acquires, so many times is he a man."

Happily--how happily we can hardly say--Madam Bowdoin had left the sum
of one thousand dollars towards establishing a professorship of modern
languages at the college which was then only a few years older than
Longfellow. No steps had yet been taken; but one of the Board, Mr.
Orr, having been struck, it appears, by the translation of an ode from
Horace made by Longfellow for the senior examination, warmly presented
his name for the new chair.

It is impossible to overestimate the value of these benefactions to
men of talent and genius. Where would Wordsworth have been, what could
he have done, without the gift bestowed upon him by Raisley Calvert!
In America such assistance is oftener given in the more impersonal way
of endowment of chairs or creating of scholarships. No method less
personal or more elevating for the development of the scholar and man
of genius could easily be adopted.

The informal proposal of the Board that Longfellow should go to Europe
to fit himself for his position was precisely in a line with his most
cherished wishes. It was nearly a year from that time, however, before
he was actually on his way, "winter and rough weather" and the
infrequency of good ships causing many delays. Possibly also the
thought of the mother's heart that he was not yet twenty--still young
to cut himself off from home and friends--weighed something in the
balance. He read law in his father's office, and wrote and read with
ceaseless activity on his own account; publishing his poems and prose
papers in the newspapers and annuals of the day. He sailed from New
York at last, visiting Boston on his way. There he heard Dr. Channing
preach and passed part of an evening with him afterward. Also