Excerpt from The Life and Services of Ezra Cornell: An Address Delivered at Cornell University on Founder's Day (January 11th, 1887) I have come among you to-day from a sense of duty which I found it impossible to resist. Since it was my fortune to be one of those who watched at the cradle of the University, - sometimes when the nights were dark, and enemies gathered and danger approached in the shadows, - and to stand by the side of the Founder, giving such help as occasion permitted or anxiety prompted, it seems appropriate that those memories of his life which I may have unconsciously stored away, whether familiar to the many or known only to the few, should have the repetition of this memorial occasion, or the preservation of such record as it is yet possible to make. At that commemoration which, in the beginning of the last November, gathered about Cambridge lov ing sons and admiring friends to look back upon two hundred and fifty years of educational life, the thought ful and polished orator of the festival could do no more for the memory of John Harvard than to speak of him in a passing sentence as the gentle and godly youth from whom we took our name, - himself scarce more than a name For us, there is not yet the excuse of long and blinding years, and a memory faded till its col ors are lost in the gray of a mist; and something more than a name was our dead Founder's gift. Surely, be fore the added years build other barriers between us and him, the solid strength and merit of his life should be remembered and recalled: and to that purpose and that alone I devote the moments allotted me to-day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.