world, yet more to my usefulness; and more, as I humbly hope, to the securing of 'glory, honor and immortality' in a world far better than this. My love of general literature in early life was, I fear, a fault, as it diverted my attention from things more necessary and more profitable. When a child, I preferred a book to any sports, or play; and, after laboring hard through the day, study was more agreeable than sleep, through the greater part of the night. Had my circumstances been such as to indulge this propensity, I might, it is not unlikely, have obtained some celebrity; but my life would probably have been still less useful to the world than it has been. For, how many learned men are there, whose learning is of little use except that of self-gratification. Indeed, in many cases, the learning of men renders them less useful to society than others, whose attainments are yet far more limited. Hours, unnumbered, are devoted to reading for mere pleasure, which might be occupied in labors far more useful to mankind."

Perhaps not once in an age, if ever, are we presented with an instance of earlier, and more indomitable love of learning than that, which was exhibited in the childish subject of these pages. This love seemed an inborn passion, which no difficulties could restrain;-a connatural flame, which no. waters of adverse circumstances could quench. In after life, he was remarkable for his habit of silence, even at times when he might have been expected to engage in conversation. The secret of this seems to have been, and such is the impression of the eldest survivors of the family, with whom I have had the pleasure of conversation, that his early passion for books, fanned by his mother's influence both in her occasional teachings and in her daily conversation, led him into the habit of spending those moments in reading, which his companions consumed in the noisy frolicks of their sports. He was, even in childhood, too entirely absorbed in the inward workings of his own mind, and in feeding his insatiable appetite for knowledge, ever to acquire the art of playing with words at small-talk. The master passion of his childhood, as of his riper years, made him a devotee to

books, and his devotion to books made him taciturn. It was as natural for him, when not at work, to have a book in his hand, as it was for other boys to break away from their work to their play. The very difficulties, which he had to encounter in gratifying his fondness for reading, doubtless helped to confirm through life this early habit of silence while others were engaged in conversation. This habit did not proceed, as we shall hereafter see, from any inability to muster words, wherewith to furnish ready-made and handsome clothing for his thoughts. In short, my inquiries amidst the scenes of his childish days, have satisfied me that, while he was a bright and beautiful boy of exceedingly quick parts, of sweetly amiable tempers, and of merely cultivated habits of taciturnity, he could then, as well as in subsequent life, whenever he chose to do so, talk like a book, and let his words flow like "the running brook ;" and was early remarkable for the power of saying pithy and striking, and even sharp and witty things.

It has been observed that his early passion for books met with many discouragements and obstacles to its gratification. It ought to be remarked that it had also some rather unusual stimulants, and helps to its gratification. If he lacked many of the advantages enjoyed by children at the present day, it must be confessed that he enjoyed others, of which boys in general know nothing. There are but few women, of any age, who have such a power of inspiring and fostering the love, and of communicating and fixing the rudiments, of learning, as that which was possessed by the mother of Bishop Griswold: nor are there many boys, who find such a skilful and indefatigable teacher as he early found in his uncle," the Rev. Roger Viets."

The period, during which he continued under his mother's more special training, extended to the close of his tenth year; covering thus the most important ten years, so far as the formation of character is concerned, in the life of every man. During even this period, however, he enjoyed something of the advantages of his uncle's care.

"There was," says the auto-biography, "one circum

stance of my life, which I would ever think and speak of with thankfulness to God. About the time of my birth, the Rev. Roger Viets, my mother's brother, returned from England in Priest's orders, and took charge of the parish in which I lived. For several years, he was an inmate in my father's family, and for most of the time, till my twentieth year, I lived with him. He was an excellent scholar, with a rare talent for communicating knowledge to others." [The eldest of the family connexions, now residing in the parish, say however that this talent exhibited itself specially in the case of those who, like his nephew, had a fondness for learning.] "From my childhood, he had a strong partiality for me, and was at great pains to instruct me in every thing, which he supposed might be useful to me through life; especially in classical knowledge. Even when laboring in the field, (for in those days, country clergymen thought it no disgrace, or departure from duty, to labor, as did St. Paul, for their own temporal support,) when laboring in the field together, as we did for hundreds of days, he would still continue his instructions." And, as the Bishop has often told his worthy companion, who now survives him in her widowhood, many are the Latin lessons, which he has studied by taking his book from his pocket, and poring over its contents, while "riding horse" for his ploughman uncle.

