The bronze visage of John Harvard, long the presiding spirit in the leafy, weathered-brick Harvard Yard, stares out over a vast and flourishing arena that today ranks as one of the world's most distinguished centers of learning. Three and a half centuries ago, however, it was only a farmhouse surrounded by a one-acre cow pasture. For that matter, the original John Harvard was not the founder or even the head of Harvard College; his only contribution was a bequest of 400 books and half his estate, which amounted to no more than (pounds)779 and may have been only (pounds)375. Nor was...
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