: William Dwight Whitney by Seymour Thomas D Thomas Day - Whitney William Dwight 1827-1894

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WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY

WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY.

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 , 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. , Professor of Geology at Harvard; William D. Whitney, of Yale; James L. Whitney , of the Boston Public Library; Henry M. Whitney , 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.'

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 S?rya-Siddh?nta, 1860--and one of the longest essays in his 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies' treats of the same subject.

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.

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 , 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.

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."

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."

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