SKETCH OF EDWARD L. YOUMANS. 689 



days of blindness, to Lis clearness of vision at long range when sight- 

 ing game. 



He began going to school at the age of three, and was steadily in 

 his classes for the next half-dozen years. The district school he at- 

 tended, and the Presbyterian church, of which his parents were mem- 

 bers, were of the New England type of that period. The home- spirit 

 was eminently favorable to the growth of individuality, and the near- 

 est household in the neighborhood — where my brother was a great 

 favorite — consisted of very decided characters, well calculated to pro- 

 duce a marked effect on the receptive mind of the boy. It was here 

 that Livingston got his first idea of the classics. When not more than 

 nine years old, he became interested in a copy of Homer's "Iliad," 

 which the eldest son was studying, and which contained a translation 

 as well as the Greek verse. All his teachers at this period — the cler- 

 gyman of the parish, an uncle just graduated, and the young men pre- 

 paring for college who were winter teachers of the common school — 

 helped incline him toward the classics. When about twelve years 

 old, he prevailed upon his father, who then owned a little farm, and 

 was going to Albany to market a small surplus of his crop of grain, 

 to buy him some books. The list he prepared, beginning with those 

 most desired, was a long one, but the proceeds of the sale of grain 

 were only sufficient, after other indispensable purchases were made, 

 to secure the first few volumes, among which were translations of 

 Homer's " Iliad " and " Odyssey," Virgil's "^Eneid," and Ovid's " Meta- 

 morphoses." These were his earliest possessions, and were made the 

 most of ; other books were borrowed from neighboring clergymen or 

 from citizens of Saratoga ; and a year or two later, with the pro- 

 ceeds of a patch of potatoes, planted by himself for the purpose, 

 joined with a small contribution from his father, he was enabled to 

 buy a " share " in a circulating library recently established in the vicin- 

 ity. This library contained three or four hundred standard works 

 in history, biography, poetry, and fiction, with a set of the " Ency- 

 clopaadia Americana " ; but of science there was little or nothing, 

 unless Buffon's " Natural History " might be ranked as science. 

 With his fondness for books, no greater trouble could now come upon 

 him than the disease of the eyes which, prevailing in the family dur- 

 ing the winter of 1833-'34, attacked him when he was thirteen and a 

 half years old. He could not let books alone long enough to permit 

 a full recovery. Reckless of results, he persisted in reading whenever 

 it was possible, in spite of protests and warnings. From this time 

 until he was seventeen he was troubled with chronic weakness and 

 frequent inflammations of the eyes, and when unable to read himself 

 others read for him. During this period, the vigorous and abundant 

 literature of the anti-slavery movement found its way into the home, 

 his father being one of the earliest abolitionists in that part of the 

 State. In the wide range of its discussions, the religious, ethical, 



VOL. SXX. — 14 



