390 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT -VI 



parture from it would now be wise. Still, the policy of 

 conferring no honorary degrees is infinitely better than 

 the policy of lavishing them. 



As to regular and ordinary degrees, I had, in my plan 

 of organization, recommended that there should be but one 

 degree for all courses, whether in arts, science, or litera 

 ture. I argued that, as all our courses required an equal 

 amount of intellectual exertion, one simple degree should 

 be granted alike to all who had passed the required ex 

 amination at the close of their chosen course. This view 

 the faculty did not accept. They adopted the policy 

 of establishing several degrees: as, for example, for the 

 course in arts, the degree of A.B. ; for the course in science, 

 the degree of B.S. ; for the course in literature, the degree 

 of B.L. ; and so on. The reason given for this was that 

 it was important in each case to know what the train 

 ing of the individual graduate had been; and that the 

 true way to obviate invidious distinctions is so to perfect 

 the newer courses that all the degrees shall finally be 

 considered as of equal value and honor. This argument 

 converted me: it seemed to me just, and my experience 

 in calling men to professorships led me more and more 

 to see that I had been wrong and that the faculty was 

 right; for it was a matter of the greatest importance to 

 me, in deciding on the qualifications of candidates for pro 

 fessorships, to know, not only their special fitness, but 

 what their general education had been. 



But, curiously enough, within the last few years the 

 Cornell faculty, under the lead of its present admirable 

 president, has reverted to my old argument, accepted it, 

 and established a single degree for all courses. I bow 

 respectfully to their judgment, but my conversion by the 

 same faculty from my own original ideas was so complete 

 that I cannot now agree to the wisdom of the change. It 

 is a curious case of cross-conversion, I having been and 

 remaining converted to the ideas of the faculty, and they 

 having been converted to my original idea. As to the 

 whole matter, I have the faith of an optimist that eventu- 



