Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-01-04

DIR, Hawks Instructed and Trained
Thomas F. Bayard.-The Power oil
His Picture of Walter Raleigh in the
History of North Carolina.-His Vo-
luminous Writings-Thrice He Re
fused Episcopal Honors-His Friend
ship for William Mercer Green-Dr.
Hawks Studied Law in His Youth
Under the Great Gaston-His Travels,
To the Editor Of the Observer.
This month, for the first time since
became a travelling salesman, neariy
twenty years ago, | spent the first whole
week with the old books, nearly 800 vols
umes, whose pages, during my boyhood,
l was wont to pore over in the silence OF
the night.
Many friends have gone,bu my friendly
books are waiting for me. Many friends
are not tenderly 81 as once they were; but
my good, true books are never angry mol
sullen. When 1 open one it talks friendly
and frankly. 1t perchance tells me some
thing I need to know while l live, to re-
member when l am dying, and not to
forget when / am dead. Here is a book
talking to me about Greece and Rome,
their splendors; their decay; another tells
me of blood split for liberty; for the tri.
umph Of republics. Here is one, with
tracery of tender pathos, tanning tears
mist against my eyes,. But just at my
hand is a bookscure for bookish sorrow
"a poets balm to fall on my heart calmly
as light from quiet stars. Blessed old
books, since I lived with you l have lin
gered over lead faces and open graves,
and, as turned away, crushed and lonely,
l wanted to live again with You in the
lamp-light, since you ever walt with cons
solutions for my heart
One day during the week recently spent
with my books, l read a mere reference
to Francis Lister Hawks, 1 had not wholly
forgotten Doctor Hawks, the author OF
some written history of North Carolina,
and who, when l was a child, was the
most renowned preacher of tie Episcopal
Church in. America. But, when I saw
his name, there was an instant freshening
in my mind of sermon preached by
DIR. Charles F. Deems, while on a visit
to North Carolina, more than twenty
years ago. Deems said that Hawks was
a preacher of such power and fame that,
at various times. great scholars and theo-
logiaDs had come from Europe with no
object in view but to hear Hawks preach,
This paper is written to rescue from
imminence of oblivion, in the minds of
North CaroliniaAs, the name and fame of
Francis Lister Hawks.
Francis Lister Hawks was born near
the close of the last century in Newbern,
North Carolina, and died in New York in
September, 1886. He was an alumnus of
the University of his native State. No
other scholar ever passed from the foster.
ing car of this good mother of learning to
rise, outside political life, to such marked
eminenCe,
After sitting as pupil at the feet of the
brilliant lawyer and profound jurist, Will
mittcd to the bar. Entering the legal
profession with the fondness for its lore,
and saturated with the vital principles of
justice, law and equity, he applied him
self to those higher thoughts and intricate
analyses that more readily develop to the
scholar ct the bar than to the pupil at the
feet of the preceptor. Fitfully a polite
ian, he, in 1928, served a term in the
Legislature, displaying forecast of oras
tory, which, in future years, with SEN
tence more neatly trimmed and exauis-
more sweetly yet deeply toned, was to ac-
centuate his now as an orator of the
Church.
While patiently, lucratively, and, from
intellectual aspect, fondly a lawyer. ney-
ertheless the trend of his mind was re-
ligious; and its penchant was keenly
sp~iritualiZed by association with a cher
ished college mate, William Mercer
Green.
William, the son of a princeIy rice.
planter, OF Quaker descent, was born in
Wilmington. N. G. After training under
the best tutors, and being directed to
higher classic II advantages, he entered
the University of North sCarolina, to
which, after graduating n 1918, he was
recalled five years later to adorn the chain
of bellies ~]ettres. The strain Of Quaker
blood in the veins of young Green was not
of red drops SO dissentient as TO dissuade
him from becoming a clergyman of the
Episcopal church, thus beginning a career
which was to eliminate with such Epis~
copal dignity that the ample arm>folds o1
a clergyman's gown would shrink to the
wristbands of a bishops sleeves.
In 1925 Green moved to Hillsboro, where
he founded St. Matthew's parish. Hawks
had also gone thither, and was rapidly
rising in influence and Importance, both
social and professional. This contact of
old friends was the blending of w fer
vently religious minds. Enchanted by
the perspective of holy living and pious
labors, stretching in the future of his
priestly companion, henceforth, the law
was without facination for Hawks. In.
asmuch, it was without sacrifice of feeling
that he, becoming a student of theology
under his young friend, determined to re.
linquish the green bag of the barrister fol
the white frock of the church. In New
bern, in 1897, Hawks donned the gown O.
a deacon, and, later, the black stole of the
priest, falling along the snowy folds OF
the surplice, was his insignia Of rank in
the Episcopal communion.
Were / to linger in recital of his minis,
try during his earlier priesthood, in New
Haven, Hartford, New York and Phila,
delphia, this paper, as an interesting con
tribution to a current print, would be tor
Wiley geographic, also, too ,rrecisel,
geographic. Further in the body of M
paper there will be such limited reference
as may seem necessary for collatera
factand continuity of narratives
Hawks, with the distinguished Docto
Henry, was the founder of the New Yorl
Review, Such was his learning and apt
ness for critical and historic research that
in 1866, LIE was elected h:storiographer O
the Episcopal church in the United States
In this interest he visited Europe, so
journing several months in England
There, in social commune with clerg5
and chronicler, from fading parchment
of ancient archiepiscopal see of *Canter
bury, from pierced arcades of old abbey
from gloom of monastic cell, from whenc
polygamous king, the eighth Henry, hat
scourged student-monk, he fetched to hi
discriminating mind arranged and touches
with wizardry of! pen, those facts witt
which the earlier chapters of his Ion.
tributions to the Ecclesiastical History @
the United States are SO Yiriley pregnant
DR.. Hawks had intimate, even positive
literary relation to the papers of Commo
dore Ne. @. Perry's famous cruise In tn
''llhina Seas and to Japan" The informa
1 ap pend matter discarded from the bod,
of my sketch by observing that Hawks. as re
porter, compiled four volumes suprem