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 THE LIFE 
 
 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 CHIEFLY TOLD IN HIS OWN LETTERS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HIS DAUGHTER 
 
 WITH PORTS AITS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHAKLES SCKIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1894
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
 
 ^0 Us Jlotijer
 
 " O strong soul, by what shore 
 Tarriest thou now? For that force, 
 Surely, has not been left vain! 
 Somewhere, surely, afar. 
 In the sounding labour-house vast 
 Of being, is practised that strength, 
 Zealous, beneficent, firm! 
 
 " Yes, in some far-shining sphere. 
 Conscious or not of the past. 
 Still thou performest the word 
 Of the spirit in whom thou dost live — 
 Prompt, unwearied, as here! 
 Still thou upraisest with zeal 
 The humble good from the ground, 
 Sternly repressest the bad! 
 
 ***** 
 If, in the paths of the world, 
 Stones might have wounded thy feet. 
 Toil or dejection have tried 
 Thy spirit, of that we saw 
 Nothing — to us thou wast still 
 Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! 
 Therefore to thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself; 
 And, at the end of thy day, 
 O faithful shepherd, to come 
 Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. 
 
 " And through thee I believe 
 In the noble and great who are gone; 
 
 ***** 
 Servants of God ! — or sons 
 Shall I not call you? because 
 Not as servants ye knew 
 Your father's innermost mind, 
 His, who unwillingly sees 
 One of his little ones lost — 
 Yours is the praise, if mankind 
 Hath not as yet in its march 
 Fainted, and fallen, and died!" 
 
 ***** 
 
 Matthew Arnold.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In the task upon which I reluctantly entered three 
 years ago, of editing my father's letters, it was from 
 the beginning my aim to use only such material as 
 should add something to the story of his life, and to 
 let that story tell itself just as far as possible, through 
 these letters. Yet, in presenting him as the founder 
 of a great organization such as the Children's Aid 
 Society, it has not been found possible to adhere 
 rigidly to that original plan. Friendly letters, with 
 their natural assumption of a close knowledge of the 
 business and principles of his life, must of necessity 
 fail to present the details of his life-work, or to do 
 justice to the final results attained. Nor can they 
 be expected to exhibit duly the turning-points of his 
 success ; the forces he most relied on ; where he 
 found sympathy and where apathy ; the relative value 
 he attached to educational, religious, industrial, per- 
 sonal influences, — in short, the personal side of his 
 great philanthropic work. These things are revealed 
 again and again in his book, " The Dangerous Classes 
 of New York," and in the annual reports of the 
 society, and it has been to detach from what is there 
 written the principles in which he believed and on 
 which he worked, and to present them at once as a 
 consistent whole, that I have gone beyond the field
 
 Vi PREFACE 
 
 of mere editing. In doing this, it has not been my 
 aim to write the history of the Children's Aid Society, 
 but to show what moved its founder in this particular 
 direction, and how richly life expanded for him as he 
 watched the society become a great engine in the 
 forces for good to mankind. Perhaps nothing could 
 more simply present the happiness which life brought 
 to him, than a comparison of the two portraits given 
 in this volume, one of the grave, anxious man of thirty, 
 the other of the man of sixty. 
 
 I have to thank the many friends, both at home 
 and in England, who have spared no pains to procure 
 for me his letters to them, but their kindness has 
 been rendered in so personal a sense to him, that I 
 hesitate to intrude, even with thanks, between him 
 and them. To Mr. George S. Merriam and Mr. 
 James K. Paulding, however, my own personal thanks 
 are owing for valuable advice in many matters, and 
 assistance without which this task could scarcely have 
 been accomplished. 
 
 EMMA BRACE. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Dobbs Ferry, 
 October, 1894.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth and Parentage — His Aunts — Pursuits and Early Edu- 
 cation — Boyish Journal — College — College Letters — 
 The Family Circle — His Sister Emma's Letters — College 
 and Vacation Letters — Discussions in College — College 
 Friendships 1 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 Decision to enter the Ministry — Teaching at Ellington and 
 Winchendon — Letters on his Reading — Earnest Resolves 
 
 — Visit in New Milford — Theological Year in New Haven 
 
 — Letters — Period of Speculation — Theological Letters 
 
 — Miscellaneous Letters — Letter on Friendships . . 29 
 
 CHAPTER ni 
 
 From New Haven to New York — William Colt's Death — Life 
 in New York — Staten Island — Speculation and Discus- 
 sion carried on there and in New York — Wendell Phillips 
 
 — Letters — Studies, and Blackwell's Island — Emma's Ill- 
 ness, and Visit to Cambridge — Emma's Death — Charles's 
 Agony of Grief 58 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Journey Abroad — Walking Trip in Ireland — Letter on the 
 German Sunday — The Rhine and Edinburgh — Letter on 
 Socialism — Decision to remain in Germany — German Ex- 
 periences and Study — Olmsted Letters — Miscellaneous 
 Letters, and Opinions on the Fugitive Slave Law — Desire 
 for a Deeper Life — Tired of Travelling . . . .89 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Plan of going to Hungary — Prague — Vienna Letters — Starts 
 for Hungary down tlie Danube — Sentiment for Hungary — 
 Journey to Gross Wardein — Imprisonment — Letters from 
 Prison — Kelease — Olmsted Letters — Feeling of Austrian 
 Lijustice — Trieste — Liverpool — Return and Lectures — 
 Book on Hungary — Book on Germany — Episode with 
 "C." 122 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Decision to enter Philanthropic Work — Efforts among Adults 
 — Boys' Meetings — Insufficiency of these Efforts — Or- 
 ganization of Children's Aid Society — First Circular — 
 Immediate Response of Children — Workshops — Letters 
 in Children's Aid Society — Failure of First Effort — 
 Workshops — Industrial Schools — Need of Outside Help 
 in starting Schools — Objection to RafHes, etc. — Organiza- 
 tion of Fourth Ward Schools — Homeless Boys — Lodging- 
 House — What to do with the Homeless — Emigration 
 versus Asylums — Difficulties — Immediate Success of Ef- 
 fort — Miscellaneous Letters 153 
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 Opening of First Lodging-House for Newsboys — Sunday 
 Evening Meetings — One Year's Experience with Lodging- 
 House — Personal Relations with the Poor — Notes of Lect- 
 ures on Children's Aid Society — Miscellaneous Letters — 
 Journey to Ireland, and Marriage — Aim of Society and 
 Principles — Success of Emigration — Success of Schools — 
 Volunteers — Letters to his Wife — Organization of Italian 
 School — Miscellaneous Letters — Trip to England and Nor- 
 way — Reflections on Loneliness of the Poor — Natural 
 Results of Neglect of Poor Children — Kindness of Adopted 
 Mothers - in the West — Opposition to Emigration — Jour- 
 ney to the West — Letters to his AVife . . . .186
 
 CONTENTS ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Miscellaneous Letters — Appeal for a Night School for Girls — 
 Organization of the School — Similar Associations in Other 
 Cities — Desire for Workers among Young Men — Letters 
 and Papers written during the Civil War — Letters from 
 Greeley and Seward — Mr. Brace goes South on the Chris- 
 tian Commission — New President of Children's Aid Society 
 
 — Organization of First Girls' Lodging-House . . . 222 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Ethnological Book — Progress of Children's Aid Society in 
 Spite of the War — Death of Mrs. Schuyler — Letter to a 
 Trustee of Children's Aid Society explaining Mr. Brace's 
 Eight to Private Views as a Private Individual — Plans for 
 English Journey — Lincoln's Death — Experience in Eng- 
 land — English Lack of Sympathy in the War — In the 
 Tyrol — Miscellaneous Letters — Illness — California Trip 
 
 — Death of Miss Neill — Death of Mr. Loring — Progress 
 of Society's Work — Newsboys' Lodging-House — Letter 
 
 to Beecher — Darwinism — Factory Children . . . 256 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 "The Dangerous Classes of New York" — Visit to England 
 as Delegate to Congress on Reform — Darwin — Visit to 
 Hungary — Twentieth Annual Report — Death of Mr. 
 Brace's Father — Death of John Stuart Mill — "Soup- 
 kitchen" Episode — Children's Summer Home of Chil- 
 dren's Aid Society 308 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Mr. Brace's New House — Life in the Woods — Charges against 
 Children's Aid Society — Miscellaneous Letters — To a 
 Young Man on Faith — On the Strikes — Study and Work 
 
 — Free Trade — Miscellaneous Letters — Correspondence 
 about his Coming Book — Death of his Brother — Trip 
 Abroad — Society Details — Death of Mr. Macy . . 342
 
 X CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "Gesta Christi" — Letters about " Gesta Christi " — Contro- 
 versy with Miss Lazarus — Letters on New Studies — 
 Visit of Mr. Mozoomdar — Mr. Brace's Devotional Read- 
 ings at Home — Sanitarium — Letter from Mr. Mozoomdar 
 
 — Political and Miscellaneous Letters — Preparations for 
 New Book 384 
 
 CHAPTER Xm 
 
 English Sojourn — Summary of the Children's Aid Society — 
 Letters — Thirty-fifth Annual Report — Death of Priends 
 of the Society — Letters on his Coming Book — Death of 
 Dr. Gray — Letter on Inspiration of the Scriptures — Let- 
 ters — Effort to Prevent the Admission of Boys to Men's 
 Lodging- Houses — Marienbad — Switzerland . . . 426 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Bryce's Book — Death of Mr. Skinner — Letter from Virginia 
 
 — Adirondack Trip — Last Report — Letters — " The Un- 
 known God " — Letters on "The Unknown God " — Offers 
 of his Son to come to New York as his Father's Assistant 
 
 — Last Journey — The Dolomites — St. Moritz — His In- 
 creasing Weakness — Death 454 
 
 APPENDICES 489
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 CHARLES LORING BRACE
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Birth and Parentage — His Aunts — Pursuits and Early Education 
 — Boyish Journal — College — College Letters — The Family 
 Circle — His Sister Emma's Letters — College and Vacation 
 Letters — Discussions in College — College Friendships 
 
 Chaeles Loring Brace was born in Litchfield, 
 Connecticut, June 19, 1826. New England may 
 claim the whole stock of his hereditary qualities as 
 her gift, for the family had lived in Hartford 
 for almost two hundred years, and his mother's 
 blood connected him with the widespread relation- 
 ships of the Porter and Beecher families. She 
 was Miss Lucy Porter of Maine, a descenda- ' 
 of the Hon. Rufus King. Charles was named h>. 
 the Hon. Charles Loring, a lawyer of note in 
 Boston, who married the only sister of Charles's 
 father. 
 
 Mr. Brace was of Puritan ancestry, a descendant 
 of Stephen Brace (sometimes written Bracy), a man
 
 2 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 of good standing and estate,^ who came from England 
 in 1660 and settled in Hartford, where the family 
 has resided for seven generations. The Braces were 
 among the leaders in the religious and political 
 life of Connecticut, and members of the family have 
 served the State on the bench, in the pulpit, and in 
 the legislature. Capt. Abel Brace, the great-grand- 
 father of Charles L., was an officer in the Revolu- 
 tionary War and an oft-repeated representative to the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 Although he was but seven years of age when his 
 father moved from Litchfield to become principal of 
 the Female Seminary in Hartford, the ties were so 
 strong that bound John Brace and his children 
 to Litchfield, that no account of the forces that 
 moulded Charles is complete which omits to men- 
 tion the Pierce family and homestead there. 
 
 John Brace's aunts, the Misses Pierce, had towards 
 the end of the last century established a school 
 which marked an epoch in the education of girls 
 of that period, being one of the first schools 
 where anything more than an elementary education 
 could be acquired. These women, trained in part 
 in New York through the assistance of an older 
 brother, a man of position there, who had been pay- 
 master under Washington during the Revolutionary 
 War, impress one privileged to read their intimate 
 
 1 "Early Puritan Settlers." R. R. Hinman. Hartford, 1852.
 
 HIS PARENTS 3 
 
 family letters of those early days, as characters of 
 unusual force and intelligence. They superintended 
 the education of John Brace, and sent him to Wil- 
 liams College, where he studied with a half-formed 
 intention of entering the ministry. But it was early 
 evident that he was a Lorn teacher, and he began the 
 career which made his name honored in many Con- 
 necticut homes, as head teacher in his aunts' school 
 in Litchfield. Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. Cyi'us W. Field, 
 and the first Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts were a few 
 of the women who felt the inspiration of his teaching, 
 and Mrs. Stowe speaks of him in the life of her 
 father, as "one of the most stimulating and in- 
 spiring instructors I ever knew. The interest of 
 the historical recitations with a professor so widely 
 informed and so fascinating as Mr. Brace extended 
 farther than the class. Much of the training and 
 inspiration of my early days consisted not in the 
 thing which I was supposed to be studying, but in 
 hearing, while seated at my desk, the conversation 
 of Mr. Brace with the older classes." ^ 
 
 He married in 1820, and in 1833 moved to Hart- 
 ford. We know too little of Charles's mother, and 
 it is greatly to be regretted that there is in the mass 
 of correspondence no allusion anywhere to his rela- 
 tions with her. We cannot find that he was ever 
 
 1 Mrs. Stowe, in "Old Town Folks," lias pictured some of his 
 methods and himself in the character of Rossiter.
 
 4 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1834 
 
 separated from her long enough for either of them 
 to write. But in the family letters of this date we 
 have glimpses of a self-devoted, anxious mother, 
 with hardly strength enough for the many cares of 
 her little home. Her cheerful courage was an exam- 
 ple which helped her daughters when their turn came 
 to take up the heavy responsibilities after her too 
 early death. 
 
 There is but one story about Charles in his 
 childhood. His curiosity on subjects of history was 
 insatiable, until his questions and his father's elab- 
 orate replies became a torment to the young ladies 
 of the school. When, finally, the child selected the 
 dinner hour to propound his queries, and their 
 teacher laid down his carving knife and fork, and 
 the roast grew cold, the pupils, after suffering thus, 
 silent and hungry on several occasions, rebelled. 
 Charles w^as threatened. If he did not stay away 
 with his questions, he should be kissed. Dreading 
 this terror, after the manner of small boys, he de- 
 sisted. The story tells us a good deal of the nature 
 of Charles's training. 
 
 His occupations and pursuits, although not unlike 
 those of other boys, were very much under his 
 father's eye. This was onl}'- according to the good 
 and regular habit of authority familiar to that day, 
 but owing to his father's enjoyment of teaching and 
 the boy's eager intelligence, the relation was espe-
 
 JEt. 14] PASSION FOR TROUT-FISHING 5 
 
 cially close. His mother, burdened with the charge 
 of a younger, delicate boy, left Charles entirely in 
 his father's care. She died in 1840, when Charles 
 was fourteen. 
 
 For seven years, desj)ite all the absorbing duties 
 of a teacher's life, his father read to him for two 
 hours a day on historical subjects, var3dng them 
 with Scott and Shakespeare. The Greek and Roman 
 histories with which the course began were acted 
 out in the boy's imagination by the aid of acorns, 
 with which he represented contending armies. 
 
 Among his favorite pursuits with his father, trout- 
 fishing became an ingrained habit, and through all 
 his life Charles was one of the most ardent followers 
 of that apostolic occupation. For the rest, in addi- 
 tion to boys' games and plays, he loved rambles in 
 the country. His home in Hartford was in a suburb, 
 and within easy reach of streams and country walks, 
 and his letters written from college glow with mem- 
 ories, dwelt upon all through the winter, of his 
 spring rambles and fishing expeditions at home. 
 
 We must speak also of his formal education in 
 schooling and reading. Whatever limitations his 
 training had, — and we know that from the point of 
 view of modern schooling it was completely defec- 
 tive in a scientific direction, — it must have been, ac- 
 cording to the light of Litchfield and Hartford in 
 1830 at least, an exceedingly copious one. In
 
 6 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1841 
 
 consequence of his father's watchful attention to his 
 development, he was ready for college at fourteen, 
 and lingered outside till sixteen, studying French, 
 German, and, it af)pears, Spanish, and reading his- 
 tory. He was all his life a good linguist, and was 
 able, in his travels in Hungary, even to talk a little 
 Latin at need, from his college preparation. 
 
 In a journal kept during the year before he en- 
 tered college we find, among others, the following 
 entries : — 
 
 "Nov. 9, 1841. The sun rose clear, with the 
 wind north-west; a few clouds around, but on the 
 whole a beautiful morning. I've just got my Span- 
 ish lesson. Tooth don't ache at all. Voila une 
 seyitence Latine! 'Per tibicinem, qui coram Mose 
 modulatus est ' — I think that could hardly have 
 been from Horace. 'Das ist schones Wetter.' 'C'est 
 un beau jour. ' 'Hace bello tiempo. ' Hier sie haben 
 drei sprachen, Deutsche, Franzosische und Span- 
 ische. — N'est-ce pas grand? I kicked football from 
 five till dark. Emma [liis sister] went to the tem- 
 perance lecture this evening (like a goose!}; also 
 she made some calls." 
 
 "Nov. 30, 1841. The sun rose clear and bright. 
 Wind N. W. and gave us a beautiful day. I studied 
 part of the morning, and went to the Institute lec- 
 ture in the evening, delivered by Elihu Burritt, or 
 the learned blacksmith. He isn't thirty yet, and 
 knows fifty-three languages. His lecture was on 
 'Genius.' That there was no such thing as genius
 
 iEx. 15] YOUTHFUL DIARY 7 
 
 or native talent. He made use of one quotation 
 that I must remember. 'It is nature that makes the 
 rolling billows sleep and the sleeping billows roll.' " 
 
 " Feb. 16, 1842. I will give my occupations now. 
 First I get two pages of Xenophon and then one 
 page of Cicero, and then my German and write in 
 my journal. In the afternoon I get one hundred 
 lines in the '^neid, ' and fifty lines in the 'Georgics ' 
 (these are all reviews), and then sometimes study 
 German. The rest of the time I devote to read- 
 ing French and English works, or ivriting poetry!!! 
 Evenings I give to reading or playing chess or 
 backgammon." 
 
 "Feb. 20. Bushnell preached in the morning on 
 the text ' Then went in also that other disciple. ' A 
 strange text! His subject was the 'secret and in- 
 voluntary influences ' of every one. . . . He then 
 illustrated it from the works of God. He said the 
 earthquake's shock seemed a fearful thing in Nature. 
 But the morning's light, whose dawn would not 
 awake an infant, had more influence than a thousand 
 earthquakes. He then described the effect if that 
 light were blotted out. How the earth, with its 
 sister planets, would soon be icy balls floating in 
 primeval darkness. How the earthquakes would be 
 frozen in their fiery caverns. (For a fuller descrip- 
 tion see Byron's poem on 'Darkness.') He ended 
 off with a solemn appeal to his hearers not to harden 
 their hearts to his preaching." 
 
 This extract from the journal has been given in 
 full, because the sermon referred to exercised so
 
 8 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1842 
 
 profound an influence on Mr. Brace. In a letter to 
 a young friend, in 1886, after speaking of Buslinell 
 and his influence on the young men of Hartford, he 
 says, "That sermon on 'Unconscious Influence' 
 affected my whole life." 
 
 The studious days were varied b}'^ whole days in 
 the open air, trout-fishing, or bathing, or "loafing," 
 as he says. 
 
 On August 16, 1842, he says : — 
 
 "This is quite an important day of my life, the 
 day of my examination for college. . . . My ex- 
 amination lasted only about three-quarters of an 
 hour. It was perfectly simple. . . . Finally they 
 gave me my commission, and I am a Freshman of 
 Yale College. Hurray! I lazed around, in a perfect 
 agony for something to do all the afternoon. New 
 Haven is a most beautiful place." 
 
 In October, 1842, we find him in college, well 
 equipped, mentally and physically, to take his place 
 among those to whom the college days remain to the 
 la.it so happy a memory. "Intense earnestness in 
 whatever he undertook was the characteristic and, 
 one might say, the keynote of his life," says one of 
 liis friends, and we may add, whether it were boxing 
 or football, classical studies or religious argument, 
 the same enthusiasm showed in all he did. In 
 December he writes to his father the following
 
 .f:T. 16] EARLY COLLEGE DAYS 9 
 
 letter, which pictures to us his occupations and 
 thoughts in his early college days : — 
 
 New Haven, December 11, 1842. 
 My dear Father: If there is one thing I miss 
 especially here which I had at home, it is Mr. Bush- 
 nell's sermons. This thought occurred to me from 
 looking over some old notices of Bushnell's sermons 
 in my journal to-day. You must tell him how the 
 Hartford boys (I am not the only one) miss him, and 
 how much the students here would love to hear him ; 
 for his fame is pretty generally extended among 
 them. ... I think John's ^ father must be very 
 rich, for John has a great deal of money. He treats 
 fellows considerably to pies and that kind of thing, 
 and is very generous with it. I have refused, except 
 once or twice, to be treated, because I could not 
 afford it in return (not that I ever said so), but he 
 buys great quantities of confectionery, etc., and 
 brings it into the room, where I must eat it. That 
 is all well enough, for I furnish eatables, pies, etc., 
 from home ; but he has bought fencing foils, dumb- 
 bells, etc., and is going to buy boxing gloves, and 
 his father will probably get a good many of those 
 kinds of things, which I shall enjoy as much as he. 
 Now I want to know whether it will seem at all 
 dependent in me to use these things. If the slight- 
 est expression that way should ever drop from him, 
 I should separate from him immediately, but as it is, 
 I don't hardly think he considers it so at all. This 
 
 1 John H. Olmsted, one of the Hartford boys, a friend of Charles's 
 before they entered college.
 
 10 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1842 
 
 last is all private. ... I don't know but what you 
 will find me somewhat rusty. I haven't been into 
 society much this winter, and need some virtuous 
 females to reform me. Father, I do envy you your 
 youthful days in company as much as anything. I 
 am afraid your worthy son is destined for something 
 else in that line. However, never say die ! 
 
 Last Sunday I joined the church, ^ and I humbly 
 hope that with God's aid, I shall keep up to my pro- 
 fessions. I have to be much more careful of myself 
 than I would be at home, or than persons generally 
 would, for John notices very particularly, and is 
 influenced in his own conduct by what he sees in 
 mine. Father, you talk a great deal about being 
 old and that kind of thing, but you are not, and I 
 expect many a pleasant fishing expedition yet with 
 you. I hope you will not be so much of a gar- 
 dener next summer that you'll forget fishing. It's 
 too great a descent for a gentleman to take to dig- 
 ging after trout-fishing, and he at least ought to 
 make the descent gradual, by dividing his time be- 
 tween them. . . . Bushnell gave the good people 
 of New Haven quite a curious and certainly a splen- 
 did lecture. It has set the big-wigs in tremendous 
 excitement. . . . Woolsey saj^s the theory is wrong. 
 The young men like it to distraction, — they praise 
 his originality, his liberality, and his independence. 
 
 His father replies: "You speak of my youthful 
 days in company. Those days were not, after all, 
 the most profitable ones of my life. I was led away 
 
 1 The Con2:re2;ational.
 
 iET. 16] HIS SISTER EMMA 11 
 
 by the ease with which I could 'set the table in a 
 roar ' to become light and trifling in character. From 
 early childhood I was surrounded by a changing 
 variety of females that did not produce much per- 
 manency of feeling in my character. Had I possessed 
 less fondness for female society, and less love of 
 humor, my situation and destiny in life would have 
 probably been far different. ... I am very thank- 
 ful that you have united with the Church, and I 
 pray God to give you strength to adorn the profes- 
 sion. You have a high, though not a quick temper 
 to control, much worldliness to contend with, and 
 the downward example of the young men around 
 you. ... I think I have great cause to be grate- 
 ful for the character, conduct, and habits of my 
 chikh'en." 
 
 The little family circle that Charles left on going 
 to college consisted of his father, an older sister 
 Mary, a devoted daughter to her lonely father and 
 like a mother in the motherless home, a younger 
 brother James, and a sister Emma, just two years 
 his junior, with whom he had during her short 
 life an intimacy of relation rare even in the happiest 
 homes. She was so strong, so brave, so unmoved 
 by anything disturbing, so sunny and merry, that it 
 is easy to understand his close dependence upon her. 
 During his college life, her sweet and merry letters 
 came to him almost every week, in the " trunk " 
 which, in economical New England fashion, carried
 
 12 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1842 
 
 his linen and pies to him with absolute regularity. 
 One occasionally wonders whether the pies, con- 
 sumed by the small circle of friends regardless of the 
 hour, on the arrival of the trunk, did not cost more, 
 at least in effects, than a modest weekly washing of 
 linen! 
 
 Out of the mass of letters from Emma, we insert 
 the following : — 
 
 [Undated. Presumably 1842.] 
 
 You seemed to doubt, dear Charley, if I could 
 sympathize with you in your feelings of ambition, 
 but I can. I have felt it some, but I know it was 
 not to such an extent as yours is. If I was placed 
 in such a situation as you are, I should get so excited 
 with ambition, for I have it in me. . . . My heart 
 is witli you. I cannot but urge you to place your 
 standard high, and you'll get somewhere near it. I 
 hope you will be able to get what you desire. Though 
 you have noble antagonists, I should think you may 
 attain, if not the first (which I hardly dare to hope), 
 at least one of the first. . » . I suppose as a pru- 
 dent sister I ought to urge you not "to be rash," and 
 to preach not to be imprudent in regard to your 
 health, and above all, not to let it get the advantage 
 over your duties to God. . . . But I do not see 
 why you cannot be ambitious and at the same time 
 have this feeling in subservience to God's will ; why 
 cannot you perform your duties to God at the same 
 time, and ask his blessing upon your efforts. . . . 
 I do not know as I shall be able to write you next
 
 ^T. 16] LETTERS FROM HIS SISTER 13 
 
 time, as it will be just before examination and I 
 shall be very busy. In five weeks is vacation. I 
 anticipate it with a great deal of pleasure, for two 
 weeks of it come at the same time yours do, and it 
 will be grand. I have formed a nice plan. You 
 know we shall want to go fishing, and so I move we 
 have a wagon with two seats, and you, Mr. Colt, 
 Jim, and /go. Mr. C. says he will. Oh! I think 
 it will be capital. If you young gentlemen (ahem !) 
 are afraid I shall talk too much, and disturb your 
 deep meditations or logical reasoning, I will promise 
 to be the best little girl that ever was, and hold up 
 my hand every time I want to speak. But a truce 
 to trifling; I say it must be carried into effect. The 
 aforesaid gentleman is initiating me into the myste- 
 ries of the seventh book in "Virgil," so I quite enjoy 
 his visits. 
 
 From the Same. 
 
 Hartford [1846]. 
 
 My dear Charley : . . . And last, but not least 
 in my opinion, is your humble servant with a sage, 
 dignified countenance, hair put up on her head. 
 Yes, Charley, your "youngest sister" has done all 
 that externals can do to make her a young lady, 
 with long dresses, and those lovely, fascinating, and 
 exquisite sausages which hung down her neck, have 
 at last been turned up, and the " lovely Miss Emma " 
 has grown so excessively dignified in consequence 
 of such change that her friends would hardly recog- 
 nize her. ... I graduate three weeks from to-day, 
 and no longer can I smile except, tell Henry, on some 
 interesting Sophomore, who chances to cross my
 
 14 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1846 
 
 path. . . . The other evening Mr. Bushnell ad- 
 vised us to cultivate a devotional spirit as being 
 the most improving one. He told us to rise early, 
 and before the business of the day commenced and 
 before the cares of this life distracted our thoughts, 
 to kneel in humble devotion to God and pray fer- 
 vently to him. I have tried it since then, and have 
 risen quite early. I find that my thoughts do get 
 distracted, even before I get dressed, and I do not 
 enter into the spirit of the time enough, but I do 
 hope it will do me good and draw me nearer to God 
 daily. 
 
 She studied hard at the Seminary with the inten- 
 tion of becoming a teacher, and in 1846, even before 
 Charles has begun life for himself, we find her cour- 
 ageously starting alone for Kentucky, full of eager- 
 ness to relieve her father of her support and to do 
 her little part of usefulness in the world. The jour- 
 ney was by stage-coach, and might have daunted a 
 less brave spirit. Her little school at Garrettsburg 
 was very successful, and she bore the separation from 
 those at home with cheerful courage, as the letters 
 written soon after her arrival, to her father, and later 
 to Charles, clearly show. 
 
 Emma Brace to J. P. Brace. 
 
 Garrettsburg, Aug. 8, 1846. 
 
 Dear Father : Your blue little picture of our never 
 all being at home again, I just turned the back side
 
 iET. 20] EMMA'S HAPPY TEMPERAMENT 15 
 
 foremost. Why gracious, ^^rr, I expect many a merry 
 time 3'et with our interesting family, and if Mary 
 does get married, why, I'm looking forward to keep- 
 ing house for you; and tliough I could not make you 
 as comfortable and happy, yet I should enjoy it. If 
 I cannot sing, I can be jolly; if I cannot cook, I can 
 make believe and then laugh; and if I cannot darn, 
 I can sew up and botch, and, anyway, if the flesh 
 don't show, what's the difference? So here are my 
 merits, and such as they are 3'ou're welcome to them. 
 
 From Emma to Charles.^ 
 
 Garrettsbdrg, Dec. 29, 1846. 
 
 . . . How little you understand me, Charley. 
 If you only knew the perfect rush of happiness that 
 comes across me when I think of home, and that this 
 time next year I may be there, you'd not dream of 
 accusing me of want of feeling. I'm not homesick, 
 and if I could get home to-morrow, I wouldn't do it; 
 but when my time is out (and how long that shall be 
 I leave for father to determine), the way I shall allow 
 my feelings full play! 'Tisn't worth while to be 
 discontented while I stay, is it? That is the im- 
 pression that I meant to convey in my former letters, 
 for really I have nothing to be displeased with here, 
 as I'm as much at home as in old "Yankee land." 
 You know, anywhere you can find subject enough to 
 cavil at, if you have the disposition, but not more 
 here than anywhere. Now do you fully understand 
 
 1 Unfortunately, scarcely any letters from Charles to his sister 
 Emma have been found.
 
 16 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 [1843 
 
 my feelings ? There are more inducements to stay 
 here, which can't operate at home. For instance, I 
 should have more inducements to do good, as the 
 children placed under my care here will perhaps 
 never have another opportunity to learn their duty, 
 and to hear of God and his mercies; and isn't that 
 something in the scale ? The motive father attrib- 
 utes to me — that of making money — is unworthy 
 of a thought almost. My only desire is not to be a 
 burden to father any longer, and that I should not 
 be with the salary he offers me, and there I should 
 have all the pleasures and advantages of being at 
 home, and perhaps might be some assistance to 
 Mary. So if father says so, I shall be home next 
 summer, and the way we'll spree it! 
 
 To return to Charles's correspondence with his 
 father, he writes from college in January, 1843: 
 
 "It is Sundaj^ and from some thoughts I have 
 had, I thought I would ask your advice. All to- 
 day, at the most solemn times, I have thoughts come 
 over me which completely carry me away. These 
 thoughts are principally on ambition, my studies, 
 and things connected with them, and I want to know 
 whether a person can be ambitious and still attend 
 to his Christian duties. It will not do, evidently, 
 to neglect my studies and everything of that kind, 
 and yet it ought not to be, as it is now, that my 
 last thought going to sleep is on my lesson, and my 
 first in the morning on the worldly duties of the 
 day. I think it is rather a trait of my character that
 
 ^T. 17] RELIGTOX AT YALE 17 
 
 whenever a certain feeling comes over it, either like 
 that or different from it, it occupies all my thoughts, 
 excluding everything else. Now to-day I would try 
 to fix my attention on the sermon, but in a moment 
 I would be thinking of the dire struggle going on 
 between this and that fellow, and so it was all the 
 time. I cannot prevent those thoughts from enter- 
 ing my mind, but I can find out and perhaps prevent 
 the causes of them. I wonder whether I couldn't 
 study from motives of doing good; for the reputation 
 of a good scholar here certainly does give a man more 
 influence than anything else. I should like to know 
 whether you, when a young man, had such feelings 
 come over you, and exclude everything else. But 
 enough of myself for the present. 
 
 "I presume you would like to know the state of 
 religion here. A short time ago I thought there 
 was a general revival commencing, but it seems now 
 to be at a standstill. Professor Goodrich told us 
 to-night that we were the pioneers of religion in the 
 college, and that our motto should be 'Aspera non 
 terrent.' We have a general church meeting Mon- 
 day night to consider and pray over the state of 
 things in college. 
 
 "Whatever Taylor's theology may be, he is cer- 
 tainly a most interesting, yes, something more than 
 that, preacher. By the way, if you ever have time 
 to sketch a few of your most powerful arguments 
 against Taylor's system, I would like to see them. 
 Don't be alarmed! I am not going to turn Taylor- 
 ite; in fact, I don't know the difference yet between 
 the beliefs, except that some Taylorite at our table 
 said that the opposite (as I understood it) party be-
 
 18 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1843 
 
 lieved in the damnation of infants. Wliereat, though 
 I didn't care much, I thought it rather improbable, 
 to say the least, that they went to hell. Please not 
 tell Mr. Eliphalet Terry, Esq., etc., etc., that, as he 
 would regard it as the first symptoms of Taylorite 
 principles working in me, and then might not send 
 his son here. Though it would be a perfect bless- 
 ing if that son of his ever meddled with theology at 
 all. You never yet have told me whether you 
 thought it extravagant or not, going to that other 
 club. I think you should tell me the truth exactly. 
 If you can find time, please tell me a little about 
 Shelley, if you can, — his reputation, writings, etc. 
 . . . You have been pleased to compliment me, 
 several times, on my 'frugality and economy.' You 
 needn't suppose that they are virtues which I 
 have, for I have as much inclination for spending 
 as any one, but I think I would be rascally indeed 
 if I was spending money here while you were work- 
 ing like a dog at home, and all of you perhaps 
 stinting yourselves for me. . . . Many thanks for 
 the pie." 
 
 The vacations were as busy and as happy to Charles 
 as the college days, with visits to the old Litchfield 
 home and long days of fishing, either with one of 
 his college friends or alone. 
 
 These experiences, which filled each summer brim- 
 ful of enjoyment, are described in the following let- 
 ters, which are inserted together, although written 
 during different vacations : —
 
 ^T. 17] VISIT TO LITCHFIELD 19 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Sharon, September, 1843. 
 Bear Father: . . . After a very hot walk of 
 about four hours, I arrived in Litchfield. ... I 
 Avas welcomed by all most cordially, and we conversed 
 till quite late. They got talking about your "liob- 
 bies,"and Aunt Sarah said that gardening was your 
 present one, and you engaged in that as furiously as 
 you once searched after bugs. . . . Thursday there 
 Avas very hot, even in their cool house. I suspect 
 it must have been a roaster in H. I started about 
 a quarter of six next morning for Sharon. It was 
 cloudy and looked like rain. When I had got on 
 some eight or nine miles, it began to rain briskly, 
 and as I had arrived at a trout brook, I fished, and 
 had decent luck; then I went to another flowing 
 into the Housatonic. I should have had splendid 
 success, if it hadn't been for the rain, which came 
 down in floods. As it was, I caught some very fine 
 ones; one must have weighed a pound or more. I 
 took dinner on three-fourths of a pie and a cup of 
 coffee, which warmed me up well. Then on I went, 
 through as hard a rain as I ever saw, — ■ soon not a 
 dry thread on me. I kept up my spirits while I 
 gulped down the workings of the apple pie in my 
 stomach, for a long while, by singing (ahem!) or 
 composing, or pleasant imaginings. I think it would 
 have been rich to have seen me — such a forlorn- 
 looking object, trying to croak forth " Let us be joy- 
 ful! " or "Thou relr/nest,^^ etc. The contemplative- 
 looking geese and stolid-faced pigs that I met seemed
 
 20 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1844 
 
 to look at me, as though they took a sort of pleasure 
 in my sufferings. One impudent little squirrel sat 
 and watched me a long while, as though he did 
 think I was foolish in coming out in that drizzle. 
 However, on I went, and arrived at Sharon in the 
 beginning of the p.m. comj)letely chilled through, 
 . . . My expedition here has cost me thirty-one and 
 one-half cents (you paid fifty cents) for the trunk, 
 and twenty-two cents for eatables. To-morrow I 
 shall trout, and expect great luck. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Litchfield, Sept. 3, 1844. 
 Dear Father : I arrived here last night about seven, 
 pretty considerably tired. How those hills do accu- 
 mulate just before Litchfield ! — it seems as if one 
 would never reach the top of that range. My first 
 nine miles I accomplished in two hours, and reached 
 Farmington before seven o'clock — pretty good walk- 
 ing that! Mr. Whitman recognized me as your son 
 principally from my fishing- basket. Nothing partic- 
 ular happened except a countryman in the tavern 
 told me I should be unlucky, for "the sign was in 
 my legs." What the deuce he meant I don't know. 
 His sign, I could have told him, was decidedly in 
 his nose, which looked ominously red. 
 
 Late in 1843 we find Charles's thoughts turning 
 more and more strongly to moral questions, and we 
 begin at this time to discover the first signs of 
 awakening of the humanitarian side of his character,
 
 Mt. IS] VIEWS OF ]\rORAL PHILOSOPHY 21 
 
 which grew steadily tliroughout his college course, 
 so that one of his friends says he addressed him soon 
 after leaving college as "My dear philanthropist." 
 The following series of letters give us slight glimpses 
 of this, mingled with pictures of the varied interests 
 of the young man's life. 
 
 To Jus Father. 
 
 College, December, 1843. 
 
 Dear Father: I write in haste to tell you our sub- 
 jects for Prize Composition. The first was "The 
 Influences of Poetry," next "The Influences of His- 
 tory," and third, "Philosophy." This last we can 
 take up either generally, or in each of its branches, 
 as for example, "Intellectual, Moral, Political, etc." 
 I have concluded to take " Moral Philosophy " as 
 my subject, both because it is more difficult and 
 more beneficial for me to write upon, and because I 
 like it. I consider " Moral Philosophy " to be the 
 science of the principles of duty and of the obliga- 
 tions of man. I do not propose to consider it theo- 
 retically, as to the grounds of moral obligation and 
 freedom of will, etc., etc., neither to give a history 
 of its progress as a science, but to view it practically. 
 Something in this way: Moral Philosophy as the 
 studies or inquiries or attempts that have for their 
 object the knowledge and necessities (i.e. arising 
 from the relations of man to society, to himself, and 
 his God, and from many other things which I haven't 
 thought of yet) of this science. Secondly, The
 
 22 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1844 
 
 influences of it. Thirdly, The objects of it; and a 
 conclusion either on its future influence co-operating 
 with Christianity or on the continued improvement 
 it is destined to have, or its influence on the evils 
 now threatening our country. This, of course, is 
 but a slight skeleton of the manner I intend to treat 
 it; interspersed with objections, etc., etc. I wish 
 you would either suggest some of your own thoughts 
 on this, or tell me of some good reading on it. There 
 will be a great struggle for the prizes, and I am anx- 
 ious to do well. Please not mention I am trying. 
 
 March 22, 1844. ... I should like to know, 
 father, whether you have any process of thinking — ■ 
 I mean on some subject you are going to write about. 
 Now I never can think out a subject merely by think- 
 ing, but I have, if it's at all of a metaphysical sub- 
 ject, to commence by examining what its effects or 
 results would be on me, what its causes would be in 
 my case ; or, if it is a subject of a different kind, I 
 have to refer in mind to history for similar facts, 
 and from these draw my conclusion or see the influ- 
 ence of the topic I am treating of, upon the nations 
 of the world. I have to look much at analogies to 
 commence my reasoning — now is this the right 
 way? Give me your opinions, if you please, upon 
 this. I send you up a composition, hastil}'' copied, 
 so that you may have some trouble with it, and, I 
 am afraid, rather hastily written. It strikes me I 
 have got into rather too dry a way of writing — great 
 heads and little heads very manifest — too sermon- 
 like, numberless heads and horns.
 
 iEx. 18] CONVERSIONS AT COLLEGE 23 
 
 ... I slioukl like to make a kind of plan of 
 what — Deo juvante — I'll do in vacation : — 
 
 First for reading: — Trout-fish (in Windsor). 
 
 Some of Byron. If possil)le, etc., go up to Litchfu'ld 
 
 Some of Scott's poetry. to try the pickerel with you. 
 
 Bancroft, if I have time. 
 Some of Swift (Tale of a Tub and Gulliver). 
 Carlyle's Miscellanies. 
 Copy off some of Macaulay and Irving. 
 Attempt to write some. 
 Prescott, perhaps. 
 
 Study German, if possible, with Emma. 
 May study a little ahead in Conic Sections (? ? ? ?). 
 Stephen's Miscellanies. 
 Constitution of U. S. 
 Tariff Question. 
 Political characters I must know. 
 
 I have great expectations of a large revival of 
 religion here even in the few remaining weeks. 
 There have been some most remarkable conversions, 
 — showing the power of religion as I have never 
 seen it before, — some of the most signal and especial 
 answers to prayer. . . . There are many other cases 
 which I haven't time to mention, and many symp- 
 toms of a great change. God only knows whether it 
 will take place. By the way, Mary C has be- 
 come a Christian, and in rather a singular manner, 
 which I will tell you, but don't mention it. It 
 seems she has somehow become acquainted with 
 several of our very pious students. Well, as she 
 was to leave for New York on Saturday last, they 
 concluded something must be done. On Friday 
 evening they induced her to go to a meeting, which,
 
 24 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1844 
 
 however, didn't affect her much. On Saturday one 
 of them had a long religious conversation with her, 
 but produced no effect except to induce her to stay 
 and go to a meeting on Sunday night. That night 
 her friends sat up till one o'clock praying for her, 
 and the next morning by ten o'clock, as one of them 
 expressed it to me, "She was rejoicing in hope." I 
 trust it will prove a true conversion. 
 
 Spring ! Spring I 
 
 " 'Tis Spring, 'tis Spring, I know it is, 
 For the little pigs are out, etc." 
 
 May, 1844. ... I do not think I should ever 
 have cared one snap for green fields and trees and 
 woods and all that kind of thing, if I had never 
 trout-fished. I hope you'll write me of all the 
 fishing scrapes that come off this summer. 
 
 How does your school come on — any fuller? I 
 am very sorry I spent the money I did in vacation — 
 it was very foolish and wrong. I might have spent 
 it, even if I could have afforded it, for much better 
 objects. However, regret will do no good. All I 
 shall do will be not to spend any this term. I am 
 resolved, neither to take or give a treat this session, 
 not even a glass of soda-water or beer. I want to 
 know, father, whether you can't afford Emma a 
 French teacher. If you cannot, situated as you now 
 are, let me know immediately. I think I can 
 arrange it so as to save you some dollars or so. I 
 can board very cheap indeed if I choose. Emma 
 ought to have an education certainly.
 
 Mt. 18] OPINIOXS ON CARLYLE AND SCOTT 25 
 
 Spring, 1844. ... As for mj'self, I am getting 
 along as usual, except tliat I have had one toothache 
 sickness. However, I have never enjoyed such good 
 health in my life as this summer, and have never 
 exercised more. I have read some little, particularly 
 in Carlyle. I do think he has some thoughts which 
 we rarely meet elsewhere — a real philosopliical 
 poet's mind. But I do not like his religious senti- 
 ments. Not that he's infidel at all, but I do not 
 believe he knows any of the consolations of religion. 
 He analyzes a character splendidly, showing reme- 
 dies for defects, and evidently knows more than most 
 of the sources of poetic feeling, yet there are some 
 feelings he knows not of. . . . His article on Scott 
 is fine, — some of it. Do you recollect the part 
 where he speaks of Scott when bankrupt? How he 
 girded himself to meet his misfortunes like a proud, 
 strong man of the world ? — "It was a hard trial. He 
 met it proudly, bravely, with a noble cheerfulness, 
 while his life strings were cracking; he grappled 
 with his task and wrestled with it years long, in 
 death grips, strength to strength, — and it proved 
 the stronger, and his life and heart did crack and 
 break ; the cordage of a most strong heart ! " He then 
 tells us of Scott's refuge, instead of struggling — the 
 refuge of "acknowledging himself wrong." But who 
 would or could choose such a refuge ? it would give 
 no satisfaction. The only refuge for such a man as 
 Scott in misfortune was in religion, to come humbly 
 to his Father in Heaven, to confess he had laid up 
 his treasure elsewhere than in heaven, to thank God 
 for this his paternal chastisement, and to resolve to 
 place liis happiness where he should find no disap-
 
 26 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1845 
 
 pointment. If Scott had been a religious man, with 
 his noble heart he would have done this, and found 
 that "peace which the world cannot take away." If 
 Carlyle had been a religious man, he would have 
 spoken of that best refuge. But don't you admire 
 Scott's character, — that warm-hearted enthusiasm 
 and that strength too? . . . You feel too much 
 about your children suffering from poverty. Bless 
 me! what poverty have we suffered? I have had 
 many more luxuries than were good for me, and 
 more advantages than some of the richest fellows. I 
 believe even our little self-denial has been the very 
 best thing: for us. I am conscious if I had had 
 wealth I should have been even much worse than 
 now. Besides, if I am going to do any good in life, 
 I must begin by denying myself now. I am afraid, 
 father, you are not as happy nowadays as I could 
 wish. I know you have many troubles, but do not 
 let thoughts of your children distress you. I need 
 not tell you, for you know it well, how deep is my 
 love for you — how much do I owe to you ! It used 
 to make me very sad when you spoke of dying so 
 soon, but now I have somewhat of a hope we shall 
 all meet in Heaven. So cheer up, do, father. 
 
 His life during the last year in college, the winter 
 of '45-'46, grew more filled with content in his friend- 
 ships and his work. Besides following the studies 
 required, a small set of friends worked in Professor 
 Silliman's laboratory, "to the profit of some, and to 
 the solid satisfaction of all. We read and studied
 
 ^T. 19] HIS RECEPTIVITY 27 
 
 and talked and experimented beyond anything re- 
 quired by the reguhxr courses. College students 
 always get a large and valuable part of their educa- 
 tion from each other, and perhaps this set to which 
 he belonged did this more than most. We discussed 
 things endlessly." So writes Mr. Kingsbury, a class- 
 mate and life-long intimate, and he goes on to say, 
 "Brace's mind was wonderfully receptive and unprej- 
 udiced. He was never opinionated nor dogmatic. 
 'How does it strike you?' and 'What do you think 
 of it? ' and 'What should you say to this? ' indicate 
 his mental attitude on almost every subject that 
 came up, and there were very few subjects that did 
 not come up, at one time or another, in our discus- 
 sions. ... Of course, religion, theoretical and 
 practical, general and personal, entered largely into 
 these discussions." Another friend says, in 1848, 
 of this small coterie : " You speak in your letter of 
 our old college friends. They ivere a glorious set, 
 Charley; we shall never meet their like again. We 
 cannot expect to find again such sympathy of spirit, 
 and such congeniality of taste and feeling, as we met 
 with in those whose objects, interests, and hopes 
 were for the time identical with ours." And Charles 
 writes in 1846 to F. J. Kingsbury: — 
 
 "Yes, your remark is correct. We are a most 
 uncommon set of common friends. I find myself
 
 28 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1846 
 
 falling into the conviction occasionally that ' we are 
 the saints ' and no mistake. I believe I am more 
 thankful for friends than almost anything in this 
 world. Do you remember Carlyle's remark about 
 wealth? 'A man's wealth is in the number of things 
 he loves and blesses, which he is loved and blessed 
 by.' Good, isn't it? The last two years have been 
 very, very pleasant. The first part I was green, no 
 mistake. There hasn't been anything like this last 
 winter though. Oh, how different it has made me ! 
 Don't you find yourself, Fred, enjoying your religion 
 more now than you used to? I do. I never had 
 quite such feelings before. I never felt so much 
 before what a good God was over me. I never be- 
 lieved so before in the reality of an eternal life."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Decision to enter the INIinistry — Teaching at Ellington and Win- 
 chendon — Letters on his Reading — Earnest Resolves — Visit 
 iu New Milf ord — Theological Year in New Haven — Letters — 
 Period of Speculation — Theological Letters — Miscellaneous 
 Letters — Letter on Friendships 
 
 There seems to be no record of when Charles 
 made his decision to go into the ministry, but it was 
 probably at this time, as we find under the date Dec. 
 30, 1845, a letter from his friend, William Colt, an- 
 swering what appears to be a statement on Charles's 
 part that he dreads the intimate knowledge of the 
 misery and wickedness of the world which a reformer 
 and clergyman must have. William Colt says: "I 
 can only say, that I think the repugnance you feel 
 to plunging into a world of vice and sin, to rescue 
 the degraded and the vile, the ignorant and filthy, 
 will wear away with more familiarity with this very 
 class of humanity." This glimpse of the first repug- 
 nance to suffering, on the part of the high-strung, 
 nervous young man, presents a side of his character 
 which might too easily be lost sight of, in the con- 
 templation of a life of such active and practical 
 beneficence as his. 
 
 29
 
 30 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1846 
 
 But whenever the decision of studjdng theology- 
 was made, we know that immediately after gradua- 
 tion he began to teach in order to gain money for 
 this object. His first school was at Ellington, a 
 small village in Connecticut, and his experience 
 there was made happy by the companionship of 
 his merry young friend William Colt, who, in al- 
 luding to him laughingly as the vice-principal, 
 used to say, "Charley, you know you are my 
 only v/cg." 
 
 There were more than thirty scholars, of whom 
 some twenty were older than their teacher; but as 
 they were none of them "very old in knowledge," 
 as he says, he did not seem to be alarmed. Teach- 
 ing in itself does not appear to have especially 
 appealed to him, and his interest in the work was 
 largely owing to the fact that he found it possible 
 to exert some religious influence. He was grate- 
 ful for this; but it was a narrow life with few 
 outlets for energies and enthusiasms like his, and 
 at one time he writes that he feels stifled, at an- 
 other, that he is leading a life to make a man of a 
 youth rather soon, and longs for "some real youth- 
 ful excitement, — a dashing game of football or a 
 college whoop ! " Of the companionship of his 
 friend, he says: "It is a far different chumming 
 from one in college. Romance goes to the winds, 
 and all you have at the end of each day are two
 
 iEx. 20] LIFE AT WINCHENDON 31 
 
 tired, cross young men who don't agree on any 
 two subjects, and who are shocked with all human 
 nature's selfishness." 
 
 Of Winchendon, wdiere he went after a few 
 months spent at Ellington, he writes in December, 
 1816: — 
 
 "... Winchendon itself is an active little bit 
 of a country place — thrifty, industrious, and des- 
 perately moral. It's built on a dashing stream, 
 which gives the power for its manufactories, and 
 is just like any other neat village, with glaring 
 white houses, a large tavern, two churches, and 
 the schoolhouse, built after the Grecian order, with 
 exceedingly lean pillars. This stream I spoke of 
 winds off away from the town, the hills reaching 
 down to it on either side, skirted with trees, and 
 through the gorge you catch glimpses of the blue 
 mountains beyond, — so that I think in summer it 
 must be a very romantic scene. On the north- 
 west of the place, the blue peak of a very high 
 mountain rises, some dozen miles from the village." 
 
 His life here may be gathered from these extracts 
 from letters written at the time. 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 Winchendon, Feb. 11, 1847. 
 Dear Fred : I am the same busy individual I 
 always have been, this winter, only rather more 
 so. Dipping into Theology some, and writing and
 
 32 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1847 
 
 reading, with some German. Have you read — I 
 know you haven't — "Cromwell's Letters," etc., by 
 Carlyle ? I have been very much interested indeed 
 in that myself. I always wanted to believe Crom- 
 well an honest man, but somehow one is not apt 
 to think a highly religious man would be behead- 
 ing kings and making himself emperor, etc. I have 
 only read the first volume, but those letters of his 
 bear the very face of sincerity. A continent, deeply 
 religious, plain farmer, is all he appears to have been 
 for some forty years. Don't you think one is apt to 
 think Great Men always know they are going to be 
 great all along ? When I suppose they have no more 
 idea of it than you that you are going to fill Judge 
 Story's seat in time. I like these letters because 
 one can realize better what was going on in those 
 times. ... I have been more and more interested 
 in "Cromwell's Letters," as I have read them along 
 this winter. I have acquired more and more respect 
 for his talents, though I had always a very high 
 opinion that way. He's so modest, so silent al- 
 most, yet so tremendously energetic, and I should 
 think, judicious. I stumble a little at his language 
 in his letters. It isn't cant, for people don't play 
 the hypocrite from the very earliest life all along 
 in just the same way. And yet one would think 
 a man with such a solemn sense of God and of the 
 unseen world, Avouldn't be apt to be telling of it so 
 much. We wouldn't, would we? . . . I suppose 
 you, like us all, have joined in the laugh some- 
 times against the talk about the "Infinite Soul." 
 And I dare hardly express my own vague thoughts 
 about it now, for it is so easy to make a hit upon
 
 ^T. 21] PHILOSOPHICAL SPECULATIONS 33 
 
 it, and it may be a young man's "conceitedness," 
 after all. But must not we confess that there are 
 times when one's mind turns away with dissatis- 
 faction from everything man has done. We do not 
 profess we could do better. But we see how poor 
 it all is to that infinite ideal within us. I am 
 perfectly conscious that I would not accept Shake- 
 speare's or Scott's genius, on the condition I should 
 do no more for men. We never meet the most per- 
 fect character but we leave it with a sad feeling of 
 human imperfection. Isn't it so? No work of art 
 or genius ever satisfies us. But why should I talk 
 about this ? We have both felt it enough probably, 
 and with me there will be new lessons in it every 
 day of life. I wonder, by the way, whether the sad- 
 ness which with me always comes with my most 
 perfect happiness, isn't the result of that feeling? 
 Perhaps the moments of sympathy shadow out the 
 unbounded Love we might enjoy, and we are sad 
 at our imperfect joys. Yet when I think of God, 
 this sense of the grandeur of the soul seems to pass 
 away. Perhaps my sense of its capability to sym- 
 pathize and love, does not. But I realize its power- 
 lessness. I was walking out the other night, and 
 began looking at the stars. The first time for 
 months I really saw them. There came over me 
 then, partly from will and partly unconsciously, a 
 most aiving sense of Infinite Power, and I compre- 
 hended my perfect helplessness, as I should go out 
 into that Eternity. The idea would have been over- 
 whelming almost, if it had not been for the remem- 
 brance of Christ. And I saw again that this same 
 Being, whose awful Power Avould be before me, as I
 
 34 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 stepped from Life, was Christ, and I had a faint con- 
 ception of a Heart Infinite, as well as Power; — you 
 know what such moments are. And you know how 
 mean language is to show them. 
 
 With the close of the school year, Charles ended 
 his school-teaching, and before settling in New 
 Haven to follow his studies in theology there, he 
 joined the home circle at New Milford, where his 
 father was living, teaching a small school. From 
 there he writes to his friend, Kingsbury : — 
 
 " Your short summary has expressed all that I did 
 in Hartford, without my going into details, and 
 since then that same vivid imagination may carry 
 you on with me in my trouting, my ramblings over 
 mountains and by willow-fringed brooks, all my 
 ecstasies over the fresh green meadows and waving 
 woods and bright flowers and trout streams, which 
 would make the heart of old 'Isaac' leap within 
 him. 
 
 "... Well, my boy, here I am in New Milford, 
 and find the folks well and happy as clams. I am 
 regularly settled for the summer, at least till the 
 fellows come on. I read and study and walk, etc., 
 hjsides teaching the classics an hour or two for 
 ither each day, thereby assisting him very consid- 
 jiably." 
 
 In the autumn of 1847, Charles returned to New 
 Haven to take up his theological course, and began 
 a life of study which was full of interest and enjoy-
 
 ^T.21] METAPHYSICAL STUDY 35 
 
 ment, Avhile his social experiences became more 
 satisfactory than they had ever been. There was a 
 delightful circle of young people whom he met con- 
 stantly in quiet, informal evening entertainments. 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 New Haven, Nov. 2, 1847. 
 
 . . . As for myself, I am flying around somewhat 
 as in college days (nunquam redituri f), talking meta- 
 physics with Miss Blake, arguing on aristocracy 
 with Miss Baldwin, or going to scientific lectures 
 with her, where she has headaches and gapes. And 
 if you could see us when we've all assembled in the 
 parlor after some lecture, with Mrs. Baldwin to ask 
 questions about the discourse, and the horror of 
 D wight Foster, who generally sleeps through the 
 part Mrs. B. is most interested in, and is not per- 
 haps the best qualified to make intelligent replies. 
 
 I am pitching into the metaphysics, and, by the 
 way, Fred, what I send you in that line is always 
 written off, of course, at the moment, and is not per- 
 haps always of the clearest. For exercise, I occa- 
 sionally kick football with the laity, and walk to 
 East Rock, and such places. ... I find myself, 
 Fred, with somewhat different views of things from 
 many here. I do not believe the most profitable 
 conversations are always those on the most argu- 
 mentative subjects or the most solemn topics. I 
 enjoy this light, pleasant conversation, where 3'ou 
 apparently just touch on the surface of things, while 
 there is an undercurrent of deep feeling. There is
 
 36 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 more real philosophy in such, half the time, than in 
 all your metaphysics. Yet I feel my own deficiency 
 strongly in that. M3' mind don't seem to work much 
 on those light, pleasant analogies of things. I am 
 more apt to take serious views. I am, I fully be- 
 lieve, a solemn body. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Fred, I do want expression amazingly. I am half 
 inclined to think my mind is changing somewhat, 
 for my own company never rewarded me as it does 
 now, and I have conceptions now and then, such 
 as for a moment make me fear I am crazy, until 
 the dinner liour re-establishes my terrestrial sanity 
 again. I am almost afraid now to speak of this, 
 lest the dreams should never come again. Though, 
 on the whole, I think I am at last beginning to reap 
 the fruits of education. But what troubles me is, 
 that I have no power within me in the least to ex- 
 press such imaginings. The words in which I should 
 shape them totally disfigure, almost hide them. The 
 airy, unearthly shapes become mere everyday forms 
 in dress-coats and boots like all others, as soon as I 
 use language. I wish you would tell me, whether 
 you find any such difficulties. Of course, though, you 
 do. Perhaps my study of language is now to begin, 
 and I am just a freshman in the great course of 
 learning to clothe thoughts so that they shall appear 
 to others as they do to myself. That's it, isn't it? 
 That is real expression. I know I must unlearn 
 much for it, and it will be a hard work. To refuse
 
 iEx. 21] ENGLISH STYLE 37 
 
 commonplace, general words, to get just the terms 
 which you know express the freshness of your 
 thoughts. And yet this language is a queer thing. 
 Here's an intelligent, moderately educated girl, but 
 with real imagination, and her thoughts will come 
 forth in words, such as years of study could not give 
 the student. Words and thoughts lie very close to 
 one another, somewhere. It's queer that a half- 
 brute of an Irishman in a passion is really eloquent. 
 And now I am opening my budget of medita- 
 tions, I may as well remark that after a great deal of 
 most delightful study of the classics, I am getting 
 a little dubious as to the use, — at least of carrying 
 it to a great extent. Of course it is almost indis- 
 pensable during a part of our education. But I am 
 not sure that the best mastering of English is gained 
 by it, and I rather incline to believe pointed English 
 (Syd. Smith's, etc.) is injured by it. Take Prex. 
 Woolsey's "classic style." Pure as it is, it does not 
 attain to the force and richness the English is capa- 
 ble of. It is not the style I should want. There are 
 no treasures in Greek like ShakesjDcare, and I don't 
 think Demosthenes goes much ahead of Webster. 
 What do you think ? There are some great things 
 to be got out of English, yet — shall we be tharf 
 
 The period of deepest speculation on doctrinal and 
 religious subjects, the outcome of Bushnell's influ- 
 ence, had now come to Charles. With reverence, 
 with an occasional dread — for in spite of his ad- 
 vanced views he was always conservative in ten- 
 dency — that a stern God would punish the freedom
 
 S8 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 of thought and argument in which he indulged, but 
 with a passion to find God by getting nearer truth, 
 he sought, by stating his views in his letters to 
 fiiends, to clear his own opinions and gain their 
 help and sympathy. The letters indicate that his 
 views were considered dangerous by his correspond- 
 ents. To one he says: — 
 
 "Now mind I don't say that we may not be 
 dangerous. We may reason wrong; we may be 
 prejudiced or foolish or weak, or, to express it 
 all in result, we may reason wrong. But that 
 there can be anything wrong in searching for truth 
 freely, or in uprooting the dearest opinion to see 
 what lies under it, or in applying our individual 
 judgment to any truth (be it even God's existence), 
 I do not see. ... I am dipping into history con- 
 siderably, and one fact looms up on every page. How 
 much men are influenced by circumstances to overlook 
 truth ! Here in one place, some poor vulgar men are 
 telling everywhere of a strange belief of theirs. The 
 philosophers think nothing so mean could teach 
 mankind anything, so they won't look at it. The 
 religious, benevolent men look around on a religion 
 sanctioned by the belief of ages, connected with 
 every kind and pure feeling they have, and they 
 dread innovation, and they fear the 'danger ' from 
 this new Creed, and they let it go. And so with 
 many and many a man, more philosophical and can- 
 did on other subjects than you or I : he utterly loses 
 sight of the truth in this, and rejects it. But after
 
 tEt. 21] THE FEAR OF FREE THOUGHT 39 
 
 a while the vulgar Creed became Christianity, and 
 then the wise wondered that those pure, benevolent, 
 heathen philosophers could have so overlooked it, 
 when apparently in everything else they so wanted 
 truth. And right in the midst of their wonderment, 
 you hear them damning those 'heretics,' who want 
 to overturn cherished beliefs, or add new ones to 
 those which had fed mankind so long! I find these 
 lessons on almost every page, and for my part I am 
 determined never for a moment to refuse hearing a 
 truth because it is new, and never to be afraid to dig 
 under a belief because it is old and dearly loved. 
 God help me in it. I have no more fear of Free- 
 thinking than I have of Charity." 
 
 The following set of undated letters belong 
 probably to this period. 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 My dear Fred: It is Saturday night, and as I 
 have been wishing some time to have one of our old 
 theological chats, I think I'll commence one to-night. 
 I should like your opinion on all these points, so the 
 next time you are theologically disposed just write 
 off your thoughts on these or like subjects. 
 
 I have had, one way or another, brought up before 
 my mind, for some time, the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. It is given, we know, in answer to prayer. 
 The question in my mind is. Does this portion of the 
 Deity influence the mind miraculously or not? That 
 is, Is some mysterious influence exerted on the mind.
 
 40 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 contrary to the usual methods in which it is influ- 
 enced ? Is the soul of man convinced and his motives 
 changed by some operation, in which the reason has 
 no share ? This, I think, is the common belief. It 
 is asked if we ever know the first origin of some 
 train of thoughts, and can we deny that the Holy 
 Spirit may have suggested the first thought in that 
 train which induced a man to become a Christian. 
 If it is meant that the mind is affected in some way, 
 contrary to the usual method in wliich that organ is 
 influenced, there is a grand objection in the fact 
 that we assume a miracle at once, and of course need 
 overwhelming evidence to support it. If it is meant 
 that the mind is worked upon naturally and yet in 
 answer to prayer, do we assert that God changed any 
 of the laws by which now everything in the world 
 goes on? And how do we make conversion anything 
 but a natural intellectual and moral change, for 
 which we have no more right to claim Divine Influ- 
 ence, than for the reformation of the drunkard ? 
 
 My own belief inclines to this, that the change 
 itself is not miraculous in any way, but that the 
 Divine Influence is shown in presenting such induce- 
 ments as to effect a complete change in all a man's 
 motives. Hoiv these inducements are presented, I 
 cannot explain, any more than I can any of God's 
 complicated government. But I cannot think the 
 mind is influenced in any way which implies it is 
 not a free agent. Yet this belief does not satisfy 
 me. It does not meet the Bible account entirely. 
 It implies that a completely depraved creature, 
 without one spark of love for God, can by himself 
 attain to such a state as to love Him. And here I
 
 iET. 21] EXISTENCE OF GOD 41 
 
 should like to say that very many of the arguments 
 for conversion can never be used to an unbeliever. 
 For my own part, I have searched very closely the 
 workings of my religious feelings, and I have never 
 yet seen anything which could not be explained if 
 no God existed. To this I might except one thing, 
 — my own moral reformation at different periods of 
 ray life. It has seemed to me that I could not have 
 succeeded in this without God's help. And yet, 
 how am I sure of this ? If there were no God, would 
 not the feeling that there was a Being above who 
 saw every thought and action and who required them 
 to be of such a nature, aid me in making them thus? 
 Would not the penitence, which my prayers at once 
 express and produce, have a good effect for the 
 future on my mind, even if no Being ever heard 
 them? I believe that God answers prayer, for the 
 Bible tells us that. But I want some other reason, 
 some satisfying evidence in my own experience. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 My dear Fred : You wrote me in one of your let- 
 ters something about a book on the sufferings of 
 Christ, with some thoughts of your own. There's 
 nothing in our Creed ever puzzled me more than the 
 "Trinity," bat the "Atonement" comes in with a 
 natural recommendation, so to speak, to me. I can 
 feel sometimes that "mine iniquities are infinite," 
 and that mere repentance and reformation could give 
 me no claim on the mercy of the "Law Giver." T 
 can see that a moral ofovernment must all ctq to
 
 42 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 pieces, if every man could sin and then escape pun- 
 ishment by repenting. How it would work in an 
 army to have such a system in regard to deserting! 
 Well, then, 1 find that God in His "perfect love," 
 has met that difficulty by taking on Himself the 
 punishment which was due to us, that He has in 
 some mysterious way made a man the representation 
 of Divinity, so that all the sufferings, the sorrows, 
 the degradation of Christ, were so many indignities 
 heaped on Himself, and that then He has offered 
 forgiveness to all on some conditions, which condi- 
 tions were partly designed to change the sinner's 
 moral state, and partly to make him acknowledge 
 that Another had taken the punishment which he 
 deserved and still deserves, and perhaps from all to 
 lead the man to love and serve that good Being who 
 had done so much for him. 
 
 This may all be old and dull to you, but it is the 
 way I have at length worked it out. I do not be- 
 lieve the Infinite One "suffered." Still the indig- 
 nity was all heaped upon Him. I cannot explain 
 how the Almighty could be present in a man, nor 
 how the human soul lived with the Divine. Who 
 can? Nor what became of the human soul when 
 Christ arose. I suppose, as you say here, we get on 
 to things our faculties cannot grasp. But I can 
 understand that there is need of an atonement. I 
 can feel that it would have been difficult to keep up 
 the government of God over moral beings, without 
 something to show His hatred of sin, and that 
 something was contrived in Infinite Love. Still it 
 sometimes occurs to me why God could not have 
 made a parental government over men, and appointed
 
 iET. 21] THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS 4S 
 
 that genuine repentance should be a pledge always 
 of forgiveness. His punishment for the unrepent- 
 ant would show them His hatred of sin. Pardon 
 would then be a free gift of the Love of God, for tlie 
 repentance gave the sinner no claim. Men would 
 not sin in the hope of repenting then, any more tha:. 
 now. Tell me what you think. Is there anything 
 in the nature of things to prevent there being such 
 a government ? 
 
 I should like to have you tell me what you think 
 becomes of the heathen. But it is growing late, and 
 I must close the Croton Fountains. 
 
 It is evident that the metaphysical discussion with 
 the young people of New Haven, of which Charles 
 speaks in a letter above, did not satisfy him, and we 
 find him writing to one of his circle a long letter on 
 his position in theological matters. 
 
 To Miss Blake. 
 
 Perhaps Miss Blake may remember a conversation 
 we had a few weeks ago on some theological ques- 
 tions. I have thought of the conversation often, 
 and have wished much to express my views more 
 fully. It is not pleasant to have an old friend 
 declare one's opinions "dangerous," so perhaps you 
 will forgive the intrusion, if I give you my reasons 
 for holding them, at some length, and possibly I 
 may show you they are not so very "dangerous," 
 even if they are false. But I have no right to speak 
 so of holding certain opinions. I feel no sure grasp
 
 44 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 of any of them. I feel, as we all must, uncertain 
 on many points, and anxious to reach the Truth. 
 There have been times, indeed, in which my faith 
 on much more important questions than we were 
 speaking- of, was all unsettled. But that — I am 
 thankful — is all past, and I do not fear now the 
 result of my investigations. Perhaps my views may 
 cut me off from the sympathy of those I love and 
 respect most. Sometimes a shadow comes over me 
 of something more terrible. But I cannot believe 
 it; if I know my own heart, I am seeking for Truth, 
 and surely to such errors He must be merciful. And 
 does not my very writing this, Miss Blake, show 
 that I know you will appreciate my motives, and 
 that I shall certainly have your agreement, that Truth 
 is our first object even before Orthodoxy or safety? 
 
 I have felt for many years dissatisfied with the 
 orthodox theory of the Atone^nent. There are phrases 
 in constant use, in connection with it, which convey 
 but little idea to my mind. I hear of the " Majesty 
 of Law," the "Dignity of Law being j)reserved," the 
 " Throne of Law, upholding its authority by the suf- 
 fering of the Lawgiver," " Justice which is satisfied," 
 etc., etc. For my part, I know of no abstract jus- 
 tice to be satisfied or law to be upheld under God. 
 I conceive of God as a Being seeking the happiness 
 of His creation, and that there is no justice or rule 
 of law except as tending to that. I know of no 
 formal code and penalties annexed He has given to 
 mankind. He has made us with a certain nature, 
 in which are fixed principles. Holiness of heart 
 brings us happiness, sin, misery. We may call 
 these principles laws if we choose ; though I, for my
 
 ^T. 21] THE ATONEMENT 45 
 
 part, think it a word derived from the analogy of 
 human governments, and therefore inappropriate. 
 
 It isn't a Lawgiver which we find presented in the 
 New Testament, but a Father seeking our happi- 
 ness. The only abstract justice I can see, which 
 He must uphold, is whatever will tend to the most 
 happiness. 
 
 Then comes the great question, "Is it necessary 
 for the happiness of the universe God should suffer 
 the penalty of the guilty, or suffer in any sense in 
 which He is a Substitution ? " I do not intend to 
 discuss this question formally, for you must have 
 heard the usual arguments, pro and con, quite 
 enough. But I wish to state some of the most im- 
 portant objections which have occurred to my own 
 mind against the orthodox theory. In truth, I 
 never could see why God should not forgive freely 
 and fully on sincere repentance. And I venture to 
 suggest whether the orthodox view may not have 
 been derived too much from the analogy of human 
 governments. It does seem to me the government 
 of a State does not present the best type of God's 
 government (if we may call His influence a gov- 
 ernment). We have no feeling of love, of personal 
 affection towards a magistrate or a legislature, and 
 that at once brings in a wide difference between the 
 two governments. Then again, no human govern- 
 ment can know of the sincerity of repentance, and 
 besides (as I think) human law has concern with 
 nothing but overt actions. But the great distinc- 
 tion is, that love is not the spirit of man's govern- 
 ment. Its hold on its subjects is not through per- 
 sonal love. Its operations must be imperfect. It
 
 46 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 has to execute to the letter arbitrary rules; for it 
 knows not the heart, and governs not by affection. 
 I acknowledge no human government could pardon 
 an offender on mere repentance, and for the reason 
 stated above. Its very imperfection compels it to 
 adhere to the letter of the law. But there is a 
 government on earth which much more nearly, in 
 my opinion, corresponds to God's, — though even 
 here the analogy fails, but fails rather in favor of, 
 than against my view, — I mean Family Giovernment. 
 A father governs by love. His will may be all, for 
 a time, the children know of right. He does, to a 
 degree, know the hearts of his subjects, and can 
 almost determine ^vhen repentance is sincere. He 
 tries to govern the motives and disposition, as well 
 as overt action. Now I do not believe there is a 
 kind, judicious father anywhere but would forgive 
 a child who had done wrong if he were only sure of 
 his repentance. Sometimes a good father may not 
 forgive, because he fears for the sincerity of the 
 repentance. But just imagine a child, who had 
 disobeyed most wickedly a positive command of his 
 father to carry help to a poor man. Imagine him, 
 merely from his agony of sorrow, going out of his 
 own accord through a stormy night, over miles of 
 a weary way, to give help now, and finding it too 
 late. The evil is done; the command had been 
 broken ; punishment had been threatened. Now do 
 you know a Christian man with any vestige of a 
 human heart in him, who would have punished his 
 child then? 
 
 Why may not God's government be thus ? I know 
 it is objected that such forgiveness would make the
 
 iEx. 21] SIN" AXD ITS EXPTATIOX 47 
 
 threatening untrue, which had said "the sinner 
 shall die." But the same objection can be made to 
 the orthodox theory. For nothing is said in the 
 threats of the law about a substitution. However, 
 if there is any part of the Bible which appears to 
 present the law and its penalties, it is the New 
 Testament. The most terrible denunciations of 
 punishment are in Christ's language; yet He always 
 couples with them the words of mercy, " Repentance 
 and Faith shall save ! " It is objected, too, that men 
 would consider it a very light thing to sin, if escape 
 were so easy through repentance. But is escape 
 any more difficult by the orthodox method? All 
 which the wrong-doer (according to that') is obliged 
 to do, is to believe in Christ and repent; that is, 
 to trust in God's mercy as manifested in the Atone- 
 ment, and repent. Why is that any more hard than 
 to trust in God's mercy as manifested in Christ, and 
 repent? I cannot see the great difference as far as 
 difficulty is concerned. And why should men look 
 on sin, even then, as a light matter? Would they 
 not see God had threatened wrath for ever and ever 
 on the unrepentant, and to make them better, had 
 even descended to the humiliation and suffering of 
 an earthly life? There is no appearance in that, 
 certainly, of "thinking lightly" of sin. And, after 
 all, can any escape be more difficult, than through 
 sincere repentance? Is there any harder thing for 
 a human being to do, than to become pure and 
 changed in all his motives? To be sure, a man 
 might sa}^ "I will sin and then repent." But he 
 could say so under the other theory, and any one 
 who had even the faintest idea of true repentance,
 
 48 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 would see that the probabilities he ever could repent 
 with such principles, were slight indeed. Then 
 again, if a man is truly sorry for the past and 
 desirous of doing right in the future, how can God 
 punish him ? This argument seems to me very diffi- 
 cult to answer. 
 
 Punishment under God's government (as is gener- 
 ally admitted now) is the natural consequences of 
 Sin working out in the soul, — remorse, the "gnaw- 
 ings-back " of passions indulged, the pain, the 
 agony from a mind diseased, perverted, out of 
 harmony with itself. Outward torments may be 
 added, but these must be the main sufferings. Now 
 tell me how a man who truly sorrows for the past, 
 and has firmly in him the principle, the desire of 
 doing right, how can he suffer any such punish- 
 ment as I have mentioned above? He may indeed 
 regret the widespread evils of his life. But so 
 must every Christian who ever entered heaven. He 
 may feel unworthy of God's presence. But so should 
 every being who has ever sinned. He may feel this, 
 but remorse he cannot feel. The pain of a nature, 
 all perverted to sin, he cannot feel. He may indeed 
 have misused the beautiful instrument God has given 
 him for happiness, it may yield him but feebly the 
 pleasure it was intended to yield, yet it is not now 
 an instrument of torture. Passion and selfishness 
 are restrained, though they may struggle yet. It 
 may be possible to torment him, but the worst of all 
 torments is not there, — a bad conscience. I see but 
 one answer to this, which you surely will not agree 
 to: that no one who does not hold to the precise 
 orthodox theoretical view of the atonement can
 
 ^T. 21] AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE 49 
 
 possibly repent, — an argument I think but few will 
 maintain at this da3^ Many more objections occur 
 to me, to the orthodox theory of the atonement, 
 but I fear to weary you by this abstract discussion, 
 and these are enough to show how my thoughts were 
 set working towards the other view. 
 
 I would hasten, too, to what must be the guide 
 and rule for all our theorizing, — the Bible. And 
 here, the more I investigate, the more I am surprised 
 how much the moral view (if I may so call it) of 
 Christ's sufferings is dwelt upon, and how little, 
 even apparently, the penal view. We — at any rate 
 I — have been so accustomed to read the Bible under 
 the influence of our theology, that I scarcely dreamt 
 a different meaning could be attached to certain 
 passages, than was by our sect. I need not say that 
 to understand the Bible we must know of the origin 
 and formation of the language used. We are to 
 remember, for instance, that the New Testament 
 writers thought in Hebrew and spoke in Greek. Of 
 course, the meaning of much of the language is to 
 be determined from the old Hebrew usage. When 
 Christ is said to "bear our sins," "to be our Atone- 
 ment," "our Sacrifice," these, of course, are to be 
 explained from the Old Testament use of the lan- 
 guage. I suppose most interpreters would agree in 
 this thus far. 
 
 The main question now comes up, "How those 
 expressions were used among the Jews in the early 
 periods of their histor}^" I maintain that it cannot 
 be shown that the rites, from which those expres- 
 sions were formed, did strictly convey the sense now 
 attached. In the ceremonies of sacrifice I can see no
 
 50 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 appearance of substitution of penalty. Nothing is 
 made of the pain of the animal, which there would 
 be if substituted suffering were the meaning in- 
 tended. The goat, in one of the most important 
 sacrifices, is sent away into the wilderness, — most 
 plainly merely as an expressive figure, — and yet 
 there "atonement" is said to have been made. In 
 other places atonements are made by killing pig- 
 eons, where no one can suppose any substitution 
 intended. The word (atonement) itself in the 
 Hebrew conveys no necessary idea of substitution, 
 for a polluted place was frequently " atoned for " (i.e. 
 purified) by a sacrifice, and a disqualified Jewish 
 citizen could be admitted to his rights by an "atone- 
 ment." All agree that, on condition of the sacri- 
 fices, forgiveness was granted. Now what more 
 natural, in a language remarkable for its boldness 
 and personifications, than to speak of the sacrifice as 
 "taking away" their sin, or "bearing it" ? And I 
 can produce an exact analogy which is of great weight 
 on my side. The " blood " shed in the sacrifice of 
 purification was said to "purify" or "cleanse" the 
 worshipper. Of course the blood did not; it was 
 merely the ceremony on condition of which the im- 
 pure was considered pure. 
 
 Now, why not apply the same reasoning precisely 
 to this? The animal's sacrifice is merely the con- 
 dition on which the unrighteous were considered 
 righteous, and not that it "bears," in any exact 
 sense, the penalty of sin. It may be asked what 
 the objects of having a sacrifice were. I certainly 
 can think of many on a rude, animal people. But 
 if it is shown that substitution was not intendec|.
 
 JEt. 21] RESPONSIBILITY FOR OPINIONS 51 
 
 among them, the others need not come under this 
 argument. 
 
 I leave the argument here, feeling I have sent 
 quite enough for one reading. I see I have reached 
 nothing of my own views, by which I hoped to justify 
 myself with you. I know not that I could express 
 them in any degree in language. But to me, they 
 have seemed to bring Him who is not only the Eter- 
 nal, but the ^''Manifest in Jlesh,^' nearer to my heart 
 than ever before. And I should be very sorry if any 
 one whose opinion I really value should think I was 
 injuring His cause on earth, when I am but aban- 
 doning a philosophical theory which to me obscures 
 Him. I might apologize, Miss Blake, for writing 
 such a letter to a lady, but I cannot but think you 
 will not expect it. Indeed, it would not be honest 
 in me to do so, and you know my theory. If you 
 will allow me, I Avill trouble you with the conclu- 
 sion of this "argument" at some time. 
 
 Later. 
 
 You will naturally, if you ever get through such 
 a long, dry argument, ask what my precise view of 
 the atonement is. I acknowledge that I do not feel 
 at all confident of my conclusions. I know there 
 must be depths of mysteries about such an act we can 
 never reach. What I reject, I reject with trembling, 
 as held by so many I respect; not knowing but God 
 may call me to account for errors of the intellect, as 
 well as of the heart. Still I do feel — and it seems 
 to me I could meet that Being with the assurance — 
 I have searched honestly for the truth. To me the
 
 52 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 idea of vicarious sufferings obscures the beauty of 
 Christ's life, inasmuch as I can see no reason for 
 them, while the view I take, though not probably 
 covering the whole truth (and what view could?), 
 yet casts a glory about Him and His sufferings 
 which no other aspect can. I view Him as the " God 
 manifest in flesh"; fulfilling no penal satisfaction, 
 honoring no abstract law by obedience, but simply 
 showing forth God to men. His love, compassion, 
 sympathy, bringing Himself before them to win their 
 hearts, " reconciling men to Himself. " I wish I could 
 express in language, in the slightest degree, the 
 value of this Truth to me. I freely confess that the 
 God of the Old Testament or of Nature I should 
 never love. That was my God once. An awful 
 mysterious Being, the very thought of whom was 
 crushing to the soul. I could bow before His Eter- 
 nity and Power. I lived in awe under His shadow, 
 but my heart never went out towards Him. But 
 here I find Him showing Himself through humanity, 
 presenting to us feelings as kind and delicate and 
 sympathizing as we have ever seen in the loveliest 
 of human characters. Yes, how much more! No 
 imagination of philosophers has ever framed a char- 
 acter so imbued with kindly, tender sympathies, so 
 filled with what we call " Human Love " as this 
 simple manifestation of "Him who filleth Eter- 
 nity." 
 
 Infinite, yet the same who said, " Henceforth ye are 
 mj friends!'' What can add to this? How can an 
 obscure theory of substitution increase the moral 
 influence of such a Manifestation as this ? At least 
 allow that this aspect of Christ's life can do no
 
 ^T. 21] POLITICAL QUESTIOXS 63 
 
 "injury," even if it does not embrace all the truth. 
 And may we not suppose, as we peer into the mys- 
 teries of this subject, that such a manifestation of 
 Deity could not be made without humiliation, and 
 thus suffering? The very "taking on Himself the 
 form of a servant" may have been necessarily pain, 
 and perhaps the highest reach of His love was 
 seen in His consenting to undergo this agony to 
 bring men to Himself, and the highest expression of 
 this agony perhaps in the Cross. Still these pains 
 — and those of the Garden more so — are mysteries 
 not entirely explainable under any theory. And, 
 after all, may we not all, with whatever philosophy 
 of Christ's life and sufferings, clasp hands on one 
 great truth, that the moral influence of that life 
 is in what it expresses of the mercy of God ? One 
 may consider that mercy best expressed in dreadful 
 sufferings to uphold a mysterious justice. Another, 
 simply in the revelation given of the character of 
 God. Which one in his narrow view has taken in 
 the most of truth, God only knows. May He help 
 us to reach all truth ! 
 
 The correspondence on more general topics is 
 taken up again in the following extracts from letters 
 to Mr. Kingsbury written from New Haven during 
 this winter and spring : 
 
 " What do you think of the news from Europe ? 
 Doesn't it look as if some great convulsion was near? 
 Perhaps Europe splitting into the Liberal and the 
 Despotic? May it be in my day! Hurrah for re-
 
 54 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1847 
 
 form! Free Trade almost established in every arti- 
 cle in English ports — an approach towards it in 
 ours ! Mutual commerce uniting nations more than 
 a hundred treaties! Human selfishness at length 
 doing what benevolence has never done, 'making 
 wars to cease on the face of the earth! ' " 
 
 "... On the whole I am satisfied I know but 
 precious little on political economy subjects, though 
 I think I have studied them more than the majority 
 of young men. I mean some day to give a good 
 deal of attention to it, when I have got a good stock 
 of sermons on hand and the young Braces are well 
 disposed of. I think the 'Edinburgh Review' con- 
 tains more on that subject — at least more in advance 
 — than almost anything I have seen. 
 
 " But in the study line, I become more and more 
 interested every year in historical studies. I find 
 myself no longer so much pleased with the imaginary 
 pictures of certain periods, nor even the ideas of his- 
 torians, but I want to look right into them myself. 
 I gained that privilege particularly in 'Cromwell's 
 Letters,' etc., and I know of no period in English 
 history on which I was more glad to be enlightened. 
 I fear all the while that my views of certain periods 
 are too much colored by Scott's (for instance) imagi- 
 nation. It seems as if I wanted the naked truth 
 more and more. There certainly is nothing to give 
 one such a vivid picture of any times as the way the 
 characters of those periods think and talk about them. 
 I am commencing on the political history of this 
 country, in which I am particularly deficient, and
 
 ^T.21] 1848 STUMP ORATORY 55 
 
 I have begun it in the same way, in reading memoirs 
 and biographies. 
 
 "Do you read news much? And if you do, don't 
 you think poor Ireland is a-catching it ? It seems 
 to me the hardest problem going on just now in this 
 world is how that country is to be saved. Isn't it 
 one of the queerest things an angelic philosopher 
 could look upon, a human being starving in the 
 midst of plenty, nothing to keep him from death but 
 the shadowy protection of law. A human soul 
 shoved into eternity, all for want of a mouthful of 
 grain, when there's many a waving field of it open 
 to all. It doesn't seem as if we could be brethren."' 
 
 "April 7, 1848. New Haven. . . . It's begin- 
 ning on spring, you know, and with the sunlight and 
 grass and those buds on the elms which excite Miss 
 Livy so, it is very hard to stay indoors. I think of 
 you in our walks and in our contemplated East Rock 
 trips and Pavilion bowling with the 'dames ' ! Would 
 not you enjoy it, and wouldn't it melt out a little 
 of the legal stiffness, which, alas! is beginning to 
 settle over our once social friend. 
 
 "I have never passed through such a quantity of 
 oratory in my life as during the last month. Quite 
 luckily the Whigs took it into their heads to be 
 alarmed about our little State. So we had Tom 
 Corwin with his irresistible face, and a speech which 
 most of us thought we had never heard equalled on 
 such topics. Then came another great stump 
 speaker, Thompson of Iowa, and Greeley and Cassius 
 Clay and Sam Houston. Since then Gough has
 
 56 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1848 
 
 been holding forth in the chapel and in the city. 
 And still more, in our churches we have had some 
 most eloquent preaching from Mr. Storrs and H. W. 
 Beecher of Brooklyn; quite a crowd of those men, 
 you see, who can use that strange power of eloquence. 
 You may imagine Ave and the ladies have cultivated 
 our opportunities." 
 
 "June 23, 1848. New Haven. . . . There's one 
 thing I observe in all the fiction I have ever read: 
 how much the writers exalt the spirit of generosity 
 or self-sacrifice. I suppose that's a trait of romance 
 from Charlemagne downwards. Isn't it one of the 
 highest tributes which men give spontaneously, to 
 the beauty of the character religion would form, to 
 self-denial? There's nothing, in my view, that 
 shows man's fitness for immortality like his models, 
 his wants. 
 
 "I have just been reading a beautiful article in 
 the (April) 'Edinburgh Review,' on Plato. Do 
 get it if possible, and if you don't want to sit down 
 and study that glorious mind, and if you don't 
 almost swear at being such a blockhead, when the 
 treasures were around you, then you are not like 
 me. It comes over me most gratefully, now and 
 then, how every clodhopper noio has before him, in 
 living form, that 'perfect loveliness of virtue,' after 
 whose mere ideal Plato bent with such lono-ing: all 
 his splendid imagination. Doesn't it seem almost 
 impossible such a noble, pure mind as Plato's, 
 should be tortured through Eternity with some we 
 know of?
 
