SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKS ON WHITE. 549 



deepest impression upon him was his study of Guizot's Civiliza- 

 tion in Europe, under Dr. Woolsey. 



In December, 1853, he went abroad for further study, having 

 as fellow-traveler his college mate (now the well-known President 

 of Johns Hopkins, and at this moment his colleague on the Vene- 

 zuelan Commission). After a few weeks in England and several 

 months in France, spent in studying French, reading the French 

 historians (Thierry, Mignet, Thiers, Chateaubriand), listening to 

 lecturers like Laboulaye at the Sorbonne and the College of 

 France, chatting with the old soldiers of the Revolution at the 

 Invalides, making historical pilgrimages throughout the northern 

 and central provinces, everywhere reveling in architecture and 

 music and haunting the old book shops, he was invited by the 

 American minister to Russia, ex-Governor Seymour, of Connecti- 

 cut, to join that legation as an attache. 



Accordingly, in October of 1854 he made his way, via Brus- 

 sels, Cologne, and Berlin, to St. Petersburg. It was the stirring 

 time of the Crimean War, and the young diplomat found his 

 attache*ship no sinecure. His knowledge of French made him 

 valuable as an interpreter ; he became the companion of the min- 

 ister in his interviews at court and at the foreign office, and took 

 a most interested part in the ceremonial attending the death of 

 the Czar Nicholas and the accession of Alexander II. Yet he 

 found much time for study. Huge scrap-books were filled with 

 clippings on the progress of the war ; the book-stalls afforded rich 

 store for his rapidly growing collection on Russia and Poland ; 

 and the archives of the legation even gave him material for re- 

 search in American history. He there, under the inspiration of 

 Mr. Seymour, became interested in the character and policy of 

 Jefferson, and drew up the nucleus of the study later published in 

 the Atlantic Monthly on Jefferson and Slavery. 



But he tired of the restraints of official life, and in June, 1855, 

 resumed the career of a student, first wandering in Germany and 

 Switzerland, then matriculating at the University of Berlin. There 

 he heard Boeckh, Lepsius, Friedrich von Raumer, Karl Ritter, 

 and tried in vain to follow the lectures of Ranke. With the Easter 

 vacation he was off for Austria and Italy, and lingered till late 

 spring beyond the Alps, in the company of his fellow-student and 

 close friend Frieze, the Latinist. Crossing then the Alps, and 

 lingering but a little among the Roman ruins of southern France, 

 he turned his footsteps homeward, reaching America in time to 

 share the commencement festivities of his alma mater and to 

 receive at her hands his Mastership of Arts. 



It was then, with his future profession all undecided, that he 

 chanced to stray within sound of the voice of President Francis 

 Wayland, who was delivering at Yale one of the addresses of the 



