ADDRESSES
AT THE
INAUGURATION OF CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT AS
PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE,
TUESDAY, OCT. 19, 1869.








ADDRESSES
AT THE INAUGURATION OF
CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT
Ag
PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE,
TUESDAY, OCToBER 19, 1869.
CAMBRIDGE:
SEVER AND FRANCIS,
BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
1869.




CAMBRIDGE:
PKESS OF JOHIN WILSON AND SON.




INTRODUCTORY N()TE.
THE office of President of Harvard College became
vacant on the 19th of September, 1868, by the resignation
of Thomas Hill, D.D.  On the 12th of March, 1869, Charles
William  Eliot was chosen President by the Corporation;
and this choice was confirmed by the Overseers, on the 19th
of May, 1869. From the 26th of September to the 1st of
July, such of the duties of the office as lie within the Academic Department were performed by the Rev. Dr. Peabody.
At the beginning of the following term, two members of
the Corporation and three members of the Faculty were
appointed a committee to make arrangements for President
Eliot's Inauguration.   This committee decided that the
Inauguration should take place at Cambridge, on Tuesday
afternoon, October 19. The Corporation appointed Leverett Saltonstall, Esq., chief marshal. The following invitation was published in the newspapers:
THE ALUMNI OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Are invited to the Inauguration of CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT, as President of Harvard College, which takes place at Cambridge, on Tuesday, October 19. A procession will be formed in Gore Hall, at halfpast two, P.M., under the direction of Leverett Saltonstall, Esq., and the
exercises in the church will begin at three o'clock, P.M. Immediately
after the exercises in the church, President Eliot will hold a reception at
the President's house in Quincy Street.
JOHN A. LOWELL,  I Committee Of the
NATHANIEL SILSBEE,    Corporation.
JOSEPH LOVERING,             
-v      T ^   r   Committee of the
FRANCIS J. CHILD,  College Faculty.
GEORGE M. LANE, 




6
The students of the University, the members of the
Government and of the Faculties of the University, their
invited guests, and the Alumni in large numbers, assembled
in Gore Hall at the proper time, and at 23 o'clock, P.M., the
procession moved to the church of the First Congregational
Society in the following order:Music.
Aid.                    Chief Marshal.                     Aid.
Undergraduates of the College.
Members of the Scientific and Professional Schools.
Members of the Corporation.
Ex-Presidents Walker and Hill.
Former Members of the Corporation.
The Overseers.
Professors and other Officers of Instruction and Government in the
University.
Librarian, Steward, and Secretary.
President of the Overseers and President of the University Elect.
His Excellency the Governor, and Aids.
Ex-Governors of the Commonwealth.
His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor.
Committees to Visit the University.
Officers of the Army and Navy.
Gentlemen specially invited.
Presidents and Professors of other Colleges.
Government of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Acting President and Professors of the same.
Judges of the State and United States Courts.
Senators and Members of Congress.
Mayors of Boston and Cambridge.
Alumni.
The ceremony of induction into office was performed for
the first time in the history of the College, not by the Governor of the State, but by the President of the Board of
Overseers.  This change was necessitated by the alterations made in the constitution of the Board of Overseers
by the Act of the Legislature dated April 28th, 1865.




7
ORDER OF EXERCISES.
I. MUSIC BY THE BAND.
II. CHORAL: " Let us with a Gladsome Mind."
III. PRAYER, BY REV. DR. PEABODY.
IV. CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN LATIN.
BY JOHN SILAS WHIITE, OF THE SENIOR CLASS.
V. INDUCTION INTO  OFFICE.
BY JOHN HENRY CLIFFORD, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF OVERSEERS.
VI. CHORUS: " Domine, salvum fac Praesidem Nostrum."- J. K. PAINE.
VII. ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ELIOT.
VIII. CHORUS FROM THE ANTIGONE OF SOPHOCLES:
" HIo't2 a de tvsev Koiebv avOppirov 6deVOTepov Tireet,"
" Wonders in Nature we see." - MENDELSSOHN.
IX. BENEDICTION, BY REV. DR. WALKER.








LATIN ORATION,
BY
JOHN SILAS WHITE,
OF THE
SENIOR CLASS.
2








OR A T I 0.
CONVENIMUS liodie, alumni fautoresque hujus literarum
universitatis, ut illum, cujus adventus per hos dies non
mediocriter captatus est, praesidem in munere constituamus.  Ac si non ad exitum  spei venerimus, ut verba
duce magistroque mox nostro futuro digna dicamus, nec
certe quod studium aut caritas Almae Matris deest, neque
quod illi salutem  non  profitemur plurimam, labemur.
Saepe numero antiquis temporibus Graeci petere Olympiam  solebant, Campum  Martium  forum  circum  prisci
Romani, ut ludos ibi et ludicra et gladiatorum certamina
spectarent; nos contra nec ut spectacula videamus nec ut
coronas apii laurive victoribus tradamus ad hunc amplissimum venimus locum, sed ut pulchriore etiam lauro, maximo
quidem munere, quod potest dare haec Academia, doctum
ac probum alumnum donemus.
Utinam viri illi clarissimi, qui hos ducentos triginta
annos fuerunt gubernatores, nunc hujus diei lucem adspicerent, ut res nostras secundas viderent, ut eum, qui in
eorum  locum hodierno die succedit, nobiscum honore prosequerentur!  Duo tamen vivunt, duo soli, quos adesse
vehementer gaudemus; e quibus alter cum sapientia excellenti et paene perfecta praeditus tum suavitate benevolentia comitate omnibus pergratus erat semper; alter, vir




12
singulari ingenio, magistratu ut abeat maximo  dolore
coactus est, cujus mentionem  libet mihi eisdem  facere
verbis, quibus C. Galli vir ille Romanus:-" Mori paene
videbamus illum in studio dimetiendi caeli atque terrae.
Quoties eum  lux, noctu  aliquid describere ingressum,
quoties nox oppressit, cum mane coepisset! Quam delectabat eum  defectiones solis et lunae multo nobis ante
praedicere! "
Tu quoque, gregis tamquam hujus Pastor atque Pater,
carus omnibus exspectatusque venisti; qui, acceptis magistratus numquam insignibus, interregna tamen per duo, cum
res multis difficultatibus laborarent, munere gubernandi
bene probe laute fungebaris.   Quod quidem  imperium
tuum  mite et tranquillum  valde diligebamus.  Numquam
enim, si quis auxilium  aut clernentiam  abs te petebat,
prorsus denegavisti preces.  Itaque,
"Serus in caelum redeas, diuque"
sis jucundus dulcis omnium amicus, qui annis volventibus
ex hoc fonte aquas doctrinae haurient!
Te nunc, qui jam  claves ceteraque honoris insignia
accipies, pro omnibus, qui hujus sedis disciplinae fautores
ac studiosi sunt, excipimus benignissime et salvere plurimum jubemus.  Nam saepe antehac, vere primo, viri illustres illi quidem eruditique sed senectute affecti in munere
praesidendi constituti sunt; tu autem, adulto auctumno,
cum  fructus uberes percipiuntur, cum  plaustra frugum
ac pomorum  oneribus strident, juvenis nobis fis praeses.
0 bonum  ostentum!  0 faustum  omen!  Etenim  si tot
et tanta illi egerunt senes, quam multa magnaque te actu



13
rum  sperare licet!  Quis enim  melius adulescentes non
instruere modo disciplina sed in bonam  et rectam  viam
ducere potest, quam qui aetate ab iis paulum distat? At
non magno usu et exercitatione potest esse praeditus;
fateor; sed  adulescentium  indolem  ingenium  animum
optime intellegit, et talis eorum consiliorum particeps fit,
ut facile ab omnibus amorem  sibi conciliet.  Quamquam
tibi ne fama quidem existimatioque desunt. Industriam
enim  quantam  praestiteris et diligentiam  et studium  in
rebus scholasticis ac conditionis humanae causa novimus.
Quid de studiis transmarinis dicamus? quid de integritate,
quid  de assiduitate, qua in hac Academia tutor atque
professor adjunctus, in Schola Artium  professor, munia
sequebaris?  Notae sunt animi fortitudo perseverantiaque
tua omnibus qui hodierno die in hunc locum convenerunt.
Ad has tam  praeclaras virtutes hoc denique accedit, ut
comiter et jucunde negare possis.
Hie igitur ordo professorum  praeceptorumque gravis
ac venerandus, et nos adulescentes, quibus ab eorum libet
ore pendere bona atque utilia docentium, etsi tempore,
quod est vel maximi momenti, sedem ad gubernacula capis,
dum  gravissimis de rebus agitur, fidem  tamen omnium
tibi rerum habemus. Precamur autem a Deo Optimo Maximo ut signis illis venustis ac pulchris, quae, verbo inter
se discrepantia, re prorsus unum videntur sonare, semper
tu  et nos, ut diligimus, sic utamur,-" Christo et Ecclesiae " atque " Veritas; "
" Verucsque sol illabere
Micans nitore perpeti,
Jubarque sancti spiritus
Infunde nostris sensibus! "








ADDRE SS
OF
HON. JOHN  H. CLIFFORD,
PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF OVERSEERS,
AND
I EPLY
OF
PRESIDENT  ELIOT.








