EVOLUTION OF "THE CORNELL IDEA" -1850-1865 293 



curiously, that which I then most coveted, frequently vis- 

 ited, walked about, and inspected was the rising ground 

 southeast of Syracuse since selected by the Methodists 

 for their institution which takes its name from that city. 

 Mynext effortwas to make a beginning of an endowment, 

 and for this purpose I sought to convert Gerrit Smith. 

 He was, for those days, enormously wealthy. His prop- 

 erty, which was estimated at from two to three millions 

 of dollars, he used munificently; and his dear friend and 

 mine, Samuel Joseph May, had told me that it was not too 

 much to hope that Mr. Smith might do something for the 

 improvement of higher instruction. To him, therefore, I 

 wrote, proposing that if he would contribute an equal sum 

 to a university at Syracuse, I would give to it one half of 

 my own property. In his answer he gave reasons why he 

 could not join in the plan, and my scheme seemed no 

 nearer reality than my former air-castles. It seemed, in- 

 deed, to have faded away like 



" The baseless fabric of a vision " 

 and to have left 



" Not a wrack behind " 



when all its main features were made real in a way and by 

 means utterly unexpected; for now began the train of 

 events which led to my acquaintance, friendship, and close 

 alliance with the man through whom my plans became a 

 reality, larger and better than any ever seen in my dreams 

 Ezra Cornell. 



