UNDER COLLEGE ELMS. 87 



thrilled to that music which has never faltered 

 since Casdmon found his voice in answer to the 

 heavenly vision. There are days which will always 

 have a place by themselves in our memory, nights 

 whose stars have never set, because they brought 

 us face to face with some great soul, and struck 

 into life in an instant some new and mighty mean 

 ing. The ferment of soul which Hazlitt describes 

 on the night when he walked home from his first 

 talk with Coleridge is no exceptional experience ; 

 it comes to most young men who are susceptible to 

 the influence of great thoughts coming for the first 

 time into consciousness. A lonely country road 

 comes into view as I write these words, and over 

 it the heavens bend with a new and marvelous 

 splendor, because the boy who walked along its 

 winding course had just finished for the first time, 

 and in a perfect tumult of soul, Schiller s &quot; Rob 

 bers&quot;; it was the power of a great master, felt 

 through his crudest work, that filled the night with 

 such magical influences. 



The hours in which we come in contact with 

 great souls are always memorable in our history, 

 often the crises in our intellectual life ; it is the 

 recollection of such hours that gives those bending 

 elms an imperishable charm, and lends to this land 

 scape a deathless interest. 



