“With warning hand I mark Time’s rapid flight.”
In regard to this inscription, Dr. Henry I. Bowditch wrote his friend
in Amesbury--Whittier’s physician--under date of December 30, 1854:
“Warm regards to Whittier, and tell him I still _hope_ for the
inscription for my old dial--that is, I wish if you have a fair chance
you would _gently allude_ to my hopes; but, pray, do not let him think
me troublesome about it. I think I could get one from H----, or F----,
but I would prefer Whittier to any other that I know.”
Apparently, the “gentle allusion” must have been made with
success--judging from the following extract of January fifteenth,
1855, about two weeks later. “The more I read Whittier’s lines,” wrote
Bowditch to the doctor, “the more I admire them. Everybody is delighted
with them, and I am obliged to give copies in every direction.”
With Bowditch’s noble character, his delightful enthusiasm and
anti-slavery zeal, his frankness and charm, it was not to be wondered
at that the admiration of the two men was reciprocal. There comes to
mind the speech of the poet, after looking long and earnestly at a
photograph of Dr. Bowditch. He glanced up at last to say that it made
him think of one of the old Greek fathers.
* * * * *
Those who knew Whittier well remember the suddenness of his
leave-takings. For, no matter how tranquilly he was seated and how
absorbed in his subject he appeared, one could never be sure that the
next moment he would not rise, make his adieus, and be off, all in a
breath.
Somebody asked him one day why he always took leave so suddenly? He
answered that the habit came from early training, that his father
did not like prolixity--no, nor did his father’s son! Indeed, one
day Whittier talking of himself, said that as he grew older he could
perceive traits of his father coming out more strongly in himself.
It was the same way with his journeys. An announcement at the breakfast
table would often be the first intimation that his bag was packed for
the next train. That alertness distinguished him to the very last. He
knew what he wanted and went straight to the mark.
* * * * *
Yet when in pursuance of his object, the success of the anti-slavery
movement, or helping to plan and organize that party to which slavery
owed its downfall, no one could navigate the troubled waters of
politics and tack to fill the sails or avoid the flaws with more skill
than Whittier. The power to manipulate men he had to a degree that
would have made him dangerous but for his high principle. For with him
honor was always first.
He never lost interest in politics in its highest sense, nor failed in
his part as freeman and patriot. In 1883 he wrote:
“I have been ill almost ever since the first of September. I managed
to go to the Convention at Boston and staid only long enough to vote
for Robinson, after which I was ill and sleepless for four days and
nights----more than one hundred and twenty hours in all. I am now
somewhat better and shall go to Amesbury this week.”