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GLANCES   AND   GLIMPSES
V 
GLANCES  AND  GLIMPSES;
FIFTY YEARS SOCIAL,
INCLUDING
TWENTY YEARS PROFESSIONAL LIFE.
HARRIOT  K. HUNT, M. D.
 "If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I de-
Hired ; —but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto."
           FOURTH THOUSAND.


              BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
            CLEVELAND, OHIO:
       JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHINGTOX.
   NEW YORK : SHELDON, LAMPORT AND BLAKEMAN.
                185 6.       r  i*'* f  . 
  voz
H&lle
 I  est
    Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
            JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
         CAMBRIDGE:
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEREOTTPERS AND PRINTERS. 
DEDICATION
TO  MY  ONLY  SISTER,
  Together we plucked  the  early  rose in  childhood — enjoyed the re-
freshing morning walk —shared the same happy elevated home —watched
the glorious bow, as after a storm it spanned the west —enjoyed the broad sea,
and caught tone  from  its bracing air—were gladdened, cheered, encouraged,
and disciplined by the same parents, whose love for the eldest, and then for
the youngest, rested so sweetly upon us.  Our  childhood so fall, so generous,
so truth-like, has never been forgotten by us.   Maturity finds us  in separate
homes, separate  duties, separate responsibilities, but there is a ley-note to
which both our natures are  attuned, — there is a magical word, which arouses
our souls, and that wand is, childhood's home.  Oneness in spirit, oneness in
aspiration to be true to our parentage, has given a charm to our varied lives.
   While you, my sister, in a high and  holy marriage, have become a mother,
I have in part shared that relation with you, in directing my maternal nature
to quicken with  life my profession, as  well as to gladden with joy, those chil-
dren which you  have borne.  The removal  of the eldest to the spirit land
has brought us nearer to our parents.  Now, my sister, I offer you in  these
pages, the home department of my life-the days when 'our parents blessed
us-and the days also when our mother fulfilled  both relations to us; the
days  when your nearness to the  spiritual world, causes now many to marvel
that you are here; the days when anatomical  and physiological knowledge
attracted us to the medical life, and the early  years of the profession shared
with  you ; but there is another to whom I dedicate that part of my life, since
my mother's removal; one you honor and revere with me.
                     " We are but two, 0 let us keep
                      The link that binds us bright."
   -Peace be within, and around your happy home.
                                A*                             <v) 
TO
                 SARAH  M.  GRIMKE.

 Mr Dear Sarah:
  You have elevated, deepened, and brightened my public life, by your high-
 toned principles, leading me ever to  apply the touchstone of truth to every
 subject, reckoning nothing small.  The reforms of the day, in your philosophic
 mind, have been so united with gentleness and tenderness, and  you have so
 taught me  to control the impulses of my nature in the withholding of great
 truths, until the fulness of time, when like ripened fruits they could fall into
 wanting and waiting hands, that I have sometimes thought you a wise ma-
 gician.
  Your moral courage in living out the internal, is so blended with your relig-
 ious responsibilities, that harmony has a  meaning when  applied to you.
 (Heaven bless and  guide your declining years.)  As a woman, rare and true,
you have  done much for  me, and also for  every woman engaged  in the
reforms of the day.
                                                             (vii) 
PREFACE.
             " Link by link the chain is made,
              Pearl by pearl the costly braid, —
              The daily thread of hopes and fears,
              Weaves up the woof of many years, —
              And well thy labors shall have sped,
              If well thou weavest the daily thread."

   I present you,  kind reader, glimpses of a life, not so
peculiar in any one thing, as quietly and connectedly
linking many things.   My aim  shall  be truthfulness,
not omitting a proper  regard to  those small influences,
which go to make up the great whole of this existence.
The  home and professional  life -will  be  married, and
from  this union, it is to be hoped, will arise an offspring
healthy and useful, impressing  the reader as it  has the
writer, with the vast importance of obedience and early
discipline.  You will find in these pages the observations
of one who has watched life with a lamp lighted at the
sacred altar of home,  and fed by oil  pure and fresh
from  the cruise of parental  influence.  One who has
dreaded more to lose her childhood than aught else, and
                                               (ix) 
X
PREFACE.
 who, in the removal of her last parent, felt that orphan-
 age, which would have  terrified, had  it not led her to
 the Father of all.
   You will  find  hints from a medical  life  which  has
 been earnest and sincere; and as varied diseases of both
 mind and  body have been presented  for relief, random
 remarks may aid you in apprehending  the height, length,
 breadth, and depth of the profession.   The reasons will
 be  glanced at which induce a desire for  health.   Some,
 that the duties of life may be acceptably met;  others,
 that ambition, love, hatred, or selfishness may have re-
 newed  opportunity for action.  May  these pages suc-
 ceed in arousing attention to home; to days of the past,
 when parents bestow upon children, in careful training,
 the fruits of their own rich experience;  when early hours
 nurtured frugal habits; when obedience  to parents was
 a  preparation  for responding to Divine commands;
 when respect to age and poverty were  habitual  to chil-
 dren.   May it also succeed in awaking attention to the
 medical profession, as it  now stands before  the public,
 rent in twain by pathies, isms, and quackery; and may it
 arouse in  some true  minds a willingness to do some-
 thing towards building a " suspension  bridge " over the
 foaming waters of controversy, which shall unite the
 conservatives and progressives, the kingdom of the Old,
with the States of the New, world.  May it  help to fix
 attention upon the great movements of the day, result-
ing from the development offreedom  in our republic,
 and induce a frank, full recognition of personal respon- 
PREFACE.
xi
 sibility, based  on individual  birth, life,  and position,
 and an appreciation of the necessity of adapting mental
 culture (irrespective of sex) to the genius of the recip-
 ient.
   Now, reader, if thou hast been a  " patient," thou wilt
 feel the "" physician "  near; if we  have taken  " sweet
 counsel" together in investigating diseases, that we
 might gather data, the one for  counsel, and the  other
 for  obedience,  let an unction  from  the past rest  on
 this humble offering.   If Europe or California  is now
 thy home,  these  pages will bring  back choice hours;
 memory will respond, and thy true heart send a recog-
 nition.   If  a stranger — can there be a stranger, when
 the  inmost life is depicted, and a womanly desire to
 present truth in a simple garb is felt ? — I shall not en-
 tertain such a word.
   Critics, satirists! here  is work  for you;  there are
 plenty of defects, plenty .of rough granite for  your hard
 natures to hammer upon ;  an overflow of enthusiasm for
 you to brand as mere impulse;  a confidence in intuition
 which will  startle your  causality, and  an undoubting
 faith in even a grain of " mustard-seed."  Farewell on
 the door steps; let us enter the building, and in examin-
ing, its apartments and the uses of each, we shall  soon
feel at home.
   The picture gallery is  ready;  the sun is at mid-day,
 (fifty years,) and you are all entitled  to your opinions on
the pictures.  Be kind in  your  severity, charitable  in
your criticisms, and find the  "stand-point" of the writer 
Xll
PREFACE.
before you adjust  your glass.' Some may through  af-
fection use  a magnifier, and exaggerate their merits;
for there are those with whom H. K. H. has- passed both
fearful and  tender hours, — and kindly thoughts  are
sometimes extravagant; others, a microscope, that they
may pick flaws, argue  on the style and  propriety, and
comprehend and discover what is hidden from the naked
eye.   With these  last I can  sympathize, for there will
be dashes of the brush not to  be completed;  touches, not
finishing strokes upon the canvas. 
GLAXCES  AND   GLIMPSES.
                  CHAPTER I.

 " It would be no unprofitable thing for you to pass over the several streets, and
   call to mind who lived here so many years ago." —Increase Mather.

   On  the evening of November 6,  1791, Bishop  Par-
 ker,  of the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  united  in
 marriage  Joab Hunt, (born  November 7, 1769,)  and
 Kezia  Wentworth, (born  November 5,  1770,) young-
 est daughter of Edward Wentworth, — all of  Boston.
 On the 9th of November, 1805, Harriot Kezia, their first
 child, was born ; and  on the  20th  of  December, 1808,
 Sarah  Augusta, their last.  The attention of  the reader
 is directed to the fact  that many years elapsed before
 the birth of these children : — it bears a relation  to what
 follows.
   My  mother was a  pet child — the youngest of her
 family.   Before she was ten years old, her mother died.
 But the love that had  been breathed on her  childhood
 for those ten years, remained for ever.  Its memory was
 the glad light that cheered and guided her in the  per-
 formance  of her duties in  after-life.    As  her discrim-
inating  and healthy tone  of mind is  shown in these
pages, the reader cannot fail to perceive  that Love is
                        1                   (i) 
2
GLANCES.
the cause for every beautiful  and vigorous growth,—
that for every such growth, Love is demanded as a con-
dition.  I remember often hearing in childhood of my
mother's usefulness, — of her great capacity for doing
good to others.  It was all  reflected  back upon her in
respect and blessing.   We  had a  very  large circle of
affectionate  relations.   My mother could  pride herself
on  the love borne hen- by the relatives of her husband.
There  were  influences in the community, at that time,
favorable  to  the formation  of her  character.  Her life
began  at a period in the republic when  substance had
not given way  to shadow7 ;  when the  distinction be-
tween  wealth and happiness was  seen  and accepted ;
when prudence, intelligence, and economy were consid-
ered household virtues; and w7hen diligence  and frugal-
ity took lessons  from every sunbeam, as well as from
every cloud.
   My father was entirely " a North-Ender!"    His
family always lived, as  did  his maternal grandparents,
in Charter street.  A bright, glad, witty man — without
a shade of vulgarity — perfectly the master of all those
nice little arts and manners  which give zest to  conver-
sation, enlivening it, — with a true, constant, and genial
benevolence in thought, word, and deed ; — his face was
always radiant with  a pleasure that had  its source in
his  heart, — "a  contented mind is a continual feast."
I have a pleasant thing to record of him.   He always
loved the  nautical profession — but in his youth he had
felt even more strongly

          " The beauty and mystery of  the ships,
              And the magic of the sea ! " —

and he desired to follow the mariner's varied and trying
life.  It was  the warm wish of his heart — it was his 
GLIMPSES.
3
cherished  plan;  but it was repugnant to his parents,
and  he laid it down.   His only brother, Capt. Joseph
Hunt,  of  Charleston, S. C, took it up, and  carried it
out.   " Half a loaf is  better  than no bread,"  says a
homely proverb.   Fated not to be  one of those " who
go down to the sea in ships," my father's next plan was
to link himself as closely as possible to those who did;
and  he learned the trade of a ship joiner, (it  was so
called  then,) which he followed  many years.  Subse-
quently he went into  the  business of Eastern  naviga-
tion.   In  those days, Labor was the  father of freedom
and  independence.  Indolence was not fashionable —
it was considered_a_cajicer ; and extravagance, a fever.
In view of the converse, I think it is no wonder we have
so many physicians in these days  !  My father's com-
panions were sea-captains.  I think  my  childish mind
was  enriched from  the  stores of valuable facts he gath-
ered from them, and was first opened  to  thoughts of a
world  outside of  Boston, from my  early reading of  the
ship-news in the papers of that day.
  Such, in brief, were  my parents.  Theirs was a hap-
py— cheerful—joyous home.  Fourteen years of their
married life were spent there without a child ; but they
were not lonely.    They used that time — particularly
my mother — as  a season for improvement and a time
to prepare themselves  for affinity  with higher minds.
Reading enlivened their days, and  the quality of books
that were read  illuminated their minds  and enriched
their conversation.  Possessing freedom of thought, and
large capacity of language, utterance became with them
a law of life.  No mental dyspepsia marred their bless-
ings.  Their ideas  did not fossilize into prejudices, but
grew and blossomed.   Good sense did not stagnate at
their table, because they were but  two ; but argument, 
4
GLANCES.
fresh and varied, gave to that quiet little  home a power
and a charm even  for the stranger.   My  mother had a
strong love  for politics — even  more than  my father.
Those were days  when  women were  not stigmatized
for having an interest in  the National housekeeping, as
well  as the domestic!   I remember  when but  a child,
dreading the President's and Governor's Messages —
for I had them to read !   In these  days, any feeling we
may have is, more wisely, transferred  from the messages
to their authors.
  In every  life there is a Sabbath  life.  My  parents
were constant church-goers.  It is a  prominent  trait in
New England character.  My father's  family attended
Dr. Elliot's (Congregational)  church.  My mother was
an Episcopalian — a firm and true one ; an observer of
holy  days, and a lover of the august and beautiful ser-
vices of that sect.  Her family left Trinity Church with
Dr. Walter in 1792, when he became  rector of Christ
Church.  But a great change was  to come over both
my parents.  " In  1770 John Murray first preached in
America."   The famous Universalist delivered  his first
sermon in Boston on the 30th of October, in a hall over
a factory.   His second  visit finds  him  preaching at
private houses, in  Faneuil Hall,  and other places.  On
the  29th of December,  1805, the Universalists  " pur-
chased the meeting-house at the  head of Bennett street,
vacated by  the  death of the Rev.  Samuel Mather."
Here was the germ in 1805 ;  in 1855, look at the tree !
My father  heard John Murray — wTas satisfied of the
truth  of his doctrines, and embraced  them zealously.
My mother was surprised and saddened by this change
in his  religious views; and when  he urged  her to hear
this new preacher,  she hesitated — she could not believe
it right.-  However, she consented at length, and started 
GLIMPSES.
5
with him one .Sunday morning, reluctantly, to go.   Her
acquiescence carried her as  far as the church door —
there it failed ;  she vanished, and went to the Episcopal
church !  Meanwhile my father, gratified and delighted,
walked up the aisle,  opened  the  pew door, turned
around — lo ! no wife !   She had  fled at the threshold!
I have often heard her allude to this incident with sor-
row, as revealing  her  bigoted  state of mind at  tha
period.  Becoming acquainted  with John  Murray, so-
cially,  she applied herself to Bible reading, in  order to
reason with  him, and  confute  their arguments.   Her
polemical  powers were very remarkable.  When the
famous preacher came to take tea with the family, cer-
tain texts  of Scripture were presented by her for him
to solve.  Her  arguments with  him resulted  finally in
her conversion  to  his views ; and she accepted his light
with the deepest gratitude.   Faith had  a more potent
charm for her, from its correspondence with works ; and
her new belief  in  the broad, impartial love of God, be-
came enthusiastic.  Her life, obedient to a  love  now
entirely divorced from  fear, gave to her  conversation a
peculiar eloquence.
   I come now  to speak of my birth.  The older portion
of the inhabitants of  the North End  can remember
when Lynn street (now Commercial) was open on one
side to the broad waters of the harbor, and when the
houses on the right hand from Hanover street side were
not  built.   Those older people  can remember, too, a
neat, pleasant  little dwelling facing the. water, with a
garden of flowers  all about it.  From the windows you
could look on the  free tossing of the sea tides, with the
ships far and near, and the little  ferry-boats  plying to
and fro.  Beyond was Chelsea, where the cows were
feeding in  the green pastures.  You could see the beau-
                        L* 
6                    GLANCES.

tiful sunsets reflected in the water, kindling its unstable
mass into gorgeous color and shifting flame.  And in
this  house, whose surrounding  scenery  gave it  a soft
charm, — a house with flowers without, and birds with-
in, and itself the nest of every comfort, — in this house
I was  born.   There had  been a  preparation for my
birth in my mother's life: in her discipline, her activity,
and  her  maturity.   She was  then thirty-five years of
age.   Children  had  been  repeatedly  offered her  for
adoption ; to each  offer she would say,  " If the Lord
wills me  to  sustain that relation, he will give   me a
child."  The Lord willed it.
  The birth of her  first-born was an event, not only in
the family, but in the neighborhood ; and it even excited
interest among  strangers.  Severe, sorrowful, anxious
hours dragged by ;  still the physicians  tarried, and un-
certainty  became resolved  into  anguish as the news
spread that both mother and child could not live; —
then, of course, the  child was nought.  After three days
of intense anxiety — surgical skill being demanded —
a baby was born and laid away as  lifeless.  But the joy
was great, for the wife was saved !
   A careful,  capable  aunt, my mother's eldest  sister,
who herself had a family, took this baby, — this child of
so  many after  prayers, hopes,  and aspirations, — and
exerted all her  skill for its preservation.  She rubbed,
and chafed, and breathed upon its apparently  lifeless
body ;  and  it  revived — it  moved — a  cry  escaped.
How many times I have been  told of that  cry!  The
tidings broke upon  my  parents like an  electric  shock.
 They had a daughter!   Never was a child more gladly
welcomed — never was an anxious mother more de-
voted — never was more  true love breathed on an in-
fant !   Why the little one was so plain — so homely —. 
GLIMPSES.
7
so unlike her parents — never was a  question.  I re-
member  very well my father  often telling  me, as an
equivalent, that I would never  fade !
  This was their first,  and (then) their only child.  Con-
gratulations, prayers,  and benedictions came in from
every quarter.  Such was  its welcome into life; such
the tenderness and joy with which it  was received.   I
often think now at this mature age, that those blessings
were not in vain, — were not without a mystic mission.
I often  think that the incense from  those  hearts has
perfumed my whole existence ; — that the gratitude of
those parents  for  a  living  child  has  impressed  me
through subtle, and, it may  be, undetectable agencies,
with a more reverent and awful sense  of the great fact
we term Life.  There have been  times  when I have
had the consciousness  of a. Presence — when I have felt
a light producing a feeling too vague, too mighty, for
utterance ; but, like a mantle, it has covered me, and
a sense  of  individual responsibility has  been created.
The gift of Life is a great blessing.   The contempla-
tion of mere physical life has a charm for the thinking
mind ; — infancy  attests this  truth.    But when  that
physical life is quickened and  inspired with the life of
Heart and Soul — with  the affectional and intellectual
life — when  the three are one — the  Trinity may well
draw around it guardian angels who hover only to bless.
Hours of spiritual loneliness,  of busy thought, of in-
tense professional activity, have been brightened by a
happy sense of the early love  that welcomed my in-
fancy, known only by  its light on the path without, and
— its reflex — the illumination of the  mind  within.
Birth has ever been to me a magic word, — the sesame
that  opens  many  of  the  locked mysteries  of life.  A
golden chain  binds my  to-day with my first day.  The 
8
GLANCES.
thought — so like a memory! — of my mother's  first
kiss, her maternal pressure, her exquisite joy in giving
nutriment to her child, thrills and awakens a new, deli-
cious life in me now.  Happy child, thus early blessed
with blessings hereditary to all after hours !
  Many childish anecdotes come thronging around me.
Some  tell  of  my presentation  to  the  family ; of my
dedication  by John  Murray : — " The Lord bless thee,
and  keep thee; the Lord  make his face shine upon
thee, and be gracious  unto thee; the Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."  In after
years, — after that dear  mother had  been removed to
heaven, — a baptismal service was performed, and the
same words rested on  me again.   An  inspiration illu-
minated them, and babyhood, childhood, womanhood,
were mystically united.   Again, with the simple trust
of a little child, I felt the serene confidence in a Heavenly
Parent. There are moments when the soul sees, through
Faith, the angelic ladder of the patriarch's dream, — di-
vines,  by a flash of revelation, the  presence of God
above  His  world ; — moments in which  a glance — a
glimpse — leave their  hallowed impress  on our daily
fives!
  That dear, kind aunt who brought  me to life, was a
rigid Baptist.   My mother had  often urged her to hear
John Murray; but Universalism was a terrible heresy
then ;  and  she always refused, with this reservation :
— " Sister, if you ever have a child dedicated — then, I
will go."  She  supposed  that  an impossibility.  How-
ever, she kept  her word — she was  present at my dedi-
cation !  My mother's joy that she was, at length, to
hear the " glad tidings of salvation," was so great, that
she really lost sight of the occasion, until the child was
called for!   She  was startled.  On interrogating aunt 
GLIMPSES.
9
after the service, respecting her feelings,  aunt said she
had " kept her seat, and that was all! "
  I was nursed with the strictest care ; trained  from
infancy to correct physical  habits ; watched, guarded,
blessed, and prayed for.   My infancy must have  been
golden, or I could not, now, feel so much  on the subject.
My mother, who had never prayed to become a mother,
now fervently desired another child.  One, she felt, would
be lonely ; — and she probably knew that her daughter's
life would be more open to trial and selfishness, than if
her childhood could be shared.  Her desire wras gran-ted.
On Christmas day, December 25, 1808, she gave  birth
to another daughter.   Equal joy, unmixed with anxiety,
welcomed  this little girl — this beautiful little girl!  I
only hint at the fulness of the mother's heart; the hap-
piness of the father's ; — all else  belongs to the invio-
lable sanctity of Home.
  I have dwelt thus minutely on  my earliest existence,
because its importance deepens with  the whitening of
every hair ; — and I  really believe that  the reception of
every child has much to  do with its whole life.   " For
unto each was  there  added by its Maker, in the perfect
chain  of being, dependencies and  sustentations,  acci-
dents  and qualities  and  powers.   And each must fly
forward in the curve, into which it was forced from the
beginning.   Each  must attract and repel, or the Mon-
archy of Order is no  more."
  When  I come to  speak in this work, of my profes-
sional life, I  shall have occasion to say something of
marriage and birth.    It has been  made clear to me in
quiet hours, that the joy — the holiness—the inspira-
tion, that rested on  my infancy, and streamed through
my childhood, must be used  for others.   The child ac-
cepted as a necessity — nursed and tended grudgingly — 
10
GLANCES.
has one birthright.  But the child, loved  and cared for
in embryo, and received in the fulness of conjugal, pater-
nal, and maternal love,— has quite another  birthright!
I put this down   here Only  as a hint — but is it not a
significant one ?  It is the outline of a truth.   You can
see the disregard of that truth in the  sorrowful  perver-
sions all around  us! 
CHAPTER  II.
" The love of use, and therefrom a fixed attention to use, hold together the
  mind, so that it may not flow forth and dissipate itself, and wander about
  and drink in all the lusts  which flow in from the body and the world
  through the senses, with their allurements, by which the truths of religion
  and morality, with all their goods, are scattered to  the winds, but a studi-
  ous fixing of the mind upon use, holds and binds them together in use,
  and disposes the mind into a form receptive of wisdom from those truths,
  and then it exterminates the sports and mockeries of falsities  and van-
  ities." — SWEDENBORG.

  Just  before  the birth of my sister, we moved to Fleet
street.   In 1800, there were  but  two houses on  the
water-side  of  Lynn street, and  my parents  probably
foresaw the changes it  was destined  to undergo.  I
have been told (it may be interesting to the local anti-
quarian) that  the  Bulfinch House, on " Hemmenway
Land," near Harris's mast-yard, was the first building on
that side.   Persons conversant with the old localities of
Boston  will remember  Garden  Court street, leading
from Fleet street on the right, wherein stood the  ele-
gant old-fashioned  mansions  of Governor Hutchinson
and  Sir Harry Frankland — the last, afterwards  the
residence  of William  Clarke, the  opulent North  End
merchant.  " The walls of the principal  parlor of  that
house  were  wainscoted,   and  on  every panel  wras a
landscape  painted  in oil,  handsomely bordered,   and
blazoned at the top with armorial bearings.   The floor
                                                 (ill 
12
GLANCES.
of the room was tessellated ;  being composed, it is said,
of fifty-two different kinds  of  wood,  cut into small
squares, party-colored, and so disposed as to resemble
handsome  patchwork.  In the  centre of the floor, the
arms  of the  family were  inlaid."  Cooper  has accu-
rately described this house  in his novel of Lionel Lin-
coln ;  making it  the  residence of Mrs. Lechmere, and
locating it in Tremont  street.   School  mates lived in
both of these houses ;  and my girlish  feet have often
responded  to the merry violin on  that tessellated floor,
my aunt having afterwards resided there.   Old associa-
tions hallow the spot; — nothing but the site is left now!
The trees and gardens are  all changed for brick walls,
and a new " Prince street" has arisen. Opposite Garden
Court street, in Fleet street, was the residence of Redford
Webster,  Esq.,  the father  of  Professor John  White
Webster.   There was an old house adjoining his estate,
(now removed,)  in which the  first Industrial School for
poor girls, was opened.  I distinctly remember  the in-
terest of Mrs. Webster  and my mother, in that school.
My home stood in the same relation to the North Square
as Mr. Webster's residence to  Garden Court street —
both were open  and airy.   The private  residences of
very many old North End families, with their nice little
gardens in the  rear,  and their  verdant  grass plots in
front, cannot now be traced in these streets.   There was
a  pleasant neighborhood of children there.   But they
are all grown up, and  slowly growing down again.   I
remember  them now as phantom-children.   And there
are other phantoms that  trail through memory to  the
music  of  Christ Church chimes.  I know them, and  I
greet them all.
   The quaint  streets and  houses  and gardens, have
been gliding by  in phantasmal procession, — now come 
GLIMPSES.
13
other revered forms — I knew them  all! — Cordwell,
Howard, Stanwood, Rogers, Barnard, Dickinson, Har-
ris, Bray, Smith,  Lash, Goodwin, Palfrey, King,  and
many more, — they are nearly all gone.  A blessing rest
on their descendants, and may they prove  worthy their
North End origin !  I  am proud of mine.  I am  grate-
ful that my childhood  lived in  the sound  of tho. e sad
or merry peals of musical church bells, whit-h ghddened
or subdued my soul!   I am thankful  for the freshness
and  the life I drew from those  morning walks with my
father on the wharves, and through the  ancient streets
and  pleasant gardens of that old North End he loved!
   It was in that Fleet street home, my sister and  my-
self  grew up to youth.  As our childish characters de-
veloped, and our  dispositions unfolded,  we were very
carefully guarded  from temptation.  Habits of trust
and  obedience were  thus more  easily  formed.   Our
early playmates were  chosen with more care — yes, a
great deal more care — than is now  given to  elect a
member for Congress.   Our hearts were kept enlarged
by family needs; and  the difference between wants and
needs was wisely taught us.  We were not suffered to
grow up in ignorance of the  distinction  between the
apparent and the real—What Is  and  What  Seems.
Our fingers were kept  busy  out  of  school  and play
hours, aiding the  shirt-maker — helping  her in the fine
stitching, ruffled  bosoms, and button-holes.   In the
making  of  the latter, even now, I am considered an
adept.  But with  all  this work,  (which would  be ac-
counted a terrible hardship in 1855!) there was  always
blended a merriment and joy, for  our mother managed
to make us  feel  that  younger eyes were  aiding older
ones.   Children always like to think they can  be of
service; and love transfigures every task, and makes it
                          2 
14                   GLANCES.
pleasure.  The books we read were carefully examined,
as our eager  curiosities  seized these intellectual treas-
ures;  healthful imagination was encouraged;  pains
were taken that beautiful pictures of  Truth should im-
press our minds with its  power.   With scrupulous care,
our apparel was  ever alike; but with  thoughtful wis-
dom, our individualisms were  respected.  I was nat-
urally  indolent —yes, I may say, lazy;  and  I well
remember the pleasant devices  used by my mother to
lure me to industry.    Loving  books, and  a sort of
dreamy foreshadowing  resting  on me  at  a very early
period, I was  not a useful child in many  of those do-
mestic arts which  tend  to make others happy; but  I
was not forced from  my natural bias to constrained
obedience, by rough, rude  treatment, but gently  led to
be of service to others, and,  as  gently attracted to such
service, because it was for others.  I am grateful to my
mother for this.  I think she was wise.
   The memory of our  early morning walks  with our
father, our constant attendance  at church, our  simple
and chaste wardrobe, our happy intercourse with our
parents,  our cheerful, witty, piquant table, shared fre-
quently with many of  our kindred, and  overrunning
with cheerful vivacity, is  present with me now.  The
lonely meal partaken so often since  my orphanage, has
been endued with life from the  past.  I call it lonely;
it is indeed solitary ; but old memories make it festal.

          " Unseen companions, guests of air,
           You cannot wait on, meet me there ;
           They taste not food, they drink not wine,
           But their soft eyes look into mine,
           And their lips speak to me, and all
Is full of looks and words divine 1" 
GLIMPSES.                  W
   Taught at home while young by our mother, we re-
ceived the impress of her mind.  The remembrance of
sitting  on my  father's  knee at twilight, learning the
multiplication table, by the bright light  of a wood fire
in a Franklin stove flashing softly on the  shadows of
the cheerful room, comes  to me now like an  interior
illumination.  Thus early were formed  those domestic
loves —those sacred attractions, which in time lead the
child to  desire to know  that  Heavenly  Parent who
guided,  blessed, and  encouraged  the earthly  ones.
In minds thus prepared, religious obedience has its root.
The influence of our childhood's home  is felt through
life, and gives a quality to  our conception of a heavenly
home.
  I think again of our little garden, fragrant with the
early rose and fleur-de-lis.   There, on  spring mornings,
our mother was seen, as many may remember, training
and weeding her choice plants and  flowers.   The early
lettuce and peppergrass on  our table spoke of her thrift.
How often, while training and weeding in that garden,
she must have been reminded of her maternal duties,—
of the young " children  like olive  plants round about
her table ! "  To such a mind as hers, every flower and
plant must have borne  spiritual leaves and blossoms,
and  each one conveyed a lesson.  She yielded to those
natural  teachings in her own quiet, sensible way.
  Time came when  we  must go to school.  My first
school days were calculated to impart cheerfulness to
my mind.  Whoever can look  back to childhood, and
recall, with gratitude, a good and kind teacher, remem-
bers — no matter wdiat that teacher's name — Mrs. Car-
ter of Friend street.  I am sure all who were her pupils,
reading this work,  will agree with me in her unfailing
suavity, kindness, and tenderness to  children.  Her hus- 
16
GLANCES.
band was a dancing-master.  His  hall  adjoined oul
school-house ;  and many an hour she permitted me to
enjoy the music  and dancing  as a spectator.  When
the time came for me to be a scholar in  his school, my
joy seemed  complete.  He had then removed to Con-
cert Hall, which  was some  distance  from our  home.
The walk to and fro  gave me  vivacity and  health.
Glancing back to that period, I find that  my first out-
door  experience  was  salutary.  Mrs. Carter's  was  a
private school: —we never attended the public schools;
they were not then the carefully modelled institutions
they now are, and did not bear their present relation to
the public.  I have my first  school bill to Mrs. Carter,
dated 1810.  Our bills were always carefully preserved
by our mother, that we  might realize in maturer years
the  expense of our education.   Friend  street  was at
some distance from our house ; this distance being ob-
jectionable  in the winter season, we went, while yet
quite young, to a school in an old house (now removed)
at  the junction of Garden court and Fleet street, kept
by Misses Hannah  and Elizabeth Brown.   My early
school mates will remember vividly the  Misses  Brown,
and their peculiar  tact in leading the minds of their
pupils to  knowledge.  For years,  at  both  of  these
schools,  I pursued my English education, and  I am
ever grateful  for it.  The little  troubles,  sorrows, and
perplexities I shared in those early school days with my
sister, were as blessings in comparison to the depriva-
tion I felt from her frequent  absence through ill health.
She was never as robust as myself, and therefore I was
often left alone, — this was my greatest grief in  those
happy days.
   Our  mother was  always intimate with our teachers.
They often took  a social cup of tea at our house with 
GLIMPSES.
17
       friends; and this intercourse gave  them more influence
       over us.   Her  determination  to know our  school life
       (she always knew what were our class lessons) encour-
       aged a spirit of frankness in our instructors,  and in  us
       a degree of carefulness.  Learning readily, my consti-
       tutional laziness was increased ;  and at twelve years of
       age, I promised what I have never attained — scholar-
       ship.  I have  always  memorized  too much; hence  a
       mental  superficiality.   This  habit  of nurturing  the
       memory, to the neglect of other intellectual faculties,
       has given me trouble;  and I think it fostered a willing-
       ness to trust more in perception  than reflection.  My
       perceptive  faculties  take the  lead ; the causative sel-
       dom.   The end is perceived first; then wonder attracts
       me  to the somewhat difficult  task of tracing it to its
       origin.  It is a  good thing to arrive at a conclusion ; it
       is an  equally good thing to know by what road, and
       from what starting-point, we travelled thither.  My own
       experience in this matter has  aided  me in counselling
       others, who were forming the same mental habit.
         The simplicity of our lives,  the nearness of our spir-
       its, and our limitation to home delights, placed us where
       we  were little understood by our neighbors.   When we
       were mere children we read the newspaper to our par-
       ents.  (How long the President's messages  seemed  to
       us then !)   While other children were walking  out  in
I       the  evening, we were quietly in bed — too  often awake!
       — and talking over when we should  be old  enough to
       be up in the evenings!  The early  hours we were made
       to keep, have had a beneficial  effect on our whole lives,
       in the matter of health, and the control of our  nervous
       energies.   And thus,  too,  were  formed habits  of per-
       sonal independence.   Other children  did  thus  and so:
       — why we should imitate  them was not " in the Dic-
                               2* 
18
GLANCES.
tionary " used at No. 6 Fleet street!  I suppose feelings
of  gratitude  that  we  were  individually recognized,
tended to quiet our childish  natures, when  our neigh-
bors' children were living a life so much more congenial,
and with more 'apparent enjoyment,   The  restrictions
put upon us, often caused our dear mother to be termed,
prudish.   There are persons unalterably true  to  their
Ideal  of Duty, they inevitably provoke the fancies and
whims of the world  about them, and are  accused of
nearsightedness  and  want of judgment.  But  such
minds heed little what other  people  think or say; they
do not take the trouble to prove they are right, or prate
about the wrong ; friends  and foes  may judge as they
please;  for  within  is the  fixed light-house, and they
keep their course through the shifting currents of opin-
ion, directed by the safe, bright beacon— Conscience.
  There have been many as choice Homes.  There have
been  many as true Parents.  In many a soul  their
memory shines, like a star, and in  many a heart they
have lit  an  undying  sunshine  of gratitude.   My sym-
pathy with such, is electrical.  I would take to my bo-
som every child thus blessed in its opening life; I would
gratefully acknowledge  the few friends with whom my
parents took sweet counsel.  But there  is a  mournful
converse. My ear  is sick — my heart is pained, with
the conditions, and the changes, of  social  life!  My
medical  professsion has opened  homes  to  me ;  and I
have seen them ugly and  bare.  Sometimes I seem to
myself a century plant, comparing  the days that are
with the days that were.
   What  are  these homes of which  I speak ?  The
merest apologies ;  places for eating, drinking, and sleep-
ing ; haunts for ennui, fretfulness, and distrust;  habita-
tions where foreign servants control the kitchen and the 
GLIMPSES.
19
nursery, while foreign  fashions lord it over the parlor
and the  drawing-room !   Elegant  localities where va-
cant folly plays its antics ; where hypocrisy lays off its
sanctimonious mask,  and  shows  the  scowl ;  where
whispering  slander poisons the  breathing  air.  Nests
for parrots and mocking-birds.  Alcoves where pompous
pride and fickle vanity perform their private theatricals.
Uncultured gardens where  indolence, neglect, irritabil-
ity,  and recrimination, gather nettles and nightshade,
and heaps  of rubbish, choking  every vital plant,  that
would germinate if it could, and make the air as sweet
as summer.  Dwellings  where apathy and indifference
are the  substitutes for quiet home enjoyments; where
fulsome flattery of some  one for some end, is planned,
and bait and  hook prepared for social angling.  These
are the sad homes of what we caU Society !  This is
the social  exchange where  the currency is counterfeit
coin!  Let the social philosopher decide why it is that
the quality  of the homes  in the  present, bears no com-
parison with that of the homes in  the past generation.
Is  it the graft of prosperity and  luxury that gives us
this bitter fruit from a healthy ancestral tree ?  Is it a
natural  growth  that  gives  us  the miracle  of  thorns
where grapes grew before — of thistles where once  figs
ripened?   Or is  it that these  are  indeed hereditary
evils, which, like a disease, were kept dormant by pri-
vation in the past generation, and are  now developed
by  luxury in  the present ?   Who  doubts  the  hollow-
ness and rottenness of our interior social life ?  Look at
the Schuylerisms — the bank  and  railroad defalcations
— the mercantile failures and forgeries, that start up
constantly and make  us stand aghast.  These are but
slight evidences on the surface, of the life that is lived
within.  Many—.many of these monstrous growths of 
20
GLANCES.
 sin and crime,  and many more monstrous, had  their
 roots in the soil of what we call Home.  Yes, and the
 fearful physical diseases nursed  in that miasmatic at-
 mosphere— of these I will not speak now.
   " A sentence has formed a character,  and a character
 subdued a kingdom."   But example is worth  all the
 precept in the  world.    Parents!  your children are
 worth more to you than the  unrealities so many of you
 follow.   See to it, that you not  only educate  by wise
 precept that conscience which will be their only guide
 to noble lives, but that you also educate that conscience
 by your own example, and by those good and graceful
 influences whose presence in  your  dwelling alone can
 make it worthy of the beautiful and  sacred name of
 Home.  Parents, see to it, that you give to your young
 children a  home worthy of the  name.  Giving them
 that, you  give  them all.  Failing to give  them  that,
 though  you bestow every thing else, you give them
 nothing.   Home is the mould of character.  If it has
 cracks and flaws, expect to see the consequences in
 your  children.   You may separate  precept and exam-
 ple,  but, remember!  infantile ears  are very keen,—
 childish eyes are very  searching, — and if  your theory
 and  practice  are divorced, your young child of seven
years, knows  all about  it.  P*lans are laid to trap you
by your children when you  least suspect it; and you
find yourself ashamed of yourself.. Before you know it
you are weighed in the child's balance—wo to you if
you  are found wanting!   If there is sin  and disorder in
your  life,  you will see it  all lived  over again  in  your
child.  That child holds  the clue to the intricate laby-
rinth  of deception in  itself, built  by your ignorance
or folly and used against yourself by your  neglect or
 vacillation.  My way of life  has  led me  for many years 
GLIMPSES.
21
both as a teacher and a physician, to the observation of
homes.  The view has been a very sad one.  The joy
and gratitude I have felt for my own privileges, have
been mixed with sorrow for the neglected childhood I
have seen around me.  I do not care what after delights
and alleviations may be in store for the life of  a neg-
lected child ; there will always be a void — a cheat —
a sorrow — a loneliness in  its being, which it will feel,
though  often  not understand.   Fathers!  Mothers!
think  of this ;  and while you are striving  for houses,
lands, wealth,  social position, and  all those uncertain
and perishable  accumulations  you  are wont to gather
for your children,  give some little  time  to your own
spiritual development, — to that certain and imperish-
able wealth of parental care which should be bequeath-
ed to  them; their  use of  this  treasure will bless your
lives and  solace your dying hours — it may be, con-
scious that you have left them the best legacy!
   I  resume my narrative.   I have before observed, that
our intimates were carefully selected.  Having a  strong
spice  of romance  in my nature, I  formed many love
attachments with  the school-girls,  entered into  corre-
spondence  with them, sometimes  anonymous, — and
thus I was early on the  alert, watching character.   I
had a natural passion for the study  of human nature, it
was  a source of  inexhaustible pleasure.   My mother
always invited to the house those  I was attracted to,
that she might deepen the friendship by  approval,  or
loosen it by wise  caution.  My school days were very
happy;  never  overtaxed.   Dearly loving fun,  I  found
many sly opportunities for its indulgence, and was fond
of extracting the ludicrous from  the most trifling inci-
dents.   My lungs  learned  a joyous laugh, which, even
now, at fifty, (they tell me,) has its distinctive character. 
22                  GLANCES.
I hardly knew how smoothly  my  life  slipped  away
Constant family interchange kept the home wide awake.
My father's and  mother's  sisters were both  widows.
My father being the only uncle in the family, our house
naturally became  head-quarters.  Stiff religionists were
glad to unbend there, and bigoted Christians used their
risibles  freely.  With such surroundings, life  was full
of thought even to the school-girl.   Even  at that early
period, I always felt  I was  to do something different in
the future, from other people, that I  was not to keep
school, or go into any  province that had been occu-
pied.  What was it?   I  asked myself.   The answer
came  in the " fulness of  time."
  I can now aid memory in these glances  at my life by
reference  to my  journal,  which was commenced  in
1815,  and has to this day been  kept up in the family.
I find the first entry: — " Business very dull; father
being now a juryman, fifty-three days at  the  supreme
judicial court gladdens  us, because  his mind will  be
employed.'?   I find reference to my desire to write  my
first letter to a cousin, and to  my  mother's refusal, on
the ground of incompetency.  This was just the thing
for my sanguine  nature, because now I would prepare
myself.   Here is  an entry, dated January 13, 1815, re-
ferring to the close of the war of 1812-14.  "  The joy-
ful news of peace  is  announced.  Mother  says  the
greatest emotion of our hearts must be gratitude to
God."  The  next  morning,  I remember, we were
awakened by the ringing  of the  bells, whose merry
peals  lasted, at intervals, all day; for  it was the day of
the ratification of the treaty.   The morning following,
we were again awakened  by the ringing of  bells and
the firing of guns; for that was the day of celebration.
Mother aroused and shared our joy;  and that evening, 
GLIMPSES.
23
when the town was illuminated, was our  first  evening
out, away from  her.  In 1855, at the  Fourth  of July
Celebration in Dorchester, her grandchildren were  out
for the first evening, to see fireworks!   Think  of it —
in modern times, too!
   In the following September John Murray, after six
years'  illness, passed into the  spiritual world.   There
has always seemed to me a wonderful connection be-
tween my parents' bold, earnest reception of the liberal
doctrines of this wonderful man, and my own reception
of truths, which the present century is pleased to call
ultraisms.  New  truths never seem strange to me;  I
accept them  as  consequences  of my  development.  I
take no credit for prescience, heroism, or originality: —
the principle is ingrained within me.
  John Murray was a Trinitarian, as was  my  mother.
He was a believer in the abounding, perfect, and benig-
nant doctrine of Universal Salvation — of ultimate hap-
piness for all.  It seems to me to be a doctrine which,
to say the least  of it, results from genuine and hearty
sympathy and loving-kindness  for mankind.  Certainly
we need a more genial, loving, neighborly spirit in  our
religious organizations.  A profession of religion is one
thing; a possession of its life-giving principles, ultimated
in practice, is quite another thing.  It is the hollowness
cf  our spiritual life that fosters  infidelity, despair, fa-
naticism, and religious insanity.   It is the hypocrite
who poisons the religious element in society.  Look at
these people!   Spiritual life and motion, moral con-
sciousness and responsibility, suspended interiorly ;  the
body used unlawfully through physical impulses and
passions  ; and they term themselves Christians !   Per-
petually  denouncing the  "ungodly," which means all
persons who  do not happen to see through their specta- 
24
GLANCES.
cles; themselves the victims of lurking evils known to
all with whom  they are  in  daily contact; and all this
time they are  talking about  Christian  truths !   If we
do not truly love our neighbor, —"godly " or " ungodly,"
— that daily utterance, " Our Father who art in heaven,"
is but a daily mockery.   We need religious confidence
in this aee of atheistic science ; we need faith and cour-
                                                   11
age in this age  of cavil and  doubt; but more than  all
we need that spirit of  Divine love which assimilates
us to Him who is the way, the truth, and the life.
  John  Murray was a great  reformer.  He cared noth-
ing for the hail  storms of rebuke and denunciation that
were showered  on him.   He would have died the death
of martyred Stephen for his  faith, and trusted in  the
Divine love.  He was eccentric  and peculiar, but he
was the man needed  for the times.  I regard with rev-
erence a Bible  he gave  me.  It  has  accompanied  me
many journeys.  I have read from it when lecturing,  and
have enjoyed its sphere.  Bold, earnest, thinking minds
were attracted to this preacher.  Those conversant with
the early history of  Universalism will love to be remind-
ed of the men  he  drew to his support — Frothingham,
Kettell, Balch, Brazier,  Russell, Goddard, Townsend,
Wright, Sargent, Hale,  Hersey, Thompson, and  many
others.   The large body of Universalists in this country
will read with interest some  writings  he gave  my
mother, which  have never appeared in print.  I intro-
duce  them here.  The  first is a  letter which accom-
panied  some notes of his sermons, dated Boston, Dec.
6, 1806.
   "My Friend,—  Since  you  have been  confined so
much at home, knowing that your heart has been with
the disciples of our  blessed Master, I have thought it
would be some gratification to you to have some lead- 
                     GLIMPSES.                   25

ing hints of the great truths so essential to our happi-
ness, presented to you in this way; that your Christian
mind may be employed, on some occasions, in the same
manner as when  you are seated in  the  place where
those meet who resolve  to  hear  what God the Lord
will speak.  I am persuaded  you will very  readily enter
into the spirit of these  truths, because you have the
teachings of God's holy Spirit; yet you will need, and
will have to be reminded of what you knew before, lest
you should let it slip.  It has been frequently observed,
that the  hearts  even of believers — those  taught by
God's holy Spirit — are slippery places ; that they have
need; therefore, to be often reminded  of what they be-
fore knew, lest they let them  slip ;  and as the salvation
we have consequent on believing will last  no longer
than  while we are  believing,  (though the  salvation
believed is as durable as God himself, because it is hid
with Christ in God,) we have  need of our  attention
being roused frequently  by  hearing or  reading,  the
Word of  God.  But even the word  of our  God is so
little understood, and so much perverted, that if we do
not depend on this word  for  the explanation, as well as
for the text, we shall greatly err, not knowing the Scrip-
ture.  I have the pleasure to believe  that  you have as
much of the teaching of God's Spirit as any of his chil-
dren.   I have been  acquainted with you while you
were  growing in  the grace and in  the knowledge  of
God ; and  when you are enabled  to attend, you fre-
quently find something new,  as well  as old, from  the
Divine Treasury, and these new discoveries  give you
much delight.  I am  not very fond  of writing, because
I have not been much in the  habit  of writing; but I
feel ready to communicate with those  that I  know will
feel a  pleasure  in attending  thereto.  But  I am  the
                        3 " 
26
GLANCES.
more disposed thus to do with you, as you are a Chris-
tian parent,  and will, I am  persuaded, be disposed to
bring up your little one in an acquaintance with God,
and with his word, from her  infancy.  Nothing can be
of so great advantage  as this.  Were  you one of the
fashionable world, I should expect my time in this way
would be next to thrown away ; but, thanks be to God!
you are not.  You will therefore, I am persuaded, when
your dear child is capable of receiving  instruction,—
you will see that she will  be made acquainted  with
those things, which make for her peace.   Another rea-
son I have for giving you these hints is, that I shall not
be long  with you ; and though you may as one of a
congregation get a  much  greater,  and a much  better
man, you may not very  soon get a preacher who has
been longer  acquainted with the Scriptures.  I  really
feel very sensibly for God's children who will statedly
attend in that place when I am taken away.   It is very
true God is able to fill my place much more to the
profit of his people  than now; but, be  this as it may,
you will find pleasure when I am no more here, in read-
ing some of  these remarks to your sweet child.   You
will tell her,  I heard this preacher deliver such truths as
these; and when I was confined at home attending on
you, he, as a kind parental friend to us  both, recorded
some of those great truths he delivered during my ab-
sence.  I am persuaded he  had not much  time to de-
 vote in this way, and, therefore, wrote  but poorly; but
we, my sweet child, will be able to pick  it out for  our
 mutual profit.   Thus, I doubt not, you will talk to your
 sweet child when  I am no more here; but I shall ex-
 pect you where I shall be — that is, with our  God, our
 Saviour, who gave himself for us, that, whether we
 wake or sleep, live or die, we should live together with 
GLIMPSES.
27
Him.  These things  you will instil into the mind  of
your sweet infant, and God, the Everlasting Father, will
water the seed sown with his blessing.   May you long
live a blessing to  each .other, and both  a  never-failing
consolation, an abiding  blessing to her father!   lam
persuaded he loves his child as well as you can, or ever
man loved a child.  But a daughter will be principally
under a mother's care.   I have no  doubt of his being
pleased with every attention you  pay to  her in this way,
though  he may not  feel the necessity  of it so much
himself.   I feel a  real, sincere affection  for her father.
I am persuaded no man  ever loved a wife and daughter
more than  he loves  you and your sweet babe ;  yet I
should rather  you had the  care  of her  mind  and her
education than her father.   A mother is the best tutor
for  a daughter.   I pray  God to  preserve  you for her,
and her for you, and bless you both with every blessing.
Amen.
  " Inclosed, you will  find some few of those notes I have
mentioned ; you  shall have  more should you approve
of these.  I presume you have heard repeatedly that I
never preach by note.  When I take any notes, similar
to these, it is after I have preached, — merely from recol-
lection.  I wish, however, I had paid  more attention to
this  method.   I should have preserved many things
now lost, even to  myself;  for my memory is as treach-
erous as' the memory  of any of my hearers.  O what a
blessed thing it is, that we have the Record open before
us at all times, to  which we can  apply as unto a light
shining in a dark place, which, rightly attended to, will
guide our feet into the  w^ay of  peace!  O  blessed be
our God, who has not only given  us this  light, but sight
to see the light, and what the  light makes manifest!
For the light without sight would be of no advantage. 
28
GLANCES.
O, my friend, how greatly blessed are we to whom it is
given, to know the  mysteries of the kingdom  of heav-
en ! — which to others is given  indeed, but locked up in
the language of parable, that they to whom these mys-
teries are given,  may not now know what they  con-
tain,— like orders given to a sea  commander,  not to be
opened till he  gets  into a  certain latitude ;  but  then
it  is plain those orders are to be opened, and when
opened they will  be known, and when known they will
be obeyed.  O, my friend, what a soul-cheering consid-
eration, that we are taught to look forward to a day of
vision, which is called the  day of the Lord, when all
that is hid shall be made manifest!   But are we made
candidates for  this  blessed  state?  We are — we  are !
heirs of a blessed, ever blessed immortality ! —nor can
any  power,  within or without, in earth, or hell, or in
ourselves, deprive us of it!    This life  is the  gift of
God ; he  never will take away what he  gave, or repent
that he gave it; for  the  gifts  and callings of  God are
without repentance.   O nothing, nothing can ever sep-
arate us from the love of God, which is  in Christ Jesus
our Lord, in whom our  life is  hid!  Yes, my friend —
my Christian friend — we shall live because Jesus lives.
Because I live, saith the dear Saviour, ye shall live  also.
O let us  take  comfort from these reflections !  These
reflections will cheer our  hearts, both in the meeting
and  in our dwelling."
   The  following is part of a letter,  prefaced  by  the
outline of a discourse on the death of  Washington.  It
is dated February 26, 1807 : —
   '"Isaiah 60:20,  " Thy sun shall no more go down;
neither shall thy moon  withdraw itself; for  the  Lord
shall be thine everlasting light, and  the days of thy
mourning shall be ended." 
                     GLIMPSES.                  29

  "' In every age of the world, human nature has been
the same selfish. . .  . This  is a source of sorrow and
of mourning ;  this mourning is either of a public or pri-
vate nature.   Its signs are governed by custom.  But
real mourning shuns parade.  No person would be sup-
posed to mourn for  an unworthy character ; — mourn-
ing is justly  considered  a sign of respect ;  and the
greater the  signs are, the more  honor is  done  to the
individual on whose account they are expressed. Per-
haps there never was, in any age or nation, more real
sorrow felt, or more  signs  of it displayed, than in this
age  and in this nation, on the decease of our beloved,
revered Washington.   This is not only honorable to
him, but to them who feel, or feign, this  sorrow.   Next
to the possession  of real virtue  is the love of it. . . .
We are called on this  day to  celebrate  the sublime
virtues of General Washington,  and mourn his depart-
ure.   But how shall we recount  them !  We know the
value of every thing excellent in the loss thereof.  The
near connections of our  departed chief, — the intensity
of their sorrow will never  be called in question.  The
general — the patriot — the honest  statesman — the
upright  magistrate — the truly brave —. the faithful,
honest citizen — the  real religious man. .  . .  Every
true  American — every  honest  citizen  of  the New
World, not  intoxicated by the  spirit of party, — these
will be considered real mourners.  It is not for  me to
say how much the cultivation of the soil will suffer in-
the loss  of  such precepts and  such examples; — how
much the statesmen, the legislatures, the armies  of the
country; — but while each of these express  the sense
they have, we are bound to notice, though last, not
least, the immense sorrow felt and expressed by the
ancient and honorable brotherhood of which he was so
                         3* 
30
GLANCES.
bright an ornament.   We defy the scribblers of the Old
or New World to graft on the minds of the public a
disagreeable impression of an Order so many  years ad-
mired, loved, and patronized by the wise and virtuous
Washington.  And it is with peculiar pleasure we can
say, Our illustrious brother has been wept and honored
by the craft he loved!   But he is raised far above these
rolling spheres.  Our sun  lias  gone down.  Our  moon
is withdrawn.  Have we  any consolation left ?   Yes ;
[that consolation] in the words of our text, ..." We
do not sorrow as those without hope." '
  " This is a rough sketch of a discourse delivered  before
the Grand Lodge on the death of General Washington.
As  I view you in the light of a real Christian  friend,
who may live many — very  many years after  I am
called home ; and as you once did me the honor, (taking
this into consideration,) to tell me  if I had  any little
scraps of my writing that I  did not want, you would,
(you were pleased to say,) accept  them with  thankful-
ness,  (more  than they deserve,) that  you  may look
over them when  I am no  more here, — I take leave to
present you this.   I much doubt whether  you will ever
be able to pick it out; it is with some difficulty I have
done this myself.   But the more trouble you meet with
in deciphering this poor hasty scrawl — the  more time
and difficulty you meet with — the  more  value you
will set  by it.  You and I, my friend, have  one  origin
— God is our Father;—indeed we know Him  to  be
the Father  of the spirits of all  flesh;  but this we
should not have known  had he not have been gra-
ciously pleased to manifest  it unto  us.   There  is an-
other  and a better state.  I  am verging on it.  I shall
soon reach our Father's home, in which are many man-
sions — I am sure there  are.  If it were not so He 
GLIMPSES.
31
would have told us.  I make no doubt, as the names of
God's children  are written in heaven,  every mansion
has  the  name of its  owner over  it.   Those who  are
gone before us, see those names, and wait  for the arri-
val  of the  blessed beings to  whom  the mansion  be-
longs.  When I get home, I  shall see your mansion
prepared  for  you;  and, believing you will  enter it in
due  season, I  shall  patiently wait, and quietly hope  for
your arrival.  Believers  in that  bright world will not
make haste; but it will be no small  addition to their
happiness to know  that they are expected.   Those who
arrive there first, will enjoy  much  in contemplating
the  felicity that awaits those who remain here.   Then,
all the weighty  matters that fill  us with joy and sor-
row, alternating in this state  of being, will to those
who are in that state, come of age, appear so trifling as
not worthy to be thought of.
   " It is very true that children's pains and sorrows are,
to children, sufficiently grievous;  and they are the more
objects  of pity for  the time being.  But there will be
so much  more known in that bright world, that the
souls of the  blessed  inhabitants will feel no  sorrow
there ; — yet, they will feel a holy anxiety  for the  re-
demption of the  purchased possession, and sometimes
say — 'How  long,  Lord?'  But,  my  dear Christian
friend, as the  happiness of the inhabitants of the up-
per and better world will be increased by contemplating
the felicity they shall experience on the arrival of the
dear connections  they have left behind, — so, those that
remain will find some mitigation  of their sufferings,  by
thinking of those who are gone before.  You may,  for
example, some time after  I am  gone, in looking over
some papers, find this; your eye will run over it; you
will recollect when, and on what occasion, you saw the
writer; when  you  were  first brought to see under his 
32                   GLANCES.

teaching, 'the salvation of our God;' when you first
tasted of the grace of God in truth; when you entered
into rest by believing; and  on how many  occasions
afterwards, you felt the power of God's Spirit witness-
ing with your spirit, to the truth as  it is in Jesus ; and
while thus  looking  over  this  scrap of paper, —now
penned  on the 26th of February, 1807, in the afternoon
of this day —you may call your dear child to you, and
say  unto  her—See, my  dear  child, see! there is  a
paper written by the friend  you have  so often heard
me  speak of as the instrument made use  of by oui
everlasting  Father, to bring me into an acquaintance
with himself.  He is now, dear man,  in  heaven ; but
in this little scrap of paper he seems as if he was speak-
ing to  me  from heaven, while I am yet on earth.  He
is now, perhaps, looking  down upon us, and waiting
with joyous  expectation for our arrival.   O, my love —
you will then say — the religion of our Saviour, God,
is no  fable.  The friend  who wrote this is now with
 God,  in  heaven;  and  so,  my  love,  shall  we be by
and by! —
   " This, my  friend,  may be followed by  something
 more from time to time, which you will have the good-
 ness to lay  by till I am gone.   O, eternal praises be to
 Him who  died  for us, that, whether we wake or sleep,
 we may live together with him!   Amen.
   " I  called the first page  of this, a  sketch  of a dis-
 course ; but it is only the introduction to one."
    This closes my selections from these manuscripts.   I
 have  introduced  them not  only because  I  think they
 will be interesting  to the numerous  members of the
 church their author planted, but because I think they
 show the peculiar simplicity and fervor of his religious
 nature. 
CHAPTER  III.
" There  are certain scenes made  of moonlight and murmuring waves, of
  silent spires and whispering branches, which assume an intelligent, sym-
  bolic form, which are the hieroglyphics of the soul, from which Memory
  and Hope, those twin daughters of the fates, read our destiny in the past
  and future." — Anonymous.

  My mother's tender sorrow for her sisters when sick
and in  trouble,  and her  sympathy for  the  afflicted
everywiiere, find record in  my journal in  few, but em-
phatic, words.  Her spirit seems to rest on the diary.
Commemorative seasons were hallowed  by our family,
our kindred always sharing them with us  largely; and
the gladness  and  vivacity  of our  childhood, freed on
these occasions, were so tempered that exuberance did
not overflow,   nor  mirth  become boisterous.  The  de-
scription, in  the journal,  of our school days, our danc-
ing-school ball, and the family associations around us,
are all recorded  so  pleasantly, that  they live again
when perused, catching another brightness from mem-
ory.   That beautiful, graceful accomplishment of danc-
ing, so perverted  by late  hours  and the indecency of
fashionable attire, has outraged  many sensible  people,
and led them to deprive the young of  orie of the most
simple and healthful enjoyments,  because it  has been
abused.   For  myself, I  can testify not  only  to its
healthful, but to its recuperative power.   The fortieth,
nay, the  fiftieth year of my age, found me enjoying
                                                (33) 
34
GLANCES.
this  life-cheering  exercise.  It should  be one of the
earliest amusements  of  children,  and  care  should be
taken  by parents that it is understood  as  an  amuse-
ment.   The frivolity  and ruin of many a young man
and woman, are owing to the  severe  restrictions which
imprisoned them in youth, released  from which they
rush wildly into excitement the  moment they are in
freedom, and sell their souls to vanity and dissipation.
   While I am on this topic, I will mention a case that
occurred in my practice.  A thoughtful, anxious mother,
who had lost three children, brought to me her only
remaining  child, — a daughter.   Her  temperament
nervous-bilious — the  nervous fearfully predominant;
with great irritability of the system; peevish, passion-
ate, dyspeptic, sleepless; of course, exacting, arbitrary,
and  uncomfortable; — the  poor child looked  sad, old,
morbid,  and  miserable.  She had been to  school, be-
cause her parents  thought  it  an  amusement for her to
be with other children.   After critically examining her
physiognomy, I said to her mother, " What is  the tem-
perament of your husband ? "  " The same as my own,"
she replied.  " Then  the child is doubly  stamped,"  I
continued,  "and.very vigorous measures must be  used,
if you  expect to  restore her health.  Divorce  her imme-
diately from any thing mental so  far as memorizing is
concerned — let  her reflectives yield to her perceptives
— then send  her to dancing-school, that she  may com-
bine exercise with order and melody, and thus some of
her rough  edges may be rounded."   The  child — her
large eyes wide open with wonder and delight — inter-
rupted me  with — "Dancing-school!  O, how I've long-
ed to  go!  but mother  says it's  wrong, and  leads to
wickedness."  What a dilemma for a physician!  what
a dilemma for a child!   " My  little dear," said I to her 
GLIMPSES.
35
"What color are  my eyes?"  "Why — they ain't ex-
actly blue, and they ain't black."  " Very well, my child,
they are grey eyes.  Now your mother sees with black
eyes, and  I see with grey eyes!   Did you ever intend
your daughter to play the piano, guitar,  or other musi-
cal instrument? " said I to the mother.   " O, yes," was
the answer.   "Why," I  continued, "why show  such
partiality  to  the  upper extremities ?   The hands  are
rendered  happy as a medium of melody:  the  feet are
rendered equally happy in the same way.   Only be as
careful in the selection  of  your dancing teacher as of
your music teacher, and all will be well."   A nice after-
noon school received this little girl, who grew in health
and  harmony every month as she followed the hygienic
rules prescribed for  her.   Dancing is a healthful, beau-
tiful, graceful recreation, and it is not responsible for
the abuses luxury  has thrown around  it.  The vulgar-
isms and excitements of the  ball-room have no  more to
do with the  simple enjoyment of the dance  than the
rich wines and sumptuous banquets of the gourmand, in
whom they induce disease, have to do with the temper-
ate repasts that satisfy the natural wants of the body.
   A dear unmarried  aunt  suffering with paralysis,
aroused our early sympathies.  For four  years she was
an object  of the tenderest care to us all.  She lived in
the old mansion-house of her parents and grandparents,
in Charter street.   We daily wended  our way to that
revered spot,  (the house is still standing,) and our love
of kindred was strengthened by her grateful smile and
beaming  eye; while the many family anecdotes and
revolutionary  reminiscences, she  recounted, with  her
genial laugh, rendered our bundles light and our foot-
steps active  in our many walks  thither.   Her paralysis
was  of the body;  it did  not touch her spirit, nor neu- 
36
GLANCES.
tralize  her buoyancy.  The pleasant flow of her con-
versation, gleaming with  wit and humor, — always so
delightful to a child, —so  natural to us, —repaid us for
every care.   Why  not   consider,  sick   and afflicted
ones! — home invalids of every degree!—that if you
throw the sombre tint of your misfortune on all  around
you, joyous  childhood shrinks away from you, and you
lose  the consolation  of childish sympathy?—Children
dread fretful sickness, and instinctively avoid fault-find-
ers and complainers.  I thank you, kind  aunt, departed
now, for your wise teachings !  And for the nickname,
" Zion! " — and bestowed on me !   Was it prophetic ?
" Zion, lift up thy voice ;  be not afraid! "  At any rate,
it was suggestive of purpose and stability.
   Copp's Hill,  Fort Hill, and Beacon Hill!  These are
the  three hills  which gave  Boston  its  early name  of
Tri-Mount.   Each  is the haunt of old  memories and
the  misty ghosts of reverie.  To me, ;the first  named,
most of all.   I almost feel familiar with the spirit  of
John Copp,  the wealthy shoemaker, who died long be-
fore I was born, and from  whom the hill  took its name;
so blended is the ideal with the real in connection with
the  romantic position of the eminence, and the early
associations my childhood  threw around it.  The first
windmill erected in Massachusetts colony, wTas brought
here from Watertown in  1632, as  it would only grind
in a westerly  wind, and this was the  most favorable
site for its operation.  The waters of Charles River flow
at its foot.  Here the British  constructed  a  battery,
from which they fired across the stream at the Amer-
icans, during the battle of Bunker Hill; — the remains
of the  fort  afforded fine  fun for the North-End boys,
till they were removed in 1807.   How  many Sabbath
evenings I  have walked  in  the  old  graveyard  on this 
GLIMPSES.
37
hill!  There, is the tomb of the Mather family.  There,
rest the  bones of Increase and Cotton  Mather — old
Puritans, stout  and grim;  pastors of a  congregation
in which each man was

                    " — a soldier of the Lord,
               With his Bible and his sword ! "

I knew  a descendant  of this  family — Mrs. Crocker,
who was a neighbor of ours in  Moon street;  she re-
sided in an old mansion  on the ground where a Cath-
olic church now stands.   In  the same  old burial-place
are the gravestones of my grandfather and grandmother
Hunt ;  and  also my  maternal great-grandparents —
Thomas and Sarah  Adams.   There, the sweet notes of
Christ Church chimes, often  came to my  ears, and
made my footsteps  more reverent.  I think we  should
be grateful, who  have  enjoyed  this melody.   It is re-
corded that,  " In 1774, these  Bells, eight in number,
were the gift of a body of generous persons  to  Christ
Church."   On the third bell is the inscription, " We are
the first  ring of bells,  cast for the British Empire  in
America."   On  the seventh, " Since  Generosity has
opened  our  mouths, our tongues shall ring forth its
praises."
   My birthday, as far back as I can recollect, was cele-
brated by a family party; but at twelve years of age,
my mother gave me a child's ball, ever after the anni-
versary was sacred to ourselves and our immediate fam-
ily.   She said   there  was  a propriety  before teens,
which, to be  observed after that age, did not  belong to
childhood. That child's ball was  such  an event!   I
remember  distinctly, even now,  the Creole fiddler, our
dancing-school dresses,  and  all the  minutiae of the oc-
casion.   Those were the days when whole families met
                         4 
38
GLANCES.
together;  when, though dancing and music  enlivened
the scene, early hours were observed, the sweet propri-
eties  of life w7ere regarded ; and childhood was full ol
life, fun, and joy.
   My journal, under the  date  of May, 1818, speaks of
our grass being mown.   The entry  refers to the plot in
front  of our house; and in this connection I remember
the old  man wiio  regularly came from year to year, for
some  medicinal plant  which grew there,  mixed with
the grass.   Quietly he helped  himself,  left his thanks
quietly, and quietly departed.   What a magic mirror is
memory!   It now show^s  me our sweet  little  garden in
the rear of the dwelling, filled with flowers, and fragrant
with  the  cinnamon-rose  trees  trellised  on bars,  from
which we were wont to cut wreaths to grace the rooms
of our friends.   Among the  flowers, the  Iris was  my
mother's favorite.   Its  broad, green, decided leaf,  ap-
pearing when the  frost  was gone from the earth,  with
the snow  of the early  spring  resting upon  it, had a
charm for her.  At that  time, as I have before observed,
the North End abounded  in beautiful gardens, and very
fine fruit wras then abundant, — not doled out in scanty
quart  boxes, . as  now.   My  father  always wished  to
avoid the doctor and his bill;  he, therefore,  expended
liberally for  choice, ripe fruit.   While our school mates
wTere  suffering from summer complaints, we were  ex-
empt.
 ,It is very pleasant to  find recorded in the diary,  my
father's  deep interest in  the " Charitable  Mechanics'
Association  of  Boston."   Its  triennial  festivals,  its
trustee meetings, all had a charm for his social nature,
which loved the cultivation of whatever  was benev-
olent.
   Our Christmas family gatherings  were  doubly joyous. 
GLIMPSES.
39
 Christmas was  the  birthday  of my only sister; I re-
 member that my childish fancy thought the merry peals
 preceding it had had much to do with her birth !  What
 an exciting affair to me, was my first  school  prize for
 spelling!   And  also, my medal for proficiency in his-
 tory !   Then came my first  essay at letter writing for
 others.  My father's aunt, whose  only  son had died at
 the  South, wished me to write to his friends for her.   I
 see  myself now, sitting down with my slate, — my moth-
 er's charge with regard to carefulness in spelling rest-
 ing upon me.  The draught was prepared ; I took it to
 my aunt; it was approved.   I copied it on paper.  My
 heart quivered — my life grew great in  importance;  I
 had written to a business man, and the letter was to
 the  point!  For years afterwards I was my aunt's letter-
 writer ;  the employment assumed much  consequence;
 it was  of great use to  me — a  capital discipline —
 though I sometimes rebelled.  My father said he "never
 knew money that came in the slave-trade blessed ; " and
 the  intricate lawsuits, vexatious  delays, and continued
 disappointments, of the  business transaction which oc-
 casioned this correspondence, were  always referred to
 by him in  connection with the iniquity of its origin.
   My father met with  an accident from a fall, which
 kept him in the house for some time, — the family phy-
 sician,  Dr. Dixwell, called  in  to  dress  the  wound
 every day.  We were  very thankful to  have  him  at
 home.   His witty sallies, his genial laugh, his overflow-
ing good-nature, so brightened the domestic circle, that
we became really selfish, and  longed to have him with
us constantly.  I think men in sickness too often over-
look the  attentions which  they enjoy, and keep an at-
mosphere of restraint and half fear about home.   It is
very bad policy, to say the least of it.  Sickness always 
40
GLANCES.
calls for extra care and solicitude, and the nurse, whether
serving for the sake of kindred or for hire, is  always in
need of, and grateful for, a recognition of her  attentions.
  Our home might truly have been called  "  The Great
Joy,"—so much pleasure was planned and  enjoyed in
it.  I will not pass  over one beautiful  fact attending
my opening life.  Our mother had not only  wisely  de-
termined  that profit  and  pleasure  should  be united in
our culture, — that the hours of play and study should
be orderly adjusted, — but that  our relations to  others
should be maintained.  While  walking and lounging
were occupying  all the spare time of many of our school
mates, part of ours was given to some connections, who
were book-folders, and entirely dependent on their own
exertions.  We  passed  many hours with them, sharing
their labor.
  I have  spoken of  the Misses Hannah and Elizabeth
Brown, my  teachers  for so many years.  In 1821, Han-
nah married Captain Sprague, and died  at the birth of
her first child, a  daughter.   I  loved her ; my heart was
touched, — my  soul  was grieved at her  removal.   It
seems strange that I have never seen her child.   She is
a mother now, and probably has felt her loss  severely,
for the most judicious love  would have  been hers, had
her  mother lived.  A week after Hannah's departure,
her sister Elizabeth followed her.  Their lives had been
blended  for many,  years, — excessive grief beclouded
her reason, and  she passed away.   Peace to  the sisters!
" They were lovely  and pleasant in their  lives, and ir
their death they were not divided."
   In connection with these deaths,  pass  before  me  a
long procession  of school mates. Many of them are now
scattered over the country ;  many  are in the  spirit land
In recalling reminiscences like these, there  is something 
GLIMPSES.
41
like the lifegiving feeling with which we take the hand
of an old school mate.  If this book is read  by any of
my early companions, let them think again of those for-
midable  Thursdays  when  each of us had our  turn  in
writing down hard words !  Let  them  remember again
that provoking history of England, and all the  difficult
et ceteras that beset our paths !
   A serious and  thoughtful state was produced in our
family by the death  of my only uncle, Captain Joseph
Hunt, of Charleston, S. C.  He  was  a  loving,  high-
toned, and noble man, very near and dear  to  his kin-
dred, and his visits wTere ever regarded as angel minis-
trations.  I corresponded with his only child, a daugh-
ter, for many years.   I never saw her: she passed away
very  soon  after  her marriage,  and her children  also.
The  sundering of  these  ties  was felt  very  severely.
One reason why I have never visited South Carolina is,
that it does not contain a relic of our family.
   Does the  reader weary over these details ?  I must
recognize them, — they  are  the little rivulets, brooks,
and streams, that gave power and volume to  the broader
after-current of my life.
   My French teacher, — oh!  dear me!  Parlez  vous
came very hard ,to me, with such a peculiar petrifaction
of a man expounding the grammatical rules !   Do  be
careful, mothers, that your children's teachers love their
professional  life, that they may  infuse spirit into  their
pupils.  This should be especially looked to when lan-
guages are in question, for a  cold, hard, prosy linguist
dulls and deadens your whole  brain.   Teachers should
always have  vivacity: — what  a  farce they are with-
out it!
   As  life  unfolded, my  reading  wras  still  carefully
guarded.   Reading aloud was  a constant practice with
                         4* 
42                   GLANCES.

us ; thus opportunities were afforded for the expression
of thought  on various  subjects, and  conversational
powers were developed.  This is a very important part
of the education  of  the  young, and one lamentably
overlooked in this age.  How few conversationists there
are among us!   The  great interest we -feel when  one
appears proves the value of the gift. .  . . My mother
was  sometimes troubled with  an inflammation of the
eyelids, and  thus was often unable  to read or sew.
Even this had its salutary effect on our dear home.
Social mental relations, formed at such a time, never
die.
   It is sad to read in  my diary of the joyful  thrill that
shot through the heart of the  nation wiien  Lafayette
visited our shores, rekindling patriotism, and awakening
memories of the days when  men's souls were tried.   I
say  sad, — for where  is freedom in 1855?   Where  is
principle?   Where is  public virtue, — that shining ag-
gregate of a myriad of noble private qualities which are
as atoms  to the  star ?  What  have  we done with the
antique jewels, bought at great  price by our fathers, for
the brow of a people ?  They are gone.   We have sold
them for luxury, wealth, and power.   Look at the daily
life and character of the men who control and symbol-
ize the masses!  See to what a depth of  peddling,
huckstering,  and  legal  fraud  we  have  descended!
Mark those merchant robbers  of the  people, fattening
where they may, failing systematically, and paying per-
haps ten cents on a dollar to their needy creditors after
a failure, while costly dresses  bedeck their wives and
daughters as ostentatiously  as before!  Behold the
merchant princes  selling principles cheaper  than they
sell  silks, — dwarfing public  action, — guiding the con-
duct of the nation into the meanest channels, — sacrific- 
GLIMPSES.                   43
ing right to the most blind and cruel expediency, — and
bartering  public  spirit,  patriotism,  humanity,  private
virtue, every thing which makes  life  noble, and covers
the. grave with honor, that cotton may hold a high price
in the market, and that stocks may thrive!   Scan the
political cliques,  factions, and  cabals, hiding from the
sun, arrogating to themselves, and disgracing the grand
old name  of  party, and  scattering depravity broadcast
to spring up  in future crops  of  ruin!  Whigs, Demo-
crats, Know-Nothings, Know-Somethings, Hard-Shells,
Soft-Shells, Silver-Greys, and the like, — all no  more
than cunning  dicers for  office,  playing with  loaded
majorities!   They advance no worthy public interest;
they settle no public question; they  aim  to win  noth-
ing but private emolument for themselves, and a doubt-
ful, short-lived notoriety, which they call fame.  These
are the public men of a land which once gave us Wash-
ington, the Adamses, Jefferson,  Hamilton, Ames, and
Otis!  They call themselves  statesmen; — the masses
they lead, parties!   Why, the names once  carried in
them the essence of  the principles they professed.  The
name of  statesman once  expressed  something of the
attributes we imagine in the sage and the prophet, with
the  powerful magnetism of the leader!   It seems to
mean nothing now, but the facile motion of the weath-
ercock to  the veering wind.  The name of party once
signified   the  consolidated  opinions of worthy  and
earnest  men ; — the  honest  difference  of conscien-
tious minds  on  vital  measures of  government.  It
means * now, with  few  exceptions,  nothing but the
most reckless gambling  on the  largest scale ; to form
organizations where truth, rectitude, honor, common
seuse,  and common humanity  are  sacrificed  at the
shrine of expediency.  Show  me the name of a party 
44
GLANCES.
that means  something nobler and loftier  than this —
that means the  converse — and  I  will show you an
honorable minority!
  I say nothing of the public condition of women in
relation  to  government.   Faneuil  Hall was  not  our
Cradle of Liberty.   We had  no hand in  the rocking.
If we had  had, perhaps  the child would  have turned
out better.  But men rocked that  cradle !   There as
everywhere, we  have no civil rights,  but those  which
are dependent on the will  of  our  legislators doled  out
to us by ignorance, caprice,  or whim; — units in  the
sum of the nationality, not even deriving an importance
from the numerals to which we are appended.  But we
are even more so  now, than we were.  The chain  has
been tightened.   Time was, wiien those were only mo-
ments of crisis — hours for earnest action — that  could
draw the mechanics  and artisans away from their even-
ing homes,  to take  counsel with Paul Revere at  the
Green  Dragon  Tavern  or  elsewhere.  Parlors in  my
childhood were  used for caucuses,* and women  were
not excluded.  Men did not then leave their  families,
evening  after  evening, for  political headquarters;  but
Home was made the place for high-toned  conversation
on the movements of the day, and the  feminine element
was felt in the discussion.   It was courteous, to say the
least of it.  Now, men hire rooms to discuss political
questions in, and we are told to keep  our " sphere!"
We are not even  supposed to have an interest in  the
very laws under which we live — which control our des-
tinies, and  shape our lives — by which we are  tried,

  * The word caucus, so tradition says, is derived from the calkcrs
and others meeting together for political purposes. The'calkers were
hardy, upright, efficient men, and as they gave tone/to the meeting, it
took this name. 
GLIMPSES.
45
judged, and condemned, and which we  are  taxed to
support!
  I find reference in my journal to the deep impression
made on me by a sermon  preached on the last night of
the year 1824, by Henry Ware.  It was from the text—
" Prepare thyself to meet  thy God!"  It affected me
much.  His touching tones, his tender exhortations, and
the truthfulness of his  life  to his  convictions, rendered
him eminent in all earnest  appeals.
  The diary mentions the half-century celebration of the
Fourth of July, 1826, — the day  which gave  birth to
that Declaration  of Independence whose principles will
yet, I trust, be  lived  out  by the nation,  as  progress
causes the scales to fall from the eyes of ignorance and
bigotry.   The anniversary was celebrated  with much
eclat.  I  was   unable to get into Old  South  Church
to hear the oration, so great was the crowd.   That day
should be hallowed in this  country.  It was on that day
that Adams and Jefferson  died!   On that midway day
— that half-century day of our freedom — they dropped
their material  forms.   What a live coal for  the altar of
civil liberty!   Those minds  had been the guiding stars
of a nation, and as  such, they were recognized  and
honored.   They sank beneath our horizon,

            " To shine on other shores and seas."

  Sacred principles are daily compromised, or trampled
underfoot.  Men without  conscience—without honor
or rectitude, — creatures whose folly would  make us
smile,  if their wickedness  did not make  us sigh,—
occupy the highest official stations  in  the gift of the
people, yet, let us  trust in  a better day.  When the
century of freedom is complete — when 1876 dawns on
us — it may be we shall look on nobler men and nobler 
46
G L A N C E S .
women.  Hope  prophecies that the moral  prowess of
the land will arise and slay these giant iniquities.  God
grant that  that spirit may arise, destroy the  many-
headed hydra of Party, dissolve the enchanted ensiles
of Luxury,  strangle the glittering serpents of Expedi-
ency, and, abolishing the  whole monstrous brood, lead
us  over  fears dissipated  and  perils past,  to a  fairer
future!   It  will be a  worthy preparation for that good
time coming when  Freedom shall cast her  mantle of
sunlight over all humanity, — over every being, white or
black, included in  that  name;  and  Justice — she  is
carved as a woman! — this shall be no  longer sym-
bolical, but actual!   .
  Henry Ware's sermon on  the last night of the year
1826, is spoken  of  as  very searching  and penetrating.
The text was from  Philippians, chap. iii. 13th and 14th
verses.  This  is the last  glimpse I catch of my early
youth from the dimness of the  past. 
CHAPTER  IV.
         " Heaven is the magazine wherein He puts
          Both good and evil; Prayer is the key that shuts
          And opens this great treasure; 't is a key
          Whose wards are Faith and Hope and Charity.
          Wouldst thou present a judgment due to sin —
          Turn but the key and thou mayst lock it in.
          Or wouldst thou have a blessing fall upon thee ?
          Open the door, and it will shower on thee! "
                                      Quakles.

  I come now7 to a momentous period of my life.   The
year 1827 was to me the first  year, strictly  speaking, of
individual responsibility — of a going out alone.  No
breath  of disappointment  had  chilled  my  sanguine
heart: no rude wave of unbelief in the beauty and the
blessedness of  life, had swept  into  the landlocked
haven of home.  Relying  on good, good  came.   And
now, courage was to be tested ; the billows of the great
ocean of  existence  were to break upon  the  little skiff.
Early influences had prepared the mind for action.   As
the  chymist,  balancing  elements with scientific skill,
pauses with reverent wonder  among the hidden stores
in the great arcana  of nature,  and sees nothing made in
vain, but every thing awaiting a need, — so the thought-
ful girl, thrown  on her own resources, beholds with awe,
a use and purpose  in  the  accumulated minutia of her
discipline.  Just so far  as her culture  has  made "er
vision clear,  she sees  a  strict  aptitude  in  her  own
                                               (47) 
48
GLANCES.
powers  to  the ends of  life; just so far as her moral
nature has  been developed, does she feel the need of her
conscience  for guidance ; just so far as her heart is true,
does she warm and fertilize all  around her.   It  is the
early life that makes the after-life.  As every little brook,
rivulet, and stream contributes to the vast ocean through
which the proud  ship speeds her foaming course, — so
every tone, every wrord, every encouragement,  every in-
fluence, every discipline, and  example, make up that
sea of life  through which we sail.  Destitute of these,
life becomes  a stagnant sea, on which we lie

              " As idly as a painted ship
               Upon a painted ocean."

