30 ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION II 



croft, Prescott, Motley, Lowell, Longfellow, Horace Bush- 

 nell, and their compeers on the other. Hence came strong 

 influences ; but in dealing with them we were left to our 

 selves. 



Very important in shaping my intellectual development 

 at this time were my fellow-students. The class of 1853 

 was a very large one for that day, and embraced ,f ar more 

 than the usual proportion of active-minded men. Walks 

 and talks with these were of great value to me; thence 

 came some of my best impulses and suggestions to reading 

 and thought. 



Especially fortunate was I in my &quot;chum,&quot; the friend 

 that stood closest to me. He was the most conservative 

 young man I ever knew, and at the very opposite pole 

 from me on every conceivable subject. But his deeply 

 religious character, his thorough scholarship, and his real 

 devotion to my welfare, were very precious to me. Our 

 very differences were useful, since they obliged me to 

 revise with especial care all my main convictions and 

 trains of thought. He is now, at this present writing, the 

 Bishop of Michigan, and a most noble and affectionate 

 pastor of his flock. 



The main subjects of interest to us all had a political 

 bearing. Literature was considered as mainly subsidiary 

 to political discussion. The great themes, in the minds 

 of those who tried to do any thinking, were connected with 

 the tremendous political struggle then drawing toward 

 its climax in civil war. Valuable to me was my member 

 ship of sundry student fraternities. They were vealy, 

 but there was some nourishment in them ; by far the best 

 of all being a senior club which, though it had adopted 

 a hideous emblem, was devoted to offhand discussions of 

 social and political questions; on the whole, the best club 

 I have ever known. 



The studies which interested me most were political and 

 historical ; from classical studies the gerund-grinding and 

 reciting by rote had completely weaned me. One of our 

 Latin tutors, having said to me: &quot;If you would try you 



