“Yes, that is the _English_ of it, as we say. The funds for the support
of a professor were gathered together with great difficulty, for there
were very few who gave liberally and for the pure love of the
advancement of learning. When by the mere force of entreaty, by
appealing to the feelings, to reason, to—in short, each man’s pulse was
felt, and the ruling passion was consulted and made subservient to the
plan of beguiling him of his money. Well, the money thus wrung from the
majority,—for you must suppose that a few gave from right motives,—was
appropriated to the salary of a professor, and then the question arose
as to the man to be selected. They run their eye over the whole country,
and, finally, the fame of some one individual induced them to consider
him as a suitable candidate. This man was doing great service where he
was; the college, almost gone to decay, was resuscitated by his
exertions; students came from all parts on the faith of his remaining
there; in fact, he had given an impulse to the whole district. What a
pity to remove such a man from a place where the benefits of his labour
and his energies were so great, and where his removal would produce such
regrets and such a deteriorating change! But our new professor, being
established in the new college, instead of going to work with the same
alacrity, and with the same views, which views were to spend his life in
promoting the interests of the college which he had helped to raise, now
began to look ‘_a-head_,’ as the term is, and he waited impatiently for
the rise of another establishment, in the city perhaps, where every
thing was more congenial to his newly awakened tastes. Thus it went
on—change, change, for ever; and in the end he found himself much worse
off than if he had remained in the place which first patronised him. It
is certainly a man’s duty to do the best he can for the advancement of
his own interest, and if he can get five hundred dollars a year more in
one place than in another, he has a right to do it; but the advantage of
change is always problematical. The complaint is not so much against
him, however, as against those who so indelicately inveigle him away.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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