Four Years at Yale (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Four Years at Yale

I am aware that the arrangement of this book 15 to some extent arbitrary. I accepted it only as a choice of evils. But I hope that the head-lines placed before each Chapter, and the Index at the end, may in great part compensate for this defect. I know, too, that there are in it many repetitions and some seeming contradic tions and inconsistencies. I perceive how easy it will be to mis quote my work, and to use isolated and disconnected portions of it to the detriment of particular interests of the college, or even of the institution itself. I regret the fact most keenly; yet, after all, such snap-judgments are of less account than deliberate opinions drawn froma full consideration of all the facts, and I firmly believe that anyone who reads this book to the end will have no worse opinion of Yale life from knowing what it really is. If the event proves otherwise, so much the worse for the facts but these ought none the less to be made known. What I ask is, that they should all be taken into account; and that hasty conclusions should not be jumped at, from a partial or one-sided glance at the evidence.

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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.

Excerpt from Four Years at Yale

The erroneous and absurd ideas which very many intelligent people, who have not chanced to experience it, entertain upon the subject of college life, have led me to believe that a minute account of affairs as they exist to-day at one of the chief American colleges would not be without value to the general public, nor without interest to the alumni and undergraduates of other colleges as well as of the one described. Hence, though not without some little diffidence, I venture to offer this compilation of facts, which no one has ever yet taken the trouble to group together, with the hope that it may be of service as a corrector of opinion and of interest as an aid to the memory.

Looking at things from the undergraduate in distinction from the official stand-point, I have given as little attention as possible to those matters which a formal historian would render prominent, and have gone into the smallest details in cases which he would take no notice of. I have accounted no fact too trivial or insignificant to be unworthy of record. I have attached no moral to the most important one. I have simply endeavored to place every scrap of evidence fairly before the reader, leaving him to decide for himself how much of it to use in making up his judgment. I have studiously refrained from urging any idea or theory of my own, and have endeavored, in cases where some expression of opinion seemed necessary, to offer simply the prevailing sentiment of college. Yet, that my position may not be misunderstood, I have added a Concluding Chapter, for the expression of my personal beliefs, and I respectfully ask that no one represent anything in the book as an opinion of mine until he has read that chapter. Facts are facts, and because I see fit to describe them in cold blood, with out comment of any sort, I do not wish to be quoted either as approving of or as condemning them.

Some of my statements will doubtless be distasteful to many. Some may be called untrue or unfair.

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.