sor Child gained great distinction in his chosen field,
but, I incline to think, would have gained the same distinction
if he had devoted himself to the same pursuits and had never
entered college at all. The first scholar in the class of
1843, the first class that graduated after I entered, was
Horace Binney Sargent, a brave soldier, and the author of
some beautiful and spirited war lyrics. But there were several
of his classmates, including Thomas Hill, John Lowell and
Octavius B. Frothingham, who attained much greater distinction.
In the class of 1844 the first scholar was Shattuck Hartwell,
a highly respectable and worthy gentleman, many years an officer
in the Boston Custom House, who spent a large part of his
life fitting pupils for college, while Francis Parkman, the
historian, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, the mathematician, and
Dr. John Call Dalton, the eminent physician, neither of whom
had a very high record, became distinguished in after life.
Among my own classmates, as I have already said, Judge Webb,
Fitzedward Hall and Calvin Ellis attained very great distinction,
although no one of them stood very high in rank. In the next
class John Felton, Judge Endicott, Judge Charles Allen, and
Tuckermann, the naturalist, were the persons who have been
most famous in after life. I believe no one of them, except
Felton who graduated the second scholar, ranked very high
in college. I myself graduated with a fairly decent rank.
I believe I was the nineteenth scholar in a class of sixty-
six. When I graduated I looked back on my wasted four years
with a good deal of chagrin and remorse. I set myself resolutely
to make up for lost time. I think I can fairly say that I
have had few idle moments since. I have probably put as much
hard work into life as most men on this continent. Certainly
I have put into it all the work that my physical powers, especially
my eyes, would permit. I studied law in Concord the first
year after graduation. I used to get up at six o'clock in
the morning, go to the office, make a fire and read law until
breakfast time, which was at seven in the summer and half-
past in the winter. Then I went home to breakfast and got
back in about three-quarters of an hour and spent the forenoon
until one diligently reading law. After dinner, at two o'clock,
I read history until four. I spent the next two hours in
walking alone in the woods and roads of Concord and the neighboring
towns, went back t