[Speech of Daniel C. Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins University at
the Harvard Alumni dinner, at Cambridge, Mass., June 29, 1881.]
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--There are so many in this room to
whom this scene is familiar and so many whose voices have been heard
within these walls, that you can hardly understand how one feels who for
the first time stands and endeavors to make his voice reach over this
large assembly. It is not merely the sea of upturned faces, this noble
company of noblemen, this regiment of brigadiers, as it might be called,
it is not alone these pictures and busts, the devices and mottoes which
adorn this edifice, nor is it alone the recollection of all the
illustrious teachers who have been here brought together or the
consciousness that we stand among museums and cabinets and laboratories
unrivalled on this continent,--all this is noble and worthy of noble
men. But there is one thing that seems to me more impressive than all
this. It is the power which Harvard College has had throughout all the
land and throughout all its history. [Applause.]
I have had the opportunity of seeing on the shores of the Pacific how
every act of the corporation of Harvard College, every new measure
adopted by the faculty, every additional gift to its treasury, was
watched as men look toward the east and watch the rising sun, rejoicing
in its boundless store and radiant energy. [Applause.] And I have stood
on the shores of a Southern river and have seen the development of a
young college on the banks of the Patapsco, and I can truly say that if
there had not been a John Harvard, there never would have been a Johns
Hopkins [applause]; if there had never been a university in Cambridge,
there never would have been a university in Baltimore; and if there is
any merit in the plans adopted in that distant city, if there is any
hope to be derived from the experiment which is there in vogue, it is
largely due--and I rejoice in an opportunity of saying so in this public
way--it is largely due to the kindly sympathy, the wise counsel, the
generous help and the noble example of Harvard College. [Applause.] To
the President of this university, to his associates in the corporation
and in the faculty, to many of its alumni the plans adopted in Baltimore
owe a most generous and hearty acknowledgment.
The speaker who preceded me characterized Harvard College as the Alma
Mater of Colleges, and well he did so. But, gentlemen, you can hardly
fail to observe that in the progress of education in this country we are
getting beyond the college period and we are entering the period of
universities. What they are to be, none of us are wise enough to tell,
but whatever they are will largely depend upon what you make of Harvard
University. [Applause.] Many years ago I received a lesson from one
whose name I can never mention without respect and honor, the late
Benjamin Pierce. He said, in speaking of the formation of a university,
"It will never succeed without eminent professors. They will tell you
that great professors make poor teachers, but I will tell you it is only
the eagle that is fit to teach the eaglets. Let the barn-door fowl take
care of themselves." And so I say here, let there be a staff of
professors the most eminent, the most earnest, the most free in their
work that Harvard can bring together, and all the rest goes with it.
[Applause.]
I trust, then, that as the years roll on, as the era of universities in
this country is developed from the period of college instruction, we
shall find that the same wisdom that has governed the councils of our
learned bodies, the same adherence to right principles, the same love of
truth, will ever be present, and that Harvard College and all its
younger sisters as they go on will repeat the lesson which they have
taught from the beginning, and which they still teach, whether we turn
our eyes to the depths of the sea or the boundless regions of space,
that beyond the things which are seen and temporal are the things which
are unseen and eternal. [Applause.]