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Engraved ly H W Smith 
MEMOIR
BUTLER WILMARTH, M. D
One of the Victims of the late terrible Railroad
    Catastrophe at Norwalk Bridge, Ct.:
EXTRACTS PROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE
       AND MANUSCRIPTS.
\tf\ ill'01*    Hr'/ir
BY WM. H. FISH.
1
          BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS AND COMPANY.
         NEW YORK:
    FOWLERS AND WELLS.
            1854. 
■*
MVZ
 I  oo 
PREFACE.
  Here is  an unpretending Memoir of an unpre-
tending,  but  most excellent Man,  Christian, and
Physician.  Dr.  Wilmarth  was not widely known,
out of the  sphere of his professional practice, but
within that sphere, which was somewhat extended,
he was greatly respected, honored, and loved ; and
when the intelligence of his death at the fatal and
memorable  " Norwalk  Bridge,"  was  circulated
among those  who knew him,  I doubt if any other
victim of that terrible and  melancholy tragedy was
more sincerely and deeply lamented than he.  Oth-
ers were, indeed, whelmed in that  destruction who
were more eminent and better known to fame—some
who stood deservedly high  in public estimation, not
only for their  ability and acquirements, but for their
virtues and their useful  lives ; yet,  probably no one
of these was the  object of  more ardent affections  or
implicit  confidence.   How  heavily  the  calamitous
           A* 
IT
PREFACE.
 blow fell upon his stH-viviflg wife arid children, words,
 of course, cannot describe; but  every one  instinc-
 tively knows that it  must have  been  almost over-
 whelming.   Painful  would it be  to  attempt to lift
 the  vail which concealed their  grief and desolation!
 from the public view; and I will not here undertake
 the task.  Let the unaided reflection of  the reader,
 added to such  experience of similar suffering as  he
 may have, supply the deficiency.  And let it suffice
 for me to say  of  the  numerous  personal friends  of
 the good Dr.,  outside of his family circle, and more
 especially of the  members of The Hopedale  Com'
 munity, of which he was a beloved  associate,  that
 theirs was a no surface and transient grief, but that
 they are still sadly  conscious that they  have  sustain-
 ed  a great.and irreparable loss, by  his departure
from their midst.   Now that  he  is gone, they feel
 that they are deprived of the  presence of  one whose
place can hardly be filled by any other living man—
 especially as a Physician.
  Having been thus  highly esteemed by  his friends,
 and from the  necessities  of the  case, having also
 been hastily buried, without a convenient opportunity
 for  the preparation  of a suitable  Discourse for his
 funeral, or for the summoning of those interested in 
PREFACE.
V
him  thereto,  it was suggested and  advised  that  a
Memoir of his life  should be  prepared,  and that  I
should accomplish  the  work.   It was thought that
he was worthy of such  a record; and  that  though
dead, 6r rather  departed, he would thus still speak
to many for their good.   And, without going through
the formality of  apologizing for my unfitness for the
task, I will siiaply say,  that in  executing it, I have
■done the best I could under the circumstances. The
materials with which I had  to commence, were the
most scanty possible—almost  none,  excepting what
I had gathered from my own ten years' acquaintance
with him, and such facts as I could get from time
to time, and piece-meal, from his wife,  who  was re-
siding twelve miles distant  from me,  and whom  I
could not often see.  During  a portion of his life,
the Dr. kept a daily  Journal,  and  wrote out many
occurrences of his  early years, which might  have
been of great service to me, could I have obtained
them ; but, unfortunately, his too great modesty in-
duced him, a  few years since, to consign the whole
to the flames.  He did  not think his life marked and
important enough to be published to the world.
   I ought here  to say, however, what my  readers
wilt observe,  that I have been considerably indebted. 
vi
PREFACE.
to Mr. Phineas Field, and Dr. David Rice,  both of
Leverett, for much information concerning Dr. "VYil-
marth;  and I would here gratefully acknowledge my
obligations to them,  as  I  also  do to all others.who
have forwarded  me  letters, some of which  I have
found it convenient to publish.
  Let me  also  say, that I  have been  so situated,
during my writing of the  work, that  I have  been
unable to command many consecutive days to devote
to it; and have  often hastily written at fragments of
time that could not be well spared from pressing men-
tal and manual employments. Having labored under
these disadvantages,  the Memoir must, of necessity,
be a very imperfectly prepared one, and I am quite
conscious that it  is so.   Hence, it makes no preten-
sion to literary merit of  any kind, and is not,  there-
fore, sent  forth  to critics,  either for their praise or
censure, as a composition,  but principally to appre-
ciating  friends  and   acquaintances, as a memorial
of one whom they loved.   It is only a plain statement
of a plain man, both unexpectant and unambitious of
any other distinction than that which well-meant en-
deavors to add  to the  sum of  human  virtue  and
human happiness can justly claim.  My aim has not
been to  paint, or to give a fancy sketch of an ideal 
PREFACE.
vn
character, decorated with choice flowers of rhetoric ;
but merely to present such  a portrait of Dr. Wil-
marth, as his  friends would  recognize as  strictly
accurate,  and cheerfully accept and cherish, for the
original's sake.   To what  extent  I have succeeded
in doing this, I must leave those best acquainted with
him to judge ; trusting that they will not think I have
wholly  failed  in my endeavor.  But such as the
Volume is, it is offered to the friends of the departed,
as a tribute of respect and affection, which I can but
hope they will be able to receive  as not altogether
unworthy of him ; and to the general public as the
record of an upright  and useful life, a knowledge of
which cannot fail to exert a strong influence in favor
of  truth and  goodness.  I will   only add,  that,
aside from the interest which this  Volume will have
for the Dr.'s personal and  religious friends—for
whom  it is specially prepared—it  will be found,  I
think, to be  of  much  value, particularly  to  the
friends of Hygiene and Medical Reform, on account
of  the  Letters  and Lectures on  these general sub-
jects, which are herein published.   To these, there-
fore, I would  call particular  attention; confident
 that, coming from such a man—a man with so much
 medical knowledge, experience and skill,  and such 
vm
PREFACE.
 rare conscientiousness—they are of great value and
 well worth seriously pondering.
              THE LIKENESS
 Which embellishes this  Memoir,  is  from  a  steel
 engraving by H. W. Smith, of Boston, and will be
 recognized,  I think, by the Dr.'s friends, in general,
 as a very accurate one.   It is, at any rate, quite as
 accurate as the daguerreotype from which it was cop-
 ied, and superior to what was expected, under  the
 circumstances—Mr. Smith never having  seen the
 original in his life time.   It is, therefore, satisfactory
 to the  Dr.'s friends, and reflects credit  upon  the
 artist.
   And here  I take pleasure in saying to those who
 are especially interested in the matter,  that we are
 indebted for this valuable memento, to the generosi-
 ty of the President and  Directors of the New York
 and New Haven  Railroad Company, who very cor-
 dially furnished me with  the  means to defray the
 expense  of  it.   I use  the word  "generosity" in
reference to their donation, because they had  before
done for the  Dr's family what they considered justice
demanded in the case, and what was  satisfactory to
all interested.  They had paid  over to them the 
PREFACE.                   IX
sum of $5000, besides $200 in  addition, to defray
the incidental expenses of getting it.   I was, there-
fore, somewhat doubtful, in the premises, about ask-
ing for anything more ;  but was  so exceedingly anx-
ious for an engraving,  and  not knowing how to pro-
cure one, conveniently, otherwise, I decided to make
an appeal to the generosity of the Company, through
its honored  President,  Robert Schuyler, Esq.,  of
New York,  saying to him  that  the  cost of an en-
graving would be  sixty dollars, and if the Company
would  authorize him to pay  fifty dollars towards it,
the bereaved friends of the deceased would feel them-
selves  under obligations which they  would  ever
gratefully remember.   Few, if any, who knew of my
making the  request, thought it  would be granted ;
but I wrote  in faith, and soon received the following
gentlemanly and kind  reply, which  I gladly record
to the  honor of " Corporation,"  which is generally
said to be "soulless:"

      " Office of the New York and New Haven )
                Railroad Co., 2 Hanover Street.   )
                       « New Fork, October 15, 1853.
" Deae Sir :—
  " I regret that it has not been  in my power to acknowledge
the receipt of your esteemed favor of the 12th  hist, at an
earlier date;  but very pressing engagements have compel- 
X
PREFACE.
led me to postpone the pleasure of assuring you that your
wishes shall be gladly complied  with, to the full  amount
of the cost of the engraving, say sixty dollars.
  " Our Directors are, most of them, at  this moment, out
of town, and I do not wish you to consider this letter any
further in, reply to yours, than may be necessary to enable
you to rely upon the receipt of the money.
      " I am, very respectfully yours,
                                " Rouert Schuyler.
  « Wm, II. Fish."

   After the completion of the engraving, I forward-
ed  an imprint from it to  Mr.  Schuyler, and received
the following letter in answer :—
                      " Xeu> York, December 15,  1853.
" Deak Sir :—
  " I am in the receipt of your kind favor of the 13th
hist., accompanying the engraving of your esteemed friend,
Dr. Wilmarth.  I shall submit your  letter and the like-
ness of Dr. Wilmarth to our Directors at their next meet-
ing, and feel that I need not assure you of their interest in
the Memoir you have in hand,  and their continued sym-
pathy for the family and friends of the unfortunate suf-
ferer.
  " Enclosed, you  will please find the amount we were
glad to promise you.
      " I am, very respectfully, yours,
                           " Robert Schuyler,
                   " Pres't N. Y. & N. II. R. R. Co.
  " W. H. Fish."

  Hopedale, April 29, 1854. 
CONTENTS.
                  CHAPTER I.
His birth and adoption—His removal to Rowe and thence
  to Montague—His home influences and educational ad-
  vantages—His feeble  health  and visit to Narragansett
  Bay—Recovers his health—Studies his profession and
  commences its practice—Marries—His practice becomes
  extensive—Moves to Leverett—His practice and standing
  there, and his arduous and conscientious labors.     1.5

                  CHAPTER  II.
Some of his general qualities of head and heart—His per.
  sonal appearance and plain dress—His intellectual abili-
  ty—His humor  and  mirthfulness—His  benevolence—
  His reform spirit—His  compassion  for evil doers—His
  honesty—His artlessness and frankness—His kindness
  to children—His indifference to what  people might say
  of him.                                          31

                CHAPTER III.
Religious influence of his early life—Becomes personally
  religious—his interest in the Baptists and  rejection by
  them—His theology—Connects himself  with the Meth-
  odists, but is finally  cut off from them—A controver-
  sialist, but charitable and liberal—is generally recognized 
xu
CONTENTS.
   as a Christian where  he resides,  on account of the ex-
   cellency of his spirit and character—decline of his faith
   in the churches.                                   58

                 CHAPTER  IV.
His religion, a practical  one—His abolitionism, religious—
   His interest in tlie "  Practical Christian" movement of
   Adin Ballou and his  associates—Visits Millville  at the
   Ordination of  Win.  II. Fish—His impressions  of the
   meeting—His  lamentation  over  the  " Restorationist"
   cause—Non-Resistance—11 is connection with "Fraternal
   Community"—Letters.                             7c

                   CHAPTER V.
His purpose iu kaving  Leverctt—Enters into  partnership
   with Dr. David Rice—Moves to Ilopedale—Reluctantly
   resumes his profession—Trial of  his  Allopathic faith
   and  practice—Begins  to think favorably of Hydropathy
   —Goes to New  Lebanon  Watcr-Cure Establishment,
   where he  remained for a time incrjr/.— Writes home fa-
   vorable reports  of his experience  and observation—Re-
   turns  to  Ilopedale with improved health—His little
   faith in medicine and great faith in nature,  particularly
   manifest in an  interesting Letter to his  Son.        109

                 CHAPTER VI.
Commences   the  practice  of Hydropathy at Ilopedale—
   Goes to Lowell for a  brief season—Returns and opens
   a Water-Cure Establishment at Ilopedale—Small  suc-
   cess—Moves to New  Graefenberg. N. Y.—Lectures on
   Hydropathy in various places—Moves to New Lebanon
   —Enters into partnership with Dr. J. II. Hero, and in
   union they make a purchase at Westboro'—Leaves New 
CONTENTS.
XU1
  Lebanon and visits Hopedale—Moves to  Westboro'—
  A short sickness—Flattering  prospects—Visits Hope-
  dale—Goes to New York—Is brought home a corpse-
  Is conveyed to Hopedale—His funeral services and  hie
  burial.                                          135

                CHAPTERJII,
Additional remarks  on his character, particularly  as a
  Christian Physician.                               15»

                 CHAPTER  VIII.
Letters expressive of respeet and affection for the deceas-
  ed, and of condolence lor his bereaved family.      lb4

                 CHAPTER IX,
Letters from Dr.  Wilmarth.                         209

                   APPENDIX.
Dr. Wilmarth's  Remarks, at Hope Chapel,         225

Medical Delusions,                                  232

Extracts from a Lecture,                            242
Another Extract,
251 
 
MEMOIR.
                 CHAPTER I.
His birth and adoption—His removal to Rowe and thence
  to Montague—His home influences and educational ad-
  vantages—His feeble health and visit  to Narragansett
  Bay—Recovers  his health—Studies his profession and
  commences its practice—Marries—His practice becomes
  extensive—Moves to Leverett—His practice and standing
  there, and his arduous and conscientious labors.
Butler Wilmarth was born of humble and some-
what  obscure  parentage, in the town of  Norton,
Mass., December 18th, 1798; and  at the age of
two years he was adopted by Mr. Amos Wilmarth,
of Attleboro',  Mass., as his son, from whom  he re-
ceived his name.  Amos Wilmarth was a respectable
and worthy farmer,  and in comfortable, or moderate-
ly prosperous,  circumstances  in life.  About the
year 1810 or '11, he, with his family, left Attleboro'
and took up his residence in Rowe—-one of the North
Western towns of Massachusetts.  Here,  however,
they resided only some three or four years, when they
moved to  Montague, a town about forty miles dis- 
16         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
 tant from Rowe.  The lamented subject of this Me-
 moir remained in this family until he was of age ;
 and he seems to have received very much  the  same
 treatment that an own son  would  have received—
 especially from his adoptive father.
   But his situation in this home  of his  childhood
 and youth,  was far  from  being  favorable to  the
 development and  proper  culture of his intellectual
 and spiritual  nature,  and he often,  in after  life,
 expressed much regret that some of the circumstancef-
 and influences  by which  he was then surrounded.
 were so unfortunate and  deleterious.   He was not,
 indeed, more than ordinarily exposed to the grosser
 vices ;  but suffered for the want  of an affectionate T
judicious,  and wise mothers's care,  counsel and aid,
 as well as for the want  of intelligent and elevated so
 ciety, and enlightened  and liberal methods  of educa-
 tion.   Still, he ever cherished feelings of affectionate
 gratitude for the parental kindness and care which
 provided for him in childhood, and helped him up to-
maturity;  and he  never  failed  to manifest those
 feelings as  long as Mr.  and Mrs. Wilmarth lived,
 which was to extreme old  age.   His faithfulness to
them never failed, as all who knew him well, know
also that it could not fail—know that even as a simple 
            MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.          17

matter of conscience, or  from a mere sense of duty,
he could leave no moral or religious obligation unful-
filled.   Whom he owed,  he endeavored to pay ; and
whether the debt were pecuniary  or moral  in its na-
ture.
   About  the time that he became of age, he  was
very much out of health ;  and, with only two dollars
in his pocket, he went to the shore of Narragansett
Bay,  in Barrington, R. I., with the hope of improve-
ment.   His father Wilmarth, then considerably
reduced in property, kindly carried him in his wagon
a part of  the way, leaving him to continue his  jour-
ney alone, as best he could.  How  he reached the
place of his destination, is not known; but he reach-.
ed it in great feebleness  of health  and  somewhat
depressed in spirits.   He, however, found some kind
friends  amongst the  strangers in whose  midst  he
stopped, and they furnished him such employment,
on their farms and in other occupations, as he could
pursue with any advantage, and otherwise rendered
him assistance, so that he  was enabled to meet his'1
expenses,  and partially, at least, to secure the great,
object  of  which he was in pursuit.   He, therefore^
returned to the region of .Montague > in the course of
a few months, and looked  about him for some  life-,
            B 
18         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

occupation.  He had before,  it  is thought, had an
eye to the medical profession, and desired to prepare
himself  to enter upon it.  Indeed, he seems to have
had  an  instinctive tendency in this direction even
from early childhood.   When quite young, he would
often go into the fields for the purpose of collecting
various  kinds of medicinal plants, and was accus-
tomed to feel the pulse of  his  school-fellows and
playmates.   In consequence of this peculiarity, they
dubbed  him with the title of " Doctor."  But as he
had not the means to educate himself for the calling
thus indicated to him by nature, he must,  therefore,
wait till he  could procure them.  What should he
do ?  Hard work  at manual labor he had not  the
strength for; and he had enjoyed no other educa-
tional advantages than those afforded by the common
schools  around him, which were,  at  that time,  and
particularly in that region,  quite inferior; so that
he was  hardly qualified for any mere mental employ-
ment.   He had,  indeed, used his poor opportunities
and advantages for the  accumulation  of  knowledge,
wisely and well; and  had thought and read, much
beyond most young men of his class and circum-
 stances.  He,  however,  had only just begun the
wtfrk of mental culture and acquisition, and learned 
            MEMOIR OF  DB.  WILMARTH.         19

enough to know and to feel his own deficiencies—an
important point, it  is true, to be  reached in  educa-
tional progress,  yet not one  greatly encouraging  to
public effort in new and  responsible positions of in-
tellectual life.   But  he, nevertheless, ventured  to
make trial of that very common stepping-stone  to
the  "Professions"—the  situation  of a  country
school teacher ;—too  common  a  stepping-stone,  by
the way, for the prosperity and success of the cause
of Education.   For he who only takes upon himself
this important office, simply as  a temporary expedi-
ent, and as a mere aid,  pecuniary  or otherwise,  to
the prosecution of studies preparatory to his prospec-
tive calling, will seldom do full justice to himself  or
his pupils.   But Butler Wilmarth was not a man,
even thus early in  life, greatly to neglect  the per-
formance of either  a promised or an implied  duty ;
and I learn that, according  to the ideal of  the time
and places in which he taught, he was a respected,
faithful,  and  successful teacher.  The most of his
teaching was in  Montague,  though he taught one
term or more in Fitzwilliam,  N. H.
   At about the age of 23 years,  Mr. Wilmarth com-
menced the study of medicine with Wm. F. Sellen,
M. D., of Amherst, Mass.   Dr.  SeUen, as.  I  gather
            B* 
20         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTn.
from reliable sources,  was an  able,  well-educated,
and skillful  Physician; .and he  had  an extensive
practice, and was deservedly popular in his profess-
ion.  Whilst with him, Mr. Wilmarth paid his way,
by working on the Dr.'s land, and at such other out-
door employments as could be furnished him.  As,
however, there "was much of this manual labor to be
done, about his Preceptor's premises, he found that
he had but little time to study,  and was not making
much progress in his preparations for his chosen pro-
fession.   This he finally complained of to Dr. Sellen,
whose reply was,  that he  must then learn to  say
" No," when  called upon to  work more  than he
thought duty required ; and henceforth confine him-
self to the Office, and with greater resoluteness and
persistency.   This advice he followed, and was ever
after more just and generous to  himself  than he had
been.  He applied himself diligently to  his readings
and other preparations, and was able to  make satis-
factory improvement.  Having remained with Dr.
Sellen two years, he left him ; but soon  re-commenc-
ed his studies under the instruction and guidance of
Dr.-----Brigham, then of Greenfield.
  At this time he boarded  at his father  Wilmarth's,
and walked two miles to his recitations.  Dr.  Brig- 
             MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         21

 ham, however,  soon had an invitation, which  he
 accepted, to take charge of an Asylum,  or Hospital,
 in Hartford,  Ct. ;  and thus he gave up  his new stu-
 dent, to look elsewhere for assistance to continue the
 educational course upon which he had entered.  Being
 cut off, therefore, from this resource,  and no  other
 one  easily accessible opening before him, Mr. Wil-
 marth threw himself upon his own acquisitions and
 self-reliance, and commenced the practice of medicine
. himself,  on his own responsibility,  and  without Di-
 ploma or License.
    This new and responsible position he entered into
 in Montague ; and as he was well known there, and
 esteemed as an able and  excellent man, who would
 naturally succeed and rise in his profession; and was
 likewise recommended and  sustained by Dr. Sellen,
 who had great confidence and hope in him, he imme-
 diately secured patronage, and his practice gradually
 increased, till, in the course of a few years, it became
 extensive.   Dr. Sellen frequently  visited him, and
 called upon him to  consult with him in  difficult cases.
 That he had great  confidence in the skill of his pu-
 pil, the new Dr., will be readily inferred from the
 fact  that he employed him as his own physician for
 many years.   He  also ever cherished for Pr, Wil- 
'>2
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
marth the most ardent friendship—almost the  love
of a brother—and this continued till his death, which
took place somewhere about the year 1840.   Several
eminent physicians attended him in his last sickness,
but Dr.  Wilmarth  was his principal and constant
one.  This fact seems to reflect much credit upon a
man who prepared for, and entered upon the medical
profession, under so  many disadvantages as surround-
ed Dr. Wilmarth;  and who  had almost  wholly to
make himself and his reputation, as a Physician.  It
is for this reason that it is  mentioned here.
   Some three or four years after Dr. Wilmarth en-
tered upon his profession—about the year 1830—
he was called, as a Physician, to Mr. Joseph Osgood,
a highly respectable and influential farmer of Wen-
dell, a town adjoining Montague ; and his visits were
continued  through   several months.  During this
time, he  became intimately acquainted with Phila,
the daughter of Mr. Osgood, to whom he was some-
what more than ordinarily attracted, and  whom he
thought a congenial  and fit companion for him.   As
she  seems to have  been  in unity with him in this
opinion—or, at least, not averse to his entertaining it
for himself, and  inclined  to reciprocate  his esteem
 and affections—the intimacy was  persevered  in, 
           MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.         23

and resulted in their marriage, in the year  1831.
  Dr. Wilmarth's choice of a companion was  a most-
wise and fortunate one, and he always deemed it so.
Mrs.  Wilmarth  is now one of the most estimable of
women ;  and as  a wife and  a mother she has  ever
been among the most devoted, affectionate and faith-
ful.   Unassuming, modest, retiring,  amiable  and
gentle, and uniformly under  the guidance of  the
Christian spirit and Christian principles, she has fill-
ed her position in life, with unsurpassed grace and
fidelity.  She has been just such a wife as Dr. Wil-
marth needed—needed for both  sides of  his nature
and character ; the downward and the upward.  HeT
excellent judgment and almost unlimited forbearance
and patience,  were perfectly adapted to restrain and
subdue the one;  and her sympathy and interest in
all  that he  loved and  practiced  that  was good,
strengthened and encouraged the other, and did much
to hallow and to bless his earthly life.  And he fully
appreciated her in return; deeming her a model wife
and mother.  Being thus,  in  her mature life,  the
elements,  at  least, of her superior qualities must
have existed in her whilst young; justifying  the  re-
mark that  Dr. Wilmarth's  choice  was a wise  and
fortunate one. 
 2-1         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.

   Soon after Dr. Wilmarth was married to Miss Os-
 good, they went to house-keeping in  a  small story
 and a half house, which he had built in an obscure
 part of Montague, (the extreme easterly part,) and
 where they found  few enough neighbors, one  would
 naturally think,  to suit even a hermit.  Here they
 dwelt for three or four years,  in a very simple and
 economical manner, yet contentedly and happily, but
 hoping for  more  prosperous  times and  better  sur-
 roundings in the future.
   The Dr. 's practice had by  this time begun to ex-
 tend somewhat largely into several adjoining towns j
 and in Montague,  Leverett, Amherst, Northfield  and
 Wendell, particularly, he  was popular, and his pop-
 ularity was fast increasing.  The reason of his leav-
 ing his  original   and  humble  settlement, was an
 invitation to make his residence  in Leverett, where
 he would be more central to his patients, and  where
 he was in much demand.   This invitation was ex-
tended to him, probably in the year 1834,  by Capt.
 Alpheus Field, (under the sanction of others,) who
was one of the most wealthy,  worthy and influential
men in the  town;  and who remained  a  warm and
faithful supporter  and  friend of the Dr. as long aa
he lived. 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         25
   As an inducement for Dr.  Wilmarth  to  move to
Leverett,  his friends  there,  through Capt. Field,
offered to be at the expense of transporting  him, of
furnishing him a house to live  in a year,  gratis,  and
of moving him back again, just as freely,  if he should
not succeed, and should wish to return.   This liberal
and confiding offer  he accepted,  and was soon  con-
vinced that  he had made a wise decision.   He found
himself pleasantly situated, and cordially welcomed
to his new field of labor by the community in  general.
He at once had as much business as he could attend
to, and he  was  often sent for to  visit many of the
towns lying in that general region—-Pelham, Shutes-
bury, New  Salem,  Greenfield,  Shelburne,  Sunder-
land and  Gill, being prominent ones among them.
He became  particularly  distinguished for his skill in
chronic diseases ; and though  he had  not yet receiv-
ed his  doctorate, caring little or nothing about  the
matter, most of  the regular Physicians highly es-
teemed him,  and " were always  glad to meet him
in consultation."  I have been informed of  but  one
exception.   Dr.  Gridley,  "the  first  surgeon  of
Hampshire Co.,  and a thoroughly educated man,"
was both  his professional and  personal friend.
   Had Dr.   Wilmarth been  more "a  man of  the 
26         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
world"—more  ambitious for a name,  for  the accu-
mulation  of property, for display, he might easily
have stood high on the scroll  of medical fame.   To
have secured this end, he was only deficient in intel-
lectual culture, and the learning of the schools ;  and
could he  have  sacrificed his desire  to be immedi-
ately  and  widely useful to  his fellow beings, these
advantages were quite within his reach, and he would
have readily secured them.   He  had  a more than
common  thirst for  knowledge—for  all knowledge,
especially, that could be made subservient to human
welfare—and a marked aptness for acquiring it; as
well as superior memory to retain it, after acquired;
and the simple  ambition would have accumulated it.
Nor would it have taken him so long as it does most
students to have become distinguished for his attain-
ments.  This  fact  is proved by  what he actually
made  himself, with such meager opportunities as he
enjoyed.
  But he  could  not. spare any time from the more
practical and urgent  duties that crowded upon him.
He  cared  no more for learning merely  to  display,
than for costly clothing and equipage; always turned
pedantry into ridicule, and valued original common
sense  far more  highly than  traditionary  book lore ; 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         27

and as he could not conveniently educate himself so
thoroughly as he wished to be educated,  he thought
he should- be more serviceable to the world by giving
himself to it as he actually was, and might become,
through observation, practice and  experience,  than
by withdrawing from it and devoting himself excln
sively  to study.
  It was not  the  love of money;  not  the love of
celebrity; not the love of any mere earthly object,
that attracted him to  his profession and influenced
him to choose it; but it was a desire and a purpose
to live to benefit and to bless mankind,  and to min-
ister to their necessities  and happiness—as a  goo*
Physician might.  He wished, therefore, to be  up
and  doing whatever his hands found to  do in this
work,  with earnestness and zeal.   And in season
and out of season, night and day, winter and  sum-
mer, and in all kinds of weather, and under almost
all  circumstances, he  was devotedly and hurriedly
engaged in it.   He might have placed too low  an
estimate upon  art, science, philosophy, literature—
literature particularly—and he probably sometimes
did ; but it is a question whether he did not do more
real service to mankind without them, than he would
have  done  with them, had he been  obliged to retire 
28         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
 to private life for their  acquisition.   He did a great
 deal ojf work in his profession, and  seems to have
 done it well—judging that work by the old standard
 of " Materia Medica."  He probably did  as  much
 good as most of the first class  Physicians, who grad-
 uated from College and School with high honors ;—
 as little evil, perhaps some will think it ought rather
 to be said.  At any rate, it clearly appears that he
 compared favorably with other  Physicians, and  was
 not  an unsuccessful competitor with  them  for prac-
 tice.  He rode enough during his thirty most healthy,
 vigorous  and active  years to  have  accumulated  a
^handsome fortune ; and would have done so, had he
 been  less of a  Christian  than he was, and only as
 selfish as ordinary  men.  Others of  the  profession,
 with far less labor, have  lived in luxury and died
 rich.
   But however it may be, las to the  amount of use-
 fulness which Dr.  Wilmarth accomplished, compared
 with the more learned  of his professional brethren,
 or as to  the amount  he  could have accomplished
 himself,  with  a liberal education,  compared with
 what he did accomplish, he certainly secured a "rep-
 utation" in his calling,  that one might well be proud
 of, with the most manly and Christian pride.  If the 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          29

"world" did not know him, because he was not of it;
by his devoted services to mankind, rendered in the
spirit of humanity, he built himself up a monument
in some hundreds of hearts, at least, which is of far
more worth and far more durable,  than any  monu-
ment of stone ever reared by human  hands  to  per-
petuate  the fame of man.   His life in LevereP was
a laborious and arduous one, and  allowed him but
little time for recreation, relaxation or rest; and was
all the while gradually undermining his constitution
and  bringing on premature  infirmity, if not prema-
ture death; but it was  nevertheless a life which he
could look back upon with much satisfaction and joy,
confident in himself that it had not  been spent in
vain, but to the good of many, and therefore to  the
glory of the Father of- Spirits.  He had restored the
diseased to health;  he had mitigated pain ; he had
pointed out the way to a  long  life ;  thus much for
the body : and for the mind—he had enlightened its
ignorance, he had consoled its grief, he had saved it
from despondency, and  strengthened,  and encourag-
ed and  confirmed it,  in  its higher aspirations, pur-
poses and endeavors.  He had been a Physician to
the  body  and the soul equally.   It was  a great
reward to him that he had been ; and  his heart en- 
30         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTn.

larged with emotions of thankfulness  to the Source
of all good, that he had been strengthened and ena-
bled thus to expand and use the powers and energies
of his nature.
  Having spent many years of usefulness in Lever-
ett, in the midst of a large  number of the  most af-
fectiolfte and confiding friends and  patients, whom
he also greatly esteemed  and valued, he cherished,
even to the close of his life, not  a few  pleasant re-
miniscences of them of which I have  often heard
him speak with much satisfaction and  pleasure.   So
reciprocal were the attachment and good will of the
parties that he would probably have never left them
but from a sense of duty  to  what seemed to him  a
higher call. 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.          31
                 CHAPTER  II.
Some of his general qualities of head and heart—His per-
  sonal appearance and plain dress—His intellectual abili-
  ty—His humor  and mirthfulness—His benevolence—
  His reform spirit—His compassion for evil doers—His
  honesty—His artlessness and frankness—His  kindness
  to children—His indifference to what  people might say
  of him.
In  the  previous  chapter I  gave a hasty and very
general review of  Dr. Wilmarth, from his childhood
to the time  that he  was  an established  and widely
known  and popular Physician, in the town of Lev-
erett, Mass.  It  might have been  gratifying, par-
ticularly to his large circle of personal friends,  could
I have given a more  detailed account of his  earlier
years ;  but the materials essential  thereto  were not
accessible, and this  must  suffice as an  apology for
the  deficiency.   And it  may,  too,  be   reasonably
doubted, whether the minute  particulars  of one's
childhood and youth are of sufficient  interest to be
recorded, unless in some strikingly exceptional cases.
Many Memoirs that we meet with seem overburdened 
32         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
with such matters ;  which can be of no special value
excepting, perhaps, to a very few kindred or intimate
friends.   But, however this may be, in the estima-
tion of my readers, as I could  collect but little  in-
formation respecting our departed  friend's juvenile
career, I have been able to impart .but little.
   My main purpose,  therefore, in  the  present Me-
moir,  is  to represent Dr. Wilmarth as I  have per-
sonally known him, and  as I have known of him,
through those who were his  most  intimate  acquain-
tances and  friends—as he  was also known to  the
public, both as a Physician and as a Man—peculiarly
Christian in both characters.
   My first acquaintance with him,  was as a "Res-
torationist"—a hearty sympathizer and zealous co-
laborer with the small religious  denomination that
once bore that name, and of which I was  also  a
member.   Thiswas about the year 1840, and I shall
therefore hereafter speak  of  him, as he has lived and
labored since that date.  Before, however, going into
the details of his  character and works,  it may be
well here to give some ideas of him  as to his general
intellectual and moral qualities.
   Dr. Wilmarth, then, as a  Man, was above ordina-
ry—a man of large,  acute, and strong mind.   His 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.          33
 first appearance, to a stranger, did not, indeed, indi-
 cate this, save as his broad, high, and noble forehead
 attracted attention, as it naturally did.   But all who
 observed that, knew that he must be a man of mark.
 Well do I recollect this sign of the man ivithin, as about
 the only peculiarity of his person that impressed me,
 the first time I saw him, sufficiently to remain in my
 memory, after our separation, which lasted for two or
 three years.  His outside appearance, which the tailor
 had fashioned,  did not commend  him to the atten-
 tion, profound respect and high regard of exquisites,
 or of gentlemen and ladies with whom the latest styles
 of dress  are among the  great  interests of life ;  and
 some such probably thought but little of him, because
 he was so ordinarily attired.   Sometimes  they  neg-
 lected  him, when they would have honored him, out-
 wardly, at least, had he been a richly clad and stiffly
 starched  rum-seller,   slaveholder,   or dewurer  of
 widows'  houses.  So much  influence has the apparel
 in which one appears in public.  If one has not any
thing else to commend him, costly   and fashionable
dress often will;  and he  who has not this,  but only
mind and heart,  as  his chief recommendation, must
be content to wait for respect till he  himself becomes
as well known as his coat.   Position, however, often
             c 
34         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
  does something for a man, as well as cloth, and when it
  sometimes became known, in certain circles, that the
  stranger was " Dr." Wilmarth, he, of course, received
  his share of  notice and consideration.—How much
  greater is a  garment and an office than a man—how
  evident is it,  too, that he was made for them and not
  they for him !—judging,  that  is, from numerous
  manifestations in fashionable society.
   But Dr. Wilmarth was not, after all, I ought to
 say,- strikingly peculiar in his dress—far from one of
 your slovenly literary men, whose chief pride seems
 to be to appear as much  out  of  fashion (and out at
 the elbows) as possible, thereby  to attract attention
 to their genius and merits.   His garments were only
 not  always made  to harmonize with the prevailing
 fashion, and  might be  a  little  coarse  and a little
 " countryfied," never in tatters—he had too good
 and particular a wife for that—and never dirty. And
 this matter I mention, because it will frequently  be
 seen, in the course of this Memoir, to illustrate one
of the great Christian excellences  of his character.
 He was conscientious, and conscientiously economi-
cal, in it, for Christ's sake  and  the world's.  And
being so plain a man, and altogether unostentatious,
was one of the reasons that rendered it necessary for 
            MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.          35

strangers to become thoroughly acquainted with him,
in order fully to understand  and  appreciate  him.
He was as unconcerned about his manners, as about
his dress.   There was no pretense to him, no palav-
er, no artifice.  He was simply natural, and wished
to stand only in natural relations with his fellow men.
These qualities,  however, are  proofs of his moral,
rather than intellectual, elevation, and will be more
appropriately dwelt upon at length, in another place.
But they  indicate also, to some extent, largeness of
mind—as mere pride of dress, of show, of position,
come from littleness of mind.

