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diff --git a/44259-0.txt b/44259-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79ab69a --- /dev/null +++ b/44259-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1084 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44259 *** + + WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY + + (T. D. SEYMOUR) + + + + +WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY.[1] + + +Northampton, Massachusetts, half a century ago, was one of the best +examples of a typical New England town--among stately hills, on the +banks of the Connecticut River, with broad streets well shaded by great +spreading elms, with large homesteads still occupied by the descendants +of early settlers, with people of much culture and refinement who +were given to "plain living and high thinking." It was the town of +Edwards, of Dwight, of Hawley, of Stoddard, of Strong, and of many +another worthy. It was the seat of the once famous Round Hill Academy. +There, on February 9, 1827, William Dwight Whitney was born,--the +second surviving son and fourth child of Josiah Dwight Whitney and +Sarah Williston Whitney. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. Payson +Williston (Yale, 1783), of Easthampton, and sister of the Hon. Samuel +Williston, who founded Williston Seminary. His father was born in +Westfield, Mass.,--the oldest son of Abel Whitney, who was graduated at +Harvard in 1783. + +No company of brothers and sisters of any American family has been so +remarkable for scholarly attainments and achievements as that family in +Northampton: Josiah D. Whitney, Jr. (Yale, 1839), Professor of Geology +at Harvard; William D. Whitney, of Yale; James L. Whitney (Yale, 1856), +of the Boston Public Library; Henry M. Whitney (Yale, 1864), Professor +of English Literature at Beloit College; Miss Maria Whitney, the first +incumbent of the chair of Modern Languages in Smith College. + +William D. Whitney was fitted for college in his native town, and +entered the Sophomore class of Williams College in 1842, at the age of +fifteen. Tradition says that the studies of the college course were +easy to him, and that he spent most of his time in wandering over +the fields, studying geology and the habits of birds and of plants, +although he maintained the first rank for scholarship in his class. +On his graduation he pronounced the valedictory oration, on 'Literary +Biography.' + +After graduation--at eighteen, the age when most now enter college--Mr. +Whitney remained for three years in uncertainty with regard to his +life-work, meanwhile busy as teller in his father's bank. He did +not take an active part in the social life of the young people of +Northampton, but employed himself in his own pursuits. His leisure time +was given largely to the collection of birds and plants; a large and +beautiful case of birds stuffed by him at this period is in the Peabody +Museum at New Haven. His tastes for natural science were marked, and +he was more than an amateur in that field. He spent the summer of 1849 +in the United States Survey of the Lake Superior region, conducted by +his eminent brother, Josiah D. Whitney--having "under his charge the +botany, the ornithology, and the accounts." In the summer of 1873, +also, he was invited to take part in the Hayden exploring expedition in +Colorado. The Report of the Survey says that he "rendered most valuable +assistance ... in geographical work." His account of this expedition +of 1873 was published in the New York _Tribune_, and afterwards was +translated into French for a popular publication of that country, as +giving a clear view of the work of such scientific parties. He had a +brief article in the _American Journal of Science_ for the same year on +the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. He gave several months +of his time just before leaving home for his last visit to Europe, to +helping Professor J. D. Whitney put through the press the latter's work +on 'The Metallic Wealth of the United States.' + +His scientific experience stood him in good stead in more than one +instance of philological research and discussion. He was not tempted +to infer from linguistic data the order of succession of trees in +forests, nor astronomical facts. He was a member for several years +of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One of +his most important publications was the annotated translation of a +Hindu treatise on astronomy--the Sūrya-Siddhānta, 1860--and one of the +longest essays in his 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies' treats of the +same subject. + +In 1848, largely under the influence and with the encouragement of his +father's pastor, the Rev. George E. Day (for a quarter of a century +after 1866 Professor of Hebrew at Yale, and at present Dean of the +Yale Divinity School), Mr. Whitney directed his attention to the study +of Sanskrit, for which he found books in the library of his elder +brother, who had recently returned from Europe. A really good mind can +find pleasure and success in any one of several different fields of +research. Not often, however, do we find such marked examples of men of +real talent manifesting distinct tastes and power in widely different +departments of learning as in the case of these two brothers. Mr. J. +D. Whitney went to Germany primarily in order to prepare himself for +mineralogical and geological work, but became interested in the study +of languages and attended (with but two fellow-listeners) a course of +lectures on Sanskrit at Berlin. He himself says that he might have +taken up philology in earnest, abandoning natural science altogether, +if immediately after his return to his home he had not received an +appointment to engage in a geological survey of a new and interesting +region under United States authority. His philological studies have +borne fruit in his 'Names and Places--Studies in Geographical and +Topographical Nomenclature,' published in 1888, and in the more than +four thousand definitions he furnished to the Century Dictionary. Mr. +W. D. Whitney certainly had great ability in the study of natural +science. Doubtless the accident of his finding various linguistic +books ready to hand, at the time when his mental powers were most +actively developing, had much to do with his turning in the direction +of philology. During the summer which he spent with his brother on +Lake Superior he had a Sanskrit grammar with him, which he studied +at odd moments when not engaged in collecting plants or computing +barometrical observations. Yale College has had another marked example +of a scholar with equal ability and tastes for widely diverse studies, +in Professor James Hadley, whose first published work was in the +department of mathematics, and of whom a high authority said that the +best mathematician in the country was spoiled when Mr. Hadley devoted +himself to Greek! + +Mr. Whitney's practical banker father was not fully satisfied with +his plan of giving himself to Oriental studies, and asked his pastor +whether a man could support himself in life by studying and teaching +Sanskrit. Dr. Day made the very wise answer that if a man had any +exact and thorough knowledge, he was likely to be able to use it. As a +Massachusetts man, the father turned naturally to Harvard as the proper +place for his son's pursuit of advanced studies, but his pastor called +his attention to the newly established department of Philosophy and the +Arts at New Haven as the only definite arrangement yet made in this +country for university work, and especially to the unique equipment of +the special department of Oriental languages. + +Before going to New Haven to study, Mr. Whitney prepared and published +in the _Bibliotheca Sacra_ an article (translated and abridged from von +Bohlen) on the 'Grammatical Structure of the Sanskrit'; and in the same +periodical, in the following year, he published a 'Comparison of the +Greek and Latin Verbs.' + +In the autumn of 1849, too late for his name to appear in the +catalogue of that year, Mr. Whitney came to Yale and studied through +the remainder of the college year under Professor Salisbury. His +associate in study was Professor James Hadley (six years older than +himself, but only three years older in college age), who had been +appointed assistant professor of Greek in 1848. The relations of the +two continued most intimate and mutually stimulating until the death +of Professor Hadley in 1872. Mr. Whitney edited a volume of Professor +Hadley's Essays, in 1873, and wrote a brief but highly appreciative +sketch