“At the age of ten he was sent to one Captain Morton, of whom he took lessons in navigation, in which he is said to have made decided progress. In the grammar-school he was noted for his proficiency in the Greek language. His school-mates nicknamed him Virgil, or (in allusion to the peculiar style of the hat which he wore, as well as to his studious habits) ‘old Virgil dug up.’ As a boy, he was spirited, self-confident, and exceedingly enthusiastic, very active and energetic, but fonder of his books than of play. His sister has a vivid recollection of his affectionate tenderness toward her, and of his great kindness to inferior animals. He was very fond of desultory reading; and as there were no books for children at that period, he alternated between the books of theology found in his father’s library and the novels of Richardson and Fielding, or the plays of Ben Jonson, which he was able to borrow in the neighborhood. It is not probable that his father encouraged this latter class of reading; but the habits of self-dependence, which he had thought proper to cultivate in his son, left his hours of leisure mostly untrammelled; and seeing the greediness with which the boy occasionally devoured books of the gravest character, it very likely had not occurred to him that he could feel the least possible interest in any work of the imagination.
“Before Adoniram was twelve years of age, he had heard visitors at his father’s talk a great deal of a new exposition of the Apocalypse, which they pronounced a work of rare interest. Now, the Revelation was the book that, of all others in the Bible, he delighted most to read; and he had searched the few commentators his father possessed without getting much light upon its mysteries. The new exposition was owned by a very awe-inspiring gentleman in the neighborhood; but Adoniram felt that he _must_ have it, and after combating a long time with his bashfulness, he at last determined on begging the loan of it. He presented himself in the great man’s library, and was coldly and sternly refused. For once, his grief and mortification were so great that he could not conceal the affair from his father. He received more sympathy than he anticipated. ‘Not lend it to you!’ said the good man, indignantly; ‘I wish _he_ could understand it half as well. You shall have books, Adoniram, just as many as you can read, and I’ll go to Boston myself for them.’ He performed his promise, but the desired work on the Apocalypse, perhaps for judicious reasons, was not obtained.”
In the year 1800 the family removed to Braintree, and two years later, when Adoniram was fourteen years old, took up their abode in the old historic town of Plymouth. In 1804 he entered Providence College—subsequently called Brown University—one year in advance.
During his college course he was a hard student; and in 1807, at the age of nineteen, was graduated the valedictorian of his class, in spite of the fact that for six weeks of the Senior year he was absent, engaged in teaching school in Plymouth. He was ambitious to excel; and a classmate says of him, he has “no recollection of his ever failing, or even hesitating, in recitation.” He had a powerful rival in his friend Bailey,[1] and this probably added zest to his ambition. When he received the highest appointment in the commencement exercises, his delight knew no bounds. He hurried to his room, and wrote, “Dear father, I have got it. Your affectionate son, A. J.” He then took a circuitous route to the post-office, that he might quiet the beatings of his heart, and appear with propriety before his classmates, and especially before his rival friend.
To his circumspect and studious behavior while in college, a letter to his father from the President of the College bears unequivocal witness:
“BROWN UNIVERSITY, _April_ 30, 1805.
“REV. SIR: Notwithstanding the greatness of my present hurry, I must drop you a word respecting your son; and this, I can assure you, is not by way of complaint. A uniform propriety of conduct, as well as an intense application to study, distinguishes his character. Your expectations of him, however sanguine, must certainly be gratified. I most heartily congratulate you, my dear sir, on that charming prospect which you have exhibited in this very amiable and promising son; and I most heartily pray that the Father of mercies may make him now, while a youth, a son in his spiritual family, and give him an earnest of the inheritance of the saints in light.
“I am, very respectfully, “Your friend and servant, “ASA MESSER.”
In the autumn of 1807, young Judson opened in Plymouth a private Academy, which he taught for nearly a year. During this time he also published two text-books: “The Elements of English Grammar,” and “The Young Lady’s Arithmetic.”