"Accordingly, in the spring of 1835, he was dismissed, after which he spent some time in traveling for the benefit of his health, at the same time acting as an agent for the Massachusetts Sabbath-school Society. His health now rapidly improved, and on the 15th of July succeeding his dismission, he was installed as pastor of the Calvinist Church in Worcester.
"The change of climate seemed, for a time, highly beneficial, and had begun to induce the hope that his health might become fully established; but, in the winter of 1835-36, he was prostrated by another attack of hemorrhage, which again clouded his prospects of ministerial usefulness. In the spring of 1836, his health had so far improved that he resumed his ministerial labors and continued them through the summer; but in September, his symptoms again became more unfavorable, and he determined, in accordance with medical advice, to try the effect of a sea voyage and a winter in the South. Accordingly, he sailed in November for New Orleans; and, on arriving there, decided on going to St. Francisville, a village on the Mississippi. Here he remained during the winter, preaching to both the white and colored population, as his strength would allow. In the spring, he returned to his pastoral charge, with his health considerably invigorated. He labored pretty constantly, though not without much debility, until the succeeding spring (1838), when he found it necessary again to desist from his labors, and take a season of rest. In company with a friend, he journeyed through a part of Vermont and New Hampshire, and on reaching Hanover, the day after Commencement, was surprised to learn that he had been appointed professor of Rhetoric in Dartmouth College. Conscious of his inability to meet any longer the claims of a pastoral charge, and hoping that his health might be adequate to the lighter duties of a professorship, he could not doubt that the indications of Providence were in favor of his accepting the appointment. He did accept it, and shortly after resigned his charge at Worcester, amidst many expressions of affection and regret on the part of his people, and, in October following, entered on the duties of his professorship.
"The change of labor proved highly beneficial, and during the winter of 1838-39, he enjoyed a degree of health which he had not known for many previous years. In March, he was so much encouraged in respect to himself that he remarked to a friend that he thought God would indulge the cherished wish of his heart, and permit him again to labor as a minister. But another cloud quickly appeared in his horizon, which proved ominous of the destruction of all his earthly hopes. In April following, he suffered from an attack of pleurisy, which was followed by lung fever; and, though he so far recovered as to be able to attend to his college duties till the September following, it became manifest to all that his disease was, on the whole, advancing towards a fatal termination. He died at the age of thirty-four years and six months, on the 17th of October, 1839. His last days were rendered eminently tranquil by the blessed hopes and consolations of the gospel. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Lord, President of Dartmouth College, and was published. He left no children.
"Mr. Peabody's published works are a brief 'Memoir of Horace Bassett Morse,' 1830; a Discourse on 'The Conduct of Men Considered in Contrast with the Law of God,' 1836; a 'Sermon on the Sin of Covetousness, Considered in Respect to Intemperance, Indian Oppression, Slavery,' etc., 1838; the 'Patriarch of Hebron, or the History of Abraham' (posthumous), 1841."
FROM THE REV. SAMUEL G. BROWN, D.D.
"Dartmouth College, July 25, 1856.
"My Dear Sir: It gives me great pleasure to send you my impressions of Professor Peabody, though others could write with more authority. I knew him in college, where he was my senior. He belonged to a class of great excellence, and was honorably distinguished throughout his college course for general scholarship, diligence, fidelity, and great weight of personal influence, in favor of all things 'excellent and of good report.' His character was mature and his mind already well disciplined when he entered the class, and education had perhaps less to accomplish for him in the matter of elegant culture than for almost any one of his associates. Hence there was not the same conspicuous progress in him as in some others. Yet at the time of graduation he stood among the first, as is indicated by the fact that he was the orator of one of the literary societies, and was selected by the Faculty to deliver the valedictory oration at Commencement. In every department of study he was a good scholar,—in the classical, moral, and rhetorical departments, preëminent. As a preacher, he was distinguished for a certain fullness and harmony of style, justness in the exposition of doctrine, and weight of exhortation. He was prudent without being timid, and zealous without being rash; eminently practical, though possessing a love of ideal beauty, and a cultivated and sensitive taste, and as far removed from formalism on the one side as from fanaticism on the other. Dignified and courteous in manner, he was highly respected by all his acquaintances, and while a pastor, greatly esteemed and beloved by his people. His fine natural qualities were marred by few blemishes, and his religious character was steadily and constantly developed year by year. Grave, sincere, earnest, he went about his labors as one mindful of his responsibility, and as seen under his 'great Task-master's eye.' Indeed his anxieties outran his strength, and he was obliged to leave undone much that was dearest to his hopes. The disease to which he finally yielded had more than once 'weakened his strength in the way,' before he was finally prostrated by it. The consequent uncertainty of life had perhaps imparted to him more than usual seriousness, and a deep solicitude to work while the day lasted. He performed the duties of a professor in college but a single year, and that with some interruptions. No better account of the general impression of his life on those who knew him best can be given than in the language of a sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Lord.
"'What his private papers show him to have felt in the presence of his God was made evident, also, in his social and official intercourse. Intelligent, grave, dignified; conscientious in all his relations, from the student upwards to the teacher, the pastor, the professor; nothing empty as a scholar, nothing unsettled or inconsistent as a divine, nothing vague or groundless as an instructor; sincere, generous, honorable, devout; keenly sensitive in respect to the proprieties and charities of life; warm in his affections, strong in his attachments, stern in his integrity; above the arts of policy, the jealousies of competition, the subserviency of party spirit, and simply intent upon serving God, in his own house, and in all his official ministrations, he was one of the few who are qualified to be models for the young, ornaments to general society, and pillars in the church of God.'
"Hoping, dear sir, that this hasty and imperfect sketch may be of some trifling service in commemorating a good man, who deserves something much better,
"I am very truly your obedient friend and servant,