of his friend for the large work entitled 'Yale College,' +published in 1879. + +Professor Salisbury was graduated at Yale in 1832. During more than +three years' residence abroad, 1836-39, he studied with De Sacy and +Garcin de Tassy in Paris and with Bopp in Berlin. In 1841 he was +invited to a professorship of the Arabic and Sanskrit languages in +Yale College, without the expectation of pecuniary compensation. This +was only nine years after the foundation of the Sanskrit professorship +(of H. H. Wilson) at Oxford, and twelve years after Lassen was made +Professor Extraordinarius at Bonn. He returned to Europe in 1842 for +a year, and read _privatissime_ Arabic with Freytag and Sanskrit with +Lassen, at Bonn. In 1846 he was made the Corresponding Secretary of +the American Oriental Society, and (to use Mr. Whitney's words) "for +some ten years Professor Salisbury was virtually the Society, doing +its work and paying its bills. He gave it standing and credit in the +world of scholars, as an organization that could originate and make +public valuable material; after such a start, it was sure of respectful +attention to whatever it might do." The Society had published nothing +before he took charge of this office. Professor Salisbury also secured +valuable Arabic and Sanskrit manuscripts and books from De Sacy's +library and elsewhere in Europe; and Professor FitzEdward Hall, then +at Benares, procured for him many expensive and important Sanskrit +publications from India. His services and generosity in procuring fonts +of Oriental type, and his wisdom in bringing the Oriental Society into +close connection with the studies of foreign missionaries, should not +be forgotten. He was the only trained Orientalist in this country, +until Mr. Whitney's return in 1853, and had an admirably equipped +library. In the Yale catalogue of 1841-42, Professor Salisbury's name +appears for the first time in the list of the faculty as Professor of +the Arabic and Sanskrit Languages and Literature. In the catalogue +of 1843-44, announcement is made that "the Professor of Arabic and +Sanskrit will give instruction on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Arabic +grammar with the interpretation of the Korân and the Mo'allakas, and +on Fridays and Saturdays in Sanskrit grammar with the interpretation +of the laws of Manu." In the following year we are told that "the +Professor of Arabic and Sanskrit proposes to commence this year, in +the ensuing summer, a free course of lectures on the Sacred Code of +the Hindus, the Manava Dharma Sastra." In 1845 for the first time +appears a modestly-placed paragraph, saying "Instruction is also given +by the Professors to Resident Graduates, provided a sufficient number +present themselves to form a class." This was followed by the offer +of a "course of lectures on the literary history and doctrines of the +Kurân," or instruction in the elements of Sanskrit. In 1847 appeared +the formal announcement of the opening of the Department of Philosophy +and the Arts, with definite arrangements for advanced work. The +philological courses were by President Woolsey (Thucydides or Pindar), +Professor Kingsley ("in such Latin author as may be agreed upon"), +Professor Gibbs ("lectures on some points of general Philology"), and +Professor Salisbury (Arabic Grammar, and "some of the relations of the +Arabic to other of the Shemitish dialects"). + +Marvellous stories are told in student-tradition of the rapid progress +made by Mr. Whitney and Mr. Hadley--that they learned all the paradigms +of Bopp's grammar in two lessons, etc. The basis of the stories is +partly the fact that both already read simple Sanskrit with ease, +but it is certain that few teachers ever had such a class. They were +Professor Salisbury's first and last pupils in Sanskrit, but he might +well feel proud of the record. He himself says of them that "their +quickness of perception and unerring exactness of acquisition soon made +it evident that the teacher and the taught must change places." + +In 1850 Mr. Whitney went to Germany and spent three winter semesters +in studying with Weber, Bopp, and Lepsius in Berlin, and two summer +semesters at work with Roth in Tübingen. At the suggestion of Roth he +undertook with this master the publication of the Atharva-Veda, and +copied and collated the Berlin MSS of this work. In 1852 he sent to +the American Oriental Society a paper, read at their October meeting +of that year, on 'The main results of the later Vedic researches +in Germany.' A letter from Weber, dated at Berlin, Dec. 28, 1852, +is interesting in this connection on several accounts. He writes: +"I hope ere long Sanskrit studies will flourish in America more +than in England, where with the only exception of the venerable and +not-to-be-praised-enough Professor Wilson nobody seems to care for +them so much as to devote his life to them. The East India Company +certainly does all that is in its power to help the publication +of the Vedic texts, but it does not find English hands to achieve +it.... It is certainly very discouraging to see that Professor Wilson +during all the time since he got his professorship in Oxford, has not +succeeded in bringing up even one Sanskrit scholar who might claim +to be regarded as one who has done at least some little service to +our Sanskrit philology.... I have to congratulate you most heartily +on your countryman Mr. Whitney, who is now intensely engaged in +the preparations for an edition of the Atharva Samhitā in union +with Professor Roth of Tübingen. The next number of the _Indische +Studien_, too, which is now in press, contains from him tables +showing the natural relation of the four now known Samhitās of the +Veda,--an attempt in which he was greatly indebted to Professor Roth's +communications, but which still remains also a very favorable specimen +of his own assiduity and correctness." + +The following letters need little explanation. We note with interest +how soon the first followed the receipt of Weber's letter which has +just been quoted. The spirit which prompted the offer of the first +letter is certainly unusual in its generosity--not only surrendering a +professorial chair, but also providing for its endowment. The modesty +and delicacy of the reply seem as extraordinary at the present day, and +were perhaps as rare forty years ago. + +Under date of February 19, 1853, Professor Salisbury wrote to Mr. +Whitney: "... I have observed your course of study and the rapidity of +your acquisitions since you have been abroad with much interest and +have seen in this, together with what I have known otherwise of your +tastes and talents, a way opening for relief to myself which I have +long desired. The prospect has been the more pleasing to me inasmuch as +I have also seen that I might be able through you to bring new honor +to my 'alma mater.'... It is also much at heart with me to secure +... assistance to myself in editing and endeavouring in every way to +improve the Journal of the Oriental Society." Professor Salisbury +proposed that Mr. Whitney should be made "Professor of the Sanskrit and +its relations to the kindred languages, and of Sanskrit literature, in +the Department of Philosophy and the Arts in Yale College," his term of +service to begin Aug. 8, 1853;--it being understood that Mr. Whitney +would include in his instructions the teaching of modern languages +to undergraduates, and should receive the fees which were then paid +for such teaching. It was understood, further, that Mr. Whitney would +co-operate with Professor Salisbury in editing the Journal of the +Oriental Society. Professor Salisbury undertook to create a fund which +with the fees for modern-language instruction might furnish nearly the +ordinary salary of a Yale professor at that time. + +Mr. Whitney replied from Paris, on April 4, 1853. Professor Salisbury's +letter had reached him at Berlin at a time when he was engaged in +closing his work there, and "had hardly an hour for quiet thought upon +any subject." He expressed his gratitude for the kind feeling toward +him "which has had a share in the dictating of the proposal," and +continued: "Nor can I well say how much I am struck by the true and +self-forgetting zeal for the progress of Oriental studies, of which +this, like all your previous movements, affords an evidence. But ... I +am compelled to ask myself whether ... I can hope to render any such +service to Science as would be an adequate return for the kindness you +exhibit toward me; whether, finally, it would not be in me an act of +unpardonable presumption to take upon