230 A Century of Science 



practice of English composition. It was natural 

 that tales of heroes should be especially charming 

 at that time of life, and among Parkman's efforts 

 were paraphrasing parts of the ^Eneid, and turn- 

 ing into rhymed verse the scene of the tourna- 

 ment in " Ivanhoe." From the artificial stupidity 

 which is too often superinduced in boys by their 

 early schooling he was saved by native genius and 

 breezy woodland life, and his progress was rapid. 

 In 1840, having nearly completed his seventeenth 

 year, he entered Harvard College. His reputation 

 there for scholarship was good, but he was much 

 more absorbed in his own pursuits than in the regu- 

 lar college studies. In the summer vacation of 1841 

 he made a rough journey of exploration in the 

 woods of northern New Hampshire, accompanied 

 by one classmate and a native guide, and there he 

 had a taste of adventure slightly spiced with hard- 

 ship. 



How much importance this ramble may have 

 had one cannot say, but he tells us that " before 

 the end of the Sophomore year my various schemes 

 had crystallized into a plan of writing the story of 

 what was then known as the 4 Old French War,' 

 that is, the war that ended in the conquest of 

 Canada; for here, as it seemed to me, the forest 

 drama was more stirring, and the forest stage more 



