360 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-V 



especially impressed by the beauty of the moon, which 

 was at the full, when Carlyle, fastening his eyes upon it, 

 was heard to croak out, solemnly and bitterly, &quot;Puir auld 

 creetur ! 



The instruction of the university was at that time divided 

 between sundry general courses and various technical 

 departments, the whole being somewhat tentative. These 

 general courses were mainly three: the arts course, 

 which embraced both Latin and Greek; the course in 

 literature, which embraced Latin and modern languages; 

 and the course in science, which embraced more especially 

 modern languages in connection with a somewhat extended 

 range of scientific studies. Of these general divisions the 

 one most in danger of shipwreck seemed to be the first. 

 It had been provided for in the congressional act of 

 1862, evidently by an afterthought, and it was generally 

 felt that if, in the storms besetting us, anything must be 

 thrown overboard, it would be this; but an opportunity 

 now arose for clenching it into our system. There was 

 offered for sale the library of Professor Charles Anthon 

 of Columbia, probably the largest and best collection 

 in classical philology which had then been brought to 

 gether &quot;in the United States. Discussing the situation 

 with Mr. Cornell, I showed him the danger of restrict 

 ing the institution to purely scientific and technical stud 

 ies, and of thus departing from the university ideal. 

 He saw the point, and purchased the Anthon library for 

 us. Thenceforth it was felt that, with such a means of 

 instruction, from such a source, the classical department 

 must stand firm ; that it must on no account be sacrificed ; 

 that, by accepting this gift, we had pledged ourselves to 

 maintain it. 



Yet, curiously, one of the most bitter charges constantly 

 reiterated against us was that we were depreciating 

 the study of ancient classical literature. Again and 

 again it was repeated, especially in a leading daily jour 

 nal of the metropolis under the influence of a sectarian 

 college, that I wa,s &quot;degrading classical studies. 7 No- 



