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infancy and childhood I was the subject of emaciating disease, and suffered much from pain and debility; but, when health permitted, I occasionally attended school, during the summer season only, from my sixth to my ninth year, and six or eight weeks, several years afterwards, to study geography and grammar. My knowledge of writing and arithmetic was acquired at home, as also that of grammar and geography with the above mentioned exception. I had likewise some opportunity, which was sedulously improved, of attending to the interesting study of astronomy, natural and civil history, and of reading the works of esteemed authors on important subjects; but have been chiefly debarred, by sickness and indigence, from the advantages of education, for which, during childhood and youth, I longed with an intensity of desire, that was acutely painful. But for many years past I have resignedly acquiesced in the allotments of Providence; believing assuredly, that all things are ordered in infinite mercy, and that the decrees of the all-wise Creator are righteous altogether.

From the earliest time I can recollect, I was, though not melancholy, of a meditative and retired habit, and found much more amusement in yielding my mind to a pleasing train of fancy, and in forming stories and scenes according to my inclination, than in the plays, in which the children with whom I associated took delight. And during the whole of my childhood and youth, previous to my