CHAPTER V.

Specimens Daniel Webster's College Composition - The Dartmouth Gaze-Man-Essay on Peace-Eulogy on a Classmate -Washington-Later Poetry-"The Memory of the Heart"Mr. Webster an Improvisator-Mr. Webster and the Child Commencement Exercises-Mr. Webster's Disappointment Professor Woodward's Opinion of Mr. Webster - The Pupil's kind Recollections-Lessons of Daniel Webster's Childhood.

POETRY was a favorite exercise with Daniel Webster while in college. Indeed, it is said that, attracted by the brilliant and fervid style of President Wheelock, he gave stronger indications of rising to eminence in poetry, than in law or politics. He often wrote in verse for public declamation; and, in his early compositions, exhibited great fertility of imagination. Close study and laborious mental discipline tempered down this habit of mind, and made his style more terse and vigorous; although to the last, at proper opportunities, he exhibited his power in pathos and wordpainting. Some early specimens of his poetry, contributed to the "Dartmouth Gazette," we sub

join. The contents of this sheet were furnished by the Faculty and students of the College, and there was no more frequent contributor than Daniel Webster. The following extracts are from a poem published in the "Gazette."

"When that grand period in the Eternal Mind, Long pre-determined, had arrived, behold

The universe, this most stupendous mass

Of things, to instant being rose.

This globe,
For light and heat dependent on the sun,
By power supreme was then ordained to roll,
And on its surface bear immortal MAN,
Complete in bliss, the image of his God.
His soul to gentle harmonies attuned,

Th' ungoverned rage of boisterous passions knew not
Malice, revenge, and hate were then unknown;
Love held its empire in the human heart—
The voice of love alone escaped the lip,
And gladdening Nature echoed back the strain.
O, happy state! too happy to remain ;
Temptation comes, and man a victim falls!
Farewell to peace, farewell to human bliss,
Farewell ye kindred virtues, all farewell!
Ye flee the world, and seek sublimer realms.
Passions impetuous now possess the heart,
And hurry every gentler feeling thence.

Is it now asked why man for slaughter pants,
Raves with revenge, and with detraction burns?

Go ask of Etna why her thunders roar,
Why her volcanoes smoke, and why she pours
In torrents down her sides the igneous mass
That hurries men and cities to the tomb!
These but the effects of bursting fires within,
Convulsions that are hidden from our sight,
And bellow under ground. Just so in man,
The love of conquest and the lust of power
Are but the effects of passion unsubdued.
T'avert the effects, then deeply strike the cause,
O'ercome the rage of passion, and obtain
The empire over self. This once achieved,
Impress fair virtue's precepts on the heart,
Teach to adore his God, and love his brother;
War then no more shall raise the rude alarm,
Widows and orphans then shall sigh no more,
Peace shall return, and man again be bless'd."

In perfect accordance with the sentiment of this poetry, is a prize essay on peace, written by Daniel Webster while in college. "For what was man created," he asks, "but to cultivate the arts of peace and friendship, to beam charity and benevolence on all around him, to improve his own mind by study and reflection, to serve his God with all the powers of his soul, and finally, when the days of his years are numbered, to bid adieu to earthly objects with a smile, to close his eyes on the pillow of religious hope, and sink to repose

in the bosom of his Maker? Why, then, is the object of our existence unattained? Why are the fairest countries on the earth desolated and depopulated with the ravages of war? Why are the annals of the world crowded with the details of murder, treason, sacrilege, and crimes that strike the soul with horror but to name them? O, corrupted nature! O, depraved man! Those who are delighted with tales of bloodshed and destruction find a rich repast in the daily accounts from Europe, where

"Gigantic slaughter stalks with awful strides,

And vengeful fury pours her copious tides.'

"But, to the child of humanity, to the man of true benevolence, it is a sad and painful reflection, that iniquity should usurp the reign of justice, that the liberties and lives of millions should be sacrificed, to satiate the ambition of individuals, and that tyrants should wade through seas of blood to empire and dominion. War, under certain circumstances, is proper, is just. When men take arms to burst those chains that have bound them in slavery, to assert and maintain those privileges which they justly claim as natural rights, their object is noble, and we wish them success."

As a specimen of the poetic style of Mr. Webster's early prose writings, we give the following extract from a eulogy pronounced by him on a classmate, who died in 1801. His name was Ephraim

Simonds. He was universally beloved, and a dear friend of Mr. Webster.

"All of him that was mortal now lies in the charnels of yonder cemetery. By the grass that now nods over the mounds of Sumner, Merrill, and Cook, now rests a fourth son of Dartmouth, constituting another monument of man's mortality. The sun, as it sinks to the ocean, plays its departing beams on his tomb, but they reanimate him not. The cold sod presses on his bosom; his hands hang down in weakness. The bird of the evening shouts a melancholy air on the poplar, but her voice is stillness to his ears. While his pencil was drawing scenes of future felicity,while his soul fluttered on the gay breezes of hope, -an unseen hand drew the curtain, and shut him from our view."

After a glowing exordium, the orator proceeded to paint the virtues of the deceased; and dwelt · with an especial earnestness upon his religious excellence.

"To his surviving friends, gladdening is the re