   That Dr.  Wilmarth was  mentally more than  an
ordinary man, is evinced by the  simple  fact of his
gradually  rising from the  humble position  in life
which he occupied in his youth, to the really elevated
one  to which  he attained before  his  death.   The
Schools, inferior or superior, did  little for him, and
his surrounding circumstances were by no means of a
character to quicken him  into mental activity,  or to
inspire him with a thirst for knowledge,  or an ambi-
tion for public distinction and  usefulness.   Almost
all the outfit that he had to start with, in  the pursuit
of the qualifications for a professional vocation,  were
             c* 
36        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
                           »
his own internal forces, and the aids to which he had
helped himself.
   Men  who thus begin  their  progressive develop-
ment and acquisitions,  and at last secure,  among
intelligent judges who know them best, a substantial
reputation in their calling,  must have something su-
perior in them.  They could not rise against so many
hindrances if they had not.  Some, if not all,  their
mental powers must be large and strong.  And no
intelligent person could be with Dr. Wilmarth long,
without seeing and feeling  that he possessed this su-
periority—especially if any of his favorite topics
came up for conversation.   He did not  exhibit the
evidences of large  culture  and extensive  learning,
for he had not been favored with these ; and he nev-
er laid  claim  to one whit more than he possessed.
He had no ambition to seem—as  little as  any man
whom I ever knew—only an ambition to be ; content
with whatever he was, without any apparent anxiety
to be thought  more.   In his earlier years,  as has
already been said, he enjoyed few advantages  of edu-
cation, and  acquired only the  elements of it; and
after he entered  upon manhood, he was so much en-
grossed with practical matters and duties, that he
found but a  small  remnant of leisure  to devote to 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         37
studies—to any other  studies than those connected
with his profession.  He  had too much heart—too
much interest in human suffering and needs—to be
as much head as it is desirable to be, when  circum-
stances admit of it.  He  loved learning, particularly
the  sciences  which aid  iu the understanding  and
practice of the medical  profession;  and there  was
such an absence of display to him ; he was so averse
to anything of the kind, that few knew the extent of
his acquaintance with those sciences.  In conversation,
and in public lectures, he would sometimes open to
a vein of knowledge, that his most intimate friends
did not know existed in so rich a  mine within him.
And he had an intellect,  sharp and quick to discern,
easy to comprehend, and apt to appropriate, whatever
subject, old or new, was  presented to him.   He was
also one of the most observing of men; always  re-
marking upon whatever of novelty or interest  pre-
sented itself before him.
   His  critical powers were likewise  prominent  and
active.   " He was, as I have often told  him," says
his excellent widow, in a letter to me, " born to be
be  a critic ; for it  seemed to him as natural as  his
breath to be  criticising some one's views or conduct
—but all with good intention."  And he was a close, 
38         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTn.

persistent questioner of public  speakers,  where the
practice of  questioning them was allowed—particu*
larly if anything new was brought forward.  At our
Chapel  in  Hopedale,  public meetings of all kinds
are  always free ; and in the  course of each year wo
have had, from the commencement of our Community.
not only some new, but some strange,  occasionally
some startling, views presented to us—sometimes by
members of the  Community, sometimes  by persons
from abroad.  Now and then we  have  been visited
by some very eccentric persons ; and they, enjoying
the largest liberty, have not  unfrequently opened to
us  a budget of curious matters—wise  and witty,
good and true, or otherwise, as  the ease  might be.
We have had  addresses delivered  to us, inculcating
almost all the  varieties of thought and opinion,  from
Robert  Owen, the Pantheist, (not so now, I believe,)
to some of the latest Mediums for " Spirits."   And
whenever  our Br.  Wilmarth was present on  such
occasions, he almost  always  added to the interest of
the meetings,  by his  close questionings and various
apt remarks—sometimes serious and sage, frequently
humorous and witty, ever honest and conscientious.
He often aided us in  eliciting light  and  truth from
the conflicting elements; and whenever  he himself 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         39
lectured before us, as he  occasionally did, we  were
instructed, gratified and profited.   Greatly do we all
miss his valued presence from  such scenes, and our
hearts are possessed with grief and sorrow, when we
reflect that we shall see him in them no more !  But
we  slwdl  see  him again.,  amidst higher seenes and
purer joys.  This is the great hope, we mutually
cherished when he was in the  flesh ; and it will not
fail.   The simple existence of an infinite and perfect
God is the pledge of it;  though He is also the per-
petual Inspirer of the hope.
   Dr. Wilmarth was also a man  of great humor—
great gmd humor.   A fund of mirthfulness he had,
that appeared inexhaustible.   As I now stand writing
at my desk, some few rods from his former pleasant,
happy home, I seem almost to hear his merry, joyous
laugh, elicited, perhaps,  by one of his own—more
than  likely,  ludicrous—anecdotes,  for which  his
mind must have had, I think,  a separate department,
and that department  full.   I  fancy—and the  fancy
is only a fact of memory—I fancy he  is enjoying
some such a scene of hilarity  as the above, with two
 or three friends in his yard, and that I now see them
 separate; he  going into his door in  a satisfied,  de-
 lighted mood  and air,  to  light up all within by his 
40         MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTn
 sportive recital of the interview ; and they going  to
 their homes talking and laughing at the good Dr.'s
 merriment and extasy !   Perhaps, also, they good
 humoredly contrast his mirth with his piety—a piety
sincere, honest, without  show or deceit, but yet of
 rather a Puritanic type—not severe, or gloomy, but
 serious and devout—the  recognition and the  love  of
 God, flowing out in love to man, its basis.
   That so  religious a man should also be often  so
jocund, seemed an inconsistency  to  some ;  but he
 never joked at the expense of true religion or hu-
 manity, or to  their  detriment.  He  had too large,
 too nice and quick  a  conscience,  to do that.  His
mirth might sometimes have run to excess—it prob-
 ably did ; and his piety,  being somewhat grave and
exact,  he might sometimes have been really incon-
sistent.  But no one ever thought  him to be in the
least  degree tinged with hypocrisy.   He was per-
fectly transparent.  I  do not  believe he ever made
 a serious effort to pass himself off  for more than he
was, in any of his positions in life.   He cared noth-
 ing for an artificial  "reputation"—only endeavored
to be himself, subordinate and conformed to the will
of God—all unconsciously and unconcernedly leav-
ing reputation to  take care  of itself, and come  to 
           MEMOIR .OF DR.  WILMARTH.         41

him or not, as society might  adjudge.   His life was
not the breath of popular favor and applause.  Of
course he valued,  and  valued highly,  the good will
and approval of his fellow men—he felt himself too
closely identified with mankind as  the  children  of  a
common  Father, as a  common  Brotherhood, not to
do so.  And he never  affected to  despise or  defy
public opinion—had not  the  least tendency  to out-
rage it, and was exceedingly conciliatory.   His rather
ascetic piety  was not, therefore,  assumed for effect,
however inconsistent  some might  think it, with his
strong tendencies to mirthfuiness,  and however much
disposed they might be, occasionally, to contrast the
two phases of his character.   His piety I  have often
thought  a little traditional—never, however, other-
wise than entirely honest.  But his religious charac-
ter will  be  the subject of a future Chapter.   The
present  allusion to it is only  incidental.
   "His mirthfuiness,"  says his wife in the letter
before quoted from,  " was  apparent to  every one
Many things naturally presented  themselves to him
in  a  ludicrous light;"  and all  who knew him, I
would add,  also know how instinctively he seized
upon those things,  and used them to give an  agreea-
ble  and plea'sant  spice to  social  intercourse.  He 
42         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
was seldom in familiar circles,  on any ordinary occa-
sions, for even a half hour,  without getting all pres-
ent into a cheerful and laughing mood.   He was no
j-ago Philosopher,  sitting with finger upon closed
lips,  "a long and silent lustrum," thinking it un-
dignified more than to  smile; and  yet  his  laugh,
though  often loud, was never  rude  and  repulsive,
but always  genial and  welcome.   His  intercourse
with almost all classes of men had been  extensive,
and he always had some fact, old or new, humorous-
ly to illustrate some passing topic of conversation.
   Within a few months he has staid many nights at
my home, and we  have, therefore, spent long even-
ings in this  cheerful  and joyous manner.   Some  of
his anecdotes were drawn from religious life—most
likely ministerial—some  from medical life—illustra-
tive, perhaps, of some shallow quack, " irregular"
or  "regular"—and  many  from  "life  among the
lowly," in which sphere he  had  practiced his pro-
fession much, and been gratefully,  sometimes amus-
ingly, appreciated.   Would memory serve me to do
so, it would add to the interest of this work to repeat
some of these ; but they have passed from me,  so
that I cannot relate them, without spoiling  them of
some of their pith and interest; and thus they must 
           MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         43

remain unrecorded.   But  the recollection of  the
subjects of some of these anecdotes,  and of the per-
sons and circumstances connected therewith, as well
as of the Dr.'s animated and happy air and manner
of relating them, will long remain with not a few of
his personal friends, causing them many sensations
of painful pleasure, as they think of those pleasant,
delightful interviews, now forever gone !
   But here is one of the many anecdotes he  was
fond of  telling,  communicated  to me  by his wife:
She says of him :  "It was natural for him  to sym-
pathize with  his  patients in distress,  and he  was
(pick to perceive when their health was affected by
pecuniary circumstances.   At  such  times, I  have
often heard him relate an anecdote of an experienced
physician, who was called  to  consult with  a young
practitioner.  The younger physician asked the older,
what he thought the disease  of the  patient to be 1
The latter looked up  very  dignifiedly  and gravely,
and answered :   ' I think, Sir, it is a collapse of the
pecuniarium.'   At this the younger physician looked
rather inquiringly and  surprised, not understanding
this new term.   But he soon ascertained the  mean-
jno-—a  moment's  reflection  upon  the term  itself
brought it to him.  And my husband used frequently 
44         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.

to find such cases.   Once,  since  we came to----,
when I  asked him what was the matter with  a
particular patient, he humorously replied :  ' 0, it is
a  Collapse of the  Peat niari urn.'  Not that he
supposed the  patient to be free  from any  other dis-
ease ; but that if he could have  a few hundred dollars
given him it would give such a  favorable impulse  to
his  system, that his other  difficulties would soon bo
removed."  And no  one who  knew the  Dr. well,
could doubt that had it been  possible for him  to do
so,  most gladly would he  have  always  carried with
him the  appropriate medicine for this disease, and
administered  it, where  actually needed, without extra
charge.  And he would have administered it, I am
sure, in no Homoeopathic doses;  excepting whore
this very peculiar  "collapse11  was only imaginary
on  the part of the com plainer.-  He would have de-
lighted to pour out money to the  destitute, as water
—-hydropathically.
   But here follow  some  of  his  letters, which will
illustrate the character of  his humor :—
                  TO  DR. HERO.
               bN. L. W. C,  August 12, 185-2.
   Dear Doctor :—I have looked  in  vain for a re-
port from you of the " battle."  If you have  been 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         45

killed, say so;  if not, say so; that I may  know
whether to rejoice  or mourn.   I  don't want to do
either for nothing; so  I hope you will  speak, if you
are not speechless.  I have nothing new in particu-
lar ; have seventeen patients—no  great  scratch for
this time of the year.  They come and go like soap.
I  have had  in  all  thirty.  But  the great  house
[fashionable hotel] across the way is  full—-full  of
stuffing,  and  drinking,  and smoking, &c, &c,—
making " cases" for somebody  ; mostly for the Allo-
pathic brethren, I suppose.   At least,  they will have
the handling of  them  first,  then  the  Homoeopathic,
then  the  Botanic, then  the Clairvoyants,  then the
 " Spirits,"  then  the Hydro-Electro  Morto-pathic,
and finally, Post-morto-pathy will have some of them.
Please write  immediately," if you have not already
written.   Perhaps, however, I  have a letter on the
road,  coming as fast as John Gilpin's  "hat  and
wig."
          As  ever, yours,
                                 B. Wilmarth.
                  TO DR. HEKO.
        Lebanon Springs, .A7.  T., June 3. 1852.
  Dear Doctor:  In four or five hours after mailing
my letter, givinp- my reasons for not writing sooner,
laying out a plan,  &e.  [for the new W t. hstab- 
46         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

lishment  at  Westboro',] I  received  your  second,
which indicates a high grade of excitement.   I call
it " Denny Fever."*   I hope it will not prove fatal
to your reasoning and calculating powers.   I would
recommend  equalizing the circulation  by wet-sheet
packing, with cold applications to the head and a jug
of hot water  to  the  feet, followed by a half bath,
plunge, pail  douche, and  shower, as  often as the
paroxysm occurs, till  there  is less  determination
to the head.   Should this  fail,  take a sitz bath of
32 deg. for six hours, and repeat as occasion requires!
          Yours, as ever,
                                 B. Wilmarth.
  *More scientifically, Febris Westonville, characterized by
an ardent desire to trade with Denny, and live in Wes-
tonville.  Ha, ha!
                TO DAVID CAMBELL.
      New  Grafenberg, N. T., March 31, IS52
  Br. Cambell :—Yours of the  29th came safe,
together  with  the Paper, announcing the opening
of the N. L. W.  C.  Establishment,  cScc.  I don't
like  the  position our Advertisement  occupies iu  it,
—scattered  along over a part  of three columns,
and  split to pieces,  not even  affording  room  for
my  name, all  together,  on one  line.  But  never
mind.  They have atoned for all  that, by giving us
credit for "faculties" for every kind of bath ; and 
           memoir  of dr. wilmarth.         47

again, for curing every "phrase" of disease.  Now
if we only have the right " faculty"  and phrase-olo-
gy, we can get along  with  all the rest well enough.
These are the main qualities in this age of humbug-
gery.  But really, I did  not mean to include  the
diction of patients among the list of diseases, suitable
for water treatment, though I confess there is pressing
need of a remedy in some cases; and if we can only
demonstrate our  "faculties" sufficiently  to  ensure
the  confidence of  those who  are diseased in their
'phrases," we may do something towards  correcting
false mental impressions, as well as curing physical
ailments.
   I shall send a  correction to the  printers; for  I
cannot bear to see such blunderation in a  plain mat-
ter.  If  Providence permit, I shall call and see  you
as I go East.
          Yours,  as ever,
                                B. Wilmarth.

   But  Benevolexce was also a distinguishing virtue
of his life.  He was naturally benevolent; and he
was likewise benevolent from a  sense  of  Christian
obligation.  Jesus, going about doing good, was as
much his admiration and guide, as Jesus the  Teach-
er ;  and  he was a worthy imitator of that meek  and
lowly—that truly  lofty, One.   In a large measure,
did he  possass the  "Good  Samaritan" Spirit;  and 
48         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
he Manifested it often to the injury  of his own pecu-
niary interests and prospects.   Had he not been so
largely  benevolent,  he  could have easily laid up
" earthly treasures" to the extent of his needs,  and
not been straitened in his circumstances, (as he was,)
in the decline  of his life.   Dr. Price  says:  "He
was  benevolent to a fault—if benevolence  can be
carried to that extent.   I have often known him to
bestow money for a benevolent object, even when h|
needed it himself.   His sympathies were easily en-
listed, especially where there was an object of suffer-
ing,  under any circumstances; whether by poverty,
disgrace, crime, or the strong arm of the  law.   His
heart was open to their cry, and his purse to their
rescue and relief, where justice  did not order other-
wise."
   Mr. Field says of Dr. W.'s benevolence :   " As-
to his benevolence, it was  extensive.  It extended
to all with whom  he  had intercourse;  whether rich
or poor,  high or low,  bond or free.   When he lived
in Leverett, he was accustomed to set poor people to
work, and pay them  high  wages, to his own detri-
ment.   On a particular occasion, I remember that
one  of his rich  neighbors reprimanded him for paying
so high wages,  on the ground that it was a  damage 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         49

to him—to the  rich  man!  He could not hire so
cheap, if wages were thus raised."   Mr. Field like-
wise adds :  "Dr. Wilmarth was very hospitable to
strangers.  I have known him to entertain for weeks,
and without pay, a colored man  who was  traveling
for the purpose of sharpening razors.   I have also
known him to release an inebriate  from jail, become
responsible for his good behavior and temperate hab-
its, and take him to his own house,  and nurse and
otherwise provide for him for some months.  At one
time, I knew him to fit up a shelter for a poor family,
close to his own house, where they remained, I should
think, two or three years.  This must have been a
considerable expense to the Dr.   Then, again, his
benevolent feelings kept him from calling upon poor
people for debts due him by them,  for his profess-
ional services.  It was these benevolent acts, together
with his low price for doctoring,  that kept  the man
poor, as to this world's goods."
   The testimony of the Dr.'s wife is:  " In my hus-
band, the poor and  friendless found a true friend.
Many times have I heard them lavish upon  him their
blessings ;  and to see them made happy was to him
a rich reward.   The wayfaring always found with him
a welcome  lodging."   His kindness to the colored
            D 
50         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
 man, of whom Mr.  Field has spoken above,  Mrs.
 Wilmarth says, "was such  that  the poor creature
 thought he had found a home for life."  And she
 once told  me, that when she  thought the time had
 arrived, at which he  ought to leave them, in conse-
 quence of the burden of taking  care of  him being
 too much for  her to bear, the  Dr. really had consci-
 entious  scruples against requesting him to  seek
 another home.   He knew it  was bringing an excess
 of work upon his wife,  and  that  she  ought to be
 relieved from it; but he thought  the poor man might
 possibly have been  sent  to him,  in the  Providence
 of God-»—so much of a supernaturalist was he—as a
 test of his philanthropy,  his  religion, his professed
 faith in the Gospel of Christ ! He hardly  dared to
 take the responsibility of  sending him away, but left
 his wife free to do the unpleasant act, if she felt clear
 in her mind about the  rightfulness of it.   He could
 not, he said, and must wait for more light.
   "At another time,"  continues  Mrs.  Wilmarth,
  as he was returning home from  a  professional visit,
 he  overtook  a boy  whom he  invited to  ride  with
 him.   In conversation with him—and he was always
familiarly inquisitive—he  found he had  run away,
and was a bad boy.   He,  however, took  him  home 
           MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.          51
                           t
with him, and  endeavored to do him good, reform
and  save him.  The boy  remained as long as he
pleased,  and then  went away."
  His  benevolence was large and  true  enough to
make him a  Reformer.   He  pitied all the unfortu-
nate, and deeply sympathized with them ; and it was
a perpetual, restless desire with him to see all  pros-
perous, all happy.  His  wife  says: "He was one
who seldom  wept at  his" own misfortunes;  but he
could never read an account of human suffering—
such as the burning of the Lexington,—(of which he
had often spoken, dreading  such  an end,)—or a
story of  oppression and outrage—such as are  com-
mon at the  South—without weeping freely."   Of
course, then, he was  an Abolitionist—as a  man he
was natually an  abolitionist; as a Christian,  and
with his views of what constitutes a Christian, he
could not possibly be otherwise.  His wife  informs
me  that he  became  converted  to  Anti-Slavery by
reading a small work entitled " The Mirror of Mise-
ry"—something like twenty-five or  thirty years ago.
And his abolitionism was of a genuine, heart type.
He most fully recognized the negro, the slave,  as  a
man and a brother ; and treated him  as such, when-
ever he met him in any sphere of life.  For him ho
             D* 
52         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH
had as low a bow,  as  friendly a smile, as kind a
word, as for the .white man.   He was certainly " no
respecter of persons"  to  an uncommon extent.  I
remember,  in particular, one fugitive slave who came
to Hopedale to  find a resting place,  and a retreat
from the kidnapper, whom he treated with very great
kindness.   The  poor man came, and whilst here, was
infirm,  sick, and unable to do anything; and  the
Dr. had him at his house, and carried him through
a most thorough course of water-cure treatment, and
bestowed upon  him as much  attention  and care as
though  he had been a wealthy patient, and was pay-
ing him. large  fees  for his services.  But this was
only one of many  similar cases.   He had  a large
measure of that spirit  which  teaches  that  if  one
member suffer—and even the most insignificant—all
the members should suffer with it, and labor for its
redemption.  He was  likewise the " friend  of  sin-
ners"—not of sin,  of course, but  of sinners—and
of unfashionable, vulgar,  generally condemned  sin-
ners.   He might often have seemed very severe  and
harsh in his rebukes of them, whilst they were going
on in their evil ways unrepentant and unblushingly ;
but no sooner did he see  them in  his presence, with-
out sympathy, without pity and aid from those around 
            MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        _ 53

them—especially if they were  neglected or treated
with austerity—than he softened, and was full  of
a heavenly compassion towards them, whioh he was
always ready to manifest in word  and in deed.  He
stood ever on the side of the weak and  the defense-
less, and against the powerful who would crush them,
or cut  them  off from  mercy.   " Misfortune,"  says
Dr. Rice, " drew from his great heart the bitter sigh,
and from his eyes the flowing  tears; and  from his
tongue,  oppression  was sure to  receive  merited
rebuke."  " None," says his wife, " were so wicked,
but that he had a desire to  do them good.   I  have
often heard  him say, .that  ' if the D—1 were sick
and should  send  for me, I would go and see him'—
a remark that some may regard as almost profane,
but expressive  of the  feelings of his heart."  But
of his benevolence  as  a Physician,  I shall speak
more particularly in another place.
   And all who knew him knew that he was an hon-
est man—strikingly, preeminently so—honest in the
formation and expression of  his opinions, and honest
in all his actions ; and as truthful  as honest.   I do
not suppose any one'doubted this, who was intimate-
ly acquainted with him.  Dr.  Holland of the  New
Grajfenberg Water-Cure Establishment, N, Y-, with 
54         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
whom Dr. Wilmarth spent a year, as one of the Phy-
sicians to that  Establishment, says,  on this point, in
a late letter to Rev. C. B.  Cainpbloll:  "Dr. Wil-
marth  was certainly one of the most honest men I
ever knew ; in fact, I never knew his equal in that
respect."—When he had made up his mind on any
subject, every one knew where  to find him, both in
public and in private; and whether he stood  alone
or with a crowd ; and they knew, too, that he would
always be on the side of uprightness and rectitude.
Some of his Letters, which will be hereafter inserted,
will illustrate this peculiar quality of his character.
   And then, he was so condescending to children—
so thoughtful  of their needs and their pleasure  and
happiness, that I must not pass over even  this pecu-
liarity.  Mrs. Wilmarth says :  " His feelings were
youthful and buoyant'; therefore many young people
sought his company and enjoyed it, and he in  ieturn
enjoyed theirs."  And the truth  of this latter re-
mark is confirmed to me by many facts of his every
day life.  How  many times have  I seen him—tho
kind man—take several small  children into his car-
riage, at our Dale, as he was going to  and coming
from his professional visits, and thus give joy to their
 little hearts by a ride !  I have seen his sulky filled. 
           MEMOIR  OF IR. WILMARTH.        .  50

his wagon sometimes covered,  with them, and he as
pleased as they !   Many of their tender hearts will
be dissolved  into tears as the relation  of this fact
refreshes  their memories.   The  carelessness,  the
recklessness  of irresponsible  men, has  taken from
them a precious friend !  His  regard for them,  his
condescension and his benevolence, were ever mani-
festing  themselves to  them by  ministering to their
happiness.  Seldom did he go into company where
they were—especially if he was not seeing them of-
ten—without most familarly,  blandly and affection-
ately extending  to  them, as to the adults present,
the  cordial   hand  of friendship.   And "though
dead"—or risen—he is still speaking to them by his
kindly gifts.  A dozen copies of a juvenile  paper,
still monthly come  to  our office, and are circulated
by my own little  boy among  those children to whom
the good Dr. considerately and  generously ordered
them to be sent,  a few months before his departure
from earth.
   But I will close this chapter of the Dr.'s peculiar-
ities, by saying that he was, withal, one of the most
indifferent of men as to what people might say of his
peculiarities—some  of them  really  humorous  from
their novel artlessness and perfect candor.  He  was 
 56         MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTn.

 as ready to confess  any fault and to correct any mis-
 take he might make, in public, as he was in the most
 private circle of friends.   He  never deemed it a
 disgrace to  do so ; and he would do it  in  the most
 unconfused  and cool  manner possible,  laugh who
 might.   One  striking illustration of that trait  his
 wife mentions.   She says: " Many years ago, when
 we lived in Leverett, he was chosen Justice of  tho
 Peace ; and ■ not long after was called upon to marry
 a  couple.   The guests  were  assembled  and  he
 proceeded to repeat the marriage ceremony ; but he
 had repeated but a few words before he found he had
 forgotten the formula he was intending to use.   He
 acknowledged his embarrassment, commenced again,
 and went through without  difficulty."   And all who
 were  ever in  the praetiee of  attending  conference
meetings with him, and other meetings where inform-
al  and promiscuous  singing was interspersed, will be
 able  to  call to remembrance many occasions  on
 which,  in attempting to take  the lead,  he  would
commence on too high or  too low a key, and just as
calmly and  quietly as if alone,  request  those who
 had joined him to stop and "try  it again."   Some-
times he would  re-commence,  perhaps two or three
times; wholly, unconscious that any would be mortte- 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          57
tied by a mere mistake ;  and wholly unconcerned  as
to his own position in the matter.  A  friend,  in
reference to this same point, remarks :  '' Whenever
ho got into a  bad ' fix,' he would own up, as the say-
ing is, and make the best of his way out  of it."
   This  peculiarity  of character  grew partly  out  of
his great self-possession, and partly out of his frater-
nal feeling toward those with  whom he  was  assem-
bled, and which, he took it for granted, was recipro-
cated.   He felt that  they were all members  of one
great family, and should not be afraid  or ashamed
before each other in anything  not essentially wrong.
In this way he often avoided extended confusion, and
so turned the mistake, that it had no other  effect
than to infuse a little humor and pleasantry into the
circle convened.   It would be well if those  public
speakers,  and  choirs of  singers,  who occasionally
blunder to their great consternation,  would learn a
lesson from  his  example.  It  was indeed  a little
amusing, or not a  little, to see  and hear the good
Dr., when he made a public  " blunder ;" and per-
haps a little mortifying to some over-sensitive minds;
but it was, after all, a far better way of  getting out
of a difficulty than a dignified, learned and artificial
way sometimes is. 
58
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
                CHAPTER  III.
Religious influence of his early life—Becomes \ ersonally
  religious—his interest in the Baptists and rejection by
  them—His theology—Connects himself with tie Meth-
  odists, but is finally cut off from them—A controver-
  sialist, but charitable and liberal—is generally recognized
  as a Christian where he resides, on account of the ex-
  cellency of his spirit  and character—decline of his faith
  in the churches.
Amos  Wilmarth  was  a  Universalist in Religion;
consequently his  adopted  son, our departed friend
and brother, was brought up under Universalist  in-
fluences.   It does not appear, however, that he  was
specially interested  in that system of  Theology, or in
any other, very early  in life.    But—to  quote again
from  his  wife's  letter—" At  about the  age  of 20
years,  his mind was more  particularly called to tho
subject of Religion, than it ever had  been before;
at which time he  thought he embraced the truths  of
Christianity.   Not  long  afterwards,  he offered him-
self as a candidato for  admission  to  the Baptist
Church, of  N. Leverett,  Mass."   But  he did not 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTn.         59
harmonize with the  "orthodox" Theology, in all its
cardinal points ; and he was not a man to conceal cr
to compromise any truth which he believed, whatever
the  consequences  might  be  for making  his  faith
known.   He did not,  and could not, believe in eter-
nal  punishment, but confidently hoped for Universal
Restoration, as the ultimate result of God's purpose
and Christ's  mission.   This he plainly made known
to his Baptist brethren, and expressed his determi-
nation to  abide by it as  Christian  truth, until ho
could be fairly convinced,  from the Scriptures, which
were  his Standard, that he  was in error.  Hence,
though  his  "religious experience"  was  satisfactory
to the Church, and all its members regarded him as
a Christian,  and  were satisfied that his faith  was
"evangelical" in most other points; as he believed
that Good would at last overcome Evil,  and God be
"all in all," they declined receiving him into  their
full fellowship and communion!  He nevertheless
continued  in unity with them,  and they with him, in
their worship, until he moved to another  place.
  How  brother Wilmarth  came by  his,  then, very
" heretical" views respecting the final destiny of man-
kind—the prospect of universal love, harmony and
happiness—whether they  were chiefly the result of 
60         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
his own  experience,  reasonings, and  study of tho
Bible, or whether he received them from some foreign
source, does not  clearly appear, from  any evidence
in my possession.   It is  probable,  however,  that he
was helped to them by Elhaxan Winchester, whom
ihe always  profoundly respected and reverenced, as
a great and good man, and with whose Dialogues on
<( Universal Restoration," he became early familiar.
As far back as my knowledge extends,  he was op-
posed to  the system  of Ultra-Universalism—as the
no-future punishment scheme, is sometimes called—
and thought it unchristian in several of its features,
and in the influence it exerted on many  who follow-
ed it.
   It should be here  stated,  however,  that the Uni-
versalism  of his early days, was quite different,  in
several important respects, from the Universalism of
the present time—it then being a  sort of " Calvin-
ism gone to seed"—or Fatalism.   But  it was also
often  almost as much opposed to what was considered
by our departed brother, " experimental and practi-
cal religion,"  as it was to endless misery.  To a
great  extent, it was negative, or anti-orthodox in  its
character.  It  now encourages an emotional  piety,
and many means thereto, as well as some movements 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          61
for the " conversion of the world"—such as Sunday
schools, conference meetings, and  missionary socie-
ties—-which it formerly placed a very  low estimate
upon.   This anti-spiritual and anti-practical phase of
the system, was, by the way, one of the great causes
which led to the  secession of the  Restorationists in
1831,  in which Br. Adin Ballou took such a leading
and conspicuous part.  That Restorationist'' schism,"
was  not merely  a theological movement; for if
the  Universalist  Denomination   had  then  occu-
pyed  its  present  position  in  reference to piety,
and practical religion in individual life, the separa-
tion would not, it is probable, so soon,  at least, have
tal#n  place.  But to  hear all  future  punishment
sneerffl at and derided,  both by  Pulpit and Press,
as a relick of heathenism,  and internal religion fre-
quently treated  with  skeptical lightness, was  what
the Restorationists of the Winchester type could not
abide, and they therefore  withdrew  from  the  De-
nominatoin ; partly from a theological and partly from
a  religious cause.
   With this new movement, in behalf of a theoreti-
cal and  practical Restorationism,  brother Wilmarth
most heartily and fully sympathized, aiding it to the
extent  of his  means.   He  was particularly drawn 
62         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
towards Br.  Ballou,  and was one  of the first sub-
scribers to the " Independent Messenger," of which
Br. B. was the able, earnest,  fearless Editor—hav-
ing a hard theological and religious battle to fight in
its columns,  to engage in which  then required  no
ordinary courage.  About  this  time—in the year
1835—Dr. Wilmarth wrote to Br. B. as follows :

   " I verily  believe the views entertained by Resto-
rationists, the best calculated  to promote ' Glory to
God, and peace on earth, and good will among men.'
Yet I fear many  wrest these  truths to their own  de-
struction.  I  am  pleased when I see the dangerous
points  (if I  may so  speak)  guarded ; and I hope
the  ' Messenger'  will continue to  ' divide the word
and give to each his portion in due season.'  I ffave
many  serious debates with my Christian fffends;
and almost all the ministers within my acquaintance
have endeavored to convince me of what they esteem
my errors.    And if, indeed,  it  be error, I pray  the
Lord to let me see and renounce it.  But as yet, me-
thinks it cannot be, that the  greatest possible good
of the  universe can be brought about by the  greatest
possible misery of the greatest part of the members
of that universe.   This is  a  mode of reasoning  ut-
terly unintelligible to my  weak  capacity.   I would
as soon believe that day is night,  summer is winter,
or that life is death;  and yet  I often hear it  asserted 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          C3

by men of knowledge and piety, who would in a
moment discard such reasoning if applied to anything
but religion."
  But Br. Wilmarth being at  such a distance from
the  " scene  of  action,"  and  having none  of like
faith to sympathize with, near him, he still continued
in the partial, outside communion  and fellowship of
the more rigid sects.   Heart religion, the religion of
conscience and the  affections, was, with him, before
all creeds, however liberal and true  even.   When-
ever he found piety, therefore, in which he  saw no
sham, but sincerity, honesty, earnestness, there he
felt  that  he  had a religious home.   He did not, in-
deed, then, as nearer the close of life, discriminate
between the piety of mere feeling and words and the
piety of deeds,  as well;  and so he  probably often
placed too high an estimate upon the  former.  And
yet he always had an elevated standard of individual
duty, and was quick to detect  seeming and hypocri-
sy, which he  loathed.   He only formerly failed to
test the prevailing piety, by the standard of universal
Right and  Humanity—recognizing,  therefore,  all
respectably pious men as Christians, even  though
their actions might be  on the side  of  social and gov-
ernmental wrong and oppression.  Still, he was anti- 
64         MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
 slavery in his heart and life, even  then—if not con-
 sistently so in his associations.
   Cherishing the foregoing view of internal religion,
 he naturally thought the  " Church,"  and its instru-
 mentalities for converting the world,  important, and
 having left  the vicinity of the  Baptists,  he joined
 himself to the Methodists.   On  aecount of his The-
 ology, they  likewise hesitated about  receiving him
into full fellowship—probably from fear of the Rul-
ers—but accepted him as a probationer,  or member
of the " Class."  " In this position,"  says his wife,
 " he  stood,  I  think, several years.  At length a
Preacher, more  thorough in discipline,  came into the
charge  of that  circuit, who  endeavored, as he ex-
pressed it, to ' straighten things out.'    In the process
of straightening, my husband was cut off,  but soon
had the offer made him to  return ; but,  considering
the matter of a connexion with any Sect  less impor-
tant than he  had formerly done, he declined."
   His wife also  says:  " In these days, he was fond
of argument, and  was often much  in  controversy
with Clergymen and  others."   And I have frequent-
ly heard him relate  his theological rencounters, and
express the satisfaction they  generally gave him—
the principal question of  debate  being  Universal 
MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.          65
Restoration vs. Eternal Punishment.  As is usually    i
the case with the pioneers in a new movement, who
are constantly driven to  defend themselves against
many attacks,  he was  well armed for "battle, and
thoroughly furnished with all  the  necessary means
for carrying on such a war of  mind.   Ho was spe-
cially well versed in the  Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments, in the inspiration of which he firm-
ly believed,  and which he made his constant study.
And he was ingenious also in his arguments—quick
to see an opponent's point and  to turn it  to his own
advantage, and quick in the application of his own
points, at the right moment—witty  withal.   I can
easily believe, therefore, knowing  thus much of this
peculiarity of bis mind, that, though  he stood almost
alone in his neighborhood, as to  his Theology,  he
must have  been  generally  recognized  as standing
there,  a strong man well  armed; and  an efficient
defender of his faith, against whatever attacks might
be made upon it, whether from pew or pulpit.   And
that such was his position,  I have  also learned to be
the fact from reliable sources.
   But there was no narrowness, no bitterness, in Dr.
Wilmarth's controversies.   He recognized the right
of others to differ from him—as clearly  as he recog-
             E 
66         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
 nized his own right to differ from them.   He  was
 naturally thus inclined ; and  his peculiar religious
 faith, it being an influential and practical faith with
 him, taught him to b,e  tolerant,  liberal, charitable,
 toward all.   It must, however, injustice, be confess-
 ed,  that he  was rather more  inclined to be lenient
 toward old religious errors than toward new ones.
 He  shrunk  from  " Rationalism"  more than from
 " Orthodoxy," thinking the latter had more Gospel
 in it—on the  devotional and experimental side of it,
 at least—and that this Gospel element sanctified it,
 to a  great extent.  Though he was unyieldingly intent
 —as an orthodox clergyman*  writes to me—" upon
 eschewing vagaries,  however solemn, and upon being
 governed only  by the dictates of common sense ;"
 he was, nevertheless, very much of  a  Supernatural-
 ist, in religious matters, and  distrusted  all systems
 not based upon the Bible,  as  a miraculous revela-
 tion.  And I think he was somewhat tinctured with
prejudice against some forms of liberalism  in  relig-
 ion ;  for he was not, of course, a perfect  man—as
 who  is?  But it was " vital piety"  and "practical
 Christianity," that he desired to possess himself, and
  *Rev.  C.  B. Campbell—one  of  his patients at New
 Graefenberg and at Westboro'. 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         67
to see others possessing ;  and wherever he saw these,
he  freely  and fully fellowshiped them,  whatever
might be the creed that they stood connected with.
It was emphatically true of him, that:
        " To sect or party his large soul
          Disdained to be  confined ;
        The good he loved, of every name,
          And prayed for all mankind."
   His wife  says :  " We have lived in several differ-
ent places, and his acquaintances have been extensive ;
and although his religious opinions have  generally
differed  materially from those of  the community
around us,  I do  not recollect an instance in which
they did not cheerfully accord to him  the name of
Christian."
   He was  a devout man, and loved to give express-
ion to  his  religious feelings in prayer, singing,  and
other similar exercises; loved to join with any sin-
cere, honest, and earnest  fellow Christians  in doing
so.  He, therefore, found himself in such agreement
in this particular,  with  the various classes of profess-
ed Christians that prevailed  in the orthodox region
in which he spent the most of his professional days,
that in discussing  their points of difference, they
would quite naturally  be mutually lenient and re-
            e* 
68         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

spectful.  The principal topic which they would dis-
cuss, would always be, most likely, the final destiny
of mankind—whether all  would. at last  be restored
or not ?—and the allowances which his magnanimous
and generous nature would make for his opponents,
on the ground of long prevailing darkness and error,
and his cheerful hope and confidence,  that all  must
come round on to  his side at  last, would influence
him to such a bearing toward them, that they could
not, with any grace, be offended  with him.  lean
now  look back and almost see him  separate  from
them, in the most unbounded good humor, and with
 one of  those genial, kind, hearty  laughs,  which  hia
friend and  partner, Dr. Rice, says, " it did one good
to hear."  How sad to think that  we are to hear
one of them, in our hopeful Dale, no  more forever!
0, the reckless haste that has bereaved  us !   It  ifl
hard to be  tolerant towards anything  so terribly de-
structive in its results, and so inexcusable—yet must
we submit, with what of Philosopliy and Religion we
can command.
   Had  Dr. Wilmarth resided in Leverett or vicinity,
at a later day—after the great Anti-Slavery question
began thoroughly to agitate the whole country—as
thoroughly as now ; his discussion with tho profefr- 
            MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         69
                        f
sors of religion might not have been so amicable as
they were.  The Church can better bear to have the
torch light of reason and benevolence  applied to its
Theology, however offensive that  may  be,  than it
can the Ithuriel spear of truth to its  position- and
practices in regard to the "Peculiar Institution" of the
Republic.   Whoso  does  this  latter,  withdrawing
fellowship from it also, on account of its pro-slavery
character, will be likely  to become a prey, however
sincere his purpose, and excellent his character.  And
to such a stand was Dr. Wilmarth gradually advanc-
ing when he first took up his residence at Hopedale.
We have already seen  that one  of his reasons for
declining the offer of the  Methodists to receive him
into their communion,  after having cut him off from
the " Class"—in which  he was sometimes a " lead-
er"—was, that he considered " connection with any
Sect  much less  important than formerly."  After
this,  the inclination  to stand  aloof from personal
union with the Sects grew into a purpose to do so ;
the purpose finally growing into great  strength, and
making him, in theory and in  practice, a  disfellow-
shiper of all pro-slavery churches, however " devout
and spiritually  minded" they  might be.   Still he
remained tolerant towards the Church, even to the 
 70         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.'

