Dr. Payson possessed rare conversational powers and loved to wield them in the service of his Master.  When in a genial mood—­and the mild excitement of social intercourse generally put him in such a mood—­his familiar talk was equally delightful and instructive.  He was, in truth, an improvisatore.  Quick perception, an almost intuitive insight into character, an inexhaustible fund of fresh, original thought and incident, the happiest illustrations, and a memory that never faltered in recalling what he had once read or seen, easy self-control, and ardent sympathies, all conspired to give him this preeminence.  Without effort or any appearance of incongruity he could in turn be grave and gay, playful and serious.  This came of the utter sincerity and genuineness of his character.  There was nothing artificial about him; nature and grace had full play and, so to say, constantly ran into each other.  A keen observer, who knew him well, both in private and in public, testifies:  “His facetiousness indeed was ever a near neighbor to his piety, if it was not a part of it; and his most cheerful conversations, so far from putting his mind out of tune for acts of religious worship, seemed but a happy preparation for the exercise of devotional feelings.” [7] This coexistence of serious with playful elements is often found in natures of unusual depth and richness, just as tragic and comic powers sometimes co-exist in a great poet.

The same qualities that rendered him such a master of conversation, lent a potent charm to his familiar religious talks in the prayer-meeting, at the fireside, or in the social circle.  Always eager to speak for his Master, he knew how to do it with a wise skill and a tenderness of feeling that disarmed prejudice and sometimes won the most determined foe.  Even in administering reproof or rebuke there was the happiest union of tact and gentleness.  “What makes you blush so?” said a reckless fellow in the stage, to a plain country girl, who was receiving the mail-bag at a post office from the hand of the driver.  “What makes you blush so, my dear?” “Perhaps,” said Dr. Payson, who sat near him and was unobserved till now, “Perhaps it is because some one spoke rudely to her when the stage was along here the last time.”

Edward Payson was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1803.  In the autumn of that year he took charge of an academy then recently established in Portland.  Resigning this position in 1806, he returned home and devoted himself to the study of divinity under his father’s care.  He was licensed to preach in May, 1807, and a few months later received a unanimous call to Portland, where he was ordained in December of the same year.  On the 8th of May, 1811, he was married to Ann Louisa Shipman, of New Haven, Conn.  An extract from a manly letter to Miss Shipman, written a few weeks after their engagement, will show the spirit which inspired him both as a lover and a husband: