EVOLUTION OF &quot;THE CORNELL IDEA&quot;-1850-1865 289 



more numerous, its general scope more extended. But it 

 was still far below my dreams. Its single course in clas 

 sics and mathematics, through which all students were 

 forced alike, regardless of their tastes, powers, or aims; 

 its substitution of gerund-grinding for ancient literature ; 

 its want of all instruction in modern literature; its sub 

 stitution of recitals from text-books for instruction in 

 history all this was far short of my ideal. Moreover, 

 Yale was then far more under denominational control 

 than at present its president, of necessity, as was then 

 supposed, a Congregational minister; its professors, as a 

 rule, members of the same sect; and its tutors, to whom 

 our instruction during the first two years was almost 

 entirely confined, students in the Congregational Divinity 

 School. 



Then, too, its outward representation was sordid and 

 poor. The long line of brick barracks, the cheapest which 

 could be built for money, repelled me. What a contrast 

 to Oxford and Cambridge, and, above all, to my air- 

 castles! There were, indeed, two architectural consola 

 tions : one, the library building, which had been built just 

 before my arrival ; and the other, the Alumni Hall, begun 

 shortly afterward. These were of stone, and I snatched 

 an especial joy from the grotesque Gothic heads in the 

 cornices of the library towers and from the little latticed 

 windows at the rear of the Alumni Hall. Both seemed to 

 me features worthy of &quot;colleges and halls of ancient 

 days.&quot; 



The redeeming feature of the whole was its setting, 

 the i green, with superb avenues overarched by elms ; 

 and a further charm was added by East and West Rock, 

 and by the views over New Haven Harbor into Long 

 Island Sound. Among these scenes I erected new air- 

 castles. First of all, a great quadrangle, not unlike that 

 which is now developing at Yale, and, as a leading 

 feature, a gate-tower like that since erected in memory 

 of William Walter Phelps, but, unlike that, adorned 

 with statues in niches and on corbels, like those on the 



I. 19 



