The Days of a Man 1879 



two sets were subjected to the same discipline, in 

 general adapted to the necessities of neither was 

 one of the burdens carried by higher education al- 

 most everywhere. Another and still heavier load 

 was the fixed course of study, based originally upon 

 the requirements of the English college, diluted but 

 never adapted to the needs of pioneers. 

 Grand Nevertheless, notwithstanding the handicaps of 

 Men of P overt y> antiquated methods, and lack of popular 

 Indiana appreciation, Indiana University, as I have implied, 

 did some really excellent work, and among its pro- 

 fessors in the 'yo's were four, grown old in service, 

 who were justly held in high respect by all capable 

 of recognizing a good man. These were Daniel Kirk- 

 wood, Theophilus A. Wylie, Elisha Ballantine, and 

 Richard Owen. 



Kirkwood was a mathematical astronomer of 

 learning and penetration, a man of noble personal 

 character also, as simple-hearted as a child, and 

 possessed of the most perfect courtesy. Dr. Richard 

 A. Proctor, a distinguished English astronomer, in 

 a public address at Bloomington spoke of Kirkwood 

 as "the Kepler of America." It seemed to me a 

 pity that one of the most erudite of mathematical 

 astronomers in our country should spend his life 

 teaching elementary geometry and algebra. Sub- 

 sequently, when I became head of the institution, I 

 arranged that Dr. Kirkwood should have a compe- 

 tent assistant and henceforth teach only astronomy. 

 Wylie, son of Dr. Andrew Wylie, the first president, 

 and for nearly fifty years professor of Physics, was 

 a scholarly gentleman of the old school, though 

 scarcely in line with the progress of an elusive 

 science. Ballantine, the learned professor of Greek 



C 188 3 



