As his father said of his two sons, "Paul was born good, but Henry was saved by grace." In 1868 Van Dyke met Robert E. Lee, who gave him a ride on his horse, Traveller. Later in life he said the three men who had most influenced him were his father, General Lee, and Alfred Tennyson, and from that comment can be seen the keynotes of his life: the dedication to honor and beauty and the willingness to fight for a cause. He studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and received an M.A. from Princeton University in 1876. He was an ideal student, active in a myriad of extracurricular activities as well as his classes. Yet, not wishing to be considered a bookworm, Van Dyke often disguised how much he studied and was willing to involve himself in some youthful pranks. He included in his college scrapbook a poster offering a fifty-dollar "reward for the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons who took the gate and damaged the fences on the Seminary and Library grounds." In the margin is the note: "They didn't catch us. H.v.D."
When he entered Princeton Theological Seminary in September 1874 it was with the understanding that he might not become a minister, since his real dream was to be a writer.
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