I m** in CM No. Division Range Shelf........ Received OF THE VISITS TO EUROPEAN CELEBRITIES BY WILLIAM B. STB, AGUE, D.D. n Dcberi hoc a me tantis ingeniis putavi. CICBRO. BOSTON: O U L D AND LINCOLN, 69 WASHINGTON STREET. NEW YORK: SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN, 116 NASSAU STREET. 1855. \ o Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by GOULD AND LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. THOMAS B. SMITH, 8TEREOTTPER AND ELECTROTYPES 82 & 84 Beekman St., N. Y. PREFACE. TN 1828, and again in 1836, I had the privi- lege of passing a few months on the con- tinent of Europe and in Great Britain. In both visits, especially the latter, I was more interested to see men than things; and I not only made the acquaintance, so far as I could, of distinguished individuals as they came in my way, but sometimes made circuitous routes in order to secure to myself this gratification. It was my uniform custom, after every such interview, to take copious memoranda of the conversation, including an account of the in- dividual's appearance and manners in short, defining, as well as I could, the whole impress- ion which his physical, intellectual, and moral IV PREFACE. man had made upon me. On my return from my second tour, I was requested by several persons, who were aware of the extent to which I had gone in recording these personal details, to compile from them a series of sketches to be submitted to the public eye; but while, for several reasons, I had no dis- position to engage in such an enterprize, the decisive consideration against it was, that the individuals were then all living, and I had reason to believe there were some among them whose delicacy might be wounded by what they would regard as, at least, a prema- ture publication. The consequence was, that my notes lay buried in my diary for more than fifteen years ; nor would they have been exhumed at this time, if nearly all their sub- jects had not passed away. A ' year or two since, my highly esteemed friend, Dr. Leyburn, one of the conductors of "The Presbyterian," requested me to contribute something in aid of his editorial labours; and PREFACE. V I ventured to send him a series of articles, entitled "Eminent persons abroad," which ap- peared in nearly successive weeks, during the greater part of a year. As it has been inti- mated to me from different quarters, that there are those who would be glad to see these notices embodied in a small volume, I have consented to the suggestion, though not without some misgivings partly on the ground that many of them are so exceedingly slight, and partly because I believe that a few of the subjects still survive. I have, however, gone carefully over them, omitting, correcting, and adding, so that I am willing to hope that they may be, at least, a little less unworthy of public notice than as they originally appeared in the newspaper. Several new subjects, also, have been introduced; and I cannot forbear to add that I have material in respect to several more, and those among my most cherished friends, which a merciful Providence yet for- bids me to use. May each of them gather VI PREFACE. many new gems to his immortal crown, before death shall remove all restraint from the hand of gratitude and affection, that should under- take to portray their characters. The subjects are arranged exactly in the order in which I saw them, except that I have noticed two or three in connexion with my last visit, of whom I had some knowledge during my first. The list of those whom I met in 1828, closes with Dr. M'Call all that fol- low were the acquaintances of 1836. At the suggestion of the publishers, a fac-simile of the signature of each of the persons noticed has been introduced. C n 1 1 n t s. i. MM EDWARD IRVING- 13 II. ROWLAND HILL III. MATTHEW WILKS ................. 27 IV. GEORGE BORDER .......... ....... 34 V. WILLIAM ORMB .................. 39 V1U CONTENTS. VI. PAGK WILLIAM WILBERFORCE . . ............. 44 VII. I WILLIAM JAY .................. 60 VIII. ROBERT HALT. JOHN FOSTER ............. 65 * IX. HANNAH MORE .................. 64 X. DR. M'CALL ................... ?3 XI. DUCHESS DB BROGLIE MADAME NETMARSHAL GROUCHY . 81 i XII. GENERAL BERNARD GUIZOT Louis PHILIPPE ...... 86 XIII. SISMONDI DEOANDOLLE ............... 92 CONTENTS. XIV. PAGE BLUMHARDT YINET ................ 97 XV. DR. PlNKERTON .................. 102 XVI. DR. ROEHR DR. FRORIEP MADAME DE GOETHE ...... 107 XVII. THOLUCK G-ESENIUS FOUQUET ............ 115 XVIII. DR. HEUBNER .................. 123 XIX. NBAITDER HEVGSTEKBHRG .............. 130 XX. ALEXANDER YON HUMBOLDT RITTER HENRY RAUMEUR STEPHENS HITZIG SAVIGNY G-ANS ENCKE OLBERS . . 188 XXI. SAITUEL ROGERS THOMAS CAMPBELL .......... 14t 1* X CONTENTS. XXII. PAGE DR. OLINTHUS GREGORY 153 XXIII. LUCY AIKEN JOANNA BAILLIE ELIZABETH FRY 159 XXIV. DR. JOHN PYE SMITH EGBERT ASPLAND JOHN TOWELL BUTT GEORGE DYER 166 XXV. JOSIAH PRATT THOMAS HART WELL HORNE 173 XXVI. THOMAS WILSON 177 XXVII. JOSEPH JOHN GURXEY AMELIA OPIE . 184 XXVIII. CHARLES SIMEON PROFESSOR LEE 195 XXIX. DR. BUNTING DR. PUSEY DR. M'BRIDE ESTHER COPLEY 204 CONTENTS. XI XXX. PAGE MRS SHERWOOD 210 XXXI. MARIA EDGEWORTH 216 XXXII. EDWARD BICKERSTETH DR. SINGER 225 XXXIII. JOHN GALT 232 XXXIV. GREVILLE EWINO DR, HEUGH DR. WABDLAW DR. M'Gn/L . 25* XXXV. MRS. GRANT OP LAGGAN . 242 XXXVI. DR. CHALMERS 250 XXXVII. DR. LEE DR. GORDON DR. PEDDIE . 262 Xll CONTENTS. XXXVIII. BURNS' FRIENDS. FA6K ROBERT AINSLEE MRS. M'LEHOSC MRS. SMITH or MELYIN 269 XXXIX. DR. ABERCROMBIE DR. ALISON 276 XL. LORD JEFFREY SIR DAVID BREWSTER PROFESSOR WILSON . . 282 XLI. DR. THOMAS DICK XLII EGBERT SOUTHET . 295 T WAS fortunate enough to see and hear EDWARD -*- IRVING, a little before the dispensation of the tongues opened upon him. He was then the min- ister of the Caledonian chapel in London, and had a highly respectable congregation, though it was evi- dent that his glory had begun to wane. The great number of the nobility that had thronged to hear him on his first going to London, had now fallen off; and though he was universally spoken of as a man of remarkable genius, it seemed to be almost as universally conceded that his genius was not a little obscured by his eccentricity ; and there were not wanting those who, even then, ventured the opinion that a few years more would show him to be a madman. I was not a little curious to hear him for myself, and accordingly took advantage of one of the earliest opportunities after my arrival in London for doing so. After a long walk on Sunday morning, I reached Xll CONTENTS. XXXVIII. BURNS' FRIENDS. PA6K ROBERT AINSLEE MRS. M'LEHOSE MRS. SMITH or MELVIN 269 XXXIX. DR. ABERCROMBIE DR. ALISON 216 XL. LORD JEFFREY SIR DAVID BREWSTER PROFESSOR WILSON . . 282 XLI. DR. THOMAS DICK 200 XLII. ROBERT SOUTHET 295 T WAS fortunate enough to see and hear EDWARD *- IRVING, a little before the dispensation of the tongues opened upon him. He was then the min- ister of the Caledonian chapel in London, and had a highly respectable congregation, though it was evi- dent that his glory had begun to wane. The great number of the nobility that had thronged to hear him on his first going to London, had now fallen off; and though he was universally spoken of as a man of remarkable genius, it seemed to be almost as universally conceded that his genius was not a little obscured by his eccentricity ; and there were not wanting those who, even then, ventured the opinion that a few years more would show him to be a madman. I was not a little curious to hear him for myself, and accordingly took advantage of one of the earliest opportunities after my arrival in London for doing so. After a long walk on Sunday morning, I reached 14 EDWARD IRVING. the place of worship in which he officiated ; and as I was standing by the door, a gentleman, apparently noticing me as a stranger, came up, and told me to ask the sexton, as I entered the church, to show me to Mr. Irving's pew. He perceived that I hesi- tated, as if questioning his authority ; but he as- sured me that I need not hesitate, as he was taking no liberty that did not belong to him. As I knew no other way of finding a seat, I sallied forth ac- cording to his direction, and quickly landed in Mr. Irving's pew. Mr. Irving was already in the pulpit, and was reading a psalm, of course from the old Scotch version. His appearance impressed me at once as most extraordinary ; and my wonder, instead of being abated, rose to a higher and higher pitch till the close of the service. His face was, as the pictures represent it rugged and dark, bearing the unequivocal marks of genius generally of a severe and even fierce expression, but now and then lighted up for a moment with bright sunshine. His long hair hung gracefully and carelessly about his shoulders. His voice, on a low note, was bland and musical ;' but when he became highly excited, it was grating, almost to absolute torture. His prayers were ut- tered with great solemnity and evon pathos, but they were scarcely suitable prayers to be offered by sinners. I could easily have imagined myself in a congregation, if not of angels, at least of those who had grown into perfect persons in Christ. His sermon was worthy, I had almost said, of a splendid EDWAKD IRVING. 15 maniac. There was now and then a passage in it that was not only perfectly intelligible, but per- fectly magnificent ; but the greater part of it was pervaded by an air of mysticism, which left me little else to do than gaze and wonder. His subject led him to speak of the constitution of the person of the Saviour ; and, so far as I could understand him, I could not but be startled at his presumption. I had, of course, no idea of what a few months would bring forth ; but the sermon which I heard from him left me in no doubt that he was on his way to some higher point of extravagance than he had yet reached ; and when I heard of the tongues, I felt that that was only the legitimate result of the wonderful words which I had heard him utter, and the no less wonderful works (taking into view the writhings of his body and the contortions of his countenance,) which I had seen him perform. I was so much impressed by his unique appearance, as well as the brilliancy and originality of many of his thoughts, that, as he went on with his discourse, I felt a constantly-growing desire to have an inter- view with him ; but, as I had no introductory letter, I did not at first see any decent way of gratifying my curiosity. At length, however, it occurred to me that, as I was in Mr. Irving's pew under rather equivocal circumstances, and without an invitation from any of his family, it would seem no more than reasonable that I should apologize for having taken such a liberty. Accordingly, I determined 16 EDWARD IRVING. that, when he came out of the pulpit, I would venture to approach him with this apology ; but, to my disappointment, he descended the stairs rap- idly, and immediately stepped back into his vestry, closing the door after him. Supposing that my case had now become hopeless, I was in the act of leaving the church, and had got half down the aisle, when I looked back, and saw that the door leading into the vestry was open, and several gen- tlemen were entering. I turned about and followed them ; and after waiting till their conversation with Mr. Irving seemed to be over, I stepped up and introduced myself as a clergyman from America, and then told him under what circumstances I had that morning found my way to his pew. He assured me that no apology was necessary, and that any Ameri- can minister was welcome not only to his pew but to his heart, even without the formality of an intro- duction. As I parted with him after a few moments, he invited me to call and see him, in the course of the week, at his house ; but he said that his engage- ments were so pressing that he was obliged gen- erally to deny himself to visitors, and that I must tell the servant at the door that I had called at his request otherwise she would not give me admission. Accordingly, in the course of that week I was favoured with a personal interview with him at his house. It turned out, as he had forewarned me, that the servant was not disposed to let me in ; but when I told her that I had come at Mr. Irving's request, EDWARD IRVING. 17 / she immediately conducted me into his study. Mrs. Irving, who seemed an agreeable and highly-intelli- gent lady, was sitting with him, but she withdrew after a few minutes, and we were left alone together. He met me with so much kindness, that I had not the least feeling of being an intruder, notwithstand- ing what he had told me about his manifold engage- ments. He was familiar and affable in conversation, and seemed particularly interested to learn all he could about the religious state of our country. He inquired particularly how large a part of our whole population were accustomed to sit down to the Lord's table ; and observed in the same connexion, that though it was the custom in the Scotch Church to invite all to the ordinance, not more than one third of his people came, and that none were ad- mitted without previous examination, especially as to their knowledge to discern the Lord's body. He complained much of the deficiency in point of doc- trine among Cnurchmen and Dissenters, English and Scotch, and expressed the opinion that while the Dissenters and Evangelical Episcopalians were the most spiritually-minded men, there were more able divines among the High Church. He was very inquisitive in regard to the tone of theological opin- ion in the United States. I thought I could see that he was feeling after something beyond the dif- erence between Old and New-school, or between Cal- viuists and Arminians that he was trying to find out whether there was anybody here who knew or 18 EDWARD IRVING. cared anything about his hobby ; though, for the life of me, I could not discover what his hobby was, from his conversation, any better than from his preach- ing. It seemed to me that, after he had got every- thing from me he could, he thought that, to say the least, we were in a poor way. After all, he seemed deeply and solemnly impressed with the great in- terests of religion. I could not doubt that there were the actings of a genuine faith, and of a truly humble and devout spirit, amidst some of the wild- est religious demonstrations that I had ever wit- nessed. After sitting with him perhaps an hour, I rose to come away, when he said to me, " Stop one mo- ment, if you please," and then offered, in tones the most affectionate and melting, the following prayer : "Thou Saviour, who boldest the stars in thy right hand, take this, my brother, under thy special care ; be thou his guide, his strength, his consolation, and his salvation. Let his preaching be accompanied by the power of God ; and let those to whom he min- isters be found among the saved. Do thou confirm his health ; watch over him as he prosecutes his homeward journey ; carry him safely to his friends and his flock ; honour him with a long and useful ministry ; and take to thyself all the glory." He then gave me his hand, and we parted. It was one of the most touching and patriarchal scenes with which I had ever anything to do. Everybody knows that Edward Irving's singular EDWARD IRVING. 19 character and history have given occasion to much speculation. There are not wanting those who be- lieve that he was originally a mere actor, practising 1 upon the credulity of the people, and that God, in judgment, gave him up to the delusion which he had thus courted. I heard just that opinion ex- pressed concerning him by one of the most eminent divines of Scotland, now living a man, too, who claimed to have had opportunities for extensive ob- servation upon both his earlier and later develop- ments. But such, I believe, is not the more com- mon opinion. Certain it is, however, that his his- tory is a most monitory one, and supplies the strong- est arguments to all the ministers of Christ to cultivate perfect Christian simplicity. II. T COULD not feel willing to pass even my first Sabbath in London without hearing the celebrat- ed EOWLAND HILL ; and a greater transition than there was from the splendid reveries of Irving, to whom I had listened in the morning, to the simple, colloquial, and yet majestic performance of Hill, whom I heard in the evening, it is not easy to im- agine. I set out, in what I supposed was good season, to find my way to Surrey Chapel ; and after crossing Blackfriar's Bridge, and travelling a good distance beyond, I at length reached the place. It was an immense building, I think of an octagonal form, of a highly primitive and venerable appearance. As J passed into the vestibule, I found that the lower door opening into the audience-room was not only closed but fastened, so that I had little hope of gaining admission. I, however, immediately ascended a flight of stairs which led to the gallery, and wus ROWLAND HILL. 21 met at the door by one of the officials, who took me in charge, and, not without great difficulty, procured for me an excellent seat, almost immediately in front of the pulpit. As I entered the house, the congregation were singing from a collection of hymns of which Kow- land Hill was the compiler ; and a part of the church service had previously been read by a young clergyman, who was still sitting in the desk, dressed in his canonicals. When the singing was nearly closed, Mr. Hill walked into the pulpit, in the full Episcopal habit, and with an air of majesty that I have rarely seen equalled, and never surpassed. He was a large, well-proportioned man, though some- what inclined to corpulency, with a fine head and face, and an intelligent and bland expression ; and when he sat down, I perceived that he breathed with difficulty, as if he were oppressed with the asthma, which I afterwards ascertained was really the case. At the close of the singing, he offered a short prayer, which was remarkable for* its sim- plicity and originality ; there was evidently a child- like spirit associated with a vigorous and comprehen- sive intellect. When he began to preach, his diffi- culty of respiration was so great that it seemed to me scarcely possible that he should get along with any comfort either to himself or his audience ; but the difficulty became less as he proceeded, and it was not long before he had conquered it altogether. I had heard so much* all my life of his eccentricity, 22 ROWLAND HILL. that I was prepared to hear a sermon that, in some parts at least, would impose rather a heavy tax upon my gravity ; but in this respect I was disappointed. With the exception of a single sentence, which made it a little difficult for me to command my risi- bles, there was nothing in the sermon which the most fastidious could have considered as of even questionable propriety. While there was not the semblance of elaboration about it, it contained a great amount of evangelical truth, in a form which need not have offended a cultivated taste, but which was yet perfectly level to the humblest capacity. He spoke with due deliberation, but never hesitated for a word, and seemed to have the right word al- always at command. His voice was clear, full, and commanding, his enunciation perfectly distinct, his attitudes simple and natural, his gestures always pertinent but not very abundant, and his whole ap- pearance, bating his canonicals, such as might well have become a general at the head of an army. His discourse was very much of an experimental character, and showed a heart evidently glowing with the fervour of evangelical piety. He commanded the most fixed attention from an audience which, I sup- pose, must have consisted of between three and four thousand persons. At the close of the service, I followed him into the vestry, and delivered to him an introductory let- ter from a clergyman in this country, who had made his acquaintance a few months before. To my sur- ROWLAND HILL. *23 prise and mortification I found that lie had no rec- ollection of the person who had given me the let- ter ; but he immediately relieved me from all em- barrassment, by saying that he was very happy to see me -just as much so as if he had had a better memory. As I knew he was fatigued, I remained in the vestry but a few moments, though, before leav- ing him, I accepted an invitation to breakfast with him the next morning. I went accordingly, and spent an hour or two with him, much to my satisfaction. When he introduced me to Mrs. Hill, who seemed to be a fine, genial old lady, I could not but think of the anecdote of her having fallen asleep in church, under her husband's preaching, and his call- ing out to somebody to wake up that man, lest his snoring should wake up Mrs. Hill. It is said that he used to allude to her pretty often in his preach- ing, and sometimes in a way that she did not par- ticularly relish. I breakfasted with him once or twice afterwards, and always found him full of witticisms and an- ecdotes, though he never failed to exhibit more or less of evangelical unction. Both he and Matthew Wilks, who was, in some respects, very like him, were regarded as privileged characters, and were al- lowed to say things with impunity, which would have subjected almost anybody else to severe repre- hension. For instance, one morning when I visited him, he came limping into the room, in consequence of a bad corn upon one of his feet ; and he said, in 24 ROWLAND HILL. a half-impatient, half-jocose manner, "I suppose you haven't anybody in America who wants to take a good, smart, aching corn. I would not care much if I could clap it on to some heretical parson's tongue." I soon found that he was a great friend to our country, and had the highest expectations of the part she is to bear in bringing about the moral renovation of the world. He said that he always took sides with us during our Revolution ; that he felt that our cause was a righteous one, and never doubted that we should succeed. He expressed the highest admiration of President Edwards, and seemed to think he had rendered more important service to the cause of evangelical truth than almost any other man the world had seen ; and added, that if he must have a pope, he should like just such a man ! Speaking of kings, he said that he had no idea that they had any divine right to play the devil. When I remarked to him that I had been present, a few days before, at a large clerical meet- ing in London, where an hour or two was spent in drinking toasts, and that I had never witnessed the same thing at any meeting of clergymen in my own country, he replied, " It is a foolish practice ; and I wish you would take it along with you, and bury it in the Atlantic before you get to America." One morning when I breakfasted with him, he was en- gaged to preach, at eleven o'clock, some fourteen miles from London ; and a lady was to send her carriage for him at nine. But when nine o'clock ROWLAND HILL. 25 came, no carriage had arrived, and I could see that he was becoming a little impatient. At length he exclaimed, with some degree of spirit, "Well, she may send the carriage or not as she pleases ; but one thing I know, that if it does not come, I shall not go ; for as for taking my poor old sick horse, I will do no such thing, for he has done much more for the cause of Christ than many of our bishops have." The carriage at length came, and he not only fulfilled his appointment for the morning, but preached nine miles from London on his return, at three o'clock in the afternoon ; and in London, at Tottenham Court Koad Chapel, in the evening. I attended the evening service, and found a thronged house, and the preacher seemed just as vigourous and fresh as if his faculties had not been tasked at all during the day. He told me that upon an average, he preached about seven times a week, be- sides having much of his time taken up with public engagements, though he had then reached the age of eighty-three, and had been in the ministry sixty- four years ; and when I took my final leave of him, he said : " Kemember me kindly to any of my friends you may meet in America, and tell them I have not quite done yet." Much of his conversa- tion, while I was with him, turned upon the sub- ject of civil and religious liberty. It was not long after the terrible struggle of the Greeks ; and he seemed to want language in which to convey ad- equately his sympathy for them, or his abhorrence 26 ROWLAND HILL. of the characters of their persecutors. He gave me a copy of his Village Dialogues, with a most charac- teristic inscription by his own hand. I have never seen another man to whom Kowland Hill could, on the whole, be likened. He was the son of a baronet, and there was nobility impressed upon his whole appearance, and bearing, and char- acter ; and yet no man laboured more zealously than he for the improvement of the humbler classes. He had an exuberance of wit and fun, and yet it was evident that he lived almost constantly amidst the realities of the future. He was gentle, and mild, and winning, and yet, when occasion required, he could come down like a thunder-bolt, or an ava- lanche. He was one of the few original characters that appear in an age, and he performed a most important mission ; but whoever should attempt to imitate him would be sure to come out a finished specimen of the absurd and ridiculous. III. Tl/TATTHEW WILKS belonged to the same school of preachers with Kowland Hill ; and yet there were some striking points of difference between them. They were unlike in their origin and edu- cation. Hill was of noble descent, and was a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge ; whereas Wilks was of an obscure family, and had the most common advantages for early culture. Hill's man- ners were the manners of the court there was no society in which he could have been placed, so high, or so polished, but that his presence would have befitted and graced it ; but Wilks was exceedingly plain, not to say coarse and clownish in his habits, and you might easily have mistaken him for a day-labourer in the street. Hill's mind was more highly cultivated, but Wilks' intellect was probably stronger certainly he was more sagacious and far- seeing. They labored side by side the one in Sur- rey Chapel, the other alternately in Tottenham 28 MATTHEW WILKS. Court Chapel and in the Tabernacle for about half a century. Both were eminently blessed in their labours ; both were highly gifted and eccentric men ; both enjoyed, through a long life, an unsul- lied reputation ; and the memories of both are still .deeply embalmed in the affection and gratitude of - 'thousands. As I had gone from Paris to London, I had taken with me a letter of introduction to Matthew Wilks from his son, the Kev. Mark Wilks, who has spent a considerable part of his life in France. I reached London on Saturday afternoon ; and, as I found my lodgings were not very distant from Mr. Wilks' residence, I determined to call and deliver my letter to him before the Sabbath. In the course of the evening I found my way to his dwelling ; but was told by the servant at the door that Mr. Wilks was not well, and besides, that he was not accustomed to see company except before ten in the morning. As I handed the letter to the servant, and mentioned that it was from Mr. Wilks of Paris, he asked me to stop until he had had time to de- liver it ; and in a moment he returned, and request- ed me to walk into Mr. Wilks' study. I found the old gentleman sitting at his ease, in an immense plaid gown, with an old-fashioned cap, and every- thing about his dress marking him as a piece of venerable antiquity. The reception which he gave me was in the highest degree cordial and affection- ate. After inquiring about my health, which was MATTHEW WILKS. 29 then indifferent, and about his son at Paris, he began immediately to talk in quite an enthusiastic tone about my country ; and remarked, among other things, that he had not a doubt that she was des- tined to be the mistress of the world. I think he told me that he was then eighty years old ; but he had preached regularly every Sabbath until a few weeks before, when he was overtaken with a some- what severe illness, from which he was at that time only beginning to recover. I saw him but once after this interview, and saw nothing in him then to vary the impression in respect to him, which I received at first. He seemed to me unpolished, but kind, shrewd, and deeply interested in everything that had a bearing on the interests of true religion. I am satisfied, however, that I did not at all get to the bottom of his character. I should have judged that he was capable of being somewhat blunt and unceremonious ; but I saw nothing to in- dicate that terrible power of sarcasm which consti- tuted, perhaps, his most striking characteristic. I heard a number of anecdotes, said to be well authenticated, respecting him, which will, perhaps, give a better idea of one part of his character than I can convey in any other way. One or two of them, it must be acknowledged, seem hardly con- sistent with due reverence for the Word of God. There was nothing for which he had a more cor- dial abhorrence than any exhibition of dandyism in ministers ; and nothing of this kind ever 30 MATTHEW WILKS. came in contact with him without meeting a re- buke. On one occasion, a young minister, of a good deal of pretension and parade, went from the coun- try to London, and carried Mr. Wilks a letter, de- signed to procure for him an invitation to preach. "Well, young man," said Matthew, with a nasal twang that is perfectly indescribable, but which no- body who has -heard it can ever forget, "Well, young man, you want to preach you want to preach in London, don't you ?" " I am gtfing to pass a few days here, Sir, and if it should suit Mr. Wilks' convenience, I should be very happy to give his people a sermon, while I am here." "Well," replied Matthew, " you can preach you can preach ; come along next Wednesday morning to the Taber- nacle, and I'll meet you there, and you can take my lecture for that morning." The young man agreed to do so, and was on the spot at the ap- pointed hour. Matthew met him at the door, dis- gusted, as he had been before, with his dandy airs, and addressed him thus : "Go along into the pul- pit, young man, and I shall sit below and look at you, and hear every word you say." The young preacher darted through the aisle into the pulpit, in a manner that seemed better to befit a ball- room than a place of worship. He performed the introductory service with an air of insufferable self- complacency, and in due time opened the Bible, and read his text, which was the last verse of the first chapter of the Gospel by John " Hereafter ye shall MATTHEW WILKS. 31 see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man/' He had written his sermon, and committed it all to mem- ory, as he supposed, to a word ; but unfortunately had left his manuscript behind him. "When he had read his text, he found it impossible to recall the first sentence. He hesitated and hemmed, and be- gan thus "You perceive, my brethren you per- ceive that the angels of God are here repre- sented as ascending and descending." He then set up a good stout cough, in the hope that his memory might get to work in the mean time ; but the cough was as unproductive as it was artificial, and he could do nothing but go right over again with the absurd sentence with which he had started. He coughed again and again, but his memory was in too profound a slumber to be awakened by it. After three or four minutes, during which he was a spectacle to the congregation, and especially to Matthew, who was all the time watching and listen- ing, according to his promise, he shut up his Bible in perfect consternation, and abruptly closed the service. Of course he came out of the pulpit with a very different air from that with which he en- tered it. But the worst was yet to come he had to meet Matthew, and hear his scathing com- ments. "Well, well," said he, "young man, you've preached you 've preached in London ha'nt you ? I 've heard you ; I 've heard every word you 've said, and I've only one comment to make if you 32 MATTHEW WILKS. had ascended as you descended, then you might have descended as you ascended." It is needless to say, that the young man was, by this time, cured of his ambition for preaching in the Tabernacle. Another young minister, of a similar character, paid him a visit, and Matthew observed that he sported what he thought a very indecent number of watch-seals. He eyed them for some time, as if scrutinizing the material of which they were made, and then said, with a terribly sarcastic air " It seems to me that you Ve a good many seals to your ministry, considering how young you are." He was once preaching on some public occasion, when there were not less than fifty persons in the congregation taking notes of his sermon. At length he stopped suddenly for a minute, and the stenog- raphers having nothing to do, all looked up, arid were gazing at him with astonishment. " Behold," said he, "how I've confounded the scribes !" On one occasion, as he was on his way to a meet- ing of ministers, he got caught in a shower, near the place called Billingsgate, where there was a large number of women dealing in fish, who were using the most vulgar and profane language. As he had stopped under a shed in the midst of them, he felt himself called upon at least to leave with them his testimony against their wickedness. " Don't you think," said he, speaking with the greatest delibera- tion and solemnity, "don't you think that I shall appear as a swift witness against you at the judg- MATTHEW WILKS. 33 ment ?" " I presume so," said one, " for the great- est rogues always turn State's evidence \" Mat- thew, when he got to the meeting of ministers, related the incident. "And what did you say, Mr. Wilks, in reply ?" asked one of the ministers pres- ent. " What could I ?" was the characteristic an- swer. It may seem strange that with so much of eccen- tricity, operating, too, sometimes in a way that seemed actually irreverent, he should still have been one of the most useful ministers of his day. But that such was the case, admits of no question. His preaching, though abounding with anecdote, and never rising above the most colloquial style, and often producing something much above a smile on the countenances of his audience, was, nevertheless, strongly evangelical, and admirably fitted to reach the conscience. He was also one of the most be- nevolent of men. Numerous anecdotes are related of him, that show how literally he imitated his Master's example in going about doing good. Few ministers, it is believed, have, at any period, been instrumental of the salvation of so many souls, or contributed so much to further the cause of evan- gelical truth and piety. IV. ITIHEKE was scarcely any book whose title-page at least was more familiar to me, from my earli- est childhood, than BURDER'S VILLAGE SERMONS ; and there were few people in London whom I was more desirous of seeing, than the venerable author of it. It happened, very fortunately for me, that I had a letter of introduction to his son, the Kev. Dr. Henry Forster Burder ; and, as he was ready to oblige me in everything, so he seemed more than willing to procure for me the gratification of see- ing his excellent father. Accordingly, he made an engagement with the old gentleman, who then re- sided with another son an eminent physician, in London that we would take tea with him on a par- ticular evening ; and then it was that I had one of the only two interviews with him with which I was favoured. He was at that time seventy-six years of age. He had lost entirely the sight of one eye, and the GEORGE BURDER. 35 other was so materially affected tliat lie seemed to think it more than possible that he might close his life in total blindness. His countenance was ex- pressive at once of mildness and decision ; and his manners were as gentle, and his spirit apparently as meek, as I should have expected to find in "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He told me that he was a native of London, as was his father and his grandfather before him ; that in the early part of his ministry he was settled at Coventry, but for the twenty-six years then just past, he had been pas- tor of the church in Fetter Lane, of which his father was long a deacon, and in which he was him- self baptized. Notwithstanding his infirmities, he was still able to share equally with his colleague the services of the Sabbath ; and I think I had it upon good authority, that his discourses were at that time as vigourous in thought and as rich in unction as ever. He talked with much interest of many of his excellent cotemporaries in the ministry who had passed away ; but of no one did he speak with more- marked respect and affection than of the celebrated William Komaine, who was for a long time one of the brightest lights in the evangelical portion of the established church. This venerable man, he said, used to keep a list of those clergymen of the es- tablishment, in and about London, and I believe throughout England, who sympathized with him in his views of Christian truth and duty, and to have it before him in his private devotions ; and that 36 GEORGE BURDER. he lived to see the number increased from three or four to three or four hundred. One of the number, when it was the smallest, was a Mr. Jones, of whom Mr. Burder told me this anecdote Mr. Jones had a college classmate, who entered the ministry at the same time with himself, but was a mere man of the world, and knew little, and cared nothing, about the true Gospel. This man conversing one day with Mr. Jones, said to him half-jocosely, half- seriously, "Why is it that you are so popular as a preacher, and so few come to hear me, when everybody knows that at the university I was con- sidered greatly your superior ?" " Why," said Mr. Jones, "the reason is that I preach the Gospel." u The Gospel," said the other, " so do I ; almost every text I preach upon is from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John." Said Mr. Jones, " You may do that, and yet never preach Jesus Christ." "Well," said the other, "lend me one of your sermons, and see what effect it will have." He actually did lend him one, and he preached it as he had engaged to do ; and as he was coming out of the church at the close of the service, he was accosted by a man who, in listening to the borrowed discourse, had been thrown into a state of deep anxiety in respect to his salvation. Says the minister, somewhat con- fused by the strange result of his preaching, " Wait, wait ; say nothing about it till the people have all gone out." After the congregation had- retired, the anxious inquirer began further to ex- GEORGE BUKDER. 