College terms were very different in those days from what they are at
present, for September 5 finds the boys still in New Haven, and Finley
says, "There is but three and a half weeks to Commencement."

In this same letter he gives utterance to these filial sentiments: "I now
make those only my companions who are the most religious and moral, and I
hope sincerely that it will have a good effect in changing that
thoughtless disposition which has ever been a striking trait in my
character. As I grow older, I begin to think better of what you have
always told me when I was small. I begin to know by experience that man
is born to trouble, and that temptations to do evil are as countless as
the stars, but I hope I shall be enabled to shun them."

This is from a letter of January 9, 1809:--

"I have been reading the first volume of Professor Silliman's 'Journal'
which he kept during his passage to and residence in Europe. I am very
much pleased with it. I long for the time when I shall be able to travel
with improvement to myself and society, and hope it will be in your power
to assist me.

"I have a very ardent desire of travelling, but I consider that an
education is indispensable to me and I mean to apply myself with all
diligence for that purpose. _Diligentia vinrit omnia_ is my maxim and I
shall endeavor to follow it.... I shall be employed in the vacation in
the Philosophical Chamber with Mr. Dwight, who is going to perform a
number of experiments in _Electricity_."

It is, of course, only a curious coincidence that these two sentences
should have occurred in the same letter, but it was when travelling, many