Norwich bulletin., 1911-01-10

ply of one of the very foremost Of
American educators, and gives an in
teresting account of the forces that
made him what he was. 1t may be
read profitab bly, in connection with the
recent life of Prof. ]. d. whitney, an
other distinguished product of Yale in
the old days, says the Springfield Re-
publican. The latter book supple
ments this life of President Gilman,
because 1t devotes more space to UNI
dergraduate life and the conditions
existing at Yale in the student days
of the veterans now passing from the
scene. The book which Mr.. Franklin
has edited and in part written is
composite, and but a single chaper, by
William G. Gilman of Norwich, Conn
brother of President Gilman. is de-
voted to his ancestry, boyhood and
college course A second chapter by
Miss Emily II. Whitney and Miss
Margaret d. Whitney. daughters of
the late Prof. w. ID. Whitney, is de-
voted to Gildersleeves connection with
Yale as librarian and to his valuable
work for the establishment of the
Sheffield scientific school. A third,
telling of his presidency of the uni
yersity of California is contributed by
Prof William Carey Jones Of. that
university The account of Giiman's
great life work, the building up of
Johns Hopkins university. Is told by
Mr. Franklin, who is a well-known
journalist of Baltimore. and was long
professor of mathematics at the uni
versity. He adds chapter telling of
President Gilman's work for the Car
negie foundation and of his last days.
There is also an account of his per-
sona1 chara cteristics by Mrs. Gilman
who died after the work was COM
pleted and ready for the printers. 1t
is not surprising that a book pre-
pared by so many hands should in
ma 11r,f Is
compensation that each Of the unusu-
ally distinct phases of Gilman's life
should have fallen to writer thor
oughly competent to deal with it.
Where the reader perhaps most
misses the controlling hand of a single
biographer, deeply versed in his sub
Ject as a. whole. is in lack of clear
single picture, from single point of
view, of the personality of the sub
ject. One gets from these pages but
a vague impression of the intellect,
the tastes the prejudices, the hobbies,
the habits, or even the personal ap-
pearance of the man. In some cases
such a lack would be fatal, but not
so in the life of a man like Gilman,
who lives in his worker, and was
greater for what he did with other
peoples brains than for any accom-
plishment of his own. He represents
in very fine and distinguished way
the organizing intelligence applied to
high and unselfsh ends. A scholar
who was deeply versed in many sub
jects, it was his special gift to know
men. He had in a high degree the
administration as distinguished from
the merely executive mind. For ex-
ecutive detail, for all that goes to get
ting things DONE" he had also un-
common capacity. He was neat, or
derby, methodical a lover of system,
a born organizer of life. But above
III 1,D = t-t, <rrs, Ix;<r
gift of deciding upon the thing to be
done, of shaping a policy, discerning
the end to be reached-a creative gift
which quite transcends mere efiicien-
cy.
1t needed broad wisdom, for exam
pie, to see clearly 35 years ago that
what America needed was university
of the Johns Hopkins type. The shape
which he gave to the project when
called from the university of Califor-
MIA to be the head of the proposed new
university in Baltimore, was but
scantily appreciated at first. There
was an cutlery against spending so
much money on a few highly special
lied advanced students. One of the
leading Baltimore papers thought that
perhaps in so years it might be time
for such school: But for the pres
ent we must be satisfied with some
thing more practical and better adapt
ed to the attachments Of our youth"
The number of advanced students. 1t
added, is entirely too small to en-
title them to become the exclusive
benefciaries of a college endowment
of 1-2 millions of dollars" 1t was
about that time that a German critic
wrote of America as land where
everyone has a taste of education, but
nobody gets a full meal; 1t was Pres
ident Gilman's concern that at last
a full meal should be provided for the
few who had a large appetite for in
tellectual work.
The new university was not long in
justifying itself, and if it has had lit
tie of the f1attery that lies in close
imitation. that is because the design
of the university was to meet a spe-
cial need for the country at large;
numerous purely or mainly graduate
schools are not needed But in the
development of the graduate schools
associated with universities, Johns
Hopkins has had very great infiu-
ence indeed. That there has been sin
gularly little in its conception or its
details to change with the great evo-
luton of higher education during the
past 80 years is testimony to the
clear vision of the controlling genius
and to his discernment and good for
tune in getting hold of the right men
at the outset to give the university a
distinguished character. In his con-
ception of a curriculum President Gill
man stood at the point to which many
advanced educators, after a long trial
of the la carte system, are return
ing-the combination of broad culture
with special attachments by wide
variety of consistent well marked out
courses among which the undergrad
uate may choose, gradually feeling his
way to a profitable specially.
In many ways he was far in ad-
vance of his time. but it is to be noted
that his preparation was uncommonly
favorable. At Yale he was a hard
student who took with an excellent
appetite the old-fashioned curriculum
and had a grounding in the classics
which was invaluable. None the less
| his interest in science led him tC
| throw himself heartily into the cause
of the new education, and while he
was at Yale in later years his special
| interest was in the Sheffield scientific
school for which he helped to raist
funds His studies abroad ALSO. while
| then (1S54) specially interested ir
physical and political geogra phy-early
| gave him first hand impression OF
German university ideals and methods
| 1t seemed TO his friends that he ha6
| too many irons in the fire, but all thi:
miscellaneous activity served his pur-
pose later. The man who has done
more than any other American fol
| specialists evidently had little of the
| specialist in his own nature He ha6
| experienced no controlling intellectual
| passion, but he had a keen interes
! in all phases of intellectual life. A
swift, hard reader. he covered mucf
! ground, and he had the gift of find.