n.

But that to which I am principally indebted for any studious habits,
mental energy, or even capacity or decision of character, is religious
instruction, poured into my mind in my childhood by a Mother's counsels,
and infused into my heart by a Mother's prayers and tears. When very
small, under six years of age, having done something naughty, my Mother
took me into her bedroom, told me how bad and wicked what I had done
was, and what pain it caused her, kneeled down, clasped me to her bosom,
and prayed for me. Her tears, falling upon my head, seemed to penetrate
to my very heart. This was my first religious impression, and was never
effaced. Though thoughtless, and full of playful mischief, I never
afterwards knowingly grieved my Mother, or gave her other than
respectful and kind words.

At the close of the American War, in 1815, when I was twelve years of
age, my three elder brothers, George, William, and John, became deeply
religious, and I imbibed the same spirit. My consciousness of guilt and
sinfulness was humbling, oppressive, and distressing; and my experience
of relief, after lengthened fastings, watchings, and prayers, was clear,
refreshing, and joyous. In the end I simply trusted in Christ, and
looked to Him for a present salvation; and, as I looked up in my bed,
the light appeared to my mind, and, as I thought, to my bodily eye also,
in the form of One, white-robed, who approached the bedside with a
smile, and with more of the expression of the countenance of Titian's
Christ than of any person whom I have ever seen. I turned, rose to my
knees, bowed my head, and covered my face, rejoiced with trembling,
saying to a brother who was lying beside me, that the Saviour was now
near us. The change within was more marked than anything without and,
perhaps, the inward change may have suggested what appeared an outward
manifestation. I henceforth had new views, new feelings, new joys, and
new strength. I truly delighted in the law of the Lord, after the inward
man, and--

"Jesus, all the day long, was my joy and my song."

From that time I became a diligent student, and new quickness and
strength seemed to be imparted to my understanding and memory. While
working on the farm I did more than ordinary day's work, that it might
show how industrious, instead of lazy, as some said, religion made a
person. I studied between three and six o'clock in the morning, carried
a book in my pocket during the day to improv