3T plain himself, when the clergyman interrupted him by saying " But what is the matter with you ? I see no occasion for your making yourself unhappy." " Matter," replied he ; " why your preaching has made me feel like a condemned criminal, and I fear there is no mercy for me." " Well, really," said the minister, "I am very sorry that I have wounded your feelings I had no intention of doing it ; but since you have got into this uncomfortable state, I advise you to go and see Mr. Jones." I had another interview with Mr. Burder after this, in which he showed me several curious manu- scripts, among which were a number of sermons of the Henrys (Philip and Matthew), and a few lines written by Kichard Baxter in a Bible which I think once belonged to a pulpit in which he was accus- tomed to preach. Mr. Burder had, for many years, in connexion with his pastoral engagements, held the office, and faithfully discharged the duties, of Secretary to the London Missionary Society ; and it was probably in this latter capacity that he ren- dered his most important services to the church. Though, on account of his bodily infirmities, his con- nexion with the Society had ceased some time be- fore I saw him, it was manifest that his interest in the missionary cause was as intense as ever. While he was himself a Congregationalist, and was, I be- lieve, strongly attached to Congregational princi- ples and usages, he embraced in his Christian re- gards and sympathies all, of whatever name, in whom GEORGE BURDER. he recognized the image of Christ. From that time he declined gradually, and within, I think, two or three years, he was gently released from the suffer- ings of earth, to enter into his final rest. I con- gratulate myself to this day that my first visit to England was in time to see the author of the " Vil- lage Sermons." V. I am not sure that even the name of WILLIAM OKME was known to me previous to my going to London, I found that he was one of the most distinguished of the Dissenting ministers of the metropolis, and exerted a wide influence not only as a preacher but as an author, and especially as the Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society. My first meeting with him was at the set- ting apart (or as we should say the installation) of the Kev. Henry Townley, as pastor of the church in White Row ; on which occasion Mr. Orme per- formed a very interesting part of the service. He saved me the trouble of seeking an introduction to him, by coming directlyto me, as soon as he knew that I was in the house ; and he invited me at once, with great cordiality, to pass some time with his family before I should leave the country. I ac- cepted his kind invitation, and the time for my visit was fixed upon, which was to include a Sabbath. 40 WILLIAM ORME. Mr. Orme resided at Camberwell, and at the ap- pointed time I found my way to Ms residence. I met at dinner, on the day of my arrival, Mr. Favell, a most respectable member of the corporation of the city of London, who, I was informed, had it not been for his being a vigorous Dissenter, would prob- ably, before that time, have been chosen Lord Mayor, He was an unassuming, highly intelligent man, and withal was an active member and deacon of Mr. Orme's church. He had much to say of the Eevolution that terminated in American independ- ence, and unhesitatingly pronounced our cause, dur- ing that conflict, a righteous one. And then he added that, though the war of 1812 was unpopular in Great Britain, it had at least served to convince the British that the Americans could measure swords with them ; and that it had actually done much to lower the tone of British vaunting in re- spect to their national superiority. I passed the Sabbath with Mr. Orme, and had the pleasure of hearing him preach one part of the day. His sermon was on the text, "Every man shall bear his own burden." I cannot say that it was a particularly striking performance, and yet it was full of weighty thoughts well arranged, and was delivered with a distinct voice, with a good degree of animation, and with great simplicity. It was his custom not to write his sermons at length, but, after the manner of the English Dissenters gener- ally, at that time, to get a train of thoughts fixed in WILLIAMORME. 41 his mind, and then trust to the moment for the * language. His occasional sermons, however, he was accustomed to write, though, I believe, some that were printed were not written till after the deliv- ery. But he used his pen abundantly in other fields of labour, as is proved by the various im- portant works which he sent forth during his min- istry. In private, he was at once most agreeable and instructive. His mind seemed deeply exercised in regard to the political as well as religious state of Great Britain ; and though he did not anticipate anything like a revolution at an early period, he thought the tendency of things was manifestly in that direction. His heart was, as might be ex- pected, fully in the missionary cause, and indeed his official labours, in that department, occupied no small portion of his time. But he had evidently great executive power; and was well fitted to be the master mind in any grand operation. His coun- tenance bespoke great strength of character, per- haps some degree of sternness ; but he had great kindness and tenderness of feeling. He related to me particularly some of the struggles of his early life, and especially the overwhelming affliction which he met in the death of his wife, within seven months after their marriage ; and his emotions were too strong to be repressed. He left me with the impression that he was adequate to any emergency that required courage and decision, while yet he had 42 WILLIAMOBME. only to let nature have its own way, to " weep witl them that weep." Mr. Orme was a Scotchman by birth and educa- tion, and if I remember right, was born in the year 1787 ; so that, when I saw him, he must have been about forty-one years of age. He evinced strong intellectual tastes at an early period, but in consequence of adverse circumstances, particularly the death of his father, he was unable to indulge them, and was compelled to engage in active busi- ness. His mind first took a decided religious di- rection under the preaching of the Kev. James Haldane, of Edinburgh, where Orme's family then resided. He became at this time a teacher* in a Sabbath-school, and his occasional addresses to the children were so pertinent, and often so striking, that the Christians with whom he was associated began to urge him to devote himself to the minis- try of the Gospel. It was of all things what he de- sired the most ; and, accordingly, when he was in his nineteenth year, he commenced a course of pre- paratory studies in an institution sustained by Kobert Haldane, for the special benefit of the Scot- tish Independent churches. After remaining here but a single year, he entered on the duties of the ministry ; and his first settlement, which took place in the year 1807, was at Perth. Having laboured here more than seventeen years, during which he had a varied, and, in some respects, peculiar experi- ence, he went to London, where he continued during WILLIAM ORME. 43 the residue of his life. His death, which took place about two years -after I saw him, was a fine illustra- tion of the power of Christian principle, and a fitting close of an eminently honoured and useful life. VI [~T was not till I was on the eye of leaving Lon- don, that I ascertained that the residence of this great statesman and philanthropist was only ahout ten miles distant ; and it took me but a moment to decide that I would not leave the neighbourhood without doing my utmost to obtain an interview with him. Accordingly, having procured from one of his friends a letter of introduction to him, I left London early one morning, with my friend Mr. Joshua Wilson, (whose kindness towards me was unintermitted, and indeed has never ceased to this day,) to secure, if possible, the desired gratification. After riding more than an hour through a delightful and highly-cultivated region, we reached Highwood, where Mr. WILBERFORCE then had .his residence. His dwelling was a large stone building, situated on a delightful eminence, overlooking a fine valley beneath ; and everything around it, though per- fectly simple, showed exquisite taste and the very WILLIAM WILBEEFOECE. 45 perfection of culture. The place seemed to me quite in keeping with the character of its illustrious occupant. On delivering the letter to the servant at the door, we were conducted through the drawing-room, where some members of the family and others were sitting, into the library, where we were requested to stop a short time until Mr. Wilberforce should be ready to receive us. With the leave of the librarian who was present, we amused ourselves by looking into some of the books, and observing the notes which Mr. Wilberforce had made with his pen or pencil in reading them. This was particularly true of a volume of Kobert Hall, of whom he remarked that he did not believe there was a man living who possessed finer talents. The greater part of the books were theological the productions chiefly of standard English writers ; and not a few of them had been presented by the authors themselves. Af- ter we had waited nearly half an hour, Mr. Wilber- force entered the room, and being very near-sighted, he took his glass, which was suspended from his neck, and looking me in the face, asked if I was the gentleman from America ; and, on being an- swered in the affirmative, he gave me his hand in the most affectionate manner, and welcomed me to the country and to his house. He immediately said "You have made your arrangements, I hope, to spend the day with me ?" and when I told him that I had engaged to dine in town, he added 46 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. " Then you will come and pass some other day with me before you leave the neighbourhood." I told him that would be impossible, as my arrangements for leaving in a day or two were definitely made, and it would be very inconvenient for me then to change them. He expressed great astonishment that I should go so soon, and went into quite an argu- ment with me to induce me to change my pur- pose. Mr. Wilberforce's personal appearance was alto- gether peculiar. He was small in stature, extreme- ly rapid in his movements, very near-sighted, and crooked almost to deformity. I can hardly say what his countenance would have been in a state of re- pose, for I think I had no opportunity of seeing it in that state ; but in conversation it seemed per- fectly radiant with intelligence and benignity. He soon took us to the window and pointed out the beauties of the surrounding scenery, in which nature and art seemed both to have done their utmost. He then directed our attention to a likeness of William Pitt, his intimate friend, and observed that it was the only good likeness of him in existence ; and then added a remark or two which led me to suppose that his least pleasant recollections of Pitt had respect to his treatment of religion. By this time he rose suddenly from his chair and said "Well, I am wronging my family in the other room by monopolizing your company ;" and imme- diately took us into the drawing-room, where we WILLIAM WILBEBFOBCE. 47 were introduced to his son and daughter, and the Rev. Mr. Sibthorp, then a distinguished Episcopal minister in London. He said he was particularly desirous to make me acquainted with his son ; that, if I should visit England again, though he should not himself probably be here to welcome me, his son might be, and he knew that he would be happy to do anything for me in his power. As we were sitting in the drawing-room, my attention was at- tracted to the most splendid set of china that I ever saw ; and Mr. Wilberforce perceiving it, took up some of the articles, and pointed out to us their peculiar beauties ; observing at the same time that it was of foreign manufacture. When I inquired more particularly from what country it came, he replied very modestly "Why, to tell the truth, it is a present to me from the king of Prussia." After stopping perhaps half an hour with his family in the drawing-room, he asked us to pass on with him into his more retired apartment, where he was accustomed to spend the greater part of his time. Here he had another part of his library, and particularly his periodical publications, which seemed almost innumerable. Among them was our Missionary Herald, of which he spoke in terms of high praise. He remarked that we had a very clever man in our country, by the name of , who had formerly written some things in which he was deeply interested ; but that he had subsequently published a book which attacked England with great 48 WILLIAM WILBEKFORCE. violence fortunately, however, lie said, that it wag so large a book, and so closely printed, and the English withal were so much inclined to take their ease, that it never got into circulation among them, and therefore never did any hurt. He spoke with great reprobation of the mutually vituperative spirit which had, to some extent, existed in both coun- tries ; and expressed the opinion that Adam Hodg- son's travels in America had done more to promote friendly relations between the two countries than perhaps any other publication. Mr. Hodgson was his intimate friend, and he kindly offered me an introductory note to him, which I thankfully ac- cepted. When I remarked to him that his health seemed more vigorous than I had expected, he said he had great reason to be thankful that he had such a measure of health ; for his life had been little else than a struggle with disease and de- bility ; and Dr. Warren, one of the most eminent physicians in London, had told him, more than forty years before, that he had not stamina enough to last a fortnight. He mentioned several of our American divines in terms of very high respect ; particularly Dr. Mason, with whom he had some ac- quaintance, and Dr. Dwight, whose writings seemed to be familiar to him. I was glad to be able to tell him that his regard for Dr. Dwight was most fully reciprocated, as I had more than once heard the Doctor mention him with most affectionate re- spect in his lectures to his pupils. He presented WILLIAM WILBERFOECE. 49 me with a copy of his "Practical View," splendidly bound, and containing a very kind inscription with his own hand ; and, as he gave it to me, he re- marked that it was a book which he wrote many years before soon after it pleased God to open his eyes, and bring him to a knowledge of the truth ; that he had great reason to be thankful that it had been in some degree useful ; that soon after it was published he sent a copy of it to Burke, who, in acknowledging it, said that he approved it most cordially. In reply to a question that I put to him concerning Burke's religious character, he said that though he had reason to fear that he was not a decidedly pious man, yet he was undoubtedly one of the best of the class to which he belonged. After spending the morning with him, we took our leave ; and I can truly say that I never parted wi,th a human being with my mind more filled with grate- ful and reverential recollections. I had a long let- ter from him after my return home, which I treas- ure as a precious memorial of one of the noblest spirits of his own or any other age. 3 VII. T HAD heard much of Mr. JAY from my early childhood ; and his sermons were among the first that I ever read. Of course, when I crossed the ocean, I had a great interest in seeing him ; and I made it in my way to stop a day or two in Bath, in order to procure for myself this gratification. As I had letters of introduction to him from two of his particular friends in London, he gave me not only a courteous but very cordial reception ; and the impressions which I had received concerning him were fully justified by his fine person, his bland and engaging manner, and the agreeable and elevated tone of his conversation. I should think him rather below than above the middle size ; and in his countenance there was so much of both intelligence and benignity, that it was difficult to say which had the preponderance. He was very sociable, and yet his mode of talking was quiet and gentle, and as far removed as pos- WILLIAMJAY. 51 sible from any thing like pretension. As I talked with him, I found that the celebrated preacher was gradually giving place to the kind and obliging friend ; and I had scarcely spent half an hour in his company, before every idea of the stranger was gone, and I felt a degree of freedom certainly not unmingled with reverence which might very well have been the growth of years. He gave me a very touching account of his children, part of which was, that he had one with Christ, three in Christ, and two near Christ. I was not a little interested in hearing him express his opinion concerning vari- ous distinguished personages, with whom he had been more or less familiar. I found that he had a great admiration of Kowland Hill, and regarded him as having been of one the brightest lights of his generation ; and I happened to know, I think from Rowland Hill himself, that the regard was fully reciprocated. Somebody told me an amusing anec- dote about Mr. Jay's writing a letter to Mr. Hill in his characteristic blind hand, which Mr. Hill found it hard to decypher. His reply was, that he had received a letter that seemed to bear his (Mr. Jay's) signature, and if it meant so and so, so and so would be his reply, but, if it was something else, his answer would be modified accordingly ; but he concluded by advising him, whenever he had occa- sion to write to him again, to use a gentleman's hand, and not a Jay's claw. Mr. Jay had long been on intimate terms with Wilberforce and Hannah 52 WILLIAMJAY. More, and he expressed an unbounded reverence for both of them ; though he regretted to have heard some facts which led him to suppose that the latter had become more stringent in her denomi- national peculiarities in latter years. He spoke with deep regret of the utter disregard of all religion evinced at that time by not a few of the clergy of the Established Church ; though there were many others for whom he entertained the profoundest re- spect, as evangelical, excellent men. He mentioned that even the celebrated Dr. Parr did not at all scruple at an irreverent use of the name of the Su- preme Being ; and that, on one occasion, when he was dining with a lady of a serious character, and was conversing on some subject that required him occasionally to speak Greek, the lady reproved him by saying, " Doctor, I wish, for the sake of my servants, that you would talk English, and swear in Greek." Mr. Jay, it is well known, was indebted, in a great measure, for his training, to the Kev. Mr. Win- ter, whose life and character he has so graphically sketched. He talked a great deal about him, and in a manner that betokened the utmost reverence, gratitude, and affection. John Newton, too, he was well acquainted with ; and he did not hesitate to say, that Newton and Winter were the two .holi- est men he had ever met with. I found that he was a mortal enemy to preach- ing or hearing three sermons on the Sabbath. " The third/ 1 he said, " batters the mind rather than im- WILLIAMJAY. 53 presses it." He mentioned that when he was in Scotland, some time before, Dr. Chalmers remarked to him, that very few ministers, who were likely to be of much use to the world, were allowed to die a natural death ; that they were killed by the godly ; that they would go and stroke their heads, and talk to them about the loud demand in Providence for ministerial labour ; and in that way the devil got rid of them often some twenty or thirty years sooner than he would have done otherwise. I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Jay preach, but not in his own chapel. It so happened that he was engaged to preach at Bristol the same Sabbath that I was to spend there ; and, indeed, I had the pleas- ure of making the short journey from Bath to Bristol in his company. He went there to supply the pulpit of a clergyman who was absent ; if I mistake not, it was the celebrated William Thorpe. Though Mr. Jay had lived so long quite in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and, of course, must have been often heard there, I noticed that everybody seemed glad of an opportunity of hearing him ; and as the house was crowded, I suspected he was a good deal of an attraction. His manner in the pul- pit was a beautiful compound of simplicity, dignity and grace. His fine, open, beaming face ; his melo- dious voice and perfectly distinct articulation ; his gesture, as unstudied as his breathing ; his elevated and yet familiar and affectionate style of address, I confess, gave him an advantage over most of the 54 WILLIAMJAY. excellent speakers whom I have heard on either side of the water. Those who have heard the late Dr. Abbot, of Beverly, preach, have witnessed the near- est approach to Jay's manner that has ever come under my observation. It is needless for me to de- scribe the sermon I heard from him, as everybody knows his peculiar style ; and besides, the outline of the sermon, I observe, constitutes one of his " Morning Exercises." What evidently formed one chief element of his power, was the perfect con- gruity that existed between his matter and man- ner. It seemed to me that every sentence was ut- tered in a way to secure to it the highest possible effect. His prayers, though as simple as the lan- guage of childhood, were yet so rich in evangelical thought, and withal so beautiful and faultless in expression, that it was difficult for me to believe that they had not been elaborated with devout care. I have heard men preach who gave me a higher idea of force of intellect than Mr. Jay ; but in the class of preachers to which he belonged, I believe it is generally acknowledged that he was without a rival. Probably no clergyman, on either side of the water, enjoyed, during the same period, a higher degree of popularity than William Jay. His remark- able attractions were acknowledged in the Estab- lished Church as well as out of it ; and his works, which are based on the broadest principles of evangel- ical Catholicism, seem to have Diet an equally cordial welcome among Christians of every communion. VIII, AND HPHEKE was a good deal in the way of intellectual and literary distinction in Bristol and its neigh- bourhood, to render a visit there desirable to me ; but the chief attraction, I must acknowledge, was EGBERT HALL. My attention was first directed to his works, when I was in college, by hearing Dr. Dwight say, that his sermons on Infidelity were the brightest gem in the literature of the English pul- pit ; and such had always been my admiration of him, that I took good care that none of the pro- ductions of his pen should escape me. And when I found myself within about a hundred and twenty miles of him, (for that is the distance from London to Bath,) I resolved that it should not be for the want of the requisite pains, if I should leave Eng- land without seeing and hearing him. I reached Bristol some time on Saturday, and the most important point which I had to settle on my 56 ROBERT HALL arrival was, whether Mr. Hall was in town, and would preach the next day. I had two introductory letters to him one from Eowland Hill, and one from an intimate friend of his in London, to whom I knew he was under great obligations ; so that I felt tolerably strong in calling, as I did, Saturday night, to pay my respects to him ; and yet, had I known as much before as I did afterwards, of his extreme aversion to seeing company, I scarcely think I should have had the courage to seek an intro- duction to him. He received me courteously, but told me that he was suffering extreme pain, as, indeed, he had been during the greater part of his life. He was rather shabbily dressed ; but with such a commanding person and countenance as he had, he could well afford to be ; for it must have been a singular eye that would have been detained by his dress, let it have been what it might. His face has been made so familiar to everybody by numerous engraved likenesses, that it would be need- less to attempt to describe it ; and yet the most perfect portrait of him that I have seen, is not so perfect but that the original, as it has always lain in my memory, casts it into the shade. Having ascertained that he would preach the next morn- ing, I took my leave of him, promising, however, to see him again at his house, early in the week. I went the next morning to Broadniead Chapel, to hear him preach. It was, by no means, a large building ; nor was the congregation, in point of AND JOHN FOSTER. 57 numbers, anything like what I had expected ; though I understood it was select, and had in it an unusual proportion of intelligent men. One of the tutors in the Baptist Theological Academy at Bristol, per- formed the introductory services, and it was not till they were singing the second time, that Mr. Hall walked into the pulpit. His gait was slow and ma- jestic ; and if I had known nothing of him before, I should have needed nobody to assure me that he was some extraordinary personage. He rose and an- nounced his text in the most unpretending man- ner that can be imagined, and in so low a tone that I found it difficult to understand him. For sev- eral minutes there was no material improvement in his style of elocution he kept pulling the leaves of his Bible, as if he were a book-binder, engaged in taking a book to pieces ; and his eyes were stead- fastly fixed in one direction, as if his whole audi- ence were gathered into one corner of the room. I said to myself" If this is Kobert Hall in England, I greatly prefer to meet him as I can in America ; for I had rather read his writings, than merely hear his unintelligible whispers." Presently, however, the scene began to change ; and his voice, though still low, became distinctly audible. For the first fifteen or twenty minutes, he said nothing which would have led me to inquire who he was, if I had not known ; . for the last twenty-five or thirty, it seemed to me that he said scarcely anything that could have been said by another man. It was like an 3* 58 ROBERT HALL impetuous mountain torrent in a still night. There was not the semblance of parade nothing that be- trayed the least thought of being eloquent, but there was a power of thought, a grace and beauty, and yet force, of expression, a facility of command- ing the best language, without apparently think- ing of the language at all, combined with a counte- nance all glowing from the fire within, which con- stituted a fascination that was to me perfectly irresistible. As he advanced to the close of his dis- course, the effect upon my nervous system was like the discharge of artillery ; and though I was com- pletely rapt with wonder and admiration, I was not sorry when he said "Let us pray." I shall, per- haps, be less suspected of extravagance in this statement, when I say that Eobert Hall's own peo- ple regarded this as an extraordinary performance ; and one of his intelligent hearers told me that I might have heard him for years, and not have chanced to hear so fine a sermon. At the close of the service, observing that Mr. Hall passed into the vestry from which I had seen him come, I ventured, after a moment, to step in and pay my respects to him ; and I found him stretched out upon two or three chairs, with his pipe already in his mouth ; and I was assured that he always smoked up to the last moment before going into the pulpit. He introduced me to several of his friends, and especially to a Dr. Stock, who was just at that time a good deal talked about for AND JOHN FOSTER. 59 his having recently renounced Unitarianism. He re- quested me to come and see him the next day, and said he should beg me to go home with him then, but that he was so much exhausted after preaching, \ .A ^*~ ! as to be unfit for any conversation. When I called upon him after dinner, on Mon- day, I found him lying down upon chairs, and liter- ally writhing in agony. After a few minutes, he called to his wife for his accustomed opiate, laud- anum, and took three hundred drops, and after a short time, poured out as much more, and drank it as if it had been water. I found that he had made arrangements to take me to the house of a friend to pass the evening, where there was to be a small party, and among them the celebrated John Foster. This was to me an evening of great in- terest. Foster was there, and he and Hall bore the chief part in the conversation, each rendering the other more brilliant. Foster expressed to me the opinion that Ha'll was unquestionably the greatest preacher in the world ; and Hall told me that Fos- ter was the best model of an ancient philosopher now extant. Foster was a tall, stately, and some- what rough-looking man, given to saying weighty, and sometimes witty things ; and though he was, on the whole, a remarkably fine talker, he was cer- tainly greatly inferior both in fluency and in bril- liancy to Hall. A little circumstance was related to me, as having occurred a short time before, that was strikingly illustrative of Foster's disregard of 60 ROBERT HALL his personal appearance. As he was going to dine with a friend who lived about a mile and a half from his residence, with an intention of passing the night with him, he took along with him his night- clothes. As they hung out a little from his pocket, a person met him in the field, and said, " Well, I Ve got you at last." Foster, not understanding the strange salutation, asked the fellow what he meant. " You need not make strange of it," was the reply, "for I know you; you are a thief." "But what have I stolen ?" " You shall know what you have stolen you shall go directly with me to a magis- trate." "I am Mr. Foster, of Stapleton." "You are not Mr. Foster, for he is a gentleman, and you are not." "Well," says Foster, "if you are de- termined to carry me to a magistrate, I must go with you, of course ; but suppose you go with me to Mrs. C/s, and see what they say about me." To this the fellow consented ; and when the servant came to the gate, Mr. Foster asked him to tell that man who he was. When the servant said " Mr. Foster," the poor fellow who was taking him into custody instantly fell upon his knees, and begged a thousand pardons.^ Mr. Foster did not mention the affair to the company immediately on going into the house, but he was observed frequently to smile and bite his lips during the dinner, which finally led to an explanation. Among other subjects that came up in the course of the evening was that of Lexicography. Hall had AND JOHN FOSTER. 61 no patience with the modem taste for multiplying words beyond what he thought the progress of civili- zation required ; and he maintained that the object of a dictionary should be to ascertain and fix the legitimate meaning of words, rather than, by need- lessly introducing new ones, to keep the language in a state of constant fluctuation. He went into a somewhat lengthened argument, showing the ut- most familiarity with philological subjects, as well as the most exact and cultivated taste ; and the splendour of his diction, even while he was talking about the philosophy of language, was equalled only by the rapidity of his utterance. During nearly the whole evening, he was lying in his favorite posture, stretched upon two or three chairs, and, every now and then, refreshing us with the fumes of the weed. Before we separated he of- fered a most pertinent and affectionate prayer, which recognized, in a truly felicitous manner, all the pe- culiar circumstances under which we were met. The next afternoon I spent at Mr. Hall's house, by invitation, when I had the pleasure of being alone with him and his family. Though he was constantly in pain, and was frequently using his an- tidote in such quantities as would have seemed in- credible, if I had not witnessed it, yet he was all the time beyond measure brilliant and interesting. No- thing impressed me more than his high appreciation of the talents of other men, whom the world would have pronounced greatly inferior to himself, while he 62 ROBERT HALL could not have the least patience with anything like unreasonable pretension or arrogance. He spoke of certain divines in our own country in terms of un- measured respect he mentioned particularly Dr. Mason, and Dr. Dwight, and above all President Edwards, as among the brightest stars in the theo- logical firmament ; while I remember he spoke of one whom he had never seen, but of whose self- complacency he had had rather a revolting demon- stration, with an air of most scathing sarcasm. He was well acquainted with the celebrated Eobert Robinson, of Cambridge ; and he regarded him as, without exception, the most powerful and delightful man in conversation, and the most engaging preacher, he ever knew. He expressed his astonishment that Dr. Mason was so great an admirer of John Owen as for himself, he said, he could not endure him ; and though Owen had certainly poured out a world of matter, it was matter in the sense of pus. He talked with great enthusiasm of the celebrated Thomas Spencer, of Liverpool, and had no doubt that he was the most effective preacher, so far, at least, as manner was concerned, that had arisen since the time of Whitefield ; though he had never seen him, and formed his opinion upon testimony alone. He had much to say on the subject of preternatural admonitions, spectres, &c. ; and he did not hesitate to avow himself a believer in such things, though he was aware that he did it at the expense of being thought superstitious. Indeed, he told me two or AND JOHN FOSTER. 63 three regular ghost stories, for the truth of which he stood ready to vouch. He could scarcely find language to convey his idea of the excellence of his predecessor at Bristol, Dr. Ryland. I was told that some one once reported something to Mr. Hall, which he at first pronounced incredible ; but when Dr. Kyland was mentioned as the authority, he said " Did Dr. Kyland say so, Sir ? Then it is true, Sir; for I would as soon receive his testimony as the affidavit of seven archangels." I remained with him till after eleven o'clock, and then left him, not more impressed with his greatness than his sim- plicity and generosity. As I was coming away, he gave me one of his printed works, with an affec- tionate inscription to me on the title-page, with his own hand. I never saw him after parting with him that evening. IX. A S Barley Wood was but about ten miles from Bristol, it was impossible that I should be so near the residence of its far-famed occupant, without, at least, making an effort to see her ; though the ac- counts which I had heard of her feeble health, and her inability to see even her own friends, left me with little hope that any effort I could make would be successful. Still, as there was some hope, I re- solved to try ; and, accordingly, left Bristol early one morning, accompanied by Mr. H , a gen- tleman who showed me great kindness, determined to see Barley Wood at any rate, and Mrs. MORE if it were possible. The morning was bright, the coun- try beautiful, and the ~ride altogether delightful, except for the doubtful success of our enterprise. At length, we found by inquiry, (for this was my friend's first visit to that famous spot,) that we were within a short distance of the gate that opened to Mrs. More's grounds. As we entered the enclosure. HANNAH MORE. 65 we were met by a servant, who relieved our appre- hension of disappointment by telling us that Mrs. More was in comfortable health, and would doubt- less be happy to receive us. Her dwelling was a thatched cottage, standing on a graceful declivity, and overlooking the church and village of Wring- ton, a charming verdant vale, Bristol channel, and a range of distant hills. The servant left us in the parlour, while he went to take to Mrs. More my introductory letters, one of which was from Dr. King, now of Athens, and the other from Mr. Wilberforce. As we were de- tained a few moments, I occupied myself in looking at the engraved likenesses, which nearly covered the walls of the room ; and I noticed, what, indeed, had been remarked to me by some other person, that not a Dissenter's head was to be found among them all ; an indication, I was told, of what was really the case, that Mrs. More's Christian sympathies, es- pecially in her latter years, were almost exclusively with the Church of England. There was also in the room a small miscellaneous library, in which I noticed a copy of Bishop Dehon's sermons, a volume or two of the Panoplist, and, I believe, some other of our American publications. In due time the servant came back, and con- ducted us into her room, which was in the second story ; and, though a Catholic could scarcely feel more reverence in approaching the Holy Virgin than I did in approaching her, the very first words she 66 HANNAH MORE. * spoke, without diminishing my reverence, relieved me from every feeling of embarrassment, and made me forget the extent of her fame in the familiar gentleness of her manner. She was at that time eighty-three years of age ; she was rather below the medium stature ; her features were remarkably regu- lar, her complexion clear and bright, her eye gentle but expressive, and her countenance altogether glow- ing with benignity and intelligence. Her hair was powdered, and her dress rich and even elegant, con- sidering that she was at home, and was only receiv- ing a morning call. She had one or two female friends with her when we entered the room ; but they almost immediately withdrew, so that our con- versation was exclusively with her, during nearly the whole of our visit. She at once adverted to the fact of my having brought her a letter from her "dear friend, Mr. Wilberforce," and inquired with great interest in respect to his health ; and when I told her that -I had, a few days before, passed a most delightful morning with him, she replied that she had no doubt it was a morning spent on the threshold of Heaven ; and then added, that he was one of her oldest friends ; that his writings had done great good, especially among the higher classes of British society ; that his visits to her had always been a source of great comfort, and his prayers in her fa- mily were really heavenly. She expressed great ad- miration for Mr. Jay and Robert Hall ; though she HANNAH MORE. 67 knew the former mtich better than the latter. Jay she regarded as one of the most delightful charac- ters, and interesting preachers, she had ever known ; and as for Hall, she thought his powers of intellect, especially of eloquence, were unrivalled his compo- sition she considered as absolutely perfect ; and though she had sometimes read his productions to see if she could not find some fault, she had never discovered anything in them that seemed to her to admit of being changed for the better. She observed, as a peculiarity of her mental con- stitution, that she had never been "able to quote from her own writings ; and it had sometimes hap- pened that a friend had read to her an extract from one of her own books, and then amused her- self by making her pass judgment upon it in the dark. She could not even recollect the titles of many of her volumes ; and having occasion to refer to one of them, as she was conversing with me, she said " I do not remember the title ; but it is some- thing about Christianity, I believe." As she was evidently desirous of gratifying our curiosity as much as possible, she took us into an- other apartment, which was her sleeping room ; and, pointing to a fine old arm-chair, said very pleas- antly " That chair I call my home/ 7 She ob- served that she had three different prospects from as many different windows of her house ; and, look- ing out of a window in the room where we were " Here," said she, " is what I call my moral pros- 68 HANNAH MORE. pect. You see yonder distant hill, which cuts off the prospect beyond. You see the tree before my window, directly in range of the hill. You observe that the tree, from being near, appears much higher than the hill, which is distant. Now, this tree rep- resents, to my mind, the objects of time that hill, the objects of eternity. The former, like the tree, from being near and distinctly seen, appear great ; the latter, like the hill, from being seen in the dis- tance, appear comparatively small." She presented me with a copy of the last work she had sent forth on the "Spirit of Prayer" with a very kind inscription from her own hand. She said it was a compilation from her other works, made when she was so feeble as to be confined to her bed, with the expectation of never rising from it ; that she felt the importance of the work, and determined to send it to the press, if only fifty copies were sold ; but, that in less than six months, eight thousand were disposed of. She presented me, also, with another book of her's, entitled " Hints to a young Princess ;" and she accounted for its not having been printed in America, as her other works had been, from the fact that our's is a republican government ; but she said that, with the exception of forty pages, it was suited to the education of the higher class of females generally. She dissuaded the Princess Charlotte from learning music, on the ground that it was beneath her rank, that it would occupy time that might be spent to better purpose, HANNAHMOKE. 