 end of his life—some of us thought, a little too toler-
 ant.  The "piety" in  it continued to weigh mucli
 with him, as did also the  "forms" into which that
 piety was  put; and so  active  and strong were his
 religious feelings, and so urgent for expression, that
 wherever he  found a   " conference  meeting,"  in
 which men and women appeared sincere, honest, and
 earnest in the .services  peculiar to such a meeting,
 there he found pleasure  and profit; and he was pre-
 vented from full fellowship and union with the more
 radical class of reformers, because he thought they
 too  much neglected this devotional religion and the
 common manifestations of it.
   He was not, indeed,  one  of your  Christians  of
 mere feeling; and much religious  excitement  he
 always opposed.   He understood perfectly the differ-
 ence between passion and principle ; having rational
 and philosophical,  as well as true Christian views,
 respecting the whole subject.  It  was as  important
 means and aids to  a good and  useful life,  that he
 valued social  religious meetings, and  the  ordinary
 services of, them ; and from a sense of duty that he
observed them, and urged their observance upon
others.  He often spoke  against being  under the
guidanoe of the " feelings,"  so  strongly, that some, 
           MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.           71

not knowing him, would be  inclined to think he was
rather an opposer,  than otherwise, of all  internal re-
ligion.   But where he saw what seemed to him heart-
religion manifested, whether in private or in public;
and saw, also, in harmony with it, a  " well ordered life
and godly conversation ;'' he was disposed to be very
charitable, even if the highest stand was not taken
in reference to slavery and its kindred abominations.
He would excuse them upon the ground of  the long
rei<m of error and of darkness throughout Christen-
dom—in which the blind had been leading the blind
—rather than deny them the  Christian  name, and
wholly disfellowship them.   Never was  he  a man to
conceal the truth, whether theoretical or  practical, or
to compromise it in the least, or to sanction the ac-
tion of any party, in State or in Church, that did so.
He was one of the most firm and unyielding of men,
where conscience and  principle were at stake ; and
 he would  sacrifice himself rather than them.  He
 was not stubborn, but resolute and persistent.   Yet,
 if others, from the force of  education, as he thought,
 would cleave  to their churches, though those church-
 es were pro-slavery, he would not entirely disfellow-
 ship them, or withdraw from  their meetings.  He
 would oppose  and rebuke  the   wrong—this  was 
 72        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

 always expected of him—but  continue to worship
 with the  unenlightened,  unconscious supporters of
 that wrong.
   Notwithstanding, then,  he loved  theological  con-
 troversy,  and was much engaged in it; and was able,
 also, to explain, defend, and  enforce his  unpopular
 Restorationism,  with a talent,  skill, and  ingenuity,
 which  it was hard to resist or  answer, his candor and
 honesty were so manifest,  and  hi° internal and ex-
 ternal  conformity to the Gospel, s> < undeniable,  that
 he was recognized as a Christian by all parties.   Mr.
 Field writes  to me, on this point, as follows :  "  The
 diffeijent religious Sects  in this vicinity have been
 obliged to respect Dr.  AVilmarth, not only as a man,
 but as a Christian ;  though some of them, I think,
 would  have gladly found some fault in  him,  on ac-
 count of his  peculiar theological views."  And  Dr.
 Rice—himself an orthodox church member—says :
 " If I ever was convinced of  a  person's Christianity
 by his  conduct toward  his fellow-men, I  was convinc-
 ed of Dr. Wilmarth's."
  But that Dr. Wilmarth did not, after  all, hold the
 popular religion in high estimation, notwithstanding
 his charity towards it, and that his faith  in  it  was
diminishing, will  appear from the  following extract 
           MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.          73

from one of his letters to Mr. Field.  He says, under
date of April 1st, 1850:
   *     *      "lam heartily sick, as well as you,
of this unmeaning cant in religion,  wherever it ex-
ists.  If there is a God, or Good, a Savior, a Gospel,
a Holy Spirit, a Divine  Revelation,  there is some
meaning, some design, in them ; and some object to
be secured by them, besides slavery  and war, covet-
ousness and idolatry, pride and  pleasure.   This will
be acknowledged by all the religionists of the present
day; but what is the practice  of the mass ?  Are
they  doing anything to put away the  great social
evils that afflict Humanity,  and  to establish the king-
dom  of righteousness and  peace on earth?   11 uw
much have the churches .of L-----done ?—the Or-
thodox and Baptist  churches,  or the Unitarian and
Universalist  societies ?  How much has the  Perfec-
tionist Minister done ?  I will not judge.   Many of
these religionists have a  ' zeal  for God ;'—sanctity
enough, observance  of times and days enough ; and
they  are well enough disposed  and  good  neighbors
enough, (in many  cases,)—especially to friends:
good citizens enough—ah ! there is  the  great diffi-
culty,  they  are too good  citizens.  [Meaning  too
good supporters of an unchristian government.] And
whilst they remain so, they must of necessity support
the present order  of pride,  covetousness,  mamnioiv
ism,  oppression and violence.   O,  that those  old,
kind-hearted, friends of mine, could see the position 
74         MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.

they are in, and love  to be in—continually counter-
acting  the government and kingdom  of God on
earth !   Then they would  immediately change their
positions and relations  in reference to the giant sins
of our  land—so it  seems to me.   But they are blind-
ed by education." 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WrILMARTH.         75
                CHAPTER IV.
His religion, a practical one—His abolitionism, religious—
  His interest in the " Practical Christian" movement of
  Adin Ballou and his associates—Visits Millville at the
  Ordination  of Wm. H. Fish—His impressions of the
  meeting—His lamentation  over  the  " Restorationist"
  cause—Xon-Resistance—His connection with "Fraternal
  Community'' —Letters.
Dr. Wilmarth's  Restorationism was  not  a  mere
Theology—a " Body of Divinity," without a Soul—
which he had only  received  into his  intellect as a
reasonable system; but it was a Religion of the heart
and life, quite as much  as of  the  understanding.
Its very essence was the love of God, as the Supreme
and Universal Love—the equal Friend and Fatlier of
all—and the love of mankind, as having one common
origin, interest, and final destiny.  '' The Father work-
cth  hitherto,"  said Jesus—worketh  in  the  great
work of Universal Reconciliation—" and I work"—
work to the  same end, and  because " the  Father"
worketh.  Such also was the point of moral vision
which  Dr.  AYilmarth  occupied—such  his  practice 
76         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

and his impulse and motive.   He did not think that
God was to be  " worshiped with men's hands,  as
though he needed any thing;"  nor that He should
be merely adored and praised, as the All-Good ; but
imitated.   He believed, and he felt what he believed,
that as God. is good unto all—and unchangeably so,
pitying  even the most  erring  and sinful, desiring
their recovery, and ever seeking to  overcome then
evil with good, and to render them holy and happy,
so should it be with  man—with the professed Chris-
tian especially.  His views  of  God and of his Gov-
ernment,  and benevolent purposes  concerning the
whole human race, prepared him, therefore,  for tire
adoption  of  every legitimate  doctrine or principle
evolved from those views, however new and astound-
ing, and for the espousal of every reform,  however
radical and unpopular, which promised, in his judg-
ment, good to mankind,  or to any particular  class of
mankind.  Though  he  believed in  universal unity
and happiness as the  ultimate  of  God's will and
work,  he had no idea  that this would be brought
about  solely by a divine  and  miraculous  agency,
either this side of the  grave,  or the other;  but  by
the  cooperation  of  man—perhaps  of angels  and
spirits—with Christ  and God.   He  did not think 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         77

that any sinner could reasonably hope  to  be saved
by the " grace of God," or by death,  or  by mere
resurrection from  the grave,  or by all of these com-
bined, unless he himself was also  penitenf, and de-
sired  and sought  forgiveness and heaven.   Accord-
ing to his view, the  only way  that any one can be
saved, either in time or in eternity, is voluntarily to
return to  his Father,  after the  example  of "the
prodigal son," in the inimitable parable given to the
world by its  Savior.  And  as he believed  thus of
 individual salvation, so  he believed  of social saha-
 tion.   He did not  believe in literally waiting  till
 "the day  of God's power," for  either the  one or
 the other; but   in  going at once, and  prayerfully,
 earnestly at work to secure them both.
   Hence he was an Abolitionist.   Of this, how
 ever, I have spoken in  another place.   But I may
 here  appropriately  observe, that though his natural
 humanity  and benevolence made him hostile to slave-
 ry, and  an advocate of emancipation; his religious
 Faith confirmed  and strengthened him  in the posi-
 tion.  He had too much conscience and good sense,
 and  too much regard for consistency, to advocate the
 Universal Paternity of God, the  Universal Brother-
 hood of Mankind, and Universal Restoration, to aid 
  78         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

  in withholding the  essential  rights of the  Common
• Family, from,  any fragment  of it,  however weak,
  unfortunate, and even inferior, that  fragment might
  be.   Had he  been pro-slavery to  any  extent, he
  would  have stood  in perpetual self-condemnation
  before his Christian Ideal and before his profession.
  Hence his anti-slavery, to  a  great extent, was relig-
  ious anti-slavery.   In sympathizing with the oppress-
  ed,  he felt  that he was rendering obedience to the
  precepts:  "Weep  with them  that weep" :  "Re-
  member them that are in bonds as bound with them."
  The  Gospel of Christ was to  him a  Gospel  that
  requires slaveholders and their  abettors to  " let the
  oppressed go  free,"  and  that  " they  break every
  yoke."
    But  he  did not stop at Abolitionism, in reform.
  When,  in 1839, the  " Standard of Practical Chris-
  tianity,"  the substance of which  is now the moral
  and  religious  basis of The Hopedale  Community,
  was  first  made known to the  world, through the
  " Independent Messenger,"  he at once took it into
  serious  consideration, and  soon  after, fully accepted
  it as a faithful  and  important reassertion of Primitive
  Christianity.   Of this Standard, Non-Resistance,
  the doctrine of overcoming Evil with Good, was tlie 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          79

central Idea and animating spirit; and the period of
its adoption and publication,  became  a memorable
one to all its friends1—especially to those who first
signed it.   It was the nucleus of a  new religious
" Communion," which gradually drew around itself,
from various quarters, a few kindred  and  congenial
spirits, who were longing for a new and more prac-
tical exhibition of Christianity.   This Communion
held  "Quarterly Conferences,"  generally  in  the
Towns in which the  ministers belonging to it lived,
but  mostly  at Mendon  and Millville,  Br.  Aclin
Ballou's and my own locations.   These, Dr.  Wil-
marth was much interested about, though he was at
so great a distance from them,  and his professional
duties were such, that he  could not often personally
attend them.
   But to go back a brief  period :  A short time pre-
vious  to  this new movement  of ours, he had visited
Millville, where I was  then preaching, to attend  a
meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Resto-
rationists, at  which meeting I was ordained  as  a
Minister of the Gospel;  and soon after  his return
home, he wrote Br.  Ballou the following letter, from
which it will be learned that  he had become greatly
dissatisfied with the then existing order  of things 
80         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

among us, and was intensely longing for some new
and higher manifestations of Christianity.
  I would  say,  however, before  giving the letter,
that at this meeting of our Association, a discussion
sprung up between the conservative  and tlie reform
branches of it, which  made  the season one of con-
siderable excitement,  and that indicated, very clear-
ly, the near approach of the end of the  Organization.
It was, therefore, in some respects,  an unpleasant,
and yet,  on the whole, a profitable and  an effective    {
meeting.   But here are Dr. Wilmarth's impressions
—his impressions of the first general meeting he had
ever attended among us, and which was also the first
personal interview he had ever had with any of our
number, as it was likewise the first  time I had ever
seen  him—though  I was so much  occupied that I
was able to form but a very slight acquaintance with
him:
                     S" Leverett, Dec. 8, 1830.
'•Respected Brother:                             ,
   " Little did I think, after having  formed so agree-
able  and interesting an  acquaintance with you and
your  family, that so long a time would elapse before
I should  communicate  some  of  my  thoughts and
feelings  to you.  But our days  are swifter  than a   ]
weaver's shuttle; and while we are busy here and 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         81
there, we are rapidly hastening down the stream of
time, with scarcely opportunity to compliment our
friends, and say, farewell.   I have often  thought of
the visit I made to Mendon, the Conference at Mill-
ville, &c.  I have desired an opportunity to converse
with you on the subjects presented at that time, and
on  men  and things in  general.   I was somewhat
disappointed in some manifestations ; for I had hoped
better things than I saw.
   " But to come down to the present time :   Where
is our Organ*—the once  struggling, yet true and
faithful  ' Messenger,''  edited by  Adin Ballou and
E.  M. Stone ?   Alas ! ' fallen from grace.'   Am I
too  severe and uncharitable ?   Is the  fault in me ?
If so, pray correct  me.
   " True, I am an  acknowledged  agent;  but I can-
not in conscience recommend such  a  paper amidst
the tide of opposition,  prejudice and misrepresenta-
tion of  our  views  around me.   I am ashamed to
stand up and say, ' Here, is my religious Journal;
examine  it candidly;  see if we do not advocate pure
and  undefiled religion.'   It  gives me  pain  to have
occasion  to make these remarks ;  but where are the
solemn and interesting sermons,  the beautiful ex-
tracts, the learned  and candid discussions, the good

  *This  was  '< The Independent Messenger," first pub-
lished and edited, at Mendon, by Br. Adin Ballou, and
afterwards removed to Boston, where it fell into quite
different hands and became emphatically of this world.
            V 
82         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

articles  on  abolition,  temperance, &c,  which we
once saw in it?  Going,  gone,  (almost.)  True,  a
gleam of hope revived in my breast  at the ' Decla-
ration of Sentiments,' published in it lately ; and  it
touched  a  kindred chord.  I hoped for  more ; but
hope has been deferred.
  " I now hear occasionally from you, dear brother,
through the columns of the Liberator, which, by the
way, is  the most straight-forward,  independent, un-
shackled and liberal  paper, with which  I am ac-
quainted.   Your remarks at the  annual meeting  of
the Non-Resistance Society have  touched a kindred
chord in my heart.   Such sentiments must overcomo
all  opposition.   They are the truth and must prevail.
I sincerely thank, you for the light shed on my mind
on  this subject.  I  have long found  the elements of
Non-llcsistance in my heart, and have advocated it
in my feeble  and  unlearned manner.   But I was
unable to meet all the  objections, in an intelligent
and truly philosophical and  Christian way.   I now
feel better qualified.
   "0, when will Christians  learn to let the light of
tho Gospel of Peace shine forth in such a way  as to
lead others to glorify their Father in Heaven ?  How
can a Christian fight, oppress, or go to law ? I almost
say it is impossible ; but I must be charitable.   Yet
this much I will dare to say:  the popular Standard
 of  religion  is  exceedingly low,  so low it is scarcely
seen above the crowd of worldly minded, vain, d&- 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         83
generate men.   Notwithstanding all the benevolent
enterprises of the day, how  very little of  the spirit
of Christ is manifested by his professed followers!
How little obedience to that first and great command-
ment and the one like unto it, in which the Law and
the Prophets are all  summed up !  We have relig-
ious machinery enough;  enough of outward observ-
ances,  perhaps; but where is the spirit of Chris-
tianity ?  When will it be  seen that the kingdom of
Christ is ' not of this world,'  and that  if we  are
friends to the world [its wickedness] we are the ene-
mies of God ?   May God have mercy on the world,
and ' deliver it from this bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the sons of  God.'  Thanks
to his name for the gift of his Son to redeem us, and
purify us from all iniquity.
            ''  Yours fraternally,
                               "B.  Wilmarth.
   "Adin Ballou."
   The views and feelings which  Dr.  Wilmarth ex-
pressed in the  foregoing letter, in reference to  the
prevalence of the  spirit of conservatism and worldli-
ness in the Association ; and that was weekly exhib-
iting itself through the columns of The Independent
Messenger, (which was then edited  by a new man
who had come among us, but was not of us,) were
the general views and feelings of all those of our
members, who were engaged in the  various reforms
             F* 
84         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.

of the time, and beginning to think seriously of So-
cialism.   It was these very views and feelings that
influenced them to take their new position before the
world, and finally to unite together  for the establish-
ment  of a Fraternal Community.   Hence, as we
were thus alike in our dissatisfaction  with  things as
they were, and in 'our  desires  and aspirations for  a
more  Christian  social  state, when we took the first
step toward the realization  of our  Ideal,  Dr.  Wil-
marth very naturally sympathized with us,  and bid
us " God speed" in our  efforts.  When Brs. Adin
Ballou,  David R.  Lamson,  Daniel S.  Whitney,
Geo.  W. Stacy, and myself, started " The Practical
Christian," in 1840, he took a most hearty and ac-
tive interest in it, and aided in its circulation to the
extent of his ability.  He said in a letter to Br. Bal-
lou :  "As to the contemplated  ' Practical Chris-
tian,' I wish I was able to  take  a hundred copies,
and scatter them  broadcast  over this moral wilder-
ness.   But I am poor in this world, and always shall
be.   My  principles forbid  my  taking   the  usual
course of this  crooked and perverse generation  to
acquire the  treasures  of earth;  I know  how it  is
done ; but if I cannot have the treasures of  earth
and heaven too, by all means may I have the durable 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         85

riches.  I presume I can get a few subscribers, and
I will venture to  become  responsible for six copies ;
and will get as many more as I can, provided the
work is issued."
   The general awakening  among  us  in behalf  of
Piety and Philanthropy,  of which  " The Practical
Christian" was the public Herald and Representative,
constituted in his life, as in ours, a new era;  and he
began earnestly and zealously to agitate the  matter
in the general region through which he was so con-
stantly,  as a popular Physician,  circulating.   Be-
sides,  his  excellent wife,  he  found one only who
understanding^ and  fully sympathized and acted
with him, and that was his long-tried and highly valu-
ed friend, Br. Phineas  Field.  These things gradually
prepared him for the Community Movement, which
was then silently  maturing among us,  and particu-
 larly in Br.  Ballou's study, and which was so soon
to be commended to the Public, both in a theoretical
and a practical form.   Consequently,  when the sub-
ject was first opened in " The Practical Christian"  by
 an editorial article from the pen of Br.  Ballou, de-
 signed principally as a feeler of the common pulse,
 more particularly among  reformers and  our special
 friends, the  Dr. was ready to hail it as  an auspicious 
86         MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.

sign of the introduction of a Christian and harmoni-
ous order of society.  He, therefore,  wrote  to  Br.
Ballou, under date of Jan. 4th, 1841, as follows:
  " I was very glad to see the subject of ' Commu-
nities' opened for discussion in the P. C.   I have
long desired to see some plan  devised  and adopted,
whereby  Christians ' of like precious faith,'  might
enjoy their ' portion under the  sun,' free from the
hindrances to  spiritual, and even temporal happiness
and improvement, so  common  iu an  isolated state,
and where the temptations  to  avarice and covetous-
ness might be measurably or wholly  removed,  and
also the disabilities consequent on being associated
with ' wicked and unreasonable men.'  Often have
questions like these revolved in my mind :  Must I
live and die amidst oppression,  proscription, dishon-
esty and mental slavery ?   Must my  religious views
be bounded by creeds and confessions originated in
the dark ages ?   Must I be denied the right to think,
to reason and speak, or be branded a heretic or fa-
natic ?  Or in  temporal  things,  must  I keep  an
everlasting vigilance,  lest  I  be defrauded  of my
rights,  and  the avails of honest  industry ?  This
state of things is insupportable to the  free mind.
But what  is  the remedy for  all these  difficulties?
Shall I abandon all intercourse with my fellow men,
and become a hermit of the wilderness ?  or retire to
some dungeon  of  a  convent?  No:  this is  not  in
conformity to the  physical, intellectual  and. moral 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.          87

constitution of man.   He is a social being and needs
the assistance and  sympathy of his fellows.  I am
for the highest perfection man's nature is capable of;
and I know he can never enjoy his portion or place,
which his Maker designed  for him, but in conformity
to the physical,  organic and  moral laws of the uni-
verse.  The Bible and  Science, I  believe, are  the
best and  only directories- to the  attainment  of the
knowledge necessary to perfect  happiness.   I find
that the plan of  ' Communities' was adopted by the
primitive Christians, as one means of happiness and
improvement.   I know it is objected that this was a
particular case for the  time being, &c.   I will not
stop to  answer  the  objection,  which can easily  be
done.  Suffice it to say,  the  objection is made by
those who believe Christians  may  and ought to take
part  in supporting the Government  and  other  op-
pressive and  vindictive institutions  of  this world ;
whereas my faith is,  that our  ' kingdom is not of this
world,'  therefore we should not fight.
   " On seeing  your ' rough  sketch,' as you please
to call it,  I immediately wrote  a few remarks on the
different questions and  articles, because I had faith
in such • small things ;' but deferred sending them,
expecting  that  the  subject would be discussed  by
abler pens than  mine.  And now it appears the plan
has matured rather more silently  than I  expected,
and I shall therefore omit remarking  upon it much,
till I see  the Constitution,  &c,   I  will just say,  I 
88          MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
                         t
approved  of most of the 'sketch.'   Question  3d I
thought objectionable  on the ground of opening a
door to the temptation of striving to be greatest, and
to have the best locations, tV.c.  The common stock
principle I look upon  as  a  sovereign cure for cove-
tousness.   I also object to the transfer of shares, lest
it open a  door to speculation, (let  all secular busi-
ness be transacted by a good economical committee,)
and the  setting off for exclusive  possession; but
should any wish  to leave the Community, let them
have the value of their property in money and de-
part in peace.   I have no more  fault to find at
present, and would give  my reasons  more fully for
this, had I room and time.
   " I am for all the individuality that  is practicable
—liberty of  conscience, the  sacred  institution of
marriage, distinct families,  &c. ; but cannot under-
stand how a ' Community' can enjoy individuality as
it respects property.   I  think they are incompatible ;
and some individual  rights  must be relinquished in
order to enjoy the greater blessings."
   The inquiring and suggestive article in The Prac-
tical  Christian,  referred to in the foregoing letter,
elicited even more attention and  called  out more
friends than  was anticipated.  At the  same  time,
Rev. George Ripley, of  Boston, and his  associates,
afterwards of  " Brook  Farm"  Community,  were
seriously considering the same general  question, and 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.          89
had resolved upon carrying their views into practical
operation.  On learning,  therefore, that some of us
were  moving in the matter,  meeting us at a Non-
Resistance Convention in Boston,  they suggested
that we have a mutual consultation of the two parties
in reference to it; which we accordingly did, at  Mr.
Ripley's house.   And there was such a unanimity
of general feeling,  principle  and purpose then  and
there  manifested, that the first purpose was, that we
should combine  together, and start a Community
somewhere in New England, with a Practical Chris-
tian  Test  of membership.  Mr. Ripley himself, par-
ticularly, inclined to this ; but some of his associates,
thinking that such a Test would make the enterprise
too narrow and exclusive, it was finally decided  that
each  class  would  do better  to  stand by itself,  and
select different locations on which to experiment with
their   different views and  plans.   Hopedale  and
Brook Farm,  soon, therefore, sprung into existence
—the former continuing to this day,  and the latter
having been abandoned for these five or more years;
though some of the members are still  among the most
zealous  advocates  of Association:   Mr. Ripley, I
believe  is, though not at present engaged in any
practical movement of  the  kind.    Rev.  Wm. H. 
90         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
Channing, a leading spirit among them, and one of
the purest, most loving  and excellent men  of  the
Aoe, has ever since been earnest and enthusiastic in
the cause,  and  is now,  I understand, making  ar-
rangements  to become a  resident member  of  the
" Raritan Bay Union," in New Jersey—a new Com-
munity which has lately been started on what is said
to be a very beautiful site, and with fair  prospects
of success.   But this en passant.
   As soon as it was decided to make a beginning at
Hopedale, Br. Ballou applied to Br. Wilmarth,  by
letter, to know "what he thought of the object, and
what he was ready to do for it" ? and his reply was :
" I like the object, and I  will endeavor to seek  di-
vine direction, and to follow where Providence opens
the way, and do what I can.  But I must write
again, to tell you of my  situation,  difficulties, &e,
unless, indeed, the way should open for me to visit
you in  " Conference," or some time soon, which I
hope may be  my privilege,  and then I will fully  dis-
close my mind.   May the  Lord prosper the under-
taking,  (if consistent with  His  will,) and  happy
should I be, I now think, if  I could be one of your
number."
   The following letter appears to be the  one promised 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         91

in the  foregoing extract,  and states some of  the
" difficulties" of his situation :
                       " Leverett, May 8, 1841.
" Dear Rrother :
   "I have many things to say to you, but cannot,
with pen and paper, communicate a hundredth part.
I wish,  however, to ask a few questions.   How pros-
pers the contemplated  Community ?   What class or
classes of men or women have joined ?   Are they,
as  a body, virtuous,  pious and intelligent?   Are
they professional or ordinary laborers ?  How much
money  is  now subscribed?  &c.   I purposed to
have attended  the last Conference,  with a  good
Christian friend and brother,  Phineas Field.   But
when the time  came, I had two patients very sick
and unwilling I should leave them.  But we  both
feel a deep interest in the progress  of the contem-
plated new Social State.   We eannot bear to  drag
out a weary life—though short at most—in the pres-
ent disordered state of things.  The longer I  live,
the more I see of  ' wrong  and outrage,'  hypocrisy
and false-heartedness.   Why, it is not expected that
man will ' speak every one the truth to his neighbor,'
and look on another's things and property, as well as
 his own !  Is there no help, no remedy ?  I do not
complain of my fellow men in this section, as being
 sinners  above all  others.  Far otherwise.   I  am
 pleasantly situated, comparatively.   Neighbors are
 kind, respectful; all I wish, and more than I deserve. 
92         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

But the prevailing public  sentiment  on many vital
points, and the general current is in a wrong direc-   j
tion;  very wrong—or else the  Bible  is no  guide,
and I have lost my reason.
   " But what can I do ?  I  am poor inthts world's
goods ; my secular affairs are in  a bad shape for me
to move, at present.   I  am  owing  several hundred
dollars, but have several hundred due ; enough, per-
haps,  to balance  and  leave  me  the small farm on
which I live, worth about  $1,000.   I  have labored
much in my profession for twelve years past; lived
and moved in very  plain,  and what the world calls,
' unfashionable' style.  Yet still I am poor, and I
could tell the reason, were  it worth while.  I now
have  an aged father  and mother-in-law living with
me, and am so harnessed up I know not what to  do.
I have been on the point, at times, of going with  the
current, adopting the  customs of the world, and sail-
ing down the stream of life in luxury and ease. But
a voice from the Word and Spirit of  God has hitherto
sustained and kept me back from such presumptuous
sins.  Thanks to  that blessed influence, and not to
me.
   " You ask me,  or would  like to  know, what  are
my views of the  ' Community,'  and whether I  feel
disposed to do something  to  forward the undertak-
ing?  I answer :  I like the plan and Constitution, so
far as I understand them.  But how to make them
practicable to me, I find not at present.   Would it 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         93

were otherwise.  I wish, however, to know where it
is expected to be located, and whether the money for
shares must be advanced now ; also,  whether I can
enjoy any privilege, or confer any aid, by money or
otherwise, and remain where I am ?  I know already
the advantages must be small, if  any, unless we live
in a compact  neighborhood.   Please write and tell
me all you can.   Br.  Field is very anxious  to hear
and know more about  it, also.
   '' I should be glad to say something about our Pa-
per, (the P.  C.)   I  admire  it—ay, more; I love
the  doctrines it  advocates,  and the brethren who
contribute to its  columns.  I have sent it round to
many friends ; but have urged none to take it.   All
say they like it;  yet I have not  so many subscribers
as I thought  it probable I should have by this time.
I  think I know the  reason—it  is too pure for these
corrupt times.   May  the blessing of God  attend
your labors, and the labors of all who are contending
for the Faith.
            " Farewell,
                          " Butler Wilmarth.
    "Adin Ballou."
   Near  the  close of the year 1841,  Dr. Wilmarth
attended one  of our Quarterly Conferences at Men-
don, of which he wrote on his return, in a letter to
Br. Ballou :   "The  Conference I was well pleased
with, and was much profited, as  was also Br. Field ; 
94         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
and, if by  watchful care, self-denial and  persever-
ance, we can maintain the spirit and practice mani-
fested on that occasion, we shall be ' that happy peo-
ple whose God is the Lord.'   Our  visit to Mendon
has caused considerable  excitement, and all sorts of
remarks, from  solemn   warnings  to low ridicule ;
' but none of these things move me.'  I am resolv-
ed, by the  grace of God, to lend my influence to help
build up a better religious and social Fabric in the
world, than any hitherto known to  me.  I have la-
bored single-handed  for many years,  and the most
that  I can say I have effected is to  maintain my
integrity and live.   Thanks to the power and preserv-
 ing grace of God, that I have  not been carried down
the current  to  destruction !   Now I hope to  see a
company of one heart and  one mind, ' kindly affec-
 tioned  one  toward   another;  diligent  in  business,
 fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.'
    " 0,  Divine  Goodness! how  unbounded,  how
 universal thou art!  ever reaching to the unthankful
 and evil.  How little do we appreciate the benevo-
 lence of our heavenly Father  !  I  am astonished at
 myself,  that I  have lived  so long, without knowing
 more and being better.   But I  have been carried
 along with  the  flood, though often very unwillingly, 
           memoir of  dr.  wilmarth.         95

and sometimes feebly resisting the current; and then
the waves would foam  and rage,  and nearly over-
whelm my soul.   I cannot ' live at this poor dying
rate' any longer, and I  pant  for living streams and
hunger for substantial  food.   How long will  it be
ere the Gospel will have free course and be glorified ?
Now, Monarchs, Warriors, Statesmen, Players, have
the praise and honor due to the  Lord !  Yet, (bless
the Lord, my soul,) He  has not left himself without
witnesses; for here and there  there, is an humble
soul, who has courage tD mount upward and pursue
its way to God ; and I hope to see the number in-
crease, like the stars for multitude.   May we of the
contemplated  ' Fraternal  Community,'  raise the
Standard and rally around it !"
   The following letter  was written only a week  or
two before a few members of the  Cbmmunity took
possession of their location in Milford, and commenc-
ed operations:
                   " Leverett, March 21, 1842.
Dear Brother:
   I am weary with the labors of the day,  and it  is
now past 10 o'clock at night; still, I feel anxious  to
write you a  few lines, since I  cannot consistently
yisit  you.   I have been much  hurried in practice
ever since I came from  Mendon.  There have been 
96         memoir  of dr. wilmarth.

some severe cases of lung fever, croup, measles, &c,
in town, and I am frequently  called to Shutesbury,
Wendell, Montague, and Amherst;  and although.I
gave out word that when I returned from Mendon,
I should not practice for a  season, few or none paid
any regard to it.   And so it goes, and will go, till I
' go hence to be here no more  ;' unless I change my
place, or adopt some new method to lighten my la-
bors.   I like labor ; but drudgery, night and day,
and opposition at  every  turn, I am tired of.  There
is so much  to be done, and there are so few disposed
to aid in the alleviation  of human  misery,  that it
disheartens me ;  and I am frequently led, while pass-
ing the resting places of the  dead, weary and care-
worn, to adopt the language  of the wise man, and
' praise the dead who are  already  dead, more than
the living who are yet  alive;' and  were it  not for
the hope of better things, in   both this and the com-
ing world, I  should strongly  desire  to  depart from
this  world' of sin,  misery and woe.  But  I have
hope, I have faith, that ' grace will abound' as far
as  sin has abounded.  Earth has no wounds so deep
and dangerous that Heaven cannot  heal.   0, no:
' there is balm in Gilead and a Physician there-
Society must be reorganized.
   " Man must be brought to love his fellow-man.
The principles of  purity,  peace and love can cure
our deepest woes.   There is no need of  strife and
war, oppression and covetousness.  They are  utterly 
memoir of  dr. wilmarth.         97
forbidden by Him who seeks our highest good.  0,
what a wretch and fool is man ! destroying his own and
his neighbors' peace, ' kicking  against the pricks.'
The more I contemplate the present state of Society
and the world, the more I see the folly, ingratitude
and wickedness of man,  and the need of a deep and
radical reform.   This skimming the surface is of  no
avail.  Little or nothing but froth is  gained by  all
the labor and  machinery  <Jf old measures and new
measures, whether religious, political or commercial,
while the social state  continues  as at present, one
vast arena  of  corruption, fraud and  covetousness.
But who calls this idolatry ?
   " Not, however, to dwell farther on the dark side,
let us turn our talents and  our  little   capital to the
best account, in contributing to  reform, improve and
redeem  ourselves from  the captivity of  Babylon;
and by  the favor of God we  shall prosper.   Our
principles are fast gaining  upon the  human  mind,
but men do not perceive  it yet.   Ministers now and
then preach a  good  Non-Resistance discourse; but
as yet it don't mean any thing.   But  the veil over
the mind is of thinner texture  than  formerly, and
the real heaven-born soul will burst it soon, and see
that Christ's words meant practice as well as theory.
God in mercy speed the day !
   I send the promised $200 by William Howard, a
worthy neighbor, whom you will receive as myself,
and if you  have  an opportunity to write a line by
            o 
98         memoir of  dr.  wilmarth.
him, so do ; if not, as soon as convenient.   I always
have a feast when I  hear  from you.  That kindred
feeling and spirit which my  brethren  feel,  and send
me in their epistles, revives  my spirit, and strength-
ens my faith, hope, and charity.   We had a blessed
visit from Br. Stacy,  and I  trust some seed fell on
good ground.   I hope the time may come this season
that Br. Ballou can visit  Leverett,  filled  with the
blessings of the gospel or  peace.
            " Fraternally yours,
                             "B. Wilmarth."
   " Fraternal  Community   No.   1,"—now " The
Hopedale Community"—commenced practical opera-
tions on its Domain in April, 1842 ; but, as was to be
expected of so  novel  an experiment, differences of
opinion soon sprung up among its members, respect-
ing the mode of carrying  out the  principles of the
Enterprise, and the result was,  a degree of discord,
and finally a division.  This was  a great grief to Br.
Wilmarth, who hoped for  uninterrupted harmony in
the new order  of society ; and he wrote  about the
matter to Br. Ballou in much depression of spirits.
The concluding part of the following extract of a
letter from  him, under date  of Jan.  18,  1843, will
show how great a  disappointment  and  sorrow pos-
sessed him  on the  occasion,   as also  his desire for
brotherly love  and harmony.  He  very   naturally 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         99
 exaggerated a little, the extent and  permanency of
 the evil:
   " I will now inform you what I think, and how I
 feel and act.   I am at home, and my family are  all
 well and enjoying peace and life in the first degree.
 But ' Millerism' is rife,  and all around is wind, and
 fire,  and  storm,  and  earthquake,  and  eruption.
 There is  a breaking up of the  foundations of the
 political and moral fabric ;  ' men's hearts are failing
 them for fear,'  and it is not without effort that one
 can keep his balance amidst so much agitation and
 concussion.   '  Many are at their wits' end, and reel
 to  and fro like a drunken  man.'  I look with con-
 fidence for the ' still small voice' of truth to suc-
 ceed this scene of commotion, transition, and-isms.
   " I intended to visit Hopedale the first sleighing;
 but  sickness in the vicinity prevented.  I wanted
 and meant to have been present at the Annual Meet-
 ing ;  but  could not  consistently.  I now  hope to
 visit you the first good traveling.   My expected pro-
 fessional partner, Dr. Rice, is with us now, and bids
 fair to become eminent and  useful in his profession,
 and soon to relieve me from some  of my labors and
cares, so that I  can  be more  at liberty to think,  con-
 verse and visit.  I intend to visit the  ' Community'
 at Northampton very soon—only 12 miles distant—
 thence to New Lebanon, or some other Shaker  Vil-
 lage, and learn what principles of economy and gov-
ernment are in  operation among them ; and so on to 
100         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
the end of the chapter of Communities within my
reach,  (if the Lord will.)  The Christian Commu-
nity idea is continually revolving in my mind,  and
why I wish to visit various Associations is, to draw
out and collect the good  and  avoid the bad of all,
and then form a settled  opinion,  and apply  what
moral and physical  force  I have where  it  will tell
most for the  redemption  of our  common humanity
from the thraldom of  sin,  misery and wretchedness,
every where  manifested in the  shape of  fraud, vio-
lence,  corruption,  poverty,  sickness,  despair  and
death.   I  have hoped and  continue  to  hope  that
' Hopedale' will prove to  be  the place where  pure
and intelligent minds will apply their highest powers
to the best advantage, for the pulling down of the
strong holds of sin, and building up the Redeemer's
kingdom.   But I must confess my  faith was  some-
what shaken by  what I witnessed when last there.
   '' Had I been told  of such  a change six months
ago, as has  taken  place, by any but  an enemy,  I
should have repelled the charge by reference to our
principles—our rock foundation on eternal truths;
and I should  scarcely have  been  less surprised to
hear that  those rugged  hills that  skirt our ' Dale
of Hope' had on a sudden cloven asunder by volcan-
ic pressure, poured forth a stream of lava from earth's
mighty furnace,  dried up  the  ' gentle stream,' and
filled that fertile vale,  from hill to hill, and buried
all our hopes and comforts in  one  common grave, 
          MEMOIR  OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        101

