LETTERS AND BIOGRAPHY

OF

FELIX NEFF.

CHAPTER I.

Childhood and Youth of Neff, till his conversion.

A. D. 1798-1818.

FELIX Neff was born at Geneva, October 8, 1798. He was deprived of his father in his earliest infancy; but his mother, to whom I am indebted for these details, lavished upon him from his birth the most tender and judicious care. The little creature early manifested a considerable degree of precocity; at two years old he knew his letters, at three he could read, and at four, there was little or no difficulty in making him comprehend what he read.

It is a singular trait in his mother's character, otherwise so full of tenderness towards her son, that she seldom caressed him, and that, only during his sleep. This conduct may perhaps be considered stoical, but

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it was no doubt dictated by wise and prudent motives, and most likely contributed not a little to form the manly character of her son.

When he had attained the age of five years, his mother went to live in a village of our canton, where the child had but few advantages in the way of education, but where he gained a little elementary knowledge, and even learnt a little Latin from the pastor. He afterwards studied by himself, botany, history, and geography. Here I shall let his mother speak for herself, and shall copy, what at my request, she wrote for my information; for I prefer giving the narrative in its own native simplicity, and even irregularity, to depriving it of originality by arranging it in my own way.

Among the various qualities, with which it had pleased God to enrich him, he possessed a degree of fortitude very uncommon at his age. At the age of two years and a half, while kneeling on a chair before the table where he was eating, a clap of thunder sounded, apparently at no great distance: and the child exclaimed with a look and gesture I cannot describe, 'It has thundered! in the window ! in the room! there!' pointing to the floor.

A few days after our arrival in the country, he was at the window, amusing himself by watching the falling of a heavy shower, a thunder-clap again sounded near us; but this time he never moved. I was sitting behind him; but not choosing to show that I was surprised by his quietness, I merely said : Was that loud enough for you?' 'Oh yes,' he replied in the most indifferent manner, and without turning round.

'His little companions could never inspire him with the fear of departed spirits, nor fill his mind with any superstitious ideas. He would go by himself to the evening school even when it was dark; and though he had a good way to go, and had to pass

a house which he was told was haunted, he invariably laughed at such things, and yet I do not remember ever to have cautioned him on the subject.

'He was gifted with a remarkable memory, which was preserved to him to the end of his life. His last ride on his ass, at Plombiere, was to the fountain of Stanislas. About a week after his return from that ride, he said to me, "Take your pen, and let me try if I can remember the stanzas I read at the fountain of Stanislas." He repeated them, to the number of twenty-four, as correctly as if they had even then been before his eyes.

'I will here add, while I think of it, that I never remember to have heard him utter an untruth, or to have been guilty of any rash language, or asseveration; though his disposition was nevertheless haughty and determined, and some caution was necessary in the manner of speaking to him.

"When he quitted the town, he was four years and a half old,and hitherto had never walked out without me; but when we arrived in the country, I was advised to let him have the full range of the fields; to which I consented very unwillingly, chiefly on account of our vicinity to the Rhone, the banks of which were in several places unsafe. By the grace of God however, of whom alas! I then thought but little, I had no reason to repent having done so.

'Our change of residence produced no small change in his mode of amusing himself. All his toys were abandoned, and with the exception of reciting fables to any one who would listen to him, his principal diversion was what he called 66 making rivers," wherever any water was to be found in the fields. Then came the study of insects and plants, which from his very retentive memory was but little trouble to him.

From a very early age, his remarkable observations and questions, soon convinced me that he was

no common child. He was not more than two years old, when very early one morning, hearing some one ascending the stairs with a very heavy foot, and expressing aloud my wonder as to who it could be at such an early hour, the child after listening some time, said, in his infantine way, "The man-woodgirl." When winter came, he was impatient to know when there would be red snow. "What makes you expect red snow?" said I, " Because," he replied, "there are red clouds."

'The village schoolmaster not being particularly well educated, I soon took my child home, and endeavoured to instruct him myself, till there was a better master, to whom I sent him without delay. The time he spent at school, did not prevent him from pursuing his own favorite studies, for which his taste seemed to increase; and he soon solicited me to purchase for him “The history of plants," which I did. It was a sight well worth beholding, to see him, at eight years old, with his book under his arm, and the pockets of his gardener's-apron filled with specimens of plants he had gathered, and which he would spread before me, saying, how useful his book was.

'I am, alas! a melancholy exception to the remark generally made with respect to distinguished servants of God; namely, that they have had Christian mothers. Your friend had not this advantage. I followed the world, and my union with a man of brilliant parts, and sceptical opinions, soon ended in making me, like himself, a deist, and an habitual and deliberate neglecter of public worship. Not so was it with my child; at a very early age he delighted to attend the sacred assemblies, and not only did he never fail doing so, but was remarkable for the seriousness of his deportment. Happily, he never asked me why I did not go I should have been greatly distressed for I was, however, in my heart glad that

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he should go, indeed he was required by his master to do so at least once a day.

'When there was public service at Dardagny, I never suffered him to go alone, because there was a dangerous torrent to cross, in which many persons had been lost. He was therefore desired to accompany the school-master to Dardagny. One Sunday, when I had imagined him far on his road to that place, I was surprised to see him return, so heated and out of breath, that I could get nothing from him, till a torrent of tears relieved him, and enabled him to articulate at last, "I was too late, Mr. Spinola was gone." "Are you afraid that he will scold you?" No, no, it is not that, but "- he still wept, and at length I found that the cause of his grief was, his having missed the catechism.

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At the beginning of the next year, he said to me with much mortification in his manner, "My schoolfellows all write themes for their parents, but I dare not ask leave to write one." Why not?' "Because I write so ill." I made the request to his master, telling him at the same time, why the child was afraid to ask himself. 'Oh,' said the master, he does every thing else so well, that his bad writing may well be forgiven him.'

'The 'every thing' he did so well, consisted chiefly in such spelling as he learnt from a book of words, and repeating his other lessons. I had added to the books required at the school, a book of geography, an abridgment of the sciences, and of heathen mythology; extracting from the last all the objectionable pages, which did not fail to puzzle him a good deal. Often when he knew all his lessons, he had another psalm to learn, in order to obtain an extra good mark; the list of which marks were shown to the pastor on Sunday; and it was generally my son who had the greatest number.

'My garden was very large, and he had asked me