CHARLES R. BALDWIN.

19

Mr.

and picturesque scenery around him. Charles R. Baldwin possessed rare and singular advantages above many of his peers. And the sequel will most certainly convince every candid reader that he faithfully improved all the facilities of his romantic birth-place and youthful mountain home, for the development of his mental and moral powers, and that he made a diligent use and wise improvement of all the means of instruction afforded him in early life by a gracious and benignant Providence.

EARLY MENTAL CULTURE.

CHAPTER II.

Of the early childhood and mental training of Charles R. Baldwin, I have obtained but little information. Fortunately, however, among his papers a short record has been found, containing an important memorandum written by himself in which he says: "I was born in Stockbridge, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on the 19th of March, 1803. My parents were Clark and Phedema Baldwin. I was the youngest of twelve children. My mother died on the 23d of August, 1805; consequently I have no recollection of her. I have, however, always understood that she was a very pious woman, of excellent sense, good mind, and highly esteemed by all who knew her. My father was a farmer, and I was brought up to labor with him on the farm. He was once in affluent

A PRECOCIOUS YOUTH.

21

circumstances, but a great deal of sickness in his family, with other causes, reduced him quite low in worldly goods. I have no recollection of the time when I could not read and write. In the year 1815, my father exchanged the farm on which he lived, for lands on Lake Erie, in the State of Ohio, and gave possession of the premises, April 1st, 1816. But in consequence of the sickness of one of my sisters he was compelled to remain in Stockbridge. He rented one-half of the old homestead and garden, and I assisted him in supporting the family by manual labor, generally earning from seventy-five cents to one dollar per day. The winter and following spring I reviewed my elementary studies and acquired a knowledge of surveying, preparatory to my contemplated residence in northern Ohio. During the summer of 1817, I labored hard, and perhaps but few were more efficient in the corn-field, meadow, or harvest-field than myself. I engaged in this work the more cheerfully, because my brothers had generally left home at the

age of eighteen or twenty years. My oldest brother, Amos Glover Baldwin, was an Episcopal clergyman, my brothers Joseph, Cyrus, and Philemon had removed to Virginia, and Daniel and George to Ohio. I was the only son now left to aid my father in procuring a support for the family. In the winter of 1817, I could obtain no employment that suited my taste; and a "classical school" having been established under the supervision of Major Jared Curtis, an excellent instructor-I became a scholar, and for the want of something else to study, rather than from any fixed design of acquiring a knowledge of the languages, I commenced the study of the Latin Grammar. The second or third day my preceptor inquired of me if I had not gone through the Latin Grammar before. I told him that I had not. I finished it in one week, and spent the two following weeks in the minor authors; at the beginning of the fourth week took up Virgil. I learned very rapidly though my memory was not remarkably retentive.

At

A NEW FIRE BURNING.

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the end of the twelfth week I had finished the twelve books of the Enead. I now felt a NEW FIRE BURNING WITHIN ME-I was no longer content to be an humble farmer. Prompted by ambition, I looked forward to a period when I might fill the highest office of State. My father and sisters, and especially my oldest brother and many of my friends indulged the most sanguine expectations in regard to my future career. They were all anxious to urge me forward.

"During the summer of 1818, I pursued at intervals the remainder of my Latin studies. The winter session following, I read the Greek Testament. I continued to pursue my studies closely during the following summer; went through Horace; I also studied Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, and had daily exercises in composition. I also read with admiration Pope's translation of the Iliad, and when only sixteen years of age I was considered by my acquaintances a good scholar.

"In the latter end of the summer of 1819,