69 t and that she could always have professors of emi- nence to perform in her presence. She spoke of the Princess as a most amiable and promising char- acter, whose death was a great affliction to the country, and whose example, if she had lived, would have exerted a most benign influence upon the higher classes. Mrs. More had a strong conviction that she possessed a truly Christian character, and that her end was peace. She expressed a very kind solicitude concerning my health, which was at that time somewhat im- paired ; and when I told her that I had suffered severely from a derangement of the nervous system, she said her experience enabled her to sympathize with me, and she thought nothing was more im- portant to me than to avoid undue excitement. The disciples, she remarked, could sleep in sorrow ; and she had found that she could sleep better, after a day of affliction, than after a very exciting inter- view. Her whole character through life, she repre- sented as having been marked by impatience ; she did not mean that impatience that would lead her to be angry with servants and those around her, but that which led her to push on a work, when she had commenced it, till it was completed ; and to this she attributed the fact of her having written so much. After we had sat with her a considerable time, she directed her servant to conduct us around her " little domain," as she called it ; and, as we went out, she requested us to take particu- 70 HANNAH MORE. lar notice of a monument she had erected to the memory of John Locke, and another in honour of her "dear friend," Bishop Porteus. She told us that that place had been in her possession twenty- six years ; that when she purchased it, it was in a wild, uncultivated state ; and that whatever trees or shrubs we should see, were planted by her own hand. As we walked over the grounds, we were sometimes almost hidden in the foliage ; and we found continually, at short distances, the monuments of her taste, and skill, and industry. The most re- markable thing that I remember, was a Druidical temple, as Mrs. More called it, made of knots of wood, disposed in the most fanciful manner. When we returned from our ramble, she had pro- vided lunch for us ; and while we remained, she con- tinued to converse with much animation and inter- est. She mentioned several of her acquaintances in the United States, with great respect and good will ; but no one, I think, with quite so much apparent cordiality, or, perhaps, in terms of so high praise, as the late Thomas H. G-allaudet, of Hartford. She spoke, also, with great affection, of her " little deaf and dumb correspondent," at Hartford, Miss Alice Cogswell, and said that she had written her some of the wittiest letters she had ever read. She was very particular in her inquiries respecting my own family, including the number and ages of my chil- dren, &c., and expressed her earnest wish that Provi- dence might restore me to them in safety. Just HANNAH MOKE. 71 as I was about to take my leave of her, she looked at me with intense earnestness, and said "I beg you will not forget me in your approaches to a throne of grace. I have a high estimate of the im- portance of intercessory prayer ; and I feel that I am a poor creature, who needs an interest in the prayers of God's children as much as any one." She then shook hands with me very affectionately, and thanked me for my call ; and we parted. But, after I had got out of the house, a young female friend, who was staying with her, came to the door, and said that Mrs. More wished her to show me a copy of an American edition of her works, which she highly valued, and which had been, some time be- fore, presented to her by a gentleman in New York. I accordingly stepped back, but was mortified to find that the execution did little honour to American skill in book-making. The typography and paper were both very indifferent, and the binding was in tawdry sheep, looking as if it were designed for a book auction. . . As we left Barley Wood, we rode, at Mrs. More's suggestion, into the village of Wrington, about half a mile distant, where was the church in which she had been accustomed to worship, when her health would permit, and, also, the house where the illus- trious philosopher, John Locke, first saw the light. The house was occupied by Mrs. More's washer-, woman, who seemed quite familiar with the fact, but evidently knew nothing of the man. 72 HANNAH MORE. On my return to Bristol, I was congratulated by my friends on having obtained even a sight of Mrs. More, especially on having enjoyed 'such an inter- view with her ; and was assured, that it was a rare thing that any visitor was equally fortunate. X. TjOCTOB M'CALL, during nearly the whole of ^ his ministry, was deservedly reckoned among the greater lights of the British pulpit. He died early ; but not till he had gained a reputation as a preacher, and as a man of genius, that will never die. He published but little, and had a great aver- sion to publishing anything ; but, after his death, there was a selection from his discourses printed in two large volumes, in connexion with an interest- ing memoir of his life, by his intimate friend, Dr. Wardlaw. I have always wondered that these vol- umes have never been reprinted in this country. They certainly give but an imperfect idea of what the author was ; and yet they contain an amount of rich and powerful thought, and an exuberance of splendid imagery, which fairly entitle them to be ranked among the first productions of their day. I had never heard of Dr. M'Call till I arrived in England ; but, from that time,, his name was men? 4 74 D R . M < C A L L . tioned with the greatest respect in almost every circle into which I was thrown. I was particularly advised not to leave England until I had heard him ; and was assured that, if he lived, it would not he long hefore his name would be known in the United States as familiarly as that of Kohert Hall. I accordingly made my arrangements to pass a Sahhath at Manchester, with a view of hearing him preach ; and I arrived there on Friday, with an intention to accomplish this favourite object. I did accomplish it in the spirit, though not in the letter ; as will appear in the sequel. What I saw of Dr. M'Call was so very striking and characteristic, and, withal, so honourable to his feelings as an amiable man, that I have felt in- clined, at least ever since his death, to make a state- ment of it ; and yet I was so immediately associ- ated with the main affair, that I have always felt a difficulty in speaking of it, lest I should seem to be making a report chiefly of my own experience. Hoping, however, that my motives will not be mis- understood, and presuming that there is no one living whose delicacy will be wounded by what I am about to say, I will venture to state the very characteristic incident to which I have reference, substantially as I find it in the journal which I kept at the time. Having stopped, on my arrival at Manchester, at the house of a friend, I was introduced, in the course of the evening, to Mr. H , a highly re- DR.M'CALL. 75 spectable member, and, I believe, a deacon, of Dr. M'Call's church. He kindly offered to take me the next morning to call upon the Doctor ; though I felt reluctant to intrude upon him, especially as it was Saturday, when I supposed he might be en- gaged in preparing for the Sabbath. I finally con- cluded to avail myself of the invitation of Mr. H , to make a short call. On my introduc- tion to him, which was quite early in the morning, I was struck with his benign and animated ex- pression of countenance, and his winning and even # affectionate manner ; and scarcely had I sat down, before he said, in a tone of great earnestness " I hope, Sir, you are not engaged to preach both parts of the day, to-morrow ?" " No, Sir," said I, " I am not that would defeat the great end of my visit here ; I came on purpose to hear you" " My dear Sir," said he, in a still more earnest tone, "you must not say one word against preaching for me, and I am sure you will not, when you are made ac- quainted with the circumstances of the case." I besought him to consider it as entirely out of the question ; but he went on to state a number of reasons why he thought it was my duty to occupy his pulpit part of the day, the most weighty of which seemed to be, that he had been engaged to preach a charity sermon, on that Sabbath, in Dr. Wardlaw's church, in Glasgow ; that he had writ- ten to Dr. Wardlaw that he could not fulfil the engagement on account of ill health ; but yet, that 76 DB. M'CALL. if I did not preach for him, he should be obliged to appear in the awkward and somewhat contradic- tory attitude of preaching twice and administering the communion, after having sent such an apology to Glasgow. Though I had not at first the least idea of yielding to his request, yet he so completely overpowered me by his eloquent importunity, that I finally ceased to say anything not because my mind was changed, but because my arguments were exhausted ; and this he immediately construed into compliance ; and upon the strength of it, he said " Well, my dear brother, I cannot tell you how much I feel obliged to you ; and now I am entirely at your command during the day." He kept his word most faithfully ; and I believe never left me at all until eleven o'clock at night. It was a sore disap- pointment to rne that I was not to hear him preach ; but it was some compensation that I should have the opportunity of hearing him in the communion service. Agreeably to previous arrangement, I met him in the vestry of his chapel (Mosely street), a few min- utes before the time for commencing the morning service. Having arrayed me in his canonicals, he accompanied me to the pulpit stairs, and immedi- ately withdrew ; and though I supposed he was somewhere in the audience, I did not know where, until just before I finished my sermon, when I no- ticed him sitting in a pew directly before me. His countenance showed me that his strong sense of DR. M'CALL. 77 gratitude, for my having obliged him by preaching, had made him a very indulgent hearer. The mo- ment I was at the end of my sermon, and had turned round to get the hymn book, (for in the Dis- senting churches, in England, the last singing im- mediately follows the sermon,) Dr. M'Call was upon his feet, announcing my name and residence to the audience, and telling them that I was to preach that evening for the Eev. Mr, Coombs, in the chapel at Salford ; and, as it was probably the last sermon I should ever preach in England, he should be most happy to have as many of the congregation as would, go and hear me, notwithstanding he expected to occupy his own pulpit. I saw clearly that his gratitude and good will had got the better of his prudence, and had brought my modesty to quite too severe a test ; and I verily believe that I per- formed the rest of the service without meeting a single eye in the congregation. When the blessing was pronounced, I went back into the vestry to lay off the gown and bands, and Dr. M'Call immediately followed me. I saw in a moment that he was in a state of great excitement, and that he was strug- gling against his feelings in attempting to speak. " My dear brother my dear brother," said he " I cannot express it I never had such feelings I ac- knowledge I am acting like a child" and immedi- ately extended both arms and embraced me, at the same time uttering loud sobs. Though I knew not what was the matter, I frankly acknowledge that he 78 DR. M'CALL. worked up my sympathies, so that I cried too ; and it was fortunate for us both that there was not a third person present, to turn the scene into ridi- cule. I quickly found that the whole secret of it was, that his gratitude for my consenting to preach for him, at what he knew was a great sacrifice, had predisposed him to hear me with a spirit which had not only disarmed criticism, but had given to a barely decent sermon such attractions as it never had before, and has never had since. It was unfor- tunate for me that he would be likely to compare notes with some of his congregation on the subject, though I thought that his convictions were too strong to be easily shaken. " But, now," said he, "my dear brother, there is only one unpleasant cir- cumstance attending this ; and that is, that I am thrown into such a state as to be utterly unfit to perform the communion service will you not con- sent to take that also?" "Oh," said I, "Dr. M'Call, you must excuse me ;" and he instantly re- plied " I have no right to make such a request of you, and I am ashamed to have done it ; but will you not consent fo go and sit by my side, and take the service in case I should find myself unable to proceed ?" To this I consented, though I was not quite certain what the result might be, as I saw he was far from having regained his accustomed composure. When he rose to speak, his chin quiv- ered, and it was with some difficulty that he uttered the first sentence or two ; but before he had pro- DR. M'CALL. 79 ceeded far, lie was not only himself, but much more than himself ; and he spoke for nearly half an hour, in a strain of eloquence which, I think I may safely say, I have never known to be even approached on a similar occasion. He introduced his remarks by an allusion to the circumstance of my having come from another country, and having preached the same Gospel which they were accustomed to hear ; and, from this, went on to speak of Christians in all parts of the world being bound together by a com- mon faith ; referring to different parts of my dis- course in illustration of the truths which he was set- ting forth. His whole soul was evidently on fire. Sometimes he swept along with the force of an avalanche, and sometimes there was a melting ten- derness, which it seemed as if nothing could with- stand ; and, during the whole time, his face shone as if it had been the face of an angel. I have heard, more than once since, that his own people remembered that effort as one of the most remark- able they ever heard from him ; though, of course, they knew nothing of the very singular affair which had preceded it. I doubt not that, on the whole, I was indebted to the circumstance of my having consented to preach for him, so much against my wishes, for a much more remarkable exhibition of his intellect, as I certainly was for a much nearer view of his sensitive and generous nature, than I should have had in hearing him in the ordinary course of his Sabbath day services. 80 D B . M ' C A L L . I never saw Dr. M'Call after I parted with him at the door of his chapel, as we both preached in the evening, and I left early the next morning. But there was that in him that made an impression upon my memory and my heart, that promises to stand well the test of time. His lovely, beaming, perfectly illuminated countenance ; his voice, re- markable alike for its melody and power ; his thoughts, the brightest and loftiest ; his words, the most felicitous, and coming forth with a lightning- like rapidity ; his whole manner showing the deep and powerful working of the inward fire all con- tributed to render him one of the most perfect of pulpit orators ; while the exquisite tenderness and delicacy of his spirit, the grace and gentleness of his manners, and his great generosity and fervent piety, rendered him one of the finest specimens both of a man and of a Christian. XI. (MADAME NET.) AND WAS indebted to the Mndness of Dr. Baird (and what American, who visited Paris during a period of several years, was not indebted to him ?) for an introduction to the DUCHESS DE BKOGLIE ; not more distinguished as the wife of the Duke, than as the daughter of Madame de Stael. She had been pointed out to me the Sabbath morning be- fore, with her daughter, at the chapel at which Mr. Audubez officiated, and where I understood she was 82 DUCHESS DEBROGLIE. a regular attendant. Both she and her daughter were dressed in the most simple manner, and there was nothing in the appearance of either to indicate that their home might not have been in some re- tired and humble dwelling. Through Dr. Baird's kindness, an appointment was made for my calling upon her; and I quickly found that I could not have been presented under better auspices. We called at the appointed hour ; and, after a little de- lay, the Duchess appeared, and met us in the most simple and unostentatious way imaginable. She was a lady of fine personal appearance, spoke very good English, but sometimes hurried her words together, so that it was not easy to understand her. She seemed greatly interested in the religious state of things in the United States, and especially in the revivals of which she had heard so much ; and she could not be satisfied with anything short of the most minute details respecting them. Indeed, she put questions to me with so much rapidity, that if I had not felt quite familiar with the subject on which she wished for information, she would have been obliged to wait somewhat for my answers, not- withstanding I was using my native language, and she a foreign one. She spoke with great appar- ent concern of the state of the Koman Catholic Church, of which I knew that her husband was a member ; and expressed the opinion that it was gradually to lose its distinctive character by being reformed, rather than to be formally abandoned. MADAME NET. She wished me to give her an account of my own Christian experience ; and, though the request seemed a little odd, considering that it was our first meeting, it was made with such manifest sim- plicity and sincerity, as to relieve me from all em- barrassment in answering her inquiries. On the whole, she impressed me as one of the most de- lightful examples of earnest, practical Christianity, in the higher walks of life, that I had ever met with. While her conversation indicated the high- est intelligence and refinement, it showed no less that she regarded it as her greatest privilege to be a learner at the feet of Jesus. She wrote me a kind note before I left Paris, but this was the only interview I had with her. I had the pleasure of spending an hour or two in the family of MARSHAL KEY. I had an introduc- tion from a member of the family of the late Citi- zen Genet, who was the uncle of MADAME NET, and was received with as much warmth, as if I had been a friend of many years' standing. While I was conversing with them, I could not keep my thoughts from the horrible scenes through which the family had passed, and especially that by which they had been deprived of their illustrious head. Madame Ney had as many questions to ask as the Duchess de Broglie, though they were generally of a very different character. Though she had not seen her uncle since she was quite a child, she drew 84 MARSHAL GROUCHY. from me everything in respect to his life, and death, and family, that I knew ; besides, I "believe, asking me some questions that I was not able to answer. And when we had disposed of Citizen Genet, she fell to questioning me about myself and my family ; and if her object had been to bring out my biography in a book before I left Paris, she could scarcely have descended to more minute particu- lars. I do not mean that there was anything about it that seemed in the least impertinent or obtrus- ive ; on the contrary, all her inquiries were made with such apparent kindness and good will, that I felt myself honoured in answering them. She spoke once or twice of her husband, but it was only an incidental remark or two, and I did not feel myself at liberty to ask any questions concerning him es- pecially any that looked towards his tragical end. She was rather a large, portly woman, and a per- fect lady in her manners, though I felt it a great drawback that she did not speak a word of Eng- lish. Two of her family, however, who were at home, spoke it pretty well ; and we found it con- venient to put them in requisition, occasionally, in carrying on our conversation. One of the sons whom I saw was the Prince of Moskowa. I was the bearer of a letter to MARSHAL GROUCHY, from a very eminent man in this country, who had known him pretty well in former years ; but, unfor- tunately, both his person and his name had faded MARSHAL GROUCHY. 85 from the Marshal's memory. It made no differ- ence, however, as to the reception I met with ; or if there was any difference at all, I think it was rather in my favour, as the veteran General seemed disposed to make up, by rather an exuberance of kind offices, for the defect of his memory. He was at that time about seventy-five years old ; was of rather a slender habit, and not much, if at all, above the middle height, with a countenance rather strongly marked, and looking as if he had not al- ways been in a state of repose. I visited him by invitation several times, and he always seemed de- sirous of knowing if there was any way in which he could be useful to me. He talked freely about Na- poleon and Louis Philippe, who was then upon the throne, and gave me many interesting incidents in his own history, going back to the old French Kevolution. Probably there was no person then living who was more familiar than he with the events of that period, or who was better acquainted with the prominent characters that figured in it ; and he seemed to have forgotten nothing. One morning, when I went to breakfast with him, I had the pleasure of seeing him make the coffee, boil the eggs, and, so far as I could discover, cook the whole breakfast. XII. SPENT an hour with GENERAL BERNARD. He had been so long in this country, that he seemed to have somewhat of the American feeling at least he made intelligent inquiries on various subjects GENERAL BERNARD. 87 concerning the United States, on all of which he seemed to be quite at home. A friend who was on intimate terms with him, called with me, and he re- ceived us in his study sans ceremonie, and appar- ently with much cordiality. It was just at the time, during General Jackson's administration, when our relations to France had assumed a somewhat dubi- ous aspect ; and this, almost immediately, became the subject of our conversation. He expressed the opinion that there was no danger of a war between the two nations, though he thought both were in fault the conduct of Mr. Livingston, our Minister, he censured in no moderate terms ; and General Jackson's famous message he pronounced an outrage upon the dignity of France. At the same time, he said that he had a high respect for General Jack- son's private character, and thought him an excel- lent man. As we rose to come away, after sitting with him a considerable time, he said that I must not go until I had seen his family, and immediately took me into the parlour, and presented me to his wife and daughters, whom I found exceedingly agreeable ladies, and all speaking English as readily as I could speak it myself. They had quite the appearance of an American family, and were glad of an opportunity to inquire for their friends in this country, many of whom were personally known to me. General Bernard was a fine specimen of a French gentleman, and everything about his family bespoke the highest degree of refinement. GUIZOT. Through the kindness of Marshal Grouchy, I had a letter of introduction to GUIZOT, then Minister of Public Instruction ; but when I called to deliver it, I did not find him at home. He, however, immedi- ately addressed a note to me, requesting me to re- peat my call the next day at ten ; but, as the next day was the Sabbath, I was obliged to excuse my- self. He then appointed another day, requesting me to breakfast with him ; and this invitation I ac- cepted. I found him an exceedingly good-looking man, rather below than above the middle height, but an uncommonly compact and well-formed person. He met me with a look and air of great urbanity, and began immediately to converse about America, as fast as his poor English and my poor French would permit. The subject that seemed chiefly to interest him, was education. He wished to know everything about our educational plans, apparently with a view to turn the information to some account in furthering the same cause in his own country. Though there was nothing in his remarks that was particularly profound much less that had the least appearance of showing off, yet it was manifest that he spoke out of the depths of a rich, philosophical, and highly-cultivated mind. His manners, as he was a Frenchman, could not be otherwise than graceful ; but he had also an air of dignity and stability that I missed in a good many of his distinguished coun- trymen. LOUIS PHILIPPE. 89 The last, though not least, of the magnates of Paris, whom I wish to include in these notices, is Louis PHILIPPE. He was to hold a levee one even- ing at the Tuilleries, to which one of my friends pro- cured for me an invitation. It was the most splen- did affair in its way, that it has ever been my fortune to witness. Military officers and other dis- tinguished individuals from almost every nation were there, each dressed in his appropriate costume. About half-past eight a door at the end of the im- mense hall in which the company were assembled, opened, and the King, Queen, and two or three daughters, made their appearance. The Princesses had each a splendid bouquet, and the younger of them seemed very beautiful. There were, I should think, nearly two hundred ladies standing in a line on one side of the room, ready to be introduced to the royal family as they passed along. The King, of course, took the precedence. He reminded me strikingly, by his general appearance, as I believe he has done many other persons, of Dr. Ezra Stiles Ely. I cannot conceive of grace and dignity being more perfectly commingled than they were in his manners. He seemed to have a word for every lady that was presented to him, that left a smile upon her countenance ; and I thought I noticed that the more beautiful ladies detained him the longest. I went with the expectation of being presented to him myself ; but I found that he advanced so slowly that my turn would not come for two or three 90 GEORGE WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE. hours ; and, as I was too much fatigued to remain in a standing posture all that time, I betook myself to a place of less splendour, but better accommoda- tions. Louis Philippe was then in his greatest glory little did he dream of the ignominous flight and exile that awaited him. There was one individual in Paris whom I had felt specially desirous of seeing, rather on his father's account than on his own I mean George Washington Lafayette. I had a letter to him from a very distinguished individual in this country, to whom he was under strong personal obligations. I called and delivered my letter shortly after my ar- rival in Paris, but was informed that he was passing a few days in the country. With the letter, how- ever, I left my card, indicating my address. After a short time, I ascertained that he was at home, and expected, of course, that he would honour the letter of his friend, at least so much as to call upon me. As, however, I heard nothing from him, I thought it possible that the letter had not been delivered to him ; and a few days before I was to leave, I addressed him a note, apologizing, however, for the liberty, and saying that I should be glad to pay my respects to him, if it should suit his con- venience. I received no reply to my note, and left, of course, without seeing him. When I mentioned GEORGE WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE. 91 the circumstance to some person well acquainted with his character, he remarked that it did not at all surprise him, and left me with the impression, that his chief distinction consisted in bearing vener- able names. XIII AND TF there was anybody in or about Geneva, whose acquaintance I was particularly desirous of mak- ing, it was the great historian, SISMONDI. His resi- dence was about a mile and a half from the city, and it was arranged, through the kindness of a friend, that I should go out, and pass an evening with him. I accordingly did so, and the visit sup- plied me with much material for grateful and en- during recollection. I found him as he had assured me in a note, which I received from him the day before, that I should alone with his family ; and his family con- sisted of only his wife and her sister. He received me in the most familiar way, so that it was diffi- cult for me to feel that I was meeting a stranger. I should think he was at that time about sixty years old ; in his person, he was short and thick, SISMONDI. with a prodigiously large head, a very black eye, and a most intelligent expression of countenance. He spoke English without difficulty, though he would frequently forget himself, and begin to speak French. He also, now and then, made an amusing blunder, though not to compare with one that was perpetrated about the same time by another emi- nent man, with whom I was conversing, and who, speaking of a crime which had been committed in Switzerland not long before, by a Catholic priest, remarked, that "He tried to steal (hide) his crime, and that he was afterwards hung-ed" Sismondi be- gan almost immediately to converse about American slavery ; and, though he evinced much less of igno- rance and prejudice on the subject than most of those whom I met, yet he took the European side of the question with considerable earnestness. He talked a good deal about the literati of the preced- ing generation, with whom he had been familiar, and especially of Madame de Stael, with whom he kept up an active correspondence for many years. He had many inquiries to make concerning Miss Sedgwick, which, unfortunately, I could answer only in general ; he spoke of her as his intimate friend, and his admiration of her and her writings seemed to be unbounded. As his wife was an Eng- lish lady, and Sir James Mackintosh was his brother- in-law, he seemed to be as familiar with the promi- nent literary characters of England as with those of his own country. He was a great admirer of 94 SISMONDI. Robert Hall ; and when I mentioned that I once had the privilege of hearing him preach, he desired me to tell minutely everything I could remember concerning him. The comparative merits of Wil- berforce and Hannah More were discussed ; and the conclusion which he seemed to have reached was, that Mrs. More was much the more highly gifted of the two, and that she had done more for her gener- ation than almost any other individual, male or female. He spoke in terms of the highest respect of Dr. Channing, and ranked him, unhesitatingly, among the most eloquent writers of the day. Both he and Madame Sismondi manifested a mortal aver- sion to " Methodism," meaning by it the system of religion taught by the Evangelical School at Geneva, and were very lavish of their praises of the National Church. They remarked that both England and America had sent large sums of money thither, which had been worse than thrown away upon the cause of separatism ! I perceived that their relig- ious sympathies and mine were not much in har- mony ; and this, I suppose, they might have dis- covered, though I did not feel myself called upon to enter into any controversy with them. Sismondi impressed me as an exceedingly good-humoured and witty man ; and he would often throw such a ludi- crous air about even grave matters, that I found it difficult to keep from being convulsed with laugh- ter. He was a sort of man who would draw you to him irresistibly, as well by his warm social aftec- DECANDOLLE. 95 tions, as by his brilliant conversation and extensive knowledge. DECANDOLLE, as everybody knows, was no less celebrated as a botanist, than Sismondi was as an historian. I called, agreeably to a previous arrange- ment, at his house, and was met by his son, a young gentleman of most amiable and modest appearance, who was then the acting professor of botany in the academy. He immediately conducted me into his father's study, where I found him engaged in read- ing. He was rather a short man, with a fine, open expression of countenance, and as far removed as possible from anything like ostentation. He was, at that time, fifty-nine years of age. I offered him two or three of my general letters of introduction, but he very politely refused them ; and when his son, who acted as our interpreter, intimated to him that there was one from Albert Gallatin, with whom he was acquainted, that I wished him to read, he simply opened it, and looked at the name, and handed it back to me. This was according to a common usage on the Continent, which does not allow it to be consistent with good manners to read an introductory note in ' the presence of the person who delivers it. He was so very modest, that I was obliged to play Yankee in order to find out what I wished to know concerning the results of his la- bours. He told me that his first work a splendid folio, that sells for twenty pounds sterling was pub- 96 DECANDOLLE. lished in Paris, when lie was only twenty years old ; that he hacl published in all upwards of thirty vol- umes, most of which he showed me by my request ; that he had given his course of lectures for forty years, and had then :setired from the professor's chair, though he was not aware that his active pow- ers had begun seriously to wane. His son accom- panied me through the rooms in which he kept his herbarium the most extensive in the world, and showed me the manner in which the plants were ar- ranged and put up. I was informed that he had been offered a professorship at Paris, with an im- mense salary ; but he declined the offer from con- siderations of mere patriotism. He gave me a manuscript of his, of considerable extent, which had been published, and which anybody might afford to place among his literary treasures. I have never seen a great man more simple and modest, and apparently unconscious of his greatness. XIV. AND T HAD heard much of BLUMHAKDT as the head of the missionary school at Basle, both before and after leaving America ; and while I was in Paris, the Rev. Frederick Monod had given me a note of introduction to him. Soon after my arrival in Basle, I found my way to his residence, and delivered my letter ; and much to my surprise, before I had time to deliver it, he asked me if he had not the pleas-? ure of speaking to calling me by name ; the secret of which was, that somebody had enclosed a letter to him for me, informing him that I should prob- ably arrive about that time. He received me with a degree of cordiality and affection that was as grateful to me as it was unexpected ; and, though he was only fifty-six years old, there was something about his manner that was truly patriarchal. Mr. Blumhardt was the founder of the missionary 98 BLUMHARDT. institution over which he then presided. It had been in successful operation since the year 1815, had sent out about one hundred and twenty mis- sionaries, and at the time I was there, numbered thirty-seven students, who were under the care of three Professors, beside the Principal. What im- pressed me first, and most, in respect to Blumhardt, was his admirable Christian simplicity, in connexion with his intense devotion to the work in which he was engaged. He spoke with great interest of the zeal which was manifested by the American churches in the cause of missions, and remarked particularly upon the high qualifications of American ladies to become missionaries' wives ; and added, that he wished more of them might go to the missionary stations, that they might be taken up ! I accepted an invitation from him to dine with the students at twelve o'clock. I was introduced, a minute or two before the hour, into the dining hall ; then came Mr. Blumhardt, and after him the students, and then the family who provided for them. After all had arranged themselves around the table, the ven- erable Principal, instead of asking a blessing, re- peated a hymn in German, which the students sung. The dinner was served up on pewter plates, and was very simple, of course, as the charge for board was only about half a dollar per week. When the din- ner was over, one of the students gave thanks in verse ! The Principal did not dine with us, but retired to his own apartment immediately after the BLUMHARDT. 99 hymn was sung, in preparation for sitting down to the table. As an instance of Mr. Bluinhardt's con- siderate kindness, I may mention that he happened to discover, what I had not discovered myself, that I had torn my over-coat ; and while I was at my dinner he had contrived to send it to the tailor's and have it mended, so that the mending should not occasion me any detention. After having shown me the likenesses of all the students he had sent out into the missionary field, he carried me over the town, and pointed out to me whatever he thought most worthy to be looked at. He accompanied me to the public library, and intro- duced me to Professor Gerlach, the Librarian, who showed me many curious and valuable relics of the time of the Eeformation. Professor G. asked me if I knew Mr. Edward Everett ; and then went on to say that he was a fellow-student with him many years before at Gottengen, where he earned many laurels ; and when I told him of the eminence to which Mr. Everett had since risen, he seemed to think that it was nothing more than he had given promise of, twenty years before. Blumhardt intro- duced me also to an intimate friend of Oberlin, who was full of interesting anecdotes of that remarkable man. He gave me an engraved likeness of Oberlin, which he pronounced very perfect ; and another indi- vidual, shortly after, gave me a still rarer treasure, in one of his manuscript sermons. Oberlin had, un- doubtedly, in some respects, an exalted character ; 100 VINET. but he partook largely of the German superstitions of his time ; and if he had lived at this day, would have been a firm believer, and a vigorous defender, of the spiritual rappings. An old professor in the University of Strasbourg, who knew him most inti- mately, assured me that his supposed intercourse vith the spiritual world, through the medium of ghosts, &c., was almost an every-day matter. I had a letter of introduction to PROFESSOR VIKET, and one of the students of the missionary school accompanied me to his dwelling. He had at that time acquired a great reputation in Europe, es- pecially on the Continent, as a profound theologian and philosopher ; but comparatively little was known of him in this country. In stature he was rather above the ordinary size ; was firmly and compactly built ; was of an uncommonly dark complexion, and had an eye the most keen and piercing. His health, he told me, was very imperfect, insomuch that he was greatly embarrassed in his literary and profess- ional engagements ; though I could then discover nothing in his appearance that indicated it. The subject on which he seemed most disposed to con- verse was American revivals ; and though he was, on the whole, inclined to think favourably of them, I thought I could discover in him some lingering doubts. He expressed a strong desire to examine the subject further, and by the best light he could command, and wished me to furnish him with any V I N E T . 