CHAPTER XVII.

LIFE IN COLLEGE.


Probably young Garfield never passed two happier or more profitable
years than at Williams College. The Seminaries he had hitherto attended
were respectable, but in the nature of things they could not afford the
facilities which he now enjoyed. Despite his years of study and struggle
there were many things in which he was wholly deficient. He had studied
Latin, Greek, and mathematics, but of English literature he knew but
little. He had never had time to read for recreation, or for that higher
culture which is not to be learned in the class-room.

In the library of Williams College he made his first acquaintance with
Shakespeare, and we can understand what a revelation his works must have
been to the aspiring youth. He had abstained from reading fiction,
doubting whether it was profitable, since the early days when with a
thrill of boyish excitement he read "Sinbad the Sailor" and Marryatt's
novels. After a while his views as to the utility of fiction changed. He
found that his mind was suffering from the solid food to which it was
restricted, and he began to make incursions into the realm of poetry and
fiction with excellent results. He usually limited this kind of reading,
and did not neglect for the fascination of romance those more solid
works which should form the staple of a young man's reading.