A deadness — a coma — seizes  the individual, and the
cold, sad days go by, like a procession of corpses.
   I have a purpose here, I cherish  a  hope  to  arouse
public thought respecting the  position of  our young
women  after they have left school.  Their parents —
many of them — are  in  only moderate circumstances.
They have toiled early and late to procure the educa-
tion of their daughters ;  and, if they were truly parents,
they should desire to see some worthy result follow that
education, — to see it practically applied to the business
of life.  Alas!  what is the truth on this subject ?   Girls
are educated — for what ?  They are sedulously trained
— for what?  For nothing but  marriage!   They are
early taught to  consider what  are  their chances and
attractions for  the  market!  I  say the  market, — fori
have no more scruple in applying this term to  the  state
of society with regard to women, than I have  in apply-
ing it to the marts where any other purchasable article
is*ought and sold.  In Circassia, they tell us, women
are trained with  a sole view to the  piastres they shall 
GLIMPSES.
49
 bring  when sold to a  Turkish harem; and, what is
 worse,  they are degraded to  consider  such training
 honorable.  I  charge it on society that  women  are
 generally educated  with a view to their  future sale
 for wealth,  social position, a home,  or  any other  terms
 on which a dependent, and ambitious, — a weak and
 silly woman, may be obtained; and, as  systematically
 as in the East, they are taught  to believe this training
 reputable!  Now I see no possible reason why young
 women, unless they  are  absolutely needed in  the  do-
 mestic circle,— and even then,  self-reliance should be
 taught them, — should not be trained to some healthful,
 remunerative employment.  To say nothing of  its ben-
 eficial  effects on their own character, or  of the inde-
 pendent position it would give  them  in  society, such
 employment would  often enable them to sustain their
 parents by their own earnings, — when  the chances and
 changes of  life have brought reverses to the home, and
 to gladden  the declining y^ears of  those parents with
 comforts,  too often wanting  now.  Daughters would
 then be capable of rendering assistance, as well as sons.
 Within my own knowledge, fathers with  families  of
 daughters,  lament  the  loss of   a son  because  " girls
 are so expensive ! "   Think of it!  This constant  keep-
 ing back our sex from an early, active participation in
 the duties of life, has been the means of throwing upon
 many a father with a family of  daughters, a burden he
 was utterly  unable to bear.
  He has given them money, hardly earned by toilsome
 and'anxious hours—perhaps a creditor needed  it; —
but they must  appear well at the  party — they  must
make their  market!  Hard-working, kind-hearted, but
injudicious mothers, are  hid  away in the kitchen, that
silly daughters may be flauntingly dressed in the parlor, 
50
GLANCES.
thrumming  tunes without a  touch of melody, for the
entertainment of Mr. Bombastes!   How many of these
cases are around us.   They  are heartless  deceptions,
and  outrages, on womanhood.  Too many  of these
poor children  marry,  and  return to  their parents, bro-
ken-hearted  through the  failure of  their  husbands,
(many of whom never had  any thing to fail on,) or pen-
niless widows with children who sorrowfully increase
their care in old age.  Such heart-histories appeal pow-
erfully to our sympathies, while they rouse our indigna-
tion  at the  degradation and uselessness of our sex.   I
wish I could touch this  subject with the pen of inspira-
tion.  I look around the early home  of  my childhood,
and  my heart  sickens ; whole families nearly  swept
away by false and perverted views! young, bright, prom-
ising  school-girls, dwarfed into young ladies, and  the
flag hoisted  that they are to be sold to the highest bid-
der!   The matter is made  still worse by  the conditions
of the sale;  for  sobriety, chastity, principle, character,
are not required in the  purchaser, — he only need have
wealth,  show, or bravado.   I could be  personal here,
and  bring  out  harrowing cases; but let them pass.
Let the  reader  glance  around his own  neighborhood,
and  say whether I  speak  the truth or not.   Go  to
Washington street in Boston, go to the main  street of
any of our great cities, and in the silly, coquettish, over-
dressed, fashionable young ladies, promenading to and
fro for the purpose of being seen, behold  another phase
of this  abominable  social marketing.  Can  hotel-life
promote family growth ?  Can auction sales  of  furni-
ture, changed to suit the caprices of fashion, and often
at the expense of the  poor mechanic, contribute  to do-
mestic happiness, or inculcate habits  of  prudence and
economy?   Do  they  not indicate an  incapacity for 
GLIMPSES.
51
home duties, — a miasmatic indolence in these pur-
chased wives ?
  This pernicious evil  is to be charged on society.  It
is not, as many suppose, charging it on an intangibility.
Is  not society  an aggregation of individuals? and is
not this to  be charged on  those individuals separately
and  collectively?   May it not be  affirmed that  the
prevalent custom of educating young women only for
marriage,  and  not  for the  duties and responsibilities
consequent  on  marriage — only  for appendages and
dead weights to husbands —of bringing them up with-
out an occupation, profession, or employment, and thus
leaving them dependent on anybody but themselves —
is  an enormous  evil, and an unpardonable  sin.   In the
name of my sex, a protest should be isssued against the
fashionable  education  fathers and  mothers give their
daughters, encouraging them to acquire those peacock
accomplishments, those shallow charms of conversation,
and  those  personal airs, manners,  and graces  which
they are pleased to  term  " attractions," in order that
they may  catch the fancy  of some wealthy  simple-
ton  or  arrant  knave, and so win  a  husband!  It is
educating their  daughters for what is  not  marriage in
any  worthy  sense  of  that word.   Yes, their protest,
earnest, solemn,  touching, should be  entered against
the  custom  of  bringing  up young women who  are
to  become wives and  mothers, without a knowledge
of those  domestic duties and responsibilities,  which
alone can fit them to live true to  those relations, with-
out  those solid  intellectual attainments and  spiritual
graces, by which they are to educate their children and
hallow the  atmosphere of home;  and without  those
"attractions," — enduring when youth and beauty are
gone, which can alone win and keep  for them the re- 
52
GLANCES.
spect and love of any sensible, upright, and noble man,
worthy the name of husband! against the wrong done
to young women, who  may never enter the marriage
state, by  giving them no trade, occupation, or profes-
sion,  and thus leaving them to idleness, dependence,
helplessness, and temptation.  Let every girl see to it
that she has the means of her own support.   The rem-
edy  for the evil of which I have here spoken, is in the
hands of every daughter and every parent.  It is a crying
evil.  It is  one  of the Upas-trees  which are poisoning
society, and beneath its pestilential branches the health,
the happiness, and the comfort of whole families are
withered.  You  have the axe, and the root lies bare —
strike courageously in faith,  and a  resurrection will fol-
low.  It must soon be seen that bringing up daughters
for nothing  but  marriage,  mingles  poison in the cup
of  domestic  life,  is  traitorous to the   virtue of both
sexes, for neither suffers alone — is adverse to happi-
ness, to the development of  conscience and to religion,
and introduces to  the  dwellings of wretchedness  and
despair.   The result of this degradation is  pride, intem-
perance, licentiousness — nay, every  vice,  misery,  and
degradation.  When labor becomes honorable and ele-
vating— when we realize that  labor is the charm to
stay this fiend, and the pride from which it had its ori-
gin and sustenance, dies at the awakening of the sense
of our relation to human kind, and our responsibility to
God.   Then will every woman  prepare herself for use-
ful occupation, and follow it.  Then will man see that
industrial avenues  are open  to women — that they can
follow any business  or  profession  for which they are
qualified without  being exposed  to  contemptible in-
sults wiiich are heaped upon  those who  have indepen-
dence enough  to step out of the  beaten track. 
GLIMPSES.
53
  There are women wiio have wealth, and who may be
supposed to  have nothing to do with this  subject —
occupation for  woman.  But it is not so.   They have
a great deal to do with it.   Responsibility rests on
them, as on  everyone.  Wealth has never given happi-
ness  except through its use.  The moment luxury is its
use, that moment diseases of mind and body lay hands
)ii their victims.  How can the physique be braced if
iio fresh breath  from the outer world is suffered to per-
meate the languid, enervating air of the drawing-room ?
How can the grasp of the mind be vigorous, without
action ?  Daughters of inherited wealth, or accumu-
lated labor!  the wide door  of  philanthropy is  open
peculiarly to you!   Your life-work lies beyond your
threshold: your wealth has placed you above the sor-
rowful  struggle for daily  bread wiiich  takes up  the
whole  time of so  many of  your brothers  and your
sisters.   You  are the almoners of God.    A double
accountability  is yours.   There  are sufferings around
you  which you can  alleviate or  remove.    There  are
heavy burdens which  you can lighten.   There is igno-
rance which  you can illumine.   There are  the poor
who look to you for solace and for aid.
  You are liberally endowed; are you to use these gifts
and powers for those  only, who  have had the same ad-
vantages as yourselves?  No!  If you can find nothing
else  to do, let each  of you find out some child, poor in
purse,  but rich in soul,  as  all children  are before  the
world makes them bankrupt;  and with a holy and gen-
erous self-denial, lay aside a certain sum  of money each
month,  for that child's culture.   Educate — carry that
child forward!   Ultimate your life in that child. Bring
philosophy to your investigation  of the mystery of ex-
istence ; it will show you, at  least, that it is impossible
                        5* 
54
GLANCES.
for you to enjoy physical health and spiritual life, if you
pass your  time in  sleeping, eating, drinking, dressing,
reading, flirting, or  any thing that is only for your own
gratification.  Nor  will these occupations prepare you
for the life  to come.  If you are not wholly insensible,
you will thank  me  for these hints; —use them!   Your
duty is  to  minister to the sorrows, the privations, the
wants,  and the needs  around you.  Show the world
that there  are Florence nightingales  for the sad  army
of the suffering and the poor!  Make it your life-work
"to attend to the neglected, and to remember  the for-
gotten!"   Money!  money!  Rely upon that for happi-
ness ?  Possession adds to your responsibilities, if you
look  at it  rightly.  It elevates you — it gives your life
dignity  and nobleness, if you use it as  a trust!   Used
otherwise, it is useless.  A fixed purpose in the mind of
every young woman,  rich and poor,  when  entering on
the theatre of  life,  would open  the mind to an under-
standing of the  Divine Word —' Lead us not into temp-
tation'— for idleness  is the greatest temptation to self-
ishness, and selfishness is the ruin of the individual, and
the cause of three fourths of the misery in the world.
   These admonitions  are from  one  who has  labored,
yes, and dearly loved to labor!   The  felt  necessities of
my soul urged me to open for myself some path of use-
fulness.  As our house was large for so small a family,
my parents gave me a pleasant  chamber  overlooking
the broad blue  ocean, and there I opened a school, and
became a  teacher.   My  own school-days were  fresh
upon  me;  the  surroundings  were favorable;  I  was in
the neighborhood of  my  whole  life; our social  circle
was of the highest respectability;  all  these were advan-
tages.   But hidden within — far away from  the  little
world without, that wondered at my enterprise__was 
                     GLIMPSES.                   55

my own consciousness of its importance.   My father's
hospitable nature, added to the depression of business,
and his  own ill  health for a  few years before, — had
made  it a duty  for me to act.   Was it  not noble in
those parents who had sheltered, loved, and breathed
prayers on their children, that when  the  time came  ror
the eldest (who had ever been loved because she was the
eldest) to act, they gladly,  cheerfully, encouraged and
sustained her?   I feel  now a  thrill  of gratitude for  my
home — yes, and of deep responsibility to my parents;
and during my professional life, when some people have
marvelled, I have  felt depressed by my consciousness
of  the umvorthiness of the response that life has made
to  home influences so excellent.  The  secret of what-
ever has been worthiest in my  existence, is in my home.
My first independent  movement — my  school — was
blessed  by my parents.  The  pleasant room was soon
alive with  happy childhood, and I tried to profit by  the
wise tact that had led me along, in leading others.   The
ninth of April, 1827, found me in my school-room with
eight pupils, and when the following October  came, I
had twenty-three!
   I have often looked back to  this with dreamy wonder.
It was ordered in infinite wisdom that this very year —
this year so pregnant with events — my school should
have been opened: — had I waited till the year following,
my voluntary action would have been compelled.   It is
well to enter on the new path in the  sunlight!  Many
of  my father's family had been  removed  from earth;
each of  these deaths to me, was a foreshadowing of
what might come.   In the  mist of the future there was
a voice,  faint, low,  but arresting.  So, in the fortunate
hour, when  my  destiny beckoned  me, I followed  her.
Had I paused to doubt, query, or parley, the fortunate 
56                   GLANCES.

hour  would  have  gone by,  perhaps never  to  come
again.
  Previous to my school-keeping, my father gave me a
large  account-book.  When I was a Teacher no longer,
the book was laid aside for many  years; but in 1853, I
bought it once again to the daylight, and wrote the
following on the first blank page I  found: —
  " What changes since I penned within this book, de-
voted to my school, my pupils' names, my receipts, ex-
penditures, etc!  All are sacred  to that period — to
Fleet street days — to  childhood's  days.   For what did
I dream  of then?  Was not my vision  as  a child's?
The preparation for my life, how quickly has  it  taken
place!  No rupture — no violence ; one duty performed
— the door opened for another — and still  another, and
another.   Let me here breathe out  a testimony to my
parents — it  is a proper and fitting place.   The first
pen-mark speaks of a father's gift.   His  sunny,  true,
genial smile,  ever varying with rapid thought — the re-
flective, true, unselfish expression  of his companion —
blended together, and  the two became one.   I say in
truthfulness, I owe to those parents, all!   Divine Provi-
dence guided, guarded,  elevated them:  they  in turn,
guided and guarded their children.   The two girls who
came to them in mature life have been blessed through
them.  Book ! thou hast had many years' retirement in
my father's desk: come out from thy hiding-place, and
I will inscribe on thy pages  every worthy record on the
great woman question — the great central reformatory
movement of this age! "   So the book is now used.
  I had made out my first school-bills for two quarters •
I had earned  my first  money — had tasted  the joy of
exerting myself  for a useful purpose, and  my parents
had seen  my education  ultimated in practical life.  I 
GLIMPSES.                  57
pass over many very pleasant and interesting incidents
penned in  my diary, for I have much  to  say on other
subjects. When I commenced my school, I relinquished
the journal to my sister; but it will still aid me in keep-
ing up the sequence  of events which  now  follow  in
quick  succession.  Our domestic  life lost none  of its
joys by my stated daily avocation. That avocation but
widened our sympathies, it gave us better  opportunities
to meet  the  parents of the children on a higher plane.
It also opened  to  me  a rich experience in  social life.
Many of my former schoolmates  at  this  time, had no
graver employment than muslin work.  Of  course, we
wrere still on visiting terms, though I had lost  some caste
by becoming useful.  I was struck at an early period,
by the selfish, contemptible indolence they indulged in,
as  by  the  lamentable  ennui it occasioned.  Living on
their  parents, like parasites, most of  them dwindled
away and became uninteresting to me.  A chasm had
yawned  between our friendships, — for I was at wTork —
they were at play.   Our lives had nothing in common.
My school was a grand use to me, for it not  only called
out gratitude to my parents for  the advantages they
had given  me, but also for the delight, and enthusiasm
with which I pursued the occupation. I was  an enigma
to those who had once been school-girls with me.  They
knew  not the magic  of usefulness.   They  often told
me — boastingly !^-they had "nothing to do," — they
had " all their time ! "   Soon, marriages of convenience,
of position — some of true affection were entered upon ;
but even in view of the latter, I often had reason for the
queries,  " Why  so much indifference  to these holy rela-
tion ?   Why so little continued interest in intellectual
pursuits ? "  One would have thought that these last
would still be prosecuted for the pleasure they afford, to 
58
GLANCES.
say nothing of the power they bestow on a mother  in
relation to her children.  One would  naturally suppose
that being loved and  loving would be a healthy stimu-
lus to mental growth  and freshness ; but nevertheless
my married  schoolmates  and friends—too  many of
them — sank down into a monotonous half-lift'.  I often
pondered on  these things, as one  does over a puzzling
sum.  It was not  until my medical life opened to me,
that I perceived causes which are poisoning woman-
hood, inducing physical diseases, and beclouding even
the perceptions of  duly.
   The last of March, 1827, I find we were very anxious
in regard to our father's  health.  Added to  the strong
expression of our anxiety, is the aspiration that he might
be spared to us, and not afflicted with palsy, as his he-
reditary tendencies indicated.   The succeeding summer
but deepened this  feeling.
   I now look back with  reverent emotions on the first
death-bed scene I  ever witnessed.   My father was with
me.   The dying person was the aunt  for whom  I had
written  so  many business letters; — she who had out-
lived all her  children, and was alone.  I had often heard
her speak that emphatic word,  " alone," and little did I
then apprehend its significance, though it is but par-
tially  apprehended  by me, now.   I  recall  my father's
tenderness to mcas I naturally shrunk from an event so
calculated to rouse mystic thought in a young  mind.
I remember  the intensity of the silence as  the parting
breath left the body — the fixed eye — the still heart —
the aged expression on the pallid face that spoke of the
fulness of earthly time.  I remember the peculiar pres-
sure of my father's hand on mine — his uplifted gaze__
his countenance radiant with the faith  in immortality!
   In the autumn we commenced house alterations with 
GLIMPSES.
59
a view  to  the  enlargement of our home.  My school
was delightful to me, and had my father been  in good
health, I would have been perfectly happy.  His  con-
tented spirit, overflowing with good-nature, recognized
what  he had, — not what was taken.  He kept our sad-
ness  constantly tempered with joy.  The triennial fes-
tival of the Mechanics' Association took place in Octo-
ber of that year.  He dined with the members, as usual,
in Fancuil Hall:  but still there was a sunken look about
his face. Our sympathetic natures were quickened into
activity, by a severe accident which happened  to him
on the first  of the ensuing November.  A bundle of
shingles fell on his  head  and face, and cut him  very
badly.  His escape from death seemed almost a miracle.
He would  not allow any thing to be  thought  of the
casualty, but it stimulated  us into an unnatural  watch-
fulness, which seemed like a foreshadowing of an unde-
fined something to come. 
CHAPTER  V.
            " Only with silence as their benediction
               God's angels come,
              When in the shadow of a great affliction
               The soul sits dumb."
                                        Anon.
         " Even for the dead I will not bind
            My soul to grief; death cannot long divide,
           For, is it not as if the rose had climbed
            My garden wall, and blossomed on the other side? "
                                               Anon.

  November — that month of family festivals — was
with us.  The fifth was my mother's fifty-seventh birth-
day.  It came, and found her bright, healthy, vigorous,
clear.   My father ever spoke of  this anniversary with
gladness.   The sixth  came — the  marriage  day — the
suspension  bridge that had  united  two in one.  Then
the  seventh — my father's fifty-eighth birthday.    On
that day he visited his sister  at  the old homestead'in
Charter street.   While there he spoke of the  short life
of the family:  he felt he should " soon go  home" —
that w7as  his  term.  The window of her chamber over-
looked the family tomb; and there his gaze was fixed,
as he uttered  these words.  We never heard them from
his lips.   My own birthday — the ninth — came,  and,
as  ever, it  reminded  me of  my  blessings.   But  this
year, it brought  to rny life a sense of newness, for I
      f60; 
GLIMPSES.
61
was now a teacher, and my school had  become  even
more endeared to me as  I  found my pupils advancing.
The Sunday after my birthday, I heard the Rev. Hosca
Ballou, — he had always been pastor of the Universalist
Church in School street where we attended, — preach
from these texts : — " The secret things belong unto the
Lord our God." ..." By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should  after  re-
ceive for an inheritance, obeyed, and went out, not know-
ing  whither  he went."  I  mention these sermons, not
only for  the  deep impression they  made  on  my  mind,
but  because they afterwards seemed peculiarly  prepara-
tive.  Our domestic  enjoyments this month,  and our
anxiety for our father, are -expressed in the diary, with
great earnestness and feeling; the words impress me like
an illumination.
  The cold weather had set in.  The provident,  care-
taking nature  of  my father  had,  as usual, provided
bountifully for the household.  Our  wood-house was
filled to  its utmost capacity; the  collar  was  a  store-
house of good  viands; and there  was a  general  com-
pleteness  of arrangements in  every department, for the
winter.    By Thursday,  the  15th  of  November, my
father  had nearly recovered from  his  fall.  There was
to be a meeting for a  choice of officers at St. Andrews
(Free  Mason's) Lodge, that evening.   He had been a
Mason for thirty-two years ;  he loved his masonic breth-
ren ; he had ever been with them in heart— particularly
on committees  of relief, and he  often took us with him
on such  occasions, while money w^as being  dispensed
which  should gladden the  hearts of widows, and  com-
fort  fatherless  children.   That evening  we attended
him, as we were wont,  to  the  door of the  old  court
                        6 
62
GLANCES.
house.  Taking leave of us there, he  tenderly said to
mother, " I shall  come  home immediately after the
choice of officers, — we must look  after  the  young
folks."  Never had his eye  seemed to rest  on us more
affectionately; never had his tone sounded more sweetly.
It was the last  tone that ever lingered on the outward
ear; but in quiet moments of after-life, that cheering
voice has been heard within !  That voice, so ringing,
clear, and musical, has never been lost; it has cheered
us in great emergencies, it has given  us  strength to
struggle for victory in the battle of life.
  " On entering the lodge-room," says John James Lor-
ing, an old member of the lodge, "we  shook hands, he
appeared cheerful as usual, and some sportive remarks
passed between us as was our custom.   We sat down
on a settee with a friend— Major Purkitt — and com-
menced conversing with him  on the accident he  had
lately met with.  The  conversation  changing to topics
connected with the meeting, he observed, ' I shall not
be here many timejj more :  the way seems longer every
time.'  Having said this, he dropped  his head on Major
Purkitt's  shoulder,  who, supposing  he was going to
whisper something to him of a private nature, listened
attentively; but  hearing nothing  he started, and ex-
claimed,  ' Brother Joab!'   One gasp — it was all over!
Not a groan — a struggle — a distortion.  It was truly
the sleep of death! "
   Other lodges were in session in the same building.
Every effort was  made — warm water was  at hand —
venesection was resorted to — every thing that brotherly
love, combined with medical  skill, could suggest, was
brought to  the solemn  occasion.   But the soul  had
gone;  the spiritual world had its tenant!   The Rev. 
                     GLIMPSES.                   63

Sebastian  Streeter came  in  from an  adjoining room,
and made  an affecting prayer.  Preparations were then
made to notify us, and remove the body.  Were there
no presentiments at that dear home, awaiting its head?
Were there no premonitions of the coming shock, whis-
pering to  that loving family ?  Ah, yes!   When the
carriage wheels were heard clattering rapidly down the
street, bringing Dr. Dixwell with the sad tidings, that
youngest daughter said prophetically  to her mother,
"Hear that chaise—father  is hurt—something  has
happened" — she  rushed to the gate with mother, and
when Dr. Dixwell appeared he exclaimed, " Good God,
how  came you  here!"   He knew not how to meet
them.
  I pause  here.  No  language can  picture  the scene
when that  heavy shadow swept over the brightness of
our home.   I cannot enter that  sanctuary  of  sorrow.
It was a dear, dear home!  The colors in which  I have
painted it,  are  pale and dim  to its own.# Its love—its
happiness — its  peace — its perfect   union — every
thought, memory, and association that clustered there
— every  hope, and every promise — all, were bathed in
sunlight.   And  now, pain, and grief, and the darkness
of eclipse,  had fallen on all!
  Our family  physician,  Dr. Dixwell, wiio bore  the
mournful intelligence to  us, proved his sympathy  in
words, tone, and manner.   Many members of the lodge
quietly accompanied the bier of our father, and laid it
in his own room.  We could not believe  him deadf
He  seemed as  though in  a sweet slumber — a trance.
Was  it indeed  death ?  It could not  be!   Life could,
and must be brought back! Thoughts of galvanic rem-
edies  rushed  to my mind — we would  have our father
again — but no!  Those who have known  by experi- 
64                   GLANCES.

ence, the shock caused by a sudden death in a family,
will be touched by our condition.  They will know it is
not-to be talked of, but felt.  The stroke is become an
era in  life;  and well for  those,  who, in after years,
can think of the sacredness of the blow, and look upon
the scar that was once a wound, with thoughts of Him
who "tempercth the wind to the shorn lamb!"
  The deepest darkness of our grief had passed away,
and now mellow rays of religious  faith lightened  the
heavy gloom.  We loved to linger over the body.   The
countenance gave no sign of its great  change.  It was
natural and pleasant as in its earthly life. It seemed less
a death than a  translation.  He had desired  to be re-
moved suddenly — his prayer had been answered.   His
friend, Major Purkitt,  says he had frequently expressed
the wish to him that he might  be " taken away in  a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye."   His kindred  had
suffered much physically — he was  freed without pain.
He dreaded leave-takings — he was spared that sorrow.
But above  all to us, was the consolation of that abiding
confidence  in  divine  love which  had permeated his
whole life,  and which  had always made his face radiant
when he spoke of his Heavenly Father.
   I pass  over  the emotions  of many  private  hours.
They  belong  to life's  holy of holies.  They are  hours
which the heart would still leave in silence, if the voice
could  reveal.   Hours when spirit speaks to spirit, and
we hear the low, arresting voice of God.   Hours when
the divine word becomes illuminated, and grief is trans-
figured with promise.  " I am  the resurrection and the
life: he that believeth  in me shall never die."
   I pass over all but  my mother's unselfish  and noble
bearing.   Deeply  sustained by the  love which  had
blessed their  union for so  many  years, — wonderfully 
GLIMPSES.
65
self-possessed in that  sad  hour, — she only thought of
her children  and  their first  sorrow,  and  folding  her
motherly arms around them, the  three became  one.
The spirit  of the  departed  was  near, and upheld her.
The consciousness that her mother who had died in her
childhood, had always been with her and always blessed
her, gave her now  a double  perception of spiritual life.
She shielded and guarded us, — she taught us to quietly
accept the chastening, and she taught us gratitude that
we had had in our father so  much that was valuable to
surrender.
   At eight o'clock on  Sabbath morning, the body hav-
ing shown the fearful mystery of  change which follows
its divorce  from the spirit, was committed to that tomb
on Copp's  Hill, which he  had carefully built in  1811,
and to which he had often taken his children that they
might habituate themselves to the spot.  That morning
was an era to me.  The  Rev. Hosea Ballou attended
the funeral.   He shared so deeply in our sorrows that
his words of consolation became words of cheer.   Then
came the soothing, melting  melody of Christ  Church
chimes, — the dear old music of Pleyel's Hymn!   Oh!
how those sounds penetrated every fibre of my being!
How  it made my heart tremble, and lifted my soul up-
ward  on its harmony to the gates of heaven!   The
same  sweet tune those bells  always rang at the burials
of my father's  family!  The members of that family
were  generally interred in  the  morning.   My  father
disliked afternoon burials; he wished the laying of the
body in the tomb to be hallowed  by connection with a
new day and a new morn.   On the third day after his
death, at early morn, we  laid him in the tomb.   The
material form was deposited in  its last resting-place,
and we returned home.  Wiio does not know the feel- 
66
GLANCES.
ing with which we reenter  our dwellings after the fu-
neral of one we love!   That feeling is known : it cannot
be uttered!   It is seen in  the suffering expression; it is
heard in the sigh;  it is felt in our indifference to  every
thing, and in the unutterable aspect of desolation which
rests upon all.  While wTe  were in that  sad  state, my
mother  asked me  to read the fifteenth chapter  of first
Corinthians,  which treats  so consolingly the sublime
theme  of the resurrection.   " There  is a natural body,
and there is a spiritual body.   As we have  borne the
image of the earthy, so shall we also  bear the image of
the heavenly."   These truths deepened in  significance
in that  sacred moment:  a light  shone from them and
irradiated  the tomb;  and, from that  moment,  our
father ever was present to us.   In all after exigencies,
our mother always attracted us to the consideration of
what would have been his opinion.   We  selfishly de-
sire the  forms of those we love, and the mind will revert
to  enjoyment  with them:  then, sombre  hues sadden
life, and morbid feelings paralyze our souls.  But living
faith in the words, " Not here, but  risen!" rouses us
anew.   Birth and  death have become words  of earnest
thought to me, these epochs in our existence; have an
irresistible attraction for me.
  As memory lifts its curtain, and reminiscences of my
childish days come thronging round me, my whole soul
is  instinct  with the wish that I could impress fathers
with a religious*sense of the sacred character of pater-
nity.  Oh, father!  home is the type — the foretaste —
the forerunner of joys or miseries to come.  Nothing —
nothing  is a  trifle there !    After-life may cause your
children to  roam  into  the wide  world,  and  other
thoughts, other things, and  other fashions  may  attract
them then.  But the love you give your wife, the purity 
GLIMPSES.
67
of your marriage, the blessing of your good example,—
these are the lessons of your children.  Husband !  what-
ever your degree—it matters little whether your home
be humble or sumptuous, if you feel a perception of
your  duty ; the  daily aid, counsel, and sympathy  you
give your companion, will sweeten the air of your home
as with frankincense, — will freshen it as with a fountain
of pure water, — will paint a gallery of pleasant pictures
on the heart of every  child, never to be forgotten, and
never  to fail  in their  instruction.   Your home, if you
make it deserving of the name, will teach your children
more than all other teaching, the  way to noble, honora-
ble, and  useful lives.
   Fathers !  how can you reconcile your lives with your
duties ?  Plow  can you  feel the  responsibility of your
situation, when  you allow business to be absolutely
your god ?   How can you conceive home to be merely a
place where  sleep, food, drink, and  clothing are to be
obtained ?   And how can you expect your daughter to
choose wisely  a husband when  your example has ob-
scured her  perception, and deteriorated  her ideal of
manhood ?  A son-in-law often shows up the father-in-
law ; indeed  I think  it  safe to say,  that  the  home
qualities of a father give to the daughter her ideas of a
husband, and that the home qualities of a mother give
to the son  his  ideas of  a wife.  I think this rule will
stand the test.   Husband, if your wife is doomed to
petty manoeuvring and constant deception, in order to
manage  your perversities, rest assured, by the law of
compensation which is as unerring as the compass, that
your daughter is taking a lesson  in management which
she will practise  in her turn. Let utter neglect of home
take possession of  you;  let your cheerful face and gay
smiles be given only  to the world; 'check, chill, and 
68
GLANCES.
  freeze  the  fountain  of  affection at its very  source—■
  home — and see  the automaton wives and scary chil-
  dren you will have  to  comfort you!  The present do-
  mestic relations of society are fraught with the gravest
  social  evils, which are poisoning not  only  numberless
  families, but the  whole  body politic.  By  and by we
  shall have the tangible public result of them all, — nay,
  we have it now!   A man who does not love  his home
  will not love his country.  The last is  the natural
  growih of  the first.   And the man who  does not love
  his country will  do  her no  service.   Like loves like.
  Two  of a  mind  agree,  though one  mind  work  on a
  little, and the other on a large  scale.   Great statesmen
  and great patriots are not bred  in counting-houses, nor
  in " residences."  They are growths of loving parents,
  and homes  deserving  the  name.    It was  a happy
  thought that gave those men  of eighty years ago, the
  title of fathers of their country.   That term is very sig-
  nificant of the something that made them fathers  of
  their country.
     Read the biographies of such men as John Jay, Sam-
  uel Adams, John Quincy Adams,  and other stars  of
  the same galaxy.   Will they not deepen my appeal to
  you on this vital subject?   Look  at your homes  on
» the score of material comforts. Look  at them  in  a
  moral  point  of view, and exarrrine the nature of your
  expenses.  Look  at them in a Christian light, and pon-
  der your responsibilities to God and to your families.
  Remember, your  sons may develop  outwardly  your hid-
  den vices, for homes  always report their character, and
  it is for you, fathers,  to sanctify these  abodes.
     In November, that month of dear, sweet, hearty mer-
  riment— that month-when from my earliest recollec-
  tion, thoughts, gifts, and prayers  had mingled—the 
GLIMPSES.                   69
month whose anniversaries followed in quick succession
to sanctify and hallow it — in  that  month our father
was removed that life and death might be linked — that
the material  and spiritual might be united, and that
thought might  be elevated, and attracted from the liv-
ing on earth to  the living in heaven.   We  had  that
month given some pleasant parties ; wTe  had paid up
our debt to etiquette, and it w^as well.  Then came our
sorrow, so strangely  mixed  with joy.   The  ease and
freedom — the  calmness, with which my father always
spoke of  death, calling  it " a dark  alley  leading into
light," and his confidence in Divine Love, constantly
made us  intimate with his  interior life; — to  us, there-
fore, he never  died.  An infusion of strength came to
my mother for  her  new duties, so that she wonderfully
fulfilled both relations to her fatherless children.   Our
home was not  melancholy.   The  spirit that was freed,
hovered over it.  The swreet tones of the  hymn, " The
Dying Christian,"  sung by  him  and our mother the
evening before he passed  aw^ay, still  sounds in my
ears: —
            " Vital spark of heavenly flame,
              Quit, oli, quit this mortal frame;
             Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
              Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying," etc.

   This was a favorite anthem of my parents, and was
often  sung by them, as were  others, to their children, in
those sacred twilights which  belong to the  past, — those
golden hours when angel ministrations came  and w^ent,
while the  dimness of the light gave a mystic, shadowy,
holy  charm  to all  around.   Blessed   season,  whose
shadows  and  eclipses  speak of the heavenly sun —
the heart is  softened  by a  mist  of tenderness, and a
spiritual  magnetism quickens the pulses  of  being!   I 
70                   GLANCES.
 pity many of the children in this  age, who are cheated
 of all the romance and mystery of twilight, and allowed
 artificial light the moment the sun withdraws his rays.
 In this way optic nerves are weakened, and presently
 false glasses take the place of true ones.  Dawn and
 twilight are God's appointments;  they are preparative;
 they are states to be  enjoyed.  But man, fearful if he
 is not busy, — eager to be bustling  about all the time,
 — breaks  the curfewT law  of God.   Chaos,  conse-
 quently, disturbs the order of his being.
  My  father's  state of mind regarding death, caused
 him to lay aside  Brazilian mahogany for his  coffin,
 wiiich  wras found just where he  had said.  From the
 remnant I have a footstool, on which is inscribed " Du-
 rability."  My father  never  knew  the fear of dying, or
 of leaving his loved ones ; but  amidst his brethren who
 had knowm him for years, he passed away.   His body
 was  weakened — his  understanding remained clear —
 in a moment he became immortal!   Fifty-eight years
 of age seems hardly old ; but the fulness of years—the
 completeness  of  life — has  not  to  do  with  calendar
 periods, but with the accomplishment of a. purpose ; and
 if that purpose is accomplished in infancy, transplanta-
 tion takes place.  The first sorrow in a  family—accept
it wisely; so shall your life advance day by day.  Disre-
 gard its monition ; so  shall you wander without a guide-
board, and your journey will be uncertain.
  Our mother administered on the estate: the writing
 devolved upon  me,  with  counsel  from my sister.  We
very soon ascertained  that the navigation business, in
wiiich  my father  had  been  engaged, was  at the very
worst period for profitable settlement, on account  of the
general  mercantile  depression.    Meanwiiile we pro-
ceeded with our house repairs, as it now became neces- 
GLIMPSES.                   71
sary to let a part of our dwelling.  I saw  more clearly
than ever before how much our early training had to do
with our lives, in  assisting us  to meet the emergencies
and changes that  had come upon us.  To  be sure, they
were but external; our love for each other had deepened.
They opened to me my first consciousness of the great
need of women being  educated  to  meet business  exi-
gencies.  How many widows have lost their homes, —
how many fatherless children have  been  thrown upon
the world, — when all this distress might  have been
avoided had the wife and mother known,  as every  wo-
man should know, the business relations of her husband,
and been prepared for action !  I am cognizant of many
painful cases arising from this neglect and ignorance.
I will mention one only, because it is  an illustration of
many others, and  not because  it is  the worst; — there
are instanfial cases which are  absolutely  appalling.
Mrs.----, a patient and friend of mine, who had  lost
her three first children, having only one little daughter
left, and who  was now midway in her maternal  life,
about to give birth to  another  child, was suddenly
arrested, stunned,  and overwhelmed  by the death of her
husband — a true, loving,  noble man.  She knew all
about his business ; he had told her every thing; and in
his last moments  wiien he named  his unborn babe, if
that babe should prove a boy, — he felt that every com-
fort was secured  to his family.  When I saw  her for
the first time after his  death, she was  bowed down by
the severest  anguish:  she felt she should  meet  him
soon — she would not believe  she was to remain long
in this world.  But time wore away the  poignancy of
her grief with the weeks and months, and  at length a
noble boy was born  to bear the name left  him by his
father.  Her  husband's  estate had, meanwhile,  been 
72
GLANCES.
under the hands of the administrator.  My urgent ap-
peals  to  her  to look  after this  business — to examine
every thing  for herself— had  been in vain.  I  had
urged — I had entreated—I had protested; but, no:
she shrunk from it; she was a woman!   But now, this
boy brought with  him fresh  hopes,  an  awTakening ele-
ment  to her life.   At last, she turned her attention to
the business; and on examination, she soon discovered
a state of affairs wiiich never wrould  have been, had she
been prompt  and vigilant.  Stocks and lands sold at a
period when their value  had deteriorated, and minus
rents  stared her in the face!  Then the consciousness
that she was  to be left with scanty means,  and the con-
viction  that this  was  through her own  negligence,
brought new sorrow.  Who  was to  blame?  The ad-
ministrator had his own  business to attend  to — this
was but an item :  he  had done  all he had time to do;
if estates were sold at an unfavorable  date — he did
not intend it—he did the best he could.  Yes: but
when the time  came  that  the  darling home, endeared
by so many hallowed associations, must pass from her
— must be sold;  and an  abode far  more  humble, and
far less  comfortable, must  be taken; then she wrept in
very sorrow, and  felt she had  been unfaithful to the
trust left her  by her husband.
   Legislation in Massachusetts with regard to women's
property, is sufficiently unjust and ridiculous, and needs
a complete  revision.   Statutes are  bad  enough, it  is
true, and require  a total remodelling with some  refer-
ence to the fact that women  are human  beings, and as
such, are entitled  to an equality of  certain civil  rights
with men.  But, meanwhile, and till  a better day shines
for us, women have responsibilities  resting upon them,
which they will do well to attend to.  We cannot go 
GLIMPSES.
73
very far, but it behooves us  to  go to the end of the
chain.   The  counsel I wrant to leave  with every  mar-
ried woman in  easy circumstances, is this : — Know the
general condition of your husband's business — know it
thoroughly; you will  then  be able, at  least, to judge
what amount  of annual expenditure  in the  family is
wise, and what is not.  Read  the probate laws, and un-
derstand them; then  ask your husband if it is just in
him to live without making a will, and thus specifically
providing for your  own, and your children's interest, in
case of  sudden death ?   Those  laws  only place you a
life pensioner on one third income of real estate; an
annual pittance too often inadequate  for your support.
Too often property is divided, and guardians appointed
who neutralize the power of mothers, and fetter their
desire  and capability  to do the best thing for their chil-
dren.  Inform  yourself on these subjects ;  do the best
you can to forestall the misfortunes which will fall to
you in the natural course  of law in this enlightened
land;  prove your interest in these matters, and we shall
have a great change  before  long.  The legal  shoe is
pinching a great multitude of feet of  every size, in  va-
rious ways.   Many years will not  elapse before  some
women, born of gifted parents, and inheriting intellect-
ual  power, will turn their attention to law.  We shall
not always applaud Portia only on the stage: there are
too  many Shylocks  off of  it!  Society needs  females
with good legal knowledge, as  administrators, as guar-
dians for children, and as a protecting  feminine  element
for women.  Need is the precursor of  have!
   We received many friendly calls.  Friends  and ac-
quaintances  gathered around us; but few —very few,
knew our hearts, or realized how the joys we had expe-
rienced in our home, and the gratitude w?> felt for the
                         7 
74
GLANCES.
years of happiness we  had tasted there, softened  the
sorrow that  had come to us.   We puzzled many;  our
cheerfulness was often enigmatical: but we understood
the problem!   The  members of St  Andrew's  Lodge
called upon us, and  were gladly received.   We were
invited  to visit  the  lodge-room, which  was  draped
in black for three months.  This  drew from us the fol-
lowing note to the officers and  members of St. Andrew's
Lodge: —" The bereaved family of your late brother,
Joab Hunt, cannot refrain from expressing their grateful
sense of the affectionate attentions they  have received
from your lodge.   If  any thing could add to the conso-
lation they have experienced under the peculiar circum-
stances in which they have been placed, your brotherly
kindness could  not fail to have that effect; — words are
insufficient to express our feelings, but the remembrance
of your sympathy will remain  with us through life."
All the associations  connected with  that room crowd
upon me. There, the  mortal put on immortality — there
death was swallowed up in victory.  When the great
anti-masonic excitement  took place in the community,
my father's death was made the subject of wicked  and
slanderous  accusations.   Some   of  the  anti-masons
called upon us, to gather materials for their unrighteous
rumors.  They  were met with  the rebuke they deserved,
for never had a falsehood less foundation than the  one
they  so  sedulously spread.  In consequence of these
slanders, depositions were made by John James Loring,
and Henry  Purkitt,  giving an  exact account  of my
father's sudden removal, and the means used to restore
him, as it was  supposed he had fainted.  A  daughter's
love cannot forego the  gratification  of  sustaining her
views of his character,  by the following extracts  from
an address by  Thomas  W. Phillips, at the first meeting 
GLIMPSES.

held after his decease — " Thus died Joab Hunt, one of
the oldest members of St. Andrews Lodge, a man hon-
ored and respected in society, a just and upright mason,
and one of the noblest works  of God's  creation,  an
honest man;  one who was beloved by all the members
of the lodge, who will long lament his loss."  " He wras
at all times vigilant, prompt, and judicious in guarding
the  honor, and  promoting the  true  interests of the
lodge ; he wTas  a true friend, a good citizen;  blest with
a cheerful disposition, he diffused happiness wherever he
went;  he was generous  in  his feelings,  and  always
ready to bear his full share in alleviating the troubles of
the unfortunate; he was most truly an ornament to our
fraternity."                            .
   We commenced  building a new school-house in our
garden, thai  we  might let the  dwelling more advan-
tageously.  What  mattered  this withdrawal of our-
selves into a  part of our home ?  What mattered  it to
us, strong in each other's love, whether our parlor was
large or small ?  Our hearts  were not contracted.   I
wrell remember,  even now, a young lady visitor who
said, " How unpleasant  it must be to  you to have  a
family in  your  house! "   Little she knew of that family
relation which  no walls can bound  or  circumscribe,—
which nerves the hand,  and cheers the  labor, and care-
fully studies economy and frugality for the preservation
of  a homestead, and the means of future  good  and
blessing.  When the time came  that  our house was
to be occupied by another family, although the change
was very great, and the  sound  of merriment very de-
pressing,  yet somehow the feelings were not touched
very deeply.    Every struggle we  passed through but
endeared us to  each other.  Our mother's remarkable
tact and talent seemed to defy any of those neighborly 
76
GLANCES.
intimacies wiiich annoy and  trouble.  While kindness
and pleasantness marked our  intercourse, every one felt
we were a distinct family.  A proper regard for the pro-
prieties of life, saves much vexation and sorrow.
   Our property,  (in parts of  schooners  going East  for
wood  and  lumber,)  sold  low.   This disturbed my
mother very much; not  me.   My great desire was to
get the  business settled; then  I knew all  wrould  be
well. 
CHAPTER  VI.
            There's a chain of causes
            Linked to effects; invincible necessity
            That whate'er is, could not but so have been.
                                          Dryden.

   In May I was troubled with a severe cough, and went
with a dear friend into the country for  a few days. This
was my first absence  from home  even  for a night!
Meanwhile  my sister took charge of my school.  A sort
of  morbid  dreaminess hung  around  me.  I did  not
drink at the  same fountain with my mother.  There
were times when  I  had a kind of home-sickness.   I
pined for my father:  he w^as always  ideal as  well  as
real, to me.  My courage  did  not seem  affected; but
my physical powders  sympathized too much with  my
mental states.   There wTas  an inconsistency about  me
I  hardly  knew how to  define.   Sometimes  I have
thought that the great disappointments I felt in know-
ing  the management,  trickery,  and  deception  of  the
world, affected me.   At any rate, nature was the resto-
rative.  My health gained  every hour in the country.
My mind had been bent back, straining at the past, and
every plant, flower, and insect had its consoling lan-
guage for me.  A sort of vacancy, induced by a weary
mind and body, was  freely  indulged.   Very soon indo-
lence would have become pleasing, had not duty called.
On returning home again, I found that my sister needed
                        7*              **   (77) 
78
GLANCES.
the same rest; but  she would not take it.   Hers was a
courage unknown to me ;  it was more like my mother's.
Gladly  did I enter my school again; right welcome
were  the  tones of my pupils!   Home again, I felt the
blessing of a mother, and the  spirit-influence of a father,
— that  cognizance  of  spiritual  presence  which  has
solaced  so many hours in  my after-life.
  Allusion is made in the diary  to a sermon on the last
night of the  year  1828, from Ralph Waldo Emerson,
which was very searching.  The text was, " While we
look not at the things which  are seen, but at the things
which are not seen; for the things which  are  seen are
temporal; but the things which are  not  seen are eter-
nal."  I often heard Mr. Emerson during his pastor-
ship over a church in Hanover street, and enjoyed it
deeply.
  Father had wisely sent a small  adventure to sea for
each of his girls, some years before his death.  It had
been  gradually increasing,  and now  came home.   It
was no  time to use  it as formerly intended ; for debts
were to be paid.  In  after years our mother fulfilled its
purpose, and  our  watches  tell something besides the
time!   These adventures are excellent lessons for chil-
dren.  They give  patience for a result; they are  pro-
spective; they make the  contingencies  on acquisition
felt early in life; they cause the elemental changes to
be watched with more care;  the shipping-lists are care-
fully  read, for something is at stake!  Sympathy for
sufferers becomes more active; the philosophy of accu-
mulation is seen, and how much  can be accomplished
by small means.   The lessons are very salutary.
   My sister  commenced an  infant  school.   It  was
arranged pleasantly, and  tended to make my own more
interesting.   She  was specially  calculated to  mould 
GLIMPSES.
79
children.  My pupils  coming up the yard, and leading
the younger ones to her room, gave an intense interest
to our daily lives.  Our business matters supplied much
material for thought, and subjected us to various kinds
of disappointment.   Reduction in prices  from a just
valuation, was  the  least of these; but to  be defrauded
by persons we  had considered honorable and truthful,
was very hard.   Let  me drop a hint here, like a seed.
Had any one else settled our business for us, we should
never have  credited many things we  passed  through.
How important that every  one should know for them-
selves !   By thus knowing,  many a friendship, broken
at these times, is saved, and charity taught where we
have  misjudged.   I  have known  some of the most
terrible  family misunderstandings, lasting a lifetime, to
be the result of resigning affairs to the management of
others.  All people cannot  see through our spectacles.
I would urge upon every woman  to prepare herself in
business knowledge  so  far, that  she  can understand
what others are doing  for her.   I know we  should
never have saved our  homestead, had we given  our
affairs in  charge to others; and  so I speak from expe-
rience.  A distant  relation  of our  family, from whom
we had  a right to expect kindness, so much had always
been shown him by our father,  vented his pique and ill-
nature  upon us; — I never could discover  a reason for
his conduct, until  lately.   Women were  settling  the
business !  On looking carefully at his character, I find
every element  opposed to a recognition of woman in
any capacity, except  as a ministrant to his wants; and
as for business  ability in us, he thought we were not to
be trusted with the management of a dollar!   His ill-
will  was  wonderfully overruled to our advantage, by
bringing us into acquaintance with a true and noble 
80
GLANCES.
man, whom we shall ever hold in grateful remembrance.
It was  William  Parker,  the son of  the  bishop who
married our parents.   I mention his name boldly, be-
cause I consider it right in this work, to mention names
whenever they serve to awaken thought, or to empha-
size  gratitude.  There  are periods in our lives  when,
filled with a heavy sense

        "----of despondence ; of the inhuman dearth
         Of noble natures ; of the gloomy days;
         Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
         Made for our searching----"

that courage would fail, and  life-long sadness take pos-
session of us,  but for the  appearance of some  being in
whom the image of his Maker is not effaced or blurred.
At such a period, when, perhaps rashly, we have passed
a hard judgment on human kind, — when we have lost
our confidence in humanity, to have  it restored  to  us
by looking at  some honest, open  brow, — it is indeed a
blessing!   Time proved this business acquaintance of
whom I speak, worthy  of all wTe  then felt.
   The  pleasantness of having our school-rooms in  our
garden, the general satisfaction of the parents  of  our
pupils,  and our own as their teachers, would have ren-
dered our happiness in these relations complete, but for
one alloy.  My sister never was  robust; she exacted
from herself far more, and with more severity, than she
ever did from others; her laudable ambition, joined to
her love of children, led her captive;  she  forgot  herself
in these enjoyments; and now, her health  began to fail.
 She was obliged to pause, and obtain some one to take
charge of the youngest children, while I took the elder
ones into my  school.                                 4
   I find those sermons on the last nights  of the years, 
GLIMPSES.                  81
were not only enjoyed, but their enjoyment anticipated.
They were, at once, probes and guide-boards.   The
diary refers to  Mr. Emerson's sermon at the going out
of the  year 1829, preached from the text — " The night
is  far spent; the day is at hand ; let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness, and let us  put on the armor
of light."
   A new year was  at hand.   My school was flourish-
ing ; it drew around  me a very interesting group of chil-
dren ; and I loved it.  Yet I never felt it my true voca-
tion.   It seemed to be  preparing me for something
higher and more permanent,—it was but  transitional.
What it was, as yet,  I knew not.  Had I known through
what waves  of sorrow  I was  to pass, I would have
shrunk.   " The veil that covers  from  our  sight the
events  of  futurity is  a  veil  woven  by the  hand of
mercy."
   In 1830, my sister  was prostrated by severe illness.  I
shall have occasion to speak freely of  this illness, for it
was the great turning-point of my life.  Wounded love
could not then understand the appointment of Divine
Providence ; but it was  through this affliction that my
attention was turned, unconsciously, to the medical life,
by leading me, when I had no scientific knowledge of
hygeine, to marvel  at the dense  darkness  which sur-
rounds disease, and to wonder at the harsh and severe
measures adopted in the treatment of delicate and sen-
sitive organizations.
   Dr. Dixwell, our kind allopathic physician, who had
been always good and true to us, was called in to attend
my sister.   Blisters  and mercurials  were  tried; they
were of no use.  Leeches were resorted to; but with-
out success.   I marvelled — all this agony — all these
remedies — and no benefit.'  The prescriptions seemed 
82                   GLANCES.

wholly experimental, the results entirely unknown.  My
sister's sufferings were intense:  she  could not lie down,
but was bolstered up in  bed.   At length Dr. Jackson
was called in to a consultation.  Her malady was pro-
nounced to be a disease of the heart.
  Quiet — rest — absence  from the . city — were pre-
scribed.  Her  school  must be abandoned —her mind
left entirely at ease.  She  went into the country with
my mother.  My  home was lonely enough; but hope
whispered that it was all for the better.   On her return,
being more comfortable,  she  resumed  her  school,  but
was'soon obliged to abandon it again.   Then came the
doctor.   Her case now assumed a  more formidable as-
pect.  Terrible spasms commenced, which agonized our
very souls to witness.  We should have been unable to
bear the sight of her  sufferings, had not her confidence
in  her  Heavenly Father, and her  wish to meet  her
earthly one, permeated her whole  being with  a faith
which imparted courage  almost superhuman, and sus-
tained us under this trying dispensation.
   Blistering and leeching were now declared to be the
only hope, and they were thoroughly tested.  Her treat-
ment was certainly " heroic!"  She had lost her voice,
but cheered  us with  whispers, and soothed us while
waiting on her.   Our faithful pastor, Hosea  Ballou,
called frequently, and proved himself a true and stead-
fast friend.  Another revered  man and minister, Rev.
 Thomas Jones  of Gloucester, always  visited  us when
 he came to the  city, and brought with him an atmos-
 phere of confidence and trust in the Divine.  He often
 left his sermons with us to read, which we enjoyed.
   Relapse upon relapse in sister's case,  kept our nervous
 sensibilities strung up to the  highest pitch.  After blis-
 ters, leeching, and mercurial ointment had satisfied  our 
                     GLIMPSES.                   83

 kind doctor of  their ineffiacy — (he  really took  the
 deepest  interest  in  the  case) —a seton  was the  next
 thing!  I could hardly conceal my horror! This seemed
 to  me truly barbarous.  Her exertions every moment
 she was capable  of effort, was a standing argument with
 the doctor whenever a  relapse took place.   I well re-
 member his ordering her to keep her room for the win-
 ter ; but her own health-instinct revolted, and she slept
 in  another room where there  was no  fire;—"on  the
 sly," as they say.   It was droll to hear the doctor in the
 following spring, attracting her attention to  notice the
 favorable results consequent upon her having kept her-
 chamber according to his directions.
   The next prescription was prussic acid — four  drops
 three times a day!   My dread of so dangerous a rem-
 edy, was  openly  evinced.  All this treatment  made
 me feel very sad.   If the  disease  was organic — why,
 there was no cure for it: if it was the result of nervous
 irritability, then the infinitesimal medication might have
 been of advantage.
   After  forty-one weeks of sickness, and one hundred
 and six professional calls, my sister was roused to more
 thought  on the  subject.  We talked it over together;
 she obtained some medical works; and finally she came
 to the conclusion  that  her case  was not understood.
 But what were  we to do? — was the question.   How
 often has a similar question arisen in families, and the
 severest trials followed the impossibility of an answer!
  A heavy affliction befell a family, very near and dear
to us, at this time.   Our parents had been attached to
them for many  years, and we were brought up from
childhood to respect them.    They  had received Univer-
salism from John Murray, and, by word and  life, were
a constant rebuke to those persons who objected to that 
84
GLANCES.
heresy, as it was then termed, on the ground of its neu-
tralizing our responsibility to God, and thus leading to
all wickedness.   Mr. Edmund Wright was the head of
this family.  He came forward after my father's  death,
became my mother's bondsman : he knew nothing of
our business at the time ; he  only knew we were hon-
est and  desired  nothing but justice.   He  trusted us!
These words are full of  import.   Trust arouses hope to
action, stimulates the mind, and induces trust in God.
Such men are  a constant  reproof to the doubter, the
cynic, and the whole tribe of the suspecters of human
nature.   Mr. Wright and his family had lost a married
daughter — a woman of rare worth.  I remember viv-
idly how much  I was  impressed by this removal, and
by my sick sister's  expression of wonder that she had
been spared, and a mother taken. I would here breathe
a prayer  for the only son and daughter of this  valued
friend, and a hope  that they may be ever conscious of
the  worth  of  that  mother, taken from them in their
childhood.   Heaven bless  the  grandchildren!   This
family has ever  been true to me, and the friendship of
our parents with them  has  now a peculiar significance.
   Dear, suffering sister! A cough wras now added to
her other symptoms, so severe that it was supposed to
be  whooping-cough; but  it was spasmodic.    Then
came a different train of remedies, — all useless and in-
effectual.   Having  a severe cold, accompanied with a
cough, myself,  I took  calomel, by the doctor's  advice.
Catching another cold, I suffered severely in my limbs:
I remember those pains as though they were yesterday!
I remember also my wonder that so  simple  a  malady
required  such severe treatment.   I gave up my  school
for a week, and  wTe  were sick together.  All this time,
thoughts were revolving within us: the  ground was 
GLIMPSES.
85
preparing for the seed, and in  due time, the germ ap-
peared.  My sister had lost  all  confidence in medicine.
She reasoned and  argued with the doctor:  his tactics
were to arouse her conscience; and  then she would
tamely submit to a fresh round  of torturing prescrip-
tions.   Pie was convinced her disease was of the heart,
and enjoined quiet; but  she used her needle, and  be-
guiled  many hours  bolstered up  in bed.  She had so
much of our father's organization that in the midst of
suffering, and when worn  out with pain, she would utter
some quaint remark which cheered us like a gleam of
sunlight.   Friends, neighbors, and parents of my pu-
pils were very kind to us, and our grateful emotions
were constantly stirred by them.
   A desire for farther medical advice, and an unwilling-
ness in Dr. Dixwell to meet any one else, as he  had
brought Dr. Jackson, induced us to ask advice of  Dr.
Walker, a member of  the Massachusetts Medical Soci-
ety.  His genius — his medical position — his success-
ful practice — his sagacity in extreme cases — drew our
attention to  him.  Dr. Walker  came,  and investigated
the case.   He was told, that Dr. Dixwell refused to meet
him.   Dr. Dixwell  assigned  as a reason, " he had done
every thing that could be done ; had brought the best
advice for counsel."  We knew  all that — and believed
it.   But it was only one side of the question: a suffer-
ing, dying daughter and sister was  the other side!
Here was  a dilemma — what were we to do ? — how
were we to decide ?  How many persons in similar  sit-
uations have  been as sorely perplexed!   On entering
my  medical  life, confirmation upon confirmation pre-
sented themselves to me.   I  fervently  believe that  this
experience was given to me for a purpose!  Not that I
then expected to  become  a physician, or thought  of it
                         8 
86
GLANCES.
in any way.  I did not know the use of that experience
then;  but I know it  now!  And here, — for this is
the proper place, — I shall freely express my feelings
with regard to medical  consultations, and medical  eti-
quette in general.   I have nothing to fear.   I cannot
offend any true mind, for I have no object but the good
of humanity, which I take to be the primary object of
every physician worthy to bear the name.  I have not
the medical law which  governs consultations, for  I  am
not a " regular," as  the Massachusetts Medical Society
term  it,  but  I can describe the routine,  for instances
have  occurred in  many families  corroborative of  our
experience.
   What a solemn mockery is  any etiquette so entirely
at variance with  true humanity, as this is!   Why, as
the public become  more enlightened, this consultation
business will be termed a farce played by doctors!  A
physician is supposed, in accepting his elevating profes-
sion, to be not  only a  lover of science — of  the laws
which govern the progress of diseases — of therapeutics,
through which he  is expected to remove diseases — but
he must  be  a lover of humanity.  In  this  view,  can
there be  any  thing more inhuman than the course com-
monly pursued with regard to patients ?   Look at it.
Here is  a lovely  child, or a sister, a wife, husband, or
mother, crushed by sickness;  months of  untiring care
have  been given by the relatives of the invalid, to the
prescriptions of the attending physician; all  has  been
done by  him that  can be  done; anxious  friends are
sympathizing with the suffering  kindred; at length,
other advice  is asked for:  then, the attending physician
(with but few exceptions)  brings whoever he pleases to
consultation — the family and friends usually submit
— they  are  generally hush, for they instinctively see' 
GLIMPSES.
87
there  is a  free-masonry in  the  movement: — but they
are to pay  the bill; and really one  would suppose in a
common sense  way, that the debtor had something to
do in the choice of the creditor — but'no, says medical
etiquette—no, says the conservative  M. D., you desire
a consultation; / will bring my friend, Dr.----; vw
will have a private interview in your parlor;  then he will
see the patient; we will retalk the  matter over;  then 1
will give you his opinion!   Is  not this an outrage on
common sense and propriety ?  Would not one suppose
that  the  anxious  mother,  sister,  or  friend, who had
watched the case day and night, would have some valu-
able  facts — some  observations  about  symptoms —
some suggestions  to  offer  at  the  consultation ?   Is it
just to bring the case to judgment without an examina-
tion of the witnesses ?   Is it fair to suppose that the at-
tending doctor,  with an extensive  practice — only see-
ing the  patient for  a few minutes at each  professional
call — can  give the consulting doctor more than a mere
skeleton — a general  outline of the  case ?  My  own
medical  experience of many years, empowers me  to
affirm that these consultations are utterly hollow!
  Now I hold it good, as  a medical practitioner, that
every mark of respect, every courtesy, and  every  confi-
dence, should  be given to the medical profession ; but,
equally true, that there is a frankness, a  candor, and a
confidence due to our  patients, and their families and
friends.   The medical profession would not now  stand
as it does before the public — rent  in twain — torn  in
fragments — split  into pathies and isms, by quackery in
— mark the word! — in, as wrell as  out of the faculty, if
consultations had been more open, free, and true.   The
nearest  relatives of the invalid (when they desire it)
should always  be  present; and they  should hear from 
88
GLANCES.
the attending doctor — often  anxious, faithful, and  de-
voted— all  the solicitude and thought  he has passed
through in treating the case; their professional life, be-
ing understood, would be respected.   If, as there proba-
bly would be in a  consultation, a difference of opinion
arose as to further treatment, why, this proof of earnest
interest would but deepen confidence in  the profession.
The  gratitude with which hints are received, would
be known, and increase  this trust.   But now the order
is  this:—The physician  attending, says the  physi-
cian consulting, agrees with him, but suggests a little
different medicine.   Then  the  consulting doctor is
gone; and it  is  out of order for him  to come again
without  further  communication  with  the  attending
doctor.
  Now, my  kind  medical brother, I have  a word here
for  you.  You may not have  heard  all the expressions
of annoyance, — of disapprobation, — of very righteous
indignation, that have  been uttered by many on this
subject.  But /—/ had a heart experience here, before
I had a professional one!   The public are getting en-
lightened, and you must recognize  it.   Families  are
reading works on hygeine, and preparing themselves to
meet you in sickness.   The day of  blind obedience, or
foolish deference,  to you, is  entirely gone; you now
stand on your merits.  You have as high a mission as
God has permitted to his beings on earth.  To you is
committed the care of bodies, and through them  of
souls, suffering with pain and  anguish.   All the diverse
terrible forms of disease  look to you as  their healer.
The  untold  wretchedness of  tortured days and long
nights, sleepless from torment and nervous irritability,
calls  on your patience arid skill.   You  fan the dying
embers of hope: you cheer the timid spirit: you neu- 
GLIMPSES.
89
tralize fears, by showing probabilities  of relief: or, if
renewed sufferings come, you inspire and comfort the
pain-stricken sufferer.  You search the wide  arcana of
science, — you bring the whole result of experience to
the aid of your humblest  patient; and, as the  air ab-
sorbs the low damps of earth to refresh  us with cooling
dews and showers, so the profession gathers every thing,
and  reckons nothing too lowly or worthless that  can
soothe and relieve.
   But there is another view of the subject which should
coincide with this: then, all will be well with the sick.
You have your mission; they have theirs.   Your pa-
tients have their duties.   They must rely on you with
faith ; but their judgment must be taken whenever prac-
ticable.  They have a health-instinct;  and it must be
consulted.  They have reason; and it must be respected.
They, in suffering moments, often catch glimpses of their
real  maladies, by chance gleams of intuition, which may
help you, and may prove hints guiding  you to more ac-
curate knowledge.  Stand fearlessly on your own mer-
its ;  they are eminence enough for you.   You have got
wisdom;  now  get understanding.   Must  you  drape
yourselves in mystery and secrecy, and demand privacy
as a condition whereby you  are to work your cures ?
Or are you a physician deserving the title, standing in
the broad light of the nineteenth century ?  Let there
be more oneness between you and your patients !   Let
there be perfect frankness between you  and them.   Let
that little word we be the talisman to quicken their per-
ception of their own mental and physical condition, and
to awaken a consciousness that there must be coopera-
tion  between physician and  patient.   This course will
inspire trust in the  public mind, from  the loss of which
medical men are now suffering deeply, for it is in conse-
                        8* 
90
GLANCES.
quence of the want of confidence in regular physicians
that quackery thrives; it was brought into existence and
now flourishes through the failures and  blunders of
those who are privileged with  diplomas, and who are
utterly unable  to stay its  course,  as  newspapers  and
circulars amply testify; notwithstanding  colleges, na-
tional,  State,  and county associations,—pharmaco-
poeias, floods of medical works,  and concerted measures
to  save the character and  preserve the prestige of the
profession.  Poor, outcast, ridiculed, despised quackery!
See sarsaparilla consolidating into marble  palaces, pills
expanding into princely residences! — think of the quan-
tity of sarsaparilla and the infinite number of pills nec-
essary to  produce  such grand results.  Now if Briga-
dier-general Physic and Brigadier-general Cure-all, com-
manders-in-chief of all diseases, from the scald-head to
the gouty toe, should marshal  the forces  of the allied
army of regulars and the troops of volunteers, contend-
ing for the field of public patronage, and w^e could be
present at the secret councils which control the tactics
of  these two armies, we might publish the  best medical
treatise for the masses that has ever  been  printed, and
would lessen the number of medical students and medi-
cal colleges, such as they now  are.   A new order of
things would arise, and noble,  true-hearted physicians,
instead  of being  the  exceptions, would  be the  rule.
Herbert says: —

        " All things are big with jest; nothing that's plain
         But may be witty, if thou hast the vein."

   It pains me to hear our profession spoken of so slight-
ingly and carelessly.   You know  it  is!   You know I
speak the truth !  I hope what I have here said will
tend to awaken public attention to at least one depart- 
GLIMPSES.
91
ment of your medical etiquette,  which needs a total
remodelling,  about consultations, as regards to sense,
humanity, and justice.
  I have been told by a young German that in consul-
tations in that country, the  family and friends  of the
patient always have  the  satisfaction  of attending, if
they desire  it.   As these are the nurses  of the sick,
who are with them night and day,  and watch every
change in the progress of disease, how  necessary that
they should be present; and how much more such con-
sultations would  enlighten the mind of  the  consulting
physician as to the true  state of the case,  as well as
inspire confidence in his integrity and  ability to relieve,
than the  present exclusive system! 
CHAPTER  VII.
       " Be thou thine own home, and in thyself dwell,
         Inn anywhere;
         And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam,
         Carrying his own home still, still is at home,
         Follow (for he is easy paced) this snail,
         Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail."
                                        Donne.

   Dr. Walker  knew the peculiar  circumstances in
which we were placed, and he felt for us.  He contin-
ued  his  attendance on my sister for some time.  My
eyes  became weak:  I  applied for aid, and leeches were
ordered!  But I  revolted, and a simple lotion restored
them.  My mother's life through all this was wonderful.
Her unselfish nature was constantly alert in nursing my
sister, and  with delicate care, arranging my food, my
walks, and so forth, for she knew a teacher's life was try-
ing.  My sister became more comfortable.  Dr. Walker
thought her illness would still continue; though he ex-
pressed  the idea  that she would in  time get better.
About  this time, a dear cousin  came to visit us, who
cheered our home like a brother.  Again our house was
alive with kindred, for  he was always  an attraction.
   Finally, Dr. Dixwell consented to  meet Dr. Walker.
The  ensuing discussions, our fears and our discomforts,
were not lost on me, nor have they ever left me.
       (92) 
GLIMPSES.
93
  An alarm of cholera spread at  this period, which
aroused much hygeinic thought, and served to keep my
mind in a direction which facts in my school confirmed
every day.   Dr. Walker  behaved  nobly to us.  He
brought about  a reconciliation  with Dr. Dixwell; and
refused to give us a bill, saying  he had only suggested
something different.  Those who knew  this man  the
best, regretted the most his subsequent abandonment of
the profession.   It seemed  indeed  a loss to the commu-
nity.  If there is one feeling more than another which
elevates  the soul  in  estimating  character,  it is that
awakened by the contemplation of a medical man with
genius, disciplined by science and every mental advan-
tage, who lays aside all self-hood, yields himself with
childlike reverence to  the teachings of nature, watches
the veriest trifle for  its lesson, and feels that books are
but second best, while the  observation  and experience
of  practice  are first.   The  martyr  whom the world
denies the palm, rejoices in his God.  The  ambitious
mind cannot understand wiiat  supports  and sustains
him, — it is within.   Charlestown can bear testimony to
many noble acts done by  Dr. Walker.   Many are  the
widows and the fatherless he has comforted!  His sur-
gical skill was eminent, and wherever known, was be-
lieved to be unequalled in  this country.  My imagina-
tion always connected him with Abernethy.
  I hope I have not conveyed any idea of Dr. Dixwell
but what is kind, grateful, and appreciative.  He was a
physician of the old  school; honest, and true to his
convictions.  When he .first practised in our family, be-
fore his  marriage,  he was  Dr. Hunt;  afterwards  he
changed his name to Dixwell.
  My sister's sufferings continued  to be severe, and but
for  her unfailing cheerfulness, we should have faltered ; 
94
GLANCES.
but that gave a light to every thing.  Like her father,
her theme for gratitude was that things were no worse
with her!  My school was prospering.  My enjoyment
in its progress would have been greater, had I not been
troubled, at  times, with severe headaches, which  not
only unfitted me for the performance of those nameless
duties  for  the  sick one  which beautify home, but fre-
quently made my school hours wearisome.   Had it not
been for my  mother's careful regulation of my exercise,
and her intrusting me with all the out-door business of
the family, such as the purchasing of provisions, wear-
ing apparel,  and the like, I might have  suffered  much
more.
   About this time, one of my sweetest children, Mary
Anne Holmes, was removed  to  the spirit  land.   My
first class went with  me to  her  funeral; and I remem-
ber that Ralph Waldo Emerson impressed the audience
with his apt and  beautiful illustration of the crysalis
and the butterfly.
   A tribute is due to those pupils  of mine  who will
read this book in memory of me, for  I  know that in
many minds, the physician  has not  obliterated  the
teacher.  You were obedient,  pleasant, kind, and faith-
ful, my pupils!   You taught me  many lessons, as well
as I you.   You taught me patience, and the need of a
gentle voice and cheerful manner in imparting instruc-
tion.  The promptitude of your parents in paying your
bills, recurs to  me, now; it was a  great help to  me,
then.   One can hardly judge, without  experience, of
the advantage a teacher reaps  from promptitude in this
respect;  for means are* of double value if they can  be
relied upon for immediate use.   Many stormy days you
remember bringing your dinners, and  many noons have
I delightedly listened in the  entry, unknown  to you, 
GLIMPSES.
95
hearing you play  at keeping  school,  and  imitating
me!
  An  anecdote  comes  to my mind as I think  of  the
necessity of trusting children.  Every correct and judi-
cious mother knowrs the value of that word — trust.   It
is  a quality which needs  a wider  acceptation  in  the
world, than it has yet obtained.  In its exercise to  the
tender child, it develops power; it awakens conscience,
nourishes responsibility, and teaches self-control.  Faith
in human kind is  indispensable to a teacher, for it is
the  parent of trust.  It is  indispensable to every one.
 We need to place more confidence in those around us.
 Let the strong rely, and  the weak will gather strength.
 Trust is of  varied kinds and varied degrees; but, as  the
sunbeams melt the frozen icicles, so will trust light  up,
and melt, the cold crystals of reserve, timidity, distrust,
and fear that, too often, have gathered by slow processes
of accretion, even around the youthful heart; and, more
frequently, around hearts no longer  young: the sun-
shine quickens the violets  in the wintry soil; for  we
know that germs of the good and beautiful lie hidden
in the hardest and worst of natures.  Frozen doubts,
cold feelings, hard thoughts, these  are the frigid accu-
mulations that  gather  on humanity in the darkness of
selfism, as the ice forms in a bitter night, on the face of
creation.   Often,  long seasons of  Christian influence
can alone remove  them;  but, even then, your first con-
fiding look, tone, word, manner, — your first outpouring
of generous trust  in  human nature, is the sun-flash on
the ice, changing it in  an instant to  a glory of pearls
and diamonds, — ameliorating the  inhospitality of  the
aspect, before it alters the cruelty of the condition.
   The anecdote I  was about to relate is this.   A cousin
of mine in Charlestown, having passed away, it became 
96
GLANCES.
proper that I should attend  her  funeral.   It  was  a
school afternoon; I did not wish to dismiss the scholars,
and, as they always disliked  a monitor, I hit upon the
following plan of leaving them.  I placed in my chair
the large old-fashioned slate, (it had been my father's);
wrote on it the names of the  scholars in the order in
which they sat;  arranged the  needle-work and reading,
— for I always  had some interesting work read aloud
by some  elder pupil every afternoon, — and  then  said,
" Now, children, when the clock strikes  five, leave  your
seats orderly, go to my chair, and place  on the slate, by
each of your names, a  unit for good behavior, and  a
cross for bad.  When I return, I shall anxiously look at
the  slate;  and  the  next morning,  when  you  are all
assembled, I  will read the list aloud that every thing
may be confirmed.  But, I trust in  you! "   On  my re-
turn I visited the school-room, and found but one cross
on  the slate; and that, where I least expected it, ap-
pended to  the name of  a beautiful, open, bright, brave
child, who then promised much for the world, — the fact
of her having rich  parents being her greatest drawback.
She was  the  last child  in the school  I should  have
thought  capable of any misconduct.   Well, the  next
morning  came; the list was read; it proved truthful;
but when I came to this  name, I said, " My child, you
must explain ; — why is  this ? — what  did you do ? "
Looking  up to me with  those soulful eyes, and speak-
ing with  that soulful tone, which  ever made  her an
object of sacred interest,  she replied, " I laughed aloud;
I laughed more than once ; I could n't  help it, because
a slate was keeping school! "   This  is only a trifle, but
trifles are of  great importance.  We test very mighty
principles by  small experiments.  In this case, had  I
appointed a monitor, confusion would have prevailed. 
GLIMPSES.
97
      My school furnished me  with a rich experience.  I
   found few mothers, like my own parent, wiio sought in-
   timacy with the teacher for  purposes of mutual counsel,
   and who were willing  to  assist  in directing influences
   not only at home, but at school.  . . .  We cannot judge
   of the qualities and colors of plants and flowers in the
   winter, when they  appear to  be but" withered  stalks ;
   but when the soft breath of  the spring awakens them to
   life and  growth, we  see their tendencies  and their
   natures developed.   So we know nothing  of the real
   mental and spiritual capacities of children, stunted and
   withered by the  influences of an ill-conditioned  home:
   but if they enter a  school where the teacher breathes
   upon them the mild breath of love, their natures become
   unfolded,  and in that atmosphere their primal, natural
   bent for  good or ill, as distinguished  from the merely
   casual and forced, is detected.  Such a teacher has a
   key to character  unknown to the careless observer.  . .  .
   I consider any divorce  between  the instructor and the
   parent, as reprehensible in  the  highest degree.  They
   should be mutual helps to each  other.  They are both
   engaged  in  educating  the  same  children,  and there
   should be a harmony of action  between them.  Now,
   for  instance, let the  primary principle of  obedience,
   which every teacher is bound to establish in regard to
   the pupil, and the absence  of which nothing can supply,
   — let   it  be unenforced in  the  home of the pupil —
v  lightly or lazily  regarded  by the parents, — and every
   effort  the teacher can make in that child's development,
   will prove futile.  The Scotch legend tells us that the
   wizard, Michael  Scot, once undertook to make ropes of
   twisted sand,  wberewith  to bind a  lawless  lord; but
   every  time he  succeeded,  an invisible imp by his side
   baffled him by untwisting the magic cords. The legend
                          9 
98                   GLANCES.
goes on to say that the magician was forced to resort to
more cruel means, in order to accomplish his end.  The
instructor's position is similar.   If every thing done at
school  to effect  subordination, is regularly undone at
home, the teacher will be compelled to a severity foreign
to his or her nature, to secure a temporary obedience.
But let the parent remember that the  powrer of educa-
tion is  weakened iifear is mingled with instruction.  If
the intellect of a child  is not developed by love, a loss
to the whole  life is the inevitable result.  There must
be not only an  establishment of nearer and more re-
spectful relations between  the parent  and teacher, but
there must be a  similarity of measures, and  a coopera-
tion of action between them.
   Children are new daily revelations to a teacher.  The
observant eye, the eager ear, the grasping memory, the
plastic mind, are mediums through which their souls
operate.  Happy are those who are trained healthfully;
but how few  are the happy!  Look around you for con-
firmation of this truth :  you will be startled to see how
many are educated unintelligently — merely because it
is the  fashion — the custom!  The beauty — the har-
mony —the adaptation of knowledge to any aim or end,
is rarely presented to them.  A constant warfare is going
on in  wee little children.  The words so  frequently
on their lips, — " when  wre shall leave school" — words
which  take the form of a hope — prove how little they
regard their privilege.   Earthquakes of excitement over
lessons;  disgust; weariness; at the best,  ambition; —
these are the  interior states of pupils.   No wonder their
physiognomies are careworn and anxious!   My obser-
vation, taken from my own experience, makes me speak
earnestly on  this topic.   I cannot help  it.   The public
needs cauterizing!  Education, as it is now understood, 
GLIMPSES.
99
or rather, as  it is now talked of, is the  art  of forcing
clumsy tools into reluctant hands to satisfy a respecta-
ble demand of the community.  It is just the system-
atic crowding of a load of heterogeneous furniture into
cranial apartments, and no more; and if the furniture
was new and fresh, the crowding process  would not be
quite so  sad; but all the lumber of old attics is intro-
duced, without regard to use, fitness, beauty, or practi-
cal purpose,  and the cranial  apartments  aforesaid, are,
at a very early period, full of disorder.   The individu-
alisms of the children  are  not recognized, or respected,
in their  development.   They must  all go  through the
same treadmill routine, whether they are  fitted for it or
not.  Parents and  teachers  are  working  at cross-pur-
poses, and each frustrating the efforts of the other;  and
the poor victims, wending their hated way to school,
are talking of the blissful  time when they shall leave
Egyptian bondage and severe taskmasters !  Yet, unless
love of study and the perception  of its use, are con-
stantly active in digesting acquisition, dyspeptic brains
in after-life will be  the result.  Remember Byron's life-
long distaste for the classics, because his  Horace  had
been flogged into him when he was a school-boy!  I
think I can safely say  that I never met with a person,
possessing any individualism, whose  presence — whose
sphere — was lifegiving, healthful, and elevating, unless
his or her intellect  had been moulded by love.   Look
around the circle of your own experience, and you can
sustain this fact.  Look at the sodden faces you meet
in your daily walks, eloquent of hearty dislike, for men-
tal acquirements because of  the coercion  that dragged
and drove them  in  school-days through sloughs of  dis-
gust,  and  over  deserts of  weariness, to  the  gates  of
knowledge!  Look  at the musty libraries that are walk- 
100
GLANCES.
ing our streets, whose wrinkled phizzes  and  pedantic
manners tell of acquisition through only a hard ambi-
tion!   See  this religious sectarian  who has  learned
doctrines till he has forgot a. life, — wiio  thinks  that
intellectual truths are salvation,  and that goodness is
only for the ignorant! Examine the whole body at your
leisure, and  tell me what you think of education with-
out love as its motive force, judgment as its distributive
agent, and service to humanity as its ultimate use in life!
Education, which should  be a broad light to the nobler
aims of existence, is now  nothing but a sickly gleam.
   I find fault, as a medical  practitioner, with the lack
of judgment all around us in regard to  the rearing of
the young; and I look forward with earnest longing to
see the  medical profession equally shared between the
sexes; this will be one great advantage.  Meanwhile,
the deficiency of judgment manifested during growth,
is really lamentable.  Intellect, as I have  said, crammed
— crowded—through ambition and excitement; growth
advancing in this morbid  state ; nervous energies driven
with force to  the frontal  region;  and you  have lean,
shrunken, dwarfish, deformed bodies  as the concomitant
of all this, and chaos instead of harmony.  You would
not treat a  choice  plant  as  ignorantly as you do your
children; for every  botanical  work would be scrutinized
as to the soil, sunlight,  and moisture requisite for its
health.   You would care for each plant as an individual
plant; and very soon would you dismiss from your con-
servatory, a gardener who treated all alike — the delicate
Mimosa in the same manner as the hardy Dahlia.  You
permit  your boys  to grow up constant burdens on the
family, because they are boys.  What matters it to them
about  keeping  their clothes clean ?  Do not women
wash ? — and shall  they not be men ?  The  numerous 
GLIMPSES.
101
industrial occupations which they  might learn,  and
which are fitting  for them, rendering rainy days pleas-
ant, and  sick hours amusing,  must not be taught them,
because  they  are boys, and will be men!  How can
those thus  trained  ever arrive at the dignity of true
manhood!   Look at public morals in 1855, and mourn!
Boys should be taught every pleasant kind  of handi-
work that girls are.   I have  known families where
this  plan has been tested, and I know how it works.
" What  shall I do ?"  asks  the bright, sanguine  boy,
weary from over exercise — " I want something to do ;"
and his fingers  would gladly be  employed  in knit-
ting, plain  sewing,  or worsted work.  " What shall I
do?" questions the child of genius—"I am tired.of
play; I want  something to do;" and needle  as  well
as pencil, wrould occupy him, besides giving facility to
his hands, which thumb-fingered  boys so  often  need.
" What  shall I do ? " says, with quite another intona-
tion, the wreary girl, worn  out with making shirts for
these very brothers; " I am  tired of work; I  want to
run, and walk, and play with hoop, and ball, and kite
out of doors, part of the time."  " But no," answers the
ladylike mother, who sits up half  the  night to em-
broider pantalettes, "you must work—look at me; your
 brothers are boys; they must play."   And thus  both
 boys and girls must suffer!   I  know a case of a  scien-
 tific lady whose mother was so shocked at her engaging
 in  her  brothers'  sports and  frolics,  that whenever she
 discovered that she had been guilty of the crime, she
 put on her a pair  of pantaloons and locked  her in a
 dark closet.
   Parents, in the development of your children, it is for
 you to beautify all uses, not to sexualize them; giving
 to a feminine boy; manhood; and to a  masculine  girl,
                        9* 
102
GLANCES.
womanhood.  The families are few, and blessed, where
the significance of these words  manhood  and woman-
hood is perceived.   God has wisely placed in your fam-
ilies both sexes; proving to you daily the need of that
beautiful recognition of the sexes in childhood.  But
instead of attractions,  capacities,  and adaptations,—
that holy trinity shrined by the  Creator in the children
He has given you, — instead of these guiding you in the
education of your offspring, you are controlled by false
ideas  of  sex,  and  you have  to mourn  consequent
perversions!   I  have  heard mothers say  that " the
boys are not as desirous of education as the girls," and
all the while they were withholding the education their
boys refused, from those very girls who were to become
mothers in  the  future, thus ignoring the  great  fact of
hereditary  qualities,  tendencies,  and impressibilities,
which, eultivated  in  these  girls, would have  prepared
them  to  stamp noble  boys!   Sex  is to  be  felt,  not
talked of, — understood, not explained.
   The miserable  remuneration commonly given to fe-
male teachers, sadly cripples their usefulness.  It weak-
ens their  own estimation of the worth of their services
by showing them at what a low market value those ser-
vices  are  held.  It saps their self-respect  by depriving
their profession of that importance which a just  remu-
neration gives to every occupation, and  which  is one
test of its value and usefulness in every community.  It
lowers them in their own estimation  by the conscious-
ness of being regarded as inferiors, and this conscious-
ness is one cause of the distance which exists between
them  and  the parents  of their pupils.   This  inflicts
upon  the teachers incalculable injury, and by a  law of
compensation it recoils  upon the parents.  If there is
not nearness between the instructor and the parent, both 
GLIMPSES.                 103
suffer severely.   Cooperation of action, affectional sym-
pathy, and similarity of educational measures, cease be-
tween them.   Two influences, if not hostile, at least
discordant, — one at home,  and one at school,— are
operating on the children, and they are electrical con-
ductors conveying  the  result to  the  parents.  Having
inflicted  all the suffering on the parents which such a
state  of  tilings must produce, the injury returns upon
the children.  The teacher is working for nothing but
money, and very little  money; judge how ardent and
enthusiastic her labors will be!  If she is a remarkable
woman she will bring a religious sense of duty to nerve
her thankless toil; but what right have you to hope she
will be a saint, when her inadequate compensation has
set in train a series of  circumstances which make such
virtue a  miracle ?   She is  not now laboring for love,
but for bread, and duty.  The last-named quality is but
a cold, hard substitute  for the warm and radiant senti-
ment of love.  I  have already  said enough to show
that  that is indispensable in  the culture of  children.
The  children are, in the case I have stated, educated
without  it.  Judge whether it is a loss to them!
   With  but few exceptions, the scanty remuneration of
a female teacher places her everywhere, as well as  in
the family circles of her pupils, below par.   She goes
about with the stigma, " only a teacher" appended  to
her name.  " Only  a  teacher," said one  delightful ex-
quisite, " I begin to take a fancy to her: she will marry
me, of course: I have money ; and  she has tastes  to
gratify;  and if I can  stoop  to marry  a teacher, why,
she will be elevated!"   Yes: he has money ; the  glitter-
ing temptation to a life of ease is laid before her ; and
the poor teacher, it may be, her  services underrated,
 and  underpaid, — her importance, a  cipher, — her self- 
104                  GLANCES.
respect gone — her toil thankless — her life disgusting
— herself an underling — pinched, degraded, contemned,
accused, wreary, and miserable, — escapes from her daily
heart-break into private civility and  public  respect, by
marrying an  imbecile!  Who blames her ?   Who pre-
sumes to censure her ?  Let it, at least, be no one who
has consented to the miserable pittance given to many
school teachers.
  Growth, consolidation, words of deep import in con-
nection with  youth  and  education.   Parents, entirely
ignorant of physical laws — do you doubt it ?  Look at
the girls who are kept at  school  during the important
periods from  thirteen  to  fifteen — they should  stay at
home, guided,  guarded, counselled,  by  a  mother who
should  feel it  a sacred thing to sustain that relation.
Heart and soul education neglected, and family uses
are blighted — performed by  necessity, not love — an
incubus rests upon them.   I see  that in time, this sub-
ject will be presented by some abler mind, and then  the
need of a class of teachers will  be  felt for these girls
who will throw memorizing away and let reading, con-
versation, composition, and declamation develop lan-
guage for  the utterance  of thought.   Two or  three
hours  a day, with a  well  qualified  instructor, will do
more at that  age to create and foster  a love of improve-
ment than double the time  spent  in  ordinary  school
duties, and would be conducive to physical, as well as
mental health.   In my travels, I have found children in
the country, not only more healthy and  hardy, but more
observant, more original, and more fond of study, than
in cities.  This is  probably owing to their devoting  but
one half the year to school discipline.  Then, too, some
of the finest  minds I  have met  among teachers, were
not drilled in school  from childhood.  They had eaten, 
                     GLIMPSES.                 105

and rested; drank and  paused;  learned  and labored.
Our dyspeptic tendencies as a nation, have much to do
with  this overworking,  overstocking, overstuffing, the
poor baby brains.   The stomach complains loudly ; — I
reverence its determination  to report the grievances  at
head-quarters!
  The perversion of education in regard  to head and
heart, and the  neglect of both, are all around us.  This
is a plain truth.   Our youth are striving to compromise
between acquisition, and a "genteel" application of  it.
Labor is now considered a necessity:  how to avoid  it,
is one of the great questions of  the age.  Conversation
is absent from social life.   Crowded brains are mustily
mouldering; unable to bring language to the expression
of thought.  This subject of education, in its  broadest
sense, needs to be brought before parents by a practical
teacher, and the most searching examination  made of
the whole ground.  I have  not  aimed to  give it more
than a  passing notice here, for  this is not the  place.
But I hope I have said enough to induce others to give
it earnest scrutiny, instead of a  partial glance; and to
obtain a full view, instead of a mere glimpse. 
CHAPTER  VIII.
" You will excuse me if I do not strictly confine myself to narration, but no-fl
  and then intersperse such reflections as may offer while 1 am writing." —
  John Newton.

