the happiness of your country." Jefferson then describes the progress of his plans, and suggests that Ticknor take the professorship of ethics, belles-lettres, and the fine arts. "I have some belief," he continues, "that our genial climate would be more friendly to your constitution than the rigors of that of Massachusetts; but all this may yield, possibly, to the hoc cœlum, sub quo natus educatusque essem. I have indulged in this reverie the more credulously, because you say in your letter that if there were a department in the central government that was devoted to public instruction, I might have sought a place in it; but there is none; there is none even in my State government."" Jefferson then attempts to convince Ticknor that there is no possible outlook for a bureau of education in Washington without an amendment to the Constitution, and that the University of Virginia will supersede the necessity for it.

On the 3d of October, 1820, immediately after the arrangement with Dr. Cooper had been cancelled, and fully four years before any negotiations were opened with professors in England, the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, acting, as always, under Mr. Jefferson's leadership, authorized the engagement of " Mr. Bowditch,' of Salem, and Mr. Ticknor, of Boston," as professors, with the promise of apartments, a salary of $2,000 per annum, and lecture-fees guaranteed to the amount of $500 extra. This was an extremely liberal offer for those times. Harvard College had already secured Ticknor for the professorship of French, Spanish, and belles-lettres, at the moderate salary of $1,000, of which Ticknor afterwards regularly renounced $400 a year to aid the embarrassed finances of the institution.

JEFFERSON ON THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM.

Ticknor's interest in the development of the University of Virginia was keen and pronounced. He continued his correspondence with Jefferson, and proposed a visit to the University as soon as it should be "fairly opened." In acknowledging Ticknor's Syllabus of Lectures on Spanish Literature, Jefferson said, June 16, 1823: "I am not fully in

Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838) was originally a Salem sea-captain, who became eminent for his contributions to mathematics and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was deserved ly recognized by Harvard College, which gave him the degree of LL. D. President Quincy, in his History of Harvard (II, 438) says Bowditch "received successively the offer of three professorships of mathematics—in Harvard University, in that of Charlottesville in Virginia, and in the United States Military Academy at West Point-all which he declined." Dr. Bowditch was a very modest and unassuming man. After retiring from sea-voyages he became president of the Salem Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and after 1823 was the Boston actuary of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. His nearest approach to academic life was membership of the corporation of Harvard University. One of his many works was a commentary on the Mécanique Céleste of La Place, which he translated into English.

2

Ticknor was elected professor in June, 1816; he accepted in January, 1817, and entered upon his duties in 1819. (Quincy's History of Harvard University, II, 324.)

formed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States. That is, the holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocations to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualification only and sufficient age. Our institution will proceed on the principle of doing all the good it can, without consulting its own pride or ambition; of letting every one come and listen to whatever he thinks may improve the condition of his mind." Jefferson then urges Ticknor not to defer his visit beyond the autumn of the ensuing year, when the last building would be nearly finished. "I know that you scout, as I do, the idea of any rivalship. Our views are catholic, for the improvement of our country by science, and, indeed, it is better even for your own university to have its yoke-mate at this distance rather than to force a nearer one from the increasing necessity for it."

TICKNOR VISITS THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

In December, 1824, Ticknor visited Jefferson and the University of Virginia, and wrote a most charming description of both the man and the institution to William H. Prescott, the historian. The following sketch of the new foundation has an historic value: "Yesterday we formed a party, and, with Mr. Jefferson at our head, went to the University. It is a very fine establishment, consisting of ten houses for professors, four eating houses, a rotunda on the model of the Parthenon [Pantheon], with a magnificent room for a library, and four fine lecturerooms, with one hundred and eight apartments for students; the whole situated in the midst of two hundred and fifty acres of land, high, healthy, and with noble prospects all around it. It has cost $250,000, and the thorough finish of every part of it and the beautiful architecture of the whole show, I think, that it has not cost too much. Each professor receives his house, which in Charlottesville, the neighboring village, would rent for $600, a salary of $1,500, and a fee of $20 from every student who attends his instructions, which are to be lectures. three times a week. Of the details of the system I shall discourse much when I see you. It is more practical than I feared, but not so practical that I feel satisfied of its success. It is, however, an experiment worth trying, to which I earnestly desire the happiest results; and they have, to begin it, a mass of buildings more beautiful than anything architectural in New England, and more appropriate to an university than can be found, perhaps, in the world."

TICKNOR'S EFFORTS FOR REFORM IN HARVARD COLLEGE.

This is high praise from a Harvard professor, who had seen the best institutions of Europe. But the point to which this narrative is di

rectly tending is this: George Ticknor was now beginning to introduce into Harvard College precisely those educational reforms which Jeffer son had been advocating in Virginia for many years. Jefferson's advanced ideas were probably well known to Ticknor by reason of his long correspondence with Jefferson, and by reason of the early negotiations regarding a professorship in the University of Virginia. There is but one opinion as to the pioneer influence of Ticknor in the reform movement at Harvard College. The history of that movement is given in the Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, Vol. I, Chap. XVIII, on the "Efforts for Reform in Harvard College." It is perfectly clear that Ticknor, through a letter to Hon. William Prescott, a member of the corporation, set on foot, in the year 1821, the first systematic inquiries which led to important educational reforms. Ticknor's views found absolutely no support from the faculty; on the contrary, the professors voted repeatedly against his innovations. It was chiefly through Hon. William Prescott and Judge Story that Ticknor's ideas found favor with the corporation and the board of overseers, who adopted them in June, 1825. At the request of Judge Story, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Prescott, Ticknor prepared an article for the North American Review explaining and vindicating the proposed changes. This article, although invited and accepted by the editor, was finally suppressed "by the advice of friends." It appeared, however, in pamphlet1 form in September, 1825, and went through two editions that year.

The changes ordered by the governing authorities encountered great opposition from the faculty. In the annual visitation by the overseers, in 1826, "the new arrangements were not found working successfully in any department but that of the modern languages." The corporation was forced to relax the binding force of its own legislation. In 1827, the faculty resolved that the new law "should not be applied to the departments, or by individual instructors, without the assent of the faculty," but "that if the department of modern languages choose to apply the law to the classes instructed by that department, the faculty assent." It is therefore clear that George Ticknor, the head of that department, was the acknowledged representative of a novel policy which is best described in the following extract from President Eliot's annual report for 1883-84. Speaking of the new code of 1825, President Eliot says:

THE NEW CODE OF 1825.

"These laws provide, among other new things, for the admission to the university of persons not candidates for a degree (Statutes and Laws

1 Remarks on Changes Lately Proposed or Adopted in Harvard University. By George Ticknor, Smith professor, etc. Boston: Cummings, Hilliard & Co. 1825. Speaking, on p. 40, of the desirability of an elective system, Ticknor said: "This, perhaps, is not yet possible with us, though it is actually doing in the University of Virginia; and will soon, it is to be hoped, be considered indispensable in all our advanced colleges."