BOYHOOD IN CENTRAL NEW YORK-1832-1850 13 



certed at the result, I still more so, and our preceptor most 

 of all. That evening my father yery solemnly asked me 

 about it. I was mortified beyond expression, did not 

 sleep at all that night, and of my own accord, began 

 reviewing my Andrews and Stoddard thoroughly and vig- 

 orously. But this did not save the preceptor. A suc- 

 cessor was called, a man who afterward became an emi- 

 nent Presbyterian divine and professor in a Southern 

 university, James W. Hoyt, one of the best and truest 

 of men, and his manly, moral influence over his scholars 

 was remarkable. Many of them have reached positions of 

 usefulness, and I think they will agree that his influence 

 upon their lives was most happy. The only drawback 

 was that he was still very young, not yet through his 

 senior year in Union College, and his methods in classical 

 teaching were imperfect. He loved his classics and taught 

 his better students to love them, but he was neither thor- 

 ough in grammar, nor sure in translation, and this I 

 afterward found to my sorrow. My friend and school- 

 mate of that time, W. O. S., published a few years since, 

 in the ' ' St. Nicholas Magazine, ' ' an account of this school. 

 It was somewhat idealized, but we doubtless agree in 

 thinking that the lack of grammatical drill was more than 

 made up by the love of manliness, and the dislike of 

 meanness, which was in those days our very atmosphere. 

 Probably the best thing for my mental training was that 

 Mr. Hoyt interested me in my Virgil, Horace, and Xeno- 

 phon, and required me to write out my translations in the 

 best English at nay command. 



But to all his pupils he did not prove so helpful. One 

 of them, though he has since become an energetic man 

 of business on the Pacific Coast, was certainly not helped 

 into his present position by his Latin ; for of all the trans- 

 lations I have ever heard or read of, one of his was the 

 worst. Being called to construe the first line of the 

 ^neid, he proceeded as follows : 



"Arma, arms ; virumque, and a man; cano, and a 

 dog." There was a roar, and Mr. Hoyt, though evidently 



