But outward or geographical situation is of secondary importance with a
seat of learning. Scenery will not make scholars, though it may be
desirable and helpful, and is likely to impress itself upon the habitual
beholder with life-long influence. The college is where the teachers
are. It is also what they are. Plato made the Academy. And judged by
this standard Williams has not been deficient. From its beginning it has
had able instructors, men of sound learning, of exemplary character, and
"apt to teach." Among the earliest was Jeremiah Day, afterwards, and for
so long a time, serving as the president of Yale College. Ex-President
Hopkins is just now completing the fiftieth year of continuous
instruction in the college since he was called to be its head, and no
name is higher than his as a teacher. With him have been associated fit
and eminent coadjutors in the various departments of instruction. If the
work of the college has been done quietly and unobtrusively, it has been
done well. The faculty of Williams have not been ambitious to make a
university amid the Berkshire Hills, nor to enter into a strife with
other institutions for the purpose of swelling the number of its
students. They have been content to do the work of a simple college, and
to be judged by the quality rather than the quantity of their work.
Faithful to the students who might be led to seek the benefits of such
an institution, they have sought to make their pupils faithful to
themselves and to their opportunities. In the working of the college,
the training of character has been regarded as of prime importance.
While sound scholarship has been insisted upon,--sound rather than
showy,--no scholarship has been allowed to take the place of character.
The moral element has ever been held uppermost, and the endeavor has
been to blend it with all the studies of the assigned curriculum. A
truly manly character has been the finished product which the college
has sought to give to the world from year to year in the persons of its
graduates.
[Illustration: From HARPER'S MAGAZINE. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER &
BROTHERS.