They would never defile the lips of Marcus S., Channing, or Mr. Downing. And as regards the fashionable circles, it must be acknowledged that they are not considered the highest here. One hears people spoken of here as being "above fashion," and by this is meant people of the highest class. It is clear to me that there is here an aristocracy forming itself by degrees which is much higher than that of birth, property, or position in society; it is really the aristocracy of merit, of amiability, and of character. But it is not yet general. It is merely as yet a little handful. But it grows, and the feeling on the subject grows also.

I have been to a charming little dinner at Professor Howe's, where I met Laura Bridgeman. She is now twenty; has a good, well-developed figure, and a countenance which may be called pretty. She wears a green bandage over her eyes. When she took my hand, she made a sign that she regarded me to be a child. One of the first questions which she asked me was, "How much. money I got for my books?" A regular Yankee question, which greatly delighted my companions, who, nevertheless, prevented its being pressed any further. I asked Laura, through the lady who always attends her, if she were happy. She replied with vivacity, and an attempt at a sound which proved that she could not sufficiently express how happy she was. She appears, indeed, to be almost always gay and happy; the unceasing kindness and attention of which she is the object prevents her from having any mistrust of mankind, and enables her to live a life of affection and confidence. Dr. Howe, one of those dark figures whom Alcott would regard as offspring of the night that is to say, with dark complexion, dark eyes, black hair, and a splendid energetic countenance, but with a sallow complexion-is universally known for his ardent human love, which induced him to fight for the freedom of the Greeks and Poles, and, finally, to devote

himself to those whose physical senses are in bonds. His acquaintance is valuable to me, for his own sake, though I shall not be able to enjoy much of his society. He appears, like me, to suffer from the climate, and from the over-exciting nature of the food of the country. His wife is a most charming lady, with great natural gifts, fine education, and great freshness of character. Two lovely little girls, red and white as milk and cherries, as soft as silk, fresh and fair as dew-drops, even in their dress, came in at the end of dinner, and clung caressingly around the dark, energetic father. It was a picture that I wished Alcott could have seen.

I think of remaining here about fourteen days longer, to allow the homeopathic remedies time to effect their work in me. My good doctor comes to me every day, and it is a joy to me merely to see him. I am indescribably thankful for the good which I experience and have experienced from homeopathy, and am thinking continually how good it would be for you.

Rich I certainly shall not become here, my sweet child, because I have here neither time nor inclination to write any thing. But my journey, thanks to American hospitality, will not cost me nearly so much as I expected. And if some of my friends might rule, it would not cost me any thing-I should live and travel at the expense of the American people; but that would be too much.

It is horrible weather to-day-pouring rain and strong wind. I was rejoicing in the hope of being left at peace in consequence of the weather, but I was not able to say no to a couple of visitors, one of whom had called with the intention of taking me to an evening party, the other to ask me to sit for my portrait. But they both received a negative.

I have just received the most beautiful bouquet from a young lady friend-a great number of beautiful small flowers arranged in the cup of a large snow-white Calla

Ethiopica; and but few days pass without my receiving beautiful bouquets of flowers from known or unknown friends. This is very sweet and beautiful toward a stranger; and to such I never say no, but am right thankful both for the flowers and the good-will.

Now adieu to this long, chatty epistle, and a hearty à Dieu to my little friend.

LETTER X.

Boston, February 1st.

MOST hearty thanks, my dear little heart, for your letter of the 15th of December: it is so inexpressibly dear to me to hear and see how things are at home, as well in the little as the great. If you only had not your usual winter complaint. Ah that winter! but I am glad, nevertheless, that you feel a little better in December than in November, and assure myself that in January you will be better still. And then comes the prospect of summer and the baths of Marstrand. Mamma writes that you were evidently stronger for your summer visit to Marstrand. And you will be yet stronger still after your next summer's visit. But your ideal that farm-yard servant girl, who took the bull by the horns, when will you come up to that?

My strength has increased considerably for some time, thanks to my excellent Dr. Osgood and his little nothingpowders and globules. And when I feel myself well my soul is cheerful and well, and then my mind is full of thoughts which make me happy; then I am glad to be on the Pilgrims' soil-that soil which the Pilgrim Fathers, as they are here called, first trod, first consecrated as the home of religious and civil liberty, and from which little. band the intellectual cultivation of this part of the world proceeds and has proceeded.

It was in the month of December, 1620, when the little

ship, the "Mayflower," anchored on the shore of Massachusetts with the first Pilgrims, one hundred in number. They were of that party which in England was called Puritan, which had arisen after the Reformation and in consequence of it, and which required a more perfect Ref ormation than that which Luther had brought about. But they desired more; to give full activity to the truth which Luther promulgated when he asserted man's direct relationship to God through Jesus Christ, denying any right of the Church or of tradition to interfere in the determination of that which should be believed or taught, and demanding liberty for every human being to examine and judge for himself in matters of faith, acknowledging no other law or authority than God's word in the Bible. The Puritans demanded on these grounds their right to reject the old ceremonial of the Established Church, and in the place of those empty forms, the right to choose their own minister; the right to worship God in spirit and in truth, and the right of deciding for themselves their form of church government. Puritanism was the rising of that old divine leaven which Christ had foretold should one day "leaven the whole lump" of the spiritual life of liberty in Jesus Christ. The charter of freedom given by him was the watch-word of the Puritans. With this in their hand and on their lips they dared to enter into combat with the dominant Episcopal Church; refused to unite themselves. with it, called themselves Non-conformists, and held separate assemblies or religious conventicles. The State Church and the government rose in opposition, and passed an act against conventicles.

But the Puritans and the conventicles increased year by year in England. Noble priests, such as Wickliff, and many of the respectable of the land, became their adherQueen Elizabeth treated them, however, with caution and respect. Her successor, King James, raved blindly gainst them, saying, "I will make them conform, or I will

ents.

harry them out of the land; or worse, only hang them-that is all!" And the choice was given them, either to return to the State Church or imprisonment and death. This only strengthened the opposition; "for," says Thomas Carlyle, otherwise tolerably bitter in his criticism on human nature, "people do human nature an injustice when they believe that the instigation to great actions is self-interest, worldly profit, or pleasure. No; that which instigates to great undertakings, and produces great things, is the prospect of conflict, persecution, suffering, martyrdom, for the truth's sake."

In one of the Northern counties of England, a little company of men and women, inhabitants of small towns and villages, united in the resolve to risk all for the open acknowledgment of their pure faith, conformably with the teachings of which they determined to live. They were people of the lowest condition, principally artisans or tillers of the soil; men who lived by the hard labor of their hands, and who were accustomed to combat with the severe circumstances of life. Holland at this time offered to them, as it did to all the oppressed combatants for the truth, a place of refuge; and to Holland the little knot of Puritans resolved to flee. They escaped from their vigilant persecutors through great dangers, and Leyden, in Holland, became their city of refuge. But they did not prosper there; they felt that it was not the place for them; they knew that they were to be pilgrims on the earth seeking a father-land; and amid their struggles with the hard circumstances of daily life, the belief existed in their souls that they were called upon to accomplish a higher work for humanity than that which consisted with their present lot. They felt themselves moved by zeal and by hope. to make known the Gospel, and extend the kingdom of Christ in the far distant land of the New World; yes, if they even should be merely as stepping-stones for others to carry forth so great a work.”

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