September 27th. It is a magnificent day. The sky is clear as crystal, and the zephyrs slightly stir the stately elms, of which so many are to be found in Hanover. Nov. Ist. The Naval Expedition sailed, Oct. 29th, and great results are expected from it. About two months ago, I wrote to the Smithsonian Institute, asking for two pamphlets, relative to making collections of Natural History specimens. I had given them up, but day before yesterday they arrived. I have commenced learning Gold smith's Deserted Village, and think it is beautiful. On Nov. 20th he came home for the long winter vacation. Arrangements were made for his going twice a week to Hartford, with his elder sister, to continue his French and German lessons. On Dec. 25th he writes: "On returning from Hartford, one evening, as I was eating my supper, mother brought down a bundle for me to open. I did so, and found, to my great surprise, a box containing my promised flute. It is a beautiful, eight-keyed one, with silver keys and rings. Henry Schauffler selected it for me. Later, I received an instruction book from Lockhart, the maker. I practise upon it about an hour a day. . . I am about half through Sprague's Annals." Dec. 17th. We went to Hartford to hear Edward Everett lecture on the war. He is a rather oldish man, something over sixty, I should think, has gray hair and is about middling size. He has none of the oratorical flourish that so many put on, but is perfectly simple. And it is this, joined to his nicety in accent and pronunciation, together with his style of writing, that makes him so popular as a lecturer. I must write down here a word I have found in Webster's Dictionary. It is higgledy-piggledy. Jan. 18th, 1862. I am studying phonography from Graham's Handbook, and I am reading with mother Madame de Stael's Corinne, which I like very much. Feb. 14th. Good news has come from the Burnside expedition. It has taken Roanoke Island with 2,000 men, and also Elizabeth City. It is probable we shall soon hear of the capture of Fort Donaldson. Hanover, Feb. 28th, 1862. When I left home, at the end of my vacation, Anna was crying as hard as she could cry, because I was going away, and could not be comforted. . . In one of our free Sunday evening talks, I had told mother that sometimes in my recitations, I had looked in my book as the other boys did. She talked with me, and advised me to tell Prof. Woodman about it. So, when I called to give him a note from mother, I told him, and also that I had had some help in my drawing. He spoke very kindly about it, and said that it mattered little what we appeared to others, compared with what we really were. March 8th. In the President's message, he recommends Congress to make a proposition to the slave states to free their slaves, and to make them pecuniary remuneration for it. It is a splendid thing, and that message alone, it seems to me, will cause Lincoln's name to go down to posterity as that of a great and good man, a wise and able legislator. It is rumored that Napoleon will give the papacy to Archbishop Hughes, when Pope Pius the Ninth dies. March 17th. Sometimes I hope that I am a Christian. There is hardly anything I enjoy more than hearing a religious conversation. At times I feel great love for Christ, and am willing to deny myself for him. But in my prayers, I rarely feel as I should. I go through them as a mere form, and often my thoughts wander. Then I have bad thoughts and do not resist them as I should. O Christ, will thou enlighten me and be my guide! His journal at this time was full of reports from the army, and of its great victories. He also describes an ignoble fight he witnessed between the Sophomores and the Freshmen, because the latter went to prayers with canes in their hands. "Some of them," he writes, "fought like bull dogs, throwing down fellows twice as large as themselves. Very few went in to prayers, and a great crowd was in front of the building. After prayers Prex came out, and with an umbrella over his head, went into the midst of the fighters and commanded them to go to their rooms. They obeyed him." The spring vacation Edward spent in St. Johnsbury, his father's and grandfather's home, visiting at Mr. Graves' and Mr. Thaddeus Fairbanks', and seeing many of his father's relatives and old friends. Hanover, June 8th, 1862. This afternoon, I saw Mr. Leeds and talked with him about joining the church. He gave me the Confession of Faith, and said that next week I could meet the Committee. If I understand it right ly, in thinking that in joining the church, I engage with the help of God to live a Christian life, then I wish to join it very much. But if in doing