When Edwin was born, his father, encumbered¹ and oppressed by the debts which his failure some years before had entailed² on him, was serving in a bank, at a small salary. The family, consisting then of the parents and five children, were forced to live in a very humble³ style, and to practise a stern economy. For many years they endured the trials and hardships of poverty almost in its extremities⁴. Yet, by dint⁵ of industry, character, and tidiness, they managed to maintain respectable appearances and a fair position. Both the father and mother were exemplary members of the Episcopal Church, under the pastoral charge of the Rev⁷. Doctor Pilmore, on whose Sunday services they, with their children, were regular attendants.
What they most lamented⁸ was their inability to give their boys and girls the education and accomplishments⁹ whose absence in themselves their strong judgment¹⁰ and refined sensibility caused them deeply to regret. But they sought to make such compensation as they could by example, by precept¹¹, by directing in the formation of their habits and the choice of their associates, and by keeping them at the public schools as long as possible.
Lorman, the eldest¹² son, when of the proper age to earn his living, was apprenticed¹³ to a tanner and currier. William, at a later period, was set at work in a printing-office. Henrietta, the eldest daughter,—as could not be avoided,—was early taken from under the rule of the school-mistress to the side of her mother, to help in the increasing

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