than I was to hear of the eruptions in our moral and
social relations, which have been witnessed since my
visit to Hopedale.  To the former I would try to be
resigned,  and say, Amen ; for  then the free spirit
would wing its way to  brighter skies,  more fertile
fields and genial climes, and bask around the throne
of the Eternal, and rejoice forever.
   "But my heart almost sinks within  me when  I
look back a year, and remember what strong chords
of brotherly love have been broken !  Why is it so ?
Must  the prophecies of a gainsaying  world prove
true?   Shall  we fail to  carry out those  heavenly
principles of  which we made  our boast?   Is  our
movement  impracticable ?  Or are my views and
feelings, as to the bad  state  of things  among  you,
imaginary ?  I should rejoice to see the proof of the
latter.
   " If I had pecuniary means at my command, they
should be freely  given  to forward our  enterprise;
but since  I  have  not, such as  I have  I give,  viz.,
sympathy, counsel, encouragement, and reproof for
what I deem wrong, asking the same from you, my
Br., in return.  I am very sorry any good members
have  felt  it their duty  to dissolve their connexion
with the Community.   I hope no  more will  do so,
and that those who have will  return, and that we
shall all get right and keep so, and unite, heart and
hand, m building up the Redeemer's kingdom on
earth.   I think it was a  mistake that so many assem- 
102         MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.
bled on the  farm last Spring ; what then ?  Why,
let some go away for a season, work out, live short—
do any rightful way—only let brotherly love contin-
ue,  and the strong bear the  infirmities  of the weak.
I know I come  short  of the glory of  God  in  all
things ; and  therefore feel  diffident in writing as I
have done ;  but receive it from your long-tried and
ever-loving friend,
                           "  Butler Wilmarth.
  " Adin Ballou."
  The extract that follows,  is  from a letter of  a little
later date than the foregoing,  and is a» further expres-
sion of  his intense desire for unity at Hopedale.   It
also reveals  his liberality and  charity.   He says:
  "It is a hard thing for me to give up  old, long-tried
and beloved friends, kindred  minds, (Adhesiveness
large,)  and  nothing but positive immorality on their
part can make me do so.   To be sure I differ from
many of them in opinion, but that I think no reason
why  our  spirits  should not meet and mingle  like
kindred drops, where  both are pure  in motive and
conscientious  in  action.  I cannot  rest,  therefore,
till  harmony, that heavenly harmony that once exist-
ed  at Hopedale,  and of which I often boasted, is
restored ; and I have too much confidence in  all the
pioneers of  our enterprise, (Marvelousness large,)
to give up the pleasing, the heartrcheering prospect
that we shall yet all be actively  united in building
up  a  spiritual  temple for the Lord, and an asylum 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
103
for suffering humanity,  (Benevolence large.)  What
though some may be rough  and unshapen—none,  I
trust, are rotten.   The  axe, the hammer, the square,
with time and patience,  will bring all to their proper
dimensions,  and then the plane will  smooth the  sur-
face ; and though some  may not be so large and im-
portant as was anticipated in the quarry or the forest,
yet all will be of use  and must be put in the build-
ing, and not out of it.   The whole edifice may fall
for the want of a very small key or brace,  (Hope.)
Our avowed principles  will bring all things into har-
mony, if lived out; and may we not anticipate  as
sublime and transcendent effects from  their operation
as Heathen  Philosophers  attributed  to  the power
of Music,  in  bringing the present order of things
 out of chaos ?
    " < From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
      This universal Frame began ;
      When Nature underneath a heap
      Of jarring atoms lay,
      And could not heave her head,
      The tuneful voice  was heard from high—
      Arise, ye more than dead !
      Then hot and cold, and moist and  dry,
      In order to their stations leap,
       And Music's power obey.
      From harmony, from heavenly haamony,
       This  universal Frame began ;
       From harmony to harmony,
       Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
      The diapason closing full in man.' 
104        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTn.
   "This \s poetry; howbeit, I cannot  give  up the
idea of Christian Communities living in harmony,
based on the principle of equality  in all the rights,
privileges and blessings of life."
   Next follows a letter from Br. W.,  to the resident
members of The Hopedale  Community, which  was
written in a hopeful tone, and informed them of his
purpose soon to make his home in their midst:
                     "Leverett, Jan. 27, 1844.
"Beloved Brethren and  Sisters:
   " I suppose you will be looking for us to join your
happy  company soon; and  we also look forward to
the same event with joy and hope.   (' If  the Lord
will, we shall live and do this.')   But we are not
likely to be with you  so soon as  I  told you when  I
left Hopedale.   Various causes have transpired to
detain us  in  L.  a little longer.  A multiplicity of
business and  visiting,  tardiness  of old  customers in
settling their accounts, cold weather, some  sickness,
&c.—these conspire to keep us here—no doubt for
the best.   I  do not intend to fret about it.   We are
all well now  and in very comfortable circumstances.
I will not  at present set any time when we shall start
for Hopedale ; but it  will  take two  weeks at least to
close our business and visits, at the rate we have run
since I came  home.    We  will work fast as we  can,
consistently with health and a quiet mind; for we
are all anxious to be among  you and enjoy the blesa- 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         105
ings of peace, brotherly love,  sympathy and  conge-
niality of spirit,  which  we hope now prevail, and
ever will prevail,  among the  members and residents
of F. C. No. 1.   I am not  expecting absolute per-
fection  ; nay," I am constrained to confess that ' in
many things we offend all.'   But if,  with all the ad-
vantages and privileges we have, and may have at
Hopedale,  there is not some  approximation  toward
that perfection requited of us  under the new cove-
nant,  great will be  our condemnation, yea, we shall
justly be called  least in the kingdom of heaven, if
we are not  wholly cast out of it.  0 ! let us never
give occasion for those  who pass by  to mock at us,
saying, they ' began to build and were  not able to
finish,' either the moral, social  or physical  temple
contemplated.
   " I sometimes fear we have not all counted the
cost and sacrifices  of  Christianity  in  its purity.
There is at the present day little  or no satisfaction in
becoming a current Christian, at  nearly all the Chris-
tian banks  in the world.   All that is  required in or-
der to pass current is, a ' confession of sins,' a ' con-
fession  of  faith,'  a strict observance of  outward
ordinances, days, &c.  But what is  this more than
the righteousness  of the scribes and  Pharisees,
which will  never entitle  its  possessor  to an entrance
into the kingdom  of heaven.   '  Except a man deny
himself and  take up his cross, he cannot be my dis-
ciple,' said Jesus.  Why '(   Because the whole life 
106        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTn.
and  character of Jesus  were self-denying and self-
sacrificing.  What  a  sacrifice  for him,  who was
infinitely  rich, to become poor,  that  we might bo
rich ; to die that we  might live,  to have not where
to lay his  head that we  might have'heavenly man-
sions !   What poor returns  of gratitude we  make
for-love like this !  And what less could we expect
would be  required  than that we should deny our-
selves—of what ?  nothing but what would  hurt ua
to partake of  !
   "Language fails to express the beauty, the excel-
lence, the glory  of Christianity, as taught and exem-
plified in  the life  and  death  of  its Founder.  To
resist temptation, to overcome  an evil propensity, to
love an enemy, are victories worth obtaining.  It is
not only great but glorious.  Daily experience teach-
es me  the absolute  necessity of  overcoming  the
' world, the flesh and the devil,'  in order to obtain
present  peace  and future glory.   It is utterly impos-
sible for us to-enter into that rest perfectly, till every
member, every faculty, and every  sense, is  brought
into subjection to the law of Christ.   None of our
faculties or propensities need  be destroyed, unless
they 'cause us to offend ;' but all should be conse-
crated to  their appropriate office,  and set apart for
the purposes designed by  our  all-wise  Creator, and
to no other.   Then would that heavenly harmony
be seen and   heard throughout  creation, of which
angels once sang, and which must be  sung  by men 
MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTn.        107
before the Redeemer gives the kingdom up  to God
 again.
   " May we, dear friends, take some humble part in
 bringing in  everlasting righteousness, for we  have
 the ability and the opportunity.   We can deny our-
 selves luxuries, that others may have necessaries ;
 we can live in plain houses, that others may  be shel-
 tered from the storm;  we  can labor diligently with
 our hands and brains,  that the  sick and infirm may
 be comforted and fed,  the  ignorant enlightened, the
 wanderer reclaimed, the oppressed set free, the mur-
 derer forgiven and saved, the warrior taught to beat
 his weapons of w ar into agricultural implements, and
 live in  peace.  We can render  good for evil, and
 blessing for cursing ;  we can salute others than our
 brethren, and love them that  love  not  us;—these
 things let us do ; and may the Father  of our spirits
 give us all the wisdom and strength we need to per-
 fect us  in every good word and work.
   " We may rest assured -that every work of right-
 eousness, every true testimony, every evil overcome,
 however small, comparatively, contributes to  increase
 the  amount of good and lessen the amount of evil in
 the  universe,  and will hasten the long looked-for era,
 when all shall know the Lord, and men with angels
 join to sing:
        ' All glory be to God on high,
           And to the earth be peace ; 
108         MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
Good will henceforth from heaven to men,
  Begin and never cease.'
                " Butler Wilmarth." 
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WrILMARTH.
109
                 CHAPTER  V.
His purpose in leaving Leverett—Enters into partnership
  with Dr. David Rice—Moves to Hopedale—Reluctantly
  resumes his profession—Trial of his Allopathic faith
  and practice—Begins to think favorably of Hydropathy
  —Goes to New. Lebanon Water Cure Establishment,
  where he remained for a time incog.—Writes home fa-
  vorable reports of his experience and observation—B.e-
  turns to  Hopedale with improved  health—His  little
  faith in medicine and great faith in nature, particularly
  manifest in an interesting Letter to his Son.
Sometime  before Dr. Wilmarth left  Leverett,  he
began to feel that his best days, in medical practice,
were ended, and that his labors  had  so worn  upon
him, that he should never again engage in them with
the constancy he  had done.  In looking to Hope-
dale,  therefore, one  object that  he had in view was
rest—not inactivity,  idleness—but rest in change.
Thiswas not, it is  true, his prominent object.   IHh
prominent  object  was  to   cooperate  with  kindred
minds, for the establishment of a divine  order of so-
ciety on earth—the kingdom of God.
   He felt,  however, that he was unable to ride so 
110        MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.
much as he  had  done,  especially nights;  and he
thought that at Hopedale  he might prant and  culti-
vate a Botanic  Garden, and obtain a  comfortable
subsistence by the preparation and sale of medicines,
and by attending to what little professional practice
he might be called upon for by the members  of the
Community and the  adjacent  neighborhood.  He
had  also  long  contemplated the  establishment of
some kind of an Infirmary, and  supposed that he
might, at some  time,  realize his ideal institution at
Hopedale—an ideal, by  the way,  which  floated he-
fore  him, till, just as he was on the point of reaching
it, he was  suddenly taken away !  Much practice,
therefore,  outside  of the  Community,  he  did not
wish, unless it  were  very necessary.  . His  desires
and plans in these particulars, however, he was never
able to carry out; and was forced again into  his pro-
fession.  But more of this in another place.
   His Leverett  friends greatly  regretted  his inten-
tion  of  leaving them;   both   on account  of not
sympathizing in the Associative Movement—as but
very few,  of  course,   did—and their reluctance to
lose their old, long-tried, familiar Physician, in whose
medical skill and Christian excellence they had equal
confidence.   For about a dozen years he had  been 
memoir of dr.  wilmarth.   *    111
with them, visiting amongst them, professionally and
otherwise, in,the  most free  and  fraternal  manner,
and being cordially received by  them in the  same
spirit; and it  was hard  for them to give  him up;
hard  also for  him to give them  up.   The remem-
brance of many  scenes of prosperity and adversity
in which they had been united ; in which they had
rejoiced and wept together, and together grown up
to maturity, and advanced toward the grave, whither
they had followed not a  few of their number—the
simple remembrance of these,  bound them to  each
other by new ties, and it was painful even to think of
separation.  Only a great  Christian idea and object
—loyalty to  conscience,   to truth,  to  God—would
have  strengthened him  to the  sacrifice.   But he
promised that  he would not leave them, till he should
find a competent and worthy  Physician to take his
place.   Of course there were enough ready to  step
into such a  position, as  soon as it was generally
known  that he  purposed relinquishing it; and he
mioht have sold it—according  to  a not uncommon
practice  among- mere  business  men—and  several
called to ascertain  what arrangements  they  could
make with him for it.  But he never harbored the
thought of making money in such a way ; and  con- 
112        memoir  of dr. wilmarth.
eidered the vacancy which he  should cause,  on his
departure, free to any one  who  could fairly  secure
it.
  He, however,  in the year 1842,  chose a partner
in business—David Rice, M. D., of Rowe—an intel-
ligent, well-educated and  promising young  Physi-
cian, in whose qualifications for the situation he had
much confidence and  hope, and whom,  he trusted,
the people  would generally  receive  as a competent
substitute for himself.   His desire was to help them
to a Physician who should  be skillful in his profes-
sion,  and  upright,  worthy, and fraternal in all hia
relations to them; and such an  one, I  believe, has
Dr. Rice proved to be.  He has an honorable stand-
ing in his profession;  and a  wide  practice.  Dr.
WTilmarth  and he continued together, as partners,
for about two years, and were both, Dr. Rice informs
me, "constantly occupied and oppressed with busi-
ness."   At the expiration of this time,  and on the
 2d day of March,  1844, Dr.  Wilmarth, with  hia
family,  started  for Hopedale, with the view of mak-
ing it a permanent homo.   The Autumn previous, he
had been down and built the Ell of  his house, into
which he  moved,  immediately on  his  arrival, and
whilst the main  building was in process of erection. 
          MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        113

   On  becoming  a  resident at  Hopedale,  as has
already been observed, Dr. Wilmarth did not design
devoting himself, to any great extent, to the practice
of medicine ; and he, at first, generally refused to do
so, though he had many calls.  But he had not the
means  necessary to the opening of the  contemplated
Botanic Garden, before spoken  of,  and as no other
profitable employment offered, he was compelled par-
tially to resume his profession.   He resolved,  how-
ever,   not  to ride  nights,  excepting  in  great
emergencies;  and he made no special efforts  to
secure  practice.   What he had waS not sought, but
came to him.  Had he made it publicly known that
his services  were  to be had, by any who would favor
him with their patronage, I  am sure he would have
secured a very large practice.  As.it was, soon after
he commenced going abroad at all, he generally had
as many patients as his health  would  admit of his
attending to, and frequently had to send applicants
to other physicians.
  But  he soon found in Hopedale, some unexpected
and quite serious  trials  of  his  medical faith and
practice—trials likewise of his  patience.  He had
come to Hopedale, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, and
in the  spirit of fraternity; expecting,  of course, as
            H 
114        MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.

he had a right to expect, that he would be the Phy-
sician of the Community—so long, at any rate,  as
there was no other  one belonging  to it.   He could
not, indeed,  have cared particularly for this position
on  account of the pecuniary advantages of it, even
if he had been a selfish man ;  for they were necessa-
rily very small; but there was  a point of respect,
of   honor,  involved,  which  would  very naturally
touch  a very sensitive part  of his character.  For
any not  to  employ him, would  seem  to indicate
a lack of confidence in him—a serious  matter in a
 ■' Fraternal Community," where all were  mutually
 pledged to stand by each other,  in love and good
 will, and all kindly offices.   He,  too, was conscioua
 —modestly so—that  his  theoretical and practical
 knowledge of disease and the remedies therefor,  to-
 gether with his age  and great experience, entitled
 him to the place ; and,  on no  common ground,
 would any  of his brethren  have questioned that
 title.
    We all probably had as  much faith  in Dr. Wil-
 marth and in  his  practice,  as in almost any other
 physician of  the  Allopathic School—some  of us
 wndd have chosen him before any other one.  And
 it was a dedicate  question to  consider, whether  our 
           MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.        115

own Physician,* a  brother beloved and highly es-
teemed, should be employed by us, in our  sickness,
or whether we  should^send out  of the Community
for some one else.   Many, of  course, were perfectly
satisfied with him.  But others  did raise the ques-
tion—reluctantly,  considerately,  regretting the ne-
cessity,  but  nevertheless  openly and frankly.   The
Bpirit of Hydropathy had got in amongst us, and was
spreading like an  epidemic.   Many of  us were
determined  to have  nothing  more to do  with the
contents of " saddle bags,"  administer  them  who
might—even " an angel from heaven."  Most firmly
and resolutely did we believe in the Gospel according
to Priessnitz; and if any physician  came to us  not
preaching and practicing  this,  we  simply turned
away from him,  thinking  ourselves  wiser by far.
Such an one belonged  to the Old Dispensation ; we
to the New.   " No more of your  drug0' we said—
no more of your calomel especially—the deadly poi-
son.  We were so exceedingly zealous for the Water
Cure—the  " universal panacea"—that  we  would
have  almost rather died  under its  administration,
when sick, than to have got well under the adminis-
tration of the old and  "regular" method of deple-
tion and dosing.  " Away  with it," we  said—" the
            n* 
116         MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
world has had enough of it already, and grows no
better,  but rather, worse.  We were,  perhaps,  a
little, or not a little, extravagant about the matter—
but such was our faith and hope—such our words.
   But my family, I believe, was the first to be  put
severely to the test—the first to answer the question
as to the propriety of not employing Br. Wilmarth,
and going abroad for another doctor.  Our little boy—
two years old, and an only child—was very severely
and dangerously attacked,  in  the  year 1846, with
the Dysentery ;  and we were almost in an agony of
suspense, as to what it was best to do for him—espe-
cially as Dr. Wilmarth seemed to feel that he would
not recover.  He had been several times sick; mostly
with the diseases common to children ; but had never
taken  any  medicine.   His mother was somewhat
skillful in the management of him with  the Water
Cure,  and <iaad sometimes  silently laid aside the
" doses" that our former excellent Physician had left
for him, to be given if necessary.  She did not deem
it necessary.

   But now we were brought to a critical case.   We
considered Dr.   AYilmarth's knowledge,  skill, judg-
ment, and fraternal relation to us and to the Commu- 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         117
nity ;  and these weighed  a great deal with us,  and
made  us hesitate ;  and  the  more  so, because  we
knew no Water Cure physieian equal to him in mo£t
of the acquirements essential to the treatment of the
diseases of mankind.  We, therefore, consulted with
him, and found him firm in the faith of calomel, and
in the purpose to give it,  should he  take  our lovely
boy in charge ; and so we at once deeided to send to
Boston for Mr. Joseph A. Whitmarsh, an  old ac-
quaintance of  mine, and who  was then engaged, to
a considerable extent, in the practice of Hydropathy.
He accordingly  came, and staid with us over the
night,  working  almost  constantly  upon  the child,
with his various water applications; and  much to
our astonishment and our joy,  and  to the astonish-
ment of Dr. Wilmarth and others,  the disease  was
very much subdued by morning, and  convalescence
soon followed, and  then an  entire  restoration to
health !  This is the case of which Dr. Wilmarth
speaks in his  Address before  " The American Hy-
gienidtemd Hydropathic Association of Physicians,"
&c, which  may  be  found in another part of this
Memoir.  In justice, however, to Dr.  Wilmarth, I
ought here to gay, perhaps, that his kind and sympa-
thiang adyice  to us, was, to act in the premises, just 
118        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

as we should wish we had acted, should the child be
taken from us.
' But that was a  year of much sickness at Hope-
dale ; and Mr.  Whitmarsh's success in  our little
" Willie's" case, encouraged others to send for him ;
and in the course of the summer, he came frequently
to several patients.   And  at each time, his  treat-
ment was successful.  This fact, together with  the
earnest discussion upon the  subject, which was con-
stantly going on among us, set the Dr.  seriously to
thinking whether there might  not, after  all, be some
sound philosophy in the new Theory ;  and he resolv-
ed upon  giving it a most thorough investigation ; and
upon testing  it, particularly by observation and expe-
rience.   His wife says of him:   "He  was always
hard to be convinced  of anything new;  but when
convinced, was ever ready to  acknowledge it." And
this we all saw to  be  specially the case  at the time
we are considering.  With his naturally  conservative
mind,  and his great  firmness, with less conscience
and  less  Christian principle  than he possessed,  he
would, most likely, have resisted the light that shone
upon his mind, to the  day of his death—especially
if all his worldly interests, as is the case with most
physicians, had been  against  his changing his life- 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        119
long opinions and practice.  But it was a religious
duty with him to " prove all things and hold  fast
that which was good," and which would promote the
welfare of mankind.  This is the reason why he was,
all through his professional  career—as those  who
knew him, know that he was—an "eclectic."  He
was  never a  narrow-minded,  exclusive, bigoted,
Allopathist; thinking that he  and his class were
" the men, and that wisdom would die with them."
He was not shallow enough, nor blind enough, to
imagine that the established and  popular system of
" Materia Medica," which had come down from the
imperfect and unenlightened  Past, was  without
errors and could not be improved; or  that all the
great minds  that  had, from time to time,  broken
away from it, and set  up new systems, were unprin?
cipled  Quacks,  having no  important truths  and
principles,  and deserving only  of contempt and re-
proach.   He knew, too, having  been " behind the
curtains," that the " Regulars" who assumed  such a
wise and dignified position,  and who would not treat
a  professed  Reformer  of Medicine,  with  common
civility,  were  often  governed  simply by apprehen-
sions for their craft, their reputations and their pock-
ets.   He had  no respect for  them in  this matter— 
 120        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

as they manifestly deserve none from an enlightened,
liberal and progressive  community.   Hence he was
ever ready  to  consult  with any  physician, of any
school, who was sincere, honest,  and well informed
in his profession.
   Dr.  W.  was  neither narrow-minded enough, nor
knave  enough,  to sacrifice a sick  man to a point of
professional pride or policy ;  and was quite as willing
that salvation should come out  of some lowly as out
of some lofty place.  It was not in him to turn away
from us in a rage, when we sent for Mr. Whitmarsh,
doubtful as he was about the propriety of our course;
but he would come in from  day to day, to watch tho
workings of the new and strange  treatment, hoping,
I doubt not, that the result would be favorable, and
the child  be restored  to vigorous and healthy lifi^
And it was such a marked and  critical case—the
child was of so frail a constitution and the disease
was of so violent and dangerous  a  type—that the
issue set the Dr. seriously to thinking that Hydropa-
thy might,  after all, be of great value to the world.
He saw that in this ease, at least,  it had fairly and
fully established its claim  to respect;  and he  ac-
knowledged the fact.   His eyes wore opened,  and it
was  not doubtful  to  the friends of Water-Cure, 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        121
where an honest man like him, and one so  disinter-
ested  as  to  his reputation and pecuniary  interests,
would end.  They were confident he would come out
on the side of the new practice.
  Soon after this  period, the Dr.  was himself quite
out of health, and as he  had but little faith  in  the
application of Allopathic remedies in his peculiar
case—a not  uncommon thing,  it is said, among phy-
sicians—the next summer ("1847) he resolved upon
trying the effects  of  Hydropathy upon his own per-
son.   Accordingly, he went to the  Establishment of
Mr. David Cambell, at New Lebanon Springs, N. Y.,
designing thoroughly to test the system, both  by his
own experience and  by a careful and critical obser-
vation of its results in  other cases.  He did  not go
with very sanguine expectations, fancying he might
find a sovereign remedy  for all physical maladies ;
not in a state  of mind  to  be made  an easy, con-
vert.   He was  still  doubtful, somewhat prejudic-
ed, and  not a  little  opposed to so much  of pre-
tension  as he  frequently saw manifested by Hy-
dropathists.   But he went with  a mind open to
conviction, determined to be candid and impartial in
his investigations and inquiries, and finally to report
his deliberate and honest convictions.  He at onee 
122        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH
  received favorable impressions of Mr. and Mrs. Cam-
  bell, and also of Dr.  Bedortha, the latter of whom
  he soon came to regard as one of the  best  of physi-
  cians, and a very excellent man and Christian.  But
  he did not, at first,  make himself known to them as
  a Physician, thinking that remaining there incog.,
" would  afford him a more  favorable  opportunity to
  make close and accurate observations, than he other*
  wise could enjoy.
   After having been  at New Lebanon a few weeks,
  the following communication was received from  Dr,
  Wilmarth, as a  contribution to the columns of the
  Practical Christian, in which  it appeared in May,
  1847, and from which may  be learned his first im-
  pressions :
             " For The Practical  Christian.
    " Mr. Editor:—I am now under the Water-Cure
  treatment at the New Lebanon Water-Cure Estab-
  lishment, Columbia Co., N. Y.—D. Cambell & Son,
  Proprietors; N. Bedortha, M. D.,  Physician.  I
  have not experienced  or  observed enough yet, to sit
  in judgment on  this exclusive mode of treating  ' all
  the ills to which flesh is heir.'  Still,  believing there
  are many cases where.water would effect a cure much
  more expeditiously, and with equal safety, if it had
  some well-known and long-tried medicinal articles in 
•MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         123
it—and it will take a long talk to convince a judi-
cious and experienced Physician  of the  dangerous
effects of Catnip or Pennyroyal  Tea, or  even of
Ipecac or Castor Oil, when properly administered—
I am also willing to believe that many and remarka-
ble cures have been, and will continue to be,  effected,
by the various applications of water, in the form of
Plunge, Shower, Douche,  and Hose Baths, as the
remedial agent,  combined with proper diet, air, ex-
ercise, rest,  and total abstinence from  all  the predis-
posing and exciting causes of disease; and all who
wish to avail themselves of these means of recovery,
in an eminent degree, I can cheerfully recommend to
repair to New Lebanon Springs forthwith.  Here is
an intelligent and conscientious Physician to .direct,
attentive and kind-hearted nurses, a very agreeable
family to board with, an abundant  supply of first
rate water, every useful form of baths, and of every
variety of temperature, the most beautiful mountain
scenery, towering hills arrayed in green, and deep"
and fearful ravines where limpid streams  contend,
and seek their level on beds  of rock, deeply furrow-
ed by the course of time.            *    *
   " In short, I  have fully realized my expectations
in finding this place exceedingly  well calculated for
breaking  off pernicious  habits,   and learning cor-
rect  views  of living, in  all  things  relating to the
physical man, and, in a good degree,  to  the moral
and spiritual man also." 
124        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
   Soon after the above communication was publish-
ed, I received from him the following letter, which
was also published  in  the  Practical Christian,  and
in which some indications of progress may be seen :

    "New Lebanon Springs, N. Y., June 9,1847.
" Dear Br.  Fish :—
   " I presume you will be glad to know how I pro-
gress in the experience and observation of Hydropa-
thy.  As  to experience,  I can  report  somewhat
favorably  of its effects  in my  own  case.  I  find
myself in  better health  and  spirits  than when  I
commenced treatment eight weeks  ago.   Quite as
much change has been effected in my  symptoms as
oould reasonably be expected in so inveterate a  case
of several years' standing.   Whether I shall continue
to mend in the  same ratio  for  eight weeks or eight
months to come, remains to be seen.   If that should
?>e the case, I may become wholly converted to  Hy-
dropathy—at present I  do  not acknowledge myself
but about five-eighths converted.  As to my obser-
vation of its effects on  others in this establishment,
I have witnessed some  excellent  ones in  several
oases.  In  two  cases of Erysipelas and one  of  sub-
acute inflammation of  the  lungs,  the  effects  were
strikingly beneficial.   There is  something very com-
fortable in  the reflection  that henceforth the craving
thirst may  be allayed, and  the  fever-heated skin be
cooled with the clear and life-reviving element, with- 
          MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.        125

out the fear of harm,  if judiciously applied.   Some
few have long known  this fact; but many have fear-
ed, who may now take courage—the experiment has
been well tried.
   " I came here with a hope to  be benefited, and
with a determination to examine carefully and report
honestly.  And the result of  my short and imperfect
investigations, thus far, when summed  up into  opin-
ions and articles of faith, si as follows :
   "1.  The discoveries of Vincent Priessnitz, in the
various modes of applying water for the- removal of
disease are of immense importance, and will prove a
lasting blessing to mankind.
   " 2.  The  opposition manifested to  the ^jWater-
 Cure' by the Medical faculty and  their adherents,
will prove wholly unavailing, since there is  truth in
it that will demonstrate itself by washing  away from
the ' Materia Medica' of  the future a herculean host
of deleterious mineral and  earthy substances, that
have already filled up their  measure of evil to the
human race.
   "3.  That the more zealous advocates of Hydrop-
 athy claim far too much for this  ' new remedy,' and
if not timely aware, will venture beyond their depth
to the  great discredit of their system and danger to
 their patients, inasmuch as man is manifestly not an
 aquatic animal,  and had therefore better conform to
 his nature and  station -than attempt to  go  beyond
 their appointed limits. 
126        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
  "4. That a  long list of diseases need no  other
remedial agent  than water, combined with proper
diet  and regimen,  is  capable of ocular  demonstra-
tion, as well as that some  are  seriously  injured by
any attempt at  drug medication.
  "  5. Another class  of diseases may be cured by
water,  but would be abbreviated by well-known sim-
ple  medicines.
  "  6. The medical power of nature  is  the  great
restorer of health ; and all that physicians, water or
medicine can do, is to place  the  patient in the most
favorable  condition for this  grand agent to  exert
itself to the best advantage.
  " 7.^.bout  five-eighths of all remedial measurea
consist in removing the causes of disease, correcting
and  regulating habits, proper diet, pure  air, mental
repose, exercise and  rest,  cheerful  company and
pleasant scenery.   The remaining three-eighths may
be made up with water or  medicine, as the case re-
quires.
  " 8. Hydropathic institutions, under good  moral
and  physical  regulations,  are, above all  other situa-
tions at the  present day, the best resort for the sick,
whether laboring under acute or chronic diseases.
  " 9. As  all  things  are ultimately  to find  their
level,  so water  and medicine will, of course ; and
by a friendly and harmonious union of the one with
the  gentler kinds of the other, exert their combined
energies to place the afflicted  sons  and daughters of 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        127

Adam in the most favorable condition to ' be healed.'
All hail the day !
                             " B. Wilmarth."
  The  following letter to me, from  Mr.  Cambell,
confirms the gpneral impression which I have endeav-
ored to give of  Dr. Wilmarth, both  as a Physician
and a Christian man :
        "New Lebanon Springs,  July 20, 1853.
" Mr. Fish :
  Dear Sir :—As soon as the appalling news reach-
ed me that Dr. AYilmarth was among  the victims of
the  awful catastrophe  at Norwalk,  Ct., I  felt an
inclination to re-peruse  several of his letters, which
I had on file, and which go to illustrate the peculiar-
ities of his character.  These  letters I  forward to
you, agreeably  to your public icy;:.j in the  ' Prac-
tical Christian.'
   " My first acquaintance with Dr.  Wilmarth,  was
in the Spring  of 1847, as  a patient in the Water-
Cure Establishment  here, then under the medical
charge of N.  Bedortha,  M. D.   At first, he did not
make himself known as  a Physician of long practice
and much experience ; but his amiable qualities and
truly Christian sentiments were very soon " known
and  read" of all the ether patients and inmates of
the Establishment.   On leaving the Water-Cure, the
following was found written in the public Register,
whAh  serves  to  illustrate his  views and feelings; 
128        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
      and I can testify that they were universally recipro-
      cated :

         " 'June 15, 1847.  Left this excellent Institution
      somewhat  improved in health and  spirits,  and on
      terms of cordial friendship, with the Physician, Pro-
      prietors, and their  respective families, nurses and
      attendants,  the  guests  and all that  pertain  to the
      house ;  with additional  light on Physiology, Pathol-
      ogy and Therapeutics ;  and with increasing  faith" in
      the Water-Cure, as well as  a  sincere wish for the
►      best of  blessings,  to rest upon this  Institution and
      all that now pertain thereunto, or that may hereafter
      resort here to regain their health; believing that no
      other Establishment of the  kind  in  the country af-
      fords superior, if,  indeed, equal advantages.
                             " 'B. Wilmarth, M. D.'

         " In  the Spring  of 1852,  Dr. Wilmarth became
      the Physician of the Establishment,  and left it at
      the closing of the season, having formed the plan of
      establishing a Water-Cure  of his  own, in company
      with Dr. Hero, at Westboro',  Mass.   I wish to add,
      that while Physician here, he was as much loved and
      respected in the  capacity of Physician as when Pa-
      tient in  the same institution.    He was also loved and
      respected in the  community ;  was chosen as Super-
      intendent of the Sabbath School,  and called into
      several  of the neighboring towns as  Physician in
      some very critical cases.   The new£ of  his sad death 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        129
at Norwalk fell upon this community with appalling
effect.
         " Yours in the best of bonds,
                           "David  Cambell."
   Having remained  at New Lebanon about  two
months, Dr. Wilmarth returned to Hopedale, consid-
erably improved in health, and so much of a convert
to Hydropathy, that he  henceforth stood before the
world in the position of a Water-Cure Physician—
not heartily fellowshiped,  however, by the Ultraists
of any school.  He had gone too far in Hydropathy
for the regular M. Ds, and not far enough for those
in whose system Water was the only remedy for dis-
ease—a  panacea.   True to  his own conscience and
judgment, and without regard to public opinion, he
still remained an  Eclectic.   He only professed up to
the exact point of  his belief in the efficacy of Water ;
and that belief was of very gradual and slow growth.
He even tenaciously adhered  to the practice of ad'
ministering some medicines—always the more simple
ones—to the close of  his  earthly life;  and  it is
probable that he would have continued to do so, had
he remained with  us many years more.  He, howev*-
er, relied more and more,  as he advanced in age,
upon the  recuperative  powers of Nature, and was
            i 
130       MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

far more inclined to  go forward  to  the '' let alone
system" of the celebrated Dr.  Jennings, than to go
backward to his old system of calomelizing, bleeding,
etc.   He  believed that if we would  strictly observe
the laws of life and health, in our sickness, surround-
ing ourselves  with cleanliness, quiet,  and fresh air,
simple Nature would  do far  more  for us than tho
mass of the Drs. are doing for the sick.  He believed
that the Drs. killed many who would get well without
them ; and had the most faith in those who used tho
least medicine—more, for this reason, iu Homoeopa-
thy than inv Allopathy.  He once carried me through
a severe  and  critical  course  of  typhoid fever,  and
^ave  me  of medicine  only  one dose  of oil.  Still,
he gave too much  medicine to the last, to suit  some ;
and they  complained of him for not  using water free-
ly enough.
  The following letter to his son, at  that time  absent
from home,  and just  recovering from a  brief sick-
ness,  will be appropriate here  as  an  expression of hia
fear of  Allopathic medicines :
      " New Grofcnoerg, N.  T., Aug. 28, 1851.
" Dear Son :—
  " Yours of the 28th  was duly received.   We were
very sorry you have  been sick, and  very  glad  you 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         131
have partially recovered.  You must be exceedingly
careful what you eat for two or three weeks, at least.
I suspect you had eaten too much solid food, as well
as fruit, on your visiting tour.   The  attack you ex-
perienced was one of Nature's efforts to rid herself
of morbid  matters.   The proper  treatment  would
have  been to have  taken a warm bath, 100 degs.
Fahr., or a wet sheet packing, with hot bricks, or bot-
tles of hot water about your body and feet, and cold
wet cloths to the head.  After equalizing the circu-
lation by these means, (and repeating, if necessary,)
short sitz baths, 10 or 15 min.  each in water 60 or
65 degs. 3 or 4 times a day,  with  injections of pure
cold water at 75  degs. after every discharge, with a
wet compress, covered by a dry one over the bowels,
small draughts of tepid or cold water, according to
the thirst, would have been the proper, rational, and
scientific course to have pursued,  and to pursue in
all such cases, and not one in fifty would die  under
Buch treatment.   The nourishment in all such cases
should be very simple and stinted.   A teacupfuU of
thin, arrow-root, rice-water, toast-water, and suchlike
farinaceous articles, three times a day, is abundantly
sufficient in the acute stage.   You  must  be careful
about diet, or you will be down again in a few weeks.
   As to Dr.-------'s ' preparation of chalk, and one
or two other things,' I must condemn them.  I knew
them of old ;  they used to live in our family.   They
never were good servants, and always bad masters.
             i* 
132         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
I am sorry he  (Dr.-------,) don't know any better.
I hope I may have an opportunity to see him and tell
him a little of my experience in Dysentery, with the
Water-Cure treatment.   I think I am justly entitled
to an opportunity to give my opinion on Calomel &
Co., to the good people of-------, at  some future
day, which thing I will gladly do, if  the Lord  will,
and they will  give  me the use of room and lights,
and lend me their ears an hour or two on some pleas-
ant evening.   I rather claim this right as an act of
justice,  and the  best  ' amende' they can make for
poisoning you with calomel.  It is rank poison to
you, and you will be fortunate if you escape un-
harmed from the effects of that single dose.  It was
that which weakened you  so.   You  cannot bear
physic, and ought not to take any thing more drastio
than castor oil, or rhubarb.  But  in  this sickness,
you did not need it.  If you had taken the Water-
Cure course above described,  it  would have cured
you quicker, and left no  'sting  behind.'  I know
very well what Dr.------- and his disciples will
gay:  ' That the calomel brought away foul matter
from the system,' &c.  But what else did it do, Dr. ?
Did it not determine  the  circulation  to the bowels,
which was already too much there ?  Did it not irri-
tate the delicate lining of the intestinal canal, which
was already  too much irritated ?  Most  certainly,
both  the above consequences followed.  Why use it
then, when the morbific matters can be sweated out 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.        133
and rinsed out by simple,  bland, unirritating,  and
' most  blessed water' ?  ' But the  calomel  excites
the glandular system,  and restores the secretions.'
Ah ! that  indeed.   It  does excite  them, and in a
most terrific manner,  too !   Every glandular organ
puts forth its  utmost effort  to expel  and wash the
poison out of the system, oftentimes at the expense
of the loss of their normal action forever afterwards.
This is the way irritating poisons act upon the system,
and the system upon them.   They are mortal ene-
mies.  It is of no use to defend ^alomel before me.
I have tried him and found  him guilty.  I have not
a doubt but that much of the ill-health of the pres-
ent generation is fairly attributable to the use  of
Calomel and other irritating  poisons as  medicines.
The opium you  took was  less objectionable, under
tlie  circumstances, (though under  water treatment
you would not have needed it,) inasmuch as it tends
to allay irritation and determine to the surface.   But
what a foolish and injurious game to play upon vital
structures—to irritate and soothe, determine  to the
center, and then determine back  again !  About  as
consistent as it would be to  freeze yourself for the
sake of the pleasure of thawing out again.  0, that
men, especially physicians,  had some faith in God,
and the remedial power he  has  established in every
vital  organism !  Ten  thousand  hands are on the
watch to guard  the  citadel of life, and ready at a
moment's  warning  to  work  for  oppressed  nature. 
134         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

The vital energies of the  organism are these hands ;
they should not be  manacled nor  cut off by violent
measures, nor be obliged to expend all their energies
in expelling  ' a little chalk  and  one  or two other
things.'   I leave this subject for the present, feeling
thankful you are so well  as you are, and hoping by
carefulness on your part and the Divine blessing you
will recover your wonted health,  speedily.   I think
if you are attacked again, with bowel complaint or
any  other  disease,  and cannot manage  yourself or
send for me quick enough, I  should recommend yon
to employ a Homoeopathic physician.  I have much
less fear of that treatmeat than  of the  Allopathic,
because it leaves  nature free  to  cure  herself,  if it
does not help her a little.
                              " B. Wilmarth."
   "P. S. We would send our respects and thanks
to the kind friends who assisted you  during your
sickness.   Also, to the  Dr.,  who, I  doubt  not,
thought he was doing you good  service.  I respect
all honest men, though I may condemn some of their
practices.   I  most conscientiously  gave  Calomel
once ; but know better now.              B. W." 
memoir  of dr. wilmarth.         135
                CHAPTER VI.
Commences the practice of Hydropathy at Hopedale—
  Goes to  Lowell for a brief season—Returns and opens
  a Water-Cure Establishment at Hopedale—Small suc-
  cess—Moves to New Graefenberg.  N. Y.—Lectures on
  Hydropathy in various places—Moves to New Lebanon
  —Enters into partnership with Dr. J. H. Hero,v and in
  union they make a purchase at Westboro'—Leaves New
  Lebanon and visits Hopedale—Moves to  Westboro'—
  A short sickness—Flattering prospects—Visits Hope-
  dale—Goes to New York—Is brought home a corpse—
  Is conveyed to Hopedale—His funeral services  and  his
  burial.

