CHAPTER THIRTEEN 



RETURN TO PRINCETON 



I WAS welcomed by my dear kinsfolk like a repentant Prodigal Son 

 and, within a few days, became engaged to Miss Alice Post, of New 

 York, thus bringing to a happy conclusion the first chapter of the 

 romance that began ten years before. I had a great programme of 

 scientific research and the prospect of long years of delightful work 

 filled me with a kind of exaltation that only slowly died away, as I 

 gradually realised how short those years were to be and how small a 

 part of my programme was to be accomplished. 



In addition to my own investigations, I felt a strong urge to take 

 part in the expansion and elevation of college work, in order that we 

 might thus develop a truly national type of American university. My 

 ambition to assist in this movement was first kindled by a remark that 

 Dr. Gregory made to me in his rooms in Leipsic, when he was dis- 

 coursing upon the manifold defects of American colleges in general and 

 Princeton in particular. I asked him what could be done to bring about 

 an improvement and he repHed: "It is for men like you to take hold and 

 effect a reform." I then registered a vow, inwardly, to work for this 

 aim, to the best of my ability. I have been able to do very little in help- 

 ing to advance the cause of higher education in this country and, at 

 the end of fifty years as a member of the Princeton Faculty, I am far 

 from being assured that I have not done more harm than good. I com- 

 fort myself with the reflection that I could not have done much better 

 by swimming against the stream, instead of letting myself be carried 

 along by it. 



On the other hand, Dr. McCosh did accomplish a great work in the 

 way of developing Princeton into a real university, in spite of great 

 obstacles and in the face of determined opposition. When he came to 

 Princeton in 1868, he found both Faculty and Board of Trustees so full of 

 hidebound conservatives, that he could accomplish his reforms only 

 by playing off Board and Faculty against each other, and coercing one 



