DANGERS AT CORNELL -1868 -1872 361 



thing could be more unjust; I had greatly enjoyed such 

 studies myself, had found pleasure in them since my 

 graduation, and had steadily urged them upon those who 

 had taste or capacity for them. But, as a student and as a 

 university instructor, I had noticed two things in point, 

 as many other observers had done: the first of these was 

 that very many youths who go through their Latin and 

 Greek Eeaders, and possibly one or two minor authors be 

 sides, exhaust the disciplinary value of such studies, and 

 thenceforward pursue them listlessly and perfunctorily, 

 merely droning over them. On their account it seemed cer 

 tainly far better to present some other courses of study in 

 which they could take an interest. As a matter of fact, I 

 constantly found that many young men who had been do 

 ing half-way mental labor, which is perhaps worse than 

 none, were at once brightened and strengthened by devot 

 ing themselves to other studies more in accordance with 

 their tastes and aims. 



But a second and very important point was that, in 

 the two colleges of which I had been an undergraduate, 

 classical studies were really hampered and discredited 

 by the fact that the minority of students who loved 

 them were constantly held back by a majority who dis 

 liked them; and I came to the conclusion that the true 

 way to promote such studies in the United States was 

 to take off this drag as much as possible, by present 

 ing other courses of studies which would attract those who 

 had no taste for Latin and Greek, thus leaving those who 

 had a taste for them free to carry them much farther than 

 had been customary in American universities up to that 

 time. My expectations in this respect were fully met. A 

 few years after the opening of the university, contests 

 were arranged between several of the leading colleges and 

 universities, the main subjects in the competition being 

 Latin, Greek, and mathematics; and to the confusion of 

 the gainsayers, Cornell took more first prizes in these 

 subjects than did all the older competing institutions to 

 gether. Thenceforward the talk of our &quot;degrading clas- 



