Part 3 (1/2)

Adams knew only that he would have felt hinorant, and had he not throay ten years of early life in acquiring what he ht have acquired in one

Socially or intellectually, the college was for hiative and in some ways mischievous The ood in the lower habits of the students, but the vices were less harh the mere recollection of it made him doubt his own veracity, so fantastic it seereat or per at life as a social relation--an affair of society--did no good It cultivated a weakness which needed no cultivation If it had helped to ive the manners and instincts of any profession--such as te by the social defects of opponents--it would have been education better worth having than es; but so far as it helped to e standard pere reave hi their children to Harvard College for the sake of its social advantages, they perpetuated an inferior social type, quite as ill-fitted as the Oxford type for success in the next generation

Luckily the old social standard of the college, as President Walker or James Russell Lowell still showed it, was admirable, and if it had little practical value or personal influence on the mass of students, at least it preserved the tradition for those who liked it

The Harvard graduate was neither American nor European, nor even wholly Yankee; his admirers were few, and his many; perhaps his worst weakness was his self-criticism and self-consciousness; but his ambitions, social or intellectual, were necessarily cheap even though they ative Afraid of such serious risks, and still reat failure of life, and nearly always led a lifeSo Henry Adams, well aware that he could not succeed as a scholar, and finding his social position beyond ile ambition which otherould scarcely have seeh it was the last remnant of the old Unitarian supreazine printed his work, and the College Societies listened to his addresses Lavish of praise the readers were not; the audiences, too, listened in silence; but this was all the encouragerave silence was a form of patience that meant possible future acceptance; and Henry Adah to criticise, except hi his own limits He found that he could not be this--or that--or the other; always precisely the things he wanted to be He had not wit or scope or force Judges always ranked hies were right His work seemed to him thin, commonplace, feeble At tio on; when he had nothing to say, he could not say it, and he found that he had very little to say at best Much that he then wrote h he never cared to see it again, for he felt no doubt that it was in reality just what he thought it At best it showed only a feeling for for shocked--not even its weakness

Inevitably an effort leads to an ambition--creates it--and at that time the ambition of the literary student, which alular prizes of scholarshi+p, was that of being chosen as the representative of his class--Class Orator--at the close of their course This was political as well as literary success, and precisely the sort of eighteenth-century cohteenth century boy The idea lurked in his mind, at first as a dream, in no way serious or even possible, for he stood outside the number of ere known as popular men Year by year, his position seemed to improve, or perhaps his rivals disappeared, until at last, to his own great astonishe permitted no active candidacy; he and his rivals had not a word to say for or against themselves, and he was never even consulted on the subject; he was not present at any of the proceedings, and how it happened he never could quite divine, but it did happen, that one evening on returning from Boston he received notice of his election, after a very close contest, as Class Orator over the head of the first scholar, as undoubtedly a better orator and a more popular man In politics the success of the poorer candidate is coh, and Henry Adams was a fairly trained politician, but he never understood how he ed to defeat not only a more capable but a more popular rival

To him the election seemed a miracle This was no mock-modesty; his head was as clear as ever it was in an indifferent canvass, and he knew his rivals and their following as well as he knew himself What he did not know, even after four years of education, was Harvard College

What he could neverimpersonality of the men, who, at twenty years old, seemed to set no value either on official or personal standards Here were nearly a hundred youngfour of the most iain and again, in different ways, deliberately, seriously, dispassionately, chose as their representatives precisely those of their companions who seemed least to represent them As far as these Orators and Marshals had any position at all in a collegiate sense, it was that of indifference to the college Henry Adams never professed the smallest faith in universities of any kind, either as boy or raduate, either in Europe or in Aian he was only known apart froe; and yet the singular fact re men chose him repeatedly to express his and their commonplaces Secretly, of course, the successful candidate flattered hiht perhaps not be so coht themselves; but this was only another proof that all were identical They saw in him a representative--the kind of representative they wanted--and he saw in thees he could ever meet, like so many mirrors of his

All the sa that it actually shocked his vanity; and would have shocked it more, if possible, had he known that it was to be the only flattery of the sort he was ever to receive The function of Class Day was, in the eyes of nine-tenths of the students, altogether the ure of the Orator was the ular Commencements, the Class Day Orator stood alone, or had only the Poet for rival Crowded into the large church, the students, their families, friends, aunts, uncles and chaperones, attended all the girls of sixteen or twenty anted to show their summer dresses or fresh coht have y such platitudes as their own experience and their mild censors permitted them to utter

