On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
bours ,, may well shrink within themselves , conscious that , in comparison , their time has been lost or spent in vain , and they have accemplished nothing ! I am , Sir , Very respectfully yours ,
J . H . B * Joseph StephensBuckmintster was born May 26 th , 1784 , at Portsmouth , New Hampshire .
His ancestors , both by his father ' s and his mother ' s side , for many generations , were clergymen . His paternal grandfather was the author of several tracts of some
celebrity in their day , in defence of a mitigated form of Calvinism , Dr . Stevens , of Kittery , his ma . ternal grandfather , is yet remembered , as a very learned , judicious and pious divine ; in short—to use the language of very high
authority * — he was a man , of whom one may say every thing that is good / ' His father , the late Dr . Buckminster , was for a longtime a ministerof Portsmouth , and was esteemed one of the most
eminent clergymen of that state . His mother , all accounts unite in representing as a vvomr . n of a very elegant and cultivated mind ; and though she died , while her son
was yet in early youth , it was not till she had made many of those impressions on his mind and heart which most deeply and permanently affect the character .
Mi \ Buckniinster was a striking example of the early dcvelope . ment of talents . There was no period after his earliest infancy , which did not impress on all who saw him , strangers as well a " * friends , a conviction of the cer-- The late Chief Justice Parsons .
Untitled Article
tainty of his future eminence . An account of some of the peculiarities of his youth will be found in the following extract from a letter addressed by Mr . Buck minster ' s brother to the writer of th «
. " From the birth of my brother , our parents intended him for the ministry , and took the greatest delight in cultivating a mind , whose early promise gave them reason to hope he was to be a blessing to the world . I do not
know how soon he was able to read ; but at four years old he began to study the Latin Gram * mar , and had so great a desire to learn the Greek also , that my
father , to please him , taught him to read a chapter in the Greek Testament , by pronouncing to him the words . As early as this he discovered that love for books
and ardent thirst for knowledge , which he possessed through life . He was seldom willing , while a child , to leave his books for any amusement ; and my father was so much afraid that close
application would injure his health , that he used to reward him for playing with boys of his own age , and would often go with him , to persuade him , by example , to take part in their sports . I have no
recollection that , when we were children , he ever did any thing that Mas wrong . He had always the same open , candid disposition that marked his manhood ; nor can I recollect any time when I d \ d not feel the same confidence that
whatever he did was right ; the same affection and respect , which made the last years I spent with him so happy . From the time he was five I ill he was seven yearr old , it was his practice to calf the
Untitled Article
590 Memoir of the late Rev . J . S « Bujckminster .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/2/
-