TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I-ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION 

 CHAPTER I. BOYHOOD IN CENTRAL NEW YORK 1832-1850 



PAGE 



The " Military Tract " of New York. A settlement on the headwaters of the 

 Susquehanna. Arrival of my grandfathers and grandmothers. Growth of 

 the new settlement. First recollections of it. General character of my en- 

 vironment. My father and mother. Cortland Academy. Its twofold ef- 

 fect upon me. First schooling. Methods in primary studies. Physical 

 education. Removal to Syracuse. The Syracuse Academy. Joseph Allen 

 and Professor Root; their influence; moral side of the education thus ob- 

 tained. General education outside the school. Removal to a ''classical 

 school"; a catastrophe. James W. Hoyt and his influence. My early love 

 for classical studies. Discovery of Scott's novels. "The Gallery of British 

 Artists." Effect of sundry conventions, public meetings, and lectures. Am 

 sent to Geneva College; treatment of faculty by students. A " Second Ad- 

 ventist" meeting; Howell and Clark; my first meeting with Judge Folger. 

 Philosophy of student dissipation at that place and time . 3 



CHAPTER II. YALE AND EUROPE 1850-1857 



My coup d'6tat. Removal to Yale. New energy in study and reading. In- 

 fluence of Emerson, Carlyle, and Ruskin. Yale in 1850. My disappointment 

 at the instruction; character of president and professors; perfunctory 

 methods in lower-class rooms; " gerund- grinding " vs. literature; James 

 Hadley his abilities and influence; other professors; influence of Presi- 

 dent Woolsey, Professors Porter, Silliman, and Dana ; absence of literary 

 instruction; character of that period from a literary point of view; influ- 

 ences from fellow-students. Importance of political questions at that time. 

 Sundry successes in essay writing. Physical education at Yale ; boating. 

 Life abroad after graduation ; visit to Oxford ; studies at the Sorbonne and 

 College de France; afternoons at the Invalides; tramps through western 

 and central France. Studies at St. Petersburg. Studies at Berlin. Jour- 

 ney in Italy; meeting with James Russell Lowell at Venice. Frieze, Fish- 

 burn e, and studies in Rome. Excursions through the south of France. 

 Return to America. Influence of Buckle, Lecky, and Draper. The atmo- 

 sphere of Darwin and Spencer. Educational environment at the University 

 of Michigan 23 



vii 



