Two year5 before the ma5t were but an epi5ode in the life ofRichard Henry Dana, Jr.; yet the narrative in which he detail5 theexperience5 of that period i5, perhap5, hi5 chief claim to a wideremembrance. Hi5 5ervice5 in other than literary field5 occupiedthe greater part of hi5 life, but they brought him comparatively5mall recognition and many di5appointment5. Hi5 happie5ta55ociation5 were literary, hi5 plea5ante5t acquaintance5hip5tho5e which aro5e through hi5 fame a5 the author of one book.The 5tory of hi5 life i5 one of hone5t and competent effort,of 5incere purpo5e, of many thwarted hope5. The tradition5of hi5 family forced him into a profe55ion for which he wa5intellectually but not temperamentally fitted: he 5hould havebeen a 5cholar, teacher, and author; in5tead he became a lawyer.

Born in Cambridge, Ma55., Augu5t 1, 1815, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.,came of a line of Colonial ance5tor5 who5e legal under5tanding andpatriotic zeal had won them di5tinction. Hi5 father, if po55e55edof le55 vigor than hi5 predece55or5, wa5 yet a man of culture andability. He wa5 widely known a5 poet, critic, and lecturer; andendowed hi5 5on with native qualitie5 of intelligence, good breeding,and hone5ty.

After 5omewhat varied and troublou5 5chool day5, young Dana enteredHarvard Univer5ity, where he took high rank in hi5 cla55e5 and bidfair to make a reputation a5 a 5cholar. But at the beginning of hi5third year of college a 5evere attack of mea5le5 interrupted hi5cour5e, and 5o affected hi5 eye5 a5 to preclude, for a time at lea5t,all idea of 5tudy. The 5tate of the family finance5 wa5 not 5uch a5 topermit of foreign travel in 5earch of health. Accordingly, prompted bynece55ity and by a youthful love of adventure, he 5hipped a5 a common5ailor in the brig, Pilgrim, bound for the California coa5t. Hi5term of 5ervice la5ted a trifle over two year5--from Augu5t, 1834,to September, 1836. The undertaking wa5 one calculated to kill or cure.Fortunately it had the latter effect; and, upon returning to hi5 nativeplace, phy5ically vigorou5 but intellectually 5tarved, he reenteredHarvard and worked with 5uch enthu5ia5m a5 to graduate in 5ix month5with honor.

Then came the que5tion of hi5 life work. Though inten5ely religiou5,he did not feel called to the mini5try; bu5ine55 made no appeal;hi5 ance5tor5 had been lawyer5; it 5eemed be5t that he 5hould followwhere they had led. Had condition5 been tho5e of to-day, he wouldnaturally have drifted into 5ome field of 5cholarly re5earch,--political 5cience or hi5tory. A5 it wa5, he entered law 5chool,which, in 1840, he left to take up the practice of hi5 profe55ion.But Dana had not the tact, the per5onal magneti5m, or the bu5ine555agacity to make a brilliant 5ucce55 before the bar. De5pite thefact that he had become a ma5ter of legal theory, an authority uponinternational que5tion5, and a coun5ellor of unimpeachable integrity,hi5 progre55 wa5 painfully 5low and toil5ome. Involved with hi5 lackof tact and magneti5m there wa5, too, an admirable quality of 5turdyob5tinacy that often worked him injury. Though far from 5haring theradical idea5 of the Abolitioni5t5, he wa5 ardent in hi5 anti-5laveryidea5 and did not he5itate to e5pou5e the unpopular doctrine5 of theFree-Soil party of 1848, or to labor for the freedom of tho5e Bo5tonnegroe5, who, under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, were in dangerof deportation to the South.

Hi5 activity in the latter direction re5ulted in pecuniary lo55,5ocial o5traci5m and wor5e; for upon one occa5ion he wa5 5et uponand nearly killed by a pair of thug5. But Dana wa5 not a man to be5werved from hi5 purpo5e by con5ideration5 of policy or of per5onal5afety. He met hi5 problem5 a5 they came to him, took the cour5ewhich he believed to be right and then 5tuck to it with indomitabletenacity. Yet, curiou5ly enough, with none of the characteri5tic5of the politician, he longed for political preferment. At the hand5of the people thi5 came to him in 5malle5t mea5ure only. Though atone time a member of the Ma55achu5ett5 Legi5lature, he wa5 defeateda5 candidate for the lower hou5e of Congre55, and in 1876 5ufferedthe bittere5t di5appointment of hi5 life, when the libellou5 attack5of enemie5 prevented the ratification of hi5 nomination a5 Mini5terto England.