Page images
PDF
EPUB

A NOTE EXPLANATORY.

FATHER TAYLOR died April the 6th, 1871. This note, the first in the book, but the last written, is being penned Dec. 15, 1871, eight months and nine days from that event. To collect, arrange, unite, and pass through the press, in so short a time, a collection of his sayings and doings, without help from a scrap of his own writing, or of any matter written to him, would be a work of no small labor, if no other duties had pressed their attention. But to inject this work into a crowded profession has necessitated unusual industry. Its many imperfections, therefore, will, I trust, be pardoned, under these circumstances.

To increase this burden, my friend Judge Russell, who had kindly offered to help me in the undertaking, was taken violently ill a few weeks after the death of Father Taylor, and left for Europe the middle of May, and again for Fayal the middle of October, so that his contributions were not as large as had been anticipated and desired. They were, however, of much value, and have been embodied in the text of several chapters. To Mrs. Dora Brigham, the eldest daughter of Father Taylor, especial thanks are due for her constant and liberal aid both in contributions and in suggestions. Considerable portions of the chapters on her mother are from her pen.

I also acknowledge with great pleasure the generous co-operation of many other of his friends and admirers. Presbyterian, Methodist, Unitarian, Baptist, Universalist, and Congregational

ist, from each of these bodies have come contributions to this volume. Most of the donors have been mentioned by name in the course of the volume. All of them, named and unnamed, are gratefully remembered for their valuable help.

How extensive that help was, may be gathered from a single fact, that one chapter alone had sixteen different handwritings in its copy. The contributors were allowed to tell their stories in their own way; this course adding variety and piquancy to the narrative.

May this broken collection of remarkable words preserve an imperfect but not valueless picture of one of the most noticeable men of any age, whose praise the loftiest felt themselves honored in proclaiming !

MALDEN, Dec. 15, 1871.

G. H.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

THE

I.

THE BEGINNING.

HE rise of one from before the mast to a position of honor is an event not unknown in the naval world. Sailors, not a few, have gone from the lowest to the highest stations by virtue of their genius and their opportunity: but these examples are confined to one line of promotion; they have simply grown on their own soil, been developed out of their own conditions. Far rarer have been the examples of those who have abandoned the sea, and yet wrought their fame from it; who have done that deed declared impossible, seen the sea from the shore, and the shore from the sea, at the same time. The sailor-songs of Dibdin, though written by one who was always an actor, never a sailor, yet brought sea and land together in ringing rhymes, that delighted sailors, and strengthened, like ocean breezes, the enervated landsmen. For the first time, the ennuyés of the club and the drawing-room tasted a saltness in the air of literature; for the first time, they learned to feel as a sailor the nearness of Providence and the childlike

« PreviousContinue »