 ^T. 22] NEGRO SUFFRAGE 57 
 
 ". . . As I understand your position in politics, 
 I like it. But, Fred, why won't you follow your 
 reason in the Negro Suffrage question? You must 
 have felt the weakness of your arguments, even as 
 shown by your humble opponent last vacation. Still 
 you are one of those that 'wouldn't serve God if the 
 devil bade you!' I do most devoutly hope for a 
 knocking to j)ieces of the old parties, and as Bushnell 
 says, 'I'll swing my hat over the ruins.' But if 
 once a grand free-state party can be formed, I shall 
 feel like being a politician. I could fight then. If 
 I can do something to lessen on American soil that 
 curse of slavery, I shall be satisfied. I feel the 
 inconsistency, the injustice of it, the longer I live. 
 ... I think God is helping me, and if I am once 
 in some post of active usefulness, I shall be happy. 
 In fact, I am not unhappj^ now, for the world of 
 intellect is a great one, though it don't compare 
 with the snug garden of feeling. . . . We have all 
 stood by one another in the Play of Life, in the little 
 annoyances and weaknesses of youth; perhaps we 
 shall not desert each other when we stand in the 
 front rank of labor, with our characters more worthy 
 of hearty love than ever before. I feel very grateful 
 sometimes when I think of your influence over me 
 in former years. You started me almost in thought, 
 and strange as it may seem, even in senior year 
 smokes, your religious influence over me was capi- 
 tal. A sincere man always does much, one way or 
 the other. I feel often that you and Dr. Bushnell, 
 and even Stewart's despised 'Mental Philosophy' 
 were my teachers, — more than all the profs, and 
 pedagogues I ever saw. ..."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 From New Haven to New York — William Colt's Death — Life in 
 New York — Staten Island — Speculation and Discussion car- 
 ried on there and in New York — Wendell Phillips — Letters — 
 Studies, and Blackwell's Island — Emma's Illness, and Visit to 
 Cambridge — Emma's Death — Charles's Agony of Grief 
 
 In September, 1848, Charles went to New York. 
 It had all along been his intention to divide his 
 theological course between New Haven and New 
 York, and to support himself in the latter place by 
 teaching. He was not leaving all his friends in 
 New England, for Mr. Frederick L. Olmsted, a 
 Hartford boy, and one of his intimates in college, 
 had bought a farm on Staten Island, and his brother, 
 John Olmsted, was studying medicine with Dr. 
 Willard Parker. His first impressions of New York 
 and of the farm on Staten Island, are described in 
 the following letters to Mr. Kingsbury : — 
 
 " I think I should enjoy studying in New York for 
 a year," he says in a letter of Sept. 30, 1848, "but 
 not much more. The novelty must wear away then. 
 But now it is the greatest possible relief after study, 
 to take a walk down Broadway and look at the per- 
 fect flood of humanity as it sweeps along. Faces 
 
 58
 
 iEx. 22] DEATH OF WILLIAM COLT 59 
 
 and coats of all patterns, bright eyes, whiskers, spec- 
 tacles, hats, bonnets, caps, all hurrying along in the 
 most apparently inextricable confusion. One would 
 think it a grand gala-day. And it's rather over- 
 powering to think of that rush and whirl being their 
 regular every-day life." 
 
 And from New Milford he writes: — 
 
 "... My visit ^ Avas one of the j)leasantest 'of 
 any age,' and left a very satisfactory impression 
 on my mind of what enjoyment might be yet. Just 
 wear your feet out, Fred, in tramping over the hot 
 pavements of New York for a day, and become thor- 
 oughly stunned by the unceasing din; then let a 
 kind hobgoblin transplant you to a cool piazza into 
 a comfortable armchair and slippers, with a quiet 
 country scene before you of meadows and cattle and 
 grain-fields, and beyond, the blue waves and the 
 white sails, and, 'some more peaches in that basket 
 yet, Charley,' and you will get a faint idea of my 
 feelings on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 29, 1848." 
 
 In October we find him plunged in grief at the 
 death of William Colt. William Colt was one of 
 the Hartford boys who had been the companion of 
 Charles and the Olmsteds in boyhood, their con- 
 stant associate in out-door sports during their school- 
 days, one of the set at college, and later principal 
 of the small school at Ellington where Charles 
 taught. It was the first sorrow that had come 
 
 1 To Mr. Olmsted's farm on Staten Island.
 
 60 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1848 
 
 into that little circle, and stirred them profoundly. 
 He writes to Mr. Kingsbury : — 
 
 "This death of William's affects me very curi- 
 ously. I find it so difficult to realize it, and I am 
 constantly calling up remembrances of him which 
 are so peculiarly earthy. Not unpleasant memories, 
 still most unconnected with another life, and yet 
 not, in my mind, unsuited to the most real view of 
 this world or of the next. It was all so sudden! 
 . . . The more I think of his character, the more I 
 put confidence in that piety of his — so almost spon- 
 taneous — hidden by his humility even from himself, 
 and the sentimental part of it mightily concealed 
 from every one else by his most comical humor. Yet 
 if Christian character is to be tested by the qualities 
 it shows and not by what it sa^s, by the loveliest 
 traits and not by times of extreme fervor, or by 
 religious diaries, why, I think we may hope much 
 for Bill, and may love him all the more that he was 
 such a Christian. Yet, Fred, I have not, and can- 
 not, free myself entirely from the sadness it has cast 
 over everything. He has gained infinitely, — but 
 does that affect my loss ? Still I begin to feel the 
 pleasant influences around it all, and I hope I shall 
 more. I never had anything so loosen the founda- 
 tions under my feet. It seemed as if life, we build 
 such pleasant structures on for the future, was glid- 
 ing away from under me. In fact, things look un- 
 certain now — perhaps they always will. Yet we 
 may all hope for bright days yet, I suppose. I 
 should like much to see you again. May God spare
 
 ^T. 22] STATEN ISLAND 61 
 
 US to meet. ... I would let you know something 
 of my condition just now. My room isn't just the 
 best, being a basement, and a somewhat fashionable 
 resort for up-town mosquitoes. Still it is as good 
 as most here. My boarding-place has a curious mix- 
 ture of Theologs. Avho are 'Brothers,' and eat fast, 
 and music teachers who are indignant at the prevail- 
 ing want of taste in music, and bland teachers who 
 enunciate with grating distinctness as 'ri-t-ee-uss- 
 ness-ss, ' etc. I see John [Olmsted], of course, often, 
 and we walk, and spend a Sunday at Staten Island 
 now and then. ... I believe I haven't told 3'ou 
 that I am teaching in Rutger's Institute — in Latin 
 four and one-half hours a week, and paid about six 
 dollars per week. Very good, you see ; little inter- 
 ruption and good pay. 
 
 "... Since I wrote the first part of this I have 
 been to Staten Island and spent the Sabbath. A 
 wild, stormy day, and we spent it at home. A sea- 
 beach in a storm is no unfit place for worship, is it? 
 But the amount of talking done upon that visit! 
 One steady stream from six o'clock Saturday night 
 till twelve, beginning next day, and going on till 
 about twelve the next night, interrupted only by 
 meals and some insane walks on the beach! And 
 this not like ours together, easy, discursive, varied, 
 but a torrent of fierce argument, mixed with divers 
 oaths on Fred's part, and abuse on both! How- 
 ever, I must say Fred is getting to argue with the 
 utmost keenness, — a regular Dr. Tajdor mind in 
 its analytic power! But what is queerest, never 
 able to exercise that power except in discussion! 
 He is another Taylorite in his virtue theory. I
 
 62 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1819 
 
 shouldn't be surprised if lie turned out something 
 rather remarkable among men yet. 
 
 "... I begin this year herewith fresh hopes. 
 I must do and be better. My position is in some 
 respects unfortunate. I should like a less easy life, 
 where there is more of responsibility and strong in- 
 fluence. For I think the firm Christian character is 
 made best in hard duties. Still I am here, and I do 
 pray God to help me in being more earnest and un- 
 worldly. Why can I never for a moment approach 
 the ideal which is before me, and which ought to be 
 real to me? What visions one does have sometimes 
 of being a character, which shall leave its influence 
 on all human history, for every true, pure-minded 
 man must have some such power. How one does 
 stand with angels in his theory and imaginations; 
 but the moment practical life comes, drop right down 
 again with the brutes and the sinners! . . . Will 
 you please keep thinking ? " 
 
 Of one of his Sunday visits to Staten Island, and 
 the keen enjoyment and inspiration he derived from 
 it, he writes again in 1849. 
 
 To his Sister Emma. 
 
 My dear Emma : Sunday again at the Island, 
 about nine o'clock in the evening, and such a beauti- 
 ful day! Since I have learned to look more on beauty 
 as an expression of God to us, I have explained 
 many of the peculiar feelings I have always had 
 about it. That strange sadness — dreaminess — the
 
 ^T. 23] PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSIONS 63 
 
 pure effect it always had on me, — for I believe in the 
 strongest sense of the Infinite, or of some of God's 
 qualities, in the lines and colors of nature. I took a 
 long walk alone on the beach this afternoon, — the 
 old golden light on everything, with the blue, 
 dreamy highlands, and the gray sky in the east, 
 against which everything stood out so beautifully, 
 the sea sparkling and deep blue, with the same un- 
 ceasing whisper on the beach — hush! hush! I 
 did enjoy that walk. And could not but think of 
 Him who was over it all, and who looked through 
 all upon me. You, too, came in, and my own fool- 
 ish, imperfect life, and all I might be and the little 
 I was. So you see I had some meditations. Did 
 you ever hear that description of the sea by a Greek 
 writer — or rather allusion to it — " The countless 
 smile of the waves"? You know that innumerable 
 sparkling, like smiling, — only it seems all one smile. 
 
 It was not only during those animated Sunday 
 visits that speculation was absorbing him. We 
 hear of great discussions carried on in the small 
 literary coterie with which he was becoming familiar, 
 "where speculation ran ramjDant and nothing was 
 regarded as settled, and if so regarded, there was all 
 the more reason why it should be unsettled at 
 once."i 
 
 The following series of letters to Mr. Kingsbury, 
 running through the spring and early summer of 
 1849, are inserted together here (while letters writ- 
 
 1 Extract from a recent letter from Mr. Kingsbury.
 
 64 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 ten earlier in the spring follow them), in order to 
 place before his readers at one time the more subjec- 
 tive side of his correspondence : — 
 
 To F. J. Kingshury. 
 
 Dear Fred: The religious "problem" you spoke 
 of, rather oddly has been occupying our thoughts 
 lately too, and we have all felt it one of the most 
 difficult. I'll say more about it by and by. But, 
 Fred, do not you feel afraid besides of this crowding 
 of life's business, in wearing off some of our best 
 human feelings too, as well as our love for God? 
 Just look around and see how few men keep any of 
 the warm or noble sentiments which they had once. 
 I am inclined to think it is peculiarly so in this 
 country. Perhaps money-making is more entirely 
 absorbing. Who ever sees two men of any years 
 true friends? I don't believe we have any idea how 
 long devotion to some inferior object or how the 
 wear and rubbing of poverty may rub away the best 
 and noblest imj)ulses we have. Can a man be an 
 earnest, enthusiastic worshipper of principle when 
 he finds it doesn't bring him in eighteen pence a 
 day? Shall we love and clasp men to us when we 
 don't get five minutes out of the twenty-four to kiss 
 our wives? I don't know. God thus far has given 
 me nothing better than my friends. Can't I keep 
 them? Men have done such things. We have read 
 of men who were not cold and heartless and selfish 
 because they were old. Shall there be no Tim 
 Linkin waters or Dr. Arnolds among usf Men that
 
 JEt. 23] " PUSEYISM vs. REASON " 65 
 
 value hearts and principles rather more than dollars 
 and offices? I speak of love. How little I have 
 known of it when put near the visions which float 
 over me. We dream of some things which are very- 
 like heaven. Yet there is a love to friends, to men, 
 which I have in some degree, and am having more 
 and more, a confidence which cannot thiiik of being 
 shaken, earnest desire for their happiness, and a 
 sympathy which possibly is the noblest that exists, 
 for it contains so little of pity or dependence in it. 
 I can see that this friendship I am speaking of must 
 be founded alone on "the good and true." We must 
 love God more, and our friends will love us. Mere 
 kindness or common pursuits or intellectual S3'mpa- 
 thy cannot build up such a friendship though they 
 may all help. It must be from each seeing the 
 other, striving after and becoming like what is most 
 pure and good. And I half believe that the love of 
 two manly hearts to one another, who are struggling 
 hard with evil, may be even a higher type of Love 
 than man's to woman. What do you think ? 
 
 John and I, you know, are together, — a pleasant 
 boarding-house. . . . There's one very pleasant, 
 intelligent fellow amongst them. . . . We have 
 great talks and chesses, a»id an occasional smoke 
 together. He's a full-blooded Puseyite, and does 
 support his position most beautifully. I argued 
 with him about four hours and a half last Sunday. 
 You have no idea what a probable and pleasing sys- 
 tem he makes of it. In fact, I am inclined to think 
 we both occupy the only two logical extremes : firm, 
 almost infallible "authority," and pure, untram- 
 melled Reason.
 
 66 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 May 25, 1849. I have just been listening, F., to 
 a touch of the anti-slavery proceedings, and amongst 
 the rest, to a speech from Wendell Phillips. Did 
 you ever hear him ? He is really an eloquent man. 
 I had no idea they had such polished and yet earn- 
 est speakers among those ranters. He began so 
 simply, and in just the way to win an American 
 audience. He asked them Avhether it was probable 
 men would come together for such a cause as that, 
 year after year, injure their prospects in life, cut 
 themselves off from sympathy, merely for the sake 
 of speech-making ; whether it might not be possible 
 that the confusing effect of local circumstances, pas- 
 sion, and popular prejudice, had colored their view 
 of duty and right, and whether it might not be that 
 the still voice of posterity would be with the oppos- 
 ers rather than the supporters of slavery. I half 
 thought of writing you some of the speech, for it 
 was most thrilling, some of it; but I find while the 
 splendid ideas float through my mind, the elegant 
 language, and those tones which seem to go to the 
 heart, are gone far away. The impression on my 
 mind is of a man philosophical, theoretic, and color- 
 ing his most abstract theories with a rich imagina- 
 tion, with a high, noble devotion to what is true and 
 right, and with it all, the not unpleasant addition 
 of an agreeable wit. His intellectual fault, I should 
 say, would be too diffuse an imagination for strength. 
 However, you may know him already; if so, let me 
 know whether your view agrees with mine. You'll 
 think me a fool, but I must confess when he told us, 
 in those low, earnest tones, of some man who had 
 given up property, reputation, and almost life, for a
 
 ^T. 23] WENDELL PHILLIPS 67 
 
 poor, hunted slave, — Avhen he pictured out the hum- 
 ble, unwavering worship of that abstract Justice, 
 unawed by threats or pains, uninfluenced by the 
 opinion of all one respects, — and as the unanimous 
 shout went up as if from the very heart of that mul- 
 titude, — I tell you I could not keep the tears from 
 filling my eyes. There is moral grandeur in such 
 feelings as he represented, even if false. Grant him 
 his one premise, "Slavery is a sin per se" and his 
 speech was logical as Butler. Down wdth the 
 church, down with the Constitution, with all which 
 upholds it ! That was his drift. I hope to hear him 
 again. F., I like to hear these Radicals, not because 
 they affect my intellectual opinions, for they do not 
 a straw, not because I want to be excited, either, but 
 because they present one aspect of the human mind 
 we cannot dwell on too much. No matter whether 
 their views are true or false, whether they them- 
 selves on the whole are honest or not, it does show 
 for the time real "cZevotjow (worship) to principle." 
 It seems to dispel for the time the clouds of interest 
 and passion and circumstances which gather around 
 it in every man's mind. You set an idea of simple 
 following of It — of truth — goodness — through 
 all changes and troubles and persecution. 
 
 But what a lecture I am reading you! Still my 
 letter is most like myself. You can almost imagine 
 yourself in cigar-cloud, with feet on table under one 
 of my metaphysical dissections, intently regarding 
 the bottom of your ale-tumbler, and wondering 
 " What the deuce he does mean ? "
 
 68 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 June 25, 1849. It is Sunday, on Staten Island, 
 and I have no reason to think it otherwise with you. 
 But Sunday here must mean considerably different 
 from one at Waterbury. It does not mean, I am 
 almost sorry to say, much going to church, yet per- 
 haps something better. We do not sweat all day in 
 a hot building, criticising dishonest or stupid essays, 
 but we look out on the peaceful sea and the solemn 
 stretch of its waves, way on to the misty horizon, 
 and perhaps nothing could so remind us of Him, its 
 Maker. We ramble in the wood paths and listen to 
 the happy hum of insect life, and gaze up through 
 the graceful tracery on that almost fathomless blue 
 3^ou see these beautiful summer days, and perhaps 
 no church is so solemn as those old oak arches. In 
 fact, do you not think summer is a solemn season? 
 The very abundance of life, the skies, and the beau- 
 ties seem to carry one's mind away to the Infinite, 
 and the being who is the source, or I might say the 
 substance, of this beauty and life. Then perhaps 
 no day in the year is more intellectual than this 
 Sunday of ours. There is earnest talk all day long 
 on the great problems of life and eternity; not 
 flippant discussion, or prize matches between intel- 
 lects, but, as I do believe, a serious and rational 
 investigation. Perhaps there is less of a pleasing 
 Christian S5^mpathy — an almost tender union of 
 feeling on the great Truths of Religion — than we 
 might desire. It is possible no true man has that 
 often, or can. But there certainly is a sympathy, 
 way down in, perhaps all the more effective that it 
 is earnest and repellent and not to be expressed by 
 sentimentalizing. And I do hope we all of us have
 
 ^T. 23] RELIGIOUS DOUBTS 69 
 
 that, in our earnestness for what is good and true, 
 even if Ave never show it otherwise than by the hard- 
 est discussion. 
 
 I am grateful for the good I get from such as you 
 and the rest. And yet I sometimes think it might 
 be better for me to be entirely separated from you 
 all for a while. We all — every human being — are 
 prone to be one-sided^ and we never think of it at 
 the time. I fear I am getting in the habit of look- 
 ing on others as interested in and influenced by the 
 same truths as we are. I may deal with humanity 
 as intellect-creatures too much ; I may be flying or 
 descending too far from them. And then, too, un- 
 pleasant fears come over me, that my piety, as it 
 frees itself from common supports, may be sinking 
 down. Perhaps as I take such free flights, it may 
 be the intellect that is soaring, and the simple, lov- 
 ing heart may be grovelling still. And altogether I 
 might ask — though I do not — Charles Lamb's ques- 
 tion to Coleridge, " Whether an immortal and amena- 
 ble spirit may not come to be damned at last, and 
 the man never suspect it beforehand? " No, it would 
 be dishonest to say I felt that. I do know God will 
 be merciful. My doubts, if any, are whether He 
 may not be more merciful than we anticipate. But 
 I do have gloomy moments when I consider my influ- 
 ence. And yet I know that though in great weak- 
 ness and against the habits of years, I am striving 
 after perfect truth more and more. I can be true 
 in thought possibly easier than many, and I believe 
 even against much reproach and want of sympathy. 
 But truth in slioht thino-s, and all the while, is far 
 harder, I suppose, for all ; at any rate, for me. I
 
 70 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 cLink, too, I love human happiness more than I ever 
 did before, and yet my efforts to increase it must be 
 different (from my natural constitution) from those 
 of many. However, may God help me. "Talking" 
 on ecstatic emotions can never make us what we 
 would be. As Carlyle says, " Know thyself " should 
 be changed to "Kuow thy work!" and I have less 
 inclination than ever to talk of those things, though 
 I like occasionally to analyze them from my own 
 mind. Still, telling them to one who knows us 
 well may do both good, always remembering that 
 expression conveys too much or too little of what- 
 ever it would represent. 
 
 In the spring of 1849, Charles's father decided to 
 give up school-teaching, and subsequently took the 
 editorship of the Hartford "Courant." Of this and 
 other matters Charles writes the following letters : — 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 My dear Father ; . . . I am very glad you are to 
 have change of occupation, and are to see your old 
 friends. It will do you good. But oh, father! do 
 be careful about getting in among the mere politi- 
 cians as a mere party-instrument. It would be a 
 heavier blow to me than the beggary or death of 
 friends to think of a life of usefulness and honor such 
 as yours has been, closing off in hunting for office. 
 We had better, all of us, for our own self-respect and 
 God's respect, too, be digging potatoes for a living 
 than hanging on the skirts of a party for an office !
 
 iEx. 23] INTEREST IN TEACHING 71 
 
 Do write me often, and tell me all your prospects 
 and plans. You know that I cannot speak of my 
 love towards you or my feelings for your situation ; 
 — language does not represent them. God will yet 
 make us all happy. It may not be in this world 
 perliaps, but Eternity! Is it not near us? May 
 God grant you means of being useful again soon ! 
 
 April 11, 1849. ... I am right glad to hear of 
 your having recruited health and spirits so well, and 
 on the whole, perhaps this unsettledness for a time 
 may be a capital thing for you. I shall not regret 
 it, if it lead you around among the men your educa- 
 tion and position fit you more to associate with. I 
 myself am pleasantly situated and am working well. 
 My teaching is delightful, classes bright, and the 
 books interesting, and some opportunities opening, 
 I hope, for the influence to which all my teaching 
 must only be a means. My plans urge towards the 
 pulpit more and more. I only wait to see where I 
 shall certainly be most useful, and to carry on well 
 my training. I must give my life to make men 
 happy — in weakness and worldliness perhaps — but 
 still, such as I am. Wherever I shall be, teacher or 
 preacher, the brightest of all visions before me is a 
 humble, self-controlled life, all devoted, given up, 
 to working for human happiness. But it is very 
 easy to dream. May God help me to do ! 
 
 I see you are rather whipped in Connecticut. I 
 do not sympathize in the least with the miserable 
 coalition. Still I do know that the Whigs have 
 never taken the high "principle-stand" on slavery
 
 72 CHARLES LORING BRACE [lUd 
 
 which Massachusetts, for instance, has, and I think 
 the punishment may be this, though the devil do 
 inflict it. I am glad, from my soul, to see the ten- 
 dency of the country so towards freedom. I do not 
 wish to rant. But it is the deepest feeling of my 
 heart, that no darker stain rests on this country 
 than this slavery. Men must see it sometime. Do 
 you remember Sydney Smith's indignant passage on 
 the " boasts of that land, of its freedom, where every 
 fifth man is a slave " ? But here I am running off 
 into a political letter the first thing. 
 
 ... I am working on much as usual, enjoying 
 my teaching and my study. ... I find myself, as 
 I notice the growth of my pupils' characters, going 
 back a great deal and calling up my own early edu- 
 cation. I think in some respects my power must 
 have been very early developed, and your historical 
 teaching probably started me quicker. How much 
 you must have labored with me ! If gratitude could 
 be talked about, I might express myself. But it is 
 very singular, considering how much I was under 
 your influence, how very different our minds are! 
 I do not think two more different minds could be 
 found, taking men generally anywhere, of anything 
 like the same education. You like arrangement; 
 you remember facts ; you can have a very thorough 
 knowledge of scientific facts ; you enjoy particulariz- 
 ing. You have a vast manifold memory ; you have 
 the faculty of rhythms ; you can explain with great 
 ease ; method, order, systematizing, please you. To 
 all this, in every particular, I am almost the con-
 
 JEt. 23] INSUSCEPTIBILITY TO FEAR 7d 
 
 trary, as you well know. I am not sure, however, 
 but a different education or set of circumstances 
 would have made you very different. For you have 
 a taste in some things for generalizing. But I am 
 certain no education would have made me love order 
 or particularizing, though I might have become very 
 orderly. I should not wonder if my early sickness 
 gave a reflective, serious cast to my mind which it 
 certainly seems to me to possess. I never should 
 make a scientific man, as they are generally under- 
 stood to be. And it would be rather difficult, with 
 a,ll my constant training on that, to make a scholar of 
 me. However, I could be that, but I mean my taste 
 wouldn't be most for it. . . . But in one thing, 
 with all our mental differences, our family are very 
 much alike, in those hidden influences which seem 
 to come from bodily constitution, in the emotions, 
 etc., which perhaps come from temperament; the 
 same peculiar sensitiveness, — suspicion almost, — 
 keen sensibilities on certain subjects, and perhaps 
 a sort of want of self-confidence. 
 
 I see you still consider me rather foolhardy. It 
 isn't so much from a reckless desire of exposing 
 myself that I am apt to act so, as from a want of 
 feeling that they are dangers. I have to use my 
 reason almost always, to convince me I ought to flee 
 from danger. I am not naturally susceptible to fear. 
 Now, that night, I did not once think of danger from 
 the riot. However, I shall not risk my life ever 
 from mere bravado, you may be assured. But per- 
 haps my best excuse will be that this same insensi-
 
 74 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 bility stands by me when I can be of real service to 
 others by exposing myself. For instance, since I 
 wrote the first part of this, I have watched over the 
 death-struggles of a man in the cholera. I had been 
 ill ; I was weak, too. But — and I am conscious of 
 not saying it merely from vanity — I went over with- 
 out a thought of danger, and was glad to soften in 
 any degree the last agonies of a fellow-being. And 
 I would do it again, even when I feared contagion 
 more than in this disease. Well, enough of this 
 self-defense! . . . 
 
 But I was very glad to do my little to relieve 
 his pain, and I felt it was the first of those poor 
 efforts I should be glad to lay at the feet of Christ 
 for a life — yes, for an Eternity. To make others 
 happy — is not that the highest religion? And not 
 by such special efforts nearly as much as through 
 poor, unknown, every-day life. 
 
 The following letter from his father is in answer 
 to his analysis of the difference in their charac- 
 ters : — 
 
 "I think your remarks respecting our characters 
 is just," Mr. Brace says. "There is undoubtedly 
 some difference in our temperaments, but the great 
 difference you stated is more owing to education than 
 any other cause. One of the great sources of the 
 want of fear or the realization of danger is the early 
 knowledge of the possession of physical strength. 
 You had this quite early, and I was always laboring 
 under the knowledge of comparative weakness, and
 
 ^T. 23] VISITS TO BLACKWELL'S ISLAND 75 
 
 knew that in all contests with my companions I 
 should come off defeated; hence I avoided quarrels, 
 and produced a propensity to peace. Knowing like- 
 wise the defects in my early education, that made 
 me timid under physical danger, I took a different 
 course with you. Very early I exposed you to dan- 
 ger, urged you to climb, to swim, to do many things 
 that many parents thought wrong and dangerous, for 
 the very purpose of so familiarizing you to danger 
 that you should be superior to fear. Do you remem- 
 ber in Litchfield my keeping you near the cannon 
 when firing on review day, until you nearly fainted, 
 and I had to take you into Mr. Deming's house? 
 Your early sickness made you reflective. It like- 
 wise produced a physical effect upon your stomach, 
 which has again operated on your character. I hope 
 I have done my duty by all my children, and that, 
 in after life, my memory will be pleasant to them." 
 
 The winter of 18-19-50 opens for Charles with 
 fresh enthusiasm and new interests, as he begins the 
 life for which his longing has been growing increas- 
 ingly strong, — that amongst the unfortunate in the 
 great city. This in the form of visits to Black- 
 well's Island, occupied many of his Sundays. We 
 have a few letters which tell of the closing months 
 
 of 1849. 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 New York, Oct. 31, 1849. 
 Dear Father: I had one of the most exciting and 
 interesting days I ever spent, last Sunday, on Black-
 
 76 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 well's Island. I preached without notes in the 
 Aims-House Chapel to the paupers in the morning, 
 and talked, etc., with the prisoners and hospital pa- 
 tients in the afternoon, besides seeing a little of the 
 insane. I never had my whole nature so stirred up 
 within me, as at what met my eyes in those hos- 
 pital wards. Standing in a long room, with beds 
 on each side, and speaking to the poor creatures as 
 they lay there. They are nearly all, you know, 
 diseased prostitutes, brought there mostly to die. 
 Though some do recover. If a man could ever speak 
 of the realities he believed, or of the love of Jesas 
 to the guilty, 'twould be there. Ghastly faces peer- 
 ing from bandages around 3'ou, and others all fester- 
 ing with disease, or worn and seamed with passion, 
 and some where pure, kind expressions must have 
 dwelt once. You felt you were standing among the 
 wrecks of the Soul; creatures cast out from every- 
 thing but God's mercy. Oh! 'twas the saddest, 
 most hopeless sight. Some were young and delicate 
 looking, seduced and deserted. God help them ! I 
 had a long day's work. 
 
 But, after all, the inefficiency of religion doesn't 
 strike me so much in such places as in what I see 
 every day, and what I realize constantly of our New 
 England religion. It's affecting so sadly little any 
 of our practical business relations ; so seldom mak- 
 ing a merchant exactly honest, so seldom inspiring 
 men with genial kindness and charity towards one 
 another; no, never, hardly, entering the least in a 
 politician's duties, or influencing his operations. 
 There's so much of the dogma, — Calvin piety, — 
 and so little which makes men better men. I am
 
 JEt. 23] FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 77 
 
 almost hopeless sometimes, and I fully believe that 
 New England piety, if it doesn't change very con- 
 siderably soon, will, in the course of two or three 
 generations, run out. This may sound extravagant. 
 But do think of it. No man trusts here a church 
 member, any sooner than any other. Religion is 
 never in the least connected with political measures. 
 We have such a formal idea of Christianit}', — that 
 missionary-giving and prayer-meeting and Bible- 
 reading and revivals are religion. See how utterly 
 selfish our best churchmen are. I certainly can see 
 very little in which piety affects social relations in 
 New England or here, except in keeping from the 
 worst crimes; Avhich isn't much. Roman Law did 
 that. But this'll do. I should like your views. 
 
 And in describing a similar experience he writes 
 Mr. Kingsbury: — 
 
 "... There was a beautiful face amongst them, 
 voluptuous, but really with a very fine expression. 
 She had seen better days, I suspect, than most of 
 them, and seemed to look on almost proudly as we 
 spoke. But as we — no, I — alluded to old friends, 
 and the home and the love which they had once, and 
 the kind hearts which had been around them in old 
 days, and then told them in the simplest, most 
 untechnical words I could use, of the Friendship 
 they might have in Jesus, and His love to them, she 
 could not refrain her tears, as I hardly could mine. 
 Oh, what a gleam they gave for a moment on that 
 life of pain and sin and remorse she had had! God
 
 78 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1849 
 
 help her! It's as near hopeless as can be for the 
 prostitute to reform. This has called my notice to 
 the way Christ generally treated the prostitutes, and 
 you will be surprised at seeing how many he asso- 
 ciated with, taking the brief narrative into view. 
 Do you remember that one who came when he was 
 dining at the rich orthodox moral deacon's, and in 
 her agony of shame and sorrow wept over his feet, 
 and the comparison he draws between her and the 
 deacon, much to the disadvantage of the latter? 
 Isn't that Divine mercy, 'Behold all her sins are for- 
 given her, for she loved much! ' " 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Monday Eve, November, 1849. 
 My dear Fred : . . . For myself, I feel but little 
 confidence I shall awake new life in any other way, 
 than by slow influence of myself. Perhaps I cannot 
 reach it the least by talking. Talking isn't much. 
 But if I can have what I struggle always after, — a 
 life imbued with truth and independence, — I cannot 
 help doing something. I am more and more deter- 
 mined to be true to myself. It's a most complicated 
 chain around you, this of custom and "what-we- 
 always-have-been-educated-to-believe." Who ever 
 is honest? Well, I will try hard, and leave it to 
 God where I come out. It certainly will not be, 
 I think, among what have been "our Creed." 
 There's a niche anyhow in this country for almost 
 every man who has any stuff in him. And if I can 
 once start, freed from every possible taint of hum-
 
 iET. 23] HIS SISTER'S FAILING HEALTH 79 
 
 bug, cant, bigotry, mere custom, true in myself as 
 well as my opinions, and if I can feel to my very 
 heart the love for humanity, of which I see a faint 
 spark now within me, why! cannot I do something? 
 But if not, if circumstances gag me utterly, and men 
 drop me on one side as an excited young man who 
 sha'n't have "our subscriptions," well, I believe I 
 can serve God by suffering. For I am assured truth 
 cannot be laughed or starved down. 
 
 But a shadow had been hanging over his life for 
 some months before the period to which we have 
 come in his correspondence, and we must go back 
 and tell of the failing health of his beloved sister. 
 In the spring of 1849, during her life in the South, 
 which promised so well, she exposed herself in some 
 way, and took a serious cold which almost immedi- 
 ately developed into a threatening of consumption. 
 She came back and went direct to the home of the 
 kind old aunts in Litchfield, who cared for her most 
 devotedly. Charles was there to welcome her, and 
 in two letters of which extracts are given, tells of 
 his hopes and forebodings. 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 [Litchfield], "Wed., July 18th. 
 
 Mr/ dear Father : Emma came to-day. She is much 
 better than she was at the South. ... I think this 
 air will benefit her, and Aunt Mary's kind care. If
 
 80 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 she will only be prudent, and I think she will. She 
 is cheerful, yet looking at things as they are. We 
 may have hope, and yet we must be ready for the 
 worst. Let us leave her in God's hands. My heart 
 is almost crushed sometimes as I think of her, and 
 yet I see that God is never more truly kind than in 
 such trials. May it make us more truly earnest for 
 duty. On the whole, there is reason to hope yet 
 strongly, I think, in her vigorous constitution. 
 May God prepare us all for our sorrows here and for 
 serving Him. . . . Aunt Mary watches over Emma 
 with the most unwearied care, and pure air and exer- 
 cise may recruit her. The week I passed with her 
 was inexpressibly sad to me. And yet I will not 
 let it now make me at all gloomy. I struggle for 
 more confidence in God — more resignation. It isn't 
 that I look to other friends, that I can bear her situ- 
 ation cheerfully, but I look to labors for human hap- 
 piness, for God. My future, as I draw it, has not 
 for some time been one of happiness. I do intensely 
 long to give every effort and thought to the good of 
 men, to truth. 
 
 Throughout the autumn his sister Emma grew 
 rapidly worse. It was thought that a visit to her 
 kind and devoted cousins, Dr. Asa and Mrs. Gray 
 in Cambridge, might benefit her, so in January, 
 1850, she went to them and stayed until her death. 
 The following letter written by Charles to his father 
 foreshadows the end which was to follow a month 
 later : —
 
 iET. 24] HOPE ABANDONED 81 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Jan. 18, 1850, New York. 
 Ml/ dear Father: ... I had a letter this morn- 
 ing from Jane [Mrs. Gray], which I enclose. Bad 
 news. If tubercles are really formed, she is very 
 low, and we can have but few hopes. If not, she 
 may be but little worse than when she left Hartford. 
 Still, why do I write ? I have no hope scarcely, and 
 have not had for some time. I do not dare look at 
 my own feelings. It has come. I must look at it as 
 God's doing. I believe I can. I do from my soul 
 acknowledge His infinite kindness. He is kind here. 
 This, with all the other heavy blows which fall upon 
 us here, I know are fitting us for something far bet- 
 ter; and it will do us good. It Avill make us more 
 earnest in life. The "outside " and the passion and 
 the selfishness shall not reach us so much after this. 
 We shall be nearer Him. Of course it is somethinor 
 I can never recover from. But yet I am willing to 
 meet it; yes, I can leave myself with Him, if it will 
 only make me live more for Eternity. It is hardest 
 on you, and there are many things hard upon you, 
 but why can it not also bring you nearer God ? I 
 needn't say how I feel for you — God help you ! We 
 will bow under it, and then, with simple love for 
 Him, we will go again into the stern duties around 
 us. And we shall do them more thoroughly then, 
 more in the sight of the Eternal One. Your edito- 
 rials will be more in view of truth and right, more 
 earnest for what is really good, whether it is in poli- 
 tics or anything else. I shall live better, and under
 
 82 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 the long shadows over me, I think I can still trust 
 in Him throughout. 
 
 These words do not express me. Why should I 
 talk? May God help me, and bless you! I wrote 
 to her this morning, and think I did not let my feel- 
 ings carry me away so as to pain her. Write lov- 
 ingly, father, and with what trust in Him you have ; 
 but I would not show her too much your sorrow. 
 
 Two days before his sister's death, Charles writes 
 to her as follows : — 
 
 To his Sister Emma. 
 
 New Yokk, Winter, 1850. [Feb. 15tli.] 
 My dear Emma: Isn't this a wonderful winter? 
 We have hardly had any here, it is so mild and clear. 
 And then when it is cold you would hardly know it, 
 the sun is so bright. I think, after all, there is a 
 great deal of beauty in winter, esiDccially when there's 
 snow over everything. The sky is uncommonly 
 beautiful this season with us, and we have towards 
 night a peculiar cold gray tint which I have not 
 often seen described. Have you ever noticed the 
 effect produced this season of the year by the after- 
 noon sunlight tingeing a cloud of steam, the most 
 delicate, fading away,not-to-be-looked-at purple color, 
 you ever could see. Try it. New York is whirling 
 on as usual. You can have no idea, Emma, what an 
 immense vat of misery and crime and filth much of 
 this great city is! I realize it more and more. 
 Think of ten thousand children growing up almost
 
 tEt. 24] LETTER TO HIS SISTER 83 
 
 sure to be prostitutes aud rogues! I have been 
 very busy all this winter studying and writing, for 
 I am beginning on sermons. ... I rec'd your 
 letter yesterday. 'Twas a day I shall not soon 
 forget, — St. Valentine's, — yet rather different from 
 some I have had. A wild storm beating outside, 
 chimneys hardly visible through the driving rain; 
 not a dull kind of day to me. ... I found your 
 letter in the afternoon ; inexpressibly sad to me, and 
 yet I felt you never showed your love to me better 
 than in bringing out before me your struggles and 
 sorrows. The announcement of John's ^ engagement 
 was all new to me. ... I felt very happy at that, 
 though the contrast came so sadly over me how he 
 was gaining a friend for life, while perhaps I was 
 losing the one I loved best, and I couldn't but put 
 myself years on in life, when his memories would go 
 back so pleasantly to this sunniest spot of his days, 
 while, maybe, mine would rest on it so painfully 
 and sadly. What a compound mixture is making 
 up here, all the while, of tears and laughs, marrying 
 and sorrowing. But God bless them both! . . . 
 Emma, I say first and strongest to you, Pray ! pray ! 
 Pray from the heart to God for a better spirit. I do 
 not doubt for a moment His answer. Pray as if your 
 life depended on it. The truth is, I have a very 
 great confidence indeed in the kindness of God toward 
 us. I do believe if we shall find ourselves mistaken 
 on either side in Eternity, it will be in finding God 
 more merciful than we expected. ... I think your 
 past life, imperfect as it has been, showed you were 
 
 1 John Olmsted.
 
 84 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 actuated by real love of God. But whether you 
 were or not, you can be now. Leave all technical 
 phrases, and doctrines; bring before your inmost 
 soul the awful unspeakable Being, into whose close 
 knowledge you may soon enter. Then when you 
 feel like sinking and fainting in awe, call to mind 
 how He is in Christ; that He has a boundless 
 Heart as well as Power ; that mother never loved a 
 tithe as much as He does now. But if your weak 
 body prevents all this, just in your weakness and 
 insensibility throw yourself back on His forbearance, 
 and leave it quietly all with Him. May God help 
 you, Emma! 
 
 She died on the 17th February, 1850, full of pa- 
 tience and courage, saying that at one time she had 
 dreaded dying very much, but that now she thought 
 God was particularly with us at that hour, and 
 that some people wanted to die at one time and 
 some at another, at sunset or sunrise, etc., but that 
 her only wish was that God's will should be done. 
 Mrs. Gray wrote Charles after all was over: "She 
 had been particularly sweet and lovely during this 
 last sickness — so gentle and loving — and seeming 
 to like to be caressed. . . . And to soften the recol- 
 lection of those days of suffering come the pleasant 
 memories of the sweetness and patience and fortitude 
 and cheerfulness and gentle submissiveness which 
 made her sick chamber a place of blessed remem- 
 brance, and make it a privilege to have been there."
 
 JEt. 24] HIS SISTER'S DEATH 85 
 
 For three days and nights Charles shut himself 
 up, refusing to see any one, and he never spoke of 
 her in all the long years after, except in moments of 
 closest confidence with an intimate friend. 
 
 He writes of his feelings at the time as follows : — 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 Statex Island, March 17, 1850. 
 My dear Fred ; ... I do not think I shall often 
 forget on a Sunday evening, that one on which she 
 died; one of those quiet, mild, clear days we have 
 sometimes in winter, with a purple light over the 
 hills — very peaceful. Yes, she died very much as 
 she would have wished. It may seem sad to others 
 that she had no one of her own family with her in 
 her last hours, but I know her well enough to be 
 almost sure she would rather die as she did, provided 
 it was no burden to those who were around her. She 
 opposed telegraphing to me on Sunday morning. 
 Probably her last thoughts were on us friends, but 
 she would rather pass away without being disturbed 
 by our pain, cheerful and manly as she was all 
 through her sickness. I have been reading to-day 
 her journal written about a fortnight before her death. 
 It is most solemn. She gives her thoughts of death, 
 and her imagination of the feelings she would have 
 probably, the "strange consciousness of one's powers 
 failing and there being no help, and the realizing 
 that one's fate was in a few moments to be sealed for 
 Eternity," and then her thoughts on the first feelings 
 after death. "It puzzles me," she says; "I feel my
 
 86 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 heart beat faster, as I think how near I myself may 
 be to those moments." How it does come over me 
 that she is in that other Avorld ! I know her so well, 
 and to think that she, with all her weakness, her fun, 
 her pleasant feelings to others, her self-reproaches, 
 her feeble hopes, her faults, her peculiarities, all 
 those memories and thoughts, so exactly like ours, 
 is now knowing God, and beginning in feebleness 
 her eternal course. I look up, and almost realize 
 her in a strange, new, unspeakable state of happi- 
 ness, too perfect to be believed true for a time, just 
 resting herself, as it were, without a fear or a pain, 
 on that Friend she now for the first time really 
 knows. I can almost imagine that unutterable love 
 she pours out on Him as she comes to know Him, 
 and the feeble — almost doubting — happiness, as 
 she finds all she had ever dreamed of sympathy and 
 purity and peace, beginning to be enjoyed by her. 
 How her thoughts must run back to you and me! 
 But, Fred, I do every now and then believe more 
 than that. Why may she not be here, as I write 
 these words, looking in almost sadness at me? I 
 hardly dare believe it, and yet it's possible. But 
 no, I would rather believe her far away, in different 
 associations, beginning in trembling, but trust, her 
 new life of purity and more active goodness. Still 
 she cannot forget us, and if she does know of us, 
 how she must sigh that we know Him so little. 
 How she must long that we could only love that 
 Noble and Kind One as she does ! 
 
 Oh, the boundlessness of our joy, our rapture, when 
 we first truly know Him! Wfe do dream sometimes, 
 in rare moments, of an ideal of goodness and noble-
 
 ^T. 24] HIS SISTER'S MEMORY 87 
 
 ness, which ^youhl ahnost ravish us, were we to meet 
 it. We sometimes believe God is so. We do occa- 
 sionally have gleams cross our souls, of a light which 
 we certainly never see on earth, glimpses of sympa- 
 thy most heart-filling, most perfect, such as, if it 
 were to come to us, would almost deprive us of rea- 
 son from its intense delight. Do 3'ou believe we 
 ever dreamed of anything God may not give to us 
 in another Life? Can our ideal be beyond His 
 heaven ? 
 
 To J. E. Olmsted. 
 
 [Undated.] 
 
 Dear John : How strange it seems to me that I shall 
 make new friends and shall speak to them of her, 
 and she will seem to them like some one who never 
 existed, or a character in novels or history. The 
 most warm, living character which will ever be in 
 my memory ! And after a great many years I shall 
 look back and think with the same load on my heart 
 as now, of a loving, generous nature who began with 
 me and went a little way out in life and then disap- 
 peared. I shall speak of what she "might have 
 been," and not of what she ^'s, and they will hear me 
 vaguely, as we do the description of a character in a 
 drama. The bright days used to be pleasanter as I 
 thought of their helping her, and I almost wondered 
 at my own indifference to it afterwards. I do not 
 see how those can bear such losses who have no 
 religious hopes. It must be such a dead, cold, clear 
 loss, and nothing else. But the thought of a good 
 Being who is perhaps most showing His affection by 
 this very pang He sends, and tlie hope for our friend 
 does change the whole thing much.
 
 88 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1850 
 
 I am certainly stronger and more trusting than I 
 was. My first feelings were, for the only time in 
 my life, a strong desire for heaven, some place where 
 these pains and heartaches would be all over forever; 
 but now I am ready to act. I do not, and it seems as 
 if I could not, doubt His care any more. But oh! 
 how stiflingly in odd places memories do come over 
 me. The thought of the old home, and how it's all 
 broken up, and how we can't meet again, and if the 
 rest of us do, it will not be the same, and some flash 
 of memory, as a cheerful look of hers comes up, or 
 one of her generous actions to me. I find myself 
 going over painful partings with her in dreams. 
 Yet, on the whole, I am not gloomy. I look on it 
 as a stern discipline. I dread not to meet sorrow. 
 Only may He help me to become purified by it. 
 
 I do exceedingly fear any blinding of reason by 
 the feelings at such times, and I have no disposition 
 to make a saint of a friend because he is dead. But 
 I look back with sad pleasure on many traits of 
 Emma's. I do not think you knew her well, or saw 
 her best side ; but there was a certain nobleness and 
 warm-heartedness in her since a child, such as I have 
 seldom seen. To me that genial sympathy of hers 
 was one of the best evidences of her love to God; 
 yet it was not a saint-like geniality; it was warm, 
 earthly, — such as I do in any one love from my soul. 
 I cannot meet a warmer heart. She will not forget 
 me, and she knows that I must remember her.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Journey Abroad — Walking Trip in Ireland — Letter on the Ger- 
 man Sunday — The Rhine and Edinburgh — Letter on Social- 
 ism — Decision to remain in Germany — German Experiences 
 and Study — Olmsted Letters — Miscellaneous Letters, and 
 Opinions on the Fugitive Slave Lavr — Desire for a Deeper 
 Life — Tired of Travelling 
 
 A PROPOSITIOK was made to Charles early in this 
 spring to break away from familiar scenes for a few 
 months, and start on a walking trip in England, 
 Ireland, and the Rhine country with his friends, 
 John and Frederick Olmsted. He entered into the 
 plan with his usual enthusiasm, and they sailed in 
 May. There are no letters that tell of his pleasure 
 in England, and we can only picture to ourselves 
 what the experience to three eager, enthusiastic 
 young men, devoted friends, would be, as with 
 knapsacks on backs they wandered through charm- 
 ing English country scenes. He never lost the 
 vivid memory of that first enjoyment of England, 
 and through all his life kept a peculiar sentiment for 
 the land of his introduction to the delights of travel. 
 
 Before going to the continent, the three compan- 
 ions went to Ireland, to continue the walking trip
 
 90 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 which had been so great a pleasure to them all. 
 They were supplied with letters of introduction to 
 the family of Mr. Robert Neill of Belfast, who had 
 always welcomed Americans with peculiar friendli- 
 ness. He was a strong anti-slavery man, and num- 
 bered amongst his American friends, William Lloyd 
 Garrison, Henry C. Wright, and Frederick Doug- 
 lass, who had all been his guests. The young men 
 were heartily welcomed with true Irish hospitality, 
 and warm friendships were soon formed. Writing 
 during the coming winter to Miss Letitia Neill, who 
 afterwards became his wife, Charles said : " How 
 much have you all done for me! I know I much 
 needed softening and changing. Such friendliness 
 and kindness has been very delightful to me. And 
 you, dear, trustful friend, how much I hope for a 
 happy and useful future to you. Not, either, happy, 
 but one which shall best fit you for the progress in 
 the life beyond. God aid you, and may we both be- 
 come more spiritual and nearer Him in our lives. 
 You can have a noble future. It is to be seen 
 whether you will." 
 
 The following bit of description of one of his walk- 
 ing trips is interesting for the glimpse it gives at 
 the condition of Ireland in 1850: — 
 
 "... Fields and foliage gave an appearance to 
 the whole country which was very much like that
 
 ^T. 24] A GLIMPSE OF IRELAND 91 
 
 of ours in the latter part of August. Yet the small 
 whitewashed cottages and handsome park gates were 
 not at all American. Nor was the scenery English 
 either. One missed the long lines of beautifully 
 trimmed hedges, and the soft, rich greensward, and 
 the general aspect of high cultivation, which charac- 
 terize an English landscape. It was ajDparent for 
 some time we were passing the estates of wealthy 
 landholders, and the cottages of peasantry by no 
 means extremely depressed in their condition. 
 There was nothing of the Irish beggary we had 
 expected. Slouchiness appeared, it is true, quite 
 often enough; artistic cottages with pigs rooting in 
 the hall; grand park walls with immense fractures, 
 and very handsome gates joined to very poor hedges, 
 but there was very little suffering to be seen. This 
 general appearance of the country continued during 
 our first day's walk. We stopped at night in a vile 
 little inn near the 'Glen of the Downs,' and the 
 next day began to penetrate more the interior. And 
 here, as we went on, a great change could be seen 
 gradually in the aspect of the country. There were 
 more fields filled with weeds or entirely neglected; 
 the crops raised were of the kind which required 
 least labor and forethought, such as potatoes and 
 oats ; the mud cottages were less often whitewashed, 
 or even well thatched. What the Bible speaks of 
 as the last evidence of desolation, that 'the grass 
 shall grow on the housetops,' was here fulfilled of 
 almost every house, for a very fine crop of oats might 
 have been reaped from the cottage roofs."
 
 92 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1850 
 
 After describing, in a letter to his father from 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, tlie holiday character of the 
 German Sunday, he continues : — 
 
 " What is the practical result of all this ? you ask, 
 and that, I believe, is the great test of such ques- 
 tions. In regard to the Sabbath, I am not prepared 
 to say. The true religious spirit in a peoj^le may 
 be shown in various ways. Ours appears in grand 
 efforts for the good of distant people, or in solemn 
 and simple public worship. Theirs may appear in 
 the beautiful love and truth which mark so much of 
 German private life, and may inspire their Sunday 
 sociality. But I, for my part, much fear the con- 
 trary. I fear that the religious element is much 
 more deficient than is commonly supposed. In 
 regard to wine-drinking, I am inclined to think the 
 Germans right. Their wines are light and healthy, 
 their beer is not at all strong, and I think both may 
 be put among the pleasant productions of art, which 
 man may use moderately with some advantage to his 
 body and spirits. I am confirmed in this from the 
 fact that you see so little, so very little, of intemper- 
 ance. In one day in New York I have seen more 
 drunken men than I have seen since I have been in 
 Germany. An American who dislikes the Germans 
 exceedingly told me he was a year in the country 
 before seeing a single drunken man. Then you 
 can't but observe that, as a general thing, the people 
 are a more robust-looking, healthy people than ours, 
 without any more exercise at all. I do not say such 
 a state of things would be best in America, for our
 
 Mt. 24] EDINBURGH 93 
 
 Anglo-Saxons have a most irrepressible tendency to 
 excess in such things, but I do think it may be not 
 a bad one for Germany." 
 
 In September the friends returned to Scotland, 
 whence he writes : — 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Edinburgh, Sunday, Sept. 29, 1850. 
 Ml/ dear Father ; . . . I said I was disappointed 
 in them.i Perhaps it was in part because I seemed 
 to myself, with my peculiar objects, losing time a 
 little in seeing scenery. I wanted to see Scotchmen. 
 However, I have been gratified in this considerably 
 in Edinburgh, and have made very pleasant acquaint- 
 ances. They treat me here, as everywhere, very 
 kindly. In fact, I believe mankind have done much 
 more for me than I have for them. I may change 
 the balance some day, however. Despite the most 
 unexpected kindness we have received everywhere, 
 I am obliged to say my opinion of human nature has 
 not improved during my travels. My old distrust is 
 rather strengthened, yet I am determined all the 
 more to labor for men, though most sadly conscious 
 of their weakness and my own. I hope all this 
 falling in with men of all sorts may do me some 
 good, with reference to my minister's life. And I 
 think it will. I think I am more ready for strange 
 situations, and shall get along better with men differ- 
 ent from me than I used to. 
 
 1 Scotch scenes.
 
 94 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 By the way, I noticed something in your last 
 "Courant," which I wanted to say a word upon. It 
 was a paragraph in which you echoed the popular 
 language about "Socialistic tendencies," I think a 
 great many good people have come, from reading 
 religious newspapers, quite to identify Socialism 
 with infidelity and everything bad. And your mode 
 of expression there, possibly, might lead them to 
 think you countenanced this impression of Social- 
 ism. Without in the least upholding Socialism as 
 a whole, 1 think as developed in our country it has 
 shown scarcely any of the bad qualities people charge 
 it with. One of the principal ideas in it I, for one, 
 am disposed to think a good one, and at least worth 
 trying, — and one which is being already tested in 
 many of the Massachusetts manufactories, I believe, 
 — that of associated labor. That is, the workmen 
 are " associated " with the capital, own a share of the 
 stock, and their wages depend on the success of 
 the establishment. You can see how much more 
 thorough and cheerful labor would be where the 
 workmen owned a share in the concern. Every one 
 would have a responsibility then. Or carrying out 
 " associated labor " farther, suppose an establishment 
 where there were no masters, except as elected by 
 the rest, and here again the stock was owned b}^ the 
 laborers, and wages proportioned to labor and talent, 
 with the additional proviso that in case of the work- 
 er's illness or death or misfortune, his family are to 
 be taken care of by the association. In this you 
 have the Paris " Socialistic " workshops — nothing 
 so very terrible in all this ! Though I grant it may 
 be a bad principle. Perhaps it makes men too little
 
 ^T. 24] FRENCH SOCIALISM 95 
 
 self-reliant. Yet in these old countries, where it is 
 so hard to get along, such help seems more rational. 
 Then you know in Paris the "associated workmen " 
 deal with one another first, and thus get things by 
 exchange or wholesale prices. Their other great 
 idea of "each man's right to land," I think, has 
 arisen from the terrible evils arising in countries 
 where each man could not own land, and as they 
 generally propose to carry it out here contains notli- 
 ing very bad, it seems to me. It is the true "agra- 
 rian policy," though not, I suspect, as you under- 
 stand that word. You know modern researches 
 have changed the meaning and the odium of that 
 term, and Niebuhr and Dr. Arnold have quite re- 
 covered the good fame of the Marii and others who 
 proposed the agrarian bills. Their policy was simply 
 to give every " Burgher " (or plehs) a share in the 
 public lands conquered from the enemy. The Social- 
 ists here have much the same idea, though perhaps 
 often they would wish to change the laws of prop- 
 erty here. Yet I have never seen that idea much 
 advanced. Their plans for united families and all 
 that seem foolish, but should not prevent us seeing 
 what good there is in them. I wish much you would 
 go into a thorough examination of Socialism, and 
 compare it with Roman agrarianism and Bible agra- 
 rianism, which was ten times more socialistic than 
 the modern plan, inasmuch as rural property was all 
 subdivided equally again every fifty years. I think, 
 too, the agrarian policy of the Peruvian Empire and 
 that of Lacedaemon miglit be brought in with much 
 interest. Don't try without going very thoroughly, 
 and reading even Fourier, because it is a good sub-
 
 96 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 ject, and I wish to try it if you haven't time 
 for it. 
 
 I long very much to get back to study once more, 
 and to be getting at the real work of life. I am 
 enjoying Edinburgh very much, — a beautiful city, 
 with strange contrasts of elegance and misery. 
 
 Charles had been considering the project of remain- 
 ing in Germany after the departure of his compan- 
 ions, with the object of stiidying theology and of 
 obtaining a thorough knowledge of German home- 
 life, intending to return home in December. Accord- 
 ingly, John and Frederick Olmsted left him, and 
 their love and helpfulness, shown both in practi- 
 cal matters and in their youthful ideals, brightened 
 many a day to come, and were constantly expressed 
 in letters of which we shall quote passages as they 
 connect themselves with Charles's own. John 
 Olmsted writes, "Well, good-bye to you. If it is 
 our last good-bye, why I only add, Keep on truth- 
 seeking and men-helping. We have lived a life 
 which has been intercogged one with another, and 
 I hope we have not given one another the last 
 jog yet. I shall be almost as glad to see you in 
 December, T feel, as I am now to leave you, — I 
 mean as I am now to be hurrying home. You and 
 I are of different fibre, I believe, but have lived long 
 in the same soil, and the same sap has run through 
 us, so that I hope we shall both bear indistinguish-
 
 iET. 24] LIFE IN GERMANY 97 
 
 able, indubitable, and indestructible fruit. I shall 
 try to be spontaneously strong, and not need the 
 rough winds that have torn you to make me take 
 deep root. God spare me ! " 
 
 Life began at once for Charles as he had planned 
 it, in visits among the people and intimate rela- 
 tions in large home-circles, where he seems to have 
 been treated from the first with friendliest consid- 
 eration, as the letters written all through this win- 
 ter plainly reveal. 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 Kiel, Oct. 22, 1850. 
 My dear John : I take it that to-day the black hull 
 of the City of Grlasgoiv is looming up on the horizon 
 off South-side, and by this evening you will be before 
 the bright grate in the little parlor, fighting your 
 battles over again. I call up these visions with no 
 feeling of discontent, for the pleasantest part of my 
 European travel, almost, has been this Hamburg 
 visit. I have had the pleasantest run of visiting 
 and that kind of thing, and whether this homeless 
 kind of a life is making me a little susceptible, or 
 whether the melody of these German ladies' voices 
 has reached me, I don't know, but certainly I have 
 come uncommonly near falling in love with some of 
 them. This visiting is the most unselfish, affection- 
 ate form of human life, "the mine and thine" is so 
 laid aside, and I should think it would play the 
 mischief with some people's hearts. Besides, I think
 
 98 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 I " intercog " (as you say) with the Germans very 
 well. Only yesterday Lieutenant (I believe) Ficius, 
 son of Ohmstein Ficius, of Eutin, in the Duchy of 
 Oldenburgh, did himself the honor to call upon me 
 just to tell me that I was a good fellow, that I had the 
 " echtes deutscJies Angesicht " and the true " deutsehe 
 Gutmuthigkeit.'''' I have been ten days in Hamburg, 
 and during that time have dined out eight times, 
 besides always supping and sometimes breakfasting; 
 and dining with these Hamburgers is a rather 
 different affair from what it is in some places, in- 
 cluding an unlimited quantity of courses and all 
 sorts of good things. My German grows fast, and 
 there is some need of it, for I have perpetrated some 
 most daring things on the strength of it ; for instance, 
 penetrating into that pleasant family in Lyndau near 
 the Ploner See, where no one knew a word of Eng- 
 lish, and calling upon divers peoj)le in Eutin, where 
 I was left Englisidos and hiilflos. I am here now 
 in Kiel, going to Rendsburgh to-night to see if I can 
 see the camps. My good fortune here has enabled 
 me to see what I wanted to much, — the home-life of 
 the upper classes. 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 Beelix, Nov. 3, 1850. 
 Dear Fred : I find myself more and more disposed 
 to look all around a question, and less and less 
 apt to feel either very strong admiration or contempt 
 at things. I half dread this sort of state, yet I am 
 irresistibly drawn to it, and though it seems for the
 
 ^T. 24] BERLINESE TRAITS 99 
 
 time a loss of earnestness, I do not believe it will be 
 in the long run. I grow sick of ex parte enthusiasm 
 and eloquence, and tired of these violent likes and 
 dislikes, which seem to dejDend on the " latitude " 
 and nothing else. I settle every day more solidly 
 and comfortably on the conclusion that I am going 
 to be '"''ganz und gar^'''' utterly and entirely, true to 
 myself; and if '^myself " forces me to believe that 
 neither the devil is altogether black, nor "Henry 
 Martin " altogether white, I am going to say so. 
 My opinion is that each man's own particular and 
 greatest bent shows his best course for doing good. 
 Some one told me, not long ago, that they sliould 
 like to see one " unmitigated tirade " from my pen, 
 "against anything, no matter what, so that it had 
 no 'but' in it." It's these unmitigated tirades, I 
 believe, which have delayed the progress of truth so, 
 especially among the clerical gentry. I am going 
 to do my best, to see if I can't be that most difficult 
 thing, — an honest, candid clergyman. If I am, I do 
 not think I shall win much honor or comfort in my 
 generation, but I shall do more for mankind than if 
 I did. 
 
 I am here in Berlin, as I suppose I have said. 
 Such an economical, simple-living, cultivated peo- 
 ple I never saw ! No hospitality, still good feeling. 
 I should like 'em well if I knew more of them. I 
 do like them now. I get along well -with Germans. 
 We are something alike, except that I am far more 
 practical (!). I cog in with most men now better, 
 but there is a certain class which I find the hardest 
 to work with, and with whom it is rather harder 
 now for me than ever, — I mean the literary class,
 
 100 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 who rather affect the dilettante. If they were really 
 so, one could get along with them as inferior creat- 
 ures ; but to find really earnest men, or at least men 
 able to be so, assuming this, takes one all aback. 
 And it's very common in the student-class the world 
 over. Give me the men who mean something, if 
 they are not half so cultivated. Give me the men 
 who look on life as having some solidity and stuff 
 in it, and not as a sort of vapor with shadows on it. 
 How can a man who sees this miserable, discon- 
 tented, misfortune-worried race of ours, look on their 
 folly and wretchedness as a thing for a joke ? 
 
 November 29th. ... I have seen a great deal 
 of Germany since I have been here, perhaps more 
 than I have of any people, unless, possibly, England. 
 They have passed me from one to another most beau- 
 tifully, and I number a host of acquaintances now, 
 many corresponding, and all very friendly. I have 
 been thrown in, too, quite fortunately, in the upper 
 set in talent and position, so that my opportunities 
 for seeing North-Germany have been remarkably 
 good. I think I am a much better man for this 
 German visit. It makes one love humanity better 
 to meet so many kind-hearted people, and to receive 
 so many entirely unselfish favors and kindness. 
 And there is something so heart-opening in this 
 universal way of the Germans. . . . 
 
 I have a kind of feeling growing on me that my 
 only and great business in the world is men-help- 
 ing, and as a lawyer, as a matter of course, does 
 many sorts of law business which are not profita-
 
 ^T. 24] LIFE IN BERLIN 101 
 
 ble, merely because it is his profession, so I will 
 help men everywhere, in all sorts of things, without 
 any especial emotion always, but under tlie conscious- 
 ness I am only doing my business, and that it's all 
 in the profession, not of a minister, but Christian. 
 Still I never lose sight now that religion is innum- 
 erable-sided. 
 
 December came all too soon, and Charles decided 
 that it would be wiser to stay in Berlin and study 
 tlii"oughout the winter. The first of the following 
 letters gives his reason, and then we have a series 
 of pictures of his daily life. 
 
 "... You know I have decided," he writes to 
 his father, "to stay in Berlin this winter. This 
 decision was made doubtfully, but my friends, the 
 Olmsteds and Dr. Bushnell, advised, and I heard 
 you were not averse, and I believe now I am here I 
 should make the most of it. I shall acquire the 
 German very well, and shall see the rest of Europe 
 next spring. It is not probable I can ever travel 
 again, and now I have the chance, should I not use 
 it? My plan is to stay in Berlin this winter, where 
 I can live for fifty cents a day, and in March to start 
 for Hungary through Austria, see that country thor- 
 oughly, and from there go to Venice and Italy and 
 Switzerland. I shall walk as much as possible. 
 My great object is to know Hungary and Austria. 
 It's rather daring, considering my means, to do all 
 this, but I think the plan will secure me correspond-
 
 102 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 ence enough to pay my way. In Berlin I can study 
 theology and politics very well. I wish I could get 
 more letters here to Berlin, and especially for next 
 year in Vienna and Hungary. But there's time. 
 It seems a long time not to see you all again, and I 
 am sometimes very doubtful of the reasonableness of 
 all my plans, but I find all the while so much benefit 
 from this incessant mingling w4th men, and this 
 contrivance and use of my practical energies, and I 
 am getting so many ideas, that I do not believe I 
 shall in the end regret it. It's strange that Provi- 
 dence and friends have thrown the abstract ' Theo- 
 log,' around so among people. How essentially it 
 will change my destiny — with what result ? God 
 knows. All that I can do, and all that I gain, 
 shall be and is. His. But who can see his own 
 future ? 
 
 "... I am quite desirous- of hearing what posi- 
 tion you have taken about that slave-law. Though 
 I know I shall not agree with you. I regard it as 
 one of the most abominable instruments ever framed, 
 and I would rather be sent to Sing Sing for life than 
 in any way help to execute it." 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury . 
 
 Hamburg, Dec. 8, 1850. 
 Dear Fred: ... I have been looking on the 
 political movements of Germany pretty closely the 
 last two months, and I feel sick at heart as I think 
 of what things are done yet under the sun. There 
 is a God, and I believe yet that mean deceiver and
 
 iEx. 24] THE HUNGARIAN PATRIOTS 103 
 
 elegant tyrant in Berlin will meet his due. And 
 that Austrian government! I come across, occa- 
 sionally, these Hungarians, men of noble spirit, of 
 keen sense, who knew what they fought for, and 
 what they should lose. They have little hope, they 
 tell me, in this generation. They themselves can win 
 nothing. But in another they have not a doubt 
 Hungary will be what she strove to be. They say 
 the people are showing now their old national endur- 
 ance and stubborn resistance where it is possible to 
 resist. They themselves, perhaps, can help it on by 
 suffering a little more (if that is possible), and they 
 can die. They are here in Germany (men often of 
 the highest rank) in poverty and disgrace, but I 
 know no inducements would tempt them for a moment 
 into submitting to the Austrian government. And 
 if there is a general war, and Prussia will admit it, 
 there will be a corps in her army whose blows will 
 strike home! And oh, to think what might have 
 been! The best effort for freedom this century! 
 And all trampled and scourged down. " How long ? " 
 These things come home to me now as I am here, 
 and meet the sufferers, and see the gallant, noble 
 hearts who are groaning under it all. I find myself 
 praying to God with tears that the day for all this to 
 cease may come — this crushing injustice and tyranny 
 and oppression. Oh, that I could do something! 
 And then to think of that damnable thing going on 
 at home, and that black injustice and wrong crying 
 for vengeance, and this outrageous, inhuman Law, 
 which would fasten that tyranny on our shoulders ! 
 Oh, how much yet before humanity even begins to 
 be what we have dreamed it!
 
 104 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 Berlin, Dec. 13, 1850. 
 
 My dear John : My campaign began last night in 
 Berlin by my carrying all my luggage by hand up 
 to my old boarding-place, and settling down there 
 till I find another. ... I went to some of the 
 Americans whom I know studying here. I was not 
 at all prej^ared for the contrast. The truth is, I 
 have been in Hamburg as in a liome, and the last 
 night my friends looked quite as blue as 1 did, at 
 my leaving. Then to come right down among these 
 men, all of them with a kind of indifference to 
 things in general, and a sort of roughness, which I 
 begin almost to think American ; it was like jump- 
 ing into a cold bath. It weighed on me, and I was 
 glad to get to bed and forget it. This humanity of 
 the Germans becomes almost a necessity of life for 
 me. To be able to meet men as if you had an inter- 
 est in them and they in you, as if it wasn't poetry 
 that you were "brothers," and it was no impudence 
 to talk freely of their affairs, or intrusion or impro- 
 priety to speak of your own, to have the abiding, 
 understanding idea of your intercourse all the while, 
 a kind of open-hearted, social respect, — this is what 
 I like so in them, and what I didn't find in those 
 fellows, and what will cool me off so, I know, when 
 I get home. 
 
 I think I can succeed in keeping within forty or 
 fifty cents per day. But I must have society, and 
 must be respectable, so that there will be some diffi- 
 culties.
 
 ^T. 24] EATING AS A SOCIAL ELEMENT 105 
 
 I am inclined to think, John, that the true view 
 of human life would bring in eating as an important 
 element. Not eating as a mere means of animal 
 pleasure, but just as the embrace and the kiss are at 
 once the expressions and the aid of affection, so is 
 eating an expression of joy, and an aid of sociality. 
 We might wish to have sociality and the higher 
 intercourse freed entirely from the bodily influence, 
 and purely spiritual. But they never are, and for 
 some wise reason there is no lofty emotion which 
 is entirely separate from bodily states. 
 
 I am disposed — not like Jane Eyre, and perhaps 
 Emerson — to believe that the true course is to sanc- 
 tify eating. Not to look down upon it, but to make 
 it a means of the higher influences. This seems to 
 me the idea of the Bible. As was natural in an 
 early age, eating in the Old Testament was always 
 the expression of hai^piness and sociality. In the 
 New, is it not remarkable how much Christ is spoken 
 of at meals. His noblest thoughts, his greatest out- 
 pourings of real feeling, are at the table, where good 
 cheer has been. His best speeches and teachings 
 are often at dinner. The peculiar rites — yes, the 
 only rites — which he transmits, are the changing 
 the convivial meal into a remembrance of Him. His 
 appearance after the crucifixion is at the breakfast- 
 table, and His last appearance on earth is at a dinner 
 in the open air. Is not this the idea of the G-race ? 
 As Charles Lamb has said, "He could not see why 
 he should thank God more for a dinner than for a 
 new pair of boots ! " and I have felt this so, that I 
 have often asked God to bless us in this, even the 
 smallest act of our lives. But is not the real idea
 
 106 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1850 
 
 that the meal is one of the best aids of sociality and 
 best expressions of happiness, and that in that time 
 of friendly, pleasant intercourse, we especially want 
 the aid of God and His company to make it all noble 
 and good ? Is not this the healthy, natural idea of 
 eating of a man who had not been a glutton and was 
 now reacting, — a man reasonable, with good appe- 
 tite and social affections ? 
 
 I fear this almost sounds irreverent in some parts, 
 but it shouldn't. Consider it a question. Don't 
 think that my lips are smacking now, with the re- 
 membrance of the Hamburg dinners. If I could 
 have now a tip-top Senator Meyer German dinner, 
 with eighteen courses and wines, all by myself, I 
 should hardly prefer it to my bouillon and Ganseklein 
 for seven and a quarter cents ; but give me a com- 
 pany or family dinner, when thought and kind feel- 
 ing and language are waked up by the good cheer, 
 if it be only tea and bread and butter, and I ac- 
 knowledge I should prefer it. Is not every meal a 
 Lord's supper, and should not every Lord's supper 
 be a social meal? 
 
 I still figure in the old brown coat and opera hat, 
 no kid gloves (lost three pair of woollen and kid since 
 I've been in Germany). I've joined an admirable 
 reading-room. Curtius will help me get books 
 from the Library. I have a capital circle of ac- 
 quaintances. It increases, too, among the first intel- 
 lectual people of Germany. Curtius is a friend of 
 Humboldt, and I find is really considered a very 
 remarkable man. I can't understand, though, why 
 he and his wife live in so simple a way, — third 
 story, and works all the while.
 
 ^T. 24] LETTERS TO THE PRESS 107 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Berlin, Dec, 21, 1850. 
 
 M^ dear Father: ... I have started with the 
 Royal Library — Strauss 's "Life of Christ," and 
 Schleiermacher's "Sermons," and de Wette; so you 
 see I am furnished theologically. ... I think if 
 John's efforts should fail to get me another corre- 
 spondence in Hungary, etc., you might possibly 
 make another effort with one of the Washington 
 papers, though I don't believe they are at all rich. 
 
 At about this time J. H. Olmsted writes : — 
 
 "In general I like your letters now ver}'' much, 
 and I think they must satisfy you much better than 
 the English efforts.^ Us they make want to see you 
 very much, and are real aggravations that we can't 
 know more about it, — just that more that you would 
 tell us if we could meet once a week, as when we 
 used to separate for a few days in England. I quite 
 agree with you in what you say of your future — that 
 you feel no anxiety about the mere making a living. 
 Livings will follow a person of your power anywhere. 
 I have not the slightest doubt as teacher, preacher, 
 or wanderer you will compel salaries forever. . . . 
 To us it would be just the summit-pleasure of the 
 winter to have you come back. We idealize you 
 more than ever now you are so long away, and when 
 you come back you will find a model of yourself that 
 will be no easy matter to live up to. We do want 
 
 1 Allusion to letters in The Christian Union and other papers.
 
 108 CHARLES LORlNG BRACE [1850 
 
 yonr influence very much, but content ourselves 
 with waiting for it with higher development and 
 greater power." 
 
 "... I really envy you the most delightful winter 
 you are spending; so intellectually high and morally, 
 humanely high a life in its relations will never come 
 again. Make the most of it. Crowd your time still 
 more than you do with meetings, contacts with souls. 
 I have almost forgotten you, and almost worship 
 you when I hear you say how easily and constantly 
 you win intimacy with 'beautiful souls.' Beauti- 
 ful, you being judge, who I know have no lower 
 idea of beauty than of old. It is a life worth liv- 
 ing. Here, to me now, in New York, it seems there 
 are no beautiful souls ; and if there are any few here, 
 — of course I can't doubt it, — the thought of win- 
 ning intimacy with them is like your theory of uni- 
 versal salvation, so distant and dubious. 
 
 "... You were quite right in saying your pres- 
 ent life is fitting you for a more thorough and varied 
 influence. It is a noble view to take of it, and a 
 true one, I think. Keep this in view though, quite 
 distinctly, that your field of influence is going to be 
 America — not Europe. I have very rarely seen a 
 person who spent more than a year or two in Europe, 
 who didn't turn out unfitted, when he returned, for 
 a real practical life in America, and who didn't have 
 ever after longings more or less indefinite after 
 Europe, and more soul-satisfying trips there. I 
 don't think so of you. You know the danger, and 
 have a more real earnestness than most. So I don't
 
 ^T. 24] THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 109 
 
 fear, but recommend pushing on and staying as long 
 as you can. 'If you find American life so dull, you 
 might as well cut stick from the world ; for, let me tell 
 you, nowhere is there such a real movement in the 
 world as in our good land, ' do you say ? But, Charley, 
 you know better. Compare the number of moving 
 men we met in London — you have met and told us of 
 in Germany — with the number you know in America. 
 . . . Haven't you seen more of life abroad that sat- 
 isfies you intellectually than you would here in ten 
 years? . . . We want ten thousand such apostles of 
 ideas as you to come and work, and work against the 
 material tendency that is swamping us. That will 
 be your exact post when you return, to direct the 
 fierce energies here, to lead towards divine things, 
 to join Emerson in his work, in a different way, to 
 speak a word, and never cease speaking a word, for 
 ideas. As for the bundles of rags that lean over the 
 velvet pulpits about here to-day, they might as well 
 be dipped in turpentine and set fire to at once. If 
 you don't come home a practical man, a man who 
 can lead Yankees in invention and activity, you 
 might as well stay where you are. ... I don't 
 quite like your remarks about the Fugitive Slave 
 Law. You seem to assume that I am less abhorrent, 
 less willing to lay down anything, more blinded by 
 contiguity, than you. That I should totally deny. 
 You say it makes us at last personally responsible 
 before God for slavery. How ? How, in any degree 
 more than the law which you swore to support when 
 you gave your first vote (if it was in Connecticut)? 
 The responsibility rests entirely on those who made 
 the law, and those who voted for those who made
 
 110 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 the law, and who did not to their utmost attempt to 
 dissuade men from voting so. Wherein I do con- 
 fess guilt, but no! " 
 
 F. L. Olmsted writes : "I am thinking that it's 
 all the better for you that you have this German 
 experience alone. You will be more apt to take 
 large and wholesome views that you have not to 
 oppose our stand-pointed-ness. More apt even to 
 act and think out of yourself, beyond your ancient 
 self, progress, improve. I was brought to this by 
 thinking that your letters seemed very satisfactory, 
 and not provocative of questioning and explanations. 
 Give us all the real life, the manifestation, the 'gos- 
 pel ' you can. It's worth, after all, more than your 
 epistles, though they are invaluable. Tell us what 
 you do, and what people do to you, and in what way 
 your impulses are moved, as much as you can. It's 
 worth more than your thoughts to us who know you. 
 Hurrah for 'unconscious influence ' all the world 
 over ! It really seems to me you get just the views 
 I should, which is singular. I wish you would see 
 and tell us more of the proper 'Pedestrian Corre- 
 spondent's ' subjects. Do walk out and talk with 
 the farm servants and the waiters and the soldiers 
 and the beggars. What is their life? What their 
 character? What their wants, and what do they 
 think ? . . . You ought to go and spend a week or 
 two with some country parson. 'Twould be worth 
 more than theologic study. Ask among your friends 
 for an introduction that will permit a request for 
 this. It would be reasonable."
 
 ^T. 24] COMMON SENSE vs. IDEALITY 111 
 
 To F. L. Obiisted. 
 
 February, [1851]. 
 
 You talk, Fred, in despair, as if the " saints " were 
 a dead species in America, or had all just been mar- 
 tyred. In my belief, there is no country in the 
 world where there are so man}^ at least among the 
 young j)6ople. What nation is there where you 
 could find a set of young persons growing up with 
 the plans and theories and aims (I say not practice) 
 of ours? You tell me to go to Bingen and London 
 to find them. But you've only to ferry to Brooklyn, 
 and you have one of the best of 'em — H. W. B. — 
 or to Hartford, and there are plenty. . . . 
 
 Is it not melancholy, F., how one gets gradually 
 forced into giving it up to old common-sense! I 
 am submitting every day to the old woman, con- 
 found it! I am getting to believe, as I see the 
 world, that a wife cannot be a heroine, or an author- 
 ess raise children; that there's a distinction between 
 goodness and religion; that one mustn't speak the 
 whole truth always; that the true man must have 
 relaxation ; in short, a good number of the dogmas I 
 have always bitterly opposed. I defy thee, oh Com- 
 mon Sense, and yet I know I am terribly afraid of 
 thee! And somehow, thou always lickest a poor 
 fellow in his own generation, and thou drivest him 
 to the dogs, thou laughest so over him. But thou 
 had'st a grin and a joke over Cromwell, and the 
 steam-engine was hooted by thee, and the Pilgrims 
 so laughed at, and even Christ complacently sneered 
 at. So here's at thee ! ! !
 
 112 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 [Undated.] 
 
 Dear John : One of you said you were glad I had 
 come at length among the concrete instead of the 
 abstract. The great thing I wanted from this trav- 
 elling was a greater mixture in me of the said con- 
 crete. Occasionally, after a whirl of life and excite- 
 ment a few weeks here, I turn back to my old self, 
 and try to see whether I can detect any difference- 
 It's strange ! I believe very few men ever travelled 
 where they more constantly mingled with men of 
 every class and character, and where there was such 
 a continued, absorbing, practical influence. But 
 upon my word, there is not, as far as I can see, the 
 slightest effect whatever. I am just exactly the 
 same abstract, straight-to-the-mark, simple-minded, 
 coffee-loving individual which I ever was, and I 
 have not a doubt that if you and I, just one hundred 
 million years from now, should meet in some distant 
 planet, you would find me just the same copy of a 
 man then, with some slight improvements in the 
 stereotyping. It's almost melancholy, isn't it? 
 
 . . . After reading your letter of January 15th 
 on Slave Law, I don't understand it. I can't un- 
 derstand it. Does Fred think so ? Do all good men 
 there think so? Is America going to the devil? I 
 am not disposed, much more than you, to the instinc- 
 tive philosophy. I usually ride a metaphysical idea 
 to the death. But here I can't. I can't see any- 
 thing in the metaphysical view. Your analogies 
 seem remote, possible, metaphysical things, and not
 
 /Et. 24] LETTER TO J. II. OOISTEAD 113 
 
 to determine this. If I swore to the Constitution 
 in New Haven, I did wrong. I don't remember 
 what I did do, except hallo and smoke. However, 
 the law in the Constitution was a null affair, and 
 wasn't at all like this, any way. . . . You say "re- 
 sponsibility rests with those who make the law." 
 Oh, John, where are your better — not feelings, or 
 sympathies, or practice, for they would be like mine, 
 but tlioughts? I do not understand it. ... I have 
 no doubt either that we do not understand one 
 another, or that one of us is morally perverted ; we 
 could not disagree so. It never happened before. 
 "What would I do?" I would talk and write, sub- 
 scribe hard-earned money, and take the "Indepen- 
 dent," and help the "Tribune," and wait and 
 pray! . . . 
 
 But pray and struggle, you and M., and God 
 help me also, for what more and more rises before 
 me, as the all-important — genial love and sympathy 
 for men. Oh, may your home and mine be some- 
 thing different from — I must say — the majority in 
 our country! May there be a warmth and light 
 about it, such as cheers at once even the stranger 
 who enters. May we deny ourselves, for years, sen- 
 suality and display, rather than that there ever 
 should be a want of time and of means to make our 
 home hours happy and cheerful. May even our love 
 within it be so little selfish, that no one can leave 
 our company without a happier heart. Why should 
 the everlasting coldness and selfishness stare out 
 from our thresholds ? But I am looking far ahead, 
 and, alas, young men always criticise with great 
 success !
 
 114 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 Feb. 6, 1851. . . . It's very evident to me there's 
 something wrong in you fellows, though I cannot 
 exactly show how. Human nature is never so 
 outrageously good or bad as you paint it, and it 
 can't have essentially changed in New York since 
 1849. You shut yourself in your shell, and then 
 swear because it's cold. I know that New York is 
 the materialist place in our country, and it is cer- 
 tainly unfortunate that none of us ever gained the 
 position in society there that we had in New Haven 
 or Hartford. All these things are against us. Still, 
 I think you are in a spiritually dyspeptic condition, 
 or you have had so much of the coffee of sympathy 
 in Europe that you can't stand your present milk 
 and water diet. . . . You are making too much of 
 a card of me. I shall not be so much changed, 
 apparently. My life is no more a "flying progress " 
 than yours. You need, for your development, a 
 regular settled study; I, more of this sort, though, 
 after all, I look on yours as the more solid, and I 
 long for it, steady and settled. Though I have an 
 immense tendency to this kind of life, too, as every 
 one. My life has its peculiar evils, as yours, and 
 on the whole, there's everywhere, I suspect, a pretty 
 fair balance — only work! Don't introspect. Give 
 it up; quit the Selbst-belauschen, as they say here 
 (self-listening). You don't need it. Throw your- 
 self in real God's work, if it's dissecting, and let 
 self-improvement go for a while ! Queer advice, but 
 good, I believe, for you. When we ended our trip 
 in October, it struck me you, of us all, came out 
 much (practically) the best. Are you different now ? 
 
 By the way, speaking of "separating, "I hold my-
 
 ^T. 24] GERMAN ABSTRACTION 115 
 
 self more lit for friendship than ever before, even 
 with the unworthy. How much more with those far 
 more than worth}-. It seems to me I shall have 
 friends innumerable in America hereafter, and yet, 
 yet, to find a friend going the whole hog for the 
 Slave Law. There are enough such, aren't there? 
 Well, perhaps God has sent some of us here to fight. 
 No, John, I have "had a higher moral, intellectual, 
 religious intercourse " with people in America than 
 ever in Germany or England. Though the principal 
 reason is that my means of expression are so much 
 greater in English. For, after all, a foreign lan- 
 guage always shuts one out from a large range. 
 
 Mr. Brace's cousin, Mrs. Gray, wrote to him dur- 
 ing this winter, expressing a fear that he was living 
 too much among the abstract, unpractical, German 
 thinkers, and begging him to remember the practical 
 life which lay before him in America. To this he 
 replies : — 
 
 To 3Irs. Asa Gray. 
 
 Berlin, Feb. 6, 1851. 
 
 Mt/ dear J — ; ... I see you have a somewhat 
 wrong idea of my enjoyments here in Germany. I 
 assure you, J — , if anything would ever make one 
 sick of German abstraction, it is the miserable, un- 
 happy, utterly unpractical condition of things here. 
 Nobody seems to know what liberty is, or how to 
 hold it when he has it. No one has any clear, strong 
 power of managing. What I liked in the Germans 
 was other qualities, home traits. And as to abstrac-
 
 116 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 tion among them now, there is little of it; they are 
 altogether too much absorbed in their first essays in 
 the practical. What you say of American practi- 
 cality I agree with. But you must remember you 
 haven't seen the tremendously material side of Amer- 
 ican life, — the New York. That endless whirl of 
 money-getting. However, I go in for the practical, 
 and I may say no year of my life has been more truly 
 practical than this last. What you say of the " intro- 
 spective " tendencies of American young men and 
 women may be true, though it is not considered so 
 generally. And yet I have met no circle of young 
 people in any land, where more was being done for 
 the good of men, prfictically and steadily and often 
 with much trouble, than by some of those very " in- 
 trospective " circles in the States. 
 
 . . . My ecstasies over your father^ appear to 
 have been rather premature, though what he did do 
 was more than many a man at the North would. 
 Perhaps you and I, Jane, agree in this, but I rather 
 fear not. I would not oppose the law, but I would 
 never obey it while God preserves my reason. I 
 consider it as one of the most unjust, wrong laws 
 ever passed in the history of nations. Of course, I 
 consider conscience above all human laws. You 
 say it is "a dangerous doctrine that every man's 
 conscience can decide on the law." It is dangerous; 
 but it is a danger which every government must be 
 exposed to while it governs moral beings. And the 
 principle I state is the one on which our nation was 
 founded, and our Revolution entered on. I cannot 
 
 1 Mr. Charles G. Loring.
 
 ^T. 24] SECTARIAN PREFERENCES 117 
 
 understand how there can be a doubt about it. It 
 is as much worse than holding a slave as can be 
 imagined, and even, in my mind, worse than captur- 
 ing him on the Guinea coast. For by his running 
 away he has shown himself more fit for freedom, and 
 many difficulties a slave-owner would have in free- 
 ing him are removed. I should fear to die with such 
 a sin on my soul as sending a free, innocent fugitive 
 into slavery. And all tlie Congress laws of a cen- 
 tury could not make me innocent. 
 
 Before, this slavery has rested with the South. 
 Now, it is brought home on our free Northern shoul- 
 ders. We become personally responsible for the 
 slavery of a fellow-being. And I had rather see a 
 dozen Unions broken than do such a wrong. 
 
