THE MEMOIR AND WRITINGS VOL. I, THE MEMOIR AID WRITINGS JAMES HANDASYD PERKINS. EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON : WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS. CINCINNATI: TRUEMAN & SPOFFORD. 1851. * Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S50, by STEPHEN H. PERKINS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts CAMBRIDGE: METCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. vJ CONTEXTS. SKETCHES OF THE LIFE OF J. H. PERKINS. I. YOUTH. 1810-1831. Parentage and Birth, 1. Childhood in Boston and Brookline, 2. Lancaster, 4. Sports, 7. School, Mr. S. P. Miles, 13. Exeter and Round-Hill, 15. Authorship, My Aunt Esther, The Nashua, The Young Soldier, My Old Felt Hat, 19. Literature, 27. Nahant, 29. Mercantile Life, 30. Spiritual Struggles, 31. Voyage to England, 35. London, Fanny Kemble, &c., 43. The West Indies, Slavery, &c., 46. Return and " Stepping Westward," 56. II. MANHOOD. 1832 - 1849. Cincinnati, 58. Law Studies, 59. Society, 60. Correspondence, 61. The Emigrant's Lesson, 72. Inward Conflicts, 73. Betrothal and Correspondence, 74. Marriage, 85. Withdrawal from the Law, 87. Editorship, 89. Rules of Study, 92. Life at Porneroy, 97. Lit- erary Plans and Horticulture, 106. A Morning Walk, 108. Social Position and Influence, 110. Ministry at Large, 113. Liberality, 120. Prison Reforms, 124. Christian Statesmanship, 134. Washington, 135. Agrarianism, 136. Dangers of the West, 146. Prospects of the West, Christian Republicanism, 153. Masses and Individuals, 160. Associations, a Vital Form of Social Action, 165. Free Institutions, 172. Representatives and Constituents, 180. Socialism, 182. Anti- slavery, 189. Education, Public Schools, 208. Cincinnati College and Cincinnati Observatory, 210. Private School, 211. Female Edu- cation, 221. Young Men's Mercantile Library Association, 242. Historical Societies of Cincinnati and Ohio, and Historical Writings, 243. ^Esthetics, Powers, 245. Poetry, 253. Public Lectures, 254 The Preacher, 255. Views of Religion, 272. Relations with the First Congregational Society, 276. Union of Christians, 278. Plan of a Christian Society, 2'Jl. Home Life, 296. Character and Influ- ence, 303. Death and Testimonials of Friends, 306 - 320. VI CONTENTS. VERSES. PAGE NEW ENGLAND ........ 323 To A LADY, wno WONDERED WHY SHE WAS LOVED . 325 SONG, " O, MERRY, MERRY HE THE DAY" . . . 326 CHANGE NOT 329 POVERTY AND KNOWLEDGE ...... 331 HOME 333 THE MOTHER AND CHILD 335 To A CHILD 337 NOVEMBER AND MAY 310 TRUTH 312 To ONE FAR AWAY 311 ANGEL MEETINGS ........ 3-18 A COUNTRY CLERGYMAN 319 ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG CHILD . . . . 351 TASSO IN PRISON 353 MARQUETTE ......... 355 To A FLOWER 359 COME, LEST THE LARK ...... 3G1 BY EARTH HEMMED IN 363 HYMN 364 THE STORM-SHAKEN WINTER 365 THE VOICE THAT BADE THE DEAD ARISE . . . 366 THE PAST AND THE FUTURE ...... 367 THAT HAPPY LAND 370 INVOCATION 371 SPIRITUAL PRESENCE ....... 372 TALES. MELANCTHON AND LUTHER ...... 375 LORD OSSORY 381 DORA McCiiAE 388 THE HYPOCHONDRIAC ....... 406 A WEEK AMONG THE " KNOBS " 438 THE JUDGE'S HUNT 450 THE MURDERER'S DAUGHTER ...... 460 THE KINDNESS THAT KILLS ...... 469 CHARITY IN THE COUNTING-HOUSE AND OUT OF IT . . 484 LIFE IN CINCINNATI IN 1840 ..... 499 THE LOST CHILD .508 THE PIoLE IN MY POCKET . . . . . . 517 THE ONE TRUE CONVERT . 521 SKETCHES LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS TO THE FIKST CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI, AND TO THE CIECLE OF OUR FRIENDS, THIS MEM01K OF JAMES H. PERKINS IS DEDICATED, WITH AFFECTIONATE RESPECT, BY WILLIAM H. CHANNING. SEPTEMBER 21. 1S50. TO THE FRIENDS OF JAMES H. PERKINS. OUR friend was a man so free from pretension, that informal sketches of his life seem alone to befit his char- acter ; and all that I have here attempted is to give an off-hand outline of his genius and growth as I observed them, filled up with extracts from his writings, and memorials supplied by others. But so interesting has it proved to trace his spiritual progress, that these notices have become too personal, minute, and lengthened out for the public eye. I have neither leisure nor inclina- tion, however, to mend my work ; and must ask you, pardoning its imperfections, to accept this memoir as a faithful portrait for the home circle. May its contem- plation at once elevate and humble us, renew our aspi- rations, quicken our watchfulness, and rouse us to good works. Biographies should rarely be attempted ; but if written at all, they should be TRUE. Otherwise they are living lies, and do but spread by contagion the death- in-life of self-deceit and hypocrisy. So far as I have gone, I have declared the simple truth ; and yet with reverent affection have I passed by in silence our friend's XU TO THE FRIENDS OF JAMES H. PERKINS. deepest struggles, for only he could so have told them as to leave a full impression of the truth. The clew to their explanation is to be found in the inheritance of a morbid temperament. How nobly, after all, did the spirit triumph ! Death is the great emancipator for the really earnest ; and on what ever-widening spheres of useful- ness has this fellow-mortal and fellow- immortal assuredly entered ! May we meet him there ! God bless him ! God bless us all ! " Do we indeed desire the dead Should still he near us at our side ? Is there no haseness we would hide? No inner vileness that we dread ? " Shall he for whose applause we strove, We had such reverence for his blame, See with clear eye some hidden shame, And we be lessened in his love ? " We wrong the grave with fears untrue : Shall love be blamed for want of faith ? There must be wisdom with great Death ; The dead shall see us through and through. " Be near us when we climb or fall : Ye watch, like God, the rolling hours Witli larger, other eyes than ours, To make allowance for us all."* W. H. C * Tennvson's "In IMemoriam." SKETCHES LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS I. YOUTH. 1810-1831. JAMES HANDASYD PERKINS was the youngest child of Samuel G. Perkins and Barbara Higginson, both of Boston, Massachusetts, and was born on the 31st of July, 1810. The first image that rises is of a bright-eyed boy, with dark, curling hair, olive skin, and slight figure, hov- ering about an aged nurse, who seemed to have sole charge of him. " Aunt Esther," as he used to call her, with form bent by age and crippled by rheumatism, with face brown as parchment, seamed by wrinkles, and utterly ugly but for the love that illumined it, so deaf that only shouting directly in her ear could carry mean- ing to the brain, slow-moving, slow-thoughted, but pa- tient and inexhaustibly kind Aunt Esther, how she reappears from the past, with that half playful, half plain- VOL. i. 1 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. live, gypsy-looking boy hanging round her in the lonely nursery ! Lonely, I say, for the impression left of those earliest days is of a very isolated childhood. The elder brother was away from home at a boarding-school, and soon went to Europe to complete his training in Germany and France. Of the sisters, two had already entered society, and were engaged amidst the constantly recurring interests of cultivated life, while two younger were ab- sorbed in perfecting'their education and accomplishments. The mother appears in memory, as from secluded dis- tance, a person of stately beauty, seated beneath curtains on a sofa, in turban and elegant attire, entertaining an admiring circle with eloquence and wit ; while the father, seemingly a giant in figure as lie towered above us, alter- nately cheerful and stern, but to children invariably con- siderate and kind, comes in only at intervals, when released from cares of commerce or the engrossing pleasures of horticulture. So that "Aunt Esther" and I seem to have been James's constant companions. Dwelling in the same block in Boston during the winter, and within a short half-mile of one another at Brookline in summer, related by close family ties, as our mothers were sisters, separated in age by but two months, James being the junior, both guarded from pro- miscuous intercourse with children, kept much at home, and with just enough of likeness and unlikeness in dispo- sition to make us congenial, we were from the cradle almost like twin-brothers. Together we watched the falling flakes, measured with delight the swelling banks, shovelled away the snow, piled it up into monsters, and battered them with balls ; together we wandered in the woods, gathering flowers or watching the birds and squirrels at their frolics, chasing our boats along the YOUTH. rippling brook, strolling under the barberry-hedges, with their yellow blossoms and scarlet fruit, or eying the gardener wistfully as he plucked luscious grapes and nectarines in the hot-house ; together we conned our Latin grammar, or worked out our sums on the slate, in- terweaving a border of grotesque figures, at Mr. Greeley's school, and in play-hours picked up stray darts of the older boys, who, with paper helmets and shields covered with Gorgon-heads, fought over the battles of the Iliad ; together we pored over volumes of cavalry exercise, illustrated by drawings of horses in every conceivable attitude, of costumes and trappings used in the French armies, and by pictures of Napoleon's battles, or stag- gered under the heavy cap and sabre worn by his father as commander of the huzzars ; together we communed with Robinson Crusoe on his lone island, sailed with Sinbad on his perilous voyages, wandered with Gulliver at Lilliputias and Brobdignags, revelled in the piquant wonders of the Arabian Nights, felt our hearts glow with heroic ardor as Mentor encouraged Telemachus, followed Christian and Christiana through the perils and pains of their pilgrimage, or enjoyed more home-like pleasures while we read aloud Sanford and Merton, the Children of the Abbey, Evenings at Home, the Par- ent's Assistant, Popular Tales, and Berquin's Children's Friend ; together, rarest joy of all, we peopled the world of fancy round us with Olympic Deities, Genii, and Fairies, built airy castles for our future lives, looked abroad over the wide prairies of romance, and, in a word, exchanged in unstinted measure a boy's full life of hope and enterprise. One incident so prominently recurs to mind, as illus- trative of my cousin's character, that, though it may 4 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. appear trifling, I am impelled to record it. One after- noon, before school-time, we were tilting upon a heavy piece of timber, quite unequally balanced, James and I being together on one end and several boys on the other, when, by way of trick, they at a signal sprang off as we rose in the air, meaning merely to loss us into the dust when we struck the ground. Unfortunately, James's ankle came beneath the beam, and while I bounded up he lay prostrate. His leg was broken. Never shall 1 forget the sad smile and soft gaze of his brilliant yet mel- ancholy eyes, as, without a tear or a word of complain- ing or reproach, that little boy was borne upon men's shoulders home. In the fortitude, stern yet sweet, with which he met that injury, wrought not of purpose, but by his fellows' thoughtlessness, I seem to see an omen of his earthly course. Some two years now passed, during which we were separated, James having spent the intervening period in Boston and Waltham, and I at Lancaster, Massachu- setts, to which picturesque town he, too, was afterward sent, that he might have the advantages of excellent instruction and the sympathizing oversight of relatives. Brightly comes up again the summer afternoon of his arrival. I took him to a hill, commanding a wide pros- pect across meadows tufted with elm-trees which skirted the Nashua, and beyond, a rolling country with Warhu- sett's rounded summit swelling blue against the western sky ; and there, amid the sunset, he repealed the opening stanzas of Marmion. He had found this stirring talc of border warfare on his mother's table before leaving home, and it had so enchanted him, that long passages were imprinted on his memory. The ringing tones, the mu- YOUTH. sical cadences, the kindling eye and animated gesture of that boy, then ten years old, as, with head bathed in the "yellow lustre," he stood upon the hill-top, chanting almost those verses, present to me an ever-vivid image of his poetic enthusiasm. The next afternoon, being holiday, was spent by us alone among the pine-woods in boyish gossip, he pouring out the pent-up memories of boarding-school oppressions and miseries, of boarding-school stratagems and tricks, and I listening with the tender sympathy of a child who had never left the guarded circuits of a happy home. Well I remember that, while tickled beyond measure with the little fellow's spirit, drollery, shrewdness, and endless inventiveness, I was pained to feel though then incapable of shaping the feeling into thought that neglect and wrong had spotted with rust the once wholly bright links of his affectionateness. A slight infusion of sarcasm in his narratives and sketches, spicy at first taste, but afterwards bitter, marked the sense of half-pardoned injustice. Most contagious, however, was his fun, as, with almost Indian gravity on his expressive features, the chiselled chin, fine-cut lips, high, thin nose, and black eyes glancing under straight brows, he over- flowed in a stream of pithy anecdotes, quaint fancies, and, as must be candidly owned, of most Munchausen- like exaggerations. But far more exciting in interest was his fresh vigor of thought. He had read much and remembered vividly; he had observed the natural world, and was full of faets ; above all, ever-wakeful imagina- tion threw around words and actions the charm of sug- gestiveness and beauty. Since our parting, among many companions I had met with no one who could compare in attractiveness with this brilliant boy. Once more we 1* LIFE OF JAMES n. PERKINS. plighted our vows of friendship, and became ns before inseparable cronies, cronies so exclusively, indeed, that \ve had often to run the gauntlet of our playmates' somewhat jealous raillery ; for genuine democrats as they are, spurning all bonds but of their own imposing, bovs are still scrupulous courtiers in demanding observance of their habitual etiquette, and cronyship violates in ; de- gree the indiscriminate good-fellowship that is the natural tone of youthful groups. It is not meant that James was unsocial, far less that be was haughty or moody ; for at that period, as through life, he had rare conversational gifts, and often became the centre of a knot of listeners, who, though older, larger, stronger than he, were yet constrained to feel the charm of his superior talent, as he narrated or invented tales, recited verses, often of his own composing, or amused them with ingenious discussions and humorous talk. But though kindly and generous, he had little aste for violent sports, and much preferred a solitary ramble with a friend to any noisy frolic. Thus, spite of jeers or petty persecutions, we were cronies ; and it would be hypocrisy to conceal that our hours of amusement al- ways first present themselves, when looking backward to those bright mountain-passes of our early years. Is not a boy's character most formed and his mind most devel- oped, indeed, in seeming idle hours ; and should not edu- cation be moulded on the hint thus given by nature, that joy was meant by God to be the quickening sunshine of life's spring-time ? Hut not to philosophize, James and I certainly rejoiced together to our hearts' content. < >ur gains and risks, our pleasures and perils, were in com- mon ; we were mutually confidants, guardians, partners in full. How impossible it is to convey the significance YOUTH. 7 of our own experience, or to repeat the emphasis which Providence puts upon events by their adaptation to our powers and needs ! Yet the most insignificant of those boyish adventures seems now to have been prolific in enthusiasm, imagination, thought, courage, honor ; and each season was only too short to let us drink our fill of healthful excitement. When southwest winds, laden with showers, melted the snows accumulated through the winter in the woods, and poured them into the Nashua, and the river, gathering up its might, broke its already loosened fetters, bearing the heaped-up fragments over the meadows, and sweep- ing fences or even bridges in its course, then, what wild rapture was it to watch the " freshet " ! We stood in twilight under the leaden sky, and followed with our eyes the floating foam, eddying whirlpools, and grinding cakes, the broken boughs, rolling trunks, pieces of tim- ber or wrecks of buildings, perhaps living things, a muskrat, a sheep, a cow, struggling to reach the land, and crawling up half-dead with cold and fright upon the bank, where the back-water spread out shallow behind a projecting point ; we listened to the moaning wind, the crash of ice and logs, and the hoarse roaring of the flood that filled the air, till moonlight, streaming in flashes through the scud, wrought metamorphoses with every touch, and gave free play for eye and thought to fill the scene with wonders. Much I fear that we felt more sympathy with the rising river, in its turbulent radicalism, than with the farmer mourning the disappearance of his boundaiy-marks. And it would be long to tell into what meanings of reform symbols of the universal law of change, thus vividly conceived in youth, were trans- muted amid the struggles of manhood ! 8 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. With summer suns came gardening. Lucky he whose melons first burst the mould, and, pushing off their caps, shot forth their leaves and runners ; still luckier he, who, watching day by day the green knob beneath the blossom as it swelled into a glossy, mottled globe, by tappings of the rind and scrutiny of the shrunk stem, was at length satisfied that his treasure wa,s ripe, and could summon his fellows to sit around him in the shade, while with eager knife he shared the crimson slices. James and I were amateur husbandmen, too, and would often lend a helping hand to our companions among the farmers' sons, in hoeing potato and corn hills, raking up windrows and hay-cocks in the meadows, or binding sheaves in the grain-fields, while in payment for our services they were allowed to go with us on swimming frolics, to dive, splash, float, or plunge for white stones on the bottom of the transparent Nashua. In due season, we took our baskets on our arms in the evening, and over the shrubby hills gathered the whortleberry and blueberry, or, better still, the long, plump blackberry from its trailing vines, while over head the swooping nighthawks drew our eyes to the deep sky, where-, fanning slowly upwards or falling in swift curves, their forms were darkly drawn upon the rosy clouds. Then came the orchard-harvest, when sometimes we shook down and gathered the apples into red, green, and yellow heaps, and stood by the crunch- ing cider-press, through straws sucking up the unfer- mented juice, or sometimes wandered forth on foraging excursions, with most primitive license as to owner- ship, stuffing pockets, hats, bosoms, with fruit, which was stowed, if not quite mellow, in the hay-mow. In the dusky evenings, we built fires in our ovens under the sand-banks, and roasted ears of corn, which I can- YOUTH. didly own we pilfered from the nearest Geld. And when autumn winds and frost whirled away the gorgeous leaves, and rattled the gaping burrs and shells, we filled our bags with chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, and spread the butternuts to dry upon the garret floor. What overflow- ing generosity do the opulent bounties of the natural world teach to the boy, who is not trained by drudging toil and penury to premature prudence, and with what exquisite gradations does the constant round of country avocations unfold each practical power ! For the health of his whole soul in after life, does not the child need to be like father Adam, a tiller of the garden, and to walk with God amidst the Eden-like beauties of the budding and the ripening year ? Ay ! does he not need, too, to be somewhat of a vagrant and unchartered freeholder ? A frank confession must here be made, however, that through all warm months the chief delight of James and myself was faking. Without the dimmest premonition, certainly, of our future calling, as " fishers of men," we plunged into this as it now appears most cruel sport, with a zeal and skill that might have won praises from that autocrat of anglers, Christopher North. Week in, week out, the intensity of our " passion " for this amusement was strong enough to bear us, with unwearied limbs, through scorching suns, and soaking rains, and long excursions among marshes and thickets. Was it the mere pleasure of exercising superior craft, that harden- ed us without a thrill of horror to pluck those lustrous, swiftly-gliding creatures from their elastic element, and see them flap to painful death ? or was it not rather the love of beauty that led us with stealthy steps along the brook, where in dark hollows and gurgling rapids the red- flecked trout were darting to and fro, or by the sedgy 10 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. margin of the ponds, where, under lilies with broad green pads and white and orange blossoms, the spotted pickerel with bony snout and slowly fanning fins lay lurking, or on the river-bank beneath the elder-blooms, where, over sands gold-braided with flickering rays, the breams or perch maintained their brotherhood ? Doubtless, glory in repute for sportsmanship and love of adventure were elements in our excitement ; but verily I believe our joy rose mainly from symbols half hinted, half hidden, in the musical, graceful flow of waters, the inverted images of trees and herbs and living things, more brightly beautiful than their originals, the phantom-like shapes of brooding fogs, the mirrored skies so softly blue, across whose wonderful depths clouds floated of every tint, with cease- less play of light and shadow, the ever-widening, ever- crossing circles formed by trickling rain-drops, above all, the gentle, yet resistless, onward rush of the stream, opening to thought dim avenues of that future towards which existence is evermore tending. The cream of our delight was surely this communion with nature in her serenest moods. But whatever our motive, the fact undeniably was, that we were a pair of as inveterate lit- tle fishermen as ever dug worms, baited hook, or watch- ed a bobbing cork for a nibble. So passed the sunny seasons, and winter only glorified for us the dying year. Before frosts bound up the soil, with hatchet and spade we dug up pitch-pine knots to brighten the twilight with their genial glow. Then fol- lowed skating, with its fascinating flights over the black, transparent, gleaming surface of the pond, while the yet thin ice rang musically, and chipped and crackled round us, or bent in gentle undulations, as sparkling particles skimmed off like spray beneath our cutting strokes. But YOUTH. 11 ecstasy was at its height only when a driving north- easter came to bury up roads and fences beneath the snow. Somewhere we had found Forster's Treatise on Meteorology, and had patiently studied out the science of the clouds, until our prognostications would have done no discredit to a sage seaman or farmer. With what congratulations we spied the wavy film of cirrus whiten- ing the sky at noon, beheld the sun dwindle to a pallid point and disappear in leaden banks skirting the south- western horizon, and watched the halo growing faint and ever fainter round the moon, while smoke columns from the neighbouring chimneys curled uprightly through the still air, then slowly curved and settled before faint puffs of the eastern wind. With what eagerness we waked by daylight, listened to hear the clicking flakes against the glass, and peered abroad through window-panes half cleared of frost to see whether the ground was whitened and wooded hills looked veiled and dim. All day long our rapture grew with the growing drifts, as we waded back and forth, or leaped to bury ourselves full length in the powdery mounds, rejoicing most when whirling snow- clouds shut out the nearest familiar objects, and when the pelting blast forced us to close our blinded eyes and turn our backs to catch a breath. Then when night came on without exhausting the crystal store-house of the clouds, and rays from fire and candle flashed out in flame-like splendor on the scud, and icicles hung tbick and long from half blocked up windows, and tbe tempest howled and died away fitfully above the chimmey or moan- ed through the crannies, how we made the walls resound with Campbell's Ode to Winter, read aloud apt passages from Thomson's Seasons, Cowper's Task, or Hogg's Glen-Avin, and told stories round the hearth, while 12 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. temperance forgive we passed the cider-mug from hand to hand, and feasted on nuts and apples. Even when the repeated " Good-night " summons drove us reluctantly to bed, we did not lose our interest in the progress of the storm, which we would have to be the most tremendous ever seen or heard of ; again and again we must open a crack of the door to feel with hand and cheek the thickened atmosphere, again and again, with eyes screened from the light held close to the panes, scan the white swarm of eddying flakes, again and again sit up half wrapped in blankets to assure ourselves that spirits of the air yet played their antics round the eaves, and that still the wooded hills looked veiled and dim. And morning ! when through a fringe of slowly with- drawing clouds the slanting sunbeams opened a doorway to calm upper glory, and lustre fell on pine-trees bowed with sweeping arms beneath white priestly robes, and roofs, gables, fences, wood-piles, exalted by peerless arabesques into component parts of one vast temple, whose floor was the wide waste of spotless plains, whose colonnade of arches was the shining hills, with what grateful awe did we behold the miraculous transmutation of the common scene, and recognize the boundlessness of Divine art so prodigally poured abroad in evanescent beauty ! with what thrills of pure pleasure did we trace the varied mouldings of the snow-drift, and refresh our dazzled eyes in the cerulean tint of blue that, beneath each graceful curve, mirrored the heavens ! These simple joys of country life I would like to pic- ture with even fond minuteness, so sure I am, that more than all other influences they combined to shape James's tastes and habits, and that every type of beautiful joy entered into his spiritual life to reappear through after YOUTH. 13 years in hope, patience, liberal judgments, capacious thought, and ideal longings for purity and peace. Well might he have echoed Wordsworth's sublime strain of gratitude : " Wisdom and Spirit of the universe ! Thou soul that art the eternity of thought, That gavest to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion, not in vain By day or star-light thus from my first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul, Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, But with high objects, with enduring things, With life and nature, purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying, by such discipline, Both pain and fear, until we recognize A grandeur in the beatings of the heart." Justice must now be done, however, to the wise guardianship of a teacher, to whom James was most warmly attached, and to whom he felt that he was deeply indebted for the formation of his character and mind. This was Mr. S. P. Miles, afterward Tutor of Math- ematics in Harvard University, and honored Principal of the Boston English High School, who will be always remembered with affectionate reverence by every pupil who enjoyed his paternal care. Son of a clergyman in a small village of New Hampshire, stimulated to over- exertion by a desire to aid his younger brothers and sis- ters, broken down, as so many men of highest promise have been, by a sudden change from out-of-door labors to sedentary pursuits, and with the spiritual light of con- sumption already beaming in his eyes, Mr. Miles treated his scholars with a considerate sympathy, a delicate ap- preciation of tendencies and trials, an encouraging cheer- VOL. i. 2 14 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. fulness, a sweetness, and, above all, an equity, which ap- pealed to every magnanimous impulse, and quickened conscience and self-respect to constant action. He was in spirit and deed a Christian gentleman. Reared up under a somewhat gloomy Orthodoxy, he had worked his way out into the sunnier faith of Unitarianism, and blend- ed in his religious sentiments the earnest piety of Calvin- ism with the hopeful benevolence of the Liberal school ; while natural affability and refined tastes gave the charm of courtesy to manners made pensive by a consciously weak hold of life. His mental bias was towards natu- ral science, and he had supplied himself with books, plates, cabinets, and instruments for illustrating lectures or making experiments, which he was always patient as prompt to use for the good of those who had the sense to appreciate his teaching. James was as much of a favorite with Mr. Miles as a person so impartial would allow himself to have, and for a time was his room-mate. I think I well know the oc- casion that 6rst called out his special regard for his pupil. Business summoning him away one afternoon, he trusted the school to the charge of a monitor, expressing a hope that his confidence would not be abused. But on his return his ears were greeted, even from a distance, by an uproar. The sentry at the door, however, giving notice of " the master," all was a scene of apparently absorbing study as he entered. This hypocrisy prob- ably touched him more keenly than our quite natural roguishness, for it was with a tone of most unusual sever- ity that he said, " Let the boys who have been guilty of this disturbance come forward." No one stirred, the big fellows especially, who had been ringleaders, sitting shrouded in a most imperturbable air of injured inno- YOUTH. 15 cence. After waiting in silence, and looking from face to face, he continued, " Has no one courage to be true ? " Then, up from the benches of the smaller boys rose James, and, with a friend of about his own age, walked steadily down the aisle, until confronted with the ruler of our little realm. It was with a clear, calm tone, and a look of sorrow, not fear, that he confessed his trifling share in the tumult; and incentive indeed it was to frankness for a lifetime, when, placing his hand on the heads of the young friends, and with a few words to the school in commendation of their honor, the much- loved teacher forgave them. From that hour Mr. Miles seemed to repose a perfect trust in James's sincerity, and admitted him to his intimate friendship. Through this intercourse he gained a strengthened interest in the natural sciences, more solidity of judgment, simplicity of manners, and lively conscientiousness ; and I doubt not, also, that, by their conversations, readings, and occasional devotions, James's religious sensibility was much quick- ened, though Mr. Miles's dread of formality or mor- bid excitement, and his respect for the sacredness of spiritual experiences, made him reserved even to an excess of delicacy. Altogether, this period of Lancas- ter life was most prolific of good for James. Vital seeds were deeply planted in him, seeds destined to outlive the gloomiest seasons of doubt and despondency, and to grow up to sunlight through the rubbish of temptation and worldly influences. Now came separation once more, while James passed several years, first at Phillips Academy, Exeter, where presided the excellent Dr. Abbot, who had married a sister of his father ; and afterward in the famous Round- 16 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. Hill School, at Northampton, Massachusetts, then under the direction of Mr. Joseph G. Cogswell and Mr. George Bancroft, assisted by a most talented and accomplished corps of teachers. During this interval I could trace his progress only by means of a correspondence, quite diligently kept up for boys, and a cronyship regularly renewed in every vacation. One of his instructors at that period, Hon. Timothy Walker of Cincinnati, de- scribes James as follows : "During the years 1826, 1S27, 1828, I had charge of the mathematical depart- ment, and young Perkins was a member of my class. No instance is remembered in which he incurred censure from any of the professors ; on the contrary, he was always prepared in his lessons. He did not then study the ancient languages ; but in the modern languages, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, it is believed that he had no superiors among the pupils. It is well remembered that he was never a playful or mirthful boy. While others were engaged in their sports, he sought his recreation in solitary walks, generally in the beautiful surrounding forests, collecting flowers and minerals." And a friend and schoolmate, U. Tracy Howe, Esq., adds the following impressions: "As a boy, James exhibited some of the peculiarities which have marked him through life. He had great intellectual activity and capacity, and whenever he applied himself he excelled ; yet, as I recall him, he did not rank high or take a prom- inent stand as a scholar. He had then, as he had in manhood, that love of independence, both in action and thought, which made it distasteful to him to comply with any rules or formulas of thought or study imposed by others. Thus, though his mind and body were active, they were active in his own peculiar way. I remember YOUTH. 17 we used frequently to start off upon a pedestrian tour, in the midst of a hard snow-storm, or at its close, with the snow up to our knees ; and at such times, when others were about the fire or amusing themselves under cover, it was his favorite pastime to take a tramp of several miles, over the fields and through the woods. This fondness for walking for severe walking continued with him as long as I knew any thing of his habits. An accident of childhood, which produced weakness and periodical lameness of one leg, prevented him from en- tering into the more active of boyish sports ; but he was very fond of gymnastics, especially of such as required vigor of arm. He had at that time great facility in writ- ing for a boy, and some taste and power in versification. His desire for an adventurous, roving life was very strong. The thought of the wilderness, and of the free activity of the backwoodsman and hunter, always excited his imagination ; and I remember well, when reading with him some account of the region of the Rocky Mountains, how his face would light up, and his eye glow with enthusiasm, as he talked of going thither, which he said he intended to do at some future day." The passion for exploring rambles, thus truly referred to as characteristic of James, was the result of many combined impulses. The restless energy of his nervous- bilious temperament sought vent in sustained muscular activity ; poetic enthusiasm was gratified by the sense of novelty, the hope of adventures, and contemplation of the exquisite beauty that hung around Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom, or overspread the wooded hills and grassy meadows of the Connecticut ; his already strong taste for natural science, yet further stimulated by Mr. Cogswell, who was an earnest mineralogist, and by Pro- 2* 18 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. fessor Hentz, who was a master of botany and entomol- ogy, found ceaseless play ; his almost Indian-like love of independence enjoyed the zest of consciously break- ing the appointed school-bounds, and disregarding high- ways or inclosures ; and finally, solitude freed him from the frivolities of uncongenial companions, and gave oc- casion for thought and the exercise of fancy in mental composition. An extract from a confidential letter, writ- ten about the time of his leaving Northampton, presents his portrait, by his own hand. It is by no means flat- tered, but very life-like, and may suitably close this sketch of his school-days ; especially as it illustrates what James felt intensely throughout his manhood the evils of education in large schools unhallowed by religious and humane influences, and where the young are trusted, without wise guardianship, to their own half- savage instincts. 1827. " I have never tried to persuade myself that all affection is affectation. Far from it. I may seem dull or cold where others would not, not because I do not feel, but because it is not natural for me to express my feelings. I have always been to appearance a phlegmatic sort of ani- mal, but it is only in appearance. I have felt what no one at the time knew me to feel. " You need not fear that I am about to reveal a love story ; I have not reached that degree of affection yet. I have only now to say, that I have loved my master. I really loved Mr. M , at Lancaster ; I have really loved Mr. C , here. He liked me too; and what was the result? I was hated by the boys. This was when was under my charge. If I spoke to him of neatness, be complained to his companions ; and this, with the favor I had with Mr. C , finished me. I was voted a bully, was driven out of all society, and became a sort of solitary. After this term, YOUTH. 19 when the boys found 's story a lie, they became more friendly. Then I apparently left the master and took to my playmates, for ' you cannot serve God and Mammon,' you know. I made friends with those who had persecuted me, and became in turn head of the persecutors. I gained my revenge, but I was feared. Before, when I was hated, I was weak ; now I was strong, and the strong were on my side. Still I was unhappy. Then I let all persecution drop, treated every body well, and appeared to love all. But by this time I had become disgusted. I could gain peace only by deceit, and deceit I loathed. So now I grew desirous of living alone. I could trust none, did trust none, and ceased to show that I had any affection at all. Thus unsociability is my nature, my habit, my fancy, and I fear I shall never be cured." The most interesting recollection of James, during this period, which remains with me is, that he invariably brought home a budget of copy-books, crammed with tales and verses, some mere plagiarizing imitations, of course, but the most of them freshly alive with his own experience and originality. These it was always our first pleasure to read over together and to criticize. And I know no better way of giving some impression of our delight in those hours of callow authorship, than to re- print here a few pieces, composed about that time, though revised at a later day. They are all records of his youth. MY AUNT ESTHER. MY first and best, and oldest of aunts ! and yet no more my relation than the town-pump. Aunt Esther ! she was the nursing mother of the whole dynasty of s, father 20 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. and grandfather, son and grandson; they had all been fondled and spanked, washed, combed, and clothed by the venerable maiden. From her I learned to love " lasses candy " ; from her I learned to hate Tom Jefferson. Many an evening as I sat by her rush-bottomed and rickety chair, threading her needle, or holding, while she wound, skeins of silk or yarn, that I thought must be as long as the equator, many an evening has she discoursed of the arch- rebel Napoleon, whom " she would have torn to flinders," she said, " if she could only have got her hands on him " ; though the next day she would set free the very mouse that had stolen her last pet morsel of cheese ; for she was a very Uncle Toby, or rather Aunt Toby, in such matters. She told me of Napoleon, and her little work-table was the battle-field. Here was the ball of yarn, and there was the half-finished stocking, and yonder was the big Bible, supported by the spectacle-case. Old Boney himself moved among them in the form of a knitting-needle; and to this day I cannot think of the Little Corporal, but as a tall bit of cold steel, with a head made of beeswax. From her, too, came my portrait of Washington, whom she had seen during his visit to the North. Year after year did those well-beloved lips pronounce his eulogy, and often was the hourly prayer put up by me for a long life to Aunt Esther and General Washington; little did I dream that one who to me had just begun to live, had been dead these ten years and more ! And then came the war and the Hartford Convention ; and such a time as we had of it, up in our little back-room ! I don't know what it was that preserved the nation ; for there was Aunt Esther and I, and the whole race of s, in such a passion that we almost walked to England dry- shod. Aunt Esther had one fault, she was always too cleanly in her notions. It was probably because of her Federal and YOUTH. 21 aristocratic associations, but certain it is that she could not even see a dirty boy without wanting to wash her hands. And this her most prominent organ was exercised most fully upon generation after generation, as each marched through her dominions. "As bad as to be washed by Aunt Esther," was a proverb in the dynasty. For many a long year no lines in the language were to me so pathetic and soul -har- rowing* as those from the Columbiad : " Still on thy rocks the broad Atlantic roars, And washes still unceasingly thy shores." To be "washed unceasingly " was my beau-ideal of misery. Aunt Esther, familiar as she was, was still a mysterious being to me. I had never met any other of her name ; and, having early in life heard the Book of Esther read, always thought of my old nurse in connection with Ahasuerus and Mordecai, and the tall gallows. Nor was the mystery di- minished on being told, when I asked how long it was since Mordecai, that it was hundreds and thousands of years. How old she was I did not dare to ask ! Brought up to bring up others, the venerable matron loved nothing so dearly as Scotch snuff and noisy children. When the storm waxed loudest in the nursery, she was most in her element, and walked undisturbed amid " The wreck of horses and the crash of toys." Her chief text and comfort was that in which we are told that our Saviour blessed the children brought to him, and said that of such was the kingdom of heaven ; for to her it conveyed the idea that the place of rest would be brim- full of babies. And I grew up, and another generation came forward to claim my rocking-horses, and my long-legged chairs. I went to school ; and when I came home, I found Aunt Esther just as of old, only (as the saying is) a good deal more so. But though to me time was a matter of some 22 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. import, she defied it. Nay, I received a letter from my cousin, who had just been married, telling me that Aunt Esther had danced at her wedding. was the old lady's last favorite; gentle and kindly, she loved her foster-mother more than many do their own parents, and she meant to take the ancient to her new home, she told me. But when I arrived at Boston again, I found that this had not been done ; Aunt Esther could not leave the old nursery, with its yellow floor and barred windows ; and as little could she bear to lose her pet. From the day of 's wedding, she began to go out ; her work on earth was done ; and from the arms of the last she had brought up in the fear of the Lord, she passed away to meet her new colony of infants beyond the skies. In one corner of the church-yard there had been a great oak, of which all had departed but a shell of bark a few feet high. From this shell, within a year or two, a young, tall sprout had sprung up. Under that emblem of the res- urrection they laid the body of Aunt Esther. Above her they placed a three-sided obelisk ; upon the west side was carved the form of an aged woman, on the brink of the grave ; upon the east, that of a bright spirit, springing from that same grave ; while upon the front was her name and age, "Esther Pray, aged 91 years," with a part of her favorite text, perverted and yet true, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven." THE NASHUA. FAIREST of rivers, rolling Nashua ! Whose waters through deep forests glide along, And then o'er rocks and pebbles dash and splash away ! To thee, sweet stream, would I direct my song ; From 'mid these dusty streets, this bustling throng, YOUTH. 23 The hum of business, I would strive to sing (So be 't the Muses will inspire my tongue) Of the sweet days of life's all-joyous spring, When fishing was " the go," and Saturday " the thing." Still, as of erst, thou rollest on thy tide Unto the ocean, its far dwelling-place, And still the blackbird screameth by thy side, And still the bubble dances on thy face, But on thy banks there is a different race. We were there once, ere Time upon our brow Had set his signet, and a little space We angled where thy tall bullrushes grow. Our lines were taking then, I fear mine wont be now ! Ah Youth ! thou art indeed the golden age Of our existence, and when thou dost pass The silver comes, when money is the rage ; And by and by awhile, the age of brass, When men will lie and fabricate, alas ! As if they did not know it were a sin ; Then iron old age comes. There ends the farce ; And to the most, the tragic doth begin, For all without seems dark, when there 's no light within. But Youth ! thy days have passed, for ever passed. No more we rig the line, array the poles, And hurry to the river-side so fast; No more we gather round the favorite hole, Or angle where the rapid waters roll, For the bright chiven or the spotted trout ; A pickerel now is not ambition's goal ; We should not fish and fume and sweat about, Save for a smiling wife, which, caught, may prove a pout ! 24 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. THE YOUNG SOLDIER. " Now lend the eye a terrible aspect, Set firm the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide, Hold hard the breath, and tend up every spirit To his full height." King Henry Fifth. O, WERE ye ne'er a schoolboy ? And did you never train, And feel that swelling of the heart You never can again ? Didst never meet, far down the street, With plumes and banners gay, While the kettle, for the kettle-drum, Played your march, march away ? It seems to me but yesterday, Nor scarce so long ago, Since we shouldered our muskets To charge the fearful foe. Our muskets were of cedar-wood, With ramrod bright and new ; With bayonet for ever set, And painted barrel too. We charged upon a flock of geese, And put them all to flight, Except one sturdy gander, That thought to show us fight. But, ah ! we knew a thing or two : Our captain wheeled the van, We routed him, we scouted him, Nor lost a single man. Our captain was as brave a lad As e'er commission bore ; YOUTH. 25 All brightly shone his tin sword, And a paper cap he wore ; He led us up the hill-side, Against the western wind, While the cockerel plume that decked his head Streamed bravely out behind. We shouldered arms, we carried arms, We charged the bayonet ; And woe unto the mullen-stalk That in our course we met. At two o'clock the roll was called, And till the close of day, With our brave and plumed captain, We fought the mimic fray, When the supper-bell, we knew so well, Came stealing up from out the dell, For our march, march away. MY OLD FELT HAT. "Gone, and for ever ! Let me muse awhile." ANON. THIS world 's a very wicked world, Indeed, I wish it would amend ; This world 's a very heartless world, I may not, cannot find a friend. I 've searched it through from side to side, All kinds, complexions, I have tried, The young, the old, the lean, the fat, Of every climate, every hue ; But cannot find one half so true, So ever firm and kind, as you, My old felt hat. VOL. i. 3 26 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. I bought it on a summer's day, The summer sun was shining bright, The summer birds were singing gay In every grove, on every spray ; And as I went my homeward way, Ah me ! I was a happy wight. And when I stopped, a foolish boy, Upon a mossy stone I sat, And wept to think how blest I was ; And as I wept, I kissed the cause Of all my tears, and hope, and joy, My new felt hat. Ah ! summer days are sweet and long, But summer days are quickly told ; And new felt hats are passing strong, But cannot bear the rain and cold. They said that mine was getting old ; But still I wore, I brushed it still, And still it was my Sunday's best ; And when within the pew I sat, In ruffled shirt and speckled vest, How carefully I watched thee, lest Some wicked one should work thee ill, My new felt hat ! And winter past, and jocund spring, With skies of blue and leaves of green, And countless birds upon the wing, Came back, and round us every thing Burst forth in renovated sheen. Did I say all ? Yes, all, save one ; Nor watering dew nor warming sun YOUTH. 27 Brought spring or summer more to that : All past was now its early pride, All broken in its pasteboard side, And so it lost its dye, and died, My poor felt hat. Ah ! my old hat, methinks in thee A mournful emblem I may see. The fairest flowers are first to die, The brightest fruits the soonest fall ; The worm will live, the butterfly, One little hour may be his all ; The patriot stern, that will not bow Nor to the monarch bend the knee, But bears his country's wrongs, as thou Didst bear the blows were meant for me, The fairest flowers of womankind, Of warmest heart, and brightest mind, Of sweetest eye, and liveliest chat, May live one short, one summer day ; Then, for this world too pure and true, Will lose their beauty and decay, Scarce prized till they are lost ; like you, My old felt hat. So much for first flights in authorship. And next came comparisons of what had been read since we part- ed, and new explorations in the fields of literature. The earlier English poets and ancient bards in translations, we were sufficiently acquainted with to revere from afar ; but they occupied a secondary place in our affections. Thomson, Goldsmith, Cowper, came nearer home. Scott was read, reread, recited. Campbell was a famil- iar household minstrel. Southey was dearly prized for 28 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. his pathos, manly simplicity, high-toned goodness, end- lessly various versification, and, above all, for his rich imagination as exhibited in the Curse of Kehama and Thalaba, whose fluent melodies charmed us unweariedly. And, by somewhat incongruous juxtaposition, Byron was our idol. Strange it seems now to recall the fe- verish excitement with which we gave ourselves up to Childe Harold, the Bride of Abydos, the Siege of Co- rinth, &c., our favorite being Manfred. Coleridge, too, wove round us his mysterious spell in the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, and Genevieve, though of course we were yet unripe for his more solemn strains. But our grand discovery was Wordsworth; discovery, I say, for we had never heard more than his name, cer- tainly, when, taking up a volume that lay on the table, we chanced on Peter Bell, and read it aloud with in- tensest interest. The Idiot Boy, The Cumberland Beggar, The White Doe of Rylstone, and all his simpler tales and poems, followed in swift succession, and cor- dially did we thank their author for the springs of pure and serene joy which his touches of natural feeling opened in our hearts. But we were not absorbed in poetry. Now were the enrapturing days of the Waver- ley Novels, which, sitting side by side, we scampered through, with eyes on a race to reach the bottom of the page. We were never tired, either in poring over Ho- garth's works, and tracing out in minutest details the tragi-comic aspect of life's tapestry turned wrong side out. Don Quixote, too, in a beautifully illustrated copy, was a serviceable counterpoise to our over-wrought enthusiasm. As I remember, moreover, James was fond of studying some volumes of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, which he found in his father's library, being YOUTH. 