1.

CHAPTER from the time he was thirteen years old, have been preserved. He had already mastered the difficult parts of arithmetic, and these books begin with geometry. But there is one, of a previous date, which deserves notice, as giving an insight into the original cast of his mind, and the subjects to which his education was directed. It is singular, that a boy of thirteen should occupy himself in studying the dry and intricate forms of business, which are rarely attended to till the affairs of life call them into use, and even then rather as an act of necessity than of pleasure. But many pages of the manuscript in question are taken up with copies of what he calls Forms of Writing, such as notes of hand, bills of exchange, receipts, bonds, indentures, bills of sale, land warrants, leases, deeds, and wills, written out with care, the prominent words in large and varied characters in imitation of a clerk's hand. Then follow selections in rhyme, more distinguished for the sentiments they contain, and the religious tone that pervades them, than for their poetical beauties.

havior.

Rules of Be- But the most remarkable part of the book is that, in which is compiled a system of maxims, and regulations of conduct, drawn from miscellaneous sources, and arranged under the head of Rules of Behavior in Company and Conversation. Some of these are unimportant, and suited only to form the habits of a child; others are of a higher import, fitted to soften and polish the manners, to keep alive the best affections of the heart, to impress the obligation of the moral virtues, to teach what is due to others in the social relations, and above all to inculcate the practice of a perfect self-control. *

Effects of these Rules.

In studying the character of Washington it is obvious, that this code of rules had an influence upon his whole life. His temperament was ardent, his passions strong, and, amidst the multiplied scenes of temptation and excitement through which he passed, it was his constant

A selection from these Rules of Behavior may be found in the Appendix, No. II.

effort and ultimate triumph to check the one and subdue CHAPTER the other. His intercourse with men, private and public, in every walk and station, was marked with a consistency, a fitness to occasions, a dignity, decorum, condescension, and mildness, a respect for the claims of others, and a delicate perception of the nicer shades of civility, which were not more the dictates of his native good sense and incomparable judgment, than the fruits of a long and unwearied discipline.

school.

He left school in the autumn preceding his sixteenth Leaves birthday. The last two years had been devoted to the study of geometry, trigonometry, and surveying, for which he had a decided partiality. It is probable, also, that his friends, discovering this inclination, encouraged him in yielding to it, with the view of qualifying him for the profession of a surveyor, which was then a lucrative employment, and led to opportunities of selecting valuable new lands. During the last summer he was at school, we find him surveying the fields around the schoolhouse and in the adjoining plantations, of which the boundaries, angles, and measurements, the plots and calculations, are entered with formality and precision in his books.

mathemat

Nor was his skill confined to the more simple processes His skill in of the art. He used logarithms, and proved the accuracy ics. of his work by different methods. The manuscripts fill several quires of paper, and are remarkable for the care with which they were kept, the neatness and uniformity of the handwriting, the beauty of the diagrams, and a precise method and arrangement in copying out tables and columns of figures.

method.

These particulars will not be thought too trivial to Habits of be mentioned, when it is known, that he retained similar habits through life. His business papers, daybooks, legers, and letter books, in which before the revolution no one wrote but himself, exhibit specimens of the same studious care and exactness. Every fact occupies a clear and distinct place, the handwriting is round and regular, without interlineations, blots, or blemishes; and, if mis

CHAPTER takes occurred, the faulty words were so skilfully erased

1.

Educated only at the common schools.

and corrected, as to render the defect invisible except to a scrutinizing eye. The constructing of tables, diagrams, and other figures relating to numbers or classification, was an exercise in which he seems at all times to have taken much delight. If any of his farms were to be divided into new lots, a plan was first drawn on paper; if he meditated a rotation of crops, or a change in the mode of culture, the various items of expense, labor, products, and profits were reduced to tabular forms; and in his written instructions to his managers, which were annually repeated, the same method was pursued.

While at the head of the army this habit was of especial service to him. The names and rank of the officers, the returns of the adjutants, commissaries, and quartermasters, were compressed by him into systematic tables, so contrived as to fix strongly in his mind the most essential parts, without being encumbered with details. When the army was to march, or perform any movements requiring combination and concert, a scheme was first delineated; and at the beginning of an active campaign, or in the preparation for a detached enterprise, the line of battle was projected and sketched on paper, each officer being assigned to his post, with the names of the regiments and strength of the forces he was to command.

