LIFE AT MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY -1857 -1864 259 



Not a man failed, and some really distinguished them- 

 selves. They had all gone at the work cordially and heart- 

 ily, arranging themselves in squads and clubs for mutual 

 study and examination on each physical and political map ; 

 and it is certain that by this simple, common-sense method 

 they learned more in six weeks than they had previously 

 learned in years of plodding along by rote, day after day, 

 through text-books. 



Nor was this mere ' ' cram. ' ' Their geographical know- 

 ledge lasted and was increased, as was proved at my his- 

 torical examinations afterward. 



I soon became intensely interested in my work, and 

 looked forward to it every day with pleasure. The first 

 part of it was instruction in modern history as a basis for 

 my lectures which were to follow, and for this purpose I 

 used with the sophomores two text-books. The first of 

 these was Robertson 's i l Philosophical View of the Middle 

 Ages/' which forms the introduction to his "Life of 

 Charles the Fifth." Although superseded in many of 

 its parts by modern investigation, very defective in sev- 

 eral important matters, and in some things as, for exam- 

 ple, in its appreciation of medieval literature entirely 

 mistaken, it was, when written one hundred years ago, 

 recognized as a classic, and it remains so to this day. It 

 was a work of genius. Supplemented by elucidations and 

 extensions, it served an admirable purpose in introducing 

 my students to the things really worth knowing in modern 

 history, without confusing them with masses of pedantic 

 detail. 



The next text-book which I took up was Dr. John Lord's 

 "Modern History," the same which President Woolsey 

 had used with my class during its senior year at Yale. It 

 was imperfect in every respect, with no end of gaps and 

 errors, but it had one real merit it interested its readers. 

 It was, as every such work ought to be, largely biographic. 

 There was enthusiasm, a sort of "go," in Dr. Lord, and 

 this quality he had communicated to his book, so that, with 

 all its faults, it formed the best basis then obtainable for 



