30 
BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 
study of living things, men and animals. As the years went on he 
grew deeply interested in the study of human life, history and institu¬ 
tions. Political principles attracted him and he read the “Federalist” 
with deep absorption. To become lost in a book, indeed, was common 
with him. The story goes that, when visiting a fellow-student, he 
would be apt to pick up a volume, and immediately become so buried 
in its contents that a cannon would hardly have awakened him to the 
social duty of the hour. 
Before leaving college he had gone beyond reading to the task of 
writing a book. Reading the extant histories of naval battles in the 
War of 1812, he found them unfairly partisan. William James's 
history, an English work, was full of one-sided statements. The 
American histories he examined seemed as much on the other side. 
An impartial history appeared to be needed, and he set out to write one. 
He studied the official files, and “The Naval History of 1812,” his first 
work, is an acknowledged authority. Its fairness led to his being 
complimented by an invitation to write the chapter on this war for the 
monumental British work, “The Royal Navy.” 
We cannot go further into the details of Roosevelt's college life. 
It must suffice to say that when, in 1880, graduation day arrived, he 
stood among the first twenty of the one hundred and forty of his class; 
not at the top, but at a very respectable distance from the bottom. 
His college career ended, he went abroad to get a glimpse of the 
world outside America. But he did not stay long. His love of walking 
led him to take a tramp afoot through Germany. The sight of the 
Alps inspired him to climb the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn. He 
halted for a period of study at Dresden. His journey reached as far 
east as Asia. But he was back in New York in the year after his 
graduation, prepared to take his part in the battle of life. 