29 rather attracted than repelled by their classifications and technicalities ; and his vigorous mind drew in the practi- cal information needed for nutriment, from works of travels, and history. Still, undeniably, the poets were our cherished guides, and it was in their company that we learned wonder, trust, and hope. Our vacations were by no means, however, mainly passed within doors, or in beholding life through the magic glass of imagination. We still kept up our habits of pedestrian excursions, and were passionately as ever fond of angling. Regularly we spent several weeks at Nahant, where his mother, attracted by health and taste, resided during the summer. Her cottage stood upon the ridge of the promontory, overlooking the bay encircled by the beaches of Beverly and Gloucester, from the long-stretching village of Lynn to the looming headlands of Cape Ann, with the brown steeps of Egg Rock, gir- dled by foam, on the east. There our daily delight was to see from the piazza the sun break in glory from the glittering water, and then to watch the flock of fishing- boats, with pointed sails, skimming across the blue sur- face like sea-birds on the wing. When the dew was off the herbage, and breakfast done, with poles, lines, and bait in order, we started for the rocks, soothing conscience that would now and then upbraid us for our wholesale murders by the specious plea of earning a dinner. But again let me do our hearts no more than justice, by asseverating, that "sport" formed a trifling ingredient only in the fascination, which morning after morning en- ticed us to broil in sunshine upon the projecting ledges till face and hands were blistered, and to crawl through clefts slippery with seaweed yet dripping with the wave's last pulsation. Our joy was in the silvery glister of the 30 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. horizon, the undulating, on-rolling ocean, the slow-gather- ing, graceful swells, the crested billows with their locks of spray, and the melodious roar with which the exultant sea embraced the shore in ever fresh espousals. Spite of romance, we earned at once a dinner and an appetite ; yet often our poles dropped from listless hands, and baitless hooks were entangled in the water-plants, while dreamily we gazed into the green, sun-lighted caverns of the deep, or fancy took flight through vistas where the main and sky met and mingled. But boyhood's yachting trip must now be ended, and the merchantman launched for the voyage of life. At the age of eighteen, James entered the counting- room of his uncle, Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, whose house was then, and for so long a period, a leader in the Canton trade. Here, for two years and more, he punctually discharged the drudging duties of clerk in a large establishment, and was trained by strict routine to climb step by step to business efficiency and skill ; and hence^too, in due time, might he have risen to become, according to the purpose of his munificent relative, a partner in one of the most substantial and gainful firms of his native city. But he felt that an exile from books to ledgers was turning him into a mere copying-machine ; the reserve of his superiors shut him out from such views of commercial enterprise as might have awakened his intellect and energy ; association with his fellow- clerks, though friendly, and enlivened with humorous chat, did not feed his longing for earnest intercourse, while their experiences only deepened his sense of the inequalities and hardships of mercantile life ; and above all, as he learned to know his own tastes and aspirations, YOUTH. 31 did he become satisfied that he could neither kindle nor keep burning that love of money-making which is the prerequisite of worldly success. Thus gradually he was forced to the conviction that he must disappoint his friends by turning from a seemingly sure path, and fash- ioning for himself an untried career. As James beheld perplexities and tantalizing uncer- tainties spreading round him, despondency settled down upon his spirits like a foggy night. Selfish anxiety, however, had but a superficial influence in causing this gloom ; for he was too conscious of power to feel much fear as to finding a sphere of activity. His trials rose from a deeper source. He was now in that passage- way from childhood's peaceful valley to the world of action, when the soul seems to stand, like an unarmed prize, between the darts of tempters and the swords of guardian-angels. Those transition years from youth to manhood ! years of judgment, when the golden sands that glided so swiftly through life's hour-glass are sifted and tested, to be thrown away as valueless, or molten and coined ; years of spiritual candidateship, when cowards, detected through every sham, are let off to vain pursuits, while the brave are adopted by heaven's chivalry, and sent abroad to win their title by deeds of generous good-will ; years of pilgrimage, through which all earnest persons pass, unless rarely favored by tem- perament, social position, and congenial work ; years of baptism, years of the second birth ; who ever did, or ever could, adequately portray their pathetic in- terest ? My cousin made me a counsellor in his conflicts, and thus I became privy to the causes brought up for judg- ment in his court of conscience. His first struggles rose 32 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. from an insight of the practices and maxims which gov- ern the mercantile profession. That men seemingly sound-hearted in the circles of family and friendship, and nowise devoid of moral or religious principle, confided in by fellow-citizens for wisdom, integrity, and public spirit, the " Ancient and Honorable " of the land should, as a matter of course, cheat in trade, use supe- rior information to outwit the unwary, avail themselves of the mischances of the poor, weave webs of specula- tion to control markets for their own gain by others' losses, and all for the sake of a few dollars, filled him at first with dismay, and then with disgust. Thus the question came up, whether he would add one more to the already crowded class of " go-betweens," whose support must, by some means, be drawn alike from pro- ducers and consumers ; and he resolved that, however honorable might be the position of exchanger in justly ordered societies, he would escape at the earliest chance from what he saw was the gambler's den of competitive commerce. But this question brought up others. What was the meaning of this tyranny of wealth, that led men to barter their very manhood for gain ? And, as for the first time he opened his eyes on conventional customs, the prevalence of ambition and manoeuvring, the cringing concessions of the needy, the ostentatious pride of the opulent, and the fawning flattery that vitiates to the core the courtesies of fashionable life, it cannot be denied that a sad contempt took possession of his heart, and made him for a time a cynic. He grew plain to bluntness in his speech, careless to extreme in dress, utterly disre- gardful of etiquette, reserved, almost morose, in manner, and solitary in his ways. Yet deeper troubles drove him to solitude. His very YOUTH. 33 doubts of men and dissatisfaction with society compelled him to look inward on his own heart, and to grapple there with the stern problems of destiny. In his con- scious soul-weariness, his want of harmony and strength, his sullen despair, whither should he look for light and peace ? What was this resistless Fate that seemed to drive men, fettered in coffles, to work in dark mines of evil ? Whence came prevalent inhumanity and injus- tice ? Was this Christian religion so pompously pro- fessed, yet practically so violated, a superstitious farce or a solemn reality ? Was there a Sovereign Good, intelligent of man and sympathizing with his struggles ? Was the career of humanity a blind circuit in a tread- mill, or an upward progress ? Was there an end worth living for ? In this mood he read all the philosophers, Christian or Infidel, whose works he could obtain, and found solace in the poems of Shelley. In the vague yearnings of that beautiful spirit for love ineffable and full of bliss, his communings with Nature as a living friend, his prophetic hope, uncompromising justice, femi- nine tenderness, unawed fidelity to truth, and infantile freshness, was just the cordial that his wounded feelings needed ; while in the very indefiniteness of Shelley's creed, he found the reflex of his own skepticism. He was much gratified, also, in planting his feet firmly on facts, as they then appeared to him to be, in the novel doctrines of Phrenology, and read Spurzheim and Combe with profoundest interest. But such satisfaction was incomplete at best. There were central, spiritual wants, which Shelley did not recognize, which natural science could not feed, diseases of the Will, such as faith alone could cure. Then it was that James turned, as so many an inquiring spirit has done, to Coleridge, and 34 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKIX S. not in vain. In the " Friend," and yet more in the " Aids to Reflection," he found glimpses of a new world, offering welcome from afar to the storm-driven and be- calmed voyager ; but as yet glimpses only, for time and change of scene were needed to bring him to a haven. To these real griefs were added others wholly fanci- ful in origin, and which, in after life, he could refer to with no little amusement. He believed himself to be in love with a lady, to whom I believe he never even spoke, but whose beauty, as he beheld her in his walks, or at church, seemed quite to fulfil his ideal of loveliness ; and among his manuscripts poems still remain, express- ing his devotion to this imaginary mistress. But these sorrows of the fancy doubtless deepened his despon- dency, which, spite of the kindness of parents, sisters, brothers, friends, became at length almost intolerable. For relief he was accustomed to take long tramps through rain and snow as in bright weather, and by night as in the day. Usually he walked alone, though not averse to congenial companionship. Well do I remember his coming to me in desperate mood one autumn afternoon, with the urgent request that I would go with him to Nahant. A northeast storm was brooding, and he longed to behold the surf. As we crossed the beach about dusk, we saw, to our astonish- ment, that every breaker was luminous with phospho- rescence. And going at once to the rocks at East ClifT, we witnessed a rare scene of solemn beauty. Clouds of leaden gray closed darkly down on the horizon, and scud was driving swiftly overhead ; but, far as eye could reach, the surface of ocean was braided with crink- ling lines and circles of soft lustre, and the billows, as they rolled over half-sunk ledges, and, rushing onward, YOUTH. 35 flung themselves high against projecting points, opened in golden wreaths, and burst in showers of spangles. No depression of spirits could resist such a magnificent symbol of the brightness hid in seemingly the gloomiest fate ; and when, towards midnight, we sought our beds, James was once again light-hearted as a boy. As a means of wholly breaking off his morbid trains of feeling, and rousing him to healthier action of his powers, his father made arrangements, in the winter of 1830 31 to despatch James on a business mission, first to England, and thence to the West Indies. And ex- tracts from his letters during this period will best reveal his progress, and his objects of interest. PARTING WORDS. " New York, January 15, 1831. I am thus far on my way to England, and thence go to the West Indies Pardon me if I have the blues. Melan- choly has much as you may believe the contrary ever been one of my passions, but it is melancholy of a peculiar kind ; it is not doubt concerning the future, nor sorrow for the past, much as I have reason both to doubt and to sorrow ; it is constitutional, and I have always been, am, and probably shall ever be, really more disposed to cry than to laugh. I have lived in an ideal world of my own creating, knowing at the same time that it was ideal ; the world, as it is, does not suit me. Not that I am disposed to get out of the way of all society and become a hermit ; but I do not like fashionable society, because it scarce appears to me to deserve the name. At heart, I should always be disposed to be a social man. But men are so utterly selfish and carnally-minded in the mass, that I am not fond of their company ; and wom- en, as far as I have known them, are, with few exceptions, so much ' lower than the angels,' that I rather like to think 36 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. of them than le with them. I have an itching for something beyond and better than eating and drinking and money- making ; even knowledge and fame, it appears to me, pro- duce satiety. I am never contented ; at rest I long for ac- tion, in action I long for rest. I build no castles in the air, form no plans for the future, look forward to nothing, and yet I am not what others think me, uninterested. I am always interested, and that far more deeply, I believe, than most are, but in something unreal and intangible, in some- thing not future, but, if I may be paradoxical, beyond the future. What a monstrous deal of stuff about myself; but remember, it may be my last chance." " THIRTY DAYS IN MY BERTH. A Liverpool packet is a palace or a dungeon, according to the state of a man's stomach. To me, it was the Black-Hole of Calcutta, seven times blackened. " We set sail from New York, soon after the great north- east snow-storm, in January, 1831 ; and a most nipping and eager air it was, that wafted us from New Amsterdam. It reduced the captain's whiskers one half, and made the old bottle-nosed storm-stemmer look like a frost-bitten cabbage ; and the gray-headed pilot, too, though he had drifted twixt sea and shore in his cockle-shell for half a century, stamped about like a first-chop tragedian, with his arms knee-deep, as they say in Hibernia, in the bags of his monkey jacket. As for my own self, being a new hand in salt-water matters, and feeling an instinctive antipathy to a cabin, where every thing was on the full swing, I kept on deck too ; and looked up at the sails, and down at the sea, and forward where the bows were beginning to rise and fall on the long swell ; and thrashed my arms and legs about, and tried to keep warm, and feel wonderfully contented. But it would not do ; and when the pilot got into his little Water-Witch, I came within an ace of straddling the bulwark with him ; but then I re- YOUTH. 37 membered my trunk and sweetmeats, and, holding fast to a rope, I breathed upon the tip of my nose, to keep the life in, and became sentimental. 'Adieu, adieu ! My native shore Fades o'er the waters blue ; The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew.' " The last trace of America disappeared ; the ship rolled more, and more, and more ; the steward called me to tea. I staggered into the close, hot mahogany cabin, took a seat to windward, and accepted a cup of that nondescript called by sailors tea; but when I put this same compound of tar and hot water to my mouth, my stomach threw itself upon its reserved rights ; and as there was no denying that this same tar-tea was opposed to the constitution of my federal system, and fearing that the complainant might nullify at an improper moment, I made a dive for my state-room door, amid the congratulations of the captain, who was renovating his countenance with a bottle of porter, and a cut. of cold roast beef, supported by fried potatoes. " I reached my room, pulled off my coat and cravat, kicked my shoes under the berth, and stepped into the soli- tary chair for the purpose of gaining my bed ; when a sud- den lurch of the ship capsized the chair, and sent me head- foremost into the cabin, where I landed safe on my back under the captain's stool. ' Good God ! ' said he, dropping a large slice of fried potato into my face, ' what's the mat- ter ? ' I had but little breath to spare, and so the steward dragged me out by the legs, and stowed me safe under the counterpane, breeches and all ; while his superior looked on, and inquired through his mouthful of beef if I would not take a little porter after my fall. Bah ! " For the next forty-eight hours I was insensible ; once or twice they brought me near enough to the land of the living to make me swallow a little cold water, but otherwise I was VOL. i. 4 33 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. collapsed. On the third day, my mind opened its eyes again. It was a beautiful, warm forenoon, they told me, and so the steward took me up fore and aft, carried me on deck, and stowed me away in the long boat, among some old sails. Here I found one of my two fellow-passengers, and a more forlorn figure never crossed my vision. " Mr. B was a Montreal merchant ; he had a body five feet five inches high, and that might weigh, feet and all, eighty pounds; and a mind nearly half as large as its dwell- ing-house. He was enveloped in a white surtout, and cow- hide boots ; from above the collar of his surtout sprouted a fungus-like head, defended from the winds and rains of heaven by twenty-five or thirty long, colorless hairs, seem- ingly made of a spider's web; to assist which, he had called in the aid of an immense otter-skin cap, calculated for the wear of some Canadian hunter, across the mouth of which had been rigged up a sort of network of red and green twine, such as we tie up quills with, to prevent this formida- ble friend from slipping down and extinguishing him. His eyes were undoubtedly eyes, but they seemed to be all white, with only a little aperture in the centre to look through ; and for his nose, I will not describe it otherwise than by refer- ring you to a ploughshare, mottled white and blue. But, his mouth, it was the mouth that marked the man ; the lower part of his face appeared to have passed through a rolling-mill, and his teeth and tongue inhabited an open country, having six inches perhaps, of frontier, and extend- ing back to an unknown distance ; he had thirty-five teeth at least. " Mr. B , not as I have described him, but in the state such a man would be in when sea-sick, with an invisible beard half an inch long, and a sky-blue tippet about his neck, was soliloquizing upon a roast potato and a bit of cod- fish, in the sternsheets of the long-boat, when the steward threw me in beside him. ' By the by, 1 said Mr. B , YOUTH. 39 * how are you to-day ? ' I could only answer by dropping my under jaw. The Canadian comprehended me, and offered me the skin of his potato. "It was in truth a beautiful day. Though in the middle of January, the air was warm and pleasant ; the sea was com- paratively calm, though the pitching of the ship made me dizzy, as the remembrance of it does now. We were going merrily on our way, under a sufficiency of sail, and the men were at work repairing the fore-yard, which had been injured two nights before in a squall. I began to think I might like the ocean yet, and intimated as much to my fel- low-sufferer. ' Ah,' said he, 'by the by, so I thought my- self.' But hope is as notable a hussy at sea as on shore, and when I had eaten a plate of rice tinctured with molasses, and drank a tumbler of wine and water, I found it advisable to call all hands and take to my berth again. " Why is it that nobody will sympathize with a person when suffering under the two most purgatorial troubles of this world, sea-sickness and disappointed love ? Let a man have a headache, or a twinge of rheumatics, and who thinks of laughing at him ? But let him be cast into a state of mind and body when life is a burden, food, rank poison, hope, energy, and every thing else gone, and he is fair game. It is a disgrace to civilized man. And just so when a poor fellow embarks in chase of a wife ; let but the jade play him foul, cut the throat of his affections, and strip the skin from his heart, and he is sure to be attacked by every other member of the community. I say again it is a dis- grace to civilized man. And so I said to myself, as I lay grinding my teeth, and heard the captain discuss me with the one sound passenger, by name Mr. S , over a roast tur- key and cranberry sauce. " This Mr. S , as I afterward discovered, was quite a character. He was a revolutionist to the back-bone, a deist, a linguist, a chemist, and a rank heretic on every subject 40 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. but the excellence of brandy. He was a man of talent, but self-educated, conceited, and a bigot. lie began bis life in a pottery ; but finding that within him which aspired to something above the fashioning of clay, he ran off, and went to sea, and became at last a cabin-boy in a man-of-war. This he liked very well, but one. day while in port he un- luckily drank more grog than came to his share, and, in the course of the capers whereby he let off the super-excite.nent, broke the cabin mirror, and being of op'nion that desertion was the only true kind of valor, at any rate in cabin-boys, he dropped from the window at midnight, and swam ashore, carrying in his pocket a roll of money which he took from the captain's locker, thinking, doubtless, in the hurry and darkness, that he was taking a shirt out of his own empty chest. " He next turned the face of his multiform genius to mak- ing up pills, and compounding nameless doses in the back shop of what is called in England a chemist and druggist, i. e. an apothecary. From his worthy master in this line, he imbibed the spirit of reform that was fairly devouring him ; from him came his ideas of government, of professional men, upon whom he looked down with great contempt, and of various other important matters. "And Mr. S was no mere talker; he had done all in his power to overthrow the British monarchy ; and failing in that, he had moved to America, where he intended to bring about a reform that should be felt through every de- partment of the government, and every section of the coun- try. He meant to reduce the price of soda-powders one half. He had, moreover, made some progress in a new dictionary of our language, the first word of which was to be ' truth,' the second ' knowledge,' and the third ' belief ; the fourth he had not quite fixed upon ; the plan was philo- sophical, and he meant to make the study of his diction- ary the best means of attaining all knowledge. ' I will de- YOUTH. 41 fine truth, Sir,' said he, ' show the relation between truth and knowledge, and between knowledge and belief, and so go on to all that man's mind has elaborated, that in this one work every thing shall be stated, not separately, but in such connections, and so illustrated, that we shall need no libra- ries and no encyclopaedias.' Mr. S was fifty, probably, and had advanced three words toward accomplishing this small work. He had, moreover, a system of laws on the stocks ; and a plan of society which should dispense with all professions. His idea was to educate every child in law, medicine, and boxing ; the rest was mere luxury. He was a man of considerable reading, and untiring industry ; in his pocket he carried his ink-horn, pen, and note-book, and not an idle moment checkered his existence ; from mental he went to bodily exercise, from bodily back to mental ; and, if the chance offered, would crack an argument with great relish. " I was in my berth the whole passage, sick as any could wish his worst foe, with now and then a lucid interval of half an hour. On these occasions, the reformer used to fas- ten upon me with infinite satisfaction ; and he gave me an insight into one of the strangest minds I have ever wrestled with. " The mainspring of all his heterodox notions was, not bad feeling or insanity, either of head or heart, but simple vanity ; and this is the case, I believe, with nine out of ten of such men ; they are too conceited to see an error, into which conceit perhaps first led them, and die in their unbe- lief. But he had more uncommon qualities than vanity ; he had a mixture of good and bad principle, of wisdom and folly, of clearness and confusedness, that I never saw equal- led. As I lay in my state-room, I used to hear him at times rubbing up the Canadian. " ' Pray,' said he to him one day, ' pray, Mr. B , who do you think wrote the New Testament ? ' Mr. B , to- 4* 42 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. tally unsuspicious of any trick, and too much of a merchant to appear ignorant, answered promptly, ' Doubtless, Sir, it was Peter.' 'And did Peter, think you, Mr. H , write Paul's Epistles? ' The Canadian was dumb-foundered ; but feeling himself in a marsh, he concluded it best not to go too deep ; and so, opening his mouth, very much as a clam opens his shell when the tide is coming in, he sent forth a long-spun ' VVhy-y-y,' to cover his retreat, and observed, 4 By the by, I think Paul did live about that time.' ' And pray, Sir,' said the apothecary, ' was it Paul or Peter that wrote St. John's Gospel ? ' Mr. B was a quiet man and a coward, but, like many four-legged cowards, force him into a corner, and he would fight with the energy of de- spair ; in such a corner he was at present, and turning upon his persecutor, with a boldness little expected by the man of salts, he said calmly, ' You speak of the New Testament, Mr. S . St. John's (lospel is not in that work.' This was a poser; there was no argument left to Mr. S but to produce the book. But not a Testament was to bo found ; the captain was asleep ; I was so, too, in appearance, and Mr. B triumphed. His opponent took the only re- venge in his power, he entered the Canadian in his note- book, and went on deck, to jump rope. " Thirty days on one's back is no joke, at least to a man whose bones are prominent. My shoulder-blades had cut through the sacking before we had been out a fortnight. At last we entered the Channel ; the sea was smooth, and as I stood on deck, and eat Newtown pippins and watched the gulls, I felt really in heaven ; and when dinner came, and the roast turkey and cranberry, it was tenfold Elysium. We passed the blue heights of Dungarven, the green shores of Wexford ; the lights of the Mi.xen-head, and the Wick- low-head ; in due time doubled the Ilolyhead isle, and with the Welsh mountains on our right, the heaving sea on our left, and athousand small fry all about us, before a snorting YOUTH. 43 breeze we sped on to Liverpool, the American city of Old England." " London, March 1st, 1831. Let me instruct you in my way and fashion of life. I inhabit a very small room, hav- ing five sides, and fronting upon Leicester Square; one side of my room is taken up by the window, a second by the door, a third by the fireplace, a fourth by my bed, and the fifth accommodates my bureau and myself. I rise at seven or half past, and walk till nine, breakfast, study French and algebra till twelve, read Shakspeare or Milton till two, and walk again till three, when I go to my eating-house and dine. After dinner I read or write till dusk, then walk an hour, going down into the by-roads and hidden paths, re- turn, drink tea, and read or write again. Occasionally, say twice a week, I take tea and spend the evening out, and once a week, or perhaps twice, dine out." FANNY A. KEMBLE. " March 21, 1831. For two weeks I did not go to the theatre, but Monday I went to see Miss Kemble, and the consequence was, I have been every time she has played since, and mean to go every time she plays again, if I have to pawn my last shirt to buy a ticket. I have a ticket for next Monday night, when she plays Constance in King John. It is her benefit, and the tickets (box tickets, dress circles) are all signed by her. I will give you an autograph ; but it wont do to put it here, for it deserves to be kept as a valuable legacy. In playing she very much resembles Mrs. Siddons, as she appears by a print in the number ' On the Stage,' of Percy Anecdotes ; but then she is a very beautiful girl, in feature ; and in ex- pression, soul, mind! essence!! quintessence!!! cen- tessence ! ! ! ! I should wish to be moderate and reasonable in what I say in praise of her, so I will merely remark that I think, if any thing will ever tempt me to cross the Atlantic again, it will be the hope of seeing Fanny Kemble. 44 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " What a beautiful hand she writes for an autograph ! * Examine it. The F, you may see the firmness in the top, and in the bottom the grief, the drooping, of a Juliet. The A, it is a character in itself; the beginning strong and well defined, the strokes, however, toward the cen- tre becoming finer and nicer, to bring forth more power- fully the close ; presently the plot thickens, there is a burst of passion, a flood of tears, a shudder, a faint groan, and she is carried oflf insensible. But now observe the K ; ' There is a laughing devil in its sneer ' ; it is a maze of scorn, hatred, love, grief, repentance. Me- thinks, as I look at it, I see her as she was in Fasio, hanging upon the neck of a husband whom she has given over to death from excess of love. Presently the bell tolls, her hands drop powerless to her side, her long black hair covers her shoulders, and as she leans a little forward a single tress falls across her bosom ; the mouth is just open, the lips slightly parted ; her eye is like the eye of a living statue ; the brow is a little bent. The bell tolls again ; she starts, but he is gone to the scaffold. She springs after him; and the cry of ' He is not guilty,' which she gave, is ring- ing in my ears yet. VV^e will pass the intermediate parts, and come to the closing scene. You may see it in the last joint of the K, the strong down and light upward stroke. Her husband is executed ; the woman owing to whom all has been brought to pass is making merry with the prince at home. Anon, the music and dance cease for a moment ; a door at the back opens, and a figure clothed in white, and pale as the dead, is seen. The music strikes up, and the dancing commences again ; at that instant comes a laugh, heard above the music and noise, that might make ' the boldest hold his breath,' and in a moment she is in the * In the margin a fac-simile is given. YOUTH. 45 midst of them. The long, jet-black hair, which half hides her face, makes its extreme paleness the more apparent ; her finger points to her enemy ; you yet hear a low laugh of scorn, and the eye and the lip are in unison. Her story is told, her prayer granted, her enemy banished. Then be- gins the upward stroke ; the smile leaves her lip, the brow is open again, she puts back her hair, and her voice regains its softness. There is no stage effect, no straining for atti- tudes, no studied emphasis or gesture. It is all soul, and from the soul goes to the soul. I took out my handkerchief three times during the play ; twice to blow my nose, and once to get something out of my eye ! Then observe the figure she cuts in ' 21 ' ; it agrees with the figure she cuts at twenty-one, a most original figure. But you read her character in it as in all, more strength than grace, more nature than art, more almost any thing than twenty-one, and neither does she seem twenty-one." " London, April 1st, To-morrow I leave London, most like for ever, and that before I have become fully con- vinced I am there. When I look at a map of the world, it requires an effort of imagination to believe that I am where I am, in this renowned city of cities. When at home, I used to speculate of such things ; thought I should go mad with joy were I to see England. But so true is it that the world we live in is within rather than without us, that here I scarce feel I am here, and going hence scarce know that it is England which I leave. The voyage, my daily life, every thing, to my mind, is tinged with romance. So little have I felt that I was actually in LONDON, and but for a time, that had we not been detained beyond our safling day, I should never have seen Westminster Abbey ; and unless we are detained another day, I shall not see the inside of St. Paul's, though I have passed it every day since my arrival. Don't lament my mental paralysis. It is not want 46 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. of curiosity ; but I am too much at home with myself not to feel at home with any thing and every thing about me, and in consequence am here as if t were in Boston. The older I grow, too, the less curiosity do I feel about the works of man, and the more about man himself and his fellow- creatures. Were I in the country, I should be eternally upon the go." Castries, May. " We arrived at Barbadoes a week ago to-day. There I remained till Monday, and then sailed for this port in a packet-boat. Our vessel was about as long as a steamer is broad, and, save six feet of quarter-deck, was under water, while every ten minutes a wave would wash all fore and aft. To get to my bed I had to lower myself down through a hole in the deck, just big enough to admit my body ; then lie flat on my belly, and creep over the cases, which were piled up to within a foot of the deck. Once there, we all bundled in together, black, white, and gray ; then the hole through which we entered was closed, and we were left to stew ! In the night, if any one wished to get out, he must clamber across all the rest. I had two or three feet on my head, and put my own on two or three others. I had not slept for two nights, or, salamander as I am, I could not have borne it. In the morning we turned out to breakfast, which was served up in true West India style. A pottage compounded of chicken, pork, salt-fish, yams, charcoal, and tar, and a dish of fly ing- fish roasted on the coals, these were set upon deck, and round them we all squatted, fingers serving for knife, fork, and platter. The rest made a meal of it, and I made faces at it. Claret, verging towards vinegar, and rain-water was our beverage, the whole topped off with a draught of ginger tea, drank how ? why, as it should be, from the nose of the tea- kettle. Each wiped oflf the soot with his sleeve, and swig- ged. Now observe nationality ! The company were all YOUTH. 47 French, save I, and after breakfast a bucket of water was put in the centre, and each washed his mouth and dipped his fingers, as though it were a glass bowl at a dinner-party. I paid $16 for a passage of fifteen hours." Castries, May. " Fortunately you are not a merchant, and know not mercantile troubles. Void ! A gentleman invites me to his house, treats me as kindly as possible, does all in his power for me, and what then? Why, I must must, observe ye try to bargain him, coax him, drive him, cheat him, out of a dollar or two. I 'd rather lose a leg ; and yet if I don't I 'm a fool, a greenhorn, and he 'ZZ take me in, because 7 wouldn't serve him so. If I ever get home again, I '11 quit trade for ever and aye. My love of rambling has not decreased, though I am lowering rny notions of things and rnen a peg or two every day ; but I cannot ramble as I please, and I 'd rather be nailed to a door-post than go on as I am going. I think worse and worse, I say, of men. Of those I meet with, there are but few for whom I have much respect ; of man in the general I can, of course, think neither better nor worse, while I know so little of him. The West Indians are if I may take the ones I see, and they are the first class little better than beasts. Slavery has done more hurt to the whites than the blacks. Honesty is rare here ; morality is an exotic, and if it is brought in, the climate kills it ; relig- ion, do men 'gather grapes of thistles'? They make no attempt to defend slavery, save by this one argument : 4 We can't make money without niggers.' The captain of the vessel I came out in used to hold frequent arguments with me upon this same question. He was a fiery, hot- headed, good-natured, easy, obstinate, gallimaufry sort of a creature, his doctrine being the old one, that ' Slaves are happier than they would be if free.' ' He 'd be d d, for his part, if he would not make the poor rascals about 48 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. England slaves, if he could ; 't would be a grand stroke in political economy, clear Great Britain of its surplus, stock the colonies, and make all parties happy, for the now naked and starving would then be well fed and clothed.' The mate, who was the captain's antipodes, as well as antipathy, used to answer this to the great credit of his organ of causality. He took for granted two things, 1 that all men had a right to be free,' and ' that slaves are men'; and thence proceeded to argue, 'that slaves had a right to be free.' In his conclusion he was certainly log- ical, and if his argument was not very straight, it was, like the tower at Pisa, the more remarkable fur its obliquity. 'Sir,' said he, 'you might as well say the king's horses are men, because they are well lodged.''' Castries, May. " It is a proverb ' something musty,' that habit is a second nature ; and I have been seeing it proved in a manner that made my blood run cold. When 1 went to receive my French lesson this morning " But, by the way, I have never told you the story of my schooling here. It is briefly this. There are, in this town of Castries, two young ladies, ranging from eighteen to twenty, who, being natives, are totally unable to speak English ; I being equally minus in French, and, truth to tell, a strong electrical attraction existing between us, it was finally arranged that we should make an exchange. Ac- cordingly I teach them English, and they teach me French, tcte-d-ti-le. I assure you it is very interesting and ro- mantic. " Well, this morning when I went, I found them, as usual, in the midst of their slaves, embroidering ' in the true old Greek style' ; and a slave, a girl of six or seven, having made some mistake or other, received a small blow from the riding-whip, which always hangs by the table to keep order with. The child very naturally cried, and the con- YOUTH. 49 sequence of the crying was, that one of the young ladies, a kinder, gentler, more woman-like woman I never knew ; she would not crush a worm or hurt a fly if she could avoid it ; but such is habit, this young lady took the rod in hand to correct the girl, and, without the least passion apparently, coolly and considerately, she thrashed with that horsewhip the poor child till she could scarcely walk ! Her sister, mean- while, was no more moved, than if the beating had been on a block of wood ! I pitied the slave, but I pitied her mistress more. She has been used to seeing punishment, and inflict- ing punishment, through her whole life ; and to the suffering of a slave, because it is a slave, is callous. She would not for the world have treated a dog so. " Can any thing seem stranger, more contradictory, more out of nature, than this story ? I beg you to say nothing of it, for the honor of our species. I would have kept it to myself, but I can't find room for it in the portion of my mind which is set apart for the horrible ; it will out. Here is a new trait in one whom I have, till now, really respected. You may be of the belief, that I hold the ' fair sex,' as they are call- ed, and I wish there was another name, for I abominate this distinction of sexes, in, if not utter contempt, at least rather low estimation. But in this you have greatly mis- taken me. I am not of the school, and do not fancy ' eyeses and noses ' and all that trash, but I do fancy the true woman, if any such there be ; and that is the secret of my secrecy- I have a beau-ideal of my own, a picture ready painted to my mind, and in my mind, and I am but waiting to find a likeness among the living. But, as you once said, I am of opinion we must have ' a new race par tout,'' or I shall never be satisfied. I 'm sorry, but as my sorrow is all my own, why should I trouble you with it ? " June. "I read a West India planter's will yesterday. It was three pages of legacies to his natural offspring and their VOL. I. 5 50 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. unnalural mothers, his own slaves, of course ; and in con- clusion he said, that, ' for the quiet repose of his spirit, he wished to have his body laid near to the spot where his slaves were wont to bathe, that his grave might be watered by their tears ' ; or by other salt water, I suppose indifferently. It was a regular French mixture ; a compound of sensuality, sentiment, vanity, politeness, and independence ; an Eng- lishman could not have dreamed even of such a thing. I can compare it to nothing but a piece of fat pork served up in cream, with a few onions about the plate, touched through- out with oil, and sprinkled with ginger." June. " This evening I put on my old coat, took my umbrella, nobody here walks without an umbrella, and strolled down to the beach. The sun was just setting. Along the west lay a bank of dark, heavy clouds, brought into strong and beautiful relief by the tinted sky beyond, and the light, fleecy clouds, that lay higher up in the heaven, green, and gold, and crimson, as it were a half-visible paradise. In the front ground was the steep, solitary hill upon the right hand of the harbour, and the harbour itself, as calm as though it had ceased its motion to gaze upon the heavens above. Yet, from the changing of the tints, you might see that the unceasing roll of ocean was felt even here ; and there was a perceptible rise and fall, too, of the schooner which lay dark and silently upon the water, with her useless sail hansjing idly from the boom. A single water- bird was flitting along the imaged skies, and now and then a fish would leap and disturb the perfect mirror; but wave after wave circled away, fainter and fainter, till all was still again. " I was leaning against a tamarind-tree, recalling a thousand such evenings gone, long gone by, and meditating with little of hope upon the future. I wished to find a subject to write upon, and my mind, what with the inaudible music of YOUTH. 51 the scene before me, and that which came breathing from the past, was well disposed to think of man as he should be, to fancy him in a garden of Eden, with no forbidden fruit. Presently, a hand was laid on my shoulder. I turned round. It was that of an old friend of mine, of perhaps fifty years, not too drunk to be able to stand alone, nor too sober to refuse the arm of the negress, his negress, upon whom he was leaning. I don't know what he said, but I do know that I came home with a sick headache, and gave up my garden of Eden." June. " You used to smile at my indifference or as- sumed indifference as I suppose you thought it respecting little troubles, and, if I am not much out, you thought it arose from a sort of callousness of feeling. But you were as much mistaken as if you had referred it to the toothache. It was, I verily believe, true philosophy, the genuine, not Stoicism, but something better. By nature I am inclined to be in a pet at trifles as much as, nay, more than most persons ; but I have seen so much pain, actual suffering, from this fretfulness in others, that I have wished to spare myself, and par consequence have done all I can to bring my mind and body into such a state, that things which I cannot influence shall not put either into a fever. Since I have been from home, I have found my reward. Matters at which I should formerly have fidgeted terribly have troubled me no more than mosquito-bites ; they were un- pleasant, nothing more, and I have let them have their own way, rather than scratch off the skin and make a fester of it. With matters which / can control, it is quite otherwise ; but how few can we control ! and most of those at which men fret are past, and consequently past control. The cap- tain with whom I came from England was miserable from morning to night about nothing, he was a very tornado, and yet thought himself as patient as Job. How ridiculous it 52 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. was to see the man foaming at the mouth almost, because his dinner was overdone, or there was no butter to the fish ! Again, when I arrived here, I found affairs in such a state, that there seemed no prospect of doing any thing ex- cept perhaps getting into difficulty. I was sorry, yet did not rip out against the French Revolution, and I know not what all ; but my more gunpowderish friends did, and fell, some of them, into a terrible passion, because I was 10 be disappointed, though I, the person interested, kept very cool. It was great generosity in them to be mad for me, I grant ; but it was the generosity of the man who would take a dose of castor-oil because his friend was like to die of a fever ; not that of Ben Pump, who got into the stocks beside Leatherstocking." June. "There is nothing here surprises me more than the development of acquisitiveness, which organ shines out in all its glory. Men come from Europe, and spend their lives here, without families, society, books, amusement, or improvement of any sort, putting money to their purse, and that is all ; and yet you may see them, old, gray-headed fel- lows, thinking, dreaming of but this one thing, and, I doubt not, calculating one of these days to set down comfortably and be married. 'T is more curious than any thing in na- ture ; I beg your critical pardon, this is nature, a natural phenomenon ; I meant inanimate nature. " By the way, talking of nature, I got hold of Newton's Optics on the passage from England, and find Mr. D a humbug ; for he misrepresented matters, though I am far from believing that Optics, or rather Light, is thoroughly un- derstood. Electricity I have been pecking at a little, too. It is yet a mystery to me, and I should like nothing better than a good chance to study the subject. I think you would find the mental dyspepsia with which, if I mistake not, you are sometimes troubled, relieved by a change of diet. Meta- YOUTH. 53 physics, and such like, taken alone, are too windy ; you want a little solid food. Let me recommend those matters in natural philosophy which will allow speculation enough, and yet give something tangible to rest on " I am pouring forth an extensive poem on the Deluge ! What think ye, will it come out of the little end? I have luxuriated extensively upon Milton and Mother Goose, of late. That last-mentioned author gives a rich opening ; if I had time I would try it, for many excellent satires might be preached from her texts. Childe Harold, too, I have been reading again, and think, though I am sorry to say it, less and less of Byron's talents. I like his writings, but they do not seem to me to be wrought of the same stuff as Shak- speare and Milton. I judge he will be rather like those poets who are now almost forgotten, though they were in their times very popular. I have been studying, also, Shelley's Queen Mab. The man was a real poet, though a poor phi- losopher. He asserts himself to be an atheist ; and tries to support his belief, but his argument is weak. Paine's work is much more sensible, but neither he nor his antagonists fight fair ; they assert, but prove not. It is fortunate that belief is not what some would make it. One may spend a life in study, and not be satisfied. And now, hoping this will make "you wiser and gooder, I am, &c." June. " You must excuse me if I give you no reason for my tides and currents ; they are incomprehensible to my- self. Just now I am as calm as a summer evening, or a winter morning, or a spring noon ; but come twenty-four hours hence, and you might find an equinoctial. We talk a great deal about that First Lord of the Treasury, called Free Will, but my prime minister is plaguy apt, when it comes to the point, to be left in the minority. I would, and I would not. Now the ' would not ' evidently is not the 'would'; and Will and Do must go together. / lay the 5* 54 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. matter before myself ; I take one side, and se //", who goner- ally manages to get the vote of my body, takes the other, and leaves me in the lurch. I fight it out stoutly, but i won't do. There is a question of reform to come up before us in a day or two, but I can already foresee the issue. There is but one resource, to dissolve the meeting and get rid of that rotten-borough member, the body. I don't know where I picked up my character, I mean the one I wear at present. It may pass with you and the world for a pretty decent one ; but it is made up of shreds and patches, and every now and then a thread gives way. I am for ever at work, sewing and stitching, and yet can't keep it whole. One trait, which is generally thought of but little use, has saved me from the rocks, and that is mauvaise honle. If I have lost much, I have gained more by it ; without it I might have been better liked, but should have deserved to be more hated. " Shelley denies free will. He says the strongest mo- tive must decide a man, and that the advocate for free will would have you believe a man can resist and act against the strongest motive, which is evidently a contradiction in terms. This seems, at first view, plausible. The mind is a balance ; in the one scale is, we will say, Passion, in the other Duty ; whichever is the heaviest is the prevailing motive, the Will, and determines the conduct. Is it not the case ? I wish to do so and so, to go to Ohio, to stay in Castries. Hark ! I hear a voice I know ; now I want to go out, see the person, and speak to him, that weighs ten pounds; but, on the other hand, I 've no cravat on, no coat on, and they weigh eleven pounds ; of course I shall not go. * Yet I can go if I will," 1 you say. No, I cannot without I add another pound of motive, and more than a pound, to the first scale, no matter what that motive is, if it be only to prove to myself that I can go, that I have free will for that is a motive, and has weight. Free will is always the same, YOUTH. 55 the weight on the long arm of the steelyard. Push it out a notch, and it will counterbalance a pound ; two notches, two pounds, and so on for ever. But what then becomes of moral responsibility ? No man can be blamed for doing that which he must do. A person commits a theft, and you condemn him; but Shelley says: 'Wait; there were certain motives in his mind for and against the act ; which- ever prevailed, that he must obey ; and he did not make those motives." 