584: WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY. 



the Sheffield Scientific School, then a small part of the University, 

 but about to enter upon a rapid course of prosperity. With it he 

 speedily became identified in spirit, and his instruction in it did not 

 cease until 1886, when the disease manifested itself which eventually 

 struck him down. To the School his connection was of enduring 

 benefit. He was in the fullest sympathy with its objects and aims, 

 was profoundly interested in its success, and was unremitting in his 

 efforts for its advancement. It was largely, perhaps mainly, due to 

 his influence, that this department of the University never degenerated 

 into a merely technical institution ; that in it the study of language 

 and literature always occupied a position of equal prominence and 

 honor with the purely special subjects which it set out primarily to 

 teach. AYhile the School was small and the number of students few, 

 he gave instruction both in French and German. But it was not 

 many years before its rapid growth compelled him to confine himself 

 to one of these two subjects. From 1869 to 1872, he taught German 

 alone; after the latter year till 1886, French alone. It is, however, 

 to be added, that during the whole period of his connection with the 

 School he gave instruction in liuiruistics to the students of one of the 

 special courses. 



He received then and subsequently a good deal of sympathy for the 

 time thus spent in elementary instruction, and to many it will seem a 

 waste of power to have so employed it. But it was largely his own 

 choice. He kept up the practice long after the necessity which led 

 him at first to assume it had passed away. Nor, in fact, did it 

 seriously encroach upon his leisure. Whitney, as I have observed 

 previously, was a man of method, and the hours of his day were so 

 regulated and disposed as to secure the largest results with the least 

 friction. A single incident will illustrate how carefully his time was 

 measured. French and German were compulsory studies upon all 

 students, no matter what their special courses. In order to get tliem 

 out of the way, the first hour of the morning was given up to recita- 

 tions in tliese two languages. This had been from eight to nine ; but 

 at one of the few meetings of the Governing: Board of the Sheffield 

 Scientific School, from which Whitney was absent, it was decided to 

 change the time, so that henceforth it should be from half-past eight to 

 half-past nine. But to this he felt obliged to refuse his consent. The 

 hour from eight to nine he was willing to give up to this instruction, 

 but nothing more. There was accordingly no other course left for the 

 Board, unwilling to lose his services, than to rescind promptly its 

 previous action. 



