The Faculty, in consideration of John Felton's
excellent scholarship, instead of the ordinary punishment
directed that Professor Felton should admonish his brother
of his fault in private. The professor was some eighteen
or twenty years the elder and respected by his brother rather
as a father than as a brother. He sent for John to his study
and told him the nature of the complaint, and proceeded: "I
cannot tell you how mortified I am that my brother, in whose
character and scholarship I had taken so much pride, who stood
so high in his class, should have been reported to the Faculty
for this vulgar and wicked offence." John said, with great
contrition: "I am exceedingly sorry. It was under circumstances
of great provocation. I have never been guilty of such a
thing before. I never in my life have been addicted to profanity."
"Damnation, John," interposed the professor, "how often have
I told you the word is profaneness and not profanity?" It
is needless to say that the sermon ended at that point.
But the most interesting single figure in the Harvard Faculty
in my day was James Walker.
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