable Bishop of Wis- 
 
 * Dr. Henry J. Anderson. 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 consin ; Frederick Phllipse, Esq. ; W. Walton, D. D. ; H. 
 Nicoll, Esq. ; J. Lenox, Esq. ; R. Suckley, Esq., Alumni. 
 
 The Alumni of the College were very largely represented. 
 It is proper to record the names of the elder graduates who 
 testified their affection and regard for their Alma Mater by 
 their attendance. As it was difficult to obtain the names 
 of all who were present, it is probable that some may be 
 omitted. The list of those whose attendance was noted — 
 other than members of the Board of Trustees, and of the 
 Faculties and Officers of the College — is as follows : the 
 Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck, LL. D., Class of 1801 ; Hon. 
 Gouverneur Kemble, Class of 1803 ; William E. Dunscomb, 
 C. L., Class of 1806 ; Hon. Hugh Maxwell, A. M., Class 
 of 1808; John Brown, S. T. D., Class of 1811; James W. 
 Gerard, LL. D., Class of 1811; William L. Johnson, S. T. 
 D., Class of 1819 ; Gabriel P. Dissosway, A. M., Class of 
 1819; Samuel R. Johnson, S.T.D., Class of 1820; George 
 H. Fisher, S. T. D., Class of 1821; Adrian H. Muller, Class 
 of 1822; John A. Hicks, D.D., Class of 1823; Alexander S. 
 Leonard, S.T.D., Class of 1825; Prof. William H. Crosby, 
 Class of 1827 ; George Ireland, C. L., Class of 1830; James W. 
 Beekman, A. M., Class of 1834; Evert A. Duyckinck, A. M., 
 Class of 1835 ; William H. Wilson, A. M., Class of 1835 ; John 
 M. Knox, A.M., Class of 1838; Rev. William A. McVickar, 
 A. M., Class of 1846 ; Charles A. Silliman, A. M., Class of 
 1850. 
 
 And the following Alumni, who represented the Stand- 
 ing Committee of the Alumni Association : Frederick De 
 Peyster, A. M., Class of 1816 ; Mancer M. Backus, A. M., 
 Class of 1838 ; George P. Quackenbos, A. M., Class of 1843 ; 
 Jeremiah Loder, A. M., Class of 1846 ; Rev. William G. Far- 
 rington, A. M., Class of 1853 ; John Crosby Brown, A. M., 
 Class of 1859 ; Eugene H. Pomeroy, A. M., Class of 1860 ; 
 Gratz Nathan, A. M., Class of 1861 ; Emile Lacombe, A.B., 
 Class of 1863. A. S. Van Duzer, A. M., Class of 1853, Sec- 
 retary of the Alumni Association. 
 
THE RECEPTION. 103 
 
 The following letters were received from gentlemen inter- 
 ested in education, who had been invited to honor the occa- 
 sion by their presence. 
 
 From the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State : — 
 
 I give you my sincere thanks for your kind invitation to the 
 inauguration of the Rev. Dr. Barnard into the office of President 
 of Columbia College. 
 
 Holding that institution in affectionate reverence, and highly 
 esteeming the distinguished gentleman who is to be charged with 
 its conduct, it would afford me very great pleasure to accept your 
 invitation. But I am beset here with daily cares that render the 
 indulgence impossible. 
 
 From Admiral W. B. Shubrick : — 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation, 
 from the Trustees of Columbia College, to be present at the inau- 
 guration of the Rev. F. A. P. Barnard, as President of that vener- 
 able institution. 
 
 It causes me great regret that official engagements forbid my 
 accepting this invitation, and that I am prevented from offei'ing in 
 person, to the Trustees, my congratulations on the occasion of their 
 obtaining the services of so learned and eloquent a gentleman ; one 
 so worthy to succeed the illustrious Presidents who have given so 
 high a character to Columbia College. 
 
 From J. E. Hilyard, Esq., of the Coast Survey: — 
 
 It is with great regret that I am obliged, by pressing official 
 duties, to deny myself the pleasui*e of being present at the inaugu- 
 ration of Dr. Barnard, in compliance with the invitation I have had 
 the honor of receiving. 
 
 As a friend and recent associate of Dr. Barnard's, and enter- 
 taining for him the warmest personal regard, the occasion would be 
 doubly interesting to me. May your time-honored institution con- 
 tinue to prosper under its new administration. 
 
 From Prof. B. Silliman, (since deceased) : — 
 
 I have been honored by the receipt of your circular of Septem- 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 ber l5th, inviting me to be present at the inauguration of the Rev. 
 F. A. P. Barnard, D. D., LL. D., as President of Columbia College. 
 
 I have to regret that it will not be in my power to attend on 
 that interesting occasion ; but I remember with pleasure that Colum- 
 bia College derived its first President, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, 
 from Connecticut, and his son, the late illustrious Samuel William 
 Johnson, after one interregnum, succeeded to the same office. He 
 was still a bright luminary, even in old age, when I was favored 
 by an interview with him in his retirement in Stratford ; and your 
 President elect, as well as the two Presidents Johnson, is an alum- 
 nus of Yale. 
 