  My school experience  was  an excellent  preparative
to my medical studies; for every hour their  application,
here and there, came to my mind.  Facts of the deepest
moment gained in the former life, though often chaotic
and disorderly, were still in my memory;  and the latter
life gave them form and applicability.  The truthfulness,
the consistency, the  general  quality of a  home,  are
labelled on the children composing it: the teacher reads
these  labels, and they become  texts for  her  guidance.
 Let parents  consider what transcripts of themselves
they are sending  forth from day to day !  And when
they are finding fault  with the teacher of their children
for  correcting them, let them pause  just long enough to
discern the beam in their own eye, — to realize  the in-
nermost of themselves, which is developed in the outer-
most of their children.
  Temperaments,  hereditary  tendencies, were  forced
upon my observation as  a teacher;  and, unconsciously
to myself, problems were then  presented, which in after-
life were to be solved. How  rare is obedience to par-
 ents ; and  how instantaneously  the teacher perceives
the state of a new pupil in this respect!   The very first
tone  of the  voice, tells  all.   The  fountain of home
      (10G) 
GLIMPSES.
107
poisoned, and you can foresee  how black and baleful
will be the whole river of individual life.   Home obedi-
ence is, at once, the necessity and the test of love; and
it l£ads upward to obedience to the divine  command-
ments.  Every child  who is  wisely directed at home,
carries a healthful influence with him, or her, to school;
and from this source the teacher derives new life, energy,
and enjoyment in  her pursuits.
  My school-room had another  mission for me.  I was
destined there  to  learn  my first  lesson  on seduction.
My heart sickens  in  recalling it, for it was.then terrific
to me.   A beautiful, gifted child, from  Maine, sixteen
years of age — as ignorant at sixteen, as my girls  of six
or eight years — was sent  to my school.   When I ac-
cepted the office of teacher, I felt bound to exercise the
greatest self-denial in  sustaining it.  I heard the lessons
out of school, which the poor child's shame prevented
her  from reciting  in it.   My  sympathy was drawn out
to the ignorant one desiring knowledge.   I was uncon-
sciously approaching  a crisis in which one of the  sores
of social life, (which I hope yet to see cauterized,) would
be laid open to my inspection!
  Wealthy profligates who have yet sufficient physio-
logical knowledge to guard their health, lure to the city,
poor  girls — sweet, pure, and  trusting — perhaps  or-
phans— perhaps motherless — perhaps, as in this case,
fatherless.  These vile  seducers express an interest in
their  education,  and a  willingness  to  send  them  to
school; and thus decoy the unwary.   All this time, they
are  marking them for victims.  The poor children  are
boarded out respectably, dressed neatly, and quietly led
along step by step, to extravagance.  This is an easy
road to ruin.   Their doom is then sure!
  If virtue could be affected, — if it was but a  mask 
108
GLANCES.
which vice could put on at its pleasure,— I might have
been blinded in this  case to  what was going  on.   A
leaden dulness seized this beautiful child; the ruddy
glow vanished  from her  face ; symmetry  of form was
gone;  a  pallid languor overspread' her features;  mind
and soul were blighted;  and a feeling  of  repulsion,
blended  with tenderness  for the fallen, filled my mind.
Was it not a terrible lesson, and one to awaken sad and
earnest thought!   It was my first lesson of this quality
of vice.  I had seen  the unfortunate of my own sex,
diseased, bloated, loathsome — allured to  sin by man,
and he accepted in society with fine broadcloth  and kid
gloves.   But  here, before my eyes, was innocence in
the hour of its  betrayal — beauty  departed — intelli-
gence  dying out — and  frankness  destroyed  by  de-
ception and compromise  !  My heart aches now, with
a  memory of  the  feelings that pained  it  then;  and
when, in after-life, I pursued  this subject still further, I
learned ^s a. fact, that these wealthy  libertines, when
they grow weary of their victims, who have saerificed
all for them, sometimes — can I write it! — yes, I will,
for it is truth ! — they pay — pay a young clerk, or some
poor young man, a certain sum, or give him a certain
business as a dower, if he will marry the one they wish
to displace for  a new favorite!  I am not exaggerating
here.   I speak  from knowledge.   Go into life — search
with  scrutiny — lift concealing veils — tenderly  probe
wounds  — and you shall find ample corroboration  of
these  facts.  A physician knows it all.   I do not say
you will find all the wealthy thus  base — God forbid!
 There are men, pure and true and high,  who  count
their wealth by millions.  But they are, too often, ex-
ceptions to my charge.  Profligacy is very general, and
is shamefully tolerated:  houses of  assignation abound; 
GLIMPSES.
109
their bolted  doors  swing open very noiselessly to the
clink of a heavy purse, and tongues are very silent there !
This, my first experience in the social depravity of which
I speak, left  an impress on my soul which will never
be effaced.   I  had loved my home; I now reverenced
parents who  had never laughed, or  jested at, or slight-
ingly alluded to, love or marriage.  Affection and feeling
had been sanctified by them ; so that no ideas of light-
ness on these great subjects have ever been presented to
me;  and I never remember a  speech from either of
them, which  could in any way lead my  mind to con-
sider  marriage a necessity.   The recreative hours of
life were shared with my parents; thus perhaps was I
spared  hearing those inuendoes which soil the  soul.
The love of  parents  was made a subject for conversa-
tion ;  the love for a sister was kept before the mind by
language;  the love of kindred, and  its responsibilities,
frequently alluded  to; but the conjugal relation was
lived—not talked of.  Therefore, no jests about beaux
and  belles — no  flirtation or  coquetry — were ever in
place at my home.
   As heart-histories have opened to  me, in my medical
life, the  eternal spring — the newness — the sacredness
wiiich invests these subjects in my mind, has given me
great power over my patients.  The physician must not
only be  the healer, but  often the consoler.  No mere
hackneyed professional knowledge could  have so often
illuminated the mind, and given me the skill to say the
right word at the right time, with childlike trust in its
efficacy.  Nor  could  childhood have  so  informed my
life, if childhood had  not been so true.   Let the affec-
tions of the heart be lived out legitimately in early days
at home, and  sacred  fires will  light the  heart  for  ever,
                        10 
110
GLANCES.
whose interior flame  will always irradiate life, and
enable us to distinguish the counterfeit from the real.
  I sorrowed  at my experience of this case of seduc-
tion ;  but, now, I am thankful for it; for  every  positive
experience gives powder to my will, and courage  to meet
these  evils with whatever remedy I can command.
  My school  was commenced in April, 1827, and in
1833,  a change passed over my life: a new call for con-
sideration was heard — a loud  one too.   My sister's
health was the point in our family, — the nucleus around
which all our desires clustered.   We asked — wre look-
ed — w^e  wondered!  Is there no permanent hope ? —
no balm in Gilead ?  In the fulness  of  time we were
answered.
  On the thirtieth of June, 1833,  I  saw a physician,
Mrs. Mott, who, with her husband, had come to Boston
to establish themselves in practice:—they wrere  English
people.   I had called  on her the day before,  but  she
could not see me.  I remember vividly my conversation
with  her: her sympathizing manner as I unfoldad  my
sister's case, was comfort to me; and  after hearing me
patiently, she said she thought my sister could be cured.
We were open to all sorts of opposition for even think-
ing of such a  thing as employing " a quack! "  But we
were weary and tired out with  " regulars;"  and it did
not occur to us that to die under regular practice, and
with medical etiquette, was better than any other way.
Affection works out her sums by different rules.  Even
conversing with a new mind awakened hope; and it is
often  in this way, rather than by a change of treatment,
that invalids are benefited.   I  knew  this,  experiment-
ally.  To be sure I regretted, with others, the bombast
of the advertisements the Motts' printed, and the trum- 
GLIMPSES.
Ill
peting of the certain cures that would result from their
practice; but, behind all  this, was a  something new,
which offered at least a change of treatment, if not a
chance of cure.
  On  Monday, July 1st,  Mrs. Mott and  her  husband
came to our house  in Fleet street.  They pronounced
the case consumption, and took it — expressing much
sympathy for us, and evidently attracted to the invalid.
Here was my first thought of woman as  a physician;
and yet this was but a partial  exhibition, for her hus-
band was at her side, — giving to her position some
gloss of what the world calls propriety, and you felt his
power as well as  hers.   They commenced their treat-
ment.  My  sister followed their directions faithfully:
our mother  was, as ever, the efficient nurse; and I, the
messenger back and forth.
   This year we commenced paying the  mortgage on
our house.  Some  of my readers  will understand  the
deep gratitude that filled our souls as the fetters began
to  drop away from our homestead.   My own love of
freedom for myself, revolted against  even  the bondage
that held our home: I wanted that also to be  free.
 We attended personally  to all  our business  matters;
 and the result proved to  us the need of  so doing, and
 furnished me with  an experience to arouse others to do
 likewise.
   My sister's health commenced improving.   Her hope
 was healthfully stimulated; new influences were doing
 a good  work for  her.    She  began  to gain  strength.
 After an absence of three years  and four months, she
 again went to church!  This was  new life for us.  Our
 home  was  once  more  brightened, gladdened,  and
 cheered.  As her case was so intricate, she was generally
 visited by both Dr. Mott  and his wife.  An attachment 
112
GLANCES.
sprang  up between us and them;  and in September
they made me an offer to come to their residence, and
write for them.  I was so troubled with frequent head-
aches, that I was  not loth  to take  a  respite from my
school duties; and my mother  was ready to allow —
nay, accept cheerfully — any change in my favor.  So
I engaged an  old  friend and neighbor—Miss C----,
to take  my school for six months, and accepted my new
occupation.  My whole  soul embarked  in  this move-
ment ; it was not without a purpose; all my anxious
hours with my sister had deepened the instincts which
pointed to the medical profession.  The zeal with which
I engaged in it, will be best understood by my intimate
friends.   Yet the ardency of my feelings was transitory
— for I thought I should probably return  to  my school
in six months, laden with  a new experience, and no
more; but still there  was the undefined phantom of a
possibility  floating in my  mind,  which rendered  me
passive.  I was twenty-eight years old that year — four
times seven.   My mother was three times seven when
she married, and twice seven years elapsed before my
birth.  I then had a sort of faith in these cycles of mys-
tical sevens, and have it still.  So  I left my  school, and
adventured on a new life.  When I was not occupied
in waiting, I passed my time at  home.  My daily joy at
getting  there was  only excelled  by my sister's gaining
in strength, and being able to come to Dr. Mott's house
and  see me ; — for she gradually recovered!  Her first
long walk was to the residence  of  Dr. DixwTell in Som-
erset  street, where she went to pay her bill.  I could
bring up from memory the most ridiculous remarks that
were  made about  us—my giving up my  school —
trusting in foreigners — resorting to quacks — and the
like!  We were not of the metal to mind such nonsense. 
GLIMPSES.
113
We had starved  for food, and where was the wheat?
We had thirsted  for waters, and where wras the  well ?
The doubt, uncertainty, and inefficacy of medical prac-
tice had  been our portion;  and the best physicians
had given up an  only sister!  We were then solving  a
difficult problem.  In  February, 1834,  Dr. Mott and
wife solicited us to take unoccupied rooms in their house
—urging  as  a reason, the great need  of  a change fot
my sister.  Added to this, was my absorbing  interest in
my new relations;  for my letters to patients, joined to
the growing consciousness that I was to be a physician,
began to fill  my soul with a  satisfaction  unknown be-
fore.   Our dear  mother yielded  to all these circum-
stances, and we  leased for a year, the whole of our
house in  Fleet street,—the family who had occupied
it with us, having opportunely moved  out at that very
time.  I  shall  avoid  the reproach of being  termed  an
enthusiast, by omitting to detail the joy that pervaded
our souls at sister's recovery, which  overbalanced every
other  consideration — even those of  leaving  our old
home for a  year! — relinquishing  househeeping, and
meeting  the many changes that come  with  such  an
event.  In March, our house was let.  Mother and sis-
ter boarded  at Dr. Mott's;  our rooms were adjoining;
we furnished them;  and there we  commenced  a very
peculiar life.   We were very much together.  Mother
was very useful  to the  family, though only a boarder.
   A faithful servant was taken ill in the house,  and in
despite of every  care and  attention, she died there.   It
was our privilege to assist in nursing  her; and when I
saw that dear sister of  mine  ministering  to another, it
seemed a dream.  The nineteenth  of March, 1834, on
which  we moved from Fleet  street, is epochal  to me.
 Time has never weakened my love for the North End.
                         10* 
114
GLANCES.
There is a  fascination now, at fifty, in  living over in
memory those  years — that childhood — that home —
associated with those ancient streets and wharves;  but
to every one there  comes  a  " fulness  of time,"  and
change is demanded.   Happy  are those who can  per-
ceive these  epochs, for they are  guide-marks to paths
wiiich lead  through the tangle of life.  Sad is it for
those who see them not — or who slight them,  and for
fear of public sentiment, or private ridicule, or of change,
turn their backs upon them.  There are  moments —
who cannot respond to this? — when, with a lightning
glance, the mind sees  its need — the  soul beholds its
duty — and the past, present, and future rush up to the
vision, with command, counsel, or warning.   Hear the
sad voices all  around us, telling of what  might have
been, but is not!  "I let my opportunity  slip," says
one.    " The time  once was  for me,"  says another.
" Could I have gathered  courage at that  moment, all
would have been well." " Had I resisted only the  first
temptation!"  "Had  I  not drank  the first glass!"
" Had I perceived the openings of Divine Providence,
how  different would have been my life! "  And so the
lamentations continue, all in the key of the one slighted
epoch.  The loss of a single opportunity has  changed a
whole life.  We need to  consider  this subject more
earnestly.   It points to the great  law of  our  individual
responsibility.  When we are  willing to see with  our
neighbor's eyes, hear with his ears,  or  taste with his
mouth, then, his opinion in regard to what is  of  infinite
consequence, can be absolutely  taken, with consistency.
But it becomes  us to do our own thinking, and not send
it out to our neighbor  to  have him  do it for us.  I do
not wish to  be  understood to mean, that we  are not to
be guided in some degree by the feelings and percep- 
GLIMPSES.                 115
tions  of others.   There is  a reckless disregard  of  the
opinions of the world which is as reprehensible  as  the
opposite vice.   But  this  ultra subserviency to other
people's notions on the one hand, and this ultra do n't-
care-ism on the other, are the Scyila and Charybdis of
social life.
  At  the period on which  I  have here paused, I was
wide awake on these subjects.  I  found myself daily
analyzing very curious compounds.  " How delighted
you must be at your sister's  recovery!" — then in the
same  breath —" you  are not thinking of studying to
become a doctor ? " — and  the tone of the last sentence
would contain such a sneer!
  I remember  that in this very month of March, we
put off our mourning for our  father, having worn it for
six years and a half.   To have been shrouded in black
all that time!   A change came over us, my sister  and
myself put on colors  again.   This action had much to
do with our cheerfulness.   It was  an offering of grati-
tude.   The straw bonnet and buff ribbon appears be-
fore me at this moment!   I  cannot now conceive the
mental state that induced  us  to wear our mourning so
long.   We had lived with our father's spirit; w^e  had
cheerfully entered on life's  duties.   I think my sister's
sickness must have been the sombre cloud that kept us
so enveloped in darkness on this subject.  It is a great
thing to realize the life of the soul so fully, that we can-
net consistently shroud our bodies in mourning, wiien
it drops its mantle.  There are chaste and  appropriate
habiliments that  might be  worn in commemoration of
the event, or to  symbolize any feeling a Christian can
rightly entertain  with regard to  the  departed.  The
Quakers afford us a  lesson in this respect; —but we
must  all live out our own state at such times, otherwise 
116
GLANCES.
there will be no freshness in what follows.  I think that
the  gloomy  attire  we w^ear after  the  death  of our
friends, denotes a lack of real faith in immortality.   It
also seems  like the livery of selfishness.  As for fashion-
able mourning — the grief that seeks an ostentatious
expression,
            "----bearing about the mockery of woe •
         To midnight dances and the public show,"

is  an insult to life and to death.   I  have been present
when the last prayer was offered, and the body, properly
attired, was to be  laid in the grave.  There were the
kindred, vulgarly  bedecked by fashion in black: — they
were good  people, but the world  had certain claims on
them then.  Bonnets elegantly  craped,  lying on the
back of the head, keeping the propensities  from  view,
while the moral and intellectual regions were exposed;
the whole appeared telling of late hours, and  extra labor
at short notice ; then, the studied fashionable  movement,
and rustling of the new garments ; — all this made you
feel the  solemn  mockery of  the whole display, and an
atmosphere enveloped these mourners which was cold
and heartless.
   We soon became habituated to the change in our
life, and  were settled again.   My daily duties kept me
in  Mrs.  Mott's  business room.   My letter-writing  to
patients  for her, kept thought active, and the sympathy
I had given to my sister, I now gave to  every sufferer.
Several advised me to study for the profession — saying
that it would always be useful to me — it would enable
me to meet physicians, or  take care  of myself, if need
be.  It wanted not a word — a hint — for  within me
was now the consciousness that it  was  to be!  My
problem was now solved—my foreshadowing realized—■ 
                     GLIMPSES.                 H7

 my intuition ultimated — and my individualism aroused
 to obey the mentors who had for so many years been
 preparing me  to  meet this destiny.   In waking hours,
 in reveries, and in dreams, pictures had been painted
 on  the  mind's "mysterious far  away;" and now the
 lenses were given through which they could be viewed.
 A vague and  indistinct  idea  had now taken a form.
 Hopes  and fears  were equally balanced, and uses and
 activities seen in a new light.  Diligence renewed her
 claim, and hope  beckoned on.  I needed  no stimulus
 but the  successful practice of Doctor and Mrs. Mott,
 which was well known, as also that many availed them-
 selves of their  skill.
   I had occasion to visit the Boys' Asylum, on the cor-
 ner of Charter and Salem streets, where fifty indigent
 children  were carefully looked after.
   At this time, my mother's  eldest brother came  to
 visit us.  He  was  eighty-two  years  of age; hale,
 hearty, and bright.   Revolutionary anecdotes kept  us
 wide awake in his company.  His romantic life, and
 unheard of adventures, made him the lion of the family
 party.  At  his advanced  age he could distance  the
 younger branches of the  family  as a  walker.   The
 Wentworth element was felt in his presence. I remem-
 ber our regret that the  old Bible  containing the  family
 record of his father, had been  destroyed.  How many
 valuable records of the past are thus carelessly lost!
   I was absent from home when Dr. Dixwell passed
 away from earth.   I well  remember a letter my sister
 wrote me describing her feelings, when looking at  his
 remains.  He had been our family physician for years,
 and had attended all the  branches of our kindred: —
 for my mother was so  particular  in her selections, that
her choice became the choice of our relations.  I have 
118
GLANCES.
heard my mother speak  of his faithfulness to the poor
when he was Dispensary physician, and  of the  many
friends he made among them.   Many families in this city
can bear testimony to his medical skill. My interest in
him, as a physician, was never weakened; but I regret-
ted his professional etiquette and conservatism  in my
sister's case.   I do not know  how he would  have borne
the varied changes  in  medical life through  the pathies
and isms of this  day.   His earnest tones still linger in
my memory; as, also, his kindly bearing at the time of
my father's removal.   I would have been glad to have
met him as my own professional life opened.   Seven
years after the removal of  our  dear  father, found us
medical  students,  with  opportunities for study, and
cases to investigate. 
CHAPTER  IX.
" They unto whom we shall appear tedious are in nowise injured by us,
 because it is in their own hands to spare that labor which they are not
 willing to endure." — Hooker.

  It  was at this period of my life that  I was  first
arrested by the horrors of intemperance, and awakened
to a view of its dreadful havoc, its million crimes, mise-
ries, and sorrows.  I had once, when visiting a beauti-
ful woman — a  foreigner — wiiose children attended
my school — seen delirium tremens.  It was a fearful
shock to my nervous system.   Dishevelled hair, glaring
eyes, partial nudity, in one of my own sex, was terrific
to me.  Of course I knew of the evils of stimulants, but,
with this exception, I knew nothing from personal obser-
vation.   I was  now to sleep  in the house of an unfor-
tunate  victim — worn  out, anxious, haggard wives —
sad, wretched, frightened children — peopled my brain.
Life has brought before me serious cases ; but it needs
the experience of a Gough to  portray, even faintly,  the
sins and the  wretchedness that grow out of this  every-
day vice.
  When Mrs. Mott and her daughter sailed for Europe,
my sister went with  them to New York.   It was  my
longest  separation   from  her.   The time was now
approaching for  us to resume housekeeping, and once
more sit  around  a family table.  We returned to a
home with feelings of gratitude for  the  experiences  we
                                             (119) 
120                 GLANCES.
had  obtained  since  we left Fleet street.  True,  we
were saddened by the  dark and overwhelming charac-
ter of  many of these experiences; yet, spanning every
cloud, was the bow of promise.
  The reader may be  assured  that  the  medical life,
deepened  in   interest  as  physiological,  anatomical,
pathological  laws were  unfolded.   Hours  spent  in
study,  come bacK to me,  losing none of their  fresh-
ness by the  lapse of years.  Constant  illustrations  of
benevolence, nobility, and intellect, sacrificed, in various
ways, to appetite, were  forced upon me.  Home, I still
saw, makes  life either heaven or hell, — a receptacle for
angelic or demoniac natures.
  The first week in July, 1835, we recommenced house-
keeping,— once more  we were  a  family — home, that
magic  word, was  ours to enjoy, — not in Fleet street —
not at  the North,  but at the West end, — we had been
only temporarily located in Chambers street.  Our first
Sunday was sanctified by the presence of dear and tried
friends at our tea-table.  Rev. Mr. Jones of Gloucester,
whom I  have mentioned, was the attraction; others
came to meet him.  Sweetly does the memory of that
faithful mother arise who blest this home,  who counsel-
led, guided, and guarded her children with such ceaseless
care.   I wonder the pleasures of memory, imagination,
and association are not more vividly realized in connec-
tion with every article of household furniture or per-
sonal  use.  These lines were written on  a table  my
mother had, when married: my grandmother's looking-
glass hung near me: I  was sitting in an old arm-chair,
made sacred by their use of it for more than half a cen-
tury ;  and chairs  were around me with  the  same white
dimity covers  on them that welcomed  me  into  life.
There was  on our mantel, as  the central ornament, a 
GLIMPSES.
121
beautiful porcelain image of Milton — the arm of the
figure resting on a pile of books, from which depended
a scroll, bearing in golden letters, the inscription —

       " Into the heaven of heavens, I have presumed,
         An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air."

  I have sometimes  asked myself whether that beauti-
ful image has not definitely affected my life!   My baby
eyes stared at it — my baby voice talked to it.  I have
it now.  I have the porcelain shepherd and shepherdess
that flanked it oh either side — the colored  figures, with
elfin  flowers  springing around their  feet — why, my
childish mind was filled by these things with the ideal,
the beautiful, and the true.   I  turn to them with affec-
tion and involuntarily compare those times with this
displacing age, this hotel age, this boarding-house age,
this auction age!   Household charms are rather foreign
subjects to some people, now.
  A deeper consciousness of the purpose of  life  now
took  possession  of  us, — we  continued  our  medical
studies with unabated zeal.   Our previous experience
was of great  use.  Medical treatment, rather  than an
investigation of hygeinic laws, had heretofore been our
lesson.   Medication  we had  seen rather too much of.
Medical  science,  full of unnecessary details, lacked, to
my mind, a soul; it was a huge, unwieldy body — dis-
torted, deformed, inconsistent,  and  complicated.  Pa-
thology,  so seldom taking into consideration idiosyn-
cracies, temperamental conditions, age, or the state of the
spiritual  body, would have disheartened me, had I not
early  perceived that  the judgment — the  genius — of
each  physician must decide  his diagnosis.   Thera-
peutics— think of the many hundred volumes  on that
                        11 
122
GLANCES.
subject, which it would blind the  eye and confuse the
brain of any student to wade through !
  General and special  anatomy, — shall I ever forgive
the  Harvard  Medical  College for depriving me of a
thorough  knowledge of that science, a knowledge only
to be gained by witnessing dissections  in  connection
with close study  and able lectures ?  Physiology, with
all its thousand ramifications, had a  fascination for me
beyond  all other branches — use,  abuse — cause, effect
— beginning, and end — all were significant in the light
of a science  undarkened  by technicalities, doubtful as-
sumptions, tedious dissertations, controversies, and con-
tradictions.   My  mind  was greedy of knowledge, the
more I investigated, the more I was delighted, wonder-
struck ; — and I was often startled by the rays of light
that unexpectedly shone during my research.  Setting
aside medication, we endeavored to trace diseases to
violated laws,  and  learn  the science of  prevention.
That word — preventive — seemed a  great word to me;
curative, was small beside it.
  At this  time my mother was bereaved  of a widowed
sister, very near and  dear  to  her.   She had often said,
" she asked not for her daughters more  enjoyment to-
gether in  after-life, than they had experienced."  She
left  twro daughters.   Their lives  have been, in some
respects, as one.  Peace to every branch of this family
tree! This aunt was  one of those  cheerful,  trusting
spirits who accept adversity with  a smile, and  always
keep a genial, loving tone  in the  family.   She adhered
to the Episcopal  form  of  worship, as do also  her de-
scendants. I seem to listen now to the beautiful burial-
service of that church,  which solemnized her funeral.
This sorrow was accepted by my mother even with joy;
6 
GLIMPSES.
123
— her  sister had  been  so severe a  sufferer.  Christ
Church will ever be associated with my aunt's mem-
ory ; and Christmas celebrations have a charm, derived
from remembrance of her enjoyment of them, even in
age.   I owe many pleasant hours  in childhood to her;
and, were these  forgotten, my mother's deep sympathy
with her sorrows would still keep  her  before me.  I
I have often heard my mother say — " the mysteries of
Providence are felt by me in the difference of our lives
— my  sister having so  much to  bear in being left a
widow, with three  young  children."  Mother  gave to
her that soul of kindred, which so few understand.  It
is an essence which perfumes life.
   In  September, Dr. Mott died,  and our  tomb  was
opened again for him.   We were with him a great deal
during  his sickness.  His  physicians gave  no hope of
his recovery,  from  the very  first hour  of  his illness.
His dying blessing rests upon me now, " If you should
be called away in a foreign land, may some kind hand
rest on you, and some kind  eye look on you!"   His
death  caused  that household to be broken up.  I have
nothing to say of him,  save that we realized his noble-
ness of conduct on many occasions, and felt thankful
iiat he was removed where the innermost is revealed,
and the ruling love perceived.  The many attentions,
the unvarying kindness, and the  scrupulous propriety,
with which  he always approached us, were all that we
remembered of him when  the outward form  was laid
aside.
   In October,  1835, we removed to the corner of Spring
and Leverett streets, where we lived  some time, adver-
tised, and  began,  as it  were,  our profession.   Our
mother was  then nearly sixty-five years of age — clear
and  bright,  and, as ever, watchful  over  her children. 
124
GLANCES.
Our previous  removal being but temporary, this new
dwelling-place  seemed  more like home.    There we
commenced a  life, fraught with absorbing interest; —
grasping the past to apply it to  the present, and pro-
spectively looking to the future.  My  medical  brother
can recur to his first professional year, and remember
the varied states of mind it induced in  him, and all the
shades of his anxiety.  But he had " regularly "  studied
— had passed through  an approved college, and been
accepted;  and  with a  recognition  from  the medical
faculty, and an M. D. placed at  the end of his name, he
had a capital  to start  upon.   He had older heads to
sustain him — a  code  of laws to  obey — a mistake
would not be  fatal to him, though it  might be to the
patient! — and if  he  reverently looked  to  the  cen-
tre, the centre would kindly regard him.  I said he had
studied before  he practised : — we studied and practised
at the same time ;  for our knowledge seemed very tri-
fling  when  we commenced, and had we  not  been
constantly brought  in contact with the  errors, blunders,
and lack of applicability among the doctors, we might
have  shrunk  from  the  overwhelming  responsibility
attached to the name  of physician.  But the standard
they have placed before the public, will induce many a
commonplace woman to enter  the profession.  Would
this were not so!
   An  opening was now  before us in which many
questions w^ere to be viewed philosophically.  We had
a difficult future to  accomplish.   But hope and industry
are giant helps in emergencies, and now, in mature life,
when  the present  has realized  the  hopes  of the past,
the marvellous powers of these  motives  to  action  is
ever regarded as new, wonderful, and cheering.  Faith
and courage grow  and thrive wherever a  full sense of 
GLIMPSES.
125
our dependence on the Divine is felt.   The outer world
had  opened  upon  us, desiring  to live  lives of use,
divorced from fashion and nonsense; and wiien, through
our childhood,  girlhood,  and  maturity, we had  seen
humanity seeking our home in varied forms,  fettered,
embarrassed, diseased, distressed, and melancholy, we
felt strongly the need of an  inner  centre — a  balance-
wheel— nucleus.  We found it  in  our trust in  the
Divine.  The aspiration for this state gradually brought
it to us; and  its atmosphere of happiness gave  us
energy.  The eyes of those we loved shone on us peace-
fully, inducing rest for strength, or activity for uses.
   A curious  train of thought passed through my brain,
as the novelty of my peculiar  life, and the  conscious-
ness that it was observed by others, was placed before
me.   The Motts were foreigners; their extravagant ad-
vertisements had placed them on the lists of quacks —
that chameleon word which is all black out of the profes-
sion, and all white in it.   One year, cod liver oil is a
quack  medicine; after a while it gets into the  pharma-
copoeia,  and becomes regular!  McMunn's Elixir, etc.
etc., follow it,  and  undergo  a similar change.  The
Motts, being foreigners, were  prosperous.   On the con-
trary, here were Harriot K. and Sarah A. Hunt — native
Bostonians — well known through their parentage, their
character, their life;  and, as " a prophet hath no  honor
in his own country," so it was with us at first.  I am
glad that I remained in my own city; — lived a profes-
sional  life where I was born; — and accepted—nay,
enjoyed — slights and cool recognitions from old friends
and schoolmates, in full faith  that  all would be well in
the end.   Lowell would  have given  more money, but
Boston met a want  beyond money;  and feeling that I
was not doing wrong, I would not  exile myself from my
                      11* 
126
GLANCES.
birthplace;  Boston  was  my birthright—a term  mo
Quaker ever loved more than I did.  My future had ex-
panded, and  still further  expansions beckoned me on.
If true  to-day, to-morrow would be- fair;  and all after
morrows besides.

           " To thine own self be true,
             And it must follow as the night the day,
             Thou canst not then be false to any man."
                                         Hamlet.

   I saw God's appointed  designs  wonderfully worked
out in my life.   Why was I blessed with such parents,
but for a purpose ?   Why was I so privileged in  the
prolongation of my  sister's life,  but for a purpose ?
With these  supports, what imported the whims and
caprices — the  surface-friendships of those who obeyed
not the  demands of truthfulness and obedience — who
were anchored in the fleeting Now — and who kept on
their lips the  adage which has made shipwreck of so
many, " I must do as my neighbors do ? "  It is curious
to observe what a great game of follow-my-leader these
people  play!   There  must be  no  originality in  life;
wiiat everybody does they must do.   It is ridiculous to
see how sedulously many of  us try to shape ourselves
in the same mould.  We  shall next  try to make our
physiognomical expressions all  alike, so imitative have
we become  in  this country.  " I want a  pair of spec-
tacles,"  said an elderly Yankee to an optician.  " I wish
to know the defect of your  sight," replied  the dealer.
" Nonsense!  folly ! " exclaimed the customer, " eyes are
eyes, and spectacles are spectacles, and the  nose is the
bridge for them! "   " But,"  said the optician,  " do n't
you know  our glasses are numbered — that they are
adapted to  farsightedness,  nearsightedness, dimness, 
GLIMPSES.
127
and defects of vision, of varied kinds ? "  " O no!" re-
plied our obtuse and gaping friend, " that is all news! "
We treat our individualisms in the same way.   We fit
our mental and moral visions with glasses well enough
adapted to some one's eyes, but not at all adapted to
our own;  and then rail against some  sensible person
who insists on choosing those through which he can see
best!
  I remember vividly the earnestness — the enthusiasm
— with which we received our first patients.   To  be
sure, they came  along very slowly; but every case that
did come, was a new revelation — a new wonder — a
new study in itself, and by itself.   The need of freedom
of  action — diversity of treatment — was constantly
felt by us.   Very early in medical  life we found our-
selves  differing from our teachers, and escaping  from
formal rules.  We very soon learned not to trust too
much to  medication: — not but that we often saw it
fully successful; but it did not meet our  perception of
the, dignity of  the  human body.   Anatomy had par-
tially opened its treasures to  me; and the wonderful
deposits from the blood to develop, perfect, and sustain
the system, even the bony structure, filled my soul with
reverent  awe: — for  I  never  entered the medical life
through physics, but through metaphysics.  An anec-
dote on bones comes in place here.   A medical journal
noticed that we had advertised ourselves as physicians,
and, by way of a fling  at our presumed  ignorance,
queried if  we knew the difference between the sternum
and the spinal column!  This  was  a thin jest,  to be
sure, the skeleton  of a joke;  but,  as it involved in
its delicate humor the question of our knowledge of the
very trunk of the anatomical  tree, without which, we
could not keep the branches in health, as also anterior, 
128
GLANCES.
posterior, heart, lungs, and nervous system, — as it in-
cluded all  this, it was quite a palpable  hit!  It is but
just  to say that the editor of that journal became our
friend, and I have to thank him for the subsequent use
of his library, and many kindnesses.
  Reverence for  the  human organization had much to
do with my medical life;  and I found myself question-
ing cases of dyspepsia,  constipation, liver  complaints,
and  many  others — begging them to  tell me why they
had  imposed their drawbacks  on  health  and life;  and
they  did tell  me of fearful abuses through ignorance,
passion,  luxury, and vice.  Were not my cases guides
and  mentors ?
  We studied  with unwearying  zeal.   When  our
mother was sweetly asleep, we were  reciting our  les-
sons to each other — investigating every case that  had
been presented to us through the day — often thankful
that  we had  declined cases (and  numerous  were those
we  did decline)  till we were prepared to meet them.
My sister, being gifted in the use of  her  pencil, copied
plates.  Our leisure  hours slipped away like moments,
with  use stamped on every  one of them.   There was
an abiding faith about us, an enthusiasm  which  sur-
prised many  of our tame friends.  They  could  not
understand that barren technicalities, freshened by the
atmosphere of love, blossomed with beauty for  us; or
that  the diseases of others, with a fervent wish for their
removal,  gave us mental life.   So little do we compre-
hend each  other, and so little perceive the  causes of
action which lie  concealed from  the  casual looker on!
Would that we  could be charitable! — so  should we
be true and sympathizing.  Would that we  could trust
more to  our friends! — so would a halo shine  around
us.   In looking  back to  this period  of my life, I  am 
GLIMPSES.
129
forcibly struck with the fewness of those who under-
stood us — with the scarcity of those who even caught
a  glimpse of our  states.   Had  it  not been  for our
mother, how sad would this have  been !  Her experi-
ence of life enabled her to foresee the trials which neces-
sarily attended such an experiment; this was a salutary
corrective to my enthusiasm.
   We administered  medicated  champoo  baths,  and
found them valuable aids in our practice; and had they
not been attended with so much trouble, chiefly because
w^e could not obtain proper assistants to undertake their
management,  we  should  have continued  them.   I
almost regret I ever relinquished them ; for baths given
under the eye of a physician, and combined with suita-
ble  medication,  will  produce  wonderful  effects  on
patients.
   Bathing is  not responsible for the  harm it has done
when used by persons of no judgment.  It is a health-
ful  remedy approved by  our  instincts, and the  fears
timid minds  entertain in  regard to it, are  founded in
ignorance.  Many  persons injure themselves  alike by
intemperance  and abstinence  in  this respect.    The
bodily  laws of action  and reaction   are enigmas to
many; by refusing to examine them, or falsely solving
them, health  is often impaired.  The mere  lack of
proper  friction after  bathing, will  not only neutralize
the good received, but paralyze the  system; and I have
no doubt that many congestions are thus caused.  Then
the improper hours bathers use; their disregard of their
own constitutional tendencies — why it is rather a mar-
vel, with all these drawbacks, that the practice of  ablu-
tion is gaining ground!  What else but harm can result
to the numbers of reckless  sea-bathers who are prodigal
of salt-water baths three months in the year, when the 
130
GLANCES.
other nine are given to idleness, languor, and effemi-
nacy, and hygeinic laws utterly  neglected ?  Bathing,
wisely and  prudently used,  is certainly an  elemental
medicine, of which even all pathies and isms are avail-
ing  themselves  to the  exclusion  of their  washes of
New England rum, and other liquids.  The hydropath-
ists are entitled to full thanks for the  vigorous measures
they have used to awaken public attention to this im-
portant subject.   Some of  their caustic writers  have
finely shown up the human cologne bottles walking our
streets;  and pointed  out  the abominable  insult  and
injury people inflict upon their bodies by allowing filth
to accumulate and remain on their skins, thus preparing
their system for the attacks of fever,  dysentery,  and
other maladies.  Water is more than a medicine for the
body.  " Clean  body, clean  soul,"  is  a saying  with
much truth in it.  We are all, in some degree, the  crea-
tures of outward  influences.  "Cleanliness is next  to'
godliness,"  was John Wesley's favorite maxim.   I am
not sure that it is  not essential thereto.   At any rate, it
tends to induce godliness.   I have observed with pecul-
iar interest, that our leading reformers are hygeinists.
Reverencing the  temple in  which  the spirit dwells,
they furnish every facility for discharging  impurities
and keeping it in the best condition for use.  They look
beyond the material.   The  more truthfully we live to
the laws of nature, the more we are prepared to enter-
tain the idea of freedom in its spiritual,  moral, and civil
application.  This truth has held good with  my pa-
tients.
   I  remember  having  a  little, feeble,  sensitive  child
brought to  me; — one of those  poor children who have
no appetite, because they are always munching; who
cannot sleep, because they are excited by reading or 
GLIMPSES.                  131
story-telling before they are put to bed; — children who
are always told by the well-meaning mother, how deli-
cate they are;  and consoled for  being  delicate, by the
remark that  she herself  was always just the same!
Well, on examining this  case, I found the mother had
only washed  the child  partially,  because the  little girl
feared water — would cry and become excited, on its
application.   There was an absolute need of daily bath-
ing in this  case;  and also the need of removing  her
fears.  So I looked about for a way to  meet this poor
spoiled child, who really touched my feelings.   " Now,"
said I, " my little dear, you shall  not be bathed all over
every day.   I do not  care to have your arms, hands,
neck, or face washed, for they have an air bath."  The
little  thing did not dream of the  ruse, but cheerfully
consented.   She was placed sitting  in a  bath-tub; her
mother washed her freely except the interdicted parts;
but pride and  cleanliness  stepped in, and she took the
complete bathing  to which she became  by this means
accustomed.  Every physician has found cases of water-
phobia.  It is wonderful  what dirty appliances have
taken  the place of pure water, " whose manufacturer is
the Deity."   Babyhood is not cheated of its demands
here; and, as it is  my symbol of purity within, I would
advise all persons  to keep their skins as clean and soft
as in babyhood. 
CHAPTER  X.
" Every act done in the great work of human progress, will ever live — every
  act which tends to the annihilation of error is a little rock started from the
  mountain top, which gathers force on its way downward, and starts others
  at every bound.  Let me then start a little pebble if nothing more.  Every
  act which tends to the establishment of the reign of truth, is a germ set in
  the soil, which in time will become a mighty tree.  Let me then plant a
  little acorn, that it may shoot up, and by the richness of its foliage, and the
  stateliness  of its form, may add to the beauty and grandeur of the millen-
  nial plains." — Anon.

  The soul growTs strong through struggles, and acquires
bravery by conquering obstacles.   With  a valiant spirit,
life is alive.  My school  was not  forgotten;  its  experi-
ences were  a capital to draw upon: — but I could not
return  to  it again.   I  had lived  that dispensation
through.    Only  keep family relations  sacred — keep
home the  centre — then,  fear not to launch out into the
deep, for you steer by the polar star.   I  was  now living
away from the North End; but my frequent walks to
visit my kindred were still enjoyed,  and my childhood
lived over again  there.  Copp's Hill was none the less
interesting because I no longer lived in  its very neigh-
borhood;  and Christ  Church bells the less  captivating
because they were heard at a remoter distance.
  My  mother's eyes  became more  and more trouble-
some ;  but, in despite of her dimness of vision, it was
wonderful how much  she still accomplished.   Her men-
tal  perception gave her remarkable power, and, joined to
     (132) 
GLIMPSES.
133
 her reflective faculties,  enabled  her  to  fulfil  her  pur-
 poses.   We had kept our fears to ourselves in regard to
 her; but the time came when she was w-illing to receive
 medical advice.  The veil  which obscured  her  vision
 grew thicker, and the rays of light more uncertain.  Dr.
 Walker  came  to see her.   As .ever, he was efficient,
 kind, and genial.  After a few days, he performed the
 operation of couching; — it affected her nervous system
 severely.  Her  age was against hope, but  still  she was
 anxious for  the  operation.   How much is learned from
 these family disciplines, if we  only receive them in  a
 filial spirit!
   Very  early in my professional life  my mind was
 attracted  to the subject  of remuneration for women's
 labor;  and  their weeks, months, and years  of steady
 application,  with results so  saddening, forced me to
 earnest thought.  I had an ample opportunity to inves-
tigate the position of women in' this relation.  " I have
saved one hundred dollars," said a seamstress who had
labored  diligently for many  years, " and  that  is only
owing to  my good health."   "I have not one cent laid
up," said  another; "my board  and clothing  take all I
can earn, for sick-headaches often keep me at home."
" I was  obliged, after my husband's death,  to part with
two of my children, so smaU is the pay I receive," said
a third.   Such appeals have been  around me for years.
 They are all the more harrowing when ill-health deepens
the tones  of sorrow in which they are uttered, and when
they create doubts in Divine Providence.  Man gives a
few hours of his time for a certain  number of  years,
and, with industry and  frugality, he gets a home and a
competence as his reward.  What does the laboring
woman get  for her years of toil, industry, and frugality?
 Oh! ray brother! women have been pondering these
                        12 
134                  GLANCES.

subjects for a long, long time; and their hour of utter-
ance has come!  Men alone are not to blame.  The
other sex has a large share in these wrongs.   " Call
after the  work," said a fashionable woman to a delicate
young seamstress; " I think you  can carry the bundle.
My coachman is always busy,  and if I send my other
man-servant out, the chamber  girl  has to  answer  the
door-bell."  " Call  again, and I will pay you;  I can't
to-day," said another moneyed woman to her seamstress.
" As much as that for this work ! " exclaimed an aston-
ished lady, who was preparing  to make a tour through
Europe ;  " why, I thought it would be much cheaper: "
and this was  the way she could talk to  a  widow who
mourned over the declining health of a daughter!  I
could fill pages with such cases; for many dress-makers
and  seamstresses are and w^ere  my patients, and tender
tones and earnest interest caused them often to breathe
out their histories — oh!  how sad  they were!   But
there were always  gleams of light,  and they cheered
me.
  Our business gradually increased.   One cure opened
the way for other cases ; and an enforcement of dietetic
rules, bathing, and  so forth, soon placed on a perma-
nently healthy platform  those who consulted us.  Our
diagnosis was  not  copied from  that of any eminent
M. D.   Indeed it  required  a  strong  and determined
effort never to speak disparagingly of the profession, or
of physicians, but to be quiet and candid.   Very care-
fully did  we venture  out into  the  broad ocean — prefer-
ring, at the outset,  to keep along shore, till experience
could trim the sails, and confidence pilot a larger craft.
Soon, opportunities  were offered us to visit country
towns; I accepted them cheerfully;  my sister remained
at home.   From these journeys I gathered rich  knowl- 
GLIMPSES.                 135
 edge ; so many  " given up cases " were presented to
 my  notice! — also chronic diseases of an aggravated
 character.   These  last were  opportunities for friendly
 relations  and  examinations ; but not cases to  be ac-
 cepted  professionally.  My field of observation broad-
 ened wonderfully ; — if hospitals  closed their  doors to
 woman, except as  patient  and nurse, the public were
 beginning to perceive the inconsistency — nay, injustice
 — of the  act!   We  had, before long, patients from the
 highly cultivated, the delicate, and the sensible portions
 of the community.
   My mother  always objected, to our practising mid-
 wifery;  her reasons were  satisfactory.  In this early
 stage of woman in the  profession, there was no physi-
 cian to speak one encouraging word to  us, or to whom
 we could apply.   So alone, unaided by any, we estab-
 lished our own code of laws, and wisely concluded not
 to visit patients at their homes ; for we knew if we did,
 doctors would say, as we were women, that we were
 insinuating ourselves into families, and weakening con-
 fidence ifi the  faculty.   To remain in  our house, and
 receive  calls, was the best  opening for  the life  in this
 city.  The  arrangement was  productive of much good
 to physician as well as to patient.  Many  home-bound,
 chamber-ridden, used for years to medical calls, would
 make a desperate effort, saying " live or die."   We will
 go and  hear what those  strange women have to say to
us ; that very resolution  was the dawn of light, the be-
ginning of new life to them, and a fit preparation for
obedience to those  physical  laws which we insisted
upon as absolutely necessary  to a cure.  Many chronic
cases presented  themselves;  also diseases of  children,
in curing which, my sister always excelled me.  Occa-
 sionly wre visited a patient who  was confined to her 
136
GLANCES.
bed;  but we found  too often  that  there was so much
opposition to the attendance of a woman as physician
among the friends of the  invalids, that the good of our
visits was neutralized.   We knew by  experience  all
about these states of mind, and we respected  the suf-
ferers' position.
   We paid our  mortgage on our  house in Fleet street
at this period.   Who could, or would, forget that thrill
of joy as, with means in hand, we entered the residence
of William Parker !   We had lived  carefully, economi-
cally, but not meanly;  and thus we were  enabled to
gratify this strong desire.
   Mrs. Mott returned from Europe, and came  to our
hdme.   She remained with us in  practice for some
time; but a great change  had passed over my mind in
her absence, both as  regards  diseases  and remedies.
This  did not entirely  alter my relation  to  her; yet it
was well for us all when she removed to  New York.
   There are periods in our lives  when connections which
are injurious to us must be surrendered, they cannot be
dissolved without violence.   Misunderstandings  take
place— sharp rebukes  and unkind tones wound us —
they are  needful lest our  tenderness  should strengthen
and nourish ill-placed confidence.   Such seasons of trial
have  swept over me twice.  After  they had passed I
thought of them, thankfully, as  one thinks of a startling
thunderstorm that was needed to  clear the air.  Let
these  experiences be  accepted as tests of our inward life
and filial obedience to truth and duty.  When we must
break an intimacy, let  it be done firmly, but not with-
out charity.  We cannot read the whole story of an-
other's life — influences,  impressions, and  prejudices
may  cloud  our vision,  unconsciously  to  ourselves.
Reverently remembering our  responsibilities, and reso- 
GLIMPSES.
137
lutely  divorcing  ourselves  from  evil surroundings  in
obedience to the voice of conscience, let us also bear in
mind  the  admonition,  " Judge not, that ye  be not
judged."  The storm  passed — the bow appeared, and
overarched a home; we were a family again.
   At this time, my father's  only sister who had always
resided in the old homestead, was  subject to  attacks
which  preluded  her removal to  the  spiritual  world
Like my father,  she had no fear of death ; she  con-
versed with the same ease,  and made all  her  arrange-
ments, as if she was going 'a journey.  Our repeated
walks  to and  from Charter street, at  this time, were
pregnant with thought.  Her grateful  recognition  of
these attentions, her shrewd remarks  and keen wit were
more than a recompense for braving wind or storm.  In
September, 1837, she  passed away as quietly  as my
father.   I settled up her little business  matters.
   John  Murray's remains  were  removed about  this
time to  Mount Auburn, after having been interred  in
the Chapel Burial Ground  for twenty-two years.  The
services  in the church were  very interesting.
   November  came  again,   and found  me thirty-two
years  of age,  childlike,  resting on  a  mother.   This
childish  feeling is very strong in me.  It has sometimes
fearfully conflicted  with my  dignity —or rather, my
attempts  at dignity.   I am willing to take upon  myself
responsibilities for.hours; when they are  over, I want
to be a child again.
   The last month of this year we were  sorely tried by
the decline and  departure  of our old  friend, Edmund
Wright.   " The chamber where the good  man meets
his fate is privileged beyond the common walks  of life."
Hours   of intimacy, friendship,  and kindliness were
                        12* 
138
GLANCES.
lived  over again in the prospect of his removal.  We
owTed much to this single-hearted man.  He it was who
was bondsman for mother  after my father's removal
— who  trusted us.  True himself,  he dared  be true to
others.   Looking within religiously, he looked  with-
out wisely and kindly.  There  are  many to bless his
memory.  He rebuked foolishness and sin not so much
by  words,  as by an  upright, natural, and useful life.
His children and  grandchildren are blessed in his true,
unselfish  example.  The latter, who  perpetuate his
name, have never  known  him  personally;  but  they
have an inheritance, through him, of probity and worth
which will be their best protection.  Edmund Wright
was a firm believer in Universalism ; one of that number
— indeed, that particular friend spoken of in John Mur-
ray's  life, who was so  much to him, and cheered his
declining days.
  Without the influence of my mother's tempered and
religious nature,  my  profession  would  have  had dan-
gers for me, it was so startling, so intensely interesting,
and successful.  In ten years after my father's decease,
our homestead was unfettered and free, and our  profes-
sional lives respectable to many.   Our struggles never
seemed hard to us, our labor was so intimately blended
with enjoyment;  and the struggles' made life even more
absorbing.  By our own efforts we  had cancelled the
mortgage on our homestead.  Our next step was to
continue frugal and painstaking that we might again
live in our own house;  for  our mother  so enjoyed her
own home that the word tenant grated on her ear, as it
did on ours.   Then, at  times, a  fear of blindness took
possession of her — momentary, to be sure, but it deep-
ened the desire for a permanent home, and this was a 
GLIMPSES.                 139
healthy  stimulus  for  us.   In 1838, after three years
practice, a  home  in  the western  part of the city was
presented for our consideration.
   I  do not dare  to picture the events, which, in the
course of our professional life, we became acquainted
with: — the heart-histories  of women which were re-
vealed to us as women.  Cold and tame minds might
think there  was a design  to exaggerate rather  than
daguerreotype;  but no romance  I have ever read  has
portrayed such  harrowing scenes, — such inward  vital
experiences  as we were daily made familiar with.  The
need of  the  medical  profession  being  shared with
women became every week,  month, and year, more  a
fixture in the mind ; and the gross impropriety of its
present exclusiveness, became more evident as facts
thickened around  me.  I was particularly attracted to
mental diseases.  I often found physical maladies grow-
ing out of concealed  sorrows.
   We were frequently surprised  by the  successful  ter-
mination  of many of our cases  through prescriptions
for mental states, and the causes  of diseases, the qual-
ity of remedies for them became a deeper study.  Love
for our calling gave life to the calling.   Every fact we
gathered  had  its use;  and while the perceptive facul-
ties  were stimulated, the reflective were educated for
guidance.
   I  have  stated that  I visited many country  towns.
Lynn wras one of these.  There was no railroad  to that
place then; — once a month I went thither, profession-
ally,  in the stage-coach.   In  1838, the friend with whom
I had always stopped, moved to New Hampshire;  and
it w7as in making arrangements for a new location, that
I  became acquainted  with  Mary S. Gove,  now Mrs.
Nichols.   She was then keeping school, and, for a short 
140
GLANCES.
  time, I took rooms at her house for a day or two every
  month.  Her deep interest in anatomy and physiology
  drew me to her.   Since then, she has appeared before
  the public both as a lecturer and physician; and  many
  persons have enjoyed  her  in  the former, and tested her
  skill in the latter, capacity.   In August she gave an in-
 troductory  lecture at  the  Marlboro' Chapel  in Boston,
 which was well  attended.   She spoke -on food, dress,
 etc.; and her Quaker  garb — for she was then a Friend
 — rendered her lectures the more acceptable, as  the
 public tolerated a  Quaker woman  as a public speaker.
 Afterwards she gave  courses of lectures which were
 very successful.  I always quarreled with  her  Graham-
 ism.  She told me she had overtasked — overstimulated
 — her system ; and she  urged upon the rational liver
 the same dietetic  abstinence to which she had  been
 compelled.  This is frequently the case with  the down-
 right ultras; they ruin their own health, and then pre-
 scribe rules for everybody — forgetting that they cannot
 be judges of cases from their experience, unless they are
 similar to their bwn.
   With regard to  Mrs. Nichols, I must regret  that the
 discipline of her life has resulted  in her present convic-
 tions.  As a lecturer  on  physiology she was excellent.
 She was  fluent and correct  in  expression, and spoke
 with enthusiasm and power.   Doing  full justice to her
 talents, and recognizing the good  she has done, I can-
 not look with leniency  on the  peculiar doctrines she has
 embraced in later  life.  I not only cannot sympathize
 with them, but  I shudder at their character, and would
 remove myself from every influence  tending to favor
 them.  My sympathies are with their deluded followers,
 many of whom know misery as the result of their  con-
version. 
GLIMPSES.
141
   My mother's eldest brother —that old man of eighty-
 five years — that man of the past — so keen — so bright
 — so full of revolutionary anecdotes — came to visit us
 again.   At our house he met his eldest grandson, whom,
 by a singular  train of circumstances, he had never be-
 fore seen.   I  seem to  see  now, the proud grandfather
 leaning on his grandson's arm for a walk !
   A convention of Universalists met in  Boston  this
 year.  Fifty years before,  John Murray  stood  alone;
 now there were one hundred and twenty-three ministers
 preaching his doctrines. What a change! Every growth
 of this kind confirmed my  recognition of the fact of
 progress.  The doubts, anxieties, and fears I felt in the
 commencement of my career drew hope from such  evi-
 dences of the success that  follows persistence.  Some-
 times in taking a walk I would meet an old schoolmate,
 or  friend, who would  manifest  in her countenance  a
 kind of wonderment  at the cool  and comfortable way
 in which we  sisters followed our unusual occupation.
 One family — very conventional — slighted us.  They
 gave us cool bows of recognition at first,  which soon
 grew cold, and finally frozen.  Time passed, and a hwed
 member of their family was prostrated by illness.  They
 sent for me, professionally; and  I went professionally.
 I knew they were  embarrassed by a sense  of their past
 conduct; and to relieve them, I at once thanked them
 sincerely for every averted  look  and frigid bow; and
 assured them  that they had taught me a lesson of self-
reliance  that would last me  my lifetime.   I could sug-
gest nothing for  the  case they had  brought me to, for
every thing  had already been done by the best physi-
cians ;  but I left  them  as a friend, and renewed with
part of the  family a friendship which  had been  inter-
rupted for years, — and wiiy ? — because we had been 
142
GLANCES.
true to our inner lives and obedient to our aspirations :
One word to chronic conservatives.  As the element of
progress  is  inherent in  your natures — you  seek its
gratification in new dresses, new bonnets,  new trim-
mings, and  why?  because you  are not searching for
great principles, for new thoughts, — still your state is
encouraging, it shows there is life, — and in due time
some startling thought  may arouse you, and you may
make the blessed  discovery  that you have  minds to
adorn as well as bodies.   You  have  no influence  over
earnest minds.  The lessons of our lives are our laws,
and  they prove the  care of an  Almighty lawgiver.
Temptations beset us, permitted by the same careful,
tender Being, only to prove the strength of our purposes,
and the vigor of our resistance.
  I have already said that we perused medical works
with  much  dissatisfaction.    This  probably  arose in
great measure from our being entirely  shut out from the
medical world, having no minds with which  to inter-
change views,  compare  thoughts, and  examine expe-
riences,  and whose sympathy  would  have  cheered
and  encouraged us.   We felt the need of a clear, ex-
ploring  light: at last  we found  it.   George  Combe
came to this country, and, in October, 1838, commenced
a course of lectures in Boston.  What can I  say of
them !  Those persons who heard them remember their
power; those who  did not cannot conceive it.   To me
they were revelations — bread for a hungry spirit, and
water for a thirsty soul.   Their philosophy charmed,
and  their practicality instructed  every hearer.   George
Combe's strength was in  his love of truth ; it was light
to his mind, life to  his heart, and  fulness to his thoughts.
He opened to us the labyrinth of life ; he lighted up its
mysterious chambers, and bade  us enter  and explore; 
GLIMPSES.
143
he gave us the golden clue of connection between cause
and  effect  and end.  His philosophy  was not  a  frag-
ment— it was a complete and consistent system.   At
whatever point of  the great circle of thought we stood
with him, there was ever some radius  pointing to the
central truth  that  governed all.   My experience  con-
firmed all his teachings :  I can never forget them. They
stirred the vital palpitating depths within me.  I needed
a more earnest consciousness of laws, — I needed to
realize that they govern every department of life;  and
these lectures supplied my need.  They gave the bones,
joints, sinews, arteries, nerves, and veins of the human
body a deeper  language.  They  snapped  the fetters
that had manacled thought; they taught me to perceive
the relation between disorganizing elements and order;
— to see the inexpediency  of the ideas cherished by
time-servers, pleasure-lovers, and indolent ease-takers;
— to scan  the accumulated  rubbish of the past  with
discrimination, yet without  contempt.  They brought
to light  hidden affinities, they revealed indirect influ-
ences ; and thus robbed metaphysical subtleties of their
mysticism,  effecting a reconciliation in the mind be-
tween sin  and its consequences.  After-life proved to
me more and more the value of these lectures.   His
clear exposition of the temperaments and of idiosyncra-
cies, the conviction he forced upon me of the  necessity
of understanding the quality, as well as the quantity of
thought, gave me a key which has been  constantly and
successfully used in my practice, and has been of infi-
nite  service to me in the treatment of many obscure
cases.   This knowledge  of temperamental conditions,
and that of the diseases which grow out of inharmoni-
ous  action, have enabled me to  give a hint to many
invalids, by which they have  performed self-cures with 
144                  GLANCES."
wonderful facility.  Boston should gratefully recognize
the services of Spurzheim and  Combe.   While the for-
mer cast off, in this city, his material vesture, which was
reverently  interred at Mount  Auburn,  the latter  re-
turned to  his own country to bless the world by the
diffusion of knowiedge and scientific research.   Years
afterward a lover of  Spurzheim, wiio had been  with
him in  the dissecting room, and knew him  intimately
— a true, noble  man, who  added the name  of philan-
thropist to that  of physician — Dr. J. F. Flagg, of this
city — passed away,  and Mount Auburn  received  his
remains.  His widow gave me a cabinet picture of the
pioneer  of phrenology — the much loved  Spurzheim.
How much I prize  it, may be judged from these  re-
marks.  I advise every one to study Combe's Constitu-
tion of Man, and similar  works.  He was a philisophical
physician, as well as  a phrenologist.  His dietetics  of
the mind produced ,a change in the habits  and tenden-
cies of many persons, which were leading to  diseases.
  I heard, at this time, Dr. Channing's  introductory
lecture before the Franklin Institute, on  Self-Culture.
Strange  to say,  I never  heard  or saw him before.
George  Combe  sat before me.  His satisfied posture
and occasional  look, full of meaning, told  his  enjoy-
ment.   I remember  vividly my  interest in  William
Ellery Channing.  The  quiet earnestness of his  man-
ner, and the noble  words  he  uttered,  touched  every
heart.   He was  indeed a reformer — bold, earnest, pro-
gressive, strong  for the right.   Would that  the Unita-
rians  had dared  to follow' the heroic spirit they revered
in him — but, alas ! they did not.   I know his  son, and
I have never  conversed with him  on great subjects of
moral and spiritual philosophy, without feeling  that  I
knew the father.   When our alarm-bells  strike out the 
GLIMPSES. .                145
location of a conflagration, then a Channing  is felt;
when  the  subtle elements  are  discussed, a Channing
enlightens ; when freedom is infringed upon, Channings
arc heard.   This transmitted life speaks of  truthfulness
to paternity.
   In  1839, that dear aunt, my  mother's eldest sister,
who chafed and warmed me into life, found age resting
upon her heavily.   She had been feeble for  many years,
and bore her infirmities with wonderful heroism.  The
great delight I took in ministering to her comfort, may
be judged from her  peculiar relation to me.  She had
lost two husbands and nine children,  and was living
with  her only surviving daughter.  I should be untrue
to myself did I  not feelingly record these varied break-
ages in the family circle ; they are the mile-stones set up
by Providence — affection  marks them, and  to those
who are aunts, they speak a significant language.
   My next lesson in seduction was to come nearer than
my schoolroom,  and was to be even more terrible than
the first.  Returning from one of my jaunts on the sea-
board, I brought home with  me a little girl.  Some of
her family had  strayed from the path of virtue.  Her
doubtful position and  vagrant life made her an object
of interest to a benevolent man; and  he attracted my
attention to her.  As our family were  all  females, he
thought her temptations would be  lessened if she was
under our care, and we took her.  We found her capa-
ble and affectionate.    She had lived on the wharves,
and was remarkably  farsighted;— I shall never forget
my wonder as her eyes filled with tears when she wTas
bade to look on a printed page.  It is  absolutely true
that this  child  was  so wholly accustomed to  view
objects only at a distance, that her eyes needed training
before she could learn to read or sew!  Had it not been
                        13 
146
GLANCES.
for  the  valuable  lectures on hereditary tendencies we
had just heard from George Combe, I fear we should
have been unable to manage  this girl — she appeared
so variable and inconsistent.   We found  home instruc-
tion would be all she  could have: — no school would
answer  for her; we had tried a  Sunday school, and that
taught us this lesson.   Mothers! I need not visit streets
where poverty lives in rags and squalor, to find heredi-
tary vices and vicious tendencies; nor do I feel  these
belong only to the poor.   Impressibility is not a law of
caste.   It has nothing to do  with streets, wealth, or
social position ;  but it has to do with maternity and
paternity.  In our intercourse with  this unfortunate
child, we  always felt  a consciousness of her origin.
All the  trouble we had  with her, prepared us to aid,
counsel, and  guide others of similar, though of diverse
degrees of organization.
  We saw this child grow up under our care, from her
low condition.  Industry worked wonders for her.  Con-
stant, and yet varied, occupations  saved her.  It was a
bitter draught for her  at first, but in time she found
sweetness in it.   Having a  face  beaming with health,
and an  impressive class of features, we felt it necessary
to be very careful of her as  she  advanced  to  woman-
hood, yet  we avoided too  much restraint, fearing it
would make her deceptive.  We  thought as her capa-
bilities  began to be usefully directed, that  her percep-
tions  of propriety wrould increase : — we thought  her
safe;  but the tempter was near, and the poor child fell!
Hateful  representatives  of manhood ! — well  garbed
assassins  of female honor — wretched — wretched vic-
tims of  sensuality! — go,  if you  must be vile, go to
places where a price is  set upon your sins in dollars and
cents — where licentiousness lives openly, perhaps for 
GLIMPSES.
147
bread — go to the horrible haunts where purity is not; —
but  spare the  innocent — beguile not the unfortunate
children  whose hereditary tendencies make  them an
easy prey — spare the child  orphaned by poverty, and
under the care  of those who  think virtue the only price-
less  pearl, and  character the only riches!  O,  I cannot
speak on this subject as I would!   Language fails me.
As often as I hear the vaunt  about the protection which
man gives to woman, my heart cries out that woman
must protect herself, and to do this she must know
more of  the arts of  this world.  Vice is cowardly: in
this  instance it was  markedly so.  The wretch who be-
trayed this poor girl was a clerk in a store (he  had pre-
viously failed  in  business) ; he thought  her  beneath
him!  He  never entered a room in our house but once,
that  was after I knew his baseness; I planned the inter-
view.  He formed his  intimacy with his victim in the
early morning  when  she  was  sweeping her  sidewalk,
steps, and passage-way.  It was in  this place that her
ruin  was sealed.   When I found out the fact, I went to
his boarding-house.   I  remember the frightened expres-
sion on his pallid visage as I gave him my name.  He
had  fearlessly entered the apartment, for a servant had
told  him a lady wished to see him ; — I said, as an in-
troduction, Harriot K. Hunt of Green street!  I spoke
it quietly — the tone was calm, the words few; but his
trembling voice and  suppliant aspect showed his fear.
His  averted eye told me he was turning over probabili-
ties and  possibilities — arming  himself with power to
front me — gathering up all the duplicity at  his com-
mand for the interview.  Watch the expression on such
a face, as flickering thoughts flash over  it—keep your
gaze steadily fixed on  such a person — and  you will
learn a lesson  for life.   The first word he uttered was 
148
GLANCES.
a falsehood.  Then he spoke of the respectability of his
connections, and I, of his unworthiness of them.  1 re-
quired him to come to my house, telling him if he were
not there at the appointed time an officer would be ap-
plied to.  There I brought  him and his dupe  face to
face.   It was the first time  he  had  ever entered our
dwelling.   I  need  not describe the scene that ensued;
he had no money to assist in repairing the havoc he
had  wrought.  I spoke of his conduct freely, and  in
fitting  terms.   Then  I called on the lady with whom he
boarded, and  he was ejected from her house.   I visited
a mother for whose daughter he was professing an affec-
tion, and his prospects were ruined there.  I never heard
of him more.
  I sent for the poor girl's father, met  her expenses, and
she went away with him.  She gave birth to  a son who
did not live long.   She is now respectably married, has
a family of children, and, I hear, is an efficient woman.
I wish the reader to  observe facts  similar  to these,
for more than the facts themselves.  They aroused  me
to a determination to understand more fully the posi-
tion  of women,  and the character of those men who
talk  so much of the need of our being "protected" —
removing from us, meanwhile, what are often the very
weapons of our defence, occupations, and proper  and
encouraging remuneration. 
                 CHAPTER  XI.

" They say it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone, and there is no knowl-
  edge, but in a skilful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to
  illustrate  some other knowledge." — Herbert's Remains.

  At this period my mother was in her seventieth year,
— her front  teeth perfect, and  her hair coal-black; and
we had the privilege of possessing her portrait, and also
one of our father, copied from  a picture painted by our
cousin, T. H. Wentworth.   They  were both  excellent
likenesses, and highly satisfactory.  Mr. Henry C. Pratt
was the artist.  Those two beaming faces hanging upon
our parlor wall, gave  new life  to the dwelling.  Every
one who  came  to see us, increased our satisfaction by
praising their accuracy.
  Do  not be afraid  that your pictures will lumber attics
when  you are no longer on earth!  They will  have per-
formed tlieir offices, and that is all you can ask.  These
pictured forms  bring  up facts,  and  throng vacant hours
with beautiful  visions.  I remember on coming back
once from a journey finding a salutary address my sister
had written  for me, in wiiich the portraits of my father
and mother were the speakers welcoming home their
child to duty and to  life.   Tears came to  my eyes  for
very joy.   Artistic  life is  one of the angel ministrations
in  this world, and  opens to  us the  highest  privileges.
 When death removes our loved ones, we feel it then:
 why not be rational, and feel it  in health  and  joy?
    J                    -, o *                    (149) 
150
(i L A N C E S.
Have your family reproduced on canvas while you are
in cheerfulness, not in sadness.   How many wonderful
people  I  have heard  lamenting the lack of portraits
after bereavements !
   Years came laden  with  duties and  uses, and they
went away.   What burden did they take with them ?
This is  often the searching question the soul asks.   In
healthy mental conditions we realize the value of duties
performed  and uses accomplished.   The  reader who
has followed me thus far, must perceive that these cal-
endar cycles of time had a great mission for  us sisters.
They gave us deep, earnest, interior experiences.  They
brought to our view  all activities  of mind  and body
individually and collectively;  and each demanded  our
utmost  clearness of perception, and all different stand-
points of observation.  Diseases of the mind — nervous
affections in their diverse forms  and endless  variety —
overaction  on one hand, and  inaction on the other —
both preparing their several victims for insane asylums
— presented themselves for medical treatment.  I regret
that I  did  not  faithfully  note  each  case  on paper.
Various were the conditions of those wiio  called upon
us.  The refined  and elegant owner of thousands, the
inheritor of wealth, the quiet vest-maker, who, for years,
had day after day wrought stitch by stitch in her work,
came with  her experience ; the poor orphan girl, board-
ing out respectably, and living a life of painful self-
denial that she might do  so — for she was a sempstress
with no superfluity  of wages — came  also.  A kind
word to such has filled their  eyes with tears, and a kind
pressure of the hand strengthened their souls  as well as
ours — for  their trust in us taught  us to trust in our
Heavenly  Father.   Yes : — many children,  and girls,
and women found  their way to us that they might ob- 
GLIMPSES.
151
tain from woman an  interest  in the  diseases which
often grew out of their  hardships.  It was startling to
read these chapters of real  life, so often written in the
language of sorrow and pain.   How frequently I have
heard that woman's sphere is at home, and, remember-
ing the many women among my patients whose poverty
denied them a home, felt the cruelty of this mockery of
the poor!  On the other  hand, I met with many women
who had homes filled with every luxury, and cared not
for the treasure; for while labor is considered mean and
servile,  your woman of the world will think  a  home
troublesome, annoying,  and perplexing.   Young girls
came to me for relief;  the secret of their maladies was
in their overtaxed brains, for their education was to be
finished at eighteen years — and these poor  deluded
children — as wrell as their mothers, really thought going
to school was education, and leaving it for the market
was life!  When I traced diseases to causes like these,
I never feared to use the utmost boldness of speech; for
I certainly felt that volcanic eruptions  of condemnation
were safe remedial agents, when love  had melted the
lava.  The awful and utter  perversions of life which I
constantly witnessed, would  have chilled my ardent na-
ture, had I not  known that ignorance of physical laws
was the cause of them all.   I  wondered and wondered
again why physicians had not  enlightened the families
they attended,  and awakened their attention to  this
great subject.  I often  found - myself soliloquizing in
this way: — Why Dr.----has been the attending phy-
sician in that family for nearly a quarter of a  century,
and its members do  not know the first hygeinic rule!
I took this  for a hint, and  many people I attended can
bear testimony to their being their own physicians after
my visits, except  in  cases  of emergency.   The  slight 
152
GLANCES.
and contempt with which some doctors spoke of us to
their patients  when they found  them  opening  their
eyes, deepened my conviction  of their unfaithfulness.
Wherever I had aroused a family to thought on  these
matters,  I heard that the attending physician,  with
few exceptions, had said  something to this effect — " It
is not fitting for women to know about themselves; it
makes  them nervous!"  My sisters, what a comment
on  woman!   About  a score of righteous  physicians
in this city  saved the profession.  Judge for  your-
selves if this be true.  I remember a conversation  I had
with a lady patient who was telling me of the quarrel
she had had with her family physician, wiio utterly op-
posed  any recognition of women in the  profession.
Said she  to me, " He  was so obstinate!   He said ' it
would  make  women  nervous  to know about them-
selves. ' "  " Are they not nervous enough through igno-
rance?"— I asked him; "butitwTon't do for them  to
be physicians."  I interrupted her by asking his name.
She told  me.   " Now," said  I, " I have a message for
this  doctor — will you give it  to  him ? "  " Yes," she
answered.   " Very well,"  I continued; " now for the
message: — I  know that his last year's  bill, to  a certain
family in  this  city, was three  quarters less than it has
been for years.  I  know also that  some of that family
consulted me; and I know that /have  not received the
large amount of this difference.  Now tell him Harriot
K. Hunt had but a small bill in comparison with his, to
present to that  family; but that she was permitted  to
arouse its members to their daily violation of physical
laws, by which their repeated sicknesses were first crea-
ted  and then  developed.   Say  still further  to  your
medical friend, that  I am very happy to  share his dis-
pleasure  with  George Combe and others; and tell him 
GLIMPSES.
153
that it  was the  knowledge  I gave  his patients, and
which  they acted upon, and not the money they paid
me for attendance, that has lessened his bill!"  Expe-
riences  of this nature — some sad — some  amusing —
met me constantly.   In the journeys I was in the habit
of taking, — so many of my own speculations received
confirmation,  and were lifted to  the dignity of facts,
that I marvelled.  Country, as well  as  city, practice
gave me a broader view of this need of woman in the
medical life — the positive want of her, and the havoc
of health without her.  Not that I was a physician and
bent every thing down to my idea; but that my idea
was bent down  by every thing.   Before me was the
broad  field of the diseases of  women;  and certainly
men had had  no  one there to interfere or compete with
them in giving relief; why,  then, was every thing in
this state, if their practice had been right?   There had
been no professional interference on the part of woman !
I want the reader's attention here.   How  did  matters
stand wiien woman first came into the profession ?
   In a few years the medical profession will be equally
shared between men  and women ;  public opinion is fast
tending to bring  this about.  Now we would forestall a
question which  will then unavoidably  arise.   Is the
health of woman improved  by this  innovation — nor-
mality  is not, but  feeble suffering  women are.   But
look at the mothers of the present, and the children
who are to become mothers, and ask— What have we
a right to expect, when the majority of male physicians
are letting their female patients  remain in ignorance of
the  physiological laws, whose  observance  can alone
keep them in  health and enable them to transmit it to
their children ? — on those physicians, therefore,  rests all
the responsibility of the  diseases  of the future.   The 
154
GLANCES.
faithful female  physician  of that day,  must  not be
expected to cure maladies transmitted from the present,
which  the male physicians  of the present will have
rendered incurable,  by  having neglected to  prevent.
The patient calls in her doctor for advice ; he gives her
treatment.   She asks for bread, and gets a stone.  She
wants a homoepathic globule of permanent prevention ;
he waits till tendencies ripen to disease, and  then gives
her an  allopathic dose of temporary cure.
  I do not wish to have it understood that I  include all
physicians in these strictures.  There are exceptions in
this  city who  are all that can be  desired.   Country
physicians  I only know through their  patients — very
true mirrors of them!   Some I found to be  noble and
faithful men who had  awakened  thought;  counselled
the well; healed  the  sick ; instructed the convalescent
in the laws of their maladies  to enable them to avoid
relapses;  and  inspired  their patients with religious
trust.  Such physicians  are  blessed by Him who wras
the Great Physician.   They  are an honor to the profes-
sion, and, in  their respective towns, are recognized as
such; — though J was  not by them, for if  I had had
cholera,  hydrophobia,  smallpox,  or  any   malignant
disease, I could  not  have been  more  avoided than I
was; and I  can  say that the clergymen  generally, did
me the  honor of placing me in the same professional
quarantine as scrupulously as the doctors!
  I have said that the quality of homes are labelled  on
children  for the  teacher to read.  In  like manner the
quality of  physicians is labelled  on  patients.  The
continual proof I had of this fact,  impressed  me with a
lasting sense of the deep responsibility attached to the
medical  life.   Weak, discouraging, depressing  physi-
cians, were seen in weak, discouraged, depressed patients. 
GLIMPSES.
155
I shall, hereafter, throw out some random hours I had
with patients, for it is  my purpose to awaken  public
thought to the  positive need of women  entering the
profession.  It is not my intention to treat of diseases;
for my diagnosis and prognosis would be rather novel,
and the character of this book is expressed in its  title
of Glances  and  Glimpses.  The present state  of the
medical  world  is discouraging to  the philanthropist;
and if this w^ork induces my readers to recall their own
observations, or  catechize their own experiences on this
subject, it will have a salutary effect.
   The myriad mysteries  of sin are laid bare to the
medical  practitioner—they are the fruitful causes of
suffering.   Ah!  what need has that  practitioner to be a
woman,  when the  patient is a  woman  wearied,  sad-
dened, and broken-hearted with sicknesses, mental and
physical!   What need is there of the feminine element,
when the sins and sorrows of a woman are to be dis-
closed for the first time—when  frenzied  memories re-
quire soothing—the causes of suffering to be  kindly
opened and explained, and the remedy to be carefully
pointed out!  Diseases of  women have been treated by
us which few male practitioners could have treated, not
only because they were beyond the reach  of mere med-
ication, and had no nomenclature in the list of maladies,
but because the  male practitioner could not have drawn
their diagnosis, without that confession from the patient
which could not  be given  in most cases with  delicacy
except to a woman.   Here were women whose spiritual
sufferings have at length poisoned their physical organ-
izations ; — perhaps women who had loved with  all the
strength and fervor of their natures, and whose love had
changed to agony at  the revelation of the infidelity of
the object of their affections : These causes  often  pro- 
156
GLANCES.
duce physical disease, must  not the " balm for distem-
pered minds"  be among the  medicaments for such
diseases ?   Will the women who suffer from them, con-
fide their corroding sorrows to any but those of their own
sex, if even to them ?   I have known love betrayed by
a worldling, and the sufferer, sinking in a decline, has
come to a woman, who dared say to her, that property
had attracted to her side a  selfish, heartless man, who
had  deserted  her because  her father,  then  reputed
wealthy, had become poor;  and thus rescue her from  a
hopeless malady by  arousing  her  womanhood  and
awakening her self-respect.   Such, are often the  diseases
the physician is called upon to treat, and such must be
the ministrations to a mind diseased.   Dosing is of
no avail.   The medicine, and the diagnosis, are both
above the  region of physics, in the domain of meta-
physics.  I do not deny that there are some,—male
physicians in whom the feminine element is beautifully
developed,—who through faith in something higher than
medication, are fully competent to treat such maladies.
Nor do I deny that there  are  a few male physicians
who are the confidants of their female patients.  But
they are few.  No male practitioner can demand it as
his right, that a woman shall make him her father-con-
fessor ;  nor is it his office to probe wounds in a nature
with which his is not  sexually identified.  Women of
refinement and purity will generally reserve their  confi-
dence  for  those  of their own sex.   There  must be
always  oneness  between the  doctor and the  patient.
The prevailing idea as before remarked is, that  the doc-
tor is  to cure the  disease.  It is  not so.  The doctor
and the patient  together, are to cure  or mitigate  the
disease.  They must  be coworkers.   In order to be so,
there must be the fullest — the  most cordial sympathy 
GLIMPSES.                 157
and frankness between them.   It is rarely that this can
be so between a male  physician and a female patient.
Therefore, the female physician, is the physician for the
female patient.
   This is but a hint, but it may be of service not only to
those who are gathering facts  and arguments to prove
the necessity of medical women, but to all women who
are entering the profession.  Let them remember that
medication is second and not first.  Let them study to
be physicians of the soul.  Let them remember that the
souls  of  patients  grow  strong through struggles  with
mental tendencies and conditions.  Bodies  are worn
with  pain that spirits may be purified.   Holy  unions
within — reconciliations  of  jarring elements  in  the
mind — have often broken up external maladies.  Dis-
eases are often the result of departures  from duty, or
law.  It is for the physician to win the patient back to
normality — to duty — as the  first and most powerful
means of cure.  Medication  alone is  not to  be relied
on.   In one half the cases medicine is not needed, or is
worse than useless.   Obedience to spiritual and physical
laws — hygeine of the body,  and hygeine of the spirit
— is  the  surest warrant for health and happiness.  It
is only the quacks of the profession, emulous  of the
quacks ostracized by the faculty, who put their trust in
dosing.  The true physician  knows  better.  Let the
woman who  has newly. entered  the  medical  life re-
member,  that  she  must  inspire  her patients  with
hope  and courage  from her own experience,  and thus
allay  their fears and strengthen their hopes.   She must
live so true  to physical  laws herself, that her example
may enforce confidence in them.  She  must always
show the  warmest — the most affectionate — sympathy
with them.   There are  those to whom she must  only
                        14 
158
GLANCES.
manifest it  silently, a pressure of the hand, a look of
tenderness speaks more than language.   Perhaps they
may be  those  whose  maladies  are  issuant  from  the
soul — whose diseases are the result of some spiritual
anguish.  They must be approached with the  sympa-
thetic love that melts the ice  of their reserve to tears.
Such tears  are  the  flowings  off  of the  frost-bound
freshet of sorrow.   They presage the  subversion  of
morbid_ feelings, and promise  a mental  state in which
the  patient can accept the  trials  as  a  wholesome
discipline.   These  are the opportunities for which  the
female physician must wTatch.   The hour of tenderness
with the patient, is the hour for reason with  the physi-
cian.   She has then an opportunity to teach her patient
the value of her existence;  these seasons are the golden
opportunities in a medical life." Physicians are more or
less successful in proportion as  they  intuitively discern
and judiciously use these opportunities.
   Heart experiences, whose evidences are broken down
constitutions, are all around us.  They  take  the forms
of fevers, spinal affections, neuralgia, and such  like; —
according to hereditary organization, or  temperamental
condition.   Their causes are distinct from them.  Nos-
trums are in vain unless these are recognized, and with-
out their recognition there cannot be  a clear diagnosis.
Yet, from male physicians the causes of the diseases of
women,  as  well as  the  extent  of  those diseases,  are
often concealed!  Hospitals!  if you could speak how
you would startle us !  When  public sentiment grows
true on  this subject, woman will  be allowed to come
into those  institutions as  physicians,  and,  with  the
nurse, open  books that are sealed.  Let  the  thoughtful
and intelligent reader just think of  our sex in hospitals
without  a female practitioner ! 
GLIMPSES.
159
  I have said before that I was much troubled with my
medical reading.  It  did  not  seem to meet  my cases.
Sometimes  I  found myself querying.    Why  are my
cases so different from those recorded in the  books?
Why cannot the books determine symptomatic condi-
tions by the eye, the tongue, the pulse ?   True they did
determine symptoms by the  state of tongues and puls-
es ; but I soon ceased to place reliance  on these indi-
cations, finding that transient circumstances,  fleeting
emotions — a   thought,  a  fear,  an angry  feeling—
could alter  them.  I was often puzzled,  and  wished
more women were in  the profession that we might com-
pare notes and talk the matter over.  My desire on the
subject became  intense,  for  the  more  thoughtfully,
quietly, and carefully I examined my cases, the more
was the conclusion forced upon me, that the false posi-
tion of our sex had  much to do with their diseases;
and that as  both sexes were suffering, both sexes must
come to the rescue : — masculine  women and feminine
men, if you like that order; — I  do not; but I like to
see men and women helping men and women. 
CHAPTER  XII.
            " For never in the long and tedious tract
               Of slavish grammar was I made to plod;
              No tyranny of rules my patience rackt;
               I served no prenticeship to any rod;
              But in the freedom of the practic way
              Learnt to go right, even when I went astray."
                                       Dr. Beaumont.

