{"product_id":"2940012366573","title":"TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBiographical Note\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo years before the mast were but an episode in the life of Richard\u003cbr\u003eHenry Dana, Jr.; yet the narrative in which he details the experiences\u003cbr\u003eof that period is, perhaps, his chief claim to a wide remembrance.  His\u003cbr\u003eservices in other than literary fields occupied the greater part of his\u003cbr\u003elife, but they brought him comparatively small recognition and many\u003cbr\u003edisappointments.  His happiest associations were literary, his\u003cbr\u003epleasantest acquaintanceships those which arose through his fame as the\u003cbr\u003eauthor of one book. The story of his life is one of honest and\u003cbr\u003ecompetent effort, of sincere purpose, of many thwarted hopes.  The\u003cbr\u003etraditions of his family forced him into a profession for which he was\u003cbr\u003eintellectually but not temperamentally fitted: he should have been a\u003cbr\u003escholar, teacher, and author; instead he became a lawyer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Cambridge, Mass., August 1, 1815, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., came\u003cbr\u003eof a line of Colonial ancestors whose legal understanding and patriotic\u003cbr\u003ezeal had won them distinction.  His father, if possessed of less vigor\u003cbr\u003ethan his predecessors, was yet a man of culture and ability.  He was\u003cbr\u003ewidely known as poet, critic, and lecturer; and endowed his son with\u003cbr\u003enative qualities of intelligence, good breeding, and honesty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter somewhat varied and troublous school days, young Dana entered\u003cbr\u003eHarvard University, where he took high rank in his classes and bid fair\u003cbr\u003eto make a reputation as a scholar.  But at the beginning of his third\u003cbr\u003eyear of college a severe attack of measles interrupted his course, and\u003cbr\u003eso affected his eyes as to preclude, for a time at least, all idea of\u003cbr\u003estudy.  The state of the family finances was not such as to permit of\u003cbr\u003eforeign travel in search of health.  Accordingly, prompted by necessity\u003cbr\u003eand by a youthful love of adventure, he shipped as a common sailor in\u003cbr\u003ethe brig, Pilgrim, bound for the California coast.  His term of service\u003cbr\u003elasted a trifle over two years--from August, 1834, to September, 1836.\u003cbr\u003eThe undertaking was one calculated to kill or cure. Fortunately it had\u003cbr\u003ethe latter effect; and, upon returning to his native place, physically\u003cbr\u003evigorous but intellectually starved, he reentered Harvard and worked\u003cbr\u003ewith such enthusiasm as to graduate in six months with honor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen came the question of his life work.  Though intensely religious,\u003cbr\u003ehe did not feel called to the ministry; business made no appeal; his\u003cbr\u003eancestors had been lawyers; it seemed best that he should follow where\u003cbr\u003ethey had led.  Had conditions been those of to-day, he would naturally\u003cbr\u003ehave drifted into some field of scholarly research,--political science\u003cbr\u003eor history.  As it was, he entered law school, which, in 1840, he left\u003cbr\u003eto take up the practice of his profession. But Dana had not the tact,\u003cbr\u003ethe personal magnetism, or the business sagacity to make a brilliant\u003cbr\u003esuccess before the bar.  Despite the fact that he had become a master\u003cbr\u003eof legal theory, an authority upon international questions, and a\u003cbr\u003ecounsellor of unimpeachable integrity, his progress was painfully slow\u003cbr\u003eand toilsome.  Involved with his lack of tact and magnetism there was,\u003cbr\u003etoo, an admirable quality of sturdy obstinacy that often worked him\u003cbr\u003einjury.  Though far from sharing the radical ideas of the\u003cbr\u003eAbolitionists, he was ardent in his anti-slavery ideas and did not\u003cbr\u003ehesitate to espouse the unpopular doctrines of the Free-Soil party of\u003cbr\u003e1848, or to labor for the freedom of those Boston negroes, who, under\u003cbr\u003ethe Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, were in danger of deportation to the\u003cbr\u003eSouth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis activity in the latter direction resulted in pecuniary loss, social\u003cbr\u003eostracism and worse; for upon one occasion he was set upon and nearly\u003cbr\u003ekilled by a pair of thugs.  But Dana was not a man to be swerved from\u003cbr\u003ehis purpose by considerations of policy or of personal safety.  He met\u003cbr\u003ehis problems as they came to him, took the course which he believed to\u003cbr\u003ebe right and then stuck to it with indomitable tenacity.  Yet,\u003cbr\u003ecuriously enough, with none of the characteristics of the politician,\u003cbr\u003ehe longed for political preferment.  At the hands of the people this\u003cbr\u003ecame to him in smallest measure only.  Though at one time a member of\u003cbr\u003ethe Massachusetts Legislature, he was defeated as candidate for the\u003cbr\u003elower house of Congress, and in 1876 suffered the bitterest\u003cbr\u003edisappointment of his life, when the libellous attacks of enemies\u003cbr\u003eprevented the ratification of his nomination as Minister to England.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrevious to this he had served his country as United States District\u003cbr\u003eAttorney during the Civil War, a time when the office demanded the\u003cbr\u003ehighest type of ability and uprightness.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073392230640,"sku":"2940012366573","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012366573_p0.jpg?v=1763567755","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012366573","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}