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tion before the community as a minister of religion; and last and best, when all the circumstances are considered, he had put the keystone in his dome of a life devoted to liberty, by appearing as the earnest advocate of the rights of the slave. With a few words descriptive of his virtues in these three relations of social, religious, and political life we will conclude this imperfect notice, wishing greatly that we had space to make extracts from his interesting journals and letters.

As a friend, it seems to us, that Dr. Follen was in the only sense in which the word is applicable to human beings, perfect. All who knew him at all saw how perennial was his goodness of heart.

"But," as the memoir beautifully says, "none, but those who lived in the strictest intimacy with him, could know how true he was to his own principles; how he hallowed the meanest occupations, and gave a sanctity and grace to what might be called the drudgery of life, by the love and patience with which he performed every such labor. None, but those who were the objects of his unfailing love, could appreciate the sweetness and fidelity, with which he ministered to the most insignificant, as well as the highest, wants of all who were dependent upon him.' pp. 259, 260.

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His treatment of Wit, for example, who was a snake in his bosom, was in the highest style of virtue, first seeking to elevate him; and when finding his faithful efforts fruitless, saying with a smile to those who were anxious to open his eyes to the real character of the traitor, "I know all that you would say; but what will become of him, if we all cast him off and leave him to his folly?" And even when Wit grossly abused him in a pamphlet, he only calmly said, "He is a fool," and never thought of it again. The Memoir is full of illustrations of the tenderness and beauty of his affections, and the genuineness of his disinterested love for good and bad, rich and poor, old and young; but we have no room to quote them. In the beautiful words of his biographer "all the minor and comparatively insignificant cares of life took their right place in his presence; the spirit of complaint stood rebuked before him; joy, a pure joy, full of faith and immortality, pervaded his whole being, and communicated itself to all who had the privilege of living with him." He acted fully out the principle laid down by himself, "He alone is a great man who can say before God, as to personal affairs, I am always inclined to

sacrifice my own pretensions and feelings, to gratify those of others." There was no resisting the charm of his gentle manners, at once so modest and manly; and the simplicity of his kindness had for his acquaintance a sweetness like the fresh innocence of a child. It seemed as if suspicion or prejudice could never for an instant blind him; and with the eye of confidence and sympathy he looked beneath disguises to the goodness vital in the soul. Men felt better in his presence than they had thought themselves to be, and left him animated with new hope.

It was this genuine respect and love for man, which made Dr. Follen so influential as a minister of religion. In his look and tone yet more than in his words, was the expression of a soul which had inspired the airs of the world of peace, and longed to breathe refreshment upon others. The statement of his thoughts was sometimes dry from the scrupulous clearness with which he sought to unfold them; but his manner was always eloquent with an aspiration after goodness that never faltered, a hope that nothing could dim, and a most affecting earnestness and simplicity. He was most successful in his extempore addresses. Then thought seemed pouring out from deep inward stores in language made fluent by his fervor. Occasionally great beauty of fancy played over the surface of his argument. But the essential quality of his style of preaching was clearness and depth of moral conviction. The great themes on which he loved to dwell were "Immortality and Freedom." He felt, to use his own words, as if "there is such a thing as experience of immortality, even in this life," and seemed to regard all men as spirits who had already entered on a career, which would brighten from glory to glory' forever; death was to him the mere laying aside of a vesture too small for the expanding soul to wear; and in his earnestness of hope, while he spoke upon this animating topic," he wist not that his face shone." His genuine faith in human freedom showed itself in his manner of addressing and treating men, yet more than in the high principles he professed and inculcated. He never dogmatized, never demanded assent in his mature years, as he may have done in youth; but appealed to every hearer as the final judge in matters of opinion and of duty. To one who knew the circumstances of his life, it was indeed most apparent, that the wrongs he had personally suffered in his defence of human rights had

awakened in him an habitual reverence for the sacredness of every soul. This gave him his power. He made reason and conscience within each hearer's breast stand at the bar in witness of the truth he taught. He aroused men to do themselves justice, and to learn the wealth of their own experience. But his interest in great convictions and principles did not blind him to the lowly beauties of life. There are sweet touches through his discourses, which show how delicate was his own spiritual sensibility, and how tenderly he could nurture the feeblest flowers of feeling in other hearts. Had he been settled as a pastor, and had an opportunity to attach a people to himself by the invisible threads, fast growing to indissoluble bands of mutual confidences and humble charities, we are sure that he would have been a preacher of the very highest excellence, with a great range of subjects, abundant illustrations drawn from common life, broad good sense, a style of pungent directness, and the unaffected pathos of true affection. Taking even his printed sermons as they are, we think it would not be easy to name many equals and very few superiors to him, as a pulpit orator. In his relation of a religious friend and pastor, it is impossible that he should have been surpassed.