   The time came when we found a permanent location,
 and as mother never  felt  at home  in a hired  house,
 we rejoiced in this addition to her comfort.  In Septem-
 ber, 1839, we purchased the residence,  No. 32 Green
 street, where I now live.   The site was favorable.  The
 terms we could  meet — there being a large mortgage
 on the house to run some time.  We felt more satisfac-
 tion in this arrangement, than in any since we had left
 Fleet street.  Mother's obtuse vision naturally kept her
 alive to the possibility  of blindness ; therefore desirous
 to be  secure  from change, in a home; and though  it
 might be some time before  that home would be unfet-
 tered, still we had been enabled to pay one mortgage —
 why not another ?   There  is a necessity from the very
 nature of woman, for a home — a centre ; and I know no
 possible reason, when sexual education is abolished, and
the  law  of  sexual remuneration is annulled, why
woman should not  only have a home, but a competency
to sustain it.  The marriages made in the present day
to  secure  this privilege,  or rather this  necessity to
                                              (160) 
GLIMPSES.
161
woman,  are the abominations of modern times : — if
any one is too dim-sighted to see it, let him furnish his
eyes with spectacles, and look about him  with a philo-
sophic eye !  With many  w^omen, marriage is an es-
cape from poverty,— repulsions are smothered down by
expediency, and dislikes are concealed, until a home is
entered.   Love — tenderness — oneness — harmony —
where  are ye; — a reason for unhappiness  at home
must be  alleged,  servants are blamed — accused of
ignorance — deception ; and  finally hotels and board-
ing-houses receive these wretched couples.
   The  thoughtless  need  home  for discipline:  the
thoughtful can  breathe in no other atmosphere.  Home !
the word vibrates to my choicest experiences.   Often, in
investigating desperate cases,  the character of the suf-
ferer's home has given me more courage, than  all the
pharmacopoeia  could  offer; and  the pulse and  tongue
have lost  their  importance, when I knew all was well
there.  " What is there  in a  name ? "   Ah!  what is
there not in that name!  What quadruple light beams
in the four letters of that word — Home!   It shines
above the gates of a sanctuary wiiere a great and silent
power — a power made up of myriad influences, subtle
and intangible — " trifles, light as air" — moulds char-
acters, which keep their  august  serenity  and unsullied
beauty in spite of all external  things.  Had we true
homes, we might have health and peace and  Eden.  It
is to this point  that philanthropists must be attracted,
no other panacea can cure  the terrible maladies of our
social system.  I cannot weary a lover with the praise
of his  mistress, for her grace and loveliness are  ever
his fondest themes ; nor can I  weary the lovers of home
with eulogium of what their  hearts hold dearest.  It
matters little whether the home be rich or poor, large or
                       14' 
162
GLANCES.
small, sumptuous or humble, if it is  filled with  love,
peace, and joy;  for surroundings  are  not  centres, nor
wealth, life.  Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,
than a stalled ox and  hatred therewith.
   George  Combe gave  another course of lectures in
Boston, which I enjoyed  very much.  I was not present
every evening, but my  sister was,  and took  copious
notes, so that I lost nothing, for she drank in his great
principles (and those  who  have heard her converse on
the subject,  know her enthusiasm).   It was a great
privilege to  practise  together.   We enjoyed  even our
differences of opinion. Our connection in practice aided
us both, and I owe much  to it.   Many who  read  this
work will  bear testimony to the interest with which we
consulted together. Very many pleasant favoritisms on
the part of our  patients, grew out of  our  lives.   As a
general thing I did not prescribe for  children ; her diag-
nosis was so much more satisfactory.
   In  travelling to New Hampshire,  the cars leaving us
at Bradford,  we Crossed to  Haverhill in an omnibus.  In
that vehicle was  a lady and her young son; the  lady
was impressed  by, and attracted to, me.   I did not
know it; I did not notice her at the time; in fact I only
remember the ride and no more.  We  parted at Haver-
hill ; she went one route — I, another.  Months  inter-
vened ;  she  saw me  again at  a  lecture;  learned my
name, and called on me the next day.  I found she had
been an invalid, for a  long time.  I became deeply inter-
ested in her case, and her  health  improved  under my
care.   We have often talked over our first meeting
since.  What will the doubters of  impressions do with
this  little  fact?  Almost  every one  has  experienced
something similar.
   In  September,  1840, some  of  the  women of Boston 
GLIMPSES.
163
held a great fair at Faneuil Hall to obtain funds for the
completion of Bunker Hill Monument.   The executive
committee were Catherine G. Prescott, Sarah J. Hale,
Lucinda Chapman, Susan P. Warren, Sarah Darracott,
and Abby L. Wales.   The fair was  eminently success-
ful.  Subscriptions and contributions from every section
of the State hurried to its aid, and the monument which
was begun by men, was finished by women.  I remem-
ber feeling  a glow of pride when I thought how wo-
man's effort was perfecting in height and symmetry an
enduring memorial of liberty and patriotism of which
man had laid the foundation  and reared  part of the su-
perstructure.  It seemed a prophetic symbol.   Will not
the time come when the temple of freedom of which
the Bunker Hill shaft  is significant, rough-hewn,  well-
founded, solid-set, but left incomplete by man, shall be
elevated and finished by woman ?  Half a people made
only  half a  monument:  the other  half, the feminine,
made it a whole.   Half the intellectual resources of the
race on  this continent, made  half  a  freedom: it will
take the feminine remainder — the other half of the in-
tellectual resources — the heart-half! — to make our free-
dom entire  and beautiful.  Civil liberty now is a mo-
nopoly.  It belongs to one sex, though  it was  secured
by the blood and prayer and toil of generations of both
sexes.  Nowr its blessings are  sexual!   It is for  John
and Peter, not Mary and Deborah.   But it will not be
always so.
   At this  period  the  great  excitement of Harrison's
election to the presidency was at its loudest. It seemed
as though  the Whig party managers, for once  thought
of Napoleon's favorite maxim in the accomplishment
of difficult measures — "  Secure the women!"   They
did secure them, and carried  their favorite into  office, 
164
GLANCES.
triumphantly.   In  the enthusiasm which  followed  his
election,  the women took a  prominent part.   If  the
record of that  epoch was  all we had to  leave  to  the
future, posterity might be cheated into the belief that
we were  a Woman's Rights nation.   A great man was
to be elected to a great office, and  we were  needed
to help  him in.   Nobody told us  then  to " stay  at
home! "   I think no one will doubt that the success of
the Whigs in that election was partially owing to the
aid they  had from  woman.  It seems certain that when-
ever there is the least approach  to a recognition of the
principles of Democracy, there is  an increase of light.
When I  was last in Ohio, (in 1855,) I conversed  on this
topic with some gentlemen, who had  been wide awake
and  active on that occasion.  In the grand  processions,
each county carried its chosen badge:  I was told Lor-
raine county carried a broom !  " Very well," said  I to
my informant,  " this was very encouraging to woman,
besides being symbolical and prophetic — you made this
public demonstration with  her accepted implement  as
its emblem." In fact he said our broom swept Lorraine
county clean, and  if they had wanted to  emblematize
the  help they  got  from  women  in that campaign,
they might have carried our broom in every procession
all over the Union!
   In  October, 1840, my sister  was married to Mr. Ed-
mund Wright,  the son of the revered man  of that name
of whom I have before  spoken.   She did  not leave her
home: her mother  and sister were still as dear to her as
ever: we  wTere not  displaced  in  her heart;   it  had
widened  to receive another guest.   We had gained a
son and a brother.   Her love nature enlarged and beau-
tified all  her relations.  Her companion was one fitted
to appreciate these relations.   His own unselfish devo- 
GLIMPSES.
165
tion to his mother and family rendered my sister's posi-
tion clear to him.   Her marriage did  not entirely undo
the tie that united us professionally, but it was loosened,
and loosening: she was still near at hand;  I could still
consult with her;  her interest was kept alive in looking
after, and prescribing  for, the poor and afflicted.  But
he—a son to my mother — a brother  to me — his rela-
tion has  been so beautifully sustained  that  my loss has
been gain.  I deeply felt her marriage in a  professional
way.  Her ready  perception — her firm faith in the in-
tegrity of the constitution, and  its  power to sustain
severe illness — her cheerful  and inspiring voice which
acted upon the sick like a  charm — her discipline from
her  own protracted sickness — her faith,  which gave
faith to the invalid, — all this gave her great power as a
physician.  Many persons  in this community will attest
this view of  her medical life.
   Placing this period of my life in its most favorable
aspect, there was still a great loss, — a great change for
me.  It would have affected me more  had it not opened
new channels of life and  freedom  for the family.  It
threw me back on my own individualism.   My medical
life  received a new illumination: my patients gave me
a new inspiration: new elements  of  thought came  to
me, which after  experience was to  shape and confirm.
I had thought myself individual before, but it had only
been at times. I had been in love with my profession :
this change deepened the feeling very much.   Fears and
anxieties as well  as pleasures attend all new relations;
when they are entered on  reverently and with courage.
My  mother seemed invested with renewed sacredness,
and childhood became stronger in my  heart.  I had not
lost  a sister, but gained a  brother ; but yet  there was a
discipline to pass through.  Who that has  had an only 
166
GLANCES.
sister married but can understand my feelings!  My life
had  now assumed more distinctness — more  identity.
I knew I must now,  in  a great  measure,  act alone.
There w^as a widowed  feeling about me, which passed
awray somewirat in time;  but  it  has  never wholly left
me.  The word " we," spoken professionally, sometimes
escapes me now!
  My sister took the head of the family.  A colleague
was  to be chosen for the Rev. Mr. BaUou, and we had
much company, as many of the candidates stopped  at
our house in Green street.  Our domestic life was very
cheerful, and mother enjoyed much.  I  remember her
pleasure in company with the mother  of this  new  son,
all  three spending  mornings  driving  about  in  the
carryall.
  Our old uncle, Josiah Winslow Wentworth, the  one
I have spoken  of as  the  hale, hearty old man of the
Revolution, died this year, aged eighty-eight years. He
died at New York, at the residence of his  son of the
same name,  who also has  a son to  hand it down.
Many happy hours have I enjoyed with that branch of
the family in New York, and my visits there have been
made homelike through their kindnesses.   My mother's
eldest sister soon followed her brother  ; thus that branch
of the Wentworth tree was nearly gone — my mother
being the only survivor.  This aged  aunt wras buried
from our home in Green street.   She had been a mem-
ber of  Dr. Sharp's church for years. Her husband had
been the first occupant of our tomb; this last restingplace
was  a freewill offering of love to our relatives, — to this
fact  is owing the sacredness of that spot and the tender
feelings of  so many  in  depositing their loved ones
there.   Reverently did  we commit her to  her last home.
  At this time my mind was seriously  exercised respect- 
GLIMPSES.   *
167
ing Temperance, in connection with temperament and
hereditary tendencies.   Worth, genius, eloquence, sac-
rificed to stimulants — one  can hardly, in quiet hours,
believe such things are!  I care not whether it is opium,
used for weaknesses, or sleepless nights, or choice wines
employed to induce brilliancy of thought and expres-
sion, or to excite a melancholy nature to buoyancy, —
no  matter what  the  stimulant may be — no matter
when, how,  or  where the  tempter  comes, — if he
drives from the soul allegiance to moral principle and
hygeinic law ; you are spellbound to your destruction !
Stimulants cheat life of its natural stimuli.  Stimulants
for action lay a  foundation for inaction.  I wish  every
one would read  the weekly reports of the Police courts,
the statistics  of pauper establishments,  and the  like,
and then ask the questions, " can it be right for me to
take stimulants  for pleasure ? — what share have I, by
my example, or otherwise, in leading these poor children
to the fruitful source of so much misery and suffering? "
Consider it.   Perhaps you  have had a servant wiio, in
past time, had been addicted to intemperance, but with
a giant effort had conquered the  appetite, renerved a
dying will,  and regained her position: but there was
wine on your table ;  you tempted her;  the wine-odor
was inhaled — the wine-taste was  revived by the leav-
ings in the glasses; she tasted; the old appetite broke
its  chain, and vanquished  the will; she drank — then
you dismissed her, and her last state was  worse than
her first.   But for the wine on  your table she might
never have fallen again.  How far are you responsible
for  her ruin ?  I want doubters to consider this subject
well — to arouse themselves to earnest thought upon it.
Let naturalness,  cheerfulness,  and  vivacity take  the
place of the wines of Sicily, Madeira, Oporto, or of the 
168
*   GLANCES.
"foaming grape  of Eastern  France."  It is  because
social  life  is  so flat—so  vapid — so  hollow — that
cigars, tobacco, wines, etc., are  in  demand, and just in
proportion  as  mind is elevated above matter, will the
use of these false stimuli be abandoned for the higher
enjoyments of intellect and spirit.   It is because  social
life is so inharmonious — so  perverted by animality —
that our delicious  atmosphere is  surcharged with the
fumes of tobacco.   I  wish  some  eminent philosopher
w^ould tell  us if this  fumigation  is necessary for the
protection of our sex.  Permit me here to make a sug-
gestion.  On the 4th of July and on some other occa-
sions the Mayor  (wiio very opportunely is a physician)
issues an ordinance prohibiting vehicles of all sorts from
passing through certain streets.  Without infringing on
the liberty  we so  much boast, might we not ask our
professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them
register their names in each  ward, and then appoint
certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those
who feel no need of this  envelopment of curling vapor,
to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as
disgusting to the olfactories  as it is prejudicial to the
lungs.
   In  October, 1841, we went to the readings by Anna
Cora Mowatt, at  the Masonic Temple.  It was her first
appearance here.   I remember my delight and wonder.
She magnetized  her  audience.   I was immediately
drawn to her.  I  felt a newness in my own  life, and a
response to hers — and I  only asked that every woman
who went forth might be as well prepared as she was.
A pleasant intimacy with this  noble, gifted woman, in
after  years, proved  to  me  how much can be accom-
plished in  any profession  when the ideal is high.  I
shall have occasion to speak of her again in connection 
GLIMPSES.
169
with the stage,  and  sustain  my position, that  every
woman, as well  as  man,  should be considered as the
most proper judge  of their  own  sphere; — capacity,
fitness,  and attraction  being the  tests, instead of public
opinion.
   If my sister  had left our home at her marriage, my
medical life would  have been very sad;  but she was
still under the same roof with me, and was near in all
emergencies.  I  relinquished  travelling,  as a  general
thing, and quietly sat  myself down  to my home prac-
tice.
   Mr. Henry C. Pratt, at this  period, painted my sister
and myself on  one canvas, arm in arm,  as we were
wont to  be in  days  of  youth.   Our  family pictured
walls have often gladdened me  on returning  from a
journey.
   The  seventy-second year of mother's life found her
in  the  kitchen,  superintending,  and  taking  part in
Thanksgiving preparations.  She performed this labor
with peculiar zest, because she  not only  provided for
the social enjoyment of her own family and friends, but
gladdened many other homes.
   After my sister's marriage, mother was thrown more
into society, but  her parlor hours were  always of her
own choice, as she had a private sitting-room, a  comfort
so necessary to  the  aged, to which she  often loved to
retire.
                       15 
CHAPTER  XIII.
          " Hold thy hand! health's dear maintainer;
           Life perchance may burn the stronger:
           Having substance to maintain her,
           She untouched may last the longer.
                When the artist goes about
                To redress her flame, I doubt,
                Oftentimes she snuffs it out."
                                      Quarles.

  In 1843, a Ladies' Physiological  Society was formed
in Charlestown.  The formation of  this society was one
of the events in my life ; and  gave me the first hint as
to the possibility of lecturing to my own sex on physi-
cal laws.  During my professional  life, I had my atten-
tion turned very much to the sufferings of woman, and
was satisfied that  they were principally caused by her
ignorance.   All the varied  phases of the marriage rela-
tion had been presented to  my  observation.   Multitudes
of  facts  deepened to me  the  significance  of  those
words — maternity and paternity.   I knew the health
and happiness of the human race demanded more atten-
tion to  these  vital  subjects.   The reports  of insane
asylums, and the w7an, haggard countenances, forebod-
ing insanity, wiiich I saw daily, brought me to this con-
clusion": — That if women could  be induced  to  meet
together for  the purpose of obtaining a  knowledge of
physical laws, it would enable them to dispense in great
measure with physicians, put them  on their own respon-
    ds 
GLIMPSES.                 171
sibilities, and be a  blessing  to  themselves and their
children.  The idea  inspired  me.  (Married women —
mothers — meeting together to obtain more light re-
garding their own  physical  natures); — it seemed  a
holy thought,  and  good  spirits  strengthened  it!   It
ultimated in the formation of a little society composed
of some  of the members  of  families in  which  I had
prescribed, and called forth mv warmest  prayers for its
success.
   My medical life had trained me to an individuality
which I have never regretted.   I  am  the  disciple of no
medical  sect.  I am not the proselyte of  any special
school.   It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that
in my practice I have availed myself of  all.   There is
a wide difference between that credulity which yields a
ready assent to every new medical humbug, or  physio-
logical wonder, and a calm, liberal,  investigating spirit
which watches every thing for use.  Not being  tram-
melled by any medical school, and owing also to the
novelty of  my position, I had an  opportunity of know-
ing something of the workings  of the various  pathies
and isms through my patients.  Every day, week, and
month deepened my conviction  of  the total ignorance
that prevailed in regard to the nature and power of me-
dicinal  agents: I said to myself—Trust that  all will
yet be right; enlighten every mind you  meet;  and a
change  may be  gradually wrought  in these matters!
Irritants — sedatives — anti-spasmodics — were very in-
definite terms when subjected to scrutiny.  Dogmatism
may appear to settle controversies, and silence cavilling,
but I have sat in the confessional, and heard what pa-
tients continued to think, after the settling and silencing
process!   There is doubtless some truth to  be found in
every new system  of medicine,  however shrouded by 
172                  GLANCES.

absurdities; even the sweats  and sudden  revulsions of
the " Thompsonian course,"  may change  old habits of
body, and  arouse the  heart  and lungs to new power;
teaching me the need even of what  may  be called vol-
canic treatment in certain  cases : — a  treatment which
I am commonly content to apply to  the moral  element
when I want to stimulate torpid systems!
  Among  my  greatest trials were  the hopeless cases
which no human skill could relieve;  and the anxiety of
the sufferers to know what I  thought of their condition,
has often banished sleep from my eyes.   The  progress
of disease  in these  cases, was the answer to  their que-
ries.   God, in his mercy, has, as a general thing, taken
away the fear of death; and those who  have watched
death-beds, have often been  surprised at the unseen
preparation which had been  going on in the minds of
the dying.   Consumptive cases  elicited much thought.
The  vigorous practice resorted to in their  treatment, by
the old school, terrified me; and the  experiments wiiich
were tried  on sufferers, kept  constantly before me the
importance of their understanding  the  laws  of  their
being, and not submitting blindly  to  every proposed
remedy.  The poor  are peculiarly objects of commisera-
tion, for they are considered fair game for experiment-
ers.   Young physicians, says  an able medical writer,
are much more apt  to try experiments on  patients, than
those who  have  gained experience by practice; and hos-
pitals are the places where they exercise their ingenuity
in killing,  or curing, with  impunity.  I know  of some
terrific cases of useless  torture  inflicted  on the poor.
Prevention was  still the largest word in  the dictionary
to me.  A cold, taken  perhaps in a May morning walk,
induces cough; then fever; then weight and constriction
in the chest; then accelerated respiration, with a sense 
GLIMPSES.
173
of suffocation after exercise; and so the way is prepared
for the grave. In cases where consumption is hereditary,
the physician can only palliate.   But  in such  cases
pectoral  syrups, cough candies, lozenges, etc., are gen-
erally resorted to, while water, the great remedial health-
restoring agent is scarcely dreamed of.  My sympathies
are often with the good family doctor.  He knows pal-
liatives are all that can be used; and instead of frankly
saying so, he encourages false hopes, which events do
not justify;  confidence in his judgment is weakened,
and  frequently a kind and able physician is displaced,
and quack medicines resorted to.
   But to  return.   To  watch  disease in  its  different
aspects, to trust chiefly to nature, became easier for me
every  year.   (Such were  my therapeutics.   Medical
books lost their  power over me, for they talked only of
cures.  Medical journals offered  a little more variety,
but they were only one shade better.  Medical schools
were  only attracting their  students to the cure  of dis-
eases;— doing  little to  attract them to  the causes of
diseases.)  The continual change of treatment in  simi-
lar cases proves how conjectural the art  of healing is.
" I declare," says Dr. James Johnson, " my conscientious
opinion,  founded on long  observation  and reflection,
that if there  was not a single physician, surgeon, apoth-
ecary, man-midwife, chemist,  druggist, or drug, on the
face of the earth, there would  be  less sickness, and less
mortality than  now obtain.   When  we  reflect that
physic is a ' conjectural art,'  that the best physicians
make mistakes, medicine  is  administered  by hosts of
quacks, that it  is swallowed by multitudes of people
without  any professional advice  at  all,  and  that the
world would be infinitely more careful of themselves if
they  were conscious  that  they  had no remedy  from
                         15* 
174
GLANCES.
drugs — these and many other  acts will show that the
proposition I have made  is more startling than untrue.
But as it is, drugs  will  be sw^alhywed by all classes,
rich and poor, with  the hope of regaining health and
prolonging life, and also with the expectation of being
able to counteract the culpable indulgence  of  the appe-
tites and  passions!"   It  has been wisely said  by a
thoughtful writer, " The  benefit derivable to mankind
at large, from artificial remedies, is so limited, that if a
spontaneous  principle  of restoration  had not  existed,
the  human species would long ago have  ceased  to
exist."  By respecting and trusting in this principle of
restoration, all  the recuperative powers  of the system
have been enlisted on the side of cure, understanding^
recognized by the patient; and the results  of  this  have
been surprising,  especially among neuralgic sufferers.
There have been very few cases in  my practice, (which
certainly  has  been  extensive,)  in  which  this faith  in
nature has not  aided me: it arouses the tone of the
patient; and the physiognomical  barometer indicates
every change in the disease.
   Although I knew little of Homoeopathy, yet I well
remember the respect I felt for the details  of its practi-
tioners ;  and even the different kinds of fright  portrayed
seemed wTorthy of consideration. The varied degrees of
grief and sorrow were early observed by me in my
patients,  and I felt the positive need of moral reme-
dies.  Sleeplessness  caused by  home-sickness and by
fright, never suggested  to my  mind  the  same reme-
dial means, the need was perceived of  more attention
to subtle agencies and emotional states.   The exagger-
ated value attached to medicines in some families, is
really ridiculous.  They  gravely discuss the need  their
systems have  of calomel, blue pill, opium,  and  such
drugs. 
GLIMPSES.
175
  The reproach that now rests  on the medical profes-
sion can never be removed until  the public are enlight-
ened,  and a knowledge of  the laws of health diffused
among the people, who will then know wiien to apply for
medical aid.  It is a great thing to understand a diag-
nosis;  it implies that the patient is somewhat compre-
hended— physically, spiritually, morally, and religiously.
I have often wondered that there w7as not a chair of
mental philosophy in every medical school.
  " Little," says Henry Ward Beecher, " is known of the
mind — the soul yet goes  muffled.   It looks out and
sees, but' is itself unseen, undiscovered.  It opens and
shuts, darkens  and flashes, like  clouds that  clothe the
summer sky —but it is manifest'that man the knower is
himself unknown ; man may dig into the bowels of the
mountains and apply the  microscope to minute par-
ticles of matter, the  courses of the stars  are  measured,
the -currents  of light and  electricity  are explored, the
whole globe is  described, but man, the crowning glory
of  the universe, man himself remains a  profound mys-
tery."  Many  a  doctor is taunted  with the remark,
" you would not take yourself,  what you are ordering
for me; " and thus the golden rule is brought home to
him.   Here is an anecdote quite to this  point.  It was
told me by a young sempstress  wiio worked  in  certain
families where Dr.----practised, and who  had  been
much annoyed by the  way in which he treated the sick
children under  his  care in  these families.   She saw
nothing but dosing and dosing,  and made up her mind
never to employ this physician.   Circumstances took her,
at length, to this house ; and there she found  uproarious
children, fretful  and  irritable,  because  unwell.   She
asked, firstly, what was the matter with them; secondly,
what  medicine they were taking.  " None," was the 
176
GLANCES.
answer to the latter question.  She remonstrated with
the mother  on the danger of letting them alone; told
her her husband had said  to  Mrs. A. and  to Mrs. B.
that their children, suffering with  similar complaints,
must be prescribed for.  " O, our family  is one  thing,
and their families  are another," very coldly replied the
good dame; " my husband never prescribes for his own
family; we  never  take medicine — we  know better! "
Here was a fact which went  the  rounds of a  whole
neighborhood, and worked  sadly   against the doctor.
An eminent old practitioner says,  " I have met with
instances  of families wiio had lost every child  while
they trusted to  physic, and  employed the faculty, but
who at length becoming wise through despair, and con-
sidering that their  offspring  could only die, left off the
use  of medicines,  and from that  time  never lost  a
single child."  " A  late writer  on the management of
children,"  says the same author, " thinks it cause of
regret, that they can seldom be brought to take physic
but by force;  when I consider  the almost infinite num-
ber of martyrs to  medicine, instead of lamenting the
circumstance, I rejoice at it from the fullest conviction,
that if  children had  no reluctance to  swallow drugs,
we should lose a great many more of them.  I do not
hesitate to  give a decided  opinion that they injure
twenty times for once that they do good."
   Another anecdote  may serve  to illustrate  another
phase of this subject: — A physician in a neighboring
town had a weak,  silly wife, who   aped fashion and
courted position.  She was  always  ailing and delicate,
because she  found the genteel women in the village
were so.   She made  her husband prescribe for her, as
he did for them, and  accused him of indifference if he
refused.  So she went on dosing and dosing, till now 
GLIMPSES.                 177
she  is a  chronic  invalid!   Similar illustrations will
occur to every mind, they may be found in every neigh-
borhood.
   All  my experiences  deepened  the conviction that
physical laws must be pleasantly and genially presented
to those who called upon me ; if by this course my in-
come was lessened, still health was  preserved to many
who might have become my patients, and their grati-
tude was  my all-sufficient reward.   The lives of many
medical men destroy the confidence in their profession.
As the worst sceptics are often found among those who
have scrutinized the character of professing Christians,
so scepticism of another kind has a strong hold in the
public mind from  the characters of many medical men,
who live as sensually as though hygeine and medicine
were in different quarters of the globe.  In the treatment
of  their patients,  diet,  temperamental conditions,  and
idiosyncracies, too often  pass unnoticed.
   But to come at once to the Charlestown Ladies' Phy-
siological  Society: — I  had watched some time for a
circle of women, well acquainted with each other, that
might be induced  to meet, commence a course of phy-
siological  reading, bring their experiences to  enlighten
each other, and  develop thoughts and reflections which
were embryotic.   The opportunity  had come at last,
and my soul was gladdened.
   The Circle first met, April 25th, 1843, at the house of
Mrs. Curtis in Charlestown.  After a pleasant confabu-
lation, arrangements  were  made for another meeting,
and, if my memory serves me, rightly, Combe was read.
   At the anniversary of  the formation of the society in
the following year, I find, by  referring to the record
book of the society,  that  our numbers had  increased
from less than a dozen, to fifty. 
                            I
178                 GLANCES.

   We had lectures twice a month : — I call  them lec-
tures, though they rather had the character of conversa-
tions.   Meanwhile, the ladies were occupied in knitting
stockings for  the poor children of the " Charlestown
Infant School Society."
   During the second  year of the  Society the lectures
were continued once a fortnight, the infant school children.
were not forgotten, and in 1846, a  regular constitution,
and a code of by-laws, were  adopted by  the society.
The lectures continuing semimonthly as before.  We
were  cheered  and instructed by lectures from Horace
Mann, Dr. Smith, and others.
   I have given this outline of its general course of pro-
ceeding, in the  hope that it may awaken  my country
friends  to form  similar associations.   If no one is pre-
pared to lecture, read Combe's " Constitution  of  Man,"
Combe on Infancy, etc.   Such  works will furnish con-
versation, and stimulate thought.
   The following notice appeared  in  one of  the daily
papers.
   " The first meeting of the Ladies' Physiological Cir-
cle, in this town, for the present  season, was held yester-
day afternoon, at Mrs. Charles Forster's, in  Somerville.
The ladies listened to an address, suitable to the occa-
sion and the season, from Miss Hunt, of Boston, and
spent the rest  of the afternoon  and evening,  in  plying
the busy needle, in conversation  and various recreations
— all designed  to  promote  the physical  and  mental
objects  of the  Circle.   The  fine location of  Mr. Fors-
ter's residence and  the  rich  and varied scenery which
surrounds it, together with  one of the most  extended
prospects in the vicinity of the metropolis, rendered it a
most delightful  place for the meeting and afforded an
endless  variety to engage and  interest the mind.  In 
GLIMPSES.
179
 the  evening,  several gentlemen joined the party, and
 united in  the ' festivities of the occasion,' which they
 voted should be, not annual, but perennial.  We have
 long entertained the opinion that sociability, cheerful-
 ness, and innocent recreations, were important and the
 most  attractive adjuncts to  physiology, and we shall
 never  doubt  the  correctness  of that  opinion  here-
 after."
   The interest manifested  by the members of this so-
 ciety  gave  me great  satisfaction  and encouragement.
 Social life thus connected with the acquisition of knowl-
 edge, assumed a  new and more important aspect.   I
 would here express my thanks _to every lady composing
 that  Circle, and gratefully recognize their charity for
 my short-comings,  and their  tenderness  to me when I
 was in affliction.  They are constantly kept in memory
 more by these things than by the tangible souvenirs
 they  generously gave me — the desk they presented me,
 in which I found a case of  sewing utensils, was doubly
 valued as a testimony of their w^omanly interest in me.
   My services were rendered  light by the officers  of the
 Circle, and I should have rejoiced to hear that similar so-
 cieties were formed in every neighboring town.  I want
 the friends of humanity everywhere to take the hint its
 history gives  them.  If every little village throughout
 the country would  commence  a similar  society, with
 even  five persons as  a nucleus, they would be  richly
repaid by the  acquisition of useful knowledge.
   The freedom with which we conversed about diseases
peculiar to  women, proved the utility of such associa-
tions.   I can truthfully say  that some members of this
society told  me that their doctor's bills were one half
reduced in  consequence of  their obedience to physical
laws. 
180
GLANCES.
   I leave this part of my life with regret, for I would
like to say mpre.  Those afternoon  meetings will never
be forgotten by me.  The earnest  looks — the friendly
greetings  and farewells — the religious  element that
kindled there — gave them  life.  I then  learned the
need  of woman  as priest,  as well as physician, and
was prepared to welcome Antoinette L. Brown to that
sacred office.   There I learned more deeply the need of
light for the people  on medical subjects;  there was born
the thought of public speaking which I afterward real-
ized ;  and there deepened the consciousness of the need
of some change  in social life.  Peace be unto  every
one who  composed that Circle! Peace be  unto their
families!   Their  children  are developing,  and   have
developed  to  maturity.  May  their lives  prove use-
ful and beautiful and noble!   I loved my  Charlestown
meetings, and regretted when my duties forbade regular
attendance.  If my memory  serves, we had three  or
four social meetings after the summer vacation that we
might  become acquainted with the husbands of the
members.
  Should  any one wish further information  respecting
this  Circle, they  may  address  Mary D.  Balfour,  of
Charlestown, secretary of the society. 
CHAPTER  XIV.
               " Her advent was a mission, given
                 To draw thy heart to God;
                To plant the blessed flowers of heaven,
                 Along life's thorny road;
                To raise in thankfulness and love
                 Thy voice in grateful prayer,
               To Him who grants thee from above
                 An angel's guardian care."

   In 1843,  wTe  passed through an  ordeal not  to be
forgotten.  A child wTas to be born to our house.   Holy
hours of thought,  of  wonder and  gratitude, had pre-
ceded its birth.  My sister's maternal nature had grown
through religious trust.  The fulness  of time came, and
with it the  most severe anguish; for  we feared both for
mother  and child.   I realized,  then, in  some  degree
what  my mother  had passed through  for me.   How
anxious were those weary hours!  We were cheered by
our kind and faithful physician, Dr. Stephen Ball.   Con-
vulsions  shook not only the prospective  mother, but
convulsions of spirit shook the household.  I seem to
hear  my mother's  quiet, steady  tread even now, as I
heard it then.   At length the babe was born, weighing
only  four pounds  eleven ounces.  A reverent  silence
overshadowed  us  as we looked on  this  angelic  little
girl — she opened her eyes, and our vision of love was
                         16                  (18D 
182
GLANCES.
satisfied — I have never  seen such baby beauty.   This
child was  spiritualized  to  me from  her birth.  The
names of my  sister and  myself were  united, and be-
stowed on her — a symbol  of  our united love for her:
— she wTas named Harriot Augusta.   Is there any rap-
ture so great as that experienced at the birth of the first-
born !  Newness  and  astonishment are daily states of
mind.  Infantile beauty is so magical, that in it we feel
the presence of angels.  This child was so delicate and
fragile, that she  required  the  greatest care.  At six
months of age, she weighed only ten pounds!   Had
not her parents been consistent, practical physiologists,
and her  mother  a physician, she  would  not have re-
mained with us;  but by steady,  quiet care and judicious
management,  her constitution  was  strengthened, and
we watched her  growth  with ever new delight.  Her
joyous laugh  and perception of humor fascinated me.
She was my first baby-love; a well-spring of pleasure
to me: a link between the spiritual and material.  She
became  almost   my  idol.  The habit  of  obedience,
grafted on her in  babyhood, gave a  peculiar expression
of trustfulness to  her eye.  I  well remember when  I
said the  Lord's Prayer to  her  for the  first time:  she
startled me by   her responsive look.    Dear baby —
sweet trust — a loan to be rendered back to God with
interest, and so soon!   Through her the  cases of chil-
dren assumed new importance to me.  My love  for her
opened new avenues of love for others.  This was her
mission for me, and it has ever  been recognized.
  Every woman should prepare herself by observation,
thought, and reading for  the duties  of maternity.  By
so doing, she can  regulate the life of her charge.  Ser-
vants may assist by carrying out the nursery regulations
of a wise mother, but should never be intrusted with 
GLIMPSES.
183
the sole management of children.   Poor suffering baby-
hood! how much you  endure from  the ignorance of
mothers !   They overtax their nervous energies, deprive
themselves of necessary air and exercise, to embroider
dresses to make the darlings look pretty — thus vitiating
their milk  and depriving their children of healthful and
invigorating nutriment — could they act  thus if they un-
derstood the " laws of life ?"  I rejoice to bear testimony
to a few gifted women, deeply religious — high toned —
they were  married — united, (not yoked together,) and
when the fulness of time came for a  child to bless their
homes, their reverend bearing was the best pledge of the
welcome that awaited the  babe.   One  case let me re-
cord for its beauty.  After a congratulatory call on the
mother of one of these love babies,  I w7as deeply im-
pressed with the  moral magnetism  of her sphere.   I
said to myself, I must ask this mother more of her in-
terior life.   I have been awakened by contact with her
to a higher sense of the divine.
   After many weeks I had a conversation with her, and
when I read the sweet poetic lines (she handed me) to
her unborn babe, and completed to her new-born infant,
an electrical conductor was established between us, and
faithfully has  it transmitted the reciprocal feelings of
friendship.  In moments  of doubt and  distrust of hu-
manity, I have turned to the holiness of  her sphere, and
like  a talisman  it has preserved me from all misan-
thropy.  I see that the gross darkness which covers the
people is,  as it were, the callous sheath  which protects
the bud, before the darkness  of night and the frost of
winter have passed away.  The bud is there, though we
see it not, and when the genial and fructifying rays of
the sun of knowledge shall arise on the hearts of the
nation, the callous  calyx   of human nature  will yet 
184
GLANCES.
open, and fall under the beautiful blossom  of love  and
truth, which is yet to bloom in our world.
  Philosophers  tell  us that  when telegraphic wires
thread the air, and railroads encircle the globe, a health-
ful  and equalizing effect  will be  produced  upon the
extremes of heat and cold in the atmosphere, and the
days of Eden will return.
  Even so, when the telegraphic wires of spiritual com-
munication  shall be  extensively  established  between
lofty  minds  and pure  hearts, they will  equalize  and
purify the moral atmosphere around us, and a state of
society, far  higher  than an  Eden  of mere innocence,
will be created, which will be as fatal to vice as that of
the fabled Upas is to animal life.
  They indulge  their  appetites,  and  then administer
vile anodynes to relieve the pain  they have themselves
caused.  They look upon  their babes with pride when
they are elegantly attired, arms and necks uncovered in
violation of health and comfort, and when the helpless
little things are sick they  complain of sleepless nights,
when they themselves have been  in fault.   Would that
some lover  of   humanity  would write a work on the
wrongs of children !  My soul has been made sad, in see-
ing hirelings receiving the smiles of infants sent to cheer
mothers.  Young girls  rush  into marriage — accept a
babe as a toy—a living plaything—and  wonder that
it  ever  should  be  troublesome!   Had  I  doubted the
need  of woman  as a  physician, the  intensity of my
feelings respecting  these  relations would have settled
my doubts forever.  I knew that  ignorance of hygeinic
laws  prevailed to a lamentable extent, but I never felt
it so keenly as when I saw its fatal effects in the rearing
of children.   I asked myself, why so much  ignorance of
physical laws, and where are our physicians ? Is their sole 
GLIMPSES.
185
 business to cure diseases ?  If they would study preven-
 tion and prescribe hygeinic laws, surely the sick would
 pay such bills with  more pleasure, than they now pay
 for advice to swallow nauseous drugs.   Let the public
 who have neglected to enlighten themselves, bear  half
 the odium that  rests on the medical profession.
   There have been  times  in the world's history, when
 the offices  of priest and physician were united.  The
 world cannot do better than to join them again.  They
 should never have been divorced.   The functions of the
 pastor and  of the doctor are  so blended — they are  so
 intimately connected — that they should be made  one;
 they are one in all true physicians, not that a physician
 need have  a parish, or a pastor need have patients —
 those who went out from Galilee eighteen centuries ago
 with " healing for the nations " — were they not physi-
 cians of the body too?  " Go ye into all the world and
 preach the gospel to every creature."  " Great signs and
 wonders were  done  by the apostles."  " The father of
 Publius lay sick of  a fever, to whom Paul entered in,
 and laid his hands on him and  healed  him, and many
 that were  taken  with  palsies and  were  lame  were
 healed."
   Three generations  in one   household — a   blessed
 trinity of love — yesterdays— have traced  the life lived
 out in the soul — an undying religious faith stamping
 the physiognomy with hallowed beauty, and encircling
 the sphere with softened splendor — every tear, every
 sorrow, every anxiety, garnered up in  clouds, is reflected
in the  arch of rainbow  smiles  and  genial looks —
yesterdays following each other with  rapid steps, mak-
ing weeks,  months,   and years.    Threescore and ten
reached the mother, and a family party gladdened  the
home,  and  earnest wishes were breathed  for her con-
                       16* 
186
GLANCES.
tinued health and length of days;  she  answered, " The
days  of  our years are threescore and ten,  and if  by
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their
strength  labor and sorrow:"  and " the  grasshopper is
a burden."  Yesterdays wisely improved throw a radi-
ance over to-days — yesterday's a bud dislodged from
the bough to be grafted on  the tree  of the past,  the
pruning-knife  used by the divine  hand  was keen, but
the wounds  were accepted filially — age  gathered  up
these yesterdays, folded itself in  a mantle,  woven  of
smiles and tears, of hopes  and  fears, of  sorrows and
joys, and said, " I have often more joy  than I can bear,"
why do we not speak of this  state, as well  as  say,  " I
have more trouble than I can  bear."
   To-day came — adult age had its lessons,  the moni-
tions of  yesterday rested upon them — the germ of  to-
morrow  springs  from  the  seed corn of to-day —  the
garden of Eden is offered us  to plant  it in and fruit is
promised to  recompense  industry — shall  we  accept
these gifts — shall the to-days prepare  a blessing for  the
to-morrows ?  Shall the now  be filled with  uses —  the
Lord  be recognized in all ?   Spirits  from the thickly
peopled  air bring unseen  ministrations — voices within
and around  speak emphatically to the adult mind —
the interior ear is unclosed, the interior eye is opened —
the utterance  comes, "work while it is yet day, the night
cometh when no man  can work " — each  minute hath
its mission connected with the last, linked to the next —
virtue consecrates these minutes and gathers from them
wisdom  to guide in the meridian of life.
   The to-morrow, the grandchild  comes, realizing  the
hopes of yesterday and to-day — the bee-child flies forth
and in  baby laughter  gathers honey from  a mother's
pressure, a mother's presence—then she returns home 
GLIMPSES.                  187
into her own little  self and is folded in  the arms of
sleep — the eye of love rests on her, for there is a holy
ministration to the mother in  that lifeless form — in-
fancy is a star shedding its soft sweet light on domestic
life — acceptance of the blessing proves the quality of
the love that fills the heart to the giver.  Three genera-
tions in  one  household — yesterday — to-day — to-
morrow.
  When  this child was  near, — this  Sunbeam, as  I
termed her, — I felt a  tenderness  not to be expressed.
She pleaded with me for all babyhood; her looks gave
me the conviction that too much care cannot  be taken
of such  germs.   The  grandmother and grandchild, so
constantly together, were regarded then as a sweet pic-
ture, and remembered even by strangers.  My mother's
untiring solicitude gave me a faint  idea of what tender
care had been lavished on my own  babyhood.   Soon a
little boy was added  to  the group;  a grandson — a
nephew; — new  words for us: and,  as the name of
Wentworth was his middle name, and he was to bear
the  name of  his father,  who  was an only son, both
grandmothers were gratified.  It was delightful  for them
to have this additional bond of union.   They had both,
in early life, been Episcopalians — had both been con-
verted by John  Murray — were both  devoted  to their
respective families; their  friendship had been of many
years,  and of high character. Although unlike in many
things, they had a rich  experience in  common.  Their
keen remarks on the extravagance and superficiality of
the  times, contrasted  with the simple,  natural, loving
homes of the  past, would  have aroused some modern
persons to thought on the cheats they  are practising on
themselves, and the terrible wrong consequent  to their
poor children. 
188                  GLANCES.
  The parents of these children of ours, thought it best
they should be in the country during  the summers, par-
ticularly little Sunbeam : Mr. Wright purchased a house
out of town, and there my sister formed for herself a
country home, which, after the removal of  our  mother
to the  spirit land, became permanent.  I must  confess
I only tolerated  this  change.   Two houses—two
homes — were  saddening to  me, because  they  were
dividing.  Yet  I was unwise and selfish; — I  see  it
now.   The reason for the step was clear; the want wras
felt,  and it was judiciously met.  Time has stamped
the movement with approbation.   I  feared  changes —
I was cowardly then;  and yet I knew a sister was ever
a sister.  This  change was a preparation for a greater
one in store for me.   As we still formed  one family in
the winter, mother was happy, and enjoyed her summer
visits in the country.   Another child w7as born in the
country home,  and the family began to seem large.
These  children so very near  of an age, appeared like
three tender babes.  The third child was named Theo-
dore.   He was born with a veil.  I attribute  to this fact
my very peculiar feelings toward him.   Sweet little one
— he filled his  aunt with wonder when she sawr the
transparent gauze lifted  from  his beautiful face; his
sparkling eyes  seemed to  understand his welcome.
These  children were welcomed with joy, their  advent
brought with it the mingled  feelings  of wonder and
gratitude,  their  birthright was the  tenderness which
awakens in the baby's heart the first emotions of love,
and  teaches it to look into its mother's eyes, to expect
in its  father's smile a sweet response.  Birth acquired
new power and  meaning, and woman's  mission  as a
mother was blended with her mission as a teacher.  Those
children — I mean the boys — promised well, but we al- 
GLIMPSES.
189
 ways had a foreshadowing fear for little Sunbeam. She
 looked so much like my father;  so sweetly reflected his
 peculiar smile; her perceptions were so clear and  quick,
 and her precocity was so remarkable, that my misgivings
 deepened.  How much I enjoyed with that dear child,
 is for thought, not expression ; buf, for it all, I thank the
 glorious Giver, " who doeth all things well."  Her witch-
 ing manner, and the touching pathos in her attempts at
 utterance,, startled me.   My love was running into idol-
 atry.
      " Years fled, that little one was dear as life to me,
        And woke in my unconscious .heart,  a wild idolatry.
             I worshipped at an earthly shrine,
               Lured by some magic spell.
             Forgetful of the praise of Him,
              Who doeth all things well."

   Every hygeinic rule with respect to diet, air, exercise,
 regularity, was regarded;  she  passed safely through
 dentition and other  infantile  maladies, and  seemed to
 thrive;  yet,  to  me,  it  was  but seeming.   I  ever felt
 her  spiritual  power, and  her baby  presence  sanctified
 thought.  She had  no physical resistance, and,  when
 sickness laid  its  hand  upon her,  she yielded, the  aspir-
 ing spirit would be free.   She had lived many years in
 less than  three : she  had fulfilled her earthly mission by
 teaching hearts a  deeper love, and leading them upward
 to the love divine.   The physician in  consultation said
 to us, " Nothing but your care has kept her here so  long;
look at  the development of that head!"
   That sacred week when this  dear  child was  drop-
ping  her  earthly  tabernacle — memory has stereotyped
its hours.   We  watch  the. earth made  golden by the
brilliant leaves that cover it;  and  as we gaze accept
the teachings of nature — we catch inspiration as the 
190
GLANCES.
autumnal leaves rest on  the evergreen hedges, and ad-
mire the flying flowers that beautify them.  In the fading
period of life, wiien  faculty after faculty has ceased its
pleasant action, when nature's  monitions have kindly
whispered the time approacheth when " the silver cord
will be loosed" — then a change seems natural.   If
drought scorches the earth, and trees in quiet majesty
are petitioning  for baths,  and  midsummer leaves are
strewing the  earth, we look with  regret — so  when
youthful loveliness is  laid low we* deeply mourn; —
but when the blossom so fragrant, so prospective, is
blighted, leaving no embryo fruit behind — sadness  and
disappointment are mingled — so with infancy — burst-
ing  beauty,  mystic charms,  witching spells are  all
around it — seraph guests are babes — they give  a  fas-
cination to  home, and when removed " to grace  the
bower where angels  dw7ell," amid  the sadness  that we
feel, we breathe " Thy will be  done," " who doeth all
things well."
   While the form is in the house,  we can  gaze upon it,
— soulless, urispeaking features have still a language —
the rigid marble-like  form has still a semblance of life
— the mourners  are led to the source of all consolation.
This  child — its birth — its life — its removal — what
they have done  for me I may never fully know — "of
such is the kingdom  of heaven."
   At first thought it  seemed out of season, that  one
so young — so  promising — should  be  called away;
but the spiritual body lives  forever.   At  my  father's
removal, I was  stunned; now,  I  was  subdued.   We
knew the mortal had put on immortality — we saw the
rainbow radiant on  the  cloud — as we left the beauti-
ful form at Mount Auburn.
   I think, if we  retrace the  exercises of  mind which 
                      GLIMPSES.                  191

  have preceded signal afflictions, we shall  always find
  they were preparations for them.   " The  veil which
  covers  from  our sight the events of futurity, is a veil
  woven  by the hand of mercy."  But the tenderness of
  Divine  Providence is not only manifested in concealing
  coming sorrows, but in preparing  us for  them.  Pre-
  vious to the  removal of little Sunbeam, my mind had
  been in a peculiar state.  I had watched the daily fail-
  ing  of  her  paternal  grandmother,  a true sensible  old
  lady of the old school; and, at length, we followed  her
  remains to  Mount  Auburn.  Nearly  ninety years of
  age — like a shock  of corn fully ripe, she was gathered
  in.   Then, a family  in Charlestown, very near to me,
  laid  the form of a mother  in the same place of burial.
  These things had stirred my mind, and given an earn-
  estness  to my thoughts: it was all  preparative.   I had
 moralized on the  losses  of others — considered the
 voids created in families near and dear to me — but I
 knew not the full meaning  of these tender monitions
 until a cloud overshadowed me.
   How sad, to think  that  children should  ever  be ac-
 cepted as  necessities when their mission for us is  so
 holy  and so high.   What they have to give we all need.
 Childlikeness is ever  beautiful, whether in the being of
 five years or of five times ten.  We cannot  be too rev-
 erent and tender to little children.  We cannot  do too
 much to brighten and bless their homes !  How many
 arc saddened this very day by their removal!   My rela-
 tion to parents — I mean  mothers — was placed on a
 higher plane by the departure of this child.   Thankful-
 ness that our understanding of physical laws had ena-
 bled us to keep her thus long, aroused me to  more earn-
 estness in insisting upon their importance.   I talked all
the more fervently to parents who are wont to slight and 
192                  GLANCES.
disregard the laws of the body until  sickness ensues,
and then tax the skill and ingenuity of the physician to
renew the lease of life for them, or their children ; — par-
ents, who  when emergencies are passed,  and self-re-
proach forgotten, relapse into carelessness  and  thus
bring  upon  themselves severer lessons, wiiich indeed
they need.   Misuse, abuse, use, are significant words to
the thoughtful, in relation to health and disease. Every
mother should pay the strictest attention to the diet, air,
exercise, sleep,  and bathing of herself and her children.
Mothers! never leave  your children  to the care of ser-
vants,  foreign or  native!  Give them a  home : — they
pine at  hotels  and boarding-houses ;  they are out  of
place there; they were given you to beautify home — to
be a light and  life to home.   Have you thought of the
little hearts that are palpitating to  meet you? of the
baby eyes that  are watching the door for you to enter,
and asking of you not only nutriment for the  body, but
that maternal tenderness which is food for  the soul ?
Shall I write it? — it  is  true, little children  are left to
sit at second tables with  servants and  nurses, and par-
take of food without discretion as to quality or quan-
tity !   Instead  of the condiment of love, they have the
contents of the castors, to season their food: — what
wonder they are weakly and  cross!   I have  not the
least sympathy with — I  have only a severe  rebuke —•
for any mother who attires herself in fashionable cloth-
ing for dinner, and permits her children to be abandoned
to the  care of hirelings.   Every mother is bound by her
maternity to look after the diet  of her child; — she is
bound not only to look after it, but to gladden the meal
by her presence.  Hotel life is an outrage on childhood.
The rights of children are yet  to be understood, pleas-
urable and  healthy surroundings to  aid  in developing 
                      GLIMPSES.                 193

 and perfecting their physique are their inalienable pre-
 rogative.  What are termed trivial matters, which yet
 in relation to their  health and  comfort, are of  vast im-
 portance, are too little attended  to.  The narcotics given
 to children are reporting themselves in varied  diseases.
 Every child, as well as adult, has a health-instinct: this
 instinct points to what is appropriate, — guides to what
 is necessary ; and the true mother  recognizes it: — she
 feels what is, and what is not, for her child's good.  She
 does not treat one  child as she  does another,  for their
 temperaments may be  different.   She  respects  this
 health-instinct even in an infant.   She takes it as her
 guide  through all the subtleties  of different organizations
 and various  idiosyncracies :  it counsels  her  in  her chil-
 dren's early  maladies,  regulating even the temperature
 of a bath.  If children could be aware of the wrongs
 done them in infancy, how the press would teem with
 works on abused,  neglected childhood.   Infantile  dis-
 eases are manufactured by ignorance in regard to food
 and clothing, by conflicts  between  the nursery  and the
 parlor, or management and manoeuvring  to preserve a
 position for  the  little ones  similar to that of some rich
 neighbor !  Nature is scarcely dreamed of in connection
 with babyhood;  carminatives and narcotics are bought
 freely,  and the poor babies' cries when the drugs  are
 poured into their tortured stomachs, are soon forgotten.
 Their physical systems, stimulated and paralyzed, soon
lose their recuperative power, and a  pitying Providence
removes them by thousands.  It needs a Sinai  voice to
arouse  mothers to  thought  on this  subject.   A kind
looking young mother said to me, when I was urging
her to  take care  of her child herself, " I have not time
to attend to every thing."  " What work have you in
your hand ? "  I asked.  " It is a cloak I am  embroider-
                        17 
194
GLANCES.
ing for the baby."   " Put it away for five minutes, and
let us have a chat."  She did so, and I talked to her of
that wonderful clothing of the spirit, the body.  I found
her perfectly ignorant of every thing relating  to physi-
ology ; and there she was carefully working flowers on
cashmere, to deck a body so fearfully and  wonderfully
made, but to the study of which she had never devoted
one hour.  Another lady said to me, " I always rock
my child to sleep, for the girl is taking her supper then."
She was  evidently apologizing for doing this.  A knowl-
edge  of  the " Law of Life" would have taught her
that rocking children  to sleep was injurious, that her
child should have been  laid in a crib, not a cradle, and
suffered  to  go to  sleep  naturally.  I heard  another
mother, sleepless and nervous, exclaim pettishly, " How
terribly troublesome my child is!  What  can be the
matter!  I came home  late from the party, weary and
exhausted, and she kept me awake all night.  I  shall
get sick,  and be obliged to go  into the country at  this
rate."   Similar  remarks are heard continually.   The
child properly  regarded  and cared for, is the exception
now.   Mothers are trying, by dress and various inven-
tions, to  make little men and women of babies, and, I
can tell them, the  latter will fight  for their birthright.
Babyhood is their birthright, and  they will  not yield it
without  a  struggle!  Everywhere  we see poor,  dwin-
dled, overtasked childhood, incapable of endurance, be-
cause infancy  has been overlooked as a season of prep-
aration for uses.  A child is uncomfortable — it utters
aery—and straightway an  M.  D.  is sent for: — our
colleges are manufacturing them  by scores ; — this one,
among others, has been taught  the theory and  practice
of medicine — nothing but  medicine; — here  is a new
family, and he must make his mark.  So,  dosing com- 
GLIMPSES.
195
mences,  and emetics, cathartics, stimulants, and what
not, are unceremoniously introduced into the poor baby's
delicate stomach, and, it may be, a temporary diversion
of pain, or stupefaction, ensues, and satisfies the doctor
that his  prescription was wise.  I wish  every  parent
would ascertain the number of deaths under three years
of age in any year;  then continue research by inquiring
of any druggist how many narcotics he has sold during
the sickly season : — the result of  such  an investiga-
tion would  be  appalling!  The voice, rather than  the
pen, is needed  on  this  subject; and  if faithfulness in
any one department of my profession more than another
calls for special gratitude, it is this — the enlightening
of mothers — yes, and fathers too ; for they are often as
culpable.   The most awful responsibilities are wrapped
up in  the birth of a child.  It is  neither  the child of
father or mother, but it is the child of father and mother,
and both are responsible for its life, comfort, and happi-
ness.   The  parents recognize their Heavenly Parent in
proportion as they accept or reject their babes.   This is
a solemn fact.   We come to a knowledge  of the Divine
Lord in the degree  in which we love and welcome  our
children.   Give to each child, then, a smile of gladness ;
irradiate its birth with love;  bid it enter the innermost
of your heart, then  set yourself .to work to know some-
thing of its  wondrous organization, that you may guard
its health and  life.   Thus shall your children educate
you, and each in its turn, furnish you with knowledge
to educate those that come after. 
CHAPTER
XV.
" The truth of good, or truth from good is masciiline, and the ijood of truth, 01
          good from truth is feminine." — Swedenuorg.

   October, 1845.— Our little girl had passed into the
spiritual sphere, the bereavement was severe : it ploughed
up the ground — and we afterwards realized that they
who sow in tears shall reap in joy.   Mr. Ballou, who
had been our faithful pastor for years, and whose inti-
macy we  so much enjoyed, (peace to his  memory,) be-
came infirm, and a colleague was  demanded.  The vari-
ous ministers I  heard and saw, (for many were  guests
at our table,) whilst preaching on trial, kept  my mind
wide awake.
   The sphere of this child was sacred to me ; I dreaded
to lose it, and the yearning of my soul seemed to be
met in New Church truths.  A sort of dreaminess, mis-
tiness, and dampness of spirit rested upon me;  I  feared
indifference  and  apathy, for my religion was then more
exterior, a response to my mother's.   A sort of satisfied,
religious conventionality  clothed  me.  I  had believed
without asking myself why — I had  accepted without
examination.
   Patients dissatisfied with life were around me.  Many
of them church-members, and yet destitute of an  active
belief in Divine  Providence — age  repining at decay —
youth  luxurious, ignoring responsibility ; and had  not
     (196) 
GLIMPSES.
197
my mother's  religious  nature ever breathed an  aroma
around me, I might  have become a materialistic physi-
cian.
   I had formed an acquaintance with some persons who
attended the New  Church, and was led to examine their
doctrines.  At that time, so epochal  to me, did Profes-
sor George Bush of New York, come to Boston to de-
liver a course of lectures  in the New Church  vestry
(winter of 1845 and'46).  I attended  them all — they
touched a tender  heart, desiring truth in the inward
parts.   Saddened, afflicted, disappointed at my bereave-
ment— then was  the  needed  preparation going on in
my mind.  Tables laden with spiritual food were spread
before  those audiences — the hungry and thirsty heard
words from  one whose broad and philosophic mind had
accepted life, immortality — heaven on a spiritual basis.
The watchtowers  of the  New Jerusalem gave a  posi-
tion to  the  speaker.   He traced the influx  descending
from the spiritual world to the natural.   George Bush
was the first New Church preacher I ever heard interiorly,
and in the interviews I have had with him since I expe-
rienced the privilege  of being awakened by him, only
made me value his lectures the more.  His broad,  com-
prehensive mind recognizes the stand-point of  others,
and one feels in conversing with him, a childlike  confi-
dence and trust.
   Many years  before,  I had attended  the New Church
in Phillips  Place,  and  a few times in  Bowdoin street.
There always rested over me at those seasons a calm, a
quiet, a rest — but never in full— a sort of pause.   My
profession  assumed a  magical power  over  me,  just in
proportion  as I recognized the material body as a type
only of the spiritual.  This great and  beautiful truth I
found fully elaborated in  Swedenborg's Animal King-
                         17* 
198
GLANCES.
dom, and whilst  reading  it recognized perceptions
wiiich had  always  influenced my medical practice,
although they never had  been defined  or embodied in
my  mind before.  Light emanated from that  work,
which invested  anatomy  and  physiology with  golden
robes.   Clouds  of mist vanished, and  a  flood of light
dazzled me  at  first, but my mental  vision  became
stronger by use, and soft, mellow  tints  attracted me
along.  Analysis rather than synthesis had been my
peculiar habit;  thus interior things opened from the
exterior.  Heaps of facts, gathered during my medical
life,  assumed form; stores laid by in the memory came
forth from their  hiding-places, and order was evolved
from chaos.   Many truths were found to be centered in
one.  I shall be  termed an enthusiast by many, but it
matters not—Iliad found the philosopher's stone, the
elixir of life.
  About this time I read Swedenborg's  " Animal King-
dom ;"  and took a seat in Bowdoin Street Church.  I
enjoyed Mr. W.'s sermons, his doctrinal  discourses min-
istered to my state of mind at that time.
  The  soulless  character  of medical works was con-
stantly forced upon me — my dissatisfaction had deep-
ened— they  -were  outer — shelly—uncertain—vague
and  contradictory.   My veneration led me to revere
the truth, and when my mind clearly discerned that all
truth was  from the Lord alone, my  being permitted to
be a medium of it brought over me a delightful con-
sciousness of power through Him, and  I  gloried  in an
utter lack of seZ/"-confidence.
  I  then  read Divine Love  and Wisdom, and  Divine
Providence, and  as  the beauty and simplicity of these
doctrines opened on my mind, my rationality found a
home, and self-love stood before me in hideous deform- 
GLIMPSES.                 199
ity.  The quality of heavenly love was measured by love
to our neighbor.  Various minds  are preparing for the
reception of truths on a higher plane, and wiien they are
fully realized by their receivers, the cold dogmatism of
many will pass away.  The kind, gentle, persuasive, and
gradual  manner  in which the way was opened for me,
will, I trust, encourage  others  to  accept, and conscien-
tiously to  apply one truth  after another, for I am  only
on the doorstep, the threshold of the temple of truth,
— and yet I find myself  differing  from many  other
minds, and had not my individuality been very strong,
it w^ould have  been cause of sorrow.   But the  true
Church is, wherever charity and truth are married and
uses are performed.
   " As from  the soul, the mind's principle in the brain,
the nerves and  bloodvessels permeate the bony frame-
work and cuticular  enveloping of the body, producing
the human form with its wonderful  exterior uses — so
the will and understanding  take upon themselves form
and permeate through all the windings of thought and
affection and  give the quality of life."  This fascinated
me — it  seized  my  inmost — gave form to chaos, and
circulation became twofold  to me.   The animal  king-
dom  was illuminated, and  far away in  holy hours of
childhood's prayer, and girlhood's duties, a ray of light
descended, and   shadowings of  the  past  w^ere  seen.
Lonely twilight  hours  in  after-life  bore testimony to
wrestlings  like  Jacob for  the  blessing — alighting at
sunset, and  rest accepted.  The  dream, the  reverie
came, and with it the ladder, and  angels ascending and
descending upon it.
  " As the embryo  of the chick is in the egg, so  there
is an influence of life through the parent into the womb
before birth, and then at birth in individual life " — and 
200
GLANCES.
thus the great doctrine of life, with the importance of
which I had ever been impressed, which had overshad-
owed, blest, and  guided me in my professional duties,
took form, and my soul was feasted.
   Love, whether in man or woman, is feminine — it  is
spikenard  perfuming the house.  The earth furnishes
olive  oil and  aromatics.  Crumbling  stones, autumn
leaves,  decayed roots, bring their  tributes — and sun-
shine, rain, and  air give life  to little  filaments which
slowly descend into  rootlets, whilst  others ascend into
pumula, and gradually unfold into stem and leaves, buds,
flowers, and fruit.  Woman — hear thy teacher, the earth.
She images to thee all productiveness — she teaches thee
hidden lessons — quietly  and  effectually.   She  shows
thee how every healthy surrounding develops thy life
— yea, and the unhealthy too, for as the beautiful pond
lily floats  on  stagnant waters, concealing  the  filthy
scum which covers  them, so  does many a woman in
gentle love  and humble cheerfulness, cover up the can-
cerous sores and corruption of private life.  Be assured,
my sisters — every care — every necessity, brings with it
an odor to sanctify,  and frankincense  to perfume it.
Don't grudge  too much the price that is paid for your
growth — spiritual  growth  is  wTorth  much  suffering.
The germ  of these truths was  my maternal birthright.
   Social  life  was poisoned  at its vitals — this  fact
passed before me daily, and Simon-like I was longing to
hear of a salvation which recognized harmony.  Harmo-
ny between the constitutional elements of  our  being,
and the physiological laws  that govern it.  Harmony
between the lower propensities, the intellectual faculties,
and the moral  and religious sentiments that make up
the whole man.  Harmony between  his domestic duties
and   public  responsibilities.   Harmony  between  his 
GLIMPSES.
201
character as a professional man and his principles as a
Christian.   Harmony between the exalted position ap-
pointed by  God to  woman as a representative of the
mother element in the church — yea — the symbol of
that church,  the parent of its head— and that low posi-
tion which  man has permitted  her  to  -occupy in the
church, if such harmony can be established.
   The state of the church as it now is, has  been ulti-
mated in the present position  of woman.  For even in
our republic (so called) she is denied a finished educa-
tion, and refused a just remuneration for her labor, and
thus has been driven into legal and illegal prostitutions.
And  not  until woman is elevated  through education,
remuneration, and freedom, and set at liberty to follow
out her higher life, being alone responsible for her uses,
(they being alone decided by her capacity and aspira-
tion through faith and love,) will the church whom she
represents  ever be  prepared  to embrace  the  truths
shadowed  forth in  her as a symbol.  "The bride" —
" the  Lamb's wife " — " the mother."
   I had so often heard the church  spoken of  as the
Bride—the wife, the mother  receiving into her womb
the germs of truth and love, giving birth to these germs
through use, nursing them with milk elaborated  from
her own system, tending,  watching over, and caring for
them with maternal love, that I could  not but feel the
power of the correspondence.   Then I  looked  around
in the  churches to see  this holy principle practicalized
— to  find the women who were last at the cross, and
first at the  resurrection,  proclaiming the  sad and the
joyful in the Christian ministry.  I found that most of
the children borne by these churches were inharmoni-
ous, disorderly, worldly, exterior, and sexual, for the men
of almost every one  of these denominations had taken 
202                  GLANCES.
upon themselves to become mothers, and provide for the
spiritual household.   Men had  preached,  regulated,
counselled, and decided upon every church measure —
whilst   the  true  representative  of the   church — the
bride, or female element, was an automaton responding
yes, amen.
  I saw in this picture a sad  perversion — an  unholy
refusal  of ordination  to woman, an unrighteous with-
holding of " the  laying on of hands " upon her head.
The church  our mother, asks  not whether male  or
female desires a home in her household ;  milk from her
bosom,  food from  her stores,  drink  from her  well  or
solace from  her love,  but  she  says " knock, seek, ask,"
and the blessing is freely given in the order and  degree
of its need.  •
  The church, our mother, recognizes " neither male nor
female" — she prepares not one kind of food  for my
brother  and another for my sister, " for they are all one
in Christ Jesus."   Like the sun and  the  rain she dis-
penses  her blessings  without  partiality  and without
sexuality,  "for every one who  seeketh,  findeth," etc.
Then I was troubled still further  at the developments
around  me,  and  sought  for  wisdom.   I  saw  that
power — honor, preferment, and wTealth  were all given
by man  to man.  Love and will to woman by man; and
yet when we asked for freedom, (that central point  of
all activities and responsibilities, to guide, regulate, and
develop that will  and  love,)  w^e were hedged in  by
narrow  minds, wiio attempted to draw boundary lines —
and talk of masculine and feminine as though a  state
of order pervaded the  world, aud the  life of  man was
so true that he could see clearly, not only how to define
his own sphere, but was competent to decide woman's
also. 
GLIMPSES.
203
   This was to be expected  in  the world,  for physical
power had governed in that, it  acknowledged  no other
ruler;  but in the church, who professed allegiance  to a
spiritual head — the church, the mother of those  who
were hoping and living for regeneration — to find there
the  deteriorating distinctions of sex, although she had
utterly repudiated sex, declaring that " male  and female
are  all one  in  Christ Jesus,"  was unaccountable in-
deed — passing strange !
   Women constitute about two thirds of all the church-
members,  and man, before he can be received  as a
member, must become as a little  child, thus taking on
the  female element of love and  gentleness ;  and yet,
with all  these  truths, both  external and internal,  only
think of the  disorder of man's performing every spiritual
service, even to the  dispensing  of the sacraments; and
filling   (himself  alone)  every   spiritual  office  in   the
church.
   This I do  not find in  Swedenborg, for it  would  con-
flict with  that great central  truth, freedom.  I  look
earnestly in  this day  for  more  Miriams, Deborahs,
Annas, Phoebes, and spirits like unto those who died at
the  stake, and perished in the flames of persecution,
and when the spirit of woman is  emancipated under
the fast coming age, we shall find heavenly truths in
vessels, filled with a rich experience, qualifying for the
discharge of the holy duties  of  motherhood in the
church.
   I  see  a reason  why we  have no  more  inspired
preachers of  this dispensation.  A cloud  rests  upon
those truths, we cannot  bear its removal — we are not
yet ready for the full effulgence of the unclouded  sun
of righteousness: the morning twilight serves our vision
best. 
204
GLANCES.
  The word speaks of one father, under various names,
according to our  states — of one mother, the church,
who offers a home to all her children, demanding of all
uses correspondent to their capacities and duties in life;
and whether son  or daughter commanding  them  to
honor both father and mother, that their " days may be
long in the land."  Is it possible that a collective church
on earth  can perform its mission,  while sexuality  marks
it ?   Whilst every woman is excluded from its pulpit,
and the yearning of  her spirit to nourish souls with the
milk of the word — to feed them with the bread of life
and the strong meat of doctrine — is restrained, and her
right to cheer the drooping with fresh draughts from the
wells of  salvation; to revive the timid and desponding
with the  new wine of the  kingdom, and.despairing ones
with wine  settled  upon the lees of reflection,  and well
refined under deep and better  experiences, is denied ?
Look at the church as she is  — Has she fulfilled  her
high and holy mission ?   No ! the inspiration, the pur-
pose, the growth, the power, depend  on  life  from  the
Lord — on  a union  of the two elements, male and
female, in spiritual ministrations — or monstrosities and
abortions must be the result — have been.  Sex  is  un-
alterably stamped  upon our nature, interwoven  in our
being.  External  acts cannot  alter  it — man  will  be
man — woman  will be woman — who would have it
otherwise?  But, I would ask, does not the peculiarity
of the female element, in adapting woman to receive,
nourish,  and bring forth in an external form, beautifully
symbolize her reception of divine truths,  and  the need
there is of her bringing forth those truths  in the  Chris-
tian ministry, when the fulness  of time shall come ?
  As our physiognomic  expressions  vary, each face
bearing upon it as  a  signboard, the idiosyncrasies  which 
GLIMPSES.
205
characterize the soul within, so may we learn the im-
possibility of every mind seeing truth with the same
eye, or accepting it on the same plane.  We must differ
in our opinions, just as  certainly as travellers differ  in
their descriptions, who view  a landscape from various
eminences of  the same hill,  or from different  stand-
points on the top, or under  varying conditions  of the
atmosphere — clouds or  sunshine, fog or rain,  storms
or snow.   When  this great  principle is realized inte-
riorly — as applicable to the mental vision as well as  to
the bodily eye, then will the golden rule be lived — no£
talked.
  Gratefully do I acknowledge the influence  of Swe-
denborg's writings upon  my mind, and I would  say  to
all who are afflicted with doubt, disquiet, distrust, or de-
spair, read the Bible, — Divine love and  wisdom will
guide, and cheer you.  His writings appeal to the scien-
tific as well  as to the  religious, for it is  a remarkable
fact, that  it  was  not  until after  his  mind was  richly
stored with a knowledge of the  sciences, that he received
that spiritual  illumination, which shed light and glory
over all creation.  It is this wbich renders his w^orks  so
peculiarly valuable, introducing them into libraries.
He was  worthy of the  nobility conferred  upon him
by  Queen Ulrica Eleonora.   In changing his   name
from  Swedberg to  Swedenhorg,  he immortalized the
fact that Sweden had given  birth to this  great  philos-
opher.
  It is a little remarkable that it was a woman who sold
her jewels in order to aid Columbus  in discovering a
new world; and a woman who conferred the  honor of
nobility upon  one who was the founder  of the New
Church.   And a  woman who  emancipated  800,000
                         18 
206                  GLANCES.

slaves  in the  West  Indies — and a woman—history
will  fill the gap.
  The great  facts of history  are hands on the dial-
plate of time, indicating the  progress of the race from
the darkness  of  barbarism to  the  sunrise  of republi-
canism— from the midnight of  despotism to the mid-
day of freedom.  Smothered, struggling souls, be quiet—
time flows on — the chariot wheels of Divine Providence
roll  on — be  not impatient  of  delay — the male and
female elements  (so  long betrothed) will yet be recog-
nized as one  by the  church and in the church, and  we
shall be at the marriage.  My only fear is, that in our
hurry to get there, we shall forget oil for our  lamps, and
marriage  garments  for the feast.  Long and  weary
years of silent suffering and hidden life, have been none
too many to prepare woman for  the responsibilities that
are before her.  May she accept them in humble grati-
tude, and fulfil them in the fear  of God and the love of
man, with dignity, meekness, and power.  My sisters —
find no fault with the  past. Waste  no  vain  regrets
upon the gone — but  live  for  the present — this will
prepare you for the future.   " He that is faithful in  the
least, shall be made ruler over more."
  I should deeply regret my views of the Christian min-
istry  being  misunderstood.   In insisting so  strongly
upon the duty and necessity of  recognizing  woman as
a minister of the  gospel, we do not do so to the exclusion
of man.   We consider both  the male  and female ele-
ment as essential to the  wiioleness — the completeness
of the ministry and of every other office which is based
on the ultimating of that heavenly doctrine of marriage
between  good and  truth — between  Christ  and  his
church. 
CHAPTER  XVI.
         " We live in deeds, not years, in thoughts not breath,
          In feelings, not in figures on a dial;
          We should count life by heart-throbs — he most lives
          Who thinks most—feels the noblest —acts the best."
                                          Festus.