ADDRESS.
PROFESSOR ELIOT: -
In discharging the honorable duty it has pleased
the Corporation of Harvard College to assign to me
on this occasion, I am not unmindful that any participation of mine in these interesting services is of
a purely official character. It arises from the change
that has taken place in the Government of the College,
since the last of your predecessors was invested with
the authority of the high office to which you have
been called, and the weighty responsibilities of which
you are now formally and publicly to assume.
This change, which has wisely taken from the Legislature, and confided to the Alumni of the College,
the choice of the Board of Overseers, of which His
Excellency the Governor had been previously the
President by virtue of his office, terminated his connection with the Board, and required the election of a
presiding officer from their own number.
Among other results of this separation of the College from the State, we are deprived on this occasion
of the accustomed aid of the Executive of the Com3




18
monwealth, by whom, for the time being, each of the
twenty-one Presidents of the College who have preceded you, during the whole period of the Colonial,
Provincial, and Constitutional history of Massachusetts,
has been inducted into office.
As a compensation, however, for this and other advantages it would have been pleasant to retain, by
continuing that connection, the present organization
of the College Government has happily fulfilled the
wish of one of the most gifted and most loyal of your
predecessors, the beloved and lamented FELTON, SO
fervently expressed in the Address delivered by him
at his inauguration as President of the University.
"The body of the graduates," he says, " have but a
slight connection with the University, after they have
once been dismissed from Alma Mater's immediate care.
They bear no official relation to it, and have no direct
influence over its affairs. I wish it were otherwise;
for Harvard University is properly represented not
only by those who are engaged for the moment in the
studies of the place, but by the great body of educated
men, who have gone forth into the world, and are
filling their several posts of duty, labor, and dignity,who are busied in the practical affairs of life,- in the
professions, in science and letters, -the lawyers, physicians, clergymen, scholars, statesmen, and orators.
The undergraduates are the bright and promising
spring, without which there could be no summer and
autumn; but the graduates are the summer and autumn, with ripening fruits and gathered harvests."
This element has at length been wrought into the




19
framework of the Government; and now, for the
first time in its history, the College stands alone,unsupported by the State, - and dependent only upon
itself to justify its claim to the lofty position it ought
to occupy among our institutions of learning, of which
it is the eldest, and should be the most advanced,
beneficent, and renowned.
If this termination of its official relations to the
Commonwealth, by depriving us of the services of its
honored Chief Magistrate in these ceremonials, has
taken away from  them  something of external state
and dignity, they certainly lose nothing of their impressiveness and interest by assuming a more simple and
less ostentatious character.
When, Sir, the far-reaching issues that are involved
in the great trust now to be confided to you, and the
influence its wise, faithful, and efficient performance
is to exert upon the country and the world, are measured and understood; when we reflect that we indulge
but a reasonable hope, in looking forward from your
period of life, that, through this day's proceedings
your hand will be instrumental in leading the minds
and moulding the characters of a larger number of the
best youth of the country than were guided by any of
your predecessors, -it is no exaggeration to say, that
this ceremony surpasses in interest and importance
any that accompanies the investiture of Ruler or
Magistrate with the functions of civil government,
however imposing or significant they may be.
Of the long procession of those who are to enter
these halls, to pass through the prescribed curriculum




20
of study, and be subject to the conditions of the discipline here to be administered, under your eye, and
with your sanction and approval, there will not be one
whose whole life may not be made or marred by the
exercise of the authority which is this day conferred
upon you; there is not a dwelling in all this broad
land, from  which those youths will come, with the
fresh recollection of a father's blessing and a mother's tears, that will not be agonized by disappointed
hopes, or brightened into unspeakable satisfaction
and joy, by the training of mind and heart which has
here taken the place of all the salutary influences of
home; and there is not a spot of all this country's
soil, or a sphere of man's activities throughout the
world, to which the results of that training will not
be borne in future years, to wield its influence for evil
or for good.
There is no danger that I speak too strongly of the
personal influence it is in the power of the Head of
the University to exert over the successive classes of
young men with whom he is brought into intercourse,
by any adequate and conscientious discharge of the
duties of his office. Haud inexpertus loquor.  I may
be pardoned if the associations of this hour, recalling
my own early experience of the priceless value of this
influence, should prompt a grateful recognition of
what I owe to it, and justify my estimate of what can
be accomplished by the wise and judicious direction a
college President can give to the discipline of the
students committed to his care.
I have sometimes thought, if this influence, com



21
bined with some mode of personal examination, by
which the Faculty might test the student's disposition
to make the best of his opportunities, according to his
capacity, could take the place of the present unsatisfactory and often unjust system of arbitrary marks,
even when most critically and conscientiously enforced, our college culture would better accomplish its
highest results.  The Procrustes bed on which the
poor victim of mediocrity of talent is now laid, to be
stretched out to the stature of the more highly gifted
child of genius by his side, would no longer exist, to
work the injustice of which it has too often been the
instrument.  Mediocrity is the unattractive average of
the race; though its capabilities, wisely stimulated, and
diligently cultivated, constitute the working forces of
the world. Genius, with its brilliant but often erratic
efforts, is the rare exception in human endowment.
The former needs all the fostering and patient care
the teacher can bestow.  The latter is self-reliant and
sufficient unto itself.  May it be the proud boast of
this Institution, under your auspicious and conscientious administration, that while the brightest genius
shall here find fit nurture for its highest powers, no
well-intentioned effort for improvement, of even the
humblest capacity, shall fail of receiving at your hands
all practicable encouragement and support.
I should fall short of my duty on this occasion
to that branch of the Government as whose organ
it is my privilege to address you, and whose members are looking with earnest hope to your accession to this office, as the commencement of a new




era of prosperity and progress for the Institution in
whose usefulness and glory they feel so profound an
interest, if I did not add to these remarks upon the
training the College is to give, a brief word upon what
it is to teach.
With all its rich appointments for a thorough university education; in the broad range of its schools of
science, the number of which it is constantly increasing; in the well-won and world-wide fame of the
members of its various Faculties,; and in the distinction it enjoys as the eldest and most honored of
American Universities, - it is not strange that a wide
and deep interest is felt in the direction it will give
to the scholarship of the country, to the achievements
of which it has so largely contributed through the
whole period of its history.
When its venerated founders, the Fathers of New
England, inscribed the simple motto' VERITAS" upon
the college seal, and when their immediate successors
enlarged its legend by the adoption of that which it
now bears, " CHRISTO ET ECCLESIZE," as the watchword
and token of its allegiance to the highest truth, they
surely never dreamed, - may the day never dawn when
their descendants shall declare - that there is an " irrepressible conflict" between the truths of ethical and
of physical science.  Truth is one: -" vital in every
part, it cannot, but by annihilation, die;" and he is
but poorly armed in its panoply of proof, who fears
that any speculation, study, or research can establish
a want of harmony between the revelations of God
through the spirit he has breathed into his noblest