1 ' There is the very point,' say you ; ' had he restrained his propensity when young ! ' ' What do you mean ? ' asks Shelley ; ' he had motives, on either hand, then as well as now." 1 ' But,' say you again, and you think you have found the kernel of the matter, ' but did he consider those motives ? did he weigh them ? did he not give way to the first which came, put passion into one scale and nothing in the other, and then say pas- sion was the heaviest ? ' ' He did all he could," 1 answers Shelley ; ' if he was hasty, he had motives for being so.' You may get out of the labyrinth as you can. And yet Mr. Shelley and his school can blame kings and priests for enslaving mankind ! The fact is, that words would per- suade them that there is no such reality as Will, but the DEITY within assures them of the contrary." June. " The only thing that can save is to get mar- ried ; to give up trash, employ his powers to some purpose, study algebra and geometry, and read Coleridge's Aids, &c. ; thus he may come down to sense and poetry, for at present he is in a balloon of fanciful conceit. He tried to mount Pegasus, but found .the sky-steed too fiery. When I was eighteen years of age, shall I confess it ? I thought of rivalling B , and P , and W , &c., myself; but three years have made me wiser. My rhyming talent is a faculty of great worth to me, and I am thankful to possess it ; but I shall not trouble others therewith. We want POETS at present, not versifiers. 56 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " I will not ask you to forgive my dustiness, my selfish- ness, but only assure you that this is my very last. " James returned home in the summer of 1831 ; and, as soon as the settlement of affairs allowed, informed his friends of his resolve to abandon for ever the mercantile profession. After full consideration of his prospects and aims, he determined to try his fortune, and in some way test his powers, in the great valley of the West. Thither we will now follow him, and see how the char- acter formed in Youth developed itself in Manhood. The views which guided him in emigrating to Ohio are explained in a letter addressed to his former teacher, Timothy Walker, Esq. " Boston, December 5//t, 1831. Sir, I have for some time been thinking of going to the Westward in search of employment, for that which I have here is too sedentary for my taste or health ; but as I knew no one who could give me any information respecting the proper mode of starting in your part of the world, I have put off the coming to the point from time to time, for the last twelve months. " I now take the liberty of writing to you, hoping that, without inconvenience to yourself, you may be able to give me the information I want ; which is, simply, whether, if I should reach Cincinnati in mid-winter, say January, I could probably find immediate employment in some active, out- door business, with a compensation sufficient to give me a support until I could form some permanent arrangement. For this purpose it must be a place which I can leave at any time, with a short notice. My intention is to purchase land somewhere in Ohio, and undertake the care of an es- tate ; but I wish to get some employment which will give me a bare sustenance, while I am gaining some insight into YOUTH. 57 the matter of farming, of which at present I know nothing, being one of that amphibious species, half merchant, half scholar, with a strong inclination to become either a cob- bler or a blacksmith. " I should suppose that, in a State like yours, a person possessing some knowledge of the business, and willing to work, might, by taking a small farm upon some of the riv- ers which empty into the Ohio, and attending to the raising of grain, cattle, getting down lumber, &c., lead a quiet life and make some money. Will you be good enough to in- form me, if without inconvenience you can, what the value of cleared land of good quality upon the rivers may be per acre ; and what is the probable cost of getting such a farm as a new settler would want into operation ? However, I would not trouble you with any but the simple question, whether I can get occupation at once, or soon after arrival, in some active business, which I should prefer, or even in an in-door employment ; and, by the way, perhaps the country would be better than the town to serve my appren- ticeship in. I am ready to try any thing almost, which will leave me free to quit when I please. "I beg you will not give yourself the least trouble, nor spend any of your time to answer me, unless you can well afford it ; and hoping before long to see your city and self, I remain, your obedient servant, &c. "JAMES H. PERKINS." II. M A X II 001). 1832-1849. IT was in February, 1832, thru Mr. Perkins reached Cincinnati, intending to remain but a week or two, till the ground was sufficiently cleared from snow and set- tled, for him to look about and choose a farm. Mean- while, he was asked to pass his leisure hours at the ofiice of his friend, Mr. Walker, who had then just entered upon the professional career which has since so deservedly placed him in the front rank of Western jurisprudents. It was a matter of course, with his habits of vigorous inquiry, that he should take up the books around him, and catch such glimpses as he could of the science of the law. He had long since learned to husband his time, and knew well that all information comes sometimes in piny, while variety of discipline best ma- tures the judgment. So, instead of idling, gossiping, or staring at novelties, he studied ; studied so diligently, indeed, that, unawares, he found himself becoming pro- foundly interested in tracing out the symmetrical system of justice, which, like a network of nerves, pervades the body of social relations. The result of this acci- dental application was, that, drawn in part by the exhil- arating pleasure of the study, and in part by the counsels of Mr. Walker, and ^of young friends whom he met at the MANHOOD. 59 office, who all admired his commanding intellect, he suddenly resolved to devote hims If to the law. " For a week past," he wrote, in great spirits, " I have been too busy to do any thing but study, fourteen hours per day being my allowance of work, for I am not joking, I assure you. After all the uncertainties of my life, I have at last hit upon that to which I should have been trained from youth upward, if I could have had my own way. But in knowledge, I fancy I am about as far on as if I had passed through college, and in wickedness being a little behindhand is no harm. So, Mr. Professional, here 's at you. Having taken up study in earnest, I mean to stick to it." And again to his father he playfully says: "The books which you have had the kindness to send have not arrived, but they will be amply in time to instruct me in the business of horticulture, as I see small prospect of becoming a farmer for a year or two yet. The law, that came in on a visit merely, may remain as a resident, unless some- thing new turns up. The more I study it, the more I like it ; though this may be on the principle that a horse goes by in a burning stable, when he runs into the fire instead of out of the door. In Cincinnati, the number of lawyers is large ; but in the country there is a wide field to do justice that is, to practise abominations in. Titles, to be sure, are clear hereabouts, men peace- able, and laws mild ; but I flatter myself that I can pick up information enough in two years to ' change all that,' sufficiently, at least, to serve my own interests." Mr. Perkins was yet further led to stay in Cincinnati by the charms of the social circle to which he was at once introduced, and where he found himself welcomed with a cordial truthfulness, that opened his heart, and set 60 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. free his long prisoned affections. In place of fashiona- ble coldness, aristocratic hauteur, purse-pride, ostenta- tion, reserve, non-committalisin, the tyranny of cliques, and the fear of leaders, he found himself moving among a pleasant company of hospitable, easy, confiding, plain- spoken, cheerful friends, gathered from all parts of the Union, and loosed at once by choice and promiscuous intercourse from trammels of bigotry and conventional prejudice. He breathed for once freely, and felt with joy the blood flowing quick and warm throughout his spiritual frame. He caught, too, the buoyant hopeful- ness that animates a young, vigorous, and growing com- munity, and mingled delightedly with groups of high- hearted, enterprising men, just entering on new careers, and impelled by the hope of generous service in literary, professional, or commercial life. Above all, happiest good-fortune brought him at once under the influence of woman, as he had so long in the ideal dreamed of her, serenely wise, pure as lovely, spreading around her the verdure and bloom of goodness, through daily charities of home. Extracts from his letters will best show the elas- ticity of his temper, and the direction of his thoughts. May 6th. " Being confined the greater part of the time to an office, carrying on a war against reports and text- books, and busied in gathering together my spoils, I can have but litlle to tell you as to the world without; though once in a while, to be sure, when I feel very anti-sublunary, I take a turn of ten or twelve miles in the country, and fancy my- self in the garden of Eden, the only thing in the way of completing this idea being the prevalence of rail-fences. To a person who has been all his life in New England, where a man ploughs, not his land, but his rocks, and where the great secret of agriculture, if 1 mistake not, is, by dint MANHOOD. 61 of ploughing, harrowing, hoeing, raking, and hard swearing, so to arrange the stones that the sun, the rain, and the wa- terpot may be able to coax up one blade of corn between three pebbles, to a person ' raised ' in that pudding-stone part of the republic, this country seems miraculous. For here a man runs his coulter along a hill-top, and turns up a soil as black as plum-cake, and without a stone in it half as big as those I used to eat in your dyspepsia plum-cake, which was made, I apprehend, upon the principle, that men, like chickens, have gizzards ; indeed, this soil is more like wedding-cake, for, like wedding-cake, it is too rich to be wholesome. You speak to me of selecting a place where ' water will be at hand.' But water, unless it be the rain from heaven, is never put on the ground here, notwithstand- ing the plants which in Pennsylvania and Virginia grow only in the rich bottoms flourish here upon the ridges. In- deed, if one can but make a long leg with his imagination, and step into the year. 2032, hs sees here a true paradise ; for there is not a foot of land that I know of back from the river hill, one side of which, next the river, is some- times precipitous, that is not as well worthy of cultiva- tion as any square inch in your garden.* The woods, which cover much of the country even in this immediate vicinity, are not, as with you, haunted by a confederacy of dry branches, leaves, stumps, and underbrush ; but we have a forest composed of immense trees running up twenty or thirty feet before they branch, and walk under them upon grass as smooth and soft as if Aunt had had the rolling of it, with not a leaf, dry leaf I mean, to be discerned, which I can but assert and not explain, and troubled by nothing in the way of undergrowth, unless the great elm on Boston Common might pass for a weed or sucker. " But the mineral immensity of the country is as unique as its agricultural ; for iron, coal, salt, lead, lime, are the substra- * This letter is addressed to his father. VOL. I. 6 62 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. turn of the whole valley. We have no great barren, conglom- erated hills here, no granite peaks to lead to speculation, railroading, and bad business, and no need of them, for we have no ocean to beat our wharves out of all proper shape, and no men-of-war sighing for dry docks ; and as to build- ing, the limestone of this country is as much superior in point of workability and beauty to granite, and in point of beauty, neatness, and democratic elegance to marble, as one can well imagine. As to coal and iron, they are the nerve and muscle of this country, for, had the steam-engine never been invented, Cincinnati might have contained 3,000, but could not have gathered together 30,000 inhabitants. In this inland country, as there is no wind unless in stormy weather, you may go, of a fine, clear day, upon the highest hill in the neighbourhood, and it is as still as if the air were spellbound, and you hear with equal distinctness the lowing of the cattle in the valleys back from the Ohio toward the north, the song of the boatman floating along a mile an hour on his immense flat, and the baying of the hounds in the woods of Kentucky that stretch far away to the south. But presently far-off sounds ' PufF! puff! puff!' and round a point comes in sight a little fiery-nosed fellow, the boats here all have their furnace open forward, and horizontal engines, puffing along, and leaving behind a long, irregu- lar wake, which makes you think of a Dutchman, with a pipe in his mouth, running away from the sea-serpent. On he comes faster and faster, turns another point in the serpentine highway, and disappears ; all done so quickly, that one might think it a mistake but for the continuance of the high- pressure ' Puff! puff! puff! ' that you may hear ten miles away almost. Then as to factories, the country is so level that water-power is hardly used ; steam does all. You walk through town, and every building that is not a dwelling- house, a warehouse, or shop, is a steam-mill of one sort or another. Do you want a block of wood sawed into any MANHOOD. 63 shape or size, you go, not to a carpenter, who would by hand-work cut it up in an hour or two, but to a little black, rickety shed, that shakes and shivers as though it had the ague, and within which, by the aid of a steam-engine that might work without inconvenience in an old-fashioned waist- coat pocket, and a little circular saw, in five minutes you have any thing you wish. I have not as yet, to be sure, discovered them, but have no doubt that there are engines here expressly for the purpose of cutting out and finishing toothpicks. " But perhaps nothing is more characteristic than the rapid- ity of building. I was first struck with it soon after I came. A block of four or five houses was burnt down, and, though it was mid-winter, the masons actually laid the foundation, and began to build at one end, before the fire was wholly out at the other. Nothing is more common than to be asked, or to have occasion to ask, ' Why, where did that house come from ? ' But you can neither get nor give any more satis- factory answer than, perhaps, ' I 'm sure I don't know, I found it there yesterday morning.' One of my fellow-stu- dents soon after his arrival was taken sick and confined to his bed, his only amusement being to watch, as he lay, the steam- boats going up and down the river. One morning he woke, rubbed his eyes, thought it very dark, looked at his watch, and, finding it nine o'clock, rubbed his eyes again and turned to the window. Behold ! a brick wall within three feet of the glass. In doubt and wonder, he rang the bell ; and, when the landlady came up, asked whether he was awake, and if so, where that wall came from. ' O la ! Sir,' said the old lady, ' it 's only the Squire built up his house agin this morning, what he tore down last week ; if this spiles y'r prospect, we shall put up a new wing to-morrow to our house, and you can change y'r room, Sir.' Such is Ohio." " I have been reading Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, a strange 64 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. book, which I cannot pretend, at present, to understand, either in whole or in part. Without assuming to judge of German manners, however, as no American could do, I must yet think the change that goes on in Wilhelm's char- acter unnatural. I have looked through Moore's Epicu- rean, too, and have been much disappointed. Is not Moore the founder of the school in poetry which merges all logic in sentiment ? One of these days, Mr. , when I have ' got my edication,' look out for a poem which shall set the world in the true track again, and bring it back from sweet sounds and wordy nonsense to Nature. ' You don't believe it ! ' No ! Nor would you have believed that I was to be a law- yer, two months ago. You may live all your life in a house, my dear Sir, and go through and through it, till you think you know every corner, crack, and cranny, and yet at last find in some odd hole a chest of pearls, silver, gold, or brass ! " " Robert Owen is holding forth here on Deism, and found a stormy audience. I was conversing with a young friend about it afterwards, who asserted that ' no Deist could be an honest man.' This I ' traversed,' as we say in law, and my defence of the possibility of an honest Deist has acquired for me, I find, the reputation of being one. So much for free inquiry ; though doubtless this bigotry shows a good spirit enough. But I am no Deist. The character of the Christian religion, and the character of its Founder, are proof enough to me of its Divine origin. When I think of the age and nation wherein Jesus is said to have appeared, and of the ages since down to our own times, I cannot con- ceive of his character as being a human invention. No one even now, indeed, can comprehend its perfection. It is stamped with signs of a supernatural influence, and yet has this peculiarity of naturalness in it, that every beholder sees it to be beautiful from his own point of view. The martyr MANHOOD. 65 and crusader looked up to the strength of mind in Jesus, which could crush fear, and despise pain or scorn ; the Re- former and Puritan revered his holy zeal and devout aspira- tion ; while a Fenelon is touched by his purity, meekness, love. Few persons, perhaps, will be convinced by such a proof; but it is the only satisfactory one to me." " And so you conjecture that I have some itchings of Sa- tan, and am dreaming of stump speeches, elections, and everlasting notoriety for one year, do you ? Well ! you miss the mark widely. I have lost, since I came to Cincin- nati, what good opinion even I had of myself before ; I have seen enough of the jealousy, envy, and ill-will felt towards every one who outstrips his rivals, no matter how insignificant the prize, and know too much of the woes of unsuccessful strivings, ever to wish to make an effort for advancement in wealth, power, influence, or any such path as men generally toil in." " It makes me start and rub my eyes, when I consider my past life and present situation ; and I have a strange, reckless feeling as to the future, which sometimes tempts me from mere curiosity to lift the veil. In my own case, in yours, in every one's, we seem to stand by and see our course shaped, our fate decided, by events, in the fashioning of which we have no more hand than we had in moulding Mount Ararat. It is the conviction of this fact, which prevents me from feel- ing much interest in my outward circumstances, for I look at my own career as I would on that of some character in a novel. I am absorbed in the thought of my inward progress ; though truly this is not wise, for while the mind depends so much on its condition, it is useless to hope for the conse- quent without bestowing a thought on its precedents." " I have lately been reading much of Wordsworth, again ; 6* 66 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. and admire him more and more every day, not as a poet only, but as a philosopher and moralist. My own philoso- phy runs at present in the same channel. I have been much altered, and really I believe for the better, since I came to this place ; my old-fashioned mumpishness, dis- tance, and silence have quite passed away, and I am posi- tively one of the most social men you ever met with. And not only has the without skin been cast, but I have got rid of much of the monstrous heresy of inhumanity that smoth- ered within. To whose influence all this is to be ascribed I could easily tell you. The fact is, there is a set here, a circle of married ladies, which I believe could scarcely be surpassed in any city for intelligence, and what is better, for excellence ; and all so related and united, that scarce an evening passes without my meeting some of them, or all. When you add a fair proportion of the fairest, sweetest, dear- est girls imaginable, can you wonder at my metamorphosis ? " " I do not remember any hint thrown out by me to entice you into the most undeserved compliment, if it were meant for one, for it would have been a cutting sarcasm, which ascribes to me ' active usefulness and genuine con- scientiousness,' not to mention the ' dogged determination' that is, in truth, an attribute of mine. I fear one who peeped into our epistles, and noted the unhesitating way in which each belabors himself, would think us a true pair of hypocrites ; but at the risk of being so thought by your- self, if you please, I will say that my most deadly fault in as far as I know myself is, utter selfishness in little matters. It is a common fault, and a foul one ; a mean and degrading one. I could, I think, sacrifice a good deal if occasion called for it ; if the happiness of another for whom I cared were at stake, fortune and all its concomi- tants, and I believe life, would be, as Mr. G says, ' indif- ferent' to me. But if I am to give up a little that another MANHOOD. 67 may gain a little, there 's the rub ; I follow the vile fash- ion and prefer number one. But this petty weakness is like to be rooted out of me, and by the force of that irre- sistible monitor, example. That same person, to whom, as I think I have told you before, I owe more than I can ever pay in the way of purification and cleansing, Mrs. , has taught me, by action, not precept, to deny myself that others may profit thereby. How this is effected I need not tell you. The influence, unseen, though deeply felt, of a woman whose beauty is her least charm is too well known by every one to require me to dwell upon it. " Making you, then, no longer my father-confessor, I will beg your pardon for not answering your letter before. My excuse, as usual, must be, work ; and yet, by some strange power, the day is borne away from me before I have well mastered an hour of it. I am up before it is light enough to see any thing, save by torch-light ; keep at it all the day- long, till ten, P. M., and yet, with all my pains, do nothing, or next to that. I have been acting as editor, that is, writer, of the magazine * I spoke of, which costs me some trouble ; and I have two or three lyceum lectures on the stocks, for I am becoming somewhat literary, and now am about attempt- ing to get up a book in opposition to that ' got-up concern ' of the Glauber Spa. Judge Hall, Mr. Flint, Mrs. Hentz, and two or three more of us (!), intend to storify Kentucky and Kentuck manners. And this reminds me of your desire to know something of these parts. " The West is decidedly Saxon ; do you comprehend ? We have not the chivalry of the Norman ; we have not the fire of the Southron ; you do not find here the Yankee shrewdness, I mean among the true Western men, nor the hot-headedness of the Carolinian. The Kentuckian is big and naturally sluggish, but if roused, almost capable, and * The Western Monthly Magazine. 68 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. fully daring enough, to ' ride a streak o' lightning through a crab-apple orchard.' He eats largely, and is fond of whiskey. He will not rush into danger where no need is, nor curb his temper if thwarted, for fear, love, or money. Be kind to the Kentuckian, and he is rudely polite, carries you home, and you may stay with him six months, rent free, if you will give him a good story and flatter him a little, for he's 'mighty vain.' Cross him, and he will hesitate at nothing. If a Kentuckian insults you, offer him fight on the spot, and two to one he will haul off and make friends ; attempt to ' cut dirt,' and he will set on you like a wildcat. He has, in short, most of the virtues, and too many of the vices, of the old Northman. " The country, as I have said time and again, is beautiful ; near Lexington, one might almost think himself in England. I spent a week or ten days with a gentleman who lives about forty miles east of Lexington. We went down T. H and myself to the county-town in the stage. Our host residing four miles off, we held a consultation as to the best way of getting out to his farm, and inquired if a wagon could be had. There was not one in town, and it was a good-sized town, too, brick houses, shops, and tav- erns. Meeting-houses are scarce in these parts, though a congregation met somewhere. ' Well, if no wagon, could we have a chaise ? ' ' Not a chaise within twenty miles.' ' Was there any wheeled carriage of any description to be had ? ' ' There was one gig down the street, but it was oldish-like and " powerful weak." There was no alterna- tive, and so T set off after the gig, while I shaved, in the midst of a political discussing club by the fireside, for it was a day or two only before the election. In a little while my compagnon de voyage returned with the news that he had accomplished the gig, and thought it safe for four miles, riding and lying. So we went to work to prepare our trunks. Ere long, a boy stepped in to say he had MANHOOD. 69 tied up the shaft, nailed on the whiffletree, and the gig was ready. ' Bring out the trunk,' said I. The landlord seized the trunk, and we rushed to the door. There stood the invalid machine, but horseless. I looked round at the boy. ' Where shall I find your horse ? ' said he. ' Have not you a horse ? ' ' No, I reckoned you had the horse.' ' Is there a horse to be hired in town ? ' 'I reckon not.' 1 Then we must walk.' And so we did walk, it was a warm day, sweating it out to the Judge's. " He lives in a brick house of most antique cast, you might think it a second-rate chateau of France rather than the domicile of a new country, some quarter of a mile from the road ; the main building being flanked and kept in countenance by a dozen little log-cabins, barns, corn-houses, wood-houses, ice-houses, &c. Mrs. , the wife, with the aid of two very pretty and well-educated daughters, keeps school for the farmers' girls of all the country round. They were kind beyond measure, would not allow me, though I came out only to dine, to go back that night, nor the next day, nor for a week ; and then I got away with difficulty, and was obligated to promise a return for two months* residence in the spring. At the time of our arrival, the Judge was absent, riding his circuit, which is over some three or four or a dozen counties, in the most barbarous part of the State. He reached home two or three days after our arrival, having ridden for two days in a tremendous rain. Though born a Yankee, he is a good specimen of the better Kentuckian ; very large and strong, rough and fearless, with a good deal of quaint humor and fun, and at the same time a rigid Pres- byterian. He was a Clay man to the sole of his boot, and prayed, with his family assembled about him at evening, that ' we might be pardoned the sins and abominations com- mitted by our Federal head.' He spends much of his year on horseback, riding from log court-house to no court-house at all, putting up a temporary judgment-seat, at such times, 70 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. composed of an old stump, with a rail for the bar, and a little cover of boughs for a roof, the culprit, if it be a heinous offence, being chained by the leg to a tree with an ox-chain. The style of living in the Judge's family was a specimen of Western plenty, though he is a poor man, hav- ing been swindled by a Yankee friend out of some $40,000, the product of much labor. His house is open to any ; the family numbers fourteen, and there are in general two or three guests. The table, as in olden times, almost groans with the various breads, and cakes, and condiments, a favor- ite dish, of which I became very fond, being a piece of honeycomb as large as your hand, eaten, as you eat a roast apple, in a bowl of milk. Milk is the Kentuckian beverage at all times, at breakfast, dinner, and supper ; you take a glass when you get up, and a glass before you go to bed." " Having eaten, my dear philosopher, a large breakfast of buckwheat-cakes, and walked three or four miles on top of it, I am in prime order to discuss the mystery of Free Will. But for the present I simply remark, that I entirely agree with you in the opinion, that good Doctor Spurzheim has done but very little to elucidate that black-hole of ' Necessity.' " Bah ! I am called upon to pay money, Rent. How I abominate these dollars and cents ! I am afraid, I stand in awe, of them. One of these days I expect to run mad from mere dread of money. I have half a dozen debtors here, and yet cannot get a cent from any of them. I cannot, will not dun, and they cannot, will not pay. It will bring me to hard work yet, this anti-commercial nicety of mine. O for a farm where I might be independent of all these Jews and thieves and brokers ! " To return to free will, for money is the antipode of free will. 1 am half inclined to think that Doctor Spurzheim, like some other wise men, has more wisdom apparently than MANHOOD. 71 really. I should not, however, say wisdom, but novelty. Here I am stopped again with the information that your master in philosophy is dead. It must be a loss to science that will not soon be repaired ; for, though I doubt the Doc- tor's originality in general speculation, I do not doubt his accuracy, his power, or his philanthropy. I presume he will have left works behind him to be published ; if he has, and they are printed, I shall get them. His former writ- ings are scarce known in this country, but it is probable, I should suppose, that, since he has been among us, his works may be translated and spread abroad. The leading doc- trines of Phrenology are very generally believed, and some of the details ; but it is so entirely a science of experiment, that many years must necessarily elapse before it can be- come settled and digested. " But to go back again. You wrote me a letter a while since, from which I should suppose that you think it wiser to use life in acting well, upon the faith that this course will lead to the desired point, than to spend your days in at- tempting to learn why, in order to reach this point, one must go such a long way about, through bogs and fens, (fee. I am entirely of your opinion in this matter; I conceive spec- ulation, and all of that family, to be poor company, save in as far as they help to form a rule of action, or serve as mental gymnastics ; and it were better to exercise the mind upon what would at the same time improve it, and add to its store. We often find in one man two distinct characters, according to one of which he thinks and judges, while ac- cording to the other he acts. I in private see and admire the beauty of amiability, and determine to be amiable as my neighbours are ; but no sooner do I go abroad into society to act, than I become sour and ill-natured. Now it is the acting character according to which we judge of a man, for we know it to be the true one ; the other is only a prophetic shadow of what he might be. But it is the acting 72 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. character which the man will carry hence, and the object of life should be to form this character aright. First, by means of the understanding, study, contemplation, and thought, the model character is to be designed, and next, by the enchantress, Habit, this image is to be made substance. One after another of the ideal virtues that we see in our model are to be transmuted rnto deeds, until we ARE what to ourselves we before SEEMED; until every grace becomes spontaneous, and we act, not from principle, but impulse. In woman we find this spontaneity of right far stronger than in man, and therefore I look upon woman as a being higher in the scale of existence. Thus respecting speculation, I regard the intellect, learning, reasoning, theories, as all sub- servient to that one great end, the formation of character.' 1 ' 1 The cheerful gratitude, hopefulness, sympathy, and aspirations for a nobler style of spiritual life, which per- vade these letters, found expression in the following poem, which very truthfully he named " The Emi- grant's Lesson." "I left my own New England home, A home with kindness running o'er, Far off beyond the hills to roam, And seek a stranger shore. " His ice cold Winter round me flung, And dark Ohio's tide did roll ; But colder, darker mists there hung O'er my desponding soul. " Yet when I reached, at length, the strand Where my sad pilgrimage should end, Behold ! on every side a hand, On every side a friend. MANHOOD. 73 " If I had left true hearts behind, I found as true, and franker, here ; As loving, and as simply kind, As kind, and as sincere. " And shall this goodness be in vain, No deep impression leave on me ? Or rather help me to attain That true philanthropy, " Which loveth not alone the race, But strives the godlike power to reach, That can enfold in one embrace, Not only ALL, but each ? " HE loved each being of our kind, He that made .human virtue dim ; And we but O how far behind ! May follow after Him." But not at once could the fiends who, through tem- perament, habit, and early conditions, had found lodg- ment in his soul, be exorcised. Notwithstanding outward encouragements and inward triumphs, he had still to fight a hard battle with his foes. In one letter he says, "I find it a truly Herculean task to cleanse the Augean sta- bles of my despondency." And again, " I am little wiser or better, I fear. Dyspepsia is weaving her black mantle and getting ready her ashes for me to do penance in, penance for folly in having abandoned the plough for the pen. I wish the mists which envelop my brain would roll off enough to let me look a little way into the future, or else that the brain itself would give up its tan- VOL. i. 7 74 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. trums, and work straight on to some purpose. My intel- lect and heart seem wonderfully fond of the ' great kick and little go.' I am at it for ever, and have no difficulty in killing time ; but after all I am just there, in the same old ruts and mud-holes." Once more : " In situation there is nothing left me to desire ; yet I feel as if I were a shingle in a mill-pond, unable to steer itself, the sport of winds or schoolboys, and floating about only till its turn comes to go over the dan)." And finally : " There are times when it seems to me, not that there is room for doubt of God or destiny, but that I am not as I should be. I do not conceive the sun to be darkened, but my own sight to be obscured. Like all other men, or rather children, I have had misfortunes of which neither you nor any created being knows or ever will know. It would be useless to attempt to tell them ; and yet they have left an impression that death alone can efface. And sometimes, when the remembrance of them comes over me, I feel a spiritual nausea within, and would fain throw up all memory of the past. At such seasons I am indigo to the backbone. But these turns come less and less often. I mix more with others ; act upon my fellows, and am acted upon by them ; and now frequently look forward, whereas once I walked crab- like, looking only at the path I had passed over. I may do but little in this world, I mean little good, but I am of that rare sect for though all are of it nomi- nally, the true followers are few that really believes in another life, in a thousand other lives." Thus morally yet more than mentally active, rejoicing in the genial influence of female society, and longing for home-happiness far more than for public success, Mr. Perkins was brought providentially into daily intercourse MANHOOD. 75 with one who, by her sunny temper, sound judgment, and ready good-will, formed the very complement he needed for harmonious growth. This gay girl in manner, yet wise-hearted woman, was Sarah H. Elliott, of Guilford, Connecticut, who was then visiting Cincinnati for a few months, and residing in the family of her sister, Mrs. Samuel E. Foote. They were betrothed in the spring of 1833 ; and from his correspondence with her which has been intrusted to my use free extracts shall be made, as the only adequate mode of presenting a beau- tiful side of my friend's character. Many of the most interesting passages must of course be kept sacred, but I may be allowed here to say, that every line is fragrant with a delicate tenderness, a sincerity and gentle wisdom, which prove how true was the relation between these lovers. These extracts are of worth, too, as sketching with fidelity his experiences, trials, and progress, and thus illustrating, as no second hand could do, his real life. This consideration, indeed, has mainly guided me in the selection. May, 1833. " Hitherto, Memory has been my com- forter rather than Hope. On this side the grave I have an- ticipated little happiness, and have taken but little pains to secure it. Death has appeared to me rather a deliverance from pain than an exile from joys ; and there has been but one sting in the thought of dissolution, the knowledge that I should leave no one to mourn me here, and could look for- ward to no meeting with one that loved me hereafter. But all this is done away. Now I do hope ; I strive now to se- cure happiness in this world ; life and health have become treasures beyond price ; and if I am ever useful, ever do any thing as a member of society that will entitle me to the thanks or prayers of my fellow-beings, to you, my gentle mistress, to you will it be owing." 76 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. May, 1833. " Contrary to the wishes of many, and the advice of all my friends, I came out here upon what was considered a madcap expedition, to seek my fortune ; and what a fortune have I found ! I was before in a business that I hated, by coming here I have gone into one which I like, and in which I believe I shall succeed ; before, I was sour and disagreeable, now I am brighter and kinder, though still bad enough ; before, I hoped not for love, and seemed 'predestinated in my own opinion never to be loved, now I am certain of the love of one of the best, and kindest, and purest of friends. Had I found a mine of gold or a bed of diamonds I might still have been poor, but I have found you." June, 1833. " And you, my bird of summer, for your soul was surely once the spirit of a lark or some other care- less, or rather uncaring songster, you are not, I trust, am- bitious, and would not wish to have your husband a ' great man.' Your mind must be above such things, for I do think ambition a weakness. If, however, you do expect to derive any degree of happiness from my distinction, I fear you will be disappointed. I w;is once as ambitious as any, and would have as soon died to-morrow as lived humble and unknown ; but this mood has past, and each day I live I re- joice that it has past. The jealousies, struggles, and petty manoeuvres of even the greatest are enough to sicken a healthy mind. The characters of note with whom alone I am satisfied, and toward whom I feel as I should wish to have others feel toward me, are such as Washington and Sir Walter Scott ; for in them the heart was ever stronger than the head, and therefore the whole world loves them." June, 1833. " She is, I fear, too wholly intellectual for me. I like independence of thought and action in woman ; I should wish my wife to know u-Jiat her duties are, and u-Jiy MANHOOD. 77 they are duties ; I would have her make up her mind on these matters from her own reasonings and cogitations rath- er than take her opinions from rne. But I would wish her also to be affectionate and confiding, as deeply and en- tirely so as you are, and should care far more about her feeling with me respecting the whole course of life, than her thinking with me respecting literary performances, or any merely mental matter." July, 1833. " When I think of the course things have taken, I feel more than ever the influence of an ever-pres- ent Providence. Had I loved any other of the many women whom I met in the circle in which I found you, had I been engaged to them, and after the engagement had my eye-sight failed, as it has done, I should have felt it al- most obligatory on me to break an engagement which never would have been made could I have looked into the future. But with you, educated as you have been, and with your natural tastes, I do not feel that I am called upon for your happiness to sacrifice my own. I believe you depend less than most upon external circumstances, and will live pleas- antly even out of general society and under all the incon- veniences of a country life. Destitute as I now am of the means of living in town, my situation would be fearfully forlorn did I not look forward to being united to you. I never should have dared to ask any one to marry me with my present prospects, and my life would have been that of a hermit, perhaps o/ a misanthrope. The thought of these things, the sense that a protecting arm has been over me hitherto, will make me look upon the future without dread. I will do all in my power, and for the rest trust implicitly to Providence." October, 1833. " Mrs. inclines to wonder that I am not jealous of this correspondence of yours with gentlemen 7* 78 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. in town, but I told her that it agreed with my system of eth- ics on such matters, and that for me to object to your writing to whom you pleased would be ridiculous. A secret cor- respondence would be wrong ; but where all is open, it is an insult to interfere. On these points I differ much from the majority of the world "There seems to be too much probability that you will learn the lesson which adversity and disappointment teach. And they teach, dear S , a lesson very difficult, but most essential to be learnt, which is, so to regulate our minds that nothing shall induce us to despair; so to make our hap- piness depend upon ourselves, that no outward circumstances can bring us down " In the mean time, hope, hope, hope ! Be assured that the Being who made us never made us for grief, and if we will only be faithful to ourselves, we need not fear that woe will come/' January, 1834. "Could I have foreseen the present state of my affairs, I would sooner have cut off my right hand than have asked you, or any woman situated as you were, to marry me. But what is done I cannot undo ; I have troubled the quiet stream of your life, and now I can do no more than suffer it to run clear again. Our future connec- tion I place entirely at your disposal ; and the only piece of advice I will hazard is, that you follow your own good sense and good feelings, and the advice of your friends, without any regard to what you may think to be my wishes ; for my supremest wish is to know that you are happy. Do not think from what I say, S , that I am despondent. Let what will come, I am determined to be contented. My only anxiety is to have you so too." January, 1834. " Nothing has more surprised me of late years than to discover in what esteem I was held by many MANHOOD. 79 whom I supposed despised me. My person, my manners, my talents, my character, were rated high by persons whom I fancied laughed at them all. The knowledge of this has led me to a more thorough self-examination ; and that ex- amination has taught me to think less of myself in all these respects than ever. I find my talents small, my knowledge superficial, and my character very, very defective. But I can increase my stores of learning, and you, my dear S , shall have the pleasure of perfecting to some extent my dis- positions." January, 1834. " I shall be admitted to the bar in May, and continue my studies. In March, then, I shall take my cot, mattress, clothes-press, and other necessaries, and pro- ceed to my farm ; there I shall at once go to work planting and preparing, and, while I am at it in the fields, shall have the carpenters and painters busy about the house. As I live at present entirely upon my own resources, that is to say, as I take care of myself in all respects, I shall, out of town, want neither servant nor cook. I shall take out my library, and in solitude and seriousness gain my bread by the sweat of my brow, study what is to be studied, and prepare all things for your reception. I shall arrange the garden for you, plant your flowers, and prepare the dairy for your su- perintendence. As to how hard we need work, that will de- pend entirely upon our own choice. For myself, I shall labor enough to earn my living, and for you, you will labor enough to prevent ennui and idleness. We shall be much more together than in town. I can teach you all I know already, and we can, together, make new advances in knowl- edge. Between the garden, the dairy, the house, music, visitors, reading, and meditation, I trust you will be able to pass the time pleasantly. Be assured, my endeavour shall be to make you happy and good " I am now living upon mere bread and water, but would 80 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. not exchange places with any of the nobility of England, particularly if I were to lose you by the bargain. It seems to me at times as if it must be a dream, that there is a being whose soul is filled with love for me, and to whom these words which I am writing will be a source of pure joy. When I think of this, that I am already wedded in soul, that I have a power of becoming every day wiser and better, and that my education has not bound me about with those cords of error and prejudice with which so many are entangled, it appears to me that I could be happy under any circumstances " I intend, so far as I can, to labor six hours a day bod- ily, spend six in study and writing, devote six to you or society, and sleep six. I think I can make some money each year by writing, and that will prevent the necessity of hard labor on my part. If I know you, some daily occupa- tion will please you, and you shall be your own mistress entirely as regards the quantity. I have so few wants that it will cause little labor to any one to supply them." January, 1834. " As I consider you already wedded to me in spirit, S , and as you are entitled to know as much of me, my temper, and disposition as I can teach you, I will give you an extract from my journal of yesterday, for it contains an account of one of those moods which from time to time try my courage : '1 argued this afternoon a cause in the moot court before Judges Wright, King, and Walker. My argument was a poor one, and satisfied neither myself nor any of rny hearers. A sense of this troubled me, for, as I had given much time to it, a failure proved my poverty of talent ; and though the belief that my mind is not what my friends and myself once thought it makes me the more ready to leave the law, yet a feeling of mental weakness is never pleasant, and it rendered me fretful. I drank tea with Mrs. F , and, as usual, the ease and comfort amid which MANHOOD. 81 she lives, and which S might, but for me, still live in, made the want and the work to which I shall bring her seem doubly hard to bear, and I was more soured than before. I then went to Mrs. 's, to a small party ; but the sight of Mr. brought money matters to my mind, and the fu- ture appeared darker and more full of doubt than ever. I could not join in the mirth, and wished to leave, but Mrs. was to be cared for, and I remained two hours. I then found that was' to walk home with her. This added new acid to my temper. Without thinking that she was ignorant of the cause of my stay, I at once set this down as a proof of her dislike to me, and jealousy became my mas- ter. I looked upon myself as disliked by some for my temper, and as despised by others for my weakness. I saw nothing but darkness before me, and when I looked back it was to know that I had taken the only being that ever loved me, and the one that I love most dearly, from a position that all might envy, and was about to drag her to a fate that any would shrink from. When came home, I was crabbed and unkind ; he observed it and was silent. This led me to reflect upon my state of mind, and the causes of it, and before I slept, thank God, I had overcome the fiends that troubled me.' Such, my dear father-confessor, is a faint picture of one of those fits of despair and jealousy which were once of almost daily occurrence, but which now come seldom. Such is a faint picture of the temper which you, my own sweet S , must chasten and correct. Now you may understand why I say that you will be my teacher; you do not yield to the demons that trouble me, or rather you are too pure for them to approach." February, 1834. " The remark you made as to the inad- equacy of most young men to be husbands is perfectly true, quite as much so as the one made by me, to which it was a retort. Few of us consider, when we arrive near to years 82 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. of manhood, what it is that is needful in order to fill well our places in life. We are educated either to make money or to attain some kind of distinction, but those qualities which are most important in domestic life are little cultivated, and those studies which would fit us to be really good men are but little pressed upon us. We live on for some years in a dreamy state, fall in love, perhaps, and get married, but with- out asking soberly and rationally whether we are suited to her we love, or she to us ; or whether we are fitted, either of us, to perform our several duties. In short, we act from impulse, and not from principle. And when a young man, before address- ing a lady, considers coolly her good qualities and her bad ones, when he bases his attachment upon respect and esteem, instead of mere whim and instinct, he is by many condemned as cold-hearted and calculating. I loved you in a certain sense before I knew enough of you to respect you ; but the love I now feel for you, S , and that which led me to try to gain your affections, was the result of much thought, of a comparison of our respective tempers and dispositions, and of the influence we should have upon each other, and of a conviction that we are better adapted to one another than are most who enter the marriage state, and, in conse- quence of all this, some of my young friends, I know, look upon me as being at least ultra-philosophic." February, 1834. " A wedding should be very private, and without any of the parade which has distinguished 's. Fashionable parade and solemnity are incompatible ; and solemnity I think should certainly be preserved. Then, the admission of the whole town to share in a joy most em- phatically private and personal, or rather to eat our ice- creams and chicken salad, is horrible; a few picked friends, and an evening of rational enjoyment, would be more proper and pleasant. Again, to receive visits the next day, and have parties given through the succeeding fort- night, is to my mind sacrilege." MANHOOD. 