Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/277

 versation-room, all rolled into one. A log schoolhouse at a country crossroads could hardly have offered fewer attractions.

The students who had courage enough to try this unprecedented method of becoming lawyers were of good quality, nearly all college graduates, some coming from as far away as Virginia; but there were never more than a dozen in residence at any one time. Their chief work was private reading of the few books available, under the direction of the professor, with perhaps some attendance upon him in his official duties at the courthouse next door. In such a programme there was little to interest or stimulate them. Having no definite course to pursue, they entered and left irregularly, as the spirit moved. It was not until 1820 that even the accommodating Stearns felt justified in recommending any of them for a degree: in that year six received the LL.B., including the eminent Joseph Willard. The high-water mark was reached five years later, when ten degrees were granted. A disastrous decline followed: by 1829 there were no degrees, the attendance had actually run down to one pupil, and the Harvard Law School seemed about to expire of mere inanition.