VISITATION CEREMONIES.

17

learn that "the attendance of the Ladies on this occasion exceeded any former one." After the examination was finished," according to custom, the officers of the city government and other gentlemen invited, among whom were several distinguished strangers, and the lads from the several schools to whom the premiums were awarded, making in all four or five hundred, went in procession to Faneuil Hall, and sat down to a sumptuous dinner provided by Mr. Smith, at which the Hon. Mayor of the city presided. Soon after the cloth was removed, the pupils paid their respects to the committee and retired, amidst the plaudits of their fathers for their good deportment.” 1 Though these splendors were mostly lost to Mason, though he did not march through the streets with the five hundred, and did not even look upon the stately junketing in Faneuil Hall; though he bore no trophy whatever from the field, and served merely to increase the glories that clustered round his chief, the fact does not seem to

1

1 The minute accounts of this event, as they appeared in the papers of the day, notably in the "Columbian Centinel" and the "Daily Advertiser," may now be perused with peculiar interest, from the evidence they furnish of the changes that have taken place during the last half-century. A remarkable feature of the banquet in Faneuil Hall was the toasts, which seem then to have reached their culmination. Though now fallen into comparative neglect, fifty years since they were a prominent attraction at all public festivals. The "Advertiser" prints more than a score of them, as a proof of the rational conviviality of the occasion." An especial tribute was paid to

"Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, -a Boston boy, educated at our Latin School, whom neither distance nor absence nor foreign honors can ever cause to forget his school, his town, his State, and his native land;

'Dulces reminiscitur Argos.""

After the regular toasts came many "volunteers," offered by Judge Story, President Kirkland, and others. Of these, that from "Capt. Wormeley, of His Britannic Majesty's Navy," was facile princeps, covering the ground completely and leaving nothing more to be said:

"Such an institution as we at present celebrate, — may it pervade the universe!" Although coming from one of the Danaos, whose gifts all scholars might justly regard with suspicion, this sentiment must have been sufficiently flattering to his hearers to enable them to overlook its origin. The generous hospitalities which the Captain had been enjoying had doubtless begun to work upon his imagination, and had enlarged the scope of his horizon to an indefinite extent. The aspirations he expressed in behalf of the school must have been perfectly satisfactory, even to the ambitious aims of Master Gould.

have caused him much discontent, and he was well pleased to intrust the fame of Demosthenes and Cicero to his comrades.

It had been planned from the outstart that Mason should enter Harvard upon the completion of his course at the Latin School; but after some reflection his parents decided that for several reasons it would be wiser to postpone his application for admission till two years later. He was as yet both young and small, and, moreover, was hardly as well fitted as he should be, especially in the mathematics and some other elementary requirements. Further preparation would add strength to his body, maturity to his mind, and, it was hoped, would also enable him to shorten his college career by joining the sophomore class. In pursuance of this idea, Mason, on leaving school, continued his studies, in conjunction with two others who had the same object in view and had been with him under Master Gould,- Henry W. Sargent and Theodore W. Snow. The new arrangement was begun under the guidance of Mr. William Wells, who, like Dr. Fisher, had been born in England, but, having come to Boston when young, had fitted for Harvard and graduated there in 1796, at the somewhat advanced age of twenty-three. He had the reputation of a ripe scholar and an able teacher. Early in the present century he had also become a bookseller, and formed a partnership with a Mr. Lilly. For many years they kept a shop on Court Street, and achieved a most creditable position as publishers, by bringing out the works of several ancient authors. This connection lasted till 1827, when Mr. Wells removed to Cambridge, and established there, in the old Ruggles mansion, a school for young ladies. In 1825 he was taking such private pupils as offered themselves at his house on Summer Street, adjoining that of Daniel Webster, though he also was carrying on a private school in Hawley Street, behind Trinity Church, at the

ENTRANCE AT HARVARD.

19

same time. To his residence Mason and his comrades were accustomed to resort daily, from one till two, and also between seven and eight in the evening. Here they imparted to Mr. Wells the acquisitions of the day, as he was taking his tea, and received such instruction as he thought necessary. This "studying out" - which was the expression used in reference to those who were preparing for advanced standing in college—was continued till July, 1827, when Mason and his two associates applied for admission at Harvard. He passed a good examination, and was admitted into the sophomore class without conditions, - a result satisfactory to Mason and presumably surprising to Master Gould, who could have hardly anticipated such an unconditional success.

