CURRENT LITERATURE.
Harvard Reminiscences. By Andrew P. Peabody, D.D. (Ticknor and Co., Boston, U.S.A.)—This volume, meant for old students of Harvard in the first instance, and American readers generally in the second, has also some points of interest for others. It is curious to find an "emeritus Professor" remarking that "in college rebellions the students were always in the right as to principle, though injudicious in their modes of actualising principle." The Harvard youth of former generations had certainly grounds for complaint, for the regime was in many respects harsh and unreasonable. It is amusing to find Harvard honouring a certain Dr. Bentley with a public funeral, at which Edward Everett preached a most eloquent sermon in consideration of a supposed gift of his library. The library had really been left to a bogus college (it consisted of "four brick walls, un- finished and roofless ") which had anticipated Harvard by giving Dr. Bentley a D.D. degree. The said college acquired several valuable libraries in this way, and finally emerged out of its bogus condition into a real activity. This would be one way of solving the University Colleges difficulty.
Previous page