During the presidency it was likewise his custom to subject the treasury reports and accompanying documents to the process of tabular condensation, with a vast expenditure of labor and patience; but it enabled him to grasp and retain in their order a series of isolated facts, and the results of a complicated mass of figures, which could never have been mastered so effectually by any other mode of approaching them. Such were some of the benefits of those parts of his education, to which he was led by the natural bent of his mind.

Except the above branches of the mathematics, his acquirements did not extend beyond the subjects usually taught to boys of his age at the common schools. It is

1.

even doubtful whether he received any instruction in the CHAPTER principles of language. His earliest compositions were often faulty in grammatical construction. By practice, reading, and study, he gradually overcame this defect, till at length he wrote with accuracy, purity of idiom, and a striking appropriateness of phraseology and clearness of style. In the choice of his words, to express precisely and forcibly his meaning, he was always scrupulous. In this respect his language may be said to have reflected the image of his mind, in which candor, sincerity, and directness were prevailing traits.

with no

tongue.

No aid was derived from any other than his native Acquainted tongue. He never even commenced the study of the an- foreign cient classics. After the French officers had joined the American army in the revolution, and particularly while the forces under Count de Rochambeau were in the country, he bestowed some degree of attention on that language; but at no time could he write or converse in it, or indeed translate any paper.

While at school a project was entertained by his friends, which, if it had been matured, would have changed his own destiny, and perhaps have produced an important influence upon that of his country. His eldest brother, Lawrence, had been an officer in the late war, and served at the siege of Carthagena and in the West Indies. Being a well informed and accomplished gentleman, he had acquired the esteem and confidence of General Wentworth and Admiral Vernon, the commanders of the expedition, with whom he afterwards kept up a friendly correspondence. Having observed the military turn of his young brother, and looking upon the British navy as the most direct road to distinction in that line, he obtained for George a midshipman's warrant, in the year 1746, when he was fourteen years old. This step was taken with his acquiescence, if not at his request, and he prepared with a buoyant spirit for his departure; but, as the time approached, the solicitude of his mother interposed with an authority, to which nature gave a claim.

Proposal

for him to

enter the

navy.

CHAPTER

I.

This step
opposed
by his mo-
ther.

Resides with his brother Lawrence.

William
Fairfax.

At this critical juncture, Mr. Jackson, a friend of the family, wrote to Lawrence Washington as follows. "I am afraid Mrs. Washington will not keep up to her first resolution. She seems to dislike George's going to sea, and says several persons have told her it was a bad scheme. She offers several trifling objections, such as fond, unthinking mothers habitually suggest; and I find that one word against his going has more weight than ten for it." She persisted in opposing the plan, and it was given up. Nor ought this decision to be ascribed to obstinacy, or maternal weakness. This was her eldest son, whose character and manners must already have exhibited a promise, full of solace and hope to a widowed mother, on whom alone devolved the charge of four younger children. To see him separated from her at so tender an age, exposed to the perils of accident and the world's rough usage, without a parent's voice to counsel or a parent's hand to guide, and to enter on a theatre of action, which would for ever remove him from her presence, was a trial of her fortitude and sense of duty, which she could not be expected to hazard without reluctance and concern.

Soon after leaving school he went to reside with his brother Lawrence, at his seat on the Potomac River, which had been called Mount Vernon, in compliment to the admiral of that name. The winter was passed in his favorite study of the mathematics, and in the exercise of practical surveying, merely with the view of becoming familiar with the application of principles and the use of instruments. At this time he was introduced to Lord Fairfax, and other members of the Fairfax family, established in that part of Virginia.

Lawrence Washington had married a daughter of William Fairfax, a gentleman of consideration on account of his wealth, character, and political station, being many years a member and for some time president of his Majesty's Council in the Colony. His seat was at Belvoir, a short distance from Mount Vernon. He had an interesting family of several sons and daughters, intelligent