NOVEMBEK 1, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



675 



a time Yale was a veritable storm-center. 

 Webster versus Worcester, and Worcester 

 versus Webster were chieftains in this 

 ' Battle of the Books, ' and both authori- 

 ties were graduates of Yale. Lately, Whit- 

 ney, W. the Third, has taken rank with 

 the best antecedents, and a score of co- 

 operative Yalensians, many of them spe- 

 cialists, have been engaged in the improve- 

 ment of the three great dictionaries. It is 

 customary to laugh at the changes in spell- 

 ing proposed by IS'oah Webster, and cer- 

 tainly some of the Johnsonese definitions 

 which he propounded were mirth-provok- 

 ing — ('sauce,' for example) — but revised 

 and improved by Goodrich, Porter, Kings- 

 ley and others, his dictionary holds its own. 

 Its popularity was due in part, no doubt, 

 to Webster's spelling book, of which the 

 annual sale at one time was twelve hun- 

 dred thousand copies. By this primer a 

 very great service was rendered to letters — 

 for it helped to counteract any tendency 

 toward provincial or dialectic peculiarities 

 among the heterogeneous people of the 

 United States. 



Apart from theology, philosophy has en- 

 gaged the attention of many of our ablest 

 brethren. This is especially true of the 

 time since Porter was called to the profess- 

 orship which he held with conspicuous dis- 

 tinction for almost half a century, Lncluding 

 the years of his presidency. A recent in- 

 vestigator has traced the influence of this 

 able teacher, well versed in the modern 

 writers of Germany, who made metaphysics 

 interesting to those who were indifferent, 

 and at his best in the analysis of conflicting 

 theories and in the detection of snbtle errors. 

 As a lawyer for the defense, he would have 

 been the peer of Kufus Choate. Not a few 

 of his pupils have been led through phi- 

 losophy to pedagogics and are winning dis- 

 tinction in this field. 



This review would be incomplete if I did 

 not mention the Yale Literary Magazine, 



which for more than three score years has 

 kept up the love of literature among the 

 undergraduates, and has furnished them 

 with appreciative readers, critical enough 

 and friendly enough for discipline. Many 

 editorial writers have been trained by their 

 service on this magazine, since Evarts set 

 the press in motion. Older Yalensians have 

 had their opportunities in magazines of 

 wider circulation, the Christian Spectator, the 

 New Englander and the Yale Eeview, not 

 officially connected with the college, but 

 supported by the faculty. 



The literary societies also, which for 

 more than a century were maintained with 

 vigor, seem to me to have been one of the 

 very best agencies for youthful discipline. 

 The spontaneous efforts of young men, ex- 

 cited by the emulation of their comrades, 

 and controlled by the friendly criticism of 

 their peers, were admirable exercises for 

 the development of the love of poetry, ora- 

 tory, essay writing and debate. 



One of the greatest services which this 

 college has rendered to literature and sci- 

 ence has been the preparation of an innu- 

 merable host of teachers and professors. 

 The list is too long for recapitulation here — 

 but a few names must be recalled. The 

 earliest was Jonathan Dickinson, first presi- 

 dent of Princeton, deemed in his time the 

 peer of Edwards, whose immediate succes- 

 sors were likewise Yalensians. Next came 

 Samuel Johnson, the friend of Berkeley, first 

 president of Columbia University, elected 

 president of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 and his more famous son, William Samuel 

 Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency of 

 Columbia, and stood in the first rank among 

 the statesmen of the period just subsequent 

 to the Eevolution. From the Wheelocks, of 

 Dartmouth to Sturtevant, of Illinois, Chau- 

 venet, of St. Louis, and Chapin, of Beloit, 

 the file leaders in our colleges have con- 

 stantly been elected from Yale. At a re- 

 cent date lived Thomas H. Gallaudet, 



