342 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT IV 



the governing board." Here a system at that time entirely 

 new in the United States was proposed. Instead of the 

 usual life tenure of trustees, their term was made five years 

 and they were to be chosen by ballot. Secondly, it was 

 required that as soon as the graduates of the university 

 numbered fifty they should select one trustee each year, 

 thus giving the alumni one third of the whole number 

 elected. Third, there was to l>e a system of self-govern- 

 ment administered by the students themselves. As to this 

 third point, I must frankly confess that my ideas were 

 vague, unformed, and finally changed by the logic of 

 events. As the fourth and final main division, I presented 

 "Permeating Ideas"; and of these First, the develop- 

 ment of the individual man in all his nature, in all his 

 powers, as a being intellectual, moral, and religious. 

 Secondly, bringing the powers of the man thus developed 

 to bear usefully upon society. 



In conclusion, I alluded to two groups of "Eliminated 

 Ideas," the first of these being the "Ideas of the Pedants," 

 and the second the "Ideas of the Philistines." As to the 

 former, I took pains to guard the institution from those 

 who, in the higher education, substitute dates for history, 

 gerund-grinding for literature, and formulas for science; 

 as to the latter, I sought to guard it from the men to whom 

 "Gain is God, and Gunnybags his Prophet." 



At the close, referring to Mr. Cornell, who had been too 

 weak to stand while delivering his speech, and who was at 

 that moment sitting near me, I alluded to his noble plans 

 and to the opposition, misrepresentation, and obloquy he 

 had met thus far, and in doing so turned toward him. The 

 sight of him, as he thus sat, looking so weak, so weary, so 

 broken, for a few moments utterly incapacitated me. I 

 was myself, at the time, in but little better condition than 

 he ; and as there rushed into my mind memories of the pre- 

 vious ten days at his house, when I had heard him groan- 

 ing in pain through almost every night, it flashed upon me 

 how utterly hopeless was the university without his sup- 

 port. My voice faltered; I could for a moment say no- 