Soon after  returning  home from  New  Lebanon,
Dr.  W.  commenced  practicing  his profession, ac-
cording to his new views, in Hopedale and vicinity;
and was frequently called to the neighboring towns,
and sometimes to more distant ones.   Many patients
also called upon him ; and  he  soon made prepara-
tions in his  own  house for the reception and treat-
ment of a few.   In the  Autumn of '48 he had  an
invitation to take charge of the Water-Cure Estab-
lishment at  Lowell, during a brief absence of Dr. 
136        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH
Foster, who was its permanent Physician.   Here h©
remained about two months, giving, I believe, much
satisfaction to the proprietors and  patients.   On his
return to Hopedale, or soon after, three of these pa-
tients followed him ;  one  of them  remaining  with
him through the winter ; and as he also  had two or
three  others, sometimes more, his house was about
full, so that his care of them,  together  with his out-
practice, occupied nearly all bis time, and  afforded
him a sufficient income for his current expenses.  In
the following Spring,  however,  the  Community fitted
up quite  a commodious  two-story  house for him,
respectably furnishing it,  and  providing it  with  the
necessary facilities for baths,  hoping that it might
prove  to be- a successful experiment,  so that wo
should have him permanently in our midst.   But for
various  reasons—most of them quite apparent to
those acquainted with the facts—he did not receive
the patronage which he, and we all, anticipated ; and
it was rather a losing enterprise with him.
   Dr. Wilmarth was  not the man to make an ordina-
ry location for such an  Establishment,  attractive to
the world.   He was too honest, too truthful, and not
BTifnciently skilled in the very  common  art of flour-
ishing and pwffing^ to, make invahds, who had money 
           memoir  of dr. wilmarth.        137

to spare, think that his Institution was the most fine-
ly situated of any  in  the  country,  and he  himself
the most wonderful  Physician.   His conscience al-
ways stood in the way  of such fashionable and fanci-
ful coloring—not to use a harsher term—and he neve*
could decide to turn a deaf ear to that faithful moni-
tor within him.   He must always state facts  without
any adorning, even though they were against his
interests ;  and frequently has he stood resolutely out
against those connected with him, who insisted upon
his sounding his trumpet  louder—as loud, at leastr
as his competitors ;  and so loud  that all interested,
who had well-filled  purses, might hear.   But no—
not one point beyond the truth would he go,  patients
or no patients.  At Hopedale he was sustained in
this;  and I doubt not that it was one of the reasons
why he did not receive more patronage.
   The most that he would say in his Proposal was :
 " It  is  proposed to erect a  plain  and  convenient
house, with all necessary  fixtures for bathing,  &c.
 attached thereto, having strict regard to  economy
and health, so that the means of  enjoying its  benefits
may be brought within the reach  of persons in  mod-
erate circumstances, as well as of the  wealthy, who
alone, as yet, have  been able to avail  themselves of 
138       memoir  of dr. wilmarth.

the Water-Cure a sufficient length of time to effect a
recovery.   A  respectable  location  presents itself,
where a handsome prospect may bo had of surround-
ing  scenery.   *   *   A  more  quiet and  peaceful
retreat can scarcely be found in  this, or any, coun-
try."
   Of course a plain notice like this,  would fail to
astonish the  world,  and  fail, therefore,  to attract
much serious  attention.   There was  not pretense,
not  " gas" enough about  it, and it did not promise
enough of  show and excitement, to  satisfy the lovers
of the marvelous  and the wonder-working; and so
they looked  in other  directions where luxury  and
health could  both   be found!  Thus it is, too, that
simplicity and honesty, often have to yield the palm
to ostentation and  humbuggery.
   But about  six months  after Dr.  Wilmarth  had
opened his Establishment  at Hopedale,  he  had an
invitation from Dr.  Holland, the Proprietor of the
New (I rtcfenberg Water-Cure Establishment, to take
the position of  Physician  to  that Institution, which
invitation he  seriously considered, and finally accept
ed.  But  it  was  with extreme  reluctance that he
took this step.  He  had joined the Community,  and
taken up his  residence in it, hoping that it would be 
MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.        130
his  permanent home; and he did not entertain  a
doubt, when he first did so,  that such  would be the
case.   It was  the order of society toward which he
had  longingly and  prayerfully looked,  for  many
years; and he had  entered  into it with enthusiasm
and joy, confident in the  expectation of a  sufficient
degree of  success and prosperity to make him con-
tented and happy for the  remainder  of  his  days.
He did not anticipate,  nor demand, the superfluities
nor the luxurias of life ; but desired  necessary con-
veniences and comforts, without excessive toil  and
care to procure them.  He had been hard at work
through nearly all his previous years, and  had so
broken down under his labors, that he felt an abso-
lute need of an increase of quiet and rest—especial-
ly as the natural infirmities of age  admonished  him
that he could endure, as  he  had done, but little
longer.  But  the Community had not become large
enough, nor wealthy enough,  to afford him  such  a
support as his circumstances required  ; and  not be-
ing able to ride extensively and at all seasons,  and
in all kinds of weather, he found it exceedingly dif-
ficult to  do anything more  than simply to meet his
necessary expenses ; whilst he thought he ought,  at
his time of life, to be annually adding something  to 
140        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
his little property, as a provision for old age, should
he live, or for  his family, should he  die.   He had
hitherto  been  too  unmindful of the  future—as he
himself began to realize—sacrificing  his worldly in-
terests to his benevolence, which he could no longer
prudently do.
   These were the principal reasons which influenced
him to accept the invitation of Dr.  Holland, above
referred to ;  though he also thought, that in such an
Institution,  with patients  enough to  afford him a
sufficient amount of business, he could be more use-
ful than in any other position in life.   To be at tho
head of some kind of an  Infirmary for invalids, was
even the  dream of his early years ; and he had long
looked forward to the realization of it, in  his latter
days, with much hope.   The Community  did, in-
deed,  make him a liberal  offer, according to its
means, to remain,  and carry out his views  in this
direction, at  Hopedale ; but he was exceedingly
reluctant for that to  become responsible for any loss
that might  accrue,  and  he thought  that by going
away a  few years,  he might accumulate sufficient
means to return and accomplish his object with less
assistance, and pretty much at his own risk.  Ac-
cordingly, in the Spring of 1851, he went  to New 
MEMOIR of  dr.  wilmarth.         141
Grasfenberg, taking his family with him, and imme-
diately entered upon the duties of his new situation.
But here also he was destined to  something of dis-
appointment.  The Establishment was  not patron-
ized as he supposed it would be, and the pecuniary
advantage which he found himself deriving from his
connexion with it, was quite too small to compensate
him for his removal and his time.  He,  however, at
times, had some fifteen or  twenty patients to pre-
scribe for, and otherwise attend  to,  and frequently
went into the surrounding region—and occasionally
a long distance—to deliver lectures upon Hydropathy,
which kept him well  occupied, and satisfied that  he
was, at  least, not living in vain, but  doing some
good.  In a letter to  Dr. Hero, dated New Graefen-
berg,  July 15, 1851, he says :—
   " I have  been ' fishing' a few  times of late.   At
Oriskany Falls,  at Madison Village, at Frankfort,
and Leonardsville, I have thrown out my bait in the
form of Lectures on Hydropathy,  and kindred sub-
jects.   I  am determined  the people  shall hear of
something besides  Calomel  and Antimony to heal
their  diseases—that  is,  if the Lord spares my life
and  health.  It is our true policy, as  well as our
duty, to enlighten the public mind upon the laws of 
142       MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.

health and disease, and remedial agents in sickness.
The Drs.  come out to hear me, but don't move their
tongues.   They know I speak  the truth—or, if they
don't,  I  do.   I  mean  to treat them courteously,
though I do not mean to treat some of  their poisont
very courteously.

   " I have been invited to take a tour of more than
a hundred miles, and lecture at the Villages on the
w:;.y.   I may go when the evenings get a little fongcT
and cooler.   They want  my  services ' gratis,'  of
course ; and that I should not mind, if  I could make
converts  and get patients—such patients as  I could
Ix'.nojii—otherwise  I can ill afford it.   We are pick-
ing up some—have fifteen  pAients now, and expect
three more this week.   I  thin!; the  stirring up of
tlie waters, now and then,  is  the  way to  proceed.
First, make a tremendous splashing with a long pole,
to  attract attention; then be  still, and throw out
your line  and  hook, being  sure you have it well cov-
ered with bait.  But you must marioeuver differently
for the different species, or you will catch nothing but
a  bull-pout, when you  expected a pickerel.   The
most troublesome species, however, are the ' shiners,'
always  nibbling,  but  having  neither  throats nor 
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        143
mouths  large  enough to swallow gnats  or musqui-
toes.
   " But seriously, as to this managing  business, I
despise it.   If plain,  honest, kind words and treat-
ment will not suffice to enlighten the mind and direct
invalids to the right method of  cure, they must die,
for all that I can,  or  will  do.   I cannot humbug,
nor tease, nor palaver, even to obtain a chance to
cure a patient;—no ; I  must work openly and hon-
estly, or not at all.  We have some great guns out
this way,  doing  a  marvelous  business; but their
•modus  operandi is kept a profound secret from the
vulgar crowd  !
   " When I went to Oriskany and Madisonville, I
forgot to take  my lecture;  so I sat  down and wrote
a few 'heads  of discourse,'  and got along so well,
that the next night I did  not so much as have any
notes, but let  the matter  run  free, right from the
fountain ; and I never held an  audience so  still be-
fore.  The minister  and doctor were present; and
tlie doctor invited me to come again."
   But as he did not succeed in proportion to his an-
ticipations  and  hopes at New  Grcefenberg,  having
made  satisfactory arrangements with Dr. Holland,
he concluded  to leave before the year  was  out  for 
144         MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
 which Jje was engaged ; and accordingly did so, after
 remaining there about eleven  months.  But another
 situation of the same kind being offered to  him, by
 his highly-esteemed friend, Mr. David Cambell,  of
 the New Lebanon  Springs Water-Cure Establish-
 ment, he accepted that; and  after having  taken a
 month or two for  rest and  visiting, a part of which
 time he spent at Hopedale,  he proceeded directly to
 that beautiful place, and entered,  with much hope,
 into the  situation that awaited him.   But his ambi-
 tion,  and his settled purpose, was, to have an Estab-
 lishment  of  his own; and as he did not find even
 New  Lebanon  patronized  to  a  sufficient extent to
 afford him an adequate income, he at  once  decided
 to secure, if possible, the  situation  at Westboro',
 which he  occupied at his  death.   In  this  project,
 Dr. J. H. Hero, then of Athol, a young, enterprising,
 and growing  Homoeopathic  and Hydropathic Phys-
cian, was connected with him, from its very inception,
and they purchased together, in the month of  July,
 1.852, and entered into  an equal copartnership in
their professional business.
  This union was one that  was mutually  agreeable
and satisfactory,  and  that promised to be mutually
advantageous.  Dr.  Wilmarth had great confidence 
          MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         145

in Dr. Hero's qualifications as a Physician, and great
confidence in him as a man of integrity and upright-
ness of character, and elevated moral principle ; and,
on the other hand, Dr. Hero  regarded Dr. Wilmarth
with the profoundest respect,  considering him before
almost  any other man in this general region,  as a
Physician; and scarcely second to any one, for the
various manly,  humane,  and Christian  virtues and
excellences.  The union between them, profession-
ally, was that of  a generous  Preceptor and  grateful
student; and socially, that of an elder and a younger
brother.   The  one was  peculiarly qualified, by  his
knowledge,  skill,  and great experience, for the di-
rection of home practice,  and for  the charge of all
critical  cases; whilst  the other, by his youth,  ac-
tivity and  popular  address, together with quite  as
much skill as is common with young physicians, was
peculiarly qualified  for  practice  abroad.    No two
could easily be found so well adapted to each other,
and so suited  to render each  other service.   And
they both confidently anticipated  much success and
happiness together.
   Having entered into this partnership, and purchas-
ed  the place they had  long  had their eye  upon and
desired,  Dr. Wihnaith  left  New Lebanon  in  Oct.,
            J 
146        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
1852—having been  there only about six months—
and after spending a few weeks  at  Hopedale, went
directly to Westboro', to prepare for the opening of
their Establishment; whilst Dr. Hero went to Syra-
cuse, N. Y., to attend a course of Medical Lectures.
As soon as it was known that  Dr. W.  had taken
possession of his new location, he began to have fre-
quent calls for his professional services,  and at once
found himself  engrossed with business.   But,  un-
fortunately,  he  was shortly  after taken  sick,  and
confined to  his   bed  and  his room,  for  several
weeks; which, of course, cut him  abruptly  off from
the practice he had commenced  so auspiciously.  He
had  a regular run of typhoid fever, and it was doubt-
ful,  for a time, what the result would be.  By hia
request, I went up to see him, partly in  order to as*
sist him in adjusting his affairs as he desired to leave
them should he be taken away; and partly to stop with
him  for a while as company, and  to take what  care
of him, and minister to such of his wants, as I could.
I found him, however,  somewhat better, and gradu>
ally recovering, with a  fair prospect  of soon being
about his avocation again.  But he seemed  exceed-
ingly glad to see me, and I was certainly as glad of
the  opportunity to see  him, and to render him. such 
           MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         147

fraternal  service  as I  conveniently could.   Be-
ing so  much improved, he  could engage  in  con-
versation without  serious injury ;  and we, therefore,
freely talked over many  matters of mutual interest
to us.
   And now that he has gone from our midst, I look
back to that  visit with peculiar satisfaction,  grateful
that it was my privilege to. make it.   The  simple
memory of it, is of great value to me ; and  I shall
ever cherish  it with a melancholy  pleasure.   A sun-
ny spot it is, in my world-pilgrimage, sad though the
retrospection is.
   I saw, during the short time I spent with the Dr.
—only about a day and  a half—^shat  already there
were neighbors around him, who were much  attach-
ed to him, and greatly interested respecting his sick-
ness.    Some called, anxious to know when he would
be well enough to  visit  their sick friends;  some  to
get prescriptions for themselves, and some to inquire
after him,  and to proffer their services,  should their
services be needed.  And when  he  sufficiently re-
covered his  health to  get about  much, he  had as
many calls for professional visits, as he could conve-
niently attend to.  Dr. Hero,  however,  joined him
in a  few weeks, and very much  lightened  his bur- 
148        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
 dens; though there was  a very satisfactory amount
 of employment for both of them—enough greatly to
 encourage them as to their future  prospects.   They
 not only had calls at Westboro',  but also from sev-
 eral adjoining  towns; and many, tired  of the  old
 medical practice,  and favorably inclined to Hydrop-
 athy, were congratulating themselves that they were
 henceforth to have the  presence of two such Physi-
 cians, so near and accessible to them.
  Dr. Wilmarth was  so  acute  and  accurate in  his
understanding and delineation of disease,  having for
 almost thirty years  been  one of the closest living
 observers of it, in its various forms and phases—and
 so well knew what jpedicines could not do any good,
 and would, in certain cases, do great injury; and
was, withal, so  frank  in expressing his  opinion,
whether for or against his pecuniary interest, and so
honest and reliable as a Christian and a man, and Dr.
Hero was so much in  sympathy and union with him,
that  many  seemed  to  feel an increased  security
against premature death by proximity  to  their new
Establishment—just as had been the case  with  not a
few at Hopedale,  and in the vicinity, whilst Dr. W.
was with us.   They  had -both been often called to
Southboro' and Marlboro'—two towns adjoining West- 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        149

boro', in which the Water-Cure  had taken a strong
hold—and they were,  therefore, well known.  Dr.
Wilmarth had also been to Northboro'  frequently,
and occasionally into other towns near.   The expec-
tations which many  cherished, were not, therefore,
without foundation, and the result  of ignorance,  as
in the  case of much  of the  medical quackery  so
prevalent in our  time.  They had good reason to
think that some, at least, would find a "  Bethesda,"
in the baths of Westonville.   Very great, therefore,
and sad was their  disappointment, at the  sudden and
melancholy departure  of the Senior Dr. from the
world!   His  great  experience  and  skill, together
with his perfect honesty and genuiafhumanity, had in-
spired many an invalid, and their anxious friends, with
much of hope,  who now became despondent.   They
knew no living physician, in whose wisdom  and in-
tegrity they could so  implicitly trust.   Their  loss,
therefore—how great !j
   But Dr. Hero, I would  here  say,  still continues
at Westonville, and  is  making  preparations for the
reception of a  large number  of patients.  Already
he has received some, and his out-practice is increas-
ing,  and he becoming deservedly popular.   Whoev-
er patronizes  him,  will find him a good Physician, 
150        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

and an  excellent and a reliable man.  He  has also
received into partnership with him  Dwight  Russell,
M. D.,  late Professor of Theory and Practice, in the
Medical College of  Syracuse,  N.  Y., who has  the
reputation of being a  skillful " eclectic" Physician
of many years' practice.
  Thus much I have deemed it  appropriate to say,
in passing, of Dr. Hero, on  account of his intimate
connexion with Dr.  Wilmarth, and their mutual in-
terest in each other.   In life they  were one, and in
death they would not be divided.
  But  to  return to Dr. Wilmarth.—Being relieved
from an excess of cares and duties, by the presenco
and aid of Dr. H#o,  he found time, a  few weeks
previous to his death,  to make two  or  three  hasty
and short calls at Hopedale,  though they were most-
ly of a business character.  At  one of his  visits, he
desired my assistance, in a certain financial matter,
which required us to ride  several  miles together in
a private carriage.   This was in the month of April;
and he  was in  fair health for him,  in  fine spirits,
and seemed cheerful and enthusiastic as to his future
prospects.   We were  traveling in company most of
the day, and  therefore enjoyed a very favorable op-
portunity  for conversation upon a variety of  sub- 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        151

jects, both' old  and new, which were of special  in-
terest to us.   A hallowed day, too,  is that in my
memory, it being the last one that it was  our privi-
lege to spend together.
   On our way, we called at Blackstone, on the Dr.'s
intimate and valued  friend, Prof. Wm.  S. Brown ;
and as they had not seen each other for  a considera-
ble length  of time, the greeting on both sides was
most hearty, earnest  and joyous,  little thinking it
was their last earthly interview !  Mr. Brown,  as he
shall read this, will undoubtedly recollect the time
and the pleasant meeting, with mingled pleasure
and grief.   The Dr. also made some new acquain-
tances,  to whom I introduced him,  and who talked
of moving to Westboro' ;  and they separated, mutu-
ally much  gratified with the short visit, and in anti-
cipation of a period, not far distant,, perhaps, when
they would probably be near  neighbors and intimate
friends.   But how,  in one single moment, did this
anticipation  perish!  The  reminiscence  alone  re-
mains, with the surviving—an impressive illustration
of the truth, that we " know  not what a day, or an
hour, may bring forth."
   The remaining portion of the good Dr.'s life may
be briefly told—alas ! too briefly. 
152        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
  On Tuesday, the 2d day of May, he lbft his homo
and family at Westboro',  Mass.,  to  attend  "The
Annual  Meeting of  the  American  Hygienic and
Hydropathic  Association  of Physicians  and  Sur-
geons,"  of which  Body he was the  honored Presi-
dent,  having been chosen to that  office  two years
before.   He went reluctantly on several accounts—
more particutarly on  account of the inconvenience
of leaving his professional business, and  the great,
ahnost premonitory, repugnance, he had to  railroad
and steamboat travel.  But his peculiar and respon-
sible relation to the Association, and  his deep inter-
est in the  general  cause which   that Association
represents,  prevailed  with him  over  all personal
preferences  and considerations,  and  simply  from a
sense of duty, he decided to go,  and accordingly
took his departure.  On the day, or the day after,
he was expected  to  return,  though  not  very confi-
dently, came the news of  the terrible catastrophe  at
the fatal  Norwalk Bridge.
  The fears  of  his family,  'and  of  some  of his
friends, were now painfully awakened for  his safety.
But he had  talked of visiting the new Community
at Raritan  Bay,  N.  J.,  some of the  prominent
members  of which were  among his  most intimate 
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        153
and valued friends ;  and it was  hoped, by his wife,
and by  others who knew his strong inclination to
make such a  visit, that he was there.   I myself felt
quite  certain  that he was, especially as his name was
not on the list of passengers, either living or dead ;
and,  in my  heart, I blessed " The Raritan  Bay
Union" for being, thinking that  alone  must  have
saved him.   His son, who was residing at Hopedale,
Bhared this feeling with me,  as  did most, if not all,
of our Community members.  But his home affairs
bo urgently demanded his presence and attention, that
he could not indulge himself in the pleasure he desir-
ed, and which we trusted he had secured.  He took the
ill-fated train, and, all unconsciously, with nearly fifty
others, not a few of his own profession, was hurried
onward, at almost lightning speed, to an untimely and
most tragical end—a sacrifice to the haste and crimi-
nal unconcern for human life,  characteristic of the
age and country in which he lived.   It was a gloomy
and sad day—alas ! to* how many a  domestic and
social circle !  We turn from its contemplation with
an inexpressible grief and sorrow.   Biit most pain-
fully memorable will it be to not a few bereaved and
deeply afflicted  ones, who will  often weep over its
tragic scenes for many  a  year  to  come,  finding  it 
154       MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

difficult to be reconciled to the burial of so many of
their chief joys and  hopes.   May that God •" who
tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,"  comfort them
all and inspire them with  the  assurance  of an ulti-
mate reunion with  the  loved and the lost in  higher
spheres of being !
  But Dr. Wilmarth wag not recognized until two
days after his death, no one being in company  with
him, and he having, it would seem, no papers in hia
pockets, from which his name or residence  could he
learned.   On a common spectacle case which he had
with him, the initials of his name, " B. W.," and
"Hopedale," were marked,  but so effaced by the
water,  that they vjcre  construed into  " Opedonk,"
and got thus into the newspapers.  In his Valise he
had articles  by which  he would have been easily
known, but that was lost.  Dr. 0. S. Wellington,
however, at whose house  Dr.  Wilmarth lodged, the
night previous  to his leaving New York, had hia
fears awakened, as soon  as  he received  the  intelli-
gence of the catastrophe, that his friend and  guest
might be one of the victims,  and  immediately tele-
graphed  to Norwalk,  describing  him,  in  order to
ascertain whether such a person had been found.  On
receiving an affirmative  reply, he at once proceeded 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.       155

to the  fatal spot, identified him,  and started  di-
rectly  for  Westboro'  with his  remains,  where he
arrived on Monday afternoon—the fourth day after
the accident.   And thus were the doubts and fears
of Mrs. Wilmarth and  her children at once dispelled;
but 0, how dispelled !  It was now certain that her
devoted and beloved husband, their affectionate and
dear father, had  left their  presence forever—at least
in a  visible form.   Their agony  of suspense was
changed to the  agony of bereavement.   But they
wept  wholly for themselves, not for him.   They
knew  that he, if any one,  was prepared to go, and
that their loss would be his gain.  Yet too  great, of
course, was their grief and sorrow to put into words.
I will not attempt the task.  " Expressive silence"
 must perform it.
   But they, I would here say, feel under  very spe-
cial obligation to Dr.  Wellington,  for  the deep and
practical interest and sympathy he manifested on the
 occasion;  and, in their  behalf, I  would  make  this
 public record  of their  grateful  appreciation of his
services.   His humanity  and his friendship will  be
 held  in  durable remembrance by them, as it also
 will by many of the intimate and  particular friends
 of the departed. 
156        MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
    On the evening that the certain intelligence reach-
 ed Hopedale that Dr. Wilmarth was dead,  it  circu-
 lated through the Community with almost telegraph-
 ic  rapidity,  and  sadness  and sorrow were universal
 among us.  A large circle  of friends  immediately
 came together  to express to each other their common
 grief, and to make  preparations for sending to the
 afflicted wife and children our sympathy and aid, and
 for the bringing of the body into our midst for burial.
 Early on the following morning, therefore, a respec-
 table delegation of our number, repaired to Westbo-
 ro', in conformity to the general feeling and desire,
 and returned  in the afternoon,  with  the  corpse,
 accompanied by the bereaved family, and several of
 their neighbors and friends.  Owing to the shortness
 of the notice, no special preparation could be made
 for funeral services,  and  no regular Discourse waa
 delivered.  Adin Ballou  made appropriate and im-
 pressive remarks, and was followed by Geo. W. Stacy
 of Milford, and C. B. Campbell, then a patient of
 Dr.  Wilmarth's at Westboro'.   The  gathering  was
 larger  than could be accommodated in  our small
 Chapel, and it  was  much  regretted  that time  and
 circumstances did not admit of  our having the  ser-
vices in a more  commodious house.   At Milford, a 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        157
mile and a half distant  from us, any one  of the
Churches would have been  freely opened for the
occasion, so much  respected  was the good Dr., and
a very large audience would have been convened.
But this was not practicable, and, therefore,  only a
comparatively small  number of his  wide eircle  of
friends and acquaintances,  who  would  have been
glad to attend his funeral, were  present.  Yet was
it an impressive and profitable meeting—solemn and
Bad, though consolatory and hopeful.
   The services  concluded at the  Chapel,  the re-
mains  were carried to  the  retired  and  peaceful
Cemetery  of our  Community, and there a  simple
marble slab, in harmony  with his own pure simplici-
ty, will hereafter  mark  the spot where  reposes all
that was mortal of  an upright Man, a true Christian
and skillful Physician, who was a " good Samaritan"
both to the bodies and  souls of many of his fellow
beings.
     " Loved sleeper, fare thee well!
      We will not wish thee back, but lift the prayer
      In fervency, that we may meet thee there,
      Where thou hast gone to  dwell,—
      The prayer, that with us,  as with thee, the even
      Of life may be the entrance homa of heaven." 
158        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH
               CHAPTER VII.
Additional remarks on his character, particularly as a
  Christian Physician.
There  are   probably some  that  knew  Dr. Wil-
marth imperfectly, who will  dissent from the highly
eulogistic manner in which he has been spoken of
throughout this Memoir.  This may  be also said,
perhaps, of  every person's memoir, written under the
impressions and guidance of  a warm personal friend-
ship.   But some, strangers particularly, thought the
Dr. abrupt,  blunt, and rather severe in his censure*
of some very common faults, which.he might discov-
er in them, or in their customs.   I have known this
to be the case with him,  and I can easily understand
how such of this class  as never became  much  ac-
quainted with him, and  saw only this repellant phase
of his character,  failed to have any drawing towards
him.   He was certainly ijot always  attractive and
pleasing  in   his  first addresses  to  those  whom ho
might think  proud,  or fastidious, or unchristian in 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         159
their habits and practices.  He would be very likely
to give utterance  to  the  thoughts  that  rose  to  the
surface of his mind,  and not always in so considerate
and seemingly kind a manner as he should.   Some
have lately mentioned  this failing of his to me, and
told me that their first  impressions of him were very
unfavorable, though, at his death, they were among
his truest and firmest friends.
   Having, then, some  more materials in my posses-
sion than I have yet used, I have decided to append
an additional chapter of  remarks on the character of
the deceased—particularly as  the good Physician.
   As  I  have  elsewhere remarked,  Dr. Wilmarth
needed to be intimately and  well known to be ap-
preciated.   His friend Dr. Rice says of him :  "Of
an irritable  temperament, when overcome  and  fa-
tigued with business and care, a  degree of peevish-
ness  sometimes  showed itself; but it  was  only
momentary,  and soon broke forth into  smiles, affec-
tion and sunshine."    And the truth of this remark
 all his friends will recognize ; and they will not care
 to have the fact suppressed.   I am  sure he himself
 would not.
   But his friend Field,  quite a serious  minded man,
 looking at the' Dr. from  another point,  expresses tho 
160         MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.

opinion that his  chief faults  grew out of his " too
large mirthfuiness,  and an over-sensitiveness to  real
or intended wrong to him."  And he was cartainly
too apt to look on " the dark  side  of things,"  and
to be despondent and rather complaining.   Yet even
this  fault was the  shadow  of a great  excellence—
sometimes, at least.  He was benevolent and kind
himself, delighting  to do good and to  confer favors
upon all; and when he saw the prevalence of a nar-
row, unaccommodating selfishness,  his hope for hu-
manity was  dimmed for a' time,  and he gave himself
too much to lamentation and censure.   He bemoaned
the depravity of mankind,  and often deeply sighed
for
          " A lodge  in some vast wilderness."
   Let all, therefore, who knew him, remember hia
failings, as well  as  his virtues; and remember them,
if they must, to the diminution of the respect which
they would otherwise cherish  for him.  I would not
certainly take any special pains to  conceal his  fail-
ings ;  though I would only  labor to bring  out hia
virtues.   I knew him well—each side of his charac-
ter,  private and public—and I know that  the good
and  the bright side was  the  predominant  one, and
the true representative of  the man ;  the other,  only 
          MEMOIR  OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        161

the incidental and transient.   There was no confirm-
ed, persistent  evil within him ; most clearly,  none
that would meditate, or compass, the injury of a sin-
gle human being—even his worst enemy.
   Mr. Field knew him almost as intimately as one
man can know another, for seventeen  or  eighteen
years ; and he says respecting him :  " In his dealings
with mankind, I do not believe that one single fault
could be found.  I  never saw one myself;  and I
never heard of one."   Of how very few  men can
this be said !—and yet it is said by a man, himself
among the most candid, most truthful, and, so far as
character is concerned; the most scrutinizing of men.
" I know his life to have been," he continues, "since
I first knew him,  made up of good deeds;—deeds of
kindness to  the poor, the sick, the  fallen, the afflict-
ed.  And the public generally had  a high regard  for
him,  as a Man, a Christian,  and a Physician.   The
Medical  Faculty, in this region, [Leverett] looked
upon him as one of the first of his profession.  Still,
there  was always a class that could  never appreciate
him."
   Dr. Wilmarth  was, perhaps, the least understood,
and the  least appreciated, by the wealthy and the
fashionable.  The poor who became acquainted with
            K 
152        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.

him,  seldom,   if  over,  I  think,  misjudged  him.
Though sometimes abrupt, perhaps a little rude, in his
intercourse with them—especially in his rebukes  of
what he saw wrong in their midst—they nevertheless
knew that within him there beat a warm and fraternal
heart,  and  that he  was their friend.  He moved
among them, not as a superior being, but as a broth-
er, whose interests he was bound by the law of divine
love 'to look after.   I believe no poor person whom
he ever ministered unto has any other view of him.
  There  are some  of the poor in the surroundings of
Hopedale—even among the  Irish—whose  warm and
grateful  hearts could proffer most  earnest and em-
phatic testimony to this  point.   Would  that they
could give expression to their ardent feelings through
the medium of the pen, as I have  heard  them give
expression to those feelings in verbal speech !—since
his  death, in deep, heartfelt lamentations and sorrow
thereat!  This would be the best eulogy upon his Chris-
tian benevolence that could possibly be pronounced.
  His friend Field, speaking to  this point, said  of
him :—'' There was one peculiar and worthy trait  in
his character, that I never saw, to the same extent,
in any one else, and whicn I hardly  expect to see
again, while I may live  in the body:  It was hia 
           MEMOIR OF "DR.  WILMARTH.         163

familiarity with all classes;  rich or  poor,  high br
low, black or white, bond or free.   No one was be-
neath his notice ;  and some who move in fashionable
life thought less highly of him on this account.''   This
is certainly a very valuable testimony—more honora-
ble  to his memory than, any  eminence  of station
could bestow.—" Professional dignity"—that proud
dignity of rank, which is often seen  among  physi-
cians, as among some other  classes—artificial,  cold,
formal, heartless, statue-like—how little and low is
t/iat in comparison with  the humane and Christ-like
spirit that ever bends in  blandness  and benevolence
to bless the unfortunate poor ! It was the testimony of
the lowliest, and yet the loftiest of the sons of earth—
the Son of God—that '' many things highly esteemed
among men are an abomination in  the sight of the
Lord;"  and  one of those  many  things  must be
haughtiness of spirit and mien—contempt of poverty
 and misfortune.
   But Dr.  Wilmarth was not only benevolent in his
expressions to the poor, and in rendering them med-
ical service, but his benevolence also prompted him
to take a real and deep interest in  all their affairs,
temporal and spiritual.   He did not leave his pre-
scriptions with them,  give his advice,  and  hasten 
164         MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.
away from their humble and scanty abodes, for more
congenial and refined  associates and  surroundings.
Few had  the love of order or the love  of beauty
larger than he ;  and no one ever prized more highly,
intercourse  with the cultivated  and  the  excellent.
But it was  not  in him  to live for  self-gratification
alone, even in this respect.  He knew that he could
do  good  among the indigent, and  so he  spent no
little of his time with them, to this end.   He would
inquire into their history, their means of living, their
prospects, and encourage them to an industrious, vir-
tuous and Christian life.    He was interested in them
 as human beings, as God's children,  as heirs of im-
mortality ; and  he rejoiced with them and wept with
them, as their  condition  and  circumstances made
either joy or weeping a Christian sentiment and duty.
   Though he was poor—comparatively so—the poor
man  blesses his  memory  for  the  treasures of his
mind  and. heart which  he  so profusely scattered
abroad.    Many  will  long  remember  his  cordial
and friendly greetings,  his fraternal inquiries, his
parting wishes and benedictions, and find their hearts
swelling with emotions of  grief, and their eyes filling
with tears, that  they are to see his form and hear his
friendly voice no more—that they have lost so much! 
          MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         165

Would 'that his mantle might fall upon some worthy
successor and be as worthily worn—upon many such
successors !
  As a Physician, Dr. Wilmarth's Christian benev-
olence was  constantly manifesting itself in various
ways.  In the first place, in combination with his
conscience, it  constrained him to be moderate in his
professional charges.  This was, indeed, sometimes
made a ground of complaint against him by other
physicians—with some reason, perhaps.  Yet it was
no mere  expedient of his to secure popularity and
patronage, but a principle ; consequently, he contin-
ued to adhere to it, in a great degree, through life.
He  had  an instinctive  repulsion to what is some-
times vulgarly called, the " gouge game system," in
the various transactions between man and man—the
system of getting  out of each other all that the law
and popular custom will allow—and he repudiated it
in action as well as in word.   He was  fixed  in his
purpose not to get rich by taking advantage of oth-
ers' necessities; and  he never  could have enjoyed
wealth so accumulated.   He  was  governed far more
by  what he thought his services worth, estimated by
a medium standard,  and by the pecuniary ability of
the common people, than by  what he might get  for 
166        MEMOIR OF  J>R. WILMARTn.

