SOURCE: "The Tutelage of a Young American: Brander Matthews in Europe, 1866," in Columbia Library Columns, Vol. XIII, No. 2, February, 1964, pp. 35-42.

In the following essay, referring to a travel diary Matthews kept when he was fourteen, Kleinfield examines the boy's impressions of and responses to a European excursion.

In five centuries, Europe has played for Americans many roles, the point of departure, the home base, the mother country, the fountain of culture, the raging war god, the artist's haven, the wounded ally, the first line of defense. Through these many contacts with the Protean old world, the fledgling new has grown steadily in strength, size, vigor, and complexity. Always there has remained, however, a desire—sometimes merely a curiosity, often a passion—to visit, explore, and challenge the teeming parent beyond the seas. Today jet planes make Europe a weekend resort, but not until the advent of the...