Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/136

 io8 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Withal he is level headed, a man of discretion and practical judgment. His new methods, so fresh and original, show themselves at once to be thoroughly sensible and practicable, so perfectly do they fulfil the end in view. Could he but have adequate scope for his powers he would do a work in behalf of denominational and Christian education in this country beyond the expecta- tion of those who regard him with the greatest admiration I urged Dr. Harper to consent to take the lead in the organization of the proposed University, knowing, as I did, that our leading men regard him as pre-eminently qualified for such a work. But he has never given me the slightest reason to think that he would favorably consider the question of leaving New Haven for Chicago. The teaching of Dr. Harper that was complained of was done at Vassar in a series of Sunday Bible lectures. The lectures were strongly commended by President Taylor for their "fairness, reverence, assertion of the supernatural, the direction of the Spirit, and conservatism," and he gave it as his opinion that "the lectures as a whole were such as would win the hearty approval of men like " his critic. But Dr. Harper was a man of great sensitive- ness and had been much disturbed. So much, indeed, was he disturbed that he felt that someone else should be called in to carry forward the negotiation with Mr. Rockefeller regarding the new University. It was for this reason that he called in Mr. Gates. The next disturbing incident in the plans of those who were counting on seeing Dr. Harper made President of the proposed new University followed immediately after the one just narrated, and was so much more serious as to drive that quite out of their minds. On January 7, 1889, he wrote as follows to Mr. Gates: I am afraid that my connection with the Chicago matter will be settled absolutely within a very short time. A proposition has just been made me at the University [Yale] which, if accepted, will put forever out of my power such a plan. I am being pressed to settle it within a few days. I wish that before that time I could see you. The next day he wrote to Mr. Goodspeed more fully, but evi- dently with a good deal of hesitation: I do not know that it is worth while to write this letter. I had thought until this morning that I would not do so. In view of everything in the past, however, it seems, on the whole, advisable for me to state to you the facts as they stand today. You will remember that when you were in New Haven I told you that Dr. Day had come to me and made a proposition in reference