83 February, 1834. "During the past week I made my debut as public debater. I succeeded better than I anticipated, and in time may be able to make a speech worth listening to ; as I am a member of two weekly debating clubs, 1 shall have opportunity enough. One of them is called the Inqui- sition ; it is composed of the most talented men in town, and at present, to be a member is considered no small honor. I was one of the original subscribers and founders, or other- wise never might have been in it, for, knowing the rule of the society, which is to admit those only who possess un- doubted talent, and knowing, too, my own deficiencies, I should never have dared to propose. It is to me a matter of daily surprise and sorrow, to find myself looked upon as possessing powers and information that I know I do not pos- sess. I am sorry to find this favorable opinion more widely spread than I had supposed, sorry, because, when much is expected of a young man, he is almost certain to disappoint the world. However,. I will dc my best." April, 1834. K "jlt is a very difficult thing to tell whether one is liked'or disliked, considered a pleasant or a disagree- able companion. One day, after having heard some one, who to his face is treated as well as I, called a most consummate bore and impertinent varlet, I make up my mind to visit people no more, except just so far as common decency re- quires. The next day, I come to the conclusion, that such a course would be foolish and wrong ; I meet some kind soul, whose cordial manners reassure me, and in I go again. Thus I am alternately thinking myself liked and disliked, shunned and courted ; and am unable to make up my mind whether the good people I visit will not wish me in Jericho. Your rule of presuming that all like you does very well for you, my dear S , for it is evident enough all do like you ; I, on the contrary, know that almost every one dislikes me on first acquaintance, and that with many the dislike 84 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. strengthens with time. A natural consequence is, that I suspect all, all but you, my own dear girl, you I can- not suspect. Nor would I distrust any, indeed, whose hearts were opened to me, for it is not jealousy I feel, but mere uncertainty, and an uncertainty resulting from the best of causes, the knowledge that I do not deserve love, respect, or esteem. But enough of this." May, 1834. " Your happiness, and that of every wom- an, is much more dependent upon slight matters than a man's can be ; and consequently in the little pleasures and arrange- ments of life it should be my object always to follow your tastes and desires, and not my own, and in doing this I shall sacrifice nothing, so do not fear for me. But we have now to decide upon a matter of real importance to us both ; let us in all things act as one, and that we may do so I must be fully acquainted with your views. You will think, my love, I am early introducing you to the cares and troubles of life ; but such, S , is the destiny of mortals, and you must forgive me. My object is to consult your happiness, afld do my duty. That done, I shall leave the result to God without fear. My anxiety now arises from a feeling of uncertainty as to what my duty is. I have myself always desired to live in the country, but my friends have opposed it, as they will do now. While it was merely desire on my part, I was un- willing to contend with them ; but now it appears that it may be a matter of necessity, and it will be out of my power to respect their wishes. To me, health, which I shall possess in the country if anywhere, independence, which I be- lieve any one in health may possess in the country, and i\\Q power of doing good, which I think will be more certain to me as a farmer than as a lawyer, to me these three things are, and ever have been, enough to recommend the fields, independent of the pleasure which I enjoy in nature." MANHOOD. 85 June, 1834. " I have lately been conversing somewhat warmly with a friend of mine, a young man of as high, pure, generous sentiments as any that lives, on various important matters, such as love, distinction, genius, &c. He is in about the same state of mind that I was in three or four years since, but to which I am now the antipodes. Love, to him, is not an attachment based upon knowledge and esteem of the person loved, but a mysterious, supernatural bond of union between the two, which is superior to, and uncontrolled by, the sense of duty, which must be obeyed, cannot be regulated, and is independent of principle, in short, real old-fashioned, Byronic passion. Now, I have been growing more and more prosaic and matter-of-fact every day, with yet quite enough of romance, however, though says I have not a particle, it never having oc- curred to him that a person may possess what he does not show. I am come to regard the world as an arena in which I have to do two things,. improve others and improve my- self. I look upon myself, upon you, and upon all of us, as capable of improvement, infinitely. ' He that is faithful over a few things shall be ruler over many.' I am not will- ing to seek power here, simply because I look forward to the time when I shall have worlds at my command. I wish in this life to Jit myself for that command ; and the only way of doing so is to perfect my nature, as far as I can. The highest, the divinest power in the world, is that of love, for by it God governs." Mr. Perkins was married on the 17th of December, 1834. He had been admitted to the bar during the pre- vious spring, and was at this time engaged in the double duty of professional labors and editing. His prospects in the law were excellent. Greatly admired by the pub- lic for his talent as a speaker, which had already been variously manifested through lectures and debates, re- VOL. i. 8 86 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. spected by his elders and legal compeers for the solidity of his attainments, his perspicuity of intellect, and his powers of argument, and closely connected with influ- ential persons in society, who, though advanced in age and social position, made of this brilliant young man an intimate companion and confidential friend, he seemed sure of eminent success. " For two years," says Mr. Walker, " there could not have been a more devoted student. His very first argument, made before the moot court of which I acted as judge, on a question of com- mercial law, has left such an impression on my mind, that, at the distance of nearly seventeen years, I remem- ber it as one of the most finished and lawyer-like argu- ments I have ever heard." " He made great proficiency in the study of the law," says also his friend T. Howe, Esq., " and acquired a remarkably clear, strong, and comprehensive knowledge of the great principles of ju- risprudence, to which, as a science, he always remained much attached." "But though," continues Mr. Howe, " he was suc- cessful as a beginner, Mr. Perkins remained but a short time in practice. This he found to be, in the last degree, distasteful, and so different from the pure, exhilarating, intellectual excitement of the study, that he became im- pressed with such disgust as never afterwards, I think, to do full justice to the profession. His moral standard, though not higher than all should have, was far higher than that of the great majority of his professional asso- ciates. They laughed at many of his views as absurd and Quixotic. Much of a young lawyer's business is necessarily of a small, pettifogging sort, where no great principle is involved, and where the feelings and habits from the magistrate downwards are comparatively low. MANHOOD. 87 And it must be confessed, loo, that, at this period, the tone and character of the Cincinnati bar were nowise en- couraging to a high-minded man. It was under these circumstances that Mr. Perkins determined to quit the profession." " Two reasons mainly influenced him," adds Judge Walker. " In the first place, a sedentary life was prejudicial to his health. But a more weighty reason w T ith him was, that he could not conscientiously do all that was required of a lawyer in order to secure success. And here I may remark, that, of all men w ? ith whom I have been intimately acquainted, he was the most scrupulously, the most heroically conscientious." His views are thus fully stated by himself : "Dear Sir, In reply to your inquiry, why I leave my profession, I answer, 1st, because in a city it is too seden- tary and adverse to firm health ; 2d, because the drudgery of it is injurious to the intellect ; 3d, because the devotion which it requires is greater than I am willing to give to any merely worldly concern, which either does not affect my higher powers or impairs them ; and 4th, because the rules of morality by which lawyers are governed do not, in many points, coincide with my own views, and I am not indepen- dent enough of my daily labor to enable me to oppose the ways of the profession. Upon this' last point alone shall I say any thing. " The common code among the lawyers with whom I have talked is this, that they are not called on to refuse to conduct suits, the bringing or resisting of which is clearly wrong on the part of their client ; and that their business is to see the law enforced, and not to attend to the equitable operation of that law in certain cases. For instance, one man rents a house of another for a month ; when the month is up, the owner wishes to let it to some one else, and the 88 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. tenant wishes to retain it, though he has no shadow of right ; this tenant goes to a lawyer and states his wish ; the lawyer sees that he has no claim, but he appears for him before the justice, and the justice decides against the tenant ; his pro- ceedings have, in some point, however, been informal ; the lawyer takes advantage of this want of form to remove the case to a higher court, where it may remain undecided for one or two years, during which time the tenant retains pos- session. In this case, the lawyer, instead of refusing to assist in gaining what he knows to be an unjust claim, uses the law, which was made to prevent injustice, to work injus- tice ; he sees the claim to be wrong in the claimant, he knows that, should he assist the claimant as a friend, he would be equally in the wrong, but as a lawyer he does right. Now, to my mind, no man can rightfully do as a law- yer what is wrong in him as a man ; he cannot by assum- ing a profession put off God's moral law ; and as to his duty being to see the law fulfilled, it is not so if the law is meant to work injustice ; nor if, from man's imperfection, it does work injustice in particular cases. His duty is to see the purpose of the law, and not its letter, fulfilled, and that is JUSTICE. " It is said, however, that the law must be literally carried out, or it becomes uncertain, and the consequent public in- jury more than outweighs the private good. This principle should make the judge always respect the law, no matter what evil results from its application, and it may even war- rant the lawyer in taking advantage of the technicalities in the progress of a just suit, because to neglect them may cause looseness of practice and evil ; but it can never author- ize him to commence an unjust suit, or to bring up techni- calities that they may be violated. " I have spoken of the creed above referred to as com- mon among those lawyers whom I have consulted. Perhaps the expression is too broad, for I do not know that most of the profession hold to it in its bare form, and I do know some who MANHOOD. 89 abhor it ; but most of those with whom I have talked ap- proved it, and among them were men of pure character and romantic notions of honor. To me the doctrine seems op- posed to all sound morality, and I hope there are those com- ing forward in the West who will do it away. While men think the course right and Christian, I bring no charge against them; we are all too self-deceiving to make that safe, for though their error, as I think it, may result from their interest and non-examination, and so be criminal, it is equally certain that it may not. But against the creed that a man may do as a lawyer what would be wrong as a friend and fellow-man, I would enter my protest as strongly as against any criminal and immoral doctrine ; nor do I believe the profession will ever exert the influence they should, until they declare this doctrine rank heresy. Their duties, their powers, their privileges, are in themselves noble and Chris- tian ; but they are as yet perverted and disgraced by too many, and that without reproof." Thus freed from the drudgery and temptations of the law, Mr. Perkins devoted himself with new energy to literature. He had already conducted with signal ability the Western Monthly Magazine, and was now engaged as editor of the Evening Chronicle. This paper he purchased in the winter of 1835, and united it with the Cincinnati Mirror, which was then published by William D. Gallagher and Thomas H. Shreve, when, for six months, this very spirited and successful weekly was ed- ited by the three friends conjointly. From Mr. Shreve, whose brilliant wit and elegant taste have for many years enlivened the Louisville Gazette, comes the following brief, yet truthful sketch. "All the little intimacy I enjoyed with Mr. Perkins was embraced within the years 1834- 35 ; and the rec- 90 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. ollection of my intercourse with him during that period is among the treasures of my memory. He was in the habit of coming into the office early in the morning, and, without any preliminaries, would proceed to his table and write as if he had just stepped out a moment before. Tt was one of his characteristics, I think, to do what he designed doing at once, for he was a true economist of time, and acted while persons generally would be getting ready to act. " He would frequently turn round and ask my opinion of some subject on which he happened to be writing. A conversation, perhaps a controversy, would ensue. His object was not so much to ascertain my opinions, as to place his own mind in a condition to act efficiently. When our talk was ended, he would resume his writing, It was during our business connection that I was first informed of the unsoundness of his health. I have seen him start up from his table, hastily throw pen and paper aside, strike his breast with his fist, complain of feeling unwell there, and then, drawing his hat or cap down over his eyes, walk off rapidly. At such times I have known him to walk two or three miles, when he would return and resume what he had left unfinished. He would also complain of vertigo, and has often told me that he had eaten no breakfast. " I am unable to give you any anecdotes or illustrative reminiscences. Had you assigned me the pleasant task of recording my impressions of his character, then I could have written quite as much as you would willingly read. You know, far better than I, that his devotion to truth was a leading quality of his nature. His renoun- cing the practice of the law at the time he did, for the reason that he could not practise it successfully without MANHOOD. 91 indulging in falsehood and deception, I have always re- garded as highly honorable to him. How few are like him ! And yet at that time he made no professions of religion. He convinced himself that he must renounce either his honesty or his profession, and did not hesitate. He considered it his duty to preserve his soul from the defilement of untruth ; and no one who knew him ever supposed that he could be induced to turn his back on what he recognized as his duty. " I remember well his appearance in the ' Inquisition.' His speeches in that society were always truly admira- ble. The logic, the wit, the sunny humor, the raillery, were alike irresistible. The same wide resources of mind that he subsequently displayed in the pulpit were exhibited in the Inquisition debates, and we all felt that when we had him as an opponent we had much to fear. I remember, too, his lectures on ' Fishes ' and ' Insects ' before the Mechanics' Institute. They embodied the most graceful and witching blending together of humor and science I ever listened to. I shall never forget his account of the ant-lion, which convulsed every one pres- ent. Had Mr. Perkins devoted himself to humorous literature, he would have stood at the head of American writers in that line. Indeed, as a humorist, original and gentle, he could scarcely be excelled. But so well developed were all the faculties of his mind, that, not- withstanding the prominence of his humor when com- pared with the humor of others, it only balanced his other faculties." The habit of mind to which Mr. Sh*eve so truly re- fers, of economizing time, and always doing at once what was to be done, enabled Mr. Perkins, amidst the hurry of editorship, to be a most rapidly advancing scholar. 92 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. Steadily, and with an easy exercise of thought, which proved how exact was the equilibrium of his powers, he daily added to his stores of varied information. He was systematic, almost unconsciously, and kept memory, observation, imagination, and judgment in perpetually harmonious activity. His rules of study, in so far as he had any, were thus expressed in a letter to a joung friend. " You could scarce ask me a harder question, than the one you now ask, ' What books should a young man read between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four ? ' It is puz- zling to answer such questions, not only because no two persons ought to go through the same course of reading, but because we study, not to heap up so much miscellane- ous knowledge, but to learn those things of which we are peculiarly ignorant, and to cultivate those of our faculties which most require it. While, therefore, I may be able to advise you very well, knowing you as I do, I am wholly unable to advise your brother ; and as to giving hints adapt- ed to all, I would sooner turn quack, and give one dose for all constitutions and all diseases ; for I think it better to trifle thus with the body than the soul. But there are some remarks which will apply equally to all persons and all courses, and to some of these I will ask your thought. " I would first, then, say, never read without an object. If you have ever been called on to study with reference to the attainment of some definite end, you will remember that what you thus learned remained with you long after most that you read had been forgotten. Not alone because you went deeply into it at the time, but because it was in your mind so associated and incorporated with many other sub- jects, that it is easily brought back again in after life. Do not, then, read vaguely and without purpose ; know what to expect from your book before you begin it ; and at every MANHOOD. 93 step, see what bearing what you have read has upon the points before you. Many men read every thing twice, once to find out what to read for, and again, to learn what is to be learned. Read, therefore, few very new books, the merits and objects of which you know nothing about ; wait till you know whereof the last publication treats, and how it treats it. " Next, I would advise you to read by subjects, not by vol- umes. I have known many scholars who had never read a book through in their lives, except, of course, those of mere amusement. In this way you get comparatively whole, not fractional views, and both sides of a question ; you may thus escape partyism, partiality, and narrow notions. " In the third place, I would recommend you not to com- monplace your reading, but to think it over, digest it, and, if you have time, reduce your own views, obtained from what you have read, to writing, in a blank book. The thinking may be done while you are walking, waiting tea, sitting over the fire, or in attendance for an unpunctual friend. The secret of writing much and easily consists, I fancy, in sitting down to write with your thoughts already in your mind, instead of fishing in the inkstand for them. " My fourth piece of advice is, to draw up for yourself a systematic list of all the subjects of human knowledge, made as particular as you please. By a glance at this you may see at once how little you know ; may refresh your knowl- edge of your ignorance, and see to what subjects you most need to turn your attention. " Lastly, I would say, keep by you a blank book, arranged as an index, in which you can enter references to those many passages and facts met with daily by a student, which have no immediate connection with the subject of the work in which they are found, and which we so often remember to have seen, but cannot think where. " I will now call your mind to a question, which every sys- 94 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. tematic reader must ask himself, Shall my reading be con- fined to one or two subjects until I am thorough in them, or shall it be general and superficial ? Most whose advice you would follow would, I think, advise the first ; for my own part, I am in favor of the last course. It is true, that superficial knowledge should be avoided where it can be ; but to my mind, the true question is this, Does it best become a being destined for eternity to gain a broad view of all that he can know, though a very imperfect one, or one more narrow and more perfect? If you look into what is said in favor of thor- ough studies, you will find them upheld, generally, as the means to gain worldly power or distinction ; and, when this is not the case, they are contended for by those who have little or no faith in the doctrine, that our studies, habits, and occu- pations here will affect our fate hereafter. But to me it is clear that all the powers and capacities of the man are more perfectly developed, and brought out in better proportion, by gaining an outline merely of all knowledge within our reach, than by pursuing any one branch of knowledge into all its details ; and the ridicule and scorn which have been heaped upon 'smatterers,' though it may properly apply to those who go from subject to subject without purpose and without sys- tem, cannot, with justice, fall upon students who go perfect- ly as far as they go, and stop because they perceive the in- utility of going farther. Some one subject, it is true, will become the prominent one in every man's mind, and it is right it should be so, for every man owes it to the world, to extend, in some direction, the circle of knowledge, if it be in his power; but the prominence differs from the entire pre- dominance of one subject. A man may carry his researches in natural or mental philosophy, history, or natural history, beyond the common line, and yet by no means give up other subjects. This has been done by some of the most emi- nent men in all branches, Milton, Newton, Locke, Cole- ridge, Goethe. If you read the works of Coleridge, for MANHOOD. 95 instance, you will find continual references to all branches of natural and political science, and will see that from these he has drawn many of his most admirable illustrations, and gained from them that breadth and unity of thought which must ever distinguish him, despite his many faults ; and the great German is a still more striking instance. " But the habit of general and systematic study is by no means common among either great or small men. We are apt, if lawyers, physicians, or clergymen, to read upon no subject as we should read, except that belonging to our pro- fession, and seldom upon that. Other subjects we take up for amusement, and lay them down again to resume or not as occasion occurs. This I would advise you never to do. If a work on botany or biography falls in your way, do not touch it, unless you see that you can pursue that of which it treats to some purpose ; and, above all things, eschew the habit of standing about a library or reading-room, dipping for a moment into this book or that review, and then turn- ing to another. " Reviews are at times of great use, because they com- press knowledge and give references, and also because they excite an interest in subjects that, but for them, we might never approach ; but they are, to the student, edged tools, to be used with great caution. "I would say, then, let your reading be general, but by no means promiscuous or vague. You may learn enough of nature to have the God of nature always before you, to value all that he has made, and from his works, to learn the many lessons of mercy, faith, love, and courage that they were meant to teach, and yet be what men will call a smatterer ; for you need know few names, and may be igno- rant of many standard authors. But I should think you far wiser to gain this smattering than to give the time spent in its gain to becoming perfect and thorough in the dates of history, or the minute facts of statistics. 96 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " But, while I advise a large field of study, I beg you to guard against the too current practice of making a very im- perfect knowledge of a subject enough, whatever chances may occur for increasing it ; 1 would be content with imper- fection, because general perfection is impossible ; but be as thorough as you can be, and never think that you know enough of a subject when opportunities offer to increase your knowledge of it. There is an essential difference be- tween the man that is content with a scant view of the whole now, because he hopes to perfect that view hereafter, and the man that is content with it because he cares to know no more. " One more remark, and I close ; in choosing your sub- jects of study, have your eye ever upon the great truth that should be our guide in every pursuit, and a full, ever- present, ever-influential faith, in which is the beginning, and body, and end of all philosophy, the truth that we are immortal spirits. Having this in view, you will not, as some do, spend years in acquiring knowledge that cannot have any influence, as far as we can see, upon the eternal interests of yourself or others. Having this in view, you will never narrow your reading to the newspapers and maga- zines of the day ; nor yet despise them, for they are your only means of communication with the great mass of your fellows. It is for want of faith in this truth, that the lawyer becomes a mere lawyer, the politician a devotee to the small interests of the time, and the tradesman a bondman of trade. Keep this truth, then, ever before you, by attendance on public worship, by private devotion, by the study of Scrip- ture, by the study of nature, by reflecting upon your own powers, and going over again in thought your past life, in the opportunities and changes of which you may see the hand of God schooling you for the future, as clearly as you see it in the stars of night, the clouds of noonday, or the plan and formation of your own body." MANHOOD. 97 But pecuniary embarrassments, the frequent fate of literary men, especially in a new country, and yet more the failure of health, once more compelled Mr. Perkins to turn his thoughts towards a country life. In the summer of 1835, he for a time proposed to seek a residence in Fayal, but at length determined to join some highly esteemed friends in forming an establishment for mining, milling, and manufacturing at Pomeroy, on the Ohio. Extracts from letters to various friends will give a vivid picture of his inward and outward state during the process of this experiment. Cincinnati, February, 1835. " I said tny prospects in a worldly way were dark. My publisher last week failed, leaving me unpaid for all my labors since August, and cut- ting off at once more than half my anticipated revenue. However, I have much confidence in success somehow. By success, I mean, in keeping above starvation ; farther than that I never look. S has done much, and is daily doing more to improve me. She is herself an embodiment of simple cheerfulness and confiding love, and into my intel- lectual selfishness throws a light and heat which never were known there before. In her I have a never-failing spring of joy " In the country I shall have more time for literature than here, and I shall use it ; if I have any power to do good to others, and support myself in part, by what is always a pleasant employment, most assuredly I shall exercise it. To some it may seem to betoken a grovelling spirit to go quietly into the country and sit down there contented, and my own kith and kin may raise an outcry ; but I am of a different way of thinking." May, 1835. " For myself I should like nothing so well VOL. i. 9 98 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. as to go quietly back to Lancaster or Northampton, and there spend the remainder of my days in silence. I love action, but it is action on a small scale. I hate chicanery, diplomacy, and every vile weed of the sort. Time was when literary ambition was a powerful stimulant with me ; but another, and I trust a more correct view of life, and the wherefore we live, has, in a great measure, strangled this reaching after I know not what, and I am come to the conclusion, that the happiest man in this world is he that has but one great object in view, no, two I should say, self-improve- ment, and the improvement of his fellows. I do not mean mere improvement of the mind, but of all the improvabilities of our nature. The ambitious man, the money-hunter, and all those whose end is on this planet, are chasing, as I think, an ignis faluus ; they misunderstand the great instinct of human nature, which is a desire continually to rise, to im- prove, to be perfect. Therefore would I willingly sit down in any place, where health could be mine, and means of doing good and receiving good accessible, and live and die as little known and cared for by the world as now, though but a few years since such a future would have seemed an earthly hell." June, 1835. " I know but too well the misery of unsat- isfied ambition. Plants, we are told, will force themselves from darkness into sunshine, and the instinct of the human vegetable to do the same thing is as strong. The love of power of which I take the love of renown to be but an offshoot is common to the whole human family; and more, it is, I believe, the peculiar privilege which distin- guishes human beings from other creatures. It is in fact the most God-tending, if not God-like, faculty of our nature, but, like every principle, it may go too far. The whole secret of true success is to regulate it. He that makes notoriety the end at which he aims will assuredly suffer, because he does MANHOOD. 99 not direct this principle aright. But the man who guides its action in accordance with his reason and his conscience will gain all the objects of his ambition, and gain them without one pang I have gone into this sermon, because I have been in very much the same state of mind that you are in now, if I judge aright ; and when so, was much assisted by the suggestions of a friend. In like manner I would aid you if I could, simply by leading you to reflect upon the true end for which we are created, and placed among the count- less means that surround us in this really beautiful and bright world, upon true eminence, and the true way of gaining it. It is a matter of surely great import, but there are very few, even among thinking men, who ever get clear ideas on the subject. I hope you will pardon my dryness, and not think me meddling." July, 1835. " It is a curious matter to me to trace the manner in which I have been led through commerce, law, and almost divinity, to the life that I have coveted from my earliest days, that of a farmer. I have always felt that a hand, of which I knew nothing, that of Providence, was carrying me to and fro upon the face of the land, and I am now more fully convinced than ever that such is the case. To a certain extent, my fortunes are in my own hand, for it is character that gives character to circumstances ; but I am in a far greater degree dependent upon circumstances. Had I not curbed the strong tendency toward being notable that once was in me, such a change as the present one would have made my spirit fret and kick, till mayhap it would have kicked away this underpinning of a body, and fallen into chaos. As it is, all seems in my favor. My chief want at the time of my advent to this valley of the West the want of a wife has been supplied, and had I searched the world, I do not think I could have found one better suited to me and my future situation. In her I have 100 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. a model it is a strong word, but she deserves it of love, faith, and disinterested activity, from which if I failed to learn, the very stones would hiss at me. A cold pattern of right-doing I might be insensible to, but a warm-hearted, living woman, who may often do wrong but always feels right, no one can resist." August, 1835. " For myself, I am inclining more and more to silence and a domestic life. I have been editor long enough to be abused, ridiculed, reviled, and eulogized ; and the trials of my temper, patience, and vanity have not, I trust, been profitless. But the notoriety in which some so much delight is to me a most comfortless thing ; and though I shall continue to write, if I can find publishers, I do not wish to remain a professed literary man, for I have neither talent nor learning to support the character decently. The truth is, that the influence of two or three women has woman- ized me, and I am much more of a lieart-ist and less of a head-ex than I was a year or two ago. I am more and more of the opinion, that a man of small ability does more good and fulfils his purpose better by unseen, private influ- ence, by loving others and serving those he loves, and in every thing raising his standard and himself, than he does by a solitary, speculative, writing career, though much may be done also in the way of writing. Hereafter, I wish to publish nothing that will not, in my estimation, do GOOD ; I want to have that object definitely before me in all I write, and to have support from other sources. My wife is admira- bly suited to my character in this respect. She lives in re- ceiving and doing good ; love not to me alone, but to all about her is the breath of her life. This youthfulness of character, this childlikeness, is the very antipode of my own semi-artificial nature ; and by living with her, I have had my character ripped up, and am now making it over again in a new fashion, double-breasted, and with a larger skirt." MANHOOD. 101 Pomeroy, June, 1836. " And where, you ask, is Pome- roy ? Look at the map, and you will find that it is in Meigs County, Ohio, six miles southwest from Chester, upon the river, just where it bends to the north. In this embryo town of Pomeroy, in the only finished and decent house in said town-to-be, I am staying with the Romulus of the place, S- W. Pomeroy, once of Brighton. In the neighbourhood of this dwelling, known as Butternut Cottage, are a saw-mill and a few houses ; half a mile above it is another small settle- ment, and between the two I am about building a house, and overseeing the building of a mill for a company, of which mill, when built, I shall be agent and factotum. Our house will stand scarcely a stone's throw from the Ohio, upon a knoll at the foot of a high clifF and hill, the place being known in the history of Pomeroy as the ' Cedar ClifF.' Our plantation will contain nearly two acres, reclaimed for the purpose, from the original forest. Should you wonder at the extent of my farm, know, thou dweller in the desert, that, in this civilized part of the world, land is worth $500 per acre, though five years since fifty cents would have been thought a fair price. The cause of this rise in value, and the cause of my coming hither, and the cause of the town-to-be, is, that this is a coal region, and steam-mills re- quire coal. Here, then, after all my changes, am I, I trust, settled as a gardener and a miller ; and when I look back on my past life, I cannot but wonder at the path by which I have been led to this long-sought point. Had I been placed where I am now originally, I should probably soon have regretted that I had not been in trade to grow rich, or in a profession or a literary life to become known ; but it has been so arranged that I have learned how to value all these things before coming to my goal. Now, a quiet life of simple pleasures and hard work is to my taste what it is to my reason." 9* 102 LIFE OF JAMES H. PEEKINS. June, 1836. " At quarrying stone we come on poorly. The stones are poor, the masons poorer ; and were we not in extremity, I would not employ them. But, though the 'Old Serpent' send twenty hard Harts and hard rocks to annoy me, he shall not win the battle, nor move one hair of my patience. I am too well, strong, and content with what- ever befalls, to willingly believe his Satanic Majesty can use me up more than I have used up the rocks." " As to the name of our estate, let it be as you please. ' Cedar Cliffs ' is pretty enough, but rather too high-sound- ing, and false, besides. Now, if I had remained a law- yer, I should not mind lying, but I don't think it becoming a miller. The commonness of ' Grapery ' is the very recommendation of the name to me ; for, being but a common place, and having but commonplace owners, I think a commonplace name most suitable. As for ' Rock Dale,' I would as soon call it ' Rock Cod,' which would be much more appropriate, as we shall have cod-fish, but ' devil a bit ' of a dale. Upon the whole, I think the name had better remain in suspense for a time." July, 1836. " I came to Ohio dreaming of a wife, a quiet home by the river, a small estate, a mill, it is true, while at sea, I dreamt for hours of being a mill-owner in Ohio, some literary name, and a library. It has pleased the Shaper of our fortunes to give me at least in near prospect all that I wished, and more, for I never dreamt of you, nor of a country life with the society we may have here. But above all, in my visions for the future I never looked forward to so great a change of character as you have wrought in me ; may God bless you for it ! " " The worst of the business, however, is the deception, want of punctuality, and want of care, among workmen. I MANHOOD. 103 have avoided much trouble by my constant presence and inspection, otherwise few things would be done well. What a mistake it is to get out of humor about matters ; I have a teamster working for me that has not been good-humored one moment since he came ; he 's always in a passion, ' darning,' and ' swowing,' and ' by Gosh-ing,' and would be worth some money to a large dealer in bonny-clapper, he looks so perennially sour. I pity such people, for I once belonged to the same class." July, 1836. " It seems as if Satan had mustered strongly to disquiet me. My stone-mason is laid up, and my team- ster is on his' back ; the horses have the distemper, and the work that should be cannot be done ; then steps down last evening, and says that he should not be much surprised if the knoll on which I am building should one day slip or settle into the hollow, and our house be ' knocked into a cocked hat.' Hurrying to my labors again, a man tells me the river is rising rapidly, and will sweep my 100,000 shin- gles to New Orleans before morning ; and, to comfort me under these prospects, I can look back upon what think you ? a half-quarrel with in the afternoon ! It hap- pened thus. When the mill was finished, he was to have the masons, but as he had made no preparation for them, and I wanted some few stone to finish our cellar, I took them for a day. Well, in the afternoon came up to where we were working, and asked me, with abruptness, ' when I should be clone hauling stone.' It was the first salutation. I said, I suppose, with still greater abruptness, but without the least consciousness of it, ' When I get enough.' This gave offence, as I soon saw, and he was departing in anger ; but I took his arm, led him into the shade, and half laughed, half reasoned him into good-humor again. This adventure taught me to beware of my own bad humors, and to think of the characters of those I have to deal with 104 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " But, despite all the Enemy's endeavours, I am little moved. What God wills, be it the destruction of all our plans and hopes here, or whatever it be, to that I think I can resign myself, though it may cost a struggle to do so. As regards , I was to blame, but I redeemed my error by a sacrifice of my pride, and that was all I could do " Mr. B 's letter I was very glad to receive, and shall write him again whenever I have leisure ; but even in that there was one trial in what he says touching my writ- ing for the Examiner, and Mr. W 's opinion. It pained me, because I know that Mr. B 's estimate of my intel- lect and character is very wrong, and wholly exaggerated, and in his warm praise of me to others I hear what will raise expectations that must be disappointed." August, 1836. " I have become badly poisoned, prob- ably with ivy, in clearing up our place. Yesterday morning the humor broke out more or less all over me, and from that time to this I have been really in agony from the intolerable itching of face, hands, and body. Dr. has prescribed an ointment of lard and sugar of lead, with which agreeable mixture I am now well basted. The worst of the matter is, that I have some twenty men to be looked to and directed, and am forced to hobble to and fro, feeling as if I were one vast mosquito-bite. I am glad, however, my dear wife, that you are not with me ; you could do nothing for me ; I am fidgety and cross, and I should probably poison you. Be- fore you read this it will all be over, a matter of history to be talked of and laughed at. Even now, while in full viru- lence, I can improve it to my good, and cultivate patience and resignation as readily, and in as rank a soil, as I hope by and by to cultivate melons and cucumbers in." Pomeroy, September, 1837. " Our worldly walkings and workings here have produced no fruit but certain potatoes MANHOOD. 105 and cauliflowers, together with a small modicum of wisdom. Some four thousand silver dollars have dwindled, under the united influence of bad times and worse management, to four hundred, paper currency, ragged and very greasy. Our house just built here, under the shade of sugar- maples and oaks, with the Ohio a few hundred feet before us, and the mighty sand-cliffs, that whisk us back into past eternity, behind we are forced to sell at half cost; and having but just unpacked and settled, as we thought, must pack up again and take up our march for another corner of the ' Garden of Eden,' as we think it best to call this earth, in order that she may have no cause of quarrel. Whither we shall go is somewhat uncertain, but most probably on to a small farm of ten to twenty acres, somewhere in the vicin- ity of Cincinnati, there to raise potatoes and fruit-trees, and write articles that might as well not be written. " I have always had a standard with respect to daily em- ployments, that I have been trying, so far without success, to live up to. I want hard bodily labor enough to keep me in health ; enough of business to exercise my order, activity, and perceptive powers, and leisure enough for reading and writing to keep me from petrifying into a thorough man of business. Having weak eyes yet, I am forced to find day- light enough for all these things, and this, as society is now constituted, is no easy matter. In coming here I thought I had attained my end, but bad advice as to cost of building, bad management on my own part, and somewhat unlocked for mishaps, have disappointed me. I now propose to try the experiment on a smaller scale, content myself with a log-cabin, literally, and make a bold push for independence on an income of $ 150 per annum ! Such is a chart of my proposed course in a worldly way. " Spiritually, I fear I have done scarce as well as in busi- ness. I have met some hard rubs, and my skin was too thin to stand them. However, I believe, all things consid- 106 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. ered, that both my outer and inner tumbles of the year past will help me in finally gaining the prize I am after, and that more speedily and certainly than an easier journey would have done. A great deal of latent selfishness still pervades my frame, and it wants a heavy pressure to force it out ; and if that which has been on me has sometimes expelled it in explosive quantities, still so much of it is gone, which is a great comfort." Returning to Cincinnati for the winter of 1837 - 38, Mr. Perkins at once set about fulfilling the humble plan sketched briefly in the last letter. He bought a few acres of ground, which seemed to present a good site for a nursery, on the Hamilton road, about six miles from Cincinnati, and made arrangements for building a cottage of dimensions as moderate as his hopes. Meanwhile, he occupied himself in visiting the schools, lecturing, preparing articles for magazines, and arranging a volume for publication. " I have just been writing," he says, "an essay on the new views of Zoology, which make the whole animated world one, and attempt to demon- strate its laws, as Newton demonstrated those of the in- animate world. The subject is a most interesting one. I propose, also, to publish two volumes, one containing the 'Constitutional Opinions of Judge Marshall,' the other 'Reminiscences of the St. Domingo Insurrection,' by my father, who was there during the whole. These I shall get printed when I go on to the eastward to learn my new business, the management of fruit-trees. By means of these works I hope, at least, to pay our way on and back, if nothing more. They may serve as an introduction, too, to such acquaintances as will here- after enable me to earn something by my pen, for though MANHOOD. 107 the hands may feed, the head must clothe myself and my wife, and we shall henceforth walk attired, not in silks and velvets, but in folio and foolscap." Accordingly, in the spring of 1838, he returned to Brookline to superintend these publications, and to be- come for a few months pupil of his father, who was one of the most enthusiastic, scientific, and successful hor- ticulturists in New England. In regard to his volume of " Marshall's Constitutional Opinions," he had the great satisfaction of receiving from Judge Story the fol- lowing high tribute of praise : " The list of cases is very full and perfect ; the general plan is judicious and appropriate ; the abstracts are accurate and satisfactory, clear, and exactly such as can be easily comprehended by unprofessional as well as professional readers." Not- withstanding this strong recommendation, however, and the general approval of his plan by leading jurists, he met with considerable difficulty in finding a publisher. The " Reminiscences of St. Domingo " was begun and half written, and proved to be admirably graphic and interesting, but owing to the untimely appearance of another work on the same topic, which seemed to fore- stall the market, it was unfortunately laid aside. His leisure hours he then devoted to an article on Carlyle's French Revolution, for the New York Review. " What a Mirabeau-like book it is," he says, "pock-marked, shaggy-haired, monstrous, original, yet alive from top to toe. You are against me, it seems, in not thinking its style affected, that is, assumed. I trust you are right, for an eruption on the skin is apt to be a sign of inward disease. But to my mind, the evidence that Carlyle adopted his peculiar form of speech because he thought it would tell, is very strong. At any rate, I fear that 108 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. his example will lead many to put on with malice afore- thought a similar phraseology. Yet essentially the book is, according to Continental rules of criticism, a high work of art." In November, 1848, Mr. Perkins returned to the West ; and it was now that our intimate friendship was renewed once more by daily intercourse, for, mainly owing to his solicitations and the hope of having his sympathy and aid, I had accepted an invitation to minis- ter to the First Congregational Society of Cincinnati, and had already entered upon my work. The day after his arrival we walked out to Cheviot to visit his snug little cottage and his nursery-grounds, which he was anxious to put in trim for the next year's operations. It was one of the serenest days of the Indian summer, and silvery lustre suffused the heavens and softly flooded hill and valley. On our return we left the highway, and, striking to the south, reached an open grove on the south- erly slope of a range of heights commanding the valley of the Queen City ; and here, as we lay under the ancient trees, amid the unbroken stillness, with the plain outspread beneath us, teeming with creative industry, he told me of his life in this new world. It was a beautiful romance of reality, and I saw at once how a sensitive yet strong nature, nipped, as it were, by spring frosts, and dwarfed by eastern winds, had shot up and leafed and blossomed under more genial skies. The sternness, silence, listless indifference, which, on each visit of my cousin to Boston, I had observed gradually obscuring his manner like a fog, were now melted away into sunny sweetness. He talked of the Great West, of its immeasurable MANHOOD. 