What Henry Adaot to the last word, nor had it the least value for education; but he naturally remembered as said of it He remembered especially one of his e that, as the work of so young ain enthusias man--always in search of education--asked hi rhetoric aside, this absence of enthusiasm was a defect or a e taught, and all that the hundred youngto represent, expressed Another coe education One of the elderly gentlemen noticed the orator's ”perfect self-possession” Self-possession indeed! If Harvard College gave nothing else, it gave calure daily before dozens of young men who knew each other to the last fibre One had done little but read papers to Societies, or act coular exercises, and no audience in future life would ever be so intient as these Three-fourths of the graduates would rather have addressed the Council of Trent or the British Parliament than have acted Sir Anthony Absolute or Dr Ollapod before a gala audience of the Hasty Pudding Self-possession was the strongest part of Harvard College, which certainly taught raduates than the paroxysraduates of European universities

Whether this was, or was not, education, Henry Adams never knew He was ready to stand up before any audience in America or Europe, with nerves rather steadier for the excite to say, re Education had not begun

CHAPTER V

BERLIN (1858-1859)

A FOURTH child has the strength of his weakness Being of no great value, he may throw himself away if he likes, and never be missed Charles Francis Adams, the father, felt no love for Europe, which, as he and all the world agreed, unfitted Aht have replied that all the success he or his father or his grandfather achieved was chiefly due to the field that Europe gave them, and it was more than likely that without the help of Europe they would have all rehbors, to the end Strictly followed, the rule would have obliged them never to quit Quincy; and, in fact, so much more timid are parents for their children than for themselves, that Mr and Mrs Adams would have been content to see their children remain forever in Mount Vernon Street, unexposed to the temptations of Europe, could they have relied on the h the parents little knehat took place under their eyes, even the h topast and present, worried thehters-in-law or sons-in-laho ht not fit into the somewhat narrow quarters of ho person alarh the temptations of Europe were irresistible, reht be io to Europe; he see at him; he observed conventions, when he could not escape them; he was never quarrelsoood, and his moral principles, if he had any, were not known to be bad Above all, he was timid and showed a certain sense of self-respect, when in public view What he was at heart, no one could say; least of all himself; but he was probably human, and no worse than soly indulgent father and in at a Gerh neither he nor they knehat the Civil Laas, or any reason for his studying it--the parents dutifully consented, and walked with hiood-bye, with a sht a tear

Whether the boy deserved such indulgence, or orth it, he knew no e; but whether worthy or not, he began his third or fourth atte on the steamer Persia, the pride of Captain Judkins and the Cunard Line; the newest, largest and fastest steae coh until, on the third day, the world--as far as concerned the young man--ran into a heavy storm He learned then a lesson that stood by hi of a Noveale on the mid-Atlantic--which, for mere physical misery, passed endurance

The subject offered him material for none but serious treatment; he could never see the hureat variety of other iether the rapidest school of education he had yet found The stride in knowledge seereat many impressions were needed to make very little education, but howany education at all, became the pons asinoru whether any could turn out right, was ultimate wisdom

The ocean, the Persia, Captain Judkins, and Mr G P R Jaer, vanished one Sunday ale in the Mersey, to make place for the drearier picture of a Liverpool street as seen from the Adelphi coffee-room in Novehts of Chester and the romance of red-sandstone architecture Millions of Americans have felt this succession of eenuous tourists feel them still, but in days before tourists, when the ro When the boys went out to Eaton Hall, they were awed, as Thackeray or dickens would have felt in the presence of a Duke The very na suite of lofty, gilded rooilded furniture; the portraits; the terraces; the gardens, the landscape; the sense of superiority in the England of the fifties, actually set the rich nobleman apart, above Aland of dickens Oliver Twist and Little Nell lurked in every churchyard shadow, not as shadow but alive Even Charles the First was not very shadowy, standing on the tower to see his ared since he lost his battle and his head An eighteenth-century American boy fresh from Boston naturally took it all for education, and was aht he felt it

Then caham and the Black District, another lesson, which needed e into darkness lurid with flaloom which then existed nowhere else, and never had existed before, except in volcanic craters; the violent contrast between this dense, sreen chared--the revelation of an unknown society of the pit--h he had no idea that Karl Marx was standing there waiting for him, and that sooner or later the process of education would have to deal with Karl Marx e or his Satanic free-trade majesty John Stuart Mill The Black District was a practical education, but it was infinitely far in the distance The boy ran away fro he disliked

