_From 1784 to 1795—between the ages of 10 and 21._
His apprenticeship, his habits.—Studies Chambers’s
Cyclopædia.—Results of his studies; gains the respect of
all.—Dr. Bentley, Dr. Prince, and Mr. Reed, do him kindness; by
their means allowed access to “The Philosophical Library.”—He
makes philosophical instruments.—Calculates an Almanac at
the age of fourteen.—Studies algebra: delight he experienced
from this new pursuit.—Learns Latin.—Reads works by Sir Isaac
Newton.—Studies French.
[Sidenote: CHANGE OF ABODE.]
[Sidenote: WORK AT THE SHOP.]
[Sidenote: THOUGHTFULNESS FOR OTHERS.]
Doubtless it was with a sorrowing heart that Nat left his own dear home
and his kind mother to take up his abode among strangers; for he was to
live at the house of his employer, Mr. Hodges. But if he did feel sad,
he was not one to neglect a duty in consequence of sorrow. The shop in
which he was employed was situated very near the wharves, in the lower
part of the town of Salem. We do not see many such stores now in Boston;
though something similar is sometimes found in small country towns. In
it a great variety of goods was sold, especially everything which would
be useful to a sailor. Pork and nails, hammers and butter, were kept in
adjacent barrels. The walls were hung with all the tools needed in the
seafaring life. There was a long counter in it, at one end of which Nat
had his little desk. When not engaged with customers, he used to read and
write there. He always kept a slate by his side, and, when not occupied
by the duties of the shop, he was usually busied with his favorite
pursuit of arithmetic. In the warm weather of summer, when there was
little business, and the heat was uncomfortable, he was often seen, by
the neighbors, engaged in ciphering, while resting his slate upon the
half door of the shop; for in those days the shop doors were made in two
parts, so that frequently the lower half was shut, while the upper was
open. Thus he was always actively employed, instead of being idle, as is
too frequently the case with boys in similar circumstances. Even on the
great holidays of Fourth of July and “General Training,” he did not leave
his studies for the purpose of going to see the parade, but remained at
the shop, laboring to improve himself; or, if the shop was closed, he
was in his little garret-room at his employer’s house. Study and reading
were beginning to be his only recreation. Frequently, after the store
was closed at night, he remained until nine or ten o’clock. Many long
winter nights he passed in a similar manner, at his master’s house by the
kitchen fire. While here, he did not become morose or ill-natured; but
frequently, when the servant girl wished to go to see her parents, who
lived one or two miles off, he took her place by the side of the cradle
of his master’s child, and rocked it gently with his foot, while busily
occupied at his books. I think this was one of the sweetest incidents
in his early days. It was the germ of his benevolence in after-life. A
truly great man is kind-hearted as well as wise. Nat began thus early
his course of genuine humanity and science. So must you do if you would
imitate him.
[Sidenote: HIGHER STUDIES.]
As he became older, he became interested in larger and more important
works; and of these, fortunately, he found an abundant supply. His
employer lived in the house of Judge Ropes, and Nat had permission
to use the library of this gentleman as much as he wished. In this
collection he found one set of books which he afterwards valued very
much. He tried to buy a copy of it when he was old, having a similar
feeling towards it that he bore towards his grandmother’s Bible. It
was Chambers’s Cyclopædia. As you may judge from the name Cyclopædia,
these books, consisting of four very large volumes, contained much upon
a great many subjects. It is like a dictionary. He read every piece in
it, and copied into blank books, which he obtained for the purpose,
everything he thought particularly interesting, especially all about
arithmetic. Previously, he had studied navigation, or the methods whereby
the sailors are enabled to guide their ships across the ocean. In this
Cyclopædia he found much upon this subject; also upon astronomy, or the
knowledge of the stars and other heavenly bodies; and upon mensuration,
or the art with which we are enabled to measure large quantities of land
or water.
[Sidenote: ALMANAC FOR 1790.]