109 physical resources, from the prairies and oak-openings of Illinois and Michigan to the cypress swamps and vast savannahs of Louisiana and Arkansas, with majestic riv- ers from the Alleghanies on the one hand, and the Rocky Mountains on the other, rolling their accumulated waters through its midst, its surface verdant and prolific inex- haustibly with a loamy soil, deposited by ages upon ages, and underlaid from end to end by coal, lime, iron, and various metals ; he talked of Fulton and Fitch, and the magic might of steam, by whose agency every water- course was made, like a giant genius, a bearer of burdens and a swift express in ceaseless industrial interchange, and at whose touch the agricultural and mineral resources of the land were transmuted to manufactured wealth ; he talked of the pulse of emigration, which from surcharged Europe was pouring in an immense population to be re- oxygenated in these great lungs, intermingled with fresh elements, and thence returned to renovate Christendom by hope, and liberty, and love ; he talked of the possible and probable future of this grand empire of united free- men, and of the responsibilities devolving on this genera- tion, which was inevitably moulding a long future by the character of its institutions, manners, creeds, and wor- ship ; he talked of the danger of mercenary inhumanity and earthly-minded politics amid such stimulants to self- ish indulgence, of the temptations of lawless democracy freed from traditionary restraints and sanctions, and of the urgent need that every person of principle and power should consecrate his best energies to the introduction of Social Equality, Popular Education, Christian Brother- hood, and, above all, Spiritual-Mindedness ; and as he talked, it appeared how filled he was with grateful joy, yet solemn awe, in the consciousness that it was his priv- VOL. i. 10 110 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. ilege to be a fellow-worker in the very heart of this cho- sen nation. Day by day, as I met my friend in society and public meetings, observed him in his relations to others, and talked with them about him, it became evident how high was the position which quite unawares he really occupied among his fellow-citizens. Nothing could have been more unpretending than his manner, as in slouch- ed cap, carelessly-tied neckcloth, loose rough frock, Kentucky-jean pantaloons, and stout boots, which bore traces of long excursions through mud or dust, he ex- changed off-hand greetings as he swept along the street,* or, with the slight alterations in attire demanded by merest neatness, entered with gracious demureness the crowded circles of society, or the quiet houses of friends. Wherever he might be, with a poor man on the corner, at committee-meetings for business, or in a " Semico- lon " party, he was always himself, and quite unique in his singular blending of dignity and diffidence, of firm self-reliance and habitually modest estimates, of essential respect for all and utter disregard of conventional dis- tinctions, of decision and reverence. A spirit of ear- nest intelligence, of downright good-sense, of interest in great aims and indifference to trifles, seemed to spread out from him, and clothe him with an air of quiet power. He took naturally, and as of right, the attitude of broth- erly kindness towards high and low, learned and igno- rant, men and women, young and old, and met all on the * A humorous friend, while speaking of the striking contrast be- tween Mr. Perkins's fine ideal head and his common dress and man- ner, thus, with quaint fidelity, described his style of walking : " His head looked as if it was above minding the legs ; and the legs looked as if they did not care whether the head minded them or not." MANHOOD. Ill broad table-land of manly truth. This unaffected integ- rity and characteristic single-mindedness it plainly was that gave him such a hold over others. They bestowed more regard on him, because personally he asked for none ; they relied upon his opinion, because it seemed rather wisdom, than he, that spoke ; they obeyed his counsel, because he never laid down the law, but turned all inward upon their own convictions ; they loved him for his kindly considerateness of others ; they honored him because he was so humble ; and it was a lesson on the inspiring influence of genuine good-will to see how, for the time being, he fashioned those around after the likeness of his own sincerity. It was a pleasant stimulus, too, to observe his versatile ability, and easy promptitude on most diverse occasions. Always he seemed equally self-possessed and present- minded. Whether it- was to tell a story to a group of children, to bear a part with grave jocularity in some play of wit with sprightly girls, to discuss among peers the current topics of the day, to consult with elders and influential persons on matters of moment, to ex- amine or exhort a common school, to unfold by con- versation some profound principle in religious meet- ings, or to address a public assembly, he seemed per- fectly ready. His information was well arranged and accessible, his memory quick and sure, his powers of discrimination and combination duly harmonized, his im- agination vivid, his judgment in equipoise, his feelings governed. He took the average tone of those around him, and by easy gradations raised them to the level of his own thought, neither dizzying his hearers by flights of enthusiasm, nor letting attention creep in common- places ; he had a soberness of ideality, that never daz- 112 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. zled, yet threw a brightened radiance on every theme ; he could be earnest without extravagance ; he used, un- consciously, a rare skill in clear statements ; he had a forefeeling of changing moods in his auditors, and knew how by gentle humor to soften asperities, by lively sallies to expose inconsistencies, or by rapid digressions to glide past difficult points ; and finally, in private talk or public speech, he instinctively regarded limits, and felt where and how to stop. This consummate balance of inward faculty, tact in management, and self-centred pow- er, admirably fitted him for leadership ; and wherever he was, he led. It appeared to be a sad waste of spiritual capital, that, at his period of life, Mr. Perkins should retire from ac- tive life, though doubtless there were considerations of health and of pecuniary subsistence which made his hor- ticultural plan otherwise expedient. But it seemed as if he was just the man for Cincinnati, and Cincinnati just the place for him. His training had been so various and his spiritual discipline so searching ; his very external failures had so wrought out his inward triumphs ; his prin- ciples were so clear, and his aims so high ; there was such a fund of rich life lying latent in him, and waiting only fit occasion for service of God and man, that one could not feel reconciled to his comparatively burying his talent in the ground. All who knew him were of the same opin- ion. Circumstances beyond his own control had planted him in Cincinnati ; his finest tendencies had taken root there and gathered nutriment ; why should he be trans- planted just as the fruit had formed beneath the blossom, and was ready to ripen ? He must be made to stay. But how ? Providentially the way opened, the very way which MANHOOD. 113 of all others he would have preferred, though he had never premeditated entering upon such a course. It had just been determined by some of the most philan- thropic members of the First Congregational Society, chief among whom were Messrs. John C. Vaughan, Charles Stetson, and William Greene, to establish in Cincinnati a Ministry at Large, and partly by contribu- tions among themselves, partly by aid from the American Unitarian Association, a small sum had been raised for the purpose. Learning that Mr. C. P. Cranch, who, in the absence of a fit agent, had accepted for a few weeks this charitable office, was compelled to return to the East and resume his professional duties, we con- sulted whether this would not be a suitable post for Mr. Perkins. That his comprehensive views of society, sa- gacity, business habits, benevolence, and practical piety qualified him for such a function, was clear ; and also that the confidence felt in him by his fellow-citizens generally would give him a vantage-ground for intro- ducing a novel plan. Would this ministry among the poor accord with his own convictions of duty ? We could but make the proposal. " I remember well the day," says Mr. Vaughan, " when Mr. Perkins came into my office and said that he would undertake the Min- istry at Large. He was truly eloquent ; I never heard him more so, than when he spoke of the dignity of the station and the greatness of the work. ' Gladly will I consecrate my life to this ministry,' was his expression. And he did take hold of it with a wisdom and energy which have already done much for Cincinnati, and have been the means of quickening there a spirit of humanity that can never die." 10* 114 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. It was in the winter of 1838-39 that Mr. Perkins entered on his MINISTRY TO THE POOR, and from that time till his death he was a livins; centre of charitable C? action in Cincinnati, from whose often unseen, yet effi- cient, influence flowed forth an exhaustless stream of wise beneficence. His first work was to become in- formed of the moral and social condition of the city, which he did by thorough personal explorations ; and he immediately made up his mind that only by some united action, embracing all religious sects and political parties, could the reform and prevention of pauperism be insured. To this point, thenceforth, he directed his efforts, first forming a visiting committee among the Unitarian society and those who were willing to coop- erate with them, then attempting a system of district visitation for the whole city and suburbs, and finally, successfully organizing the Relief Union. At his en- trance on his duties he found an energetic fellow-laborer in the Episcopal City Missionary, Rev. Alfred Blake, as well as in the Secretary of the Charitable Intelligence Office, Mr. A. Spiller ; but afterward he toiled on very much alone, feeling himself hindered by sectarian jeal- ousies among the clergy, though often cordially furthered by the laity, until he met with the devoted agent of the Relief Union, Mr. A. L. Bushnell. How comprehensive were Mr. Perkins's aims in this ministry will appear in part from a letter written in the early spring of 1839, and from the Report of the Chari- table Intelligence Office, which follow : "The mantle of Minister at Large has fallen upon me, and in this vocation I hope somewhat to realize that useful- ness to which you allude as the crowning gift of man. The MANHOOD. 115 field is wide and undug ; my spade is dull and weak, but by care it may loosen the hard soil, or turn over that which the frosts of misfortune have already mellowed. Pauperism, Poverty, Infidelity, Vice, Crime, these are five well-armed and most determined demons to war with, true children of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, which, jockey-like, cross and recross their breeds for ever, to keep up the health of disease, and the life of death. Against these keen and bold warriors I am opening my works slowly and with care, and by the time you come back may have brought a gun or two to bear. " By the time you come back, I say ; for, in spite of all things, I think you will come back sooner or later. Come ! we will see if we cannot muster men of talent, knowledge, wisdom, genius, and goodness here, enough to keep the city from putrefying. Bring back your cultivation, power, learn- ing, and enthusiasm, and join us ; we will form an ' Anti- septic Society ' ; you shall be spice, and I will be common salt, and saltpetre, and charcoal. " Two hundred years hence, men will lift their hands over the blindness and fanaticism of our time, as we raise ours in wonder and horror over the persecution of the Quakers, and the burning of all heretics. It is very hard to realize that one is living at midnight instead of noonday ; amidst darkness and not light ; and yet I suppose that, prone as we are to think all knowledge and wisdom and power at our mercy now, we are no more at the end of Christian civilization than our fathers were when they first put on breeches of untanned skin. Look at the railroad, the calcu- lating machine, the new style of engraving with sunlight, when will such material changes cease ? And for moral and social changes, are we not likely to upset all the old- world notions ? Such desperate locofocos never were dip- ped in brimstone as the lest of us a few of you travelled gentry alone excepted are becoming. It would make 116 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. your hair turn snow-white to hear the Radicalism that of a Thursday evening, in our vestry-room, makes the Unitarian church rock to its foundations ! " " Six months having passed since the ' Charitable Intelli- gence Office ' was first opened, the subscribers think it proper to make some report of their doings to those who have so liberally given to them for the relief of the suffering. They would also take this opportunity of calling the minds of their fellow-citizens to the great subject of Pauperism. " Few persons in America, very few in the West, yet realize how important this subject of Pauperism may be- come in a very short time. Its evils, physical and moral, are more or less known to all readers ; but who is there that feels deeply the need of immediate and energetic action to prevent the rapid spread of those evils, here, in Cincinnati, or elsewhere in our rich and prosperous valley ? And yet there is, at this moment, a very strong band of true paupers in this community, a circle of them extending through the whole city, from Fulton to Mill Creek. And this circle, the high-school of vice and crime, spreads daily, as all rotten- ness does, and will lead to undreamed of troubles and ex- penses, unless dealt with at once. Every man in Cincinnati is bound to help in stopping the growth of pauperism ; the man of property, because his houses and goods are endan- gered by it ; the man of family, rich or poor, because it threatens with ruin his sons and daughters ; the friend of education, because it is the deadliest foe to knowledge and labor ; the Christian, because it is one of Satan's chief nets to catch souls with. " Pauperism does not yet exist among us widely, as in England, Ireland, and Switzerland ; but it does exist among us deeply, and in a very bad form. Scenes of more wretch- edness and more depravity cannot be met with, we fear, in any land, than may be found now and then in Cincinnati MANHOOD. 117 even, young and healthy as the society in the main is here ! Very many children, more than any of us know of, are learning daily the lessons of iniquity in our midst, and teach- ing them to the children of happier birth in the great semi- nary of the street. It is a strange and a dreadful thing, but one of no unfrequent occurrence, to hear from boys and girls of ten and twelve, and even of six and seven, accounts, drawn from nature, of every evil practice, from simple drunken revelry down to theft and bloodshed. " To aid in diminishing, or at any rate in withstanding the growth of pauperism, was our purpose in opening our office. We did not and do not wish to cause more alms- giving, for we are convinced that enough, if not too much, already exists in Cincinnati. The liberality of our citizens has shone out brightly during the past winter ; through soci- eties and through individuals, very large amounts have been given to the poor, and in general with very good judgment, so far as we are aware. Our aim and wish is to combine alms-giving with measures calculated to diminish the neces- sity of alms-giving ; to relieve the suffering, even of the idle and vicious ; but at the same time to remove the causes of suffering. " It is plain that, to relieve the poor effectually, we must do away the causes of the poverty ; to give an idle and wasteful family a barrel of flour will not provide them with bread for more than a few weeks, and if in habits of in- temperance, much of it will be sold at half price for whis- key. But by any means do away the habit of waste, idle- ness, and drinking, and you truly relieve that family. In order, however, to do any thing toward curing evil habits, it is necessary to become well acquainted with those having them, to see them frequently, and to keep up a continued connection with them. As charity is often given, by chance visiting, a little here and a little there, no perma- nent relations being established between the giver and the 118 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. receivers, no opportunity is allowed for the exertion of that influence which may do away the causes of poverty. Nay, such charity too often weakens the feeling of independence, leads the receiver to look to others for support, and, as the same kind hand is not again extended, causes applications to others, the habits of begging, deceit, imposition, and evil. " One great purpose which we have in view is, therefore, to establish permanent relations with those whom we assist, to become so acquainted with them as to prevent deception, to continue to assist and advise them the year round, and to bring them within those educational and religious influences by which alone their dependence can be prevented from producing evil results. " We also wish to assist those in need by finding work for them ; and whenever we can do this, we deem it a far better charity than any form of alms-giving. We would, indeed, ask the friends of right, and all kind hearts, to economize last of all in these hard times by taking their work from the poor. One dollar paid for work done is worth two given ; better, then, give nothing, than do your own work and give every week. We would indeed ask how the Christian can justly economize by taking the means of support from a fel- low man or woman, instead of giving up some of his or her own luxuries ? Is it right, just, to use our comforts, and withdraw our work from those who need it, when times re- quire that we must give up those comforts, or do our own work ? It may at first be thought too much to require men to abandon their comforts for the sake of their neighbours; but if a man's neighbour is drowning, is he justified in letting him drown because he must plunge into cold water to save him ? If a man's neighbour is starving, is he justified in letting him starve because he must give up coffee or wear homespun in order to save him ? " Our two chief objects have been, therefore, first to form such connections with the poor as will enable us, in some MANHOOD. 119 degree at least, to withdraw them and their children from evil associations, and to combine immediate physical relief with continued moral relief; and second, to find those in need employment. We hope, also, that our office may be the means of uniting those engaged in benevolent action, and, through such a union, of preventing a portion of that imposition which now discourages so many who would other- wise be foremost in kind works. " We have since October received contributions from seventy-two sources, mostly without solicitation. To all of these we would now return thanks in the name of those who have been relieved through their contributions. We have received money, flour, clothing, groceries of all kinds, wood, coal, books, bread, &c., &c. The names of the indi- vidual givers we do not publish, as we do not suppose any of them to desire it. To the sewing-societies, who have kept our wardrobe filled ; to the choir and people of the New Jerusalem Temple, from whose concert we received one hundred and thirty-eight dollars ; to the directors of the ball at the Theatre, from which we received fifty dollars ; and to those merchants on Main Street, who sent us a Christmas gift of forty-six dollars, we may refer without impropriety, and would thank them for their kindness. " These various contributions have been distributed among two hundred and sixteen families ; some of whom have re- ceived very slight assistance, while others have been helped through the winter. Wood or coal has been sent to about seventy families, to several of them many times. Clothing has been given to more than one hundred. One hundred and sixteen pairs of shoes have been given, mostly to children to enable them to go to school. The rent of twenty or twenty-five families has been paid in whole or in part. Flour, potatoes, tea, coffee, candles, soap, rice, sugar, and many other articles, have been provided for nearly two hun- dred families. 120 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " All the families assisted have been visited by us, with a few exceptions where they were brought to us by friends who had visited them. To none of them has money been given, the articles needed being alsvays supplied. " In addition to the above, we have paid about one hun- dred and eighty dollars for such purposes as the following: nursing the sick, sending deaf and dumb and blind children to Columbus, sending poor families to their relatives, &c., &c. " Thus, during the past winter, we have tried in some de- gree to attain our ends. One of us (Mr. Blake) will soon leave the city, the other will remain, and attempt in the course of the coming summer so to systematize our infor- mation that he may be enabled next winter to act more effectually; and hoping by that time to bring about a more perfect union among the friends of the poor, he trusts with their aid to be able next year to do far more good than we have been able to do during the present. " The office, during the summer, (i. e. from May 1st to October 1st,) will be open from 12 A. M. to 1 P. M. every day. The tenant wishes it to be considered free to all friends of the poor, city missionaries, &c., at all hours, for all purposes of a general nature, and would invite all such to use it freely. " JAMES H. PERKINS, ALFRED BLAKE. " April 14/A, 1840." The liberality, open-handed, though discreet, which Mr. Perkins manifested throughout his ministry can never be fitly described, for it was known only to his beneficiaries. But in a letter to his wife, confessing his inability to make or hoard wealth, with a few touches he portrays what every friend knew to be his characteris- tic, as exhibited in daily walks. " Heaven grant I may always have the health to work with and for you, dear MANHOOD. 121 S. ; for I am a poor hand, and I am thankful it is so, a very poor hand, at making money. I say I am thankful, because I would not for the wealth of the world have my mind cramped and narrowed down to the dimensions of a money-maker's. May the same spirit ever be mine that now is, a spirit that desires nothing more than independence of others ; and, while that is secured, is willing to divide its last dollar with a neighbour. This is my instinct, and therefore I can claim no particle of merit for my prodigality, as some would call it ; but I trust the instinct will remain." And after his death, one of his grateful friends thus wrote : " One word I would add on my pecuniary indebtedness to Mr. Perkins, although, in his great kindness, he has repeatedly told me 'not to think of it.' I find in my memoranda a balance of $63.92 due to him. He was truly the good Samaritan to me ; he found me buried by many misfortunes, at a season of destitution, with seven small children to support ; and whilst unable to procure me any remunerative employment, he invited me with a brotherly unction ' to call on him and he would share with me ' ! The mere money may yet be repaid, the heart's obligations, never ! " Finally, Mr. Bushnell thus bears his affectionate testimony to the devoted labors of his friend: "Previous to my connection with Mr. Perkins in the Relief Union, my acquaintance with him had been only by reputation, as a distinguished scholar, philanthropist, and preacher. But when I became asso- ciated with him in this great and good work of Christian charity and benevolence, when I witnessed his self- denying labors and efforts among the poor, the friendless, and the wretched, my previous esteem and high regard were increased almost to veneration. I loved his very VOL. i. 11 122 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. step, as I heard it approaching, and his voice to me was music. Never had I witnessed a more perfect exempli- fication of Gospel benevolence as explained in the New Testament by our great Pattern and Guide, than in the character of Mr. Perkins." The Cincinnati Columbian well sums up the history of his benevolent labors : " In the early years of his clerical career, Mr. Perkins acted in a manner as Minister at Large for the city, in which capacity he visited personally among the poor and needy in all parts of the town, and became the almoner of many of the good of all religious persuasions. \Vhilc en- gaged in these duties, his early business training came op- portunely to his aid. He opened an office, in which he kept a register of the names of all applicants for either work or assistance, and, before dispensing to them the charities with which he was intrusted, visited them at the places of their residence, and ascertained whatever he could as to their cir- cumstances and characters. He rarely gave money, except in small amounts for the immediate relief of hunger or sick- ness. He distributed clothing only where there was real nakedness, to shut out cold for the time, or ease the sense of manifest shame. He gave out food where he found it was needed to stop the gnawings of hunger, but only in limited quantities, as necessity demanded. LABOR was his gift, whenever it would be accepted by the needy and could be properly performed, and in order to supply this, he finally opened a regular intelligence office, from which he supplied widows with needle-work, servants with places, and day- laborers with such employment as he could obtain for them. " Out of this beginning a few years afterwards grew that comprehensive charity, the Cincinnati Relief Union, of which Mr. Perkins was President from its organization to the time of his death. His experience as a visitor among MANHOOD. 123 the poor and the degraded had taught him the necessity of an association such as this ; and he worked with all his might and all his patience to build it up, to sustain it, and to make it useful in finding out and relieving virtuous want. In his last sermon to his congregation, preached the Sab- bath before his death, Mr. Perkins presented anew the claims of this benevolent society, and gave notice that it was then in the immediate want of funds. He stated that it was of the first necessity that its excellent agent should be re- tained in his place, without whom its plans of relief would come to naught. He said that, for the period of the next three months, which would be the hardest part of the winter upon the poor, this would require but $125. And this sum, he remarked, he should be pleased to have his congregation assist him to raise ; but whether they assisted or not, it should be raised, for he had determined to retain the agent for this length of time, if it had to be done out of means of his own. " It was chiefly through the exertions of Mr. Perkins, en- gaged with a few kindred spirits, that the condition of the county jails of Ohio was investigated and reported upon sev- eral years ago, and some improvements effected in their sanitary regulations. And to his wisdom and perseverance is this community indebted, as much at least as to those of any other man, for the scheme of Houses of Refuge and Correction, which are soon to commence their useful ser- vices, and also of the house for the confinement and employ- ment of juvenile offenders, now nearly erected, two miles north of the city. " But there have been few projects of a wise, Christian benevolence, indeed, in this city, for the past twelve or fif- teen years, that have not had the aid of his intellect, his heart, and his physical labor. To thousands of cheerless hearts he has carried the warmth of his own soul ; to thou- sands of dark abodes, the light of hope and religion. He 124 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. has ministered to the sick and sorrowing ; lie has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked ; he has visited the widow and the orphan in their aflliction." What is here said in regard to Mr. Perkins's services in promoting prison reform is strictly true ; for many friends must remember the private influences which, in 1833, gave the first impulse to that movement in Cincin- nati and Ohio. Judges Lane, Este, and Reid, Mayor Spencer, Messrs. William Greene and J. C. Vaughan of the legal profession, and Messrs. Phillips, Martin, and other energetic and benevolent men among the me- chanics, took the lead in it ; meetings were called, laws drafted, presented, and passed ; plans were set on foot for inspecting the county prisons, and erecting new build- ings on an improved model ; and finally, though the plans adopted fell far short of Mr. Perkins's ideal, the work of converting the hells of convict torture into pur- gatories at least of penitence was fairly begun. During the protracted efforts needed to keep alive public atten- tion, to collect funds, and direct legislative action, Mr. Perkins used every occasion to promote this cause of just humanity. He did not make himself prominent, but, as was his habit, acted through others ; yet very much owing to his wise suggestions and patient exertions were these great measures successfully carried through. His views in regard to prison discipline and the refor- mation of the young may be learned in part from the following paper : " In the month of December, 1838, a meeting of the me- chanics of Cincinnati was called at the Court-House, to con- sider the present system pursued in Ohio with regard to the labor of penitentiary convicts. This system is known MANHOOD. 125 as the ' Farming System,' and is marked by this feature, that the labor of the convicts is let out by the State to con- tractors, who pay so much a day for every man's labor ; by means of this labor they make any articles they please at much less cost than the common manufacturer, as they pay less than half the usual wages, and therefore are enabled to undersell the common manufacturer. At the meeting held in pursuance of the call above referred to, it was stated, that these contractors pursued the plan of producing articles of quite limited consumption, of which they could obtain the monopoly by underselling the regular producers, and so command the market. In this way, it was said, more than one manufacturer had been ruined, and the mechanics were called on to remonstrate against so unjust a system. " Late in the next month another meeting was called upon the. same subject ; strong resolutions were passed, and a memorial prepared to present to the Legislature ; and the general penitentiary system being brought into discussion incidentally, the meeting was adjourned, and a committee chosen to report upon the propriety of teaching mechanical labors in the penitentiary upon any system. The resolutions offered by this committee were discussed during several successive Saturday evenings, and the whole subject of pris- on discipline was thrown open. In the course of these dis- cussions the following report was made : " ' In old times, when a man wronged society he was killed, whipped, maimed, branded, or exposed in the pillory. Punishment was then looked on as, in a great degree, ven- geance. In the course of time the views of punishment changed, and man came to think that criminals should suffer in order that society might be protected, not that it might be avenged. Thinking thus, and believing the whipping and exposure then practised to be little calculated to protect society or help the criminal, the Friends or Quakers of Pennsylvania proposed to substitute imprisonment in the 11* 126 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. place of death and other direct bodily inflictions. The first movement of those excellent men on this subject was about the beginning of the Revolution, during the very years in which John Howard began his labors of mercy ; but owing to the condition of the United Colonies at that time, nothing was done, and even after the Revolution, and before the adoption of the Constitution, three years passed before those who wished to call the public eye to the state of the criminal law succeeded in doing so ; they did succeed at last, how- ever, and in 1786 a reform began in Pennsylvania, by which the old code of stripes and torture was done away. From Pennsylvania Ohio borrowed the great features of her crim- inal laws, and to that we owe it that her statute-book is not defaced by provisions which still stain those of many of her sister States. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, the use of the pillory, the whip, and the maiming- knife were authorized by law as late as 1833 ; and in Dela- ware at that time poisoning was punished by a fine of ten dollars, an hour's exhibition in the pillory, sixty stripes well laid on, four years in prison, and public sale into slavery for fourteen years.* But in Pennsylvania, as we have said, reform began in 1786, and the penitentiary system was commenced by the establishment of the Walnut Street pris- on. The idea in founding this prison seems to have been this, to protect society by confining the criminal, and to re- form as far as possible the criminal himself, so that he might not be criminal again as soon as free. The idea we think a noble and true one, uniting policy and benevolence ; but the execution of it was most faulty, for numbers were placed together, and unrestrained communion allowed. The conse- quence of this was, that the young and comparatively inno- cent were utterly depraved by intimate connection with the * Beaumont and De Tocqueville on the Penitentiary System of the United States. Trans., p. 16. MANHOOD. 127 vile and hardened. It was hoped that this consequence might be avoided by classifying the prisoners, placing to- gether those of equal criminality ; but this was soon proved to be impracticable, for there was no guage by which to know the souls of men. Some, also, were placed in soli- tary confinement, but they were left unemployed. The Pennsylvania system, with all its defects, was copied in 1797 by New York and New Jersey, and soon after by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and all the other States ; the old punishments fell into disuse, and the State prisons were looked to with hope and joy. But it was soon clear that they would never bring about a millennium ; indeed, there was every reason to think that they were schools of vice, producing evil, and little or nothing else. '"This state of things led to new efforts in 1816 and 1817. In the former year the Auburn prison was begun in New York ; in this, prisoners were to be placed two in each cell, and those who were vyorst were to be confined in solitude without work. In 1817 Pennsylvania undertook the peniten- tiary at Pittsburg, where each prisoner was to be confined in solitude without work. Both of these prisons failed of success ; that at Pittsburg, because so built as to enable the prisoners to converse with perfect freedom, though not see- ing one another ; that at Auburn, because, where two were put together, as much, or more, evil ensued as if twenty had been, and those who were placed in solitary confinement with- out work sickened, became insane, and committed suicide. " ' Two modes of imprisonment had now been tried, " ' 1. That by which many were placed together, to work in common and communicate freely. " ' 2. That by which each was placed by himself in idle- ness. '"Both had failed. These failures led to the adoption of two new systems ; that known as the Auburn, because tried there first, after the failure just spoken of; the other known as the Philadelphia system. 128 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " ' The Auburn plan arose in 1824, but who originated it is not certainly known. Its two great features are solitary confinement at night, and labor in common, but without communication through the day. The Philadelphia system is marked by solitary confinement day and night, with labor. This went into operation in 1829. " ' Such is an outline of the history of the American peni- tentiary system, and this history has shown two things most clearly ; the one, that prisoners must not communicate, and the other, that they must be kept employed. Should it be asked whether there has been any change effected by stop- ping communication between prisoners, and keeping them at labor, we answer, the change has been very great. In the Walnut Street prison in Philadelphia, such was the disci- pline, that, when the first sermon was preached there, it was thought needful to draw up the prisoners in a solid column in front of the preacher, by whose side was a loaded cannon, and a man with a lighted match.* Under the new system at Singsing, a thousand men work unfettered at an open quarry, with but thirty keepers to control them.t In the old Philadelphia prison, the keeper kept spirits to sell to the con- victs. Under the new system, water and coffee alone are ever used by them. In the Massachusetts State prison, so late as 1825, the prisoners were leagued with rogues without, from whom they received bank-bills which they altered from 1's to 10's, and from 2's to 20's. They also made false keys for their comrades without, and divided the profits. f Nor if the influence of the new system less marked, by the fad that, whereas under the old form a third to a quarter of those who left the prison returned again, under the new not more than one twelfth or fifteenth part come back. In * Ch. Ex., III. 207. t Beaumont and De Tocqueville, p. 26. t Ch. Ex, III. 210. N. Y. Report, 1828, p. 62. Ch. Ex., March, 1839. MANHOOD. 129 New York, some years since, pains were taken to trace a number of those who had left Auburn, and from one hun- dred and sixty who were traced, one hundred and twelve had become good citizens, and only twenty-six remained de- cidedly untrustworthy.* " ' But the great good of the new system is this, that it pre- vents the young, who are led into crime, from becoming utterly ruined while in confinement. Leaving this point, however, for the present, we turn to the inquiry, What spe- cies of labor shall the convict be employed on ? Keeping in mind that one great end is to prevent the convict from becoming criminal again when free, we answer that it must be, if possible, a species that will support him when he leaves prison, and also one that will not necessarily bring him often into connection with other freed criminals ; for it is found that most of those who go back to prison a second time have fallen in with fellow-convicts while at large. " ' Useless labor, such as that of the treadmill, is therefore to be rejected, for it will not feed him. Stone-breaking, and employments which cause a wandering life, and which are liable to be monopolized by convicts, are also objection- able ; more than half the new criminals have led such wan- dering lives, and the collecting into bands of those known to each other as criminals is much to be feared. " ' The professions we think out of the question, because the professional man more than any other asks for confi- dence, and none would confide either life or property to those fresh from prison. We might employ one of whom we know nothing good to make us a pair of shoes, though We should not employ him as a physician or attorney. " ' We find, then, but two classes of labor to which the con- vict can devote himself, the agricultural and the mechanical. Were it possible to employ him in agriculture while a pris- * N. Y. Report, 1828, pp. 70, 72. 130 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. oner, we should think it by far the best life for him to lead, it being found that the freed prisoner who goes into the coun- try is far less likely to return to prison than the one who goes to the city. Nor do we say that the prisoner cannot be employed in agriculture, though we see no means by which he may be. " ' In every branch of mechanical labor, however, he may easily be taught : and having learned any one, he may live thereby when free, may reach a respectability which the stone-breaker never can, and will not be thrown into many temptations, and with many associates, that the wandering day-laborer cannot avoid. " ' But our friends, the mechanics, say your State-prison competition will ruin us, and your freed convicts will dis- grace and demoralize us. To this we answer by asking, if the mechanics of Ohio would fear the competition of any other five hundred men. Were it proposed to save five hundred young men from idleness, vice, and the penitentiary by making them mechanics, would our shoemakers, carpen- ters, and blacksmiths ask that it should not be done, because the competition would be ruinous ? We cannot for a mo- ment think they would, and yet these five hundred now in prison are no more than they were when out of prison. The truth is, that the competition of five or seven hundred men scattered over the whole field of mechanical labor would not be felt in Ohio, were the products of their labor sold at market prices. The fear of competition arises from the contracting system at present in vogue. "'As respects disgrace to, and injury to the morals of, the mechanics, we think they will see the danger to be little. No man in this country can be honored or disgraced but by his own acts : neither blood, nor wealth, nor profession should or need determine the honor or disgrace of an Amer- ican ; by his own worth, and that only, must he stand. " ' Believing both the objections urged against teaching the MANHOOD. 131 convict mechanical trades to be unsound, we are of opinion that he may be taught them with propriety and safety. At the same time, we see the difficulties connected with this mat- ter, for who will employ the freed criminal ? We see great inducements to deception, and many dangers to the public, from the suspicion with which he is always, and necessarily, regarded. But we do not see the danger less in one direction than another from this source ; and the experience of the Auburn prison is in favor of the teaching of mechanical labors. " ' In closing this report, we would refer to three points of deep interest to our community. " ' One is the best means of enabling the freed convict to get a livelihood. Should the State give him employment ? Should it give or lease him land ? On this point we have nothing to offer. " ' The second point is the propriety of having houses where those arrested on suspicion, and witnesses who cannot give security for their appearance, may be detained. Such houses of detention are common in Europe, but the first ever built in this country has but just gone into operation : it is in New York. The propriety of such places, and the impro- priety of sending suspected persons to jail, are clear : more than a fifth part of those arrested are not convicted. " ; The third point referred to is one which we would par- ticularly ask attention to : it is the need we have of a HOUSE OF REFUGE, to which all boys and girls violating the law may be sent, there to be educated, reformed, and made worthy of society, and saved from a life of sin. " ' The first institutions of this kind were founded in Ger- many, by individuals, about 1813 ; in 1S25, one was formed in New York by a society ; Boston founded one in 1826, and Philadelphia in 1828. Fourteen years of experience have proved these institutions to be most valuable. In them boys and girls of from seven to twenty-one and eighteen are 132 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. received and truly reformed ; fifty in a hundred among those who have left them are known to be industrious and up- right, not five of whom would have been saved from crimes and ruin in any oilier way, so far as can be judged. " ' The call for such a House of Refuge in Cincinnati must be known to all those who are acquainted with the number of offences committed here by the young, and we most ear- nestly hope that this meeting will see fit to adopt measures to have the subject fully discussed and presented to the public. " ' As a condensed view of the opinions contained in this report, we offer the following resolutions. " ' 1st. Resolved, That, if the convict can be employed in agricultural labor, it is desirable that he should be. " ' 2d. Resolved, That the free mechanic need not fear the competition of the prisoner, provided the State do her duty ; and need not fear disgrace or moral injury, provided he do his own duty. " ' 3d. Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting a House of Refuge for young criminals is much needed in Cincinnati, and that the public should be invited to consider the propriety of founding one. " ' 4th. Resolved, That, for the purpose last named, a com- mittee of nine be appointed to prepare a report and resolu- tions, and to call a meeting when and where they see good.' " The question of prison discipline from first to last is of very deep interest and importance to us all, and the fact that most of those engaged in the discussions already men- tioned were mechanics is most cheering. If such men will take hold of such questions in earnest, and, instead of suffer- ing lawyers and political aspirants to use them as puffing- posts and party machinery, will consider and settle them soberly and calmly, we may hope for a political regenera- tion, almost. "The question of prison discipline involves, " 1st. That of confining and trying persons suspected. MANHOOD. 133 How should they be tried ? Publicly or privately ? How should they be confined ? Surely not as those convicted are. And yet, in most of our jails, suspected men, and boys, and women may be found, whose accommodations will not com- pare with those of the convict. In Baltimore, within the year, the jail-prisoners had neither leds nor changes of clothing. And where is the jail that is what it should be ? Here in Cincinnati we now have a 'chain-gang 1 ; an improvement upon the horrors of crowded rooms and idleness, perhaps, but generally destructive of the criminal who is put upon it. Why do we not have labor in secret, as at so many of the Eastern prisons ? and why no House of Arrest for merely suspected persons ? " 2d. The question involves that of treating the young, of houses of refuge or schools of moral reform. Upon this we say nothing now, meaning soon to give a whole paper to it. " 3d. We have the question of employing grown convicts in agriculture. Could the State own several farms with a penitentiary on each ? Could men be kept at such work in silence and safety ? This question is full of interest, and full of difficulty. " 4th. The great problem of penitentiary discipline comes before us ; namely, to provide for the employment of the released convicts. To look at the present system, one would say that ninety-nine out of one hundred released convicts would be criminal again, must be criminal again. The man leaves the prison ; a suit of clothes, five dollars, and plenty of advice are given him, and what else has he ? His limbs, his good resolves, his wish to live honestly. True, but he is known at Columbus as a convict, and no one will em- ploy him, and he can scarce reach any other place where he would not be suspected and forced to deceive, without resorting to wrong means of support. The released convict is most truly a criminal in the market ; the first buyer that VOL. i. 12 134 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. offers, the first rogue that will give him bread in exchange for evil deeds, may buy him cheap, for he must sell himself or starve. The great problem for us of this day to solve is, then, we think, this, How may the freed convict be em- ployed so as to relieve him of the necessity of deception and crime, and enabfe him to redeem his character? " Is this plan feasible ? Take of the prisoner's earnings enough to buy a small tract of land, put him upon that when free, and let him clear and cultivate it if he will, on these terms, that it shall be his if he remains on it and culti- vates it for ten years, and if he do not, that it shall then re- main the property of the State. " That some plan must be adopted is clear, if we wish the penitentiary system to work reformation of life, and unless that be brought about, the public is most poorly pro- tected." Warm as was Mr. Perkins's private sympathy for the suffering, the tempted, and debased, and faithful as he was in personal ministrations of benevolence, it would be doing injustice to his aims not to view these labors in connection with his principles of CHRISTIAN STATES- MANSHIP, in the largest sense of those words. The prevention and relief of Pauperism, the reform of Crim- inals, were to him but branches of the living tree of Re- ligious Policy. And in order to present his profound and broad convictions of social duty, which were held not in theory only, but practically fulfilled, it is right to quote freely from his writings. Shall not the day soon come, when, in all our communities, leaders, parties, and people shall be governed by like sublime, yet rational, aspirations for a heaven on earth ? 1836. "WASHINGTON. Where lay the greatness of MANHOOD. 135 George Washington ? Men of every land, speakers of every tongue, have united in his praise, and declared him indeed a GREAT MAN : why was this ? Not because of his victories ; few dream of placing him, as a soldier, with Na- poleon : not because he was wiser, as a statesman, than all others ; Burke was more philosophic, Fox far more elo- quent, Pitt had more energy and resource, Canning more learning ; and yet Washington was a greater man than either. Yea, when the star of our freedom burned but faintly, and the most hoping hushed their fears, even then, when, if taken, George Washington might have been hung as a rebel, he was a greater man than any of those we have named. And why ? Because the MAN and his great- ness, differ wholly from the Soldier, or the Statesman, and their greatness. The person who, as a warrior, a politician, a writer, an orator, is greatest in the land, may, as a man, be among the least. The trade of life, that wherein most that are marked are marked, requires one power, or one class of powers, full and great ; but the great man is he whose powers are all full, who eminently lacks nothing in the outline of his character, who, as a whole, most resembles God. That one may be a great Lawyer, and yet break half the laws of God, we all know ; but, if he does break those laws, he is not a great Man ; for he lacks much in the out- line of his character ; he does not resemble God. As a lawyer, a being of this world, a worm that may die to-mor- row, a being without nobility of sentiment or purity of pur- pose, he is great ; as a living soul, with capacities fitted for an eternal life, he is small and poor. Which is of most import, the lawyer or the man ? Which is looked up to by the instinct of nature and the word of God ? All know, if all do not say, the man ; and where, as in Washington, greatness as a man has been made prominent, and produced vast effects, the world unite in placing it before all profes- sional greatness. George Washington, then, was peculiarly 136 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. great, because he was great throughout. Moreover, he was professionally great, mainly because of his greatness as a man. It was not his military genius that made him muster of our forces; he had not, in the French war, shown genius, but he had shown courage, coolness, modesty, diligence, self-reliance, humanity, and many other qualities which belong to the great man, be his calling what it will. And through our war, it was not the commander, but the man, George Washington, that carried us. Had his virtues been less known, and his character as a man less relied upon, the army would have melted like ice ; and unity of purpose, council, and action would have been impossible. And as a statesman the same thing is true ; he had nothing of the mere politician, learned in human weakness and folly, nothing of the professed diplomatist, who would use men as puppets, in him. He sat in the council as a man dealing with men. It was not the wisdom of books, of experience, or the promptings of genius, that guided him ; it was the honest, heaven-born excellence of his own heart, more than a match for all the arts of a Talleyrand." 1836. " AGRARIANISM. There is an outcry of ' Agra- rianism ' abroad, and everywhere we see the workingmen, or more properly the hand-working men, gathering numbers into parties. What do these things mean ? and why are they ? " By Agrarianism we understand sometimes a disposition, and sometimes a system, that would attack the present rights of property. Not content with forbidding the law to aid individuals in the acquisition of wealth, it would make it strip them of their present possessions, and prevent future, acquisition. " The folly and iniquity of such a system need not be pointed out. That the right to the accumulations of indus- try, constituting riches, is the same with the right to the first MANHOOD. 