Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

William W. Story writes concerning Sumner's European journey:—

I was still in college when he first went to Europe. He longed to enlarge his horizon, and to meet face to face the men who ruled the world of letters, politics, law, and government. The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall, Doctors' Commons, the Temple and Inns of Court were magical words to him. He could not rest till he had seen them. Furnished with good introductions, he set forth to the Old World; and his lively letters show the enthusiasm with which he walked in this new region. I remember well the impression I received from them as they came back to us over the ocean, and how I longed to be with him. Every thing and every person interested him: he seemed to walk in enchanted air. The commonest things in the commonest habits of a foreign people delighted him: he was in a constant state of astonishment and delight. He was exceedingly well received everywhere, and he left on the minds of all whom he met a most agreeable impression. That visit opened to him a new life; and when he returned he poured forth a torrent of talk about all that he had seen, which was delightful to hear. The letters he then wrote to my father give an admirable picture of his mind at this time. They are fresh, lively, anecdotical, enthusiastic, —just as he was.

With the members of his family he kept up a correspondence: with his brother George, who, in the early part of 1838, sailed for Russia via Elsineur and Copenhagen, and at St. Petersburg met with remarkable favor from the court; with Albert, the captain of a merchantman, who was now at New York and then at New Orleans, Liverpool, and Marseilles; with Henry, who, to Charles's regret, accepted the appointment of deputy-sheriff in Boston; with Horace and Mary and his mother, at home.² With much earnestness and repetition, he urged his younger brothers and sisters to zeal in their studies, insisting most on their learning to speak the French language; and pressed his sister Mary, whose complete education he had greatly at heart, beyond the limitations which, unknown to him, her physical weakness imposed. In the midst of scenes which filled his