 His last letters from Berlin read as follows : — 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 Berlin, March 2, 1851. 
 My dear Fred: ... In reference to that point 
 you spoke of, of church-going, I hardly know what 
 to say. It seems to me I should hardly want to 
 fasten myself anywhere. In a few years there may 
 be great reform movements in our sect, which you 
 would like to help on, and which you could not so 
 easily if you had decidedly left that church. Could 
 you not attend, as you have done, the Episcopal, for 
 the most part, but without really engaging yourself, 
 or making any stir about it? For myself, I think, 
 on the whole, I like the Episcopal form of worship 
 the best; but I consider our church constitution and
 
 118 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 tone of thought as much more adapted for "prog- 
 ress " and to the character of our country, and I 
 should dislike very much to cut myself off from 
 connection with this sect in their forward move- 
 ments. You seem to have given me unlimited carte 
 blanche to write about vciy "abstract self," so I shall 
 do it. It's a curious thing, but one considerable 
 change has come over me. Having so much out- 
 ward, and being continually occupied, I have half 
 designedly "cut" self-examination. I hardly know 
 myself. I do not dream, I do not " meditate " (in 
 saintly sense), I am hardly conscious what my faults 
 are until they make some outrageous inroad into my 
 practice. Not that I am more practical, but less 
 introspective. The strange imaginings which really 
 once almost inspired my life, and on which I could 
 truly almost be an ideal, dyspeptical, biographical 
 saint, I have let for a while pass by. Still, to a 
 degree they are real, they are imaginings founded 
 on what we know, and the man without them is 
 imperfect; but they are only part, and a weak part. 
 How I should like to meet you again — to see a real 
 sharp, keen, dry man again; to hear a joke; to be 
 with a " complex character " once more ; to get sharp- 
 ened and filed once more; to laugh! I have become 
 unwieldy and rusty, and infinitely "simplex." 
 These ideas have been rather forced on me by see- 
 ing a good deal lately of a wonderfully witty fellow 
 from Harvard College, who is studying for a profes- 
 sorship in Giittingen, who assimilates perfectly wher- 
 ever he is, swears and jokes now in German, wears 
 boots up to his thighs and dances German student 
 hornpipe, drinks punch, and sings German songs to
 
 ^.T. 24] LIFE IN BERLIN 119 
 
 perfection. . . . This fellow — his name is Child ^ 
 — is visiting two fjiends of mine, one of them a 
 Sanskrit student. "My dear Rig-Veda," he says, 
 " if you can notice anything less than two thousand 
 years old, won't you, etc. ?" . . . My winter here in 
 Berlin is drawing to its close — in fact, it's over in 
 everything but the cold and snow. We had our first 
 snow March 3d. I am convinced I did the wisest in 
 coming here. I have studied Prussian manners very 
 thoroughly, and have had unexampled advantages. 
 Probably no diplomat in the city has had more. I 
 have had art also to study, and almost everything 
 which I wished for the intellect. I regret two losses, 
 that of the theatre and the magnificent concerts ; 
 but I thought if I could not afford postage, there 
 were very few things I could afford, and except a 
 " coffee-party " or two I have given to strange friends, 
 I have had no luxuries. I am bound to say, how- 
 ever, Berlin hasn't been as satisfactory in the matter 
 of the heart as otherwise. That is, I have made no 
 home friends, as I did in Hamburg, though I have 
 more and better friends than I have in New York 
 now. Perhaps there is something in a large city, 
 perhaps it is merely accident, but there are so many 
 blocks to sympathy. For instance, one family where 
 I eat dinners, and talk and enjo}^ myself very much, 
 does not believe in the immortality of the soul! 
 Another, very cultivated indeed, thinks Republican- 
 ism a humbug! In another, extremely polite to me, 
 and where I enjoy myself much, I cannot get over 
 the impression of selfishness connected with them. 
 
 1 Professor Francis J. Child of Harvard University.
 
 120 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 Perhaps it has all been quite as well for me; for 
 lively, intelligent intercourse will almost take the 
 place of friendship, especially when one has such 
 as I have over the waters. I have been infinitely 
 instructed anyhow, and I have often thought this 
 winter there were very few things in the world I 
 really wanted or would pray for, unless, perhaps, to 
 get rather more from you all in America. 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 Berlik, April 1, 1851. 
 
 ... I myself am decidedly changing, I think, 
 growing stronger. However, time will show. With 
 the bright, warm, spring days, come old dreams and 
 feelings again. It is positively singular how never 
 do such beautiful thoughts visit me as when walk- 
 ing in the spring sunlight. The sweet, inexpressi- 
 ble sensation as I look at the blue sky, of a sympathy, 
 a purity, a friendship coming to us after a few years, 
 such as the heart almost bursts to imagine; the 
 thought changing with it, of the depth and awful- 
 ness of life ; the vague imaginings of acts of heroism 
 and self-conquest and nobleness, the press of mem- 
 ories, and that solemn lesson of the past which never 
 leaves me, of the sorrow God has given me; the 
 quick, never-to-be recalled idea of a boundlessly 
 noble and loving God. ... I am tired, in one 
 view, of travelling, this tasting and sipping of 
 friendships, and then never seeing either liquor or 
 bottle again. I look for deeper pursuits and deeper 
 friendships. I long for a higher progress in my own
 
 iEx. 24] LEAVING BERLIN 121 
 
 language, and for beginning more lasting work. 
 But I am convinced I am doing wisely. I shall 
 strike better, for the exercise now. I am now more 
 vigorous, I know. Less than ever before do I look 
 forward to honor or comfort, and more constantly do 
 I rest on the deep idea of life. . . . To-morrow, 
 my last Sunday, I dine with Curtius and his hot- 
 headed wife ; we part with real respect on both sides, 
 I think.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Plan of going to Hungary — Prague — Vienna Letters — Starts for 
 Hungary down the Danube — Sentiment for Hungary — Journey 
 to Gross Wardein — Imprisonment — Letters from Prison — 
 Release — Olmsted Letters — Feeling of Austrian Injustice — 
 Trieste — Liverpool — Return and Lectures — Book on Hun- 
 gary — Book on Germany — Episode with " C." 
 
 In Mr. Brace's letter to Mrs. Gray he tells of his 
 plan of going into Hungary in the spring, — a plan 
 which greatly attracted him, and was made possible 
 by the help of his friend, John Olmsted, who obtained 
 for him the position of correspondent on another 
 paper. He had originally written for the " Indepen- 
 dent" and the "Christian Union." At this time 
 he added the " Philadelphia Bulletin " and a little 
 later the "New York Tribune." His friend writes, 
 "... So, Charley, I don't see but your die is cast, 
 and that you are fairly in for it, and that the prob- 
 lematic Utopian idea of Dr. Bushnell is to be liter- 
 ally fulfilled, 'Tell him to travel as far and as long 
 as he can, to go to Russia and Siberia if his legs and 
 his purse will carry him there.' " And F. L. Olm- 
 sted had written in January, 1851: "If you could 
 get to Hungary and really know the people, take an 
 
 122
 
 JEt. 24] PRAGUE AND VIENNA 123 
 
 unprejudiced view of their condition and character, 
 learn what really is their revolutionary impulse, it 
 would be most interesting and valuable. For my 
 part, I really am anxious to get some advice about 
 that people, from a man that really knows some- 
 thing about them, and I think others must be." So 
 Charles's much-talked-of tour began, the first point 
 on the journey being Prague, which had ever an 
 immense fascination for him. " It was a beautiful 
 sunny spring afternoon," he writes, "as we rushed 
 over the railroad bridge at Prague, and the first sight 
 of that crowd of towers and Moorish domes and tur- 
 rets, as they rose one above the other on the hillside, 
 crowned by what seemed a mosque on the summit, 
 or stretched away on the other bank of the river 
 among the multitude of houses, was very striking. 
 I had at length reached the antique Bohemian capi- 
 tal, once the Paris of an old civilization, and now 
 filled with monuments which make it, perhaps, the 
 most interesting city of Europe, — an interest which 
 is increased by the strange movements of which it 
 has been the centre during the last few years." 
 
 Several days later, as he approaches Vienna, he 
 writes : " In the afternoon, at an angle of the road, 
 we came suddenly in view of a line of massive blue 
 mountains in the distance. Why did my pulse throb 
 quick at the sight? They were the hills where a 
 nation had made its last gallant, unflinching strug-
 
 124 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 gle for life. The first glimpse of a land which had 
 always seemed too heroic and dream-like to me, that 
 I should ever see it, — 
 
 " ' The Carpathians! Hungary! ' " 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 First night in Vienna, April, 1851. 
 
 My dear John: . . . Isn't it exciting? Such a 
 feeling of utter independence, and such a crowd of 
 ne'.Y objects to see ! I appear to be in a broad, hand- 
 some street, like the Boulevards, with large, splen- 
 did caf^s and billiard-rooms and beautiful tables in 
 open air, where gentlemen and ladies are eating ices, 
 and in one some handsome fellows with red caps, 
 who must be Greeks, are sitting, and I have met a 
 live Turk, too, loafing along in a cool manner; and 
 then I went up and leaned over the bridge and 
 watched for long the lights on the shores and the 
 current of the old river. The Danube at last, the 
 boundary of everything to the Romans, the famous 
 old Father of Waters. In Vienna ! And last night 
 talking so fast with those two dear hearts, two hun- 
 dred and fifty miles away in Prague. Such glorious 
 days as I have had in Prague ! . . . The guide-book 
 sights, as well as a curious experience with a Catho- 
 lic, you'll hear of through the papers. They were 
 most interesting. But after all, I must confess it, 
 more than the old bridge with its marvellous statues, 
 more than Huss's pulpit, or Nepomuk's statue, or
 
 ^T. 24] CONTACT WITH THE PEOPLE 125 
 
 Wallenstein's horse, was a certain pretty woman in 
 that city of Prague.^ 
 
 April 20, 1851. I think travelling with me is 
 done up in its best forms. I have little of the anx- 
 iety and fuss. And I now get right down at once 
 under the surface, and not only see guide-book 
 sights, but the why and the feelings of the people. 
 Such an unceasing contact with interesting people. 
 . . . You have only a few minutes with them. You 
 can't talk trifles — don't know the language well 
 enough. You are fresh; they are kindled by an 
 intelligent foreigner. You see only their best side. 
 They are won by (American ?) frankness. Everything 
 adds, — old associations around, imagination, sympa- 
 thy, reality, — and you have an explanation of the 
 way I feel sometimes. Been to-day with a curi- 
 ous, dark-browed merchant, who talks most savagely 
 about Austrian oppression, and revolution, and Hun- 
 gary. Suspect he must have played the deuce here 
 in the last revolution — seems like it — a sort of 
 Parisian revolutionist. Been with keen, intelligent 
 professor, who unfolded Austrian new education sys- 
 tem. Talked with a genuine Vienna merchant who 
 evidently couldn't make anything of me. " Lives in 
 lodging! Don't take an interest in theatre ! Going 
 into Hungary! Evidently a gentleman! What the 
 deuce can he be? " 
 
 J Professor Curtius, who, with Madame Curtius, had been the 
 kindest of friends to Mr. Brace in Berlin, gave him a letter to his 
 brother and his wife in Prague. They received Mr. Brace with the 
 utmost friendliness.
 
 126 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 .... "Tribune!" I would rather write for it 
 for five dollars than "Courier" for ten dollars, 
 and won't I have a noble audience too! How 
 thankful I am to you ! My friends all congratulated 
 me much here. But I am very anxious to begin in 
 Vienna. Could you not inquire of Dana whether it 
 would be consistent with his arrangement for me to 
 commence letters in Vienna ? ( ^Vho is Dana, by 
 the way, and liow came he there ?) . . . My pros- 
 pects are capital. Making just the acquaintances 
 in Wien, I should think; however, we'll see. Mag- 
 yar noblemen and Irish revolutionists who speak 
 German, and will put me through, if necessary, with 
 a hand to hand row with the custom officers. How- 
 ever, I can't tell. I must get in. 
 
 . . . These Hungarians here are very modest, 
 (all students and revolutionists, and rich) gentle- 
 manly, intelligent fellows, the best specimens I have 
 seen of the nation; promise me several letters of 
 their own accord. Everybody here thinks me cracked 
 to travel in Hungary, and I begin to be afraid I 
 sha'n't see much. Hungary here is like a wild part 
 of Maine with us, or Ireland. By the way, I mean 
 to have my last days in Europe at Belfast — hey? 
 . . . All looks well for me. Am promised some 
 particular introductions to prominent, out and out, 
 educated Catholics, as a young man who wishes to 
 see something of the influence of that religion on 
 the educated classes ! So look out! You'll have a 
 German paper soon with "Z^/e merkwurdige, plotz- 
 liche Bekehrung eines jungen Protestantischen Geist- 
 liches ! ' 
 
 I am a little dissatisfied about my apparent relig-
 
 JEt. 24] POWER OF CHRISTIANITY 127 
 
 ious condition. However, I don't know. But oh, 
 to be purified and made spiritual more! It is a curi- 
 ous fact, however, that my faith increases as I see 
 humanity and the people without religion and the 
 Rationalists. I become more and more certain, more 
 pressed through, with the belief, the confidence, that 
 Christianity is from God. Which is verj^ delightful 
 to me, for a man of very great strength is usually in- 
 evitably weakened in his belief of a matter, when all 
 the sensible, kind, intellectual, distinguished people 
 he knows deny it. Yes, Christianity has floated every- 
 thing else in history — governments, philosophies, 
 Rationalisms — like straws on its stream thus far. 
 It shall sweep broader and deeper. And we may let 
 it surely, without indulging too much in the dream, 
 pass like a beautiful vision before us ; an eternity of 
 sympathy and benevolence and purity with Him and 
 others. True. 
 
 Does spring bring up old memories to you? 
 There is an appropriateness which "cant " will never 
 destroy, in a new religious life (Revival) in spring. 
 Is spring solemn to all as to me, I wonder? I don't 
 mean solemn, but serious. However, little can be 
 spoken thereof. I have been thinking, this Sunday, 
 of how utterly my life and my Immortality were 
 probably changed by your (dream-like) plan, proposed 
 on a dyspeptic morning, of walking through Eng- 
 land. Such are our plans for life! My hopes of 
 steadily working for men are much more cheery. If 
 I cannot preach, I have now a pulpit, I hope, through 
 the "Independent," and I can throw myself into any 
 or all movements for the poor or the miserable. 
 But that which is the hardest and vital thing, can I
 
 128 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 throw the infinite influence into human life, of a 
 life pure, simple, inspired by love, self-forgetting? 
 Can you? We must pray for it, in words, in trust, 
 in efforts. My prayers are each day, with much 
 trust, for you all. Oh, God give us Trust.''^ 
 
 The visit in Vienna was very satisfactory, and his 
 strong sense of Austrian oppression and cruelty did 
 not prevent his finding much to study and admire in 
 the great reforms in educational matters lately begun. 
 Early in May he obtained his passport, and started 
 down the Danube. Nothing in his life had so touched 
 his imagination as the prospect of observing this 
 Hungarian people. Their half Oriental character, 
 the remains of feudal institutions among them, side 
 by side with their modern tastes and development, 
 attracted him strongly. But strongest of all, even 
 more than the interest in seeing the effect of manu- 
 mission from serfdom upon the peasants, was his 
 half-romantic but wholly real sympathy with the 
 Hungarians in their then late struggle for freedom, 
 the Revolution of 1848. He sees a fitness, as he sails 
 down the river, in the "cold storm of rain beating 
 across the steamboat, through which one could dimly 
 see the long line of monotonous willow bushes on 
 the banks, or the melancholy pine forests on the 
 hills. . . . The whole had a most dreary, desolate 
 look, in unison, one could not but think, with the 
 sorrowful and gloomy fortunes which had settled
 
 ^T. 24] IN THE HEART OF HUNGARY 129 
 
 upon the unfortunate nation."^ The journey, from 
 the moment of delivering his first letter of introduc- 
 tion in Pesth, was delightful. To J. H. Olmsted 
 he writes from Zolnok, on Ma}' 12th: '''"'' Elj en Pedes- 
 tris ! Eljen dyspepticia plcinae ! ' Here I am in the 
 heart of Hungary, in Zolnok, going to-morrow to 
 visit a Gutbesitzer on the Theiss, and then to Debrec- 
 zin and Gross Wardein and Szegedin; innumerable 
 letters; never saw such a people. 'Must dine with 
 me, ' all the while in Pesth. Talked infinitely ; such 
 real friendly folk. Spent four days in Pesth, crowded 
 full of thoughts and feelings ; did nothing but talk 
 and see. My brain burns yet, but I cannot say any- 
 thing here — you know why — amiable Austrian 
 habits. Met an American in Wien, like me, in 
 business, from Williams College, who had been 
 imprisoned two weeks in Bohemia, so you under- 
 stand. ... It has been a market-day here (Sun- 
 day), tall Bauer in sheepskins, with fierce musta- 
 chios, and Indian-like dignity. Women in sailors' 
 jackets and red boots. . . . All my good expecta- 
 tions of Hungarians are more than realized." 
 
 In a lecture delivered in later years at home, he 
 tells something of the feeling these people aroused 
 in him. " . . . It was my fortune to visit Hungary 
 just after the revolution. It is an interesting though 
 mournful experience, never to be forgotten, to stand 
 1 " Hungary iu 1851."
 
 130 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 by the death-bed of a nation. Here was a people, 
 educated by a thousand years of constitutional lib- 
 erty, having risen gradually above feudalism, until, 
 in 1848, the last vestige of serfdom and caste was 
 swept away, accustomed to such freedom as no 
 country in Europe but England has enjoyed, a noble, 
 gallant, generous race, suddenly trodden down under 
 absolute despotism. Liberty of speech, liberty of 
 the press gone; . . . national schools, national 
 churches, broken up ; the old language even forbidden 
 in public documents, and the dear old colors of the 
 kingdom outlawed; the favorite songs of Hungary 
 sung — as were the songs of Zion — by stealth 'in 
 a strange land,' under fear of the law; the fields 
 wasted, and homesteads burned; the prisons filled 
 with suffering patriots, and scaffolds red with their 
 blood. Such was the sad picture that then met my 
 eye." 
 
 He did not write much, not expecting that his 
 letters would be permitted to pass the frontier. We 
 must smile, as did his good friends in America, at 
 the very evident attempts not to commit himself in 
 the one letter we have until he reaches Gross War- 
 dein. One would like to give the graphic scenes 
 from the journal, afterwards appearing, with notes 
 enlarged, as "Hungary in 1851," which tells of long 
 conversations with disaffected Bauei\ drives behind 
 mad horses with country gentlemen, peasant homes
 
 JEt. 24] GROSS WARDEIX 131 
 
 and stately castles, all enjoyed Avith such a freshness 
 of interest and sympathy. But we must go on to 
 the chief incident of his Hungarian journey, his 
 imprisonment, interesting as an experience, but 
 doubly full of interest when we realize that 
 through that long, lonely period of homesickness 
 and hunger for all that made life beautiful to 
 him, he was coming to know, as never before, what 
 suffering and sorrow and sin meant. Nothing more 
 is needed than his letters after he left prison to show 
 how deeply the experience sank into his nature. It 
 is interesting that the letter telling of some of his 
 brightest hours should be dated from Gross Wardein 
 itself. 
 
 To J. H. Olmsted. 
 
 Gross Wardein, May 23, 1851, 
 My dear John : After a ride of four hours, with a 
 Vorspann of four horses abreast (furnished gratis as 
 everywhere) from Debreczin over the Puszta, I came 
 upon this little island in the flat prairie. The old 
 gentleman had come here thirty-two years ago, when 
 this was as flat and treeless as the rest, and with 
 incredible patience had planted and enriched and 
 hillocked and laid out, until it is a true English 
 country hall, with a park around. A bastion runs 
 around on the outside, and there you look off on the 
 endless prairie as on the sea, except that on one side 
 are a range of dirty houses for the workmen, not well 
 screened. Within, however, it is an arbor. The
 
 132 CHARLES LORTNG BRACE [1851 
 
 house is one story, with an immense range of hand- 
 some rooms. I am in the furthermost room, where, 
 as in all, the sofa is made up into a bed. Every- 
 thing very comfortable; servant for me brings me 
 coffee in the morning, while I write; ladies do not 
 appear till eleven ; then we walk out in the walks ; 
 they with the most dashing gypsy bonnets and very 
 neatly dressed, smoking as unconcernedly as F. K. 
 would. Oh, if you could once see such passionate, 
 eloquent, winning creatures ! My nerves are trem- 
 bling yet with those stormy words, as they speak of 
 their country, and the brave and the noble who are 
 gone, and that, be it remembered, in a foreign lan- 
 guage which they detest. The father toasted me at 
 dinner, and asked God's blessing on the land which 
 had so nobly sheltered the exiles, and told me to tell 
 the Americans that the Hungarian who would refuse 
 to admit an American to hearth and home and every- 
 thing he had was not worthy of the name. As he 
 spoke of the exiles, the tears came to every eye. . . . 
 My first coming was trying, right into that great 
 family, but in one and a half days I made immense 
 progress, visited Bauer houses with the tutor and 
 ladies, showed the father what he must do to come 
 to America. Poor man, old, and in the place he has 
 made a garden from the desert, but he cannot live 
 in an enslaved Hungary. I smoked with the daugh- 
 ters, and left with really a tremulousness at the cor- 
 dal regions, rather remarkable. The like of such 
 creatures do not exist out of Hungary ! This is one 
 picture from my life now, but not the most valuable ; 
 those I dare not give. 
 
 I travelled from Roff on the Theiss to Debreczin
 
 iEx. 24] HUNGARIAN LIVING 133 
 
 through the genuine specimens of Hungarians, Avhere 
 the Honveds come from. I never knew what human 
 beauty was before. Such tall, strong, handsome men 
 as one sees here. The manliest people I ever saw ! 
 I have been entertained like a brother everywhere, 
 not a penny since Roff for carriage or lodging or any- 
 thing but my own presents to servants. Now in 
 Gross Wardein, learning much all the while, in- 
 finitely well treated, my best ideas realized of the 
 Hungarians. God help 'em! God bless you, and 
 may we do something for poor humanity ! 
 
 P.S. In every place I have stayed longer than I 
 intended. One can't get away. They threaten to 
 use the good old Hungarian custom, to take the 
 wheels from the carriage. The Hune^arians are 
 amazingly good livers, and have the most delicious 
 light wines. You should taste Tokay! There's 
 nothing like it, yet they drink very little, — not a 
 third as much as the usual English, — but smoke! 
 The first thing one sees in the morning and the last 
 at night is the puff from the cigar or pipe. It's a 
 singular nation! I didn't suppose existed in this 
 age — so of the Orient and the Patriarchs. I have 
 become so used to kissing men, that I shall hardly 
 know how to kiss a woman. I am here in Gross 
 Wardein with a professor. The boundless enthusi- 
 asm and love towards Kossuth is wonderful in Bauer 
 and noble alike. More anon. The police of Hun- 
 gary is inexpressibly stupid. Providence blinds her. 
 
 " The police of Hungary is inexpressibly stupid. 
 Providence blinds her." This, scratched over in
 
 134 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 order that it might not be read if the letter fell into 
 unfriendly hands, must have been written on May 
 23d, while the gendarme was searching every hotel 
 and lodging-house in the city of Gross Wardein for 
 him ! As he was visiting, it was not easy to find 
 him, but finally, in the midst of a pleasant din- 
 ner at a cafe, the gendarme appeared, and though 
 he politely waited while Mr. Brace ate two plates 
 of Hungarian pudding and finished his cigar, they 
 left together, and went to the house where he was 
 visiting for his books and writings. He says he 
 could not but smile to himself at the idea of his 
 papers being faithfull}^ examined for dangerous 
 political sentiments, as they were either affectionate 
 letters from friends or sentimental and religious 
 effusions of his own, written in a very bad hand, and 
 very dull to any one but the author. From there he 
 was taken to the old castle outside the city, for tem- 
 porary arrest, on the charge of having revolutionary 
 matter in his possession, and of being a friend of 
 Uyhazy, a Hungarian exile. "As we rode through 
 the heavy old arched gateway into the court within," 
 he says in Hungary in 1851, "I looked around 
 curiously at the grim walls, and could not but 
 feel a momentary heart-sinking when I remem- 
 bered how far I was from friend or aid, and how 
 many a hopeful man had entered such a prison in the 
 Austrian states never to come forth again." At
 
 ^T. 24] ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED 136 
 
 first he was put with the common prisoners, but even 
 here lie contrived to learn something. Every nation- 
 ality was there, — a Pole and an Italian, a Jewish 
 rabbi, and a Frenchman who made speeches on Democ- 
 racy and the rights of man. Self-opinionated and 
 rude as they were, — many mere soldiers, — they all 
 met on the ground of devotion to freedom. " When 
 they spoke of that," he says in his book, "their 
 thoughts were grand, and I make no doubt — though 
 some of them had been living there for years — that 
 there was not a man among them who would have 
 bought his freedom on the best estate in Hungary 
 for a betrayal of their cause." He wrote to Vienna 
 to an influential man he had met there, reminding 
 him how ready to study the Hungarian question 
 from both sides he had been, how he had borrowed 
 books of Conservative sympathies, and ending, "In 
 the name of Christ, our Redeemer, I ask your aid 
 for a stranger in distress. . . . Do hasten, for it is 
 sad work rotting here in prison these beautiful days." 
 His prison letters read as follows, and are given in 
 journal form : — 
 
 To Us Father. 
 
 In prison. June 8th, Sunday. 
 Here I am in a room with six others, in the old 
 castle, after two weeks' imprisonment. The Hunga- 
 rian major, of French origin, is delivering a histori- 
 cal lecture to the other prisoners, to show that demo-
 
 136 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 cratic principles will conquer, and France stand at 
 the summit of Europe. A strange Sunday! The 
 prisoners are not bad fellows, but they quarrel fear- 
 fully, and discuss even more. From morning till 
 this evening has been a continuous din. First, we 
 get up at eight, and are allowed to walk out in the 
 covered alley and to see the other prisoners for an 
 hour or two. I take my coffee and bread, and then 
 walk till ten. Then read my Testament, which 
 luckily has been given me, and talk and study a 
 little Hungarian till twelve; then we all eat to- 
 gether. I had my dinner at first from a tavern, but 
 this is much cheaper, only costing about four cents, 
 — with which I have a half -bottle of wine (three 
 cents), — and is really healthy and good. In after- 
 noon we loaf, talk, sleep till six. Then our great 
 enjoyment in the day — a walk of an hour in the 
 open air, in the court, between two soldiers with 
 fixed bayonets. Every change is a delight, — a new 
 prisoner, a strange gendarme, a look out of a window 
 where there are no board barricades. Sometimes we 
 stand up on the window-seat to get an outlook on 
 the green fields and vine-covered hills near us. I 
 never began to know how sweet, how beautiful, is 
 the breath of free air. How I shall enjoy freedom 
 again when out. Oh, to be able to stir when I wish ! 
 To have no more of these petty officials over me! 
 To range the fields, to live by myself or with those I 
 love and respect, and not such a coarse, quarrelling 
 set! To meet you again, and my friends in Amer- 
 ica! Shall it be that I lie here rotting for months, 
 or am I near my freedom ? The worst here is the 
 night. I am tormented with fleas, and my body
 
 ^T. 24] PRISO:^ COMPANIONS 137 
 
 looks as if I had a terrible cutaneous disorder. On 
 the whole, I find it is not so bad as it might be, 
 though miserable enough. However, I am tolerably 
 hardened to bodily inconvenience ; the worst is the 
 monotony, a protracted sea-voyage, and the sense of 
 villanous injustice in me, without cause, and when 
 I cannot helj) myself. There is much very interest- 
 ing about the people from all possible nations, — 
 Hungarians, Wallachs, Poles, Jews, Italians, French. 
 They all have their good traits, and I get along well 
 with them. The major is a cultivated and interest- 
 ing man. The others are the most one-sided, un- 
 getalongable set I ever saw. Self-opinionated to 
 the verge of monomania, quarrelsome, though not 
 decidedly bad-hearted, rough, coarse, and forever 
 contradicting. In the other rooms are Catholic 
 priests, Protestant clergymen, ^awer, country squires, 
 noblemen, — all for revolutionary misdeeds. Under 
 us is a young, fair Grcifin (countess) imprisoned on 
 a similar accusation with me; i.e. being in corre- 
 spondence with emigrants in England for a plot. 
 
 You know, perhaps, how I have been imprisoned 
 with an absurd accusation of being an emissary of 
 Uyhazy and Czetz to spread revolutionary move- 
 ments. Uyhazy I never spoke to, and saw but once 
 in the streets of New York. From Czetz I have 
 four lines of introduction to a friend in Pesth. Not 
 a word of proof was found in my writings or effects. 
 But in them a revolutionary (printed) pamphlet, and 
 a " History of the War " on the Hungarian side, with 
 a portrait of Kossuth. This told against me, though 
 it is, of course, no proof of my being an emissary. 
 The examination was throughout unfair and one-
 
 138 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1851 
 
 sided, evidently in the design and hope of convicting 
 me. I know well my offence is that I am an Ameri- 
 can travelling in Hungary. My only hope is in the 
 exertions of our embassy at Vienna. Mr. McCurdy 
 knows well I am no emissary, and he must work. 
 Of course I have heard from no one for a long time. 
 My trust in God fails me not. I know He is with 
 me here, as elsewhere, and all this is testing and 
 proving me. I feel His presence always, and I am 
 not unha]3py, and pray for a greater purification, and 
 that all this may fit me for a better life among men. 
 God be with you, and may we meet here, for my heart 
 longs to see you. May He purify us all. 
 
 June 11. Things look better. I have been put 
 in a better room with two or three very agreeable 
 gentlemen, one a clergyman who was sentenced to 
 the gallows at first, but will probably only have a 
 life's imprisonment. He had roused the people 
 against the Austrian government in the war. Of 
 the others, one is a landholder who is just come, 
 arrested because he said "all the office-holders were 
 rascals " ! I am told privately I shall be out in a 
 day or two, that something has come from Vienna. 
 Probably McCurdy has appealed at once to the Min- 
 istry. When once I am out, I will never let the 
 matter rest while I can push it. I will have satis- 
 faction, justice, from the Austrian government, if 
 the thing is possible. If McC. does not press the 
 matter with the home government, I will. Such an 
 outrageous act of oppression shall not be left unno- 
 ticed, if I can do anything. Think! now eighteen
 
 ^T. 25] TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY 189 
 
 days in a miserable prison, on such an accusation, 
 and such proofs ! Confined like the worst Hungarian 
 offenders, "^miYors," as the Austrians would call 
 them, against the government. . . . 
 
 Saturday, June 21, 1851. I little thought that 
 my twenty-fifth birthday would be in an Austrian 
 prison. But so it is. To-day is four weeks. Such 
 imprisonment and such treatment on such proofs ! I 
 have been treated like a criminal, like a dog, and 
 even now, after all the examinations of my acquaint- 
 ances from every part of Hungary have come in, 
 always strong for me, after McCurdy's most spirited 
 and patriotic appeal for me, and the command of the 
 Ministry for my immediate release, I am still held 
 here in prison. I have heard hints that violence 
 might be used against me in secret, but I do not 
 fear, and do not believe them. The General had 
 said, decidedly, I would be freed to-day. But it 
 does not come. The matter looks more and more 
 serious every day. 
 
 Mr. Brace had found, soon after entering prison, 
 that a priest was to be immediately released. The 
 latter consented to carry in the lining of his boots 
 any letters Mr. Brace might wish to send. But 
 communication was not permitted except in the pub- 
 lic hall under the eye of the soldiers. How could 
 they exchange the necessary words! The ingenious 
 priest surmounted the difficulty by mingling ques- 
 tions with his "Ora pro nobis" in a most amusing
 
 140 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 way. As they passed and repassed in their walk, 
 "What did 3'ou say is his name?" (In louder tones 
 from his prayer-book) " O ! Maria beatissime ! " 
 Then as he passed again, "Ora pro nobis! Mac- 
 Curdy^ did you say? O holdseligste ! Segnet uns! 
 O sanctissime ! " Thus his letters were taken to Mr. 
 McCurdy, American Charg^ d'Affaires at Vienna. 
 As the weeks went by, Mr. McCurdy did everything 
 in his power to assist Mr. Brace, going or writing 
 every day to the Foreign Office, and considerately 
 writing also, every day, to his father. 
 
 At length, after thirteen trials by court-martial, 
 came the welcome release, and he went forth from 
 the dreary castle, though even then not as a free 
 man, for he had to bear the company of a gendarme 
 to Pesth. But no presence of gendarme could 
 lessen his first delight in breathing the free air 
 again, and the following touching account of his 
 sensations makes one realize afresh what his distress 
 of mind had been : — 
 
 " Of all the feelings of my life, if I live a hundred 
 years, I shall never forget that exhilaration of de- 
 light, as I rode out for the first time into the mild, 
 soft air of that beautiful June night. The breath 
 of free air again, the sight of stars and clouds, the 
 rapid movement, the new hopes, and the memory of 
 past suffering, the stern looking forward to justice 
 on wrong, the thankfulness infinite for my deliver-
 
 ^T.25] RELEASE FROM PRISON 141 
 
 ance, all worked upon my mind so, that I was in a 
 fever of excitement. It was like new life to me. 
 It seemed to me I could swim in that delicious at- 
 mosphere. In their zeal to please me, they had let 
 me travel as I pleased, and I told my companions to 
 drive on all night. I had no desire to sleep or rest. 
 Thoughts and feelings pressed through my breast, as 
 I have never even imagined before. . . . To be 
 whirling along in the free air, to be treated in some 
 degree as an honorable man again, to know that I 
 was hastening on towards those who trusted and 
 loved me, and that I was getting nearer the great 
 routes of travel, where sudden deeds of dark injustice 
 could not so easily be done, — all this filled me with 
 such exhilarating: feelings as one can never have a 
 second time in his life. But I did not feel entirely 
 secure. I had not the least shadow of confidence 
 in the honor or the justice of the Austrian authori- 
 ties. The prison had revealed too many an iniqui- 
 tous deed."i 
 
 The distress of his friends at home may be imag- 
 ined as time went on without bringing his release, 
 which at first they had expected in a day or two. 
 Mr. Frederick L. Olmsted writes : — 
 
 " We have heard of your arrest, but no particulars, 
 and are in a considerably excited state of commisera- 
 tion, anxiety, and indignation. I shall write a little 
 on the supposition that you are not hung, the possi- 
 bility of which has kept me awake some o' nights. 
 
 1 "Hungary in 1851."
 
 142 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 If you do get off whole, you will be well paid for 
 any privation and anxiety you have had by the honor 
 of the thing. As far as mere formal honors go, I 
 don't know many that would be so prepossessing to 
 me as to have it said of me that I had been a pris- 
 oner of the Austrians — a military prisoner — to be 
 tried by a court-martial. He is pretty certainly a 
 true, brave, and good man. ... I anticipate your 
 most interesting letters now, describing Austrian 
 prison discipline — size of your cell, weight of your 
 chain, etc. ; your conversations with your keeper; 
 how you were fed; the visits of the chaplain, and 
 the theological student amateurs a la Blackwell's 
 Island, etc., etc." 
 
 John Olmsted writes : — 
 
 "I wish, for various reasons, I knew whether 
 you were in or out of confinement. One doesn't 
 like to adopt the same style towards a friend who 
 has been for two months in a damp dungeon on 
 bread and water, beating his head in vain against 
 the walls, and cursing his fate, and ignorant whether 
 he has friends or not, as to an individual kicking up 
 his heels in sunny Italy, eating grapes and figs, and 
 thinking what a pleasant adventure it was to be 
 shown the inside arrangements of an Austrian guard- 
 house for a couple of nights a month or two ago." 
 
 And again, on July 8th : — 
 
 "So our sympathy is with at least three weeks' 
 imprisonment, and a military trial, with dreary 
 enough forebodings. Oh, that we could do some-
 
 iEx. 25] RETURN TO VIEKNA 143 
 
 thing for you! This impotence, and your silence, 
 and the vacmeness of the whole information is 
 most painful. I can't but trust that long before 
 this you are free. Yet, good God! look at the 
 possibilities! If!! I should rather look upon you 
 as one Avho had been lost at sea, merely vanished, 
 forever silent. But it would light up a sympathy 
 with the oppressed by despotism that would lead 
 to deeds, to anything that Providence and reason 
 allowed. Life would be real dreary with you never 
 again by me, and no looking forward to you, 
 Charley; with no exaggeration or affected feeling. 
 In prison or out, my hearty prayer is that God will 
 use you for His own purposes, in furthering the king- 
 dom of heaven upon earth. . . . We do long to see 
 you! Be firm, true, unabashed as innocent, and a 
 martyr if necessary. God be with you — with us! 
 That it may please Thee to succor, help, and com- 
 fort, and to show Thy pity upon all prisoners and 
 captives. We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord. 
 Amen." 
 
 Mr. Brace returned to Vienna, but his next letter 
 to his father shows his growing indignation at the 
 only partial freedom he is permitted to enjoy. 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Vienna, July 5, 1851. 
 Dear Father : Free, thank God ! I send you prison 
 thoughts written in that cursed place. As soon as I 
 reached here, I was ordered, by police, to leave
 
 144 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 Austria in three days!!! I asked him [the officer] 
 if he would take the responsibility of such an order 
 after I was adjudged innocent. "No, he was so 
 commanded," etc. I laid the matter before Mc- 
 Curdy, and he to the Ministry, in a well-put note, 
 inquiring "if anything new had occurred?" and 
 driving them into a dilemma. No answer; and 
 police withdrawn the order! Mr. McC. has acted 
 nobly and man-like, worthy of the representa- 
 tive of a great nation. I owe him many, many 
 thanks. Without him I might have been lying there 
 yet. These prison notes were brought out in my 
 hoots. Don't publish them, as I wish to. I hope 
 the government will never leave such an abominable 
 injustice. It cries for punishment. Write soon. 
 God bless you ! Tell John I cannot write for some 
 time. Justice first. All well in health, etc., etc. 
 
 But there were also happy moments, and one pic- 
 ture of a peaceful afternoon at Pesth, in the midst of 
 this time of burning indignation is well worth 
 inserting from his book. 
 
 "As soon as I could, with several of my friends 
 in company, I walked out to the house of an Eng- 
 lish missionary, Mr. W.,^ living without the town; 
 a gentleman who had been most active in his efforts 
 for my liberation. They tried to disguise me, in 
 order to prepare a surprise for him, but he recognized 
 me at once from a distance, and hailed me as ' the 
 emissary,' and hastening to meet me, forgetting his 
 
 1 One of the missionaries banislied by the Austrian government.
 
 ^T. 2r.] UNDER POLICE SURVEILLANCE 145 
 
 English coldness, he threw his arms around my neck 
 as if I had been his son. At the house, on the bal- 
 cony, we found a real English tea-table, spread with 
 bread and butter and tea, in home style, and a lady 
 was there to Avelcome us in English. How shall I 
 ever forget that evening, so rich in deep, happ\ 
 feelings! The scene w^as one never to be forgotten. 
 The sun was just setting, and the rich rays poured 
 down into the whole valley of the Danube, which 
 lay at our feet, gilding with glowing light the line 
 buildings of Pesth, and the summit of the old for- 
 tress of Ofen, while it left the side towards us in 
 dark shadow. The colors changed each instant on 
 the clouds above, becoming more and more gorgeous. 
 And as the sun went down behind the Ofener moun- 
 tains, there seemed to be almost endless vistas of 
 splendid coloring opening beyond. We all felt the 
 scene with an awe and happiness not to be spoken 
 in words. And as the old missionary called us to 
 the table, and uncovering his gray locks thanked Him 
 who had made all this for His goodness, and that 
 He had brought their friend back again from danger 
 and suffering, I joined with a thankfulness not to be 
 described. And as he prayed for ' the unhapj^y 
 land,' and that 'the ends of justice might everywhere 
 be furthered,' I resolved inwardly that, God willing, 
 my efforts should never fail, while I had strength 
 to give them, for the oppressed in any land."^ 
 
 He was not freed from the espionage of the gen- 
 darme until he reached Trieste, whence he travelled 
 
 1" Hungary in 1851."
 
 146 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 to Rome, and then back to England, where he was 
 hospitably entertained in Liverpool by his friends, 
 Mr. William Neill and Miss Letitia. 
 
 " William Neill here heard of my stress," he writes, 
 on October 17th, to his friend, John Olmsted, "and 
 like a trump sent me a ten-pound note which gave 
 me a new coat (one pound, one shilling, and three 
 pence) and vest (twenty-four shillings), and sent me 
 here at once. ... I live at the Neills', and board 
 in a delightful coffee-house, and appear like a gen- 
 tleman once more. All the while with Miss Letitia 
 (no danger), delightful sisterly friendship, and walks 
 and talks. My trials in London with the greasy, 
 worn, seedy coat, in society, would make you laugh 
 your eyes out. People ivould see it, and u'ould make 
 me play chess where all could look down and in- 
 spect. I had to dine and toast and be sketched and 
 talk in a dress like that Irish doctor on our ship. 
 
 " I shall sail on November 1st, and go to Belfast 
 to-morrow, live in the family, write, etc., and enjoy, 
 and wait for money." 
 
 His European correspondence comes to a fitting 
 close in the following letter to Miss Baldwin: — 
 
 London, Oct. 5, 1851. 
 
 My dear Miss Baldwin : I suppose many of my 
 friends were almost surprised at such a quiet man 
 as myself making such a noise about the affair. 
 
 If it had been a mere matter of personal pique and 
 inconvenience, I should have dropped it, as I have
 
 JEt. 2n] AUSTRIAN OPPRESSION 147 
 
 the cheating of Italian waiters or anything else of 
 the kind. In fact, to ray personal feelings, that 
 would have been pleasanter. But it seemed a ques- 
 tion of universal justice, and it seemed an especially 
 good opportunity of revealing the Austrian system 
 in an open wrong. The oppression they were exer- 
 cising on a nation happened to be shown on me. 
 And I had hoped our government would rebuke it, 
 perhaps chastise it. I hope you and other old friends 
 have understood me well enough to know there was 
 no petty, private resentment in my motives. It is 
 curious to me to find that in England and through 
 our Diplomatic Corps in Europe, the affair has found 
 more sympathy and caused more indignation than in 
 America. I suppose international rights are very 
 little understood in the States, and the importance 
 of our position as a Power ready to protect its citi- 
 zens, not so much appreciated at home as here. I 
 do very much hope I can do something yet, for the 
 cause of the oppressed in Europe, and strike another 
 blow at Austria. 
 
 All talk of " oppression " and " tyranny " sounds, I 
 suppose, to you, Miss B., a little Fourth-of- July- 
 like. But if you could once be under it — which 
 may Providence prevent — or mingle with those who 
 are suffering from it, you would not be surprised at 
 my expressions. I cannot speak or write one-tenth 
 of what I feel. People would think me crazy. But 
 I do, I must, till I die, feel for the oppressed, like 
 one who has shared their dungeons with them. 
 "When I forget them," I say to m^-self, — though I 
 do not need to say it, — " may God forget me ! " Upon 
 my word, I turn over a paper and read of a new de-
 
 148 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1851 
 
 feat of the " Liberals " of Europe, as you would a list 
 of misfortunes among your friends, or your father a 
 series of disasters among the Whigs. 
 
 Well, what a sober, political document I am writ- 
 ing to you ! But, after all, could I show my confi- 
 dence and friendship better than by writing of what 
 most is interesting me ? 
 
 Immediately upon Mr. Brace's return to New 
 York, the "Kossuth fever," as he calls it, took com- 
 plete possession of him. He lectured on Hungary, 
 and wrote daily on the book which was to tell of his 
 experiences there, and would, he hoped, arouse pub- 
 lic sympathy with the oppressed. How absorbed he 
 was we learn from the following paragraph in a let- 
 ter to Mr. Kingsbury : — 
 
 " Sorry, but cannot help it. I am a patent writ- 
 ing machine now, have forgotten my friends, my 
 country, m}'- dinner, for a few weeks, till The book is 
 finished. Work from 8 A.M. to 12 p.m., with inter- 
 ludes of lager beer and theological discussions. Shall 
 do it up by the end of next week, perhaps before." 
 
 In July he writes to his father : — 
 
 "... I had a long confidential interview with 
 Kossuth two weeks ago. He said my book, etc., had 
 done more for him than any other thing; unfolded 
 his plans, etc., etc., and left with me every favorable 
 impression deeply strengthened — of genius, patriot-
 
 ^T. 25] BOOKS ON HUNGARY AND GERMANY 149 
 
 ism, sincerity, and of a loving and ideal nature. 
 Thanked me again at close of interview, and shook 
 hands warmly. . . . What do you say to my ' Trib- 
 une ' letters on Vagrant Schools ? " 
 
 His book on Hungary was published in April, 
 1852, the first edition of two thousand volumes sell- 
 ing easily, and favorable reviews appeared in the 
 London " Athenteum," "Spectator," and "Econo- 
 mist." Although tired of travel- writing, he fol- 
 lowed it the next year, with an account of his 
 German experiences, published under the title 
 "Home Life in Germany," of which he says in the 
 preface : — 
 
 "I have tried to give a true picture of German 
 home life, and all will, of course, draw their own 
 conclusions. But I do not hesitate to confess that 
 a definite purpose has been before me. It has seemed 
 to me that in this universal greed for money, in this 
 clangor and whirl of American life, in the wasteful 
 habits everywhere growing up, and in the little 
 heed given to quiet home enjoyment, or to the pleas- 
 ures from art and beauty, a voice from those calm, 
 genial old German homes might be of good to us ; 
 telling of a more simple, economical habit, of sunny 
 and friendly hospitalities, of quiet, cultured tastes, 
 and of a home life wliose affection and cheerfulness 
 make the outside world as nothing in the compari- 
 son,"
 
 150 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1852 
 
 Another episode in Mr. Brace's life, interesting 
 because drawing a good deal of attention and criti- 
 cism on him, but, happily, ending quite satisfacto- 
 rily, even to the extent of making good friends of 
 Mr. Brace and him whom we shall call C, the 
 name he went by in the correspondence, — belongs 
 to the period of his first return to New York. The 
 young reformer came home, fired with the desire 
 to impart something of German geniality into the 
 severe New England homes he knew, feeling that 
 the "home life" he loved in Germany was needed 
 here, that the New England habit of silent, hurried 
 meals, and extreme gravity upon the Sunday were 
 far from the true Christian ideal. This he wrote, 
 with much more upon the subject, when, to his utter 
 amazement, it called forth a vituperative letter in 
 the "Independent" (the paper for which he wrote), 
 saying, among other things, that this young man 
 with German ideas was never so happy as when 
 under the table with his boon companions, drunk! 
 Showers of letters, intensely for or against his views, 
 came to "C. L.," and one to the "Independent," 
 saying that it was the beginning of a "holy war- 
 fare." 
 
 One cannot wonder that the orthodox, in a com- 
 munity which believed so firmly in the efficacy of 
 "revivals," were startled by a statement like the fol- 
 lowing: "More to me than a revival of religion
 
 JEt. 25] FAMILY LIFE HERE AND ABROAD 151 
 
 would be a revival of the home life." But long 
 letters to the "Independent," from which we shall 
 quote a few sentences, reveal that his views were 
 not so dangerous as they at first appeared : — 
 
 " On returning home from abroad, I was struck 
 with the want exhibited throughout family life here 
 of healthy cheerfulness, of sociality, geniality, and 
 the more tender and kindly expressions of affection. 
 It seemed to me that in the German and Irish homes 
 I had visited, the religious principle expressed 
 itself more in these kindly, pleasant, social ways; 
 more in the petty self-sacrifices and attentions of 
 everyday life, than, as with us, in the grander 
 efforts. . . . The great sacrifice of self — one 
 which, in my view, demands far more real moral 
 power — is in the common affairs of everyday life. 
 To yield our own comforts and habits, that we may 
 welcome or cheer a friend, to restrain moroseness 
 and unsociality that we may join in others' pleasure, 
 to forget our own selfish plans, in order to share a 
 stranger's feelings ... in these ways, more truly 
 than in occasional acts of heroism, or in the formal 
 duties of religious life, is manifested the great princi- 
 ple of Christ's self-sacrificing love. This is the 'new 
 piety ' which many among us would see more devel- 
 oped in Christian men. It is not new; it is the 
 piety of Arnold and Melancthon and John ; it is old 
 as Christ. With this manifested through the whole 
 Christian community, as it has been in a few in all 
 ages, many of the old 'stumbling-blocks ' of religion 
 would be taken away."
 
 152 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1852 
 
 The tempest subsided, and his father wrote : " I see, 
 bj to-day's ' Independent, ' that C. had his backers 
 a£ well as C. L. It is well that the controversy has 
 stopped, otherwise it might have divided the church, 
 and been a test for orthodoxy and heterodoxy."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Decision to enter Philanthropic Work — Efforts among Adults — 
 Boys' Meetings — Insufficiency of These Efforts — Organization 
 of Children's Aid Society — First Circular — Immediate Response 
 of Children — Workshops — Letters in Children's Aid Society — 
 Failure of First Effort — Workshops — Industrial Schools — 
 Need of Outside Help in starting Schools — Objection to Raffles, 
 etc. — Organization of Fourth Ward Schools — Homeless Boys — 
 Lodging House — Wliat to do with the Homeless — Emigrat on 
 versus Asylums — Difficulties — Immediate Success of Effort — 
 Miscellaneous Letters 
 
 Mr. Brace returned to New York with the inten- 
 tion of beginning immediately upon some course of 
 work for the unfortunate in our great city, but the 
 form it was to take was not clearly defined. He still 
 had thoughts of preaching, but was growing more 
 and more to feel that it was not in the direction of 
 a pastor's work, but rather in that of a city mission- 
 ary, that his usefulness would lie. He joined the 
 Rev. Mr. Pease in the Five Points in his devoted 
 labors among those grown old in sin, and he made 
 an occasional visit to Blackwell's Island, feeling 
 his way into a more thorough understanding of the 
 conditions he wished to ameliorate. In the spring 
 of 1852, he says to his father: "If I am only a city 
 
 153.
 
 154 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1852 
 
 missionary with two hundred dollars a year, or any- 
 thing else mean, but really doing good, you should 
 be contented. I don't care a straw for a city pas- 
 tor's place. I want to raise up the outcast and 
 homeless, to go down among those who have no 
 friend or helper, and do something for them of what 
 Christ has done for me. I want to be true — true 
 always. Not orthodox, or according to any one 
 school or sect, but to follow my own convictions of 
 truth. So did Christ." And in support of this 
 position he says elsewhere in the same letter: "I 
 bear in mind that there was never, apparently, a 
 greater failure than Christ's own life." 
 
 But a few months' experience convinced him that 
 the effort to reform adults was well-nigh hopeless, 
 and he next turned his attention, with a few other 
 public-spirited men, to the boys. They organized 
 "Boys' meetings," as they were called, to be held on 
 Sunday evenings, and designed to draw the roughest 
 class of loafers from about the docks, and to reach 
 and influence them by stories and allegories. 
 
 It is an old story now, the attempts to reach those 
 wild hearts through eloquence and preaching, but 
 then it was all new ground. It could not long be 
 satisfactory to those who were aiming at a moral 
 reformation which should affect the whole lives of 
 the boys, but it had its small fruits, and even after 
 some stormy opening of a meeting, there would come
 
 ^T. 25] "BOYS' MEETINGS" 155 
 
 moments when the speaker knew he was not speak- 
 ing in vain. Mr. Brace, in his book " The Danger- 
 ous Classes of New York," says: "Whenever the 
 speaker could, for a moment only, open the hearts 
 of the little street-rovers to this voice, there was in 
 the wild audience a silence almost painful, and 
 every one instinctively felt, with awe, a mysterious 
 Presence in the humble room, which blessed both 
 those who spake and those who heard." 
 
 The knowledge gained at "Boys' meetings," as 
 well as through efforts among adults, was lead- 
 ing Mr. Brace to a conviction that nothing could 
 avail with the little vagrants of New York except a 
 thorough reformation of character, brought about by 
 and under changed conditions. He says: — 
 
 "The 'Boys' meetings,' however, were not, and 
 could not in the nature of things, be a permanent 
 success. They were the pioneer work for more pro- 
 found labors for this class. They cleared the way, 
 and showed the character of the materials." In 
 speaking of the efforts to reform adults, he says in 
 his book. "It was a Sisyphus-like work, and soon 
 discouraged all engaged in it. . . . What soon 
 struck all engaged in these labors was the immense 
 number of boys and girls floating and drifting about 
 our streets, with hardly any assignable home or occu- 
 pation, who continually swelled the multitude of 
 criminals, prostitutes, and vagrants. ... It was
 
 156 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1858 
 
 clear that whatever was done, must be done in the 
 source and origin of the evil — in prevention, not 
 cure. The impression deepened both with those en- 
 gaged in these benevolent labors and with the com- 
 munity, that a general organization should be formed 
 which should deal alone with the evils and dangers 
 threatened from the class of deserted youth then first 
 coming plainly into public view." 
 
 With the intention of organizing some more com- 
 prehensive effort than had been before attempted, a 
 number of influential men, Messrs. William C. Rus- 
 sell, B. J. Rowland, William C. Oilman, William 
 L. King, C. L. Brace, and Judge Mason and others, 
 who had all been working separately in different dis- 
 tricts of the city, met to discuss the formation of an 
 association, and a letter shows us that on Jan. 9, 
 1853, Mr. Brace was asked, to his great surprise, to 
 take the head of what they called "a mission to the 
 children," with a salary of one thousand dollars a 
 year. In accepting the call, he says that he " never 
 dreamed of making a life pursuit of it in the begin- 
 ning, or during a number of years," and the follow- 
 ing, from a letter to his father, written ten days after 
 the offer was made, gives a glimpse of the uncertainty 
 in which the decision was made : — 
 
 "I have just about decided," he says, "on an im- 
 portant step for me ; that is, to be city missionary 
 for vagrant boys during the year, with office and
 
 ^T. 26] THE CHILDREN'S ATD SOCIETY 157 
 
 salary ($1000). I have hesitated a good deal, as it 
 interrupts my regular study and training, but this 
 is a new and very important enterprise. The duties 
 are to organize a system of boys' meetings, vagrant 
 schools, etc., Avhich shall reach the whole city; to 
 communicate with press and clergy; to draw in boys, 
 find them places in country, get them to schools, help 
 them to help themselves; to write and preach, etc., 
 etc. A new and rather expanded thing at present, 
 but to become clearer as we go on. Mornings in 
 office, afternoons in visiting. It suits my sympa- 
 thies, has variety, and is or can be of infinite use. 
 Still it will keep me here, even in hottest weather, 
 and it binds me down for a year. What do you say ? 
 Is it the best field for my talents ? Can I do more 
 elsewhere for humanity ? " 
 
 In a circular issued as soon as the plans of this 
 new association calling itself "The Children's Aid 
 Society" were made (which may be found in the 
 appendix), Mr. Brace speaks with deepest feeling of 
 the gradual degradation which is sure to result to 
 both boys and girls from the uncontrolled life of the 
 streets. He says that it is not possible for him and 
 those about him, as Christian men, to look upon this 
 great multitude of unhappy, deserted, and degraded 
 boys and girls, without feeling responsibility to God 
 for them. He proposes, without in any way conflict- 
 ing with existing asylums and institutions, to take 
 care of the vagrant children by means of industrial
 
 158 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 schools and lodging-houses, and " especially to be the 
 means of draining the city of this class by communi- 
 cating with farmers, manufacturers, or families in the 
 country who may have need of such employment." 
 The circular closes with the words : " We call upon all 
 who recognize that these are the little ones of Christ, 
 all who believe that crime is best averted by sowing 
 good influences in childhood, all who are the friends 
 of the helpless, to aid us in our enterprise. We 
 confidently hope this wide and practical movement 
 will have its share of Christian liberality." It is 
 worthy of remark that all the distinctive features of 
 the society as it developed later, — Sunday meetings 
 and industrial schools, lodging-houses and reading- 
 rooms, arrangements with manufacturers for provid- 
 ing employment, and the placing of children on farms 
 and in country homes, — are found in outline in this 
 the society's first circular. 
 
 No sooner was the office of the Children's Aid 
 Society opened at 683 Broadway, than there was an 
 immediate response of the children to this effort for 
 them. Crowds of wandering little ones found their 
 way there. Ragged young girls who had nowhere 
 to lay their heads, children driven from drunkards' 
 homes, pickpockets and child beggars and flower- 
 sellers, all came. Mr. Brace says in " The Danger- 
 ous Classes of New York " : —
 
 JEx. 26] THE FIRST WORKSPIOP 159 
 
 "All this motley throng of infantile misery and 
 childish guilt passed through our doors, telling their 
 simple stories of suffering and loneliness and temp- 
 tation, until our hearts became sick; and the present 
 writer, certainly, if he had not been able to stir up 
 the fortunate classes to aid in assuaging these fearful 
 miseries, would have abandoned the post in dis- 
 couragement and disgust! " 
 
 On March 7th, he writes to one of the trustees, 
 Mr. W. L. King: — 
 
 " Everything goes on well. . . . We have opened 
 one room for a workshop in Wooster Street, where 
 we expect to have forty or fifty boys. The work 
 is shoemaking. The boys jump at the chance gladly. 
 . . . Public attention is arousing everywhere to 
 this matter, and the first two or three days after our 
 appeal was published, we had some four hundred 
 dollars sent in, part in cash, without the trouble of 
 collecting. We shall begin collecting this week. 
 I pray with you, dear sir, for God's blessing on our 
 young enterprise. It is a grand one; but without 
 Him I see how useless it will be. If we succeed 
 even faintly, I shall feel that we have not lived in 
 vain. Surely Christ will be with us in these feeble 
 efforts for His poor creatures." 
 
 And in a letter to his father a week or two earlier : 
 
 "... We are beginning well with our society, 
 and I shall send you soon the circular. We incorpo- 
 rate it, and on the first of May enter our office in the 
 new Bible House. At present the office is at corner
 
 160 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 of Amity Street. I always knew my sins would find 
 me out, and now I see what I have got to learn, to 
 be a business man. But my discipline stands me in 
 good stead, and I work to be methodical, when you 
 would do it naturally. In the morning between 
 nine and twelve I am in the office writing and keep- 
 ing books. In afternoon ranging city, seeing boys, 
 talking with pastors, doing any business we may 
 have till five; then return to my lodgings, my own 
 again, except when I make a night excursion. I 
 shall not write much for press, except as our busi- 
 ness requires, and to keep up my connection with it, 
 but in evenings study and read and see friends. The 
 business tires me much more than writing and study- 
 ing during the day, harasses and wears. It will 
 keep me close, too, all the year, I fear. But the 
 enterprise is a great one, and for a year I can stand it. 
 Then on some wider and more intellectual field! " 
 
 To his cousin, Mrs. Gray, he writes of the satisfac- 
 tory character of his work, as follows : — 
 
 To Mrs. Asa Gray. 
 
 Children's Aid Society, April 23, 1853. 
 My dear J — ; I am overwhelmed with business, 
 and therefore have not written as I should. This is 
 only an apology. I will write again at length in a 
 few days. You must not think of me as tending 
 delicate, fatherless children, or anything of that 
 sort. I have to do mostly with rough, hearty, poor 
 boys, and with friendless children who have learned
 
 JEt. 26] FAILURE OF WORKSHOP ATTEMPTS 161 
 
 how to take care of themselves — such as I do love 
 or like. I think there is nothing in the world so 
 interesting as a healthful, manly boy, and the attempt 
 to help these fellows to help themselves is the most 
 pleasant to me possible. The worst of it is the 
 stupidity and ignorance of the parents, who can't be 
 talked or driven into saving their own children. 
 
 The first special effort, the workshop in Wooster 
 Street, was not successful. Other attempts, made 
 from time to time, to teach boys other trades, such 
 as box-making, bag-making, and carpentering, also 
 failed. It had been hoped that the boys might be 
 taught trades, and at the same time the workshops 
 be self-supporting, but this was not found feasible. 
 The workers were too irregular, work was spoiled, 
 and it was found to be an axiom that " Benevolence 
 cannot compete with selfishness in business." "We 
 soon discovered that if we could train the children 
 of the streets to habits of industry and self-control 
 and neatness, and give them the rudiments of moral 
 and mental education, we need not trouble ourselves 
 about anything more. A child in any degree edu- 
 cated and disciplined can easily make an honest liv- 
 ing in this country."^ 
 
 In planning the industrial schools of the Children's 
 Aid Society, Mr. Brace felt that he had hit upon one 
 of the surest and most practical measures to save 
 
 1 "The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 95.
 
 162 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1853 
 
 from vice the children, and especially the daughters, 
 of the poor. A more intimate relation between 
 teacher and pupil, a stronger moral influence on the 
 part of the former, can thus be attained, than is pos- 
 sible in the public school. Children will come, too, 
 who are ashamed, owing to their rags, to be seen in 
 the public schools, or who cannot attend regularly 
 because of their occupations at home, or because of 
 the need of eking out the family income in some 
 street employment. Mr. Brace was alive, from the 
 first, to the necessity of going after the children, 
 seeking the parents in their homes, and persuading 
 them to send their children to the school. To do 
 this it was necessary to convince them of the abso- 
 lutely unsectarian character of the instruction offered ; 
 also, to offer help in the way of food and clothing to 
 those who excelled in learning, punctuality, and 
 good deportment. Paid agents, therefore, were to 
 go about gathering in the children, and these agents, 
 in establishing friendly relations wherever they 
 went, would be in a position to recruit pupils for 
 the public schools, as well as to discover and make 
 provision for the homeless. In the school itself, 
 Mr. Brace was clear as to what should be offered. 
 First of all, direct moral instruction, arising often 
 from the close relation between teacher and pupil; 
 and secondly, instruction in industry and mental 
 training by means of the "object" system. The
 
 iEx. 26] THE SCHOOL TRAINING 163 
 
 danger of falling into routine was as much as possi- 
 ble to be avoided. The training was to be in the 
 exercise of the senses — touch, weight, color, and 
 harmony, now recognized as of basic importance in 
 the development of the intellect. "The principle 
 most insisted on," he says,^ "... is that the child 
 should teach himself, so far as possible; that his 
 faculties should do the work, and not the teacher's ; 
 and the dull and slow pupil is especially to be led 
 on and encouraged." The little girls were to spend 
 a portion of their time in sewing ; the boys were to 
 be taught a new conception of order and regularity 
 of employment. When the work had had time to 
 grow ripe, "Mothers' meetings " might be organized, 
 and the connection between the school and the home 
 might be made a more binding and vital one. As 
 time went on and the schools had justified their 
 existence in the community, some of these meetings 
 were held, but it was found that better agents than 
 the society's teachers and visitors were the children 
 themselves. The habits they learned at school were 
 carried by them into their homes, and thus in the 
 natural, unconscious manner that seems most analo- 
 gous to the methods of nature in the physical uni- 
 verse, the influence of the school was extended 
 through the neighborhood in which it was situated. 
 
 1 In a chapter on inventive teacliing, in "Tlie Dangerous Classes 
 of New York."
 
 164 CHARLES LORTXG BRACE [1853 
 
 The Society, with its very small means, was not 
 able, in its infancy, to undertake the expense of 
 schools, and Mr. Brace conceived the idea of organ- 
 izing an association, of the simplest nature, of a few 
 women who should feel the responsibility of raising 
 money, while the society was to bring together the 
 children and suitable teachers. It is worthy of re- 
 mark, in this connection, that from the very begin- 
 ning, many of the usual methods of raising money 
 for a charity, such as "raffles," "pathetic exhibitions 
 of abandoned children," or even the "legitimate 
 benefit of a fair," had been resolutely renounced by 
 the new society. Once, Mr. Brace writes, he was 
 led into arranging for a concert for the benefit of a 
 school, " but that experience was enough. Our effort 
 at musical benevolence became a series of most in- 
 harmonious squabbles," and he was glad to retire 
 with a few hundred dollars gained at the cost of 
 "superhuman exertions." For some months he had 
 been attempting to prepare the public mind for the 
 new departure, by incessant writing for the daily 
 papers, by lectures, and by sermons in various pul- 
 pits. He had also investigated closely the different 
 parts of the city, with reference to future movements 
 for their benefit, and so had grown to know the 
 centres of crime and misery, of filth and wretched- 
 ness and vice, in the midst of which the children 
 lived and grew up rough and untamed. He says:
 
 iET.26] CARING FOR LITTLE GIRLS 165 
 
 " Near each one of these fever-nests and centres of 
 ignorance, crime, and poverty, it was our hope and 
 aim eventually to place some agency which should 
 be a moral and physical disinfectant, a seed of re- 
 form and improvement amid the wilderness of vice 
 and degradation." 1 
 
 With one of the worst of these localities, that in 
 which lie Cherry, Water, and Roosevelt Streets, Mr. 
 Brace had become especially familiar, and had grown 
 to feel tliat nothing but a great effort could save the 
 children there from hopeless degradation. Little 
 girls wandered the streets, begging and stealing, 
 gathering rags, and doing errands for the dance- 
 saloons, exposed to every species of temptation. 
 Occasionally their offences grew too flagrant, and 
 then the police arrested them, but only to let them 
 go again in response to the pleading of their mothers, 
 and their assurances that the children should be 
 cared for. It seemed to Mr. Brace that if he could 
 prevail upon the women of New York who were 
 awakening to a sense of their great responsibilities 
 towards this class, to meet face to face the evils of 
 which he was daily giving accounts in his addresses 
 and writings, — if he could get the refinement, edu- 
 cation, and Christian enthusiasm of the better classes 
 fairly to Avork among these little girls, the terrible 
 evils threatening them might be averted. An espe- 
 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 95.
 
 166 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 cial blessing attended this effort of his to bring to- 
 gether these two extremes of society, and as the 
 department of industrial schools widened its sphere 
 of usefulness, devoted women from the more fortu- 
 nate classes freely gave their time, in some cases 
 daily, to this work, and nothing throughout the years 
 spent in building up the Society helped and cheered 
 Mr. Brace more than the efforts of these self-sacrific- 
 ing women. 
 
 Accordingly a meeting was held at the home of 
 one of the most earnest of the volunteers, and he 
 made an address, telling them what they were to 
 expect, that it was not a plan for " holiday work, or 
 gush of sentiment " ; that it must be carried on day 
 by day, and month by month; that "unpleasant 
 sights were to be met with, coarse people encoun- 
 tered, and rude children managed." A constitution 
 was then presented, of the simplest nature, and an 
 association organized, and officers ajjpointed by the 
 ladies present. This was the foundation of the first 
 school of the Children's Aid Society, the Fourth 
 Ward Industrial School. 
 
 At the same time, Mr. Brace went through the 
 slums of this ward, publishing the fact that such a 
 school was to be opened, explaining that work was 
 to be taught, food to be given to all, and clothes for 
 good behavior. "Never," he says in an account of 
 this enterprise, "... did I experience the slight-
 
 ^T. 20] FOURTH WARD SLUMS 167 
 
 est annoyance in my visits, nor did any of the ladies 
 who subsequently ransacked every den and hole 
 where a child could shelter itself." A room was 
 taken in the basement of a church in Roosevelt Street. 
 "Hither gathered, on a morning of December, 1853, 
 our ladies and a flock of the most ill-clad and wild- 
 est little street girls that could be collected any- 
 where in New York. They flew over the benches, 
 they swore and fought with one another, they bandied 
 vile language, and could hardly be tamed down suffi- 
 ciently to allow the school to be opened." The 
 pages that follow this statement in " The Dangerous 
 Classes of New York," describing in touching detail 
 the gradual taming of these wild little ones in the 
 first school of the Children's Aid Society, may be 
 taken as a fair sample of what took place in a dozen 
 of the worst dark places of the city. 
 
 In his book Mr. Brace tells us that the spectacle 
 which earliest and most painfully arrested his atten- 
 tion in this work was the houseless boys in various 
 portions of the city. He tells us how he had often 
 seen a dozen of these small members of the commu- 
 nity piled together to keep warm under the stairs of 
 printing-offices, and speaks in an early appeal of two 
 little boys having been known to sleep one winter 
 in the iron tube of the Harlem Bridge. He says: 
 " Their life was, of course, a painfully hard one. 
 To sleep in boxes, or under stairways, or in hay-
 
 168 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 barges on the coldest winter nights, for a mere 
 child, was hard enough ; but often to have no food, 
 to be kicked and cuffed by the older ruffians, and 
 shoved about by the police, standing barefooted and 
 in rags under doorways as the winter storm raged, 
 and to know that in all the great city there was not 
 a single door open with welcome to the little rover — 
 this was harder." Mr. Brace's close acquaintance 
 with this class had shown him that their life of 
 hardship, while it necessarily made them sharp and 
 reckless, had developed a certain code of honor in 
 their relations with one another. The newsboy, as 
 a rule, will not get drunk; he pays his debts to 
 other boys, and thinks it dishonorable to sell papers 
 on their beats ; while his generosity and kindness to 
 another in scrapes is a credit to human nature. 
 
 The idea of a lodging-house for this class of wan- 
 derers was a new one. Already, in Boston, Mr. 
 Charles Eliot Norton and others had begun a model 
 lodging-house, but nothing of this kind, simply for 
 boys, had been attempted. It seemed to Mr. Brace 
 that if these boys could have a place to which they 
 felt at liberty to go when they chose, with no restric- 
 tions beyond a small charge and the necessity for 
 decent behavior, if, in short, — he could institute a 
 sort of "hotel for boys," — this convenience might 
 become an agency for immense good. It was to be 
 expected that in a place where so great freedom was
 
 ^T. 26] THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE 16d 
 
 to be allowed, there would be many cases where no 
 touch of the influence Mr. Brace wished to see ex- 
 erted would reach the boys, and many would go forth 
 into their hard life again unaided by the lessons in 
 religion and morality. But Mr. Brace was firm 
 from the begfinnino: in his conviction that no effort 
 for them was desirable which should weaken "the 
 best quality of this class — their sturdy indepen- 
 dence. The first thing to be aimed at in the plan 
 was to treat the lads as independent little dealers, 
 and give them nothing without payment, but at the 
 same time to offer them much more for their money 
 than they could get anywhere else. Moral, educa- 
 tional, and religious influences were to come in 
 afterward. "1 
 
 Constant efforts, in letters to the press, interviews 
 with influential individuals, addresses in churches 
 and public meetings, were made by Mr. Brace dur- 
 iner this first winter of the work, to obtain the means 
 necessary to carry out his aims, but it was not until 
 March of the following year that the first News- 
 boys' Lodging-House was established in New York. 
 
 Another problem for which Mr. Brace had sought 
 a solution was that expressed in the question, " What 
 to do with the homeless ? " In a paper written in 
 1859 he appeals to the public not to consider this 
 subject as in any way abstruse or removed from the 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 138.
 
 170 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 experience of common life. There is no difference 
 in the needs of the poor child from those of the rich. 
 They require s^^mpathy and hope, steady occupation, 
 and the prospect of success, just as all children do. 
 Indifference is as chilling to the one class as to the 
 other. Each poor, deserted, unfortunate little creat- 
 ure in the streets is an individual^ like no other 
 being whom God has created ; and this grand fact of 
 his individuality must be considered in any methods 
 of reform for his vices, or of education for his facul- 
 ties. He says : ^ " The child must have sympathy, 
 individual management, encouragement for good 
 conduct, pain for bad, instruction for his doubts, 
 tenderness for his weakness, care for his habits, re- 
 ligious counsel and impulse for his peculiar wants. 
 He needs, too, something of the robust and healthy 
 discipline of every-day life. He ought to be tried; 
 he ought to labor with a motive ; he also should have 
 something of the boundless hope which stimulates 
 so wonderfully the American youth. How can all 
 this be got in an asylum or refuge ? " 
 
 In "The Dangerous Classes of New York," he 
 says: "Now, asylums are a bequest of monastic 
 days. They breed a species of character which is 
 monastic, indolent, unused to struggle; subordi- 
 nate, indeed, but with little independence and 
 manly vigor. If the subjects of the modern monas- 
 1 lu the paper referred to above.
 
 ^T. 26] EMIGRATION TO THE WEST 171 
 
 tery be unfortunates, — especially if they be already 
 somewhat tainted with vice and crime, — the effect 
 is a weakening of true masculine vigor, an in- 
 crease of apj^arent virtues, and a hidden growth 
 of secret and contagious vices. Moreover, the life 
 under the machinery of an 'institution' does not pre- 
 pare for the thousand petty hand-labors of a poor 
 man's cottage." He says in the paper to which 
 reference has already been made : " As a poor boy, 
 who must live in a small house, he ought to learn 
 to draw his own water, and to split his wood, 
 kindle his fires, and light his candle. As an 'insti- 
 tutional child,' he is lighted, warmed, and watered 
 by machinery." He goes on to say that the family 
 is God's reformatory, and that it is in accord with 
 a great natural principle that the Children's Aid 
 Society is aiming at the removal of the children from 
 the city streets to farmers' homes in the West. This 
 solution seems doubly natural, owing to the unusual 
 advantages of the United States in having a vast 
 area of arable land in the cultivation of which the 
 farmers need help. "With this fortunate state of 
 things, it was but a natural inference that the im- 
 portant movement now inaugurating for the benefit 
 of the unfortunate classes of New York, should at 
 once strike upon a plan of emigration." ^ 
 
 His friend. Miss Schuyler, in speaking after his 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 226.
 
 172 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 death, of the distinctive character of his work, wrote : 
 "His genius solved the problem which had baffled 
 the philanthropists of preceding centuries. He saw 
 that home life, and not institution life, was needed 
 for children, and so he set himself to finding homes 
 for homeless children. It seems so simple to us 
 now, now that we know all about it; but it required 
 his penetration, his genius, to reveal to us what is 
 self-evident when once our eyes are opened." 
 
 That the solution of the problem before him was 
 not simple in its beginning, is strikingly set forth 
 in his book, as Mr. Brace enumerates the questions 
 which were met by the society at his first suggestion 
 of the plan. "Would the farmers really want these 
 children for help? How were places to be found? 
 How were the demand and supply for children's labor 
 to be connected ? How were the right employers to 
 be selected? And, when the children were placed, 
 how were their interests to be watched over, and acts 
 of oppression or hard dealing prevented or punished? 
 Were they to be indentured or not? If this was the 
 right scheme, why had it not been tried long ago in 
 our cities or in Europe ? " These and many similar 
 difficulties offered themselves, but the scheme had 
 been well laid and long planned, and objections fell 
 to the ground. The experiment could but be made, 
 and practical experience justified none of the fears 
 that the undertaking might be impracticable.
 
 ^T. 26] WELCOME OF THE CHILDREN 173 
 
 The readiness on the part of farmers to receive 
 these children was at once evident. An announce- 
 ment, by circuhirs through the city weeklies and rural 
 papers, of the intention of supplying children, brought 
 a speedy response in the form of hundreds of appli- 
 cations from farmers and mechanics. There are some 
 amusing accounts of the efforts at first made to send 
 a certain kind of child, "a perfect child," with char- 
 acteristics to suit the would-be mother or father, but 
 this was soon seen to be impracticable, and an organ- 
 ized system of sending little companies, made clean 
 and properly dressed, under a competent agent, was 
 adopted instead. Farming communities especially 
 wished for the children, and on the arrival of one of 
 the parties, immense interest was displayed by the 
 whole town. Crowds generally waited at the station, 
 and the children were quickly disjiosed of for the 
 night. The next day a meeting of the people, irre- 
 spective of religious sympathies, was held in the 
 town-hall, and the agent addressed the assembly, 
 telling them of the benevolent objects of the society, 
 and relating something of the history of the children. 
 People who were childless came forward to adopt 
 children. Others, who had not intended to take any 
 into their families, were induced to apply for them ; 
 and many who really wanted the children's labor 
 pressed forward to obtain it. Sometimes the adopted 
 parents paid the fares of the children, or made some
 
 174 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 gift to the society. " At length the business of char- 
 ity is finished, and a little band of young wayfarers 
 and homeless rovers in the world find themselves in 
 comfortable and kind homes, with all the boundless 
 advantages and opportunities of the Western farmer's 
 life about them.''^ 
 
 During these and the following busy years, Mr. 
 Brace kept his mind fresh by determined exclusion, 
 at certain times, of all thoughts of the pathetic and 
 harrowing scenes of his work. He says: "The 
 present writer confesses that he could not possibly 
 have borne the harrowing and disagreeable scenes 
 with which he has been long familiar, without mak- 
 ing a strict rule never to think or speak of the poor 
 when he was away from his work, and immediately 
 absorbing himself in some entirely different subject. 
 The spring of the mind would have been broken. "^ 
 The following letters show us of his occupations and 
 interests, outside of the line of his chief labors : — 
 
 1 The reference above, quoted from " The Dangerous Classes of 
 New York," is to the Western farmer's life, but during the first year 
 of the society's existence the emigration was not so distant as to 
 the West, owing to the greater expense. Parties in the early days 
 went to Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and boys were placed in 
 situations in New York and the vicinity. The first party to the West 
 was taken in September, 1854. A description of it will be found 
 in the appendix. 
 
 * " The Dangerous Classes of New York."
 
 ^T. 26] LETTER TO THEODORE PARKER 175 
 
 To Theodore Parker. 
 
 New York, Feb. 16, 1853. 
 
 My dear Parker: I have been wanting for some 
 time just to express the very great pleasure I had in 
 my Boston visit. It did me good meeting you and 
 your friends. I feel a new spring and impulse at 
 seeing men so free and true. I wish you would say 
 this from me to your friend, Wendell Phillips, if 
 j^ou happen to meet him soon. Every one, almost, 
 in the churches here is so narrow and stunted. You 
 seldom meet a man. And I incline to think that no 
 one who has been brought up in New England ever 
 gets again the full, spontaneous growth of his facul- 
 ties as God made them. He may of his intellect, 
 but not often of all. I want you should tell your 
 wife, too, how much I enjoyed my few words with 
 her, and how pleasantly I retain in memory my visit. 
 
 Have you noticed, lately, a controversy in the 
 "Tribune," with reference to some remarks on the 
 " Book of Daniel " ? It has called out some vigorous, 
 manly articles from Greeley, especially on suppress- 
 ing facts which tell against the Bible. The inscrip- 
 tions — as I understand it — discovered by Layard, 
 described the same events pictured in Daniel, in a 
 language or dialect anterior to its date. What is 
 your impression of that book? I certainly never 
 should magine it a "political satire," as claimed by 
 Layard. It reads in earnest. 
 
 I am reading your sermons with intense interest, 
 and am surprised and happy to find that difference of 
 view on historic questions has not in the least pro-
 
 176 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 duced a different moral view, or a different concep- 
 tion of God. Your God is, after all, the Christ's 
 God, and His ideals are yours. Manliness, gener- 
 osity, truthfulness, universal love, — they are all 
 there, are they not? There is only one exception 
 (psychologically) which I can take. I believe, with 
 you, that God never punishes, or, as Newman says, 
 " Believe not, oh reader, though all the scribes and 
 Pharisees affirm, that God keeps any spiritual scores 
 against thee!" My idea of all suffering is that it 
 is the effect, natural, of violated law, the pain of 
 sickness, whether in soul or body. But I cannot 
 from any analogy here, or anything which I see of 
 the laws of the mind, affirm that every creature will 
 hereafter be happy, or will ever be completely happy. 
 I find a touch almost of infinity in the soul, and in 
 these low creatures I meet I am amazed at the power 
 and the desperation, and sometimes at the almost 
 diabolic self-will, of which the mind is capable. Is 
 it derogatory to God that He should have created 
 "Sons of God," beings, whom even He could not 
 heal, when voluntarily sick, except by destroying the 
 laws of their being? I do not say that this is the 
 case or that I believe it, but that there is nothing, to 
 my mind, to indicate the contrary so indubitably as 
 you express it. It has sometimes seemed to me not 
 the least happy occupation of Eternity, that one 
 should be engaged in righting the inevitable wrongs 
 of the universe. The reason of your certitude, I 
 suppose, is in your belief of the goodness of God. 
 Yet He has made a world of sin. I sincerely hope 
 your view will turn out true. ... I wish, if you 
 ever meet Emerson, you would express the exceeding
 
 iEx. 26] WORK OF SOCIETY BEGINNING TO TELL 177 
 
 gratitude of myself and my friends here for what he 
 has done for them. I can scarcely think of a teacher 
 to whom I owe more. Next to Dr. Arnold, Emer- 
 son has given man}'^ of us here the strongest impulse 
 we ever received; and though I have finished him 
 utterly now, his thoughts come up continually anew 
 in practical life. I do wish he would write more. 
 He ought to. 
 
 To Mrs. Asa Gray. 
 
 South Side, June 11, 1853. 
 My dear J — ; I have sent you, occasionally, a 
 paper to show my operations here. I think our 
 organization is going to do a good work — very. It 
 is a rather wearying and straining life to the sympa- 
 thies, but by variety of occupation, and care of my- 
 self, I hold it out well. . . . Except by our schools, 
 we don't get hold of the poor girls much. It does 
 seem as if everything in heaven and earth was against 
 the improvement of the girls in our poor classes. 
 The boys we are getting off into the country, and 
 starting in various ways. Every two or three days 
 we have an instance which would reward for months 
 of labor; some homeless, friendless fellow sent off 
 to a good home far in the country. Our industrial 
 schools do well, though not enough yet to satisfy us. 
 The Juvenile Asylum is working very hard now, 
 too, so that our streets, in externals, begin to change 
 some. The evil lies very deep, however, and will 
 always more or less continue with this immense 
 immigration. We are working at the right end, 
 and I hope much for the results. We get letters
 
 178 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 from various cities, asking advice in similar enter- 
 prises, so that the great religious community seems 
 waking up to the matter. 
 
 I have been reading something which I want you 
 to get hold of, — the greatest and freest work on re- 
 ligious history of the century, — Bunsen's "Hyppoli- 
 tus." By the discovery of this work of Hyppolitus, 
 and by his researches therein, he has been able to 
 throw more light on early Christianity than any 
 writer who has ever written. It develops precisely 
 what I have been long believing, that in our church 
 forms, our creeds and ceremonies, and especially 
 our spirit of formalism, we are essentially differ- 
 ent from the early Christians. I do think that 
 Christianity now needs a reformation, as much as it 
 did in Luther's time — from the same thing, too, 
 formalism, only in a different direction. I do not 
 think, J — , that the Christian faith has much hold 
 on the best young minds of the country. 
 
 To F. J. Kingsbury. 
 
 South Side, June 16th. 
 Dear Fred ; . . . I am much interested and busy 
 among these schools for vagrant children now. Talk 
 of heathen! All the pagans of Golconda would not 
 hold a light to the ragged, cunning, forsaken, god- 
 less, keen, devilish boys of Leonard Street and the 
 Five Points, and Mr. Matsell calculates them and 
 the little vagrant girls (who are worse) of New York 
 at over ten thousand! Our future voters, and Presi- 
 dent-makers, and citizens! Good Lord deliver us,
 
 iET. 27] THE OUTCAST AND HELPLESS 179 
 
 and help them ! I grow solemn and weary as I look 
 at the mountains of crime and misery and sin amongst 
 us. It often seems to me that if I could begin to 
 convey to men what Christ did to me, even as He 
 did, I would so, gladly; for what is suffering or 
 deprivation or death if one could only be sure we 
 were raising the outcast and helpless ? I always find 
 a crowd of human faces an almost awful sight; but 
 those in the vagrant schools! A child's face, with 
 a long, black story of shame and suffering to come 
 written on it, endless capacities, and pleasant, sunny 
 gleams in it, and, you are so sure, a future like hell 
 before it. Don't you think God will treat tliem 
 better than man has? To start a human heart with 
 passions like whirlwinds in it, and reason hardly 
 acting, put it where everything bad would certainly 
 grow and everything good dry up, and then to beat 
 it and torture it and buffet and starve and so edu- 
 cate, and at last to send it out into Eternity, to be 
 battered always there because it was so damned bad 
 here, is rather hard, isn't it? 
 
 In response to an invitation to visit New York, 
 Theodore Parker Avrites : — 
 
 "... I want to see all the work you and others 
 are doing, to see if we in Boston can't do likewise 
 next winter. If you are not to be in New York 
 in August, let me know. God bless you for your 
 true labor. It makes my heart bleed to read your 
 papers in the 'Times.' A friend of mind heard a 
 sad-looking man say to another in the street: 'Well, 
 after all, it is a pretty hard world to get along in ! '
 
 180 CHAELES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 It has rung in my ears like a knell ever since. 
 What a wicked people we are ! What a story some 
 humane man will one day have to tell of the Chris- 
 tians! Imagine one of the future Tholucks of the 
 year MMDCCCCLIII writing a treatise on the 
 morals of Christianity, and the effect of this form 
 of religion on the unfortunate classes of society! 
 Oh, dear, dear! But we will do something to make 
 better times before we die." 
 
 Mr. Brace writes in reply : — 
 
 To Theodore Parker. 
 
 New York, July 26, 1853. 
 
 My dear Parker: I regret that I shall be out of 
 town during all August. ... I need a complete 
 change of air and scene, after so much of sad and 
 disgusting sights. . . . The fall would be a far 
 better time for your purposes of seeing the operations 
 among the poor. . . . The impression of which you 
 speak in your note deepens on one here — that some- 
 thing is out of joint in modern societ}^ and in prac- 
 tical religion. People don't get a fair chance in life, 
 and very few do anything to help them to it. We 
 meet, occasionally, very bright intellects down in 
 these classes, whom it is the greatest pleasure to help 
 up to light, but the most show the traces of others' 
 wrong-doing. It is a sad thing that there are so 
 many friendless and degraded without any fault of 
 their own. Oar work is often very discouraging. 
 The poor become so suspicious, and are naturally so 
 narrow and pig-headed. Still it seems to me most
 
 iEx. 27] RELIGIOUS FORMALISM 181 
 
 worthy of a man to consider it his peculiar part in 
 life to bear up the weak and defend the wronged, 
 even the more wlien they do not appreciate or when 
 they turn against him. Still, now and then, we do 
 see a smile on a weary face which rewards and makes 
 one forget all manner of perversity. It does surprise 
 me, as I look round in our city, to see the general 
 aspect of men who profess to be especial embassadors 
 of Christ. There are not half a dozen of the whole 
 number who ever have even traversed the poorest 
 streets of the city. They know scarcely anything 
 about the masses. They are in comfortable, honored 
 positions, and live with and preach to the rich, or 
 else live with books. This would not be so bad if 
 they were really apostles of ideas. But the great 
 object of their calling — apart from personal minis- 
 tration — they fail in. They don't stand up for 
 freedom, justice, intellectual honest}', and indepen- 
 dence. They do not lead in a single great enterprise 
 of humanity; and they do help the universal Ameri- 
 can mind to become swallowed up in its formalism. 
 I doubt whether Christ, if suddenly appearing, could 
 be licensed in any church, unless possibly two or 
 three. Still they all have good and kind traits, and 
 some are trying for better things. One thing is sure, 
 the American mind is leaving the whole set of them. 
 Minister-craft is passing aAvay. Our papers are the 
 pulpits. I have resolved on one thing: if I ever 
 preach, not to join one of their organizations, but 
 to speak as Christ and the good men of early times 
 did, in an independent body of good men, who com- 
 bine in order better to help others. 
 I wish you could come on, dear sir. There is a
 
 182 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1858 
 
 class of men here very sceptical whom you, and you 
 alone, could be of great use to. Your very heresies 
 would help you with them, and I believe the very 
 aspect of your conviction would unconsciously 
 strengthen the instinct in them, in the belief that 
 there is a God and an Immortality. 
 
 Mr. Parker paid his promised visit early in the 
 autumn, and Mr. Brace writes him on the 18th of 
 October: — 
 
 "... Your visit left a delightful impression on 
 us all, and was of real good, I think, to our friends 
 on Staten Island. How I did work you! . . . Will 
 you please see a leader from me in the ' Times ' 
 of to-morrow on ' Theatres, ' and tell me whether 
 you coincide or not. I am reading your ' Sermons 
 on Theism ' with great interest. I think much 
 fault might be found by Atheists with your positions 
 on the morality and virtue which does connect itself 
 with a hereafter. Is it not the highest nobleness, 
 which is utterly unconcerned with a future, which 
 loves and sacrifices and suffers because, even if there 
 be no God or Immortality, it is the happiest to do 
 so, or because they in their present state of progres- 
 sion cannot help it? Would either of us (if Athe- 
 ists) ever hesitate to suffer as Kossuth, or die as 
 Jesus, for others, without the compensation? Are 
 we not rewarded in the act ? I have not read all the 
 book. My orthodox friends here complain of its 
 bitterness, which I do not perceive." 
 