my shoulders an office which you +are desirous of throwing off.... I need not say how high and honorable +a post I regard that of a teacher at Yale to be, how many and extreme +attractions, both in a personal and in a scientific point of view, the +prospect of such a situation would have for me.... So far as my own +interests are concerned, I could find nothing in the terms which you +propose or the duties which you suggest to which to raise a moment's +objection.... All that I could bring up against the arrangement would +be that the advantage is too entirely upon my side." He desired further +time for reflection and consultation with his friends, and thought the +postponement of a decision less objectionable because he did not expect +to be able to finish his work in Europe and return before the last of +August, and then, after a three years' absence from home, desired to +spend some time with his friends. His eyes, too, had been giving him +"during the winter ground for some apprehension," and "would doubtless +be best consulted for by a period of rest and inaction." + +In Paris he was "at work on a MS of the Atharva which belongs to the +Imperial Library." "Probably it will cost me about six weeks' labor.... +Then will follow two or three months of similar labor in London and +Oxford.... During the whole winter I was compelled to neglect all other +studies; that, however, chiefly owing to the condition of my eyes, +which robbed me of about half my time. Persian and Arabic had to be +laid aside altogether, and what of time and strength I had to spare +from the Sanskrit, I devoted to the Egyptian and Coptic. I cannot +well express to you the interest which this latter branch of study +has awakened in me, and the strong desire I have felt to penetrate +further into it than the mere surface exploration which could be made +in the odd moments of a single winter. I would not, however, sell for +a very large sum the little insight into this wonderful subject which +I have already obtained, and it will be my highest pleasure to attempt +to draw it somewhat more into the circle of our Oriental inquiries +than has been generally the case hitherto.... There is nothing new of +particular interest, so far as I know, to communicate to you from the +Sanskrit world on this side of the water. The main interest attaches +to the Lexicon which is going to be really a great work, and to push +forward the whole study of that language a long way with one thrust. A +slow thrust, unfortunately, it will have to be; Prof. Roth estimates +ten years as needed for its perfection. [It was completed in 1875.] +I am going to contribute my small mite also toward it, by furnishing +to Prof. Roth the vocabulary complete of the Atharva. The latter, as +you perhaps know, has now the sole redaction of the Vedic material, +Aufrecht having left Germany. The next number of Weber's Zeitschrift +will be out now very soon, and will contain a contribution from me, a +Vedic concordance." + +Mr. Whitney reached home earlier than he had expected--about Aug. 8, +1853--and on Aug. 15 he wrote: "Although not less distrustful than +before of my ability to discharge to your satisfaction and my own +the duties of the post to which you would assign me, I should be +disposed to accept gratefully your proposals, and do my best at least +to accomplish that which such an acceptance demands of me." But Mr. +Whitney desired a modification of the plan. "I have no such knowledge +of French as would in any manner justify me in making pretensions to +ability to teach it." His estimate of his knowledge of modern languages +was lower than that of his friends. Not until 1856 did he accept the +title of "Instructor in German." A year later, after he had taken nine +months of travel and study in southern Europe, the college catalogue +calls him "Professor of Sanskrit, and Instructor in modern languages." + +The importance to American scholarship of the offer of this chair +to Professor Whitney may be better appreciated if we remember that +his predecessor still lives, and that no other chair of Sanskrit was +established in this country for about a quarter of a century. + +At a special meeting of the Corporation of Yale College, on May +10, 1854, the "Professorship of the Sanskrit and its relations to +kindred languages, and Sanskrit Literature" was established, and Mr. +Whitney was elected to hold it. The founder's desire for the range +of the department was indicated distinctly, but the shorter name of +the professorship, "Professor of Sanskrit," was used in the college +catalogues until 1869, when the words "and Comparative Philology" +were added, without indicating any change in the direction of the +incumbent's studies or in the plan of the university. + +In 1854 the announcement of philological courses in the Department of +Philosophy and the Arts covered Professor Gibbs's lectures on general +Philology, Professor Thacher's course of two hours a week in Lucretius +and in Latin Composition, Professor Hadley's course of two hours a +week in Pindar or Theocritus, and contained the following statement: +"Professor Whitney will give instruction in Sanskrit from Bopp's +Grammar and Nalus, or such other text-books as may be agreed upon, and +in the rudiments of the Ancient and Modern Persian, and of the Egyptian +languages." The last clause here reminds the reader of the enthusiasm +for the Egyptian and Coptic expressed in the letter of April 4, 1853; +and of the fact that Mr. Whitney's first 'bibliographical notice' in +the Journal of the Oriental Society discussed Lepsius's work on the +'First order of Egyptian deities,' but we read little more of these +studies, except a paper on Lepsius's Nubian Grammar in the second +volume of this JOURNAL. In 1858 Professor Whitney's announcement read: +"Professor Whitney will instruct in the Sanskrit language, and in +the History, Antiquities, and Literature of India and other Oriental +countries; also in the comparative philology of the Indo-European +languages, and the general principles of linguistic study. He will +also give instruction to such as may desire it in the modern European +languages." + +The appointment of Professor Whitney in 1854 was for five years, +with a pledge of reappointment "for life," five years later, if he +desired it. In 1859 this reappointment was made--the founder of the +chair stipulating that Professor Whitney should be free to retire +from the professorship at any time. Mr. Whitney wrote, on July 15, +1859: "My present situation in New Haven is so pleasant to me on so +many accounts, and holds out such prospects of honorable and useful +employment in the time to come, that I should exceedingly regret being +compelled to go elsewhere. Nor, although it would be in many respects +more agreeable to me to be able to devote my _whole_ time to my own +peculiar studies, do I see reason seriously to regret the division of +my labors between the ancient and the modern languages. It is both +useful and pleasant to have to do more directly with the young men in +college, and there is also the chance of influencing one and another of +them to devote his attention to higher philological study." + +During and after the Civil War, the ordinary expenses of life +increased, and Mr. Whitney's family was growing. The income which had +sufficed for the young and unmarried professor in 1854 had become +entirely insufficient for his needs, with six children, in 1870. For +his pecuniary relief he assumed additional duties of instruction in +modern languages, in connection with the Sheffield Scientific School. +His teaching of modern languages in the academic department had ceased +with the entrance upon his duties of Professor Coe, in 1867. The burden +of instructing large classes of undergraduates in the very rudiments +of French and German (each Academic student then having only thirty or +forty lessons in each subject) became more and more irksome. + +In September, 1869, Mr. Whitney received an urgent call to Harvard, +very soon after President Eliot's election to the headship of that +university, with the assurance that he should have "salary enough to +constitute a tolerable support," and should not have to teach in any +other than his own proper department. He wrote to a friend: "It is the +most tempting offer that could, so far as I know, be made me; for on +the one hand I have greatly grudged the time which I have had to steal +from Oriental and linguistic studies for German and French; and, on the +other hand, what I have received for my services to the College has not +for a good while paid more than about