The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-13

New Haven, Conn, Feb 13.-Mrs i Edward s. Hardness, of New York city, wife of Edward s. Hardness, Yale 'e7, has given Yale an extra ordinary collection of letters and documents which, according to Pro- the university, supply many inter- egting and important additions to our Knowledge of colonial and rev. olutionary times." Most of the let fers in the collection, which num- Der more than forty. are addressed to Erxa Stiles, who was president of Yale in 1778-1795. and have never been published. They will be exhi- bited for the first time on Alumni University day, February 23. in the Sterling Memorial library at Yale, and later be published.
 The writers of the letters, with important exceptions, are mostly Yale graduates. although Harvard, Princeton, William and Mary and Brown universities are also repre- scented. Benjamin Franklin, upon whom Yale was the first to confer an honorary degree, is represented by two letters to President Stiles.
 There is a touch of Franklin's humor in his note to President Stiles about Father Odvardo Beccaria of Turin, which was written from Phil adelphia in May. 1763. Franklin's experiments with electricity were by that time we'll known in Europe, and Father Beccaria had adopted some of Franklin's theories in his own writings. The Abbe Jean Antoine Nollet, the French natural philoso- pher, on the contrary, wrote against the Tranklinian theories. and went 50 far a sto declare that no such person as Franklin existed. Presi- dent Stiles had asked about the con- troversy, and Franklin comments: "The dispute you mention, between the French and Italian philosophers still exists. You will not wonder at my supposing the latter have greatly the advantage."
 In the same letter Franklin dis cusses a point which still is a topic of conversation: whether the climate is changing. He writes President Stiles: T doubt with you. that ob- servations have not been made with sufficient accuracy. to ascertain the truth of the common opinion, that the winters in America are grown milder; and yet l canont but think that in time they may be so. Snow lying on the earth must contribute to cool and keep cool the wind blowing over 1t, When a country is clear'd of woods. the sun acts more strongly on the face of the earth. It warns the earth more before snow fall, and small snows may often be soon melted by that warmth. It melts great snows sonoer than they 7 could be melted if they were shaded ' by the trees. And when the shnows are gone, the air moving over the earth is not go much chilled, etc. But enough of the country is yet cleared to produce any sensible effect, may yet be a question. And I think it wuold require a regular and steady course of observations on a number of winters in the different parts of the country you mention, to obtain full satisfactoin on the point.''
 The writings in Stiles own hand | are few, but inciude one dated the ! 18th of January 1775, to Mrs Eliza | Hubbard. The prefix was a title | of courtesy and respect, the recipient | being the unmarried daughter of Col | John Hubbard of New Haven, physician, and judge of the probate court. She was then in her 24th year, and Stiles manfred her in Feb ruary, 1757. The letter is four page disquisition on the reason and nature of eclipses and tides. There is no touch of sentiment in it ex-