14 ME3IOIR OF 



be quite an adept in the Latin language. A strong 

 curiosity soon prompted me to enquire ' Who are you ?' 

 ' Don't you recollect,' says he, * that you visited a boy 

 at Mr. Creery's, who had a severe attack of bilious colic ?' 

 ' I do. But what is your name, my little boy ?' He 

 was small of his age. ' My name, sir, is John D. God- 

 man.' 'Did you study the Latin language with Mr. 

 Creery ?' ' No, he does not teach any but an English 

 school.' ' Do you intend to prosecute your studies 

 alone ?' ' I do. And I will, if I live, make myself a 

 Latin, Greek, and French scholar." 



In the autumn of 1811, Dr. Luckey commenced the 

 practice of medicine in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and 

 the next summer received a letter from his protege, 

 stating that he had been bound an apprentice to the 

 printer of a newspaper. With this business, he was, 

 from the beginning, exceedingly dissatisfied, as he evinced 

 in his numerous letters to Dr. Luckey. 



In one of these, dated July 23d, 1812, he expressed the 

 opinion, that it was worse than " cramping his genius 

 over a pestle and mortar" it was " cramping it over a 

 font of types, where there are words without ideas." 



Addicted to reading, and aspiring to a more intellectual 

 pursuit, it is not probable that our young printer was 

 much devoted to the drudgery of the office, or performed 

 his duties con amore ; which may sufficiently explain the 

 origin of the difficulties set forth in the following 

 paragraph from a subsequent letter to the same. 



