SKETCHES:

BY N. P. WILLIS.

BOSTON: S. G. GOODRICH, 141, WASHINGTON ST.

MDCCCXXVII.

[Pg 2]

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

District Clerk’s Office.

Be it remembered, that on the thirtieth day of November, A. D. 1827, in the fifty second year of the Independence of the United States of America, N. P. Willis, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: ‘Sketches. By N. P. Willis.

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, ‘An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;’ and also to an act entitled ‘An act supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints.’

JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

BOSTON: PRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

Stephen Foster, Printer.

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TO MY FATHER THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

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PREFACE.

In introducing this volume to the Public, the Author would simply remark, that it was written at different periods of a college life, which has just expired; (the Scripture Sketches at a very early part of it.) He has no intention of screening its faults, either of feeling or style, beneath his ‘score of summers;’ but as prefaces are the fashion, he has thought the mention of the fact would not be amiss in the promotion of a proper understanding between himself and his readers.

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CONTENTS.

[Pg 9]

SKETCHES.

THE SACRIFICE OF ABRAHAM.

[Pg 14]

ABSALOM.

[Pg 20]

HAGAR IN THE WILDERNESS.

[Pg 26]

JEPHTHAH’S DAUGHTER.

[Pg 32]

IDLENESS.

[Pg 34]

DREAMS.

[Pg 38]

OCTOBER.

[Pg 41]

BOYHOOD.

[Pg 44]

NIGHT SKETCHES.

I.

[Pg 46]

II.

III.

MIDNIGHT ON THE ST LAWRENCE.

[Pg 49]

TWILIGHT.

[Pg 51]

DAWN.

[Pg 53]

SCRAPS FROM A JOURNAL.

I.

II.

III.

[Pg 61]

BETTER MOMENTS.

[Pg 65]

THE HINDOO MOTHER.

[Pg 75]

WAITING FOR THE HARVESTERS.

[Pg 77]

FUGITIVE PIECES.

[Pg 79]

THE SOLDIER’S WIDOW.

[Pg 81]

THE BURIAL OF ARNOLD,

MEMBER OF THE SENIOR CLASS OF YALE COLLEGE.

[Pg 84]

TO LAURA W——,

TWO YEARS OF AGE.

[Pg 87]

SONNET.

TO A PICTURE OF ‘GENEVIEVE,’ BY ALEXANDER.

[Pg 88]

SONNET.

[Pg 89]

SONNET.

[Pg 90]

EXTRACT FROM A POEM

DELIVERED AT THE DEPARTURE OF THE SENIOR CLASS OF YALE COLLEGE, IN 1826.

[Pg 95]

NOTES.

PAGE 32, LINES 12 and 13.

The gentleman who gave me the picture of ‘Stirling Castle’ will not be surprised that so pleasant a gift holds a place in my memory.

PAGE 33, LINES 9 and 10.

This striking anecdote is related of Ponce de Leon, in, I think, ‘A Visit to Spain,’ by Michael Quin.

PAGE 47, LINE 12.

‘The glitter of the steeples on the hills.’

Every one who has made the passage of the St Lawrence, will remember the beautiful effect of the steeples on the shore. Occupying almost every swell on the low interval, and tiled universally with tin, they glisten in the moonlight like turrets of silver. It is even in [Pg 96] that majestic scenery an impressive and delightful feature.

PAGE 84, LINE 4.

‘Child of the sunny brow.’

Perhaps my book will be forgotten before the child, to whom these lines are addressed, is old enough to understand them; but even if it is not, there is little harm in saying that she is at this time the most beautiful human being I ever saw. Her ‘thousand winning ways’ and graceful motion are before me now like a sweet dream, and I shall never forget them. May God bless her!

PAGE 87, LINE 14.

‘As dew of the night’s quietness comes down.’

If my readers have neglected meteorology as long as I did, the younger part of them at least, would like to be told that the dew never falls except on a still night.