 During this autumn he writes his father of some of 
 the friends he is making in New York : —
 
 ^T. 27] THE SCHUYLERS AT DOBBS FERRY 183 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 New York, Oct. 24, 1853. 
 Dear Father : I spent yesterday with a gentleman 
 whom you would have been interested in — Colonel 
 James A. Hamilton, of Dobbs Ferry, son of Alex- 
 ander Hamilton. I was first invited up by his son- 
 in-law, Mr. G. L. Schuyler, grandson of old General 
 S. of the Revolution, and dined and spent the night at 
 his cottage. Mr. S. 's wife is a daughter of Colonel 
 H. I was invited on the score of my Germany and 
 the C. A. Society. Then, Saturday, I went up again 
 and spent Sunday. It is a deliglitful family, and I 
 think you will be interested to hear of them. The 
 colonel is a thin, small old gentleman, with a large 
 nose and deep-set, fiery eyes, very vivacious and 
 agreeable. We enjoyed his conversation exceed- 
 ingly. He has inexhaustible stories about those 
 early times I used to hear so much of from you. You 
 can imagine the pleasure of hearing directly from 
 his son of those events I used to get from you and 
 books. Then there are his wife and two very pleas- 
 ant daughters, — altogether a most simple, interest- 
 ing family, highly cultivated and free in thought. 
 . . . The place is beautifully situated, commanding 
 a long view up the Hudson, with a large house and 
 old trees, and servants and horses in style. They 
 are Episcopalians, but quite of my tone in thought. 
 . . . Mrs. Schuyler is one of the most cultivated 
 and lovely women I ever knew. I found that they 
 and all their friends had read my book on Germany 
 with much expressed interest, which was pleasant to 
 a young author, and that they sympathized deeply 
 in my labors.
 
 184 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1853 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Dec. 18, 1853. 
 
 Dear Father : Here I am spending Sunday at Col- 
 onel Hamilton's again. I came up on Friday even- 
 ing to dine with Washington Irving yesterday. He 
 had expressed a desire to see me, and invited me 
 to dine with him. I was glad of a chance to see 
 such a man once, though as a general thing I think 
 meeting a great man doesn't pay. We spent a pleas- 
 ant morning at the Hamiltons', walking and talk- 
 ing, and at two drove over to his house. He has a 
 beautiful little cottage on the banks of the Hudson, 
 quite draperied with ivy, — a straggling, picturesque 
 building. The plan I could not make out. After 
 a few moments he came down and received me very 
 cordially, mostly, I suppose, on the Hamiltons' ac- 
 count, who are very intimate with him. He is a 
 stout, well-fed looking man, his face as fleshy and 
 florid as yours, a large, somewhat aquiline, nose, 
 eyes modest and genial, as of an affectionate, hearty 
 man, like a first-rate, jovial English country gentle- 
 man. He talks with a thick voice. He was very 
 chatty, — Miss H. said, more than usual. He did 
 not talk to me much, but evidently for me ; that is, 
 to entertain me. His stories were very good, with 
 much action. Mostly of men he had known, and he 
 seems to have known all for the last half-century. 
 Tom Moore, Mad. de. Genlis, Allston the painter, 
 Wilkie, Spain, etc., etc., modest and genial, show- 
 ing an excellent heart; still, with no more genius 
 than most men would show. Never philosophic or
 
 ^T. 27] " UNCLE TOM'S CABIN" " 185 
 
 profound, rather artistic and humorous and kindly 
 and pure. . . . We left at half past six o'clock. 
 He spoke very kindly of Moore and Dickens, con- 
 demning, however, his treatment of America. He 
 had lesolved not to read " Uncle Tom,'" but a few 
 week i before he hapjDened to go into a theatre, and 
 saw it played, and at once bought it and read it in 
 the cars. . . . Was entranced. Raised his opinion 
 of the authoress — thought it would do great good — 
 showed masterly genius. On the whole, the inter- 
 view was very interesting to me.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Opening of First Lodging-House for Newsboys — Sunday Evening 
 Meetings — One Year's Experience witli Lodging-House — Per- 
 sonal Relations with tlie Poor — Notes of Lectures on Children's 
 Aid Society — Miscellaneous Letters — Journey to Ireland, and 
 Marriage — Aim of Society and Principles — Success of Emigra- 
 tion — Success of Schools — Volunteers — Letters to his Wife — 
 Organization of Italian School — Miscellaneous Letters — Trip 
 to England and Norway — Reflections on Loneliness of the 
 Poor — Natural Results of Neglect of Poor Children — Kind less 
 of Adopted Mothers in the West — Opposition to Emigratioa — 
 Journey to the West — Letters to His Wife 
 
 The early spring of 1854 saw the opening of the 
 first "Newsboys' Lodging-House." After many 
 efforts, the society finally obtained money enough 
 to pay for a loft in the old "Sun'* Building, and an 
 excellent superintendent, Mr. C. C. Tracy, was pro- 
 cured. A well-ventilated dormitory was fitted up 
 for ninety boys, with comfortable, single beds; there 
 was a large schoolroom (serving also for chapel and 
 playroom), with library, melodeon, and savings bank, 
 besides bath and washrooms, and private lock-closets 
 for clothes for each boy. The plan was to give 
 them a bed for six cents, with a bath thrown in, and 
 a supper for four cents (free if the boy be early). 
 The boys, nothing loth to obtain the good things, 
 
 186
 
 ^T. 27] THE NIGHT SCHOOL 187 
 
 were much puzzled as to what it all meant. It did 
 not occur to them that discipline was to be the order 
 of the place, and they prepared for a grand frolic. 
 But when it was suddenly discovered that the first 
 boots flying about were a signal for the lively ones 
 to be lifted quietly from bed, and left to shiver over 
 their folly, they concluded that the part of discretion 
 was to nestle in their warm beds.^ "Little sleeping, 
 however, was there among them that night. But 
 ejaculations sounded out, such as, 'I say, Jim, this 
 is rayther better 'an bummin'. My eyes! what soft 
 beds these is! ' 'Tom, it's 'most as good as asteam- 
 gratin', and there ain't no M.P.'s to poke, neither. 
 I'm glad I ain't a bummer to-night.' " 
 
 Thus a beginning was made, and the boys went 
 forth next morning, after a good wash and a break- 
 fast, happier and cleaner than when they came in. 
 
 The process by which the ingenious superinten- 
 dent inspired the boys with a desire for a night 
 school is worth recording. He quietly announced 
 to them one morning that a gentleman had called 
 the day before who wanted an office-boy at three 
 dollars a week. Great excitement among the boys. 
 "Let me go, sir," and, "Me, sir." "But he wanted 
 a boy who could write a good hand." Disappoint- 
 ment is displayed on every face. "Well, now, sup- 
 pose we have a night school, and learn to write. 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 102.
 
 188 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 What do you say, boys?" They agree, and so 
 begins the school. The Sunday evening meetings 
 were begun one day when the boys had been impressed 
 by a public funeral. The superintendent suggested 
 a little reading in the Bible, and the boys consented. 
 They listened, and were struck and much puzzled at 
 what they heard. The Golden Rule struck them as 
 an impossible precept for them to obey, especially 
 when one was "stuck and short," and "had to live." 
 The stories of miracles seemed to them natural 
 enough, and that there should exist a Being able to 
 cure disease and rule nature was not strange to them. 
 " And it was a kind of comfort to these young vaga- 
 bonds that the Son of God was so often homeless, 
 and that he belonged humanly to the working classes. 
 The petition for 'daily bread' (which a celebrated 
 divine has declared 'unsuited to modern conditions 
 of civilization ') they always rolled out with a pecul- 
 iar unction. I think that the conception of a Supe- 
 rior Being, who knew just the sort of privations and 
 temptations that followed them, and who felt espe- 
 cially for the poorer classes, who was always near 
 them, and pleased at true manhood in them, did keep 
 afterward a considerable number of them from lying 
 and stealing and cheating and vile pleasures. Their 
 singing was generally prepared for by taking off their 
 coats and rolling up their sleeves, and was entered 
 into with a gusto. The voices seemed sometimes to
 
 ^T. 27] TALKS TO THE BOYS 189 
 
 come from a different part of their natures from what 
 we saw with the bodily eyes. There was, now and 
 then, a gentle and minor key, as if a glimpse of 
 something purer and higher passed through these 
 rough lads. A favorite song was, 'There's a Rest 
 for the Weary,' though more untiring youngsters 
 than these never frisked over the earth. And 
 'There's a Light in the Window for Thee, Brother,' 
 always j)leased them, as if they imagined themselves 
 wandering alone through a great city at night, and 
 at length a friendly light shone in the window for 
 them.*'i 
 
 These meetings were under Mr. Brace's personal 
 supervision, were inspired by him, and w^ere full of 
 his spirit. His talks were so simple, the depth of 
 his faith was so profoundly shown in the little 
 parables which he drew from the every-day experi- 
 ences of his youthful hearers, that each meeting was 
 a deeply religious exercise to the friends who came 
 to see the boys, as for the boys themselves. In 
 later days others assisted him, but in this early 
 time, when the claims upon him were not so con- 
 stant, he conducted the whole service, and those who 
 were there can never forget it. 
 
 After a year's experience with the lodging-house, 
 Mr. Brace was able to give a most encouraging 
 account of this experiment. He stated in the 
 1 "The Dangerous Classes of New York," pp. 103, 104.
 
 190 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 second annual report of the Children's Aid Society 
 that there was certainly an improvement in the boys. 
 They were cleaner, more respectful, and, at least in 
 the rooms, more decent in language. In this re- 
 port, he says : " They come regularly to our evening 
 school, and the informal religious meeting on Sun- 
 day evening. They wear clean shirts and clean 
 clothes. Gambling and drinking have been much 
 left off by them." He found it cheering that his 
 faith in the possibility of reaching these boys should 
 be justified. There had been discouragement enough 
 in many quarters, and the chief of police, when 
 Mr. Brace first stated his plan to him, asserted that 
 "he might as well try to tame the banditti of the 
 desert "! There had been during the year 408 differ- 
 ent boys who had taken advantage of the opportu- 
 nity offered, and 6872 lodgers. At the first opening 
 of the lodging-house it was made the condition of 
 lodging that every boy should take a bath. To 
 this there was great reluctance, but it came, after a 
 year's time, to be prized as a privilege. A savings 
 bank, an institution which delighted the boys, was 
 very successful. It was found that boys who at 
 first could hardly be induced to leave their money 
 to accumulate for twenty-four hours together, learned 
 the value of saving to such a degree, that at the end 
 of sixteen months an average of sixteen boys per 
 month had saved, with the liberal interest allowed,
 
 iEx. 27] PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH POOR 191 
 
 an aggregate sum of six hundred and forty-five dol- 
 lars and fifty-two cents. 
 
 The business of this growing organization, absorb- 
 ing as it was, did not occupy Mr. Brace to the exclu- 
 sion of what he considered of equal importance, — 
 his continued personal relations with the poor. He 
 says, in speaking of this side of his work: "Into this 
 community of poor, ignorant, and drunken people I 
 threw myself, and resolved, with God's aid, to try 
 to do something for them. Here, for years, I visited 
 from cabin to cabin, or hunted out every cellar and 
 attic of the neighboring tenement-houses, standing 
 at death-beds and sick-beds, seeking to administer 
 consolation and advice, and, aided by others, to ren- 
 der every species of assistance. In returning home 
 from these rounds, amidst filth and poverty, I re- 
 member that I was frequently so depressed and ex- 
 hausted as to throw myself flat upon the rug in front 
 of the fire, scarcely able to move."^ 
 
 It may be wondered whence the money came, in 
 the early days of the society, to begin, however grad- 
 ually, its many different branches. This was another 
 part of Mr. Brace's labors ; he went about lectur- 
 ing and preaching, sometimes spending every evening 
 in the week and the Sunday in delivering sermons 
 and addresses, both in New York City, and in other 
 parts of the Eastern States. "No public duties of 
 1 "The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 154.
 
 192 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 mine were ever more agreeable than these," he says; 
 "and the results proved afterwards most happy, in 
 securing a large rural 'constituency,' who steadily 
 supported our movements in good times and bad, so 
 quietly devoted and in earnest, that death did not 
 diminish their interest, some of our best bequests 
 having come from the country." We insert the 
 few touching and beautiful notes of addresses that 
 have been found, and a selection from a sermon in 
 behalf of poor children that seems to be a prophecy 
 as well as an appeal. The notes, hastily written and 
 in pencil, were found among Mr. Brace's papers 
 with nothing to indicate where or when the ad- 
 dresses were delivered. 
 
 "It might be thought we should be sometimes 
 discouraged by such a sea of evils. Individuals 
 doing the work of the State, and a few heroic labor- 
 ers attempting what legislation and the government 
 have thus far failed to accomplish. So many cases 
 of abject poverty, so many sad and lonely histories, 
 so much bitterness and privation and crime in what 
 should be the sweet years of childhood, that we 
 might naturally despair. But I think I may say of 
 many in this enterprise, that we have learnt to be- 
 lieve in One above this black poverty and suffering. 
 We have faith in the promises He has given of a 
 better time on the earth. This injustice of the 
 strong over the weak, these sad sights of the streets, 
 the wasted forces of penury, the hopeless child's
 
 ^T. 27] RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF THE WORK 193 
 
 look, the young felon behind dungeon bars, the girl 
 old in crime and suffering, — these oppressive ine- 
 qualities shall not be always. There is — one can 
 never help believing it, a bright unending day com- 
 insf for all tliese moments of darkness. Then will 
 be a time on earth when the tears of despair, the 
 curse of crime, the moan of loneliness and want shall 
 not be any more, but peace and love over all. We 
 must labor to bring it on. . . . 
 
 "It is very pleasant to feed the hungry, to clothe 
 the naked, to visit the sick and the afflicted, but it 
 is not that humane instinct alone which has impelled 
 us to give up our best days, and the fruit of educa- 
 tion and toil to this enterprise. It is very grati- 
 fying to the ladies who devote their time and toil so 
 patiently and nobly to our industrial schools, to see 
 the children better dressed, cleaner, and more re- 
 spectable for their efforts. But it is not that which 
 most urges them. No ! With us all it is the belief 
 that the little ragged outcast, the vagrant girl, the 
 child of the thief, the vile street beggar, has that 
 within her which shall live when the old world has 
 passed by. In the distorted young face we see the 
 soul undying looking forth. We know that the 
 Son of God died for her, even as for us. We know 
 that a solemn and awful destiny is for her as for our 
 child or our sister. And more. I know I speak for 
 many and many this winter, in their labors among 
 the poor, when I say that the sustaining and encour- 
 aging thought with them, as they walked through 
 the dens and hovels of poverty, is that a form like 
 unto the Son of Man is with them, who always is 
 where our poorest are. It is not philanthropy alone
 
 194 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 which has upheld and encouraged, though that is 
 beautiful. It is better — the love of God. . . . 
 
 "But with the mass of men, we are confident of 
 the truth when we say they need personal labor 
 among the poor. They need to give of their means 
 for the poor. The constant and repeated affirmation 
 by Christ of this affirms it. Every one's observation 
 of men will assure him of it. No man can afford to 
 keep himself apart from human suffering. He needs 
 the society of the beggar as much as he needs that of 
 the rich. His heart must be put near to the heart 
 of the great masses of mankind, or he loses that 
 which is the greatest gain of human life, — human 
 sympathy. . . . And oh, how much might be done 
 with all the wealth and ingenuity and energy of 
 modern life for the great masses of unfortunate! 
 How many ingenious experiments of goodness, how 
 many laborious and costly methods of benefaction 
 for those who are outcast and sinful, might be under- 
 taken by our rich men and our business men ! The 
 sins of modern society have become so walled in by 
 circumstances, that the most ingenious and persis- 
 tent means are alone able to reach them. All the 
 tact of a settled social life, all the ingenuity and 
 enterprise of business, all the powers of wealth, all 
 the graces of refinement and education, all the influ- 
 ences of the noblest character and most loving heart, 
 can be apjDlied now and with abundant demand be- 
 yond, to our social evils. Now, even as when Paul 
 lived, they can all be laid at the feet of the Re- 
 deemer. ..."
 
 ^T. 27] COUNSELLING PATIENCE 195 
 
 The two letters wliich follow show jNIr. Brace's 
 satisfaction in the work which the Children's Aid 
 Society is doing, and his plans for the future : — 
 
 To Mrs. Asa Gray. 
 
 New York, March 20, 1854. 
 
 My dear J — ; . . . Our enterprise here this 
 winter has been pre-eminently successful, and if it 
 is only permanent, will accomplish a good deal. A 
 great amount of heroism and self-sacrifice has been 
 shown by people whom I did not think capable of it. 
 The labors are now so comprehensive and thorough, 
 that fruits must appear some d^y. I suppose we may 
 not see many, — though we do already a few, — but 
 the next generation will, and those after us will be 
 glad of our work. I have an undying faith in ideas 
 and in labor which depends on the Divine Spirit, 
 and if I never saw a result, I should not doubt. The 
 magnitude of the evils seems sometimes immense, 
 but there are also great means, — then we are all in 
 such a hurry. God seems to work very slowly. It 
 is very pleasant to go right to the worst sins and 
 sufferings of society, and feel you are in some degree 
 reaching them. Still I must confess I am not alto- 
 gether satisfied. My life has become too practical, 
 too much outward and executive, and m}^ intellect 
 is rusting. I do not get my old time as much for 
 mental development. Is that right? I think not. 
 What do you think?
 
 196 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 New York, Feb. 7, 1854. 
 
 My dear Father: How do you do this winter 
 weather? It is fearfully cold, though now very 
 pleasant with us. I am very hard at work, and our 
 enterprise is remarkably successful. It has become 
 the habit or mode with the better classes to work 
 thus among the poor. The very success is danger- 
 ous to me, . . . and I run the danger of merely 
 being a benevolent and bepraised young man. How- 
 ever, I shall work out of it. I am determined to do 
 it, and to keep up my old study, etc. . . . We are 
 going on well in our society, as you will judge. 
 This Newsboys' lodging-house is the thing, I hope. 
 I am house-hunting for the 3'ear; rents are enormous. 
 We want a half-house or a suite of rooms for three 
 hundred dollars, if possible. Do not mention about 
 my going out to Europe. If I should bring L. 
 back, I would try to land in Boston, so that we 
 might be among our family first. You would meet 
 us there. It will be close shaving for me to live 
 here with a wife, but it can be done, and L. is used 
 to moderate circumstances, though vastly better than 
 mine. 
 
 I am a little distressed at the way my education is 
 interrupted. I am giving up the completing of my 
 talents and their highest use, for this labor among 
 the poor. It certainly is right now, but is it for a 
 permanency? I am doubtful. I read and study 
 considerably, but then the strength of the day is 
 used up in these thousand efforts and plans and
 
 iET. 28] MARRIAGE TO MISS NEILL 197 
 
 work. I keep up a little editorial writing and lec- 
 turing, so that I may preserve ray practice. My tastes 
 would lead me to preach, study, and write for the 
 papers, especially to preach to the poor. The sin of 
 intellectual men in New York is to sacrifice the 
 future for the present. 
 
 To Theodore Parker he writes in June, 1854: — 
 
 "I have concluded to sail for England in the 
 course of this month, with the especial object of see- 
 ing the ragged schools, charitable institutions, model 
 lodging-houses, etc., etc., in London and Liverpool. 
 Could you help me with letters ? I want, too, to 
 meet the refugees, Mazzini, Ronge, and others. Do 
 you feel at liberty to introduce me to any? And so 
 with Newman? Don't do it, unless you feel at per- 
 fect liberty." 
 
 Though Mr. Brace's words about the projected 
 Irish visit are few, it was with the hope of bring- 
 ing back Miss Letitia Neill with him, as his wife, 
 that he started for Belfast. His suit with the 
 young lady was successful, and after a short en- 
 gagement, they were married on Aug. 21, 1851. 
 The fact that this young man came from so very far 
 away was stimulating to the imagination of the 
 clergyman who performed the ceremony, and Mr. 
 Brace used often to laugh over the infliction he had 
 to bear, standing half an hour with his bride by his 
 side during the ceremony, while he listened to an
 
 198 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1854 
 
 enumeration of the merits of the young lady and 
 her family, and warnings for them both, from the 
 clergyman! However, it was over, and the young 
 couple, after a trip to the Giant's Causeway, 
 sailed, early in September, for Boston, where they 
 were welcomed by his relatives, Mr. Charles G, 
 Loring's family, and Dr. and Mrs. Asa Gray. Mrs. 
 Gray had, in the meantime, furnished their home 
 for them in New York. Mrs. Brace entered at once 
 into the work of the Children's Aid Society, visiting 
 one of the schools, and teaching. Her sympathy in 
 all her husband's efforts to lessen the suffering in the 
 great, growing city was assured, for she had thrown 
 herself heart and soul into the Rasfged School work in 
 Belfast, and came to America with a deep sense of 
 consecration to the work to which his life was already 
 dedicated. The buoyant temperament she brought 
 from the quiet life in the old country was a vast aid 
 to him. Discouragement was not within the possi- 
 bilities of her comprehension, and in her hopeful and 
 trusting manner of taking whatever came, lay, in 
 large degree, the secret of his courage during the 
 years to come, as well as of her own. Her readiness 
 to accept at once all the duties and interests in this 
 new, full life, is shown in a very characteristic 
 story. On the day of their arrival in New York, 
 while her trunks were being unpacked, the husband 
 came in, saying, " Well, dear, I think we had better
 
 ^T. 28] HOME LIFE IN NEW YORK 199 
 
 go now and see the Fourth Ward School." Per- 
 fectly read3% off she went, to the profound astonish- 
 ment of his friends. 
 
 The letters written during the winter before re- 
 veal that he was undecided as to the best course to 
 pursue in his own future career. He still longed 
 for a life of study and of influence through the 
 pulpit, although he was constantly more drawn to 
 this great labor for the friendless and homeless in 
 New York. At the time of his marriage, the two 
 years to which he had pledged himself were drawing 
 to a close, and Mrs. Brace's firm conviction that in 
 the work of the society lay his largest field of use- 
 fulness, decided him upon remaining. The influ- 
 ences she cast upon this side, and his own convic- 
 tions, must have thus early settled the question 
 finally, for there is no word in later correspondence 
 to indicate that the matter was ever farther consid- 
 ered. 
 
 In January, 1855, Mr. Brace writes to his sister- 
 in-law in Ireland, Miss Eliza Neill, a short letter 
 which allows us a glimpse of the happy little home 
 in New York : — 
 
 "My home is very sweet and genial to me," he 
 says, "and gives my restless life a thorough rest 
 and peace. We give little entertainments to the 
 best people without any pretence or expense, and 
 are a good deal invited, and see as much society as
 
 200 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1855 
 
 is best. I am trying each day to bring our life into 
 more quiet and deep channels, at the same time that 
 it is cheerful and social. I know that you would 
 like best that I should speak of myself, so I will go 
 on with my experiences. I find this quiet and life- 
 at-home gives me more earnest thoughts, and 
 strengthens the unceasing hopes I have of becoming 
 something better, so that now the old vision and 
 dream of a noble and elevated life attends me all the 
 while some days, and though perhaps never uttered 
 or talked or written of, goes on with the other every- 
 day life of the world, like a glorious atmosphere. 
 How wonderfully life seems contrived by the great 
 Creator! Everything, almost, is solved, if you grasp 
 the idea that all is for the education of character. 
 These petty rubs and disappointments and tests of 
 temper and joys and sudden occurrences and strange 
 experiences and unaccountable reverses or good for- 
 tunes are all clear as noonday, if you think of that 
 one purpose, and of the glorious Being they are to 
 fit you to be like. And in no other way could I 
 escape great doubts and sadness, and with that faith 
 I seem ready for misfortune or joy, and not to be 
 much shaken by either. Most men end life as chil- 
 dren come out of years in a manufactory, with one 
 part of the body very much developed, and the rest 
 dwarfed or stunted. But life was meant to round 
 us out, to try and test and invigorate every part, — 
 affection, intellect, slvill, energy, hope, love, truth, 
 and all. All things must turn out well to one who 
 loves God. The saddest is to see noble persons who 
 never get the true lessons from their misfortunes or 
 their successes, and to whom all things do not turn
 
 ^T. 28] THE FATE OF STREET CHILDREN 201 
 
 out well. But what a Sunday evening lecture I am 
 writing you! " 
 
 Mr. Brace's realization of the terrible fate of the 
 street children with whom he came in contact deep- 
 ened every day. He puts before us, in a few vivid 
 words, the condition in which they live, with no 
 home, or at best the corner of a garret or cellar, cold 
 and drenched and hungry all day, and pushed and 
 kicked and beaten, with no gratification of the child's 
 eager craving for affection and with a conception of 
 churches and religion as things only of the upper 
 classes. He states his deep conviction that in spite 
 of these things, childhood is never to be despaired 
 of. He tells us, again and again, that the great 
 aim of the society is to influence character, that its 
 principle is not in giving, but in helping. The 
 annual reports of these days are interesting reading, 
 dwelling, as they do repeatedly, on the great princi- 
 ples of self-help and development of character, now, 
 in these later days, accepted as the foundation prin- 
 ciples of all worthy philanthropy. As the strongest 
 influences, he puts religious motives, alluding to the 
 " industrial and moral agencies as partial, the relig- 
 ious as more thorough and lasting." In pleading 
 for the superiority of a home life in the West for the 
 child, he says that it is often plain that no human 
 power can save these street children if left in their 
 own surroundings, and pictures the change to " pure
 
 202 CHARLES LORINf^ BRACE [1855 
 
 country air, instead of the gases of sewers, trees and 
 fields and harvests in place of narrow alleys. . . . 
 His first circumstances will favor his bei]ig an honest 
 man." And, finally, he claims that, "it helps to 
 solve, in the only feasible mode, the great economic 
 problem of poverty in our cities, for it sends future 
 laborers where they are in demand, and relieves the 
 overcrowded market in the city." The patience and 
 kindness shown the children by those who took them, 
 in different parts of the country, was a souice of 
 great gratitude to the society. Mr. Brace believed 
 fully that the system of not requiring indentures 
 was a wise one. More spontaneous kindness on the 
 one side, and a more natural relation between both 
 parties, was what he expected as a result, and it was 
 justified by experience. But while a relation of 
 mutual affection was hoped for, it did not follow 
 that because child and employer were legally free 
 from responsibility, the child was therefore left with- 
 out a natural protector. The assistant secretary in 
 the office in New York was in constant communica- 
 tion with the children sent out by the society, and 
 tried to keep himself informed of every change in 
 the boys' careers, both through letters and through 
 visits of the Western agents. The vast importance 
 of individual influence was ever before Mr. Brace's 
 mind, and he says : " The last thing we would lose, 
 as our enterprise gradually expands, is this Individ-
 
 JEx. 28] WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 203 
 
 ual and personal concern in every poor, friendless 
 creature who goes out from us to his new home and 
 better life." 
 
 As the work among the children in the city by 
 means of industrial schools progressed, Mr. Brace was 
 brought into contact with natures whose depths of 
 wickedness, and others whose heights of disinterest- 
 edness and courage, amazed him. They are not chil- 
 dren emotionally or executively. The power of 
 passion was appalling to him. But the daily, normal 
 life of the schools was by degrees tempering their 
 overwrought natures, and when the agents had won 
 the confidence of parents and persuaded them that 
 the children were to be supplied with clothes for 
 good behavior, and otherwise cared for, the attend- 
 ance was generally regular enough to effect gradu- 
 ally some change in the child. He claimed with 
 justifiable satisfaction that schools which, like the 
 Fourth Ward, began in fearful disorder, became like 
 attentive, affectionate family schools. "They can 
 read and sew ; some can write. Sweet songs of purity 
 and religion are learned, which are sung again in 
 their squalid homes ; a purer and kindlier expression 
 has seated itself on many faces. Some have been 
 sent away to homes in the country, some to the pub- 
 lic schools." The agencies accomplishing these 
 results, Mr. Brace ascribes both to the faithful em- 
 ployed teachers, and to the volunteers. The refine-
 
 204 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1855 
 
 ment and intellectual culture of these women ^ 
 gained over the poor children just the influence Mr. 
 Brace had hoped they would. He says : — 
 
 "Nor is this all the fruit. This work has often 
 blessed the giver as much as the receiver. It is the 
 great evil of our city life that classes become so sep- 
 arated. Union Square or the Avenues know as 
 little of Water Street or Cherry Street as if they 
 were different cities. The poor and the rich are 
 forming almost castes toward one another. These 
 schools make one link between them. No lady can 
 long attend these classes, hear the little story of the 
 rag-picker or the beggar, become familiar with their 
 petty joys and troubles, anrl afterwards pass one of 
 them in rags and dust in the street, as indifferently 
 as before. They are no longer parts of street scenery 
 like the animals. They become human beings, with 
 warm hearts, and souls formed for an immortal 
 destiny. It is the true fruit of Christian labor for 
 the needy. Nor is it too much given for the object 
 gained. It is the very idea of Christianity that the 
 highest acquisitions of the intellect and the heart — 
 our refinement and culture and civilization — should 
 be consecrated to the poorest and most degraded of 
 our fellow-creatures. It is but a poor imitation of 
 what Christ has done for men."^ 
 
 1 It may be of interest to the people of our city to see how early 
 names associated since with many a good work appeared in this 
 society. Among the early directresses were Mrs. G. L. Schuyler, 
 Mrs. E. D. Morgan, Miss Livingston, the Misses Hamilton, Mrs. 
 Willard Parker, Mrs. Moses H. Grinell, Mrs. W. Roosevelt, and a 
 score of others. 2 Second Annual Report, p. 11.
 
 ^T. 29] LETTER TO HIS WIFE 205 
 
 Mr. Brace took a much-needed rest from his ardu- 
 ous labors, in a trip to the Adirondack woods in 
 the summer of 1855, and we have from there his 
 first letter to his wife. 
 
 ScHROON, Tuesday eve., Aug. 21, 1855. 
 
 My dearest Wife : How I have thought of you and 
 a year ago! It has been a transcendent day, more 
 glorious even than the Irish twenty-first. I have 
 looked into the infinite sky, and my soul has seemed 
 to waft blessings to you. I have been in a continual 
 prayer, as it were, for you and our union. Oh! how 
 I hope the years may bring our souls into a more 
 perfect oneness, and that I shall make you as happy 
 as I wish! It is strange to think we shall be work- 
 ing on the rough way of life together, for thirty or 
 forty years yet, and I may see you old and wrinkled, 
 and you me decrepit. But the thought is delightful 
 that we shall be together, and more ennobled and 
 united than ever in our youth. I can almost see 
 your sweet, peaceful, cheerful face lighting up the 
 shaded path of old age, and making all things beauti- 
 ful. God will perhaps grant us the mercy of a grow- 
 ing and purifying love, but it will be, of course, 
 through much tribulation. I know you will bear it 
 better than I. . . . Have we not, dearest, been 
 happy at least? And under God, we shall hope to 
 have even better and happier days. But I must 
 grow more Christian, if it is so. . . . I wrote twice 
 from Burlington on Monday to you. ... I hope 
 you will be reading.
 
 206 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1855 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 [Summer, 1855. In the Adirondacks.] 
 My dearest Wife : How I have wished for you in 
 this beautiful scenery and these fine mountain nights ! 
 As I contrast my feelings with former times on such 
 trips, I find how much more at rest and happy I am. 
 Such a sense of companionship and permanent in- 
 terest in the world, as if I really had some connec- 
 tion with the soil of the world and this life. I think 
 I was, in my heart of hearts, unsatisfied and weary, 
 or sick. You seem so beautiful when I think of you 
 in the midst of the mountains here — so delicate and 
 noble and self-sacrificing. 
 
 P.S. — I have received an offer of a ticket to the 
 excursion to Newfoundland from Cyrus Field (cost 
 of a ticket one hundred dollars), to lay the first sub- 
 marine telegraph. Can't go. 
 
 During the winter of 1855, one of the most far- 
 reaching influences for good in the work of the 
 industrial schools was begun among the Italians. 
 Mr. Brace had for some time been exploring the 
 Italian quarter of the Five Points, and had found 
 there a most miserable condition of poverty and dirt. 
 Being given up to wretched street trades of organ- 
 grinding and statuette-selling, would have been bad 
 enough for the children ; but worse than this was a 
 custom among the people far away in Italy, of allow- 
 ing their little ones to be indentured to a bureau in
 
 ^T. 20] THE "PADRONE" SYSTEM 207 
 
 Paris, which sent them over the world at the mercy 
 of a master, often cruel to a degree, called a "pa- 
 drone." These masters used the children to work 
 upon the hearts of a tender-hearted community, by 
 playing musical instruments, and they were often to 
 be seen carrying enormous harps, and playing them 
 in the streets late into the night. For years, Mr. 
 Brace worked to break up this traffic, and finally, in 
 1873, the Italian Parliament abolished it completely. 
 That the government in Italy appreciated these 
 labors for their little fellow-countrymen in New 
 York, was testified by a medal, sent, in 1873, from 
 King Humbert to Mr. Brace. The children of the 
 Italian quarter were bright-eyed and intelligent- 
 looking, and Mr. Brace was convinced that much 
 might be done for them. To open a day school 
 seemed at first impossible, for the parents and mas- 
 ters counted on the earnings of the children who 
 blacked boots, sold flowers, swept crossings, and 
 in one way and another added their mite to the 
 family support by means, however, to which Mr. 
 Brace was strongly opposed. Early in December, 
 1855, Mr. Cerqua, an Italian gentleman, a Protes- 
 tant and patriot, went with Mr. Brace to visit among 
 the homes of these people, to announce the fact that 
 a night school was to be opened for the children 
 living about the Five Points Square. It began with 
 an attendance of thirty scholars, of whom but two
 
 208 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 could read a little in Italian — not one in English. 
 But this small number soon dwindled, and became 
 so insignificant that it was deemed advisable in the 
 spring to close the school. Mr. Brace determined 
 to find out the cause of this falling-off in numbers, 
 and by much visiting and cautious investigation 
 discovered that a fear of efforts to convert the chil- 
 dren was at the bottom of the trouble. Persuasion 
 and assurances that there was no truth in the rumor 
 of an attempt to convert them from their own Church 
 not being sufficiently successful, Mr. Brace tried 
 promises of shoes and clothing to pupils who would 
 attend for three months consecutively. But it was 
 up-hill work. A few came steadily, but the major- 
 ity were irregular, and it was evident that the 
 attempt was still regarded with suspicion and dis- 
 favor. An Italian priest flung anathemas at all who 
 permitted their children to attend the schools, and 
 Mr. Brace's efforts to reason with him through a 
 deputation of his oldest scholars, and to persuade 
 some of the most superstitious families, seemed of no 
 avail against the universal prejudice and ignorance. 
 One day, however, tidings came that the priest had 
 disappeared, carrying with him funds he had col- 
 lected under the pretence of opening a rival school. 
 This ended the opposition. A reaction set in, and 
 the night classes w^ ere again opened, never after this 
 to be closed. Years of efforts on Mr. Brace's part
 
 CHARLES LORING BRACE. 
 
 AGED. 29 YEARS
 
 ^T. 20] LETTER TO SIR CHARLES LYELL 209 
 
 — efforts to arouse the self-respect of the parents, to 
 make them see the material advantages to the cliil- 
 dren of being well trained for a good trade, instead 
 of being left to make a mere pittance at the street 
 trades — finally bore fruit, and the children were per- 
 mitted to attend day schools. The tone of the 
 neighborhood improved, and when in 1872, in his 
 book, "Tlie Dangerous Classes of New York," Mr. 
 Brace gives his most interesting description of the 
 foundation of this school, he says that those among 
 the Italians who follow decent vocations and attend 
 day schools, either are or have been pupils of the 
 society, while the organ-grinders, beggars, and va- 
 grants have not attended at all, or, at most, for a few 
 weeks. Now, in 1894, the chief Italian school num- 
 bers over seven hundred and fifty scholars. 
 
 The only letters of this winter are as follows : — 
 
 To Sir Charles Lyell. 
 
 New York, Feb. 8, 1856. 
 
 My dear Sir Charles ; . . . Lady Lyell will be 
 interested to know that our enterprises among the 
 poor children are becoming better founded all the 
 while. We have all nations represented in them: 
 one school for Germans, another for Italians, etc. 
 We have just opened, too, a "Reading and Coffee- 
 Room " for workingmen, which we hope will be a 
 sort of temptation to virtue to our young median-
 
 210 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 ics. Thousands of our young men are ruined by 
 having no healthy phice of amusement, and we are 
 determined, if possible, to give some attractions to 
 virtue and soberness. Still, all these things are 
 experiments. I look on our common schools and 
 our field of free labor as vastly better curatives for 
 our evils than all these expedients. 
 
 Mr. O. will inform you best of our present politi- 
 cal condition. There are some very alarming feat- 
 ures just now, and we apprehend a bloody collision 
 in Kansas next spring. There is something to a 
 statesman ominous and sad, almost, in these first 
 collisions which are to go on for centuries perhaps, 
 and which may utterly shatter our Republic. But 
 it is right. Justice avenges herself, and our fall 
 may be one step in the progress of mankind. 
 
 To Theodore Parker. 
 
 [Winter, 1855-56.] 
 My dear Sir : "We have been hoping all the autumn 
 to see you at Hastings ; but now we are in the city, 
 we trust you will certainly give us a day or two, and 
 then, you know, you may meet Mr. Ripley at break- 
 fast! ... I am anxious to talk over some ethno- 
 graphic matters with you. I have been deep in the 
 " Historical Sagas of Scandinavia " (in translation). 
 You know, of course, "Snorri Sturlason," and the 
 Danish poem " Frithiof " ? Have you seen Mallet's 
 work on " Scandinavian Antiquities " ? Last sum- 
 mer I groped through Miiller's " Geschichte der Nord 
 Amerikanischen Ur-Religionen " — dry as dust of
 
 iEx. 29] REVISITING IRELAND 211 
 
 ages, but curious. I have noAv got hold of Duncke, 
 one of the best on Eastern religions. 
 
 The good fight approacheth in Kansas. Thank 
 God for Sharpe's rifles! 
 
 A word should be given here to the breakfast- 
 parties, which were so simple and unique as to 
 deserve note. They were at eight o'clock, with one 
 little maid to wait upon the company, and consisted, 
 as far as the meal went, of coffee, chops, and waffles. 
 At one time Starr King held the party entertained for 
 hours with accounts of the curious people he encoun- 
 tered in his lecturing tours ; at another Parker and 
 Ripley amused the company with their witticisms ; 
 again, some one aroused Mr. Beecher, while Emer- 
 son was ever faithful when on visits to New York. 
 Years after, Mr. Ripley used to say, " Ah, Mrs. Brace, 
 why don't we have some more of those breakfast- 
 parties? Rogers's table-talk wasn't half so good." 
 
 In May, 1856, Mr. and Mrs. Brace started with 
 their son of a year old for a summer abroad, first 
 going to Ireland to visit the family there. Mr. Brace 
 left his wife and child in Belfast, and went to Eng- 
 land, where he met Miss Carpenter and many others 
 interested in charities, and then, leaving the baby 
 with the Irish aunts, he made with Mrs. Brace a 
 never-forgotten trip to the North Cape. As usual, 
 studies of the people absorbed him, and he made a 
 hasty journey in Sweden.
 
 212 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 We have only a few words on his hurried visit in 
 England, and then the Norwegian trip began, of 
 which he writes at length in his book, " The Norse 
 Folk." 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 Arctic Ocean, near 69° 30', 
 Coast of Norway, July 11, 1856. 
 
 My dear Father : We are on a steamer returning 
 from Hammerfest to Drontheim, past this wild and 
 stormy coast scenery among islands and through 
 fjords — one of the most interesting trips I ever 
 took. We have stopped at the towns and seen 
 something of the people, — a very staunch, intelli- 
 gent nation. We found at Hammerfest no tree or 
 shrub (Lat. 70° 40') but the yellow wild violet and 
 coarse ranunculus and pink heather and mulberry- 
 flowers and a few buttercups. Snow, even in the 
 valleys, and July 4th we sailed through snowstorms. 
 I hope to get you some Arctic flowers, or at least 
 Norwegian, if you can exchange. 
 
 My course from London was to Hamburg, Copen- 
 hagen, and Christiania, where I met Letitia, and we 
 posted overland to Drontheim, — a delightful jour- 
 ney in little carrioles (sulkies), and getting your 
 horses from post. This journey from D. to H. and 
 back takes thirteen days, so that I have heard noth- 
 ing as yet from America. I hope you have written, 
 and that you are well. What a horrid state you are 
 in now in America. It is fearful. I hope the North 
 will be staunch. ... So far I am delighted with 
 the journey, both the pleasure and experience gained.
 
 iEx. 30] THE SWEDISH SCHOOLS 213 
 
 The sight of the midnight sun was a "splendid 
 spectacle," on which he enlarges in his book, and 
 he speaks of "the gloriously long days, when you 
 are always ahead of your work, and time never 
 overtakes you." 
 
 Of the industrial work in the Swedish schools he 
 says in " The Norse Folk " : — 
 
 " I have been visiting with my friend the various 
 charitable institutions of Gottenburg, among these, 
 the Willinska school for the poor, . . . The mana- 
 gers had employed the plan so successfully carried 
 out in New York, of sending the children away 
 to be placed in reliable and religious families, rather 
 than keep them in an asylum. They had now, how- 
 ever, connected with it the method of constant com- 
 munication with these children thus sent out, as has 
 been done at home with such excellent results. The 
 Chalmerska Skolan is a higher class of school, being 
 a kind of polytechnique school for laborers and 
 mechanics. Here drawing and modelling are taught, 
 and various natural sciences. There are laboratories 
 and well-furnished rooms of philosophical instru- 
 ments connected with it, together with a reading- 
 room. The whole is free for workingmen! An 
 institution so enlightened neither New York nor 
 Boston yet has." 
 
 The two letters which follow show us his continued 
 enjoyment of this trip.
 
 214 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 To Theodore Parker. 
 
 Leksand, Dalecarlia, Sunday, Aug. 24, 1856. 
 My dear Parker : . . . There is an extraordinaiy 
 religiosity in the people. I suspect the Lutheran 
 service and ritual is much better suited to their state 
 of development than our Reformed Calvinistic in 
 America would be. In the parishes, the religion 
 seems also a practical principle. The sobriety and 
 virtue (sexual) are remarkable, and a thief is almost 
 an unknown individual. . . . Sweden is a most 
 complicated country; a study, all of it, much more 
 than Norway. This queer old Constitution, the 
 product of struggles between cities and priests and 
 nobles and king, has served to protect the people in 
 individual rights, but has choked up individual 
 development. The peasants are as aristocratic and 
 independent in their own circle as the nobles, and 
 are the best possible stuff for a future republic, but 
 they are ignorant and old-fashioned. The curse of 
 the Church is its bigotry. Even enlightened men 
 are centuries behind in this. I think the majority 
 would like to dispose of a Baptist as some people in 
 America would of Theodore Parker. There are some 
 disgraceful persecutions going on. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Stockholm, Aug. 12, 1856. 
 
 Dearest Wife : . . . The weather has been like 
 winter here till to-day, but now it is splendid and 
 cool. A beautiful city. Such sails and views and
 
 iET. 30] ISOLATION OF THE POOR 215 
 
 parks for walking! The most picturesque park in 
 Europe. ... I have been so impelled lately by the 
 expression, " Bring every thought into captivity to 
 Christ." It is so sweet to have them chained, cap- 
 tured to Christ. I have Ijeen lately so ashamed and 
 struck down in reading that tremendous, earnest life 
 of Paul written in his letters. Christ, I do not even 
 lift my eyes to. It seems as if the fearful experiences 
 of my life had been thrown away, that it should only 
 bring me to this. I say, O God! that I should think 
 of wealth or honor or fame or friendship as my aim and 
 Thou and Eternit}'' all near me since a child. It is 
 a most mean ending. That the visions of God which 
 have surrounded me like an atmosphere, and the 
 stern lessons from Him, and my own infinite hopes 
 should end in such a pitiful result. However, I 
 have good hope. God is a friend to the poor soal. 
 Perhaps the best way to Him is through disappoint- 
 ment and humiliation. God bless you, dear heart. 
 
 He rejoined his little family at the end of August, 
 and together they returned to America. 
 
 Mr. Brace tells us in early reports that one of the 
 surprising features in the life of the poor, which he 
 realizes more as he familiarizes himself with this 
 class, is the entire solitude and desertion into which 
 a human being can come in a great city. It would 
 seem as if the outcast girl, the homeless, ragged boy, 
 would know where to go when in destitution, but 
 experience has proved that they do not. The great
 
 216 CHARLES LORIN^G BRACE [1856 
 
 work of the Children's Aid Society is that it is a 
 connecting' link between the fortunate and unfor- 
 tunate, that the visitors who explore the docks and 
 low lodging-houses, the dark lanes and dirty alleys 
 of the lower town, come on desperate individuals to 
 whom it has never occurred that there may be help 
 anywhere. The visitor is thus valuable, even when 
 unable to produce any direct result from his discov- 
 eries, at least in publishing to the unfortunate that 
 there is a place where, in extremity, a home and a 
 chance for honest labor may be found. 
 
 The condition of New York in 1856-57 must have 
 been such as we can now little realize. We hear of 
 children half -grown to maturity as "attacking the 
 unwary stranger or citizen, robbing houses, injur- 
 ing the value of property, and affecting the fame of 
 our city through the whole land." Mr. Brace re- 
 proaches the public in strong and severe terms in his 
 report, in 1857, that there should be thought any- 
 thing surprising in this. How could it be other- 
 wise? Some things, to be sure, had been done; help 
 had come to the Children's Aid Society from many 
 channels ; the police and the authorities of the city 
 had been friendly; the religious part of the commu- 
 nity had esj)ecially begun to feel its responsibilities 
 more. But the work was small compared with the 
 evil. In the meantime, what other result was to be 
 expected from the neglected members of society now
 
 ^T. 30] IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIOX 217 
 
 grown to maturity? Why should the "street-rat," 
 as the police called him, be expected to consider with 
 reverence a civilization from which he received no 
 benefit? 
 
 "Is not this crop of thieves and burglars, of 
 shoulder-hitters and short-boys, of prostitutes and 
 vagrants, of garroters and murderers, the very fruit 
 to be expected from this seed so long being sown? 
 What else was to be looked for? Society hurried on 
 selfishly for its wealth, and left this vast class in 
 its misery and temptation. Now these children 
 arise, and wrest back with bloody and criminal hands 
 what the world was too careless or too selfish to give. 
 The worldliness of the rich, the indifference of all 
 classes to the poor, will always be avenged. Society 
 must act on the highest principles, or its punishment 
 incessantly comes within itself. The neglect of the 
 poor and tempted and criminal is fearfully repaid."^ 
 
 In presenting the means which should be used to 
 improve this deplorable state of things, he dwells 
 again on the comparative value he puts upon educa- 
 tion, the providing of labor, and the placing of chil- 
 dren in good homes, and still asserts his belief in 
 the superiority of the plan of a complete change of 
 surroundings. The replies to letters from the office 
 of the society to more than two thousand children 
 were encouraging to him in the highest degree, and 
 he says that the patience and tenderness shown by 
 1 Fourth Annual Report, p. 6.
 
 218 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 many of the women in Western homes to the poor 
 little untrained children sur^^assed his expectations, 
 although his faith in their motherly kindness had 
 always been strong. He pictures to us what it must 
 be to the vagrant child to sit at the farmer's board 
 like one of his own children, to go to school with 
 them, to learn daily what they consider proper and 
 right, and he touchingly says, "Soon, perhaps, for 
 the first time in his life, love begins to encircle the 
 little castaway, and he feels at length there is some- 
 body in the world who cares for him." 
 
 But the great emigration work of the society did 
 not go on undisturbed. It met with intense and 
 bigoted opposition from the poor themselves. They 
 maintained that it was a proselytizing work, and that 
 every child taken was made a Protestant. All sorts 
 of stories were spread among the most ignorant, such 
 as that the children were sold as slaves. These were 
 the difficulties encountered among the poor, obstacles 
 which sometimes were so insuperable that mothers 
 preferred to see their children sink to the lowest 
 depths of crime rather than send them away. Among 
 a small number of the better classes, there was also 
 a strong objection to the action of the society in this 
 particular. They believed that there was danger of 
 spreading what they considered poison throughout 
 the West, and maintained that a season of discipline 
 at an asylum or home before sending the children to
 
 JEt. 30] JOURNEY TO THE WEST 219 
 
 the West was the only safe course. The society dis- 
 agreed in toto with this view. They did not consider 
 these children, wild as they were, as criminals, and 
 hence did not think that they should be submitted 
 to any sort of imprisonment, nor that there were legal 
 grounds for enclosing them in asylums. They also, 
 as has been stated, did not believe that the faults of 
 these children would be corrected, nor their virtues 
 nourished, in asylum life; and claimed that if chil- 
 dren were thus kept, the exjiense of their mainte- 
 nance would be enormous, compared to the trifling 
 cost of a temporary home in one of the lodging- 
 houses, and their transference to the West. Reck- 
 oning the cost of a child's support in an asylum 
 for only one 3'ear, the difference between the two 
 methods of caring for them was in the proportion 
 of fifteen dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars ! 
 In 1859, Mr. Brace made a journey in the West, in 
 order personally to examine many cases where it was 
 claimed that they were turning out badly. He was 
 enormously encouraged by what he saw, finding out 
 that the number who turned out badly was extremely 
 small, and that a great mission work was going on 
 throughout the States of Indiana, Michigan, and Illi- 
 nois. He says, in speaking of the faithfulness of 
 the adopted parents to their charges : " On this 
 journey we heard of but one instance even of neglect. 
 We visited the lad, and discovered that he had not
 
 220 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1856 
 
 been schooled as he should, and had sometimes been 
 left alone at night in the lonely log house. Yet this 
 had roused the feelings of the whole countryside. 
 We removed the boy amid the tears and protestations 
 of the 'father and mother,' and put him in another 
 place. As soon as we had left the village, he ran 
 back to his old place ! " ^ 
 
 On the last day of 1856, he wrote to his wife from 
 Cambridge, whither he went for a rest during the 
 holidays : — 
 
 " I am having a very quiet, pleasant time, work- 
 ing in the day and dining out in the evening. Dined 
 to-day en famille at uncle's, to-morrow at Long- 
 fellow's. ... I am struck with the high tone of 
 women here. J — makes the same deep impres- 
 sion on me as ever. There is, at times, a pure 
 and spiritual light in her eyes, such as I never saw 
 on human features beside. You get such an impres- 
 sion of a life of a soul, an independent, lofty exist- 
 ence, or, at least, a living in oneself as related to 
 God, at the same time that she is so true and faith- 
 ful to the duties of the life that now is. There 
 ought to be that in every woman. The fact is, each 
 girl is poorly educated, and too much an appendage, 
 and does not become enough an independent spirit- 
 ual existence. 
 
 " Well, dear, the old year is dying out, soon to be 
 gone. I am pressed with thoughts and hopes — not 
 
 1 Sixth Annual Report, p. 10.
 
 ^T. 30] LETTER TO HIS WIFE 221 
 
 many more such times — tlie problem solving fast — 
 the trial ending. Somehow the skies of heaven 
 s^obscurent, the nearer I come to them. How I long 
 to be in a purer atmosphere, and yet to live in the 
 fogs and damps about me, to carry a heavenly light 
 with me and be in the world, yet not of it. God 
 help me to see Him more clearly, and may this year 
 be a step to what is better than all things, — a higher 
 communion with Him. I sometimes half wish I 
 could be crippled or made blind, because then I 
 should be really separated from the world, and could 
 know Christ. Nothing but the cross (compelled) 
 seems able to raise me to Him. I hope my disci- 
 pline will not come through the suffering of those 
 I love. It is hard to get rid of the worldly husk. 
 God bless you, dear, and a happy New Year! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Miscellaneous Letters — Appeal for a Night School for Girls — Or- 
 ganization of the School — Similar Associations in Other Cities 
 
 — Desire for Workers among Young Men — Letters and Papers 
 written during the Civil War — Letters from Greeley and Seward 
 
 — Mr. Brace goes South on the Christian Commission — New 
 President of Children's Aid Society — Organization of First Girls' 
 Lodging-House 
 
 The beginning of 1858 finds Mr. Brace again in 
 Cambridge, whence he writes to his wife : — 
 
 Cambridge, January, 1858. 
 
 My dearest Wife : . . . What you say of your 
 becoming like me, recalls what I have been noticing 
 for some time, and which has touched me very much, 
 ... I hope, dear, you will not grow like me. I 
 like you much better than myself. Do keep your 
 individuality. ... I have a constant tendency 
 towards the most brotherly attentions towards all 
 pretty young ladies ! And they seem to abound here. 
 Isn't it strange how much every one in the world is 
 longing to love, and how every one cannot get love 
 enough — as if each man should go around with a 
 costly treasure to give to any one, and though every 
 one wanted it, none could take it from him. Per- 
 haps hereafter " supply and demand will be equal," 
 and attractions proportioned to destinies. ... I 
 
 222
 
 ^T. 32] LIFE IN THE WOODS 223 
 
 had a fine tea-party at T. Parker's, — Mr. and Mrs. 
 Stowe and the Hales and Starr King and hidy, and 
 numbers of others. 
 
 The years to which Ave are coming are marked by 
 too few letters from Mr. Brace, 1858 having only the 
 two following, and 1860 none at all. The first of 
 those below describes the wood-life in which he 
 passed his summers; the second is an affectionate 
 expression of friendship addressed to a young sister- 
 in-law. 
 
 To Mrs. a. L. Schuyler. 
 
 Adirondacks, Aug. 29, 1858. 
 My dear Friend: I was delighted to find your 
 and Miss Mary's notes here unconsumed by bears 
 and other wild animals. ... C. will give you all 
 the particulars of our delightful journey. It has 
 been a tour of beauty throughout. It seems to me 
 there is nothing in this country so originally Ameri- 
 can as the Adirondack scenery and travel. I was 
 constantly sa3dng, " This is old Grecian life " ; such 
 a perfect sensuous existence. The most exquisite 
 and rounded beauty of landscape, radiant sunlight 
 and air just suiting either exercise or basking in the 
 heat; then with one's body in the best condition to 
 enjoy every sense and constant contact with nature 
 in all her best and gayest moods; swimming in such 
 delicious water; rowing or being silently boated in 
 the most quiet lovely scenes ; living constantly under 
 "my great dome " (as Emerson called it in his camp, 
 pointing to the vast starry vault); catching such
 
 224 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1858 
 
 wonderful glimpses of cloud and light effects, which 
 one never can know elsewhere — such as mists of 
 early morning floating off before tlie sun, moonlight 
 mysteries, the magnetic rays in the northern sky, 
 or some supernatural combinations of splendor in the 
 evening skies. You know how infinite these un- 
 known effects of nature are — this is our wilderness 
 life with all the social and merry additions which 
 you can imagine. I feel exceedingly invigorated 
 and inspired by it for the great works of life. 
 
 These vast solitudes have moved me with inex- 
 pressible reverence. In the midst of each great scene 
 of starlight and water, I have felt as if prostrate in 
 some unvisited mighty temple of Deity, and as if I 
 could only raise my eyes from afar to heaven and ask 
 for a nearer union to the ever-present Spirit. My 
 soul seemed to pray with tears for that never-attained 
 harmony with Him, and I felt as if all earth and 
 heaven might pass away beneath me for me, if I 
 could only reach that atmosphere of purity and peace 
 and utter friendship with God. . . . We have just 
 entered civilization. Our latest news is that the 
 wire was laid, and that a message had passed. Here 
 we find our mails and shall read up. What an event 
 it is ! The newest bond to the brotherhood of man. 
 Nothing seems grander since the -discovery of 
 America. 
 
 To Miss Dora Neill. 
 
 Hastings, Sept. 20, 1858. 
 My dear Dora ; . . . I have been educated in the 
 severe Puritanic, Saxon idea of work. It stands for
 
 JEt. 32] LETTER TO MISS NEILL 225 
 
 duty, responsibility, almost religion, with us. I 
 should wish to labor if my body were dropping away 
 piecemeal, and if I lay on a dying bed for a length 
 of time and the dearest friend I had on earth could 
 only be with me by abandoning important duty, I 
 should wish him or her away. Then, by reasoning, 
 I have come to put woman as equal or as claiming 
 equal privileges, and with equal responsibilities to 
 man. So you see with the two, I have fallen into 
 this severe view. It is not selfishness with us. It 
 is balancing duty of labor with the duty of giving 
 pleasure, and we only do as we have always been 
 done by, and would be done by. Your cultivating 
 your intellect is not so much taking care of yourself 
 as doing your duty to God and the world. Of course 
 it may be outbalanced by other duties. There lies 
 the question. ... It is strange that I should feel 
 myself the one favored in our new bond. I suppose 
 it is because age always feels itself so inferior to 
 youth, and is glad even to kneel to catch such sweet, 
 fresh flowers from her hand. I wonder whether your 
 bright face will care to brighten to such a sober, 
 severe, old worker as I am. That is the way I regard 
 you and me now, so it shows I am growing very old. 
 Do you know, dear, ever since our pleasant time 
 with so many warm hearts, I find myself loving every- 
 body better, and I half think nobody (except L.)ever 
 softened my bear's heart so much as your sweet self. 
 You represent youth and hope to me, and my sister, 
 and perhaps I love you most because I think I see 
 lighted in your soul one fire that shall never go out, 
 — that kindled on the altar of duty. 
 
 Do you remember (to myself I would say, will you
 
 226 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1859 
 
 ever forget?) that starlit talk on the rock in the 
 lake ? That seemed to me (I suppose I idealized it) 
 a kind of spiritual union which may last into Eter- 
 nity. At any rate, it opened new paths of light to 
 my poor darkened soul which seemed to come to me 
 there from the Great Spirit. In that regard, it is of 
 no consequence whether you remember or not. But 
 what a sentimental love-letter I have fallen into! 
 We have so much to tell you and M. A. when we 
 meet, so I must leave memories and fancies, and 
 come to facts. We have just heard Channing, a 
 truly great preacher, — an inspired man with the 
 simplest and most catholic idea of religion, — preach- 
 ing to but a small circle of minds, but of whom I 
 feel I am one. A man in the world but not of it; 
 perhaps too spiritual to be a full model man, but 
 what this day and generation need. God help us to 
 be even more above the world than he is, and yet 
 to have the world's full life. 
 
 The letter that follows was written to a relative 
 suffering from an illness from which her recovery 
 was doubtful : — 
 
 New York, Sunday, May 29, 1859. 
 
 My dear Kate : It is a beautiful Sabbath morning 
 and I happen to be in town, and I have been think- 
 ing of you so much for some weeks that I feel I must 
 write a few words. Did you know how much we 
 enjoyed your little visit in Hastings? I felt I never 
 really knew you so well before. We have felt so 
 much your sufferings this spring, and are glad to 
 hear that you are now a little relieved. I often ask
 
 JEt. 33] FACTORY GIRLS 227 
 
 myself how I should bear such afflictions as yours, 
 if God should send them suddenly upon me. It 
 would be very hard for me to be suddenly put on one 
 side and become useless, or to feel that I might 
 possibly be obliged to leave those I loved without 
 me. Yet, as I now feel (I may be mistaken), it 
 seems to me, having once seen it was the will of 
 God, and that I could do nothing, I could really just 
 put my hand in Christ's, and say to Him to lead me 
 wherever He will, even through the gate of death to 
 His presence. ... I am confident there is a rela- 
 tion to God through Christ, which can make life per- 
 fectly peaceful and ha^jpy under all possible circum- 
 stances, and throw an unimaginable glory over this 
 world. It is not merely "doing one's duty" as D. 
 would say, but it is so being filled with the presence 
 and love of God, that doing duty is a habit, and life 
 is all a friendship or union with the Infinite Spirit 
 and all our faults are consumed in this perfect love. 
 Do you understand? That brings the peace passing 
 understanding ! 
 
 Well, dear sister, may God sustain you, and, if 
 best, restore you to health, and the presence of Christ 
 go with you evermore. 
 
 With the winter of 1859-60, the society was 
 brought to face a new problem, owing to the im- 
 mense number of young girls in need of wholesome 
 influences, who were not of the most destitute class ; 
 that is, who were not street children, but were em- 
 ployed in factories. The society felt that conditions 
 were fast changing as New York became more and
 
 228 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1860 
 
 more a manufacturing city. The possibility of send- 
 ing off the girls to the West would grow much less, 
 as a manufacturing town would retain its working 
 population. Though there are not the same dangers 
 for girls in the factories as for the class of street 
 children already helped by the society, there are 
 other risks, and Mr. Brace felt something must be 
 done to amuse as well as instruct them in the even- 
 ings. In the report for 1860, he says, "With this 
 condition of the poorer female laboring class rapidly 
 approaching, a new order of instrumentalities will be 
 necessary from those whose aim it is to raise up the 
 degraded classes of the city." 
 
 He says that girls who have worked hard all 
 day, who are full of vitality and spirit, need amuse- 
 ment and sociality, and will seek it where they can 
 find it if it is not given them. Their filthy, disa- 
 greeable homes will not detain them, used, as they 
 are, to being their own mistresses throughout the 
 day. Moral training and innocent amusement must 
 be given, and this can only be done by opening the 
 schools in the evenings, and making them attractive 
 and social. Money for this purpose, and for classes 
 for another set of girls, the German rag and bone 
 pickers, was earnestly solicited of the public. The 
 needs of this latter portion of the community are 
 strongly set forth in a letter to the president of the 
 society. Judge Mason, in which Mr. Brace reveals
 
 iET. 34] SCHOOL FOR GERMAN GIRLS 229 
 
 that he has grasped the fact, only at the present 
 time becoming vitally important in the minds of 
 practical philanthropists, that the way to reach these 
 girls is through social means, and the way really to 
 help them is through industrial. "... Many of 
 these," the letter says, "are very bright, quick, in- 
 telligent young girls who, from the acquaintances 
 made in this way,^ are tempted into the low dance 
 saloons and houses of improper character. It is 
 known that hundreds of the unfortunate girls who 
 frequent and support these places are poor German 
 girls fi'om this very class. The only remedy is not 
 so much to reform, as to prevent the evil. Instruc- 
 tion, training in work which shall be remunerative 
 hereafter, proper amusements, and religious influ- 
 ences are the means which we hope will check those 
 evils among our poorest class of Germans. It is 
 accordingly proposed to open in the neighborhood of 
 Corlear's Hook a social and industrial school for the 
 benefit of this class of young German girls from 
 twelve to fifteen years of age. It is hoped, in the 
 hours in which these girls are not at work in the 
 streets, to bring them together for instruction, for 
 moral teachings, and for practice in some branch of 
 industry. Then in the evenings, the teachers will 
 seek to provide some suitable amusement or mode of 
 spending the time which shall keep them out of 
 ^ In street-trades and rag and bone picking.
 
 230 CHARLES LORING BRACE [I860 
 
 temptation. . . . As a Christian effort in a direc- 
 tion in which so little has been done compared with 
 the vastness of the evil, we hope the enterprise will 
 meet with your sympathy and support." 
 
 An association of Germans was at once formed, 
 who subscribed one thousand dollars, and the even- 
 ing school was opened. The girls, somewhat rude 
 and bold at first, came in numbers, and under the 
 influence of judicious and experienced teachers set 
 to work on the regular school branches, and on les- 
 sons on the sewing machine. A part of the evening 
 was given to singing, and Saturday evenings en- 
 tirely to games and amusement. Sixty working- 
 girls, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, were 
 soon in regular attendance. Mr. Brace says that 
 there was every reason "to hope that a deep moral 
 hold will be gained over a large number of young 
 girls who are now exposed to many dangers." Thus 
 we learn of the first effort in New York to give even- 
 ing occupation and entertainment to girls. 
 
 It is an interesting fact which Mr. Brace mentions 
 in his report of this year, 1860, that, after the found- 
 ing of the societ}^, similar associations were formed 
 in many places throughout the country. Industrial 
 schools with "boys' meetings" and reading-rooms 
 for the poor were opened in Albany, Troy, Buffalo, 
 Detroit, St. Louis, and numerous other towns. He 
 closes the report with an aj^peal for more workers : —
 
 ^T. 34] THE ATTACK ON SUMTER 231 
 
 "It is very much to be desired," he says, "that 
 more of our young men, especially those of leisure 
 and fortune, should take part in some of these various 
 enterprises for the children of the poor, embraced 
 under our organization. In England, it is this class 
 of men who do the most for the needy and ignorant. 
 We should be glad of their aid in the religious in- 
 struction of these poor lads, in contriving for and 
 managing our reading-rooms or boys' meetings or 
 various undertakings for benefiting the children 
 and youth of the poorest classes. It is the best fruit 
 of Christianity that it is recognized as a privilege 
 for the highest to stoop to the lowest, for the most 
 powerful to help up the weakest; and it is in this 
 light especially, that we would lay this possibility 
 of usefulness before the sons of our most eminent 
 and wealthy citizens." 
 
 The friendly letters of these stirring war times 
 are so few that we turn to his letters to the news- 
 papers to learn how thoroughly aroused he was. We 
 insert here a letter to the " New York Times " writ- 
 ten in the spring of 1861 : — 
 
 To the ''New York Times:' 
 
 Tuesday, April 16, 1861. 
 
 . . . Nothing, for years, has brought the hearts 
 of all the people so close together, or so inspired 
 them all with common hope and common fears and a 
 common aim, as the bombardment and surrender of
 
 232 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 an American fortress. We look upon this sublime 
 outburst of public sentiment as the most perfect 
 vindication of popular institutions, the most con- 
 clusive reply to the impugners of American loyalty 
 the country has ever seen.' It has been quite com- 
 mon to say that such a Republic as ours could never 
 be permanent, because it lacked the conditions of a 
 profound and abiding loyalty. The government 
 could never inspire a patriotic instinct fervid enough 
 to melt the bonds of party, or powerful enough to 
 override the selfishness which free institutions so 
 rapidly develop. The hearts of our people had begun 
 to sink within them at the apparent insensibility of 
 the public to the dangers which menaced the govern- 
 ment. . . . 
 
 But all this changed. The cannon which bom- 
 barded Sumter awoke strange echoes, and touched 
 forgotten chords in the American heart. American 
 loyalty leaped into instant life, and stood radiant 
 and ready for the fierce encounter. From one end of 
 the land to the other, — in the crowded streets of 
 cities, and in the solitude of the country, — wher- 
 ever the splendor of the stars and stripes, the glitter- 
 ing emblems of our country's glory, meets the eye, 
 come forth shouts of devotion and pledges of aid 
 which give due guarantees for the perpetuity of 
 American freedom. War can inflict no scars on such 
 a people. ... It is a mistake to suppose that war 
 — even civil war — is the greatest evil that can 
 afflict a nation. . . . War is a far less evil than 
 degradation, than the national and social paralysis 
 which can neither feel a wound nor redress a wrong. 
 . . . The great body of our people have but one
 
 iET. 34] ENGLAND'S ATTITUDE 23B 
 
 heart and one purpose in this great crisis of our 
 history. Whatever may be the character of the con- 
 test, we have no fears or misgivings as to the final 
 issue. 
 
 His disappointment in England's lack of sympathy 
 was very bitter. Although he had friends like Sir 
 Charles and Lady Lyell and many others, who were 
 heart and soul with the Union cause, the public tone 
 hurt him, and he writes with more bitterness than 
 we are used to look for from his pen. He says she 
 disappointed him in her lack of sympathy for Hun- 
 gary twelve years before. Now it is the same thing. 
 Either the papers express in the name of the public 
 pious horror or pity at this " wicked and fratricidal 
 war," or there is a tone of cool neutrality. He 
 writes for the "New York Times," under the title 
 " The Sympathies of England " : — 
 
 "May 28, 1861. . . . Of course, other and wiser 
 words will yet come over the Atlantic. But to 
 generous natures, the first words are the real words. 
 Nothing that England can offer now of sympathy, or 
 hereafter of pious congratulation at the triumph of 
 liberty and government, can remove the conviction 
 implanted in the minds of our people of the hypoc- 
 risy of her governing classes. She has lost in Ameri- 
 can affairs the golden opportunity of centuries, and 
 it will never come again. If ever a war was holy, 
 if ever it was made for the noblest objects, this has
 
 234 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 been. . . . For merchants who have offered the 
 fruits of the toil of years, for mothers who bring 
 with their own hands their sons to the recruiting 
 offices, for professional men who have abandoned all 
 civil honors to take place as privates, . . . for a 
 whole nation offering money, time, and life itself 
 without stint or measure in the cause of human lib- 
 erty and law, — to be told that they are only fighting 
 for a tariff or their pockets, or because they want 
 excitement, is not only a misrepresentation base 
 enough to lead all honorable souls to doubt it, but 
 dull enough to carry its own reply with it." 
 
 Mr. Brace made a trip to Washington during the 
 spring and early summer of this year, and corre- 
 sponded with the " Independent " during his journey. 
 We insert at some length extracts from his letters, 
 believing that both his practical suggestions and his 
 comments on what he saw may be of interest. 
 
 To the Editors of the ^''Independent " 
 
 May 9, 1861. 
 Your old correspondent has just passed through 
 the camps in Maryland, and is now in Washington. 
 It is quite a singular effect to note the contrast be- 
 tween this quiet city and the excited New York. 
 As soon as I had passed the first military lines, I 
 felt the difference in the atmosphere. The ideal 
 part of the struggle was behind, the real before. 
 The soldiers were about a practical business ; rations 
 and drills and camping-places had taken the place
 
 iEx. 34] TONE OF THE ARMY 2S5 
 
 of speeches and toasts and hurrahs. Washington 
 seems as cahn as a New England village, only more 
 picturesque from the number of uniforms. The suf- 
 ferings of a civilian on the route by Annapolis to 
 Washington would make a theme for " Punch " or 
 Marryat. Nobody cares for him, no one minds him. 
 The univeral military response to every question is 
 "I don't know." Sometimes he is not allowed to 
 go forward or to retreat. All men snub him. If, 
 in his utter confusion and desolation, he finall}', in 
 despair, applies to the general, — as did one unfor- 
 tunate traveller to General Butler, — and asks where 
 he is to sleep, he is extinguished by the soldier-like 
 answer, " I really don't know, sir. Do you think I 
 am the chambermaid of this post?" All is military 
 routine, and your traveller had better keep out of 
 the way of it. Then the confusion, the waste, the 
 hurried work, the striding right over all the usual 
 habits of peace. Nothing that I have ever read 
 described it so nearly as some of Marryat's accounts 
 of putting one of Her Majesty's frigates in sudden 
 readiness for sea. 
 
 The most efficient officer, I should think, on the 
 ground is General Butler of Massachusetts. Still, 
 very few of the officials in command have first-rate 
 business habits. The whole thing- is new to our 
 people, and the regiments have come on before the 
 government was ready for them. . . . 
 
 The tone of our men is noble. There is no bitter- 
 ness or spirit of revenge among them, but a manly 
 determination to do their duty to their country. 
 They are bearing great privations and hardships 
 without a murmur at the cause which brought them
 
 236 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 out, though with curses both loud and deep at the 
 commissariat officers. They need many things, and 
 it becomes their friends all over the country to pro- 
 vide for these. Let us remember that our kinsmen 
 and friends who are fighting our battles will die 
 from rheumatism, fever, dysentery, and sickness of 
 every kind, vastly more than they will from bullets 
 and bayonets. To guard against these, let every 
 village and town supply its volunteers each with a 
 loose flannel shirt and India-rubber blanket (or slip) 
 and warm woollen socks. These are the best things 
 for dampness, and for extremes of heat and cold. 
 Then, to vary their everlasting salt diet, send them 
 boxes or barrels of dried fruit, or oranges or apples, 
 or cans of preserved meat and vegetables, or a keg of 
 molasses (molasses helps out bad fare wonderfully), 
 or a can of tea (tea is not an army ration). It will 
 be easy to find out who is the officer to whom these 
 things are to be sent for the particular regiment. 
 Then for higher wants. The army should be thor- 
 oughly supplied with reading matter. There is the 
 greatest want in this respect. The young men are 
 most eager to read, but have nothing. Idleness will 
 ruin many a noble fellow in these regiments. Why 
 could not, for instance, some generous person enable 
 the "Independent" to issue an "Army Edition," 
 and scatter twenty thousand copies every week among 
 our forces; or why could not each community for- 
 ward plenty of papers and pamphlets and tracts to 
 their own men? 
 
 But now to the highest want. I found the relig- 
 ious men of the regiments I visited under a cloud. 
 They had not become used to the idea of a Christian
 
 ^T. 34] RELIGIOUS MEN IN THE ARMY 237 
 
 soldier. Without Sundays, without churches or 
 books or sermons, or a society of the good, they were 
 overborne by the habits and tone of those around 
 them. This country has not come to consider the 
 army (as Enghind does) as a necessary part of the 
 State, and a leligious officer or soldier as just as 
 natural as a religious civilian. Our men of piety 
 feel as if they were somewhat out of their element 
 when they are on service. Then in every regiment, 
 sometimes in every company, are men who are ob- 
 scene ruffians, — profane, foul-mouthed fellows who 
 ought to be in the hands of the police. These lead 
 the talk, and have vastly more influence than they 
 ought to have, or would have if the religious and 
 moral were united. I found Christian men in some 
 of the corps much depressed by these things. Drink- 
 ing and gambling, too, had begun, and there seemed 
 danger of a tide of vice and irreligion running 
 through our army. Now, our Northern men never 
 can fight this war well, unless from the beginning 
 it is a religious war. It was begun from prin- 
 ciple. It is a defence of liberty and law and right- 
 eousness. It should continue a war of principle. 
 The Bible and Psalm-book should go along with the 
 bayonet and sword. Prayers should precede each 
 battle. Our men must feel, as did the Revolution- 
 ary forefathers or the English Puritans, and know 
 that they are serving God when they take hardship 
 and wounds and death in this cause. There ought 
 to be no unmanly dodging of religious responsibili- 
 ties. The men of piety in each regiment must band 
 together and make their influence felt. They must 
 not be ashamed ' of Christ, even when carrying
 
 238 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 pistol and bayonet, and before the profane and the 
 nasty. Let us have a manly, soldierly piety in our 
 whole army. 
 
 To the Editors of the '"''Independent.''^ 
 
 Washington, May 16, 1861. 
 
 Mr. Toombs prophesied that he would one day 
 call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill. We have 
 lived to see the Senate Chamber where he spoke occu- 
 pied by Massachusetts soldiers, in arms against the 
 slave masters and for defence of Washington. 
 
 During- the last week I visited the Senate Cham- 
 ber, where the brave men are who forced their way 
 through the mob of Baltimore. It was a notable 
 sight, a scene that will be historic hereafter, one of 
 those events which, five hundred years hence, will 
 be spoken of by our vast posterity as the Romans 
 spoke of the distant days when the Gauls were be- 
 leaguering the Capitol. There they lay, stretched 
 about on the seats and desks which many meaner 
 men had filled, and making the walls that have lis- 
 tened to so much mean apology and base treason 
 echo to freer words. You have heard how these men 
 of the Bay State sprang to their arms. One company 
 received its notice at two o'clock in the morning, 
 and by nine o'clock it was all ready and on its 
 march. There was something so fitting that those 
 who had been first to speak in the great struggle 
 should likewise be the first to act 
 
 The main feeling with the men, I find, is that it 
 is a struggle for the very existence of the govern-
 
 ^T. 34] EMAXCIPATION FORESHADOWED 239 
 
 ment; for law itself against anarchy. Mr. Evarts, 
 in his interview with the President, expressed the 
 underl^'ing principle in his trenchant words : " We 
 of the North," said he, "are to show that revolutions 
 cannot be had in this country cheap. If necessary, 
 it shall cost the prosperity of a whole generation to 
 overthrow our government." Still, it makes but 
 little difference what the individuals of an army 
 intend. They are now the incarnations of an idea. 
 This idea necessarily involves "hatred to slavery." 
 Let the first blood be shed, and every ignorant laborer 
 who has joined the ranks, and all his friends and 
 kinsmen, are henceforth foes of slavery. Besides, 
 the necessities of war are despotic. We must rouse 
 up the slaves eventually. We cannot help it. If 
 they help us, we cannot shoot them down. One 
 reprisal begets another. The rebel privateers cap- 
 ture our gold-bearing steamers or our coast craft. 
 We loosen the bonds of the slaves. And the ultima- 
 tum must be, as Wendell Phillips says, "Disunion 
 or Emancipation." . . . 
 
 Freedom to the slave ! The words sound as might 
 the songs of angels amid the curses and groans of 
 battle. We cannot believe them. What! This 
 curse and burning shame at length, after so many 
 years of hopeless prayers and tears, to be taken away! 
 The chain of American bondage to be broken, the 
 wrongs and sins of that accursed system of despotism 
 at length to be swept away, and this glorious old 
 flag to wave henceforth over nothing but freemen ; 
 to be the symbol, indeed, of universal liberty ! . . . 
 
 Another result of our final victory must be the full 
 justification of the American idea. We have all
 
 240 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 doubted it. We have all been at times skeptics. 
 Seeing the corruption of politicians, and the base 
 uses to which the people have been put, we have 
 been ready to say, "Men are not yet ready for 
 universal suffrage! We should have restrictions 
 and privileges! Keep out the foreigners from our 
 rights ! " Now, in the hour of our peril, when the 
 Southern demagogue counted on treason from the 
 poor foreigner, even as he had found it among his 
 own wealthy countrymen, at the first shot at our flag 
 we find the foreign-born rising, if possible, with 
 more enthusiasm and patriotic self-devotion to de- 
 fend the Republic than our own citizens. The 
 brave Irish, the gallant French, the well-drilled 
 Germans, Poles, Hungarians, and English are hur- 
 rying on to stand by or die for the capital of their 
 country. Henceforth, the blood of the foreign dead 
 on this soil consecrates universal suffrage, while 
 the American nation endures. 
 
 Still further, one can see in the future, looming 
 up before us, the image of a stronger government. 
 Such a rebellion as this must not occur twice. Even 
 if the present Administration, with its powers, is 
 able to overthrow this mighty faction of enemies, 
 we shall inevitably henceforth demand a government 
 that can prevent such outbreaks. . . . We can 
 never allow again our ship of State to come so near 
 foundering. The pleasing excitement of a blockade 
 of our capital must never be repeated. 
 
 A letter to his wife shows him in the thick of the 
 operations that preceded the defeat at Bull Run.
 
 ^T. 35] IN CAMP IN VIRGINIA 241 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Camp on the ground in front of a Secesh house 
 near Fairfax Court-House, Wednesday, 4 
 o'clock. Summer, 18G1. 
 
 Dearest Wife : I have had a most exciting day. 
 You'll find a full account of it in Friday's " Times " 
 signed Civilian. Raymond and another and I took 
 a carriage, and, making a short cut, came into the 
 van of the advance army, and have marched along 
 expecting an attack continually. We entered Fair- 
 fax Court-House with the first. It was a most ex- 
 citing scene. People all trembling, most houses 
 deserted, artillery, cavalry, and some troops thun- 
 derino- througfh. Some of the houses were entered, 
 and a few things plundered; but the enemy had 
 gone. But now we are waiting for the cool, and 
 shall march forward towards Manassas Junction. A 
 guard is over this deserted house. We are resting 
 on the grass. Several times we were expecting a 
 discharge from masked batteries, but the enemy had 
 all left, and very hurriedly; so much so that they 
 left tents and everything. Trees were felled along, 
 and our men removed them. Generally, the houses 
 are well treated. Our men are full of spirit. The 
 general and colonels are very polite to us — very 
 gentlemanly indeed. (They say the men have just 
 burnt a house in the village.) 
 
 The enemy's camp is in sight, which they aban- 
 doned, and the log-house hospital is burning. The 
 rebels seem to have had plenty to eat. I suppose 
 they will fight at the Junction.
 
 242 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1861 
 
 The sight was so beautiful and picturesque of the 
 lines of glittering bayonets in the fresh morning, 
 and the horsemen and the cannon marching through 
 the forest and over the road between grain fields. I 
 am sleepy, only slept four hours ; so God bless you, 
 dear! 
 
 Centeeville, Friday. 
 
 Yesterday I was in a battle. Don't be frightened; 
 we escaped all right, and I suppose the danger was 
 trifling. We stood on the hill above Bull's Run, 
 and saw the whole affair, and suddenly had the can- 
 non-balls flying among us. I tell you, the first expe- 
 rience of a round shot, whirring over one's head, is 
 a sensation. Every one ducks and whirr! they go 
 right over you. A number were killed on our side. 
 I have written a long account for the " Times." Our 
 men did not act very well, and the enemy were well 
 posted. It was a trap for us. We go to the same 
 point to-day, and will attack them with a larger 
 force. It was the most exciting day of my life, yes- 
 terday, and I could hardly sleep, tired as I was. 
 The poor people here suffer terribly. I am staying 
 at the doctor's. The lady has just lost her beehives 
 and her chickens, and she has to go out every 
 moment and stop the men from breaking down her 
 corn, the support of her family. She has two negro 
 slaves who seem very comfortable, and her little girl 
 waits. The men are half-starved, and sweep the 
 country, burning some of the houses. They are in 
 grand spirits. The Seceshes fought with frightful 
 yells, and were well covered. It is curious, though 
 they have retreated steadily now for nine miles very
 
 ^T. 35] THE SHADOW OF SLAVERY 243 
 
 fast, the letters of the South Carolinians, which we 
 pick up, are full of contempt for the courage of the 
 d — d Yankees, and talk of two to one being fair 
 odds, etc. (They are knocking the windows out of 
 the church, to give air to the wounded.) We are 
 off again. 
 
 P.S. — Washington. Friday evening. 
 
 Back here again, but most unluckily Sanitary 
 Commission is closed, and I can get no letters. Am 
 exceedingly disappointed. Trust all is right and 
 you are well. 
 
 The two remaining extracts from letters to the 
 " Independent " read as follows : — 
 
 Sept. 12, 1861. 
 
 . . . The shadow of American slavery has fallen 
 upon our whole lives. We could not pray without 
 thinking of them in bonds even as bound with them. 
 The pictures of American glory seemed mockery when 
 we saw this dark background of kneeling, manacled 
 forms. The petition that "Thy kingdom should 
 come " seemed useless while we could do nothing 
 against this organized system of heathenism. So 
 have the natural influences of American slavery been 
 working upon the minds of hundreds of thousands, 
 until they feel and believe that no such horde of 
 tyrants anywhere exists as a certain portion of the 
 Southern slaveholders. . . . 
 
 At length, in the providence of God, a fair field 
 has come for striking a death-blow at this gigantic 
 tyranny. Will it be wondered at that all such strive
 
 244 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1861 
 
 and labor and pray, not merely for the preservation 
 of this government, but most of all for the overthrow 
 of slavery and the restoration of liberty? The smoth- 
 ered indignation of years, now that at length there 
 is a practical vent, bursts forth. If they speak of 
 the subjugation or extermination of the slaveholders, 
 as a class, it is not in the spirit of revenge or per- 
 sonal bitterness, but because such seems the Divine 
 Providence or retribution, and because they feel the 
 wrongs done to the helpless and the unbefriended. 
 
 The opposition to a public " Declaration of Eman- 
 cipation " under the war-power has its grounds in a 
 variety of causes. Some of them are every way 
 dishonorable to the American mind, and show the 
 deep corrupting influence which a powerful system 
 of injustice may work at length on the national con- 
 science. 
 
 Historians will record with astonishment, centu- 
 ries hence, that a nation whose life Imd been almost 
 destroyed by a dreadful institution of wrong, who 
 were thoroughly convinced of its wickedness and 
 injury, should finally, when a plain and just way of 
 removing it was offered them, still hesitate, and 
 even perhaps risk destruction, rather than do justice. 
 They will wonder at it as one of the strange instances 
 of human obliquity and folly. Perhaps with even 
 more wonder they will record that during this time 
 of danger, on an appointed day of penitence for 
 national sins, men should rise who especially pro- 
 fessed to represent mercy and justice to the world, 
 and, in the very house of God, should not have a
 
 JEt. 35] LETTERS OF HORACE GREELEY 245 
 
 word to say of the greatest sin which a nation ever 
 committed, — their own national sin, and the cause 
 of all their troubles, — and should be able to charac- 
 terize a reasonable plan of administering justice for 
 the oppressed only as "fanatical and revolutionary." 
 Perhaps the mournful verdict will be that a nation 
 whose teachers and priests were such, needed chas- 
 tisement, if not extermination. 
 
 In October he seems to have written two letters to 
 Greeley, begging him to plead more for the anti- 
 slavery cause in the "Tribune." We have not Mr. 
 Brace's letters, but give Mr. Greeley's very inter- 
 esting replies : — 
 
 Office of the " Tribune," Oct. 3, 1861. 
 
 " It is stated as a fact that an Indiana clergyman, 
 during his prayer on the late Fast Day, used the 
 following language: 'Oh, Lord, had the East done 
 as well as the Hoosier State in furnishing men to 
 put down this rebellion, we would not be under the 
 necessity of calling on Thee.' "^ My friend, I differ 
 slightly from our Indiana friend, and of course from 
 yourself. I think God is fighting the battle of 
 emancipation, and that the folly, imbecility, and 
 faithlessness of our rulers is among the means by 
 which He is working out His glorious purpose. You 
 remember that noble line of Milton, " They also serve 
 who only stand and wait." 
 
 There is no use of talk. One fact, like the de- 
 struction of the railroad bridge and train in North 
 
 1 Cutting from newspaper inclosed in Mr, Greeley's letter.
 
 246 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1861 
 
 Missouri, is worth all you and I would say for 
 months. Our volunteers are henceforth to be our 
 practical Abolitionists. The war, and not what you 
 and I may say about it, is to end slavery. Do trust 
 the Divine Disposer and not His feeble instruments, 
 and rest assured that Bull Run and its consequences, 
 with the general course and results of the war, are 
 to do the needed work, with little help from you or 
 me. If every Abolitionist of three months' standing 
 were to die to-morrow, the war could not continue 
 two years without ending in (or involving) emanci- 
 pation. It may be well for the "Tribune," as you 
 say, to say more on this point. But I doubt that it 
 is well for the cause, and I feel sure that it is unnec- 
 essary. Yours, 
 
 Horace Greeley. 
 
 Oct. 7, 1861. 
 
