theology." Each story had a heading in black letter, which I supposed to 

 be German and thought I was making rapid progress in that language. 

 Yet, in spite of my theological studies, the real, though as yet largely 

 unconscious, bent of my mind was toward science, an interest which 

 manifested itself at every opportunity. My first lesson in geology, which 

 I still vividly remember, came from my Grandfather, who took the 

 keenest interest in all scientific discoveries. Not far from where we were 

 standing, a wagon was unloading coal and he said to me: "Do you 

 know what that is?" "Why! yes; it's coal." "No; it's wood," was the 

 puzzling rejoinder. The old gentleman made no attempt to explain the 

 paradox, which long continued to bewilder me, but he planted a seed 

 which in after years bore fruit. 



My first school was kept by Mr. John Schenck in the basement of the 

 old Methodist church, Mr. Schenck told my Mother that he would take 

 me on trial, but he hardly believed that I was prepared to enter his 

 lowest class, which was beginning Latin — but a week's probation suf- 

 ficed to show that I could go on. The epoch-making news that I was 

 actually to begin Latin was too solemn an affair to be communicated 

 orally and so I sent the great tidings to my Mother in a note, much to 

 her mystification, for she couldn't im.agine why I should write what I 

 might as well have told. 



My Great-aunt Margaret, wife of my Grandfather's only brother. Dr. 

 Hugh Lenox Hodge, died in the late fall of 1867 and, taking me with 

 her, my Mother went to Philadelphia for a time, to keep house for 

 "Uncle Doctor" and Cousin Len, the son who lived with him and was 

 himself an eminent surgeon and a man of singularly noble character. 

 Aunt Margaret was a Miss Aspinwall, of New York, a sister of the 

 W. H. Aspinwall who was one of the builders of the Panama Railroad 

 and for whom the Isthmian town, now known as Colon, was originally 

 named. She was a very stately woman and I stood in great awe of her, 

 though she never gave me the least reason to be afraid of her. She must 

 have had a strong sense of humour and she used to tell of herself, that, 

 as a young girl, she had made a resolution never to marry a Presbyterian, 

 a Philadelphian, or a doctor and her husband was all three of these 

 objectionable things. 



My recollections of this first Philadelphia stay are few and vague, for 

 we returned for a much longer visit the following year. 



My oldest brother, Charles, graduated in 1868 and immediately went 

 to Pittsburgh to a position with a firm of ironmasters. September of 

 that same year was a very memorable date in the history of Princeton, 



L22-] 



