He  was  born  near  Leeds,  of  a  Dissenting  family  rigidly
orthodox  and  scrupulously  pious  ;  learned  the  Westminster
Shorter  Catechism  by  heart,  and  was  taught  to  pray  aloud
in  his  own  words  at  six.  Losing  his  mother  at  that  age,
he  was  brought  up  by  an  aunt  of  austere  Calvinistic  faith,
who  helped  him  generously,  as  well,  in  his  early  schooling.
At  eleven  he  was  experimenting  on  the  breathing  capacity
of  spiders.  \\\  the  year  or  two  following  he  was  studying
both  Latin  and  Greek,  and  ''  rarely  spent  an  hour  for  any
recreation,"  though  in  this  time  he  read  most  of  Bunyan's
works.  His  health,  generally  invulnerable,  began  (no
wonder)  to  fail  him  here,  and  he  was  on  the  point  of
accepting  a  post  in  a  commercial  house  at  Lisbon.  Re-
covering, we  find  him  at  seventeen  dissuaded  from  study-
ing Rabbinic  lore,  having  already  learned  the  biblical
Hebrew,  which  he  taught  at  eighteen.  He  had  then,  or
a  little  later,  read  the  Hebrew^  Bible  twice  through,  and
more.  This  he  tells  in  self-defense  against  Horsley's
slurs  upon  his  learning.  Seeking  church-membership  about
this  time,  he  was  refused  because  he  could  not  admit  that
all  men  are  personally  guilty  in  Adam's  sin,  having  been
influenced  by  one  of  his  teachers,  a  "Baxterian."  At
twenty,  with  a  fellow-student,  he  formed  the  practice  of
reading,  in  addition  to  their  routine  work,  ten  folio  pages
of  Greek  daily,  besides  a  Greek  play  or  tw^o  each  month.
Afterwards,  when  a  teacher  at  a  salary  of  thirty  pounds,
his  hours  of  instruction  were  eleven  a  day  ;  and  holidays,
except  "red-letter  days,"  seem  to  have  been  a  thing  un-
known.
156  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii.
