BOYHOOD IN CENTRAL NEW YORK-1832-1850 7 



region; but there was great respect for the instructors 

 of the academy, and for any college professor who hap- 

 pened to be traveling through the town. I am now in my 

 sixty-eighth year, and I write these lines from the Amer- 

 ican Embassy in Berlin. It is my duty here, as it has 

 been at other European capitals, to meet various high 

 officials; but that old feeling, engendered in my child- 

 hood, continues, and I bow to the representatives of 

 the universities, to the leaders in science, literature, and 

 art, with a feeling of awe and respect far greater than 

 to their so-called superiors, princelings and high mili- 

 tary or civil officials. 



Influences of a more direct sort came from a primary 

 school. To this I was taken, when about three years old, 

 for a reason which may strike the present generation 

 as curious. The colored servant who had charge of me 

 wished to learn to read so she slipped into the school and 

 took me with her. As a result, though my memory runs 

 back distinctly to events near the beginning of my fourth 

 year, it holds not the faintest recollection of a time when 

 I could not read easily. The only studies which I recall 

 with distinctness, as carried on before my seventh year, 

 are arithmetic and geography. As to the former, the 

 multiplication-table was chanted in chorus by the whole 

 body of children, a rhythmical and varied movement of 

 the arms being carried on at the same time. These exer- 

 cises gave us pleasure and fastened the tables in our 

 minds. As to geography, that gave pleasure in another 

 way. The books contained pictures which stimulated my 

 imagination and prompted me to read the adjacent text. 

 There was no over-pressure. Mental recreation and in- 

 formation were obtained in a loose way from "Rollo 

 Books," " Peter Parley Books, " "Sanford and Mer- 

 ton," the "Children's Magazine, " and the like. I now 

 think it a pity , that I was not allowed to read, instead of 

 these, the novels of Scott and Cooper, which I discovered 

 later. I devoutly thank Heaven that no such thing as 

 a sensation newspaper was ever brought into the house, 



