A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 91 



that, &quot; while a sergeant at Castle William, he had seen 

 something of mankind.&quot; This, no doubt, would be a 

 better preparative for successful dealing with the young 

 than is generally thought. However, the birch was then 

 the only classic tree, and every round in the ladder of 

 learning was made of its inspiring wood. Dr. Pearson, 

 perhaps, thought he was only doing justice to his pupil s 

 claims of kindred by giving him a larger share of the 

 educational advantages which the neighbouring forest 

 afforded. The vividness with which this system is always 

 remembered by those who have been subjected to it would 

 seem to show that it really enlivened the attention, and 

 thereby invigorated the memory, nay, might even raise 

 some question as to what part of the person is chosen by 

 the mother of the Muses for her residence. With an 

 appetite for the classics quickened by &quot; Cheever s Acci 

 dence,&quot; and such other preliminary whets as were then in 

 vogue, young Quiney entered college, where he spent the 

 usual four years, and was graduated with the highest 

 honours of his class. The amount of Latin and Greek 

 imparted to the students of that day was not very great. 

 They were carried through Horace, Sallust, and the De 

 Oratoribus of Cicero, and read portions of Livy, Xenophon, 

 and Homer. Yet the chief end of classical studies was 

 perhaps as often reached then as now, in giving young men 

 a love for something apart from and above the more vulgar 

 associations of life. Mr. Quiney, at least, retained to the 

 last a fondness for certain Latin authors. While he was 

 President of the College, he told a gentleman, from whom 

 we received the story, that, &quot; if he were imprisoned, and 

 allowed to choose one book for his amusement, that should 

 be Horace.&quot; 



In 1797 Mr. Quiney was married to Miss Eliza Susan 

 Morton, of New York, a union which lasted in unbroken 

 happiness for more than fifty years. His cause might be 

 cited among the leading ones in support of the old poet s 

 axiom, that 



&quot; He never loved, that loved not at first sight ; &quot; 



