till in many respects little more than a collection of colleges. It
was the work of Dr. Angell to build, and to build well, upon foundations
already laid; to harmonize, with practical idealism and diplomacy, the
advanced ideals of the University with the slower progress of the
Commonwealth. While it has come to be no reproach upon the fame of Dr.
Tappan that he failed in just this particular, it is the great
achievement of Dr. Angell that he succeeded. He made Michigan the model
for all succeeding state universities.

The new President was born in Scituate, R.I., January 7, 1829, of good
New England stock. Throughout his youth he lived the simple life of a
country boy, attending the village school, the academy of one Isaac
Fiske, a Quaker pedagogue,--until he was ready for more advanced studies
at the academies of Seekonk, Mass., and North Scituate.

This early training, in his later estimation, furnished the best
possible instruction, because it involved personal attention from
special instructors, a good old-fashioned method which the rapid
development of this country has made almost impossible, yet a practice
for which he stood consistently as far as possible throughout his whole
career as an educator. In speaking of his early schooling he said that
"no plan had been marked out for me; being fond of study and almost
equally fond of all branches, I took nearly everything that was taught,
merely because it was taught."

His health as a boy, however, was delicate, giving small promise of his
hale and hearty fourscore years, and he spent perforce two years, from
fourteen to sixteen, on a farm. As to the value of this experience, far
from uncommon in the lives of many men eminent in the history of this
country, he said, "I prize very highly the education I received then. I
learned how much backache a dollar earned in the field represents." He
prepared for Brown University at a "grammar school" in Providence, where
he studied under Henry S. Frieze, destined to become his immediate
predecessor in the Presidency of Michigan. He was graduated from Brown,
with highest honors, in 1849.

This early New England training was particularly fortunate for one who
was to come into such close relationship with the pioneer settlers of
Michigan,--New Englanders to a very large extent. Equally fortunate was
his later training. His first residence abroad, where he acquired the
familiarity with modern languages which fitted him for his fi