Mrs. Hawes's Jottings respecting their Children. - Dr. Hawes's Letters to his Son. The Son's Settlement in the Ministry, and Sudden - UMAN life is like a stream, that comes up out HUM of one ocean of mystery, and, flowing on across the continent of time, passes into another, but for the light of revelation, of equal mystery. Men are born: they live and they die. Whence come they? What are they? Whither do they go? These, with the reflecting, are the great problems of thought. We trace a single individual or a family through a few generations, towards the creative origin, when the line is lost in the dimness of antiquity and the interminglings of other lives. Very little that is certain can be ascertained respecting the lineage of Dr. Hawes, except that his ancestors were among the early settlers of New England, and came from Lincolnshire, Old England. They took up their residence in what was then the large town of Dedham, Mass. 15 The great-grandfather resided in that part of the town, which, in 1673, was incorporated as Wrentham. Still later, this branch removed to Medway. Here was born Joel Hawes, on Forefathers' Day,— the 22d of December, 1789. There were four sons by a first wife, Lewis, Joel, Preston, and Lyman,— and one by a second. There were also three daughters, Fanny, Orinda, and Almira. Fanny, the youngest, lived in Brookfield, whither the family had removed from Medway. The other two were married, and went to the West. Physically, these sons were among the sturdiest of New England: they were not made for daintiness, but were full of brawn, and for use. Very little is known of the early childhood of Joel. The hoe, the hammer, and the anvil were his first educators; and to these he and his brothers were not a little indebted for their stalwart and rugged constitution for his father was a blacksmith, and also the owner of a farm. Both his parents were from the common people, with only an ordinary education; but they were industrious, and had a strong constitution, — the father living to the age of eighty-three, and the mother to that of seventy-seven. They had a large share of common sense, or what is called mother-wit: but they were neither of them professing Christians; and they gave their children no religious instruction, and very little of any kind that was of much value. "The first years of my life," says Joel, "were thrown away. I was a wild, hardy, reckless youth, delighting in hunting, fishing, trapping, and in rough, athletic sports, - all tending to invigorate my constitution, but adding nothing to my mental or moral improvement. Early instruction I had none; or it was of the wrong kind, and only tended to confirm me in sin. Probably one year would include all the time that I ever spent in school; though, as I remember, I was very happy there, and found it easy to master the lessons assigned me, which were confined to reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic." At the age of fourteen, the homestead in Medway was disposed of, and a large farm purchased in Brookfield. Here Joel had still fewer advantages for either moral or mental improvement; for they lived three and a half miles from church, and about two miles from any school. The farming life was not at all to his taste; it was too confined, and lacked opportunities for enterprise: and, as he was not needed at home,-two sons remaining with the parents, -he determined to seek employment elsewhere. Two of his maternal uncles residing in the northern part of Vermont, he decided to make them a visit. As there were no railroads in those days, and no stages in the upper part of New England, taking a few articles of clothing, he started on foot. About midway his journey, foot-sore, weary, and well-nigh penniless, he was accosted by a man who wished to obtain help in his oil-mill; and he engaged to remain with him for a while. It so happened that this man was a regular church-goer, and in the habit of daily family worship. This was all new to our young 2 fortune-seeker. On being questioned as to the reasons for his absenting himself from church, he could find none to offer that were worth any thing. The faithfulness of his employer, though not attended with any radical change on the part of Joel, was remembered by him through life, as in some respects like the Bethel-call of the angel to Jacob, making the place, for the time, a "house of God" to him. When he arrived at his uncle's, not finding any desirable occupation with them, he obtained employment in a cloth-dressing establishment, where he labored until he had secured funds sufficient for returning home to Brookfield. This absence of a little more than a year was his first experience in journeying it not only checked his natural taste for adventure, but gave him some useful hints as to the virtue and value of contentment. In the autumn of 1806 he entered a cloth-dressing establishment, carried on by the man who had purchased the old homestead in Medway. He was now back in his birthplace, and where the first fourteen years of his life had been passed. Every young man goes through a period of trial: and, to Joel, this one of cloth-dressing was the most perilous in his whole history; for it brought him into bad company. After the hours of labor were over, the shop-doors were closed and locked. With his fellow-apprentice, and a few others who came in for the purpose, the time was spent in card-playing and dissipation, and sometimes till late into the night. During the months of July and August, the sea |