ANDREW DICKSON WHITE. .521 



was impressed with the inadequacy and narrowness of the college 

 training of those days. This feeling increased as he grew older and 

 when Ezra Cornell consulted him as to the best employment of some of 

 his wealth for the public benefit, Mr. White soon succeeded in inspiring 

 him with the vision which became embodied in Cornell University. 

 Mr. White became of course the president of the new university and 

 it is to him that we owe the placing of scientific and technical courses 

 on a level with the humanities. The development of Cornell has been 

 a striking illustration both of the power of the ideal and of Mr. White's 

 wisdom. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that Cornell has been 

 successful in so far as it has followed the ideals of its first president. 

 The principles that he laid down over fifty years ago are likely to guide 

 the course of the University for years to come. 



People wondered in the early days why a man like Goldwin Smith 

 should lea"^'e Oxford and come to Cornell; but it was the spirit of 

 protest in him that made him love Cornell to the end of his life. At 

 Cornell they were trying to do something new and worth while. It 

 was the spirit of Andrew D. White that appealed to Goldwin Smith. 



Though Mr. White's real reputation will rest on the work that he 

 did in starting Cornell University as the embodiment of an ideal, this 

 was by no means the whole of his work. His " History of the Warfare 

 of Science with Theology in Christendom" and his Autobiography are 

 the two works which the general public knows, and it is sometimes 

 forgotten that he was one of the founders of the American Historical 

 Association and its first president. While president of Cornell Uni- 

 versity he was also professor of Modern European history. In 1887 

 he presented to Cornell his historical library and it was only fitting 

 that the combined departments of history and political science should 

 be known officially as "The President White School of History and 

 Political Science." 



Mr. White's diplomatic career was varied and honorable. He was 

 minister plenipotentiary to Germany from 1879 to 1881 and to Russia 

 from 1892 to 1894 and later ambassador to Germany from 1897 to 

 1902. 



A man of means and a wonderful host, he kept open house in Ithaca. 

 Distinguished visitors to this country always visited Mr. White and 

 no one who lived in Ithaca during the last years of Mr. W^hite's life can 

 fail to realize what he meant to the social life of the faculty. The 



