A Biographical Memoir of the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Biographical Memoir of the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin The warmth of this home attachment was rewarded as it deserved, by a change in the mode of his educa tion. At the age of twelve years, when after a vacation of several weeks, his parents were about re turning him to a distinguished academy in the country, it was observed that Edmund became unusually pen sive and silent. When an explanation was asked, he entreated his father, With tears in his eyes, that he might be permitted to remain in the city, assuring him that he would be a dutiful child and a devoted scholar. It was not in the heart of parents to resist such an appeal; and well did he afterward redeem, to use the words of his father, the assurance he then gave them. At the school of Mr. David Graham, to which he was then sent, he was placed under a teacher well fitted both to appreciate and call forthhis early powers; and nine little volumes of essays, which still remain, in his schoolboy hand, evince not only the diligence and talent of the child, but likewise the skill and fidelity of the teacher. The neat and orderly arrangement of these early manuscripts is also worthy of remark, and displays a trait peculiarly char acteristic of their author. Whatever he did through life, was done with care, arranged with taste, and disposed in order. This distinguished alike his books, his papers, his academic exercises, and his personal appearance in which latter particular there was always evident, even from early youth, a punctilious regard to neatness - a virtue, if it may be so called, which seems to have some close inward connexion with the tendencies of a pure and well-ordered mind. With Mr. Graham he continued for two years, taking the lead among his companions, and receiving from his preceptor every mark of esteem and affection. As the first workings of a tender and thoughtful mind, these juvenile compositions are not devoid of interest to any, but they have a nearer claim upon those who remember their author in his more matured ripeness. Their merit as schoolboy exercises seems to have been warmly acknowledged. They all bear the endorsement in, the master's hand, of Optime. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.