Confident heart!-confident hand! Confident heart and hand! O Father and Founder!-O Soul so grand! Farewell, Cornell!-Farewell! "Firm," as the oak's tough grain, Yet pliant to the prayer Of Poverty, or Pain, As leaf to troubled air. Kindliest heart!-kindliest hand! O Father and Founder!-O Soul so grand! Untaught and yet he drew With all their toil and strife. Conquering heart!-conquering hand! O Father and Founder!-O Soul so grand! The spires that crown the hill, Generous heart!-generous hand! O Father and Founder!-O Soul so grand! Brave, kindly heart, adieu! Bountiful heart!-bountiful hand! Bountiful heart and hand! O Father and Founder!-O Soul so grand! Farewell, Cornell!-Farewell! CHAPTER V I THE CHARTER OF THE UNIVERSITY T is interesting to inquire what were the causes which led Mr. Cornell to devote so large a part of his unexpected and constantly increasing wealth to the founding of a university. He had always been thoughtful upon questions affecting the interests of the people. Originally a farmer's son, and later a mechanic, and brought into association with scientific men through the practical application of the telegraph, he saw the great need of thoroughly trained and practical scientists. He realized that individual and national wealth would be promoted even by an imperfect popular knowledge of the sciences which relate to life, and also the incalculable loss to individuals and the nation from unsystematic, unscientific, and prodigal methods. It is probable that his purpose to devote his wealth to the benefit of his fellow-men was formed slowly in his mind. The unexpected increase in his fortune, beyond his hopes, suggested to him the possibility of using some portion of it for the public good. Beyond the natural desire to provide for his family, Mr. Cornell had no personal ambition for vast accumulation. In private life he was genuinely and unostentatiously generous. The desire that his gifts should assume a permanent form, blessing the future as well as the present, assumed shape silently and unspoken, like so many of his plans. In the summer of 1863 he was seriously ill for several months. As he recovered he said to his physician, "When I am able to go out, I want you to bring your carriage and take me upon the hill. Since I have been upon this sick bed, I have realized, as never before, by what a feeble tenure man holds on to life. I have accumulated money, and I am going to spend it while I live." They drove subsequently to the hill, which constitutes the present site of the university, to what was then Mr. Cornell's farm. He spoke with the greatest enthusiasm of his determination to build an institution for poor young men; he wished an institution different from the ordinary college, where poor boys could acquire an education. He did not desire an entrance examination, but that they should study whatever they were inclined to. Mr. Cornell described the buildings which should crown the hillside, and pointed out where they should stand.1 Mr. Cornell's immediate attention was then engrossed with the foundation of the Cornell Library, which was chartered a few months later, and presented to the city of his residence. It is probable that, even with this noble intention, much was still vague in his mind as to the exact form which the institution should assume. He contemplated, undoubtedly, some form of industrial school. The immediate occasion which gave definiteness to his purpose was, as he himself stated in answer to the inquiry, whether he had purposed for many years to found a great university, or whether the plan had been presented to him by some fortuitous circumstance, that very much was due to his election as one of the trustees of the State Agricultural College at Ovid, and to the discovery which he had made at two meetings of the trustees of that institution, of the great need of some 1 Mr. Cornell visited this site with different groups of friends and spoke enthusiastically of the view and of the splendid future of his university. Personal statements from his associates differ in detail and are evidently based on varying incidents. |