anded
in written exercises in Latin and Greek which were examined
by the instructor and the faults corrected, and returned.
There were, during the last three years, declamations once
a month, where the boy recited some piece of prose or poetry
in the presence of the class, but got very little instruction
or criticism from the professor. Then, in the last three
years, English themes were required. The subjects were given
out by Professor Channing, himself a most accomplished and
admirable scholar in his line. He seemed to choose his subjects
with a view of taxing the ingenuity of the boy to find anything
to say about them instead of taking something which the boy
knew about and devoting himself to improve his English style
in expressing his thought. Channing was a good critic. His
published lectures on rhetoric and oratory, now almost wholly
forgotten, remind one of Matthew Arnold in their delicate
and discriminating touch. He had a face and figure something
like that of Punch in the frontispiece of that magazine. His
method was to take the themes which the boys handed in one
week, look them over himself, then, a week after, meet the
class, call the boys in succession to sit down in a chair
by the side of his table, read out passages from the theme,
and ridicule them before the others. It was a terrible ordeal
for a bashful or awkward boy. Those of a more robust nature,
or whose performance had nothing ridiculous in it, profited
by the discipline. But it certainly took all the starch and
courage out of me. I never sat down to write my theme without
fancying that grinning and scornful countenance looking at
my work. So I used to write as few sentences as I thought
would answer so that I should not be punished for failure
to bring in any theme at all, and never attempted to do my
best.

But the Faculty themselves were certainly an assemblage of
very able men. Making all the allowance for the point of
view, and that I was then a youth looking at my elders who
had become famous, and that I am now looking as an old man
at young men, I still think there can be no comparison between
the college administrators of fifty years ago and those of
to-day. It was then the policy of the college to call into
its service great men who had achieved eminent distinction
in the world without. It is now its policy to select for
its service promising youth, in the hope that they will become
great. Perhaps the last method i