137 fruits of industry, which form the daily bread of the daily laborer, is self-evident. There never has been, and never can be, an agrarian community. Those Roman laws from which we take the name, related, not to private property, but to the public domain, as Niebuhr and Savigny have fully shown ; and the attempt of the French madmen was, as a schoolboy might have prophesied, an entire failure. Were all men good Christians, there might be an approach made to that ideal state of society where none shall be very rich, and none poverty-stricken ; but even an approximation to this state must result from individual principle, not public law. " A perception of these truths has prevented any impor- tant direct manifestation of a levelling spirit in our land, but indirectly the jealousy of wealth among us is fully visible. Without being the advocate of either party, we cannot but see in the support given by the people to the administration, while warring upon the United States Bank, an evidence of this jealousy. The war, then, is already begun ; and, unless the cause of this jealousy is removed, it will go on slowly, but certainly, till republicanism crumbles into an- archy. " And what is its cause ? " In every erroneous system there is a germ of truth. No creed, however monstrous, but rests upon some reality. The error, like the fiery beard of the comet, may flame from the horizon to the zenith, and fill the eye of the looker- on, but somewhere there is an unseen nucleus. We believe it to be so with regard to agrarianism ; we believe the gen- eral feeling, not that the rights of industry should be de- stroyed, but that something is wrong with regard to wealth, to have its origin in the rnisty perception of a great truth, and of the general disregard of it. We believe that in one point, at least, the state of society in our country is opposed to republicanism, and that this opposition is the parent of that 12* 138 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. feeling of which we have spoken ; a feeling far more wide- spread than most of us suppose, swaying many who would shrink from an open attack upon property. " The great truth referred to may be stated in the lan- guage of Miss Sedgwick, in her most admirable little work, ' Home': ' Talent and worth are the only eternal grounds of distinction. It will be our own fault, if in our land soci- ety, as well as government, is not organized upon a new foundation. Knowledge and goodness, these make degrees in heaven, and they must be the graduating scale of a true democracy.' The disregard of these truths we look upon as not only keeping us back in our national growth, but as also forming the root of the great prevalent hostility to prop- erty ; and for this cause, that property, in the place of knowledge and goodness, is made too much the graduating scale of our democracy. This the moneyless democrat per- ceives ; he feels himself wronged, and, to do away that wrong, inclines to, if he does not, join that party which would destroy the cause of wrong-doing, wealth. " That point in our social condition, then, (to repeat in another form what we last said,) which we think at variance with republicanism no less than Christianity, is the moral rank and influence given to mere wealth, but due to talent, education, and character. A dim perception of this vari- ance we look on as giving rise to the common feeling that something is wrong, as well as to the wish of the agrarian to cure this wrong by the equalization of property. " But some one may say, that wealth is desired for the luxuries and bodily comforts it brings, and not for the rank and influence given its possessor. " As this objection strikes at the root of our whole argu- ment, we must consider it at some length. " Let the reader look back over his own personal experi- ence, and then inquire whether, among the money-seekers whom he has known, the mass have been moved to labor MANHOOD. 139 by the hope of better food or raiment, as a means of sim- ple sensual gratification, or in the expectation that known wealth, costly clothes, and fine houses would increase their influence and standing. We would ask him to say, from his own observation, if the bodily comforts of the rich exceed those of the independent hand-worker. Do they not rather fall short of his ? That there are some, mostly belonging to the dissolute and needy, that desire money as a means to sensual pleasure, is undoubted ; and probably no poor man passes through life without wishing for wealth, as giving luxuries ; but we are speaking now of the great mass, and of the permanent object for which they labor, not of a momentary impulse. " Again, if a man of wealth were thrown into a commu- nity of true Christians, with whom wealth was no passport to rank and influence, would he value his riches ? or would a poorer man of the world envy him there, as he would in the world ? " Again, why is there so much pomp and display made with money ? Why are not the rich content to have warm and pleasant houses, and soft clothes, and to eat and drink in privacy ? Is it not because they wish to have their wealth known and recognized ? And why is this, but for the re- spect they know will be paid to it ? " There is a fact also connected with the hostility to wealth in our country, which may give us some light ; it is this, the opposition to the rich is not made by all those not rich, but by the hand-working men, as we have called them. But there are two distinct classes beside the wealthy ; one consists of these hand-workers, and the other of clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and writers, many of whom are much poorer, and live in a much less luxurious state, than those mechanics who lead the working party. But this second class have no hostility to wealth, and, with the exception of a few discontented spirits, feel no jealousy of it. Why is 140 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. this ? It is because a poor lawyer or physician ranks higher than a printer of equal education, talent, character, and good-hreeding ; his opinion is listened to, and has weight ; the leaders of fashion speak with him, and the first men in the community receive him socially as an equal. But the printer has equally within him the love of influence ; and when he sees one richer than himself in gold, but poorer in all knowledge and excellence, received with favor where he dares not venture, he feels wronged ; he feels that he is degraded, while the other merits degradation. Reason, re- publicanism, Christianity, all assure him that mere money can give no man a claim to respect ; but finding that it does give that claim with the world, he either goes into busi- ness to become rich himself, or joins one of the professions (which are consequently crowded), or cries out upon this false talisman that so witches men's eyes. " And in England, at this moment, against whom goes the battle ? Against the aristocracy, who claim rank and power, and not against the bankers of London. Or if the rich man is abhorred, it is the one that parades his wealth, and lays claim to distinction and standing, that has his chariot and outriders, his box at the opera, and his princely park for the summer, and not the old West Indian, that drinks his two bottles of Madeira, and smokes his cigar among the dusky piles of Bishopsgate Street. Each may have his million, but he is envied to whom the world looks up, and not he that enjoys himself in a corner. " And in France, during both revolutions, the starving and mad mob, while engaged in sacking palaces, and de- stroying the marks of rank, refused to take the booty that lay about them. " A consideration of these things convinces us that wealth is desired and envied by strong and energetic men, not as a means to sensual pleasure, but as giving a claim to moral influence and standing. MANHOOD. 141 " We now come to the inquiry, why this is not a just claim, or why it is opposed to republicanism. " The idea of a republic is, that men shall be esteemed according to their merit. Under other forms of government, birth, wealth, or even physical power, may form the stand- ard of rank ; in a republic none of these can have weight in themselves. Among savages, physical power is merito- rious ; in their view, the best hunter and warrior is the best man. Among the semi-civilized, where education exists, but is not general, birth is a half-guarantee of a good educa- tion as well as good blood. And when you come one step nearer our present condition, wealth affords probable evi- dence of industry, care, and moral habits, and is respected, not for itself, but as proving them. But in the perfectly civilized state it is not evidence of these things ; neither does birth guarantee superiority of education ; and brute strength ceases to be merit, save in the eyes of the brutish. Anew standard is now erected, intellectual power and culture, and moral character. Such is the law of republi- canism and the Christian religion, as applied to social rank. The preeminence of wealth is also anti-republican, because in a republic the mass rule, but in no land can the mass be wealthy. Wherever civilization prevails, however, the love of influence is the ruling passion. If, therefore, wealth have preeminence, the mass will be against it; but the end of government is peace, whereas a republic where wealth gives influence leads to war ; the two things are therefore in opposition. " And what is the mistake which shuts out the great class of hand-working men from cultivated society ? " It is this : manual labor is taken as evidence of a want of education at least, while wealth and intellectual labor are received as proofs of the contrary. " In this statement we believe the cause of the whole difficulty will be found. Because in Europe bodily labor, 142 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. ignorance, and vulgarity have gone so much together, we think them blood relations, and suppose the presence of the first cannot but bring in the two last. Instead of asking whether this printer or that cabinet-maker is as well educated and behaved, possesses as much talent and as high a char- acter, as the lawyer or physician next door, we take it for granted that he does not, though every body knows that free schools, manual-labor colleges, and mechanics' institutes are giving our mechanics all needful learning ; and as to man- ners, we doubt much if the court-house be a better school than the workshop. The presumption against farmers is going by, in consequence of the good sense of many young men of family and wealth, who have taken the plough into their own hands ; but against mechanics the prejudice re- mains as of old. " We have now pointed to the spot in our social condi- tion where we think there is something at variance with republicanism. I have shown in what that variance is, and why it is ; we now come to the question, Can it be rem- edied ? " The evil is, that an undue rank is assigned to wealth ; and also, that an undue importance is assigned to employ- ments ; to both of which this common characteristic be- longs, that by the mass the profession or occupation is too much thought of, the individual too little. " With respect to these evils, one of three courses must be adopted ; they must either be left to run, as many would say, their natural course, though we do not think the sins of artificial life ought to be thus put upon poor nature ; or wealth must be equalized ; or men must be taught not to respect mere wealth or place, but to consider the intellect, education, and character of each individual, known by ex- amination, and not by inference from his business, as giving him a claim to social influence and standing. " Which course should be adopted ? MANHOOD. 143 " If we take the first, civil war and anarchy are almost certain, for there may as truly be a civil war in the halls of legislation as the fields of battle. If we adopt the second course, we but take the shorter path to the same point, anar- chy. How is it if we take the third ? Wealth will neither be desired nor envied then as now ; education and charac- ter, both attainable by all in this land, will be the things to which the ambition of all will be directed ; the cry of agra- rianism will die away ; the professions will no longer be crowded by incompetent deserters from the mechanic arts ; and well-behaved, well-mannered mechanics will rank every- where as highly as equally deserving men of whatever station. " But how can the influence of wealth be done away, and merit be made the standard of rank. "It can never be done entirely, but we may approximate to it in many ways, and indeed are now doing so. " To say that the spread of Christian feeling and princi- ple among men will tend to the desired object, is but anoth- er form of saying that Christianity opposes the prevalent worship of Mammon ; and yet there are many that would oppose what they thought a wrong in the commonwealth, but never think of opposing it by religion. Very few, it is to be feared, see that the best principles of policy are wrapped up in the teachings of Jesus ; and very few, by making these teachings known in their remote consequences, would hope to heal the sores of a state. But we believe all good and statesmanlike and substantial policy to be based upon, and flow logically from, the grand principles of human nature, and its guide, the Book of Life. A dissemination, then, of Christian truth, a thorough and unsectarian development and application of this truth to every individual as a man, a citizen, and one member of a family, we believe to lie at the root of all reformation. " Next to this in importance, we place the spread of edu- cation by manual-labor schools, where the laborer may be 144 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. instructed and yet not cease to be a laborer. The line now drawn between educated men and workingmen must be done away ; the farmer and mechanic must be educated ; by which we mean, not only that they must read, write, and cipher, but that they must attain to those ends to the reaching which those things are means. Education is not only to fit men to buy and sell without being cheated ; it looks farther than this life and its profits. Education, in this sense, may and must be given to the industrious and enter- prising of our nation ; those whose misdirected, but honest, energy now threatens the rights of property, would then stand its friends. " In the third place, we look to the efforts of the educated men in our republic. Bv their teachings, through the press, from the pulpit, the bar, the desk of the lyceum, they must fit this people for freedom, Christian freedom, pure re- publicanism, when money will have no power except that which is its own, the power of buying so much labor or the results of so much labor. The reformation of feeling with regard to wealth, if it begin at all, must begin with those who have the same rank and influence with the wealthy. They are to blame if the present unwholesome state of things con- tinues. They must first become freemen, and then break the chains of others. And they not only must teach, but prac- tise ; they must receive and respect the printer, of good manners and character, while they turn from the rich gam- bler, or the time-serving attorney. They must be willing to become themselves hewers of wood and drawers of water. Already is this done to some extent in the coun- try, and the more it is done, the better for religion and the republic ; a little leaven leavcneth the whole lump, and one man of educated and disinterested talent may give tone and standing to a great class. If the Russian Peter is to be honored because he became a shipwright for the mer- cantile welfare of his people, how much more deserving that MANHOOD. 145 man who gives up present rank for the eternal and all-em- bracing good of those about him ! " We come, then, to these conclusions, that the respect now paid mere wealth, and the prejudice yet existing in favor of some and against other occupations, are opposed to republi- canism ; that the elements of warfare of necessity exist among us, our social condition being in these respects at variance with our political condition ; that this variance is to be done away, not by taking from the rich the wealth that is theirs, but by keeping from that wealth the respect which is our own, and also by examining the claims of individuals to social rank, instead of judging, on the principles of other ages and lands, respecting whole classes ; and lastly, that the great means to be used in this good work are the spread and development of Christianity, the thorough edu- cation of the leading spirits of all occupations and profes- sions, the continual teaching of those now educated and influential, together with the practice by them of receiving as equals individuals from all lines of life, and also of bring- ing up to agricultural and mechanical pursuits many whose birth, wealth, and education would, on present principles, place them in the professions. " To effect any thing in this great work, there must be the action of very many, and those strong and well-knit, minds. In the West, where society was born republican, where the farmer and mechanic may be always indepen- dent, where manual-labor schools are growing up rapidly, and where the prejudices of Europe have less force than elsewhere, we hope to see the experiment tried ; here, if anywhere, we think it must succeed. A republican govern- ment, based upon a republican state of society, the world has never yet seen ; before fifty years have passed, we trust that something like it may be tbe strength and glory of this great valley." VOL. i. 13 146 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. 1837. " DANGERS OF THE WEST. When Anthony Wayne forced from the Indians of the Northwest the treaty of 1795, this vast territory was thrown open to all that chose to flock hither. And who would naturally seek the wilderness ? Not men of wealth, not men of high mental culture, but the enterprising and energetic poor : the shrewd New-Englander, the saving German, the warm-hearted hut impoverished Virginian, all that would gain bread or wealth, that would mend or make fortunes. The men of the West were therefore money-seekers ; they knew and cared little for the elegances of life, and the voice of the Muses was as little to their taste as the whoop of the savage ; even History was not listened to if she told of any thing prior to 1775. " The character thus formed has since varied, but not radically changed. The West is still the land of promise to the needy, and men still come here to mend or make for- tunes. Although the people are intelligent, although edu- cation is everywhere countenanced, although many men of refinement and polish have arisen there, yet is the mass bent upon gain. And even education, warmly and generously as it is supported, is half in the pay of Mammon ; boys are educated rather to 'do well in the world,' than to become good men, and sincere Christians ; and reading, writing, and ciphering are very much insisted on, because one cannot ' get along' without them, while a cheerful temper and for- giving spirit, and a tongue that hates deceit, are very excel- lent things, but by no means so important as arithmetic. " Now there are two classes of money-seekers in the world. The first seek it as a means to some good end ; this end furnishes their motive, and in gaining wealth they are developing their best powers. The second class seek wealth as the means to some end of doubtful propriety, or merely as itself an end ; they seek it, too, with a spirit of intense devo- tion ; it is ever in their thoughts, and in every thing influ- MANHOOD. 147 ences their conduct. These men are narrowing and dead- ening their best powers; they lose sight of their immortal destiny, and, however Christian in profession, are practically unbelievers. To this class the mass of money-seekers every- where, and in all time, belong. " If this be so, then national wealth, although the cause of that civilization which is without, may be the destroying poison of that civilization which is of the spirit, and which alone is of value. To a Roman, it was a good argument against wealth, that it brought in luxury and national weak- ness ; but to a Christian, there is a far more weighty cause for distrusting it; it is the individual moral torpor which it brings about. For us to have canals, and railroads, and mines, and to be devoid, as a people, of spiritual purity and spiritual strength, is to sell, not our birthright, but our souls themselves, for a mess of pottage. No truth spoken by the Truth-sayer is more practical, than that we cannot serve God and Mammon ; and it should teach us, that whatever tends to increase and perpetuate among us the race of mere money- seekers tends inevitably to unchristianize us ; and let us never be so short-sighted as to think that a people can be great, when the individuals composing it are spiritually want- ing. The material riches of the universe could never raise from the dust a nation of dead souls. " It is true that many men, and many statesmen, and many philosophers too, do not recognize that connection be- tween the individual and the state which seems to us so im- portant. They think that because the nation, as one, can be rich, powerful, and influential, while it cannot be spiritually- minded, therefore wealth and power are the only things in which the nation is concerned. But if it be a truism that the nation exists only for the good of those composing it, it exists of course for their highest good, and whatever is at enmity with that highest good must be at enmity with the true good of the state, for it is opposed to that for which the 148 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. state exists. But the intense spirit of gain, which fills a money-seeking community, is opposed to the highest good of the members of that community, for the essence of it is selfishness, and in its exercise the nobler powers of the soul are never called into action. However valuable, then, wealth may be when gained, it can never outweigh the evil attend- ing its gain, when pursued in the spirit so prevalent in a new and growing country ; and however heterodox the opinion, we have no doubt it were better for our railroads to be de- stroyed, our mineral wealth annihilated, and our soil impov- erished, than for the present respect and appetite for money to increase, or even to remain where it is now. The present influence of riches is the predominance of the material over the spiritual ; it is the sign of disease ; and it is with grief that we feel that the means for spiritual growth which me- chanical philosophy, wonderful natural abundance, and free institutions have given us, have not, thus far, been duly im- proved. It is with grief that we feel the noblest talents and purest characters of our country so enwrapped in merely worldly good, giving over all spiritual concerns to the cler- gy, and living six days in the seven as if Christianity was to them what the ancient mythology was to the philosophers, a bawble to amuse the multitude with ; as if they knew of no moral vision that looks beyond this life, and immortality were a dream. " If what we have said be correct, the people of the West have among them, naturally and inevitably, a dreadful foe to their best good ; it has been born among them ; it is their misfortune that it is in their households, not their fault, but it will be their fault if it be suffered to remain. Every patriot and every philanthropist is bound to assist in the de- struction of this foe to humanity and to republicanism : to humanity, because the love of money deadens all of human- ity that is not perishable ; and to republicanism, because, while wealth is so sought and so reverenced, the poor will MANHOOD. 149 envy and war against the rich. The mass must ever be poor, and, while riches are held out as the criterion of influ- ence, that mass must be at variance with the few, so that an aristocracy of birth would scarce be more anti-republican than the existing aristocracy of long purses. " But in the West, not only is wealth sought, but it is sought very generally in the worst of ways, by speculation. Whether speculation be first-cousin to gambling or no, we care not; one thing is certain, that the effect on the mind and character is the same, whether our fortune depend on a chance turn of a die, or an equally chance turn of the money or produce. It is folly to say, that all commercial and agricultural operations are affected by chance, for if this authorizes speculation, it authorizes gambling. The minds of a speculating people must be affected, and affected injuriously, by their business. " The men of the West, then, have to contend, first, with a prevalent spirit of mere money-making, and second, with a disposition to make it short-hand ; both these things are natural products of their soil, but, like many productions of a rank soil, are themselves rank poisons. " Again, the West was born democratic ; it did not feel or fight its way from loyalty to independence, but began in the faith that all men are born free and equal, a faith well suited to a race of pioneers. One result of this faith has been, that the principle of reverence has grown weak this side the mountains, while the sense of self-dependence, and, as a common consequence, of contempt for all that is op- posed to self, has grown strong. This is an evil ; not a political, but an individual evil ; not an evil that proves democracy unsuited for us, but one that proves it faulty. It is an evil because no principle of action leads more con- tinually to improvement than a mistrust of ourselves, and a due reverence for others, and other things than those that we have ; while contempt, based more upon self-esteem than 13* 150 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. the demerits of what we contemn, is the mortal foe of ad- vancement, and the very opposite of Christianity. It is bet- ter to revere what is in itself contemptible than to despise what is in itself venerable, and imperfect beings must err on one side or the other. One tendency of democratic in- stitutions, then, upon individuals, is to unchristianize them, by destroying Christian humility and elevating Satanic pride, and the evil results of this tendency we see daily in our public halls no less than in our private kitchens. We see everywhere what is called self-respect, but what is too often in one station unholy self-reliance, in another, assumption and impertinence, and but very seldom that spirit of Christ which men call cowardice and mean-spiritedness. " There is another evil coming from democratic institu- tions. As all can vote, and all be chosen to office, political rank and politics generally assume an undue stand in our minds. We soon mistake means for ends, and sacrifice great good to gain, what, at the best, can but lead to that good which we give up. The end of the state is to serve best the highest good of its members ; but in our anxiety to have some man brought forward, or some measures carried, we injure our own minds, and mislead all whom we influ- ence, by a devotion to our object wholly out of proportion to its value. If as much had been said, thought, and written about subjects of lasting importance, within ten years, as has been said about the United States Bank, the character of the people might have been almost changed ; but the mechanic lays down his hammer to read politics, the farmer quits his plough to talk politics ; the merchant leaves his books half posted to demonstrate the folly of the veto, or the wisdom of the deposit removal ; even the quiet student forsakes his books to follow this Jack-a-lantcrn. What if all the women should turn politicians? We should be shocked, because their characters, we know, must suffer by the turmoil and dust. And are men so different that theirs will not suffer? MANHOOD. 151 What is an electioneering clergyman worth ? How well does he fit himself to lead in the way to heaven ? And shall we not follow our leader ? Or are we of other clay than he ? No ; the truth is, that the great interest felt in politics by the mass of a democracy injures every soul in that mass, for it is an absorbing, selfish, earthly, unspiritual interest ; and being such, it is an evil ; it is opposed to the end of government, and political freedom is no equivalent for moral degradation. The slave of the Russian autocrat may be more fortunate in his chains than we in our freedom, if we use that freedom wrongly ; and we do use it wrongly, when we devote ourselves to politics. But let us be understood. We are friends, not foes, to democracy ; we speak of its evils, its common and almost certain evils ; but even with these evils, we prefer it to any other form, with its evils. So of wealth ; there are evils attending its accumulation, and all facilities to its accumulation, but it is in itself a blessing ; and though, if it could not be separated from those evils, we should rather our lands were poor than rich, yet we believe it can be ; we believe that men may grow rich, and yet not be mere money-seekers ; and we believe, too, that they can live in a democracy, and yet be humble and give to politics but their due. " While, therefore, we are in favor of the democratic system for this country and people, we cannot but see the dangers of the system ; we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that our freedom makes us estimate liberty too often as an end rather than a means, nor our ears to the flat- tery poured out upon the mob by those who forget all but petty self-advancement. Our independence should be used to provide means for the growth and perfection of our people in character and spirit, or it is of little value. But it is not so used ; there is no hiding the truth, that we are pre- eminently a physical and worldly people. Our common pursuits, our literature, our education, are all worldly. 152 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. Practical men and practical teaching and practical truths are all the cry, and by these things we mean men and truths fitted for this globe and this body, as though, when the last day comes, the sincere Christian, whose life has been one of toil and temptation, and who has borne all and done all, not for wealth or notoriety, but for the good of others and his own spiritual purity, would not be found vastly more practi- cal than the richest merchants or most influential statesmen. " In the love of wealth as an end, in the disposition to seek that wealth by speculation, in the self-dependent spirit resulting from political equality, and in the great interest taken in politics by all classes, we believe may be found the roots of most of the peculiar dangers of this country, and in particular of the West. Against those dangers all are bound to act, at least those that look for an immortality. And how can they act ? By education, the education of the young, and the education of the adult. By placing in the true light the value of wealth, national power, political notoriety, and political influence, as compared with a warm, open, pure heart, and a fair, inquiring, unsectarian mind. " We need not cease to be merchants, because while trading we should keep justice and kindness more in view than mere gain ; because we must regard the influence of every act upon others and ourselves as immortal beings, rather than the net cash profits of it. We need not quit politics because we must think of the eternal interests of those we affect more than our own immediate good. Wash- ington was a man of business and a politician, and yet ceased not to be a Christian in every act, and the same is true of John Jay and John Marshall. " It is a very commonplace truth, to be sure, that a man should be pure and kind, but it is not a very commonplace practice ; nor do w< believe that there is among teachers, writers, or influential mon generally, any thing like a full comprehension of the tendency to antagonism which exists MANHOOD. 153 between business and politics, and Christian duty. It is not that immorality, or that selfishness even, is apt to result from trade, speculation, and partyism, but that an unsound, over- anxious, worldly mind comes from them. Those powers which we call spiritual, because they refer to a future of pure spiritual existence, are unused by the common man of the world ; he cares nothing for the ideal, the perfect, the poetic ; that natural longing for these things, which exists, more or less developed, in every soul, has been pointed to the money-heap, the political office, or the niche of literary fame, and seeks in seeking them to be satisfied ; it asked for bread and has been given a stone. In this truth may be found the explanation of all the complaints of the emptiness of riches, fame, and power ; the very instinct that leads men to seek these things is that which should guide them to the true object, a Christian life. He that said to her of Samaria, ' Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,' can alone quench that thirst for hap- piness, for power, for the infinite and eternal, and all the efforts of others can but hew out broken cisterns that will hold no water. " These foes to the true civilization are to be met, I have said, by education ; not by learning to cipher to the rule of three, but by a spiritual and religious education, one that will lead men to change, not only their means, but their ends, of life." 1837. "PROSPECTS OF THE WEST. We hear daily of the Great West. In what is the West great ? What do men mean by this phrase ? Some mean that we have vast plains and prairies, and giant forests, lakes of sea extent, and rivers which an English tourist is said to have pointed to as truly great for a new country. Others mean that our soil grows much corn, cotton, hemp ; many swine and oxen ; and holds stores of coal, iron, lead, and salt. A third calls 154 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. the West great, because it will be tlie home of many men, will exert a vast influence over this land and the world, and may one day be the centre of learning, and wealth, and might. But there is a sense in which the West will he, though it is not now, great ; a sense little dwelt upon, and worthy, we think, of some thought and remark. The West will be great, because it will be the scat of a new PRACTI- CAL PHILOSOPHY, snrial, monil, political, religious, ai,d lit- erary. In this broad vale, where society was born republican and Christian, we may, with the eye of faith, look to see a CHRISTIAN REPUBLICANISM shaping and moulding all things. " And what is a Christian Republicanism ? It is not, in social life, a want of caste, and absence of rank ; for as surely as one star differeth from another star in glory, so surely will those of varying tastes, powers, and habits walk apart from one another. In the hour of turmoil, the great deep may be broken up, and society, storm-shaken and cha- otic, be devoid of all order and beauty; but when stillness comes back, the laws of social are as certain as those of mineral crystallization, and every layer, one above the other, will return to its place, silently, but surely. It is not, in politics, the absence of place, pow-r, patronage ; it is not that democracy which would, by rotation in office, place in the chair any and every man, nor that which would bestow office as a reward. It would, on the contrary, forbid the mass to hold place ; it would silence him that shouted aloud of his services, and asked to be paid in power. "The great idea, as Coleridge would call it, the great informing idea of republicanism is, not that distinc- tions, and ranks, and privileges are to be abolished, but that MERIT shall take the place of BIRTH, WEALTH, and PROWESS, and become the basis of an aristocracy ; and Christian re- publicanism makes Christ the judge of merit. " What is merit ? It is genius, learning, experience, and, above all, character. It is whatever Christianity and the MANHOOD. 155 good sense of the time may make it. Merit was the basis of the European aristocracy, at a time when might of arm was merit. The error, the fatal error, was to make that which can belong but to the man descend, as an heirloom, to his sons ; in that hour the true principle of rank was lost sight of. - " We wish upon this point to be clear. We therefore again say, that to us republicanism does not oppose differ- ences of rank ; it does not teach that men are born equal, or are ever equal ; it does not level, for to level is ever to lower. No, it leaves those that are high there, and seeks to raise others to them ; it differs from other forms of gov- ernment in this, and only this, that its standard of height, its principle of classification, is wide of theirs. " The true republican, then, will not seek to believe, or to make those about him believe, that he and they are as good as any ; his desire and struggle will be to make him- self and his fellows as good, not only as others, but as the oracle within tells him they should be. When a place is to be filled, he will vote, speak, write, for the man best fitted for it. He will revere the wise, and good, and aged, as men of a rank above his own ; he will look up to them ; they will be, in his eyes, nobles. But you will say this is so al- ready. We reply, to some extent it is ; the mass feel, though they do not see, the idea we have spoken of; they cry aloud, ' All men are equal,' and bow to thousands ; their acts mock their words daily, and why? Because they do not think of inequality, unless in fortune, birth, and education ; they mean to say, when they speak of all men being born equal, that no man, merely because of the condition of his fathers, is high; nor is, for any thing he may have himself done, entitled to other than the natural and certain results thereof. For instance, the son of Daniel Webster has not, because of his father's stand, a claim to any preeminence himself; nor, having equal merit with his father, can he 156 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. claim to give more votes than others, or receive a support from the state. But he can and will claim to exert a greater moral and intellectual influence than others, to stand higher and be more respected than others. And nature guarantees his claim, for republicanism is the order of nature ; the aristocracy of a republic is the aristocracy of nature. It is an error to think a patriarchal government resembles a monarchy ; the father rules on the ground of merit, not of birth ; he rules on the true republican ground, and so does the sachem of the Indian tribe. And each of nature's gov- ernors, each and all, rule on the score of merit, merit measured by the unenlightened sense, while with us, as we have before said, the judge of merit should and must be Him that inhabiteth eternity. " This Christian republicanism we hope will one day abide in the West ; it is the social arid political philosophy which is to become the marked faith of this land. Old in theory, it will, applied to practice, be new ; and though it must ever come short of the point of perfection, much, very much, may be done towards its growth and power ; and much is doing even now, while we write. " And a new religious philosophy is to spring up here ; not a new system of religious faith and rite, but new princi- ples of religious thought, feeling, word, and action. Unita- rianism we do not hope nor wish to see the one creed here ; identity of doctrine God never meant should be, for he gave us our minds, and placed us where we are ; by the last he made us Christians rather than Turks, and by the first he made us Calvinists, Methodists, or Unitarians. Until the original and broad differences between men are done away, the same proofs, arguments, appeals, will affect them differ- ently ; and there is as little chance of their agreeing as there is that the herdsman of Bukharia will become Christian. He may be made so, and the strong bonds of temper and training may be rent, and far-sundered sectarians be united ; MANHOOD. 157 but such a union will not be general. One man is born a Socinian, another a Calvinist, a third a disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg. And never in this valley may the Sabbath smile upon a dead uniformity ! Long may the follower of the Genevan here pour forth his unwritten prayer ! Long may the clergyman of the Episcopal Church lose himself in the beauty and devotion of his most beautiful service, the Ro- man Catholic, in his vast cathedral, speak the words of truth and wisdom to those who, of all, most need them, the Methodist seek God in the wilderness, and the Baptist call aloud to him from the water-courses ! We would not blot out one church, nor take from any the faith which forms his staff. " The religious ideas which we hope may become the life of faith here are those of the Reformation, as they were in the breast of Luther when passion slept, and the strong voice of his own good and right sense spake out, Freedom from naked authority ; toleration in heart as well as act ; modesty, hope, faith, in doctrine and demeanour ; appeals to the reason not the understanding which rejects mysteries that reason receives, but the true reason which takes hold on the mysterious moral, as on the mathematical truth, and believes rather than passion and prejudice ; these form the central points of that philosophy which, old in the world of thought, is yet unknown in the world of feel- ing and action ; but which we trust may find a dwelling upon our plains, and walk unfettered among the green pastures, and by the still waters, of the West. "Next, as to the literature which we hope may reign here, even before this age is closed ; and which must, in a meas- ure, precede the social, political, and religious principles to which we have pointed. What is the literature of an age and country ? It is the mass of written wisdom and folly which has been created and chosen out to bear upon and mould the mind of that age and place. It consists of the VOL. i. 14 158 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. school manuals of the grown-up children ; it is one means by which they educate themselves ; and in this age is a very important means. The philosophy of a literature is formed by the general principles in harmony with which it is built up. The great ideas which we look to see govern literature in the West are, in the abstract, aged, and, alas! feeble also ; but, in practice, are little known. They flow from the object and influence of literature, as given in the above definition ; they regard writings as means, more or less mighty, to influence for good or evil all to whom they go ; and of course look with a keen regard at all who write. Under their rule, even their foes would not be forced to si- lence ; for that would be indeed to do evil that good might come ; but all enemies would be won away from enmity. Is the literature of this age and land created and governed by the philosophy we speak of ? When Byron's poetry runs afar on before Southey and Wordsworth ; when Bul- wer and D'Israeli are re-read more often than Edgeworth, and perhaps Scott; when novels too nerveless to live a poor month overthrow history, poetry, science, is the litera- ture of this age fitted to raise the age ? We fear not ; and if the time does go on, and not back, it is, we think, despite the leading literature. But all truth, whether of time, place, and act, as in history and science ; of character and nature, as in poetry and fiction ; or of abstract thought, as in ethics, all can and should be so chosen and given as to work good. In all lands there is, at this time, a wish, an effort, to have such a literature ; but nowhere do we think it can be looked for with so much hope as in the centre of this country. " Having now very briefly sketched what the peculiar philosophy of the West will be, we proceed to say why we believe it will be so. "In Europe, society grew from barbarism to civilization; and the shreds and tatters of barbarism are about it to this day. Upon our Atlantic coast, society was born republican, MANHOOD. 159 grew up semi-aristocratic, if not in name in spirit, and was at maturity once more thrown back to its first state. In South America it began in aristocracy yet more rotten ; and to this day is unsound. Now, upon the state and health of society depends the character of politics, religion, and lit- erature, as truly as the state and health of society depend upon them ; it is action and reaction for ever. " But in the West, as we have said before, society was born republican ; it first saw the light when the great ideas which we think are to find a home here were strongly spoken and written, though very little acted upon. The peculiar philosophy to which we have before referred was therefore from the first the philosophy of this section in a greater degree than of any other section or country. "This, then, gives us good reason to say that here we may look for the more full development, not in theory, but in practice, of this philosophy, for as yet it is not fully devel- oped ; and, indeed, strong antagonist principles have been seen among us, and our dangers are equal to our privileges. " Another reason which leads us to hope much from the West is the enthusiasm of the Western character. Enthu- siasm is a virtue ; a virtue much wanting in the New Eng- land character, and which not unfrequently runs into a vice at the South. At the West we find a medium ; the warmth of one zone has combined well with the cool judgment of the other ; and while there is enough of the former to produce great changes, and changes based upon abstract truth, and aloof from mere worldly interest, we think there is good sense enough growing up among us to keep such changes from excess. " A third peculiarity of the West is, that men from all lands, with all manner of prejudices, habits, and modes of action, meet here ; and the result of their meeting is, so to neutralize one another as to leave us open, unbiased, as a people unprejudiced ; and therefore better ground for 160 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. the growth of good or evil seed than any whose modes and characters were fixed and stony. " A fourth reason is, that in the West there has been of necessity much independence heretofore, and that indepen- dence, and consequent individuality, still continue. Men and women think more for themselves, are less under the in- fluence of authority ; they are not all of one growth, made after one pattern. In most lands, before the minds of the mass came to act upon politics and religion, they had lost their first individual freedom ; here they have not to the same degree. These are our chief reasons for thinking that the philosophy or great principles of social and political eminence, of religious thought and action, and literary prom- inence, will be here what thousands have said they ought to be everywhere, but what they have not been anywhere. And if they are, if the West shall make merit the test of rank, and grant rank to merit ; if those great and influential doctrines of Christianity, which all revere, should find a home here ; if free, fair inquiry, and spiritual toleration and charity, shall dwell here ; and if our literature shall aid in the growth, and the strength, and the support of these prin- ciples, then will the West, of a truth, be great. And be it remembered, that whether all this shall or shall not be depends upon the educated, influential writers, speakers, and actors of the West ; upon their backs is the burden, and, if true to their duty, they will not faint under it. Theirs is the burden, and theirs will be the honor of success, or the disgrace of failure ; of failure, for failure may come. There are many and great dangers about us ; these, at some future time, we shall attempt to point out. Not that they are hidden, but custom blinds us to them ; and, indeed, what many look on as our safeguards, we fear may prove the source of our downfall." 1837. " MASSES vs. INDIVIDUALS. There is a tendency MANHOOD. 161 at the present day to attach too much importance to masses of men, and too little to the persons forming those masses. The good of the race, of the nation, of the state, of the city, of the circle, is talked of and made too prominent ; it hides the good of the men, women, and children as individuals, hav- ing wants and interests beyond those which they possess as members of the various masses just named. We lose sight of the plain truths, that the mass has interests only because its members, taken separately, have them ; and that they have also others, as simple individuals. We see that what is for the good of the whole is for the good of each part ; but fail to notice that that is not the only good belonging to each part. The effect of this mode of viewing the subject is, that too many of us spend our lives in speculating about the advance of the species, and seeking to contribute thereto ; or in reflecting upon the state of the nation, its wants and defects, and how to remedy them. We look at our neighbour as a man and a republican, and seek, in both capacities, to enlighten and advance him ; but as an individual, having an individual character, temperament, and education, preju- dices peculiar to himself, and powers and knowledge also peculiar to himself, we do not see him, and do not seek to improve and develop him. Indeed, it is very probable we may look upon ourselves as merely members of the race, the nation, the party, and the church to which we belong, and fail to discover that we have peculiarities, good and bad, that should be nourished or rooted out ; and thus the most important part of self-education is neglected, and we go down to the grave, our capacities but half developed, our failings but half cured. " Again : Not only do we act too little upon others, in their individual capacities, but also too little as individuals ourselves. We come to them as members of some mass ; we join societies, in order to do good ; and our separate in- fluence, though it does and must exist, is too little noted and 14 *" 162 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. relied upon. ' A corporation,' says the law, ' has no soul ' ; and men of business tell us it is true ; for corporations, though just, are not merciful ; the outer rule of right binds them, but they have no rule of mercy within. Something of this same soullessncss belongs to all masses and societies ; and when a society performs an act, it does often but half the good an individual would have done by the same act. For instance, a poor man is helped by a society, his want is supplied ; but there is no fellow, no one person, to whom his heart springs ; his gratitude is like that which thousands feel to their theoretic God ; but go yourself for yourself, and aid that man, and you give food, not to the body alone, but to the soul, and the good you do is tenfold that done by the unthanked giver. Or, ask the mechanic whose mind has been, by turns, lifted by the tracts of the Society of Useful Knowledge, and the little volumes of Harriet Martineau, what difference of effect they produced, and you will find him to the individual teacher grateful ; but the society is an abstraction, a thing, not a person ; he values the gift, but the giver has no nook in his heart ; his intellect has been raised by what he read, but his moral nature has not been advanced by what he felt. " Now, we hold all institutions of every kind to be but means to this one END, the full development of each indi- vidual in the community. Banks, corporations, governments, all are means, and means to this end. But the end is lost sight of. We argue about the policy of this measure, and the policy of that measure, but seldom attempt to trace out the ultimate influence of policies and measures upon the souls, the intellects, and hearts of our neighbours, A. B, and C. A boy is educated to be a lawyer, merchant, mechanic, or what not ; but is seldom taught to make each and every employment of life conduce to his individual growth in excellence. As a member of society, he is taught to walk in this or the other path ; but as a child of God, for whose MANHOOD. 