101 works on the subject that could be relied on as testimony in regard to the important facts. He seemed to look at the whole matter with the eye of a philosopher, as well as a Christian. My inter- view with him was not long ; but it was long enough to leave upon my mind an ineffaceable impression of the power and grandeur of his intellect. He seemed kind and friendly, and offered me letters of introduction to some of his friends in Germany ; but was not much disposed to talk about common matters. During the few years that he lived after I saw him, he was constantly growing in reputation and usefulness ; and after his death, he was often spoken of in connexion with Chalmers, not only as having died about the same time, but as possessing a kindred genius and spirit. XV fTlHE individual whom I was most interested to see v in Frankfort-on-the-Mayn, was DK. PINKERTON, well known for his travels in Russia. He was born and educated in Scotland, had resided in Russia many years, and finally settled at Frankfort, as the General Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, where, for aught I know, he remains to this day. Having been furnished with a letter of introduction to him, I delivered it shortly after my arrival in Frankfort, and it procured for me every attention I could have wished. He seemed, at that time, to be about fifty-five years old, had a well- formed, erect person, of about the middle size, and was the more interesting to me from being an almost perfect fac-simile, in his appearance, of one of my friends at home. When I first met him he was at his office, at the depot of the Bible Society ; and, as he walked with me through the immense establishment, he remarked, DR. PINKERTON. 103 in reference to the great number of Bibles they had on hand, that that was the artillery with which they were prosecuting the war against rationalism. I took tea with him the same evening, and had the pleasure of an introduction to his family. After we had disposed of the two great subjects of American slavery and American revivals, in both of which, by this time, I felt myself to be anything but a novice, the Doctor proceeded to give me an account of the state of religion in Germany ; and, though it is now eighteen years since I had the conversation with him, it may, perhaps, not be amiss to state the substance of it ; or rather the substance of the in- formation which he communicated to me. He stated that Infidelity, which, in times past, had been com- ing out in a covert form from the chairs of theo- logical professors, &c., was then becoming bold and impudent ; that an infidel of great talents, who was at that time in prison for writing a blasphemous novel, had justified himself by a reference to the "Life of Christ," by Dr. Paulus, a theological pro- fessor at Heidelberg ; that the great controversy thenceforward was to be between Atheism and Evangelical Christianity ; that a large part of the good people of Germany believed the doctrine of Universal Kestoration, though they were rather cau- tious about openly avowing it ; and, as an illustra- tion of the lax notions that prevailed among them in respect to the observance of the Sabbath, he stated that certain pious young ladies, who had 104 DE. PINKERTON. been reproved by one of his daughters for knitting on Sunday afternoon, told another of his daughters that they had profited by the reproof, inasmuch as they had determined to devote the avails of their labours on Sunday to missionary purposes ! He gave me many interesting details illustrative of the superstitious tendencies of the Germans, and espec- ially of the progress that was then making in animal magnetism ; and though I have since wit- nessed at home much greater feats than he de- scribed, I was quite confounded by some of his statements, and could imagine no way of accounting for them, but on the principle of jugglery. He actually performed one or two experiments in my presence, which seemed to evince some hidden power in nature that had only begun to develope itself; and though I did not think the Doctor particularly inclined to be superstitious, much less to be in com- munion with any evil spirit, I was quite sure that he was capable of doing some things which he was as little able to account for as I was myself. He seemed to think that some good had come from the doctrine of animal magnetism, especially as it had supplied a satisfactory argument to some skeptical minds, in favour of the immateriality and immor- tality of the soul. The system of homoeopathy, which was then scarcely known in this country, had attained considerable notoriety in Germany ; and the Doctor expounded to me its leading prin- ciples, and was evidently inclined to the opinion DR. PINKERTON. 105 that it was destined to mark an epoch in the his- tory of medicine. Indeed, he had provided him- self with the largest and most splendid box of the infinitesimals which I remember ever to have seen ; and I actually submitted to be dosed by him, though I could not say that the result proved anything, either for or against the new system. During my brief stay in Frankfort, Dr. Pinkerton rendered me every possible attention, and I retain to this day a most grateful remembrance of him and his amiable and accomplished family. There was another clergyman whom I saw at Frankfort, of considerable distinction, to whom I was introduced by a letter from Professor Merle D'Aubigne, of Geneva it was the Kev. Mr. Bon- net himself from the neighbourhood of Geneva, and educated at the University of Basle. He was ex- ceedingly urbane, intelligent and obliging. He gave me a most deplorable account of the religious state of things in Frankfort, and assured me that the great truths of Christianity were completely over- looked in most of the Protestant Churches. He took me to see a venerable and somewhat celebrated man, Dr. Meyer, who was the author of many im- portant works, and among others, of a revised edition of Luther's Bible. He seemed to be, as I was as- sured he was, a very devout Christian, and a man of great learning ; but, in regard to the doctrine of retribution, it was thought that he held a some- what equivocal attitude. Mr. Bonnet, in order to 5* 106 DR. PINKERTON. give me the best view of the city, ascended with me the tower of an ancient church ; and, after we had gone up two hundred feet, we found an old man and woman as snugly domesticated there, as any couple that could have been found on the terra firma below. The old man might be said to hold a high official station ; for not only was he elevated a good distance above the rest of the world, but he was also holding the office of an alarmist, in case of fire. When I expressed to him my surprise on hearing that they had lived there five years "Oh," said he, " That 's nothing ; there is a steeple yonder upon which we have lived nineteen 1" XVI. AND acquaintances which I formed at Weimar were so associated with certain incidents con- nected with my visit there, that it is not easy for me to avoid saying something of the latter, in order to furnish a satisfactory account of the former. I reached Weimar, the far-famed seat of intel- lectual refinement and residence of distinguished men, at three o'clock of a cold February morning. As the conductor of the diligence knew I wished to stop there, I took for granted that he would at least drop me at an hotel ; but I found, to my conster- 108 D K . R E H R . nation, that lie had actually set me down at the post-office, and that there was not a person there who understood even French. When I discovered what my condition was, I ran to the diligence to ask the only person in it who could speak French, to request some one at the post-office to direct me to an hotel ; but that moment the cracking of the whip announced that the unwieldy old carriage was on its way to Leipsig, while I was left dumb among a set of people whose tongues had been trained to nothing but German. I noticed, however, at that moment, that one of the passengers who had per- secuted me by smoking all the way from Frank- fort, had left the coach, and, I supposed, would be looking out for a place to sleep. Though I did not know but he was going straight home, I deter- mined, as a last resort, to hold on to his skirt ; and even if it should turn out that he brought up at his own door, I intended to make all the ex- ternal demonstrations of distress I could, to induce him to give me a shelter till I could find accommo- dations elsewhere. Fortunately for me, however, he wanted lodgings himself at an hotel, and knew where to go for them ; and after walking a few steps I keeping at his side he rang a bell, which quickly brought a servant to the door. I was not perfectly sure, even then, that I was at an inn ; but, after a few words of conversation between him and the servant, we were both admitted into the house and shown into a chamber in which there were two DR. EOEHR. 109 beds ; and I immediately threw myself into one of them, and knew nothing more until I was awaked in the morning, by the servant coming to inquire if we wanted breakfast. I said, with as much confidence as if I had lived all my life in Paris, " Parlez vous Frangais ?" " Oui, Monsieur," was the prompt reply. " Parlez vous Anglais ?" " Oui, Mon- sieur," was again the delightful answer ; but sadly was I disappointed to find that the fellow knew not enough even of French to comprehend the ques- tions I had put to him. I succeeded, however, in making him understand the difficult proposition, that I wanted breakfast, and supposed also that I had got through his hair the somewhat more def- inite idea that I wanted three eggs ; but what was my surprise at the demonstration of his intelli- gence, which he quickly made, by bringing me three small loaves of bread ! I found it easy to forgive him, however, as he treated me to a good laugh ; and more than that, he showed his substantial good will by making some effort to meet my necessities. While I was at my breakfast, there came up a very respectable looking young man, who told me that the servant had mentioned to him that there was an English gentleman there, who could not speak German, and wished for some one to interpret ; and that he had come in to offer his services. I very gladly availed myself of them, and thought of no- thing but that I had engaged a regular guide, at the rate of a Prussian dollar a day. 110 DR. R O E H R . Accordingly, we sallied out shortly after break- fast, and the first person upon whom I called was Dr. Koehr, the celebrated preacher of Weimar, and one of the most eminent of all the German Ra- tionalists. I told my guide that he might remain outside the door, and, if it turned out that he was wanted as an interpreter, I would give him notice. I had a note to Dr. Roehr from Cheneviere of Geneva, who was, in all respects, a kindred spirit ; but whom I found very gentlemanly, and much dis- posed to show me good offices. The Doctor hap- pened to be in his library, engaged in his studies ; but he received me with great courtesy, and seemed desirous of doing what he could to make my visit agreeable. Our conversation, which was half French, half English, was principally about the em- inent men of Weimar ; the last of whom, Goethe, had then just departed ; and he showed me the likenesses of some of them, which he seemed to have treasured with great care and reverence. He was a person of grave, venerable aspect, of agreeable manners, and was reckoned, at that time, as one of the great lights in his school of theology. He expressed great regret that we had no common medium of free communication, and said that the best service he could render me was to introduce me to a Dr. Weissenborn, a German teacher of English, who, besides having a perfect knowledge of the English language, was a most obliging and friendly man. I found Dr. W., in all respects, what DR. FEOKIEP. Ill Dr. Koehr had represented him, and was indebted to him then, as I have been since, for some very kind attentions, and even important services. I made several calls, in the course of the morn- ing, under the direction of my volunteer guide, and at twelve o'clock he remarked that he believed he must excuse himself, as he had an engagement at that hour. I handed him a dollar, and he asked me what it was for. "For your services this morn- ing," said I. Then, for the first time, I discover- ed my mistake in supposing that he was one of the professional guides. It turned out that he was a young gentleman of a highly respectable family at Frankfort, and that he was then on a visit to a young lady at Weimar, to whom he was engaged to be married ; and as he gave me a narrative, showing that his courtship had not been, through- out, a matter of plain sailing, I had the oppor- tunity of returning his kind offices, not only with sympathy, but, as he requested it, with a little advice. He did not seem to take my mistake in dudgeon, and remarked that it was quite natural that I should have made it. -I was desirous, for some particular reasons, of seeing Dr. Froriep, a celebrated geographer. I had no particular introduction to him ; but I ventured to call upon him on the strength of my general introductions. I handed him several letters, but he seemed to care little for any, except one from General Jackson, which he read, despite of German 112 . DK. FKOBIEP. etiquette, two or three times over, and remarked that it was most felicitously written. He immedi- ately took me in charge, and devoted the rest of the day to me, which was the greater favour, as he had the perfect command of my mother tongue. He carried me in his carriage, all over town, point- ing out to me the residences of Herder, Schiller, Weiland, and Goethe, all of whom he had known well. Griesbach, too, had been his intimate friend, and he gave me a pleasant memorial of him. I took tea with him in the evening, when I had the pleasure of meeting his wife and daughter. He asked me if I was willing that they should see the "remarkable* letter of General Jackson, which I had shown him in the morning ; and after they had read it, he took it and went into an adjoin- ing room, and made a copy of it ; and when he returned it to me, repeated, for the third or fourth time, that it was "really a remarkable letter." He expressed great interest in our American institutions, and seemed familiar with the names and characters of many of our great men Everett, Ticknor, Hen- ry Dwight, and several others, he knew personally, and expressed great regard for them. Madame Froriep spoke in terms of great reverence and af- fection of Herder, and said that he was the clergy- man who officiated at her marriage. Dr. Weissenborn, the teacher to whom Dr. Eoehr had introduced me, offered to make me acquainted with Madame de Goethe, the daughter-in-law of MADAME DE GOETHE. 113 the great poet, who occupied the house in which he had always lived. We were actually on our way to call upon her, when we met her in some- thing that resembled a litter, borne by two men a convenience, I suppose, for avoiding the mud in the streets. As soon as she alighted, and went into her mother's house, Dr. W. sent in to inquire at what hour she would find it convenient to re- ceive me, and she mentioned five o'clock in the af- ternoon. I accordingly went at that hour ; and she met me with a frank, good-natured air, that put me at my ease in a moment. As I had no par- ticular introduction to her, I showed her the Gen- eral's letter, which had already come into great repute, and she too read it with no small inter- est. She was a most agreeable and intelligent per- son, and was the mother of three children, the two younger of whom were so strikingly like their grandfather, that I recognized their resemblance to his portrait the moment I saw them. Mrs. Jamie- son, the English authoress, was at that time do- mesticated with her, and I had the pleasure of making her acquaintance also. Madame de Goethe brought out several little memorials of her illus- trious father-in-law, intending to give me one of them ; and, as she selected that which she con- sidered most valuable, she asked Mrs. Jamieson whether she did not think that she could afford to spare that, but at the same moment put into her hands my letter from General Jackson, telling her 114 MADAME DE GOETHE. not to answer her question till she had read that letter. The result was, that the choice relic was made over to me. I spent but twenty-four hours in Weimar ; but it was certainly a multum in parvo visit. XVII. &0. fTIHE first person on whom I called, on my arrival in Halle, was Professor THOLUCK. My reason for this was not merely that I felt a deeper interest in his character than in that of any other person at Halle, (there were few, indeed, of whom I knew anything,) but that I had previously had some little correspond- ence with him, which gave me a claim to recognise him almost as an acquaintance. In his appearance and manners, he was quite a different person from what I had expected. He was rather above the medium height, of a slender frame, and of an easy, flexible habit. He did not complain of ill health ; but his face, at that time, was pale, and looked as if he were used to trimming the midnight lamp. As I had been accustomed to associate with him the idea of a reformer, I supposed I should find him more than 116 T H O L U C K . ordinarily grave and demure, and somewhat a man of one idea ; but instead of that, I found him cheerful, versatile, and highly communicative as well as intelli- gent, on every subject that came up. His wife had died not long before, and his sister was then keeping house for him ; and she, with two or three students, who were boarders, constituted his entire family. Dur- ing the four or five days that I spent in Halle, I saw much of him, and had a good opportunity, in some respects at least, of appreciating his character. No- thing about him struck me more forcibly than his won- derful simplicity. One would have supposed, from his general appearance, that he was utterly unconscious of both his position and his power ; and yet, whenever his mind was directed to any subject of importance, it was wonderful with what energy it acted, and how he seemed to have everything at command that bore upon it. The subject that seemed uppermost in his thoughts was the motley and anomalous religious state of things in his own country. He mentioned to me the names of certain German Professors, who had not only a European, but a world-wide reputation, whose lectures upon the Bible, though very able and learned, were sometimes little better than blasphemous satires upon the Word of God. He considered, however, that the religious prospects of Germany were, on the whole, brightening, and supposed that, from that time, the great conflict would be between Pantheism and Evan- gelical Religion. He had himself suffered much for his bold avowal and earnest vindication of what he consid- GESENIUS. 117 ered the true Christian doctrine ; but he was evidently then much in the ascendant ; and I was assured that there was no clergyman in the region, whose preaching commanded so much attention and respect as his. I attended one of Tholuck's lectures ; but as it was in German, everything but the manner was lost upon me. He read it sentence by sentence, with the utmost de- liberation ; and the students meanwhile, (sixty-four in number, if I counted right,) all became vigorous scribes. He would occasionally, however, extemporize a few sen- tences, and then he spoke more rapidly, and with a good degree of animation. I noticed that there was something written in German characters on the desk, immediately in front of my seat, and on inquiring of an English gentleman who accompanied me, and who could read German, what it was, he translated it thus : " Tholuck is a mad herring and a crazy fellow." He mentioned to me, at the same time, that in another lecture-room it was written " Tholuck is immeasur- ably fanatical." These significant testimonials, how- ever, were supposed to have been recorded some time before, when they were much more expressive of the general estimation in which he was held, than they were at that time. GESENIUS was a still greater surprise to me than Tholuck. It seemed to me that I had heard of him, in connection with Hebrew, almost as far back as I knew that there was such a language ; and I was pre- 118 GESENIUS. pared to find deep furrows all over his face, winch my imagination, without any great effort, could turn into Hebrew letters. But instead of that, I found him looking as if he were not more than forty or forty-five years old ; rapid beyond measure in his movements ; with nothing to indicate that he had ever been accus- tomed to intense thought ; with a bright, cheerful, amiable countenance ; with a mind awake to every thing humorous and laughable ; with a heart appa- rently glowing with kindness, and with manners the most unstudied and familiar. I had once received a letter from him ; and when he heard my name, he re- membered the circumstance of his having written to me ; and upon the strength of it, gave me the most cordial of greetings, actually shaking hands with me three times over. When he knew that I was to remain for a few days in Halle, he remarked that he had his classes to attend to during certain hours of each day, and that all the rest of the time I might command his services in any way that should be most agreeable to me. He was true to his word, and devoted the leisure of three days to rne almost exclusively. He took me to see every object of curiosity that he thought would interest me, and introduced me to various persons, by whose acquaintance I should be most likely to profit. He seemed to me one of the most inveterate lovers of fun that I ever met. He had treasured a vast number of humorous anecdotes, which he knew how to dispense on all fitting occasions, and with an admirable grace. GESENIUS. 119 | His English was, by no means, as good as that of Tho- luck, though I understood him with perfect ease ; but I remember, once or twice, his bringing forth a word, after considerable effort at recollection, which was so far out of the way, that it required still greater effort on my part, of a different kind, in order to maintain a decent gravity. He seemed to be aware that he was not a very thorough master of English ; though this did not at all embarrass him, as he was utterly reckless of all mistakes. He said nothing in my hearing that reflected, in the least, upon evangelical religion, or its advocates ; on the contrary, he spoke of Tholuck in terms of high and apparently cordial respect. But it was very well un- derstood that his sympathies, from being rationalistic, had become pantheistic ; and that he expounded the Scriptures as a critic, and not as a believer. I at- tended one of his lectures, which, I think, was on a part of the prophecy of Isaiah ; and though I under- stood not a word of it, there was abundant evidence that he was turning the passage that formed the basis of his lecture into ridicule ; for, at brief intervals, throughout the lecture, he would say something that would throw the whole class into a broad laugh, in which he would himself join most heartily. The Eng- lish gentleman, to whom I have already referred, told me that he was present at one of his lectures a short time before, when, after having spoken somewhat at length on the vestments of the High Priest, he sud- denly exhibited a doll, in the most fantastic dress, in 120 GESENIUS. order, as he said, to give them some idea of the sacer- dotal robes. The effect was, as he evidently intended it should be, to convulse the students with laughter. I had the pleasure of an introduction to BARON FOUQUET, the celebrated German poet. He seemed to be about sixty years old, was a short, neat-looking man ; and I was not sure but that he was handsome, though the immense amount of hair upon his face ren- dered it impossible for me to decide. He spoke but a few words of English, though the gentleman who in- troduced me to him was able to act as an interpreter. I was told that both he and his wife a most re- spectable looking lady, of not much more than half his own age were decidedly evangelical in their views and feelings ; and I should have inferred as much in respect to him, from some of his remarks. He showed me the portrait of his grandfather, who was a dis- tinguished General in the Prussian army under Fred- erick the Great, and withal was one of the King's intimate friends, as was proved by a large bundle of letters which the King addressed to him, one of which the Baron was so kind as to present to me. Before I left him he asked me to go into his study, that I might associate him in my recollection with the place where he performed his literary labors. He offered to give me letters to some of his friends in Berlin, and I gladly availed myself of his kind- ness. I saw several other highly respectable persons at WEGSCHEIDER. 121 Halle, some of whom were well worth being remem- bered. I had an introduction to Dr. WEGSCHEIDER, a short, indifferent, sober looking man, who, though a professor in some branch of theology, was not much more, I understood, than a serious, respectable Deist. I heard him deliver a lecture, which was made up of about equal parts of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and read as doggedly as if the lifting of his eyes from his manuscript had been a capital offence. I saw Professor G-RUBAR also, a highly accomplished gen- tleman, apparently about sixty, whose intelligent and generous face reminded me of that of the late Presi- dent Kirkland. I met also with Dr. FRI^DLANDER, the celebrated professor of medicine, and Dr. KOEDDI- GER, the great Oriental scholar, the latter of whom particularly showed himself extremely amiable and obliging. I became acquainted also with NIEMEYER, the son of the celebrated Chancellor of the Univer- sity,*who took me through the famous Orphan House, established about a hundred years before by Franke, and, if I mistake not, the most extensive institution of the kind in the world. He introduced me to his mother, a lady far advanced in life, but distinguished for her intelligence, and highly attractive even in her old age. She had been acquainted with a large part of the distinguished men of Germany, during the fifty years preceding, and, by her striking anecdotes and vivid descriptions, gave me a better idea of many of them than I had had before. Wieland, Schiller, Goethe, and many others of equal note, had been her 6 122 NIEMEYER. intimate friends ; and the grace and elegance with which she talked of them, showed how well fitted she was to adorn such society. She seemed withal a very benevolent person, and last, though with me not least, she was perfectly familiar with my mother- tongue. XVIII T AM not sure that I had ever heard of Dr. * HEUBNER until Professor Tholuck mentioned his name to me at Halle, and told me that he was one of the most vigorous and earnest friends of Evan- gelical Christianity, and that I should do myself great injustice if I should pass Wittenberg, his residence, without seeing him. As Wittenberg had other attractions, on the score of its religious and historical associations, I made up my mind that I would stop there ; and it so happened that I ar- rived there at daybreak on Saturday morning, and found it convenient to remain over the Sabbath. I called and delivered my letter to Dr. Heubner, soon after breakfast, and found him the very quint- essence of everything kind and amiable. He met me so affectionately, that it really seemed unnatural, as I had never seen him before ; but when I looked him in the face, I read there a certificate to the perfect 124 DR. HEUBNEB. sincerity of all his kind expressions. He was Presi- dent of the Theological Seminary at Wittenberg, and, I believe, was a stated preacher there also. He was a man of moderate size, apparently between fifty and sixty years of age, with nothing particularly strik- ing in his face, except that it was perfectly irradi- ated with kindly feeling. It was a disappointment to me that he could not speak English ; and a still greater disappointment to be assured that there was only one person in the town that could speak it ; and the greatest disappointment of all was, when I succeeded in hunting up that one, to find that his English was only an apology for English, and that, as a medium of communication, it was a good deal worse than my French. Dr. Heubner expressed great regret to me that a large part of his preparation for the Sabbath was yet to be made, so that it was impossible for him to accompany me to see the dif- ferent objects of interest, as he wished ; but said he would soon send a person to act as my guide, who was perfectly familiar with all the localities, and would render me every service I should require. When the person came, he proved to be an elderly man, I should suppose over sixty, very well dressed, and yet looking somehow as if he had put on his best clothes for an occasion. I took for granted that the best I could expect of him was that he should speak French, and addressed him accord- ingly ; but was met with the ominous shake of the head, indicating that that was farther than he DR. HEUBNEE. 125 had ever penetrated. Not knowing what anomalous event might have overtaken me, I asked him, al- most despairingly, whether he spoke English ; and he looked at me as if he had detected some symp- toms of hallucination, and, by a still more vigor- ous shake of the head, answered "No." I began to think that if I had not a blind guide, I had, at least, a dumb one ; when, to my utter astonishment, he began to address me in Latin, and spoke it as fluently as any one need to speak his mother-tongue. I happened to be acquainted with the German pro- nunciation of Latin, so that I could understand him without much difficulty ; and, though I had never been trained to converse in Latin, I was surprised to find that, when the stern hand of necessity was laid upon me, and I was obliged to speak that or nothing, I could frame Latin sentences, such as they were, without any considerable hesitation. We start- ed off with our Latin tongues in our mouths ; but the old man had one great advantage of me he could speak correctly as well as fluently, as I could not ; and, though I watched his countenance for the evidence that I was making fun for him by my blunders, there was not a single look from which I should have known that I was not the best Latin scholar in Germany. He took me to see what every one who goes to Wittenberg sees namely, Luther's cell, (study,) where his writing-table all hacked up by a thousand thievish visitors, his music, and other relics of him, still remain ; the spot designated by a 126 DR. HEUBNER. tree where he burnt the Pope's bull ; the house in which Melancthon lived ; and, finally, the church be- neath which the ashes of both Luther and Melanc- thon repose. All this time I was utterly ignorant of the character of my guide, not knowing whether he was a man of high or low degree ; and I felt somewhat embarrassed as to the question whether I should consider him merely as a friend of Dr. Heubner, or some humble individual, who would ex- pect me to pay him for his services. As I preferred, however, to run the hazard of a mistake on the safer side of the alternative, I ventured to slip into his hand what I supposed was a suitable compensation, and he accepted it very thankfully. I afterwards found that he had been a lawyer, but was broken down and had lost his property, and was at that time the sexton of one of the churches. Sunday morning, I went to hear Dr. Heubner preach, in the very church where the great Luther used to lift up a voice that penetrated to the ends of the earth. As I went to the church without a guide, I passed directly into the gallery, and took my seat at random. As I perceived that I was looked at apparently as an object of curiosity, and the boys around me were even in a broad laugh, and as I perceived also that there were two written or printed notices lying on the board before me, I suspected that I had, in my ignorance, taken a seat that belonged to some of the officers of the church, and I immediately rose and took another seat still DR. HEUBNER. 127 nearer the boys, and, as it finally turned out, in the midst of them. The little urchins still kept laugh- ing, and looked at me with as much surprise as if I had dropped down from another planet. One of them, who sat near me, whispered to me in bad French, and offered me his book ; but, as I had seen the little rogue laughing at me immoderately, I con- fess I did not feel greatly in the mood of exchang- ing or even accepting any civilities. At length Dr. Heubner commenced the service, and preached with great animation, and, I have no doubt, to those who understood him, with great interest. Once or twice, in the course of the service, there was a pause, ap- parently for the congregation to spend a moment in silent prayer ; and everybody, not excepting my little neighbours, who were trifling during the ser- vice, put their heads down as if in devotion ; and one of them I saw, while his head was down, still turning his eyes towards me with a smile. There was a very large congregation, and, with the excep- tion I have noted, a very attentive one. I dined with Dr. Heubner according to previous engagement, when I had the pleasure of meeting his family, and two or three others, among whom was a Mr. Kothe, a very agreeable man, who was associate Professor with him in the Theological Sem- inary. Here I found myself in a highly intelligent circle, not one of whom could speak a word of Eng- lish, and who wished to talk with me, not about what I Would have for breakfast or dinner, or on kin- 128 DR. HEUBNER. dred themes, on which I felt myself pretty well at home in French ; but upon some subjects compara- tively abstract, where I knew that my French must be an utter failure. I, however, did as well as I could ; but I knew how well I was doing, if in no other way, from observing in the countenances of the young ladies a very decided conflict between the sense of the decent and the sense of the ludi- crous ; and, as I knew that the bell was to ring for church at two, I watched the clock with the most intense interest, until it finally struck the hour of my relief. When we rose from the dinner-table, the company, to my astonishment, fell to kissing and shaking hands with each other ; and I had nothing to do but walk up, and, so far as the shaking of hands was concerned, take part in the ceremony. Dr. Heubner accompanied me to church in the afternoon, and we heard a sermon delivered, without much animation, by Archdeacon Selfisch. As soon as he had finished his sermon, he left the pulpit, and the congregation commenced singing ; and, when they ceased, what else should I hear than the voice of the preacher from the altar at the side of the church, chaunting the benediction. The con- gregation joined in it, and it was altogether quite an imposing affair ; though it seemed to me, espe- cially in connexion with the minister's turning first his back and then his face to the audience, as a little too much like a relic of Popery to have become an accredited part of the service in Luther's church. DK. HEUBNER. 129 I passed the Sabbath evening with Dr. Heubner, and was not a little interested and edified by his con- versation. He knew Schleusner, the author of the Lexicon, well, as he resided at Wittenberg, and I rather think was associated with him as a Professor in the Theological Seminary. He spoke of him with great respect as a scholar ; but remarked that his theology was not of a very high type, though he was by no means a rationalist. I took leave of the Doctor at the close of the evening, having seen enough fully to justify the favourable opinion that Professor Tholuck had expressed concerning him. He seemed to me the apostle John over again. When we parted, he embraced me, (yes, imprinted upon my cheek a literal, bona fide kiss,) and left me with a benediction as fraternal as if I had been allied to him by a much nearer tie than that of the common humanity. Old Wittenberg is a mean, dirty place in its exterior, but it is glorious in its associations. 6* XIX. AND TYTEANDER was the first person upon whom I called at Berlin, after I had got fixed at my hotel. He was just going out to his lecture, but he received me with the greatest kindness, and made an appointment for me to call in the evening, when he would be at leisure. I had scarcely seen a dis- tinguished person before, who did not appear to me to resemble somebody whom I could think of among my American acquaintances ; and I was accustomed to note the resemblance in my journal, to aid me subsequently in recalling the countenance ; but Neander's face was not to be compared with any that my eye had ever rested on. It was in a high degree Jewish, and yet I should doubt whether it ever had its prototype in any Jew, from Abra- ham down to Neander's own father. Without at- tempting to describe the peculiar expression of his countenance, I may mention that he was a small NEANDEB. 131 man, of very dark complexion, and a fine black eye, though he kept his eyes so nearly closed when he con- versed, that it was only now and then that one could fairly get a sight of them. I was greatly struck with his simple and cordial manner ; and felt, from the first moment that I heard him speak, an irresistible conviction that he was perfectly sincere and trust- worthy in everything. I spent an hour with him in the evening, accord- ing to appointment ; and saw more of him, during the ten days that I passed in Berlin, than of almost any other person. He spoke of many of my country- men, who had resided at Berlin, in terms of great respect and affection ; but I thought he seemed to have been specially drawn towards Professor Hodge and Dr. Sears, both of whom, he was sure, would prove an honour to their country. He told me that evangelical truth on the one hand, and Pantheism on the other, were making rapid progress in Ger- many, and that it was not easy to say which was advancing most rapidly. -He spoke in a manner that indicated the highest respect and reverence for the King ; and when I asked him concerning the King's religious character, he remarked that he had no doubt that he was a truly pious man. I ex- pressed some astonishment at that, from having seen it stated in a French newspaper that I had taken up, that he attended the theatre on the Sabbath. "But," says Neander, "I suppose you know that the same views of the Sabbath are not entertained 132 NEANDER. in Germany as in England and America I do not entertain the same myself." I replied that I was aware of that ; but that I did not suppose that those who professed to be evangelical Christians would attend the theatre on the Sabbath. To which he replied, "I would not go to the theatre any day of the week ; but there is nothing that I would do at any time, that I would not do on Sunday, if convenience required it." He spoke of the long prevailing nationalism in Germany as a thing upon the wane ; and, though he was as far as possible from having any sympathy with it, he expressed his apprehension that many opposed it with a bad spirit ; and, by representing the case worse than it was, rather helped to bind men more closely to their errors, than to effect their deliverance. His heart seemed to be very much in the cause of revivals, and in the cause of missions. He told me that some of the documents which had reached him on the subject of American revivals, he had caused to be translated, and had done his utmost to secure their circulation among the good people of Germany. Somebody hact sent him a few numbers of the Mis- sionary Herald, published at Boston, and he seemed to have devoured them with the utmost avidity. He had no doubt that our noble country was to have a chief agency in evangelizing the world. My curiosity was gratified I cannot say that my mind was particularly enlightened by attending one of his lectures on the "Life of Christ." The room NEANDER. 