PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 231 



EARLY CAREER. 



Of Henry's early struggles, — of the youthful traits which might 

 afford us clue to "his niauhood's character and successes, we have 

 Imt little preserved fur the future biographer. Deprived of his 

 father at an early age, he was the sole care and the sole comfort 

 of his widowed mother. Carefully nurtured in the stringent 

 principles of a devout religious faith, he adhered through life to 

 the traditions and to the convictions derived from his honorable 

 Scottish ancestry. 



As a youth he was by no means precocious, — as seldom have 

 been those who have left a permanent influence on their kind. 

 He seems to have felt no fondness for his early schools, and to 

 have shown no special aptitude for the instructions they afforded. 

 Like many another unpromising lad, he followed pretty much his 

 own devices, unconcerned as to the development of his latent 

 capabilities. The books he craved were not the books his school- 

 teachers set before him. The novel and the play interested and 

 absorbed the active fancy naturally so exuberant in youth ; and 

 the indications from his impulsive temperament were that he 

 would probably become a poet — a dramatist — or an actor. 



He was however from his childhood's years a close observer — 

 both of nature, and of the peculiarities of his fellows : and one 

 characteristic early developed gave form and color to his mental 

 disposition throughout later ^ears, — an unflagging energy of 

 purpose. 



About the year 1814, while a boy of still indefinite aims and 

 of almost as indefinite longings, having been confined to the 

 house for a few days, in consequence of an accidental injury, his 

 restless attention happened to be drawn to a small volume on 

 Natural Philosophy, casually left lying on a table by a boarder in 

 the house. Listlessly he opened it and read. Before he reached 

 the third page, he became profoundly interested in the statement 

 of some of the enigmas of the great sphinx — Nature. A new 

 world seemed opening to his inquisitive eyes. Eagerly on he 

 read, — intent to find the hidden meanings of phenomena which 

 hitherto covered by the "veil of familiarity" had never excited a 

 passing wonder or a doubting question. Was it possible ever to 

 discover the real causes of things? Here was a new Ideal — if 

 severer, yet grander than that of art. He no longer read with the 

 languid enjoyment of a passive recipient; he felt the new neces- 

 sity of reaching out with all the faculties of a thinker, with all the 



ence ; an invention pverfertilf in devisincr apparatus anil otlipr mean* hv 

 which tlie test could be applied; and finally a moral cnnstittition which 

 .'sought only the discovery of truth, and could alone be satisfied with its 

 attainment." {Smithsonian Report for 1867, p. 158.) 



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