 Friend B — .• The real question is not, " Shall eman- 
 cipation be recommended as the true antidote to 
 rebellion?" But who shall do it? When no one 
 else but Abolitionists would do it, they had to ; but 
 now that General Cass, O. A. Brownson, General Ben 
 Butler, etc., are in the field, I think it not well that 
 those who have been rendered odious by urging aboli- 
 tion when it was a stench in the public nostrils should 
 be conspicuous in "the hottest forefront of the bat- 
 tle," and besides, it does seem to me that the re-estab- 
 lishment of the Union and the downfall of the slave 
 power are nearly synonymous, and that he who is 
 sternly for the Union will soon be against slavery 
 if well let alone. Still we shall have articles in the
 
 JEt. 35] LETTER FROM W. II. SEWARD 247 
 
 " Tribune " urging abolition — probably as many as 
 is good for the cause. But I still think the Lord 
 means to rid us of slaverj^ in some manner which 
 will render His hand in the work more visible than 
 though it were brought about by the newspapers. 
 Yours, 
 
 Horace Greeley. 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Seward was writ- 
 ten in acknowledgment of an expression of Mr. 
 Brace's sympathy in the Trent affair: — 
 
 From William H. Seward. 
 
 Washington, Dec. 18, 1861. 
 My dear Mr. Brace : I thank you for your very 
 kind note, and for your still more indulgent note 
 u^Don the " Foreign Corresj)ondence." It will always 
 be a riddle for me, insoluble to the end, why it is 
 that I am always falling under the suspicion of friends, 
 and, invariably, the fault that suspicion indicates is 
 the very opposite of my active life. But one must 
 bear his burden. 
 
 Faithfully j'-ours, 
 
 William H. Seward. 
 
 In the spring of 1862, Mr. Brace wrote to Mr. 
 F. L. Olmsted, then at the head of the Sanitary 
 Commission, to know if there were any work he 
 could do, and received the following characteristic 
 reply : —
 
 248 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1862 
 
 From F. L. Olmsted. 
 
 On board the Wilson Small, Hampton Roads, 
 first Sunday after the skedaddle of the 
 Pamumkey. 1862. 
 
 Dear Charley : I employ three classes, surgeons, 
 nurses, and women — the first and last of two 
 grades, but in neither of either would you yoke. 
 For nurses, I find that any not very sick common 
 soldiers, Yankee, Irish, or German, are better than 
 any volunteers ; also that mercenaries are better than 
 gratuitous volunteers. I have therefore abandoned 
 volunteers. Don't want them. Consequently, in 
 the way of business, I don't want you ; for any man 
 without a clearly defined function about the army is 
 a nuisance, and is treated as such, unless he comes 
 with a peremptory edict from the Secretary of War 
 that he shan't be, when aside swearing becomes the 
 substitute for kicks and cold shoulders. I have seen 
 enough of it, and it is not an entertainment to which 
 I would invite a friend. 
 
 Mr. Brace was, however, able to go on the Christian 
 Commission, and did what he could for both asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 No letters have been found telling how long he 
 remained in the South, but a few words in the fol- 
 lowing show that he found sufficient to do.
 
 ^T. 36] DEATH OF JUDGE MASON 249 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Portsmouth, July 16 [1862]. 
 Dearest Wife ; . . . I have been laid up for a day 
 by one of my feverish colds. I wrote to the " Times, " 
 however, and to-day I have been distributing sherry 
 and spiritual consolation. To-morrow, I hold my 
 farewell services in three hospitals. A number were 
 transported North to-day, and so glad they were ! It 
 has been a delightful work, but now I feel sick and 
 homesick. . . . One of our delegates told me that 
 he saw a dying rebel officer in a ravine, after a 
 severe action. He leaned over to him, and the 
 dying man whispered, " That was the gallantest charge 
 I was ever in. The flag was shot down twenty-five 
 times, and every time taken up again, and kept on ! " 
 Somebody asked, "What flag?" "Yours," ne said. 
 A fine tribute to our men, wasn't it? 
 
 The Children's Aid Society had sustained a severe 
 loss during the preceding winter, in the death of its 
 faithful president. Judge Mason. In 1861, Mr. 
 William A. Booth became his successor, and im- 
 mediately upon assuming his duties undertook, with 
 Mr. Brace, an extension of the society in a new 
 direction. Efforts had already been made to afford 
 instruction and amusement in the evenings to girls 
 of from fourteen to seventeen 5'ears of age, too old 
 to be forced into school, who were either idle or 
 engaged in street trades, but the complete charge of
 
 250 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1862 
 
 them was now for the first time undertaken by tlie 
 society. Of this enterprise, Mr. Brace said later, 
 "It is no exaggeration to say that this instrument 
 of charity and reform has cost us more trouble 
 than all our enterprises together." The society 
 might well have been appalled at the prospect be- 
 fore it in attempting to reach this class. It rep- 
 resented qualities well-nigh impossible to obtain 
 an influence over, — an incredible cunning in de- 
 ceiving those even who came into closest relations 
 with them ; a lack of control which made them, after 
 being in actual want for days, spend a suddenly 
 earned shilling in some foolish gewgaw, and, worst 
 of all, a superficiality of which Mr. Brace speaks in 
 the following forcible language: — 
 
 " Their worst quality is their superficiality. There 
 is no depth either to their virtues or vices. They 
 sin, and immediately repent with alacrity; they live 
 virtuously for years, and a straw seems suddenly to 
 turn them. They weep at the presentation of the 
 divine character in Christ, and pray with fervency; 
 and, the very next day, may ruin their virtue or steal 
 their neighbor's garment, or take to drinking, or set 
 a whole block in ferment with some biting scandal. 
 They seem to be children, but with woman's pas- 
 sion, and woman's jealousy and scathing tongue. 
 They trust a superior as a child ; they neglect them- 
 selves, and injure body and mind as a child might; 
 they have a child's generosity, and occasional fresh-
 
 iEx. 36] GIRLS' LODGING-HOUSE 251 
 
 ness of impulse, and desire of purity; but their pas- 
 sions sweep over them with the force of maturity, 
 and their temper and power of setting persons by the 
 ears, and backbiting and occasional intensity of hate, 
 belong to a later period of life."^ 
 
 And yet they were not all bad. He says many of 
 them had rushed away from wretched homes of 
 drunkenness, unlucky, unfortunate, getting a situa- 
 tion only to lose it, but not with any evil purpose 
 in their poor, darkened souls. Sometimes, where 
 an unusual experience aroused them, they displayed 
 a power of sacrifice which utterly forgot self, and 
 the loving woman's heart shone out brightly, even 
 through the shadow of death. But the difficulty in 
 managing them practically, owing to this combina- 
 tion of childishness and undisciplined maturity, 
 seemed thoroughly hopeless. 
 
 A plan for an institution to benefit this class was 
 drawn up b}'- Mr. Brace in the form of a circular 
 called "A Plan for an Institution for Poor Young 
 Girls." With the great need of a trained domestic 
 service, that existed then as now, it seemed to Mr. 
 Brace and Mr. Booth that means could be found 
 which should enable girls thoroughly to learn the 
 details of housework. It was suggested that a set 
 of rooms be taken for eating-house, kitchen, and 
 laundry, where girls might be taught these indus- 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 302,
 
 252 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1862 
 
 trial branches, and washing be taken in for others. 
 Wages were to be paid as an inducement to girls to 
 enter, and after a certain time of training, efforts 
 would be made by the school or home to find suita- 
 ble places for the girls. Thus it was hoped that this 
 class of young girls, growing u]3 in idle and vaga- 
 bond habits, would learn a useful, industrial calling, 
 and might be brought under the best personal influ- 
 ence. 
 
 But the enterprise, under Mr. Booth's active in- 
 terest, took larger proportions than Mr. Brace had 
 at first dared hope. They opened a shelter called 
 "The Girls' Lodging-House," where any drifting, 
 friendless girl could go for a night's lodging. If 
 she had means, she was to pay a trifling sum, — five 
 or six cents; if not, she must aid in the labor of 
 the house, and thus, in part, defray the expense of 
 her board. Agents were sent out on the docks and 
 into the slums, the police were informed of the 
 refuge, notices were posted in station-houses, and 
 near ferries and railroad-stations, and everything was 
 done to reach out the hand of welcome to the home- 
 less girl wandering in loneliness, to let her know 
 that there was a shelter for her in the great cit}'. 
 The response was immediate. Girls of every kind, 
 with histories of endless diversity, but all unfortu- 
 nate, whether through their own fault or not, came 
 in throngs. Desirable as it was that none should
 
 iEx. 36] LODGIXG-HOUSE MANAGEMENT 253 
 
 be denied admission, the practical difficulties ren- 
 dered this impossible. It was not intended to make 
 of the lodging-house a reformatory for those already 
 perverted, which must result in either shutting out 
 the decent and honest poor, or in submitting them 
 to demoralizing influences. The decision Avas soon 
 arrived at by Mr. Brace, that admission must be 
 refused to all women over eighteen jeavs of age, in 
 order that, in the outset, the more hardened sinners 
 might be excluded ; and for the farther protection of 
 those for whom the lodging-house was intended, as 
 well as for the elevation into a better womanhood of 
 those on the borderland between virtue and degrada- 
 tion, he trusted to the steadying influence of the 
 habit of regular work on the part of all the inmates 
 of the house. 
 
 Mr. Brace says in "The Dangerous Classes of 
 New York" that the struggles of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Trott, the superintendent and matron, against dis- 
 couraging evils in the character of this class, would 
 make a strange history. But they were well fitted 
 for the task, and before long habits of personal clean- 
 liness, of early rising and going to bed at a regular 
 hour, were taught to the girls, and tasks of the sim- 
 plest nature in housework were set for the regular 
 inmates of the home. Some few paid their board, 
 and went out to work in factories or shops, but the 
 most were employed in housework, and thus did
 
 254 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1862 
 
 something to help pay for their support. As the 
 establishment increased, they carried on its entire 
 work, and when instruction in sewing and machine- 
 work had been added to that given in cooking and 
 household duties, thousands of garments were made 
 for children in the care of the society elsewhere. 
 Although desiring that it should be considered a 
 home, Mr. Brace had a strong objection to having 
 the lodging-house looked upon as an institution or 
 professional " Home. " " The great danger and temp- 
 tation of such establishments," he says, "are in the 
 desire of keeping the inmates, and showing to the 
 public your reforms." He did not want asylum 
 influences, any treating of the girls en bloc, or as 
 machines. "To teach them to work, to be clean, 
 and to understand the virtues of order and punctu- 
 ality; to lay the foundations of a housekeeper or 
 servant; to bring the influences of discipline, of 
 kindness, and religion to bear on these wild and 
 ungoverned creatures, — these were to be the great 
 objects of the lodging-house. Then some good home 
 or respectable family were to do the rest. We were 
 to keep lodgers a little while only, and then to pass 
 them along to situations or places of work." ^ 
 
 The good work of this important branch of the 
 society was inestimably aided by the personal and 
 earnest labors of one of the first trustees, Mr. B. J. 
 1 " The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 309.
 
 iET. 30] TRUANT-OFFICERS APPOINTED 255 
 
 Howland, who went constantly to the home, talked 
 on religious subjects to the girls, planned amuse- 
 ments for them, and became a friend to many of 
 them. 
 
 It is interesting to note that this winter saw an 
 occurrence which Mr. Brace considered of great 
 moment in affecting the condition of the poor, — the 
 appointment of "truant-officers " for the city, by the 
 Commissioners of Police. The reports of the society 
 had been urging the advisability of this measure for 
 some years, and it was at Mr. Brace's urgent applica- 
 tion that finally two officers and a sergeant were de- 
 tailed for this duty. The results made manifest in 
 two months' time were the transformation of more 
 than five hundred truants into regular school- 
 attendants.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Ethnological Book — Progress of Children's Aid Society in Spite of 
 the War — Death of Mrs. Schuyler — Letter to a Trustee of 
 Children's Aid Society explaining Mr. Brace's Right to Private 
 Views as a Private Individual — Plans for English Journey — 
 Lincoln's Death — Experience in England — English Lack of 
 Sympathy in the War — In the Tyrol — Miscellaneous Letters — 
 Illness — California Trip — Death of Miss Neill — Death of Mr. 
 Loring — Progress of Society's Work — Newsboys' Lodging- 
 House — Letter to Beecher — Darwinism — Factory Children 
 
 Early in 1863, Mr. Brace issued, in the form of 
 a manual, a book on the results of the ethnological 
 studies which had occupied his studious hours for 
 ten years or more, under the title, " The Races of 
 the Old World." In the preface he says, "The 
 present 'Manual of the Ethnology of the Old World ' 
 is designed, not so much for the learned, as for the 
 large number of persons who are interested in the 
 study of history, whether in academies and colleges, 
 or among the people of business and professions. 
 . . . This treatise is intended to present in brief 
 and clear form the latest and most trustworthy re- 
 sults of scholarship and scientific investigation bear- 
 ing on the question of races, and to furnish a guide, 
 imperfect though it may be, to the study of history." 
 
 256
 
 iET. 37] THE DRAFT RIOTS 257 
 
 One or two sentences from an article in the " Inde- 
 pendent," on "Ethnological Fallacies" (Dec. 20, 
 1860), will serve to indicate how, even amid the 
 heats of impending war, his mind rested naturally 
 on the broad principles of scientific truth. " . . . It 
 is a shame that now, all through Europe, American 
 science in ethnology has become identical with per- 
 verted argument for the oppression of the negro, 
 and an American's conclusions upon the black races 
 are as certain a priori as would be a Brahmin's on 
 the origin or rights of his caste in India. The 
 shadow of our national sin has fallen even on the 
 domain of our science, and obscured its noble feat- 
 ures to the world. Of course, the only method for 
 philosophy is to divorce the whole subject from 
 sympathy, whether for slavery or freedom, and 
 stand on the solid basis of facts and inductive 
 reasoning." 
 
 The summer of 1863 saw a practical proof, in the 
 terrible draft-riots, of the necessity, dwelt upon for 
 years by the society, of caring for the street boys, who 
 swelled the numbers of ruffians attacking houses or 
 torturing negroes, and showed into what an element 
 street children, grown up in neglect and unrestrained, 
 may develop. 
 
 After ten years of experience, Mr. Brace was able 
 to speak in 1863, with gratitude, of the continued 
 support of the society on the part of the public, and
 
 258 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1863 
 
 especially of the steady growth of the branch of emi- 
 gration. In spite of the calamities inflicted by the 
 war, and the absence of heads of families, the West 
 had never contributed so liberally, or called for so 
 many children, while there had been no indication 
 whatever of the evil prophesied by those opposed to 
 emigration. He says that if there had been grounds 
 for the charge that they were sowing " seeds of vice 
 and crime " in the West, by this time an immense 
 harvest of sin and misery would have appeared, 
 while, on the contrary, letters were constantly tell- 
 ing of boys and girls grown to happy manhood and 
 womanhood, some with property of their own, some 
 as teachers, while so many of the boys had gone to 
 fight for their country that the correspondence dur- 
 ing this year might almost have been called " Letters 
 from the Camp." He says that one of the pleasantest 
 features in regard to the children sent West, is in 
 their desire to help others as they have been helped, 
 and he tells of visits to the office of some of the boys 
 sent away in the early years, one coming»to suggest 
 that he should like to open a reform school in the 
 country, to aid city boys; another, with a good 
 home, asks for a homeless boy to bring up himself. 
 
 Mr. Brace enlarges on the far greater difficulty of 
 bringing good American influences to bear on these 
 children than on any in inland towns, owing to the 
 constant foreign immigration, and goes on, as fol-
 
 iEx. 37] ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 259 
 
 lows, to explain what these American influences 
 
 are 
 
 " If we look closely, we shall see that the power- 
 ful influences in the United States which tend con- 
 tinually to raise up the lowest classes and prevent 
 the formation of a 'dangerous class,' like the Euro- 
 pean are (1) the Social and (2) the Educational. In 
 the social influences, we include all our extraordi- 
 narily favorable economic circumstances in America, 
 the great demand for labor, and the wonderful con- 
 ditions for its successful application ; the removal of 
 very many legal burdens on profitable production, 
 and the consequent general pecuniary prosperity of 
 the laboring class; all of which tend to give a high 
 social tone to the working-people of our country. 
 They respect themselves more than the correspond- 
 ing class do in any other country. They have tra- 
 ditional habits of cleanliness, independence, good 
 order, and decency. Any one coming among them 
 and violating these characteristic habits of the class, 
 receives the most severe punishment which a woik- 
 ingman can feel — the contempt of his own fellows 
 and companions. In the educational influences, we 
 comprise all those subtile influences of the school, the 
 Church, and the State, which, transmitted in Amer- 
 ica from father to child, are so powerfully mould- 
 ing the whole youthful population of the Union. 
 No one living in a rural district can altogether 
 escape the indirect power of these influences. The 
 necessity of education, the reality of religion, the 
 consciousness of being a citizen with political power
 
 260 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1863 
 
 in a great Republic, are ideas so profound in the 
 laboring class of our country districts, that no 
 one, however low, utterly fails to be affected by 
 them."i 
 
 It is to give children these chances that the society 
 works, and in detail Mr. Brace tells how they hope to 
 effect this. 
 
 "We have attempted, first of all, to change the 
 whole social condition of the outcast child. We have 
 sometimes, as it has seemed to a few, placed him 
 almost too suddenly in a family. But we have 
 felt confident that the social influences of an honest 
 farmer's family and an intelligent rural community, 
 were so powerful that they could, in time, give a 
 new cast and shape to the character of even the most 
 unfortunate and degraded child. The wonderful and 
 most fortunate fact, this complement existing be- 
 tween the vast supply of youthful labor in our cities, 
 and the immense demand for it in our rural commu- 
 nities, embraces the natural laws of economy on 
 which we have acted. Our next great effort has 
 been to educate the ignorant children of the city, 
 through industrial schools, 'boys' meetings,' work- 
 shops, reading-rooms, lodging-houses, and the like. 
 The effect of these instrumentalities can be doubted 
 by no one. The children who are trained by them 
 are not those who become robbers and law-breakers. 
 On the contrary, as we have tested for so many years, 
 
 1 Eleventh Annual Report, pp. 6, 7.
 
 JEt. 37] ILLNESS OF MRS. SCHUYLER 261 
 
 they grow up industrious, honest, and respectable 
 young men and women." ^ 
 
 A great shadow came over the quiet little home in 
 Hastings in the autumn of this year, in the illness 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Brace's dear friend, Mrs. G. L. 
 Schuyler, to which he alludes in the following 
 letter : — 
 
 "Your conversation with Mrs. Schuyler on that 
 evening," he writes Mr. F. L. Olmsted in Novem- 
 ber, 1863, "will be your last, and, furtherrnore, she 
 knew then she was dying ! She is dying grandly, 
 with the brightest hope and courage, while we find 
 a cloud over everything. To me, her death is an 
 unspeakable loss — the noblest woman of our conti- 
 nent, I think." 
 
 In reply, Mr. Olmsted writes : — 
 
 Beak Valley, Cal., Dec. 21, 1863. 
 Dear Charley : I have yours of 7th November. I 
 had heard before about Mrs. Schuyler. She is so 
 associated with all that is good and great in my 
 mind, that I shall feel as if her death were a part 
 of the war. The war has made sudden and most 
 lamentable death something not to be surprised or 
 shocked at. We love, revere, and rest our hearts 
 upon great souls with that condition. As for Mrs. 
 Schuyler, I believe that I wish in my soul that I 
 were in her place. In every way, it seems to me 
 
 1 Eleventh Annual Report, p. 8.
 
 262 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1864 
 
 she will die triumphant, her life brought as nearly 
 to a satisfactory completion as human life can be. 
 In years, she is yet young, but years are no measure 
 of life. The war makes us all old, it seems to me. 
 ... As to the war, I always told you your impa- 
 tience, your regard for particular enterprises, events, 
 men, battles, campaigns, was foolish. "Be still 
 and see the salvation of God," as old Lincoln says. 
 None the less is there work to do always by every 
 man, — chiefly for you and me to keep up the faith 
 of people and make them look far ahead, as is not 
 their custom in everyday affairs. 
 
 Referring again to his friend and her death, Mr. 
 Brace says : — 
 
 To F. L. Olmsted. 
 
 New York, Feb. 4, 1864. 
 My dear Fred: Your anticipations in regard to 
 Mrs. Schuyler's death were fully justified. Take it 
 altogether, it was the most remarkable instance of 
 the triumph of soul over body, I ever read of. Her 
 belief in the next world, or life, was perfectly real 
 and inspiring — so remarkable and entire that people 
 came to her to impart their feelings to friends they 
 had lost. She rested with a most supreme trust on 
 what she called God. He was as real to her, she 
 said once, "as this bedstead." Not a doubt or com- 
 plaint or regret apparently crossed her mind at her 
 going, — so real was the next, — and even her torture 
 seemed to be forgotten in the glory of her hope. Yet 
 her mind was just as calm and clear and full of
 
 JEx. 38] DEFENSE OF PRIVATE VIEWS 203 
 
 common-sense, as we ever knew it, attending to 
 every detail and always thoughtful of others. We 
 all said but for the weak voice we should hardly 
 have imagined she was so ill. Our talks were just 
 about as they always had been. . . . 
 
 "We shall do our daily duty better," he writes to 
 his sister, Miss Dora Neill, "be more unselfish and 
 noble and refined for her example. In our inner 
 lives there will be another saint to lead us up to 
 Christ and better things. . . . You know what a 
 fearful gap her death makes in my life, which noth- 
 ing can fill." 
 
 A letter written from the Adirondacks in August, 
 1864, well sets forth Mr. Brace's relations to the 
 society, and his amenability to criticism : — 
 
 To a Trustee. 
 
 Lower Saranac, Aug. 7, 1864. 
 
 My dear Mr. ; Your note of the 23d prox., 
 
 and the inclosure from the " World " was forwarded 
 to me here. The letter from the "World," signed 
 Veritas, contains a question of veracity between me 
 and an anonymous correspondent, and you are kind 
 enough to state that the "best interests of the Chil- 
 dren's Aid Society may be injured " by his remarks 
 and the statement which caused them. I deeply 
 regret giving any offence to so kind a friend of the 
 poor, and so devoted a trustee of the Children's Aid 
 Society, as yourself, but I think when you have
 
 264 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1864 
 
 heard my explanation, you will be less dissatisfied 
 with my course. 
 
 From the origin of our society, I have carefully 
 adopted one course, never in any report or document 
 or speech in behalf of the society or about it, or any- 
 where officially as its secretary, to broach any con- 
 troverted religious or political subject, and you may 
 judge how carefully the principle has been followed, 
 when you remember that, though j^our and my opin- 
 ions are probably diametrically opposed on many 
 questions, we have never, till the present occasion, 
 had the slightest difference. On one or two occa- 
 sions, expressions have, through negligence, been 
 left in the letters of the boys which offended you, 
 but which I immediately struck out on my attention 
 being called to them. On the other hand, from the 
 first founding of the society, I have claimed, in my 
 action as a private citizen or author or newspaper 
 writer on general subjects, the most entire inde- 
 pendence. In the beginning, I took an active part 
 in the religious papers in urging greater liberality 
 of sects and more independence of thought and cer- 
 tain practical and religious reforms which were then 
 quite offensive to certain portions of the Church. I 
 was charged with " unitarianism " and "semi-infi- 
 delity." Our lamented friend, Mr. G — ; spoke to 
 me about them, and feared their influence on the 
 interests of the society, but when I explained my 
 deep convictions on them, and the distinction be- 
 tween my private and my official character, he was 
 satisfied. 
 
 Afterwards, some of my scientific articles gave 
 equal offence, but no harm ensued to the society.
 
 JEt. 38] PERSONAL vs. OFFICIAL UTTERANCES 265 
 
 Then I took part and fought through the anti-slavery 
 question, writing incessantly through the religious 
 and secular papers over my signature, and calling 
 out some bitter controversies. When the society 
 was far weaker on its legs than now, I wrote and 
 spoke in the Fremont campaign, in the city elections, 
 and defended old John Brown, and wrote during the 
 first campaign for Lincoln, and afterwards in the 
 beginning of the Rebellion, over my signature. 
 Judge Mason, one of the most prudent men in the 
 world, and others of the trustees, have spoken to me 
 on the matter, but on my representing that this was 
 entirely individual, and was so understood by the 
 public, they have admitted the distinction, and, as 
 you are aware, all shades of religious and political 
 opinion have always approved our charitable work. 
 Now our society is as well founded as any insti- 
 tution in the city, and no word of an anonymous 
 writer could injure it, unless we had compromised 
 ourselves as a society. All other societies and cor- 
 porations follow this rule; their agents in their indi- 
 vidual capacities write and say many things which 
 officially would not be permitted a moment. Any 
 other principle would strip an agent of his individ- 
 uality. 
 
 I know, dear sir, how strong your convictions are 
 on questions of liberality and humanity. You will 
 believe that mine are equally so, and that I seek the 
 truth. If my remarks about the " current opinions " 
 of the soldiers and great numbers of the public are 
 not true, I shall be quite willing to avow it, but an 
 anonymous answer like that does not disprove them. 
 You can well judge, from my mental characteristics,
 
 266 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1865 
 
 that I am not likely to be fanatical or extreme in the 
 course I have sketched, and am always ready to be 
 governed by the wisdom of those more experienced, 
 when my own conscience approves. I trust again 
 to unite with you in the autumn, to give my whole 
 energies to making the work of our society more 
 thorough and beneficent. Believe me, dear sir, 
 with much respect, etc. 
 
 During the winter following, early in 1865, it was 
 decided by the board of trustees of the society to 
 send Mr. Brace to an exhibition in London, "of 
 the labors of the different reformatory and charitable 
 institutions of all nations," to be held in May. 
 
 The approaching event is announced in a letter to 
 Miss Dora Neill, dated March 17th: — 
 
 "I don't know wdiat you will all say when you 
 hear that our society are going to send me out to 
 London to the International Reformatory Union in 
 May, leaving here the last of April (say 29th). After 
 I get through with "ragged schools," etc., I am 
 allowed to travel on my own account till September, 
 so I shall go into the mountains, say in July, and 
 try to recruit my eyes with Swiss or Tyrol air for a 
 couple of months. Isn't it a nice programme? The 
 only unpleasant point is leaving wife and family 
 here with M. A. But it would hardly do to take 
 them such a great journey, and costs too much. . . . 
 All well here. The war moves on splendidly. Sher- 
 man comes like a glacier, — slow, irresistible, all- 
 conquering."
 
 ^T. 38] DEATH OF LINCOLN 267 
 
 In the midst of these plans for the summer and 
 congratulations about the war, came the terrible 
 tidings of Lincoln's death. The family were at 
 morning prayers in the little sunny parlor at Hast- 
 ings, when the oldest boy burst in with the news 
 that Lincoln was shot! Mr. Brace was completely 
 overcome by the news, and how deeply he felt it is 
 shown in the extract from an address given at this 
 time. The hastily written notes found among his 
 papers do not indicate when or where the address 
 was given. 
 
 "Through this astounding event, how are the 
 people led to God! Li the height of our exultation 
 and consciousness of our power, with victory flaunt- 
 ing in every banner, we are taught that we are but 
 drifting weeds on the great eternal currents of Provi- 
 dence. God speaks to all, as He never spoke before, 
 in that bloody drama of Good Friday, Then let us 
 sorrow not, as those without hope ! This Rej)ublic, 
 through all storms and perils, is sailing now steadily 
 on under a higher pilotage, towards justice, free- 
 dom, and unity. She shall be, even more than shf 
 has been, the hope and joy and inspiration of all 
 peoples and races. And thou, O great leader, wept 
 by a whole nation as was never king or crowned 
 emperor or military chieftain, and most of all mourned 
 in the cabins of the poor and the slave, to our eyes 
 thou hast died too soon, but to the eyes of all poster- 
 ity, the morning of thy bloody sacrifice will seem 
 but the forerunner of that glorious resurrection day
 
 268 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1865 
 
 to liberty and unity and peace of thy country. Thy 
 slmmef ul \yound will become the martyr's testimony ; 
 at thy tomb will gather all those who hate injustice 
 and love humanity, for new inspiration and strength, 
 and thy name will be synonymous with the free- 
 dom and success of the great American Republic! 
 For thine own fame, thou couldst have died on no 
 better day!" 
 
 He sailed early in May, and went to the beautiful 
 home of his brother-in-law on Hampstead Heath. 
 The exhibition was very successful in its object of 
 bringing together those interested in the work of 
 saving the young from crime and misery. Many 
 lands, even Egypt and Syria, were represented. The 
 convention of delegates was full of suggestion to all 
 who took part, and Mr. Brace found that, in his 
 opinion. Great Britain was far in advance of us in 
 sanitary reform and legislature, and in such efforts 
 as workingmen's clubs, while there was nothing 
 among the English equal to our lodging-houses, and 
 no such large work of emigration as was carried on 
 by the Children's Aid Society. 
 
 His letters from London are as follows : — 
 
 To Us Wife. 
 
 Hampstead, Belsize Lodge, June, 1865. 
 My dearest Wife : I enjoy this beautiful place 
 and the rest and home feeling here so much. Then
 
 ^T. 38] ENGLAND REVISITED 269 
 
 I work hard enough to make sleep and society both 
 enjoyable. 1 find I get on so slowly. London is so 
 immense, and people are so often out. Still, I am 
 getting light in sanitary matters and schools. 
 
 In private, the Lyells have been very polite to me. 
 The very first moment we met, he struck off at once 
 into my review of Mr. Wallace, and a discussion of 
 the subject which suited me well. Generally, in 
 introducing me, he mentions that review. Lady 
 Lyell was as noble in looks and character as ever. 
 Such strong Americans as they are ! She never looks 
 at the "Times." Since then, he has invited me to 
 the dinner of the Geological Society. He gave me 
 two of those precious drift-flints — great treasures. 
 . . . The other night came an invitation to a stylish 
 dinner by Mr. Russell Scott. There I met a famous 
 diner-out, a Mr. Crabb Robinson, friend of Charles 
 Lamb, and ninety years old. ... I have met a most 
 interesting set of sanitarians, — able, clear-headed 
 men of the middle class, improving England won- 
 derfully now, — and am learning much. I have been 
 examining "ragged schools" and reformatories and 
 model lodging-houses, and am collecting a vast num- 
 ber of reports, etc. Last night W. and I spent with 
 Mrs. Charles.^ She lives just on the heath — a 
 beautiful home with a pretty yard (or "garden," as 
 they call it here), and a lovely distant view from 
 the parlor- window over the heath to groves and 
 spires The east window looks over London. She 
 has eyes full of feeling and a very hearty, sincere, 
 modest manner, with an expression of simple fer- 
 
 ^ Mrs. Berrie Charles, author of " The Schonberg-Cotta Family."
 
 270 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1865 
 
 veiicy about her; in fact, she is much like her works, 
 — simple, unconscious, deeply religious, and full of 
 feeling and humanity. I never saw a literary person 
 more unconscious of her success, and she is almost 
 indifferent to it. Does not allude to her works. Is 
 almost pained that they are alluded to. I told her 
 how much they had done for so many, and what 
 different sects read them, as I was going out, and 
 she whispered, as if half afraid of her own feeling: 
 " Oh, if we can make our Lord the central figure, we 
 can all come together!" . . . All her talk is very 
 kind and sweet and intelligent. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Bklsize Lodge, London, 
 
 Sunday, June 13, 1865. 
 
 My dearest Wife : Went round among the thieves' 
 lodging-houses last night. We had inspectors with 
 us. 'Twas very interesting. The officers examine 
 everything, ventilation and all. The new ones for 
 the men (for threepence a night) are much better 
 than they used to be. Sanitary reform is accom- 
 plishing something in London. Lord Kinnaird took 
 me to a very interesting school of his for poor chil- 
 dren, and showed me some new ideas in ventilation. 
 He invited me to dine, but I could not come. I 
 have enjoyed the picture-galleries at intervals much. 
 It is grand to have such things free. I think one of 
 the best moral agencies in London is the parks, but 
 every gallery and museum ought to be open on Sun- 
 day, and the rum-shops closed. The bands play on
 
 ^T. 38] SANITARY REFORM 271 
 
 Sunday, I believe. ... I hope to start for the 
 Tyrol from here on July 2d. I begin to feel the 
 wear of this life, which has been tolerably "fast." I 
 have an invitation to a Social Science dinner at 
 Richmond, June 24th, Lord Brougham presiding. 
 
 Mr. Brace speaks of feeling " the wear of this life, 
 which has been tolerably fast"! It is an astonish- 
 ment to read the notes he took and the lists of the 
 subjects into which he studied. After letting us 
 see the sesthetic satisfaction that beautiful England 
 gives him, he speaks, in his writings for the press, 
 of the consolation it may be to the American who is 
 sadly comparing his own formal villages and square 
 yards at home with the ivy-covered, thatched cottages 
 of England, to know the difficulties that the new 
 sanitary efforts have to encounter, and he goes into 
 the most detailed description of ventilation, drains, 
 sewerage, the inspection of lodging-houses carried 
 on by competent health-officers, the strict provisions 
 against over-crowding — all the matters in which 
 New York, he says, would do well to follow English 
 legislation. He is profoundly impressed by the 
 efforts made for the improvement of the condition 
 of the poor, and in one letter on " European Social 
 Reforms " says : — 
 
 " If we were to search about through England for 
 the modern 'chivalry ' of the kingdom, one would 
 not find it among the titled and lordly, though among
 
 272 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1865 
 
 these are many 'true knights,' but especially in that 
 great, vigorous middle class from which the best of 
 modern England comes. In this powerful class may 
 be found men who have consecrated themselves to 
 a life-long crusade against the great enemies of 
 modern society, who are fighting a heroic battle each 
 day against ignorance and prejudice and vice and 
 disease and death. It is these men of the true 
 Anglo-Saxon pluck and pertinacity, never disheart- 
 ened by defeat or disaster, never wearied out by the 
 marvellous stupidity of the public they are seeking 
 to benefit, who have covered England with the re- 
 markable sanitary improvements and institutions of 
 education and reform which have so distinguished 
 English progress during the last ten years." 
 
 Of his visit to Miss Carpenter, he writes with 
 enthusiasm : — 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Clifton, June 19, 1865. 
 
 Dearest Wife : Thirty-nine ! How old I seem ! 
 How strange that youth is gone, and middle age at 
 hand! So few years left! So near the great ending, 
 the best part of life's work nearly done, the awful 
 problem of existence almost solved, and character 
 becoming fixed for scecula sceculorum, — ages of ages. 
 
 I am having such a valuable and delightful visit 
 with Miss Carpenter, a fine, noble creature, with 
 such sound ideas, so liberal and warm-hearted and 
 practical. She has filled up every moment. Satur- 
 day evening we spent in talk, she giving me a full 
 account of the new and remarkable improvements
 
 JEt. 30] VISIT TO MISS CARPENTER 273 
 
 in prisons inaugurated in Ireland under Sir Walter 
 Crofton, and now successful. Then a great deal of 
 her schools and reformatories, and her clubs, coffee- 
 rooms, etc., etc. 
 
 To J. 3Iacy. 
 
 Stratford, June 27, 1865. 
 My dear Macy : One of the most interesting visits 
 I have paid in England was to Miss Carpenter, Bris- 
 tol. She is so grateful to us for the kindness we 
 have shown to her poor boys, and has such a sj^mpa- 
 thy in our work, that she welcomed me very warmly. 
 She really lives among these poor creatures, giving 
 up every evening to them. Lady Byron has provided 
 her with a house, and bought an old monastery for 
 her Girls' Reformatory. It is the most curious old 
 building you ever saw. The schoolroom is the grand 
 old dining-hall for the monks, some fifteen feet high, 
 with carved oak panellings, carved marble-works 
 from Venice (they say), and immense fireplace. 
 Then there are great stairways and old windows, 
 looking out over the outside stairways to keep off 
 intruders; and secret chambers and hidden crypts 
 in which to say mass at night ; and the old cloisters ; 
 and bedrooms now filled with clean-looking, well-dis- 
 ciplined young girls, such as you are familiar with. 
 
 Two days earlier he had written to his wife from 
 Stratford as follows : — 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Sunday, June 25th. 
 
 Dearest Wife : I was thinking to-day in the old 
 church of you — of your wonderful unselfishness and
 
 274 CHARLES LORIJ^G BRACE [1865 
 
 richness of love and spirituality of nature, and how 
 you would be to me when we had entered the unseen 
 — as if you would be nearer God than I, and I would 
 see you in a purer light and much higher than here, 
 and whether you would be my helper there, and of 
 how sweet and good you are here, and how elevated 
 sometimes you seem when near to God, and what a 
 treasure your love was, and all such pleasant thoughts. 
 Yesterday we were in an old chapel of the Warwicks 
 in Warwick, and there were two effigies side by side, 
 hand and hand, of some old Warwick and his wife. 
 Together they had fought the great battle, and then 
 were laid to rest together, and four hundred years 
 had surged over the silent tomb, not much effacing 
 it. How much I miss you ! I am better with you, 
 less disturbed. May God bless and keep you ever! 
 I wish you were in Ireland with me. Love to all 
 the chicks! 
 
 Soon after Mr. Brace's arrival in England he 
 had written to his wife : — 
 
 " I need hardly tell you (as you must have heard 
 it from the papers) of the prodigious change which 
 has come over England about our affairs. The 
 mourning for Lincoln was something unheard of. 
 Almost as deep as in America. You heard of the 
 man cast out of the Liverpool Exchange, because 
 he applauded the assassination? The feeling all 
 over England and Europe has been prodigious. How 
 beautiful "Punch's" tribute was! Success and the 
 crime toofether have made a tremendous reaction. 
 One feels it in the air, and though I have arrived
 
 ^T. 39] THE BRITISH BLUNDER 275 
 
 at the time when I am indifferent to their sym- 
 pathy, I like the respect of manner which a great 
 history gives even to individuals towards your coun- 
 try. Lyell tells me they [he and Lady Lyell] have 
 had a hard battle to fight. They could count the 
 friends of the North on their fingers, and among them 
 the Argylls. Now they are legion." 
 
 In a letter to the "New York Times," he states 
 his belief that the " great and terrible blunder com- 
 mitted by the British Government" cannot be for- 
 gotten or taken back, and that "there can never be 
 anything like union or near amity between the two 
 governments. But, "he goes on, "between the great 
 and powerful Liberal party of the kingdom and 
 the people of the North, between, in fact, the masses 
 of both countries, there may be a most friendly and 
 kindly relation, resting on a mutual understanding 
 and a common respect. . . . The friends we 
 had in England were such friends as no nation 
 ever had before outside of its own limits. Our 
 cause was taken to the very heart of the British 
 Liberals. They felt for our victories as they felt for 
 their own in the Crimea. Our heroes were their 
 heroes." 
 
 He closes : — 
 
 "And now, like a generous people, why should 
 we not put aside the old bitterness and ill-will 
 which have rankled in the breasts of so many against
 
 276 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1865 
 
 England, and remembering the 'up-hill battle ' of the 
 leading thinkers for us, and the grand position 
 of her laboring and suffering masses on our side, 
 stretch out the hand of sympathy and good-will to 
 meet that which the British people have reached to 
 us ! It is the clasp of friendship over the grave of 
 the murdered President. What a future might be 
 to the civilization of the world, if these two great 
 Anglo-Saxon nations were in friendly harmony! 
 What conquests might be won from ignorance and 
 priestcraft and despotism! What strengthening of 
 popular rights ; what elevation of the masses ; what a 
 spreading of science and arts and humanity and true 
 liberty ; what an uplifting of all Europe, if these two 
 leaders of modern democracy were hand in hand! 
 And then, when one thinks of the future of Chris- 
 tianity, that these two powerful civilizations are the 
 leading representatives of the great truths which are 
 to regenerate the world; that their enmity would 
 put back the advance of a pure religion for genera- 
 tions, and their union would advance the Christian 
 banner over new fields and in new directions, we 
 may all, who care more for humanity than to gratify 
 the narrow prejudices of race, pray and labor for 
 the friendship and union of America and Eng- 
 land." 
 
 In July, Mr. Brace started on a walking trip in 
 the Tyrol, and the following letters show how keen 
 was his delight in the scenes through which, knap- 
 sack on back, he walked for many happy days. The 
 first we have is from Innsbruck.
 
 ^T. 39] IN THE TYROL 277 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Innsbruck, July 22 [1865]. 
 Dearest Wife : . . . That night I had an inter- 
 esting adventure. I had walked my ten hours, and 
 was well tired. Did not know of any good inn, 
 so I thought I would stop and try a good-looking 
 priest's house. Priest away, but his assistant there. 
 He concluded to receive me ; — just dining with a 
 Capuchin monk in huge rough frock and cowl. I 
 brought out my tea. The vicar had tasted it once, 
 the Capuchin never, and the cook knew nothing 
 about it, but I gave instructions, and it was brought 
 in and served in goblets — the vicar's and others 
 with rum — and I had it before my dinner. They 
 served me wine, and we had a grand evening's chat 
 and smoke. They were evidently capable and intel- 
 ligent fellows, not much different from our theologs, 
 except that after their dinner they both stood up, 
 and each said by turns Latin prayers, facing the east. 
 I told them of the failure of the Roman Catholic 
 Church in America in the slavery matter, and con- 
 trasted with the position of the Church in the Middle 
 Ages on that question, and made myself generally 
 agreeable. They say there are hardly any illegiti- 
 mate children in Tyrol, and not a drunken person in 
 the whole vale, — a great contrast to Protestant Nor- 
 way. . . . Off by six next day, with many farewells 
 (left a dollar for the poor, and a douceur to the cook). 
 
 To Mrs. Mill. 
 
 KivA, Lago di Garda, Aug. 6, 1865. 
 
 Ml/ dear M — ; . . . You know what Buckle
 
 278 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1865 
 
 says about mountains making men superstitious. 
 You see it here. The people live under the shadow 
 of death. On every footpath and public road are 
 innumerable little Mazillie, or memorials, generally 
 little pictures, painted on a board, of peasants who 
 have perished by accident. Sometimes the unhappy 
 individual was swallowed up in an avalanche, or 
 overwhelmed by a landslide, or has slipped into the 
 torrent, or fallen from a precipice, or was hit by a 
 tree or stone, or struck by lightning. Below, he is 
 represented lifeless, with the mourning neighbors, 
 while above, in his Sunday clothes, he kneels before 
 the angels who are about to carry him up to the 
 blessed Virgin, who sits sweetly and queenly above, 
 or the Saviour, who is waiting to receive him. The 
 passers-by are warned of the uncertainty of life, and 
 begged for a Lord's Prayer. One chapel has a rep- 
 resentation of the devils stirring the lost about in 
 little baking irons in the fiery floor of hell. I passed 
 a great heart, with arms and legs protruding, and 
 a wound in it, and the words, "Was ever pain like 
 mine ? " The people are the Catholic of the Catho- 
 lics. They pray at all times. The Church is 
 the main interest, the religious days one-third of 
 the year, the priests idolized. They live under the 
 power of reverence. And everywhere, in all houses 
 and in all rooms, in public and private, is pictured 
 in all possible ways that wonderful story of love, but 
 here more of pain, of Jesus, with an affection and 
 sincerity which defy doubt. Less often the sweet 
 face of the Virgin. Pain, the sorrow and agony of 
 the great Sufferer, seems to have stamped itself on 
 the Tyrolean mind.
 
 ^T. 39] ON LAGO DI GARDA 279 
 
 This is the best country that exists for seeing how 
 the Middle Ages must have been before the priests 
 were corrupt. The intellect and reason undeveloped, 
 the reverence, awe, religious affection, and some- 
 thing of art, grown out, and with all, a solid, honest, 
 honorable, stanch, industrious people. It is now 
 the living heart of Catholicism. 
 
 To Miss Dora Neill. 
 
 Turin, Sunday, Aug. 12, 1865. 
 
 My dear Dora : How can I ever tell the sublime 
 visions I have had in the mountains, of the unseen! 
 The lesson of the Alps is worship and purity. " Oh, 
 to be like this forever! to see God as only the pure 
 can see! " have I often said on the great heights, in 
 the presence of the Unapproachable One. From the 
 vast peaks above cloud and earth, one peers into 
 Eternity with such intense desire to know. Our 
 individuality sinks away so, and the realities seem 
 goodness and God. " Oh, make me thine I " is the 
 cry of one's heart continually in the solitary moun- 
 tains. 
 
 The following description of a storm in the Stelvio 
 Pass was given in a lecture delivered after his re- 
 turn home. 
 
 "... I never shall forget a scene at sunset on 
 the Stelvio Pass, some two miles high, where as a 
 foot-traveller I was incautiously belated, miles from 
 any house. Up from the Italian valleys marched, 
 with threatening rapidity, a phalanx of dark thunder- 
 clouds, crowding one upon another, filling every vale 
 and gorge which reached down to the plains of Lorn-
 
 280 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1865 
 
 bardy, and giving warning of their approach by a 
 continuous mutter of artillery. Their light advance 
 had already crossed the ridge on Avhich I stood, sepa- 
 rating Italy and Germany, and had filled the deep 
 gorge of the Stelvio with whirls and eddies of white 
 mist. The sun was soon darkened, and as I turned 
 to descend toward the Tyrol in haste and anxiety, I 
 seemed to be plunging doAvn by the narrow zigzag 
 of the road into a white, boiling sea, from which 
 gigantic icebergs were rising, — the glaciers of the 
 Alps, — while every now and then a blinding flash of 
 lightning would reveal an Arctic vista of white 
 snow-peaks, and the thunder reverberated among a 
 hundred mountains. Perilous and difficult as was 
 the descent, it was a scene one would not for any 
 consideration have lost. It is a revelation for an 
 instant of that which seldom visits the mortal, the un- 
 seen, the infinite and unapproachable. Man shrinks 
 away before the gigantic forces of Nature. He is 
 purified by a glimpse of the Temple of Deity itself." 
 
 From Hastings he writes to Miss Dora Neill : — 
 
 Hastings, Sunday, Nov. 19, 1865. 
 My dear Dora ; . . . When will you come here to 
 share our joys, and help us, and give the light of 
 your sweet presence to the little household ? I fancy 
 you would be happy here ; you are so near to both of 
 us, and there is a growing light of purity and peace 
 in our family. All my glowing anticipations were 
 more than realized on my return, and now the sober 
 work of life is on me, and the consciousness of a 
 divine Presence and of a glorious Unseen settles on
 
 ^T. 39] THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1866 281 
 
 us all. I long so to do more and more for God and 
 humanity. Tlie mountain spirit seemed to abide 
 with me. Then I never felt such a spring of energy 
 and inexhaustible force, and the consequence was I 
 broke myself down in two months. Now I am well 
 again, and must be more careful. What a work is 
 there to do in the world ! Such misery and sorrow 
 and sin and crime! How one longs to have the 
 power of an angel in the struggle ! I feel ready to 
 give up a hundred lives if I had them. My work 
 goes on finely, and now I am putting hand to the 
 sanitary task to get ready for the cholera, a fearful 
 and Augean toil. I am also getting out a book ^ on 
 England (sanitary, etc., etc.). My letters, I find, 
 have been read more than I expected. I hope to 
 publish my "Newsboys' Sermons " this winter. 
 
 Mr. Brace had returned home early in October, 
 finding everything going well in the great work, 
 and immediately becoming immersed in its many 
 absorbing demands. The following letter gives his 
 views on current political conditions, and then we 
 have two of general interest, one revealing his spirit- 
 ual sympathy with his younger friends, the other 
 alluding to his belief in Darwin and his scientific 
 
 theories. 
 
 To Lady Lyell. 
 
 11 Clinton Hall, New York, May 14, 1866. 
 My dear Lady Lyell : I hope you and Sir Charles 
 recall, with half the pleasure I do, our pleasant in- 
 
 1 The book was not written.
 
 282 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1866 
 
 tercourse a year ago. There are some persons whom 
 to meet always afterwards gives one a greater cour- 
 age and hope, as if there were more nobleness and 
 high purpose in the world than one thinks. Will 
 you pardon my boldness, if I say I always bring back 
 from my interviews with you and your sister (whom 
 I so regret to have seen so little) something of this 
 impression. 
 
 I suppose you and Sir Charles follow our public 
 affairs with by no means the interest you did. Our 
 struggle is transferred from the field to the Senate, 
 and is much duller, though quite as important. I 
 think I know without asking how you and your sis- 
 ter regard our new President and his course. It was 
 an awful blunder of sentiment, putting in a South- 
 erner as Vice-President, so that now we have Border 
 State ideas controlling our policy. The more we see 
 of Mr. Johnson, the less we like and respect him. 
 He is imbued with the prejudices of slavery, narrow, 
 fanatical, obstinate, and vulgar, standing on a theory 
 which he will never abandon, that the negroes are 
 perfectly safe with the South, and that we must not 
 interfere. If he had his way, we should lose all the 
 fruit of this terrible war. . . . For the next three 
 years it is incessant Avar with the President, on these 
 great principles. He is obstinate, and the Republi- 
 can party are determined. The people are more and 
 more supporting Congress. I see some of our friends 
 in England deplore that we have not your system 
 — the compelling an administration to resign when 
 opposed to the will of Parliament. With our excita- 
 ble and impulsive democracy, such a parliamentary 
 system would leave our affairs liable to too sudden
 
 iEx. 40] LETTER TO MISS SCHUYLER 283 
 
 changes. We ought, however, to have a responsible 
 ministry (as yours) and a freshly elected Congress. 
 In these respects, ours is a defective system. 
 
 To Miss Cr. Schuyler. 
 
 Hastings, Dec. 9, 1866. 
 
 Ml/ dear Miss Cr — ; Your sweet and beautiful 
 letter of August 8th, from Paris, has often been be- 
 fore my mind, as you and yours are so constantly 
 present with me in thought. You and your sister 
 and father cannot tell how you are missed in the 
 beloved cottage which you made so delightful with 
 your hospitality and kindness. I fear your good 
 aunt misses the absent faces more than I do even. 
 You must remember — to cheer you when you are 
 thinking of parting from all those galleries and 
 beautiful things — of the warm hearts waiting to 
 welcome you. 
 
 What you said in your note of the difficulty, amid 
 practical life, of fixing the mind on eternal things, 
 I can fully appreciate. The true helps are a good 
 arrangement of duties, and then much prayer and 
 reading. Probably few human beings ever had a 
 more real sense of things unseen than I habitually 
 have. The eternal and the infinite are sometimes so 
 near to me that all life seems insignificant, and I 
 watch the steady revolution of days bearing me 
 toward the vast mystery as steadily as we count the 
 days on a sea-voyage before reaching home ; and yet 
 there are certain influences of a very petty kind 
 which can temporarily close up the heavens to me,
 
 284 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1866 
 
 and shut me up in a very narrow cell, and can veil 
 the face of the unseen Father. Every human being 
 suffers from this influence of time and sense. I hold 
 myself so fortunate that my business is in the line 
 of all my best aspirations and prayers and thoughts. 
 Your sister must have felt this so much in her labors 
 in the war. One seems to be doing God's work, and 
 then no failure can disappoint, for you labor with the 
 Almighty Arm underneath, and you know that God 
 has your objects far more in heart than you can. I 
 often feel this, as I see the comparatively slight 
 effect of all our labors on this host of poor and crimi- 
 nal. We are each on earth " to build up the king- 
 dom of God," and if we only put in a single particle 
 or fragment of mortar in the remotest corner, it 
 ought to be enough for our hope. You and Miss L. 
 will yet do and be much, I believe, in this silent 
 building. It often comes over me, and looking at 
 my own children I can understand it, the sudden 
 burst of emotion with which your mother (so calm 
 when speaking of her own death) asked me to prom- 
 ise to be in continual relations with you both. What 
 must have been her thoughts of the many years of 
 labor and sacrifice for you, and then to think that 
 you were to start on the unknown journey without 
 her direction or sympath}'^ or advice ; and yet, as I 
 said then, you had already ripened in character under 
 her, and, as I think now, you are never without her 
 ennobling presence. Is it not true, that if she were 
 by your side, she could not any more inspire you to 
 what is true and noble and spiritual? Of her I 
 always feel that "the dead yet live." . . . Politics 
 are in a fearful condition. We have broken down
 
 iEx. 40] THE DARWINIAN THEORY 285 
 
 the President, but the South are obstinate, and are 
 maltreating the freedmen dreadfully. Events are 
 drifting towards extreme measures on our part, and 
 the South will find that they have made a grand 
 mistake in not accepting the amendments. I 
 shouldn't be surprised at territorial governments, 
 martial laws to protect the blacks and force universal 
 suffrage; though most of us prefer an intelligence 
 suffrage. 
 
 To Lady Lyell. 
 
 11 Clinton Hall, New York, 
 
 Dec. 23, 1866. 
 
 My dear Lady Lyell : Please accept my thanks for 
 your kind note of October last. It is remarkable 
 how the application of the law of natural selection is 
 influencing now every department of scientific inves- 
 tigation. I think Mr. Darwin's name will go down 
 for many ages with this great Law of Hypothesis. I 
 have been amusing myself with applying it to a the- 
 ory of the moral and mental development of mankind. 
 I think it furnishes what historians and philosophers 
 have so long sought for, a law of progress, and Dar- 
 win states the glorious point to which mankind shall 
 eventually advance. Under this law, I hold that, in 
 a sense, even religion may be transmitted ; that is, 
 the openness to supernatural inferences, so that ulti- 
 mately a race may appear in which the highest in- 
 spiration and capacity of nobleness shall be embodied 
 and transmitted and perpetuated. Evil seems to me 
 destructive — good preservative. I should venture 
 to think that the origin and influence of Christianity
 
 286 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1867 
 
 are out of the philosophical course of history, — that 
 is, supernatural, — though the readiness to receive it 
 and all other divine influence may be a part of the 
 regular human development. But perhaps you will 
 hardly care to follow these dreamy speculations. 
 We are all so glad to hear of a new edition of Sir 
 Charles's "Principles." . . . You know my opinion, 
 that the whole science of the age has been modified 
 by Sir Charles's method. 
 
 One night in January, 1867, Mr. Brace, while 
 visiting among the poor, took cold, which soon devel- 
 oped into typhoid fever. A long illness followed, a 
 season of intense anxiety to his friends, and to the 
 devoted employees of the society. After three 
 months of illness, it was felt by Mr. Brace himself, 
 as well as by his physicians, that a return to work 
 was not to be thought of until his constitution had 
 completely recovered its old vitality. He decided 
 upon the long sea trip to California by the Isthmus 
 as the best possible medicine, and we find him plan- 
 ning, even in this time of physical weakness and 
 convalescence, to take letters which shall introduce 
 him to the best men and the characteristic features 
 of California. In May, he and Mrs. Brace set out 
 upon their travels, and his enjoyment of the beauty 
 of the sea trip knew no bounds. He speaks, in his 
 book on California, "The New West," of the sparkle 
 of spring sunlight on the water, the air genial, but
 
 JEt. 40] VISIT TO CALIFORNIA 287 
 
 bracing, the blue waves of the Caribbean, and " the 
 long voyage varied by a raiboad ride through a tropi- 
 cal conservatory." 
 
 They Avent direct to a sister of Mrs. Brace, whose 
 home was in an exquisite valley about twenty miles 
 from San Francisco, and there he gained every day 
 new health and energy. Everything filled him with 
 delight, — the wild Italian-like ravine, with its fan- 
 tastically shaped evergreen oaks, the great reaches of 
 grain-fields, the gorgeous wild-flowers. He breathed 
 the atmosphere with rapture, and called it as near 
 perfection as man can attain. He says : " The whole 
 region, and all its phenomena, seem to me more 
 different from those of the Eastern coast than Europe 
 is from the Atlantic States. I am constantly won- 
 dering that people sjDeak English. It seems to me 
 that if a student of nature from our coast were sud- 
 denly put down blindfold in any portion of Cali- 
 fornia, in the deepest forest, on the mountain-top, or 
 with only a few feet of horizon, he would know in 
 an instant that he was not on the Atlantic slope or 
 in Europe. It is 'the new West.' "^ 
 
 Immediately social conditions and their problems 
 begin to interest him, and he studies the mint statis- 
 tics, eight-hour law, schools, social life, etc., until 
 the crowning experience comes in a grand trip to the 
 Yosemite to which he and Mrs. Brace are generously 
 1" The New West," p. 35.
 
 288 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1867 
 
 invited by their brother, Mr. Sherwood. He says 
 that to him, just recovering from a tedious fever, 
 the atmosphere of the great canon seemed the 
 ver}^ elixir of life, — cool, clear, stimulating, — while 
 the grandeur of the scenes, the wonders of color in 
 the rock, the snowy Sierras in the distance, and the 
 peaceful greensward with gay wild-flowers below 
 them, are stamped on his memory, to remain forever. 
 
 His last trip was to Virginia City, which struck 
 his imagination much with its strange incongruities. 
 " The town is cut off from the pleasures, the art, and 
 the civilization of the outside world. It makes up 
 for it with the excitements of the stock market. All 
 day long the streets boil over with stock speculation. 
 It is a most striking contrast; above, the clear blue 
 sky like that of the high Alps, with its infinite 
 depths; in a few steps, the loneliness of a desert; 
 around, the vast solitudes and mighty snow-peaks of 
 the Sierras ; and below, men rushing to and fro with 
 wild excitement to speculate by telegraph in the 
 mining market of San Francisco. It is like the 
 sudden transference of the William Street gold-room 
 to the top of Mount Righi." ^ 
 
 While health was coming back to him, he and 
 
 Mrs. Brace were overtaken by a terrible sorrow in 
 
 the death of the sister. Miss Mary Anne Neill, who 
 
 was faithfully caring for their children in their 
 
 1 "The New West," p. 189,
 
 JEt. 41] DEATH OF MISS NEILL 289 
 
 absence. She was infinitely dear to them both, and 
 the fear that death had come in their service made 
 it a doubly cruel blow. His wife started for New 
 York at once, leaving Mr. Brace to finish his pre- 
 scribed rest cure alone. The next letters show in 
 how high affection and regard he held Miss Neill: — 
 
 To Miss Dora Neill. 
 
 July, 1867. 
 Ml/ dear Bora : ... I recall all her last words 
 and looks, and I know she is not sorry to die. " To 
 live so that in dying one does not cease to be loved," 
 is the great problem which she has solved. Look 
 up to Christ and accept this consolation : she is with 
 God; she calls us to her heights. May He cleanse 
 us and purify us by this great sorrow, to be more 
 worthy of Him, to meet her. . . . We vainly imag- 
 ine all that we cannot hear; and then we turn to the 
 glorified form above, and the eternal peace in which 
 she moves. May God bless you and console you 
 ever. Yesterday H. 's telegram came like a thunder- 
 bolt on us, and plunged us in the deep waters of 
 sorrow. I have felt lately that our lives had been 
 too happy, and that some great blow must come, 
 though I never thought of its being dealt there, — 
 that she, the best and most unselfish of us all, should 
 be called first. But she is with God; far happier 
 than ever she could be here. Every longing of that 
 restless heart satisfied, and at last in peace. But 
 we — we are losers through life.
 
 290 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1867 
 
 To Miss Cr. Schuyler. 
 
 San Francisco, July 19, 1867. 
 Mr/ dear Friend : You could hardly have expected 
 that my first reply to the kind notes from Rome 
 which cheered my sick hours would be from this 
 distant point. I told you to expect a warm welcome 
 from your friends on the Hudson, and I want mine 
 to meet you early after your return. To me, the 
 beautiful river will have a brighter aspect, as I think 
 of the dear cottage filled again with the old friends. 
 You know this has been a year of calamities to me. 
 To-day I bade good-by to Mrs. Brace, and our jour- 
 ney was brought to a gloomy turn by the terrible 
 news from Hastings. We do not grieve for her who 
 is gone so much. She always lived in the light of 
 the Unseen, and in the service of love. Her life 
 cannot now be essentially different from what it was 
 here, except as it is more peaceful and harmonious 
 and satisfied. But the loss of this life to her sisters 
 and brothers and us all is immense, as she bore the 
 burdens of so many, and took so many on her heart. 
 She was like a mother to my wife, and no one can 
 ever love her so much. To me, she was one of the 
 beloved few who help me continually to a higher 
 life, and who always had sympathy for me. I can 
 never replace her loss. As I think of the dark 
 waters I have passed through this year, and the 
 views given me of the depths unseen, I often wonder 
 what fruit God shall bring forth from these trials. 
 You encourage me by your kind sympathy to talk 
 freely of these matters, and I will say that thus far
 
 ^T. 41] SLOW RECOVERY 291 
 
 it has given me a solemn awe, as of one to whom the 
 veil of air was removed for a few moments, and a 
 glimpse granted of the eternal realities, and then 
 such a sense and desire of consecration to God's 
 work in humanity fill my soul as cannot be described, 
 so that all earthly interests pass away in comparison, 
 and the thought of God fills earth and heaven with 
 its light and glory, and I am really thankful for my 
 losses and disappointments and griefs. I only dread 
 and fear sometimes lest something of my abounding 
 courage and hope should be lamed by all this, but I 
 think not, for I have learned more of the " God of 
 Hope " and of the glory which shines from our 
 magnificent future. You will be glad to know that, 
 physically, I am getting stronger every day, yet the 
 typhoid is the very devil to get into one. I have 
 said so much of myself that I have left no space to 
 speak of my most interesting journey. I have sel- 
 dom had so instructive and valuable a tour, but of 
 that when we meet at the cottage in Hastings. I 
 trust yours are all well and happy. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 San Francisco, Aug. 28, 1867. 
 Dearest Wife ; . . . I hope the children are well 
 and good and happy. May God's peace rest upon 
 you all forever. I feel as if I was going back to a 
 house where the dead sit by the table and listen to 
 our prayers, and give a solemn joy and the peace of 
 eternity to all things. Happil}', we have lived to 
 a degree in the presence of things unseen.
 
 292 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1867 
 
 In October, 1867, Mr. Brace returned to his home, 
 and was greeted by the news of the death of his 
 uncle, Mr. Charles Loring, to whom he was deeply 
 attached. To Mrs. Asa Gray he writes of this 
 
 loss : — 
 
 To Mrs. Asa Gray. 
 
 Hastings, Oct. 12, 1867. 
 My dear Cousin : I cannot tell you what a shock 
 it gave me on my arrival to hear of the death of dear 
 Uncle Charles. Had I reached here earlier, or had 
 your letter come sooner, I might have been in time 
 to be present at the funeral. You knew, however, 
 that both Letitia and I were there in our sympathy. 
 Your father's death seems to me like the fall of a 
 great column, on which rested a wide circle of inter- 
 ests. Ever since I can remember, he has been the 
 example to us all of consideration, courtesy, and 
 self-sacrifice. He has heaped kindnesses on us, and 
 his home and its hospitality were one of the greatest 
 pleasures of my boyhood and manhood. God grant 
 that the death of any of us may leave as broad a track 
 of light over the stormy sea of life as his does ! 
 
 The letter expresses his reverence and affection for 
 Mr. Loring, and his gratitude for his unfailing hos- 
 pitality. His holidays were often spent at Beverly, 
 where his uncle's beautiful home always had room 
 for the boy Charles. With his cousins he fished and 
 sailed and swam, finding his uncle strict in only one 
 matter, that of regularity at meals. He used often 
 to tell a story of his struggles to regard Mr. Loring's
 
 JEt. 41] PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY'S WORK 293 
 
 wishes in this matter. One clay the boy was sailing, 
 and the wind died down. Dinner-hour was coming. 
 What could he do ? The only way was to swim ; so 
 swim he did, carrying his watch in his mouth, and 
 his clothes above his head in one hand. Needless to 
 say, the uncle fully appreciated the effort. 
 
 The steady progress of the work of the Children's 
 Aid Society continued to encourage all engaged in 
 those labors, and as the years go by, the good results 
 of its work become more and more apparent, in the 
 improved look of the children in the industrial 
 schools, the story of a lodging-house and its hun- 
 dreds of boys fed and taught, the grateful letters 
 from boys placed in homes, "snatched years before 
 from starvation and consequent crime." From the 
 nucleus of boys' meetings, the different branches 
 of the society — workshops, free reading-rooms, in- 
 dustrial schools, and lodging-houses — have all ex- 
 panded, with one aim ever in view, — the growth of 
 the soul, the character, the mind. In one of his 
 reports Mr. Brace sums up the good accomplished as 
 follows : — 
 
 "The great truths of religion were applied to 
 the conscience ; then habits of industry given in the 
 workshops ; social influences for good were used in 
 the reading-rooms ; punctuality, order, steady labor, 
 and moral habits taught in the schools ; and through 
 the comforts of the lodging-houses, nominally paid
 
 294 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1868 
 
 for and not received as alms, the outcasts of society- 
 were brought under innumerable moral and Christian 
 influences. A moral basis like this in a charity- 
 insures it success and permanency. It does not 
 merely confer alms : it builds up character; it soon 
 renders its subjects superior to the aid it gives. It 
 relieves society best of all, by preventing the growth 
 of a future dependent class ; and it checks crime by 
 choking its seed with good influences." 
 
 Several new lodging-houses, on a smaller scale 
 than the first, were founded during this and the 
 preceding two or three years, making six in opera- 
 tion in 1868, but still the first one was not large 
 enough for its purposes, and during the winters of 
 1868-69, we find Mr. Brace soliciting funds with 
 which to secure a permanent building for the news- 
 boys' lodging-house. He says that a fund of fifteen 
 thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars would 
 enable them to purchase a house, and after that the 
 institution would be nearl}^, if not quite, self-sup- 
 porting, a lasting blessing for the poor children of 
 the quarter. The society was not successful in 
 raising money during this winter, but a great ad- 
 vance was made towards this aim during the- follow- 
 ing year. The friends of the society contributed 
 thirty thousand dollars toward a fund for the erection 
 of a newsboys' lodging-house. The legislature was 
 persuaded to appropriate a like sum out of the Excise
 
 Mt.421 first LODGING-HOUSE ERECTED 295 
 
 Fund, the request being justified by the claim that 
 the lodsiuCT-house was needed often for the children 
 of the families ruined by the sale of drink. The 
 whole amount, invested in good securities, had 
 reached, in 1872, the sum of eighty thousand dollars, 
 and the lodging-house was erected at the corner of 
 Duane and New Chambers Street, where it has sus- 
 tained its first popularity to this day. Mr. Brace 
 says that in the course of a year the population of a 
 town passes through the lodging-house — in 1869 
 and 1870, eight thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
 five inmates lodged there. " Many are put in homes ; 
 some find places for themselves ; others drift away, 
 no one knows whither. . . . The lodging-house is 
 at once school, church, intelligence-ofiice, and hotel 
 for them. Here they are shaped to be honest and 
 industrious citizens; here taught economy, good 
 order, cleanliness, and morality; here religion brings 
 its powerful influences to bear upon them,"^ The 
 interest of the trustees, and especially of the presi- 
 dent, in these lodging-houses did not flag, and every 
 alternate Sunday evening Mr. Booth and others of 
 the busy men of New York were to be found, con- 
 ducting the simple religious services at one or other 
 of the lodging-houses. In a much later report, Mr. 
 Brace says in the same connection : " How any youth 
 can grow up to manhood enjoying all the blessings 
 1 "The Dangerous Classes of New York," p. 106.
 
 296 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1869 
 
 of life in such a city as this, crowded with misfortune 
 .and cursed by crime, and not feel it his solemn duty 
 to do his best to lessen these evils, is something in- 
 comprehensible. " 
 
 Some time during this year Mr. Brace wrote the 
 following letter : — 
 
 To Henry Ward JBeecher. 
 
 Hastings on Hudson, Sunday [1869]. 
 My dear Cousin : My duties are so engrossing that 
 I have little time to come over and see you, but I do 
 extremely want to say a few words about your great 
 plan (spoken of) of writing a "Life of Christ." I 
 cannot but think it may be the great intellectual 
 work of your life, the one to make you known to 
 future times. I do hope and trust — if you will let 
 me be so frank — that you will not hurry it out, even 
 if forty publishers are after it. There are certain 
 delicate questions which you, above all, are compe- 
 tent to treat of, as commanding supreme love of truth, 
 and also a spiritual nature. As one of those who 
 love a id honor you, I do hope you will take suffi- 
 cient time to thoroughly discuss them. May I briefly 
 note some of these points, as well as some other 
 matters, for your consideration? I wish you had 
 been in Palestine. It must require great genius to 
 thoroughly interpret Christ's language, without an 
 intimate acquaintance with Oriental life and scenery. 
 Then could you not faniiliaiize yourself with the Old 
 Testament figures and conceptions which must have 
 given the groundwork to His phraseology and para-
 
 iEx. 42] BEECHER'S "LIFE OF CHRIST" 297 
 
 bles? Your moral nature will give you power in 
 comprehending Christ. (You see I am writing most 
 frankly.) 
 
 Now for the knotty points. 
 
 (1) The narrative, though full for a few years as 
 compared with history, is a most imperfect one ; and 
 to my mind, there are evident blurrings or misconcep- 
 tions in it. Take, for instance, the barren fig-tree, 
 and such plirases as "I did it for their sakes," i.e. 
 prayed, for effect on others, and many small matters 
 of this kind. May not the birth from a virgin be an 
 addition by the wonder-lovers? 
 
 (2) The matter about which I once spoke to you, 
 — that is, that you and I and this age have drifted 
 by Christ's conception of sudden danger and sudden 
 change to character. The idea of this age is of slow 
 growth, especially of all moral things. We doubt 
 sudden changes, or, at all events, we consider them 
 only feeble beginnings of long-working changes. 
 We do not stand before the great masses of the edu- 
 cated classes and exhort them to a sudden conver- 
 sion, because on one side is an awful hell, and the 
 other a heaven. Our hell is character, which grows 
 like coral reefs, an inch through a million years. 
 We labor for its changes, but we know that it is 
 influenced by ten thousand imperceptible causes, 
 and its salvation is the slowest of all things. We 
 are more concerned to save from selfishness than from 
 damnation. We may admit eternity of effects (pun- 
 ishment), but present moral seed and its gradual 
 growth is what we most care for. Has not our stand- 
 point changed? Is the age of Christ right?
 
 298 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1869 
 
 (3) Did not Christ share the superstition (or 
 appear to share) of His age about diabolical posses- 
 sion? 
 
 (4) Did He aim a blow at property and modern 
 development of wealth in His well-known words 
 about riches, etc. ? (By the way, how wonderful is 
 it in a Jewish peasant, seeing the great sin of a 
 commercial age, — the greed for accumulation.) 
 
 (5) Are not His words on marriage and divorce 
 absolute ? 
 
 (6) Have we any evidence of His intention to 
 found a society or club or church, or of any ceremo- 
 nials or rites ? Is not the Supper temporary and per- 
 sonal, and the baptism Jewish ? Are they any more 
 solemnly established than washing of feet? 
 
 (7) Can we distinguish absolutely between the 
 real features of this Being and the art strokes of re- 
 storers or admirers, or the blurs of time ? 
 
 (8) Can we not prove Christ an abnormal growth 
 — that is, not a product of historical causes — and 
 thus upset modern scepticism? Or shall we show 
 God working through history to make, in the fulness 
 of time, the perfect man ? 
 
 (9) Under any of our conceptions of Christ, one 
 must admit profound mysteries and contradictions. 
 Yours of a " God in a body without a human soul " 
 is full of difficulties; mine of "God manifest in a 
 soul " has innumerable contradictions. The Trinita- 
 rian is worse than either. The ultra-Unitarian of 
 Christ as a reformer, etc., does not cover the lan- 
 guage or explain the facts. Even Renan draws an 
 impossible human mixture.
 
 iEx. 43] THE WINTER OF 1869-70 2^9 
 
 (10) The Lord's Prayer has never seemed to me 
 so perfect as mankind consider it. I do not like 
 the "trespasses," for it measures God's forgiveness, 
 and "lead into temptation" implies that He tempts, 
 and there is no personal aspiration for holiness in it. 
 
 (11) How much of those wonderful last words of 
 Christ's belong to Alexandrian and Platonic concep- 
 tions? They seem to me most divine. You remem- 
 ber the German objection that they are too different 
 from the words in the other accounts to have been 
 spoken by the same person. 
 
 (12) The great stumbling-block to modern science 
 are the Miracles. Not so much to my mind. 
 
 Do not answer all this, but keep it for considera- 
 tion, as vague objections, in your great book. 
 
 The following short letter to a friend reveals to 
 us his occupations and interests in this winter of 
 1869-70: — 
 
 19 East 4th St., Jan. 28, 1870. 
 
 My dear M ; ... If I should live a thousand 
 
 years, and away from you, your memory would be 
 green in my heart. You have ploughed too deep a 
 furrow in my life to make it otherwise. I can truly 
 say that not an hour passes, when I am alone, ia 
 which I do not think of you, and with such respect, 
 admiration, and affection, as I should like to have 
 you see in my heart. ... I believe we are to have 
 one of those tough friendships and affections which 
 will last till all earthly fire and light have gone from 
 us, and which will hold out in new lives beyond. 
 . . . We are having spring all winter; thermometer
 
 800 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1870 
 
 between 50° and 60° in shade, dry, sunny, glorious ; 
 no snow or ice ; river open. I am writing busily for 
 papers, arguing much for low tariff, etc., and driv- 
 ing Children's Aid. I am deep in the Stoics, and 
 reading Marcus Aurelius with great interest. We 
 need a spice of backbone of stoicism in all of us. 
 Marcus says: "We ought to take the posture of 
 wrestlers rather than dancers in life, so as to be 
 ready for any sudden and unexpected onset." I am 
 much too easily upset by a sudden blow. You are 
 stiffer. Then pure morality does not move us as it 
 ought. Does love for God ever shut out the view of 
 pure truth and justice and disinterestedness? . . . 
 I am still reading up everywhere on Darwinian 
 matters. 
 
 The study of Darwin had greatly interested Mr. 
 Brace for some years, and at about this time he pub- 
 lished a little on the subject. One of his greatest 
 recreations was to read and read again " The Origin 
 of Species," and we find, some years later, an allu- 
 sion in one of his letters to the fact that he is read- 
 ing it for the thirteenth time. It may interest his 
 readers to see a few words of his on evolution, 
 the first extract contributed to the " North American 
 Review," the second to the "Christian Union." 
 
 " . . . In attempting to conceive the divine plans 
 of the great Architect, we are of course in a region 
 where human faculties reach but little way; yet it 
 seems a possible conception of an infinite Creator,
 
 ^T. 43] EVOLUTION UPWARD 301 
 
 that He should be able to arrange forces on a gen- 
 eral plan, whose particular results He should clearly 
 foresee; even knowing the future failures and half- 
 effects of these 'laws ' which He sustains, while the 
 great object of progress and completeness is being 
 steadily worked out. 
 
 " How any one could regard the Darwinian concep- 
 tion of the Creator as an inferior one, we cannot un- 
 derstand. To our mind, the vast, manifold, almost 
 infinite intertwining of causes, which under that 
 theory should produce the most simple effects ; the 
 astonishing and incredible complication and inter- 
 dependence of the kingdoms of life which Darwin 
 has attempted to illustrate ; the thought that the 
 destruction of a single thread in the infinite network 
 of forces would desolate the earth of beautiful forms 
 of life, or would over-people it with hideous; that 
 each little violet, for instance, Avhich gladdens our 
 eye on a country walk has depended for its existence 
 on a balancing and interworking of innumerable 
 forms of life during 'ages of ages,' and is the result 
 of laws old as creation ; and that there is at the cen- 
 tre One holding the tangled threads of this vast net- 
 work of causes, or rather, that the power which is 
 continually weaving on this immense ' loom of life ' 
 is One, — to us such a scientific conception has in it 
 something corresponding to our highest moral intui- 
 tion of Him the 'All-controlling.' 
 
 Wer darf Ihn nennen ? . . . 
 
 Der Alldmfassek ! 
 
 Der Allerhalter ! " 
 
 ". . . To the Darwinian also, there is no drift 
 toward the worse — no tendency to degeneracy and
 
 302 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1870 
 
 imperfection. The current of all created things, or 
 of all phenomena, is towards higher forms of life. 
 Natural selection is a means of arriving at the 
 best. 
 
 "... Nature moves physically towards perfec- 
 tion, and morally there must be the same unseen but 
 necessary motion. For if the Darwinian theory be 
 true, the law of natural selection applies to all the 
 moral history of mankind, as well as to the physical. 
 Evil must die ultimately as the weaker element, in 
 the struggle with good. The slow consent of the 
 world's history is in the direction of moral good- 
 ness, as its physical development is ever toward 
 higher forms. This progress, of course, does not 
 necessarily embrace any particular form of life or 
 especial race. A given race may die, or may remain 
 stagnant. The development goes on with some new 
 variety or form of life. 
 
 "Such a 'current of things towards righteousness,' 
 or towards physical perfection, is slow, almost imper- 
 ceptible. It is like the silent motion of the stars of 
 heaven through eternity towards one centre of the 
 universe. But if once the theory of development be 
 accepted and this fact be admitted, what higher evi- 
 dence can be demanded of a benevolent and perfect 
 Creator, than a current of all things towards the 
 best, a drift toward perfection, a silent, august, 
 secular movement of all beings and forms of life, all 
 thought and morals, all history and events towards 
 the completely good and perfect? This, indeed, 
 does not solve all difficulties, but it would go far to 
 answer Mr. Mill's objections to natural theology, 
 and adding the hypothesis of immortal life, it would
 
 ^T. 43] YALE AND HARVARD 303 
 
 solve all the most difficult portions of the great 
 problem." 
 
 In the same line of thought, he writes to Mr. 
 Kingsbury : — 
 
 "... The sceptical make a good deal of the little 
 Christianity has done. But, taking analogy in the 
 natural world, we expect immense time for small 
 changes. I look rather at its tendencies^ what it 
 seems capable of doing, and what it has begun to 
 do, and I think I see clearly what, a thousand ceons 
 hence, it will do. I don't think Christianity teaches 
 any new moral principles. Stoicism and Buddhism 
 both teach brotherhood and the love-principles. 
 But it embodied the highest, and taught in a life, 
 in a person. The Stoics were generally poor sticks, 
 and only Buddha is remarkable for character. But 
 Christ is pre-eminent, and stands higher under each 
 new religion or old investigated. 
 
 " But our 'rocks ' are further back than that. I am 
 here,i where we (Dr. Gray and I) generally have 
 incessant disputations and talks on Darwinism. If 
 the soul is a growth from animal faculties and in- 
 stincts, the probability is less for immortality. Or 
 if the whole universe is an evolution under chance 
 and natural selection from a few atoms in a cosmic 
 vapor, the necessity of a God is less. Yet to me 
 Darwinism is not inconsistent with Theism. . . . 
 All are well here. . . . The college becoming 
 university, and everything moving twenty miles an 
 hour faster than Yale." 
 
 1 In Cambridge.
 
 304 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1871 
 
 During the winter of 1871 the society made a 
 strong effort to effect a reform in New York in the 
 laws bearing upon the employment of children of 
 tender age in factories. The night schools of the 
 society, at that time eleven in number, brought Mr. 
 Brace and the teachers in contact with an immense 
 number of children who were at work from eight to 
 ten hours a day. In making a survey of the matter, 
 Mr. Brace discovered that there were in New York, 
 Brooklyn, and their neighborhood, from fifteen hun- 
 dred to two thousand children employed in one in- 
 dustry alone, — the manufacture of paper collars, — 
 while the agents of the society found children only 
 four years of age in tobacco factories. The New 
 England States had already passed the most stringent 
 acts for this reform, manufacturers in Connecticut 
 saying : " We do not dare t& permit the children with- 
 in and around our mills to grow up without some 
 education. Better for us to pay the school expenses 
 ourselves, than have the children in ignorance." 
 
 Mr. C. E. Whitehead, counsel and trustee of the 
 Children's Aid Society, drew up a law for the pro- 
 tection of factory children, and Mr. Brace went for 
 some years to Albany during every spring session 
 to try to push through this and other legislation for 
 the society. For two years it failed, through the 
 manoeuvres of two or three members, while the inter- 
 ests of nearly one hundred thousand children in the
 
 iEx. 4i] GIRLS' LODGIXG-IIOUSE REMOVAL 305 
 
 city and its suburbs were involved in its fate ; but 
 in 1874 an act passed the legislature, not so judi- 
 cious in form as his own bill, Mr. Brace considered, 
 but still a great step. The whole duty of checking 
 vagrancy and securing education to factory children 
 was thrown upon the Board of Education and school 
 trustees throughout the State. The society at once 
 opened an increased number of night schools in view 
 of the possible effects of the law. 
 
 The Girls' Lodging-house continued its work of 
 inestimable good to many poor and unhappy young 
 women, and in 1870 had instituted a new branch of 
 usefulness in the "sewing-machine school." Cer- 
 tain of the sewing-machine companies generously 
 gave or loaned machines, and the girls seized with 
 eagerness this opportunity of training for their 
 future self-support, coming in numbers (seventy- 
 eight in one day) from all parts of the city and 
 suburbs. Of course all did not become good oper- 
 ators, but eleven hundred girls were taught during 
 the first year, and of these many must have gone 
 forth better equipped for the difficult battle of life. 
 During the winter the lodging-house was moved to 
 large and commodious quarters in St. Mark's Place, 
 where the machine-room was better adapted to its 
 purpose, and there were accommodations for the large 
 laundry, where work for outsiders was successfully 
 undertaken.
 
 306 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1871 
 
 At the lodging-house in Rivington Street a new 
 and beautiful feature was added during this winter. 
 The superintendent, Mr. Calder, had already shown 
 taste and skill in making the house attractive to the 
 children, and had a little greenhouse of his own. 
 This year, the gentlemen interested in the lodging- 
 house assumed the expense necessary to build a small 
 greenhouse opening out of the audience and school- 
 room, thus giving the school-children during the day, 
 and the boy lodgers who came for the night, the in- 
 fluence of flowers always before them. The little 
 conservatory was an immense interest to the chil- 
 dren, giving them a taste of the country in the midst 
 of this dingy part of the city, and its influence was 
 extended by the gifts of plants as prizes to the chil- 
 dren, who were required to bring them back once or 
 twice a year, to show how well they had been 
 cared for. 
 
 All was prospering, when suddenly, at the end of 
 the year, the society had a bitter disappointment in 
 losing, by frauds, the moneys appropriated to it by 
 the legislature. Mr. Brace was greatly disturbed 
 by this calamity. The thought of cutting down 
 any of the schools in the beginning of a hard 
 winter, or having to lessen the usual dinners and 
 clothes given for good behavior, Avas a great trial to 
 him. Financial embarrassment, however, only served 
 to show how firm was the confidence of the community
 
 iET. 44] RESPONSE OF THE PUBLIC 307 
 
 in the society, and the loss of thirty thousand dol- 
 lars, which plunged them into deep anxiety, was 
 almost entirely made up to them. The press of the 
 city appealed for relief, and soon from every portion 
 of the community contributions came in so gener- 
 ously that they were scarcely obliged to contract the 
 good work at all.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 " The Dangerous Classes of New York" — Visit to England as 
 Delegate to Congress on Reform — Darwin — Visit to Hungary — 
 Twentieth Annual Report — Death of Mr. Brace's Father — 
 Death of John Stuart Mill — " Soup-kitchen " Episode — 
 Children's Summer Home of Children's Aid Society 
 
 The spring of 1872 saw the publication of Mr. 
 Brace's book, "The Dangerous Classes of New 
 York," which relates his experiences of twenty years' 
 work among the poor, the unfortunate, and the igno- 
 rant in our city. Mr. Brace is now able to speak as 
 an authority on efforts in charity, reform, and edu- 
 cation, and it makes the interest of the book unique 
 that, together with his valuable generalizations on 
 these matters, there runs through almost all the 
 pages a sort of unconscious autobiography. It is 
 plainly of himself he is speaking, when he says 
 with reference to the sufferings of the reformer: 
 "If he has been inspired by Christ with a love of 
 humanity, there have been times when the evils that 
 afflict it clouded his daily happiness; when the 
 thought of the tears shed that no one could wipe 
 away ; of the nameless wrongs suffered ; of the igno- 
 rance which imbruted the young, and the sins that 
 
 308
 
 JEt. 45] SUFFERINGS OF THE REFORMER 309 
 
 stained the conscience ; of the loneliness, privation, 
 and pain of vast masses of human beings; of the 
 necessary degradation of great multitudes; when the 
 picture of all these, and other wounds and woes of 
 mankind, rose like a dark cloud between him and the 
 light, and even the face of God was obscured. At 
 such times it has seemed sweeter to bring smiles 
 back to sad faces and to raise up the neglected and 
 forgotten, than to win the highest prize of earth; 
 and the thought of Him who hath ennobled man, 
 and whose life was especially given for the poor and 
 outcast, made all labors and sacrifices seem as noth- 
 ing compared with the joy of following in His foot- 
 steps. At such rare moments the ordinary prizes of 
 life are forgotten or not valued. The man is inspired 
 with 'the enthusiasm of humanity.' He maps out 
 a city, with his plans and aspirations for the removal 
 of the various evils which he sees. His life flows 
 out for those who can never reward him, and who 
 hardly know of his labors."^ "The enthusiasm of 
 humanity! " Thus he tells us what it was that filled 
 him, making him a distinct influence wherever he 
 went. To go about with him, to see him thinking 
 and planning for these unfortunate ones, understand- 
 ing with deepest sympathy their temptations, feeling 
 their sufferings, aj)preciating the children's little 
 virtues, and pitying their little vices, — this was a 
 1 «' Dangerous Classes," pp. 367, 368.
 
 310 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 revelation and an inspiration to his companions 
 on these missions of mercy, to which they have 
 more than once testified. His connection with the 
 public press made it possible to keep before the 
 more fortunate the needs of the little ones, and to 
 gain sympathy and help for the manifold efforts of 
 the society; and as he saw the evils, his inventive 
 brain planned remedies. He saw here a spot for a 
 lodging-house; there the swarming children in the 
 streets suggested to his mind a school ; and so grew 
 up all about the city those healthful influences, the 
 moral "light-houses of education and charity and 
 reform," as he calls them, of the Children's Aid 
 Society, which represent so much alleviation of mis- 
 ery to thousands of families. 
 
 But what Mr. Brace's words, personal as they are, 
 do not tell us, is what a power his was of winning 
 to himself and his cause those who worked with him. 
 He tells us that "respect and courtesy always make 
 those who serve you most efficient," but he does not 
 tell how unfailing his courtesy was, how genial and 
 kindly his treatment. Faithfulness to duty would 
 have been easy even for less conscientious em- 
 ployees under the influence of his benignant per- 
 sonality, and it was a source of greatest satisfaction 
 to him that he was so loved by those who worked 
 with and under him. He tells us, at the close of 
 the "Dangerous Classes," that "the aim of the
 
 ^T. 45] THE QUESTION OF ALMSGIVING 311 
 
 writer, as executive officer, has been to select just 
 the right man for his phice, and to make him feel 
 that that is his profession and life-calling. Amid 
 many hundreds thus selected during twenty years, 
 he can recall but two or three mistaken choices, 
 while many have become almost identified with their 
 labors and position, and have accomplished good not 
 to be measured. . . . Not a single employee, so far 
 as he is aware, in all this time during his service, 
 has ever wronged the society or betra3'ed his trust. 
 One million of dollars has passed through the hands 
 of the officers of this association during this period, 
 and it has been publicly testified by the treasurer, 
 Mr. J. E. Williams, president of the Metropolitan 
 Bank, that not a dollar, to his knowledge, has ever 
 been misappropriated or squandered." 
 
