CALVIN COOLIDGE
held that Socrates was in hell. Such a reflection on the Greek philosopher so outraged the old man's loyalty that he wrote his son that the school was no place for him and directed him to come home at once.
In spite of his eighty-odd years he put the fire of youth into the translation of those glowing periods of the master orator, which were such eloquent appeals to the patriotism of the Greeks and such tremendous efforts to rouse them to the defense of their country. Those passages of the marvelous oration he said he had loved to read during the Civil War.
My studies of the ancient languages I supplemented with short courses in French., German and Italian.
But I never became very proficient in the languages, I was more successful at mathematics, which I pursued far enough to take calculus. This course was mostly under George D. Olds, who came to teach when we entered to study, which later caused us to adopt him as an honorary member of our class, In time he became President of the College. He had a peculiar power to make figures interesting and
[58]
