38 ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION II 



the American minister to Russia, Governor Seymour, of 

 Connecticut, I was invited to St. Petersburg, as an attache 

 of the American Legation, and resided for over six months 

 in his household. It was a most interesting period. The 

 Crimean War was going on, and the death of the Emperor 

 Nicholas, during my stay, enabled me to see how a great 

 change in autocratic administration is accomplished. An 

 important part of my duty was to accompany the minister 

 as an interpreter, not only at court, but in his interviews 

 with Nesselrode, Gortschakoff, and others then in power. 

 This gave me some chance also to make my historical 

 studies more real by close observation of a certain sort 

 of men who have had the making of far too much history ; 

 but books interested me none the less. An epoch in my 

 development, intellectual and moral, was made at this time 

 by my reading large parts of Gibbon, and especially by 

 a very careful study of Guizot s &quot;History of Civilization 

 in France, 9 which greatly deepened and strengthened the 

 impression made by his &quot; History of Civilization in Eu 

 rope, &quot; as read under President Woolsey at Yale. During 

 those seven months in St. Petersburg and Moscow, I read 

 much in modern European history, paying considerable at 

 tention to the political development and condition of Rus 

 sia, and, for the first time, learned the pleasures of in 

 vestigating the history of our own country. Governor 

 Seymour was especially devoted to the ideas of Thomas 

 Jefferson, and late at night, as we sat before the fire, after 

 returning from festivities or official interviews, we fre 

 quently discussed the democratic system, as advocated by 

 Jefferson, and the autocratic system, as we saw it in the 

 capital of the Czar. The result was that my beginning 

 of real study in American history was made by a very 

 close examination of the life and writings of Thomas Jef 

 ferson, including his letters, messages, and other papers, 

 and of the diplomatic history revealed in the volumes of 

 correspondence preserved in the Legation. The general 

 result was to strengthen and deepen my democratic creed, 

 and a special result was the preparation of an article on 