23
creation, and those he has imparted through his imprints upon the insensate rocks.
Idle, too, is the boast, or the dread, that, if such a
conflict is to come, its predestined and ignoble issue
will be, that the highest and most precious truth man
can comprehend, and which ennobles human life and
all its acquisitions and accomplishments with their
chief dignity and value, shall surrender to the hasty
generalizations and unwarranted and  unchastened
speculations  of the  presumptuous sciolist, whose
" mind has been subdued to what it works in, like the
dyer's hand." Were such to be the result of what is
called the progress of science, as taught within these
walls, that He is to be ignored to whose glory they
were reared, of what significance are these idle ceremonials, from  which we might as well turn away,
" one to his farm, and another to his merchandise,"
contenting ourselves only with the reflection, that, like
the beasts that perish, we can " eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"? 
In the progress of what is complacently called the
" advanced thought of New England," and it may be
at no distant day, there doubtless will be waged a conflict of opinion of the highest import to the cause of
truth, and the welfare of the race.  Whenever it
comes, Harvard College can hold no subordinate place
among the institutions of the country, in whose armories must be forged the weapons with which it will be
fought. Her friends can have no misgivings as to the
position she will occupy on such a field. Her great
influence can never be arrayed on the side of those




24
whose arrogant self-conceit can find no higher object
of worship than the pretentious intellect of man, —
to-day, asserting its own omnipotence; to-morrow,
" babbling of green fields," as its possessor sinks beneath the turf that covers them to mingle with his
kindred clod; —of those whose misty speculations
shut out the life-giving rays of the " Star of Bethlehem," and who, with puny but presumptuous. hand,
would"hang a curtain on the East,
The daylight from the world to keep."
Having thus given a brief and very inadequate
expression of some thoughts respecting the training
and the teaching of the University, which are entertained by many of its wisest and truest friends, and
which seem to me not inappropriate to an occasion
like this, it only remains for me to place in your
charge these Keys, this ancient Charter, and this Seal
of the College, the symbols and the warrant of the
authority now  conferred upon you as its official
Head.
As one of her adopted children, who would fain
make his devotion to the best interests of the University in some humble degree commensurate with her
prodigal bestowal upon him  of the honors he has
received at her hands, I perform this grateful service.
I do it with an abounding confidence, that, in your
administration of the great trust which, by your acceptance of these symbols, you now assume, the fond
and fervent hopes of all the friends of the University,




25
that cluster around your entrance upon this new field
of labor and honor, will be amply justified and realized.
Endowed with intellectual tastes and moral characteristics, and accustomed to the prosecution of studies,
all eminently fitted to prepare you for your great
work; familiar with all the departments both of
pupilage and instruction in the Institution, within
whose walls you have been nurtured  and almost
domesticated, as in a second home; your judgment
enlarged and strengthened by the ripened fruits of
foreign travel, and the observation and study of the
best processes of education at home and abroad;
receiving a generous and cordial welcome from  your
learned and accomplished associates to their companionship and chieftainship; and added to all these
personal and social qualifications an hereditary loyalty to the Institution, which cannot fail to inspire
the heart of a son whose honored father, so many
of us remember, was one of its most devoted, efficient,
and valued friends, -there seems nothing wanting to
our heartfelt congratulations on this day, both to the
University and to yourself.  If the reflection should
at any time intrude itself upon your mind, as you feel
the pressure of responsibilities you have conscientiously assumed, that you encounter the trials which
are inseparable from them at an earlier age than any
of your predecessors, we who have been instrumental
in imposing them  upon you can felicitate ourselves
with the assurance that "' honorable age is not that
which standeth in length of time, nor that which is
4




26
measured by number of years; but that wisdom is
the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is
old age."
Tendering to you, therefore, the awaiting confidence, the cordial sympathies, and the ready co6peration of the Fellows and Overseers, - in their name,
and on their behalf, I now greet and welcome you as
the President of Harvard College.
To this address President ELIOT made answer as follows:MR. PRESIDENT, -I hear in your voice the voice
of the Alumni, welcoming me to high honors and
arduous labors, and charging me to be faithful to
the duties of this consecrated office.  I take up this
weighty charge with a deep sense of insufficiency,
but yet with youthful hope, and a good courage.
High examples will lighten the way.  Deep prayers
of devoted living and sainted dead will further every
right effort, every good intention. The University is
strong in the ardor and self-sacrifice of its teachers, in
the vigor and wisdom  of the Corporation and Overseers, and in the public spirit of the community.
Above all, I devote myself to this sacred work, in the
firm  faith that the God of the fathers will be also
with the children.




INAUGTTRAL ADDRESS
BY
PRESIDENT ELIOT.








A DD) IR ES S.
THE endless controversies whether language, philosophy, mathematics, or science supply the  best
mental training, whether general education should be
chiefly literary or chiefly scientific, have no practical
lesson for us to-day.  This University recognizes no
real antagonism  between literature and science, and
consents to no such narrow alternatives as mathematics or classics, science or metaphysics.  We would
have them all, and at their best. To observe keenly,
to reason soundly, and to imagine vividly are operations as essential as that of clear and forcible expression; and to develop one of these faculties, it is not
necessary to repress and dwarf the others. A University is not closely concerned with the applications of
knowledge, until its general education branches into
professional. Poetry and philosophy and science do
indeed conspire to promote the material welfare of
mankind; but science no more than poetry finds its
best warrant in its utility.  Truth and right are
above utility in all realms of thought and action.
It were a bitter mockery to suggest that any subject
whatever should be taught less than it now is in Amer



ican colleges. The only conceivable aim of a college
government in our day is to broaden, deepen, and invigorate American teaching in all branches of learning.
It will be generations before the best of American
institutions of education will get growth enough to
bear pruning. The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers
are still very thankful for the parched corn of learning.
Recent discussions have added pitifully little to the
world's stock of wisdom about the staple of education.
Who blows to-day such a ringing trumpet-call to the
study of language as Luther blew?  Hardly a significant word has been added in two centuries to Milton's description of the unprofitable way to study
languages.  WVould any young American learn how
to profit by travel, that foolish beginning but excellent sequel to education, he can find no apter advice
than Bacon's.  The practice of England and America
is literally centuries behind the precept of the best
thinkers upon education. A striking illustration may
be found in the prevailing neglect of the systematic
study of the English language. How lamentably true
to-day are these words of Locke: " If any one among
us have a facility or purity more than ordinary in his
mother-tongue, it is owing to chance, or his genius,
or any thing rather than to his education or any care
of his teacher."
The best result of the discussion which has raged
so long about the relative educational value of the
main branches of learning is the conviction that there
is room for them all in a sound scheme, provided that




31
right methods of teaching be employed.  It is not
because of the limitation of their faculties that boys
of eighteen come to college, having mastered nothing
but a few score pages of Latin and Greek, and the
bare elements of mathematics. Not nature, but an
unintelligent system of instruction fror  the primary
school through the college, is responsible for the fact
that many college graduates have so inadequate a
conception of what is meant by scientific observation,
reasoning, and proof. It is possible for the young to
get actual experience of all the principal methods of
thought. There is a method of thought in language,
and a method in mathematics, and another of natural
and physical science, and another of faith. With wise
direction, even a child would drink at all these springs.
The actual problem to be solved is not what to teach,
but how to teach.  The revolutions accomplished in
other fields of labor have a lesson for teachers. New
England could not cut her hay with scythes, nor the
West her wheat with sickles.  When millions are to
be fed where formerly there were but scores, the
single fish-line must be replaced by seines and trawls,
the human shoulders by steam-elevators, and the
wooden-axled ox-cart on a corduroy road by the
smooth-running freight train. In education, there
is a great hungry multitude to be fed. The great
well at Orvieto, up whose spiral paths files of donkeys painfully brought the sweet water in kegs,
was an admirable construction in its day; but now we
tap Fresh Pond in our chambers.  The Orvieto well
might remind some persons of educational methods




