A Page of Unpublished Letters

Below are reprinted for the first time two letters exchanged between George Herbert Palmer and Charles William Eliot on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the latter's incumbency of the presidential chair at Harvard University. Through the extreme courtesy of Professor Palmer in allowing the CRIMSON to publish these illuminating documents the public is given a personal contact with Dr. Eliot wholly delightful.

Professor Palmer's tribute to the late President is particularly enlightening for the fact that it was purely spontaneous and written not for publication but merely as one individual writes to another. It was motivated by a profound and sincere desire in the heart and mind of the eminent professor to do personal honor to his chief. Few were in a more advantageous position to judge Dr. Eliot than was Professor Palmer, and few appreciated his personal qualities with greater symphathetic understanding. Professor Palmer saw President Eliot in certain critical situations in the latter's life from an intimate angle with the consequence that where the public often found coldness and hardness Professor Palmer found just the opposite qualities.

These two letters are perhaps the most intimate glimpses of the character of President Eliot that will be found in this Memorial Issue. The tribute of a true contemporary, of a close friend, of a fellow teacher impresses the understanding as does nothing else. 11 Quincy Street.   May 19, 1894.

Dear Mr. Eliot:

I cannot let this memorial day go by without expressing to you my gladness for the twenty-five years that are gone. Twenty-four of them I have spent with you, and every one has made me more deeply your debtor. Without you I should not have known myself; I might have missed my work; and should certainly have conceived it in different terms. No living man has had a larger share than you in shaping my ideals and powers. At the first I saw how significant you were to be for me and--though disliking--I set myself early to study you. My comprehension was slow and resisted. Few members of the Faculty have voted against you more times than I. But sympathy was growing through the years when our radical difference of temper was becoming plain. Smoothly and with no violent change I passed through distrust, tolerance, respect, admiration, liking, into the hearty friendship--I might say the love--which makes it a delight to work with you now, whether in opposition or alliance, Probably we shall always approach subjects from opposite sides. You began in chemistry, I in theology. But nothing can touch my deep affection for you or my gratitude to the man who more than any other shows me perpetually how to rely on the Eternal for personal strength.

Do not answer this note. Other people will need your attention who thank you for what you have done for the University. I have wished to thank you for what you are and for what you have given me.   Sincerely yours.   G. H. PALMER.   17 Quincy St.   May 19, 1884.

Dear Mr. Palmer:

Your note of today tells me much which is contenting and new to me; but there are two points in it which give me especial satisfaction. The first is your statement that you like "to work with me, whether in opposition or in alliance." That seems to me a rewarding outcome of a long asociation. the other is your remark about my relying "on the Eternal for personal strength." I belong to the barest of the religious communions, and I am by nature reserved except with intimates and even with some of them. I feel glad that what has been, I believe, a fact in my inner life these thirty years past has been visible to a close observer in my official career. I should not like to have it said by the next generation, as has often been said by my contemporaries, that I was a man without ideals and without piety. That would not be good for Harvard. Your sympathetic discernment is therefore a solace and support. It has been hard to have people suppose--even some of my friends--that my interest in the religious policy of the University was a matter of expediency and not of conviction. I am glad that you have inferred from habitual conduct an underlying conviction.

With hearty thanks for your inspiring letter and pleasant anticipation of mutual helpfulness in time to come, I am   Sincerely yours,   CHARLES W. ELIOT.

Professor Palmer.