RECENT ORIGINAL WORE AT HARVARD. 485 



Harvard library contains the richest collection of literature pertaining 

 to folk and ballad lore in the world. 



In connection with original work by students, Professor Hill has 

 introduced a new elective, which consists of oral discussions on given 

 subjects that the students investigate for themselves in the library. 



In the department of modern languages, Professor Cook is editing 

 and preparing articles for a French and English lexicon, to be pub- 

 lished by Hachette & Co., of Paris. Mr. Sheldon, instructor in German, 

 has recently completed a German grammar. 



No course of electives in the university offers a broader and richer 

 field for true culture than those in fine arts, which, though of com- 

 paratively recent institution, have been so conducted as to be firmly 

 placed on an enduring footing. Professor Norton, the head of this 

 department, is preparing a book on " Historical Studies of Church- 

 Building in the Middle Ages," which will probably appear within a 

 few months. Assistant Professor Moore, who has recently returned 

 from abroad, brought with him a number of exceedingly instructive 

 copies and drawings made by himself, which serve as an important 

 basis for the art-collection that, it is to be hoped, will be gathered 

 together in connection with this department. The work of the Art 

 Club also deserves mention. This is an association of students, with 

 the cooperation of professors, who meet fortnightly for the discussion 

 of art subjects, and to listen to lectures. The club has recently had 

 two exhibitions, one of Professor Moore's collection, and one of 

 Whistler's etchings, and has printed some valuable contributions to 

 art-literature. 



At the time of my visit to Professor Paine he was writing the 

 " Spring Symphony," which has since been produced at a university 

 concert in Sanders's Theatre, and at a Harvard symphony concert in 

 Boston. Among the best known works that Professor Paine has 

 composed of late years are his oratorio " St. Peter," the overture to 

 " As You Like It," brought out by Thomas, the " Centennial Hymn," 

 and a symphony in C minor. 



The tendency of the practical mind to judge a man's work by its 

 tangible results leads to a lack of appreciation and a total under- 

 rating of the work done by the faithful laborers in the field of pure 

 as distinguished from applied science. An Edison outdoes the tele- 

 graph, or dazzles the world with the electric light, and the gaping 

 crowd who bow before the successful inventor forget that he has simply 

 applied principles and laws discovered long before by silent workers 

 in studies and laboratories, who have toiled on comparatively un- 

 known, amply rewarded by the knowledge that their life-work has 

 added to the world's store of scientific truth. The scientific work of 

 a university, fruitful though it may be in discoveries, is generally 

 under-estimated, because true savants the world over feel no interest 

 in turning the results of their work into the practical form of dollars 



