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.