them, and still be thought an honorable Physician.
   He also lost hundreds of dollars due him for pro-
fessional services, solely in consequence of his g»eat
reluctance to take anything from others,  which they
needed more than he, even  though he  had the legal
right to do so.   Many a poor man he never thought
of calling upon for pay, and  often refused it when
proffered to  him.  He was  governed,  in such cases,
far more by  generosity than by justice, and  longed
for a state of society of which the former should  be
the law.
   It must  be  confessed,  however, that before  his
death  he began to  think  that  he had been not only
" too benevolent for his own interest," as his friends
always told  him he was, but sometimes benevolent to
no good end.   Could he have seen others—the pros-
perous and  rich especially—imitating his example,
this Would have been a sufficient reward, for whatev-
er it mightJpve cost him to set them  that example ;
but in his dealings with them,  he often found them
still acting  from the most  narrow and selfish spirit.
Some whom he  had charged very moderate fees for
his professional services in their families, exacted of
bim the most exorbitant prices for anything he might
have occasion to purchase  of  them.  He was not, 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         167
indeed, the man to parley and remonstrate with these
sharpers; but he would silently submit to their de-
mands ;  far more sad for them, and for the  world
over which selfishness has such  extensive dominion,
than for himself.   His friend Field's testimony is :—
" If there were any  misunderstanding between him-
self and  others about dollars and cents,  he would
surrender his own right rather than to contend about
the matter."
   Some  men who have begun life with  the benevo-
lence of  Dr. Wilmarth,  have  ended it with the self-
ishness of the miser—thinking themselves driven to
this by necessity and in self-defense.   He, however;
was too confirmed a Christian, and had too much faith
in the ultimate triumph of Love over all, to be thus
 influenced.  He nevertheless felt that he could  not
 afford to be so benevolent,  in the latter period of
 his life as in the former.   This  was  one  of his great
 reorets and sorrows—and  it made  him  occasionally
 desponding and almost weary of living.   He  had a
 very strong desire to be  " above  board" in worldly
 matters,  that he  might be charitable and generous,
  and able to give to  the needy.  He disliked exceed-
  ingly to sell any small thing that his neighbors need-
  ed—and  to the  poor especially.   No  man  in  this 
168        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH

world,  I believe, more  enjoyed the luxury  of doing
good.  In  his inmost heart he  felt it to be  "more
blessed to give  than to receive."  Ho had  always
been accustomed to it; had, also, taken great pleas-
ure in  accommodating friends and neighbors with the
loan of any thing belonging to  him that they might
need.  In  all kindly acts he  found his reward ; lov-
ing to do whatever favors he could, for those  around
him, for  their sake  and not for  his  profit.  Any
thing small and mean,  in neighborhood intercourse,
his soul loathed.
   But the  following letter from  him to Mr.  David
Cambell,  of New Lebanon Springs, illustrates  the
fact that he felt  himself,  at last, fairly driven to
look more  closely' after his pecuniary affairs,  and to
be more exacting of his employers :
" Mr.  Cambell :—
   " Dear  Friend:  Suppose I should entertain the
idea of taking charge of  your Establishment,  the
year to come—on what conditions do you wish to
employ me ?     *     *     This is making money
matters rather prominent;  but I am  heartily  sick of
the cant of talking about  ' being useful,' of  ' labor-
ing for humanity,'and  all that  sort of thing, when
self-interest alone is under the cloak.   So I will take
off the ' cloak/ and ' own up' that if you could open 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        169

a wider field of labor to us,  and give us more pay
than we have here, we should entertain your propo-
sition sufficiently to look over the whole subject can-
didly.   My greatest  objection to making Hopedale
my home at present, is, that I  shall be  obliged  to
ride more there than I wish  to  ride, and  somewhat
by night,  to  find my patients.  I should  have  to
keep a small Water-Cure, and ride ' from  Dan  to
Beer-sheba' besides.
   " The question, then, is :  Can we reasonably hope
for  patronage  enough  to pay proprietors,  doctors,
matrons,  cooks,  bath  men  and women,  chamber
maids and waiters, all they will demand, and oppress
nobody ?   I  well  remember a  remark you made
when  I  was a patient  at your Establishment, viz:
 ' that you had labored many years to heal the souls
of your fellow-men, in vain, and now you were going
to follow the example of Christ and try to heal their
 bodies, as well'—or something to that  effect; and I
 was impressed that this was  beginning  ' at the right
 end first.'   I mean to amplify upon the  principle a
 little.   We have ' labored for humanity,'  in  hope of
 mutual advantage,  till our sun is on its decline, and
we find ourselves still obliged to dig on or beg ; and
we have come to the conclusion, from the wants and
 sensations  we experience,  that  we also belong to
 ' hamanity,' and that it is both  our duty and privi-
lege to provide for our own  household.  Hence the
prominence of money-matters with us.   I think that 
170        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.
we and our families have done our full share of ' un-
compensated labor.'   In future, 1  believe, we shall
be justified in laboring for ourselves, in ' planting
vineyards and eating the fruit  thereof'—should Wo
live to do so.   If  Providence should so  direct that
we labor together, I  doubt not it would be pleasant;
but let us look out and be paid for it.
     " Yours for truth and righteousness,
                             " B. Wilmarth.*'
  Now, that society  is  so  permeated with the spirit
of selfishness as to force a life-long philanthropic mil
good man to restrain his liberal  and generous impul-
ses, in his declining  years,  so that he shall not him-
self come'to want, is a  sad commentary upon  tho
Christianity of New  England in this nineteenth cen-
tury !   How limited have  been its triumphs  over
selfishness—over the selfishness  of  even the boasting
Church founded upon it.
  But it must have  been a  very great satisfaction to
the Dr., that though he found himself,  at last, quite
too limited in  pecuniary matters, even for his conve-
nience and ease,  others  had shared largely in  the
rewards of his labors.   It was  not for  self that  he
had  sacrificed  the gratification  of  taste,  and  many
privileges and  pleasures that he might  easily have
secured, but that he  might aid the needy.   For their 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        171

sakes it  was, that he  kept himself poor—that he
lived and died comparatively poor.  The conscious-
ness of this, must have  been far more valuable to a
mind like  his, in advanced life, than the possession
of wealth.   He could only regret  having been more
considerate of the purses of the rich—-more moder-
ate in his demands upon them—than either his inter-
ests admitted of,  or theirs required.   It would often
have been  better for both  parties, probably,  if his
charges had been higher—and  yet, I suppose some
occasionally thought them quite too high.
   But he  set a noble example, worthy of  imitation,
to a great extent, to  that  class  of physicians who
 move among the poor  and  wretched  with  so much
 dignity, that they cannot stoop  to  sympathy  and fa-
 miliarity, and who often charge more for a  single
 visit, than their patient can earn  in  a whole week.
 Some  physicians are  criminally exorbitant in their
 charges for attendance upon the poor—some profess-
 edly reformed physicians, and  reformers, as well as
 some of the Old School—and they deserve exposure
 and rebuke.
   Dr.  Wilmarth was the  good Physician,   having
 another end  in view  than mere money-making—a
 philanthropic end.   I know it may seem Utopian to 
172       MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

exact the same of all—even to think that all, in this
money-mania age, should look with as careful an eye
to the interests of humanity as to their own pockets ;
but this is the Christian ideal  which Dr.  Wilmarth
labored to make actual, and to  which  Christendom
must finally come.
   But though, as I  have before said,  he regretted,
and had reason to regret, that  he did not accumulate
more property than he did,  when he  had youth,
health, and opportunity on his side, so that he might
enjoy more of the extra conveniences and comforts of
life,  than he  was able to  enjoy, with  his  limited
means, he never would have changed his course ma-
terially, had he remained  many years longer on the
earth.   He  would  always have been very moderate
in his charges to the  poor ;  never exorbitant with the
rich ; always  liberal and generous in his  charities.
And he never could have been a " fashionable" man,
or really extravagant in any of his expenditures.  I
doubt not that the same great,  guiding principle of
benevolence, would  have  governed him, even if he
could have  lived his  life  over  again.   He  would
have been a plain, unostentatious, " people's" man;
and not a favorite with such as think more  of sound
and show, than of sense and substantial worth.  And 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        173
the Hydropathic Establishment  which he  and Dr.
Hero had just opened, at  Westboro', about the time
of his death, was designed, principally, to bring the
Water-Cure within the reach of  the middling class-
es.  He  was aware that he  was  not adapted to
please the votaries  of luxury, and those who were
desirous of being provided for,  and waited upon, in
the most genteel,  polite,  and  subservient manner,
and whose tastes would be offended by every httle
departure from the  etiquette of their circle ; and he
knew, also, that they had  not  sufficient means to fit
up their house in a style  that  would  suit  such per-
 sons.   He was willing, therefore, that they should
 go where Dignity  and Fashion  preside,  and all the
 luxuries and slaves are furnished that money will
 pay for.  He  did not like to  cater  to such a class,
 and could not conscientiously do so, without an occa-
 sional reproof of their unchristian mode of  life.   He
 thought it sinful for them to be so exacting upon the
 time and services of others, so fastidious in  their
 tastes, and so extravagant in their demands for ele-
 gance  and luxury; and  he could not  compromise
 with their spirit to the  extent  necessary  to please.
 The wealthy who were governed by common sense,
 by justice, by  humanity, by  the Gospel  of Christ, 
174        MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.

and who only demanded  reasonable attentions and
courtesies, and things that were convenient, comfor-
table, and suitable to their health and condition, ho
thought as much of as he did of the 'poor—no less,
no  more.  And  many such, he,  of course,  found
during his long and extensive  practice.  Some of
them  were  reckoned  among his  warmest,  truest
friends.  But his mission was chiefly to  those whom
the world had not favored with wealth and its usual
accompaniments.
  It was, however, the intention of himself and Dr.
Hero to fit up their new  Establishment in a maimer
that should please the  eye and gratify the  taste of
all  the lovers of neatness, order, and simple beauty,
who are  reasonable  and  moderate in  their  expecta-
tions ;  as well as to make it a comfortable,  conveni-
ent, and pleasant abode for  the invalid, from even
tlie higher walks  of life.  In one of his letters to
Dr. Hero—written from  New Lebanon soon  after
purchasing the place—he says :   '' That beautiful
spot of earth (if  Providence permit)  shall  be ren-
dered far more beautiful and  attractive, ere long, by
fruits and flowers, and  walks, and shades, surround-
ing a Hydropathic Institute.   It  is a good place to
make  shine.  A better is not  to be found in Mass., 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        175

and we and our wives are the men and women to do
it.  But we  will make our patients shine also, if
they will but submit to and follow our directions."
   From this brief  extract,  we  see  that Dr.  W.'s
ideal "Hydropathic Institute,"  embodied  not only
convenience  and comfort, but likewise ornament and
beauty ; and he never sacrificed the latter excepting
to utility or  necessity—to the Christian idea of self-
denial.  If  all homes could  have  been beautified,
most gladly would  he have  seen them so; but all
artificial and costly  beauty caused unpleasant  sensa-
tions to him, when  he contrasted it with  the squalor
and wretchedness which he often saw by the  side of
it.  " Let us not,"  he would say, " lavish our means
merely to gratify our  tastes, when so many have not
 so much as the absolute necessities of fife.  Let us
 wait till ' the  good time coming'  shall have  come,
 before we thus give ourselves  to self-indulgence and
 pleasure."   And this was certainly honorable to his
 heart, to his humanity,  if it  were not according to
 the practices of many, nor up to the latest aesthetic
 philosophy.   His doctrine of  self-denial was also in
 accordtoce  with  the spirit, life, and  precepts of
 Jesus, whom be reverently  recognized as Master.
 He wanted  neither  the  services  of  men nor the 
176         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
products of their toil, by  which to elevate  and ag-
grandize himself and  family ;  and rather  than ap-
propriate them to such an end,  he contented himself
without many of the superfluities  of life, which he
would have highly valued and enjoyed, if  those
around  him could  have  secured  them  also.  Let
"the disciples of the Beautiful" repudiate  his phi-
losophy, if  they must, but let them likewise honor
his spirit and his motive.
   But his  friends,  I  think, would generally admit
that he was formerly rather  too "puritanical," in
his treatment of the tastes,  indulgences and demands,
of the more genteel and fashionable classes of socie-
ty, and  thereby  made himself unnecessarily  disa-
greeable to  them.   Yet these even, I am sure, always
respected him  on becoming thoroughly  acquainted
with his character.   They did not, at first, under-
stand each  other.   What  they  considered essentials
—essential  elegancies, perhaps—in personal apparel
and in household furnishings—he  considered super-
fluous, and  as coming from a species of pride, which
ought to be renounced as unchristian; the  cost of
which should be bestowed upon the varioiM^causes
of Philanthropy.  He was preeminently a utilitarian
in all such matters. 
          MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        177

  Cherishing these views, he would sometimes speak
in such  a manner,  in the  presence  of fashion and
luxury,  as to give offense.  It was not his method,
politely  and gracefully to conform to what he deemed
thus unchristian,  but to.seem  just  what he  was.
Some patients, therefore, who  came to his Water-
Cure Establishment, did  not find the extra  conven-
iences  and  the embellishments  of  life that  they
desired, and were not satisfied  to  remain.   Hence,
it is not probable that he ever would  have secured
the patronage of the class under notice ; their tastes
and customs  inclining and their means  enabling
them to go to establishments  fitted up  at  great  ex-
pense, and in a manner adapted  even  to those who
have lived in  palaces.
  But it ought not, however, to be inferred from his
peculiarity in  regard  to  the  fashions  of the world,
that he  cherished  any hostility toward  those who
were  conformed to  them,  or treated  them rudely.
He was no  agrarian, envying the wealthy, and wish-
ing to bring them all down to the common level—
only a believer in Christian equality, growing out of
fraternity and a mutual interest in each other's wel-
fare—each being for  all  and all for  each.   And he
was, indeed, getting to be  somewhat more  comphv
            L 
17$         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
cent in his latter  days,  toward  the  " superfluous"
expenditures of wardrobe  and  household,  than he
formerly was—a  little more "worldly," some of the
more rigid economists would  say ; and really so, ac-
cording to his early ideal.'  Would his means have
admitted of it, he would have laid out rather more
mOney in these directions,  than he would have  once
thought commendable  or exactly in harmony  with
" the simplicity that is in  Christ."   He would have
worn a little nicer coat, rode in a little nicer carriage,
and supplied his house with a little  nicer furniture.
Occasionally, his wife says, he  would incidentally
express a slight regret that he was not, at least, able
to keep up rather nearer to the  times,  in these par-
ticulars.   But he would almost  always end, by say-
ing :   " Well, it is all right—I  have as good fortune
as  I deserve"
  !But such as he  was, with  all  his  limitations and
imperfections, few men have  had more affectionate
and devoted friends  than he  had.  All who were
intimate  with him, knew his  faults—so  unconcealed
were they—but they honored him  still, loved  him,
and greatly enjoyed his  society.   Always was  he  a
most welco/ne  guest  at  their homes—so social, so
humorous, so fraternal, and so instructive, withal, was 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         179

he. Personally, I have often felt, since his departure
from us, an  almost overpowering grief at the  loss
sustained.   Deeply, painfully, conscious am I,  that
one of the  most valuable gifts  and blessings .of life
and of Providence, has been taken from me. Though
not without the hope of seeing him again,  and  joy-
fully  recognizing him  and being recognized by him
—even  with this hope, strong and satisfying as  it is
—I nevertheless  still lament and mourn his untimely
exit.   It is hard to be  reconciled to the event—es-
pecially as the remembrance of its cause and char-
acter revives.   And  many,  I am confident,  most
fully  and heartily sympathize with these expressions
of affection and  sorrow—a sorrow which words are
powerless to express.  But the world to come has
the greater interest and value to us, for his being
there.  We will comfort and strengthen ourselves
by the prospeot of an ultimate  reunion, both in per-
son and in various pursuits mutually  commenced on
earth, thanking the Father of all spirits  for the great
hope  inspired by Him  within us.
   But we  mourn for him, also, as our family Physi-
cian,  whose place no one can, in all respects, fill.
He had enjoyed the  advantage of a long and exten-
sive practice, and with his remarkable powers of the
            L* 
180         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
most minute and critical observation, he had acquired
a knowledge of disease such as few  possess,  even
among the most eminent of his  profession.   Before
his  conversion to  Hydropathy,  his friends who had
adopted  that system,  deemed it a very great privi-
lege to  have him  daily  with them, when they, or
their families, were sick, simply for the purpose, if
nothing  more,  of keeping  them informed as to the
nature  and  progress  of the  disease  preying  upon
them.   And notwithstanding they might manifest
to him much more faith in water, or even in nature,
than in his scientific -drugs,  his  wisdom and counsel
were  always at  their  service.   Though they could
not trust him to  deal  out nauseating and poisonous
medicines, they could most implicitly trust him as a
man of conscience, candor,  integrity and fraternity;
and he had none of that foolish and wicked  profes-
sional pride,  that  often  turns away in a rage  from
those who are indisposed to  give themselves wholly
up to  Allopathic treatment—the spirit  that sacrifices
a patient to a point of medical etiquette or honor.
  And in this respect, as in some others, where and
when  shall we again find one  to compare favorably
with him ?  That  other  physicians  there are, in the
world, equally humane and  Christian,  I doubt not; 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
181
but they are few and  far  between.   Some of Dr.
W.'s old friends know not where they are, and are
often greatly troubled  as to what way  they shall
look for the advice their necessities demand—advice
that they can confidently  rely upon as entirely hon-
est and disinterested.   Him they knew to be just as
much of" a Christian in his profession as at  Church
—as conscious  of accountability to God  every day,
and in the sick room, as on Sunday, and in religious
observances.  Indeed,  his  views  as to the responsi-
bility of the medical profession were similar  to those
which he held respecting the ministerial  profession.
The minister and the doctor, he thought, should both
labor as called of,  and accountable to, God, in  the
discharge  of the duties  of their profession,  The
suceeding  extract of  a letter to Adin  Ballou,  in
 1840, reveals his views and  feelings  upon  the sub-
ject.  He says:—
    " At the time 1  received your letter I was hard
 pressed with business, case and responsibility, among
the sick, by night and day, which eontinued through
 the winter months, so that I am worn down by labor,
 and watching, and anxiety ;  and,  till very recently,
 I have scarcely had time to sleep  and eat, sufficient
 to sustain my mortal  frame, while my  mind is  so
 tared at tomes, I hardly know where I am, or wheth- 
182        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

er in the body  or out of it.   Yon may think  me
ultra in  my  statements; but however easy and in-
different  others may be  in the practice of medicine.
it is not  for  me  to  have  quiet  sleep and  cheerful
meals,  whilst the responsibility of a fellow  mortars
lingering life is in my hands.   You know it is requir-
ed of  stewards  that a man be found faithful.  How
then can the  conscientious and faithful minister,  or
physician, in their respective professions,  enjoy that
quiet and repose so much desired by man, when they
see so  much  disease of mind and body around them
and in their midst ?  It is impossible.  They must
deny themselves, and labor for the  good of man,
whether  honored or rewarded in this world or not."
   A physician who honestly and with a whole heart,
cherishes the views of his profession thus expressed,
may be safely confided in as one  who  will not deal
treacherously, or even carelessly, with any of his pa-
tients  ; but  labor for their  restoration  to health,
according to  the best of his skill and knowledge.
Alas ! that such conscientiousness  is so rarely seen
in any sphere  of life.   It is not  singular that so
many  should be in great  grief at the loss of the good
man, doubtful whether they  shall ever see anothej
physician whose judgment and heart,  both, they ca»
so implicitly trust!   But wisdom  dictates that  w<&
submit ourselves  in  resignation  to the fatality thai 
           MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         183

took him from us ;  hoping also that his example will
attract others of his profession to an imitation of all
his noble and  Christian qualities.
  In the following chapter I shall present several
Letters—some from those who knew  him intimately
—as valuable  testimonials to his  great worth.   A
part  of them, as will  be  seen,  were  addressed,  as
expressions of sympathy  and condolence,  to  Mrs.
Wilmarth,  and a part of them to myself.   Others of
a like  character that have been received, would  be
gladly presented, but my limits prevent.
t'" 
184         MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
                CHAPTER  VIII.
 Letters expressive of respect and affection for the deceas-
   ed, and of condolence for his bereaved family.
                FROM ADIN BALLOU.
                     Hopedale, March 30, 1854.
 Dear Br. Fish :—
   As you are engaged  in  preparing a Memoir, now
 nearly completed, of our beloved  Brother,  the la-
 mented  Dr. Wilmarth, permit me to  express  my
 cordial approbation of your very laudable undertak-
 ing.  It will  be a  tribute to the memory of one,
 whose moral and intellectual, professional and social
 worth no book can adequately set forth.   But less
 than such a tribute  his friends would be  inexcusable
not to unite in  offering.  I fear  your materials, so
 far as papers and documents are  concerned, may be
too meager for such a Biography as we should all bo*
glad to see laid  before the  world.  But  I have no
 doubt you will make  good  use of the  few which ex-
ist to tell the outlines of his eminently  active, useful
and beneficent life.   The rest must remain inscribed
on the tablets of the many  thousands of  human spir-
its, in and out of the flesh,  who drank  from the ever 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         185
brimming cup of our Brother's charity, skill, coun-
sel, sympathy and cooperation.
   He was a  self-made,  conscientious,  progressive,
humane, Christian man,  ever active in his mission,
and abundant in  those good works  done in secret,
which reap their richest reward in the heavens.   As
a physician, few probably ever worked harder, earn-
ed more, and received less of temporal recompense.
As a moral reformer, a philanthropist,  and a practi-
cal Christian, we with whom  he was most intimately
associated know his  excellence, and  are glad to do
him honor.   But  his spirit  has  gone to the circles
of the blest,  the affinities of  those immortal spheres,
where harmony and sweet concord  of souls will  gen-
tly waft him  upward and  onward forevermore.
   His exit from this mortal realm was most sudden
and appalling.  But the pangs of his final struggle
must have been mercifully brief, compared with those
which await  most of us who live to  lament  him.
And,  thanks be to God for our  holy faith, we  have
no doubt that those momentary pangs introduced hia
emancipated  soul into that land of  which he loved so
well to sing in our religious  meetings :
        " There is  a land of pure delight,
          Where saints immortal reign;
          Infinite day excludes the night,
          And pleasures banish pain.
          Sweet fields beyond  the swelling flood
          Stand dressed in living green; 
186        MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH
         So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
         While Jordan rolled between."

   In that heavenly land may we all be ready to join
him, when our summons shall come ; be it amid the
horrors  of an overwhelming catastrophe,  like that
which swept  him away, or  on  the peaceful bed of
home,  surrounded  by  ministering  and  weeping
friends.   Meantime, as his mortal  remains  sleep in
our  humble  Cemetery,  and  the monumental stone
points out their resting place, may the Memoir you
are preparing go forth, a welcome testimonial among
his numerous friends in all parts of the country, and
to after  generations, of preeminent departed worth.
Thus will justice be done  to his memory,  and at the
same time a most salutary moral influence be exerted
on the world.  I wish your undertaking all the suc-
cess which I am  sure it so  richly  merits.
            Fraternally yours,
                                Adin Ballou.
           FROM DR. JOSIAH PRESCOTT.
                 Winthrop, Me., May 14,  1853.
Mrs.  Wilmarth :
  My Dear Friend:—It is with the deepest sorrow
for the untimely death of your beloved husband, that
I address you these few lines of condolence.   More
particularly do I do this, as I came quite near  shar- 
memoir of  dr.  wilmarth.        187
ing the same fate in that awful catastrophe at Nor-
walk, on Friday morning  last.  The  little band of
Hydropathic Physicians had just closed  the annual
business of  their Association,  with great unanimity,
and the  kindest feelings,  at  Dr. Wellington's,  on
Thursday evening; some of whom had  taken then-
leave of  us, while those remaining were arranging to
leave in  the  morning for our respective homes.   I
thought  myself quite happy in accepting  the kind
and cordial  invitation of Dr.  Wilmarth,  to take the
first morning train with him,  and spend Friday night
at  your  house.  We retired together in the  same
bed,  at  Dr. Wellington's,  where we kept up our
conversation to a very late  hour.  Just before  re-
tiring to bed, Dr. Bedortha  urged the propriety of
my stopping till afternoon,  for  further conference
with F owlers &c Wells  in  relation to the publication
of  the Water-Cure Journal.   Dr. Wilmarth arose at
4 o'clock, for the purpose of  finding his  valise,  and
was to meet me at the Depot before the  departure of
the first, or 8 o'clock Train.   I then expressed some
doubts about going with him, on account of the sug-
 gestions of  Dr. Bedortha: yet, if I decided  to  go,
 would meet him in time.   This ended our last inter-
 view in this world ; for I remained till 5 P. M., and
 took the Boat route to  Stonington.  Had I followed
 out my own feelings and inclination at  the time,  I
 certainly should have  gone,  in company with Dr.
 Wilmarth, 
 188        memoir of dr.  wilmarth.

   Oh, how mysterious are the ways of Providence !
 The news of the horrible  disaster reached the city
 before I left; but no particulars as to who was either
 dead or alive could be ascertained.  I laid down in
 my  berth while going over the Sound, but sleep had
 departed.   Dr. Wilmarth's  image stood before me
 during the live-long night, for I almost knew that he
 went in the same train,  and  I could not resist the
 conclusion that he was numbered with the dead.  On
 reaching Boston on the morning of Saturday, I hoped
 to be relieved from the tormenting suspense,  and to
 find  his name  amongst  the living.  Oh ! no—his
 name was not to be found there.  This confirmed my
 suspicions  almost beyond a doubt, that his fate was
 sealed ;  but the body was not yet found.   Nor did I
 Learn all the facts  till one hour  ago, through  the
 Boston papers,—though I wrote to Drs. Wellington
 and Taylor yesterday, apprising  them of  my appre-
 hensions of Dr. Wilmarth's fate,  hoping they would
 immediately ascertain the  facts,  and write me  the
 result of their  inquiries.    But alas ! it has  come ;
 and to you how overwhelming  the awful  dispensa-
 tion !

  My dear wife joins with  me  (and has  abundant
reason, under the circumstances of the case, though
a stranger to you,) in deep feelings of sympathy and
condolence, for such a heart-rending bereavement.
Yet,  the painful  occurrence  is  not without many 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         189

considerations of a  consoling nature.   The transi-
tion from life to death was so sudden, that but little
or no  suffering  could have  been endured.   And
above all, your husband's useful life and true Chris-
tian character, are worthy of imitation by the living,
and will certainly secure the appwving plaudit of
" well done, good and faithful servant."

   By reputation  I have been acquainted with Dr.
Wilmarth for more than three years ; but personally,
during the short interview only of two or three days
of last week.  But the peculiar circumstances  that
brought  us together,  were calculated to  cement a
lasting friendship, had we both lived  to enjoy it.
You will  doubtless recollect  our meeting at Dr.
Rolfe's lecture-room  about a year  since, when  I ex-
pressed a strong  desire to  become  acquainted  with
your husband.   Little did  I think then,  that our ac-
quaintance would thus take place, and end under
Buch distressing circumstances.

   You may be assured of  receiving any assistance,
in my power to render, that you may need, either in
personal  services or advice,  in this trying crisis of
your domestic affairs,  which must weigh so heavily
upon you by this unexpected bereavement.
     Believe me, then, your sincere
           friend and humble servant,
                              Josiaii Prescott. 
190        MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.

            FROM DAVID RICE, M. D.
                       Boston, May 10,  1853.
  0, my dear Mrs.  Wilmarth :—Can it be !   Can
it be ! that your husband, my  dear  friend,  Dr. Wil-
marth, is dead {  I have just taken up the evening
paper and learneW^he dreadful fact!   The Lord be
merciful unto you in this heart-rending calamity.  0,
I feel sad,  sad, sad !  Cut Off in  the midst of his
days, just  when  a  wide field of bright visions  was
opening before  him !  I did  not  even dream that
Dr.  Wilmarth  could have been  on those ill-fated
Cars.  I  cannot  write  more  now, for silent grief
overcomes me.   The Lord shield  you in your  dis-
tress !                            David Rice.
  Mrs-. Phila 0.  Wilmarth.
              FROM NANCY FRENCH.
                Fulton, N. T., May 19, 1853.
My Dear Mrs. Wilmarth :—
  Is it so ?  Can it be '! that you are written, wid-
ow ! desolate,  in  such  an  unexpected  and heart-
rending manner !   It must be true, for I have just
read the name  of Doct. Bctler Wilmarth, amon*
the .crushed ones,  at  the ill-fated ' draw-bridge,'  at
Norwalk.   0,  that it was in my power to administer
consolation to you, in this deeply afflictive providence 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.        191
of God.   Words colored in the deepest dye are too
inadequate to reach the deep fountain of sorrow that
overwhelms your stricken heart!   I have ever cher-
ished a high regard for your dear husband, since the
first acquaintance  of  my dear and  much-lamented
Edward with him.  In  a  letter from E., he says :
" Mother, I wish you  could  become acquainted  with
Dr. Wilmarth ;  he reminds me of my father.  **  He
is the nearest perfection of  any man I  ever saw.  I
not only find in him every qualification  that is desira-
ble in a physician,  but I find in him a friend and
counsellor that can be trusted."

  Dr.  Wilmarth has kindly  written  me  letters of
condolence, since E.'s death, which touched the sor-
rows of my broken heart!   He succeeded beyond
any one else, to  console and quiet my nervous  tem-
perament, so that  I could  view the providences of
God in  their true fight.   0,  that I possessed hia
talent, to console you, and  your dear children, now
in this time of trial.

   [Here follow  some  consolatory  extracts,  which
are omitted.]

  But I must close by expressing  to you  my deep
sympathy and kind and earnest wishes for your re-
signation and future happiness.
       Yours truly in affliction,
                               Nancy French. 
192        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
            FROM DANIEL S.  WHITNEY.
                     Southboro\ June 19, 1853.
 Dear Brother Fish :—
   I want to thank you for undertaking to prepare a
 brief Memoir of our very dear friend, the late Dr.
 Butler  Wilmarth.   I think in no instance in this
 mystical  drama of  life  has  my soul so  struggled
 against  an event of the passing scene,  as it has
 against that which, in an instant, removed beyond
 the vail of flesh, this dearly loved Friend.
   We fancy that the problem of life has been clear-
 ly thought out.  At  least, we think this is the case,
 so far as the event which we call death is concerned.
 There is evidently nothing more certain than this—
 the  living  must sometime die.   There is nothing
 more uncertain than the when, the how, the what,
 of this  event,  in any individual  case.  It  is, then,
 the clear dictate  of  reason, the  highest impulse of
 wisdom, the common sense of  religion, to go forth in
 the morning, and in  the evening  come to our rest in
 a state of preparation to  be called hence ourselves ;
 and not only so, but also to be ready to hear with com-
 posure  that our most tenderly-cherished friend  has
 passed the portals  of death.   Ah ! yes,  this  ought
 to be our state of  mind.  But then,  who  carries
 about him in the hubbub  of daily life this clear rea-
 son, this impulse of heavenly  wisdom, this common
 sense of religion ?   When we  see the event slowly
but inevitably  advancing upOn us, we call to our aid 
MEMOIR  OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         193
these divine helps.   But  when  the  thunder breaks
upon us from' a clear  sky,  the  crash, though really
no heavier than we have before heard  from an over-
hanging cloud, yet, being all unlooked for, becomes
much more startling.
  At first, we felt very sorry that we did not  learn
the Dr.'s fate in season to join the bereaved proces-
sion that followed what was earthly to its earthy rest-
ing place.  As time  passes, we think less of this.
Some how, it seems almost impossible to separate our
own sufferings, in such a case, from the object whose
sudden departure causes them.   It  seems as if the
departed must be partakers of our grief.   And who
shall show that, to some extent, at  least, this is not
the case ?
   Our last  recollections  of the dear  Doctor were
very pleasant—entirely characteristic—and  a mere
statement of some circumstances attending them will
convey an idea of his  professional integrity, as well
as of his genial and communicative habits in private
life.  On the Sunday  preceding his death, we were
favored by  one of his friendly calls.  Miss  Lucy
Stone was to lecture at five o'clock,  P. M., and  he
finally concluded to stay and  hear her.   We had a
joyous time.   We were  all delighted with the lec-
ture, and our time before it commenced was occupied
in the discussion of the great topics which are now
moving and  reforming the world.   The  Dr., in the
course of the conversation, called our attention to a
             M 
194         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

cure which he  had just effected.  Just one week
before, he had been called, in great haste,  to see  a
woman whose friends looked  upon her as past cure,
if not beyond all relief.   Indeed, her husband had
expressed his fears that they  might not find her liv-
ing when they should arrive at his home.   She had
been for some time under the treatment of another
physician, without benefit, and the hydropathist was
called in as a last resort.  Matters could not possibly
be made worse, and might possibly  be improved.
He found the  patient living; but in a very weak
state, and subject  to sinking turns, which led her
friends to suppose  that  at any  time  she  might be
taken from her sufferings.   As he sat by his patient,
making inquiries and thinking over the  case, he dis-
covered near by, a snuff-box.   lie immediately in-
quired if she took snuff; and was answered in  the
affirmative.  He inquired  how  often  ;  and was  an-
swered, that when she felt so  bad perhaps  she took
a pinch once in fifteen minutes.   After examining,
critically,  the symptoms, he  was satisfied  that  the
snuff greatly aggravated her troubles,  if it were not
the prime cause  of  her sickness.  He at  once laid
before  her his convictions ;  told her that without
doubt he could  procure her relief if she would follow
his directions.  She must  put  away,  at once, her
snuff—abandon it entirely—this was the main condi-
tion.  He then ordered  some slight applications of
water, and gave such directions concerning diet  as 
            MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        195

the case seemed to demand,  and was about leaving.
when the patient demanded, with much earnestness,
what she should do if the sinking turns came round
again ?  He gave her assurance that they would not
come  if she complied with his directions,  and left.
In one week he called upon her again, (that is,  on
the day of which I have been speaking, when we last
Baw him,) and  found her attending to the duties of
her household.   She had been  strongly tempted to
take a social pinch with a  neighbor,  who had called
upon her, but had found strength to resist the temp-
tation, and was rejoicing in her improved health and
great deliverance.  The terrible sinking turns did not
come back again.  This straight-forwardness in the
way of his duty marked his  character.   He  doubt-
less sometimes offended  people by it.   For  most
people like to have their evil habits treated tenderly.
But it never failed to command the respect of good
men,  and often,  as in the above case, led directly to
great  and good results, which could be come at in
no other  way.   This manly  and Christian course is
doubtless the secret (an " open  secret," indeed,) of
his rapid progress in the town of Westboro', where
his professional labors terminated.
   I do not remember of ever hearing him express a
belief, or intimate, that he felt a presentiment,  that
his life would be terminated by casualty.  It is cer-
tain, however, that he had a feeling  of great aversion
to dying by any such means, and thought more about
            M* 
196        MEMOIR OF DR.  WILMARTH.
it than men  in general do.   I remember  very dis-
tinctly how earnestly he spoke upon the subject in a
letter, which I am sorry cannot be found, soon  after
a season of some peril in the  Sound, near Hurlgate,
during a thick fog.   His earnest exclamation was—
" I  don't want  to  die so.   I  don't want  to be
smashed up or scalded to death,  and hurried out of
the world without a moment's warning."   He  then
quoted a few lines of poetry,  descriptive of the way
in which he would die :—
   "At home, in bed, with weeping friends arouud."
   It is certainly a very pleasant  reflection, that, if
this dear man was not permitted thus to die in the
bosom of his family, few,' very few,  of our race are
better  prepared by an upright and Christian life for
such a sudden summons to the unseen world.   And
we may, with truth, add, that, among the thousands
who  are yearly called to mourn the loss of dear ones
thus snatched away in a moment, when they are look-
ing not for it, few  indeed are better prepared  by  a
meek and gentle spirit to bear up under such crush-
ing calamities than the dear companion of his bosom,
and  efficient adviser and helper in all his labors to
bless mankind and do  good  in his  day and genera-
tion.
   But in the midst of  life and its  labors he passed
away.   His plans of usefulness were unfulfilled, his
resources  for  doing good unexhausted, his  powers
ripe for a harvest of blessings to his fellow men ; yot 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.        197
his life was no failure.   His life was a daily success.
In things great and small he was wont to say—" If
the Lord will."   And  it is only by catching a por-
tion of the same spirit, that we  can find comfort in
the sad event which has  removed  him  from our
midst.   But I will not trespass farther.  I  heartily
thank you for  undertaking this  good work, and I
hope you will give it to us as  speedily as possible.
         Yours fraternally,
                               D. S. Whitney.
              FROM DR. J. H. HERO.
Wm. H. Fish :
  Dear Friend:—Since the death of Dr. Wilmarth >
I have felt, as it were, like a child without a parent;
for he always seemed like a father  to me.   In fact,
he was my medical father ; having taken the deepest
interest in my welfare from the time I first commenc-
ed the study of medicine.  During the first year of
my, practice, particularly, he  was of invaluable ser-
vice to me, always holding  himself in readiness to
lend me his aid and counsel at all times when need-
ed, whilst other physicians were using their influence
against me.
  It always did me good to meet  him, if our meet-
ing was but  for five  minutes;  for  his words were
words of encouragement.   He would frequently say 
198        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
to me, (while I was laboring under difficulties which
every young physician  has to  encounter,)  "goon;
all must creep before they can  walk; it will be your
turn to give counsel by and by ;" always ending his
remarks with that peculiar laugh of his, all of which
tended to give me  new hopes  and desires to become
master of my profession,  and to  be able to do good
to suffering humanity.
   After having had  four years'  practice, and some
seven  years' intimate  acquaintance  with this dear
friend, we formed a partnership in business, and pur-
chased this place, (at Westboro',) for the purpose of
fitting it  up to receive  patients, that we might be
better able to carry  out  the great principles of re-
form in  the science of  medicine.  We commenced
our practice together on the first day of last March ;
and never had I known the Dr. to appear  more
cheerful  and  happy,  or to enjoy better health, than
he did from the time we  commenced practice togeth-
er to the time of his death,  at that terrible Norwalk
disaster.
   The news of his death came to me like a thunder-
bolt ; though I had been in sad  suspense for two or
three days previous.  Never,  from childhood,  have
I shed such a flood of  tears as I shed for that good
man.  Never have I seen the man' for whom my at-
tachment was stronger  than for him.  He  would
'stand by friend or foe,  so ijar as he considered them
right, if  the whole world besides were against hka. 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.         199

Never have I been acquainted with a more conscien-
tious person than he.   If he failed to do justice  to
any one, that one was himself.
   All who knew him  seemed  to  enjoy  his  society.
He had a peculiar faculty to interest people, wheth-
er young or old.  He was always familiar and social
with his patients, so much so, that I have often heard
them remark, that he seemed like  one of their fami-
ly, and that they  were always happy to see him,
whether they required his services or not.
   He has .also left a large circle of friends to mourn
his loss in this town, though he was with them but a
few  months.  I have  heard many persons in Westr
boro' remark, since his death, that they never knew
a person to gain the entire confidence  of so  large a
number in  so short a time, as had Dr. Wilmarth dur-
ing his stay in their midst.  The people seemed  to
have rejoiced that he had come among them.  They
were pleased with him.  Even  many  who  did not
believe in his mode of  practice,  confessed that they
" liked the man—so unassuming, so  plain, so hon-
est," they  say, "he showed  what he was  on first
acquaintance."  And so he did.   He was Dr. Wil-
marth here, he was Dr. Wilmarth there, he was Dr.
Wilmarth every where.  All  who well knew him,
respected and loved him.
   But he has gone, and we can  never  behold that
noble brow and benignant form, nor receive his coun-
sels more, on this earth.   It is hard for me to recon- 
200        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.