133 in which the lecture was delivered, had been, origin- ally, a splendid one ; but it had been suffered to go to decay, and withal had accumulated quite as much dirt as was consistent with health, and a good deal more than was consistent with decency. The number of students in attendance was large I should think, not less than four hundred. After I had waited in the lecture-room a good while, the worthy professor made his appearance ; and a singularly plain, and to me perfectly unique, appearance it was. As he came in, his head was down, as if he had lost some- thing that he was trying to find ; and among other attractive articles of dress, was a huge pair of boots, which he wore outside of his pantaloons, and which came up nearly to his knees. I noticed, on his en- tering the room, and several times during the lec- ture, that there was a hissing among the students, which I feared, at the moment, was intended as an insult to the lecturer ; but I soon learned that it was nothing more than a demand for perfect silence. Neander's manner of lecturing indicated the extreme of modesty and diffidence ; but there was nothing about it that was in the least degree attractive. His eyes seemed never to be more than half open ; but they were steadily fixed upon his paper. On one hand he rested his forehead, and with the other he was whirl- ing about a goose-quill ; and once in twenty seconds, upon an average, according to an accurate estimate by my watch, he entertained us by spitting ! I know not whether this was the effect of disease or habit ; 134 N E A N D E R . but I should charitably hope, and I think some- body told me, that it was the former. He delivered his lecture standing, and bending over a desk in the most ungraceful posture ; but his utterance was dis- tinct, and sufficiently loud to fill a large room. I could see that the lecture was listened to with great attention, and the lecturer was evidently regarded with the highest respect. After the lecture was closed, Neander took me into another part of the building, and introduced me to several professors of illustrious name, and then proposed to me to take a " promenade'' with himself and his sister not the sister who kept house for him, but one who was then on a visit to him from Hamburg a lady who seemed to have very little in common with himself, her personal appearance being uncommonly attractive, and her spirits buoy- ant almost to excess. She spoke English with great ease ; though she insisted upon it, for some time, that I knew German ; and when I assured her of the contrary, she laughed immoderately at the idea of my attending a German lecture. Immediately on my introduction to Neander, he asked me if I would dine with him the next Sun- day ; and, as it presented to me the alternative of dining in a Christian family or in a hotel, I had no scruples in accepting the invitation. He had, more- over, requested that I would come in the morning, and accompany him to hear a very eloquent preacher ; to which also I consented. When the Sabbath NEANDER. 135 morning came, however, the weather was so un- favourable that I felt obliged to write him a note, saying that, with a severe cold which I had already taken, I did not think it safe to trust myself in a cold church, but that I should still hope to be with him at dinner. He answered my note in English, approving of my purpose to keep in the house dur- ing the morning, but expressing the hope that I should be able to dine with him ; and added " It would be a great disgust to me not to give you the occasion of making the acquaintance of my dear friend, Dr. Twesten, a true theologian non glorice sed crucis" At three o'clock, the hour appointed, I went to his house, and was shown into his study, where I found him sitting alone ; but Dr. Twesten, the Professor of Dogmatic Theology, very soon came in, and made himself as agreeable as he could, with- out knowing enough of English to form a sentence. In due time the servant announced that dinner was ready ; and what was my astonishment, as I entered the dining-room, to find as many guests there as the room could possibly accommodate. When we sat down to the table there was no blessing audibly asked ; but there was a pause, that each one might ask a blessing for himself. The manner in which the afternoon was passed was quite in accordance with the German doctrine in respect to the Sab- bath ; and, as the good-humoured, not to say bois- terous demonstrations, were all in G-erman, I must confess that I was for once more than reconciled to 136 HENGSTENBEBG. my ignorance of the language. What aggravated the case to me was, that I had no reason to doubt that the dinner party had been made on my account, though I had understood Neander to say that I should meet nobody at dinner but his sister and Dr. Twesten. I am sure he did not intend to do vio- lence to my feelings ; and I am equally sure that, if he had had any adequate appreciation of the manner in which we regard the Sabbath, I should not have been placed in a situation so painful to me. I had intended to say something of HENGSTEN- BERG, having placed his name at the head of this article ; but I find that neither my recollections of him, nor my notes concerning him, supply material for any other than the most general remarks. I walked a long distance outside the gates of the city to find him, and, as he spoke no English, my in- terview with him turned to no great account. For some time he kept talking German to me r despite of my assurances that I did not understand a word of it ; and when he exchanged German for French, he scarcely did it with a good grace. I found him a much younger person than I had expected ; but, though he had lived only thirty-three years, he had been a professor during thirteen of them. He waj a small, bright looking man, and evinced good man- ners in everything, except that he smoked inces- santly while I was with him, and occasionally let HENGSTENBEBG. 137 forth a puff almost directly in my face. No other apology, however, was needed for it than the fact that he was a German. I was shut up in the dili- gence at one time for thirty-six hours with five smokers, who were deaf to all my entreaties to them to desist, because I could not speak German, and they professed to be able to understand no- thing else ! XX. // the time that I determined to visit Ber- lin, it was one important object with me to see ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT ; and as I knew that he passed a good deal of his time abroad at Paris and elsewhere, I was glad to find, on my arrival a ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 139 Berlin, that he was at home, and in his usual health. Several of his personal friends were ready to give me an introduction to him, but my experi- ence had already taught me that General Jackson's letter was not only worth more than any French or German letters I could obtain, however good, but that it actually superseded the necessity of any others ; and I preferred to use it as an introduc- tion to Humboldt, rather even than to take a note from our own accomplished and respectable ambas- sador, Mr. Wheaton. I accordingly enclosed to the Baron my card and the General's letter, signifying, at the same time, by a note, that I should feel hon- oured by the opportunity of paying my respects to him ; and begging that, in case he should consent to my proposal, he would let me know at what time it would be convenient for him to receive me. He immediately called at my hotel, and as I was out, he left his card. I then returned his call, but, unfortunately, he was not at home. On his return, he addressed a note to me, requesting that I would call without delay and see him ; and he added "Any American, especially any one belong- ing to the State of New York, which has abolished slavery, will always be welcome to the study of Alex- ander Von Humboldt." I called at his lodgings some time in the fore- noon, and found him at home, disengaged, and ready to receive me. He approached me with great simplicity and apparent cordiality, and had nothing I 140 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. of the air even of a stranger. He had the appear- ance of a man of sixty-five ; and if I mistake not, this was actually about his age ; but he was rapid in his movements, and seemed scarcely to have lost the vigour and elasticity of youth. He had a be- nignant, genial sort of look, and a winning and courteous manner, which would have made you wish to know more of him, if you had met him as a stranger in a stage-coach. He was one of the most rapid and earnest talkers I ever heard. It was wonderful the rapidity with which he passed from one subject to another. There were various mat- ters concerning which he wished to inquire ; but he manifested a degree of familiarity with every- thing American, that would have led me to sup- pose that he had spent no small part of his life in this country. He talked about slavery, in com- mon with everybody else whom I saw, but he seemed to take a calm and reasonable view of the subject ; and, contrary to my expectations, after the hint contained in his note to me, reprobated the violent denunciations in which many were prone to indulge. He seemed to be aware of our national infirmities, while yet he was not at all disposed to magnify them ; and he did not hesitate to say that there was very much in our form of government that he admired, and that he could not doubt that Provi- dence had designed that we should work out for ourselves a glorious destiny. He remarked that he had had a pleasant acquaintance with several of ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 141 my distinguished countrymen, and especially with Mr. Everett, of whose talents and attainments he spoke in no measured terms of praise. The time that I was with him passed so pleasantly that I made a longer call than I was aware of; and the servant at length came and notified him that the hour had arrived when he had another engagement. He told me that he was engaged to dine that day with the King, and, as the King's dinner-hour was early, he was under the necessity of excusing him- self. He took leave of me with many expressions of good will, and assured me that he should be glad to do anything in his power, during my stay in Berlin, that would contribute to my gratification. I learned, from the best authority, that Hum- boldt was on the most intimate terms with the King ; that he was accustomed to dine with him as often as once or twice a week ; and that he was, probably more than any other person, his coun- sellor and confidant. I was assured, moreover, that his habits were at once most studious and most active ; and that most of his time was spent in his study, and very few hours out of the twenty-four were spent in sleep. His brother William, who had died a short time before, was commonly regarded, at Berlin, as the greater man of the two. I heard it said that the King placed such unlimited confi- dence in his judgment, that he scarcely ever thought of appealing from it. 142 R I T T E R . Next to Neander, the Professor at Berlin, of whom I saw most, was KITTER, the celebrated Geographer supposed, as I was informed, to be the greatest man in his way then upon the stage. I had a letter of introduction to him, which I found he was every way disposed to honour ; and, during the whole time that I was in Berlin, scarcely a day passed that did not bring to me some fresh testimony of his good will. When I first called upon him, I found him in his study, with several large and beautiful maps lying open on the table before him, which, I believe, had been made by his own hand ; and he remarked pleasantly in reference to it, that I had found him riding his hobby. He was a man of a large frame, quite thickly set, with a correspondingly large face, and a fine, open, honest expression. As he spoke English readily, I conversed with him on various sub- jects of interest, and found him equally intelligent and communicative. I was gratified particularly to find that he seemed to be an earnest and devout Christian. He expressed to me the greatest admira- tion of Humboldt's character, and considered hi a model for all who would attain the highest degre of intellectual culture. I had the pleasure of at- tending one of his lectures on Comparative Geog- raphy. When I first entered the room, there we scarcely more than half a dozen students ; but th number gradually increased, until it rose to near! an hundred. I observed that whenever a student came in after the lecture had commenced, he had HENRY . R A U M E U R . 143 to pay a penalty for it, by being "scraped'' by the rest of the class. Professor Bitter, though not par- ticularly graceful as a lecturer, was yet- entirely at home, and he often illustrated what he was saying by turning round and making an outline on the black-board. Though so many years have passed since I saw him, there are few European faces that are more familiar to me, and few among all the ac- quaintances that I made, whom I remember with a feeling of deeper gratitude. I carried a letter from Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, to the Pastor HENRY, one of the most dis- tinguished clergymen in Berlin, and a man of great general influence in both the Church and civil so- ciety. He had married the daughter of a very celebrated statesman, and partly by this means, but chiefly by his great talents and eminent virtues, had acquired an influence which, it was said, reached even to the throne. He was rather a large man, of great personal dignity, and if I could judge from what I saw of him, unusually grave in his conversation. He was then busy with his great work on Calvin, which seemed chiefly to occupy his time and engross his thoughts. He had made a visit to Geneva not long before, in order thoroughly to explore every source of authentic information in respect to the great Beformer. I made the acquaintance of Professor BAUMEUR, the celebrated historian, who has since visited me in 144 STEPHENS . H I T Z I G . this country. He had then just published a Book of Travels in England, which formed a frequent topic of conversation, and which, in all the circles into which I was thrown, seemed to be highly approved. I attended one of his lectures on His- tory. His class was small ; I think, not exceeding twenty-four. His lecture seemed to be extempor- aneous, and his manner was as free and easy as it was in common conversation. I was introduced to STEPHENS, the Professor of Philosophy ; but as he could not speak English, and professed to be unable to speak French, I got not a word out of him that I could understand. His manners were very agreeable, and he had a good-natured, speaking countenance, so that I did not feel, after all, as if he was quite dumb. There was something truly venerable in his appearance, that reminded me somewhat of President Nott, of Union College. I saw two or three very eminent Professors o: Law. One of them was HITZIG, the great criminal- ist, to whom I had a letter from his particular friend, Baron Fouquet. He received me civilly enough ; but I thought I discovered pretty soon that he h something more important on hand than to strain noddle to talk English to an American clergyman and, accordingly, he volunteered to give me a note somebody else, who, he thought, could be of gre , SAVIGNY. GANS.--ENCKE. 145 service to me. I took the note, understanding well the reason why it was given to me ; but I think I turned it to no account. Mr. Wheaton introduced me, also, to two other of the most distinguished pro- fessors of Law namely, SAVIGNY and G-ANS. The former was, in his person and countenance, a truly noble specimen of a man. The latter was a strongly marked Jew ; but was very lively and agreeable in conversation. I understood, however, that they had no sympathy with each other, and were heads of opposite parties. I believe Savigny was considered as having no superior in his department in Ger- many. I must not omit to say, that I made the acquaint- ance of ENCKE, the great astronomer. He had been called to Berlin, from the University of Gotha, not long before, and had acquired a celebrity perhaps equal to that of any astronomer on the Continent. The newly-discovered planet had then recently been named for him. His personal appearance was far from being attractive he was a short, clumsy looking man, with anything else, as it seemed to me, than an intellectual face ; but it was only necessary to converse with him a few minutes, to find out that he was a highly intellectual, as well as agreeable, per- son. There was another great European astronomer then liyiijg, whom he was desirous that I should see ; and it turned out that I had a letter to his grand- f by means of which I easily obtained an intro- 7 146 OLBERS. duction to him. It was Dr. OLBERS, of Bremen, He was a most venerable man in his appearance, about eighty years of age, and had held the high- est rank among astronomers for nearly half a cen- tury. Though he was almost sinking under the burden of years, and actually died soon after, he was as enthusiastically devoted to his favourite science as ever. He was a perfect gentleman of the old school, and had the most bland and engag- ing manners. I was sorry to hear it said, that he had probably never learned to " look through nature up to nature's God." XXI AND THESE two stars in the firmament of poetry were shining, at the time of my visit in England, not indeed in their full strength, but with a degree of lustre that made them objects of general attraction. I spent about the same time with each of them, and my recollections of the two are about equally dis- tinct. I called at ROGERS' house, and, as he was not at home, left my letter of introduction, which was al- most immediately answered by a note, inviting me to breakfast with him. I went at the specified time, and was received with equal dignity and hospitality. He had the appearance of a man of seventy ; he was of about the middle height, stood perfectly erect, and had a face beaming with intelligence and good nature. His manners were at once dignified and graceful, and seemed to indicate both a gentle 148 ROGERS. and thoughtful spirit. I found him living in splen- did style, but quite alone, his servant being the only person besides himself whom I saw ; and my impression was and is, that he was a bachelor, though of this I cannot be quite certain. His health was, at that time, perfectly good ; though he told me that he never knew what health was till after he had passed fifty. His parents were dissenters from the Established Church, and I suppose Unitarians ; for he told me that he was baptized by Dr. Price, and seemed to have great veneration for his character. He did not say directly that he was an Unitarian himself ; but, from some remarks that he made, I inferred that he was. In connexion with what he said about Dr. Price, he remarked that he had never known a great man who was not both simple and clear ; that some .person had told him that Dr. Franklin, so far at least as simplicity was concerned, was an excep- tion to this general rule ; but, that he had since been assured, by a lady who knew Dr. Franklin in- timately, that simplicity was one of his most prom- inent characteristics. He talked a good deal oi Washington Irving and Cooper, both of whom h( knew well, and regarded as among the stars of 01 common English literature. His admiration foi Kobert Hall's genius was unbounded, though said it had so happened that he had never hean him preach but once. He observed, apparently wit] a good deal of satisfaction, that in the room ii ROGERS. 149 which I was sitting, he had had the honour to re- ceive three who had been presidents of the United States, besides Mr. Van Buren, who, he supposed, was destined to add one to the number. After breakfast, he asked me to go up stairs with him, that he might show me some of his literary curiosi- ties ; but then he said he must first feed his birds ; and immediately, on throwing down some small bits of bread, some twenty birds or more, that were do- mesticated on his premises, came flying down and picked them up. He made some beautiful remarks upon their being so affectionate and loving towards him, and showed that he had himself strong domes- tic affections, though I saw nothing to indicate that he had any objects more considerable, or more know- ing, than birds to fasten them upon. On going up stairs, he brought out various literary relics of by-gone days, all of which were of great in- terest, and for some of which he had paid a very large price. His greatest treasure of this kind, however, was a document, which was framed, and hung up in his hall. It was nothing less than the written engagement between Milton and his publisher, which secured to the latter the right to print the Paradise Lost, on condition of his paying six pounds for each edition. For this document he told me he gave sixty pounds. It was written in a fair, beautiful hand, and I did not notice any dissimilarity between the body of the document and the signature. When I WRR mentioning the circumstance to a friend, after 150 CAMPBELL. my return, he immediately suggested the difficulty, which, strange to say, had not previously occurred to myself, of supposing this to be a genuine auto- graph of Milton, inasmuch as he was, at the time, stone blind. I wrote at once to Kogers, asking him to explain. In due time I received an answer from him, of great interest, showing, from the history of the document that it must be authentic, and then stating that it was only the signature that was writ- ten by him ; and that a man becomes so familiar with the writing of his own name, that if he has been accustomed to write it in a graceful hand, even blindness will not prevent his still doing so. The venerable poet still lives, and I think he must now have approached very near to ninety. An English friend of mine lately informed me that he retains much of his elasticity of mind, that he sometimes goes out to pass an evening with a friend, and is not much disposed to see signs of the blossoming of the almond tree. I found CAMPBELL in very different circumstances, tftid evidently a very different man. He met m( with great kindness, and very courteously said, twc or three times over, that he felt flattered by my visit ; and really I thought he had good reason t( construe it into an expression of respect ; for, ii order to get to his apartments, I had to travel uj four long flights of stairs, and then truvrl down om in anotlior direction, whir-h altogether made goiuethinj CAMPBELL. 151 of a journey. However, I quite forgot the pains which my visit had cost me, in the abundant pleasure which it yielded. I found him rather under the mid- dle size, easy and quick in his movements, and very much like his picture, except, as he himself said, his picture had somewhat flattered him. His dress was so plain, I may say slovenly, that, on first meet- ing him, I was embarrassed in the same way that I was the first time I met John Quincy Adams I was in doubt whether it was he or his servant. His room, too, though lined with books, had not, like the apartments of Eogers, the appearance of opulence. Indeed, I believe he was, at that time, literally poor ; and he told me that he was obliged to get his living by writing, particularly by con- ducting the New Monthly Keview. He stated that he had enlisted very zealously in behalf of the ex- iled Poles ; that he had not only begged money for them out-and-out, but had sold for their benefit to certain ladies, several notes addressed to himself by Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, at the enor- mous rate of from ten to twenty pounds each ; but he seemed to me to have grown rather sick of the enterprize. The great fire in New York had occurred just before, and some effort had been made in Lon- don for the relief of the sufferers ; but he said that he thought it not at all in good taste, and it a mounted to so very little, that it was really not ii)ii''h better than an insult. He had great quan- tities of manuscript lyin^ around him, and he re- 152 CAMPBELL. marked that it accumulated so rapidly that he was obliged every few days to have a regular auto da fe. He told me that he expected to be in Scotland at the time I had arranged to be there myself, and gave me his address in Glasgow, requesting me to call upon him. He seemed to be between fifty and sixty years old, but did not, I believe, enjoy very vigorous health. He retained somewhat of the Scotch accent, though it could not be expected that it should be very marked, as he had been away from Scotland some thirty years. He had more vivacity than Kogers, but was, perhaps, less bland and dig- nified. XXII. T HAD had some acquaintance with Dr. GKEGORY, by correspondence, before I saw him, and, there- fore, did not anticipate meeting him as a stranger. I rode out one morning from London, seven miles, to Woolwich, Dr. Gregory's residence, on purpose to spend the day with him. He had been apprized of my intention to come at that time, and he re- ceived me with all the familiarity of an old friend. I had been accustomed to contemplate his face in his portrait, which he had previously sent me, and it was so exact a likeness that, when I saw the original, I could scarcely persuade myself that so perfect an idea as I had could have been gathered from a picture. He was not much above the me- dium height, but was rather inclined to be stout, and gave you the idea of a more than common de- gree of physical strength. If I had described frim after I had been with him five minutes, I should 154 OLINTHUS GBEGORY. have said that he was characterized by great sim- plicity of manner, entire freedom in conversation, excellent common sense, and a heart overflowing with kindness ; and I should have given the same account of him when I left him, with this important addition that his knowledge was vast and varied, and that he was a truly evangelical, devout, and earnest Christian. As I was aware of his great intimacy with Kobert Hall, I was particularly desirous to hear what he would say concerning him, though I already knew what he had written. He could hardly find language to convey any adequate idea of the estimate in which he held him as a man of intellect ; and he evi- dently thought that he had not left upon earth so great and finished a mind as his own. He men- tioned one singular characteristic of Hall's mem- ory that it was so exact for words that he could remember every word of a sermon just as he had preached it, though a long time might intervene He said that, in conversation, Hall was remarkable for letting other people take the lead, and then no matter what the subject might be he would fall in, and gradually become very eloquent and powerful, sometimes perfectly overwhelming. He showed me the original manuscript of Hall's famous sermon on infidelity, for which he said he had been offered twenty pounds ; and I noticed the substitu- tion in pencil of the word pierce for penetrate a well-known incident, I might almost say, in the OLINTHUS GEEGOKY. 155 history of English literature. He had a few of Hall's manuscript sermons, or rather outlines of ser- mons, one of which he gave me as a keepsake, and which I, of course, preserve as a great treasure. I am not aware that there is another on this side the Atlantic. He showed me, also, as a great curi- osity, a book which contained many notes in the handwriting of John Bunyan, and which he had with him while he was writing his Pilgrim's Prog- ress in Bedford Jail. I incidentally mentioned to Dr. Gregory, that Kobert Hall had professed to me a degree of faith in ghosts and other supernatural demonstrations, that rather surprised me. The Doctor, without say- ing directly that he was a convert to the same doc- trine, immediately stated several facts, which he said had come within his knowledge, that gave me reason to infer it ; one or two of which were so re- markable, that I will venture to relate them upon his authority. He said there was a little girl living in his neighbourhood, who was, at a certain time, greatly distressed by an impression that her brother had died in India. They tried to laugh her out of it ; but she kept on weeping from day to day. At length, to the great surprise of the family, the in- telligence came that he was dead ; and while all the rest were overwhelmed with the tidings, the little girl seemed quite indifferent. When she was re- proached by her mother for her apparent insensi- bility, she replied that she knew of his death at the 156 OLINTHUS GREGORY. time it occurred, and that she had had time to re- cover from the effect of it ; and they found, upon recollection, that the time which she had mentioned was the very time of his death. A similar case oc- curred, at a later period, in respect to her father, who professed to be incredulous concerning her im- pressions. When he was going away to join the army, he charged her not to communicate to her mother any impression she might have in respect to him. Shortly after the battle of Waterloo, she suddenly burst into tears, and appeared quite in- consolable. The family inquired the cause, but she evaded. The next morning, as she saw an officer coming with letters, she uttered a shriek. He, how- ever, passed the gate ; and, as he passed, she was heard to say " Thank God is it possible !" But immediately another officer came, bringing the tid- ings of her father's death. Dr. Gregory told me that the great mathematician, Bonycastle, had formerly occupied the house in which he himself then lived ; and, on a certain occasioi Mrs. Bonycastle and her daughter both saw Mrs. B. ; w brother, who was known to be at a distance, going down stairs the stairs to which Dr. Gregory then pointed me. Bonycastle laughed at them, but stil noted the time, to see if anything disastrous oc cured ; in due time the intelligence came, that thi moment, so far as could be ascertained, was the me ment of the brother's death. Bonycastle and wife, Dr. Gregory said, were both infidels ; thou^ OLINTHUS GREGORY. 157 he was not without severe compunction. The Doc- tor once saw him when he was very ill ; and his wife rebuked him for complaining, and bid him look to his philosophical principles for support. He replied, " Philosophy is good for nothing now, my dear ; Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me." She accounted for the remark, by saying that his mind was evi- dently wandering. He had once been a member of an evangelical church, but had become an apostate. Dr. Gregory did his utmost to reclaim him, but he found that his influence was entirely neutralized by a club of infidels in London, with whom Bonycastle had unfortunately become associated. I had supposed, before my personal acquaintance with Dr. Gregory, that he was a low-church Epis- copalian ; but, instead of that, I found that he was an open-communion Baptist. He was, however, a truly liberal Christian, and evinced a cordial sym- pathy with all who were striving for the common cause of truth and righteousness. He said he felt quite at home in any denomination that recognized what he considered the leading truths of the Gospel ; though, as a matter of convenience, he and his family attended the Episcopal Church. Bishop Mcll- vaine had visited him, while he was in England, and he had formed a strong attachment to him, and thought him an admirable model of a Bishop. He had been greatly afflicted, not long before, by the sudden death of a son, I think, by drowning ; and he adverted to the event with great solemnity, and 158 OLINTHUS GREGORY. yet with much apparent submission. He said he had spent months in inquiring wherefore the Lord had thus afflicted him. The only members of his family whom I saw, were his wife and one daughter ; both of whom were ladies of fine intellect, engaging manners, and apparently of ardent piety. XXIII. residence of Miss LUCY AIKEN was at Hamp- stead, some four or five miles from the heart of London. One of her intimate friends, Mr. K., from whom also I received great kindness, offered me an introduction to her ; and, as she was one of the lion- esses of the day, I gladly availed myself of it. I found her dwelling, after a little more than half an hour's ride, and, on sending in my letter, was im- mediately invited into the parlour, where she was sitting with an elderly gentleman, to whom I was not introduced. As there was no excess -of cordiality in her manner of receiving me, I could not but sus- pect that she would have been easily reconciled to any providence that had kept me away ; however, as I was actually there, I thought the best thing I could do, both for her and myself, was to make my call as brief as would consist with decency. 160 MISS LUCY A I KEN. r She was rather short and stout in her person, seemed to be about fifty years old, and had a coun- tenance more bright and intelligent than gentle and lovely. Her manners were characterized by great directness, and there was a straightforward, business- like air about her, amounting sometimes even to ab- ruptness, which was fitted to make one almost regret that she belonged to the gentler sex. She began al- most immediately to talk about Dr. Channing, and her admiration of his writings and reverence for his char- acter seemed to know no bounds. I found that she was in habits of correspondence with him, and seemed annoyed that it had been a long time since he had written to her. She spoke of several Ameri- cans with respect ; but Dr. Channing was the only one, so far as I could judge, who had made much impression upon her. She talked a good deal about a controversy which was then going forward in Lon- don, between the Unitarians and the Orthodox I think on the subject of Lady Hewley's charities ; and, though she did not express a very decisive opinion in respect to it, I could see clearly that she leaned to the side of the Unitarians ; which, certainly, was not strange, as she was understood to be strongly at- tached to that denomination. She spoke incident- ally of her near relative, Mrs. Barbauld, but said nothing that gave me any new ideas of her char- acter. She rendered a very strong testimony also in favour of her neighbour, Miss Joanna Baillie, and seemed to speak as if she was quite her beau ideal MISS JOANNA BAILLIE. 161 of a woman. I left her, not at all wondering that she should have written the Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, but feeling that her character would not have suffered by a more liberal infusion of fem- inine grace and gentleness. Miss BAILLIE lived within perhaps a hundred rods of Miss Aiken, and it was at her house that I made my next call. She was then seventy-two years of age ; and her sister, who was living with her, could not have been much younger. In everything, ex- cept vigour of mind and intelligence, she was quite the opposite of Miss Aiken. She was rather tall and slender in her person, and there was more of benignity than of high intellect expressed in her countenance. She had a quiet, gentle, and yet ex- ceedingly lady-like manner, and the spirit of benevo- lence seemed to come out in everything that she said and did. One of her friends in London had written her of my intended visit, and she said that they had expected me for a day or two, and had been staying at home that they might not miss me which I very well understood to mean, that I might not miss them. She told me that she had lived in London and its neighbourhood for about half a cen- tury ; and when I remarked to her that she had not lived there long enough to lose entirely her Scottish accent, she said " No ;" she believed that that never happened after a person was twenty years old. She told me that her father was Professor of Theology 162 MISS JOANNA BAILLIE. in the University of Glasgow, and with great rev- erence pointed me to his portrait, which hung in another room. She expressed her regret that she had never seen Hannah More, though she con- sidered her as one of the brightest lights of her generation, or of any other. She talked with great enthusiasm, also, concerning Dr. Chalmers ; but she was evidently far from subscribing to some of his opinions. She spoke of the Scottish Church with great reverence, and greatly preferred it to the Eng- lish. , I could see that she had some partiality for the system of patronage, and she expressed her ap- prehension that the reform might be carried to an* injurious extreme. She had, a short time before, published two plays, which were just then being acted at the different theatres. She had intended that they should be posthumous, and be edited by her nephew ; but, as he was threatened seriously with a decline, and it had become very doubtful whether he would survive her, she determined to send them forth during her lifetime. She said nothing in my hearing from which I could infer what were her re- ligious opinions ; but it was well understood that she was an Arian. She professed to have examined the Scriptures with great care, and, as the result, to have given up her faith in the proper divinity of the Saviour. Her character seemed to be a beauti- ful compound of intelligence, loveliness, and vener- able simplicity. MBS. ELIZABETH FRY. 163 At the time of my visit in England, there were few persons, male or female, who were in greater re- pute, especially in the walks of philanthropy, than Mrs. FEY. It was quite an object with me to ob- tain an introduction to her, and I succeeded in accomplishing it with great ease. She was a noble I should say, a splendid looking woman ; consider- ably above the ordinary height, and of a remarkably symmetrical form ; with a countenance indicative of great vigour of mind, and strength of purpose, and with a general air and bearing more dignified and impressive than I have often met with in a lady. Withal, her face expressed great benevolence ; and, when I knew that it was Mrs. Fry with whom I was conversing, it seemed to me that she looked ex- actly as a person of her character might be ex- pected to look. Her great mission, at that time, was reading the Scriptures once or twice a week to the wretched inmates of Newgate. I was very de- sirous of being present at one of those readings ; and, as soon as she knew my wish, she assured me that it should be gratified. Accordingly, by previous appointment, I met her at the prison, and witnessed one of the most interesting and impressive services at which I have ever been present. I entered the prison just as the female prisoners were going up into the room where Mrs. Fry was to meet them. There were about forty, all decently and uniformly dressed, and nearly every one having in her hand a Bible. Thev had all been tried and sen- 164 MKS. ELIZABETH FRY. tencecl for some crime or other, and most of them had been taken from the streets the very refuse of society. Several of them had babies in their arms, that were playful and smiling in their unconscious degradation. Mrs. Fry read the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Kornans, and the thirteenth Psalm ; commenting a little upon each with great propriety and feeling. Nothing could have been more appro- priate and beautiful than her manner of reading. I could not imagine that Dr. Mason himself perhaps the finest model of a reader which the American pulpit has furnished ever read the twelfth chapter of Eomans more impressively than Mrs. Fry did on that occasion. And it had its effect upon other minds than mine ; for I saw some, who looked like veterans in crime, burying their faces in their hands, as if overwhelmed with compunction at least, if not with penitence. At the close of the reading, which, in connexion with the comments that accompanied, and a brief exhortation that followed it, lasted, per- haps, three-quarters of an hour, the different moni- tors (one from each ward) came up successively and rendered in their account ; and all the reports, with one or two exceptions, were very good. There was a young gentleman who came in to see Mrs. Fry, just after the exercise had closed, who looked very modest and retiring ; but I was surprised to find that it was a noble lord, who took the deepest interest in her philanthropic enterprise. She gave me a most interesting account of her labours, am MBS. ELIZABETH FBY. 165 assured me that she had good reason to believe that the Word of God, as read by her, had been the power of God to the salvation of a goodly number of those wretched beings. I perceived that all her movements towards them were kind and winning, and their treatment of her seemed most deferential and grateful. I did not think it strange that the Emperor Alexander should have pronounced her one of the wonders of the age. Though she talked with the Quaker precision, the style of her conversation was worthy of the court. She wished me to visit her at her house, but I could not. She, however, sent me a little book, containing an account of her self-denying labours, and gave me also a letter of introduction to her brother, Joseph John Gurney, whom she wished me to visit at Norwich. It is several years since she has passed away ; but the record of her good deeds will pass away never. XXIV. e&ba& AN my first visit to England, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Dr. SMITH, though it was but once or twice that I met him, and my intercourse with him was only sufficient to make me deeply regret that it could not be more extended. On my return to London, after a number of years, I was glad of an opportunity to renew my acquaintance with him, and the more so, as he had been steadily advancing in influence and reputation ; and his name, by that time, was scarcely less honoured in our country than in his own. I availed myself of an early opportunity to call upon him, and he very pleasantly recognized our former acquaintance, and expressed a wish that I would give him as much of DR. JOHN PYE SMITH. 