676 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 357. 



pioneer in the instruction of deaf mutes, 

 and Henry Barnard, ever to be associated 

 with Horace Mann, as advocate, expounder 

 and promoter of the American system of 

 common schools. Nor can I forget Henry 

 Durant, and the other graduates of this 

 college, who went to the Pacific coast, 'with 

 college on the brain, ' and planted in Cali- 

 fornia the seeds of learning which now bear 

 harvests of golden grain. A happy thought 

 gave the name of Berkeley to the site near 

 the Golden Gate, where an institution be- 

 gun by our brothers fulfils the remarkable 

 prophecies of Timothy Dwight, written in 

 1794: 



All hail ! Thou Western World ! by heaven de- 

 signed 

 The example bright to renovate mankind ! 

 Soon shall thy sons across the mainland roam 

 And claim on fair Pacific's shore a home. 



Where marshes teemed with death, shall meads un- 

 fold, 

 Untrodden cliffs resign their stores of gold. 

 Where slept perennial night, shall science rise, 

 And new-born Oxfords cheer the evening skies ! 



Let us turn from letters to science. As 

 I scan the administrative records, from the 

 beginning onward, with the aid of our right 

 well beloved and trustworthy archivists, 

 the two Kingsleys and Dexter, when the 

 scepter passes from one president to another, 

 the balance is kept true. Pierson was an 

 exponent of geometry and a defender of the 

 faith, who wrote out lectures upon physics, 

 and dictated them to successive classes ; 

 Cutler's short service gives little indication 

 of his attitude ; Williams loved public life 

 more than academic perplexities ; Clap was 

 a writer on ethical and astronomical subjects, 

 a student of the Bible, scarcely equalled, 

 says his successor, in mathematics and 

 physics by any man in America ; Daggett, 

 extremely orthodox, was scientific enough 

 to warn his townsmen, scared by ' the Dark 

 Day, ' not to be alarmed nor ' inspired to 

 prophesy any future events — till they should 

 come to pass'; Stiles was familiar with 



every department of learning, ' theology, 

 literature, science, whatever could interest 

 an inquisitive mind * * * he included 

 among the subjects of his investigations ' ;* 

 the elder Dwight is well known for the im- 

 pulse that he gave to the expansion of the 

 college in all directions ; the judicious Day 

 was the author of a metaphysical study and 

 of mathematical text-books ; Woolsey is 

 distinguished as the promoter of classical 

 literature, and at the same time as the 

 president under whom the School of Science 

 was developed ; Porter and the younger 

 Dwight brought the University forward to 

 its present comprehensiveness and influence 

 in all branches of knowledge. Indeed, sci- 

 ence and letters have always been the care 

 of the corporation, and such will be the care 

 while the helm is held by the discerning 

 and vigorous pilot under whom the bark 

 begins another voyage and so long as the 

 alumni crew support the master and the 

 mates. 



Considering the hesitation with which 

 the English universities recognized the 

 study of nature as their concern, and how 

 easy it is to awaken hostilities between the 

 students of science and letters, or between 

 ecclesiastics and naturalists, it is well to re- 

 member how early science came into the 

 Yale curriculum, and how steadily it has 

 held its place. A chair of mathematics, 

 physics and astronomy was instituted 

 thirty years before the professorship of an- 

 cient languages. As it is pleasant to asso- 

 ciate the name of Sir Isaac Newton with 

 the beginning of our library, it is likewise 

 pleasant to remember Benjamin Franklin 

 as a donor of scientific apparatus. ' Im- 

 mortalis Franklinus ' he was called by 

 Stiles. 



Before the college was fifty years old he 

 became its valued friend, and was enrolled 

 among the laureati in 1753, Four years 

 previous, he had sent here an electrical 



*J. L. Kingsley. 



