Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JAMES GATES PERCIVAL AND HIS FRIENDS. In the earlier half of the last century the streets of New Haven were trodden by a singular man. He was fairly tall, slender to the bone, and stooped slightly as he walked, with his eyes fixed upon the ground. His clothes were shabby; his trousers, more often than otherwise, frayed at the bottom, and patched in various places with his own hands. Eight months of the year he wore an old glazed cap with ear-tabs of sheepskin, the woolly side turned in; and a gray cloak. Whenever the cap came off it revealed a classic head, and for the first time one would notice the fineness of the features, and eyes of unusual splendor. The man was saluted by the booksellers and a few of the older college professors as Doctor Percival. The community at large had neither the pleasure nor the honor of his acquaintance. The Doctor was a hermit. He had no means of support, visible or otherwise. Curious ones who watched him go home, saw him enter the State Hospital Building, and climb two flights of stairs. Then after carefully looking about to see that no one was near, he would quietly unlock his door and disappear. When he had entered, he fastened the door with an old piece of rope attached to the knob, and passed over a neighboring projection. If we are inquisitive, and want to see how the hermit lives, we shall have to make forcible entry, for while he is not exactly discourteous, he will never invite us in. We find that there are three connecting rooms; one containing his library, another filled with geological specimens; the third has a stove in one corner, a cupboard in another, and a cot-bed in another. An ancient mattress lies on the bed. A stick of firewood is under one end, raising it so that it will serve as a pillow. On the mattress...