32
not yet extinct.  With good methods, we may confidently hope to give young men of twenty or twentyfive an accurate general knowledge of all the main
subjects of human interest, beside a minute  and
thorough knowledge of the one subject which each
may select as his principal occupation in life.  To
think this impossible is to despair of mankind; for
unless a general acquaintance with many branches of
knowledge, good as far as- it goes, be attainable by
great numbers of men, there can be no such thing as
an intelligent public opinion; and in the modern world
the intelligence of public opinion is the one condition
of social progress.
What has been said of needed reformation in
methods of teaching the subjects which have already
been nominally admitted to the American curriculum
applies not only to the University, but to the preparatory schools of every grade down to the primary. The
American college is obliged to supplement the American school.  Whatever elementary instruction  the
schools fail to give, the college must supply. T'he improvement of the schools has of late years permitted
the college to advance the grade of its teaching, and
adapt the methods of its later years to men instead of
boys.  This improvement of the college reacts upon
the schools to their advantage; and this action and
reaction will be continuous. A university is not built
in the air, but on social and literary foundations which
preceding generations have bequeathed. If the whole
structure needs rebuilding, it must be rebuilt from the
foundation.  Hence, sudden reconstruction is impossi



33
ble in our high places of education. Such inducements as the College can offer for enriching and
enlarging the course of study pursued in preparatory
schools, the Faculty has recently decided to give. Tile
requirements in Latin and Greek grammar are to be
set at a thorough knowledge of forms and general
principles; the lists of classical authors accepted as
equivalents for the regular standards are to be enlarged; an acquaintance with physical geography is
to be required; the study of elementary mechanics
is to be recommended, and prizes are to be offered for
reading aloud, and for the critical analysis of passages
from English authors.  At the same time the University will take to heart the counsel which it gives to
others.
In every department of learning, the University
would search out by trial and reflection the best
methods of instruction.  The University believes in the
thorough study of language. It contends for all languages,- Oriental, Greek, Latin, Romance, German,
and especially for the mother-tongue; seeing in them
all one institution, one history, one means of discipline,
one department of learning. In teaching languages,
it is for this American generation to invent, or to accept from abroad, better tools than the old; to devise
or to transplant from  Europe, prompter and more
comprehensive methods than the prevailing, and to
command more intelligent labor, in order to gather
rapidly and surely the best fruit of that culture and
have time for other harvests.
5




34
The University recognizes the natural and physical
sciences as indispensable branches of education, and
has long acted upon this opinion; but it would have
science taught in a rational way, objects and instruments in hand, - not from books merely, not through
the memory chiefly, but by the seeing eye and the
informing fingers. Some of the scientific scoffers at
gerund grinding and nonsense verses might well look
at home; the prevailing methods of teaching science,
the world over, are, on the whole, less intelligent
than the methods of teaching language. The University would have scientific studies in school and college and professional school develop and discipline
those powers of the mind by which science has been
created and is daily nourished,- the powers of observation, the inductive faculty, the sober imagination, the
sincere and proportionate judgment. A student in the
elements gets no such training by studying even a
good text-book, though he really master it, nor yet by
sitting at the feet of the most admirable lecturer.
If there be any subject which seems fixed and settled in its educational aspects, it is the mathematics;
yet there is no department of the University which has
been, during the last fifteen years, in such a state of
vigorous experiment upon methods and appliances of
teaching as the mathematical department. It would
be well if the primary schools had as much faith in
the possibility of improving their way of teaching
multiplication.
The important place which history, and mental,
moral, and political philosophy, should hold in any
broad scheme of education is recognized of all; but




35
none know  so well how  crude are the prevailing
methods of teaching these subjects as those who
teach them best.  They cannot be taught from  books
alone; but must be vivified and illustrated by teachers
of active, comprehensive, and judicial mind.  To
learn by rote a list of dates is not to study history.
Mr. Emerson says that history is biography.  In a
deep sense this is true.  Certainly, the best way to
impart the facts of history to the young is through the
quick interest they take in the lives of the men and
women who fill great historical scenes or epitomize
epochs. From the centres so established, their interest
may be spread over great areas. For the young especially, it is better to enter with intense sympathy into
the great moments of history, than to stretch a thin
attention through its weary centuries.
Philosophical subjects should never be taught with
authority.  They are not established sciences; they
are full of disputed matters, and open questions, and
bottomless speculations.   It is not the function of
the teacher to  settle  philosophical and  political
controversies for the pupil, or even to recommend
to him  any one set of opinions as better than
another.  Exposition, not imposition, of opinions is
the professor's part.  The student should be made
acquainted with all sides of these controversies, with
the salient points of each system; he should be
shown what is still in force of institutions or philosophies mainly outgrown, and what is new in those
now in vogue.  The very word education is a standing
protest against dogmatic teaching.  The notion that
education consists in the authoritative inculcation of




36
what the teacher deems true may be logical and appropriate in a convent, or a seminary for priests, but
it is intolerable in universities and public schools,
from  primary to professional.  The worthy fruit of
academic culture is an open mind, trained to careful
thinking, instructed in the methods of philosophic
investigation, acquainted in a general way with the
accumulated thought of past generations, and penetrated with humility. It is thus that the University
in our day serves Christ and the Church.
The increasing weight, range, and thoroughness of
the examination for admission to college may strike
some observers with dismay.  The increase of real
requisitions is hardly perceptible from year to year;
but, on looking back ten or twenty years, the changes
are marked, and all in one direction. The dignity and
importance of this examination has been steadily rising, and this rise measures the improvement of the
preparatory schools. When the gradual improvement
of American schools has lifted them to a level with
the German gymnasia, we may expect to see the
American college bearing a nearer resemblance to the
German Faculties of Philosophy than it now does.
The actual admission examination may best be compared with the first examination of the University of
France.  This examination, which comes at the end
of a French boy's school-life, is for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts or of Sciences. The degree is given
to young men who come fresh from school, and have
never been under University teachers: a large part of




37
the recipients never enter the University. The young
men who come to our examination for admission to
College are older than the average of French Bachelors of Arts.  The examination tests not only the
capacity of the candidates, but also the quality of
their school instruction; it is a great event in their
lives, though not, as in France, marked by any degree.
The examination is conducted by college professors
and tutors who have never had any relations whatever with those examined.  It would be a great
gain, if all subsequent college examinations could
be as impartially conducted by competent examiners
brought from without the college and paid for their
services.   When the teacher examines his class,
there is no effective examination of the teacher. If
the examinations for the scientific, theological, medical, and dental degrees were conducted by independent
boards of examiners, appointed by professional bodies
of dignity and influence, the significance of these
degrees would be greatly enhanced.  The same might
be said of the degree of Bachelor of Laws, were it not
that this degree is, at present, earned by attendance
alone, and not by attendance and examination. The
American practice of allowing the teaching body to
examine for degrees has been partly dictated by the
scarcity of men outside the Faculties who are at once
thoroughly acquainted with the subjects of examination, and sufficiently versed in teaching to know what
may fairly be expected both of students and instructors.
This difficulty could now be overcome. - The chief
reason, however, for the existence of this practice is




38
that the Faculties were the only bodies that could
confer degrees intelligently, when degrees were obtained by passing through a prescribed course of
study without serious checks, and completing a certain term of residence without disgrace.  The change
in the manner of earning the University degrees ought,
by right, to have brought into being an examining
body distinct from the teaching body. So far as the
college proper is concerned, the Board of Overseers
have, during the past year, taken a step which tends
in this direction.
The rigorous examination for admission has one
good effect throughout the college course; it prevents a waste of instruction upon incompetent persons. A school with a low standard for admission
and a high standard of graduation, like West Point,
is obliged to dismiss a large proportion of its students
by the way.  Hence much individual distress, and a
great waste of resources, both public and private.
But, on the other hand, it must not be supposed that
every student who enters Harvard College necessarily
graduates. Strict annual examinations are to be passed.
More than a fourth of those who enter the College fail
to take their degree.
Only a few years ago, all students who graduated at
this College passed through one uniform curriculum.
Every man studied the same subjects in the same proportions, without regard to his natural bent or preference.  The individual student had no choice either of
subjects or teachers. This system is still the prevail



