I. Miller’s Early Thirst for Knowledge

Young Miller was an omnivorous reader, particularly between the years of fourteen and twenty-one. So pronounced was this characteristic that neighbors of note-Judge James Witherill, Congressman Matthew Lyon, and Alexander Cruikshanks of White-Hall, formerly of Scotland—offered him free access to their excellent private libraries. And his passion for study was so great that he kept a hidden supply of candlewood (splinters of pitchy wood and pine knots) to supply light at night. Despite parental warnings, after the family had gone to bed he persisted in getting up to study. In this way he was able to keep a rendezvous with his beloved books, as he lay in front of the open fireplace.PFF4 455.2

He was blessed with a strong mind and a remarkably retentive memory, and earnestly longed to obtain an advanced formal education. But that was not to be, despite his earnest attempts. He was, nevertheless, fitted for vigorous living and became a leader among his fellows. He was unusually well read and self-educated, and conspicuously methodical in all his ways. He came to be recognized as on a parity with the best-trained minds of the community, with whom he constantly associated. He was also a kind of community scribe, an excellent penman, and a versifier.PFF4 456.1

In 1803, at the age of twenty-one, Miller married Lucy Smith and soon set up housekeeping in Poultney, Vermont, where a sizable public library became the object of his supreme interest. ^{2The first public library in Vermont was at Poultney. And it was here that Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Herald-Tribune, spent several years in printer’s apprenticeship, beginning in 1826. Such were the environs of young Miller at roultney. (Walter E. Johnson, East Poultney, Vermont’s Cradle of Culture in the Wilderness, pp. 1-22.)} His ability to versify made Miller popular at public occasions in the new community. He joined the local Literary Society, and also became a Mason. But about this same time he formed the acquaintance of the deists of the town. And this, alas, proved to be the beginning of grave spiritual and intellectual difficulties. Miller loved philosophical discussions with his literary friends, for he had a keen mind and a ready wit. He was quite perplexed over the inconsistencies he observed in the professing Christians about him. And he was even more perturbed by the seeming conflicts and contradictions in the Bible, at least as constantly asserted by his deist friends. He sincerely sought the help of preachers, but was only confused the more by their conflicting opinions and by the irreconcilability of the various solutions offered for his problems. He then began the serious study of the writings of Voltaire, Volney, Hume, and Paine.PFF4 456.2

Voltaire had built his false concept around the ruin of human nature, oblivious of God’s redeeming love and provisions. Volney built his specious philosophy upon the ruin of human habitations, failing to realize that it was not God’s design for man to be in his present state, or to leave him there forever, and that all this present confusion was the result of sin and ruin. Paine built up his argument against the supernatural, yet he endorsed much in pagan mythology, with all of its grotesque crudities. These men, who had become the oracles of militant Deism in the intellectual world at the time, seriously influenced Miller.PFF4 457.1

Confused by this distorted, infidelic view of history, Miller came to look upon life as a game of chance, and concluded that the Bible was the product of designing men—a creation of crafty fabrication rather than a system of revealed truth. But despite it all, he still believed there must be a Supreme Being, manifesting Himself in nature and providence. He could not seem to escape from the good home influences of Hampton, particularly that of his mother, and of two godly uncles who were Baptist ministers.PFF4 457.2