 We view with pleasure the increasing prosperity and fame of 
 Columbia College, among whose alumni are found not a few names 
 illustrious in the annals of our country. 
 
 From Horace Binney, Jr., Esq., of Philadelphia : — 
 
 I received, yesterday, your Committee's kind note, dated 15th 
 inst., inviting me to attend the inauguration of Rev. Dr. Barnard, 
 as President of Columbia College. 
 
 Few things would give me greater pleasure than to take part 
 in doing honor to my dear friend, and classmate of forty years' 
 standing, the President elect, by my attendance on the occasion of 
 his instalment ; but having just returned to my office after a pro- 
 tracted absence, I find it not to be in my power to be absent on 
 Monday next. 
 
 I thank you for your kind invitation. Please accept my felici- 
 tations to the College on the choice which they have made of a most 
 worthy and accomplished head. 
 
 From Edmund Blunt, Esq., of Brooklyn : — 
 I regret that I shall be unable to attend the inauguration of the 
 Rev. Dr. Bai-nard as President of Columbia College, as I am obliged 
 to be absent from the city for some days. As a friend to religion 
 and learning, I feel pleased at the bright prospects of an institution 
 that has graduated, and will, I hope, continue to graduate her full 
 share of Christian gentlemen. 
 
 From Major-General Silas Casey, U. S. A. : — 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation 
 
THE RECEPTION. 105 
 
 to the inauguration of Eev. F. A. P. Barnard, D. D., LL. D., &c. 
 Please accept my thanks for the invitation, of which, however, it 
 will be impossible for me to take advantage. 
 
 I regret the more my inability to attend, on account of the friend- 
 ship which I bear Dr. Barnard personally, as well as the respect 
 with which I regard him as a Christian gentleman and a scholar 
 of profound attainments. 
 
 From Rear- Admiral C. H. Davis, United States Navy : — 
 
 I was in Cambridge when your invitation of September 15th, to 
 be present at the inauguration of my friend. Rev. Dr. Barnard, as 
 Pi-esident of Columbia College, reached Washington. I regret ex- 
 ceedingly that I could not have the pleasure of being present at this 
 interesting ceremony. I have many agreeable associations with the 
 College, formed when it occupied its old site, at the foot of Park 
 Place. They carry me back as far as the time when the Chair of 
 the Greek Professorship was filled by Dr. Moore, in whose house I 
 was a constant and intimate visitor, and through whom I became 
 acquainted with Dr. McVickar, and other eminent gentlemen con- 
 nected with the institution. 
 
 I return your greetings with cordiality. The rebellion has rather 
 strengthened than diminished my desire to extend the limits of sci- 
 entific and classical education in our own country, and thus to give 
 our society that which, through its recent and peculiar constitution, 
 it must necessarily stand in some measure in need of, — the highest 
 refinement, culture, and polish. 
 
 Letters regretting their inability to attend were received 
 from the following gentlemen : His Honor the Mayor ; George 
 W. Blunt, Esq. ; Prof. Graeff W. Barton ; J. W. Gilliss, Esq. ; 
 Major-General J. G. Barnard, U. S. A. ; Lieut.-Governor D. 
 R. Floyd Jones; Prof. James D. Dana; Rev. D. V. McLean; 
 J. Ferguson, Esq., National Observatory; Richard L*vin, Pres- 
 ident of St. Andrews Society ; Emlen T. Littell, Esq. ; Rev. 
 J. C. Dutcher; Capt. E. C. Boynton, U. S. Army, Military 
 Academy, West Point; Rev. T. E. Vermilye, D. D.; Rev. 
 S. D. Denison; John Travers, Esq.; Rev. John McClintock, 
 D.D. 
 
 14 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 In bringing this Narrative to a close, the Committee of 
 Arrangements desire to express their sense of obligation to 
 the several gentlemen who, in various ways, rendered to 
 them most valuable assistance in the discharge of their du- 
 ties, and contributed largely to the success of the celebration. 
 To Professor Peck, LL. D., and A. S. Van Duzer, A. M., 
 Secretary of the Alumni Association, who were the Marshals 
 of the Day, the thanks of the Committee are especially due 
 for the energy, promptness, and skill with which they exe- 
 cuted the task assigned them ; and also to the several young 
 gentlemen who were the Marshals' Aids, — Messrs. Lenox 
 Smith, of the Senior Class, D. Lord, Jr., of the Junior, Clar- 
 ence Hyde, of the Sophomore, and James M. Brady, of the 
 Freshman. 
 
 William A. Jones, A. M., the accomplished Librarian of 
 the College, Mr. (now, deservedly. Doctor) William H. Wal- 
 ter, the Organist, and Mr. Stephen R. Weeks, the Assistant- 
 Librarian, likewise rendered important services, which the 
 Committee desire gratefully to acknowledge. 
 
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