CONCLUDING YEARS- 1881-1885 443 



at the students passing out from the gates of the Eng- 

 lish College at Rome, on their way to Great Britain, 

 and to say: "I am feasting my eyes on those martyrs 

 yonder." My own feelings are like his, but happier: I 

 feast my eyes on those youths going forth from Cornell 

 University into this new twentieth century to see great 

 things that I shall never see, and to make the new time 

 better than the old. 



During my life, which is now extending beyond the 

 allotted span of threescore and ten, I have been engaged, 

 after the manner of my countrymen, in many sorts of 

 work, have become interested in many conditions of men, 

 have joined in many efforts which I hope have been of 

 use ; but, most of all, I have been interested in the founding 

 and maintaining of Cornell University, and by the part I 

 have taken in that, more than by any other work of my life, 

 I hope to be judged. 



