The object of man's worship, whatever it be, will naturally be his standard of perfection. He clothes it with every attribute, belonging, in his view, to a perfect character; and this character he himself endeavors to attain.

There Simon was educated at the Latin school and studied the Greco-Roman classics. Simon Greenleaf (December 5 1783 – October 6 1853) American lawyer and jurist was born at Newburyport Massachusetts. In 1801 he joined the law office of Ezekiel Whitman (the later Chief Justice of Maine) and in 1806 was admitted to the Cumberland County bar as a legal practitioner.