39
ing system among American colleges, and finds vigorous defenders. It has the merit of simplicity. So
had the school methods of our grandfathers,-one
primer, one catechism, one rod for all children. On
the whole, a single common course of studies, tolerably
well selected to meet the average needs, seems to most
Americans a very proper and natural thing, even for
grown men.
As a people, we do not apply to mental activities
the principle of division of labor; and we have but a
halting faith in special training for high professional
employments.  The vulgar conceit that a Yankee can
turn his hand to any thing we insensibly carry into
high places, where it is preposterous and criminal.
We are accustomed to seeing men leap from farm or
shop to court-room or pulpit, and we half believe that
common men can safely use the seven-league boots
of genius.  What amount of knowledge and experience do we habitually demand of our law-givers?
What special training do we ordinarily think necessary
for our diplomatists?  In great emergencies, indeed,
the nation has known where to turn. Only after years
of the bitterest experience did we come to believe the
professional training of a soldier to be of value in war.
This lack of faith in the prophecy of a natural bent,
and in the value of a discipline concentrated upon a
single object, amounts to a national danger.
In education, the individual traits of different minds
have not been sufficiently attended to. Through all
the period of boyhood the school-studies should be
representative; all the main fields of knowledge




40
should be entered upon. But the young man of nineteen or twenty ought to know  what he likes best
and is most fit for. If his previous training has
been sufficiently wide, he will know by that time
whether he is most apt at language or philosophy or
natural science or mathematics. If he feels no loves,
he will at least have his hates.  At that age the
teacher may wisely abandon the school-dame's practice of giving a copy of nothing but zeros to the child
who alleges that he cannot make that figure.  When
the revelation of his own peculiar taste and capacity
comes to a young maxn, let him reverently give it welcome, thank God, and take courage. Thereafter, he
knows his way to happy, enthusiastic work, and, God
willing, to usefulness and success.  The civilization
of a people may be inferred from the variety of its
tools.  There are thousands of years between the
stone hatchet and the machine-shop. As tools multiply, each is more ingeniously adapted to its own exclusive purpose.  So with the men that make the
State.  For the individual, concentration, and the
highest development of his own peculiar faculty, is
the only prudence. But for the State, it is variety,
not uniformity, of intellectual product, which is needful.
These principles are the justification of the system  of elective studies which has been gradually
developed in this College during the past twenty
years. At present, the Freshman year is the only one
in which there is a fixed course prescribed for all. In
the other three years, more than half the time allotted




41
to study is filled with subjects chosen by each student
from lists which comprise six studies in the Sophomore year, nine in the Junior year, and eleven in the
Senior year. The range of elective studies is large,
though there are some striking  deficiencies.  The
liberty of choice of subject is wide, but yet has very
rigid limits.  There is a certain framework which
must be filled; and about half the material of the filling
is prescribed. The choice offered to the student does
not lie between liberal studies and professional or
utilitarian studies. All the studies which are open to
him are liberal and disciplinary, not narrow or special.
Under this system the College does not demand, it is
true, one invariable set of studies of every candidate
for the first degree in Arts; but its requisitions for
this degree are nevertheless high and inflexible, being
nothing less than  four years  devoted  to  liberal
culture.
It has been alleged that the elective system must
weaken the bond which unites members of the same
class.  This is true; but in view of another much
more efficient cause of the diminution of class intimacy, the point is not very significant. The increased
size of the college classes inevitably works a great
change in this respect. One hundred and fifty young
men cannot be so intimate with each other as fifty
used to be. This increase is progressive. Taken in
connection with the rising average age of the students,
it would compel the adoption of methods of instruction
different from the old, if there were no better motive
for such change. The elective system fosters scholar6




42
ship, because it gives free play to natural preferences
and inborn aptitudes, makes possible enthusiasm for
a chosen work, relieves the professor and the ardent
disciple of the presence of a body of students who are
compelled to an unwelcome task, and enlarges instruction by substituting many and various lessons
given to small, lively classes, for a few lessons many
times repeated to different sections of a numerous
class. The College therefore proposes to persevere
in its efforts to establish, improve, and extend the
elective system.  Its administrative difficulties, which
seem formidable at first, vanish before a brief experience.
There has been much discussion about the comparative merits of lectures and recitations.  Both are
useful,-lectures for inspiration, guidance, and the
comprehensive methodizing, which only one who has
a view of the whole field can rightly contrive; recitations, for securing and testifying a thorough mastery
on the part of the pupil of the treatise or author in
hand, for conversational comment and amplification,
for emulation  and competition.  Recitations alone
readily degenerate into dusty repetitions, and lectures
alone are too often a useless expenditure of force.
The lecturer pumps laboriously into sieves.  The
water may be wholesome, but it runs through.  A
mind must work to grow.  Just as far, however, as
the student can be relied on to master and appreciate
his author without the aid of frequent questioning
and repetitions, so far is it possible to dispense with




43
recitations. Accordingly, in the later college years
there is a decided tendency to diminish the number of
recitations, the faithfulness of the student being tested
by periodical examinations.  This tendency is in a
right direction, if prudently controlled.
The discussion about lectures and recitations has
brought out some strong opinions about text-books and
their use. Impatience with text-books and manuals is
very natural both in teachers and taught. These books
are indeed, for the most part, very imperfect, and stand
in constant need of correction by the well-informed
teacher. Stereotyping, in its present undeveloped condition, is in part to blame for their most exasperating
defects. To make the metal plates keep pace with the
progress of learning is costly. The manifest deficiencies of text-books must not, however, drive us into a
too sweeping condemnation of their use. It is a rare
teacher who is superior to all manuals in his subject.
Scientific manuals are, as a rule, much worse than
those upon language, literature, or philosophy; yet
the main improvement in medical education in this
country during the last twenty years has been the addition of systematic recitations from text-books to the
lectures which were formerly the principal means of
theoretical instruction.  The training of a medical
student, inadequate as it is, offers the best example
we have of the methods and fruits of an education
mainly scientific. The transformation which the average student of a good medical school undergoes in
three years is strong testimony to the efficiency of
the training he receives.




44
There are certain common misapprehensions about
colleges in general, and this College in particular, to
which I wish to devote a few  moments' attention.
And, first, in spite of the familiar picture of the moral
dangers which environ the student, there is no place
so safe as a good college during the critical passage
fiom boyhood to manhood.  The security of the college commonwealth is largely due to its exuberant
activity. Its public opinion, though easily led astray,
is still high in the main. Its scholarly tastes and
habits, its eager friendships and quick hatreds, its
keen debates, its frank discussions of character and of
deep political and religious questions, - all are safeguards against sloth, vulgarity, and depravity.  Its
society and not less its solitudes are full of teaching.
Shams, conceit, and fictitious distinctions get no mercy.
There is nothing but ridicule for bombast and sentimentality. Repression of genuine sentiment and emotion is indeed, in this College, carried too far. Reserve
is more respectable than any undiscerning communicativeness.  But neither Yankee shamefacedness nor
English stolidity is admirable. This point especially
touches you, young men, who are still undergraduates.
When you feel a true admiration for a teacher, a glow
of enthusiasm for work, a thrill of pleasure at some
excellent saying, give it expression.  I)o not be
ashamed of these emotions.  Cherish the natural sentiment of personal devotion to the teacher who calls
out your better powers. It is a great delight to serve
an intellectual master.  We Americans are but too
apt to lose this happiness.  German and French stu