But he was not satisfied with merely studying what others did. He made
several dials and curious instruments for measuring the weather, &c. He
likewise, at the age of fourteen years, made an Almanac for 1790, so
accurately and minutely finished, that it might have been published.
Whilst engaged upon this last, he was more than usually laborious. The
first rays of the morning saw him at labor, and he sat up, with his
rushlight, until late at night. If any asked where Nat was, the reply
was, “He is engaged in making his Almanac.” He was just fourteen years of
age when he finished it.[2]
[Sidenote: BEGINS ALGEBRA.]
[Sidenote: HIS DELIGHT IN IT.]
August 1, 1787,—that is, at the age of fourteen,—he was introduced to a
mode of calculating which was wholly new to him. His brother came home
from his school, where he had been learning navigation, and told him
that his master had a mode of ciphering by means of letters. Nat puzzled
himself very much about the matter, and imagined a variety of methods of
“ciphering with letters.” He thought that perhaps A added to B made C,
and B added to C made D, and so on; but there seemed to him no use in
all this. At length he begged his brother to obtain for him the book.
The schoolmaster readily lent it; and it is said that the boy did not
sleep that night. He was so delighted with reading about this method,
or algebra, as it is called, that he found it impossible to sleep. He
afterwards talked with an old English sailor, who happened to know
something about the subject, and received some little instruction from
him. This person afterwards went to his own country; but just before he
left Salem, he patted Nat upon the head, and said, “Nat, my boy, go on
studying as you do now, and you will be a great man one of these days.”
You will see, before finishing this story, that the prophecy of the old
sailor was amply fulfilled.
[Sidenote: DRS. PRINCE AND BENTLEY AID HIM.]
[Sidenote: DR. KIRWAN’S LIBRARY.]
[Sidenote: COPIES BOOKS.]
But all this labor, this constant exertion, combined with his kind and
cheerful disposition, must, you will readily believe, have given him
friends. He became known as a young man of great promise; as one more
capable than his elders of deciding many questions, particularly all
those in which any calculations were to be made. Consequently, when about
seventeen or eighteen years old, he was often called upon, by men much
older than himself, to act as umpire in important matters. All these
he attended to so willingly and skilfully, that those whom he assisted
became very much attached to him. He thus gained the respect not merely
of common persons, less learned than himself, but his industry, his
fidelity to his employers, his talents, attracted the notice of men well
known in the community. Among these were two clergymen of Salem. At
the church of Rev. Dr. Prince he attended for divine worship; and Dr.
Bentley rarely passed the store without stepping in to talk with his
young friend. Nat availed himself of the learning of Dr. Bentley, and
often visited his room in order to converse with him. Dr. Prince, the
other clergyman above alluded to, had studied much the subjects that
the apprentice was pursuing, and he was very glad to see a young man
zealous in the same pursuits. There was another individual who kept an
apothecary’s shop; and it was he, who, with the aid of the two clergymen,
opened to our young student the means of continuing his favorite studies
with more success than he had ever anticipated. Mr. Reed—for that was his
name—likewise gave him permission to use all his books, of which he had
a great many. But the chief means of study, to which I allude, was the
permission to take books from a library which had been formed by a number
of gentlemen of the town. The kindness of the proprietors of this library
was never forgotten by the young apprentice; and in his will, made fifty
years afterwards, he left a thousand dollars to the Salem Athenæum, in
order to repay the debt of gratitude which he felt he had incurred. But
you may want to know something about the formation of this library, and
the books of which it was composed. Some time during the Revolutionary
War, alluded to in Chapter I., Dr. Kirwan, an Irishman and a learned man,
put the greater part of his library on board a ship, in order to have
it carried across the Irish Channel. While on the voyage, the vessel
was taken by an American ship of war, and the books were carried into
Beverly, and were afterwards sold at auction in Salem. Of all in the
world, these books were perhaps those most needed by the apprentice. He
had been studying those sciences chiefly, concerning which there were
very few works printed in America; and suddenly he found himself allowed
free access to all the important books which had been printed in Europe
upon these same subjects. You may readily imagine how eagerly he availed
himself of the opportunity thus afforded him. Every two or three days
he was seen with a number of volumes under his arm, going homeward; and
on his arrival there, he read and _copied all_ he wanted to study at
that time, or refer to afterwards. He made, in this way, a very large
collection of manuscripts, which formed a part of his library. Thus, by
his own exertions, he, at the early age of eighteen, became acquainted
with the writings of most of the learned men of Europe; and he did this
at the time when he was engaged almost constantly in his store, for
he made it a strict rule never to allow any study or reading, however
interesting, to interfere with his duties to his employers. He rarely
forgot this. The following incident impressed it so strongly upon his
memory, that it influenced all his subsequent life.
