When Professor Harper came from Morgan Park to New Haven as professor of Semitic languages at Yale University, in the fall of I886, at the very beginning of the administration of President Timothy Dwight, he had that in which his soul delighted a creative opportunity. There were traditions which favored the establishment of such a chair, inherited from the oriental studies and collections of Professor Salisbury, and enforced by the eminence and active sympathy of Professor Whitney in Indo-European languages. Moreover, for many years Professor Day, in the theological school, had given instruction to divinity men and others in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac. Yet a real department of Semitic languages awaited organization. It was at a fortunate and timely juncture. With the administration of President Dwight began the real and rapid expansion of Yale College, and of the schools which had grown up around it into a trlle university. With these growing ideals Professor Haxper was in strong sympathy. He threw himself with stirring enthusiasm into his work, making himself almost at a bound the center of a group of earnest students. He was appointed instructor in Hebrew at the Divinity School, and succeeded in infusing within a few days an enthusiasm for the subject among the members of the large junior class. Of this class I was myself a member. To us all his methods and his ambitions were a revelation, and his leadership was so inspiring that the hours of study which he demanded were given as a matter of course and with great heartiness. Besides the fifty or more theological students who quickly began to follow his leading, he had, during that first year, seven graduate students who were giving all or a large proportion of their time, under his direction, to the Semitic languages. He offered eight hours of Hebrew, four of Assvrian, four of Arabic, and one each of Aramaic and Syriac. I 7 7