Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

As soon as he was old enough he entered the High School and commenced his preparatory course for college. For a year or two at this time he was less quiet and meditative than before. He was a very merry boy, apt to laugh and full of good nature; but a forward, bright scholar. I remember his teacher's saying that his translations were remarkably graceful and easy. He was playful in his study time at home, so that his father would often ask if his lessons were getting any attention; but he always surprised us by knowing them without apparent labor. His perceptions were very quick, and he took mathematics easily. He began to be much interested in machinery and the construction of everything he handled, and we have many mementos of his boyish skill in the use of tools. He was so much given to experimenting in connection with some of his studies, that his brothers and companions called him for a long time either professor or philosopher. He had usually some pet animal, which he cared for with the greatest tenderness. He was fond of music also, and learned to play the flute with some skill. He had so much native courtesy of manner, and such a frank, pleasant face, that strangers were always won by him, and at home we cannot now remember that he was ever rude, unkind, or inconsiderate.

In the spring of 1854 he left the High School for Dummer Academy, Byfield, where he remained four years. During this time he was at home every Sabbath, and the evenings were almost invariably spent chiefly in the singing of sacred music by the whole family.

During these years, as his mind and body grew, his religious emotions deepened and strengthened into principle. The influences around him, though religious in their spirit, were liberal and unconventional, and he was never urged to any special act of religious avowal, or any set method of religious growth. His nature had always been a devout one, and he had loved those books best in his little library which cultivated this spirit; but now his thorough introspection and his faithful self-dealing led him to place restraints about