Had he known enough to knohere to begin he would have seen so, as-lit dreariness of Oxford Street as his dingy four-wheeler dragged its weary way to Charing Cross He did notice one peculiarity about it worth renified its griant, purse-proud, but not cheap; insular but large; barely tolerant of an outside world, and absolutely self-confident The boys in the streets ures, that the travellers hurried to put on tall hats and long overcoats to escape criticishteenth century held its own History muttered down Fleet Street, like Dr

Johnson, in Adams's ear; Vanity Fair was alive on Piccadilly in yellow chariots with coachs, on hammer-cloths; footmen with canes, on the footboard, and a shrivelled old woreat houses, black with London se funereal hatchments; every one seemed insolent, and the e and the Bank of England In November, 1858, London was still vast, but it was the London of the eighteenth century that an American felt and hated

Education went backward Adauess how intensely intirime was to become to hi to it fifty years afterwards, noting at each turn how the great city grew smaller as it doubled in size; cheaper as it quadrupled its wealth; less inified as it tried to be civil He liked it best when he hated it Education began at the end, or perhaps would end at the beginning Thus far it had rehteenth century, and the next step took it back to the sixteenth He crossed to Antwerp

As the Baron Osy stea band on deck began to play, and groups of peasants, working along the fields, dropped their tools to join in dancing Ostade and Teniers were as much alive as they ever were, and even the Duke of Alva was still at home The thirteenth-century cathedral towered above a sixteenth-centuryabruptly in walls and a landscape that had not changed The taste of the toas thick, rich, ripe, like a sine; it was mediaeval, so that Rubens seeest and fullest flavors that ever touched the young ht as well have drunk out his exciteot froin with Antwerp Cathedral and the Descent froot drunk on his eet sober as he best could He was terribly sober when he saerp half a century afterwards One lesson he did learn without suspecting that he es and the sixteenth century alive He was young enough, and the toere dirty enough--unimproved, unrestored, untouristed--to retain the sense of reality As a taste or a smell, it was education, especially because it lasted barely ten years longer; but it was education only sensual He never drea to educate himself to the Descent fro at the foot of the Cross; he learned only to loathe the sordid necessity of getting up again, and going about his stupid business

This was one of the foreseen dangers of Europe, but it vanished rapidly enough to reassure thewithout guide or direction, the young man in search of education floundered in a s He could never recall what he expected to find, but whatever he expected, it had no relation hat it turned out to be A student at twenty takes easily to anything, even to Berlin, and he would have accepted the thirteenth century pure and siht path; but a week's experience left hirew dim Berlin astonished him, but he had no lack of friends to show him all the amuse about with the rest to beer-cellars andpoor beer, and eating sauerkraut and sausages as though he knew no better This was easy One can always descend the social ladder The trouble came when he asked for the education he was proistered as a student of the university; they selected his professors and courses; they showed him where to buy the Institutes of Gaius and several German works on the Civil Law in numerous volumes; and they led him to his first lecture

His first lecture was his last The young ious respect for his guides and advisers; but he needed no more than one hour to satisfy him that he had made another failure in education, and this tie would require at least three months' hard work before he could touch the Laas an annoying discovery; but the shock that upset hiht Harvard College a torpid school, but it was instinct with life compared with all that he could see of the University of Berlin The Gere animals, but their professors were beyond pay The mental attitude of the university was not of an American world What sort of instruction prevailed in other branches, or in science, Adams had no occasion to ask, but in the Civil Law he found only the lecture system in its deadliest form as it flourished in the thirteenth century The professor mumbled his comments; the students made, or seemed to make, notes; they could have learned from books or discussion in a day more than they could learn from him in a month, but they must pay his fees, follow his course, and be his scholars, if they wanted a degree To an American the result orthless He could make no use of the Civil Laithout some previous notion of the Coh of the Common Law to understand what he wanted, had only to read the Pandects or the commentators at his ease in America, and be his own professor Neither the method nor the matter nor the manner could profit an American education

This discovery seemed to shock none of the students They went to the lectures, made notes, and read textbooks, but never pretended to take their professor seriously They wereHeine They knew no , beyond the Berlin accent--which was bad; and the beer--which was not to co--which was better at Vienna They enjoyed the beer and music, but they refused to be responsible for the education Anyway, as they defended the es, he found hi behind all his friends, which depressed his spirits, the loom of a Berlin winter and of Berlin architecture seelooht sight of Charles Su from the blows of the South Carolinian cane or club, and he was pleased to find a young worshi+pper in the reether and went to hear ”Williae his friend about his difficulties of language: ”I came to Berlin,” or Rorand air of uage; and three months later when I went away, I talked it to my cabman” Adams felt himself quite unable to attain in so short a ties, and one day complained of his trials to Mr