REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1917. 19 



for advancing knowledge. Contemporary scientists have like- 

 wise pursued the same ignis fatuus with similarly futile results, 

 as is best shown by the arbitrary and often thought-tight com- 

 partments into which science is divided by academies and royal 

 societies. A sense of humor leads us to conclude that these like- 

 nesses between groups and assemblages thereof, still more or less 

 hostile at times to one another, serve well to prove that the indi- 

 viduals concerned are human if not humanistic and that they all 

 belong to the same genus if not to the same species. 



In the third place, there is included in the extensive correspond- 

 ence on which this section is mainly based a special contribution 

 of letters furnished mostly by university presidents and profes- 

 sors and by men of letters selected with a view to excluding all 

 those who might be suspected of any non-humanistic predilec- 

 tions. These letters were received as replies to a communication 

 issued first during the year 1910, and occasionally since then, 

 soliciting counsel from those well qualified to assist the Institu- 

 tion in determining how it may best promote research and prog- 

 ress in the humanities and how it may be relieved of the charge 

 of unfairness toward them in the allotment of its income. The 

 essential paragraphs in this communication are the following: 



Amongst other suggestions arising naturally in this inquiry is that of 

 the desirability of something like a working definition of the term 

 humanities. To the question What are the humanities? one finds a 

 \'ariety of answers, some of which seem much narrower than desirable. 



In order to get additional information on this subject and in order 

 to make this part of the inquiry as concrete and definite as possible, I 

 am sending copies of the inclosed list of publications to a number of 

 friends requesting them to mark those entries of the list which they, 

 as individuals, would consider works falling properly in the fields of the 

 humanities. I shall esteem it a great favor, therefore, if you will 

 kindly examine this list, indicating by some sort of check-mark what 

 works, if any, may be rightly so classed, and then mail the same in the 

 inclosed stamped envelope. It will be of service also, to indicate to me, 

 if you care to do so, the lines of distinction which may be drawn between 

 the humanistic sciences and the physical sciences. I am sure you will 

 agree with me that it will be a decided aid to all of us to secure some- 

 thing like common definitions for these boundaries of knowledge. 



About thirty distinguished authors have participated in this 

 symposium; and their frank and generous expressions of opinion 

 w^ould be well worthy of publication if they had not been assured 



