258 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



was going on at home. He wrote back frequently, asking for 

 information concerning scientific progress there. Moreover he 

 was constantly tantalized by the sight of treasures which he 

 coveted for the Museum, but which, in most instances, he was 

 obliged to pass by, not because the director did not want them, 

 but because he could not find the means for their purchase. 

 The scheme for a Summer School originally intended to be held 

 at Nantucket was also at this time much on his mind. 



From London to Cambridge, according to the American 

 reckoning of distance, is but a step, and there Mr. Shaler was 

 at once reminded of Cambridge by the Charles. Furthermore, 

 he was convinced that the younger town did not monopolize 

 all the dulness or the tinge of melancholy that the poet Gray 

 chafed under as something inseparable from his own and other 

 colleges. It is true it was not term time, and therefore an un- 

 wonted stillness brooded over the venerable place ; but if light- 

 hearted students failed to troop through the corridors there was 

 no barren void: the shades of the great men dead and gone 

 spoke to the spirit. 



One of the most enduring and agreeable friendships that Mr. 

 Shaler made while at Cambridge was with Thompson, the 

 Master of Trinity College. Mr. Shaler happening one day in his 

 presence to mention the celebrated Richard Bentley, Thomp- 

 son asked abruptly, "What do you know about him?" "Oh," 

 said Mr. Shaler, " I only know him in connection with the Let- 

 ters of Phalaris and with Horace, as the builder of the famous 

 staircase and the hen-house, as the man who wrung money 

 from the doctors of divinity and in spite of the uprising of 

 his subjects couldn't be ousted from Trinity." "Well," said 

 Thompson, laughing, "that's pretty good for an outsider. Come 

 and see me." 



A few days after, an invitation to luncheon was received. 

 We went at the appointed time, but found the host and hostess 

 more grave than gay, the air charged with an overtaxed and 

 perfunctory hospitality which was not reassuring. As the meal 