half my expenses.... Such a state +of things has been, of course, worrying enough, nor have I seen any +definite prospect of a change. But I am greatly attached to the College +here, and to the Scientific School, and to relatives and friends in +New Haven, and have no hope that ... I should become so wonted and so +comfortable anywhere else." + +Professor Whitney's colleagues saw how fatal his departure would be +to the advanced philological work at Yale. No definite provision had +then been made for graduate instruction in Greek, Latin, and Modern +Languages, and although Professors Hadley, Thacher, Packard, and Coe +were laboring to build up this department, their efforts received +only the slightest pecuniary compensation; they were expected to do +full work in the undergraduate department; Mr. Whitney was the only +"University professor," not only at Yale, but in the whole country. One +who is everywhere recognized as a leader in education then wrote: "I am +confident that there is no one whose intellectual influence over the +younger officers of the college is so great as Mr. Whitney's.... I have +greatly admired his influence in promoting fidelity, truth, justice, +and industry among the students, as well as his skill in promoting +their intellectual character." Another of his colleagues wrote: "I have +never known the college men so moved. The danger of losing so eminent +a man as Mr. Whitney seemed almost appalling, and I think if no other +means of retaining him could be devised, the professors themselves +would each cut off a slice from his meagre salary to make up the amount +necessary to retain him. The question seems to rise above personal +considerations and to come very near to the vital interests of the +university." + +Professor Salisbury, whose insight and generosity had brought Mr. +Whitney to Yale, was nearly concerned by the call to Cambridge, and +after less than a week's delay provided the sum needed for the full +foundation of Mr. Whitney's chair on the modern scale of salaries, +which had changed greatly since 1854, and Mr. Whitney decided to remain +in New Haven. At this time the arrangement was made that Mr. Whitney +should give regular instruction in linguistics to the undergraduate +classes of the college, and this course, at first given in the form of +lectures, as part of the required work, was amplified and continued as +an 'elective' until 1886. Mr. Whitney still continued to teach in the +Scientific School for an hour a day, saying that in no other way could +he add so easily a convenient thousand dollars a year to his income as +by teaching from eight to nine o'clock each morning; he required no +preparation for the exercise, it did not interfere with the work of his +day, and he liked to be brought into contact with the young men. + +The invitation to Harvard and the decision to remain at Yale had +attracted considerable attention and had given rise to many plans +for advanced philological instruction at New Haven. Mr. Whitney's +release from drudgery with undergraduates enabled him also to enrich +his Sanskrit and linguistic courses. In the catalogue of 1870-71 +we read: "In Philology, a somewhat regular course of higher study, +extending through two years, and leading to the degree of Doctor of +Philosophy, is offered. The leading studies of the first year will be +The general principles of linguistic science, under Professor Whitney; +the Sanskrit language, under Professor Whitney; the older Germanic +languages, especially Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, under Professor Hadley +and Mr. Lounsbury; along with higher instruction in the classical and +the modern languages, according to the special requirements of each +student, under Professors Thacher, Packard, and Coe, and Messrs. Van +Name and Lounsbury, and others. The leading studies of the second +year will be The comparative philology of the Indo-European languages +... under Professor Whitney; the history of the English language, +under Professor Hadley; along with other special branches, as during +the first year." The reward for the new enterprise of a formal +graduate school of philology came almost immediately in the form of +an unusual class of students, nearly all of whom were destined to +secure honorable distinction in their chosen work. In the list of +those who received the degree of Ph.D. in 1873 appear the names of +Lanman of Harvard, Learned of the Japanese Doshisha, Luquiens of Yale, +Manatt of Brown, Otis of the Institute of Technology, and Perrin of +Yale. Truly an unusual group! Only the year before, Professor Easton +of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Beckwith of Trinity +College, and the year following Professor Edgren of the University of +Gothenburg, received the same degree, while soon after them President +Harper of Chicago, Professor H. P. Wright of Yale, Professor Sherman +of Nebraska, Professor Peters of the University of Pennsylvania, and +Professor Tarbell of the University of Chicago completed the graduate +course under Mr. Whitney. The service which the Semitic scholar, +Professor George E. Day, had done for Indo-European philology by +turning Professor Whitney's mind to its attractions, was in a way +repaid by the latter when he pointed out to William Rainey Harper the +great opportunity open to workers in the Semitic field; as a graduate +student at Yale, Dr. Harper gave himself to work in the field of the +Indo-European languages, but his recollection of his master's words has +had a wide influence on Semitic studies in America. Professor Whitney +was justly proud of his pupils, and was always interested in their +work. His classes in Sanskrit were not large absolutely, but frequently +he could say that more were studying this language with him than with +any other university professor in the world. + +Professor Whitney's connection with the Sheffield Scientific School +was close. He organized its department of modern languages, and was a +member of its 'Governing Board' from the time of the organization of +that body in 1872. One who has occasion to know better than all others +says that he was "a tower of strength" to the School--not only by his +instructions and by inspiring the students with the spirit of true +scholarship, but by his intelligent appreciation of the aims of the +School and his wise judgment as to the means to be used in order to +attain them. His personal liking for natural science, and training in +its methods, added the warmest sympathy to his work in connection with +this department of the University. + +In the very first communication made to Mr. Whitney with regard to his +work at Yale, attention was called to the opportunity for usefulness +in connection with the American Oriental Society, of which he was +elected a member in 1850. In 1854 his name appears in the list of the +publication committee of that Society. In 1855 he was made librarian, +and held that office until 1873. This latter post was no sinecure. In +the winter of 1853-54, on going to visit the library (then kept in +Boston), he "found it a pile of books on the floor in the corner of an +upstairs room in the Athenaeum, apparently just as it had been brought +in and dumped down from an earlier place of keeping." In the summer +of 1855 the books were removed to New Haven. The task of "arranging, +labelling, entering in the book of donations, and preparing cards" +involved "a very considerable and tedious amount of work." In 1857, on +Professor Salisbury's going abroad and resigning the office, Professor +Whitney was elected Corresponding Secretary, and continued in this +position until 1884, when he was elected President of the Society. +His resignation of this latter office was not accepted until 1890, +when for nearly four years the condition of his health had obliged +him to absent himself from its meetings. He could well say that "no +small part of his work had been done in the service of the Society"; +from 1857 to 1885, "just a half of the contents of its Journal is from +his pen." His care of the publications of others, also, was specially +difficult, in view of the peculiar danger of typographical errors and +the wide field covered by the papers; no ordinary proof-reader could +render much assistance. And not infrequently articles by those who were +unaccustomed to scientific composition needed thorough revision. On his +positively declining to be a candidate for re-election as President, +the Society adopted the following minute: "The American Oriental +Society--regretfully accepting his declination--desires to record +its deep sense of