 An interesting chapter on "How Best to give 
 Alms ? " discusses fully this most im^Dortant subject. 
 Mr. Brace says : — 
 
 "So convinced is the writer, by twenty years' 
 experience among the poor, that alms are mainly 
 a bane, that the mere distribution of gifts by the 
 great charity in which he is engaged seldom 
 affords him much gratification. The long list of 
 benefactions which the reports record would be 
 exceedingly unsatisfactory if they were not parts 
 and branches of a great preventive and educational 
 movement. The majority of people are most moved 
 by hearing that so many thousand pairs of shoes, so
 
 312 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 many articles of clothing, or so many loaves of bread 
 are given to the needy and suffering by some benevo- 
 lent agency. The experienced friend of the poor 
 will only grieve at such alms, unless they are accom- 
 panied with some influences to lead the recipients to 
 take care of themselves. The worst evil in the world 
 is not poverty or hunger, but the want of manhood 
 or character which alms-giving directly occasions. 
 The principle throughout all the operations of the 
 Children's Aid Society, is only to give assistance 
 where it bears directly on character, to discourage 
 pauperism, to cherish independence, to place the 
 poorest of the city, the homeless children, as we 
 have so often said, not in almshouses or asylums, but 
 on farms, where they support themselves and add to 
 the wealth of the nation; to 'take, rather than give,' 
 or to give education and work rather than alms ; to 
 place all their thousands of little subjects under such 
 influences and such training that they will never 
 need either private or public charity." ^ 
 
 It is interesting to note that in the chapter 
 in which Mr. Brace states the advantages to the 
 boys and girls of country life, he speaks of an idea 
 " often broached " of a " school in gardening " for 
 young girls, in which they could be taught in the 
 open air, and learn the florist's and gardener's art. 
 So far as we can find out, there has never been 
 any attempt made to do this, admirable as is the 
 idea. 
 
 1 " Dangerous Classes," pp. 388, 389, and 397.
 
 ^T. 45] NEGLECTED CHILDREN 313 
 
 But for considerations of space, we should be 
 strongly tempted to quote almost the entire chapter 
 on " The Subject of applying Religion as a Lever to 
 raise up the Class of Neglected Children." Mr. 
 Brace's experience in this was very large, in both the 
 class in the lodging-houses and the hundreds of chil- 
 dren in the industrial schools. He says that they are 
 not to be reached as Sunday-school audiences are, nor 
 as adults. Their minds are acute and practical, and 
 the platitudes of Sunday-school oratory are not for 
 them. They have the childish sense of the dramatic 
 abnormally developed, probably by their education 
 in the low theatres. The genuine and strong feel- 
 ing of the heart always touches them. " I have seen 
 the quick tears drop over the dirty cheeks at the 
 simple tone of some warm-hearted man who had 
 addressed them with a deep feeling of their lone- 
 liness and desolation, and yet they would have 
 'chaffed ' him in five minutes after, if they had had 
 the opportunity." With a child's receptiveness they 
 are peculiarly open to religion, and at the same time 
 they have a man's temptations and exposure. To 
 give them something which may help them to 
 withstand these powerful temptations, this is the 
 problem, and this, Mr. Brace thinks, is done only 
 by the sense of Christ as the Friend of men. Moral 
 influence he does not consider a sufficient safe- 
 guard.
 
 314 CHAKLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 Of his book, Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler writes from 
 Bar Harbor : — 
 
 "... I am so thankful it is written and pub- 
 lished, — such a noble record of a noble work. The 
 results are so wonderful, the success of the work so 
 undoubted, that it is an inspiration to all who are 
 engaged in similar enterprises, more helpful than 
 any other word of encouragement could possibly be. 
 The freshness and skill with which the book is writ- 
 ten surprise me. The spirit, the impersonality as 
 regards your own share in the work, are not surpris- 
 ing to those who know you well. 
 
 " Many thanks for sending me a copy. I am very 
 glad to have it from you. I am glad to have your 
 account of my mother's interest in the German 
 school just what it is — recognized by those who 
 knew her as connected with your work, not under- 
 stood by those who did not know her and who do not 
 care. The little sketch of her character is very 
 lovely, so delicate, appreciative, and true. It is 
 good to have two such friends as you and herself 
 associated together in such a book as this record of 
 your work among the poor. I would rather have 
 this than anything else that could be written about 
 my mother." 
 
 Two of the many letters acknowledging "The 
 Dangerous Classes of New York," although written 
 in the following autumn, are inserted here. 
 
 "I am very much obliged to you," writes Dr. Ros- 
 well D. Hitchcock, "for sending me your 'Danger-
 
 JEx. 45] "A RECORD OF WORK DONE" 315 
 
 ous Classes.' I have as yet only dipped into it here 
 and there, but I shall read it just as soon as I get 
 through some extra work now in hand. How you 
 can see and hear all you do without going crazy, is 
 a wonder to me. The doctrine of the Trinity doesn't 
 trouble me half so much as the doctrine of the 
 Divine Goodness in the face of all these woes." 
 
 From Florence Nightingale. 
 
 London, Sept. 9, 1872. 
 
 Sir: I am unwilling (tho' almost ashamed) not 
 to thank you myself for your invaluable and admira- 
 ble book, "The Dangerous Classes of New York," 
 which I find that you were kind enough to send me 
 yourself some two or three months ago, and which I 
 have read like a text-book. ... I cannot express 
 my admiration for your book, unlike most other 
 books in this, — that it is a record of work done, of 
 results actually obtained, of harvest actually reaping 
 in God's field, and told with so much impartiality, 
 such absence of dogmatism, and of foregone conclu- 
 sion. Had you but put those two principles on 
 record,— !. The "providing country homes"; 2. 
 The effect of "licensing prostitutes " in encouraging 
 the crime, — you would have done enough to be called 
 a benefactor of our common race. But how much 
 more have you not done ? I should be ashamed to 
 say that I have advocated most of the principles in 
 your book, for have you not outstripped us all? God 
 has given you the opportunity, and well have you
 
 316 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 answered to His call to bring all these works to a 
 much higher level and success than the highest we 
 know. Believe me, that your book is having influ- 
 ence in England, and that I can wish us nothing 
 better than that it should become a manual ; though, 
 of course, the widely different circumstances of our 
 country involve great modifications, especially in the 
 "providing of country homes." We have no " Michi- 
 gan," no " West. " Still, with our Colonies we might 
 do much more than we do do, and I hope are making 
 a beginning. Would that I had one hour a day of 
 time or strength to take this up ! But my incessant 
 indispensable business and ever-increasing illness 
 make all but this poor word of admiration for your 
 work impossible. 
 
 Mr. Brace's book came at a more opportune time 
 for its wider circulation than would have been ordi- 
 narily possible. There was to be a congress in 
 London, in July, drawing together, from all over 
 the civilized world, those interested in the repres- 
 sion and prevention of crime, and the care of the 
 criminal. In June he went as a delegate to the 
 congress, accompanied by Mrs. Brace, planning, after 
 the business of his trip was over, to take a run into 
 Hungary, which was so dear to him. 
 
 Of the congress, and his experiences in London, 
 he writes as follows to the second Mrs. Schuy- 
 ler: —
 
 ^T. 46] A CONGRESS IN LONDON 317 
 
 July 14, 1872. [London.] 
 My dear Friend: . . . You will like to know 
 what L. and I have been doing. The congress was 
 a great success, but I shall say nothing about it, as I 
 hope you see my letters about it in the "Times." I 
 presided one day, and had full sweep, for which 
 I was rejoiced. I don't like the English as they 
 appear in public, as well as in private. The old 
 barbarism of views appears, and self-satisfaction with 
 their abuses, and a decided lack of true courtesy. 
 They mumble so, and don't understand parliamen- 
 tary management. I think, however, all the coun- 
 tries received benefit from one another. Our C. A. S. 
 work interested them greatly, and my book was dis- 
 tributed well. But you are more interested in our 
 social life. It has been all that I expected, . . . 
 each day three engagements deep. In fact, we might 
 spend another month at it instead of two weeks, and 
 be full. Among the pleasant events was a most 
 interesting lunch at Miss Cobbe's. She gave us 
 striking accounts of the high spiritual views of the 
 converted Hindoos in London. She objects to all 
 supernaturalism except what is universal. I was 
 surprised to find her a little weak on Toryism and 
 the aristocracy. We met first at a sermon of Mar- 
 tineau's, a superb one, drawing the distinction be- 
 tween revelation (inspiration) and apocalypse (super- 
 natural and sudden vision). We saw the Lyells 
 twice. Sir C. is failing sadly; a splendid brain 
 coming to its setting. . . . Every one is full of 
 kindness and hospitality, but every one is just going 
 to Switzerland! We missed meeting Browning in 
 that way.
 
 318 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 Mr. Lyulph Stanley gave me a splendid dinner at 
 his mother's. Only two commoners present besides 
 myself, a smart young lawyer and Mr. Doyle of the 
 "Punch." Of the five lords,— Edward Russell, Fr. 
 Russell, Sligo, Amberly, and Airly, — four had been 
 to America and were so delighted at their reception! 
 They had beautiful little vases of glass with ice at 
 each plate, and quite a French dinner — no roasts 
 or joints, I fancy — all brought to you, and conversa- 
 tion very lively. (All houses have a new kind of 
 knife and fork for fish now.) Only a short time 
 over our wine, and the dinner between eight and ten. 
 There was the utmost courtesy. All waited for me 
 in going to the drawing-room, and all the family 
 had read enough of my book to be able to talk of it; 
 and the ladies exceedingly pleasant and considerate. 
 All left at eleven for Academy of Arts. (You will 
 believe me when I say that no dinners in London 
 surpass yours in true grace and liveliness.) Our 
 most interesting dinner was at Mr. Forster's, Minis- 
 ter of Education ; a self-made man, energetic, not 
 elegant, strong-willed (like an American), he has 
 cut his way to a place hardly inferior to Gladstone's. 
 He picked me up seven years ago, because his wife 
 (Dr. Arnold's daughter) read my books. Very 
 kindly, he had asked Tom Hughes, Lefevre, and 
 Mundella to meet us. 'Twas a glorious dinner, 
 full of talk, though L. had the best end (Mundella 
 couldn't come). Lefevre was at our house once 
 in Hastinofs. He left at nine for fear of a vote in 
 the House, and they at ten, and I saw Forster headed 
 a debate till two o'clock. This night-work uses 
 them all up fearfully. They were deeply interested
 
 ^T. 46] VISITING DARWIN 319 
 
 about Greeley and Grant. Forster was so relieved 
 at finishing the ballot business; he says he enjoys 
 being cross-questioned in the House. They all say 
 the Avoman-question is much behindhand this year, 
 as with us. Mrs. Forster is a very superior person. 
 Among other pleasant places, a dinner at Dean of St. 
 Paul's and at Mr. Russell Guerney's, and a very 
 pleasant dinner at home, with " Spectator " men and 
 Mrs. Dr. Garrett Anderson, etc., etc. But public 
 life now is utterly uninteresting here to a stranger; 
 no great question up. Then lots of galleries and 
 pictures, and the congress. Weather very hot. . . . 
 There is something sad in thinking of these two 
 (Lady and Sir C. Lyell) finishing their long journey 
 together. "He has grown old in the respect of 
 mankind," Zincke says. Thursday we go to Leam- 
 ington and Stratford for a visit, and then I go to the 
 Continent and L. to Ireland, after some visiting. 
 
 Mr. Brace brought a letter of introduction to 
 Charles Darwin from Dr. Gray, and as a result he 
 and Mrs. Brace were asked to dine and pass the 
 night at Down. The experience was one of the 
 most delightful of the summer, and Mr. Brace writes 
 of it as follows : — 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 Down, Bromley, Kent, July 12, 1872. 
 My dear J — ; I am at Mr. Darwin's with Mrs. 
 Brace for the night. It is a country to delight R.'s 
 heart. Green, thick hedges, narrow, shaded lanes,
 
 320 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 glimpses of parks and oak-openings, old mossy vil- 
 lages, quaint churches, pretty spires rising over the 
 tree-tops, birds singing (the lark rose just now, 
 singing), the air full of fragrance, all quiet and re- 
 pose. The house an old one, added to and covered 
 with lime, green all around, a trim garden with 
 bright flowers, a lawn, and a long green meadow 
 with trees, and a kitchen-garden full of fruit and 
 vegetables, and the flower-houses where Mr. D. has 
 made his experiments. In driving here this after- 
 noon, we passed through a lane over a mile long, 
 with hedges higher than a man, and the banks cov- 
 ered with scarlet poppy, and so narrow that two 
 wagons could hardly pass one another, and all arched 
 with trees. It passed through the estate of Sir John 
 Lubbock, who is a neighbor of Darwin's. As we 
 came in, Darwin himself was standing in his draw- 
 ing-room and met us most cordially, taking both my 
 hands. Mrs. D., too, most kind and hearty. I had 
 a little stroll in the garden before we dressed for 
 dinner. He has there a (CaL) Sequoia thirty feet 
 high, I think some twenty years old, though none 
 remembers exactly the date of its planting. (Figs 
 grow nicely in his garden.) We calculated that 
 this tree will get its growth when England is a re- 
 public ! 
 
 Darwin was as simple and jovial as a boy, at din- 
 ner, sitting up on a cushion in a high chair, very 
 erect, to guard his weakness. Among other things, 
 he said "his rule in governing his children was to 
 give them lump-sugar! " He rallied us on our vig- 
 orous movements, and professed to be dazzled at the 
 rapidity of our operations. He says he never moves,
 
 JEt. 46] DARWIN AT HOME 321 
 
 and though he can only work an hour or two every 
 day, b}^ always doing that, and having no break, he 
 accomplishes what he does. He left us for half an 
 hour after dinner for rest, and then returned to his 
 throne in the parlor. 
 
 We had a lively talk on the instincts of dogs 
 (several persons being there) and on "cross-breed- 
 ing," and he became animated explaining his experi- 
 ments in regard to it. . . . I was telling him that 
 the California primitive skulls were of a remarkably 
 good type. He gave one of his lighting-up smiles, 
 which seemed to come way out from under his 
 shaggy eyebrows. "Yes," he said; "it is very un- 
 pleasant of these facts; they won't fit in as they 
 ought to!" . . . He told us, with such glee, of a 
 letter he had just got from a clergyman, saying that 
 "he was delighted to see, from a recent photograph, 
 that no man in England was more like the monkey 
 he came from!" and of another from an American 
 clergyman ( ?) beginning with, " You d d scoun- 
 drel!" and sprinkled with oaths and texts. . . . 
 These things amuse hira; but not a word did he say 
 of his own success or fame. He breakfasts at half 
 past seven, but sat by us later, as we ate, and joked 
 and cut for us, and was as kind as could be. I 
 never met a more simple, happy man, — as merry and 
 keen as Dr. Gray, whom he loves much. Both he 
 and Lyell think Dr. G. the soundest scientific brain 
 in America. ... " How unequally is vitality dis- 
 tributed," he said, as he heard what we did every 
 day. . . . His parting was as of an old and dear 
 friend. I hope this picture of the best brain in 
 Europe will not weary you.
 
 322 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 Mr. Brace, on his return to London, sent to Mr. 
 Darwin "The Dangerous Classes of New York," and 
 received in acknowledgment the following letter : — 
 
 From Charles Darwin. 
 
 Down, Beckenham, Kent, July 20, 1872. 
 
 My dear Mr. Brace : I am much obliged for your 
 extremely kind note. I cannot speak positively 
 about the Sequoia, but my impression is that Heer 
 found it in the lignite beds of Devonshire. 
 
 Since you were here, my wife has read aloud to 
 me more than half of your work, and it has inter- 
 ested us both in the highest degree, and we shall 
 read every word of the remainder. The facts seem 
 to me very well told, and the inferences very strik- 
 ing. But after all, this is but a weak part of the 
 impression left on our minds by what we have read; 
 for we are both filled with earnest admiration at the 
 heroic labors of yourself and others. With hearty 
 respects, and our very kind remembrances to Mrs. 
 Brace, etc. 
 
 At the close of the congress Mr. Brace started 
 for Hungary, and after a day or two in Germany, 
 reached Buda-Pesth. It was somewhat deserted, in 
 the intensely hot weather, by the old friends he hoped 
 to see ; but everywhere he made new friends, in one 
 case getting into conversation with a Hungarian 
 who was especially interested in America, and 
 talking steadily for three hours, at the end of which
 
 ^T. 46] IN HUNGARY ONCE MORE 323 
 
 time his neAV acquaintance insisted upon his visit- 
 ing him! Under date of August 3d, he writes to 
 his father from Debreczin : — 
 
 " Here I am in the heart of Hungary again ! I 
 wish you could have seen the old bishop kiss me 
 when he saw me again. I am staying at my old 
 friend the doctor's house. All tlie houses are one 
 story. There is an elegant parlor here with two beds 
 in it. I sleep in one, and the doctor sleeps in his 
 library. He has a handsome brougham, two Indian 
 buffalo-cows, three white cows with horns three feet 
 long, two wild birds like turkeys tamed, and a gar- 
 den just like an American. The streets are full of 
 men in night-gowns, top-boots, and feathered hats, 
 and with a thousand women selling everything in 
 the street. There goes a man in a night-gown, with 
 two enormous loaves of bread hanging over his 
 shoulder before and behind, three feet broad. The 
 water- vases are just like old Roman ; heaps of melons, 
 tomatoes, corn — all like ours — are in the street; 
 oats, baskets, clothes, everything for sale. My 
 friends are so kind! Last night we had such Tokay 
 wine! It is fearfully hot, from 90° to 100°. To- 
 morrow I shall visit my old prison in Gros Wardein 
 and be with my prison-comrade, a Hungarian preacher. 
 Then for Transylvania! The peasants drive seven 
 horses with basket-wagons, four abreast and three. 
 They wear blankets, like Indians, and are as brown, 
 but with great moustaches and shaven face." 
 
 And from Gros Wardein the next day : —
 
 324 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 "My old prison comrade met me at the station 
 with a carriage. He kissed me on both cheeks. He 
 has kept my knife and fork (brought from America) 
 as a memorial. We had a grand Radical Kossuth 
 supper last night. An editor met me on the cars 
 who says the papers have long articles about me and 
 my former imprisonment." 
 
 At Gros Wardein he went to the prison (no 
 longer a prison, but a factory), and looked out of the 
 window of the old cell, " where I had watched the 
 distant hills with such intense longings for liberty, 
 and faint hopes of ever obtaining it." He travelled 
 on eastwards across the prairie, which he describes 
 as follows in a letter to the " Christian Union : " — 
 
 "The Puszta quivered with heat as we passed, 
 and great sparkling lakes with cool water in the dis- 
 tance seemed to invite us to a pleasant contrast, 
 until they suddenly changed to endless Indian corn- 
 fields, broken now and then by the green islands of 
 the prairie where the church-tower and the trees 
 showed a village hidden beneath. Under the blaz- 
 ing sun, the Bauers, with broad-brimmed black hat 
 and linen toga, worked patiently at the corn, or, with 
 sheep-skin over one shoulder, lazily watched the 
 long-horned white cattle or the sheep. Evidently 
 no fear of sun-stroke troubled them. On both sides 
 stretched the boundless fields of Indian corn, and 
 the prairie had not even the wave-like roll of our 
 Western prairie. It was a sea of green without a 
 wave."
 
 ^T. 46] IN TRANSYLVANIA 325 
 
 The last, best visit of all, far off in Transylvania, 
 was the climax to a most happy month. Although 
 we have but one private letter about the beautiful 
 Castle Vdcs and its inmates, the following letter to 
 the "Christian Union," to which he contributed 
 throughout his journey, tells so fully and frankly of 
 his experiences and impressions, that it might easily 
 pass for a friendly letter : — 
 
 "What I have always considered as the highest 
 proof of our American civilization — the sharing of 
 women in the best interests of man — seems as true 
 of society here as in the United States. Let me 
 give an instance. I was residing lately in a most 
 romantic old castle, half a ruin, with a young baron 
 and baroness descended directly from the ancient 
 kings of Transylvania. The scene Avas one -of mid- 
 dle age romance and exquisite beauty, so striking 
 that I fear to reproduce it lest I should identify my 
 kind hosts. The drawing-room seemed like a fies- 
 coed dungeon. The lady spoke German and French 
 perfectly. Our conversation had been in German. 
 I had been endeavoring to explain an American 
 problem in political economy, that is, the effect of 
 high duties on avooI in injuring both the wool- 
 growers and the manufacturers. I was not satisfied 
 to unfold such subtle matters in German, and know- 
 ing that this lady understood English, I gave it to 
 her in English, when she immediately rendered it 
 again in German to her husband, not only gathering 
 the points, but being able to set it forth in two
 
 326 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 foreign languages. This is certainly culture. The 
 talk in the medieeval castle was precisely what it is 
 on the piazza of a Hudson villa or around a West- 
 end dinner in London." 
 
 The following letters farther describe this delight- 
 ful Hungarian experience : — 
 
 To his Wife, after leaving Vies. 
 
 Aug. 23, 1872. 
 
 Dearest Wife : The baroness is lovely, and like a 
 relative. I learn a great deal, too, of interior Hun- 
 garian life and schools and agriculture, etc. We 
 took our last walks through the lovely wood and 
 park, and watched the Maros winding like a blue 
 ribbon through the green valley, and the shadows on 
 "God's seat" and the high mountains, and discussed 
 everything, and our last dinner and coffee, all look- 
 ing sad, and I took my final view from the beauti- 
 ful "bastion," and the baroness came down to the 
 door, and said, with tears in her eyes, "I fear to see 
 you not for so many years ! " and the nephew kissed 
 my hand and I the baroness's and I said, "God bless 
 you ! " — " Isten alcljon mek ! " — and we got into the 
 carriage in a fearful storm, the Wallachs ringing the 
 church-bell to keep off the rain, and bid farewell to 
 such friends as one does not often meet. The baron 
 accompanies me thirty miles (three and a half hours) 
 in the storm, sees to my luggage and all, and must 
 spend the night in the town. Is not that hospital- 
 ity? I really felt quite like being out in the world
 
 ^T. 46] INTERVIEW WITH DEAR 327 
 
 again, such a friendship had we struck up. So 
 much for the sudden friendship of ten years ago! I 
 am so glad I went there. It was well in all points. 
 
 To Miss Cr. Schuyler. 
 
 Pesth, Sept. 1, 1872. 
 Mt/ dear Miss G — ; . . . Yesterday I had two 
 brief interviews with "the old gentleman," as they 
 call him — Deak, the true governor of Hungary. 
 He lives in two simple rooms in a hotel, a stout, 
 florid old gentleman, without gray hair, but sixty- 
 nine years old, he said; evidently not strong now, 
 asthmatic, his voice weak. A man of solid, pene- 
 trating sense — not an orator. He said he "hoped 
 to have strength to tighten a few screws and loosen 
 a few others." He is the author of "Dualism," 
 which has made Hungary what it is. Without a 
 title or an honor he governs Hungary. ... I met 
 a young member of Parliament on the train, who 
 took me to his heart and home, wanted me to stay a 
 week, drove me all over the country, stuffed my 
 valise with wine, came down with a beautiful wife 
 five miles through the mud to see me off, and kissed 
 me at parting! Tell your father he would envy me 
 the old Tokays and what not I have consumed here. 
 I shall decline all good dinners for the next six 
 months. The Hungarian papers are quoting my 
 remarks on their affairs. The one I enclose you will 
 see is characterized by much point and wit.^ 
 
 1 A cutting from a newspaper in the Hungarian language.
 
 328 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 Before October, 1872, Mr. Brace is at his post 
 again, reviewing in his twentieth annual report the 
 change since the day twenty years before when the 
 society began its work, and the whole force con- 
 sisted, of himself and an office-boy, while the work 
 of addressing circulars was shared by the trustees, 
 who met together in the evening for the purpose. 
 Now, he says, there are seventy-two teachers em- 
 ployed, and the society reaches nine thousand poor 
 children in the twenty-one industrial schools and 
 fifteen night schools, and about twelve thousand 
 homeless boys and girls in the five lodging-houses; 
 and, in addition, provides with homes some three 
 thousand children more ! Of these teachers he says : 
 
 " Too much can hardly be said in praise of [their] 
 patient and self-denying efforts. Year after year 
 they labor on, their work seldom known or appre- 
 ciated by the outside world, humbly and faithfully 
 seeking to elevate these wretched little ones, and to 
 implant higher principles and purer ideas in their 
 young minds. Each day, with few to approve or 
 help, the teacher is waging this quiet warfare with 
 idleness, selfishness, and degradation. She seeks to 
 replace selfishness by love, and her hold upon the 
 affections of these little creatures is strengthened by 
 her devoted efforts out of school hours as well as in, 
 for sh& visits the homes of the wretched parents, 
 moving amid suffering and poverty which she is 
 often powerless to aid except through her sympathy. "
 
 ^T.46] LOSS OF HIS FATHER 329 
 
 As Mr. Brace tells, in 1872, of the work of emi- 
 gration, he dwells with strong feeling on the mean- 
 ing of the simple statement that three thousand chil- 
 dren have been placed in homes. He speaks of the 
 weary and discouraging histories of poverty of which 
 he learns as he gathers together these little ones 
 to remove them from New York, of the homelessness 
 and hunger and incessant temptations from which 
 the children are rescued, and then puts before us a 
 picture of the opportunities, the new hopes, new 
 habits, new modes of life in the wide West, and em- 
 phasizes the whole with a story told by an agent, of 
 the little child snatched five years before from want, 
 misery, and sin, and placed in a happy, comfortable 
 home. When the woman who has been the adopted 
 mother to the boy, learns that this is an agent of the 
 society that gave her her little charge, " you see the 
 woman's heart rush up in her face until, from very 
 pity, you exclaim at once, 'I have not come to take 
 him away! ' " 
 
 At the end of October the great sorrow came to 
 him of losing his father. Mr. J. P. Brace had been 
 failing for some years, having been a great sufferer 
 from rheumatism, and had grown so feeble that his 
 life was passed in a wheeled chair in his Litchfield 
 home. He lived almost entirely in his library, where 
 a large accumulation of scientific and theological
 
 330 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1872 
 
 books, as well as many volumes of poetry, made his 
 days pass not unhappily. " The exquisite feeling 
 for nature which had characterized him throughout 
 his life was preserved to the last, "says a friend; and 
 the same friend continues, "birds and flowers were 
 his only pleasure almost in his dying moments, and 
 the last names he forgot were the botanical. Even 
 historical dates were remembered by him when many 
 a personal event had passed from his memory." 
 
 The next letters tell us something of the charac- 
 ter of him for whom so many were mourning, and 
 show us, in some slight degree, how original a char- 
 acter it was. 
 
 To F. L. Kingsbury. 
 
 FiSHKiLL, Sunday, Nov. 3, 1872. 
 
 My dear Fred: Since I last wrote, my dear old 
 father has passed away, and owing to the delaj^ in 
 the telegram, to my intense disappointment, I did 
 not reach him alive. No father ever did more for 
 his son. He was a man of vast acquirements, and 
 he sacrificed everything for his children. I will 
 send you some notices of him if you have not read 
 any. I was left sole executor of his estate (some 
 seventy thousand dollars), and have settled it all in 
 ten days. Every time I left him I expected his 
 departure. He has left a sweet and noble memory, 
 and I only pray I may do one-tenth as much for my 
 children.
 
 iEx. 46] LETTER FROM MRS. GRAY. 331 
 
 From Mrs. Asa Crray. 
 
 Cambridge, Oct. 12, 1872. 
 
 . . . And to you ! It comes such a solemn charge 
 when one takes the place of the oldest generation! 
 Those before us are gradually dropping away, and 
 we are getting on to the old people. 
 
 It has brought back so many memories of past 
 days, of your father in his activity and energy, his 
 originality and immense variety of information and 
 versatility, and his merry laugh and fun. His ab- 
 surd way of looking at what are generally only 
 bemoaned, — the toothache, or getting his pocket 
 picked ! How pleasant those young days were ! He 
 has left his mark, for his influence must have been 
 very great on those he taught, he was so suggestive 
 always in conversation. I remember in my annual 
 journey to Litchfield in old days, when he was living 
 alone in Hartford, the climbs up into his den, where 
 I used to spend the hours between the trains ; and 
 then his long visit here helping Dr. Gray over plants. 
 
 And how pleasant to think of the comfort of late 
 years from dear Aunt Mary's bequests. She did so 
 much good in her life, and left so much comfort 
 behind her! How many memories about that dear 
 old house! Do give my love to all the sad circle 
 gathered there, and my warm sympathy in their joy 
 and in their sorrow, — joy for him, sorrow for them- 
 selves. 
 
 The death of John Stuart INIill in the spring of 
 1873 was a personal sorrow to Mr. Brace, as well as
 
 332 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1873 
 
 a loss to the scientific world. He says, in writing 
 to a friend, " We all feel poorer in the death of Mill. 
 What a charming memory he leaves with us all who 
 knew him, and what a grand life to the world." 
 
 To the "Christian Union," under date of May 31, 
 1873, he writes : — 
 
 " In the death of John Stuart Mill the whole intel- 
 lectual world will feel poorer. . . . Except Darwin, 
 no philosopher has left a deeper impression on the 
 thought of his age. The Utilitarian school, of which 
 he was one of the teachers, we trust is to have but a 
 passing influence. But Mr. Mill himself, in his per- 
 sonal character and his political writings, belongs to 
 that higher school of intuitional moralists, who, in 
 all ages, have shown the utmost attainments of the 
 human soul, in utter and unselfish devotion to the 
 principles of truth and justice and humanity. 
 
 "• It has been the good fortune of the writer to know 
 Mr. Mill personally, and to have corresponded with 
 him during a number of 3-ears. Before meeting 
 him I had expected to find a clear, acute, logical, 
 but somewhat dry philosopher, one who would meas- 
 ure everything, even in social intercourse, by the 
 standard of the intellect, and by the strictest logical 
 rule. To my surprise, I found a gentleman, in 
 manner like an old French count, full of courtesy, 
 kindness, and small attentions, graceful and almost 
 affectionate in his ways, his face beaming with sen- 
 timent, and his e3'es lighting up when any heroic or 
 chivalric feeling was called forth. From conversing
 
 JEt. 46] JOHN STUART MILL 333 
 
 with him, one would say his prominent characteris- 
 tic was feeling and sympathy with all the nobler side 
 of human nature. I saw him first just after the close 
 of the War of the Rebellion. He asked, with a 
 peculiar interest, about John Brown, and I remem- 
 ber his eyes filled with tears as he spoke of the 
 wonderful heroism of his effort, and said, ' If he is 
 looking down now from the other world, how it 
 must gladden him to see such a result of his death! ' 
 It was a remarkable characteristic of Mr. Mill that in 
 the darkest days of our Civil War, when most, even 
 among our friends, despaired of our final success, he 
 never doubted. He always wrote to me and other 
 correspondents as if final victory was sure as the 
 return of the seasons. . . . Unfortunately, most of 
 his letters during the past few years I have given 
 away to autograph-hunters. But one, which was 
 written just after the close of the Civil War, was 
 so felicitous in its expression, and so characteristic, 
 that I copied a passage and preserved it. On reach- 
 ing England, I had written to him how disgusted I 
 was at the sudden conversion of many Englishmen 
 to the side of the North after the defeat of General 
 Lee. He replied: 'Your remark is most just on the 
 unworthiness of the conversions due only to suc- 
 cess. Such conversions merely show the fundamen- 
 tal unworthiness of the original error. The disgust 
 they occasion is one of the causes which make those 
 who have fought an up-hill battle up to the hour of 
 victory eager to go forward to something else, in 
 which they will still have the low-minded and self- 
 ish part of mankind against them.' . . . Mr. Mill 
 no doubt died as he had lived, a consistent ' Mod-
 
 334 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1873 
 
 ern Stoic' His favorite reading was Marcus Aiue- 
 lius, and he has left to the world the memory of 
 the highest Stoical life, of utter devotion to truth, 
 justice, and humanity; but alas! in all probability, 
 without the conscious inspiration of Christianity, 
 and without a hope of personal immortality. To 
 such a soul one cannot doubt that the myster}- of 
 Eternity will unfold grander truths and more inspir- 
 ing hopes than he ever dared to entertain on earth; 
 and that pure and noble heart, freed from the decep- 
 tion of time and sense, will bow to Christ as one 
 worthy of all its homage, and with a devotion whose 
 only regret can be that it was given too late." 
 
 Of his friendly letters of this winter we have only 
 the following : — 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 New York, Sept. 24, 1873, 
 My dear M— : How much I wish you could be 
 with us this glorious season and see the wonderful 
 beauties of the Hudson. We both want to know if 
 you could not visit us during October. I found, as 
 you did, Arnold deeply interesting, though at bot- 
 tom lies a deep scepticism which must land him in 
 positivism. But the book is edifying, because so 
 honest. I agree with you about "Israel." The 
 more rationalistic I become about the Old Testa- 
 ment, the more admiration I have for the religious 
 sense, and reverence for the inspiration of those poets 
 and patriarchs. The Bible becomes more and more
 
 ^T. 47] THE "SOUP-KITCHEN" MOVEMENT 335 
 
 valuable to me. But, of all tilings, it seems to me 
 the Jewish patriarchs were filled with a sense of 
 a person — not a power or current — making for 
 righteousness, and whoever excludes personality 
 (in whatever sense) becomes a Positivist, and has 
 above and around him only a drift of things, a nec- 
 essary development, perhaps, but not a God. . . . 
 If you could see the Palisades now! 
 
 Early in the year of 1874 Mr. Brace suffered from 
 an experience which was for a short time a bitter 
 strain upon him. He became suddenly the object 
 of violent abuse from one of the New York papers. 
 The trouble arose from Mr. Brace's objection to 
 "soup-kitchens," which he expressed openly in 
 letters to the "Times," his medium of putting 
 his views before the public on every subject of 
 public interest. In a letter to Mr. Howard Potter 
 he explains his opposition thus : — 
 
 "The greatest evil with which the Children's Aid 
 Society deals, is not poverty, but pauperism, and 
 we struggle against it everywhere. The fear I have 
 had this winter has been, most of all, that a new 
 pauper class would be formed. So in the beginning 
 of the ' soup-kitchen ' movement I wrote against it 
 (just as I did in 1857) in order to prevent in- 
 judicious modes of charity, Avhich produce pauper- 
 ism. Just as a bank president should speak on 
 methods of finance, so should the secretary of the 
 Children's Aid Society on methods of charity. . . .
 
 336 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1874 
 
 Must not 'good be evil-spoken of ' if the truth hap- 
 pens to go against the present impulse, and will not 
 the true methods of charity be learned by just such 
 abuse of the ignorant? ... I watch the 'soup- 
 kitchens ' and they all confirm my views." 
 
 How he bore the persecution is best told in the 
 words of Mr. Potter, who wrote the memorial of 
 him printed in the report the winter after his 
 death : — 
 
 "... But nobody who did not stand beside him 
 then can well realize how bitter and unscrupulous 
 were the imputations to which he was subjected. 
 For one whole winter one of the most influential 
 daily papers of New York teemed with abuse of the 
 Children's Aid Society and of Mr. Brace personally. 
 . . . He not only endured in silence all the abuse 
 to which he was exposed, but it seemed to leave not 
 the least shadow of rancor in his feelings towards 
 those who were opposed to him, and who were daily 
 showering abuse upon him. His, indeed, was the 
 charity that could suffer long and be kind; that 
 was not easily provoked nor willing to think evil, 
 but, rejoicing in the truth, was ready to bear all 
 adverse things with never-failing faith and hope, 
 and to 'endure as seeing Him who is invisible.' " 
 
 It was a source of deep satisfaction to the many 
 friends of the society that nothing was lost to it by 
 this attempt to vilify its secretary, and helpers and
 
 2Et. 48] THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE 337 
 
 contributors were only the more active. The open- 
 ing, at this time, of the great Newsboys' Lodging- 
 House, so long labored for, was the occasion of an 
 ovation to Mr. Brace, his friends from the country as 
 well as town coming to swell the meeting. 
 
 Sympathy from many sources was not lacking, and 
 we insert here a letter from one who, for more than 
 thirty years, never stinted his loving words of en- 
 couragement : — 
 
 "I thank you heartily for your birthday note," 
 Mr. Howard Potter writes on June 19, 1874, "and 
 wish you many happy returns of this day, which I 
 am sure you will never have cause to regret, and 
 which thousands may, and do, bless. You do well to 
 be grateful that God has given it to you to live the 
 life you have — in every aspect of it one for which 
 the world also may be grateful. It is not given to 
 many to be a pioneer in such a march as you are 
 leading, and if now and then the way is rough and 
 thorny and noisome, it is part of the honor of the 
 position that it should be so. After all, too, it is 
 only for a little while, and then will come — who 
 can say what of rest and peace and high enjoyment? 
 'It hath not entered into the heart of man to con- 
 ceive what God hath prepared.' . . . Yoii will 
 never know, let me say in return, what a help you 
 are, spiritually, to other men, with some of whom 
 you never come in personal contact at all, or but 
 very rarely. But — 'to God only thanks.' ..." 
 
 On June 28, 1874, he writes to Miss G. Schuyler: —
 
 338 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1874 
 
 "... We have had a season of glorious beauty. 
 Tlie river to-day has a glory about it that you know 
 well; breezy leafage and long perspectives, green 
 everywhere, and the white sails gleaming over the 
 water. To-day is almost the first hot day. We had 
 a grand celebration of the birthday (19th) in a 
 picnic. . . . How very earnest life seems as we get 
 nearer the sunset. How we peer into the misty sea, 
 and how we want to do the work before the night 
 cometh. My life has been exceptionally happy, 
 especially in my profession and home enjoyments. 
 By the way, that ' storm of scandal ' seems not to 
 have strained our craft the least. The public trust 
 us as much as ever. . . . Our ' summer retreat for 
 poor children ' is bountifully supported. . . . What 
 would you think of a ' children's summer hospital? ' " 
 
 Mr. Brace's reference to the summer retreat for 
 poor children relates to a house opened during 
 this summer for the purpose of giving the chil- 
 dren of the Children's Aid Society's schools a 
 taste of country life. Previous to this, there had 
 been a sort of desultory attempt made by the society 
 and also by the "New York Times," to give the 
 children some experience of the country, but as this 
 meant only a picnic or river excursion, the trip, 
 delightful as it was, did not affect the health of the 
 children. The plan, made practicable through the 
 co-operation of a kind friend of the society who 
 rented a villa on Staten Island for the purpose, was
 
 ^T. 48] THE SUMMER HOME 339 
 
 to give for a week the benefit of sea air, fresh milk, 
 and good fare to the little children of the tenement 
 districts. This first experiment proved so success- 
 ful that the next year a house was permanently- 
 rented, and the children's summer home at Bath 
 Beach became a regular institution, carrying on its 
 sweet and healthful influences every summer. Mr. 
 Brace was never happier than at this lovely spot, 
 where he sat in the summer twilight on the veranda, 
 looking out over the beautiful lower bay, and heard 
 the children sing their hymns before they marched 
 in single file to their little white beds. He tells 
 us what a delight the sea-bathing was to them, and 
 above all the sight of the "sounding sea." It was 
 noticed, he says, that all were suddenly silent and 
 almost reverent at the first view of the great ocean. 
 
 In his private reading, the study of Mill's phi- 
 losophy continued to absorb many of Mr. Brace's 
 leisure hours, as the two letters following, which 
 close the year of 1874, reveal. 
 
 To Dr. Howard.^ 
 
 Hastings, Nov. 6, 1874. 
 My dear George ; . . . I enclose a scrap of Mill's 
 new book. Since that I have seen another express- 
 
 1 Dr. G. A. Howard, a theological fellow-student in New Haven 
 and life-long friend of Mr. Brace.
 
 340 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1874 
 
 ing the highest appreciation of the character of 
 Christ. I have never been able to understand why 
 the philosophical sceptics should not admire and 
 extol Christ to the highest, even supposing Him only 
 a sublime mystic and wonderful Reformer. Mill 
 says that philosophy could not render the abstract 
 law of virtue into the concrete better than by saying, 
 Live after Christ ! That idea of a God who is be- 
 nevolent but not omnipotent is ingenious and has 
 much to be said for it — except that then there might 
 be a more powerful spirit — or certainly more power- 
 ful forces. We can only say we are lost in the infi- 
 nite, and see enough to guide faith, but not enough 
 for absolute science. In a garment covering eternal 
 time, we see only two or three threads of one portion 
 of a figure or plan. It is certainly possible to con- 
 ceive a better world even with a free agency; but 
 give us immortality, and the worst evils may be 
 explained, or at least compensated for. ... I am 
 in splendid trim for working. We have our annual 
 meeting soon. A great year's work. 
 
 From Dr. Asa Gray. 
 
 Cambkidge, Dec. 16, 1874. 
 Dear Brace: Thanks for "Times." Your article 
 is excellent, and you well know I am not apt to over- 
 praise. It is a good turning of Mill's position, and 
 a showing that Darwinism reconciles many things 
 in nature to Theism better than more orthodox con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 But the deep difficulties, Mill would say, are only
 
 Mt.48-] the existence OF EVIL 341 
 
 shifted. What troubles him is the existence and 
 allowance of evil, and that is, as yet, insoluble. 
 Mill sa3^s it argues a God whose benevolence or 
 whose power is limited. You imply that it is in- 
 cidental to a system, which is as good, on the whole, 
 as can be under the system, — or as could be under 
 any sj-stem 3'ou can think of, in the long run, — but 
 which requires an immensely long run to manifest 
 itself. 
 
 Do you not imply the limitation which Mill 
 asserts? And how about . . . and [being] shaken 
 into dreamy unconsciousness (like Livingstone under 
 the lion) ? Your surviving friends might praise the 
 benevolence of the arrangement. Would it not be 
 natural for Mill to say that the absence of any con- 
 trivance for avoiding the torture was an argument 
 for the absence of benevolence ? Would you satisfy 
 him by rejoining that such painful sights stimulated 
 the survivors to greater caution or activity or skill, 
 and so educated the race, so that some future gen- 
 eration were merely less likely to suffer in that way ?
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Mr. Brace's New House — Life in the Woods — Charges against 
 Children's Aid Society — Miscellaneous Letters — To a Young 
 Man on Faith — On the Strikes — Study and Work — Free 
 Trade — Miscellaneous Letters — Correspondence about his com- 
 ing Book — Death of his Brother — Trip Abroad — Society De- 
 tails — Death of Mr. Macy 
 
 Mr. Brace had been, throughout the preceding 
 autumn, exploring the hills about Hastings and 
 northwards, with reference to a proposed site for a 
 house, and in January, 1875, wrote: "... We 
 have bought our site ! A most lovely spot of three 
 acres, with a superb view, at Dobbs Ferry, some 
 chestnut-trees, and everything nice around it. One 
 of the best sites on the river. Shall begin to build 
 in spring. Give us ideas and plans, etc., etc. We 
 are all ' house ' now." Mrs. Brace used to sa}^ that 
 never before had she been able to bring Mr. Brace 
 to talk of his own affairs. But the building fever 
 took possession of him now, and "talking house" 
 was his greatest delight. Building began in the 
 spring, and the family moved into their new home 
 at the end of the following winter. 
 
 The letters of this winter and spring are as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 342
 
 ^T. 48] LIFE AT HOME 343 
 
 To Miss Bora Neill. 
 
 Hastings, Jan. 17, 1875. 
 
 My dear Dora : I hope you never measure our 
 affection here by our correspondence. We all hold 
 you ever near the heart, and wish we could see more 
 of you. There are so many things I should like to 
 speak on with you. But letters are nothing. We 
 move steadily on in the old path, — a very sweet and 
 interesting one. The family growing up and becom- 
 ing more attractive and absorbing, the work increas- 
 ing and succeeding, knowledge and wisdom growing, 
 friendship warmer and more settled, nature more 
 beautiful, and the solemn view into the great unseen 
 becoming nearer and closer. Life settling itself 
 and gathering its garments for the grand departure, 
 friends slipping away into the unseen, old age com- 
 ing visibly on many, fires of youth cooling, and the 
 drift of the age towards doubt and denial more clear 
 and sometimes depressing, and yet hope, freshness, 
 and spring still. My work now begins to bring its 
 great reward. 
 
 Just now, in every-day life we are all absorbed in 
 house, and an awful puzzle it is; little money and 
 much taste, and not much talent to use. We have 
 a superb site, but cold. 
 
 To A. E. Barnes.^ 
 
 Hastings, May 16, 1875. 
 My dear Barnes : This is the first time I have felt 
 free from anxiety for six months. You see we are 
 
 1 Mr. A. H. Barnes of Philadelphia, a college friend of Mr. Brace.
 
 344 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1875 
 
 a very large affair, expending some two hundred 
 thousand dollars per annum, so that some one is 
 always after us. Just now it was the Roman Catho- 
 lics, who were trying to cut us off from the school 
 fund, and then it is the ultra-Protestants who are 
 opposed to all public grants, so that just one-half of 
 our income (one hundred thousand dollars) has been 
 in danger. Now all is right, and will continue so 
 till the legislature meets again. Then, during April, 
 I had feverish symptoms and was not well. My 
 house, too, is a problem. Estimates not all in, but I 
 fear they will come up to twelve thousand dollars. 
 We have already begun to plant trees. The site is 
 wonderful. My "elevation" is very pretty. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Hastings, July 25, 1875. 
 Dear Greorge: . . . Why not come to the Lake 
 where all is placid? I depart to the waters of peace 
 on Monday evening. ... I have looked out of my 
 new attic-windows — superb ! 
 
 No biography of him could be complete which 
 omitted to dwell with some emphasis uj)on the 
 inspiration he drew from these quiet scenes. It 
 was here that he found strength and peace for the 
 harrowing and absorbing duties in the busy world 
 in which he lived and worked. 
 
 After having explored thoroughly various parts of 
 the Adirondack region for many years, Mr. Brace
 
 ^T. 49] LIFE IN THE WOODS 345 
 
 settled, in 1870, at Lake Placid, and began then a 
 summer life continued for fifteen years, full of rest 
 and refreshment to him. A tent was pitched on an 
 island in the lake, and was occasionally the scene 
 of a supper-party around the camp-fire, or a gather- 
 ing-place for an afternoon of reading aloud, making 
 also a charming spot for the little Sunday religious 
 service which took the place of church in those early 
 days. A background of evergreens and forest trees ; 
 about the tent little aspens tliat, no matter how 
 motionless the air seemed, were always quivering and 
 dancing; above, the drifting mountain clouds; and 
 beyond, with the clear lake stretching to its foot, the 
 glory of the scene, Whiteface Mountain, — all this 
 was the "church," and here "Bushnell's Sermons," 
 "The Scotch Sermons," Martineau's prayers, or the 
 " Prayers of the Ages " were read by Mr. Brace 
 every fine Sunday morning, to his family and friends. 
 His days passed in much the same methodical 
 fashion as at home, — for such was his nature that 
 he preferred a habit in everything. The mornings 
 were sjDent in study and writing, the latter being 
 either on some private study or for the " New York 
 Times," to which he contributed in the summer as 
 well as in the winter. A swim in the clear lake 
 was his delight, after a morning of work, and then 
 the afternoons were given to rowing Mrs. Brace 
 around the enchanting shores, to the little spots
 
 346 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1875 
 
 he knew so well where the trout hid, and casting 
 his fly there. 
 
 Cloudy or showery weather did not keep them 
 away, and there, almost every day, they were to be 
 found, Mrs. Brace occasionally reading aloud some 
 quiet book, generally about nature ; although oftener 
 they dreamed the afternoon away in silence. Occa- 
 sionally a friend accompanied them on these little 
 expeditions, so precious to them both. No smiles of 
 children or friends, as he and Mrs. Brace returned 
 home at twilight, with sometimes a very small 
 string of very small trout, discouraged the devoted 
 fisherman, though he used to confess that watching 
 the shadows creeping over the hills as the afternoon 
 wore on, did add to the fisherman's pleasure! So 
 August slipped away, and the opening of the schools 
 of the Children's Aid Society called him back to 
 questions of organization and money to be found 
 and reports to be written. And yet "called him 
 back" is hardly the word; for his exuberant energy 
 could not have rested, even in that placid scene of 
 beauty, longer than the long summer days lasted. 
 Of his summer reading and writing, he says to 
 Dr. Howard : " . . .1 have done much writing and 
 studying ; a review of Renan for ' Times ' and for 
 ' Christian Union, ' and one of Dr. Gray for ' Times, ' 
 and editorials. We are greatly interested now in 
 Taine's 'Ancien Regime.' Do read it, and Gray's
 
 ^T. 49] NATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS 347 
 
 'Darwiniana. ' The Doctor has one of the clearest 
 brains, and shows the harmony of theism and Dar- 
 winism. Taine's picture is awful, though badly 
 drawn." 
 
 In the spring of 1876, a National Prison Congress 
 was held in New York, at which two or three 
 Western members asserted that the homeless chil- 
 dren sent out to the West by the Children's Aid 
 Society of New York, were "crowding the Western 
 prisons and reformatories." The society assured the 
 members of the congress that this information did 
 not correspond with their own, and that it must be 
 remembered tliat, in proportion to the vast number 
 sent out, a small percentage of failures might seem 
 formidable. One of the complaints — that the older 
 lads changed places often — was, unfortunately, 
 quite justified. It is an unavoidable result of a 
 prosperous condition of the laboring classes, Mr. 
 Brace says ; but much ingenuity was shown on the 
 part of the employers, in identifying the boys with 
 the life of the farm, and giving them a permanent 
 interest in it and the family, through small gifts, 
 such as a calf or pony or piece of land. But as to 
 charges of a more serious character, such as that the 
 boys were so bad as to be confined in the prisons, 
 etc., their complete refutation was a triumph for the 
 society. Immediately upon the adjournment of the
 
 348 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1876 
 
 congress, one of the experienced Western agents 
 was sent to thoroughly examine the prisons, houses 
 of refuge, and refoi^matories of the three States 
 especially indicated, — Michigan, Illinois, and Indi- 
 ana. It was then found that in Michigan and Illi- 
 nois, where ten thousand children had been sent, 
 not a single boy or girl from the society could be 
 found in all their prisons and reformatories! The 
 report from Indiana was almost as cheering. 
 
 Another source of anxiety to the society during 
 this and the preceding year, and the cause of almost 
 annual visits to Albany by Mr. Brace when the 
 legislature was in session, was a proposed amend- 
 ment to the constitution, cutting off from the 
 "school fund" all schools "not ivholly under the 
 control and supervision and in charge of the public 
 school authorities." But the amendment did not 
 pass, "perhaps from a conviction in the legislature 
 that these schools for the poor children were a 
 necessary part of the public school system." It was 
 a relief to the society when this anxiety was finally 
 removed in 1878, and the schools were then put more 
 thoroughly under the supervision of the Board of 
 Education, had annual careful examinations from as- 
 sistant superintendents, and conformed to their rules. 
 
 The new house at Dobbs Ferry was finished in 
 February, and in March the family moved into it.
 
 ^T. 50] NEW HOUSE AT DOBBS FERRY 349 
 
 The spring was very beautiful, and Mr. Brace kept 
 the house full of guests, delighting to receive his 
 friends under his own roof-tree. Miss Georgina 
 Schuyler had said in a letter of congratulation : " I 
 can fancy the coming and going, and the unfailing 
 hospitality and kindness, and the refreshment and 
 recreation given to man)'- weary souls who will find 
 their way to your home." And so it was. Among 
 his chosen guests through these years of abounding 
 health and vitality, were teachers from the schools 
 and his other friends among the employees of the 
 society. It was his habit to bring some one of them 
 home with him on an occasional Friday evening, 
 and the visit commonly included Saturday. For 
 the teachers it was a day of rest in the country, 
 cheered by the influence of his gentle and exhil- 
 arating companionship, and well calculated to 
 strengthen and renew the interest in their work; 
 and for him it was of real value to have this 
 opportunity to learn to know better his faithful 
 co-laborers. 
 
 The birthday season, always one of solemnity to 
 him, had come again, and he writes of it to a friend 
 as follows : — 
 
 DoBBS Ferrt, June 18, 1876. 
 My dear Friend : To-morrow is my birthday, and 
 I always think of you then, partl}^ because you have 
 about the same age, and more because I know you
 
 350 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1876 
 
 understand the religious thoughts of such times. 
 How near we seem now to the great Unknown, and 
 how glorious that life with God and Christ seems, 
 those unseen and unimaginable activities and expe- 
 riences in the spiritual life ! But the solemn thought 
 is that we have so few years now for Christ's service, 
 and the leaving the influence for humanity which 
 we so much desire. How earnest and busy should 
 the remaining days be, and how much higher ought 
 we to rise in the life with Christ on earth! Then 
 me an inexhaustible thirst for knowledge consumes, 
 and I regret so that time is so short, and my life 
 necessarily practical. In all effort for Christian life, 
 I am always so encouraged and strengthened by you, 
 and the thought of your unshaken faith and Christian 
 purpose, and how much you are doing and thinking 
 for all good things. Your faith should be a light to 
 us all. With both of us, I suppose our best channels 
 for public usefulness will be in the lines of our 
 Children's Aid Society, and that we must imj)rove 
 and more firmly found. You have been one of its 
 strongest pillars. Probably our deepest influence is 
 with our children, though we see little of it. But 
 how much deeper is the mother's ! . . . The years 
 now put us among the "old men," and yet the tides 
 of life are as fresh in our veins as fifteen years ago. 
 May the few coming years ripen into a rich harvest, 
 whatever Christ's spirit has planted in us. And 
 may they not lessen your friendship or weaken your 
 regard. 
 
 The death of Mrs. W., a friend very dear to him, 
 called forth the next letter below : —
 
 ^T. 50] LETTER ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND 351 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 Ches-kxoll, Dec. 10, 1876. 
 My dear Miss M — ; . . . A year ago, I should 
 have said her chances for life were as good as yours 
 or any one's. She had the most abounding vitality 
 and richness of life, with the temperament of a 
 genius, so that it seems utterly impossible she can 
 be dead. . . . The death leaves a fearful gap with 
 so many people, and especially with us. She brought 
 us the musical ideal and the freshness of young life, 
 and we gave her the sympathy of kindred. She so 
 thoroughly enjoyed our home and home life, and had 
 such rest here and deep content. ... It is very 
 hard to think it is all over. And yet how little one 
 does for one's friends! We ought to treat them as 
 if every visit were the last. It is difficult to always 
 keep this high standard. I feel a certain elation in 
 thinking of her higher life, though I have no doubt 
 she, like us all, must pass through discipline yet 
 before perfection. There is something sad, in one 
 aspect, in life's running on so indifferently while 
 such tragedies occur, — that we can eat and drink 
 and sleep as usual, and go about our business, while 
 our dear one's body lies under the winter's snow. 
 But friendship is in the heart, and what has been 
 done and felt, and the hopes. I pray continually 
 that I may meet her in the heavenly morning, and 
 I can fancy that she will convey to us there purer 
 harmonies than she ever did here, and we will give 
 her truer sympathies. For we who believe in Plato 
 believe that music is in the soul, not the pulsations
 
 352 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1877 
 
 of the air; and as she seemed here to lead our natures 
 into higher regions of the ideal, so, more, will she do 
 so there. How little a woman (who has not the cre- 
 ative faculty) seems to leave behind her, except on 
 her children or her friends. No influence is left 
 behind like that upon children. But she may be so 
 constituted or placed as to leave friends, to whom 
 her memory is a continual inspiration, and who will 
 themselves lie in the coffin before they forget her or 
 cease to be moved by her. " To live so that in ceasing 
 to live one does not cease to be loved," — that was 
 true of S. God bless her! 
 
 In the course of this summer he writes : " I have 
 answered, in French, a letter from Naples asking 
 how to found a newsbo3^s' lodging-house there. 
 And Mr. Macy has sent documents ! " 
 
 To a young man in difficulties about his religious 
 faith : — 
 
 Ches-knoll, March 10, 1877. 
 
 My dear ; . . . As a general thing, religion 
 
 comes home to a man just after escaping great temp- 
 tation, or in a deep trouble, or in some of the most 
 trying events of life. You see, it fits the wants of 
 his soul. It often answers his intuitions, and proves 
 itself to him. There are moments when a man feels 
 like one weak and ill in a canoe, going down a tre- 
 mendous rapid. He can only look above and trust. 
 The inevitable sorrows of life teach us much of God. 
 But I have also reached my position by reason. 
 Whatever the view of the universe, we must come
 
 ^T. 50] ARGUMENTS FOR RELIGIOUS FAITH 353 
 
 back to the ever-balancing probability of an Existence 
 originating it, corresponding to us in intelligence 
 and moral powers. What other faculties or powers 
 He may have we know not, but plainly this is a 
 moral system, where the tendency to selfishness is 
 also to unhappiness, and this could not come by 
 differentiation ; and we may reasonably conclude that 
 the author of this system has the same drift, or reason 
 from this to Him (or "It," if you choose). This is 
 fair and logical, — i.e. the tendencies of things teach 
 that selfishness brings unhaj)piness, therefore the law 
 of the moral universe is unselfishness or benevolence, 
 and the originator of it must be guided by the same 
 law. Now there comes also to many minds an intui- 
 tion of such an Existence, which strengthens the 
 inference, — that is, of a perfect moral being. But 
 here, to my mind, comes in an historical help. A 
 character appears in an obscure tribe, for whom is no 
 historical or philosophical development. He repre- 
 sents the highest moral ideas, to which all succeeding 
 ages have never reached ; he leads an ideally perfect 
 and pure life ; he claims to be the especial manifesta- 
 tion or organ of this unknown Author of the uni- 
 verse; he seems thoroughly honest and unselfish. 
 He may be mistaken and self-deceived, but there is 
 nothing to show this. All the best things in the 
 world since have come from him. His life and 
 death seem in harmony with that moral drift of the 
 universe I have spoken of. Therefore I am inclined 
 to believe him. And when he tells me of things I 
 could not know, but against which I know nothing, 
 like future life and judgment, I accept them. And 
 when I find that his commands (supposing we get 
 
 2a
 
 354 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1877 
 
 them correctly) are in harmony with, or beyond all 
 one knows of the moral principles of the universe, 
 I am the more ready to obey them. And obeying 
 ("becoming a Christian"), and finding myself hap- 
 pier than I ever could be otherwise, and that my drift 
 is to make others happier, I the more believe his 
 words, and in my first inference, and my intuition 
 of a perfect moral being. And you see this makes 
 a logical structure, but strengthened by experience 
 and by intuition ; and this, whatever your exact con- 
 ception of this extraordinary character be, whether 
 he be only a wise peasant, or a prophet, or a super- 
 human being, or a peculiar divine manifestation (as 
 I believe). Of course, the latter view is more in 
 harmony with my conclusions, and, as I think, with 
 facts. There is nothing, of course, in science or 
 philosophy to refute them. They are all merely 
 the result of a balance of probabilities. But then 
 experience and intuition confirm them. It would 
 be an immeasurable calamity for you to float off on 
 the stream of life without this rudder. "Do His 
 will, and you will know of the doctrine," is worth 
 trying. Belief will come with an unselfish and 
 devout life. As to your companions, remember that 
 they belong to the Come-outers. Others are different. 
 Still truth first; may God guide you into it! 
 
 The peaceful life at Lake Placid was "deeply 
 disturbed" for him, he says, by the strikes during 
 the summer of 1877. 
 
 "There is something always impressive," he 
 writes to Miss G. Schuyler, " in these blind, passion-
 
 ^T. 51] STRIKES AND PROFIT-SHARING 355 
 
 ate movements of the laboring classes for a larger 
 share of the goods of life. I am not afraid of the mob 
 or commune-spirit in this country. The one we can 
 put down, and the other our free land saves us from. 
 But strikes on this gigantic scale are a new develojD- 
 ment, and will be imitated all over the Avorld. 
 They ought not to occur here. They show that 
 high tariff legislation has attracted masses of work- 
 men to branches of production which have not paid 
 well. And they show fearful divisions between 
 capital and labor, very threatening to our future. 
 The only remedies are the formation of Courts of 
 Arbitration for strikes (as Mundella has established 
 in England), and an approach to 'co-operation,' and 
 the leaving capital more and more to 'natural laws.' 
 The gradual settlement of values is going to bring 
 about many such outbreaks. The great problem of 
 the future is the equal distribution of wealth, or of 
 the profits of labor (under the guidance of brains). 
 I believe myself that, in general, the laboring 
 classes do not receive their fair share. Strikes are 
 one of their means of getting more. ..." 
 
 We quote here a passage from a paper on "Profit- 
 sharing," written presumably at about this time : — 
 
 " If industrial society ever rises to the Christian 
 ideal, it will be under some form of co-operation 
 between labor and capital. . . . The great benefactor 
 of the laboring classes of America yet remains to 
 appear, who shall contrive a plan of organization in 
 manufacture, Avhereby the laborers shall have a pe- 
 cuniary interest in the profits of production beyond
 
 356 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1878 
 
 their wages, and shall thus do their work thoroughly 
 and contentedly, bearing the dull times with their 
 masters, and enjoying with them the prosperity of the 
 good times; having thus the virtues of both classes." 
 
 Another sorrow had overtaken him and a great 
 circle of friends, in the death of Mr. John E. 
 Williams, the devoted treasurer of the society. He 
 had for over twenty years shown the largest-hearted 
 sympathy for poor children, and served their inter- 
 ests faithfully, and Mr. Brace tells how touching 
 and characteristic it was that in his last moments 
 of consciousness he reverted with such pleasure to 
 the thought of these labors of love. He had hoped 
 to write one more report, which would have filled 
 out the twenty-five years of the life of the society. 
 " But it was not to be. He has reported to higher 
 authority, and received nobler gratulations than we 
 can offer." At Mr. Williams's wish, as well as at 
 the wish of the Board, Mr. George S. Coe was 
 appointed his successsor. The following letter, 
 besides its general interest, reveals Mr. Brace's 
 satisfaction at the condition of the Children's Aid 
 Society, at the close of twenty-five years : — 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Oct. 20, 1878. 
 Dear Greorge : The beautiful autumn is passing off 
 charmingly with us. We have a houseful. . . . My
 
 ^T. 52] DEAN STANLEY 867 
 
 work has opened with the usual interest, and we are 
 going to make a grand effort to rebuild the Rivington 
 Street Lodging-house. We finish our twenty-five 
 years with the Children's Aid Society on November 
 1st, — and I think will be out of debt! (In 1870 we 
 had a debt of ninety thousand dollars on the news- 
 boys' [lodging-house] !) I am deeply interested in 
 my study, it opens richer all the time. I have been 
 lately on the Anglo-Saxon Law, and the effect of 
 Chi-istianity thereon. How wide the gap between 
 Christ and the historical Church! 
 
 We had some charming times on the river with 
 Dean Stanley. He said to me many good things. 
 He doesn't like Gladstone (a pity !). " He is like the 
 god in the Greek fable who had two steeds to his 
 chariot, one beautiful, swift, and of the immortals, 
 and the other a common hack." We spoke of his 
 chapter on Socrates ; he said the Greek Kingdom, as 
 soon as it was organized, passed one of its first laws, 
 ordering the sentence on Socrates to be expunged 
 from the Statute Book! Bishop Thirlwall once gave 
 a dinner to some savants, and they expected a certain 
 German professor (Nordkommer) would be invited. 
 On being asked why he left him oiit, he said he 
 would not have a man under his roof who justified 
 the condemnation of Socrates! He says the only 
 record of Washington in the Abbey is on the monu- 
 ment to Andr(^ ! He himself restored the tablets to 
 Cromwell and his family, torn down under the Resto- 
 ration. He hates Mallock, and don't like the hits at 
 Jowett in the "New Republic."
 
 358 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1878 
 
 In the letter above, Mr. Brace speaks of the study 
 which has begun to absorb him. He had decided 
 to publish the result of his investigations on the 
 subject of the influence of Christianity on the 
 world's progress in morals, and was preparing for 
 a course of research to continue for some years. 
 His spare moments were eagerly seized, but his 
 only times for work were his Saturday mornings at 
 home, and an occasional quiet half hour in an alcove 
 of the Astor Library. In a letter written a year 
 or two later, while he was still using moments he 
 could snatch from business for this fascinating 
 study, he speaks of the power he has of turning 
 from one thing to another. This power was his to 
 an unusual degree. After a busy morning in his 
 office, with a hundred different distracting claims 
 on his attention and judgment, he was able to turn 
 the whole tenor of his thoughts, seek a quiet corner 
 in the Astor Library, gather about him books on 
 international law, chivalry, the duel, or on some 
 kindred subject, and the lines would gradually dis- 
 appear from his forehead, and the annoyances of life 
 be completely forgotten. 
 
 A visit to Cambridge during this winter gives 
 him opportunity to consulu Dr. Gray concerning the 
 chief objections which must be met in his book. 
 He writes of it thus to Dr. Howard : —
 
 Mt. 52] PREPARATIONS FOR NEW BOOK 359 
 
 " I have had much talk with Dr. Gray on my theme. 
 He put himself in the position of a sceptical objector, 
 which was just what I needed. He says the most 
 prevalent objection to be removed or met, is the belief 
 that our whole religious system of ideas (Christianity 
 and all) is only a mode of looking at the jihenomena 
 of the universe, and that all the hopes and faith are 
 only illusions of the race. Mine hardly touches 
 this, excejjt as furnishing one solid basis — the moral 
 power of Christianity, what it has done, and what 
 it is capable of doing, and that this power is not to 
 be explained from historical development, but is 
 an outcome of that wonderful Person. I tried to 
 present some of these arguments a priori, but the 
 doctor convinced me they would hardly hold water 
 so. I am still on the long study (on ' Wrecker's 
 Right' now)." 
 
 It was characteristic of Mr. Brace that, during 
 these years of his preparation for the book on the 
 influences of Christianity, he should have constantly 
 courted objections to his argument, — not with a 
 view to combating them, but from his habitual 
 desire to see both sides of every question. This 
 quality of intellectual sympathy with those who 
 differed with him, combined with certain deep-laid, 
 unwavering principles of his own, was, in large 
 part, the secret of his extraordinary power of help- 
 fulness to almost all whom he met, and appeared in 
 his tender comprehension of the temptations and
 
 360 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1878 
 
 aims of the wretched people with whom he came in 
 contact in his work, in his interest in the religious 
 difficulties of the young friends who came to him 
 for counsel, and in his seeking to see as others did, 
 even in matters so absorbing to him as this latest 
 study. 
 
 Apart from his theme of study, manifold other 
 interests were absorbing him, as may be seen from 
 the next letter. 
 
 "This is a very busy season with me," he writes 
 Dr. Howard. " Yesterday the Astor party of one 
 hundred boys to the West; then a grand effort to 
 rebuild Rivington Street Lodging-house (cost fifty 
 thousand dollars for land and all) ; all sorts of 
 society things, and a lecture next week on 'Peace 
 and Free Trade ' ; newspaper writing ; my book, 
 and some 'tenement house meetings.' " 
 
 The paper read before the Free Trade Club on 
 "Free Trade as promoting Peace among Men," 
 views, as its title shows, this question from the 
 side of the moralist rather than of the economist. 
 He begins : " To the moralist, free trade is not most 
 of all important as a means of producing and dis- 
 tributing wealth (though in that it be the most 
 efficient), but rather as a portion of that movement 
 of humanity which, receiving its greatest impulse 
 eighteen centuries ago, has been steadily, ever 
 since, removing prejudices, lightening burdens,
 
 iET. 52] LECTURE ON PEACE AND FREE TRADE 361 
 
 doing away with abuses, and bringing together 
 into one, different classes and peoples and races. 
 Living under the influence of this great humane 
 impulse, we do not enough remember what effects 
 it has already accomplished, what slow but perma- 
 nent victories it has won, and what it proves itself 
 adapted to win in the centuries to come." He 
 explains that by "free trade" he does not mean 
 merely the freedom to buy and sell, but the moral 
 view that different nations need not be opposed; 
 that they are members of one family ; that the pros- 
 perity of one is the prosperity of all, and the loss of 
 one the loss of all; that war, wherever it is, is a 
 terrible injury to all. After stating that "the 
 science of Political Economy and experience are 
 teaching a closer brotherhood of nations than the 
 past knew," he goes on to say that he knows well 
 it is these sentiments that make associations like 
 the one he is addressing, called "idealists," but 
 that all reformers of the past have been idealists in 
 their day, and he continues : — 
 
 " So with the Free Trade gospel. At this present 
 moment, its gainsayers are many, and its supporters 
 few. A falling from the faith has begun in the 
 house of its friends — still all this is of little 
 account. This is a truth belonging to coming ages. 
 The great spring-tide of human progress is wi%h it, 
 and all obstacles of prejudice and ancient habit and
 
 362 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1879 
 
 selfish greed will ultimately be swept away by it, or 
 be as straws on its stately and irresistible current." 
 
 The newer branches of the work of the Children's 
 Aid Society were constant sources of satisfaction to 
 Mr. Brace: the "Sick Mission," taking medicine 
 and nourishing food into the wretched tenements; 
 the "Flower Mission," with the sunshine of its 
 bright flowers, to the miserable rooms; and the 
 "Summer Home," giving good food and sea air to 
 the little girls from the schools. One indirect good 
 of the week in the country, to the poor, is in the 
 lesson taught of better cooking and simple, nourish- 
 ing food, and in the habit taught the children of 
 drinking milk instead of tea or coffee. Many, too, 
 he says, learnt for the first time the habit of sleeping 
 "between two sheets." 
 
 The thorough work of the industrial schools, 
 under the able superintendent, Mr. Skinner, con- 
 tinued to keep pace with all the newest ideas and 
 discoveries for awakening children's minds, and Mr. 
 Brace found immense satisfaction in liis frequent 
 visits to this branch of the society. The children 
 grew to look for the gentle, benevolent face which 
 they said "always smiled at them," and he used to 
 return home in delight at the intelligent object- 
 lessons in which even the smallest had taken part, 
 and in much satisfaction with himself that he was
 
 jEr. 52] PREPARATIONS FOR SUMMER WORK 363 
 
 such an able critic of a good "button-hole" or a 
 fine, close "darn." 
 
 His life and occupations during the year of 1879 
 may be clearly discerned from the set of letters 
 below, permitting us, as they do, a knowledge, not 
 only of his arduous duties and studies, but in the 
 second and third letters, giving us for an instant a 
 glimpse of the deeper undercurrents of his thoughts. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, May 25, 1879. 
 
 My dear George : . . . We are having our usual 
 round of excursions and parties, etc., and Ches- 
 knoll is in her best. . . . 
 
 I have been reading so sad and able a work by 
 "Physicus" on theism — an atheist, who mourns 
 that he is one. Please read, to-morrow or next day, 
 an article from me in the "Times " on "the Melan- 
 choly of the Thinking Classes." We are preparing 
 for summer work, — have the "Summer Home" all 
 ready, but the "sick infants"^ do not call forlh 
 help. Did you know that Miss Wolfe is to build 
 a new lodging-house for us in place of Rivington 
 Street — for forty thousand dollars ? 
 
 1 Mr. Brace's great desire was to have a home by the sea to 
 which to take sick babies, with their motliers, from tlie tenement 
 hruses, and keep tliem for a week. But although subscriptions 
 were accumulating for the purpose, to Mr. Brace's keen disap- 
 pointment there was not money enough to justify at that time this 
 new branch of the Society.
 
 364 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1879 
 
 To his Daughter. 
 
 Newport, July 6, 1879. 
 
 Dearest E — ; ... It brought vividly to my mind 
 the one thing that carried my life into a deep 
 channel — the death of my sister. It is twenty-nine 
 years since we buried her body, and yet I couldn't 
 read one of her letters now, — and the whole (did I 
 permit it) would be as fresh as of yesterday, — and 
 I suppose were I to live as I do now, the world 
 would grow gray before I could forget her. How 
 one desires to comfort, and yet how poor are words ! 
 I have wondered whether our exceptionally happy 
 life might not unfit one for consoling. God has so 
 mercifully spared our family, and all things have 
 gone on so well. ... At your age, I lived as on 
 a thin film over Eternity — but death had opened 
 realities. 
 
 I want to write you a little advice about your 
 journey.^ I want you to be very ambitious and eager 
 for the best things ; to learn a great deal and get the 
 best. Even the constant consideration required on 
 such a trip will be a great gain for you. Do not try 
 to see too much. Galleries are horribly fatiguing. 
 Occasionally omit a gallery or a building, and read 
 and study and think on what you have seen. If you 
 are tired, stop! This incessant sight-seeing is not 
 of much use. Try to learn about each city something 
 of its history or politics. Ask yourself why you 
 like certain pictures, and choose the best before you 
 
 1 His daughter had just sailed for Europe.
 
 ^T. 53] SPENCER'S PHILOSOPHY 365 
 
 know the artists. Analyze the architecture you like 
 best, and try to recognize different schools of art. 
 You should take a little pains with your letters to 
 us. First, give us a brief journal, then describe the 
 things which strike you most in the most condensed 
 form, and the small things ; — use no conventional 
 language, but the true expression. In pictures, treat 
 a landscape by its truth to scenes you have seen. 
 And please make Sunday a day of rest, letters, and 
 worship. Remember my habit and wishes in this. 
 We shall miss you more and more. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Bath, Sept. 13, 1879. 
 My dear George : I send you a " Nation " with an 
 interesting review of Spencer. You will be sur- 
 prised to find so much of your own and Taylor's 
 philosophy in Spencer, the arch-evolutionist, only 
 with the difference that yours includes God. Would 
 not mankind take chloroform if they had no future 
 but Spencer's ? No individual continuance, no God, 
 no superior powers, only evolution working towards 
 a benevolent society here, and perfection on earth, 
 with great doubts whether it could succeed, and, if 
 it succeeded, whether the end would pay. 
 
 To Miss G-. Schuyler. 
 
 Bath, Sept. 14, 1879. 
 My dear Friend ; . . . I have returned to much 
 work. This summer I have been busy on my subject
 
 366 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1879 
 
 — now, the effect of Christianity on international 
 law. I have made some of my chapters too dry and 
 learned, and therefore must rewrite. My main topic 
 is the effect of Christianity on practices and customs, 
 as well as laws. One difficulty is to eliminate the 
 effect of other things, as race, Roman law, stoicism, 
 etc., etc. It is a big subject and will demand many 
 years. Then I have so little time, and so few books. 
 Still, the work is a pleasure. And to do one little 
 thing to strengthen the failing faith in Him who 
 leads modern civilization would be worth years of 
 labor. If my life-work for the children could do this, 
 it would be the highest reward. . . . Mrs. Brace 
 and I celebrated this year our "silver wedding." 
 What a long sunlight on our lives, and hardly a 
 shadow on the home. Our nearest friendship when 
 we began was with your mother. And I hope among 
 our last will be with you and yours. 
 
 To Dr. Asa Gray. 
 
 [1879.] 
 
 Dear Dr. Gray : You ask me to answer two ques- 
 tions. (1) What are the doubts on religion which 
 sometimes trouble me, even though I dispel them, 
 and (2) What are the doubts which are most current 
 among clergymen ; your object being to prepare your 
 lectures to meet these doubts. 
 
 (1) With me, the gravest doubts are not as to the 
 usual subjects, moral evil, pain, etc., for, being sure 
 of endless life and a benevolent God, I could conceive 
 that these might all be explained. The deepest doubt 
 which occasionally passes my mind is, whether all
 
 ^T. 53] CURRENT RELIGIOUS DOUBTS 367 
 
 religion is not an illusion of the race — a projection 
 of its hopes and imaginations into the darkness. The 
 approaches to this doubt are made by the facts that 
 supernaturalism is more and more dropped out of 
 belief in the progress of the race ; that the apparently 
 exceptional phenomena of Christianity ai-e found in 
 the histories of other religions ; and that supernatural 
 events are not known in this age. Tlien evolution 
 suggests the possibility of the whole Cosmos arising 
 out of the permanence of force, the eternity of mat- 
 ter, and a few laws, such as gravitation, heredity, 
 survival of the fittest, etc. 
 
 The old argument from design has lost something 
 of its force, unless you can prove that " variation is 
 guided," and the argument from the harmony of 
 the universe is weakened by evolution (admitting the 
 permanence of force and eternity of matter), or the 
 barren choice has to be made between the probabil- 
 ity of eternally continuing forces, or of one eternal 
 intelligent force. Then, under evolution, conscience 
 becomes only the accumulated social feeling and sym- 
 pathy of the race, and the moral and intellectual 
 world only a fruit of blind forces. A God under 
 such reasoning begins to look like a possibility, not 
 a necessity; and so with a future life. We can per- 
 haps account for everything by blind laws, force and 
 matter and gravitation or the like. The universe 
 would then be a chance out of an enormous number 
 of possibilities. These doubts I can meet; but this 
 is the drift of them. 
 
 (2) As to clergymen, their doubts are more as to 
 the Bible Cosmogony, the antiquit}^ of man, the 
 inspiration of Scripture and its agreement with
 
 368 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1880 
 
 science, the question whether Christianity differs in 
 kind from some other faiths, and whether Christ is 
 not also a product of history, the difficulty of a 
 partial supernaturalism, — i.e. a revelation to one 
 race and at one time, — and the origin of evil and 
 pain under a benevolent God. 
 
 I think my greatest supports are (1) the Christian 
 revelation ; (2) the logical necessity of an originat- 
 ing force ; (3) the utter mystery of a large portion 
 of the universe, and therefore the possibility of any- 
 thing ; (4) the character of Christ and the tendency of 
 His teaching as beyond any age as yet ; (5) the steady 
 progress in His direction, of humanity; (6) the 
 adaptation of religion to the mind ; (7) the harmony 
 and intelligent order of the universe, so that chance 
 seems hardly credible as the cause. How much of 
 our religion must be faith! The interesting and 
 important point in your Lectures will be the explain- 
 ing of that in evolution which must come from 
 purpose, and not from blind laws. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 19 East 4th St., Nkw York, 
 March 10, 1880. 
 
 Dear Dr. Giray : Many thanks for your delightful 
 book.^ It seems to me the ablest you have written 
 on philosophical topics. The style is clear as crystal, 
 and the tone admirable. I was much struck with the 
 statement in the first part of the first Lecture ; the 
 best I ever saw on that subject. I see you are not 
 
 1 "Darwiniana."
 
 Mr. 53] ANNUAL TRIPS TO THE SOUTH 3G9 
 
 a Darwinian, pure and simple. The religious argu- 
 ment was candid and clear — perhaps as good as can 
 be given. I have written a brief notice of it for the 
 "Times." 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 Ches-knoll, March 14, 1880. 
 My dear Friend : Such an amount as I have this 
 winter. We are just finishing one lodging-house; 
 trying to build another; Mr. James is going to build 
 us a sanitarium at Rockaway; I must plan all and 
 raise money and get the people down, etc. Then 
 prepare for the " Summer Home " at Bath, then all the 
 schools, lodging-houses, and emigration-parties, and 
 now the annual examinations of four thousand chil- 
 dren; besides the newspaper articles and regular 
 study and writing on my book. Of course, I could 
 not do all this without perfect system and order, and 
 the power of turning from one thing to another. I 
 have been deeply interested in my chapter on " Chiv- 
 alry," and have finished it, though hardly to my 
 satisfaction. I should like to read it to you. It 
 has cost much reading. ... I am going South this 
 week to look after our emigration there. 
 
 The annual trips to the South were always a 
 refreshment to him. A visit in West Virginia, a 
 glimpse at the great work at Hampton, Virginia, 
 and a run into the North Carolina mountains to the 
 places where boys had been sent by the society, 
 rested him after the strain of examining four thou- 
 
 2b
 
 B70 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1880 
 
 sand children in the annual examinations of the 
 industrial schools. 
 
 For a long time the imperfect enforcement of the 
 laws compelling all children to be in school a part 
 of each day, and the employment of children below 
 the authorized age in factories, had been to him 
 a source of anxiety. These evils were sore trials 
 to those striving to help these children, and it 
 was very distressing to him to think of little ones 
 of tender age working throughout long days, and 
 often evenings, in tobacco and other factories. He 
 urged more decided effort to enforce what laws there 
 were for the protection of children. 
 
 In September, 1880, Mr. Brace went to the Social 
 Science Meeting in Saratoga, and enjoyed the con- 
 vention greatly, reading there a paper on " Christi- 
 anity and the Relations of Nations." It is a plea 
 for the Christianization of international law, and 
 states his belief that it is because the Christian 
 Church throughout the world is so far behind the 
 teachings of the Master that war is possible. He 
 thinks that there is coming a time when, as we 
 realize the ideal presented by Christ, war and 
 hatred and revenge will cease in the relations of 
 one nation to another, and peaceful arbitration, 
 the course dictated by a Christianized international 
 law, will be employed to settle international diffi- 
 culties.
 
 iET. 54] "SUMMER HOME" AT BATH 371 
 
 In a letter, early in the following spring, to Mrs. 
 Gray, he says : — 
 
 "We hear only a little about you and the Doctor, 
 and want to know more. You and he are a light to 
 the eyes of our spirits, and though we do not see 
 you often in the body, we feel you both. You have 
 been such a comfort and support to our whole family, 
 and the Doctor is a guide to so many thousands in the 
 wilderness of science. We all love 3^ou both. 
 
 "My work increases. We have just received a 
 beautiful place for the 'Summer Home' — cost 
 $20,000 — a gift — at Bath. Site for sanitarium not 
 yet found. We have also a house for the Italian 
 school — cost $12,000 — a gift, and $15,000 for the 
 sanitarium, when we can lind a place, and $9000 
 bequest from Maine. You know that Miss Wolfe 
 had built us a boys' lodging-house for $40,000, and 
 had given $6000 for outfit, so you see Harvard does 
 not get all the plums ! " 
 
 The " Summer Home " referred to above is on 
 the shore of New York Bay, with bathing beach, 
 shade trees, lawn, and every arrangement for the 
 happiness and health of the little girls. The society 
 at once built dormitories and various necessary 
 buildings, and a bulkhead to keep out the sea. 
 Parties of little girls were taken down every Mon- 
 day morning to stay until Saturday night, and 
 during the summer nearly four thousand children 
 were benefited by this experience.
 
 372 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1880 
 
 The beginning of a long correspondence with Dr. 
 Howard about his new book is marked by the follow- 
 ing letter, which is dated December of the current 
 year. The letter gives a r^sumd of his argument, 
 and a frank statement of the principal difi&culties 
 in his faith : — 
 
 ". . . In my 'History,'" he says, "the first and 
 best quality must be absolute truthfulness, or loyalty 
 to my own convictions. I must not make my argu- 
 ment appear a shade stronger than the facts warrant. 
 As I look back over an immense field of study, I form 
 these conclusions : 
 
 "(I.) that Christianity is the greatest element in 
 modern progress. 
 
 "(U.) but that it was essentially assisted by (a) 
 the Stoical morals, (i) by Roman law, (c) by German 
 character, (d) by Arabic science, and more recently 
 by a complex series of influences, called civilization, 
 which is also, in part, a fruit of religion. 
 
 "(in.) That what ought to have been the best 
 expression of Christianity, the Church, has often been 
 directly against progress. Yet even under that, there 
 were many blessings conferred on mankind. 
 
 "(IV.) That the tendency and drift of Christianity 
 is towards a perfect moral condition of the human race. 
 
 " (V.) That reasoning from what Christianity has 
 accomplished in the world in a brief period, and its 
 tendencies, one may conclude that, in a sufiiciently 
 long period, it will renovate the world, and thus 
 establish itself as the absolute system of morals, and 
 justify its claims, as divinely sanctioned.
 
 ^T. 54] RfiSU^Nlfi OF NEW BOOK 373 
 
 "(VI.) But that in all races and ages there were 
 revelations of God to individuals and in the consti- 
 tution of mind and the world, so that truths were 
 uttered, and principles taught and lived upon, 
 similar to those of Christ. But that not being such 
 complete revelations, or being degraded or obscured 
 by selfish tendencies, they only had a comparatively 
 feeble effect on human progress. Thus the compar- 
 atively high condition of India, as compared with 
 other parts of Asia, may be due to the truths of her 
 religion. While the great obstacles to her progress, 
 as compared with Europe, such as the low position 
 of woman, caste, and superstition, are due to her 
 lack of such a religion as Christianity. So Moham- 
 medan countries are more progressive than the 
 pagan African, in part because of the truth of 
 divine unity, but are behind European, because of 
 their want of the humanity, liberty, and benevolence 
 which belong to Christianity. 
 
 " (VII.) The great difficulties of the argument are 
 (^a) to eliminate the influence of Christ from the 
 influences mentioned, (S) to distinguish the Chris- 
 tian Church from Christ, (c) to show that a Chris- 
 tian future is the best possible for humanity. 
 
 " (VIII.) Another great difficulty remains, though 
 I am not obliged to solve it: Why this absolute and 
 divinely-sanctioned system of morals and religion 
 should be revealed only to one petty race, and in a 
 remote corner, and so many ages and peoples be in 
 ignorance of it. 
 
 "(IX.) The inference from the whole argument 
 is — Christianity is the absolute system of morals, 
 and absolute religion for all ages and races, and
 
 374 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1881 
 
 therefore divinely or supernaturally given. Or, put 
 it in another way: Christ, being as He is, the 
 originator of modern progress, and the teacher and 
 embodiment of absolute morals, is to be believed 
 in His supernatural teaching. Now, please pick 
 holes in this, and oblige yours affectionately, etc." 
 
 In June Mr. Brace sent him the introduction. 
 Dr. Howard was disappointed in it, thinking that 
 it failed to give due emphasis to what Christianity 
 had accomplished. He says that the book itself 
 gives in detail the credit to Christianity of what it 
 has produced, more strongly than is conveyed in the 
 introduction, and that at the same time he has not 
 shown the failure of Roman law, of German ideas 
 and customs, etc., as revealed by historic develop- 
 ment, to produce the beneficent changes and moral 
 advancements which Christianity is by the author 
 affirmed to have effected. He says that this " leaves 
 an uncertainty and weakness which make one fear 
 that a vigorous push by an adverse critic might 
 tumble the work over." He then asks if Mr. Brace 
 cannot claim a little more for the work of Christ, 
 and speaks of Max Miiller's assertion that '"'' Human- 
 ity is a word which you look for in vain in Plato 
 or Aristotle." Mr. Brace answers: — 
 
 " Many thanks for your hints and commendations, 
 which will aid me. In regard to the general tone 
 of the book, you must remember it will not do to
 
 iET. 55] THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY 375 
 
 make it like a sermon, or an exhortation. It is a 
 critical examination, and the argument is cumula- 
 tive, the conclusion is from a balancing of probabili- 
 ties and from many small considerations. To draw 
 these inferences with too much warmth would injure, 
 I fear, the effect. Then I must be exactly true to 
 my convictions. It is very easy to make a strong 
 statement like Miiller's, but the trouble is it is not 
 true. I can produce page after page of the Stoical 
 writers with as broad humanity as anything in Chris- 
 tianity. It is true it did not imbue the world. One 
 must be careful of too sweeping assertions in this 
 matter, as to effects. There is no doubt about 
 principles and tendencies." 
 
