, one of the most accomplished scholars in Europe, the son of the
, one of the most accomplished
scholars in Europe, the son of the preceding, was born
Sept. 28, 1746. As his father died when he had scarcely
reached his third year, the care of his education devolved
on his mother, whose talents and virtues eminently qualified her for the task. Her husband, with affectionate precision, characterized her as one who “was virtuous without blemish, generous without extravagance, frugal but
not niggard, cheerful but not giddy, close but not sullen,
ingenious but wot conceited, of spirit but not passionate,
of her company cautious, in her friendship trusty, to her
parents dutiful, and to her husband ever faithful, loving,
and obedient.
” She must have been yet a more extraordinary woman than all this imports; for we are told that
under her husband’s tuition she became a considerable proficient in Algebra, and with a view to act as preceptor to
her sister’s son, who was destined for the sea, she made
herself perfect in trigonometry, and the theory of navigation, sciences of which it is probable she knew nothing
before marriage, and which she now pursued amidst the
anxious, and, usually, monopolizing cares of a family.
In educating her son, she appears to have preferred a
method at once affectionate and judicious. Discovering in
him a natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge, beyond
what children generally display, she made the gratification
of these passions to depend on his own industry, and constantly pointed to a book as the source of information. So
successful was this method, that in his fourth year he was
able distinctly and rapidly to read any English book, while
his memory was agreeably exercised in getting by heart
such popular pieces of poetry as were likely to engage the
fancy of a child. His taste for reading gradually became
a habit; and having in his fifth year, while looking over a
Bible, fallen upon the sublime description of the Angel
in the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse, the impression
which his imagination received from it was never effaced.