indebtedness to its retiring President, Professor +William Dwight Whitney, of New Haven. For twenty-seven years he has +served as Corresponding Secretary of the Society; for eighteen, as its +Librarian; and for six, as its President. We gratefully acknowledge the +obligation under which he has laid us by his diligent attendance at +the meetings, by his unstinted giving of time and of labor in editing +the publications and maintaining their high scientific character, by +the quality and amount of his own contributions to the _Journal_--more +than half of volumes VI-XII coming from his pen--and above all by the +inspiration of his example." + +The American Philological Association might have been a natural +off-shoot from the Oriental Society. The latter has had a +'classical-section' since 1849, of which Professor Hadley was long at +the head, of which Professor Goodwin has been the leader for nearly +a quarter of a century; and classical papers had been presented by +Professor Hadley, as that 'On the theory of Greek accent,' and by +Professor Lane, as that 'On the date of the Amphitruo of Plautus.' Many +of the early members of the Philological Association were also members +of the Oriental Society. Mr. Whitney presided over the Philological +Association at its first meeting in Poughkeepsie in 1869, and at the +Rochester meeting in 1870, as retiring President, he delivered an +address in which he sketched with great wisdom the Association's action +and work. "The association is to be just what its members shall make +it, and will not bear much managing or mastering. It must discuss the +subjects which are interesting American philologists, and with such +wisdom and knowledge as these have at command.... In every such free +and democratic body things are brought forward into public which might +better have been kept back.... The classics, of course, will occupy +the leading place; that department will be most strongly represented, +and will least need fostering, while it will call for most careful +criticism. The philology of the American aboriginal languages, on the +other hand, demands, as it has already begun to receive, the most +hearty encouragement.... Educational subjects also are closely bound up +with philology, and will necessarily receive great attention; yet there +should be a limit here; our special task is to advance the interests +of philology only, confident that education will reap its share of +the benefit." Mr. Whitney's services to the Association, and faithful +attendance upon its meetings, may be estimated from the fact that the +first sixteen volumes of the Transactions contain fourteen papers by +him printed in full, while occasionally he presented communications +which he did not care to print. At its meeting in Williamstown in July +last, the Association adopted the following minute: "The American +Philological Association, at its first meeting after the death of +Professor William D. Whitney, bears grateful testimony to the value +of the services which he rendered for the furtherance of philological +learning, and especially in connection with this Association. Fitly +chosen to be its first President, and retained for a quarter of a +century upon its Executive Committee, he never failed to take an active +part in its work, and in many ways he advanced its interests and +encouraged and assisted the studies to which its members are devoted. +The record of his life-work may be left for more full recital at +another time; but the Association takes this opportunity of testifying +to its sense of obligation to Professor Whitney's manifold and +successful labors, and of the great loss which his death has brought to +its members and to philological students throughout the world." + +Both the classical and the oriental philologists of the country have +noted Mr. Whitney's constancy in attendance on their gatherings. In +November, 1875, he apologized to the Oriental Society for his absence +from the May meeting (caused by his visit to Europe in the interest +of the edition of the Atharva-Veda), and added that it was his second +absence in twenty-one years from a meeting of the Society! His devoted +fidelity to the little Classical and Philological Society at Yale was +just as marked. A quarter of a century ago, he with Professor Hadley +and Professor Packard made that small gathering a deep source of +inspiration. Many, if not most, of his learned papers were presented +for discussion there. After the death of the lamented Professor Hadley, +which gave a sudden check to the development of Yale's advanced courses +in philology, Mr. Whitney was the mainstay of the Society, and his +regular attendance and patient attention roused to best effort each who +took part. Perhaps I ought to confess also that some of the younger +instructors and graduate students shrank from presenting papers which +might be compared with the finished scholar's elaborate productions. +At these meetings his patience must have been sorely tried; much +that was presented can have had but little interest for him; but his +courtesy was unfailing. He gave without stint of his precious time to +any undertaking which he believed to be doing, on the whole, useful +philological work. + +The first great work of Mr. Whitney's scholarship was the publication +of the Atharva-Veda-Sanhitā, undertaken in 1852 with Professor +Roth. The first volume of 458 pages, royal octavo, was published in +1855-56. In connection with this, he prepared and published in Weber's +_Indische Studien_ (vol. IV, pp. 9-64) in 1857 an 'Alphabetisches +Verzeichniss der Versanfänge der Atharva-Samhitā'; in the _Journal_ +of the American Oriental Society in 1862 (vol. VII, pp. 333-616) the +'Atharva-Veda-Prātiçākhya,' with text, translation and notes; in the +same _Journal_ in 1881 (vol. XII, pp. 1-383) an 'Index Verborum' to the +published text of the Atharva-Veda. He made to the A.O.S. in April, +1892, an 'Announcement' as to a second volume of the Roth-Whitney +edition of the Atharva-Veda. "The bulk of the work" of preparing notes, +indexes, etc., "was to have fallen to Professor Roth, not only because +the bulk of the work on the first volume had fallen to me [i. e. +Professor Whitney], but also because his superior learning and ability +pointed him out as the one to undertake it." But Roth's "absorption in +the great labor of the Petersburg lexicon for a long series of years +had kept his hands from the Atharva-Veda." Mr. Whitney said that he +had never lost from view the completion of the plan of publication +as originally formed. "In 1875 I spent the summer in Germany chiefly +engaged in further collating at Munich and at Tübingen the additional +manuscript material which had come to Europe since our text was +printed; and I should probably have soon taken up the work seriously, +save for having been engaged while in Germany to prepare a Sanskrit +grammar, which fully occupied the leisure of several following years. +At last in 1885-86, I had fairly started upon the execution of the +plan when failure of health reduced my working capacity to a minimum, +and rendered ultimate success very questionable. The task, however, +has never been laid wholly aside, and it is now so far advanced that +barring further loss of power, I may hope to finish it in a couple +of years or so. The plan includes critical readings upon the text"; +the readings of the Pāippalāda version; the data of the Anukramaṇī +respecting authorship, divinity, and meter of each verse; references to +the ancillary literature; extracts from the printed commentary; and, +finally, a simple literal translation. "An introduction and indexes +will give such further material as appears to be called for." Of this +work the last revision is only partially made; a few months' more labor +would have completed it; Professor Lanman, of Harvard, has undertaken +to finish the revision and to conduct the volume through the press. +Thus Professor Whitney's work closes as it began--with the Atharva-Veda. + +Perhaps Mr. Whitney's most important service to Sanskrit philology +was the preparation of his 'Sanskrit Grammar, including both the +classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana,' +486 pp., octavo. This was published in Leipzig in 1879, in the same +year with a German translation. He undertook this work in 1875, and +in 1878 went to Germany with his family and spent fifteen months in +writing out the grammar and preparing it for the press. He aimed "to +make a presentation of the facts of the language primarily as they +show themselves in use in the literature, and only secondarily as