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Today closes the twenty-fifth year during which President Eliot has been at the head of the University. It is a period of service remarkable alike for its length and for its importance in the University's development. The Harvard of 1894 is widely different from the Harvard of 1869. Then there were about one hundred members of the teaching staff and a thousand students; now there are over three hundred on the teaching staff and over three thousand students. To this growth, no other man has contributed so much as President Eliot.

Largely through his efforts, the funds of the University, the necessary condition to every expansion of its work, have been raised from about two millions of dollars to considerably more than eight millions of dollars, and, in addition, the value of the equipment of the University has been increased by over two millions. At the same time, every department of the University has been subjected to a rigorous supervision. Weakness has not been tolerated. Some departments have been revolutionized; all have been strengthened.

The most important advances which he has directed have been the more complete introduction of the elective system and the establishment of large resources for higher learning. In 1869, out of the one hundred and twenty-eight courses of instruction offered in the academic department, thirty-four were prescribed; now out of seven hundred and twenty only nine are prescribed. Weaknesses the elective system undoubtedly has,- weaknesses that are never to be overlooked, and yet the evil of the system is far less than its good. It places before every student the opportunity of enlarging himself where the fullest growth is possible, it tends to the economy of mental power, and is certainly the characteristic of the modern idea of education. It has added richly to Harvard's reputation that she has been the pioneer for this country in the introduction of the system.

At the time when President Eliot came into office other institutions than Harvard were beginning to provide means for the higher learning. It is obvious that, if Harvard had failed to keep abreast with this movement her prestige as the leading seat of learning in the land would have been gone. The npbuilding of the Graduate School has been for this reason, the most important development of the University in which President Eliot has taken a leading part.

Such, in briefest outline, are the main services of President Eliot to the University. No man, unless he had the highest abilities, could have done such work. With keen sagacity, he has foreseen the action of educational forces; with unfailing resources of quick intelligence, adroit action, and steady will he has met these forces and maintained the position of Harvard in all circumstances. He is a man of action; always thoroughly acquainted with the matter in hand from its broadest aspects to its minutest details, always clear as to his own intention, always calm, swift and unhesitating in its realization. No university president in the country is his equal in executive ability, and it is safe to say that, when his administration closes, the executive of Harvard will have to be reorganized.

In his moments of deliberate respite, he is open, genial, and engaging; but he seldom is at leisure. At work, he seems an immense will, regulated by very powerful and very precise intellectuals. He is grave, austere, self-sufficing, reserved, and the embodiment of dignity. If only his point of view is taken, his position on every question is found to be supported by the soundest logic; but, under the necessity for much action, he seems at times to give the benefit of the doubt too easily in favor of his own point of view. On this account, he rouses such frequent and, as it seems to us, such needed opposition. Against him all who see truths which he underestimates need strenuously to contend. On such an occasion as the present, however, it is fitting that all thoughts of opposition should be laid aside and recognition given to the great service he has done the University. He is a magnificent force, that has given aboundingly to the life of Harvard.