It was far from his thoughts, as it was from his means,
to enter Yale College, but he seems to have had an idea that the very
atmosphere of the college would assist him. He was still so timid that
he determined to work his way without asking the least assistance from a
professor or tutor.
He took lodgings at a cheap tavern in New Haven, and began the very next
morning a course of heroic study. As soon as the fire was made in the
sitting-room of the inn, which was at half-past four in the morning, he
took possession, and studied German until breakfast-time, which was
half-past seven. When the other boarders had gone to business, he sat
down to Homer's Iliad, of which he knew nothing, and with only a
dictionary to help him.
"The proudest moment of my life," he once wrote, "was when I had first
gained the full meaning of the first fifteen lines of that noble work. I
took a short triumphal walk, in favor of that exploit."
Just before the boarders came back for their dinner he put away all his
Greek and Latin books and took up a work in Italian, because it was less
likely to attract the notice of the noisy crowd. After dinner he fell
again upon his Greek, and in the evening read Spanish until bedtime.
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