256 AS UNIVERSITY PKOFESSOR-I 



li 1st cry such as liave now been developed in so many of 

 our universities and colleges. 



J hiring 1 my stay as resident graduate at Yale after my 

 return from Europe in ISjC, 1 often discussed the subject 

 with my old friend and companion (Jilman, now president 

 of the Carnegie Institution, and with my beloved instruc- 

 tor, Professor Porter. .Both were kind enough to urge me 

 to remain at Xew Haven, assuring me that in time a profes- 

 sorship would be established. To promote this I wrote an 

 article on "German Instruction in (jeneral History/' 

 which was well received when published in the "Xew Eng- 

 lander, '' and prepared sundry lectures, which were re- 

 ceived by the university people and by the Xew York press 

 more favorably than 1 now think they deserved. But there 

 seemed, after all, no chance for a professorship devoted to 

 this line of study. More and more, too, I felt that even if 1 

 were called to a historical professorship at Yale, the old- 

 fashioned orthodoxy which then prevailed must fetter me: 

 1 could not utter the shibboleths then demanded, and the 

 future seemed dark indeed. Y'et my belief in the value 

 of better historical instruction in our universities grew 

 more and more, and a most happy impulse was now given 

 to my thinking by a book which 1 read and reread 

 Stanley's <4 Life of Arnold.' 1 It showed me much, but 

 especially two things: first, how effective history might 

 be made in bringing young men into fruitful trains of 

 thought regarding present politics; and, secondly, how 

 real an influence an earnest teacher might thus exercise 

 upon his country. 



AYhiie in this state of mind T met my class assembled at 

 the Yale commencement of .IS.KJ to take the master's de- 

 gree in course, after the manner of those days. This was 

 the turning-point with me. I had been for some time more 

 and more uneasy and unhappy because my way did not 

 .M'em to clear; hut at this commencement of lSf)(>, while 

 lounging among my classmates in the college yard, I heard 

 some one say thai President \YaylandofBrown Iniversily 

 was addressing the graduates in the Hall of the Alumni. 



