to form any peculiar excellence in one of our species, and which takes an interest in the circumstances and events of his life. Examples of great talents diligently exerted, and of shining virtues practised with uniformity should be preserved and displayed as furnishing models in conduct and incentives to excellence. By such exhibitions the timid are encouraged and the inactive roused. Emulation fires generous spirits to endeavour to fill the void made by the loss of the eminent. Are any capable of doing great and durable good to their country and the world, they are stimulated to tread in the fair paths which have been trodden before; and those whom nature and circumstances have confined to a small compass of action are instructed to place their single talent to the best account.

FISHER AMES lived and died in his native place. He was born April 9, 1758, in the old parish of Dedham, a pleasant country town about nine miles south of Boston, and the shire town of Norfolk. He sprung from one of the oldest families in Massachusetts. In the line of his ancestry is the Rev. William Ames, a famous English divine, author of the Medulla Theologiæ and several controversial tracts. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and to prevent an expulsion in form on account of his strenuous assertion of Calvinistical principles he forsook this college, went abroad, and was chosen by the states of Friesland professor of their university. He was at the synod of Dort, 1618. He had determined to emigrate to New-England, but was prevented by death in November, 1633.

THE father of FISHER AMES was a physician and the son of a physician who lived in Bridgewater. His mother was daughter of Jeremiah Fisher, Esq. one of the most respectable farmers in the county. Dr. Nathaniel Ames was a man of acuteness and wit, of great activity, and a cheerful and amiable temper. To his skill in his profession he added a knowledge of natural philosophy, astronomy, and mathematicks. He died in July, 1764, leaving four sons and one daughter.

FISHER was the youngest child. The mother, as if "anticipating the future lustre of the jewel committed to her care,"

early resolved to struggle with her narrow circumstances in order to give this son a literary education; and she has lived to see his eminence and prosperity, to receive the expressions of his filial piety, and to weep over his grave.

IT has been observed, that those who are prodigies of infant genius often disappoint the expectations they have raised, whilst minds of no peculiar promise and even of tardy growth in early years have been known at length to bear vigorous and lasting fruit. On the other hand it cannot be denied, that a great proportion of those who display extraordinary powers in mature life give indications of decided superiority in youth. The accounts of Mr. AMES prove the early expansion of his faculties. When he was six years old, he began the study of Latin. From this time till he entered the university he had a variety of instructers in succession. He attended the town school, when the master happened to be capable of teaching him, and at other times recited his lessons to the Rev. Mr. Haven, minister of the parish, a gentleman to whom he always showed much respect and friendship.

His frequent change of instructers and desultory application to the languages were obvious disadvantanges attending his initiation in classical literature. He did not receive that exact and sedulous culture, which such a mind as his deserved and would have fully repaid. His native energies in a good degree supplied these defects and carried him forward in the road of improvement. In July, 1770, soon after the completion of his twelfth year, he was admitted to Harvard college. Previous to his being offered, he was examined by a gentleman accustomed to teach the languages, who expressed admiration of his quickness and accuracy, and pronounced him a youth of uncommon attainments, and bright promise.

DURING this period he was remarkable for close application in the hours of study, and for animation and gaiety in the intervals of relaxation. He entered the university, indeed, at too tender an age for the mind to grasp the abstract sciences. It is said, however, that in the literary exercises in general he was ready and accurate, and in particular branches distin

guished. He very soon gained the reputation of shining parts. He was attentive to his studies and regular in his conduct. Young as he was, he did not abuse his power over that portion of his time which the laws of the institution submit to the discretion of the student, by idleness and trifling; nor his liberty of self-direction in the choice of his associates, by consorting with the vicious. At that early period he might say, as he did when he came into life: "I have never sought friends, whom I was not willing and desirous to be known to have."

It was not his fancy or his passion to break through the fences of discipline, or come into collision with the authority of his preceptors. He had a good standing with the government of the college, without losing any part of the friendship and esteem of his fellow-students. His tutors were accustomed to speak of his qualities with emphatick praise. There was a peculiar mildness and modesty in the character of young AMES, joined to a vivacity and pleasantness, that endeared him both to his superiours and equals.