45
dents get it. If ever in after years you come to smile
at the youthful reverence you paid, believe me, it will
be with tears in your eyes.
Many excellent persons see great offence in any
system  of college rank; but why should we expect
more of young men than we do of their elders! How
many men and women perform their daily tasks from
the highest motives alone, - for the glory of God and
the relief of man's estate?  Most people work for bare
bread, a few for cake.  The college rank-list reinforces higher motives. In the campaign for character,
no auxiliaries are to be refused. Next to despising
the enemy, it is dangerous to reject allies. To devise
a suitable method of estimating the fidelity and attainments of college students is, however, a problem which
has long been under discussion, and has not yet received a satisfactory solution.  The worst of rank as
a stimulus is the self-reference it implies in the aspirants. The less a young man thinks about the cultivation of his mind, about his own mental progress,about himself, in short, —the better.
The petty discipline of colleges attracts altogether
too much attention both fiom friends and foes.  It is
to be remembered that the rules concerning decorum,
however necessary to maintain the high standard of
manners and conduct which characterizes this College,
are nevertheless justly described as petty. What is
technically called a quiet term cannot be accepted as
the acme of University success. This success is not
to be measured by the frequency or rarity of college
punishments.  The criteria of success or failure in a




46
high place of learning are not the boyish escapades
of an insignificant minority, nor the exceptional
cases of ruinous vice.  Each year must be judged
by the added opportunities of instruction, by the
prevailing enthusiasm in learning, and by the gathered
wealth of culture and character. The best way to
put boyishness to shame is to foster scholarship
and manliness.  The manners of a community cannot be improved by main force any more than its
morals. The Statutes of the University need some
amendment and reduction in the chapters on crimes
and misdemeanors.  But let us render to our fathers
the justice we shall need from  our sons.  What
is too minute or precise for our use was doubtless wise and proper in its day. It was to inculcate
a reverent bearing and due consideration for things
sacred that the regulations prescribed a black dress
on Sunday. Black is not the only decorous wear in
these days; but we must not seem, in ceasing from
this particular mode of good manners, to think less of
the gentle breeding of which only the outward signs,
and not the substance, have been changed.
Harvard College has always attracted and still
attracts students in all conditions of life. From the
city trader or professional man, who may be careless
how much his son spends at Cambridge, to the farmer
or mechanic, who finds it a hard sacrifice to give his
boy his time early enough to enable him to prepare
for college, — all sorts and conditions of men have
wished and still wish to send their sons hither. There




47
are always scores of young men in this University
who earn or borrow every dollar they spend here.
Every year many young men enter this College without any resources whatever.  If they prove themselves men of capacity and character, they never go
away for lack of money. More than twenty thousand
dollars a year is now devoted to aiding students of
narrow means to compass their education, beside all
the remitted fees and the numerous private benefactions.  These latter are unfailing.  Taken in connection with the proceeds of the funds applicable to the
aid of poor students, they enable the Corporation to
say that no good student need ever stay away from
Cambridge, or leave college simply because he is
poor.  There is one uniform  condition, however, on
which help is given,- the recipient must be of promising ability and the best character. The community
does not owe superior education to all children, but
only to the elite, - to those who, having the capacity,
prove by hard work that they have also the necessary perseverance and endurance.  The process of
preparing  to  enter college  under the difficulties
which poverty entails is just such a test of worthiness as is needed.  At this moment there is no
college in the country more eligible for a poor student
than Harvard on the mere ground of economy.  The
scholarship funds are mainly the fruit of the last
fifteen years. The future will take care of itself; for
it is to be expected that the men who in this generation have had the benefit of these funds, and who
succeed in after life, will pay many fold to their suc



48
cessors in need the debt which they owe, not to the
College, but to benefactors whom they cannot even
thank, save in heaven. No wonder that scholarships
are founded. What greater privilege than this of
giving young men of promise the coveted means
of intellectual growth and freedomS  The angels of
heaven might envy mortals so fine a luxury.  The
happiness which the winning of a scholarship gives is
not the recipient's alone: it flashes back to the home
whence he came, and gladdens anxious hearts there.
The good which it does is not his alone, but descends,
multiplying  at every  step, through  generations.
Thanks to the beneficent mysteries of hereditary transmission, no capital earns such interest as personal
culture. The poorest and the richest students are
equally welcome here, provided that with their poverty or their wealth they bring capacity, ambition,
and purity. The poverty of scholars is of inestimable
worth in this money-getting nation.  It maintains
the true standards of virtue and honor.  The poor
fiiars, not the bishops, saved the Church. The poor
scholars and preachers of duty defend the modern
community against its own material prosperity. Luxury and learning are ill bed-fellows. Nevertheless,
this College owes much of its distinctive character to
those who bringing hither from refined homes good
breeding, gentle tastes, and a manly delicacy, add to
them openness and activity of mind, intellectual interests, and a sense of public duty.  It is as high a
privilege for a rich man's son as for a poor man's to
resort to these academic halls, and so to take his




49
proper place among cultivated and intellectual men.
To lose altogether the presence of those who in early
life have enjoyed the domestic and social advantages
of wealth would be as great a blow to the College as
to lose the sons of the poor.  The interests of the
College and the country are identical in this regard.
The country suffers when the rich are ignorant and
unrefined. Inherited wealth is an unmitigated curse
when divorced from  culture.  Harvard College is
sometimes reproached with being aristocratic. If by
aristocracy be meant a stupid and pretentious caste,
founded on wealth, and birth, and an affectation of
European manners, no charge could be more preposterous: the College is intensely American in affection,
and intensely democratic in temper. But there is an
aristocracy to which the sons of Harvard have belonged, and let us hope will ever aspire to belong,the aristocracy which excels in manly sports, carries
off the honors and prizes of the learned professions,
and bears itself with distinction in all fields of intellectual labor and combat; the aristocracy which in
peace stands firmest for the public honor and renown,
and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.
The attitude of the University in the prevailing discussions touching the education and fit employments of
women demands brief explanation.  America is the
natural arena for these debates; for here the female
sex has a better past and a better present than elsewhere.  Americans, as a rule, hate disabilities of all
sorts, whether religious, political, or social. Equality
7




50
between the sexes, without privilege or oppression on
either side, is the happy custom of American homes.
While this great discussion is going on, it is the duty
of the University to maintain a cautious and expectant
policy.  The Corporation will not receive women as
students into the College proper, nor into any school
whose discipline requires residence near the school.
The difficulties involved in a common residence of hundreds of young men and women of immature character
and marriageable age are very grave. The necessary
police regulations are exceedingly burdensome. The
Corporation  are not influenced  to  this decision,
however, by any crude notions about the innate
capacities of women.  The world knows next to
nothing about the natural mental capacities of the
female sex. Only after generations of civil fieedom
and social equality will it be possible to obtain the
data necessary for an adequate discussion of woman's
natural tendencies, tastes, and capabilities.  Again,
the Corporation do not find it necessary to entertain
a confident opinion upon the fitness or unfitness
of women for professional pursuits.  It is not the
business of the University to decide this mooted point.
In this country the University does not undertake to
protect the community against incompetent lawyers,
ministers, or doctors.  The community must protect
itself by refusing to employ such. Practical, not theoretical, considerations determine the policy of the University. Upon a matter concerning which prejudices are
deep, and opinion inflammable, and experience scanty,
only one course is prudent, or justifiable when such




51
great interests are at stake, - that of cautious and wellconsidered experiment.  The practical problem is to
devise a safe, promising, and instructive experiment.
Such an experiment the Corporation have meant to try
in opening the newly established University Courses of
Instruction to competent women. In these courses, the
University offers to young women who have been to
good schools, as many years as they wish of liberal culture in studies which have no direct professional value,
to be sure, but which enrich and enlarge both intellect
and character. The University hopes thus to contribute to the intellectual emancipation of women.  It
hopes to prepare some women better than they would
otherwise have been prepared for the profession of
teaching, the one learned profession to which women
have already acquired a clear title. It hopes that the
proffer of this higher instruction will have some reflex
influence upon schools for girls, - to discourage superficiality, and to promote substantial education.
The governing bodies of the University are the
Faculties, the Board of Overseers, and the Corporation.  The University as a place of study and instruction is, at any moment, what the Faculties make
it.  The professors, lecturers, and tutors of the University are the living sources of learning and enthusiasm.  They personally represent the possibilities
of instruction.  They are united in several distinct
bodies, the academic and professional Faculties, each
of which practically determines its own processes and
rules.  The discussion of methods of instruction is




