Though often officiating as a preacher, I do not find that young Garfield ever had the ministry in view.  On the other hand, he early formed the design of studying for the legal profession, as he gradually did, being admitted to the bar of Cuyahoga County, in 1860, when himself president of Hiram College.

So passed three busy and happy years.  Young Garfield had but few idle moments.  In teaching others, in pursuing his own education, in taking part in the work of the literary society, and in Sunday exhortations, his time was well filled up.  But neither his religion nor his love of study made him less companionable.  He was wonderfully popular.  His hearty grasp of the hand, his genial manner, his entire freedom from conceit, his readiness to help others, made him a general favorite.  Some young men, calling themselves religious, assume a sanctimonious manner, that repels, but James Garfield never was troubled in this way.  He believed that

  “Religion never was designed
    To make our pleasures less,”

and was always ready to take part in social pleasures, provided they did not interfere with his work.

And all this while, with all his homely surroundings, he had high thoughts for company.  He wrote to a student, afterward his own successor to the presidency, words that truly describe his own aspirations and habits of mind.  “Tell me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirring within you that longs to know, to do, and to dare, to hold converse with the great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble object to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may be given?  Do you not have longings like these which you breathe to no one, and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life unsatisfied and regretful?  I am sure you have them, and they will forever cling round your heart till you obey their mandate.”

The time had come when James was ready to take another step upward.  The district school had been succeeded by Geauga Seminary, that by Hiram Institute, and now he looked Eastward for still higher educational privileges.  There was a college of his own sect at Bethany, not far away, but the young man was not so blinded by this consideration as not to understand that it was not equal to some of the best known colleges at the East.

Which should he select?

He wrote to the presidents of Brown University, Yale, and Williams, stating how far he had advanced, and inquiring how long it would take to complete their course.

From all he received answers, but the one from President Hopkins, of Williams College, ended with the sentence, “If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.”  This sentence, so friendly and cordial, decided the young man who otherwise would have found it hard to choose between the three institutions.

“My mind is made up,” he said.  “I shall start for Williams College next week.”