“During my marriage here, perceiving the deficiencies in my education, and sensible of my want of the learned languages, and prompted by an irresistible covetousness of knowledge, I commenced a series of studies in that way, and undertook the tediousness of the intricacies and the labor of grammar; I selected Lilly from the rest, all of which I got and repeated by heart. The task of repeating it all every day was impossible while I attended the school; so I divided it into portions; by which method it was pronounced thrice every week, and this I performed for years.
“I next became acquainted with Camden’s Greek Grammar, which I also repeated in the same manner, memoriter. Thus instructed, I entered upon the Latin classics, whose allurements repaid my assiduities and my labors. I remember to have, at first, overhung five lines for a whole day; and never, in all the painful course of my reading, left any one passage till I did, or thought I did, perfectly comprehend it.
“After I had accurately perused every one of the Latin classics, historians and poets, I went through the Greek Testament, first parsing every word as I proceeded; next I ventured upon Hesiod, Homer, Theocritus, Herodotus, Thucydides, and all the Greek tragedians: a tedious labor was this; but my former acquaintance with history lessened it extremely, because it threw light upon many passages, which without that assistance must have appeared obscure.
“In the midst of these literary pursuits a man and horse from my good friend William Norton, Esq., came for me from Knaresborough, bearing that gentleman’s letter inviting me thither; and accordingly I repaired there in some part of the year 1734, and was, I believe, well accepted and esteemed there. Here, not satisfied with my former acquisitions, I prosecuted the attainment of Hebrew, and with indefatigable diligence. I had Buxtorff’s grammar, but that being perplexed, or not explicit enough, at least in my opinion at that time, I collected no less than eight or ten different grammars and thus one very often supplied the omissions of the others, and was, I found, of extraordinary advantage. Then I purchased the Bible in the original and read the whole Pentateuch, with an intention to go through the whole of it, which I attempted, but wanted time.
“In April, I think the 18th, 1744, I went again to London, and agreed to teach the Latin and writing, for the Rev. Mr. Painblanc, in Piccadilly, which he, along with a salary, returned, by teaching me French; wherein I observed the pronunciation the most formidable part, at least to me, who had never before known a word of it. By continued application every night and every opportunity, I overcame this, and soon became a tolerable master of French. I remained in this situation two years and above.
“Some time after this I went to Hays, in the capacity of writing-master, and served a gentlewoman there, since dead; and stayed, after that, with a worthy and reverend gentleman. I continued here between three and four years. To several other places I then succeeded, and all that while used every occasion for improvement. I then transcribed acts of parliament to be registered in chancery; and after went down to the free-school at Lynn.
“From my leaving Knaresborough to this time is a long interval, which I had filled up with the farther study of history and antiquities, heraldry and botany; in the last of which I was very agreeably entertained, there being in that study so extensive a display of nature. I well knew Tournefort, Ray, Miller, Linnæus, &c. I made frequent visits to the botanic garden at Chelsea; and traced pleasure through a thousand fields: at last, few plants, domestic or exotic, were unknown to me. Amidst all this I ventured upon the Chaldee and Arabic; and, with a design to understand them, supplied myself with Erpenius, Chappelow, and others: but I had not time to obtain any great knowledge of the Arabic; the Chaldee I found easy enough, because of its connection with the Hebrew.
“I then investigated the Celtic, as far as possible, in all its dialects; began collections, and made comparisons between that, the English, the Latin, the Greek, and even the Hebrew. I had made notes, and compared above three thousand of these together, and found such a surprising affinity, even beyond any expectation or conception, that I was determined to proceed through the whole of these languages, and form a comparative lexicon, which I hoped would account for numberless vocables in use with us, the Latins, and Greeks, before concealed and unobserved: this, or something like it, was the design of a clergyman of great erudition in Scotland; but it must prove abortive, for he died before he executed it, and most of my books and papers are now scattered and lost.”
Such is the account Eugene Aram has given of himself, until the commission of the fatal act that brought down upon him the execration of the world and the last vengeance of the law. Of all the crimes man is capable of committing, there is none so offensive to Omnipotence as murder; and the Almighty, therefore, seems to be more intent to expose that heinous and accursed offence to mankind; to warn and admonish them, to show them that rocks cannot hide, nor distance secure them from the inevitable consequences of the violation of that law which nature dictates and man confirms. The extraordinary means by which this murder was brought to light, is one of the many instances of this divine interposition.
Daniel Clark was born at Knaresborough, of reputable parents, where he lived and followed the business of a shoemaker. About the month of January, 1744 or 5, he married, and became possessed of property to the amount of two or three hundred pounds. He was at that time in very good credit at Knaresborough, and it is supposed a scheme was then laid by Eugene Aram, at that time a schoolmaster in the town, and one Houseman, a flax-dresser, to defraud several tradesmen of great quantities of goods and plate, Clark having been chosen as the fittest person to carry their plan into execution; for, as he then lived in very good reputation, and, moreover, was lately married, he was the person of all others best calculated to effect the intended purpose. Accordingly, Clark for some days went about to various tradesmen in the town, and under the pretext that, as he was just married, it was not altogether irrational to suppose that cloth, and table and bed-linen, would considerably contribute to his matrimonial comfort, he took up great quantities of linen and woollen-drapery goods; the worthy dealers of Knaresborough rendering up their commodities with the greatest zeal and expedition on so interesting an occasion. After this, he went to several innkeepers and others, desiring to borrow a silver tankard of one, a nicely-worked silver pint of another, and the like, alleging that he was to have company that night, and should be glad of the use of them at supper; and in order to give a color to his story, he procured of the innkeepers (of whom he had borrowed the plate) ale and other liquors to regale his visitors.