this I shall signify that I love Christ in the least degree as I ought, then I cannot. Though I think I feel willing to do God's will, yet I should not dare to affirm that I love him better than anything on earth. And if the question should arise between all I loved and Jesus Christ, although I hope and trust it would be for him, yet I should not dare to assert which would prevail. At the appointed time he was examined by the Committee, and the following Sabbath joined the church. CHAPTER IV. AT PHILLIPS ACADEMY. The storm-bell rings, the trumpet blows; Shamed be the hands that idly fold, And lips that woo the reed's accord, -John G. Whittier. At the close of this year at Chandler's School Edward returned home. But his plans for his vacation were interrupted by the appearance of small pox in his birthday sister, brought into the family, unconsciously, by a friend. As soon as it became known, Dingle Side was shut out from all communication with the outside world. Edward was very sick, but recovered in season to go at the appointed time to Andover, where he was to spend two years in Phillips Academy, previous to entering college. Alluding to those days of suffering and seclusion, he says in one of his letters, "I well remember what a delicious feeling I had when I walked out in the pasture for the first time, leaning on father's arm." A few quotations from his letters home follow: I have joined the Academy choir. And a few weeks ago I joined the Society of Inquiry, a religious debating society. I am in a debate on the question, Should a minister of the Gospel ever engage in party politics? I am on the affirmative. I feel as if I were in my natural element when engaged in discussion. I decided not to go down to Boston to that musical occasion, because, while you are paying out so much for me, I don't like to expend money for my own indulgences. July 5th. A student came back from the war a few weeks ago, and is to come into our class. He is over twenty, and a good Christian fellow. He wanted to get a room in Commons, but there was no one vacant, and although I would a great deal rather room alone, I have let him come in with me. Sept. 28th, 1862. Last Friday night, I went to hear George Francis Train lecture. He seemed to me half crazy. His plan is to knock the bottom out of England, landing ten thousand Irishmen there and placing an Irishman on the British throne. He says he has met the greatest intellects of the age, and also says in effect that no one can beat him in argument. Oct. 10th. I got your letter, this morning, which put me into a joyful mood. How can I ever thank you enough for doing so much for me? There is no end to your love and your interest. I shall like it so much to be in Dio Lewis' Gymnasium. Nov. 23rd. I was exulting over our last recitation in Latin, when I saw the expressman's wagon coming, and I can tell you the grass did not grow under my feet till I got my bundle. Those fall pippins were delicious. It must have taken much time to fit up everything and to write all those letters. Boston, Dec. 7th, 1862. Aunty and I went to tea at Mr. Peter Harvey's. He has been elected senator in the legislature. I like him exceedingly, although his politics are miserable, he being a semi-secessionist. Thursday, Meta and I called on Richard H. Dana, which was a great treat to me. Meta had tickets given her to the Boston Theatre, where Booth was to act as Hamlet. She was very desirous that I should go with her, and after father and mother had talked over the matter, mother wrote me that I might go. We had fine seats and a good opera glass. Booth surpassed all my expectations. Completely unconscious of any audience or of himself, he was only Hamlet. In some of those heart-rending scenes, where the conflict between filial piety and his innate repugnance to murder appears, he acted perfectly, indeed he did not seem to be acting. Those three hours were some of the most interesting and profitable of my life. On Sunday I attended the Church of the Advent, and heard the choir boys chant the Te Deum. In the afternoon, Harry and I went clear up to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a magnificent building. As I had never been in a Catholic church before, is was all new to me. I noticed particularly the holy water at the entrance. At one of the fonts was a ragged little fellow with a bottle which he was filling with this water. The music was very fine, and that I enjoyed exceedingly. A little above, I could feast my eyes on a most beautiful painting of the Crucifixion. Another day I went out to Cambridge and attended a lecture of Prof. Agassiz, which was very interesting. I went with Harry |