 In May, 1881, Mr. Brace went to Cambridge and 
 made an address on the work of the Children's Aid 
 Society, enjoying very much his visit Avith Presi- 
 dent and Mrs. Eliot. Dr. Howard, on June 27th, 
 writes him of the address, which was afterwards 
 published: "It seems to me every way admir- 
 able. It is a marvel of condensation, effected so 
 as to bring out the whole work in strong outlines, 
 and yet not dryly. The enthusiasm of humanity 
 throbs through it all; more openly and decisively 
 than I thought you would permit to yourself just 
 there, but adding greatly to its power. Your tes- 
 timony to the necessity of religious and Christian 
 faith in the noble reformatory work which you have 
 so successfully inaugurated and carried on, affected
 
 376 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1881 
 
 both M. and myself. It crowned the address. The 
 opportunity to speak to that audience, and under 
 such auspices, you must always remember with 
 pleasure." 
 
 The society and Mr. Brace met with a great loss 
 this year in the death of his brother, Mr. J. P. 
 Brace. He had been a Western agent for some 
 years, and was admirably fitted for the work. His 
 affection for children made him a very kind care- 
 taker during the long journeys, and his tact and 
 pleasant manners everywhere won friends for the 
 cause. During his fifteen years of service, he had 
 placed some ten thousand homeless children in 
 homes. The long journeys were too great a strain, 
 and in the summer of 1881 he contracted a fever 
 and died suddenly, leaving the "home desolate of 
 him who had made the homes of so many happy. 
 His weary journeys in the cause of humanity are 
 over. He sleeps in God.''^ 
 
 The winter of 1881-2 found Mr. Brace's health 
 seriously impaired by the increasing demands of 
 the great charity, and it was decided that he and 
 Mrs. Brace should go abroad in May for the summer, 
 for the needed rest and change of scene. 
 
 In April he writes to Dr. Gray of the death of 
 
 Darwin ; — 
 
 1 29th Annual Report.
 
 iEx. 55] A SEASON IN LONDON 377 
 
 "I feel so much with 3-ou at the death of Darwin. 
 It must come very near to you. The world will feel 
 it — the loss of the greatest intellect of this century. 
 I am so glad that your kindness enabled L. and me 
 to know him personally, and to feel the wonderful 
 sweetness and vivacity of his nature. He has made 
 much of life, and I think was a conscious and true 
 servant of the Master. How near is the 'better land ' 
 coming to me, as the leaders and friends here go 
 hence ! And how one longs to finish the task and 
 do it thoroughly! " 
 
 Although with full intentions of going abroad 
 to rest, Mr. and Mrs. Brace made in London their 
 first stopping-place, and were at once swallowed in 
 the vortex of society and philanthropy, as they had 
 been in former visits. But the gay life was delight- 
 ful to them both, and Mr. Brace, as usual, felt that 
 he must see a little of the organized charity work in 
 London. Among the many pleasures they enjoyed, 
 was a dinner with the Hon. John Morley, who had 
 once visited them in their little home at Hastings. 
 Writing of this English experience, he says : — 
 
 "... You know what a brilliant time we had in 
 London. We came at a very exciting time in public 
 affairs, and happened to be thrown in with leading 
 men in Parliament a great deal, so that we were in 
 the centre of English life. Your 'Aunty,' being so 
 well up in English and European affairs, could take 
 full part in it all, and we were most warmly received
 
 378 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1882 
 
 by all. I partook of an infinite number of dinners, 
 to which you know I am not indifferent. Still it 
 was rather too fast a life for me. London is a kind 
 of whirlpool or Pandemonium, and every one is swept 
 along like a chip on the current. I think few people 
 (among the commoners) ever had a warmer welcome 
 in England. The thing that struck me most was 
 the rich, overflowing, out-door life, especially of the 
 higher classes, and the superb physique of the women 
 not yet in middle life. This riding is so grand for 
 them! They begin as babes. As girls they do not 
 look better than ours or stronger. Then I am always 
 impressed with the vast deal done here by the rich 
 for the poor, and the lives consecrated to humanity 
 and religion." 
 
 The time in London, however, was soon over, and 
 they started early in July for the Engadine by way of 
 the Rhine and Switzerland. From Lucerne he writes : 
 " The contrast between that whirlpool of London and 
 the still and glad Rhine was most delicious. We 
 took several days on it, and got the full spirit of 
 it. It is a kind of perpetual picnic and natural 
 picture-gallery. ..." The Engadine experience 
 was very perfect, as the next letter shows, and 
 restored Mr. Brace to his usual abounding health. 
 
 To his Daughter. 
 
 SiLz Maria, July 28, 1882, 
 Ml/ dearest L — ; Your lively letters are a great 
 pleasure to us. In the Engadine we have been
 
 Mr. 56] THE ENGADINE 379 
 
 having winter, but splendid weather for exercise. 
 The peasants describe the climate as "nine months 
 winter and three months cold." Think of your 
 mother walking six and seven miles to a glacier 
 and back. It was such a lovely green valley — the 
 Fex — about eight thousand feet high, with so many 
 bright flowers. They catch the blue of the heavens 
 
 — some a deep black blue; even the dandelions have 
 a wonderful yellow. I saw the Pyrola in the woods, 
 and we were near the Edelweiss. One of the experi- 
 ences is to go alone where the great "ice plough" has 
 turned up the valley, and made moraines of stones, 
 and step on the broken surface, or to lie down in the 
 solitude and look up far above at the white, broken 
 waves of ice against the black-blue of the sky, and 
 listen to the roar of the torrent under it, or to watch 
 the far-away lonely snow valleys where man hath not 
 been, among the great silent peaks, — and then think 
 what man is and what God must be. There are so 
 many excursions here, such lovely walks in woods 
 and by waterfalls. You see there are *'' beauty-faction 
 societies " who do this everywhere in the Engadine. 
 I see the men fly-fishing in the green lake ; the trout 
 are small and not so pretty as ours. Every hotel is 
 full of English. I take most to the Germans and air 
 my German often. 
 
 The lakes are not so beautiful as Placid, and I 
 like our atmosphere better, but the snow-peaks and 
 glaciers make it a grander scene. We find it now 
 too cold (40°). The hotels are usually perfect, but 
 dear. Numbers come up to relieve over brain-work. 
 The valley is a scene of life and pleasure and activity 
 
 — ladies and tourists everywhere in walks, arbors,
 
 380 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE [1882 
 
 and woods and fields. It will be always a bright 
 vision. The view at night in the moonlight at 
 Pontresina is like a scene on a theatre stage ; a dark, 
 jagged outline of mountains, near dark hill-tops of 
 fir-trees, a white glacier and snow-peaks through a 
 gloomy valley, and our old stars (Antares and Arc- 
 turus, etc.) brilliant, resplendent, and Venus set- 
 ting; in one's ears an eternal roar of torrents. 
 When we get up, our first view is of glaciers. We 
 are both so well and strong. Your mother is gradu- 
 ally getting into the mystery of centimes, and has 
 learnt to divide by five ! 
 
 After three weeks in the Engadine, Mrs. Brace 
 made a trip with a brother in Italy, while Mr. 
 Brace repeated his delightful experience of ten 
 years before in Hungary. In September they met 
 in England, and after several visits in rural parts, 
 they returned home in October, Mr. Brace with 
 renewed vigor for the work of life. "You can 
 imagine," he writes to a friend, "with what joyful 
 and grateful feelings I returned to the lovely home 
 and my work. I feel as if some calamity must 
 come, so beautiful have been the mercies — not a 
 cloud or friction in the whole journey, perfect 
 health, and here all well and the work excellent. 
 My book will probably be out by Thanksgiving, 
 too. I had a glorious time in Hungary and Tran- 
 sylvania, and then another three or four weeks in 
 England, a visit to an aristocratic radical, Stanley, 
 and to an old county family, etc., etc., etc."
 
 Mt. 56] DEATH OF MR. MACY 381 
 
 As the society grew more complete in machinery, 
 and far-reaching in its effects, Mr. Brace felt more 
 strongly than ever that only a part of its full influ- 
 ence was being exerted, if he could not arouse the 
 growing generation of the more fortunate classes 
 to realize the opportunities he offered them to go 
 among the poor and become familiar with their 
 lives and needs. He urged the young women to 
 identify themselves with some single school, go 
 regularly, talk with the teacher of her labors and 
 their happy results, and learn to understand the 
 childrens' lives. There were many Avays in which 
 the young men, also, might find their visits to the 
 lodging-houses of value to themselves as well as to 
 the boys. He begged them to understand that it 
 was not merely those who had the gift of speaking 
 who could be of use. There was abundant opportu- 
 nity for usefulness in providing for the amusement 
 and entertainment of the boys, in offering prizes for 
 good behavior or scholarship at the night schools, 
 in advising and directing them in a thousand ways, 
 — in short, in the personal intercourse and mutual 
 friendliness on which he laid so much stress. 
 
 The society and the poor of New York suffered 
 a very great loss during the year just closing, in 
 the death of the assistant-treasurer, ]\Ir. Macy. A 
 sketch of him is given in "The Dangerous Classes," 
 which makes so complete a picture that nothing
 
 382 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1882 
 
 need be added. "The central figure in this office, 
 disentangling all the complicated threads in their 
 various applications, and holding himself perfectly 
 cool and bland in this turmoil, is 'a character' — Mr. 
 J. Macy. He was employed first as a visitor for the 
 society; but soon betraying a kind of bottled-up 
 'enthusiasm of humanity ' under a very modest 
 exterior, he was put in his present position, where 
 he has become a sort of embodied Children's Aid 
 Society in his own person. Most men take their 
 charities as adjuncts to life or as duties enjoined by 
 religion or humanity. Mr. Macy lives in his. He 
 is never so truly happy as when he is sitting calmly 
 amid a band of his 'lambs,' — as he sardonically 
 calls the heavy-fisted, murderous-looking young 
 vagabonds who frequent the Cottage Place Reading- 
 room, — and seeing them all happily engaged in 
 reading or quiet amusements. Then the look of 
 beatific satisfaction that settles over his face as, in 
 the midst of a loving passage of his religious 
 address to them, he takes one of the obstreperous 
 lambs by the collar and sets him down very hard 
 on another bench — never for a moment breaking 
 the thread or sweet tone of his bland remarks — is a 
 sight to behold. You know that he is happier there 
 than he would be in a palace." 
 
 Mr. Macy's sense of humor was his strongest 
 support in meeting the trying cases of fraud and
 
 ^T. 56] CHARACTERISTICS OF MR. MACY 383 
 
 deceit with which he came in contact. He knew at 
 a glance if men were lazy, and once, on two young 
 fellows applying for help, he conducted them 
 politely to the door and, pointing amiably to 
 Third Avenue, said: "Now, my boys, just be kind 
 enough to walk right north up that avenue for one 
 hundred miles into the country, and you will find 
 plenty of work and food. Good-by ! good-by ! " 
 The boys departed mystified. "For real suffering 
 and honest effort at self-help he had a boundless 
 sympathy; but the paupers and professional beggars 
 were the terror of his life. He dreaded nothing so 
 much as a boy or girl falling into habits of depend- 
 ence. Where he was compelled to give assistance 
 in money, he has been known to set one boy to 
 throw wood down and the other to pile it up, before 
 he would aid."^ 
 
 The trustees felt the beauty and cheerfulness of 
 his character as Mr. Brace did, and at a meeting 
 after his death, expressed their sense of the loss to 
 the society. For more than twenty-seven years he 
 had worked for it ; more than three million dollars 
 had passed through his hands, without any question 
 arising as to the correctness of his disbursements, 
 in any particular. Towards the end of his life he 
 was dreading total blindness, but even this did not 
 lessen his placid, cheerful courage. 
 
 1 " Dangerous Classes," p. 278.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 " Gesta Christi " — Letters about " Gesta Christi " — Controversy 
 ■with Miss Lazarus — Letters on New Studies — Visit of Mr. 
 Mozoomdar — Mr. Brace's Devotional Readings at Home — Sani- 
 tarium — Letter from Mr. Mozoomdar — Political and Miscel- 
 laneous Letters — Preparations for New Book 
 
 Late in October, 1882, the book appeared for 
 which Mr. Brace had been studying for several 
 years, and towards which his reading had been 
 tending before the book was thought of. It was 
 entitled " Gesta Christi ; a History of Humane Prog- 
 ress under Christianity." Soon after its appearance 
 he writes to Dr. Howard : — 
 
 " At the risk of appearing egotistical, I send you 
 two out of a multitude of letters on the 'Gesta.' 
 Dr. Taylor, last Sanday in his sermon, gave a great 
 puff to the book, quoted from it, and advised his 
 people to get it. /did not send him a copy." 
 
 And later to the same friend : — 
 
 "On Saturday I received the warmest and best 
 letter I have had — from Dr. Storrs. I will send it 
 to you. The great men are always generous. Then 
 there was a very appreciative notice from a half- 
 sceptical source, the 'Philadelphia Press.' " 
 
 384
 
 ^T. 56] LETTER ABOUT "GESTA CHRISTI " 385 
 
 Appreciative letters came from all sources, and 
 one from his old friend, Mr. Booth, gave him great 
 pleasure. 
 
 "... I will keep it ['Gesta Christi ']," writes 
 Mr. Booth, "as a memorial of the uninterrupted 
 friendship of more than twenty years, and of co- 
 operation in a work of paramount importance in 
 'Humane Progress under Christianity.' The world 
 is better for your having lived in it, and will con- 
 tinue to grow better because you have lived, long 
 after you shall have passed to the better world." 
 
 The following curiosity of literature belongs also 
 to his correspondence of this date : — 
 
 From Rev. C. Philit. 
 
 AUX OLLlilRES, ARDiCHE, 
 
 France, Dec. 18, 1882. 
 Mr. and dear Author: J'ai appris with great pleas- 
 ure, que vous veniez de publier un tres remarkable 
 work entitled "Gesta Christi." La question ^tudi^e 
 m'interesse tellement, que je desire ardemment pos- 
 seder a copy of your very precious work. Unfortu- 
 nately, I have not private means, and my meagre 
 salary of seventy-two pounds yearly is sufficient 
 scarcely, and by dint of saving, to the maintenance 
 of my very numerous family. I cannot, therefore, 
 at my very great regret, to purchase the work, at 
 least at the published price of twelve shillings. This 
 being so, alas! je prend la tres grande liberty de 
 vous adresser, very humbly, cette lettre, in order to 
 2c
 
 386 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1882 
 
 beseech you to help me, if possible, in order to ac- 
 quire a copy of the work so much desired. Si vous 
 pouviez, et si vous daigniez me rendre ce grand, cet 
 immense service, que je sollicite, very humbly et en 
 tremblant, de votre english and Christian generosity, 
 I should be to you heartily thankful ! 
 
 Please to apologize my very importune request, 
 and to believe as I am, Dear Author, etc.^ 
 
 One of the letters which pleased Mr. Brace very 
 much was from a friend made many years before, — 
 Miss Frances Power Cobbe. A cordial friendship 
 was established between them in 1856, when Mr. 
 Theodore Parker gave Mr. Brace a letter of intro- 
 duction to her which speaks of him as "busied in 
 picking forlorn children out of the streets of that 
 Gomorrah of the New World, and placing them in 
 worthy families. So he saves such as be ready to 
 perish." 
 
 From Miss Cobbe. 
 
 26 Hereford Square, 
 South Kensington, Nov. 17, 1882. 
 
 Dear Mr. Brace : I am grateful to you for sending 
 me your beautiful volume. This is the kind of 
 history for which alone I care ; the philosophy of 
 history (such as Lecky's "European Morals"); and 
 you have taken the most interesting and noblest 
 thesis which could have been suggested. I have 
 read a good deal of the book already, and with great 
 
 1 Mr. Brace sent tlie book.
 
 ^T. 56] LETTER FROM MISS COBBE 387 
 
 admiration for the learning and grasp of thought it 
 displays. How have you managed, dear Mr. Brace, 
 in your life of practical usefulness on so vast a scale, 
 to amass all this erudition? 
 
 Perhaps it will interest 3'^ou to know that to me 
 (now, as for forty years back, a theist of Theodore 
 Parker's type), the argument for Christianity of 
 which your book is a splendid resume is the one on 
 which — were I a believer in supernaturalism — I 
 should rest my faith. All other arguments have 
 been undermined or exploded; but the long stream 
 of light across the dark and troubled ocean of human 
 existence certainly emanates from some Pharos, 
 loftier and of purer brilliance than all the minor 
 lightships tossing on the waves. 
 
 And yet we must bear in mind that great evil and 
 enormous misery, as well as all the good you describe, 
 have come to the world through Christ, as directly, 
 if not as logically or rightfully, as the good. When 
 we speak of the religious persecutions of the Chris- 
 tian ages (of Jews, of Heretics, of Witches), and of 
 the ten thousand thousand hearts which have with- 
 ered and perished in nunneries and monasteries, or 
 calculate simply the numbers who have been driven 
 into insanity by the fear of hell grounded on Christ's 
 recorded words, what a counterbalance we find to all 
 the beneficent influences which you have chronicled 
 so eloquently. To revert to the simile Avhich occurred 
 to me in the beginning of this letter, the great Pharos 
 of Galilee has been a revolving light, sometimes white 
 and pure as heaven's own rays, sometimes red as 
 blood, even so that it did "the multitudinous seas 
 incarnadine."
 
 388 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 The small corner of the world's wretchedness where 
 I have been working for the last eight years — the 
 scientific torture of animals — has exhibited to me 
 some facts touching on your argument. The first 
 is that nearly every one of my more earnest fellow- 
 workers has been a devout Christian, most of them, 
 like Lord Shaftesbury, of the Evangelical type; and 
 that, on the contrary, nearly all the advocates of 
 vivisection are atheists or agnostics. The second is 
 that there are practically only two principles under- 
 lying the moral controversies of the day. There is 
 the Christian principle : " Blessed are the merciful, 
 for they shall obtain mercy " {i.e. the deep sense of 
 our own sinfulness should make us humble to God 
 and tender to all His creatures). And there is the 
 atheistic principle : " Blessed are the merciless, for 
 they shall obtain useful knowledge " {i.e. knowl- 
 edge is above love ; mental riches and bodily health 
 are the supreme ends of man, and to obtain them, all 
 things are lawful). 
 
 Pray remember me most kindly to Mrs. Brace, 
 and believe me with warm thanks and sincere respect, 
 dear Mr. Brace, 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 Fkances Power Cobbe. 
 
 Dean Church writes on the same subject as 
 follows : — 
 
 From Demi Church. 
 
 The Deanery, St. Paul's, Jan. 1, 1883. 
 I have to thank you for your great courtesy in 
 sending me a copy of your book, "Gesta Christi."
 
 ^T. 56] CRITICISM OF HIS BOOK 389 
 
 I have read a good deal of it, and Avith very much 
 interest. The great question with which it deals is 
 not an easy one to handle, from the extreme compli- 
 cation of influences and conditions which affect it. 
 But it seems to me that you have stated with great 
 force and clearness the great broad results of an 
 honest survey of the course of modern civilization. 
 I am grateful to you for the labor which you must 
 have expended on it. You must forgive me for 
 differing from you as to the part which the historical 
 church had in the work. It is easy to exaggerate it, 
 as has often been done; but it is just as natural at 
 present, and, to my mind, as unphilosophical and 
 untrue, to overlook and underestimate it. I have 
 shown your book to several of my friends, and hope 
 to have other opportunities of doing so. 
 
 A very interesting letter from Miss Emma Lazarus, 
 bearing upon his book, needs some explanation. 
 Mr. Brace sent her his " Gesta Christi " in the hope 
 that she would review it. 
 
 "Accept my sincere thanks," she writes in ac- 
 knowledgment, " for your proof of friendship in send- 
 ing me your book. Concerning criticism, which you 
 invite rather than deprecate, I will frankly say that 
 the volume had been already sent to me for review, 
 so that I had read and written out my impressions of 
 it, which will appear in the 'Sun,' though as yet I 
 don't know when. Of course, you and I look upon 
 this subject from such widely different standpoints 
 that our conclusions cannot fail to be directly opposed.
 
 390 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 I have therefore spoken as frankly from what you call 
 the 'rationalistic Jewish ' platform as you have from 
 the Christian. But however we may differ upon 
 intellectual or philosophical questions, I do not need 
 to assure you of my warm personal regard, and to beg 
 you with your accustomed liberality to see in my 
 printed words my protest against a certain method 
 of criticism, not a judgment upon the author, whose 
 motives I respect, and whose friendship I count 
 among my most valued possessions. I congratulate 
 you on the success which I hear the book is having, 
 and I remain, with kind regards to Mrs. Brace and 
 all your household, etc." 
 
 In due time the review of which Miss Lazarus 
 speaks appeared in the "Sun." In it she charges 
 him with a somewhat disingenuous method. She 
 claims that he compares the best results of Chris- 
 tianity, as illustrated in a few saintly lives, with 
 a dark picture of failure of Stoic and Roman morals 
 in practical life. She also felt, as a special personal 
 grief, that he slighted the moral influence of Juda- 
 ism, and failed to credit to Judaism the very origin 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Mr. Brace was disappointed in the review, thinking 
 that it neglected to do justice to the credit he gave 
 to influences other than Christian. In a friendly 
 letter he told her so, explaining that "we Christians 
 are educated to believe that Christianity is an out- 
 growth and reform of Judaism, and therefore we
 
 ^T. 56] REVIEW BY MISS LAZARUS 391 
 
 do not usually separate the two." In reply to her 
 charge that he is unfair to the Stoics, he defends 
 himself without difficulty by referring to many 
 passages in the book. Of these he says: "I have 
 repeatedly throughout the volume expressed the 
 obligation of the world to the moral system of the 
 Stoics. One much grander passage than the one 
 you quote, namely, that urging that ' all men are 
 born naturally free,' I have quoted over and over 
 again, showing its influence on the legislation of 
 antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern 
 period." She replies at some length, first thank- 
 ing him for his frank expression of opinion, and 
 regretting that her criticism of his book seemed 
 lacking in justice, and then goes on to touch on the 
 different points under debate. 
 
 "... I am perfectly well aware that you admit 
 the fact, mentioned in my article, that humane senti- 
 ments had a certain influence upon Roman legisla- 
 tion ; but you conclude your review of Roman slavery 
 with the remark that the 'position of the slave 
 throughout the entire reign of that noble philosophy 
 shows how comparatively superficial the influence of 
 Stoicism was, and how confined to the Roman culti- 
 vated classes.' Thus, as I said, you quote these 
 philosophers only 'to fall back upon the assertion 
 that they were exceptions, and exercised no general 
 influence.' On the other hand, if the j)osition of 
 the slave be the test, may not the scourged and out-
 
 892 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 raged negro of the Southern slaveholder thirty years 
 ago, eighteen hundred and fifty years after the advent 
 of Jesus, in our most enlightened Christian country, 
 have believed with good reason that the influence of 
 Christian charity upon legislation was equally super- 
 ficial and limited? 
 
 "... In regard to Judaism, you tell me I forget 
 that 'Christians are educated to believe their religion 
 an outgrowth and reform of Judaism, and that there- 
 fore you do not usually separate the two. ' I must 
 beg you to remember, in turn, that Jews are educated 
 to believe that Christianity is an outgrowth and per- 
 version of Judaism, against which our very existence 
 is an eternal protest. If Judaism proper had died 
 at the birth of Christianity, and were only known 
 to the world to-daj' through the medium of Christian 
 ideas, I might possibly acknowledge that in prais- 
 ing Christianity you praise Judaism. But from my 
 standpoint of birth and education they are two dis- 
 tinct and separate forces, and when any writer asserts 
 the superiority of Christianit}^ we Jews logically 
 demand that he shall prove the introduction by his 
 faith of moral ideas and social reforms which do not 
 rightfully pertain to our code and creed. If you had 
 gone more fully into Judaism you say you would 
 have been obliged to admit that it permitted slavery 
 (so does Christianity to this day), blood-revenge, 
 free divorce by the husband, and polygamy. If by 
 'blood-revenge ' you refer to the penal code of the 
 Jews, 'an eye for an eye,' etc., I am not aware that 
 it differs in any respect from the penal code of the 
 Christians to-day in the most civilized countries — 'a 
 life for a life.' If you had gone a little farther still,
 
 ^T. 56j LETTER FROM MISS LAZARUS 393 
 
 you would have found that capital punishment was 
 so repugnant to the spirit of Jewish legislation that 
 before the birth of Jesus it was practically abrogated, 
 and a court that passed one sentence of death in seven 
 years was known as the 'Court of Murderers.' 
 
 "You say Judaism 'permitted slavery'; but you 
 also expressly say 'no direct word against slavery 
 ever came forth from the lips of Jesus, ' nor was any 
 command against it uttered until nine centuries later. 
 Mr. Henry George says: 'This very day the only 
 thing that stands between the working classes and 
 ceaseless toil, is one of the Mosaic institutions . . . 
 that there is one day in the week that the working- 
 man may call his own ... is due to the code pro- 
 mulgated in the Sinaitic wilderness.' I am quite 
 willing to admit with you that the 'general condi- 
 tion ' of Christian countries to-day evinces, on the 
 whole, a certain degree of progress bej^ond that of 
 the Roman world; the point where we differ is as to 
 the cause of this improvement. I attribute it to the 
 spread of rational and philosophical ideas — you, to 
 the spirit of Christianity. I consider Christianity 
 represented by her greatest and most powerful insti- 
 tution, the Church — you select as her representatives 
 obscure and virtuous Christians who have worked in 
 the silence and the dark, and who may be matched 
 with an equal number of obscure and virtuous Jews 
 and Mohammedans, Romans, and Hindoos. Seeing 
 that the chief advances in modern science have been 
 carried on under the protest of the Christian Church, 
 that every inch of ground gained by the Galileos, the 
 Darwins, the Spencers, has been the subject of a 
 separate battle with the partisans of the Church,
 
 394 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 bringing upon the greatest names of humanity the 
 abhorred title of atheist, and often making their 
 patient lives of intellectual research a prolonged 
 martyrdom — seeing that many of the best and wisest 
 men and women have denied the authority of the 
 Christian religion, and seeing that war, murder, 
 even legalized crime are to-day found existing in 
 full force in the very centres of Christian civiliza- 
 tion, you will pardon me for refusing to accept your 
 conclusions." 
 
 That Mr. Brace's reverence for Jewish moral influ- 
 ences was greater than Miss Lazarus understood, is 
 shown in the following extract from a paper he 
 wrote at about this time : — 
 
 "The Jewish power was and is still, solely a 
 moral power, so profound and universal in its nature 
 that mankind will never pass beyond the spiritual 
 conceptions, or frame a language of prayer and 
 praise superior to the words of that humble mountain 
 tribe. They never possessed any material power 
 which could be considered beside the great despot- 
 isms of Asia and Africa on each side of them, and 
 yet, as long as their religious ideals were faithfully 
 preserved, and the corruptions of the neighboring 
 mythologies were not admitted, no merely warlike 
 force could conquer them." 
 
 In May, 1883, we find Mr. Brace in correspond- 
 ence with Mr. H. C. Lea on certain new studies 
 interesting him, as the following letters show ; —
 
 Mt. 56] NEW STUDIES 395 
 
 To H. C. Lea. 
 
 Ches-knoll, May 13, 1883. 
 
 My dear Mr. Lea ; . . . I want much to get your 
 opinion on a point in your studies. What a won- 
 derful legend and belief is that of Osiris, and how 
 strangely like that of Christ! What is the explana- 
 tion ? I can think of three. (I.) It is a nature-myth. 
 But the moral elements would not be explained — the 
 suffering for men, dying, rising again, descending 
 to the under-world, and becoming the Judge and 
 Saviour, and the manifestation of God. (H.) It is 
 the way the human mind looks at moral truths. But 
 that would not explain all the features. Why should 
 the killed God-man be the Judge? And so with 
 other features. (HI.) A primeval revelation of 
 the Messiah to all races. Have you read Bunsen's 
 "Angel Messiah"? Please give me your guess. 
 
 I have been reading deep in Mazdeism. It is a 
 very natural conception, but overlaid with a fearful 
 amount of ceremonial and nonsense. 
 
 From H. C. Lea. 
 
 Delaware Water Gap, May 16, 1883. 
 My dear Mr. Brace : . . . There are few religions 
 which have not, like Mazdeism, been overlaid with 
 a crowd of ceremonial observances. Islam, indeed, 
 is almost the only one. The Levitical legislation is 
 almost as bad, in this respect, as Mazdeism, and its 
 development by the Pharisees and Rabbinism is much 
 worse. All relisfions have suffered from the uni-
 
 396 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 versal desire of their ministers to render themselves 
 indispensable to the salvation of the believer, and to 
 earn thereby a share in the goods of this world. By 
 the way, I think that in my list of Mazdean books, 
 I omitted to mention Harlez's complete translation of 
 the " Avesta " in French. It is so long since I have 
 looked into the Egyptian faith that I do not feel able 
 at the moment to express any opinion about the Osiris 
 myth. I had always been disposed to regard it as a 
 sun-myth, though I am by no means inclined to the 
 modern theories which refer all mythologies to this 
 source. 
 
 Mr. Brace again attended the Social Science Con- 
 vention in Saratoga in September, and there had 
 the great pleasure of forming a friendship with 
 the Hindoo, Mr. Chunder Mozoomdar, one of the 
 leaders of the Brahmo Somaj, and author of "The 
 Oriental Christ." In the short time that Mr. 
 Mozoomdar was in America, he made a profound 
 impression upon many by the beauty of his face 
 and expression, and the deep spirituality of his tone 
 in his public addresses. Mr. Mozoomdar became 
 Mr. Brace's guest during his stay in New York, 
 and his host asked several clergymen to meet him at 
 luncheon to arrange for Mr. Mozoomdar's lectures 
 in New York. "A high Brahminical symposium," 
 he called the party. The impression which this 
 noble spirit from the Orient made upon Mr. Brace 
 is shown in the two letters which follow: —
 
 ^T. 57] CHUNDER MOZOOMDAR 397 
 
 To Dr. Hoivard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Oct. 28, 1883. 
 
 Dear George : We had a most interesting lunch- 
 party. Drs. Taylor (Congregational) and Rylance 
 (Episcopal) and Williams (Unitarian), etc., etc., 
 were there. We have had Mozoomdar ever since, 
 and I have arranged his campaign in New York. I 
 never met a man that impressed me so much relig- 
 iously — a true Oriental saint and mystic. I shall 
 always think of him as I saw him yesterday, — a 
 draped, reverend figure on the top of the Palisades 
 worshipping, while L — and I watched him from 
 another peak. His prayers are wonderful. 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Nov. 11, 1883. 
 
 My dear Miss M — ; We have had a wonderful 
 blessing in this house for a week, in the person of 
 the saintly Hindoo, Mozoomdar. He seems like one 
 of the ancient apostles. I never met a man who so 
 "lives in God." He seems to raise us all to a higher 
 sphere; his prayers are the breathing upwards of a 
 soul; he is in perpetual communion with the Father. 
 He loves Christ deeply and fervently. Have you 
 read his "Oriental Christ"? Do! He speaks so 
 beautifully of Buddha. It gives one new hopes of 
 that land, that such men (non-Christian) live and 
 work there. May God raise us upwards to such 
 unworldly and spiritual communion !
 
 398 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1883 
 
 Something of the impression which Mr. Mozoom- 
 dar made upon his host during these precious days 
 was felt by those who visited Mr. Brace, as one of 
 the strongest charms of his society, and it cannot 
 be amiss to insert here a letter touching upon this, 
 written to Mrs. Brace soon after his death, by a 
 friend. What he said of his friend, that "his 
 prayers are the breathing upwards of a soul," was 
 often said of him. 
 
 " How often I recall those sacred hours when, after 
 the toil for the public service, Mr. Brace read aloud 
 to us, amid the beautiful scenery of the Hudson, and 
 in his refined and cherished home, passages from 
 Martineau, Emerson, and the poets, such thoughts 
 as 'Made for Peace.' It seems to me, as I look back 
 on those sweet visits to your dear home, that nothing 
 in this world is nearer heaven than those hours were 
 when, in the beautiful library, with you sitting near 
 him and the children gathered about, Mr. Brace 
 conducted the family devotions, and then read aloud 
 from his favorite authors, finishing the day with a 
 walk around the piazza to view the moonlight 
 reflected on the quiet waters of the Hudson, and 
 to see the solemn shadows resting on the Palisades. 
 I never felt anything more beautiful in my whole 
 life." The passages of which his friend speaks 
 were, besides those from modern sources, selections 
 from the Mozarabic and other ancient Sacramenta-
 
 ^T. 57] CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS 399 
 
 lies, and the collect he read oftenest was, " O Thou, 
 who art peace everlasting, whose chosen reward is 
 the gift of peace, and who hast taught us that the 
 peacemakers are Thy children, pour Thy sweet peace 
 into our hearts, that everything discordant may 
 utterly vanish, and all that makes for peace be 
 sweet to us forever." 
 
 He led the talk, and no unworthy topics were 
 ever possible under his guidance. A friend used 
 to say, "If the talk becomes frivolous, there is no 
 rebuke from Mr. Brace, but in some way the con- 
 versation comes to an end, and he is heard saying, 
 'Look at those great clouds. Are they nebulous ? ' 
 No rebuke was meant. He simply had no interest 
 in the subject, and we were brought back to his 
 level." Hearing criticism of persons was a great 
 affliction to him, and he was often heard to say that 
 a pure and charitably minded person may go through 
 life and deal with a vast variety of people without 
 distinctly making up his mind about them. He 
 sees what is good and pleasant in them; he enjoys 
 that. "You may have very pleasant intercourse 
 with your neighbors without supposing it necessary 
 to rake over their cellars and sewers to see how 
 they live. There is a custom among purely worldly 
 persons — especially characteristic of the French 
 educated classes — which might well be imitated 
 by Christians. It is the habit of attributing noble
 
 400 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 sentiments to others, and of appealing to them, even 
 where the one side knows little of the other. There 
 ought to be a similar and a higher Christian honor. 
 Our first impulse and our custom should be to give 
 the most generous explanation of anything uncer- 
 tain, and always to assign the good motive, if we 
 do not know the bad. . . . With parents, often the 
 best check on gossip in the family, is to create an 
 interest in greater subjects. The especial promoter 
 of petty gossip is a lack of mental occupation." 
 
 But two letters of general interest tell us of the 
 winter and spring of 1884 : — 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Jan. 19, 1884. 
 My dear George .• . . . I am speering as to the 
 influence of Christianity on art.^ Did it not bring 
 in the cathedral and the Madonna? Of course the 
 Faith acting on the German temperament and Roman 
 ideas. I wonder whether the deficiency of Buddhism 
 in art did not come from want of the Christian ideas 
 — the value of the individual and the Fatherhood of 
 God. But race also tells. I have been reading a 
 great deal about Buddha. (Get Lillie's "Life," etc.) 
 He is intensely interesting, but the ideas become 
 more misty, the deeper you go, and relative chronol- 
 ogy with Christianity is uncertain. It looks as if 
 
 1 In connection witli a fourth edition of his book, " Gesta 
 Christi."
 
 iET. 57] SPRING ON THE RIVER 401 
 
 the Essenes had got a great deal from Buddha, 
 and so Christ Himself have been influenced. These 
 thoughts of love and utter self-sacrifice were in the 
 air then. Is not that a strange passage about eunuchs 
 an Essenic or Buddhist one ? It never seemed Christ- 
 like. But Christ in His want of Total Abstinence 
 was not Buddhistic or Essene. I understand Buddha 
 much better since knowing Mozoomdar. They are 
 all very ascetic. 
 
 P.S. Received five thousand dollars the other day 
 for Children's Aid Society from a gentleman I never 
 met, who wishes to be anonymous, and notice of 
 bequest (ten thousand dollars) from a Jew, and of 
 six hundred dollars from a Catholic. 
 
 To L. W. 
 
 Ches-knoll, May 18, 1884. 
 
 My dear L — .* The river an unruffled lake, banks 
 in first fresh green, woods Avhite with dogwood and 
 fragrant with apple-blossoms, — you know it all, — 
 vases brilliant with pinks and columbine, etc. A 
 day to live in! And such a week of anxiety to the 
 business community! Banks and brokers failing, 
 and some very prominent men caught in bad specu- 
 lation. . . . This week we open our new lodging- 
 house, and soon our sanitarium, so I am very busy. 
 
 Mr, Brace's enjoyment of the varying seasons, as 
 he watched them come and go, was felt by every one 
 who was privileged to be with him in his country 
 2d
 
 402 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 home, and his exuberant vitality seemed to find its 
 fullest satisfaction as each spring arrived, with its 
 beauty of woods and wild flowers. As the length- 
 ening days gave still some hours of daylight after 
 his return from town, no weight of responsibility 
 in the work he had left appeared to mar his peaceful 
 enjoyment of the woods ; and his Saturday after- 
 noons were occasions of especial happiness as, after 
 a morning of work in his study, he rowed his 
 family and friends across the river, and guided 
 them through wood-paths to the heights of the Pali- 
 sades above. He knew the sheltered nooks where 
 the first hepaticas w'ere to be found, the rocky 
 ledges where the columbine clung, and returned 
 from these excursions with botanist case hung from 
 his shoulder, and his hand full of azalea and rock- 
 pink and dogwood. The sick and unhappy among 
 those dear to him were especially in his thoughts 
 during these peaceful wanderings, and the early 
 morning saw Mr. Brace on his way to the city 
 carrying huge bunches of his favorite flowers to 
 brighten the sick-rooms of his friends. 
 
 The sanitarium for sick infants, the building of 
 which Mr. Brace had superintended during the 
 summer before, was finally, in 1884, ready for occu- 
 pation, and he was made happy by seeing everything 
 in order for this valuable part of the work of the
 
 ^T. 58] OPENING OF SANITARIUM 403 
 
 Children's Aid Society. It was the fulfilment of a 
 dream of many years, and stood now an ornamental 
 feature of the shore at Coney Island. It was very 
 complete in its arrangements, with external gal- 
 leries and stairways, little separated cottages joined 
 by covered passages to the main house, and deep 
 verandas where the mothers could sit with their 
 babies in the fresh, invigorating sea-air. The need 
 for it was proved beyond a doubt before the weekly 
 parties had been twdce taken down to the island, 
 and the immediate revival of apparently dying 
 babies was a striking proof that in many cases their 
 desperate condition was merely from lack of proper 
 food and fresh air. It was soon found, also, that 
 the Health Home was as valuable for the poor 
 mothers as for the children. Many of them had 
 never known so comfortable and neat a spot before, 
 and their ignorance of the simplest facts of hygiene 
 and cleanliness was appalling. During this sum- 
 mer eleven hundred mothers and infants were taken 
 down to the home for a stay of some days, and about 
 eleven hundred more went on day excursions. 
 
 But this new branch of the society had itfe at- 
 tendant anxieties. It was a large expense, and 
 Mr. Brace was not sure for the first few sum- 
 mers whether money enough would be given by the 
 charitable public to justify the outlay. Happily it 
 never had to cease its usefulness, though there were
 
 404 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 summers when it closed earlier than was wished, 
 on account of lack of funds. From Bath on Long 
 Island (whither he went generally with Mrs. 
 Brace, to pass a few days before their departure to 
 the mountains, in order to see the work of the two 
 homes now organized) he writes, on July 5th: — 
 
 "... We had a very quiet Fourth, varied by a 
 very pathetic glimpse of our sanitarium; so many 
 sick and deformed children, and poor mothers. It 
 is proving to be a great success ; the infants recover 
 immediately; only one has died, and she was dying 
 when she came. . . . We have had a delightful 
 visit here, and have been of much use in our new 
 and grand experiment with the sick little ones. But 
 I shall be glad to escape all responsibility in the 
 mountains. It is a very hard year to raise funds for 
 these charities." 
 
 Mr. Brace speaks of escaping all responsibility in 
 the mountains. His devoted assistant in charge of 
 the office, Mr. Holste, tried, not only during the 
 vacation time in the summer, but throughout the 
 year, to save Mr. Brace from the small details and 
 annoyances coming up of necessity in every large 
 business concern. During the months of daily at- 
 tendance at the office, Mr. Holste would be on the 
 watch for him every morning, and on hearing on the 
 door of the private hall the gentle scratching which 
 signalled his arrival, would go out and report to him
 
 ^T. 58] LETTER FROM MR. MOZOOMDAR 405 
 
 all that had happened since his departure the day 
 before. When, in his devoted anxiety to save Mr. 
 Brace every annoyance, he used to apologize for 
 recounting all the petty details, Mr. Brace would 
 reply that "the spirit followed the flesh with him," 
 and when he was there, his whole mind and atten- 
 tion were there, as when he was away he left it all 
 behind. Mr. Holste, however, never felt that the 
 concerns of the society could be so completely 
 banished from his mind for any length of time, as 
 he claimed; for on one occasion, during one of Mr. 
 Brace's absences from home, upon Mr. Holste's 
 omitting his daily letter for two or three days, he 
 grew anxious, and wrote in some concern to know 
 if anything was going wrong in society matters. 
 
 From Lake Placid, during this summer, Mr. 
 Brace wrote to Mr. Mozoomdar, and received the 
 following characteristic reply : — 
 
 From Protap Chunder Mozoomdar. 
 
 Peace Cottage, Calcutta, 
 Sept. 6, 1884. 
 
 Ml/ dear Mr. Brace : You write from Lake 
 "Placid," and I reply from "Peace" Cottage. 
 Peace and placidity always go together. You and 
 I always agreed. But since returning home care 
 and trouble, all relating to our infant Church, have
 
 406 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 so beset me that I have had to forego a great deal of 
 what I would most willingly do. 
 
 Your letter of July 31st, received only two days 
 ago, suddenly arouses me. I look back to the past, 
 that past which, though only a twelvemonth old, 
 seems to have receded far, far behind the events 
 which cast a deep shadow around me. The autumn 
 leaves were strewing the ground with gold, the 
 Palisades still wore their crown of yellow, the River 
 Hudson smoothly flowed within its banks, when I 
 left your home. Everything is so vivid in my mind. 
 The whole memory of my American visit is peopled 
 with scenes, objects, enjoyments, which seem to have 
 the shadow and glamour of another, abetter world, for 
 me. No, no, dear Mr. Brace, I have not forgotten 
 you nor yours ; I do not forget so soon. But impres- 
 sions crowd upon me; duties urge me on; the myste- 
 ries of Providence so encompass me that I have to 
 move on and on, and hardly find the time to look 
 back. Truly the Father's work is a reality which 
 drives a man's self out of him. When Jesus said, 
 Think not of the morrow. He indicated the depth of 
 absorption into which the faithful of God drift often 
 in sjiite of themselves. You rightly say in the East 
 men are nearer to the heart of things, you in the 
 West work out the will force. And we are both 
 about equally related to the mind and meaning of 
 the world. 
 
 I have not read Sinnet's "Occult Buddhism." I 
 know a good deal of Sinnet and his school, and I 
 must honestly say I have little respect for them. 
 This occultism is proving to be the bane of our young 
 men. There is plenty of conjuring and necromancy
 
 ^T. 58] RELIGIONS OF THE EAST 407 
 
 in India, and we need not import an}' more from the 
 waifs and strays of Europe. I have been hearing of 
 Renan's book. Renan is only one among many 
 examples of the utter incapacity of European imag- 
 ination to enter into the depths of the Orient. I 
 have admiration for his genius; his eloquence and 
 warmth have almost an Eastern glow. But it is 
 artistic, superficial, unreal. He cannot understand 
 Sakya Muni. What to him is "annihilation and 
 atheism " is to me the peace of Christ that is past 
 all understanding. I crave Nirvana, as much as any 
 Buddhist did, by which Sakya meant "the eradica- 
 tion of the disease of covetousness, aversion, and 
 delusion." Nirvana means the acquirement of "per- 
 manence, joy, personality, and purity." Is this anni- 
 hilation? is this atheism? How often do I think that 
 Western scholars ought to learn in the East of the 
 religions of the East. But they are always led away 
 as captives to research, criticism, and a meretricious 
 glare of omniscience in so-called Orientalists. You 
 have a true and profound sympathy with the aspira- 
 tions and genius of our continent, into which Emer- 
 son had penetrated so truly. But I must not bother 
 you with the laudation of the East, especially as every 
 day the East and West are coming nearer. 
 
 I am glad you have taken interest in some of the 
 little articles I have now and then sent. I have sent 
 a somewhat long discourse to the " Christian Union " 
 on Hindoo women. If the editor publishes it, you 
 may find it interesting. And it may give you some 
 information over and above what you publish in 
 "Gesta Christi," about Indian home life. Your 
 book is a mine of instruction to me. I will use it
 
 408 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 for many and many a day. Kindly remember me 
 with sincere gratitude to Mrs. Brace. The young 
 ladies must still remember a good deal of my awk- 
 ward Hindoo ways. If you ever see Dr. Newman, 
 Heber Newton, or any of those who kindly permitted 
 me to speak in their churches, tell them my very kind 
 regards. 
 
 The mind of the Eternal, who can know? He 
 brings together and relates souls, He kindles the 
 flame of brotherly love in hearts that are foreign. 
 May His spirit draw us nearer and nearer in that 
 deathless union which is hidden in like-mindedness 
 with Him. 
 
 The presidential election of 1884 aroused Mr. 
 Brace's interest to the full, and the following let- 
 ters to Dr. Howard and Mr. Redmayne sufficiently 
 indicate his own position : — 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Bath, Sept. 14, 1884. 
 My dear G-eorge ; ... In public matters, my hope 
 is to give the rising spirit of corruption in all classes 
 such a lesson in this election as to reach the whole 
 peojDle, both those "on the make" and those out of 
 politics. I think it will be done; and will be worth 
 four years of the Democrats, who will soon hang 
 themselves. I don't meet a man of the moralist class 
 who isn't with us. . . . Thanks for the sermon on 
 stock-gambling; it is capital and most needed. . . . 
 But, dear friend and pastor, don't you see that Blaine
 
 ^T. 58] AN INDEPENDENT IN POLITICS 409 
 
 is the incarnation of that money-getting spirit, insen- 
 sitive to honor and strict integrity? His success 
 would be a carnival of the gambling passion, and 
 would sap the weak sense of judicial and official 
 honor among our young men. I do not see how any 
 one could read his letters and not feel the low senti- 
 ment of honor in them. We could not imagine 
 Lincoln or Garfield even thinking of reminding a 
 business friend of a judicial decision for the sake of 
 making money. Oh, brother, apply your noble ser- 
 mon to present political" conditions ! I shall vote (I 
 think) for St. John. 
 
 To E. B. Redmayne. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Oct. 26, 1884. 
 My dear Mr. Redmayne : . . . We are deeply 
 absorbed here in endeavoring to cleanse the old party 
 which was baptized in blood and has led us to so 
 many noble victories by defeating it. We (the 
 " Independents ") expect to turn the scale, and elect 
 a " Democratic " President, and thereby purify our 
 politics. But this is the beginning of a new crystal- 
 lizing of parties, and the formation of a new Free 
 Trade (or low tariff) and Civil Service Reform 
 party. Our disease is the corruption and want of 
 honor of politicians. We are curing it by drastic 
 methods. You will soon find it breaking out with 
 you [in England]. For that reason, I should want 
 to keep one branch of government as a Senate. It 
 is a dyke against some popular floods. It has saved 
 us many a time.
 
 410 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1884 
 
 As to "distribution of wealth," that is still the 
 great problem. We are looking towards measures 
 for controlling monopolies, and accumulation, and 
 perhaps the right of bequest. Democracy is a sworn 
 foe to monopolies, but is often tripped up in the 
 struggle. I don't think your rapid rush towards 
 Democracy is an entirely cheering spectacle; still 
 you cannot help it. 
 
 I want much to ask you, as a manufacturer, some 
 questions. (I.) Would not American free trade 
 make us a dangerous competitor in Asia, South 
 America, and in shipping? (II.) Would you not 
 lose as much as you would gain by it? (III.) Would 
 not, on the whole, production gain in England by 
 shorter hours? The Middle Age builders of the 
 cathedrals worked fewer hours than the modern Eng- 
 lish mason — and how much better the work ! Your 
 workmen spend fewer hours than the French and 
 German ; and are more efficient. You have shorter 
 work-days than we, but then we have always land 
 to turn to. (IV. ) Have you any new means of 
 elevating the operative class ? especially the girls ? 
 New York has become a tremendous manufacturing 
 city. 
 
 The letter from Mr. Brace which elicited from 
 Mr. John Morley the following interesting reply, 
 has unfortunately been lost. "The House of 
 Lords," he says, writing on Nov. 2, 1884, from 
 London, "is the very representative and centre of 
 those impulses which make what you supj)Ose to be 
 'popular gushes.' The dispatch of Gordon! But
 
 ^T. 58] LETTER FROM JOIIX MORLEY 411 
 
 that was pressed most hardly upon the government 
 by the very classes who are masters in the House of 
 Lords. Wars, extensions, annexations, frivolous 
 diplomatizings, — all these mischiefs are encour- 
 aged by the House of Lords, not checked by it. I 
 wholly dissent from such notions as that university 
 men are specially apt in politics, or are v/iser, 
 cooler, steadier, than artisans. Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge Universities return two members apiece, and 
 the w^hole four are invariably Tories, usually Tories 
 of the more stupid type. 
 
 " With you the Senate is the seat of real power, 
 as I understand; with us it is the House of Com- 
 mons. I am against any device that puts the best 
 men anywhere but in the strongest chamber. What- 
 ever your machinery is, the final resort is public 
 opinion. Public opinion is often wrong. You 
 cannot help it. You cannot resist it by artificial 
 checks. If we had only one chamber, the electors 
 would be the more careful in their choice, knowing 
 how momentous its results might be. In our pres- 
 ent and coming difficulties we need a strong, 
 clear, self-reliant government and legislature. Our 
 difiiculties are great and they are thickening. 
 I am against the device for si^litting us up in 
 groups, and paralyzing the executive. If you see 
 anything to say against all this, please to launch 
 another sheet of note-paper. With sincere thanks
 
 412 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 for your writing to me, and very kind regards, 
 etc." 
 
 During the year of 1885, upon which we are 
 now entering in Mr. Brace's correspondence, there 
 occurred in the administration of public affairs in 
 New York a step in advance which was a source 
 of immense aid to him as the friend of the children 
 of the poor. Allusion has more than once been 
 made to his wish that there might be more strenuous 
 effort made in New York to carry out the law com- 
 pelling education. Writing during this year, he 
 says : — 
 
 "It is pleasant to chronicle an advance in this 
 important matter, mainly owing to the efforts of 
 the superintendent of the public schools, Mr. John 
 Jasper, who is determined to execute the law. how- 
 ever defective it may be. The greater proportion of 
 the shops and factories of the city now compel their 
 youthful employes — under fourteen years — to pro- 
 duce a certificate from the authorities of the school 
 where they attend, of at least fourteen weeks' attend- 
 ance, or twenty-eight weeks' half attendance. This 
 they are obliged to show to the truant-agent or other 
 official visiting the place of employment. Then, 
 very wisely, an Italian truant-agent has been em- 
 ployed, and he, in company with our agents, has 
 thoroughly explored the poorest Italian quarters of 
 the rag-pickers and organ-grinders near the Five 
 Points and in other districts, and induced many
 
 ^T. 58] EFFORTS OF TRUANT-OFFICERS 413 
 
 hundreds of these dirty and ignorant chikhen to 
 attend our industrial schools or half-time schools. 
 The truants and hard subjects from the public 
 schools are brought to all our industrial schools by 
 the truant-officers, and are cleaned and provided for, 
 and finally reformed so far as is practicable by our 
 experienced teachers. After a sufficient training of 
 this kind they are again forwarded on to the 'ward 
 schools.' 
 
 " Our night schools in the lodging-houses reach a 
 considerable number of the street- wandering class, as 
 a strong pressure is brought by the superintendent 
 to force every boy into school during the winter 
 months. Still, both charity and law fail as yet of 
 fully reaching all the little bootblacks and newsboys 
 on the streets, and many are growing up without 
 school training. The provision so often spoken of 
 in these reports is still needed in our law for popular 
 education ; namely, the right of the police to arrest 
 a street-wandering boy or girl who cannot show a 
 certificate of school attendance during at least four- 
 teen weeks' full time When this becomes a law, we 
 shall have universal school training in New York." 
 
 The letters of this year tell with more than usual 
 fulness of his reading and other interests. The 
 first of those below is from Mr. Francis Parkman in 
 acknowledgment of Mr. Brace's appreciation of his 
 new book, "Montcalm and Wolfe," and then follow 
 several of general interest. "Many thanks," Mr. 
 Parkman writes, " for your kind letter of the 24th.
 
 414 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 Some of the expressions in it were especially wel- 
 come as showing that I had in some measure suc- 
 ceeded in conveying the impressions at which I 
 particularly aimed. Coming as it does from one 
 whose writings and life give him so high a title to 
 esteem, and whose career I have for many years 
 regarded with interest, I value it as one of the 
 pleasantest marks of literary commendation that I 
 have ever received. Thank you, also, for the book, 
 which has not yet come, but will no doubt soon 
 appear." 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Feb. 8, 1885. 
 
 Dear Miss 31— : A beautiful Sunday here at 
 Ches-knoll, the river in waves of snow and ice, but a 
 spring sunlight. We are fall of George Eliot's life. 
 What a vigorous mental training for a novelist! Is 
 she not a sweet, interesting, modest creature? I 
 don't like literary people personally, but she is one 
 to love, — a remarkable jDersonality better even than 
 her books ; and full of religious spirit. 
 
 I have been thinking much about Christ lately, 
 and the future life, and the like. I wonder what 
 agnostics do with "Come unto me," etc. I suppose 
 George Eliot would say, " The divinest acme of sym- 
 pathy ever reached by man." But to me it is this 
 divine Being gathering into His bosom all the tears 
 and wounds and sighs and sorrows and burdens of 
 humanity, — a mountain load of pain and grief, —
 
 ^T. 58] THE CLEVELAND ADMINISTRATION 415 
 
 and assuaging and consoling all. This is One whom 
 to know and love would be eternal life. Don't you 
 think so? I can understand that to touch the very 
 hem of His garment would be health. Do you not 
 sometimes feel that the future life will make us 
 almost forget this ? except as those we love are here. 
 When I think of those I shall hope to be in Eternity 
 with, there are not very many. Will you think it 
 natural that to know you there seems to belong to 
 our life and relations here? For you have helped 
 me, and perhaps I have you. But alles liegt mit Crott. 
 Infinite goodness encircles and cradles us, and will 
 dispose of all. 
 
 To come to earth: I am thrown in with intimate 
 advisers and friends of Cleveland. All looks well. 
 He stands firm for Civil Service Reform, right on 
 silver, progressive on the tariff, conservative on the 
 treaties, and stiff against dynamite. I think J. Q. 
 Adams will be secretar}?^ in the post-office (don't 
 speak of it), and the others in Cabinet will be Bayard, 
 Whitney, Garner, McDonald, and Hewitt or Man- 
 ning possible. I think we shall have a good admin- 
 istration, but the silver-storm may reach us at any 
 time. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Ches-knoll, March 15, 1885. 
 Dear Miss M — : I have just been reading a very 
 interesting and valuable theological book on tlie 
 " Continuity of Christian Thought " by Professor 
 Allen of Cambridge, Episcopal Theological Semi- 
 nary. It is remarkably liberal ; the account of the
 
 416 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 philosophy of Clement of Alexandria is peculiarly- 
 valuable. Professor A. is in one matter too orthodox 
 for me, — the Trinity. I have always looked on that 
 dogma as a scholastic inference from a few Bible 
 words. Yet I hold the divinity of Christ as the 
 essential doctrine of Christianity. I believe with 
 Clement and Professor Allen in the immanence and 
 manifestation of God in all human history of all 
 races and religions ; but in the highest manifestation 
 in Christ. So, and so only, can I justify God's ways 
 to men. A third manifestation seems unnecessary, 
 and the Bible language can be explained without it. 
 With Professor A. and Bushnell, I do not believe in 
 a sacrificial atonement, but an " at-one-ment " and 
 a reconciliation of men, not God. Ask your sister 
 what she thinks of my theology. ... I am finish- 
 ing my annual examinations of some five thousand 
 children, — very laborious, but valuable. I get 
 rather used up by it. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoli>, June 11, 1885. 
 My dear George : I am just reading with intense 
 interest that discussion between Herbert Spencer and 
 Fr. Harrison on "Religion." Do read it (Apple- 
 ton's). H. S. turns out more religious than I 
 thought, and believes in Pantheism, in a mysteri- 
 ous energy, like personality, only far higher, acting 
 in all matter and mind, from which all proceeds and 
 in which all subsists. His objections to a human 
 personality in this are very keen; like Bushnell's,
 
 JEt. 59] CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY AFFAIRS 417 
 
 but do not touch infinite affections, or the possibility 
 of an infinite succession of ideas. He calls it or him 
 the "Unknowable." F. H. attacks him most wittily 
 on worshipping or loving (a;"), or an unknown quan- 
 tity, raised to an infinite power. He is ver}- sharp 
 and witty. H. S. answers by attacking his religion, 
 the worship of humanity. An Italian savant sums 
 up very clearly. I am most struck by the evolu- 
 tionist admitting a God — or a Power — within and 
 without ourselves, making for order and righteous- 
 ness ; mysterious, awful, unknowable, but not a force 
 alone, with something like ourselves, only infinitely 
 greater and better. If a mind, not one like ours 
 reasoning from premises, or with memory, or acting 
 from present motives, or changing with time, etc. 
 . . . We are having great times with our seaside 
 work. ... It has been a year of much strain and 
 anxiety, and I feel it physically. Think of it! Four 
 or five lawsuits ; the Devil in some of our boys at the 
 West; a new lodging-house and plans to settle with 
 conflicting tastes; Summer Home to get funds for 
 and open; sanitarium to organize and raise money 
 for; a new superintendent to settle, and all usual 
 work. ... I have been reading Schopenhauer. He 
 is like a Buddhist, but less gentle. 
 
 From Protap Chunder Mozoomdar. 
 
 KuRSEONG, Nov. 23, 1885. 
 My dear Mr. Brace : Every message from you is 
 warmly welcome. It seems to be full of the mellow 
 fragrance of the woods and apples of America. I 
 2b
 
 418 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 am delighted to hear you like my occasional contri- 
 butions to the " Union " and " Register." I write as 
 the impulse comes, feeling nervous when I at first 
 put the thoughts on paper, but glad and grateful to 
 find afterwards that men like them. The editor 
 of the " Christian Union " often demands articles, 
 and I am as often at a loss to know what to write 
 upon. 
 
 Our struggles in the Brahmo Somaj have not 
 ended. I have had to go through a long and bitter 
 persecution, but I am thankful to say it has not over- 
 whelmed me. In all apostolical churches, perhaps, 
 the servants of God have once for all to strive against 
 the whole world. Once for all a man must labor 
 in utter, absolute loneliness, with nothing but the 
 august Infinite to befriend him. And if he can out- 
 watch the night, that wanes fast enough, with the 
 first beams of the morning the white-robed angels 
 of God come and minister unto him. The past and 
 present are full of help; what trial is there that has 
 not been better borne than we can bear, by the heroic 
 sons of God? Yet each man must solve anew for 
 himself the great problem of destiny. God has to 
 be sought and found again and again. Each man 
 must do it for himself. If I had been somewhere 
 near you, I would have asked you to explain to me 
 better than I know of the difficulties of the infant 
 Christian Church. But there are many Christians 
 here in India; they do not help us, but always 
 preach to us of the "blood, blood, and blood! " We 
 get tired of it. 
 
 Alas, there is no Buddhism in India. It was long 
 ago swept out of the land by the Brahmins. In the
 
 jEt. 59] BUDDHISM 419 
 
 southern extremity of the peninsula there may be a 
 few, but we know nothing of them. All that you 
 say of Buddha is very true. He is not so shadowy 
 to us as he seems to you. The instincts and develop- 
 ments of the nation are still what he found them. 
 And though to-day India does not profess his creed, 
 the whole spiritual atmosphere is suffused with the 
 glow of his life and teachings. The religion of the 
 Brahmins has absorbed and assimilated the spirit of 
 the great Sakya Muni. In the Brahmo Somaj we 
 have made him a great ideal; we go on pilgrimage 
 to his soul. But the magnificent sanctuary built by 
 the descendants of Asoka on the spot where he 
 obtained his final illumination at Uru-villa, near 
 Gya, is in desolate solitude; not a single devotee 
 goes there. 
 
 You will find this letter is not addressed from 
 Calcutta. Kurseong, whence this is written, is on 
 the Himalayas. Here I have come to get a little 
 cottage, whence I have a magnificent view of the 
 snow-covered peaks, not one of which is less than 
 twenty-seven thousand feet high. Thougli it is 
 November, the sunshine is bright and warm, and 
 the breeze most balmy and healthful. My wife is 
 here with me, my simple, hard-working wife, whose 
 sole object in life is to see me comfortable. We 
 send our joint regards to you, Mrs. Brace, and the 
 young ladies. To "the bummers and snoozers " my 
 hearty good will. I yet hope one of them will come 
 to be the President of the United States some day, 
 and glorify the institution over which your genial 
 presence presides.
 
 420 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 From Dr. Storrs. 
 
 Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 15, 1885. 
 
 My dear Mr. Brace : Your kind letter of yesterday- 
 makes me blush furiously, by its delightful over- 
 estimate of the Missionary Discourse, but I am none 
 the less indebted to you for writing it. The Dis- 
 course was written under special difficulties, partly 
 at Shelter Island, partly here, and was finished in 
 fierce haste, so that I am the more glad that the style 
 and tone of it commend themselves to one so expert 
 and accomplished in such matters as you are. The 
 immeasurable fact of a Divine Redeemer in the world, 
 giving celestial hope to the race, and graduallj^ trans- 
 forming it by His love into His likeness, more and 
 more clearly appears to me the life of the Gospel, the 
 supreme promise for the world, and the inspiration 
 to our noblest and holiest personal effort. I was 
 glad of the opportunity to set this forth, as far as 
 I could, in the midst of the ethical schemes and 
 fugitive speculations and the clashing collisions of 
 opinion with which Boston is filled. 
 
 I have never investigated the great subject of 
 which you speak with any breadth of survey, or care 
 in analysis. I hope you will do it, and give us a 
 book upon it as noble and fascinating as the " Gesta 
 Christi." 
 
 The subject which was beginning to absorb Mr. 
 Brace's studious hours, to which Dr. Storrs alludes 
 in the letter above, was the presence of God's spirit 
 in pre-Christian religions, the continuity of His
 
 iEx. 59] "EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM" 421 
 
 inspiration thi'oughout the ages as shown, he con- 
 sidered, in the seeking of earnest minds of all time 
 after the Being whom, as St. Paul said, "Ye wor- 
 ship in ignorance." To prove that "God hath not 
 left Himself without a witness," that the dark and 
 ignorant beliefs of early religions had in them some 
 spark from the Divine Spirit, and finally, if he 
 could procure the material, to give this to the 
 world in a book, was Mr. Brace's ambition. 
 
 "... I have hatched my eggs," he says to Dr. 
 Howard in February, 1886, "and though very prom- 
 ising, they didn't come out quite as lively as I 
 hoped. The subject is 'Continuity of Religion: 
 Egyptian Monotheism.' They say every one gets 
 crazy who writes on Egyptian religion. I don't 
 wonder. It is wonderful. It seems a revelation 
 or inspiration — like the Hebrew — pure, reverent, 
 complete, and full both of spirituality and morality ; 
 yet it ran completely out — perhaps influencing 
 Moses and Job somewhat, and Plato and St. John ; 
 but outside of Egypt a failure mainly. There it 
 lived longer than Christianity has yet done, and 
 must have been an incredible blessing. Yet it never 
 gave the Jews its strongest belief — in immortality. 
 My great authority has been 'The Book of the Dead. ' " 
 
 "My 'Egypt' is coming out in 'Princeton 
 Review,'" he writes again in March. "I am now 
 on Akkadian religion and Indian (Vedas), but the 
 examination of about five thousand children keeps 
 me busy."
 
 422 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 One or two paragraphs from this paper on Egyp- 
 tian Monotheism, which appeared in May of this 
 year, and later as a chapter in his book, " The 
 Unknown God," present Mr. Brace's belief that the 
 Divine Being " is limited to no time or age or 
 race," and give his reasons for this belief. 
 
 "The only conception," he writes, "of the moral 
 action of the Divine Being on the human soul, which 
 is a 'priori defensible and philosophical, is of a con- 
 tinued and impartial influence, limited to no time 
 or age or race. It should be like the great physical 
 forces — like gravity, magnetism, or electricity — 
 forever acting in all particles of matter, but not 
 always manifesting themselves, sometimes resisted, 
 often unseen, but eternally working towards definite 
 ends. ... It is a side-evidence of the spiritual 
 inspiration of ancient or barbarous races that so 
 many tribes of men in all ages have a tradition or 
 legend of a moral benefactor of their race, who came 
 from above, bore human ills, sought to scatter happi- 
 ness and enlightenment among men, and perhaps 
 perished at last in the struggle with evil on earth, 
 to appear again among the stars, or to await his 
 faithful followers in the region of the blessed. Even 
 'sun-myths,' subsequently attached to such tradi- 
 tions, would not disprove the substantial historical 
 truth of the original story. Nor would the tendency 
 of the human mind to frame its ideals in legends, 
 demonstrate that no such ideal benefactors had arisen. 
 The strength and purity of the feelings and practices
 
 Mt. 59] " THE BOOK OF THE DEAD " 423 
 
 which gather around such memories are perhaps the 
 best test of their reality. Under a continuity of 
 spiritual influences through all ages, such lives are 
 natural and to be expected. And even if some of 
 these be imagined, the ideal shows the moral forces 
 working on the hearts of men and the truths which 
 had here and there dawned on them." 
 
 Miss Cobbe, in acknowledging the receipt of the 
 'Review' containing his paper, says: — 
 
 "I thank you warmly for having sent me your fine 
 paper on the Continuity of Religion as exhibited by 
 ancient Egyptian Monotheism. I had not seen it 
 before, and am reading it with very great interest. 
 How do you possibly manage to do all 3-our great 
 active work, and at the same time to 'hive learning 
 with each studious year,' as if you were nothing 
 more than a book-bee, or (like most of us) only a 
 book-butterfly?" 
 
 The attractiveness to Mr. Brace of this new field 
 of religious aspiration which he was traversing dur- 
 ing this year, was very great. For weeks, during 
 the restful hours at home or in his long walks over 
 the breezy hills, indeed, through all his waking 
 hours, thoughts from "The Book of the Dead" 
 were absorbing him. 
 
 Then would come a time when his breathings of 
 prayer and aspiration seemed to find their fittest
 
 424 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1885 
 
 expression in the ancient Akkadian hymns, and, 
 as the studies continued, Buddha and his teachings 
 filled his mind, and so on, the Stoics in turn inspir- 
 ing his thought, while those about him could tell 
 which form of religion was absorbing him by the 
 reflected tone of his prayers and conversation. A 
 far view of the river scene in its spring green or 
 autumn gold, as he stood on one of his favorite 
 points silently rejoicing in its beauty, would call 
 forth a murmured " He judgeth the world . . . the 
 crescent of the sun is under Him, the winds, the 
 waters, the plants, and all growing things. . . . 
 All men are in ecstasy, hearts in sweetness, bosoms 
 in joy, every one is in adoration. Every one glori- 
 fies His goodness, mild is His love for us; His ten- 
 derness environs our hearts, great is His love in all 
 bosoms." ^ Or this, from an Akkadian prayer, — 
 
 " God my Creator, stand by my side ! 
 Keep thou the door of my lips, guard thou my hands, 
 O Lord of Light ! " 
 
 Or again he would repeat the following expression of 
 
 the faith of the Stoics, — 
 
 " Lead thou me on, O Zeus I 
 
 And thou, O Destiny ! 
 Whithersoever thou ordainest 
 
 Unflinching will I follow ; 
 But if from wicked heart 
 
 I will it not, 
 Still must I follow ! " 
 
 1 From an ancient Egyptian inscription.
 
 Mt. 59] SACRED WRITINGS OF BUDDHISM 425 
 
 and again, "Not in the void of heaven, not in the 
 depths of the sea, not by entering the rocky clefts 
 of the mountains — in none of these places can a 
 man by any means escape the consequences of his 
 evil deed." ^ 
 
 1 From the writings of Buddhism.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 English Sojourn — Summary of the Children's Aid Society — 
 Letters — Thirty-lifth Annual Report — Death of Friends of 
 the Society — Letters on his Coming Book — Death of Dr. Gray 
 — Letter on Inspiration of the Scriptures — Letters — Effort to 
 Prevent the Admission of Boys to Men's Lodging Houses — 
 Marienbad — Switzerland 
 
 But two letters, beyond those on Mr. Brace's 
 absorbing theme of study, are before us for this 
 winter and spring. To Dr. Howard he writes, in 
 February, 1886 : — 
 
 "A week ago I received news of work like ours 
 started in Australia, England, San Francisco, and 
 in Washington, all seeking to follow our tracks. 
 I had a glorious time in Washington, starting 
 theirs, — gave a public address in company with 
 two senators, Eaton and a United States judge; 
 then spoke to five hundred newsboys ; then to a com- 
 mittee, — and was much feasted and well received." 
 
 And to Mrs. Lyell: — 
 
 "I suppose you have had your usual pleasant 
 winter in Italy. We have been quietly on the 
 Hudson; my work among the poor demanding in- 
 creasing attention. We have the satisfaction now 
 
 426
 
 JEt. 59] A SUMMER ABROAD 427 
 
 of seeing the direct effects on the criminal records 
 of the city. In public matters everything is very 
 dull because so prosperous. We are gaining step by 
 step in Civil Service Reform, and are much pleased 
 with the new President. Our only danger is from 
 the silver question. Our peojDle never learn any- 
 thing in finance except by learning their blunders. 
 
 "Privately we are made happy by the arrival of a 
 granddaughter. Mvs. Brace has gone West to be 
 with the young mother and our son. You will be 
 interested to know that Mrs. Brace and I, with our 
 two daughters, expect to spend June in London. I 
 hope we shall be able to introduce them to such a 
 valued friend as you. ... I keep your sister's 
 picture always before me in my study; a sweeter 
 and nobler nature I never knew." 
 
 The accumulation of work for the Children's Aid 
 Society, together with that on his book, were too 
 severe a strain upon Mr. Brace, and in the spring he 
 found himself needing complete rest. He decided 
 to go abroad, and in May the family sailed for Eng- 
 land. The following extract from a paper which he 
 must have intended to publish, shows how close was 
 his observation of the natural beauties in which he 
 took so keen a delight in England. The paper is 
 entitled "Certain Social and Moral Glimpses of 
 England": — 
 
 " It has sometimes seemed to me, as an old trav- 
 eller, that the two richest pleasures in nature were
 
 428 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1886 
 
 the glimpses of an American autumn and an English 
 spring. We reached the British shores this year, 
 late in May, but owing to cold Arctic winds, the 
 season was backward, and we saw the bloom of that 
 most delicious change — the ripening of an English 
 spring. The first thing, of course, which strikes an 
 American observer, and which is always fresh to 
 him, no matter how often he has visited England, 
 is the atmosphere. He sees no hard, clear outlines 
 or distinct horizons ; all is soft and hazy, one object 
 melts into another, the green hedge into the lighter 
 green of the field, this into copses and shrubbery, 
 and this again into masses of dark foliage far away, 
 from which arises, as belonging to it, a cold, gray 
 soft-shaded spire. The landscape is gentle, sub- 
 dued, suffused, and changing incessantly with flick- 
 ering light and shadow of passing fleecy clouds. All 
 is in harmony; the red roof of a farm-house, the 
 brown thatch and dark green ivy of an old cottage, 
 the gray and aged church with spire mounting above 
 the old elms, the quiet 'hall ' seen through green 
 lawns and ancient oaks, and the far-away glimpses 
 of soft, dark copses and rich woodlands. Nature 
 seems in its sweetest and calmest mood. The caw- 
 ing of the rooks in the high trees and the upward 
 cheering song of the lark only add to the repose. 
 The cows lying down in the rich grass seem happier 
 and more comfortable than any other cattle. You 
 note with delight the new flowers, so long sung in 
 English poetry, the primrose and small daisy and 
 violet ; you wonder at the bright pink of the ' May' 
 (the red hawthorn), the yellow, drooping clusters of 
 the laburnum, and the gay pink of the horsechest-
 
 ^T. 60] ST. BEATENBERG 429 
 
 nut, and envy the English that they can produce such 
 effects so easily in garden shrubbery." 
 
 June was passed in England, partly in the fasci- 
 nation of London life, partly in country visits, and 
 in July Mr. Brace with his family went to the 
 Continent. "It's no joke," he writes to his son 
 from St. Beatenberg, above the Lake of Thun, "con- 
 ducting a party of four around with all their lug- 
 gage, — though ours are good travellers, — and still 
 less to find every petty charge quadrupled. So 
 we are going to keep quiet here awhile. We are 
 just over an abyss, with green waters, out of 
 which white mists arise continually until we are 
 all in cloud; beyond arise the great snow-moun- 
 tains of the Bernese Oberland, not far, and the 
 Jungfrau (about thirteen thousand feet) in the 
 midst. We have one or two walks around the 
 mountain with this great scene always in view." 
 
 They returned to America in October, and Mr. 
 Brace wrote as follows to Mr. Redmajnie : — 
 
 To E. B. Redmayne. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Dobbs FERRy, Oct. 24, 1886. 
 My dear Mr. Redmayne : I trust the two voyages 
 which began on the second of October ^ were not an 
 
 1 Mr. Brace's departure for America and the marriage of Mr. 
 Kedmayne's daughter.
 
 430 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1886 
 
 exact counterpart. We had a domestic difficulty at 
 once in the Irish Channel, despite that most lovely- 
 day, and the worst weather of the passage was on 
 that Saturday night, the rest being comparatively 
 pleasant and peaceful, and ending in the glorious 
 autumn of the American shores, of which I am always 
 ready to repeat that saying, " Doubtless the Almighty 
 could have made better weather, but doubtless He 
 never did! " To-day, for instance, we look through 
 a vista of gold and yellow and crimson, over the blue 
 river far up to other mountains, all aflame, though 
 the colors are softened by distance, and the sun as of 
 Italy, over all. If one cared for last looks at death, 
 I should pray that mine might be of the glorious 
 Hudson in autumn, and I could scarcely hope that 
 the Unseen could offer anything more lovely. All 
 which shows that we are all very well and happy, 
 and grateful to God for many mercies. 
 
 Among these, was another friendship made, like 
 ours, on seaboard, with Rev. Professor Creighton 
 of Cambridge and Worcester Cathedral. He pro- 
 nounced himself "abject" under sea-sickness, but he 
 was one of the most brilliant men I ever met. They 
 came up here for a day, and looked into my work 
 in town. He is a delegate to the Harvard 250th 
 anniversary. 
 
 "All has gone on well," he writes to a friend on 
 his return, "in our work, though we did not get 
 money enough for the Health Home, and closed 
 with sixteen hundred dollars debt. . . . There is 
 a deep religious revival going on among the univer- 
 sities in England, and great work is being done for 
 the poor and ignorant."
 
 Mr. 60] WORK OF CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY 431 
 
 In the report for this year he speaks with satisfac- 
 tion of the work accomplished and the sacrifices 
 made, not only in the great society in which he is 
 laboring, but also in the enterprises in New York 
 such as boys' clubs and girls' associations, and "the 
 wonderful movements in the last few years for 
 giving fresh air and country life for a few days 
 to the poorest children, in the ' Tribune ' ' Fresh Air 
 Fund, ' and the summer homes of churches and indi- 
 viduals, as well as our own Summer Home and 
 Health Home," and says: "All these things are the 
 fruits of pure sympathy and of genuine religion. 
 We may hope and believe that they are not tempo- 
 rary products, but that similar fruits, and even 
 nobler, are to be shown by the coming generation. 
 In England, a deep wave of religion and humanity 
 through the universities and the higher classes is 
 carrying the young men to most self-denying labors 
 among the masses of poor and vicious. May we not 
 hope for like things here, when each college and 
 large school shall have its missions or charities to 
 support, or send its devoted workers to the slums of 
 the cities or to the frontier? " 
 
 In the report of this year he reviews in detail 
 the causes of the success of the ideas and principles 
 which this society has always supported ^ : — 
 
 1 Page 4 of 34th Annual Report.
 
 432 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1886 
 
 " The principles on which this charity was founded, 
 thirty-three years ago, have been more and more 
 confirmed by the experience of the leading nations. 
 The ideas which we then preached to dull ears are 
 now received cordially in this country, in England, 
 and on the continent of Europe. They liave become 
 a part of the settled principles of the century. 
 These were: the absolute necessity of treating each 
 youthful criminal or outcast as an individual, and 
 not as one of a crowd; the immense superiority of 
 the home or family over any institution in reform- 
 atory and educational influence; the prevention of 
 crime and pauperism by early efforts with children, 
 and the vital importance of breaking up inherited 
 pauperism by putting almshouse children in separate 
 homes, and, most of all, the immense advantage 
 of 'placing out ' neglected and orphan children in 
 farmers' families. 
 
 "These principles have now begun to be vigor- 
 ously carried out in England, as they have been in 
 many of the States in our Union. We have fol- 
 lowed these guiding ideas steadily for more than 
 thirty years, and have seen the wonderful fruit 
 borne by them in human lives raised and blessed, 
 in thousands of youth here and at the West made 
 honest and useful citizens and workers, and in the 
 marked and steady diminution of juvenile crime 
 in New York." 
 
 To a friend in England, to whom he had sent a 
 volume of Bushnell's sermons, he writes the follow- 
 ing letter : —
 
 iEx. 60] BUSHNELL'S INFLUENCE 433 
 
 To Miss Flower. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Jan. 16, 1887. 
 
 My dear R. : Thanks for your kind note about the 
 "Sermons." The author was a man of great origi- 
 nality and genius. I remember, as a boy, hearing 
 the remarkable one on "Unconscious Influence." I 
 think it influenced my whole life; especially as Dr. 
 Bushnell was an eloquent speaker. That on the 
 " Spirit of God " is very impressive too. His ser- 
 mons recall to me my golden youth, when all these 
 aspirations and thoughts filled the hearts of our 
 young men in Yale College, and the universe seemed 
 so wonderful. Strange to say, to me, life has been 
 happier than I expected, and the world of truth is 
 more glorious even than I thought. Yet youth gives 
 a sense of Eternity and of God which never returns 
 fully. I rejoice often in thinking of our beautiful 
 visit at Stratford, and of what I believe is the con- 
 secration of you young people, under your mother's 
 influence, to the Master's service. I hope it is an 
 entire and absolute devotion to the best thing in the 
 world — the building up of His Kingdom. I can 
 wish you no greater joy for the new year. . . . 
 
 To-day the Hudson is a field of ice with blue 
 streaks of water, a glorious winter vista of snow and 
 brown banks and distant mountains. 
 
 In April, Mr. Brace made his annual visit to the 
 South. 
 
 "I am," he writes to his son from Baltimore, 
 " in a big, rambling house, visiting the Bona- 
 2p
 
 434 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1887 
 
 partes, most charming people, and the wife an old 
 friend. Mr. Bonaparte was chairman of our meet- 
 ing last night. I ' enjoyed liberty ' in both of my 
 speeches, and am becoming an orator in my old age. 
 I send a programme. I had a glorious trip in Vir- 
 ginia to Staunton, etc., and Hampton. I enjoy 
 that school so much, and the scene; have been 
 gone about nineteen days. General Armstrong is 
 splendid." 
 
 Mr. Brace heard Mr. Curtis speak before the Com- 
 monwealth Club, on Civil Service Reform, in May of 
 this year, and at once wrote him his appreciation of 
 his address. In reply Mr. Curtis says : — 
 
 " Your generous note is very pleasant, and I am 
 delighted and proud to have occasioned it. But 
 how seldom a man has such an audience: young 
 men and older men who all have the faith in honesty 
 and the resolution to secure it in public affairs of 
 which I spoke. That company represented a great 
 host which is the resistless vanguard of our America, 
 and no matter who falls by the way, he hands his 
 torch, unextinguished, to his neighbor. When I 
 saw the company and the expectation, I was troubled 
 by what 1 had undertaken, but after a few moments 
 it was like swimming in a deep sea. 
 
 " I greatly prize your sympathy and approval as the 
 kindly word of one of the old guard to a fellow- 
 soldier ; we will not say fellow-veteran ! — and 
 with the most grateful and hearty regard, I am," 
 etc.
 
 ^T. 60] MRS. BRACE 485 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that there are not 
 more of Mr. Brace's letters to his wife. They 
 were rarely separated, except during his hurried 
 trips in early spring to the South, and during the 
 month of September, when Mr. Brace returned to 
 work, and Mrs. Brace stayed with some of her 
 children in the mountains. During these periods 
 he wrote every day short letters, telling of each 
 day's occupations. Separation was never endured 
 where it could be avoided, and Mr. Brace was usually 
 accompanied by his wife even when he was obliged 
 to remain in New York to attend the evening meet- 
 ings or night schools of the Children's Aid Society. 
 It is pleasant to be able to insert a few words expres- 
 sive of his estimate of the characters of Mrs. Brace 
 and her sisters, written with an openness unusual in 
 him. " You must remember," he writes to one of his 
 sons, "that you get from the Neill women a dis- 
 interestedness beyond compare, sincerity, and a won- 
 derful devotion to ideal things, such as friendship, 
 religion, music, art, poetry, and the like, besides 
 sweetness, patience, and love. The best has all come 
 from your grandmother (Neill). The Neill women 
 are unselfish in the highest degree usually. You 
 may bless God evermore for your mother ; few are like 
 unto her. ... I think I made a mistake in not 
 educating my boys in Children's Aid Society mat- 
 ters. It arose from my excessive respect for the
 
 436 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1887 
 
 soul's independence, and from circumstances (dis- 
 tance from town, etc.)." The quality of which he 
 speaks, of " excessive respect for the soul's indepen- 
 dence," was a characteristic pervading all his rela- 
 tions with others. This it was, perhaps, which 
 held him back from frank opinion of views, espe- 
 cially on matters of theology, and made it rare for 
 even his closest friends to hear from him strong 
 expressions of opinion. He almost never argued, 
 and seemed to seek rather the points of agreement 
 and sympathy with his friends. A greater openness 
 in his letters than was exhibited in familiar conver- 
 sation may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that 
 thus he felt he met his friends on a ground where 
 both were freer, and the chance of influence was 
 less. It was a characteristic of his to state once 
 for all his opinions, when a subject for argument 
 came up, and considering that thus his part in the 
 debate was finished, he listened courteously to the 
 other side, and then invariably let the matter drop. 
 
 In the autumn of 1887, in his thirty-fifth annual 
 report, Mr. Brace recalls an address with which, 
 thirty years before, he had sought to encourage his 
 co-laborers in their efforts in New York. Discour- 
 agement often attended them then; it took much 
 faith to look forward and see the fruits of their 
 apparently fruitless labors, to believe that the next
 
 ^T. 61] DECREASE OF CRIME IN NEW YORK 437 
 
 generation would be better for their care of the 
 children, that while they might never know one 
 child whom they had saved from misery and crime, 
 there would be scattered over the land virtuous 
 women and strong men to bless them for words of 
 kindness and patient acts of helpfulness. The 
 strange potency of goodness who can measure! It 
 may seem that the kind w^ord or compassionate look 
 is thrown away, but because of the faithful labors of 
 the men and women whom he is addressing, "there 
 will be fewer children's faces behind prison bars, 
 fewer mothers' hearts crushed, and less of young 
 sorrow and crime and pollution." This faith in 
 their experiment, expressed a generation and a half 
 before, in the enthusiasm of youth, was justified year 
 after year, he says, as letters from every part of the 
 country revealed. Besides this, after thirty years, 
 a flood of light breaks over the gloomy records of 
 the prison, and while the conditions which would 
 naturally make for crime have steadily increased, 
 in overcrowding, in the continued enormous emigra- 
 tion, and in poor municipal government, there has 
 been during the period a steady decrease in crime, 
 and especially in children's crime, or in crime 
 which grows out of such conditions as the labors 
 of the Children's Aid Society would naturally 
 influence. 
 
 Once more we find the appreciative and affec-
 
 438 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1887 
 
 tionate words with which Mr. Potter welcomed 
 each report as it appeared. 
 
 From Howard Potter. 
 
 38 East Thirty-seventh Street, 
 Sunday evening, Dec. 18, 1887. 
 
 I have just finished reading your thirty-fifth annual 
 report, and I congratulate you, with all my heart, 
 on such a record of your life-long service in the great 
 work which your philanthropy and piety inaugurated 
 so many years ago, and which you have since carried 
 forward with such single-minded devotion and such 
 high intelligence, and with (what has been not less 
 important to the great results which have so crowned 
 your labors) a long-suffering and benignant charity 
 which, "enduring all things and hoping all things," 
 has brought your work a degree of sympathy and 
 confidence such as no other I know of enjoys, or, as 
 I think, deserves. Now, there is a sentence as long 
 as if Evarts himself had indited it, but not long 
 enough, or strong enough, to express half I feel, of 
 admiration for you as master-builder, or for the 
 great, beneficent, and enduring fabric of charity 
 which I have seen grow under your direction. May 
 the Lord you have served bless you and keep you, 
 and make His face to shine upon you, and give you 
 peace, now and evermore, prays your sincere and 
 affectionate friend. 
 
 At this time sorrow and anxiety were filling the 
 hearts of all the workers in the society, caused by
 
 JEt. 61] MRS. J. J. ASTOR 439 
 
 the death of Miss Wolfe and the ilhiess of Mrs. 
 J. J. Astor. For more than twenty years Miss 
 Wolfe had had the deepest interest in the society, 
 and had personally known many of the children in 
 the Cottage Place School, besides bestowing upon 
 the society the East Side Lodging-house. Of ]\Irs. 
 Astor, and what her loving, tender sympathy was, 
 not only for the children, but also for the brave 
 workers among them, Mr. Brace's own words fittingly 
 tell us at the time of her death in the following 
 year: — 
 
 " This society," he says, "has met with an irrepara- 
 ble loss during the past year, in the death of Mrs. 
 Astor. She had not only during the past twenty-five 
 years supported one of our most useful branches, 
 — the Avenue B Industrial School, — and for the past 
 twenty years had sent a party of one hundred home- 
 less children to the West every winter, but she had 
 literally given herself to the poor. Her sympathy 
 and friendship included the teachers and workers 
 whom she met in the labors of this charity, and she 
 knew the circumstances and sympathized with the 
 trials of very many of the poor families in the neigh- 
 borhood of her school in Avenue B. She has com- 
 forted the sorrowing and stood by the bedside of the 
 dying of not a few among the humble and suffering. 
 It may truly be said that in all the public sorrow 
 for her death there were no tears more sincere and 
 heartfelt than those of the poor and friendless in the 
 wretched tenements of the Eastern quarter of the
 
 440 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1887 
 
 city. Her judgment was equal to her sympathy, 
 and she never helped indiscriminately, and always 
 sought to enable the poor to help themselves. It 
 was this .which gave her such a special sympathy in 
 our 'Emigration ' plan. 
 
 "No one can ever replace her peculiar influence 
 in our work. Her ' life is hid with Christ in God ' ; 
 but it will blossom forth anew in hundreds of lives 
 among the unfortunate who have been cheered or 
 redeemed through her instrumentality." ^ 
 
 The following letters close this year, too scantily 
 marked by his own writing. He was studying con- 
 stantly, and seemed to have less and less inclination 
 to speak of the personal details of his life. 
 
