Amos Eaton's Mental Struggles

Amos Eaton was a lawyer, surveyor, scientist, author, and teacher and one of the founders of the Rensselaer School, what is now known as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He published books on surveying, mathematics, geology, chemistry, and botany. His first book, published in 1802, was a surveying manual with a great title: Art Without Science, or the Art of Surveying, Unshackled with the Terms and Science of Mathematics. 

From the US Geological Survey, via si.edu

His next book wouldn't be published until 1817, but there would be a steady stream of books from then on. His productivity as an author seems to have been set in motion by a period of incarceration at Greenwich Jail in New York City. He was imprisoned for about five years (1811-1815 or 1816) for allegedly forging documents in a land dispute that involved the powerful New York landlord Edward Livingston.  Eventually he was given an unconditional pardon by the governor and released. It was during his time in prison that he began his scientific studies (and encouraged the scientific studies of young John Torrey, the son of a prison official). After leaving prison he spent a year as a student at Yale and then began a career as an itinerant science instructor in New England and New York.

In 1824 he offered some advice to his son Amos B. Eaton, then a cadet at West Point, about critics ("pigmy foplings" and "ephemeral scribblers") and the hard life of the mind.

During these mental struggles, I adopted
the following rules with success.
1. I never studied late in the evening. 2^d. When
I felt the least degree of giddiness, I stopped my stu-
dies instantly for an hour or two, however I might
be occupied. I would then walk about or converse
with idlers. 3^d. I drank no ardent spirit, nor wine,
cider, nor strong beer for ten or fifteen years. Nor
to this day, excepting beer. 4^th. I always made it
a practice to eat considerably. I do not believe
in starving students; though I would not make
gormandizers of them. 5^th. I never leaned forward

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in studying or writing. It is perfectly easy to ac-
quire a habit of sitting up, so as to keep the breast
strait [sic]. And I had always a high desk to stand
by part of the time. 6^th. Whether sitting or standing
I always varied my position perpetually. This
I found to be very important to health, besides
keeping the mind more active. No evil arose
from it, excepting a little scolding from [your]
grandmother Eaton, about my coat sleeves and
the seat of my pantaloons. 7. When my mind
was confused with a subject of study, I always
left it for a little jolly conversation an hour,
and then resumed it with a clear head.





For the source of these images and their transcription, see RPI's online exhibit about Amos Eaton. On Amos Eaton's background, see the exhibit's biography and the biographical sketch in the finding aid for the Amos Eaton Papers at the New York State Library. Also take a look at this entry in a biographical dictionary of natural scientists.