His  education  was  the  best  Philadelphia  could  afford.  He
evinced  an  early  taste  for  literature.  He  was  particularly  fond  of
the  Latin  classics,  which  he  continued  habitually  to  read  through
life,  and  memorandums  in  his  boyhood  exhibit  private  efforts  to
perfect  himself  in  this  branch  of  study.  Probably  the  natural  bent
of  his  mind  was  rather  to  historical  investigation,  for  early  written


JOSHUA    GILPIN.  | ill

speculations  of  his  exist  in  regard  to  the  first  inhabitants  and  settle-
ment of  America,  showing  original  thought,  It  was  always  his
favorite  exercise,  unconnected  witli  any  design  of  publication,  to
preserve  such  inquiries  when  they  arose  in  the  course  of  his  read-
ing, or  his  travels.  Still,  prompted  by  a  quick  fancy,  many  of  his
hours  were  happily  passed  in  its  allurements.  His  poems,  a  con-
siderable volume  of  which  was  written  before  he  was  eighteen.
merit  a  place  among  the  juvenilia  of  his  clay ;  sometimes  transla-
tions, sometimes  imitations  of  the  popular  writers.  Elegy,  pastoral
and  sonnet,  remind  us  of  Shenstone  or  Hammond.  His  taste,
however,  as  it  matured,  brought  back  the  impressions  of  classical
literature.  The  style,  genius,  terseness,  and  melody  of  Pope,
superseded  these  earlier  fancies,  and  implanted  in  Ins  mind  a  para-
mount admiration  of  that  great  poet.
When  his  profession  was  to  be  chosen,  his  inclinations  were  for
the  law;  he  pursued  its  earlier  studies  not  only  without  repugnance
but  with  zeal.  All  his  relatives,  however,  were  Quakers,  and
although  not  actually  withholding  themselves  from  that  profession,
the  number  of  them  found  in  it  was  not  considerable.  The  pro-
perty of  his  family,  which  was  large,  was  situated  in  Pennsylvania.