 To C. L. B., Jr. 
 
 Litchfield, Oct. 25, 1887. 
 My dear L — ; ... I have just been visiting 
 my old friend Kingsbury, and had great talks, just 
 as I did forty-five years ago! We enjoy each other 
 just as well. I got in a clergyman, a scholar, and 
 got criticism on my new book — very valuable hints 
 too. This may be the title : — 
 
 THE UNKNOWN GOD, 
 
 OR 
 
 INSPIRATION IN PRE-CHRISTIAN AGES. 
 1 36th Annual Report, pp. 62, 63.
 
 iET. 61] "HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION" 441 
 
 THE UNKNOWN GOD, 
 
 OR 
 
 ETHNIC INSPIRATIONS, 
 
 OR 
 
 REVELATION IN PRE-CHRISTIAN AGES. 
 
 What do you think? It will be years before it is 
 done — a very interesting study. 
 
 To H. C. Lea. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Nov. 27, 1887. 
 My dear Mr. Lea : I received with great gratifica- 
 tion your kind gift of the "History of the Inquisi- 
 tion," and shall study it carefully. Everything you 
 write is valuable to me, both from its careful research 
 and its truth-loving spirit. I know no works in 
 Europe in the field of the Middle Ages so instructive 
 as yours. They will be permanent authorities. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Dec. 29, 1887. 
 My dear George : I am sitting in my study (at 
 50°) posing for my portrait, and writing. I have 
 missed your letters (the best I get) this winter. My 
 last was your interesting account of the Indian matter. 
 I am glad you are in that. Has not the President 
 behaved well in this and other things? Was not 
 the message very sound and bold? . . . Thirty-
 
 442 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1887 
 
 one Christmas festivals last week! An exhausting 
 orgy. But the Children's Aid Society is on a boom! 
 (I.) Crippled girls' cottage at Bath; one thousand 
 dollars appealed for and paid in. (II.) Annex to 
 Health Home ; twenty-five thousand dollars appealed 
 for, and, next morning, a check from Mrs. Van- 
 derbilt. (HI.) Appeal for industrial school near 
 Crosby Street. Mr. Astor will put up a memorial 
 building for his wife, forty thousand dollars — and 
 lots four thousand dollars. (IV.) Appeal for Miss 
 Strathan's school. A young man, unknown, offers 
 forty thousand dollars; and a friend five thousand 
 dollars. But buildings, while they solidify the 
 work, increase expense of care-taking. We shall 
 miss Mrs. Astor very much indeed. She has left us 
 legacies to keep up her branches. 
 
 I have been extremely busy on the ancient Akka- 
 dians, and would like to read to you my corrected 
 chapters. In the meantime, I have been reading 
 all the rationalistic attacks on the Pentateuch and 
 Abraham, etc., etc. What do you think of this 
 definition of "inspiration": "A supernatural eleva- 
 tion of the moral and religious faculties ? " — the Old 
 Testament inspiration being an intuition of Jahveh, 
 the self-existent and the God of righteousness, but 
 not perfect accuracy in dates or historical events ; 
 the whole, as a narrative of the progress of the 
 highest religion, being inspired or elevated to lead 
 to the true faith. That is, the facts related often 
 belong to a low condition of men, and the science and 
 chronology are of the age, but the spiritual truths 
 are of all ages, and the drift of the whole is towards 
 righteousness. Enough of that.
 
 ^T. 61] DEATH OF DR. GRAY 443 
 
 Mr. Brace, as well as the whole scientific world, 
 met with a very great loss early in the year of 1888, 
 in the death of Dr. Asa Gray, of which he writes 
 as follows to Mrs. Gray: — 
 
 To Mrs. Gray. 
 
 New York, Feb. 3, 1888. 
 
 My dear J — ; I cannot tell you how much we 
 all sympathize with you. To me, a great light seems 
 gone from this world. He was so lovable and so 
 clear-sighted. I feel I owe a great deal intellectu- 
 ally to dear Doctor. And you both have given many 
 hajipy days to me and mine. I sent you my notice 
 of him in the "Times." Well, — he rests in God 
 after a very happy life. May it be granted to me to 
 know him there ! May the comfort of Christ be with 
 you, dear Jane ! 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 Ches-knoll, March 25, 1888, 
 
 My dear J — ; I am reading with deep feeling 
 those beautiful memorials of Dr. Gray. And yet 
 how impossible to convey the alertness and sweet- 
 ness and mental cheerfulness of the dear man. I feel 
 myself so much indebted to him for innumerable acts 
 of kindness and consideration, and above all, for the 
 light he thi'ew about so many scientific questions for 
 me and others. I imagine him living in the highest 
 light of God, and ever learning of His universe.
 
 444 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1888 
 
 Later, in January, 1890, when the "Scientific 
 Papers of Asa Gray " appeared, Mrs. Gray sent the 
 volumes to Mr. Brace, and he wrote : — 
 
 "... And you know how high you stand in the 
 esteem and love of all of us. You could not have 
 thought of a New Year gift more acceptable than that 
 book. I have read most of the articles, but I longed 
 to possess and re-read the volumes. The Doctor's 
 influence abides with me, as with so many, but how 
 I do miss his companionship! I send an anonymous 
 notice in the 'Times.' " 
 
 Study on his book and kindred subjects absorbed 
 him throughout this winter and spring, as the 
 following letters show, but this labor, added to his 
 daily work, proved too much for him, and the last 
 letter below tells of his need of rest and change. 
 
 To Miss Floiver. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Feb. 12, 
 My dear Rosalie : Thank you for a very charming 
 note from the Riviera. I like to think of you among 
 the palmettoes and eucalypti and greenery while even 
 our river is a white mass, and the brown trees sparkle 
 in ice-diamonds, and the hills lie in white with blue 
 shadows, and all is winter, — calm, serene, severe, 
 yet hopeful. ... I am continually busy on my 
 book, "The Unknown God." Just now I am on the 
 Hindoo inspirations. They seem often very wild
 
 ^T. 61] INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE 445 
 
 and foolish, and yet there is faith in God, and an 
 ideal of absolute union with Him, the Centre and 
 Life of all. I ask myself whether a pious Hindoo 
 in that frame of soul is not nearer the Father or 
 Christ than we Anglo-Saxons, who will step into 
 Eternity with our brains (or minds) filled with 
 stocks and politics and comforts. It seems some- 
 times as if European and American religion was 
 made for this world, and the Oriental for Eternity. 
 I suppose our solution is to unite the two, to live in 
 the world and not be of it, to live in God and build 
 up His Kingdom among living men. It is very plain 
 that Christ has the secret. 
 
 We are hard at work this year among the poor, and 
 shall build this winter three large buildings in the 
 city, and three small ones by the sea. Our young 
 people are having a very happy winter; all being 
 daft on Wagner's operas. 
 
 To Dr. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, March 17, 1888. 
 Dear Creorge .• . . . I did want to talk with you 
 about inspiration of Scriptures. I think I have 
 drifted far away from our teaching in New Haven 
 Theological Seminary. The inspiration of the Bible 
 seems to me not in the history or facts or science or 
 morals of the story. The power lies in the divinely 
 elevated spiritual views and feelings of some of the 
 writers. The Creation narrative has for inspiration 
 the sense of Jahveh as Creator, — the garden, a pict- 
 ure or myth of moral fall from Him; the Patriarch
 
 446 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1888 
 
 history, of men divinely inspired with a belief in one 
 personal God; the tribal history, the story of a 
 half-savage tribe whose leaders were inspired with 
 monotheism; the Psalms and Proj^hets show the 
 highest inspiration of Jahveism, and preparation for 
 Christianity; the whole narrative a wonderful lit- 
 erar}^ performance whose inspiration is the sense of 
 God and His dealings with one race. Prophecy or 
 prediction must be a separate inspiration. But the 
 people were far below the leaders, and a promiscuous 
 reading of the facts is not now useful. 
 
 This is a brief outline of ra}- present state of mind. 
 What do you say? To call the Bible "The Word 
 of God " seems hardly true ; rather, it contains words 
 and truths of God, and many words of half-savage, 
 irreligious men — the diift being from God, and 
 inspired. 
 
 To his Daughter. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Feb. 25, 1888. 
 
 My dear E — ; A torrential day — rain, rain, and 
 blow — and everything melting. . . . Went to the 
 V.'s meeting about the home for prison-women; a 
 fine speech from Schurz and good music; a fair 
 assembly, mainly Presbyterian. It is a hard row 
 to hoe. Your mother was engaged at Nineteenth 
 Century Club! The best thing was a proposition to 
 make a religious trust (as they do for standard oil 
 or sugar), and supply villages with a good article 
 at low rates. I got home at 11.30, but no wife ! She 
 returned at 12.30!
 
 Mr. 61] HINDOO FAITH 447 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 New York, March 13, 1888. 
 
 My dear E — ; You would be amused to see 
 New York now, — streets black with men, no street- 
 cars, few elevated cars, a few sleighs, no vehicles 
 or trucks, — laughing and shouting going on all the 
 time, people tumbling and sliding, drifts from five 
 feet to ten feet. I left home Sunday morning, and 
 no trains or mails or telegrams since! Snowed in 
 probably till Wednesday evening. I saw a gentle- 
 man who spent yesterday on a Pullman at 110th 
 Street, and a lady who was seven hours in an elevated 
 car near 23d Street. New York has broken down. 
 Luckily I have this house and my club, so I am 
 comfortable. 
 
 To a Friend. 
 
 April 29, 1888. 
 
 My dear Friend : With your kind friendship, you 
 will be glad to hear that we are going to Europe on 
 May 29th. My health has been a little worn this 
 winter, and I shall take a turn at Marienbad, and 
 also wander round England and Switzerland. . . . 
 I do hope, if you are about this summer, you will 
 visit our seaside homes. It is such an encourage- 
 ment to the workers. All goes well with our work. 
 
 I am busy, slowly, on my book. The Hindoo faith 
 and no-faith is a puzzle. The Hindoos asked the 
 natural questions, and in some ways answered them 
 naturally, but others wildly. We should have done 
 no better without Christ. The subjects they were
 
 448 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1888 
 
 most interested in were those which must come to 
 us at death. What is God? How to be like Him? 
 How to be united with Him ? How to be free from 
 sin forever? 
 
 In May, before going abroad, Mr. Brace was able 
 to accomplish a long-hoped-for reform, which, he 
 says in the report of November of this year, "should 
 be felt for years to come among the destitute youth 
 of New York." It was to prevent the admission of 
 boys into men's lodging-houses. It had long been 
 a source of much distress to the society that boys 
 could lodge in the low, semi-criminal lodging- 
 houses, come in at any hour of the night, gamble 
 all night and sleep in the day, and associate with 
 tramps and criminals. Mr. Brace first consulted 
 the legal adviser of the society, Mr. Whitehead, 
 and then went to see some of the leaders of the 
 houses in Albany; but it was slow work accom- 
 plishing such a reform as this. Mr. Dorman B. 
 Eaton was his chief ally, as he had framed the 
 constitution of the Board of Health, and to give 
 Mr. Eaton an object-lesson which could not but 
 sink deep into the heart and sympathies of a good 
 man, Mr. Brace took him to the Newsboys' Lodging 
 House to talk with some of the boys who had been 
 in these miserable resorts. He was much stirred 
 by what he heard. He and Judge Van Vorst threw 
 themselves into the effort, secured a public audience
 
 ^T. 62] MARIENBAD 449 
 
 with the president of the Board of Health, with 
 superintendents of two lodging-houses of the Chil- 
 dren's Aid Society as witnesses to the facts, and 
 the upshot was that the president of the Health 
 Board, expressing himself as having "ncAv light on 
 the subject," was persuaded that certain matters not 
 strictly sanitary came under his jurisdiction, as was 
 the case here. He expressed deep sympathy in the 
 object, and promised to take action on the matter, 
 either by a new section to their sanitary code, or 
 by instructions to their inspectors that no lodging- 
 houses occupied by men should shelter boys under 
 fifteen, unless accompanied by parent or guardian. 
 Thus was accomplished one more, probably the last, 
 of the great labors for the friendless by Mr. Brace. 
 
 His younger daughter was married in May, and 
 he started abroad in the middle of the month for 
 much-needed rest. The voyage did not refresh 
 him as of old, but the happy visits in beautiful 
 England restored him in a measure, and early in 
 July he and Mrs. Brace started for Marienbad, 
 stopping at the old favorite haunts on the Rhine 
 and at Nuremberg. 
 
 "This is the town," he writes his daughter from 
 Marienbad, "of fat women and men too. Each one 
 is patrolling around, cup in hand, and some sipping 
 through a glass tube. Your father appears with a 
 red crackled-glass cup, and is very distinguished (?). 
 2o
 
 450 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1888 
 
 We sip and listen to a lovely band, and walk up and 
 down, — all this between six and eight, — then 
 home, half-starved, to the best coffee in Europe; 
 dinner and supper in the caf^s and restaurants. 
 At five P.M., another band and promenading; Polish 
 Jews in long coats, Bohemians looking like Turks, 
 many ladies in short white dresses and elegant 
 tennis-like shoes with high heels and in cocked 
 hats — all the colors of the rainbow ; a handsome 
 Prussian lady in a black velvet helmet, and figures 
 like those on the stage ; some quiet English and 
 German persons ; many gay Jews. We have four 
 concerts per day; I go to them all. (I send pro- 
 gramme.) Next to our house was Goethe's house 
 (1823), and on a quiet summit among the firs was 
 Goethe's seat, with this lovely verse: — 
 
 " ' Ueber alien Gipfeln 
 1st Ruh, 
 
 In alien Wipfeln 
 Spiirest du 
 Kaum einen Hauch, 
 Die Vogelein schweigen im Walde. 
 Warte nur ! balde 
 Ruhest du auch 5 ' 
 
 "It's a queer place, with mountain air and won- 
 derful waters. My room is elegant — blue porce- 
 lain stove and cast of Mars on top." 
 
 A walking-trip in Switzerland was planned, and 
 on the first of August Mr. and Mrs. Brace were 
 joined by their daughters and some friends at 
 Miirren, Ten brilliant days there were a restful
 
 ^T. 62] SCHWARZ-SEE NEAR ZERMATT 451 
 
 preparation for the walk amid the grand scenes of 
 the Gemmi Pass and the Zermatt Valley, where, 
 after a day's rest, the journey continued on to 
 Schwarz-See, on a spur of the Matterhorn. 
 
 "Here we are," he writes to Dr. Howard, dating 
 his letter: "In the clouds near the Matterhorn, 
 Zermatt, Aug. 26, 1888," . . . "at the end of our 
 high wanderings, the hotel some eight thousand feet 
 high, new and like an Adirondack house. The 
 storm and snow have driven out all but us and two 
 travellers. This is the grandest place in the Alps. 
 You are in the midst of mighty snow-peaks and 
 stern, wild glaciers, or dirty rivers of ice, with the 
 great mountain-passes near by, which are smooth, 
 white openings of snow amid jagged black peaks. 
 A grand, severe, desolate scene, amid the solitudes 
 of nature. There is the Matterhorn over us (four- 
 teen thousand feet), Monte Rosa opposite (nearly 
 fifteen thousand feet), and Mischabel as high, — 
 nothing but glaciers and dark mountain-sides, and 
 eternal snows." 
 
 But before the snow and storm of which he speaks 
 set in, Mr. Brace had been deeply impressed with 
 the grandeur of the scene, and had revelled in the 
 sunshine and delicate Alpine flowers. One memo- 
 rable night, especiall}'-, was often alluded to after- 
 wards, when the whole vast Zermatt Valley was 
 filled with a white mist, while the little plateau 
 of Schwarz-See rose above it in the brilliant cold
 
 452 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1888 
 
 starlight. The peaks above cast their shadows, as 
 the moon rose over the mist spread like a great sea, 
 while the roar of torrents "seemed to be the sound of 
 waves," he said, "on a distant shore." The only 
 human sign in the vast miles of mountains and 
 snow was the little distant light of the Riffelberg, 
 a habitation on the other shore of this unearthly 
 sea. 
 
 "We had a glorious time in Switzerland," he 
 writes Mrs. Lyell, "especially in Murren, and at a 
 new place, 'Schwarz-See, ' near the Matterhorn, above 
 Zermatt (some eight thousand one hundred feet 
 high). The air at Miirren didn't seem to me too 
 rare, but in the high places it was so. The weather 
 was glorious. We are now to make a round of visits 
 among old friends, and then sail Sept. 29th. Have 
 you read Frederick Harrison's 'Cromwell'? It is 
 excellent. 
 
 "I say, as a descendant of Puritans, 'Robert 
 Elsmere ' is a powerful book, but the author's 
 construction does not seem to me satisfactory. A 
 religion without Christ is not enough for human 
 wants. I am deeply interested in Buddhism now, but 
 can find little new about it. I hope, dear Mrs. Lyell, 
 that you are strong and well. My wife and 
 daughter join me in warm regards." 
 
 Upon his return to America, Mr. Brace writes of 
 public affairs to Mr. Redmayne as follows : —
 
 ^T. 62] POLITICS 453 
 
 To E. B. Redmayne^ Esq. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Nov. 20, 1888. 
 
 My dear Mr. Redmayne : Since our arrival we 
 have had our glorious autumn, and I have been 
 plunged in work; and Avith it all, came an exciting 
 election. Contrary to my hopes, we were beaten, 
 but not by the cities or manufacturing centres — 
 those were for free trade or, rather, low tariff. The 
 old, intelligent, high-protection farming-countries 
 beat us, whose real interest w^as w'ith us. It was 
 too great a reform to hope for so soon. It no doubt 
 will be delayed for some eight or ten years now, as 
 the Protection party will gain in the South and far 
 West. But the Central West will gradually come 
 over to free trade. This canvass has been a contest 
 in education, and the people have learned much. 
 Our politics for years will be a training in political 
 economy and a struggle about the drinking-question. 
 
 Personally and intellectually I am busy on Buddh- 
 ism, and continually with more interest and respect. 
 There looms up through the mist of legend and 
 poetry, the face of a divine man of almost super- 
 human compassion and purity, filled wdth love for 
 all creatures, a manifestation of the Infinite One, 
 whom to know hereafter is the life and joy of the 
 Buddhist.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Bryce's Book — Death of I\Ir. Skinner — Letter from Virginia — 
 Adirondack Trip — Last Report — Letters — "The Unknown 
 God " — Letters on "The Unknown God " — Offers of his Son 
 to come to New York as his Father's Assistant — Last Journey 
 — The Dolomites — St. Moritz — His Increasing Weakness — 
 Death 
 
 Ox Mr. Brace's return from Europe he found 
 everything connected with the society prospering, 
 and the report of the work of the preceding year 
 called forth from Mr. Potter these words : — 
 
 "... I have been reading your last report with 
 great interest and great satisfaction. I won't say 
 you never wrote a better, where all have been so 
 good, but I must say I think this last is, at least, 
 a proof of the saying that 'practice makes perfect.' 
 It seems to me a model in mode of presentation and 
 as good English. In fact, I make you my compli- 
 ments particularly on it as a bit of composition — 
 though perhaps in so doing 'I say it who shouldn't ' 
 — when I remember that the work I am praising did 
 not have the benefit of the revision which formerly 
 3'ou used to invite from George Cabot Ward and 
 myself. But it is time you were able to walk 
 alone. . . . 
 
 454
 
 ^T. 62] "THE AMERICAN COISBION WEALTH" 455 
 
 "... I have been thinking to-day of the many 
 years we have been associated in the Children's Aid 
 Society, and of what an honor I consider it to have 
 had any part with you in that great work. May you 
 long be spared to direct it, and to see the fruit of 
 your labors, which it yields more and more abun- 
 dantly as the years go on! I shall always rejoice 
 with you in it, I trust, so long as we are spared to 
 continue together in it. ..." 
 
 On Christmas Day Mr. Brace received from Mr. 
 James Bryce his book, "The American Common- 
 wealth." Mr. Bryce had twice spent the Christmas 
 Day at Ches-knoll, to the great delight of the 
 family, and after one of these visits Mr. Brace 
 wrote to a friend, "Bryce we think the most 
 agreeable Englishman we ever had here." 
 
 "It came very nicely," he writes to Mr. Bryce on 
 New Year's Day, " that your beautiful book reached 
 us on Christmas morning, the day you had twice 
 made pleasanter for us. 
 
 " I at once made at it. I must be frank and say 
 I had not expected very much from it. It is such 
 a fearfully complex and difficult theme, and you 
 seemed to me to be mooning around here and having a 
 good time generally, and at home were so intensely 
 busy. I did not dream you would penetrate the 
 subject so deeply. The young ladies recall with 
 glee now that you always left deep questions in the 
 library for their frivolities in the music-room, but 
 they say that if they had known there was such a
 
 456 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 'chiel amang them taking notes,' they would have 
 been in terror. 
 
 "I am entirely delighted with the book. The 
 work reveals yourself and makes us all love you the 
 more. There is such an insight and such sympathy 
 and a wonderful fairness and justice. You have 
 observed with an excellent effect, and reflected as 
 well. The Irish humor and sprightliness runs 
 through it charmingly. You have got back your 
 old vivacious and clear style, too (which we recall 
 in the 'Holy Roman Empire'). I should have 
 reviewed it at once for the New York 'Times,' but 
 they anticipated me by a notice which was capital. 
 It will do great good here, and much in England. 
 I fancy the chapter which will strike attention most 
 there, will be that on the 'Pleasantness of American 
 Life,' and with us, that on our 'Future.' I find 
 myself nearly always agreeing with your conclusions 
 and observations. I have not read all the serious 
 parts yet, and therefore have not struck on some 
 things which I expect; as the 'Tendency to Bribery 
 in Elections,' and the 'Conservative Drift in 
 Amendments to State Constitutions.' Perhaps 
 New York is more of a social 'Capital' than you 
 suppose. Loring says the young girls in the West 
 look upon it with awe and reverence, as the 
 Bostonians used to wish to go to Paris when they 
 died! 
 
 "I think you have hardly done justice to the 
 small lake scenery — like the Adirondacks and 
 others. They relieve that 'uniformity' of which 
 you so justly speak. Before you write your book 
 on 'American Scenery,' etc., etc., you must camp
 
 ^T. 62] RECEPTIOX OF THE BOOK IN AMERICA 457 
 
 there. I think the most lovely descriptive passage 
 of your book is that about New Orleans. The polit- 
 ical parts are admirable. It will be an authority on 
 our commonwealth for fifty years to come. You 
 have done a great service, and immortalized your 
 name. God bless you, and give you many New 
 Years for such work! " 
 
 In reply he received the following : — 
 
 From Mr. J, Bryce. 
 
 April 5, 1889. 
 
 My dear Mr. Brace : Heartiest thanks for your 
 kind letter, which was awaiting me when I returned 
 from India. Your praise does me good. Though I 
 credit some part of it to your friendly view of my 
 work, I am sure you speak what you think. The 
 cordial reception of the book in America has gone 
 far beyond anything I had ventured to hope for, and 
 the criticisms 1 was obliged to make on political men 
 and methods have been taken in wonderfully good 
 part; indeed, not a single thing has reached me from 
 your side which has not, even when disagreeing, 
 been kindly in its tone. 
 
 I am conscious of some defects and omissions, and 
 should be very glad, in view of the new edition 
 which the publishers tell me will soon be needed, 
 to be told of others which may have escaped me. 
 There is rather too much repetition; and perhaps 
 a deficient positiveness or clearness in stating the 
 general conclusions I reached. To remedy these
 
 458 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 faults one might have to recast some chapters and 
 even add one or two. Perhaps I ought to attempt 
 this. 
 
 What you say about the lake scenery of such places 
 as Lake George and the Adirondacks is true. They 
 ought to have been referred to. It amuses and 
 pleases me a good deal to think that I succeeded so 
 well in concealing from you any serious purpose in 
 my inquiries, and was considered by the young 
 ladies to be properly and adequately frivolous. . . . 
 Thank you once more for such a delightful commen- 
 dation as you have given me. 
 
 The opening of the new year of 1889 calls forth 
 the following letter : — 
 
 To Miss Flower. 
 
 Ches-knoll, Jan. 27, 1889. 
 
 My dear Rosalie : . . . As the years flit by, one 
 feels ever nearer the great journey; and yet you 
 cannot see through the mists. You know that God 
 is there and you are in His hands, and you hope that 
 He will use you there in His plans even more than 
 here, but how exactly, who can say ? If one thought 
 of it much, how trivial would life seem ! We should 
 not do our duty in the world. I have been deep in 
 my study of the ways of God in heathen religions. 
 The past of mankind does not now seem a black 
 ocean covered with fog and storm, and wrecks drift- 
 ing everywhere, but a long wake of light crosses it
 
 iET. 62] DEATH OF MR. SKINNER 459 
 
 coming from the Light that lighteth every man in 
 the world, the Pharos of humanity — the Spirit of 
 God. In that gleam, the nations have steered their 
 barks and made towards haven. He hath not left 
 Himself without a witness. 
 
 We have had a very busy winter — opening or 
 preparing for three or four new buildings, and other- 
 wise extending our work. My newsboys' meetings 
 have been unusually full and good. Ches-knoU has 
 been a haven of rest and beauty this winter. In the 
 memory of man no such season has been seen ; no ice 
 at all. I hope you will read Bryce's book — the best 
 ever written on America. 
 
 The letters following tell of his annual Southern 
 trip suddenly broken in upon by a message when 
 he was in Washington, announcing the death of 
 his brother-in-law, Mr. J. W. Skinner. Mr. 
 Skinner had been, for years, the superintendent of 
 the schools in the Children's Aid Society. His 
 sunny, loving nature had inspired those working 
 with him wherever he went. He was deeply loved 
 in the many schools of the society, both by teachers 
 and children, and carried with him, in addition to 
 the stimulus of his keen, scientific interest in every 
 new development in the methods of education, a 
 fund of cheery hopefulness that put courage into 
 the most weary heart. In speaking of the sudden 
 summons home, Mr. Brace writes : —
 
 460 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 To Lucius Tuekerman. 
 
 Ches-knoll, April 4, 1889, 
 
 My dear Mr. Tuekerman : It is hard to be followed 
 so by the messenger of death, and to return to a 
 broken home. Yet it has been my happy lot never 
 to have such messages from my immediate family. 
 My bi'other-in-law had had some forty years of very 
 happy life with my sister, and twenty-two years of 
 most satisfactory work for our poor children. Some- 
 how your talks always take hold of me, and what 
 you said of your theology yesterday was precisely 
 my own view — that the habitual unselfishness of 
 the soul fits it naturally for the spiritual life, to be 
 "partaker of the divine nature." So my friend went 
 forth into the darkness all ready; he lived in God 
 here, and must there. His death was most calm and 
 trustful. I was so sorry to disturb your family by 
 the sudden departure — but when Death raps! Yet 
 the single day with you, and in that lovely home, 
 seemed to restore me physically and mentally. 
 
 To his sons he wrote : — 
 
 "... The nurses said they never saw any one so 
 sweet and calm and undisturbed. He did not suffer 
 much, and died without a struggle. What a loss to 
 poor M — and to our work! A broken, desolate 
 home. Our teachers feel it deeply. . . . Now^ where 
 is he ? He lived substantially here, as he will live 
 there. His aims and purposes and habits of mind 
 must be similar; only he is nearer God. Peace be 
 with him, and Christ's comfort to your poor aunt! "
 
 ^T. 62] GREAT MEN FROM VIRGINIA 461 
 
 He writes of his occupation at this period : — 
 
 "... I work slowly and steadily at my book. 
 I am now on the Hindoo (Vedic) religions. There 
 is an awful amount of trash with them, and sensual 
 vagaries. Nothing like the elevation of the Persian. 
 Where did our Scriptures get their superiority of 
 form ? I doubt if our theological Christ ever touches 
 the Orient. Perhaps the real Christ will. Next I 
 come to Buddhism, and then perhaps to Mohamme- 
 danism. All I can get is about one hour a day." 
 
 But the Southern trip is resumed. 
 
 To his Daughter. 
 
 MiLFORD, Va., April 27, 1889. 
 My dear E — ; I have been looking after the 
 boys in this rather wild part of Virginia, and stop 
 to have a little chat with you after your nice note. 
 I am much struck with the fine, English-like men 
 in this State, large and robust and ruddy, with regu- 
 lar features. Their heroes seem handsome too, — Lee 
 and Johnston and Stonewall Jackson. The climate 
 must be just right for our race. Jackson stands in 
 his bronze statue, firm as "a stone wall." What a 
 wonderful galaxy of great men in the group on the 
 green at Richmond, men of immortal fame from such 
 a little community! Washington in the centre, and 
 around, Jefferson, Chief Justice Marshall, Madison, 
 Patrick Henry, etc., etc. It is astonishing that 
 Virginia could have produced so many and so great. 
 Washington's statue by Houdin in the State House
 
 462 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 is wonderful — looks like a French Revolutionary- 
 chief, full of fire, and a young man ; yet he was old, 
 they say. The town is very pretty, and Olmsted is 
 laying out a very pretty suburb. But the babies are 
 most obstreperous and ungoverned. I am better for 
 the change. All West Virginia is booming with 
 speculations. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Lexington, Va., April 29, 1889. 
 
 Dearest Wife : This has been so beautiful a trip, 
 and the Virginia spring so lovely, and Asheville so 
 wonderful, that I have thought we must take it 
 together next year, if we can bear the cost. You 
 would enjoy that Asheville valley so much. 
 
 J. 's sudden death gives me many serious thoughts. 
 I often think of what a happy life we have had 
 together, and how much good you have done me, 
 and I suppose I have you, intellectually. God bless 
 you, ever! I feel more easy about death now the 
 children are pretty well cared for. It will be well 
 with us in the unseen, I am persuaded. Life has 
 been very pleasant, and the unseen life must be more 
 and better. I want my last days to be better. God 
 keep you, and make us both true servants! I love 
 you more than ever! . . . I have written my " Stoic" 
 chapter this trip. Vale ! 
 
 On his birthday, Mr. Brace wrote Mr. Potter, as he 
 was apt to do, reflections on the years behind him. 
 The letter containing these, together with one to his
 
 ^T. 63] BIRTHDAY THOUGHTS 463 
 
 daughter, Mrs. Croswell, referring to the same occa- 
 sion, are to be found below. 
 
 To Mr. Howard Potter. 
 
 Ches-knoll, June 19, 1889. 
 
 3Ty dear Potter : I hardly know why I always 
 incline to write you a note on my birthday, unless 
 because we are at about the same age, and I always 
 think of your friendship as one of the rich gifts of life. 
 
 Both of us must now feel that a very slight cause 
 may call us away to the Unseen. I think of the 
 Future with wonder and curiosity, but not feeling 
 that we can know much. One can only trust. The 
 great anxiety is to make the remaining days the best, 
 and to " finish up." 
 
 My European trips have given me a new lease of 
 life, and I want to use it for His service. Strange 
 what happiness there is in life ! How grateful I am 
 for it to the Giver ! My sixty years with hardly a 
 pain or ache (except in one sickness), a freshness now 
 as of full life, the happiest home and married life, 
 perfect comfort ; saved thus far from death in my 
 family ; a work where I never tire ; an unceasing 
 interest in intellectual things ; a love of man and of 
 Christ which grows with years. Now this has been 
 my lot, far beyond all possibility of desert, 
 
 I am so grateful to wife and children and friends, 
 and, above all, to the Pronoia or Providence ! It 
 shows that happiness does not depend on money or 
 position. 
 
 Two things I want still to do, — to put the Society
 
 464 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 on a firmer base (which can be done in three or four 
 years), and to make my last sermon to the world in a 
 book. It is to appear (D.V.) next November, and its 
 title (don't shudder !) " The Unknown God, or In- 
 spiration among Pre-Christian Peoples." There ! 
 You see my destiny ! 
 
 "Many thanks for your loving note," he writes 
 to his daughter, " the best possible present. I pulled 
 my family over to the Palisades on my birthday, 
 just as I did thirty-three years ago, in the heat — 
 pretty good for sixty-three ! And rejoice in unspoken 
 gratitude over the innumerable blessings granted me 
 in a long life by a kind Father, and among them 
 not least, yours and your husband's affection. He 
 is a great treasure to me." 
 
 The summer trip of 1889, his last in the old, 
 beloved haunts, was one continuous delight. The 
 letters inserted tell how complete was his enjoy- 
 ment; but alas, he did not gain the good that had 
 been expected, and went home in the autumn far 
 from well. 
 
 To his Daughter. 
 
 Little Tupper Lake, July 25, 1889. 
 My dear E — ; This revisiting the old scenes of 
 my exuberant youth and manhood is very interesting 
 to me. I am now a father in Israel to the Adiron- 
 dackers. It is lovely, solitary, dreamy as ever. A 
 lifetime has hardly touched this lake. I rejoice so
 
 \ 
 
 ^T. 63] THE ADIRONDACKS 465 
 
 that you children were rocked in this wikl cradle; 
 and your mother gained here eternal youth. The air 
 is as divine as ever, heat from 60° to 75°, a hush 
 over everything; the only sound the fiddling-bird, 
 and a distant roar of pines ; all bathed in a soft, moist 
 atmosphere, and as if in a slumber of a thousand 
 years. We have good company, fair fishing, a pleas- 
 ant house, plenty of venison and trout, and a nice 
 out-door life, but " carries " expensive. We miss you 
 greatl}^ dear, and trust to see you soon at Childwold. 
 Tell James I have been studying his translation of 
 "Cleanthes' Hymn," and like its rugged strength, 
 and am going to send it to him for revision before 
 printing. Much love to Leta. How happy your 
 summer will be ! 
 
 To Dr. Hoivard. 
 
 Little Topper Lake, July 31, 1889. 
 
 My dear George : Here we are on our old tracks. 
 Just met Sutton, a hale old man, our guide on our 
 first trip on Long Lake (wife says thirty-four years 
 ago!) . . . The desolater, the lumber-man, has not 
 reached here, but next year he will come, and all 
 will be ruin. (I have written to the " Times " !) 
 We had a week first at Rainbow, and capital company 
 (some clergy, etc.) and first-rate fishing; here two 
 weeks and splendid sport. L. and I last evening, 
 without a landing-net, took two half pounders, and 
 one one and a quarter pounds near the house, and 
 to-day in a few minutes, one two and a quarter 
 pounds and one half pound, all on a fly. Good 
 2h
 
 466 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 sport, isn't it? The house has been full of trout 
 and venison. . . . 
 
 I like much your idea of writing for the Boston 
 paper on my new book. I will have an early copy 
 sent you. I will send, in October, proofs of the 
 "Stoic" chapters — perhaps the best of the book. 
 What do you think of a chapter on Confucianism? 
 Is that an inspiration — a religion? Would it be 
 well to try Mohammedanism? Is it pre-Christian, 
 and is it inspired? I get my first proof of "Egyp- 
 tian " chapter in September. The volume is to be 
 published in England and here at end of November. 
 I fear me the book is not long enough. I find people 
 are interested in it wherever I read it. 
 
 The writing of the report of the Children's Aid 
 Society for 1889, the last he wrote, was a severe 
 strain on Mr. Brace. He reflects that the passing 
 away of two of their valued workers in the past year, 
 Judge Van Vorst, a trustee, and Mr. Skinner, the 
 superintendent of schools, makes it a fitting time to 
 ask, " What has given this work its success and en- 
 durance, and what is likely to be its future?" He 
 says that it is not possible tliat all the present laborers 
 and guides will continue much longer in the field. 
 His praise is unstinted for the faithfulness of all those 
 connected with the society, and he asks the question 
 how far their labors " will bring forth fruit in other 
 lives, and induce young men and women to take up 
 the laboring oar in our great struggle with poverty,
 
 ^T. 63] FUTURE OF THE SOCIETY 467 
 
 vice, and wretchedness ? " He says that " the success 
 of these workers is due primarily to their own spirit 
 of enthusiasm and religious and humane earnestness. 
 All through the society our teachers and employes 
 have striven to carry blessings to others with the 
 same zeal with which others strive for money or for 
 fame. They have an exceeding great reward, not 
 in the Avorld's applause, but in the fruits of their 
 efforts." He states his belief that no business 
 company can present greater faithfulness and exact- 
 ness than these diligent laborers have shown during 
 the past twenty-five years, and continues with the 
 words : — 
 
 " We have every reason to hope that even in the 
 distant future the same economy, unselfish enthusi- 
 asm for humanity, and utter faithfulness will be 
 manifested by the laborers in this society as have 
 been in the past. The death of its leaders need make 
 no difference, except that their example might in mem- 
 ory add a fresh stimulus to efforts for humanity and 
 for God. Those of us who will soon pass away will 
 ask no higher honor than to have moved others in 
 coming years to carry on in like spirit these great 
 enterprises of compassion and mercy." 
 
 With trust and hopefulness that also in the man- 
 agement of the work there will remain the same 
 character, he says that the younger men who have 
 recently entered the board are displaying the same
 
 468 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1889 
 
 earnestness as their older predecessors, and he 
 doubts not will continue to do so. In the last 
 paragraph of his book, " The Dangerous Classes of 
 New York," this belief is expressed: — 
 
 "To those now serving in it, no thought can be 
 sweeter, when their 'change of guard' conies, than 
 that the humble organization of humanity and Chris- 
 tian kindness, which, amid many labors and sacri- 
 fices, they aided to found, will spread good-will and 
 intelligence and relief and religious light to the 
 children of the unfortunate and the needy, long 
 years after even their names are forgotten; and for 
 monument or record of their work, they cannot ask 
 for more enduring than young lives redeemed from 
 crime and misery, and young hearts purified and 
 ennobled by Christ, and many orphans' tears wiped 
 away, and wounds of the lonely and despairing 'little 
 ones' of the world healed through instrumentalities 
 which they assisted to plant, and which shall con- 
 tinue when they are long gone." 
 
 As to the reasons of the success and permanence 
 of the work, Mr. Brace sums up in a few words the 
 guiding principles of this charity, and, as he says, 
 of the charity of the future. The relative value 
 he placed upon the different agencies is concisely 
 stated. First and foremost he puts individual in- 
 fluence; then "home life as opposed to institution 
 life; the lessons of industry and self-help as better 
 than any alms; the following natural laws in the
 
 ^T. 63] GUIDIXG IDEAS OF THE SOCIETY 469 
 
 treatment of poverty; the implanting of moral and 
 religious truths in union with the supply of bodily 
 wants; and the entire change of circumstances as 
 the best cure for the habits and defects of the 
 children of the lowest poor." These guiding ideas, 
 laid down by the Children's Aid Society from the 
 first year, have steadily ruled its course throughout, 
 and as a result of efforts directed by these principles, 
 both in this and other societies like it, he can say 
 "with great satisfaction, that there is no need, at 
 this day, for any child in the city of New York to 
 be homeless beyond a certain short period ; that no 
 boy or girl need suffer long for want of work or 
 place; that no child need be driven to crime for 
 support; and that the poorest child, in whatever 
 filth or rags, need not be excluded from education 
 and careful training in school." 
 
 During this autumn Mr. Brace was busy correct- 
 ing the proofs of his book, "The Unknown God," 
 and often expressed his gratification that he had 
 been able to finish the original work during the 
 spring before, the proof-reading being at this time 
 almost too great a task for him. 
 
 " I think we shall have the book out in about four 
 weeks," he writes Dr. Howard in November, 1889. 
 "... The best chapters you haven't seen are on 
 the ' Stoics. ' I think ' Buddhism' will be the chapter
 
 470 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 most read. I have a lovely title-page with a Greek 
 altar and an inscription to Agnosto Theo, etc. . . . 
 Have just finished my annual report and my book; 
 and yet in a very bad condition of bodj^" 
 
 The allusion to his bad condition of body, in the 
 last letter, must have called forth some anxious 
 questions from Dr. Howard. The latter's solicitude 
 for his friend's health induced Mr. Brace to write 
 as follows, alluding to his physical condition with 
 an openness to which he had usually a great 
 aversion: — 
 
 " Thanks for your kind sympathy in my ailments, " 
 he writes in January, 1890. " The future is very 
 uncertain, but I wait, as you will understand, in 
 perfect calmness. It came about so. I am always 
 driving ray machine to the utmost, and my weakness 
 lays me open. A few years ago I committed the 
 folly of swimming in Big Tupper after a hot day's 
 work. Had peritonitis at night, but two days' rest 
 restored me. . . . My visits to German springs 
 cured me different years, but last autumn, not 
 having been there, symptoms came on again badly, 
 and threaten the kidneys. I shall try Marienbad 
 (Bohemia) again this summer. My strong consti- 
 tution is, of course, in my favor; still no one can 
 tell. . . . So, you see, I am to battle with disease. 
 God guideth all. You can imagine how devoted 
 and untiring a nurse dear Letitia has been." 
 
 To another friend he says, writing on January 
 9th: —
 
 JEt. 63] "THE UNKNOWN GOD" 471 
 
 "You will receive, as a token to my gratitude for 
 your long friendship, my new book which is to come 
 out about the fifteenth. I should have been out to 
 see you, but Providence is trying me for service by 
 a period of sickness, though I have been able to keep 
 about my duties. I am following your footsteps, and 
 learning to wait and feel myself weak. 
 
 " ' I shall arrive, 
 
 In God's good time, 
 Whether soon or late.' 
 
 "With best wishes for the New Year, yours, etc." 
 
 In the middle of January, the book, "The 
 Unknown God," appeared, and the many favorable 
 notices and cordial letters which he received were 
 very welcome to him. He was especially pleased to 
 see a notice of two and one-quarter columns in the 
 "London Times" — "A rare thing for them with 
 such a subject," he says. 
 
 A letter referring to the book, written by him, 
 and also one or two to him, are as follows : — 
 
 To Br. Howard. 
 
 Ches-knoll, January, 1890. 
 My dear G-eorge .•...! begin to get warm letters. 
 President Porter is going to hand the book to Chris- 
 tian Japanese students there, and get their opinion. 
 He welcomes it, and so do my strict old Presby-
 
 472 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 terian friends. (You know M. always said there 
 was a strong liberal current under the surface in 
 your church.) Your article will help the book 
 immensely. . . . Jan. 19, 1890. We got your 
 review at breakfast this morning, and Avere all greatly 
 delighted with it. You always write well, and this 
 is in the best newspaper vein, and will be read by 
 tens of thousands of people who, alas! read little 
 beside the Sunday paper. But hundreds of others 
 who are good judges will also read it. It will start 
 the book. Many, many thanks ! I was saying it is 
 such an advantage to have a book reviewed by one 
 who has read it. . . . By the way, as to Madame 
 Ragozin, she is not an authority, but a brilliant col- 
 lector. The best opinion of scholars is against the 
 Turanian origin of the Akkadians, and those prayers 
 have a Jewish tone, decidedly. It is a much-disputed 
 question. . . . You quoted a passage praising the 
 Jews, and the next day a young Jewish gentleman 
 sent the Children's Aid Society one thousand dollars. 
 
 From Professor Francis G-. Peahody. 
 
 Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 
 Jan. 25, 1890. 
 
 My dear Mr. Brace : I am seriously indebted to 
 you for sending to me your new volume, and deeply 
 impressed with its learning and its tone. What a 
 happiness it must have been to you to turn from the 
 rush of charity work to these peaceful researches, 
 and to go up on the high ground of religious con- 
 templation! I can think of no lot more full than
 
 ^T. 63] MISS COBBE ON VIVISECTIOX 473 
 
 yours, — a life led among the most pressing problems 
 of our own time, and a mind equally at home among 
 the revelations which are of all time. It is a great 
 regret to me to hear that you are not in good health, 
 but I congratulate you that through any weakness of 
 body you have been able to produce this evidence 
 both of strength and of peace of mind. 
 
 From Frances Power Cobbe. 
 
 DoLGELLT, North Wales, March 11, 1890. 
 
 Ml/ dear Mr. Brace : Again I have to acknowledge 
 with warm thanks the favor you have done me in 
 sending- me another beautiful book. Your "Gesta 
 Christi " has seemed to me ever since I read it the 
 very best word spoken for Christianity, and now this 
 book on " The Unknown God " comes to complete a 
 truly noble philosophy of the religious history of 
 mankind. The plan of it delights me. In my small 
 way I have studied a little of the various religions, 
 especially Zoroaster's, and I shall read your reviews 
 of them Avith extreme interest. It is more than kind 
 of you to remember me after so many years, and to 
 give me your great books. 
 
 I wish I had my work to send in return, dear Mr. 
 Brace, but my old age has been very much darkened 
 and sadly occupied by a contest into which I have 
 somehow been drawn (I think I may say "led") 
 against the new vice of scientific cruelty, and I have 
 very little time or freedom of thought left me for 
 anything but this heart-sickening subject. I will
 
 474 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 send you a few of my papers regarding it, and a 
 little book of a brighter sort (" The Friend of Man ") 
 designed also to incline people's hearts to pity the 
 poor brutes. 
 
 You will be, I think, a good deal interested (if you 
 have not heard of it) in the programme I enclose of a 
 great undertaking in London, Mrs. Humphry Ward 
 (niece of Matthew Arnold), author of "Robert 
 Elsmere," being the moving spirit. I cannot say I 
 am very hopeful of success ; but it is one of the things 
 which ought to be tried by us, and so I have given 
 my name. I have written to Mrs. Ward to say that 
 "The Unknown God" seems written for a class-book 
 for her hall. 
 
 The strain of the daily journey to New York, and 
 the absorbing nature of his work there, were beyond 
 Mr. Brace's power to endure during this trying 
 winter, and he found it necessary to seek rest and 
 change at an earlier season than ever before. A 
 cordial invitation in the month of February, from 
 his cousin, Mr. C. W. Loring, who was passing the 
 winter at Aiken, South Carolina, was promptly 
 accepted, and in his next letter we find him revel- 
 ling in the loveliness of roses and semi-tropical 
 vegetation in South Carolina. 
 
 To his Wife. 
 
 Aiken, S-CFeb. 6, 1890. 
 Dearest Wife ; . . . I was waiting comfortably on 
 the veranda of an old hotel at Graniteville, enjoying
 
 Mr. 63] LAST JOURNEY 475 
 
 a diviue air and the beauty of earth and sky, when 
 C — and L — drove up and took me over (six 
 miles) to Aiken; the woods semi-tropic with tufty 
 Georgia pines and yellow jessamine, and under the 
 leaves trailing arbutus. Here roses and plum blos- 
 soms, and May, but not too warm. Still as Sunday 
 everywhere — and spring here. They have a very 
 pretty, comfortable house. I am better, but tired. 
 I think unceasingly of your devoted love and service 
 of kindness and affection. God bless you ! 
 
 In May, 1890, his son, Mr. C. L. Brace, Jr., came 
 home, with the intention of offering his services as 
 his father's assistant. The proposition, made to his 
 father during the autumn before, that he should do 
 this, and gradually perhaps take more and more 
 responsibility off his father's shoulders, had been 
 favorably regarded by Mr. Brace, unwilling though 
 he was as yet to view the possibility of needing an 
 assistant. But throughout the winter it had been 
 a constantly increasing comfort to him to think that 
 his son stood in readiness to help him should he 
 need it, and although it w^as rarely possible for him 
 to speak to those closest to him of his weakness and 
 failing health, there were occasional words dropped 
 during this year which showed how much this future 
 support was in his thoughts. 
 
 On May 22d, Mr. and INIrs. Brace, accompanied 
 by their younger son and daughter, sailed for
 
 476 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 Hamburg. The voyage seemed to give him new 
 strength, but the slow approach to Hamburg and 
 slower landing, and the warm journey to Berlin, 
 exhausted him, and he reached Marienbad in a 
 much weakened condition. 
 
 The following letters to his daughter are his 
 last : — 
 
 To Ms Daughter. 
 
 Marienbad, June 8, 1890. 
 My dear E — ; We had dreadfully hot, oppres- 
 sive weather on the rail, which exhausted me, but 
 here I di-aw new life again — air 45° and lovely green 
 and copses, and quiet life and good diet. I take my 
 "veal-broth" with the fat women every morning, 
 half frozen, and feel better. The doctor is encour- 
 aging in his examination. . . . This place seems 
 designed as the punishment for years of fat-eating, 
 beer, and sausages, of German men and women. 
 Here they atone and grow thin. It is like living in 
 a hospital for gout and corpulence ; but everything 
 beautifully arranged and much fine music. 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 June 22, 1890. 
 My dear E — ; So many thanks for your loving 
 birthday note. It is one of the greatest pleasures of 
 my life that those who have loved me most have been 
 nearest to me, especially in our society. My chil- 
 dren have been an immense comfort. ... I feel
 
 ^T. 64] FAILING HEALTH 477 
 
 Mr. Tuckerman's death deeply — a noble, true man, 
 and warm friend of mine and my work. He helped 
 me greatly. ... I had lately another set of English 
 notices of my book — very flattering indeed. 
 
 Where we shall be in August is not certain, but 
 probably in the Lower Engadine, in some grand scene. 
 
 In the same letter he speaks of the monotony and 
 vulgarity of a German "Bad," and says, "My soul 
 abhorreth it"; yet his faith that Marienbad would 
 work his cure once more was so strong that he kept 
 up while there in a way that has been since thought 
 to have been mere nervous energy, and not a real 
 improvement as he believed. Certain it is that as 
 soon as he left the baths he at once began to fail. 
 And yet to those who knew how intense was his 
 hold upon life, it will not be strange that even in 
 his weakened state, the journey to Nuremberg, the 
 sight of old, well-known, and loved haunts there, 
 the little trip to Rothenburg, and his first glimpse 
 of that quaint spot, were all sources of delight to 
 him, and were enjoyed until physical exhaustion 
 forced him to rest. 
 
 The family met at Munich, and together went to 
 the Dolomites. After ten days at St. Ulrich, which 
 Mr. Brace could enjoy only in an occasional short 
 stroll, it was decided to carry out the original plan 
 of going by carriage, which was far easier to him 
 than travelling by train in the warm summer
 
 478 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 weather, to the Engadine, where the invigorating 
 air might benefit him, and English physicians and 
 nurses were to be found. The weather was beau- 
 tiful during the long drive from Meran, and Mr. 
 Brace insisted on leaving the valley of the Etsch for 
 a day, to show his children, and see again himself, 
 the magnificent Stelvio Pass, the scene of one of his 
 great walks in the far-away years of his vigorous 
 youth. They reached Trafoi, a spot on the ascent 
 of the great pass, in the afternoon, and the sunset 
 view there was his last great pleasure. He walked 
 out and gazed on the awful snow-heights, in silent, 
 grave enjoyment. 
 
 Mr. Brace's patience and sweetness under his 
 burden of weakness were unfailing, but the trip 
 grew hourly more painful to all, and it was with 
 grateful hearts that they saw the grand scenes of 
 St. Moritz, and then Campfer, come into view on 
 Saturday, the second of August. They felt nearer 
 home in looking on the kind English faces about 
 them, and the chaplain was almost a friend, so great 
 was his regard for Mr. Brace's name. He owned Mr. 
 Brace's late books, and was eager, with a sympathy 
 that made itself felt even Avhen it could not be 
 expressed, to do anything in his power to lessen 
 the gloom of those last days. 
 
 The windows of Mr. Brace's room looked out 
 over one of the loveliest of the Engadine views, the
 
 ^T. 64] DEATH 479 
 
 little pale-green lake of Campfer stretching off to 
 the village of Silvaplana, a deep green point of land 
 jutting into the lake, while beyond were the great 
 gray peaks and shining snow-fields. He could look 
 on all this loveliness as he rested on his bed, and 
 for a moment would lie and gaze and speak of it. 
 But the sleep of exhaustion came almost at once. 
 The kind doctor could not stay the malady of which 
 he died. Bright's disease was doing its deadly 
 work, and although the struggle to regain strength 
 which would not come again even in that air con- 
 tinued for a week, at the end of that time he sank 
 into unconsciousness. A day or two before, he had 
 been much touched by the death of Mr. George 
 Schuyler, with whom his life had come into close 
 relations during the years of his strong friendship 
 for Mrs. Schuyler and Miss Hamilton. One other 
 trace of his old feeling for his friends in his great 
 weakness, and the last expression of interest in his 
 life-work, was shown a few days before his death, 
 when, after reading in a New York paper an 
 account of the success of the sanitarium on Long 
 Island, he said to his daughter, " I wish you would 
 send this to Mr. Potter." 
 
 There was no suffering during the days at 
 Campfer, and after three days of unconsciousness 
 Mr. Brace passed quietly away on the evening of 
 Monday, the eleventh of August.
 
 480 CHARLES LORING BRACE [1890 
 
 On the fourteenth, the funeral procession, simple 
 and unpretentious as he would have chosen it to be, 
 wound along the road to the little cemetery at St. 
 Moritz, where he was laid to rest, and on the stone 
 was carved, "After he had served his generation 
 by the will of God, he fell on sleep." 
 
 The soft green slopes rise up behind the little 
 church and graveyard, the deep green lake lies in 
 the depth of the narrow valley below, and high 
 above his grave tower the snow-capped mountains 
 he loved so well.
 
 POSTSCRIPT 
 
 The news of Mr. Brace's death was received at 
 home and abroad with evidences of deep sorrow 
 amongst those who knew him through his work and 
 books, as well as in the circle of his friends. The 
 newspapers, not only of England and America, but 
 also of Germany, contained tributes to his memory. 
 One of the New York papers said: "The death of 
 no citizen of this municipality could bring a sense 
 of personal loss and personal grief to so many of 
 its inhabitants, as that of Charles L. Brace." The 
 "New York Evening Post" said of him: — 
 
 "He had every quality for philanthropic work: 
 clear insight, perfect sanity of judgment, supreme 
 diligence, and indomitable patience, from whence it 
 resulted that he became a master of his vocation and 
 of world-wide reputation." And the article con- 
 cluded with these words : " Those who had the ad- 
 vantage of knowing him will long remember his 
 engaging personality, the chief light of which was 
 the charm and grace of pure goodness." 
 
 Of the grief of, the men and women who came 
 into daily relations with him in the work of the 
 Children's Aid Society — the teachers in the schools, 
 
 2x 481
 
 482 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 the superintendents who were constantly cheered by 
 his kindly supervision and comprehending sympathy 
 in the difficult task of taming the street-boys, the 
 employees who met him every day in the office — the 
 following letter from one of the teachers is the best 
 testimonial : — 
 
 "I expect to open school on Monday," she writes 
 on September 4th, "and I shall feel, as I enter the 
 schoolroom, that Mr. Brace has left to us, as a sacred 
 legac}^ that we should now, as never before, work 
 with all the energy and the wisdom given us for the 
 cause to which he gave his life. How to go on with- 
 out reference to Mr. Brace, how to disassociate him 
 from the work, I cannot conceive, and I know all the 
 teachers feel as I do. None but those intimately 
 associated in the work can appreciate, as can we who 
 worked with him, the painstaking care, the attention 
 to minute detail, his knowledge of every teacher's 
 abilit}^ his just and even grateful acknoAvledgment 
 of her work, — if it were only her care of the children 
 for a week at the Bath home in the summer, — his 
 unstinted and open praise, and his encouragement 
 of every effort made to advance the educational and 
 moral status of the unfortunate. We knew just 
 where to find Mr. Brace; just wheie he stood on 
 every question; and his 'yes ' and 'no' meant more 
 than a volume from others." 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the 
 Children's Aid Society, held October 15, 1890, 
 the following resolution was passed : —
 
 POSTSCRIPT 483 
 
 " Whereas^ the Rev. Charles Loring Brace has ended 
 a life devoted exclusively to the benefit of the poor 
 and the ignorant of his native land, and has by his 
 individual efforts created the 'Children's Aid Soci- 
 ety,' having been for the last thirty-eight years its 
 honored, patient, and intelligent Secretary, writ- 
 ing for it in public journals, pleading for it wherever 
 he could find a listener, teaching in it, both by voice 
 and example, and helping it with all the powers of 
 a most practical and cultivated mind and loving 
 heart, 
 
 " Therefore Resolved^ That this society, not only in 
 view of the loss the world has sustained by his 
 decease, but as a token of our reverence and affection 
 for him, gratefully place on its records this memorial 
 of his character, 
 
 '"''And we, the Trustees, in recollection of his life, 
 wholly spent in efforts for the relief of human 
 misery, and of his Christ-like devotion to suffering 
 children, do resolve that we will consecrate our lives 
 by sustaining and increasing the great work which 
 he inaugurated and has left to our care, remembering 
 our Lord's words that, ' Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto Me. ' 
 
 ^''Resolved, That we tender to his widow and chil- 
 dren our heartfelt sympathy in their deep affliction." 
 
 A memorial meeting to Mr. Brace was held at 
 the Newsboys' Lodging-House on December 9, 1890, 
 at which addresses were made by Bishop Potter, 
 the Rev. Dr. Taylor, and several of the trustees of
 
 484 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 the society. A letter from William E. Dodge, 
 regretting his inability to attend, contains the 
 following : — 
 
 "No stronger, braver, or more self-sacrificing life 
 has ever been lived in New York. As an example 
 of what may be done by large brains, a big heart, 
 and rare common-sense concentrated on one worthy 
 object, the memory of his work can never die. 
 Always patient, wise, and thoughtful, his manage- 
 ment of a great and constantly growing charity has 
 been a marvel of ability and success." 
 
 Among the more private expressions of sorrow, 
 a telegram from Bishop Potter to his brother said, 
 "Assure Mrs. Brace of hearty sympathy. New 
 York could have sustained no greater loss." 
 
 Dr. Howard, in speaking of the fulness and com- 
 pleteness of the life he had led, says, " How much, 
 in many ways, he has given to us! He has lived 
 the life of four thinkers and workers, instead of 
 one. He could have lived longer, I think, — yet 
 not so long, — had he not crowded and multiplied 
 his work so steadily." 
 
 R. Heber Newton writes to Mrs. Brace: "What 
 a loss our city has met ! Who is there of us preachers 
 whose life can leave behind it such a legacy as he has 
 bequeathed ? I think that his work in the Aid Society 
 was the one most far-seeing and courageous work of 
 the city's philanthropy. I know no finer illustration
 
 POSTSCRIPT 485 
 
 in our history of what one man can do with the love 
 of God and man in his heart." 
 
 From James Bryce, then in this country, came the 
 following to Mrs. Brace : " There was something so 
 pure and elevated about your husband's life and 
 character, so much sweetness and unselfishness in all 
 his life and conduct, that we feel it a great privilege 
 to have enjoyed his friendship, and mourn his depar- 
 ture as a loss to the whole community which he 
 adorned. I do not know where the neglected children 
 of New York are to find an equally wise and tender 
 helper, nor those seeking to enter on philanthropic 
 work so inspiring an example." 
 
 From far-away India came the message of Mr. 
 Mozoomdar, who writes : " . . . Among the few 
 friends whom my American visit has entwined in the 
 most sacred spot of my heart, Mr. Charles Loring 
 Brace's genial face shall ever shine like that of a 
 guardian angel. I can very well imagine what he 
 must have been to the seventy thousand homeless 
 orphans whom he housed and protected, from what he 
 was to me when I was homeless and almost friendless 
 in the great city of New York. . . . He was the 
 type of the Christian character which St. Paul set 
 forth in the words, ' Not slothful in business, fer- 
 vent in spirit, serving the Lord. ' Philosophy and 
 philanthropy make the ideal of the modern Chris- 
 tian, and no one whom I have known conformed
 
 486 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 to that ideal more than my beloved, departed 
 friend. But why indulge in eulogies now, praise 
 and sorrow are equally vain; to the immortal, 
 immortal love is the only fit offering. What better 
 way to make that offering but that his friends, his 
 widow, and his children should put on the example 
 he has left behind him, — the example of Christian 
 love, world-wide wisdom, and absolute devotion to 
 God?" 
 
 The closing prayer from "The Unknown God," 
 written as it was during the years when Mr. Brace 
 put less and less of himself into his friendly letters, 
 seems to be in a sense the last expression of himself, 
 and appropriately closes this autobiography, while 
 placing before us in his own simple and beautiful 
 words the belief at which he gradually arrived, of 
 the presence of God throughout all times and races 
 of men. 
 
 " O Thou Unknown God ! No powers of man can 
 grasp Thee! In Thy fulness Thou art unknowable. 
 We pass away ; Thou art eternal. To Thee belong- 
 eth not time or space. Thou changest not, and yet 
 Thy being is full of eternal waves of thought and 
 feeling. From the nature which Thou hast given us, 
 and from Thy universe, we know that we are in Thy 
 image. Thou hast revealed Thyself in Christ Thy 
 Son. As He is, such art Thou. We thank Thee 
 that Thou hast also made Thyself known in all ages, 
 to all men, of every race and tribe. We bless Thee
 
 POSTSCRIPT 487 
 
 that Thy creatures in ancient days have seen Thy 
 face. We thank Thee that in all their ignorance and 
 animalism they have known Thy loviiig-kindness, 
 which is better than life. We thank Thee that amid 
 impurity they have felt Th}" purity; that where so 
 much was selfish around them they have seen Thy 
 unchanging beneficence. They have only known 
 Thee in part; but who hath known Thee wholly? 
 They have served Thee blindly ; but who hath seen 
 all the ways of the Lord? Thej'^ have given up 
 thought and heart and life to what they conceived 
 Thy will. If they have erred, who of us is free 
 from error? They have called Thee by various 
 names ; but what are names to Thee ? We thank 
 Thee that Thou hast come nearest to us and all men 
 in Jesus Christ Thy Son. In Him we know Thee 
 as Father. In Him we see Thy face. . . . We 
 too, O Thou Theos Agnostos, would join with feeble 
 voices the great acclaim of praise and honor and glor}^ 
 which ariseth to Thee from all tribes and countries 
 of men, and would humbly offer our lives in service 
 to Thee whom we shall yet see face to face."
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 FIRST CIRCULAR OF THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY. 
 
 To the Public : This society has taken its origin in the 
 deeply settled feeling of our citizens, that something must 
 be done to meet the increasing crime and poverty among 
 the destitute children of New York. Its objects are to 
 help this class, by opening Sunday meetings and indus- 
 trial schools, and gradually, as means shall be furnished, 
 by forming lodging-houses and reading-rooms for chil- 
 dren, and by employing paid agents, whose sole business 
 shall be to care for them. 
 
 As Christian men, we cannot look upon this great mul- 
 titude of unhappy, deserted, and degraded boys and girls 
 without feeling our responsibility to God for tliem. We 
 remember that they have the same capacities, the same 
 need of kind and good influences, and the same immor- 
 tality, as the little ones in our own homes. AVe bear in 
 mind that One died for them, even as for the children of 
 the rich and the happy. Thus far, almshouses and prisons 
 have done little to affect the evil. But a small part of 
 the vagrant population can be shut up in our asylums; 
 and judges and magistrates are reluctant to convict chil- 
 dren, so young and ignorant that they hardly seem able 
 to distinguish good and evil. The class increases. Im- 
 migration is pouring in its multitudes of poor foreigners, 
 who leave these young outcasts everywhere abandoned in 
 our midst. Por the most part, the boys grow up utterly 
 by themselves. No one cares for them, and they care for 
 
 489
 
 490 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 no one. Some live by begging, by petty pilferings, by 
 bold robbery. Some earn an honest support by peddling 
 matches, or apples, or newspapers. Others gather bones 
 and rags in the street to sell. They sleep on steps, in 
 cellars, in old barns, and in markets; or they hire a bed 
 in filthy and low lodging-houses. They cannot read. 
 They do not go to school or attend a church. Many of 
 them have never seen the Bible. Every cunning faculty 
 is intensely stimulated. They are shrewd and old in vice 
 when other children are in leading-strings. Few influ- 
 ences which are kind and good ever reach the vagrant 
 boy. And yet, among themselves, they show generous 
 and honest traits. Kindness can always touch them. 
 
 The girls, too often, grow up even more pitiable and 
 deserted. Till of late, no one has ever cared for them. 
 They are the cross-walk sweepers, the little apple-peddlers 
 and candy-sellers of our city; or by more questionable 
 means they earn their scanty bread. They traverse the 
 low, vile streets alone, and live without mother or friends, 
 or any share in what we should call home. They, also, 
 know little of God or Christ, except by name. They 
 grow up passionate, ungoverned; with no love or kind- 
 ness ever to soften the heart. We all know their short, 
 wild life, and the sad end. These boys and girls, it should 
 be remembered, will soon form the great lower class of 
 our city. They will influence elections ; they may shape 
 the policy of the city; they will, assuredly, if unre- 
 claimed, poison society all around them. They will help 
 to form the great multitude of robbers, thieves, and 
 vagrants who are now such a burden upon the law- 
 respecting community. In one ward alone of the city, 
 the eleventh, there was in 1852, out of 12,000 children 
 between the ages of five and sixteen, only 7000 who 
 attended school, and only 2500 who went to Sabbath- 
 school, leaving 5000 without the common privileges of
 
 APPENDIX A 491 
 
 education, and about 9000 destitute of public religious 
 influence. 
 
 In view of these evils, we have formed an association 
 which shall devote itself entirely to this class of vagrant 
 children. We do not propose in any way to conflict with 
 existing asylums and institutions, but to render them a 
 hearty co-operation, and at the same time to fill a gap, 
 which, of necessity, they have all left. A large multi- 
 tude of children live in the city who cannot be placed in 
 asylums, and yet who are uncared for and ignorant and 
 vagrant. We propose to give to these work, and to bring 
 them under religious influences. A central ofiice has 
 been taken, and an agent, Charles L. Brace, has been 
 engaged to give his whole time to efforts for relieving 
 the wants of this class. As means shall come in, it is 
 designed to district the city, so that hereafter every ward 
 may have its agent, who shall be a friend to the vagrant 
 child. "Boys' Sunday Meetings" have already been 
 formed, which we hope to see extended, until every 
 quarter has its place of preaching to boys. With these, 
 we intend to connect "Industrial Schools," where the 
 great temptations to this class, arising from ivant of icork, 
 may be removed, and where they can learn an honest 
 trade. Arrangements have been made with manufact- 
 urers, by which, if we have the requisite funds to begin, 
 five hundred boys in different localities can be supplied 
 with paying work. We hope, too, especially to be the 
 means of draining the city of these children, b}' com- 
 municating with farmers, manufacturers, or families in 
 the country, who may have need of such for employment. 
 When homeless boys are found by our agents, we mean 
 to get them homes in the families of respectable persons 
 in the city, and to put them in the way of an honest 
 living. We design, in a word, to bring humane and 
 kindly influences to bear on this forsaken class — to
 
 492 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 preach in various modes the Gospel of Christ to the 
 vagrant children of New York. 
 
 Numbers of our citizens have long felt the evils we 
 would remedy, but few have the leisure or the means to 
 devote themselves personally to this work, with the 
 thoroughness which it requires. This society, as we 
 propose, shall be a medium through which all can, in 
 their measure, practically help the poor children of the 
 city. We call upon all who recognize that these are the 
 little ones of Chrisir; all who believe that crime is best 
 averted by sowing good influences in childhood; all who 
 are the friends of the helpless, to aid us in our enter- 
 prise. We confidently hope this wide and practical 
 movement will have its share of Christian liberality. 
 And we earnestly ask the contributions of those able to 
 give, to help us in carrying forward the work. 
 
 TRUSTEES. 
 
 B. J. HowLAND, Charles W. Elliott, Moses G. Leonard, 
 
 John L. Mason, Augustine Eaton, Wm. C. Russell, 
 
 Wm. C. Gilman, J. S. Phelps, M.D., J. Earl Williams, 
 
 Wm. L. King, James A. Burtus, A. D. F. Randolph. 
 
 Secretary, Charles L. Brace. 
 Mabch, 1853. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 In September, 1854, the first party for Michigan started 
 from the office of the Children's Aid Society. The Com- 
 pany Book states : " On September 20th, 1854, a company 
 of forty-six boys left the office of the Children's Aid 
 Society in charge of Eev. E. P. Smith, visitor, bound for 
 the AVest. This, being the first company of this kind 
 from this city, was an experiment the result of which 
 was successful and gratifying to all interested in this
 
 APPENDIX B 493 
 
 work." It has been thought advisable to insert almost 
 the whole of the long and full account of this jour- 
 ney. "On Wednesday evening, with emigrant^ tickets 
 to Detroit, we started on the Isaac Newton for Albany. 
 Nine of our company, who missed the boat, were sent up 
 by the morning cars, and joined us in Albany, making 
 forty-six boys and girls from New York, bound west- 
 ward, and, to them, homeward. They were between the 
 ages of seven and fifteen — most of them from ten to 
 twelve. The majority of them orphans, dressed in uni- 
 form — as bright, sharp, bold, racy a crowd of little 
 fellows as can be grown nowhere out of the streets of 
 New York, The other ten were from New York at large 
 — no number or street in particular. Two of these had 
 slept in nearly all the station-houses in the city. One, 
 a keen-eyed American boy, was born in Chicago — an 
 orphan now and abandoned in New York by an intemper- 
 ate brother. Another, a little German Jew, who had 
 been entirely friendless for four years, and had finally 
 found his way into the Newsboys' Lodging-house. Dick 
 and Jack were brothers of Sarah — , whom we sent to 
 Connecticut. Their father is intemperate; mother died 
 at Bellevue Hospital three weeks since; and an older 
 brother has just been sentenced to Sing Sing. Their 
 father, a very sensible man when sober, begged me to take 
 the boys along, 'for I am sure, sir, if left in New York 
 they will come to the same bad end as their brother.' 
 We took them to a shoe-shop. Little Jack made awkward 
 work in trying on a pair. 'He don't know them, sir; 
 there's not been a cover to his feet for three winters. ' 
 Another of the ten, whom the boys call 'Liverpool,' 
 defies description. Mr. Gerry found liim in the fourth 
 ward, a few hours before we left. Really only twelve 
 
 1 Since this first experience we have always sent our children by 
 regular trains, in decent style.
 
 494 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 years old, but in dress a seedy loafer of forty. His 
 boots, and coat, and pants would have held two such boys 
 easily — filthy and ragged to the last thread. Under 
 Mr. Tracy's hands, at the lodging-house, 'Liverpool ' was 
 soon remodelled into a boy again; and when he came on 
 board the boat with his new suit I did not know him. 
 His story interested us all, and was told with a quiet, 
 sad reserve, that made us believe him truthful. A friend- 
 less orphan in the streets of Liverpool, he heard of 
 America, and determined to come, and after long search 
 found a captain who shipped him as cabin-boy. Landed 
 in New York, 'Liverpool' found his street condition 
 somewhat bettered. Here he got occasional odd jobs 
 about the docks, found a pretty tight box to sleep in, and 
 now and then the sailors gave him a cast-off garment, 
 which he wrapped and tied about him, till he looked like 
 a walking rag-bundle when Mr. G. found him. 
 
 "As we steamed off from the wharf, the boys gave 
 three cheers for New York, and three more for 'Michi- 
 gan. ' All seemed as careless at leaving home forever, 
 as if they were on a target excursion to Hoboken. We 
 had a steerage passage, and after the cracker-box and 
 gingerbread had passed around, the boys sat down in the 
 gang-way and began to sing. Their full chorus attracted 
 the attention of the passengers, who gathered about, and 
 soon the captain sent for us to come to the upper saloon. 
 There the boys sang and talked, each one telling his own 
 story separately, as he was taken aside, till ten o'clock, 
 when Captain S. gave them all berths in the cabin; mean- 
 while, a lady from Kochester had selected a little boy 
 for her sister, and Mr. B., a merchant from Dlinois, had 
 made arrangements to take 'Liverpool' for his store. I 
 afterwards met Mr. B. in Buffalo, and he said he would 
 not part with the boy for any consideration; and I 
 thought then, that to take such a boy from such a condi-
 
 APPENDIX B 495 
 
 tion, and put him into such hands, was worth the whole 
 trip. 
 
 "At Albany we found the emigrant train did not go 
 out till noon; and it became a question what to do with 
 the children for the intervening six hours. There was 
 danger that Albany street boys might entice them off, or 
 that some might be tired of the journey and hide away, 
 in order to return. When they were gathered on the 
 wharf, we told them that ive were going to Michigan, and 
 if any of them would like to go along, they must be on 
 hand for the cars. This was enough. They hardly vent- 
 ured out of sight. Tte Albany boys tried hard to coax 
 some of them away; but ours turned the tables upon 
 them, told them of Michigan, and when we were about 
 ready to start, several of them came up bringing a stran- 
 ger with them. There was no mistaking the long, thick, 
 matted hair, unwashed face, the badger coat, and double 
 pants flowing in the wind — a regular 'snoozer.' 'Here's 
 a boy what wants to go to Michig-a?*, sir; can't you take 
 him with us? ' 'But do you know him? Can you recom- 
 mend him as a suitable boy to belong to our company? ' 
 No; they didn't know his name even. 'Only he's as 
 hard up as any of us. He's no father or mother, and 
 nobody to live with, and he sleeps out o' nights.' The 
 boy pleads for himself. He would like to go and be a 
 farmer — and to live in the country — will go anywhere 
 I send him — and do well if he can have the chance. Our 
 number is full — purse scant — it may be difficult to find 
 him a home. But there is no resisting the appeal of the 
 boys, and the importunate face of the young vagrant. 
 Perhaps he will do well; at any rate we must try him. 
 If left to float here a few months longer, his end is cer- 
 tain. 'Do you think I can go, sir? ' 'Yes, John, if you 
 v/ill have your face washed and liair combed within half 
 an hour.' Under a brisk scrubbing, his face lighted up
 
 496 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 several shades, but the twisted, tangled hair, matted for 
 years, will not yield to any amount of washing and pull- 
 ing — barber's shears are the only remedy. So a new 
 volunteer is added to our regiment. Here is his enrol- 
 ment: 'John , American; Protestant; thirteen years ; 
 
 orphan; parents died in E , Maine; a 'snoozer' for 
 
 four years ; most of the time in New York, with an occa- 
 sional visit to Albany and Troy ' when times go hard ' ; 
 intelligent; black, sharp eye; hopeful.' As we marched 
 two deep, round the State House to the depot, John re- 
 ceived many a recognition from the 'outsiders,' among 
 %vhom he seemed to be a general favorite, and they called 
 out after him, 'Good-bye, Smack,' with a half sad, half 
 sly nod, as if in doubt whether he was playing some 
 new game, or were really going to leave them and try 
 an honest life. 
 
 *' At the depot we worked our way through the Babel of 
 at least one thousand Germans, Irish, Italians, and Nor- 
 wegians, with whom nothing goes right; every one insists 
 that he is in the wrong car, that his baggage has received 
 the wrong mark, that Chicago is in this direction, and 
 the cars are on the wrong track ; in short, they are agreed 
 upon nothing except in the opinion that this is a 'bad 
 counthry, and it's good luck to the soul who sees the end 
 on't.' The conductor, a red-faced, middle-aged man, 
 promises to give us a separate car; but while he whispers 
 and negotiates with two Dutch girls, who are travelling 
 without a protector, the motley mass rushes into the cars, 
 and we are finally pushed into one already full, — some 
 standing, a part sitting in laps, and some on the floor under 
 the benches; crowded to suffocation, in a freight car with- 
 out windoAvs, rough benches for seats, and no back ; no ven- 
 tilation except through the sliding doors, where the little 
 chaps are in constant danger of falling through. There 
 were scenes that afternoon and night which it would not
 
 APPENDIX B 497 
 
 do to reveal. Irishmen passed around bad whiskey, and 
 sang bawdy songs; Dutch men and women smoked and 
 sang, and grunted and cursed ; babies squalled and nursed. 
 Night came on, and we were told that 'passengers furnish 
 their own lights.' For this we were unprepared, and so 
 we tried to endure darkness, which never before seemed 
 half so thick as in that stifled car, though it was relieved 
 here and there for a few minutes by a lighted pipe. . . . 
 In the morning we were in the .vicinity of Rochester; 
 and you can hardly imagine the delight of the children, 
 as they looked, many of them for the first time, upon 
 country scenery. Each one must see everything we 
 passed, find its name, and make his own comments. 
 'What's that, mister?' 'Acorn-field.' 'Oh yes, them's 
 what makes buckwheaters.' 'Look at them cows ' (oxen 
 ploughing), 'my mother used to milk cows.' As we were 
 whirling through orchards loaded with large, red apples, 
 their enthusiasm rose to the highest pitch. It was difii- 
 cult to keep them within doors. Arms stretched out, 
 hats swinging, eyes swimming, mouths watering, and all 
 screaming, 'Oh! oh! just look at 'em! Mister, be they 
 any sich in Michigan? Then I'm in for that place; three 
 cheers for 'Michigaii ! ' We had been riding in compara- 
 tive quiet for nearly an hour, when all at once the 
 greatest excitement broke out. We were passing a corn- 
 field, spread over with ripe, yellow pumpkins. 'Oh! 
 yonder! look! Just look at 'em! ' and in an instant the 
 same exclamation was echoed from forty-seven mouths. 
 *Jist look at 'em! What a heap of mushmillons ! * 
 'Mister, do they make mushmillons in Michigan f ^ 'Ah, 
 fellers, ainH that the country tho' ; won't we have nice 
 things to eat?' 'Yes, and won't we sell some, too?' 
 'Hip! hip! boys; three cheers for Michigra^i .' ' . . . We 
 were in Buffalo nine hours, and the boys had the liberty 
 of the town, but were all on board the boat in season. 
 2k
 
 498 CHARLES LORIXG BRACE 
 
 We went down to our place, the steerage cabin, and no 
 one but an emigrant on a lake boat can understand the 
 night we spent. ... It was the last night in the freight 
 car repeated, with the addition of a touch of seasickness, 
 and of the stamping, neighing, and bleating of a hundred 
 horses and sheep over our heads, and the effluvia of their 
 filth pouring through the open gangway. But we sur- 
 vived the night; how had better not be detailed. In the 
 morning we got outside upon the boxes, and enjoyed the 
 beautiful day. The boys were in good spirits, sang songs, 
 told Xew York yarns, and made friends generally among 
 the passengers. Occasionally some one more knowing 
 than wise would attempt to poke fun at them, whereupon 
 the boys would 'pitch in,' and open such a sluice of 
 Bowery slang as made Mr. Would-be-funny beat a retreat 
 in double quick time. Xo one attempted that game 
 twice. During the day the clerk discovered that three 
 baskets of peaches were missing, all except the baskets. 
 None of the boys had been detected with the fruit, but I 
 afterwards found they had eaten it. Landed in Detroit 
 at ten o'clock Saturday night, and took a first-class 
 passenger car on Mich. C. R. R., and reached Dowagiac, 
 a 'smart little town ' in Southwest Michigan, three o'clock 
 Sunday morning. The depot-master, who seldom receives 
 more than three passengers from a train, was utterly 
 confounded as the crowd of little ones poured out upon 
 the platform, and at first refused to let us stay till morn- 
 ing ; but after a deal of explanation he consented, with 
 apparent misgiving, and the boys spread themselves on 
 the floor to sleep. At daybreak they began to inquire, 
 'Where be we?' and, finding that they were really in 
 Michigan, scattered in all directions, each one for him- 
 self, and in five minutes there was not a boy in sight of 
 the depot. When I had negotiated for our stay at the 
 American House ( !) and had breakfast nearly ready, they
 
 APPENDIX B 499 
 
 began to straggle back from every quarter; each boy 
 loaded down — caps, shoes, coat-sleeves, and sliirts full 
 of every green thing they could lay hands upon — apples, 
 ears of corn, peaches, pieces of pumpkins, etc. 'Look at 
 the Michig^a?! filberts ! ' cried a little fellow, running up, 
 holding with both hands npon his shirt bosom, Avhich 
 was bursting out with acorns. Little i\Iag (and she is 
 one of the prettiest, sweetest little things you ever set 
 eyes upon) brought in a 'nosegay,' which she insisted 
 upon sticking in my coat, — a mullen-stock and corn- 
 leaf, twisted with grass ! Several of the boys had had a 
 swim in the creek, though it was a pretty cold morning. 
 At the breakfast-table the question was discussed how 
 we should spend the Sabbath. The boys evidently 
 wanted to continue their explorations; but when asked 
 if it would not be best to go to church, there were no 
 hands down, and some proposed to go to Sunday-school, 
 and 'boys' meeting, too.' The children had clean and 
 happy faces, but no change of clothes, and those they 
 wore were badly soiled and torn by the emigrant passage. 
 You can imagine the appearance of our 'ragged regiment, ' 
 as we filed into the Presbyterian church (which, by the 
 way, was a school -house), and appropriated our full share 
 of the seats. The 'natives ' could not be satisfied with 
 staring, as they came to the door and filled up the vacant 
 part of the house. The pastor was late, and we occu- 
 pied the time in singing. Those sweet Sabbath-school 
 songs never sounded so sweetly before. Their favorite 
 hymn was, 'Come, ye sinners, poor and needy '; and they 
 rolled it out with a relish. It was a touching sight, and 
 pocket-handkerchiefs were used quite freely among the 
 audience. At the close of the sermon the people were 
 informed of the object of the Children's Aid Society. It 
 met with the cordial approbation of all present, and 
 several promised to take children. . . . Monday mom-
 
 500 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 ing the boys held themselves in readiness to receive appli- 
 cations from the farmers. They would watch in all 
 directions, scanning closely every wagon that came in 
 sight, and deciding from the appearance of the driver 
 and the horses, more often from the latter, whether they 
 'would go in for that farmer.' There seems to be a gen- 
 eral dearth of boys, and still greater of girls, in all this 
 section, and before night I had applications for fifteen of 
 my children, the applicants bringing recommendations 
 from their pastor and the justice of peace. There was a 
 rivalry among the boys to see which first could get a 
 home in the country, and before Saturday they were all 
 gone. Rev. Mr. 0. took several home with him; and 
 nine of the smallest I accompanied to Chicago, and sent 
 to Mr. Townsend, Iowa City. Nearly all the others 
 found homes in Cass County, and I had a dozen applica- 
 tions for more. A few of the boys are bound to trades, 
 but the most insisted upon being farmers, and learning 
 to drive horses. They are to receive a good common 
 school education, and one hundred dollars when twenty- 
 one. I have great hopes for the majority of them. 
 * Mag ' is adopted by a wealthy Christian farmer. ' Smack, 
 the privateer, ' from Albany, has a good home in a Quaker 
 settlement. The two brothers, Dick and Jack, were 
 taken by an excellent man and his son, living on adja- 
 cent farms. The German boy from the 'Lodging-house ' 
 
 lives with a physician in D . Several of the boys 
 
 came in to see me, and tell their experience in learning 
 to farm. One of them was sure he knew how to milk, 
 and being furnished with a pail, was told to take his 
 choice of the cows in the yard. He sprang for a two- 
 year-old steer, caught him by the horns, and called for a 
 'line to make him fast.' None seemed discontented but 
 one, who ran away from a tinner, because he wanted to 
 be a farmer. On the whole, the first experiment of
 
 APPENDIX C 501 
 
 sending children West is a very happy one, and I am 
 sure there are places enough with good families in 
 Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, to give every 
 poor boy and girl in New York a permanent home. The 
 only difficulty is to bring the children to the homes." 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The present work of the Children's Aid Society (1894) 
 comprises the maintenance of twenty-one industrial 
 schools, thirteen night schools, six lodging-houses, a 
 farm-school for a small number of boys at Kensico, 
 Westchester County, N.Y. ; four summer charities — the 
 Children's Summer Home at Bath Beach, the Cottage for 
 Crippled Girls, the Health Home on Coney Island, and 
 the Sick Children's Mission; a dress-making, sewing- 
 machine, type-writing school, and laundry; a boys' 
 printing-shop; and three free reading-rooms. All this in 
 addition to the emigration work, to which we shall recur. 
 The Report of the society for 1893 showed a registry of 
 12,516 children in the schools during the year, and an 
 average daily attendance of 4976. These children, be- 
 sides being taught, were partly fed and partly clothed. 
 The total annual expense of these schools (both day and 
 night) was $122,371.99, making an average cost of $24.59 
 for each child. In the lodging-houses 6277 boys and 
 girls found shelter and food in the course of the year. 
 Deducting the lodging-house receipts, the net running 
 expense was $27,463.51, and dividing this by 464, the 
 average nightly number of lodgers, we have $59.19 as 
 the average cost of each child for the year. The Summer 
 Home received 5007 children during the summer, at an 
 average cost of $1.46 for each child. At the Health 
 Home, 6300 mothers and babies were entertained at a
 
 602 CHARLES LORING BRACE 
 
 cost of $1.04 for each person. The total number of 
 persons under charge of the society for the year was 
 34,277. 
 
 The number for whom homes and employment were 
 found last year was 1940 ; of whom 1033 were boys, 626 
 were girls, 107 men, and 174 women. The average cost 
 to the public for each person was $12.75. To place a 
 child in a good home in the far West and afterward visit 
 and correspond with him costs on an average $25. The 
 maintenance of the same child in an asylum or poor-house 
 costs nearly $140 a year. Since the formation of the 
 society in 1853 the number of persons assisted to new 
 homes and occupations has been 99,678, of whom 85,977 
 were children, — 52,460 boys, and 33,517 girls. Included 
 in the total number are 1451 sent to institutions. Homes 
 have been found for the younger of these children, 
 employment in New York and the neighboring States 
 for the older, and poor families have been assisted to the 
 West, where employment awaited them. Of the smaller 
 children not three per cent have turned out badly, and of 
 all children under fourteen not more than five per cent. 
 A record has been kept of all the children placed in 
 homes, and the correspondence is one of the features of 
 the system, and all are visited as long as is deemed 
 necessary by the experienced agents. 
 
 The statistics of juvenile crime, taken from the police 
 reports and covering the period of the operation of the 
 society, show a steady diminution of offences of this 
 class. To quote from the Report of 1893, where a sum- 
 mary of these statistics has been made, "... the com- 
 mitments of girls and women for vagrancy fell off from 
 5880 in 1860 to 1769 in 1892, or from one in every 1381- 
 persons in 1860 (when the population was 864,224) to 
 one in every 1033 in 1892 (when the population was 
 1,827,396). This certainly looks like some effect from
 
 APPENDIX C 503 
 
 reformatory efforts. Again, the commitments of petty 
 girl thieves fell off from one in every 743 in 1865 (when 
 the population was 726,380) to one in 8158 in 1892. 
 Male vagrants also have diminished in twenty-live years, 
 largely in proportion to the population. Male petty 
 thieves have fallen off some 700 during twenty-five years, 
 and greatly in the average to the whole number, as have 
 also the comm^itments of boys under fourteen years." In 
 one classification of the police reports known as statistics 
 of juvenile delinquency, the number of arraignments has 
 fallen from 1139 in 1875 to 570 in 1892, and the number 
 of commitments from 917 to 459, — this, despite the 
 increase in population and the great numbers of poor 
 immigrants left stranded in New York. 
 
 Professor Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
 versity, writing in 1892, estimates the number of chil- 
 dren aided by Mr. Brace at 300,000. It is certain that 
 the real number is far in excess of this, statistics showing 
 that in the single department of the boys' lodging-houses, 
 over 200,000 boys have found shelter during the past 
 thirty-eight years. During the last year the super- 
 intendent of these lodging-houses started in business or 
 trade 271 boys, while employment in other ways was 
 found for 648 more. The total number aided in ways 
 devised by Mr. Brace cannot be far from half a million. 
 
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