167 my time during my stay in the neighbourhood as should suit my convenience. Dr. Smith was rather slender in person, and yet exceedingly well formed, with a face remarkable for the harmonious blending of different qualities, and especially for delicacy of expression. Had I only seen him without knowing who he was, I think I should have been more impressed with the moral than the intellectual, and should have imagined that he had rather a beautiful mind than a power- ful one ; that he was rather a student than a genius ; but every one knows, that he was not only a great scholar, but an earnest and vigorous thinker. In ap- proaching you at first, there was a sort of modest reserve, which, however, soon wore off, and revealed to you a truly benignant spirit, high intellectual endowments, and a thoroughly accomplished gentle- man. There was something in his personal appear- ance that did not leave it to your choice whether to respect and honour him or not the impression that he was a man of distinguished worth was, from the beginning, irresistible ; and it must have been no ordinarily debased type of humanity that could have even meditated a wound upon his refined and gen- erous sensibilities. Dr. Smith, at the time to which I now refer, had become exceedingly deaf, so that it was not without some difficulty that he could bear his part in ordinary conversation. He had been, for a year or two, labouring under some serious malady, which, it was supposed, for some time, would 168 DR. JOHN PYE SMITH. prove fatal ; but it had finally yielded, in a meas- ure, to the use of stimulants, to which, however, he had consented only as a last resort, and with the greatest reluctance. The subject which, more than any other, occupied Dr. Smith at that time, was the great question of the union of Church and State ; which was felt then, as it is now, in deep and ominous vibra- tions to the very heart of the nation. Perhaps no voice among the Dissenters was lifted up with more power or more effect, on this exciting subject, than his ; but, while he was bold and earnest, he never lost his dignity or self-command ; and the most zeal- ous churchman could not but do homage to his can- dour nd ability. He seemed to think that we in this country had but a very inadequate sense of the value of our religious liberty ; and that, if we could bear, for a single year, the burden which the English Dissenters had to bear all the time, we should prize our own privileges more, and feel a deeper sympathy for them. Dr. Smith expressed the kindest feelings towards our country, and great respect for some of our distinguished scholars and professors. He was in the habit of reading the Theological Beview, then edited by the Kev. Leon- ard Woods, Jr., and, though he was generally greatly pleased with the articles, he expressed de- cided dissatisfaction with one, on Christian Union, written by Bishop S , which he thought in- dicated a wish to get rid of all sectarian differences, ROBERT ASPLAND. 169 by merging all the different denominations in the Episcopal Church. Dr. Smith gave me an interesting account of the service to which his chapel (the gravel-pit meeting) had been put, in the different periods of its history. It had been occupied by Dr. Price, whose minis- trations were Arian ; then by Dr. Priestley, pre- vious to his coming to America ; then by Belsham, then by Aspland, who was, at that time, one of the most popular Unitarian preachers in London ; and finally by himself. It was somewhat remarkable that each of these distinguished Unitarians (unless Belsham was an exception, and I think he was not) was originally orthodox, and had preached the ortho- dox faith. ASPLAND started as a Baptist, and was an intimate friend, I believe a fellow student, of Dr. Cox, of Hackney. I saw Aspland, and found him altogether courteous and obliging, and evi- dently a man of commanding intellect. Of Dr. Cox and Dr. Smith he spoke in terms of great respect, and that, notwithstanding he regarded Dr. Smith as the great champion on the orthodox side of the Unitarian controversy. I understood that he had stated, that his first departure from orthodoxy origin- ated in his being suspected by a Church clergyman of being an Arian ; and that the same clergyman had cautioned him against Arianism, as being very unfavourable to pulpit eloquence J Having alluded to Aspland, I cannot forbear to 8 170 JOHN TOWEL I, R U T T . say a word about two other distinguished Unitarians, into whose company I was thrown. One of them was JOHN TOWELL KUTT, a man then venrino; ' O O towards four-score, the father-in-law of the cele- brated Talfourd. One of my friends, who knew him intimately, assured me that he was a very remark- able man, and proposed to invite him to meet me at breakfast. He was uncommonly vigorous for his years, and seemed to know everybody that had lived, and everything that had happened, while he had been upon the stage. His face, though furrowed with years, was constantly lighted up with anima- tion and benevolence. He had known Dr. Priestley most intimately, and was the author of his life, in three octavo volumes, of which he gave me a copy. He was, also, a warm friend and great admirer of Gilbert Wakefield ; and when, as he spoke of him, I understood him to say, the Duke of Bedford, he replied, " You must allow me to say, Sir, that I think that a very great instance of the bathos." He told me that as I had fallen in with one Uni- tarian in himself, he was very desirous of introduc- ing me to another the celebrated GEORGE DYER, author of the Life of Robert Kobinson, and several other works who, he said, was decidedly a char- acter. I readily consented to accompany him, though I had no idea what sort of a person I was to see, or what constituted the attraction. We were accompanied by Mr. B., the friend who had invited us to breakfast, and who also knew George GEORGE DYER. 171 Dyer well ; and, on our way to his lodgings, I learned that he was distinguished as a highly gifted man and an author, but still more for his eccentricity. Mr. B. mentioned that he once met him in such a fit of absence that when he approached him, Dyer thought him a pickpocket, and began to make a vigorous defence of himself with his cane. He was an old man, not much short of eighty, had a re- markably benevolent face, and was stone blind. We kept him talking about old times and old things, and his connexion with the distinguished men of the preceding generation ; and on every topic that was introduced he showed himself quite at home. He had been married in his old age to his laun- dress ; and he incidentally paid her the compliment to say, that "she made him an excellent wife, but that, unfortunately, she could render him no assist- ance by reading or writing, as her education was very defective." When he spoke of something that he had intended to do before he was laid upon the shelf, Mr. Kutt said, referring to his publications, " But you did not go upon the shelf yourself till you had put some very valuable things there" a compliment which the old gentleman evidently did not disrelish. He was remarkably affectionate in his manner, and seemed unwilling to let go of my hand ; and finally he said, much to my surprise, " You are a Unitarian minister, are you not ?" As I answered in the negative, Mr. Kutt added fa- cetiously " Though he is not a Unitarian, his 172 GEORGE DYER. orthodoxy does not prevent his walking the streets with us." Neither Dyer nor Kutt survived many years after I saw them. Aspland, too, is no longer among the living. Indeed, a large part of those whose acquaintance I made less than twenty years ago, have passed the dark boundary. XXV. AND T HAD become interested in the character of Mr. PRATT, chiefly as the biographer of Cecil ; but had heard of him through other channels as one of the most respectable and excellent ministers of the Church of England. I had no difficulty in getting an introduction to him, and I gladly accepted an invitation from him to breakfast. He was rather a thick, portly man, and his countenance and manner evinced great sincerity and benevolence. Nothing about him, however, was more remarkable than his piety. He was social and cheerful, and did not scruple a pleasant anecdote ; but nobody, who no- ticed the tenor of his conversation, could doubt that his affections were strongly fixed upon Heaven. He was at that time sixty-eight years old, seemed to be in his full vigour, and preached at least once every Sabbath. His general appearance and man- 174 JOSIAH PRATT. ner reminded me forcibly of the excellent Dr. Mil- nor ; and, unless I greatly mistake, there was a cor- responding resemblance in their characters. I was desirous of learning from him as much as I could concerning Cecil ; but, though he expressed the utmost admiration of his character, I do not remember that he said anything that threw new light upon it. He talked more, I think, of the Yenns than he did of Cecil. He told me that the elder Venn (Henry) was a man of great exuberance of feeling, and was working a reformation in the Es- tablished Church, while Whitefield and Wesley were doing the same thing out of it ; that the second Venn, (of Clapham,) whose sermons have obtained a good deal of celebrity, possessed a fine mind, but was of rather an indolent habit, and rarely began his preparation for the Sabbath till Saturday even- ing. He remarked that the memoir of Henry Venn had then lately been published by his grandson, wl resided at High Gate ; and that the reason why had been so long delayed was, that he preachec some time in Kowland Hill's chapel, and some of his relatives thought that was a circumstance which would not bear to be stated. Mr. Pratt introduced me to his son, who was then a curate, and I am not sure but that he was officiating in the same church with his father. With Mr. HORNE, the author of the Introductioi to the Studv of the New Testament, I had ha THOMAS H.ARTWELL HORNE. 175 some correspondence, and, therefore, felt at liberty to call upon him without an introduction. He was rather below the middle size ; was very bald, and had an agreeable, but not particularly striking, face. As everybody has a hobby, I quickly found that his was nothing less than the "Anglican Church as the great bulwark of Protestanism." He seemed grati- fied to know that his work had found so much favour in this country, and gave me somewhat in detail its history, from its inception to its completion. He said nothing which indicated that he bore any ill- will towards the Dissenters ; but the Koman Catho- lic Church he regarded as a mere nest of abomina- tions, and had no doubt that Protestantism had yet to fight a mighty battle. He lived in a plain but agreeable way, and his family consisted of his wife and daughter, one or more of his children having, not long before, been removed by death. He preached on the evening of the day that I dined with him, and I attended the service. His sermon, which was on the fall and recovery of Peter, was plain, but sensible and excellent. It was closely read, unaccompanied, so far as I remember, with either gesture or much apparent fervour. The reading of the service by some curate was bad enough, but the reading of the hymns by the clerk cast all other monotonies that ever fell upon my ear into deep shade. The church was in Nicholas Lane, Lom- bard Street a very dark street in the heart of London ; but it was a fine old piece of architecture, 176 THOMAS HARTWELL HORNE. and bore marks of the genius of Sir Christopher Wren. Mr. Home must, I think, be one of the most industrious men living. Besides performing all the duties of a parish minister, he had an office in the British Museum, which kept him there six or eight hours of each day, and, in addition to all this, had done more through the press than almost any of his cotemporaries. Mr. Home seemed to me to possess a truly liberal spirit, and to feel a deep interest in all that was doing by Christians of different communions for the advancement of the common cause of truth and righteousness. He is truly a self-made man, and has risen to his present eminence by dint of long- continued and unremitted effort. I found him ex- tremely obliging, and more than willing to minister to my gratification in every way he could. I occa- sionally correspond with him, and ana always de- lighted to get a letter dated " St. Nicholas 7 Kec- tory." XXVI. first introduction to this venerable man was within a few days after my arrival in London, in 1828. I had no letter to him ; but was casually introduced to his son, and through him to the whole family. Stranger as I was, they immediately invited and even urged me to give up my lodgings, and make my abode with them during my sojourn in London ; and, though I had many misgivings on the score of delicacy, considering especially the man- ner of my introduction to them, I was finally in- duced to forego my scruples and accept their hos- pitality. It was a most fortunate circumstance in the history of my travels ; for it was not only the means of my being domesticated for several weeks in one of the most delightful families I have ever known, on either side of the water, but it secured to me many valuable acquaintances in different parts of England, and gave to my whole visit an interest as intense as it was unexpected. Mr. WILSON, when I first saw him, must have 8* 178 THOMAS WILSON. been about sixty-four or sixty-five years of age. He was, I think, fully of the middle height, and every way well proportioned. He had what might be called a fine face, evincing at once a thoughtful and reflecting mind, and an ingenuous and kindly spirit. His manners were more remarkable for frank- ness and benevolence than for artificial polish ; though he could nowhere have been mistaken for any other than a well-bred gentleman. He was very sociable, and much of his conversation was of a serious kind, having a direct bearing on the progress of Christian- ity in the world ; but he always seemed cheerful, and had, evidently, a keen relish for a good anecdote. Most of the anecdotes which he told, however, were illustrative of the peculiarities, the trials, or the success, of some of the clergymen of a former gener- ation. Mr. Wilson's history is one of uncommon interest, and is perhaps more intimately connected with the progress of religion among the English Dissenters, than that of any other man of his day. He was a native of London, and in his boyhood was a fellow- pupil with Rogers, the poet, in a school at Kew- ington Green. When he was about fourteen or fifteen, he was apprenticed to the business of a silk manufacturer ; and, at the age of twenty-one, he became a partner in that business with his father. His mind was much directed to serious subjects from his childhood ; and the good impressions which were made under the parental roof are supposed to have THOMAS WILSON. 179 been deepened by the influence of the Rev. Timothy Priestley, brother of Dr. Joseph Priestley, with whom he was, for a while, in somewhat intimate re- lations. About the time his apprenticeship closed, he became connected with the Tabernacle, in Lon- don, where Matthew Wilks officiated for so many years. The preaching here, though deeply evan- gelical and experimental, was of a free and easy sort, and probably contributed much to form Mr. Wilson's taste ; for while he required that every sermon should penetrate to the very marrow of the Gospel, he had no patience with anything like self- display in the pulpit, and could, I believe, more easily tolerate excessive freedom than excessive for- mality. I remember his giving me a pleasant hit on the subject of my preaching from a manuscript, and expressing the opinion that the best place for a minister to carry his sermon is in his heart. About the year 1794, Andrew Fuller, the celebrated Baptist minister, went to London to preach in dif- ferent churches, with a view to collect funds for the Baptist Missionary Society, at that time in its in- fancy. Mr. Wilson was greatly struck with his preaching, and especially with his impressive illus- trations of the great duty of Christian beneficence. Though he had not previously been unmindful of his obligations on this subject, this seems to have marked an epoch in his experience ; and, to say the least, it had much to do in determining the direc- tion of his future life. Accordingly, the next year 180 THOMAS WILSON. (1795), he assisted in forming the London Mission- ary Society, and was chosen one of its first Direct- ors. Two or three years after, being now quite in- dependent in his worldly circumstances, he retired from active business with a view to devote himself entirely to the cause of Christian benevolence, es- pecially in connexion with Hoxton Academy a well- known Dissenting institution for the education of young men for the ministry. This was one of the favourite objects of his life ; and while he gave most liberally of his time and his money to sustain it, he always exercised a paternal guardianship over the pupils, and suffered no opportunity to pass un- improved for aiding, especially, their spiritual growth. He had definite and well-considered views of every part of ministerial duty, and he even published a tract, containing his views, which, I believe, has passed through several editions. In 1799, he was chairman of the meeting that resolved to form the (London) Tract Society ; and he continued a member of the com- mittee of that Society until 1806, when he resigned his place for the sake of giving more of his time to other objects. He had a hand, also, in originat- ing the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1804, and was always found among its efficient auxiliaries till the close of life. But that which may be said to have emphatically constituted his mission, was the repairing of old chapels, or the building of new ones, in almost every part of England. Having had a large accession to his fortune, by means THOMAS WILSON. 181 a legacy, some years after he retired from secular business, he was able, without embarrassment, to meet almost innumerable exigences of this kind ; and he was constantly upon the look-out for such opportunities of exercising his benevolence. He lived in no more expensive style than his general relations to society demanded ; regarding himself constantly in the character of a steward, and his property in the light of a deposit. Mr. Wilson, though not educated for the ministry, occasionally performed the functions of a preacher. The first instance of it occurred in this way He was stopping at some place where the celebrated James Haldane was expected to preach ; but, being prevented from fulfilling his engagement, he urged Mr. Wilson to take his place. Mr. Wilson con- sented to the proposal, though not without much reluctance ; but he was so well satisfied with the freedom and success of his effort, that he was not unwilling to repeat the experiment ; and the result was that he preached whenever he thought there was a special occasion for it, and for some time took his turn regularly with several of the London min- isters in preaching to the inmates of the Female Penitentiary. I did not hear him preach, but un- derstood that he was very evangelical in his teach- ings, and simple and earnest in his manner. What interested me more than perhaps anything else in Mr. Wilson's conversation, was his copious reminiscences of the great men, especially the clis- 182 THOMAS WILSON. tinguished ministers, who had passed off the stage. For Whitefield's memory he had an almost un- bounded reverence. I think he had no distinct recollections of him, though he was taken in his in- fancy to see him on a certain occasion, when he preached in the Tabernacle ; but his early associa- tions, as well as his later tastes and convictions, were all in favour of Whitefield's preaching. He was well acquainted with John Bemdge, White- field's intimate friend, and in many respects a kin- dred spirit. He thought highly, too, of John Wes- ley ; and remembered well what deep and extensive mourning there was when his death occurred, and he was laid out in his gown and bands. He had heard John Newton preach, and represented him as the very personification of evangelical sincerity and earnestness ; but, if my memory serves me, he had no personal acquaintance with him. Dr. Bogue, Dr. Balfour, of Glasgow, the accomplished and devout Cecil, and many others, he was able to describe in a manner which left me in no doubt of the correctness of his recollections, while it evinced his high appreciation of their characters. Mr. Wilson, at some period of his life, publishe a selection of Hymns for social worship. There i also from his pen a tract on Baptism ; in which he maintains the position, that all parents believ- ing the Divine authority of the Christian religion, and attending the means of religious instruction, may require baptism for their children, even though THOMAS WILSON. 183 they may not consider themselves as regenerate per- sons. The mode of administering the ordinance which he thought most scriptural, was by affusion ; though, in the case of infants, he thought that sprinkling was both allowable and expedient. When I returned to London, eight years after my first visit, I found my venerable friend as hospitable, and cheerful, and almost as active as ever. The objects for which he was labouring were the same which had so constantly occupied his time and thoughts during my previous visit ; though it seemed to me that his affections were still more firmly fixed upon Heaven. His wife, a highly cultivated, amiable, benevolent, and devout person, was still alive an efficient fellow-helper with her husband unto the kingdom of God. When we parted, it was with a full confidence that we should never meet again on earth. It was but a few years before death separ- ated them, but they were quickly re-united in Heaven. They left two daughters, both wives of clergymen, and one son, who is a faithful representative of his father's public spirit and beneficence ; and whom I am permitted still to reckon among my friends. XXVII AND AS I was stepping into the coach at Yar- -^ mouth, to go to Norwich, I was introduced to Dr. Yelloly, a Fellow of the Koyal Society, and a person of considerable note in the literary, and especially the medical, circles of Great Britain. He was going to Norwich, and thence to his resi- dence at Woodton, a few miles beyond, where he had a splendid establishment. As he was well ac- quainted at Norwich, and knew that I was a stranger there, he volunteered to render me any service that I might need ; and I availed myself very freely of his kindness. As his home lay in the direction in which I was to travel, he made me promise that, after my visit at Norwich, I would come and pass at least a night with him. I fulfilled my promise, and found myself in one of the most delightful families that I met in England. Though I was JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. 185 with them less than twenty-four hours, their cordial and whole-souled manner, and devoted attentions to me, left an impression upon my mind which time, as yet, has done nothing to efface. It was but a few years that they remained on the beautiful spot which they then occupied. I kept track of them for some time, but the last I knew of them was, that sad worldly reverses, sickness and death, had overwhelmed them with desolation. The family, as I knew it, consisted of the parents, and, I believe, six lovely and intelligent daughters, besides a son, who was an Episcopal clergyman ; but how many, or whether any of them, survive to remember the bright and joyous days of their youth, I know not. My introduction to Dr. Yelloly was one of those little and (as we say) accidental, things, which one sometimes meets on a journey, but which lead to re- sults that are never forgotten. As Dr. Yelloly went with me to Norwich, so he called with me upon JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, whom we were fortunate enough to find at his counting- house ; and this gave me the advantage of a double introduction, as I had already an introductory note from Mrs. Fry ; and I found that she had informed him by a letter, of my intended visit. I never, in my life, felt the real dignity of the Quaker as I on meeting him. When Dr. Yelloly mentioned my name, he gave me a most friendly shake of the hand, and said " I knew thou wert coming by a letter from my sister, Elizabeth Fry, and now I 186 JOSEPH JOHN GURNET. welcome thee to Norwich, and hope thou wilt stay and make us a good visit." His residence was at Earlham, two miles out of the city. "And now/' said he, "thou wilt go and dine with me at five o'clock ; and thou wilt go too, John," (speaking to Dr. Yelloly,) " and I will send an invitation to John Alexander," (a Congregational clergyman, to whom I had a letter,) "also." His countenance beamed with generous kindness, and, from the mo- ment that I first set eyes upon him, I felt that he was no common specimen of humanity. Every- thing that I saw of him afterwards, both in his own circle at home, and in this country, not only justified, but rendered still deeper and more defi- nite, my first impression. After leaving Mr. Gurney, the Doctor, my newly- acquired friend, proposed to me, before going to Mrs. Opie's, to call on Lady Smith, the widow of the late Sir James Edward Smith, the celebrated bota- nist, who was a person of high endowments, and, I think, was her husband's biographer. She was ex- tremely lady-like and affable, and took from me at once all sense of the stranger. She quite found fault with me for having arranged for so short a visit, and said she regretted that I could not stay long enough to give her the opportunity of inviting some of her friends to meet me. I made some ref- erence to Miss Joanna Baillie, whom I had seen a few days before, and she remarked that Miss Baillie had lately published a small work, from which i MRS. OPIE. 187 appeared that she was an Arian ; and this led us to some conversation on the general subject of Unitarianism. She seemed to be exceedingly char- itable towards differences of religious opinion, and thought it reasonable to expect that, in the pro- gress of knowledge on all other subjects, there would be a corresponding progress in religion. I understood that Lady Smith had, at least, a nom- inal connexion with the Established Church, but was no great stickler for all the Thirty-nine Arti- cles. She was altogether a splendid woman splen- did in her person, her manners, and her intellectual endowments ; but somebody gave me a portrait of her at least a portrait with her name under it that looks as if she had just escaped from Bedlam. From Lady Smith's we went to Mrs. OPIE'S. I had previously had some communication with her by letter, and we met almost as old friends. She did not seem to me to be a natural Quaker ; and, though I saw before me the Quaker dress, and heard the thee and thou, she was so bright and cheerful I might almost say, gay -that it really required an effort for me to believe that her Quaker- ism was a matter of sober reality. However, she really was a bona fide member of the Society, and, I doubt not, a highly exemplary one, too ; for, not- withstanding the buoyancy of her spirits, I had, af- terwards, evidence that she was truly and deeply devout. Almost the first thing she said to me after I met her was, pointing to an American volume of 188 JOSEPH JOHN GURNET. sermons that lay on the table, "There, I am in the habit of reading that book to my servants on first-day evening." As she knew that I had just come from the Continent, she made many inquiries concerning my tour ; and then gave me many in- teresting particulars of a visit which she had made, not long before, at Paris. She was a short, stout person, and seemed to me then to be verging towards sixty ; but she was, evidently, extremely youthful in her feelings, and all her faculties were in their full vigour. As this was Saturday, she requested me to dine with her on Monday ; and when I told her that my engagements would not permit it, she invited me to breakfast ; and that invitation I ac- cepted. I went, -agreeably to appointment, to dine with Mr. Gurney. He lived in a fine old mansion, which had been, and, for aught I know, was then, in pos- session of a branch of Lord Bacon's family ; though, for the fifty years preceding, it had been occupied by the Gurneys. Mr. Gurney immediately showed me into my room, as he called it, where there was a good fire, and every preparation made for my pass- ing the night ; but I had made such previous ar- rangements that I was obliged to deny myself the proffered hospitality. Mr. Gurney was at that time a widower, and his family consisted of two chil- dren a son and a daughter, his sister, and the sister of his late wife ; and he had also two or three highly intelligent female friends passing JOSEPH JOHN GUENEY. 189 little time with him. A more lovely or intelligent domestic circle, I know not that it has ever been my privilege to see ; it was the highest style of social refinement, of intellectual and moral culture, quali- fied by the beautiful simplicity of a truly devout Quakerism. They did me the honour to talk, most of the evening, of my country, and nothing was said even about slavery itself, that I could not cordially respond to ; for they manifested no sympathy with the ultras, and reprobated the course of George Thompson, whose first remarkable mission to this country had just before terminated, as evil in itself, and disastrous in its tendency ; while, at the same time, they looked upon slavery as our great na- tional calamity. Mr. Gurney gave me a very inter- esting account of Dr. Bathurst, then Bishop of Nor- wich. He represented him as an uncommonly calm, amiable, and gifted man, and, in the main, evan- gelical in his theology ; while, as a classical scholar, he had few superiors ; and, as a specimen of his attainments in Greek, he mentioned that he was able, at one time, to repeat the whole of Homer's Iliad. He showed me a quarto manuscript volume of considerable size, containing the record of his conversations with various distinguished individuals, but more particularly with Dr. Chalmers, with whom he was on very intimate terms, during a winter he spent in Edinburgh for the benefit of his health. As he perceived that I was much interested in the parts of the book that I had time to glance at, he 190 JOSEPH JOHN GURNET. intimated that, perhaps, he might have a copy of it made for me ; and though I could, of course, do nothing but discourage it, as it could not -be the work of less than a month, I found, when I reached Liverpool, some two months after, that he had car- ried out his purpose, and had sent me a beautiful copy of the book, with a kind inscription to me, at the beginning. He spoke with great reverence and affection of Wilberforce, with whom he had an almost fraternal intimacy, and showed me many let- ters from him, that evinced that the attachment was mutual. It was a delightful evening that I passed at Earlham, and one to which my mind never reverts but with gratitude and pleasure. The next day was the Sabbath, and I preached once in a very old Independent Chapel the same in which the Kev. Thomas Scott had preached statedly a century or more previous. I refer to the Thomas Scott who was one of Doddridge's most intima-te friends whose daughter Doddridge tried to marry, but could not ; though she subsequently became the wife of Colonel Williams, of Connecti- cut, who was then on a visit to England, and wfyo had previously been Kector of Yale College. A tablet to the memory of this old gentleman was di- rectly behind me, as I stood in the pulpit ; and his hand-writing was perfectly familiar to me, from having read many of his letters, which his daughter brought with her when she came to America. I was introduced, at the close of the service, to a Mr. MRS. OPIE. 191 Youngman, son-in-law of the celebrated Thomas Harmer, the author of the work illustrating Scrip- ture by Oriental usages. This Mr. Youngman was a highly intelligent man, and an author of consider- able reputation. I dined with him that day, by his request, and discovered, in the course of our conver- sation, that he did not admit the divine obligation of the Sabbath under the Christian dispensation. On Monday morning I went with Mr. Alexander, with whose delightful family I was domesticated, to Mrs. Opie's to breakfast. She had invited three or four other friends, among whom was her very par- ticular friend, Mr. Gurney. As Mr. Alexander and myself were there a little before the rest, and were speaking of the delightful Saturday evening we had passed at Earlham, Mrs. Opie brought out a pen- cil sketch of Mr. Gurney a most perfect likeness which she had taken a little while before, and gave it to me. Almost immediately upon her doing so, the door opened, and Mr. Gurney made his appear- ance. She immediately turned to him with great good nature, and said, " Here, Joseph, see what I am doing I have given thee away without thy con- sent." He cast a shrewd look at her and at the sketch, and said, with a characteristic air that I can never forget, "Amelia multiplies me upon the face of the earth" alluding to the fact that she had taken several similar sketches before. When we sat down to the table, as the Quakers were in the ascendant, we had a silent grace, of course ; but I 192 JOSEPH JOHN GUBNEY. must confess that such a pause for each individual to lift his heart to Heaven, was, to me, exceedingly impressive. After breakfast, Mr. Gurney proposed that we should have a chapter in the Bible read before we separated ; and he himself read one with great pathos, and followed it with a most appro- priate, touching, and richly evangelical prayer. He then made a direct address to me, alluding particu- larly to a passage which he had just read, in re- spect to the anointing of the Spirit, and tendering me his most affectionate Christian salutations. After we retired from the breakfast-room, he made an- other demonstration of kindness, to which I do not feel at liberty more particularly to refer, but which showed the most delicate consideration, as well as the most princely munificence. Some years after I parted with this noble-minded and noble-hearted Quaker, with the expectation of never meeting him again, I had the pleasure and the honour to welcome him to my own dwelling. Every body knows that his visit to this country was one of great interest, and that he performed here important labours of love. Sometime after he ar- rived, he wrote me of his purpose to visit me, and expressed a wish to hold a public religious meeting in the neighbourhood. With the full concurrence of the Session, I heartily offered him the use of our own church. He came at the time appointed, bring- ing with him three sturdy, veteran Quakers, to share silently, if not actively, the exercises of the even- JOSEPH JOHN GURNET. 193 ing. The meeting had been previously notified, and a very good audience was assembled. My venerable friend and his coadjutors walked into the pulpit to- gether, and sat down in devout silence. It was a spectacle not to be forgotten three or four broad- brimmed hats sitting majestically on the heads of their several owners, where no head not un- covered had ever before been seen. They sat for half an hour, and neither tongue nor spirit moved. I became uneasy lest the meeting should turn out a failure, at least to those who came to hear ; and I supposed the wags might nickname it a Quaker farce. After about half an hour, however, utterance was given, and a more simple and fervent strain of evangelical eloquence I have rarely listened to. I should be glad to know that no Presbyterian church ever echoed to less fervent exhortations, or to a less scriptural theology. Mr. G-urney's visit in my family was, in every re- spect, delightful. I had, not long before, been sadly bereaved, and my children were without a mother. For me and for them he manifested the tenclerest sympathy. I asked him, the first evening that he was with me, whether he would choose to be present at our family devotions, and if so, whether he would feel willing to conduct them. He said he certainly should wish to be present, and perhaps, before he left us, he would once lead in the exercise. As I offered him the Bible the next morning, he asked me whether all my children were there, and I told him 9 194 JOSEPH JOHN GURNET. that all were except one, and him I had been obliged to send away upon an errand. He handed me back the Bible, and said, "I do not feel as if I could proceed unless that dear boy is here do it in thine own way this morning, and perhaps I will take it to-morrow morning." The next morning, which was the last he spent with us, he sat down upon the sofa, and gathered the children around him in a semi-circle, and, after reading an appropriate chap- ter, addressed a few words of most affectionate coun- sel to each, with particular reference to the bereave- ment which they had sustained ; then knelt down, and offered one of the most melting prayers to which I ever listened. He took leave of us shortly after, and, though he frequently wrote to me after- wards, I never had another meeting with him. XXVIII AND rpHESE were the two persons in Cambridge whom I wished most to see, and I was fortunate in finding them both there ; for Dr. Lee, spent the greater part of the year at Bristol. Shortly after my arrival in the place, I made my way to King's College, to find the venerable Mr. SIMEON, who had long been known to me through his " /SMe- fofis," one of which, at least, I had seen exhibited from an American pulpit, with little more of flesh than he left upon it when it passed out of his hands. I had had the advantage of a little cor- respondence with him ; but he did not know that I was in the country till my name was announced ; and when it was announced, I heard him say, "It is impossible ; I do not believe it." However, I quickly satisfied him of my identity, and he as quickly satisfied me of his kindness and hospitality. 