leading universities. I could not think then, and cannot think
now, of any endowment likely to be more speedily and happily
fruitful in good to the whole country. In the spring of 1904 I
returned to my old house on the grounds of Cornell University,
and there, with my family, old associates, and new friends about
me, have devoted myself to various matters long delayed, and
especially to writing sundry articles in the "Atlantic Monthly,"
the "Century Magazine," and various other periodicals, and to the
discharge of my duties as a Trustee of Cornell and as a Regent of
the Smithsonian Institution and a Trustee of the Carnegie
Institution at Washington. It is, of course, the last of my life,
but I count myself happy in living to see so much of good
accomplished and so much promise of good in every worthy field of
human effort throughout our country and indeed throughout the
world.

Following are the letters referred to in this chapter.

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
WHITE HOUSE,
WASHINGTON.

OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK,
August 5, 1902.
MY DEAR AMBASSADOR WHITE:

It is with real regret that I accept your resignation, for I
speak what is merely a self-evident truth when I say that we
shall have to look with some apprehension to what your successor
does, whoever that successor may be, lest he fall short of the