tivity and influence. Nothing more need be said of his entry into politics than that his rise was rapid, almost instantaneous. As early as 1859, in which campaign he took an active part, he had become a favorite speaker in a considerable section of the State; and in the Senate he immediately came to the front.

As a matter of course, Hiram school received only a part of its Principal's energies, particularly after 1859. Preaching, lecturing, politics, and his law-reading made heavy and constant draughts upon him; but he was so full of faculties, of strength, and resources, that he did not seem weakened thereby. In 1859 or 1860 this was a common day's work for him: a chapel lecture in the morning; five solid hours of teaching, perhaps six; attention to administrative details; a speech. ten miles away in the evening; home to bed at midnight. If the next day was Sunday, he would give two sermons, perhaps fifteen miles off. Of course no man who covers such a field as this can be called a specialist. Still, he always kept abreast of his school-work. The range of his ability, and the great strength that he put into whatever he undertook, attracted public attention, gave prominence to the school, and increased the pride that his pupils felt in him.

Only the most vigorous and wide-reaching in tellectual life could sustain such labors as these. Garfield's mind was ever fresh, his thoughts ever new. His reading lay, first, along the lines of his work, teaching, lecturing, preaching, and politics; second, in 1858, he entered his name as a student-at-law with a Cleveland firm. His legal studies he carried on at home, and with such thoroughness and zeal, that he fitted for the Ohio bar in the time usually required by students who have nothing else on hand. But, third, he read widely outside of his work, both present and prospective. He read "hard reading," but fiction and poetry as well. He naturalized Tennyson, of whom he became a profound student, in Hiram. In later years he read everywhere, on the cars, in the omnibus, and after retiring at night. He rarely, or never, went away from home, even for a few hours, but he took his book. He made special efforts to procure out-of-the-way reading. If he was leaving Washington for a few days, and had nothing requiring immediate attention on hand, he would go to the great Library of Congress, and say to the librarian, " Mr. Spofford, give me something that I don't know any thing about." A stray book coming to him in this way would

often lead to a special study of the subject. In this way he kept his mind full and fresh.

But, with all his reading, he could not have done the work that he did, but for the ready and powerful grasp with which he took hold of a subject, and for the wondrous ease and quickness with which he could organize the material that he needed. He seemed to see at a glance the relations of things. In his studies he strove to get hold of the underlying principle, and was never satisfied until he could reduce facts to order. Once he said, "I could not stay in politics unless I found some philosophy." Hence the breadth

of his views of all subjects. Here is also the explanation of Judge Cooley's remark in his Ann Arbor oration: "He always discussed large subjects in a large way." His powers, the whole mass of his being, came to be under the control of his will.

General Garfield was always absorbed and happy in his work, in studies, in teaching, in arms, in legislation. But he ever looked back to his teacher-life with peculiar satisfaction. Addressing the National Association of School Superintendents, in 1879, he said,

"I feel at home among teachers; and, I may say, I look back with more satisfaction upon my work as a teacher than

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upon any other work I have done. It gives me a pleasant home feeling to sit among you, and revive old memories."

In the Hiram period he was full of ambition and strength; he had plenty of work and plenty of leisure; his friends and fellow-workers were congenial; and his joyous nature ran full and free. To all who beheld it, his teacher-life must remain a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Again let the reader substitute his name for Miss Booth's in this passage:

"As the earlier teachers were called away to other fields of duty, their places were supplied by selection from those who had been Eclectic students; and thus Miss Booth found herself associated with teachers whose culture she had guided, and who were attached to her by the strongest ties of friendship. I know how apt we are to exaggerate the merits of those we love; but, making due allowance for this tendency, as I look back upon the little circle of teachers who labored here, under the leadership of our honored and venerable friend Mr. Hayden, during the first six years of the Eclectic, and upon the younger group, associated with me from 1856 until the breaking-out of the war, I think I wrong no one of them by saying, that for generous friendship and united, earnest work, I have never seen and never expect to see their like again. Enough new members were added to the corps of teachers from year to year to keep alive the freshness of young enthusiasm; and yet