cile myself to his death, cut off as he was,  in an
instant, with many  others,  and whilst  he was  in
health  and usefulness,  by the recklessness of those
under whose care they had placed their lives !
  My connection with Dr. Wilmarth  was  a  happy
one.   I have  thought many times, since his death,
that it  was too good  to  be lasting.   Many hundred
miles  have we rode together, many  pleasant days
have we spent in each other's society,  and never did
the first word of difficulty pass  between us during
our six or seven years' intimate  acquaintance.
  Our families were well suited  to each other.   Mrs.
Hero's attachments  for the Dr.  and his family were
very strong, and we both lament his loss most deep-
ly.   Yet there is a  consolation  in feeling that he is
still progressing, and that his useful and Christian
life is  a worthy  example to us all.
          Yours most sincerely,
                                  J. H. Hero.
  Wm. H.  Fish.
             FROM  DR.  LEVI REUBEN.
            Wilmington,  Del,  Sept.  27,  1853.
Mr. Wm. H.  Fish :
  Dear Sir :—A  stranger to yourself, I am induc-
ed to write you through the suggestion of our muut-
al friend,  Dr. J.  H. Hero,  of Westboro',  Mass., 
            MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.        201

and still more by the love and respect I entertain for
that lamented friend of us all, who is the subject  of
the brief and imperfect remarks that  follow :
        %fc       "ffc       ^r       T&        ¥fc
  Among the leading features  in the character  of
our lamented friend, would  seem  to  have  been his
inflexible  honesty of thought and purpose,  which
discarded from the  conduct of life all that in many
others gets so much  credit  under  the name of tact,
or so  much charity under  the  title  of expediency.
This simple straight-forwardness constituted a promi-
nent  and  beautiful element of all  his intercourse
with his fellows.  Truth and purity,  to him, did not
sit on inaccessible bights, to be only dreamed of, and
deified,  and forgotten ; but they came down to him,
dwelt in his heart, sat on his lips, and won substan-
tial homage in  the actions of his   every-day  life.
With the  rare merit  of not beiug thereby made  a
cynic, he seemed possessed of an  utter disrelish and
 aversion for the petty connivances, the falsities, and
the dissimulations,  which  have incorporated them-
selves to so deplorable an extent into  all the relations
of business—indeed, into  the  whole  structure  of
society.   These he  hated sincerely ;  and yet he lost
not on that account bis love for, or his generous sym-
pathy with his fellow-men.   Possessed in a large de-
gree of  a practical insight into the secret springs ly-
ing at the bottom of all  the workings of the human
heart,—an intuition that  stripped the gauze from 
202        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
 semblances,  and deciphered with  a clear eye  tho
 rigid outlines of realities,  he could but hate shams
 and plausibilities,  and long  to see the real  made
 the universal object of interest,  of search,  and of
 devotion.
   Thus, from  insight,  and  from  love  alike, would
 our friend have been more than the physician of the
 bodies of individuals.  He  would have  been  the
 physician  of hearts  and  heads—a  Healer  of the
 maladies of society.  Indeed, to such an extent as
 they would allow, with whom lie met, he  was  such.
 A quiet,  but controlling atmosphere of  resistance to
 injustice and chicanery, and  a  love  for uprightness
 and truth, went with him wherever he went, and
 quickened the latent manhood of those  on  whom its
 influence fell.
   But Dr. Wilmarth lived too late, or far too early,
 to be appreciated  at  his true value.   The days of
 "" patriarchal  simplicity"  have passed away.   Man
 has ere this age "  sought out many inventions ;" and
 it will take  the stern tutelage of ages to come to
 bring  him back to  a universal  recognition of the
 great truths,  that,  no matter how Cunning may have
 grown  in her cunningness, her aid  were  better never
 invoked,  and that,  no matter how hopeless and bar-
 ren the path of unflinching rectitude  may  grow be-
fore us, there  is no  other for which we can  safely
 desert it!  To these truths men will come  eventual-
ly, because no experience is lost on the human mind, 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         203
however little we may at once  see  the fruits of it;
and when that day has arrived, then may such as he
whom we now mourn, receive the appreciation  and
the honor they really deserve.
   I cannot more appropriately close this brief tribute,
than by introducing a few extracts from letters writ-
ten me  by the  deceased, while  in the pursuit  of a
business in which he experienced some disappoint-
ments.  His integrity did not  desert him at such a
time, but  only proved its  own  genuineness.   Says
he, in a letter dated July 11,  1851,  " I  am very
suspicious when I see the world running  wild after a
particular  individual, that he carries  some charm
about him.  ' The  end justifies  the means,'  is  the
established motto of this  world ; and  it has become
so inwrought into the very soul of society, that  peo-
ple stand  aghast at one  who is,  clear  through, dis-
sect  him  as  you  will,  an  honest man.  To be
'  shrewd,' or ' a little old,' to  ' humbug a little for
folks' good,' to be wise enough not to tell ' the whole
truth,'—these have become oracular  precepts  with
the present generation."  Again,  he  says,  "  Can
there not  be some feasible way to enlighten  the pub-
he a little faster ?  It seems as  though the Medical
world was as slow  in its formations, as the mineral,
Let us  each put our mark upon the layer now depos-
iting ; so  that those who come  after us may know it
by its purity, malleability and richness."
   In a  letter dated Sept. 25th  of the same year, he 
204         MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.
writes,  " One  thing  more.  I  wish all my motives
were pure.  I am not wholly blind to my own faults
and weakness; but I  desire to be frank,  truthful
and honest, with all men.   What is a man, or a wo-
man,  without  a  character for  truth ?  Nothing—
worse than nothing,  to confide  in.  When will  hu-
man beings bear a cloirvoyant  inspection of  charac-
ter '?  What a pity we cannot be taken  at  par !
Whether a man be Doctor  or patient, proprietor or
bath-servant, for heaven and earth's sake, let him be
honest.   This  world will never be cured of its mala-
dies, moral or physical, by ' shrewdness.'':
   In his last letter to me, he writes, " Science and
humanity are slowly progressing" towards perfection ;
but thousands on thousands  must  die  on the  way.
Let  us contribute our mite  to  the great ocean of
truth, and light, and love,  that will  ultimately  over-
flow and sweep away the masses of error, darkness
and discord, that afflict poor, fallen  humanity !"
   Such was the  hope,—such were the  principles,
and kindred to these was the life of our friend, who
has been called so early from a field in which he was
needed.   Of such it may be  truly said, that they
are the  " salt of the  earth."   When  shall we find
society more liberally seasoned with the influence of
such  minds ?  We  may  hope,  indeed, that  the
breach occasioned in society, by the  departure of
this  good man, will  be filled  in  time ; but  alas !
time can never restore  to  the   circle  of home,  the 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         205
endeared father, or to his many admirers, their faith-
ful friend.
  Allow  me  to  subscribe  myself,  Sir,  your well-
wisher and humble servant,
                                  Levi Reuben.
            FROM  REV.  JOHN  F.  JUDD.
            Montgomery, N. T., June 22, 1853.
Mr. Fish :
  Dear Sir:—It  was  my  privilege to be a patient
of the  late  Dr. Wilmarth, while located  at  New
Graefenberg, N. Y.  Though  from the  feeble state
of my  health,  prevented from cultivating  his ac-
quaintance as intimately as I desired, I saw sufficient
of him  to  impress me  with  a sense of his great
worth,  both as a man, and as a physician.
  Naturally gifted with a quick  perception, he was
a close  observer of men and  things: his  examina-
tions were thorough, his judgment ready and sound.
While  these characteristics inspired his patients with
confidence in his professional ability, bis  tender sym-
pathies, kindness  of manner,  cheerful  disposition,
and general sociability,  endeared him as a friend.
  His  mind was well  cultivated and richly stored,
his  conversation both  entertaining and  instructive ;
and his patients can all, I think, testify to his happy 
206        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH
faculty of raising their drooping spirits,  by his hu-
morous recitations.
   Conscientiousness and benevolence were both large
in his phrenDlogical  development;  and both  were
conspicuous in the  activities of his life.  He despis-
ed all that was low  and mean, yet cheerfully render-
ed honor where it was due.   His heart was quickly
touched either at the sight or recital  of human mise-
ry and  woe ; white his hand and  purse   were  as
readily affected as his feelings, and both were cheer-
fully opened to relieve the suffering.
   Dr.  W.  repeatedly expressed to me his regret,
that the charges at Water-Cures, generally, were so
high as  to  exclude the extremely  poor from their
benefits, and he hoped to  live to effect, in  this re-
Bpect,  a  much-needed reform—so  as to  bring the
benefits of Hydropathic treatment  within  the range
of the most destitute.
   He despised every  species of quackery,  and deep-
ly regretted that much of  it was held in hydropathic
solution.  While his  confidence in Hydropathy was
fixed, he realized that it was  often  injured  by  the
extravagance, ignorance and quackery  of its profess-
ed friends.  In  a letter now in my possession, speak-
ing of a  recent Water-Cure  Circular, he says:—
" There is much truth in it;  but it is put forth with-
out the  usual discount  I  am in the  habit of making'
in such  cases.   Let us have  the  whole truth—unfa-
vorable  as well as favorable.   There is nothing gain- 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         207
ed, either to an  individual  or  to the  world, by
overrating, exaggerating, or misrepresenting;  and,
if  there was, it would be wrong to do it."   This
brief paragraph is  a faithful index to his character.
He loved  truth and right  The fact  that  a  thing
was untrue or wrong was a  sufficient reason, in the
decision of his  judgment,  to  leave it  unheeded or
undone, even though a contrary course might prom-
ise temporal honor, fame or wealth.
   The fidelity and kindness  of Dr. Wilmarth to me,
as his patient, and their continuance after this relation
between us had ceased to exist, have made an indel-
ible  impression  on my heart.   While faithful in
disclosing whatever he believed  unfavorable  in my
symptoms, by word of mouth while with him,  and
bince by letter, he  would add  something to lead me
to "hope on,  hope  ever," in humble reliance  on
God's almighty aid.
   Dr. W. was a liberal hearted Christian—cheerful,
active, faithful; believing in  the common  brother-
hood of man, and  hoping for  salvation through the
merits of  that Savior who died for all.
   As a husband and father, he was  in many respects
a pattern  for all;  his wife was his  companion—not
a mere domestic drudge ; his children were drawn
near to him by kindness  and familiarity,  while his
high moral worth led them to  " honor  their father."
   But  the  man,   physician,  husband, father  and
Christian, is  no more !   Yes,  the better part of him 
208         MEMOIR OF DR. WILMARTH.
is, we believe,  forever with  God  above ; while hia
memory is a precious legacy to those who mourn his
loss below.  As his life was a public blessing,  so  is
his death a public calamity.   31 ay Cod cause his
mantle, Elijah-like, to descend upon one worthy  to
fill his place ; while He comforts the widow  and the
fatherless with the blessings of this life, and the hope
of joys in that to come.
                                Joun  F. Judd. 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.         209
               CHAPTER  IX.
            Letters from Dr. Wilmarth.
This chapter is made up principally of Letters from
Dr. Wilmarth to Dr. Hero, and are introduced here
because they so strikingly illustrate some of the pe-
culiar qualities of his mind and heart, and some of
the prominent traits of his character, brought out
in the body of the Memoir—particularly his humor,
and his hostility to all '' humbuggery.''  The Letters
to his Son may be specially serviceable to such young
men as may be disposed to read them.   They con-
tain valuable advice.
       New Grcefenberg, N. Y, Sept. 28, 1853.
Dear Doctor:
  You see I am close on  the  track  of Allopathy,
Wonderopathy, and Womanopathy,  and  when  I
have concentrated all the pathies, I will tell  you
what I intend to do with them, (if the Lord will that
I should  live a few years longer.)   I can't give up
the  idea that there is a downright honest course that
N 
210         MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.

will let a Dr. live as well  as his patients,  and do
them a great amount of good  into  the  bargain.   I
shall keep trying to find that vein while I live.   May
be you can help me.   What if we  should hunt to-
gether one season 1
                                B. Wilmarth.
               New Grcefenberg, Jan. 1, 1852.
Dear Doctor :—
   *  *   *   Diplomas are  cheap now-a-days;  but
I hope you will get one of the first quality, if it does
cost more—i. e. get the knowledge first,  and there
will be no more  trouble in  getting a diploma  than
there  is in getting  married, when two kindred hearts
happen to meet and fall desperately in love with each
other.   There will be medical priests enough glad to
perform the ceremony.     *     *     *     *
   Never mind;  the world will see,  after a while,
what  it is to be medically wise,  as  well as morally.
In the language of Pope :
    " 'Tis but to know how little can be known,
      To see all others' faults and feel our own."
Translated medically—
      'Tis but to learn how little can be done,
      To do that little and let the rest alone.
   " Hands off" from my clock-work, I say, if you
are going to tomahawk  me, or poison  me  with  your
nostrums.  I would rather trust dame Nature alone, 
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.        211
and the God of Nature, with a decent, kind-hearted
nurse, and a plenty of pure, cold, tepid, or hot wa-
ter, to carry me  through  a  change of matter,  than
the whole tribe of Allopathic physicians  in  New
England, armed and equipped as their " law directs."
Indeed, the nearer armed  and  equipped according to
law, the more  I  should fear them.  If you wish to
except any of  our old antagonist friends, you may.
   I continue to lecture to the New Yorkers  about
once a  week,  on  the general subject  of  Medical
Reform.  My  last  was on  " Medical  Delusions."
I  wish  you had been present to " witness to the
truth."   0, the blindness and superstition, and the
ridiculous proceedings of both Drs.  and  patients !
It seems as if neither had common sense,  to say
nothing about  science.  But a brighter day is dawn-
ing upon the invalid world, and it is our mission,  I
think,  to diffuse the  light  of that day, by lighting
our little torches at  the great  Source,  and  setting
them upon a candle-stand, in some of the dark and
benighted corners of the earth.
   As I expected, there is  lots  of flummery  and fuss-
ation in that new pathy about which I have written
you before ;  as well as some valuable practical truth,
which I am in a fair way to get hold of.  So we go.
I told  them last night, that  every want created  a
supply;  that the world wanted to  be humbugged,
and I thought it had been well provided for.
                                B.  Wilmarth.
            N* 
212         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
              Lebanon Springs, Sept. 1, 1852.
Dear Doctor :—
  That gaseous form of a  man  (gas  condensed)
alias-------,  called before  your letter arrived and
told his own story.   I had a hard struggle to treat
him as I wish to treat every  body, viz., courteously.
He was such a  perfect  personification of bombast,
and an intolerable bore, withal,  that I had a severe
trial with him.   He wondered  that I could not cure
my patients, (all of them, palsy and all) ; thought
he could—felt of their pulse,  &c. &c, and made
quite a parade about here.
   " Guess" he  knows something ; but not so much
as to be any damage to his patients, though it might
be fatal to him.   I thought of tapping him while
here, but I found he would  not stay long enough  to
heal up; so I  left  it to nature,  and  his own rule,
which, he says,  " never fails him."  But so it goes.
Humbug a  good deal,  with a little truth,  if you
want to make money.
   *   *  What do you think I care for jack  o' lan-
terns, whatever form they  assume ?   Gas can be con-
densed in human form, as well as in any other, if you
only have a human skin prepared for it.  Why not?
There  are  those whose pores never  transmitted  a
generous perspiration  in  all  their life ;  but,  like
bladder-fish, they fill themselves with gas and puff it
out at  their mouths.  Have you  not seen them  in
----?  They abound in  some regions.  You will 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.       213

pardon me this, when you recollect how  disgusting
all vanity and  puffation are to me, and how much I
desire plain, unvarnished truth.
              As ever,
                                       B. W.
              New Grcefenberg, Aug. 22, 1851.
 Dear Doctor :—
   Having obtained one of H.'s papers, " extra,"  I
 I send it forthwith for your perusal.  What will you
 think of  such a man ?  I thought I had before sent
 you the greatest  puff  abroad,.(viz. Dr. R----'s pa-
 per.)  But, if possible, H. performs more  wonders
 in the world than R.  And there  is-----, close* by
 him, doing the same big business—$15,000 a year !
 What do you think of that!  How much could  you
 and I do at this business together, if  we should strip
 it  of its  mystery and humbuggery ?  If we could
 do half I would go into it—would you not,  with me ?
 There  is no  doubt,  however, but that they perform
some very remarkable  cures.  I have conversed with
 patients who have been there, and have got a little
 inkling of the  treatment.  They do verily take some
 most dismal,  bed-ridden cases, and bring them upon
 their feet in a comparatively short time—much short-
 er than pure Hydropathy would.   Of this  I have no
 doubt.   But they do humbug, also, tremendously.
  You will see, by the paper, that they cover all the 
214        memoir  of dr. wilmarth.

medical  pathies  and  means,  to  catch  all sorts of
" fish."   If I am privileged with  going  to----,  I
intend to  scrutinize  closely,  if they  will let me,
(though  I understand  there is great secrecy  about
the business,) and whatever is true and  valuable in
their practice I shall adopt as I have opportunity.  I
am willing to learn truth from any quarter.   Per-
haps you may yet benefit  some  of your  "nervous"
patients by this new pathy.
              As ever,
                                B.  WlLMARTn.
              New  Grcefenberg, Aug. 22, 1851.
Dear Doctor :—
   Go on—you are in the right position,  I think.   I
hope you will prosper in every righteous  undertak-
ing.   I am glad your " better half" is so  " smart."
She is a help-meet for you  in  this time of need.   I
think I might justly say, I  have such an one myself.
We have been lucky wights in matrimony, for which
we have great reason to be  thankful  to the " Giver
of every  good gift."   " He  that findeth a good
wife, findeth a good thing," (prize) worth more than
the largest lump yet found on California's shore.  But
to return from this short episode on wives,—some of
whom are bad things, too bad to think of, much more
to write about,—I will talk a little  on professional
and other matters. 
MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.         215
  We are not quite up to you  in  patients—only 15
now.   1 intend to go  a  fishing again soon, and if
they bite well, I  shall continue at it, occasionally,
through September and October, (if the  Lord will.)
I think that is the true and honest policy.   Enlight-
en  the  people.   Be  candid.  Hold  out no  false
colors.  Tell them how much to expect, and hoW
much not to expect.   Water-Cure has been overrat-
ed by some ; and a reaction, or rather, relaxation, has
taken place.  It has promised more than it could per-
form, and lost credit by it, as every false witness does.
But Water-Cure itself, is not to blame for this.  It
is mercenary and ignorant representatives, that have
been to blame.   Never  mind, it  will find its true
level yet.   It is not to be laughed down, nor sneered,
nor sneezed down.  It has  specific  virtues that no
other remedial system yet known, possesses.  When
its  enthusiastic  advocates  have cooled  off a little,
and its enemies have been beaten back, and the pub-
lic mind enlightened upon the  subject, there will be
a much more healthy and rational opinion and prac-
tice in relation to it.
  Having tried Allopathy  and Botanico-Thompson-
ism, to my  satisfaction,  for twenty years, and Hy-
dropathy, more or less, for four years, I feel  some-
what qualified to judge of  the merits  of each,  so
called, system ;  and although I do not consider  the
Water-Cure system  perfect, I do declare it, as  my
solemn conviction, incalculably better than any other 
216        MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
system of medication ever started.   I can cure more
with it—I can cure some with it that cannot be cured
at all, by medicine;  especially  such cases  as have
already  been poisoned half to death, by drug medi-
cation.   Nevertheless, I will be candid on the other
 side.  I honestly believe that some cases would  be
far less tedious,  if a judicious use of mild medicines,
principally tonic, in connection with the Water-Cure
processes, was practiced.  I have no sympathy with
the doctrine  that  all mellicines are  evil only, and
that  continually,  particularly that class which go  to
make up the constituent parts of the human  system,
as, iron,  phosporus,  lime, salt,  soda, acids, &c.—
substances which we cannot subsist without.  It is
sheer nonsense, to say it is always wrong to adminis-
ter these substances, as well as  some others, when
the system is manifestly deficient in them.  I admit
that they may and will be acquired from proper diet
and drink in time, if the patient  lives long enough.
What I affirm is, that the cure can be hastened by a
large per cent.,  and therefore it ought to be given.
Who wants to be drenched in skin and purse a year,
if he can be cured by the aid of a little  tonic medi-
cine  in six months ?   Nobody but zealous bigots,  or
extreme  ultraists.   It has  often been  said, and I
believe with truth, that many would choose to die
under orthodox  medical treatment  rather than be
cured by Hydropathy.  We have the same class  of
persons on the other side of the fence,  who would 
MEMOIR OF  DR. WILMARTH.        217
rather  die under  Hydropathy than take medicine.
Such extreme exclusiveness is very foolish as well as
wicked.   But  it proves the old story true, of the
man who was canvassing the three professions, to see
which would be the most lucrative, and finally decid-
ed to be a  lawyer; for although people would give
something to save  their souls, and considerable to
save their bodies, yet they would give more to  have
their wills than they would for  soul and body both.
   *  *   *  I do  not like extremes  in any thing.
We live in a great world, and there are more things
in it than some people have dreamed of.  We  see a
a great many wiseacres  poking about with  a  little
telescope before one of their eyes, and as Pope says:—
    " Not  one looks backward, onward still he goes,
     Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose."
And yet  the* ninnies imagine they  see  all creation
through.   Let us not  be like unto them, but exam-
ine all things within our power, gather the good and
cast the bad away; and although our heads can hold
but a fraction  of the combined wisdom and knowl-
edge in the world, we wili'try to keep them full, and
deal it out to  the best advantage   to the fellow-
beings within our influence, profiting by it ourselves
also.  We must give account of our  stewardship by
and by, and may we so live and improve our talents
that we can do it " with joy and not with grief."
               Yours, as ever,
                                 B.  Wilmarth. 
 218        MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH

              New Grcefenberg, Dec.  12, 1851.
 Dear  Doctor :—
   I never before so  much felt the need of knowl-
edge, more knowledge ; I want to know the secret
 causes of  nature, that  produce the  effects  I daily
see  in the physical, mental  and moral Avorld.    I
mean to improve the  remainder of my, life in acquir-
ing and dispensing knowledge, chiefly in relation to
the physical world, and  especially  physical man,—
(I  don't  mean physic,  for man has taken a plenty
of  that  already.)  My  faith grows  stronger  and
stronger  in God and  nature,  and  less and  less in
pukes and physic.   I am engaged  in lecturing now-
a-days,  on  the  superstitious  belief  in drugs  and
charms, and trying to  awaken  a sound and rational
faith in the power of  God, implanted  in the human
organism, for its defense  and restoration, when at-
tacked by  disease.   But  0, what havoc  has been
made !  How oft might Nature justly pray—" Save
me from my friends, I will  take care of my enemies."
Physicians have acted like blind  men armed with
spears and clubs, in a rough-and-tumble contest, not
knowing friend from foe, because they could not  see.
How many, think ye, have been slain  in----, by
enlisting  blind men  to  fight  for Nature ?  Echo,
many.
              As ever,
                               B. Wilmarth. 
MEMOIR  OF DR.  WILMARTH.         219
                New Grcefenberg, Feb. 2, 1852.
Dear Doctor :—
  Yours of the  30th came safe.   I make  a prompt,
hut brief reply.   Glad you succeed so well in Pneu-
monia, both on yourself and  others.   It is easy to
doctor if you know how, i. e. know enough to do no
harm—that's  half the battle.
  " Of all the ills that suffering man endures,
    The largest fraction, liberal Nature cures ;
    Of those remaining, 'tis the smallest part
    Yields to the efforts of judicious art;
    But simple Kindness, kneeling by the bed,
    To shift the pillow for the sick  man's head ;
    Give the fresh draught to cool the lips that burn,
    Fan the hot brow, the weary frame  to turn ;
    Kindness—untutored by our grave M. Ds,
    But Nature's graduate, whom she schools to please,
    Wins back more sufferers with her voice and smile,
    Than all the trumpery in the druggist's pile."
           Extract from Dr. Holmes'  "Mor/iinff Visit."

  There you have  an  Allopath's confession !   I
can't stop to comment.  I am  at  this time treating
a case of Pneumonia with kindness, and water, and
air, and broth;  and it operates like a charm to him,
but is poverty to me ; for I can't keep him sick long
enough to make anything out of the job.

  If the Lord  will, my wife and Phila  will soon
leave here—Phila for Hopedale School, my wife for
a higher School, viz., " The Boston Female Medical
College."   Like  " Obadiah,"  in the old  school 
220        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
book, we have just waked  up to a sense of things,
and resolved to " begin  anew our  journey and our
life."
              Yours, as ever,                   .
                               B.  Wilmarth.
              New Lebanon Spa. July 4, 1852.
Dear Son :—
  We were glad to hear from you last week.   Glad
you enjoy so good health.  Glad you  are  able to
perform so much  labor.   Glad you are so cautious,
especially with regard to  " burning fluid"—that you
do not need a "scientific  experiment"  to convince
you that it is " explosive," and dangerous in the
extreme.  But most  of  all,  we are glad to believe
that our son is endeavoring to walk in the paths of wis-
dom and righteousness.   God  has been good to us,
who are your earthly parents, and to you, our child,
in turning  your feet  into his testimonies.   0,  let
them ever  be your delight!  Depart not from the
law of the  Lord.   Labor  for  the  best gifts,  and
abundance of grace.   Go not within the influence of
temptation to any crime, however small.  Then will
your path shine  brighter and brighter unto the per-
fect day.  Be very careful of your physical health,
as well as moral.  Do not try so hard  to  do and
earn "much, as to do what you do well. 
           MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.        221

  I have been to New Grasfenberg, over a hundred
miles distant, to see a young  man  about your age,
with inflammation of the  brain,  in  the last stage.
He died in three days  after.   **  He was my pa-
tient last fall, and did exceedingly well  under my
care.   But, not getting well fast enough,  of his
scrofula and sore eyes, (he was a hard student), he
left  Water-Cure and tried  Allopathy; took large
quantities of Iodine and Cicuta,  determined his dis-
ease to his stomach and  brain, which ended in death.
Literally killed by Iodine !  Mother says you knew
him.   It was E-----F-----.   He  was a very intel-
ligent and pious young man, and  the world has met
with a great loss in his death ;  but he rests in peace.
              Yours, as ever,
                                B.  Wilmarth.
              New Grcefenberg, Feb. 25,  1852.
Dear  Son :—
  *   *  *  I hope  you  will  be careful  of your
health, and not tax your energies  too much.  Those
headaches  you complained  of, are a loud warning
not to go any farther, or rather, not so far.  There
is no doubt in my mind but the predisposing cause
of Augustus LAllou's death, was over-action of the
brain—exhaustion of  the vital power.  He was not
fully consolidated, had  a large,  active brain,  was 
222        MEMOIR OF  DR.  WILMARTH.
ambitious to  excel, and probably was  praised and
put ahead—exerted himself to  discharge his duties
faithfully, and sunk a martyr to over-exertion of the
young faculties of his mind.
  Take warning by this sad "event, and do what yon
can to escape the  same fate.  You had better go
slower and be  longer  climbing the hill of learning
and fame.  God bless and preserve you,  and us all,
till we meet again.
       From your affectionate father,
                                B. Wilmarth.
  With a few  additional words, I must now  take
leave of my readers.   The task of preparing  this
Memoir has  been a pleasant,  though,  in some re-
spects, a painful one ;  and no one can be more  con-
scious  than  myself of the imperfect  manner of its
execution.   It is also with regret that I am compelled
to send it forth  to the  world without more accuracy
and finish.   I will only  say, however, that,  such as
it is, I commend  it to those who knew, esteemed,
and loved Dr.  Wilmarth,  hoping that  it will prove
to them an acceptable offering : and if a wider circle
shall receive it, as a well-meant,  and not altogether
unsuccessful, effort, to add one more to the  class  of 
           MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.       223

useful biographies which are issuing, in such  large
numbers, from the Press, I shall be more than  satis-
fied ; grateful to the  Father of all  spirits  for the
humble ability thus  to serve Him, and the cause  of
righteousness and humanity.   May the good Dr.  so
speak to many, at least, of his friends,  by  his exam-
ple,  herein  recorded,  and by the still small  voice
that  comes  from his presence in the spiritual and
heavenly world, as to aid in preparing them for hap-
py companionships with him  hereafter.
  As some who may rea<i  this Memoir may be  in-
terested  to  know  more  t# Dr.  Wilmarth's family
than they have hitherto  learned, for their gratifica-
tion, I would here say,  that  he left a wife and two
children—a son and a  daughter.   The  son is now
twenty-two years of age, and  the daughter thirteen.
Mrs.  Wilmarth has entered  " The Female Medical
College of Pennsylvania," established in the  city of
Philadelphia,  and  purposes   going  through  with a
three years'  course of  medical study, with a  view,
more particularly, to Obstetric practice.   Her many
friends are, therefore, relying upon her, partially, at
least, to fill her husband's professional place, conn- 
224         MEMOIR  OF DR. WILMARTH.
 dent that her long  experience  and observation,  aa
 the wife of a Physician, together with the education-
 al preparation that she is making, and her very excel-
 lent character, will enable her to  be preeminently
 useful in her calling.  Her permanent home, in all
 probability, will be Hopedale ; as will, also, that of
 her children.  As the Directors of the Railroad Cor-
 poration, by the  carelessness of whose servants Dr.
 Wilmarth lost his  life, have  been just  and liberal
 towards them, they are,  of course, in comfortable
 circumstances.  But,  alas !  no  amount  of money
 can compensate them for the loss of a husband and
 father, so affectionate and devoted, so true and faith-
ful!   His absence they moist deplore in sadness and
 sorrow, for many a  year to come, unable to  find rec-
 onciliation to his sudden and violent death,  save in
 their sublime and  cheering views of  the character
 and government of  God, and  of the final destiny of
 the human  race.   But with  these  they rejoice in
hope, and are able  to comfort and  encourage each
 other in the prospect of  an  ultimate reunion in ce-
lestial spheres. 
APPENDIX.
Dr. Wilmarth's Remarks, at Hope Chapel, New York,
         on Friday Evening, May 9th, 1851.

I have  practiced medicine twenty  years after  the
Allopathic method,  and four years according to the
method  termed Hydropathic.   My preceptor taught
me to give large doses of medicine,  especially in
acute diseases.   I  gave a great amount of medicine
in many  cases.   In dysentery, 30 to 60 grains of
calomel,  a large tablespoonful of castor oil,  and 20
drops of  laudanum, was thought.a  proper dose for
an adult, once in 24 hours.  I have  known  20 grs.
of calomel and 20 of jalap given to a scrofulous in-
fant under 1 year of age !   I have frequently given
half that quantity in similar cases ; I did it  consci-
entiously, but I saw the  fatal consequences, and
abandoned that practice long  ago.
   The first I heard of  the Water-Cure was from  an
editorial  of Mrs. L. M.  Child,  in the Anti-Slavery
Standard, some ten years ago, giving an  account of
Priessnitz's Establishment, his extraordinary success,
&c. . I must say, at that time I was-really provoked
at  it, and  did  not believe  it a fair statement; I
thought his patients were not very sick ;  in  short, 1
believed the  whole thing  was a humbug.   I lived
at that time in LeverStt, Franklin Co., Mass.  Soon
            o 
22(3
appendix.
after that, I moved to Milford, Worcester Co., Mass.,
and joined The Hopedale  Community of Non-Eosis-
tants, who were, by-the-by,  for  reform in  medicine
as well as morals.  I passed very well as a Physician
for two or thrSe years.   Now and then, I read some-
thing upon the subject of Water-Cure ;  for instance,
Bnlwer's  Letter,   Balbirnie's  Philosopliy  of  the
Water-Cure,  Ac;  but I grew move  and more pro-
voked  about it, though 1  could not  help  seeing a
great remedial principle  in the  system.   This was
what provoked me; that  I must  vxucakn my  er-
rors, and learn  my practice again (of an illiterate
peasant, too.)  I felt just as I have,  while reading
essays on the deleterious effects of  tobacco,  before I
had resolved to discontinue  its  use,  (a practice, I
may  say here? which should  never be begun.)  I
knew the Essayist  told the truth  ; and so it was with
the Water-Cure.  I foresaw the  flood that was to
wash away the long list of poisonous drugs I thought
so much of as medicinal agents.   Well, I soon had
a trial.   One of my best friends had a fine little boy,
an  only child,  who chanced  to be taken  severely
sick,  with dysentery.  He called me, of course,  as
medical adviser.   "What  shall I do, Doctor?"—
" Give  a dose  of calomel,  oil  and  laudanum."
" Don't like to give calomel."   " Well, that is  the
best  thing you can do."  But I could not make him
believe it.   He sent for a Mr. Whitmarsh, of Boston,
a Water-Cure Doctor of very limited practice at that
time.  He came, and, to my great surprise, arrested
rhe complaint in a  few days, with nothing but water
and abstinence.  This made me  feel cheap.   I fore-
saw that /must reform as well as my neighbors, or,
it'  nothing worse befell me, my " occupation"' would
be " gone."   About that time, I read " Johnson on 
APPENDIX.
227
Hydropathy," "Results of the Water-Cure," &c.
I began to be convinced.   To set the matter at rest,
and also happening to need medical aid myself, from
some quarter or  other, I went to Mr. David Cambell's
excellent  Establishment, at New Lebanon, N.  Y.
My good friend  Dr. Bedortha was the resident phy-
sician.  I did not tell them what my profession was,
for three or four weeks.   I desired, first,  an unbias-
ed examination and prognosis in my own case ; and,
second, to scrutinize the  operation of the water pro-
cesses, unwatched, myself.   Accordingly, I convers-
ed with patients about their respective ailments, took
a list of some 20 cases, their symptoms, treatment,
and the effects thereof.  I looked sharp for humbug-
gery, but could  not find it.  All was open, candid,
philosophical,  and, in  a  good  degree, successful.
After I became willing to be at peace with the Water-
Cure,  I. learned fast, or rather unlearned  some of
my errors, and made  confession of my  former bar-
barous  practice.  Receiving and  seeing  so much
benefit from the Water-Cure,  in the short space of
eight weeks,  I became about five-eighths converted
to it.  How could I help it if I meant to be honest ?
Professional pride, and  a  deference to high medical
authority had blinded me, as they now do many oth-
ers.   But Hydropathy has continued to wash away
these refuges, until now, at this present time, I may
be  set  down  about  seven-eighths  Hydriatic.   I
have abandoned the use of all  corrosive and irritat-
ing poisons for medicine :  I have no use for calomel
in dysentery, and would not consent to have it given
in any case.   So of tartar emetic, &c, &c.
   I believe  mild medicines may  do  good, under
 some circumstances.  I use some of the milder ton-
ics in cases of great debility and want  of blood.  I
             o* 
228
APPENDIX.
believe there may be cases where the laxity of the
nervous and  muscular system  is so great, the vital
power so deficient, that the stomach is not capable
of contractility sufficient to secrete gastric  juice, ex-
cite appetite, &c, so as to replenish the system with
its own natural stimulus, viz., nutriment.   I believe
the needed contractility, in some cases  of congestion,
(not  in inflammation,)  may  be  induced by mild
stimulants, tonics, and astringents, thereby prevent-
ing the decomposition of the fluids and  solids,  and
ultimate dissolution.  But  in all  ordinary cases
where I have conveniences for Hydriatic treatment,
and the confidence of the patient, I have no use for
medicine.  I take none  myself, though I am often
ill, and once took medicine  freely.   I have learned
a " more excellent way."
  One great error  in Allopathy is,  making  the
stomach and  bowels  the critical organs, by violence.
This is certainly very unphilosophical,  to force a cri-
sis upon one  organ and compel }t to carry off all the
effete matter  of the system, when nature  designed it
to carry only about one-eighth.  This  practice indu-
ces chronic inflammation of  the mucous  membranes
of the bowels, Ac.   I once  knew an almost incura-
ble case  of chronic  diarrhoea,  emaciation,  debility,
&c, induced by. a single dose of " Sherman's Worm
Lozenges," so highly lauded on placards, &c.  The
diarrhoea lasted about one year, and was  cured with
great  difficulty, under a mixed treatment of Hydrop-
athy and astringent  medicine.  These lozenges are
chiefly composed  of  calomel and  loaf  sugar ; a  pre-
cious  panacea,  to scatter broadcast over the land for
children to  eat as  they  would  sweetmeats !   The
latter  are bad  enough, but  the former are abomina-
ble.   The patient alluded to was a respectable young 
APPENDIX.
229
        *
lady, who not only lost a year's time, but nearly her
life.   Great  caution should  be exercised in the use
of medicine,  if used at all.
   So also with water.   Many  use too  heavy  treat-
ment, too many baths, and at too low a temperature.
This is  a great error.   Patients reason falsely  about
treatment,, like the man who  took  physic :   "If two
baths per day will do good, four will  do  twice  as
much good."   Physicians should never yield to the
importunities  of patients  in  this  matter, but nicely
weigh and measure the amount of vitality  in  each
case.  If reaction takes place readily, the baths may
be increased  in number, and  the temperature lowered
with safety;  but if reaction  is  slow and feeble, the
baths must be slow and few.   To  give frequent and
cold baths in  such cases, would either lash the nerv-
ous system into fury and the mind into  insanity,  or
overwhelm it with depression,  and cause nearly  or
quite, fatal congestion  in some  one or more of the
vital organs.   I have seen all these effects from too
cold, too frequent,  and too heavy  baths in  the fore
part of  a course of treatment, before the system was
prepared for  it, by a gentle,  tepid, coercing  process.
It takes a long time to  recover  one of  these knock-
down cases,  to the use of water again.   Therefore
we should be careful,  especially  in the commence-
ment of a Hydriatie course.  If the patient  is too
hot, cool him ; if  too cold, warm him.
   This is plain common sense.
   But it is  not common  sense to let  a patient  lie
shivering in the wet sheet for hours ; if he- does not
get warm within one hour, he is not in a condition
for wet  packing.   Neither should a patient with fee-
ble powers be driven about in  the cold air, or kept
in a cold room, with hands and feet cold and blue as 
230
APPENDIX.
a lean pigeon.  No patient can improve under  such
circumstances.  They may stay longer at an estab-
lishment, if their faith fail not; but it is no credit to   jj
it, nor to the physician who prescribes or allows  such   %
treatment.
   Our reliance for success consists in the  proper di-
rection and management of the vital forces, and the
medical power of Nature ; we must  not waste  this
power, for we cannot create it—we can only aid and
direct  it.   Too cold treatment exhausts by depres-
sion or excessive reaction.  Too much water conducts
too much electricity from the  system.   Disease is
radically removed by a change of matter :  the old
morbific  particles are cast out, and new particles
supplied.   This change corresponds to the  vital  pow-
er of the system.  If vitatity abounds,  the  change
will be rapid, as in  acute diseases ; if feeble, it will
be slow, as in chronic cases.   The Water-Cure great-
ly facilitates  and increases this change, by  increasing
the demand for food, enhancing the vital forces, set-
ting in motion  all  the secretions  and excretions,
especially that great excreting  organ,  the skin, de-
signed by nature to  expel about five-eighths of all
the worn-out and effete matter of the body.   When
the Water-Cure can  be fully and properly  applied, it
places the organism  in the best possible  condition to
operate and  restore  itself  to health again.  This is
all we  can do ; we  cannot directly create vital pow-
er by any mode of treatment.  The great  natural
agents, food, air, water, exercise, rest, &c, must do
that.   Our mission is a limited one, but  highly re-
sponsible ; for although we cannot  create health, we
may,  by injudicious  treatment, destroy it.
   The cause of Hydropathy is progressing fast in
Massachusetts.  The Water Cu re JoUmal circulates 
APPENDIX.
231
widely in that State ; much more widely than it- did
three years ago.   There has been a great change in
several towns within the circle of my practice in the
last  two years.   Many families that formerly were
frightened half out of their senses at every symptom
of disease, and ran for  a doctor with all speed, have
learned that rest,  pure  air, bathing and abstinence,
in all ordinary  cases,  are far better remedies than
poisonous drugging.
   But we are in our infancy yet, in the healing art.
I am still open  to  conviction,  and willing to learn.
Truth, practical truth,  should be our object, inde-
pendent  of* all preconceived theories and  specula-
tions.

   [The  foregoing  Address was delivered on the oc-
casion of Dr.  Wilmarth's election to the  Presidency
of the Hypropathic Association,  and was wholly im-
promptu.  It was reported, at the time, in the Water
 Cure Journalb]
  Some  quack  gets a few scattered rays of light
brought to a focus on the  science of medicine,  and
he beholds such  wonders, that off he starts with two
or three medical ideas rattling from  side  to  side  in
his cranium, r!ke th% pebbles in a child's rattle-box ;
and with the utmost assurance he  says :  " Here  is
my remedy ; take it; it will search out evil, go into
all the vessels and glans, and if there is any obstruc-
tion,  remove it; if not, it will do  no harm ;  it  is
friendly to nature and always acts in harmony  with
it."   So down it goes, the remonstrances of far bet-
ter judges notwithstanding.—Dr. W. 
232
APPENDIX.
           MEDICAL  DELUSIONS.
              Extracts from a Lecture.

