Leland's family had moved to Pennsylvania from New England; the
Lelands on his father's side were from Massachusetts,the Godfrey on
his mother's from Rhode Island(the other great bastion of
unsanctioned beliefs in Colonial North America).Every summer his
family returned to Massachusetts,where his mother kept up an old
acquaintance with the Transcendentalists at Brook Farm,while young
Leland made his first friends among the Native American at
Mendon.
Even as a schoolboy,Leland was aromantic and budding mystic,with
uncommonly eccentric interests-and the intelligence and luck needed
to pursue them.when he was fourteen,his father gave him a share in
the free Library of Philadelphia,and this allowed him to use its
very rich collection.Languages,whether living or dead,came easily
to him even in his youth.He had read Henry Cornelius Agrippa's
Occult Philosophy in Lantin before he turned eighteen,as well as
the works of Rabelais and Villon in France.
In his eighteen year, young Leland went off to Princeton,where he
spent most of his time and energy on subjects outside the college's
curriculum.He studied Neo-Platonic philosophy- and theurgy!-and the
Hermetic writtings,learned even more languages,and wrote
poetry.when he graduated from Princeceton,his father gave him
enough money to explore Europe for three years and to pursue
advanced studies there.Leland soon betook himself to
Heideberg,where the original Rosicruian movement had been launched
in the early 1600s,and he enrolled in the ancient university
there.At Heidelberg,he leared for the first time how to plat,and
also how to fight.by the time he left Heidelberg,he knew how to use
the saber the dirk and pistol.By then he had grown uncommonly
tall(6 foot 4inches),towering over most other men of his era with a
large and powerful frame.
To be continued 
