It
now bears a real connection to national life and interest. No great
subject in educational thought ever obtained a firm hold that had not
some modern connection with the day. I do not overlook the literary
element in the study of modern languages, but you will have a stronger
hold for the next twenty years than you have in the past, owing to this
use of modern languages in daily life, incident to the industrial and
commercial activity of the country.'"

It is always to be borne in mind that Longfellow's self-restrained and
well-ordered temperament habitually checked him in the career of
innovator. Both in public and private matters, it was his way to state
his point of view and then await results. It is clear that his mental
habit, his foreign experience, and the traditions of his immediate
department predisposed him to favor the elective system in university
training. This system, after temporary trial and abandonment, was now
being brought forward once more and was destined this time to prevail.
Towards this success, the prosperity of the Modern Language Department
formed a perpetual argument, because it was there that the reform was
first introduced. The records of the Faculty at that period give very
little information as to the attitude of individual professors, and
Longfellow may be viewed as having been for the most part a silent
reformer. One finds, however, constant evidence in his diaries of the
fact that his duties wore upon him. "I get very tired of the routine of
this life." "This college work is like a great hand laid on all the
strings of my lyre, stopping their vibrations." "How the days resemble
each other and how sad it is to me that I cannot give them all to my
poem." "I have fallen into a very unpoetic mood and cannot write." It
must be remembered that his eyes were at this time very weak, that he
suffered extremely from neuralgia, and that these entries were all made
during the great fugitive slave excitement which agitated New England,
and the political overturn in Massachusetts which culminated in the
election of the poet's most intimate friend, Sumner, to the United
States Senate. He records the occurrence of his forty-fourth birthday,
and soon after when he is stereotyping the "Golden Legend" he says: "I
still work a good deal upon it," but also writes, only two days after,
"Working hard with college classes to have them ready for their
examinations." A fortnight later he says: "Examination