"
[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.
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