34 IN AND OUT OF ITHACA. 



But the hand after all, that had most to do with shaping 

 the ideas that were to take form in the University, was 

 the same hand whose ceaseless devotion to its interests 

 has built these ideas into brick and stone, and the lives 

 of thousands of students, the hand of Andrew D. 

 White. What was his conception of the University ? 

 This is nowhere better expressed than in the inaugu- 

 ral address of President Adams, his successor in the 

 Presidency of Cornell University, and life-long friend : 



' What was that idea ? It was a very confident be- 

 lief that higher education could never meet the require- 

 ments of this century, unless it put itself, far more 

 perfectly than had hitherto been done, into accord with 

 the feeling, the inspirations, the needs, and the demands 

 of the present civilization. The incoming of political 

 equality and the revolution of the inventions had re- 

 sulted in what may be called the industrial age, and 

 had brought new demands that could not be ignored. 

 These changes, amounting to nothing less than complete 

 transformation of the conditions of society, must be 

 recognized and accepted. The new power was with the 

 masses of the people ; and here, as never before, an 

 effort needed to be made to plant university instruction 

 upon the necessities, the feelings, and the aspirations of 

 the whole people. Here, as never before, education 

 was to be made an outgrowth of these needs and aspira- 

 tions. Here the belief was held that to limit higher 

 education to the classical methods of the fathers would 

 be to limit it to what had come to be regarded as a choice 

 and delicate plant that was outside the thoughts of nine- 



