NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



the rocks and plants he loved to study, his mother was his com- 

 panion and guide. As the hoy developed into the man and as 

 the relative disparity of age lessened, there grew up between 

 them a close intellectual companionship that never weakened 

 during his lifetime. She was a woman of remarkable intel- 

 lectual caliber, who might readily have made a name in literature 

 had she had that ambition; but she was contented to live in the 

 reflected glory of her son's reputation. On his side, his tender 

 affection and solicitude for her welfare was one of the most 

 marked traits of his character, and through all the many vicis- 

 situdes of his checkered life his first thought and duty was to 

 provide for her comfort and happiness. 



In the crisis of 1857 the house of King & Company became 

 bankrupt through the loss of a steamer which, in charge of a 

 confidential clerk, was carrying a large amount of specie to meet 

 their liabilities at another port, and the property which had been 

 left by James King for the support of his widow and only son 

 was thereby lost. 



Wot long afterward King entered as a clerk in a business 

 house with the idea of following a commercial career, but al- 

 though he succeeded in satisfying his employer, his natural taste 

 lay so strongly in the direction of science and literature that he 

 could not satisfy himself, and after a few months' trial aban- 

 doned the attempt. 



In 1859 he became a student at the Scientific School at Yale, 

 then a much less prosperous and generously endowed institution 

 than at the present day, but rich in the possession of such in- 

 spiring teachers as James D. Dana and George J. Brush. 

 Already, according to the testimony of his fellow-students, King 

 showed many of the qualities which distinguished him above his 

 fellows in later life. He studied enthusiastically both in books 

 and in nature. His observations of natural objects, plants, ani- 

 mals, or rocks were so vivid that they seemed to photograph 

 themselves upon his memory, so that he could recall the picture 

 at will. He wrote readily and with delicate literary judgment 

 and skill, thanks to the influence of his mother's teaching. His 

 love of outdoor life had so developed a naturally robust physique 

 that he readily excelled in all athletic sports, especially rowing. 



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