William Dwight Whitney

by Thomas D. Seymour

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."