slender
but necessary income, he obtained leave of absence during parts of his
Freshman and Sophomore years, and spent the time as a private teacher
in the family of Mr. Mark Pringle, at Havre de Grace, Maryland. He was
there when the British, under Admiral Cockburn, plundered and partly
destroyed the village; and here, probably, he enjoyed the only military
experience of his life, by serving, as a private, in the Maryland
militia, called out to guard the neighborhood. The inhabitants, it is
related, generally fled to the woods, and but few, among whom was
Sparks, remained to witness the barbarous behaviour of the enemy.
Fifteen months of this leave of absence were, thus, spent in our State,
in the bosom of an excellent and refined family, by whose members he
was warmly esteemed; and, at length, he received his degree of Bachelor
of Arts, at Harvard, with the class of 1815.

His college course, notwithstanding its interruptions, was successful.
President Kirkland used to say, in his quaint way, "Sparks is not only
a man, but a man and a-half." He graduated with high honors. In his
senior year he gained the Bowdoin prize for an essay on the physical
discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, an essay which is remembered in the
traditions of the University as "a masterpiece of analytic exposition,
philosophical method, lucid and exact statement."

This successful essay was, perhaps, the key of his life and character,
for his mind was emphatically clear, exact, analytic, mathematical; and
throughout his career, the same qualities were distinct in whatever he
investigated or wrote. It has, indeed, been said that his merits were
already recognized by the rival University of Yale, and that offers for
his removal thither had been made during one of his years at Harvard;
but the friendly influence of Dr. Kirkland prevailed over those
allurements, and he remained constant to his patron and college.

The years 1816 and 1817 were passed by the graduate in teaching a
private school at Lancaster, Massachusetts. He finished his college
course at the advanced age of twenty-six, and had now added two years
more to the score. At Lancaster he cultivated those habits of
methodical industry which always characterized him afterwards. Soon
after undertaking the school, he wrote: "I board at Major Carter's, a
mile and a quarter from my school, to and from which I walk twice a
day. I rose this morning an hour before sunrise, and rode five or six
mile