   There are autumnal mornings when  the  air is bur-
dened with  an  intensity  of  odors so peculiar — so
novel — so unlike the perfumes of summer — that we
pause in our delight to think of their cause.   We re-
member that during the night the frost had touched the
earth  with  its  magic wand, that  it had  chemically
changed, condensed,  and imprisoned  the aromas of
wTood  and field ; and now, melted by the sun, the odors,
more  strangely  sweet,  more densely fragrant, exhale
in a  cloud of incense.   And by the rich perfume we
know  that  the frost  has fallen,  and  the  winter is at
hand.
   It was thus with my mother.  The chills of age had
touched  her hale and  mellow autumn of years; and it
was by the increased sweetness of her nature in the soft
sunset of her life, that we knew her winter was draw-
ing near.   Her presence in our parlor assumed a deeper
                                               (207) 
208
GLANCES.
interest, — for more and more, her private room was pre-
ferred,— but when with  us her affectionate  participa-
tion in every thing concerning social and domestic hap-
piness, her desire for use, and her unselfishness in those
uses, gave an additional  power to all she said.  Who
that remembers her deep sympathy in the joys and sor-
rows of  every child of humanity, but will attest the
truth of all I have said.  Her third grandson w7as  born
in our home in Green  street;  we rejoiced together  and
welcomed little Augustus Hunt to our family circle: —
had we dared we should have wished  for a daughter;
but it was enough — a child was born — the third of a
trine of boys — all unlike and individual.  My moth-
er's old age was beautiful.   In general the lives of wo-
men are so exterior that wiien externals fail them — sick,
peevish, discontented, querulous — they fail to attract the
very people they could  help  by their experience, and
who would impart sunshine to their lives by their fresh-
ness and buoyancy.  How foolish to wish to charm our
friends with the same spells we used in our youth, when
their powTer  is no more!  We can love the tree for  its
beautiful and fragrant  blossoms in  spring, and, in sum-
mer, for its green and graceful weight of foliage; when
the autumn comes, the blossoms have disappeared, and
the summer leaves are sere, and dropping from the tree,
we find our happiness in the full and mellow wealth of
fruit that loads its branches.  In like manner youth and
beauty charm us for themselves ; there is a summer love-
liness in woman that inspires admiration, but when age
has come, wTe look to her for the fruit of all the experi-
ence she has gained — for dignity, wisdom, and varied
knowledge.   What pleasure should we find in the con-
templation of a tree stripped in autumn of all  its vernal
beauty — destitute   of  fruit — but tricked  out  with 
GLIMPSES.
209
artificial leaves and blossoms  not possessing similitude
enough to their originals  to deceive us  for a moment,
but only enough to make the cheat apparent and ridicu-
lous?  Observe the types of old age we have all around
us — observe the women  of vanity and  fashion at wa-
tering-places;— what  are they more  than such a tree?
their wrinkled foreheads belied by false hair fashionably
arranged — their  thin, gaunt fingers  loaded with  rings
— ear-rings in their ears — caps  and  trimmings studi-
ously disposed to hide the furrows  of  age — artificial
padding filling out  their  shrunken forms — rouge and
lily-white on  their faces — no soft, tender, heavenly ra-
diance  of  expression there.   It is cause of grief,  that
nature and common sense and self-respect and woman-
hood are thus outraged in this holy and honorable sea-
son of life.  Is young America peculiar in these things ?
The tendency here  is, to  make little men and women
of children, and have no old people!
   The spring of 1847 came.   My sister  and her family
removed to Mount Bowdoin,  and again mother and I
were the family at Green street.   I experienced a terri-
ble heart-sickness as my sister departed, for, at the time,
my mother was not well.   Her illness was apparently
very slight — it appeared  to be a bilious attack ; but I
felt an  unusual heaviness, and a  presentiment I could
not  define.  In a  day or two, I felt dissatisfied and
wanted Dr. Ball called in, but she said, no; so I yielded.
It would have been  too late, even then.  In rubbing her
one  day,  I discovered a hernia,  and my  worst fears
were my first.  I did not ask her then, but sent for phy-
sicians.  My sister came to us, with her baby-boy.   Our
anxiety became resolved  into certain hopelessness, as
mother would not even tolerate the idea of an operation,
and, indeed, her age precluded the faintest hope of its
                        18* 
210                  GLANCES.
success.  " Do not deceive me," she said, and  her tone
was one of delight, and her voice  full of trust and con-
fidence, " do not deceive me: am I going home ? "  My
heart  was  welinigh bursting: I could not sympathize
in her gladness.  My  orphanage dawned  upon me, a
feeling of desolation seized me.  Night after night I lay
beside her, and she would frequently say, " All alone:
how quiet! "   She was enjoying the peace and silence
of the night, which had their reflex in  her heart.  One
more  revelation w^as needed to impress our minds with
her character.   She called her eldest child to  her, took
leave  of her, and addressed her as from  the  spiritual
world : then her youngest — she  was  the mother, and
her soul embraced her children with her: then the hus-
band— her son ; she thanked him for his faithfulness;
and then resigned herself without  fear or disquietude  to
the process of her great change.  There was a stagna-
tion within me; all I knew was that I was desiring  to
detain the form of my mother — that I did not wish to
lose  her  presence;  I w^as selfish.   She recognized my
state, and, when I entered her room, she waved me from
her.   I thought she did not know me, and told my sis-
ter.   On entering her room, she was waved away in the
same manner.   As we found she knew other  persons,
our first conjecture was dismissed.   A friend who real-
ized  the power of  spiritual influence, and who was  ar-
rested by  my grief-stricken  countenance,  said, I can
explain the cause of this.   Your  unwillingness to give
up your mother detains her spirit and  disturbs her.   It
is nobly unselfish to help  the spirit to disengage itself
from its earthly abode.  The truth of these observations
was at once recognized — we felt that our selfish desires
were  impeding her upward flight — and  that she had
waved us  from her that she might depart in peace. 
GLIMPSES.
211
 Then we went to her and told her we would try and be
 glad she was going home.   At once she took us to her
 bosom, and never waved us away again.
   Orphanage means one thing to a married, another to
 an unmarried child.   The former feels it, in a sense un-
 known to the latter, for she is a mother, the latter in a
 sense unknown to the former, for she has never been any
 thing  but a child; the  former has other claims on her
 attention,  her mind  is  unavoidably  occupied by her
 duties and her relations to others.   The latter sinks into
 the past, and lives, for a little time, in  dreams and reve-
 ries before the actual becomes clear.
   Gratefully do I acknowledge the leadings of Divine
 Providence, who brought  me  to the truths  of the New
 Church that I might more consciously recognize the life
 of the spiritual body.   How much a babe comforts one
 in sorrow!  Its presence  is like an angel ministration.
 My sister's child, little Augustus,  was peculiarly en-
 deared to me by his being  in the house at  the time of
 my mother's last illness, and he brought me great con-
 solation.   The time came, and Copp's  Hill was trodden
 again, and  Christ Church  bells played  again, and the
 revered  form of a mother  was  laid  beside that of a
 father, that their dust might mingle.   After the funeral
 I came to my home ;  my sister went to hers. I was not
 alone — the years  between  the removal  of  my parents,
 no longer seemed to have intervened.  Time was anni-
 hilated— both parents  in  the spiritual  world.  What
 an epoch!
   As trees are bruised that balsams may be extracted,
 so  the  deepest afflictions  call  forth  soul  tears — the
 struggle, the discipline save  the heart from the paralysis
of grief, save  it from the morbid feelings which would
otherwise unfit us for the  duties  of life. The  soul is 
212
GLANCES.
naked — it perceives its nakedness and darkness, and
this  very  perception is  a prophecy that aid will come.
Turn not  away, ye sufferers, from the anguish, however
bitter, the depths of your being must be ploughed up —
the hour of preparation for the Divine to enter in  has
come ; if slighted,  wiio can tell the loss to a whole life.
Let the rays of the spiritual  sun penetrate the recesses
of the  heart;  hug not  darkness,  dampness,  mistiness.
Accept the light — then cometh that "peace  wiiich
passeth all understanding," for the sacrifices of God are
a  broken  spirit,  " a broken  and  a  contrite heart, O
God, thou wilt not despise."   " There are seasons wiien
the nearest, the dearest, the most  trusted of bosom
friends is  comparatively a stranger; there  are depths of
feeling  and mazes of  thought not to be explored by
human eye—throbs of secret anguish beyond the alle-
viation  of  human  sympathy.  Alone we  enter   the
world — alone we launch forth upon eternity, and  be-
tween these two periods, there is many a moment when
we are compelled to  feel that we are utterly  alone."
" He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there
were none to help him."
   Mother! the meaning deepens  just in  proportion as
the affectional nature is developed.  Has  not  the Cath-
olic  faith  great power  through the  adoration  of  the
Virgin ?    Think  of the poor outcasts  from  Ireland
landed on our  shores — homeless, parentless, friendless.
Despise not the " ave Maria's " which they breathe to a
heavenly mother.  May they not derive strength there-
from to  labor  for our comfort and accommodation ?
Yes, and  their  feminine saints to  whom  they offer
prayer.    May  not this recognition  of  the  feminine
element help to soften  their hearts ?  "I oft remem-
ber," said a bereaved  daughter, " that sweet effusion 
GLIMPSES.
213
by Felicia Hemans,  ' The Better Land,'  which my
mother used to repeat when I was going to bed, the last
verse: —
         " Eye hath not seen it, my gentle dove,
           Ear hath not heard its deep tones of love,
           Dreams cannot picture a world so fair,
           Sorrow and death do not enter there;
           Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom,
           'Tis beyond the clouds, 'tis beyond the tomb.
                         It is there, it is there, my child,"

has oft revived my drooping faith and strengthened me
in the hour of temptation.
   I received many  kind  notes — I thanked my friends
for their delicate  sympathy in  writing  to  me;  these
notes  were read and  reread — in many  of  them  there
was an unction that needed  no oral sound — " voiceless
lips were preachers" — soul met soul.  How deeply I
felt at this time that the intended kindness of friends in
visiting the afflicted, just at that critical moment, wiien
the Spirit of God is striving for entrance into the broken
heart, has  often thrust it aside and  drawn the  mind
away from the inner temple  it  had entered perhaps for
the first time.  Is there a  family that has not been be-
reaved?   Then can there be  a family  that does not
recognize  the wants of the soul at such a  time?  Is
there a family in which there has not been a natural
birth ?  Can that not  be  accepted as typical of the an-
guish of the soul, when it is travailing in labor to bring
forth a spiritual child ?
   The time arrived when it became necessary for me
to decide about my future arrangements.  I remember
that one  choice friend  who had given up her home, and
regretted the  step,  said to  me, " Do nothing rashly;
wait one year before you decide on the least thing: had 
214                 GLANCES.
/done that, my home would have been  preserved."  It
was good  advice.   We cannot  be too careful about
removing these landmarks.  My sister had kindly sug-
gested many times, that we could constitute one family;
but  my  practice told  me  of  the  need of a  separate
home.   My profession seemed  hallowed to  me; my
patients  were my family; and a  new purpose to labor
more effectively for woman, seized my soul.  Individual
responsibility became more defined : the significance of
the word physician, became more apparent.  The great
need of light being more broadly diffused on physiologi-
cal subjects came to me with tenfold force in my isolated
state.  What shall be  done ? became a question of the
deepest importance to me.  Meanwhile, what to  con-
clude about my future  home pressed  heavily upon me.
My love  for my sister  had  become  stronger.   She was
now my all.  But she was a wife  and mother, and I
must be wedded to Humanity.  The thought of living
with  her wras  only transient.  If there  should be but
one family in a house,  it is tolerably clear there should
be but one head.  Then it cripples one not to have a
home of  one's own.  At last, after careful consideration,
I concluded to  continue in Green street, and throw all
my energies into  my  profession, trusting for  spiritual
help through my father and mother.
  In reviewing one's life, there  rests upon it such a won-
derful connection, the  links are so interlocked that the
merest glance or glimpse but introduces to a wider and
wider prospect.   Now rises before me Laura Bridgman,
a wonderful instance  of the varied avenues to the
mind that  philanthropy has opened,  an imperishable
monument  to the benefits conferred  on humanity by
Dr. Samuel G.  Howe.   What reverent  wonder  seized
my mind as physiognomical signs spoke  a language in- 
GLIMPSES.
215
dependent of speech, or hearing — there is a thrill  un-
known before, as she grasps your hand and  you realize
as it were for the first time, the intensity of touch and
its  power — the skin assumes new importance, and the
sphere surrounding every one becomes a fact.  She was
told I was  a physician, and she immediately held  out
a finger that annoyed her.
  In  October, 1847, I was permitted  the privilege of
visiting Mrs. Mott, in her death illness — I had always
desired this, but never expected to realize the hope, al-
though there was an undefined feeling, that the course
of events would bring about the accomplishment of my
wishes..  She had married after  her removal to New
York,  but afterwards  returned  to  Boston.   We had
known nothing  of each  other for many years, but hav-
ing heard she was  sick, an  impression rested  on  my
mind to  call upon her.  I found her sick unto death;
sister and myself spent many hours with her ; her suf-
ferings were intense; she passed away — we followed
her remains to their resting-place —breathing out peace,
rest on the quiet of the grave.
  About this time queries were often put to me respect-
ing my attending  medical  lectures, which many of  my
patients  knew  I was very anxious to do.  " Why,"  1
was asked, " do you not  apply to Harvard College  for
permission to attend the lectures there;  you have been
in practice so many years in Boston, that such a request
could not be refused ? "  " Physicians speak wrell of you
as  a  woman — Dr.---- knows  the class of patients
that sustain you."   " I have  no  doubt Harvard  would
open  its  doors to  you ; your age, your birthright as a
Bostonian, must have weight with them."    These and
many similar interrogatories  strengthened my purpose,
although I differed from them.   1 well knew that the 
216                  GLANCES.
conservatism of Harvard would blind the trustees, pro-
fessors,  etc., to the importance  of recognizing woman
as a physician.  I knew they would  have a  childish
fear of  looking truth in the face, and  establishing a
precedent which might  bring into  comparison, if not
into conflict, masculine and feminine minds.  I knew it
required more  magnanimity, more  freedom, more gen-
erosity,  and a deeper sense of justice, than  I supposed
existed  at Harvard, to acknowledge by such a step, that
mind was not sexual.  Still while I did not participate
in the sanguine hopes of  my friends, that application
would insure admission, the feeling that it was  a duty
to try became stronger and stronger and stronger, and
resulted in the following letter.  When I sat down to
write, it really seemed to me farcical, to ask whether a
woman, who  had  been  practicing  medicine  many
years — a mind thirsting for  knowledge,  lavishly be-
stowed  on all sensible  and unsensible  male applicants,
might be allowed to  share  the privilege of drinking at
the fountains of science, a privilege wiiich would not
impoverish them,  but make me rich indeed.   I well
knew through  my practice the  quality of young men,
who with M. D. attached, put up  their sign in some
country village, and as well did  I know the determina-
tion to  avoid  them by substituting the use of quack
nostrums.  It cannot but be supposed that in  my pro-
fessional  walks, instances of  malpractice often pre-
sented  themselves.   Some of these were of so  aggra-
vated a character, that it required a strong effort, all my
self-control, to  keep  still — my countenance may have
expressed much, my silence more, for I was sometimes
thunderstruck at the egregious  blunders made by doc-
tors, yet I can  safely say I have never interfered with
family physicians; my reverence for the profession re- 
GLIMPSES.                      217
strained utterance, and such names as Ware, Bowditch,
Walker, etc.,  forbade  sweeping  denunciations against
the guardians of  public  health.

                                        Boston, Dec. 12, 1847.
Dk. O. W. Holmes : —
   The object I have in view in thus addressing you, is to ask leave to
attend medical lectures, at the Massachusetts Medical College, know-
ing, as dean of that faculty, that you will place this request where it
belongs, to be sanctioned.  To strengthen this desire  on  my part,
and to place you where my motives may be understood, I will state
the following facts : — In July, 1835,1 commenced the practice of med-
icine in a very quiet, unpretending manner, having been preparing
myself for some previous time for a path in life to which my inclina-
tions strongly led me. Gradually  and steadily, with many  anxieties
and obstacles, did  my practice assume  a respectability, which  has
ever been maintained on my part,  by discountenancing every immor-
ality, and thus, as year after year has passed away, proving to  my
mind the use  which I was  performing in my path, by  its success.
And now, at the age of forty-two,  with an  extensive practice  among
children and my own sex, ranking among my friends as patients  the
intelligent and thoughtful, being called upon as you well know on the
most momentous occasions, and fully impressed with the responsibilities
thus induced,  I seek for that scientific light, which shall not only place
my mind in more harmony with my professional duties, but enable me
to become more worthy of the  trusts  committed to me.  By a recent
letter from a friend  in New York, one lady is at present attending
medical lectures at Geneva Medical College. *
   With  such  motives as  these before me, strengthened by  twelve

  *The  Boston Medical and Surgical Journal thus speaks of this case: —
" Miss Blackwell, made her appearance in the lecture room about two weeks
ago;   She is a pretty little specimen of the feminine gender — registering her
ige at twenty-six, and her tutor as Professor Dickson, of South Carolina, now
Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, in the New York University:
She comes into the class with great composure, takes off her bonnet and  puts
It under the seat (exposing a fine phrenology),  takes notes constantly,  and
maintains throughout an unchanged countenance.  The effect on the class has
been good, and great decorum is preserved while she is present.   She wrote a
capital letter when she applied for admission, and brings recommendations
from eminent physicians of Philadelphia."
                             19 
218
GLANCES.
years  practice and  observation, and at  that mature age  when the
duties of life are more clearly seen than at any other period, I leave
this subject to be met by minds  who will  see in  its examination that
no love of novelty, nor bravery in an untried position, nor want of
patronage prompt this request, but a simple and single desire for such
medical knowledge, as may be  transmitted through those  professors,
who, from year to year, stand as beacon lights to those who would be
aided in a more full knowledge of the healing art.
                              Yours, Respectfully,
                                       Harriot K. Hunt.

                                  Boston, January 5, 1848.-
  I received the following communication from the President of the
University a few days since, and must apologize for a little delay in
transmitting it : —
  " At a stated  meeting of  the President and Fellows of Harvard
College, in  Boston, Dec.  27, 1847, the  President submitted  to the
board  a letter from Dr. Holmes, transmitting an application from
Miss Harriot Kezia Hunt, to be permitted to attend the lectures at
the Medical College.  Whereupon it was voted, that it is  inexpedient
to reconsider the vote of the corporation, of the 14th of August,
relative to a similar request."
                    A true copy of record. — Attest,
                                     James  Walker, Sec.

   It  is said to be dangerous to tell  tales out  of school.
"Inexpedient" it certainly is when you wish to keep all
hush — but as  one  is  not  hung for  thoughts, I will
tell mine.   Having a conversation with one of the pro-
fessors I told him my intention.   I think he  informed
the clique, and that law was passed to meet my appli-
cation —  but  no matter.  The facts  are on  record —
when civilization is further  advanced,  and  the  great
doctrine of human rights is acknowledged, this act will
be recalled, and wondering eyes will stare, and wonder-
ing  ears   be  opened,  at the  semi-barbarism of  the
middle of the nineteenth century.   It was really amus- 
GLIMPSES.
219
ing to hear the indignation expressed by my patients
and others, when they heard of the reply to my letter—
the subject of woman as physician was before the pub-
lic — the  conversation on this  and kindred  topics in-
creased tenfold,  and  tea-tables  and evening  parties
were made merry with criticisms and raillery, about the
grave  and  weighty  reason assigned  for the  refusal.
" Why, it was so contemptible to  use such  a doubtful
expression."   To this and similar remarks I replied, " It
was  safe  and  non-committal."  Expedient for us to
enter hospitals as patients, but inexpedient for woman,
however well qualified, to  be there as a  physician.  It
takes more than the " charity which beareth all things,
believeth all  things, hopeth  all things" — to  abstain
from severe criticism, when common sense is outraged
by such flimsy subterfuges.   That word inexpedient I
had always abhorred — it  is so  shuffling, so  shifting, so
mean, so evasive, meaning from the one who uses it
every  thing — to the one who  hears it nothing — an
apology for falsehood, a  compromise of principle to
eke  out  self-satisfaction.   It had always been  a little
word  in  my lexicon, and  it became still littler, when
used by a  medical conclave.  Any kind of a  reason
might  have  been accepted, but this   " inexpedient"
aroused my risibles, my sarcasm, my indignation.
   In the summer  of 1848, I went to Lunenburg for a
short visit, and, as one goes  to  see a curiosity, I went
to see the Shaker Society at Shirley.  I remember now,
vividly, my first impression of the extreme neatness of
the place, as also the staid  gravity and stiffness  and
stand-off feeling of the inhabitants, which was contrasted
with a sort of kindly tone which took my ear.   To my
questions  a yea or nay slowly  came.  I could not be
satisfied with this — I must know more; so I ventured 
220
GLANCES.
 to ask, if there were many aged women among them 1
 — and one  of our company said, " It is  not curiosity
 that prompts this question ;  she is  a physician."  The
 word  was magical!  Muscles  relaxed, expression soft-
 ened,  and in ten minutes I felt  myself at home.  They
 asked me  to see two or three who were sick, and, as
 the time had elapsed for our  visit, they requested me
 to stop, saying they would take me  to Lunenburg.  Of
 course I accepted, and felt right glad I had an opportu-
 nity of knowing  any thing of so peculiar a people.
 The world has said many things to their discredit, but
 I happened  to know something of the world  and its
 gossiping.   I never minded what people said unless I
 knew  them.  As the innermost of these women opened
 to me, I was attracted to them; there was a  sor\ of
 charm in their very quaintness,  and  I soon felt  entirely
 at ease with  them.  The  ride over  to  Lunenburg was
 really  romantic ;  they sang me  Shaker songs, gave me
 some keepsakes, and were very  kind. When we parted,
 they invited  me to come again.  I little dreamed then
 that I should  often  sleep in a Shaker village, know
 familiarly many noble women among them, and be so
 intimately acquainted with them as to appreciate their
 worth.
   After my visit to the  Shakers, I  started on my first
 journey to Oswego, the residence of the Wentworths.
 I had a pleasant meeting with my kindred, and gleaned
 instruction  on my travels.   On my way home I went
 to Saratoga,  where I  spent a few days.   I  must pass
 over this great field  for observation,  and the varied
 thoughts which were  induced by mingling with those
 of every  clime—but  I  cannot omit  to  mention the
 kindness  and professional courtesy  of Dr. North — he
 was like a brother, and must ever  be gratefully remem-
bered. 
GLIMPSES.
221
  Very sad was I on  my return to my solitary resi-
dence,— the word alone again startled me, — again I had
to discipline myself and accept with gratitude my profes-
sion,— my patients cordially welcomed my return,  and
I found so much gained by obedience to physical laws
in the families where I had  practised that my heart
was cheered, indeed I rejoiced exceedingly, and my desire
to be a minister in the grand work of diffusing a knowl-
edge of hygeinic laws became more  and more intense.
  The extremes of life met in my business room.   My
mind was kept busy revolving  the  subjects of educa-
tion, remuneration, etc., and whenever I needed an illus-
tration, it seemed  as if the next patient came on pur-
pose  to supply me with  it.   So, time  passed.  Very
often I was at my sister's.   The children there were
quite a fascination, especially as  another son had been
added to the family group.
19* 
CHAPTER  XVII.
          " Pray for the health of all that are diseased,
             Confession unto all that are convicted,
           And patience unto all that are displeased,
             And comfort unto all that are afflicted,
           And mercy unto all that have offended,
             •And grace to all, that all may be amended."
                                        Bketon.

  After  the departure  of my  mother, my mind was
thrown into a state of great conflict; a  feeling such as
I experienced  after the translation  of  my father, took
possession of  me.  I  had  but partially  attained  to
resignation — my  friend,  my companion, my mother,
was gone.  Hours of loneliness were often spent in my
solitary home,  and I might have sunk  under  the blow,
had not the angel of mercy visited  me, and inspired me
with the  thought  of endeavoring to enlighten my sis
ters on the subject of the " laws of life."  My desire tc
do  this became  so strong that I decided to  deliver a
course  of free lectures; and having a friend  of rare
wrorth, who was a teacher at Pitt  street Chapel, I con-
sulted with her and concluded that would be  the  right.
place for me to begin.   This decision was the opening
of a new life; and when I began to prepare the lectures
and arrange the diagrams, a new heaven and a new
earth surrounded me, the joy of being  enabled to help
     (222) 
GLIMPSES.                 223
 others dispelled the clouds of sorrow, the selfishness of
 grief was exchanged for the cheerfulness of hope, the
 garments of heaviness for the vestments of praise.
   The afternoon, February 20, 1849, appointed for my
 first lecture  arrived — friends of the New Church accom-
 panied me ; gratefully do I remember their cooperation
 and sympathy, especially her who sat  beside me on the
 platform, and  deeply  have  I regretted that  as duties
 opened before me, and the needs and wrongs of woman
 were developed, they did  not perceive my obligations
 to the cause of woman in such a manner as to continue
 coworkers with me.   Nor  can  I forego the  gratifica-
 tion  of expressing my thanks  to those who  sustained
 me — to a teacher who  cheered  me, to a pastor wiiose
 cheerful recognition of truth was infused into his flock,
 thus preparing them for  the lectures — reading a psalm
 brought a sacred sphere around us, and the interest and
 quietness of the audience imparted strength  and self-
 reliance,  though I sensibly felt  the difference between
 speaking in a private parlor and a lecture room.   Can
 any public speaker ever forget what she passed through
 the first time she addressed an audience ?
   This course of lectures placed me in  more intimate
 relations with  the laboring classes, deepened  my sense
 of the importance  of urging upon them the value of
 daily duties, strengthened my confidence in them as the
bone and sinew of social life, and increased my convic-
tion of the healthful influence of their religious  nature.
— " Our  Father, who art in  heaven, give us this day  our
daily bread," has a  new meaning  for those  who  are
compelled to consider the  price of that bread, and  the
weight of every loaf.  It attracts their  hearts to that
Divine Providence which  ministers to their necessities.
Heart histories were laid open — the deep fountains of 
224
GLANCES.
sympathy were unlocked — selfish sorrow for my mother
changed into a recognition of her spiritual presence.   I
felt an impulse through her given to my higher nature;
impelling me to usefulness.  The condition of woman
made a strong appeal, her privations, her restricted edu-
cation, the injustice of the low remuneration for female
labor, compelling broken-hearted widows  to  break up
their homes, launching girls on the ocean of life without
protection, obliging daughters to leave their homes when
filial affection w^as needed to comfort aged or afflicted
parents,  helpless brothers  and sisters.  The conflicts  I
had passed through  since  my  orphanage, prepared my
heart to receive these facts with tenderness; my bereaved
spirit felt more than sympathy  and veneration  for those
noble women who had struggled at fearful  odds against
injustice, poverty, and oppression ;  new life, fresh vigor
were infused to strengthen my  purpose to meliorate the
condition of my sex, and elevate woman to the platform
of humanity, to the enjoyment of human rights.
   The interest excited by the Physiological lectures de-
livered in Pitt street Chapel, induced me to see the pas-
tor of Suffolk street church and make arrangements for
repeating them there.   I felt an abiding conviction that
the indifference to, as  well as ignorance of physical laws
and  consequent disobedience  to them,  was  the  main
cause of the prevailing ill health.  The vast  consump-
tion of confectionary  and quack nostrums — the alarm-
ing increase  of  advertisements for such medicines,
proving the quantity sold to meet the expenses of publi-
cation startled me; every generous emotion within me
was  stirred, all  my sympathies wTere awakened — my
desires to call attention to  the great truths of physiol-
ogy  intensified.   Perhaps  too the  refusal  of Harvard
College  to allow  me to attend the  medical lectures 
GLIMPSES.
225
strengthened me to continue my  efforts,  and  I  com-.
menced a course of lectures in Rev. Mr. Cruft's church
in May, 1849.  All the preceding winter I  had felt un-
well, an incubus rested upon me. I attribute these feel-
ings in part to the mental distress occasioned by a false
friend — I was struggling against  just suspicions, en-
deavoring as it now appears  to  me to close my eyes to
actual facts; disquieted and tried, I compromised my
interior consciousness — refused to believe, and had to
pay the penalty of  voluntary blindness — I had been at
Fishkill  the preceding summer, enjoyed  the  Hudson
with  its  magnificent scenery, rode out in  the evenings
when the moon  in full-orbed  radiance shed her light
over the enchanting scene — but never dreamed that I
was drinking in the malaria of intermittent;  but my
mental  state prepared  the system  for its inception ;  it
slumbered until  spring.  I was sleepy, morbid, weak,
but determined not to yield to these premonitory symp-
toms.  I began the lectures. It was all in vain —the third
lecture  I  broke down.— a bilious  fever prostrated me,
and really, when I found resistance was no longer  a vir-
tue, I wept  for joy that I had a right to lie down and
rest.  Some of my readers will remember the conflict
during the interregnum between health and  illness, be-
tween the time when we should take  to  our  bed and
when we do.  The couch  and the night dress are real
luxuries.
  During this  illness  how  much  had I  to melt my
heart  with gratitude.   The kindest notes from patients
— sweet flowers filled with  messages  of  love in their
very  aura,  the  choicest  fruit  from  the  green-house
— messages  of earnest inquiry, and the  attention of
my physician, Dr. Ball, was another cause of thankful-
ness.   My sister!  her  faithfulness and tenderness, so 
226
GLANCES.
like our mother, was my sweetest solace, and the power
of  her  will  over me,  was  at that time  a  necessity
of my being;  I was sinking into  the  same state I ex
perienced after my mother's  removal, a longing for  he
hand upon me, a yearning  for  her voice of kindness
That first sickness without my  mother — it passed
away; I seemed to realize a second babyhood, so passive,
so quiet, — this is favorable to recovery, I owed much to
this childlike feeling.  Health  is a musical key-note, it
is the point of rest, or action — it is the C, the whole
melody of life  rests  upon it.  So  healthy, so vigorous,
so robust  had I been, that I  could  hardly realize  that  )
was stretched on a bed of sickness.
  Early in June I was removed to my sister's.  Never
can I forget my emotions as  I found myself in  her
chamber  surrounded by family loves — how  tender,
how sweet were the ministrations of affection!  Very
slowly did I  recover, but the time  was not lost — re-
lapse — convalescence — were  words of deep import,
suggestive of  much thought.   I studied  myself care-
fully, that I  might  know others — there  is  a  proper
attention  due  to  oneself  in convalescence — it is  the
daybreak  of  a new  life indicated by the tottering step,
the feeble tone, — quietly accept  the  daily  strength
imparted.   If  you rudely jar this state — violate  its
sanctity — try to rush into a health element, a relapse
surely  comes  to  stay  your  course — the temple  of
the Holy  Spirit, like the ark  of God,  must not be
touched   with   unholy  hands.   Convalescence  is  a
word full  of  hope, and  asks  the utmost deference  and
caution to fulfil its  mission.  During my illness  and
convalescence, I felt more than ever the importance of
the rough  ventilation in the sick-room, and  the free use
of water internally and externally — when fever was at 
GLIMPSES.
227
its height and thirst intense, the very sound of the trick-
ling of water  allayed  it.   Childhood's happy  days—
youth's jocund season were lived again— every verse I
had learned from the  Psalms seemed brought to remem-
brance fraught with angel messages.   One word here to
parents — neither fear nor falter in teaching your children
to commit to memory passages from the sacred writings
— be not discouraged because their beauty and mean-
ing are not  understood — memory will garner them up,
and in an hour that  ye think not of, they will come up
to refresh and fortify  the soul.   I had  seen  this realized
in my mother's case — how many hours she spent pleas-
antly when  the outer  light was nearly quenched, in read-
ing from  the book of memory portions of  the word of
God, choice hymns, etc.  I often regret that I  did not
waite out some of the beautiful pieces I have heard her
repeat.   But to return to the sick-room.
   It has been matter  of amazement to me, how the sick
could often  so unnecessarily tax the health of friends by
having watchers.  " If  I say surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be light about me — the darkness
and the light are both alike to thee."   Recognizing in
faith these beautiful words, what a mockery is artificial
light — how unnecessary a  watcher.   This illness w^as
a needful pause in my life, a time  to take account of
stock, to look at  my  profession while  out of it, ponder
more and more deeply the great need of physical edu-
cation, to examine the why and the wherefore of dis-
eases, to feel the duty of aiding  the physician by a re-
cognition of your bodily and mental state, to have a
kind word for every attendant, a pleasant tone to  cheer
the sick-room.   Sickness may  be  made an angel of
mercy, (it draws around us such  tender, sweet, and holy
spirits,) if meekly borne.  I accepted  my illness  as a 
228
GLANCES.
renewed evidence of my father's love, — as  a lesson I
needed; it said emphatically, " Be still, and know that I
am God."
  Early in July, I went to Hopkinton Springs, remained
there  some time, found the baths quite a tonic, — then
went to Northborough, remembering my invitation from
the Shakers, and feeling a strong desire to make a free-
will offering of my services on  returning to my profes-
sional  life, I wrote  to Ann  Godfrey,  received a kind
answer, and went to Shirley ; the fulfilment of my desire
took place when I went to Harvard.  My visit was very
pleasant, it opened new chapters of  life to me.  I heard
touching heart histories there,  and  found brave, noble
women, hid away  from the world.   It was highly  satis-
factory to find by letters afterwards received, that my
visit was accepted not only as  an offering of love, but
that my professional advice had  relieved many, who
were suffering from chronic complaints.   A number of
them also were just recovering  from the measles, and it
was delightful to put on a Shaker apron  and set about
preparing medicines;  they had every herb  I needed.
The sister who officiated as nurse and doctor was with
me,  and I  was  so happy  to find myself useful.   I
formed a friendship at this time with one of the loveliest,
noblest women, Roxalana L. Grosvenor, (a minister); her
deep interest in the sick, her subdued, chastened bearing,
— her  deep devotional earnestness, — her  humility, in-
ducing her to perform the humblest duties, attracted me
irresistibly.   Referring to her first letter  I find the fol-
lowing :  " Now as  I have no deception about me you will
not suspect me of flattery, but  will believe that I  think
it right to estimate every one justly.   I hope  I shall not
forget my obligation to a kind  Providence who seemed
truly to smile on your visit here.  The result  has been 
GLIMPSES.
229
so favorable that I am inclined to think the good spirits
directed  you in  prescribing for  us, while at the same
time I give you credit for a large amount of skill com-
bined with that ready perception of the remote causes
affecting health, which must be a great auxiliary to the
judicious administration of medicine."
   This visit has established the most friendly relations
with the Shakers.   I ever find among them a pleasant
resting-place, and rejoice to welcome them to my home
whenever they  call to see me, as  some of them not un-
frequently do.
   The first Sunday  I was in a Shaker village, found
me in their religious meeting.  Of course I was wonder-
struck with others.   It was a great advantage to  me to
know many of their leading minds, before seeing this
religious service.   It was clear to me from the first that
they must be full believers in the faith they professed,
or they could not be there, — so that honesty and relig-
ious zeal were clearly manifested to  my mind.   Their
unceasing  industry tired me, for I have  lazy  moments.
To question the purity of my Shaker sisters, would be
to doubt my own.
   I was particularly struck with their care  of  the aged.
As one of these traced a resemblance between my hand
and that of Ann Lee, I had a pleasant opportunity of
witnessing their  devotion to  their  " spiritual mother."
The novelty  of every thing around me  stimulated me
to thought, and as I was no novice  in heart histories, I
found  enough  to interest me.   As we  have now no
convents in New England, I could understand why this
peculiar  life was sought for, as an asylum  by many
women.  The  equality of woman with  man  is recog-
nized in every department of  Shaker life.   The duties
and responsibilities of ministers, elders, and  caretakers
                         20 
^30
GLANCES.
were equally  shared by  both sexes — and in  each of
their societies a  woman  is set apart as a  physician,
because  they believe she has  a  peculiar gift in that
direction.
   To be sure, I quarrelled with  them  in the outset on
many  things;  but  then,  it  was  in  respectful  good
humor.  My professional position placed  me at once,
where I  came immediately into  their  innermost; so
that it is not too much for me to say that I  understand
them better than  any one  who has not  lived in  a
Shaker village.   It is  believed they  will  allow  this.
Of course my perception of freedom was wholly differ-
ent from theirs, but this did not hinder me from perceiv-
ing  their stand-point,  and respecting it  too.  Their
quaint costume  and language — close caps  and  mo-
notonous manners have a tendency to chill one, and if
you  are of a cold nature you will be kept in a chill all
the time and feel terribly restrained.  But if you carry
the  magic  wand  of love in your hand, this icy for-
mality gives place to genial warmth and social ease.
   In the Sunday exercises,  I was particularly struck
with tw7o women, wiiose  motions indicated that  they
were more  recently from  the  world.   Their chastened
expression of countenance touched  my  very soul.  1
inquired who they were, and a few hints  as  to the rea-
sons which led them into a Shaker village, will reveal
the causes which induce many others to  go into  these
settlements.   They were  mother and  daughter.  Both
deeply religious — they  had  been  Millerites — had
passed through severe religious exercises.   Yes!  the
younger one was a wife— a mother — and yet she was
in a Shaker village.  Her heart was  opened to God
alone in this movement.   She  sought him in continual
prayer, and in the consciousness  of duty took this step. 
                       GLIMPSES.                  231
          f
   Broken  in health, crushed in spirit,  unable to care for
   her children physically, she retired from the world.   Al-
   though I believe she acted conscientiously, yet I am op-
   posed to  divorce, except  on Scripture  grounds, but  not
f  to temporary separation  in  cases of intemperance and
   personal abuse.  I had the  opportunity of hearing  the
   other  side of this  history.   The rebuke, the sneers —
   the sarcasms — the amazement thats/ie should have left
   the world and become a  Shaker, roused my attention to
   another phase of woman's life.
     She was one so  genial, so loving, so truly womanly,
   that she  might have been  led with a cambric  thread;
   but there are wrongs on  womanhood which  bring with
   them  a depth of agony — a strength  of purpose — a
   faith in God which sustains them under every trial.
   She had not seen her children for years.   After a while,
   arrangements were made to bring them  together.  A
   law was passed by the State  Legislature, making a
   divorce legal  in all cases where  separation had  existed
   for a certain number of years, and either of the  parties
   had become  a Shaker.  She was happy in this new
   law, wishing  the father of her children to be perfectly
   free.  The divorce took place, and the following extract
   of  a letter from him will show under what regulations
   a mother was to be permitted to see her children once a
   year.   " I hereby promise her that she shah have the
   privilege  of visiting  the children once  a year from this
   day, at such convenient  time and place as I shall ap-
   point, she having previously notified me  of her  desire
   so to do,  provided I am  satisfied that said visits have
   no  pernicious or injurious  effect  upon the  children."
   She solicited  an interview  and  received the following
   reply — "I am  also  peculiarly busy, and  such  a visit
   cannot be without  my personal attention, which it is 
232                  GLANCES.

impossible for me to give just now.  It may be that 1
can soon, if so I will advise you seasonably."
   Under  how many circumstances  of  this  kind arc
women suffering, not only in Shaker villages but  in the
world !   We hope yet to see the time, when such cases
shall be referred to committees of  men  and women.
How are wives and mothers represented now ?  Here is
the case of one, unexceptionable in character— one on
whom the breath of slander has never dared to rest.
Faithfulness to her principles is her only crime.  Look
at her forced separation  from her children — her con-
strained, unnatural, and yearly interviews with them as a
lady, not as  their mother.   These children will yet un-
derstand her,  they will yet reverence the motives which
induced her to fly from her home, and feel themselves
more blessed in their origin from her, than if she had
been willing to sacrifice  principle and  succumb  to
fashion  and  the hollow-hearted usages  of a corrupt
state of society.  She wrote to  the pastor under  whose
ministry they had sat, and has in every way conducted
discreetly.  Those who have read this  correspondence
could  not withhold from her their sympathy and com-
passion.  Truly "-every heart knoweth  its own  bitter-
ness," and in this compromising age, such cases are sug-
gestive— for her maternal nature was strong.
   During my visits among the Shakers, I prescribed for
 many of them.  (It was a thank-offering after a  severe
 fit of 'illness.)  I formed many  valuable friendships
 among them — visits have been exchanged between us,
 and their deep interest in the woman  question of the
 present  day,  has led me to see  how much they have
reflected upon  this subject.  I have at different times
visited the Societies at Canterbury, Lebanon,  Water-
vleit, and North Union, in Ohio.  In  them all are brave, 
GLIMPSES.
233
   earnest, thoughtful women, who could furnish incidents
   equally mournful with the one I have mentioned.
      There are eighteen societies of Shakers — six thou-
   sand members.   They  have  solved  the problem of
   association successfully, so far as material competency
   is concerned.   And  whilst their  principles forbid the
   natural relation of father and  mother, they fully recog-
   nize the necessity and blessedness of it in the develop-
   ing of human affections by the adoption  of children in
   their society.
      In this age when the institution of marriage is  being
   subjected to a scrutiny, such as it never was before, re-
   assuring the true soul of its high  and holy character,
   as a beautiful symbol of the union (spiritual and inte-
   rior) between Christ and his church, truth and the soul
   that receives it in love, we think we can clearly perceive
   that their rejection of it has  originated in that  general
   abuse which has marked it in the world, presenting it
   in a most gross and  sensual form.
      As the Society of Friends  for many years scouted
   learning of  every kind, and with  a holy horror abjured
   music and  dancing,  painting and sculpture, with every
   innocent amusement, because, in frhe  days of Fox,
   Barclay, and Penn, education worshipped at the shrine
   of ambition and earthly pride, — and music, dancing,
   painting, sculpture,  etc., were almost exclusively the
   handmaids  of  fashion and folly, worldliness and vice,
   — so, it appears to me, have the  Shakers cast out mar-
.   riage as  an unholy thing.   Who  can wonder at  it?
   Who can blame  them?   But just  in  proportion as
   Friends have learned to discriminate between the  legit-
   mate and healthful use of these things and their unwar-
   rantable  abuse — they have begun to welcome  them
   among their members as elevating and desirable auxil-
                          20* 
234
GLANCES.
 iaries in the varied drama of life, so the Shaker society
 may yet welcome marriage amongst  them.  But  not
 until physiological laws shall be understood and recog-
 nized as the regulators of the marriage relation.  Not
 until the rights of woman shall be acknowledged and
 secured.  For not until  then  can this institution  be
 placed upon a high and safe foundation, free from those
 gross abuses, wiiich have dragged it down, and  trailed
 it in the mire  of pollution and  sin.
   Meanwhile we rejoice that  our Shaker brethren and
 sisters have opened  their villages as  cities of refuge,
 that bleeding  hearts and broken constitutions may find
 " a balm in Gilead, a physician there."
   I hope it will not be supposed, from any thing  I have
 said, that I regard their life as like that  of a convent.
 For there  is  a wide  difference between  them.   In a
 convent  the sexes are entirely  separated, whilst among
 the  Shakers the most friendly  social intercourse exists
 between them.  As  all  offices are filled  by  women
 as  well  as  men,  they are constantly  brought into
 business and  church relations  together, and the  most
 kind and tender attentions are continually interchanged.
 I have been in their workshops  and have seen men and
women in the  ministry, as  well as others, engaged in
various industrial occupations.   And although  as a
body they deny tw^o  of the fundamental  laws of our
being, in ignoring the relations of husband and wife,
parent and  child, it is  but justice to  say that I have
never had reason  to doubt that they sustain  pure rela
tions to each other, for if they wish to marry they can go
away.   The element of family  love is  so  strong in hu-
man hearts, that if dammed up  in one direction it must
have vent in another; hence their adoption of children.
  We would  like to say one word with regard to C. 
GLIMPSES.
235
Dickens's account of the Shakers.   To one wiio knows
them and therefore can appreciate  their worth, it seems
wholly unjust — and in some respects untrue.  It must
be remembered that Dickens went there without  any
introduction — a  total stranger.   Suppose people were
to come  to your house in this way — how should you
receive them ?  What impression  should you be likely
to make  upon them ? — no better I trow than they did
upon him, because you would care very little to make
yourselves attractive to persons whom you felt came  to
see you  through  mere curiosity.  And with  regard  to
their being  governed by a woman, who occupied an
upper room, and who  w7as seldom  exhibited  to the
people,  this  is a most ridiculous mistake — no  such
custom exists among them.
   In November I was  in New York; Fredrika Bremer
was there; she was closely nestled in my heart through
her works, which exhibited an  interior perception of
woman and an appreciation of home that at once made
me  feel  she was a kindred spirit.   In  company with
my  friend, Mrs.  Wells, who has been  for many years
connected in business with her brothers, the Fowlers,
and her  husband, I went to see  Miss -Bremer.  It was
early in   the day — the morning  bright and bracing.
Most cordially did I welcome her to our country — her
presence seemed to bring back my home, so truly had
she depicted its joys.  " Neighbors" were around me —
" Brothers and Sisters "  encircled  me — Heidvig  and
Petrea wrere there,  the merry Gothilda witchlike  said
again her funny says.  My inmost was alive,  and when
I said, "you must come to my home," I felt that I was
only  inviting her to what was partly  hers already.
Fredrika had a mission for me, my womanhood needed
rousing — I  was still  the child — an orphaned  one. 
236
GLANCES.
Did we but observe the  needs of the soul, we should
oftener be struck at the ministrations of Divine Provi-
dence so exactly adapted to those necessities, now send-
ing us the healing draught through some unexpected
channel, or leading us gently to the  pool  of Bethesda.
  I had been among the  Shakers and had  there formed
a friendship with one whose letters were cordial  and
inspiring ; unmarried externally, she was wedded within
to her faith, and its self-denying life — a minister to
soul and body.  In her I saw one aspect of unmarried
life.  Then the Swedish sister who found a home in every
real home — she had laid open to us hearts in the frozen
north.   She was here among us travelling alone as to
human  companionship, but her harmony  with nature
had wedded her to humanity, and  her  loneliness  was
only external.   My visit to her was short but  refresh-
ing, for I felt that  she penetrated beneath the surface,
and  perceived that lightheartedness without does not
conflict with trueheartedness within. In  her " Homes
in the New World," she gives an account of her visit to
me.   She wrote from Cambridge, " Well, my little  doc-
tor, if you have a  heart and room  for me here, I am
ready to  come  to  your  house and home."   As both
were open I went for her — that visit was to  my  soul
as dew upon the mown grass — her appreciation of my
professional life, her perception of the need of woman
as a physician, — her sympathy for me as an orphan,—
her strengthening words of womanly cheer — how much
they were to me cannot be written.   I never seemed to
recognize her corporeal part, her spirit rested upon me.
I have enjoyed a sweet correspondence with her since,
and know that the soul has feelers, and in sympathy we
may breathe a prayer though oceans roll between.  Her
mother, too, has passed away — she is an orphan, but 
GLIMPSES.                  237
 her large soul claims affinity with mother earth and her
 children, through her books, and her religious  nature  is
 exalted.  The very last of the year 1849, my home was
 brightened  by this  visit,  and its* radiance  has not
 departed.   A blessing  rest on thy declining years, dear
 Fredrika —the "little  doctor" desires  to  see thee in
 Sweden  as thou hast  seen her in America — for you
 understand those nameless acts, those movements, those
 looks that electrify the  soul without the utterance of a
 word.
   It is a great privilege to meet the unmarried — mar-
 ried — to have social life refreshed by intercourse with
 one, fulfilling the relation in  the inmost, whose thoughts
 have been  conceived in love, cherished in embryo by
 prayer  and  trust, and when in the fulness of time birth
 takes place, a book is born which cheers, gladdens, and
 enlightens  those women who  are  outwardly mothers.
 Another unmarried woman it was my privilege to know
 and love.   With a heart pulsating for humanity and
 freedom, she raised her  voice and attracted the thought-
 ful and the  true — with her pen she portrayed the con-
 dition of woman and insisted on her  right to the priv-
 leges enjoyed by  man.  In talking of marriage we
 should  understand its true signification, and give to the
 fashionable, the seekers  after a  home, a position, a for-
 tune, only what they claim, a legal connection.  Here
were three women united by great principles; my inter-
course with  them awakened a desire for further develop-
ment, more  womanhood, more recognition of the respon-
sibilities of  life, a deeper determination to investigate
the condition of our sex.  Indisposition prevented my
accompanying Miss Bremer  to  see the Shakers, but  I
went to the  North American Phalanx to meet her for a
take leave visit, which was truly pleasant.  Sweden has 
238                 GLANCES.
a charm for me; there dwelt Swedenborg — and it ever
seems near to me.
  Miss  Bremer  has done a great and good  work  for
woman.  She has showed the unmarried where to find
a home, she has awakened attention to those nameless
delicacies and tendernesses in domestic life which render
home so sweet — omitted, make  it a barren wild.  Her
parting  watchword,  " Follow thy Genius ! " comes o'er
the soul in the needed hour.  In a letter dated October
1,  1855, she says, " The more I live and see of the
world the more I feel that the elevation of woman  to
her true character and social position, is the question  on
which depends the liberation of mankind."  Permit me
to close  with an extract from  her " Homes," etc. " In old
times the physician was also the priest, and consecrated
to  holy mysteries.   The descendants of  Esculapius
were a holy race, and among them were  also women;
the  daughter of Esculapius, Hygeia, one of them, was
called the goddess of health.  Of this race came  Hip-
pocrates.  We  now talk about  Hygeia, but  we  only
talk.  She  must be  recalled to  earth, she  must  have
room given her, and justice done her, if she is to pre-
sent the earth with a new Hippocrates." 
CHAPTER  XVIII.
" I here present thee with a hive of bees, laden some with wax, and some
   with honey.  Fear not to approach! There are no wasps, there are no hor-
   nets here.  If some wanton bee should chance to buzz about thine ears,
   stand thy ground and hold thy hands; there's none will sting thee if thou
   strike not first.  If any do, she hath honey in her bag will cure thee too."
                                               Quaeles.

   Trra year 1850 could  not but recall to my mind the
Jewish Jubilee ; that  year of Jubilee which filled  all
Judea with gladness; that trumpet  which proclaimed
liberty throughout  all the land to all  the inhabitants
thereof.   O! how it thrilled  through every  heart  and
awakened joy in every bosom.   The  land, too, returned
to its  original owner, and exiles went  back  to receive
their  birthright homes, and  to  eat of the fruit of that
field which for seven  years had  given its products into
stranger hands.
   Is Judea the only nation that can have  a jubilee ?   Is
it  not good for every  country, to mark the progress  it
has made in each successive fifty years of its existence ?
Is it not good to recognize the blessings of to-day  as the
the antetypes of Jewish  emancipation and the restora-
tion of Jewish land ?   Whilst the Jew rejoiced in a re-
lease  from physical bondage, O  let us  rejoice  in  an
emancipation of mind, such  as the world has never seen
— freedom to think, to speak, to act, without fear of the
                                               (239) 
240                  GLANCES.
halter, the axe, or the stake — freedom to promulgate and
live out  the new ideas of God and man wiiich are the
birthright of a  new era.   A freedom  as much higher
than Jewish  freedom, as  the  mind is  higher than the
body — as much more glorious as spirit is more glorious
than flesh and bones.
  But that returning back to the land of our  fathers.
We have no such celebration of our jubilee — true — but
we  have something  better.  Such a law in our country
would be no blessing to us, because, as the tide of national
and individual prosperity sweeps  onward, it bears the
children and grandchildren to larger homes, to fairer fields
than their ancestors  enjoyed; and to  such it would be a
great  hardship to be compelled to go back to the hum-
ble  and  comfortless homes of their sires.   We covet
no such ordinance here — or now. But in all the Hor-
ticultural fairs of  our country, we are receiving from
the  land increasing  evidence  of  its  capacity to bring
forth abundantly, not only to satisfy the cravings of ap-
petite, but to minister to the more  delicate taste and
higher elements  of our being  in  the fruits and  flowers
which are exhibited; whilst the varied professions and
numberless occupations  pursued  by our  people, give
them the means of purchasing whatsoever pleaseth them
best.
  And in the Mechanical Exhibitions which have taken
place, we see the wonderful powrer of man in so break-
ing  up, melting  down, and moulding  the mineral pro-
ducts of  the land into all manner of machinery, that he
is constantly facilitating the means and increasing the
capacity  of the  earth to produce, giving promise of a
time to come, when  he may dutifully devote  more time
to intellectual culture and moral elevation.
  Every improvement in agriculture tends to set free 
GLIMPSES.
241
mother earth, and enables her to bring forth her treasures
more and more abundantly to bless her children. Every
invention in agricultural machinery proves the internal
resources of  man to aid her in yielding  up her vegeta-
tion with less and less labor to himself, whilst other  in-
ventions  are  constantly increasing his comforts and
supplying him with conveniences, elegancies, and luxu-
ries of which former  generations never dreamed.
   Within the  last fifty years, science has supplied  all
our large cities with water, and has furnished them with
sewers for the draining off  of all impurities.
   During the last fifty years a mineral which had  been
regarded as wholly useless,  has been dug from the earth
and forced by the ingenuity of science, in giving up its
imprisoned caloric, to warm millions of people by grates,
stoves, furnaces, and batteries of steam pipes.
   This same mineral, by parting with its hydrogen and
carbon in another form, dispels the darkness of night,
for the most brilliant  light is, by science,  elaborated
from the blackest substance, thus  symbolizing those
scintillations of light which are  now emanating  from
minds once in the darkness of ignorance.
   This same mineral  drives  machinery  all  over  the
civilized world, thus emancipating man from an enor-
mous amount of hard labor, and  promising  at no dis-
tant day to plough up and  pulverize his soil,  scatter the
seed over his land, weed his fields, reap down  his har-
vests, gather his grain and bind it in sheaves,  and thresh
and winnow it ready for the flouring mill, where steam
has already taken the place  of the clumsy machinery of
water power.
  During this  period  science  has, through the agency
of steam,  provided the most  rapid and  convenient
modes of  travelling by land and water;  thus bringing
                        21 
242                  GLANCES.
distant countries and States into near proximity, intro-
ducing nations to each other and  increasing their re-
sources  of  knowledge  and intelligence,  by  affording
opportunities to all to  examine  the natural curiosities
and works of art which each contain; thus stimulating
the social element and promoting those friendly rela-
tions, which will  ultimately bind all  peoples, nations,
and tongues into one great brotherhood.
  Little did our grandmothers think  when  they boiled
their  kettles, that the  time would come when great
kettles would be boiled all over the civilized world, and
that the invisible steam which issued  from them, would
impel giant ships and  boats  over  the water,  and long
trains of cars overland.
  Constructiveness watched the weary hours  spent by
indigence and worth in plying the needle to clothe man-
kind, and invented the sewing machine.
  She looked into the kitchen  and  substituted  first,
stoves for the inconvenient pot-hooks  of former years;
then she  invented cooking ranges — greatly  lessening
and lightening  the labor of preparing food, by furnish-
ing all  manner of conveniences  in  the culinary de-
partment.
  Science looked into  the laundry also and pitied the
laborers there — wiien  behold! the invention  of wash-
ing and wringing machines and mangles, and conven-
iences for heating, without smutting irons.  When Da-
guerre first  published in 1839, that he had discovered a
method of taking pictures  on plates of metal by the sun,
his  tablets were regarded with  wronder.  Now it is  a
common thing.  Next came the photographic  discovery
enlarging the miniature  into a portrait.
  We thought it was a great  triumph of science when
Franklin caught the lightning  flash from passing clouds, 
GLIMPSES.
243
and led it harmlessly  down metallic rods, averting all
danger from the electric spark.  But a Morse has arisen
in our day, who, after generating electricity at will, has
employed it  as  the most rapid agent of communication
that the world  has ever seen, transmitting intelligence
over civilized countries in the space of seconds, not as
formerly in weeks, days, and hours.*  Science promises,
too, to send bundles through the air as rapidly, and human
packages too, if they will  be as motionless -as the paper
ones, and to traverse the  depths of the ocean,  binding
continents together by electric wires.
   But science has not  only eased  humanity of its bur-
dens, furnished the means of  travelling  with ease, ra-
pidity,  and  elegance  by  land and water — brought
streams of water through myriad pipes into our cities,
and < carried  off their  filth by underground  sewers —
wrarmed and lighted our houses, and conveyed messages
of love and  business despatches on flashes  of electric-
ity ; but it has walked  our hospitals, and whilst weep-
ing tears  of  sympathy over the sufferings of  those  wdio
are carried to the  operating-room, discovered the means
of producing insensibility  to every pain.
   And more extraordinary still, is that astonishing in-
sight into, and development of, the hitherto unknown
powers of the human mind, wiiich begin to  unravel  tc
us  all  the mysteries  of witchcraft,  and  must save us
from such absurd cruelties as were most conscientiously
perpetrated by  our pilgrim fathers.
  A Jewish  jubilee could do nothing then for the Jew
but  undo the  heavy  burdens of  domestic  servitude,

  * I well  remember my  emotions  on  receiving a telegraphic
despatch from  a  friend  thirty  miles  off,  informing  me of the
birth of a child, by a  reference  to Isaiah ix. G.  " Unto us a child
is born,  unto  us a son  is given." 
244
GLANCES.
and give back to him the landed inheritance, and the
home of his  fathers.   But  American  Jubilees (in the
Northern States) find no  physical bondage to  abolish,
whilst freedom, education, and law, the arts and sciences,
manufactures and  trade, agriculture  and commerce are
pushing humanity onward with such amazing rapidity,
that every, generation finds itself far ahead in the car
of progress of the old station house at  which its fathers
stopped, and with no desire to go back to it, but with a
firm,  unbending purpose, presses onward to find for
himself a  larger house— a better home than the one
in which he was reared.
  But here  let me drop a word of  caution, reminding
my readers  that these great improvements of modern
times are blessings  or curses to us, just in the same
ratio  as the  mental, moral, and religious rule over the
animal; or the animal propensities  of our nature pre-
dominate over the  intellectual and  moral.   The spider
elaborates poison from the same flower, in which  the
bee finds materials out of which she manufactures honey.
  These, then, are some of the offerings that science has
brought and laid upon the altar  of thanksgiving, wiiich
America builds in commemoration of her jubilee.  And
wiiat, we ask, are the lessons we  should learn in looking
at them ?  We cannot but be  struck with the fact of
the ascendency of subtile elements  over  solids, and see
in it the complete triumph of mind over matter, and the
obliteration  of  that  strongest of all  distinctions which
characterize the sexes, making it possible for woman to
share  in all  the  duties  and  responsibilities, honors
and profits of every  employment and office, because
machinery does to a  great extent, and will increasingly
do, the heavy work  of the world, and man as  well  as
woman will  rule by intellectual, and moral, and relig- 
GLIMPSES.
245
ious power, not by physical strength and material force.
How legitimately,  then,  has  the  great  question  of
woman's rights  arisen  at  the  present  day!  It is the
growth  of the  present era — the  birthright  of  our
children.   For not  until noio was  material  strength
shown to be weakness, and the nobler  elements of ,hu-
manity crowned with glory and honor.
  And  if  this be  our celebration  of the  past half-
century— what will be  the  commemoration  of the
year 1900 ?   How shall we prepare for it, how shall we
train our children to be ready for it?  By doing what
we can to  spread  the blessings  of universal freedom
and education all over our land, without distinction of
sex  or  color; and  by welcoming to our hearts ever)
new idea which commends itself to our reason and con-
science, fearless  of consequences;  instead of saying as
it  comes  before  us,  " I am afraid  where all this will
lead."

  Sweet ideals  fill the inner  life, high aspirations ele-
vate the soul, reveries become realities before the actual
is ultimated; if it were not so,  should wTe not often sink
under the weight of joy that is experienced when hope
is swallowed up in faith ?   This  beautiful clothing of
the spirit, this ideal is spurned by cold, calculating, un-
sympathizing minds — they understand wake-land, for
that involves eating, drinking, sleeping, money getting,
pleasure living, etc., — but talk to them of reveries, of
visions  of  ideals  illuminating  the dim future,  and
they immediately think of fairy-land and Arabian tales.
Thus life loses half its charm to many, is barren, frigid,
repulsive.   They know not the angel trust, which, per-
ceiving  that excelsior is inscribed  on the banner of
                         21* 
246
GLANCES.
humanity, soars into the future and precnjoys the an-
ticipated glories.
  Every life is a picture-gallery — the humblest and the
highest, each in beautiful relation to its uses.   Why  is
it that  we close our eyes to the wonder, of our  own
existence  both interior and exterior, and rush to pano-
ramas, etc. ?  It is because we are so superficial, because
we  are everlastingly looking  at  the outward instead of
the inward.  It is  a marvel to  me that so few view
themselves on a high plane,  so few realize that to be a
medium of any use, renders the  mediator of moment.

  My little Sunbeam  had lived for us all — she  still
lives, her spirit hovers o'er her home, and sweetly min-
isters to  the  loved ones  there — boy after  boy  had
widened the home circle of my sister — the  quartette
was here.   Then came a'daughter,  a bright, healthy
babe — a sort of inspiration rested  upon her; she never
was, nor ever can  be  an only daughter — she became
my  sunlight — reflecting not  only her own  but her
sister's  brightness — the two now  one were mystically
blended, who has not felt in a similar case that a  double
child, two in one was given ?   What I have said about
the sunbeam that  was eclipsed to our earthly  vision,
conveys my feelings about the  sunlight that now glad-
dens her home, shedding her feminine influence around
her brothers.  Sweet child, God's last best gift, the first
and last of the family daughters, they encircle the band
of brothers, and heaven and earth are  united.
  Ever since my removal from the north part of the
city, I had desired  an opportunity to meet my friends
there to testify the continued interest  that w^as  felt  in
them.   I  called occasionally upon some families, but
this was unsatisfactory; all you can learn is the state  of 
                     GLIMPSES.                  247

health.   I was not brought into the relation with them
which I coveted.  In the  spring of this year, meeting
with some ladies who resided there, I made known my
wish  to  deliver a course  of free lectures at my birth-
place.  I thought I should meet  again many  school-
mates, scholars, and  old  friends.   I was willing  they
should judge whether the North End girl had lived.an
aimless,  useless,  and fashionable  life.   Mr.  Streeter's
vestry was obtained, and  never did  a child perform a
pleasant errand with more alacrity than I executed this
mission.   Although  my spirit was  subdued and chas-
tened by a sense of responsibility, yet my work was de-
lightful— for the aged came out.   I mingled again with
those who had known my parents.   Sarah M. Grimke'
accompanied me to the last lecture  and made a  few
closing remarks ; many welcomed me back, and it was
grateful  to receive a chaste gift presented by some of
the ladies.   My little sacrifice offered, I could but see
how I had been led  along.  We need more faith, more
courage, that we  may  be  ready to improve opportuni-
ties for usefulness, and instead of asking the opinions
of others, retire to the presence-chamber of God in the
soul, listen to  the voice within, and follow whitherso-
ever it leads.
  During this summer I delivered  a course of free lec-
tures in the town  hall at Gloucester — it had been used
for a fair, and it was tastefully dressed with evergreens.
The ladies wrere  very much interested, a physiological
society was formed,  and the paper  published there  gave
the lectures a favorable notice.  My convictions of the
utter ignorance that prevailed respecting the laws  of
life and health were  strengthened by contact with differ-
ent classes of  mind, and  the question was  ever and
anon recurring, Why have physicians done so little for 
248
GLANCES.
the prevention of disease ?   These lectures brought me
into sympathy with suffering womanhood, with abused
childhood, and I should have yielded  to  despondency
had I not known there was " balm in Gilead " — a mul-
titude of facts w^ere brought to light which showed the
sad condition of social life, the degradation and wrongs
of woman.
  In the summer of 1850, I went to  Belleville, New
Jersey,  the  residence of  Theodore  D. and  Angeline
Grimke'  Weld — themselves, their three children, and
Sarah M. Grimkd, constituting the family.  Every lover
of reform is at  home with these names, for the Misses
Grmik6 were  the first  women speakers on  the anti-
slavery  platform — their position at the  South, their
education, their  talents, brought  out to hear  them, the
learned, the fastidious, and the  thoughtful — They paved
the way for woman as public  speaker, and every lover
of freedom owes much to them, — cheerfulness, intel-
ligence,  freedom, were pass-w^ords  at this  home.  My
visit was productive of much thought, it was a point in
my life, for it placed me very near them in connection
with reform.   A truth-loving spirit — how it beautifies
every spot, how it brightens every hour, how it leads the
soul along, and renews our reliance on  and trust in
" Him in wiiom we live,  and move, and  have our being."
Peace ever rest on this family !
  Can  I forget those beautiful, witching, moonlight
evenings enjoyed  with  them  on the Passaic?   Those
who have heard the eloquent tones of Theodore D.
Weld in a hall, may imagine their power on the water
under a clear blue sky, sparkling with starry gems, and
illuminated by the queen of night.
  Hope whispered, the dawn of a brighter day appear-
eth; there are women who  are preparing  in secret to 
GLIMPSES.
249
preach deliverance to the captive, the opening of prison
doors to them that are bound.  Let them patiently bide
their time.
   My  profession brought me  in contact with  various
minds.   Earnest, serious discussions on  the condition
of woman  enlivened my business room;  failures of
banks, no  dividends from railroads, defalcations  of all
kinds, public and private, widows and orphans and un-
married  women beggared by the dishonesty, or the mis-
management  of men, were fruitful sources of  conver-
sation; confidence in man as a protector was evidently
losing ground, and women were beginning to see that
they must protect themselves.   At length a ray of light
penetrated  the  gloom.   A little gathering of  serious,
zealous spirits was  convened at Seneca  Falls, in 1848,
to investigate  the condition of our sex,  of wiiich, says
the report, " Lucretia Mott was the moving  spirit." Six-
ty-eight women affixed their signatures to  the " Decla-
ration  of Sentiments,"  and thirty-eight men who were
favorable to the movement gave their  names.  The
title, " Woman's Rights  Convention,"  did  not  express
my idea ; I asked nothing less .than  " human  rights."
This was followed by another  in Rochester, which was
attended  by many of the Society of Friends who were
deeply interested in  the  question.  The reader will not
wonder that my whole being rejoiced, my physique par-
taking with my mind, when the  call was issued for the
first  national  convention in my  own State.  That call
thrilled my entire being.   It says, " Of the many points
now under discussion, and demanding a just settlement,
the general question of  woman's rights  and relations
comprehend these : — Her education, literary, scientific,
and artistic, — her avocations, industrial, commercial, and
professional, — her interests,  pecuniary,  political,  and 
250
GLANCES.
civil, — in a word, her rights as an individual, and her
functions as a citizen."   I had not heard, or read of the
State convention in Ohio.  Was it possible that woman
was aroused, that the evils wiiich  were withering her
affections, blighting her intellect, crippling  her physical
powers, were about to claim calm and careful inquiry ?
Was I to have the  privilege  of meeting those who
have thought, and reasoned, and prayed over this sub-
ject?  Imagine hunger exasperating you, thirst driving
to desperation; — in a moment as by magic,  food  and
drink appear.  That  call was bread and wrater to my
soul — it electrified me — the feelings then experienced
are vividly remembered.   I was  a  novice  in attending
conventions — had never even  been at an anti-slavery
meeting— I could be a looker on, a listener to the truths
others had to offer.  It was the equatorial line dividing
the century, and it was crossed.   Steam and electricity
were fast robbing man of the grand argument, physical
strength, to  prove his superiority — labor-saving  ma-
chines told woman that she must seek  other means of
subsistence — I decided to go to Worcester — many of
mjr friends regretted  this — they urged that  it would
be  ridiculous for me  to identify  myself with  such
a  motley crew, — some  scolded, some  entreated, some
said I should lose caste. " What was all this to one,
who for fifteen  years had been the confidant of woman,
who  had  known that her  diseases resulted in  great
measure from her position ;  who had sympathized with
the  heart-broken, prescribed  for  the  penniless,  and
mingled her tears with the widow  and the fatherless ?
Talk of politeness when humanity is perishing — of
the sacred sphere of woman  wThen thousands of my
sisters are prostitutes — how many.from necessity, God
only  knows.  I have not the  least patience with the 
GLIMPSES.
251
 exquisite dandy and the fashionable flirt  attempting
 to define proprieties — they have money, let them define
 dollars.  Neither have I patience with a set  of croakers
 who regret the present state of things; but  how can it
 be helped? say they with a yawn.  Look at your.wid-
 owed sister struggling to preserve a home —the hectic
 on that cheek, produced  by  overtasking  her physical
 strength, tells you death will soon set  his seal upon her.
 Look at that married woman — sleepless  nights and
 toilsome days cloud her brow and irritate her  temper.
 Shall woman's  voice  be  hushed when woman's shrieks
 are heard ?  Shall woman quench her light, when clouds
 of invisible sorrows gather thick round woman's head ?
 Prayers  from lonely  hearts  and crushed spirits  were
 breathed for that gathering, it was  sanctified  by the
 incense  of disciplined souls, it was  nerved  by the fer-
 vent  sympathy of  a band  of  hidden ones,  it was
 endued  with   power  from  on high, and' has  been
 accepted as a sacrifice.
   1850 had been a prospective epoch  to me.   This call
 for a convention was such  a fulfilment  of unuttered
 hopes, of half-formed  desires — I could scarcely realize
 that my  thought would have a "local  habitation  and a
 name."  I  went to  Worcester, the afternoon before the
 meeting, because some friends were to assemble in the
 evening.  I was all eyes, and understood the description
 of  Miss Pratt's eyes  by the author of " Inheritance."
 " Miss Pratt's  head  moved from side  to side, her eyes
were  active, brisk, busy, vigilant eyes, they looked  as if
they could not be surprised at any thing, not even sleep."
 My attention  was  first  attracted to  the  Quakers,  so
thoughtful,  so  courteous, so kind-hearted—they had
always recognized the inspiration of woman, and were 
252
GLANCES.
thus prepared to accept this great movement.  One of
them impressed  me deeply; her Webster brow blended
with a religious chastened expression, proved the ascen-
dency of the spiritual over the intellectual, her full ear-
nest eye spoke of light within, her radiant  smile  said,
" Trust in God, all will be well."   Stranger  as  I was, I
approached — we  exchanged  names — I was  not  sur-
prised to hear that of Lucretia Mott — but that name
thrilled me — my ideal  stood  embodied before me, the
wife, the mother, the grandmother, the teacher  of relig-
ion and of morals, her life unspotted — while fulfilling
her maternal duties, like Huldah she was a prophetess.
Sarah Tyndale was there, the  retired  merchant of  Phil-
adelphia, — when left a widow with a family of children
dependent on her exertions, she continued her husband's
business  —those who visit, or  observe the elegant glass
and china store in Chestnut street, Philadelphia, ought
to know that Sarah  Tyndale built  it, owned it, and,
having realized a handsome independence, left the  busi-
ness to be' prosecuted by her sons. Why was she there ?
that she might encourage every widow, and raise her
voice against the  narrow sphere prescribed to  woman;
sunny, benevolent, grateful she came with her thank-of-
fering.   There, too, was the Polish woman Ernestine L.
Rose, ardent, eloquent, intellectual, her  foreign accent
added interest to the truths she uttered. Paulina Wright
Davis is  so well known as a lecturer,  her services in the
diffusion of physiological knowledge have been so highly
appreciated that I need but name her.  Mrs. C. J. H.
Nichols,  the active agent and coeditor of the Windham
County  Democrat, brought there the resources of her
strong and  fertile mind.  Lucy  Stone and Antoinette
L. Brown met there, they had been room-mates  at Ober- 
GLIMPSES.                 253
lin, the former had become a popular lecturer, the latter
had  studied theology.   Did  time and  space  allow I
could give a host of names, true, noble spirits.
   Think what  were my reflections when I retired that
night and lived over again the transactions of the day —
there was a resurrection for woman — I rejoiced in my
inmost soul, and rose the next morning buoyant as a
child.   The convention met.  Sarah  H. Earle of Wor-
cester, called the meeting to order—her active coopera-
tion and her hearty hospitality entitle  her to our  grati-
tude.   Mrs.  Davis being appointed president,  made a
pertinent and impressive address — she claimed for wo-
man  " freedom for the natural unfolding of her powers,
the conditions  most  favorable  for her possibilities  of
growth and the full play of all those  incentives which
have  made man her master.  I ask that she shall fill the
place she can attain to without settling any unmeaning
questions of sex and sphere, which  people gossip about,
for want of the principles of truth, or the  faculty  of
reason  to govern them."   After this  address  Lucretia
Mott rose ;  her words were to the point and went to the
heart.  William H.  Channing and Wendell  Phillips
were  there, their large hearts sympathized with  the suf-
ferings  of every class, and they consecrated their talents
to the  elevation of humanity.  Here  I  saw  William
Lloyd  Garrison for the first time, "that terrible man,
that wicked person."   I wish his opponents could  have
seen him on the business committee, so placid, so benig-
nant.    I consented to serve on the committee,  for I
wished  to know all that could  be learned.   I  had pre-
pared myself to speak on the medical question, but when
the time came,  as  I had never spoken except to  women,
a feeling came over   me  best  expressed  by mauvaise
honte — but the query, is it truth  or  Harriot  K. Hunt 
254
GLANCES.
that you are going to present, instantly came, and found
a ready response which relieved my embarrassment.   I
rose, and soon  forgot all but the truths  I  had to utter.
Resolutions w^ere offered, principles discussed, life prac-
tically looked at, honesty, justice, truth,  laid their offer-
ings on the altar — absorbing  interest was evinced by
large, thoughtful audiences, and a cloud  of incense, the
prayers and blessings of absent spirits, o'ercanopicd the
assembly.  The success of this  convention  was the deep
recognition of its need, its electrical power was felt
through  every class of society.   If we attempt great
things in faith, anticipation of  the results  will give ear-
nestness and  strength to action — the past, the future will
be merged in the now.  Two hundred and seventy per-
sons  had the moral courage to enroll their names as
members  of  this convention.   The report may be  re-
ferred  to  for  further  information.   This is  the first
national historic act of woman to ask the why and the
wherefore of her political  nonentity in this glorious re-
public.  It was the voice of liberty struggling for utter-
ance— utterance was  given, and  can never cease until
the rights of humanity are acknowiedged.  To this con-
vention I owe my acquaintance with Dr. Flagg, — he
introduced himself  and his sister Miss Wait to me, — I
little imagined how great a blessing I should enjoy in
his friendship,  the  many  happy  hours  I should spend
with his family, and the strength  I should derive from
the interest he manifested in my protests against taxa-
tion,  and  my  correspondence  with  Harvard College.
Dr. Flagg was a rare  man, he  was wisely conservative,
accepting what life there was in the past.  The light of
his eye, the tone  of  his voice, were so  delightful, so
inspiring.  As a surgeon  dentist  he was  eminent, as  a
homoeopathist — the first I think in this  State — he was 
GLIMPSES.
255
ardent and  judicious;  as superintendent  of Sunday
schools at Dr. Channing's church he will  be affection-
ately remembered ;  as the father of the School of Design
for women in Boston,  his memory  will be  cherished.
The woman movement attracted his philanthropic soul
— eminently  manly himself he wished to see woman
in freedom that  she  might be womanly.   I  parted at
Worcester with the band who had been attracted there
by kindred hopes and aspirations — life had  been seen
from different stand-points—heart had met  heart—a
pressure of the hand meant something there;  it was not
a cold slip — eye lightened eye — soul animated soul,
new breathings  after  truth were  experienced ; new re-
sponsibilities, new  duties  urged us to  faithfulness and
action.
   As  I was  returning home, I had been seated  in the
cars but a few minutes,  wiien a good looking country-
man, hardy and  frank, said to me, " I saw you  at the
convention ma'am." " Yes, I was there." " Well, I was
in Worcester on business and spent my evening  at the
convention.  I am now going home to make my will.
I never knew before how my wife wrould be fixed; why,
dividing what little I  have, would leave her a mere
pittance ;  she has worked hard and helped me earn it."
Next  came  the  conductor, — "I  have been to your
meeting, and when I went home I proposed to my wife
that we should change work, I take care of the children,
etc., and she take my place in the cars."  " Perhaps," said
I gravely, " a change might be well, you  might  realize
the cares and  vexations of domesticity, and  your wife
appreciate better the trials to which you are exposed —
you would then  sympathize  more  fully with each
other — there is great  need of more  oneness in mar-
riage."  On my arrival  in Boston, I  was assailed with 
256
GLANCES.
such questions as these: " Then you wish to be a man?"
" Far from it, I have seen too clearly the need of woman
in the medical profession."  " So you are going  to take
man's place ? "  " How vain you men are to suppose
that we wish to be like you; please take this  pencil and
set down the  names  of the great men  you think we
would like to  imitate."  " Rather puzzling if you mean
their  eniire life." _ It was laughable  and yet sad — as
the exponent  of public opinion to hear  the  inveciive
and contempt that was poured out on this gathering of
earnest thinkers — one of the  papers noticed me in an
amusing  article.   I was astonished at  the agitation
that w^as excited — at the misconception  of  the move-
ment.  The idea of the subjugation of man, instead of
the elevation  of  woman, appeared-to  have  taken pos-
session of the public mind.  My love for the ludicrous
was amply feasted — the foibles of women  were hud-
dled together — and the convention was a concentration
of  all that was vulgar,  coarse, and  masculine, home
tyrants,  disaffected  old  maids, fault-finding widows,
childless  married women, who had rushed to  Worcester
to vent their spleen upon the world, to  exasperate each
other, to  court notoriety, and to unburden themselves
of the gall of  bitterness.   The men wiio were interested
in this cause did not escape — they w^ere fanatics who
had better have stayed at. home.  The daily papers  had
something new to write  about, something to enliven
their  columns; lyceum  lecturers a new theme upon
which to exercise their eloquence ;  and woman seemed
to be considered  public property.  There were others
wiio were  angered,  annoyed, puzzled; they  could  not
shut their eyes, or  close their ears to the fact,  that some
of the noble, the self-sacrificing, the true, were enlisted;
investigation wras  declared  to be dangerous; the sub- 
GLIMPSES.                 257
jects  discussed at  the  convention must  not be men-
tioned — and  why —  connected  with  almost  every
family was some suffering, half remunerated woman,
widow or unmarried, plying her needle, or dependent on
some relative who wondered why she lived so long.
   Freedom to think our own thoughts, freedom to utter
them, freedom to live out the  promptings of our inner
life ultimated  in  this convention,  was termed a mon
strosity  of the  19th century.  What was it? —the
legitimate out-birth of the eternal  law of  progress.
This reformation underlies every other; it is  the only
healthful centre  around which  hope for humanity can
revolve.    This   movement by woman  showed  me
clearly that something could be done, and defined what
that something wTas — education, remuneration, taxa-
tion occupied  my mind in  many  a  lonely  hour —
woman  asks  no  favors,  her  demands  are based on
justice.   The  Sunday  evening  after  the  convention,
William H. Channing preached at  the Tremont Temple
and indorsed  the proceedings.  No  one  need inquire
what his mother was, his description of woman bore
testimony to her worth.
   History has her teachings for us  on this woman ques-
tion.   A golden thread runs through it, upon which are
strung symbolic events.
   It was a woman who aided  Columbus,  in the prose-
cution of his voyage  of discovery;  and it  was in the
name of Isabella that  he erected the standard of the
Old on the islands of  the  New World.
   When the first  English adventurers arrived in North
Carolina, a  mother's   heart  was  gladdened  by  the
birth of  a daughter, for  Virginia  Dare was  the first
child who was  born of  English parents in America —
this was  in 1587.
                        22* 
258
GLANCES.
  In 1607, the settlers who arrived in Virginia, took
possession of the country in the name of a woman, for
Elizabeth was then on the throne of  England.
  And when  Captain Smith was about to perish, by
the hands of the Indians, and with him, the hopes of
that little band of adventurers, it was a woman's arms
which  encircled and protected him, and  thus saved
them through him.
  And when the colonies sundered themselves from the
mother country—it was the despotism of a king that
they revolted  from.  In joy  and in  sorrow too,  the
woman element has ever rested on this country as its
guardian  angel—hence  that symbolic  image  of a
woman holding in her hand  the scales of justice.
  In her early history,  Boston banished  Ann Hutch-
inson, because  her free  mind canvassed the sermons
she heard,  and  controverted  the  doctrines  that were
preached.  And not only so, but when  Mary Dyer and
her companions returned to this city after a^similar sen-
tence of  banishment,  to preach what they regarded as
truth, she  suffered the  death penalty on  your  now
beautiful Common; Quatarism was regarded as a her-
esy, and  Quaker women  had  their books burnt by the
hangman, and were imprisoned, ivhipped, and  banished
from  Boston.   But woman has  not suffered  here in
vain.   The struggles  for freedom  in  the early and  the
latter day, have  resulted in  continual concessions to
liberty — paving the way for still greater triumphs.
   Men and women who  think for themselves, feel here,
that a platform has  been built upon  which they  can
stand to enunciate the truths of th?  19th century —
hence I feel a perfect  confidence that the woman ques-
tion, in all its length and  breadth, if calmly and  philo-
sophically presented in  Massachuctts, will be, not only 
GLIMPSES.
259
received, but welcomed and accepted, and acted upon
even by the legislature.
   As an  infant luxuriates in an air bath, throwing its
unfettered limbs about  in perfect freedom, so does the
human spirit revel in .an atmosphere of liberty, and re-
joice in the  felt consciousness that  it can  put forth its
powers, and use its faculties in any and every way  that
inclination,  guided  by an enlightened conscience, may
direct.  When it feels that it cannot, if it be a living
spirit and aware of its wants, wishes, and needs,  (and
there are  many such among the women of the present
day,) their  aspirations after freedom  to  live out  their
ideal in the actual life, — is  prophetic of their future
destiny.   Man must perceive that even a child gladly
avails itself of every  opportunity  to be free from  re-
straint, and yet, is it not surprising, with this every-day
illustration  before his  eyes, of the  strong tendency of
the human mind in both sexes, and his experience of the
working of  his own mind, that he has not yet perceived
that ivoman needs freedom as well as himself 1  Necessity
has  often compelled her to prove that she  can use it
with safety, for poverty is one of those disguised angels,
who  through  suffering, forces us into reluctant efforts,
which are the blessed means of unfolding powers  that
are buried beneath luxury and ease.
   I looked around, but  a voice said unto me, look within
— look at the organization of woman, and the question
is  answered more conclusively than in any other way —
woman, the mother of  the  race, (the  image or symbol
of all productiveness)—in that is  involved every thing
sacred, every thing  pure.  Retrospection and anticipa-
tion are wedded in  the birth of every child.   Can  you
avert the  penalties  of  broken laws, wiiich visit  upon
children the sins of their fathers ?  Are not the effects of 
260
GLANCES.
this unerring principle all around  us?  Are not its  bit.
ter fruits in every family ?  Stultify, cramp, fetter, and
bind woman, and you will see  perpetuated  what is
now in our midst — dwarfish, puny physiques with ever
active, nervous  temperaments.   This law cannot be
evaded.  The low state of marriages produces the most
terrible demonstrations on this subject, causing the true
hearted to be horror-stricken.   These constitute but one
class  of  developments  of  the broad  question  of  the
woman movement.
  The withholding from her liberal culture, equal remu-
neration and a personal agency in making the laws she
is bound to obey, and  compelling  her to  support  the
government  wiiich enacts them, is a great injustice.
Man assumes to himself the offices of king and lawgiver,
judge and' priest, over woman, and as a legitimate con-
sequence,  purity has been  sexualized — one  kind for
man and another for woman.  It is all in vain to organ-
ize societies for  reform.  All they can do,  is to gather
facts and save units out of thousands.  Experience has
proved them powerless to reach the evil of licentiousness.
Nothing but the elevation  of woman ever can.   If  you
carefully look at  social life, its fearful  compromises, its
seductive  allurements,   its  percentage  paid to genteel
sin, you will be startled at the result.
  Read the laws made for us, and  realize that we are
drugged and prayed for, indicted  and plead for, judged
and condemned, taxed  and ruled  by whom, and  just as
man sees fit.   Is  there  no oppression here ?  Would he
be willing that the women of this  country (supposing
they had the power) should do all this  for him, without
allowing him to say whether  he preferred being an au-
tomaton or a man ?
  I say, read the laws — for really we are brought up in 
GLIMPSES.
261
such shameful ignorance of all legal and governmental
affairs, that I suppose there is not one woman in twenty
thousand, who  have ever seen the laws made for her
protection by our generous brothers, who are so anxious
to keep us shut out from the arts and abominations of
their political life, and shut up in the sacred precincts
of home.  Let them see to it, that the homes they make
for us are sacred, pure, and peaceful.
   It seems to me no more than fair in the governor of
each State to issue a proclamation to women command-
ing them to assemble at the Court House, and hear read
to them the  laws under which they live.  In Boston, it
would be w^ell after meeting in the great law centre, to
walk to the  Common with a furled banner and no mu-
sic.  To ivoman that  spot is  sacred — it is  no common
ground to her, for  her Quaker sister has sanctified it
with her blood.   Mary Dyer with three men there laid
down their lives for conscience'' sake.
   The beautiful fountain would be playing, we hope, for
its colorless waters symbolize that truth is  for all, and
gladden every  eye.    This sounds very ridiculous  to
some, but the spirit of prophecy says it will be yet — if
woman ever feels her  political responsibilities as  fully
as she now recognizes her social ones.   She will then
know that religion can sanctify — yea, will sanctify pol-
itics,  redeeming  that  noble  science  from   the stigma
with which man has branded it.  Surely it is high time
that  the women  of Republican America should  know
how much the laws that govern them are like the slave
laws of the  South;  and if they did, methinks,  a fast
proclamation would be far more significant to them.
   Every clergyman should.be bound to read the laws
to those who are to  be married; for very few women
know that as soon as the ceremony is performed the 
262
GLANCES.
law robs her of every thing, even the watch at  her side,
and wholly absorbs her individuality into  her husband,
unless she be possessed of landed estate,  or,  forsooth,
commits some  crime, — then, like the Plurnix  she rises
again into the dignity of a human  being,  and is tried,
condemned, and punished  by due process of law;  but,
as long as she is virtuous and an indispensable append-
age to  her husband's home, she is a nullity in law, a
cipher in government.   Blackstone  says  the  husband
and wife are one, and that one is the husband.   " Read,
mark, and inwardly digest" this law.
   If our brothers had been able to fill their sphere fully
with the care of us beside, we should have less to say;
but they are so overivhelmed with  business, politics,
speculations, monopolies,  etc., etc., that it is but char-
ity to relieve them of some of  their enormous  burdens.
We crave  the privilege, then, of supporting ourselves,
and aiding in the support and education of our children
— of choosing our own lawgivers and rulers, our judges
and juries, and  so on and so forth.
   Every age has its own lesson and adds its own pecu-
liar gift to those preceding it.   Every century, yea,
half century, is developing truths which always, at first,
startle  the  superficial  and  the  conservative.    When
knowledge becomes exoteric, belonging to all as their
birthright, according to capacity—how differently will
life be perceived!  Now it is  esoteric — for the few —
the males, the initiated, the caste.   As long as this is
the case, what have we a right to expect but slavery to
opinions, bondage  to custom, priestcraft,  doctor-craft,
lawyer-craft, and merchant-craft.  The former (the exot-
eric) have appetite without food, — the latter (esoteric)
have food without appetite.
   Just in the same ratio as the religious element is lived, 
                      GLIMPSES.                  263

 (not talked)  will  science and religion be  united, and
 while the latter has always  been acknowledged as the
 peculiar province of woman, it will appear equally clear
 that her understanding  must be  enlightened in  order
 that she may worship not only in spirit, but in truth.
   As there can be no natural birth  but through woman,
 and  then both soul and body are ushered into a new
 state of being —body outermost, — spirit innermost —
 the body through the activity of the senses  comes into
 recognition  of the  outer life,  grows, develops,  and
 gathers strength for the  uses of that life,  so the spirit,
 through the  great law  of correspondence,  equally de-
 mands a birth through the woman element  of love, be-
 fore the influx of wisdom in man can  take form and
 bring out a higher, inner life.  Thus the great woman
 question strikes interiorly, and is symbolic of the union
 of that  love and  wisdom wiiich  alone can give birth
 to a high-toned and noble manhood or womanhood.
   Our first American Revolution was physical, although
 it involved that great central principle, freedom.   Man
 being stronger in bone and muscle, went out to  battle,
 sustained and comforted by woman at home, through
 her social affections and ardent patriotism.   For  whilst
 she scrupulously performed her maternal duties, in rear-
 ing a family to  people these wilds, there was no sacri-
 fice she was not willing  to make in the cause of her
 country.  He could fight, but he could not bear children.
 Good women in those days were the Sarahs and Deb-
 orahs, Annas and  Elizabeths, Marys  and  Marthas,
 who, through  prayers, struggles, poverty, and hardship
 gave  birth to children, true, healthy,  and noble, who
 were  to build up the republic, the  foundations  of
which were laid in the blood  of their  fathers and the
prayers of their mothers. 
264
GLANCES.
   This revolution gave freedom to the white man only.
   Another revolution is now demanded — or  I  should
 rather say, the revolution we seek, is the natural growth
 from the seeds sown by our fathers: " the bursting into
 bud, blossom, and fruit of the  pent up energies  of the
 moral nature."
   This revolution  is  more  interior,  more vital, more
 purifying, more love-like, more universal — therefore it
 legitimately  calls out  woman,  not  to act alone,  but
 as in days that are past,  she aided, counselled, encour-
 aged, and sustained man in his struggle for freedom, so
 he, in turn, will do the same for her.   Every truth that
 she  has received,  every  high  use to wiiich she  has
 applied  them,  every   sacrifice  she  has ever  made,
 every  aspiration  of her soul, indeed every weary hour
 in which she has plied the needle in  garments for  her
 children, and for a scanty remuneration to  support  her
 body, has been fruitful to her spirit.  This movement is
 surrounded by an atmosphere, lifegiving  though  un-
 seen, causing deep inspirations  and a healthful circula-
 tion, and borne upward-and onward by this soul con-
 sciousness, she fears not, she falters not.
   Receptivity to bring forth  is  woman's, and woman's
 alone.  Union is demanded —the germ maybe received
 in passivity,  but it requires activity for continued life to
 develop it.  Woman is the developer, conservator, pro-
 tector, and is  beautifully guarded by spirits.  For many
 months hidden are her joys, but there is a  fulness of
 time, and then birth individualizes — completes on  the
 outermost, the  life that has been hidden within.  Just
 so, my friends,  is the correspondence.   Her spirit has re-
 ceived into it  the germ  of freedom  from  man — pro-
tected by the Lord, she has silently borne unjust laws
as to education and property — divorce and children — 
GLIMPSES
265
 a starving  remuneration, and  deeper still, a laceration
 of her affectional nature.  Her afflictions have deepened
 her moral and religious nature.   She has flown for con-
 solation to  Christianity, and your  churches tell of her
 majority.   But the child is  now born— Freedom is its
 name.  It is your child, my brethren.   We present it to
 you  for recognition.    Will you  welcome it  with  a
 father's smile ?   Shall the female figure of Justice con-
 tinue to be a lifeless symbol of the future,  or  a  living
 representation of the  present ?  Nothing short  of free-
 dom for all can  satisfy  us — not  that freedom which
 inspired  our forefathers, for  they were selfish.   The
 white man's freedom was all that  they  claimed—per-
 haps they w^ere perfect in their day and generation —
 perhaps they did the best  that they could — peace to
 their ashes!  They lived in the  18th, we in the 19th
 century.   If  we do as  much  for  human  progress  in
 our day  and generation, as they did in theirs, liberty
 will be  proclaimed throughout all the land, to all the
 inhabitants thereof, of every color and sex.
   Quietly seated at home, my leisure  moments *were
 occupied in revolving the events  that  had  lately tran-
 spired, and  settling wiiat was my duty with regard to
 the medical question.   I thought of a public lecture to
 women, but I abandoned this idea, because the  subject
 of woman  as a physician  had gained  attention, and
 was favorably regarded  by many, it might be unjust to
 represent the  case as it  stood  in 1847.   I therefore re-
 solved to make another application to Harvard,  and ac-
 cordingly sent the following letter : —
                                 Boston, Nov. 12, 1850.
 Gentlemen of the Medical Faculty of Harvard College: —
  In addressing you again  on a subject of so much moment, permit
me to bring to it the same earnest, trusting spirit that prompted me
                         23 
266                      GLANCES.
when I asked leave  to  attend  your medical lectures in December,
1847, and was refused on the ground of inexpediency. Nay, a deeper,
more interior motive operates  upon me now, than even then^ for
public sentiment has been bending more and more  in this direction,
and the idea that delicacy, propriety, and necessity require for woman
one of her own sex, properly educated, to consult with in many cases,
has gained a stronger foothold.
  Opinions have been freely canvassed and  thoughtful women have
religiously looked upon  this  great  subject which involves so much.
The varied and insidious  forms of depravity so thick in our midst, the
alarming increase  of female weaknesses, the nervous  affections  in
various  aspects, blighting and prostrating  so many of our sex, and
then introducing them to  our Insane Asylums, all these call for thought
on this subject; and  you, gentlemen, can corroborate these hints, by
startling facts in your daily  life, without giving  any stretch  to your
imaginations.   The  want and need of female  physicians must be
seen, I should  think, by every philanthropic and delicate mind.   Can
she not warn her own sex of shoals, on which, when once wrecked,  in
vain are you called ?  There is a gap in society, a true legitimate want
in our midst, to satisfy which, a separate female medical college is even
now struggling for life,  which  you  may easily arrest.   Unprepared,
uneducated women  are   going  forth  to prescribe, urged by  this
necessity.   Better they than none, for the perception of the feminine,
joined to her  religious nature, will do  much through sympathy.   A
feeling p£ disorder  is active in community, and the question is even
now put, Do you employ  a male  or female physician ?
  In my previous letter 1 stated plainly my desire for medical knowl-
edge, to aid me in an extensive practice among the highly intelligent.
That desire deepens with years and with the responsibility of being a
precedent  in  so high a  vocation.  Your refusal in the  city  of my
birth, education, and life, seemed unjust to me, and  I  now hope for
something  better, and would respectfully ask you to investigate this
subject further, and submit it elsewhere for consideration, with your
opinions based as they will be upon the progress of the age ; and thus
will you, as guardians of the public weal, open your institution (as in
other States) to prepare woman for one of the noblest callings in life,
or through refusal again, cause further agitation on this great subject;
(note Miss BlackwelPs reception in Europe, through the journals).  Let
me ask, cannot the perception of woman be joined with the reflection  of
man, in investigating  the bony structure, the muscular and nervous
systems, (not his or hers,) the viscera,  etc. etc. ? In  opening your 
GLIMPSES.                      267
 doors to woman, it is mind that will  enter the lecture  room, it is in-
 telligence that will ask for food; sex will never be felt where science
 leads, for the atmosphere of thought will be around every lecture.
   I would be  most happy to meet any questions, on this subject, either
 privately in your studies, or collectively as a body, for living practical
 truths, (too delicate to write upon,)  could be presented, which would
 satisfy the most conservative, reluctant, or opposing mind.  The times
 demand educated women to go out, supported by science, to trace the
 physical depravities of the age, inducing so many diseases, also to aid
 and counsel the sensitive and nervous cliild of sorrow and ignorance,
 and to lead  her to look into infringed laws, as causes of her suffering.
 I will not trouble you further now, for  it seems very clear that these
 hasty thoughts, truthfully glanced at, will open to your minds corrob-
 orative evidence, physically, morally, and religiously.
   These remarks are respectfully offered, gentlemen, by one, who, in
 this city for fourteen years, undiplomaed and unacknowledged by the
 Medical Faculty, has been permitted to establish and continue herself
 in a new, true, elevating path  for woman.  And now, with a solemn
 earnestness  resulting  from daily  responsibilities  and  a  religious
 acknowledgment  of  them,  she  asks for you, clearness  of vision,
 strength of purpose, and high  justice, in your deliberations on  these
 great questions: —
   Shall woman be permitted all  the  Medical  advantages she desires ?
   Shall mind, or sex, be recognized in admission to medical lectures ?
   An answer will be awaited with deep interest.
                  Respectfully yours,
     (Signed,)             Harriot  K. Hunt, 32 Green street

   The subjoined letters were  received : —

 Dear Madam : —
  I have had the honor of receiving  a letter from you, to the Medical
 Faculty of  Harvard  University, which  I shall  lay before them at
their next meeting to be held on Saturday evening, Nov. 23.
                    Yours, respectfully,
                             O. W. Holmes,
             Dean of the Medical Faculty of Harvard University.
Montgomery Place, Nov. 18, 1850.
     Miss Harriot K. Hunt. 
268                     GLANCES.
                                      Boston, Nov. 25,1850.
Dear  Madam : —
  Your letter was laid before the Faculty, and received their respect-
ful consideration at their last meeting.  As the propriety of granting
your request, involves a question as to the construction of the statutes
of the  University,  it seems necessary to refer  this point  to the
President and Fellows.  I cannot say when I shall be able to  answer
your request definitely, but you may be assured, there will be no un-
necessary delay in deciding the question, and that the decision  shall
be at once communicated to you by myself.
                         Yours, respectfully.
                                 O. W. Holmes,
                Dean of the Medical Faculty of Harvard  College.
  Miss Harriot K. Hunt.

