In these new surroundings, he seems to have been exceptionally happy, throwing himself into all the interests of the place, athletic as well as intellectual, and endearing himself both to his teachers and his fellow-students.  His friendship with Professor Herford, then Professor of English at Aberystwyth, was one of the chief pleasures of his student days as well as of his after life.  Following his natural bent, he decided to study for Honours in English Language and Literature, and at the end of his course (1893) was placed in the Second Class by the examiners for the University of London, to which the Aberystwyth College was at that time affiliated.  Those who believe in the virtue of infant prodigies—­and, in the country which invented Triposes and Class Lists, it is hard to fix any limit to their number—­will be distressed to learn that, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge of such matters, he was not at that time reckoned to be of “exceptionally scholarly calibre.”  Perhaps this was an omen all the better for his future prospects as a scholar.

It is a wholesome practice that, when the cares of examinations are once safely behind him, a student should widen his experience by a taste of foreign travel.  Accordingly, in September, 1893, Moorman betook himself to Strasbourg, primarily for the sake of continuing his studies under the skilful guidance of Ten Brinck.  The latter, however, was almost at once called to Berlin and succeeded by Brandl, now himself of the University of Berlin, who actually presided over Moorman’s studies for the next two years, and who thought, and never ceased to think, very highly both of his abilities and his acquirements.  It was only natural that Moorman should make a pretty complete surrender to German ideals and German methods of study.  It was equally natural that, in the light of subsequent experience, his enthusiasms in that line should suffer a considerable diminution.  He was not of the stuff to accept for ever the somewhat bloodless and barren spirit which has commonly dominated the pursuit of literature in German universities.

Into the social life of his new surroundings he threw himself with all the zest that might have been expected from his essentially sociable nature:  making many friendships—­that of Brandl was the one he most valued—­and joining—­in some respects, leading—­his fellow-students in their sports and other amusements.  His first published work, in fact, was a translation of the Rules of Association Football into German; and he may fairly be regarded as the godfather of that game on German soil.  Nor was this the end of his activities.  During the two years he spent at Strasbourg he acted as Lektor in English to the University, so gaining—­and gaining, it is said, with much success—­his first experience in what was to be his life’s work as a teacher.