Ladies and  Gentlkmen :—
   I  purpose to occupy your attention this evening,
with a brief glance at some of the popular delusions
that have prevailed in reference to disease and medi-
cine.   The sentiment of  old Hudibras, that
      " No doubt the pleasure is as great,
       In being cheated as to cheat,"
has been, and still is, verified  in the various forms
of medical humbuggery that have disgraced the his-
tory of medicine from the days of Hippocrates to the
present time.   There  must be some sort of  " pleas-
ure,"  or satisfaction,  in being  " cheated," or the
public would not so often repeat  the experiment.
   Without entering into the philosophy of this sub-
ject, which may doubtlessly  be  traced to an unen-
lightened love of the marvelous,  in the human mind,
we will come directly to  the facts  in  the  history be-
fore us.   It  must  have  been quite rrttural to men,
in all ages of the world, when sick and tortured with
pain,  to look about for something with which  to re-
lieve themselves ;  and quite as natural to experiment
with the  various vegetable, animal, and mineral sub-
stances, which surround us.   Knowing nothing of the
healing powers within thein, it was perfectly natural,
too, if after using  a certain agent, they found them 
APPENDIX.
233
selves restored, to attribute  the healing power to the
medicine employed.   And this we find to have been
the fact all  along down in medical history.   Men
were sick, they took such and such medicines, they
recovered ; therefore those medicines  cured them.
   This  ignorant artd superficial  mode of reasoning,
has filled the world with  thousands on thousands  of
infallible remedies,  " for all the ills  that flesh  is
heir to,"  and through their administration,   " mill-
ions have died of  medicable wounds."   On the oth-
er hand, millions more have been restored to health
by the  recuperative energies of the system  alone,
while they were applying or swallowing some perfect-
ly  inert substance,  which  their faith  had  invested
with great medicinal powers.   In the early  history
of surgical practice,  we find^his propensity to  ascribe
the remedy to the wrong cause, 4.0 something marvel-
ous, though it be  only some magic mutterings.
      " Tom Pots was but a serving man,
        And  yet a Doctor good ;
        He bound his handkerchief o'er the wound,
        And with kind words  he staunched the blood."

It was  the " kind," or marvelous words, that stopped
the bleeding, in their estimation, and not the  com-
pression of. the handkerchief  over the wound.
   We  see this propensity in  our day, not  only  to
 attribute effects to wrong causes, but to fall down in
wonder and  amazement before  something perfectly
unintelligible and absurd, if it be sufficiently  clothed
with  mystery.  Hence  a wise look, or a barbarous
and unmeaning language, (if it be Latin, or French,
 or Indian, it is all  the better, if so be you  can un-
derstand only now and  then  a word,) is an almost
certain  passport- to confidence  and medical  fame
among a large per cent, of  the masses. 
234
APPENDIX.
   In the primitive ages the  cheat  was bolder,  and
the delusion more general,  involving  the medicine-
men themselves, as well as their patients ;  and the
most we can say is, they were " deceiving and being
deceived."  But, for the most part, all parties were
honest—an attribute which it requires a great stretch
of charity, to  accord  to many of the  medicine-ped
dlers of the present day.
   In those days of  ancient simplicity and ignorance,
when an individual was so unfortunate as to cut or
lacerate his flesh with some edged or serrated instru-
ment, the wound was directed to be " dressed with
dry lint and tightly bandaged, not  to  be looked at
or "disturbed for nine days,  at the end  of which time
it  was usually found  healed, or in a fair way to be
so.  But  the instrument, knife, sword, or whatever
inflicted the wound, required  the most faithful  and
constant attention.  Day after day,  the surgeon  Dr.
would repair, with his box of weapon-ointment, compos-
ed of  human blood, a piece of powdered mummy, and
some moss from the skull of a thief, hung in chains,
olive oil," Ac, and  most  ceremoniously 'dress the
naughty instrument, till the expiration  of nine days,
when, if,  on inspection, the wound  was found doing
well, the patient very  cheerfully paid  the surgeon's
fees, besides feeling an everlasting sense of gratitude
for his faithful attendance.   And the surgeon, highly
gratified with his  success, pocketed the cash, and dis-
missed his patient,  with  " a conscience  void of
offense toward God and man !"  Dame Nature and
her Author were not recognized as having any agen-
cy in the healing process.
   The same delusion was prevalent in  relation to in-
ternal disease  and its remedies.  Happy would it be
for humanity  had this  delusion passed away; but 
APPENDIX.
235
alas !  it has  not.   Men and women fall  sick, take
certain medicines, according to  their faith, get well,
and, of course, it was the medicine that cured them ;
they never dreaming that  nature, with her silent op-
erations, is continually repairing the wastes of the
system,  and removing the  causes of disease.  It
matters but little what system of medication the pa-
tient adopts, (excepting a too actively poisonous one,)
he will ordinarily recover,  if  he has faith sufficient
to keep quiet long enough for Nature to perform the
cure.
   In  days of yore, the people  believed  their kings
possessed the power to heal by the  touch of their
royal, fingers.   This practice was followed by all the
kings of England;  from  Edward the Conqueror  to
Queen  Anne,  with the  exception of William the
Third, who would not " touch" to do any such foolish
thing.   Charles the Second touched nearly 100,000
persons  in  the course of twelve  years.    Traces  of
these delusions have come down to our own day.   I
have  seen the  nail,  or  other cutting  instrument,
greased and hung in the  corner, where it would  be
comfortably warm,  because John or Betsey had cut
 or lacerated  a foot with it.  There you have a simple
trace of the weapon-ointment practice.
   Amulets, worn about  the neck and over diseased
 part's, were also once in great repute for the removal
 of disease.   They were  composed of various  sub-
 stances, from a simple fish-bone,  or piece of metal,
 to compound and medicated collections.
   The delusions that have prevailed in regard to the
 healino- power of internal remedies,  are multitudi-
 nous.   Bishop Berkeley, to whom Mr. Pope accord-
 ed " every virtue under heaven,"  made the surpris-
 ing discovery  that " Tar Water" was the grand rem- 
236
APPENDIX.
 edy for all disease.  So certain was he of its efficacy,
 that he wrote and published an Essay on the subject,
 entitled, " Shis, a chain of'philosophical Reflections
 and Inquiries concerning the virtues of Tar Water."
   Bacon, the  "wisest and brightest ** of man-
 kind," was weak enough to believe in charms  and
 amulets, and the weapon-ointment practice.   Luther,
 who  revolutionized  the religious  world,  had great
 faith in dried toads as an antidote to malignant ulcers.
 " Experience," says he, "  has proved the toad to be
 endowed  with  valuable qualities.   If  you run  a
 stick through  three toads, and, after having dried
 them in the sun, apply them to any pestilent tumor,
 they draw out  all  the  poison  and  the malady will
 disappear"   The  toad practice, however, has long
 since gone into  disrepute,   and a powrful team from
 the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, has been attach-
 ed to the diseased toad, and the medical drivers are
 whipping  and spurring most  furiously.   Doubtless
 they  will soon  draw out  the  monster and dispatch
 him.
  One of the most extensive and  successful medical
delusions was invented  by one  of our  own country-
 men—Dr.  Perkins of Connecticut, in 1796.  The
 remedy consisted  of two  pieces  of  metal,  called
 " tractors,"   one of  which appeared to be steel,
 and the other brass, about  three inches  long, and
 tapering to a point.  Their efficacy  was supposed by
the inventor and many  learned men, to depend upon
the development of a galvanic  fluid.   This  system
of practice spread rapidly through the N. E.  States,
and  thence  to  England and some  other  European
countries,  and within eight  years was so triumphant,
that a Perkinsean Institution was formed  in London,
 with  a large proportion of its  members from  the 
APPENDIX.                237
learned, the titled, and  the  reverend.   The " trac-
tors," which readily sold for about $25 a pair, were,
under the auspices of the  society,  applied most be-
nevolently to the  sick  and suffering  poor.  (The
original cost was one shilling  a pair.)   The society
had its  public dinners in honor of the grand discove-
ry, and poetry even was laid under extensive contri-
bution to sound its  praises and diffuse  its  benefits.
Thus runs the strain of  one of the Perkinsean poets:

   " See pointed metals, blest with power to appease
     The ruthless rage of merciless disease,
     O'er the frail part a subtle fluid pour,
     Drenched with invisible galvanic shower,
     Till the athritic staff and crutch forego,
     And leap exulting like the bounding roe."

   As early as 1802, the  Perkinsean Committee re-
port 5000  cures,  many of which were of  the most
decisive  character.  Volumes  of certificates  were
published in succession, and Perkinsism was claimed
to  be  the grand  medical  discovery of  the  age.
There  were unbelievers,  however,  in the   days  of
Perkins,  as well as in those of Bishop Berkeley, and
some were wicked enough to try experiments on their
patients, with " tractors"  made of wood, and painted
 so  as to resemble the five-guinea  tractors.  They
very impudently pretended to produce the  same ef-
fects, and no less than five of the patients  of these
mischievous Doctors returned public  thanks in church
 for their cures.  One of these patients, cured by the
 wooden tractors,  (Miss Anne Hill,)  exclaimed,—
 " Bless me !   \Vhy, who would have thought it,
 that themr little things could pull the pain from one ?
 Well, to be sure, the longer one lives, the more cne
 sees; ah, dear !"
    In 1809, a medical delusion  sprung up in Brook- 
238
APPENDIX.
lyn, N. Y.,  and obtained  many converts.   A  phy-
sician, from some motive  or other,—probably  for
money, though I will not sit in judgment—establish-
ed himself in  that city and  commenced  operations
upon the gullibility of the inhabitants.  He assumed
a  very knowing look  and  appearance,  could see
straight through his  patients, as though  they were
transparent, (as most of them probably were,) could
describe their  maladies,  "better  than  they could
themselves," (no doubt of that,) and prescribe the
proper remedj  without feeling the  pulse, or asking
questions ; the patient merely walking before him as
he sat  in his pulpit-like elevation.   In a few, months,
his fame spread abroad in all the region round about,
and multitudes went and were carried to  him  to  be
healed  of their .infirmities.   There  was  scarcely a
limit  to  the  success  of his practice.  His  plan of
treatment was very simple.   His patients were fur-
nished with  packages of medicine which consisted of
dried leaves, flowers,  grass,  Ac, or whatever kind
of vegetable substances he  could gather in  his ram-
bles about the  fields, that  he knew to  possess  no
active  principle.  These were to be steeped in rain
water,  and  taken according to written  directions.
They were to use rain water  for cooking  their food,
and for drink, and were restricted to'a plain, simple
diet,  mostly vegetable.   By this  means  thousands
were   healed of  their infirmities.   But  when the
" Rain Water  Doctor," as he was called, (what his
real name was  I have never learned,) had published
a pamphlet unfolding the  delusion, his patrons turn-
ed away in great dudgeon.   Something analogous to
this was the practice of Dr. Isaac  Jennings of Der-
by, Ct., (now  Oberlin, 0.)  so far as medicines were
concerned.  This physician, after  practicing and 
APPENDIX.
239
observing the effects of medicine some ten  years,
with the usual success, became dissatisfied and skep-
tical as to the utility of drugs, and adopted  a mere
placebo practice.   His  pdls consisted  of crumbs of
bread, variously colored and scented, and  his drops
were of clear and colored  water; but no medicinal
substance else whatever.   Thus armed and  equip-
ped, (not exactly according to medical law, especial-
ly  Allopathic,)  he  went  forth into  the  field  of
disease,  and superintended the efforts of Nature, with
unbounded  success, for twenty  years, before he re-
vealed his practice !   His  friends, unlike Dr. Rain-
water's, said,  " Well, if you  did  cure us without
medicine, it is all the better; we  got well, and that
was what we wanted,  and we will risk  ourselves
under  your care before  that  of any body else."
There are many cases and anecdotes in Dr. Jennings'
Book  on "Medical  Reform" of a  very interesting
and instructive character.   He is esteemed as a man
of learning and great moral worth.
 •  Medical  history  abounds with  similar  cases to
 those named; nor are the various medical delusions
of former and present times confined to a few obscure
and ignorant individuals, for they often spreadover
 large°communities,  afro1  infect otherwise intelligent
 minds.   Kings,  queens and councils have often pat-
 ronized the sheerest humbugs in medicine.
    We come now to the great  practical question in-
 volved  in  these records  of delusion.   The facts of
 the delusions are not doubted, nor can we doubt the
 fact that great and wonderful cures have been per-
 formed under them.   What was  it that caused these
 cures :   This is the  great question.  I will tell you.
 It was the  mighty power, established by the  Creator
 in every living,  sentient, organized being.   I  say 
240
APPENDIX.
mighty, and it is so because it is capable of resisting,
by its vital properties, the combined action of all the
chemical elements  of nature with  which it  is sur-
rounded.   It is called the recuperative power of the
system, and when we want  to  speak learnedly, the
 Vis  Medicatrix  Naturae,  or medical power of na-
ture.   Nature's only tendencies are to life.
  The cited power alone, under  God, is our physical
savior, as much as the Holy  Ghost is our moral and
spiritual purifier.    And where this power is in the
ascendent,  disease is always curable, and vice versa.
The kingdom  of health is within  us, and not in a
Doctor's saddle bags, or trunk.   Where, by a long
or short course of violation of  the organic  laws  of
our system, we  have so much  exhausted the vital
forces, that a collapse of nervous energy takes place,
it is " the sin  unto  death,"  physically, and, in the
language of the apostle, " I  do  not say that ye shall
pray for it."   That is, it is a doomed case, and it is
of no use to make  effort in its behalf.             ,
  But is there no  balm in Gilead ?  Is there not a
physician  there ?   Not  for  all cases.   All short  of
the cases  indicating fatal inroads upon.vitality, just
hinted at, are hopeful.      4*1
  What, then, are the agents, by which we may aid
and sustain the vital forces,  while nature performs
the wondrous  work of  curing our maladies'!  An-
swer :   Air, warmth, food, water,  exercise, electrici-
ty; these, the  common, the every-day elements  of
life, are what  preserve  us while in health, and the
just  graduation of them to  our age, temperament,
susceptibility and vital power, when laboring under
disease, are the only reliable  remedies; and that
man is most worthy the  name of physician, who best
understands their agencies, and has wisdom  enough 
APPENDIX.
241
to adapt them  to the wants of suffering humanity.
  But I would say, in conclusion,  it is the mission
of Science and of Christianity, to clear the mental
and moral horizon of humanity, from  all the clouds
and darkness that at present hide  the  serene  and
beautiful  sky  of the future ; and  the  stewards  of
God's medical and spiritual heritage have an impor-
tant part to act in this drama  of physical and spirit-
ual life.   It is theirs to  guide the  frail  bark of the
invalid  over the tempestuous sea of life to a haven of
physical and moral rest,  by teaching and enforcing
obedience to all the  laws of  our being;  and not  to
make a craft of  a noble profession, and amass wealth
at the expense of ignorance and superstition, leaving
the world involved in the darkness of the past.   0,
no !  the philanthropic and true physician will labor
for the good of his patients ; he will teach them how
to live ; to have a rational faith, founded on God and
Nature, not on  charms  and  amulets, or any hocus-
pocus whatsoever.
                PHYSICIANS.
  Notwithstanding  their  much  bad  practice,   it
would be great injustice  to  set down the generality
of physicians as a class of impostors and conspirators
against the public health.   As a profession, they arc
as high minded, as truth-loving and benevolent,  as
any other ; and they are before all  other professions
in the sacrifices which  they make for  the relief  of
suffering humanity ;  constantly exposing themselves,
both by  day and by night, to disease and  death.
These labors and sacrifices give them a strong claim
upon public gratitude.   But their great sin is bigotry:
    "Did Marcus say 'tis fact ? then fact it is ;
      No truth  so valid as a word of his."
            P 
242
APPENDIX.
      EXTRACTS FROM A LECTURE

               On the Scarlet Fever.

Tins disease derives its name from the scarlet-colored
eruption that usually appears on the surface of the
body.  It is vulgarly  called  " Canker Rash."  It
occurs at all seasons of the year,  but generally in
the fall or beginning of winter.   It often seizes whole
families; but  children  and young persons  are the
most subject to it.   It rarely occurs more than once
during life ; and it arises from a specific contagious
miasma.    Certain  peculiarities of  the atmosphere,
thus far unrevealed, appear to exert considerable in-
fluence  over the  intensity  of the contagion;  as is
manifest from  the  occasional prevalence of the dis-
ease in epidemics, and the different grades of severity
and varieties of character these have assumed.  Great
irregularity, at times, marks the progress of the epi-
demic.  After raging extensively with  much violence,
it may suddenly abate, so as almost  to disappear,
and then resume its power,  and prevail with  more
malignity than ever.
   This contagion  seems occasionally  to linger  for
several years in a certain district, affecting from time
to time only  a few individuals.   It is manifestly
somewhat  contagious, but not so much so  as the small
pox and the measles.   The activity of the contagious
principle may  be influenced  by various  circumstan-
ces ; such as constitutional idiosyncrasies, age,  sex, 
APPENDIX.
243
climate,  accidental   predisposition,  and  peculiar
atmospheric temperament.   Certain individuals are
entirely unsusceptible to the contagion, never becom-
ing affected with the disease,  though fully exposed
to its cause.
   [Here follow minute descriptions of the various
forms of the  disease  and its numerous symptoms,
which are necessarily omitted.]
   I have seen a great many cases of scarlet fever, it
having prevailed extensively in the  section of coun-
try, where I formerly practiced medicine—three times
as an epidemic, in the space of three years ; besides
more or less scattering cases at  other  times.   I am
prepared, therefore,  to give an opinion respecting its
nature and the best mode of treatment.   We have
seen that it is contagious, and, like other miasms,  is
inhaled with the atmosphere  directly into the lungs.
Like other contagions, it  makes  its first impression
upon the nervous  system,  as  is evinced  by the lassi-
tude  and  uneasy feelings that precede  the  febrile
attack.  It produces a sedative or debilitating effect
upon  the nervous  system, thereby  diminishing the
vital power.   The poison is carried directly into the
circulating fluid, being brought into contact with the
blood in the lungs,  through  which organ the whole
mass  of blood  passes  every four  or five minutes.
This fluid  being charged with the poisonous miasm,
carries it to every organ and  tissue in the body, irri-
tating and inflaming the mucous  membrane  of the
stomach or  bowels, and  all the abdominal viscera,
and also the heart  and lungs and lining membrane
 of the chest,  the brain  itself coming under the mor-
 bid influence, when  it can  no longer resist it.  In
this state of things, the vital forces of the system are 
244
APPENDIX.
 rallied and put forth an effort proportioned to their
 power, to expel the  enemy 'from the citadel of life.
 All the  excitement,  the  quick  pulse,  the hurried
 breathing, the vomiting, the increased heat, &c, are
 but so many well-directed efforts of the system to get
 rid  of an inward foe.  By well-directed efforts I
 mean, the best nature can do under the circumstan-
 ces.
   Now,  to what does all, or nearly all  these efforts,
 tend ?  Why, simply to throw the  morbid matter
 upon the whole surface of the body,  or the skin—
 the  external membrane  of the body—and thereby
 save the internal vital organs (the heart and lungs,)
 and the mucous membranes of *the stomach and bow-
 els,  the  condition of which  may be  seen by the
 appearance of the tongue, fauces, palate and throat.
 The capillary (small, hair like,)  blood-vessels have
 lost their tone, become  relaxed and enlarged in size,
 so as to admit red blood where it  was never intended
 to flow.   The papilla of the  skin are  elevated, the
 cutaneous vessels are  so relaxed and overloaded
 with blood in consequence of diminished and a near-
 ly total want of exhalation,  that  an effusion  of co-
 agulated  lymph sometimes  takes place in the papu-
 lous elevations, which  is not entirely  absorbed by
 the time the rash subsides—giving the  skin a rough
 and uneven  appearance.  Indeed, there  seems to
 be  a total obstruction of perspiration,  a  complete
 drying up  of  the ten thousand times ten  thousand
 little fountains that exude their vapor from the body ;
 and at the same time there is a powerful effort  of
 nature to reopen these sluices of  the  system, and to
 wash away the noxious miasm that is racing through
 everv avenue of life, and threatening  destruction in
everv Quarter.   And what are the consequences of 
APPENDIX.
245
this vital struggle ?   If the vital  force holds  out a
sufficient length  of  time, if the pressure and irrita-
tion bears nearly  equally in every part of  the system,
the stricture  upon the  skin  gives way in due time,
the scarf-skin  is  cast  off,  (destroyed,  burnt  up,
as it were) perspiration  is reestablished, the enemy
is driven out, and health and harmony restored. But
if the vital power fails in this conflict, and the heart
and arteries,  worn down by excessive excitation,  can
no longer maintain an equilibrium and determination
to the surface, the  centripetal  forces become domi-
nant, and the  morbific agent falls upon the internal
organs, producing fatal congestion and inflammation
of some  one or  more of these  highly vital parts—
the brain,  the lungs, the liver and spleen, or the
mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels : and
the disease will always  fall upon  those  parts  which
were  most predisposed,  or  most  unable to defend
themselves,  by reason of constitutional debility,  or
previous derangement.
   Bear this fact  always  in mind,  that death  comes
only by the viscera,  in this as in every other disease;
that is, it is not the  fever that kills, for that is noth-
ing more nor less than the rallying or rallied  power
of Nature to relieve herself from the invasion of dis-
ease—it is the  vital  power of preservation opposing
the chemical power of decomposition.   It is not the
eruption upon  the surface,  and rarely, if ever, the
affection of the  throat that destroys the patient, but
it is internal inflammation or congestion of some vital
organ, which, unable to hold out longer in the  strug-
gle, faints, as it were, and becomes relaxed, and the
poisoned blood flows excessively into it, and entirely
overwhelms and  puts a stop to its functions.  It dies,
and the general system soon follows, 
246
APPENDIX.
   Having said thus  much respecting the  nature,
progress and  termination of Scarlet  Fever, we  are
now prepared to inquire into the most rational  mode
of treatment.   It should be remembered, that by
any mode of treatment,  all that physicians,  medi-
cines, nurses,  or sympathizing friends can do for the
sick, is, to place  the  patient in the  most  favorable
condition  for the vital power of the system to  exert
its free and full force in resisting the  disease.   I do
not mean  by this, that we are to do nothing.  There
are many  things we can do that contribute materially
to aid nature in her struggle with disease,  such as
removing  causes, and supplying fresh air, cool drinks.
&c.   But we  should never  "counteract the vital
principle;" never expend the energies of the system
by endeavoring to force a crisis, with violent  reme-
dies.   If  you wish to help a loaded team up a steep
hill, it is very important which side of the wheel you
place your shoulder  to lift.   Alas ! for poor human
nature ; she has many a time had to carry her own
load, physician, saddle-bags and  all, up the hill of
health.  This is  a sad commentary  on the healing
art; but  it is true.   Do  not  counteract  the vital
principle;  remember  that—even  fever,   however
violent,  should not be counteracted as an end, espec-
ially by reducing the  vital forces.    Remove the cause
of the  fever, or of whatever disease,  and  the  effect
will cease.  Assist nature in removing it, in the way
she dictates, and never  counteract her operations ; it
is dangerous to do so.

  What, then, is the true method  of cure in Scarlet
Fever ?   Manifestly, to assist the efforts of nature in
expelling  the noxious  miasm from  the  system.—
Through what evacuatories,  or  outlets, does nature
endeavor to expel the noxious principle ?   Answer : 
APPENDIX.
247
from the stomach, bowels, and kidneys,  in some de-
gree, but mostly by the skin ; here  the  main forces
are directed.   In a state of health, about five-eighths
of all the evacuations from the body pass off insensi-
bly in the form of vapor, and in disease, it is well
known  that  when  a gentle,  natural perspiration is
established, the patient soon becomes convalescent;
and this evacuation by the skin need not be carried
to,  profuse sweating  to effect the object—a gentle
breathing moisture, a mere relaxing and softening of
the skin, is sufficient.   In scarlet fever, in  particu-
lar, there seems to be a strenuous effort in  the sys-
tem to expel the cause of the disturbance  through
the pores of the skin, as  is evidenced by the great
heat upon the surface, in most cases, the effusion of
lymph and serum (thin parts of the blood)  under
the scarf skin, the diminution of urine, Ac.
   What, then, are the best means to be employed to
assist nature—that is,  to place her under the most
favorable  circumstances  to  overcome and drive out
the enemy 'i  Simply to  reduce  the heat of the sys-
tem, by proper means, to  the right  temperature for
perspiration to take place, and to  maintain it in that
temperature.  Hence it is that all attempts to  pro-
cure perspiration, by stimulating  drinks, increasing
the bedclothes, Ac,  when the temperature is already
 above the sweating  point,  must  prove  unavailing,
and only increase the difficulty.   On the other hand,
a draught of cold water has many a time proved the
 best diaphoretic, (or sweating medium,) by suddenly
reducing the heat of the body to the sweating point;
so also by sponging with  cold water, perspiration has
been immediately excited.
    But is this all you are going to  do in this formi-
dable disease ?   This is all many cases require; yea, 
248
APPENDIX.
 many cases of scarlet, as well as other fevers,  have
 been  rendered  unmanageable and  fatal by  doing
 more—by  counteracting  the living principle—by
 violent emetics and cathartics, and  alterative doses
 of calomel,  Ac, frustrating the efforts of nature to
 remove the disease through the skin,  and fixing the
 irritation upon the delicate lining  of the intestines,
 and keeping it there till the colliquative diarrhoea or
 hemorrhage took  place  and  destroyed the  patient.
 But would you not give fever-powders and drops, to
 keep down the heat,  open the  pores,  Ac. ?  No.
 The whole farrago of fever medicines are not worth
 a  hundredth  part as  much as  good  air and a
 draught of cold water,  as often  as  the  patient de-
 sires.   If you must give drops, fill a  vial with sprin g
 water, and give ten drops of it once   in four hours,
 in  as  much good  soft  well  water  as  the patient
 wishes.
   The hydropathic treatment must be conducted  on
 general principles; and  in severe  cases an accurate
 knowledge of both the healthy and diseased  condi-
 tions of the human system is indispensable  to  suc-
 cess ; though  it is always far less dangerous  than
 drug-treatment,  on  account  of its  simplicity  and
 common-sense principles ;  for no common-sense per-
 son would think of applying cold water to the patient
 when he was already too cold,  nor  hot fomentations
 when he was too hot; nor compel him to drink large
 draughts of  water when there was no  thirst.
  Many  symptoms of  this disease  plainly show an
 effort, though an ineffectual one, to throw the morbid
agent upon  the surface,  thereby relieving the inter-
nal organs from their overwhelming congestion  and
oppression.   In such cases there is no known agent
that can compare with the application of water, in 
APPENDIX.
249
some form or other—the warm bath, the vapor bath,
or what is better still, the  warm  wet sheet, together
with large, warm,  or even  hot fomentations over  the
stomach, liver and bowels,  when properly modified
to meet the actual state  of the patient.   The  wet
sheet is the most  soothing application  that can be
administered to the external  sentient surface.   The
moisture of the sheet  is soon converted into vapor,
by the heat of  the body ; so that the patient may be
said to be in a steam bath  of his own making.  This
warm vapor  settling  on the skin, makes  it soft  and
moist, removes the stricture, invites  a flow of blood
to the surface,  thereby timely relieving the internal
organs  from congestion and inflammation, bringing
out the  rash  at an early period, and establishing an
equilibrium in  the whole circulation.   Who  cannot
see that this is  a  common-sense application, without
danger, without suffering?
   In cases of strong reaction, high fever, and  uni-
form scarlet surface, we have a  plain, strait-forward
course.    1.  Let  the  patient  drink as  much  cold
water as the thirst calls for, in moderate  quantities.
but often.  2. Keep the heat down to the sweating
point, about  100 or  102  Fahr.,  by tepid,  cool or
cold ablutions,  spongings,  cold wet sheets, changed
every hour,  half  hour,  or quarter of an  hour,  ac-
cording to the  violence of the  symptoms ; use  cool
or tepid injections frequently ; keep on wet bandages,
as the case may require, if there be inflammation in
any part; observe the strictest  cleanliness ;  have a
constant supply of cool, fresh air, and  make the pa-
tient as comfortable as possible.   These are the  nat-
ural means to treat this formidable  disease, as  wed
as other  febrile affections.   But  it requires judg-
ment, skill  and experience,  to  adapt these method* 
250
APPENDIX.
 judiciously to the different  constitutions and  grades
 of disease.  Every case must be its own interpreter,
 and must be  managed from hour to hour,  according
 to the symptoms.  Professor Elliotson,  in following
 out the practice of Dr. Currie, describes a most ex-
 cellent  method  of healing some grades of  scarlet
 fever.  He says : "  The disease has certainly been
 cut short  by taking the patient out of bed and pour-
 ing cold water upon him.   The heat  of the body is
 so great, in this disease, that no danger is  to  be  ap-
 prehended from cold  affusions.   It is true, there are
 cases in which the patient is more or less chilly ;  but
 if,  in this affection,  the general rules I  lay down
 in the case of common fever be followed, there is no
 danger whatever, but the greatest advantage,  in
 taking a patient out of bed, however hot he may  be,
 and pouring cold water upon him.  Those  rules are,
 that the temperature of the  body is steadily  above
 98 degs.  (blood  heat;) that  there  are no profuse
general sweats;  that there is no  chilliness; and  no
inflammation  in the chest or abdomen.   It  is a great
 comfort to the individual; and, as long as it is com-
fortable, it should be  had recourse to."
   Thus you see there  is a perfect harmony in  theory
and practice, and the most happy results  from this
mode of treating the terrible malady under consider-
ation.   The warm applications remove  congestions ;
the cold subdue  inflammations, remove  the stricture
of the skin, and  induce perspiration,  which  is the
natural  mode of cure  in this disease—and  all this,
without the hazard of fixing the  irritation  upon  the
 mucous  membrane of the  stomach  and bowels,
 (which is often done  by drastic  emetics and  purga-
tives,) or without doing violence to the vital  power
of the system.   Who, then, would not choose this 
APPENDIX.
251
"more excellent  way?"   I cannot  better express
the gratitude and satisfaction I feel for the light I
have received on this subject than  by repeating the
language of  Southey :
   " Most blessed water !   Neither tongue can tell
    The blessedness thereof, nor heart can think,
    Save only them to whom it hath been given
    To taste of that divinest gift of heaven.
    I stopped and drank at that divinest well,
    Fresh from the rock of ages where it ran:
    It had a heavenly quality to quell
    All pain.  I rose a renovated man,
    And would not now, when that relief was known,
    For worlds the heedful suffering have foregone."
            ANOTHER  EXTRACT.

The great aim in the scientific  treatment of disease
should be to aid  the system  in its efforts to rid its
vital parts  of mischief,  which mischief invariably
consists  in  the  retention of an undue amount  of
blood, and tardy  circulation in the  parts  affected.
But as the circulation of the blood is under the in-
fluence of the organic  system  of  nerves, the power
and efforts of the last are to be  strengthened, in or-
der to  dissipate the  inflammation,  or  congestion, re-
ferred to.   Curative  treatment is  therefore  made
through  the  instrumentality  of the nervous system.
This being the case, we intuitively perceive the fala-
cy  of  that reasoning which led to the use of powerful
depletory measures in every-day practice, particular-
ly  blood-letting,  drastic purgatives, salivation, and so
on.   The nervous circulating systems need strength-
ening, instead of weakening;  invigorating, instead 
252
APPENDIX.
of debilitating.  Yet, depletion has been and is prac-
ticed to a most fearful  extent.  When I remember
the vast amount of the vital fluid which myself and
others have drawn from human  veins, the enormous
doses of calomel, antimony, and other poisons I have
seen administered,  and which I have administered,
I am astounded—yea, I stand aghast at the  recollec-
tion ! Yet, were these the measures I once employed,
and which others  still employ, to  assist the already
debilitated organs  in  throwing off disease !   The
wonder  is not that we see so many wretched beings
dragging  out a miserable  existence  on  beds  and
crutches,  from drug diseases  ; but  that they  were
not killed outright—ah  ! many are so killed, and the
result ascribed to the incurable nature of  the  dis-
ease !  The  celebrated  Dr. Rush of Philadelphia,
in a public lecture,  long ago, made  the following
humiliating confession.  Speaking  of  the instability
of the theories and  practice of physic, he  said :—
" Dissections daily convince us  of our ignorance  of
disease, and  cause us  to  blush at our prescriptions.
What mischief have  we  done under  the  belief  of
false facts and false theories !   We have assisted  in
multiplying diseases ;  we  have done more—we have
increased their mortality."
   But  I  need not quote others.   During  twenty
years' practice with Allopathic medicines,  I  could
not fail  to see, too often,  its 'disastrous effects upon
human life, both in my  own and others' practice.   I
have seen every tooth in the jaws  of a middle aged
man, fall out—not merely one at a time, but two and
three together, taking with  them  the  entire socket,
as far down as the fangs extended  ;  leaving the vic-
tim to drag out a  few years of miserable existence,
and then, from  slight  additional causes, to sicken, 
APPENDIX.                253
and drop into a premature grave.   I have seen the
wife and mother slain in the most  horrible manner
by  this corrosive poison—the entire mouth, tongue
and throat, literally  mortifying and sloughing away,
piecemeal, destroying the organs of  speech and emit-
ting the well known  fetor  of a dead body, for long
days and nights before  death  came  to the relief of
the wretched sufferer.
  Such are sometimes  the effects of only one of the
multitude of poisonous agents that go  to make up
the sum total of  the drug practice.   Antimony, ar-
senic,  and  lead,  claim a  large  share of destructive
power.  Neither  must  it  be supposed  that  all the
mischief is done by such drugs only as are known to
be poisonous-  Many  of those which  are  generally
thought to  be of  a very simple and innocent nature,
are highly deleterious, in a great variety of ways.
   Can any one blame us,  then, for  seeking to intro-
duce a treatment of  less fatal tendency ?  And have
not a  sufficient number of victims been  already im-
molated upon the altars of quackery,  prejudice and
selfishness?   Is  it not high time  for a reform m
medical  practice  ?   There is  a most  singular  and
almost unaccountable blindness  in  the public mmd,
and among medical men also,  in relation to facts m
the  cure of diseases.  Innumerable  instances are
upon record  of spontaneous cures without the inter-
 vention  of any  artificial  appliances whatever, but
solely by  the medical power of the system.  Why
not have some faith in nature ?  Again,  in other and
severer cases, how many examples are on record and
some within the  recollection  of many of us, ot the
most remarkable cures that have taken place  in per-
 sons who, through instinct, in the delirium of fever,
 have broken over all medical  restrictions, and drank 
254
APPENDIX.
water to their satisfaction, or  immersed  themselves
in the cooling element, and been healed !  Why not
have a  little faith in water, as  a remedial agent ?
Strange  to  relate—notwithstanding all the facts in
the case—but  few medical  men among the whole
host have availed themselves of these practical hints;
but still continue to torture nature with  irritating and
narcotic  poisons, though  she  most piteously pleads
and remonstrates against them.  Many of us re-
member the  period when fainting nature was sternly
denied  the   only beverage she  yearned after, and
most  pathetically  pleaded  for.   Thank   heaven,
that cloud  in the medical heaven  is chased away.
We hope soon to see a universally clear sky.   When
the great elements of heat and cold, water  and air,
diet and regimen, will  constitute the  chief  medical
agents to assist the vital energies in time  of  need.
  The wet  sheet packing is a safe and efficacious
remedy in  the  commencement of nearly, if not all,
acute diseases—and a very important process in most
chronic cases, after suitable  preliminaries.   It  may
be compared in its'calming effects to a poultice placed
over the whole body.  Instead,  therefore,  of irrita-
tions  proceeding from  those nerves spread  over the
skin, toward the brain,  the brain is quieted,  by  their
withdrawal, for the time being ; so much  so, that the
patient ordinarily  sleeps  while " packed,"  and will
sleep then when he would not sleep without it.   This
process is always followed, or should be,  by the tep-
id,  or cold half-bath,  plunge  bath, or dripping sheet,
according to the nature of the disease and circum-
stances, followed by friction with crash  towels, and
so on, till  suitable reaction  takes place.   This pro-
cess acts upon the largest and  most neglected outlet
of the system, viz., the skin, the organ ordained to 
APPENDIX.
255
transmit, or carry out about five-eighths of all the
worn-out materials of the body.  Who does not see
the superiority of this mode of  operation in remov-
ing disease, over the ordinary one, of introducing
still more irritating matters in  the  form of calomel,
and other poisons,  into  the delicate  membraneous
cavity of the stomach and bowels ?

   [Here follows a description of various other baths
and their effects, which must be  omitted.]

   Thus we  have, in this great  and indispensable gift
of  the Creator, pure water, an agent,  which, by  its
varied  applications,  in   connection with  pure  air,
proper diet, graduated exercise  and mental repose,
is capable of producing emetic, cathartic, duretic, su-
dorific, and electric  effects upon the human system,
thereby removing those morbid conditions which  we
term  inflammation and congestion, always present in
all forms  of acute or chronic  disease.    All these  re-
sults are  secured, under judicious management, with-
out any hazard of irritating the  delicate textures of
the internal organs.   True, it requires much labor,
patience and perseverance to radically  cure  a deep-
seated chronic disease.   But who ever heard of such
a disease being radically cured by drug medication 1
   The Water-Cure  system,  though   not  infallible,
places the patient in the  most  favorable condition for
the vital  power of the  system to rally its forces to
battle against the enemy,  and when  that power is
sufficiently strong to throw the morbid action from a
more to a less  important organ,  the disease is cura-
 ble.
   In conclusion, I remark : there is no chance-work
on the one  hand, nor mysterious visitations of Provi-
dence on the other,  relative to health,  or disease ; we 
256
APPENDIX.
are governed by wise and immutable  laws.  If we
obey those laws, we  receive their blessings ;  if we
violate them, we must suffer their penalty ;  and none
the less for our ignorance of them.   Hence it is said,
" we perish for lack of knowledge."   Let us, then,
study and obey the laws of our being—and learn to
prevent disease, which is far better than to know how
to cure it.  Then, when old age shall steal upon us,
as soon it must, and our work shall be done, we will
    " Calmly retire,  like evening light,
     And, cheerful, bid the world, good night."
   [Errata.—A  few typographical errors  have es-
caped  detection,  which the critical  reader  will not
fail to observe.]
THE END. 
 
 
 
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