[S.N. Patten's letter] Feb.10,1895,Philadelphia [to F.H. Giddings], [letter marked 'Private' at top]

Feb. 10, 1895, Philadelphia. [ letter marked 'Private' at top ]

Dear Giddings,
        The more I think
of the plan you outlined yester-
day the more I hesitate to go
into it. It seems to me that
both the Barnard managers
and I could easily make a
mistake which would be
hard to rectify. Prof. Clark
would just suit their needs
and would be of as much ser-
vice as I to the general combi-
nation. You should urge
him as strongly as possible
to come to you and let the
fates care for me as they
will.
 If I ever come to New York
it must be I think as a half
philosopher and a half economist.
My best work is on the border
line between the two fields.
I hope in a couple years to have
for my "Storum" ["Strum"] course the
history of English thought from
Bacon and Hobbes to J. S.
Mill. This would of course be
partly philosophy, partly pol-
itics and the rest economics with
many digressions into the field
of the inductive sciences.
 It is hard to make a course of
this kind as a plan satisfactory to
me and I prefer to pound away
on my own lines until I am myself
satisfied. I have in the meantime
several special topics to work up and
I would hate to leave or delay them to
set up new courses just for the sake
of a special position.
                                            Sincerely Yours,
                                            Simon N. Patten