Charles Marsh, a strict Calvinist, believed in duty and hard work, and his son George learned early to measure up to the rigorous challenges set before him. A studious child, he damaged his eyesight by excessive reading and for four years was forbidden access to books. Instead, he turned his attention to the countryside around Woodstock, roaming the hills and meadows with his friends and developing the keen sense of observation and sympathy with nature that characterized him throughout his life.
After a basic education in the local grammar school and a few months at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Marsh entered Dartmouth College at the age of fifteen. The old-fashioned curriculum--heavy with Greek, Latin (both of which he had already learned), moral philosophy, and metaphysics-- had little appeal to him, and most of his education was self-derived from the books in the college library. He discovered that he had a gift for languages and taught himself French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. After studying law for three years with his father, Marsh was admitted to the Vermont bar and in 1825 settled in Burlington, on Lake Champlain on the western side of the state, where he made his home for the next thirty-five years.
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