428 Biographical Memoir of William C. ReSfield. 



amount and variety of useful knowledge. During the latter part 

 of his apprenticeship he united with other young men of the village 

 in fornnng a debating society under the name of "The Friendly 

 Association," with which was connected a small but growing 

 library. To this humble literary club, Mr. Redfield always 

 rascribed no small agency in inspiring him with a love of know- 

 ledge, and a high appreciation of its advantages ; and during his 

 future years, he nursed and liberally aided by his contributions 

 this benefactor of his youth. 



Fortunately for young Redfield, a distinguished aud learned 

 physician, Dr. William Tully, fixed his residence in the same 

 -village, and generously opened to him his extensive and well, 

 selected library ; and what must have been equally inspiring to 

 youthful genius, Dr. Tully furnished him with a model of an 

 enthusiastic devoted to knowledge, and of a mind richly stored 

 with intellectual wealth. The modest youth who first presented 

 ■himself as a suppliant for the loan of a book from the Doctor's 

 library, was soon recognized as a congenial spirit, and was admit- 

 ted to an intimate friendship, which lasted to the day of his death. 

 Dr. Tully has favored us with the particulars of his first acquaint- 

 ance with our friend. On his application for a book to occupy 

 such moments as he could redeem from his daily tasks, the Doc- 

 tor, being then ignorant of his acquirements or his taste, opened 

 different cases of his library, submitting the contents of each to 

 his selection. Among a great variety of authors, that which de- 

 termined his choice was Sir Humphry Davy's Elements of Che- 

 mistry. As this was one of the earliest systematic works that 

 contained the doctrine of Chemical Equivalents, a subject then 

 considered as pecularly difficult, and one understood by few 

 readers of the work, the Doctor had little expectation that his 

 young inquirer after knowledge, would either understand or relish 

 it. In a short time he returned the book, and surprised the 

 Doctor by evincing a thorough acquaintance with its contents, 

 and expressing a high satisfaction, in particular, with the doctrine 

 -of chemical equivalents, which he said, he had then met with for 

 the first time. 



Some time before young Redfield reached the end of his ap- 

 prenticeship, his widowed mother had married and removed to 

 the state of Ohio. He was no sooner master of his time than he 

 set out on foot to pay her a visit in her . new home, distant more 

 than seven hundred miles. It was a formidable undertaking, in 



