I also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming into contact
with the best breeds of live stock and fowls. No student, I think,
who has had the opportunity of doing this could go out into the world
and content himself with the poorest grades.
Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year
was an understanding of the use and value of the Bible. Miss Nathalie
Lord, one of the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught me how to use
and love the Bible. Before this I had never cared a great deal about
it, but now I learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the
spiritual help which it gives, but on account of it as literature.
The lessons taught me in this respect took such a hold upon me that at
the present time, when I am at home, no matter how busy I am, I always
make it a rule to read a chapter or a portion of a chapter in the
morning, before beginning the work of the day.
Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure
to Miss Lord. When she found out that I had some inclination in this
direction, she gave me private lessons in the matter of breathing,
emphasis, and articulation. Simply to be able to talk in public for
the sake of talking has never had the least attraction to me. In
fact, I consider that there is nothing so empty and unsatisfactory as
mere abstract public speaking; but from my early childhood I have had
a desire to do something to make the world better, and then to be able
to speak to the world about that thing.
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