veneration for Russell, Sidney, Hampden, and Milton, its republican
patriots; for Shakspeare, Dryden, and Pope, its immortal poets; and for
Addison and Johnson, its moralists; here he learned from Wilberforce the
principles of political philanthropy, as well as the patience and
perseverance to defend them, and studied eloquence by the living models of
Pitt, Fox, Erskine, Burke, and Sheridan.

This, indeed, was a fitting conclusion to a precocious education by the
patriots and philosophers of his own country, with practical observations
in the courts of Spain and the Netherlands, of the weak but amiable Louis
XVI., and the accomplished, but depraved, Catharine II.

John Quincy Adams now became fearful that the duties of manhood would
devolve upon him without his having completed the necessary academic
studies. He therefore obtained leave to return home in 1785, at the age of
eighteen years, and entered Cambridge University, at an advanced standing,
in 1786. He graduated in 1788 with deserved honors.



CHAPTER II.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS STUDIES LAW--HIS PRACTICE--ENGAGES IN PUBLIC
LIFE--APPOINTED MINISTER TO THE HAGUE.

After leaving the University, young Adams entered the office of
Theophilus Parsons, who was then in the practice of law at Newburyport,
and who afterwards for so many years filled with dignity and ability the
office of Chief Justice of Massachusetts.