[Sidenote: ATTENTION TO BUSINESS.]
One day a customer called and purchased a pair of hinges at a time when
the young clerk was deeply engaged in solving a problem in mathematics.
He thought he would finish before charging the delivery of them upon the
books; but when the problem was solved, he forgot the matter altogether.
In a few days the customer called again to pay for them, when Mr. Hodges
himself was in the shop. The books were examined, and gave no account of
this purchase. The clerk, upon being applied to, at once recollected the
circumstance, and the reason of his own forgetfulness. From that day he
made it an invariable rule to finish every matter of business that he
began, before undertaking anything else. Perhaps some of you may remember
the story; and when you think of leaving anything half finished, you may
repeat to yourselves, “Charge your hinges, and finish what you begin.”
[Sidenote: STUDIES LATIN.]
Having been instructed in the elements of algebra, Nat soon found that
there were books written upon it in other languages, which he knew
he ought to read, if he intended to learn as much as he could about
algebra. One of these books was written in a tongue which is called a
dead language, in consequence of its having ceased to be spoken by the
people of the country in which it was originally used. It was in Latin.
This language usually requires many years of study, if one wishes to read
it well, even when he has good instructors. Our hero, however, never
thought of the difficulties he had to surmount, but commenced, alone, the
study of it, June, 1790, that is, when seventeen years old. He was soon
in trouble. He could not understand his Latin book on mathematics. He
asked many who had been at college, but they were puzzled by the peculiar
expressions as much as he was. At length, however, by the aid of his
friend Dr. Bentley, and afterwards of a German who gave him lessons, he
succeeded in mastering the greatest work in modern times, written by
Sir Isaac Newton, who, you know, was one of the most famous philosophers
who have ever lived in this world. Nat discovered in one part of it
a mistake, which, several years afterwards, he published; but he was
deterred from doing so at first, because a very much older person than
he, a professor in Harvard College, said that the apprentice was mistaken.
[Sidenote: STUDY OF FRENCH.]
[Sidenote: GOOD RESULTS.]
But Latin was not the only language that he learned. Finding in the
Kirwan library many books upon mathematics written in French, he
determined to learn that tongue likewise. Accordingly, at the age of
nineteen (May 15, 1792), he began to study it. Fortunately, he was able
to make an arrangement with a Frenchman living in Salem, who wished
to learn English. Mr. Jordy agreed to teach the apprentice French, on
condition that Nat would teach him English. For sixteen months they met
regularly, a certain number of times a week; and the consequences were
very important to the youth’s future success in life. One circumstance
took place, during this study of French, which I think it important to
mention. Nat, desiring only to learn to _read_ a French book, supposed
that it would be unnecessary to spend time in learning accurately to
_pronounce_ the words. These, as is the case in the English tongue, are
often pronounced very differently from the manner in which we should be
led to speak them, if we judged from their mode of spelling. His master
protested against teaching without reference to the pronunciation; and,
after much arguing, Nat yielded to the wishes of his instructor, and
he studied the language in such a way that he could converse with a
Frenchman, as well as read a French book. You will soon see the good that
resulted.