and afterwards at Brown University. His acuteness
and cleverness from infancy were great, especially in arithmetic and
mathematics. During his studies, he met with a clever and brilliant
friend who had imbibed the deistical teaching of the French Revolution,
and infected him with it, and he came home at seventeen the winner of all
the honours and prizes that the College afforded, but announcing himself
to his parents as a decided infidel! The pastor treated him with stern
displeasure, and argued hotly with him, but young Adoniram was the
cleverer man, and felt his advantage. His mother's tears and entreaties
were less easy to answer, and the thought of them dwelt with him, do what
he would, when he set out on a sort of tour through the surrounding
States. On his journey, he stopped at a country inn, and was told, with
much apology, that there was no choice but to give him a room next to
that of a young man who was so ill that he could scarcely live till
morning. In fact, Adoniram's rest was broken by the groans of the dying
man and the footsteps of the nurses, and there--close to the shadow of
death--his infidelity, which had been but pride of intellect and fashion,
began to quail, as the thought of the future haunted him. Morning came;
all was still. He asked after his fellow-lodger, and heard that he was
dead. He asked his name. It was no other than the very youth who had
staggered his faith.

The shock changed his whole tone. He could not bear to continue his
journey, but turned back to Plymouth, determined to prove to himself what
was indeed truth; and, while deeply studying the evidences of
Christianity, he supported himself by keeping a school and writing
educational books on grammar and arithmetic. His mind was soon
thoroughly made up, as, indeed, his aberrations had been only on the
surface, and he became very anxious to enter the Theological College at
Andover, Massachusetts. This belonged to the most earnest of the
Congregationalists, and evidence of personal conversion and piety was
required from the candidates; but, in his case, the professors were
satisfied, and he entered on his course of study, which included Hebrew.
In the last year of his studies there he fell in with Claudius Buchanan's
"Star in the East," and the perusal directed his whole soul to the desire
of missionary labour. His mind was harassed night and day with the
thought of longing to do something for the enlightenment of the