1 Seldom has there been a record of more complete achievement than that of Mr. Gould. Rarely has a life been more symmetrically rounded out to the end. Its close was as the sunset of a peaceful day; and the honor, love, obedience, troops of friends that gathered about him revealed the copious ripeness of its fruits. Happy in his past and in his present, he was also happy in the vigorous promise of him who bore his name, and who was destined to illustrate with peculiar significance and success the sic itur ad astra of his favorite poet. He was not forgotten of those who had benefited by his labors. On the 4th of May, 1853 (six years before his death), his portrait-the result of a popular subscription was added to the gallery then in the hall of the Latin School on Bedford Street. Among the numerous testimonials then offered of the respect and esteem which a quarter of a century had not been able to diminish, Mr. Gould had the pleasure of receiving the following from Hon. Charles Francis Adams, which is valuable both from its source and its truth, as the echo of the general voice:

...

"Of all the teachers of my youth, and I had many from the circumstances of my frequent change of residence, I recollect no one as having been of any material service to me except Mr. Gould. I came to him in 1817, fresh from a large school in England, where I learned nothing but habits of negligence. . . . Mr. Gould had the happy faculty of acting upon the individual character, as well as upon the general progress of his scholars. He corrected their errors at the same time that he stimulated their good purposes with a degree of tact which falls to the share of few instructors. Had I been steadily with him I should have saved years of later labors to remedy but imperfectly the deficiencies of boyhood."

CHAPTER II.

YOUTHFUL CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTACHMENTS. LOSS

OF HEALTH.

WHEN Mason left the Latin School at the age of fourteen, he was to all appearance as rugged and healthy as any of his family. His youthful bloom had not yet begun to struggle with coming illness and the cares of life, and his elastic spirits seemed the natural overflow of a spring of exuberant vigor, which flushed his cheeks and brightened his speaking eyes. He was a handsome boy, with a countenance clearly outlined, and a form which, though slight, was symmetrical and well nourished. Light brown hair with a strong tendency to curl, and large bright blue eyes, - his most distinctive mark, and at that period displaying no shade of the melancholy which afterwards lent them an added grace,—enhanced a charm of feature and expression which made him most pleasing to the eye and a model of buoyant youth.

It was perhaps but natural that Mason should be the favorite of his mother, and that she should lavish upon him the full measure of an affection which nothing could exceed. When he was well, the endearments of her watchful love were unlimited. Was he ill? She nursed him with many a devoted attention and soft caress, foreseeing his slightest want and gently provident of every possible relief. She summoned her friends to play the music that he liked best. From the rich depths of her tenderness she brought forth stories without end, which dilated even his large eyes with wonder; or again, she

ATTACHMENT TO HIS MOTHER.

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soothed the tedious hours with choice harmonies from her cherished poets. At times she produced a marvellous scrap-book, the work of her own hands, crammed with treasures; or she took from its hiding-place a small red trunk, containing her jewelry and a store of glittering knick-knacks irresistible to a child. Spreading these on the bed, she brooded over him, eager to explain and anxious to beguile. To the end of his days this book and trunk were inexpressibly dear to her son, from these associations. With a longing which all the distractions of foreign travel and even the charms of Paris itself could not efface, he wrote to his mother a request that she would send him the former as an invaluable souvenir of the home she had made so enjoyable. This she did; and he guarded it carefully during his absence, and brought it back with him to Boston. It still bears the autograph, rich in meaning to those who knew him, "J. Mason Warren, Paris, 1832." The little coffer, also, he ever kept in his possession, as a sort of reliquary and reminder of happy days. Shortly before his death he confided it with a few impressive words to his niece, who he was well aware would cherish it for his sake. In his journal one reads this entry:

"May 20, 1867.- Gave to Veronica Dwight the little red trunk formerly belonging to my mother, in which she kept her valuables, and which I have had over thirty-six years."

Thus strong and lasting was Mason's filial loyalty. While his mother lived, they clung to each other with an undying and ever-increasing attachment. She twined herself about the inmost recesses of his nature, and never left that fitting home which he gave her in his heart of hearts; while he adorned her with the abundant graces of his affection and the comfort of his endless gratitude. When she had passed from earth, he threw himself prostrate in his sorrow and gave full vent to his grief, saying, "There was nothing she ever refused me." Her memory,