He was a favourite in a society, then recently formed among the students for improvement in elocution. It was early observed, that he coveted the glory of eloquence. In his declamation before this society he was remarked for the energy and propriety, with which he delivered such specimens of impassioned oratory as his genius led him to select. As a task or voluntary trial of his skill, he produced occasionally a theme or oration, and was known sometimes to invoke the muse of poetry, though he affected then, as he did afterwards, to decline the reputation of a poetick talent. Probably he was never satisfied with the success of his attempts in an art, in which want of excellence is want of every thing. His compositions at this time bore the characteristick stamp which has always marked his speaking and writing. They were sententious and full of

ornament.

It is especially to be told, that the morals of the young collegian passed the ordeal of a four years residence at the university unhurt. He surmounted the temptations to vice,

perhaps inseparable from the place, and left it with an unsullied purity of sentiments and manners.

THOSE who perceive the intimate dependance of one part of life on another, and the infinite consequences of early impressions and habits, will discern the auspicious influence of his blameless youth upon his subsequent character and fortunes. They will ask, by what means he walked erect in a way where many stumble and fall, and kept the treasure of his innocence in a region where the spoiler, in the form of seductive example, perverted sentiment, and unhallowed passion, so often assaults it with success.

FACT unhappily demonstrates, that, in spite of what instruction or discipline can do to check the causes or control the effects of youthful errours and passions, the college life is a severe experiment upon the strength of juvenile virtue. That degree of liberty, which is the necessary privilege of young men in a course of liberal education, is also the source of their imminent peril. In the instance of the subject of this notice, his tender age and his limited pecuniary means undoubtedly formed an important security against the worst excesses incident to the situation. But these accidental circumstances are far from insuring adequate sobriety and self-restraint, especially in those of ardent minds and highly excitable feelings. Happy dispositions and early good principles in a young man entering upon this doubtful course, are essential pledges of his safety. In such a one the vivacity of his mind and imagination, his lively spirits and warm affections are directed to objects that are laudable or safe: he is drawn to his literary pursuits by the allurement of pleasure, and places the point of honour in acting well his part. His taste is manly and just; he does not miscal dissipation, enjoyment, nor revelry, mirth; he has begun to take counsel from prudence, and to send his thoughts beyond the present moment. He has not been instructed in vain to ask himself for a reason of his conduct, to act by plan, and to look to the end. He has listened with solemnity to the injunction to beware of the first step in the path of evil. He has some comprehension

of the hazard of a first deviation, the presumption of timid liberties and dubious actions. That young man who answers to this description will, no doubt, resist both the terrour and the charm that make his discretion and virtue difficult. Such was Mr. AMES through his college life, and, indeed, all that period when the most durable impressions are received and the moral bias is generally contracted. Happily, he did not need the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the regret of folly to make him wise. He seems to have been early initiated in that caution and self-distrust, which he used afterwards to inculcate. He was accustomed to say: "we have but a slender hoid of our virtues; they ought, therefore, to be cherished with care, and practised with diligence. He who holds parley with vice and dishonour is sure to become their slave and victim. The heart is more than half corrupted, that does not burn with indignation at the slightest attempt to seduce it."

His spotless youth brought blessings to the whole remainder of his life. It gave him the entire use of his faculties, and all the fruit of his literary education. Its effects appeared in that fine edge of moral feeling which he always preserved; in his strict and often austere temperance; in his love of occupation, that made activity delight; in his distaste for publick diversions, and his preference of simple pleasures. Beginning well, he advanced with unremitted steps in the race of virtue, and arrived at the end of life in peace and honour.

His parent had early directed his views to the study of law. Even before he entered college and while there he had spoken of a profession, and sometimes mentioned divinity or medicine; but she had always aimed to determine his choice to the law, which he adopted as his destined pursuit.

AFTER receiving his degree in 1774, several years passed away before he entered on his professional studies. The straightened situation of his mother, obliged to provide for her other children, the doubtful and troubled aspect of the times, joined to the immaturity of his years, occasioned this delay of his proper occupation. During a part of this interval, he had recourse to that employment, which the school establishments