Professor Coolidge's Gift to Library.

The gift to the University library by Professor Coolidge, mentioned by the German Charge d'Affaires in his speech yesterday afternoon, is explained, as to its details and its purpose, by the following extract from the letter of Professor Coolidge offering the gift:

"I have recently been fortunate enough to acquire the valuable private library of that eminent German scholar, the late Professor Conrad von Maurer of Munich. I am presenting it to the Harvard College library. The collection contains numerous works devoted to German history, and it is my desire to set these apart, and to add to them, until their number shall reach ten thousand volumes. These ten thousand volumes would have a book plate of their own and would form in the Harvard library a special collection of works on the history of Germany and of German civilization. They would be but a small portion of what we should hope to possess some day on these subjects, but, at least as a nucleus, I should be glad to have them constitute a memorial recalling the visit of His Royal Highness Prince Henry, and to be known as the Hohen-zollern collection. My hope is that they may serve to show that we at Harvard are not unmindful of the honor that has been done to us by His Imperial Majesty, and of the friendliness which determined his action. I also trust that they may aid the Germanic Museum in its efforts, which His Imperial Majesty has so munificently assisted, to make Harvard a centre for the study of all that is highest and noblest in Germanic civilization."