163 good society exists, he is not taught to walk. From the pul- pit he is appealed to, as an individual ; but where is it im- pressed upon him, that in every relation, in every situation, in every conceivable condition, he is, and must act as, an individual ? " Let us not be misunderstood. We do not wish men to act always with reference to their individual interests ; but with reference to their individual duties, interests, and aims" September, 1837. " There is one great truth, which must be the root of vital action in this country, that, under free institutions, reform must come, not from government or so- cieties, but from individuals. Dr. Channing has illustrated and enforced this truth in many ways, but every day makes me more aware how little it is apprehended. With regard to the present currency question, for instance, it seems to be thought by those about me, that legislation can prevent such earthquake shocks of bankruptcy as those of last year. In a despotism, the action of government might prevent them ; but is it not one of the most essential distinctions of a free nation, that government does not exercise control in such matters ? So it seems to me. A national bank could not have prevented the catastrophe ; it did not in 1824-25 ; it has not now in England. Even if our federal govern- ment had the power of creating a paper currency, irredeem- able (as was that of England, till lately), it could riot affect the matter greatly ; the proportion of bills of exchange to currency, in a commercial country, is ten to one, and when- ever individual cupidity is excited, individual credit will be locked up in forms that, for the time, annihilate it, and a terrible crisis must follow, not because the one of currency is gone only, but because nine of the ten of credit are gone also. No legislation can prevent this, and nothing but individual principle and wisdom can. Mr. Van Buren is right, to my thinking, when he says that a commercial overthrow which 164 LIFE OF JA3IES H. PERKINS. affects London, Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Ispahan, could not have been caused or prevented by United States Banks. " Upon the currency question, as one of political econ- omy, I have seen nothing that satisfied me. I am little able to judge, but my impression is that the present administra- tion, in their general idea of opposition to a currency resting on the faith of corporations, are right. If we go beyond gold and silver to a representative of them, it seems to me that nothing but a nation should make the representative for itself; the whole, as existing in the government, should alone have the power of making money, that is, issuing paper. " On this and similar questions, I take more interest daily, although so little of a party politician as to be uncertain to which party I most incline. Indeed, I think every man that claims to think ought to follow Dr. Channing's example, and come forward in print or conversation, as his gifts may be, to assist in the well-keeping of the general mind in politics ; and this not only because of the immense results, immediate and ulterior, of every great political movement, such as the annexation of Texas to the Union, but also because the most efficient form of national education must, for a long time, be through politics. Self-government is, and will be, a passion with the people, as military glory was with the French, through that is the readiest access to their head and heart ; those that read on nothing else, argue on nothing else, and study nothing else, read, discuss, and study politics. Make them, on that point, honest, far-sighted, spir- itually-minded, and you make them so throughout. " In your views as to the true condition of society as it should le, I most cordially agree. The cause why so many have failed to inspire on a large scale what succeeded with a few, was, I think, what I have referred to, they relied too much on the effect of masses, on government, MANHOOD. 165 on rules, on creeds. One great point in the Unitarian faith is, that it speaks to you and me, not to a church. I don't believe religious corporations have souls any more than lay ones have, and spiritual truths fall dead on their ears. That something like a democratic, or to use the true term a Christian, state of society is to exist in this country, I de- voutly believe. In the West there is much to favor the idea that here will be the main seat of this society, and I should not think the chance lessened if, for ten or twenty years to come, infidelity should increase here ; the night is darkest and coldest just before daybreak." 1838. " ASSOCIATIONS, A VITAL FORM OF SOCIAL AC- TION. In the physical world about us, we see forces of two wholly different kinds, namely, vital forces and mechanical forces ; and, in accordance with this distinction, divide bodies into vital and mechanical. The difference alluded to is seen broadly in the difference which exists between a draught- horse and a locomotive engine. It is seen also in the differ- ence between the warming of the horse's blood, and the heating of the water in the locomotive's boiler ; or, again, in the difference between the movement of the horse's limbs, considered as levers, and the action of the muscles which give play to those limbs. " This distinction, so familiar and plain in the material world, is true also of the mental and moral worlds. Thus, the common processes of arithmetic are mechanical, so entirely mechanical, that Mr. Babbage has made his calcu- lating engine, which is not only far more accurate than man, but is also far more profound, and has succeeded in puzzling even the genius of its inventor. But while this engine is thus mighty in mere calculation, the elements of which are given it, it is unable to select the elements necessary to the most simple process ; there must come in the vital calcula- tor, man. In music we see the same thing ; by no very 166 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. complex process, the various notes may be combined to an indefinite extent, and every combination be, more or less, a melody. This may be done by wheels and pulleys, or by the mind acting mechanically : in truth, the most common form of musical composition is but a mechanical re-combi- nation of the elements derived from old tunes, and might be as well done by an engine as by a mind. But not so with the melodies of the great Italians ; not so with the harmonies of Handel and Beethoven. These men acted vitally in their compositions, and no machine, mental or material, can do what they did. In poetry, the rhyme and verse are usually merely mechanical ; and all are aware how much of what we call poetry is called so because it has rhyme and verse. But the true poet is no machine ; his very verse is alive : he does not count his fingers for his numbers ; they, with the sentiments they embody, flow from his soul, ' Spring to their task with energy divine, Laugh, weep, command, and live in every line.' So, too, in painting, statuary, and architecture, we find those who, with mere mechanical industry, recompose pictures, statues, and buildings, from the materials about them, and those who truly create figures, faces, groups, and columns. The Greeks acted vitally when they built the Parthenon and the temple of Apollo near Miletus, and our ancestors acted vitally when from the Druid forest-trees they caught the idea of the great cathedrals of England and France ; but we act mechanically, when, from fragments of these several buildings, we try to recompose a consistent whole, placing Gothic spires and Saxon towers over Grecian porticos. " The power which acts vitally we call genius ; that which acts mechanically we call talent. The man of talent will construct a most excellent lecture, address, sermon, or any thing else which can be constructed. But when the hour of earnest debate comes, and from the very centre of the spirit a word is needed to restrain, to compel, to calm, or to MANHOOD. 167 rouse, then the voice of the man of talent is unheard, for construction will not do ; not only a living, but a life-giving, power is called for ; and while a thousand history-quarriers and masters of logic are as if dumb, some son of genius, who can create, lifts his prophetic tone, and the whole world follows him. " And in character we recognize the same distinction. He whose virtues result from calculated happiness, here or hereafter, who walks by an external law, instead of an in- ternal faith, who moulds his moral nature, as a potter the clay, is a mechanical moralist, and has not yet learned the vital truth of Christianity. Utilitarianism, in every form, whether in the orthodox churchman, Paley, or the atheistic jurisprudent, Bentham, is mechanical, inconsistent with what is called, in technical, but true terms, vital piety. The life of the Christian will be true, because truth is his life, not because truth will buy bread and cloth. Luther was alive, and so was Fenelon, his opposite in faith and spirit, as it would seem at first. Erasmus was, morally, a piece of clock-work, and so, in a great measure, was Benjamin Franklin. " But the difference between vital and mechanical action does not stop with individuals. Many social movements belong to each class. Thus, in the French Revolution, the great outbreak was vital, but the constitutions of that time were mechanical, and could not work or last. So in this country the republican form is living ; but in Mexico it is a mere dead image, moulded after our living form, and there it is powerless. " But society, which lies behind all governments and social arrangements, and of which they are but the outer skin, is always living. If the skin die, it sloughs off, and a new one comes. " It would seem, indeed, as if it were meant that society, like the silk-worm, should grow toward the perfect state, not 1C8 LIFE OF JAMES 11. PERKINS. gradually and happily, but by fits and starts, with painful moultings, struggles, and sickness niuh unto death. To certain periods seem to be given institutions fating for the time, but not growing as the body within grows, and so suc- ceeds a season of revolution : not only forms of government, which are commonly the least vital parts of society, change, but social organization throughout changes ; aristocracies cease, democracies come in, or democracies cease and des- potisms rise. " Thus, in its day, the feudal system was the vital form of social arrangement ; but the day went by ; the feudal system was no longer what the spirit of society called for ; it was as the second skin of the silk-worm approaching its third state ; it grew dry and hard, it no longer yielded, as of old, to the motions of the body within, but cramped it and cut it with its inflexible wrinkles, until at length the expan- sion of the social juices cracked the hard case, and the great worm was left to struggle out of its prison. This moulting is not yet through. " Meanwhile, as it would appear, society demands, or rather produces unconsciously, many new forms to replace the old ones, which are nearly or wholly done away with in some parts of the world. It is one of these new forms of social action that 1 am now about to speak of. ' In all times and lands, it is noticeable that men have not acted individually. Even those individuals whose great powers have enabled them to do the most have acted through bodies of men, classes, and castes. Thus, in Orien- tal lands, a priesthood ruled ; in (Jreece, a faction ; in Rome, a patrician order ; in feudal Europe, a church and an aris- tocrnry. When Peter tin: Hermit roused Europe, he acted upon classes ; when Hildebrand laid his grasp upon tempo- ralities, he acted through bis influence upon orders ; when Luther effected the Reformation, he relied upon the common interests of many. The Church and the aristocracy were, MANHOOD. 169 in the Middle Ages, strong enough to produce any result they wished. They were the true product of the time, and suited the time. Had a temperance reform been then need- ed, the Church would have wrought it. Had abolition been called for, the Church would have effected it. Had it been necessary to withstand democracy and revolution, the Church and the nobles would both have helped in the good work. Even now, in England, the reliance of the Tory party is upon the Church and the House of Lords ; to them men look in the great warfare of conservatism with chartism and socialism. Now all this is right, and while we look the truth fairly in the eye, and see that we, in these United States, have no church, in the sense in which Rome and England have, and cannot, of course, rely upon a church, let us not sneer at the Oxford divines and their followers, who see no hope in this dark day of our mother country, save through the might of church authority, save through the denial of the doctrines of individual judgment, which have followed the Reformation. " But here the progress of democracy has been much greater than in Europe, though the tendency of all Christen- dom has been to give up classes, and corporate bodies of every kind, and to come to simple, direct individualism. In our government, we recognize only individuals, at least among whites ; and in social life, the constant effort is to do away the castes produced by difference of fortune, education, and taste. The motto upon the flag of America should be, ' Every man for himself.' Such is the spirit of our land, as seen in our institutions, in our literature, in our religious condition, in our political contests, for it is this antagonism to all corporations, all privileged bodies, and castes of every kind, which lies at the root even of the present political struggle. " We have, then, in the United States a curious condition of things ; no recognized orders, and no church, and yet much VOL. i. 15 170 LIFE OF JAMKS H. PKIiKINS. of the same desire for action in IIKISSOS which has always existed, find which must exist until ignorance and vice cease from the earth. One result of this condition of things has been the production of voluntary associations to an immense extent. 1 look, therefore, upon the system of associated effort, now so general, as a true and vital production of our times ; liy means of this system we strive to supplv the want of a church and an aristocracy. It is a NI;W IOHM of social derelojimrnl ; not a mere mechanical contrivance, which cannot last, but a true LIVING IUODE OF ACTION on the; part of society. " 1'Yom this point of view, all associated eiFort becomes highly interesting, and worthy of careful examination. Like other living things, it is liable to decease, and, with other earthly things, it will in time pass away, but still, like all that has life, it is (Jod's work, and should he reverently dealt with. " Three forms of associated literary rfrort are seen in our day. " First, that which seeks to increase results by u division of labor. This is seen in our reviews, to which dozens of persons contribute, whereas, in the last century, Johnson, Addison, and Steele wrote their periodicals almost unaided. It is seen in the encyclopaedias, to which contributors arc co'inted by fifties, while, in the great works of that kind published a hundred years since, a few did nearly ail the labor. We have now even a History of England, written by a do/en dilierent hands : while libraries innumerable, the result of joint labors, flow from the press. " The second class of societies consists of those who gather numbers, in order, by numbers, to aflect the minds of men, as well as to act more efficiently for some one object. Such are the temperance, abolition, and various educational societies. "The third class consists of those which aim to unite MANHOOD. 171 men by acquaintance, common interests, and brotherly sympathy ; not for any one especial object, but for the wide purpose of banding together in the cause of learning and religion those throughout the whole country whose minds and hearts are free to take an interest in such things. " Religious faith is the basis of all social and all individual good. But religious faith will no more rest on authority in this land. Think of it what we may, individual opinion, and not the decision of a church, must give us our religion. There is something in this application of individualism to religion which is startling and terrible ; and no wonder that many are looking to Rome again, as to the single bea- con-fire which still stands above this heaving sea of opinion, doubt, and denial, the Eddystone of the ocean of religious controversy. To us it appears they look in vain ; that beacon-fire, to which the world once owed its escape from shipwreck, is doomed, as we think, to extinction, though the very storm which will overwhelm it at last may for the time make it burn the brighter. To us it seems that the whole course of things is toward the overthrow of authority, and the fullest reception of the doctrine of the Reformation. Where, then, is our safety ? Upon what can our religious faith rest in this land ? It must be upon the extension of intelligence and virtue, and upon the influence of true and good men over the ignorant and low. " Through schools, through lectures, through the press, by professional labors, intelligence, reverence for what is venerable, respect for what is GOOD, love for what is beauti- ful, must be spread abroad. And who can do it? The Educated Men ; and they only by concert and union. The writers of our country must feel themselves called on to work for their country and mankind. Literature must cease to be an amusement, a mere pastime, an ornamental thing, a luxury ; it must lose its lightness and become serious, for by it are to be worked out serious results. Books have be- 172 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. come our pulpits, nncl newspapers our shrines for daily resort ; if at those shrines we worship Mammon or Lucifer, and not the true Clod, woe, woe to us and to our country. " I cannot think it a dream, then, that in our land religion must depend upon the diffusion of truth and goodness, mainly through the medium of associated action. " Man, weak and sinful as he is, cannot possess even truth without making poison from it, as he makes whiskey from corn, the water of death from the staff of life. In his hands freedom is distilled over into libertinism, and unshac- kled thought ferments, and becomes skepticism and atheism. Can this be prevented ? Will external authority, political and ecclesiastical, prevent it ? We think history proves it will not ; we believe it, at any rate, hopeless to control by authority, in our time and in the United States. We see no course open for escape, except unwearied toil on the part of those who see our dangers, to spread, first, Christian faith, and second, thorough learning. " To aid in spreading these, we believe God has given birth to the associated efforts of the day ; we look upon them as rital forms of organization, destined, in connection with the scattered fragments of the Church, and the labors of in- dividual men, to supply for a season the place of that united and truly Catholic Church, which, in God's own good time, may bring into one fold again the scattered sheep of our Saviour." 1819. " FREE INSTITUTIONS. We believe one half the world arc puzzled by political views, because they have never been led to examine the self-evident, commonplace truths on which the science of the statesman, like that of the astronomer, rests. " One such truth \ve take to be this, that by free insti- tutions we are to understand, not those of a representative democracy and no others, but whatever institutions are best MANHOOD. 173 suited to secure FREEDOM to any given nation. A constitu- tion like that of the United States, if given to Russia, would cease to be free in its character, because it would (at least in all probability) lead to utter anarchy, and consequent individual slavery of mind, and heart, and soul. The insti- tutions of England, for England, are in the main as truly free as those of our land are for us. The representative democracy of France at this moment secures less freedom than the aristocratic monarchy of Great Britain. " Again, the whole subject of freedom and free institutions is too commonly regarded entirely from an Athenian or Roman point of view, not from that which Christianity offers to us. Our speculations are pagan in their basis, and pagan in their results. It is generally the aim of our efforts for freedom to secure our own rights, but not so to place ourselves as to be able to secure the rights of all, and do our own duty to all. The great Christian doctrine, that liberty comes through, obedience, that the whole value of liberty lies in its enabling us to be more and more obedient, and that whatever institutions favor the growth of a spirit of obedience to God are most truly free, this great doctrine is unheeded, or denounced as slavish and degrading. " Whence came that pithy motto which has been so often dwelt upon of late years, ' Our country, right or wrong' ? It came from pagan patriotism. It was the very essence of Spartan and Roman virtue. But such patriotism is not far- ther removed from Christianity than is the intense individu- alism which asks at every moment, What are my rights ? and seldom or never, What are the rights of my neighbour ? And yet, by free institutions most men understand such as will give this very spirit of selfishness the fullest play, and count whatever would lead or would compel them to respect the claims of other men as so much liberty lost, so much conservatism and toryism left amid the freedom they enjoy. IIow can we explain the Red Republicanism of educated men 15* 174 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. in France ? How the strong reactionary spirit ? They are both, we believe, born of the same practical infidelity, twins of February, 1848. France, with all her Pope-restor- ing, is torn and ruled by those who are filled with heathen ideas ; and hence the danger of her position, the impossibil- ity of solving the problem of her politics. " Nor is it far different, we fear, in Germany or Italy. The monarchs of Prussia, Austria, and Naples, in their va- cillating careers, have been moved by no spirit of love for their subjects, no thought of the rights of the people over whom God has placed them ; neither have those people, burgesses or proletaries, been more considerate of the claims of their sovereigns, or those of their fellow-subjects. The spirit which was present to so great an extent in the leaders of our Revolution, in Washington, Jay, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, the spirit of Christian justice, the spirit which urged them to seek the good of all, to secure the rights of all, is unknown, it would seem, in these European revolu- tions. That spirit has enabled us to approach true freedom ; without it, we could never have done so. When our Revo- lution was in progress, the problem of our future was com- paratively simple, because God's truth was in the midst of its movers ; the problem offered by Europe is complicated and dark beyond expression, because in its heart are work- ing human selfishness and human passion, and not God's truth. " At the outset, then, of an inquiry into the nature of free institutions, we should call to mind these old truths : that those governments are truly free which secure the freedom of the people living under them ; that freedom lies, not in the absence of restraint, but in the power of obedience to God, in the power of doing our duty toward all men, and granting their just claims ; and that free institutions are impossible among a heathen people, so that liberty in Rome now, if Rome be practically pagan, is as much out of the question as it was in the time of Tully. MANHOOD. 175 " These, we say, are old truths, and yet we well know that many will not admit them. At the risk of being very tedious, therefore, we offer a few illustrations. " When we speak of civil freedom, and free governments, it is always understood that we speak of something to be desired. But the liberty which is desirable for any man, really good for him, is not absolute liberty, freedom from all law, human and divine ; it is, plainly, relative liberty, freedom from all that cripples him, hinders his true growth, from all that keeps him down or drags him down. But the amount of freedom which is good for the man is bad for the boy; that which helps the Briton may prove the ruin of the Spaniard or the Sicilian. What is true liberty for one peo- ple, therefore, may be licentiousness for another; and those institutions which are the source of life to the former may be the means of bringing death to the latter. But if by free institutions we mean something desirable, and if no institu- tions can be absolutely free, how can we hesitate to give the title to those which best secure the liberties of the nation to which they belong, and to refuse it to such as lead to popular tyranny, the despotism of a demagogue, the drag- ging down and holding down of countless human souls, even though these things be done by a representative democracy, or a democracy pure and direct ? " But if the only freedom worth having or talking about is that relative liberty which is befitting the condition of the person or the nation, if we are none the less free, when fetterless and at large, because the might of gravity binds us to the earth, and by its very bond enables us to move, to turn, to stand, to be free, instead of driving like leaves be- fore the wind, slaves to the mightiest impulse, is it not clear that the highest freedom we can attain to is obedience to God's will, obedience to the centre of spiritual gravita- tion ? " What is the essence of slavery ? Is it not the power of 176 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. a fellow-man over us, by which our intellectual and spiritual progress is deadened or destroyed ? Let us be satisfied, that to be absolutely under another's bidding will secure our progress most effectually in every thing that belongs to mind, heart, and soul, in all that links us to eternity, and such submission would cease to be slavery, or slavery would cease to be hateful. But no progress is possible without submission to the Infinite One ; in obedience to him lies the source of all growth ; his ' service,' therefore, in the beauti- ful language of the English Church, ' is perfect freedom.' But we cannot serve God if we fail to fulfil our duty to- wards all men, and their just claims on us. These things granted, and they are but Christian truisms, it is the simplest corollary that freedom and free institutions are impossible where paganism rules, even though it be in the capital of Christendom itself. " But these commonplaces are not the only ones which lie at the foundation of a just understanding of the nature of free institutions, and a neglect of which, because so simple and self-evident, hinders or makes useless all our inquiries. It is never to be forgotten, for example, that governments, that political systems, are powerless by themselves to set a people free, or even to secure freedom when it has been obtained ; but that in conjunction with social arrangements, educational and religious institutions, and the inborn charac- ter of a people, governments become of immense impor- tance ; all the other agents being comparatively uninfluential so long as the political system is adverse to Christian liberty. A just estimate of this mutual support which Social institu- tions lend to Political, and Political to Social, would prevent the exaggerations of the Associationists on the one side, and those of their blind opponents on the other. No represen- tative democracy could enable a nation to live in freedom if the family were abolished, property made insecure, or re- licrion utterly neglected by the state. But the home may MANHOOD. 177 remain unviolated, the earnings of the citizen untouched, and Heaven be appealed to hourly, and yet the influence of a despotism like that of Turkey or Russia shall prove fatal in countless ways to the true liberty of heart and soul. Nay, it is not despotism alone which may prove thus fatal. The aristocratic spirit of England exerts upon thousands an enslaving power ; the ultra democracy of Athens was as deadly as the tyranny of the Caesars ; and even in our own pattern land, and with a government which, for us, and upon the whole, is as good as man has yet attained, even with us, despite of homes, and property, and religion, the popular element of our political condition, acting through the press and public opinion, strips multitudes of the free- dom which they nominally enjoy. " True views in relation to the connection which exists between Social and Political arrangements are, in our day, peculiarly needed. The masses of men have never suffi- ciently understood the worthlessness of laws and rulers to secure freedom when the system of society was adverse to its existence. Even now, the suffering millions of the Brit- ish empire look to Parliament for that which Parliament can never bestow ; trust to free trade as in itself a specific for the evils which spring from ignorance, vice, and selfishness ; and almost hope to put an end to the potato-rot by the ballot- box. How constant is the outcry against the English gov- ernment because it does not destroy the miseries of Ireland ! and yet the main portion of those miseries England can no more do away by legislation, than she can legislate away the clouds which so often threaten her harvests. In our own country, even with the wide diffusion of knowledge which has taken place, and which has turned countless minds to the influence of social arrangements without mak- ing them converts to any of the schools of reform,- even in these United States men look to the election of a presi- dent or a senator with a vague hope that the triumph of one 178 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. party or the other, as their own views incline, will bring about results which can follow only upon social changes. The poor but ambitious mechanic, galled by the undue influ- ence of wealth, trusts that the success of some anti-bank candidate will do away the inequality which poisons his life, and turns with contempt from the Christian, who would bring all classes together without regard to property, upon the ground of equal excellence and intelligence, as from an ineffectual dreamer, whose impracticable schemes will never remove the mischief they aim to destroy. " But while, on the one hand, the multitude have too little comprehended the vast influence of social institutions upon politics and individual freedom, there is, on the other side, a growing body of thinking and enthusiastic men, who are dis- posed to underrate the power of political systems, and care too little for the machinery of government. To them the limits of the veto power, the theory of representation, the tenure of judicial offices, the mode of choosing judges, and a hundred similar questions, are matters of no moment. So- cial reform, land reform, absorb all their energies. They are not, what we wish the ultraists on either side would be- come, at once men of to-day and of the future ; advocates for some small, but most needful reformation, and at the same time prophets of, and pleaders for, a reformation which shall go to the root of existing evils, and prepare the way for the second coming of our Lord. " At the threshold, then, of our inquiry, we would keep clearly in mlnd,Jirst, that those are free governments which secure the whole spiritual freedom of the persons living under them ; secondly, that the essence of freedom is a complete capability of serving God and man ; thirdly, that free institutions must rest on Christian, and not pagan, ideas of liberty ; fourthly, that no political institutions of them- selves, unconnected with social, educational, and religious appliances, can regenerate a state ; and fft.hly, that no so- MANHOOD. 179 cial, educational, and religious changes, of themselves, un- connected with political reforms, are able to accomplish what is desired by us all. " There is another thought, almost as simple and self- evident as the above, which meets us at the outset of our examination. It is, that true freedom, being the capability of serving God and man, is not a mere negative thing, the absence of slavery. Most men regard the perfection of free institutions as lying in the fact, that they leave every man in a great measure to do as he pleases ; they neither hinder him nor help him ; they are free institutions because they are, practically, no institutions at all. But to us it seems that a truly free government will have its positive as well as its negative side. It not only will not hinder, but it will help. It is not freedom to be let alone ; laissez faire is not the motto of Christian liberty. The common saying, that the best government is that in which there is the least legis- lation, appears to us an entire fallacy. We do not want bad laws, despotic whims, or popular caprices ; but we do need an abundance of good laws, whereby those things may be done which can be done only by a nation, laws to secure the advance of the higher and less material interests which the individual in his selfishness so constantly neglects. We may trust every man to manage in a great degree his own commercial, agricultural, worldly matters; the laissez faire of the French merchants was sensible advice, for the chil- dren of this world are wise in their generation. But art, science, literature, education, religion, these things need constant aid, countenance, support, from the nation. There are, then, when we come to discuss free institutions, these two questions: What will hinder true freedom ? What will advance and increase it ? In the discussion of these two inquiries, were they dealt with in an exhaustive manner, every topic, we conceive, would be taken up which Grimke, Brougham, De Tocqueville, or any other writer, has consid- 180 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. ered, and taken up under relations that would make it far more intelligible than it can be when out of its natural and vital connection, just where chance brings us upon it. " We have neither space nor inclination to pursue the consideration of these queries ; but is it not plain that, with the Christian idea of freedom before us, we at once dispose of the first topic which suggests itself, namely, What are the adverse influences of despotism, constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, and anarchy? Dispose of it, we mean, by instantly rejecting the despotism and the anarchy, as being deadly to ' the complete capability of serving God and man,' which we have assumed as the essence of free- dom ; and by accepting monarchy, aristocracy, and democ- racy, as being, each for some state of society, some point of national progress, fitted to help, not deaden, this ser- vice of our Maker and our brother. If we are asked, Why accept them ? we answer, because in England, as she has been and is, and in these United States, we see these three institutions upholding, securing, and forwarding the freedom that comes from on high." 1849. " REPRESENTATIVES AND CONSTITUENTS. The people of the United States exercise a direct power, through the almost universal reception of the doctrine that the repre- sentative is bound by the instructions of his constituents. But it is a most vital question, whether such a power ought to be recognized by a statesman, or approved by a political philosopher. Out of fashion as it is, we believe in the view which makes the representative something much more than an agent. The essence of representation, to our minds, lies not in its convenience, in the fact that, while all the mil- lions of a land cannot meet and deliberate, some hundreds, who shall be the channels through which the wishes of the millions may pass, can so come together ; but it lies in this, that the people of a neighbourhood can select their wisest MANHOOD. 181 and best man, and do it with great certainty, while they can- not judge of details of statesmanship with any certainty at all. The wise and good man, being chosen, becomes, not the agent of those who chose him, but their representative ; he stands in their place, and is independent of them and the world. We may be told that good and wise men are not selected, but violent, noisy partisans ; and why ; Because of this very doctrine of instructions ; or rather, because of that overruling vanity and folly from which this doctrine springs. ' Measures, not men,' has become in practice the American motto, and no one can estimate the evil that has followed its adoption. Were the directly opposite assumed, it would be far wiser, to think only of the men we elect, and nothing of the questions they are to determine. But this, we know, cannot be done. Into the ground of our esti- mate of a man's wisdom and capacity enters our knowledge of his views on certain great subjects ; and we reject him as a representative, if he .vitally differs from ourselves upon them. But this is a wholly different thing from dictating to him, after he is chosen, how he shall vote on the points in reference to which he, in all human probability, knows a hundred times more than any member of the majority that undertakes to instruct him. The idea that the law-maker is to obey orders causes us to send blockheads to our legisla- tures ; and having blockheads, instruction, indeed, becomes needful. Could we return to the doctrine of those who wrote the Federalist, could we make our public men lead- ers, instead of servants, of the people, we should have more heroes, and fewer demagogues and flunkies, among the honorables of the land. " The ' divine right ' of the man of vast intellect and upright character to rule us is too little recognized. A Washington, a Jay, a Marshall, has a God-given power to claim our obedience. Carlyle's principle of hero-worship, within limits revealed to every man's conscience, we believe VOL. i. 16 182 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. in, though we cannot accept his heroes. But the opposite principle, of worshipping the most available, moulding the common clay into an idol, and bowing down to it, we utterly detest. We can sympathize, with all our dislike of his prin- ciples, in the election of a Jackson, but never in that of a Polk." 1849. "SOCIALISM. The question as to the (rue rela- tions of CAPITAL and WORK is the great question of the coming fifty years. No other, in our estimation, approaches it in importance. The Christian religion has worked won- ders in the world, but miracles remain to be wrought. There have been mighty changes for the better in the rela- tions between the rich and poor, since the Son of God made himself known by slow degrees to the minds and hearts of our ancestors. But after all these changes, we see only the more clearly, that the state of society depicted so vividly in ' Mary Barton,' a state which is coming nearer to us of the Western world with every day that passes, is not the condition of mankind which even a kind and just pagan would have approved, far less that which Jesus would have instituted. There must be, either by individuals in the existing organiza- tion, or by individuals uniting to organize a NEW SOCIETY, a far deeper application of self-denial, self-sacrifice, and obedience to the dictates of Christianity in the arrangements of trade and of manufactures, or the evils which now threaten England will envelop every portion of the globe which is physically progressive. Mr. Macaulay and others may demonstrate, by figures and tables, that the laboring classes are far better off now than they were in the time of Charles the Second ; but his tables omit one vital element, the idea of comfort and well-being which men have now, as compared with the idea of 1680. He whose views are high, whose tastes are refined, whose ambition and eternal nature are awakened, is tried, degraded, ruined, by the very same MANHOOD. 183 life which would help and improve the tasteless, ignorant, sensual clown. In our age education, some degree of re- finement, and, above all, the conception of rising in the world, are familiar to every man ; but the physical inde- pendence and well-being of the laborer do not improve as fast as the requisitions of his immortal nature under the cul- ture we give him." This last-quoted passage, from the North American Review,* is but a part of the testimony which, amidst the present world-wide struggle between Industrial Feu- dalism and Organized Industry, Mr. Perkins felt prompt- ed to bear, and to bear, too, through the organ which addresses itself most authoritatively to the conservative classes of the United States. How far he had gone in asserting the claims of Socialism to respect may be in- ferred from the following explanatory note of the Edi- tor, the publication of which is due to the memory of Mr. Perkins. " Your article placed me in a dilemma. I had already written and printed in the forthcoming North American Re- view an article on ' French Ideas of Democracy and a Community of Goods,' which is as conservative as yours is what shall I call it ? reformatory, progressive, radi- cal. Yet I am persuaded that we both think much alike about social and political affairs, as we augur nothing but evil from institutions that are not based on Christianity. The proof of this fundamental similarity of doctrine under super- ficial differences is, that far the larger portion of the two articles can stand side by side in the same number without any danger to the reputation of the Review for consistency. But the whole could not thus stand, and I did not wish to * For October, 1849, pp. 4G8, 469. 184 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. sacrifice the whole because opinions were expressed or im- plied in certain parts which I could not accept. I have con- cluded to take what seemed to be a middle course, and the best that was possible under the circumstances. Instead of sentencing the whole either to the press or the flames, I have printed nineteen twentieths of it, and burnt the other twentieth. I did not feel at liberty to put words into your mouth, but I thought you would prefer to say to the world a portion of what you thought, rather than to keep silence altogether. Your praise of the Tribune newspaper, a sen- tence or two in your remarks on the judiciary, and the con- cluding portion of what you wrote about the doctrines of the Associationists, are left out. The rest is printed as you wrote it, except that the want of space obliged me to leave out two of the extracts, and, in order that the article might not come abruptly to a close, I was forced to add a couple of sentences in place of your peroration, which I had left out. What is expressed in those sentences I have no doubt that you will agree to. " But these points cannot be fully discussed in a letter. I have written thus much only to excuse myself for the omis- sion of portions of your article. Your first purpose was to gratify Judge Grimke by a complimentary article on his work in the North American Review ; and this end is se- cured by the appearance of the article in its present shape. On other points, I fear, an amicable difference of opinion must always exist between us. My instincts, as well as my reflec- tions and studies, tend strongly to Conservatism, or Toryism, as some would call it, while your natural bias is towards radi- cal reform. Yet we have both the same end in view, and in our choice of means we both rely upon moral and religious culture. You would try some form of Communism, in order that men might act out their Christianity more fully towards each other ; while I believe that they must first become thoroughly Christian in their hearts and lives before any MANHOOD. 185 scheme of Communism is practicable. When all evil pas- sions are eradicated, when not only envy, hatred, and mal- ice, but indolence and emulation and the love of exclusive possessions, are done away, men can live and work together like brothers, without the presence of those incentives which now maintain their activity. When they become as pure as the earliest converts to Christianity were, they can live to- gether as those converts did, though even in that band were found an Ananias and a Sapphira." * I shall leave the duty of explaining Mr. Perkins's re- lations to Socialism to our mutual friend, Benjamin Urner, whose high integrity in every walk of life gives weight to his words. " Cincinnati, July 7, 1850. You wish to learn from me what were the relations of our late friend, James H. Per- kins, to the Social Reform movement ; how far he inclined towards Phalansterian, and how far towards Christian Social- ism ; whether his preaching turned much upon that class of topics ; and if, in his philanthropic movements, and in his proposed new religious society, he seemed to aim ultimately at a practical social organization, &c., &c. " I think I can confidently state, that Mr. Perkins was a Christian socialist, as I understand that term to be used by most writers. He certainly could not be classed as belonging to any distinct and well-defined school of socialists that has hitherto existed. He was neither a Communist nor a Phalan- sterian ; but his discourses and lectures of late years turned mainly upon social reformatory topics. The substitution of cooperation in industry and commerce for competition was a very favorite idea of his, as a means of bringing men's daily lives into conformity with the requirements of Christianity ; * Dated Cambridge, September 1st, 1849. 16* 186 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. and that was, I think, the only distinct socialist idea to which he had attained. The miseries and sufferings of his fellow- men, the evils of poverty and pauperism, and the vices and crimes thence resulting, seemed to be constantly present to his mind, and hence his interest in social reform movements. He held the belief, that there must exist a social science, but he did not believe that it had yet been discovered. Some six or seven years since, he delivered several lectures on Sunday evenings, from his pulpit, on Owen and Fourier, and their social theories, with the view of inducing his hearers to study and investigate the social question. He gave Fou- rier the credit of truthfulness, sincerity, earnest devotion of a long life to the good of his race, and the possession of profound genius ; but he considered his theory fallacious, as being founded upon the, to him, erroneous doctrine of the essential goodness of human nature. Granting that funda- mental premise to be true, he thought Fourier's system was profoundly plausible. ' According to the views of man held by Fourier, man wants the baker and the butcher ; but ac- cording to my view, he is sick and wants the doctor.' So he expressed himself. Some three years since, Mr. Perkins called on me and inquired as to a fund which he had heard was being made up for the purchase of the writings of Fourier and of his disciples, for circulation among inquirers, and contributed to that fund voluntarily, and encouraged that object as one highly useful. When Mr. Allen was an- nounced, in February, 1848, as having arrived here for the purpose of lecturing upon Association, 'Mr. Perkins made the occasion the subject of his discourse on Sunday morning from his pulpit, and urged his hearers to attend that gentle- man's lectures, and to study the problem of socialism. He fvlso joined Mr. Allen in his course, and delivered one lec- ture himself, in which he treated what he called the common- sense view of Association and Social Reform. These two discourses or lectures were reported and published here in MANHOOD. 187 the Morning Herald, and I think they were republished in the Harbinger. In the constitution of the Relief Union of this city, an organization coextensive with the city, for the purpose of relieving the destitute poor of the city, without reference to sect or class, of which society Mr. Perkins may be said to be the father, in that constitution, as prepared by him, is introduced a provision for stated regular meetings to be held by the society, for the discussion of the socialist question, ' Whether it be possible to abolish pauperism, and if so, by what means ; or, if impossible, whether some mode of relieving the poor could not be devised better than that of alms-giving.' And in his published discourse, setting forth his principles, objects, and plans of proceeding for the proposed new religious society, he also made provision for the same purpose. " I remember hearing him make the remark, in a conver- sation some three or four years since, that the Fourierists seemed to him to be animated by a more self-sacrificing, humanitary, and Christian spirit than any class of men of that time. Of the universal prevalence of selfishness, social evils and imperfections, he was very sensibly conscious ; and of the hopeless inefficiency of all existing political and religious organizations as means to a higher and truer state of man, he was also convinced. Of men's ' pietizing ' on Sunday, and yielding themselves up to selfish tendencies during the week, he thought and felt as all truly enlight- ened men now do. For a great change in the state of man, individual and collective, he ardently aspired. But he had no consistent philosophic views as to the method of effecting the change. In the Phalansterian doctrines of passional attraction, of a divine social code, in harmony and adapta- tion to which man's soul is constituted and impassioned, of the possibility of so coordinating each human being to his fellows, to nature, and to God, as that universal integral development, universal unity, and harmony shall result, in 188 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. the absence of restraints and constraints of reason, in this he did not believe. He seemed to cling rather to the com- mon idea, that, in the formation of human virtue and the true Christian character, a conflict between duty and incli- nation is necessary. He seemed to trust in no method for effecting a change in the condition and well-being of man- kind, such as he hoped for and conceived to be possible, other than that of persuading men to do rightly. V\ e may know what right conduct is, unerringly, from the teachings of Christ ; and to bring men's lives into conformity with the life of Christ, the means is an appeal to their conscience. This means having been in operation for many centuries, without resulting in the desired change, he hoped for success in future, not by the adoption of new means, but by a more vigorous and better systematized application of the old. In short, he was not a social philosopher, but a Christian pld- lanthropist, who sympathized with socialism because it is in sympathy with his Christian philanthropy. " Mr. Perkins frequently spoke of the inadequate compen- sation which many classes of laborers receive, particularly women, and argued that it was the Christian duty of employ- ers and of purchasers to pay what the necessities of the employed required, not what their necessities compelled them to accept ; and according to this rule he, I believe, practised. I remember selling him a ream of writing- paper, and naming the common price, but stating that the manufacturer for whose account I sold it authorized me to dispose of it for a less sum rather than miss making sales. Mr. Perkins insisted on paying the higher price, as probably the more just one. A more conscientious man it would probably be ditlicult to find than Mr, Perkins. He was, I believe, very reluctant to go in opposition to what he knew was pleasing to his intimate friends ; but when he was con- vinced that duty required it, he could act with heroic disre- gard of their ill-founded prejudices. An occasion of this MANHOOD. 