XY111 MEMOIR. 



romantic experience, in which the youth who had wandered 

 no farther than to Montgomery Academy and to the top 

 of the South Beacon, the highest hill of the Fishkiil 

 range, had so deeply read of scenes and a life that suited 

 him, was closed forever. 



Little record is left of these years of application, of 

 work, and study. The Fishkiil hills and the broad river, 

 in whose presence he had always lived, and the quiet 

 country around Newburgh, which he had BO thoroughly ex- 

 plored, began to claim some visible token of their influence. 

 It is pleasant to know that his first literary works were re- 

 cognitions of their charms. It shows the intellectual integ- 

 rity of the man that, despite glowing hopes and restless 

 ambition for other things, his first essay was written from 

 his experience ; it was a description of the " Danskamer," 

 or Devil's Dancing-Ground a point on the Hudson, 

 seven miles above Newburgh published in the New- York 

 Mirror. A description of Beacon Hill followed. 



He wrote, then, a discussion of novel-reading, and some 

 botanical papers, which were published in a Boston journal. 

 Whether he was discouraged by the ill success of these 

 attempts, or perceived that he was not yet sufficient mas- 

 ter of his resources to present them properly to the public, 

 does not appear, but he published nothing more for several 

 years. Perhaps he knew that upon the subjects to which his 

 natural tastes directed his studies, nothing but experience 

 spoke with authority. Whatever the reason of his silence, 

 however, he worked on unyieldingly, studying, proving, 

 succeeding ; finding time, also, to read the poets and the 

 philosophers, and to gain that familiarity with elegant 

 literature which always graced his own composition. Of 

 this period of his life, little record, but great results, 

 remain. With his pen, and books, and microscope, in the 