                                      Boston, T)ec. 5, 1850.
Dear Madam: —
  It was voted by the Medical Faculty of Harvard University, on the
23d  November,  " That Miss  Hunt be admitted to the lectures on
the usual terms, provided that  her admission  be not deemed incon-
sistent with the statutes."
  On communicating this vote to  the President and Fellows, the
answer was returned that no  objection was  perceived arising  from
the statutes of the Medical School to admitting female students to the
lectures,  but that nc opinion  was expressed by  that answer as to
the claims of such students to a medical degree.
  You can therefore obtain tickets, by application to Mr. Pettee, the
collector of the faculty, who is to be found at the New England Bank,
and  if there is  any information I can afford  yon, it will give me
pleasure to do it.                Yours, respectfully,
                                     O.  W. Holmes,
                                        Dean of the Faculty.

   When this  letter  reached me,  I  was   confined  by
illness, and unable to avail myself of the permission to
attend the lecture.   My non-appearance for tickets gave
rise to  some  unfounded  rumors which the following
communications, cut from the Evening Transcript, July
5, 1851, will explain : — 
GLIMPSES.                      269
  Medical  College. — Opposition to a  Female  Pupil.—
As a misunderstanding exists  in the community in regard to the cir-
cumstances of Miss Harriot K. Hunt's application for admission to the
medical lectures of this institution, and the causes  of her delay in
availing herself of  the permission granted her  by the professors,
many of her friends are anxious that a true statement should be made
to the public, by some one well acquainted with the circumstances.
  Miss Hunt applied for admission  some years since and was refused
on the ground that it " is inexpedient."  She applied again this autumn,
by a very able letter, in which she considered the broad subject of
the necessity of a good medical education  for woman.   The subject
was considered by  the directors of the institution,  who voted that
she should be  admitted to attend  the  lectures on the same terms as
other  students,  provided it did not conflict with  the statutes of the
college.  It being  found that the  statutes  afforded  no obstacle, the
dean  of the faculty sent to her a  copy of the vote  passed, together
with directions for  obtaining a ticket, etc.   This note found her con-
fined  to her  room with a severe illness, from which she is not yet
entirely recovered,  and which of  course prevented her immediate
attendance at the college.  In the mean time the  gentlemen students
were very much excited by the act of their teachers, and sent in a
protest, signed by a  large number, against it.
  After an interview with some of the leading members of the fac-
ulty, who  have treated  her with great candor and  politeness, Miss
Hunt, entirely' out of courtesy to them, in  consideration of the state
of disaffection and  insubordination in the present class,  decided to
postpone her attendance on the lectures until the commencement of
another term.   Satisfied by this just recognition of her rights, she is
anxious to exercise them in a spirit of reconciliation, and with a sin-
cere regard for the interests of that  profession  to which she has
devoted her life.                                       E. D. l.

   This article brought  out  the  resolutions  of  the stu-
dents,  which I had endeavored to obtain in vain.

  The  Female Medical Pupil.—Mr. Editor: — As an article,
in some respects imaginative,  appeared in  the  "Transcript"  on
Wednesday evening over the signature of " E. D. L.," who professes
to be " well informed " respecting the application of a female to the
Medical Lectures, and the " insubordination "  with which the  intelli-
                            23* 
270
G L A XJ E S.
gence was received by the students, allow me to correct any erroneous
impression by claiming space for an insertion of the  following series
of resolutions passed at a meeting of the medical class with but one
dissenting vote, and afterwards respectfully presented to the Faculty
of the Medical College.
Whereas, it  has been  ascertained that permission has been granted
  to a female to attend the Medical Lectures of the present winter,
  therefore
  Resolved, That we deem it proper both to testify our disapprobation
of said measure, and to take such action thereon as may be  necessary
to preserve the dignity of the school, and our own self-respect.
  Resolved, That no woman of true delicacy would be willing in the
presence of men to listen to the discussion of the subjects that neces-
sarily come under the consideration of the student of medicine.
  Resolved, That we object to having the company of any female
forced upon us, who is disposed to unsex herself, and  to sacrifice her
modesty, by appearing with men in the medical lecture room.
  Resolved, That we are not opposed to allowing woman her rights,
but do protest against her appearing in places where her presence is
calculated to destroy our respect for the modesty and  delicacy of her
sex.
  Resolved, That the  medical professors be, and hereby are, respect-
fully entreated to do  away forthwith an innovation expressly at vari-
ance with the spirit of the introductory lecture, with our own feelings,
and detrimental to the prosperity, if not to the very existence of the
school.
  Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the
Medical Faculty.                                   Scalpel.

   My  letter  was  then requested  and  appeared  in  the
same paper.   I am aware that at the time  of my appli-
cation, the college was involved in some difficulty.  Says
the writer  in  the  Boston Journal, under  the  signature
" Common Sense,"  " It seems  that at  the commence-
ment of the lectures two colored persons were found to
be  of the number of students.   This occasioned a good
deal of feeling in  the  school.   In a few weeks  another
black made his appearance, and anon a report was  cir- 
GLIMPSES.
271
culated that a woman had taken tickets for the lectures.
The pent up indignation  now burst forth, and two
series of resolutions were passed, remonstrating against
this amalgamation of sexes and races.
  The class at  Harvard in 1851, have  purchased for
themselves  a notoriety they  will not  covet in years
to  come.    The  publication  of their resolutions  has
done  good  service  to the  cause  of  woman;  they
have  elicited discussion,  sharpened  wit,  called  forth
satire, and furnished  subject for thought, —" common
sense" had been outraged, and reason demanded satis-
faction.   If we could follow those young men into life,
and see  them subjecting  woman  to  examinations too
often unnecessary — could we  penetrate  their  secret
feelings, should we not find a deep conviction in some,
that female practitioners are needed, that propriety and
modesty are violated  by exposures from which even the
delicate  physician  shrinks; and will  they  not  regret
having raised their voices against woman's enjoying the
benefit of a medical education ?  Think, young  men,
how irreverently, how irreligiously you handle the body
of a sister in the dissecting room — would it not impart
respect and sanctity  to the  occasion if women  wit-
nessed these dissections?  Talk  of  impropriety!  St.
Paul saw into the depths of the human heart when he
said, " To the pure all things are pure."
   In 1850, there was  incorporated in this  State a Fe-
male  Medical College.    Generous  subscriptions and
contributions have been made  to it, but from circum-
stances entirely beyond my control, I know nothing, or
nearly nothing about it.   An  endowment was granted
them  by the State,  and it is now  termed the  " New
England  Medical College."   I regret to  say that its
standard  has never been such, as to induce  the  highest 
272
GLANCES.
minds to graduate there.  The cultivated—the thought-
ful — go  to Philadelphia,  if  they prefer  a  Female
College, and to Ohio  if a general one.  Of  both I  can
speak with  approbation — those  who have  graduated
are now filling important stations.
  For myself individually, I accept separate institu-
tions  of all kinds as transitional, taking the family as a
type  of  enlarged brotherhood and sisterhood.   Sarah
J. Hale,  has been very active in awakening  attention
to the medical education of women who are to become
missionaries ; and she has  our thanks not only for the
act,  but for the principle involved in it.  Priest  and
physician one — body and soul — both recognized in
this profession.
  It is in place for me here to record  my thanks  to the
Female Medical  College of Philadelphia, for  the hon-
orary degree which they conferred upon me in January,
1853.   Courtesy  and respect had  led  many  of  my
patients  for many years to  address me  as Dr.,  but
the recognition of that College was very pleasant after
eighteen years practice.  It led me to ask these ques-
tions : How many males are practising on an honorary
degree ?  Did they wait  as many years for it? 
CHAPTER   XIX.
  " Even as the vital principle continually recreates the different organs of
the human body; and presides over the harmonious cooperation of that seven-
fold system of bones, muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, tissues, lacteals, and lym-
phatic vessels, which constitute one grand and perfect organism. So let the in-
visible power of truth within us, recreate and enlarge our moral and mental or-
gans for the reception of that new tide from the ocean of truth, which is now
swelling around us, to nourish the body of humanity."
                                   Angelina Grimkii Weld.

   In the  spring of 1851,  I started  for New York and
Philadelphia — travelling   was delightful  to  me.  I
needed  it  for  both  soul and body:  stopped with my
friends the Fowlers — those phrenological veterans who
have ploughed up  much  ground—they have  worked
hard.*   What  a Babel New York is — why I really feel
when  there  at loose ends on  the world.  I  w^ent to
Greenwood, and enjoyed much  with my cousins in the
city — many pleasant anecdotes occurred — but there is
no room for them here.
   Mrs. W. went with me to Philadelphia — soon found
ourselves  at home  with M.  E.   The Yearly  Meeting
of Friends was in  session — every  place was full of
broad brims and  silks :  took  tea at L. M's. with many

  * Mrs. L. N. Fowler, and Almira Fowler, are both practising phy-
sicians in New York.
                                                  (273) 
 A*1*                  GLANCES.

 of  the Quaker preachers, and began to realize more
 fully the woman movement.   Are the Quaker women
 coarse and masculine in consequence  of their freedom?
 Is  man less manly  among the Quakers, because  her
 equality of rights is admitted ?  No matter how or why —
 I was  at the Yearly Meeting of Friends in Cherry street
 meeting-house; it was worth  the  whole journey—one
 thousand women assembled to transact the  business of
 their society.  The order, the  quiet, the solemn  silence
 when  they all  retired within themselves before a word
 was spoken, was a  revelation  to me.  Here I saw
 woman legislating clearly and consistently.   Lucretia
 Mott spoke  effectively, and it was a  privilege to hear
 her among  her own  people.   I shall  never  forget this
 gathering — it  impressed  me  with the power and ca-
 pacity  of woman, and convinced me  that she was able
 to legislate for herself.   We are often  surprised  at the
 heroism, bravery, and fitness of people, when called out
 by  some emergency; we do not dream of the  strength
 that slumbers under apparent weakness.  Trust in God
 is a reserve power, and when occasions demand action,
 it is brought into service.
  I was struck  with the fact that so many more women
 are in business  in Philadelphia, than in New York and
 Boston — even the market-women interested me, but
 that prussic acid remuneration was everywhere.
  On my return my friends talked over the need of a
 school  of design in  Boston.   One already existed in
 Philadelphia.   Dr.  Flagg was  very  earnest  that an
 artistic life  should be  opened to  woman, and spared
 neither time nor labor in the enterprise.  Miss L.  and
 Miss P. were equally alive to its  need.  On the even-
ing of  June  28, 1851, a preliminary meeting was held
at my house.  A friend and patient  from one of our 
GLIMPSES.                 275
 neighboring towns, (who I call  my flower friend, be-
 cause her bouquets are always arranged with so much
 taste,)  decorated  my  parlors with  flowers, for  it was
 rose season, and the odor  filled the lower  part  of my
 house.   Twenty-seven persons  were  present,  Dr.  F.
 chairman.   After  an interesting  discussion  it  was
 voted to have an adjourned  meeting at Dr. F's.; when
 a business committee  was appointed.
   The school was opened — many received its benefits;
 and had the  principles of remuneration and  woman's
 rights been perceived  and accepted by all interested, a
 great work  would  have  been done  for woman ;  failing
 here, its success was partial, as  all such measures must
 be, until they  are based on principles, not sexuality.
 Giving work  to woman  on reduced prices never will
 help the world.
   In July, I started on a journey into  New Hampshire,
 intending to  visit  the White Mountains, but was pre-
 vented — and have been up to this time — it is yet to
 come.  I went  to Canterbury, and visited the Shaker
 society ; taking a severe cold I was there nearly a week,
 and tested the kindness, skill, and care of Dr. Emmeline.
 I there met a Swedenborgian  minister and his wife —
 she had sisters in office there.   There, too, was a Bunker
 Hill patriot — the  Shakers refuse all pensions, it being
 one of their laws,  to  take nothing which has cost hu-
 man blood.   Their society is large  and prosperous.  I
 visited their schools and  different families — their min-
 istry interested me much.   At Campton I met a heart
 reception from  my friends.   The dear  old mother re-
 minding me so much  of  my own.   Home  was indeed
 a home  there, — how the  very walls welcomed me and
 old associations  gathered around!  There I  received
letters from  Frederika Bremer, which  took  me home
instead of to the White Mountains. 
276
GLANCES.
  I visited Lenox, that beautiful Sedgwick village in
Berkshire;  then two or three days at Lebanon Springs,
to see for myself  fashion, elegance, old age, and child-
hood, for my eyes were wide  open to the position of
woman,  and  I had  learned  to  read physiognomical
signs, even if jewelled :  a very short visit then to New
Lebanon,  the  head-quarters of  Shakcrism, for I had
been there before  and knew many brave,  true women.
On my way to New  York, visited  Watervliet, another
Shaker village.  The first gathering of  this peculiar
people was in this place, and like that of the Covenant-
ers  of old, the  sphere of their founders still remained.
About three  hundred members.   This meeting-house
was to me  the  most  pleasant  of any in the order.
About three or four hundred of the world's people (as
we  are termed) were there — it was really curious to
w^atch the vehicles — for there were about one hundred
and fifty, from the splendid barouche to the most com-
mon conveyance.   I was very much  interested in this
visit — the island wiiere broom corn grew, was quite a
curiosity.   A  ride  of four miles  with an  intelligent
member took me  there.   On this journey  I met with a
couple wiio had been  brought up at Lebanon, but they
loved and left;  they spoke nobly of the care which had
been bestowed upon them in childhood.  I left Water-
vliet with a blessing,  and went to Albany on my way
to New York.
  As I was to meet  Frederika Bremer at the North
American Phalanx to take leave of  her, accompanied
by  a friend I w^ent  there.   Wm.  H. Channing, and
other dear  friends, were there besides many boarders.
We enjoyed  our  visit very much —many pleasant in-
cidents cluster around it, as memory unties the budget.
We parted — I have never felt we  were in  different 
GLIMPSES.                 277
 countries, a common pulsation for womankind renders
 every  one  near — such states are independent  of time
 and space.
   At  the North American Phalanx, I gained  my first
 experience  of  association — my  first  introduction  to
 many  homes in  one.   I was not much attracted to it,
 for there seemed so many obstacles against its success —
 there  is not truthfulness,  unselfishness enough in  the
 world  on one side, and then there were too many unoc-
 cupied people  hanging round  the houses, making  the
 labor very  hard for the industrious and true.
    At  home once more with  this experience resting
 upon  me.   I  think  physicians are too apt  to  over-
 look the fact that they must have life to impart life, and
 that the families they prescribe for, would gain more by
 an  occasional absence from them than otherwise.   To
 be  sure there is another side of the picture, for it is sur-
 prising on  returning from a journey, to find  how many
 have taken care of themselves, because they  did not
 wish a change of  physicians, — rather a poor  compli-
 ment  to our importance, but we require a great many
 rubs before we understand  ourselves, and this,is rather
 a hard one, affecting self-esteem and the purse too.
  God enters by a private  door to each individual, and
 when each one recognizes  the fact and leaves  the door
 open to holy influences, then harmony, melody will sing
 sweet  songs of encouragement and  an inspiration in
 chorus.  There  are seasons in all our lives, when, touched
 by the  electric spark of love, hosts of happy recollections
 cheer us, when anticipation is dormant — in sickness or
 aflliction retrospection with her wand magnetizes us.
  October — so soon again another woman's  conven-
tion.   How very different the feelings  with  which the
cars were taken last year.  As every retiring wave leaves
                        24 
 278                 GLANCES.

 some new trace on the sand, so every investigation into
 the need of this movement had furnished  apt illustra-
 tions.   During the year I had conversed with  many
 w^omen in my travels, and  every principle  I  had gath-
 ered medically, seemed corroborated practically.  It was
 fearful to contemplate  the aimless  lives  of  so  many
 women, and melancholy their unconcerned  acknowledg-
 ment of it.  Yes, many a woman we meet whose  ward-
 robe seems her all, could tell you how she loathes herself
 for the time given to flowers and  fixtures — but  she
 moves in such a circle, and such society expects it. Yes,
 probe woman through her conjugal and maternal  loves,
 and you will have a picture that will  startle you  by its
 truthfulness, and yet with all these  known grievances
 she dares not express her sentiments, for her soul is im-
 prisoned in whalebone as well as her  body; but she is
 outgrowing her corsets and they  are  wearing out, so
 something new must come.
   O!  there is in woman  when  aroused, a  depth, a
 novver, a fearlessness which has been  prefigured  to us
 in extreme cases, and may be regarded as  representative.
 In every hour of prayer and in night-watches over help-
 less infancy or the suffering sick, or wiien waiting on in-
 temperate fathers, brothers, or husbands, inward strength
 has been imparted ; and  now the wrorld is wondering at
 a new doctrine which has been hitherto hid  away in  the
 matrix  of bondage, restriction, and ignorance.  Why
 do n't we wonder at the  birth of a child ?  Why  do n't
 we marvel that naked trees reclothe  themselves every
 spring?  Because observation has taught  us  to expect
 these — whilst for the most part, we  know nothing —
 care nothing about the laws which produce these results.
 And so it is with our spiritual nature, with  great  moral
results — it is the few only who study the  laws of our 
GLIMPSES.
279
being and the few only who know what to expect every
generation to  produce, because they only have taken a
comprehensive view of mankind, and have studied his-
tory philosophically.   If the astronomer  can foretell
eclipses and  transits, why may not the  Christian phi-
losopher predict the next phase which society will wear ?
If they are so busy in discovering new planets and aste-
roids, may not others be pardoned for searching into the
human mind for principles wiiich will extend the domain
of moraf-power, and exalt the Sun of Righteousness ?
  But I must go  on to the convention.   Worcester
seemed a garden of gorgeous colors to me — an inspira-
tion of beauty rested upon it, and the  heart arose in
aspirations  after truth.   Paulina  Wright Davis was
again called to the  chair, and her  address was clear and
impressive.  Angelina Grimk6 Weld, William H.  Chan-
ning, Samuel J. May, C. J.  H. Nichols, and  Lucretia
Mott, were chosen  as vice-presidents.   Such names as
these will cause a glow of hope to rest upon the faint-
hearted.   Here New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York,
Vermont, Pennsylvania were represented, and Rhode
Island in the president.
  This convention  was very  fully attended — the most
marked attention was  manifested, and  every  one  felt
that seed was falling on  good ground—hungry and
thirsty every word  was welcomed — mildews, blights,
and decay vanished before the warm sunshine of truth.
When we learn to study character from the interior and
have a nomenclature accordingly, there  will be no de-
ception in countenances as now — when the sun of truth
fights upon a soul,  the  light  cannot be  hid—this was
clear at  that  convention — eyes were  eyes — they can-
not be counterfeits  ; voice was voice — not a parrot-imi-
tation, and hand language had a true significance. 
280
GLANCES.
   One could hardly believe that  although  but one year
had elapsed so much  ground had been ploughed  up —
so much appreciation — such just views of human pro-
gress.
   Many resolutions were passed, a few of which I  copy,
in order that the tone of the meeting may be  a little
understood.

  Resolved, That we do not feel called upon to assert or establish the
equality of the sexes in an intellectual, or any other point of view;  it
is enough for our argument that natural and political justice, and the
axioms of English and American liberty alike determine that rights
and burdens, taxation and representation should be coextensive : hence
women as individual citizens, liable to punishment for acts which the
laws  call criminal, or to be taxed in their labor and  property  for the
support of government, have a self-evident and indisputable right
— identically  the same right that men have, to a direct voice  in the
enactment of  those laws and the formation of that government.
  Resolved, That it is as absurd to deny all women their civil  rights,
because the cares of household and family take up all  the time of some
— as it would be to exclude the whole male sex from Congress, because
some men are sailors, or soldiers in active service, or merchants, etc.,
whose business requires all their attention and energies.
  Resolved, That  it is  the duty of the  women  of our day to study
enough of that abstruse science of surveying, to define if possible, the
boundaries of " their own sphere," that men be no longer compelled
to keep them informed of its limits.

  Well  home again, where flow those little rills of quiet
joy which  irrigate  arid fertilize — that  spot from which
every woman  desires  to go forth  when called,  and to
which she  returns  with  an enlarged experience  that it
may be viewed through a home light, and  the shadows
it casts  upon the walls of her  apartments rouse her to
deeper thought and more earnest efforts to unloose the
heavy chains which now fetter and cripple her highest
energies at home as well as  abroad.  Think  not  for  a
moment that the woman movement will destroy homes. 
GLIMPSES.                281
It is because homes are destroyed, that it is needed.   It
is because woman dreads the fulfilment of her maternal
duties, and that marriages  are on  so  low a plane that
this movement has come to ask, Why?   It is because
social life is so unsatisfactory that the question is asked,
Why ?  It is because we verily believe, that just in pro-
portion as all her  rights are conceded by man, and exer-
cised by herself, will homes become pure, intellectual, and
holy, that we feel so deep an interest in the question.
  Memory does not  serve me whether it was in  1851,
or '52, that I became acquainted with  Mary Ann  Finch,
the author of " An English Woman  in America," — it
was a treat to meet so true, so brave, so clear a woman,
and at the  same time one so delicate and ladylike in  her
appearance.  Her work should  have  been republished
in this country.  My visit with  her  to  the  Shakers
brought  me  into very pleasant relations  to her.  Her
broad, womanly views were met, and the woman move-
ment pleased her much.   I  enjoy her correspondence ;
she. is wide awake  on reform, and  is one whose spirit
breaks down  time and space.
24* 
CHAPTER  XX.
  " Woman is preparing herself for a higher and holier destiny. The same love
 of liberty which burned in the hearts of our sires, is now being kindled anew
 in the daughters of this republic.  From the present state of public sentiment,
 we have every reason to look hopefully into the future.  1 see a brighter, hap-
 pier day yet to come; but woman must say how soon the dawn shall be, and
 whether the light shall first shine in the east, or the west.  By her mm efforts
 the change must come.  She must carve out her future destiny with her own
 right hand.  If she have  not the energy to secure for herself her true posi-
 tion,  neither would she  have the force to maintain it, if placed there by
 another." — Elizabeth C. Stanton.

   In January, 1852, the way wTas open for me to speak
 at the Bethel, (Boston,  Rev. P. Stowe's,) and  I gladly
 availed myself  of it.   My  morning walks  with  my
 father on the wharves had brought  the sailor's life very
 near to me ;  besides which I may have inherited some
 nautical tendency.   The  night was stormy,   but the
 attendance was very good.   I gave three  lectures there.
 To  me it was epochal — it seemed as though  the tears
 and  smiles  of childhood with incomparable  art  and
.power had beautifully prepared for me a mantle of pro-
 tection ;  and  my North End life was lived over again.
 As  these hardy mariners quietly listened to the truths
 I presented them, a  glow of  gratitude filled the hour.
   It seemed at first very  strange to  see  that  the men
 filled  the middle of the church, whilst the women  sat
 on each  side, but  for good reasons that was the order
      (282) 
GLIMPSES.
283
there.   I can  sympathize  with  all those  who have
formed societies  to  enlighten and benefit the sailor in
every way, and bid him a hearty God speed.
   My  mind had been much occupied with the itinerant
lecturers  on physiology, who go about from  city  to
city delivering  private  lectures  to  women,  with all
the illustrations necessary to explain the structure of
the female  form, its liability to  disease, etc.; my wo-
manhood rose in rebellion, and would have found utter-
ance, had not the inward monitor whispered " bide your
time."    These  addresses were used as  a decoy; they
were  sometimes  free.   Women generally  have  no
money at command;  their nature is emotional;  they
are easily captivated by seeming kindness, by  pretended
desires to benefit them; they countenanced these lecturers
by large attendance ; they submitted to have their most
sacred, interior life, the life that gives  sanctity to wo-
man, that calls forth her feelings of reverence, touched
by unhallowed hands,  described  by lips which had
jiever felt the living  coal from the altar of purity.  Free
lectures  were a preparation to  introduce some newly
invented supporter, shoulder-brace, swathe, or bandage,
— catch-pennies often good for nothing.   I could relate
facts if it were proper, illustrating how my sex have
been duped, overreached,  ridiculed, and slandered.   I
have watched with intense interest the result  of all the
multiform evils arising from  the want of female phy-
sicians.  In  some women the  violence  done to their
holiest instincts by submitting to examinations,  opera-
tions, etc., from men, has  so broken down the barriers of
virtue,  that tjiey have felt as if they had been disgraced,
and a don't  careativeness, and sort of sullen desperation
has settled down upon them and given color to all their
future  lives.   But there is  another class who die a 
284
GLANCES.
thousand deaths, from the necessity of employing male
practitioners ;  driven to it  by extremity of  suffering,
they  endure   a  crucifixion which  no language  can
describe.
  After my experience  with Harvard College, first the
professors, then the students w7ho played the same game
with  different men, it was truly encouraging to hear
that Elizabeth  Blackwell  had  graduated  at another
college, had  been to Europe to perfect herself  in her
profession,  and  returned to New  York to  commence
practice.  My soul rejoiced—I poured out  my feelings
in a letter, and gave her the right hand of fellowship;
it was acknowledged in  an  answer worthy of the  writer.
  I visited  Cape Cod this year.  Every thing there had
the  charm  of novelty  for  me.   Provincetown  is the
point of the Cape, and you smell the land the moment
it is in sight.   I  shared in the sailor's joy on my arrival,
but never dreamed that in escaping from the ocean of
waters, I should be  plunged into an ocean of sand.
The streets are  very narrow, and you must plough the
dry waves  in  your passage through  them to gain an
adequate idea of  the depth of  the  sand.   Notwith-
standing this, there are pretty gardens attached  to
some  of the  dwellings, and pleasant  flowers  scent
the  air.  Soil is taken  there as ballast, and thus even
this  barren spot is  adorned with  a  beautiful  Flora.
The United States Government has  had beach  grass
planted along the shore to arrest the encroachments of
the  sea.  This was the birthplace of  Peregrine White,
— the first child born in New  England.  I had the
company of a friend on this  little trip, and we enjoyed
the  hospitality of Mrs. F----.   I  had  an opportunity
here to speak  on woman as  physician.   The next day
took the boat  to Dennis, thence to Chatham.  I asked 
GLIMPSES.
285
one  of the  captains  why the Cape  women were so
bright ? he replied, " their husbands are absent so much
of the time, they are obliged to  exercise their wits."
" So  then husbands prevent the development  of their
wives ?   Your women have so  fine an  opportunity to
improve their mental powers, your children must be of
a high order."  The blending of the sea and land breezes
renders the air of the Cape delightful and invigorating.
I spoke in the church here; the audience was much
larger than in Provincetown.   I had a pleasant ride to
the light-house, and was glad to find that after the death
of the man who had had charge of lighting the revolvers,
his widow was appointed to  fill his place.   It was a
curious fact to me that from the deep came the light to
gladden  those who were  on the deep.   I next went to
Harwich, and  again presented the subject of " Woman
as Physician."   Much interest was awakened here, for
the people are thoughtful and courageous.   I there met
with  a young woman  who  was studying medicine
— partook of  the kindness of Mrs. S----, — went to
Yarmouth Port for  a  day or two.  The intelligent wo-
men with whom I conversed, furnished me with a new
array of facts.  Here is one.   I  saw a bill of a sale, in
which a  Thibet dress was enumerated  with furniture,
etc.   I saw the father of  this married woman, who had
been  compelled  to repurchase  the very articles  he had
given his daughter at her marriage — her  separation
from her  husband was justified by his  conduct, yet he
was master of her wardrobe, he  could  claim her child.
Accumulated  facts  like  these  nerved my  soul  and
strengthened my purpose  to aid in the emancipation of
woman from a bondage equally degrading to both sexes.
Returning from Cape Cod, I visited Cape Ann, having
some patients at Gloucester.  It is a choice spot to me. 
286
GLANCES.
  There was to be a State convention at West Chester,
Pennsylvania.  I went to Philadelphia in May, that I
might enjoy social contact with the friends of freedom
there.  Frances  D. Gage (the poet of the West, the
Aunt Fanny  of Ohio)  and  myself were the guests
of Lucretia Mott.  Shall I be excused for paying a
tribute to the domestic life of one wiio is so prominently
before the public?  In her own home she shines with a
lustre that almost eclipses her light in the assembly and
on the platform.   The quietude of her movements, the
order and economy of her  household, the  ceaseless in-
dustry wiiich marks every hour, the tender interest felt
in all around her, the  atmosphere of love in which she
moves, her labors  for the regeneration of her race, all
convey to you the true meaning of entireness.   Of her
husband what can I say, but that he highly appreciates
and nobly sustains his wife.  June 2d and 3d, the con-
vention  was to be held.   I cannot convey in language
the impression made on  my mind by that gathering at
the " Woman's Convention" — converts w<ere not to be
made, but  measures  for action to be adopted.   The
spirit which was  to be felt in that crowded  hall subdued
me  even to tears!   The influence  of true Quakerism
how elevating,  how  calming, — it spread  its sacred
shelter over that assembly.   The report of this conven-
tion is very valuable.  Business over, I visited  some of
the neighboring towns, groups  of friends met us, and I
cannot forget Mr. and Mrs. D----, and another Mr. and
Mrs. D----, with others who did  so much fjpr my com-
fort.   I lectured in  Kennet Square,  where I became
acquainted with  Dr. Ann Preston, who is now professor
of physiology in the college  in Philadelphia.  I  also
visited some beautiful farms which had been in families
since the time of William Penn — sawT the woman agri- 
GLIMPSES.
287
 culturist, Miss  S.  L.  M----,  who was  appointed, by
 the  Delaware Co.  Institute of Science to furnish the
 meteorological tables for the Smithsonian Institute at
 Washington.  When  such women bid us God speed,
 may we not rejoice and take courage.
   On  returning from  the Pennsylvania  convention, I
 visited the falls.   Niagara! — how I love that word,
 — that trinity of a's carries you to first principles, and
 I can fancy the natives rolling off those a?s in their deep
 guttural tones in  harmony with  the  roaring, dashing
 waters of the cataract.  Has any thing ever been said,
 sung,  or written worthy of the spot?  Can  language
 clothe itself in any form suitable  to the subject?  No.
 Heart language, soul music has found no exponent of
 this  sacred place.   My first sensation was  a new birth —
 I  felt  all lungs — as though I had never  breathed be-
 fore— a pulsation pervaded my whole  being — so novel
 I  could not attempt a description.  " The waters saw
 thee, O God, and were afraid," was my first utterance.
 Go and feel the  same — no one can describe or  paint it
 to you.
   The great reason why no more inspiration has been
 produced through  Niagara, is the very shortness of the
 visit that travellers make to it — one week at the least is
 demanded there, before  the eye can be trained to turn
 inward — the voice  to break up deeps within, and the
 ear to catch the melody as well as the overwhelming
power  of sound, the treble, and the bass.   It is a sub-
 ject  of gratitude to  me that 1  was thus counselled, for
in no other way can each  spot leave its impress.   On-
ward,  ever hurrying, splashing, leaping, dancing, bub-
bling, all become one in the mind,  when the rapids first
arrest you.  My  room  overlooked them, and their music
has been my lullaby many a night. 
288
GLANCES.
  The bounding white foam forced up from the mighty
waves has its lesson of purity, and the lunar bow which
I first saw here (it was full moon) delighted me greatly.
Rambling through Goat Island, under the tall old pines,
Luna playing her fairy pranks bewitched me, foam  and
mist, currents and countercurrents, all seemed illusions.
The American fall I visited first; its awe-inspiring influ-
ences render you spellbound.   I was  not  so  much as-
tonished by the quantity of  water, and the  height of its
fall, (because I knew that the lakes whose waters were
here discharged, covered an  area of ninety thousand
square miles,) as I was  fascinated by the clouds of mist
so  gauzelike,  that were continually  rising with fresh
newness into the atmosphere.  This was very pure, for
the weather was remarkably fine, and caused the phys-
ique to revel in new regions.  The mystic element of
my being was  fed for the  first time, and  like the wee
child, more would have  been greater than I could bear.
The Horse Shoe Falls by moonlight was one  thing, by
sunlight, quite  another.  It is a misfortune to any  one
whose physique is  on  one plane  and their  spirit on
another here, for there  must be a lack of fulness; so I
pity the sick, the dyspeptic, the sad, who can only half
live  Niagara.  Audubon says, " All the pictures  you
may see, all the  descriptions you may read of those
mighty falls can only produce in  your mind  the faint
glimmer of the  glowworm, compared with the overpow-
ering glory of the meridian sun."
  The beautiful emerald green of the Niagara River is
an object of wonder to strangers,  and loses none of its
interest as you follow it up to the fort.   My advantages
were very great, being with a family wiio had been born
there and knew  every stone.  This sovereign of cata-
racts, this monarch of floods will  yet be the Mecca of 
GLIMPSES.
289
America, where pilgrim Christian philosophers will bow
before this  stupendous altar, in holy adoration  of the
Great Architect who erected it.
  When on the Canada side you arc again bewildered,
your emotions vary ; for gratitude, wonder, and worship
successively claim a place in your inmost.   The ideal
and the real are united, and  the suspension bridge you
have  crossed becomes  symbolic.   The  beautiful solar
bow,  from spray and foam, gathers materials for rain-
bow  tints,  the  tremendous rapids above, the frightful
gulf beneath into which is poured  the  immense and
boiling  sea — then is understood that exclamation of the
Psalmist, " What is man," etc. — for a  sense of utter
insignificance seizes and holds the mind  still.  " Waves
innuriierable urge on and overtake the numberless waves
before and disappear in thunder and  in  foam."   Your
love of  the beautiful, too, will be delighted with all the
varied  shades  of color,  amber, brown, yellow, blue,
green, etc., which play upon the foam and  mist  as the
sun is at higher or lower altitudes.
  Fredrika  Bremer's words to  me had  a  signification
here — " throw yourself upon nature  every year, she  is
ever new and  you will  thus be ever young."  My cup
had been  full — the time came to go, and when I found
I had been  regarded as a guest, when I had supposed
myself a boarder, the riddle was partly solved; for I had
been  permitted  to blend myself so intimately with the
family at the Cataract House, through  letters of intro-
duction, that I felt myself greatly privileged.  On leav-
ing I understood all — was glad I had not  before, for it
would have curtailed the freedom  I felt.  I  now have
another home at the Cataract House.
  It was very pleasant to me to meet the Indians ; they
have my deepest sympathy.  I love  to wTatch their ex- 
290
GLANCES.
pressions when  they discover I am  a " Medicine Wo-
man."  They sung to me and were very kind.
   When  I left  Niagara it w^as to go again, for  I well
knew that it was a spot where tired physiques would
gather strength  and struggling souls courage.  I then
went to  Seneca Falls, to the residence  of Elizabeth C.
Stanton, a woman of rare intellect, logical power, keen
perception, and  fluent in conversation.   She  is one of
the stars, — a planet I should say in the firmament of
this woman  movement.  It was delightful to be here
after leaving that grand spot where freedom is inscribed
on every thing, and the  Author is ever sung with  an
organ played " divinely."  And yet, the  reflection forced
itself upon me that on the one side was monarchical Eng-
land free to  color — on the other, republican America
holding the colored race in bondage.   Being at Seneca
Falls on Sunday, I spoke in  the evening in that  same
Wesley an Chapel, where  the first little band of women
met in 1848, to discuss their wrongs and rights — it was
indeed a privilege.
   The lake ride at Seneca  Falls, and that Wesleyan
Chapel, with the sphere of Mrs. S......, was a treat.
I then went to Syracuse, where the Third National Con-
vention was to be held, and the reader  can judge what
a preparation for it had been going on in my mind dur-
ing  the journey.  Previous to its opening, I  spoke on
Monday evening on the subject of woman as physician.
Mrs. Davis, Mrs. O. Smith, and Mrs. Nichols, were guests
with me of Stephen Smith  and wife, whose beautiful
hospitality can never be forgotten.
   September 8,9, and 10,1852, were productive of great
good to the cause.   The  power, strength, and earnest-
ness of this movement was very striking, as these con-
ventions  followed  each other.   My home instincts led 
GLIMPSES.
291
me to look at social intercourse in parlors as the regen-
erating  clement of society.  But how can  parlors be
elevated? only  by the shining of light  into  them —
hSnce those who have studied our material wants, have
busied themselves in the invention of  one  kind  of lamp
after another until gas was  introduced.  Now all  this
was needed, and is symbolic.  The moral and  intellec-
tual vision now asks for light, and mediums to reflect it:
the continual unfolding of new forms of truth  are like
the many kinds of fluids which have  been used to  pro-
duce light, and the reformers who  have  arisen, are re-
flectors  of that light.
   At the opening of this  Syracuse  convention, letters
wrere read from thinkers on  subjects  of reform in  this
country, and one from  Mrs. Read, of  England.  Lucre-
tia Mott presided  at this convention, with  active vice-
presidents.  It  was here that I  first met Caroline M.
Severance, and  Samuel J. May, that philanthropist in
whom the feminine element is so blended with the male
that he  can perceive woman's needs, and fully recog-
nizes them.  And Gerrit Smith, that  man upon whose
brow heaven has stamped a message, and  whose silvery
voice, deep and rich, filled my soul as he read resolutions
from the business committee  and spoke to them.   Ver-
ily, thought I to myself, we do not  ask  for numbers, for
quantity, if we can have the moral quality of our country
engaged on our side.
   The character of this convention differed to me  some-
what from the preceding ones; there were new minds,
new persons to be introduced to,  a  new president—so
of course variety.  Lucy Stone, Antoinette  L. Brown,
and Mrs. Rose, and E. O. Smith, spoke effectively, with
many others.   But what  most attracted my mind at
this convention, was an article on " Organization," read 
292                  GLANCES.
by Samuel J. May, from the pen  of Angelina Griinkd
Weld. Some had desired organization — it was always
repugnant to me, one-sided, uncalled for.   It was really
delightful to witness the attention given to the thoughts
of one whose memory was  in  the hearts of so many.
I will close my remarks by giving a few extracts from a
piece published in the leading paper of Syracuse.
  " It was the most dignified, orderly, and interesting
deliberative  body ever convened  in this city. . . . The
speakers were women of decided ability, and they ap-
peared in the capacity of public speakers to  equal ad-
vantage  with any wiio have ever participated  in meet-
ings of like nature in this city of conventions. . . . There
was a greater amount of talent in  the Woman's Rights
Convention, than has characterized any political gather-
ing in this  State  for ten years past, if ever.  The ap-
pearance of  all  before the audience was modest  and
unassuming, though prompt, energetic, and  confident.
Business was brought forward, calmly  deliberated upon
and disposed of with unanimity, and in a spirit becom-
ing true  women, and which would  add an unknown dig-
nity  and consequent influence, to the transactions of
public assemblies of the  ' lords.' . . . The  appearance of
the platform  was pleasing and imposing in the extreme;
the galaxy of bold women — for  they are really bold,
indeed they  are  daring  women, presented a spectacle,
the like of which we never before witnessed.   A glance
at the good old lady who presided with so much dig-
nity and propriety, and  through the  list down to the
youngest engaged in the cause, was enough to impress
the unprejudiced  beholder with the idea that there must
be something after all, in  this  movement."
   To this  testimony as to the character of our conven-
tion I add one copied from the Westminster Review of 
GLIMPSES.                  293
July, 1851.  " In regard to the quality of the speaking,
the  proceedings  will  bear  advantageous  comparison
with those  of any popular movement, with which we
are acquainted either in this country or America.  Very
rarely in the oratory of public meetings, is the part of
verbiage and declamation so small, that of calm good
sense and reason so considerable."
   In October, 1851, when  my taxes wrere  to  be paid,
it was  necessary for me to go to  the Assessors' room
that I might have some alteration made in  the  bill, my
sister's  taxes being charged to me ; while waiting there
for  this to  be attended  to, I received a lesson which
thoroughly  converted  me  to the belief  that  taxation
without representation was a violation of human rights,
and there I made up my mind to  verify my theory by
my practice.  What so suddenly produced this  effect?
A pale, thin, waxy, tall, awkward, simple Irish  boy,
with that vacant stare which speaks of entire negation,
and that shuffling manner indicating an errand-like as-
pect, brought into  the Assessors' office a roll —he was
told who to hand it to.   It was  near the time of an
election, but I did not  think of it.   I said pleasantly,
"Is that paper to grant a naturalization?" — I received a
polite affirmative.  " Permit me to look at it ? "  " Cer-
tainly."   There to my astonishment the above-described
gentleman was invested with all the privileges of an
American citizen.   / a  Bostonian by birth, education,
and  life, paying taxes without representation.  What  a
striking case !   It would  be worth while  to  know how
many American  women  of mature age are every year
thus insulted.   I query whether this  Irish boy knew in
what State Boston was  located, whether  in  Massa-
chusetts or Mississippi.   This circumstance gave me
an insight  into  the injustice of our laws  forbidding
                         25* 
294
GLANCES.
woman  to  vote,  wiiich  decided  me to pay  my  taxes
next year  under  protest.   Accordingly  on  my  return
from the Syracuse convention, I sent the following Pro-
test : —

To Frederick  U. Tracy,  Treasurer, and the Assessors, and other au-
       thorities of the City of Boston, and the citizens generally.
   Harriot K. Hunt, physician, a native and permanent resident of the
City of Boston, and for  many years  a tax payer therein, in  making
payment of her city taxes for  the  coming year, begs leave to protest
against the injustice and  inequality of levying taxes upon women, and
 at the same time refusing them  any voice or vote in the imposition
 and  expenditure of the same.   The only classes  of male persons,
 required  to pay taxes, and not at the same time allowed the privilege
 of voting, are aliens and minors.   The objection in the case of aliens,
 is, their supposed want of interest in our institutions and knowledge
 of them.   The objection in case of minors is, the want of sufficient
 understanding.  These  objections certainly cannot  apply to  women,
 natives of the city, all  whose property  and  interests are here, and
 who have accumulated by their  own sagacity and industry, the very
 property on which they  are taxed.  But this is not all;  the  alien by
 going through the forms of naturalization, the minor on coming of
 age, obtain the right of  voting, and so long as they continue  to pay a
 mere poll-tax of a dollar and a half, they  may  continue to  exercise
 it, though so  ignorant  as not to be able to sign their names, or read
 the  very votes  they put into the ballot  boxes.  Even drunkards,
 felons, idiots, or lunatics of men, may still enjoy that right of voting,
 to which no woman, however large the amount of taxes she pays,
 however respectable her character, or useful her life, can ever attain.
 Wherein, your remonstrant would inquire, is the justice, equality, or
 wisdom of this ?  That the rights and interests of the female part of
 community are  sometimes  forgotten or disregarded  in consequence
 of their  deprivation of political  rights, is  strikingly evinced, as ap-
 pears to  your  remonstrant,  in the organization and administration of
 the  city public schools.  Though there are open in this State and
 neighborhood, a great multitude  of colleges  and professional  schools,
 foAhe  education of boys and  young  men, yet the city  has very
 properly provided two high schools  of its  own, one Latin, the  other
 English, at which  the  male  graduates  of the grammar schools may
 puraue their education still further at the. public  expense, and why is 
GLIMPSES.
295
not a like provision made for the girls ?  Why is the public provision
for their education stopped short, just as they have attained the age
best fitted for progress, and the preliminary knowledge necessary to
facilitate it, thus giving the advantage  of superior culture to sex, not
to mind ?  The fact  that  our colleges and professional schools are
closed against females, of which your remonstrant has had personal
and painful experience, having been in the year 1847, after twelve
years of medical practice in Boston, refused permission to attend the
lectures of Harvard Medical College, that fact Avould seem to furnish
an additional reason, why the city should provide at its own expense,
those means of superior education, which, by supplying our  girls with
occupation and objects of interest,  would not  only save them from
lives of frivolity and  emptiness, but which might open the way to
many useful and lucrative pursuits, and so raise  them above that de-
grading dependence, so fruitful a source of female misery.
   Reserving a more full exposition of the subject to future occasions,
your remonstrant in paying her tax for the current year, begs leave
to protest against the injustice and inequalities above pointed out.
                  This is respectfully submitted,
                         Harriot  K. Hunt, 32 Green street.
  Boston, Oct. 18, 1852.


   The protest  was copied  in many American,  as well
as some  English papers — it elicited inquiry, and many
facts were brought to  light  illustrating the injustice of
taxation  without representation.   This question is now
to be decided.  We take our stand on the Declaration
of   Independence, an  immovable  platform.    Liberty
inspires  us,  and  justice presents her  scales.  Woman
slavery  has yet   to  be discussed  in  connection  with
African slavery.   No marvel our Southern compatriots
look doubtingly  on  our boasted love   of  freedom  and
equality, when the women  of  New England  are de-
prived of a right,  granted  recklessly  to every foreigner.
I call upon my sex to investigate this matter and labor
with untiring zeal  until the stain is removed from the
constitutions  of the States, and the word male no Ion- 
296
GLANCES.
ger disgraces them.   Labor in faith — success is cer-
tain — progress is God's law — human rights  his gift.
Our heads are worth polling — let a tax* be levied on
every woman twenty-one years of age.   Increase  the
revenue by our heads, but give us the rights of Ameri-
can citizens.
  Many discussions took place  in my business room on
the subject of taxation, and I found women had  made
themselves acquainted with  city expenditures  in cele-
brations, etc., to which they were compelled  to  con
tribute.  " Consent of the governed:" did it mean any-
thing?  Woman  should have  a guardian to represent
her, if she is non compos mentis, or she should have the
privilege of a hired man to vote for her— a foreigner —
for she is  an alien  in the country of her birth and
life.
  I enjoyed great  pleasure in my intercourse with Mrs.
Emma Willard, of Troy.  The interest she has  evinced
in  the  education of girls,  many of  whom  she has
trained' for  teachers,  claimed my respect.  It  matters
not whether  such women avow themselves as  coadju-
tors in the woman reform, — it is enough that they live
it out.   Many who disclaim  all sympathy in the move-
ment are making converts by their lives — the  host of
female writers are throwing  their influence on the side
of woman,  by opening new avenues to  elevation and
remuneration.  Mrs. Willard has devoted  much time to
philosophical research.  I wish  I had time to speak of
her " Theory of Respiration," the motive  power of the
lungs.   The Medical Journal contains her articles. 
CHAPTER  XXI.
  "Intelligent beings may have laws of their own making; but they have
some likewise which they never made.  Before they were intelligent beings
they were passible, they had therefore passible relations, and possible laws.
Before  laws were made, there were relations of possible justice.  To say that
there is nothing just or unjust but what is commanded or forbidden by positive
laws, is the same as saying, that before the describing of a circle, all the radii
were equal. — Axon.

   My winters were very busily employed  in  my  pro-
fession, and as year followed year, my convictions of the
need  of woman in the  profession deepened,  as also my
consciousness  that the courteous manner in which  this
question was met, and the apparent ease with which  it
was being introduced into society, was illusive.  I knew
full well  that  behind all this  were the old  established
cliques, and the  manner in which seceders were treated,
was a strong proof of what would  be the fate of inno-
vators.   I was waiting an opportunity to see their  sin-
cerity tried, by a graduate from  some allopathic  school.
/was traitor, outlaw, felon—- beyond their laws.   And
although  very careful  not  to  speak of physicians  per-
sonally,  I  did talk of  principles, proprieties — no  lack
of materials.
   I knew that Cleveland Medical  College was open to
woman, and that a Mrs. Nancy E. Clarke had graduated
there —that she was to settle in Boston, was very pleas-
ant to me;  I  could feel more at liberty to  leave home
                                                (297) 
298
GLANCES.
when there wTere other women in the  same profession.
When she applied  for admission to the Massachusetts
Medical Society, I  felt  curious to  hear the  result — I
was sure they would not admit her, would not have the
moral courage to establish such a precedent by welcom-
ing woman as their acknowiedged coadjutor.  Dr. Clarke
allowed me to copy the reply to her application, and I
shall preserve it as a historic document.  Suffice it to
say the request was negatived," at least for the present."
   Dr.  Clarke is in good practice in this city — it is very
amusing to watch the social recognition — and then the
professional.   Novices may mistake the former for the
latter, but veterans understand better.
   Dr. Martha A. Sawin graduated in  Philadelphia, in
1851, and was in successful practice in Boston  before
Dr. Clarke commenced, also Dr.  C. A. Adams.  The
establishment of female physicians is one of the delights
of my life.
   On the 5th of May, a public dinner  was given by the
citizens of Boston, to John P. Hale of New Hampshire,
who was the first man who had nobly stood  his ground
 against slavery in  the Senate of the United  States.   It
was through his influence, also,  that "flogging" was
 abolished in the navy.  Speeches from many  distin-
 guished lovers of, and workers in, the cause of freedom,
were made at the dinner, so that we had an  intellectual
feast.  Among them was Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky.   ^
This dinner marked an era for woman — it being  the
 first political dinner  at wiiich she was permitted to at-
 tend ; and although  the tables were bountifully spread
 and beautifully decorated  with  flowers, yet no ardent
 spirits, not even wine, was  upon  them, and no segars
were  smoked.   A great many ladies were present —
fifteen hundred persons partook of this feast. 
GLIMPSES.
299
   In the  spring of this  year, I gave a lecture on the
woman movement educationally considered, in Williams
Hall.  There being no  high school for girls, and I being
a taxpayer,  I was  outraged ; and then, it seemed  right
to me  that  the woman question of the  day should be
set forth.  A very good audience — lecture well received.
Meetings were afterwards  held, a petition was sent  to
the city council,  and in due time, one single high school
for girls was established.   This sexualizing education is
great  injustice  to both the  boy and  the girl, although
the public do not  yet see it.
   In May, 1853, as the convention  for the alteration of
the  Constitution of Massachusetts was sitting in  Bos-
ton, I sent in the following petition : —

To the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachu-
                  setts, now sitting in Boston.
   The petition of Harriot K. Hunt of said Boston, physician, respect-
fully represents,
   That, under the present laws of the State, females have not equal
advantages of education with  males;  and  whatever may be their
wishes and aspirations, they are entirely deprived of the benefits of a
superior public education.
   Your petitioner therefore prays, that you will in the new Constitu-
tion secure to  females equal educational rights with males, and  espec-
ially make provision for a People's College, at which females may be
as completely educated as males.
   Boston', May 14, 1853.

Also the following petition : —

To the Constitutional Convention now sitting in Boston: —
   Your petitioner respectfully prays  your honorable body to insert
into  the Constitution  of Massachusetts a clause securing to women
paying town,  county, and  State taxes upon property  held in their
own right, and who have no husband, or other guardians to represent
or act for them, the same right of voting possessed  by male taxpaying 
300
GLANCES.
          citizens;  or, should your honorable body not deem such women capa-
          ble  of exercising the right of suffrage with due discretion, at least
          to excuse them from the payment of taxes, in the appropriation of
          which they are not allowed any voice, thus carrying out the great
          principle upon which the American Revolution was based, that tax-
          ation and representation ought to go together.
                           All which is respectfully submitted,
                                          Harriot K. Hcnt,
                                                 32 Green Street.
             These  petitions met with some attention, for at the
          same time  I think there were two thousand  names or
          more attached' to a petition that the word  male might
          not be  inserted  in the new constitution, the word person
          being  substituted for it.   Theodore  Parker,  Wendell
          Phillips, and Lucy  Stone, spoke before  a committee of
          the convention, and such addresses must have produced
          some impression.   I was absent.
             As I had never been to the West, early in the spring
!          I started for Ohio to  attend a State convention,  wish-
          ing to  know the  state of the woman movement there.
           I left home  sick, having  had many cases  of  a serious
          character, and  was obliged to  remain in  Albany one
          week — received  the  kindest care  and sympathy from
           Mrs. T---- and her sister.   Sickness from  home —
          how much it develops to one  of the within,  and trust
          in  God is deepened by trusting those around us.
             A nice country  home received me  four miles from
          Rochester.   I also  went to the house of Antoinette L.
          Brown, and saw  her  dear mother — her father was
          absent.   Again  did gratitude  arise,  that  out  of such
          noble homes, and from  such true  parentage had arisen
          advocates of the  woman  movement.   These  homes
          of  freedom are  like the  shadows  of rocks  in  a weary
          land.
             The  Woman's  State Temperance  Society of New 
GLIMPSES.
301
York, was to meet in Rochester this year.   This gave
me an opportunity of seeing many noble women who
had acted as lecturers, or agents, and roused my atten-
tion in another direction to the  suffrage  question.  If
the number  of inebriates who vote in. every State could
be taken, how do you think it would look ?   The west-
ern part of  New York is a place for free thought and
free expression;  the Quaker influence has done much
to give this  tone to society.
   The Temperance Convention passed off finely.  Mr.
and Mrs. H----, of Rochester, with many  others, are
gratefully remembered; most kindly did they administer
to me while convalescing.  The monument to Myron
Holly attracts every lover of liberty, as well as science,
he did so much for the West; and we are thankful he
has a daughter whose voice is  heard in  the cause  of
freedom.
   So near Niagara!.— I must go for two  or three days.
My strength is not  restored.   " From everlasting to
everlasting" is  the  utterance  of  the  soul, as  the
rapids break once more upon the ear.   " In thy light
shall wc see light" illuminates every thought, as I see.
the sun once more shining on the foam of Niagara.  As
the pilgrim with his  staff' wends his way to Mecca, so
I went to Niagara; — the music of the heavenly orches<-
tra soothed and  harmonized the soul.   My state  of
mind was so different at this time from what it was at
my first visit, that  it  seemed  a new place.   There is a
mellowness  of spirit in convalescence, which tranquil-
lizes and  soothes.  I  needed  the tone of the air, the
bracing powTer of the sounds to arouse and make me
feel that work was still to be done.  I could depict my
varied feelings as  strength returned, but I will pass on.
                         26 
302
GLANCES.
Giving up my journey to Ohio, I returned home, where
duties awaited me.
   In  September, the  " World's  Temperance Conven-
tion " met at New York.  Delegates from the Woman's
State Temperance, and other local societies, presented
their credentials, but were refused a seat in the conven-
tion as delegates.  Great excitement  prevailed in con-
sequence of this refusal, and the friends of universal
freedom  thought best to  call another convention  in
wiiich women, as well as men,  could  participate, and
denominated it the " Whole World's Convention," one
half of humanity having been refused a representation
in the  other.   This  convention was  fully  attended.
Subsequent to this, a Woman's Rights Convention was
held, it having been thought best by some, to take this
opportunity of  presenting our cause before the  pub-
lic, as many strangers were expected to  attend the
" World's Temperance Convention."  But it was not,
in some  respects, as  satisfactory as the meetings held
in previous  years, and at other  places; because a prej-
udice had  been  excited in the community by the fact
that when  women were  rejected as delegates to the
World's Convention, another w7as called in  which they
were gladly welcomed as equals  on the  platform and in
business committees.  That women  were ejected from
the one-sided  convention  by the coarse  and unmanly
remarks  which  were made, abundantly testify " stuff
and nonsense," " women in breeches,"  " a  disgrace to
their  sex,"  " never productive of any  thing but mis-
chief," " interfering with matters out of  their sphere,"
etc.   Surely it cannot be wondered at, if these reverend
gentlemen  " were glad these women ivcre gone, as they
had thus gotten rid of the scum of the convention," we were
equally glad to retire from  their presence, and breathe a 
GLIMPSES.
303
 purer atmosphere.  We give no names, being ashamed
 to hand them dowm to posterity.   The  names of those
 who defended the principle of universal freedom are
 embalmed in our hearts.
   One thing however was  grand in New York — the
 character  of this  opposition,  the  position of the  men
 who tolerated the noise and bustle, opened my eyes to
 the " protection,"  " our sphere " was receiving at their
 hands.  This is  a good  way to  look  at a question:
 observe the opponents — mark them well, and then you
 can read chapters in real life which will startle you; but
 don't be afraid — look  resolutely  until  you get at the
 truth.   Their coarse and rowdy-like behavior, convinced
 me of the need  of woman's  being elevated, in order
 that she might bring such men to a perception of true
 manhood.
   I went this summer to South Manchester — the home
 of the Cheneys.   Here Mr. and Mrs. George Cheney
 lived, and brought up eight sons and one daughter.
 After these sons had travelled extensively, they returned
 to the  old homestead  and established a large sewing
 silk manufactory, where the ten hour system is enforced,
 and other  arrangements made which give the opera-
 tives unusual advantages.   I spoke to them three times,
 and lectured on Sunday in the church.  The broad and
 liberal views  of  these seven brothers, are  exhibited in
 the manner in which these mills  are conducted.   The
 family union existing here, refreshes  the  soul, and in-
 spires hope for humanity.   Would that all brothers co-
 operated so nobly together.
  The firm " Cheney & Brothers"  has a significance
unknown to the business world; it  speaks of the dignity
 of labor, of a deep pulsation for humanity, of the  fra-
 ternity of the race.  It is a privilege to visit that place, 
304                  GLANCES.
to know that the  operatives there have access  to  a
small, but gradually increasing library — that there is a
manufactory where  they  sometimes can enjoy a  free
lecture, and the recreation  of a  dance.   I was present
at one of their balls, and believe the splendid entertain-
ments of Boston could not vie with it in true merriment
and light-heartedness.
   It was delightful to behold the mother of this band of
philanthropists,  so revered  by her  children, so fragile,
yet so dignified ; how  beautifully the feminine element
is developed in her children, their lives testify.
   After the New York Convention I went to Syracuse,
to  the  hospitable home of Stephen Smith, passed the
next day at Samuel J. May's; I need hardly say it was a
day replete with interest and instruction.  Went thence
to South Butler to attend" the ordination of Antoinette
L. Brown.   The storm raged, but even  an  equinoctial
tempest could not detain me from being present, on an
occasion  so momental to the cause of woman;  there
was  something grand and elevating  in the idea of a
female presiding over a congregation,  and breaking to
 them  the  bread  of life — it was a new position for
woman, and gave  promise of  her exaltation to  that
moral and intellectual rank, which she was designed to
fill.   I felt a strong desire to  attend  on this occasion;
the  subject  of  woman  in  the  ministry had occupied
much thought, and the more I pondered it, the more con-
vinced I was that her  love  nature -and the  strength of
the  religious element in her, fitted  her peculiarly to
bind up  the broken  heart, to sympathize with the
penitent, to strengthen the weak, to raise the fallen, and
to  infuse  hope  and  trust in  the  Divine.   " Can a
woman forget  her  sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, she may 
                     GLIMPSES.                  305

forget, yet will I not forget thee."   Does  not the ma-
ternity of woman give her a nearer resemblance to God ?
Was not the strongest love of which  humanity is sus-
ceptible, used  as an illustration by  Jehovah in this
touching appeal to sinners ?  Having reflected so much
on this point, I could not but rejoice in this consumma-
tion  of  my hopes.   The union  of  the  clerical and
medical  life  had long been a beau ideal with me, and
this installation  of one of my sex  as pastor over a
church, seemed one  step toward  its  realization — my
heart sent up its thanksgiving, for the  prospective min-
ister was all we could  ask to  fill  the sacred office —
" the priest is not made, he is  born,"  says  Martin Lu-
ther.   I  extract  the  following  from  the   New   York
Tribune : "  The Baptist Society opened its more com-
modious  house for  the occasion,  and at two p. M. a
congregation, large  for the inclement weather, assem-
bled, a voluntary was sung, it  was followed by prayer.
Dr. Watts's hymn,   ' Go preach my  gospel  saith the
Lord,' was then sung.  Gerritt Smith, Rev. Mr. Lee of
Syracuse, and others were in the  desk.   Mr. Caudee,
one of the deacons, said, ' This church do not believe
in  the  necessity of ordination, as a qualification to
preach the gospel; whatever individual has the capacity,
and is  willing  to  take upon  himself the duty,  is at
liberty to become the pastor of any  people  to whom
his services  are acceptable.  Why then have an ordina-
tion ?  The church needs instruction, and it is well for
pastors, and for people to be reminded of their duties —
we have therefore invited a few friends to be with us,
to recognize the relationship between pastor and people.'
After some remarks by Gerritt Smith,  Mr. Lee preached
from  this text, ' There is  neither  male nor female, for
ye are all one in Christ Jesus ;'  he concluded by saying,
                        26* 
306
GLANCES.
' that we had not come together  to confer the right to
preach the gospel; if she had not this already— God
given by her capability, we could not communicate it."1
After a prayer, the pastor was addressed, and services
closed  with  a  benediction  by  Rev.  Antoinette  L.
Brown."  How vividly came up " Anna the prophetess."
Phcebe commended by Paul as a servant  (minister) of
the  church  at  Cenchrea.   Priscilla  and Aquila  his
helpers in the gospel, and the  women who watched  at
the tomb of Jesus, and  proclaimed the glad tidings of
the  resurrection — how  impressed  I  was  by the idea
that this doctrine could find easy access to the mind of
woman; it was connected with her maternity, she could
at once conceive the thought, and living it out in  her
own experience  she could impart it to others, for she
would find a ready response in every human heart.
   It was peculiarly  refreshing  to have  woman thus
recognized after the avalanche  of obloquy, reproach,
contempt, and anger which had just been hurled on her
devoted  head by her brethren,  her protectors.  Here was
no kind word to lure her back  to the path of duty wiiich
they fancied she had forsaken, but a whole volcano of
fiery indignation and burning  invective was poured out.
 I verily believe the speakers thought they would entomb
the whole woman movement as did  the lava of  Vesu-
vius bury the beautiful  cities of Herculaneum and Pom-
peii, but woman, true to her instincts, rapid in her mo-
tions, did not give the lava time to cool, but rising from
under  the liquid mass in all the majesty of womanhood,
clothed with the sun of truth, she reappeared at the na-
tional convention in  Ohio, and  ably, but calmly vindi-
cated  her rights as a human  being.   I did  not attend
this meeting, but went  to Niagara, on my way to Buf-
falo, where I lectured.  The papers treated me respect- 
                     GLIMPSES.                 307

fully and seemed to approve my suggestion  of having
medical parishes and paying the doctor for keeping fam-
ilies in health, and having a book wherein they might
enter the birth, temperament, and diseases of  childhood.
Thanks to the ladies who rendered my visit there  so
pleasant.   At Buffalo I saw women, chiefly  foreigners,
engaged in farming and  other laborious occupations.
I went from thence to Aurora;  the view from this town
is perfectly enchanting.  Here I lectured twice, and met
John and Elizabeth Prior, who took  me to some neigh-
boring towns to present the same subject — my visit to
them was  full of enjoyment.   They wrere wide awake
on  the suffrage question in  these towns,  as  people are
wherever the Tribune is taken.  " Suppose," said one,
" we were to make all the laws you demand and annul
all  those you complain of, you need  not vote then ? "
" All the more important, the  same  power that makes
laws may repeal them, so without our guardianship, our
last state may be worse than our first."  On my return,
I stopped  in New York, and  stayed with my  cousins,
whose house has been my pleasant home since.  I spoke
at the Five Points Mission one evening.   If  any doubt
the necessity and duty of this  woman movement, let
them go there and see our sex wallowing in degradation.
What bitter irony to nickname these sepulchres of vir-
tue, girls of pleasure !  Let them go to  St.  Nicholas and
see the puppets there, who dance to the tune of the Pa-
risian milliner and mantua-maker.  Bring these extremes
of poverty  and wealth together, and if you have human
hearts they will cry aloud for the regeneration of woman.
  Car travelling is very instructive;  it should be so, to
make amends for the loss of  scenery  which it  is impos-
sible to enjoy whirling along with such rapidity.  On
one side a fashionable  belle with a  dainty poodle dog 
308                    GLANCES.

stroked by her delicate fingers, and rapturously admired
by an exquisite ; on the other, Frederick Douglass giving
H. K.  H.  an account  of  the colored  convention  at
Rochester.   Spitting,  spitting enough to  nauseate, such
filthy  pools  around us,  such  disagreeable odors, from
breath and  garments saturated with  tobacco.   Oh!
thought I, if our  manly protectors would only preserve
the air we breathe in purity and save our clothing from
defilement, it would certainly  manifest some regard for
the  " angels," by whom they were surrounded.   I had
gained much experience on this little journey, and in my
quiet  home  I gathered  up  all  I  had learned,  and ex-
tracted many a useful lesson.  My first step was to pre-
pare another protest.   Boston did not yet furnish a high
school for girls — but she taxed her citizens  for the ex-
hibition  of fireworks,  etc.,  for the glorification  of the
4th of July.

To the Authorities of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and the Citizens
                          generally.
   Harriot K. Hunt, physician, a native and permanent resident of Bos-
ton, and for many years a  tax payer therein, in making payment of
her taxes for the coming year, protests again  against the injustice of
levying taxes without granting the right of representation.  The pres-
ent system of taxation is a serious wrong — a violation of justice as
well as a violation of republicanism.  If, of all the women of Massa-
chusetts who are citizens, only ten felt this wrong, those ten should be
redressed; but when nearly two thousand petitioners presented them-
selves through their signatures to your Constitutional Convention on
this vital question, it was " inexpedient" for  the convention to take
any action  in  relation thereto.  What woman  of thought can " con-
sent " to be governed (for  that is the argument)  under the present
subversive party elements that bring into office those who are to rep-
resent her.
   No reasonable or satisfactory answer has ever been given to woman
on this subject, only that man represented her through fathers, hus-
bands, brothers, and sons.   Your remonstrant has no such representa- 
GLIMPSES.
309
tion, and there are many in like situation.  " State, county, and city
tax;"  the  former, the  expense of the Constitutional Convention, in
which  she had no voice (but petition), and how farcical that power of
petition, when she can neither express assent or dissent to its doings,
and be unjustly taxed, and like an idiot, lunatic, or infant be compelled
to meet it.   Of the " city tax " one word.  The inequality and injus-
tice of our public school system, in having  no high school  for  girls,
whilst  our boys have both a Latin and High school, was spoken of in
her last protest, and  our right  of petition  tested by the voice of at
least twenty-seven hundred petitioners for such high school.   This pe-
tition was duly presented last spring, and whatever action may have
taken place in the school committee, the public  are ignorant; no high
school  for girls has yet been organized.
  With these views which might be now fully carried  out, with the
increase of her tax bill  in consequence of your  Constitutional  Con-
vention which can result in no permanent good, since the great cen-
tral element of justice was, by  the committee on  our  petitions,
winked into  " expediency,"  and  no report of the  minority who
protested against this injustice, nor has  any act of the Convention
vindicated or even recognized the right  of woman,  on the real  basis
of representation — humanity.
  Thus dissatisfied with city expenditures, the inequality of public
school  education,  Asexualizing education,) your remonstrant  pays her
taxes compulsorily instead of cheerfully, feeling  within her that ele-
ment of patriotism which inspired her as  well as your forefathers, in
the utterance of that deep, full, and clear sentiment, " Taxation with-
out  representation  is tyranny."
             This is respectfully submitted,
                           Harriot K. Hunt, 32 Green street.
  Boston,  Nov. 5, 1853. 
CHAPTER  XXII.
  " Pand. He that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.
  Troilus. Have I not tarried ?
  Pand. Ay, the grinding ; but you must tarry the bolting.
  Troilus. Have I not tarried ?
  Pand. Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening.
  Troilus. Still have I tarried V
  Pand. Ay, to the leavening; but here 's yet in the word hereafter, the knead-
ing, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay,
you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.''
                                     Tkoilus and Ckessida.