189 kind occurs to me, which I will mention. The socialists and reformers in Cincinnati, on the occasion of Fourier's birthday, in April, 1848, celebrated the progress of social- ism, as manifested by the French Revolution of February. A committee for the invitation of guests to the festival was raised, and Mr. Perkins was requested to give his name and services as one of that committee. He promptly acceded to the request, and invitations were accepted and responded to, which would have been treated with no respect had not his name been connected with them. By this act he be- came in a degree identified with ' Fourierism,' and persons who before could not hear the word mentioned with pa- tience now began to think that socialism could not be so very bad after all." The deliberateness of judgment, moderation, extreme caution, yet independence in obeying his mature convic- tions of duty, which characterized Mr. Perkins in the advocacy of socialism, were yet more distinctly mani- fested in regard to our great national problem, the lim- itation and removal of slavery. But here again my friend, so far as possible, shall be his own interpreter. The passages already given from his letters while in the West Indies will show how early in life his indignant disgust was excited against the institution of slavery ; and the following extracts will prove how ready he was at all times, calmly, yet unflinchingly, to uphold what he saw to be the right. The remarks in relation to fugitive slaves are of special interest at a moment when so many prominent political aspirants have slipped on the leash of the slave power, and have volunteered as catchpolls. 1836. "SLAVE EDUCATION. The so-called friends of 190 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. the negro may be divided into two great classes, those who look on him as a brute, and those who think him a man. If the former wish him free, it is that he may have more yam, hominy, and sleep ; the latter would break his chains, be- cause the enchained man can never properly perfect the powers that belong to him as a man. One of the first class, after a visit to slave lands, will often defend slavery, because the African has better feed and a wider sty than the English and German peasants. Should one of the second class go with him, he would think of the palsied intellect, the stran- gled affections, the broken sense of right, and the entire moral stupor, that are scarce separable from slavery, how- ever kind and Christian the slave-owner. The first would say, ' The slave is happy ; he wants no more than he has ' ; the last would think, ' How miserable this man, that he knows not even his degradation ! ' " To those who belong to the class of animalists, and who regard freedom as a means to present enjoyment merely, this paper is not addressed. We cannot go so far back, at present, as to discuss the question with them. We would now speak to those who believe the negro to be in kind A MAN, who believe freedom to be invaluable as a means to intellectual and moral improvement, and who believe it every man's duty to assist those properly within his influ- ence to improvement, and therefore to freedom. To all such we state but a truism, when we say that, if to the slave present freedom would be the means of improvement, pres- ent freedom is his right ; but if, in consequence of his unfitness to use freedom aright, or because of laws that de- grade the free blacks, present freedom would not be a means whereby he may improve, that then it is not his right, nor is his master, by any principle, bound to free him. " To the little child, present freedom would not be a means of improvement, and he is kept under restraint ; to the idiot and insane man it would not be, and we confine MANHOOD. 191 them, even when not likely to injure others ; we confine them for their own sake. " But though the parent does right to restrain his son, be- ing a child, what would we think of him should he do nothing to fit his son to become free ? Though he that has charge of a lunatic is not only just, but kind, when he binds his pa- tient even with fetters of iron, if need be, how unjust and inhuman would all think him, should he use no exertion to restore the poor wretch to reason ! And what is the slave ? He is a little child, needing restraint, needing punishment, but more than all needing education. He is a man void of sense, whose limbs it may be needful to fetter, that he may be cured of his disease, and fitted to serve and to advance himself. " If the negro be in kind a man ; if man be immortal, and destined ever to advance in intellectual and moral perfect- ness ; if to this advancement freedom of will and self-de- pendence be essential ; and if it be every man's duty to assist his fellows, then it must be that the negro, however degraded and unworthy now to be free, still has the right, not to liberty, but to that process ivhich will Jit him for lib- erty ; and it must also be the duty of all that can influence him to urge their influence to this end ; it must be that the slave-owner is bound to educate him, that those who can influence the slave-holder are bound to enforce this duty. " In this faith we speak, not as abolitionists, not as agita- tors, not as wishing to excite in any passion or unkind feeling, but as Christians, who think the African a man, having the privileges of a man, and, above all, the privilege of improvement. We are for ulterior freedom and imme- diate action that will fit for freedom. Were we now in New England, however, even this opinion we should think it unwise to publish ; but standing as we do, upon the limits of the Slave States, and knowing that, of the little circle our voice will reach, many are slave-holders, we speak with 192 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. more boldness than if afar off; for we have no fear that calm argument addressed to the slave-holders, and published in a Slave State, will be mistaken by any for agitation. But while we say this, we would dissent wholly from the doctrine that slavery is a mere political question. It is, and the laws of all Europe and America relative to the slave-trade recog- nize it as being, a MORAL, question, in which every man, as a man, is interested. The means by which slavery shall be done away in any State belong to politics and that State ; the propriety and duty of doing it away belong to morals and the race. " We are, as we have said, for an education which will fit the slave for freedom. By this we do not mean that he should learn at once to read and write ; that he should study geography, grammar, and arithmetic. No ; the education which the bondman needs is that of the character, that which will govern action. A judicious father educates his son by teaching him to restrain his impulses, to seek his best interests, to follow the path of duty ; little by little he lifts him to manhood, giving him one right after another, and ever-increasing freedom, until imperceptibly all restraint is done away. In many of the West India Islands the British government acted on this system ; it forbade excessive pun- ishment ; it gave the slave a right to prosecute his master ; it appointed ' protectors of the slave ' ; it gave every slave so much time, so much land, a day to sell the produce, and a right to carry it to market, the proceeds were all his own. Many of the planters carried on a continued traffic with their own slaves, and paid them daily for eggs, poultry, and fruit. In this way the slave learned to respect the rights of others, in order that they might respect his ; he learned to labor for his own good, and to love labor, so directed ; he found it needful to restrain his impulses, and adopt principles of ac- tion ; self-dependence, foresight, and forethought became familiar to him ; he saw the value of justice, of confidence, MANHOOD. 193 of morality ; his moral powers were developed ; he became more and more a man, and more and more fitted for perfect liberty ; and when, upon the 1st of August, 1834, the slaves of Antigua, where there were fifteen to every white man, were made absolutely free, what was the consequence Neither bloodshed nor tumult, but a continuance, and even increase, of prosperity ; the slaves had become men, and like men acted and labored. " Such was the effect of governmental education ; but that of the individual slave-owner may do infinitely more. An instance of very thorough and effectual education of this kind came to our knowledge some years since. A gentle- man in Cuba was called upon to take charge of a plantation upon which were three or four hundred negroes of a noto- riously bad character. His resort was at once to the whip, and he soon distinguished himself by his severity. But hav- ing observed the absence of all proper feeling in the slaves, and rightly supposing -this to be in a great measure the cause of their misbehaviour, he set about a reform. First, he made them acquainted with their rights under the Spanish law, and also with his rights ; he gave them warning that he should punish them if they interfered with his, and showed them how to obtain redress if he meddled with theirs. He next made known to them a code of laws for the estate, giving them rights not given by the law of the island. By this code he made it penal for any white man to insult or violate the wife or daughter of any slave ; to take property from any ; to strike any, unless with the appointed instru- ment of punishment, and, except in urgent cases, after a trial before him ; the women were governed by female dri- vers, and punished only by women ; theft, adultery, and other crimes among the slaves themselves were punished severely ; every morning, like an Eastern sovereign, he held court, heard all complaints, received the evidence of all parties, and did justice as he best might. Punishment, by VOL. i. 17 194 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. this system, became inevitable, and was recognized as justice, and not revenge. By pursuing tbis system thoroughly, by placing confidence in tbose that deserved it, and by never deceiving them himself, he in a few years brought his re- fractory blacks to such a state, that the whip was abandoned ; the desire to gain the good opinion of, and to stand fair with, their fellows made all work cheerfully ; and a friend who visited the plantation two years since told us he had seen a slave faint in the field, rather than be supposed desirous of ' shirking.' Indeed, so strong was the feeling of duty among the slaves, that a rebellious one was put down at once by his fellows ; he could not withstand the public opinion among them. " Any one acquainted with the course pursued by Fellen- berg in the education of the low and vicious of Switzerland, will recognize the system we have just sketched as be- ing essentially the same ; in both cases the result was suc- cessful. " But, alas ! there are few like Fellenberg, and fewer, perhaps, like the planter of whom we have spoken. The main hope for the education of the slaves rests upon the legis- latures of the Slave-holding States. Let them take measures to learn exactly what has been the result of protective meas- ures in other slave lands ; let them, from the experience of others, satisfy themselves that it is sound policy, as well as Christian duty, to elevate the enslaved black, and we may then have some faint hope of seeing the bond go free ; but we cannot discern even a ray of hope in any other direction. " As, by the supposition, all fear of trouble and bloodshed from the mode of emancipation proposed will be done away, the only objection remaining to the freedom of the black is this, that he will become our fellow in all things, which will not be agreeable. To this we need only say, if you are sat- isfied it is your duly to free the slave when fit for freedom, it is needless to talk of possible results, however disagreea- MANHOOD. 195 ble : if his freedom will end in doing MORE MORAL WRONG than it cures, keep him enslaved, but do not, to offset the commands of duty, present the dictates of taste. Or the objection may assume this form. If the black be set free, however quiet, he will at last drive the white from the coun- try by outworking him, by getting the capital into his own hands, for the white cannot, in Southern lands, compete with him. To this we answer, that it is yet doubtful if the white cannot compete everywhere with the negro, and very far from being true, that the best hand-laborer will have the most capital ; intellect does much more than brute power to accu- mulate wealth ; and, indeed, were all the premises of the objection true, what Christian man could urge it as a fair conclusion, that slavery ought still to exist ? The premises, in substance, allege that God has fitted the negro only to live in Southern countries by fair means ; the conclusion is, that therefore foul means should be used to enable the white to live there. To the "man that thinks slavery no WRONG, the argument may be irresistible ; to those whom we speak to, it must be without force. " From what has been said, if we have spoken clearly, it will be seen that we believe in Gradual Emancipation, not, however, meaning by that term what is usually meant. We do not believe it expedient or right to free the slaves by in- stalments, so many one year, and so many the next. The laws of Slave States, touching free blacks, prevent freedom from becoming a means of improvement. Nor have we any greater faith in setting free a generation of pickaninies,' the children of slaves, and of necessity undergoing no course of parental education that would fit them to act like freemen. These kinds of gradual emancipation give liberty, but strip it of its main power, its true value. But let a course of legislation, acting upon the whole slave population, and fitted to raise the character of that multitude, be persisted in ; let those that sway public opinion give their weight, not only to 196 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. humanity, but to the plan pursued by the Cuba planter ; let the religious and moral not only think, but feel, on this sub- ject, and we may then have the hope of seeing the slaves, father and child, old and young, all brought to that point when all may be made free, uninfluenced by the degrading laws that Slave States feel bound to pass respecting free ne- groes. They may be made free, not necessarily to vote and to govern, that is no essential point of freedom ; nor to mix socially, and intermarry, with the white, how that shall be must depend on the will of the whites ; but free to use their will, intellect, conscience ; free to learn the truth ; free to worship God, and to grow toward that perfection for which, if they be indeed men as we are, God has fitted them. " To the man that denies the negro to be possessed of the same powers with himself, our argument can have no weight ; to the man that has no faith in eternity and an eternal growth, it can have none ; to him that thinks it no duty of his to aid his fellows, it can have none ; and lastly, to him with whom worldly interest is almighty, it can have none, and alas! how many, and how many honest men too, do these classes contain ! But if there be any who think it their duty and high privilege to help others in their onward progress, and if they number the black among those others, they will, we feel assured, see that the law which binds the father to educate the son which God giveth him binds also the slave-owner to educate the child that is born his slave. How he may best be educated is a question of expediency ; what we would urge is the propriety and policy of action by the slave-holders to ascertain what mode is the best, and of immediate action." 1837. " THE PROPOSAL TO ANNEX TEXAS TO THE UNITED STATES. The question is fairly before the people, Shall we take Texas into our confederacy ? MANHOOD. 197 " To the Slave States this question will be vital ; not in the sense in which the advocates of annexation would use that term, but in this sense, if Texas be received, it will be either with the stipulation on both sides that slavery shall never exist there, or without that stipulation. If the Slave States agree to such an exclusion, they will give the Free States a pledge of true abolition principles, which will wholly change the relations of the two. If they refuse, they will take a step that can mean but this : ' We wish to see slavery continued, extended, and created,' and the inevita- ble result must be DISUNION. " It is useless to hide the truth ; it is useless to doubt that the moral feeling of the world will compel the North to sep- arate from a country which, from motives of worldly expe- diency, dares to countenance the abstract right of man to enslave man. When the South defends slave-holding by stating the impossibility of setting her slaves free, she uses an argument that the world can understand, and that, with open brow, may be pleaded before the throne of God ; but if, to increase, or keep, political power, she takes one step towards the increase of slavery, or the extension of it within her limits, it must be with a face turned earthward, and a cheek burning with shame at her own want of moral courage, or else with full defiance of man and God, and a brazen front, which it needs no prophet to foretell will soon be scathed by the lightnings of the Almighty. " The South has said that she was opposed to the intro- duction of slavery, and the world has believed her. If such be the truth, she can use but one argument in favor of receiv- ing Texas, slavery being permitted therein. It is this, I have been placed where I am by others, and what they did I agree to have been anti-Christian ; but. being where I am, I shall be ruined in all worldly matters unless I now repeat their act, that is, do myself what I consider anti- Christian. 17* 198 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. " It needs no argument to show that this is precisely the reasoning of the cutthroat who has been ruined by the good luck or knavery of another, the reasoning of the man that burns your house because his father has left him destitute, or so arranged matters that he will soon be ruined unless he burns it. " Where would the man, who, in these times, should attempt to save his property by fraud and wrong-doing, be more scorned than at the South ? And will the South go and do likewise ? " But if, despite all that has been said to the contrary, the Slave-holding States at last join with Governor McDuffie in thinking this peculiar institution their chief blessing, security, and stronghold, what then? CAN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING BE ONE ? " We care not to point to any other view of this question. If it should be agreed that Texas, if admitted, shall be a Free State, a thing not to be hoped, vast obstacles still re- main to her coming among us ; but for the present we must consider her as about to be, if received, a Slave State. " One word farther. We trust the South will not identify opposition to the proposed annexation with advocacy of abolition. The last is, to the slave-holder, an unjust inter- ference with his rights ; but who can dispute the right of all to discuss the admission of Texas among us ? Who will have enough of despotic blood in his veins to deny the right of all to discuss this question in every point of view ? The North is, almost to a man, opposed to the propositions of McDuffie's defence of slavery ; to admit Texas, a Slave State, would be either to agree in them, or to commit an acknowledged crime. With the North, then, we do not think the question one to be discussed. With the South, the alternative is this, to gain some small present power, but defy the world, and wholly alienate the North ; or to stand politically where she now does, and with a far higher claim MANHOOD. 199 to the sympathy and respect of both Christendom and her fellows, than at present ; for let her refuse to aid in extend- ing slavery, and her gain in moral would far exceed her loss in political influence." 1S37. " UNITED STATES LAW RESPECTING FUGITIVE SLAVES. The groundwork of all law in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin is the ORDINANCE OF 1787 ; by an express provision of which, nothing therein contained could be altered but by the consent both of the original States and of the people of the Territory, since di- vided into the several parts above named. "This Ordinance established as a fundamental law entire and unqualified freedom, but contained this stipulation, that fugitives from labor into the Territory from the original States might be reclaimed. Soon after, the Federal Consti- tution was formed, which contained a stipulation that fugi- tives from labor, from any State into any other, might be reclaimed. On this point, then, the Ordinance and Constitu- tion differed ; the former confining the right of reclaiming fugitives to the original States, the latter extending it to all. " But in the formation of the Constitution no part of the Northwest Territory had any voice, and of course, by the provision of the Ordinance, nothing therein was superseded by the Constitution. On this ground it is contended, that no fugitive from labor, unless from one of the original States, can be now reclaimed in Ohio.* But we do not think this argument valid ; for, when the original States passed the Constitution, they thereby agreed to extend the stipulation of the Ordinance respecting fugitives from labor to all the States ; and when the citizens of Ohio applied for admis- sion among the United States, under the Constitution, they * Speech of S. P. Chnse before the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County, Ohio, March 11, 1837. 200 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. virtually agreed on their part to take that instrument in place of the Ordinance, whenever the two were at variance. We have, therefore, both parties agreeing to the extension of the stipulation of the Ordinance to all the States. " But there is another provision of this Ordinance bearing upon the question before us ; it is that which guarantees to the inhabitants of the Territory, forever, the trial by jury (Art. 2) ; and which also says, that no man shall be de- prived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. As there is nothing in the United States Constitution which conflicts with this provis- ion, it still retains whatever force it originally had. And what was that ? The iirst part of the provision is unquali- fied, and under it we are either entitled to a trial by jury in all cases, or the law may deprive us of it in all cases ; and by the last, the law of the land may substitute what it sees fit, instead of a judgment by one's peers. That this provis- ion does not entitle us to trial by jury always was, in sub- stance, decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio (5 0. R. 133), when they held that the law might appoint other means to determine rights of property, though the State Constitution says (Art. 8, 8), 'that the right of triiil by jury shall be inviolate.' " We fear, therefore, that the United States law cannot be held to violate the letter of the Ordinance, in the con- struction that would be put upon it by any of our courts ; and must now turn to the Federal Constitution, and examine the law in question by that. " The words of the stipulation contained in our national instrument are these: 'No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such seivice or labor shall be due.' MANHOOD. 201 " The first question is, whether, under this provision, Congress have a right to pass any law on the subject. The legislative power of that body is derived either from express provisions, as in the section preceding the one just quoted, where it is authorized by general laws to prescribe the manner in which the public acts and records of one State may be proved in another; or from the general pro- vision empowering it to make all laws that shall be neces- sary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States. (Art. 1.) Now, with respect to fugitives from labor, there is certainly no express provision ; and it is equally certain, that the clause above given vests no power in the government of the United States. How, then, can Congress legislate on the subject ? Is there any power bestowed on the general government, to carry which into execution re- quires a law to be passed affecting fugitives from labor ? If the precedent relied on by the court in this case have any weight, it must be because it has gone upon the ground that there was some such power ; as in those well-known cases where concurrence of opinion has settled the constitution- ality of some point, it has been upon the basis that some power directly given the government could not be carried into execution without the law then under debate ; that is, the opinion settled, not the existence of a power, but the necessity of a certain law to carry into execution a power plainly given. Now, if any court can find a power so given, which cannot be carried into execution without a law touching fugitives from labor, it may use, as the United States court has done, the doctrine of precedent from con- tinued legislation, but not otherwise. The clause of the Constitution above cited does not, as we conceive, give such a power, nor does it need either a Federal or State law in order to be operative ; for the claimant might seize the per- son claimed as now, and the question of ownership be as 202 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. fully tried as at present, upon a writ of habeas corpus ; and the claimant proving his claim might take his slave, under the Constitution, without any law. " Such a gift of power, then, cannot, we think, le found ; and iue hold it, therefore, demonstrable, that Congress have no right, under the Constitution, to legislate on this sub- ject.. (Chase's Speech, pp. 19, 20, 21.) " This view is supported by the provision respecting pub- lic records, already referred to. Both of the first two sec- tions of the fourth article are to determine relations between States ; the first says that full faith shall be given in each State to the public records of all others, and authorizes Congress to regulate by law the proof and effect of such records. Would Congress have had this power without this express authority? No one can think it. Well, the second section says, first, that the citizens of each State shall have the privileges of citizens in all the States ; next, that a person flying from a State where he is charged with crime to'another, shall be delivered up to the executive of the State whence he fled ; arid last, that no person bound to service in one State shall fly to another, and by any law thereof be released from his obligation, but shall be deliv- ered to the parly entitled to his services ; and here the whole subject is dropped, no power is given to Congress to pass laws, nor to the government in any shape. The pur- pose of these two sections was to place these subjects, as far as the States were concerned, upon a sure basis, and not to leave them to the common law of nations. They are in the nature of a treaty between independent governments, and, having settled that certain things shall and shall not be done, leave it with those governments to say by law how they shall or shall not be ; making, however, one exception, and with respect to one subject giving the law-making power to a third party; which exception, if there had been nny doubt before, would surely prove that where the third party MANHOOD. 203 was not expressly ordered to regulate the manner of doing or preventing the things spoken of, there, beyond doubt, the power of regulation should remain with the two interested parties. (Chase's Speech, pp. 21, 22.) " Moreover, that these provisions are in the nature of a treaty is known by the fact that all of them, but this respect- ing fugitives from labor, were in the old Articles of Confed- eration ; they there gave the Federal government no power, but were mere articles of compact. There the clause respecting records stood, without any law-making power attached to it. When the Constitution was formed, Congress were empowered to legislate on this subject ; while the others remained as before, and a new clause was added in the form which the whole had under the old Confedei'a- tion. These considerations, urged with great force by Mr. Chase, seem to us unanswerable. " But we have another point yet to consider. It is this. Even if Congress have a constitutional right to legislate respecting fugitives from labor, is the existing law constitu- tional ? " Of this law we have as yet given no account ; but of all the legislative monsters that disgrace American statute- books, this is surely one of the strangest and vilest. Act of February 12, 1793, 3. By this act, the claimant of any fugitive from labor may seize said alleged fugitive, without writ or legal authority of any kind, take him or her before any justice of the peace of any city, town, or county ; and having by written or oral evidence or affidavit established to the satisfaction of the justice his claim, he shall be enti- tled to a certificate, under which he may carry the alleged fugitive from the State, and no one may hinder. The per- son arrested or seized has no notice given, no time to collect witnesses, no power of cross-examination, no jury or bench of magistrates to hear the cause, no appeal, no right to a new trial in any form. The justice receives no 204 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. pay from the United States, but must look to tlie claimant, and may receive a thousand dollars as a fee. He cannot be removed for what he does by the Federal government, for he is a State officer ; he cannot be touched by the State for what he does as a Federal officer ; and stands irresponsible, bribed by the law to take bribes, vested with the power of judging instantly, upon ex parle evidence, upon the oath of one interested man, and authorized to decide finally and for ever upon the freedom, probably the perpetual freedom, of as many as may be dragged to his bar.* Is it said that in this country such a power will be rarely exercised, we must answer, that it is exercised con- tinually. Since we began this article, we have heard of a case wherein it was shown in all its excellence! A mulatto boy, who had been in the service of a barber at Cincinnati for a year or more, was one morning, while shaving a cus- tomer, laid hold of and carried off to the magistrate's, as a fugitive from labor. His master went to an attorney and asked him to hurry, and try to help the lad ; he went, found that the magistrate had been unable to attend to the case, and had sent the parties to another justice. The lawyer has- tened to him ; he had been unable to hear the case also, and the claimant and colored boy had crossed the street to the mayor's. To the mayor's office the advocate posted, and was there just in time to see the certificate sealed, which consigned the youth to hopeless servitude ! " It needs no argument to prove that this law, which in- vests the lowest judicial individuals of our country wilh a process more summary, one-sided, final, and unquestionable * We know of no provision bv which the question of freedom may be tried in a Slave State, but by habeas corpus. Tlie hopelessness of a fair trial under that, when one party holds the other as his slave, has the magistrate's certificate, and is among his friends and depend- ents, while the other is ignorant, away from those that know him, without money, and must bear the burden of proof, is self-evident. MANHOOD. 205 than any other known among us, and that, too, with respect to an almost certain loss of freedom, is utterly opposed to the whole spirit of our Constitution and laws. The Star- Chamber of Elizabeth was far less fearful, far less anti- republican ; and had this law been put into execution against whites instead of blacks, it could not have stood one year. " But it is not only opposed to the purpose of our Consti- tutions, but is at open variance with their language. That of the Union says, ' The right of the people to be secure in their persons, against unreasonable seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath.' (Amend., Art. 4.) And again, ' No person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law.' (Ibid., Art. 5.) If these clauses have force or meaning, the law under consideration is wholly unconstitu- tional. Let no one say, that, because the law in this case makes the individual arrest the proper proceeding, there- fore this is legal process ; those words have a technical meaning, and the reference to the warrant shows that the Constitution used them in that meaning. " So stand the Constitution and laws of the United States respecting blacks claimed as runaway slaves ; for upon them the weight of suffering falls. Let us, for the sake of deepening our impressions, suppose a like power given as respects whites. For instance, a white and black live side by side, equally respectable and industrious. A man comes to town and accuses the black of being a slave, of having been unfortunate, not criminal ; he is taken at once, con- victed upon the oath of his accuser, and delivered up to slavery. Another person accuses the white of havincr been guilty of burglary ; suppose the law authorized this accuser to drag the accused before a magistrate, and have him con- victed at once by affidavit, without cross-examination, and without time given to collect counter-evidence, and allowed the magistrate to send him to Louisiana in charge of his VOL. i. 18 206 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. accuser, to prove his innocence there if he could, but held to be guilty unless he could prove it, and held, too, with all those disadvantages which the slave labors under. What would the subjects of the. tyrant of Austria say to such a law as this ? And should the white accused of crime fare better than the black accused of misfortune ? But the black is claimed as property, it is said. Well, and the claimant is opposed by the black as counter-claimant ; he is both prop- erty and owner. And what should we say of the law that should allow the Mississippian to come here, claim a white man's whole wealth, establish his claim by oath, and carry it home with him ? This is done in the case of the black considered as property. " But it is said again, the alleged fugitive from justice from another State is claimed from us, and we deliver him up under the United States law without scruple ; and we have no more right to think the black will not be tried fairly, when we deliver him up, than that the accused criminal will not be. To this we need but say, that the executive of a State, or the State itself, claims and takes in one instance, a private individual in the other ; and that we do know that, in all the Slave States, the white criminal stands an infinitely better chance to have justice done him, than a black held as a slave under a certificate from the magistrate of a Free State does to obtain freedom. And as citizens of the United States, as men and Christians, we have no right to shut our eyes on this knowledge ; if we do so, on the ground that we are not called on to know the laws of other States, and so the freeman is enslaved, surely we are no better than kid- nappers in the eyes of God. But no thinking man will con- found the case of the criminal, who is demanded by a State, taken by a public officer, carried to the spot where it is said he committed a crime, and must there be tried, and his guilt proved to a jury, he having been first presented by a grand jury, and that of the slave, taken by an individ- MANHOOD. 207 ual, carried his friends know not where, and who, to ob- tain his freedom, must, in a strange land and under countless disadvantages, prove he is free, instead of having it proved that he is not free. " Many trials have been made to have the existing law altered, but neither North nor South is willing to move in the matter. The right of Congress to pass a law, although very debatable, will not be disputed by any court, we sup- pose ; the policy of a Federal provision, and the acquiescence hitherto, will prevent it. But THE EXISTING LAW is CLEARLY OPPOSED TO THE WORDS OF THE CONSTITUTION." Against the disgraceful Black Laws of Ohio Mr. Per- kins bore earnest testimony in public and in private, and was indefatigable in demanding more righteous legislation. He was a steady opponent, also, to the admission of Texas, except as a Free State ; and as a preacher, public debater, and- through the press, used all the influence he could exert against the extension of slavery. But though an undisguised adversary of the slave power, in all its policy, partisan, ecclesiastical, and commer- cial, he yet sustained no such relation to the Anti- slavery movement as to be called an Abolitionist. What he said and did was as an individual, on his own respon- sibility, according to his own judgment, and in bis own way. He was a free man, who would never permit others to impose servile restraints upon his liberty of conscience, utterance, or action ; but he scrupulously checked himself, and was ever watchful against fanati- cism, partial views, or revolutionary outbreaks. His most positive manifestation of respectful sympathy to- wards the negro race was in his treatment of the colored citizens of Cincinnati. And here he set an example well worthy of being universally followed. He visited them 208 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. at their homes and places of business, addressed their public assemblages, lectured in their lyceum, preached in their pulpits, encouraged their associated action, con- tributed to their charitable funds, and, above all, cooperat- ed in the establishment of their schools. When, on one occasion, the enthusiastic Hiram Gilmore, who, for a number of years, was the teacher of a colored school, made an appeal to the public, Mr. Perkins preached on the subject, and raised a contribution from among his people in their behalf, which unlocked for response was received with equal pleasure and surprise. Pie was pertinacious also in demanding, either that colored children should have free access to the public schools, or else that a fair proportion of the school-tax levied on their parents should be appropriated to their use. For, what- ever difficulties he felt as to the immediate measures of the Abolitionists, he had not a doubt in regard to the eventual emancipation of the slaves throughout our land ; and was convinced of the urgent duty, as well as policy, of fitting the colored race for full participation in all so- cial, civil, and religious privileges. Chief among the means of thus preparing them for the functions of repub- lican equality was, of course, Education. EDUCATION, indeed, regarded as a science and an art, was a cause that always called out Mr. Perkins's highest enthusiasm. One of his first efforts as an edi- tor, when he took charge of The Western Monthly Mag- azine, in 1832, was to call the attention of his fellow- citizens to the importance of elevating the standard of teaching, of fitting instructors for their responsible office, and securing the most thorough, physical, intellectual, and moral training for the children of all classes. In the MANHOOD. 209 pages of that review, as well as in the Chronicle and Mir- ror, in lucid and complete summaries he presented the plans of Pestalozzi, Fellenberg, and of the German and French governments, and thenceforth used every accessi- ble means for advancing the Free School System of Ohio. But not with pen alone did he aid this great republican movement. From his entrance upon Western life until his death, he took an efficient part in upholding the high character 'of the Cincinnati schools. " I know," says the patriarch among the Trustees and Visitors of the Queen City, Mr. Nathan Guilford, " that Mr. Perkins was one of the most active, punctual, and zealous friends of education among us, and that to his counsel and labors our schools are much indebted for their past progress and present prosperous condition. I have just finished the examination of over one hundred and thirty schools, with their six thousand scholars, and could not but feel what a source of gratification their success must be to all who directly or indirectly have labored for their establish- ment." And Mr. William Greene, who for many years has made it his pride and pleasure to be the friend alike of teachers and children in Cincinnati, adds this tribute to the worth of Mr. Perkins's exertions : " He was three times elected a member of the Board of Examin- ers of the Common Schools, resigned twice, and under his last election continued a member until his death. He was three years in succession elected a member of the Board of Visitors of the Schools, and for one year was its president. In these several stations his labors were remarkable for punctuality and completeness. He never left unfinished or to be done by others the work that properly belonged to himself. So quietly, however, were his public offices performed, that the amount of his 18* 210 LIFE OF JAMES H. PERKINS. exertions might easily have been overlooked except by careful observers. He never did any thing for eflect, and therefore, though always busy, attracted little atten- tion from the busy world. He was eminently one of those the truly great who are felt in a thousand minute and deep relations to society, exerting the most invigorating influence, without being seen, or wishing to be seen. Thus was it in his relations to our schools." Mr. Perkins was also a member of the Board of Trus- tees in the Cincinnati College for several years, and for a considerable time acted as its secretary. It was in this capacity that he came into intimate intercourse with Pro- fessor O. M. Mitchell, whose friendship he justly valued, and with whose devoted labors he rejoiced to cooperate. How high was Mr. Mitchell's estimate of his services will appear from the following letter. " I became acquainted with Mr. Perkins soon after my ar- rival in this city in 1832, but our intimacy dates from about 1836, when the Cincinnati College was reorganized, and he became one of the Board of Trustees of that institution. In 1839-40 we were associated in forming a Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, which continued to exert some influence in our city for two years, and opened the way for the enterprise which ended in the erection of the Cincinnati Observatory. Mr. Perkins, as a Trustee of the College, as a Director in the Society first named, and as one of the Board of Control of the Cincinnati Astronomical So- ciety, always exerted a most powerful influence over those with whom he was associated. He was one of the very few on whom the most implicit reliance might be placed in the hour of greatest difficulty. He was slow to adopt any new idea, or to receive into his confidence new enterprises ; but when, after deliberation, he once gave his hearty approval MANHOOD. 211 to any great or noble undertaking, it was not merely an ap- proval. He was ever ready to work for it, and to contribute in every way to promote its accomplishment. " From the organization of the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, Mr. Perkins was one of its officers ; and although our pursuits were different, yet in all the efforts which I have been making, in and out of the Observatory, if to others I looked for pecuniary aid, it was to Mr. Perkins I went for that intellectual sympathy so grateful to one who is obliged to struggle in almost absolute isolation. His mind was emi- nently clear and comprehensive, and although he was no- wise devoted to pure science, yet he never failed to show so ready and strong an apprehension of whatever topic was fairly brought before it, that one was sure of a just appre- ciation of his views, however new. The last day we spent together was in the Observatory. He wished to understand the new methods of observing recently introduced in this institution, and to compare them with those elsewhere em- ployed. For this purpose long and minute explanations were made of details, to which previously he could have given no attention. Yet I have no doubt that he compre- hended the entire scope of the problem ; and had he lived, he would have presented to the world a luminous exhibition of the relative advantages of these methods of scientific re- search. It was his intention to write upon the subject, and I presume an unfinished paper will be found among his manuscripts." Necessity and inclination conspired to bring Mr. Per- kins into yet nearer relations with the band of educators, who may so truly be called spiritual parents. A year after he had entered upon his labors as Minister at Large, it was found that the salary raised for the support of his office was so very inadequate that he must either abandon the enterprise or procure some independent resources. 212 LIFK OF JAMF.S II. PKKKIXS. He did not hesit;ite, hut at once proposed to open a school for young ladies. How high \vas his reverence for woman and her function has already appeared ; and now it was a mailer of self-congratulation that lie; could actively participate in raising the standard of female edu- cation. With the respect felt for him, there was of course no difficulty in surrounding himself with a "hoiee circle of scholars, to whose culture he at once sedulously devoted his leisure hours. In their society he found re- freshment amidst his exhausting puhlie engagements. " My week is spent," he writes to a friend, " in visit- ing poor, sick, hliud, maimed, wicked, wretched chil- dren of mortality, relieving the melancholy monotony of such duties hv a daily three hours' converse with eiidit or ten hopeful young maidens. If I were to ohey ihe wishes of my ' depraved nature,' 1 might join you at trout-fishing, hut I have a ' mission ' amidst the dust, sweat, sickness, and nonsense of Cincinnati ; and were I to desert, the memory of my unfaithfulness would spoil the flavor of the richest trout. So much for a fixed idea. 1 ' Of Mr. Perkins's skill and success as an educator, the hcst proof may he found in the following letters from two of his pupils. " With joyful alacrity I add my mite to the materials from whirl) you meditate giving to the world the memoirs of my revered teacher. It is about Mr. Perkins the impersona- tion*of my ideal of all that is glorious in man that I am to speak. () that I could speak as I feel, as thoughts of his many virtues, great natural and acquired intellectual powers, and beautiful peculiarities, come rushing upon me! If I could take you with me into that pleasant lillle room, sacred as our school-room, and show you that table with the youth- ful band gathered around it, and their minds' father at its MANHOOD. 213 head, and if you could see with what breathless attention and delight they listen to his words, you would know that their hearts were his. Then, could you hear his questions, so varied in tone and manner, and hear in turn the fearless answers, you would know that he understood each one's character, and was ready to do justice to each one's opinion. We loved him as a parent and friend, while we revered him as a superior being. The sympathy he always expressed in our feelings and doings elicited from us the most perfect confidence. If we were happy we must tell him, that his smile might perfect our happiness ; if sad, he condoled with us ; if in perplexity, he advised. He seemed to understand and come down to all our little trials, and not feel it a come- down either. " He would draw a lesson 'from every thing. Often our books were unopened during the three or four hours we re- mained with him, and yet we went away with some great lesson imprinted upon' our memory, never to be effaced, called forth by an apparently slight remark from one of us. It was principally by conversation that he taught us, and I never knew any one who could lead a conversation so well, and draw out others' ideas so entirely. He had a vast amount of general knowledge, well digested, stored away, labelled, and lying quietly in its place until wanted ; then it was all ready for use. We thought he knew every thing. He ever mingled the moral with the intellectual, and gave the former the precedence, though he thought it every one's duty to cultivate to the utmost each mental faculty ; for he used to say, *All knowledge will be of use in another world, where we can go on advancing gloriously when freed from the pressure of mortality.' He thought that people do wrong in paying particular attention to capacities which are natu- rally precocious, and desired rather that dormant ones should first be awakened. He had an utter aversion to any thing like parrotism ; originality of mind was his delight. 214 LIFE OF JAMES II. PERKINS. Consequently, his favorite authors were those whom he con- sidered bold, free thinkers. He always wished us to give our reasons for holding any opinion, and thus endeavoured to prevent our adopting views without reflection. He thought politics an essential part of a female's education ; and to rouse us to acquire a knowledge of such subjects, he read to us from the newspapers daily, and discussed with us the great questions of the day. How we enjoyed those argu- ments ! He would propose a question, and we, having made up our minds for or against it, argued with him and each other. Always we felt at perfect liberty to ask him about any thing that we did not understand, and he would explain so delightfully ! In our studies he endeavoured to have some- thing to exercise each faculty of the mind alternately. We never had arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and then history, geography, biography ; but arithmetic, history, rhetoric, then algebra, mechanics, logic, &*c. " We read aloud to each other a great deal when he was not with us, poetry and prose alternately. lie selected for us. Afterwards we wrote out our impressions of the authors' merits, and quoted passages that pleased us. We read most of Scott's novels during school hours. This many persons considered a waste of time, but he thought they con- tained a combination of instruction which could scarce be found elsewhere. He desired that the imagination should be particularly cultivated, as refining the whole mind, and add- ing beauty to virtue. He liked to have us write stories once in a while. We habitually wrote compositions. When he gave us subjects they were of this nature: ' What