196 CHARLES SIMEON. He must have been then verging towards eighty. In person he did not vary much from the medium size ; his movements were quick and easy, his face bright and benevolent, and his whole manner such as to make me feel entirely at home. Indeed, his manners were so perfect that he seemed to have no manners you felt the attraction without stopping to think what it was that attracted. Everybody knows that he stood for many years as one of the chief bulwarks of evangelical religion in the Estab- lished Church ; and though, at one time, he was in such bad repute that scarcely anybody would attend upon his ministrations, and many treated him with open contempt, yet he lived to see the time when the announcement that he was to preach, even on an ordinary occasion, would draw a crowd. I had sent him, not long before, several of our American books, in most of which he professed to be deeply interested ; but there was one (the Murray Street Lectures) which he did not like, and he wished to tell me honestly the reason. Said he, "A number of your ministers have undertaken in that work to show what they can do ; and, though they have cer- tainly displayed ability, I do not think that such preaching, continued through four thousand years, would ever convert a soul." I remarked to him that I supposed each individual felt himself called upon to make a great effort. " Yes," said he, very pleas- antly, "it would seem to me like a great effort to keep out the Gospel." He spoke with much en- CHARLES SIMEON. 197 thusiasm of Jonathan Edwards ; but he seemed to admire him rather for the pungency of his preach- ing than the depth of his metaphysics. Said he, "His preaching reminds me of a man holding an- other's nose to the grindstone, and turning with all his might, in spite of all objections and expostula- tions." Of Dr. Whewell, the author of one of the Bridgewater treatises, to whom I had a letter, he expressed the highest opinion, considering his work one of great depth and power, and scarcely, if at all, inferior to any in the series. There was a great degree of frankness about him ; and I confess I thought I saw also a little of the vanity incident to old age ; and, as he is beyond the reach of all earthly voices, whether of censure or of praise, I may per- haps be pardoned for bringing out some of the re- marks in which this evidence of senility discovered itself. He told me that he preached not only every Sabbath, but every Thursday, and constantly pre- pared new sermons. He handed me the sermon that he had preached the preceding Sabbath, and when I remarked to him that it seemed to be short, "No, Sir," said he; "with the emphatic pauses that I make, that will occupy me fully three-quarters of an hour." He said that he had repeatedly been re- quested to prepare another set of sermons to preach to the University, but, up to a recent period, had declined on account of his age ; that lately, however, he had found himself in possession of such an amount of intellectual energy, that he had actually con- 198 PROFESSOR LEE. sented to do so ; that he had selected a subject of great depth, which had very rarely been treated he might say, never, since the times of the Puri- tans ; that he had mentioned it to nobody, and should not till the November succeeding, when the sermons would be preached ; that he had writ- ten two and then burnt them, because they did not please him, and then a third, and burnt it for the same reason ; but that he had finally completed the whole number (four) in a way which, he intimated, was quite satisfactory to himself. I remarked that I supposed they would be published, of course. He said, they doubtless would be, but not during his life- time, though he should probably have many requests to publish them. He thought that it would be unfair towards those who had got all his other works, and that they would not be satisfied that there should be a supplement not in their possession." Before I parted with him, he invited me to dine with him the next day in the College, which I was more than willing to do, as well for the sake of gratifying my curiosity, as enjoying his company. Having failed to see Dr. Whewell, he having gone to London, I walked to a part of the town called Hill Road, distant about a mile, in pursuit of Pro- fessor LEE, the great Oriental scholar, to whom I had an introductory letter. I succeeded in finding him, and he turned out to be one of the most sim- ple, unassuming, and perfectly accessible great men whom T over met. He was of about the middle size, PROFESSOR LEE. 199 was full of life and good humour, and resembled exactly the only portrait I have ever seen of him. He began almost immediately to inquire about Pro- fessor Stuart, and expressed surprise that he had not heard from him for a long time. He had sent him a parcel about seven years before, of which he had never had an acknowledgment, and which he sus- pected had never reached him ; and, in the same connexion, he remarked, that he had sometimes had parcels of books addressed to him from the Conti- nent, to the care of English booksellers, who had actually sold them, instead of forwarding them to him. He expressed some fears lest the growing taste for German literature in the United States should prove adverse to the interests of evangelical religion ; for he thought that the religious literature of Germany was so identified with its neology, that it would be difficult to admit the one and keep out the other. He referred with great pleasure to a controversy which he was carrying on just at that time with Dr. Pye Smith on the subject of Church establishments ; and, as a proof of the admirable good temper which they maintained towards each other, he read to me, and then gave me, a letter which Dr. Smith had just written him, reminding him of his promise to visit him at Hackney, when he should return to his parish at Bristol. He told me that he had formerly had a very poor support only forty pounds annually for discharging the duties of both Hebrew and Arabic Professor ; but that, 200 CHARLES SIMEON. through the considerate generosity of Lord Brougham, he had a place allotted to him in the Cathedral at Bristol, and also a living in that neighbourhood, five miles from Barleywood, so that he was then very comfortably provided for. He had on his table be- fore him the manuscript of a new commentary on the Book of Job, which he was then about to publish ; and he read me large extracts from it, demonstrat- ing its authority and antiquity, by showing that it is quoted in some form or other in all, or nearly all, the Books of the Old Testament. I could see that he had a degree of enthusiasm in his department, which, with his fine natural gifts, was sufficient to account for his rare and almost matchless acquisi- tions. I went about half-past three, according to my en- gagement, to dine with Mr. Simeon. When I got to his room, I found him and Professor Lee, whom he had invited to meet me, waiting for me in their gowns, ready to go to dinner. We immediately went into a large room in another part of the Col- lege, where we were joined by one or two of the Fe/Llows of the College, who dined with us ; and, after a few minutes, it was announced that dinner was ready. We were walking in some degree of state into the dining hall, and had almost reached our table (for there were several tables set in differ- ent parts of the room), when we were suddenly arrested by the voice of a person behind us, who seemed to me to be declaiming ; but on looking CHARLES SIMEON. 201 round, I found, to my astonishment, that it was a stu- dent asking a blessing in Latin. The dinner, though a very good one, was served up without any great ceremony, or without the consumption of very much time ; and when we had dined, Mr. Simeon gave thanks, in a few words, in English ; after which he, Dr. Lee, and myself repaired to Mr. Simeon's apart- ments, where we found a luxurious appendage to the dinner in various kinds of fruits, &c. Mr. Simeon took us into his bed-room, to show us the likenesses of several of his friends ; and he remarked that " that of dear Henry Martyn," which was one of them, was so perfect, that it was long before he could look at it more than a few moments at a time. Dr. Lee and Mr. Simeon both knew Henry Martyn well, and the latter evidently loved him as a son. He gave me one of his letters a farewell letter, written after he had actually embarked for India. He seemed unable to command language to express his admira- tion of Henry Martyn's character. As Dr. Lee was obliged to leave early, to meet an engagement, I remained alone with Mr. Simeon for some time, and was most delightfully impressed as I was, indeed, from the first moment I saw him with his lovely and loving spirit. He told me that though I saw him in comfortable health, he was daily expecting death, as much as my friends at home would be expecting my return at the appointed time ; and he gave me to understand that there was nothing in the passage over Jordan that he 9* 202 MR. THODEY. * dreaded. He blessed me most affectionately, as we parted, and I shook hands with him, with the full conviction that it was the last time. And so it proved. The evening of the same day I passed in the family of Mr. Thodey, an excellent Congregational clergyman, to whom I had brought a letter, and who was forward to render me every attention. At his house I met a Mr. Kichard Foster, a distin- guished philanthropist, who discoursed largely, but temperately and candidly, upon American slavery. He told me that his father and grandfather were both members of the celebrated Kobert Eobinson's church ; that his attractiveness as a preacher was almost unparalleled ; but that his orthodoxy had been regarded as equivocal a good while before he openly renounced it. At the close of the evening, Mr. Thodey walked with me from his house to my hotel ; and kept surprising me as we came through the streets with historical localities. " There," said he, "is the house where Eobert Eobinson lived." " And there lived Kobert Hall." " You have heard of Jeremy Taylor, I suppose, in America there lie lived." And finally, " Did you ever hear of Hobson's choice ?" " Why, certainly," said I. " And do you know the origin of it ?" I was obliged to say I did not. "Well," said he, "here it is this is Hobson street. Just in that corner, there lived a man by the name of Hobson, who kept a livery stable ; and, as the students were accustomed to come and select his MB. THODEY. 203 I best horses, he made a rule, that whoever came should take the horse that stood first in the stable it should be that or none ; hence the phrase, ' Hob- son's choice/ " XXIX, T HAD a letter of introduction to Dr. BUNTING, and called at his house when I was in London, but, unfortunately for me, he was out of the city. It was therefore very gratifying to me to learn, on my arrival at Oxford, the day before Good Friday, that he was engaged to preach there the next day ; and I resolved at once to hear him, if it were pos- sible. I accordingly went to the chapel where he was to preach, at the appointed hour, with Mr. Col- lingwood, printer to the University, an excellent an most gentlemanly man, at whose house I had pre viously engaged to stay during my visit at Oxford. As we entered the chapel, I found a very plain, ! DR. BUNTING. 205 broad-shouldered, rather coarse-looking man, read- ing the Episcopal service ; and he read it with such an air of indifference, that I was impatient for the end of it, especially as I thought he was equally so. I took for granted that it was some Methodist brother of low degree, whom Dr. Bunting had brought in to assist him in the service ; and, as I had gone to hear Dr. Bunting, it was a disappoint- ment to me to hear anybody else. The Church service being disposed of in due time, this same indifferent reader proceeded to administer baptism to several children, among whom was a child of the resident minister, and he introduced the ser- vice with some remarks, that led me to doubt whether it was not the veritable Jabez Bunting to whom I was listening. He began by saying that that was not the time or the place to go into a particular vin- dication of infant baptism ; that he must be allowed now to take that doctrine for granted ; that those who differed from him, differed conscientiously, and had the same right to their views that he had to his. He then read the rubric of the English Church on this subject, and pronounced it excellent, espe- cially as requiring that the ordinance should be ad- ministered publicly, and called the opposite mode "a kind of smuggling." He proceeded to speak of baptism at some length, first as an ordinance of instruction, and, secondly, as an ordinance of cove- nant, and concluded by apologizing to his brother for having said things which he must be supposed 206 DK. BUNTING. so well to know and so fully to appreciate. The address was of considerable length, and, before it was half finished, I did not need anybody to in- form me that I was listening to the first Methodist preacher in England. The baptism being over, Dr. Bunting ascended the pulpit, and announced as his text, that rich and precious passage, "He that spared not his own Son," &c. The discourse was simple in its plan, full of strong evangelical thought, very felicitously and logically presented, and in some parts was even sublimely pathetic and eloquent. The whole service, so far as I witnessed it, was conducted with perfect decorum ; but, after Mr. Collingwood and myself had retired into the vestry, I was told that there was a prayer offered, during which there were two hundred audible Amens, the minister of the place taking the lead. The service being concluded, Dr. Bunting came into the vestry ; and, when I was in- troduced to him, he very kindly expressed his re- gret at not being at home when I called at his house in London, and said he had directed his son to ascertain at Hackney where I stayed, that he might call upon me. Though I frequently heard him spoken of as being somewhat of an ecclesiasti- cal dictator, I found him exceedingly pleasant and free in conversation, and no more inclined to take airs than the humblest man I ever met. As he knew that I expected to be at Shrewsbury in the course of the next week, and as he expected to be DR. MACBBIDE. 207 there also, he expressed a wish that we might meet ; and accordingly he actually did me the favour to call upon me at Shrewsbury, on Sunday evening, after having performed the usual services of the day. If I had been called to pronounce judgment upon him in the market-place, without hearing him speak, I should have said that he was a red-faced, well-fed, coarse-grained Englishman ; but if my opin- ion concerning him had been asked after hearing him preach, and seeing him in private, I should have said that, while he was not at all lacking in courtesy and kindness, he was one of the most vig- orous thinkers and eloquent preachers whom I ever met. Sometime in the course of the day, I called at Dr. Pusey's door, having a letter of introduction to him from Professor Tholuck ;* but he sent me word by the servant that he could not consistently see company, on account of its being Good Friday, but would be happy to see me the next day. I then called upon Dr. MACBRIDE, a professor in one of the colleges, and the author of a learned work called the " Diatesseron ;" to whom also I had an intro- ductory letter. He had no scruples about receiving me-; and I found him an exceedingly agreeable, whole-souled, and intelligent man. When he ascer- tained that my visit at Oxford was limited to a day or two, he said that I ought to be making the best of my time, and immediately put on his gown, and 208 DK. PUSEY. walked with me to show me the most curious and venerahle of the colleges. I found that he had no sympathy with the extreme party, of which Dr. Pusey was then coming out as a leader, though he thought Dr. Hampden had gone too far in his Bampton Lectures, which had appeared a short time before, and were the subject of animadversion or discussion in almost every circle. Dr. Macbride spoke, as Dr. Gregory had done before him, with great respect and affection of Bishop M'llvaine, and said that he knew no man who possessed qualities to grace the Episcopate more than he. I went the next day, notwithstanding it was the Saturday after Good Friday, to call upon DR. PUSEY. He seemed to me to be not much more than forty years old. He was small every way being both very short and very lean ; was exceedingly grave in his manner, and much disposed to serious conversation. As he knew I had just come from Germany, he had many inquiries to make in respect to the result of my observations on the religious state of things there, though I quickly found that he knew much more about it than I did. If I had been obliged to make up my mind concerning him merely from his appear- ance in that interview, which lasted not more than half an hour, I should have been at a loss whether he was some great revival man, like Nettleton, in one of his most devout moods, or whether he was wearing the mantle of some monk, and walking in MBS. COPLEY. 209 the light of the dark ages. He was, however, very civil, and invited me to dine with him ; and when I told him I must leave at two o'clock, he kindly proposed to anticipate the usual dinner-hour for my accommodation. This was several years before he reached the point of his greatest notoriety ; but the leaven was then at work, and I doubt whether any- thing has occurred since, that was not prophesied of, at that time, by some who had the best opportunity of estimating his religious tendencies. I was glad of an opportunity of paying my re- spects to Mrs. COPLEY, the well-known authoress. She was the wife of a Baptist minister, who was at that time settled in Oxford, though, I think, he has since had a charge in some other part of Eng- land. She seemed a highly respectable lady was modest and retiring, and yet easy and communica- tive. She had written several very popular books for youth then, and has since added several to the number. I heard her spoken of by different parties at Oxford, in a manner that showed that her talents, intelligence, and virtues were held in high estimation. XXX, MBS. SHEKWOOD, at the time I visited her, resided at Worcester. Her husband was a Cap- tain in the British army, and was, for a long time, (I think thirteen years,) stationed in the East In- dies, where she wrote many of her most popular works. She was born near Worcester, and, about nineteen years before I saw her, had returned from India and opened a school in that neighbourhood, which she continued seventeen years. This school was patronized by distinguished families from all parts of the kingdom, and, it was said, was a source of great pecuniary profit. Her husband, whom I saw, seemed to be a mild, amiable man ; but I could not very well conceive of his being a military com- mander. Mrs. Sherwood herself was, in person, rather above the middle size, and though she had a good, strong face, it was by no means expressive of great refine- ment. Nor was there anything in her manners that MRS. SHERWOOD. 211 was not in keeping with her countenance. She was civil enough, but she had a sort of boldness and forwardness of manner, which possibly might have filled up a chasm in the military character of her husband. She seemed then to be not much over fifty years old, and was apparently in fine health and spirits. She talked with me a good deal only, however, because I led the conversation in that di- rection about her own publications, and told me that her " Little Henry" had then passed through twenty-seven editions in Great Britain, and that some other of her writings had had an equal circula- tion. She seemed to know that most of her works had been re-published in this country, and was gratified that they had been received with so much favour. She gave me a copy of her engraved por- trait, and remarked that it might be re-printed in America, though it could not be in England, on account of its being private property. During her residence in India, Mrs. Sherwood was well acquainted with Henry Martyn, and regarded him as one of the choicest and most gifted spirits she had ever known. She mentioned, also, another individual whom she knew, of whom I remembered, in my early years, to have read a most fearful ac- count in Dr. Buchanan's celebrated sermon, entitled "The Star in the East" it was Sabat. As the name of this individual may now scarcely be known in this country, it may not be amiss to allude to that part of his history which gave him his chief 212 MRS. SHERWOOD. celebrity. Abdallah and Sabat belonged to two dis- tinguished families in Arabia, and being intimate friends, set out to travel together in foreign coun- tries. When they had reached the city of Cabul, Abdallah, being appointed to an important office under the government, remained there, while Sabat continued his travels in Tartary. The former very soon fell in with a copy of the New Testament, and, from reading it, became a convert to Christianity. Knowing, as he did, that his conversion could not become known but at the hazard of his life, he with- drew privately from the place of his residence, and set out to travel, in the hope of finding some retired place where he might enjoy his religion in safety. Having reached the city of Bokhara, in Tartary, he was greatly surprised, as he was walking in the streets, at meeting his former fellow-traveller ; but Sabat, having heard of his apostasy from Moham- medism, quickly showed him that he had nothing to hope from his friendship or his mercy. Abdallah fell at his feet, and abjured him by their former re- lations not to reveal the secret of his conversion ; but neither tears nor expostulations had any ef- fect. He immediately gave information against him to the authorities of the city, and forthwith he was delivered up to the King, and si decree was issued for his execution. When the fatal hour ar- rived, Abdullah was led forth, in the presence of an immense multitude, to seal his testimony with his blood. The executioner began his work by cut- MKS. SHERWOOD. 213 ting off one of his hands, upon which he was offered his life on condition that he would recant ; but, with a spirit of calm dignity and true Christian heroism, he refused to do this, and meekly bowed his head to receive the fatal blow. Sabat mingled in the crowd, and witnessed the fearful transaction to which he had been accessory. He afterwards said that he saw Abdallah look at him, while the process of ^execution was going forward, but that it was a look, not of anger, but of pity. Sabat seems to have been impressed with the idea that Abdallah would certainly save his life by re- nouncing his faith ; but when he saw that it was otherwise saw that he had really been instrumental of the death of his friend, he was greatly tortured by remorse, and that last forgiving look haunted him wherever he went. At length he reached India, and while employed there in some official capacity, he, too, was induced to read the New Testament, and compare it with the Koran ; the result of which was, that he professedly renounced Mohammedism, and was for several years an active and useful coadju- tor with the British missionaries in promoting Chris- tianity. When his friends in Arabia heard of his conversion, they immediately despatched his brother to India, with a view to assassinate him. The bro- ther entered his dwelling in the disguise of a beg- gar, and was actually drawing a dagger from its concealment upon his person, to plunge it into his bosom, when Sabat seized his arm, and his servants 214 MRS. SHERWOOD. instantly came to his deliverance. It was through Sabat's intercession that the life of this murderous brother was spared ; and he not only sent him away in peace, but sent by him valuable presents to his mother's family. Dr. Buchanan's sermon brings the history down only to this point when Sabat was labouring ef- ficiently with him for the cause of Christian truth. But shortly after this, as Dr. Buchanan's own daughter informed me, he suddenly took the fancy that his great talents and acquirements were not adequately estimated, and, in a fit of resentment, renounced Christianity, returned to Mohammedism, and went to Persia, where he wrote a work to re- fute the system which, for several years, he had been labouring to defend. After this he professed, for a short time, to have again received the Chris- tian faith ; but at a still later period, and, so far as is known, to the close of his life, he ranked him- self with the followers of Mohammed. About 1811, he travelled in Pegu, and being detected in some treasonable attempts against the reigning prince, he and his fellow-conspirator were put into a sack, and thrown together into the sea. I was interested in hearing Mrs. Sherwood say that she had even seen this monster of a man. She seemed to have known him pretty well ; but I think she looked upon him with some distrust, even when his good professions were the strongest. She said he had a fierce expression of countenance, and his MRS. SHERWOOD. 215 form seemed never to bend in the slightest degree ; in short, she said he always reminded her of a Saracen painted on a sign-post ! Mrs. Sherwood, as I learned from some of her neighbours, was, at that time, an extremely high- church Episcopalian, and her intercourse, as I un- derstood, was restricted within very narrow limits. She had also, not long before, become a convert, as was supposed, to the doctrine of universal salvation. Indeed, she made a remark to me having a bearing on the subject, which, though not very explicit, I understood as an indirect avowal of her faith in that doctrine. My impression is, that she subse- quently declared her belief of it without reserve or qualification. I met with one or two of her pupils in Edinburgh, who seemed to regard her as a model teacher, and to remember her with the utmost grati- tude and affection. I never saw her except on that one evening. XXXI. A S one important object I had in going to Ireland -^ was to visit Miss EDGEWORTH, with whom I had previously had some correspondence, I wrote to her shortly before leaving England, to inquire whether she would be at home at the time I proposed to visit her ; and, on my arrival at Dublin, I was met by a letter from her, informing me that she should be at home, and extending to me a cordial invita- tion to come and remain at Edgeworth's town as long as I could. Accordingly, having notified her of the day when I intended to go, I started off early in the morning from Dublin, and found my- self at the end of my journey sixty Irish miles at two o'clock. As the coach passed Miss Edge- worth's gate, a servant came out to take my lug- gage ; but, as the hotel was within a few rods, I preferred to keep my seat until we reached it, and the servant followed me to accompany me back to the house. The village is as miserable-looking a MARIA EDGEWORTH. 217 place as one often sees, and as it was market-day, I had an opportunity of witnessing the degradation of the whole surrounding population to the great- est advantage ; but the Edgeworth house was a fine, spacious old mansion, with a splendid lawn stretch- ing before it, and everything to indicate opulence and hereditary distinction. I do not remember to have seen what I thought a more beautiful place in all Ireland. As I entered the house, Miss Edgeworth was the first person to meet me ; and she immediately in- troduced me to her mother, Mrs. Edgeworth, her father's fourth wife, and her sister, Miss Honora Edgeworth, who has since been married and resides in London. Miss Edgeworth, in her personal ap- pearance, was anything but what I expected. She was below the middle size ; her face was exceedingly plain, though strongly indicative of intellect ; and though she seemed to possess great vigour of body as well as of mind, it was, after all, the vigour of old age. I supposed her to be about sixty-five, but I believe she was actually on the wrong side of seventy. Her step-mother, Mrs. Edgeworth, who, for aught I know, is still living, must have been, I think, rather younger than Maria, and was not only a lady of high intelligence, but of great personal attractions, and withal, as I afterwards ascertained, of a very serious turn of mind. As Miss Edgeworth knew that my visit was to be limited to a single day, she told me almost immediately that she wished 10 218 MARIA EDGEWORTH. to know in what way she could contribute most to my gratification ; whether by remaining in the house, or walking over the grounds ; kindly suggesting at the same time that I had better first take a little lunch, and then a little rest. She talked upon a great variety of subjects, and I set her down as de- cidedly one of the best talkers I ever met with. There was nothing about her that had even any affinity to showing off or trying to talk well, but she evidently did not know how to talk otherwise. She seemed to have the most mature thoughts on every subject, and, without the semblance of effort, 'they took on the most attractive dress. I was not unwilling to hear what she had to say about slav- ery. She reprobated the course of the ultra anti- slavery men as eminently adapted to defeat its own end ; and remarked that to give the slaves liberty before they were qualified to use it, would be only giving them liberty to starve, and perhaps to cut each other's throats, and the throats of their mas- ters. I happened to relate an anecdote which I had heard, of a young man -in Edinburgh having read as an exercise before the Presbytery a sermon, the substance of which he had heard a celebrated clergy- and of great good nature, though perhaps his highest attraction consisted in his being a relic of another generation, and especially a friend and favourite of Burns. From my first introduction to him, he manifested a disposition to show me every kindness, and during my whole stay in Edinburgh 270 BOBEET AINSLEE. he lost no opportunity of contributing to my grati- fication. The most remarkable thing that I heard about the old gentleman had respect to his matrimonial history. It seemed that he had been twice married, and, in the first case particularly, there had been a touch of the romantic. The circumstances of the first marriage, as they were communicated to me, were these : As the young lady whom he ultimately married was going into the country under the care of a married man, the individual who accompanied her fell so desperately in love with her that he pro- posed to her an elopement, even at the expense of leaving his own family. The girl was frightened out of her wits, and immediately wrote home to Edin- burgh an account of what had occurred. Mr. Ainslee was sent out by her father to take charge of her, and he, too, became fascinated by her charms, and forthwith offered himself to her, and was accepted ; upon which, before Mr. Ainslee had left the house, the guilty lover, in accordance with a threat which he had previously made, blew out his own brains. Mr. Ainslee was full of anecdotes concerning Burns, and, though he evidently cherished his memory with great affection, he showed that he was fully sensible of his manifold infirmities and errors, while yet he thought great allowance was to be made for him in consideration of the circumstances in which he was placed, and the period at which he lived. He told me that, at one time, he had not less than fifty ROBERT AINSLEE. 271 of Burns' letters addressed to himself; but that, on a certain occasion, he had a large number of gentle- men supping with him, and he gave each of them one of these letters as a memorial ; and to Sir Walter Scott, who was one of the party, he gave the original, with Burns' corrections, of Tarn O'Shanter, which Sir Walter afterwards got elegantly bound. One of his friends told me that, while he was, for the most part, proud of his intimacy with Burns, he did not like to be associated with him in his feats of dissipation ; and that, not long before, he was present at a dinner party, where some one jocosely drank the health of Mr. Ainslee, speaking of him as "the friend of Burns, and his companion at the bottle ;" and the old gentleman, instead of treating it as a joke, resented it as a high insult. Mr. Ainslee had been associated with many other men of distinguished name, beside Burns. He knew well Dr. Blair, Principal Kobertson, Dr. Ferguson, and many others of the same school, and had treas- ured many interesting anecdotes illustrative of their characters. He gave me the history of his own fam- ily, some parts of which were very affecting. Out of eleven children he had only two left ; and three of them, who were considerably advanced, were cut off in a month. But he seemed to recognize the hand of Providence in his afflictions, and expressed the hope that they had served to increase both his spiritu- ality and his usefulness. He was a member of Dr. (now Principal) Lee's church ; but, I take it) that 272 MES. M'LEHOSE. he belonged decidedly to the moderate party. His book, of which I have already spoken, shows a well- disciplined mind, and much well-matured thought upon the evidences of Christianity. He expressed a wish to introduce to me another of Burns' friends, and a lady of no small celebrity in her way, whose name had sometimes though un- justly, he said been coupled with that of Burns in the way of reproach. It was no other than Mrs. M'LEHOSE, known as Burns' "CLARINDA." She was then seventy-six years old, and lived nearly at the top of Calton Hill. I was the more disposed to ac- cept of Mr. Ainslee's kind offer to introduce me to her, as I ascertained that she was the grand-daughter of the celebrated Maclaurin of Glasgow, who wrote the famous sermon on " Glorying in the Cross." Accordingly we set out one morning, and, after a long walk, and a very steep ascent, reached the dwell- ing of Mrs. M'Lehose. We found her living in a very plain way, possessing her faculties in a good degree of vigour, and talking such intolerably broad Scotch that I could often only conjecture what she had said. She had been a fine-looking woman, and still carried with her a good deal of faded beauty. I very soon began to make inquiries about her grand- father ; but found that it was to little purpose, as he had died a year or two before she was born ; and her mother had died when she herself was so young that she did not remember ever to have heard her speak of him. Much as she venerated his mem- MES. M'LEHOSE. 273 ory, slie said that she had no memorial of him except his printed sermons ; and she was not aware that there was anything else in existence. When she spoke of her mother she wept, and said that her highest recommendation was that she was an eminently godly woman. There was hanging in her room an original portrait of Burns, which was considered one of the best, if not the very best, that had ever been taken. It was indeed an exquisite picture. She and Mr. Ainslee both looked at it, and talked about the original with considerable apparent emotion. They seemed to be reminded by the long period which had elapsed since his death that the grave would soon be ready for them. The old lady made some very serious remarks, and I was glad to learn, from an unquestionable source, that her affections centered much upon ob- jects and interests beyond this world. I learned from Mr. Ainslee that Mrs. M'Lehose had a fine poetical taste, and had written some things of a high order. By his request she attempted to repeat some verses which she had composed on the anniversary of his marriage ; and, as they did not readily come to her remembrance, she got a manu- script volume, and read them to us ; and, at the same time, read another beautiful piece, entitled " The Linnet" the first that she ever wrote. She said that she was sitting under a tree, and a linnet came singing around her, and a sort of flash of inspiration came over her, by which she made the verses referred 12* 274 MRS. SMTTHE. to with perfect ease. I asked her, as a particular favour, to transcribe them for me ; and before I left Edinburgh I had a fair copy of them written with her own trembling hand. She requested me to give her my name and residence on a piece of paper, to be transferred to her memorandum-book. She had one son, an only child, who lived in her immediate neighbourhood. I understood that it was intended that a volume of her poems should be published after her death ; but whether the purpose has ever been carried out, I do not know. The other of Burns' friends, to whom I had the honour of an introduction, was Mrs. SMYTHE, of Meth- ven. I do not know her name before marriage, but she was one of the most celebrated beauties in Scotland, and drew from Burns, who knew her in- timately, I believe more than one poetical effusion in honour of her superior attractions. She must have been then verging towards seventy, but the rose upon her cheek had scarcely begun to fade. She had much more to recommend her than her personal beauty, or the fact of her having attracted the attention of Burns she was a highly intelligent and devout Christian. Though her circumstances had carried her into the highest circles of society, and had made her familiar with fashionable life, she lived habitually in the fear of God lived " as seeing Him who is invisible." I dined at her house, where I met several gentlemen of the highest respectability. MRS. SMYTHE. 275 These three friends of Burns have since all passed away. Though they survived many years their illus- trious but erratic and unfortunate friend, to whose name chiefly they owed their celebrity, they have at last followed him into the world unseen. I am not sure whether any of the living witnesses to his strange career, especially any who were on terms of intimacy with him, still survive. XXXIX. AND T DID not meet Dr. ABEKCROMBIE quite as a -*- stranger ; for I had exchanged a letter or two with him, and had received an act of kindness from him, previous to my going to Edinburgh. But I did not know, after all, what sort of a man I should find. I knew, indeed, that he was a great man, and a good man ; but whether his greatness or his goodness was to be the more apparent whether I was to be more impressed by the philosopher, or the Christian, or the friend, I had no means of forming a conjecture. Well, I found in him a beautiful sample of sim- plicity, humility, and true dignity. In his person he was rather short and thick ; was perfectly bland and courteous in his manners ; had a countenance indicating great thoughtfulness, and yet expressive of an exuberance of generous feeling. He made DR. ABERCROMBIE. 