Justice has probably been done to Dr. Follen, as a minister of religion. But our community is hardly yet enough advanced to give him the due meed of respect for his prompt, devoted, and uncompromising advocacy of anti-slavery. The time is nigh, however, when this will be done. The stand he took before the Massachusetts Legislature, in the winter of 1836, at a time when the Attorney-General of the State had declared the opinion, that abolitionists were guilty of an offence against the laws of their country, and were liable to prosecution; when the Governor had allowed himself to seem at least the supporter of this charge; when the wealthy and powerful of the city had arrayed themselves against this small band of persecuted men and women; and when only one or two ministers of his own denomination had come forward in support of justice; was perhaps the noblest act of his life. History has woven this picture with bright colors into the tapestry that hangs the walls of our national temple; and the figure of Follen, firm and meek, stands forever among our heroes and sages. Was it not enough to reward him for all his sufferings in the cause of freedom, thus to have the privilege of leading, like a scarred and trusted veteran, this army of martyrs ? Few of

us probably entered into his feelings, or measured the extent of the trial which he saw himself called to bear. An exile, he had found a home; severed from parents and brothers, he had gained friends dear to him as life and dependent upon his exertions; expelled from stations of honorable usefulness in his native land, he had won, though a foreigner, a commanding position here; he was in a situation that promised support for his family, after hard struggles with narrow circumstances in which he had contracted debts; and was gratifying the fondest wish of his heart in becoming a preacher of heavenly truth, in a denomination with whose principles he could sympathize, when he saw it to be his duty to join the anti-slavery society. He took this step not hastily but deliberately, with the distinct knowledge that he was thus destroying all hopes of a permanent connexion with the college, shutting himself out from the friendship of many whom he honored, preventing probably his settlement as a pastor, and raising up a whirlwind of calumny and insult. But for one whose life had been a contest for freedom there was no alternative. Once more he offered all he held dear as a sacrifice to conscience; and a gentle tolerance that nothing could ruffle was the garland with which he decked it.

We have purposely omitted a consideration of Dr. Follen's intellectual and literary character, partly because an adequate criticism and discriminating judgment would require more space than we can rightly occupy; still more, because it might impair the unity of the effect, which his singularly beautiful career, as a teacher by deeds and example, is fitted to produce. His efforts in a literary way were but digressions from the grand moral work, which, under providence and spiritual guidance, he had the honor to accomplish. Neither time nor leisure permitted him to do justice to his intellectual powers among us. And perfect in form, lucid in arrangement, clear in method, graceful and beautiful often in style, instructive from their learning and suggestions as his lectures are, they must be considered but fragmentary, mere indications of the rich veins which he had no opportunity to work. To all his other disappointments was added this sore one for the scholar, that he was forced to fritter away, in constant changes and a routine of multifarious occupations, hours which he longed to consecrate to some grand and worthy composition. But why regret this? He taught a "Moral Philosophy" in the sweet dignity of a gentle, cheerful, loving life, in steady exercise of

a great hope and courage to which all sacrifices were easy. He wrote a "Science of the Soul" on the hearts of constant friends, and chance acquaintance, and the communities he passed through, in lines of sympathy which shall brighten forever.

It is frankly admitted, that this notice of Charles Follen is written in a tone of panegyric which his modest spirit may disapprove; but though there is a form of virtue, yet larger and more beautiful than that he wore, we yet calmly think he was a man entitled to the heartiest praise for earnestness of moral purpose and purity of life; and it is with feelings of grateful reverence that we lay this funeral wreath upon his

monument.

W. H. C.

LATIN HYMN.

"Lux ecce surgit aurea.'

SEE the golden morning rises,
Pallid shadows haste away;
Headlong night no more surprises,-
Leads no more the steps astray.

Light like this break in and scatter
Every cloud that shades the soul;
Nought deceptive may we utter,

No dark thoughts within us roll.

All day long may truth, presiding
Over hand and eye and tongue,
Word and look and action guiding,

Keep us pure, and make us strong.

When bright Morn with rosy touches
Lifts the windows of the sky,
Lo, a witness stands and watches
All we do with piercing eye.

And when Eve with dewy fingers

Spreads her veil and clouds the light,

Still that awful Presence lingers,

And that eye looks through the night.

L.

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