Chapter XVIII
百度搜索 The Story of My Life 天涯 或 The Story of My Life 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.
In October, 1896, I ehe Cambridge School for Young Ladies,<big></big> to be prepared for Radcliffe.When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the annou, "Some day I shall go to college--but I shall go to Harvard!" When asked why I would not go to Wellesley, I replied that there were only girls there. The thought of going to college took root in my heart and became an ear desire, which impelled me to enter into petition for a degree with seeing and hearing girls, in the face of the strong opposition of many true and wise friends. When I left New York the idea had bee a fixed purpose; and it was decided that I should go to Cambridge. This was the approach I could get to Harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration.
At the Cambridge School the plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with me and interpret to me the instru given.
Of course my instructors had had no experien teag any but normal pupils, and my only means of versing with them was bbr></abbr>reading their lips. My studies for the first year were English history, English literature, German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin position and occasional themes. Until then I had aken a course of study with the idea of preparing for college; but I had been well drilled in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident to my teachers that I needed no special instru in this subject beyond a critical study of the books prescribed by the college. I had had, moreover, a good start in French, and received six months instru in Latin; but German was the subject with which I was most familiar.
In spite, however, of these advahere were serious drawbacks to my progress. Miss Sullivan could not spell out in my hand all that the books required, and it was very difficult to have textbooks embossed in time to be of use to me, although my friends in London and Philadelphia were willing to hasten the work. For a while, indeed, I had to y Latin in braille, so that I could recite with the irls. My instructors soon became suffitly familiar with my imperfect speech to answer my questions readily and correct mistakes. I could not make notes in class or write exercises; but I wrote all my positions and translations at home on my typewriter.
Each day Miss Sullivao the classes with me<cite></cite> and spelled into my hand with infiience all that the teachers said. In study hours she had to look up new words for me and read and reread notes and books I did not have in raised print. The tedium of that work is hard to ceive. Frau Grote, my German teacher, and Mr.
Gilman, the principal, were the only teachers in the school who learhe finger alphabet to give me instru. No one realized more fully than dear Frau Grote how slow and ina.９９ｌｉb.e her spelling was.
heless, in the goodness of her heart she laboriously spelled out her instrus to me in special lessons twice a week, to give Miss Sullivan a little rest. But, though everybody was kind and ready to help us, there was only one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure.
That year I finished arithmetic, reviewed my Latin grammar, ahree chapters of Caesars "Gallic War.”
In German I read, partly with my fingers and partly with Miss Sullivans assistance, Schillers "Lied von der Glocke" and "Taucher," Heines "Harzreise," Freytags "Aus dem Staat Friedr<samp></samp>ichs des Grossen," Riehls "Fluch Der Sheit," Lessings "Minna von Barnhelm," and Goethes "Aus meinem Leben." I took the greatest delight in these German books, especially Schillers wonderful lyrics, the history of Frederick the Greats magnifit achievements and the at of Goethes life. I was sorry to finish "Die Harzreise," so full of happy witticisms and charming descriptions of vine-clad hills, streams that sing and ripple in the sunshine, and wild regions, sacred to tradition and legend, the gray sisters of a long-vanished, imaginative age--descriptions such as be given only by those to whom nature is "a feeling, a love and an appetite.”
Mr. Gilman instructed me part of the year in English literature. We read together, "As You Like It," Burkes "Spee ciliation with America," and Macaulays "Life of Samuel Johnson." Mr. Gilmans broad views
of history and literature and his clever explanations made my work easier and pleasahan it could have been had I only read notes meically with the necessarily brief explanations given in the classes.
Burkes speech was more instructive than any other book on a political subject that I had ever read. My mind stirred with the stirring times, and the characters round which the life of two tending natiored seemed to mht before me. I wondered more and more, while Burkes masterly speech rolled on in mighty surges of eloquence, how it was that King Gee and his ministers could have turned a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory and their humiliation. Theered into the melancholy details of the relation in which the great statesman stood to his party and to the representatives of the people. I thought how stra was that such precious seeds of truth and wisdom should have fallen among the tares of ignorand corruption.
In a different way Macaulays "Life of Samuel Johnson" was iing. My heart went out to the lonely man who ate the bread of affli in Grub Street, a, in the midst of toil and cruel suffering of body and soul, always had a kind word, a a helping hand to the poor and despised. I rejoiced over all his successes, I shut my eyes to his faults, and wondered, not that he had them, but that they had not crushed or dwarfed his soul. But in spite of Macaulays brilliand his admirable faculty of making the onplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude very uhe attitude of reveren which I had listeo the Demosthenes of Great Britain.
At the Cambridge school, for the first time in my life, I ehe panionship of seeing and hearing girls of my own age. I lived with several others in one of the pleasant houses ected with the school, the house where Mr. Howells used to live, and we all had the advantage of home life. I joihem in many of their games, even blind mans buff and froli the snow; I took long walks with them; we discussed our studies and read aloud the things that ied us. Some of the girls learo speak to me, so that Miss Sullivan did not have to repeat their versation.
At Christmas, my mother and little sister spent the holidays with me, and Mr. Gilman kindly offered to let Mildred study in his school. So Mildred stayed with me in Cambridge, and for six happy months we were hardly ever apart. It makes me most happy to remember the hours we spent helping each other in study and sharing our recreation together.
I took my preliminary examinations for Radcliffe from the 29th of Juo the 3rd of July in 1897. The subjects I offered were Elementary and Advanced German, French, Latin, English, and Greek and Roman history, making nine hours in all. I passed ihing, and received "honours" in German and English.
Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use when I took my examinations will not be amiss here.
The student was required to pass in sixteen hours--twelve hours being called elementary and four advanced.
He had to pass five hours at a time to have them ted. The examination papers were given out at nine oclock at Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a special messenger. Each didate was known, not by his name, but by a number. I was No. 233, but, as I had to use a typewriter, my identity could not be cealed.
It was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself, because the noise of the typewriter might disturb the irls. Mr. Gilman read all the papers to me by means of the manual alphabet. A man laced on guard at the door to prevent interruption.
The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me ahe paper through first, theence by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud, to make sure that I uood him perfectly. The papers were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote out my answers oypewriter. Mr. Gilman spelled to me what I had written, and I made such ges as I thought necessary, and he ied them. I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage sin any of my examinations. At Radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after
they are written, and I have no opportunity to correct errors unless I finish before the time is up. In that case I correly such mistakes as I recall in the few minutes allowed, and make notes of these corres at the end of my paper. If I passed with higher credit in the prelimihan in the finals, there are two reasons.
In the finals, no one read my work over to me, and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some of which I was in a measure familiar before my work in the Cambridge school; for at the beginning of the year I had passed examinations in English, History, Frend German, which Mr. Gilman gave me from previous Harvard papers.
Mr. Gilma my written work to the examiners with a certificate that I, didate No. 233, had written the papers.
All the other preliminary examinations were ducted in the same manner. None of them was so difficult as the first. I remember that the day the Latin paper was brought to us, Professor Schilling came in and informed me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This enced me greatly, and I sped on to the end of the ordeal with a light heart and a steady hand.
百度搜索 The Story of My Life 天涯 或 The Story of My Life 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.