638 AUGUSTUS LOWELL. 



they inculcated it upon the sons. In consequence of his supposed neg- 

 lect of this precept, it was perhaps not unnatural that his ancestors should 

 disapprove and should show their disapproval. This they did in the only 

 way in their power — by means of a dream. For dreams are really 

 reversions to type and are in consequence very interesting things. When 

 we dream it is the atavic paths of which we are conscious. We think 

 again the thoughts of our progenitors. 



The occasion of this visitation was the going up of his second son for 

 the entrance examinations, and the paternal mind was naturally full of 

 the subject. With the unimpeachable authority of dreams he was sud- 

 denly made aware one night that he had not done all he might in college. 

 Profoundly stirred by the thought, the singleness of which made it pass 

 for truth, he decided after due and weighty consideration — lasting at 

 least a tenth of a second — to enter the university once more and go 

 over the course again. The fact that he was middle-aged, married, and 

 had a large family only made the resolve seem, after the manner of 

 dreams, the more meritorious. On the strength of his already holding 

 a degree, the college faculty consented to admit him without examination. 

 He was thus enabled triumphantly to get in. His action caused some 

 comment, chiefly commendatory, such as follows an unusually pious deed. 

 He thus became, against his will, something of a cynosure. So the first 

 year glided by till with a speed peculiarly their own the annual examina- 

 tions were upon him and with them the eyes of the community. Then, 

 and somehow not till then, did he realize, to his consternation, that he had 

 done nothing and was quite unprepared to pass. The situation was 

 beyond words. At this awful moment he woke, — to the pleasing con- 

 sciousness that his son, not he, would have to pass them on the morrow. 



Just before his graduation in 1850 his father, who was not very well, 

 decided to go abroad with his family, including his son Augustus, in the 

 event of needing his help. Mr. Lowell stayed with his father till the 

 spring of 1851. In Paris he was joined by his friend and classmate, Mr. 

 Lincoln Baylies, and there at the same time was John Felton, brother of 

 the* then president of the college, with whom the two young men fore- 

 gathered. John Felton was something of a character and a good deal of 

 a man, with fiery red hair on the outside of his head and much genial wit 

 and wisdom within it. Under his guidance, philosophy, and friendship 

 the two young men passed an interesting and not unprofitable winter, 

 frequenting the theatres to pick up French. Labiche was then in his 

 prime. In the spring the two classmates went off to travel in Germany 

 and Switzerland, and returned by themselves in the autumn to the 

 United States. 