they +are laid down by the native grammarians"; "to include also in the +presentation the forms and constructions of the older language, as +exhibited in the Veda and Brāhmaṇa"; "to treat the language throughout +as an accented one"; "to cast all statements, classifications, and so +on, into a form consistent with the teachings of linguistic science." +"While the treatment of the facts of the language has thus been made a +historical one, within the limits of the language itself, I have not +ventured to make it comparative, by bringing in the analogous forms +and processes of other related languages. To do this, in addition to +all that was attempted beside, would have extended the work both in +content and in time of preparation, far beyond the limits assigned to +it." A second edition, revised and extended, was published ten years +later, in 1889. A 'Supplement to his Sanskrit Grammar: The Roots, +Verb-forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language,' 250 pp., +was published in Leipzig in 1885. That he did not discredit and slight +the old Hindu grammarians because of any lack of acquaintance with them +is shown by his own work and publications in that field. He published +not only the Atharva-Veda-Prātiçākhya (text, translation and notes, +in 1862), but also a similar edition of the Tāittirīya-Prātiçākhya, +with its commentary, the Tribhāshyaratna, in 1871. The true relations +of Hindu Grammar to the study of Sanskrit, he made clear in two +articles published in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY, in vols. V and +XIV. His last word on the subject was this: "I would by no means say +anything to discourage the study of Pāṇini; it is highly important and +extremely interesting and might well absorb more of the labor of the +present generation of scholars than is given to it. But I would have +it followed in a different spirit and a different method. It should be +completely abandoned as the means by which we are to learn Sanskrit. +For what the literature contains, the literature itself suffices; we +can understand it and present it vastly better than Pāṇini could. It is +the residuum of peculiar material involved in his grammar that we shall +value, and the attempt must be made to separate that from the rest of +the mass." More than twenty-five years ago he called attention to the +fact that the very title of Professor Goldstücker's paper 'On the Veda +of the Hindus and the Veda of the "German School"' involved an evident +_petitio principii_. The fair theme would have been 'The Veda of the +Hindu Schools, and the Veda of the European School: which is the true +Veda?' + +The following extracts from a review by Hillebrandt in the fifth +volume of _Bezzenberger's Beiträge_ illustrate the reception generally +accorded to the Sanskrit Grammar:--"Es handelte sich für ihn nicht +um ein tieferes studium der einheimischen indischen grammatik, auf +deren reiche beobachtungen unsere bisherigen sanskritgrammatiken +fast ausschliesslich sich stützen, sondern um die erforschung des +sprachzustandes, wie ihn die litteratur selbst aufweist.... Whitney's +eigentliche aufgabe war es, in die sanskritgrammatik die grundsätze +der linguistik durchgreifender, als bisher geschehen war, einzuführen +und die sprache als eine historisch gewordene zu betrachten. Dies +princip hatte eine beständige rücksichtsnahme auf den vedadialekt +zur voraussetzung und verlieh Whitney's buche vorzüge, welche allein +genügen würden, ihm eine hervorragende stellung unter den vorhandenen +lehrbüchern anzuweisen. Die reiche fülle neuen materials, welches +er ... aus allen teilen der vedischen litteratur herbeizog und in +instructiver weise dazu verwandte, über das allmähliche aufleben und +absterben dieses oder jenes sprachgebrauchs aufschluss zu geben, die +durch reiche beispiele und aufstellung ganzer paradigmen illustrirte +unterscheidung vedischer und klassischer flexion, die von der indischen +grammatik vernachlässigte statistische beobachtung des formenschatzes +in älterer und jüngerer litteratur--dies sind eigenschaften die es in +dieser ausdehnung mit keinem teilt." + +The Grammar provided an instrument which all Sanskrit scholars are now +thankfully using. + +Of the Supplement to the Grammar, von Bradke wrote in the third volume +of the Literaturblatt für orientalische Philologie: "So anspruchslos +das Werk auftritt, in dieser Weise konnte es nur von einem unserer +ersten Kenner der altindischen Literatursprache, und auch von einem +solchen nicht ohne lange und mühevolle Arbeit geschaffen werden." + +In this connection we should be again reminded that Professor Whitney +was one of the chief four collaborators who furnished material for +the great Sanskrit dictionary published at the expense of the Russian +government. + +In March, 1864, Mr. Whitney delivered at the Smithsonian Institution +a series of six lectures on the Principles of Linguistic +Science--probably lectures which he had given to the Sheffield +Scientific School the preceding year. This course was repeated before +the Lowell Institute and published in 1867, under the title of +'Language and the Study of Language,' 489 pages. This was translated +into German by Jolly and into Netherlandish by Vinckers. The clearness +and conciseness of the statements and the soundness of the views, +in a field where the wildest vagaries had prevailed, and where the +imagination was still allowed rather free play, were recognized on +every hand. From the time of the preparation of those lectures, Mr. +Whitney seems to have devoted to this subject more attention than he +had given before. In 1875 he published in the International Scientific +Series a similar book, in somewhat more compendious form, on the 'Life +and Growth of Language: an outline of linguistic science,' 326 pages. +This was translated into German, French, Italian, Netherlandish, and +Swedish. This last book grew out of his lectures to academic senior +classes. + +No one has done so much as Mr. Whitney to teach sound views of +linguistic science. Although the writer of this sketch has not +ventured to include a detailed discussion of his views, perhaps +mention may be made fitly of two points in which he was in advance of +his contemporaries: he was among the very first to call attention to +_analogy_ as a force in the growth of language, and the first (after +Latham in 1851) to doubt the then generally accepted view that Asia was +the original home of the Indo-Europeans. + +Papers which had been printed in the _North American Review_ and other +periodicals were collected and, with more or less revision, published +in two volumes entitled 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' 1873-74, pp. +417 and 432. The first volume contained papers on the Veda, the Avesta, +the science of language; the second, on the British in India, China and +the Chinese, religion and mythology, orthography and phonology, Hindu +astronomy. The author's regard for his earliest teacher in Sanskrit is +marked by his dedication of the first of the two volumes to "Professor +Edward Elbridge Salisbury, the pioneer and patron of Sanskrit studies +in America." The second volume "is affectionately dedicated" to +"Professors Rudolf Roth and Albrecht Weber, my early teachers and +lifelong friends." + +His long experience as a teacher of modern languages and as a student +of linguistics aided to fit him pre-eminently for the preparation of +grammars, readers, and vocabularies of French and German for schools +and colleges, and his systematic habits of work enabled him to prepare +these easily. This apparatus met the needs of the newly awakened +interest in modern languages in this country, and has done much to +further this interest. These books are said to be used more widely than +any others of their kind in America. Some of them are published in two +editions, full and abridged. His desire for a reasonable and truly +philological study of the English language led him to prepare for use +in schools 'Essentials of English Grammar' (1877, 260 pages), which has +been adopted extensively by the public schools of the country and is +declared, by one who knows, to have had great influence on the study of +this subject. + +Professor Whitney had assisted in the preparation of the Webster's +dictionary of 1864, rewriting the definitions of many of the important +words. This experience, his keen sense of proportion, his practical +turn of mind, his precise and concise manner of statement, his wide +and varied attainments,--all made him a peculiarly suitable person +to be the editor-in-chief of the great Century Dictionary