MEMORIALS OF WILLIAM SMITH SHAW. CHAPTER I. Parentage Childhood-Entrance into College - Events while there - Becomes Secretary to President Adams - Correspond ence. PROSPEROUS life is the great attraction of earth. It is fair to the eye and pleasant to the soul. But, like all temporal loans from the bounty of Providence, it has an end. Whether it close amid clouds or the full-orbed light of faith, is a problem, which the experience of every living person must soon solve. However strong and dear the ties between relatives and friends, they have never ceased to be severed in the progress of time. Whatever be the character or condition of our whole race, they all "await alike the inevitable hour." Many of those, with whom we have been thus united, have passed away to the scenes of immortality. We often think on them in their disembodied state. We wish, that, ere we close our probationary course, something more permanent than the fading traditions of 6. MEMORIALS OF memory alone, may survive them and preserve their names from oblivion. nature. This inclination is an inseparable element of our Like every other of our endowments, it may be properly indulged. When so employed, it is often the spring of recollections, sympathies and applications, which, however shaded with sadness, afford us refined and improving satisfaction. Such a bias exhibits itself in various forms and directions. Hence, the simple stone, the "storied urn," the "animated bust," and the trophied tomb have long been lettered with annals of the dead. Hence the publication of literary remains, left by the departed. An adventure of this kind, meets with diversity of reception. Strangers to the deceased, for whom it is made, are not expected to regard it with any special interest. Others, differently related to them, welcome it, as a benevolent memento, and give it a share of their perusal, thoughts and conversation. Thus likely to fare in a community of circles, each having its centre of attachment, and its divergences of preference, the subsequent offering is presented. May they who meet the work with favor, derive from its pages, impressions and influences, both pleasant and beneficial. The parents of WILLIAM SMITH SHAW were John and Elizabeth Shaw. His father was son of the Rev. John Shaw, of Bridgewater, and was settled in the ministry at Haverhill, Massachusetts; possessed good intellectual powers, and was eminent for his classical taste and acquirements; for his beneficence and piety. His mother was daughter of the Rev. William Smith, of Weymouth; was deservedly ranked among the superior of her sex, for talents, attainments, usefulness and character. Blessed with such parents, he was born August 12, 1778. Trained up to youth under their care and tuition, he was amid constant influences, which deeply impressed his mind with noble views and purposes. He very early discovered a strong attachment for books. Able to read before he could distinctly articulate the name of them, nothing afforded him greater pleasure, than some little volume, suited to his comprehension. Even while engaged in the labor of learning to spell, he would often repeat the words, "My book and heart shall never part," and his countenance denoted the deep sincerity of his speech. Of the many perils, seen and unseen, from which the hand of Providence delivers childhood, was one which liked to have suddenly terminated his life, August, 1786. Skipping across the yard of his father's residence, and fearless of danger, his neck is caught in a low clothes-line, and it nearly suffocates him. His wind-pipe is much injured, his spine greatly wrenched, and he seems almost lifeless for twelve hours. The occurence brings a cloud over the whole family circle, but a minute or or two after he left them amid the light of joy and hope. Not naturally robust, and constitutionally subject to rheumatic attacks, he was occasionally called, in his boyhood, to lay aside his studies and endure the trials of sickness. Relative to this and his early bias for historical incidents, his mother writes to her sister Cranch, at Quincy, February 6, 1787, "William has had such a cough, I kept him in the house eight or ten days, but that he dislikes very much. He sits by me and says, 'Please give my love to aunt and cousin, and tell them we have not caught Capt. Shays1 yet."" Among the early counsels of relatives, who cared for his highest welfare, were those of his grandfather Shaw. This divine writes him a letter, August 4, 1790, which he kept as a precious remembrancer. As one cleared mostly from worldly influences, and sustained chiefly by religious consolations, he impresses on his grandson the importance of acquiring thorough knowledge, of associating with none but virtuous companions in college, of submission to the regulations of its officers, of sustaining a Christian character, and of daily prayer for influences of the Holy Spirit, as the best aid to successful study and the performance of every obligation. In addition to his ill health, one of his ancles is greatly injured. This occurs April, 1791, while he is playing in his father's yard, by catching his foot in the cavity where a post had stood. It gives him a lameness, which accompanied him through life. ' He headed the insurgents of Massachusetts at this time. |