277 me feel at home the moment that I had shaken hands with him. He had lost his wife not long before a lady of the rarest intellectual and moral qualities, and the family were still in mourning for her. He had seven daughters, all unmarried, and all at home ; ranging from perhaps five or six to one or two-and-twenty years of age ; and I may venture to say, on this side the water, that I have never seen a greater amount of female loveliness in any family. One of them has since been married, and death has made one or two inroads upon the circle ; but several of them still remain, and until very lately they have been occupants of the same dwell- ing in which I had the pleasure of seeing them. I saw Dr. Abercrombie, during my brief stay in Edinburgh, several times, both at his own house, and in social circles to which I was invited. I always found him unassuming, affable, and com- municative. On one occasion he talked a good deal about Edward Irving. He seemed to have watched his career with no small degree of interest from early life ; and though he feared that he had, to some extent, acted a part, yet he also believed that he was constitutionally unlike other people, and that we ought charitably to impute to this a large part of the strange things with which he was chargeable. Dr. Abercrombie knew him, or knew of him, as a school-master, and while he was a young man ; and he was said to have practised extreme severity towards his pupils, and, in one instance, to have 278 DR. ALISON. nearly pulled off a child's ear. The Doctor pre- sented me with several of his own works, and among others was a small one of a religious character, which had then passed through five editions, and in respect to which, he said, he could state a very remarkable fact namely, that it had been much praised by Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Eoman Catholics, and Quakers. When I expressed some surprise that he could have written so extensively for the press, and upon subjects not immediately connected with his profession, he told me that nearly all his books had been written as he was riding in his carriage ; and that, from long habit, he could think to much bet- ter advantage in his carriage than any where else. He asked me if I knew who was the writer of various articles in the New York Observer, signed " M. S." I told him that it was a particular friend of mine the late Dr. Kevins, of Baltimore. He replied that he had been quite delighted with the articles, and he doubted whether there was a more gifted or attractive writer then on the stage. No- thing could exceed the kindness with which he treated me while I remained in Edinburgh, or the affectionate manner in which he took leave of me. I received several letters from him after my return, and I still think of him as one of the choicest specimens of humanity. I had a letter to Dr. ALISON from Miss Edge worth, that introduced me into one of the most DE. ALISON. 279 cultivated and agreeable circles in Edinburgh. Dr. Alison is the son of the celebrated Episcopal clergy- man, who is the author of the work on " Taste," and also of a volume of sermons on the " Seasons," and other kindred subjects, which used to be in great re- pute as a specimen of beautiful writing. I was much in hopes of being able to see the old gentleman ; but he was too infirm to see any body, though he sent me a kind message, and his daughter gave me an en- graving of him, which was said to be a very per- fect likeness. Dr. Alison is the brother of the cele- brated historian, and was and, I suppose, still is I a Professor in the Medical Department of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. He is truly a splendid man splendid in his person, his manners, and his intel- lect. Though he was perfectly accessible, there was a sort of natural nobility about him, that could scarcely fail to command both respect and admira- tion. His wife was the daughter of the late Dr. James Gregory, one of the greatest medical lights of Scotland, and the grand-daughter of another Dr. Gregory, who wrote the famous "Legacy to a Daughter." Mrs. Alison joined to the finest talents and accomplishments, the most gentle and benevo- lent spirit, and was equally admired and loved by all who knew her. After the death of her father- in-law, the Kev. A. Alison, she wrote me a long and beautiful letter, giving me a minute account of his latter days, and representing to me with great vividness the uncommon grace and loveliness of his 280 DR. ALISON. character. Within the last year or two, she has closed her own earthly career. I met a delightful party at Dr. Alison's at break- fast. Besides several very agreeable ladies, there was Sir David Brewster, to whom I shall refer more particularly hereafter ; Sir William Hamilton short, rather thick, of a dark complexion, and fine eye, a little retiring in his manner, but very sociable when he becomes engaged in conversation ; the Kev. J. Sinclair, an Episcopal clergyman a son of the late Sir John Sinclair, and brother of the celebrated authoress of gentlemanly manners, and cultivated mind ; Leonard Horner, a man of a remarkably fine intellect, and brother to the late Francis Horner, who died young, but not till he had attained great eminence ; and Professor Pillans, a most agreeable and interesting person, from whom I received great kindness. After we had despatched George Thomp- son and the slavery question, (and I still found my- self among reasonable people,) Dr. Alison and some other of the gentlemen made particular inquiries in respect to our colleges, and especially in regard to the manner of conferring degrees ; and I shrewdly suspected that, if they had spoken out all that was in their minds, they would have adverted to the fact, that we were too disinterested to keep all our honours at home. There was quite a vigorous dis- cussion at the breakfast-table on the subject of quack medicines, as they exist in the United States, and particularly of Morrison's pills ; and Mr. Horner DR. ALISON. 281 expressed the opinion, that there should be a direct interference of the Legislature in reference to it, while Dr. Alison doubted its practicability. Sir William Hamilton had many inquiries to make con- cerning Professor Stuart, with whose character and writings he seemed to be well acquainted ; and ex- pressed the opinion, that the system of doctrine which he had put forth in his Commentaries was certainly not more than a modified form of Calvinism. I in- ferred, however, from what he said, that he was by no means wanting in respect for Professor Stuart's talents and attainments. The Alison family, like the family of Dr. Aber- crombie, was apparently a perfect specimen of taste, and dignity, and refinement. They had many curi- osities to exhibit, and, among them, one or two very curious letters of Kobert Burns, addressed to their father, the Kev. Mr. Alison. I think of them most . gratefully as they were ; but if I should return to Edinburgh now, I should find that sad changes had come over them. XL T HAD a letter of introduction to Lord JEFFREY, from Mrs. Opie, and I found that I could not have visited him under better auspices. I had heard, upon what I supposed was good authority, that he had no great partiality for Americans, and was some- times even lacking in courtesy towards them ; and hence I should not have been disappointed, if, even with Mrs. Opie's letter, I had not realized the most cordial reception. However, I could scarcely have been received by anybody with greater kindness. He met me with such a free and whole-souled air, that I almost felt as if he might have mistaken me for some person whom he had seen before. This, however, was not the case ; and I could only ac- LOKD JEFFREY. 283 count for his very gracious manner by supposing that his regard for Mrs. Opie had predisposed him to be kind towards anybody whom she might intro- duce to him. Jeffrey was a small man, of an uncommonly lively expression of countenance, and extremely rapid in his movements, and fluent in his conversation. He was, at that time, I understood/a little turned of sixty, but he might easily have been mistaken for a much younger man. I was exceedingly struck with his graceful and admirable speaking of English it was so per- fect, so entirely free from any distinctive accent, that I could not even have guessed where he had been born or educated ; though he was really a native of Scotland, and received his education at one of the English Universities. I was scarcely seated with him before we were talk- ing about slavery, a subject which, by that time, had become absolutely loathsome to me, having had to discuss, or rather to expound it, morning, noon, and night, for several weeks. However, I had no fault to find with Lord Jeffrey in relation to it, as his views were most enlightened and liberal. He referred to an article which had then recently appeared in the Edinburgh Keview, which he thought was very sound and sober. He expressed the confident conviction that the blacks are inferior to the whites in original powers ; and he said he had come to that conclusion from the fact, that under every variety of circum- stances in which they had been placed, both in an- 284 LORD JEFFREY. cient and modern times, their inferiority had been apparent. I accepted an invitation to dine with Lord Jeffrey, and had the pleasure of meeting at dinner several very interesting persons, among whom was Lord Moncrieff, son of the late Sir Harry Moncrieff Well- wood, who was for a long time one of the most dis- tinguished clergymen of Edinburgh. He was a most gentlemanly man, of a fine, open countenance, and very entertaining in conversation. Mrs. Jeffrey, with whom I now became acquainted, was an American lady Miss Wilkes, of New York and seemed a very plain, sensible, benevolent woman. As Mrs. Opie and her Quakerism happened to be spoken of in the course of the conversation, the Quaker language, and especially the frequent use of thee as the nom- inative instead of thou, became the topic for a few moments. Lord Jeffrey accounted for it on the same principle that he accounted^ for the fact that chil- dren are so much inclined to put me for I that is, that the personal pronoun is so much more frequently used in government than in any other way. He expressed a very high opinion of the character and talents of Chancellor Kent, and a very low opinion of the wisdom that had ordained that the chancel- lors and judges in the State of New York should leave their office at the age of sixty ; and he added that it was not uncommon there for judges to be appointed after that age. At the dinner-table, whis- key was not only used as a drink after the common SIB DAVID BREWSTER. 285 mode, but discussed as a topic ; and the opinion was expressed that the use of it was increasing rather than diminishing in Scotland. Jeffrey spoke of the horrors of the whiskey-houses in London ; and mentioned that they had pretty little glasses, on a counter just high enough for young children to reach, and everything necessary to attract the little creatures into these haunts of moral death. I confess my temperance principles got to work pretty vigorously, and I could not but query with myself, even in the presence of the whiskey-bottle, whether it might not be a good service rendered to humanity, to discard altogether the use of what was evidently producing so much misery. I was introduced to Sir DAVID BREWSTEB, well known as one of the most scientific men of the age-, by Dr. Lee, at the breaking up of the meeting of the Koyal Society. The residence of Sir David was in the Highlands, and I understood that it was a rare thing that he visited Edinburgh ; but, for- tunately for me, he happened to be there at that time. He was of about the middle height, but a little inclined to be stout, and had a face in which benignity and intelligence were delightfully blended. His manners were as simple as childhood itself, while yet they had all the grace and polish that one looks for in the most refined society. We had just been listening to the paper (referred to in a former number) on the siege of Syracuse ; and almost 286 SIK DAVID BKEWSTEE. the first thing that Sir David said to me was, that he hoped I understood Greek better than he did ; for if I did not, he was sure that I must have found the paper very unedifying. I had the pleasure of meeting Sir David several times after this, and, at each successive interview, I became more deeply impressed by his admirable qualities. I was gratified to find, what I had not known before, that he possessed a very decided Christian character indeed, he was a licentiate in the Church of Scotland, and had formerly exercised his functions as a preacher ; but for twenty years had been so excessively nervous, that he not only could not preach, but could not read one of his own papers before the Royal Society. He had been reading, not long before, some of the writings of Jacob Abbott ; and he inquired with great interest concerning him, and did not hesitate to say that he knew not a more attractive writer. He inquired whether there was any poetry in the account which he had given of the revival in Amherst College ; and when I told him that I supposed not, he said it was indeed a most remarkable work, and asked if such scenes as he had described were common in America ; and his inquiries were evidently dic- tated, not merely by a spirit of curiosity, but by a deep religious interest in the subject. I met him one morning at breakfast with several other gen- tlemen, when the conversation turned upon the choice of a new Professor of Logic in the Univer- SIB DAVID BKEWSTEE. 287 sity of Edinburgh ; and one of the gentlemen pre- sent alluded to the fact that there had been some attempts made to secure the election of the author of the History of Natural Enthusiasm, and several other works, the authorship of which had not then been avowed. All, however, agreed that this was preposterous, as the writer had evidently been much secluded from society, and would, on that account, be quite unfit for the place. Sir David suggested that it might turn out, if they were to choose him in the dark, that they had chosen a woman ; and he thought the best way would be to strip off his mask, and let him run awhile in broad daylight before they should take any decisive measures to- wards the appointment. When it was suggested that the author of the mysterious publications was the brother of the Misses Taylor, who had written so much and so well, Sir David said that he pre- sumed then that the books were written by his sis- ters, so that he was not so much out of the way in what he had said about .the woman. He, however, maintained that the books, whoever might have writ- ten them, were far from sustaining any claim on the part of the author to the Logic chair ; for he said they were to him almost unintelligible he had honestly tried to read them, and to find out the author's meaning, but had absolutely given up in despair. There was a difference of opinion as to the real author of the works, some having heard them attributed to John Foster, and others to An- 288 PROFESSOR WILSON. drew Eeed ; but the more common opinion was that they were the productions of Isaac Taylor. Sir David spoke most respectfully of Professor Silliman, whom I think he had never seen but once, though he knew him by correspondence, and regarded his Journal of Science as decidedly one of the ablest scientific pub- lications of the day. Sir David Brewster married the daughter of the celebrated Macpherson, who com- piled, edited, or, for aught I know, composed, the poems of Ossian. I had the pleasure of passing an evening with Professor WILSON, and as I was introduced by Mrs. Grant, for whom he had the highest veneration, I could not have asked for a more hearty welcome than I received from him. He was then in his full vigour, though he happened that evening to be labouring under some slight indisposition perhaps the head- ache. He was somewhat above the middle stature, had a strongly-marked face, and talked on every subject that came up with rapidity and point. He treated the ultra anti-slavery men with very little ceremony, and condemned unsparingly the rash meas- ures they were trying to carry. He seemed familiar with the prominent literary men in this country, and had a definite and well-matured opinion in re- spect to many of them. Washington Irving he considered as quite a model of good taste. Cooper, he said, had far more genius than taste, and he dashed along, mixing up the good and the bad to- PROFESSOR WILSON. 289 gether, at a strange rate. He seemed a remarkably whole-souled, genial sort of a man, though if I had been set to guess what was his professorship, it is doubtful whether I should have hit upon moral phi- losophy. I cannot, in justice to my own feelings, close my reminiscences of the great and good people whom I saw at Edinburgh, without mentioning the name of Dr. THOMAS MURRAY, whose guest I had the honour to be, and to whose extensive knowledge, large ac- quaintance, and obliging attentions, I was indebted in no small degree for the pleasure of my visit. He had been for many years an eminent teacher, and was the author of several small, but very interesting works. He had in his possession the papers of the celebrated Dr. Murray, author of the " History of the European Languages ;" and he actually gave me a copy of that great work in the author's hand-writing, which is now in the library of Harvard College. 13 XLI. A S I had not only long been familiar with Dr. ** DICK'S works, but had had the pleasure of a correspondence with him for several years, it was my purpose to visit him from the time that I had de- termined to go to Scotland, Accordingly, I went from Edinburgh to Dundee by coach, and was there met by Dr. Dick's son-in-law, who had come, by request of the Doctor, to take me to Broughty Ferry, distant about four miles. Broughty Ferry is a small village, of very mean appearance, and I should suppose that its chief at- traction lay in the fact that Dr. Dick resides there His dwelling, however, was not immediately in th village, but about a quarter of a mile in the rear of it, on a beautiful eminence, which overlooked Dun- dee and a large tract of the adjacent country. As we came within sight of the house, Mr. M., his son- in-law, told me that the Doctor was upon the look- out for us, and he knew that we were on the way, for he perceived that his window was thrown up ; and as we approached the .gate, he came runnin J DE. DICK. 291 out with, the activity of a boy, and gave me one of the most affectionate greetings I ever had from anybody. He immediately introduced me to Mrs. Dick, and she scarcely fell behind her husband in demonstrations of good will. She was the daughter of a celebrated clergyman, Dr. Young, of Hawick. She had been married to Dr. Dick but five or six years, but had before been married to a Mr. David- son, a famous lecturer on Chemistry, who, in eon- sequence of an explosion that took place in connec- tion with some chemical experiment, while he was lecturing in Ireland, was regarded as an astrologer, and had measured out to him by the ignorance and superstition of the poor Irish, a pretty severe retri- bution. Mrs. Dick herself was muck engaged in philosophical pursuits, and in her appearance was not unlike Maria Edgeworth. She Irad, two or three years before, attempted to lift something which was an overmatch for her strength, and from that time had lost the use of one arm altogether. Doctor Dick's house was a small, neat building, and the grounds around were laid out and orna- mented with exquisite taste. I found him in per- son rather below the middle size, though well pro- portioned, with a face and manner well becoming a " Christian Philosopher." He had formerly been a settled minister in the United Secession Church, and had very considerable popularity as a preacher. He was subsequently for, ten years the teacher of a school at Perth, but from the time he came to 292 DE. DICK. Broughty Ferry, he had been engaged exclusively in making books and cultivating his grounds ; though he occasionally delivered scientific lectures, and now and then preached for a brother minister in the neighbourhood. I found his conversation marked by very much the same characteristics with his books. Though he seemed to be truly evangelical in his views, he dwelt more upon the philosophy of re- ligion, and especially the connexion of religion with science, than upon those generally admitted truths which we are accustomed to identify with the life and power of Christianity. His heart was in Heaven I doubt not in more senses than one his telescope and observatory witnessed to his love of the visible heavens, as truly as his Bible and his closet could have done to the invisible. I know not that he has ever claimed the honour of any new astronomical discoveries ; but he certainly deserves the honour of giving additional attraction to the discoveries of others, and of rendering them eminently subservient to the interests of true religion. He seemed to me to possess, in a very uncommon degree, the spirit of an enlarged philanthropy. He considered that knowl- edge is essentially diffusive that no man or body of men have a right to appropriate it exclusively ; but that it is a debt which every one owes to the common humanity, that he should extend the circle of useful knowledge as far as he can, taking care, at the same time, that diffusion is not at the expense of thoroughness and accuracy. DE. DICK. 293 Dr. Dick seemed to be quite rich in philosophical apparatus, and in the morning, after breakfast, he amused me by taking me upon his observatory, and setting me to look at various objects through both the telescope and the microscope. We walked for awhile over his grounds, and then ascended a hill a little way off, from which he pointed out to me the dwelling of Thomas Erskine, the author of the work on Faith, &c., who was, just at that time, as I un- derstood, rather a conspicuous follower of Edward Irving. We also walked into the village, and on our way went to an ancient tower, now in ruins, the origin of which lies back beyond all tradition. Having spent the principal part of the day with Dr. Dick, I bade him and his family farewell some time in the afternoon, and took the steamboat for Edinburgh, where I arrived the same evening. It was an exceedingly interesting day to me, and, after the lapse of nearly nineteen years, I can bring the venerable man and his household before me almost as vividly as ever. It has been a matter of great regret with Dr. Dick's friends, that after he has contributed so largely to the benefit of his generation, and of pos- terity, he should be subjected, in his old age, to pe- cuniary straits and embarrassments. It is not so much philanthropy as simple justice, that should be appealed to for his relief ; and if I am correctly in- formed, such an appeal has already been made, and not without some success. I regretted to notice 294 DR. DICK. an application lately made to the government in his behalf, for a pension, had failed. Some three or four years ago, a paragraph went the rounds of our papers, stating that Dr. Dick had closed his mortal career. I owed him a letter at that time, which, of course, I never expected to be able to pay. Indeed, I should have written a letter of condolence to his widow, but that the wife whom I saw was dead, and he had subsequently married another. I had thought of him only as prosecuting his noble researches in brighter worlds, when, after many months, I was assured by a friend that Dr. Dick was still living, and in the enjoyment of his usual health. I wrote immediately to inquire if he was really extant, and he answered me at once by a long and agreeable letter, assuring me that he was still a dweller upon the earth, and that his mission did not yet seem to be quite accomplished. He must be a little more than eighty ; but his handwriting be- trays nothing of the tremulousness of old age. XLII. A S it was part of my plan to visit the North of ^ England, I had taken a letter of introduction to SOUTHEY, from one of his intimate friends in Lon- don, and in due time I was fortunate enough to reach the place of his residence, and find him at home. Indeed, I had taken the precaution to write to him, while I was in Edinburgh, to ascertain whether he would be at home at the time when it would be most convenient to me to visit Keswick ; and had received an affirmative answer, together with a very kind wish expressed that I would fulfil my purpose. Accordingly, having passed the Sabbath in Dur- ham, I went to Penrith by coach on Monday, and the next morning, by private conveyance, to Keswick, distant eighteen miles. The morning was beautiful, the country romantic, and everything in connexion with the ride as I could have wished, except an exceedingly stupid boy, who was sent to be my driver 296 ROBERT SOUTHEY. and guide, and who had scarcely taken a degree in talking beyond monosyllables. We reached Keswick at half-past nine a small, ugly town, beautifully situated among the hills, with a charming lake lying directly before it. Having been directed to Southey's residence, which was a few minutes' walk out of the village, I set out to make my way thither ; and on inquiring of some person more particularly which was his dwelling, I was told that that was Mr. Southey then passing into a shop just before me. I instantly followed him, and introduced myself by, referring to his letter, which had reached me at Edinburgh ; and he received me with great simplicity and kind- ness, and immediately took me home with him. His house stood on ground considerably elevated, was surrounded with trees and shrubbery, and the situa- tion, on the whole, was quite enchanting. As we came up to the door, he pointed to a beautiful grass-plat on the right, which he said he called his " quarter deck." The man himself, who was the great object of interest with me, was rather above the middle stature ; slender and graceful in his form ; of dark complexion, and dark eyes ; with his hair almost bushy, and pretty far advanced towards gray ; with a countenance generally sedate, but easily lighted up with a smile ; and reminding me a good deal, in his general appearance, of my friend Mr. Finley Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, though he was considerably above Mr. Morse's stature. I found him exceedingly communicative, and he KOBEKT SOUTHEY. 297 volunteered to give me a good deal of Ms personal history, parts of which I took care to preserve. He informed me that he was a native of Bristol, and that his father was a linen-draper there ; that it was his early intention to have spent his days in Por- tugal, where his uncle was chaplain to the British factory ; that he had actually, at different times, spent nearly two years there, but that he was dis- couraged from carrying out his original purpose to reside there permanently, by the political state of things at that period. At the time I saw him he was sixty-two years old, and had occupied the spot where he then resided thirty-three years. It was for- merly Wordsworth's residence, and he was attracted thither by coming to make Wordsworth a visit. He once had the ophthalmia for a short time, but he soon recovered from it, and at the age of sixty-two he could see to read the smallest print, and write the smallest hand, without spectacles. He remarked that time had dealt very gently with him ; and, as an evidence of it, stated that he could, with great ease, walk from twenty to thirty miles a day ; and that whenever he made one of his pedestrian excur- sions alone, he always had his book in hand, and could easily walk at the rate of three miles an hour, and read without interruption. No longer ago than the week before, he said that he had scrambled all over the adjacent mountain. When I spoke of the great degree of seclusion incident to the place, he said it was fortunate for him that there was so little 13* 298 ROBERT SOUTHEY. good society around him, as it left him with so much the more time to devote to his books. He gave me a most touching account of his do- mestic afflictions. He had had eight children, of whom only four then survived. His eldest son, who died at the age of ten, was a youth of remarkable promise, and he said that if it had pleased God to spare him, he would have taken his place in all respects ; that he was almost idolatrously devoted to his books, and the last thing he did, so long as he could sit up in his bed, was to call for his Homer. Of his surviving children, one was preparing for Ox- ford ; and of the remaining three, who were daugh- ters, one was married to a clergyman of great worth, and the other two were young ladies of fine accom- plishments, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure to make. His wife, for the two years preceding, had been deranged ; and though for some time he had confident hopes of her recovery, he had then relinquished all hope. He supposed that the malady might possibly have been averted if he had known the danger in season, though she passed very sud- denly from extreme depression to absolute madness. The first evening after her return from the Insane Retreat at York, she sat down between her daugh- ters, and related to them, with perfect correctness, everything that had occurred to her during her ab- sence ; and they all thought her quite well ; but it was only a gleam of reason owing to the excitement produced by her coming home. Her derangement EGBERT SOUTHEY. 299 immediately returned, and had continued without any decided abatement or interruption ; though she was, for the most part, quiet, and always chose to re- main in the same place. Towards evening every day she had a short interval that approached somewhat to the lucid, but never for a moment had the full possession of her faculties. He spoke of the afflic- tion as sometimes bringing a dreadful burden upon his spirits, but he recognized the hand of Provi- dence apparently with devout and quiet submission. He had a good deal to say about distinguished characters on both sides of the water ; and he re- naarked that he almost thought he knew more people in Boston than in any town in England. The first whom he saw was Professor Everett, whom he re- membered as a very striking man, some twenty years before. Since that, he had seen Dr. Channing, whom, from some remarks he made to him, he judged to be an Arian in his theological views ; Professor Pal- frey, who, he said, was very near being drowned in coming to him in the coach ; Mrs. Brooks, of Boston, whose poetry (Bride of Sevens) he considered a work of great power, and destined to emerge from its present comparative obscurity ; Dr. Dewey, some of whose sermons he thought very beautiful ; Professor Ticknor, Mr. Cogswell, &c. He had never seen Buck- minster, but he expressed the greatest admiration for his sermons, and seemed to wonder that it was so long before there was a British edition of them. Of Mrs. Grant of Laggan, whose acquaintance he 300 EGBERT SOUTHEY. thought I was very fortunate in having made, he spoke in terms of no measured respect, and remarked that her book, containing her early recollections of Albany, was one of the most exquisite things he had ever read, depicting a state of society in the highest degree interesting. Campbell, the poet, he had never seen but once ; but he considered him an unhappy man not so much an unbeliever as a miso-Christian. Tom Moore he had also seen but once ; and he said that, so far as he knew his char- acter, he was amiable and harmless in his domestic relations, notwithstanding all that he had written that might lead one to suppose the contrary; that he (Moore) boasted not long before at some public meeting, that he had now reached such an age that he felt at perfect liberty to speak out his mind on any subject ; " but," said Southey, " when he was a young man, he wrote as licentiously as he pleased ; in middle life he wrote as libellously as he pleased ; and in the decline of life he has written as treason- ably as he pleased ; and I do not see what he wants more." Rogers and Bowles, the two oldest of the British poets, he considered as being very amiable and excellent characters. Scotland, he thought, had then lately lost her most striking man in Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd) ; and when I mentioned that I had heard that Hogg aped Burns in some of his most prominent characteristics, he said that he could scarcely think it possible ; that he once spent three days with him, (the only time he ever saw him,) and ROBERT SOUTH EY. 301 he thought him then quite free from affectation. He showed me a volume containing the original letters of Cowper, the poet, to John Newton, and "directed my attention particularly to the fact that there was a great change in his handwriting after he was overtaken by his mental malady ; that, whereas before, his hand was very free, he afterwards evi- dently wrote literatim taking his pen up at every letter. He spoke of John Wesley with great inter- est, and remembered, when he was a child, to have seen him twice once as he was coining down a flight of stairs with his mother, Wesley met him, and laid his hands upon his head. In our conversation about Buckminster, I adverted to the singular impression which his father is said to have had in respect to his death ; and I immedi- ately found that Southey was no unbeliever in pre- ternatural impressions and appearances. He told me the following story, and quoted Mrs. Hannah More as his authority : A person connected with the cathedral at Bristol, by the name of Love, and who was just on the eve of being married, dreamed that, in looking over the register of deaths in the cathedral, he saw his own name at the bottom of the list. He was somewhat alarmed by it, and his mother still more. Shortly after, he dreamed that in a corner of the cathedral, near the cloister, he saw a monument with his own name upon it. A few nights after, as he was returning from a visit to the young lady to whom he was engaged, he came 302 ROBERT SOUTHEY. into the house, pale, and almost breathless ; and, upon being asked what was the matter, he replied that on his way home he had witnessed a very strange spectacle several men bearing a coffin, covered with red morocco and brass nails ; and what chiefly alarmed him was, that they had brought it into that house ! They immediately sent out to inquire if any person living in that street had just died, and they found that none had. They then sent to every undertaker to inquire whether any of them had furnished a coffin that night, and it was ascertained that none had been furnished. Shortly after the poor fellow be- came suddenly ill, and after a few days died. They had great difficulty, for some time, in finding a place in the cathedral where he could be buried ; but they found, at length, one vacant place, and it proved to be in the very corner where, in his dream, he had seen his monument. And when the coffin came, it turned out that the undertaker, an eccentric man, without having received any such directions, and merely from a wish to testify his respect for the family, had had the coffin covered with red morocco and brass nails. Southey assured me that he had not the least doubt of these facts, and that the monument of the young man was still to be seen in the cathedral. I understood him that the event had occurred just about forty years before. As an- other illustration of his being somewhat open to the wonderful, I may mention that he read me a letter from a friend, containing a remarkable story ROBERT SOU THEY. 303 that was told by a fortune-teller to John Cowper, brother of the poet, in which his whole future life was laid open to him while he was yet very young. Southey informed me that he had long since given up being a poet, and that he had scarcely written ten lines of poetry during the preceding ten years ; that he had three works before him which he wished much to accomplish namely, a History of Portugal, at least two-thirds of which he had already written ; a History of the Monastic Orders ; and a History of English Literature, from the period at which Wharton left the History of Poetry. His idea of the History of the Monastic Orders was conceived from having lived in Portugal, and witnessed the blasting in- fluence of the Koman Catholic religion. He said that he had been urged to write the history of the period of our Kevolution, and that the idea was suggested in consequence of his having endeavoured to procure access for Mr. Sparks to the papers per- taining to that period in the public offices at Lon- don ; but that he had already so many things in hand that he could not even consider the proposal. He spoke in terms of strong reprobation of what he called the fanaticism of the anti-slavery party in Great Britain, and remarked that there was a species of slavery existing among themselves, incom- parably worse than negro slavery, over which their pseudo-philanthropists were content to slumber namely, the condition of the children in cotton fac- tories ; not less than two hundred and forty thou- 304 ROBEKT SOUTHET. sand being thus employed in a way that was cha- racterized by the grossest cruelty. He read me part of a work in the form of a dialogue, which he had written on the subject. He said that he had no hesitation in saying that a West India plantation, compared with one of these cotton factories, was a garden of Eden ; as he dwelt upon the subject I observed that his eyes filled with tears. He spoke of having just read Stone's work on Free Masonry, which he said was certainly an extraordinary pro- duction. Free Masonry, he thought, made no noise in Great Britain, though there was plenty of it on the Continent ; and he remembered to have met some Prussian officers at Aix-la-Chapelle, who almost wrung his hands off, to find out whether he was a Mason. Southey had a splendid library, consisting of some- what more than ten thousand volumes, a large por- tion of which were in the different Continental lan- guages. He said he could read the several lan- guages in which they were written with perfect ease, but could never speak them, except in his dreams ; and then he often spoke them fluently. After hav- ing shown me his library, and every thing about his place that he thought would interest me, he pro- posed that we should take a ramble ; and he ac- cordingly took me down to the lake (Darwin), and showed me the spot where he projected the most celebrated of his poems ; then we ascended a beauti- ful hill in the rear of the town, which commanded EGBERT SOUTHEY. 305 a fine view of the whole surrounding country. Most of the time during this walk he was talking about his " dear boy," whom he had lost ; and, though some years had elapsed from the time of the be- reavement, I could see the heart of the father still rising in half-suppressed sobs, and sometimes over- flowing in tears. I remained with him during nearly the whole day, leaving myself only time- enough to return to Penrith before I slept. If I had been left to form my judgment of him merely from my own observation, I should still have pronounced him an exalted specimen of both genius and sensibility. THE END, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed Thisbook is DUE on the last date stamped below. JUN8 MAY 9 19 km DISC MAY u > '31 1 LD 21-100m-7,'52(A2528sl6)476 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY r v 5? ;*,