with +which the people of this country will long associate his name. His +unfortunate illness prevented him from revising the work so carefully +as he doubtless would have done, had he been in vigorous health, and +some have thought that he should be called supervising-editor rather +than editor-in-chief. As the dictionary stands, he cannot be held +responsible for details; but his influence upon the work was strong as +well as salutary. Though he might not mark the proof for a dozen pages, +he would score the next page in a manner which set a standard, and +showed what he desired the revision of the rest to be, while the whole +body of editors followed the general lines which he had drawn. + +In the list of his writings which was drawn up by Professor Whitney in +1892, one hundred and forty-four items are enumerated; but numerous +minor articles and book notices are not included, nor his contributions +to the great Sanskrit, Webster, and Century dictionaries, nor his +oversight of the German dictionary which goes by his name. He wrote +articles for the New American Cyclopedia, Johnson's Cyclopedia, and +the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He was a frequent contributor to the +_Nation_ and other periodicals. In view of the importance and extent +of many of his publications, his diligence and intellectual fertility +are extraordinary. + +As a teacher of advanced students, Mr. Whitney was exacting. A two-hour +course under him in Sanskrit called for a larger outlay of time and +effort than a four-hour course under most other teachers. He required +precise knowledge of others as well as of himself. He was never +deceived by glittering generalities, nor satisfied with approximate +accuracy when absolute accuracy was attainable. He was modest, however, +and while he would not allow the violation of well-established +principles, yet in the translation of difficult and uncertain passages +he never insisted on the pupil's adoption of his view. + +In controversy and criticism, Mr. Whitney struck hard; his sword was +piercing, even to the sundering of joint and marrow. But he was fair; +he never misrepresented his opponent. He never lost his temper and +struck blindly. He saw so clearly the absurdities and difficulties +of a false position that he felt bound to present it as it was, yet +without any thought of giving personal offence. For example, no one +would suppose that he expected to offend his friend and teacher, Weber, +by the remark that the latter had "unwittingly put himself in the +position of one attempting to prove on philological grounds that the +precessional movement of the equinoxes is from west to east, instead +of from east to west" (Oct. 1865); but the criticism is very similar +to that (which was counted severe) on Müller (July, 1876), that "even +the aid of Main and Hinds could not keep him, in his astronomical +reasonings, from assuming that, to any given observer, the ecliptic is +identical with his own horizon." + +The only prolonged controversy in which Professor Whitney was ever +engaged was that with Professor Max Müller. His early relations +with Müller had been pleasant, and he had supported the latter's +candidacy for his chair at Oxford in 1860. His first public mention +(1867) of Müller's work on the translation of the Vedas was very +complimentary; but when the first volume of the translation appeared, +his review of it was exceedingly severe. In the fourteenth volume of +his _Indische Studien_, under the heading 'Zur Klarstellung,' Weber +gives an account of the conflict. According to him, the real source +of the controversy was Mr. Whitney's spirited reply to Müller's +criticisms on the Böhtlingk-Roth Dictionary. "Whitney hatte zwei +Vorlesungen Müller's kritisch besprochen,--scharf, wie es Whitney's +Art ist, aber ohne irgend welche persönliche Wendung, so wie sich +Gelehrte, denen es um ihre Meinung Ernst ist, zu streiten pflegen." +The occasion of the contest was the publication by Professor George +Darwin, in the _Contemporary Review_ of November, 1874, of a report +of Mr. Whitney's views. "Müller nahm sich denn auch gar nicht die +Zeit Whitney's Abhandlung selbst zu lesen, sondern trat gleich in dem +folgenden Januar-Heft der Review mit einer nur auf die Auszüge Mr. +Darwin's basirten Gegenschrift hervor." Some have wondered that Mr. +Whitney should care to follow up the matter so long, and even in 1892 +should publish a brochure of 79 pages on 'Max Müller and the Science +of Language: a Criticism.' But the question with him rose far above +personalities: the truth was at stake. His mind, accurate by both +nature and training, shrank from allowing inaccurate statements and +false principles to be floated by a charming style. Great Britain in +this generation has had more than one scholar of note whose brilliant +form of statement, ingenious theories, and varied attainments have +sufficed to give them undue authority on subjects where they made +some grievous errors. Mr. Whitney felt that the higher a scholar's +position, the greater his authority, the more careful he should be in +all matters. He was heartily vexed by attempts to overlook and avoid +the real point at issue. His vigorous spirit may have felt a certain +enjoyment in a conflict; as an intellectual athlete he could appreciate +the beauty of a keen thrust or the weight of a heavy blow; but while he +did not fear a conflict, in some cases he avoided a controversy, even +when he had been misunderstood and misrepresented. + +No sketch of Mr. Whitney's character would be complete which did not +mention his musical tastes. Music was always a source of pleasure and +recreation to him. He had a fine tenor voice; and when a young man he +was an acceptable and admired leader of the choir of Jonathan Edwards's +old church in Northampton. The story is told that his conversations +with the Rev. Dr. George E. Day, which led to his study of Sanskrit, +were more frequent and natural because of his weekly calls at the +pastor's house for the list of hymns to be sung. He was an active +member of the Mendelssohn Society of New Haven a score of years ago, +and did much to rouse the community to take interest in oratorios and +other choral music, writing for the newspapers appreciative accounts of +the works to be performed. He was prominent in securing for New Haven +concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. One of the last occasions +which brought him into a public gathering was a University Chamber +Concert by the Kneisel Quartet. He was fond of singing hymns on Sunday +evenings, and while he cherished some of the old tunes of his youth, +he welcomed the introduction of the modern more ecclesiastical music. +While singing the old hymns he was as fervent and orthodox as his +Puritan ancestors. + +Mr. Whitney was no recluse, nor a typical professor in manner. He +attracted men to him and enjoyed being with them. He was not at all +emotional, however, and cared little for general society. He gave a +rather extreme view of himself in a letter written in 1869: "I am of +a more than usually reserved and unsocial nature. I avoid society as +much as I can, and am never quite comfortable in the company of any +excepting those with whom I am most nearly bound. My besetting sin +is burying myself in my books and papers, and too much overlooking +all that is outside of them,--partly from natural tendencies, partly +because I feel that in that way I shall on the whole do most good and +give most pleasure to others." His bearing was perfectly simple and +unpretentious--in short, that of a gentleman. + +Like Aristotle's "magnanimous man," he gave little heed to praise or +blame--not being elated or cast down by either. He loved learning for +its own sake and not for its reward of fame. The words which he wrote +with regard to his friend Professor James Hadley are strikingly true +of himself: "No one was ever more free from the desire to shine among +his fellows. His was a modesty entirely unfeigned, and free from every +taint of a lower feeling.... He devoted himself so entirely to truth +and virtue and duty, as he knew them, that there was left no room for +any thought of self. He neither extolled himself nor gave way unduly +to others." "He knew his power, but possessed it in the spirit of +moderation and reserve." He was eminently guileless--though by no means +a subject for imposition by others. He would have made an admirable +lawyer or statesman, but he could not have been a politician. He saw +truth clearly and abhorred anything like trickery or disingenuousness. +He was also thoroughly sane. Sentimental