My hope is to aid--even if it be but a little--in the
gradual and healthful dissolving away of this mass of
unreason, that the stream of "religion pure and undefiled"
may flow on broad and clear, a blessing to humanity.
And now a few words regarding the evolution of this book.
It is something over a quarter of a century since I
labored with Ezra Cornell in founding the university which
bears his honored name.
Our purpose was to establish in the State of New York
an institution for advanced instruction and research, in
which science, pure and applied, should have an equal place
with literature; in which the study of literature, ancient
and modern, should be emancipated as much as possible
from pedantry; and which should be free from various
useless trammels and vicious methods which at that period
hampered many, if not most, of the American universities
and colleges.
We had especially determined that the institution should
be under the control of no political party and of no single
religious sect, and with Mr.
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