LIFE AT MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY -1857 -1864 263 



f erred to Cornell University, numbers not far short of 

 forty thousand volumes, the old passion still flames up at 

 times; and during the inditing of this chapter I have 

 secured two series of manuscripts of very great value in 

 illustrating the evolution of modern civilization. My rea- 

 son for securing such original material was not the desire 

 to possess rarities and curiosities. I found that passages 

 actually read from important originals during my lectures 

 gave a reality and vividness to my instruction which were 

 otherwise unattainable. A citation of the ipsissima verba 

 of Erasmus, or Luther, or Melanchthon, or Peter Canisius, 

 or Louis XIV, or Robespierre, or Marat, interested my 

 students far more than any quotation at second hand could 

 do. No rhetoric could impress on a class the real spirit 

 and strength of the middle ages as could one of my illu- 

 minated psalters or missals; no declamation upon the 

 boldness of Luther could impress thinking young men as 

 did citations from his i ' Erfurt Sermon, ' ' which, by weak- 

 ening his safe-conduct, put him virtually at the mercy of 

 his enemies at the Diet of Worms ; no statements as to the 

 fatuity of Robespierre could equal citations from an origi- 

 nal copy of his "Report on the Moral and Religious 

 Considerations which Ought to Govern the Republic"; all 

 specifications of the folly of Marat paled before the 

 ravings in the original copies of his newspaper, "L'Ami 

 du Peuple"; no statistics regarding the paper-money 

 craze in France could so impress its actuality on students 

 as did the seeing and handling of French revolutionary 

 assignats and mandats, many of them with registration 

 numbers clearly showing the enormous quantities of this 

 currency then issued; no illustration, at second hand, 

 of the methods of the French generals during the Revo- 

 lutionary period could produce the impression given 

 by a simple exhibition of the broadsides issued by the 

 proconsuls of that period; no description of the col- 

 lapse of the triumvirate and the Reign of Terror could 

 equal a half -hour's reading from the "Moniteur"; 

 and all accounts of the Empire were dim compared 



