him

"With a Sabbath sound as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods."

He remembered, too, more vividly than many men of mature years,

"The gleams and glooms that dart
Across the school-boy's brain;
The song and the silence in the heart
That in part are prophecies and in part
Are longings wild and vain."

When only fifteen years of age he entered Bowdoin College, with a
brother two years older than himself, and graduated fourth in his class
in 1825. His Commencement oration was upon "The Life and Writings of
Chatterton." He was also invited to deliver a poem the day after
Commencement, as he had already begun to write verses which had been
printed in the local newspapers. Almost immediately after his graduation
he was offered a professorship in the college, and requested to visit
Europe to prepare himself for its duties, making further studies in the
modern languages for that purpose.

The proposal was eagerly accepted, and he sailed the following spring in
a packet-ship from New York. The voyage occupied a month, and was a
remarkably pleasant one, thoroughly enjoyed by the young traveller.
There is nothing remarkable in the letters he wrote home during this
first trip to Europe, when he visited France, Spain, Germany, Italy
(where he spent a year), and England. He assumed the duties of his
professorship immediately upon his return, at a salary of one thousand
dollars a year. He was very popular with the students from the first,
and became quite a power in the University. At this time he became a
contributor to the "North American Review," and may be said to have
fairly begun his literary career. In the year 1831 he was married to
Mary Storer Potter, a young lady of Portland, to whom he had long been
attached. She was one of the famous beauties of that town, noted for its
beautiful women, and a member of the social circle in which the
Longfellows moved. The marriage was in every way suitable, and pleasing
to the friends of both parties. She was a lady highly educated for that
day, and possessed of a mind of unusual power. She was also of a most
cheerful and amiable disposition; and the world opened very brightly
before the young professor. They began housekeeping in Brunswick in a
house still standing in Federal Street. He gives this picture of a
morning there:--

"I can almost fancy myself in Spain, the morning is so soft and
beautiful. The tessellated shadow of the honeysuckle lies