every field of activity, and if I had time to name them the sun would go down before I had finished.

I believe the rules of this institution limit us to time I think it is said, five minutes. I may have overgone it already. We have so many already that we want to hear from, we will all volunteer. We expect now to wrestle a while with the work before us. Some of these boys remember the time when I had an exercise that I remember with pleasure. I called a young lad out in class and said, in two minutes you are to speak to the best of your ability on the following subject, (naming it) and gave subject and let him wrestle with it. It was a trying theory, and I believe that wrestling was a good thing. I will not vary the performance save in this. I will call you and restrict you to five minutes, and let you select your theme about the old days of Hiram.

In another speech on the same subject he said:

It always has given me pleasure to come here and look upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large share of that richness that belongs to those things out of which come the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address just delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have that all men envy-I mean all men who have reached the meridian of life-is, perhaps, the thing you care for least, and that is your leisure. The leisure you have to think in, the leisure you have to be let alone, the leisure you have to throw the plummet with your hands and sound the depths and find what is below, the leisure you have to walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are or how weak they are, and determine what

in

needs building up, and determine how to shape them that you may be made the final being that you are to be. Oh, these hours of building! If the superior Being of the universe would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it would be the unfinished and unformed character of young men, and of young women. Those behind me have, probably, in the main settled such questions. Those who have passed middle manhood and middle womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is little left of interest or curiosity as to our development; but to your young, unformed natures, no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured up your hearts and intellects. While you are working up those possibilities with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your means, out of which you can demand all possible treasures that God laid down when he formed your nature, and unveiled and developed the possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to trust myself to speak more, and I will not; but I draw again to-day, as I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the permission to see you and meet you and greet you as I have done to-day.

CHAPTER X.

POLITICIAN AND LAWYER.

POLITICAL SYMPATHIES.

- HOPE OF MAKING THE LAW A PROFESSION. ENTERS HIS NAME AS A STUDENT. —YEARS OF HARD STUDY. PROFITABLE USE OF ALL HIS TIME. HIS LEGAL RESEARCH, — INTEREST IN LOCAL POLITICS.- - THE STUMP-SPEAKER'S CHALLENGE. -FIRST SPEECH, NOMINATION FOR THE STATE SENATE. IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE. LEAVING THE GOSPEL FOR POLITICS. — MRS. GARFIELD'S LOVE OF DOMESTIC LIFE.

AFTER Mr. Garfield's graduation from college, he found more time to interest himself in the current affairs of his time. Although his sympathies were with the Republican party, at its birth, yet he had been too much engaged in the arduous task of secur ing an education to give much attention to politics. But when he did have time to read and ponder upon national questions, he began to be a vigorous and persistent opponent of slavery, and often expressed his regret that Fremont and Dayton were not elected. Day by day, his interest in public affairs increased, until he began to feel a great indignation at the conduct of the Buchanan administration.

He also took a keen interest in local politics, and watched with anxiety the measures which were before the legislature of Ohio. This patriotic interest

in the welfare of his State and nation naturally led his mind toward the laws which governed the coun

try, and the methods of making them. He was never satisfied with a superficial knowledge of anything in which he had an interest, and without any definite purpose, beyond a determination to understand the matter, he began to read such law books as he could readily borrow. Soon, however, he inclined to the hope of making the law his profession, and began a regular course of systematic and earnest study.

Soon after he was married, he entered his name, in the law office of Riddle & Williamson, attorneys, in Cleveland, Ohio, as a student of law. This he was. required to do by the law, if he intended to be admitted to the bar. He did not, however, study in the office at all, and his purpose to become an attorney was kept a secret from all his relatives.

His ability to pursue hard study, day after day, served him well in his legal researches, for he kept evenly on with his teaching all the while, and was not absent from his work, or from the evening exercises connected with the institute, during the term.

He had formed a habit of studying at odd times and places, filling the entire day with some profitable occupation or healthy sport. It would astonish the great portion of mankind to reckon up the number of hours in a year which they lose, in waiting, traveling, or useless conversation. Thousands of men and women might have acquired a mastery of law, medicine, science, or theology, in the odd hours which they have thoughtlessly wasted. The busiest business life has its hours of waiting and delay, which

could be profitably applied to acquiring knowledge from books. Mr. Garfield's life clearly demonstrates this statement. He acquired a habit, which may have been contracted under the influence of his mother's early example, of having a profitable book at hand for use, when his usual occupation was suspended or finished. In that way he prosecuted his legal studies; and that industry, with his natural desire to be thorough, as far as he went, gave him a great advantage over young men of looser habits.

It is well known to attorneys how difficult it is for a young man to comprehend legal terms and expressions, without an actual contact with the practice, in the office and in the courts. It requires much more study on the part of any person to obtain an understanding of law away from the practice, while the number is very limited who would succeed in obtaining any useful understanding of it.

The success of Mr. Garfield, therefore, as we shall see, was something so unusual and astonishing that it may be regarded as the greatest intellectual achievement of his life. He understood the laws of his State and of the nation so well that, when he was admitted to the bar, he was capable of stepping from his little country home into the courts, of any grade, and trying the most difficult cases,

So improbable will this seem to attorneys, whose years of study and practice have left them none too well-furnished with legal acumen, that it would not be stated here, did not the most trustworthy of our law reports fully corroborate it.