52
the principal business of these bodies. As a fact, progress comes mainly from the Faculties. This has been
conspicuously the case with the Academic and Medical Faculties during the last fifteen or twenty years.
The undergraduates used to have a notion that the
time of the Academic Faculty was mainly devoted to
petty discipline. Nothing could be farther from the
truth.  The Academic Faculty is the most active, vigilant, and devoted body connected with the University.
It indeed is constantly obliged to discuss minute details, which might appear trivial to an inexperienced
observer.  But, in education, technical details tell.
Whether German be studied by the Juniors once a
week as an extra study, or twice a week as an elective,
seems, perhaps, an unimportant matter; but, twenty
years hence, it makes all the difference between a generation of Alumni who know German and a generation
who do not.  The Faculty renews its youth, through
the frequent appointments of tutors and assistant professors, better and oftener than any other organization
within the University. Two kinds of men make good
teachers, - young men and men who never grow old.
The incessant discussions of the Academic Faculty have
borne much fruit: witness the transformation of the
University since the beginning of President Walker's
administration. And it never tires. New men take
up the old debates, and one year's progress is not less
than another's. The divisions within the Faculty are
never between the old and the young officers. There
are always old radicals and young conservatives.
The Medical Faculty affords another illustration of




the same principle, - that for real University progress
we must look principally to the teaching bodies. The
Medical School to-day is almost three times as strong
as it was fifteen years ago. Its teaching power is
greatly increased, and its methods have been much
improved.  This gain is the work of the Faculty of
the School.
If then the Faculties be so important, it is a vital
question how the quality of these bodies can be maintained and improved.  It is very hard to find competent professors for the University. Very few Americans of eminent ability are attracted to this profession.
The pay has been too low, and there has been no
gradual rise out of drudgery, such as may reasonably
be expected in other learned callings. The law of
supply and demand, or the commercial principle that
the quality as well as the price of goods is best
regulated by the natural contest between producers
and consumers, never has worked well in the province
of high education. And in spite of the high standing
of some of its advocates, it is well-nigh certain that
the so-called law never can work well in such a field.
The reason is, that the demand for instructors of the
highest class on the part of parents and trustees is an
ignorant demand, and the supply of highly educated
teachers is so limited that the consumer has not sufficient opportunities of informing himself concerning
the real qualities of the article he seeks. Originally
a bad judge, he remains a bad judge, because the supply is not sufficiently abundant and various to instruct




54
him. Moreover, a need is not necessarily a demand.
Everybody knows that the supposed law affords a very
imperfect protection against short weight, adulteration, and sham, even in the case of those commodities
which are most abundant in the market and most
familiar to buyers.  The most intelligent community
is defenceless enough in buying clothes and groceries.
When it comes to hiring learning, and inspiration and
personal weight, the law  of supply and  demand
breaks down altogether.  A  university cannot be
managed like a railroad or a cotton mill.
There are, however, two practicable improvements
in the position of college professors which will be of
very good effect. Their regular stipend must and will
be increased, and the repetitions which now harass
them  must be diminished in number.  It is a strong
point of the elective system, that by reducing the size
of classes or divisions, and increasing the variety of
subjects, it makes the professors' labors more agreeable.
Experience teaches that the strongest and most devoted professors will contribute something to the
patrimony of knowledge; or if they invent little themselves, they will do something towards defending,
interpreting, or diffusing the contributions of others.
Nevertheless, the prime business of American professors in this generation must be regular and assiduous
class teaching.  With the exception of the endowments of the Observatory, the University does not
hold a single fund primarily intended to secure to
men of learning the leisure and means to prosecute
original researches.




55
The organization and functions of the Board of
Overseers deserve the serious attention of all men who
are interested in the American method of providing the
community with high education through the agency of
private corporations.  Since 1866 the Overseers have
been elected by the Alumni. Five men are chosen
each year to serve six years. The body has, therefore,
a large and very intelligent constituency, and is rapidly
renewed.  The ingenious method of nominating to
the electors twice as many candidates as there are
places to be filled in any year is worthy of careful
study as a device of possible application in politics.
The real function of the Board of Overseers is to
stimulate and watch the President and Fellows. Without the Overseers, the President and Fellows would be
a board of private trustees, self-perpetuated and selfcontrolled.  Provided as it is with two governing
boards, the University enjoys that principal safeguard
of all American governments,-the natural antagonism
between two bodies of different constitution, powers,
and privileges. While having with the Corporation
a common interest of the deepest kind in the welfare
of the University and the advancement of learning,
the Overseers should always hold towards the Corporation an attitude of suspicious vigilance. They
ought always to be pushing and prying. It would be
hard to overstate the importance of the public supervision exercised by the Board of Overseers. Experience proves that our main hope for the permanence
and ever-widening usefulness of the University must
rest upon this double-headed organization. The Eng



56
lish practice of setting up a single body of private
trustees to carry on a school or charity according to
the personal instructions of some founder or founders
has certainly proved a lamentably bad one; and when
we count by generations, the institutions thus established have proved short-lived.  The same causes
which have brought about the decline of English
endowed schools would threaten the life of this University were it not for the existence of the Board of
Overseers.  These schools were generally managed
by close corporations, self-elected, self-controlled, without motive for activity, and destitute of external stimulus and aid. Such bodies are too irresponsible for
human nature.  At the time of life at which men
generally come to such places of trust, rest is sweet,
and the easiest way is apt to seem the best way; and
the responsibility of inaction, though really heavier,
seems lighter than the responsibility of action. These
corporations were often hampered byfounders' wills and
statutory provisions which could not be executed, and
yet stood in the way of organic improvements. There
was no systematic provision for thorough inspections
and public reports thereupon. We cannot flatter ourselves that under like circumstances we should always
be secure against like dangers. Provoked by crying
abuses, some of the best friends of education in England have gone the length of maintaining that all
these school endowments ought to be destroyed, and
the future creation of such trusts rendered impossible.
French law practically prohibits the creation of such
trusts by private persons.




57
Incident to the Overseers' power of inspecting the
University and publicly reporting upon its condition,
is the important function of suggesting and urging
improvements.  The inertia of a massive University
is formidable. A good past is positively dangerous, if
it make us content with the present and so unprepared
for the future.  The present constitution of our Board
of Overseers has already stimulated the Alumni of
several other New-England colleges to demand a similar control over the property-holding board of Trustees
which has heretofore been the single source of all authority.
We come now to the heart of the University,-the
Corporation.  This board  holds the funds, makes
appointments, fixes salaries, and has, by right, the
initiative in all changes of the organic law of the
University. Such an executive board must be small
to be efficient. It must always contain men of sound
judgment in finance; and literature and the learned
professions should be adequately represented in it.
The Corporation should also be but slowly renewed;
for it is of the utmost consequence to the University
that the Government should have a steady aim, and a
prevailing spirit which is independent of individuals
and  transmissible from  generation to  generation.
And what should this spirit be?  First, it should be
a catholic spirit. A University must be indigenous;
it must be rich; but, above all, it must be fiee.  The
winnowing breeze of freedom  must blow through all
its chambers. It takes a hurricane to blow wheat
8




away. An atmosphere of intellectual freedom is the
native air of literature and science.  This University
aspires to serve the nation by training men to intellectual honesty and independence of mind.  The
Corporation demands of all its teachers that they be
grave, reverent, and high-minded; but it leaves them,
like their pupils, free. A University is built, not by
a sect, but by a nation.
Secondly, the actuating spirit of the Corporation
must be a spirit of fidelity,-fidelity to the many and
various trusts reposed in them by the hundreds of
persons who out of their penury or their abundance
have given money to the President and Fellows of
Harvard College in the beautiful hope of doing some
perpetual good upon this earth. The Corporation has
constantly done its utmost to make this hope a living
fact. One hundred and ninety-nine years ago, William
Pennoyer gave the rents of certain estates in the
County of Norfolk, Eng., that "two fellows and two
scholars for ever should be educated, brought up, and
maintained" in this College.  The income from this
bequest has never failed; and to-day one of the four
Pennoyer scholarships is held by a lineal descendant
of William Pennoyer's brother Robert.  So a lineal
descendant of Governor Danforth takes this year the
income of the property which Danforth bequeathed to
the College in 1699.  The Corporation have been as
faithful in the greater things as in the less. They
have been greatly blessed in one respect,-in the
whole life of the Corporation, seven generations of
men, nothing has ever been lost by malefeasance of




