288 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-I 



noble and dignified belongings of a great seat of learning, 

 my heart sank within me. Every feature of the little 

 American college seemed all the more sordid. But grad 

 ually I began consoling myself by building air-castles. 

 These took the form of structures suited to a great univer 

 sity: with distinguished professors in every field, with 

 libraries as rich as the Bodleian, halls as lordly as that of 

 Christ Church or of Trinity, chapels as inspiring as that 

 of King s, towers as dignified as those of Magdalen and 

 Merton, quadrangles as beautiful as those of Jesus and 

 St. John s. In the midst of all other occupations I was 

 constantly rearing these structures on that queenly site 

 above the finest of the New York lakes, and dreaming of 

 a university worthy of the commonwealth and of the na 

 tion. This dream became a sort of obsession. It came 

 upon me during my working hours, in the class-rooms, in 

 rambles along the lake shore, in the evenings, when I paced 

 up and down the walks in front of the college build 

 ings, and saw rising in their place and extending to the 

 pretty knoll behind them, the worthy home of a great uni 

 versity. But this university, though beautiful and dig 

 nified, like those at Oxford and Cambridge, was in two 

 important respects very unlike them. First, I made 

 provision for other studies beside classics and mathe 

 matics. There should be professors in the great modern 

 literatures above all, in our own; there should also be a 

 professor of modern history and a lecturer on architec 

 ture. And next, my university should be under control of 

 no. single religious organization ; it should be free from all 

 sectarian or party trammels; in electing its trustees and 

 professors no questions should be asked as to their belief 

 or their attachment to this or that sect or party. So far, at 

 least, I went in those days along the road toward the 

 founding of Cornell. 



The academic year of 1849-1850 having been passed at 

 this little college in western New York, I entered Yale. 

 This was nearer my ideal; for its professors were more 

 distinguished, its equipment more adequate, its students 



