442 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-IX 



opened a new epoch in my life; but of this I shall speak 

 elsewhere. 



During this period of something over fifteen years, I 

 have been frequently summoned from these duties, which 

 were especially agreeable to me first, in 1892, as minister 

 to Russia; next, in 1896, as a member of the Venezuelan 

 Commission at Washington ; and, in 1897, as ambassador 

 to Germany. I have found many men and things which 

 would seem likely to draw me away from my interest in 

 Cornell; but, after all, that which has for nearly forty 

 years held, and still holds, the deepest place in my 

 thoughts is the university which I aided to found. 



Since resigning its presidency I have, in many ways, 

 kept in relations with it ; and as I have, at various times, 

 returned from abroad and walked over its grounds, 

 visited its buildings, and lived among its faculty and 

 students, an enjoyment has been mine rarely vouchsafed 

 to mortals. It has been like revisiting the earth after 

 leaving it. The work to which I had devoted myself for 

 so many years, and with more earnestness than any other 

 which I have ever undertaken, though at times almost 

 with the energy of despair, I have now seen successful 

 beyond my dreams. Above all, as I have seen the crowd 

 of students coming and going, I have felt assured that the 

 work is good. It was with this feeling that, just before I 

 left the university for the embassy at Berlin, I erected at 

 the entrance of the university grounds a gateway, on 

 which I placed a paraphrase of a Latin inscription noted 

 by me, many years before, over the main portal of the 

 University of Padua, as follows : 



&quot; So enter that daily thou mayest become more learned 



and thoughtful ; 



So depart that daily thou mayest become more useful 

 to thy country and to mankind.&quot; 



I often recall the saying of St. Philip Neri, who, in the 

 days of the Elizabethan persecutions, was wont to gaze 



