CONCLUDING YEARS -188 1-1885 433 



fessor who feels that he is in right relations with his 

 students, that they welcome what he has to give them, 

 and that thek hearts and minds are developed, day by 

 day, by the work which he most prizes. I may justly say 

 that this pleasure was mine at the University of Michi 

 gan and at Cornell University. It was at times hard to 

 satisfy myself; for next to the pleasure of directing 

 younger minds is the satisfaction of fitting one s self to 

 do so. During my ordinary working-day there was little 

 time for keeping abreast with the latest and best in my 

 department; but there were odds and ends of time, day 

 and night, and especially during my frequent journeys by 

 rail and steamer to meet engagements at distant points, 

 when I always carried with me a collection of books which 

 seemed to me most fitted for my purpose; and as I had 

 trained myself to be a rapid reader, these excursions gave 

 me many opportunities. 



But some of these journeys were not well suited to 

 study. During the first few years of the university, be 

 ing obliged to live in the barracks on the University Hill 

 under many difficulties, I could not have my family with 

 me, and from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning 

 was given to them at Syracuse. In summer the journey 

 by Cayuga Lake to the New York Central train gave me 

 excellent opportunity for reading and even for writing. 

 But in winter it was different. None of the railways now 

 connecting the university town with the outside world 

 had then been constructed, save that to the southward; 

 and, therefore, during those long winters there was at 

 least twice a week a dreary drive in wagon or sleigh, 

 sometimes taking all the better hours of the day, in order 

 to reach the train from Binghamton to Syracuse. Com 

 ing out of my lecture-room Friday evening or Saturday 

 morning, I was conveyed through nearly twenty-five miles 

 of mud and slush or sleet and snow. On one journey my 

 sleigh was upset three times in the drifts which made the 

 roads almost impassable, and it required nearly ten hours 

 to make the entire journey. The worst of it was that, 



I. 28 



