Years of Blindness. 41 



for months, but there was no cessation of mental work. 

 Much was done to relieve his tedium by reading to 

 him, and the reading took a wide range in newspa- 

 pers and books — news, fiction, verse. In agricultural 

 journals he took special interest, and he already began 

 to apply his smattering of chemistry to the topics dis- 

 cussed in them. Having spent his youth among 

 farmers who could think clearly and independently 

 on moral, political, and religious questions, he was 

 not inclined to ascribe to any real lack of mental ca- 

 pacity the fact that they were unintelligent and un- 

 businesslike in their methods of agriculture. This 

 shortcoming he rightly attributed to their lack of ele- 

 mentary training in science, and in his youthful ardour, 

 with his large sense of the importance of agriculture, 

 his perception of what chemistry might do for it, and 

 his genuine faith in the power of education, he was 

 already beginning to think it possible that, in spite of 

 the failure of his regular studies, he might succeed in 

 making himself useful in this direction. 



Newspapers then were apt to contain articles such 

 as are now more likely to appear in magazines — long, 

 closely reasoned, and comparatively well written. In 

 the Youmans family such articles, supplemented by 

 new pamphlets and books lent from hand to hand, fur- 

 nished themes for earnest discussion. One of the 

 most intelligent friends of the family was Mr. Ransom 

 Cook, of Saratoga, well known as a manufacturer and 

 inventor, and pleasantly remembered by many beside 

 myself for his gracious cordiality of manner and the 

 suggestiveness of his racy conversation. His library, 

 which he placed quite at Edward's disposal, contained 

 the standard treatises on science and the mechanical 

 arts. As a freethinker, Mr. Cook had collected many 

 3 



