THE NORTON CENTENARY

Of all the tributes which during this week will have been paid to the memory of Charles Eliot Norton none would have been more welcome to the man himself than that tribute which is actively present but rarely noticed: the change in the undergraduate's attitude toward the fine arts and college courses in art. In 1873 when Mr. Norton was appointed a "Lecturer on the History of the Fine Arts as connected with Literature," the University, as in the case of most other American universities, made little organized effort to teach either practice in or appreciation of art. That year marked the beginning of a program which was culminated this year in the opening of the New Fogg Museum With Mr. Norton giving a course in the history of fine arts--a course which, it is to be noted, still subordinates art to its relations with literature--and with another course being given in principles of design, the future of the study of the Fine Arts in Harvard University was well assured.

From that time until the present day there has been a steady increase in the number of students either majoring or electing certain courses in the Department. One has only to see the groups which gather in New Fogg to realize that the undergraduate is taking his aesthetics in a mood which is not merely that of a dilettante. His interest in the Fine Arts rises not from any artificial or forced impetus but from his own desire to investigate the field. And it is this tendency which would have delighted Charles Eliot Norton--for this is the manner with which he himself approached the subject. He loved the Fine Arts and anyone who shared that love was to him a kindred spirit. Through his own enthusiasm he led others to a like point of view.

The undergraduate of today must needs rely on his elders for the personal praises and eulogies which are Professor Norton's due. It is to the older men, the men who were so fortunate as to be either his younger colleagues or his students that one must look for an exposition of Charles Eliot Norton, the man. Enough has been said, however, to make clear to the younger generation his general character and aims. On that basis one may well cite a tribute which Mr. Norton once made to another great teacher, a friend of his and a fellow worker in the interests of the University--his sketch of the life of Francis James Child. Concerning Professor Child Mr. Norton wrote these words, and they fit not only the man whom they describe but the man who penned them. "To those who had the happiness of intimacy with him, his learning and all that he accomplished seem but as secondary and accessory to the essential qualities of his character and his manner of life. He made a friend of every student who sought him for advice or direction, and gave his time willingly to serve interests not his own. He had the gifts which make social intercourse pleasant,--humor, readiness and felicity of expression, quick appreciation, and the resources of a wide culture at the command of a ready and retentive memory. When he died the world lost much more than one of its great scholars."

Such a summary of a man whom Mr. Norton greatly admired is not unfitting when considered in the light of his own character. One of a noble tradition of men who were worthy scholars and at the same time great teachers, Charles Eliot Norton left an influence on Harvard University which has yet to be dimmed. The study of the Fine Arts, to which he devoted his entire career, flourishes; and the respect for teachers whose humanity has not been crushed by their crudition still waxes, even though there appears at times to have been a temporary eclipse of such figures.