his father and told him that he had taught him all he knew.  In Latin, I think he was taught by Cleanthus Felt.  He was at this age very arduous and assiduous in the pursuit of knowledge.  He discovered great mechanical ingenuity.  He drew and painted in water colors, and attracted the notice of the Hon. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Lt.  Governor of the State, who became so much interested in his advancement, that he took the initial steps to have him placed with a master.  At an early age he manifested a taste for mineralogy and natural science, which was then (I speak of about 1808) almost unknown in the country.  He was generally to be found at home, at his studies, when other boys of his age were attending horseraces, cock-fights, and other vicious amusements for which the village was famous.

“At this time he organized with persevering effort, a literary society, in which discussions took place by the intelligent inhabitants on subjects of popular and learned interests.  At an early age, I think sixteen, he went to the west, and the first that was afterwards heard of him was his bringing to New York a splendid collection of the mineralogy and natural history of the west.” [5]

[Footnote 5:  Letter of L.L.  Van Kleeck, Esq., to Dr. R.W.  Griswold, June 4th, 1851.]

In a part of the country where books were scarce, it was not easy to supply this want.  He purchased several editions of English classics at the sale of the valuable library of Dirck Ten Broeck, Esq., of Albany, and his room in a short time showed the elements of a library and a cabinet of minerals, and drawings, which were arranged with the greatest care and neatness.  Having finished his primary studies, with high reputation, he prepared, under an improved instructor, to enter Union College.  It was at the age of fifteen that he set on foot, as Mr. Van Kleeck mentions, an association for mental improvement.  These meetings drew together persons of literary tastes and acquirements in the vicinity.  The late John V. Veeder, Wm. McKown, and L.L.  Van Kleeck, Esqs., Mr. Robert Alsop, the late John Schoolcraft, Esq., G. Batterman, John Sloan, and other well-known gentlemen of the town, all of whom were his seniors in age, attended these meetings.

Mineralogy was at that time an almost unknown science in the United States.  At first the heavy drift stratum of Albany County, as seen in the bed of Norman’s Kill; and its deep cuttings in the slate and other rocks, were his field of mineralogical inquiries.  Afterwards, while living at Lake Dunmore, in Addison County, Vermont, he revised and systematized the study under the teaching of Professor Hall, of Middlebury College, to which he added chemistry, natural philosophy and medicine.  Having now the means, he erected a chemical furnace, and ordered books, apparatus, and tests from the city of New York.  By these means he perfected the arts which were under his direction in the large way; and he made investigations of the phenomena of the fusion of various bodies, which he prepared for the press under the name of Vitriology, an elaborate work of research.  Amongst the facts brought to light, it is apprehended, were revealed the essential principles of an art which is said to have been discovered and lost in the days of Tiberius Caesar.