upon this University will benefit not only the University itself but the whole community in which that University stands; and I hope—and I am sure we all of us hope—that it may stand as a permanent memorial, not only of the great arts of the past, but of a man who, born to high position, has used his birth and its privileges, not as an excuse for an idle and self-indulgent life, but as an opportunity for work—steady, hard and strenuous work,—for the benefit of his fellow men. As such I am sure it cannot fail to be an inspiration to all the students of this university.
The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen, Germany used to be called the country of poets and philosophers. There may have been some truth in that appelation. Certain it is that in poetry and her sister art, music, and in philosophy, the influence of Germany upon this country has been greatest. We are happy to have with us to-day a distinguished philosopher, widely known in this country and abroad, whose work exemplifies as well as that of any living scholar the unity and mutual interdependence of German and American thought, Professor William James.
ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES.
I am asked, on behalf of the general body of teachers in our University, to put into words the delight with which they welcome this noble enlargement of our educational resources.
Year by year our “Hochschule” here has been growing from a rural into an urban institution. Our buildings are becoming so numerous, and have such curious uses, that of themselves they form a kind of city, and give to the newcomer that sense of indefinable interests, fed from unknown sources and ministering to unintelligible needs, with which cities in general affect their rustic visitors. The mere background of life here, in short, is now so complex that to dwell in its presence is a sort of liberal education. The air is so full of spiritual currents, the names one hourly hears, the things one daily sees, are so packed with ideal suggestiveness, that quite unconsciously the climate of the World of Thought becomes familiar,—we learn at any rate the points of
