LIFE AT MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY -1857 -1864 261 



deliver one of Guizot's lectures required great concentra- 

 tion of thought and considerable facility in expression, but 

 several students availed themselves of the permission, and 

 acquitted themselves admirably. This seemed to me an 

 excellent training for effective public speaking, and sev- 

 eral of my old students, who have since distinguished 

 themselves in public life, have confessed to me that they 

 found it so. 



My next and highest duty was giving lectures to the 

 senior class and students from the law school. Into this 

 I threw myself heartily, and soon had the satisfaction of 

 seeing my large lecture-room constantly full. The first 

 of these courses was on the ' ' Development of Civilization 

 during the Middle Ages"; and, as I followed the logical 

 rather than the chronological order, taking up the sub- 

 ject, not by a recital of events, but by a discussion of 

 epochs and subjects, I thought it best to lecture without 

 manuscript or even notes. This was, for me, a bold ven- 

 ture. I had never before attempted anything in the way 

 of extended extemporaneous speaking; and, as I entered 

 the old chapel of the university for my first lecture, and 

 saw it full of students of all classes, I avowed my trepida- 

 tion to President Tappan, who, having come to introduce 

 me, was seated by my side. He was an admirable extem- 

 poraneous speaker in the best sense, and he then and there 

 gave me a bit of advice which proved of real value. He 

 said: "Let me, as an old hand, tell you one thing: never 

 stop dead; keep saying something." This course of lec- 

 tures was followed by others on modern history, one of 

 these being on "German History from the Revival of 

 Learning and the Reformation to Modern Times," an- 

 other on "French History from the Consolidation of the 

 Monarchy to the French Revolution," and still another on 

 the "French Revolution." To this latter course I gave 

 special attention, the foundation having been laid for it 

 in France, where I had visited various interesting places 

 and talked with interesting men who recalled events and 

 people of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. For 



