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so disciplined and improved, his love of knowledge so inflamed, and 

 his ambition so exalted, that he could not fail to extend his views, 

 and urge his pursuit of learning with increased energy. Alike 

 powerful in mind and pure in heart, amiable, intelligent, and armed 

 with all the strength of virtue and religious principle, he was pre- 

 pared to enter the world of action, temptation, and trial. He at 

 once inspired respect, together with the most entire confidence, 

 wherever he became known, in the stability of his principles. They 

 who intimately knew him would as soon have thought that one 

 of the planets would shoot from its orbit, as that he would depart 

 from his honorable course. 



Whether, as many of his classmates affirmed, he bore from the 

 University the reputation of being the first scholar of his class, it is 

 of little consequence to inquire ; nor is it material to measure very 

 exactly the magnitude or extent of his talents; it is enough to 

 know that they were not so great as to raise him above the strict- 

 est virtue, or the least of moral obligations, and that in accomplish- 

 ing his education he made himself a model scholar, and laid the 

 foundation of his eminent distinction and usefulness in life. To 

 profit from his example, we must learn how he attained to such 

 excellence. For this purpose it is that we have traced so carefully 

 the progress of his education, and considered his advantages and 

 disadvantages, and the manner in which he improved them ; for he 

 appears to have improved both, or rather to have made what were 

 regarded as disadvantages the means of greater improvement. 

 Though he regretted that more complete instruction was not af- 

 forded in some departments of education, yet it was doubtless bet- 

 ter for him, with his enlightened industry and wise disposition of 

 his time, to have too few than too many teachers, and to enjoy un- 

 disturbed the best hours of the day for study, than to pass through 



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