Amidst the dissipation, which, notwithstanding the most strict and salutary laws, is too often attendant on a college life, it was the felicity of young Ames to pre serve his morals free from taint. Like the person of Achilles by the waters of the Styx, his mind was render ed invulnerable, by a happy temperament and a virtuous education. This circumstance amounts to no ordinary praise. When vice approaches the youthful mind in the seductive form of a beloved companion, the ordeal be comes threatening and dangerous in the extreme. Few possess the prudence and unyielding firmness requisite to pass it in triumphant safety. One of these few, was the subject of this article, Those who have been accurately observant of the dependence of one part of life on another, will readily concur with us, that his future character de rived much of its lustre, and his fortunes much of their elevation, from the untainted purity and irreproachable ness of his youth. Masculine virtue is as necessary to real eminence, as a powerful intellect. He that is de ficient in either will never, unless from the influence of fortuitous circumstances, be able to place and maintain himself at the head of society. He may rise and flour ish for a time, but his fall Is as certain as hie descent to the grave.
As happily illustrating and confirming the preceding observations, we cannot resist the temptation of intro ducing, in this place, a few very sensible and well ex pressed sentiments of a friend to Mr Ames, in relation to his early habits of virtue, and the influence they ex ercised over his subsequent character and standing in society. " Young Ames," says this elegant writer," did not need the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the regret of folly to make him wise. He seems to have been early initiated in that caution and self-distrust, which he used afterwards to inculcate. He was ac customed to say " we have hut a slender hold of our virtues ; they ought, therefore, to be cherished with care, and practised with diligence. He who holds parley with vice and dishonour, is sure to become their slave and victim. The heart is more than half cor rupted that does not burn with indignation at the slight est attempt to seduce it." " His spotless youth" continues his biographer and friend," brought blessings to the whole remainder of his life. It gave him the entire use of his faculties, and all the fruit of his literary education. Its effects ap peared in that fine edge of moral feeling which he always preserved ; in his strict and often austere tem perance ; in his love of occupation that made activity delight ; in his distaste for public diversions, and his preference of simple pleasures. Beginning well, he advanced with unremitted steps in the race of virtue, and arrived at the end of life in peace and honour." These are sentiments which we earnestly recommend to the notice of the youth of our country. They de serve to be treasured up with care and guarded with more than miserly vigilance. They are precious beyond. gold and pearl and jewels, and all that is comprised in the riches of the east. Besides shielding the early periods of life from those vices and dissipations, which sow the seeds and quicken the germ of future wretched ness, they will tend to crown a manhood of vigour, usefulness, and renown, with an old age of peace and ho nour, and to scatter blessings on the verge of the grave.
In the year 1774, when he had just completed his sixteenth year, Mr Ames was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He took leave of college, bearing along with him an equal share of affection and honour. To say nothing of the excellence of his scholarship, he was pronounced the most eloquent of the sons of Har vard.
The struggle of the American colonies for freedom soon afterwards commencing, rendered the times per plexing and perilous. They were particularly so for the youth of the country, who had yet their principles to settle, and their plan of life to shape. Too young to be employed in the public councils, and not having a predilection for the profession of arms, Mr Ames took no active part in the contest which ensued. His soul, however, with its best wishes, was with the sages who toiled, and the heroes who bled, in the cause of Indepen dence. Nor was this all. Juvenile as he was, his pen was frequently employed in anonymous addresses, calculated by their wisdom to instruct the patriot, and by their impassioned eloquence to animate the soldier.
Influenced no less by the wishes of his mother, to whom his obedience and piety were exemplary, than by the early predilection of his own mind, he had deter mined, almost from his childhood, on devoting him self to forensic pursuits. Ile did not, however, en ter on the study of his profession, till die year 1781, when he commenced under the direction of Tudor, Esq. an eminent counsellor of the city of Bos ton. The interim, from his leaving college to this period, Mr Ames had in no instance misemployed or abused. On the contrary, he had passed it in a manner useful to the community, as well as advantageous and honoura ble to himself. his reading, although irre gular, had been so extensive and multifarious, as to ex cite astonishment, and almost surpass belief. His ardour for books amounted to enthusiasm. During this period, he not only revised the classical works which he had pre\ iously read in the course of his academical studies, but,not satisfied with this, pushed his research es still further into the rich stores of ancient. learning. No man relished. in a higher degree, the beauties of Greek and Roman literature. Few in America have been more familiar with them. On the works of Virgil he dwelt with rapture ; and could rec ite, from 111C1110rV, with an eloquence and force peculiar to himself, all his most splendid and touching passages. llis rehearsal of the stories of Nisus and Euryalus, Pallas and Evandc•, Lausus and INIezentius, is said to have been a specimen of most pathetic elocution. Poetry was now the luxury of his mind He read with .attention all the principal English poets, and became familiar with the writings of Milton and Shakspeare, committing to memory many passages of peculiar excellence. This course of reading, although possibly in some instances not well directed, tended greatly to extend and liberalize, enrich and embelish, the mind of the young student. It aided in supplying him with that fund of materials for writing and speaking which he possessed and exhibited in such inexhaustible abundance. It was also the source, in part, of his unprecedented fertility and aptness of allusion—his ability to evolve, with a felicity we never witnessed in any other speaker, a train of imagery suited to every subject and every occasion.