   When for many years the mind has run in  one rou-
tine of  thought  and  duty,  the time comes  when  a
change is  demanded — the life-forces flag — the  mind
wearies and calls for new  natural stimulants to minis-
ter to  its wants, and create new sources of thought for
reflection.  It is  thus with every mind and peculiarly
so with a  physician, who has sympathized deeply with
her patients, and entered into their inner life.   An inca-
pacity to respond to their  highest needs, oppresses her,
and duty to them demands that she should leave  the
sick, nervous  sphere  she has so long lived in — throw
off her responsibilities and exchange  the incessant giv-
ing out of herself, for a state of receptivity, feeling that
the good she shall receive  is  given unto  her as unto  a
steward for the benefit of others.
  (310) 
GLIMPSES.
311
   I had never entirely recovered from the effects of my
 illness in 1848, and a change of climate, society, sur-
 roundings, seemed to be  the best  means  of restoring
 strength to the physical and of renewing the power of
 the mental.  When I am  not vigorous I ever feel an in-
 describable  shabbiness, a  lack of interior power which
 prevents me from giving to others all that they require,
 and have a right to demand from a physician.  In addi-
 tion to these considerations I  believed I could serve the
 cause of woman,  by travelling and calling attention
 both publicly and privately, to the importance and pro-
 priety of her entering the medical profession.
   With these views and feelings I left home for Wash-
 ington, January 16.  On  my arrival I went to Gerritt
 Smith's — met a most cordial reception from  his wife,
 daughter, and my friend S., and  was soon delighted by
 hearing the deep, inspiring voice of Mr. Smith giving me
 a cheerful welcome.
   At the evening worship, Mr. Smith repeated a hymn.
 They all sung it, their fine voices added to its touching
 pathos.  He then repeated that fine psalm, " He maketh
 me to lie down in green pastures, etc."  Such  a voice!
 a prayer followed, and the services closed.   Let me tell
 you something  of  Gerritt  Smith — that man  with
 whom possession and responsibility  are synonymous —
 who, abhorring slavery, speaks in kindest  terms of the
 unfortunate slaveholder.   Who feels that his  own  fail-
 ings and temptations warn him  of the need of charity
 to his neighbor — who thinks, that in coming to Wash-
 ington, honesty,  faithfulness,  and love are demanded,
instead   of  severity  or   recrimination.   Yes,  Gerritt
 Smith is  a  member of the House  of Representatives,
and  yet not  of them.  His  sphere  raises  him above
them.  He retires early, spends his  evenings at home, 
312
GLANCES.
rises early, and whilst the self-indulgent  are asleep, he
is walking out gathering  strength for the performance
of duty.
  This morning, just before worship, his little grandson,
three years old, was running  out of the room :  said
Mr. S., " Willy, have you had  a sweet night's sleep ? "
" Y"es! "    " Who  permitted it ? "   " God ! "   " Then
can't you stop and thank him ? "   " O yes, grandfather,"
and he kneeled in quiet beauty at my side.  Our break-
fast was enlivened by earnest  converse.   Marriage the
subject — theirs is on a high plane — their love deepen-
ing as years roll on; they have grown together in this
holy relationship.
   Their house is spacious, pleasant,  furnished without
luxury or  ostentation,  but simply elegant,  and  there
breathes all around that atmosphere of purity which  is
so elevating.   The  whole character  of  this family  is
based on principle.  What " they will say "  is not  in
the  dictionary here.    Two of the reporters  told me
that no  man in the House held so peculiar a position.
Even the Southerners are beginning  to  gather around
him, asking him questions.  His bland and courteous
manners invite their confidence, and from his lips  they
hear truths that may awaken  slumbering justice, vio-
lations of common law may yet  be comprehended, and
the good Father awaken his children to  the  truth, that
honesty in politics as well as  dollars and cents is the
true policy.
  Our halls of legislation  are  most disorderly.  Many
are heard at once making sad confusion, — order, order,
amendments and reamendments — allin a breath. There
are times when the speaker cannot enforce order enough
to have the yeas and nays taken, and the tellers are of-
ten called  up in the din  and confusion of boisterous
voices. 
GLIMPSES.
313
   I could not but contrast the conduct of these men wiio
 stood as representatives of the people and the lawmak-
 ers of our country — with that of the Women's Yearly
 Meeting of Friends in Philadelphia, which  I once en-
 joyed the privilege of attending.   This meeting was a
 perfect model of dignity, propriety,  and reverend, pa-
 tient attention to the business before it.  No rude, un-
 womanly interruptions were ever obtruded upon the ear,
 but subject after subject was brought up,  canvassed,
 and disposed of with becoming deliberation; their assem-
 bly being controlled by the principle of truth, not by a
 noisy and obstreperous majority.
   On  the contrary,  in  Congress  there seemed  to  be
 (except in a few) no appreciation of the dignity and so-
 lemnity of their position as  representatives and  legisla-
 tors— no conception  of their  high and momentous
 duties.   My heart was pained by a sense of the super-
 ficiality,  heartlessness,  and  disorder of  our national
 assembly.  If this outside of  the national  housekeeping
 is the  correct  sign-board of that which is within, we
 may well  congratulate  ourselves,  my  sisters, that we
 have nothing to do with it.  Men have  wholly divorced
 themselves from  women in this  housekeeping concern,
 fearing that we should neither know how to make laws
 or appropriations, or indeed  how to  behave ourselves.
 Well, the house looked as  if it was kept by men, I as-
 sure you ; tobacco juice, awkward positions,  and inces-
 sant noise, reminded one of a parcel of school-boys who
 had no respect either for their teacher or  themselves.
 These  are the  men who get  eight  dollars per  day for
 their invaluable services.   Well, notwithstanding  the
 scorn with which such men treat the idea of ivomen ever
taking their seats in Congress, I cannot help believing,
that as soon  as  virtuous, high-minded men are  sent
                        27 
314
GLANCES.
there, women will be sent too; and we certainly do
not want to go until we  can be associated with biiter
company, and until wre can have a higher  platform  to
stand upon.   Cleanliness and godliness will come into
Congress hand in hand with woman.
  " Said  some  stranger in the  House  this morning,
point out to me Gerritt Smith, who has come here inde-
pendent  of party, free to utter himself as he is moved
by circumstances."
  " After dinner, a very fine looking man came in : he
was no  darker than a Spaniard, but was a slave.  I
wish some of our aristocrats had half the refinement he
had.  He told his story, which  was only  one  among
many.   His wife, one  of five children, was the daugh-
ter of her master (a bachelor), who promised them their
freedom by his will, but he  died without a will, and she
fell into  the hands of a sister of his (her aunt),  and his
two eldest boys wrere disposed  of in  Maryland.  This
father said he had no hope of saving them — the babe
and the mother he must buy, for some traders had heard
of her beauty, and were prepared to give $1,000 for her,
to take her to Louisiana.   The owners knowing she
ought to be free, and feeling  some compassion,  had re-
duced the price considerably — he had obtained half the
sum.   Mr. Smith added to  the  fund.   He assists in
emancipating a great many."
  I have been reading Judge  Walker's (of Ohio) essay
on  the  legal  position  of  woman.   Men  sit  in  the
judgment-seat—men stand before that judgment-seat
as  counsellors and lawyers — men are impanelled as
jurymen, and from first to last, from the highest down
to the lowest officer engaged in  her arrest, confinement.
judgment, and condemnation — men  have invested men
with supreme  powTer over  her destiny, and filled  their 
GLIMPSES.
315
 pockets with all the fees.  No woman  is permitted to
 sit upon the jury whose verdict condemns her.  None
 are ever seen upon the bench mingling their calm and
 tender spirits in these cases of fine, imprisonment, and
 death.  But men assume to themselves the whole respon-
 sibility of protecting her in or out of prison, as they deem
 right and just.
   Then property rights — laws are made and repealed,
 as though intellect, heart, humanity, and education, were
 not  of more consequence than dollars, stocks,  mort-
 gages, and lands.   It is  wonderful that  our  learned
 judges have not found out that American freedom is
 human — not masculine only.  If they had framed laws
 which could carry this great country onward in morals
 as well as  in power, conscientiously might we accept
 them ; but in Congress the very men who passed  the
 fugitive slave law, to preserve the Union (so they said),
 are now disturbing the Union by  endeavoring to in-
 crease slavery and counteract a compromise upon which
 every lover of freedom has rested.
   On my way from the Pension Office, I called uncere-
 moniously  at the  White House.   It  was  reception
 morning, but as I was the  first visitor, I found my-
 self the only company in the spacious rooms ; thoughts
 of the worthies who had once  tenanted that dwelling,
 came thronging  over me — the  contrast between  them
 and the late incumbents of office was painful.   I was
 afterwards, in company with a  resident, present one re-
 ception evening, when I saw the apartments brilliantly
lighted, and had  admirable opportunity for studying hu-
man nature in diverse phases.   Formerly the president,
his cabinet, and  their wives gave an elevated tone to
these  parties, and conversation was enlivened  by  wit
and intelligence.   Now fashion  seems the  presiding 
316
GLANCES.
 genius, and she is not generally favorable to high, moral,
 and intellectual enjoyments.
   Went to  the  school  of Miss Miner.  She  may be
 called  its  founder.   The  establishment of  a school
 for colored girls in a slaveholding district, is one of the
 triumphs  of freedom.  Miss  Miner  has exhibited an
 untiring zeal, energy, and benevolence, which is worthy
 of the  cause  of liberty ; she met opposition with calm
 resolution,  and  carried  her  purpose  by  unflinching
 firmness.   The recitations  did  much credit to teacher
 and pupils, and  the singing  was delightful.   Harriet
 Beecher Stowe has  taken  much interest  in this  sem-
 inary.  ----------had a very valuable woman  who ran
 away and went to  Canada — after a little  while she
 wrote her master word that she  was very  unhappy and
 wished him to send for  her.  Accordingly he  sent his
 son  to bring  her home.   What was the  young man's
 astonishment when  he  found that her  husband   had
 joined  her, and they were  rejoicing in their freedom!
 The master did not seem to understand that ruse played
 off by the woman, which laid his vigilance asleep  and
 rendered it easier for her husband to escape.
  Judge Peters, too, has  some  very interesting  facts
 about buying  negroes running, who were considered
 terribly rebellious, but when they  came to  him, never
 were men more true.
  Sunday morning found me in the quiet little unpre-
 tending Swedenborgian  Church, greatly  enjoying the
 services and singing.  Rufus Daw^es was the minister, a
 man  of catholic  spirit and enlarged mind.  I had a
letter of introduction to  Mrs. Dawes,  and  as I  was
her guest part of the time that I wras in Washington, I
enjoyed the privilege of  seeing the  venerable Judge
Cranch, and  spending many hours  in  the  intimacy of 
GLIMPSES.                  317
 domestic life with this family, endeared to me by recol-
 lections of affectionate social intercourse.
   Washington, regarded  merely as the seat of govern-
 ment of a powerful nation, is clothed with deep interest
 to  the thoughtful mind ;  there, are discussed and set-
 tled questions  which  make  or mar the happiness of
 millions ;  there, it is decreed that the "festering sores "
 of  the body politic shall be  aggravated by proud flesh
 and acrid humors ;  there, is sounded the war-trumpet
 which dooms to death the sons of America, and fills her
 daughters with  mourning;  thence  comes the. first peal
 of  that chime  whose  harmony reverberates from State
 to  Slate, till  one grand  anthem  of peace  is heard
 throughout the land.  Here  come  up the memories of
 Washington and  his coadjutors, and here, too, is seen
 the disgraceful contrast which now marks the career of
 most of those who fill the high  offices of the country.
 " How art thou fallen  from  heaven, O Lucifer! son of
 the  morning."   Thou whose light of freedom and of
 moral  glory was designed to dispel  the  darkness  that
 sits on the face of the waters, and  whose voice was de-
 signed to reach from pole  to  pole, proclaiming life,
 liberty,  and  happiness to all the  inhabitants  of the
 earth !   Here, too, comes the cheering thought that wo-
 man was  the medium through which a Saviour came to
 man — and will it not be through woman, as  the moral
 elevator of the race, that deliverance will again come?
  Being interested on account of  a  friend about pen-
sions, my attention  was attracted  to this department.
 Here are  women who year after year spend their time
in the  lobby trying to  catch  a member to present their
case.   It occurred to me that there ought to be a pro-
 vision of  some kind for such eases ; and I  have been
rejoiced to hear  that  a court has been established this
                        27* 
318                   GLANCES.

year, 1855, at Washington, to hear and adjudge special
claims.    The Senate chamber makes a different im-
pression from the  House.  The number is  small, and
more quiet  prevails;  but hi  neither  place (save a few
glorious exceptions)  do you  see in the countenances
and  bearing of the senators  and representatives  that
honesty, intellectuality,  purity, firmness, and dignity,
which ought to characterize the legislators  of a great
nation.   Sad and  humiliating w^ere the accounts of the
immorality of many of these  men, and they  carried on
their faces  the label of their  truth.  Animality  had
quenched the  light of virtue in their countenances, and
in some, intellect was robbed  of its  place by intrigue,
ambition, selfishness, and arrogance; in others, by indo-
lence, meanness, ignorance, and eight dollars a day.  I
am not quarrelling with the remuneration, if the  coun-
try received . a  quid  pro  quo,  but  let  justice  decide
whether this is so.  I cannot get reconciled to our one-
sided legislation; if this is  masculine legislation, it does
little credit  to the  sex.  Surely the  feminine is needed
to elevate them to the platform of humanity.
   The Supreme Court was interesting to me.  I heard
Reverdy Johnson and  others.   Is not the time coming
when this body will have to analyze the Declaration of
Independence,  and give it its  full and legitimate con-
struction ? — " All men are born free and equal;" — " All
governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed;" — " Taxation without representation
is tyranny."  These great  axioms uttered by the voice
of truth, will be canvassed in connection with woman,
and right, not might, he the watchword of our country,
Woman's voice will  be heard  even  in this sanctum
sanctorum, not as now in the Senate chamber, petition-
ing that slavery may not extend its  baleful influence, 
GLIMPSES.
319
 but pleading for the " inalienable rights " of all human
 beings.
   After passing three weeks at Gerritt Smith's, not be-
 ing ready to leave Washington, where  there  was  so
 much  to  interest  and instruct, I removed  to Pennsyl-
 vania  Avenue,  and  subsequently  to Judge Cranch's.
 While here I had  the gratification of meeting and  con-
 versing with Elihu Burritt.  His great soul recognizes
 the solidarity of  the human race.   Peace, peace  ever
 dwells on his  tongue, beautifies his countenance, and
 lends harmony  to his  voice.   He  is doing a  needed,
 noble  work  for humanity, by  trying to establish the
 " ocean penny postage," which, by greatly  facilitating
 the intercourse  of nations,  will  draw  them  nearer
 together,  and do  much to  create a feeling  of brother-
 hood.
   There was nothing I enjoyed in Washington  more
 than a visit to the office of the Coast Survey, the min-
 iature  plans, the copper-plate impressions,  the  geogra-
 phy of the  ocean,  points  for  light-houses, etc., were
 full of interest for me, and I learned with pleasure that
 two women were engaged as assistants in preparing the
 mathematical tables.  The weather during  the month
 of  February was charming, so balmy, so springlike, joy
 and health breathed around, and you drank in  renova-
 tion and life.  Thus when thought needs a wider range,
 and our views of  life a  more extensive field, how the
 spirit  exults  when it is translated  to  a  region where
these necessities are satisfied! — how the mind revels in
the new ideas that circumstances call forth! — how the
inner eye  gazes on pictures as they move on, and what
additions  we are thus enabled  to make to that  daguer-
reotype gallery which in after years will furnish such 
320
GLANCES.
high and varied  gratification as the panorama of life
passes  in review.  Lonely hours come to the aged ; if
deposits are made in the bank of memory, if pleasures
and blessings are treasured up there with trials and dis-
ciplines, many a  solitary hour will teem with gladness
or instruction.   Travelling: is one great  means of edu-
cation;  it  steals  us from  ourselves, opens  to us new
spheres  of thought and  observation, places us in new
relations to mankind, and exhibits human nature in
other phases.  I do not know but I may class travelling
among our duties, where practicable.  It was grateful to
be received into the homes of so many, it furnished me
with beautiful views of life, and brought me near to the
gentle and the noble of both sexes.
   The Nebraska  bill created great excitement at Wash-
ington — it was  the ceaseless topic  of conversation ;  a
great problem, " the  truthfulness of  man to man " was
about to be solved.  What was the solution ? " Tell
it not in Gath, publish it not in the sfreets of Askelon."
I was glad to be  in Washington at this time.  I learned
more than I should during a quiet session.  The funeral
pile  of  liberty was  lighted in Congress.  My farewell
to Washington  was  trying — memory loves  to  live
again  many hours — the  parting  blessing  of Judge
Cranch rested sweetly upon me — may I be worthy of
it!  His benign  features spoke of trust in  the Divine.
Glancing back  at Washington, I must mention  Mrs.
P----.   She has much of the tragic and poetic about
her — she has established a reading-room and  a library
for the firemen of Washington.   Lectures are also con-
nected with them.  Her sympathy and interest  were
drawn out,to this class of philanthropists, by witnessing
their perils  and their courage at a fire next  door to the 
GLIMPSES.
321
house  she resided in.   She did not expend her feelings
in mere words, but provided for their moral  and intel-
lectual culture.
  March 1st, arrived in Richmond at the residence of a
connection, whose  parents and mine had been very in-
timate.   To  live over the past is one of my pleasures.
The sail down  the Potomac was delightful, and the
weather  fine.   Richmond  is a  beautiful city, but the
eye is strangely arrested by the variety of  shades in
the inhabitants, from ebon  black to white.  I went
to the senate chamber — thence to the  house of  dele-
gates— was struck by a painting representing the  Earl
of Chatham, pointing to a little  flame on the altar of
liberty — at  that flame  how many torches have  been
lighted.  The portrait of Thomas  Jefferson  is  full of
interest.  Noble, prophetic spirit!  " The Declaration of
Independence "  bears testimony to his insight into the
future of his country.   I saw also the likeness of John
Randolph, a descendant of Pocahontas.  The tobacco
factories  are  objects  of interest to a stranger,  the ne-
groes while at their work sing psalm  tunes so sweetly.
The falls of James River make sweet  music, and the
views around the  city  are  picturesque  and  beautiful.
I visited  the grave of Powhatan, the father of Poca-
hontas, and  saw the block, on which, tradition says, the
head of Smith was bowed to receive the strokes of the
tomahawk.   There was an effort  made this year to
repeal  the law  taxing the income of physicians  after
their practice amounts  to  a certain sum.  There wTere
many Dr's. among the members,  so that  I had  an  op-
portunity of seeing an unusual number.
  Went to Baltimore on the 16th.  Anna Cora Mowatt,
and  Miss Davenport, the actress,  were there;  it was
pleasant  to  see them  together.   For the first time saw 
322
GLANCES.
A. C. M----, in the Hunchback.  The chief point of
interest, however, wTas the Insane Asylum.   The phy-
sician, Dr.'Fonarden, and the matron, were admirably
adapted to meet the responsibilities and fulfil the duties
of  their stations — tender  sympathy combined with
firmness and  cheerfulness,  marked  them  both.   Such
heart-histories  as  are there  revealed to woman—the
wards where I  saw my sex the victims  of insanity pro-
duced by passion, ignorance, perversions, hereditary ten-
dencies, and vice, harrowed up my soul.  Then the room
wiiere were the  imbecile, loathsome from evil  habits,
the light of intelligence  extinguished, told a tale that
may not find a place here.    That day spent in the In-
sane Asylum  furnished  food for  deep meditation, and
made  its mark in the history of women.  Paid a pleas-
ant visit to Dr. Phoebe A. Way, a graduate from Phila-
delphia Medical College.  She is in successful practice.
In Baltimore the free  colored people may be  taught  to
read, while in  Virginia it is a penitentiary offence.
   After a brief though pleasant visit to Baltimore, I
started a bright moonlight night for Pittsburg. The sky
presented one  of those witching scenes when the beau-
tifully varied w'ardrobe prepared for the queen of night,
was constantly changing from the gauzy drapery which
scarcely obscured her, to sombre mourning which entirely
eclipsed her refulgence.   The shadows on  the hill-tops
were magical,  the valleys were bathed in radiance, and
creation seemed filled with  fleeting  forms of beauty —
the  Susquehanna  sparkling,  leaping, reflecting  the
moonlight, added  to the  charm  of  this  bewitching
scene.  So lovely  was  all  without.  Within the cars
the travellers  offered a medley worthy  the  pen  of
Dickens to portray; such  distortions,  stretched  limbs,
audible gaping, yawning, complaining,  nodding, grunt- 
GLIMPSES.
32o
ing,  etc. etc.  as baffles  my  powers  of  description.
Missing the cars at Pittsburg  we  were obliged to re-
main there over night;  guardian spirits watched over
me,  and I  was  directed to a  private boarding-house
where I found pleasant accommodations — from Boston
was  a passwvord.  I had a  passing ten  minutes with
Rev. Mr. Passavant,  who  has  done so  much for  hu-
manity.   The  next  morning  left  for  Cleveland,  on
the border of Lake  Erie.  On my arrival found myself
comfortably seated  at the home of a dear cousin whom
I had  never  seen before, — family  reminiscences were
talked  over, and the reverence in which my mother was
held drew us very near.  My cousin being a psychomes-
trist  attracted my attention to those unseen, unexplaina-
ble laws of relation  between minds however distant.
When she  became an invalid, her interior life and vision
became opened.   From my cousins, went to the home
of Caroline M. Severance, a woman whose heart pul-
sates for  humanity,  whose  aspirations  are  upward,
whose  course is onward, whose life  bears testimony
to her  womanhood  in  a domestic, social,  and  pub-
lic . capacity.   She was  going  to  Columbus to. pre-
sent  a memorial  to the  legislature  on  behalf of
woman. It  was proposed that  I  should accompany
her,  as I  was  the  Massachusetts Protestor,  and  I
did  so  with  peculiar pleasure.   She spoke before the
senate, not a committee, and was  listened to with the
most quiet and earnest  attention — the dignity  with
which she pleaded the cause of humanity, insured her
the admiration and respect of the  magnanimous and
intelligent.   The memorial was  ordered to be printed.
I spoke in the church  on my favorite subject to  a good
audience, but as the  lecture  season w^as over, the pro-
fessors absent, I concluded to defer my efforts  in that 
324
GLANCES.
brave State to another time.  I saw Dr. Jennings at
Cleveland, the author of "Medical  Reform" — had a
long  conversation with  him, and  at parting  I  said,
" Now, Dr., give^me  a  sentiment " — he wrote the fol-
lowing, " Run with patience, Isaac Jennings.  It is now
about thirty-two years since  1 became firmly settled in
the theory and practice of orthopathy, 185-1."
   As my  mind had  for many years been turned to
the  subjects  of marriage  and home — the sacredness
and blessedness of both — it will not be wondered at,
that it was through this medium  I studied slavery when
I found myself for the first time in the midst of it.  Its
cruelties  and injustice  had  been so  fully canvassed by
scores of  others, that I naturally  confined my observa-
tions wholly to the bearing of this  institution upon the
marriage relation and home.
   Philosophy, physiology, and experience all prove, that
the  principle laid down  in  the  Bible is the only safe
and  true  one practically,  when  one man  and one
woman were created, and  theoretically  in the  divine
command: " Therefore shall a man leave his father and
his  mother and  shall cleave unto  his  wife,  and they
tivain shall be one flesh."  The Bible, after laying down
this principle, goes on  to demonstrate in the  history of
the world, the misery entailed  upon the  human race by
a departure  from it.  After four thousand years this
same principle of duality in  the  marriage relation  is
again promulged as the only eternal law which  ought
to control human beings.
   In the ignorance and darkness of barbarism  and the
 Middle Ages, God's laws wrere regarded as arbitrary, —
 it wras believed that  things  were right  and wrong be-
cause he said so, — not that he said so, because they were
right or wrong.  In  the teachings  of Christ, we do not 
GLIMPSES.
325
find him reasoning with the people, and trying to show
them the why and the wherefore of his  precepts.  He
well knew that the minds of his hearers were too unde-
veloped  to  understand  the  philosophy  of morals  or
religion ; but just in  proportion as science has  devel-
oped the true  nature  of  our being  and the relation  of
things, it has  demonstrated that the  laws of God are
NOT arbitrary,  but that  they  have  grown out  of  the
necessities of our being,  and are based upon the consti-
tutional and unchangeable elements of our nature.
   It was with this principle of duality  firmly fixed in my
mind,  that  I  now looked at slavery.   I could not but
remark that there were few  black persons in  Wash-
ington, Richmond,  and  Baltimore.   I could  not  but
observe that there was  every shade between  the black
and white.   I knew  that there were no marriages be-
tween  the colors, and the question spontaneously arose,
Whence all these?  I saw at a glance, that slavery had
carefully, and  according to physiological  law, written
her own history in varied colors upon the faces  of the
slaves.
   Without  any ill-natured intention, I reasoned upon
the unavoidable effect of this manifest licentiousness
upon the marriage relation and the homes of the South,
but it was  not necessary for me to  theorize, for facts
soon came  to  my knowledge, which  developed a most
unhappy state of things; and I was  driven to the con-
clusion, that as slavery  ruthlessly ruptured all  family
relations between the slaves, so was this outrage returned
into the bosoms of their owners' families, in the fact
that many husbands by voluntarily  breaking the sacred
ties which bound them to their wives, and thus intro-
ducing illegitimate children,, into households, blasted the
happiness of those wives,  and filled  their homes with
                        28 
326
GLANCES.
distrust and jealousy, bitterness and woe.   These sous
and  daughters  are too  often slaves in the family, and
their features and countenances tell the  sad tale  of
their origin.  And many is the Hagar and the Ishmael
who  are cast out from southern  homes, because  the
Sarahs  there protest that the sons of the bondwoman
shall not be heirs with their sons.  Cast out — not into the
wilderness, where in freedom they might roam, but sold
into  other  States, perhaps to be seduced and cast  out
as a nuisance  again  and again.  Woman is thus  too
frequently bartered  for  gold, when the outraged legal
wife demands she should be cast out with her sons and
daughters.   Behold, then, how slavery breaks down the
marriage  relation, and  desecrates "the homes of  the
South !
   Many w^ould be afraid to make  a movement, or  stir
a  step, if they  saw the blood circulating,  the  tendons
pulling,  the  lungs  inhaling,  the  innumerable nerves,
arteries,  veins,  etc., which sustain our existence ; but
let knowledge illuminate such  an one, and a reverent
awe  is  induced, and  fear  dispelled.   So  Avith  so-
cial  life — particularly  with woman.  When learning
ceases to be uncommon with them, you will cease your
remarks about  "blue  stockings," "masculine  women,"
" anti-woman  movement,"   etc.  etc.  The  artificial
hedges which have grown up around us, are withering
and  dying, and it will take some desperate mind ever to
think of  planting them  again.   Sunlight  has  pene-
trated through naked branches, and the eye has become
strong enough for more.
   It wTas really surprising to  observe  the narrow, petty
conceits wiiich  were brought  out as the woman move-
ment gained  ground.  Reason and common sense were
to be gagged  by usage — purblind  eyes were talking 
GLIMPSES.                  327
 of vision,  and crippled  limbs of locomotion.   I  think
 if some caustic writer, true to humanity, would just
 take up the various political parties of this country, as
 they  have clamored  for notoriety  the last twenty-five
 years, and analyze and expose the  mean, contemptible,
 shuffling, and demoralizing expedients they have em-
 ployed to obtain power, the masses would learn a most
 important  lesson,  and find out how little parties and
 political demagogues were to  be trusted.   " The public
 good " — why  that  is  all a  farce — my  pocket is  the
 pass-word.   The very men wiio would be blessings  in
 a public capacity, have hid themselves in the shades of
 private life, disgusted, disheartened, unwilling to be iden-
 tified with such chicanery and corruption.   It is well.
   Said an opponent to me after  my last protest was
 sent in, what party would you vote for, if you could ?
 Neither.  I would have a  moral  sentiment party.   I
 would  know the  private  character of my  candidate,
 would  know also whether he takes  care of  his  own
 property — whether  he had   failed in  business — if
 so, whether  he had paid  back every dollar of debt as
 fast  as he had  earned them.  Yes, every candidate
 should be examined morally, and if it be found  that he
 has not been true to the  monitions  of conscience in one
 direction, he cannot or will not be in another: "he that
 is faithful in the least, is faithful also in much."
   Take the  railroad  swindler,  (I  call things  by their
 iglit names) — he calls it " speculation " — very well,
 1 it is his  money he has a right to speculate — but not
 cvith mine, not with the all of widows and orphans, nor
 die pittance of some who live only on dividends; yet
 this is often done, by the merchant  too, and  these men
 go to church and are called pious, but infidelity is thriv-
ing under the shadow of their apparent Christianity. 
328                  GLANCES.
  It is feared by the opponents of this woman move-
ment, that the love of notoriety has filled the heads of
some  disaffected women and made  them fop-heavy —
that they  are  seeking for themselves  office — empty
renown — rather than to fill a true, dignified, and useful
position in the  world.   Now a few  wrords here.   The
mechanic must have his tools, and the quality of those
tools is  as  much  to be considered as the number of
them.  The farmer  has his acres of ground, but  the
quality of his soil  and its best application, are of the
greatest  moment; ignorance here is  fatal to  success.
The artist, wiiilst catching the play of features, and the
hidden depths from wiiich they  spring, must have in
his hand  suitable implements, by which to give form to
his conceptions on the canvas.
   Do we suppose that a " love of notoriety " controls
the minds of these workmen ?  Do we stigmatize them,
because they eagerly seize upon every new improvement
in the arts  and sciences  which  promises to facilitate
their  efforts  at  perfection, even  though ambition or
dollars and cents may have their influence?  O no!
That is all right in  them, they are men.  Is woman an
exception to the great  laws  of  " excelsior ? "  Is not
this law  written upon every heart ?  Is it not the lever
which is  lifting humanity upon higher and higher planes
of  development ?   Why  not give her every tool she
needs in  the work  she  has to do ?  Why not  open all
your  high schools  and  colleges,  literary,  scientific,
medical,  and your  lyceums, — grant to her all the priv-
ileges  and blessings of learning, which are  bestowed
upon  every boy and man?   Why not concede to her
freedom  to follow the natural idiosyncracies and strong
proclivities of her mind?   Is there no hidden genius —
no undeveloped power — no  intellectual wealth (unap- 
GLIMPSES.
329
propriated  and  useless)   among women ?   Will she
make a worse use of these " tools"  than man has —
will she pervert them more than he has — will she lose
more of her womanhood than  he has of his  manhood?
   If education and freedom  be good in  themselves —
has she not just as much right  to them as he has; and
does not her acknowledged superiority in the moral and
religious element  guarantee a better use of these bless
ings than he has yet made of  them?   The truth is, my
reader, woman is human as well as man, and education
and freedom are  her  birthright as well  as his;  and
when the great question of her  rights is settled  in legal
statutes and  State constitutions, a jubilee will be held,
such as the world has never seen; for it will  herald the
dawn  of  the millennium, when  "righteousness  shall
cover the earth as the waters do the sea."  When this
question is understood, doors will be opened into the life
of woman, windows into the yet unexplored labyrinths
of her nature, and discoveries made as to her capacity
for intellectual development, and revelations as to the
intensity of her sufferings, which will delight us, on the
one hand, as much as the discovery of the gold  of  Cal-
ifornia  or  the  magnetic  telegraph, and  on  the other,
strike us with as  much  horror  and amazement as the
disclosures of slavery and the  slave-trade.  Mark my
words, and watch for their fulfilment.   We talk  with
admiration of the great  discoveries of this  age—the
greatest is yet to be made—the powers of the human
mind in man and woman.
   Did you ever know a true man unappreciated ?   Did
you ever know one whom the truth made free, forging
chains for  others ?  Did  you ever know a man, blessed
in his mother and sisters, who did  not desire the eleva-
tion of woman?   There are searching questions on this 
330
GLANCES.
subject, and its most violent opponents are those, whose
weak hereditary natures through fashionable, vain, and
silly mothers,  and  their companionship,  with  over-
dressed,  coquettish,  and simple sisters,  have  caused
them to W'Oiider what woman wants  more  than to be
fed and  dressed, taken to balls  and  theatres, and pro-
tected by man.  But they do not define  their  idea of
man—such men  as themselves are  the destroyers, not
the protectors  of woman; and  they  know it, although
they do not know that we do.
   Great truths never dwell alone;  like the sciences,
hand in  hand  they stand like guardian angels  around
the destiny of  man.  The setting sun permits  the un-
seen moon to  glad  the eye;  the advancing day veils
her brightness  in refulgent light,  until another night
is born  and wears it in her diadem again.  Unfettered
in their  course they went  and came,  and  came and
went, each in harmony doing its bidding to the world.
All nature speaks of freedom. Thy childish thought, thy
first ray of intelligence, thy first perceptions of cause and
effect, led  thee in  harmony with nature,  which is free
and unfettered  to ask freedom for thyself.
   The  halls of Congress, State legislatures, the pulpit,
the bar, the medical college — are all  writing their own
epitaphs, and the masses begin to see it.
   Is it not surprising  that  so few of us dare express a
thought — dare to utter  an honest conviction — dare to
advocate a truth, felt, though it may  be, in our very in-
most ?   The sin of deception is so patronized in life, and
wise croakers,  so  numerous,  saying, think  what  you
please, but donH tell it, that we are almost persuaded to
smother  ourselves.
   But utterance is the law of liee — to violate that law
brings on mental dyspepsia — consumption of the heart 
GLIMPSES.                 331
 Stifle your thoughts — consider what you can — weigh
 well in the balance of expediency what you cannot say,
 and the whole current of life will  be poisoned.  Y^ou
 will freeze to death — chill all around you, and become
 a corpse inwardly before you are one outwardly.
   Mrs. Mowatt was fulfilling her farewell engagement
 at  the  Howard  Street  Theatre, — it was  an exciting
 time among  the  lovers of the  stage.  I have here one
 word to say on this amusement as well as  that of danc-
 ing.  The legitimate drama is no more to be rejected on
 account of the abuses  of theatrical life, than wholesome
 food, because of gluttony.  It is the lack of home disci-
 pline— of self-culture — the absence  of a moral  and
 religious nature,  which  has  prostituted  these healthful
 recreations and so  profaned  them, that the truehearted
 dare not touch them for fear of pollution.  I should like
 to know whether  there has ever been  a play performed in
 our  country  as demoralizing  as  the political  dramas
 which have been played off for  the last twenty years.
 Take the influence of all the plays which  have disgraced
 the stage, and the passage of the Nebraska bill is beyond
 them all.   That was a monarch crime which  the stage-
 players  at  Washington indorsed,   and  commanded
 every man in all the States to act, whenever slavery re-
 quired it.  Look  at it — study it — and do n't fold your
 hands in pious horror at the theatre,  when you sent men
 to Congress wiio  voted for that bill.
  Visit  Wall  street,  or  any  exchange  in our cities.
 There are the deep players.  If you look  at  the plays
which  are  acted  in banks and  railroad  corporations,
 and on the mercantile  stage, you need not wonder that
the drama is not more elevated.   You could not bear
it — you would not enjoy it if it was.  These dramatic
performers deal in gold and  silver, in dollars and cents, 
332
GLANCES.
in open daylight.  But  there are others wiio play with
purity and virtue.  There are dramas — deep tragedies
— acted every day and  every night in your houses  of
assignation  and prostitution and desecration, which are
too horrible to  be tolerated  on the public stage, to say
nothing of those  more  secret  seductions  wiiich  are
blasting the virtue of both sexes, and breaking the heart
of woman.   O! how many are  driven into  common
prostitution, by a maddening desperation, which refuses
to be comforted and scorns to be virtuous, because the
trusted one, the loved one has been false ; whilst others,
cast off by relatives, wither and  die in obscurity and
rags, meekly hiding their mouths in the dust, as the
scorching sirocco of holy indignation sweeps over and
buries them.
   Romance,  mysticism are  needs  of  our nature —
why  should  they  not   be  acknowledged  and  met?
Evgry one's  fife is  a drama; where is the  harm  of
spending an evening in seeing another's life acted  out
before us ?   The  stage can be  elevated,  it can  be
made  a school for thought, a stimulant to noble ac-
tion,  to holy life.   It will be when humanity rises in
the  scale of virtue.  The time is coming  when  the
drama will be regenerated and elevated to its true posi-
tion, and  will bless mankind.   True hearts from time
to time have done their part in endeavors to accomplish
this, and Anna Cora Mowatt was faithful in her efforts.
She was free from rant, and from the tricks of ambitious
weakness.   Her style  was  natural  and refined;  her
voice so sweet  and sympathetic that it  touched the in-
ner life; her  gestures so harmonious and pure, that as
she  glided  along,  she  sometimes electrified  through
pantomime.  Who that has  heard  her give that passage 
GLIMPSES.                 333
from Blanche in her own play, " Armand," but acknowl-
edges her grace and power,—
         " Seem happy — how can I seem otherwise ?
          'Tis happiness to me to live — to be !
          My very instincts — nay, the very use
          Of every separate sense by which we hold
          Communion visible with external being
          Is happiness," etc.
  She w^as also admirable in " Ion and Parthenia."  Have
not such plays as " Uncle Tom's Cabin," etc. produced
the happiest results, and will not more such be written ?
I have no room for any thing, further, only that I would
advise my young  friends  to  prepare themselves for pri-
vate theatricals — it will awaken a healthy stimulant to
virtue, develop the powers  of mind  and  voice  and
muscle, and give  ease and freedom  to woman as well
as man, and above all, will  occupy the time too often
consumed in scandal, idleness, languor, and ennui.   I
know of but  one teacher who at all  appreciates  this
subject.  In his school, the scholars are regularly trained
in single pieces and dialogues, and his  exhibitions have
surprised and delighted the audience, so  admirable has
been the  performance of children  and youth.  He re-
gards this exercise as so  essential to the development
of mind,  manners, and morals, that it commands his
particular attention, he always hearing each pupil alone,
previous to the weekly  exhibitions, in order  to correct
stiffness  of  manner, and teach them to enter into  the
spirit of their pieces.
  But to return  to Anna Cora Mowatt.   Those who
were present at her leave-taking, remember her farewell
speech,  and the  impression  it  produced; and  prayers
went with her,  when  Richmond became her  home  and
Ritchie  her  name. Her deep religious nature was felt 
334
GLANCES.
upon the stage,  and  we might hope  other American
women of high moral and religious character will come
forth and do  likewise;  writing, as well as  performing,
elevating the drama.
   Early in April a call was issued for a Woman's Rights
Convention to be held in Boston, which we  give below,
as  containing  a  condensed view of  the  wrongs for
which we sought redress.

  The undersigned respectfully invite
  All citizens of New England, who believe in the right of the laborers
to control their own earnings :
  All who believe in a fair day's wages for a fair day's work :
  All who believe in the equal right of all children in the community
to all public provisions of education :
  All who believe in the  right of human beings to determine their
own proper sphere of action :
  All who  believe in  the right of all  to a trial by a jury of their
peers:
  All who believe that taxation without representation is tyranny :
  All who believe in the right of adult native Americans to have a
voice in electing the government whose laws control them :
  To meet in convention at Boston, Friday, 2d June next, to consider
whether these rights shall continue to be limited to one half the mem-
bers of the community.

   This convention met accordingly, and was a memora-
ble  one  indeed, being held on  the very day that the
whole city was under  intense excitement from  the ren-
dition of Burns.   That day, June 2d, 1854,  was one of
fearful import.
   On the 4th July, I remained in the city purposely
that I might  witness the  "glorification," see  the fire-
works, and watch the events of the day.   Although  I
had seen the  floral procession  before, yet it impressed
me as though  it was the  first time.  So many girls, ex-
posed to the  stare and  glare  of anybody  and every- 
GLIMPSES.                 335
  body.  I wondered where the fastidious  were,  who
  feared so much  for our  sex when called by duty to
  appear in public, on comparatively a sheltered stage of
  action.  Here the streets were thronged with specta-
  tors.   Girlhood — that  winning, tender period of life,
  exposed  to  the gaze of  all.  Propose at this moment
  to some conservative  that mature womanhood should
  assist  in  framing  the  laws by which she is bound,
  should sit upon  a jury to try  her guiltless or  guilty
  sister, and  he is amazed  at  the impropriety — it is
  shocking  to all  his ideas  of  female  delicacy.  Then
  attract him  to this public  display of beautiful girlhood,
  and  he  says  immediately, this  is amusement only.
  Very well; look at that girl singing to a hand-organ
 in the street, a prey to the lowest curiosity—that is for
 bread and clothes, is it not ?
    Then the  Irish voters,  whom you meet in every di-
 rection.  Well, this is  a good day to inquire about
 American ivomen — to ask what is their position in  this
 Republic.   A young lady personates  the  Goddess of
 Liberty in your mammoth tent— (methinks this is very
 much like the liberty poles at the South being planted
 by slaves)—but never mind—this figure is prophetic —
 and we will bide our time.  The  crackers, the  bustle,
 the excitement of that day was  not lost on me — I a
 tax payer.
   In July, I  went to  Plymouth for the first  time — was
 the guest of Dr. Jackson ; she has practised  long enough
 to havener title;a Homoeopathic physician.  I felt quite
 at home there.  The recollection of my Puritan ances-
 tors, the Winslows  and Wentworths, was very pleas-
 ant.  Emotions of veneration and  gratitude seize  the
 mind on entering this place, " compactly built."  I  en-
joyed the  honor, at " Pilgrim Hall," of handling the first 
336
GLANCES.
seal of the original charter wiiich  came from England
in 1629 ; and I have seen the autographs of the '• Pil-
grim Band."   Josiah  Winslow means something more
to me than a name.   How interesting the  fact, that in
the first distribution of land on their arrival, each mem-
ber of a family had an  acre, without reference  to age,
sex, or  rank !   This was democracy.  I spoke at the
Universalist church, on  Cole's Hill.  The venerable Dr.
Kendall of Plymouth, is an object  of great interest to
strangers.  He has resided at the  parsonage fifty-four
years, and is eighty-five years old; purity and elevation
irradiate his features.   The  families of  Alden  and
Chilson have endeavored to determine with certainty,
wiiich first stepped on this continent, John  or Mary —
but no matter which — it wrould have continued a wild
without her.
  I went to Kingston  before my  return, and spoke
there, and visited  Martha's  Vineyard, for I desired to
see the  position  of  women,  whose husbands were
absent so much of the time, and upon wiiom so much
depended.  I spoke there, and the services impressed me
very deeply ; those third services just at sunset are fit
times for thought.   "  I love to steal awiiile away from
every worldly care," was the first  hymn sung.
  After the services a veteran captain, who was over
eighty, called upon me,  to express his satisfaction.  He
wTas the first captain who sailed from this port  without
liquor.   After very nearly losing his life at New Orleans,
in consequence of the drunkenness  of both his mates,
he determined never to have  it on board again. This
was about the year 1820. Wm. Daggett was his name.
  This  journey  was  productive  of much  thought.
Gov. Thomas Mayhew  was one of  the first settlers  on
the island.   Tradition says  that to Elizabeth, he gave 
GLIMPSES.
337
the island bearing that name — to Martha, the Vine-
yard— to Naoina, Nonan island; and to Nan or Anna,
Nantooket, or Nantucket.   I like these  traditions, they
are foreshadowings.   These long whale  voyages to the
far-off ocean are very unfavorable to social life;  years
of absence from home and home responsibilities  does
not aid in the development of high-toned life.  Woman
looks sickly, wan, worn, and morbid; there seemed to
be a mist here  thicker  than sea fog.  It was an excel-
lent place to look  at  the amount of  property taxed
without  representation.  As man  was on the  deep,
the wife generally has a power of attorney to attend to
business in his  absence.   He  may arrive  the  day  of
an election and  know nothing  of parties — but he can
vote — what an absurdity !
  I copy the following  from a  newspaper published at
Edgartown, July 24,1854.   It will  give a  pretty  clear
idea of the position of  woman and  her  wrongs : —

  gy." •' Notice.  "Whereas  I posted my wife, Augusta M. Austin, on
the 5th of January last — this is to counteract that act and make it
void, as I did it without provocation, I being at the time in a passion,
for which I am sorry."

Now this is in Massachusetts,  in 1854, and shows how
entirely a woman is at the mercy of her husband, to be
cried up or cried down  as passion moves him.
  I found many things to interest me on the island,
but. I don't  like any place that is wholly dependent
upon water conveyance.  I had a sort of home-sickness.
A party of us went to Gay Head to  see  the light-house;
a thin, delicate  young lady drove me, and her skill was
remarked by the men.  Among  us,were some  sea-cap-
tains wiio had  captured the whales of  arctic seas, and
from them I heard interesting anecdotes.  Then the re-
                        29 
338
GLANCES.
mains of the Uncas tribe of Indians, who have land as-
signed them, attracted  my  attention, — the neat little
church,  the school-house.   Their Indian  Bible is a
sealed book, for  the  language is lost.  It was almost
impossible to trace the Indian, the mixture was so obvi-
ous; but I brought away  with me  a lock of Indian
hair, straight, black, and shining  like satin.  In  cases
where they have  intermarried with black persons,  the
Indian woman holds the land in her right.
  Fashion rules  here.  I really pitied  some  of  those
absent husbands, — contending with all the hardships
of a whaling voyage,  whilst their  wives at  home were
dressing, eating, and sleeping.  The women have plenty
of time and but little to do.   Said one of them to  me,
" After a marriage of  12 years, my husband has been at
home but  3."  Said  another, " Such long  voyages are
very hard; I scarcely know my husband."  Another, " I
lost all my children whilst my husband  was away; he
never saw but one of them."  So  marriage  is very
peculiar on this island.
   The evening I  left, a  veteran captain, aged 90,  called
on  me with an  acrostic he had written on my  name.
He had been an almanac maker, was quite a mathema-
tician, and was bright  and joyous  in  his old age.  I
think it would be well for every woman to ascertain
how much she spends on her dress in a year, and deter-
mine to save  half of it and go to the  islands to learn
 something of human nature.   That is a science which is
yet to be duly appreciated.  A knowledge of it would un-
lock apartments which have never yet been swept or gar-
 nished, for the inmate has been sorrow-stricken.  There
 are bereavements which paralyze, and living death which
 rusts the locks and hinges of communication, but the
 right spirit  is like oil, and the right word is the key to
 open the door. 
GLIMPSES.
339
   A knowledge of human nature leads to a love of the
 natural sciences, that the uses of  every thing  may be
 seen.   Study humanity ; the  more you understand the
 laws which  preside  over its  destiny, the  more tender
 will you be to the weak, ignorant, and erring, and thus
 will travel perform a double mission for the soul.
   Came  home  through  New Bedford.   Enjoyed the
 hospitality of Mr. and  Mrs.  S----;  pleasant  associa-
 tions were blended  with  this visit,  Rode about, at-
 tended the Quaker  meeting, and returned  home, laden
 with a  new  experience.   Mt. Bowdoin  is my other
 home.   In all my journey not  one  discomfiture  ; every-
 body kind.   Ida Pfeiffer, the great traveller, — why  it
 is hardly possible that I am here  with her  at 32 Green
 street, side by side,  talking of woman in a barbarous
 state, and then in civilized life.  She is very interesting
 and instructive,  and when  I  thought  of  all  she had
 passed through,  with her fragile  form, the energy  of
 woman was  manifest.  Travelling is to her what paint-
 ing is to the artist, or melody  to the musician, — it is a
 passion, and nerves for effort.

 To Frederick, U. Tracy, Treasurer, and the Assessors and  other Au-
    thorities of the City of Boston, and the Citizens generally, and the
    Legislature in particular.
  Harriot K. Hunt, physician, and a  native and permanent resident
 of the city of Boston, upon the payment  of her taxes in  1852, for-
 mally  protested against the injustice  and inequality of levying taxes
 upon a part of the citizens who are not accorded the right of repre-
 sentation.  Her protest affirmed the  fact, that  all persons in Massa-
 chusetts, 21  years of age  and upwards, including drunkards, felons,
 lunatics, or idiots, who may be independent of pauperism or  guardian-
ship, are, if males, qualified by the payment of a State or County tax
to vote at municipal elections, — no standard of morality, justice, or
principle being regarded, the payment of said tax and male sex being
the only required qualifications. 
340
GLANCES.
  Her protest  also  alluded  to  the  character of your alien laws and
naturalization privileges, and pointed out the positive wrong existing
in connection with the present system  of  public  school  education,
which, while utterly ignoring the  need of a high school for  girls,
utterly ignoring the need of a college for woman  in  Massachusetts,
yet suffers taxes to be as unceremoniously levied on, and  demanded
of a large body of female citizens, as though that body were appro-
priately recognized in law.  Her protest also set forth, that while it is
broadly and  distinctly admitted  that "governments  are instituted
among men,  deriving  their just powers from the consent of the gov-
erned," this proscribed class of tax payers have never either publicly
or privately consented to the government which year after year levies
and collects its taxes on their property ; this year with increased rates
of valuation and percentage.
  The following year, 1853, on the payment of her annual taxes, her
act was accompanied by another protest, in which, after the recapitu-
lation of the  foregoing facts, notice  was taken of the  decision of the
constitutional convention of that year,  with regard to the proposed
erasure from  your laws of the word  " male," in immediate reference
to your unequal and sexual  system  of public school education; and
allusion was  made to the inefficiency of your  school committees,  as
well as to the injustice  of slighting the petition of 2,700 citizens for
equal advantages  of education  for  mind not sex.   And  now, in the
year 1854, this  her third protest is  laid before your body.   Shall it
be  set aside  with the  others, or will your  magnanimity  be equal  to
the duty  of laying it before the legislature, so peculiarly organized
this year, as if pledged to investigate reforms ?  These are questions
which await your determination.
  Your sense of justice is again appealed to.  The noble spirit of our
forefathers " held  these  truths to be self-evident, that" all  men are
created equal, and that  " they are  endowed  by their Creator  with
certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."   Natural  and  political justice, and  the axioms
of English and American law alike determine that rights and burdens
should be harmonious — taxation  and  representation  coextensive.
Their affirmations have now risen to the dignity of political principles.
They are accepted as the fundamental basis of all just government.
Ours are but logical conclusions from these, the established  premises
of all republics.   "We affirm that while women  are  liable to punish-
ment for acts, which the laws call criminal, or while they are taxed in 
GLIMPSES.
341
their labor or property for the support of government, they have a
self-evident and indisputable right to a direct voice in the enactment
of those laws and the formation of that government.
  Yet while increased taxation, both as regards valuation and percent
age, is accepted by men, who vote for those who impose such taxes —
women are compelled not only to pay what you dictate, but when you
say, and the right to determine to what purposes their money shall be
applied, is declared by your usages to be beyond their province.   Are
school committees to be chosen from each  ward,  men vote for such;
and although girls are included in public school education, women are
denied a place on these committees.    The revised  city charter was
submitted in  November, 1854, to the citizens for  their ratification or
rejection,  and the question arose, Who are citizens ?   Why males ?
Why foreigners V because  they pay a poll-tax — the intemperate, the
vicious,  the ignorant,  anybody and  everybody who has the wit to
elude pauperism and  guardianship, if they are only males.  And  yet
women are to live under this city charter, obey, be taxed to support,
and no pauper establishment or guardianship is thought necessary for
them, though the law tacitly ranks them in  the condition of those who
live under both.   How inconsistent is all this !  How absolutely at va-
riance with the Declaration of Independence, the principles of repub-
licanism, the theory or practice of judicious government, with all that
is wholesome, reasonable, and just!
  When party factions, political  intrigues,  and  the selfish cabals of
scheming politicians are stricken  down and abolished, and the people
come back to first principles, they will realize the  enormity of depriv-
ing one half the  citizens of Boston of rights secured to them in the
parchments of a  republic.   We are strong in  the  right, and we bide
our time.   Protests will fall and thicken around you,  but whether one
or many, the demand  is still for justice;  for that justice which shall
insure a free and willing payment of taxes, and  a representation in
your legislative  bodies which will secure  the rights of every native
citizen.
  Your remonstrant in paying  her taxes for 1854, for the third time
utters her protest against the present  law  which  deprives citizens of
the right  of suffrage, a right precisely identical with those on which
rests American liberty.
      This is respectfully submitted.
                          Harriot  K. Hunt,  32 Green street.
  Boston, Nov.  15, 1854.
                              29" 
342
GLANCES.
  It was very amusing  to read the articles which ap-
peared in the newspapers, as my protests against " tax-
ation  without representation," came out year by year.
Some  of them full of spite and slang,  and indicating
an utter ignorance of the motives, and a misconception
of the aims of the women engaged in this reform, and
a perfect caricature of the effects upon society at large
and woman  in particular — all which we cordially ex-
cuse, as ignorance was their mother.
  But in these pieces we find the writers have uninten-
tionally given us  a picture of political life as it now is.
Look at this : " If Dr. Harriot wishes one corduroy priv-
ilege she must take the others."   Now mark what they
are.   " She must not only get posted up in politics, but
in brandy smashes and blackguardism, for a timely drink,
or a smutty repartee have as much influence at the polls,
as  facts,  eloquence, and excitement."   So much  for
marts political life. Do you believe that when woman
gets her right to vote, that she will sink herself into such
a  slough  of pollution?  Now  look at the picture  of
marts morality.   " There are expressions that would fall
unobserved and harmless in a company of men, but are
intolerable  in the hearing of women."  And why,  we
would ask ?   Does the Bible promulge  one set of com-
mandments to man, and another  to woman ?  Or,  do
the sexes stand on the same platform of moral purity ?
If political life and social life have been thus degraded
from their high and noble purposes ; is  it not time they
were redeemed ?   How can they be ?  is the great ques-
tion this age has to answer.
   But these protests brought out those of  another char-
acter.  One  signed  A.  B. C. appeared, advocating wo-
man's right to vote.  This was answered by X. Y. Z.
 Tliis writer thought it very clear  that the former knew 
GLIMPSES.                 343
nothing, but the A, B, C of this matter, so he or it may
have been a woman, chose  the fag end of the alphabet
as a signature.   Let reason fill up the vacuum between
the first and last of the alphabet, and we have nothing
to fear. 
CHAPTER  XXIII .
" In fact it is as important to regulate in a republic, in what manner, by
  whom, to whom, and concerning what suffrages are to be given, as it is
  in a monarchy, to know who is the prince, and after what manner he ought
  to govern." — Montesquieu.

  In Dec., 1854, I started  for Ohio, being desirous to
understand the  medical question in that State, as also
to meet those women who  had thought so earnestly on
the woman question.  I was hospitably entertained at
Troy, at the residence of Mrs. Emma Willard,  (whose
absence I regretted).   Dr. Mary Bayley,  who gradua-
ted at  Cincinnati,  was  the  hostess  wiiile  she was
away.   I visited the seminary, in which were  one hun-
dred pupils, from Maine to Mississippi.   In this insti-
tution   there is a health  officer, whose duty it is  to
investigate the health of the scholars, and control their
diet, exercise, etc.   Saw many of the teachers.
  I then went to Albany to see those sisters who have
ever been so kind to me on my journeys back and forth.
Then to Niagara for a rnidwinter feast.   Quite  a trial
to have the cars whirl me through  the places  where
lived  Samuel J. May, Elizabeth  Stanton, and  Gerritt
Smith.   No person can say they  have seen  the Falls
unless  they have  been  here in  winter.   The  frozen
spray  glitters  like  gems; then  the  immense  icicles
    (344) 
GLIMPSES.
345
which overhang  the  precipices and encase the trunks
and branches of trees, in every variety of form.
   In summer we expect nature to gratify our wants.
and we are melted by the beauty and variety of foliage
and flower, but in winter another  mood is ours.  The
trees clothed in their  snowy vestments looked like fairy
courtiers doing homage to the  frost-king.  In'cloudy
weather there  is  a  marble whiteness in this covering
which is  very  striking.  Both  rocks   and  trees  are
invested with it, and  incrusted with frozen spray.  No
conception can be formed of this  startling, wonderful
scene.  A marble tower and a marble bridge by which
to reach it, — then the dashing,  thundering  waters  of
the Horseshoe Fall, still send up the cloud of incense
day and night, summer  and winter, for ever  and for
ever —" snow . and  vapor,  stormy wind fulfilling  his
word."   The evergreen trees received the snow, whose
feathery particles were held together by the frozen spray,
into hollows in their branches,  some  of which were
bending under its weight.  No ungraceful stiffness dis-
figured them,  but in  majesty and  beauty  they ap-
peared.  Here was Italian marble  and  Swiss  glaciers.
Was I in Europe, or America ?  Where ?
   General Whitney, the veteran  of Niagara, was with
us.   We  rode over  the Suspension   Bridge  to  the
Canada  side.  This is a two story bridge — the upper
one for  rail  cars, the lower  for any and every thing
else.  Here the  spray was  thicker than I had  ever
seen it.   We visited the museum, but it had no attrac-
tions for me, save the bald eagle,  whose piercing eye
and majestic bearing was in harmony  with the scene
without. It was instructive to contemplate this stupen-
dous scene and then fancy the  cars moving over that
upper  bridge, the steam arising like  incense  to the 
346
GLANCES.
genius of  mnn above, wiiilst an  ocean of foam and
mist  wTere ascending from  below, offering their  cease-
less worship to Him wiio doeth wonders.
   A  preparation is needed  for signal  events, and so it
was fitting I should spend two cloudy  days at Niagara
before^ seeing it in  all the glory of sunshine.   I had
thought my soul was filled with  its grandeur and mag-
nificence ; but no !  What I had seen was only a fore-
taste  of what was now before me.  The falls in sunlight
are dazzling beyond description, and a splendid rainbow
was reflected  by the  spray, — the trees  glittered with
spangles  as in fairy land;  an endless variety  of marble
carvings  appeared  upon  and between and  under the
rocks in  every direction, and the ground was  jewrelled,
reminding one  of that beautiful description in Revela-
tion of the foundations of the New  Jerusalem, which
" were garnished with all manner of precious stones,"
so gorgeous wrere the varied colors produced by the
magic touch of every sunbeam.  Who  can wonder that
Madame  Pfeiffer should say, "but  one Niagara" —
how can  there be another?  Yet few go to see it in  its
greatest  sublimity.   O! take the money expended  on
balls  and parties, dinners and suppers, trimmings and
jewels, laces and satins, and  go to Niagara in midwin-
ter.   Catch a  glimpse of those diamonds and   pearls
and spangles.    There  they are in place, glistening and
shining around  this altar of the living God.   " Throw
yourself upon nature" here, drink into her spirit, and
then will you  find within an audience-chamber  where
your heavenly Father will gently lead  you and lift you
into  a higher life, a purer atmosphere.  " Throw your-
self upon nature — she is ever new,"  and will inspire
you with aspirations after truth.
  After passing my Christmas at Niagara, I went  to 
GLIMPSES.
347
 Cleveland.   The medical college there  receives women
 as students, and they are in every respect on an equality
 with  their brethren ; two  were then  members of  the
 college, one from  the eastward, the other from the old
 world.  I had only heard  that Marie was a student at
 the Cleveland College; but when I  met her, an electric
 communication was  instantly established between us.
 I felt that here was a combination of  head and heart,
 which was as  uncommon as it was  beautiful.    My
 mind instantly reverted to  her mother;  to me they were
 one, and my inquiries satisfied me of the truthfulness of
 my intuitions.   Joy filled  my soul  that one had come
 from  the old  world  laden with  its experiences  and
 its  treasures, to  cast  her lot  in  the  new.   Further
 acquaintance has but  deepened  my interest in Marie,
 and Dr. Blackwell of  New  York  must feel  it a
 privilege to  have  been the  means of her  introduc-
 tion at  Cleveland  as a medical  student, where  her
 noble  bearing and scientific  mind is perceived  and
 acknowledged by the  faculty.   What city  will  be
 gladdened  and advantaged,  by  her selecting it as a
 location, is in the future.  Such women — such students,
 are moral pivots in society.  I cannot forbear  giving a
 little sketch of the history  of this rare woman.
  Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, a  Prussian, had  her
 mind  early  attracted to  the  study of medicine,  her
 mother having  been in  the practice of midwifery  for
 many years.   When only twTelve years of age she be-
 gan to visit the sick in an  almshouse, which increased
 her desire to  become a physician.   At sixteen she com-
menced the  study  of Homoeopathy,  and her father,
anxious to aid her in the noble design,  applied to gov-
ernment for permission for her to study midwifery and
the diseases of children.  Again and again was his appli- 
348
GLANCES.
cation  rejected; her  youth  and her being  unmarried,
were the  reasons  assigned.   Her  disappointment  did
not discourage her; she pursued  her studies  with untir-
ing zeal for two  years with  Dr.  Schmidt,  professor of
midwifery in the university attached to the royal hospital
of Berlin.   He represented to the  king that she  was  a
woman of  rare abilities, and a " cabinet order" was at
length  issued, granting her  the  long desired privilege;
and  her faithful friend, Dr. Schmidt, welcomed  her into
his  female class of fifty-eight students.   Previous to
this, he intrusted her with the whole  obstetric depart-
ment — all the  students, both male and female, being
under her  practical instruction.  How she  discharged
these important duties  will be  seen by the following
document: —

  " The undersigned, Secretary of Legation of the United States of
America, certifies that  Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska  has exhibited to
him very strong recommendations from the highest  professional au-
thorities of Prussia, as a scientific, practical, experienced accoucheuse
of unusual talent and skill.  She has been chief accoucheuse in the
Royal Hospital of Berlin, and has a certificate of her superiority from
the board of directors of  that institution.   She has not only mani-
fested great talent as a  practitioner, but also $s a teacher, and enjoys
the advantages of a moral and irreproachable private character.  She
has attained this high rank over many female competitors in the same
branch, there being more than fifty in the city of Berlin, who threaten
by their acknowledged excellence to monopolize the obstetric art.
                                     " Theodore S. Fay.
  " Legation of the United States, Berlin, Jan. 26, 1853.

  " Upon inquiry I find that instead of fifty, there are 110 accoucheu-
ses in Berlin.
                                     " Theodore S. Fay."

   On her arrival in the United States   she commenced
the study of our language, wishing to identify herself 
GLIMPSES.
349
with  the country of her adoption,  and open a  wider
field of practice by graduating at an American college.
   Rev. A. D. Mayo is settled in Cleveland  over a new
religious  society;  his religious  nature  is  so deep, so
finely developed, so active, and so healthful, that he can
afford to be progressive.   Here the first " Medical Loan
Fund  Association " was formed, and from this point I
went to various places to speak on the question, and
try to awaken attention to this important subject.  The
two following articles extracted from the "  Constitution
of the Ohio Female Medical  Education  Society,"  will
enable  the  reader to form an  idea of its utility  and
design : —

  " Art. 4. Applicants shall be required to furnish testimonials of a
past upright life, of a good rudimental education, and  of a sufficiently
robust constitution, or freedom from actual disease, to endure the
course of study, and furnish reasonable  ground of hope that the aid
given will ever be profitably employed.
  " Art. 5. Applicants, upon receiving aid, will be required  to give
a written pledge of honor that when they shall become well estab-
lished, or their income otherwise be sufficient to warrant, they will
return to the Society, the sum loaned without interest."

   I  attended  lectures one day at the Medical College.
Professor Delamartier, Senior, is one of those ancient,
venerable  men  on whose  countenances  you love to
look, — it matters not whether your thoughts run in the
same groove,  you  respect him for  his worth, and he
respects  woman when  he perceives in her honesty of
purpose  and true  womanhood.  The  lecture  I  heard
was on a class of  diseases peculiar to woman ; and not
one  shade   of  levity  or impropriety  diminished the
interest of  the  occasion.  Men and women studying
together at  a medical college of  high standing,  was
prophetic.   I spoke with the Professor after the lecture,
                          30 
350
GLANCES.
and he remarked,  " We  are  more democratic in  Ohio,
than  you are in  Massachusetts."  I felt like hanging
my head.  The " Athens of America" was eclipsed by
a younger sister;  yet I  rejoiced greatly  that  as the
elder  wras unprepared to advance, the junior tripped her
up  triumphantly, stepped over her,  and took the  first
prize.  After ten minutes recess, I heard Prof. Cassle on
Materia  Medica,  a  very pleasant  lecture.  Attended
Prof.  Ackley's lecture ; he stands very high as a surgeon.
My conviction was strengthened, by being at this college,
of the utter uselessness, nay, even injury and injustice of
establishing separate colleges for the sexes, thus depriv-
ing each of that influence and communion of thought
which would be a  blessing, and a normal stimulant to
both.  " Did you not find effeminate looking young men
there ? "  queried a friend.  " Yres, but I am not willing
that effeminate (weak) me* should represent my sex, any
more  than you are that they should represent yours."
I looked  and stared, and stared and looked at the class,
and I do not think the same number of  young women
taken at  random would have suffered by a comparison
with them phrenologically or physiognomically.   This
farce, which  is played off on  the public by excluding
women  from the  medical profession, or  indeed  any
other, on the ground of incompetency, cannot stand the
test of common observation,  candor,  and good-sense.
  I thought  it best  to visit  the towns in the northern
part of  Ohio, and try to elicit interest  in the medical
question  by establishing loan fund associations.  Allow
me  here to record  my grateful acknowledgments to the
noble men  and  women  who aided me, brave  physi-
cians, and " regulars "  too, — to those who received us
at their homes, (Mrs. Severance was with me part of the
time,) and, ministered so hospitably to our comfort, and, 
GLIMPSES.
351
 above all, sympathized so warmly in our object.   Hav-
 ing accomplished  what I could, I started with Mr. and
 Mis. Severance for Oberlin, that place whose fame was
 bruited abroad, because education  there was  for mind,
 not sex or color.  I was very curious to know all about
 it, for Antoinette Brown, Lucy Stone, and Sally Holly
 had  graduated  there; the first college that had  re-
 ceived  pupils of both  sexes,  and thus nobly ranked
 itself on  the side  of " human rights."  The best hotel
 was closed, so we  had to go  to the only other one the
 place afforded ; the night was stormy, the windows rat-
 tled as if a hail storm was pelting pitilessly;  the wind
 came in shivering blasts.   Still, a  feather-bed  promised
 a shelter from the cold ; but, oh dear me!  when  I took
 possession, the few  scores of feathers flew on  either
 side, and left me safely deposited on the sacking; then
 the pillows, you might almost have counted the feathers
 between the cases.   Well,  I comforted myself with the
 penance as a good lesson to teach  me the value of all I
 enjoyed  in private families.   The  next  morning, Pro-
 fessor Cowles and wife invited us to their house.   I re-
 gretted the absence of President Finney.  It would have
 been a gratification  to see the presiding  officer of an
 institution wiiich may be  called the  first  " Woman's
 Rights College."  Now I see the faculty  looking very
 grave  at  this saucy  and  bold assertion, and  pointing
 me to the undeniable fact  that a woman of blameless
life, of superior talents, ardently desiring to be, like Pris-
cilla, a minister of the gospel, was refused ordination,
after  preparing herself for the office, and was com-
pelled to seek in another  State the recognition of her
right to preach.   Be it so ; yet Annas  will prophesy,
and woman fulfil her mission of  giving birth to truth,
and bringing  regeneration to the world.   On Sunday, 
352
GLANCES.
attended  the  meeting;  to  my  joyous  nature there
seemed  to be a lack of cheerfulness."   " It is one of its
avocations to keep  the  soul open to  God's sunlight.
Sobriety is so perpendicular a wall, that few can climb
and  look over the  other side, to  see  how happy the
heart is.  It  is here (in  the church)  where a  smile  is
counted a curse, that the dignity  of cheerfulness ought
to be asserted, its blushing  flowers laid on the altar of
Love, and the fragrance of the whole  soul be yielded
to God."  The sphere at Oberlin seemed to me one of
constraint; I  queried whether the soul had free play,
whether  there were amusements enough to  recreate
and  unbend the mind.   Oberlin  has sent out  teachers
to every point of the compass.  Would  that they might
carry with them a garland woven of love and smiles, to
ornament their school-rooms and  attract their pupils.
I attended the  recitations; the talent displayed by the
colored  students delighted me.   One thing struck me
as singular, the male pupils  delivered  their composi-
tions from memory, the females read theirs ; it might be
this statue-like exhibition was thought feminine or lady-
like,  but it detracted wonderfully from the interest of
speaker and piece.   Met a little party  at Professor Mor-
gan's, where we had a  spirited  discussion on woman
and  her  position ;  we had quite  an entertaining even-
ing, and  may be the seed dropped there will bear fruit
an hundred-fold. At any rate, I had a hearty invitation
from Mrs. Morgan to make my home there if I revisited
Oberlin.
  When I left Oberlin, where so  many  had received
their education so  cheaply, my heart was  gladdened,
and I felt they would  be open to progress, all  in good
time.  But  those  Ohio roads—mud — mud — mud.
I had no idea of mud from  New England roads.  At 
GLIMPSES.
353
Elyria in  Lorraine  county, were guests of Dr. Gris-
wold's, and received  every  attention there.  Mrs. Sev-
erance and myself both spoke ; an interest was excited
in the medical  question, and arrangements were made
to form  a society, auxiliary to  the  Cleveland  Medical
Loan Fund Association.   Wherever you  go, if  this
question is agitated, you will be surprised at the num-
ber of facts  that  open upon you.   This is a  pleasan
spot.
   The whole of this Western Reserve in the northern part
of Ohio,  was granted  to Connecticut by Congress, to
meet her revolutionary claims ; consequently many per-
sons from Connecticut  removed  here.   They carried
with them a severe orthodoxy;  but  although this may
have worked well in the old  State, yet the hardy settlers
of a new country, who have to work  for themselves, are
very apt to think  for themselves also — hence  no  one
who has travelled  in this region can help being struck
with the freedom  and boldness  of thought which now
exists.   Some  minds seem  ready to hear every thing,
and if they do not accept, then  they oppose — thus the
mind is kept bright by constant  use.   My experience in
\his journey was somewhat new, and many lessons were
'.earned.
   My next point  was  Painesville, in Lake County —
here the Campbellites granted their church, not because
they accepted the  medical  question, but because they
had been so much persecuted — a wise people.  Here
another auxiliary society was formed.
   The lake shore is highly prized by all who live there
— fruit had been cut off only four times in fifty years.
There was a great depression owing to the drought —
business men were very thoughtful.   1 do not like the
                        30* 
354
GLANCES.
fresh  water air, as well as the salt; it seems to lack a
relish, for salt is to air what it is to food.
  The Tribune visits every spot, nook, and cranny, and
true thinkers cannot  be grateful enough that there is
such  a  medium through which they may know each
other, though far apart.  I found this particularly the
case in the western part of New  Yrork.  There is a large
society of Spiritualists in Painesville — it would be un-
just  to confound  them  with believers in the  " Free
Love  doctrine," because now and then one may appear
among them.
  The ladies met and formed an auxiliary society there.
My severe  cold was tenderly cared for by Mrs. M.   Al-
though I was not travelling professionally, yet my posi-
tion as a physician, brought me in contact with suffering
womanhood, and heart histories in Ohio wTere but differ-
ent versions of  those in Massachusetts.
  In Salem, Columbiana County, I found a hospitable
home at Jacob Heaton's ; his  house is called the Quaker
tavern, and his  hospitality is  proverbial — such a home
brightens this lower world.   It wras in Salem that  the
first  State  convention  of  women  was  held.   I  saw
many noble men and women here, heard many fine dis-
cussions, but was unable to speak, having lost my voice
from influenza.   Ohio air did not seem  to agree with
me.   Measures were taken to form a society in the par-
lor, and I left Salem with many  regrets.
  Went to Tiffin, Seneca County.  Quite enjoyed  my
home at Doctor Gibson's.  Some gentlemen asked me,
if they procured a hall, etc.,  whether  I would  give a
public lecture on woman  as  a physician.  I said, " O
yes, if you  will bring  out your physicians to answer
me, that I may  have some fun.   The house was packed. 
GLIMPSES.
355
 As I passed along my lecture, I said my medical-brother
 can answer to this or that.   After  I  had finished, the
 audience called out for  a physician.   The first  who
 spoke was true and manly.  He  alluded to cases which
 had come, under every  physician's cognizance, where
 woman was needed.
   Another  arose, — he  approved of physiology being
 taught in schools, and a  knowledge of it  disseminated
 in every community — but there were insuperable objec-
 tions to women being physicians — could  not be out at
 night.  He did not think of the many nurses who were
 up all night with the sick.  Then he said women could
 not cultivate a  moustache — here an  uproar arose — I
 immediately rose and said there  had not  been a single
 vulgarism in my lecture, and that I should tolerate none
 whilst I was  on the platform: then, the  audience sus-
 tained me bravely: and I had at  my side a true man. I
 would have enjoyed a chat with this doctor, and should
 have asked him, what phrenological organ was on the
 chin.  Straws tell which way the tide  sets.   He intro-
 duced himself to the audience, and defined his idea of
 manhood.
   This lecture awakened much thought, and a society
 was formed.  How  wonderful the growth of Western
 cities!  In  1820 Tiffeii  was a forest  roamed  over by
 Mohawk  Indians — in 1855,  a  city  with  five thou-
 sand inhabitants. The settlers here were partly Pennsyl-
 vanians and partly Marylanders from Frederick county,
 who were opposed  to  slavery because  they were Dun-
kers.  The men wear their beards  and wash each others'
feet  as a religious  duty.  Western travelling is  very
interesting,  if you  are warmly clothed and feel good
humored.   The prairie fields of  snow, jewelled trees,
little log-cabins with  wreathing smoke — the very na-
kedness of the scene is its beauty. 
356
GLANCES.
   Next went to the Janney home, in Columbus, the seat
of government — here  was  Starling Medical  College.
I was soon with Eastern friends in an Eastern home —
another influenza brought me under the care of a woman
physician who was practising here.  I was  accused in
Columbus of trying to inveigle  New Englanders  back
again — was it not a good thought— Ohio freedom on
Massachusetts soil.
   What a solace music is  in  a sick room!  I  wish
guitar playing was more common ; it would  beguile so
many hours for the invalid.  In  Columbus I had an
opportunity of witnessing  some peculiar phenomena in
spiritual manifestations through  the pencil-drawings
of faces, by mediums in a clairvoyant state.  These like-
nesses are frequently portraits of those who  are in the
spirit land and whom  the  medium never  had  seen.
Here let me introduce a case which will  somewhat ex-
plain my views on this subject.
   What do you think of spiritual manifestations ? said
a lady, (with a thoughtful  brow.)  I  want you to see
my sister who has become  indifferent to  every thing —
her will is gone, she waits for spirits to tell her what to
do — if  is really sad to see  her in her home.   Well, said
I, there  are many views  to take of this subject now so
interesting to the public.
  I believe  in spiritual manifestations,  in  those  holy
unseen influences which  arrest us from the within, and
the effect is seen on the  outer.  In those  spiritual  com-
munings when the outward  eye  is bright, because the
inner is  illuminated — when the tones are rich and  clear
and full, for voices within are speaking — when the ex
pression  is lighted  up  by  a  spark  within—the inner-
most shining through  the outermost.   But I  know not
yet what to say of those  manifestations which   close 
GLIMPSES.
357
the outer senses, that a concentration of nervous power
may stimulate the inner.   If the message be delightful,
why do  not the features become illuminated ?   Those
nervous twitches speak not of harmony — those morbid
feelings tell not of order, those unnatural actions  savor
not of health.  This is the dark side of spiritualism.
   I think  it  is  true  that  the minds (most commonly)
who become  mediums  are passive;  they do  not live a
life — they dream one.   I  except from this class, those
who  are so  highly organized, that through  sickness,
sorrow,  and  prayer, they  have been brought into  the
clairvoyant  state.   To such  this communion  with
spirits has been a  blessing — by restoring them to the
world, to usefulness, and enjoyment.  I believe in mys-
ticism — in the  power  of the voice, in  the  magic of a
hushed  or  an  excited tone, in  the  pressure  of a
hand,  in the glance  of an  eye,  in  the surrounding
sphere;  and  I am wonderstruck at its  power,  and rev-
erently heed  its  monitions, for it speaks of deep respon-
sibilities.
   But for myself I  am  not satisfied of the, use of so
many  hours  being given to  table-tippings, rappings,
twitchings, jerkings, etc.   When we are to be arrested,
the voice will sound within — if not, vain are outward
voices.   " Thou art the man," will be heard, and obedi-
ence will bring peace.
   It makes me sad to hear how cases like  the. above
are increasing — something must be done  on this sub-
ject.  How fond we all are  of mystery and the solving of
it!  I have seen much  of  this phenomena of spiritual-
ism, and have put myself in the way of meeting medi-
ums, that I might examine their temperaments, etc.
   May not the intense anxiety with which this subject
has been pursued, be accounted for by the fact that  the 
358
GLANCES.
human mind is stretching after it as a confirmation of
the immortality of the soul ?   And may it not be a per-
mission of Divine Providence in  this materialistic age,
to attract.the world  to the consciousness of an  inner
life, " spirit bearing  witness  unto spirit?"  " Hope de-
ferred maketh the heart sick."  Shall wTe not cast  the
mantle  of charity  over those who have spent hours,
days,  and weeks in attending meetings for  spiritual
manifestations, watching every letter of the alphabet,
hoping to obtain  a satisfying evidence of some state of
happiness beyond what this world affords ?
   Mr. and Mrs. M----, and  Mrs. T----, rendered  Co-
lumbus as near  like  Boston  to  me as  possible.   A
society was formed there.  Visited the  public  institu-
tions, which are liberally supported.   Was at the com-
mencement of  Starling  Medical College — had  an
interview with  the  Dean of the Faculty, and  can  say
with pleasure, that that college is open to woman.   Dr.
Smith told me so.  Ohio — you  are  near and  dear to
every lover of humanity on this question.  I should not
say that the  faculty sympathize in this innovation, but
they are too honorable to sexualize science, and are too
wise to force up separate schools by opposition — that is
good.   The  response to this question in Ohio,  and my
parlor meetings with ladies, wrere productive in a twofold
point of view, for I gathered as much and often more
than I gave — so many facts came to light.
   From thence I went to Cincinnati, the queen city of
the West. It strikes a stranger  oddly — its valley-like
appearance, surrounded as it is by hills, its varied popu-
lation  composed  of  different  nations,  tongues,   and
people; indeed  the tout ensemble of this city had  a
foreign aspect to  me.   What  a difference  between
Eastern and Western life — the very walk, the tread, 
GLIMPSES.
359
 the stand still, so unlike Yankeeism.  It was a privilege
 to meet the mother  of  Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, a  no-
 ble,  high-souled, clear-headed woman.  I have a passion
 for seeing the  mothers of those who have called forth
 an interest in my  heart.  On our arrival we were the
 guests of Mrs. E----, but found  it much  more conven-
 ient to remove to the city. Visited the Eclectic  College,
 and  thus  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Buchanan.
 Went with him to  his  residence at Covington, Ken-
 tucky, and w^as introduced to his wife and family.   His
 conversation on the laws of mind interested me greatly.
 There wTere ten women attending lectures at this school.
 It was very pleasant  to be among them.  The  Eclectic
 physician holds a  different position  at the West from
 what he  does at the  East.   If  I had room I would
 gladly mention here the views of a female physician on
 this  subject, who is in successful practice. My thanks
 are due to Mr. and  Mrs. K----, to whom I took a letter
 of introduction, and  to  Rev.  C. G----and wife.   He
 is a  Swedenborgian minister on a broad platform.   My
 visit to  Judge Walker's had a double mission for me —
 it was cheering to meet a man who sees the injustice
 of the laws respecting  woman.  A  progressive mind
 always  inspires hope — and Oh, how cheering to enjoy
 a darling home ; I  always revel there.  A society  was
 formed  in Cincinnati,  and I left the crescent city with a
 desire to revisit it.
   At Columbus, I visited the Insane  Asylum.   I asked
 Dr.----, whether Spiritualism had  increased  his  pa-
 tients.  He said, " No; the Miller excitement had  pro-
 duced quite as much aberration of mind."  There were
three hundred inmates in this  State institution.   When
 I contemplated the worst cases among the females, and
remembered that no  woman  physician  had sat beside 
360
GLANCES.
these sufferers — no woman priest had minis!ered to the
necessities of their religious nature a prayer  ascended
that woman might largely participate in healing the sick,
and  preaching deliverance to captive souls.  There was
a divorce  case  pending in Columbus, in wiiich  I was
deeply interested.   What a solemn mockery, what an
outrage on  the  " delicacy, propriety, refinement of wo-
man "— compelling the suffering wife to listen to the
testimony of witnesses in court!  No woman's voice to
plead her cause, no woman's presence  to sustain her;
guilty or innocent, it is her right to be judged  by a jury
of her peers, to have her cause pleaded by one  of her
own sex.  I went to the  State Prison and conversed
with some  of  the women.    Their  sad  countenances
claimed  commiseration. — "Who hath made thee to
differ ? "
  Arrived at Yellow Springs, where Antioch College is
located,  just in time for the half-yearly examination.
There I met Horace Greeley, and was  greatly amused
and interested listening to an argument on woman be-
tween himself and Horace Mann — it was quite a feast.
Rebecca  Pennell was  one  of the professors, and  re-
ceives  a salary equal to the men.  Mr.  and Mrs.  Mann
took much  interest  in  the  medical  question; they
opened their  parlor  for  a meeting  of ladies, and a
society  was formed.   The  embarrassed state of  the
college  is  to be regretted, but  it  will  probably sur-
mount its difficulties,  do a work  for the development
of  the race, and the education  and freedom of wo-
man.  I returned to  Cleveland, spoke  before the Par-
ent  Society, and gave  an  account  of my operations
and the  formation  of auxiliary societies — then bade
farewell  to  Ohio with its  pleasant homes,  its bright,
brave men  and women,  thankful  for  my intercourse 
GLIMPSES.
361
with  them.   After  a  flying call at  the  H----'s, at
Rochester,  and at  S.  J.  May's,  I  went to  Gerritt
Smith's;  I  had enjoyed their hospitality at Washing-
ton—now  saw them  at  their quiet home in  Peter-
borough.    The religions  services in  this  family are
impressive.   Christ's Sermon on. the Mount was  read,
light  from  the  spiritual rested  upon it — the morning
prayer  was offered, the  whole  household united —
those wiio  served,  and  those  who  were served —
Divine  protection was asked for those who go, and
those who  stay — one Father overshadowed all.  Then
farewells  were exchanged  that  meant something.  A
home it is  indeed — the pearl of great price.  A true
home  is  the vestibule to  grace, truth, and  life.   I
w^aded through deep snow in a storm to hear G. S----
speak on Sunday. At the little meeting he has gathered
here,  man and woman stand on equal ground.   The
remarks of G.  S----,  the tenderness of his tone, as
well as its  musical  power,  all rendered the  occasion
a memorable  one  to me.   His text was,  " Mark the
perfect  man, and  behold the upright, for  the end of
that man is peace."  An aged  man was about  to be
called home; he had always  lived there, and it seemed
as  if the whole congregation  felt  it.   This church
belongs to no denomination — the Bible is its creed.
The desire  of  its  founder  has  been  to break  down
sectarianism, and  thus awaken  more Christian love.
When I left Peterborough, Mr. and Mrs. S----accom-
panied  me as far as Albany.  We proceeded to New
York, where I again met a welcome from my cousins.
They are  Catholics.  Went to Brooklyn to see E. Anna
Lewis.    Heard George Bush preach, and  enjoyed a
short  interview with himself and Mr.  Barrett.  Visited
Dr. Trail's Water Cure establishment —he is one of
                        31 
362
GLANCES.
the leading hydropathists, and as  my  sister  had fully
embraced the system  and carried her children success-
fully through the diseases  of childhood with this treat-
ment,  I  found a  cordial reception on  her   account.
Attended the Catholic Church on Easter eve ; was much
struck with the symbolical services; they were suggestive
to me.   Went to church also on Easter Sabbath — had
never before had an opportunity of being with any one
wiio attended that place of  worship.  Saw Father
Hecker.  He  has published a work, " Questions of the
Soul,"  which bears the impress of sincere piety, and
commends it to the reader, whether Catholic or Protest-
ant.
   At home once more.  My soul retired fo  its secret
chamber to count the  blessings I  had had so thickly
strown in my path,  to look  at my responsibilities, to gar-
ner up my experiences.  Sad — very sad.   Yes, I may
use this expression, when youth, beauty, and talent, find
an early grave. The friends of Jane C. wished her  to
visit the  old world;  she went, and her soulful eye bright-
ened as  she approached the country, rich  in the monu-
ments of artistic beauty, where she might see  the works
of genius, and revel in  the contemplation of the pictures
of Raphael and Michael Angelo. New friends clustered
round her,  and shared with her old  ones the pleasure  of
her progress.  Her soul enlarged ; she drank inspiration at
fountains hitherto unknown; she sparkled a little while
in the galaxy of  artists, exhaled her  spirit in  fervent
breathings, and passed from us like a star, its brightness
unquenched, its position changed.  Paris has a charm
for the friends of this lovely girl; there reposes the mate-
rial form, but never can she be  associated with death;
she lived, must ever live to us.
   Passed a week at the Cheneys at South  Manchester, 
GLIMPSES.
363
enjoying  the  combination  of  nature  without,  and
human nature within ; it is rare to find these so beauti-
fully united.   Arrived just in time to attend the open-
ing of Tufts College —a  Universalist  institution.   I
was transported back to the past, to the days of John
Murray, Thomas Jones,  and Hosea  Ballou.   It  will
merit the  appellation  of  Universalist College, when it
welcomes women to its  halls of science, learning, and
literature.
  I have a. purpose in  giving the  details of these jour-
neys; it would  have aided that purpose, could I have
given more particulars — the ridiculous, the grave,  the
practical, the expedient might all have  been illustrated.
It was meet,  and but the  expressed  sentiments of a
grateful heart,  that I should lay  a thank-offering on
those  home altars where I have worshipped with  those
wiio so kindly received me, where I have been permitted
to study humanity, and gather facts for future  encour-
agement, when hope falters and faith is doubting.  Hotel
life would  have showed  me more of the externals of
life,  but  at homes  I saw  the   inmost  sanctuaries.
Woman's  position was the question  I  wTas  analyzing;
her deprivations through a restricted education were con-
stantly forced upon me.   Observations like these often
arrested me : " I never desired to be a boy but for one
reason." " What is that ? " " A college education."  " I
wish I had been a man ;  for then  I could have earned
something to make my parents comfortable in their  old
age; they  never  had a  son.",  "When my  husband
died, and the business was closed, what was I to do ? a
widow and poor, how terrible."   " I cannot lay by any
thing for age,"  said a thoughtful woman ; " my remu-
neration at the store is so low, then the degradation of
my position eats like a canker ;  effeminate young men 
364
GLANCES.
not trusted as I am, receive double  the wages I do.   I
weep bitter tears over this unfeeling injustice."  I should
like if possible to ascertain the number of women, who
are good bookkeepers prepared by Comer and others —
what their wages are and where employed ; then  the
wages of the men who preceded them ; the  facts in
these cases would startle every just and honorable man.
Woman  cheap — cheaply  estimated — hence she is
forced to be a burden, where if honestly dealt with, she
would be a blessing.  Oh for  some  angelic visitant to
stir the dead sea of public opinion, some clarion  voice
as the sound of many waters  to rouse attention to the
sin committed  against our sex, allowing her to  move
only in a narrow prescribed circle — limited  education,
starving remunerations, and are the  causes of much of
that domestic and social suffering and iniquity which is
burning deeper and deeper into the vitals of  humanity.
We may turn from it, stifle conviction, hush conscience,
but as " God is no respecter  of persons," the  day of
judgment will come.  Ye cold and  calculating world-
lings, who think every thing is  going right — that
woman is protected  by  man,  examine  this  subject.
Look at the genteel pickpockets persuading women to
invest their few  hundreds  in some sham  enterprise — a
bank, a  railroad, etc. etc. and then  coolly telling them
the bank has failed, the railroad yields  no  dividends,
meanwhile the presidents retire from office gloated with
the spoils of  their victims.  A friend of mine  was  in-
veigled by one of these noble  protectors  to intrust her
all to his care ;  he abused her  confidence, and  reduced
her from  a comfortable independence to  the  ownership
of nothing.   What redress had she ?   He laughed at the
idea  of the law touching him, for he had  so  artfully
covered his property under other names, that he enjoyed 
                     GLIMPSES.                  365

his ill gotten fortune unmolested, while she has  been
compelled  to labor hard for  a living;  many  a widow
and orphan  did  he  thus  despoil.  When  woman's
capacity governs remuneration, I  may  believe the tale
of  your tenderness to her; when you guard her  in-
terests,  I may listen to your  protection of her rights;
when colleges are open to mind, not sex, I will have
faith in your boasted reverence for woman.  Now, how
can the intelligent regard your  protestations but as
cunning devices to entrap the  unwary, great  swelling
words of deception designed to render us an easy prey.
Ask yourselves soberly, my brothers, on which side the
protection lies.  Will  you not  find it  on the side of
your pockets?  in saving your thousands in  business by
employing us at half price ?  If railroad companies, etc.
sold us  stock at half price, and  merchants  and grocers,
etc.  made a  discount  to  women in consideration of
their low wages, we should have a tangible demonstra-
tion of  your honorable protection; but  the widow with
her  starving babes has to pay the  same  price  for a
pound of sugar, as the man who wrings her labor from
her at a shilling a day.
   I suppose you have been in a daguerreotype gallery,
and remarked the diversity of expression in the pictures
though  every  face had eyes, nose, and mouth.  Walk
at midday  through Washington street with this idea in
your mind.  Observe the throng; expression becomes a
large word, and the truthfulness of the soul  reporting
itself through muscles, increases its significance.   Poor
overdressed children  flounced  and trimmed,  imitating
the gait of ladies—women forgetting the injunction
of Paul not to appear in public with  their  heads un-
covered, try to  cheat  the  apostle by placing a medley
of finery on the  back of the  head, screening  the pro-
                        31* 
366
GLANCES.
  pensities  phrenologically,  but  not  physiognomically.
'  " The show of their countenances doth witness  against
  them."  Their tread is aptly described by Isaiah, "walk-
  ing and mincing  as they go."   Nature is strangled by
  fashion.

              " Fashions that are called new
               Have been worn by more than yon,
               Elder times have had the same,
               Though these new ones get the name."

