'sess faith to be made better, and turn my affections to 'another world. But I found it much easier to commend the 'patience of others in circumstances of necessity, and imagine 'a temper of mind which they should possess, than to support 'these in my own case. However, after sustaining repeated 'negatives, every one increasing my anxiety, I providentially ' applied at the place where I have since resided, which is the ' only place in Troy or Albany, where, to my present know'ledge, I could have found a support in any decent employ'ment. The gentleman with whom I am, is an Attorney, ' the principal Justice of the village; was educated at Middlebury; has a very small family, a growing fortune, and treats 'me with the greatest respect. A small part of my time is em'ployed in assisting him among his papers, the rest I devote to study and reading. He finds me every thing, clothing excepted. He appears well satisfied with me, and offers to 'instruct me in study and maintain me on the present terms 'for three years, provided I will turn my views to the Law, ' which without opposing my whole inclination and violating 'what I deem to be duty, I cannot assent to. Weak and un'worthy as I am, I feel, or trust I wish to feel, a desire to be 'made instrumental in promoting the best, the greatest, and 'final good of my fellow-beings, and to devote my life wholly 'to the immediate service of God. This I judge myself not 'sufficiently qualified to do, (besides moral defects, which fre'quently hold me in suspense,) without considerable and uninterrupted study. To obtain opportunity for this, is my 'main concern of a worldly nature. Earthly honours, pleasures, and wealth, for some reason, appear vain when put in competition with evangelical utility, and I have not an in'ducement to pursue them. But how to act, I know not; I 'feel unwilling to take any ground from which I shall hereaf'ter be obliged to recede, because the shortness of life and 'the value of youthful days render inexpedient, measures lia'ble to variation and change. One of these two measures I

'would willingly resort to, either to obtain a loan of money to 'be repaid after my College life, with or without interest, or to · engage and constantly do some business, the avails of which, ' at the end of three or more years, would assist me in acquiring an education. Perhaps neither of these is practicable, ' and should one or both be so, I know not the means of introducing myself to them. I want advice. I have none 'present to give it. You must do it, Sir, and take the only ' recompense I can bestow, my gratitude. It is not poverty 'that causes me to shrink from abandoning literary pursuits; nor is it, I trust, worldly disrespect-but the certainty of being 'less capable of extensive usefulness. I hope you will by no 'means fail of giving this an answer immediately, and thus 'confer lasting obligations on

'Your respectful and

'Obedient Servant,

'J. ASHMUN."

Of the result of this application, we are ignorant; yet, he appears not to have entered Middlebury College until September, 1812, more than a year after the date of this letter.During his residence at Middlebury, his habits were those of unwearied diligence in study, and ardent and elevated devotion in the duties of religion. He regularly attended numerous religious meetings; assisted in conducting them; and though but seventeen years of age, was regarded by the pious and able men of that town, as a useful and efficient coadjutor. To secure the means of support, he was obliged to instruct a school during the vacations, and even prolong his exertions as teacher beyond these periods, so that severe and unremitted application to study was indispensable to enable him to maintain an honourable scholastic reputation. "When I look back upon him," says one of his most intimate friends, "as unri' valled for talents (as it was conceded he was, by the officers ' and his companions in our College); when I look upon him

'as improving on the models of Schwartz, Van Der Kemp, and 'Brainerd, and see him copying our Lord and Redeemer with 'such holy diligence and constant spirituality, I feel that the 'History of his Life will be an inestimable accession to the 'treasures of American Biography. If your Life of him should 'exhibit him such as he is to my mind's eye, I should feel that 'the distribution of the work to every reader of such things in 'the United States, was an object not unworthy of the efforts ' of my life."*

His health soon became so impaired, by his mental efforts, as to compel him to desist from them, and to resort for the restoration of his strength, to the exercise, and varied scenes and incidents of a tour through a delightful part of New England. He travelled slowly as far as Hartford, Connecticut, and though at times so reduced as almost to despair of ever returning to his friends, his exertions, in several towns where existed extraordinary attention to religion, were frequent and great; and

*Under date of April 13, 1813, Mr. Ashmun expresses grief that he had been led to engage in political debates to his own unutterable sorrow and the injury of the Saviour's cause. O! my Saviour, God, he exclaims, sooner may I perish from the earth, than bring another stain upon thine immaculate cause. It will be recollected that this was during the last war, and the frontier settlements were exposed to the enemy. Mr. Ashmun had just before this visited his native place, Champlain, and witnessed its desolations. "Well, he observes, might she adopt the strain of the lamenting Prophet, almost literally fulfilled upon her:" "And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and the Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger, both the King and the Priest." "For three months the churches had not once been assembled, and their Minister had been removed. The movements of war had rolled a deluging torrent of vice in upon them; sickness had carried off some from the church, and many from the people; Sabbaths were neglected; and finally, to verify the literal sense of the above passage, the house of Divine worship had been burned with fire." Probably this was the time, when, as we have been told, young Ashmun organized and took command of a military corps, and showed the elements of those powers which were so signally developed in his defence of the African Colony.

his Journal* at this time, affords evidence of his disposition not only to improve every opportunity of usefulness, but to derive instruction from every observation of nature or mankind, and from all the various daily occurrences of life. The writer can never forget the description of Ashmun, as he then appeared, by an eminent Christian of Wethersfield, Connecticut, at whose hospitable mansion he remained during his stay there, and whose virtues are alluded to with much sensibility in his Journal. His youthful figure, tall but spare, had an air of striking dignity; and his pale and emaciated countenance, expressed the feelings of one who habitually communed with God, and viewed every object in the light of the eternal world. All his thoughts and affections seemed occupied with religion; this was the chief subject of his conversation; and its truths were uttered by him with a manner and in a tone of such earnestness, as convinced all in his presence, that to his mind they were of unspeakable importance, and that he was most benevolently anxious to extend their dominion over the minds of others. In his public addresses, great maturity of thought, combined with the glow of a vigorous imagination, and the feelings of a sublime devotion, gave him powerful influence over his audience. Hundreds felt his appeals, as those of a dying man, who had caught the spirit of the Apostles, and who, ready to depart, yet lingered near the end of his course, to admonish and exhort those who would soon see his face no more.

In this tour, and other shorter excursions to various parts of Vermont, Mr. Ashmun spent most of the summer of 1814, and found himself in the autumn, greatly improved in health; and prepared again to renew his studies at College. He remained at Middlebury until the autumn of 1815, when with the view of relieving himself from some pecuniary embarrassments, he became a student at the Vermont University, Bur

* Appendix 1.

lington. He expressed also an earnest desire of promoting the cause of religion in that Institution, which he thought had been less firmly sustained, than in that with which he stood connected. He concluded his studies at College in the summer of next year, and was distinguished among those who received, at the commencement, literary honours. Among his papers, are two orations prepared for this occasion,—one in English, the other in Latin; (the former marked rejected)— but both exhibiting a bold and aspiring spirit, and a maturity of knowledge and judgment seldom attained at so early a period of life.