Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — President Eliot’s Curiosity. [ARTICLE]

President Eliot’s Curiosity.

President Eliot, of Harvard College, is a man of marked ability as an executive officer. He is weak on the scholarly side. His communication to the world that Gen. Grant hafr TOW heard of Oliver Twist reminds me of a rather good story on himself, the authenticity of which I can vouch for. When Bonamy Price. Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, was being entertained in Cambridge, Price and. Eliot were thrown together at dinner. Bonamy, who was an intolerable bore and on his old hobby, “The Basis of Civilization, What Was It?” loudly de-, clared that the only one who had successfully answered the question-was a young girl of Cambridge, England. So that I may arouse no unnecessary curiosity, let me say at once the answer to Prof. Price’s conundrum was simply this: “Progressive desire.” But, valuable or not, Price did not choose to divulge the wonderful answer on the occasion in question. He merely propounded it as something every One should know. The Boston men laughed uneasily, as if to say: “O. yes, we know it.” and the subject of conversation suddenly changed. The next day President Eliot sought out Price, and, after a little conversation, began in an embarrassed way to broach something. “Prof. Price, I was much interest <■ in the turn the conversation took last evening < No answer from Price, except a slight raising of the eyebrows. . “You spoke, I believe, of a young lady who, who——" ' A downward look from Price. -- “Who successfully answered the question, ‘What was the true basis of civilisation ?' ” Price nodded in the affirmative. “I forgot to ask you about it at the time,” continued Eliot in the agony of his literary pride, “but I have been haunted by the idea all night. Would you mipd telling me what is the true "basis of civilization?” “No, sir,” answered Bonamy, (promptly, “find it out for yourself!”— Ingleside. < b'.