Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/406

 arranged, and systematized—not a kind of mental handicraft. Only as a science did it deserve a place in the curriculum of a university, as had always been recognized on the Continent; and only as a science could it be properly taught. At least one of his listeners has told how, standing before the fireplace at dusk, young Langdell would expound the scientific basis of law, totally forgetting in his intellectual enthusiasm the frugal bowl of bread and milk he had prepared for his physical supper. His little clique of admirers told each other that here was a genius. And for once a little clique of admirers was right.

He took his LL.B. in 1853, but continued another year at the School, a sort of graduate student and assistant to Parsons. Still he lived in the library by day, and still by night his lamp burned till near the dawning. He was indeed “seeking the fountains” of the law. He browsed among the reports as a hungry colt browses among the clover. The year-books in particular enthralled him. A fellow student in the library recalls his sudden fervent ejaculation, smiting his knee, “If I had only lived in the days of the Plantagenets!”

In 1854 he received the usual A.M. (then quite meaningless), and having saved enough for a start in practice,