Mr. Mann replied that Webster was wrong
in his Latin, and the words Captatores Verborum meant toad-
eaters, or men who hang on the words of great men to praise
and flatter them, of which he found some conspicuous modern
examples among Webster's supporters. Professor Felton, the
Greek professor, who was a staunch friend of Webster, attacked
Mann and charged him with ignorance of Latin. But Dr. Beck
came to the rescue, and his authority as a Latin scholar
was generally conceded to outweigh that of Webster and Felton
put together.
One of the most brilliant men among the Faculty was Professor
Benjamin Peirce. Undoubtedly he was the foremost American
mathematician of his time. He dwelt without a companion in
the lofty domain of the higher mathematics.
A privacy of glorious light is thine.
He was afterward the head of the Coast Survey. He had little
respect for pupils who had not a genius for mathematics,
and paid little attention to them. He got out an edition
of Peirce's Algebra while I was in college. He distributed
the sheets among the students and would accept, instead of
a successful recitation, the discovery of a misprint on its
pages.
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