Morison retains his contacts with the faculty by attending the History Department luncheon on Thursdays, and is often visited by former students. He sees members of the present student body "only when they want to get something" like information for theses.

In direct contrast to the dynamic, organized atmosphere of Morison's office is the famous study of Harry Wolfson, Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy, Emeritus, where he works all day, every day in scholarly solitude. Teeming with books, manuscriupts, old journals and the like, Wolfson's much discussed office defies description.

"Great Thing About Harvard"

Like many of his students, Wolfson after 20 years has grown very attached to his study. "The great thing about Harvard," he says, "is that they allow professors to keep their studies. Your study is your occupation...If you work in your study, you're still a part of the University."

Wolfson retired at the end of last year and regards his first year as an emeritus professor as "a prolonged summer vacation." Actually, the professor has yet to experience full retirement. During fall term he had three graduate tutees, and this term he has been invited to read theses and conduct doctoral exams. His daily routine has been changed only by the fact that he has found time to accept invitations to lecture outside the University. He most recently was invited to deliver the Candler Lectures at Emory University. When he was still actively teaching, Professor Wolfson felt he couldn't afford the time away from Cambridge. He considers them a "good change," and feels that any professor can always keep himself busy in retirement by lecturing.

Wolfson Works on Project

Wolfson's current endeavors are part of the same work he has been doing for over twenty years--fulfillment of the grand design of "working out more fully the background of the problems dealt with in Spinoza's philosophy." In 1937 he began doing research for a 12-volume project entitled The Structure and Growth of Philosophic Systems from Plato to Spinoza.

In this series, Professor Wolfson traces the growth and interrelationship of Greek, Hebrew, Moslem and Christian pholosophies. All 12 volumes have been written, five have already been published and two more are almost realy for the printer. Wolfson writes all his manuscripts out in longhand ("I'm old fashioned") and then puts them away in the huge file cabinets that adorn his study. When the rough draft of the entire series was written, Wolfson began the slow process of revising each manuscript, some of which he claims not to have looked at in over ten years. But all the rough drafts will eventually be reworked and published.

Thus in retirement Wolfson continues to do what he regards as his life's work. 'There was no break," he declares, between active teaching and his emeritude. "I imagine," he says with a smile, "I can go on for years."

A third, less happy, opinion of retirement is voiced by Percy W. Bridgman, Higgins University Professor, Emeritus. "You'll hear many different views on retirement," he says, "I don't like it." The physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in 1946, has been restless since his retirement because he has not been able to continue doing independent scientific research.

Rule Hurts Scientists

The University does not support scientific research of retired professors. If the scientist wishes to continue his experiments he has to pay for the necessary equipment himself. Scientific research is much more expensive than work done in other fields, and it requires considerably more money to give a retired professor use of a cyclotron than it does to allow him to retain his study in Widener. The Corporation prefers to let active professors use the expensive equipment, although it does allow the emeritus professor to use the laboratories if he can pay his own overhead.

"I don't think it's right," says Brigman who obviously fels he has many years of valuable research still in him. The professor objects to the blanket rule that has been the policy of the Corporation since Lowell. For the Corporation, this is just a practical financial measure that is completely impersonal. They can only afford to contribute a certain amount to scientific research and they prefer to give assistance to current professors. Bridgman himself has never lodged an official complaint as he feels "it doesn't put a man in a pleasant position to have to urge the value of his own contributions." But he feels that a more flexible retirement plan would not force a man to leave his work. Bridgman's high pressure experiments and equipment are now in the capable hands of William Paul, Assistant Professor of Solid State Physics.

Bridgeman Turns to Philosophy

Not having a laboratory in which to experiment, Bridgman has been forced to turn to his other interest, the Philosophy of Physics. He has just published a book, The Way Things Are, and has been writing for various scientific journals. He works in a study provided for him by the University, but he does not feel that he is doing the work he does best.