enthusiasm never led him to +denote as certain views which later were to be proved false. He had +few scientific retractions to make in the course of forty-five years +of publication. His statements on uncertain points were carefully +guarded. Where doubt existed, he was apt to feel it; in fact he was +called in Germany "der Skeptiker der Sprachwissenschaft." His sanity +restrained him from various excesses. His opinions on the desirability +of reform in the spelling of the English language were clear and +clearly expressed, and he was the first chairman of the committee +appointed by the Philological Association for the furtherance of this +reform in our country, but he saw so distinctly the difficulties +in the way of an abrupt change, at least for the present, that he +wasted no time in a Quixotic crusade. He was invited by the Japanese +government to prepare an opinion in regard to the adoption of English +as the official language of Japan--but he was not carried away by any +sentimental notions of English as a _Weltsprache_. His mind was like +a diamond, and his style was eminently clear and forcible. He never +strove to be eloquent, but always expressed his thoughts in the fewest +and simplest words. His was the style of a teacher rather than that of +a popular platform-lecturer, but was enlivened by a strong sense of +humor and by keen wit. + +Professor Whitney's services to science and learning were freely +recognized, both at home and abroad. He received the degree of Ph.D., +_honoris causa_, from the University of Breslau in 1865; that of LL. +D. from Williams College in 1868, from the College of William and Mary +in 1869, from Harvard in 1876, and from the University of Edinburgh in +1889; that of J.U.D. from St. Andrews University in Scotland in 1874; +that of L.H.D. from Columbia in 1887. He was a member of the National +Academy of Sciences; an honorary member of the Oriental or Asiatic +societies of Great Britain and Ireland, of Germany, of Bengal, of +Japan, and of Peking; of the Literary Societies of Leyden, of Upsala, +and of Helsingfors; fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; member or +correspondent of the Academies of Dublin, of Turin, of Rome (_Lincei_), +of St. Petersburg, of Berlin, and of Denmark; also, correspondent of +the Institute of France; and Foreign Knight of the Prussian order _pour +le mérite_ for Science and Arts, being elected May 31, 1881, to fill +the vacancy made by the death of Thomas Carlyle. + +In 1870 the Berlin Academy of Sciences voted him the first Bopp prize +for his publication of the Tāittirīya-Prātiçākhya, as the chief +contribution to Sanskrit philology during the preceding three years. + +The following extracts from a brief article in the _Berliner +Nationalzeitung_, from the pen of Professor Albrecht Weber, form an +interesting companion-piece to the letter from the same scholar, +dated in December, 1852, which was quoted in the early part of this +sketch: "Der jüngst in Yalecollege verstorbene Professor William +Dwight Whitney war einer der ersten Indianisten und Sprachforscher +der Gegenwart. Seine Sanskritstudien absolvirte er bei uns in +Deutschland, hier in Berlin bei Weber und in Tübingen bei Roth. Beide +Gelehrte betrachten es als einen ihrer schönsten Ehrentitel, ihn zum +Schüler gehabt zu haben. Gleich seine erste Arbeit in den _Indischen +Studien_ ... war ein Meisterwerk und zeigte alle die Eigenschaften, +die seinen Arbeiten einen so hohen Werth verleihen sollten, Klarheit, +Sorgsamkeit, und Akribie im kleinsten Detail.... Heimgekehrt nach +Amerika, ward er der Begründer der dortigen, jetzt in reicher Blüthe +stehenden Sanskrit-Philologie, die sich besonders durch die von ihm +speziell betonte _statistische_ Methode grosse Verdienste erworben +hat, u. A. durch seine Schüler: Avery, Bloomfield, Hopkins, Lanman, +Jackson, Oertel, Perry, Smyth, Snyder, trefflich vertreten wird.... +Seine Uebersetzung eines der ältesten vorhandenen Lehrbücher der +indischen Astronomie zeigte ihn als trefflichen Rechner und Astronom. +Schärfe der Kritik, Klarheit der Darstellung, Genauigkeit der Arbeit +sind allen seinen Werken als Stempel aufgedrückt. Sein reifstes Werk +wohl ist seine 'Sanskrit-Grammatik,' ... die erste _historische_ +Darstellung derselben, gewissermassen ein _gründliches_ Résumé aus dem +grossen Petersburger Sanskrit-Wörterbuch von Böhtlingk und Roth. Seine +Arbeiten erstreckten sich im Uebrigen auf die verschiedensten Gebiete +der Sprachwissenschaft.... Deutschland verliert in ihm einen der +wärmsten Freunde, die es in Amerika hatte, Amerika einen seiner besten +Gelehrten, und die Wissenschaft im grossen und ganzen einen ihrer +ersten Koryphäen." + +On August 28, 1856, Professor Whitney married Elizabeth Wooster +Baldwin, daughter of the Hon. Roger Sherman Baldwin, of New Haven +(ex-Governor of Connecticut and U. S. Senator), great-granddaughter +of Roger Sherman, and great-great-granddaughter of President Thomas +Clap, of Yale. Six children, three sons and three daughters, were +born to them; of whom one son (the Hon. Edward B. Whitney, Assistant +Attorney-General of the U. S.) and the three daughters survive. The +daughters assisted their father in some of his later publications in +the field of modern languages, and have done literary work of their +own. + +Just after a hard summer's work, at the very beginning of the college +year in the autumn of 1886, Professor Whitney was prostrated by a +severe disorder of the heart. For a time he was forbidden by his +physician to do more than a minimum of work. He was obliged to avoid +fatigue and excitement, and was limited strictly in his physical +exercise. Those who had seen him return invigorated and exhilarated +from a ten-miles' walk in the country were deeply pained to watch his +slow, measured gait. He surprised many by his graceful submission to +restrictions which he must have felt most keenly, and his household +was still the brightest and most cheerful in the city. The gentler +side of his nature became more prominent than before. His face grew +more and more beautiful, with his white hair and beard, and delicate +fair complexion. Though not an old man, he became truly venerable in +appearance, and his presence was a real benediction to all whom he +met. He was obliged to abandon entirely his work with undergraduate +classes, but continued his classes in Sanskrit, receiving the students +in his study at his home. During most of the past year he had six of +these exercises each week. He did not abandon his other scholarly +work. During the early years of this period of weakness, the Century +Dictionary was going through the press and received his care. Every +year witnessed his publication of some scientific paper or papers. He +aided in the plans for the World's Congress of Philology, last year. +One of his intimate associates, Professor Lounsbury, has written of +him: "To me, at least, words seem inadequate to describe the quiet +heroism which gave serenity and calm to his latter days, and the +unflinching resolution with which he met and discharged every duty of a +life over which the possibility of sudden death was always casting its +shadow." + +After an illness of about two weeks, Mr. Whitney passed away from this +life, during sleep, on the morning of Thursday, June 7, 1894. + +In the death of William Dwight Whitney, this country has lost one of +her most distinguished men, one who had been recognized throughout +the world as one of the highest authorities in his department of +learning, and who had been for forty years the leader of oriental and +linguistic studies in America and the personal master of a majority of +the American scholars in his department. Yale University has lost one +of her most brilliant and able scholars, one of her wisest and most +faithful teachers, whose influence always made for diligent and honest +research and statement. His publications have had a lasting effect on +scholarship. His personal influence will long endure. In the words of +Professor Lanman, "for power of intellect, conjoined with purity of +soul and absolute genuineness of character, we shall not soon look upon +his like again." + + THOMAS DAY SEYMOUR. + +[1] The writer desires to acknowledge his special obligations to +Professor Salisbury for allowing him access to original documents, and +to Dr. Hanns Oertel for calling his attention to publications which +would otherwise have escaped his notice. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's William Dwight Whitney, by Thomas Day Seymour + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44259 *** |