manet mansurumque est in animis hominum, in aeternitate
temporum, fama rerum. Nam multos veterum, velut inglorios et
ignobiles oblivio obruet: Agricola posteritati narratus et
superstes erit."
[End of Footnote]

CHAPTER VII
HARVARD SIXTY YEARS AGO

I do not think Harvard College had changed very much when
I entered it on my sixteenth birthday in the year 1842 either
in manners, character of students or teachers, or the course
of instruction, for nearly a century. There were some elementary
lectures and recitations in astronomy and mechanics. There
was a short course of lectures on chemistry, accompanied by
exhibiting a few experiments. But the students had no opportunity
for laboratory work. There was a delightful course of instruction
from Dr. Walker in ethics and metaphysics. The college had
rejected the old Calvinistic creed of New England and substituted
in its stead the strict Unitarianism of Dr. Ware and Andrews
Norton,--a creed in its substance hardly more tolerant or
liberal than that which it had supplanted. There was also
some instruction in modern languages,--German, French and
Italian,--all of very slight value. But the substance of
the instruction consisted in learning to translate rather
easy Latin and Greek, writing Latin, and courses in algebra
and geometry not very far advanced.

The conditions of admission were quite easy. They were such
as a boy of fourteen of good capacity, who could read and
write the English language and had gone through some simple
book of arithmetic, could easily master in two years. There
were three or four schools were the boys were pretty well
fitted, so that they could translate Cicero and Virgil, Nepos
and Sallust and Caesar and Xenophon and Homer. The Boston
Latin School, the Roxbury Latin School, Phillips Academy at
Exeter and Phillips Academy at Andover and Mrs. Ripley's
school at Waltham were the best schools for this purpose.
The boys from the Boston Latin School generally took their
places at the head of the class when they entered. Next came
the best scholars from the other schools I have named. But
the bulk of the pupils were very poorly fitted.

There was, as it seems to me in looking back, little instruction
of much value. The good scholars and the bad went to the
recitation together. The good ones lost the hour, and the
poor scholars got the benefit of hearing the good ones recite.
Their mistakes were corrected by the professor. They h