59
officers or servants.  A  reputation for scrupulous
fidelity to all trusts is the most precious possession of
the Corporation.  That safe, the College might lose
every thing else and yet survive,-that lost beyond
repair, and the days of the College would be numbered.  Testators look first to the trustworthiness and
permanence of the body which is to dispense their
benefactions.  The Corporation thankfully receive all
gifts which may advance learning; but they believe that
the interests of the University may be most effectually
promoted by not restricting too narrowly the use to
which a gift may be applied. Whenever the giver desires it, the Corporation will agree to keep any fund
separately invested under the name of the giver, and
to apply the whole proceeds of such investment to any
object the giver may designate. By such special investment, however, the insurance which results from  the
absorption of a specific gift in the general funds is
lost. A fund invested by itself may be impaired or
lost by a single error of judgment in investing.  The
chance of such loss is small in any one generation,
but appreciable in centuries. Such general designations as salaries, books, dormitories, public buildings,
scholarships, graduate or undergraduate, scientific collections, and expenses of experimental laboratories,
are of permanent significance and effect; while experience proves that too specific and minute directions
concerning the application of funds must often fail
of fulfilment, simply in consequence of the changing
needs and habits of successive generations.
Again, the Corporationi should always be filled with




60
the spirit of enterprise. An institution like this College is getting decrepit when it sits down contentedly
on its mortgages.  On its invested funds the Corporation should be always seeking how safely to make a
quarter of a per cent more. A quarter of one per cent
means a new professorship.  It should be always
pushing after more professorships, better professors,
more land and buildings, and better apparatus. It
should be eager, sleepless, and untiring, never wasting a moment in counting laurels won, ever prompt
to welcome and apply the liberality of the community,
and liking no prospect so well as that of difficulties to
be overcome and labors to be done in the cause of
learning and public virtue.
You recognize, gentlemen, the picture which I
have drawn in thus delineating the true spirit of the
Corporation of this College.  I have described the
noble quintessence of the New-England character,
that character which has made us a fiee and enlightened people,-that character which, please God,
shall yet do a great work in the world for the lifting
up of humanity.
Apart from the responsibility which rests upon the
Corporation, its actual labors are far heavier than the
community imagines.  The business of the University
has greatly increased in volume and complexity during the past twenty years, and the draughts made
upon the time and thought of every member of the
Corporation are heavy indeed.  The high honors of
the function are in these days most generously earned.




61
The President of the University is primarily an
executive officer; but, being a member of both governing boards and of all the Faculties, he has also the
influence in their debates, to which his more or less
perfect intimacy with the University and greater or
less personal weight may happen to entitle him. An
administrative officer who undertakes to do every thing
himself, will do but little and that little ill. The President's first duty is that of supervision. He should
know what each officer's and servant's work is, and
how it is done.  But the days are past in which the
President could be called on to decide every thing
from the purchase of a door-mat to the appointment
of a professor. The principle of divided and subordinate responsibilities, which rules in government
bureaus, in manufactories, and all great companies,
which makes a modern army a possibility, must be
applied in the University.  The President should be
able to discern the practical essence of complicated
and long-drawn discussions. He must often pick out
that promising part of theory which ought to be tested
by experiment, and must decide how many of things
desirable are also attainable, and what one of many
projects is ripest for execution.  He must watch and
look before,-watch, to seize opportunities to get
money, to secure eminent teachers and scholars, and to
influence public opinion towards the advancement of
learning,- and look before, to anticipate the due effect
on the University of the fluctuations of public opinion
on educational problems; of the progress of the institutions which feed the University; of the changing




62
condition of the professions which the University supplies; of the rise of new professions; of the gradual
alteration of social and religious habits in the community.  The University must accommodate itself
promptly to significant changes in the character of
the people for whom  it exists.  The institutions of
higher education in any nation are always a faithful
mirror in which are sharply reflected the national history and character. In this mobile nation the action
and reaction between the University and society at
large are more sensitive and rapid than in stiffer communities.  Tlhe President, therefore, must not need to
see a house built before he can comprehend the plan
of it.  He can profit by a wide intercourse with all
sorts of men, and by every real discussion on education, legislation, and sociology.
The most important function of the President is
that of advising the Corporation concerning appointments, particularly about appointments of young men
who have not had time and opportunity to approve
themselves to the public.  It is in discharging this
duty that the President holds the future of the University in his hands.  He cannot do it well unless he
have insight, unless he be able to recognize, at times
beneath some crusts, the real gentleman and the natural
teacher. This is the one oppressive responsibility of
the President: all other cares are light beside it.  To
see every day the evil fruit of a bad appointment
must be the cruelest of official torments. Fortunately,
the good effect of a judicious appointment is also
inestimable; and here, as everywhere, good is more
penetrating and diffusive than evil.




63
It is imperative that the Statutes which define the
Piresident's duties should be recast, and the customs
of the College be somewhat modified, in order that
lesser duties may not crowd out the greater.  But,
however important the functions of the President, it
must not be forgotten that he is emphatically a constitutional executive.  It is his character and his judgment which are of importance, not his opinions. He
is the executive officer of deliberative bodies, in
which decisions are reached after discussion by a majority vote.  Those decisions bind him.  He cannot
force his own opinions upon anybody.  A University
is the last place in the world for a dictator. Learning is always republican. It has idols, but not masters.
What can the community do for the University?
It can love, honor, and cherish it.  Love it and
honor it.  The University is upheld by this public
affection and respect.  In the loyalty of her children
she finds strength and courage. The Corporation, the
Overseers, and the several Faculties need to feel that
the leaders of public opinion, and especially the sons
of the College, are at their back, always ready to give
them a generous and intelligent support. Therefore
we welcome the Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth, the Senators, Judges, and other dignitaries of
the State, who by their presence at this ancient celemonial bear witness to the pride which Massachusetts
feels in her eldest University. Therefore we rejoice
in the presence of this throng of the Alumni, testify



64
ing their devotion to the College which, through all
changes, is still their home.  Cherish it.  This University, though rich among American colleges, is very
poor in comparison with the great universities of
Europe.  The wants of the American community have
far outgrown the capacity of the University to supply
them.  We must try to satisfy the cravings of the
select few as well as the needs of the average many.
We cannot afford to neglect the Fine Arts.  We need
groves and meadows as well as barracks, and soon
there will be no chance to get them in this expanding
city. But, above all, we need professorships, books,
and apparatus, that teaching and scholarship may
abound.
And what will the University do for the community?
First, it will make a rich return of learning, poetry,
and piety.  Secondly, it will foster the sense of public
duty,-that great virtue which makes republics possible. The founding of Harvard College was an heroic
act of public spirit.  For more than a century the
breath of life was kept in it by the public spirit of the
Province and of its private benefactors.  In the last
fifty years the public spirit of the friends of the College has quadrupled its endowments.  And how have
the young men nurtured here in successive generations repaid the founders for their pious care?  Have
they honored freedom and loved their country?  For
answer we appeal to the records of the national service; to the lists of the senate, the cabinet, and the
diplomatic service, and to the rolls of the army and




65
navy.  Honored men, here present, illustrate before
the world the public quality of the graduates of this
College. Theirs is no mercenary service. Other fields
of labor attract them more and would reward them
better; but they are filled with the noble ambition to
deserve well of the republic. There have been doubts,
in times yet recent, whether culture were not selfish;
whether men of refined tastes and manners could
really love Liberty, and be ready to endure hardness
for her sake; whether, in short, gentlemen would in
this century prove as loyal to noble ideas, as in other
times they had been to kings.  In yonder old playground,fit spot whereon to commemorate the manliness
which there was nurtured, shall soon rise a noble
monument which for generations will give convincing
answer to such shallow doubts; for over its gates will
be written, " In memory of the sons of Harvard who
died for their country." The future of the University
will not be unworthy of its past.
9