CHAPTER XV 



LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1857-1864 



AS I looked out upon the world during my childhood, 

 JL\_ there loomed up within my little horizon certain per 

 sonages as ideals. Foremost of these was the surpliced 

 clergyman of the parish. So strong was my admiration 

 for him that my dear mother, during her entire life, never 

 relinquished the hope, and indeed the expectation, that I 

 would adopt the clerical profession. 



Another object of my admiration to whose profession 

 I aspired was the village carpenter. He &quot;did things, &quot; 

 and from that day to this I have most admired the men 

 who &quot;do things. &quot; 



Yet another of these personages was the principal of 

 Cortland Academy. As I saw him addressing his students, 

 or sitting in the midst of them observing with a telescope 

 the satellites of Jupiter, I was overawed. A sense of my 

 littleness overcame me, and I hardly dared think of as 

 piring to duties so exalted. 



But at the age of seven a new ideal appeared. The 

 family had removed from the little town where I was born 

 to Syracuse, then a rising village of about five thousand 

 inhabitants. The railways, east and west, had just been 

 created, the beginnings of what is now the New York 

 Central Railroad, and every day, so far as possible, I 

 went down-town &quot;to see the cars go out.&quot; During a large 

 part of the year there was but one passenger-train in each 

 direction, and this was made up of but three or four small 

 compartment-cars drawn by a locomotive which would 



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