IMPORTANCE OF LIBERAL CULTURE 391 



and enlarging training made as far whole in all his parts as 

 a good general education could make him, that he might 

 have adequate foundation on which to build his professional 

 work." With this end in view he diversified, grouped, and so 

 arranged the courses of instruction that they might not only 

 yield a thorough technical training in the different branches of 

 practical knowledge, but give also a share of culture at least 

 a taste for the humanistic side of learning which might be a 

 haunting memory, a memory that would perhaps deliver men 

 from a sordid and too exclusive devotion to business. That his 

 aim was not wholly without result, that there was at times the 

 sting of conscience, if not the benefit of conduct, is shown by 

 the following anecdote, which Mr. Shaler liked to hear. 



It so happened that once while waiting with a friend in the 

 corridor of a New York hotel I was introduced in a casual 

 way (neither one catching the other's name and I wearing 

 rather a thick veil) to a gentleman whose appearance denoted 

 worldly prosperity. A moment after, my friend remarked to 

 him, " I 'm sorry to hear, old fellow, you are not feeling well 

 overworked, I suppose?" "How is it possible," I interposed, 

 "to be otherwise than overworked in a place like this?" "That's 

 just it," said the stranger. "I'm ashamed to confess it, but 

 one does get submerged in the current. Yet there was a time 

 when I had other ideals. I remember once when I was a student 

 at Harvard, now a good many years ago, while I was calling at 

 the house of a friend the talk turned upon the possibility of 

 combining business with some form of liberal culture, and as 

 an illustration of the possibility, Sir John Lubbock, the success- 

 ful banker and man of science, was cited. Listening to the con- 

 versation I then resolved, young and vacant-minded as I was, 

 that I would cling to some intellectual interest outside of the 

 field of money-getting ; but alas " and he shrugged his shoul- 

 ders. "At whose house was it?" I asked. "At Professor 

 Shaler's; that kind of thing was a hobby of his, you know. 

 And it was his wife who lent me the Life of Lubbock." 



