32 The Life and Writings of 



in middle summer. Rafinesque found the University 

 in the midst of vacation, and hastened to join Clifford, 

 who was spending the summer in scientific recreation 

 in the country. 



RAFINESQUE AT TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. 



The institution to which Rafinesque had now come 

 had a stormy career. It was the outcome of an act of 

 the legislature of Kentucky which had amalgamated two 

 earlier and rival schools, the fact having been consum 

 mated in 1798. The two institutions whose fortunes 

 were thus joined were the Transylvania Seminary, estab 

 lished in 1783 by the Virginia Legislature, and the 

 Kentucky Academy, established by the Presbyterians in 

 1796. Considerations of economy, on the one hand, and 

 the evident fact that rivalry such as theirs would only 

 result in permanent injury to both schools, on the other, 

 led to the amalgamation. The University was now under 

 the celebrated Holly regime, its president, the third to 

 hold the office, being the Reverend Horace Holly, LL. D. 



Rafinesque became connected with this school in the 

 fall of 1819, and at a time when there were internal 

 dissensions. To this untoward condition must be added 

 the fact that he was a stranger, of foreign birth and 



