4 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



became so familiar with the Psalms of David that years 

 afterwards he could give a quotation and cite chapter 

 and verse as though he had the Bible before him. This 

 early religious influence later colored all Maury's think- 

 ing and writing to a very marked degree. His mother, 

 who was known as a woman of great decision of charac- 

 ter, endowed her son with this same quality which is so 

 essential to greatness; while her husband passed on to 

 Matthew much of his amiability and ingenuousness for 

 which he was greatly liked throughout the neighborhood. 



Maury received his elementary education in an "Old 

 Field" school, where the seats were made of split logs 

 with peg legs, where there were no blackboards and but 

 few books, and where the pupils studied their lessons 

 aloud. This method of study probably led to the 

 custom of ''singing geography", the pupils being ranged 

 round the room to chant geographical facts. Whether 

 Maury was thus inducted into the mysteries of that 

 science which his researches were afterwards so greatly 

 to enrich is not known, for the only schoolbook that he 

 makes reference to in his letters is the famous Webster's 

 "Blueback Speller", which he says was the first book 

 that was ever placed in his hands. 



A better education than that afforded in these country 

 elementary schools was, however, destined for Maury. 

 When he was in his twelfth year, a dangerous fall from a 

 tree so injured his back as to cause his father to consider 

 it unwise for the lad to continue to work on the farm. 

 He had already shown such aptitude for study that it 

 was decided to send him to Harpeth Academy, then 

 located about two miles from Franklin. In this school, 

 Maury had as teachers the Reverend Doctor Blackburn, 

 afterwards Chaplain to Congress; James Otey, who be- 



