314 A brief Memoir of the late Walter Folger. 
woman, well read in scripture and not attached to any sect; but 
in great reputation throughout the island for knowledge in mat- 
ters of religion, and an oracle among them on that account, iso- 
much that they would not do any thing without her advice and 
consent therein.” 
Although his family were numerous, the means of the father 
@vere quite adequate to furnish his son with liberal instruction ; 
but education in that day, was but lightly esteemed by the island- 
ers, a state of things forming a striking contrast with the agree- 
able circumstances of the present day, and his youth, with the 
exception of a few weeks occasionally spent in very indifferent 
schools, mostly tanght by females, was suffered to pass away 
without that instruction which, with such materials to work 
upon, would have been of so much value to science. 
In these schools he soon comprehended all that was taught, 
and spert most of his time in alternately assisting the pupils and 
instructing the teachers. The first study, in those branches in 
which he became distinguished, to which he directed his atten- 
tion, was that of land surveying, in which, without the least per- 
sonal assistance, he became exceedingly skillful. In the winter of 
1782-3, he attended an evening school, in which he studied nav- 
igation and gauging, and readily acquainted himself with these 
bran ing of a mathematical character seemed ever to 
present any difficulty to his mind. He mastered Algebya and 
F luxions, without assistance, and while in his teens he read Eu- 
clid, as he would read a narrative, no problem arresting his pro- 
gress; and yet so little did he know of language, or of any thing 
appertaining to it, that he had reached the years of manhood, as 
he often confessed, before he knew the definition of the word 
grammar. He afterwards accidentally met with an old volume 
of La Lande’s large astronomical work, in the hands of a cast- 
away sailor and purchased it, and to enable him to read it, he stud- 
ied the French language, and with it the English, and was there- 
fore able to read the French authors with ease. From this time 
he applied himself with great assiduity to the principal depart- 
ments of physical science. Asa practical mechanic and optician, 
e had few superiors, and in his own town certainly no equal. 
Every species of machinery on which he placed his eye, he seem- 
ed at once to comprehend. During most of the year 1783, he 
was afflicted with ill health, and much of the time confined to 
his bed begging constantly for books, which seemed the only 
needful opiate. There were few books at hand adapted to his 
taste; but his father finally succeeded in obtaining for him @ 
work on Navigation, to which for the first time, was appended 
Dr. Maskelyne’s method of obtaining the longitude at sea by 
means of Junar distances. This delighted him, and at the age of 
n, prostrated with sickness, he familiarized himself with 
