6 ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION-I 



moms throughout all that region, and, as a boy of five or 

 six years of age, I was very proud to read on the corner- 

 stone of the Academy building my grandfather's name 

 among those of the original founders. 



Not unlikely there thus came into my blood the strain 

 which has led me ever since to feel that the building up of 

 goodly institutions is more honorable than any other 

 work, an idea which was at the bottom of my efforts in 

 developing the University of Michigan, and in founding 

 Cornell University. 



To Cortland Academy students came from far and 

 near ; and it soon began sending young men into the fore- 

 most places of State and Church. At an early day, too, 

 it began receiving young women and sending them forth 

 to become the best of matrons. As my family left the 

 place when I was seven years old I was never within 

 its walls as a student, but it acted powerfully on my 

 education in two ways, it gave my mother the best of 

 her education, and it gave to me a respect for scholarship. 

 The library and collections, though small, suggested pur- 

 suits better than the scramble for place or pelf; the 

 public exercises, two or three times a year, led my 

 thoughts, no matter how vaguely, into higher regions, and 

 I shall never forget the awe which came over me when 

 as a child, I saw Principal Woolworth, with his best stu- 

 dents around him on the green, making astronomical ob- 

 servations through a small telescope. 



Thus began my education into that great truth, so im- 

 perfectly understood, as yet, in our country, that stores, 

 shops, hotels, facilities for travel and traffic are not the 

 highest things in civilization. 



This idea was strengthened in the family. Devoted as 

 my father was to business, he always showed the greatest 

 respect for men of thought. I have known him, even 

 when most absorbed in his pursuits, to watch occasions 

 for walking homeward with a clergyman or teacher, 

 whose conversation he especially prized. There was scant 

 respect in the family for the petty politicians of the 



