before that event. His father left Pennsylvania early in the autumn of 1778, intending to proceed to Europe; but he was arrested by sickness before he could, with convenience embark, and never returned. Thus at the age of fourteen was his son Benjamin left an orphan.
Mr. Barton had, however, before his departure from Lancaster, taken care to provide for his minor children, a suitable and convenient place of abode in the neighbourhood of that town: where they were placed in the midst of many of his best and most faithful friends, and under the immediate superintendance of a person of great worth and long experienced friendship for the family. Comfortably situated in this pleasant rural retirement, this little household continued between one and two years: and there, abstracted from the noise and bustle of a town, our youthful student—ever assiduous from a very early period of his life, in the acquisition of knowledge,—devoted much of his time to reading. He never appeared to be fond of those active bodily pursuits and athletick exercises, in which boys employ much of their time; though he occasionally engaged in them. The scene around him was well adapted to the contemplation of nature, and he was of a contemplative turn of mind. His inclination seemed, at that period of his life, to direct to the study of civil history; of which he very early acquired a considerable knowledge: but it is not improbable, that having, during the life of his father, and while under his roof, acquired some taste for natural history and the culture of plants— subjects to which that gentleman devoted much of his attention[1]—
- ↑ It appears by a paragraph in a note to the "Observations on the desiderata of natural history," that Dr. Barton's father had paid very considerable attention to some part of natural history. Speaking of tin, which upon the authority of Gronovius, Dr. Barton says has been found in Pennsylvania he has the following remark: "If I do not greatly mistake, there were specimens of tin in the fine collection of North American minerals, which was made by my father near forty years ago, at a time when he paid more attention to this part of natural history than so far as I know, any other person in the (then) colonies. The greater part of my father's collection was sent to England; but falling into the hands of those who knew but little of its value, it has never been heard much of, or mentioned in any of the printed accounts of minerals that I have seen." There is moreover, in the family, and I believe now among the late Dr. Barton's manuscripts, a letter from Linnæus to the doctor's father, in which he
