264 AS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR-I 



to grandiose statements read from the original bulletins 

 of Napoleon. 



In this way alone can history be made real to students. 

 Both at my lectures and in the social gatherings at my 

 house, I laid out for my classes the most important origi 

 nals bearing upon their current work ; and it was no small 

 pleasure to point out the relations of these to the events 

 which had formed the subject of our studies together. I 

 say l our studies together, because no one of my students 

 studied more hours than myself. They stimulated me 

 greatly. Most of them were very near my own age ; sev 

 eral were older. As a rule, they were bright, inquiring, 

 zealous, and among them were some of the best minds I 

 have ever known. From among them have since come 

 senators, members of Congress, judges, professors, law 

 yers, heads of great business enterprises, and foreign 

 ministers. One of them became my successor in the pro 

 fessorship in the University of Michigan and the presi 

 dency of Cornell, and, in one field, the leading American 

 historian of his time. Another became my predecessor in 

 the embassy to Germany. Though I had what might be 

 fairly called &quot;a good start&quot; of these men, it was necessary 

 to work hard to maintain my position ; but such labor was 

 then pleasure. 



Nor was my work confined to historical teaching. After 

 the fashion of that time, I was called upon to hear the 

 essays and discussions of certain divisions of the upper 

 classes. This demanded two evenings a week through two 

 terms in each year, and on these evenings I joyfully went 

 to my lecture-room, not infrequently through drifts of 

 snow, and, having myself kindled the fire and lighted the 

 lamps, awaited the discussion. This subsidiary work, 

 which in these degenerate days is done by janitors, is 

 mentioned here as showing the simplicity of a bygone 

 period. The discussions thus held were of a higher range 

 than any I had known at Yale, and some were decidedly 

 original. One deserves especial mention. A controversy 

 having arisen in Massachusetts and spread throughout the 



