1895
I am agreeably surprised to receive a letter from Mr. J. F. Drake '02, a former pupil of classmate Edward S. Watson. I was instructed by a special letter written to me by "Honest Dan" not to write anything about his life when he had passed on but I was simply to mention the date and cause of death, etc. I believe, however, that his classmates should all know something of the nobility of his character and of his religious faith.
Mr. Drake's letter is as follows: "My dear Mr. Stevens: 'As you doubtless know, Edward S, Watson, a member of the Class of 1895, passed away on October 22, 1952. He was born in Pittsfield, N. H., which was also my home town. He was my teacher in Pittsfield high school and was a great inspiration to me in my preparation for Dartmouth College, from which I graduated in 1902. Throughout the years and right up to the time of his death, I kept in close touch with him. The last time I saw him was in August 1952, at which time he was not in health but was able to carry on a conversation.
Prior to his death, he prepared two statements entitled respectively, "My Life Story" and "Essentials of My Religious Belief." I do not know if you have them so I am sending you, herewith, a copy of each, thinking that, perhaps, you might wish to insert them, or at least excerpts from them, in the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE."
The following are the statements in part:
My Life Story
Edward S. Watson October 31, 1870. October 22, 1952.
It is wholly unusual, perhaps, even unprecedented, for a person to push his rights so far as to wish to dictate what is to be said over his lifeless body.
But inasmuch as the wonted procedure at funerals is stereotyped and monotonously tedious, and moreover that part devoted to an estimate of the life and character of the deceased is rather often misleading and unjust, it would seem that one who earnestly desires to be in death what he strove to be in life cannot be seriously blamed for wishing to leave behind him a few words of his own touching upon the aims and purposes which actuated him in-'his career, also in a brief personal appraisal of its results.
From an early hour in the morning of my life I never doubted the existence of a Creator and an Overruling Power of the universe, for any other belief appeared to me absolutely absurd: to "deal justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God," which I had learned from my fathers lips before I had learned to read, was said to be all that was required of man.
The last of these requirements to walk humbly with thy God was long puzzling to me; though the other two, I think, I compre- hended pretty correctly from my early days.
After long pondering I became satisfied that "walking humbly with thy God" meant a reverent obedience to God's laws as I observed them in operation around me. Sorrowfully confessing many and many lapses, I lived with constant purpose to attain this three-fold goal.
To me the life and teaching of Jesus Christ were ever unparalleled. In many of his sayings I found daily inspiration, but the five words about him that had the greatest influence upon me were these: He went about doinggood.
His best parable for me was that of the talents. Recognizing in myself no 5-talent man, I modestly hoped to be like him of a-talents and not the counterpart of the 1-talent sluggard.
By the time I left my father's roof, at 16 years of age, I had come to believe fundamentally that the prime object of my career ought to be one of service to my fellowmen, and I set myself the task of becoming fitted to teach. Being graduated from Dartmouth College in 1895, I was engaged in school work for 40 years. In these four decades the development of sterling character in each and every one of my pupils was my central aim.
Incapacitated in 1935 by reason of deafness for further educational work, thereafter I took such part as I was able to take in the more common activities of everyday life in field and forest, keeping ever in mind the ideal of honorable service.
Now being an octogenarian, at favorable moments within all my adult years I have pondered deeply upon the fundamental and absolute meaning of the Here and the Hereafter; and while I have no desire to influence any fellow being toward accepting my tenets and conclusions, I have thought that some few who may reflect seriously upon my settled views here set forth may thus be assisted in formulating and establishing their own beliefs.
I believe in God Almighty; maker of heaven and earth, and I do not understand how any normal person can do otherwise. I believe in Jesus Christ as one of the most wonderful evidences of God's creative power. While many of Christ's sayings are to me mystical, and some of them even contradictory, in the main his teaching seems to me without parallel in its uplifting force.
I am a skeptic as to the stories of his birth, miracles, and resurrection these have for me no practical value. I think of him as a being of perfect life here on earth who "went about doing good" and who taught, as one having authority, a doctrine no man can gainsay.
The Sermon on the Mount and the parables are treasures beyond compare and many of his detached observations are profoundly impressive. Many of his utterances have been taken literally that in my opinion should have been looked upon as figurative.
"No man cometh unto the Father but by me," I understand simply to mean that God requires a Christlike attitude on the part of everybody. "I go to prepare a place for you," has for me this meaning: You have been too prone to lean on me. I leave you now to think for yourselves. It will dawn on you that my leadership is righteous. "I will come again and receive you unto myself" that is, in my absence you will discover the truth as I know it and then you will recognize the true relation I have with the Father and aspire to have for yourselves that relation with Him....
I believe in God, the omnipotent life-giver, and I believe He will keep sacred forever perfectly secret against the prying efforts of inquisitive scientists His life-imparting mystery.
Again, I believe He allows no man to behold a true vision of the Great Beyond. In my view we here on earth should have all faith in God's laws as we see them operating around us.
Two of His orders are these: "Deal justly, Love mercy." His other commands are comprehended, I believe, in "Walk humbly with thy God."
Legions of pious self-styled favorites say, "It is given to us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God," but we are told to "beware of false prophets."
I Timothy 6: 6-8 has for me the maximum significance. The true meaning of contentment, I believe, is quite clear to me: day by day I am seeking a clear and better understanding of Godliness.
To this end again and again I read and refleet upon Psalms l, 15, 19, 24, 46, 67 91, 100, 103, 145, and I think that nothing is finer to contemplate thanI Corinthians, Ch. 13. I John 4: 16-21 is a source of warmti to the heart.
"And so beside the Silent Sea I wait the muffled oar."
Secretary, White River Junction, Vt. T reasurer, Eagle Hotel, Concord, N. H.
