JAMES ELLIOT CABOT. G51 



classmates Henry Bryant and "William Sohier in shooting excursions, 

 which had then the charm of being strictly prohibited by the college. 

 The young men were obliged to carry their guns slung for concealment 

 in two parts, the barrels separated from the stock, under their cloaks, 

 which were then worn largely in the place of overcoats. This taste was 

 strengthened by the love of Cabot's elder brother, afterwards Dr. Samuel 

 Cabot, for ornithology ; and as the latter was then studying medicine 

 in Paris, the young men used to send him great numbers of specimens 

 for purposes of exchange. Dr. Henry Bryant is well remembered in 

 Boston for the great collection of birds given by him to the Boston 

 Natural History Society. 



Soon after his graduation, in 1840, Elliot Cabot went abroad with the 

 object of joining his elder brother in Switzerland, visiting Italy, winter- 

 ing in Paris, and returning home in the spring ; but this ended in his 

 going for the winter to Heidelberg instead, a place then made fascinating 

 to all young Americans through the glowing accounts of it in Longfel- 

 low's " Hyperion." They were also joined by two other classmates, — 

 Edward Holker Welch, now well known in the Roman Catholic priest- 

 hood, and John Fenwick Heath of Virginia, well remembered by the 

 readers of Lowell's letters. All of these four were aiming at the pro- 

 fession of the law, although not one of them, I believe, finally devoted 

 himself to its practice. Migrating afterwards to Berlin, after the fashion 

 of German students, they were admitted to the University on their 

 Harvard degrees by Ranke, the great historian, who said as he inspected 

 their parchments, " Ah ! the High School at Boston ! " which they 

 thought showed little respect for President Quincy's parchment, until 

 they found that " Hoch Schule" was the German equivalent for Uni- 

 versity. There they heard the lectures of Schelling, then famous, whom 

 they found to be a little man of ordinary appearance, old, infirm, and 

 taking snuff constantly, as if to keep himself awake. Later they again 

 removed, this time to Gottingen, where Cabot busied himself with the 

 study of Kant, and also attended courses in Rudolph Wagner's labora- 

 tory. Here he shared more of the social life of his companions, fre- 

 quented their Liederkriinze, learned to fence and to dance, and spent 

 many evenings at students' festivals. 



Cabot sums up his whole European reminiscences as follows : " As I 

 look back over my resideuce in Europe, what strikes me is the waste of 

 time and energy from having had no settled purpose to keep my head 

 steady. I seem to have been always well employed and happy, but 1 

 had been indulging a disposition to mental sauntering, and the picking 



