International questions, and a counsellor of unimpeachable integrity, Despite theįact that he had become a master of legal theory, an authority upon Sagacity to make a brilliant success before the bar. Which, in 1840, he left to take up the practice of his profession.īut Dana had not the tact, the personal magnetism, or the business Naturally have drifted into some field of scholarly research, Had conditions been those of to-day, he would His ancestors had been lawyers it seemed best that he should follow He did not feel called to the ministry business made no appeal Harvard and worked with such enthusiasm as to graduate in six months Place, physically vigorous but intellectually starved, he reentered The undertaking was one calculated to kill or cure.įortunately it had the latter effect and, upon returning to his native Term of service lasted a trifle over two years–from August, 1834, Sailor in the brig, Pilgrim, bound for the California coast. Necessity and by a youthful love of adventure, he shipped as a common Permit of foreign travel in search of health. The state of the family finances was not such as to Third year of college a severe attack of measles interrupted hisĬourse, and so affected his eyes as to preclude, for a time at least,Īll idea of study.

Harvard University, where he took high rank in his classes and bidįair to make a reputation as a scholar. He was widely known as poet, critic, and lecturer andĮndowed his son with native qualities of intelligence, good breeding,Īfter somewhat varied and troublous school days, young Dana entered Of less vigor than his predecessors, was yet a man of culture andĪbility. Intellectually but not temperamentally fitted: he should haveīeen a scholar, teacher, and author instead he became a lawyer.īorn in Cambridge, Mass., August 1, 1815, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.,Ĭame of a line of Colonial ancestors whose legal understanding and Of his family forced him into a profession for which he was Of sincere purpose, of many thwarted hopes. The story of his life is one of honest and competent effort, Those which arose through his fame as the author of one book. His happiestĪssociations were literary, his pleasantest acquaintanceships Small recognition and many disappointments.

The greater part of his life, but they brought him comparatively His services in other than literary fields occupied yet the narrative in which he details theĮxperiences of that period is, perhaps, his chief claim to a wide

Two years before the mast were but an episode in the life of Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing,Ĭoleridge’s Wallenstein. Whate’er in the inland dales the land conceals Housed on the wild sea with wild usages,–

Richard henry dana ship