The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19
ADDRESS OF PROF. FISHER
ELOQUENT Words OF WELCOME TO
YALE,S NEW PRESIDENT.
Delivered at inauguration Exercises on
Behalf of Faculty, Graduates and
Undergrnduates-Sym and Sup
port Pledged.

Undergrnduntes-Sym and SUPP
port Pledged.
The address of Prof. George p. Fish
er, dean of the Yale theological school,
delivered during the Inauguration eXer-
cises at Battell chapel yesterday on be-
half of the faculty, graduates and I'M
dergraduates, was in full as follows
The not unwelcome duty is assigned
to me, in the name of the Faculties of
the university, to congratulate you on
your accession to office, and to pledge
to you their sympathy and support in
the bearing of it's burdens. / could not
make this address a mere perfunctory
task Memory runs back to the days
when your honored father, scholar
than whom in my judgment, none
more gifted has ever held chair at
Yale, was doing his work, and when,
under his tuition, you were passing
your early years. Not in the spirit of
fattery, but sincerely, it may be said
that during your own personal connec-
ton with the university as an instruc-
tor the lustre of that honored name
has not been dimmed. Speaking for
YOUR COllGdSuGS III luS SeNeldl l. dtui-
ties, l need not assure you that on this
occasion our personal regard mingles
with the sense of obligation to hold up
the hands Of those placed in authority.
We are not sorry that the corporation
has found it practicable and expedent
to follow the presidents Of the last
eighty years and to elect the president
from the corps of instructors who
from their acquaintance with the instl-
tuition are likely to know better than
anybody else what qualities are re-
CURED in it's head Your associates, let
me say, in all the departments, will not
fail to accord to the new president that
independence of judgment which be-
fits the office. They will not be so I'M
reasonable as to expect him to copy In
all respects the example of those who
have preceded him in the same station,
worthy as they are of admiration and
esteem. A president of the United
States once announced in his inaugural
address-although not in these precise
terms-that he should follow in the
footsteps of his "illustrious predeces-
sor" But the best kind of following,
as all of us understand, is not in doing
the very things that others have done
before us. Not by imitation, but by in
spiration, do we get the most profit
from the past. Nor shall we, l trust
make our respect for our chief to de-
pend on his agreement in all points
with our own opinions and preferences.
If there are people who believe them
selves infallible, they certainly have no |
excuse for judging harshly those to
whom they do not ascribe this rare 4
gift. The mortals who never make
misstep are too apt to win this distinc-
ton by taking no step at all. 1t may
fairly be expected of body of educa-
ted men that they should recognize |
good sense in general and disinterest-
ed aim. and bear with dissent from |
themselves In particular instances of |
conduct. Suffer me to remark that the |
Faculties are glad that the reins are to |
be in the hands of one who is familiar |
with the system of administration |
which has so long been established at |
Yale. A corporation exercising an at
tentive supervision, yet committing in |
the main to the teaching body the func-
ton of initiating measures and nomi-
mating instructors,-this body, however,
being always conscious that its propo-
sails are to pass in review before the
Board whose authority rests not upon
custom, but upon law; president who
is a member of both bodies and in free
intercourse with EACH and with a re-
served power, seldom exercised, to
withhold his sanction from the doings
of the Faculty such, in brief outline,
has been the Yale system. We know
that you appreciate the merits of a
polity. in which not a spirit of dictaton,
but spirit of cooperation, is marked
and that you are con-
scious to what extent the prosperity of
this institution has been owing to it.
You are aware, as those less acquaint- F.
ed with our history may not be, that to
this partly unwritten constitution is to
be largely ascribed the self-sacrifice of
SO many of the professors at Yale who
have lived and labored, not in the tenn
per of wage-earners, but rather as
partners in a great public enterprise.
In no other way can we account for the
devotion of the few men
who constituted the Faculty in the ear
lier decades of the present century, by
whom the fame of the college was car
ried over the land and across the sea,
This temper it is which dignifies the
ONCE OIL pTOleSSOI III ally GolicSe VI I'LL
versity-a spirit so in contrast with
4 narrow self-seeking sometimes I'M
happily displayed by college professors,
which calls to mind Lord Bacon's
.renchant Characterization of the herd
If baser politicians, never caring in all
.empests what becomes of the Ship of
State, so that they may save them
selves in the cock-boat of their own
fortunes" No doubt new circum-
stances, such as the multiplying of in ;
tructors, may call for important
But it is a pleasure to rely
Upon it that you are not likely to be :
Indifferent to the essential advantages
n the traditional customs. :
We congratulate ourselves that the :
corporation has given us a president !
Who knows what, in the modern sense ,
# the word, university Especially .
when we remember how widely THE
dea is diffuSed in this country that any I
nan of note, of exceptionally good q
ARTS, is conversant enough with the +
cience of education to manage great
literary institution. The wide range of
our own studies will be a safeguard
gainst putting all branches of knowl f