CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION 9 



tered at once, but his indifference to matters outside of 

 books was the despair of his family. The love and sym- 

 pathy of his elder sister, her comprehension of his 

 intellectual needs, aided his development, and the 

 mutual devotion of their childhood endured for over 

 seventy years. In his family as a whole he was singu- 

 larly blessed. The paths of learning into which he 

 was irresistibly attracted were strange and untried in 

 their eyes. It argues a surprising breadth of mind 

 on the part of a man of Mr. Abner A. Johnson's train- 

 ing and environment that he should have finally con- 

 sented, and after consenting consistently encouraged 

 his son in entering upon a life-work so novel and 

 untried; for in his belief there were, except he be 

 called to the holy ministry, just three things safe and 

 profitable for a man to engage in, law, medicine and 

 farming. Our cities and their complex activities were 

 lightly regarded by him, living in what was then a 

 frontier country where all necessary business was 

 carried on by men whose main investments were in the 

 soil. 



Before leaving school in 1846, Samuel Johnson 

 acquired some knowledge of Latin and a little Greek, 

 more algebra, and as much of physics, botany and 

 chemistry as opportunity afforded. In his last year at 

 the Lowville Academy, chemistry became the absorb- 

 ing interest of his mind. He gives this record of the 

 first great event in his intellectual life, written in the 

 cover of an old "Fresenius," published in 1844 

 the entry is dated February 1905: 



This book came into my possession fifty-nine years ago 

 while I was a student in Lowville Academy, Lewis Co., 

 Northern New York. I there became fascinated with Chem- 



