For an unremitting attention to whatever related to his profession, he was distinguished in early life.

In every affair that was undertaken by him, his assiduity was without interruption, and without abatement.

Whereever he came, he suffered nothing, which was fit for a seaman to know or to practise, to pass unnoticed, or to escape his diligence.
The genius and application of Captain Cook were followed by a large extent of knowledge; a knowledge which, besides a consummate acquaintance with navigation, comprehended a number of other sciences.
In this respect the ardour of his mind rose above the disadvantages of a very confined education.

His progress in the different branches of the mathematics, and particularly in astronomy, became so eminent, that, at length, he was able to take the lead in making the necessary observations of this kind, in the course of his voyages.

He attained likewise to such a degree of proficiency in general learning, and the art of composition, as to be able to express himself with a manly clearness and propriety, and to become respectable as the narrator, as well as the performer, of great actions.
Another thing, strikingly conspicuous in Captain Cook, was the perseverance with which he pursued the noble objects to which his life was devoted.