    Now come with  me  to  another part  of  the city,
  where  we may find  women and  girls,  as well  as in
  the Broadway of  Boston.  There is  a  building just
  torn down;  scrambling among the  ruins are the daugh-
  ters of the poor, eager to snatch some of the rubbish,
  reaching,  climbing, stretching  after the prize; their
  mothers are waiting impatiently for the fuel.   Go with
  me  again to Ann  Street; it  will not hurt you ;  and
  see the women there.   Visit the wharves, and get some
  one to  tell you about the fruit children, organ players,
  strolling vagrant girls.  Rise  early, and you will meet
  an army of  shop girls wending their way to their labor,
  taking  their dinner with  them.  Look  as steadily as
  you can  at  these pictures of  real life.  Give out your
  sympathies  to  the suffering  and the vicious ;  regard
  with seriousness the condition of the vain  and the friv-
  olous;  remember  the hooped  skirts,  the padded falsi-
  ties to  eke  out shrunken   and deficient forms, or to
  disfigure  God's workmanship  by protuberances  and
  humps he never made.  These things are sold by men.
  Can they respect such feminine  delicacy?  Be  patient
  yet a moment.    Attend  any church ; fashion presides
  there;  the external life of six days is lived out on the
  seventh.   Perhaps these broken hints may  excite to 
GLIMPSES.
367
reflection, may rouse some  thoughtless minds, awaken
some tender hearts to  look  at the condition of woman
in its multiform  aspects, and query, What  can I do to
elevate humanity ?
  There was a bridge built  by  Cssar across the Rhine,
so constructed that the heavier the pressure  of water on
either side, the stronger and firmer the bridge became.
It must be so with the great principles of  liberty: the
harder and more cruel  the pressure on humanity, the
more pertinaciously will it grasp those eternal truths
which lie at the bottom of social, domestic, religious, and
political prosperity and happiness.  And I say it from
the deepest conviction, it were  better, my brothers, that
woman  should surrender her fife  with  the words  of
Mary Dyer on her lips, " Let  me die unless  you will
annul your unrighteous laws," than  submit  without re-
monstrance to  those  now  existing, which fetter  and
destroy,  so far  as  human power  can do it, her  in-
tellectual life, and crush her  moral  influence.   The
laws which settle the  destiny  of  woman, which de-
clare her  nonentity,  which  presume her imbecility
and incompetency, and thus  sanction  northern sla-
very, are as disgraceful in  the nineteenth  century, as
those which were enacted by our Puritan fathers against
the  Quakers,  yea, as  those in  the code  of southern
slavery, which bring reproach on  the nation.  Yrou may
be unwilling to believe it, but thousands  of  women fall
a sacrifice  to  our unjust laws, not on  the gallows, but
through  crippled  energies, smothered genius,  domestic
hardships, pining in solitary and  secret places, beseech-
ing for bread and receiving a stone.
  It was considered necessary  and  proper that a New
England Woman's Rights Convention should be held in
Boston.  The 21st September was the day appointed. 
368                  GLANCES.
It was wonderful,  yea,  startling to realize what had
been gained on this question in five years.  An inspira-
tion seemed to rest  upon this meeting.   In its quietude
thought  was  busy,  and the  outward  disregarded.
Equality of rights appeared to be  recognized, and all
the nonsense  about inferiority and superiority seemed
to have vanished, whilst the claim  of both  sexes to the
same  opportunities for development was urged, and the
fitness of permitting  capacity  to  be  the only test of
sphere and position.  " Not until  woman has had as
free and generous culture as man " —not until her con-
science is aroused like his, under the constant pressure
of responsibility, and all legal and constitutional disa-
bilities are removed, and she  emancipated  from  the
bondage of conservatism, can  we  know of what  she
is capable.
  The meeting was well attended.  Mrs. Paulina W.
Davis presided, and gave the opening address.  It was
my privilege  to welcome the  convention by reminding
them  that Boston was ground, hallowed by the blood
of martyrs who had  died for freedom and for conscience'
sake.
   The evening sessions  were  very large.   Wendell
Phillips, and Lucy  Stone Blackwell, spoke at the first;
Ralph Waldo Emerson  and Elizabeth O. Smith at the
last.  Here I would mention  that  the latter gave three
fine lectures  in Boston,  I think in 1852, — Manhood,
Womanhood, and Humanity.   She was my guest at
the  time — my  correspondent since.  Much  satisfac-
tion was  expressed with  them.   Rev. Antoinette L.
Brown had preached  and lectured here, also Mrs. Coe,
and Lucy Stone,  so that many minds had been  awa-
kened on the subject.  The convention baffled the con-
servative, because they could find nothing to censure — 
GLIMPSES.
369
it  puzzled the curious who went to see  those "mon-
strous women,"  and  some became  converted.   The
indifferent were  aroused,  and  believers  strengthened.
All welcomed Caroline M. Severance of Ohio, as a citi-
zen of New England, and rejoiced in her as an efficient
co-worker.
   There  has been a  National  Woman's  Convention
held every year:  in  Philadelphia,  1854; in Cincinnati,
1855.   Those  who have  watched the progress of this
cause know that the interest has deepened from year to
year, and may wre not prophesy that this grain of mus-
tard-seed will  become a  tree whose  leaves will be for
the healing of the nations ?
   I have an enthusiasm on the subjects involved in this
work, which I  feel is  born of truth ; and  as year after
year has glided away, I have gathered flowers and fruits
which have cheered and beautified the approach of age.
Signal blessings, — providential interpositions, — interior
guidance in emergencies, — religious thankfulness for
strength in  times of need, distrust,  and sin, mark the
periods of my life, rather than days,  months, and years.

   The following is an exact copy of the protest  to  be
handed  in  when I  pay  my taxes.    I have never re-
ceived a summons, and thought this year I would have
one, therefore the date is later than in previous years.


To Frederick U. Tracy, Treasurer, and  the Assessors, and other Au-
                thorities of the City of Boston.
  The necessity of protesting against "taxation without representa-
tion" deepens every year, therefore for the fourth time I utter my
Protest against present usage, and would refer you to previous Pro-
tests for my reasons.
  Added to these very weighty ones, is the injustice of city officers
incurring whatever expenses may minister to  their pleasure, or feed 
370
GLANCES.
their ambition, and then unceremoniously charging ivomen who own
property, with whatever percentage is  necessary to meet tliesc extra
expenditures.  Carriage  hire, dinners, courtesy  to strangers,  and
other distinguished persons — all men.  Our Linds, Bremers, Stowes,
Pfeiffers, etc., are never so honored by the municipal authorities; and
yet women are required to pay a quota of the expenses.
  The salaries of our female teachers  in public  schools, are based on
sex, not  capacity, and  tax-paying women are aggrieved here.   They
must pay the school tax, but are allowed no voice as to its just  appro-
priation.
  Has  not the time come when a poll-tax should be levied upon
every woman who is twenty-one years old and upwards ?  This would
be an addition to the revenue of the State, and an incentive (I hope)
to the  legislature  to grant us the  right which we crave, just  as our
fathers   craved it  of the  British government,  when  they protested
against  "taxation  without representation."  They took up arms to
vindicate this right, and  triumphantly established it by the  sword.
Our weapons are the word and the pen.
                     This is respectfully submitted,
                         Harkiot  K.  Hunt,  32 Green street.
  Boston, Dec. 1,  1855.

   It is with satisfaction I record that two other tax-pay-
ing women (natives  of Boston) have  for the  two last
years protested — one inherited her property, the  other
has acquired  most  of  it  by  business.   Also  one  in
Plymouth, and another in Lowell, all ably written, clear
cases of the injustice of the present position of affairs. 
CHAPTER  XXIV.
"And to need the medicinal art, said I — not on account of wounds or some
   incidental epidemic complaint, but through sloth, and such diet as we men-
   tioned, being filled with rheums and wind-like lakes, and obliging the skil-
   ful sons of Esculapius to invent new names for diseases; such as dropsies
   and catarrhs. Do you not think  it abominable?  Truly, replied he,
   these are very new and strange names for diseases......He was
   constantly using medicines, and thus  passed his life, always most uneasy, if
   he departed the least from his usual diet, and through this wisdom of his,
   struggling long with death, he arrived at old age.  A mighty reward, said
   he, he reaped for his cleverness." — Plato.

   In  giving the  following fragments  of conversations
with  some  of my  patients and others, I  have scrupu-
lously "avoided  doing so  in such  a way as to identify
any individual, for I fully recognize  the responsibility
and sacredness  of the  medical profession.   These few
glimpses and glances at real  life,  are designed  to open
the doors of the human heart, and show in how many
cases  of sickness  medicine is worse than  useless, and
the  great  necessity of  introducing patients  to them-
selves; for  just in  proportion as people  become  ac-
quainted with themselves, do they cease  to need or to
seek medication either regular or irregular.

                      RANDOM HOURS.
   The road travelled to-day has been of a varied char-
acter.   I have faithfully noted the  mile-stones, — loco-
motion is now  so rapid that  representatives from dis-
                                                  (371) 
372
GLANCES.
tant country towns wTere  at  my residence  at an early
hour.  The wealthy and  aristocratic are not conveyed
from  place to place with  any  more  expedition  and
safety than the  humble and the needy, for the subtile
elements  belong to HUMANITY, and serve all with equal
alacrity and faithfulness.
   " From your  town already this morning ? " said I to
one of those women full of thought, who instantly mag-
netize you, one  of those wiio are connecting links  be-
tween yesterdays and to-morrows.  " My business with
you," said she, " is very peculiar.   I want your advice
not as a  physician, but  as a woman.   I am a widow
with two  children.   I intrusted my little property with
one of our wealthiest citizens— I told  him earnestly it
was  my all, that my health was poor, my children  de-
pendent upon me, and therefore I brought it to him that
he might  invest  it safely, where I might  receive a mod-
erate  percentage.   Speculation in land was the  fash-
ion,— railroad stock the mania.   The  man who  ac-
cepted the trust  failed, and paid ten cents in the dollar.
Here  I am, sick, poor, discouraged.  I was educated in
the false  and ruinous  belief that  it was masculine to
understand, or meddle with business, that that wTas  the
sphere of man; so instead of attending to my own
affairs I surrendered all into the hands of another, hav-
ing been  taught that it was feminine to lean on man.
I come now to  consult you about opening a boarding-
house in  Boston."   " Is  not  your debtor a man  of
honor, — may he not  recover  his  property, or acquire
more  and pay you ? "  " Ah!" said she with a  sigh,
" could you see  his supercilious bearing, the  expensive
style in  which his family live, their splendid  furniture,
their rich  wardrobes, you  would not ask the question.
They came to Boston last winter and boarded at one of 
                     GLIMPSES.                 373

the great hotels, — half the money they expended there
would  have paid the  debt to  me, made the widow-'s
heart to sing for  joy, and  clothed,  fed,  and educated
my fatherless children."   " Tell me the name  of the
cruel destroyer of your happiness ; " she mentioned it; I
was shocked, astonished, — I ought not  to have been.
One of that man's daughters had consulted me, a weak,
silly, overdressed girl, who complained of the loneliness
of the country in winter, the jealousy of  the poor, their
tattling propensities, and  the ceaseless scandal of such
places.   I remembered  my conversation  with her, with
what frigidity she received my observations about helping
those who had  not had the same advantages of  school
education as  herself,  and  the remark that gossip was
the natural consequence of empty heads and icy  hearts.
I did not tell my visitor this fact; bitterness enough was
already in her cup. Indignation would  have vent, and
I exclaimed:  Oh ! that we had a journal pledged to
truth, which would fearlessly bring to light the hidden
things  of darkness, publish business failures, give the
names of such creditors as have been deceived and vic-
timized, with the  sums due to them annexed, that the
wives  and daughters  of  bankrupts  might  be   spared
the  sin and the shame  of   living  expensively  on
the  spoils of  bleeding hearts,  broken  constitutions,
crushed hopes.  I  know a man who failed twenty years
ago; many  mechanics  were ruined by him.   The cap-
tain of  one  of his vessels, who  had  confidence in him
and let his wages accumulate in his hands for twenty
years,  never  received one  dollar for his  services,  lie
recommenced business, was very prosperous, again be-
came  wealthy,  but  has not cancelled  his  debts; his
family, ignorant of his dishonesty,  and  that they are
spending money of which others had been  defrauded,
                        32 
374
GLANCES.
probably wonder why they sometimes meet cold recog-
nitions and averted faces.  Said my sensible friend, for
we were approaching that relation, " I have had  such
hard  work  with my children  since I have been  com-
pelled to change our style of living, — they know who
has robbed us  of  our  property,  and  they often say^
" Why  mother,  Mr.----'s children live  the  same  as
ever, and his little boy has a new  pony; he is so proud
he will not speak to me ; he says lam. poor."  Her swin-
dler was a church deacon; she folded  her arms and said
bitterly, " Is  this Christianity ?"   Then she  doubted
humanity,  for her  former  neighbors  looked coldly  on
her, because  she now  lived  in two  small  rooms, and
they were  seeking  acquaintance with the rich  family.
I felt deeply, for  I perceived that her confidence in relig-
ion had received a shock; her faith in human nature
was faltering; a pause followed;  my aspirations  were
for wisdom, that I  might console  and  strengthen her.
" Yrou believe,"  said I, " in a Father in  Heaven ? "  "I
believe I do."  " Well, then, trust  in  Him.  Trust is a
word  full of meaning.   Trust in  God; He will direct
you what  men to trust."   I discouraged her opening a
boarding-house,  for  her  physical  strength was  quite
unequal to the task; advised her to return to her father
and mother, who were aged, soothe their declining years,
and thus her children would learn  their  mission of love
and duty  to her.   She accepted  the advice,  and we
parted as friends.

   " In from the country so soon ? "  said I to another wiio
lived still  further off, and brought  me a beautiful  bou-
quet.  " Yes, I am suffering from  ennui;  any  thing  for
a  change;  my headaches  are  relieved, yet I am not
grateful; my neuralgia does  not trouble  me, yet  I am 
GLIMPSES.
375
 discontented and unhappy."  " Oh, the fact is, you miss
 those pains and aches, and have  nothing to talk  about.
 Do you know  I once refused to prescribs  for a girl who
 was suffering from tic douloureux, because her life wTas
 so aimless, that I thought her only chance for reflection
 was .through pain,  and I did not dare to interfere ?  Per-
 haps I should have treated your case in the same wray."
 This  rather startled  her.  " One has no society in a
 country town."  " Invite your city friends to come and see
 you."  " They are so fashionable, they talk about noth-
 ing but dress, parties, and servants."  " Does that trouble
 you ? "  " Yes."   " Very well, then catch  that glimmer
 of light, use it, and it will increase.  Offer yourself as a
 gift  to God, and then  you can magnetize your friends,
 and other topics of conversation will be enjoyed."

   A love for the medical profession is indispensable to
 success ;  flowing from this love  are desires,  aspirations
 for wisdom to apply science to the relief of suffering.
 Let love for the  profession be the centre, and there will
 radiate from it mystic and magic power;  technicalities,
 abstractions, knowledge ever so profound, are but  the
 exterior, the essence is in the spirit.  Test your success,
 my brother, or sister, by the love  you bear to your pro-
 fession.   I do not mean success in obtaining remunera-
 tion in satisfying  the  demands of ambition, or any of
 the lower elements of our nature — there  are holy mo-
 ments when the dross cannot pass for gold—soul needs
 soul.  Shallow and inefficient is all  else;  the suffering
are eagle-eyed ; quiet hours of isolation from the world,
distress through illness, give double keenness to vision.
 Think not to meet such  persons externally, they have
away in the centre  of their being a demand you do not,
cannot answer. 
376
GLANCES.
  " Where is  my home ?"  said  a boy  of four,  wiio
had  been boarded in the country for two years on the
hard earnings of his  mother, and had been  brought to
the city by the  benevolent woman who  had given  this
illegitimate child a home in her maternal bosom.
  " Where is my home? I want to go before dark," said
a spirited little  fellow of three years, — tears gushed to
our eyes, he had no home;  he was one of those unfor-
tunate children, of which there are so  many; a home
wras to be sought  for him — he was to be given away.
" Where is my  home ? " repeated he with increased  ear-
nestness.  The thought how little we knew of the destiny
of these homeless children  invested  them with impor-
tance, while the feeling that God is the father of the
fatherless, quieted our apprehensions.
   That same morning, a woman whose delightful occu-
palion it is to obtain homes for the homeless, called on
me to talk over the case of another illegitimate child,
wiiich she had taken at its birth.  The mother was a cul-
tivated, high-toned woman; she had been victimized by
an itinerant biologizer, who was employed by her  as a
physician; his will overmastered the weaker will of the
patient, and he took advantage of her helpless condition.
A highly nervous temperament, a  sensitive nature,  a
fine intellectual development, wrere the birthright of this
boy; begotten  in sin by an artful villain who  took ad-
vantage of his  profession, and the toleration by public
sentiment of examinations  which are utterly shocking
to modesty, and which no woman of delicacy can  sub-
mit to without slaying her natural repulsions, and pass-
ing through the deepest mental anguish.  The ruin of
this orphan girl,  the stay and  dependence of an aunt,
was thus sealed;  she looked upon her child, blest him,
then surrendered him, that  a home which she could not 
GLIMPSES.
377*
 give might be found for him; and here he is, nearly
 two years have elapsed, and  none of the lookers  after
 children  have been attracted by the delicate little boy.
 No home has he in this wide world.  I had prescribed
 for these mothers.   I knew  they had  drank deeply of
 the  waters of  Marah.  I  knew  that  they were  grief
 stricken,  that sleepless  nights,  nervous  restlessness,
 had shattered their healths; my soul swelled with indig-
 nation and horror at that state of society which accepts,
 nay, welcomes the seducer, but shuns and despises the
 seduced.   Man the protector of woman!   Utter  your
 voices,  ye foundling hospitals, ye  Magdalen asylums,
 ye sad and solitary sufferers, outcasts from society,  often
 from the  homes ye have dishonored, the hearts ye  have
 wrung.   Woman!  when will she  demand purity  of
 man as a prerequisite for her love ? when will she shrink
 instinctively from the seducer, as from an adder wiiose
 poison would taint her lifeblood ?  The  wealthy, upper
 classes of society furnish terrible cases of seduction; —
 money purchases private country lodgings; money bribes
 some man to  offer marriage to the cast off victim ;  all is
 hushed.   Concealment may cover the outermost; money
 may buy privacy; a palace  may be  thy residence;. gold
 and silver glitter on  thy table ; a  legal wife, sparkling
 with jewels, grace thy  dwelling;  but behind  all this
 there are dark visions, mystic voices, phantom  forms;
 children  born in unhallowed wedlock, sickly, dwarfish,
 deformed, peevish, wretched—people such a home.  My
 soul, listen  reverently to the teachings of God; pry not
with idle  curiosity into the sins and deformities of thy
fellow-beings; regard them with an eye of compassion,
and seek earnestly for the good wherever it exists.

   Will the time ever come when obedience to physical
                       32* 
"378
GLANCES.
laws shal.  be regarded as a  religious  duty,  was  my
soliloquy after the  exit of a kind, pious woman, who
had been to see me.   Her indifference about physiology
shocked me.   When I inquired  into her  habits with
earnestness,  she was  afraid  I gave too much atten-
tion  to  the   body.    " Have you  never  heard  how
much I reverenced that wonderful organism?  You have
lived  on cold  duty;  have  disregarded  the  appeals
of the body when it was unfit for exertion; have drag-
ged it to church when it pleaded for rest, and verily
thought you did God service."  " The care of  the body
is so trifling,  I cannot be troubled about it.   I shall be
thinking of that instead of my soul, and my conference
and prayer-meeting would be neglected."  " Is not the
body as much  the workmanship  of God as the soul ?
Is it not, then, worthy of attention ?  I  fear, my friend,
you  cannot  be my  patient.  Y7ou do  not,  after  all
I have said, appear to realize the importance of the laws
of life; you complain of ill health ; you wish to be well;
you need study bodily functions, to honor the residence
of your soul.   Then  religion will not run  away with
common sense ; piety will be consistent, and round by
round, you will ascend the ladder where  angels wait to
pioneer to  health  and heaven.   No duty, no  use is
small to the Christian. Wilberforce praying with a  sick
servant, is as noble, as true to God, as  when he trium-
phantly carried the  abolition  of the  slave-trade in  par-
liament.  It  is the  performance  of duty that  gives
entireness and glow to life.  To-day I shall  prescribe
reflection; decision,  I trust, will follow, and a change in
your habits will be the result." .   .  .   .  " Call on me
to-morrow, my friend, out of my business hours, that
we may compare notes; bring some pencilled  thoughts
about  hereditary  tendencies,  habits, etc.  Let  not only 
GLIMPSES.
379
growth, but consolidation have due attention."  I hoped
I had awakened thought in one who seemed calculated
to use it.  Her conscience was in a morbid state; nervous
restlessness was  a  consequence.  Her  overstimulated
caution manifested itself in caprice and idle fears ; float-
ing on the tide as others floated gave an artificiality, an
untrueness to her life, which her higher nature spurned.

   " Broken  down  again," said  a sensitive,  nervous,
high-toned, fashionable woman — an old patient Whom
I  had  not  seen for  a  year — "it  is  all owing  to
bad servants."   " I shall not  agree to that," said I,
" for you  have  helped to make them so — you have
set an  example of late  hours;  you  have  given your
energies  to  dress, visiting,  etc.   What  they  have
seen in the  parlor  and  the drawing-room, they have
naturally  aped in the  kitchen.   High life is  as  attrac-
tive below stairs  as  above.".....It  is just
so in political life; man has cast aside the dignity of
his nature — catered to any party that would forward
his  plans,  never  dreaming that  he was  inoculating
every ignorant foreigner with  a moral  disease more
malignant, more contagious than smallpox, —falsehood,
bribery; and when the pestilence spread, he began  to
find fault with those whom he had himself seduced and
exampled, and then to  stop the  terrific  inroads  made
by chicanery and  selfishness, a new party—Native
Americans—-starts into  being.  Had he been true  to
principle,  inculcated a lofty perception of the privilege
of votino-, foreigners would  have caught the inspiration,
the goddess  of liberty would have been worshipped by
a  band of brothers, the  American and the adopted
stranger had but one watchword, " My country's good."
I  presume nothing has done more  mischief than this 
380
GLANCES.
ignorant voting;  its effects are felt in every part of
society.  Said a widow to  me, " My Irish man-servant
hardly treats me with civility  about voting time.   He
is so overbearing; he seems to say, ' you pay taxes and
cannot vote; I pays none, and help elect the President.'
Oh, this free country wiiere Pat can vote ! "   Now it is
just so in domestic life—women sell their cast-off cloth-
ing to  servants, that they may afford to purchase new —
articles wholly unfit for them to wear have been foisted
upon them —a taste for finery encouraged — labor and
laborers despised, and servants are in great measure  our
own handiwork.   Let woman have  a noble, useful pur-
pose in life, and  she will infuse  a spirit  of usefulness
into those around her.  I know there is a terrible state
of things, but as we have caused it, we must patiently
"eat the fruit of our doings."  Investigate the causes,
instead of complaining of the  results;  offer worthy  ex-
amples, instead of  censuring  those who  follow bad
ones.   I am weary of this fault-finding about servants,
when homes are so artificial.

   When will woman  have her true  position in  the
medical world?  I found myself  pondering over this
question in McLean Street, as I left the  Hospital, and
had just looked into  the wards.  My mind took a retro-
spective glance at the hundreds, nay, thousands of  my
own sex who have entered  that noble institution.   No
woman physician there  to  meet them  — no doctor  of
their own sex to sit quietly beside them, closely and
tenderly  to  examine their cases and report, if need  be,
to the surgeon, or attending physician, delicate  truths
which  she has elicited mental states which have been
revealed  to  her.   Suggestions  which she might make
in connection with  these things, are  necessary  to a 
GLIMPSES.
381
sound diagnosis.  Does it not prove the semi-barbarism
of the age, that  our brethren  in  the  profession have
never drawn attention  to  the propriety and importance
of women having physicians of their own sex?   .  .
Cholera  startles — sanitary regulations are  adopted—■
crowded and dirty cellars are visited by health commis-
sioners, and paint, paper, and whitewash find their way
into the  most noisome apartments; — but no concerted
measures are taken by the (Suffolk) Medical Association,
or any other that I know of, to enlighten the people and
teach them how7 to preserve health.  The doctors are busy
writing treatises on cures, wiien they should be writing
essays on causes, or delivering free lectures on Hygiene.
" An ounce  of  prevention is  worth  a  pound of cure,"
has surely  been blotted from the manual of the present
generation of medical  men.  Circulars and pamphlets
are multiplying; a spirit of rivalry as well as enterprise,
exists in medical cliques;  colleges are  bidding  for  stu-
dents ; baits are thrown out by advertisements of cheap
tuition, cheap board, etc.   Learned professors are cater-
ing for donations  and legacies to  their favorite institu-
tions— institutions  into which  woman dares not enter,
although  they  are  open  to  those effeminate  youths,
wiiose fathers' purses purchase  a diploma, and pay for
a written thesis.

  Neglect not daily duties — wait not for great events to
rouse you — duties belong to every hour, they call on us
for thought and action.   It was a rainy day when I was
the express to take round baskets of  fruit to cheer and
gladden  the seamstress, to brighten  homes where hon-
est labor and ceaseless frugality comfortably sustained
the household in spite  of miserly remuneration.  Fruit
was dear and scarce, a  luxury the poor could not enjoy, 
382
GLANCES.
because bread and clothing wrcre the pass-words.  As
the baskets were unladened, eyes brightened, tones be-
came musical, vests were stitched with  more nimble
fingers, shirts were ironed with  lighter hearts;  love had
sent an offering,  the sweets of friendship were  retasted.
My country friends, have you watched  your fruit-trees
not only for  your home enjoyment, but to  dispense to
others ?   Have  you carefully  culled  each pear and
peach, and when your  shelves spoke of  fulness,  have
you shared the  blessing with  your poorer  neighbors?
Have you  thought of the teacher  wiio instructs  your
children often through seasons of weariness and discour-
agement ?  Have you said to your son, to your daughter,
take this  choice fruit  to school, and  in  presenting it
to your teacher, let your glad tone and  bright eyes
double the value of the gift, and show that the plants he
has watered is bearing fruit?  Then the aged, how they
enjoy the luscious pear, the purple plum, so grateful to
the gustatory nerve, so  pleasant to the taste!   Do you
forego the privilege of making so many happy, and let
the earth  receive the  blessing because you were too
indolent, or too careless to pluck it in season ?   Fruit is
a  great luxury; when  it is  an  offering  of love  it is
doubly prized.   Think  of the poor, the sick, the aged,
ye  country livers and lovers, so shall every tree  bear
celestial fruit, and every blossom be fragrant  with the
redolence of heaven.  Light and shade, how they blend !
My morning rounds had thrown a holy  sphere around,
but happiness was not without alloy.  I was  arrested
by  the tale of a vagrant girl;  false charges, false im-
prisonment, exposure to  vice and cell life, aroused my
indignation, and I exclaimed  vehemently,  " Shall we
never have women on  our police?   Shall  our  sex be
abandoned when they most need a woman's care ? " -^ 
GLIMPSES.                 383
 Then memory brought up another case, a widow, quiet,
 sad, mournful, — she was employed in a shop with the
 gay and giddy, had  excited their  displeasure  by her
 gravity.   Having been a milliner,  she had some rem-
 nants of her former occupation in her trunk.   Ribbon
 was missing; she was accused.  No ribbon was found ;
 other articles used  in millinery were.  Regardless of
 her protestations of innocence, she was hurried to jail,
 and was found  there by a lover of humanity.   Tell me
 not  of the sacredness of vjomarts  sphere, when  inno-
 cence is thus unprotected, and  jails and watch-houses
 receive her, where man alone is her keeper.

   " My ear  is pained, my  heart  is  sick."  Deception,
 management, expediency, all hoisting flags, and alluring
 the  eyes of  passers-by.  " I must apologize  for  this
 intrusion, Madam," said a young man with an anxious
 countenance. " Do you not know  me ? "  I looked, and
 looked again; a vague recollection came,  and I said,
 " Are you the son of Mrs.----? "  « Yes."   He  had
 such a mother — frankness was her diadem.   Hesitat-
 ingly, in a tone  that tells something of moment is com-
 ing,  he   said, "  Did  you  ever  practise in  the family
 of Mrs.----?"  "A  strange question;  I  do  not tell
 tales."   " I will  be frank, like my  mother.   I  married
 a daughter of that family. I always expressed to her my
 horror of deception,  concealment.  I loved her — we
 married,  and  formed a home, if home it can be called,
 as boarders.  The time came when  I wras  awakened to
the blessing  of  paternity;  my  heart was melted;  I
longed to do  every thing for my wife, that her situation
demanded, and I attributed  her  unwillingness to allow
me to bathe and rub her, to false modesty ; there always
seemed  a gulf between  us.  I often  urged her  to take 
384                  GLANCES.
care of her diet, bathing, etc., believing  that parents
who neglected  the means  of  making their children
healthy, were  highly culpable.  My boy was born.   I
rushed to gaze upon him.   A cold  shudder seized me.
His appearance distressed me.   My  dream of beautiful
babyhood vanished!   Poor  suffering  infant!  I ascer-
tained  from the  nurse, that  my wife  had  been sorely
afflicted with salt rheum from her childhood; that she
still suffered intensely from it.   Can it be cured ?   Is it
an hereditary  heirloom ?   My baby boy !
  I made use  of this occasion to enforce the  necessity
of attention to  physical laws.   Horticultural, agricul-
tural, cattle  fairs excite great interest, but man  studies
not himself.  I told him  he did not  suffer  alone, and
that there was another side  to  the  picture, that many
unsuspecting women  lost their health after marriage,
in consequence of the vices of their husbands.  Frank-
ness in  this day is the exception, and ever  must be,
while dollars and a home  come  to woman through man.
Return  to your wife;  talk to her of your mutual rela-
tions; look together at your  boy; look, at his soul-life.
Observance of hygeinic rules combined with a spiritual
life, may yet make the body  a holy temple.

  It is very laughable  to watch the  patronizing class in
society.  From the  outset of my medical life, I have
avoided  such, as well as those who  desire references.
" You  have kept me waiting some time," said my vis-
itor.   Her tone was one of haughty pique,  not of regret.
"I have been with those whose time is money; yours is
not."   " I was not  aware  until last evening,  that you
practised  in such and  such  families,  or I should have
called  here  before."   "Disease," replied  I,  earnestly,
" puts us all on a level."  Her manner changed instan- 
GLIMPSES.
385
 tancously ;  she became calm, and I prescribed for her.
 Some friends  remarked, " 1 understand Mrs.----has
 called upon you; she  has worn out all  her  medical
 attendants;  how  do  you  manage?"   "I administered
 a pill at her first visit, which has worked like a charm,"
 but did not tell the compound.
   How different the effect produced by contact with a
 mother, who dwelt  with delight  on the enjoyment she
 had out of school  hours with her daughters.   " If ever I
 send them to yon," said she, " for medical advice, try to
 impress them with the duty and  importance  of attend-
 ing to  physical laws;  tell them of the responsibilities
 of  life,  and the impossibility of meeting them without
 health."
   Another visitor  heightened my pleasure.  " A daugh-
 ter born  this morning," said an earnest  young man.
 " My wife and babe doing well; my home is blest, for I
 am a  father."   " Your babe has a true mother; her
 knowledge and observance  of physical lawTs  has  pre-
 pared her for her new duties."   What a radiance truth-
 fulness to duty sheds on every event!   That  father, he
 looked as if unuttcred and unutterable feelings swelled
 his heart, and could only find vent in thanksgiving and
 prai se.

  I went to bed last night with  my thoughts intensely
 fixed  on social  life, and the fearful snares wiiich are
 laid for the umvary.  A terrible  case of abduction  had
 been presented to  me.  The wTretched victim  of seduc-
 tion, in deepest agony, had portayed her shame and her
ruin — the money she had  earned had been surrepti-
tiously obtained from her ;  she had no redress, the lover
was trans tbrmed  into the tyrant.   Alas! for her,  her
 father needed that money  to save  his little homestead,
                        .)■■> 
386
GLANCES.
but it  had  been squandered for cigars, etc., by  her
Parisian exquisite.  With these cases resting upon  me,
and the painful intelligence received from one, who  had
gone to California with her only child, to meet her hus-
band, gave a hue of sadness to my mind on  retiring to
rest.  This wife had gone full of  hope, her heart gush-
ing with tenderness for the father of  her  babe.  Did he
meet  her?  Had  death robbed  her  of  him?  No! a
more  cruel  fate awaited her.  He was false, she  was
deserted.    Intermittent seized a frame shaken to its
centre — the world was shorn of  its brightness, but that
little  daughter —for  her she clung to  life,  and heroi-
cally resolved to  labor for the maintenance of herself
and her child.  I remembered as  I sank into forgetful-
ness,  " Lead us  not  into temptation,"  a sweet feeling
of sympathy for the suffering and the tempted clothed
my "spirit,  and " tired  nature's  sweet  restorer, balmy
sleep," soon wrapt me in quiet  slumbers.   Some blest
spirits hovered near, a  white cloud  overshadowed me.
I dreamed.  I seemed to be pondering the  queries,
 What  is love ?   What is thought ?  Does every one
love?   Does every one think ?  " Yes,"  was the reply ;
but the quality of love,  and the  quality  of thought,
were  mysteries  to  me.  I  said  to  my invisible com-
 panion,  "  Is there one kind of truth and good for  man,
 and  another kind for  woman ?"   " Can  there  be ?
 Look at the sun ; it  sheds  its beneficent beams on all.
 So  God sends  his  divine  light into every soul."   I
 perceived that sin was  the result  of  an   unhallowed
 marriage within;  that true love and wisdom turned  us
 from the exterior; that a holy union might be formed in
 the interior; that all these social horrors were  the ex-
 pression of inward vice ; outward marriage was entered
 into  when the marriage between love and wisdom had 
GLIMPSES.
387
never been solemnized  in the  individuals;  hence dis-
eases so terrible, so  loathsome, so malignant, defiling
the temple  of  the  soul and  destroying its  beauty.
Hence the pernicious and  false idea that a form could
sanctify  marriage,  unaccompanied  by that  marriage
within which is  the only preparation for  it.  Hence
abductions,  seductions, and  the unnumbered ills of
social life.   This divorce between love and wisdom, in-
vesting one  sex with love and the other with wisdom,
must ever  poison  society;  this classing man. as the
embodiment of wisdom, when  often he is powerless to
impart it, and woman as the  love  spirit when  some-
times she has it not, must blight the world.   God has
joined love and wisdom ; man has put them asunder.
Half awake  the same  train of thought  was pursued ;
manhood and womanhood  became encircled by the
radiance  of  truth.  Freedom  to  live  our  own  lives,
internal unions preparing for external.
   The first  person  who visited me the  next day was  a
minister, one whose disciplined life  and persuasive elo-
quence had  awakened thought, and turned many to
righteousness ; "he shall shine  as a star in the kingdom
of heaven."   In this man the within marriage had been
consummated;  his  companion, too, experienced that
blessed union — so they became one — internally first,
then  externally.   Another came, a man whose face
spoke of purity,  whose voice  was  love — gratitude
filled my heart that two such  men had been sent to teach
me  that  goodness is not sexualized.   Such  men talk
not of woman's  sphere, they carry about them an at-
mosphere of confidence and affection, which makes you
feel that they recognize their sister as a  human  being,
entitled as such to all the rights and immunities which
they enjoy.       ..... 
388
GLANCES.
  " How much I thank you, Dr.," said a noble, true man,
" for sending for me when you undertook my wife's case;
you introduced me to her interior life.  I did  not know
the gem  I  possessed.  I thank you heartily, and have
called for that purpose; my wife will be here to-morrow;
she is well, tender, and cheerful now, her gloom is  dis-
pelled.   We read  history together.  I  have resumed
my flute, she her piano, and we  are lovers again.   My
club ceases to interest me, and I  have  been  talking to
some of my companions of the change in  my home,
and that we have decided not to break up housekeeping."

  " Do you give medicine? " said a new voice to me
one morning.  " Yes,"  replied  I.  " What  kind ?"
Why really you must  present  me with the case before
I can answer.   " Well, then, look at me — I  have  been
dosed, drugged, redosed,  and redrugged,  have passed
through the mill of blistering, bleeding, cathartics, ner-
vines, etc.;  really,  if my  stomach had drawors  they
should be labelled — the catalogue would startle you —
no  better under regular practice.   I determined to try
irregular; it would  astonish you to hear  the number of
dollars I have spent."  " What is that to me ? " said I,
" you have not spent them with me ; " but queried she,
" What  shall I do ?   Where shall I go ?  You give
medicine, then ; I heard that you cured  without medi-
cine."   I often wish for Dickens  at my side to aid me
in describing character, or  do  it  for me.  I  looked at
her very  steadily, and then asked her age.  She said she
never told that.   I  laughed outright  and  said, " Was
your birth a secret ? "  Blushing, she said,  " No."   Her
restrained, fussy manner made  me query whether she
were a  married  or unmarried  old maid,  and  I  said,
" Tell me more of your life ? "   In reply she remarked, 
GLIMPSES.
389
" I am thoroughly conservative, it  was  a great trial to
come to you."  " Why, you  surprise me, your dress is
so fashionable,  it  must  be a great  trial for you to
change with fashion."   " You misunderstand me, I did
not mean garments, I meant habits, customs, and  days
auld king syne."  " You are a puzzle ; I thought you said
you had travelled much on the railroad ; that wras new a
few years ago; then the telegraph, you  never  accept  a
communication through that witch, modern Mercury."
" You are  very perplexing,"  said  she  with much  ear-
nestness.  " I do  not mean sciences, of course they pro-
gress ; but these  newfangled ideas of those who  style
themselves progressive."  " How came  you with  your
rail car, your  telegraphic  wire ? they were opposed to
conservatism,  to  the  stage-coach  of  the  past ;  then
again  you have  tried quackery, and that is ever  new.
Now  it  strikes me, if.you  do not think so much of
your  ailments, but investigate the great questions of
the day, your mind will be diverted from drugs; try this,
and in one month call  on me again."
               •
                         33* 
CHAPTER  XXV.
" I tell you, honestly, what I think is the whole cause of the complicated
  maladies of the  human form; it is their gormandizing, and stuffing, and
  stimulating the digestive organs to excess, thereby creating irritation.  The
  state of their minds is another grand cause — the fidgeting and discontent-
  ing themselves about that which cannot be helped — passions of all kinds; —
  malignant passions  and worldly cares pressing on the mind, disturb the
  central action, and do a great deal of harm." — Dr. Aberxethy.

  Why that anxious, moody  expression  on  the  outer,
so unlike the real inner life, was my involuntary thought
this  morning,  as  there appeared  before  me  a middle-
aged  woman  of  interesting  countenance,  elegant in
figure,  graceful in motion,  easy in  address  ; yet there
was a something  so  hidden,  not secretive, that my eye
rested piercingly  upon  her,  and  my  tone was  quiet.
She began to tell me of the inroads disease  had made
upon her,  of sleepless  nights, loss of appetite, etc.  etc.,
but I found  my thoughts wandering from the body.  I
wished to search the spirit,— approached gently and said,
"tell  me something of your mother;" here  was a key
which unlocked the heart.  " I lost  my mother  in earlv
childhood  and never was a child again — no  one under-
stood me, no  one cheered me, no  one  shed around  me
the halo of  love."  Away in the distance of thirty-five
    (390) 
                     GLIMPSES.                  391

years did I trace the causes that had sapped health and
destroyed  happiness—a  gushing,  noble  nature  had
been  restrained and  crushed ;  it yearned for utterance,
but no kindred spirit echoed back its thought or shared
its emotions, icy conventionalities choked thoughts strug-
gling for expression.  The secret was revealed, she had
been  educated in  that proper circle, where  soul  is
termed   sentiment;  suspicion,  censure,  and  ridicule
had driven her within herself.   Religion wooed her, and
she thought she had found the pearl of great price ; but
it  was only the  form,  the  mere shadow;  she hugged
the chains of conservatism in religion, as she did  in
social life,  and  marvelled that she  was  not happy.
She became a wife, but her husband  and herself were
two; he was  a business man, rose early,  breakfasted
alone, dined at a  hotel  that he might extend his mer-
cantile relations, came home weary to a late cup of tea,
read  the paper, puffed cigars, talked  of dividends  if
any  one  came in, if not wTas too weary to  talk at  all.
They had one child—she was trained for  effect, for
position, for wealth ;  the  mother's heart was  pained,
but what could she do, the  world was the  idol of the
father — had  she only been a boy, she would have been
something to  her father — through this  daughter the
mother   learned  the  inferiority  of the relation  she
sustained to her husband.   This child grew up selfish,
proud, self-willed ; she bore the image and superscription
of her father.  Disease came;  she went home to  her
heavenly Father.   During  her last illness  her  interior
life opened — her mother  learned  too late that  there
was  a wealth  of soul in that artificial being which she
had  never  dreamed of.  The  father went through the
usual forms of grief, the funeral w^as grand, the monu-
ment was artistically beautiful.  The  mother was left 
392                  GLANCES.

in utter desolation — health failed.   Reader, could you
have seen the light that passed over  the deep shadows
of her face, as I spoke of spiritual communings not as
a theory, but as a fact, not as an ideal, but  as  a  real.
Her nature w-as hopeful, buoyant,  but it had been
crushed; when the voice of  faith  touched her ear,  it
penetrated her soul; hope sprung to life, instant resur-
rection came.   The time between her mother's removal
and the birth of her child seemed annihilated, her early
love returned,  the  maternal kiss   she  received  wras
mingled with the one she gave, and mother and child
were  guests within ;  then came a  deep sense of  re-
sponsibility, of  the  importance  of  living true to her
new found life; duty and usefulness were adopted as
her watchwords.  " Oh !"  said  she,  " What  can  be
done  with a man wedded to business ? "  " Patiently
bide your time — gather up your powers —' acquaint
thyself -with God,'  with  the  wonders  of  your  own
being.  In an hour that thou knowest not of, some op-
portunity will  offer to  become  acquainted with  your
husband — he may be sick, he may fail  in  business —
prepare yourself, and the way will be opened.  Then the
body  of the patient  was talked over, and one could
hardly believe the same  being spoke ; hope had illumi-
nated  the sanctuary of her soul.  There are seasons,
my medical brother and  sister, that teem with power,
when  minds mingling for the first time  produce elec-
trical action.  Lose those moments, wait  for  a  more
convenient time,  it  never comes.   To-day  tries  thy
faithfulness; to-day is required the offering for yesterday's
blessing.   Watch the  Now  with  your patients ;  per-
chance a dream, a foreshadowing  has  impressed the
mind, preparing the  spiritual lungs  for deeper respira-
tion,  the heart  for a more  interior  circulation.  How 
GLIMPSES.
393
radiant s^icli  serious, earnest hours make the  medical
profession!   Let us be true to our  own convictions, so
can we never be untrue to others.
  The following thoughts were forced upon me one eve-
ning, after a woaring day's work.  The women who had
called upon me, were all in bondage to those convention-
alisms in social life, which occupied them with the out-
ward, and prevented  them from  becoming  acquainted
with their interior being.  Mind had been uncultivated
— intelligence smothered — aspirations quenched.  The
result was physical suffering.  One said, "Had I been
a man, I should have had some occupation."   Another,
" I  am a woman ; my want of education forbade  me
to select  the employment that would have  been con-
genial to my taste."   A third, speaking of her married
life, " Oh, he is  a man ;  you cannot expect purity."   A
fourth, "  All men are  alike.   I suppose  my husband is
as good as other men."   A fifth, " I wish I had been  an
Indian, then  I should have enjoyed  freedom.  Why is it
that we are so feeble when rich, so  strong when poor? "

  I  know of nothing more  intimately  connected with
the  interests of humanity  than  a right view of the
position  of the  sexes.   It is the  central question  in
morals, in freedom,  in  education.  Let  us  commence
with morals.   Is there male and female virtue ?  Does
the command, " Thou shalt not commit adultery," ap-
ply to  one sex and ignore the other ?  Does  the decla-
ration, "  With the pure  thou wilt  show thyself pure,"
recognize male  and female ?  Boys and  girls  are born
in one family ;  their wants are alike ; they require equal
attention.  You  are  not told  by your physician, that
your  son can bear an  east wind, but your daughter
must have a southern  breeze, because his  lungs  are 
394
GLANCES.
masculine, and hers are feminine.  You are not told thai
one kind of food must be used for your  boy,  anothe.'
for  your  girl,  because their  stomachs  demand  differ
ent aliment to perfect their organisms.   You do not set
in your families robust, healthy children  all boys, and
delicate, sensitive children,  all girls.  You do not see
one family all boys, another family all girls.  The fam-
ily is  God's type of society; the significance deepening
as the mind turns inward to study its own mysteries.
  Sex is  the  central question of  freedom.   Is freedom
male, or female?   No, it is  a gift to  humanity from
Jehovah.  Freedom is the  law of individualism, it  is
the law of growth ; it is neither male nor female.   Yrou
trample on this gift when you allow a  boy to exercise
power over his sisters,  to quote the perverted usages of
society  to justify  his  selfishness.   In  the  strut and
assumed superiority of the boy, you see  the future bear-
ing of the husband.   In the swell and talk of wiiat he
will do, to show that  his mother's wishes do not influ-
ence  him, that irreverence for woman is seen  which
leads  to sensual indulgence.   Hence cases of seduction,
prostitution,  licentiousness.    Hence the  little respect
woman feels for herself.
  Equally injurious  is it  to  educate girls in depen-
dence,  timidity,  sentimentality  — with   the  feeling
that  strength of character is  inconsistent with  fem-
inine  delicacy—the  development  of  mental   power
with  refinement.  The foolish, belittling, indelicate, im-
proper,  shamefaced  coquetries  of childhood,  break
down that interior perception of  the beautiful law of
sex which pervades the living universe, increasing as we
ascend  the  scale  of creation, and  directing the  mind
ever to the Source  of  life, love, and  wisdom.   As love
and wisdom are expressed  in the Divine operation,  so 
GLIMPSES.
395
are they blended in the image of God ;  in every human
being these two  principles  exist, and we may as well
say that the boy's blood  can circulate without a heart,
or the girl breathe without lungs, as to teach them that
any act can be performed rightly without the union of
love and  wisdom.   We talk of masculine and feminine
in relation to persons, instead of principles; we sexual-
ize every thing outwardly, thus planting a Upas tree in
the centre of our homes,  and the deadly miasm poisons
alike the  sons  and the daughters.  But the sun of right-
eousness  is rising with healing in his wings.

   Almost  all lyceums  in  New England, are closed
against woman ;  but there was one in a pleasant coun-
try town, whose  president  believed  in human rights —
believed  that  woman  ought to have  an  equal chance
with man.  In this lyceum,  instead of a committee
having the charge of engaging lecturers by a majority
in the body, each member of the committee had a right
to invite  whoever he pleased, and entertained  the  in-
dividual  he  selected at his own house.   Before this
lyceum I was invited to lecture, and wras  not a  little
amused to hear that on the previous Sunday, the minis-
ter had preached  from the text, " Women, submit your-
selves  to your  own  husbands."   I commenced  my
address with the account of the wisdom of  Solomon,
and really fancied there was great complacency in  some
of the  countenances around me ;  and that  a change
came over them when I  proceeded to say that " wiien
the queen of Sheba heard of the fame  of the king,  she
went dowm to prove him  with hard questions."  As  the
whole  lecture had a  religious  bearing, some of  the
audience  represented  to  the good pastor that he had
taken wrong ground, to  oppose women's speaking in 
396
GLANCES.
public, so to satisfy these, he preached the following
Sunday from the text, " Husbands, love  your wives."
The lecture  was well attended.   This little  circum-
stance is only one of the many efforts made to  strangle
freedom, to create a public sentiment against woman leav-
ing her home, as if she always had one, or as if  men did
all that could be done to gladden and sweeten the home.

  With pen  in hand, waiting to a country patient, my
door was  opened, and there appeared before me  an
old  patient, so  haggard, so anxious, so changed, that I
said immediately, " What has happened ? " Tears came
to  her  eyes,  and she said,  " I  came  to tell  you, I
can't  pay your bill, nor any other, I am bankrupt."   I
knew it must be very serious by her manner.  " Tell me
all," said I, " and forget my bill."  Her sister's husband
wras a stockbroker;  he  had  filled her head with  an
increase of dividends, and induced her to sell some real
estate  and invest her money  in stock, and thus was
ruined. Said she, " I dreaded to tell you, because y6u
had talked to me  so  seriously about looking after my
own affairs,  and not trusting  the genteel swindlers  of
the present day."  " But," replied I, " you said, 1hat you
would trust man, business was so unladylike."   " Now,"
said she, " I  must change my boarding-house — every-
thing."  " Very well," said I,  " when you trust in man
see wiiat kind of a man he is."
  Whilst  we wTere talking, in  came another old patient
to  pour out  her spleen against a non-paying  railroad,
for  she wanted to go a journey.   So I introduced the
sufferers to  each other; I could then, (misfortune had
brought them into sympathy,) but I could not before,
because one had  been a genteel boarder on an income,
the other was a  dress-maker, who had  saved a  few 
GLIMPSES.
397
 hundreds.  Human hearts are melted into each other by
 the same fire of adversity.
   Said  a high-toned physician to me, when the alarm
 of cholera was terrifying so many:  "If cholera does
 come, it will crowd out smaller evils."   I saw this veri-
 fied now. Those wiio had been separated by the etiquette
 of society,  now stood on common ground  on defalca-
 tion — this cholera of the pocket.   The former was a
 very proper woman, and expressed her  indignation very
politely—the other a deep thinker, wiio remembered all
 the stitches she had drawn and the hours she had sewed
 in order to earn what she had lost.    " Are there  no
 women  on the board of  directors," said she, "of rail-
 road companies?"  " Oh,  no!" said I,  "you know  we
 have been brought up to trust man entirely for business."
 Said  she, with a  haughty toss of  the  head,  "this is
knavery, swindling, polite robbery.  I will know if the
president is a pious man."

   Said  I to a  suffering  dyspeptic  who came  to me,
"Be frank — utter yourself in confidence and  trust, so
shall we be one in exploring  your case, for  you are a
chronic  invalid — years you have  suffered and  suffered
in silence — you have hugged your chains."   Said she,
" I have  no language in which to utter  myself."  " Pro-
verbial Philosophy" was on my  table; she opened it at
the chapter " speaking," and  said to me, " read from
here, page 114."

" Come, I will show thee an affliction,  unnumbered among this world's
     sorrows,
Yet real  and wearisome and constant, embittering the cup of life.
There be, that can think within themselves, and the fire burneth at
     their heart,
And eloquence waiteth at their lips, yet they speak not with their
     tongue;
                          o4 
398
GLANCES.
There be whom zeal quickeneth, or slander stirreth to reply,
Or need constraineth to ask, or pity sendeth as her messengers.
But nervous dread and sensitive shame freeze the current of their
      speech ;                                    "•
The mouth is sealed as with lead, a cold weight presseth on  the
      heart,
The mocking promise of power is once more broken in performance,
And they stand impotent of words, travailing with unborn thoughts:
Courage is cowed at the portal, wisdom is widowed of utterance.
He that went to comfort is pitied; he that- should rebuke is silent.
And fools who might listen and learn, stand by to  look and laugh;
While friends, with kinder eyes, wound deeper by compassion,
-And thought, finding not a vent, smouldereth, gnawing at the heart.
And the man sinketh in his sphere, for lack of empty sounds.
There be many cares and sorrows thou hast not yet considered,
And well may thy soul rejoice in the fair privilege of speech ;
For at  every turn to want a word—thou canst not guess that want;
It is as lack of breath or bread : life has no grief more galling."

   I read the wiiole paragraph, and then said, " What
of your childhood ? "   Tears filled  her eyes.   " I never
had one — my  parents  were  poor, and when  a  little
child I w^as bound out to earn my  living."  A restraint
took   possession of her, which  had  to be  broken  up
quietly by letting her feel that sympathy was awakened.
I learned • she  was brought  up in  a  woalthy family,
where  her nature  was  constantly irritated by spoiled
children  capriciously  managed.  Their  petty tyranny,
and the power  they exercised over her, nearly rendered
her a mute.
   She was aroused, wiien the  mother who had stamped
her with high aspirations, was brought before her, and
the true wealth which  she  had  inherited  through her
was presented for her consideration.   There is a ray of
light in every heart, and although restraint may exercise
its power over  the sufferer's soul, and  its  influence be
seen in.the body through disease of an insidious  char- 
GLIMPSES.
399
 acter; yet there is something to be done.  A mother in
 heaven can  be brought to view, a  heavenly childhood
 awakened again.  A similar case is before me whilst
 writing, of a sweet orphan girl, who was bound out in
 a sectarian, puritanic family.  Her every look and tone,
 even her  movements,  were criticized,  till apathy  and
 indifference  formed a  crust over her  inner  life.  She
 learned a trade, and then neuralgia kindly came to rouse
 her from this torpid state,  and restore nervous suscepti-
 bilities.

   In thy  intercourse  with  the  erring remember  the
 words of  Christ, " neither  do  I condemn thee."  Con-
 demnation is within.  Be  careful of thy tone, thy man-
 ner, thy look, when the unfortunate  approach thee ; re-
 alize the  temptations  that  have assailed them;   the
 seductive snares that were spread around them ; and in
 the  fulness  of a  grateful soul thank  thy father  that
 thou hast not been tempted in the same way; with this
 gratitude thou canst meet tenderly every forlorn child,
 and minister counsel, reproof, or encouragement.

   You  are very thoughtful  this evening, said a friend,
 who  had  stepped in to enjoy a  little  sprightly chat.
 What is the matter ?  Had this been  my only profes-
 sional day, enough had  transpired to furnish thought for
 a year, enough to  add intensity to the desire to  be true
 to those, wiio sought medical advice; enough to deepen
 the already fearful sense of responsibility.  Reason  has
 been  dethroned.   Insensate   habit,  violating  nature's
 laws, exercises  tyrant sway.  People have become nearly
 blind and deaf—just light enough penetrates the gloom
 of ignorance  to show the devastation that ignorance has
wrought;  just sounds  enough have reached the  ear 
400
GLANCES.
to cause  irritation  and perplexity without conveying
knowledge, — amid heart struggles, head perceptions,
the aching eye, the wearied ear* have  sued for  some-
thing to satisfy  their longing. Fashionable church-going
has been  tried; the soul spurns the mockery,  and in
its  secret chambers  hates the  counterfeit.   Neuralgia
brought sufferers to Green street.  This has been a day
when I could  gladly  have seen  every physician dis-
missed,  and  moral and  spiritual counsellors  called in.
Dose such cases — you may term them what you please ;
classify  them learnedly;  diagnose according to books
and approved practice; still there  must  be failure; the
cases are not comprehended; the patient  has  consulted
the best physicians, has been the round of formularies,
and  now dyspeptic stomachs, aching  heads, sleepless
nights, cadaverous countenances reveal  the inefficacy of
the remedies.
  I wish you could have seen these three cases, so un-
like  and yet so much alike; so very different, yet not
differing.  A cold, frigid, polite  manner met me in No.
1. She looked as though she was all alone, the only in-
habitant of the earth, or  rather her earth ; for there are
some thus constituted; — no birthdays,  no  gladsome
hours seem to have left their rainbow tints ;  self seemed.
her centre  and circumference; the case  was puzzling.
I cared not for  dyspepsia or neuralgia.  I cared  not for
the physique except as the guide.  " Is  your mother liv-
ing on  earth, or in heaven?" said I; and there was a
reverence in my tone.  " I lost my mother in early girl-
hood."  " And  have you used  that dispensation to aid
and  bless you  in  life? "   " No!  no!" said she, with
emphasis.  " I  have banished  her from my mind, be-
cause my life has been fashionable, and so  at variance
with her counsels."  "And think you, my young friend, 
GLIMPSES.
401
that food would nourish you from our common mother,
the earth, if regardless of the  mother who  bore  you?
Think you that holy ministrations would narcotize the
pillow, if conscious violation  of duty be  persisted in?
No! abandon  all medicine;  commence  a diary;  go
back into the chambers of the past, catch up your moth-
er's lessons; repeat the Lord's prayer again as with her,
and let your wealth be an aid, not a stumblingblock, to
your soul."
   I  prescribed bathing, a course of diet, a course of
reading for one week,  with a record  faithfully kept, and
you will marvel  when I tell you of the  results.   Close
the  communication between soul and body by a. false
life, and you wilfully shut out the indications of Divine
Providence; then what mercy that pain which arrests the
thoughtless!
   " You are a very curious physician," said  my friend;
" tell me the other case, for I  am deeply interested.  I
never  have  seen  so clearly the abomination of dosing
the body when  the heart  was sick.   Yes, Jesus' teach-
ings are so. true; 'Go and sin no more,' is  the true
panacea."
   No.  2.  Fashionable parentage,  with an aspiration
beyond it, and a  religious nature warring with it, were
the cause of disease in this case.  Fashionable church-
going on Sunday, with the hollow life of church-mem-
bers on  weekdays,  had  fastened a sort of  infidelity
on  a trusting, loving  nature.  She  was always  scan-
ning the  real and apparent — the outer and the inner,
and  having been disappointed in marriage, her  heart
history was very sad.   She  had crushed a bright san-
guine organization, and doubt, distrust, misgiving, were
indicated by  her  very  tread, her  tone,  her voice.
Trust was to be  the talisman.  Trust was  to  be the
                       34* 
402
GLANCES.
elixir vitae.    Trust was  the tonic  and laxative, and
when accepted and applied, the work  would be done.
The acts and charities of life were to be exercised ac-
cording to the golden rule.   Openness and frankness
were to break  the chain of  habits, and a sympathy was
to be awakened  for  the sighs  and heavings of souls
similarly situated.   Then sweet sleep and a quiet spirit
would come.
  " Why, I am afraid you will neutralize the power of
religion,"  said my  friend, " and affect  some doubting
minds unfavorably."  No! no!  God is living, his in-
fluences therefore   are lifegiving, and  whenever  you
see  such  corpse-like  forms, such closed expression in
faces, be assured there is something wrong.
  Now for your third case.   I would not utter myself on
these subjects, but that I give you no names. I only ask
your attention to principles, to moral and physical laws,
so infinitely beyond all medicines — setting at naught the
pharmacopia.    Heart histories  buried  for years, and
anguish aggravated by this living  death, and  the vic-
tim  stands  before you  shelly,   cold, sad.  Lady-like
educated — she  married; her husband died, and left
an  only daughter  to her; she  was rich  in this  gift;
she had loved  and was loved — but poverty was there,
and bread must be obtained ; she had no money, but she
could be a milliner.   Her taste  for the beautiful could
lead her to trim bonnets — her constructiveness could
act itself out  in  the fitting of  garments — and so she
went out to work — but her dear child must be boarded
out, she could not enjoy its presence and earn its bread.
Her love  nature hoping, yet  suffering, looked forward
to the future ; but in the absence of a mother's care, con-
sumption laid its  hand upon this beautiful love-child,
and the mother, almost driven to despair, came  to me 
GLIMPSES.
403
for advice, that she might have health to work, and be
able to supply the wants of her dying child.
  Then came up doubt and distrust of Divine Provi-
dence, and horror-stricken she exclaimed, " If I had had
money and could have taken  care of my darling, this
would not have been;  and losing faith in God, she was
indeed wretched.   Yes, said she, I have often  stooped
to arrange the hem of a dress  when my weak frame re-
fused  to rise, but my will overmastered my feebleness.
I have been consulted and fretted about the trimming of
a dress, when pride kept the tears from my eyes.  Such
a  hard life,  such  sorrow, oh my  child! my  child!"
Would that  I had  had  twenty in  my room to have
heard her appeal.  Think you, my friend, that medicine—
that drugs were needed here ?   No ; it was my mission
to awaken tenderness  in her, to ask to see that child in
consumption ;  to ask  her to  trust  her patrons, to  tell
some of  them her sorrow,  her agony, her distrust.
Medicines —  they never seemed so  feeble as this very
morning, and to  add to this,  a widow came overrun-
ning  with  anguish, with  the  daguerreotype of a child
she was obliged to give away, for she could  not support
three.   Yes; woman as physician needs  to be  behind
the veil, to  probe  hearts that are  asking (but  not in
words)  for investigation.  She  needs  to take  those
words of Holy Writ, " As a father pitieth his children,"
etc.   We parted.   I to bed, my friend  to thought, and
she came to  me early next  morning,  and said, " the
religious element must be more demanded, and recog-
nized in the  medical  profession, or  it can perform  but
half its mission to humanity — its power is in minis-
tering to the  spiritual, as well  as the material."

  " Have you seen  that article in the Daily Advertiser 
404
GLANCES.
on  the  Marriage  Question ?" said an  anxious,  kind
woman to me at the time of the New England  Con-
vention that met in Boston in September 1855. " No!"
" I  will bring it to you."  " Very  well,"  said I — my
first thought was, who has written it ?
  Some Swedenborgian had answored that part  of it
wiiich  referred to  that society, leaving the rest  open.
Now I have a few words to say  on this subject, for  I
think it safe to affirm that (although unmarried) no one
has been permitted such an experience, in virtue of my
profession.  " That the quality of love  decides the life,"
is a truth wiiich will deepen in significance as we be-
come more and more pure.  Let this quality of love be
our test in examining this question, and we shall have
a fight to guide us.  Now^, for a moment, suppose that
the  women interested  in this movement,  this  great
moral  reformation,  believed in  " free love," as  it is
termed, they would but represent  our abandoned sisters,
our profligates  and seducers,  our  unfaithful married
couples and libertines.   Think how  numerous this class.
But this could not  be, because obedience to law is the
fundamental  principle of this movement — the law of
right is permanent, but the other party believe only in
attraction for the time being.  Now  obedience  to physi-
cal  laws, (which are also permanent,)  is the true prep-
aration  for obedience  to higher law, and this state of
mind is as far removed from the other as light is from
darkness.   I  call upon every true mind, in investigating
this subject, to look within and see what is the quality
of the  love they bring to it.  Are  not broken-hearted
wives crushed by the  libertinism of their husbands, (I
know terrible cases  here,) opening  their eyes and  ears
for  deliverance ?   Let opponents look at the cause —
again let them look at the principal  actors in this move- 
GLIMPSES.
405
ment; they are those who, blessed personally in their
relations, cannot fold their hands whilst looking at the
position of others.   Love, that regenerating,  purifying
power is talked of by those whose lives are degenerate
and  impure.  Such are very apt to fear  for woman a
recognition of her position, for it will  shield her from
their arts.   Said a poor shop-girl to me, who had been
seduced, " I owed for  my  board, because I  had been
sick, and would have been turned out, had I not got the
money in some way."
   I challenge every writer on  this great central subject,
that with  clean hands and a pure private life  he  or she
touch it, for the time now is.when the advertisements
in our papers, the private circulars  sent to  me as a
physician, utter a language more powerful than words.
This is no place for me to  enter within the veil.  Broken-
hearted women  have not had  to tell me  their sorrows,
for their countenances  have betrayed  the anguish  of
their hearts.  Man must  know, and woman too, that
vice is vice, whether it be in  one  street or another,—
that servants are beginning to read books on hygiene,
and  if they were not, their virtue is  roused  by insults
received  to fortify their position.  In  1850, five years
ago, this subject was fairly brought out; now look back
of that  and see why the time had come. I  have pur-
posely omitted a part of my medical life, preferring this
book to be for the general reader; but I am none the less
moved by  facts  unknown to  you,  to  ask a  thorough
criticism of the moral character of the men and women
who speak disparagingly of this movement, after under-
standing its claims.
  " My heart is broken," said a sorrowful young woman
to me, " because my father speaks so lightly of my sex."
I knew why — I had seen the  victim he had seduced —■ 
406
GLANCES.
 yes — and I had  known, too, her wiiose anguish at his
 unfaithfulness had caused her death.   Marriage, — that
 holy union of truth  and good, that  sun 6f light and
 warmth, — approach it reverently ; dare not to ridicule it
 by sneers, slights,  or taunts on those women who per-
 ceiving  its elevation would  enlighten  woman.   Ah!
 the  coquetry, flirtations, etc., of this  age  break down
 dividing lines, and the virtue even of very young persons
 is soiled and weakened, before they are aware of it.

   " What, reading Homoeopathy," said a lively, impul-
 sive,  wide-awake  woman,  noticing the  volume in my
 hand, " I thought you were too practical for that."  " It
 is because  I am practical that I am reading.  I am
 acquainted with several homoeopathists whom I greatly
 respect; their obedience  to physiological laws, shows me
 that they are willing  to submit to  nature's teachings ;
 that they are not  the slaves of appetite.  Vaccination,
 etc., gives me a lesson on the results produced by infini-
 tesimal particles;  I took the hint; good spirits aided
 me;  I reasoned, if the  virus of vaccine permeates the
 whole system and produces such effects in preventing
 disease, why may  not a minute dose of medicine effect
 as much as a curative agent ?  A kind Dr. sent me some
 wee preparations, and  I intend to examine and test
 Homoeopathy.   This is  what every  candid, truth-loving
 mind should do, ere it  condemns any  system."   " All
 nonsense, our family tried and  abandoned  it."   " That
is rather an argument in its favor; your family  have
 such  large  alimentiveness, they do not  obey physical
laws."  " I came to consult you because I thought you
gave medicine."   " I do administer it, but shall  rejoice
when attention to the preservation of  health renders it
unnecessary."  After prescribing  for her, I remarked, 
GLIMPSES.                 407
" I see why so many good men are dissatisfied with the
profession; it is such  bo-peep  play.  The true way
would be  to  have a  physician examine  well  people,
advise them  how to keep  well, tell them what their
hereditary  and  acquired  tendencies are,  explain  to
them that even the quality of  the saliva is affected  by
different states of mind," etc. etc.

  One cold,  stormy, wintry evening, wiien the snow
and  sleet were playing  all kinds of  pranks, and  cracks
and  crevices gave notice, of  the violence of the tempest,
the wind whistling  all kinds  of tunes, I was   sitting
alone pondering moodily on the cases I had examined
that day; they had been  peculiarly trying, so cold,  so
cheerless, so irresponsive to the voice of the spirit, so
calculated to create doubt in the Divine, I was tempted
to yield to a want of filial trust in God, when suddenly
a little incident in my child life occurred to me.   I was
anxkms to go out, but it rained in torrents, and  I knew
if it continued to do so, I must give up my afternoon
pleasure.   Often did I run t'o my  father  and  ask  his
opinion of the weather; finally he said, "  Go to every
window  and  look for blue sky."  I scampered  off, and
through one of the attic windows discovered a radiant
spot.  I  cannot describe how  the  recollection of this
blue sky at once changed the current of thought, shed-
ding light and inspiring life.  Ah!  have we not all a
little opening in the clouds ?  if we search for it dili-
gently shall wo not find it?

   These evenings — these twilights—what a blessing
to the busy mind!  There is a sunless tint around one,
which reveals beauties unseen  at  mid-day; and in this
state there appears in long procession the events of  the 
408
GLANCES.
day.   Well, I have seen  parched, shrivelled, half-baked
women to-day, wiio have revelled in the heat of a fur-
nace in autumn, as though midwinter had come ; their
skins crying aloud for moisture, and  certainly a very
peculiar drought rests upon such.    Well, this drought
was not entirely physical; it was felt in the soul.  One
case will serve for illustration.  Married well, respecta-
bly, properly, thoroughly domesticated, so  that the
kitchen was well cared for, the mind constantly bent on
household  duties, making and mending clothing, etc.
The husband was  a thorough business man.  This
couple, like many others, knew very little of each other.
She was in her place, he in his; both believed they had
distinct duties to perform.  In her anxiety to economize,
she overworked  herself;  consequently their  children
were  precocious  mentally,  and physically  very frail.
Then came dentition, which is a test  to  such constitu-
tions, when one and another  of these feeble ones passed
into the spiritual world, leaving the parents to wonder
why their  children had not inherited better constitu-
tions.  This law of transmissibility violated, other trans-
gessions followed in  their  train.   The  children that
were raised were feeble, delicate,  and  constantly over-
taxed the mother by the care they required.
  Well, years rolled away — property was accumulated
— the   husband  retired from  business — the  children
grew up and were married, and now I want to present
to the reader this wife and mother.  With good natural
abilities, she is,  nevertheless,  wholly  unfit  to be the
intelligent and interesting companion, or wise counsellor
of her husband or children.  The dignity of her woman-
hood has been sunk in the drudgery of  her kitchen, and
whilst  providing for the physical comfort  of her family,
she has forgotten  that the time would come when her 
GLIMPSES.
409
husband, relieved by competency or wealth, from the
engrossments of business, and her children  arisen into
manhood and womanhood, would seek in her, — not
the caterer to appetite only — not the careful provider
of their wardrobes alone — but the intellectual companion,
whose garnered treasures  of  historic  facts, scientific
principles, and varied experiences in a life of fifty years,
would render  her  the most delightful  and  attractive
companion — the wisest  and tenderest of counsellors,
and the  brightest of examples as  the mellow hues of
autumnal life gathered around her venerated form.  All
this she had forgotten, or it may be, so beautiful a pic-
ture of the meridian of womanhood wras never imagined,
far less aimed at by her, and she is resigned, contented
to live the rest of her  life a broken down  invalid, with
overworked,  overanxious,  crippled energies, and with-
ered mind inscribed upon  her wrinkled,  sombre face.
Is she to blame ?  No, she  has only lived  out her ideal
— this era's ideal of woman's sphere — she has  offered
herself up  a willing sacrifice upon the  altar of domes-
tic duty.  Verily she  has her reward.  Peace be upon
her heart.  But reader, are you willing that your daugh-
ter should be  thus mentally  and  bodily immolated?
We wonder  at  the Hindoo widow who burns herself
upon the funeral pyre,  but we  wonder  not  at  the
Christian wife  who starves  her mind to  death,  and
moves about her house a living corpse.
   Meanwhile the  husband has been  developing men-
tally, for  his  business relations have brought him  into
contact with  minds full of energy, thought, and emula-
tion— not with kitchen  utensils, curtains,  and carpets,
old clothes,  and newr cloth.   He  is  wide  awake, he
attends lectures, he goes to the club, to  the  political
meeting, to the  gallery of art — they are beautiful and
                        35 
410
GLANCES.
interesting to him, but her unfed mind and overworked
body cares for  none of these things — she is a  cipher
in the world of intelligence — an invalid — and  some-
times a burden, and not a blessing to her family — loved
with the  love  of pity, rather than that of reverence,
served from  duty rather than deep filial affection.
   Look at the accumulation of facts in this direction,
and you must feel that there is  a vast unopened mine
of intellect in woman, over which  the common  duties
of life  have grown a deep and verdant sod  which has
never yet been upturned, so that golden and silver in-
gots and precious gems have been buried; but may be
these costly jewels shall be  inherited by her offspring;
thus can  be solved the enigma  of those  children  of
genius, who seem to have dropped from the clouds.  O
these suffering  middle-aged women, with  dollars in
their purses but no deposits in the bank of mind ;  and
whose natures  not being  deep enough to  drink  of the
waters of life, have been cheated into accepting a, form,
without the substance, of religion.
   Better for such men that they should always continue
in business, moderately accumulating their gains,  and
such wives the supervision of their household, and the
care of their wardrobes, for  to jostle these relations is
hazardous.  Such cases are truly saddening, particularly
so, because  to superficial observers  their position is con-
sidered enviable  because of their wealth.  Such cases,
too, are posers  to physicians.   Wherever maternity has
failed to impress itself upon woman as a type  of her
own individual growth, it  has failed in  its highest mis-
sion, and  its reverse action has been paralyzing  and
withering; disobedient, disrespectful, wayward children,
are the fruits of this state.   Young Americans, they  are
called. 
GLIMPSES.
411
  How many feeble mothers are driven along under the
crushing and exhausting cares of maternity without an
interior growth, a rest, a pause!  But the day of recom-
pense  comes, and man instead of finding his  old  age
beautified by the cheerful companionship  of the  wife
who had gladdened his young  manhood,  one  who
would  have loved to read, to talk, to  think  with  him,
has  now but too often a worn-out, sickly companion,
lounging in an arm-chair,  moodily worrying herself over
every trifle.   This poison  in married life — this interior
divorce whilst in each other's presence, is terrible;  and
the time is now when homes should be analyzed, and
facts brought to  light, and causes investigated, so that
the rising generation may  be saved such sad experiences.
  " I am so lonely," said one  of these women,  "my
husband is always out."   " Well," said I, " why do you
not render his home so attractive that he cannot be," was
my answer.  " I would chain him, and he should not see
the chain."  " How ?  Why ? "  " Many ways."  " O,"
said she, " you know nothing of married life.   As soon
as  the children  grow up,  then  the  mother  is  old."
" Nonsense," said I, " there is no  age when  the  soul
cannot be alive — that need not moulder and decay — it
was made with  an ever-growing principle within itself,
and growth keeps the mind fresh even in old age.  Do
you not read ?"  " Very little,"  said  she.    " I was
obliged  to abandon  it for household duties."  " Well,
now you are receiving your punishment.  At the very
time when business tact and unwearied industry in your
husband has brought you wealth, you are leaning upon
a  crutch to receive it,  and begin to see  that  'you
have paid too dear  for the  whistle,' in  having  over-
driven and broken down your own physique under the
pressure of  home duties." 
412
GLANCES.
  I would  not be  understood to depreciate domestic
duties.  I understand  their vital importance.  I do not
feel  that they are beneath any  mind, however great.
They are the hidden ministrations which should sustain
man in the battle  of  life, and soothe him in his hours
of rest.  All that I ask wives and mothers  to do  is to
put  every  duty  of life in its true relation,  to weigh
each in a balance,  and not to allow one  set of duties
wholly to absorb all the energies of the mind ;  for when-
ever this is the case, an inharmonious development  of
character is the consequence,  the mother sinks into a
" child-keeper,"  the wife  into  a  domestic  overseer,
intelligence flickers  and dies  in  the  socket of a sickly
body, and  many diseases are  induced which  are never
traced to their true  source.
  There is yet another class of middle-aged women,
even more  to be pitied than the above.  Here is an ex-
ample.  " Do n't laugh at my over-dress," said  an old
patient to  me, " I have  nothing else to do with my
time."  " Better that than nothing," said I, " for clothing
the body may suggest clothing for the mind: an  over-
dressed body with  a  naked soul beneath it, is a  sorry
sight."  I could not help enjoying this train  of thought
with  my old  patient,  for  she  had become a convert to
the narrow sphere of woman  in her youth.   This  fash-
ionable class, almost wholly neglectful of home  duties,
fritter away  their time in elegant stores, in  millinery
shops, and at mantuamakers  — the choice of the color,
stripe, and texture  of fabrics, are subjects of vast mo-
ment to them, and when fully " equipped as the law
(fashion)  directs,"  they parade  themselves  at  certain
hours,  and in certain places, according  to fashionable
etiquette.  What kind of companions can such women
make for their husbands ?  "  O ! dear me," said an  ex- 
GLIMPSE S.
413
perienced dress-maker, "this particularity about shades
of propriety in deep mourning, saddens my soul — this
morning."  She  looked grieved, and I remarked, " You
have  a fine opportunity for insight into life."  " Yes,
but so mournful.   Form, figure, color, propriety, are all
regulated by the Moloch of fashion.   If I had been  a
man,  I should have been an inventor, but now my con-
structiveness is  expended on  bows, and basques, and
trimmings," etc.
   Another.  This lady's husband had failed since I had
last seen her.   Impossible, thought I.  Her bearing is
the same; her  clothing  even  more  elegant.  Now  I
knew who had been injured in this failure, and so I said,
" You have passed through a severe  discipline since I
last saw you,  and it  must have worked some good —
you  used to be  so  extravagant."  " O," said  she, with
apparent indifference, " failures are very different now
from what they were  many years ago —it is only a sus-
pension.   My  husband  says we must  keep up the  same
style."   Truth is very bold.  I felt desperate, and  said,
" Who are your  creditors? Were you not building?"
" O  yes."   "  Then mechanics are to lose,  and  their
wives must work  the  harder  for  it."   She understood
me; her countenance betrayed it.  I then prescribed.

   " Do you take gentlemen  patients ?" said a  quiet,
pleasant voice to  me  one morning.   " I hardly  know
how to answer,"  said I, " for I  have taken some, through
wives, mother^, and sisters, but not as  a general thing."
This set me to thinking of the immense debt of gratitude
we owed man for his medical care of us so long, and I
queried  whether there  was any way  to pay the  debt.
It was very clear that none but women  of mature age,
ought to prescribe for man.  Two reasons for this offered
                         35* 
414
GLANCES.
themselves.  1. He would then be able to test their
capacity, and perhaps might  feel the  necessity, if not
the justice of opening all  the colleges to them.  2. If
man was brought into contact with woman as his phy-
sician, in those weak and suffering  states in which he is
wholly dependent upon  her sympathies and care as a
nurse, he would learn to  appreciate  her more, and the
office of nurse would be invested with a dignity it never
has been.  This is  a subject for deep  thought.  Man,
man alone has had the care of us, and I would ask how
our health stands now.   Does it  do credit to  his  skill ?
There have  been no — intruders shall I call  them —
no women physicians until lately.  He  has had undis-
puted possession of the field.  Quackery was eagle-eyed
— it saw  the weaknesses, infirmities, and  diseases of
women, and invented divers straps,  supporters, and
bands.  No  action, to my knowledge,  has ever been
taken  among  medical   men   to  enlighten  woman,
to save her  from the causes  of  her peculiar  suffering.
Now is  it not reasonable that ive  should prescribe for
man ?   Might we not put to him very startling ques-
tions?  Might  we  not  suggest to him some of  the
causes of woman s multiplied sufferings ? 
CHAPTER  XXVI.
" There is at Florence, a palace  in which is a circular hall, faced with sepa-
  rate mirrors. In the centre is a statue of exquisite beauty.  Each of these
  mirrors reflects the image of the statue at different angles, and consequently
  exhibits some particular point more prominently and accurately than any
  of the others. Artists study the statue through these mirrors, and thus can
  estimate the beauty of each separate part, and form a better judgment of
  the perfection of the whole."

  In  the  previous pages I have introduced  you into an
apartment in which is placed the statue of my life.   The
chapters, like  mirrors, reflect the different phases of that
life.
  1.  A beautiful and joyous childhood in a true and
happy home.
  2.  The  opening  struggles  of life in my experience
as a teacher.
  3.  The  sudden departure of my father,  and the up-
lifting of my  mother into  greater dignity and strength,
wiien her responsibilities doubled upon her.
  4.  The  long  illness  of my sister, and  consequent
turning  of our minds  to  the  study  of Anatomy and
Physiology.
  5.  Our  entering  together upon  the untrodden path
of female practice of the medical profession.
                                                 (415) 
416
GLANCES.
  6.  Her marriage  and removal, wiiich  left me alone
in it, and the help afforded me to meet  this increased
responsibility, through my  introduction to the writings
of Swedenborg.
  7.  The departure  of my mother to the  spirit land,
which left me alone in our home, and the  consequent
deepening of my religious experience, when  a  lonely
orphanage  was  added  to  the solitary duties,  and
increasing responsibilities of my professional life.
  Why have I thus invited you to look  at this  statue
of my life ?
  Do I presume upon the aloneness of this experience ?
How can I,  knowing as  I  do,  that  every child  is
stamped by  its parents with organic peculiarities, which
being developed by home influences, prepare it to follow
the leadings of Divine Providence ?
  I have never asked any one to look at myself.  O no.
Great principles are all I have sought  to  exhibit.  It is
these only, I have invited you to study in the different
phases of my life.   But after all,  my friends,  I have
only shown you the outside of that life, and just as the
sculptors who study the  Florentine statue  by looking
into the mirrors which surround it, see  only the reflec-
tion of marble superficies, so many — it may be, all of
you will see nothing, know nothing of my interior self.
The /is still concealed behind this paper tapestry — still
inshrined within a  holy of holies, into which human
eye  has never looked — where human  foot  has never
trod.   Even  now  I stand   in  conscious   hiddenness.
True, you see some of the things I have done — some
of the trials, sorrows, and joys of a happy  life.   But
these are no more me than  the physique that my spirit
wears.   And as the  artists who sit before those mirrors
to study the  laws of grace and proportion,  regard the 
GLIMPSES.
417
statue as of no account, save as it unfolds and impresses
these upon their minds, so am I nothing; but earnestly
do  I desire, that  through the pages  of this book, the
harmonious laws  of our common  humanity may be
perceived and  studied ; and woman's present position,
and her unsatisfied aspirations after  knowledge, inde-
pendence,  and  enlarged  usefulness  be  duly  appre-
ciated.
  Whether this life will be regarded as worthy of study
as the Italian  statue, depends, 1. Upon the correctness
of  the principles it  involves; 2. The clearness with
which they have been presented ; 3. The  heathfulness
of your moral vision ; and  4. The purity  of the social
atmosphere through which you view it.
  Every  individual,  like a  statue,  develops  in his
life  the law^s of  harmony,  integrity,  and freedom; or
those of deformity, immorality, and bondage.  Whether
we  wish to or not, we are all drawing  our own pictures
in the lives we  are living,  and through them we are, (to
a certain extent,) " known arid "read of all men."
  But why have I presented  to you this statue of my
life ?   I will tell you.  When seven times seven years,
with their  seedtime and  harvest, had  come  and gone,
and gone  and come,  emptying  upon my head their
seven  horns of plenty, in the varied  experiences  and
observations of private and public life, I heard a voice
saying  unto me,  " Write the things  which  thou hast
seen, and the things wiiich are."  In simplicity I have
obeyed, doing  what  my hands found  to do; I feel  a
debt has been paid to humanity, a burden rolled off my
heart,  and  a recognition of my home responsibilities
publicly expressed.
  As the upheaving island carries up the waters of the
ocean around it, even so  will woman  in her moral and 
418
GLANCES.
intellectual  elevation,  carry  up  the  tone  of  public
morals, and of professional  and  political  life in our
country  and the  world.   And as  the natural philoso-
pher, by unfolding to  us the laws of light and vision,
has enabled the optician to prepare the finest and truest
mediums of sight; so the spiritual philosopher, by  ex-
ploring the great principles   of  humanity,  will  yet
enable the philanthropist  to understand the  necessities
of the present age, and provide  for  its wants intellect-
ually, morally, and spiritually.
END. 
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