Calm and pure the satisfactions of the scholar, who, aloof from the competitions and the prizes, the mean jealousies, the hollow pretences, the brutal vilifyings, the base intrigues, the measureless corruptions of public life, holds converse in his inoffensive seclusion with the unenvious wise and gifted of every country and every age.

Inauguration of Washington University at Saint Louis, Missouri., April 23, 1857