I have remarked that, till he was ten years old, he remained under his mother's care. Circumstances like the following, which is preserved among the family connexions in Simsbury, as an anecdote of his boyhood, may have influenced his parents to consent to a change of residence, which took place at this period.

One day, his father sent him to the field with team and harrow. Some hours afterwards, upon following him thither, he found the team resting by the fence, and young "Alec," as the lad was familiarly called, prone on the grass beneath the shade, and profoundly absorbed in his book. Of course he received a reprimand, notwithstanding the interposition of his mother's plea; "pray, let the boy read, he is so fond

of his books." "Let him read," said his father, "when he has nothing else to do: but when I send him to work, let him work."

The circumstances, which attended his change of residence, are thus given by his niece, Mrs. Bright, as received from her mother, and as confirmatory of the substance of the last extract from the auto-biography.

"His mild and amiable disposition, together with his uncommon quickness in learning, had made him from infancy a favorite with his uncle. He ever considered his nephew as a child of remarkable promise; and becoming deeply interested in the education of his favorite, he at length requested the parents to allow Alexander to come and live with him, as he would then have more time and better opportunities for directing his studies. They consented; and for a considerable period he resided in his uncle's family, and assisted him in the cultivation of his farm;" [the parish glebe.] "He spent the most of every day in the field; but, while thus employed, he was often receiving instruction from his uncle; and exceedingly small was the portion of his time allotted exclusively to study."

This last remark, it is presumed, applies only to the summer season; since, in winter, Mr. Viets, as we have seen, exchanged his agricultural occupation for that of instructor of a sort of parish school, which young Alexander doubtless attended with the other children of the neighborhood. And this school, it should be remembered, was the first that he had ever attended any where, except under the parental roof. There, indeed, the children of the family, when very young, used, with some others in the neighborhood, to be gathered and instructed by a female teacher in a sort of household-school. But, other school than this, and that, which he found in his mother's teachings, Alexander never attended till he went to live with his uncle.

While thus under the special charge of Mr. Viets, his profiting was manifest to all. His progress in the Latin and Greek languages was remarkable; while, in Mathematics he

so highly distinguished himself that there was no boy in all Simsbury, who was his superior, and but one, who was considered his equal.

Mr. Viets, as a fine scholar, had indulged his taste in collecting one of the largest and best selected libraries, then known in those parts. He was also keeper of the parish library, a collection of considerable value, which seems to have been made when the parish was first organized and endowed by the zeal and liberality of Mr. Crozier and the gentlemen of Boston and Newport. Of both these libraries, young Alexander had the unrestricted use, so long as his uncle remained in the States; and among their rich contents gratified his love of reading, whenever he had a moment's leisure from either labor or the studies of the school. The parish library still remains, though much diminished by use and losses; while that of his uncle has been scattered; the best of his books being taken with him on his removal to Nova Scotia; and the remainder sold.

What the earliest tastes of young Griswold were, so far as his love of books sought favorite indulgence, may be seen from the following; which I take, in substance, from the account of his niece; tantamount, as we have seen, to the testimony of his mother and sister.

"Works of imagination seem to have been his favorite reading at that age. He was extremely fond of plays, particularly those of Shakspeare. The acting of plays was then an occasional chosen amusement with the children of the neighborhood; and, at the early age of seven, Alexander performed the part of page in 'Fair Rosamond,' to the great admiration of all the spectators. When older, he still retained a fondness for these juvenile exhibitions; and, at the age of fifteen, acted the part of Zanga, in Dr. Young's Revenge. His performance was so striking as to call forth bursts of applause from his audience, which consisted of the greater part of the inhabitants of Simsbury. Many years since that time, I have heard the aged people of the neighborhood speak of that performance as surpassing any thing of the kind, which they had ever witnessed; especially in 'the

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